By Steve Kim (Photo © HoganPhotos.com / GBP) - There aren’t many people who believe that Juan Manuel Marquez will defeat Floyd Mayweather on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mayweather is thought to be too big, too strong, too fast and too young for the master counter-puncher who has never fought above 135-pounds. But there are two individuals who will be at the Grand Garden Arena this weekend who are fully expecting a ’ Dinamita’ victory.
Their names are Darryl Walker and Kirk Christiano. If you’ve read my past diary entries, they are better known as,’ Darryl and Kirk’, forever attached like ’Hall and Oates’, ’Ernie and Bert’ and ’RUN DMC’. Many of you have asked about them in the past. They are simply the most ardent followers of Marquez on the planet, bar none. Yeah, some of you will claim to be as big as fans as they are- stop it. The line begins with this pair, everyone else goes behind them.
Ask yourself this, how many of you had your flight booked for Indonesia when Marquez was originally scheduled to face Chris John in December of 2005?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
It’s one thing to attend a fight at the Madison Square Garden or the Mandalay Bay, but to actually have had solid plans to go to Indonesia? Alas, the fight was post-poned to March of the following year and they would not be able to make the trip. It’s one of the few Marquez fights they have missed this millennium. But the crazy thing is, to them, it wasn’t that crazy of an idea for them to have planned on going in the first place.
" Not really," said Walker," we were pretty committed to going to every single one of his fights, no matter where it was. And they had finally had the date set for December 10Th, I bought me and Kirk tickets to Jakarta on Singapore Airlines to arrive the Monday before the fight and so we were going to go. And to get from there to the island where it was, we had to figure out transportation, assuming we could do it, and it didn’t seem crazy or odd. I could afford it, I had the time- I didn’t have a kid- so it didn’t seem all that crazy to me. I was excited about going and I’m deeply disappointed that I didn’t make it for the real fight."
As the fight was re-scheduled, he didn’t really believe that Marquez would actually fight in this exotic locale for the paltry sum of around $30,000, until Marquez actually arrived in Indonesia that week. And as Walker says that as he got back from Argentina around that time," Kirk and I came within a hair of getting tickets that Monday. He was really in Indonesia."
Marquez dropped a controversial 12-round decision to the local boxer. But the result of that bout doesn’t particularly anger him.
" No, I can’t reconcile myself over the second Pacquiao fight," said Walker, the bitterness still evident in his voice. He and his best friend believe firmly that Marquez easily out-boxed ’the Pac Man’ last year." The Chris John fight, that was in a foreign country. Juan, he didn’t really look like himself that fight. I scored the fight, I watched it on the internet, I had it eight-to-four and that’s with giving every close round to John. But that wasn’t the real Juan Manuel Marquez in that fight and he won the fight. But you’re fighting in another guys hometown- it’s like fighting in Texas."
This story really begins in Oklahoma- yeah, Oklahoma- where Kirk, who hailed from Guymon and Walker from Keyes, met each other as amateur boxers back in the ’80’s, when things weren’t exactly regulated as closely as they are today.
Christiano recalls," We fought in a gym, with a town of 8,000 with holes in the wall, snow blowing through the walls and people would fight for the older gloves because some of the gloves we used to spar with were ten years old and had no padding left."
As Christiano, who boxed alongside his twin brother Don, first laid eyes on Daryl, he didn’t believe that this guy, who had to be driven 60 miles each way to the gym by his father, was actually a boxer.
It’s in settings like this that you meet characters that can only exist in this sport. Christiano recalls the head trainer at the gym being a bit like Clint Eastwood’s character in ’Million Dollar Baby’." Smoked, drank, ate candy all the time, got in bar fights all the time and everyone was scared to death of him. And ’Speed’( which is Walker’s nickname) was hitting the bag and he had his hands down too low and the coach kicks ’Speed’ in the butt and he said,’ Get your hands up. what do you have, crabs?’"
Boxers were plentiful in that region and they could fight up to three times a week. The duo often sparred together. Soon they were off to Oklahoma State University. Mainly because of the boxing club located in Stillwater run by Ralph Friend.
" I wouldn’t say he recruited us, we got recruited because he was really after Kirk’s twin brother, Don." And they boxed through the large majority of their years in school." I didn’t handle losing well," said Walker, who fought till his third year in college," and I lost a lot."
