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Article from m-boxing.Interview with rocky juarez,Good read even if you dont like Juarez,talks about the **** some fighters have to endure after their first loss,Considering Rocky/Robert Guerrero/And this other Prospect,Steven Luevano all got their first loss recenly , i thought it was kinda relevant.(BTW They were all Upset by Guilty Boxing fighters,crazy **** 
)
"Like many others, featherweight Rocky Juarez - who takes on Reynaldo Hurtado this Friday night at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas (in a bout that can be seen this weekend on Maxboxing) - made the trek this past October to witness the highly anticipated rematch between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas.
I would see Juarez, who was just coming off his first professional loss to Humberto Soto for the vacant WBC title in August, walking through the Caesars Palace casino near the sportsbook.
As we exchanged greetings and pleasantries, I asked when and where his next fight would take place.
"I really don't know," he admitted. "Man, I didn't know that this loss would hurt me THIS bad."
Welcome to the boxing marketplace circa 2005, where one loss can knock you off the radar as if you've been ****** into the Bermuda Triangle. With his loss to Soto in Chicago this past August, a young boxer who had become a television staple - fighting on everything from Showtime and HBO to NBC and Telefutura, now finishes out the year on a 'dark' show.
"I guess from what my promoter and manager tell me, it's the fact that it's the end of the year and all the TV dates are basically full," said the 23-1 Juarez. And get this, even if he would have defeated Soto, he still wouldn't have had a date on one of the major networks.
"He definitely wouldn't have been on a show that was televised," confirmed Carl Moretti, V.P. and matchmaker of Main Events, which has worked with the native of Houston since the beginning of his professional career. "We would've hoped to have gotten him on - the fight with In Jin Chi - on the undercard of Gatti (on January 28th) but the way it turns out, he wouldn't have gotten that slot."
But Juarez wasn't content to just languish the rest of the calendar year.
"I was thinking that I lost the fight to Soto, 'Put me back into the ring with a good name fighter and I'm willing to take it,'" he said.
During the summer, Juarez thought he'd be facing Chi for the WBC crown, only to have the Korean pull out with an injury just weeks before their scheduled date. In his place stepped Soto, a bigger, taller fighter that gave Juarez a different set of problems than he was expecting to face. But beyond the physical differences, there was the mental letdown in fighting for what would then be an interim title.
"I don't want to make any complaints," stated Juarez. "I think what it was is that I tell people everyday I would wake up and I had been ranked number one for quite some time. I was waiting for my opportunity for a title shot, whoever it was - the WBC was Chi and the IBF was Juan Manuel Marquez. So I was getting prepared for the Chi fight, I was waking up, my motivation was winning a title and before I slept I was always thinking about my shot at the title. I think every fighter just wants an opportunity. They don't know the outcome but they just want to be given the opportunity.
"Two weeks before the fight they change it, and your state of mind kinda changes. You've got to always stay positive and for the fact I knew I was in shape. I was willing to fight anybody regardless. But I stepped backwards rather than stepping forward," he admitted. "So I don't know if that might have had an affect. I was going into the fight thinking, 'OK, I gotta win to fight for a championship belt' rather than thinking, 'This is what I've been training for and this is my shot' - which would have been against Chi. But I think it was just a bad night for me."
Immediately after the scorecards were read, he was yearning for a return bout with Soto.
"I told Shelly right after the fight, 'Put me back in there and try and get me a rematch'. Because I believe after the fight the only reason he beat me that night was just because it wasn't my night and he wanted it more. I don't think he's a better fighter than I was."
Watching the tape of the fight was an excruciating process for him, one that leaves him frustrated and asking himself, 'what could have been?'
"I watched the fight and I believed I was still fighting In Jin Chi," he says. "That's the style I was training for. With Chi, my style wasn't to fight him toe-to-toe; my style was to fight him, but at the same time give him some angles and give him a little bit of movement."
Versus Soto, who had a significant height and reach advantage, Juarez would oftentimes get caught pulling away straight defensively and fighting at long range, where Soto could comfortably get off his shots.
"I believe I was just better off just fighting him inside," he admits of his strategic breakdown. "I was a shorter fighter, and I needed to just work the body and combinations, basically fight the way I normally fight when I fight a taller fighter."
With the loss, there were fingers pointed in the direction of his longtime trainer Ray Ontiveros by the local media in Houston. But Juarez steadfastly refuses to scapegoat him.
"It didn't bother me," he says of the talk that he needed a new cornerman. "But it bothered my coach more than it bothered me. One thing my coach had told me before a few fights ago, 'When a fighter loses, they never blame the fighter, they always blame the coach. It's always the coach.' But I was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle and one thing I did say was, 'I never point fingers at anybody because this is a one-on-one sport and we trained our asses off this fight. I can't say I wasn't in shape and we didn't do everything we were supposed to do. But I never point fingers, I went to that fight and it's not like my coach throws punches for me in the ring.
