Year two in the career of 19-year-old Jose Benavidez
Jr. has been a little different than his first.
This time last year, the
prodigious junior welterweight was hailed as the youngest fighter to ever win
the National Golden Gloves. His pro career began with a trial by fire when
he held his own as a sparring partner for Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan at
Hollywood’s Wild Card Gym. The Phoenix native’s extraordinary offensive
arsenal and puzzle of a nearly six-foot frame prompted trainer Freddie Roach to
call him “the best prospect in the world.”
After stopping each of his
nine opponents in 2010, however, a few things happened in the months to
follow. An uncharacteristically lackluster performance against Fernando
Rodriguez in January, where Benavidez was taken the distance for the first time,
brought on qualms that his development has slowed since Roach and his father,
Jose Sr., decided to part ways.
However, “Junior” reestablished
himself as a force when under the tutelage of his father, he scored an
impressive fifth round TKO of James Hope on the Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley
undercard last month. He looks to do more of the same this Saturday when
he headlines his first event against Corey Alarcon, 14-17-1 (4), at the Wild
Horse Casino in Chandler, Ariz. The contracted weight is 143-144 pounds.
“I’ve been training hard
here at home and I’m ready to give everyone my best,” said Jose Jr., now 11-0
(10), and training back in Phoenix at the Central Boxing Gym.
When considering the fanfare
Benavidez has received since signing with Top Rank over Golden Boy in a hotly
contested bidding war last year, anything short of an eye-popping knockout of
an outmatched opponent is a disappointment. But is criticism like that
even warranted?
“I got winded really fast
and the guy wanted to win,” reflected Jose Jr. on the Rodriguez fight. “He was
a pressure fighter and I got a little winded, which changed the way I
approached the rest of the fight.”
“Junior” then switched gears
and explained why he was able to start a new stoppage streak in May.
“With the last fight
[against Hope], I didn’t get tired at all this time and I was ready for a
six-rounder,” said Benavidez. “My conditioning has been better since then.I’ve been running more and I don’t
like making excuses. I shouldn’t be tired at all, so getting tired is not
an option for Saturday.”
In this day and age of
instant gratification (see Alvarez, Saul, or Chavez Jr., Julio Cesar),
oftentimes fans demand perfection. They want their man fighting for
hardware before the fruit is ready to come off the vine.In this case, perhaps tempered by the
recent string of upsets in the sport, as well as one that afflicted stablemate
Roberto Marroquin recently, Arum and matchmaker Bruce Trampler seem to take a
more cautious approach with the precocious Benavidez.
Alarcon, a crafty veteran
who has proven unafraid to mix it up and utilize his head and elbows on the
inside, sports a sub-.500 record and stoppage losses in each of his last two
bouts, facts that don’t exactly scream test time. But the fact that Benavidez is going
from fighting an opponent with 14 pro bouts to one with 32 who has been in with
Rocky Juarez, Chavez, and Victor Ortiz (the infamous first blemish on Ortiz’s ledger
via first-round disqualification) is a small but still incremental step up, in
that regard.
“He fights dirty,” said the
fighter’s father of Alarcon. “He’s been knocked down a few times but we
don’t take him for granted with his experience. We’re really going to throw the left
hook—and especially punish him with the body shots.”
There is no doubt that the
kid’s left hook to the liver is a crippling weapon that will allow him to trade
in his salad days for steak money one day but his father maintains that the
simplest of punches is vital to keeping his foes honest.
“I’ve been doing this for 14
years and the jab is the key for everything,” said Jose Sr. “At Wild Card
Gym with Freddie, I worked with Lateef Kayode and when I was working on Julio
Cesar Chavez, I would preach doubling and tripling the jab on the face, on the
chest, and even on the stomach.
“Also, after every
combination, I wanted them to finish with a jab so that their opponents would
lunge into the jab.If you throw
right hands all the time without one, you risk telegraphing your punches. You
want to make them blink a little bit and set them up with something.”
In addition, headlining a
card for the first time in his backyard, as well as an injury to his son’s
right hand in his last fight, has admittedly made this camp a bit different
from the others.
“For
the first time, I feel nervous about him fighting back home, even with his
right wrist healed now,” Senior said, referring to an injury incurred in his
last fight when Jose Jr. bounced a right hand off the top of Hope’s head at an
awkward angle. “We’ve been fighting in Texas, Las Vegas, Chicago, anywhere
but here since he turned pro. The tickets are almost sold out. Everybody’s
happy and we’ve been staying focused.”
On the other hand, “Junior”
insists that he has been prepared for the psychological rigors that come with
not only living up to the promise that his reputation has built but addressing
the temptation to ease up on preparation when all indications are that this
Saturday will be nothing more than a showcase bout.
