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08/28/2007 Archived Entry: "Rudy Cisneros: ‘I’m Bringing the Thunder Back into Chicago!’"
Rudy Cisneros: ‘I’m Bringing the Thunder Back into Chicago!’
Photo and story by Juan C. Ayllon
Rudy Cisneros
CHICAGO—Middleweight boxer Rudy Cisneros is on a mission: He wants to join World Boxing Council Lightweight champion David Diaz, a fellow Chicagoan, at the pinacle of his sport.
A former amateur standout who was featured on the boxing reality series, The Contender, with a professional record of 10-2 with 9 knockouts, Cisneros sparred with Diaz to prepare him for his title defense against Erik Morales on August 4th. Now, he figures it’s his turn to make a run for the brass ring.
The only thing is, he’s having a hard time getting fights these days.
Born on August 9, 1981 to tool factory workers Jorge Leon and Maria Cisneros, Rudy Cisneros grew up the oldest of four brothers and one sister in the northern Uptown neighborhood area near Clarendon Park. A natural athlete, at Clarendon, he played baseball, football, basketball and engaged in boxing.
“Boxing started at Clarendon Park, and it continued onto Garfield Park, and it’s been growing,” says Cisneros, whose younger brother drew him into boxing at age nine.
“My brother—the one after me—started boxing first at the age of six,” says Cisneros. “He said, ‘Hey Rudy, we could fight like that guy on TV, [Julio Caesar Chavez].’ So, we got in a little sparring session at home and he…tagged me a little bit and I [said,] ‘Ah, hell, no, he ain’t gonna have that!’”
That impromptu sparring session led to a highly decorated amateur boxing career. Cisneros, who graduated from Senn High School in 1999, not only won the Chicago Golden Gloves, but found national and international success in amateur boxing.
“Winning the Nationals at the ‘Under 19’ [tournament], [representing]…the U.S.A. at the ‘Under 19 World’ [championships] in several duels, getting to represent [the] U.S.A. at the Pam American Games in Puerto Rico—it’s just everything…to represent those three letters: U.S.A. in a competition, in a sport where you’ve been working so hard,” says Cisneros. “You finally got the recognition, you finally got the respect [that says], ‘This kid is something; he’s not just representing Chicago, he’s representing our nation.’”
Cisneros was on the fast track.
He knocked out Ron Clardy, who was 0-2-1 at the time on June 4, 2004, in his pro debut. Fourteen days later, in his second professional bout, he faced trial horse Ed Humes—who had 36 professional fights in amassing a record of 4-31-1—at the DePaul Center.
“I’m coming out of the Olympic Trials, I got a quick knockout in my pro debut, [and] my head was blown up a little bit, no lie,” says Cisneros. “I was at a point where I wanted to make it as quickly as possible. Ed Humes brought me down to the world. Hey, it’s a tough sport, man. You’ve got to take your time. You ain’t just gonna grow great overnight.”
Cisneros continues, “I hurt him with a right hand and I got a little wild and he threw a nice wild left hook and he caught me. I went to the body and, instead of going to the body, I got caught with a left hook. I went right into a left hook.”
Cisneros was knocked out at 1:29 into the first round. He wanted revenge, but fellow Chicago prospect Donovan George beat him to that shot, knocking out Humes in one round in February 2005.
“Everyone [was] talking, ‘Oh, Rudy probably just doesn’t have no chin,’ and this and that, and they was disrespecting me,” says Cisneros. “And I [said,] ‘You know what? I would love to fight him, but if I do get to fight him, I do.’
“Now there’s no point to fight him because it’s setting me back. I’m past that. And after that, I had like four straight knockouts,” says Cisneros. “Not only did I put it behind me, but I proved it and I showed it in the ring that Ed, [I] put behind me."
Cisneros won six of his next seven bouts inside the distance before losing a split decision to Norbert Bravo on The Contender in July 2006.
Following his appearance on the Contender, Cisneros enrolled at ITT Tech, where he studied CAD drafting and architecture.
“Architecture’s my passion,” says Cisneros. “I just love to build stuff. If you give me something that you have to build, like an entertainment center—anything—I’ll build it.”
Cisneros stopped taking classes five months ago when funds ran out. It’s something he’d like to revisit after his boxing career winds down, then build his own custom designs and market his creations with the help of a real estate license, which he also intends on getting.
“It won’t be a regular design, it’ll be a Rudy Cisneros design! It’ll be my unique one,” says Cisneros.
However, as the reader shall see, Cisneros first has designs on completing some unfinished business in boxing.
Tell us about your upcoming fight in September.
I’m currently training right now. I’m getting ready for my September 7th fight. From my understanding, the guy’s name is Joel Perez from Texas. All I know is he won’t come to Chicago and beat me. That’s all I know!
