21.02.04 – Question: Joe, how did you become Corrales’ trainer and what is the story behind it?
Goossen: I am pleased to be able to say a few words to those on the call and I thank SHOWTIME and everyone involved. But, specifically, my job and my responsibilities are to the fighter I am training, and right now it happens to be Diego Corrales. Of course, I did have a long, and I should say loving relationship, with Joel Casamayor. He was an easy guy to get close to and I feel I am too, in terms of getting along with fighters. We had a great relationship. It did come to an end a month ago and there are all sorts of rationales and reasons anybody could point to to say (this is the main reason) why the split happened. But, basically, it is something that was shocking to me. A move was made plain and simple. I am going to just leave it at that. They are up there in northern California. Buddy McGirt is now working with Casamayor and Buddy is one of the great trainers – Trainer of the Year last year – and I am sure he will be up again this year for Trainer of the Year. He is as formidable an opponent as Joel Casamayor is in terms of training and winning percentage. We have got our work cut out for us. The first few days with Diego, of course, entailed a little feeling out process personally as well as physically for both of us. We have since gotten by all that initial bizarreness. And it was a little bizarre seeing Diego walk through my gym doors for this particular fight – something that I have never really experienced before. But, again, that initial shock has worn off and I have really jumped, as well as Diego, head first into training. I am doing the same thing I have always done. I have a fighter, I give them my all and I expect the same in return and that is pretty much where we are at right now.
Question: Buddy, what is the story behind how you became Casamayor’s trainer?
McGirt: I got a call one night from Corrales’ people to train Corrales, but I spoke to Main Events and they were against it. Then the very next day, I got a call from Casamayor’s people to train Casamayor. So I spoke to Main Events and they were with us. So that is how I became Joel’s trainer. I did not get into what happened between him and Joe Goossen. That is none of my business. My main thing is to do a job and thanks to Goossen, I did not have that much work to do when I got here because he did a great job with Casamayor. So my thing was just to come in and just pick up where Joe left off. It is not like I had to go in and rebuild the guy. Joe pretty much made my job easy for me.
Question: Joe, is there anything from the first fight that you saw in Corrales that you said, “I hope he does not do this because I think my guy is susceptible?’’
Goossen: That is a great question. I have said to Diego that some of the things that I expected him to do – that I was rightly concerned about because of his dynamic power – was that I was kind of shocked that he did not bring that power into the ring with him. So, yes, there are several things that I expected him to do that would have posed several problems for us that he did not do. I have relayed my thoughts about that to him and tried to turn that into practical use in the gym and somehow develop what I thought he was going to bring in that he did not.
Question: Joe, were there things that you saw in Corrales in the first fight that you said, “Hey, I know I can exploit,” and that you expect Casamayor to try to do in this fight as well?
Goossen: Well, of course. That is how and why you develop a plan. It is to offset and to counter some of the things that we think the other guy will do. Casamayor did a good job, too, countering what we thought were Diego’s strengths. We wanted Casamayor to move, and he had strict instructions about getting too close to him too soon. Those were definite things that we worked on. Ultimately, we were successful at most – not all – of the game plan. But, yes, we did try to exploit certain things and I thought we did to a certain point.
Question: Joe, on a personal level, do you have more incentive to defeat a guy like Casamayor, who you worked with for a long time and literally took to the top?
Goossen: I am not going to disagree with that last statement. But I would say this: I am not a vindictive person and I do not carry grudges and I do not hold enmity towards people that may have been perceived to have done me wrong. That is all by the wayside with me. And I go back to my original statement; I have formed a good relationship with Diego already. We have gotten to know each other very well. And sincerely, truly, I really look at the fighter personally that I have at hand and my heart goes out to all fighters that I work with. They work so hard and it is a lot of abuse and a lot of punishment, and not always a lot of money. And my main goal is to succeed, not only for myself with a win, but to also have whomever I am training be successful for just the mere fact that it is hard enough in this game to win when you have got all your perspective in order. But to add something like animosity and enmity between me and another guy, that I am taking it personally and that it is going to invigorate me to do more – no. Really, it is not even a thought in my mind. And I rarely, if ever, think about that situation unless it is brought up.
Question: Buddy, were you there for the first fight or did you watch it on TV?
McGirt: I watched it on TV and, to be honest, I had a houseful of people, so I really did not watch it closely. But I saw the best part – the knockdowns and stuff like that. So that was enough; that was all I really needed to see. As far as watching tapes or anything like that afterwards, no I did not because we know what Diego is going to bring to the table. We could watch a tape, but then that Diego is not going to show up because I am quite sure Joe has some tricks up his sleeve. So we just have to be ready for any and everything that Corrales tries.
Question: Buddy, the fact that you are training a guy, Casamayor, who had been trained by Joe, does that present different or unusual problems for you? Are you going to train him or work with him any other way?
McGirt: Well, the thing is, Goossen has done a great job with Casamayor, as we all know. And I know he is a great trainer and he has done a great job. So it is not like I had to come in here and reconstruct anybody. I had to come in here and just see little things that we have to do to beat Diego, and really just add on to what has been built up between Joel and Goossen, as far as the boxing and the training goes. So I did not have to come in here and make the guy go back to square one. Like I said, Goossen made my job easier. My main concern is just worrying about what Goossen is going to have Corrales do to offset Casamayor. But as far as fighting and training, Joel has got the hard work ethic in his mind and in his body already. As a matter of fact, today I had to tell him to slow down because he has that attitude and I am quite sure he got that from himself and from being with Goossen who, when his fighter steps in the ring, always is in the best of shape. So the only problem I have at the time, like I said, is telling Casamayor to slow down sometime.
Question: Buddy, is your Spanish good enough to communicate well with Casamayor?
McGirt: Coming from New York, I speak enough Spanish and he speaks enough English that we get it across. That has not been a problem at all.
Question: Buddy, is there any pressure on you going into this fight as a trainer?
McGirt: You just have to have confidence in yourself and not worry about. Outsiders are going to have their opinions no matter what. If we lose or draw, they are going to say what they want to say. So my job is to come in here and give 150 percent to the fighter and go out there and then after that — like I tell everybody, when the bell rings, me and Joe, we take three steps down and the boxers take three steps in. And so we get them to the gate. Once you get them to the gate, then they have to do what they have to do. I am not going to sit and worry about any pressure because dealing with fighters is enough pressure. If you went by pressure from the outside, you would go bald.
Question: Buddy, does it help that you are familiar with Casamayor’s style?
McGirt: To be honest with you, the Casamayor that I am working with now is totally different than the Casamayor that was in there when I came. I mean, he was 100 percent before and he even looks better to me now.