January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Coach says Perozzi has knockout power
Meanwhile fitness guru Yves Paul talks to us about the gruelling regime he has put the fighter through, in order to 'push her through the wall'.
The big fight is just over a week away and if George Cuozzo his nervous he's not showing it.
The hard-boiled former American football player is feeling good about the training programme he has put together for Perozzi and does not mind telling you, he thinks she can get a knock-out.
"Ragosina thinks this is going to be a cakewalk in the park. I can't wait to see how she reacts when Teresa catches her on the chin for the first time.
"I know how she's going to react. She's not gonna like it. But I want to see it up close and personal.
"She's a talented fighter but she's going to give us opportunities and Teresa has the power to knock her out."
Cuozzo has been involved in every step of Perozzi's preparation for this fight, helping plan her training, sending his own coach over from the States to help here and now overseeing the final countdown to the fight in New Jersey.
"I'm a very hands-on guy. I brought my own people in. Nothing against the guys she's been working with but I'm comfortable with my own people and when I'm comfortable, she's comfortable.
"This is the best boxing camp she's ever been involved with. She's enjoyed it and we've seen a change in her physically and mentally. The other day she said to me - I'm bringing those belts back to Bermuda.
"That shows me she's in the right frame of mind to win this fight. She's a great athlete to work with. She's given us everything she can give."
One guy who has been with Perozzi for several years now is fitness trainer Yves Paul. His role in her preparation finished, to an extent, when she left Bermuda for New Jersey last week. But he is heading out to Germany this weekend to scout out spots for Perozzi to do her sprint work and to pick up fresh food, for when she arrives a few days later.
Paul admits his role was to be something of a sadist - driving Perozzi through gruelling track and stair climbing work outs to 'push her through the wall'.
"She's got a reputation as a slugger but my job was to work on her conditioning make sure she could keep it going for the full ten rounds.
"Some of what we did was just excruciating training. It wasn't supposed to be fun. My main goal was to push her through the wall.
"There is going to come a point - probably in the fifth or sixth round where she will think 'I'm done here' and she'll have to push through - keep going, keep punching, keep moving."
A quick look at one of Paul's custom-made workouts shows just what he means by excruciating: Warm up for a mile, 3x800m at 85 per cent effort with one minute rest, 3x400m at the same effort with one minute rest, 3x200m sprints with a minute rest in between and finishing with 3x100m sprints with a minute break.
Perozzi insists she 'enjoyed' the training and now, out in New Jersey, she is missing Paul's motivational talks as she runs solo.
"I have to talk myself through it now, which is hard. I don't have Yves screaming at me, from the sidelines."
Despite those reservations, she feels in superb shape and is loving the opportunity to train full-time, without distractions, in the final days before the fight.
"I can't even explain how great it is to not have to work, clean house, cook, and be on such a strict schedule that I have been trying to juggle this past month."
The physical side is taken care of. It's the tactical side, the mental side, the self-belief that are only slowly starting to come.
"We're taking the same approach, I think, everyone has taken against this girl, but I have more power than anyone she's fought before.
"George keeps telling me, look what you did to Asa (Sandell). She's done forever. Her career's finished. That wasn't my goal but, it's just, coming from Bermuda it can be difficult.
"You're always your not good enough, you don't have the facilities, you can't do it. But in a way that's helped me. If I've got this far on nothing, what can I do now?"
What she plans to do is knock out Ragosina and win all seven world title belts. It's a tough ask given the Russians 23-0 record, but Cuozzo believes that list of opponents is peppered with nobodies. She's never faced a fighter like Perozzi before, he says.
Some of that belief is starting to seep through to his fighter.
"I'll be looking for that big punch. She's never really been hit, I mean really hit, in her career before. Once I do that, she's going to be running."[[In-content Ad]]
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