Stephanie Pineiro hopes to take Lauren Price’s championship hardware back to Puerto Rico after their fight in Cardiff on Saturday.
The two meet at the Cardiff International Arena for Price’s welterweight titles and the 35-year-old southpaw challenger said of the 9-0 Price: “I think she’s very strong, she’s a top fighter, she has a lot of experience, a really good experience.”
But Pineiro, from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, is not showing up just to take part. She has her own ambitions.
She is 10-0 (3 KOs) and is confident.
“This is an important fight for me, this is a dream for me and I’m really thankful for the opportunity they gave me, but I’m really well-prepared, I’m ready to show UK fans what Puerto Rican fighters can do and I know I’m ready to bring those belts back here to Puerto Rico,” Pineiro said.
Price, and many others, contend the Welsh star has not lost a round yet in her career, even though two judges scored a couple of sessions for Natasha Jonas in Price’s last fight, which was a year ago.
“I know she hasn’t lost a round, she hasn’t,” said the challenger. “But she hasn’t really fought a fighter like me. I’m really ready to bring power in a good fight, unlike the fighters she has fought in the past.
“I know she's a gym rat,” she said, talking of Price’s inactivity. “She likes to be in training all the time. She’s going to be someone super-impossible to beat. I prepared for that. I know she's going to be well prepared, so I prepared for the best version of her.”
It is Pineiro’s first pro fight outside of Puerto Rico, though she boxed overseas often in the amateurs, and she is excited to see what the Welsh fans will offer on the biggest night of her pro career.
“I really like it. I’m anxious to get to know the crowd of UK,” she said. "My manager and the people talk a lot about them and they told me they are very intense, great fans and they know a lot of boxing, so if they know a lot of boxing they will really like me because they will see a really good boxer who can bring entertainment and really good fights. Hopefully they like me after the fight, even though they will maybe not like it [if she wins], but that does not get me scared at all or nervous. I’m really just anxious to be there and enjoy them.”
Pineiro was actually a basketball player first but transitioned to boxing, winning her first international medal at a tournament in Honduras. She won a silver, and that told her to focus on boxing rather than basketball.
“I started late,” she admitted. “I was 26 years old then, and I’m now 35, but I was really a brave fighter since I was a child. I really liked fighting in school and those things, but yes, I started a little bit late, but I learned fast. I come from a family who is a boxing family, so my grandfather was a trainer. My dad, my uncles went to the Military Olympics, so I think that was in my blood. I’m at my best and at the top of my career of boxing.”
Price and her promoter Ben Shalom have talked about possibly having a future fight with US star Claressa Shields, and Pineiro is happy to be overlooked.
“I felt that,” she replied, asked if Price was taking victory for granted. “And I really like that if that’s happening, because they’re underestimating me. If it’s that, then they’re not going to have a great night on April 4th if that’s the case.”
Pineiro believes victory will change her life and it would be “a dream come true.”
“I would like to bring those belts here to Puerto Rico,” she added. “We want to add one more unified champion. I want to be one of the best, so if I want to do that, I have to beat the best, and that is Lauren Price, so this is a great scenario for me.”
