By Jake Donovan

One step forward, then continue to move sideways.

For years, Joan Guzman has ranked among the very best of whatever decision he chooses to call home. He boasts an undefeated record and is often regarded as one of the best pure boxers in the game.

Yet a dozen years after his pro debut, one of the very best to ever come out of the Dominican Republic remains a work in progress.

A familiar tagline surrounds his latest adventure, when he challenges Ali Funeka for a vacant alphabet belt at the Pepsi Centre in Quebec City, Canada (Saturday, HBO, 10PM ET/PT). A win provides Guzman with the instant validation that has long eluded his career.

Winning is all that he has known since turning pro in 1997, but remains better known for the occurrences that continue to hold him back.

This weekend’s fight will be just his first of 2009, to match the total number of times he’s stepped foot in the ring last year as well as the one prior.

Inactivity has for years served as the Dominican’s greatest hindrance, though for a variety of reasons. Once upon a time, managerial and promotional issues limited his forward progress, having to all but sell a piece of himself every time he sought a challenge. Fight my guy, I get paper on you, was every promoter’s mentality, for fear of risking their prized possession against the man also known as “Little Tyson.”

Both of those matters were eventually cleared up, both thanks to the insertion of longtime friend Jose Nunez as his manager since late 2004.

Cleaning up the political side of his career, however, was only half the battle. Getting the very best fighters around his weight class to step to him in the ring was another matter entirely. Failure to secure big fights led to Guzman(29-0, 17KO) leapfrogging from one weight class to another, advancing from 122 to 135 in a span of just three years, with little to show for it.

Big things were supposed to happen when he first signed with Golden Boy Promotions in 2006. They lived up to their word of maximizing his exposure – two appearances on HBO PPV undercards (including a junior lightweight title win over Jorge Barrios), as well as a HBO Boxing After Dark main event against Humberto Soto all came on their watch.

The Soto fight was his last appearance on stateside television of any kind. It was also perhaps the last time it could be argued that his career was still viewed in a positive light, thanks to a 2008 campaign that he’d sooner rather forget.

Repeated efforts to secure a date with Alex Arthur ultimately proved futile, with injuries and visa issues postponing the fight several times before Guzman decided it was no longer worth it to stick around and wait for it or any other notable super featherweight fight to materialize.

He instead set his sights on the lightweight division. Awaiting him was a three-belt champion in Nate Campbell, anxious to cash in on his career best win over Juan Diaz earlier in the year.

Their mandatory title fight was set for last September, to appear on Showtime, the very network that first introduced Guzman to the boxing world. Terms were agreed to, contracts were signed – all they had to do was make weight and the fight was on.

Fifteen months later, Guzman still struggles to come to grips with what led to the fight that never was.

“I look at my record and see I’m still undefeated, but I feel like I lost that night,” was how he summarizes his follies at the scales, which read 3 ½ more pounds than the 135 lb. weight limit he was required to make.

Gone was the chance to fight for a championship in his third weight class, along with the respectable payday and nationwide exposure that would’ve come with the fight. An offer was still on the table to go through with the fight, just in a non-title capacity, but a trip to the hospital led his team to err on the side of safety and pull out of the fight altogether.

John Q. Public had little sympathy for Guzman’s cause, as he was vilified in the press as well as message boards throughout cyberspace. It’s taken him another 11 months to get back to where he was two summers ago, in line for a shot at a lightweight title.

The events that led to his contending for a belt are boxing at its most ironic. Guzman made weight in a title eliminator last year, a 12-round win over Ameth Diaz. Campbell would go on to lose his belts on the scales earlier this year after himself coming in two pounds heavy for what ultimately became a non-title fight with Ali Funeka.

Campbell has since moved on to the 140 lb. division, while Guzman has returned to familiar territory – back at lightweight, and also exclusively with Golden Boy Promotions, whose first act of renewed loyalty in his career was securing the winning purse bid to promote tonight’s lightweight title fight.

For the first time in nearly two years, the lightweight title at stake tonight will feature not one but two fighters whom both successfully made weight. There was a considerable amount of anticipation heading into Friday’s weigh-in, with obvious concern over whether or not there would be a lightweight to speak of.

“People said I couldn’t make 135,” admits Guzman, fully aware of the whispers that surround him. “They were right – today, I made 134.”

He was 134.4 to be exact, though never a threat to miss weight, not this time around. Eleven months between fights and two years between HBO appearances have a way of putting things in perspective.

“The episode I had with Campbell made me more determined. I just want to show the public that I can overcome my past mistakes. I just want to show on Saturday night that I’m still one of the best in the world.”

Where he rates talent-wise has never been questioned. The list of better pure boxers in the sport is as small as the list of opponents anxious to step foot in the ring with him. The obvious plan is for Saturday night to not just net a title in a third weight class, but to lead the way for long awaited bigger and better opportunities.

“I want to stay at135 and become the man to beat. I don’t want to overlook Funeka, because this is a tough fight. But what I want with a win tonight is to be able to get guys like (lineal lightweight champion) Juan Manuel Marquez and (alphabet titlist) Edwin Valero.”

Or anything other than the game of hurry-up-and-wait that has forever stalled his career.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com and an award-winning member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Contact Jake at JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .