Mykal Fox came face-to-face with Gabriel Maestre earlier this year at respected trainer Ismael Salas’ gym in Las Vegas.
Salas trains Maestre and Brian Mendoza, whom Fox was helping prepare for his shot at Sebastian Fundora’s WBC interim 154-pound title on April 8. Fox and Maestre shook hands before Fox focused on his sparring session with Mendoza.
In hindsight, Fox feels that is probably as close as he will come to meeting Maestre in the ring again. Now that Maestre has stopped former champion Devon Alexander and stunningly blown out touted welterweight prospect Travon Marshall, Fox figures the Venezuelan veteran will be even more reluctant to grant him a rematch Fox definitely deserves based on the extremely controversial loss Fox suffered against Maestre two years ago.
“He probably wouldn’t fight me again,” Fox told BoxingScene.com. “He got the win that he didn’t earn and he’s taken it on to two additional wins. I think he’s trying to move his career forward. He’s trying to fight [Eimantas] Stanionis and things like that, but you know, everything he has now, I don’t think is warranted just because of how our fight went.”
Maestre infamously defeated Fox by unanimous decision in August 2021 at The Armory in Minneapolis. Fox, a skillful southpaw who undoubtedly outboxed Maestre, oddly lost their 12-rounder on the scorecards of judges John Mariano (115-112), Gloria Martinez Rizzo (117-110) and David Singh (114-113).
The WBA responded to intense criticism by suspending Rizzo, whose racist Tweets were uncovered in the aftermath of her suspicious scoring of the Maestre-Fox fight. The WBA stripped Maestre of its interim 147-pound title, but the Minnesota Office of Combat Sports didn’t change the result of their nationally televised fight to a no-contest, as the WBA requested.
“Gilberto Mendoza, I spoke to him directly,” Fox said in reference to the WBA’s president. “He said we would get the rematch and then it never came. They stripped him of the title, but they said they would order the rematch and they never did.”
Maestre (6-0-1, 5 KOs) is 2-0-1 since he fought Fox and wants a title shot after annihilating Marshall (8-1, 7 KOs) by second-round knockout in a fight Showtime televised Saturday night from MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Fox (22-4, 5 KOs) most recently lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Lithuanian contender Egidijus Kavaliauskas (23-2-1, 18 KOs) last October 8 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. That defeat was Fox’s only fight since he faced Maestre 24 months ago.
Maestre told BoxingScene.com last week that he would fight Fox again, but Fox expects the two-time Olympian to go in a different direction.
“It’s more so on him,” Fox said. “Whatever happens, you look now and every time they mention him they say he didn’t earn a win against Mykal Fox. They say they robbed Mykal Fox. It’s gonna be more of an asterisk on his record. So, he has to decide if he can live with that.”
Regardless, Fox has noticed improvement in Maestre since they fought. Fox knows Marshall well, as they’ve sparred more than 300 rounds together in their neighboring gyms just outside of Washington, D.C.
“I’m not gonna necessarily say I was surprised [by Maestre’s win],” Fox said. “I mean, I didn’t think he would put him out in the second round. I knew it would be a tough matchup for Travon. You know, you got two guys with single-digit fights, but Maestre’s a two-time Olympian.
“I have respect for him and I’m friends with Team Salas and everything, so I could see the difference in when I fought him and when he was fighting Travon. Of course, I was still rooting for Travon. I was sparring him to get ready for Maestre at one point.”
Fox tried to comfort Marshall following the 22-year-old fighter’s devastating defeat.
“I just told him, you know, success has never been a straight road,” Fox said. “You know, he’s still young in his career. I told him he’ll be fine.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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