Corrales: "Now I just wanna fight"

By Ant Evans: Hard-hitting WBO lightweight champion Diego Corrales should be deep into preparation for potentially thrilling March 5 unification showdown with WBC champion Jose Luis Castillo. He should be, but instead he is merely ticking over in the gym hoping against hope that he will get to face the winner of the 135lbs unification that WILL be taking place on March 5 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Castillo v IBF kingpin Julio Diaz.

Essentially, Corrales has gotten himself into a complicated promotional situation where both Gary Shaw, who has promoted him since his return to boxing following incarceration, and Art Pelullo, whom he signed options over to in order to get his career-defining fight with Acelino Freitas last summer, are entitled to cuts of his purse.

For this reason Corrales twice turned down the Castillo clash despite a purse tabled in the region of $800,000. But, facing a full year out of the ring watching other fighters getting the opportunities, Corrales has signed to face the Castillo v Diaz winner on May 7.

He told SecondsOut: "I signed to fight the winner on May 7 and - I'm hoping - my signature on the piece of paper will help ensure the fight happens. I'm hopeful it will because I'm in a very frustrating situation. It is so frustrating, man, these promoters are acting like little girls arguing over a cute boy. They are hurting my career in boxing by being so silly. It is really wrong what it happening."

But Shaw (and Pelullo, no doubt) insists things are a little less black and white than the traditional 'evil promoter' storyline. Shaw told SecondsOut: "Myself and Antonio Leonard signed Diego (when got out of jail) and I worked for free for the first five fights. I don't know if you work for free but I don't and after five fights I decided I didn't want to work for free anymore.

"He went behind my back. He had meetings with Art in Las Vegas and there were a lot of telephone calls going back and forth but I guess they thought Pelullo would do it (promoting Corrales) for free. Pelullo won't do it for free."

In other words, having taken Corrales to two 'world' titles in as many divisions Shaw wanted to be rewarded for his part in Chico's remarkable comeback. But Corrales had signed a three-fight option with Art Pelullo and Pelullo was already taking a sizeable cut of the reported $800,000 purse and with Shaw also entitled (and it would be easy to argue more entitled as Shaw was the guy doing the actual promoting) to a cut suddenly Corrales wasn't happy with his purse and turned the fight down, twice.

Shaw said: "Diego turned the Castillo fight down for December and then again for March. I offered different types of money and even once again offered to make no money whatsoever because, you know, out of site out of mind and I think if he'd beaten Castillo in December he'd have won fighter of the year which would have been great in terms of exposure."

The crux came last week when paymasters Showtime, unenthused to say the least that a top fight was encrusted with crap, essentially told Team Corrales 'sort this out now because we don't have a spot for you until October or November'.

Corrales said: "I didn't want to be left on the sidelines and, even though the money (he'll end up with) isn't great at all I've taken the fight for the fans and for the belts. I'm a fighter and I want to fight the best guys in the division. Hopefully, this will be the only fight which takes place under this situation."

That's because both Corrales and Shaw believe the options the WBO champion signed over to Pelullo will expire in August, 12 months after the Freitas fight.

"I'm not an attorney but I think that would be accurate," Shaw said. "That's something we'll have to look at this in August to see if we are free of these obligations. I am Diego's promoter and I want to continue to be his promoter; "I've more than lived up to my contract - I've gone beyond my contract."

Corrales added: "After August I'll be done with Artie so that'll be the end of this situation where I'm in the middle (getting pulled) in two directions. It isn't a good situation but I'm not first fighter this has happen to and I know I won't be the last. "

The situation, though, was created by Corrales himself but the fighter said: "I had to sign with Artie to make Freitas fight happen; it was like that. I was in a situation in my career when I knew I could win the big fights but I couldn't get the big fight so I had to do what I had to do. "

What Corrales has to do now is sit tight and await the winner of Castillo v Diaz. Bob Arum, Gary Shaw and Showtime have reached and agreement for May 7 and Corrales is looking forward to fighting again after a needless nine month lay-off.

"I can't wait to fight," Corrales said. "First I'll enjoy Castillo v Diaz; I expect Castillo to win purely because of his experience in big fights. But it'll be tough no matter who I fight for the three belts."

And it's been tough just getting this far.