Johnriel Casimero coming off a much better training camp for title defense

Renowned strength and conditioning coach Angel “Memo” Heredia guarantees that WBO world bantamweight champion Johnriel Casimero will be at his best when he defends his title against Duke Micah on Sept. 27 (Philippine time) at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, USA.

Heredia, Juan Manuel Marquez’s former coach, says that Casimero’s performance in his last fight against Zolani Tete was merely a sneak peek of the three-division champion’s improvement under his supervision.

“Casimero is looking very good. We had a very good camp. When he fought (Zolani) Tete it was a good camp too but this one was much better because it was more complete as far as conditioning training,” he told boxingscene.com.

“I have been able to do more exercises that back then were new for him and now I was able to apply more complicated exercises that will benefit him more in certain areas like strength and explosiveness,” he added.

“He was able to eat good and now it is up to him to do what he has to do and put on a good show on Saturday.”

Casimero’s upcoming fight will be his first since he won the world title in November last year. He was originally slated to face WBA and IBF world bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue in a unification bout but the fight was scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He was a little bit disappointed because the Inoue fight was postponed and then it was pretty much gone,” Heredia shared.

“Mentally it has been hard for everyone because we had been training before the pandemic and then the fight was cancelled and it was going to be rescheduled then it didn’t happen again.”

Heredia reveals that it has been tough for the team these past few months. But should Casimero win his next fight, he sees big fights coming for the Filipino three-division champion.

“Sean Gibbons is a tremendous manager and was able to pull off this which is a very good fight for him and my understanding is that by winning this fight, he will have very good options ahead. The plan is if he looks good that he will fight again maybe in December or January.” – JM Siasat/RC, GMA News