Former two-division champion, Rances Barthelemy, is on the comeback trail and makes his return to the ring Saturday, January 22, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
His return comes on the undercard portion of the PBC on Fox card featuring the return of the Charlo brothers, Jermell and Jermall. Barthelemy has been on a brief hiatus since his decision loss to Kiryl Relikh back in March of this year.
Prior to that, Relikh had suffered a close decision loss to Barthelemy the year before. In their rematch, Barthelemy had his eyes locked on becoming the first Cuban to secure world titles in three different weight classes, but unfortunately he fell short.
In a recent interview with Round by Round Boxing, Barthelemy opened up about the loss and what was next for his career.
“I was very distraught after my last fight,” said Barthelemy. “It hurt me a lot to lose, especially having been my first loss as a professional. After a few weeks, I started to think about all the mistakes and changes I needed to make moving forward that would be best for my career.”
Barthelemy went on to say that the changes needed in his camp, were changes that needed to happen long before the loss to Relikh.
In his last camp, Barthelemy mentioned trying new training methods, as well as a new diet that was intended to aid in the weight cut, but the Cuban instead felt weaker and dehydrated throughout the bout.
“I realized as soon as the fight initiated that my punches weren’t landing with the force I had wanted,” said Barthelemy. “My lungs felt okay, but my punches didn’t have the same pop. Thankfully, my opponent was not able to take advantage of the situation but I still came up short.”
After cycling through possible opponents, Barthelemy is set to take on Robert Frankel in a 10 round affair. Barthelemy admits he knows very little about Frankel but states that it doesn’t matter who’s in the ring come Saturday night.
Now, Barthelemy will enter the ring with a fellow countryman and Cuban boxing royalty, Joel Casamayor in his corner. Barthelemy credits all the changes to his mother, who called him after his loss and advised him to go back to his roots of the Cuban school of boxing.
“I’m going back to what made me a world champion,” said Barthelemy. “It’s easy to get complacent but I’ve put people like Joel and my brother in my corner and I have the same hunger I had back when I was chasing the title.”
With a new and rejuvenated confidence, the fighter known as “Kid Blast,” has full confidence he can still check off three division champion onto his already impressive resume.
