“DO YOU SEE MY EYES? DO YOU SEE THE WAY I LOOK?”
UPON turning professional in 1993, you were moved quickly towards a world lightweight title. How did you find that experience?
In my first fight I did a six-rounder and fought a former California State champion. I then fought two six-rounders, two eight-rounders and the rest were 10s. I was trying to get to the title as fast as I could, but it was kind of hard because I didn’t have a promoter at the time. Well, I had a promoter, but I didn’t have a big-time promoter.
When I got with Cedric Kushner, I was able to fight Philip Holiday in my first title (IBF lightweight) shot. For that fight, though, I took too much creatine and got sick. I went to the ring weighing 137 and he was weighing 147. He was 10 pounds heavier than me. I was like, ‘Oh, man, I’ve made this hard on myself.’ But I still outboxed him, moved around and fiddled my way to my first world title.
Did you learn much early on?
Yes, but more due to sparring than anything else. I’ve got two guys to thank: Genaro Hernandez and Zack Padilla. I sparred those two world champions
