Joaquin Zamora has been through a lot, but he keeps fighting

BOXING

By Rick Wright Journal Staff Writer

Neither life nor boxing has smiled on Joaquin Zamora lately. Yet, it’s rare to see the 35-year-old Santa Fe resident without a smile on his face.

The source of that smile this week is a scheduled eight-round bout Saturday against El Paso’s Bernardo Guereca in the main event of a professional card at the Crowne Plaza.

	Saturday Joaquin Zamora vs. Bernardo Guereca, five other fights: 7 p.m., Crowne Plaza Hotel. Tickets: $20-$100, holdmyticket.com

Zamora, a skillful left-handed middleweight, has an excellent record (18-4-1, 12 knockouts). Yet, he hasn’t fought in 17 months and hasn’t won a fight since June 2009.

Of the prospect of facing Guereca (16-14-1, three KOs), he says, “Oh, man, I’m excited. It’s everything.

“This whole year for me has been a rough year, just personal-wise, boxing-wise, everything. I’m just excited to get in there.”

Zamora hasn’t fought since his brutal loss by eight-round decision to Elco Garcia in June 2011. Knocked down three times during the fight, Zamora considered retirement afterward but decided that was no way to end a career.

He was supposed to have resumed that career in April, but, after two opponents were scratched, so was his fight.

The hardest punches, though, occurred in his personal life.

In May, legendary world champion Johnny Tapia – Zamora’s trainer, his idol and his close friend – died of a heart condition.

“I grew up idolizing Johnny,” he says. “… He was an amazing guy.”

Earlier this month, Zamora’s wife, Micah, suffered a miscarriage.

“It’s part of life,” he says of the couple’s loss. “A lot of people go through it and they’ve gotten past it, and me and my wife will be the same.

“I’ve always believed in being good to everybody, because when things happen like that it really helps when you have a lot of support. I appreciate everybody that showed their love and support.”

The Zamoras have a son, Enrique, who will turn 2 later this month.

A Navy veteran, Zamora turned pro at the relatively advanced age of 25. Fights came easily at first – 18 in some five years – but have slowed to a trickle of late. In the past 51 months, he has fought just six times.

In part, he says, the inactivity has been by choice. Zamora generally has refused to take fights on short notice as “the opponent” simply for the money.

He remembers getting a phone call from a promoter, offering him a $10,000 payday to fight in Puerto Rico.

“I said, ‘Yeah, when is it?’” Zamora says. “He says, ‘Friday.’ This was a Tuesday morning.

“I said, ‘No, thanks.’ I’ve got too much pride to take fights just to be taking them.”

Zamora’s reputation as a slick-boxing southpaw, he says, also has cost him bouts.

“About three years ago, I was offered a fight with Joey Fernandez in Miami, Florida, and then when they found out I was a southpaw they turned me down. And (Fernandez) is a southpaw himself.

“To me, they can only throw the left or the right, so it really doesn’t matter to me. But a lot of guys, (fighting a southpaw) kind of freaks them out.”

The Zamora-Guereca bout, by coincidence, is a southpaw-vs.-southpaw matchup.

Guereca, 39, was 12-4-1 after scoring a stunning, first-round knockout of Albuquerque’s Hector Muñoz – Zamora’s Team Tapia stablemate – in June 2004. Since then, the El Paso resident is 4-10.

Zamora says he learned long ago not to take anyone lightly.

In July 2006, he was matched against a fighter with a record of 7-48-2.

People, he says, asked him why he was training so hard.

“I was like, ‘I do not want to be win No. 8,” he says, laughing. He won by second-round knockout.

Making Guereca his own 19th victim on Saturday, Zamora says, would be a happy ending to a tough year.
— This article appeared on page D3 of the Albuquerque Journal