Interview Dated May 2007 Lightweight Cruz Antonio Valdivia "Lil Tone" Valdivia is a name Houston fight fans will be hearing a lot of in the next few years. The compact powerhouse from north Houston hammered out an impressive win over Richard Thomas of Killeen in his pro debut, and Valdivia's future will no doubt be interesting and colorful to follow. HBS - What part of town are you from? CV - Northside. HBS - How'd you first get involved in boxing? CV - I got involved when I was about eleven years old. My brother and them started taking me to a gym so that's when I started boxing when I was about eleven years old. HBS - How did that go? Give us an idea of what happened for you as an amateur? CV - Everything's been good ever since I've been boxing. I fought amateur for a couple of years and it's been good. I had my first pro fight last week and it was pretty nice. I like it. HBS - Tell us how many amateur fights you had. CV - I had over 58 amateur fights. I had about eight losses, about 52 wins. Pretty good record in boxing amateur. HBS - You have a nasty scar (near one eye). What happened there? CV - Oh, I got that when I was a little baby. I don't think it will affect me in any way. HBS - You looked great in your pro debut. You were really aggressive. It was a really tough fight. The guy was good and you came right out after him and it was a really great four-round fight. Give us your rundown of what happened. CV - Oh, well you know I just listened to my coach. He said go in and attack the body and that's what I did and I dropped him with some body shots and I did pretty much everything coach told me to do so I think I did pretty good. HBS - You're basically a slugger but this guy came back and landed some real solid shots of his own. Were you surprised that the guy was able to hang in there with you for four rounds at such a hard pace? The guy is probably better that what his record would reflect (Richard Thomas is now 0-2.) CV - Yeah, he was kind of surprising. The boy had heart. He came out and fought. I didn't expect him to do what he did but I came and did my thing and everything worked ood for me. HBS - What is it that you enjoy about the sport? CV - I've been liking boxing ever since I was a little kid. Everybody thinks that I've got the talent to do it so I'm sticking to it and hopefully I can become a world champion one day. HBS - How do you see your style? CV - I like to punch, I like to box, I pretty much do everything. I know sometimes I've got to go in there and brawl. Everybody knows that I've got a hard punch so more likely I like to go ahead and just punch. HBS - You're really built up. Awfully stocky for a guy your size. Do you lift weights? CV - No, I've been like that ever since I was a little kid and I never lifted no weights, I just stick to my training. HBS - What techniques are you working on in the gym right now? CV - I'm working on my speedbag because as you could see I got tired in that fight. After throwing a lot of punches I got tired so basically what I'm working on right now is getting in shape better so I can stay in the fight and throw more punches.