By Jake Donovan

Fighter trains for a planned trip to Scotland, with a WBO title at stake. Fight is delayed – and again. Fight is eventually cancelled altogether, with fighter moving up to a new weight class.

It's been an all-too familiar scenario for undefeated soon-to-be ex-junior lightweight Joan Guzman, whose team informed BoxingScene.com Tuesday evening of their plans to vacate his current alphabet title in search of bigger and better fights at lightweight.

The plans functionally kill any hope of rescheduling a planned mandatory defense against Scottish junior lightweight Alex Arthur, who will most likely receive an upgrade from interim titlist to full-term status without so much as stepping foot in the ring.

While Guzman knows his next bout will take place at lightweight, when he elects to return to the ring is unknown. More pressing issues have surfaced, with news of his mother developing a head tumor forcing the Dominican to momentarily step away from the sport.

"Once we received about his Mom, there was no question in my mind that boxing takes a back seat," says Jose Nunez, Guzman's manager and long-time close friend. "It was frustrating by itself to extend training camp without knowing how long it would be before they rescheduled the (Arthur) fight. The last we heard was that it might be July, which would've meant another training camp when he's already close to weight now.

"But between the waiting, and now his mother, I told him to just be with her and not to worry about boxing for right now."

Some will contend that without official word on the rescheduling of the Arthur fight, Guzman could've remained champion until the sanctioning body intervened. But with the amount of work it takes for him to shrink down to 130 lb, it was decided by Nunez that a move to lightweight upon his return to the sport would be the wisest choice for all involved.

"I want to make that clear – it was my decision to have Guzman vacate the title. He was willing to split his time between extended training camp and being with his Mom, just because he so badly wanted this fight. But I didn't see how was worth it. We still don't know when the fight would've been, and before all of that, family comes first."

It's the second time in just two years that a planned trip to Scotland fell by the wayside for Guzman. A series of postponements between late 2005 and early 2006 led the Dominican to believe that a featherweight fight with then-titlist Scott Harrison would never happen. Guzman decided to abandon featherweight in favor of the 130 lb. division, which at the time still housed Manny Pacquiao, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.

Guzman would never land fights against any of the aforementioned trio, but would fight three times in 2006 before a training camp injury limited his activity to just one fight in 2007, a points win on HBO over fellow divisional high-risk, low-reward entrant Humberto Soto. Four fights in two years may not sound like much, but it's four more than Harrison's since experienced, at least in the ring, with a series of injuries and out-of-the-ring occurrences leaving the Scot inactive since November 2005.

The irony in the parallels drawn between the two scenarios is that Guzman's vacating the title would've pave the way for a much desired all-Scot showdown between Arthur and Harrison. The only issue being the biggest roadblock; Harrison's inability to have his boxing license renewed by the BBBC.

For the moment, none of the three have yet to register their first fight of 2008.

The silver lining among the cloud is that, from a boxing perspective, news of Guzman traveling five pounds north allows the lightweight division to rival that of welterweight and junior bantamweight as the deepest in the sport. Guzman's arrival follows on the heels of Manny Pacquiao moving up in weight, as well as Golden Boy Promotion's sudden desire to match up Juan Manuel Marquez against recently crowned unified lightweight titlist Nate Campbell.

Of course, when three fighters of such caliber move up, it can only mean bad news for the division that previously housed them. This, in effect, leaves junior lightweight in a sudden state of disarray, not to mention disinterest, at least until the division's next generation of fighters, such as undefeated prospects Yuriorkis Gamboa and Guzman's stable mate and countryman Argenis Mendez, are ready for prime time.

Until then, it will have to settle for, among others: Edwin Valero, Humberto Soto, Jorge Barrios, whoever the IBF 130 lb. titlist is at the moment, as the belt has become boxing's version of hot potato, and Arthur.

Not that any of it is of particular concern to Team Guzman.

"This is the third division in a row where we tried to line up big fights, and were instead given excuses for why they can't yet happen," says Nunez. "Nobody was worried about who'd Guzman next fight, nor is it anyone else's job but mine to worry about that."

"The same for these other guys and their managers. (The WBO) will either give Arthur the belt, or fight the next highest contender in a vacant title bout. All I can do is wish him and well, but what he does beyond my kind words isn't really my concern. I get paid to worry about Guzman, who has more important things than boxing to worry about right now."

Though upon his return, it'll be an all-too familiar scenario for Guzman – weight and see.

Jake Donovan is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Tennessee Boxing Advisory Board. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.