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11/16/2006 Archived Entry: "Cestus Management & Mike Arnaoutis Ready to Win World Title vs. Ricardo Torres!"
Cestus Management & Mike Arnaoutis Ready to Win World Title vs. Ricardo Torres!
By Juan C. Ayllon
Mike Arnaoutis (right) with Cestus Management founder, Mike Michael
[Editor’s note: This is Part I of a two-part interview. The first part deals primarily with Mike Arnaoutis and Cestus Management, whereas the second talks more about Donovan George, their super middleweight prospect from Chicago]
LAS VEGAS –On Saturday, November 18th, “Mighty Mike” Arnaoutis (17-0-2, 9 KO’s) will face Ricardo Torres (29-1 and 27 KO’s) for the Vacant WBO Light Welterweight Title at the Thomas & Mack Center as a co-main event to the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales mega-fight.
An exciting boxer-puncher, in August 2004, Arnaoutis drew on points with rugged Juan Urango—who went on to win the Vacant IBF Light Welterweight Title this past June over Naoufel Ben Rabah and will be defending his title in January against Ricky Hatton.
Two months later, Arnaoutis stopped Jesse Feliciano in one round. Since then, four out of his last six fights ended were wins inside of three rounds. In January of this year, Arnaoutis stopped then undefeated Marc Thompson (14-0, 12 KO’S) in one round to win the WBO NABO Light Welterweight Title.
Taking time from his busy schedule, Mike Michael, founder of Cestus Management—which handles Arnaoutis, spoke at length about Arnaoutis, his upcoming fight, and Cestus Management.
JA: How are you doing?
MM: We’re doing great. Very exciting. We’ve got a week to go before we challenge and win the world title. I’m over the moon. It’s a dream come true. We’ve worked hard and I just feel great.
(Arnaoutis is) going to fight Ricardo Torres who, two fights ago, boxed Miguel Cotto and got knocked out in seven rounds. This is for the WBO Title.
JA: What kind of preparation is Mike doing for this fight?
MM: Well, we’ve had a real good camp. Mike’s in top shape. His psychology’s good. He’s raring to go. He’s been preparing for this moment all his life, okay? I told him many, many years ago when I first saw him—when I discovered him—that he’d be a world champion, I believed he could become world champion. And I stuck with that vision and groomed this guy to where he is today.
JA: How would you describe Mike Arnaoutis to a person who’s never seen him?
MM: I’d describe Arnaoutis as a very plain and simple individual. He doesn’t ask for too much. He’s happy having a nice home life in his apartment with his fiancé, his childhood sweetheart. He doesn’t ask for too much. He just basically wants to fight and wants to be a world champion, you know?
And why? We as a company at Cestus Management very, very early on instilled in his brain that if you’re going to be in boxing, you have to have a goal. And, if you’re going to have a goal, then you’re going to have to implement that goal. You have to understand the business that you’re in.
I would say that Arnaoutis is a tremendously gifted athlete who we pulled out the best technical boxing ability that you can. He has a good chin, he has good stamina, he’s durable, he can fight on the inside, he fights on the outside, tremendous hand speed and foot speed, great eye-hand coordination, and is able to make an adjustment in a fight. We believe he’s the real deal. We as a company learned that a long time ago, so that is why we signed him.
JA: Is he planning on having a rematch with Urango?
MM: Well, Juan Urango is now fighting Ricky Hatton for his defense of his IBF Title. We’re going to fight for the vacant WBO Title. Later on in the future, if we can make that fight materialize, we would love to have a unification match with the winner of that fight—maybe Urango, maybe Hatton.
JA: You’ve had experience working with Lennox Lewis years ago. Can you tell us how it’s shaped your philosophy working with Cestus Management?
MM: Yeah, I used to work with Panos Eliades, who is the former promoter of Lennox Lewis—who I have a very high regard and respect for. I feel that he mentored me to a certain degree at the upper level of the fight game to have a good and better understanding of it. You know, because I was a former fighter myself as a National Champ of the UK, as an amateur, obviously. Then, I became a trainer, holding the bucket.
I became a trainer, then a manager, then I worked for one of the biggest promotional companies in the world, which was Panix Promotions, which was owned by Panos Eliades and Lennox Lewis. Now I picked up a phenomenal, phenomenal experience by going into Eastern Bloc countries and scouting for talent and then bringing them back to the UK and getting the company fighters, then actually going back into Eastern Bloc countries and promoting events for Panix Promotions with Panos. It was a tremendous ride.
Then, when Panos and Lennox went their separate ways, then I decided to form my own company. I formed Cestus Management and decided that from being in London, I wanted to move to the USA, ‘cause that was the Mecca of boxing.
Like I groomed Arnaoutis, I had been groomed to a certain point in the business of boxing. I felt I could give it as good a go as anybody else could.
I put a tremendous team of people together with the CEO, Gina Iacovou. We incorporate matchmakers for us, consultants for us, we have great attorneys, we have great media, as you’re more than aware. We decided that was the way to go. We moved to America, set up shop, and went to work!
We took Arnaoutis, we had him training out of the Lennox Lewis Center in London. Then, we moved Arnaoutis to America, set him up with accommodation in 2001, covered all his expenses, paid for a substantial amount of his own fights when he was a complete unknown commodity.
You have to understand this kid came from complete oblivion. The country of Greece has not had bona-fide boxing taking place. It has an Olympic circuit that has a lot to be desired for. Fighters like Mike Arnaoutis representing Greece in European tournaments, they were doing well, but because they didn’t have the correct training preparation to establish themselves like America and Russia and so forth that had great boxing programs—nobody really cared about them!
Greeks, in all reality, they don’t really push their children into the fight game. They’d much rather have them playing soccer or basketball or studying in the University to get a bachelors degree to become a doctor or attorney or civil servant. That’s the nature of the culture there. (The chances of having) a talented fighter and have him break out of that culture is slim to none.
When we went there on vacation, Arnaoutis called us. We were promoting on the island of Cyprus. Arnaoutis told me he wanted to become a professional. I saw him in a tournament there and then we started to set him up. We took him to Lennox Lewis Center where we put him to spar with an 18-0 professional fighter called Stephen Murray, who happened to be the IBF Intercontinental Champion, and Arnaoutis really held his own with the guy! We knew then that we had a kid that, if he was groomed right, and the correct amount of money was spent on him, we could take him real, real far.
We moved to America where we set him up. We put a tremendous amount of money behind Arnaoutis and built up his career.
It’s been a ride. We’ve had to endure certain situations, as everybody does in the boxing business. We feel that Cestus Management as a company, by being able to develop somebody from oblivion to one of the highest places you can go in sports—which is to fight for a world championship—I think as a company, we turned the cornerstone. We’ve just shown that any fighter that wants to be something—REALLY wants to be something—has the desire to train, desire to follow the program, he should be with Cestus Management. We’re basically saying to any fighter who wants to be successful, you should be with Cestus Management, period.
