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WILSON RIVERA IN ACTION TONIGHT
By Jesse Kelley
April 10th, 2010

Lightweight Wilson Rivera (3-3) will face Anthony Lenk (6-1) tonight at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Although the Saint Paul boxer didn't have many amateur fights, Rivera was a local prospect heading into the pro game in 2002, having won the 2001 Upper Midwest title in 2001 at lightweight. Rivera had a few fights early in his pro career but then disappeared from the boxing seen, fighting off and on over the next 7 years. Like many fighter's, school and family took number one priority which kept him from competing at the level he wanted. Now at the age of 30, Rivera says he is ready to put the proper work and time into boxing. Rivera feels he has a solid team behind him and that he's prepared better then ever as he looks to pull of the upset over Lenk. Minnesotaboxing.com spoke briefly to Rivera by telephone following Friday nights weigh-in's.

 

I have been told you didn't have a whole lot of amateur fights but you did win the Upper Midwest Golden Gloves tournament at 132 pounds...
I didn't have a lot of fights but I did fight one of the Litzau brother's when I only had 8 fights. They had over 100 and I did pretty good.

The last time I saw you fight was back around 2002 on the Brunette show's in Saint paul. You had two fights in that time and then disappeared for a while...
(cutting in) Yeah I took some time off. I was a little disappointed with things going on at the time plus I had school work to think about as well as wanting to spend time with my wife and kid. It was just hard not having a trainer and support like that so ended up taking time off like I said.

You talked about not having a trainer or team behind you for most of your career up until now. Talk more about the situation now with Jesse Garza and Sean Hickman backing your career and how that has changed the focus you now have on your future in boxing.
Both of these guys have been very supportive. I am learning a lot of new stuff, a lot of new techniques. Proper diet and just more about the game in general. More importantly it is just good to have people supporting you like they are.

You have had six fights leading up to this point in your career. Talk about some of those fights.
I did good in my first two fights on the Brunette show's because I had enough time to properly train for them. After my second fight I took about 2 years off and came back with about a weeks notice to fight. It was the same story. You don't want to be taking fights like that. It is not good when you don't get the proper training or sparring in. So then I took another one in Indiana (against Jamie Alvarado) and got robbed. Now my next fight after that, I trained for three weeks and beat a guy from Canada (Bill Arnot). I did real well, knocked him down a couple of times and won a decision. After that was the last fight against Flores. I realized that if I wanted to have a chance in these fights, I needed to train properly. So when this fight came up I started running and training and have been doing it for the last four or five weeks now.

I wasn't able to make your last fight against Joel Flores in Red Wing last August. You lost the bout. Talk about the fight and circumstances surrounding it.
Yeah, I took the fight and ended up turning my ankle in the first round. I am not sure if the referee saw that I could not walk. But then I got hit with a shot in the corner, I couldn't move, and they stopped the fight.

Your opponent is Anthony Lenk. What can you tell us about him?
I know that he had over 100 amateur fights. I know he won a couple national titles or something like that. He is a pretty good puncher. He is a pretty popular guy around Las Vegas. I am here, I trained hard and I feel very confident in what I am going to do in there. I don't know what will happen, all I know is that I feel really good about the fight right now.

You and your opponent weighed in earlier at 138 pounds. How do you feel at that weight?
I feel great. I used to fight at 132 at the Upper Midwest Tournaments but I am older now so 138 is perfect for me. I didn't have a hard time at all making the weight. I have been eating good. You know, this time, it's going to be a good fight for me. I am really in the best shape of my life. Jesse (Garza) and Sean (Hickman) have been training me for 4 weeks now. And these guys have been training me hard! My buddies Levi Cortes and Michael Faulk, these guys have been getting me ready for the fight and I am in really good shape. That makes me more confident than ever going into this fight

Best of luck tomorrow night Wilson, and I hope you bring a victory home to Minnesota!
I will, and thank you for the opportunity.

 

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