Castillo Takes His Time in Knocking Out Corral

Former lightweight world champion Jose Luis Castillo eased himself into his 10-round welterweight bout Saturday night before disposing of Gustavo Corral with a hard left hook early in the fifth round in front of 3,134 at the Arrowhead Pond.

Castillo (47-6-1, 43 knockouts) and Corral didn’t have their first decent exchange until midway through the third round.

Castillo then dropped Corral with a left hook with about 19 seconds remaining in the round, bloodied his nose late in the fourth and knocked him out with another left hook 33 seconds into the fifth.

Corral (12-5-3, 7) could get only to his knees before referee Pat Russell finished his count.

Castillo had not fought since Dec. 7, when he failed to reclaim his World Boxing Council lightweight title from Floyd Mayweather, losing a 12-round unanimous decision in Las Vegas. He said he wanted to shake off some rust before finishing off Corral, a fellow native of Sonora, Mexico.

“I heard people booing, but I had just gone six months without a fight,” said Castillo. “I needed to make some more rounds.”

Steven Luevano of La Puente opened a big gash on the right eyelid of Aristeo Perez that caused their featherweight bout to be stopped at 2:44 of the second round. Luevano (19-0, 9) caught Perez (7-6-1, 4) with a left hook.

Rolando Reyes of Oxnard won his 10th consecutive fight by knocking out Orlando Membreno of Nicaragua at 1:30 of the second round of a lightweight bout scheduled for eight rounds.