Columnist Dean Juipe: LV’s Norwood loses fight, alienates trainer

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2000 | 10:23 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.

A week ago Freddie Norwood was the World Boxing Association featherweight champion, albeit a cantankerous one.

Speaking to the Sun prior to leaving for his fight in New Orleans with Derrick Gainer, the Las Vegas resident said he was unhappy with the respect he receives and completely dissatisfied with the money he had been getting paid.

But, in retrospect, it could be said "those were the days." That's because Norwood lost his title to Gainer by 11th-round TKO and alienated even more people in the sport than he already had, including the man who's closest to him.

"I'm very disgusted, very angry, very pissed," said his trainer, Kenny Adams. "I'm fed up to here with his attitude. He doesn't take care of business and he's not learning his lessons and he teed people off down there.

"The troubles he has, he's brought on himself."

Norwood actually lost his WBA belt on the scales two days before the Saturday fight that was part of the Roy Jones Jr. vs. Eric Harding undercard. At the initial weigh-in, he came in at 127 1/2 pounds despite a 126-pound limit. Given a few hours to lose the excess, he actually weighed more the second time -- 127 3/4 -- and he was stripped of the title on the spot.

It was the second time in his career that Norwood had been stripped for not making weight, but this time he compounded the error by losing the fight. Had he defeated Gainer, the title would have been left vacant.

"He made no attempt to make the weight the second time," Adams said. "He just said, 'Coach, I'm done' and walked away.

"I kept getting on him about making weight in camp, so he's got no excuses other than to say maybe he should be fighting at 130."

Given the circumstances, Norwood may have a difficult time getting a fight at any weight.

"Nobody wants him," Adams remarked. "Now he has nowhere to go. He's lost money and it screws me, too."

While the Norwood camp is hopeful the WBA will call for a rematch with Gainer because of the bizarre nature of the end of their fight, Adams is realistic.

"They might give him a rematch but I think if they were going to, they would have said something like that right after the fight," he said. "They probably won't. The WBA might not like him; they might say he hasn't been a very good champion."

The loss was Norwood's first as a professional in 39 fights and it came as a result of a dirty fight in which both men were guilty of repeated low blows. The ending came with the referee, the overmatched Paul Sita, sandwiched between the fighters as Gainer landed consecutive shots to Norwood's cup.

Those retaliatory blows escaped Sita's attention and he counted out Norwood at 1:56 of the 11th.

Earlier, Norwood had been down twice.

"He was losing the fight," Adams said. "There was no doubt about that.

"Because he struggled with his weight, he didn't have his strength. When you're not in shape, you can't take a good shot.

"Those punches that knocked him down never would have happened if he had his legs to keep him up."

Adams did tell Sita "You blew that one," after the fight, although his anger was really directed at Norwood.

"Oh well," he said. "Maybe now the Prince -- Naseem Hamed -- will give him a fight, figuring that he's not so tough after all. Plus he wouldn't have to pay him as much as he would have when Freddie had his belt."

Also scheduled: Mark Saurez, 17-1, vs. Luis Perez, 16-1-1, 10 rounds, junior welterweights; Sergio Perez, 20-6, vs. Ricardo Medina, 21-21-5, 10 rounds, super bantamweights; Shawn Spencer, 1-4, vs. Torrance Brown 3-8, four rounds, lightweights; Willie Stewart, 9-0, vs. Kennedy McCullough, 11-10-1, four rounds, middleweights; and two women's bouts that have yet to be solidified.

Tickets are $15 to $40 and the first bell is at 7 p.m.

"I've got good reason to be optimistic," Jimenez said this week. "I signed with Panos and he said I'll be on the Nov. 11 (Lennox Lewis vs. David Tua) card at Mandalay Bay.

"I'm also feeling very strong and I'm punching harder than ever."

While his last five fights have been as a light heavyweight, Jimenez said he could move back down to super middleweight if an attractive fight came along.

He also works as a bellman at the MGM Grand, and he and his wife, Gina, are proud parents of an 18-month-old girl, Melanie.

Former Las Vegas resident and cruiserweight fighter Johnny McClain married Muhammad Ali's boxing daughter, Laila, last week in Pasadena, Calif. McClain, 32, is also the 22-year-old Ali's manager. ... The Nevada State Athletic Commission has filed an administrative complaint against promoter Cedric Kushner, the result of his recent testimony in the federal government's failed case against Bob Lee and the International Boxing Federation. Kushner, who has until Oct. 2 to respond, will likely be granted a hearing and the scenario will follow the commission's handling of Bob Arum pertaining to the same investigation. Kushner can expect to be fined for admitting he made two illicit payments to Lee to have fighters ranked, and that he made a third payment to have a George Foreman vs. Axel Schulz rematch sanctioned.

Ross Greenburg has replaced Seth Abraham as president of HBO Sports. ... Top Rank has added an Oct. 8 card at the Plaza in which former contender Jesus Salud is in the main event against an opponent to be determined. ... Local junior lightweight Steve Forbes, coming off an Aug. 18 decision win over Moises Pedroza in Oklahoma, gets right back in the ring Sunday when he takes on David Santos with the vacant USBA title at stake. They're fighting from Detroit on FSN. ... WBO heavyweight champ Chris Byrd, who finds fights hard to come by, has agreed to defend against Wladimir Klitschko Oct. 14 in Cologne, Germany. Byrd, 31-1, defeated Klitschko's brother, Vitali, for the championship in April. ... Olympic boxing scoring has been so suspect for the past 20 years that the sport's governing body, AIBA, has offered to double any bribe offer the judges may receive while in Sydney.