“I had Kid on his heels, you know what I’m sayin’. I had him on his heels gassed out. And then J Love was looking good against people until he fought me. He looked average. The last two bulls, I made them look average. And for real, for real, I think Charlo is an easier fight than my last two fights…For this fight right here, we’re going for the kill. As soon as the bell rings, I’m coming at this bull like Maidana came at Broner. For real. Just like that. I’m pulling a Maidana on this one…I gotta put this in my hands and I gotta pull a Maidana. I gotta do what Maidana did because I’m pretty much in the same situation as Maidana,” stated jr. middleweight contender Gabriel Rosado, who talked about how training went and his upcoming clash this Saturday against undefeated jr. middleweight contender Jermell Charlo. Check out what else he had to say!
BT: What’s up with you, Gabe?
GR: Chillin’ man. Just got back from a little training in San Juan.
BT: Yeah, I heard you picked up camp and relocated from Philly to Puerto Rico.
GR: Yeah, man. It went great, man. It was like a second wind in training camp. It was perfect.
BT: You’re not originally from the island, right?
GR: Nah. My parents are, but I was born and raised in Philly.
BT: So what’s it like when you go out there? Do they still show you that same kind of Puerto Rican love?
GR: It’s crazy, man. They showing mad love over here, man. They put me in the papers. They like the fact that I speak Spanish. That caught them off guard. They didn’t know I speak Spanish. So when I came over here, I was doing Spanish interviews on the radio show and shit like that. They were pretty surprised by that.
BT: That’s wassup. It sounds like they accepted you like one of their own; like a true Boricua.
GR: (Laughing) Yeah, real talk, pretty much. It’s a lot of love out here. It’s crazy because I went out here just for training camp and I didn’t realize it was pretty much a good business move as well. I mean, once I got here and they started seeing I speak Spanish, reporters started coming to the gym doing interviews, and then they invited me to some radio show. They put me in the paper like three times and I started buzzing out here. They started telling me, “Yo, I’m glad you came out here to relate with the public out here.” It went pretty good, man.
BT: No doubt. I take it everything went good during camp. You didn’t have any problems getting the weight off?
GR: I’m good, man. The weight is good. It’s easy to lose weight out here, man, because it’s so damn hot. The first week sparring out here, I was fucking dying, man. The first 4 or 6 rounds, I was fucking dying. It was so damn hot. It was crazy, man. Once I started working the second week is when I got used to the heat. But the first week, it was tough, man, because it was so fucking hot. I went from 10 degree weather to 90 degree weather.
BT: Is that the reason why you went out to Puerto Rico? Because the weather has been so shitty lately on the East Coast?
GR: Yeah. The weather was shitty. I was going for runs and I really wasn’t working a sweat. It was hard to get the weight down, so it was kind of like fucking up my focus out there. I was thinking, “I gotta get out of here, man.” I came over here and it was like a second wind. The main thing was just trying to get the weight and trying to get focused. It was just difficult. It was easy to do it for the Kid [Peter Quillin] fight because the Kid fight was in October, so it was pretty much hot in August and September. We didn’t have a bad October. But it got real cold, man. It was like blizzards and shit. It was like 7 inches of snow every now and then, so I just had to get out of there.
BT: Makes sense. Well, it seems like just yesterday when you and Charlo exchanged words via Twitter before the fight was even signed, but it’s fight week now. Were you surprised when they first approached you about this fight?
GR: Everybody is talking about, “Damn man, this is another fight where they’re setting Gabe up against a guy that’s undefeated,” and blah, blah, blah. Yo, the reality is, for real, for real, I don’t think Charlo really wanted this fight, but he had no choice. Let’s keep it 100. Of course he’s the dude that’s undefeated with the big team behind him, you know what I’m sayin’. But, in reality, man, they kind of feel like in a way, it’s like, alright, damn, he beat [J’Leon] Love, he was about to knock Kid out; I mean, Showtime’s putting me back on and I know Golden Boy’s rockin’ with me. It’s a situation where like I gotta knock the dude out, I know that, but I think Charlo is in a situation where he had to take this fight. I don’t think he could’ve picked anyone else. They know that he’s boring if they put him in a fight with a guy like Demetrius Hopkins or a style like that. They know they need to put him in a tough fight; he needs to be in a tough fight. He knew that it’s me or nothing pretty much.
BT: It’s funny you say that because I remember him going on Twitter saying something about about not wanting to fight you; something about wanting them to bring a different name other than yours to him.
GR: He fucked up when he did that (laughing). I said damn boy, you done fucked up. Once he opened his mouth and then I said something back, and then the media picked up on it, so now, he’s gonna look like a bitch. I was like, yo, I’ma use this to my advantage. He fucked up (laughing).
