On Don King’s latest card – yes, Don King, all 92 years of the man – there will be, on November 4 in Miami, an interesting and very possibly explosive heavyweight encounter between Jonathan Guidry, 19-1-2(11) and unbeaten Puerto Rican slugger Jesus Escalera, 18-0(18).
Top of the bill will be Adrien Broner’s latest fight, yet the heavyweights may well steal the show (Trevor Bryan will face Cassius Chaney on the card). And shrimp-fisherman turned world-class fighter Guidry is looking to score a big win that will lead him to another, even bigger fight.
Here, the 33 year old kindly talks with ESB about his upcoming fight:
Q: How much do you know about Escalera, who is as you know all KO wins?
Jonathan Guidry: “Well, as you say, he’s real strong. Actually, I think he had a fight last night (September 17). He had another fight last night, so that’s another KO win for him on his record and I think he’s 19-0 now – I seen it on BoxRec. He’s been well-matched but he’s strong, but I’ll be looking to outbox him.”
Q: Have you seen any footage of him, any tapes?
J.G: “I saw one of ’em, online. Like I said, he’s real strong, but the opponent wasn’t nowhere near me. He was a lot lighter, and a little smaller than me. I think he’s just bulldozing his record up.”
Q: This will be your second fight of the year, which is more than plenty of heavyweights have, with them just fighting once a year. Have you been in training since January?
J.G: “Yeah, I’m still working right now, in camp. Everything’s official now the contract’s signed, so now, I’ll start training harder.”
Q: Who have you had, or who will you get for sparring to get ready for this guy, who is an all-out puncher?
J.G: “For somebody of his height and his strength, I’ve got two guys that I know who are around his height, who I’ll go to Texas and get working with them.”
Q: Would you have liked to have got another fight in before this one? As you know, you haven’t fought since January?
J.G: “Yeah, it would have been nice to get another fight in, to stay busy. I’m always in shape, but to fight just once or twice a year, you don’t know the dates, and not having made a big purse yet….. hopefully after this fight, we can make a bigger fight, so I’m always going to be training.”
Q: Is Don King now your official promoter?
J.G: “Yes, he is, after I fought Trevor [Bryan]. He is.
Q: And what do you make of it when he says of you, ‘from the shrimp boat to the championship!’ King always has a great line….
J.G: “(laughs) Yeah, I still work [the day job]. I win this fight, and then hopefully the bigger names will see me and then I [will] get a bigger name and I [fight one of them and] get a big upset. My ring IQ, my boxing, it’s pretty strong. I’ve been fighting a lot, since I was little, so I’ve got a little bit of experience and I’m really smart with boxing, with a good IQ. I’ll be able to outsmart this guy (Escalera). Most of my opponents have been much taller than me, and that’s my disadvantage. [But] he’s my height, so I believe my jab will control the fight.”
Q: You are on a pretty good roll right now, having beaten Dacarre Scott and then Bermane Stiverne. You must feel like nobody can beat you right now?
J.G: “Yeah, that’s how I feel. With the experience we got and the opponents we’ve fought, and the opponents he’s fought, I think we should, as I say…. my IQ’s really good and I’m a smart boxer, we should get the job done. I’m going to go for a late round…. I’ve got to stop him. My fight with Stiverne, I wouldn’t say I held back, but I should have put the gas on and finished him, but I didn’t. I think that kind of messed me up a bit, me not stopping Stiverne. So this fight, I’m definitely going for a late-rounds knockout. After the Stiverne fight, I wasn’t even tired. After that fight, I was like, ‘f**k, I should have stopped that guy,’ and it still bothers me. So this next fight, I have to make up for that. I have to look real good in this fight, to get a bigger fight after. In this fight, I really have to impress the people.”
Q: You want the KO, so that’s great. All he knows is KO’s, so it should make for a great fight. Of a dream fight, who would you pick if you could pick anyone?
J.G: “I’d just like to fight for the world title, the WBA….
Q: “Yeah, if you could get in with Oleksandr Usyk…..
J.G: “Yeah, that would be a great fight, he’s real small. But that last fight, with Dubois, I thought that was a good body shot. It was right on the beltline. I think that should have been a stoppage [win for Dubois].”
Q: Plenty of people do agree with you on that, even if I don’t, for what it’s worth. Would you go to Usyk’s body if you fought him?
J.G:” Yeah, as I told you, my IQ in boxing….I can fight different ways. I can fight forwards, going backwards, sideways, whatever. I think Usyk, with his high IQ, I wouldn’t just go at him. I’d have to dance with him and move.”
Q: Getting back to your next fight, will you trade with Escalera on November 4? Or will you look to take him to school? How will you react if he comes out blazing, throwing bombs at you?
J.G: “Right, right. If he comes out rushing and trying to corner me, we’ll have to meet the fire. But if he does come out like that, I guarantee he’ll be tired inside four or five rounds. But if he wants to launch them like that, I’m sure I can land something hard as he’s coming forward. I’m just here to fight. Let the better man win, whatever happens! But I’m sure this fight will not see the final round. He’ll throw his big shots, but then he’ll drain his tank out, and then we’ll see [what happens] after that.”