"When I look at the tape - and I've seen it numerous times, over ten times - my coach gave me the right advice. People might not have seen the advice he gave me. I know my coach is not real vocal, he's always calm and that's the way I liked to be talked to. I've been with him since the beginning of my career and I know I was losing the fight."
Juarez makes no bones about it, Soto beat him. And you can make a case that it's the first real loss he's suffered in about seven years. His loss in the gold medal round of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, a 22-14 defeat to Bekzat Sattarkhanov of Kazakhstan, was mired in controversy.
"That's one thing I say being interviewed, I always bring that up. The last loss was in the Olympics but I didn't consider that a legitimate loss," says Juarez, who had to settle for a silver medal in representing the United States. "Before that it was in '98. A fighter knows when they lose and they take that loss and they either learn from it or they tell themselves whether they did everything they could to win or they have that regret of not doing what they're supposed to do and that's why they lost. I did everything I could, I can't say I didn't fight my heart out but I think I fought the wrong fight and I believe that's the reason I lost."
From his loss in 1998 to the Olympic finals, Juarez would go on a winning streak of over 60 bouts in between that time. But now he has to deal with his first professional loss, a litmus test for any boxer accustomed to winning on a regular basis. His manager, Shelly Finkel, says that nurturing a fighter who suffers their first defeat can be a delicate process but says: "With Rocky, it hasn't been. He's a doll, he always has been."
But what has hindered their cause in getting back on the tube is that the 126-pound class is no longer a glamour division like it was in years past.
"Everyone moved out of 126, where before you had Barrera, Marquez, Morales, Pacquiao, you had everyone," recalled Finkel. "Now, you only have Marquez. So there's not the big demand in that weight and Rocky, who lost one fight in a real good battle, has fallen back considerably because there isn't TV and there aren't many opponents."
Finkel says it wasn't difficult to convince Juarez to fight on December 9th but says, "He was a little shocked that the money had fallen so deeply."
But his motivation runs deeper than that.
"When I see Jermain Taylor's highlights against Hopkins on December 3rd and also watching Jeff Lacy, I look at them and I say to myself, 'I should be there where they are right now," he says of his Olympic teammates. In addition to Taylor and Lacy, Brian Viloria has also captured a major world title.
"Every time I lost as an amateur it made me a better fighter. That's the way I'm taking it as a professional."
WHICH TITLE?
So, in 2006, which belt does Main Events and Juarez go after?
"The Juan Manuel Marquez situation is so strange right now, who knows what's going to happen," says Moretti of the WBA title, which is currently held by Chris John. "Is he really going to Indonesia to fight for $30,000? I just find that hard to believe. So I think that has to play out and the WBC in their infinite wisdom has allowed Chi to take another title defense and Soto to take one. So God knows when they're going to fight.
"It's just a very tough outlook to pin something down."
)"Like many others, featherweight Rocky Juarez - who takes on Reynaldo Hurtado this Friday night at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas (in a bout that can be seen this weekend on Maxboxing) - made the trek this past October to witness the highly anticipated rematch between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo in Las Vegas.
I would see Juarez, who was just coming off his first professional loss to Humberto Soto for the vacant WBC title in August, walking through the Caesars Palace casino near the sportsbook.
As we exchanged greetings and pleasantries, I asked when and where his next fight would take place.
"I really don't know," he admitted. "Man, I didn't know that this loss would hurt me THIS bad."
Welcome to the boxing marketplace circa 2005, where one loss can knock you off the radar as if you've been ****** into the Bermuda Triangle. With his loss to Soto in Chicago this past August, a young boxer who had become a television staple - fighting on everything from Showtime and HBO to NBC and Telefutura, now finishes out the year on a 'dark' show.
"I guess from what my promoter and manager tell me, it's the fact that it's the end of the year and all the TV dates are basically full," said the 23-1 Juarez. And get this, even if he would have defeated Soto, he still wouldn't have had a date on one of the major networks.
"He definitely wouldn't have been on a show that was televised," confirmed Carl Moretti, V.P. and matchmaker of Main Events, which has worked with the native of Houston since the beginning of his professional career. "We would've hoped to have gotten him on - the fight with In Jin Chi - on the undercard of Gatti (on January 28th) but the way it turns out, he wouldn't have gotten that slot."
But Juarez wasn't content to just languish the rest of the calendar year.
"I was thinking that I lost the fight to Soto, 'Put me back into the ring with a good name fighter and I'm willing to take it,'" he said.
During the summer, Juarez thought he'd be facing Chi for the WBC crown, only to have the Korean pull out with an injury just weeks before their scheduled date. In his place stepped Soto, a bigger, taller fighter that gave Juarez a different set of problems than he was expecting to face. But beyond the physical differences, there was the mental letdown in fighting for what would then be an interim title.
"I don't want to make any complaints," stated Juarez. "I think what it was is that I tell people everyday I would wake up and I had been ranked number one for quite some time. I was waiting for my opportunity for a title shot, whoever it was - the WBC was Chi and the IBF was Juan Manuel Marquez. So I was getting prepared for the Chi fight, I was waking up, my motivation was winning a title and before I slept I was always thinking about my shot at the title. I think every fighter just wants an opportunity. They don't know the outcome but they just want to be given the opportunity.
