By Lee Collier
Undefeated two-weight world champion Joan Guzman, 29-0-1 (17 early), will be looking to wipe away the only blip of his career when he faces South African Ali Funeka, 30-2-3 (25 early), in a rematch for the vacant IBF lightweight title on March 27th after a controversial draw in the first match back in November of last year.
Guzman, who has recently taken on Lee Beard as his trainer, will shift his training focus, moving his training team to Beard’s home city of Manchester. It will not be Guzman’s first trip to British shores, though, as he won his first world title in Cardiff back in 2002 when he claimed the WBO super-bantamweight title by stopping Fabio Daniel Oliva in three rounds.
Whilst it is a new challenge for Guzman it is also good news for the city of Manchester to have a former world champion and one of the best technical boxers in the sport training here for a world title shot. Guzman is naturally excited about visiting the shores that hold such good memories.
“I will most likely be coming to England this week and am looking forward to it as it is something different. I am looking for something new and with Lee I have that, and he told me it is a good place to train in Manchester,” revealed Guzman to BoxingScene.com.
Guzman continued: “I have been to Wales before for my first title fight and Lee has told me the two places are different but that Manchester is full of nice people. Lee has suggested that we train in Manchester to get some different sparring, so I have decided to go.”
Guzman has only recently started training with Beard after the well-publicised split between the trainer and the Hattons; Joan feels that Beard is the right man to help him win a world title at a third weight.
“I feel good working with Lee and he is pushing me hard in training. Lee is ambitious and hungry for success just like me. I feel like we are working well together already,” explained Guzman. “Lee has new ideas and is a good trainer, he told me the plan for the Funeka fight and everything looks good and my training is going well.”
The first match between Guzman and Funeka was controversial with many observers feeling that South African Funeka had won yet Guzman has promised fans that they will see the real ‘Joan Guzman’ come March 27th.
“You can see in the first fight that with my nose bleeding and the cut on my right eye that things just never went right for me,” recalled Guzman. “I now I have a new plan for the next fight and I feel that I will knock him out this time, I feel more strong this time out and have worked hard in training and the outcome will be different this time.
“It will not be the same fight as in November, I will look different, everyone who knows me knows it wasn’t the real me. November 27th was a bad night for me and in March it will be a different Joan Guzman that enters the ring with Funeka.”
Another fighter who will travel over to England with Guzman and Beard is the highly touted Argenis Mendez, 15-1 (9 early). Mendez, who is managed by the same manager as Joan Guzman, Jose Nunez, was a 2004 Olympian and Guzman has seen enough of his fellow countryman to know that a world title beckons in the future.
“Argenis is an excellent fighter and he will be a world champion maybe this year or next year,” suggests Guzman. “You will see how good Argenis is when he trains with me, he is a young ambitious and talented fighter and in one or two years he will reach the top of the boxing game.”