Who are you sparring with these days?
Right now, I’ve been sparring with a lot of the guys from our gym. But mainly, I’ve been sparring with the two people that [boxing trainer] Sam [Colonna] has, Victor [Polyakov] and…[welterweight Andrezej Fonfara]. So, I’ve been sparring with them, I’ve been sparring with people from my gym—you know, the same sparring partners I’ve been using to get me ready for my next fight.
I was training with David Diaz to get him ready for his fight, but at the same time, I was getting ready for my fight, too. [The sparring sessions] don’t get heated, but when you get two fighters in there and one gets a good shot in, the other one wants to get it back in. It’s just part of the sport. But, it’s always been respectful sparring; no one’s been going crazy, nobody’s been trying to hurt each other. It’s always been wonderful sparring. I’ve got wonderful sparring partners, and I hope they speak the same way as me.
Tell us about your split decision loss to Norbert Bravo on ‘The Contender’ series. How did you feel about that fight?
“The only thing I have to say about that Contender [show] is that they show highlights, which is a 30 second round. And, like I told everybody, ‘you thought those 30 seconds of rounds were nasty, you’ve got to see the whole three minute round! From the start to the end, [it was] just straight banging. That day, when everybody saw me fight—throw down like that—I mean, it was unbelievably a war! And I was telling everybody, ‘If you guys thought that was a war, the actual fight was a massacre!’ I mean, we were bombing!
“I wish that I could have a rematch and, who knows? Maybe I could have the rematch with Norberto, but at the same time, what is it going to prove if Norberto is ready to hang it up?”
Tell us about your difficulty getting fights these days.
“Oh, it’s very tough, ‘cause [you encounter objections like,] ‘Oh, your name is part of ‘The Contender,’ people want to get paid more, [and promoters say]…‘you’re not signed with me,’ [or] ‘you have to sell tickets.’ And you know, to be a boxer full-time and only get paid for fight time, it is very hard. I have to have a job on the side.
“So I have a job, I have a 40 to 50-hour [a week] job a week. If I’m not at the gym, I’m at work. The days that I have off at work, I’m in the gym. And the days that I have off in the gym, I’m at work. It’s hard.
“And every time I come to a promoter, it’s like, ‘Well, this is how much we want up front,’ and it’s kind of hard.
“I respect every promoter here in Chicago, I understand it’s a business, I’d probably do the same thing if I was in their shoes. But at the same time, if I’m fighting on your card…why do you have to make it more stressful for me? I’m already so very stressful that I’ve got to think about winning and I’ve got to train, but now, we have to sell tickets, and we have to do this, and that’s super stressful! That right there will defeat the fight!”
What do you mean by how much they want ‘ up front?’ Can you explain that?
”I’m not saying like literally money up front. It’s just saying that [they say,] ‘You need to tell me how many tickets you could sell.’ And, it’s like you can’t force everybody to come see you fight. You have to make that name for yourself. If I don’t get on, ain’t nobody is gonna come see me fight.
“If I have tickets in front of my hand and told somebody, ‘Could you come watch me fight? Buy these tickets!’ They’re gonna be like, ‘Well, yeah, sure.’ To a lot of people, 30 bucks or 25 bucks is not a lot of money, but to a lot of people who are on a budget, it’s a lot of money! And I try my best to try to sell tickets and, sometimes, I don’t have no success with that.
“[Still,] I just keep winning.
“I know for a simple fact that there’s a lot of fans out there that want to see me back in the ring. I’m still walking in the streets around Cicero Stadium on Cermak, because I have a lot of friends and I like those restaurants around there when I want to go eat with my sponsor for right now with one of the managers and my coach. And you see a lot of people [who say,] ‘Hey Rudy, when are you fighting again? We want to see you in the ring!’ My answer is ‘I guess [when] you see me in a poster or you see a flyer.’
“And it’s really hard because right now I’m at a point where [whether] the promoter wants to take me serious or not--I understand their position--now I’m making the jump where I’m going to take it serious! I helped get David Diaz get ready for Erik Morales, as he helped me get ready for this coming fight.
I don’t say nothing bad from David. I actually respect David a lot ‘cause he went on and did what he had to do. And now, he has opened the doors for a lot of us [fighters in Chicago]. I tried to do that for us in ‘The Contender.’ I try my best. The only thing that I did wrong is I didn’t win. But I fought my heart out.
“And, I have to tell you right now, ain’t nobody going to disrespect no Chicago fighters, at least not me! They know when they gonna fight Rudy Cisneros, they’re in for a dogfight!”
I understand you have an interest in getting on with Fernando Vargas’ promotional company.
