Thursday, May 20, 1999 | 11:18 a.m.
Dean Juipe's boxing notebook appears Thursday. His sports column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 259-4084 or juipe @lasvegassun.com
James Crayton's loss may be Justin Juuko's gain.
Crayton, a lightweight from Las Vegas with a 29-9-2 record, had been preparing to fight Juuko in the May 28 main event of the next boxing card at The Orleans. It looked to be an interesting fight, as Juuko, a longtime Las Vegas resident and a native of Uganda, was moving up in weight from 130 pounds and hoping to rebound from an unexpected loss in February.
But by Wednesday afternoon, everyone's plans were disrupted when Goyo Vargas pulled out of his Saturday fight at Mandalay Bay with Floyd Mayweather. Citing an illness, Vargas didn't get on his scheduled flight out of Mexico City and, as a result, Top Rank was scrambling to find a replacement.
Juuko's name surfaced when a reporter -- this reporter, of all things -- suggested him as a possibility even though he was training for a fight at 135 pounds and would have a hard time getting down to 130 by Friday's weigh-in. Within the hour Top Rank contacted Juuko and he accepted the fight with Mayweather.
But left in the dark was promoter Tony Trudnich, who puts on the boxing cards at The Orleans. When informed that Juuko had taken the back door on him, Trudnich said he would fight it through the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
"I've got a contract with him that prevents him from taking another fight," he said. "I need him for my next show."
Suddenly, Juuko was a man in high demand despite the fact he suffered a devastating loss Feb. 20 in Fort Worth, Texas, against journeyman Antonio Hernandez. Juuko was knocked down twice in that fight and eventually suffered a TKO loss at 2:18 of the 11th round to a fighter who came into the bout with a record of only 48-20.
Juuko is 33-2-1.
How this sorts itself out today is anyone's guess but here's a possible solution:
Top Rank pays off Trudnich to compensate for any financial losses he might suffer from The Orleans card and promises to put Crayton into a fight with one of the champions promoted by Top Rank, such as WBC lightweight titlist Stevie Johnston, later in the year.
* QUICK HITS: The lineup is falling into place for the next card at the New Frontier, June 6, and local heavyweight Jorge Luis Gonzalez is in the main event. Gonzalez, 27-5 and coming off a win over Rodolfo Marin, will face fellow veteran Alex Stewart in a 10-round bout. Stewart is 43-8. The semi-main event will have middleweights Syd Vanderpool, 24-1-1, in with Mario Iribarren, 22-1-1. Local light heavyweight Derrick Harmon said he is hopeful of landing a spot on the card as well. ... No site yet, aside from an intimation that the card is headed for the East Coast, but new WBA junior middleweight champ David Reid will make his first defense July 16 against Australia's Kevin Kelly, with light heavyweight Michael Nunn topping the undercard. Reid is 12-0; Kelly -- not to be confused with local featherweight Kevin Kelley -- is 23-5-1. ... Mike Tyson is on the cover of the June issue of Esquire magazine, holding his 18-month-old son, Amir. A story on Tyson's family life appears inside.
In a moderately surprising upset, Cesar Soto took the WBC featherweight title from Luisito Espinosa last Friday in El Paso. Soto, 53-7-2, had lost to Espinosa, 44-8, in 1996, yet won this fight by 3, 2 and 1 points on the judges' cards. Despite the near unanimity of the judges, a member of the WBC Board of Governors -- Dominador Cepeda -- has called for an inquiry and an immediate rematch. It's probably no surprise that Espinosa and Cepeda are countrymen, from the Philippines. ... Showtime has confirmed that WBA super middleweight champ Frankie Liles of Las Vegas will take on Byron Mitchell on June 12, although the site remains to be determined. Liles is 32-1 and Mitchell is 19-0. Topping the undercard are heavyweights John Ruiz, 34-3, and Fernely Feliz, 16-1.
Attorney John Caluwaert said Wednesday he was still hopeful of collecting a $1.5 million judgment from the World Boxing Union, although the matter has been turned over to authorities where the WBU is based, in England. "It is out of our hands but the WBU's right to appeal has expired and we've submitted the paperwork to the authorities in England," Caluwaert said from his Elmhurst, Ill., office. The WBU has not done business in the United States since Caluwaert filed the suit in Nevada on behalf of light heavyweight Montell Griffin, who won a WBU-sanctioned fight Dec. 6, 1996, in Reno against James Toney. Griffin won by 10, 4 and 4 points on the judges' cards yet WBU president Jon Robinson said he was not happy with the scoring and immediately stripped Griffin of the title. "If the WBU ever has another fight in this country, their assets are subject to sei zure," Caluwaert said.
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