Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 10:58 a.m.
Second thoughts, revelations and legal maneuverings have arisen in the aftermath of Diego Corrales' one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last Saturday at the MGM Grand.
It's a story that is evolving at a faster pace than Corrales utilized in his weak effort against Mayweather, the World Boxing Council 130-pound champion who won their fight by 10th-round TKO. Corrales connected on only 60 of the 205 punches he threw during the fight, while Mayweather landed 220 of the 414 punches he directed Corrales' way.
Corrales was down five times in a fight that was much more lopsided than anyone had predicted.
It turns out Corrales' weight problems were far more substantial than he and his camp had let on, and that he was also suffering from bronchitis. In addition, his estranged managers, Barrett Silver and Cameron Dunkin, have filed an injunction in Clark County District Court seeking their share of the fighter's purse, an act they took when Corrales' lawyer refused to have the purse put in an escrow account until the Nevada State Athletic Commission could arbitrate the dispute.
"I felt so bad for him I had tears in my eyes during the fight," Dunkin said Wednesday. "He had nothing. He didn't have his strength and they didn't have any strategy.
"What he had was some morons who talked him into doing this."
Dunkin maintains Corrales should have bypassed fighting Mayweather until both were at 135 pounds.
"Well, (promoter) Bob Arum got his way," he said. "He wanted to put the fight together right away and the kid paid the price.
"The kid shouldn't have been fighting at 130 but Arum was forcing the fight with Floyd at that weight.
"But Floyd was always going to be there for Diego and the right time to fight would have been at 135. Maybe Diego wouldn't have won, but it would have been a completely different fight at 135."
Dunkin further believes Corrales, win or lose against Mayweather at 135, would still have been in line for fights later in his career at 147 pounds against Shane Mosley and maybe even Oscar De La Hoya. "Those are $4-5 million fights," Dunkin said, before adding another barb.
"So much for five years of hard work," he said of his involvement with Corrales.
The reality is that Corrales, while not moving back to Square 1, has been handed a substantial career setback. (He may encounter another one when his felony spousal abuse charges go to court in Sacramento next month.)
"What I'd say Diego has to do is, first, take a rest and not let his weight get out of control," Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler said. "Then he needs to come back at 135 and take a couple of fights. Then we can get him a title fight."
But Corrales' chief cornerman (and father-in-law), Ray Woods, told the Sacramento Bee that Corrales' weight had been up to 168 pounds before beginning training for the fight with Mayweather. He also said Corrales weighed 140 pounds -- and not the 133 he and his nutritionist were claiming -- as recently as a week prior to the fight.
On top of that, Woods said Corrales was battling bronchitis.
"To tell you the truth, I wasn't that shocked by what happened," Woods said of Corrales being overwhelmed by Mayweather. "I just feel Diego went into this thing overconfident from the beginning and didn't really put in all the hard work he normally does. Unfortunately, he believed what a lot of people were saying, that he was too big and strong for Mayweather."
It was Woods who threw in the towel in the 10th round, ending the fight. "We didn't speak for a couple of hours," he added, Corrales having been perturbed at not being allowed to finish the fight even though he was decisively losing.
The loss dropped Corrales to 33-1 and raised Mayweather to 35-0.
Dunkin blames Woods for not formulating an effective strategy and said he was willing "to make peace with Kenny Adams" and bring Corrales' former trainer back on board for the Mayweather fight. Corrales and Woods rejected the offer.
Dunkin also said he could have garnered an additional $600,000 for Corrales had the fighter waited six months or so to fight Mayweather.
As for the injunction filed last Friday in district court, Dunkin said it was something that had to be done.
"(Corrales' attorney) Todd Nelson made a verbal commitment during a conference call with the commission and the attorney general's office that the purse could be held in escrow," Dunkin said. "He told everyone on the conference call that they would cooperate through the (NSAC) arbitration. But he lied. At the last minute, Thursday afternoon, he said 'We're not going to do that.'
"Our feeling was then, 'If the full purse goes to Corrales it's goodbye, we'll never see it.' Know what I mean?"
According to the court papers that were filed, Dunkin is to receive $140,000 and Silver $280,000 as their portions of Corrales' $1.4 million purse. An attached copy of the contract between the parties indicates Dunkin is entitled to 10 percent and Silver is entitled to 20 percent of the purses of Corrales' fights.
(The separate issue of arbitrating Corrales' contract dispute with Dunkin and Silver remains before the NSAC and is expected to be resolved within the month.)
"I've never had a problem with Diego and whether we continue together or not is up to him," Dunkin said. "My only goal was to do the right thing with him and make him a lot of money."
If Corrales is going to make a lot of money -- beyond the $980,000 that is contractually due him for the Mayweather fight -- it will be at 135 pounds and beyond.
"No disrespect to Floyd, but it was obvious that Corrales was hurt a great deal by not being able to make weight easily," Trampler said. "We had been assured that he was fine, that he was right on or near weight, but that was b.s."
Corrales sweated off the final two pounds he needed to lose in a sauna immediately before Friday's weigh-in. As for why Corrales hadn't admitted the problems he was having, Trampler said it may have been a matter of hiding a weakness.
"Let's say he was just dying trying to make 130," he said. "Would you admit it to the public? Usually, in boxing, you don't send out those kind of signals and I can't say I would have done it either."
As for the possibility that Corrales will always suffer weight problems, Trampler was philosophical.
"Alexis Arguello struggled to make 130, struggled to make 135, struggled to make 140," he said. "And Corrales has the same type build. They're both thinly built with not much on their frame.
"Diego had been telling us for months he couldn't make 130 anymore, and I don't even know if he can make 135.
"The only thing I can say is that we'll try to get him to fight at 135 and that he made the effort and took his best shot at fighting at 130 one last time."
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