Gabriel Rosado is 40 years old.
He has laced up the gloves 47 times as a pro, boxed a number of big names, works as a broadcaster and has even done a little acting, including playing Leo “The Lion” Sporino in “Creed.”
There is little he has not done and, one might think, little left to do.
But Philadelphia’s Rosado gets the gloves back on tonight (Saturday), and believes he might just have one last run in him.
Where his fight on a Misfits card in Derby, England – against ex-pro Ty Mitchell – might take him is anyone’s guess.
One would think an all-Philly battle for bragging rights with Jesse Hart could be an attraction, but Rosado says that at this time, and with Hart coming off a loss to Khalil Coe, it is not a fight “that really means anything.”
Hart is one of many from the city Rosado has spent years working with, too, and sparring in Philadelphia has long been the subject of boxing lore.
Not only was it a melting pot where top fighters learned their trade, but the legendary spars were often harder than many fights.
Rosado has been in camps all over, from Miami to L.A., and not long ago he wanted to go back to basics in Philadelphia.
“One of my last camps, I wanted to do it in Philly,” he said. “So I went to Philly for about a week, and it was not how it used to be, man. I left and I told my team, ‘Now let’s go switch camps. We gotta get out of here.’ But when I was coming up in Philadelphia, it was like that [tough with a lot of sparring], because you had so much great talent in the gyms and it was sparring with Julian [Williams], it was sparring with Jesse [Hart], it was sparring with Bernard Hopkins and so many other good talent in the gyms. But I felt like the boxing kind of died down in Philadelphia. Even though you still got good talent in Philly, ‘Boots’ probably being the top guy right now. But it’s not like it used to be.”
Hopkins was a Philly stalwart, of course, and someone the now 40-year-old Rosado helped prepare for the final big leg of fights in his career, including going southpaw to spar Hopkins for Joe Calzaghe and Antonio Tarver, and helping B-Hop prep for Kelly Pavlik and Jean Pascal, among others.
“My favorite camp with him was Miami when he got ready for Kelly Pavlik,” Rosado recalled. “That was crazy, so that was probably my favorite camp with Bernard Hopkins. Pavlik was coming off of the big wins against [Jermain] Taylor. Taylor had beat Bernard [twice], so Bernard was such a big underdog. He was 44 years old. And then Kelly’s 29 and B-Hop just schools him. It was a legendary performance.”
Hopkins and Rosado might both be Philly boxers, but their styles couldn’t be more different.
Could Rosado see himself switching to become more of a boxer now, aged 40, as he’s entering another act of his career?
That is hard for him to see at this stage, knowing that it’s Rosado’s heart that people pay to see and promoters want to exhibit on their shows – not his experience or him trying to be something he hasn’t been.
To that end, the phone has always rung because Rosado all but guarantees excitement.
“That’s correct, for sure,” he said. “I think win, lose or draw, the fans just want to see a fighter step in the ring and really give them a fight. And that’s what I want to do.”
He does concede, however, that he should box smarter and use all of the experience he has gained over the years.
“And I think it’s going to definitely show, it’s definitely going to show versus Mitchell,” he promised.
This is his second fighting trip to the UK, after he lost to Martin Murray in Liverpool in 2017 – a majority decision defeat in a bout Rosado feels he won.
There are several losses the 28-17-1 (16 KOs) Rosado contends should not have gone the way they did, including one against New Yorker Peter Quillin, who stopped him on cuts in 10 rounds in 2013.
Rosado felt hard done by the official scorecards that had him down, and by the stoppage. Having told the doctor he was good to fight on, Rosado – and the doctor – were overruled and the bout was stopped.
“Some crazy politics right there,” Rosado said.
And although Quillin was good, the best Rosado has faced has been Gennadiy Golovkin.
“For sure,” Rosado replied, when asked whether GGG was the standout.
“Golovkin was definitely a fight that was premature,” he said. “It’s probably one of the dumbest business decisions a manager could ever give to his fighter. I’m the No. 1 mandatory at 154 to fight K-9 [Cornelius] Bundrage. I would have smashed him. K-9 was, like, 41 at the time. He was washed. And I was his mandatory. And for whatever reason, my team at the time thought the fight with Golovkin moving up to ‘60 on HBO would be better, obviously, because the money was a lot more. It was. I was just being a fighter. And I said, ‘Man, let’s do it. Let’s rock and roll. HBO, Madison Square Garden, middleweight championship of the world. Why not? Let’s go.’
“I think the day of the fight, I only gained two pounds. I wasn’t a middleweight. Golovkin, to me, was the most skilful fighter I fought. But on top of that, I wasn’t a middleweight and I still gave him a good fight. He didn’t put me down. Obviously the cuts affected me. But I think, for me, that was like the turning point for me, where now I was obligated to stay at the middleweight division. And that’s where I keep fighting the tough fights in the middleweight division, because no one wanted to fight me at ‘54. That kind of changed my style in the sense of ‘Gabe Rosado, he comes to fight,’ you know? ‘He’s a warrior’ or whatever. Well, yeah, because I was fighting guys that were bigger than me. I had to be that kind of fighter. I had to adjust and I had to kind of change my style a bit.”
There have been many other big names.
The chance to fight Jermell Charlo came when it was arguably too late to cut back down to 154lbs, but Rosado took it, made weight but lost a decision.
By that point, a split decision loss to J’Leon Love had been overturned and made a no-contest after Love tested positive for diuretics.
“But yeah, man, that’s just boxing. It’s just boxing,” he said with a sigh.
Rosado has a lot of stories, plenty of experience. And he isn’t going away just yet.
Boxing is something he does – although he refuses to allow it to define him.
“I have a love for the sport,” he said. “When shit happens and it doesn’t play out the way you wanted it to play out, it’s cool, man. That’s just life. I can’t dwell on things. … ‘Damn, I should have never fought Golovkin.’ ‘I should have never moved up.’ ‘I could have been champion at ‘54.’ Look, man. It is what it is, because you’re going to drown in that fucking misery. And that shit’ll fucking take control over you, where I look at it more like, ‘You know what? At the end of the day, the fans love and respect me. They appreciate me.’ And I can give you the best of me right now. I can make adjustments on what I think will make me a better fighter and then we’ll see how it plays out. And it is what it is.
“I think the mistake I used to make was, I used to allow boxing to define me as a person. Like, this is something I do. But I’m a father. I'm a husband. I’m a son. I’m a brother. There’s so much more to me than just being a pro boxer. If I don’t ever become a champion, it’s cool. I’m a champion in life, man. I got my kids. I got my family. I got my health. I got my dogs. I’m good.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
