By Thomas Gerbasi
Featherweight prospect Daniel Franco might be boxing’s last optimist. And he knows it.
“I guess you have to be an optimist,” he laughs. “In anything, you really want to have the glass half full and have your eyes wide open to make sure you’re able to get everything you can out of this world.”
Having such a sunny outlook on this sport may have something to do with being 24 years old, unbeaten in 17 pro fights and on the verge of a world ranking at 126 pounds should he defeat Jose Haro in their USBA title fight on November 10. But Franco is no dreamer. He is well aware of how this game works and what it can do to you. He’s still all in.
“It (boxing) was an escape from reality and now boxing is my reality,” he said. “But the key now is that I love it. I really love the sport, I love boxing with my family and it brings us all together. And if you really love something, you’re not going to get tired of that. You’re going to make sure that it’s part of your life forever, so I’m sure that I’m going to be in this sport for the rest of my life, whether it’s gonna be competing, managing fighters, having my own promotional company or training fighters or commentating. I’m going to be here for the rest of my life, and it’s great, because I love the sport.”
Rancho Cucamonga’s Franco has had every opportunity to go in a different direction. He’s been around the sport since he was a child, whether he was watching his father Al train fighters, his older brother Michael making noise in the same featherweight division, or just taking care of his own career as an amateur and pro. But the boxing bug bit him early and he never wavered in his devotion.
“My parents are very supportive of whatever we choose in life,” he said. “If I wanted to continue schooling, I’m sure they would love that, but I chose this sport. I love boxing. I’m a warrior at heart and I want to continue doing this.”
When he fights Haro in Washington, D.C., it will be his first east coast fight and a sign that business is about to pick up for the Roc Nation signee as he puts his 14-0-3 (9 KOs) record on the line.
“I want to be known worldwide in the boxing industry, and this is just one step further into the world,” he said. “I really love having the opportunity to be in the main event and I’m excited about it.”
Utah’s Haro (13-1-1, 7 KOs) will be his toughest test to date, but Franco isn’t coming into the fight with no knowledge of his foe. In fact, he probably knows more about Haro than most of his previous opponents.
“I’ve kept my eye on him for a while now and I’ve known that we would face each other in the boxing ring,” Franco said. “He’s a very skilled opponent and a good fighter. He likes to move, and he’s got great movement, but one thing I did notice is that he doesn’t listen to his coaches very well. He’s switched trainers a few times, and one thing I’m looking for in the fight is that when the going gets tough, he’s not gonna listen and he’s gonna be mine.”
In Michael Franco’s big step-up fight, against Orlando Cruz in October of 2011, he was stopped in a single round. Five years later, he still hasn’t returned to the ring, and he probably won’t at this point, as a comeback attempt was stalled by a car accident that injured his shoulder.
“It was terrible because he loved the sport and he wanted to compete again, but unfortunately, the accident happened,” Daniel Franco said of his brother. There for every step of Michael’s career, Franco saw that the kid who was the hottest thing since pizza before the Cruz fight saw the bandwagon empty after it. But he didn’t get soured on the game.
“I was there for every second of his career,” he said. “I was always working his corner, I was there when he lost, I was seeing what mistakes he was making and what things I could improve on. So I take what he did best out of his career and what he could improve on and I apply that to mine and we’ll see exactly how far we could go.”
He may very far. He’s got the skill, the dedication to the sport, and he’s a charismatic young man who can crossover in popularity. He’s even tightened up the holes in his game that led to the three draws that dot his record, and from here on out, he is well aware that fans don’t tune in just to see boxing matches, but to see fights.
“A lot of feedback that I got early on in my career was that I was letting guys hang on too long and I was not as aggressive as I should have been,” Franco said. “I think I just had to take more time to adjust to being a professional and doing exactly what my job is to do and that’s to go in there and put on a show for the crowd. And now, every fight that I have, I am progressing and getting better and I’m improving towards being a more entertaining, more aggressive, more explosive fighter.”
His timing is perfect for such a realization, as a win next month could produce a life-changing 2017.
“I believe 2017 is going to be one of my biggest years so far, and it’s just going to keep getting bigger and bigger after that.”
