Jeff Mayweather: “Gamboa is the Biggest Risk at 126.”

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Jeff Mayweather: “Gamboa is the Biggest Risk at 126.”

Thu 8-Apr-2010 06:51

Part One of an Exclusive Two-Part Interview by Ryan Maquiñana

Unified super bantamweight champion Celestino “El Pelenchín” Caballero was in search of a new trainer for his first fight at 126 pounds. Enter Jeff Mayweather. The former lead cornerman of WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov hopes to keep Caballero’s 14-bout winning streak intact with the Panamanian’s upcoming WBA featherweight title fight against Indonesia’s Daud Yordan on April 10. In the first half of a two-part interview, we talked about his first training camp with his new pound-for-pound pupil, as well as how the pair plans to navigate the new frontier of the featherweight division.



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Ryan Maquiñana: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule with the fight coming up this Saturday. How has camp been going?

Jeff Mayweather: Camp’s been going great. We’re ready. He [Caballero] came to Vegas first for about two months. He came out quite early so we could see how our chemistry was, and things went great. Then we went to Panama for ten days, and now we’re in Florida.



RM: Is there anything specific, as far as the game plan for Yordan is concerned? His two rounds with Robert Guerrero were brief but competitive, and after that no-contest, has fought in relative anonymity in his home of Indonesia, so I wonder if it’s been tough obtaining film on him.



JM: It’s a little tough to find clips on [Yordan]. I did see a couple clips of him on YouTube fighting a guy [Antonio Meza] who I think was 24-4, but this guy was nowhere near the talent level of Celestino, and he won the fight by majority decision. I’ve seen enough to know that Celestino has seen way worse situations that this one. I know [Yordan] is undefeated, but his record is manufactured. He hasn’t remotely fought anyone at all. With the Guerrero fight, you can’t even count that because of the headbutt. If he was great for two rounds, that doesn’t mean anything. Celestino hasn’t lost a fight since 2004 and he’s been winning world titles in other people’s backyards. He’ll fight anywhere and he’s seen a situation like this. When [Celestino] beat [Daniel] Ponce De Leon, this guy was 24-0 with 23 knockouts. And he’s still hungry because he still feels that he hasn’t reached a level where he wants to be. There have been other guys that came after him who have gotten more recognition, but the boxing publications must know something since he’s ranked number ten pound-for-pound in the world [by THE RING magazine], so someone’s taken notice.



RM: You’ve received a lot of acclaim for your work with heavyweights like Shannon Briggs and Sultan Ibragimov. How did you hook up with Celestino Caballero in the first place? His cousin, former junior welterweight contender Miguel Callist, is a key member of his camp. Did he have a role in making you a part of the team?



JM: That was our link. Miguel Callist. It’s kind of strange. It’s like the situation when we worked with Shannon Briggs. God’s smiled down on me. I was at my nephew Floyd’s fight when he fought Marquez. Right after the fight, Miguel Callist, someone I’d seen before but never knew, came up at me and said, “You’re the one who’s going to train my brother, and you’re going to do great together.” I’ll be honest. I didn’t know who he was talking about. Really, since the retirement of Prince Naseem, Barrera, Morales, back in that era, that division was full of good fighters. But I stopped watching guys below 135. I didn’t know who Celestino was. [Miguel] felt like he had to convince me to train him saying that Celestino was a “super champion,” but I don’t even know what that is. (Laughs) I said I’ll train him. I’m not that type of trainer. I’ll work with you until you’re not worth working with because of your attitude. That would be the only problem with me not working with you. Anyway, we exchanged numbers and we stayed in contact for quite some time, and then I didn’t hear about him for about two months, so I thought it was all just talk. Once in awhile, I’d get a call from him saying it was going to happen. I didn’t necessarily brush it off, but I put it on the backburner, thinking if it happens, it happens. Then about a month later, I got a call from Celestino himself. So we talked a little on the phone and he said he would come, but then another month passed after the call, so it wasn’t even on my mind anymore. Then all of a sudden, I get a call from Miguel asking me to pick him from the Las Vegas airport; but he tells me that Celestino won’t be here for another two days. So I did my research. I looked Celestino up on YouTube and watched him a little bit. I liked what I saw. And when I finally met him in person, I thought he was one of the nicest and most humble guys I’ve ever met. We got along great.



RM: Tell me about your trainer-fighter relationship with “Pelenchín.” Is there a language barrier at all?



JM: Definitely there’s a language barrier, but one thing I can say about him is that he’s trying his best. He’s studying English a lot now, and he’s doing real well. We can have conversations now. It’s funny because back in Vegas, I would talk to him in Spanish and he would talk to me in English. He knew what he was talking about, but I’d be there making up stuff. (Laughs) One thing about boxing is that it’s universal. I once trained a guy from Japan who didn’t speak any English at all, but he was the easiest guy I’ve ever trained because whatever I did, I showed him visually. For the most part, a jab is a jab in any language. With that said, I never have to speak in Spanish with Celestino. We have an understanding.



RM: How is your relationship with him outside the ring?



