Jorge “Locomotora” Castro died on Wednesday after collapsing at a bingo hall in Moron, in Buenos Aires Province. He was 59 years old, and he was one of the most loved fighters Argentina has ever produced.
Castro was with his daughter when he collapsed. He had diabetes, and police reports suggest his insulin levels were low. The cause of death has not been officially confirmed, and until it is, nobody should say more than that.
He was born on Aug. 18, 1967 in Caleta Olivia, in the province of Santa Cruz, and he finished his career with a record of 130-11-3 and 90 knockouts. One hundred and thirty professional wins. Almost nobody fights that often anymore, and most of the men who did were not world champions. Castro was. He took the WBA middleweight title on Aug. 12, 1994, winning a split decision over Reggie Johnson in Tucuman.
The fight he is remembered for is one he was losing
Roughly four months after winning the belt, Castro defended it against John David Jackson in Monterrey, Mexico. He was bleeding from his left eye. He was behind. He was being outboxed so thoroughly that the only question left was how the night would be officially described.
Then in the ninth round he landed a left cross, Jackson went down, and Jackson could not continue. The Ring named it Fight of the Year. More than three decades later it is still the piece of film that explains him better than any record line can: a man who was losing badly and simply declined to accept where it was going.
He made four more successful defenses after that before losing the title to Japan’s Shinji Takehara in Tokyo in December 1995. He kept fighting for another eleven years. His final professional bout came in January 2007, a second-round TKO of Jose Luis Herrera.
What he did when the gloves came off
Plenty of retired champions lend a name to a charity and show up for the photographs. Castro ran soup kitchens, food pantries and boxing gyms, and he did it in the country that had watched him fight.
That is why Wednesday’s tributes came from well outside the sport. The WBA praised his “trademark toughness and relentless heart” and offered “its deepest sympathies to his loved ones and the Argentine boxing community.” The Government of Santa Cruz province, where he was born, extended condolences to his family.
His partner, Noelia Vigliarolo, wrote on Instagram: “I don’t know how I’ll manage to go on without you, my love, my life is gone.”
Castro was not the most technically gifted middleweight of his era, and he never pretended otherwise. What he had was an almost unreasonable capacity to keep going after a fight had already turned against him, and he turned that into a world championship, 130 wins and a long second act feeding people who needed it.
Most fighters are remembered for their best night. Castro is remembered for one of his worst, right up until the ninth round.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.