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Rocky Tops NBC Debut
By Steve Kim (April 28, 2003)
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After an 11-year hiatus from the game of boxing, NBC gets back into the ring next week from the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas. Headlining the show is Main Event's featherweight prospect Rocky Juarez.
It's been a long time since 'the Peacock' has dabbled with 'the Sweet Science' and there's no guarantee that they'll ever do boxing again after their three-week experiment with the sport ends on May 17th. But for
fighters like Juarez, it's their chance to make their mark on a broad national audience that hasn't been available to them in recent years.
"I can't lie and say I don't think about it and I think of how big it is because like you said, it's been about 11-years since a nationally televised show
on NBC," admitted Juarez, whose record now stands at 15-0. Juarez will be taking on Frankie Archuleta (22-3-1) in Saturday's main event. "But the thing is I try to keep my focus on the prize and I try not to stress off of it and not to try and put too much pressure on myself knowing that this is going to be a big event."
Juarez, who has seems to improve every fight, is coming off a strong showing against veteran Jason Pires in February. It was another step in the
development of what many feel is a future world champion.
"I feel that before the fight had began, I was speaking to Bobby Czyz (of Showtime) and they were asking me how I felt this fight is going to be and I told them 'This fight's going to show what I can do because I know Jason Pires is the type of guy who has skills but goes out and fights,'" explained Juarez, of his thoughts prior to that bout, in which he stopped Pires in nine rounds. "And I felt that Hector Acero-Sanchez kind of took me back because I didn't get the knockout and I didn't look too impressive so I felt I made up for it with this last fight against Pires."
And now Rocky's road takes him to another tough veteran in Frankie Archuleta, a fight in which he's designed to win, but get some tough, valuable rounds under his belt.
"I know Frankie Archuleta's a very tough fighter, he can hit, he's a very good fighter," Juarez told MaxBoxing of his opponent. "I take nothing away from him, I think this is going to be a good fight for me and it's a good step up. I'm still on the learning process. I feel I'm not trying to rush into things and I just turned 23. This is going to be a big year this year, this is the first fight of the beginning of this year, so later in this year, I'm going to be ranked in the top 10."
Well, it's actually it's his second bout of the year, but who's counting? Especially when you have bigger and better things to look forward to.
"My manager (Shelly Finkel) and my promoter, they've been throwing names at me, for instance, Guty Espadas and Bones Adams," Juarez said. "These are the types of fights they've been throwing at me that I feel by the end of this year I'm going to be fighting against."
Carl Moretti, matchmaker for Main Events, talks about the timetable his company has set for Juarez.
"He's going to start with the NBC fight, he'll come back if he's victorious, in July on Showtime again and then he'll fight at least three or four more times this year," Moretti explained, "which will give him close to 20 fights and put us on a great launch into the following 2004 season. And we like to just sit down and assess after each fight and get a better idea of who you can put him in with and who you want to wait another fight for or just go for somebody right off the top."
It's interesting to note that while the featherweight division is deep, with the expected departure of Erik Morales to jr. lightweight and maybe even Marco Antonio Barrera in the near future, the timing may be perfect for Juarez to make his big splash as a prime time player. Regardless, Moretti is pleased with his fighter's progress.
"I think he and Jose Navarro are clearly the class of 2000 and have shown that in their recent bouts, for sure," he states. "Maybe even more so with Juarez because of the division that he was in and the future that holds for him and the quality of his opposition has stepped up each time and he's just improved every fight out and there doesn't seem to be weakness in his overall game."
In Archuleta, Juarez, is fighting a tall and lanky boxer who can punch a little bit. Archuleta's had plenty of time to prepare for this bout and should be at his physical best. It's exactly the type of test that is instrumental in a fighter's progress. It's accentuated by the fact that this bout will be on network TV -- a vehicle that hasn't been there for young prospects in over a decade.
"We want him to really look good for a lot of reasons and obviously because it's on NBC because of the magnitude that weekend when you got a world wide media coverage because of the De La Hoya fight that night and I see him looking to shine and I think he will," said Moretti, of what's at stake and what could be gained. "He'll get that much bigger and better as a result of it, regardless of what happens with the NBC situation."
And what happens with NBC, Main Events and the sport of boxing after May 17th?
"There's always talks going on. You have talks but you really want to see how the three shows do," Moretti told MaxBoxing. "We don't just look at it as May 3rd, it's really May 3rd, May 10th, and May 17th as one big show. That's the way we're looking at it as opposed to three separate shows and then NBC and Main Events will evaluate it after than and plan from there."
