By Hesiquio Balderas

Unbeaten welterweight Raul “Cougar” Curiel (8-0, 6 KOs) of Tampico, Mexico, is one of the prospects that the country has high hopes for. The 2016 Olympian will be in action on DAZN’s much anticipated January 2 world title tripleheader featuring Ryan “Kingry” Garcia against Luke Campbell.

Fightnews.com® had the chance to speak to Raul.

“I never stopped training, even when I was at home, we were still under the instruction of Freddie Roach, and since I stepped foot on American soil I joined the training camp to follow up on the program that my coach implemented and thus be ready for my ninth fight. The truth is that I carry my suitcase full of illusions and eager to succeed,” said Curiel.

“I admire Freddie Roach, I’ve seen him in videos since I was a young boy and I watched Pacquiao train and I saw Roach with admiration, now it’s like a dream come true to be under his tutelage, it’s been a great ride to be trained by a legendary trainer, he believes I will be world champion very soon.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be surrounded by great people, starting with my family, my mentor and manager Frank Espinoza who gives me great advice and handles my career, he is a great manager and takes care of things, and obviously Oscar De La Hoya and Eric Gomez and the Golden Boy Promotions team they all have my back and I just concentrate on training and fighting, it’s a great team I have.

“It’s an honor to be fighting under the Ryan Garcia vs Luke Campbell event, Ryan is a great fighter with a great personality and I will be there to represent México and give the fans a good fight. This event will be shown in Mexico and I’m very happy to be there to show my skills.

“I want to tell the fans to keep taking care of yourselves during this pandemic time and hopefully we can be back to normal soon and tune in, this will be a great card and I know you can watch it on DAZN in Mexico,” concluded Curiel.