From football to screenplays: Sosa, Rhodes discuss interests

After former two-division world titlist Carl Frampton suffered a broken left hand in a freak, non-boxing accident on Monday and had his fight with Emmanuel Dominguez canceled, junior lightweights Jason Sosa, a former secondary world titleholder, and Haskell Lydell Rhodes had their 10-rounder elevated to the main event of the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card on Saturday (main card at 10 p.m. ET with preliminary bouts beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET) at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.

We spoke to Sosa (22-3-4, 15 KOs), 31, of Camden, New Jersey, and Rhodes (27-3-1, 13 KOs), 31, of Las Vegas, and learned a few things about both fighters.

What’s the best moment/fight of your career?

Sosa: My junior lightweight world title win against Javier Fortuna in 2016 in Beijing. Nobody wanted to fight him because of his awkwardness, but I did. Winning that fight (by 11th-round knockout after being knocked down and trailing on all three scorecards) was a big accomplishment. I remember this also about being in Beijing — the food was great and it was the best I made weight. Crazy, right? But the food there is clean, no sugar. I could have made 126 pounds.

I went into the fight with a great game plan. We practiced that combination I dropped him with in training camp over and over. Also, it was a fluffy ring, very soft. That helped me. I knew he was done. I don’t use my legs much but he does, so that helped me.

Rhodes: Honestly to me, I’m always hard on myself, I don’t really look at any of my wins as being special to me. I’m just focused on getting a world title. That to me would be like the main thing. But the fight that people would come to mind when you think of me would be the Sergey Lipinets fight, which I didn’t win, but a lot of guys thought that I might have outpointed him. Floyd Mayweather and a few other guys thought I won the first six rounds, then lost the last four. So that would be the biggest fight that comes to mind when people bring my name up.

But sparring with Manny Pacquiao is probably the biggest thing of my career, just being able to experience rounds like that, be around him, a legend like that. A guy who years from now people will talk about him as one of the greatest to do it. So definitely being around him in the ring, learning so much for when I go in the ring with other guys, I’m just so confident because I’ve seen Manny Pacquiao on the other side of the ring and I sparred many, many rounds with a guy who’s better than any of my opponents.

What do you like to do when you are not fighting?

Sosa: I spend time with my family. That’s the most important thing to me. I have two kids, boys 7 and 2, and a little girl on the way. We do a little bit of everything. The most important thing is spending time with them. That’s what counts, that’s what matters the most.

I also like to watch documentaries. I watch a lot of stuff on the History Channel.

Rhodes: I watch a lot of TV and movies, because if I wasn’t fighting that’s what I’d try to do — write screenplays. I really like movies, so I hope one day to get something published, whether it be a book or a screenplay, something like that. That’s one thing not a lot of people know about me.

I like scary movies, I watch the “Halloween” series a lot. But one movie that I watch a lot, and it kinda motivates me for a lot of my fights, is the “Equalizer” with Denzel Washington. When it was in movie theaters, I went to watch like three or four times.

Who’s your favorite fighter past or present? Any fights you remember the most?

Sosa: I would say Arturo Gatti. He’s my favorite. He left it all in the ring and he had fun doing it. He was in true fights. He had those three beautiful fights with Micky Ward. He always did those kinds of fights. He was somebody great to watch and to see the love he had for the sport and to showcase that to the fans. I consider myself old-school and I also love to fight for the fans.

My favorite fight was the third Gatti-Ward fight. It was the trilogy fight and nobody knew what would happen. One of them won the first fight, one of them won the second fight and this was the third one, so it meant a lot.

Rhodes: It’s a tie for No. 1, which goes to Sugar Ray Leonard and Roy Jones Jr. I don’t really remember watching Sugar Ray growing up, but he’s the first fighter I can remember. But Roy Jones and Mike Tyson are my favorite fighters growing up because I can remember my Uncle Thurman, who passed away, and also my parents threw huge fight parties and we always watched Mike Tyson and then Roy Jones, after that.

So growing up I always remembered those guys. When my family got together it was nothing but love every time they would fight and I got to see my whole family.

When do you realize you wanted to be a boxer? How did you become one? Who helped you?

Sosa: I think I was 20 years old. I was a late starter. I was lying down on the couch. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wasn’t a school person but I knew I could fight. I fought in the street a couple of times and one day I decided to go to the gym, and I never left.

I went to the gym in Camden and started training with Miguel Figueroa. He taught me the basics — jab, right hand. I couldn’t throw a jab when I got to the gym, I couldn’t throw a right hand. I could fight in the street but it was different in the gym, totally different. So I was learning the right way how to do it from him.

Rhodes: I’m not like most fighters, I didn’t have the deep amateur career, I didn’t start focusing in on boxing until I was 24 years old, and I don’t think a lot of people know that I walked into the gym at 20 years old. I wrestled my whole life and I thought I was going to be big at MMA. I was training with Robbie Lawler and Matt Hughes, and they were going to help me get in the UFC.

A lot of boxers on the way up get MMA guys to be their opponent. My pro debut I took on a week-and-a-half notice — I was an MMA guy and I upset the boxer. Then my family was like, “Hey, just stick with boxing.” So that’s where I got into it.

If you weren’t a fighter, what other sport would you have liked to play?

Sosa: I was a football guy. I played football in high school. I played a lot of positions, but main position was running back. I was pretty good but then I tore my ACL. That’s why I was on the couch not knowing what I would do. If it wasn’t for boxing, though, I believe I would have been a cook. I like to cook, so maybe I would have been a chef.

Rhodes: I actually have another sport that I love, which I might love more than boxing — that’s (freestyle) wrestling. Growing up I was a wrestler and one of the biggest things to me is they have the 2019 World Team Trials a week after my fight. So you can bet money that that’s what I’m going to be doing on the 17th, I’m going to be locked in on that.

If I was a little bigger it would be football, because I played in college one year at University of Central Oklahoma. But I realized I wasn’t fast enough and too little. But wrestling was like my passion before boxing.