Javier Castillejo-Spanish Lynx

[BoztheMadman]

Javier Castillejo, also known as "The Lynx of Parla", is one of the best Spanish boxers ever. He was one of very few Spanish world class fighters and world champions in his era. That were Spanish by birth also, not just nationality. In his career, he won three world titles, two at light middleweight and one at middleweight. However, due to him not being American or promoted by a major promoter, he suffered injustice and was stripped of one of his world titles, which we will go into further later. Already in the twilight of his career, he pulled off a major upset victory when he stopped the highly rated future multiple world champion Felix Sturm in 2006 and won his last world title, at middleweight, at the age of 38. He still remains the only man to have managed to stop Sturm, who would not be stopped again and hasn't been stopped again in 49 fights altogether. Unfortunately, Castillejo didn't know when the time was right to quit and so suffered a bad knockout loss at the end of his career, to Sebastian Sylvester.

 

Born in Parla, a part of Madrid, 22 March 1968, Francisco Javier Castillejo Rodriguez is his full name. He debuted as a pro in 1988, fighting as a welterweight and won his first 7 fights before losing for the first time to Del Bryan on points in a 6-rounder. In 1990 he won the Spanish welterweight title by TKO4 against experienced Alfonso Redondo, knocking him down twice. He defended it against Domingo Sanchez by the same result before vacating it to compete as a super welterweight. In December 1992 he beat Enrique Areco by UD12 for the WBC Mundo Hispano title. On 24 April next year he got the chance to win the big one against the WBA champion, the Argentinian Julio Cesar "El Zurdo" Vasquez. The fight took place in Madrid and after 12 hard fought rounds, Vasquez emerged as the winner, tho by very uneven scores: two judges scored it 115-114 but the third had it a shutout for Vasquez with 120-111! He then defended his Mundo Hispano title by knocking out Hugo Daniel Sclarandi in 5 before he took on the European champion Bernard Razzano and relieved him of the belt by stopping him after 6 rounds, by corner retirement. He defended the title three times but then ran into Laurent Boudouani, then the greatest French light middleweight and one of the best light middleweights ever, who beat him by TKO 9 in Paris. A year later, in January '96, he challenged Boudouani again but lost a wide decision to him.

 

As Boudouani went on to beat Vasquez himself for the WBA title, the Euro belt became vacant and Castillejo won it by TKO12 against Akhmet Dottuev, former WBO welterweight champion, in July '98. He then received another world title shot, this time for the WBC title against Keith Mullings, who had taken it from Terry Norris in a big upset. On 29 January 1999, Castillejo would finally realise his great dream by outpointing Mullings in a close fight in Madrid, by majority decision. He was almost 31 now but as game as ever. He made his first defense against Costa Rican Humberto Aranda and stopped him by TKO4. Then he took on the Swedish-Italian Paolo Roberto and again won impressively by TKO7. He made 3 more defenses, against Danish Michael Rask by TKO7, seasoned American Tony Marshall by UD12 and finally for the fifth time against Javier Martinez Rodriguez by TKO4, which was the only title defense to be fought in Mexico and not Spain. Having made his name, he now received an offer for the biggest fight of his life, against "Golden Boy" Oscar de la Hoya, who was making a comeback at the new weight class after losing to Shane Mosley. Castillejo put on a brave fight but was simply outclassed by the faster and slicker De La Hoya, getting dropped in the final seconds of the fight and losing all but one round on all scorecards. He didn't let this setback stop him and came back 6 months later, to win the European middleweight title by TKO7 against Xavier Moya. He defended it once against Pierre Moreno by TKO7 but then decided to go back down to light middleweight and forfeited it.

 

It was then time to make history. Castillejo took on the 29-0-1 Russian boxer-puncher Roman Karmazin, who was a very clever and hard hitting guy. He managed to earn a unanimous decision at home in a fight which was for the interim WBC title. This is counted as one of his greatest victories. He defended it once against Diego Castillo by TKO in the first round, but was then stripped of the title due to Don King wanting his protege Ricardo Mayorga to fight for it. Castillejo refused to fight Mayorga and instead opted to fight Fernando Vargas, which resulted in him getting stripped. Mayorga had never fought at this weight limit and had lost two of his last three fights, making it an unreasonable choice for a mandatory. But dirty tricks were pulled by King and so Castillejo was again without a title. He did fight Vargas in August 2005 but lost a 10-round fight to him where he was also down once in round 3 from two left hooks. Having struggled to make the weight and performing poorly because of that, he made his final move to the middleweight division. After winning only 2 fights there, on 15 July 2006 he was matched against Felix Sturm, the WBA champion, who had only one loss on his record, a very disputed points loss to De La Hoya himself. Sturm was a slow starter and paid for it when he was caught in the second round by a counter left hook from Castillejo that stunned him. Castillejo then hit him with a barrage of left hooks and an overhand right by his ear which sent him down. Sturm looked like he was finished at first, but then weathered the storm. He came back and took control of the fight with his boxing skills but then in the 10th was hit with another left hook followed by some left uppercuts which knocked him out cold. It was a great shock and upset, as Sturm was known for his ability to absorb punishment and was a good defensive fighter.

 

Castillejo then made his first defense of the new title against Argentinian Mariano Natalio Carrera. The fight was even but in the late rounds Carrera grew strong and stopped Castillejo in the eleventh by TKO. However, after the fight it was found that Carrera tested positive for Clembuterol, a banned substance and he was stripped and Castillejo reinstated as the champion. He then gave Sturm a rematch on 28 April 2007, in Germany and lost a unanimous decision in a fight where he was the aggressor while Sturm focused on and had success in clear counterpunching. Castillejo and his team thought the decision was unfair. In November, he rematched Carrera, whose suspension had ended, and got his revenge for the "fake loss" and the beating he suffered by knocking him out with a right hook followed by two left uppercuts in round 6. Revenge was sweet. On 12 April next year, the now-40 yearold Castillejo took on the German Sebastian Sylvester, in a fight for the European title which was at the same an eliminator for the WBA title and a chance to avenge the loss to Sturm. However, that didn't happen: the much younger Sylvester landed a huge right hand in the last round which laid Castillejo out flat on his back. He was down for several minutes but left the ring on his own feet. So, father time had finally caught up with the Spanish Lynx. He would fight once more, on 4 April next year, but drew against compatriot Pablo Navascues and with that, the 41 yearold warrior hung up the gloves.

 

His record is 62(43)-8-1. 71 fights, 13 world title fights, 455 rounds. A record you don't see so often today, outside of Mexico perhaps. He has been voted the Spanish boxer of the year by their boxing mag ESPABOX a total eleven times. Which says something about his stature in Spanish boxing history. He was a come forward fighter with plenty of power and a never say die attitude, an aggressive pressure fighter with a good jaw and was stopped only twice, last time in the end of his career.

Edited September 21, 2016 by BoztheMadman