Part 4 – Training Camp Winding Down; Fighters Firing Up

Las Vegas, Nev. (March 31)…The April 9 “Action Heroes” fight week festivities kick off in less than one week and the excitement continues to build with new fights added to the card including James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland vs. Nobuhiro Ishida and Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi vs. Jose Miguel Cotto.  They join Erik “El Terrible” Morales vs.Marcos “El Chino” Maidana and Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero vs. Michael Katsidis “The Great” in what promises to be an action-packed night of boxing.  As the fighters’ respective training camps wind down, each has something to say about their last days of preparation for “Action Heroes” at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nev. which will be televised live on HBO Pay-Per-View®.

MORALES, MAIDANA, GUERRERO AND KATSIDIS – FINISHING STRONG

QUESTION: How are you feeling now that camp is winding down?

Morales: “I am very calm and ready.  We had our last sparring session yesterday and I did close to 192 rounds total during camp.”

Maidana: “I am feeling great!  It has been a great camp with changes for me with a new training camp and trainer, but I have the rest of my usual team with me, so I feel very comfortable.”

Guerrero: “I feel very motivated and excited for fight night.”

Katsidis: “It feels good because the fight is drawing near.  We are enjoying what’s left of camp and, of course, the real enjoyment will come when the fight is over and I come out victorious.”

QUESTION: Do you feel as prepared as possible?

Morales: “I am ready and have no problems with my weight.  The junior welterweight division gives me the opportunity to eat well and to make weight without sacrificing my body like I had to in the past.”

Maidana: “I am definitely prepared and hungry for this fight.  I want to be a world champion again and move past the frustration I have felt since my fight with Amir Khan.  I worked hard and will keep working hard until I come out with a win on April 9.”

Guerrero: “Since I was able to go away for training camp as opposed to the past when I had to stay close to home for personal reasons, I’m tremendously prepared for this fight.”

Katsidis: “I feel as prepared as I ever will be.”

QUESTION: Is there anything you haven’t worked on yet in camp that you have been saving for the last few days?

Morales: “The last thing to do is review everything we worked on and put it to use the day of thefight and of course use my experience in the ring.”

Maidana: “All I save is my punching power, which I will reserve exclusively for Morales on April 9.”

Guerrero: “No, nothing has changed; I’m moving full steam ahead with the game plan we have in place.”

Katsidis: “We are working on the enjoyment side of it now.  We are almost done with the hard work we need to do.”

QUESTION: What do you think the outcome of changing your camp location has been?

Maidana: “The altitude of Mexico City was great for me, as well as my sparring partners.  It was a breath of fresh air for me to change camp and I saw that I have a lot of fans in Mexico, which surprised me.  However I am now in Las Vegas, where I’ve come to train for my last four or five fights, so I feel at home here.  In all, both locations have been great for me.”

Guerrero: “It has given me the ability to be focused 100 percent on boxing.”

QUESTION: Would you change camps again?

Maidana: “Yes, why not?  The routine of boxing preparations can get a little boring sometimes and you have to change things once in a while.  On top of that, you learn new things when you go to new places and that’s exactly what I did.”

Guerrero: “God willing everything continues to stay the way it is at home and I’ll definitely come back out to Las Vegas for camp again.”

KIRKLAND, MALIGNAGGI AND COTTO – FULL SPEED AHEAD

QUESTION: Where are you training?

Kirkland: “I am training at the Pound 4 Pound Boxing Gym in Las Vegas, Nevada.”

Malignaggi: “I’m training at Wildcard Boxing Gym in Hollywood, CA.”

Cotto: “I am training in Caguas and Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, near my home.  I am comfortable training here.”

QUESTION: Who is your trainer and how long have you trained with them?

Kirkland: “My new trainer is Kenny Adams and his assistant is Chris Rodriguez.  I have been with him for my past two fights.”

Malignaggi: “I’m working with Eric Brown and this is our second training camp together.”

Cotto: “My trainer is Armando Alamo, one of the best young trainers from Puerto Rico.  My brother Miguel Cotto is also with me.  I have been with Armando for two years and we have chemistry like I have never experienced before.  Having my brother in my corner gives me profound confidence and tranquility.”

QUESTION: Do you have any new training techniques that you are trying this time around?

Kirkland: “I’m working on better head movement and defense.  I want to be in great shape, so I’m also working on getting my weight down to 158 pounds.”

Malignaggi: “The fans will have to wait until the fight.  We don’t want to spoil any surprises.”

Cotto: “Yes, but I cannot say.  You will see them implemented during the fight.”

QUESTION: What is your diet like?

Kirkland: “I eat a lot of salads, fruit and vegetables.  I also like fish, chicken and pasta.”

Malignaggi: “My diet is a mix of chicken, fish and veggies, plus a lot of fruit as well.”

Cotto: “I eat healthily and sensibly.  All of the good stuff!”

QUESTION: What are you concentrating on most now that you’ve been added to the April 9 “Action Heroes” fight card?