Walker graduated with his bachelors degree in electrical engineering in 1987 and got his masters two years later. Christiano got his diploma in accounting a few years after that( as he must’ve red-shirted). But through it all, they were boxing fanatics. And back then it was another would-be Mexican legend that they pledged their allegiance to.
" We started out before Julio Cesar Chavez was ever a world champion, I said,’ this guys going to be the greatest Mexican fighter of all-time.’ So for years we basically told that to everybody and we followed him when we could," said Christiano." We were in college, didn’t have money but we did go to a couple of his fights late in his career."
He turned out to be a prophet, ’JC Superstar’ was as good as advertised but it was on the night of September 18Th, 1998, after Chavez quit on his stool against Oscar De La Hoya, that they came upon a realization. As they walked out of the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Christiano said to his buddy," We aren’t doing this guy any favors. We were giving him money just to get whuppings, we need to find a new guy to follow."
At that time fighting in anonymity out in Los Angeles under the Forum Boxing banner was a young, fledgling fighter from Mexico City, who was working under the watchful eye of Nacho Beristain.
What’s interesting is that Christiano, who alerted his pal to this burgeoning boxing talent- first saw Marquez in what was a mighty struggle versus Julian Wheeler a few years before in 1995. A fight in which Marquez was basically bailed out late. That wasn’t exactly the type of performance that has people yearning to buy stock in a guy.
" Truth of the matter is he could have easily lost that fight, he was behind, but you could already see the non-Mexican style," said Christiano." At that point, he had almost no weight on his left foot, his left foot was almost half-way in the air, punching perfectly, perfect vision. Big thing about him, if you ever did catch him clean, he always immediately reacted. The one thing you never wanted to do with Juan was piss him off in the ring because he would so quickly react to it."
What these two former boxers love and appreciate about Marquez is the skill and dexterity he shows in the ring.
" I would say that what really drew me to him, Kirk said it best, he’s beautifully brutal. But it’s really that he’s a master," said Walker." You know when you watch most people fight, you can see them setting people up and you can kinda see where they’re going and how many people do you watch, where you just go back and look what the hell happened. And Juan is that guy, you don’t see it coming, you just have to look at the replays to see what the hell happened."
Walker still marvels at the four-punch explosion that sent Manuel Medina down in a heap in a small ballroom at the Mandalay Bay in 2003, when he won his first major title belt. And he’s right, that striking combination couldn’t have been thrown more stealthily or been executed any better than by Bruce Lee, himself. That fight was part of a small independent pay-per-view show produced by Top Rank. It was the second Marquez fight they had attended live. Marquez’s fight eight months before, a tenth round TKO of Hector Marquez in ten rounds at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas was their first.( " And at that fight," recalled Walker," I badgered some Asian guy, asking him if he was Steve Kim." No, it wasn’t me, by the way.)
Soon they were fixtures at all his fights. The only one Walker has missed since then was his match-up versus Rocky Juarez in November of 2007 because the birth of his daughter, which I guess is an acceptable excuse. But they have traveled to Las Vegas, Houston, Grand Rapids, Pittsburgh and Uncasville, Connecticut. But during this stretch, as Marquez played third banana to the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, Marquez really didn’t have much of a fan following even among the Mexicans. But two Caucasian guys- who soon made custom made Marquez soccer jerseys, that they wear to every one of his bouts- stuck out like two sore white thumbs to the fighter himself.
" It didn’t take him very long to figure out, because you remember how unpopular he was, it used to be that he could walk through a casino in a boxing town and nobody would recognize him," Christiano, recalls." It didn’t take him very long at all to figure out that me and ’Speed’ were big fans. We were following him around. When he weighed in for the Marcos Lincona fight, he called ’Speed over- I wasn’t even at the weigh-in- because he recognized him. As soon as he got out of the ring that night, he came straight to me and ’Speed’. So that was like the first time he ever acknowledged us. It was a big thing."
In August of 2006, after scoring a stoppage of Terdsak Jandaeng, in Stateline, Nevada, a group of fans had made their way into a theater for the post-fight press conference. Before Marquez talked about his nights work, he actually pointed out the pair and thanked them for all the years of support. Afterwords, Gary Shaw, who promoted that show, which also featured Marquez’s brother, Rafael, was so impressed that he invited them to dinner with the fighters and the promotional staff at the swanky MontBleu Casino and Resort steakhouse.
