Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Columnist Dean Juipe: Sides disagree whether Tapia has weight woes

Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

The defining moment in the Paulie Ayala vs. Johnny Tapia rematch that's scheduled for Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden may come as early as Friday's 4 p.m. weigh-in.

As Ayala said in a story in Wednesday's Sun, he's not sure Tapia can make the fight's 124-pound weight limit. With Tapia looking big and admitting he opened camp at 153 pounds, reaching 124 figures to be a challenge.

Tapia, of course, says not to worry about it.

"I feel great," he said. "I haven't had to starve. I'm ready and I'm stronger and faster. I'm a lot better than I was (at 118) and I should have been fighting at this weight a long time ago."

Nonetheless, he has yet to stand on the scales in public.

Assuming all goes well, Tapia hopes to avenge a decision loss he had a difficult time accepting 15 months ago.

"I still think I won that fight," he said. "It hasn't haunted me but Ayala has been on my mind more than anything else. He gave me my first loss and I won't be happy until I beat him."

Tapia is 48-1-2 with 25 knockouts in a disjointed pro career that dates from 1988. Ayala is 30-1 with 12 KOs and has made steady improvement since turning pro in 1992.

Ayala's WBA bantamweight title will not be at stake in this over-the-weight clash.

"I know Johnny wants to win this fight as bad as I do," Ayala said. "But the difference is, he's doing it for revenge while I'm doing it because I love the excitement of boxing."

Tapia is a minus 175 betting favorite in the MGM sports book, with Ayala a plus 155. All 8,000 seats in the casino's scaled-down Grand Garden Arena are expected to be filled for the Showtime-televised bout.

Tapia has changed trainers since losing to Ayala and is now employing Jesse Reid rather than Freddie Roach.

"I split with Roach because it was time to learn new things," Tapia said, although Ayala doesn't expect to see much in the way of change.

"He was with Reid before, for the (Danny) Romero fight," Ayala said, "and I remember Reid telling him to just go out there and have fun. But this isn't going to be fun.

"I think after I apply the amount of pressure I applied in our first fight, there isn't going to be anything Johnny can do but fight. He might be thinking of moving or running more this time, but I think he'll get frustrated and have to fight."

Macho guy that Tapia is, he accepts that challenge.

"I'll be there until the finish," he said, "unless they carry me out on a stretcher, which I don't think is going to happen.

"I'm going to keep my head and my temper together and fight according to the game plan. I know once you get hit your strategy can fly out the door, but I'm more disciplined than ever."

The first test of that remark figures to be Friday at 4.

While the scheduled 10-round main event between heavyweights Ed Mahone and David Bostice will be held under "normal" circumstances, the bulk of the remaining card will fall under Cedric Kushner Promotions' new "Thunderbox" concept that is designed to appeal to a younger crowd. Based on a tape of the debut card last month in New York City, "Thunderbox" puts a premium on noise and histrionics.

Fighters participating in the "Thunderbox" bouts will not only be asked to try to win, but to offer predictions and attempt to gain "style points" from the crowd. The lineup for this portion of the Hard Rock show includes these six-round, all-heavyweight matches: Attila Levin, 14-1, vs. Marsellus Brown, 23-11-1; Russell Chasteen, 12-2, vs. Curt Paige, 10-3; Adam Flores, 9-3, vs. Ron Guerrero, 10-3-1; and David Washington, 12-4, vs. David Vedder, 18-18-3.

In the main event, Mahone is looking to dispose of Bostice and reclaim a position among the world's top heavyweights.

"I've never made a statement like this before," Mahone said Wednesday, which happened to be his 28th birthday, "but I'm looking to knock him out and do it quickly. I'd be a fool not to expect to knock him out and I want to do it in one or two rounds and make a statement."

Mahone is 22-1-2 with 22 knockouts but is still troubled by a loss 12 months ago in Germany to Vitaly Klitschko.

"I shouldn't have gone through with that fight because I was having trouble with my trainer and I'd had back spasms for three weeks," he said of a fight he lost by third-round knockout. "But it was $200,000 and I thought I had to do it."

Now he's back in the $10,000 purse range and trying to find his way to square one.

"I'm only doing what seems to be required of me to get back where I was," he said of taking on Bostice, who is 23-2-1 with 13 knockouts and lost earlier this year to the other Klitschko, Wladimir. "I'm going through the motions."

He doesn't expect Bostice to stand in his way or interrupt his comeback plans.

"He's a stationary fighter," Mahone said. "It's like his feet are stuck in mud.

"I want to say I could run circles around him, but there's no need to do that."

Gonzalez, 27, is 43-4 with 31 knockouts and currently fighting at 135 pounds after having his greatest fame as a featherweight. He's in with late sub Omar Bernal, 23, who is 18-0-2 with 14 KOs.

Should Gonzalez win, look for him to be matched with Mayweather later this year or early next year.

Gonzalez has won six consecutive fights, including one over Steve Forbes, since losing to Luisito Espinosa four years ago. He did not fight in either 1997 or '98.

His opponent, Bernal, will be fighting for the first time outside of his native Mexico and is something of an unknown talent.

Five other bouts are scheduled yet Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler was struggling to find opponents for the likes of promising lightweight Julio Diaz (17-0) and local lightweight Daniel Felix (3-0), among others.

"I do not want to know Tyson," he did say. "We are not like each other at all."

As for the likelihood of a knockout, which is the primary reason the fight carries a $50 pay-per-view fee, Golota was noncommittal.

"I don't know about a knockout," he said. "You can never be sure."

Golota's reserved style and halting English required his handlers to step in and compensate.

"If people don't tune in, they're going to miss the fight of the year," said his promoter, Gary Shaw. "I want to guarantee everyone that you are going to see a new Golota. He's training for a rough fight and he expects Tyson to come at him."

Golota's trainer, Al Certo, also chimed in, saying, "Golota's a bright kid. He knows the fight game. Tyson tries to be the boss in the ring but it's not going to happen this time."

The Steve Forbes vs. John Brown fight for the IBF title vacated by Corrales is pencilled in for Dec. 3 at a site yet to be determined. ... IBF flyweight champ Irene Pacheco of Colombia will headline Main Events' Nov. 10 card at Mandalay Bay, as he'll face South Africa's Masibulele Makepula. Pacheco is 24-0, Makepula 18-0. ... Court dates: Incarcerated heavyweight Ike Ibeabuchi has a Monday hearing in Las Vegas district court to assess his competency, while Corrales is due in court in Sacramento to answer spousal abuses charges Oct. 12. Ibeabuchi is being held at a mental hospital in Sparks and has been refusing to take prescribed medication; the hearing before judge Joe Bonaventure may resolve the issue of whether Ibeabuchi should be forced to take the medication. After the competency question is settled, a hearing date for Ibeabuchi pertaining to his July, 1999, arrest for sexual assault in a Las Vegas hotel room will be set.

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