01.05.07 – by John Martinez, Boxingrealm.com: Moments ago, I thought I’d be talking with Floyd about his new charge, WBO junior lightweight champion Joan Guzman and another one of his champions, WBC light heavy weight king “ Bad” Chad Dawson. Instead, he informed me that the glowing relationship that everyone thought would dominate the 175-pound division seems to have faded. Here is what he had to say:
JM: How did you get to be the trainer for WBO junior lightweight champion Joan Guzman?
FLOYD: Some guys contacted me about it. One of them was a guy named Sean Givens who worked with Top Rank. They approached me about working with Guzman and they said that they would come to me because they originally wanted me to go to Big Bear, but I said no to that. So in the end they came to me and me and Guzman have been doing our thing. He (Guzman) told me that he learned more from me in one day than he did in all his other trainers all these years and you know what, that’s the same thing Oscar told me when we first hooked up.
JM: So is he picking up your techniques at the pace you want him to?
FLOYD: You know he picks up real quick. A lot of things that I tell him, he’s picked up without me having to tell his people. He’s got a lot of skills but I still need him to spar the way I want him to. He’s not there yet, but he will be. We’ll be ready. He’s still has a lot to learn but he’s doing real good right now.
JM: How have you managed to juggle your time between training Guzman for his May 26 date and making sure one of your other students, WBC light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson is ready for his next fight June 9?
FLOYD: You know I haven’t even heard from Chad. He’s been coming here (Las Vegas) for about two or three weeks from what I’ve heard and I still haven’t heard from him. I’ve learned that fighters are just like bitches. I’ll be honest with you; I’m one of those guys where it’s my way or the highway.
I’m a winning coach and don’t like losing. If you don’t want to win then hey, you can go on. Chad needs to get on the ball. I don’t call fighters. If they don’t want to train seriously, then I don’t want nothing to do with them. I hate to lose man. But I can’t want it more than the fighter, you know what I mean? I can’t tell you what he’s been doing, but hey if you don’t want to put the time in, then I don’t need it either. I got too many other things going on.
We’ll have more with the self proclaimed “ best trainer on the planet” in tomorrow’s segment with Floyd Mayweather Sr. Until then, here’s a piece of what he had to say about the Diaz/Freitas fight that took place this past Saturday:
“He (Freitas) ain’t got no heart. He’s already fought so many times that now he don’t want no more. He’s already been paid and been in the game too long so now, he’s lot his heart. He don’t want it no more.“