For his latest training camp, light heavyweight Kumar Prescod is taking pages out of the playbooks used by Errol Spence Jnr and Abdullah Mason.

On March 8, Prescod fights Ernesto Gutierrez in a four-round fight at Memorial Civic Auditorium, Stockton, California. 

Prescod, 18, a top amateur who turned professional at the age of 17, is fighting for the first time since October when his bout against Skyler Mauller only went two rounds. 

Prescod, who is from Oakland, California will get to have his first fight as a professional in the Bay Area. Kuma Prescod, his trainer and father, referenced the mentality for the camp as “man down,” an ode to Texas welterweight champion Spence who popularized that phrase during his run at the top of the sport. 

“Even in the amateurs, we always had to get on the plane and go to another state, basically to fight, so for us to be able to fight at home on Bay Area soil, it's a wonderful thing,” Kuma Prescod, his trainer and father, told BoxingScene. “He's in shape. He's sharp. He's ready to go. Hopefully, he executes the game plan and puts this man down.”

Prescod has already sold over 100 tickets locally and is expecting to sell more by fight night. Prescod, a nine-time national champion and twice a member of the Team USA youth team, has been inspired by lightweight Abdullah Mason who is just two years his senior. 

“One of Abdullah Mason’s saying is he wants all the smoke - we ain’t ducking no smoke,“ Prescod, 1-0 (1 KO) said. Prescod went on to explain that Mason is “somewhere that I want to be in the near future.”

Gutierrez is a 23-year-old from Perris, California, who was stopped in his only fight of his career in November by Jose Mancilla. That fight only lasted one round as Gutierrez is 0-1 heading into this fight. 

“This is a big moment for me being able to fight back at home,” Prescod said. “I've been hoping to fight at home since I first went pro and this is going to be a good way to showcase my skills.”