By: Sean Crose

“That’s his only stab at me,” Luis Arias says of this weekend’s opponent, Gabe Rosado, “to say that I ran like a bitch against Jacobs.” The Jacobs Arias is referring to is middleweight titlist Daniel Jacobs, one of the top fighters in one of boxing’s most dominant divisions. Arias dropped a unanimous decision to Jacobs, the man many felt was the first person to best the feared Gennady Golovkin. It was a defeat Rosado was happy to bring up after Arias mentioned Rosado’s number of losses in pre fight trash talk.

“But I didn’t get KO’d,” says Arias in his own defense. “He’s had two feet against plenty of guys and got KO’d, beaten up badly. I had a little scratch on my face after the Jacobs fight.” Still, the 18-1 Arias is looking for redemption. “I am putting pressure on myself ,” he says, “to erase the bad taste I left last time, that’s the task this weekend.” Rosado’s words have clearly hit their mark. “I need to prove that I am not a little bitch. It may have looked like I ran like one but I am not – I had to do that to survive and make the 12 rounds.”

“I am a true warrior and I love the wars,” says Arias. “I love to bang it out – I just wasn’t physically capable of doing that in the Jacobs fight.” Arias is particularly bothered by the fact that fans may have been upset by his performance against Jacobs. “I left a sour taste in the mouths of the fans in the Jacobs fight,” he says, “but I am a better and more mature fighter now, I’ve learned from it and I think that this is the fight that changes my career.”

Arias isn’t totally dismissive of Rosado, a hardened and respected 24-11 vet. “I’m a warrior,” says Arias, “he’s a warrior – it’s going to be bloody but the blood is not going to be mine.” Arias actually feels he would have performed better against Jacobs had he met Rosado earlier in his career. “He’s got a lot of miles on the clock but he’s durable. If I’d had this fight before the Jacobs fight then I would have been readier for that stage, but it didn’t work out that way. I get a fresh chance and a do-over now, and I’m going to do this right this time.”

Arias-Rosado will be part of a loaded card which will go down Saturday at the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane Kansas. The card will be aired live on the DAZN streaming service.

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