By: Francisco Martinez
Trainer Henry Ramirez was live at the Robert Guerrero vs Aron Martinez fight at the Stub Hub center. So Boxinginsider.com clarified as to why Chris Arreola (Heavyweight) wasn’t on the undercard as he was advertised to be. Henry Ramirez has trained Chris Arreola his entire career. Also gave his thoughts on Robert Guerrero vs Aron Martinez.
Boxinginsider.com: “I thought Chris (Arreola) was suppose to be on the undercard?”
Henry Ramirez: “We pulled him out a couple of weeks back”
Boxinginsider.com: “What happened?”
Henry Ramirez: “His elbow needed a little more time to heal. So he’ll probably fight in July”
Boxinginsider.com: “That was a difficult fight he just had. I think it would have been to soon to put him back in the ring, don’t you think?”
Henry Ramirez: “Maybe but he hadn’t fought in a year so with him, he needed some rest. He’ll fight in July and keep him busy you know. After that we’ll go for some names”
Boxinginsider.com: “He says his elbow bothers him at the time. Is that something that happens in most fights? Has it really bothered him?”
Henry Martinez: “Yeah, for a while. He had surgery on the left elbow and then on this one, he hurt the right one so you know, it’s just something that happens”
Boxinginsider.com: “How difficult is that? When he’s fighting, what does that really keep him from doing?”
Henry Martinez: “It makes his arm go dead. He suffers like a dead arm, dead elbow”
Boxinginsider.com: “So he was training and then you guys pulled him out (of the undercard for Robert Guerrero vs Aron Martinez) you guys felt that maybe he wasn’t ready to fight?”
Henry Martinez: “No, it was the elbow. Didn’t heal in time”
Boxinginsider.com: “What date are you guys looking for?”
Henry Martinez: “I heard maybe July 18th is a possibility”
Boxinginsider.com: “Will it be a big fight or a quality fight?”
Henry Martinez: “We’re going to get him back up, a tune up type fight. I wanna put him in another tune up. See where we’re at, knock out some rust and then we’ll go from there”
Boxinginsider.com “Weren’t you guys pushing for Deontay Wilder?”
Henry Ramirez: “Wilder was never mentioned to us. It’s a fight that we would obviously pursue now. Wilder has a fight with Eric Molina (June 13th. Wilder makes his first WBC title defense) he has a mandatory with (Alexander) Povetkin, we’ll see where we fall in line. I don’t really know what’s going to happen. More importantly though is knocking some rust off, I see him being in much better shape. He’s about 252lbs right now so he’s been doing good but he just wasn’t ready to fight tonight but by July 18th he’ll be ready to go”
Boxinginsider.com: “Do you think the poor performance he just had (Chris Arreola vs Curtis Harper) on PBC (Premier Boxing Champions) do you think that affects his chances to get a title shot?”
Henry Ramirez: “No, not at all. It’s a bad performance but it was a performance that I knew was going to happen because he had surgery on his elbow. Barely had gotten cleared (medically cleared) and we put him in on twenty one days notice so I knew it was going to be a tougher fight then maybe most people expected but we’re the ones making the decisions and we’re going to do as we want whether people like it or not”
Boxinginsider.com: “What was the feeling going into the locker room after that tough fight?”
Henry Ramirez: “I didn’t have any time to think because (Josesito) Lopez fight was right after” (Josesito Lopez vs Andre Berto was the main event)
Boxinginsider.com: “That was a good fight until Andre Berto caught him with a good punch…”
Henry Ramirez: “It was a good fight. I feel, you know we where definitely winning the fight (Andre) Berto is a big puncher, he was able to turn the fight. I keep hearing people say Berto is back, Berto is back, look, he had a good f*cking minute of the fight you know. Maybe I’m over overzealous or whatever but it is what it is, you can’t cry about it. Gotta move on. Jose, he had surgery also. He needed surgery going into the fight”
Boxinginsider.com: “He needed surgery going into the fight?”
Henry Ramirez: “yeah”
Boxinginsider.com: “What was it, a knuckle?”
Henry Ramirez: “Ligament in his knuckle. He’s out for the rest of the year”
Boxinginsider.com: “Did you guys see the (Aron) Martinez, (Robert) Guerrero fight?”
Henry Ramirez: “Yes I did”
Boxinginsider.com: “Well, he (Josesito Lopez) fought (Aron) Martinez. He knows what Martinez is about. So let me know what you think about it?” (The fight)
Henry Ramirez: “I thought it was a heck of a fight. Aron (Martinez) is a tough kid, I wasn’t expecting that, I wasn’t expecting for him to have (Robert) Guerrero on the verge of knocking him out. Close fight though you know. I think, maybe I had Martinez edging it”
Boxinginsider.com: “Even Sugar Ray Leonard said that, if anything the least that (Robert) Guerrero could have gotten was a draw. Insinuating that (Aron) Martinez won. What do you think about these injustices that happen in Boxing affect a fighter like Martinez?”
Henry Ramirez: “I don’t think people have a problem with the two scores that where a point apart. I think people have a problem with the card that was five rounds apart…”
Boxinginsider.com: “97-92…”
Henry Ramirez: “97-92, that was a f*cking one way fight either way”