And with that, Moretti has to walk on the tightrope between making mis-matched 'house' fights and matches that are a little too competitive and exciting for their own liking with their own prospects.
"For the most part we've tried to make guys that have exciting styles. You see mostly lower weight classes in these bouts," Moretti said of the series, which will feature the likes of Nate Campbell and Francisco Bojado in the upcoming weeks. "I think the highest weighted match-up is a Kermit Cintron fight at welterweight. There's an unwritten law that anything under 160, the odds are you're going to get a good fight for the most part.
"Most of our stable is under 154 pounds except for the heavyweights. So keeping that theory going, that was one of our goals to make the best fights we could in these weight classes."
But first things, first -- the series is kicked off by Juarez, who after a slow start has earned the reputation as one of the game's brightest prospects. An impressive showing on NBC and his reputation grows further.
"In the beginning of my professional career you get those critics and you can't blame them -- that's what they see. They see how you perform, that's what they criticize on and not to hate but just accept it and just the fact I know my time would come and that's the way it was in the amateurs," Juarez said of his early detractors. "I felt that people know who I was but they said 'Oh, he can get beat'. Now as a professional, I feel I'm getting 'Oh, he's a good fighter, he's a solid fighter, he can go the distance, he's in condition, he's well prepared, he knows how to keep his composure and he still has the power in the later rounds and he keeps his focus.'
"So I feel that people are now seeing that I'm a person who takes this sport very seriously and hopes to get a world championship in the future."
LIGHTS ON
I'm hearing a lot of complaining about the scoring of Saturday night's bout between James Toney and Vassiliy Jirov. Maybe it was the margin of the scores (117-109 twice and 116-110) but I thought Toney was the clear
and deserved winner.
While Jirov was the aggressor and tried to pound Toney wherever he could, Toney was masterful in deflecting most of those on-coming punches and hitting Jirov with clean counters throughout. And despite what Emanuel
Steward was saying, Toney, wanted to be on the ropes -- I've seen him handle much bigger heavyweights the exact same way. There was no way a 190 pounder would faze him that much by simply backing him up.
Bottom line is that Toney's punchers were sharper, more accurate and cleaner. There was a reason why Jirov, who gave a gallant effort that shouldn't be discounted, was marked up and sitting on his stool by the final round and then eventually sent to the canvas. This was effective punching over pure aggression. Toney buzzed Jirov a few times before sending him to the canvas in the final round with an array of straight rights and upper-cuts.
Just because one fighter is busier than the other, it doesn't make him better. I scored the bout eight rounds to four in favor of Toney and with the point deduction and knockdown, my scorecard read 116-110.
Jirov was as game as they come, and he shouldn't be forgotten about in the wake of his first professional loss. I'd love to see him in there with WBC titlist Wayne 'Big Truck' Braithwaite.
BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL
With Anthony Bonsante's upset win over Tony Ayala, can we now officially close the door on Ayala and his comeback?
As for Bonsante, who works at K-Mart, he'd make a good opponent for a young prospect like Jermain Taylor. It sure beats having Ayala as one, which was being tossed around by Taylor's people awhile back.
TARVER TIME
It was a dominant win by Antonio Tarver over Montell Griffin, to capture the WBC and IBF belts, but I still think 'the Magic Man' could've done a better job of stepping into his punches and turning them over. But he did do a good job of maintaining distance and keeping his jab in Griffin's face all night long.
Look for Lou DiBella, who promotes Tarver, to start a campaign to fight WBO titlist Dariusz Michalczewski. But is there anyway they can get him out of Germany?
THIS AND THAT
Ishe Smith is a decent prospect, but he's got a lot of work to do. He's pretty skilled but he looked a bit stiff and rigid against Sam Garr on ShoBox... If Diego Corrales can keep fighting at 130-pounds, he's the best jr. lightweight in the world for my money -- yes, better than Acelino Frietas.... Did anyone else see Goyo Vargas on Telefutura? He may not be world class anymore but he still makes for good fights... By the way, does every NHL hockey playoff game go into overtime?... Darling Jimenez will be the semi-main on the NBC show this upcoming Saturday and Freddie Cuevas, BJ Flores and my favorite unknown prospect 'the Shak Attack', Arshak Tel-Melikstian round out the card at 'the Flamingo', according to Moretti.
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
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