Boxing trainer Amilcar Brusa talks about Baldomir/Mayweather

In anticipation of the Nov. 4 date his fighter, Carlos “Tata� Baldomir, has with pound-for-pound king “Pretty Boy� Floyd Mayweather at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada (HBO PPV), the esteemed Argentinean trainer Amilcar Brusa recently met with the boxing press via telephone conference call. An edited English version is below.

QUESTION: During the fight that Carlos had with Zab Judah, the first two or three rounds Judah seemed to be outboxing him. And at Madison Square Garden you climbed up the stairs to speak with Carlos, and from that point on, Carlos took over the fight. And as we all know, he ended up winning the fight and upsetting Zab Judah. Can you tell us a little bit about what you told him at that moment and how that fight got turned around?

AMILCAR BRUSA: I just gave him the advice to finish off the fight. I mean, just fight as well as he could.

QUESTION: How do you see Carlos being able to defeat Mayweather?

AMILCAR BRUSA: All the sparring and the training in the gym, we’re going to use that against Mayweather. I have the insight because I also trained Carlos Hernandez when he fought against Mayweather. So we’re just going to use all that and go in to win the fight… I have all the confidence in the world that Baldomir will beat Mayweather.

QUESTION: How does you get Carlos to fight, or do you think Carlos can fight any way differently than Hernandez did?

AMILCAR BRUSA: I see the rivalry between Baldomir and Mayweather as tough, but we’re going to go in there to fight, and [Baldomir’s] going to win.

QUESTION: The fight with Carlos Hernandez was more than five years ago. Do you see anything different in Floyd that you can exploit?

AMILCAR BRUSA: Carlos Baldomir, he’s a very tough fighter, a very intelligent fighter, and we’ll see when we get to the ring how that all goes into play.

QUESTION: Do you feel you help Baldomir most with his strategy or just with his morale during a fight?

AMILCAR BRUSA: I work on both, both the morale and the strategy, and during the fight I see what works best for him, and that’s what we work on.

QUESTION: How much tape, if any, do you watch… [and] will you watch tapes of Mayweather to prepare Carlos for this fight?

AMILCAR BRUSA: We do watch the tapes of Mayweather so we know how to prepare with the sparring in the gym. So we watch, but not a lot.

QUESTION: What you think about Floyd’s weight? He’s moving up. Do you think this is going to be a hindrance for him in regards to his hand speed and his athletic ability, and do you think he’s going to be maybe a step slower than he was at 40 and 35?

AMILCAR BRUSA: It’s going to be tough for Mayweather because he hasn’t fought in the welterweight division, and he feels Carlos has the upper hand on him because he has been fighting here for at least 14 fights.

QUESTION: Do you have a game plan coming into the fight? Is Carlos going to be aggressive against Floyd, or more offensive?

AMILCAR BRUSA: We really don’t go in with any game plan, and we wait until after the first round, because that’s when we can kind of feel each other out man-to-man, and then that’s when we go into a strategy mode.