What do you think of your opponent, Rolando Mendivil, on Saturday?
It’s a good opponent for my fifth fight. I take every fight as it comes and I always want to improve.
It is [a step up]. 10 wins, four losses. Every fight is going to be a stepping stone.
What’s it like living and training in Los Angeles?
The training over here is brilliant because every gym you go into you get great sparring, all the gyms I’ve been to, Legends, the Wild Card, I’ve been getting great sparring. If you want to make it big time as a pro boxer, over here is the place to be.
Who are the best people you’ve sparred with?
The best I’ve sparred is the world champion [Sergey] Lipinets, Fabian Maidana, who’s 15-0, and Lenny Zappavigna. Maidana’s world number seven, Marcos Maidana’s brother, the one who fought Mayweather.
How did signing with Golden Boy come about?
I’ve been coming over since I was 16, these last three years. I was sparring in all the gym and it caught the attention of a lot of people and Golden Boy, it caught their attention and they signed me up.
I was doing very good in the spars and then Golden Boy wanted me to wait till I was 18 to turn pro, so then I waited until I was 18 and then I turned pro.
I was sparring people that were way older than me, I was sparring people with great records and one of the best spars I got was with Jessie Magdaleno. I was sparring tough guys with great records when I was 16. Tremendous experience to be getting at that age.
[Oscar De La Hoya] he’s very supportive of me and he really likes my style. It’s great to have such a world class boxer behind me.
I rate him as one of the best boxers in the world. To have him behind me is unbelievable. When I was growing up I would always watch old clips of Mike Tyson, Marvin Hagler and Oscar De La Hoya. I always loved them three.
It’s unbelievable when you think about it like that.
