By Jake Donovan
Joan Guzman plans to return to the ring in 2014, but the comeback will not take place March 7. The former two-division champion will not appear on a card planned to take place in Washington D.C., though his place on the show was in question from the moment it was announced last month.
Representatives for Guzman declined to comment beyond confirmation that he will not fight in March.
Guzman (33-1-1, 20KO) hasn't fought since a technical decision loss to Khabib Allakhverdiev in their Nov. '12 bout, his lone defeat as a professional.
The fight was supposed to serve as a launching pad for a new chapter in the Dominican's troubled career, but instead turned out to be a night to forget. Guzman was dropped early in the bout and suffered injuries that not only ended the bout but put him on the sidelines for the first half of 2013.
Plans for a comeback last summer fell apart at a familiar place - the scales - when Guzman missed weight by more than a full weight class for a scheduled 140 lb. fight with Vicente Mosquera. The incident marked at least the fifth time in his career in which he has failed to make a contracted weight limit, which - along with recovering from injuries sustained in the Allakhverdiev bout - heavily factored into having not fought at all in 2013.
While most skeptics believe he has long ago seen his best days, Guzman and his team still hold out hope for a career resurrection. The distant past features title reigns in the 122 lb. and 130 lb. divisions over the course of a 17-year career, following a successful amateur run capped by his serving on the 1996 Dominican Republic Olympic boxing team.
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