INTERVIEW: WILTON HILARIO
By Jesse Kelley
8.6.09

26 year old Wilton Hilario produced his most satisfying performance to date against in state rival Allen Litzau last April in Minneapolis. The all action fight itself thrilled fans but also brought an end to years of unfriendly talk between the two MN warriors. Shortly after, it was announced that Hilario would be facing Allen's brother Jason. Unfortunately, two freak injuries rendered Hilario unable to face J. Litzau until a later date. Hilario is now scheduled to box an opponent to be named on September 26th, and Jason has a pay per view fight lined up for August 15th. Rumors are circulating that the two could meet in November but nothing is official. Hilario (11-0-1) shared his thoughts with MinnesotaBoxing.com on his fight with Allen, possible fight with Jason and his upcoming appearance at the Target Center on Sept. 26th.

The grudge match between you and Allen has been settled. Talk about the years of talk between the two of you finally coming to an end.
Man I don't even know what to say. I kept saying that I was the better fighter, that I was a different fighter then him. I train harder then when I fought him in the amateurs. I think that him saying that he beat me in the amateurs was just an excuse for him not to fight me. I just knew the whole time that I am just a totally different fighter then I was back then. I was a boxer in the amateurs but now I am a brawler, I'm a fighter.

Did the fight unfold like you thought it would?
Actually no, it happened a little bit easier then what I thought to tell you the truth. You never know what is going to happen going into a fight first of all. But to tell you the truth, I didn't think it would be as easy as it was.

It looked like you had Allen hurt early in the first. What went through your head at that time?
I remember in training camp, Chuck told me that it could happen in the first round. When I hit him, I thought "damn, is this it?" He showed that he could survive though, he had a little experience. He knew when to grab me when he had to. That's what you have to do when you have to survive.

Can you discuss your game plan going into the fight?
Pressure, a lot of pressure was the plan. That's what I do in the gym all the time. I really don't like to make plans. If you make plans, it doesn't come out the way you want. I just train hard and bring everything I have. You can't really bring more if you bring everything you've got! If I had to box to beat him, I was going to do it. But I wanted to bring the pressure first and it turned out that I didn't have to change anything.

Let's talk about the stoppage. What are your thoughts on the stoppage? Do you think the fight should have been aloud to continue?
Yeah, I wish it would have went longer. Most of the time they stop it like that though because they know he didn't really have a chance to win. So why let it happen, why let it go on? The referee has to understand though that when there is a state rivalry like that, you have to let the fight go until the end. You shouldn't stop it before the end. That is their job though I guess and they have to do what they feel is best at the time.

You are obviously the closest person to the action along with the ref. How bad do you feel he was hurt when the fight was stopped?
I thought he was hurt. But more then anything, he was tired. I was coming to get him too. I was so excited in that last round. I was thinking in the round before that I was going to finish it right there. I remember at the end of the round before the final one that I was thinking I was going to end it in the next round. I could feel he was ready to go. And it happened in the beginning of the fifth round, in the first minute of the round. So he wasn't going to be able to keep going I don't think.

Shortly after your fight with Allen, a fight with his brother Jason surfaced. Talk about the press conference announcing a fight between you and Jason. What happened that made things blow up like it did?
He got in my face and started saying that my breath stunk or something. It wasn't even that though. He just thinks he is so much bigger then Minnesota boxing. Bigger then all of us. He just kept saying that he was bigger then me. Like he feels like I should be respecting him or something. Why should I respect him? Honestly I did respect him as a person before the press conference, but after that, why would I? Then he started talking about my family and stuff like that. When he started talking about my family and my mom, it got personal. Is he out of his mind? Why would he say something like that? That's when things got personal. That's when I started thinking, "Man he's about to get hurt right here". He told me he was going to drop me right there. I don't know if he was playing, but I wasn't. You don't tell someone you are going to drop them in their face and not be serious. I thought he might try something like that before but I told myself "Nah, I'm not going to hit him." I didn't want to do anything that would make the fight not happen. But when he started talking about my family and told me he was going drop me, I couldn't hold back. He flinched at me like he was going to hit me so I just reacted. I don't know what he was thinking. This is what I do. Before I was a boxer I was a street fighter. I love to fight. I try to avoid it but if someone brings it, that's it. Maybe he was just trying to promote the fight but you don't tell someone you are going to drop them and not be serious. It's not like we are fighting for a million dollars so what's the point of being fake? I never had nothing bad to say about him before that. We might have had a little history in the amateurs but this fight wasn't about a rivalry to me. It didn't need that. I actually talked positive about him before. But he brought it to this level so let's make it happen.

