On Saturday night from the Reliant
Center in Houston, Texas, Peter Manfredo Jr. gets his
opportunity to win the WBC middleweight title when he faces Julio Cesar Chavez
Jr. For the former contestant on “The Contender,” who parlayed his
participation on NBC’s inaugural boxing reality program back in 2005 into some
significant opportunities, this is most likely his last big shot in this sport.
“Exactly,
this is it for me,” Manfredo said on Monday from his
cell phone, while on a layover in Charlotte, North Carolina
en route to the Lone Star State. “This is do-or-die for me. Obviously, it's my
last shot, my last opportunity because I want it to be. I just want to go in
there and leave it in the ring that night. I'm in the airport now, getting
ready to catch my second flight in about an hour. I'm very comfortable. I'm
very happy with where I'm at. Training went well for this camp. I'm very
humbled and excited that I got this opportunity. I'm going to make the best of
it.”
It's
often said that when boxers contemplate retirement, they are already
retired. But you have to deal in hard reality. Unlike other sports, boxers
don't receive pensions and when the fighting stops, so do the paychecks. Manfredo
is still just 30 years old but he began preparing for life outside of the sport
last year as he embarked on his quest to become a firefighter. He began taking
EMT courses in 2010.
“I
didn't pass the national registry yet. I took it once. I failed it. I gotta
take it again,” he said, candidly “but I haven't taken it again because I've
been training for this fight and just concentrating on this right now. So I'll
go back to that when this is all said and done and over.” adding, “I don't have
a time frame. I'd like to do it for the future, to make better pay for the family.
But right now, I'm happy. I'm a local laborer too. I work for Local 271 as a
laborer and I don't mind that work either. It's just when it's available.
Sometimes you can work, then you're collecting all this other stuff but I got
life pretty much figured out with work and all that.”
In a
bit of irony, Manfredo’s role as a laborer had him doing work at the very same
Dunkin Donuts Center he once headlined in. While that circumstance would be
humbling for many others, to Manfredo, there is no shame in making ends meet
for his family with good ol' fashioned hard work. There is a certain
blue-collar-ness about him that is admirable.
Unlike
his young opponent who is the heir of boxing royalty, Manfredo is literally
that guy who puts on a hard hat, packs a sack lunch and goes to work.
“If
the firefighter thing comes my way, I'll take it,” he says. “If it doesn't,
I'll continue being a laborer. There's always going to be a way to make money.
I got three kids. There's no sitting around waiting around. You gotta go and
get it, so that's what I'm doing now.”
But
in the lead-up to this contest, “The Pride of Providence” was nothing but a
professional prizefighter.
“When
I found out I had this fight, I put everything aside for this fight because
obviously it's the biggest fight in my life right now. So if I can win this
fight, this will change everything. This will pay off my house. This will put
me in a great place. So I put everything aside, which being a laborer, I can do
that and I finished school in July. So it was actually perfect timing for me but
these are the things you have to do when you have a family and things like
that,” said Manfredo, who seems to have his priorities in order. “You're the
breadwinner and you gotta take care of your family. You gotta figure it out.
Only the strong survive. It's easy to quit but you gotta keep going and you got
a family. You gotta figure it out and do it and get it because nobody is going
to give you anything in life. If you want something badly enough, you'll get
it.”
Before
he starts punching a clock full-time, Manfredo's got one last shot for glory.
You ask former fighters what they really miss and they'll tell you it's not
just the money or fame. What's really intoxicating are those moments when you
have the nervous energy flowing throughout your body as you step into the
squared circle before doing battle, all eyes on you and nobody else. Running
into a burning building is certainly more dangerous but performing in front of
thousands is the height of exhilaration.
Manfredo,
who has a career mark of 37-6 with 20 stoppages to his credit, says, “This
fight’s definitely going to cap it off. This is everything I ever wanted. This
is the biggest title you can win, the WBC, and it's not against a [Joe]Calzaghe
or a [Sakio] Bika, where I didn't belong. This is actually a fight I can win. I
trained extremely hard for it and I'm excited about it. Right after this fight,
I'll be satisfied. Whatever happens, I'll be at peace with myself and my
career.”
There's
a reason why Chavez’s promoter, Top Rank, chose Manfredo. Every time he's been
at the upper echelon of the sport, he's been vanquished. That said, what gives
Manfredo hope is that Chavez Jr. is no Chavez Sr. While he has the WBC strap,
Jr.’s a far cry from the legitimate middleweight champion of the world, Sergio
Martinez. “I think he's a tough, tough fighter. He hasn't lost, so he doesn't
know how to lose yet but I just don't think he's a superstar yet,” Manfredo
says of Chavez Jr. “He hasn't fought the caliber I’ve been in there with. It
doesn't make him a bad fighter but he just hasn't had the experience I've had.
That's what gives me a great shot to win this fight. I know it's going to be a
tough fight. It's going to be tough to win but I'm going out there and give it
a shot and leave it all in the ring that night.”
Houston
will be hostile territory but don't tell Manfredo about how tough it will be to
win a decision this weekend. He ain't hearing it.
“I'm
not thinking about that. If I'm thinking about that, I shouldn't have even come
out here and fight,” he says. “I'm just going to go in there and do what I've
been training to do and box this kid, run him into shots and break him down and
eventually, if I don't stop him- I don't stop him- but I can't worry about
getting robbed or whatever like that. I just gotta go in there and give it my
100 percent.”
Manfredo
says the viewing public might ultimately be the true arbiters of his fight.
“Obviously
it will be on HBO. They rob me, everybody in the world will see it, so I'm not
worried about that. I gotta go in there and do my job.”
Manfredo
will just go to work. After all, that's what he does.
“I
expect a good fight. He's going to come. I'm going to come. I'm not going to
stop. I wanna win so bad. He doesn't want to lose. I'm hoping it's like a Micky
Ward-Arturo Gatti fight, to be honest with you. That's what every fighter
dreams about having…at least I know I do. I dream about having a fight like
that one and hopefully, this is the one.”
