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August 1999
Each month we bring you a selection of articles from the current and past issues of BOXING MONTHLY. To buy the magazine, see our subscription or back issues pages, or use our world distribution map to find a news-stand copy. Why not use our Interactive Forum to express your own boxing comments and opinions!
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THE ACES ARE WITH ANGEL
Stevie Johnston has the look of a champion on the slide, while Angel Manfredy appears to be on track again. Could the title change hands? Preview by GRAHAM HOUSTON |
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BACK IN BUSINESS: Manfredy has recovered from traumatic loss to Mayweather
and could be bad news for Johnston
- Get Big Pic Stevie
Johnston calls himself "Little But Bad" but the stockily built
southpaw was bad in the sense of being awful when he struggled to beat
Aldo Rios on 26 June (reported on page 54 of this issue).
Johnston will clearly have to be much better, much badder (as in one
bad dude), when he defends his World Boxing Council lightweight title
against Angel Manfredy at Foxwoods casino resort, Connecticut on 14
August.
Manfredy, the multi-tattooed, shaven-skulled fighter from the
Chicago suburbs (but of Puerto Rican heritage) looked tremendous when he
easily outpointed Ivan Robinson in April. What was considered the sort
of fight that could have gone either way was instead a near-shutout for
Manfredy (in fact, one judge did give him every round).
Contrast this with Johnston’s dismal showing against Rios, and you
have a fight where Manfredy, it would seem, is the likely winner. But in
boxing things are not always that simple. In Johnston’s camp they say
that the 26-year-old from the Mile High City of Denver, Colorado, simply
had a bad night, took Rios too lightly and fought down to the level of
his competition. Against Manfredy, they promise, we will see the real
Stevie Johnston.
And Johnston at his best is one of the most accomplished fighters in
the game. Indeed, if you were to throw out the fight with Rios, Johnston
would be favoured over Manfredy.
Johnston’s trainer, his uncle, Richard Johnston, 41, said over the
phone from Denver that the fighter spent too long training at home, with
all the distractions, instead of going to Las Vegas to prepare. And even
when he got to Vegas, it appears his mind was not fully on the fight.
"He had a whole bunch of people that came in from Denver," Richard
Johnston said, "and he was probably more concerned about doing good for
them as opposed to doing good for himself. People kept calling, coming
by to see him, stuff like that - it was a distraction.
"It wasn’t the real Stevie Johnston that fought Rios. Everybody that
knows boxing knows that. He just wasn’t 100% focused."
But Johnston knows he must be 100% this time. Manfredy, 24, is a
sharp, quick-fisted boxer-fighter. He looked superb when busting up
Arturo Gatti in eight bloody rounds in January 1998 - his biggest win -
and he was sparkling when he outclassed Robinson.
Manfredy also had an impressive night when he knocked out the veteran
Jorge Paez in eight rounds, and he looked good - although having to come
off the floor - when he outpointed a capable veteran from the Dominican
Republic, Wilson Rodriguez.
But Manfredy had a difficult 12-round fight with the stumpy John
Brown, even though he won, and, of course, he was stopped in the second
round by the gifted Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December of last year. That
was Manfredy’s only loss in the past four years, and although the
referee seemed to jump in a bit quickly there is no doubt that Manfredy
had been wobbled. His chin could be a little suspect.
Johnston, though, is not planning to go in and try to bang his man
out. The strategy for Johnston, if he can carry it out, is to vary his
tactics - a bit of pressure, a bit of countering - but definitely not to
stay right in front of the challenger.
"Stevie can get in and out," Richard Johnston said. "When Ivan fought
Manfredy, he stood right in front of him, and that’s what made him
[Manfredy] look good. The same with Arturo Gatti. His [Manfredy’s]
claim to fame is if anybody stands in front of him, he can beat them."
It seems the Rios fight served as a wake-up call to Johnston. Although
Johnston won widely in the official scoring, there was real concern in
the corner that he might be blowing his title. Richard Johnston said: "I
told him: ‘You’re losing the fight. You can hear the booing. It takes
two to tango, and you ain’t tangoing,’ and he kinda got busy in the
10th, 11th and 12th rounds, but he still couldn’t trap him and punish
him like he should have. Athletes in general have bad nights but they
still manage to win, and that’s what happened with Stevie. But I’d
rather have him look bad in the Rios fight as opposed to the Manfredy
fight."
Johnston was due to train for five-and-a-half weeks in Las Vegas this
time. He knows it is a tough fight, that his career is on the line. As
Richard Johnston put it: "He knows what time it is."
And if Johnston is at his best, if the Rios fight was simply one of
those nights, then Manfredy has serious problems.
