NACHO BERISTAIN PLANS NICE SURPRISE ON FIGHT NIGHT
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 04 Sep 2011
Manila - Hall of Fame trainer Ignacio ?Nacho? Beristain was a bit under the weather but graciously granted the request for an interview made by philboxing writers who attended the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III Press conference at the Manila Hotel Saturday afternoon. The 68 year old Beristain, who describes himself as a ?humble worker of boxing?, was approached by a 14 year old Marquez who went inside the gym of one of the greatest of Mexican champions, Vicente Saldivar. That partnership has continued till this day.
Beristain has also trained twenty world champions and two female world champions and describes Juan Manuel as his greatest champion and even greater as a person.
When asked about the success of Mexican boxing, Beristain replied that, ?I think it is the difficult financial and economic situation that pushes young kids to go into boxing. They want to better their financial situation for their families. I was one of them, I got into boxing for the same reason.?
Despite being called the King Midas of Mexican boxing and the most successful trainer against Pacquiao, Beristain was modest. ?The one who beat Pacquiao was the boxer, not me.? Beristain shares Marquez? opinion that he beat Pacquiao twice.
?My fighter (Marquez) is the one who did his job.? He said. ?I am very fortunate to work with wonderful people and very good fighters.? He named Gilberto Roman, Daniel Zaragoza, Chiquita Gonzales as his best champions, ?But the greatest of them all if Juan Manuel Marquez.? He said.
When asked about the now familiar fighting posture of Ricardo Lopez and Marquez, he replied ?Finito Lopez is not the only boxer who fights like that. Many boxers in the Romanza gym fight that way.
Beristain talked about the much anticipated Pacquiao-Marquez trilogy. ?The people who say that he is already 38 years old;that he is lost his speed, they are in for a nice surprise (agradable sorpresa) on fight night.?
?Speed will not be sacrificed. In the previous fights, Marquez countered Pacquiao?s speed with speed. With small steps backward, we make him lose his distance. Now , we will continue developing strategy. Marquez wants to dominate him and demonstrate that he won the first two fights.?
?Marquez is a technically gifted fighter and gifted technician. But he is not a fighter at welterweight. I think he could have been a long term superbantamweight and featherweight champion and as a lightweight but not more.?
Beristain did acknowledge the improvement in Pacquiao but said that it could be to Marquez? benefit if Pacquiao resorts to fighting a technical battle because Juan Manuel can read him better and he?ll be easier to solve.
Beristain also talked about the weigh issues and Marquez? problems fighting at welterweight against Floyd Mayweather. ?Juan Manuel was always interested in fighting the very best. He is a very good boy and when people approach him, he likes to listen and believe what people say. In boxing, some people try to convince people to do something. An example of that is the adventure he had against Mayweather.?
?Eric Gomez, an assistant of Oscar dela Hoya, talked to Juan. He made an offer for Marquez to fight Mayweather. While it is true that money is important, the body of a person is also important. ? Beristain continued. ?Juan is a gifted athlete but he allowed those people to convince him to fight Mayweather. Even when a hair stylist comes to him and talks about boxing, he listens. There was a physical trainer who I think is good but was not prepared to work with a gifted athlete like Juan, who may have been too big a challenge for him.?
?Coaches invent things, some things that you are not sure as a trainer. The physical preparation was not good and made him lose his natural gift to counterpunch, his precision. Sometimes, in his best moments, he can evade one punch and counter with 2 to 3 punches, very powerful and punishing.?
?That fight made me sad to see him like that and made me angry. This time will be different. We have Dr.Plutarico Gatica, (points to the man at his side). He has been with us for a long time. We are doing a good job with Marquez now.?
Beristain plans for his fighter to enter the weigh-in at 142 to 143 and he?ll weigh 146 at fight night. Marquez usually weighs 146 during the night of the fight when he fights at lightweight.
Authors note ? Special thanks to Carlos Costa of notifight.com for helping us as a Spanish interpreter. Hermano Carlos has proved to be a valuable member of the philboxing family.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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