Colombian challenger Miguel Marriaga is already in New York, waiting for the World Boxing Association 126 featherweight super champion, Jamaican Nicholas Walters. They are both undefeated and fighting on Saturday 13 at the Madison Square Garden.
Marriaga (22-0, 19 KO) talked to Colombian press before leaving the US and confessed that he had always dreamt to have the opportunity to fight for a world title, “now I have that dream coming true and I am ready to fulfil it”, and he will dedicate the victory to his mother.
They know each other since 2008 when they fought the 2008 olympic qualifier in Guatemala for a place to Beijing. The amateur Marriaga and Walters (25-0, 21 KO) fight took place first date of the tournament.
The world title challenger said that he got the triumph boxing his opponent throughout the fight which ended in his favor 14-9, in the 57 kg. Although Marriaga did not pass to the Olympics, that experience encourages him now that he is facing Walters professionally.
On the other hand, Walters has a different view of the history and he wants to settle the score with Marriaga, for leaving him out of the qualifying event of the 2008 Olympic.
As for this Saturday’s fight, Marriaga said that he and his manager Samuel Gómez studied the champion fight videos, he assures he has the key to beat him, “You have to boxing him and attack him with combinations. I know that my hook will do you much harm.”
That is his power punch, said Colombian, it is his favorite and it is the one he uses more during the fight because it hurts his opponents.