Columnist Dean Juipe: Jones confident heading into L.A. bout

Dean Juipe

Thursday, July 12, 2001 | 9:49 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.

From Roy Jones' perspective, confidence has never been in short supply.

The light heavyweight champion, who will defend his titles July 28 against Julio Gonzalez at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, is self-assured to an extreme. As he displayed during a conference call Wednesday, Jones all but feels he's unbeatable.

"I'm the best at what I do," he said in a comment echoed by his promoter for this fight, Bob Arum, who called Jones "the greatest fighter in the world" even though that remark is apt to draw a disapproving response from another of his clients, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"I've got skill," Jones said, when asked why he's 44-1 with 36 knockouts and on a 10-fight winning streak since a disqualification loss to Montell Griffin in 1997.

But Jones, for all his ability, is not a particularly popular fighter with the general public. His fights frequently lapse into a commonness that has failed to make him a truly viable star.

"I have an awesome talent and I'm trying to be the best I can be," he said. "But I don't get caught up in the hoopla of seeing who's the toughest guy. I was trained to out-maneuver and methodically beat my opponents; Roy Jones hits you and you don't hit him back.

"I'm not Sugar Shane Mosley."

But Arum said Jones vs. Gonzalez, who is 27-0 with 17 KOs, is doing well at the gate and that 11,000 tickets have already been sold. He expects a crowd of around 17,000 for a fight that will also be available on pay-per-view.

As for Jones eventually meeting Dariusz Michaelczewski, the German who is 44-0 and generally perceived as the No. 1 challenger, Jones said he'll do it only on his terms.

"We're pretty much willing to give them what they want (but) I'm not going to Germany," Jones said. "To be 'The Man' you have to beat 'The Man' and I'm not going to waste my time chasing a guy who says he wants to fight but then never agrees to do it."

"Damn it, I'm going to speak on the record about this," Goossen said Wednesday. "Part of me feels bad for my brother Joe, who has been with Lance for the last five years (as his trainer), but I'm really disgusted about the entire thing.

"I'm so discouraged I've actually had to rethink how badly I want to be in this business. I've had to stop and reassess everything we do and I've given a tremendous amount of thought to getting out of boxing."

Whitaker, 23-1 and primed for a big-money fight, perhaps with Wladimir Klitschko this fall, has been groomed by America Presents and its only recourse could be through the court system.

"I'm tired of having to rely on legal means to settle these disputes," Goossen said. "It would be different if I could see what I had done wrong, but I can't figure it out. We did everything for Lance that we possibly could and we've made him a lot of money, and we have a lot (of money) out.

"Now he does this. And the fact that 99 percent of fighters who leave a longtime promoter and sign with someone else come to regret it will not be satisfaction to me."

"Like most athletes, David needs a carrot on the end of a stick," Goossen said. "He just hasn't been getting up for these (recent) fights and it goes back to an old saying about playing with bums making you look like a bum.

"Right now, David's more susceptible to losing to a bum than he is to De La Hoya."

Reid is coming off three straight unimpressive fights against nondescript competition, including a narrow decision win over Maurice Brantley last Sunday at the Texas Station. He's 17-1 but hasn't knocked anyone out in more than three years, and fought Brantley at 168 pounds despite having once been a world champion at 154.

He would have to get back to 154 to meet De La Hoya.

"He can definitely do it," Goossen said. "It'll take nutritionists, chefs and weight coaches, but he can make it."

The fight would seem to be doable and it has a built-in storyline.

"David and Oscar are the last two U.S. Olympic gold medalists," Goossen said. "They're also two guys that didn't beat Felix Trinidad, so it would be a statement fight for both of them.

"And if De La Hoya vs. (Javier) Castillejo can do 400,000 pay-per-view buys, De La Hoya vs. Reid can double that."

"Art Pellulo went to court here in Nevada and is Freitas' exclusive promoter again," Goossen said. "The fight hasn't happened yet because of a tug of war behind the scenes, but it's going to be made now.

"Freitas is going to get remarried in July and then go into training."

Also headed into training is America Presents heavyweight David Tua, who has signed to meet Chris Byrd Aug. 18 on Showtime. Goossen said he's "looking for a Nevada site."

And Goossen said a rematch between junior welterweights Hector Camacho Jr. and James Leija has been proposed in light of the controversial ending to their bout last Saturday in New York.

"The only way to make it right is to do it again, and because Leija came to New York for the first fight, Camacho and I will go to San Antonio for the next one," Goossen said.

The rematch is the result of Camacho winning the New York fight by technical decision after being cut in the fifth round. Goossen emphatically denies he was privy to the judges' cards and that he told Camacho to quit in order to win the decision.