Emiliano Aguillon and Misael Cabrera joined the WBC Grand Prix through very different means.
Aguillon, a 20-year-old undefeated middleweight prospect, gave the answer you might expect.
“It was my team, my management, who I’m very thankful with, that let me know about the tournament,” Aguillon told BoxingScene through translator Martín Bater in a joint interview over Zoom. “I didn’t hesitate one bit. I signed the papers, and here we are, third phase of the tournament – really excited.”
The 26-year-old Cabrera had to secure his spot himself.
“I don’t have the fortune of having a promoter,” Cabrera said through Bater. “I post on Facebook and Instagram, and I signed up for [the Grand Prix] myself, being optimistic about my chances. I had been battling for a while, so I was like, ‘Why not? Let’s toss my hat in the ring out there and see what comes out of it.’
“Fortunately, it all worked out, and now I’m here. So I’m really happy with how everything has turned out.”
Going it alone in the fight game comes with challenges, of course.
“It’s not easy to always have to go up against the current, to have to swim upstream without a team, without a promoter. I have always overcome the odds. … I was injured for two years – a back injury, the spine. It was pretty bad, and the people that were holding my hand back then, they let it go. I never lost faith. I rehabbed, I stayed optimistic, and it’s all paying off, the effort I had to make.”
The WBC Grand Prix is hosting a 32-fighter tournament for each of the featherweight, junior welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight divisions. Cabrera and Aguillon have each advanced to the final eight of their respective events. Aguillon is a middleweight, a young hope in a desolate division, while Cabrera campaigns at 140lbs. Their next fights, both in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will stream on DAZN on August 13.
Both Cabrera and Aguillon are Mexican, following a storied history of fighters such as Julio Cesar Chavez, Juan Manuel Marquez and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. They each dream of winning a world championship.
Cabrera, 17-2-1 (11 KOs), is making the most of his Grand Prix opportunity thus far. He has hardly lost a round in his first two fights, defeating his two formerly undefeated opponents by wide unanimous decisions. He’ll next fight Mujibillo Tursunov.
Aguillon, 13-0-1 (7 KOs), also won his first two fights via six-round unanimous decisions – first against the headbutt-happy Ishtvan Herzheni, who lost three points for butting, and then a cleaner, closer fight with Jose Ramon Montes. His quarterfinal will come against the wonderfully named Lancelot Proton de la Chapelle, 17-1-1 (5 KOs), who you will be pleased to know is as French as his name sounds.
Though not as self-sufficient as his compatriot, Aguillon has a compelling backstory of his own.
“My dad got me into boxing,” Aguillon told BoxingScene. “I was getting picked on at school, so it was a way for my dad to show me how to defend myself. … I started loving boxing more and more.” The bullying subsided as Aguillon’s skills developed.
“I’m an easygoing person,” Aguillon said. “I don’t like to be a troublemaker. I’m a chill guy, not the one that tries to pick a fight in any kind of setting outside the ring.”
Inside the ring is another story, of course, and Aguillon has ambitions to win the tournament.
Cabrera was more blunt: “My goal for this tournament is to go after the trophy and demolish everything and everyone that’s in my way.”
Owen Lewis is a freelance writer with bylines at Defector Media, The Guardian and The Second Serve. He is also a writer and editor at BoxingScene. His beats are tennis, boxing, cycling, books, travel and anything else that satisfies his meager attention span. He is on Bluesky and can be contacted at owentennis11@gmail.com.