Malignaggi: “We are always working hard, but because we are on the ‘Action Heroes’ card, we are making sure all super-powers and action techniques are sharp and we’ll be full speed ahead on April 9.”

Cotto:  “On winning and having a great performance!”

**All photos are courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions

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“Action Heroes,” featuring Erik Morales vs. Marcos Maidana in a 12-round junior welterweight bout, Robert Guerrero vs. Michael Katsidis in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBA and WBO Interim Lightweight Championships, James Kirkland vs. Nobuhiro Ishida in an 8-round middleweight bout and Paul Malignaggi vs. Jose Miguel Cotto in a 10-round welterweight bout, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Erik Morales’ Box Latino and Universum Box Promotions and sponsored by CervezaTecate, AT&T, DeWalt Tools and TresGeneraciones Tequila.  Guerrero vs. Katsidis is presented in association with Sampson Boxing.  The bouts will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.

Tickets for “Action Heroes,” priced at $350, $250, $150, $75, $50 and $25, are on sale now.  To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000.  Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, on Twitter at@GoldenBoyBoxing, @boxlatino, @UBPboxen, @terrible100, @ChinoMaidana, @TeamGuerrero,@MickKatsidis, @PAULMALIGNAGGI or become a fan on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing.Follow HBO Boxing news at www.hbo.com/boxing,Facebook atwww.facebook.com/hboboxing and on Twitter www.twitter.com/hboboxing.

The Morales vs. Maidana pay-per-view telecast, which begins at 9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT, has a suggested retail price of $44.95, will be produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 71 million pay-per-view homes.  The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD.  HBO Pay-Per-View, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry.  For Morales vs. Maidana fight week updates, log on to www.hbo.com.

Mike Kurzeja is your everyday police officer turned Secret Service agent/professional boxer with a nationwide nutritional supplement sponsorship.

The series of events that led to him protecting the President by day and trading leather at night begins with a bored Chicago cop.

“I was at a crossroads in my career,” he recounts, “I didn’t want to be a police officer for another 10 years, so I decided to apply to federal agencies. The Secret Service told me I could still be based out of Chicago if I came to work for them. It was a no-brainer at that point.”

In his spare time, Kurzeja took to boxing in college and then as a police officer, became involved in the Police Athletic League’s program. In 2000, he started fighting in the annual Chicago-area Super Cop Tournament, a charitable boxing event for fallen officers, and won three times.

It was the promoters of Super Cop who suggested Kurzeja consider turning professional. “I got my license and the rest is history. I made my debut in 2009.”

Meanwhile, because he is a physical fitness buff, he applied for sponsorship from the biggest supplement company in the world, Optimum Nutrition, and they agreed to become his sponsor. “They take care of me. I got lucky. Most of the people they sponsor are national-level body builders and fitness models. I’m the only boxer.”

And thus, Agent Kurzeja (4-0, 4 KOs) is in final preparations to appear on the Hitz Boxing Fight Night event on Saturday, April 9, at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. He is scheduled to face Ohio’s Ross Niggemyer (2-1, 2 KOs).

“He can punch and seems like a worthy opponent. Hopefully I’ll be able to show the improvements I’ve made in training.”

Off work, Kurzeja is friendly, likeable and even calls himself mellow. At work, he can’t even talk about what he does. “I can’t speak specifically about what I do during the day,” he explains. “In the Secret Service, we’re a dual-mission agency that provides a protective function, we protect the president and vice-president, and we have an investigative function. Let’s leave it at that.”

Kurzeja is wildly popular among his law enforcement colleagues and they flock to his fights. “I get a lot people from Super Cop come out to support my boxing. And then of course I get people from the Secret Service, so I do have a good-size following from the law enforcement community.”

Mike Kurzeja’s life is not for everybody and certainly not for the timid. It takes discipline, dedication and courage to do the things he does. He says if everything goes right he’ll be adding the word champion to his many descriptions.

“I plan to build up my record and keep stepping up my competition level and with God’s grace I’ll hopefully fight for some sort of title in the fall.” 

Also scheduled to appear are: Yakubu “Black Mamba” Amidu (19-2-1, 16 KOs); Chicago light welterweight Russell Fiore (4-0-1, 4 KOs); Chicago super middleweight Ninos Abraham (5-0, 2 KOs); Chicago heavyweight Dave Latoria (7-0, 3 KOs); Chicago junior lightweight Paulie Settepani making his pro debut; and Hammond welterweight Ruben “Modern Day Warrior” Galvan (27-15-4, 10 KOs) in separate bouts.

For more information, please visit: www.hitzboxing.com.

WHEN: Fight Night at Horseshoe Casino

Saturday, April 9, 2010

Action Starts at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.

Price: $10 – $90

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT TICKETMASTER AND AT:

www.thevenue-chicago.com

Must be 21 or older to attend shows. Must be 21 or older to gamble.

WHERE: THE VENUE AT HORSESHOE CASINO

777 Casino Center Dr., Hammond, IN, 46320

Horseshoe Box Office: 219-473-6060