LOS ANGELES – If things don't go Ricardo Mayorga's way on May 15, his MMA career could be over before it ever really starts.
Mayorga, who faces Din Thomas (25-8 MMA) in a 160-pound catchweight main event at "Shine Fights: Worlds Collide" on Saturday, May 15, said he'll retire from MMA if he loses – or even if he wins by decision.
If he wins as he predicts – a knockout in the first minute of the first round – he'll call out boxing kingpin Floyd Mayweather.
"(Felix) Trinidad, (Shane) Mosely, (Oscar) De La Hoya – combined, they've had more than six belts," Mayorga (28-7 Boxing, 0-0 MMA) today told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) through translator Steve Freitxas. "I've only lost to those big champs. But I'm not going to lose to a nobody."
The boxer and the MMA veteran nearly came to blows at a New York press conference in April when Mayorga karate-chopped Thomas' neck in the midst of a trash talk session. They were far more cordial today at a small gathering of reporters in a West Los Angeles boxing gym.
Mayorga, a native of Managua, Nicaragua, threw a few jibs at Thomas in Spanish during a photo op in the middle of the ring, to which Thomas replied, "Yo quiero cerveza," ("I want beer") to laughs all around.
The tough-talking former boxing champ said his early streetfighting days prepared him for next Saturday's MMA fight.
"I used to fight raw in the streets, brawling," he said "They used to kick you in the face while you're down on the ground. On the street, they hit you with shoes; they hit you with everything."
Rosendo Alvarez, Mayorga's boxing trainer of three years, said his fighter had been training MMA techniques for two months with a private teacher at The Fight Club in Miami. He and Mayorga declined to name the trainer but said the training focused on "mostly defensive tactics."
"At 160 (pounds), he won't be starved," Alvarez said. "It's not like he's going to fight Mayweather, and he's got to drop down to 143 (pounds), it's a huge difference. He's got real power with his punches. That's where I think Din Thomas messed up, ... taking the fight at 160 instead of a lower weight."
Mayorga said he has long been a fan of MMA for its "violence" and would have chosen the sport over boxing had it been popular when he started fighting at age 13.
"It was really tough to get ahold of somebody for me to jump into MMA," he said. "But now that I'm getting the opportunity, I want to embrace it."
credit: Steven Marrocco reporter for MMAjunkie.com
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