Gabriel Rosado Talks Pacquiao-Bradley, Adrien Broner and the 'Undefeated' Scam

Gabriel Rosado (25-5, 12 KO) is an underrated fighter who aggressively targets the next step in his path for greatness.

At age 26, he's achieved and experienced more than many veterans of the game after starting his career at age 18.

His victories include knockouts over contenders Jesus Soto Karass (26-7-3, 17 KO) and Sechew Powell (26-5, 15 KO).

After sitting down to talk with Rosado, along with strength and conditioning coach Jason Sargus, he shared his opinions on many topics in boxing ranging from controversial decisions such as Pacquiao-Bradley to the flaws of the amateur system.

What's Wrong with the Amateur System in Boxing?

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"I think the thing is with the amateur system, it's all about scoring points. It's not about hurting the other guy.

-Gabriel Rosado

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Rosado entered the amateur game at the age of 18 and met his trainer Billy Briscoe, someone who Rosado believes is a young guy that comes from "the old school."

Briscoe focused on breaking down his opponents with attacks to the body, something not highly promoted in the amateur system according to Rosado.

"In the amateur system, you can knock a guy down and it's one point," Rosado said. "He can hit you three times and it's three points. In the amateur system, sometimes they don't even count bodyshots. You can't afford to give away headshots."

Rosado and Briscoe knew the amateur system wouldn't prepare Rosado for the harsh realities of professional boxing where the head gear comes off and the gloves get lighter.

After only 11 amateur fights, Rosado turned pro at age 19.

"I was still learning," Rosado said. "I was still green, but I had been through a lot of adversity. When I step in the ring, I feel like I've already faced the worst."

Rosado was born and raised in the streets of Philadelphia, a city plagued by violent crime to this very day.

After being forced to become tough to survive his neighborhood, Rosado took the tougher route to becoming a boxer, seeing that the amateur system wouldn't prepare him to be a pro.

His strength and conditioning coach Jason Sargus agrees with Rosado's assessment of the amateur ranks.

"They reward high volume, but not necessarily taking your shots," Sargus said. "When you take that headgear off, you can't take 20 pitter-pat punches. You're looking for angles, you're looking to capitalize. Your looking to be offensive without incurring too much damage. It's not optimum for getting fighters ready for the pro game."

Though Rosado had his harsh critiques of the amateur boxing, he offered that a slim few can become great professional boxers if they dedicate themselves to changing. He named an example.

"A lot of times when you see fighters go pro, you see them not as successful as a lot of guys hoped," Rosado said. "I think the guy that made the best transition is Andre Ward. It took him a while to be the fighter he is now. You see guys who turn pro and they don't sit down on their shots. They're still trying to score points. In the pro game, you need to sit down on your shots"

Pacquiao-Bradley, Adrien Broner and the Importance of Knockouts

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"Pacquiao let his hands go, but he wasn't putting his shots to go. Bradley couldn't punch for sh*t. Pacquiao had the opportunity to really put his punches together."

-Gabriel Rosado

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Manny Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KO) vs. Timothy Bradley (29-0, 12 KO) for the WBO welterweight title was one of the most talked-about controversial decisions this year.

Despite appearing to win in the court of public opinion, Pacquiao lost a split decision to Bradley.

Naturally, Rosado felt a certain way about the result.

"To me at the moment, it felt like it was the biggest robbery," Rosado said. "I think Pacquiao won the fight. The crowd would get excited even when he missed, but I think Pacquiao still won the fight."

When Rosado continued to speak on controversial decisions, he came to the conclusion that it's more the fighter's fault than the judge's.

"I don't blame it on the judges," Rosado said. "Fighters just need to sit down on their shots. That's what I like about Adrien Broner. Once he told his trainer he was going to walk him down, he took him out. Sometimes [fighters] have a guy hurt and they'll just keep on boxing and not step on the gas. Broner had the guy [Vicente Escobedo] hurt and stepped on the gas."

While Rosado praised 23-year-old Adrien Broner (24-0, 20 KO) for his aggression, Sargus holds legendary wrestling coach Dan Gable in high regard for his focus on aggression.

Aggression is "the backbone" of Gable's philosophy and is a big part of how Sargus approaches the sport of boxing.

"Moving forward, being aggressive not only makes for great fights, it will truly separate the top one percent of the game," Sargus said. "I understand strategy but I also understand fighting. The true competitors will be aggressive."

Why Being Undefeated Is Overrated

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"I took tough fights from guys who were more seasoned. Nowadays in boxing, they look down on guys with losses. Me with my record at 25-5, I'm better than a lot of guys who are undefeated."

-Gabriel Rosado

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Rosado, a man with only 11 amateur fights under his belt, went on a five-fight winning streak before suffering two minor six-round decision losses at age 20 and 21.

Rosado wouldn't suffer a major loss until 2009 when he met an undefeated Fernando Guerrero (24-1, 18 KO), losing by unanimous decision.

Then in his fourth fight that year after defeating respected contender Kassim Ouma (27-8-1, 17 KO), he faced a Alfredo Angulo (20-2, 17 KO) that was motivated to bounce back after suffering his first loss.

Angulo scored a second-round knockout after knocking Rosado down twice in Round 2. Since the loss, Rosado has racked off a record of (8-1, 5 KO) in his last nine fights.

His lone loss since facing Angulo has come by a close majority decision and he has been on a six-fight winning streak. Rosado believes he couldn't be the tough contender he is today without his losses.

