Steve Gago plots path to title shot starting with Blake Minto in Australia on Sept. 7

Australian welterweight Steve Gago (14-2, 7 KOs) will get the opportunity to showcase his skills on the national stage when he faces Blake Minto (15-6-2, 4 KOs) over 10 rounds at HBF Arena in Perth, Western Australia on September 7.

The 35-year-old southpaw will box on the undercard of Thammanoon Niyomtrong’s WBA strawweight title defense against Alex Winwood, with the entire show set to be broadcast live and free on 7plus as part of the Premier Boxing Series.

Perth hosted the IBF lightweight title fight between Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr in May, but prior to that the West Australian capital has been largely devoid of big boxing events dating back to the halcyon days of Danny Green.

Unlike the Lomachenko-Kambosos card, the Niyomtrong-Winwood show, which is co-promoted by Green Machine Promotions and Dragon Fire Boxing, is stacked with West Australian talent.

Gago is proud to be a part of it.

“It’s a very good card,” said Gago to The Ring. “It hasn’t been like this in a very long time now. We haven’t had a good fight card like this in Perth since Lomachenko and Kambosos actually, so this is good for Perth. It gets the whole crowd going behind the local boxers again. It’s going to be an awesome night. And to witness Alex fight for his world title, I reckon it’s going to be awesome.

“The boxing scene over here hasn’t been that great since the Danny Green days. Danny put Perth back on the map and now he’s found a good way to bring it all back happening again.

“After the whole Loma card here, it really just shows that Perth is an awesome city to fight at. Let’s get the action back here again.”

Minto, who hails from Toronto, just south of Newcastle in New South Wales, may have a few losses on his record, but he has mixed in good company and been stopped just once. Gago believes he has the perfect style to bring out the best in him.

“I saw a bit of footage of him last night and he’s fought some well-known people,” said Gago. “He’s durable as well. He likes to come forward, he can punch, he likes to throw combinations, so he actually moves alright. I think it’s an exciting fight. I haven’t had an exciting fight like this in a very long time. I’m pretty excited and I can’t wait to see how we go. I reckon it’ll be a cracker of a fight.”

Gago has now won two consecutive fights since dropping a 10-round unanimous decision to reigning IBF junior welterweight titleholder Liam Paro three years ago. Gago, who hadn’t made the 140-pound weight limit since his second pro bout, suffered a serious injury early on in the Paro fight but still managed to last until the final bell.

“I actually ended up having three bulging discs,” said Gago. “That all happened from, I think, round three onwards. I continued the fight, but I think you can probably see in the corner that I was saying, ‘I think you can see something is seriously wrong.’ Every time I moved on my front foot there was a sharp, shooting pain running up and down my spine, and I knew it was something serious. I had never felt anything like that before.”

Boxing on pure guts and adrenaline, it was only after he got back to his hotel room that the severity of the injury really surfaced.

“You could definitely tell from my movement and the volume of my punches from round one to round four or five onwards that I couldn’t really do anything,” said Gago. “The only punch I could actually throw without hurting my back was the jump hook, or the gazelle hook. It relieved a bit of pressure off my back. Anything after that was just killing me.

“After the fight, once I got back to the hotel and cooled down, I was popping painkillers, trying to get some sleep, getting up, trying to pack, then we went straight to the airport, all during COVID as well. It was crazy.”

Now fully healed, Gago is committed to making a run at a world title shot and the first step is defeating Minto. The WBC is the preferred route, where San Antonio’s Mario Barrios (29-2, 18 KOs) holds the strap.

“I’m hoping to crack the top 25, maybe even the top 15 in the WBC, and then crack into the international fights again,” said Gago, who is currently ranked 37th by the Mexico-based sanctioning body.

“I would love to fight in Japan and eventually progress quickly, hopefully into a world title shot. That would be awesome. WBC is looking good for me; I’m on the right track, so the main goal is to crack into the top 15, top 25, and then see what we can do from there.”

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