Columnist Dean Juipe: Jimenez takes full-time shot at boxing

Dean Juipe

Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

If there were any catcalls directed toward Miguel Jimenez during his Aug. 17 fight with Joe Calzaghe in Cardiff, Wales, one of them may have been the trusted standby "Don't quit your day job."

But, oddly enough, in spite of losing every round that night to Calzaghe, Jimenez returned to Las Vegas and did just that: He quit his day job.

"I'm very grateful for everything the MGM did for me, but I quit and it's a gamble I feel I have to take," Jimenez said this week after working out at the Nevada Partners Gym, referring to the bellhop's position he held at the mammoth hotel-casino on the Strip. "A part-time fighter can't compete with a full-time fighter, and I've been a part-time fighter going at about 75 percent of my ability for the last few years.

"If you're working like I was, there's not much time to train and no time to rest. I realized I'd be sorry if I didn't spend the next two or three years just concentrating on boxing."

Jimenez, 32, readily admits Calzaghe got the best of him in their 12-round fight at 168 pounds.

"There's no point kidding you, I lost every round," he said. "But I only had 14 days to train for the fight and by the end of the first round I was out of gas."

Calzaghe, 34-0, won by scores of 120-107 on all three judges' cards, with Jimenez being decked a point for head butting in Round 10.

But Jimenez, 22-2 and a noted amateur sensation prior to moving to Las Vegas more than a decade ago, doesn't have much respect for Calzaghe's abilities.

"He sucks," Jimenez said. "My (3-year-old) daughter has hit me harder than he did. If I'd have had eight weeks to train, I would have broken his ribs."

Jimenez took the fight on short notice because it was a decent payday -- he took home $30,000 of his $75,000 purse -- and because a minor title was at stake.

"I knew I wasn't ready to beat him, but he's definitely no Marvin Hagler," Jimenez said of Calzaghe. "If I'd have fought Hagler as poorly prepared as I was for Calzaghe, I'd have gotten killed. But Calzaghe's not in that league.

"He's an ordinary European fighter who can't crack an egg."

Rededicated to boxing, Jimenez hopes to land another fight or two by the end of the year and reclaim his position as a worthy contender.

"I didn't really want to take the fight with Calzaghe but I realized I might drop in the ratings if I didn't," he said. "I was tired and weak, and I was not stable mentally (after being told, erroneously, in Great Britain that he had failed a CAT scan).

"Things like that won't be happening to me again. That $30,000 I made is going to allow me to stay in the gym for a while and concentrate on the two or three years I have left in the sport.

"I see it as an investment."

Also scheduled: Antonio Ramirez, 18-5-6, vs. Jose Luis Baltazar, 30-18-2, 10 rounds, lightweights; Nestor Paniagua, 6-0, vs. Marcos Badilla, 16-24-1, four rounds, bantamweights; and junior lightweight Isreal Perez (7-0), featherweight Steve Luevano (13-0) and junior welterweight Francisco Corrales (9-1) in fights against opponents yet to be determined. First bell is 5:15 p.m.

But opening the show is a fighter of some promise, Las Vegas-based Tony Avila.

"He's got good skills and he's going to be a good pro, maybe even a champion," said his trainer, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. "Right now he's in the 'developing stage' of his career, but I know this guy's going to be something someday."

Avila, 20, is a junior lightweight from Modesto, Calif., who is 2-0 with each win by knockout. He's matched in Laughlin with Charles Hawkins of Phoenix, who is 1-0.

Avila was 70-10 as an amateur and made his pro debut Sept. 6, 2001. Precisely one year later, Sept. 6, 2002, he fought for a second time and won by TKO-3 over Nelson Valles on an earlier card at the Edgewater.

The year off allowed a chronically hyperextended right elbow to heal.

"I'm real surprised," Avila said during a break in his training at Nevada Partners. "I never thought I could do what I'm doing now and have the kind of world-class trainer I always wanted.

"Being a pro is a whole different ball game and it takes time. But I know I'm in a situation where I've got a better chance (to succeed) than a lot of fighters."

Also scheduled: Ernest Johnson, 8-0, vs. Victor Mendoza, 12-12, six rounds, lightweights; Tye Fields, 25-1, vs. Marvin Hill, 7-7, six rounds, heavyweights; Marco Contreras, 1-0, vs. Juan Santiago, 3-1, four rounds, super bantamweights; and Robert Nava, 1-0, vs. Jose Cabanillas, 1-1, four rounds, lightweights. First bell is 7 p.m.