TUCSON – Boxing is in Rocky Juarez’s name, his family’s history and sometimes in his mom’s purse.
Emelinda Juarez often carries around her son’s silver medal from the 2000 Olympics just to remind anybody that her son fought for the United States.
The medal is nearly eight years old. But its aging reflection is as bright as ever for Juarez as he again tries to win a title and turn silver into gold Saturday against World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez at Desert Diamond Casino.
“I’ve had dreams lately of winning a world title,” Juarez said Wednesday before a public workout. “It’s a comfortable feeling. The best way to describe is that it’s a feeling I had at the Sydney Olympics. I see good things.”
There’s been plenty of good for Juarez, but never the best, not even at the Olympics. Questionable refereeing left him standing on the step just below the pedestal that many believed he had won. But he’s not bitter.
“I’m blessed,” he said.
There are blessings, perhaps, in motivation that is rooted in gold-medal match that went against Juarez and led to the suspension of an Olympic referee.
It has carried over into Juarez’s pro career, including a bout in May 2006 against Marco Antonio Barrera that initially was announced as a draw. After Juarez left the ring at Staples Center in Los Angeles, he was told, sorry, but that there was a mistake on the scorecards. After adding up the numbers a second time, Barrera was the winner by split decision. It would have been easy for Juarez to wonder whether that Olympic referee was at ringside, recalculating the cards.
But Juarez has fought on and through a frustrating loss by unanimous decision in a Las Vegas rematch to the clever Barrera. He’s confident he eventually will claim what sometimes looks like destiny.
For Juarez, the ring wasn’t far from the crib he occupied after he was born in Houston. His father, a fight fan, wanted to call him Ricardo Marciano Juarez in honor of the undefeated heavyweight. Instead, he decided on Marciano’s common first name, Rocky.
In the amateurs, Juarez remembers that nicknames were frowned upon. Repeatedly, he was told he couldn’t be Rocky. Repeatedly, he told them it was on his birth certificate. It’s no nickname.
A major title is just part of living up to it. Juarez believes he can, in part because of Barrera. Juarez is seen as the first to expose vulnerability in Barrera, who lost to Marquez in March and promised to retire after losing on Oct. 6 to Manny Pacquiao. Juarez set up the famed Barrera. Marquez and Pacquiao only finished him off.
For Juarez, however, there is even more. His grandfather, Pedro, is 96, and can’t be at the fight Saturday. But Rocky Juarez said he will be fighting for a granddad who boxed long ago in Mexico for 25 cents a round.
“I want to win that belt and give it him,” Juarez said.
