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Lazcano Not Panicked
By Steve Kim (February 13, 2003)
Photo © HoganPhotos.com
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Lightweight contender Juan Lazcano gets back to work this Thursday night at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas against Danny Rios. The bout will be televised on HBO Latino, as part of it's 'Boxeo De Oro' series that is being promoted by Oscar De La Hoya.
Lazcano has been patiently biding his time waiting for an opportunity at the WBC title while riding the crest of a 17 bout winning streak. Yes, many of his wins have come against journeymen like Benito Rodriguez and Julio Cesar Sanchez-Leon, but he does have wins against John-John Molina, Jesse James Leija (in a very disputed decision in August of 2000), Wilfredo Vasquez, Dorin Spivey and Julian Wheeler. But despite the strong run, he had been moved up and down the WBC ratings like a yo-yo.
Did Lazcano do something to Jose Sulaiman? What gives?
"Oh, my God, I know, right?" said Lazcano laughing at the thought of his fluctuating status in the WBC. "That's what I was saying, 'What have I done?' But hey, the ball is in their court, the ratings and all that. They do whatever they have to do. It's a political game, other promoters are involved, things of that nature, and they want to keep you out of the ratings, out of the number one position as much as possible because there's other fighters."
Lazcano has been hovering around the top spot for the better part of the past few years but then he was mysteriously dropped behind Lavka Sim at one point and then passed up by Stevie Johnston.
"Money talks," Lazcano said of his ongoing situation with the WBC. "So that's how that goes and a lot of times to maneuver a fighter that really isn't the quality of fighter that the ratings show -- again politics. But again, that's adversity and I've dealt with adversity all my life."
After a lot of jostling, Lazcano is now rated as their number-one lightweight contender to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"Thank God they moved him back to number one," said his promoter, Hall of Famer Don Chargin, "and if nothing comes up in terms of what we consider a real good offer, he'll just wait and be the mandatory."
And now Lazcano has some influence of his own in Oscar De La Hoya.
"Since I went to work with 'Golden Boy' as a consultant, Oscar is now my partner and has taken a real interest in Juan. So I'll let Oscar deal with the WBC," said Chargin, fully aware that the WBC will do just about anything to appease De La Hoya.
The issue of the top spot for the number one 135-pound ranking in the WBC was a hot topic at the sanctioning organization's recent convention.
"You should have seen the it, the pressure," said Chargin. "Fernando Beltran [manager of Jose Luis Castillo] and Todd DuBoef [VP of Top Rank, which promtes both Castillo and Stevie Johnston], they were talking great about Juan while Oscar was at the convention. The second [De La Hoya] left, they get up on the floor and said [Lazcano] was a bum, that he never fought anybody."
All of this rolls of off Lazcano's back easily.
Remember that old 'Saturday Night Live' character Stuart Smalley and his positive affirmations? Time after time, good ole' Stuart would look in the mirror and tell himself that he could get anything done because he was strong enough, good enough and dawg gone it, people liked him. Lazcano is boxing's version of Smalley. And it all started after he got knocked out in three rounds by Golden Johnson in June of 1998. It would be his last professional loss and the turning point of his career.
"Sometimes you gotta fall down to get back up," explains Lazcano, nicknamed 'the Hispanic Causin' Panic'. "When I lost to Golden Johnson, I really opened my eyes. I hadn't fought in a whole year, they had been promising me a contract at the time with a major promoter -- I won't say any names -- and it fell through and they had me like that for a whole year. I fought Johnson, I didn't care, I didn't have a fight plan. I went in there to get my frustrations out. That's exactly what happened, I got nailed, right on the whiskers, I got up and proceeded but the referee stopped it.
"So that opened my eyes. It humbled me and I went back to the drawing board and had a couple of months to really assess my situation and think about what I was going to do. And after that, ironically, I had a fight with the first promoter that signed me in California. He offered me a fight, I won the fight and after that they asked me if I wanted to go help some figihters out as a sparring partner -- I'm no one's sparring partner -- but I knew it would help me a lot, it would do me a world of woner and the experience I would get, it would let me know exactly where I was and where I needed to go.
So I took the offer and the very next day after I fought, the first fight after Golden Johnson, the very next day I was off to Florida to spar with many champions at the time.
"So I guess that's the turning point, that I didn't give up," he said.
And Lazcano is undefeated since hooking up with Chargin.
"He's 17-0 since he's been with me. I tell ya, I have never, ever seen a fighter work as hard," Chargin said of his fighter. "This guy, he's fighting this Thursday night, he's taking him like it was a number one contender. He has to see film, he has to train. I got a call from him five or six days ago, he thought he was catching a cold, he couldn't let anything effect his performance."
And he's also undefeated since hooking up with trainer Freddie Roach. But Roach is busy right now with a certain heavyweight in Las Vegas and will not be working with Lazcano for this upcoming bout. But that's just another small hurdle for Lazcano to overcome.
"That's what I guess you can label adversity because Freddie is not here but adversity builds character and I brought in a really good guy that's been helping me as well, Orlando Carasquillo," Lazcano explained, of his current situation in the corner. "He's been helping us with the camp and when you get to this level, it really boils down to the individual. It's a mind game and how focused you are. What are you willing to do to get the job done? Thank God my foundation has been set on the rock, not on the sand and it's been years of building the foundation because I wanted my foundation built solidly."
Stuart Smalley couldn't have said it any better.
SWEET RATINGS
While Shane Mosley didn't exactly pack'em in this past weekend at the Mandalay Bay, a good source tells me that he did a 7.6 rating on HBO -- a full point-and-a-half higher than what Vernon Forrest did two weeks before in a championship fight.
Now, will this effect what happens to his negotiations with Bob Arum and Oscar De La Hoya? No, the bottom line is that unless he accepts that $4.25 million offer by Monday, he won't get the rematch in September. But, it could effect when HBO brings back Mosley in the middle of the year. Who knows, maybe they bring back Mosley against a Javier Castillejo on May 10th -- a week after De La Hoya's pay-per-view show with Yory Boy Campas and air the replay on that telecast. And then perhaps another negotiation for a rematch can take place with Mosley having a little more leverage and becoming more acclimated to the jr. middleweight division.
No, I'm not a television executive, but I did stay at at Holiday Inn once.
WINKY VS ARUM
On Thursday afternoon, Arum and IBF jr. middleweight titlist Winky Wright will both be in studio with Los Angeles radio personalities Joe McDonnel and Doug Krikorian on ESPN Radio 710 AM.
I'm sure Winky will state his case for a fight with De La Hoya, but didn't he turn down a chance to fight Mosley a while back for a million bucks and then proceeded to see Vernon Forrest beat Mosley twice?
I wonder if he regrets that move, because it sure doesn't seem like James Prince and Roy Jones have done much for Wright's career since buying out the promotional rights of the crafty southpaw from Arum in that time.
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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