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 Number Juan Priority
By Steve Kim (June 1, 2004)
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The best fight in Las Vegas this weekend does not involve Oscar De La Hoya or Bernard Hopkins. Sure, those two might have the highest profiles, but the fight that the true boxing aficionados are looking forward to at the MGM Grand on Saturday night is the lightweight clash between Juan Lazcano and Jose Luis Castillo for the vacant WBC 135-pound belt.
By all accounts this is the biggest fight of Lazcano's career - a win and he's in line to engage in some lucrative bouts in an interesting lightweight division, and his gamble in taking much less money to face Castillo for a title instead of taking on Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a much bigger payday in his junior welterweight debut would be validated.
So why is he in Van Nuys with Joe Goossen and not in Hollywood with Freddie Roach, who had helped resurrect his career the last four years?
"Sometimes events just turn out differently," explained Lazcano last week after an afternoon workout at Goossen's. "I was at Freddie's Wild Card for four years and we had a great track record. The only thing was that I noticed a sudden shift of energies in the gym. I slowly started sensing that early last year."
The 'shift of energies' was that Roach had suddenly become one of the hottest and most in-demand cornermen in the sport. And one of the new clients that he picked up in December of 2002 was one Michael Gerard Tyson.
"As a matter of fact," recalled Lazcano, "my first fight of the year (2003) in February, when I fought on HBO Latino, Freddie was with Tyson, and for that fight Macka (Foley) and Orlando (Carasquillo) took care of me and Freddie wasn't in my corner that night."
Lazcano would dispatch of Danny Rios in nine rounds in El Paso, Texas, that night. Up next was a September date against Stevie Johnston for a shot at the title. And it was in preparation for that fight that Lazcano would make his way up north to Goossen's for some quality sparring with southpaws.
"Freddie was with one of the Klitschkos," Lazcano remembers. "We had to set up shop elsewhere because of sparring and like a Godsend, Casamayor was here sparring. It was great sparring for me. So we were here for a matter of six, seven weeks. During that time I was able to look at Joe and his work ethic, the way he did things with his fighters and the time that he put into the fighters.
Lazcano would stop Johnston in 11 rounds on the undercard of Shane Mosley-Oscar De La Hoya II, and 'The Hispanic Causin' Panic' was finally going to get his shot at the world title.
"Ironically enough, after the Johnston fight, when I went home and the whole Castillo thing came up," explained Lazcano, "Joe came into my mind but I wasn't thinking about it. But just the technique he would use with the fighters I felt would really help me for this fight.
"But to me, I was still going with Freddie. So I came down to Freddie's mid-March to scope things out."
And Lazcano didn't like what he seeing or feeling. Roach is one of the busiest trainers in the industry, and it seems that one of his charges has a fight at least two or three times a month. His gym is overflowing daily with world-class talent, and to top it off, Roach employs a liberal open door policy, so it's as public as a gym can get.
"I asked him if he could devote the time to me because this is the fight of my career, a defining moment, and he was busy, he couldn't commit to that," said Lazcano. Roach at that time was focusing most of his attention to Manny Pacquiao's upcoming showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez in May. After that fight, he would quickly fly over to South Africa to be with Virgil Hill for his fight with Jean-Marc Mormeck, and now, after just a few days back in Hollywood, he's now in Arizona, ironically with Tyson once again.
It seems Lazcano's instincts were correct; Goossen was the man to give him what he needed.
"Yeah," agreed Lazcano, "it was the right decision. I was feeling the energy, the shift - you have to feel the shift. I adapt well, I can see things without looking out the window. I can sense it, so I sensed the energy and that's why it prompted me to come down here and check things out at Freddie's gym early so that I wouldn't lose time. And now, I have a peace of mind because I KNOW that it was the right move."
Lazcano makes it clear that he has no animosity towards Roach and will always consider him a friend. But Roach, is still a bit bewildered by his decision.
"The thing is, Juan called 20 trainers; he called Nacho Beristain, he called me, he called Dub Huntley, he called Joe Goossen; I don't know what he was shopping for," said Roach via cell phone in Arizona, where he has begun working with 'Iron Mike' "We've been together for four years - he hasn't lost in four years. I mean he had a great situation going and then he told me he was going to hire Joe. He wants me to help him in the corner and if I don't train a fighter, it's useless to work the corner because the guy that works with him everyday in the gym has got to be the guy who calls the shots in the corner. So I was disappointed that he chose Joe Goossen, but what can I do?"
