Columnist Dean Juipe: Crayton has second thoughts about retirement plans

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Sept. 7, 2000 | 10:40 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.

Oops, he spoke too soon.

That seems to be the reaction from James Crayton's corner following an emotional weekend in which the Las Vegas-based lightweight said he would retire if he couldn't beat his opponent last Friday in New Mexico, Julio Alvarez.

Speaking to the TV crew that broadcasted the fight on ESPN2 from San Juan Pueblo, Crayton said he would quit if he didn't win.

And he didn't win, losing a majority decision by scores of 97-95, 97-95 and 95-95. Yet the loss didn't discourage his trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, who said Crayton has since had second thoughts on the matter and isn't going to retire.

"James spoke out of turn," Muhammad said. "After he told me what he said to the TV reporters, he said 'I probably shouldn't have said what I did.' And he shouldn't have, because that's the kind of statement you know they're going to use on television."

They did, repeating it often as they tracked Crayton's recent record. The loss to Alvarez, who is 23-6-1, dropped Crayton to 31-14-2.

Worse, Crayton has lost three straight fights and five of his last six.

"If he had been dominated, then I'd agree that he should retire," Muhammad said. "I'd be the first to tell him if I thought he was getting hurt.

"But it was a credible fight and he was competitive.

"I know James is discouraged and we talked about it, but I'm not that disappointed. He'll take another fight soon and then we can gauge where he's at better than from some fight that he took on one week's notice."

Top Rank has lightweights Alejandro Gonzalez (43-4) and Dairo Esalas (23-0) headlining a Sunday card in Reno. ... New WBA flyweight champ Eric Morel will make his first defense Oct. 7 at the MGM Grand Garden on the Paulie Ayala vs. Johnny Tapia card. No opponent yet for Morel. ... Four local heavyweights are in action this weekend, with Charles Shufford (14-1) and Jimmy Thunder (34-10) fighting each other tonight in Baltimore, Tiwon Taylor (21-6-1) on that undercard, and Cliff Couser (20-5-2) going against Cliff Etienne (17-0) Saturday in Chester, W.Va. ... Thomas Williams, who said he was paid to take a dive against Rich Melito Aug. 12 in Las Vegas, apparently has also confessed to taking a dive against Brian Nielsen in Denmark.