“To me, it doesn’t really
matter if the guy has a losing record,” he stated. “I treat every fight as
if I’m going in against a world champion. You never know how hard they’re
training. Anyone can make you look bad on any night. I don’t really
slack off, no matter what’s going on around me.”
The aforementioned schism
between Roach and the Benavidezes will also be scrutinized with every
performance without the bespectacled legend in the kid’s corner.Jose Sr. acknowledges that all eyes
will be on him to show that his decision to leave Hollywood was the right one,
especially after the Rodriguez fight showed his son exhibited a tendency to get
into his shell when his back touches the ropes.
“I hate the ropes,” the
elder Benavidez lamented. “I don’t want to see him on the ropes. He
says he does it when he feels they’re not hitting him but we’ve been trying to
have him do other things, like using his reach in sparring and using his
distance. This time, we’re looking to throw a jab to the chest to keep the
guy away.”
“Junior” chimed in on that
aspect of his game as well.
“Sometimes I do that to tire
my opponent out a little bit when I know their punches won’t get in,” shared
Jose Jr. “For this training camp, I’ve been more focused on fighting in
the middle of the ring and using my distance more, so I’ve been trying to avoid
the ropes a lot more.
Another point of contention
in the father and son duo’s departure from Wild Card was the quality of
sparring the 19-year-old would receive in the Valley of the Sun. While
many a top amateur patrols the Central Boxing Gym in Phoenix, finding solid
pros, much less pound-for-pound entrants like Pacquiao or Tim Bradley, are few
and far between.
After the last camp
necessitated Team Benavidez to travel to Las Vegas early to log rounds with
up-and-comer Diego Magdaleno and former world champ Julio Diaz, however, it
seems that another move might be in the making.
“For this fight, he’s been
sparring Tony Guerrero, this amateur with over 180 fights,” said Jose Sr. “It’s
been good sparring for [Jose Jr.] but I feel like we might have to move
somewhere. In L.A., over there, you spar good people and here, it’s at a
lower level because there aren’t as many pros over here. I want to go
through this fight and then we’re going to start talking about moving
possibly. You never know.”
Such a decision to uproot
one’s self is never easy, especially for a teenager who will have to move away
from his mother, sister, and two brothers for a second time in under three
years.
“It really hasn’t been that
much of a distraction being back home with my family and friends over here,”
opined Jose Jr. “When I’m training, I’m usually doing nothing but going
back and forth between the gym. As far as moving, I’m going to have to
talk with my father about that.”
Nonetheless, wherever
Benavidez and Son decide to put down their bags, no can deny he’s a native
Arizonan through and through. Last year, Top Rank made headlines when they
pulled out of a bout in Phoenix in the midst of the proposal of SB 1070, which
in essence, would require law enforcement officials to inquire about a person’s
immigration status during routine traffic stops.Team Benavidez went so far as to fearlessly
wear t-shirts protesting SB 1070 in the ring on national television.
After a federal judge
blocked the most controversial parts of the law, Top Rank has decided to return
to Arizona, this time sharing co-promotion billing with Showdown Promotions.
“It felt good because we
were planning to fight in Arizona originally,” he recalled, “but when that law
came up, a lot of people I knew weren’t going to come out to the fight and I
had my own feelings as far as what I could do to help people who would be
affected by it.
“In the end, there’s a
reason for everything and I’m glad it’s kind of died down now after what
happened [with the amended bill’s passage]. I haven’t fought here since I
was an amateur. Now I’m able to be motivated fighting at home with my
friends and family being able to come out and see how hard I’ve been working.”
On the heels of that cause,
Benavidez has taken on a new one for this fight, as he will be donating a
portion of his purse to the Children’s Hospital in Phoenix.
“I got a tour of the facilities
at the Children’s Hospital and it felt good to help people out, especially the
kids,” he said. “I know I’m not making much right now but the little I can
give to people, I will.”
Jose Jr. further elaborated
on why he enjoys getting involved in his local community.
“Like I’ve said before, in
my eyes, everyone’s the same,” he said.“No
one’s better than anybody. My father and I try to do little things like
blanket drives because it motivates me to work harder myself when I can help
the less fortunate and make other people happy.”
Of course, while the
citizens of Phoenix love Jose Benavidez Jr. for his humanitarianism, they have
also taken a shining to him for his exploits from his day job. As he eyes
the second half of 2011, he hopes to ignite the torch for the rest of the year
on Saturday.
“I’ve had ten more fights
since my debut and I’ve been learning something new from every fight,” he
said. “One thing is that I’ve learned to stay calm and not go looking for
a knockout. I’ve just got to be smart, not waste my punches and if the
knockout comes, it will be there.” .
