Boxing: Mexican duo refuse to give up
Erik Morales and Jose Luis Castilloappear on the same card in Texas on Saturday night as they seek to make the most of their days as headline stars.
Morales, still only 35, puts his newly-won WBC light-welterweight title on the line against unbeaten Danny Garcia.
To put things into context, Garcia started his career in 2007, when Morales was retired after four straight losses.
The Mexican legend, the first man from his country to win world titles at four different weights and a fighter inexorably remembered for his rivalry with Marco Antonio Barrera, returned in 2010.
Defying health concerns, Morales worked his way back into title contention and his star rose in a narrow defeat to big-hitting Marcos Maidana in a showdown in Las Vegas in April 2011.
Having beaten Pablo Cesar Cano in his last fight to win his current crown, Morales puts it on the line against Garcia in the Reliant Arena in Houston. He insists his career is far from finished.
"I'm very excited to be fighting and building towards better things," Morales told Boxing Scene recently.
"It makes me proud to know that all the hard work pays off. It motivates me to continue."
Morales has plainly found a second wind since his run of back-to-back losses in 2005 and 2006 - to Zahir Raheem, David Diaz and Manny Pacquiao (twice) - appeared to have ended his top-level career.
But for others, even one-time greatness is no guarantee of longevity. Three years older than Morales, Jose Luis Castillo will fight on his undercard on Saturday night as a shadow of the superstar lightweight he once was.
By rights the last anyone should have had to see of Castillo in a boxing ring was the night in June 2007 when he was folded up by a Ricky Hatton body shot in their fight in Las Vegas.
Already by then a pale imitation of the man who had played his part in an immortal series against Diego Corrales, Castillo found himself forced to continue fighting due to financial constraints.
Castillo has lived a hand-to-mouth fighting existence, losing to those who ought always to have been considered much worse than him, but winning enough to keep his well-known name in the title frame.
Castillo meets Jose Cotto - brother of Miguel - in the ring on Saturday night. Win or lose, he is likely to fight again.
Castillo and Morales have earned the right to be there. But they will always be best remembered for what they did in their prime.