JM: He’s a very humble guy, and he’s really seen as a people’s champion in Panama. When we went to Panama, I got a chance to see how he’s received by the people there. There have been times where we would be ready to go. I’d be sitting in the car waiting for him, and all of a sudden, there would be someone who wants to say ‘Hi,’ or take a photo. And he stops to talk to every person. He never runs or says he’s too busy. And then I went to Colon, the city where he was actually born and grew up and, oh, my God…Forget about Compton or any ghetto you ever saw. It was really bad. I went there and I didn’t see one house that wasn’t condemned. But you’d see thousands of people exchanging pleasantries, and the people received me so well. It was great to see people come up to me and say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for training our champion.’ That was a great, great compliment because I’m in a country with people I’ve never seen or don’t even know but they believe enough in me to compliment me. To me, I’m going to treasure that for the rest of my life.



RM: Is there anything you noticed about his style that you gradually hope to adjust in your brief time working with him? Do you feel that he maximizes his immense height advantage when he fights?



JM: I think that’s something right now we’re working on, because he has a warrior’s heart. He’s a puncher. And most punchers like to be in that range where they want to turn your lights out. But I’m trying my best to get him to use his reach and jab a lot more. I want him to box a lot more to maximize his reach.



RM: What’s one thing about Celestino that you didn’t expect to see in training?



JM: The one thing about Celestino is that he’s extremely awkward, but also one thing I saw when I put him in the ring was his tremendous accuracy. The awkwardness is something when a lot of trainers see that, they try to change it. I’m the complete opposite. When I see a guy that does something awkward that works, I don’t try to change it because there’s something about it that makes him even more special to me. Sometimes it seems like he’s off-balance, but somehow he generates power through it. Another thing that I’m also surprised about him is that he throws a lot of punches. He’s tall for his weight, but he is a small man, and he should throw a lot of punches, so I was impressed by that. And, of course, I was impressed by his power because he was sparring guys [at] 140, 145, 147 pounds that were all way bigger than him. He more than held his own. It also showed me he has a fighter’s heart because he never once said to give him someone smaller or that the sparring partners were too big. Everyone we gave him, he dealt with. For the most part, he was the one handling them.



RM: At 5’11’’, it’s a marvel of modern science that he’s been able to make 122 pounds for so long. What were the main factors precipitating his move up to featherweight?



JM: He cleaned out the 122-pound division. There’s nothing left there. He could stay there and then what’s he going to do? Clean it out again? The one guy that was there that was a viable opponent and could’ve generated interest and fanfare was Juan [Manuel Lopez]. But once he exited the division, now we got to meet him. He moved there [to featherweight], so now it’s time for us to move there. Back when they were both at 122, Celestino made it a point to make it happen. He even told him, ‘I’ll fight in Puerto Rico. I‘m not afraid to fight you. I’ll knock you out in your hometown.’ Celestino’s a guy who will say that and actually mean it, because the two titles he won were on foreign soil.



RM: Is he making the weight with no problems? How long do you see him staying at the featherweight limit?



JM: He makes weight with no problem. After watching the guys that he’s sparring with, I think he could probably move as high as 135 and be successful. Just knowing his ability and seeing him work against guys much, much bigger than him, as he moves up he’ll probably get stronger. I’ve hired a strength coach, John Tyler, and Celestino’s been stronger than he’s ever been.



RM: You mentioned the one fight he’s been chasing is the one with fellow former super bantamweight champion, Juan Manuel Lopez, who has since moved up to featherweight and won the WBO version of the belt. Now Top Rank has seemingly put Lopez and Yuriorkis Gamboa on a collision course to meet sometime by the end of the year. How would you see a fight, stylistically, between Celestino and the other big names at 126 pounds, namely Lopez, Gamboa, and Chris John?



JM: Basically, I think Celestino needs this fight and one more fight so he can fight how I want him to. I want him to box from a distance and use every inch of his height to maximize it. That’s a point we haven’t gotten to yet, but he understands what I want. It still goes back to being a puncher and having a warrior’s heart. He doesn’t mind being in the trenches, because that’s where he feels he needs to be to finish a guy. So basically, we need to find a happy medium between the both of us and, to be honest, he’s probably the biggest puncher even at 126. He’s a devastating puncher and once he maximizes his reach, he’s going to be trouble for all those guys. Gamboa can be dangerous because he has good power and very fast hands. He’s also tough to fight inside. But, at the same time, he’s also been down before, and he hasn’t fought anybody either. So I already know then, if he fights Celestino, he’s going to stay down, and if he gets up, he’s going to go right back down. I don’t think too much at all about Chris John. I don’t think Lopez really wants to fight. Lopez is a very good fighter, but I don’t think that much of him as I do than I do Gamboa, either. Gamboa is the biggest risk at 126.



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Keep your eyes peeled on MaxBoxing.com later this week for part two of my interview with Jeff Mayweather, where the topic shifts to his response to Freddie Roach’s comments on why he feels the fight between Manny Pacquiao and his nephew Floyd fell through, how he thinks Floyd will fare against Shane Mosley, as well as valuable advice for people who aspire to be trainers one day.

Dejame ver lo que puedo hacer.

Con el Pelenchin Caballero

Armando316 escribió: Con el Pelenchin Caballero

Borther donde comprastes las gafas esas? jeje

que loco no pudo ni nokear a un chinito ahi culicagao va a noquear a gamboa juajaujaujaujaujauja