Underdog Perez has got there the hard way

His opponent, Adrien Broner, is the budding superstar, an explosive puncher with 12 opponents stopped in his last 13 bouts, but Eloy Perez is in a sense a throwback in that he has fought his way to the top the hard way, taking on any fights that were offered. Now Perez has the backing of Golden Boy Promotions although he is still something of an unknown quantity to all but the hard-core fans.
 
Perez knows he is a massive underdog but seems genuinely confident that he will upset the odds in the Feb. 25 junior lightweight fight on HBO.
 
“I wasn’t always supposed to win but I took whatever they threw at me,” Perez said over the phone from training camp in Oakland, CA. “I don’t think I was supposed to get where I am right now, but hard work pays off. I accomplished the wins, and I’m here, fighting for the title.”
 
Broner believes that Perez is going to be hugely outgunned, comparing his punching power to that of Perez — who has just seven stoppage wins in 26 fights — as being equivalent to a middleweight’s against a featherweight’s.
 
 “He likes to talk a lot but whatever approach he takes, you’ve got to let him do it,” Perez said. “He’s the world champion and I’m grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to fight for the title, but I’m going to give it my best shot and take the title from him.”
 
Perez knows that Broner is usually a fast starter — 10 one-round wins — but said: “It’s not how you start the race it’s how you finish. I’m ready to go 12 hard rounds and give it my best.”
 
Born in Washington state of Mexican heritage, Perez moved to Salinas, CA, to further his career. He has pulled off a surprise before, when he got off the canvas to outpoint Dannie Williams, a national Golden Gloves champion who hits extremely hard, inflicting Williams’s only defeat.
 
Broner’s firepower is formidable. He looked devastating in quick wins over Jason Litzau and, in his last fight, Vicente Martin Rodriguez, but Perez feels his chin won’t let him down should he forget to duck. “I feel like I can take a punch,” he said. “I got knocked down when I fought Dannie Williams but it was a flash knockdown, I wasn’t hurt, I won [most of] the rounds — and I dropped him.”
 
 “I’m always learning,” he said, and, perhaps in a dig at his loquacious opponent, added: “You should never be too eager to think you’re better than what you are. It’s better to be humble. I am who I am. I am Eloy Perez. I don’t try to be anything I’m not.”
 
Broner is without doubt the puncher in the fight, but Perez showed he can bang a bit in a two-round win over Daniel Jimenez last September. “It [punching power] was always there but I had to learn how to box first,” he said, “but now it’s time to show I can punch and to make them feel that power — I’ve got power, it was just that I never showed it.
 
“He’s the champion and he does have power in both hands, but he’s never fought anyone like me — I’m fast, quick, explosive, and I’m going to outwork him and outthink him. I know he thinks he’s good — but I know I’m good.”
 
Note: I have been putting a lot of time into my subscription website, which caters mainly to the sporting types who like to wager on boxing matches, and I also continue to be deeply involved with Boxing Monthly, but in response to requests I will try to update the free Fightwriter site more frequently. I will do my best to post at least one new article a week, probably on Mondays.