27.05.05 – By Tony Nobbs: On June 24 at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, Queensland, NSW Central Coast heavyweight Bob Mirovic (26-14-2, 16 KO) clashes with entertaining American Rob Calloway (53-5-1, 41 KO). On the line is the WBF world heavyweight championship that became vacant when the Australian based organisation stripped Britain’s Olympic gold medallist Audley Harrison in early April.. Set for twelve rounds this is the third time this particular version of the heavyweight title has been decided in this country since Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns squared off for the universally recognised crown at Rushcutters Bay on Boxing Day 1908.
Mirovic, 39, is like fine wine. He simply gets better with age. He first turned professional in May 1987 but it was not until 1998 under the guidance of current trainer Angelo Hyder that the Croatian born began to gradually develop into a willing performer ready to take on the big names. In his most recent appearance he faced the highly touted German Timo Hoffmann on the undercard of Beyer-Green ll, dropping an unpopular twelve round verdict for the IBF Intercontinental title. He won the WBF International strap in May 04 and at the previous Royal Pines card Mirovic slugged out his fourth win over Col Wilson, scoring a ten round non title decision over the Australian champion in December.
While most Australian fans are quite familiar with “Big Bob,” it’s not the case with Calloway who is dubbed “The All American Prize Fighter.” The 35 year old from St Joseph, Missouri comes to Australia having faced some heavy opposition including Hasim Rahman, Audley Harrison and Ruslan Chagaev. A professional for thirteen years Calloway’s a former cruiserweight contender with some decent scalps. The WBF Intercontinental champ with four defences, he pushed for his shot, confident of taking the belt home, something countrymen Bonecrusher Smith and Melton Bowen failed to do against Joe Bugner and Jimmy Thunder in 1998 and 1993 respectively. On March 4, Calloway needed just twenty eight seconds to blitz Brazilian journeyman Daniel Frank and then on May 14 stopped Jim Strohl in round six. For Strohl, he weighed 207 lb (95 kg). Like Mirovic, intends to use victory on June 24 as ammunition to secure a Mike Tyson fight.
Mick Croucher, the hard working president of the World Boxing Foundation has seen both in action and believes it will be one of the best heavyweight fights in Australia for a long time. “Both have the capacity to send each other to sleep.” said Croucher. “Bob is the big hitter and Rob is the good boxer who if it goes the distance may have the points win because of his speed. But with both fighters being punchers I don’t think it will go the distance. I think it’ll be a war.”
Eastside caught up to both challengers and here’s what they had to say.
BOB MIROVIC INTERVIEW
ESB: Bob, what do you know of Calloway?
BM: I don’t know much except his record. Angelo (Hyder) will sit down and watch his tapes. I know he will be coming into give it his all as I will. It will be a great fight.
ESB: What weight do you expect to be?
BM: I will come in around 115 kg, maybe a little lighter. I want to be like a V8 and come out firing.
ESB: What are your thoughts on fighting for the WBF title?
BM: I told Jamie Myer I really want this fight. It can change my life. It’s a fantastic opportunity. Huge! The WBF have had Audley Harrison as champion, Jimmy Thunder, Johnny Nelson, Joe Bugner in the past. When I first started training with Cec Waters he was training Jimmy Thunder when he won this title. It was a big thing in Australian boxing at the time and it’ll be
a big thing when I win it.
ESB: What are your thoughts on the Hoffmann fight.
BM: Going in I knew it would be a hard task. I watched a tape of his last fight ( a draw with WBC # 8 Luan Krasniqi) and thought “My God, this is going to be a tough fight!” We had three weeks to prepare and it was tough. But we sparred hard and trained for it right up. He had a great resume, IBF Intercontinental champion, WBO number ten, he’d gone twelve rounds with Vitali Klitchko. Before the fight, Jeff (Fenech) and Angelo sat me down and told me to believe in myself. I can win the fight. They told me I was a big man and if I put everything together I will win. If I had that fight again, I’d knock him out in four rounds. I had him going in that round. After the decision Angelo told me to jump on the ropes. The crowd started cheering me and booing him. His own crowd knew I won. After the fight some of the crowd came up to me and said “Mr Mirovic, on behalf of the German people we apologise.” It really hurts knowing I should be IBF Intercontinental champion and be in the top ten but I will use it now to fuel the rage every time I fight!
