Last week in Maywood, California, a media day was held by Top Rank for lightweight Urbano Antillon as he prepared for his bout against Miguel Acosta for the interim WBA lightweight championship. This fight on Saturday night in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico will be his first world title bout. In an era where more and more young prizefighters are microwaved, Antillon has been slowly marinated.
The matchup with Acosta will be his 27th professional outing, and even more eye-opening is that he is approaching his ninth year as a professional. In today’s marketplace, that is a snail’s pace.
As he was surrounded by reporters inside the Maywood Boxing Club, he was asked by this reporter a familiar question – was he getting antsy for a shot at one of the major belts?
“You asked me that question a couple times,” Antillon answered, with a laugh, exhibiting a steel-trap memory. “I don’t think I really was, but now that you mentioned it, yeah, maybe we have been a little antsy about it and excited at the same time.”
But he did admit that he did feel a burden was lifted off his shoulders as he was informed he would be fighting for one of the many versions of the WBA belt.
“After almost nine years of being pro and having a pretty long career, it’s finally here,” he said. And he has a point, there are plenty of careers that don’t last nine years- much less developmental periods. But Top Rank – which has perfected the art of fully developing fighters – wouldn’t have had it any other way. They would much rather throw a fighter into a tough fight one year too late than one year too early.
Top Rank president Todd duBoef explains, “Our philosophy – and I learned more or less from Bruce Trampler and Teddy Brenner, their mentality – and their mentality was the development of a fighter is a long process and at times you have to protect the fighter, or sometimes their handlers, from themselves because they may not have the experience of taking fighters along to putting them into positions to be two things: one, an attraction; two, getting them into position to win a world title. So you have to kinda temper their emotions and yet they have to rely on you and they have to listen to what you say.”
But this is no cookie-cutter process; every fighter develops at their own pace. “We talked about it early on when Floyd ( Mayweather) fought Genaro Hernandez and people thought it was too early,” recalled duBoef. “And then there was the question with Oscar ( De La Hoya), he ended up fighting Bredahl when HBO was suggesting he fight Genaro Hernandez at that point in his career, his first title fight. We make decisions on not just guessing but based on certain assumptions and projections.”
While the fighter himself has been willing to follow whatever course set for him, his management, led by his older brother German and trainer Rudy Hernandez, has wanted a faster pace. They believe Antillon should’ve fought for a title long ago.
Stuck in the middle is one Ray Alcorta, who works with Top Rank and also serves as an agent for Antillon, who he has known since he was an amateur in Maywood. His role as the buffer between the two parties has oftentimes put him in the middle of one faction that wants to hold back and the other that wants to push forward.
“It puts you in the middle position,” Alcorta freely admits. “When you have one team, the training camp, they believe in their fighter 100-percent. They want to move forward and they want things to happen with the fighter. They’re a little impatient. But when you have people like Bob Arum, Bruce Trampler, Brad Goodman, and Todd duBoef, who have created stars from the bottom up, you gotta leave it up to them to determine when and if they’re ready to make that step up because they’ve been there before. And when you have someone who hasn’t done it and believe it, you got two sides that clash.”
You could make the argument that Antillon is one of the world’s very best boxers who has yet to fight for a world title. Armed with a fan-friendly, offensive style, he always makes for good TV. He also earned plaudits for his work as a sparring partner for Manny Pacquiao this past spring.
It’s a far cry from his struggles in 2003 and 2004 against the likes of Ivan Valle, Adan Hernandez and Fernando Trejo, outings where he was hurt and floored, but managed to pull out victories.
“That’s a perfect example, I think at that time they were moving him way too fast,” Alcorta points out. “They fought Valle, Hernandez, Trejo and they had some fights in-between there but Urbano barely had 10 fights, he was still a real young kid. He wasn’t active all the time and it showed in the ring. He struggled a little but he learned a lot from every fight.”
Antillon joined Top Rank in 2005.
