Columnist Dean Juipe: Juuko-Forbes: This means war

Dean Juipe

Thursday, April 19, 2001 | 10:13 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.

Two evenly matched Las Vegans are fighting Sunday in Indio, Calif., and for both men the stakes have never been greater.

Steve Forbes, 24, has the International Boxing Federation's junior lightweight championship and a record of 19-1 with five knockouts.

Justin Juuko, 28, is making his third bid for a world championship and is 35-4-1 with 26 KOs.

Either man could win the fight, which will be televised by Fox Sports Net.

Both are confident of victory, yet Forbes has the additional burden of having had to deal with a bad back in recent days.

"It's been tightening up on me for some reason, maybe because I've been running so much," he said from his training camp in Phoenix. "When I was younger, I had lower back pain real bad but I hadn't had that problem in a lot of years.

"Other than that, everything's great."

He saw a doctor on Monday, yet was still bothered by it Wednesday.

"We never want to use a fighter who's injured, but I'm told Stevie is trying to work through it," promoter Dan Goossen said. "He's making every effort to fight."

Apprised of Forbes' condition, Juuko had little or no visible reaction.

"I just hope he can still fight because I'm sure ready," Juuko said after a workout at the Nevada Partners Gym. "I'm feeling strong ... my focus is there ... this is going to be my fight.

"Everything is here and in place. I feel like I've waited all my life for this."

Talk within the gym and the local boxing community boils the Forbes vs. Juuko fight down to this: two very personable and likeable guys; one (Forbes) with fantastic speed; one (Juuko) with greater strength and experience; each with a legitimate shot at victory.

"Justin's a good fighter who's been in a lot of wars," Forbes said. "He's pretty basic in what he does, but he's fairly strong and he has a decent right hand.

"He'll be sort of difficult to fight and I look for it to be something of a chess match.

"I'll be faster than he is, so I'll box him for a couple of rounds and pressure him a lot. He doesn't do too good when he's constantly pressured."

Forbes' game plan/analysis makes sense. But so does Juuko's.

"Me being stronger and him being quicker makes for a sort of balance," he said. "But he's got to come within range of me once in awhile, and when I land my one or two punches it'll make a difference.

"I'm thinking I will break him down slowly and eventually catch him."

Juuko feels his championship experience, albeit in losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Diego Corrales, has served him well in preparing for this fight with Forbes.

"You know how I got the Mayweather fight," Juuko said. "I had like three days to make weight and be ready, but I thought at least I can get my name out there and -- win, lose or draw -- people will talk about me.

"Corrales was the same type thing. I thought, 'Oh man, I've got to take this fight' even though I hadn't fought in a long time. They told me 'Take it or leave it' so I took it and said I'd try my best.

"I really thought I did good against him and showed him up. If I hadn't got cut (near the left eye) and gotten so tired, I might have won.

"But that fight showed me I can fight the top guys and give them a good fight even under less than perfect conditions."

Now he believes he is fighting under perfect conditions.

"My confidence is way up and I've been training since September," he said. "I knew something good would come up when I signed with America Presents, because they told me they would get me a fight with either (WBA champ Joel) Casamayor or Forbes.

"I've proved I can fight on short notice and without seeing tapes of the other guy, and I've used the Mayweather and Corrales fights as a tuneup for this one.

"That experience is going to show. Being in a big fight is nothing new to me."

Juuko also had a fight in January and looked sharp in dispatching Antonio Ramirez in San Antonio.

He was picked for this optional defense by Forbes when ex-champ Roberto Garcia declined due to financial reasons.

"I'm not surprised Garcia didn't take it," Juuko said. "He said he didn't want to fight for Fox money, and after he pulled out I started praying they would take me.

"I wanted to jump up and say 'I'm here, I'm ready.' I wanted to get this fight before Forbes moved on to someone else or went back to fighting John Brown."

Brown, who Forbes defeated by technical decision for the IBF title, remains Forbes' mandatory and will be his next opponent if he gets past Juuko.

"It didn't matter to me when Garcia pulled out," Forbes said. "They brought up Juuko's name and that seemed fine.

"I don't really know him a whole lot, although I've seen him around the gym and stuff. But we never sparred."

Neither man is going to get rich with this fight, yet the winner is in line for bigger paydays in one of boxing's strongest divisions. Unofficially, Forbes is getting only $50,000 for this title defense and Juuko probably only half that.

Forbes says his life hasn't changed all that much since becoming a champion, although an experience with IBF and WBC middleweight champ Bernard Hopkins two weeks ago in Las Vegas encouraged him.

"I ran into Hopkins and he knew who I was," Forbes said. "I got a kick out of that, that fighters I like now know who I am.

"Some people will recognize me that maybe didn't in the past, but not that much is different."

He said he's training in Phoenix (and staying at a home owned by his grandmother) because "I wanted to get away from the distractions that would be in Las Vegas."

He's also looking far enough ahead to know his approximate schedule.

"If I have to fight Brown next, I will," he said. "Then I'd love to fight one of the top guys, maybe Jesus Chavez.

"One thing's for sure and that's that I'm not going to babysit the title. I don't just want to sit around. I want to fight the best."

Juuko has similar desires, and comes into this fight reflecting not only on what a victory would mean to him but to his countrymen in Uganda.

"I'm the biggest sportsman over there," he said, smiling brightly. "Everybody in Uganda will be watching this fight, including the president.

"If I win, it's not just a win for me but for all of Uganda. It's serious over there."

And a win, and its accompanying championship, will serve as a reward for a decision made more than 10 years ago.

"When I first came to Las Vegas, I had no idea what I was in for," he said. "I thought I'd have about 10 fights and then fight for a title.

"But everything was much harder than I thought it would be. There were a lot of times I wondered if I would ever get a break.

"But now that break is here. Everything that happened in the past happened for a reason."

Local junior welterweight David Sample was disappointed to have recently gone to New Mexico for a supposed fight with Golden Johnson, only to have the fight scrapped. "I feel better than ever," the 32-year-old Sample said, referring to having had shoulder surgery and his daily activities in the gym. "I just need to find a way to get some fights and stay busy." ... Another veteran fighter always looking for work, lightweight James Crayton, has taken a May 20 date in Indio, Calif. "The more I fight, the better I am," he said after sparring with Juuko at Nevada Partners. ... Plans for an April 21 card at Cashman Center, which emerged two months ago, have since fallen apart and the promoter has withdrawn his request for the date.

Texas Station will host an amateur boxing card April 27 between representatives of Nevada Partners and the Finchley & District Boxing Club of London. Eleven fights are scheduled for what is the fourth annual meeting of the two programs, with Nevada Partners having won the previous three team titles. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12 and seniors. ... The national Golden Gloves tournament is set for April 30 to May 5 at the City Center Pavilion in Reno. The preliminary rounds April 30 through May 3 are open to the public and free of charge. Admission (ranging from $10 to $25) is charged for the semifinal and final rounds. Call (800) 687-7733 for more information. This is the first time Reno has hosted the event, which dates from 1923.