Published: July 27, 2008 11:32 pm      

BOXING: Casal getting back to his roots

It might be hard to believe for some, but the bright lights of Las Vegas and Nick “Hands of Gold” Casal didn’t mix.

Instead, the 23-year old welterweight boxer is moving his training camp much closer to his Niagara Falls home in suburban Chicago.

“It was really time to get out of Vegas and get back closer to my roots,” Casal said by phone. “Vegas was more about celebrity status than anything else and that’s not what I need right now in my career.”

So Casal, who is still under contract with Gary Shaw Productions, enlisted the help of Chicago-based trainer Mike Soria. The two have been working with each other for the past few weeks and Casal can already see the difference.

“It’s just little tweaks, but it’s a lot more about defense and getting back to quicker movements like the amateur days,” he explained.

Casal added that he’s able to spar at any time, a luxury that wasn’t always available in Sin City.

“Every day there’s a quality guy in the gym with me here, where in Vegas you’d have to call a guy to fly in from (Los Angeles) or you’d have to travel to them,” he said.

Casal said he’s scheduled to fight Aug. 8 on the undercard of

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ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights in Chicago. His opponent has not been determined at this time, although Frankie Zepeda is a strong possibility, according to reports.

It will be the first fight for Casal (17-3-1) since he dropped a controversial decision to Jose Antonio Ojeda in early May. Casal contends that Ojeda used his glove to aid himself up in the opening round, thus triggering a knockdown on the scorecard. The knockdown was never acknowledged by the referee or judges. Casal did record a knockdown of Ojeda in Round 3, making the possible error in Round 1 that much more of a factor in the scoring.

Casal’s camp previously said they planned to protest the decision following the fight, but Nick said he hasn’t heard any news on that front and has assumed that the protest “didn’t go through.”

For now, he’s focused on the future, which could include a bout in his own backyard. Casal said he’s tentatively scheduled to fight in a Sho-Box event Sept. 5 in Nevada and if all goes well, he’d like to be on the Seneca Niagara Casino’s second annual Fight Night card Sept. 20.

“My dad has been in talks with the promoter and I think they want to get me on there because we could probably sell it out,” Casal said. “If it does happen, it would be awesome. I’ve been waiting to fight at home again.”

Casal’s last fight in the area was as an amateur in 2002.

Contact reporter Nate Beutel at 282-2311, ext. 2262.