Comebacks a way of life for Ray Beltran

By Norm Frauenheim-

Comebacks, always perilous and often controversial, help separate the good from the bad in a notoriously unpredictable craft. It just wouldn’t be the same without them, which is another way of saying it wouldn’t be the same without Ray Beltran.

Beltran’s life has been about comebacks. They define him. Beltran makes another one Sunday, an appropriate day for an ESPN card (7 p.m., ET) that features a couple of the good guys.

There’s Beltran in the co-main event at a heavier weight and with a still inexhaustible will to fight on. In the main, there’s Jose Ramirez, who is raising money to fight cancer before and after he fights Jose Zepeda at Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif.

For Beltran, the bout at junior welterweight against Hiroki Okada marks the his 20th year as a pro in the unforgiving art of landing – and taking – punches. Two decades as a prospect, journeyman, heralded sparring partner, contender and world champion are for most fighters an exhaustive resume.

But most aren’t Beltran, who emerges from it all as a survivor with some of the inevitable scars, yet still a trademark smile that says – again and again – that there’s much left to do. Above all, his title as world champion at lightweight was too short. Beltran, Manny Pacquiao’s former sparring partner, won it a year ago in a decision against Paulus Moses and lost a first defense against Jose Pedraza six months later in Glendale, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, his adopted hometown.

He’s back, perhaps, because he wants to add some time and money to his reign with a title belt. There’s motivation, perhaps, in seeking proof his brief time with a title wasn’t a temporary coincidence and could have been brought on in the eighth round by a torn tendon between his wrist and left hand.

But I’m also guessing he’d be back no matter what. He could have been a champion for three years. He could have had five successful title defenses and made big money in a loss to Vasiliy Lomachenko in a sixth defense.

But he’d be back, regardless, because the long fight is in his genes.

Before his loss on the scorecards to the surprising Pedraza on August 25, I asked Beltran (35-8-1, 21 KOs) what he wanted to do after boxing. He hesitated. Then, he said he might like to try working in the media or in some other role at ringside. But his real answer was in the hesitation. For now, he isn’t going anywhere other than through those ropes and into more of harm’s way.

That’s his identity. He has stood in lines, waited his time and learned his craft while awaiting his green card for permanent U.S. residence. Beltran, who grew up in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, told me he eventually wants to gain his U.S. citizenship, while presumably also re-gaining a world title.

For now, that means a move up the scale, from 135 pounds to 140, against Okada (19-0, 13 KOs), who will fight in the U.S. for only the second time after winning his first 18 bouts at home in the same arena – the 1,800-seat Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. The Japanese junior-welterweight then signed with Top Rank and won his U.S. debut last September, also in Fresno on a card featuring Ramirez.

I know very little about Okada. Then again, I didn’t know much about Pedraza, a Puerto Rican lightweight, before he upset Beltran and moved on to a loss to the feared Lomachenko. It looks as if Top Rank is looking at Beltran or Okada as a possibility for Ramirez, who is poised to become a major player in a weight class full of emerging stars.

“If it’s at 140, then I will be a two-division world champion,’’ Beltran said when the Okada fight was announced. “And if it’s at 135, then I will be a two-time lightweight champion.’’

No translation necessary. He’s not going anywhere.