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Javier Francisco Castillejo (born in Parla, Spain on February 3rd 1968) is a Spanish middleweight boxer, and the reigning WBA (World Boxing Association) World Middleweight Champion. Previously in his career, Castillejo, who is nicknamed “El Lince” (“The Lynx” in English) has held the Spanish Welterweight Title, the WBC (World Boxing Council) Mundo Hispano Light-Middleweight Title, the EBU (European Boxing Union) Light-Middleweight Title, the Spanish Light-Middleweight Title, the WBC World Light-Middleweight Title, the European Union Middleweight Title and the Interim WBC Light-Middleweight Title, making him one of the most decorated Spanish boxers in history.

Castillejo made his professional boxing debut on July 22nd 1988 with a 6-Round points victory over Angel Diez. His 2nd professional contest was against the same opponent on September 2nd of the same year, and he improved on his previous result by scoring a 4th-Round stoppage victory. In December of 1988, Castillejo had his first fight outside of his native Madrid, scoring a 1st-Round KO victory over Juan Perez in Torrejon, Spain.

After scoring a further 4 victories to improve his record to 7-0 with 3 wins by way of KO or stoppage, Castillejo suffered his first professional defeat, on points over 8 rounds to an English boxer by the name of Del Bryan. Castillejo rebounded quickly from this loss, however, scoring 7 further victories before knocking out Alfonso Redondo in the 4th Round of a scheduled 10 to claim his first professional Championship, the Spanish Welterweight Title on October 19th 1990

Another 4th Round KO victory, this time over a fighter named Domingo Sanchez on July 5th 1991, saw Castillejo make the first successful defence of his Spanish Championship before a step up in class 5 fights later saw the rapidly-improving “El Lince” score a 3rd Round stoppage of the Puerto Rican fighter Harry Arroyo, who was a former holder of the IBF (International Boxing Federation) World Lightweight Championship. Not wanting to rest on his laurels, Castillejo scored, in his very next fight, an 8 Round points decision over another former World Champion (WBC World Light-Welterweight Title) Saoul Mamby. To cap off a highly successful 1992 for the Spaniard, he defeated Enrique Areco on points over 12 rounds to add the WBC Mundo Hispano Light-Middleweight Championship to his Spanish Welterweight belt.

1993 saw some big changes for Castillejo as he marked his first fight outside of his native Spain with a gallant, but ultimately unsuccessful, challenge to the Argentinean fighter Julio Cesar Vasquez for the WBA World Light-Middleweight Championship, losing unanimously on points after 12 Rounds. Castillejo rebounded with a successful defence of his Mundo Hispano Title before defeating Bernard Razzano in 6 Rounds to claim the European Light-Middleweight Championship in Dijon, France. Castillejo would go on to make 5 successful defences of his newly-won Title before surrendering it to the French fighter Laurent Boudouani on a 9th Round stoppage. A rematch soon afterwards failed to produce the desired result for Castillejo (he lost on a unanimous points decision after 12 Rounds), and there were those who thought that this may be the end of his time at Championship level. In fact, those two defeats marked the beginning of the most successful period of his career.

This entry is in the process of being further updated and corrected.