But is Roach, who also trains James Toney, Brian Viloria, Bernard Dunne, Pacquiao and Tyson, along with several other boxers, stretched too thin?
"I told him that I was obligating myself to him," Roach insisted, of his situation with Lazcano. "If Juan stuck with me and didn't go to Joe Goossen, I'd still be in the gym and I would have told Mike no. Once I make a decision, I honor it."
But Roach realizes that when you deal with so many high-profile fighters at once, egos can be bruised.
"Yeah, it does (become a problem)," he admits. "It was like when Eddie Futch had me and he had to go with Larry Holmes. I knew that Eddie had to make a living and so forth, but he left me with some good people and I think with Justin Fortune and Macka and the guys in the gym, they know what to do and they've got plenty of help there. But again, everyone wants to be top priority, of course."
But the reality is, trainers have a much longer shelf life than fighters, and trainers will have many fighters during their careers. Fighters get one chance to make their career successful.
"That is true, that is true," said Lazcano. "Trainers will have fighters come and go. But I have to take responsibility for my career, and again, I don't want to sell myself short; I don't want to leave my career in the hands of someone else if they're not committed to me. I had to make a move, I made the move and I'm pretty doggone proud of that move."
And Goossen is glad to have him aboard.
"Let this be a message to Freddie Roach, 'Thank you very much, because you did a great job with Juan,' said Goossen, who has inherited a fighter with an insatiable work ethic. "Forget it, he's a throwback, Juan Lazcano's a real throwback. You've really got to pull him back, pull the reins back on him a little bit because he's so willing to keep on going and of course it's my job to know when to pull him back a little bit."
During the meat of their training camp, Lazcano would train for two-and-half to three hours, followed by 45 minutes of calisthenics.
"He's a guy right up my alley; he's a good person, he's a good man, he's honest and he works hard; he gives you an honest day in the gym," Goossen says of his newest boxer.
The decision to switch trainers was a surprise to his promoter, Don Chargin, who says, "Yeah, it sure was, he's the guy fighting but y'know he and Freddie have had great luck together - 20 wins in a row since I hired Freddie."
And the decision to bypass Mayweather was one made by the fighter himself.
"I tell ya', being that he didn't have a lot of time, I left it entirely up to him," said the veteran promoter. "When you're offering a guy like Mayweather, you want to make sure that the fighter agrees because it is a tough fight. The money was real, real good and I think if he would've had a long time to prepare he probably would have taken it."
Lazcano has always been an independent sort, a free spirit that's not afraid to make a decision that goes against conventional wisdom. He is a passionate fighter, and when you talk to him you can just hear just how much this really means to him and his family. Boxing is not just his career, but his life, and it's a life he's determined to live on his terms.
When asked about the opportunity that presented itself to face Mayweather for about twice the money he is getting for Castillo, he'll belt out that famous line from 'Old Blue Eyes' himself, Frank Sinatra, and tell you he did it his way.
"And you have to, man," he says you with conviction. "You have to stand for something. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. And I have a responsibility not only to myself, but to my children, my family, kids, fans that follow me. I am who I am. Money doesn't define me; money doesn't make me, I make the money. I'm more than money.
"Money, yeah we need it, but to me life is more than money, it's about doing it right, doing things right, no matter what, you can't look back. No matter what,
I'm doing it right, I'm putting it all on the line. I'm fighting the best fighters in the world, and I've made decisions. I've searched, I've knocked, I've seeked (sic), I've done everything that I possibly could and it's finally here, the opportunity.
"We have a date with destiny."
ROACH MOTEL MOVES
Working with Mike Tyson is a lucrative proposition but one with some sacrifices involved. One of them for Roach is having to go out to Arizona, forcing him to leave the rest of his fighters behind at the Wild Card Boxing Club.
"It's a pain in the ass to be honest with you," he admits."But the thing is, for a few people, they like training camps; Johnny Tapia, or when I went away with
the Klitschkos or Mike. It's just a part of the game.
Roach will be in the corner of Brian Viloria, who fights this Friday night.
"It's a hassle, but it's something I have to do."
Working with Tyson is always a risky proposition, since there's no guarantee the fight will actually go off. So did Roach get some of his money upfront this
time?
"Yeah, I did."
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