On This Day In Boxing History

1977: Diego Corrales Was Born!

Diego Corrales   

Born: August 25th, 1977

Birth Place: Sacramento, California

Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada

Pro-Debut: March 10th, 1996

Alias: Chico

Division: Lightweight

Stance: Orthodox

Height: 5′ 10½″  

Reach: 70

Bouts: 45

Rounds: 230

Ko’s: 73%

Record: 40-5, 33Ko’s

Died: Age 29, May 7th, 2007

Career

IBF Super Featherweight Champion

1999 Oct 23 – 2000 Oct

WBO Super Featherweight Champion

2004 Mar 6 – 2004

WBO Lightweight Champion

2004 Aug 7 – 2005

WBC Lightweight Champion

2005 May 7 – 2006 Oct 6

Amateur Record: 105-12

As a pro 7-2, 5Ko’s in World Title fights. 5-5, 3Ko’s against former or current world titlists.

Two years to the day from his victory over Castillo in Las Vegas, Corrales died on May 7, 2007 of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Las Vegas, Nevada. Subsequent autopsy toxicology reports indicated that Corrales was legally drunk with a blood alcohol level of 0.25%

Corrales was supposed to fight Jose Luis Castillo for the third time on June 3, 2006, but the bout never took place when Castillo failed to make weight a second time.

Castillo had also failed to make weight for the second fight. Perhaps Corrales should never have taken the rematch bout due to Castillo's weight issues. Castillo failed to make weight, and a member of his team was fined and suspended for tampering with the scale.

1998: USA Network’s “Tuesday Night Fights

Ends Its Seventeen-Year Reign!

Tuesday, August 25th, 1998, USA Network’s “Tuesday Night Fights ended its seventeen-year reign with a Russell Peltz promoted card live from Blue Horizon, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In a mild upset, Trenton, New Jersey’s, Bryant “BB” Brannon, 17-1, Ko’ed West Hartford, Connecticut’s, Scott Lopeck, 13-8-1, in the third round of the six round light heavyweight main event.

In a special attraction, Jasper, Alabama, “King of the Four Rounders”, Eric “Butterbean” Esch, 39-1-1, stopped Louisville, Kentucky’s, Tim Pollard, 6-4-2, in one round.

In August 1998, USA Tuesday Night Fights was cancelled after programming changes were made and budget cuts reduced the ability to broadcast fights.

USA Tuesday Night Fight at one time it was the longest continually-running boxing show on television debuted on October 1, 1982, as Friday Night Boxing (1982-1984), and then, Wednesday Night Fights (1984-1986), and later, Thursday Night Fights (1986-1990).

USA Tuesday Night Fights was hosted by Al Albert, who provided the blow-by-blow commentary, Muhammad Ali trainer Angelo Dundee from 1982 to 1984, and then, Randy Gordon from 1984 to 1987, and finally, former lightweight champion Sean O'Grady, who served as the analyst from 1987 until the show's ending in 1998. Bill Macatee was often a substitute commentator for Albert. The show did not employ a regular ring announcer, but several high-profile announcers such as HBO's Michael Buffer, Showtime's Jimmy Lennon, Jr., Philadelphia boxing staple Ed Derian, and future BattleBots announcer Mark Beiro were featured with Derian and Beiro featured more frequently as the years went on.

The program, for most of its time on air, was sponsored by Budweiser, and often referred to on air as Budweiser Presents Tuesday Night Fights. Pabst Blue Ribbon was also a frequent sponsor of the program, continuing a tradition of the Pabst company sponsoring televised boxing matches.

Like some of its similar fellow boxing programs, Tuesday Night Fights did not always emanate from large arenas. Instead, cards usually took place in smaller venues, such as The Blue Horizon in Philadelphia, the Felt Forum/Paramount Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, or the ballroom of Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Tuesday Night Fights would also not limit itself to American venues, as they traveled to England, Mexico, and other places to televise shows. One show even took place aboard an aircraft carrier.

Notable fights

Few world title fights were presented in this show, one of the notable ones being when Vinny Pazienza, a former world Lightweight champion, moved up in weight and captured the WBA world Jr. Middleweight championship with an eleventh-round knockout of Gilbert Dele. Pazienza would ultimately relinquish the title following a car accident the following year. Written off from boxing by doctors after the accident, Pazienza would return to the ring with a win over Luis Santana, a fight which also aired on Tuesday Night Fights.

Another title fight aired by USA was the 1988 IBF featherweight title bout between defending champion Calvin Grove and contender Jorge Paez that took place in Mexicali, Mexico. The fight was significant in that it was the last ever title match scheduled for 15 rounds. The fight went the distance, with Paez earning a majority decision.

