Talking Boxing with "MIGHTY" MIKE ARNAOUTIS
"I'm training hard to get to the point where I will be a Showtime fighter or an HBO fighter"
by
Coyote Duran
2/18 - The home of the Olympics has a lot to be proud of these days. For it is in the city of Athens, one
"Mighty" Mike Arnaoutis was born and in the spirit of all the Greek warriors of legend, Arnaoutis would travel to a land where his greatest challenges would be met. Mind you, warriors like
Heracles and
Perseus never came to Atlantic City, New Jersey, but this is the 21st century and the Boardwalk sees different warriors these days.
Arnaoutis (12-0-2 with 6 KOs), is riding a crest of uncanny popularity and is reaping the fruits of a very young career that has exceeded the expectations of what a prospect should accomplish thus far. In fact, tonight at 11:00 PM ET/PT on the Showtime network's ShoBox: The New Generation, Arnaoutis takes on Roberto Santa Cruz (11-2 with 2 KOs) at the Chumash Casino in Santa Barbara, CA while making an unprecedented fourth appearance on the network's program dedicated to spotlighting young, hungry talent.
Although Santa Cruz hasn't fought since May of 2003, Arnaoutis accepted the fight like any other and is looking forward to whatever challenge Santa Cruz provides for him as well as any other challenges in his own future.
Fighting under the Cestus Management banner as well as under the attentive and watchful eye of manager/mentor Mike Michael (who also helped translate our conversation), the NABO Junior welterweight titlist spoke with me recently regarding his next ShoBox appearance, where his career is heading and what he really thinks of Paul Malignaggi. Bashful and softer-spoken at first, the undefeated "Mighty" Mike would soon cheerfully and graciously open up and engage in a great conversation.
And as a bonus (and just for fun), Mike Michael also shared some words with us about why he thinks his fighter is a future crossover star, what he thinks of Oscar Diaz and Al Gonzales' last appearance on ShoBox. Read on and enjoy, Howlers!
"MIGHTY" MIKE ARNAOUTIS
Coyote Duran: This next opponent is Roberto Santa Cruz. What do you know about him?
Mike Arnaoutis: (Laughs) We tried to get some film on this kid. We really don't know much about him. We know that he's 11-2 with 2 KOs and that he's been out of the ring for a year. Other than that, we don't know much about him.
Coyote Duran: I know that Santa Cruz campaigns regularly as a lightweight. I know your schedule was open but, in such short notice, would you rather have taken on a full-fledged junior welterweight instead?
Mike Arnaoutis: It doesn't really bother me. I'll fight anybody. I train hard so whether it's a lightweight or a junior welterweight, it doesn't matter to me.
Coyote Duran: Mike, you're #13 in the IBF and in the top 10 in the WBO. You also hold the NABO belt, I believe. You've only had 14 fights so far. How far in the future do you see yourself fighting for one of the major sanctioning body belts?
Mike Arnaoutis: I feel I need about a year and a half. Then I will be a world champion.
Coyote Duran: Your battle, 2 fights ago, against Juan Urango was one of the best draws, let alone one of the best fights, of the year. Would you consider fighting Urango again if you had the chance to beat that draw?
Mike Arnaoutis: It's gotta happen because I won the fight. The rematch has gotta happen. I can't wait!
Coyote Duran: Sounds good! Mike, the junior welterweight division is so deep with established talent and crawling with titleholders. It's a division that's full of good young prospects and contenders, one being Paul Malignaggi who's come into the spotlight as of late and hasn't had a shortage of things to say about you. Malignaggi's made it known that he'd love to tangle with you. Does this appeal to you as a future fight?
Mike Arnaoutis: As soon as this fight is over, I'm taking a break and taking a holiday in Greece for a couple of weeks. The first day I get back from Greece, I'll fight Malignaggi on that day. He's only a bum. It doesn't mean anything.
"I will be a champion many times"
Coyote Duran: (Laughs) Speaking of Greece, Anton Christoforides was the last Greek national to be a world champion almost 60 years ago. Is this more pressure for you to achieve such a goal someday?
Mike Arnaoutis: I don't feel the pressure. Anton Christoforides was only a champion one time. I will be a champion many times. I don't feel the pressure. I know what I've gotta do.
Coyote Duran: As you're fully aware of, ShoBox is responsible for cultivating good, young talent on Showtime. This coming appearance will be your fourth. Do you think yet that you're ready to graduate to Showtime Championship Boxing or even HBO Championship Boxing just yet?
Mike Arnaoutis: My whole concept is that I'm training hard to get to the point where I will be a Showtime fighter or an HBO fighter. That's in the process of happening just by me being on ShoBox.
