Columnist Dean Juipe: Amateur star ready to attack the pro ranks

Dean Juipe

Thursday, March 8, 2001 | 10:09 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.

With only one professional fight under his belt, Cedric Ferguson isn't exactly a household name.

Yet those who follow the sport in Nevada may recognize his name, if not his face, as a result of his earlier exploits. Until turning pro this year, he was the state's best-known and most-lauded amateur.

"I'm here for the boxing," Ferguson said of moving to Las Vegas from Reno, where he spent his childhood. "I have a lot of skills but I needed better training, and I couldn't get that training in Reno."

While he has fought since 1989, Ferguson is still only 22 years old.

He's 1-0, having won a fight by majority decision at the Orleans, and he will be back at that site for a March 16 card that will feature Frans Botha (41-3-1) vs. Joey Guy (27-5) in its heavyweight main event.

Ferguson, a lightweight, is being trained by Kenny Adams at the Ringside Gym.

"Most of what I've learned about boxing I got from watching TV," Ferguson said. "But I didn't watch just anybody; I studied Roy Jones."

Modeling his style after the light heavyweight champion's, Ferguson tore through his amateur opponents in Nevada and occasionally made some inroads at the national level. Yet, at least in retrospect, he feels he was unprepared for the type of competition he ran into when venturing out of state.

"I wasn't pushed," he said of his Golden Gloves and USA Boxing accomplishments within Nevada. "I was the guy the other guys had to worry about and I cleaned up in the state.

"But then I'd go to regionals and I'd be the one who was worried. Plus my conditioning wasn't always that good and I'd get tired and get beat."

The pattern disturbed him yet was an offshoot of the limited training he was getting in Reno.

"Until my dad started training me in 1998, I really wasn't learning all that much about boxing," he said. "I just got by on my speed and natural ability."

But against the nation's best, such as the night he fought future U.S. Olympian Ricardo Williams, Ferguson came up short.

"I did good (against Williams) but I could have done better," he said, and he virtually repeated the same line moments later when discussing his narrow victory in his pro debut. Of course, it didn't help that he didn't know he was fighting a southpaw until he entered the ring.

"It was exciting (to fight as a professional for the first time) but I didn't perform like I wanted to," he said. "I know I've got to do better."

An opponent for his next fight has not yet been determined.

In Caesars sports book, Maskaev is a minus 170 and Whitaker a plus 130.

First bell is 4:15 p.m.

"I still look at the (championship) belt and make sure it isn't a dream," Ruiz said, the title in his grasp at the age of 29 and after a 10-year struggle to reach the top.

"I feel like I beat Holyfield twice," Ruiz said, referring not only to last week's fight at Mandalay Bay but one earlier at Paris Las Vegas that went Holyfield's way by a narrow margin.

As for the prospect of fighting Holyfield a third time, Ruiz was up for it although he didn't understand why his 38-year-old rival is extending his career.

"If (promoter) Don King thinks it's a good idea, we'll go ahead with it," he said. "For some reason Holyfield wants to come out and fight. I don't see why. He should basically ride into the sunset and retire."

And regarding the notion of fighting in China, as King has proposed, Ruiz said "King keeps mentioning China but we're not sure."

Ruiz's manager, Norman Stone, interjected that King was counting on Holyfield headlining in China, saying "I think the whole China thing hinged on Holyfield going. But the only way he can go now is as a challenger."

One certainty is that the proposed date for a fight in China, June 30, has been scrapped because neither Ruiz nor Holyfield will be ready to fight again that soon.