DeMarco In Biggest Fight of His Career!

Within the hot and humid small confines of the Crea Gym in Tijuana, MX, #14 WBC ranked lightweight Antonio DeMarco is in the final preparations for the biggest fight in his 19-1-1, 14KO career, ” I feel very happy and very motivatated. This is a big fight for me. If I win, there are big things coming my way. I am also very motivated since in this month of the fight I am going to be a father for the first time.”

DeMarco is slated to face Puerto Rico’s Jose Reyes (23-4, 8KO) this Friday from the Buffalo Bill’s Star Arena in Primm, Nevada and televised on the Shobox series on the Showtime network in the ten round main event, a step up that is not lost on DeMarco “I feel good that the network believes in me and they are giving me opportunities such as this main event and I am very happy.”

Reyes holds the WBO Latino lightweight title which he captured after defeating another TIjuana fighter Humberto Tapia early last year and DeMarco knows exactly what his next opponent brings to the ring “I know that he is Puerto Rican, that he is a tough fighter with a lot of experience. He has beat Javier Jauregui, Ivan Valle, fighters with big names. I know that he is a difficult fighter and a great challenge for me. The plans for my manager Romulo Quirarte and my promoter Gary Shaw is for not to fight on Shobox anymore but on Showtime and this is a challenge I must pass to go to bigger things.” the legendary trainer Don Romulo Quirarte seconds the sentiment “It’s a very tough fight but we have confidence in the preparation that we have done for it and we expect a win. We have been thinking a lot that this fight will determine if he goes up to bigger fights on Showtime. We know this and are conscious of it. We have been working on winning and to convince the people that he is ready for that step.”

In his last bout in May of this year, DeMarco defeated the previous undefeated Juan Castaneda who was no stranger to the 22 year old southpaw “I only participated in thirteen amateur fights and in only one national tournament in which my last opponent Juan Castaneda won the gold medal. My last fight was an important one for me because it gave me the opportunity to measure myself against him since he had a great amateur reputation, he had been selected for the Olympic team and I had only done thirteen amateur fights.” Now equaling his longest hiatus from the gym of five months, DeMarco understands the long wait to lace up the gloves “The fights have taken a little longer to make. In my last fight it was scheduled for eight rounds against a tough opponent, a good prospect with a great amateur record and the fight went for five rounds. I think from now on the fights will take a little longer to make since they will be for ten rounds.”

It was originally planned for DeMarco to face a better known name in the US “they had mentioned Rolando Reyes as my next opponent. Initially it was between Rolando Reyes, Jose Reyes and Edner Cherry. They mentioned that more than likely it was going to be Edner Cherry but Cherry now is fighting for the world title in super lightweight versus Timothy Bradley and we didn’t have the opportunity to fight him even though I was very anxious to do so.”

Eventually the task fell to the experienced 30 year old Reyes who besides holding the aforementioned WBO Latino title is also ranked #8 by the WBO, a step up in competition that DeMarco is full aware of “I am the fighter and I have my managers and trainers. They believe in me and they are doing a great job and mine is here in the gym. I trust in what they say and what my promoter says. All boxers hope and wish to go up in competition and going up to challenges and keep going up in class all the way to the elite level. I think I am ready for this class and for higher ones but only time will tell but I have the confidence for this challenge because of Romulo Quirarte. If he says that I am ready then I trust in what he has to say.” Don Romulo is as confident as his young charge “we expect a tough fight because the opponent is a boxer-puncher. Hopefully he can last the rhythm of the fight that we are planning and hopefully he can take a punch. We hope that he comes out to fight and not run because if he does run, its going to diminish the fight and we want the people to enjoy it.”

“This is going to be a great fight. He is a tough fighter with a lot of experience. You can say that I am the fighter with the least experience in this bout. But I think I am hungrier and have the will to come out on top. Like I have said before my challenge and my dream is to become a champion of life and I am reaching that with this fight, I just got married, my daughter is on her way and this is going to be a great fight, a fight with a lot of drama and straight forward and may the best one win.”