Gamache trying to keep focused on Amsler

Sometime Saturday afternoon, hours before his own professional boxing match at the Bangor Auditorium, Joey Gamache’s mind will wander to another hemisphere, to a place called Sun City, South Africa.

It is there that Tony Lopez, the fighter who dethroned Gamache as the WBA lightweight champion last Oct. 24, will be facing Dingaan Thobela in a rematch of a controvesrial previous fight between the two boxers. The Lopez-Thobela match was ordered by the WBA, despite a contract between Gamache and Lopez for their own rematch for the title sometime this spring.

Lurking in the wings, meanwhile, is Bobby Amsler, a 28-year-old Iowan, who will face Gamache as the main event for Saturday’s five-card fight, which begins at 6:45 p.m., at the Bangor Auditorium.

Gamache realizes it’s a dangerous game to focus too much on who he feels he should have been fighting instead of who he actually is going up against.

“What’s important about this fight here is that Tony Lopez is fighting the same night,” Gamache said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s hard for me to solely concentrate on Bobby Amsler when I’ve got Tony Lopez on my mind. I’d be lying to you if I told you, `Yeah, I’m all fired up for Bobby Amsler.’ Lopez is on my mind a lot.”

“I’ve been telling Joey that he’s got to concentrate on Amsler,” said promotor Johnny Bos, “because no matter what happens with Lopez-Thobela, he might be thinking about it the rest of his life because (a Gamache-Lopez fight) might never happen.”

“That’s easier said than done,” retorted Gamache.

Coming at the heels of Gamache’s last fight, a two-round TKO over a lackluster club fighter named Rocky Berg, Bos promised he would not set up two easy fights in a row.

Amsler, a former U.S. Marine Corps boxing champion and the winner of 17 straight fights, is a total unknown to Gamache, who has heard little and seen nothing about the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native.

“That’s what makes this fight a dangerous one,” Gamache said. “Bobby Amsler is coming in here hungry. This is his championship fight. He’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Sometimes, that can bring out the best in a guy.”

Gamache, a realist who knows that anybody can hit the canvas after getting hit with the right shot, also knows he can’t afford to lose to an Amsler.

A loss could, in effect, end his career.

“It’d knock me out of the (title) picture for two or three years,” Gamache said on Tuesday night. “I’d be done. A loss and I’d be done. That would be the end of the line for me. I’m talking about winning and coming back to win the championship. I’ve got to be focused and not concentrate on what’s up ahead, but what’s here. That’s Bobby Amsler.”

Like Gamache said, though, that’s easier said than done.

Also announced during Wednesday’s press conference was the four-fight undercard.

Bangor’s own Marcus Davis (1-0) will square off against Lucky Rodriguez of Worcester, Mass., in a four-round match; Genaro Andujar (6-6), currently of Litchfield (Gamache’s sparring partner) will face Eddie Jiminez (7-4) of Hartford, Conn., in a six-rounder; Edwin Santana of Lawrence, Mass., will match up against Tony Figueroa of Santorsi, Santurce, Puerto Rico, in a four-rounder; and Apeto Cardona (6-0) of Worcester, Mass., will fight Eddie Marsial of Springfield, Mass., in a four-rounder.

Following the Gamache-Amsler fight, will be a closed-circuit showing of three fights from Atlantic City.

John-John Molina will put his IBF Junior Lightweight championship belt on the line against Manuel Medina; Vinnie Pazienza will face Lloyd Honeyghan; and Evander Holyfield will face Alex Stewart.