ESB: What is the possibility of a Tyson fight?
BM: I was originally meant to fight Tyson (on June 11) but from what I understand Jeff spoke to Shelly Finkel after he watched a tape of me fighting Hoffmann and they thought I might be too tough, too hard for Mike first up. They had big wraps on Hoffmann. They know Tyson has to win his next fight after being knocked out by Danny Williams. I have been told I will be Mike’s next fight providing of course how he performs against McBride. I really look forward to that fight. I’m only getting better and I could easily put my WBF world title on the line against him.
ESB: When do you feel we will see the best of you?
BM: I still don’t believe I’m getting to my best. I think my best will be in two more years. I never boxed as an amateur. I went straight into the pro’s. When I started with Cec I was 26 years of age. He had me training rigorously for six or eight months before he let me fight. He told me I wont hit my peak until my late 30’s or early 40’s. I knew about him from what he’d achieved with his sons but I didn’t really catch on to what he was saying. Then soon after a 45 year old George Foreman won the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Michael Moorer. That’s when I realised that this old guy knew what he was talking about. Cec had a lot of different ideas and methods but he had a lot of success.
ESB: You lost a split decision with Joe Bugner at Carrara Stadium before Joe won the title.
BM: It was the same as Hoffmann in Germany.
ESB: You seemed to ‘turn the corner’ when you defeated Roger Izon on September 18 2002.
BM: Yes. This fight was a real turning point, you’re right. He was mandatory for my Australian title and I had to fight him. We were looking at a Commonwealth title but in the end I said “Look Angelo, I have to fight him.” Roger had a huge reputation. He’d knocked everyone out. I’d watched a previous fight of his against Tony Fiso who was a gig man and good fighter. Roger just threw him around like a rag doll. When the fight was set, I knew it’d be a tough, tough fight so I started training very hard. One day I was at home skipping in my garage and I had my radio going. There was a sports psychologist talking about the power of the mind and how he could get the best out of an athlete. I went along to a session and it worked. I was sick going into that fight and I knew the first four rounds were going to be hell. He knocked me down in the first round and again in the second. Then in the third I felt him getting weaker, his punches were losing power. In the clinches he was breathing heavy and I thought “Ah! I got him.” By the end of the fourth, he was staggering around and barely made it back to his corner. In the fifth I finished him.
ESB: So you owe a lot to the Power of the Mind?
BM: I will say this. Look at the Hawaiian Triathlon. It takes the world’s best athletes eight hours to do it. It’s an excruciating event. But you have people who are 75 years old and blind who finish it. They might do it in one day but they still finish. That is what self belief and determination can do. If you believe you can achieve the impossible!
ESB: What is your appreciation of Angelo?
BM: Sometimes you love him. Sometimes you hate him. He has got me through so much. We have been together seven or eight years. I’ve never experienced anyone who is as good at what he does. He is just so great in the corner, the way he motivates you. He really gets me going when I need it. People often say “Bob, it can’t be any good having someone yell at you all the time.” But it’s the opposite with me. Angelo really has so much love for what he does. I told him “Angelo, you need four brains to get through what you do in one day.” Once we were trying to leave his place to go to the gym and he had four mobiles going at once and he was on the landline as well.
ESB: How did you link with Angelo?
BM: It was by chance we met. I was training in the gym with Troy Waters and Angelo was working with disabled people, bringing them to the gym to get their mind and body operating. The people who were training me at the time said they couldn’t work with me full time and they mentioned training with Angelo as a possibility. I didn’t know what Angelo was about, so we sat down for a chat and we haven’t looked back. The amount of respect he now has in boxing is a credit to him.
ESB: Anything else you’d like to say?
BM: I just want to say that I believe it is my destiny to be World Heavyweight Champion. When I was at primary school we lived two hundred meters from school. One day I remember coming home to watch the Ali- Spinks fight where Ali lost. From this moment on I was intrigued by this sport-how two men could stand toe to toe. My birthday is anniversary of first Ali-Liston fight. I was born two years after and my daughter was born the same date as the second Ali-Liston fight. I cannot wait for this fight with Rob Calloway and I’m raring to go!
ROB CALLOWAY INTERVIEW
ESB: Rob, what do you know of Mirovic?
