At the time of the March 7 edition of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Fox, it wasn’t immediately clear that boxing—like the rest of the sports and entertainment world—would come to a grinding halt.
That didn’t prevent Carlos Negron from training and fighting as if he didn’t know when he’d see another paycheck.
The Puerto Rican heavyweight breathed new life into his career, fittingly at the very venue which prompted the prior freefall. Negron’s third straight appearance at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, however, produced a far more favorable result than the pair of knockout defeats he previously suffered.
The evening’s headliner saw unbeaten Adam Kownacki suffer a stunning knockout loss to Robert Helenius, a couple of hours after Negron scored an upset of his own in a one-round drubbing of previously undefeated Robert Alfonso in a battle of 2008 Olympians.
“I never doubted for a moment that I would knock out Robert Alfonso,” Negron insisted to BoxingScene.com upon looking back at the fight earlier this month. “The preparation was fantastic leading up to this fight, and my previous losses inspired me to train like never before.
“Unfortunately, sometimes you have to lose and hit rock bottom to pick yourself back up. I don’t think I was at rock bottom, but very close as far as my boxing career was concerned.”
Negron was full confidence heading into his December 2018 Barclays clash with Dominic Breazeale, only for their Fox-aired clash to go sideways for the Miami-based Boricua. The setback wasn’t as surprising to the general public, however, as the 1st round knockout loss he’d suffer at the hands of cruiserweight journeyman Brian Howard last August.
“I made sure in no uncertain terms that Carlos had to be ready, not just for a fight like this, but for those phone calls to come in treating him like he’s just an opponent,” Herman Caicedo, Negron’s trainer told BoxingScene.com. “He and I both know that he’s a lot better than that, but that was the reality, that another loss would have just left him as a name on other heavyweight’s résumés.
“He put in the work long before he even knew who he was fighting. It’s survival of the fittest time and he made sure to be ready for whatever was presented to him.”
The fight that came his way just so happened to be versus an opponent about him his trainer had intimate knowledge. Alfonso used to train out of Caicedo’s sports complex in Miami, and served as a main sparring partner for previously unbeaten heavyweight titlist Deontay Wilder ahead of his rematch with England’s Tyson Fury this past February. Both are trained by Jay Deas, whom Caicedo sought to match wits in two separate runs at Wilder through his prized heavyweight Luis Ortiz in March 2018 and November 2019.
The third time was a charm for Caicedo, and essentially for Negron who avoided the wrong kind of hat trick.
“My trainer Herman Caicedo who just happens to be a whiz with training heavyweights, had also previously trained Robert Alfonso for a couple of years. Therefore, the game plan for this fight was very important.
“I’m happy for the win, and grateful to my managers at King Kong Boxing, (trainer) Herman Caicedo and everyone who supported me up to now.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox