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 WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
On preparations for his upcoming fight with Sugar Shane Mosley:
“The preparations have been going great, everything is right on time. We’ve been putting in extremely hard work and anybody who has ever been in our camp they know we are very extreme. We’re putting in all the work that we need to put in, and I’m excited, I’m confident, and everything is falling into place.”
On Sugar Shane Mosley and the possibility of him suffering from ring rust:
“Maybe, but Shane’s the type of guy he always stays in shape. He’s been out of the ring for nearly a year, but he’s done all of this stuff before, so I believe he’ll get in a rhythm pretty quickly, but we’ll see.”
Regarding what about Mosley’s style most concerns him:
“I’ve been watching Mosley for awhile, actually all through the amateurs. He’s a quick guy, he has fast reaction time, and point blank he can just fight. There isn’t anything about his style that worries me to a point..”
Regarding his controversial win over Luis Collazo”
“It definitely made me a better fighter, and I think I was able to just learn from the fight.”
On his and Shane Mosley’s other common opponent, David Estrada:
“I fought another guy like David Estrada, the same guy that Shane Mosley fought, and it was a tough fight for Shane but I got David Estrada out of there. I guess styles make fights.”
On his fight with Estrada:
“I believe that was my first really big test in a fight. It tested my conditioning, it tested me mentally, and everywhere around the board.”
On the possibility of becoming Manny Pacquiao’s primary sparring partner for his fight with Floyd Mayweather Junior:
“I just heard about that, actually. Somebody from my team actually get a call from Freddie Roach’s people. We didn’t get a chance to speak with them yet. It’s flattering, but at the same time, my whole team is fully focused on our fight with Shane Mosley and a win against Mosley can put me right there in contention to fight one of those guys, so we don’t know what we’re going to do when it comes to that whole situation. Me and Manny are really good friends, but all of my focus is on the fight January 30 right now.”
On his long term goals in boxing:
“I just want to basically stay undefeated, because right now I’m in a star-studded division. I’m blessed to be in this position. I want to continue to work hard, and stay undefeated and continue to improve myself.”
On the upcoming mega bout between Mayweather and Pacquiao:
“It’s kind of up in the air for me now, because Manny Pacquiao is so awkward and so relentless and I think that’s something that Floyd has never faced before and in the past, it looks like Floyd has probably had a little trouble when it comes to southpaws. So I believe Manny will definitely give him a hard time, but then again, Floyd is such a technician who is so smart in there and when I watch Manny Pacquiao fighting Cotto I see within the first round that Cotto was able to control him with the jab, and I just see that little bit, and I can see Mayweather throwing a jab like that all night.”
On why he does not use a boxing nickname:
“I have always had that mentality, even as a kid, that everything that I wanted I wanted to earn it, so I take that approach. I went into the professional game like, okay, I don’t want a nickname now, but with my performances and everything I do in the ring, I want the commentators, the people, and the boxing world to give me a nickname one day so I can say I really earned it.”
Regarding who he believes will win the Super Six super middleweight tournament.
“Actually, I’m going for the two Andres, so either Andre Ward or Andre Dirrell I see winning it, so those two guys right there are my pick for the tournament.”
His personal prediction for his upcoming fight with Sugar Shane Mosley:
“Victory.”
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Next up we had a good discussion with RA The Rugged Man who recently made headlines in the boxing after having taking Floyd Mayweather Junior to task on a recent radio show. Here are some excerpts from The Rugged Man:
Regarding how his radio interview with Floyd Mayweather came about:
“I was just promoting my record, and Floyd happened to be listening when I was saying that the guy wasn’t fighting up to his potential with people he should be fighting, and he was listening. He didn’t like that and he called in we had that huge 22 minute verbal sparring session and it did me good. It got all you boxing people to know about me and that was nice.”
On whether he still believes Floyd is not fighting the best opposition that he has apparently landed a fight with Manny Pacquiao:
“Well, I think this is a great step in the right direction. Yeah, I think Manny is one of the top guys at 147 and I think it’s a great fight for Floyd and I hope it goes down.”
Regarding whether or not he considers Manny Pacquiao a “smaller fighter”:
“Well, here’s the thing: Manny is a smaller fighter to a degree, but here’s the catch—we just watched him take Cotto’s hardest shots and he took legitimate shots from a legitimate 147 pounder. If you would have told me two years ago that Manny Pacquiao would be able to hang with Cotto, and Mayweather, and De La Hoya and these guys that size, I would think you were ridiculous.”
On what inspired him to first become a boxing fan:
“You know, you always get shit like that off your father. When I was a kid, my father was a huge boxing fan. My father was a huge Sugar Ray Leonard fan and my father told me how Sugar Ray Leonard was going to whoop Roberto Duran’s ass, and then Roberto Duran whooped Sugar Ray Leonard’s ass in that first fight, and I was like, okay. Daddy got it wrong.”
On why Floyd decided not to fight Shane Mosley:
“Shane Mosley would have been a great fight for Floyd when coming off the win over Margarito. Shane beat up the king of the division in a division Floyd claims to be the best in.”
On where Bernard Hopkins should go next now that Roy Jones lost to Danny Green:
“The fact that Roy Jones lost the fight, I don’t know where Hopkins goes from here because I don’t know what he has left in the tank anymore. He’s 45 years old. He’s talking about fighting David Haye at heavyweight. Shit! I would watch it. People say he don’t stand a chance, but we’ve all said that about Hopkins how many times in his career.”
On why Hopkins was never able to land a rematch with Joe Calzaghe:
“Well, Calzaghe ducked him after that. He wanted no part of him after that.”
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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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