June 23, 2005
NAGOYA, JAPAN-The official medical examination for WBA 115-pound champ Martin Castillo (28-1, 16 KOs) and Japanese challenger Hideyasu Ishihara (16-3-1, 11 KOs) was held on Wednesday in Nagoya, Japan. Though Ishihara, 29, is two inches taller at 5 feet 7 than Castillo, the Mexican champ has a slight reach advantage by half an inch at 67 inches than Ishihara. The champ, 28, has a bigger chest by an inch at 34.5 inches than the Japanese southpaw. Castillofs impressive performance over Alexander Munoz and Eric Morel has him a prohibitive favorite against Ishihara, who had been strenuously training at the ALA Gym in Cebu, Philippines.
The WBA superfly title bout will take place at Aichi Prefectural Gymansium at 2 pm on Sunday. The officials are as follows: referee Stanley Christodoulou (South Africa); judges Cesar Ramos (Puerto Rico), Michael Hook (Sweden) and Pinit Prayadsab (Thailand); and WBA supervisor Alberto Sarmiento (Venezuela). All of them arrived in Nagoya today. Also, Frank Espinoza, Castillofs manager, and his prominent cutman Miguel Diaz arrived here tonight. All seem ready for their grudge fight here.
(6-23-05)