Columnist Dean Juipe: Casamayor confident timing is right for a win

Dean Juipe

Thursday, July 1, 2004 | 9:15 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.

The question is how much gas does Joel Casamayor have left in the tank.

The answer is apt to surface Saturday when the former junior lightweight world champion faces a ready-made challenger, Daniel Seda, in a 10-round fight to be televised by the Showtime cable network.

Seda has a come-forward style that plays right into Casamayor's strengths. Yet he's also catching Casamayor at what could be a telltale time, just four months after the former Olympic gold medalist from Cuba was beaten by Diego Corrales.

Casamayor seems unconcerned.

"Seda is scared of me," he said during a conference call. "I'm going to try and knock him out in the first five rounds."

Seda, 26, is 20-0-1 with 16 knockouts and owns wins against Oscar Leon and Nana Konadu. But he has fought only twice since a two-round technical draw against Derrick Gainer in 2002, and the overall quality of the opposition he has faced is not impressive.

"Casamayor has the advantage in experience," Seda admitted. "This is a whole new opportunity for me. It's a boost for my career and the doors are open again.

"Beating Casamayor would be like winning a world title. I want to show the public I can handle the best."

A member of Puerto Rico's 1996 Olympic team, Seda will be fighting for only the third time at 130 pounds, having moved up a division since the draw with Gainer at 126. He defeated the unknown Anthony Martinez in his most recent fight.

He doesn't look at Casamayor as a "shot" fighter, saying "I don't feel Joel is slipping at all."

Casamayor doesn't feel he is, either.

"I am treating this like any other fight," he said, as if its significance is in the eye of the beholder.

A 32-year-old southpaw who is 30-2 with 19 KOs, Casamayor has never lacked for confidence and still believes he rules the roost at 130.

"They are both scared of me," he said, when asked about the men who handed him his losses, Acelino Freitas and Corrales. "So is (current champion) Erik Morales."

Just how scared those men may be is open to question, although how Casamayor looks this weekend may shed some light on their views.

"I am the most foolish person I know," he said. "I have been foolish not to fight (in 17 months). I have not done a thing that has benefited me ... but I certainly deserve a second chance to sweep the past away."

Tyson, who turned 38 Wednesday and said "now the birthdays get ugly," is 50-4 with 44 knockouts.

Williams, 30, is 31-3 with 26 KOs and has been training at Gleason's Gym in New York City.

"Be ready to fight, Mike," he said to Tyson. "This is a new experience for me (and) it has pumped me up. I'm fighting the greatest heavyweight in the world.

"This is the time to raise my game."

Tyson had no desire to be combative.

"I'm not here today to be a tough guy," he said. "I'll be a tough guy July 30."

He said training in Phoenix, as he has been doing, has reignited his desire.

"It's just great to be in the ring," he said. "I just realized I missed this tremendously. I really enjoy the sound of the crowds, the sounds of the gloves hitting the head and my opponent hitting the mat."

Those are sounds that have been unfamiliar to him in recent months.

"I went into a shell," he said of his layoff. "Sometimes I have too much. There are too many distractions -- I wish I could juggle them more successfully.

"This is an intense magnifying glass that I'm under."

Termite Watkins, a former pro fighter with a 58-5 record who now coaches the Iraqi Olympic boxing team, spent a couple of days in Las Vegas this week. ... English heavyweight Herbie Hide is training at Richard Steele's gym, hoping to land a big fight. ... A Sept. 4 card at Mandalay Bay has been announced and it will offer co-main events, with undisputed welterweight champion Cory Spinks (32-2) taking on former lightweight world champion Miguel Angel Gonzalez (50-3-1) in one bout, and heavyweight Lamon Brewster (29-2) meeting Kali Meehan (29-1) in the other. Both Spinks and Brewster figure to be solid favorites, as Gonzalez is 12 years removed from winning his first world title and Meehan's most recent opponent was the nondescript Damon Reed.