After winning the IBF lightweight title from Greg Haugen in June of 1987, Vinny Pazienza agreed to fight him again on February 6, 1988 at Convention Hall in Atlantic City. I tuned into the rematch on NBC, which saw Haugen win a 15 round decision to take the belt home with him. I was disappointed quite frankly, because I had grown to like Vinny, and couldn’t stand Haugen at all.
Vinny abandoned the lightweight division, and moved up to the junior welterweight division at 140 pounds after the Haugen defeat. Back to the drawing board for the ‘Pazmanian Devil’, meant putting two consecutive wins under his belt in June,and October of 1988. He then traveled to Las Vegas to meet veteran Roger Mayweather on November 7, on the undercard of the Sugar Ray Leonard-Donny LaLonde bout.
The night was disastrous for Pazienza, which saw him hit the canvas in the 11th round, and lose a unanimous 12 round decision. When I watched the fight on closed circuit, I wondered where his career stood, having lost two big fights in a row.
Vinny returned to action in April of 1989, with a quick knockout victory to restore his self confidence. That year saw him win twice more, in June and November, which set up another pic bout for February of 1990, this time against Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho in Atlantic City.
Camacho outboxed Vinny, and easily scored a twelve round victory. This was Pazienza’s third straight loss in three big fights, making you wonder how good he really was. Sure he could talk and give a good interview, but sooner or later you have to beat a good fighter. In early 1990, I wasn’t sure if he could.
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