Johnston is capable of producing 12 rounds of classy, busy boxing and
has shown himself to be adept at attack or defence. He is a very
experienced fighter, claiming an amateur record of 257 wins, nine
losses, which includes American junior and senior national titles and a
Pan-American Games gold medal. He lost to Vernon Forrest - now a
professional welterweight destroyer - in the 1992 Olympic trials.
As a professional, Johnston has won 27 of 28 fights (14 opponents
halted) and is in his second reign as WBC champion. His only loss - to
Mexico’s tall Cesar Bazan - was debatable. Johnston won the rematch last
February to regain the title.
When he won the title in Paris two years ago by outpointing
Jean-Baptiste Mendy he overcame a bad cut over the right eye. He showed
his heart once again in a title defence in September 1997, when he
fought from the second round with a cut, virtually closed right eye to
win widely but not easily over the very determined Mexican Saul Duran.
Afterwards, we learned that three weeks before the fight Johnson’s eye
had been badly swollen when a car he was driving was struck in the rear
in a hit-and-run accident, and his face slammed into the steering wheel.
But he went ahead with the Duran fight even though the eye was still
tender. That is the kind of fighter Stevie Johnston is.
But he looks increasingly susceptible to cuts and swellings around the
eyes. He was cut over the left eye last November when he stopped the
Panamanian, Demetrio Ceballos, in the sixth round, the eye looked a
little puffy and was cut over the eye in his win over Cesar Bazan and
also in the Aldo Rios fight.
If he cuts and swells up against a sharpshooter like Manfredy he could
be in trouble, bearing in mind Manfredy’s accuracy against a bloodied
Gatti. But Johnston finds a way to win (apart from in the first fight
with Bazan - another case of him not performing at his best). On his way
to the title he defeated James Page and stopped Sharmba Mitchell - both
current world champs, at welterweight and super lightweight
respectively.
In fact, the champion, at his best, is probably a better all-round
fighter than Manfredy. But the wear and tear on Johnston could make a
difference.
One thing is for certain, and that is that Manfredy is not going into
the fight expecting to meet the sluggish Johnston who showed up against
Rios.
Speaking from Chicago, Manfredy’s trainer, Sam Colonna, said: "I don’t
look at that fight [with Rios] and say: ‘Stevie Johnston’s finished.’
Because he looked bad doesn’t mean he’s going to look bad against us.
Every opponent you have in front of you is a different fight. Maybe for
that fight he wasn’t up for it, maybe he wasn’t training right, maybe
the style the guy had was different - every fight’s different. We’re not
looking at it like it’s going to be an easy walk-through. I’m looking at
it as a hard fight, and we’re going to train harder than we did for the
Gatti and the Ivan Robinson fights."
Looking back at Manfredy’s loss to Mayweather, Colonna said: "When we
fought Mayweather, we went to [training] camp in Florida and that was
the first time he’d left Chicago, and he didn’t
adjust to it. He’s the type of person that has to be around his family
and environment he’s used to. When we took him out of the environment,
it seemed it backfired on us - he was always depressed. He never got
into it - as soon as he started getting into it, the fight was over. You
can’t really say Mayweather’s the better fighter. You don’t know yet,
and hopefully some day they’ll give us another shot, to prove who’s the
better person."
Some might wonder if Manfredy is boxing outside his true weight class,
seeing as he held a title at super feather and boxed Mayweather for the
130lbs [9st 4lbs] championship, but Colonna said: "Angel feels real
comfortable at 135 [pounds] - he feels stronger. He said he will go down
to 130 if the money’s right, but it’s not, so he’ll stay at 135.
"We’re going to go to the body, wear Johnston down, use speed - were
going to do what it takes to beat this man. I feel that were stronger
than him. Manfredy’s got so much power, Johnston’s going to have to use
the speed and the ring experience if he wants to do anything. We’re
going to take control from the first bell, get off first. Whatever
adjustment Angel has to make, he will do it. He
will rise, because that’s the way he is."
Manfredy had a stoppage win in June, bringing his record to 27 wins,
three losses and a draw (one no decision), with 22 opponents stopped. He
is, it would appear, the harder hitter, but Johnston is probably too
smart to go toe-to-toe - unless he can catch and hurt the challenger,
that is. And although Johnston is not considered a banger, he has hurt
opponents in his time - Sharmba Mitchell, Demetrio Ceballos, for
instance.
This looks one of those dead-even type of fights. It does seem to me,
though, that the fights have been becoming a little harder for Johnston,
while Manfredy boxed a wonderful, almost flawless bout against Ivan
Robinson. This leads me to the feeling that Manfredy will be a little
too crisp, have a shade too much hand-speed, for the defending champ,
even though Johnston is guaranteed to be much sharper than he was for
the fight with Aldo Rios. |
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