"With his elbow, they termed it arthritic elbow, so the cortisone was short term and having a little minor scope surgery is the long term and that's pretty much the best it's gonna be. It happens when he gets hit in the arm or he starts to punching, his arm will just go dead on him and it kind of did in the fightÂ…That arm is a lingering injury, but that thing has been there for years though. He was ready to fight in the rematch and unfortunately he got caught. I'm not worried about a letdown. I think the best thing to do is to get Chris right back in there. The quickest way to get over a loss is to get right back in and get a win. Moving forward, I'm not worried about the old Chris returning," stated world-class trainer Henry Ramirez, who talked about the future of heavyweight contender Chris Arreola. Check it out!
PC: Chris Arreola's fight against Bermane Stiverne didn't go as planned. Were you pleased with what you were seeing before he got caught?
HR: Yeah, he got caught; it was a great fight. He did well up until that point. After the 5th round, he came to the corner and says, "I think I broke my hand." He stopped throwing the jab with the same conviction that he had been. On the 26th-27th of April, we had gotten him a cortisone shot in his left elbow and it didn't break camp, but it hindered sparring a little bit. He hadn't sparred from April 24th until he fought. With his elbow, they termed it arthritic elbow, so the cortisone was short term and having a little minor scope surgery is the long term and that's pretty much the best it's gonna be. It happens when he gets hit in the arm or he starts to punching, his arm will just go dead on him and it kind of did in the fight. That affected him as far as not being able to throw the jab the way he had been and bringing it back properly. But hey, he got caught right on the temple by a tremendous puncher like Stiverne and hey, that's the way it goes.
PC: Chris was so motivated for the rematch with Stiverne. Are there any concerns of a letdown if he gets a comeback type of opponent?
HR: I think he has turned the corner. I really think he has turned the corner. We had back to back good camps. We had a good camp for the Seth Mitchell fight. We went to Arizona and we had a good camp for the second Stiverne fight. That arm is a lingering injury, but that thing has been there for years though. He was ready to fight in the rematch and unfortunately he got caught. I'm not worried about a letdown. I think the best thing to do is to get Chris right back in there. The quickest way to get over a loss is to get right back in and get a win. Moving forward, I'm not worried about the old Chris returning. The last two camps, he's done what he needed to do as far as preparation.
PC: You mentioned the elbow earlier. Chris always does this little weird movement with one of his arms. I can't remember which ar. Is that why?
HR: That's the arm. That is definitely the arm. And if you noticed, going into the 5th and 6th, his jab definitely wasn't pushing anyone back. At the beginning of the fight, he was really snapping that thing out there and bringing it back. Even though Stiverne was sitting on the ropes a lot, it was the jab pushing him back. Anybody that has ever sparred Chris will say his arm always goes dead on him. But yeah, the funny thing he does with his left hand is because of his arm.
PC: Josesito Lopez is talking about a September comeback; some speculation that he may come back on the Mayweather card. Can you confirm anything?
HR: No, we are just waiting. I'm waiting to hear from Al for his next potential date. We were thinking about August, but it's looking more and more like a September date. But Josesito is active, he's been in the gym 4 days a week, and we are just waiting on the word so we can get started in camp. I'm looking forward to getting him back in there coming off of the impressive Aaron Martinez win.
PC: Coming off of a lackluster performance against Mike Arnaoutis, how important was it for Josesito to not only beat Martinez, but to do so impressively?
HR: It was very important moving forward after the Maidana loss and the Arnaoutis fight, where he looked very lethargic and very sluggish. He had everybody questioning whether or not he was shot and the reality is, I know this was kind of a later replacement, maybe 3 or 4 weeks before the fight, but I told Jose, "Let's take the fight." I was really happy with the way he looked in the Martinez fight. He looked sharp, aggressive, and for him to dominate a guy like Aaron Martinez...I know people will say, "Who the hell is Aaron Martinez?" But here in Southern California, Aaron Martinez is known by a lot of people and he's not a pushover. It was a good win for Jose.
PC: You posted on your social media page that you didn't care what was going on with Oscar De La Hoya's personal life, as long as Golden Boy continued to produce great fights. I like that statement because sometimes we get too involved in these guys personal lives.
HR: Yeah! I know his name was in the news not too long ago about stuff outside of the ring, and it's like, who gives a shit? If his company is putting on great fights, that's all I care about. Whatever he does in his personal life is his personal life. It's none of my business, yours, or anybody else. I like Golden Boy and he's the person in charge of the company right now and whenever we fought on cards, I know most of the staff and they treat us great. I just think people get too caught up in private stuff outside the ring.
PC: What did you think of the fight between Miguel Cotto and Sergio Martinez? Cotto is now the lineal middleweight champion.
HR: Wow, it was a pretty impressive win. Is Martinez now that bad or is Cotto that good; possibly a combination of both. You know what's funny is when Martinez got caught with that shot in the 1st round, I texted Chris, "That fucking temple shot," and he texted me back "Yep!" I really don't think Martinez was able to recover from that. Cotto is so strong. Moving forward, it's gonna be interesting to see because there will be a lot of great opportunities for Cotto.
PC: Robert Guerrero and Yoshihiro Kamegai just fought a helluva fight. Your thoughts on that one?
HR: Yeah, it was a great fight; a great action fight that was far better than I expected. I think after the 7th or 8th round, you had to start wondering how much the human body can take and Guerrero showed a lot of heart to win the last 3 or 4 rounds more decisively. What a helluva fight, so props to both guys and it was a very entertaining fight from both sides.
PC: Any fights on the horizon you looking forward to?
HR: First and foremost, I'm looking forward to getting my guys back in there; Chris and Josesito. I'm looking for Chris to bounce back and I'm looking for Josesito to keep moving forward after an impressive win. I'm really looking forward to the Stiverne and Wilder fight. I'm kind of interested to see how it would turn out. Both guys have tremendous power. Obviously Bermane is much improved, but it doesn't mean that Wilder's punching power can't turn the fight. I will really be paying attention to that fight. I'm also looking forward to the Canelo and Lara fight. You gotta give Canelo a ton of credit for taking a fight that he doesn't have to take at this point. I think it's going to be a great fight and the thing I also like is there seems to be some really bad blood between the two of them. That always add to a fight.
PC: I always appreciate your time and best of luck to you and your fighters. Is there anything else you wanna close with?
HR: I signed another prospect with Al Haymon. He is an undefeated 154-pound fighter, which is gonna be a loaded division in the next couple of years. His name is Joshua Conley. He was a standout amateur. He won Silver in 2010 US Championships and 2008 National Golden Gloves champion. And I'm also training 2008 Olympian Shawn Estrada, who kind of fell off the map a little bit. We looking to get him back on track and get him back in the ring probably in about another month.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]