Tipped in his favor?

LAS VEGAS -- Jose Luis Castillo had good reason to be nervous as the time for his rematch tonight with Diego Corrales approached, and a lot of people eat when they're nervous. Could he be one of them?

The former lightweight champion shockingly weighed in 3 1/2 pounds over the 135-pound limit yesterday, putting his fight with Corrales, the reigning World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization champion, in jeopardy. All possibility that the fight would be for the lightweight title went out the window by early evening when, after a two-hour break to give him time to lose 2 pounds, Castillo came in an additional 1 1/2 pounds over, at 138 1/2. When it became clear Castillo could not reach the limit, Corrales's people entered into a negotiation over what weight they would agree to in a non-title fight designed to save Showtime's pay-per-view telecast.

Promoters Bob Arum, representing Castillo, and Gary Shaw, who handles Corrales, got into a shouting match when an agreement on what weight would be allowed could not be reached.

Ultimately the sides settled on a 147-pound limit with a $75,000 penalty per pound if Castillo comes in over that weight.

''The fight is on," Shaw said last night. ''We talked it over and we don't think this is a risk, but there's a lot of real drama now.

''Can Joe Goossen [Corrales's trainer] train a guy to fight at 135 and beat a 150-pound opponent? If he does, Diego beat a super welterweight. We think Diego is in his head. Diego beats him."

The Nevada State Athletic Commission fined Castillo the maximum 10 percent of his purse for failure to make 135, a total of $120,000 from his $1.2 million payday. Half of that went to Corrales with the other $60,000 going into the state's coffers. Meanwhile, negotiations continued to try to arrive at a weight acceptable to the champion, who had trained more than two months for this rematch and did not want to see that work, and his $2 million purse, disappear after he had come in right at the 135-pound limit.

Corrales, Shaw, and Goossen left the weigh-in area after the shouting match with Arum to consider their options, including whether to agree to the welterweight limit of 147. In an odd twist, Castillo's physician, Armando Barak, was fined $1,000 by the commission and temporarily banned from being in Castillo's locker room or corner after commission inspectors found him trying to place his foot under the scale the second time Castillo weighed in.

After Barak was told to desist, Castillo got on the scale again and registered 138 1/2, and a third attempt soon after yielded the same weight. Sources within the promotion said Castillo had gotten down from as high as 143 pounds yesterday morning.

The former champion looked gaunt and drawn when he finally did stand on the scales last night, obviously having suffered greatly in the effort to drop enough weight, an effort that failed miserably.