Burke's Blog: Thoughts on Fridays fight

By Louie Burke

First I’d like to congratulate Tony Escalante on a great win Friday night, his defense and head movement has improved greatly. Team Escalante, keep up the good work! We really were hoping that Abies fight would make it on TV. It was too bad that His performance, which I was pleased with, wasn’t televised, due to the fights going the distance.
As a swing bout we were stuck in the dressing room on on again-off again mode . Being a swing, can really be nerve racking and a let down if it’s not televised. The win cured all of any harsh feeling towards the other fighters not trying hard enough to knock each other out.

After the first round knockdown, I felt the right hand was the key to the fight for Abie. When Abie came back to the corner, he was instructed to set up the right hand with jabs and hooks, he followed instructions to the tee. He started by jabbing more and trying to bait Soto in by throwing numerous left hooks. Once he felt that Soto was looking for the hook, Abie threw the quick right, ending the fight for Soto. I feel Abie is improving with every fight and he’s showing maturity beyond his 5 fights. But no one has a perfect performance, as a trainer I also see some things we need to work on in the gym. Hopefully we can get another quick fight this coming Friday at the Pan Am Center under Austin and George " Monk" Foreman.

It’s a shame Sammy won’t be on the card, he was diagnosed as having a posterior rotator cuff tear, this will take time and some therapy to heal properly. Never-the-less, Lil Sammy still wanted to fight and told big Sam that he thought he could go. Big Sam did the right thing and said no. All I can say is he’ll be ready when it’s healed and being that he’s young and in good health it shouldn’t take too long.

Austin is getting ready for Fridays fight, sparring with Siju, Abie, Cornelius Shuler and Tim Meek. Despite personal issues at this time, Austin wanted the fight with Primera, even though I showed concern for the bout. Why should I be concerned about a boxer who has only won 3 of his last 7 and has been off for 2 ½ years? Let me tell you why.

1. The guy is a full fledged middle weight and has fought super-middle several times against world class opposition and beat a few.
2. Has a wicked right hand and is known as a "chin tester" knocking out the likes of super-middle contender Curtis Stevens. Stevens only other loss in his 21-2 record was to bronze medalist Andre Dirrell.
3. He also wrecked 21-3 super-middle prospect, Carlos De leon jr. Giving him his first loss, stoppong him in 4 rounds with the same right hand. Carlos De leon, has a win over James "Buddy" Mcgirt Jr.
4. He beat 24-4-2 Julio Garcia. Garcia had wins over rugged boxers Augastine Rentaria and Kirino Garcia.
5. He has a win over Austins last opponent, Shawn Garnett.
6. Primera is known for his iron jaw going the distance with rugged 20-1 Jesus Gonzalez, losing to him in 10.
7. Going the distance with middle weight contender Jose Luis Zertuche, who has a win over Jesus Gonzalez and losses with Kelly Pavlik and Danny Perez and Marco Antonio Rubio.
8. Went 10 with 28-1 and #5 rated contender Joshua Clottey. Clottey has wins over Diego Corrales and Zab Judah and only 3 losses one with Antonio Margarito and his last fight which was losing a 12 round split decision against Miguel Cotto.
9. Lost a 10 round split decision over contender Danny Perez, dropping Perez in the 10th .
10. Lost a decision to Emmit Linton, who has wins over former-world champions Donald Curry and Manning Galloway and local fighters Benjie Marquez, Rudy Lavato, twice and Renee Herrera.
11.Lost a 12 round decision to Joachin Alcine, who just fought Daniel Santos for the WBA World Junior-Middle title.
12. Lost an 8 round decision to 18-1 Luis Callazo, who lost close decisions to Shane Mosely and Ricky Hatton. And just lost against Andre Berto, fighting for the WBC welter weight championship.
13. Has big fight experience.
14. Fought Joachin Alacine on Showbox
15. Fought Callazo on HBO
16. Knocked-out Curtis Stevens for the interim WBC youth world Super-middle weight title.
17 Fought Joshua Clottey for the Continental of Americas Title.
18. Fought Danny Perez for the WBO/NABO 154 title.
19. Primera has been stopped,4 times, thrice in ‘03 against 18-0 Quentin Smith, 24-1 Kifi Jantuah and future world champion Jermain Tayler. Primera’s last loss by a stoppage was in ‘05 against 21-1 Kingley Ikeke: who has a ko win over Antwon Echols, this set Ikeke up for the #2 spot in the IBF..
20.He has been absent for two years but it didn’t really make me feel any better when I was told he was in jail for the 2 ½ years. He got out of jail lighter than before. This tells me either he was stuck in a 4x4 cell and emaciated away or worked out the time he was serving his debt. I hope, but doubt it had anything to do with a 4x4 cell.
21. Short notice to prepare for the fight. Really only had about 3 weeks. Even though Austin fought recently and was not in bad shape, we did not expect to fight til August, so he took a little break time.

I just gave you 21 reasons, why I’ve been staring at the ceiling til 3 in the morning and I haven’t even mentioned the obvious the 22nd reason. Right now Austin has a lot on his plate, we’re sure everything will turn out fine, but anytime your dealing with a judicial process, it’s hard to concentrate on the task at hand, but if anyone can do it, Austin can and he will.
I can say I’ve known Austin since he was ten and he would not take anything that did not belong to him, he certainly is not a thief. He’s been a solid young man and a role model for the kids at PAL and in Las Cruces. Anyone that has known him through boxing, knows he would not take anything that was not his. I believe that it was a mistake and if feel it will be rectified. So we have to stay positive, hope for the best and keep his mind at the task at hand.

This is not going to be a cake walk, We tried getting an opponent from around the area without any luck, this guy was the only one that accepted the fight.. I would have liked a lighter tune-up prior to a Sept. 4th fight in Panama which is a #3 WBA eliminator, But Austin wanted to fight and has never backed down from anyone. Yea, his opponent doesn’t have the best record but the guys he’s fought have been some of the best in the word and he’s beaten some of them. He’s a solid opponent.

This is a big challenge and a win will be a big step toward bringing a world title to New Mexico. We hope that NMB readers will come and support his quest for the world title.