by Geoffrey Ciani – This week’s fiftieth edition of On the Ropes featured exclusive interviews with Andre Ward, Sugar Shane Mosley, and Natre Campbell. Highlighting this episode was the very interesting interview with newly crowned WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward, who is coming off of an upset victory against Super Six tournament favorite Mikkel Kessler. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
On his victory against Mikkel Kessler:
“It turned out just like we envisioned.
On whether or not he thought he could have stopped Kessler:
“I really felt like if that fight wasn’t stopped in the eleventh round that I could have stopped Mikkel, because I was feeling really strong and I caught my second wind at the beginning of the eleventh and I felt like he was tiring and just mentally, I think he was pretty much done..”
On whether he thought he would be so dominant against Kessler:
“I did. It’s kind of funny because you prepare to be dominant, you expect to be dominant, but on the same token, you have to prepare for the toughest fight.”
On being the first American to win a fight in the Super Six:
“Everybody was expecting the Euros to knock the young Americans off in the first round without a victory. I mentioned earlier that I took that personal. To be able to go in there with red, white, and blue on my back, with the American people on my back, the American people supporting me, American flags waving all over the place in the arena, and to be able to put on a performance like that in front of an American crowd and the American viewing audience was just tremendous.”
On how this victory compared to winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games:
“There were a lot of similarities, but they both have their pleasure. Winning a world title is unique in and of itself and winning a gold medal is unique in and of itself. It’s kind of hard to compare to them, but obviously it’s a great achievement and not everybody gets to achieve these things.”
***
Next up we had a nice chat with Nate Campbell. This was Nate’s fifth appearance on the show. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
On his views going into the recent Manny Pacquiao versus Miguel Cotto fight:
“I thought (Manny) was going to lose that fight, I really did, until I watched Cotto walk into the ring.”
On Cotto’s decision to fight Pacquiao at a catch weight of 145 pounds:
“I’m a fighter who has been weight drained before. And a lot of people don’t understand something: that one or two pounds that they don’t think is anything? That one or two pounds is everything. And I keep telling people that, they keep saying ‘oh, Manny is the greatest’”
On Pacquiao’s asking Cotto to fight him at a catch weight:
“Dude, if he’s the greatest, tell him to fight someone at their weight.”
On the controversial decision between Ali Funeka and Joan Guzman:
“Ali was robbed. The kid was robbed. If anything’s hurting boxing, that is.”
On Funeka’s punching power:
“Let me tell you something: Guzman has never really been hurt in a fight, but he was hurt the other night. A lot of people don’t understand this; this guy (Funeka) is a monster puncher.”
***
Finally, we had the chance to have a nice short interview with Sugar Shane Mosley. Here is what he had to say:
On his strategy for his upcoming fight with Andre Berto:
“I think be smart, use my intelligence and my experience on him, and I think that I can be successful with someone like Andre Berto.”
On Manny Pacquiao’s performance against Miguel Cotto:
“I think Pacquiao did a spectacular job of fighting Miguel Cotto.”
On who he sees winning a potential fight between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather:
“I think it would be a real close fight. I’m not sure exactly who would win. I think that I might give the edge to Mayweather but I like Pacquiao as a fighter, and if Pacquiao wins I will be excited and be happy because a fight between me and Pacquiao would be more exciting, because there’s two guys that want to get in there and fight.”
On Ring Magazine’s decision to rank Pacquiao ahead of him:
“I think Ring Magazine is trying to put Pacquiao in front of me without fighting me and I’m having a problem with that. I have to talk to Nigel Collins and a few other guys about that because I don’t think that’s fair. If I’m the number one guy, in order to be the number one guy you got to beat the number one guy, you can’t just say you’re the number one guy without beating him. I thought Ring Magazine, that that’s what they encouraged and what they wanted. I got to talk to Nigel Collins about that and see what happens with that.”
On how much longer he intends to fight:
“I’m going to fight for about another four to five more years.”
***
If you missed last week’s special edition of On the Ropes, be sure to tune in and listen now!
***
Join the On the Ropes Mailing List!
If you want to keep up with the latest OTR news, why not join our mailing list? You can sign up by sending an email to ontheropes@boxing247.com with the subject heading “SIGN ME UP!”
Be sure to tune in!
***
To contact Geoffrey Ciani:
ontheropes@boxing247.com
To read more by Ciani please visit The Mushroom Mag:
http//www.eatthemushroom.com/mag