“Once we started moving him, we came into a different mindset. We were going to let Bruce dictate who he’s fighting,” said Alcorta, who says that everybody involved has input when it comes to picking their opponents. Antillon has become a well-seasoned, all-around boxer-puncher. “The progress has shown. He’s done really good. He’s fought left-handers, right-handers, different styles, he’s fought African-American fighters, Filipinos, Colombians, and he’s done well against all of them. He’s been able to grow and learn, and aside from that, build a lot of confidence that I don’t think he had when he fought Trejo, Hernandez and Valle.”
It’s customary for young fighters to pick up a world title at the weight they start off with and quickly move up. It’s a way of padding the resume and building up a fighter’s profile. As you look at the 130-pound class, there isn’t anyone that would be a clear favorite to beat Antillon. When he was asked if he should’ve stayed a bit longer at jr. lightweight, he says, “It really wasn’t up to me, it was my body that told me to move up in weight. I mean, I would always fight around ’32,’33, and the time it came to making 130, everything leading up to the weigh-in was great – but the last two pounds are the ones that got me. So then I just figured I’d be comfortable at 135. But I’m just growing. God knows how long I’ll be at 135, to be honest with you.”
Alcorta believes he’s ready to face any blue-chip lightweight in the game today. “Absolutely, he’s been in the ring with good people, solid lightweights, fights that could’ve gone either way. Of course he was a favorite but they were legitimate lightweights and he’s had the same result with everybody – he’s knocked them all out. The time has come now to step up and see what your boy has. Everybody is on the same page. We all believe he’s ready.”
The Top Rank brass believes they have their latest finished product off their championship assembly line.
“I think his skills are one thing and I think that his ability to fight at a division where he’s most successful is going to be the next challenge. I think he’s been grappling with the 130, 135-pound divisions. I always know when I have a good fighter when I can’t get him big fights,” said duBoef. “The fact that I couldn’t get the Juan Diaz fight in August. I put his name in the hat. Other fighters like that, Tim Bradley, whoever.
“It’s just very difficult for us to get fights and it means it’s a compliment to their ability.”
MOVING ON
Representatives of Vitali Klitschko met with HBO on Thursday and it was decided that nobody suitable would be found for September 12th and it was agreed upon that Klitschko – who was the most recent Klitschko brother to be jilted by David Haye – will defend his WBC title in either October or September.
Which could mean that Chris Arreola will be his next opponent. Arreola, who doesn’t exactly employ a Spartan lifestyle, was unwilling (and perhaps, physically unable) to go in mid-September, but I’ve been told that with the extra month or so to get ready, Arreola and his people would have no problems taking this assignment in the fall.
As for HBO, no idea what they will do with this date. They definitely wanted a show a week before their September 19th pay-per-view show featuring Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez.
LATIN DREARY
This edition of ‘Latin Fury’ had already taken some significant hits heading into this weekend. First Yuriorkis Gamboa, Top Rank’s much-heralded new signing, was scratched due to Visa issues. Then the headliner, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., was taken off the card (from what I understand is getting ‘hurt’ by not training very hard) and on Thursday it was announced by Top Rank that Sonny Boy Jaro, who was to have challenged WBA lt. flyweight titlist Giovani Segura, had Visa issues of his own, and he was replaced by Juanito Rubillar Jr.
Because of all this, Antillon is the main event on Saturday night.
Call him the last Mexican standing.
FRIDAY FLURRIES
OK, now Top Rank has decided to name their November 14th promotion, featuring Pacquiao-Cotto, as ‘Firefight’, instead of ‘Power Surge’. No word when they will then change their mind and go with ‘Fire Power’ and then ‘Fight the Power’….Allan Green versus some MMA combatant? Really?….Seriously, is anyone in New Jersey not corrupt?….So the NFL Draft will now span three days? Oh, yeah, more Mel Kiper Jr. (seriously, I’m a fan of this guy)…..A bout between middleweight king Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams is seriously being discussed for September 26th (it would go along with the replay of Mayweather-Marquez on HBO). Now, if that bout can’t be made, it could be ‘Caucasian Fury’ for Pavlik…..Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
