Castillo presents weighty problem

America at Large: The morning before Mike Tyson and Michael Spinks would briefly share the ring back in 1988, I had been placed in charge of feeding the children while elsewhere in the coffee shop my friend Michael (Wolf Man) Katz conducted an off-beat interview with Jackie Mason, the comedian, who was playing the same Donald Trump hostelry that was staging the fight.

After breakfast, I stopped by the table to tell the Wolf Man that I'd be taking the children - his and mine - out to the swimming pool, and told Jackie I'd see him at that evening's weigh-in.

"Weigh-in?" exclaimed Jackie. "If I was Spinks I'd be looking for a way out!"

Look, I know what you're going to say: who am I to criticise another man's battles with the scale? (After I took leave of them that morning, Katz reported to me later, the comic watched me disappear with the kiddies and said, "Has anybody told him he's puttin' on weight?")

But what happened out in Las Vegas last weekend was so ridiculous that it defies explanation - unless you accept the Jackie Mason analysis, which would be that Jose Luis Castillo was indeed looking for a way out.

Those of us who were in Dublin for last weekend's boxing card at the National Stadium were safely abed by the time Castillo made his last, futile trip to the scale, and were consequently unaware of the fiasco until the following morning. (In Dublin, there seemed to be more buzz about another weigh-in contretemps, one which saw Lee Murtagh pull out of his fight against Jim Rock in a dispute over half a pound.)

Thirteen months earlier, Castillo and Diego Corrales, both of whom owned lightweight titles, met in a barn-burning unification bout in Las Vegas. Corrales, on the brink of being knocked out, climbed back off the floor to stop the Mexican in the 10th round.

The fight had been a thrilling, all-out war that virtually demanded a rematch, which was scheduled for last October.

That bout was sullied when Castillo came in three-and-a-half pounds overweight, a circumstance which was exacerbated somewhat in the eyes of the local commission when one of his cornermen, a Mexican doctor, was caught red-footed in a furtive attempt to wedge his shoe underneath the scale as his man stood on it.

Corrales bravely agreed to go through with the bout with no title on the line, and was somewhat unsurprisingly knocked out by the bigger man in four rounds, thus setting the stage for what was supposed to be a rubber match last Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

As a safeguard against a repeat transgression by Castillo, the World Boxing Council (WBC) ordered the Mexican's weight monitored weekly. In the run-up to the fight, promoter Bob Arum's publicist issued bi-weekly bulletins certifying that Castillo was on target to make the 135lb limit.

Thus it was something of a surprise to a lot of people who should have known better when Castillo stepped on the scale and weighed 139½lb. Given two hours to shed the excess poundage, he returned to the scale and weighed 140lb.

In other words, you'd have to say he didn't even try.

Much to the disappointment of those who'd travelled thousands of miles to view it, the fight was scrapped altogether.

Sharing in their pain would be Corrales, who lost out on a chance to earn a scheduled $1.2 million purse, though the expectation is that he will be compensated by whatever amount the Nevada Commission decides to fine Castillo - which could be up to a maximum of $250,000.

While they're at it, the state of Nevada commissioners should think about fining the WBC weight-watchers, who would appear to have been complicit in aiding Castillo's treachery.

Before taking his leave of the premises, presumably to go to find the nearest restaurant, Castillo apologised to Corrales, though not, significantly, to the punters who had shelled out for tickets.

Corrales said angrily that he didn't care about the apology, but noted that he himself had struggled to make the weight, and that had Castillo been man enough to acknowledge that he hadn't a hope of making the lightweight limit, the bout might have proceeded at a catchweight.

On the other hand, having been fooled once, there was no way Corrales was going to go through with another fight against a man who plainly had him outgunned.

The likelihood is that Castillo will be suspended as well as fined, but that is of scant comfort to Corrales or to boxing fans, both of whom justifiably feel cheated by what Corrales' promoter, Gary Shaw, termed (correctly, for once) "a fraud".

Arum, describing Castillo's entourage as "a bunch of absolute nutcases", blamed the Mexican for having "disgraced all that we have accomplished".

The promoter also pointed out that when Castillo had taken on Rolando Reyes in a non-title tune-up earlier this year, he weighed even less - 138lb, on that occasion - than he had for what was supposed to be a world championship fight.

"We contacted them every other day," moaned the promoter. "The only reports we had were that he was on weight. The report was he went to sleep (Thursday) at 137lb. We were all lied to."