This Saturday night as part of the ‘Pinoy Power’ pay-per-view card being staged at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, WBO featherweight champion Steven Luevano takes on Bernabe Concepcion. They were originally slated to fight in early May as part of the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton undercard.
That was until a back injury forced Luevano to post-pone that assignment.
” We were running at a park called Arroyo Grande, it’s pretty much hills and we were horsing around, messing around, playing and while we were running down the hill, I wasn’t paying attention and hit like a pot-hole and my foot went into the pot-hole and since it’s uneven, I pulled my back,” recalled Luevano, who trains in Oxnard, California, at the La Colonia Gym.” I tried to catch myself, trying to get my balance from falling down, I pulled a muscle in my back.”
At first Luevano, attempted to work his way through the ailment.
“I tried to keep on training but it was too painful. It was hurting a lot. So I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go through with the pain and I didn’t want to risk fighting like that because I didn’t want it to effect me in any way,” he said.
Coming into this re-scheduled outing, he has been given a clean bill of health by his trainer.
“We started off training camp with a little bit of worries because of that, but towards the last three, four weeks of training camp he was just giving us the best he’s ever been,” said Robert Garcia.” He’s in top condition, plus sparring, he was doing 12 rounds without a problem with three different sparring partners. So he’s in tremendous shape and I think mentally he’s ready and we did exactly what he had to do. It went perfect.”
Luevano confirms this by saying, “I feel good. My backs fine. I go to Dr. Anderson every day and he gives me a treatment, make sure I got no lactic acid on my back. We’re doing good.”
And he’ll need to be healthy against the hard-charging Filipino, who comes in with a record of 29-1/16 KO’s. While it’s not the main event, it’s considered the best fight of this card.
“I know he’s a strong fighter, you can see in his body, he’s really big and since he’s strong, he has to be a strong puncher,” surmises the native of La Puente, California. “But he tries to box, but then in the later rounds he tries to bring on the pressure a little bit.”
Concepcion will most likely pressure Luevano, who is a consummate counter-puncher. Which may suit him to a tee.” I think it’s a perfect opponent for Steven to look good,” said Garcia, who says he feels he’s in for his own challenge being in the opposite corner of one Freddie Roach.
Luevano has quietly crafted a very nice career. He’s now making the fifth defense of his WBO belt and has wins Mario Santiago, Terdsak Jaendang and Billy Dib, to his credit. A victory over Concepcion could lead to some marquee match-ups down the line.
“They’ve talked about big fights, maybe Juan Manuel Lopez moving up, maybe fighting Steven. They’ve also spoken about a Yuriorkis Gamboa fight. Really with Steven what I want to do is keep doing what we’re doing: keep him fighting, keep him active and keep defending his title,” said Dunkin, who signed him out of the amateurs in 2000. “He seems to be getting better and better. He’s still only 28 years old, I still think he’s on the growth because we took our time with him. I think he’s just going to get better and better and better. I’m in no rush.”
Luevano, who’s amateur contemporaries included the likes of Rocky Juarez, Jeff Lacy, and Jermain Taylor, was a slow-cooked champion. 37 fights into his career( where he has a mark of 36-1) he still hasn’t graced the airwaves of HBO or Showtime. It wasn’t until his 33rd professional bout that he even fought for a world title, which in today’s game is a snails pace.
“Listen,” says Dunkin, who has guided a host of fighters to the promised land,” I really believe- and I don’t care how good they are- in taking your time. As you’re watching with Matvey Korobov, same thing, I sat down with Todd duBoef (president of Top Rank) and we said,’ Let’s map a strategy for Korobov,’ he had 309 amateur fights and four world championships and World Cups and Olympics, all of this stuff. But if you look at how we’re doing it, he’s 7-0 with six knockouts. We’re taking our time. Steven, if he would’ve been rushed, I really believe it wouldn’t have worked. It was allowing him time to lift the weights, to get the man-strength, to do the exercises, to become a stronger guy. We just took our time.
