Friday Night Fights: Joan Guzman Takes Three Tries to Weigh In at 140

Joan Guzman, who has a bad reputation for struggling with weight, or even just blowing off the idea of making weight and coming in nine pounds too heavy, needed three attempts today to make the 140-pound limit for his fight tomorrow night on ESPN Friday Night Fights, according to Dan Rafael.

I've already criticized this fight (the double-header, actually) as the worst type of show ESPN has for the series: We have Guzman, at 35, still unbeaten (but shouldn't be, as he deserved a loss to Ali Funeka in their first fight) but seemingly pretty washed up, fighting at least two weight classes higher than his best weight (you can argue four weight classes higher), being showcased for no particularly good reason other than it's cheap and someone has to be on the show. And now he's struggling to make a weight that should be, in relative terms, very easy for him to make.

Guzman (31-0-1, 18 KO) last fought in November, beating Florencio Castellano in the Dominican Republic via first round "knockout," and there's really been zero interest in anything he's done since he beat Funeka in their second fight. He also notably couldn't make weight for a fight in 2008, which led to that fight being canceled.

Before that second fight with Funeka in March 2010, Funeka's promoter Gary Shaw was very clear about what he felt should happen with Guzman, who was then a star already burning out:

"I hope the networks like ESPN, Showtime and HBO, will never allow a two-time loser, meaning at the scales, to be televised again on their networks."

Now he's struggling, but he did make it ultimately. He told Michael Woods of ESPN NY that he's re-focused these days, but people are going to question that now:

"Me not making weight, that changed my mind. Now I'm focused on boxing," he said. "In the past, I had too many problems and didn't think too much of boxing. Now I put 200 percent into my career."

Is Guzman really serious about this "comeback," or are we just being exposed to an aging fighter who's not headed anywhere in particular, when surely better, more relevant fights could have been made?

Guzman will be facing Jesus Pabon (17-2, 11 KO), who lost his last fight (KO-2) in June. The co-feature is a welterweight bout between Ed Paredes (29-3-1, 19 KO) and Manuel Leyva (21-4, 12 KO). Bad Left Hook will have live coverage tomorrow night.