Thursday, Feb. 21, 2002 | 10:31 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
Fighters can be judged on a number of counts, but being in shape, having a good chin and owning a decent punch would seem to be the most enviable attributes in anyone's arsenal.
It's a rare boxer who deserves to be ranked among the very best in the world in more than one of those categories, but Paulie Ayala is uncommonly gifted.
He's a candidate to top anyone's list of best-conditioned fighters and he has shown a rock-like chin through a 10-year professional career. With a punch that's a little crisper than his knockout record might indicate, Ayala easily qualifies as one of the finest athletes in the game today.
He's 33-1 with 12 KOs yet even the loss on his ledger is open to debate, as he dropped a six-round technical decision to then-World Boxing Council bantamweight champion Joichiro Tatsuyoshi four years ago in Japan.
Since then, Ayala has won the World Boxing Association title at 118 pounds and strung together a series of close decision wins over the likes of Johnny Bredahl, Johnny Tapia (twice) and Bones Adams.
Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, he and Adams are matched again in a bout at 122 pounds that could easily go either way.
"The hardest thing in boxing in making it to the top and remaining on top is the training, the preparation, the discipline," Ayala said this week after working out at the Top Rank Gym. "I pretty much stay in the gym, so that might be the key to my success."
Pushing himself with four-minute rounds on the mitts with trainer Henry Mendez, Ayala looked sharp and technically sound. With a grueling fight on tap, he knows it will take his best effort to emerge with the win.
"For me, nothing comes naturally," he said, although such an assessment is a little hard to believe. "I have to re-teach my body for every fight, and it's frustrating.
"I mean, my mind knows what to do but I'm not always making natural moves. And if we're adding new elements for a specific fight, it gets to be three times harder."
Ayala and Adams are apt to all but duplicate their Aug. 4 fight at the same site, which went to the judges and was won by Ayala via split decision. Boosted by a 10-8 second round on all three cards, Ayala slipped past Adams to extend his run of narrow victories.
As post-fight photos revealed, it was Adams who came out looking much the worse after the fierce 12-round battle.
Nonetheless, it's Adams who is a minus 130 betting favorite in the Mandalay Bay sports book, with Ayala even. The "will go" 12 full rounds is a minus 250, and the "won't go" is a plus 210.
Ayala gets $650,000 for the rematch and Adams receives $600,000.
"I've started relaxing," Ayala said of his attitude with the fight approaching. "I'm getting mentally prepared for any and everything that might happen in the ring, from 'Should I take the count until I'm OK' if I'm knocked down, to anything else that might happen."
If he were to go down, it would be a new experience for Ayala. Obviously he has been hit hard by guys such as Tapia and Adams, but he routinely withstands those tests and leaves the ring looking as unscathed as a man could under the circumstances.
"I hit him with everything I had," Adams has said, complimenting his rival.
Ayala, 31, did the bulk of his training for this fight in his native Fort Worth, Texas, before arriving here Sunday.
Adams, 27, a resident of Las Vegas, is 41-4-3 with 19 KOs and had been training in Houston before returning here Tuesday.
"It should have been a no-contest, if anything," Johnson's father and trainer, Ham, said Wednesday. "But here we are again and it's a golden opportunity for us.
"We took Marquez for granted last time and didn't know he could punch like he did. We took our big shots early and then Mark stood in front of the guy, which wasn't a good idea.
"But we're going to be all right. Sometimes a loss can be a blessing in disguise and I think this fight will show that Mark is a ring general with a lot of savvy."
Johnson, 30, is 40-2 with 27 KOs and was in line for a title shot at 118 pounds prior to that October fight, which went against him due to the referee deducting two points for holding.
Marquez, 26, is 26-3 with 24 KOs and dominated the second half of the first fight with Johnson.
"I don't think he can do it again," Ham Johnson said. "He punches as hard as Mark, but speed kills. We might not get a knockout, but we're looking to put on a good show and prove we've still got it."
Also scheduled: Kelly Pavlik, 11-0, vs. Rhon Roberts, 8-4, six rounds, middleweights; Dmitriy Salita, 4-0, vs. Radamez Rodriguez, 2-1, six rounds, junior welterweights; and Liborio Romero, 6-0, vs. an opponent yet to be determined, six rounds, flyweights.
"We object on the grounds that it's demeaning to the sport," said Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Marc Ratner. "The other side may claim it's a First Amendment right, but we do allow advertising on the fighter's robe and trunks."
He added that Nevada may be the only state still prohibiting henna tattoos, which can last up to 21 days.
Also scheduled: Juan Valenzuela, 13-4, vs. James Gonzalez, 11-5, eight rounds, lightweights; Cedric Fergusen, 5-0, vs. Roderick Graeda, 2-1-1, four rounds, junior welterweights; Jonathan Nelson, 6-2, vs. Norberto Bravo, 10-5-1, six rounds, welterweights; Alex Valardez, 1-0, vs. Adriano Dos Santos, pro debut, four rounds, lightweights; Tony Cruz vs. Toshi Kuwata, each in his pro debut, four rounds, light heavyweights; and Adam Carrera, 3-0, vs. an opponent yet to be determined, four rounds, featherweights.
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