Alatorre faces uphill battle in MMA test against Franco
Posted on | February 7, 2008 | No Comments
LEMOORE, Ca. — Elvis Franco is preparing for an upcoming mixed arts bout in Visalia like he has none other.
“I’m going to bring it all, punches, kicks, elbows, takedowns, submissions, you name it. And hopefully things go my way this time,” said Franco, who lost by submission at the Palace Fighting Championship in June to Anaheim’s Scott Brommage (1-3).
But Franco isn’t training just to even up his record, but he is preparing for a big name in Central California — Hector Alatorre, who is a professional boxer with a 15-3 record.
The bout will take place on Feb. 29th in Visalia at the Visalia Convention Center.
“I’ve been ready to fight for a while. I’m tired of waiting,” said Franco, who trains with Team Ochoa — a local fight team that has some of the Valley’s top up-and-coming fighters.
“I think it’s an interesting fight. On one hand you have a very talented boxer in Alatorre. He has exceptional quickness, fast hands and really good reflexes. He has the potential to be a really dangerous striker in MMA with his hands by using angles and movement that aren’t typically seen in an MMA fighter. He has never been a big puncher, that’s one of the things that limited his boxing career somewhat, but when you move to MMA gloves you would expect him to have some more sting in his hands,” said PFC President , who promoted Alatorre for boxing shows at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino.
“The thing is, and we’ve seen this with a lot of pure boxers who try their hand at MMA, will Hector be willing to get close enough to land his hands and risk being taken down? To me that’s a huge question. Elvis will have an advantage on the ground and he is a solid striker too. I’ve sparred with him. He has heavy hands, he may not be as fast as Hector but he hits harder.”
After Alatorre announced his decision to try MMA in January, the fans have been buzzing to see what the 26-year-old had to offer.
“It’s just like anything else, it’s a challenge to me,” Alatorre said. “I’m focusing on everything from ground to striking and takedowns to sprawling. You never know in MMA what is going to happen.”
Alatorre is coming off a devastating boxing loss to Don Juan Futrell (20-3-1) for the WBC USNBC welterweight title on Dec. 6th at the Palace.
“I have a lot of respect for Hector and his family. I was his promoter for his entire boxing career and we got him on ESPN twice, and we made him more money in boxing than he would have ever gotten from any other promoter in the country. If he has been seriously training for this, and he can check kicks, stuff takedowns, if he has basic sweeps and submission defense and here’s the big thing if he trains properly, because it’s no secret we had a lot of problems with him and his weight in boxing,” Printup said.
“He wasn’t as dedicated as he could have been 100 percent of the time to training and that kind of derailed his career. He has reached his ceiling in boxing, so because of our history I want him to succeed in MMA, but I am Elvis’ promoter in MMA and I have the utmost confidence that he’s going to leave the cage a winner. He has nothing to lose. No pressure. All eyes will be on Hector and he hasn’t always handled pressure well. This will be interesting.”
Franco might be the best-kept secret on Team Ochoa. His loss to Brommage came after being accidentally heeled in the eye and Brommage locked up a leg lock, while Franco clutched his eye.
“My strong points are my striking, but I might have a bit different game plan for this fight,” Franco said. “I heard that Hector has been working with Luis [Gonzalez] on his jiu-jitsu, but he has some work to do. Only a few months of jiu-jitsu won’t prepare you. He’s going to have to work a lot longer than that. I know he’s been boxing for years and I think once he gets in there and gets hit, that’s what he will go back to.”
But no matter the outcome, Alatorre plans on providing an exciting fight.
“Some people are going to come out because they want to see a boxer turned on to MMA and some are going to come to see me lose,” Alatorre said. “There are also going to be people there that are they’re pulling for me.”
One of the biggest questions is if Alatorre has switched permanently to MMA or will he continue to be a boxer.
“I’m going to do both. I’m going to do whatever I can to make money for my family,” Alatorre said. “If it don’t make dollars it don’t make sense to me.”
Printup has his own take on Alatorre, who has lost three of his last four fights.
“I can’t say he’s finished with boxing. I can just say that we have elected to not extend his promotional contract. You can only do so much, as promoters you provide opportunities and if the fighters can’t capitalize on them sometimes you have to make tough decisions. But at the end of the day it’s a business. The other thing is Hector has been boxing for a long time, I mean since he was like 8-years-old. I really didn’t want to see him fight too many more fights,” Printup said.
“I didn’t want him to take too many more punches. Our goal was to provide him with opportunities to fight meaningful fights like the Don Juan Futrell fight and then he would have had a chance to get another meaningful fight and with a win there he could have made that one big payday. We all wanted it for him and he could have banked that and segued into the next chapter of his life. One of my greatest responsibilities as a promoter is to protect our fighters and be honest with them. Hector peaked as a boxer a while ago.”
Franco is hoping to help cut Alatorre’s venture into MMA short. He is expected to be the more well rounded fighter and some local fans believe, even the better striker.
“Obviously Franco will have a marked advantage on the ground, but more than that. We have to see how Alatorre responds to taking leg kicks. For a guy like Hector he’s going to have to really rely on his footwork and speed, moving in and out to land strikes and not stay stationary because Elvis can take him down no question. Franco trains with some of the better MMA fighters in the Valley. So after a few kicks to his lead leg will Alatorre be able to move like he’ll need to in order to avoid being taken down?” Printup said.
“MMA is just so different from boxing, because you have so many variables to consider, especially in the clinch. In boxing when you clinch you’re just dirty boxing, creating space and throwing punches. In MMA of course you have to be mindful of knees, elbows, throws and not changing levels improperly and getting caught in a standing guillotine which is a very easy submission to catch someone in if they’re not ready. Elvis is an MMA fighter he won’t have to think as much as Alatorre he will be reacting. I think that’s an advantage because he can be more efficient and dictate the pace of the fight, because he won’t have to spend as much time thinking about what to do. He knows what to do.”
And Franco has a game plan, too.
“I’m not going to play his game. I’m going in there to do my thing and bring the fight to him,” Franco said.
Whatever the outcome, it will be a spectacle.
“I’m definitely a proponent of boxers crossing over into MMA and vice versa, but like anything in life the true meaning of the transition is the key. Is someone like Alatorre testing out the MMA landscape because he truly wants to achieve greatness, or is he just looking for a way to make money? If a boxer just gets into MMA for a paycheck in between boxing matches, they’re risking a lot. Especially a guy like Alatorre, he has way more value as a boxer than he does as an MMA fighter. So losing hurts his value in boxing too. Plus the risk of injury is greater in MMA simply by virtue of the nature of the combat,” Printup said.
“If he gets his ankle broken, he’s not going to be able to box for six to eight months and that’s going to hurt him. So there’s a lot of risk. Providing the boxer takes the proper steps and time to train and be comfortable using their boxing skills in MMA combat and have enough ground skills to be able to do more than hang on in a closed guard and hope for the referee to stand the fight back up, then it’s a good thing. Otherwise it’s an unnecessary risk. There are some guys like Dewey Cooper and Manuel Quezada, who have storied martial arts and professional kickboxing careers that can make the transition more easily. For a kid like Hector Alatorre, he has tools to be good but has he prepared enough or is he just looking to make a quick buck?”