by David P. Greisman
Sadam Ali’s second fight back after his welterweight title loss could come on the Jan. 28 show in Los Angeles featuring 130-pound titleholder Francisco Vargas defending his belt against Miguel Berchelt, according to Ali’s trainer, Andre Rozier.
That show also has a bout between junior lightweights Takashi Miura and Miguel Roman on the undercard.
No opponent has been confirmed.
Ali was stopped in nine rounds by Jessie Vargas last March while fighting for a vacant welterweight title. He took some time off before returning in September on the preliminary undercard to Liam Smith vs. Canelo Alvarez. Ali outpointed Saul Corral, winning all but one round on the cards. The 28-year-old is now 23-1 with 13 KOs.
“I was very happy when we fought in Texas,” Rozier said. “Sadam was utilizing his jab a lot more, which is what I wanted him to do, and he was on his toes, aka the old Sadam. He had a really good performance. I thought he should’ve finished his opponent when he dropped him in the fourth. He needed the work. He passed my test, which is a hard test.”
Rozier believes Ali will be able to recover from the Vargas defeat, having learned lessons the hard way.
“Basically I think Sadam took the whole fight for granted. He figured, ‘I’m going to beat Jessie,’ and he didn’t turn up his burners to maximum capacity,” Rozier said. “He was supposed to really gear up and be at 150 percent condition for this, and he started waning in the seventh and eighth round. Of course he got caught, because he was unfocused, and got dropped. He hurt his ankle and basically Jessie jumped on him, which would’ve never happened if he had dug in and understood that this was his moment to shine.
“Sometimes you can talk until you’re blue in the face, but an athlete has to see it. When they see it, hopefully they don’t come up short like he did,” Rozier said. “He’s like a nephew to me. People said I spoil him. Maybe I did. I won’t be spoiling him anymore.”
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