[November 11, 2011 Interview by Pattee Mak]
On Friday, December 9, 2011 at the West Warwick Civic Center in West Warwick, Rhode Island, Artie DePinho dba “Big Six Entertainment presents “They’re Back” live professional boxing. Joseph Rabotte of South Carolina will be fighting Jason “Big Six” Estrada of Rhode Island in the co-main event. I had a chance to chat with Joseph Rabotte aka Junior about on his upcoming bout:
Pattee: Good Morning. I’m looking forward to seeing you fight once again in action next month. Before we chat about your December fight. You were scheduled to fight in October against Gerald Nobles why didn’t that fight go on as planned?
Junior: Hey Pattee good working with you again. Yeah I was looking forward to fighting 27-1 Gerald Nobles. I had trained hard with Alonzo Bulter in Tennessee. I had the flight linearity and all the day before the fight they called me said it was off for some reason. He was not able to get licensed but I do have a free flight now lmao.
Pattee: Got to love those free flights.
Pattee: How did this fight come about?
Junior: Well I was asking for the fight for some time. We never could get the money right though. Mark Vaz saw me fight in Mass and knew I come to win and he asked me to join the show.
Pattee: How are you preparing for your fight and are you currently still training in Atlanta, Georgia with Bert Wells and Chris Troupe?
Junior: Yes I am still working with Troupe and Wells. I have also added another trainer as well. I have plenty of work in the gym, Troupe is my chief trainer.
Pattee: Who is your new trainer and how do you like workin with him?
Junior: My new trainer is Adreain Jones. I like working him a lot. Troupe is more Tyson and he’s more Ali.
Pattee: What can you tell me about your opponent Estrada or anything that you’ve studied about him?
Junior: I have seen Estrada fight plenty of times. He is a gifted fighter, has good vision, reflexes and smooth defense as well as lighting quick speed (not as fast as me though). He will be a handful to say the least but so is everybody I fight.
Pattee: The fight will be in Rhode Island and Estrada lives in Rhode Island. The 4 losses he had were outside of his hometown state. Do you think this will be a disadvantage for you because you’ll be fighting in his backyard?
Junior: I have always had to go out of town for fights mainly because fighters know I will win here. I beat sooooo many fighters and because the judges wanted them to win they did. Last fight I dominated so much and only one judge saw it my way. Still walked away with a loss even though he rarely touched me.
Pattee: The last time we bumped into each other your old friend Jose “YAYO” Ortiz was working your corner. Will he be in your corner this time around?
Junior: I think YAYO maybe fighting but I have a local fan who owns a gym in Rhode Island as well. Bobby Smead working with me as well. I love my boy YAYO. I think he may be on the card preparing for another bout but if it falls through he will be in the corner as well. Maybe he can slap some thug in me like he did in my title victory over Taurus Sykes.
Pattee: Good Luck in your fight. I look forward to seeing you fight once again. Is there anything that you would like to say to your fans out there? I know you and I know you always have the right fancy words to say.
Junior: Thanks Pattee you always do a great job and report the facts not the fiction most boxing reporters are bias against us journeyman fighters. I look forward to seeing there!
TICKETS: For tickets call 401-241-3490 or 617-312-5059 or go directly to the facebook event page or email BigSixEntertainment@gmail.com. They are priced at $75.00, $55.00, $45.00 and $35.00.
OTHER FIGHTERS: Other fighters on the card include Matt “Too Smooth” Godfrey, Brian “The Bull” Barbosa, Joseph “Chip” Perez, Jair “Da-Bully” Ramos, Kali Reis, Paul Gonsalves, Dustin Reinhold, Frankie Trader and Keith Kozlin. Alls fighters and bouts subject to change.
Check out previous interview with Joseph Rabotte at http://bit.ly/onnjXF.
As in September, I once again ran out of gas in the 10th & 11th championship rounds of October & November with this column, but I recovered to complete them and will unleash a few more flurries to close out the 12th and final round.
In the first week of October, Hassan N’Dam won a UD over Curtis Stevens in an eliminator for the right to challenge Jermaine Taylor who defeated aging Sam Soliman to regain the IBF Middleweight title. How Taylor even earned this title shot is another story altogether, but it is all irrelevant as he is now the champion. However he will not have too much time to savor his victory as he has assault and battery charges pending against him and an upcoming court fight that may turn out to be the toughest fight of his life, just when things started to look up for him in boxing, we wish him luck.
