Steve Claggett looks to make it nine wins in as many fights when he faces off with Marcos Gonzalez Barraza on Thursday in Montreal, live on ESPN +.
The 34 year old super lightweight scored a unanimous decision win over Miguel Madueno to claim regional titles in two sanctioning bodies, giving the Calgary man another chance at the big time — he is currently ranked in three sanctioning bodies inside the top 15.
“When you have done the work, you feel good,” Claggett told ProBox TV.
“As of right now I’m ranked by the WBC at No.8. I’m motivated, it is something I’ve been working on for a long time and I finally got in the top 10. Now we will see what we can do from here. Now I got the balls, I got to show them.
“I’m motivated, buddy. I see the landscape, I see my potential and I know my experience and efforts. I’m ready to make it happen now.
“I’m expecting Barraza to bring an attitude. He’s something of a, I don’t want to say trash talker, in his demenour he seems to provoke and likes to get under your skin. I think it will be an interesting fight, but I’ll stick to my game plan and I’m ready to show the fans some new stuff I’ve been working on in the gym.
“I’m in tip-top shape and I know I will take care of business. I’m ready to show something that I haven’t shown before because I got more speed, more power than I have ever shown in any of my fights. I want a great performance, that's all I want.”
Claggett (37-7-2, 25 KOs) last tasted defeat in a contentious split decision loss against Canadian rival Mathieu Germain in May 2021. A move to Montreal has seen Claggett go on the best run of his career since his opening 12 fights, spanning from 2008 to 2011.
“This is all an accumulation of what I have put into my career over all these years,” Claggett said.
“All the years and years of staying steady, I’m always in the gym and working hard. I think it is all just adding up to be going on a good run [of form]. In addition to that I have been working with my trainer Mike Moffa over the last eight fights, we are on a roll now. The hard work in the gym is definitely what is doing it for me, and it seems that I’m figuring things out, things I’ve been learning the whole time, but now it is coming together nicely, so I’m happy with it.”
Moffa coincidentally used to train former adversary Germain, a whopping 2,200 miles from Claggett's home.
“I had two fights with Germain,” Claggett added, “one of them I drew and then I dropped the decision to him in the last fight. We both have our opinions on who won the fights, but it is all in the past.
“But the thing is, even though we were fighting each other, I always had great respect for those guys. We always respected each other, I had always liked Mike as a trainer. We had actually got up against each other before when I fought Yves Ulysse [Jr].
“Mike actually reached out to me to help me find a trainer because at the time I was fighting without a trainer. I took him up on it, I came out here to Montreal and we started working together. We happened to click, we had our first fight together a couple of years ago.
“It was an interesting event down in Mexico during lockdown, not a lot of people there. Mike called out the combination, I landed it on cue, and I knocked the guy out with the combination that Mike called for.
“It solidified the fact to me that we are a good team. We had some good fights against each other, but we work better together. We went on a roll from there and have been working together ever since. Montreal has the biggest [boxing] history in Canada, that’s not to say it won’t ever reach the west coast, but as of now Montreal is the biggest boxing city in the country.”
