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Shark’ Toledo circling Medina

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By Paul Upham: IBF featherweight champion Frankie ‘The Shark’ Toledo, 40-5-1 (15), makes the first defence of his title against three-time world champion Manuel Medina, 59-11 (27), this Friday night at The Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on a Cedric Kushner promotion televised on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights.
“I feel real good and excited. I’ve been waiting six months for this and I am ready to go,” said Toledo, who is looking to gain some revenge after dropping a 10-round points decision to Medina in May 2000.

“I was waiting for this fight,” said Toledo. “I want to erase my loss. I wasn’t ready mentally or physically for that fight when I lost to him.

“I can’t take nothing away from him, he beat me that night. But he doesn’t know what I went through leading up to that fight. I had personal problems that I was dealing with and I wasn’t training the proper way. I started training just two weeks before the fight. I came over one day before the weigh-in and I was eight pounds overweight. I was struggling all night and the next day to make the weight and come to the fight I had nothing.”

Toledo goes into Friday night’s fight knowing how much he has improved in preparation compared to his last fight with Medina and the confidence that a world belt around his waist brings.

“Even with all that, I still gave him a hard 10 rounds. I have seen a tape of the fight and it was closer that they scored it,” said Toledo. “On the tape during the fight they said he went to training camp. If that’s the best he’s going to come with after going to training camp, then he is going to be in trouble Friday night.

“I have got more confidence because we are working on different things. I am hungrier because I know every featherweight in the world right now wants what I have. I have to stay ready and stay focused.”

Toledo is very close to his younger brother David, who is an active featherweight and also rated by the IBF. “We are very close and I love him very much, but my younger brother who is currently ranked No.6 by the IBF, even he wants that world title belt,” he said.

With the announcement that Marco Antonio Barrera will face WBC featherweight champion Erik Morales on March 2, the IBF champion may find himself in a position for a lucrative unification fight later in 2002. Despite a second round TKO loss to Barrera in June 1995 in a WBO title fight, Toledo will not allow himself to look past this Friday night.

“A Barrera rematch would be great, but right now, to be honest with you, I am not thinking about the future, I am thinking about Friday night’s fight. One fight at a time,” said Toledo.

“For the last two months all I have been thinking about is Medina. He is a former three-time world champion. I can’t take nothing away from him, I know he has been around.

“Right off from the beginning I’m going to be throwing a lot of combinations, sticking and moving and frustrate him. Do my fight. It’s my time now, he had his time and he accomplished being a three-time world champion. He has got to respect me now. It’s my title and it’s my time, that’s how I feel.”

Toledo surprised many people with his 12-round points decision to win the IBF title from South Africa’s Mbulelo Botile last April.

“I felt real good leading up to that fight. Botile, the way I looked at him, he was made for me. He comes right at you, a strong fighter. Styles make fights and I thought he was made for me. I trained properly for the fight and I won a unanimous decision right here in Las Vegas,” said Toledo.

“After the Botile fight, it actually took me about a month and a half to realise what I had accomplished. Once I realised that I was the IBF champion of the world, it was a great feeling.”

However, the win for Toledo was put to one side after the loss of a family member on the day of the world title win, when David Toledo’s father-in-law passed away on the day of the fight.

“I was happy that I won the world title, but in another way I was sad. He was one of our biggest supporters,” he said.

As for being a world champion, Toledo says he is the same man before he won the IBF title.“It’s nice when everybody calls you champ everywhere you go. But I’m still me. I’m still Frankie Toledo to my friends. I am always myself and people close to me know who I really am.”

Being a left-hander is an advantage that Toledo feels he carries into every fight and he has the confidence now to believe in himself that he can beat any featherweight out there. “Not only am I a southpaw, I am quick and I have a lot of heart. When I step into a ring I give 110% and if I give 110% I’ll give anyone trouble,” said Toledo.

“Most of my fights I am always the underdog which helps me. I like proving people wrong. Don’t ever count out any Toledo. Don’t count us out.”

Living with his family in New Jersey, Toledo has four children between the ages of eight months and 10 years who all give him great inspiration to remain on top. Toledo’s oldest son Jovahni recently wrote him a letter, which really touched him making him even more determined to remain as world champion and give his family a better life.

“A couple of weeks ago my son wrote me a letter about ‘My Champ’, and it brought tears to my eyes. He knows the struggles that I went through to get where I am today,” said Toledo, who is looking for even bigger things in 2002.

“We are looking for a big money fight next year. It’s everything that every fighter dreams of. I deserve it. I worked hard. Nobody ever gave me anything. Most of the people didn’t even give me a chance to get to where I am today,” said Toledo.

“I’ve been working so hard since the age of 10. I knew I had the talent and the skills, I just needed a chance.”

After starting his professional career way back in 1989 at the age of 19, Toledo, now 31, feels the best is yet to come. “I haven’t felt this good in years,” said Toledo. “I know how to handle myself inside and outside of the ring. I’ve never taken a beating in my career.”

Known as “The Shark”, a name given to him by Arturo Gatti’s manager Pat Lynch, “People came to know me by that name so I stuck with it,” Toledo is determined to chew up former IBF and WBC featherweight champion Medina.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for what Medina has accomplished inside and out of the ring, but after Friday night, he is going to respect me because I am determined and I have worked hard,” he said.


Paul Upham
Contributing Editor
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