Even with a title, Toledo unchanged

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Nov. 8, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

It's a rare world champion fighter who holds a day job, yet it's a measure of how little his life has changed that Frankie Toledo continues to be employed by a construction firm that installs water lines.

Toledo, who will make the first defense of his International Boxing Federation featherweight title Nov. 16 at the Orleans, is more or less the same guy he was before upsetting then-champion Mbulelo Botile last April 6 in Las Vegas.

"It's a great feeling to be a world champion, but I haven't changed," Toledo said Wednesday by phone from his home in New Jersey. "In fact, it took me about a month and a half after the fight with Botile to realize what I'd accomplished."

While he said he has taken a three-month leave of absence to prepare for his defense at the Orleans against Manuel Medina, Toledo said "I'm still working" for the firm that employes him and that "I might take a leave once in a while, but I don't want to blow my pension."

Now 31, Toledo is 40-5-1 with 15 knockouts. One of the losses on his resume came 18 months ago when Medina beat him by unanimous decision.

"There's no question he won," Toledo said. "I wasn't ready and I had way too many distractions.

"But he's going to get his. This time it's a whole different ball game."

Toledo was overweight and undertrained prior to meeting Medina the first time, but that stands in contrast to how he's feeling today.

"I know Medina will come ready, too, but I'm in perfect condition," he said. "Everything's fine ... things couldn't be better."

Medina, 30, is 59-11 with 26 knockouts and is well known to local fans. He's a three-time former world champion -- having twice held the IBF featherweight title and once holding the World Boxing Council championship at 126 pounds -- who fought here most recently April 27, when he downed Mike Suarez in four rounds.

But he's very much prone to cuts and, to be frank, has a lot of mileage on him.

"I respect him and he's a nice guy," Toledo said, "But if he's only 30 it must be because he goes by dog years. He's been fighting for a long time."

The rematch, which will be televised by ESPN2 and promoted by Cedric Kushner, offers Toledo a chance for revenge.

"I learned he's not a big puncher," he said, when asked for any strategic advantages he may have gained from already having fought Medina. "He throws a lot of punches and he's got a few tricks, but he's been in the game a long time and every fight he seems to get cut."

Toledo will be the betting favorite (when a line is posted), which contrasts with how he went into the ring for the fight with Botile at the Texas Station.

"A lot of people and the Vegas press didn't give me a chance," Toledo said of a fight he won by unanimous decision. "They might have thought I was going to get blown out, but Botile was made for me. I never had any doubt I could beat him."

Nor did he have any doubt that he had world championship skills.

"It was just a question of putting it all together," Toledo said. "I did. Now I'm the man with the belt."