On Friday night, Delray ?The Rainmaker? Raines will face up-and-coming Cuban prospect, Erislandy Lara (14-0, 9 KOs) on January 14, at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. The fight will be the main event of TeleFutura’s “S?lo Boxeo Tecate” program.
On Monday evening, I spoke with Raines’ trainer Stacy Goodson about the difficult challenge that lies before them
LS: How would you rate Delray’s conditioning going into this fight?
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SG: Well, it?s the best he?s ever been in. You know, he?s never been this prepared, and even though Kirkland and Sergio Mora were off and on, he still maintained pretty good, you know? He never was, like a whole 2 weeks of backsliding or nothing.
He wasn?t always as into it as he was when he knew it was signed and sealed. Even when you have notice [before a fight], you do have good days and bad days. It?s not like everything?s gonna be like Disneyland every day because you?ve got this notice. There?s days that we get into it and fight over this, and there?s days that he?s just too drained, so I have to give him? I don?t want to over train him, and you know we never had that option before ? to over train. I don?t want to do that.
But you know, it came down to 4 days ago he was real weak. He was trying to make weight. He?s real good on weight now, which has never happened. But you know, we just had to make sure that we were fueling up so that we could do the last workout and stuff, but like I said, he?s ready. This is the best condition mentally and physically I think he?s ever had the opportunity to been in.
LS: What weight will they be fighting at?
SG: 154
LS: Obviously, Delray has a tough fight on his hands, but a win would be a major turning point in his career. Lara is on a roll of 3 first round knockouts in a row. Do you feel that you have a good game plan in place?
SG: I think the game plan is set. I don?t want to say too much. I?ll put it this way, when Cameron Duncan said that he wanted to fight Raines for Kirkland for his first fight out of the joint, he said that Raines is a perfect opponent, he?s a tough kid, takes a good punch and stands right in front of you, and we don?t plan to be anything like that, other than a tough kid. Hopefully we?re gonna go thirty minutes without getting hit and being the fastest guy, and winning the un-winnable fight. That?s the thing; to pull off the un-winnable fight, man.
LS: Delray told me that he’s prepared to shock the world. He has to go into the ring in that frame of mind. Every time that he’s has faced a tough competitor like Lara, he’s fallen short, but he’s gone the distance with some good fighters. He went the distance with Tarvis Simms. He went the distance with Aaron Mitchell. He went the distance with Joe Greene. And he got a draw with Carson Jones. What is going to make the difference this time?
SG: Like I said, the preparation. We?ve never had this much, and I don?t think we?ve every fought anybody this tough. We were scheduled to fight Kirkland, which probably qualified as the same [as Lara], or around there. But the notice for preparation, mentally and physically, is an advantage. We had a left-handed sparring partner, who was a real good amateur fighter with a style a lot like him [Lara].
The planets have never lined up like this. And we need every second. We?re not overlooking anything, but here?s the thing; whenever people tell us we?ve got it, that?s when I worry, especially with Hearns, which I don?t think even qualifies to really even be a fight, let alone what Delray?s about. [A boxing insider] called us and told us, ‘Hey, you got this one. This is a fight you can definitely win,’ and all this stuff. And, you know, David Lemieux had backed out on us two times already. You know, when everybody calls, and they were telling us about Aaron Mitchell. They called from where he’s training at, saying ‘Hey, in sparring, he’s sending guys that would knock Delray out in the first round home, or to the emergency room’. I’m having to deal with that.
You know, I’m new to this training thing myself, and I’ve been in gyms around the world, but I never had a kid that I cared as much about that I’m putting in the ring. I’ve worked a million corners, but this is something that we actually go and take the test that we’ve studied for, and that’s rare for me. If I had the option, I’d let him go out and build against some good fighters in our area here, but they won’t fight Delray. But they get more respect because Delray has lost fights.
When we’ve had easier opponents, we didn’t take it seriously, and we paid for it. [Training camp] hasn’t been 100% all the time, but it’s been something that I’m comfortable with, and I think that the last month has been a real training camp. He’s never had four whole weeks to train for a guy, and I think that after this, he will get the respect that he deserves. We have a good game plan that I think will work, and if we’re gonna win it, this is the way we’re gonna win it.
