On June 17, 2000 Justin ‘The Destroyer’ Juuko faced Diego Corrales for International Boxing Association super featherweight title, a fight IBF refused to sanction because Juuko was not ranked in its top 10.
But the contest went on and Corrales who was undefeated in 30 fights knocked out the Ugandan Destroyer in the 10th round.
To this day, Juuko considers the fight against Corrales the toughest in his 22-year professional career.
I think that was the toughest fight I ever had. I had a shoulder injury before that fight and I didn’t tell Freddie as he’d have stopped the fight. I met Diego the next day, after the fight, and I couldn’t recognize him. He had swellings and bruises all over his face! It was a tough, tough fight. Diego was a big guy, a tall guy. I had a very good fight with him. When they stopped it, it was a draw on one of the cards. He was very tough. He wasn’t that good technically but he was tough
Juuko who was speaking to Boxing News had fought against Floyd Mayweather Jr a year earlier and was stopped in the ninth round he also lost to Miguel Cotto two years later by a technical knockout on the fifth round
Miguel Cotto was just so physically strong. You see, people mistake being strong for being a hard puncher. Cotto hits hard, I got close to him in the fight and tried to push him, you know, like the old timers do, and I was like, ‘Wow! This guy is a rock, but Diego was something else
When Juuko fought Cotto on June 22, 2002, the Mexican hadn’t tasted defeat in nine fights. Juuko actually once advised Mayweather on how the latter would approach his fight against Diego in 2000.
I told Floyd that he’s (Corrales) not that technically good and that he cannot box with you. I told him he is big and tough but he doesn’t have one-punch power. I told Floyd how he just keeps punching and that it’s an accumulation and that he uses his strength and weight. I told Floyd to jab to the body, to break him down and that he could beat him up. And that’s just what Floyd did. Floyd got that from me (laughs)
And Corrales entered the record books as one of Mayweather Jr’s 48 victims on January 20, 2011, when his corner threw in the towel after the former was knocked down for the fifth time.