The fight had to be postponed because of an injury you suffered. Can you talk about what happened?
Right after I fought Allen, and before they even called me to fight Jason, I came back to the gym, just to get a little work in. To feel like I was back. So I am stretching out and this guy came and asked me if I wanted to spar. I had a mouth piece, but no protector or anything like that. But he hit me with a body shot. I put my hands up to say "Come on, do it again"! So he hit me with a second and a third. He pulled back with the third one and really let go. A few days later, they called me and said I might be able to fight Jason. I kept asking the promoter if the fight was going to happen and he said he didn't know. They said they were going to finalize it on a Monday. So I called him on that Monday to see if it was still happening. He told me he would let me know by that night. So the whole time I am thinking the fight isn't going to happen. It's a month from the fight at that point. Like a month and a week until the fight so how were they going to have time to promote it? At that point I was thinking the fight wasn't happening. So I got off work late that night and didn't make it to the gym. My friends were playing basketball so I went to do that try to get a workout out of it. My ribs hurt a little but I didn't think they were that bad. But that's when I broke my eyebrow, I got headbutted playing basketball. So I am thinking "Man, what next"? Well they called me that night and told me Wednesday was going to be the press conference. I am willing to fight, I don't care. So I started training hard once they told me about the press conference. But the more I trained, the worse my ribs got. Basically for those two weeks after the press conference, I didn't spar. Then the first day I sparred with (Alphonso) Vasquez. He touched me, I am talking about TOUCHED my ribs and they just couldn't take it. I finished the round but went back to the corner and said man I can't do it. That is basically what happened.

How is the injury doing now?
I haven't sparred since but I will start sparring on Monday (Aug. 3rd). I got a rib protector so we are going to start sparring with that. I don't want to take any chances. I will be ready by September 26th.

The Litzau camp is claiming you are making up the injury. Any response to that?
Oh yeah, I know who I am. That's all that matters. People know I'm not afraid to fight anyone. It really doesn't matter to me what they think. They are going to say stuff like that of course. That is what they are supposed to say. The fights going to happen. They know I'm not afraid you know what I mean? If it's now, or six months or two months, if they want it, it will happen. It wouldn't have made a difference if me and Allen fought two years ago, it was always going to happen. My trainer asked me if I wanted to go get the medicals to prove to them I didn't chicken out. I was like "Come on! I don't have to prove to them nothing. First of all, I never signed a contract. And I am talking about a month before the fight. They never gave me a contract. So who do I have to prove anything too? I know what happened, they know what happened, you know what happened, so who do I have to prove anything too? To Jason to prove I'm not scared? If that's what they think, good! Let him think I am scared. I know the fight will happen and I know what will happen when we do fight.

Jason Litzau has a big pay per view fight coming up, have you heared about that?
Yeah, I just saw that yesterday…

What do you think of his opponent Verquan Kimbrough?
It's weird because I know most of the fighters around my weight class but I don't know anything about him. I looked at his record though and he hasn't fought anybody. That doesn't mean anything though. It doesn't make the guy a bad fighter. It doesn't seem like the guy has any power. But when you are good, it doesn't matter who you fight. I would guess he is a good fighter. We will see what happens.

You know you are fighting in September, do you know who you are fighting? A name I heard thrown around was Adam Carrera…
Shit, you told me who I was fighting! Honestly, I don't really know who I am fighting. I heard it might be somebody from California but that's it. They never gave me a name.

Carrera is (19-4) and from California. Is that somebody you know anything about? Is it a fight you would consider taking?
Yeah I have seen him. That's why when you said his name, I knew who he was. He fought a kid that is like 25-1 ( Bernabe Concepcion). The guy he beat is from the same gym as (Manny) Pacquiau. He's supposed to be the next Pacquiau. He fought him and also went the distance with Mike Oliver. But yeah, I mean I will fight anybody, I think it would be a good fight for me.

Let's talk about your brother Jose. Jose recently competed at the National golden gloves tournament. Tell us about that.
Basically he only fought one night and he lost. He had a bye on the first day and then he had a day to rest. I really believe that he was a little stale going into the tournament. He had four days out there without doing anything. His style is not really an amateur style either like me. He doesn't waste a lot of shots. He punches to hurt somebody. But I really just wanted him to go out for the experience and to learn from that national level. It's a totally different level. I wanted him to feel that there are people out there that can beat him. Here in Minnesota he fought four times going into it and they were first round stoppages. So he had four rounds in four fights going into nationals.

Jose is turning pro on August 14th in Saint Paul. Any details on that?
Jose is ready and wants the challenge, so we are ready to go. I think he is fighting Hector Orozco but they haven't told us for sure yet.