Corrales pulls off escape
Edges Casamayor in split decision
MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- Diego Corrales and Joel Casamayor were unsure what they would do after last night's World Boxing Organization junior lightweight title fight, but now they know. Fight each other again.
Corrales won the WBO and International Boxing Federation versions of the 130-pound championship at the Foxwoods Theatre by split decision, avenging a sixth-round stoppage at the hands of Casamayor four months ago but he did it by the slimmest of margins.
After dominating the fight in the early rounds with his jab, Corrales suddenly stopped using it midway through the fight, allowing Casamayor to begin pressing him until he finally dropped Corrales with a left hand in Round 10 that nearly cost the former IBF junior lightweight champion his new title.
"I did my job," an angry Casamayor said after the decision was announced. "I did exactly what I wanted to do. I boxed. He was chasing me but he wasn't doing anything."
Apparently he didn't do enough to convince judges Don O'Neill and Julie Lederman, who both saw Corrales a 115-112 winner. Judge Steve Weisfeld had it 114-113 for Casamayor and the Globe card agreed, both giving Casamayor five of the final seven rounds.
"I told you, I told you, I'm back," Corrales (38-2) hollered before the decision was announced and in a sense he was, but not by much after opening the fight using his long left jab and reach advantage to control the pace of the action. Casamayor seemed to have no answer, moving constantly from side to side but seldom finding a way to penetrate that jab to land anything effective.
Mysteriously, Corrales's jab began to slow in Round 7 and all but disappeared by the eighth round, allowing Casamayor to come forward and do more damage at closer quarters.
Round 9 opened the same way while Corrales's cornermen were pleading with him to go back to throwing the jab. Instead he tried to work at closer quarters and Casamayor (30-2) was beating him to the punch in most of the exchanges and starting to gain a foothold from which to launch his own attack. That finally came in Round 10, when the ex-World Boxing Association 130-pound champion scored with a big right hand almost immediately. Midway through the round, Casamayor landed a booming straight left over a sweeping right hook by Corrales and it sent Corrales to the floor.
Corrales seemed disoriented when he got up but Casamayor, who dropped Corrales twice in their first fight, couldn't finish him off and the bout ground on with Casamayor now the aggressor and Corrales in nearly full retreat.
With the fight seemingly even as the final round opened, Casamayor kept pressuring Corrales, a complete reversal of how the match had begun. But in the end two of the judges did not believe things had quite reversed themselves so convincingly, giving Corrales the final two rounds on one card and one of the last two on the other to swing the decision to him.
Earlier, two-time IBF champion Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson (43-2, 28 KOs) was too sharp for Luis Bolano, stopping Bolano in the fourth round of their WBO junior bantamweight championship. Johnson drove Bolano (38-1) to the floor twice in that round, first with a sharp left-right combination to the face that sent the challenger sprawling. Bolano got up, but seconds later Johnson drilled him with a stinging right to the body that sent him squatting to the canvas.
Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. began his count but stopped it short and ended the bout at 2:40 of the round.
"I knew I was getting my distance," Johnson (43-2, 28 KOs) said. "We're both southpaws so I knew I could land my left hand over his jab. He's a good fighter but I was quicker." 