The Bash Brothers have taken Southern California by storm; they are Librado
Andrade, born on 9-02-1978 and Enrique Ornelas, born on 9-17-1980, and they hail
from La Habra, California. Both are highly touted
Super Middleweight prospects, who have signed with Oscar de la Hoya's Golden
Boy Promotions. The Bash Brothers will be headlining Thursday's Golden Boy Promotions,
"Perfect Storm" card from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles,
California.
The Brothers are undefeated with identical records: 19-0, 13 KOs. They are
currently training in their hometown at the La Habra
Boxing Club, and were kind enough to take a few minutes to discuss their
upcoming fights. I talked with Enrique Ornelas first. In September of 2002
Ornelas won the WBC Youth Super Middleweight Title.
QUESTION: You're fighting a tough guy in Christian Cruz on Thursday, who's 9-1,
what do you expect to see from him?
ORNELAS: What I expect is that he wants to win very badly. He wants to take the
spot that I have. I'm going to try and not let him do it. In the early rounds I
want to
try and study what he has, and I will go from there.
QUESTION: Your last two fights were against guys who had records of 12-1 and
17-1 respectively, does this help you gain confidence or experience?
ORNELAS: It gave me a lot of experience, I mean they were not easy fights, but I
think that in the end that I had more power than them in the later rounds. I
don't
think that I'm a first three rounds fighter, because I got to work up a lot of
times. I am a guy who is stronger as the fight goes on.
QUESTION: How has it been fighting alongside your brother, both being in the
same weight division?
ORNELAS: It's an awesome feeling, and I'm just really happy and excited to be
fighting alongside of him. We are going to try and show the people everything
that we can, so the people can see us.
QUESTION: How has joining Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy promotions help advanced
your career?
ORNELAS: It's helped us deeply, because they have a lot of contacts with major
organizations, and it would have taken us three or four more years to be where
we are at now, without them. So we are really grateful for their help, and we
want to repay them by showing our talent.
QUESTION: Do you get to talk to Oscar De La Hoya much, and if so has he given
you any pointers?
ORNELAS: Not since his last fight, because once he is training for a fight, we
won't see him for a while. We don't really talk to him about the inside part of
Boxing, we talk with him about the business end of things.
QUESTION: What got you started in Boxing?
ORNELAS: My brother.
QUESTION: So, are your major goals in your Boxing career to win a world title,
or anything else?
ORNELAS: Now yeah, now that we are where were at, and now that we have tested
ourselves, we are going to go all the way to wherever this road takes us.
Hopefully, we can unify all the titles by ourselves, and rule the division.
QUESTION: Do you see yourself fighting at 168 lbs. for the rest of your career
or possibly moving up to 175?
ORNELAS: I would rather stay at 168. Right now my natural weight is suited
perfectly for 168. If it becomes harder in the future in 2 or 3 years to make
weight at
168, then I would have no problem with moving up to 175. But, I'm going to try
and stay at 168.
QUESTION: You see a guy like Jeff Lacy, who is already going to be fighting for
a world title on Saturday, even though he has a lesser record than you and your
brother, does this irritate you?
ORNELAS: No, not at all, people get their chances, people know who they know,
and that's why he's there. If he becomes the champion, then maybe we will get a
shot at him. That would be a great fight.
QUESTION: Are you excited about fighting at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, where
many legendary fighters have fought, and many classic fights in the Los Angeles
area have been fought for over 50 years?
ORNELAS: It's a dream come true. Knowing all the fighters that have fought
there, and it's a very historical place. It makes us feel really good to be able
to
fight there. We want to try and make ourselves look good as they did back in the
days.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I then talked to the other Bash Brother, Librado Andrade, the current WBO NABO
and NABA Super Middleweight champion. I asked him similar
questions, and here is what he had to say.
QUESTION: How do you feel going into the fight on Thursday against Vitali
Kopitko?
ANDRADE: More than anything, happy. I feel happy to be here, and happy to get
this far. Nobody expected us to get this far, and everything else we are just
going to enjoy. Whatever happens we will enjoy it, and we are just happy to be
where we are.
QUESTION: You fought Tito Mendoza in your last fight, he is a tough seasoned
veteran, who has been in the ring with some tough guys. Did you gain any
confidence from winning a fight like this?
