CHRIS JOHN vs ROCKY JUAREZ

Hard-luck contender Rocky Juarez makes his fifth attempt at a world title on Saturday’s PPV show when he faces Indonesia’s unbeaten Chris John in a rematch for the WBA featherweight championship.

The last fight between them was a draw on Juarez’s home turf in Houston, and although HBO “unofficial official” Harold Lederman had John a comfortable winner I thought the draw was a fair verdict: John had the advantage after 10 rounds but Juarez closed strongly, sweeping the last two rounds on all three judges’ cards.

The sportsbooks opened John as a solid favourite at odds of around -340 when the rematch was announced, but I view this as almost an even-money fight.

Juarez is perceived as a fighter who always comes up short on the big occasion, but he very nearly beat Marco Antonio Barrera in their first fight and he was even-steven with John. If those bouts had been 15-rounders, I have no doubt that Juarez would have won.

The problem with Juarez — and it is one his trainer, Ronnie Shields, readily admits — is his tendency to be patient to the point of exasperation for those who want to see him succeed.

In the rematch with Barrera and again when he fought Juan Manuel Marquez, it was frustrating to Shields that Rocky just didn’t let his hands go often enough, although in fairness to Juarez he was cut over the left eye in the first round against Marquez and had to fight 11 rounds with this handicap against one of the world’s top fighters.

Even when Juarez fought the Chicago boxer Jose Hernandez he was letting himself get outworked in several rounds — and this after he looked poised for a quick win when he landed a big right hand dropped Hernandez heavily in the second round.

In his last two fights, though, Juarez gave two of his best performances, stopping Jorge Barrios in the 11th round and then battling to a draw with John.

Rocky had John hurt and wilting in the closing stages and the Indonesian boxer seemed close to going down in the last round, but Juarez just couldn’t land the knockdown shot that would have won him the decision.

John, however, apparently was unwell going into that fight, and there were stories going around that the Indonesian had missed several days of training due to suffering ’flu-like symptoms.

This could explain John’s struggle in the home straight — but Rocky’s hard blows played their part in weakening the defending champ.

John has trained at Big Bear Mountain in southern California for the rematch and says his preparation has been perfect. He even predicted he would stop Juarez in an interview with Ray Wheatley of Fightnews, although of course the chances of this happening are exceedingly remote — John has never been regarded as a hard puncher and Juarez has one of the best chins in boxing.

What John does best is to box, move, jab and maintain a high punch-output. John isn’t what the trade calls a runner, though. He will stand and fight from time to time, and it is when John stands his ground and opens up that Juarez will be best placed to do damage.

Juarez is much the better puncher and clearly the stronger man, but John is quick, clever and busy and he has considerable championship-bout experience.

John, 30, is a superstar in Indonesia but seeks to establish himself in America, while Juarez, 29, must be feeling that it is now or never after four unsuccessful attempts at winning a world title.

I am expecting another highly competitive fight. If John really does try to force a stoppage he could very easily run into trouble, because Juarez punches very hard and is dangerous to the final bell.

John did stand up to Juarez’s heavy blows in the Houston fight, though, and even when he was looking worn out in the final few minutes he kept punching back.

Considering the evidence of the first fight, Juarez obviously has a tremendous chance of achieving his world title dream. There does seem a reasonable possibility, though, that John was a little drained physically going into the first fight.

John faces a tough, gruelling fight on Saturday, but my hunch is that he will be a bit better prepared this time and that he will use his speed, movement, jabs and combinations while doing his best not to stay right in front of Rocky for too long.

Juarez will be landing the bigger shots, but, if the fight runs true to form, John will be running up the higher numbers on the punch statistics.

I’ll take John to box his way to the points win that many believed he deserved last time, but I think it could well be a desperately hard fight for him and I believe he will be relieved when it’s over.