On minute 5:55 of the video below, you can hear Floyd Mayweather mentioning some weeks back he had a sparring he was working with from Costa Rica and that had a “very awkward” style, in response to analyst’s Brendan Schaub comment that he had never fought someone that moved like Conor McGregor and if he had anyone in his camp that could “mimic his movement“. Since then, there had been rumors on who this fighter is, and they have finally been confirmed.

The Costa Rican boxer that’s had the chance to help Mayweather prepare for his next fight against UFC champion Conor McGregor, is 22-year-old prospect Arturo Izquierdo.

Izquierdo is a well-known fighter in the small circle of professional boxing of Costa Rica, a young southpaw that made his debut in the ring in 2014 and currently has only 4 professional fights.

Following his dream of having a successful boxing career, Izquierdo left to Las Vegas just a couple of months ago, with the idea of training in the Mayweather Boxing Gym, where he showed up offering himself as a sparring partner for other more experienced fighters.

He never expected to end up working with Mayweather Jr. himself, helping him prepare to his comeback fight scheduled for August 26. Izquierdo volunteered as a sparring partner for current IBF World Super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis, in reality he was hoping for an opportunity to get noticed and indeed he did, because instead of Davis it was Mayweather who climbed in the ring with him.

In his amateur career Izquierdo took part in the National Games since 2010, he won the bronze medal in 2011 and gold medal in 2012 and 2013.

Izquierdo is not the first Costa Rican boxer to train at the Mayweather Gym, before him boxer Bryan Vásquez and his wife, World Champion Hanna Gabriels have also had the opportunity to train there.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is coming out of his retirement to face UFC star McGregor at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a highly-expected fight. The fighters just finished their promotional press tour last week which took them to Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and London; each of their presentations was packed with fans and both fighters made sure to deliver quite a show in each of the cities, McGregor always a skilled and controversial entertainer made sure to display his brash personality in every stage trying to get under Floyd’s skin, while Mayweather bragged about his record, his achievements, his superiority as a boxer and of course, his money.