ANDRADE: I gained a lot of experience and confidence, especially with that fight
going into the later rounds. I was able to pace myself well in a 12 round fight.
I thought I did really good in that fight. That fight showed me that I could
fight
with the top 10 contenders.
QUESTION: Your brother told me that he got started in Boxing because of you, so
how did you get started in Boxing?
ANDRADE: I started Boxing on my own, by myself. We used to live down the street
from here (La Habra Boxing Club), and we would pass by, and we started coming
here and putting the gloves on. We just started to learn how to fight, and soon
after that we fought amateur fights, and then all of a sudden we were fighting
Pro. So it's just something that happened to us so suddenly.
QUESTION: How has joining Golden Boy promotions helped advance your career?
ANDRADE: They help us somewhat, honestly we are our own men. We are not who we
are because of Golden Boy . Golden Boy has many fighters who they expect to be
great, and we will work hard. We want to do our best and be the best guys that
they have. We want to do the best we can for them, and hopefully they can do the
best they can for us.
QUESTION: How has it been fighting alongside your brother Enrique, and fighting
in the same division?
ANDRADE: It's just great. I never expected this, and it's not like all this has
been given to us. We worked hard for this, and it's not something that we
planned or
something that we worked on. It just happened like that. I think that we are
destined for something. We have everything the same; same record, same weight,
same everything. It's just great, and things are happening for us. Things are
happening by themselves, all this that has happened is destiny, we never asked
for this. So we thank God for a lot of things.
QUESTION: Are you excited about fighting at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, the
site of many historical fights in the Los Angeles area?
ANDRADE: Oh yeah, just to think of the many warriors that have fought there, and
many legends started there. It's a good sign for us, and hopefully it's the
beginning
for us too. It will be something that we will be able to look back on when we
get older. We will be able to say that we fought where many great champions have
fought. It's a great feeling and experience.
QUESTION: You are fighting a tough Russian fighter, Vitali Kopitko. What do you
expect from him, and what are you going to bring to the table for this fight?
ANDRADE: I am just going to come in with my same style. I have an aggressive
style, it's somewhat aggressive with counter punching, it's a little bit of
everything. It's a mix, but most of all, I put pressure on my opponents, and I
focus on that. If he
can take the pressure, then he can take me. I am just the same guy who fights
every time, I fight my heart out, and he fights his heart out from what I know.
He's tough, but in this fight I think I have an advantage, because I am a little
bigger than him. So hopefully my pressure and size will be the difference in the
fight. But, you never know, even Roy Jones got knocked out last week. Especially
you look at who we are, we are big men, and we throw big punches.
QUESTION: Do you see yourself staying at 168, or possibly moving up to 175?
ANDRADE: I see myself going to 175. But there would have to be a reason for it.
A title shot or bigger money, or things like that. I feel great as a super
middleweight, but if somebody offers me a bigger purse or bigger money and wants
to fight me, then I would take it, that's what we are here for. I feel very
comfortable at 175, I feel faster there, I don't feel as strong at 175, but I
feel faster as a light heavyweight.
QUESTION: Who would you like to fight at 168?
ANDRADE: It doesn't matter. I don't have a plan. My goal is to be a world
champion, and my brother's goal is to become a world champion, and hopefully at
the same
time, that would be great. And then from there, when we got the belts then we
could say who we want to fight. Everybody sees you are a world champion, and
everybody wants it, and that's what we want to get first.
QUESTION: Would you ever fight your brother?
ANDRADE: Oh yeah, if the money is right, why not? If the money's right we are
there for it. We have fought so many times for free, why not for the money. It's
not
as easy as we say, it would be hard, but why not?
Librado Andrade will headline the Thursday, September 30th, "Perfect Storm" card
promoted by Golden Boy Promotions. The card will be televised by HBO Latino.
Andrade will fight Russian Vitali Kopitko in a 10 round Super middleweight bout.
Enrique Ornelas will be co-featured with his brother, as he will battle 9-1
Christian Cruz. Also on the card, undefeated welterweight Santiago Perez will be
fighting, the opponent has not been determined yet.
Undefeated featherweight Rhonda Luna will put her 6-0 record on the line against
Cindy Christian in a 6 round fight. Super featherweight Edgar Vargas of Santa
Ana, California will put his 6-0 record on the line against Missael Nunez, who
is 2-3. For tickets to this event, call 213 489 5631.
