by Geoffrey Ciani – On December 11 Grady Brewer is slated to square off against Winky Wright. The 38 year old Brewer is currently in the midst of an eight fight winning streak, having not lost a fight in over four years. I was recently afforded the opportunity to have a nice chat with Grady and here is what he had to say:
Q: Grady, how are your preparations going for your December 11 fight with Winky Wright?
A: I think they’re going great. I think that I planned out the schedule of things I need to do and I think everything is falling in place and it’s a matter of time before everything is taking place, I guess now.
Q: When Winky lost his last fight against Paul Williams, did you see any weaknesses in his game that you think you can exploit?
A: Well, I’ve always seen a weakness in Winky Wright as far as when—I’ve never think that it could be done—but I’ve definitely seen a weakness when he fought Paul Williams and I always thought it was a weakness when he fought Paul Williams, and Paul Williams just utilized the weakness to what I knew that could happen, and that’s just throwing a lot of punches, keeping him on defense, staying real busy, and just keeping him where he can’t fire back. I want him to stay on defense the whole time, because Winky is the type of fighter that he loves to stay on defense than be on offense. That’s good and bad.. It’s good when you can wear a fighter out and take advantage of him but it’s bad when a fighter has that much energy like a Paul Williams that can utilize that.
Audio:
Q: Winky is arguably the most experienced and best skilled fighter you have ever faced. Do you think you will be able to penetrate his spectacular defense?
A: You know, that’s a question that I’ve been asking myself. I think that I will be able to, and the reason why I say that is because I’ve seen weaknesses in some of the fight tapes that I’ve seen him fight. In the Paul Williams fight and other fights that he had fought, I see weaknesses but the thing that I question myself about is why have none of the other fighters been able to exploit that? That’s what got me questionable about going into the fight with Winky is it because the fighters just weren’t good enough or was it that Winky’s just that good? It got me questioning thinking I don’t know what to expect, but it don’t matter because I’m going to be so determined to do the things that I want to do and make this my fight versus his fight that I think it’s going to work out my way.
Q: Now Grady, your fight with Winky is actually slated to take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico and I found this interesting because I had actually visited there for the first time myself a couple of weeks ago. This is your first fight outside the continental United States. Does this do anything to change your mindset?
A: No, it don’t. I mean, to me it’s just another fight going into another place and fighting. I feel that once the bell rings it’s only me and Winky Wright and the referee inside the ring so it don’t bother me in that respect. My main thing is to make sure I’m 100% prepared, in shape, ready to go, and on that night, ready to fight hard.
Q: Now in your last fight you were supposed to have a rematch with Anthony Thompson originally, but instead, you wound up facing undefeated Albert Onolunose. You stopped in two rounds to win the vacant IBC junior middleweight title. Can you tell us a little bit about how that fight went down?
A: The fight I was supposed to have with Anthony Thompson was supposed to be a fight for the IBO world belt, and then based on that I guess I got called a week before the fight and I guess Anthony Thompson backed out. I guess I’m thinking that he got the jitters from the time that we had fought back in 2004 and he wanted to back out of the fight. So when he backed out of the fight, I’m still game, I was still ready, I was trained ready to fight him or whoever at the time. At that point, they brought Albert Onolunose in front of me which was 18-0 and of course, I kind of checked him out and seen if he was going to be the guy that I think I could go ahead and get in with at that time. I had felt that I was real comfortable about getting in with him, so I went ahead and took the fight with him but it was going to be for the IBC belt versus the IBO belt because they weren’t able to qualify him for the IBO belt.
Q: Grady you’re 38 years old going on 39, and as such, this seems to be a pivotal fight where a win might propel you toward bigger things and a loss might bring you a step closer to retirement. If you were to lose this fight, would it be your last one?
A: I couldn’t see it being my last one. It would depend on how the fight was to take place and how I was to lose. I feel like I’m at the point in my career right now where I feel real strong, I feel real durable, good enough to beat anybody out there. If he was to come in and change my whole game plan as far as what kind of fighter I think I am and what kind of person I am, yeah that’s possible something like that could happen, but I really doubt that anybody out there at this time in my career can do anything like that to me to make me feel that way. I got so much confidence and so much inspiration going into a fight like this now that it’s going to take a whole lot to knock me off my pedestal.
Q: Now if you beat Winky, what would you like to do next?
A: My plan is to try to beat Winky, there’s no doubt, and I’m hoping that that will happen. If that was to happen, I’m looking to fight probably the next best fighter out there, and maybe doing it once or twice more just to see if I really can be known as a great fighter, so I’m looking to fight the best out there.
Q: If you could go back in time and change one thing that was something in your control about your career, what would you change?
A: Well, if I was to change anything I would change the way I took fights on short notice, because one thing that bothers me to the utmost is the lack of respect I get in boxing based on my record. A lot of people that really know who I am know I’m a better fighter than my record shows. Of course, people know that records tell all about a fighter. If I could go back in time where I could just not take some of the fights I took on a week or two week’s notice, based on a lack of experience, lack of confidence, lack of being in shape, just lack of all around just being ready for a person I wasn’t prepared for and losing by close decision, or whatever. I wish I could take that back right there, definitely.
Q: Off topic here, with the upcoming mega bout between Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao coming up I was wondering if you could share your thoughts and whether or not you had a prediction on this fight?
A: When I see these two fighters go in the ring together it’s kind of hard for me to predict who I think can win. I would want to say Pacquiao just because of the domination he has done up to this point, but then I want to say Cotto based on the experience he’s coming in with, with the strength and the power and the confidence he’s coming off of. So with both of those being tied in together, it makes me want to say that I can’t hardly pick a fighter on this fight.
Q: Do you have any predictions on your own fight coming up with Winky Wright?
A: I do. I feel that if I can get to where I want to be at as far as my career as far as the strength part of my endurance, I think that I can predict me winning this fight with Winky Wright and in a pretty dominant fashion.
Q: Do you have anything else you’d like to see to all your fans out at East Side Boxing, Grady?
A: No, just make sure they tune in and watch Grady at his best on December 11.
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I would like to thank Grady Brewer for his time and wish him the best of luck in his upcoming bout with Winky Wright.
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To contact Ciani:
ciani@boxing247.com
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