Camacho: He’ll have to work hard for it
GUYANA’S ‘Deadly’ Denny Dalton, better known as a man of few words, has yesterday crossed over to a typical trash-talking boxer and said that he will come out as champion when he faces Hector ‘Machito’ Camacho Jr on June 5 at the Princess Hotel and Casino. The two will headline the Bris ‘O’ Promotions card dubbed ‘Deadly Encounters’ and will do battle over 12 rounds of expected fistic fury for the vacant World Boxing Federation Intercontinental middleweight title.
The 31-year-old Camacho Jr and his trainer Roblee Velez arrived in Guyana brimming with confidence ahead of his fight – a belt that he claims means nothing really, but it’s the fight that counts.
But his opponent, Dalton, is adamant that he is “coming out as a champion” and that he will “not be disrespected at home by Camacho” whom he referred to as a showboat.
However, Dalton when contacted yesterday told Chronicle Sport that this isn’t a walk in the park and that Camacho should be prepared for an all-out war.
“I’m well prepared for the fight; I’ve been training hard with my coach Lennox Daniels, and from today (yesterday) we will be fine-tuning the training a bit, so I’m saying to my Guyanese fans that Denny will come out as a champion,” Dalton said.
Matching up the two fighters, Camacho has more experience by virtue of more time in the ring, holding a record of 51 wins from 56 fights with three defeats and a draw, while Dalton has only faced opposing gloves 25 times, winning 16 of those clashes.
Some of his (Dalton) opponents included Guyana’s first world champion Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis, former European and Commonwealth champion Howard Eastman and former WBF light middleweight champion Mihaly Kotai.
With this in mind, Camacho believes that his (Dalton) experience with the limited amount of ring time would set-up a perfect fight on Saturday and both fighters will really have to show what they’re made of but he holds high optimism of a win.
“I’m expecting a tough fight,” Camacho told Chronicle Sport after a light jog along the East Bank highway and further added that “I’m fighting the hometown boy and he wouldn’t let his country down, I’m not going to give it up to him so expect a good fight ’cause I’m in great shape. I’m going to show people what boxing is about and why I’m one of the top fighters in my weight class”.
It’s been exactly eight months and three days since Camacho has stepped into the ring following his win over former world Champion Luis Ramon Campas in a non-title fight. Camacho’s last defeat was three years ago, suffered at the hands of Don Juan Futrell.
Dalton, on the other hand, lost his last two fights with the most recent being to Eastman on July 5, 2008 when he surrendered his national middleweight title. Four months prior to facing Eastman, Dalton lost his WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) light middleweight title to Trinidadian Kevin Placide in thespian fashion; disqualification due to a mêlée in the eighth bout of the ten-round affair.
The history surrounding both fighters has led them to now not only focus on winning a title, but more so to make a statement to the boxing world.
“I don’t care about no belt” Dalton said in a serious tone, “I want to have a chance to be in the boxing world again, go out there and win this fight for my people. I have many fans, the whole of Big Market, Soesdyke, East Bank; all over is coming out to support me and I don’t want to let them down so right now I’m focused on beating Camacho,” the Guyanese fighter added.
His sentiments were echoed by Camacho who said, “the belt is not as important to me as the win, I want the win, the belt I can care less about, it’s just another trophy I’ll take to my record because winning this fight is just a stepping stone to something else, something good for the next one”.
The world of boxing has ever so much been entertained by the elder Camacho, a three-time world Champion and now his seed, Hector Junior has picked up his father’s business and made it his own.
Following his interview with this publication last week, some boxing pundits said that he (Camacho) is one of boxing’s most over-rated fighter and is basking in his father’s glory and yesterday when quizzed to give a response, ‘Machito’ simply said “Everyone has the right to talk.”
“People have the right to their opinion so they have the right to say what they want. I mean, I had an HBO contract, I fought on Showtime and to be able to fight on those big stations, you must be able to box, to fight, so people can say what they want to say but on the day, it’s me and Denny Dalton going into the ring and then they really see who’s overrated or underrated.
“Guyanese people love boxing, a lot of great boxers came from Guyana, like Terrence Ali, you got Sixhead Lewis, Vivian Harris and the list goes on, so this is a boxing country. So you can’t come here and fool people; this is a boxing city so I feel right at home”.