08.04.05 – By Scoop Malinowski: When WBA Junior Welterweight champion Vivian Harris speaks, you might want to read. After all, this is the man Top Rank would not accept as WBO champ Miguel Cotto’s next opponent in June in New York for just $50,000. This is the man Floyd Mayweather, Ricky Hatton and Cotto were all mandatory challengers for but withdrew from guaranteed title shots. Yes, there must be something to Vivian Harris. There must be some degree of formidability about Vivian Harris to keep causing such brave men to suddenly show such undeniable apprehension.
But eventually the truth will be known. The truth always comes out. And Vivian Harris will eventually get the superfight he so keenly hungers for. It’s looking very likely Harris will be on the undercard of the Gatti-Mayweather pay-per-view extravaganza on June 25th in Atlantic City.
So in the meantime, here’s Vivian Harris sharing some recent insights:
Scoop: Why didn’t you take the $250,000 to fight Abdullaev on HBO on the Gatti-Leija undercard?
Vivian Harris: “It wasn’t 250 it was 200,000. But that…I don’t want to talk about that now. I’m trying to move my life forward right now. I don’t want to go back to that. You know what I mean? I’m sorry about that.”
Scoop: How do you see Gatti vs. Mayweather playing out?
Vivian Harris: “Like I say, I can’t really do predictions on fights. I’m not very good at that. I don’t know how they’re gonna prepare. I don’t know how serious they’re gonna take a fight. You never know what’s gonna happen. Like (today at the Gatti press conference) you saw Gatti going all right. Floyd goin’ all right now, he so confident, he gonna do this, and Gatti’s a bum, Gatti’s this. You never know what happens. Gatti hits him with one punch, knocks him out. You know what I’m sayin? Cause Gatti’s more focused than him, Floyd’s talkin about partyin with Puff Daddy. That’s why I don’t bet on fights. If it’s Vivian Harris it’s different. Because I know what I’ma do. I know how long I’m gonna prepare for. And how serious I’m gonna take the opponent.”
Scoop: At 140 who is the most dangerous besides you?
Vivian Harris: “Nobody. Vivian Harris.”
Scoop: If you become the king who is the most dangerous guy out there besides you?
Vivian Harris: “Nobody. It’s nobody.”
Scoop: But who’s the most threatening of all the other 140 pounders?
Vivian Harris: “Nobody. Nobody. It’s Vivian Harris and the training that I do. That’s it. That’s what I’m scared of – my training. That’s it. I’m not scared of nobody. I’m not worrying about nobody. I’m just worrying about the preparation. That’s how I prepare, I prepare very hard for my fights.”
Scoop: No number two guy at 140? You won’t give a no. 2 rank at 140?
Vivian Harris: “There’s no number two guy. My division don’t have nobody. They don’t have nobody. I don’t care what the fans say out there. I don’t care what the media say out there, they don’t have nobody in my division. Know why they don’t have? Because they’re not fighting each other. They fighting – Oh, I beat this guy, I’m gonna take him next. I beat this guy, I’m gonna pick him next. You don’t see Vivian Harris doing that.”
Scoop: But a lot of experts say there’s tremendous talent at 140 (Cotto, Tszyu,
Floyd, Gatti, Mitchell, Hatton, etc.) …
Vivian Harris: “That’s what they think. That’s what they been seeing. Whatever you see, that’s what you think. There’s a lot of mismatching going on in my division. They’re not fighting nobody. They get nice knockouts on TV, you see Floyd talkin about, Oh, look what Bernard Hopkins did, I’m knockin my opponents out, (Hopkins) is going the distance. Look at who Floyd fought – nobody to go the distance with. Who did Bernard Hopkins just fight – somebody to go the distance with. Not somebody that just came there not to fight. That’s what I’m talkin about. It’s easy. You can just look and see. But the media don’t want to look and see. And talk about these things. But they don’t talk. Vivian Harris is gonna talk. Because the world needs to know the truth. Boxing is not like back in the days, man. I don’t even watch a fight like that no more. I’d rather watch back in the days fights than watching today’s fights. Because it’s bullshit. Unless it’s the middleweight division or 154. But these guys won’t fight each other. Look. Shane Mosley didn’t have to fight Winky Wright. He didn’t have to fight Vernon Forrest. But these guys want to prove that they’re the best out there. That’s why they do it.
Floyd don’t want to prove nothing. He just want to stay undefeated with that zero and act like he pound-for-pound. When the media don’t give him pound-for-pound, he want to argue with the media and ask the media, What did Floyd and what did Roy Jones do? Roy Jones didn’t have to fight Tarver. He could have stayed at heavyweight and he could have made money at heavyweight. He didn’t do that. So Floyd’s not talkin nice. So, like I said, I’m just upset I wasn’t (at the Floyd press conference yesterday). Because I was gonna shut his mouth…[Vivian begins talking into the mic as if directly to Floyd]… Cause you’re talkin a lot of shit. Feel me? And that’s why you don’t have no fans. You talk that nobody knows me, yeah, people know you, but they don’t even like you. Look at that. You can’t even fill up an arena. Look at you, man. Because you’re not fighting nobody. All you’re looking for is money fights. Okay, we respect that as a business. But you have to fight the best fighters out there.”
Scoop Malinowski is a Boxinginsider.com contributor.