Q: How is everything going in preparation for your upcoming bout with Sergey Kovalev What’s it like working with Freddie Roach for the first time?
JP: It’s been fantastic. Freddie is somebody that I’ve greatly admired from a distance for a very long time now. I’ve been following his work since the James Toney days, so I’m well aware of the difference he can make for boxers who buy into his way of doing things. Right now I’m all in and ready to once again become the light heavyweight champion of the world on January 30.
Q: What would you say to the critics who feel that you don’t deserve this fight based on your showing against Yunieski Gonzlaez?
JP: I would say that it was a very good fight that was a lot closer than it had to be, but I won the fight.
Q: Why was it a lot closer than it had to be?
JP: I’m don’t make excuses, I make big fights. In boxing things happen during a fight and you just have to bite down and keep going despite the pain. Sometimes things become more difficult than they have to be as a result of this, but when the options are quitting or keep fighting, I only see one option.
Q: Do you feel you’ve gotten the credit you deserved for taking on a hungry undefeated guy like Gonzalez instead of taking an easier preliminary bout?
JP: Not really. And what’s crazy is I didn’t have to fight him. The deal for the Kovalev rematch was done in July, so the only reason I fought him was to prove to myself that even after suffering a TKO loss I can come right back four months later and hand a tough undefeated fighter his first loss. I think that fight took a lot out of Yunieski and that showed in his last fight with Slava Shabransky.
Q: You’ve said on several occassions that you know what has to be corrected in order to defeat Kovalev. Can you elaborate on that at all?
JP: You’ll have to buy your ticket to attend at the Bell Centre or tune in on HBO to find out. I can’t give out my secrets now.
Q: Can you tell us some of the guys you’ve been sparring with?
JP: I can but then I’d have to kill you. (laughs)
Q: You took it upon yourself to voice your opinion of Kovalev. You basically said he’s not a star and that he’s a racist. Do you regret saying any of those things?
JP: Regret? I don’t regret anything I said that day. All I did was tell the truth. There is only one star in this fight and it isn’t Sergey Kovalev. When he and I fought on the same show in Vegas on July 25 it became obvious that Kovalev sells like sand in the desert. He didn’t even sell 1,000 tickets, so we all know the reason he’s coming back to Montreal is because I’m the only way he can make money. He likes to say that he likes to go to other peoples hometown and ruin them in front of their fans, but that’s a lie. He likes to go to other people’s backyard because he has no hometown of his own and couldn’t sell 2,000 tickets to save his life. And when he makes his first million dollar purse because of my great fans in Montreal, how does he thank them? He gives them the finger. Talk about classless.
Q: And as far as the racist remarks?
JP: Like I said, I don’t regret anything. It was the truth. Ismayl Sillakh told me some of the deplorable things Kovalev told him before they fought and the monkey shirt with Adonis spoke for itself. And it’s a fact that he only calls black fighters pieces of shit. The funny thing is when it comes to selling tickets, speaking in complete sentences or generating big ratings, the only piece of shit is him.
Q: Do you have a prediction?
JP: Victory. I will be prepared to go a hard twelve rounds, but if he gives me a chance to end the fight, I will take full advantage of it.
Q: How is everything going in preparation for your upcoming bout with Sergey Kovalev What’s it like working with Freddie Roach for the first time?
JP: It’s been fantastic. Freddie is somebody that I’ve greatly admired from a distance for a very long time now. I’ve been following his work since the James Toney days, so I’m well aware of the difference he can make for boxers who buy into his way of doing things. Right now I’m all in and ready to once again become the light heavyweight champion of the world on January 30.
Q: What would you say to the critics who feel that you don’t deserve this fight based on your showing against Yunieski Gonzlaez?
JP: I would say that it was a very good fight that was a lot closer than it had to be, but I won the fight.
Q: Why was it a lot closer than it had to be?
JP: I’m don’t make excuses, I make big fights. In boxing things happen during a fight and you just have to bite down and keep going despite the pain. Sometimes things become more difficult than they have to be as a result of this, but when the options are quitting or keep fighting, I only see one option.
Q: Do you feel you’ve gotten the credit you deserved for taking on a hungry undefeated guy like Gonzalez instead of taking an easier preliminary bout?
JP: Not really. And what’s crazy is I didn’t have to fight him. The deal for the Kovalev rematch was done in July, so the only reason I fought him was to prove to myself that even after suffering a TKO loss I can come right back four months later and hand a tough undefeated fighter his first loss. I think that fight took a lot out of Yunieski and that showed in his last fight with Slava Shabransky.
Q: You’ve said on several occassions that you know what has to be corrected in order to defeat Kovalev. Can you elaborate on that at all?
JP: You’ll have to buy your ticket to attend at the Bell Centre or tune in on HBO to find out. I can’t give out my secrets now.
Q: Can you tell us some of the guys you’ve been sparring with?
