Rodriguez Trainer- Inoue is not the ‘Monster’, Rodriguez is – This is war!
Press Release – 16 May 2019
Trainer: Inoue is not the ‘Monster’, Rodriguez is – This is war!
William Cruz, the trainer of IBF champ Emmanuel Rodriguez, explains why he pushed Naoya Inoue’s trainer at the media workout for Saturday’s WBSS bantamweight semi-final at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow.
“Team Inoue think they will beat us, and there is a lot of fans thinking ‘Manny’ will lose,” said Cruz. “But on May 18 Emmanuel Rodriguez will still be unbeaten. He will still be Puerto Rico’s world champion. For the ones who don’t believe it, you’ll see!”
The 28-year-old trainer, who has been with Rodriguez for five months, caused controversy when he pushed Shingo Inoue, Nagoya Inoue’s trainer-father, at Tuesday’s media workout.
“I don’t have a problem with the press doing their job,” said Cruz. “But Team Inoue was there watching and filming us training. So I played my part and put myself in front of them to make them stop filming. That’s the way it is.”
“As soon as ‘Manny’ arrived they started to look at him with an attitude to intimidate him. We didn’t come here to play. We came here to make them respect us. This is a war and it will end with our hand up. On Saturday people will see that the ‘Monster’ it’s not Inoue, it’s Rodriguez!”
“I trust the plan that I have made with my new coach William,” Said Rodriguez. “We have good chemistry and the result will show. This will be the first time that I’m not the favorite in a fight, but the motivation is huge. We want to make sure Puerto Rico continues to shine in boxing.”
All the action will be live on DAZN in the U.S. and Sky Sports in the U.K.
Daxx Khan has been a regular member of the Talkin Boxing with Billy C TV & Radio Show since 2011, throughout his over two decades involved with the sport of boxing he has owned his own gym, currently is a Coach with "Newburgh Hook Elite Boxing", has covered over 175 world title fights across the globe, worked for two sanctioning body organizations, written for multiple major sporting news outlets.
The first world title fight he covered was in 1991 while still attending NYU when he accompanied boxing media Icon Bert Sugar to the "Terrible" Terry Norris versus "Sugar" Ray Leonard WBC Super Welterweight title fight which Norris won by wide unanimous decision.
Daxx is also former USA Boxing Coach and representative for "The World Boxing Federation".
