LOS ANGELES — Carlos Licona is one of the few fighters on Saturday’s card who could drive home from the Staples Center on fight night. In many ways, he’s had to come further than most to get to this point.
Licona, a Mexican-American, challenges fellow unbeaten contender Mark Anthony Barriga of the Philippines for the vacant IBF strawweight title on the undercard of the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury WBC title fight.
LOS ANGELES — Carlos Licona is one of the few fighters on Saturday’s card who could drive home from the Staples Center on fight night. In many ways, he’s had to come further than most to get to this point.
Licona, a Mexican-American, challenges fellow unbeaten contender Mark Anthony Barriga of the Philippines for the vacant IBF strawweight title on the undercard of the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury WBC title fight.
Carlos is not the only person in his family to pursue a boxing career.
Carlos’ cousin Marcos Licona was a fringe featherweight contender in the late-90s and early 2000s. Marcos Licona holds a win over former world champion Israel Vazquez and shared a ring with Juan Manuel Marquez, but never made it to the championship level himself.
Rogelio was determined that his son would make it big. When Carlos wasn’t in the gym, he was sitting next to his father on the couch watching boxing, studying.
Carlos emulated Marquez, the ultimate matador from Mexico City. “At the gym my dad would get mad if I didn’t stand like that style. He would go ‘today is not a good day.’ He wanted me every single day to fight like him,” said Carlos.
Licona won at the Mexican-American Games and says he had an opportunity to represent Mexico in the 2012 Olympics but wasn’t able to get his Mexican passport in time.
Instead, he took a job as a custodian at a local school to help pay bills. He started training at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, making the 40-minute drive five times a week in his compact Honda from his home in Westminster, Orange County to Riverside to train alongside some of the best fighters in the region.
You can’t be a part-time fighter and get full-time results, however, and Licona quit his day job to focus exclusively on boxing. To pay for gas money, Licona began collecting cans around town and trading them in for change.
Robert Garcia, the 2012 Boxing Writers Association of America Trainer of the Year, intervened. He recognized he had a hungry fighter — literally and figuratively — in his gym.
“I said there’s no need for that. He could stay in my training camp. Since then he’s been living in my training camp every time he fights,” said Garcia. “He’s very dedicated, he’s got one thing in mind and that’s to become world champion.”
Garcia, himself a former IBF junior lightweight titleholder, has worked with the likes of Nonito Donaire Jr., Marcos Maidana, and his younger brother Mikey Garcia, currently one of the sport’s pound-for-pound best who also manages Carlos.
Garcia has trained Carlos for five fights, including Saturday’s fight against Barriga. He says he sees the influence Marquez’s style has had on Carlos but has worked to adjust him to be more of a pressure fighter.
“I don’t want to say he imitates Juan Manuel Marquez but he fights very similar to the way Juan Manuel Marquez fights. In and out, on his toes and a good little boxer and counterpuncher,” said Garcia.
Part of the struggle in moving Licona’s career has been the dearth of opponents for the 5-foot-4, 105-pound fighter.
Carlos has often had to fight above his natural weight, which he says accounts for his low knockout percentage. Carlos is 13-0 with just two knockouts.
The lone fight he fought at the strawweight limit was in April, a 10-rounder in Ponce, Puerto Rico against former title challenger Janiel Rivera. With the hometown crowd rooting for Rivera, Carlos put in the work to earn a lopsided unanimous decision, stamping his credentials as a contender.
“I’m aggressive now because of Robert Garcia, I go forward now,” said Carlos. “I’m a good counterpuncher but for this fight it’s gonna be something different.”
Barriga (9-0, 1 KO) has a vastly superior amateur background, which includes multiple medals in international tournaments and a stint in the World Series of Boxing semi-pro league before turning pro two years ago.
Carlos said he has seen just one of Barriga’s fights and is unimpressed and unworried.
“We’re not worried nothing about his power. We did work on the speed, we had lots of sparring with speedy amateurs,” Carlos said. “He has that speed but we’re not worried about nothing from him.”
Garcia predicts the bout will go the distance and is confident Carlos is well prepared.
“We know Mark Barriga is a very talented kid, an Olympian, great amateur background and a very good prospect. He has tremendous skills, I see it,” Garcia said. “But look, it’s gonna be a twelve round fight, we already have the experience. It’s not an amateur fight.”
The bout will be on the undercard of the Wilder vs. Tyson WBC heavyweight title fight, but won’t be shown on the Showtime pay-per-view broadcast. This is the life for a contender in the sport’s lightest pro division.
This suits Carlos just fine. He’ll be fighting for an audience of one.
“Becoming world champion is gonna make my dad’s and my family’s dream come true. For what my dad did, leaving his job, words can’t even explain it,” said Carlos.
