Cuban fighter Abril accepts change
It would have made sense for Richard Abril to be concerned when his fight against Sharif Bogere was moved last month from New York to Las Vegas.
After all, Abril’s last appearance in Nevada didn’t go well. He lost a controversial 12-round split decision to undefeated Brandon Rios on April 14 at Mandalay Bay.
But Abril welcomed the change when Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime switched sites after Jayson Velez injured his ankle Feb. 11 and pulled out of his fight against featherweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon at the Apollo Theater, thus moving the rest of the card to Las Vegas.
So now, Abril will fight Bogere in the 12-round main event Saturday at the Hard Rock Hotel. Abril’s WBA lightweight title that he was awarded last month will be at stake.
“I’m very happy to be here fighting in Vegas,” the 30-year-old Abril said through an interpreter. “I’m comfortable fighting here, but I’m still angry over the decision against Brandon Rios. It still bothers me because I trained very hard and I did enough to win that fight. Everyone who saw it knows I won.”
Abril (17-3-1, eight knockouts) said the WBA’s recent move to make him the outright world champion at 135 pounds after he had been the interim champ took some of the sting out of the loss to Rios.
“It was a nice surprise, and it gave me great satisfaction,” Abril said. “Every fighter dreams of becoming world champion. Now, it’s my job to defend my title.”
He has no intention of losing it to Bogere (23-0, 15 KOs), a 24-year-old native of Uganda who moved to Las Vegas in 2008. The two do not like each other and have been engaged in a war of words on Twitter for more than a year.
When Bogere injured his left Achilles tendon two weeks before their scheduled Nov. 24 fight, forcing a postponement, Abril wasn’t buying it. He called Bogere a chicken, among other things, and questioned whether the injury was legitimate.
“It gives me motivation to bust his mouth,” Abril said of the back-and-forth on Twitter between the two.
Abril, a Cuba native who lives in Miami, said he isn’t worried about fighting for the first time in 11 months. He said he needed to take time off anyway after injuring his right hand in the Rios fight.
The hand has healed, and Abril has no other physical issues entering Saturday’s showdown.
“I’ve trained smart,” he said. “I’ve been through cycles where I’ve been in and out of the gym. Once this fight was made, I was able to step up my training. I feel like I’m coming into the fight very sharp and feeling good.”
Abril admits he would love another crack at Rios (31-0-1, 23 KOs), even though it would mean moving to 140, the weight at which Rios fights. But he insists he’s not overlooking Bogere.
“I am concentrating on my future, but I’m also concentrating on this fight,” Abril said. “In Bogere, I see a fighter with a lot of dynamite, a fighter with a lot of skills.”
Abril said he plans on making the judges’ job easier this time in Las Vegas.
“In this fight, I have to be more aggressive early,” he said. “There will be less reason for the judges not to give me the decision.”
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.