LOS ANGELES ? There?s a sense of urgency in the Ana Julaton camp.
After suffering a lopsided loss in her last fight, in which her opponent Lisa Brown dominated the ten-round match, the Fil-Am boxer Julaton (6-2-1, 1 KO) and her team will try to rebound what many believe is a career built on hype and good looks.
This time around she faces the WBC?s No. 4 contender, Mexico?s Maria Elena Villalobos (6-3, 3 KO?s) in the Rumble at Rama XII card at the Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Canada on June 30 for the vacant World Boxing Organization (WBO) female super bantamweight belt.
If she fails to win, she might call it a career, according to her manager.
“This is a redemption fight for her,” said Angelo Reyes, Julaton?s manager. “If she loses, I think she?s pretty much done. She spends eight hours a day in the gym. I don?t know how she?d handle another loss; it?s mentally taxing on her. What people don?t see is that she puts so much hard work into each training that?s why I know this time she won?t lose.”
To help her get back to her winning ways, Julaton returned to square one at the Wildcard Boxing Club in Los Angeles where she started her professional career and training with former trainer Freddie Roach, who helped guide her to four of her six wins.
The last time Julaton trained at the Wildcard was before her close decision lost to Dominga Olivo in August 2008. Julaton left Roach soon after because of the trainer?s demanding schedule with other top flight boxers like Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan.
Since that split, Julaton suffered an injury and bounced around trainers Rick Noble and recently Nonito Donaire Sr.
Julaton said she prefers to train at the Wildcard.
“I just love it here,” she said. “It?s like a family reunion. The atmosphere, the crowd, getting reacquainted with the other fighters that are here and of course, training with Freddie is great. I?m training hard.”
Living up to the hype
With only ten fights under her belt, Julaton has received a lot of media attention that many female boxers don?t usually receive. Before the Brown fight, Julaton was on the cover of the Toronto Star, set to feature in an ESPN 60 episode and would have met Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger if she had won. Many expected her to be the female “Manny Pacquiao”, a term that Julaton is not comfortable with.
So when she had a flat night against Brown, the media write-off her career.
She?s ready to prove them wrong.
She made no excuses in her losing performance against Brown where she suffered deep lacerations above her eyes.
“My timing was just off that night,” she said. “I just had an off day. I didn?t warm up properly. It seemed nothing was going my way.”
“I definitely think that when people see me inside the ring they expect me to be a certain boxer because of the hype around me,” she added. “The truth is I?m just trying to do my best and get the word out for female boxers.”
She said going back to the Wildcard and training with Roach is good for her because training with Noble and Donaire Sr. has made her a more mature and polished boxer.
“I feel like I can bring in the elements from the other trainers like Donaire Sr. and bring it here,” she said.
Roach was also glad to be reunited with Julaton.
Roach praised Julaton?s work ethic but said he would have to start from scratch training her.
“She learned some good habits and she learned some bad habits,” said Roach. “Her punches are too long, she?s throwing them too far and extending her arms too much when she throws her uppercuts.”
“We need to work on shortening her punches,” he added. “I do like that she?s using her body weight more when she?s throwing her power punches.”
Julaton knows another flat performance might rain down more criticism and force her to call it a career.
But she said, “It?s my job to change the minds and attitudes of those critics. My goal is to shut them up.”
Roach on Pacquiao
Like everybody else, Freddie Roach said he, too, is waiting to hear from Top Rank?s Bob Arum about the negotiations for a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. match.
“At this point, I?m tired of hearing about it,” he said. “Whoever they decide is fine with me.”
Roach, who will be in New York this weekend preparing one of his fighters in the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs Yuri Foreman match, is more eager to see the outcome of Cotto-Foreman. He said many people expect the winner of that match to face Pacquiao. He disagrees.
“No one is going to want to watch Manny go against Cotto,” he said. “You only do rematches when it?s a close fight. Manny dominated Miguel.”
How about Foreman?
“I?m open to accepting a match against Yuri,” he said. “He?s beatable.”
Roach also said he?s happy that Pacquiao won a seat in Congress in the Philippines.
“I know he can help out a lot of people in his country.”
Asked if he was going to feel differently, now that Pacquiao is a congressman, Roach said, “Pacquiao will always be Pacquiao to me. He?ll never change especially when he?s inside the boxing ring.” n
( www.asianjournal.com )
