Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow - Dominican Republic by Eric Armit Feb 7th 2008

In the latest part of his fascinating series, Eric Armit casts his eye over the Dominican Republic and chooses his stars of yesterday, today and (perhaps) tomorrow. Dominican Danger Men Yesterday Carlos “Teo” Cruz My last contribution to this series featured Salvador Sanchez, a great young boxer cut down in a car smash before he reached his prime. Dominican hero Cruz also died prematurely, in his case in a plane crash, however he was already a veteran and 32 years old. Despite this it is possible that the world had not yet seen the best of this late developer. He was born in Santiago de los Caballeros on 24th November 1937, but unlike many Dominican kids Carlos did not come from the mean streets. His father was an officer in the Dominican army and as a youngster Carlos had no interest in boxing. He did not start until he was 20 and turned pro just before his 22nd birthday with only a handful of amateur bouts behind him. He started badly and tough, losing his first bout and fighting ten rounders by his second fight. He was 7-7 in his first 14 bouts. He moved to the United States in 1962 and in 1964 was becoming a travelling journeyman fighting in Australia and Venezuela, where he was stopped in two rounds by explosive puncher Carlos Hernandez, and in Panama. The turning point for Carlos came in Shoreditch in July 1965. He was brought in as a test for Frankie Taylor, who at the time has a 26-1-1 record, losing only on a disqualification to George Bowes, and looked to be on his way to a world title fight. There was nothing to suggest the Dominican journeyman would be a big threat, but Carlos threw the script away and won a good points victory. Suddenly the touring journeyman became a world beater. Wins over Chico Vejar, Vicente Derado, Paul Armstead and Bunny Grant saw him shoot up the lightweight ratings. Even a split verdict loss to Frankie Narvaez in December 1966 was only a temporary blip as he beat Narvaez in a return and after five more wins he found himself in the ring with Carlos Ortiz for the WBA and WBC lightweight titles. Not bad for a guy who started with a 7-7 record. It got even better on that June night in 1968. Ortiz had already assured his place in the Hall of Fame and in his last four title defences had halted Flash Elorde and Sugar Ramos twice and outpointed Ismael Laguna, so he was a big favourite in the betting. The shocks started early as Ortiz found himself on the floor in the first round and kissed his title goodbye on a rather bizarre split verdict, two officials had Cruz ahead by three and seven points and the other had Ortiz up by six points. Carlos moved quickly to earn some money out of his titles and three months later took a unanimous decision over hot Californian Mando Ramos in Los Angeles. It had been a close fight so they met in a return, again in Mando's home ground, in February 1969. This time, with the bout even, a cut eye forced Carlos out in the eleventh. He kept busy with wins over decent opposition and had a couple of big fights lined up with a third bout with Ramos as his target. Tragically on February 15, 1970 Carlos, his wife and two children, were killed in a plane crash. His career record does not seem that impressive at 43-13-2 but this amazing late developer who turned his career around on a July night in Shoreditch lost only two of his last 27 bouts and one of those on cuts. Career: 57 fights, won 42, lost 13, drew 2 Today Joan Guzman I guess it is a bit like “A Boy Named Sue” if your name is Joan you are going to get into fights. Born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic on May 1, 1976 Joan Guzman graduate at the early age of eight from street fights into the gym. He had a long distinguished time as an amateur. He collected the light-flyweight title at the 1993 Central American Games and a gold medal at flyweight in the 1995 Pan American Games but lost out to the current WBO flyweight champion Omar Narvaez in the 1996 Olympics. He turned pro in September 1997 and won the Dominican featherweight title in October 1999 with an eleventh round stoppage of Francisco De Leon. He took a big step up, and settled local bragging rights, with a second round kayo of Hector Avila in Santo Domingo in August 2001. Another Dominican former amateur star, Avila had a 27-1 record going in. The fight was for the national super-bantamweight title and the NABO title which gave Joan a high rating by the WBO. He came here in August 2002 and destroyed unbeaten substitute Fabio Oliva from Argentina in three rounds in Cardiff to lift the vacant WBO super-bantamweight title. This should have been a launch pad for him into some lucrative matches, but his management seemed to want to fight everyone and waged a particularly nasty war on the WBO President Francisco Valcarcel. As a result Joan did not defend his title until February 2004 when he halted another Dominican, and a former undefeated WBO super-bantamweight champion, Agapito Sanchez in seven rounds. He then went another 14 months before decisioning Fernando Beltran in a title defence in April 2005. Joan had struggled to make the weight for this one so moved up, initially to featherweight, where he beat Thai Terdsak Jandaeng in an eliminator for the WBO title and then up again to super-featherweight. He won the WBO title in a fight against Jorge Barrios in Las Vegas in September 2006, but Barrios lost the title on the scales and even then took Joan to a skin tight split verdict. After an easy points win in a defence against Antonio Davis in December 2006, Joan sat back expecting to take his place in the super-featherweight super bouts, but it never happened and he was inactive until last November when he defended his title with an impressive points win over tough Humberto Soto. Once again he is sitting on the outside looking in whilst Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez take the spotlight and as a result he is scheduled to defend his WBO title against Alex Arthur here in April. Originally he was nicknamed “The Little Tyson”, but now carries the tag “The Sycuan Warrior” after the name of his promotional group. Having scored 17 inside the distance wins in his first 21 fights he has now had to go the distance in each of his last seven, so perhaps his explosive punching power has not followed him up in the weights. Despite this with his 28 straight wins he is one of the most popular sportsmen and a local hero in the Dominican Republic. Career: 28 fights 28 wins (17 by stoppage or kayo). Tomorrow Argenis Mendez I had trouble with this as I was tempted to go for Giovanni Lorenzo, the 27-year-old middleweight with 26 wins, or featherweight Elio Rojas with 19 wins against a split decision loss to world title challenger Gamaliel Diaz, as my Dominican pick, but in the end I decided on Mendez. He has the amateur pedigree, competing in the 2004 Olympics and winning a silver medal in the 2004 World Junior championships where he beat Gary Buckland from Wales and Cuban Eddy Flores before losing to a Russian in the final. He turned pro in December 2006 and has had ten fights, winning them all and scoring seven wins inside the distance( two of those fights being held in the Carlos “Teo” Cruz Coliseum). Still only 21 he has mainly been fighting at super-featherweight, but at 5' 10” tall he may have to move up soon. He is trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr and managed by the above mentioned Joan Guzman, so he has all of the ingredients, it just remains to be seen whether he can put it all together. Career: 10 fights, 10 wins (7 inside the distance)

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