"Now here's for some of his fans that don't understand what's going on. Here's a guy who's been quiet his whole career. Now, all of a sudden, he wants to start bashing people, start commenting on other people's comments; he wants to talk about the Freddie Roach, about the Pacquiao, about the Gato and try to clown me and blah, blah, blah. That's a sign," stated jr. welterweight contender Frankie "Gato" Figueroa as he talked more about what happened during his sparring sessions with Miguel Cotto. Figueroa was a guest on the OnTheGrind Boxing podcast yesterday and spoke openly about the events prior to his dismissal from Cotto's training camp.
Figueroa made it clear that his goal was to give Cotto the type of work that would properly prepare him for the difficult task of facing Manny Pacquiao and, although he was serving as just a sparring partner, he was still there to give Cotto good, hard rounds while sparring. "No! That's a good question, but no you wouldn't. Let me tell you why. Because when people see entertainment, they think, they already imagine that's the champion, that's world-class, that's who he is. I'm in no way saying that...the reason you see I'm different is because I was throwing a whole lot more than Cotto, I was moving a whole lot more than Cotto, so if you come into the gym and you see this happening, you would think I'm the world champion. And that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm the world champion. It just means I'm trying harder," Figueroa commented when asked whether or not someone could tell who was the champion and who was the sparring partner during their intense sessions.
Figuero admits that his dismissal from camp isn't necessarily an indication that Cotto might lose, however, he's still not sure why Cotto would choose to send home his most experienced sparring partner instead of trying to figure out how to resolve the issues that were frustrating him. "Now, Cotto's conditioning was better than mine, I'm not going to lie, for the first two sessions. But then I was on my grind and, you know, I was doing as much as possible and, man, man, man, it's just crazy that he sends his best sparring partner home because he was frustrated," he continued. "That doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to lose because he sent me home...his sparring partners are good friends of mine, like I said. One is 9-3, which is Kenny Abril, and then you have Fred Tukes, who's been sparring way more than I have with a lot of people from around the word, he's 7-1-1, but they both combined don't put the pressure on that I put or have the power that I have, they both don't bring that to the table. They have their own style."
For much more with Frankie "Gato" Figueroa and what happened during his sparring sessions with Miguel Cotto, be sure to check out OnThEGRiND BOXiNG Podcast #112 and tune in every Thursday and Sunday for your opportunity to speak live to more guest fighters and the entire OnThEGRiND BOXiNG Team.
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