"I think Litzau did his thing. He was a guy that had the opportunity of his life; he fought that way. He took full advantage of the situation. In his mind, he felt like he was a bigger man than Celestino and he felt like he could muscle Celestino and that's what he did. He kept using the overhand right, which landed in the back of the head several times, but it's a fight and that happens. Like I said, there are no excuses; this is boxing and things happen. That's why we have upsets in boxing. No one gave Litzau a chance at all and I think that made the judges kinda be amazed because he was doing what he wasn't supposed to do. The guy that was supposed to dominate wasn't dominating and Litzau did his thing. But anybody that knows Celestino knows that wasn't him at his best or nowhere close to his best. It's just unfortunate that it happened. But we just have to go back to the drawing board, getting back to the gym and trying to get it right. The only thing that really came out of that is now you have Gamboa and Lopez not wanting to fight him because there is no need to fight him. That was the worst that came out of it. But we're hoping to get a rematch and try to rectify the situation," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather as he talked about Celestino Caballero's disappointing split decision loss to Jason Litzau. Check out what else he had to say about the fight, their future plans and much more.
PC: Things didn't go the way you and Celestino had planned. What went wrong in that fight against Jason Litzau?
JM: I think, for the most part, we overtrained. I also think he had a miscalculation on making the weight. Most fighters, when they are moving up in weight, have a tendency to think that they can play with the weight a little bit because it is an additional 4 pounds. I don't think that he dieted the same way that he did for the last camp. But like I said, for the most part, we had a long camp and it was one of those situations where it was very hard to monitor what was going on. He had been ready for 2 1/2 months thinking that he had a fight, and low and behold, the fight got cancelled and then he went home for 2 weeks. In those 2 weeks, I don't know why, but he was still training. He trained the entire time he was in Panama. So while he was there, he was contacted and this fight finally came to a reality. Of course, me not knowing that he was training when he was home, he came back very light. Celestino normally comes into camp real heavy because he knows how to make the weight, and this time around, he was only about 10 pounds over. It was a situation where once we had the fight lined up, we had to start training for it, whether he had been training previously or not. Celestino is a very prideful guy, so a lot of times, I don't really know if he's tired or if he's just winging it. But honestly, going into camp, I probably should have monitored the situation a little better, but at the same time, I knew we had to prepare for this fight. A lot of times, we will be joking around and I will ask him if he's tired and call him an old man. But he's so prideful. Like I said, sometimes I just don't know. We will just laugh it off, but listen, we're still a work in progress as well and we will correct the issues for sure. But in all actuality, he probably was very tired after a couple of rounds because we had such a long camp. We had almost 5 months of just training and at the end of the day, that was probably the worst thing that happened to us. When you overtrain, once you get tired, there is nothing left. You're just fighting off of heart alone. It was a case where Celestino was at his absolute worst and Litzau was at his best.
PC: I know you don't want to discredit Litzau and the performance that he put on. What did you think of his effort?
JM: I think Litzau did his thing. He was a guy that had the opportunity of his life; he fought that way. He took full advantage of the situation. In his mind, he felt like he was a bigger man than Celestino and he felt like he could muscle Celestino and that's what he did. He kept using the overhand right, which landed in the back of the head several times, but it's a fight and that happens. Like I said, there are no excuses; this is boxing and things happen. That's why we have upsets in boxing. No one gave Litzau a chance at all and I think that made the judges kinda be amazed because he was doing what he wasn't supposed to do. The guy that was supposed to dominate wasn't dominating and Litzau did his thing. But anybody that knows Celestino knows that wasn't him at his best or nowhere close to his best. It's just unfortunate that it happened. But we just have to go back to the drawing board, getting back to the gym and trying to get it right. The only thing that really came out of that is now you have Gamboa and Lopez not wanting to fight him because there is no need to fight him. That was the worst that came out of it. But we're hoping to get a rematch and try to rectify the situation, but he can't worry about what people are saying about him. He has to be himself and Celestino is a very strong guy mentally and I think that he's going to bounce back from it because he wants another fight with Litzau more than anything, but it all depends on his promoter and what they want to do next. My thing is this, let's just get back to the drawing board and whoever they put in front of him, we will be at our best. We have to leave that behind us until we can get that situation in front of us. I think that fighting and winning a rematch is very important in terms of his credibility, but also, I think that Gamboa and Lopez are gonna talk about him like he didn't fight at all or that he got beat at 126 pounds, which he didn't. Now, they are in a situation where they can say that. They are not gonna say, "I'll fight him," but they will say, "He looked like trash, so why would I give him the opportunity?" But they still won't look at him as being vulnerable and try to call him out or fight him.
PC: Is the plan to get a rematch with Litzau or move back down to 126 pounds?
JM: I think that if we can't make the rematch happen, then we will go back down to 126 pounds. Hopefully there are a few guys now that are willing to take a chance against him, but if not, he can handle 130; he just didn't make the weight right this time around. I think that once he does, everybody is going to see. You know how boxing is; you're as good as your last fight, and he didn't look good in his last fight, so that's why it's such a negative buzz for him right now. All he has to do is get in, get a fight, and prove himself all over again. Then the same people that were booing him will be like, "Okay, maybe he was just having an off night because that is boxing." And he did have an off night, but it took over 6 years for him to have one. There are a lot of fighters that can't say that.
PC: What did you think of the other two fights on the main card? What did you think of Andre Berto's performance?
JM: The one thing about the Berto fight, to be honest, is I didn't know anything about that guy he was fighting, so that's one of those situations where, whatever happened was going to happen because I had never seen that guy before in my life. I didn't know anything about him other than he had an impressive record. That record could be manufactured as well though, so I couldn't really give any credibility to that fight other than Berto doing what he was supposed to be doing. He came out and showed that he is one of the top young guys that is coming up and he's trying to make his mark.
PC: What about the Marquez/Katsidis fight? What are your thoughts on that fight?
JM: That fight went the way I thought it would go. Not in terms of him getting knocked down and stuff like that, but I felt that with Katsidis' style, eventually he would go out like Juan Diaz. He would keep that pressure on Marquez, but eventually, he would run into something and get stopped. That's just his style. He puts himself in a situation where he's going to overwhelm you, but if you can maintain and find a way, you can end the fight. It's the exact same thing that happened to him in the Joel Casamayor fight. He chased and chased and then he chased until Casamayor said, "Wait a second; let me stop running from him." Marquez finally caught him with the right shot and that was it; that was the end of it.
PC: Thanks for your time Jeff. The best of luck to you and Celestino in the comeback stage, as well as with all of your other fighters. I will be in touch with you soon.
JM: Alright, thanks Percy.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]