ESPN's Wednesday Night Fights: Jose Luis Castillo VS Sebastian Lujan

ESPN's Wednesday Night Fights: Jose Luis Castillo VS Sebastian Lujan

ESPN Broadcast: Wednesday Night Fights
Date: July 30, 2008
Place: Sycuan Resort & Casino, El Cajon, California, United States
Division: Welterweight
Rounds Scheduled: 10
Commentators: Joe Tessitore & Teddy Atlas






Fighters:

Sebastian Lujan:
Record: 29-5-2 with 20 kayos
Hometown: Rosario, Argentina
Height: 5'6
Weight: 146.5 lbs
Age: 28

*Lujan his largely remembered for one of the most gory injuries most of us have gotten a clear look at in boxing history. If you remember Evander Holyfield's ear being bitten twice by Mike Tyson with the second bite resulting in a small piece of the man's ear being ripped right off and spit out, then you'd likely be equally impressed by Lujan's ear when he was pounded by Antonio Margarito round after round. The ear looked far worse than Holyfield's as it swelled and started to rip apart causing a stoppage. Joe Tessitore calls it one of the most gruesome injuries they've witnessed at ringside. That's saying something. Lujan has had two shots at a world title. Lujan, incidentally, was Antonio Margarito's sparring partner while Margarito was training for Miguel Cotto. Lujan and Cotto are both strong and significantly shorter than Margarito.

Jose Luis Castillo:
Record: 56-8-1 with 48 kayosHometown: Empalme, Mexico
Age: 34
Weight: 146.5
Height: 5'8

*J. L. Castillo is a legend. Very strong, very gifted and very willing to take a fight to the limit. He came very close to defeating Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and furthermore, many of us think he did in their initial fight as he put extreme pressure on Floyd all night with not just strength but skill in cutting off the ring. I have been concerned for Castillo after all of his ring wars (Including some amazing fights with Diego Corrales) and looking less than viable against tough Briton Ricky Hatton to whom he suffered a knockout loss. Castillo is a TWO-TIME former lightweight champion. Castillo does what he needs to do in a pre-fight interview and blames personal problems for his loss to Hatton. Hatton may not be the active legend that Castillo is but personal problems don't rip into with a liver shot and take you out. We all know this. Before the fight we are reminded of Castillo's tremendous career of 65 fights over 19 years with 99 rounds of championship action out of 398 total rounds.

BE's breakdown and scoring of the fight:
Our referee: Jose Cobian


Round 1: for Lujan: Lujan lands the first heavy-handed punches. Castillo is taller but naturally smaller. Lujan knocks Castillo back. He's the aggressor from the get go. Lujan isn't doing bad defensively in addition to looking far stronger offensively. Castillo starts to work some counters along with his very weak looking jabs. Lujan looks almost overconfident to me but he took that round with little difficulty.

Round 2: for Castillo: Lujan is still cocky until Castillo slips in a really good counter left hook and seems to hurt him. He starts moving backward for the first time, going to the ropes. Castillo lands more counter left hooks on the bullish Lujan. I admit pulling for Castillo. I hate seeing legends in their twilight fights. I give it narrowly to Castillo because he rocked Lujan but narrowly because Lujan recovered and he throws enough to get inside. He's a good, quality fighter against a formerly great fighter. It's not looking particularly uneven so far.

Round 3. for Lujan: Lujan's offense is looking much better here with more accuracy. Impressive shots that he's landing. Lujan is looking far stronger punch for punch. Castillo looks to be mixing his punches up between light and full blown power punches and this round he had low activity and didn't look to be putting his muscle into punches. Lujan to the contrary seems to be throwing solid punches. This round, he wasn't reckless. He was really looking superior. Again, this is not a great Castillo here but the kind of inconsistent fighters that past their prime greats are. They can act dead for rounds on end and then give you a flash of brilliance as if they were never diminished. Who knows what'll happen?

Round 4: for Lujan: Lujan looks to be breathing hard as he allows Castillo to back him into a corner with little pressure precipitating it. Lujan is clowning with his defense. He's acting like he must be a defensive genius when he's certainly not known for his defensive abilities. It just comes across as cockiness and I wonder if Castillo might not knock him out when he's not braced for a solid punch. Nevertheless, Lujan takes the round on my scorecards.

Round 5: for Lujan: Lujan is bouncing on his feet and trying to show that he's fresh. He's slipping in some good shots and showing a lot of head movement. Boy, he does look a LOT younger in there. He's giving all the right signals to the judges about it too. Joe Tessitore points out that Castillo has some blood from his nose and mouth. Not new for him.

Round 6: for Lujan: Lujan invites more action, waving Castillo in. He's not bothered by the legend at all. Punch Track shows Lujan throwing about three hundred more punches than Castillo so far. I don't put too much stock in what Punch Track says landed because I've seen it look so very unjustifiable in the past. However, what it says was thrown is perfectly trustworthy. No judgement on clean punches, just numbers. It's no wonder I have Lujan controlling this fight on the cards. They start to trade toe to toe and Castillo proves his power for the first time since round two. But, only for one shot. Lujan's still so much more willing to throw that he is keeping Castillo from taking anything but an obvious loss of the round.

Round 7: for Lujan: After a few little jabs from Castillo that work the crowd up, Lujan taunts Castillo by inviting a punch on the chin. Though he's been rocked briefly, he seems to have no respect for Castillo's ability to hurt him. Castillo had few glimmers of a man who thinks he can win in this round. I know this cue. It's bad for Castillo. It also indicates a big notch on Lujan's belt to come.

Round 8: for Lujan: They fight inside a bit but it's pale in comparison to the inside fighting Castillo did with Chico Corrales. Lujan lands a big right hand on Castillo while Castillo had his back to the ropes, looking very tired. It's Lujan's best punch so far and he's landed an awful lot of them.

Round 9: for Lujan: Castillo's under whelming level of activity lets me know that he is best to retire. These young guys can now outwork him big time. Castillo is trading shots toe to toe with Lujan now but only because he has to. He's on the ropes getting wailed on and throwing is survival. If he hadn't been trapped and under fire, mark my words: He'd have been content to do barely anything. It's because he just doesn't have it in him to press the action.

Round 10: for Lujan: Lujan has thrown over one thousand punches in the nine previous rounds. He is a workhorse. Lujan is clowning and waving Castillo in over and over. He is so confident that he is willing to do anything. Castillo tries to trade back with a big flurry by Lujan but it's to no avail. Castillo knows he's been in with the better man tonight. He probably also knows that he'd likely have possibly embarrassed Lujan a few years ago.

BE's scoring of the fight: 9 rounds to 1 or 99-91 for Sebastian Lujan.
Teddy's scorecard: 99-91 for Sebastian Lujan.

The official judges' scores:

98-92
99-91
99-91 for Sebastian Lujan by Unanimous Decision.

BE's Bottom Line: The great Jose Luis Castillo said he'd retire if he couldn't defeat Sebastian Lujan tonight. I sincerely hope that he does. I hope he retires because I like him enough to care. He couldn't stage any real game against Ricky Hatton or Sebastian Lujan. Both solid opposition but I feel Castillo would've dealt with them both just fine in his prime. He has a great, great career behind him but not ahead of him. Lujan's game may've looked great but I can't help but wonder if Castillo's diminished abilities don't make him look better than he is. In any case, he put on a confident, overwhelming, winning performance. He was so offensive that you can compare him to his recent sparring partner and former predator, Antonio Margarito. He was just too much for Castillo. But, still, is it time he get another shot at a world title now? Maybe.