Leija looks strong in win

Dean Juipe

Monday, Jan. 8, 2001 | 10:42 a.m.

With the incentive of landing a bigger fight on the horizon, James Leija came into his Sunday bout with Freddie Ladd at Texas Station with a reason to shine.

A win would not only prolong Leija's career, it would allow him to begin thinking about a fight with Hector Camacho Jr., which is now on the drawing board for spring or early summer.

Conversely, Ladd was indifferent to an extreme. Having already lost four straight fights, what's one more?

The result: Leija pummels Ladd from start to abbreviated finish, referee Jay Nady stepping in to stop the fight 55 seconds into the third round with Ladd doing little but absorbing punches and nodding his head in admiration toward Leija.

"I just kept working the body," Leija remarked later, his career on an upswing after consecutive impressive victories in Las Vegas. Coming off a Nov. 11 win at Mandalay Bay over Ivan Robinson, the Texan, at 34 years old, has regained some of the prominence he once enjoyed when he was the World Boxing Council junior lightweight world champion.

He'll be happy to test the unbeaten Camacho, even though he's concerned about facing a wily southpaw.

"You never get used to left-handers," he said. "It's a difficult task. Being a left-hander makes you that much better a fighter."

He wouldn't predict a victory against Camacho, only that "No matter what happens, (Camacho) will learn a lot" from the experience of taking on an ex-champion.

Leija's win over Ladd, a scheduled 10-round fight at 140 pounds, topped an America Presents card that wrapped up a weekend of boxing at Texas Station. While Sunday's crowd wasn't as large or as exuberant as the one the night before, it may have been a reflection of the lack of competition in the ring.

Ladd, now 44-6 after once being 38-0, is more than partially to blame for the letdown. He did next to nothing, laying on the ropes and allowing Leija to throw one uncontested blow after another.

"He did have a strong right hand," Leija said, referring to a "grazing" hit in the first round. "I didn't want to get hit by it any more."

He didn't. Ladd was negligent offensively and stuck in a defensive mode. He went down at the end of the second round and was ready to quit then, had he not been partially saved by the bell.

He did nothing in the third round to suggest a reversal, and Nady, like the fans, had seen enough.

Leija, a minus 1100 betting favorite, took home $20,000 for accepting the fight on two-weeks' notice and improved to 42-5-2. Ladd, a plus 700 underdog, was paid $4,500 in what is apt to be his farewell TV and Las Vegas appearance.

"I was nervous, really nervous, more nervous than the Robinson fight," Leija said. "I couldn't get geared up for the fight; everything was being rushed."

As it turned out, he had little reason for those concerns.

Two other fights of note on the card had Isreal Vazquez, 29-2, winning the vacant North American Boxing Federation super bantamweight title by stopping Don Don Concepcion, 19-6-1, at 1:31 of the third round; and Freeda Foreman advancing to 4-0 by halting Yolanda Blackmer, 1-3, at 1:03 of the first round.

The latter "fight" was no fight at all, as Foreman looked awful with her flailing punches and Blackmer went down and quit despite barely getting hit. Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner was among the many who were disturbed at the pitiful sight.

"It wasn't fair to the public or the venue and it was embarrassing to the commission," he said. "Blackmer's trainer told me she could fight, but she couldn't fight at all. I told them after the fight that she would never fight here again and I told him he wasn't coming back either."

Foreman was paid $15,000 and probably can be seen today laughing her way to the bank.