Columnist Dean Juipe: Ayala promises a war when he meets Tapia

Dean Juipe

Thursday, June 3, 1999 | 11:22 a.m.

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His page 1 column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 259-0484 or juipe@lasvegassun.com

When Paulie Ayala hears the opening bell June 26, he knows he has to spring into action.

He has to skip the feeling-out process that so many other fighters rely on, and get right into it with WBA bantamweight champ Johnny Tapia. They're headlining a Top Rank card at Mandalay Bay that will be available on pay-per-view.

"I have to dictate the fight," Ayala said Wednesday during a conference call from his home and training site in Fort Worth, Texas. "If I don't, he'll take control -- that's what he does. He starts fast and gets his rhythm going and he keeps it that way."

Ayala, 29, has had plenty of opportunity to study Tapia, admitting that he has a video library of the champion's previous fights.

"I've enjoyed watching him since the early 1990s," Ayala said. "He's an exciting fighter who always stays busy. He can slug and he knows how to box also. He's smart in the ring.

"I've been watching tapes not every day, but maybe every other day."

Ayala is 27-1 but with only 12 knockouts. His lone loss came in an earlier title try, against then-WBC champ Joichiro Tatsuyoshi last year in Japan. He has fought four times in Las Vegas, all in 1997 as Top Rank built him into the WBC's mandatory contender.

Now he's back as the WBA's No. 2 contender and facing a fighter with a 46-0-2 record and a halfway decent punch.

"I'm predicting an upset for sure," Ayala said. "I want to be the champion."

* QUICK HITS: Last Friday in Montreal, former Las Vegan Dale Brown successfully defended his NABF cruiserweight title for the fourth time by taking a decision victory over John Abdul-Aziz. Brown, 19-0-1, was the busier of the fighters yet landed only 15 percent of his shots. ... David Sample will step up to 140 pounds to face rising star Zab Judah, July 9 in Maine. Sample, of Las Vegas, is 26-5-1, while Judah is 20-0 and ranked No. 1 by the IBF. ... The Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad promotional itinerary is set and it kicks off June 14 in New York City. Traveling separately to the same sites, the tour will also stop in Chicago, San Juan, Houston, Mexico City and Los Angeles before culminating in Las Vegas June 20. They'll fight Sept. 18 at Mandalay Bay. ... Las Vegas heavyweight Cliff Couser is featured in the new (June 14) issue of ESPN the Magazine. The article was prompted by Couser's similarities to Mike Tyson.

Heavyweights Frans Botha and Shannon Briggs have signed to fight Aug. 17 in Atlantic City, with super bantamweights Marco Antonio and Angel Vazquez in the undercard feature. Botha, 39-2, is coming off a January loss to Tyson, while Briggs, 31-2, is still bouncing back from a defeat at the hands of Lennox Lewis. "I beat myself in that Tyson fight," Botha said Wednesday at a New York press conference. "This time, I won't lose my concentration and I won't get too cocky and arrogant." Briggs said "Botha is a guy I can really showcase my skills against. I can really shine and make him look bad." ... HBO has the light heavyweight unification fight between Roy Jones and Reggie Johnson from Biloxi, Miss., on Saturday. Jones, 39-1, is a 15-to-1 favorite to win according to local oddsmaker Herb Lambeck. Johnson is 39-5-1. Local cruiserweight Arthur Williams defends his IBF championship against Vassily Jirov on the same card.