Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - With spotlight on Ayala Jr., Elizondo Jr. takes stage

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Saturday, December 11, 1999

With spotlight on Ayala Jr., Elizondo Jr. takes stage
Young Corpus Christian highlights undercard of today's fights
By George Vondracek
Caller-Times

Four fights into his professional boxing career, Robert Elizondo Jr. is learning how exasperating the fight game can be.
   The son of former world-ranked lightweight contender Roberto Elizondo steps into the ring for the first time since September on the undercard of tonight's Tony Ayala Jr.-Tony Menefee main event at San Antonio's Freeman Coliseum.
   His opponent is Mexico's Juan Aranday, who is the third man scheduled to face the 21-year-old Corpus Christian. The first didn't want to fight Elizondo because he is left-handed and the second wanted to fight at the junior welterweight level, a step heavier than Elizondo's lightweight class.
   It has been a maddening few weeks for Elizondo.
   "I try not to let it get to me," Elizondo said. "I'm only fighting four rounds. I can't be too picky. I'm just happy to be on the card. A year ago, I wasn't even boxing. I had trouble getting fights. My management team has done a good job getting me fights."
   Elizondo (4-0, three knockouts) has been living in San Antonio with his trainer and co-manager, Tony Ayala Sr. He has been on the cards with Ayala Jr., who is making his third ring appearance since his April release after serving a 16-year prison term for rape.
   Elizondo has been sparring with some talented boxers, including Corpus Christi's Harold Warren and middleweight prospect James Coker, at Ayala's Zarzamora Street Gym.
   However, the 36-year-old Ayala Jr. is on a deliberate pace in his bid to again become a world contender in the middleweight division. While Elizondo is happy being a part of the Ayala comeback tour, he is hoping for more action.
   "This is one of the bigger cards, being on pay-per-view," said Elizondo, who is co-managed by his father. "It's really up to Tony and my father. My father wants me to fight more often.
   "It looks like Tony (Jr.) is going to fight every three months or so. I need to get more experience, especially the next year coming up," Elizondo said. "But it's great fighting on his cards with the exposure. It's all new. The press conferences, the politics of boxing. I've learned a lot just being in the atmosphere."
   Elizondo last fought on the Ayala card at Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 24, when he registered a first-round technical knockout of Alan O'Quinn. Elizondo faces an unknown in Aranday (3-12-2). At this stage, though, Elizondo is more concerned with his development than anything the Torreon, Mexico, native has to offer.
   "I've been training about six weeks for this fight. I'm right on target," Elizondo said. "I'm expecting a tough fight. I'm sure he has some experience, but right now my main objective is to win and get some experience."
   Ayala's next step
   Ayala Jr.'s objective is to return to world-contender status. IBF junior middleweight champ Fernando Vargas, WBO junior middleweight champ Raul Marquez and world-ranked Yory Boy Campas all have made inquiries about fighting Ayala (24-0, 22 KOs).
   In the meantime, Menefee (67-7-1, 37 KOs) presents Ayala with his sternest test since his release. Ayala breezed through Manuel Esparza in his return Aug. 20 in San Antonio and Robert Koon at the Coliseum. The two fighters were hardly matches for Ayala, a point Menefee didn't hesitate to make during Thursday's media teleconference from San Antonio.
   "What the guy's fought are two kids," said Menefee, 27, who weighed in Friday at the contract limit of 162 pounds. "He's fought two young men, but I've fought much better men than he has."
   Ayala nearly bristled at that. "I have a hard time understanding categories people put fighters in," the 161 -pound Ayala said. "They allude to the fact that Esparza and Koon were bums or something. Need I remind you that (James "Buster") Douglas was considered a bum 'til he stepped up and KO'd (Mike) Tyson?"
   Two of Menefee's losses came when he was stopped by Roberto Duran in the eighth round in 1993 and when he lost a 12-round decision to Hector Camacho in a fight for the fringe IBC junior middleweight title in 1998.
   "I would rather take this fight now rather than when he gets a few fights where he's closer to where he was at 19," Menefee said.
   Ayala already is sounding like the confident fighter he was at 19, when he was on the verge of fighting Davey Moore for the WBA middleweight title, just months before his rape conviction.
   His two-year plan to return to the top remains intact, but Ayala appears itchy to accelerate the timetable.
   "Obviously I'm playing it by ear, always with an eye open for opportunities," Ayala said. "There are some world contenders there and I don't know how they're world contenders. I'm not out to disrespect anybody but it's like, 'Who's being greased out there to be a contender?' If the right deal came up and I felt it was the right thing to do, we'd do it.
   "Two years sounded good, a safe way to work myself back into contendership," Ayala said. "Recently, I was told I was ranked No. 30 in the world (by the WBC). So if I keep going, maybe I can get into the 20s. That felt good. Anything I do is a step up."



Staff writer George Vondracek can be reached at 886-3731 or by e-mail at vondracekg@caller.com

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