FULL CIRCLE: LUIS "CUBA" ARIAS

By the time this will be posted; Luis “Cuba” Arias will be just days away from the biggest challenge of his professional career. The Milwaukee, WI native will put his 18-2-1 (9KO) record to the test against former unified world champion in Jarret Hurd who boasts a 24-1 (16KO) record. Both fighters have the world to gain with good showings in the upcoming June 6th bout that will be on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather v. Jake Paul exhibition in Miami, FL that will air on Pay-Per-View.

For years Arias has been one of the most interesting prospects in the boxing landscape as he was a very decorated and accomplished amateur fighter before turning pro. His professional career has been quite the journey grind and in preparation for the big PPV stage he took some time out and spoke with myself and my good friend and frequent collaborator Lawrence Alexander about growth, preparation, and maturing as a professional in this business.

LA: You come from very humble beginnings but the sport of boxing has taken you all over the world. What does it mean to you — the kid from the south side of Milwaukee to be on the verge of fighting on the pay-per-view portion of a boxing card headlined by boxing legend Floyd Mayweather?

ARIAS: It’s been a crazy path and a crazy career for me. I started off at a community center, the UCC, and actually I was just trying to play football but I was too little to play tackle football so I started boxing and you know over the years I stuck to boxing and kept getting better and better and now I’m getting ready to fight on Showtime PPV. The journey itself has been a long and hard one but I’m truly grateful for everything…it wasn’t easy to get to where I’m at but I was able to do it with just hard work, dedication, and constantly believing in myself.

LA: Hardcore Boxing fans remember that you started your career with Mayweather Promotions but had a falling out with Floyd Mayweather that led to your departure. Can you briefly touch on what it was like mending your relationship with Floyd?

ARIAS: Fixing my relationship with Floyd is just another true blessing. You just never know. You always think something is gonna go one way and it goes another way and you never think it’s gonna fixed and it did. I was able to go back and fix my problems with Floyd. All it took was one conversation face to face and all the bullsh*t got put behind us. That in itself is another blessing. Like I said man, I’m just truly blessed to just be that kid from the UCC and to end up fighting on tv. And all I can do is thank God and my supporters and everyone who helped get me to where I’m at.

LA: For casual boxing fans, their first introduction to you was the Danny Jacobs fight. Now that we are four years removed from that experience, is there anything that you would have done differently?

ARIAS: If I was to go back in time, I think I definitely would do things differently. I tried to skip the line. I tried to go from having a great freshman/jv game to wanting to start varsity for the all-state championship game...I should have taken a couple of smaller steps and I could’ve gotten myself more mentally and physically ready for that stage. Instead, I had a decent win on HBO and went for the big dogs…I was trying to go too fast. I should have took my time with it. I didn’t have to fight Danny Jacobs right away…I should have got a couple more wins and then fought Danny, it would have been better and also I didn’t have all my things in order for the fight. I took myself out right away by not getting all the small details right leading up to the fight but again you learn that through experience. If I would have taken my time I truly believe things would have played out differently but you know everything happens for a reason and everything that I’ve learned in my prior fights has prepared me for this moment.

LA: As a follow up to the previous question, can you talk about the lessons you’ve learned in and out of the ring. First, tell us what you have learned from a technical perspective in the ring and second tell us about the difficulties you’ve encountered in navigating the business of boxing?

ARIAS: Fighting all of those fights, I learned that there’s a big difference between a 10 round and 12 round fighter…in terms of the pace, the pace is much different. I really learned how to fight a 12 round fight. You have to monitor your pace, you know — when to go hard, when to steal a round...these are all things that I learned while on the job. And on the business side, I learned you are in it by yourself at the end of the day. You are in it with just your two hands and you have to look out for yourself because everyone else is in the game is looking out for themselves. You have to always do what’s best for you and always have your own back because this game will love you one day and put you on a pedestal and then if you don’t perform or have a setback they’ll throw you to the ground.

Dom: You seem to gravitate towards the uphill battle, especially in your recent bouts. In this era where matchmaking strategies seem to be a bit different and more calculated, what’s your thought process like when identifying opponents and potential bouts?

ARIAS If you look at my record, the matchmaking in my career has been very tough. I was 4–0, fighting guys coming off 10 round fights with 15+fights. Some fighters get babied on their way up and then they pay the price in the end and some fighters have to fight their way up and I’ve had to fight my way up. But at this point because of some of the decisions I’ve made, I can’t really pick and choose the fights that I want. Of course it would be great to fight an easier fight rather than coming off a long layoff and fighting a former unified world champion. I haven’t really been lucky enough to be in that position. But at end of the day I’m a true fighter. I’ve gone overseas to fight…I’ve fought anyone that they’ve put in front of me. It’s a good thing and a bad thing and in this case I know it’s a good thing because I’ve learned so much…and it’ll show on Sunday. I fear no man. Everything I’ve gone thru has prepared me for this moment and I truly believe that it’s all gonna come full circle.

Dom: Between Thug Rose, the Pettis brothers, Luis Feliciano and others, Wisconsin has this bubbling excitement across the combat world. What can you say about the pedigree of fighters from Milwaukee?

ARIAS: The fight scene in Milwaukee is at an all-time high. We’ve got Thug Rose — who is a world champ, the Pettis bros — Sergio is a world champ, Luis Feliciano an up-and-coming future champ...small city or not we’ve got a lot of heart. The fight game in Milwaukee is breeding some good fighters. Milwaukee fighters are tough and we are gonna keep making a name for ourselves in the fight game.

LA: Let’s talk about your upcoming fight with Jarrett Hurd. Boxing Twitter would want me to ask you why you think this time will be different?

ARIAS: This fight is different because I’ve been completely comfortable and I’m 100% prepared. I’ve learned through my losses what I need to do to compete at a high level. The training is just different at this level. I haven’t trained the way I was supposed to. The fight with Keeler I thought I could just get by on my talent and I paid the price. But for this fight, I’ve been training hard since December and I’ve been smarter in my approach and just non-stop grinding. And thanks to Floyd I’ve been very comfortable. He’s made sure all my training was in place, he’s paid for my training expenses, he’s provided me unlimited access to the gym — I think those are big factors in this fight. I’ve kept my weight down and I’ve just been focused on coming in sharp. I haven’t had any problems with the weight for this fight. I made the weight last night actually and we still have a couple of days before the weigh-ins...that’s gonna be a big factor. I’ve been in the gym, I brought in Ismael Salas, a world renowned trainer, who has brought out the best in me and we’ve had an excellent training camp. I feel like I’m hungrier than Hurd…and I’m going to show how hard I’ve been working.

As Shannon Briggs would say “LET’S GO CHAMP.”

As I always say “HUSTLE RESPONSIBLY”.