"I try to stick to the game plan, but sometimes, when there's punches flying, I don't know, maybe it's just the fighter instinct where you tend to throw more or if you happen to land a good punch and the fighter you're fighting takes a step back and maybe you get the instinct that he's a little dazed, you try to pursue. But I try to stick to the game plan, but at the same time, I also try to excite and try to take him out. You can't look average. I'm not saying I'm gonna go out there and get careless, but I'm just saying I want to put on a good performance...You can expect an action-packed fight. It's gonna be good, action-packed, entertaining fight, so stay tuned," stated featherweight contender Ronny Rios, who talked about his upcoming clash this Friday, October 10, against Robinson Castellanos on the Golden Boy Live! card. Check it out!
BT: Hey, Ronny. You've got an important fight coming up this Friday. How did training camp go?
RR: I know everyone always says the same thing, you know, "this is the hardest training," but for me, every training camp's hard. You give it all. I mean, not all to the point where you leave it there, but you do the best to get in the best physical shape. I sparred against a lot of talent, more than lately in the past year. Everything worked out fine and we're ready for the fight.
BT: How much do you know about your opponent, Robinson Castellanos? Did you watch any film on him?
RR: I don't watch film. I never watch film. My coaches, they watch film and they tell me he does this or he does that, so I kind of have an idea of what to expect.
BT: What type of fight are you expecting from him?
RR: I know he just lost. He's a high-ranked fighter, so he's gonna come out here and he's gonna try to get back into the picture and try to knock out an undefeated fighter so he can get back into that ranking. So I feel like he's going to come at me strong, you know, but I know what's going to be there and I'm going to capitalize on any mistakes because when you try to go for a knockout, you tend to do a lot more mistakes.
BT: I know you're not looking past your opponent, but assuming all goes well, how quickly are you hoping to get yourself into the title picture?
RR: Man, hopefully within this year. That would be the ideal goal for us. It's not just like, "Oh, I'm ready for the world title." It has to be on both parties, but we've been ready for like a year. I'm not saying no to anybody. Right now, our sights are on Castellanos, but if everything goes smoothly according to plan, I don't mind going straight to a title.
BT: Have you been keeping an eye on some of the featherweight champions out there? For example, Jhonny Gonzalez just defended his title against Jorge Arce over the weekend, and Nonito Donaire will be defending his title against Nicholas Walters in a couple weeks.
RR: Believe it or not, I didn't watch that Gonzalez fight. I won't watch that Donaire fight because it's on HBO and I don't have that channel, but as far as other fighters, I don't really keep up with the featherweight division too much because I know, hopefully in the future, if everything goes as planned, we'll meet down the line and I just don't like watching film on people I fight.
BT: Man, you weren't kidding about not watching any film at all on your opponents, whether they be present or future. Why is that?
RR: When you watch film or you watch video or you watch your opponent live, for me, it plays little mind games, you know. Not mind games as far as getting nervous. It just dates back to the amateurs when my coach would always tell me, "Oh, look. We just won the tournament, so you're going to fight the winner of this tournament." Then I would watch the guy I was gonna fight and he was knocking people out. This happened to me several times. He would knock them out cold, and then, I would fight him the next day and he was different. I would beat him by like maybe 17 points, or like 2 or 3 or 7 points, so I was just like, I'm not going to watch them fight anymore because obviously it's a whole different situation when they're fighting someone else.
BT: You mentioned that you've been ready for a title shot for about a year. Was it difficult to get motivated for this fight knowing that you're ready to face some of the bigger names in the division?
RR: No, it wasn't difficult because I wanted to fight Castellanos before he lost to Rene Alvarado. He was ranked higher than I was. He had that belt, that silver belt [WBC Silver featherweight title], so I really wanted to fight him. Just because a fighter has a couple of losses or one loss, that doesn't mean that's the end of their career. So it wasn't hard for me to get motivated. Like I said, this camp was very, very hard. I trained just as hard for him as I did for [Andrew] Cancio or [Rico] Ramos.
BT: If a fan has never seen you fight, how would you describe a Ronny Rios fight to them?
RR: When I fight an opponent, I don't care what their record is or how many knockouts they have, I try to give the best former, the most exciting performance, because at the end of the day, it's the fans that put you on Showtime or HBO, so at the end of the day, I try to give the most exciting fight I can give.
BT: Is pleasing the fans something you're thinking about while you're actually fighting? In other words, would you stray from the game plan and potentially put yourself in harm's way for the sake of entertainment?
RR: Um, I try to stick to the game plan, but sometimes, when there's punches flying, I don't know, maybe it's just the fighter instinct where you tend to throw more or if you happen to land a good punch and the fighter you're fighting takes a step back and maybe you get the instinct that he's a little dazed, you try to pursue. But I try to stick to the game plan, but at the same time, I also try to excite and try to take him out. You can't look average. I'm not saying I'm gonna go out there and get careless, but I'm just saying I want to put on a good performance.
BT: No doubt. Well before I let you get out of here, let the fans know what they can expect when you stepped into the ring on October 10!
RR: You can expect an action-packed fight. It's gonna be good, action-packed, entertaining fight, so stay tuned.
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