By Thomas Gerbasi
At this point, you would say that, at least on paper, Jason Estrada’s 11-year pro career hasn’t panned out the way he thought it would have after his stint in the 2004 Olympics. Yet even in the midst of a hectic week that began like any other without a fight scheduled but that will end with him facing Lenroy Thomas in the quarterfinals of the ESPN2-televised Boxcino heavyweight tournament, “Big Six” hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
So when asked if his three workouts a day once finding out on Tuesday that he was fighting were for cardio or cosmetic reasons, he deadpans, “Cosmetic. Not to sound nuts, but I’m fine with my body; my body looks great. But when you put on a boxing outfit, everything is so tight and it pushes everything up. (Laughs) It doesn’t look right, so I’m just trying to do my best, cosmetically. But as far as my shape, it’s pretty good. I was in the Headbangers camp with Lamont and Anthony Peterson in D.C., so I was already in pretty good shape.”
Estrada, who weighed in at a career-high 261 pounds for tonight’s matchup with the 237-pound Thomas (18-3), was never going to be an Adonis in the ring in terms of aesthetics, and despite the fact that he lost the two fights in which he weighed the heaviest, a 2006 bout to Travis Walker (257 pounds) and his most recent fight against Steve Vukosa in July of last year (254 pounds), he should win this one, if only because it’s six rounds and he’s the better boxer.
“It (the six round distance) helps, but I wouldn’t mind whatever it was,” he said. “I’m a veteran when it comes to going the distance and having the energy to fight these rounds, so I’m not too worried about that. I just want everything to hold up and I need this first fight to go well, to go my way. If it goes my way, I’ll be a hundred percent when it comes time for the next one because I’ll have time to actually train.”
Called into action for the eight-man tournament when Mario Heredia wasn’t medically cleared to compete, Estrada had no fights scheduled at the moment, but since he had been in the gym, “just working out to work out,” he took the opportunity when it was presented, and the way he sees it, this very well may be his last shot at making a run in a division where 34 is always the new 24.
“This is one of my last opportunities, honestly,” the Providence, Rhode Island native said. “Physically, for most heavyweights this is their prime, unless you have someone who’s a phenom or someone who’s been given meal after meal. I have nothing against those guys. If I could do it over, I might have went that route because it seems like nobody really cares. Unless you’re a real boxing person, you don’t really care that I’ve faced whoever whenever. Only real boxing fans care about that. Other than that, my career has been plagued with injuries. There’s nothing I could do about that, and I had to just pull up the bootstraps and keep it going forward. So this is my last shot.”
Outside of the injuries, which have been well-documented and that have resulted in surgeries for elbow, ankle, and knee ailments, you could say that Estrada is making a claim a lot of fighters do. But a look at his 20-5 record proves that he’s not just talking, as only one of his previous opponents came into their bout with a losing record. These days, that’s a remarkable stat, and while he’s had his setbacks by taking that route, he stands by it, even if it may have cost him.
“If I would have taken the route that a lot of these guys are taking now, I think my life would have been completely different,” he admits. “I would probably be a millionaire, talked about, Wheaties box, all this big stuff. But unfortunately, with the type of mentality that I have and that I was raised on, you can’t get better fighting people less than you. I’m raised from the type of era where you had guys like Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Larry Holmes. Whoever was there, that’s who they fought. They didn’t pick the number 20 guy in the rankings and bring him up to the top. These are the people I look up to, and who I wanted to emulate in my career. Unfortunately, I had a lot of setbacks and it didn’t pan out the way I wanted it to. But there’s nothing you can do about that. No use crying about spilled milk.”
He means it too. There’s no hint of bitterness in his voice, no ‘woe is me’ about the boxing game. He’s taken everything in stride, choosing to focus on today and not yesterday.
“I’ve lost, and it bothers me, but it’s not the end of life,” he said. “Some of these guys, they lose and it’s like dying. It’s part of boxing. Muhammad Ali lost, Larry Holmes lost, Mike Tyson lost, these are names that I’m looking to. I’m not worried about guys who never lost. You learn nothing from not losing. And regardless of what my success is, I still go home at night, my family still loves me, people in my city still love me, and anywhere I go, people recognize me from boxing, so that means more to me than anything.”
It’s why he can take a philosophical look at his most recent bout against the unbeaten Vukosa, his first since in nearly two years after undergoing ACL surgery. Estrada didn’t agree with the decision, but he accepted it.
“I thought I won,” he said. “There’s nothing you can really do about it. I lost the fight, and it went in his favor. I’m happy for him. We’re good friends and I don’t hold no ill will towards him.”
So there’s no bad blood brewing with the two possibly meeting down the line in the Boxcino tournament?
“No, no,” Estrada said. “You can’t even think about that kind of stuff. I’m focused on that one person that I have to fight and that’s it. Me and Steve are friends, and if we meet in the finals or anywhere during the tournament, hey, let the best man win.”
Oddly enough, while Estrada was coming off a long layoff heading into that fight, he had nothing on Vukosa, who came back to the ring after 12 years away. The defeat made many question whether Estrada needed to have that talk with himself about retirement.
“I have that talk with myself every day,” he laughs. “I know mentally and physically I can beat any of these guys. But everything has to roll your way. Everything can change in a blink of an eye. Boxing’s one of those crazy sports. Anything can happen at any time.”
Even a fresh start that leads to a miraculous comeback. And yes, it’s true that Jason Estrada will never be a Tyson-esque knockout artist or a thrill-a-second brawler like Arturo Gatti, he has skill, he has experience, and he also has the determination that comes along with knowing that this could be his last go-round. With stakes that high, who wouldn’t want to see what happens next?
“I look at it (tonight’s fight) as a fresh slate or the end,” he said. “I win the tournament, the journey continues for a little longer. I lose the tournament, it’s over. Then I’ve done all I can do and it’s time for me to hang it up because I want to always sound the way I sound now. You go in there and you think you’ve still got it when you don’t, and somebody hurts you, then you’re scrambled upstairs, and I don’t want to be one of those guys.”
