Rocky Juarez

Infobox_Boxer
name=Rocky Juarez
realname=Ricardo Rocky Juarez
nickname=Rocky
weight=Super featherweight
nationality= American
birth_date=birth date and age|1980|4|15|mf=y
death_date=
birth_place=Houston, Texas, U.S.
home=Houston, Texas, U.S.
style=Orthodox
total=32
wins=28
KO=20
losses=4
draws=0
no contests=0

Ricardo Rocky Juarez (born April 15, 1980 in Houston, Texas) is a professional Mexican-American boxer. Juarez has a current professional record of 28 wins, 4 losses, no draws, with 19 wins coming by way of knockout.

Professional career

Juarez turned pro on January 25, 2001 with a unanimous decision against Pascali Adorno. A highly touted prospect, Juarez rose up the ranks with wins against Hector Velazquez, and Joe Morales. Juarez's 10th round knockout of Antonio Diaz was named Ring Magazine Knockout of the Year for 2003. His first challenge came from 1996 Olympian Zahir Raheem on July 17, 2004, in which he won by controversial decision, possibly due the fight taking place at Juarez's hometown in Houston, Texas. Juarez's first career loss came to Humberto Soto, who was a late sub replacement to In Jin Chi, Soto outboxed Juarez in the whole fight to win the Interim version of the WBC featherweight title. Juarez bounced back with back-to-back wins against Reynaldo Hurtado and Backlin Medrano and earned a shot against Mexican legend, Marco Antonio Barrera for his WBC Super featherweight title.

Juarez fought Barrera on May 20, 2006 in the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Barrera used his jab to win the early rounds, but it was obvious from the start that Juarez wasn't backing down hurting Barrera's nose in the process. During the second half of the fight Juarez took control by rocking Barrera and making him spit out his mouthpiece several times. In a very close fight, the bout was announced originally as a draw, but later it was revealed that two of the judges scorecards had an error, as Barrera was granted the win by split decision. Despite losing Juarez gained notoriety by standing toe to toe with one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world. Although not required by contract, Barrera and Juarez met in a rematch on September 16, this time Barrera winning comfortably on points through a unanimous decision (117-111, 115-113, 115-113).

Juarez has reached an agreement in principle to ink an exclusive promotional agreement with Golden Boy Promotions ever-growing stable of talent. His first fight under the promotion will be against Robert Guerrero (20-3-1 13 KOs) for Guerrero's IBF Featherweight Title. The fight will be held on September 15, 2007 and will be televised on HBO.

With Jorge Barrios being pulled out of his fight against Juan Manuel Marquez on September 15th, Eric Gomez and manager Shelly Finkel have confirmed that Rocky Juarez will now step in and face Marquez as that night’s headliner.

Juarez, was to have faced IBF featherweight champion Robert Guerrero, another Finkel client, on that same pay-per-view card.

On September 6, 2008, Rocky Juarez, (27-4, 19 KO's) won by TKO at 2:55 in the 11th round of the 12-rounder over former WBO Junior Lightweight Champion Jorge Rodrigo Barrios, (47-3-1, 34 KO's).. [ [http://www.ringsidereport.com/rsr/news.php?readmore=1074 ringsidereport.com, Houston Fighters Juan Diaz and Rocky Juarez Win Big, but Judges are the Big Losers] ] [ [http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=130423 abs-cbnnews.com, Diaz takes IBO lightweight belt via split decision] ]

Amateur career

Juarez had a lustrous amateur career with a 145-17 record, which included a 68 fight winning streak, a Featherweight Olympic silver medal and a Junior Olympic World and National gold medal. In 1999 he won the world title at the 1999 World Amateur Boxing Championships in his home town. During the 2000 Olympics Gold medal round, Juarez loss controversially against Bekzat Sattarkhanov who was warned several times for holding and not penalized. Juarez accepted the silver medal.

*1998 United States Amateur Featherweight champion. Results were:
**Defeated Daniel Chavez points
**Defeated Darling Jimenez points
**Defeated Aaron Torres points
**Defaated Hong Gu points
*1999 United States Amateur Featherweight champion. Results were:
**Defeated Jose Santa Cruz points
**Defeated Francisco Valentin TKO 3
**Defeated Ray Martinez points
**Defeated Aaron Torres points
**Defeated Steve Luevano points
*2000 United States Amateur Featherweight champion
*Member of the 2000 U.S. Olympic team as a Featherweight, winning a silver medal. Results were:
**Defeated Bijan Batmani (Iran) RSC-3
**Defeated Falk Huste (Germany) points
**Defeated Somluck Kamsing (Thailand) RSC-4
**Defeated Kamil Dzamalutdinov (Russia) points
**Lost to Bekzat Sattarkhanov (Kazakhstan) points

External links

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References