By Hesiquio Balderas

In an exclusive Fightnews.com® interview, top boxing manager Frank Espinoza touches on various subjects regarding his career and current fighters.

Frank how many champions have you managed during your career?

“I’ve managed ten world champions so far, including Enrique Sanchez, Chino García, Martin Castillo, Israel Vazquez, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Abner Mares and Oscar Valdez.”

What do you think is the key to be successful as a manager in the boxing world?

“The key is to learn to recognize talent and to have the ability to market and promote the fighter effectively. It also takes a lot of discipline in knowing how to apply the correct resources at the right time.”

Is it difficult to deal with as many promoters as there are in boxing?

“It can be difficult sometimes, but part of the job is to learn to communicate effectively with different promoters. We’re all businessmen at the end of the day and we want to make the best deals possible.”

How can you manage to work during these difficult times? The pandemic can drive us crazy.

“The pandemic has definitely been challenging. We’ve had flights canceled but it looks like boxing is getting back to normal, at least as normal as possible. So the plan is to keep marketing our fighters and to keep getting them the best fights possible and to help further their careers. Whatever adjustments we have to make because of this pandemic, we will make.”

Oscar Valdez is fighting Jayson Velez. What can you tell us about that fight?

“Oscar is fighting Jayson, who is a very good fighter and a legit tough guy. But at the end of the day, Oscar will show that he’s on a whole other level. We expect a great fight and a great effort from Jason, but Oscar is prepared. His training is going incredibly well. He looks great in the gym and I expect another exciting performance from him.”

Talking about Oscar, I saw the Manny Robles interview on YouTube, what’s your take on that?

“Oscar is now training with Eddy Reynoso who is a top, top level trainer, considered to be one of the best in the world. If anybody can come up with a great game plan it will be Eddy. That’s why he has a lot of great fighters that are joining his stable.”

Robles mentioned in the interview that it was the management team to blame for taking the Quigg fight. Can we get your side of the story?

“As far as Oscar’s fight with Quigg, he had come in heavy for the fight and I didn’t want to take the match but at the end of the day, it’s the fighter’s decision and Oscar wanted to fight. So we went on and Oscar proved what a great champion he is by defeating Quigg even though he suffered a broken jaw.”

Oscar has made some really noticeable improvements in his defense with Eddy Reynoso. Is that something you were looking for getting Eddy as Oscar’s trainer?

“I think that Oscar has definitely made very positive changes in training with Eddy. His defense is a lot better which is something that he’s been working on with Oscar. I think his defense was something that we needed to improve and we have done that. His defense right now compared to what it was at the time of the Quigg fight is much superior. Training with Eddy has been quite a blessing for Oscar. We’re very happy with Eddy and what he’s achieved with Oscar. Setting up Oscar with Eddy as his new trainer is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made as a manager.

“Well, (for Manny) I think it’s definitely hard to lose a fighter like Oscar. I mean here’s a great young fighter who is going places and is very popular and becoming more popular all the time. The fans love him and he’s considered a top fighter in the sport. It’s understandable but sometimes you have to make decisions that take you in a different direction and that’s what we did. Manny was Oscar‘s trainer, but we needed to take things to a whole other level. We wish Manny the best of luck in all his future endeavors.”