It always comes as a shock when sporting heroes die. Usually it is when they are of a certain age. Still, it does not soften the blow any less, as we recently saw with the outpouring of grief and national pride in losing England football hero Alan Ball. We are reluctant to let go, and are never ready when death finally reaches them. Even though Ball was 61, we believe our heroes to be near immortal. We mourn -‘it was too early’.

Yet, there’s numbness, a bitter taste at the back of the throat that is hard to swallow, when death reaches those sporting heroes who still ply their trade at the highest level, when the body is still in the peak of fitness. This is what I and presumably many other boxing fans felt when hearing about the death of Diego Corrales.

On Monday (May 7), Corrales was killed in a road crash when his Suzuki motorcycle hit the back of a car, which it is thought he was trying to pass at speed. Las Vegas Police believe they clocked Corrales travelling well above the 35mph speed limit and blamed inexperience as the cause of the crash. It also appears that Corrales was driving without a valid Nevada State driver's or motorcycle licence which was revoked in July last year as a result of a drunk-driving conviction. The results of blood toxicology tests on Corrales are due within the next fortnight, and a cause of death will not be determined until that date.

Indeed, Corrales was no angel. A previous history of violence and drunken offences littered his personal life. Even though boxing was a salvation of sorts, in 2001, he was  jailed for 14 months (after a world title fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.) for domestic abuse against his pregnant ex-wife.

Despite the battle with booze, Corrales was picking up the pieces recently, getting up off the canvas to face life toe-to-toe. As boxing is the great metaphor of life itself, there were few with the grit and determination to pick themselves up in the ring as ‘Chico’.

In 1999, he won the IBF super featherweight title by defeating the previously unbeaten champion, Roberto Garcia, by a technical knockout in the seventh round. After a number of defences, Corrales dropped his belts to call out Mayweather Jr. for a crack at the WBC version. ‘Pretty Boy’s class told, winning by a 10th-round stopping, when Corrales’ corner threw the towel in - after a fifth knockdown - much to Chico’s displeasure. Despite the loss, Corrales came out of the bout with much admiration, continually getting up and willing to fight.

Although Corrales would later enter a trilogy of world title fights with Joel Casamayor, it is for the wars against Jose Luis Castillo that we will fondly remember him. Exactly two years to the day of his death, Corrales defeated Castillo for the undisputed flyweight world title, in what was his defining fight, and Ring magazine’s Fight of the Year for 2005. In true lionhearted fashion, Corrales recovered from two knockdowns in the 10th to stop Castillo with a flurry of punches in the same round.

In their rematch, Castillo failed to make the weight but Corrales accepted the challenge regardless. It was much to his undoing, as Castillo emerged victorious by knocking Corrales down in the fourth round of a furious but short-lived contest.

In their anticipated third bout, Castillo failed to make the weight again, but on this occasion Chico turned the catchweight fight down. Ironically, in his next title defence, Corrales failed to make the weight himself and lost to Casamayor.

At 29, there were still fights out there for Corrales, perhaps at light welterweight where Castillo is soon to take on Ricky Hatton for the IBO title. As a fighter, we will remember Corrales as a true warrior, a man who continually came forward - a boxer’s boxer.

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