Interview Dated January 2006

Welterweight Mike Alvarado

Mike Alvarado is one of the rising young stars in the welterweight division. With a record of 12-0 and 9 knockouts, the 25-year-old Denver native is in the Top Rank Boxing stable, hoping to take a big step up in competition in 2006. I caught up with him after a recent workout at the Savannah Boxing Club in southwest Houston.


HBS - Tell us how you first got involved in boxing.

MA - I graduated high school, I was raised as a wrestler. My dad and my uncle started all my cousins and everything in wrestling so I started that. I didn't want to go to college for wrestling so I decided to just start working and everything. One day I just went to the gym, started training and learning the basic steps of boxing. Ever since I've liked it. It's been meant to be for me to box.

HBS - What possessed you to go into the gym that first day and check it out?

MA - I was doing nothing. I was up to no good, you know, doing nothing. I had a dead end job so I had too much talent to waste you know. I've been an athlete my whole life. I did every sport there was. Football, wrestling, basketball, I did all the sports. Good at everything. So I knew if I put my all into it I would be alright. My real dad was a boxer so I figured that if he did it I could do it just as well.

HBS - So when you went in that first day tell us what it felt like and what was going through your mind.

MA - I liked it a lot. I knew that I'd stick with it and learn the techniques, which is what I did in wrestling. I was a real top wrestler too. In fact I could have went a long ways in wrestling as well but I pretty much just burnt out from wrestling my whole life. I had over 2,500 matches so it was a big career. It was a long career so I just wanted to try something different.

HBS - They're both really demanding sports. You get just about equally tired in each. Just completely exhausted. Contrast the two.

MA - I think mentally it's a one-on-one sport. I have that mental balance and everything. It was just the whole working out the details and the techniques and everything. It wasn't that hard, the transition that I made. It was just a few adjustments. Learn the basics and just go from there.

HBS - Tell us about your amateur boxing career.

MA - I started in 2000. I went my first year to the National Golden Gloves the first year I ever boxed and I turned "A" Class the first five fights. My first fight I fought an amateur who had like 40 fights. Beat him and I just stepped up to the level right away. I won the Ringside Nationals. I basically went to the top level. I fought in the semi-finals in the U.S. Open Golden Gloves, 2001 and 2002 but I had 40 fights. I was 35-5.

HBS - So having had so many wrestling matches you probably didn't have a lot of the same butterflies that opponents with less competitive experience might have been having.

MA - Well, you always get nervous. When you go into that ring, everyone gets the butterflies. They come and go. But I was used to it from wrestling. I had so many matches. I wrestled in front of thousands and thousands of people. It's a big sports. Except in boxing back home there isn't too much competition so I didn't get much fights and much experience and when I did travel It was like I didn't have the experience that I needed to be at the top level so it was pretty hard.

HBS - How did you decide to turn pro and tell us about your first pro fight.

MA - I knew I wasn't favored or anything to make the top level as an amateur to go to the Olympics or anything like that so I decided that year, the Olympics, 2004, to turn pro. My first pro fight, it was a good fight. It was different. I was nervous as hell. I had those butterflies, came and went. I did well. I had a first round knockout so it was cool.

HBS - Tell us about your pro career now and your last fight.

MA - I'm 12-0 with nine knockouts. My last three fights I'm moving up to fight tougher competition, more experienced fighters now all over the nation. Top Rank's moving me well. They got me fighting real tough fighters and this next year I know it's going to be a real big year. I'm going to step up to eight or ten-rounders by the middle of the year, fight some big-namers. My last fight he was tough. He was Puerto Rican. He had a lot of experience. He had like 19 fights. It was a good expeirence for me, a good learning process. I wona a unanimous decision.

HBS - Tell us about your most difficult fight so far.

MA - It was an awkward fight. It was like my third-to-last fight. A guy named Hilario Lopez. He was a real awkward fighter, real long, tall guy. Switched up. He made me adjust a lot. He had power and everything. It was a good fight, man. I had to dig deep in that fight. He caught me with some good shots, some good clean shots. I came back strong, showed heart, showed my skill and showed that I had adjustments as well. Overcome the fight and I won a unanimous decision in that fight as well.

HBS - How would you describe your style?

MA - Puncher-boxer. I possess a lot of power. I like hurting 'em. I don't like just boxing and just okay wins and decisions. But you can't knock everyone out. You've got to learn how to box once in a while.

HBS - What is it that you enjoy about the sport?

MA - I love competing. I love competition. I love showing people that I have ability. I've been given the opporunity from Top Rank and from my managers to show people that I can do it. Showing people that I have the ability to be one of the best that is out there. I'm in the process of becoming one of the best so I'm going to just keep doing what I'm doing and stay in the gym and put all my heart into it and my efforts and see where it goes, wee where it takes me.

HBS - How'd you end up down here at the Savannah Boxing Club?

MA - It was Shelly Finkel and Henry Delgado told me that it would be a good idea to come out here and train out here, away from home. Get away from home, away from everything and come into camp out here. I like it, I love the training atmosphere. I love the system Ronnie Shields runs out here. A very good system. I love the schedule. I love training in the mornings. Back at home I don't train in the mornings, everyone's working and everyone's on that late schedule.

HBS - Do you have any idea who you're fighting this year?

MA - Not right now. We're just starting the year off, training real hard, preparing. Getting ready for whoever they put in front of me.

HBS - Anything in particular you're working on now, any skills or techniques?

MA - No, just sticking with what I've been working on, my jab, and just staying strong, keeping my weight down and just fighting, just doing what I know how to do.