” He was always a terrific boxer but that helped his punching power and I really believe if you take your time with these guys it’s just better off for them in the long run.” Luevano says of his career path,” I fight whoever they put in front of me. I hired Cameron for a reason and Cameron knows what he’s doing. So I have all the faith in the world in Cameron.”
At age 28, the crafty southpaw (and aren’t so many left-handers ‘crafty’?) feels as though he has entered his physical prime.
” I feel like I can take on any featherweight, right now,” he says.
The often shy and soft-spoken Luevano, is now a proud home owner, having purchased a house for his wife and three kids in West Covina, recently.
“It’s my house, I get to do whatever I want to it. I get to fix it the way I want, paint it the way I want. I get to do pretty much anything I want to it,” he says, with pride. This also means he has to do basic household chores such as mowing his lawn. Which will be made easier after cashing his check that he missed out on in May.
“I gotta borrow a lawnmower because I don’t have one,” he admitted.” So I pick one up from my father-in-law and I use his. After this fight, I’m buying my own lawnmower so I don’t have to go back and forth borrowing a lawnmower.”
HOME CANVAS ADVANTAGE?
So is there any concern from Luevano and his camp in facing a Filipino fighter on a show dubbed ‘Pinoy Power’?
” Yeah, there was,” admitted Dunkin,” but we appreciate the opportunity, Steven’s making a really nice check for this, he makes good money. We re-signed with Top Rank because they’re paying him extremely well and it’s in Las Vegas, which is not Manila. It’s as fair as it can get. Steven loves Vegas, we all love Nevada and their officials. So we had no problems with that.
“And then when I called up Robert and Steven, Robert watched tapes of him, he said,’ Look, the guy is a tough guy. He’s a good fighter.’ Steven said he was a really tough guy but he said,’ But I’ll be alright, Cameron,’ and Robert said,’ Steven will be OK.’ I rely on those guys, they know what they’re doing and I feel he’ll be fine.”
ROACH
When asked about this match-up, noted trainer Freddie Roach admitted that the left-handed stance of Luevano was a concern.
“Southpaws are always a little more difficult,” he admitted, last Saturday afternoon at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.” Bernabe has a little bit of an advantage because of living in the Philippines and 90-percent of the Philippines is southpaw. So he’s used to boxing southpaws. The thing is, Luevano’s a good boxer and my guys a good fast puncher with knockout power. Sometimes I worry about Bernabe because he relies on that a little too much. But I expect we might be a little behind in the early rounds in this fight but we’ll get to him.”
He expects a long, tough, competitive affair.
“Without a doubt, the thing is, we’re going to make it that way and make it tough on this guy. If you let him box you and let him have his space, he’s very good at that. So we’re going to crowd him a little bit, put pressure on him and show him our power.”
FILIPINO FLURRIES
I have been told that there is a rematch clause for the October 3rd fight between Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams. That seems to be about the only concession that Top Rank got in this negotiation…..Because of lingering problems with his right tricep, promoter Russell Peltz has announced that welterweight Mike Jones will not be able to go in late September. So the farewell show at the Spectrum in Philly has been pushed back….Seen at the Wild Card on Tuesday, recently defeated lightweight Urbano Antillon. Good to see him back on the saddle so quickly….Remember tickets go on sale for Pacquiao-Cotto on August 17th. Prices range from $1,000, $750, $500, $300 and $150. Go to the MGM Grand or Ticketmaster websites….Anyone see ‘the Nine Lives of Marion Berry’ on HBO? All I can say is, Washington DC is a forgiving town. Most memorable scene of this 90-minute documentary is Rock Newman attempting( futilely, I might add) to do the ‘Cabbage Patch Dance’. What makes it’s it funnier is that he’s doing it in 2004. Seriously, I thought only white folks (who call it ‘Stirring the Soup’) did that anymore in this millennium….Have you been reading Mediatakeout.com? Seriously, is anyone on the ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ not broke?…. Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
