For flyweight Abraham Perez, nothing comes easy
· Yahoo Sports
Saturday
Boxing: Abraham Perez vs. Esneth Domingo, Josh Torres vs. Gerardo Alberto Fuentes, several other fights. Embassy Suites, 7 p.m.
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Ticket info: 505-269-9387
The late Bert Sugar, boxing writer and humorist, well understood the plight facing fighters in the sport’s lighter weight classes.
“Normally,” Sugar once said (actually, probably more than once), “people just don’t get excited about fighters who weigh less than their wives.”
You couldn’t prove that by New Mexico.
Or could you?
Yes, our state produced Danny Romero and the late Johnny Tapia, two of the most successful American lighter-weight (115 pounds and below) fighters of the past three decades.
Tapia was a five-time world champion. In 1995, Romero at the age of 20 became the first United States-born flyweight (112-pound) world champion in 60 years.
Yet, a closer look at the early stages of their careers — more about that later — serves to illustrate, not contradict, Sugar’s point.
The journey was not easy.
Now comes Albuquerque’s Abraham Perez, a flyweight whose boxing resume fairly sparkles.
Perez is 13-0 with seven wins by knockout entering his scheduled bout on Saturday against The Philippines’ Esneth Domingo (22-4, 14 KOs). Perez’s amateur background, arguably, surpasses those of Tapia and Romero: Golden Gloves and USA Boxing national titles, as well as an Olympic Trials title (but no Olympic medal, and that’s important).
Yet, no major promoter has come calling, nor do those promoters always answer the phone when Aaron Perez, Abraham’s father and his local promoter, calls them on his behalf.
“I’d like to get him signed,” said the elder Perez, whose company, Legacy Promotions, has staged nine of the13 cards on which his son has performed. “I’ve been throwing his name out there to all these big promoters here in the United States, and even (the England-based) Matchroom. And for some reason, they won’t bite.
“I’ve even told them if they want an opponent for their up-and-comers, we’ve got Abraham all ready, and they don’t bite on him.”
Well, it’s no wonder. They have no up-and-comers.
According to listings on their websites (which may or may not be current), neither Top Rank, Inc. nor Premier Boxing Champions nor Matchroom has a single fighter under contract at a weight class lighter than 115 pounds. PBC and Top Rank have only two fighters apiece at 115; Matchroom has none.
So, what’s an outstanding, deserving, 26-year-old flyweight fighter to do?
Keep working. Keep winning, starting with Domingo on Saturday. Keep hoping.
“No one’s gonna give nothing to anybody, right?” Aaron Perez said. “… You’ve got to earn the right to be there.
“Nobody’s gonna give it to you for free. You’re gonna have to earn it.”
Earn it is what Tapia and Romero did.
They had no choice.
Tapia won two Golden Gloves national titles as an amateur but never had much success in the Olympic movement. When he turned pro in 1988, his name meant nothing to pro boxing fans and little to promoters. But managers and trainers knew who he was and were reluctant to put their lighter-weight prospects in the ring against him.
Paul Chavez, Tapia’s original pro manager and trainer, struggled to get him fights. Tapia’s pro debut was a four-round draw against a fighter with a 6-1 record. Chavez got him on locally promoted cards in California until Top Rank took an interest.
Research does not establish when Top Rank actually signed Tapia to a contract. But TR had not hesitated to sign Phoenix’s Michael Carbajal, a 1988 Olympic silver medalist at light flyweight (108 pounds).
“I guess that’s what I get for not making the Olympics,” said Tapia, 12-0-1 at the time and without a TR contract, in November 1989.
Perez didn’t make the Olympics, either, though it’s not his fault.
In winning the 2019 Olympic Trials, Perez twice defeated Anthony Herrera en route. Nonetheless, USA Boxing selected Herrera, not Perez, as its Olympic candidate at flyweight.
Romero, years before, saw his Olympic dream evaporate with a loss in the 1992 Olympic Trials. A power puncher with a professional style, he never won a senior-level national amateur title. He was 13-0 with 12 knockouts as a pro, fighting on off-TV shows, before Top Rank signed him in 1994.
Tapia’s journey, as we know, was complicated by personal and legal issues. Not so with Romero
Not so as well with Perez, and he’s fortunate to have a father in the boxing-promotions business. Even so, Bert Sugar was right on.
All Perez can do, as his dad said, is keep knocking on that door until he knocks it down.