" That was pretty awesome but it was also kind of embarrassing because I don’t want to be seen as ’the Marquez guy’, a hanger-on, or the guy who expects anything. I just want to be a fan. I want to buy my tickets to the fight and go watch him fight," said Walker." You know how some people try to clutch on to a guy, they try to rid their fame kinda, so to speak? I just want to appreciate him."
But whenever Marquez sees his boys, he acknowledges them.
" It’s gratifying," admitted Walker," but it’s more gratifying to see him get his due." As he witnessed how Marquez was swarmed by the masses in the aftermath of his rematch with Pacquiao, he knew that he had reached a certain plateau. He was no longer just another guy." I appreciate that more than any shout out towards me."
Let’s make this clear, they are devoted fans, but they aren’t like the characters played by Daniel Stern and Dan Aykroyd in ’Celtic Pride’. They have lives and real responsibilities. Walker, 44, now resides in San Jose, California, is an attorney who specializes in intellectual property patents.( After earning his degree in electrical engineering at his alma mater, he graduated from Santa Clara law school in 1999.) Christiano, lives in Phoenix, Arizona and works for the local phone company.
But make no doubt about it, Marquez and boxing are an important part of their lives. Most of their discretionary income and vacation time is devoted to these pursuits. Because they plan and book their flights and hotel rooms months in advance, there have been times they have been stuck going to fight cards where Marquez’s fights have been scratched. This happened twice, when Marquez was supposed to face Derrick Gainer originally in Los Angeles on the Roy Jones-Julio Gonzalez undercard and a few years later when his bout with Jimrex Jaca was scratched, meaning that they were stuck watching Barrera bludgeon Mzonke Fana in El Paso.
Those who are in their lives know that Marquez is vital to them. Daryl’s significant other, Mirna, has no qualms." Yeah, she knows how important it is and that I’m not going to miss a fight of his." Oftentimes, she accompanies him to fights. Meaning that during these excursions, Walker not only has to pay for another flight, but two flights, as his mother is flown in from Oklahoma to babysit their daughter for that weekend.
Hey, it’s expensive being a Marquez fan. And come Friday night, they will be somewhere inside the MGM Grand, most likely the Rouge, drinking up a storm( they love themselves some ’Tom Collins’), smoking cigars and talking boxing all night. My former colleague, Doug Fischer, and myself have spent many a memorable night- where we don’t remember all that much- with these two. They can drink and smoke like Marquez counter-punches, all night long.
Back in February after Marquez dispatched Juan Diaz, a group of fans and members of the fight community congregated at the bar at the Hilton Americas. As I told these guys of Marquez’s challenge of Mayweather, Christiano, without batting an eye, told me," Yeah, Marquez could use a tune-up fight."
And he meant it.
" ’Speed’ will tell you this, I have a real neurosis when it comes to his fights. You can watch him with Hector Camacho Jr., Donny Lalonde, at any weight and I’ll start developing a neurosis about whether Juan can beat this guy. But then as it comes closer to the fight, I always end up agreeing with ’Speed’ and he always seems to see it the right way. And I just can’t see that you can make a cogent argument against him. I don’t see a scenario where Mayweather wins this fight."
This doesn’t seem to be false bravado. Like the way the ’Super Fans’ believed in their beloved Chicago Bears on that famous ’Saturday Night Live’ skit, they stand by their man.
Walker claims he’s not nervous, instead," I’m excited and the only time I’ve ever been nervous is before a fight to a point where I thought,’ Look, this is a tough fight’ and usually in my head I’m pretty relaxed because I’m confident he’s going to win- like I’m confident he’s going to beat Mayweather- the first Pacquiao fight. I was a little nervous."
As Marquez crashed to the canvas for the third time that night in the opening frame, Walker was still making travel plans for his next outing." I was ready to go to Couer d’Alene, Idaho for his next fight."
But Christiano admits to having a case of the nerves despite his assurances of a Marquez conquest. He knows that they share a minority opinion. Yet, he is undaunted.
" It’s not good for my health when Marquez fights. Starting a couple of days ago, when I start thinking about it, at all, I wont sleep that night. So at the same time I’m supposed to be working eight hours a day, I’m spending an awful lot of time looking for Marquez news. So I’m not going to enjoy the undercard, at all. It’s going to suck.
" I’m not even going to enjoy the fight much but hopefully, I’ll enjoy the aftermath."
Source: maxboxing.com
No comments:
Post a Comment