When you think Filipinos in the fight game, immediately Congressman Manny Pacquiao or Nonito Donaire come to mind. Eager to change that is the talented Ana Julaton, who will be back in action Friday night as she sets out to accomplish yet another career milestone. After only 7 pro fights, Ana became one of the quickest champions in male and female boxing history after winning both the IBA and WBO Super Bantamweight straps and nearly unifying the division. Never one to walk away from a challenge, on Friday night, she’ll roll the dice again, moving up nearly two weight divisions as she faces dangerous puncher Angel Gladney, best credited for knocking out all but one of her opponents. Yesterday, Ana called up the FightHype Radio Show to discuss the upcoming fight. “It’s going to be a tough fight. Freddie saw the tape, Rodel saw the tape, so we’ve done our studies and we worked on it, but we have a definite game plan and, you know, I’m just going to go out there and just implement it. I’m there to deliver it,” she stated and you don’t want to miss what else she had to say. Check it out!
On training camp…
Training’s been fierce. I was down over in Wild Card Gym in West Hollywood, California and hey, Freddie’s been tough on me. My sparring partner, Rodel Mayol, has been tough on me. Kaliesha West helped me out a couple of times, ya know; she gave out some awesome work. Overall, I feel like it was great.
I was there for like a month and a half and such and, you know, we were just reinforcing everything that we were doing in the last camp and obviously incorporating a little bit more technique, a little bit more intensity, and stuff like that.
On sparring with male fighters…
It depends on the caliber of your partner. I’ve seen guys spar with girls and sometimes the guys will take it easy on the girls and so forth and obviously there will be mismatches and so forth, but I just happened to luck out and have someone like Rodel Mayol, who’s very experienced and who happens to be in great shape and he gives me enough respect to where he goes in there and he’s jabbing the heck out of me, throwing his combinations at me, and you know, for a few of them, I’m taking it straight flush. That’s the intensity of boxing.
Being able to go in there with Rodel, I feel like it’s heightened my self-awareness, you know? If you got hit with something, you can either just think about the pain and be a punk and just do nothing about it and just weep about it, or you can actually apply yourself and no matter how hard it feels, you move, you do something about it, you know? You somehow try to change the game into where you’re starting to create the momentum for you.
I feel really lucky because Rodel, on this last camp especially, I don’t feel like he was taking it easy on me because we were trading a lot (laughing). It’s definitely an experience and it’s something that I will totally cherish and I’m always going to look back on the tape and see what I can always improve on. But it’s fierce.
It’s definitely work!
On working with Freddie Roach…
It’s probably a double standard for me because I think he’s really, really hard on me. He nitpicks everything. He wants everything perfect. It’s crazy because like I’ll watch him do some mitts with some of the other guys and stuff and I’ll see them do some of the same things that I do, but if I end up doing it in front of him, he’ll catch me on it; he’ll make me pay.
Boxing’s a tough sport and he has a lot of heart for the sport, so I know that whenever I go out there, I represent his name and I know I have to always do well because I have his name attached to me as him being my coach.
Being with him as great, but at the same time, it’s a lot of hard work. He will give you a beating.
For me, it’s a tremendous honor and I definitely want to make sure I’m in a position to protect it because, hands down, I know a lot of people are always trying to capture his time and stuff.
On her upcoming fight with Angel Gladney…
She’s very tough. She’s going to come in and fight….it’s going to be an all-out blast.
It’s going to be a tough fight. Freddie saw the tape, Rodel saw the tape, so we’ve done our studies and we worked on it, but we have a definite game plan and, you know, I’m just going to go out there and just implement it. I’m there to deliver it. Check it out! It’ll be Friday at the Dade County Auditorium. I believe the doors open at 7PM so I hope to see everyone out there.
