by Geoffrey Ciani – This past week’s edition of On The Ropes featured two exclusive interviews. Highlighting this episode was the very nice chat with WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
On his recent victory against Dmitriy Salita:
“The performance was good. I was working alongside, for this fight, with Manny Pacquiao and also training with my trainer Freddie Roach. We came up with a game plan and the game plan worked on that night.”
Regarding his mindset following the loss to Breidis Prescott:
“It was quite hard, because when you suffer a defeat some fighters don’t come back the same. Some fighters get disheartened and they just call it a day, and with me, it just pushed me on to do better things and made me a better fighter, really.”
On his victory over Marco Antonio Barrera:
“Coming off the Prescott defeat, I needed to get the confidence back and I think the best fight for me to come back for was against Barrera..”
On winning the WBA championship against Andriy Kotelnik:
“It was a great fight for me. I boxed excellent and I used my brain instead of my heart. I didn’t go in there trying to knock him out and make mistakes, I used my brains all through the twelve rounds and stayed focused.”
On the prospects of facing Marcus Maidana:
“I heard Maidana was my next mandatory and I was going to take that fight. I was very confident in taking that fight, and I spoke to Freddie Roach about that fight, and he was also very confident.”
On a potential match-up with WBO champion Timothy Bradley:
“I think Timothy is a great fighter, especially in the junior welterweight division. I’m not going to rush into things and fight him straight away because I think I still need to build up in this division. I’ve only had two fights in this division, I’m getting stronger, I’m filling in the weight, and I’m getting more seasoned. I think that fight could maybe happen late 2010.”
On sparring with Manny Pacquiao:
“Yeah, we spar together and Freddie says, no one back off. It’s like a fight. So you have to hit each other and hurt him. It’s helped me so much sparring with him. It’s given me so much confidence. After suffering the defeat, I went to LA and sparred with Manny Pacquiao and built my confidence up.”
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Next up we had a good discussion with undefeated IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud. Here are some excerpts from that one:
On beating Clinton Woods in his last fight to become champion:
“It felt good, but when I became world champion I still felt like it wasn’t enough and I still have a lot of hunger for the game so I’m going out and am going to try to unify the titles.”
On not being able to secure a match with Chad Dawson:
“I’m not disappointed. Chad Dawson, he has to pretty much do what the people running him tell him to do. They’re moving his career the way they want to move it. I’m really not disappointed, all I can say is you can run but you can’t hide.”
On his journey that started with poverty and led him to become a world champion:
“Boxing definitely helped me make it by just staying positive and learning from all the mistakes that other people made around me.”
On his working relationship with former NFL player Alonzo Johnson, his strength and conditioning coach:
“Alonzo Johnson was my amateur coach Alonzo Johnson is the type of trainer that has this hardcore mentality. When he played football, he went 100%–it’s kill or be killed. When I went to the boxing gym, he had that same mentality.”
On becoming the first fighter to stop Julio Cesar Gonzalez:
“I really wasn’t surprised. I didn’t go into the fight thinking about knocking him out. I wasn’t trying to knock him out, I was just giving 100% every step of the way.”
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If you missed last week’s special edition of On the Ropes, be sure to tune in and listen now!
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To contact Geoffrey Ciani or Jenna J:
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To read more by Ciani or Jenna please visit The Mushroom Mag:
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