By Edward Chaykovsky
Heavyweight Mike Perez (20-0-1, 12KOs), a Cuban fighter from Ireland, added some more international flavor to his corner when he hired British trainer Adam Booth, who is best known for his work with David Haye and George Groves.
Perez looked impressive during last November's decision victory over Magomed Abdusalamov, but then put in a lackluster performance in his ten round majority draw with Carlos Takam in January.
Booth has no idea how Perez trained for those two fights. But he does know his newly acquired boxer will be adequately prepared for Saturday's WBC eliminator against Bryant Jennings (18-0, 10KOs) at New York's Madison Square Garden. HBO will televise the fight as the co-feature to Gennady Golovkin-Daniel Geale.
"All I can do is make Mike the best he can be and then obviously work a strategy for the opponent he’s fighting. Now Bryant Jennings is a good athlete. He can see he’s a rounded athlete," Booth said.
"My job is to look at what he does and what he doesn’t do and then we work with Mike and the incredible skills that Mike has and the phenomenal pedigree he has as a world-class amateur and all of the different styles that he’s seen. We’re working on a number of different things. We’re not just working on Bryant Jennings’ moving around because Bryant will also put his hands up and try and come up close and try and smother close. We know that he’ll use his jab."
"And Mike will be ready for anything that takes place in that ring because he has the experience of seeing everything and I think this time around he has a new experience of actually being in fantastic condition, that he’s actually trained like a world-class fighter and a world-class athlete and he’s been a joy to work with."