"Two weeks before the fight they change it, and your state of mind kinda changes. You've got to always stay positive and for the fact I knew I was in shape. I was willing to fight anybody regardless. But I stepped backwards rather than stepping forward," he admitted. "So I don't know if that might have had an affect. I was going into the fight thinking, 'OK, I gotta win to fight for a championship belt' rather than thinking, 'This is what I've been training for and this is my shot' - which would have been against Chi. But I think it was just a bad night for me."
Immediately after the scorecards were read, he was yearning for a return bout with Soto.
"I told Shelly right after the fight, 'Put me back in there and try and get me a rematch'. Because I believe after the fight the only reason he beat me that night was just because it wasn't my night and he wanted it more. I don't think he's a better fighter than I was."
Watching the tape of the fight was an excruciating process for him, one that leaves him frustrated and asking himself, 'what could have been?'
"I watched the fight and I believed I was still fighting In Jin Chi," he says. "That's the style I was training for. With Chi, my style wasn't to fight him toe-to-toe; my style was to fight him, but at the same time give him some angles and give him a little bit of movement."
Versus Soto, who had a significant height and reach advantage, Juarez would oftentimes get caught pulling away straight defensively and fighting at long range, where Soto could comfortably get off his shots.
"I believe I was just better off just fighting him inside," he admits of his strategic breakdown. "I was a shorter fighter, and I needed to just work the body and combinations, basically fight the way I normally fight when I fight a taller fighter."
With the loss, there were fingers pointed in the direction of his longtime trainer Ray Ontiveros by the local media in Houston. But Juarez steadfastly refuses to scapegoat him.
"It didn't bother me," he says of the talk that he needed a new cornerman. "But it bothered my coach more than it bothered me. One thing my coach had told me before a few fights ago, 'When a fighter loses, they never blame the fighter, they always blame the coach. It's always the coach.' But I was interviewed by the Houston Chronicle and one thing I did say was, 'I never point fingers at anybody because this is a one-on-one sport and we trained our asses off this fight. I can't say I wasn't in shape and we didn't do everything we were supposed to do. But I never point fingers, I went to that fight and it's not like my coach throws punches for me in the ring.
"When I look at the tape - and I've seen it numerous times, over ten times - my coach gave me the right advice. People might not have seen the advice he gave me. I know my coach is not real vocal, he's always calm and that's the way I liked to be talked to. I've been with him since the beginning of my career and I know I was losing the fight."
Juarez makes no bones about it, Soto beat him. And you can make a case that it's the first real loss he's suffered in about seven years. His loss in the gold medal round of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, a 22-14 defeat to Bekzat Sattarkhanov of Kazakhstan, was mired in controversy.
"That's one thing I say being interviewed, I always bring that up. The last loss was in the Olympics but I didn't consider that a legitimate loss," says Juarez, who had to settle for a silver medal in representing the United States. "Before that it was in '98. A fighter knows when they lose and they take that loss and they either learn from it or they tell themselves whether they did everything they could to win or they have that regret of not doing what they're supposed to do and that's why they lost. I did everything I could, I can't say I didn't fight my heart out but I think I fought the wrong fight and I believe that's the reason I lost."
From his loss in 1998 to the Olympic finals, Juarez would go on a winning streak of over 60 bouts in between that time. But now he has to deal with his first professional loss, a litmus test for any boxer accustomed to winning on a regular basis. His manager, Shelly Finkel, says that nurturing a fighter who suffers their first defeat can be a delicate process but says: "With Rocky, it hasn't been. He's a doll, he always has been."
But what has hindered their cause in getting back on the tube is that the 126-pound class is no longer a glamour division like it was in years past.
"Everyone moved out of 126, where before you had Barrera, Marquez, Morales, Pacquiao, you had everyone," recalled Finkel. "Now, you only have Marquez. So there's not the big demand in that weight and Rocky, who lost one fight in a real good battle, has fallen back considerably because there isn't TV and there aren't many opponents."
Finkel says it wasn't difficult to convince Juarez to fight on December 9th but says, "He was a little shocked that the money had fallen so deeply."
But his motivation runs deeper than that.
"When I see Jermain Taylor's highlights against Hopkins on December 3rd and also watching Jeff Lacy, I look at them and I say to myself, 'I should be there where they are right now," he says of his Olympic teammates. In addition to Taylor and Lacy, Brian Viloria has also captured a major world title.
"Every time I lost as an amateur it made me a better fighter. That's the way I'm taking it as a professional."
WHICH TITLE?
So, in 2006, which belt does Main Events and Juarez go after?
"The Juan Manuel Marquez situation is so strange right now, who knows what's going to happen," says Moretti of the WBA title, which is currently held by Chris John. "Is he really going to Indonesia to fight for $30,000? I just find that hard to believe. So I think that has to play out and the WBC in their infinite wisdom has allowed Chi to take another title defense and Soto to take one. So God knows when they're going to fight.
"It's just a very tough outlook to pin something down."