RC: I have seen a couple of Mirovic’s bouts and he looks strong but I feel confident of winning.
ESB: Bob says he could be putting his WBF world title on the line against Mike Tyson later this year. Your thoughts?
RC: It will be very hard for Mirovic to put the title on the line against Tyson when I will be WBF world champion.
ESB: What was your amateur background and when did you begin boxing?
RC: I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the hometown of Muhammad Ali, so I have grown up with boxing. I also played football and baseball and went to college for both sports, however boxing has always been my favourite and the one that I excelled in most. I’ve had gloves on since I was nine years old and dreamed of fighting at the Olympics. However I lost a decision in the semi finals of the 1992 United States Olympic Trials and turned pro after that. I did win several Golden Gloves Titles as well as USA ABF titles.
ESB: Who has been your best victory as a pro?
RC: As a cruiserweight I beat Darryl Spinks-brother of Cory and son of former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks. Also former cruiserweight champion Dominic Carter and I felt I beat Kenny Keene and Tue Thompson (in Denmark). At heavyweight I ko’d Troy Weida, James “Quick” Tillis-who was the first man to go the distance with Tyson-Otis Tisdale, Marcus Rhode, Andy Sample, Jeff
Pegues and then Daniel Frank in 28 seconds. I know none of these are necessarily household names but if you look at their records the time I beat them they had fared better against several other popular and world class fighters.
ESB: What professional titles have you won?
RC: As a pro I won three titles at light heavyweight before moving up to cruiserweight and winning two more. I was ranked in the top ten by all the major sanctioning bodies as a cruiserweight with the WBO number three spot being the highest. As a heavyweight I won the Mid-America title and then the WBF Intercontinental title from Otis Tisdale by 11th round kayo.
ESB: Who has been your toughest opponent so far?
RC: I have had a problem with southpaws. For instance, with Spinks, although I won the fight it went all the twelve rounds. Also Tue Thompsen went twelve rounds and then the draw with Ruslan Chagaev, another southpaw in a fight I took on five days notice with no training. We just flew into Detroit for the Chagaev fight and went to a friend of mines house who just happens to be a celebrity (EMINEM). He was born in St Joseph and he has family here so he’s kept up with my career through them and we had met just prior to me going to the Detroit fight at one of his concerts so I didn’t want to turn the Showtime fight down. Another southpaw Audley Harrison was able to break my jaw. He landed the first punch of the fourth round that caused the injury and I feel I went on to win the round as I had the first and second rounds. The Doctor stopped the bout in between the fourth and fifth due to excessive blood from the break. My toughest opponent has probably been Hasim Rahman though. I just got caught with a punch I didn’t see and he hits hard, just ask Lennox! He has been the only fighter to ever knock me of my feet.
ESB: I understand you were trained by former WBA heavyweight champion Tony Tubbs for a few fights. Tell us about Tony as a trainer and your relationship with him.
RC: I met Tony through his manager and trainer Clint Calkins. They live only a few hours away and came in to spar for a few fights because Tony is making a comeback. We became friends and he just helped me out a lot and began working my corner as well for my last four fights and he may be coming to Australia with my team. I’ve always been a fan of his and he is very knowledgeable about the sport of boxing and I continue to learn a lot from him.
ESB: After Mirovic, who do you see in your future?
RC: I hope to fight Mike Tyson! We had signed to fight Kevin McBride a couple of months ago and he would not take the fight and took Kevin Montiy instead-an easier fight! After winning he got the fight with Tyson and I know Bob has been mentioned. My camp has been talking to Tyson’s camp as well so I do not see why the winner can’t be his second bout back as I expect him to easily beat McBride.
ESB: Rob, have you ever seen a Kangaroo?
RC: I’ve seen one Kangaroo – my good friend Mick Croucher! No really, I haven’t seen one.
ESB: Is there anything you want to add?
RC: I just want to say that I look forward to coming ‘Down Under’ very much even though I don’t like flying that far. I may bring my family as well! There will be others coming to be there fight night also. I am a very family orientated person with a nine year old son and a seven year old daughter. My wife and I have been married for nearly fourteen years and her father was my trainer my entire career until he past away and now her brother (Jason Redmond) is there. We own a Family Health and Fitness club called Team Calloway. Thank you and I look forward to meeting you.
For further info on Rob check out: www.robcalloway.com