Interview Dated May 2006 John Rarden John Rarden is one of the most promising young fighters to turn pro this year on the Houston Boxing Scene. After a long and distinguished amateur career fighting for the Galena Park Boxing Academy, the 20-year-old Rarden beat a tough Juan Manuel Soto in his pro debut on March 3rd. Then he destroyed Michael Taylor with a second round knockout on April 28th. I spoke with him after a recent workout at Kenny Weldon's new World Class Boxing Gym in Pasadena. HBS - Is your name John Rarden Junior? JR - No, it's actually John Paul Rarden. Different middle name. His is Lee, I'm Paul. HBS - Seems like you've been boxing, I've seen some photos of you up here, how old were you when you started boxing? JR - Ten. HBS - How did that all come about? JR - My dad was a good parent. He wanted to keep me out of trouble. I played baseball forever. I had to stay occupied, you know. If you're sitting there idle, you get in trouble. So I was playing basketball, I didn't want to play basketball anymore, I was too small. So my dad was like, "Well, there's a boxing gym on my way to work. You want to box?" I said "Sure I'll try it out, it might be fun." So I tried it out. It stuck to me and I quit playing baseball and I just started doing this. When I was 12 I quite baseball for good and started doing this full time. HBS - What is it you like about it that kept you in it? JR - I get to beat people up and I don't get in trouble for it. HBS - Obviously you're pretty good at it. Tell us a little bit about your amateur career. JR - I ended up with a final record of 103-6, something like that. Had over 100 wins, won about six or seven state championships, regional titles, went to the nationals twice, and placed fifth and second and went to the Ringside World Championships and placed second out there in 2004. HBS - Then you just turned pro not too long ago and your first guy was pretty tough. Tell us about that fight. JR - Well he had gotten out of prison two months prior to the fight and he fought like he was fighting in the day room. HBS - He looked like he had some tats on him. JR - Yeah, he had a bunch of in-house tats on him and he was trying to just get me in a headlock and just do all the prison stuff to me and I wasn't expecting it. I was going out there just to try to box and I had to go to war but I got the decision so that's all that matters. HBS - Then this last guy really didn't seem to have any business being in the ring with you. JR - Ten seconds into the fight I stepped out and hit him with a left hook to the body but I caught his elbow and dislocated by thumb. So from then on I was trying to pick my shots just right. I didn't want to throw a bunch of unnecessary punches and I ended up catching him with a right hand about a minute into the fight and after that he kind of just didn't want any more. He kind of just kept backing up so I went out there and just kind of boxed with him the first round. Kenny jumped on my butt in the corner and said why am I playing with this guy so I went out the second round and just got on him. HBS - Tell us about the sequence of events then in that second round. JR - He went to the ropes and I caught him with a left to the body and I saw he felt it so I came back with a couple more then I finished him with a head shot and he went down. I thought he was going to stay down. I thought I had got him but he got back up, went about 20 or 30 more seconds but I caught him with two real, real nice body shots and he had enough after that. But I don't know he must be a tough guy because he came up to me after the fight with two beers in his hand, saying I didn't even hurt him......(laughs) HBS - Now you just had a pretty good sparring session with Daniel Garcia. He's a pretty tough guy. Tell us a little bit about how that felt and where you feel that you're at now in your progression. JR - I've been sparring with Jesus Gonzales a lot and he's been helping me out a lot so I know this Garcia, he has a lot of fights already, about ten fights, and I think I'm about ready to fight somebody like that. It felt pretty good in there today. HBS - Yeah you really have a nice right hand and it looks like you really enjoy throwing it. You've got pretty good power in there. JR - I love throwing punches, period. I love my hooks, I love my straight rights. I've been sparring with Yves Edwards. He throws a lot of uppercuts and I've been picking that up too. I love throwing uppercuts now. So I've got a full arsenal and I don't try to stick to one punch. HBS - You're going to college? JR - Yeah I'm going to college at San Jac. Trying to be a fireman. I want to get all my 60 hours and get into the Houston Fire Academy be a fireman. HBS - Did Lewis Wood influence you in that direction? JR - I've talked to him about it. Not so much influenced, that's where I get all my information from. He's been doing it forever and I just asked him a lot about it, how to get in, because I've wanted to do it before I met Lewis. HBS - So you've given some thought to what you're going to do when you're ring career is over but you still have a long ways to go in boxing. Give us an idea where you see yourself in a couple of years. JR - If everything goes right I'm hoping by this time next year I've got about seven to ten fights and I want to fight for something like a U.S.B.A. Championship and just keep going from there. Hopefully in three or four years I'll have a world championship belt around my waist.