Third lawsuit filed over Corrales-Castillo boxing matches

By Steve Green

Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 | 1:55 a.m.

Another lawsuit has been filed claiming millions of dollars are owed to the widow and promoter of lightweight fighter Diego Corrales because of problems with bouts between Corrales and fighter Jose Luis Castillo.

Corrales was killed in a May 2007 motorcycle accident in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, his widow, Michelle Corrales, and promoter Gary Shaw Productions LLC sued Castillo’s promoter, Bob Arum, and Arum’s Las Vegas-based Top Rank Inc.

The suit in Clark County District Court claims Arum and Top Rank owe Shaw and the estate of Corrales millions of dollars over problems with two scheduled fights.

This is at least the third such lawsuit over the fights -- two more are pending and appear headed toward trial in U.S. District Court for Nevada in Las Vegas.

The events at issue in the lawsuit have been previously reported:

-- Corrales knocked out Castillo on May 7, 2005, in a championship fight that has been called the best bout of that year.

-- A rematch was set for Oct. 8, 2005, but Castillo weighed in at over the 135-pound limit. Even though it was not a championship bout because of the weight issue, the two fought anyway and Castillo knocked Corrales out.

-- A second rematch was set for June 2006, but Castillo again failed to make weight and the fight was canceled.

-- Castillo fought Herman Ngoudjo on Jan. 20, 2007.

-- Castillo fought Ricky Hatton on June 23, 2007.

In the lawsuits, Castillo and his handlers are accused of causing Shaw and the estate of Corrales to lose millions of dollars because of alleged problems with the 2005 rematch and the canceled 2006 fight.

In Wednesday’s lawsuit, Michelle Corrales and Shaw note that in one of the other lawsuits, judges ordered $1.6 million of Castillo’s winnings to be garnished from the Ngoudjo and Hatton fights. The garnished funds would cover potential damages to be paid to Corrales and Shaw.

But, the new lawsuit charges, Arum, Top Rank and Castillo’s adviser Fernando Beltran have schemed to prevent garnishment of those funds. Beltran has been described as both Castillo’s manager and promoter, a dual role that attorneys for Corrales and Shaw say is illegal.

“Top Rank, Arum and Beltran devised a scheme to divert money due Castillo for the Ngoudjo and Hatton bouts to Beltran so as to assist Castillo in avoiding debt to Corrales,” charged the lawsuit, filed by Las Vegas attorney William Lewis Wolfbrandt Jr.

A message for comment on the allegations was left Wednesday with Top Rank.

Michelle Corrales and Shaw also claim in the suit that Top Rank and Arum were aware Castillo was not training properly for the scheduled rematches -- allegedly contributing to the financial losses of Corrales and Shaw.

“Top Rank and Arum owed a duty to Shaw and Corrales to inform them that Castillo would not ‘make weight,’” the lawsuit charges regarding the first rematch.

It notes that in a now-infamous incident, someone in Castillo’s camp attempted to place his foot under the scale at the weigh-in for the first rematch, but this attempt to make it appear Castillo weighed only 135 pounds was detected by Marc Ratner, then executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who was supervising the weigh-in.

“Top Rank and Arum were aware of and condoned the effort to manipulate the scale,” the lawsuit charges.

Castillo knocked out Corrales in the first rematch and “Castillo’s weight advantage played a major role in the victory,” the lawsuit alleges.

It claims Shaw was damaged because the pay-per-view take for the fight was reduced by its non-championship status and confusion among the public as to when the fight would take place because of an alleged statement by Arum after the weigh-in incident that “the fight is off.”

As for the canceled second rematch, the lawsuit claims Top Rank and Arum again were aware Castillo was not training properly and would not make weight but “took affirmative steps to mislead the public, Shaw and Corrales” of the situation.

The new lawsuit asserts breach of contract claims against Arum and Top Rank over the two rematches and the wage garnishment issue.

“Top Rank breached its contractual obligations through outrageous fraudulent conduct that was part of a pattern of misconduct concerning Castillo’s weight and directed toward the public generally,” the suit charges.

The cases pending in federal court are against Castillo and Beltran. Attorneys for both have denied allegations in the suits of wrongdoing concerning the Corrales fights.