Coyote Duran: Mike, I already know about your plans after Santa Cruz as far as malignaggi's concerned. With him aside, if you could choose any 3 opponents in the junior welterweight division to fight in the course of 2005, who would you pick to meet in the ring?
Mike Arnaoutis: I want to go for the Diaz names: Oscar Diaz, second, David Diaz and I want definitely to have the rematch with Urango.
Coyote Duran: In your last fight, you knocked out Jauquin Gallardo and now it seems that he's getting a shot at a belt against Great Britain's Colin Lynes. Mind you, it's the marginal IBO belt but why do you think it's not you getting this opportunity and does this bother you that he's getting this chance?
Mike Arnaoutis: Our cause is a helluva lot higher than the IBO. I'm not bothered by that at all.
Coyote Duran: Your career is very young right now. As you get older and you feel the junior welterweight division isn't holding many more opportunities for you, would you consider going up in weight?
Mike Arnaoutis: I'll probably mature into a 147 pound fighter. That's probably inevitable. As an amateur, the weight category that I loved was around the 147 pound area. I'll probably become a 147 pound fighter. I believe the best division in boxing is the 147 division.
Coyote Duran: Any words for your fans or any potential opponents?
Mike Arnaoutis: I would like to thank everybody that supports me. All the fans. It's been incredible, the response that I have. I promise them I will do my best and even if my best is not good enough, I'll still try and do whatever else I can to please the fans. I promise them they'll never ever see me in a fight that doesn't mean anything. I'll have to be carried out on my shield to be beaten properly. Tell any of my opponents to keep training 'cause they're gonna need it.
Coyote Duran: (Laughs) Alright, Mike! Gotcha! I wish you the best of luck against Roberto Santa Cruz and in your future and I'm glad we got to speak today.
Mike Arnaoutis: Thank you very much for taking the time to give me the consideration to be interviewed by someone like yourself. Feel free anytime that you want to call us if you ever need to speak to me and I'll be at your disposal.
Mike Michael: I told you we got a good little kid here! You know what I mean?
"Mighty" Mike's Manager, Mike Michael
Coyote Duran: Mike, I know your team would like to challenge Oscar Diaz in the near future. What did you think of Diaz's performance against Al Gonzales on Showtime?
Mike Michael: I thought he got lucky because Al didn't fight the right fight. I've got great respect for Al and I've got great respect for his management. I don't know them personally, but they put themselves across as really good people. I thought that Al basically looked flat, in my opinion, you know what I mean? If he had come in on top form, I think he could've possibly even stopped Diaz! There were so many instances in the fight where he could've taken him out and he didn't, you know?
Coyote Duran: Yeah, he didn't follow up. He didn't let his hands go when he should've, being an all-out gutsy fighter.
Mike Michael: Yeah, that wasn't Al Gonzales in there, I'll tell ya that now.
Coyote Duran: You think "Speedy" could've done a lot more.
Mike Michael: I think he could've won the fight! If he'd a just put a little more pressure....just boxed Diaz. You can't disrespect his performance. You can't know what's gonna happen on the night of the fight, Coyote. You can have all the training in the world and on the night of the fight, you just ain't got it for some reason or whatever, OK? On that night, I think Al gave that fight away, personally.
Coyote Duran: Would you ever consider putting Mike in the ring against Gonzales?
Mike Michael: My answer to that question is this: This is without any disrespect to Al, OK? I don't think that at the level we're at now, in the junior welterweight division, there's anyone that can actually beat us!
Coyote Duran: Really?? Are you also including the champion, Kostya Tszyu and the various titleholders in that assessment, Mike?
Mike Michael: No, I don't think we're ready for them at this moment. I don't want to be talking like a babbling idiot, here. (Coyote laughs) I'd like to think that I'm a reasonably intelligent guy and at the same time, I would say that we're a year away from being able to lock horns with anyone in the division.
"we're a year away from being able to lock horns with anyone"
Coyote Duran: I suppose that's reasonable considering Mike's rate of improvement. You want to pace your fighter.
Mike Michael: At that level on ShoBox, as a co-main eventer, there's not a fighter in this country that can beat us! And I challenge anybody! As far as Oscar Diaz is concerned, he's dead meat.
Coyote Duran: Dead meat??
Mike Michael: Dead meat!
Coyote Duran: Do you see this as a fight that could be made soon?
Mike Michael: Yeah, I'd like this fight to take place in April. I want to get this (Santa Cruz) fight out of the way. This is no disrespect to our opponent that we're fighting 'cause we train for every fight as if it's a world championship fight, Coyote. Whether it's 4, 6, 8, 10 or 12 rounds, to us, every time we step into the ring, it's like the fight's for a world title.
