Mauricio Herrera is poised and confident. His nickname is “El Maestro” and it is perfect for him, since he does seem to give a lesson when he is in the ring. Even when only watching him spar one can see that he is relaxed, while at the same time getting the most out of his sessions. Probably best known to the casual boxing fan by his win over the tough Russian Ruslan Provodnikov, Herrera is a quality fighter with solid boxing skills. He has a record of 19-3 with seven knockouts. Mauricio last fought in early May against Ji-Hoon Kim. That fight went the scheduled ten rounds, with Herrera on the winning end of all of the scorecards. “Ten rounds with the Korean tough guy, that was a fun fight,” he said. “I was never in any danger, and the guy loved to get hit, and that’s what I love to do. I was hitting him with everything and it went all ten rounds, so it was a good fight.”

On Friday, September 27, Mauricio will step into the ring in Ontario, at the Doubletree Hotel. His opponent will be Miguel Angel Huerta (27-10-1, 18 KOs). Huerta is a hard-hitting southpaw, and those 18 knockouts are nothing to sneeze at. Miguel has not been in the ring since the end of 2008 due to reported management issues. At that time he fought and lost to Mike Alvarado, (Herrera lost to Alvarado as well), but even with that fighting inactivity, there is no bout that can be taken for granted.

“Miguel is an experienced veteran. He’s a little bit smaller, but he has a lot of experience. From what I hear he’s a hard body puncher, but I think that this is another time that styles will make for a good fight. My style and his, he’s a good fighter and we’ll give another great performance, and hopefully the next step after that will be for bigger and better things.

“I’ve been taking on everybody they’ve put in front of me, and big names, and the losses that I’ve had were close calls – they could have gone either way. I think I’m ready. I went through Ji-Hoon Kim; if I go through this guy I should be right there.”

Herrera has also had some good sparring partners. You might recognize the name Lucas Matthysse. Yes, I’m being sarcastic with that last sentence, but Mauricio sparred with Matthysse during the last two weeks leading up to Lucas’ recent fight with Danny Garcia.

“We heard that he was out there, and I thought maybe we could go out to the desert and get some sparring. We went and did that, both me and my brother Albert. So we got in some good sparring.

“I thought I did good with him,” Herrera continued. “I never really got caught clean and flush with his punches, so I really wasn’t touched with his power, so I thought I did really good with that sparring.”

Mauricio has also sparred with Timothy Bradley in the past, and since Matthysse was with Bradley, it would seem natural that he would also spar with Timothy. But the timing was off, and as of this writing he has not sparred with Bradley for this upcoming fight.

There was a fight that had been offered up earlier than this one, where Herrera was to fight Urbano Antillon, but for some reason it fell through.

“We asked Thompson (Boxing Promotions – Mauricio’s promoter) to give us some fight in between. I didn’t want to take too much of a layoff, so we asked them to give us a fight at the Doubletree or something, just keep me busy, and they did it. They gave me one there, and they gave me a couple of names, and I got one of the toughest guys that they have.”

One of the worst questions is who a fighter wants next, because as history has shown us many times, things can so often not go as planned. But since I had spent some time speaking with Mauricio’s trainer Willy Silva before Herrera got there, Silva had given me a name of who he wants next for his fighter. I just had to ask Mauricio to see if they were on the same page.

“You know, I was thinking of two fighters on the way over here right now, as a matter of fact. One would be the winner of Mike Alvarado and Ruslan Provodnikov. And I would like Danny Garcia.”

BINGO! That was who Silva named also.

“That’s the first one I thought of. Man, that would be great. He’s supposed to be the guy on top, and I feel I could give that guy a fight. Maybe he thinks he’s too good for me, but hopefully not. I can be the guy for his tune-up fight. Use me for whatever you want,” he laughed.

“I’ve got to approach it as a tune-up fight. If they don’t think I’m a big enough name, then they can use me as a tune-up fight. Do that, look past me, try to take me out – see what happens!” Herrera laughed again.

Mauricio was not afraid to mention his two loses last year to Karim Mayfield and Alvarado and explained.

“I’ve gone back to my old ways. I like to box when it’s dangerous and then when it’s safe, brawl. That’s what I’ve always done, and Mayfield and Alvarado were fights I went into with a game plan, and I think that messed me up a little. Now I’m just going in with a clear mind and to have fun.

“For example, for Alvarado we trained to be aggressive and go forward. So your mind and body gets used to that. I went into the fight thinking I was going to be able to do that, but that didn’t work out. And it wasn’t easy for me to switch to boxing because I was so used to doing it the other way in camp.

“It turned out OK, I mean the crowd loved it, and I showed another side, so it was fun. But now you know, I’m gonna keep it open and work on both at the same time in training. The main objective is to win. You can’t control the judges. In the Alvarado fight I think one judge only had me winning one round, and I thought it was a pretty close fight. But then I think, maybe if I was boxing, it was still his to win, who knows?”

Of course, the answer is always to get that knockout and take any decision away from those who are holding the pencils, but not all fighters are knockout artists.’

“I’m more a boxer, I’m not really known as a power hitter. But you know, you can always time a guy and connect him. Anybody can get knocked out.”

In closing, Mauricio wanted everyone to know that he is working hard to get ready.

“I’ll be ready for this guy, and the next guy, and hopefully people are beginning to recognize me and pay some attention.”

I mentioned a couple of names at Thompson and made the remark that they were in his corner.

“Yeah, that’s good. I’m getting some love, that’s two people! I’ve got like six fans, so I’m good! I’m getting there!”

We laughed that with those six fans he could fill up a front row. And just in case you couldn’t tell, Herrera also has a great sense of humor. He’s a fun interview and a good fighter. For me, that’s a perfect combination, and I wish him good luck in his fight.