The Brush: Boxer Joel Casamayor

Born on July 12, 1971, Joel Casamayor was not destined for greatness as a professional boxer, because he was born in Communist Cuba. Although Cuba is a boxing powerhouse, with an admired and feared amateur boxing program, it is also a country where athletes remain amateurs for the entirety of their career.

Casamayor was set to do much the same. He went to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and defeated Irishman Wayne McCullough to win the bantamweight Gold Medal. In 1993, he won the Silver at the World Amateur Championships, then a Bronze at the 1994 World Cup, and a Silver again at the 1994 Goodwill Games. At 25 years of age, he was set to compete again at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when he defected. By September of that same year, Casamayor was fighting as a pro. 2 1/2 years later, he had captured the NABF 130lbs title (a regional belt) and was an established world contender.

Nicknamed "The Brush" for his fearsome, raking uppercut, Casamayor stood 5'7" tall with a 67" reach. He came from his amateur career with some serious defects: trainer Joe Goossen maintains that Casamayor didn't know very much about infighting after his defection, a common enough complaint among boxers who train solely for the amateur circuit. He developed into a well-rounded southpaw boxer-puncher. He was fast, had a slithering, elusive defense, and his punches carried substantial pop.

Super Featherweight

In May 2000, he challenged undefeated Jwon-Kwan Baek of South Korea for the WBA Super Featherweight Title. He soundly thrashed Baek and took him out in 5. He went on to defend that title four times in five fights, winning all five.

That brought him into a unification clash with Acelino Freitas, an undefeated puncher with samba-esque verve from Brazil. It was a close fight, and reminiscent of Leonard-Hearns I, the two fighters switched roles during the bout. Casamayor turned puncher, while Freitas turned boxer. In the 3rd Round Casamayor suffered a knockdown that many thought was a slip, and later had a point deducted for punching after the bell in an incident few ringside observers thought was intentional or important. All three judges scored the bout 114-112, meaning that if Casamayor had lost neither questionable point, it would have been a Draw. As it was, he lost his "0" and his title. Although he suffered his first loss, Casamayor was clearly not beaten.

Plying the comeback trail, The Brush swept past a trio of fights in 2002 and 2003, including decisive win over an undefeated Nate Campbell (who would go on to become a world champion at lightweight). The wins brought him into conflict with fellow comebacker Diego Corrales. The lanky Corrales took Casamayor into a thrilling war that saw Corrales go down in the 3rd, followed by Casamayor in the 4th, and then Corrales again! The fight was stopped in the 6th due to a pair of terrible cuts suffered by Corrales to the inside of his mouth.

Results like that scream for a rematch, which came in March 2004. Fighting for the WBO belt vacated by Freitas, the two contenders had another hard fought battle that saw Corrales hit the canvas again in the 10th. Despite the knockdown, however, Corrales had done enough to earn a narrow Split Decision win over Casamayor.

Lightweight

Having lost his second bid at a 130 lbs title, Casamayor moved up to 135 lbs in search of better opportunities. He soon got his shot, at the WBC Champion Jose Luis Castillo. Castillo was a classic Mexican swarmer, and many think he managed to beat Floyd Mayweather in their first encounter. Fighting on Showtime in December 2004, the two producing an exciting match which Casamayor narrowly lost by Split Decision. Once again, The Brush had come up just a little short.

Having lost to Castillo, he Casamayor fought an undefeated Almazbek Raiymkulov. Given that this Kyrgyz fighter was not well-known at the time and went on to do little of note, it started many to whispering that perhaps the 34 year old Casamayor was getting shopworn. He silenced his doubter in an October 2006 rubber match with Diego Corrales. Corrales failed to make weight, but the fight went on anyway and with Corrales coming in as a decidedly bigger man. Despite that deficit, Casamayor made it a hard-fought contest and pulled out a Split Decision win, going 2-1 with his rival and winning the vacant WBC Lightweight Title.

However, Casamayor later lost this title in a bit of political crapola typical of the WBC. Casamayor sought a rematch with Acelino Freitas, he WBC insisted he fight their #1 contender David Diaz. When Casamayor signed a contract to fight Freitas (certainly the bigger fight of the two), the WBC stripped him. The fight with Freitas then later fell apart, leaving the unfortunate Joel Casamayor with nothing.

Now 36 years old and without a title, Casamayor's had only a few chances at big fights in the lightweight division. In March 2008, he fought Greco-Australian banger Michael Katsidis, and in another thrilling fight full of knockdowns, took him out in the 10th. It was a powerful statement that he was still a force to be reckoned with.

The win led to a September 2008 fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, the skillful counterpuncher that had emerged as the chief rival to Manny Pacquiao. Casamayor controlled the first four stanzas, repeatedly nailing Marquez the counterpuncher with counter lefts. A clash of heads in the 5th cut Casamayor, and from there the momentum changed as Marquez found the range for making pot shots from the outside. Still, whenever Marquez tried to come in, he found Casamayor's leather in his face. In the 11th, Marquez caught Casamayor as he was trying to break away and knocked him down. The Brush got up, but Marquez ruthlessly moved in and finished him with blistering combination punching. It was another very close fight, as two judges had the bout scored even going into that round. Once again, Casamayor was just a little short of a big win.

Joe Casamayor remains active, having pulled out of a July 2009 comeback fight with Julio Diaz due to a back injury. Although scandalously unranked by all four of the major world sanctioning organizations, he was rated a Top 5 fighter by most boxing news sources.

Sources: The Ring; boxrec.com; http://www.thesweetscience.com/boxing-article/4455/thank-you-castro-joel-casamayor/