On March 19, 1996, USA featured a bout between Jeremy Williams and Arthur Weathers as the headline of their show broadcast from the Spruce Goose Dome in Williams' home of Long Beach, California. Williams, at the time a rising heavyweight contender, dropped Weathers with an uppercut almost immediately after the bell rang to start the contest and referee Marty Denkin called a halt to the contest after ten seconds, which was erroneously referred to as a world record for quickest knockout (although it remains one of the fastest ever).

On March 18, 1997, USA saw what is officially the world's quickest knockout. The bout between heavyweights Jimmy Thunder and Crawford Grimsley lasted only 1.5 seconds after Thunder caught Grimsley with a right hook to the head that sent him to the canvas.

Both George Foreman and Larry Holmes were frequently featured on Tuesday Night Fights as they began to return after their initial retirements. Both fighters' comeback fights were aired on USA, and Holmes fought on a semi-regular basis on the program until he declared, on air, in 1996 that he would not likely fight again unless he could secure a title match.

A future opponent of Holmes, Butterbean, received some of his earliest exposure as a professional fighter by fighting several four rounders on Tuesday Night Fights.

Roberto Durán was another fixture on Tuesday Night Fights later in his career, and his 100th professional bout was carried by USA.

Tuesday Night Fights also showcased the bizarre from time to time. Among these was a fight from former pro football star Mark Gastineau's controversial boxing career which saw him lose to a journeyman fighter, Andrew Golota's infamous fight against Samson Po'uha in 1995 which saw the Polish fighter, who appeared frequently on Tuesday Night Fights, bite the neck of his opponent, a fight between Riddick Bowe and Elijah Tillery where Tillery was disqualified for kicking the future world champion and Bowe responded by knocking him out of the ring, and a bizarre fight between Sharmba Mitchell and Bazooka Limon where the former champion Limon pulled Mitchell's trunks down during the action.

Other world champions to fight on the show

Many other world champions fought on this show, whether as prospects or later in their careers. This included names such as Oscar de La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roy Jones Jr., Arturo Gatti, Fernando Vargas, Hector Camacho, Tony Tubbs and Antonio Tarver. Pay Per View bouts were also rebroadcast on the show such as Julio César Chávez's eighth-round knockout win over Joey Gamache, which was televised by the show, but as a Pay Per View feature only.

August 25th

1904: Jim Jefferies TKO2 Jack Munroe

Jimmy Slattery was born in Buffalo, NY

1930: Max Baer TKO5 Frankie Campbell, Recreation Park, San Francisco, Campbell knocked unconscious in the ring and died hours later in the hospital.

1931: Panama Al Brown W15 Pete Sanstol

1950: Sugar Ray Robinson KO1 Jose Basora

1951: Gene Fullmer age 20 debuts KO2 Buddy Sloan

1958: Antonio Avelar was born Guadalajara, Mexico

1977: Diego Corrales was born in Columbia, South Carolina

1978: Wilfred Benítez RTD6 Randy Shields

1979: Antonio Cervantes W15 Kwang Min Kim

1984: Orlando Canizales age 19 debuts TKO2 Juan Perez

1985: Elly Pical KO 3 Wayne Mulholland

1990: Humberto González TKO9 Jorge Rivera

Manning Galloway W12 Nika Khumalo

1992: Rafael Ruelas KO1 Benny Dominguez

1997: Melchor Cob Castro W12 Jesus Chong

1998: Tuesday Night Fights ends a 17-year run on the USA Network from the Blue Horizon in Philadelphia. In the final bout of the series, Butterbean knocks out Tim Pollard in the first round.

Two-time former World Lightweight Champion Bob Montgomery, 79, passes.

2000: Darys Pardo TKO3 Consuelo Paternini

2001: Yutaka Niida W12 Chana Porpaoin

2007: Ivan Calderon W12 Hugo Cazares

2012: Arthur Abraham W12 Robert Stieglitz     

Robin Krasniqi KO4 Serdar Sahin

Ji Hyun Park W10 Ana Arrazola

2013: Naoya Inoue W10 Ryoichi Taguchi

Ryōta Murata age 28 debuts TKO2 Akio Shibata

2017: Fernando Martínez age 26 debuts RTD4 Juan Ignacio Haran

2018: Dina Thorslund W10 Jessica Arreguin Munoz

Jose Pedraza W12 Raymundo Beltran  

Isaac Dogboe TKO1 Hidenori Otake

2019: Maximino Flores WTD7 Carlo Caesar Penalosa

Noni Tenge RTD5 Mapule Ngubane