“Right now, that’s an option where, it’s just like ‘sign the application for every job.’ The best you can do is just send out applications and whoever calls back, calls back. Not just only him—we’re doing that with everybody else. And, like I said, if my resume impresses him, they’ll call back. If they want to give me a shot, they’ll give me a shot. [The] only thing I have to say right now is that at least I tried. I don’t want to sit back and say, ‘man, I never tried, I never tried.’ At least I tried.
“I send out my information, I send out tapes and we go from there. So far, we’ve got to take it from there.”
What do you do for a job?
"I work for American Airlines. I’m an expeditor. [I] make sure that all the bags are on the right flight, all the bags are being re-routed to the right destination, make sure we don’t have no bags [left] behind. And on the weekends, I work upstairs in the tower …[where] I’m a 411 for the pilot and every airplane. [It’s] information, like if a flight is coming in [and asks] what gate does he need to go to, I tell him what gate. If there’s bags to be put up by a certain gate, that’s me [who’s responsible]. I love my job. This is like probably one of the best jobs that I’ve had. I’ve worked for Blockbuster, I’ve worked for Telecommunique (?) and I think this has been my favorite job.
"I mean, yes, these are long hours, but you know, no one said life is going to be easy.
"As of right now, I’m growing with the company. So, if boxing’s not paying my bills, and I’m only getting a fight like once every four…or six months, right now, I have to take the cards that I was dealt with and it’s been…hitting me good at work.
"I’m doing this and, at the same time, I’m in the gym. My coach doesn’t come to the gym at 10 o’clock in the morning, but I’m in that gym at 8:30 in the morning, 9:00 in the morning. So, I’m halfway done with my workout when he gets there. So, if anyone’s telling me right now that I’m not sacrificing, I’d grab them by their shirt, put them in handcuffs, and I’ll have them follow me every minute of the day, every second of the day. And, I’ll ask them at the end of the day, ‘Am I not sacrificing? Am I not doing what I have to do?’
"I’m doing what I have to do. It’s just that I’m on no [boxing] cards."
So, how do you feel about that?
”It’s tough because I know I’m sitting on my talent and I don’t want to ever say that I was just a waste of talent. Or I don’t want nobody to tell me that I was a waste of talent. I know deep down in my heart that I’m not.
“I’ve had fights scheduled and they always get pulled out because [promoters say,] ‘Oh, we need more money, so pay for your opponent,’ ‘you need to sell more tickets,’ or for whatever reason, ‘we didn’t find a fighter for you.’
“That’s okay. I’ve had so many setbacks. The only thing I can do is stay in that gym, keep punching, keep bobbing, keep weaving, keep sparring, keep hitting the punching bag until I get that phone call.
”I know David [Diaz] has made a step, and now it’s time for me to make a step. Whether somebody else [from Chicago] is going to make a step—whether Donovan George is going to make a step, or Francisco Rodriguez is going to make a step, or ‘Macho’ Hernandez is going to make a step—that’s on them. I can only support them, just as they’re supporting me. But, they’re not going to get in the ring and fight for me. I am.”
On a side note, Donovan George recently ran into some personal problems with the law. Do you have any comments on that?
”All I know is that I pray for him, I hope everything is good for him, I hope this doesn’t ruin his career, ‘cause I know one bad judgment off a fighter, that could end a career right there. Any type of outside judgments could end a fighter’s career before he loses in the ring. I hope it doesn’t happen to him. He’s a bright kid, he’s a young kid, he’s got an extremely hard punch—I’ve sparred with him several times and we always have great, great sparring sessions. The only thing I can wish him is good luck and I hope everything happens for him, I hope this blows over and…he can put it behind him. And I hope the law doesn’t stop him from pursuing his dreams.”
Any thoughts you’d like to share about boxing in Chicago?
”We’re bringing back the thunder in Chicago. David Diaz has just started the little war. And, I’m about to spark up the thunder and hopefully, somebody else [will] just be standing behind me, cheering off of me, supporting me, and they come to see me fight, ‘cause I know I’m a good fighter, I know I’m a wonderful fighter, it’s just that I haven’t had the time to stay busy and condition. But when I do, I’m going to be a force to be reckoned with.
"If they thought ‘Windy City’ was a hard wind in Chicago, they haven’t seen me yet! No one has had the faith in me that I’m focused, no one has had the faith in me that I’m really [inaudible]. But I’m letting everybody know: Be prepared because…I’m bringing back the amateur thunder that Rudy had back to the pro ranks. I’m bringing all of that back. I’m bringing all my Spanish rock music back on. We’re gonna rock! I’m going to make sure Chicago gets that thunderous feeling rock back into boxing and I know I’m the man to do that."
