“He says he’s going to win this fight for all of the battered women out there, and Corrales has countered by saying he’ll win the fight for all the battered fathers out there. This is as bad as bad blood gets in our blood sport.”
Larry Merchant, standing near ringside, opined on the nasty back and forth in the days and weeks leading up to the 130-pound Super Featherweight showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Diego Corrales.
Corrales was facing legal trouble outside the ring while Mayweather was making headlines with a very public spat with his father. Merchant noted that the great fighters could put aside distraction and take care of their business in the ring.
On January 20, 2001, the MGM in Las Vegas played host as Mayweather (24-0, 18 KOs) was making the sixth defense of his 130 pound WBC Super Featherweight crown against the undefeated Corrales (33-0, 27 KOs).
Odds makers had Mayweather, 23, a 6-5 betting favorite as the fighters began their ring walks. Corrales, also 23, had initially weighed in two pounds over. He returned to the scales 90 minutes and one sauna session later to make the 130 pound limit.
Corrales, who possessed tremendous punching power, would look to force Mayweather to stand and trade. The champion’s game plan was to use his superior hand and foot speed to outbox and outhustle his challenger.
Merchant described the matchup, “This is quicker and slicker against bigger and stronger.”
Ring announcer Michael Buffer introduced referee Richard Steele and then the fighters.
Scheduled for 12 rounds, the bout aired live on HBO with Merchant, Jim Lampley and “Big” George Foreman set to call the action.
Mayweather, garbed in black trunks with white trim, went to work right at the opening bell. Moving his jab from high to low, Mayweather moved in and out and often snapped his left jab into the pit of Corrales’ stomach.
The challenger was adorned in camouflage trunks with red trim. He calmly moved forward, stalking Mayweather, while looking to unload his power.
As the rounds progressed, it was becoming clear that Corrales was not punching enough to win rounds. He was chasing the champion but not cutting off the ring. After five rounds, Mayweather appeared to have won every round while Corrales was beginning to swell around his right eye.
While the Mayweather corner was happy with what they were seeing, the Corrales corner urged their fighter to attack and open up. After a much quicker pace in Round 6, the bottom was about to fall out for Corrales.
The bell sounded to begin Round 7 sending Mayweather sprinting from his corner. He blasted Corrales with a sweeping left hook. The challenger crumbled to his knees as the crowd rose to its feet.
Lampley, cool and collected, called the knockdown after minutes of Mayweather domination, “There’s a brilliant start to Round 7!”
Corrales rose and the action resumed. The champion was now stalking Corrales while landing straight right hand leads and left hooks almost at will.
With 30 seconds remaining in the round, Mayweather again blasted home a left hook to the Corrales jaw putting him on the seat of his trunks. Lampley’s voice rose over the roar from the crowd, “And the second knockdown of the round for Mayweather!”
Corrales, refusing to give in, again rose to his feet. With just seconds remaining, Mayweather again dropped his challenger with a flurry of lefts and rights after Corrales had looked for refuge in a corner.
The seventh round saw Corrales throw only five punches. He had landed as many punches as he had suffered knockdowns, three. The seventh was a landslide round for Mayweather.
Now in Round 10, Mayweather put Corrales down for the fourth time with another sizzling left hook. Corrales took the standing-eight count and pulled himself up again. Mayweather again attacked, refusing to let Corrales breathe. With under a minute remaining in the round, he brought matters to a close.
The champion stepped in and fired a straight right hand. Corrales’ body went limp as the champion hammered him with second right. Corrales rose, refusing to give in as Steele counted. It was at this point that Corrales saw his corner waiving a white towel from the ring apron.
As Steele waived off the action, Corrales became incensed, screaming at his corner for having stopped the action. Lampley witnessed what we saw at home as Corrales then shoved his father in frustration. “And Corrales goes over and nearly accosts his dad for stopping the fight.”
The bout was stopped by way of a TKO at 2:19 of Round 10.
As the dust began to settle, punch-stat numbers further clarified Mayweather’s domination. The champion landed 220 of 414 punches while Corrales landed just 60 of 205. It was a wipeout.
Corrales, still running a gamut of emotions, was still angry with his corner for stopping the fight. When talking to Merchant moments later, his eyes were red and swollen as he fought back tears. He was the epitome of a devastated fighter.
“I feel like I am a champion that deserves to finish on his feet or on his back. That’s the way I wanted to go out,” said Corrales.
In an interesting side note, HBO televised an undercard bout featuring Jose Luis Castillo. Mayweather would meet Castillo just 15 months later in perhaps the toughest bout of Mayweather’s career.
Corrales would return to the ring and, in May of 2005, defeat Castillo in one of the greatest matches boxing has ever seen. After that brutal affair, the two would meet each other in a rematch just five months later.
Tragically, in 2007, Corrales was killed in a motorcycle accident near his home in Las Vegas. His death was two years to the day after his first meeting with Castillo.
An undefeated Mayweather would retire from the sport in 2015, his place secure among the all-time greats.
