by Geoffrey Ciani: This past week’s edition of On the Ropes featured an exclusive interviews with Devon Alexander, Travis Simms, Steve Forbes, and Edwin Rodriguez. Highlighting this week’s episode was a nice chat with the WBC/IBF unified junior welterweight champion. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
On his performance in his recent victory against Juan Urango:
“It was a great performance—the best performance I’ve ever had. People who know me know I’m my own worst critic and I consider this a good performance for myself.”
On becoming a unified champion with that victory:
“Now that I got a chance to think about what I just accomplished, I mean it’s big. It’s a blessing. To see where I came from, north St. Louis, and now it’s just amazing. Who, let alone, wins one belt—I won two belts, so it’s amazing..”
Regarding the uppercut that dropped Juan Urango:
“I trained hard for this fight. I trained hard to go fifteen rounds if I have to and we also worked on my power in the gym and sitting down and actually turning my power over. Me and my coach had a game plan where we knew he was going to come forward and we knew he was going to brawl. So we knew if we could do a subtle movement to the left or to the right, we were going to be able to catch him with the uppercut. So that’s what I did.”
On whether he believed he had hurt Urango at any point prior to the first knockdown:
“Well, in the second round I hit him with an uppercut and that’s what opened his nose to start bleeding so I knew I had some pop and I know he felt the pop because I busted his nose so I knew in his mind, he knew I could hit.”
On whether Urango hurt him at any point during the fight:
“To be honest, and I would say if Juan Urango hit me with a good shot it hurt, but to be honest, Juan Urango did not hurt me at all in that fight. I was very, very surprised at his power that it wasn’t there. I didn’t see what the big fuss was about.”
His views on the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather and Sugar Shane Mosley:
“Oh man, that fight can go either way, but you know one thing—Shane is going to make Mayweather fight more than what Mayweather wants to do because Mayweather’s the type of fighter now that he just wants to win and he doesn’t want to take any chances. Shane’s going to make him take chances.”
Regarding Manny Pacquiao’s fight with Joshua Clottey:
“I think Pacquiao is going to be too fast for him and Pacquiao’s not going to be sitting there for him to do that cover up defense he has. Clottey’s going to have to punch if he’s going to have a chance or Pacquiao’s going to throw punches all night until he wins a decision. Clottey’s going to have to work hard and throw punches with Pacquiao, but I see Pacquiao winning that pretty easy if he’s going to come in there with the blocking defense that he uses.”
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Next up, we had a nice conversation with super middleweight prospect Edwin Rodriguez. Here are a couple of excerpts from that one:
Regarding his preparations for his upcoming fight March 19 against George Armenta:
“I had a fight January 30 on the under card of Sugar Shane Mosley and Andre Berto, and that fight got called off, so I’ve been working out fourteen weeks now for this fight and I’m in tremendous shape and I’m waiting for the opportunity to be on ESPN and show the world my talent.”
His views on the Super Six super middleweight tournament:
“Since day one, Andre Ward was my favorite pick. I think he’s a complete fighter—speed, power, and he could adapt to any style. I think he had a great fight against Mikkel Kessler who was my other favorite, and every fight is an emotional-filled fight. I’m happy that boxing brought that to all the fans.”
On the upcoming fight between Pacquiao and Clottey:
“I think Pacquiao is obviously one of the best fighters right now, and I think it’s going to be a better fight than most people think it is. This guy’s going to be there and he has a tremendous defense and Joshua Clottey is a good fighter and it’s going to go twelve rounds. He might lose a close decision, but I can see an upset.”
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Next up, we had former IBF super featherweight champion Steve Forbes who acted as a sparring partner for Manny Pacquiao in his preparations for Joshua Clottey. Here are a few things Steve had to say:
On his controversial loss last weekend against Harrison Cuello:
“It was a pretty easy fight. I mean no fight is easy, but I dictated the pace I think I had him out about three times in the fight, and he was one of those guys that was more of a survivor so I figured he’s not going to go out, I’m just going to win. After the fight I am talking to Steve Smoger the ref, and he said ‘Oh it’s good to have you back at 140 pounds’ and I was telling him I would have loved the knockout but I’ll take the win how I can get it and then here come the scores—and they announced Harrison the winner. I was shocked. To this day, I don’t know who I may have upset or what judges I bumped into and didn’t say excuse me or what, but I don’t know what happened. I really don’t know what happened.”
On his experiences training with Manny Pacquiao:
“I knew he was strong, I mean seeing what he was doing, but what surprised me about him is he’s got boxing ability, better than what people think. It seems like he’s improving from even fights I’ve seen of him about a year or so ago. He boxes a lot better, he places his punches pretty good, and he’s active. He’s in tremendous shape. This is a few weeks ago and he was ready to do twelve rounds, so I can imagine by fight time he will be in even better shape. He really surprised me with his boxing ability. He really uses angles good and he’s a smart boxer—smarter than what people think. They think he’s just a brawler, but no—he’s become a technician much more.”
On how he thinks Pacquiao will perform against Clottey:
“I think that from sheer activity, I can see him overwhelming Clottey because one thing I noticed about Clottey is if you punch, he doesn’t punch—he covers up and waits for you to finish and I think when Manny Pacquiao starts bringing those shots from everywhere, and different angles, and turning—you could probably see a stoppage sometime late, I say round 7, 8, 9 in the fight—just on activity.”
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