During the kick-off press conference, formally announcing a middleweight fight between Gabriel Rosado (24-11, 14 KOs) and Luis Arias (18-1, 9 KOs), it didn’t take long for the fighters to start taking verbal jabs at one another. It began today when Arias took to the podium to discuss the upcoming fight...
“I saw the fight with Demetrius [Andrade] and Chris Mannix has said something during the show, he said that losses are overrated — unless you got 11 of ‘em [looking over to Rosado]. But it’s about who you fight...I took a chance in my last fight [against Daniel Jacobs]. I had the opportunity to skip a lot of steps in the game, to really just jump right in the mix with the top guys, and I took it.
“We know what kind of fighter Rosado is, he’s gonna bring the fight, you know he’s gonna come to fight. I’ve asked for this fight since I was 10-0, and honestly I feel Rosado’s chances of beating me would’ve been a lot better if would’ve been only 10-0 or 14-0. I’m a lot stronger, I’m 28 now, I’m in my prime, I’ve been 12 rounds with one of the biggest guys in the division and I know there’s nothing that Rosado can bring to this fight that’s gonna hurt me, that I haven’t seen, and it ain’t nothing that he got for me.”
Rosado then had his turn at the podium, and didn’t forget the quip Arias made about his losses:
“I’m looking forward to this opportunity because I feel like I’m the wild card in the middleweight division. He said about my losses but win, lose, or draw, everybody respects Gabe Rosado. But you ran like a coward in your last fight with all that shit you was talkin’! So remember that!”
Arias would interrupt to talk more about Rosado:
“How many times you been beat up? How many times we can’t even know what you look like after the fight?...Blood everywhere!”
After a lot more back and forth between the fighters, they eventually shook hands on a $10K wager on the fight.
Check out the full video of the banter above.