Eloy Perez Embraces Short Notice, Braces For Criticism

By Jake Donovan

Eloy Perez spent Labor Day weekend scoring his most explosive win to date and then immediately calling out – among others – Adrien Broner.

The undefeated super featherweight will now spend Halloween weekend enduring yet another Telefutura-level fight, which will be followed by a Thanksgiving weekend spent watching Broner contend for (and most likely win) a vacant title rather than fighting him for it.

A far more desirable course of action was preferred by Perez than to turn down an HBO date in favor of a short-notice stay-busy fight against hapless journeyman Ira Terry.

However, he accepted such a plan offered by his handlers, well aware of the eventual criticism that would follow.

“Right now, I’m just waiting for everyone to rip me, tell me that I’m crazy,” Perez admits while preparing for Friday’s showcase in his adopted hometown of Salinas, California.

The crazy part is that such a fight wasn’t even on the table when manager Kathy Garcia and promoter Oscar de la Hoya convinced him that he didn’t need to travel to Broner’s hometown of Cincinnati for his next fight. In fact, nothing at all was lined up, leaving Perez to believe his second round knockout of Daniel Jiminez on September 2 was going to be his last of the year.

The bout would’ve marked his HBO debut, but there was reluctance among his camp and rightfully so. Not known for his knockout power (his recent blitzing of Daniel Jimenez notwithstanding), winning a decision against the house fighter – an undefeated and well-connected one, at that – figured to be as much of an uphill battle as the fight itself.

But turning down a fight on HBO to instead stay put on the Solo Boxeo circuit?

Before judgment is passed, there is a rational explanation behind it.

“The way Oscar and Kathy put it made sense,” Perez explains. “We’re both undefeated, so there’s no rush to have us fight just because there’s a vacant belt up for grabs. As long as we both keep winning, Golden Boy would instead like to match us up in what would become a much bigger fight.”

It’s a feasible plan, but doesn’t change the fact that Broner will still appear on HBO – now facing Vicente Rodriguez of Argentina – while Perez performs to far less fanfare on Telefutura against an opponent he’s expected to handle with relative ease.

He doesn’t have to like it; he just has to accept it for what it is, along with whatever criticism comes with such a decision.

“Of course, I’d love a bigger fight. But no other TV dates were available to face a contender-level opponent. This was the last available Telefutura date, so I accepted the fight on short notice. Hopefully I get through it still undefeated and look to 2012 as my world title run.”

The odds suggest he needn’t at all worry about his undefeated record remaining intact, but it’s the mentality Perez prefers to carry into the ring whenever he fights. It’s what allows him to take care of business for fights like this, and also what enables him to rise to the occasion in the presence of a perceived threat.

Such was the case this past September in his blitzing of Jimenez. The fight was advertised as a huge step up in class, but Perez ultimately made it look easy.

“Before the fight, I kept hearing that this fight is hard. He fought some tough fighters going in,” Perez recalls of the period leading up to the fight. “He brought the fight to me, and that made it easier for me.”

What Perez doesn’t want are easy fights, but rather the type of throwdown that will prove to everyone that he’s truly ready once he’s positioned to contend for a title.

“The better the competition the better I will be. I want to be in that caliber of fights. I want to go to war and put on a show.”

He certainly has the supporting cast. The 130 lb. division had went through a long dry spell, but the sudden arrival of action fighters and young, promising talent makes the weight class one to watch for years to come.

The trick is to get all of that talent in the ring together in a series of fights to truly define the head of the class. Perez hopes his peers are equally as willing to make that happen once everyone finishes their remaining business for this calendar year.

“2012 is going to be my year. I want to fight the high competition. There’s Broner of course. I would like to fight Juan Carlos Salgado or the kid he just fought (Argenis Mendez). Dante Jardon, Luis Cruz – there are a lot of good young fighters. 130 can be a heck of a division.”

Until then, he’s forced to sit back and watch while a potential future opponent attempts to collect a key bargaining chip for when talks renew after the holidays.

“Broner’s trying to a win a title, more power to him,” Perez insists as he wishes him well in his fight next month. “I’ll take it from him when the right time for a fight occurs.”

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.