08.05.06 – By David Douse: Despite his obvious boxing brilliance Joan Guzman (photo: www.joanguzman.com) seems to be a well kept secret in the boxing world so far as marketability goes but his effort against Javier Juaregui on the De La Hoya under card should leave no one in doubt that this man is one of the most exciting and accomplished boxers plying his trade today. Against a man who has fought at the level of Javier Juaregui a total shutout would probably not have been the prediction of most, yet from the opening bell there was never a moment when Juaregui looked like getting into the fight or being effective in any way.
That is not to disparage Javier in any way, he was simply brilliantly outboxed by lightning handspeed delivering five and six punch combinations, turned on at will like a tap when ever Guzman felt like it. The man just does not know how to throw only one punch at a time and his movement is every bit as brilliant and artistic as Mayweathers anytime. It is a tribute to Juaregui’s fighting heart and own considerable talent that he was still standing there at the end of the last round. Many a fighter would have been staggered or dropped by the sheer volume of Guzman’s shots, even if those shots did not seem to have the power that they had when Guzman was fighting a weight lower down. In a fine show of pure durability Javier kept coming like the straight ahead fighter that he is, sucking up everything coming his way, never backing off, and always trying..
So why is Guzman, despite his impressive record of achievement so far, and with numerous knockouts to his credit to lend excitement to his pure boxing skills, not a better known attraction? Perhaps there is only just so much room at the top for the Mayweathers and the De La Hoyas but I am convinced that Guzman’s wonderful skills deserve to have him rated right up there in terms of pure talent. Perhaps it’s just a matter of marketing and getting the right fights.
Changing jabs to hooks and back to jabs again all in mid flight is simply not something many fighters are capable of. Guzman’s display of this kind of mastery of his craft was on show for the entire duration of the fight including one wonderful series of half a dozen left jabs and hooks in one of the middle rounds [I forget which one as there were so many purple passages, but I think Juaragui probably remembers] which had me spellbound with it’s pure artistry. Twice I saw Guzman do something totally unexpected to me by virtually squatting to his heels to get under Juaragui’s punches, which is something I have never before seen from any fighter.
There will always be those who will find a way to detract from even what appears to be a perfect performance and so I suppose there will be those who feel that Guzman really should have been able to stop Javier if he could hit him so easily and so often. Obviously the question must be asked, but it just isn’t possible to knock everyone out, even when you are well in charge. If Guzman seems to no longer be the early night artist he was against lesser opposition I have no doubt that he still has plenty of power when really needed and Juaregui’s bemused and rueful expression after the final bell said it all.
Guzman is still obviously ‘’growing into’’ the higher weight and Juaragui’s own class and toughness must not be discounted. I did feel that Guzman recognized this for himself and for the most part did not really set down on his punches as much as he could have. When he tried to bring it to a close and saw he couldn’t he instead wisely chose to save himself a little in a relatively new weight class for him. It was interesting to see that Juaregui’s own well credentialed punching power did not disturb Guzman when he was able to connect, which must surely give Guzman the confidence to feel that the higher weight class should not trouble him in this regard.
The likes of Pacquiao and Barrera are obviously fights Guzman would love to get in front of him and personally I can hardly wait to see if he can deal with these guys too.