Columnist Dean Juipe: Couser starting fresh under Adams’ tutelage

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 | 10:07 a.m.

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

It's surprising what the addition of a top-of-the-line trainer can do to a fighter's outlook.

Cliff Couser, a Las Vegas heavyweight, had led something of a nomadic existence while shuffling trainers during his pro career. He never seemed to be with anyone too long.

But on Nov. 26 Couser bumped into Kenny Adams while attending a boxing card at the Regent Las Vegas and the venerable trainer made himself available to the Tyson-esque fighter.

Now three weeks into their partnership, both men are excited at what they see.

"It's like working with a 20-something man," Couser said of Adams' vitality. "He doesn't know when the bell has rung; he likes to keep working.

"He's the first real trainer I ever had, and I feel myself getting a lot of confidence just from being around him."

Couser is 20-6-2 with nine knockouts and is coming off a third-round TKO loss to the undefeated Cliff Etienne. When they fought Sept. 9 in Chester, W.Va., Couser rocked Etienne with a solid right hand in the second round and had him in trouble, but the tables turned in the third and Etienne emerged as the winner.

It remains a bit tentative, but Couser apparently has a spot on the undercard of a Jan. 6 show at Texas Station that headlines Joel Casamayor vs. Roberto Garcia. No opponent had been lined up as of Wednesday.

"I like his progress," Adams said of Couser. "He seems to like it, too. He's very willing to learn and I think he has what it takes to be successful.

"He's explosive enough; it's just a matter of settling him down and working on a few things."

Among those points of interest: balance; keeping his hands up; and turning on his heels.

"He's very technical," Couser said. "He can help me a lot with basics, let alone everything else. He's showing me things that have me saying, 'Oh, really?' There's snap on my punches that I never had before and I'm starting to understand him more and more every day."

Couser is one of four heavyweights Adams has acquired in recent months, joining Billy Wright, Josh Dempsey and Jesse Reid. Add in a couple of other clients, such as youngster Cedric Ferguson, a former amateur star from Reno, and Adams bounces daily between gyms to accommodate his stable.

"I'm looking for a lot of good things from Cliff," Adams said. "I don't know this, but I have the feeling from what I hear in the gym that everyone else who has had him sort of let him do whatever he wanted to do."

Adams is a taskmaster and Couser welcomes it.

"I'll be prepared better for fights and before too long I'll be ready to beat some of the better guys," he said, bouts with the likes of Razor Ruddock and Ray Mercer already having been discussed.

"I can't dwell on losing to Etienne," Couser said. "Things are looking up now."

He wants Acelino Freitas, who is 29-0 and holds the lightly regarded World Boxing Organization belt.

"He doesn't know it yet but we're on a collision course," said Casamayor, who is 23-0. "We're both world champions in the same weight class, fighting for the same network (Showtime).

"Once I go through Roberto Garcia and then fulfill one other title-defense obligation, I'm going to tear Freitas into little pieces."

* QUICK HITS: Ruddock, who had been expected to headline a second card at Texas Station, Jan. 7, is now off that card and America Presents is looking to find a replacement main event. ... Larry Donald apparently has turned down a fight with fellow heavyweight David Tua, as he let a Monday deadline pass. ... A team of physicians has given Wayne McCullough the OK to resume his career. He was examined at length at UCLA after a cyst near his brain had been discovered. ... Evander Holyfield vs. John Ruiz is on for March 3 at Mandalay Bay. ... Lou DiBella has signed five U.S. Olympians -- Michael Bennett, Ricardo Williams, Jermain Taylor, Clarence Vinson and Jose Navarro -- to "matchmaking" contracts. Each of the five will debut on an HBO card Jan. 27 in New York. ... Top Rank signed Christian Vejarano, an Olympic bronze medalist from Mexico, Wednesday. He's a 1 35-pounder who was the first Mexican in at least 18 years to win an Olympic medal. ... The 8-million member World Medical Association has, once again, come out and called for a ban on boxing. "It cannot fairly be described as a sport," said Dr. Delon Human, the secretary general of the Geneva, Switzerland-based organization. "It's simply a barbaric practice." The WMA initiated its anti-boxing crusade in 1983.