By José Santana Jr: If all goes well for cruiserweight Ignacio Esparza Monday night in Izhevsk, Russia, bigger opportunities are sure to be on the horizon. The 32-year old Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico native is facing the toughest challenge of his career when he fights the WBO #1 ranked contender Denis Lebedev (19-0, 14KOs) for the WBO inter-continental cruiserweight title in his home country.
The first and only time Esparza (16-1, 12KOs) travelled to Europe he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to highly touted German Enad Licina. Esparza, however, managed to produce a good enough performance that he garnered the attention of European boxing fans and even a couple of promoters. Pending the result of his next fight, Esparza could be looking at an opportunity to move to the U.S. to train and to be signed by American promoters such as Don King Productions and Square Ring Promotions.
After early lulls in his career, things seem to finally be moving into place for Esparza. Coming from a boxing school in Mexico where he trained alongside champions such as Oscar “Chololo” Larios and Javier “Chatito” Jauregui, Esparza desires to be the next world champion from the group. Esparza’s trainer Ramon Arellano talked to SecondsOut about his plans for Esparza and their hopes to make Mexican boxing history.
JS: Esparza turned pro in 2000 but only has 17 professional fights, what has been the cause for some of the slow movement in his career and how do you feel about where he’s at in his career right now?
RA: The reason actually he hasn’t been so active is because he had management problems early on. He’s been careful who he signs with. Now I’ve come in with him and we’ve been together for four years. We clicked very well.
JS: He is now fighting the number-one ranked Cruiserweight by the WBO, what do you think of this opportunity and how has his preparation for this fight been?
RA: Excellent. When we fought Licina we only got two weeks’ notice and we were preparing for another fight. But we fought for the IBF (inter-continental cruiserweight) title and that’s a great opportunity and I don’t believe in turning down title fights. We weren’t ready, but I felt comfortable because Esparza had a great career as an amateur so I know he can handle himself real well. But even through all that, we did great and won like the first five rounds and actually he (Esparza) didn’t get tired. The one who got tired was Licina. We almost knocked him out in the last minute. So that turned a lot of people’s attention to us. This time around we got better preparation and I believe we’re going to come home with a belt.
JS: What do you know about Denis Lebedev and what are you going to try and do in the fight to secure a victory?
RA: We saw some fights on the internet but every fight is different. From one fight to another, boxers always have different agendas. So we’ve just gotten ready to fight and be in shape. All the amateur fights he’s had, 165 amateur fights and only lost one, that will help. We also had some lefty sparring partners.
JS: Esparza has only fought outside of Mexico once and it was for the biggest fight so far in his career, what did you guys learn from that experience that you can now take into this fight having to go to Russia to fight Lebedev?
RA: I used to be a boxer. Working with Ignacio I’ll get up and step on his shoes. When we take fights I try to help him out. But Ignacio handles himself very well. We went out of the country and we performed very well. A lot of fighters don’t really perform as well stepping out of their hometown. We went all the way to Germany to fight in his hometown and we performed well. Some promoters thought we won the fight. But good thing is it was on TV so a lot of people noticed what we did. So now we’re leaving Mexico to go to Russia, who has a reputation for having very good fighters, very disciplined, very tough, but Mexicans have a reputation the same as they do. We are tough and hungry and that’s why we are going over there. But everything will change after this because I received a visa for Ignacio Esparza to come to the United States. Our plan is to go and beat Denis and then come to the U.S.
JS: So you plan to set up a new training camp in the United States?
RA: Yes, I’m going to bring him over to the U.S. where I already have a boxing gym (in Nashville, Tenn.) and everything is already set up for him. He’s ready to step up and come to the U.S. and get a bigger opportunity.
JS: There aren’t as many cruiserweights from Mexico as the other weight classes, has that ever made it difficult when in the gym training with sparring partners or even in finding opponents to fight?
RA: Yes, it has been very difficult because as you mentioned there are only a few. The ones that are around he beat them all. So he’s looking forward to stepping up to the people that really can fight and I think we’ve already proven that he can fight the top fighters of the world when we fought Licina who was ranked number 5, and we made him look kind of silly. Ignacio Esparza is a very clever fighter. He’s not a banger, he’s more of a slick fighter and he makes you look bad and that’s what happened to Licina. So the ones in Mexico don’t really want to fight him and he already beat the best anyways. When we beat Damian Norris, Nacho Beristain was training him and thought he was going to be the next champion of the world, and we showed them wrong.
JS: What are your goals that you guys would like to achieve in boxing?
RA: I think we’re going to make history in Mexico because there has never been a cruiserweight champion of the world from Mexico. I think we’re going to make history, and then we’ll come to the U.S. for the right fights. We’re not that far away from a title shot. I think within the next couple of fights we’ll get a title shot if we do the right things and with the right promoters.
Are there any promoters that you guys are working with or is Esparza a free agent?
He is a free agent when it comes to a promoter. I’ve talked to Carl King (Don King Productions) because I’ve trained some of their fighters but nothing is really on paper. The people from Roy Jones (Square Ring Promotions) are interested also. But I guess it really all depends on this fight because I guess they want to make sure it wasn’t a fluke that we fought Licina and looked good. So we’ll see after the results of this fight.
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