Jose “El Salvaje” Lugo looks to remain undefeated at CES 50 on June 15
Jose” El Salvaje” Lugo is returning to the CES cage on June 15 for CES 50 against fellow undefeated flyweight Josh Ricci. A matchup of two up and coming flyweights on the east coast. A fight that will see one fighter’s ‘O’ go.
It is also a quick turnaround for Lugo who improved to 2-0 in his last fight against Carlos Rodriguez at CES 49. Though the end result of that fight was a finish, it wasn’t the way Lugo envisioned it as Rodriguez suffered an injury which stopped the fight.
Lugo wished he was able to get into the second round because the despite the fact that he thought he won the first round, he felt he was going to come out stronger in the second.
“I just really wanted to a second round cause I felt I made a few mistakes in the first one and I wanted to make up for them.”
“I was winning but it wasn’t by much.”
It wasn’t the performance he wanted but Lugo learned that he needed to make changes in his next camp, particularly in his strength and conditioning because he was hurt before the fight started.
“I changed my strength and conditioning routine a little bit cause last time I trained so hard and I ended up injuring my foot, my calf, my back, I had like three injuries in a month, it was horrible. I changed the whole routine around that way I don’t hurt myself before the fight. I was hurt to the point that I might have had to pull out but I kept resting it and I didn’t want to pull out of the fight and I still ended up winning.”
Since he changed his routine Lugo is feeling a hundred percent and is making a quick turnaround from April 7 to June 15.
However, CES asked him to fight in early May which he turned down because he needed more than three weeks to recover and train from his previous fight. Now he’ll face a tough test in Josh Ricci who is 4-0. Ricci may have the edge in experience in professional fights, but Lugo believes his experience stacks up just as well.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjZ5OUdhAud/?taken-by=joseelsalvaje08
“For me it doesn’t matter because he’s been training for a long time and I’ve been training for a long time too. I just don’t have as many fights as he has. I’ve been training since I was 13 years old on and off till now, I have a lot of experience.”
Lugo believes he matches up well against Ricci who he described as a tough wrestler. El Salvaje, says he will try and make it a brawl. Despite confidence in his ground game, he believes that the longer the fight is on the feet, the more likely he is to win.
“I think if I keep it standing I’ll have the upper hand. I know he likes throwing a little bit but as soon as he gets tagged he’s going to turn it into a wrestling match.”
And for how it ends…
“I say either a finish in the second round or it goes all rounds. He’s a very durable guy.”
But what Lugo is most excited about is the step up in competition and the ability to test himself against a top flyweight prospect.
“If I’m going to win or lose, it might as well be one of the best and he’s one of the top prospects.”