JP: I can but then I’d have to kill you. (laughs)
Q: You took it upon yourself to voice your opinion of Kovalev. You basically said he’s not a star and that he’s a racist. Do you regret saying any of those things?
JP: Regret? I don’t regret anything I said that day. All I did was tell the truth. There is only one star in this fight and it isn’t Sergey Kovalev. When he and I fought on the same show in Vegas on July 25 it became obvious that Kovalev sells like sand in the desert. He didn’t even sell 1,000 tickets, so we all know the reason he’s coming back to Montreal is because I’m the only way he can make money. He likes to say that he likes to go to other peoples hometown and ruin them in front of their fans, but that’s a lie. He likes to go to other people’s backyard because he has no hometown of his own and couldn’t sell 2,000 tickets to save his life. And when he makes his first million dollar purse because of my great fans in Montreal, how does he thank them? He gives them the finger. Talk about classless.
Q: And as far as the racist remarks?
JP: Like I said, I don’t regret anything. It was the truth. Ismayl Sillakh told me some of the deplorable things Kovalev told him before they fought and the monkey shirt with Adonis spoke for itself. And it’s a fact that he only calls black fighters pieces of shit. The funny thing is when it comes to selling tickets, speaking in complete sentences or generating big ratings, the only piece of shit is him.
Q: Do you have a prediction?
JP: Victory. I will be prepared to go a hard twelve rounds, but if he gives me a chance to end the fight, I will take full advantage of it.
Sergey Kovalev wants to finish off Jean Pascal
What changed in your training coming to this fight?
Sergey Kovalev: “I did a lot of mistakes in our last fight and right now I try to fix it. I try to be better. It’s a secret about my mistakes and just me and my trainer know about my mistakes. I learned from my first fight. Right now I fix it and try to be creative, do everything exactly correct and try to fight more harder and try to stop Pascal early this time.
“Because I was disappointed in my performance in our last fight against Pascal I want to do this much better, much more clear.
“I felt very comfortable (in last fight). Judge gave to him two rounds, but I didn’t feel I lost these rounds. I just take time, used a lot of jabs and get lot of points with the jab.
“I don’t feel comfortable to make any prediction because it is boxing, anything can happen. It’s not my habit to say, I will, will, will. Because sometimes you say will and something else happens and then you look like a trash talker. You know?
“Pascal is a trash talker. I don’t care what he say because it’s just trash from his mouth. He start speaking trash to (make me) lose my mind and make me nervous; he will pay for this in the ring. Believe me. I am going to make him pay for this.
“It is a more personal fight (because of trash talk).”
Do you want to make him retire?
SK: “I want this, we’ll see. But usually all my opponents stop their career or move their division, but last fight I didn’t finish my job.”
Why fight Pascal again when the first fight seemed so easy?
SK: “First of all, Pascal has said bad things to my side. I have a reason for fighting him. I think Pascal has reason to say thank you to Luis Pabon, the referee for the fight. He forgot to say thank you very much that he saved his health and life maybe. Because he was already “drunk”, you know like spaghetti legs.”
Why fight in Canada?
SK: “I love Canada and Canadian fans. Canada reminds me so much of my home town in Russia. Same atmosphere. Lot of details remember me of my home town and I feel very comfortable in Canada. Big support from Canadian fans. And second thing why I fight in Canada, because Pascal doesn’t want to go to America to fight me or in Russia either. He’s fighting only in his hometown. Ok, I’m ready to kick his ass in his hometown.”
Do you expect to see something different now that Pascal is training with Freddie Roach?
SK: Yes, it gave me new motivation. Because he could bring something new from Freddie Roach. Should be, but we’ll see. It helped me work more, more, more and be ready for what he will bring.
“I want to say thanks to boxing because boxing helped with a lot of terrible things in my life. Boxing saved my life, saved my health. I have a family, I have a son, beautiful wife. Right now I am happy. I have motivation to get more goals.”
John David Jackson: “He has a great work ethic. He kind of choreographs his fights. It’s funny how he does it. It works for him. I let him do what he wants to do. It makes him feel comfortable. He has a routine where he tries to mimic the fight how [he thinks] it’s gonna go about [sic].”
JDJ: “Time will tell [if he will be an icon.] He needs a couple more fights with top quality opponents. You’ve got Ward and Stevenson, and now this Russian kid Beterbiev, who beat Sergey in the amateurs. These are the types of fight that will take him to the next level and make him the superstar that he truly is.”
JDJ: “We put a game-plan together, but he swears up and down there’s no game-plan. We devise a strategy that works for him.”
JDJ: “His physical training and conditioning prior to coming to the gym enables him to go the rounds that he goes and the pace that he sets.”
JDJ: “Right now, he’s still working, but next week we’ll shut the sparring down and we will be at an even pace, but at a level where he’s still aggressive and heavy come fight night.”