"Anybody can be undefeated," Rosado said. "All you have to do is fight a guy who is a has-been, fight a guy from a lower weight class. There's a lot of ways that guys are undefeated. I don't come from that. I've fought tough guys my whole career."

Rosado's strength and conditioning coach Jason Sargus believes that opposition is more important than a lack of losses.

"You have to look at the caliber of opponent and when did they fight each other," Sargus said. "Who wouldn't pay for a prime Mike Tyson to face a prime Riddick Bowe? They never boxed but it would've been amazing to see. It's always when someone is comng off a war or starting to fade."

Sargus believes the industry protects undefeated records to market fighters as unstoppable, but says a true world class fighter would want to face another world class fighter to produce fights fans want.

"I'm not a money guy, I'm a fight guy," Sargus said. "If you protect that undefeated record, you're never going to see these truly amazing fights that could happen."

Throughout boxing, fighters have suffered losses and came back to be dominant in their division.

Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KO) suffered two devastating knockout losses before defeating the likes of Evander Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 KO) and Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KO).

"I wouldn't fight Cotto, the guy's an animal," Sargus said. "They wrote him off because he lost, but his last loss was to Mayweather, easily one of the best in the world."

Tyson, Whitaker, Jones and Childhood Heroes

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"The fighters that stood out were Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones. They were so flashy and would never get hit...Those guys really intrigued me."

-Gabriel Rosado

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Rosado recalls how he fell in love with boxing and who inspired him to lace up the gloves.

"I actually grew up watching boxing," Rosado said. "My fathers and my uncles are big fans of the sport. I remember watching Tuesday night fights. I remember watching the big Mike Tyson pay-per-views."

Rosado stepped into the gym with trainer Billy Briscoe with just his size and his raw strength and talent. Briscoe could see from his first sparring session that something was special about Rosado.

"When I first walked into the gym, he saw how big I was," Rosado said. "I was 175 at the time. He started training me. I started doing whatever he told me to do. The first time I sparred (under Briscoe's tutelage), I knocked dude (an amateur fighter) out. He was a big time amateur dude and I knocked him out with a right hand."

Rosado's love and dedication from the sport would only continue to grow and inspire him to train harder and harder as Briscoe reshaped him into the contender he would soon become.

Danny Garcia, Trinidad, Cotto and the Pride of Being Puerto Rican

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"Trinidad was probably like the biggest fighter coming out of Puerto Rico. He made you proud to be Puerto Rican and he always represented Puerto Rico in a positive way."

-Gabriel Rosado

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Being Puerto Rican and hailing from Philadelphia, Rosado couldn't be any more proud of his fellow Puerto Rican Philadelphia Danny Garcia (24-0, 15 KO).

"You just had Danny Garcia win the world title," Rosado said. "He unified it. We from the same hood. I'm definitely happy for Danny. I've seen him come up. From him to be in the situation he is right now, it's motivation for me."

Garcia scored a unanimous decision over Mexican legend Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO) in March to win the WBC junior welterweight world title.

Then Garcia scored a shocking fourth-round knockout of Amir Khan (26-3, 18 KO) to unify the WBC and WBA junior welterweight world titles in July.

Besides Felix Trinidad (42-3, 35 KO) who Rosado holds in high regard, he also respects Miguel Cotto for remaining competitive in the ring.

Rosado credits Puerto Rican heart for the success of his fellow countrymen, but credits the Puerto Rican fans for giving their support to fuel that heart. 

"You're never gonna see a Puerto Rican fighter who doesn't have heart," Rosado said. "We got the fans, the Puerto Ricans behind us."

Canelo and the 154-Pound Division

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"Honestly I got everybody at 154 on my radar. I've done five training camps with Bernard Hopkins. I've learned a lot."

-Gabriel Rosado

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Rosado is coming off two huge knockout wins this year and wants to face the best. He's sounding the trumpets to announce his presence and calling a few names in the process.

"I wanted to fight Lara, didn't get the fight." Rosado said. "I wanted to fight Kirkland, he's hurt right now. I wanted to fight Canelo, they decided to fight a lightweight. We called Golden Boy and said, 'what's up' but it didn't happen. There's not particularly one person. JUST ANYBODY AT 154."

Rosado referred to the division's top young fighters, Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 KO), James Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO) and undefeated WBC champ Saul Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO).

Rosado knows in his heart he is the best opponent to challenge these men, so he is disappointed to see them in the ring with inferior competition.

Rosado called out an example from Austin Trout (25-0, 14 KO), a young undefeated fighter he deeply respects but is greatly disappointed in for his choice of opponent in his last fight in June.

"We called (Trout) out," Rosado said. "He had a fight with Delvin Rodriguez. He's a good fighter, but he had a mummy in front of him that day. No disrespect to Rodriguez, but he was mad slow. I think Austin Trout's a good fighter. If they want to fight, I'm definitely up for it."

Though Rosado isn't getting the calls he wants right now, he isn't sitting back on his passion for a world title.

He'll face Charles Whittaker (38-12-2, 23 KO) for the IBF's number one contender's spot on Sept. 21 at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

If Rosado can take down Whittaker, he'll be the mandatory for current IBF world champion Cornelius Bundrage (32-4, 19 KO).

When the time comes for the opening bell, Rosado has the confidence that his skill and ability will be second to none in the ring.

"There's nobody at 154 I'm ducking," Rosado said. "There's nobody at 154 I can't beat."

For more info on Gabriel Rosado, follow him on Twitter @KingGabRosado.

For more boxing news and analysis, follow me on Twitter @justindavidtate.