BT: Have you heard about any of the stuff their side has been saying? I think Ronnie Shields made some comment about the difference between you and Charlo being that you know how to lose, or something like that.
GR: Of course they gonna say that shit. For real, for real, they’re saying he don’t know how to lose, but who has he ever fought who’s a threat for him to lose to anyway? And for real, for real, I feel like Demetrius Hopkins really beat him, but Demetrius Hopkins didn’t do what he was supposed to do. You know, he came in there as the dude that was supposed to knock him out or at least be dominant in the fight. Demetrius kept that fight close, but I felt like Demetrius won that fight. But, come on now, he really ain’t fought nobody. Who has he fought? Come on, look at the last 3 guys I’ve been up against. The boy ain’t fought nobody, you know what I’m sayin’. When have you ever seen Kid backing up with his eyes open looking like a deer in headlights? You ain’t never seen Kid fight like that ever. And we talking about Kid being a legit middleweight champion who was blowing everybody out. I had Kid on his heels, you know what I’m sayin’. I had him on his heels gassed out. And then J Love was looking good against people until he fought me. He looked average. The last two bulls, I made them look average. And for real, for real, I think Charlo is an easier fight than my last two fights. I mean, it’s crazy because I was telling my trainer, “Yo, every time we got a game plan, we do execute the game plan.” With J Love, we went into that fight saying we was going to school him; I felt like I did do that. And then with the Kid fight, we felt like what we had to do was break him down in the middle rounds and then take him into deep waters. I even told you that. I said I’m going to take him into deep waters and by the 10th, 11th round, it’s gonna be a wrap. I told you that. For this fight right here, we’re going for the kill. As soon as the bell rings, I’m coming at this bull like Maidana came at Broner. For real. Just like that. I’m pulling a Maidana on this one.
BT: Charlo actually made a comment about that over the weekend. He said you’ll be making a big mistake if you think you’re just gonna come in and go toe-to-toe with him.
GR: First of all, he’s not really a big jr. middleweight. He’s a thin dude. He’s slim. My last three fights have been big middleweights. Triple G is a big middleweight. Triple G is like, what, 180 during the day of the fight and he’s a murderous puncher. And then J’Leon Love, the day we fought, he was 180, and J’Leon Love is so big that he gotta fight at super middleweight now. And Kid Chocolate was putting everybody to sleep. So it’s like, you know, Charlo, to me, he’s not hitting like these guys, so I’m not going to respect his power. It’s almost like when I fought Soto Karass. When I fought Soto Karass, I wanted that fight so bad because I didn’t respect Soto Karass’s power. I mean, if a guy can keep you honest, like when I fought Kid, I took my time with Kid and I knew I had to break Kid down because I knew he could punch. You can’t just go up in there and just bum-rush Kid Chocolate because he can punch. You gotta respect his power. You gotta break a guy down like Kid Chocolate. I’m not going to respect Charlo’s power. I’m not going to go in that fight and worry about his power. Just like I said, my last fights have been against legit middleweights.
BT: I know you’re getting ready to head out to D.C., so I won’t keep you, but before I let you go, tell the fans what they can expect come Saturday night.
GR: Pretty much the whole training camp, the motto has been Operation Chop Down Charlo (laughing). That’s been my mindset. I feel like this is a fresh start. It’s a new year and I’m back at jr. middleweight. I got unfinished business there. The division is poppin’ right now. You got Angulo fighting Canelo in March, and you got Erislandy Lara, who just beat Trout. The division is poppin’, so I’m in a situation right now where a great, impressive win puts me right there with the winner of Angulo-Canelo or Erislandy Lara. With me doing this camp in Puerto Rico, it’s really created a buzz on the island and the island is paying attention right now. One of the things they said to me was, “Right now, Puerto Rico doesn’t have a champion, Gabe. Would you like to represent Puerto Rico as a champion?” Hell yeah I want to represent Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, the island is really looking for a guy that is proud and is representin’ and is proud to be Puerto Rican and going in the ring with the flag. I always come to the ring with a flag; I mean, I got the flag tatted on me. So the thing is, I feel like with me being in Puerto Rico and getting the island behind me, coming off with an impressive win is definitely going to create the type of buzz where I can be in a big fight with Canelo, Angulo, Lara, and those type of guys. That’s prety much my whole motto for this fight, man; just going in there and taking care of business. I’m going to be relentless. I’m tired of the bullshit. I gotta put this in my hands and I gotta pull a Maidana. I gotta do what Maidana did because I’m pretty much in the same situation as Maidana. Broner was that dude. He was next, you know. They were talking about Broner like he was the next Mayweather, but Maidana ruined their plans, and that’s what I gotta do.
