Sparring with Mike Jones in the basement of the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Center, Latif Mundy is getting ready for his fight with Gabriel Rosado. The two seem to be holding nothing back. The trainers are yelling out commands to their fighters. Each wants to see their fighter finish strong. This might just be preparation for their upcoming fights on November 7 at Bally’s in Atlantic City, but they are treating it as seriously as any fight.

On June 6, Latif suffered a defeat at the hands of Patrick Majewski. Like any fighter, Latif does not like to lose. Latif explained to me what went wrong in the Majewski fight. “I thought that I should have been a little more aggressive in the beginning. I reserved myself a little too long. I ended up getting knocked down in the third round, sitting back waiting, waiting to see what he’s going to do.” Latif seems determined not to let that happen again. “So now, we’ve been working on being aggressive, but smart aggression. That way the earlier rounds can’t be taken. We don’t want it close. In fact, we’d like an early knockout.”

It is this push to be more aggressive that has led Latif to spar with Mike Jones. Latif believes that sparring with Mike will produce results. “That’s why we figured that Mike Jones would be the best work for us. Because we know that Mike is always pushing himself. Mike is always going to the max, and you see results from Mike. He’s walking over guys. He’s not just beating them; he’s actually walking over them. We need somebody like that. And I am a true believer that iron sharpens iron.”

A few other changes have been made too. One is to eliminate distractions. “A lot of outside things that would probably be distracting me, we’ve been cutting that off. We’ve been doing a good job with that.” Another change is that Latif has returned to trainer Chucky Mills. Latif explained this move. “We chose to come back to Chucky because Chucky had his boxing, giving more angles, more of the things we need when you are handling guys of this caliber. When you are handling undefeated prospects it is not about power and speed, it’s about strategy. We’re using strategy and we’re using angles. And we’re baiting these guys in.”

Chucky Mills seems to be a good match for Latif because he believes in Latif as much as Latif believes in Chucky. The first thing Chucky said to me was “that’s the next champ.” Chucky Mills summed up Latif for me. “He was always championship material because he has a good work ethic. He’s going to work. You don’t have to be there. He’s blue collar, a blue collar worker. And he’ll fight. He’s clever. He moves good. He can punch. He’s got all the tools to be that, a champ.”

So Latif is not worried about his upcoming fight with Rosado. As Latif said, “I would think if you don’t have bad habits outside the gym, you can bounce right back. For me, I am one of those guys that don’t have bad habits. I am a family man outside the gym. I take care of my family. We just try to be a hundred percent focused on this. That way we can keep rising to the top with no problem.