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01/21/2009 Archived Entry: "Mike Garcia’s Thoughts on Andrei Arlovski’s Training Camp"
Mike Garcia’s Thoughts on Andrei Arlovski’s Training Camp
By Juan C. Ayllon
Photo by Miguel Salazar
Mike "Fly" Garcia (second from right) with Freddie Roach (far right) and Andrei Arlovski (second from left) and, apparently, another member of Arlovski's camp at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., January 20, 2009 – Mike “Fly” Garcia is a former undefeated and world-rated super flyweight boxer who had a record of 26-0 with 18 knockouts. As co-owner of JABB Boxing Gym along with 8 Count Productions promoter Dominic Pesoli, he regularly trains clients, including former WBC Lightweight Champion David Diaz and Andrei Arlovski.
Currently, Garcia is working with acclaimed boxing trainer Freddy Roach – who trains boxing’s pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao, the man responsible for taking David Diaz’s crown last summer – in preparing former Ultimate Fighting Championship’s former Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski for his biggest fight. This evening, he’s holed up in a hotel helping Andrei Arlovski prepare for his showdown with mixed martial art’s current number one heavyweight, Fedor Emilianenko on Saturday, January 24th.
Speaking via phone, Garcia shared some thoughts on Arlovski’s preparations.
MG: We’re staying in Hollywood right now; we’ll be in Anaheim tomorrow for the press conference. We’ll probably jog a couple miles tomorrow and get ready for the press conference.
We’re very excited. We know it’s going to be a tough tough fight. Emilianenko is the best out there. So far, his record speaks for itself. His loss was due to a cut. I think a bunch of guys fear him before they get into the ring.
Andrei seems very confident. I believe Andrei could be the Buster Douglas [in his bout versus Mike Tyson] of Mixed Martial Arts.
Training’s been very good. We started it about 10 weeks ago. He was with us for about three weeks. He came back [to Chicago] with a cold about a month ago – around December 22nd – from the weather change going from a cold to a warm climate. He made up his mind he wanted to go back to L.A., but he wanted us to go along with him – Dino Costeas, the wrestling coaches Sean Bormet and John Kading and me. So we all came out here and it worked out okay. And also [head boxing trainer] Freddy Roach is with us. It works out good. In the beginning, I didn’t know how it would work. We both had the same strategy. Sure enough, Freddy was already doing it. It was good to hear that we were both on the same page.
And like I said, Andrei’s out there sparring. Freddy will tell us what he wants and we make adjustments. After all, we’re here for one purpose: Andrei. We’re looking forward to victory!
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Promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and brought to you by Affliction Entertainment and its partners, Donald J. Trump and M-1 Global, Affliction M-1 "Day of Reckoning" is scheduled for January 24 at Honda Center in Anaheim, CA and live on Pay-Per-View. The loaded fight card includes 11 rousing bouts of fierce, full-throttle action headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski. The six-fight blockbuster PPV telecast, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, features MMA stars Josh Barnett, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Chris Horodecki and Matt Lindland in separate bouts. As a prelude to the highly anticipated PPV telecast, HDNet will televise live beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT five additional fights with the marquee match-up of Antonio Nogueira vs. Vladimir Matyushenko as the main event.