Coyote Duran: He always fights like he's the challenger.
Mike Michael: That's right. We don't take anybody lightly but once we overcome Santa Cruz, and we know we will, we'll call out Diaz to fight us in April. We'll give him enough opportunity to get himself right, to train properly, and we'll put the most vicious beating that boxing's ever seen. You know what I mean? We'll only take him to school. A vicious beating will be administered at the same time.
Coyote Duran: Is Gary Shaw promoting "Mighty" Mike in this fight against Santa Cruz?
Mike Michael: No, Gary's not our promoter but we work very close with him and have the utmost respect for him. We hope that we can continue to work with him. We just have a very, very, very strong relationship with Gary.
Coyote Duran: But no contractual ties as of yet.
Mike Michael: No contractual ties at this moment, no.
Coyote Duran: You speak, of course, of all the young guys in the junior welterweight division like Oscar Diaz. What do you make of the whole Paul Malignaggi appearance and disappearance that happened at Foxwoods?
Mike Michael: I'll tell you first and foremost, I think he's a big bag of wind! (Coyote laughs) I'm sure there's gonna be a distribution of adult Pampers being made now! Then they're gonna ask him to model them. The bottom line is that he shows disgraceful behavior and tremendous disrespect, OK? That's not the way that you market yourself or hype yourself, OK? If he thinks he's one of Victoria Gotti's four sons, he's very much mistaken, you know what I mean? The guy is a joke. He can't fight. Everybody knows it. I think he knows it deep in his heart that he cannot fight. You know what he reminds me of? A female tennis player with the headband on and all this business!
I mean, I'm just saying that he can't get into the ring with us. He has no substance to be able to fight someone like a Mike Arnaoutis. By the time he is ready to fight someone like that, we're gonna be so far ahead, even TV wouldn't be interested in a fighter of that caliber. To tell you the truth, and I want you to write this, Paul Malignaggi can empty an arena, not fill it.
Coyote Duran: Well, I think it's safe to say that Paulie's not well-liked in many circles.....
Mike Michael: Outside of New York,.....not even New York! Outside of Brooklyn, apart from a handful of people, who would watch Malignaggi? He's totally and utterly insignificant and has no relevance to the boxing industry. Who wants to see him even fight?! We want to see him lose. We know we'll see him lose! And he's talking about "Mighty" Mike Arnaoutis?! A kid who's got crossover appeal! The Latinos love him. The Afro-Americans love him. The Irish love him. The Greeks love him. The Jews love him. He's a crossover fighter! A fighter that comes along every few years. (Oscar) De La Hoya came across. (Felix) Trinidad came across. And we're very fortunate to have a fighter of that crossover appeal!
Coyote Duran: Is there a particular trait Mike has that shines above his other traits that makes him stand out crossover-wise?
Mike Michael: He's a charismatic guy. You're born with it. You see, nobody knew Mike before the Juan Urango fight, yes?
Coyote Duran: If anything, that fight brought more attention to Mike from sheer action alone. That was a hell of a fight, man!
Mike Michael: That boy got hit by a truck in that fight, yeah? He took everything Urango could throw at him for four rounds. He fought adversity. Overcame it. Made the adjustment, OK? And he won the fight! It doesn't matter that they gave us a draw. Everybody knows, Coyote, that it was a hometown decision. We won that fight by at least 2 or 3 points. Plus, if you watch that fight from the 10th to the 12th, you'll hear the Latino crowd yelling "Go, Mike, go!" Mike's not Latino! Right?
Coyote Duran: (Laughs) Right! Well, the Latino crowds love a warrior, Mike!
Mike Michael: Exactly! That catapulted us into the (Jessie) Feliciano fight which we took out that guy in one round. A respectable, durable guy! I'm not saying that he was the best fighter in the world, Feliciano, but we. did to him what somebody should have did a long time ago. Then we took out (Jauquin) Gallardo in 3 rounds. My point, Coyote? From the Urango fight to the Gallardo fight, look at the improvement! Look at the crossover appeal. Look at the fan base. Our job now, Coyote, is not to worry about what Paul Malignaggi is saying or whatever. It's totally and utterly insignificant what a punk like that's gonna say. My job is to get Mike into that mandatory position.
Talking Boxing would like to thank the great team of Mike Arnaoutis and Mike Michael for sharing their valuable time to fill our readers in on "Mighty" Mike's blossoming career and future plans. Major props also to our good friend Damien Picariello for helping arrange a great interview!
Coyote Duran can be reached at coyoteduran@talkingboxing.com
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