On Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, former WBC lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo recaptured the vacant title with a dominant performance against game co-challenger Juan 'The Hispanic Causing Panic' Lazcano in the main support bout to the Bernard Hopkins/Oscar De La Hoya doubleheader.
All three judges gave Castillo the nod by scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113.
The first two rounds saw both fighters begin slowly as they tried to feel out their opponent and gauge their range. Castillo was the first to open up, coming out aggressively in the third and landing some solid shots on Lazcano who was forced into a defensive posture to survive the round. As Lazcano walked back to his corner, a mouse was visible under his left eye that trainer Joe Goossen claimed was caused by a clash of heads.
Castillo controlled the action in the fourth round, walking Lazcano down and punishing him with powerful left hooks.
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At the urging of his corner Lazcano started to let his hands go more in the fifth round, but Castillo was more than happy to trade with the younger fighter. Lazcano showed a good jab and had some success with his own left hook, but more often than not it was Castillo who finished the exchanges.
Castillo was the consistently busier fighter throughout the middle rounds while Lazcano, who looked impressive in his previous fight on the De La Hoya-Mosley II undercard last September when he dropped former world champion Stevie Johnston three times en route to an eleventh round stoppage, seemed wary of Castillo's power and appeared reluctant at times to engage the hard-hitting fourteen year professional.
Lazcano had his best round in the ninth when he hurt Castillo with a solid right hand that almost dropped the 57-fight veteran. But Castillo, showing amazing recuperative abilities, sucked it up and came back to land some good leather of his own to close out the round.
By the end of the eleventh round Lazcano's left eye was almost completely closed and his right eye wasn't far behind. Both men gave their all in the twelfth frame, but it was Castillo who finished over the top of his less experienced foe.
For Lazcano, it's a case of back to the drawing board. Castillo, meanwhile, finds himself in prime position to challenge the winner of the Diego Corrales-Acelino Freitas bout penciled in for August to determine the true champion at 135lbs.
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By Anthony Cocks, Site Editor (June 7, 2004) 
