by Geoffrey Ciani – Last week’s 106th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former IBF lightweight champion of the world Paul Spadafora (45-0-1, 19 KOs), whose name recently made headlines when Floyd Mayweather Senior mentioned him as a possible opponent for his son on the previous edition of On the Ropes. Spadafora spoke about his career, his future, the prospects of a potential showdown with Mayweather, Mosley versus Pacquiao, and much more! Here are some excerpts from that interview:
On his last performance when he stopped Alain Hernandez in the fifth on November 20:
“Oh that felt great man, you know. I felt really good. I felt like I just overwhelmed him. He wasn’t in the same caliber as I was. It wasn’t a great fight, but on the same token it was the same thing that I always loved to do, go out there and fight.”
On whether he is ready to step up his level of opposition:
“Well I’m just waiting on the promoter. Whenever they give me the date, whenever the guy comes forward, I’ll be there! All you got to do is tell me when and I’ll be there.”
On which weight class he feels he is best suited for:
“I think right now I’m probably best at 147 pounds.”
On which welterweights he is most interested in fighting:
“I’m trying to see if I can get a fight with Mayweather, anybody in that weight class—Mayweather, Pacquiao, anybody. You know obviously everybody wants to fight the big name guys, but if I have to down to 140 pounds I’ll do the same thing, too, if I have to. Whatever one shoots first, that’s where I’m going to go. I’ve been fighting at catch weights at 143/144 pounds and I make weight really good. I feel healthy, I feel strong, and I feel way better than I did at 135.”
His views on his well known sparring session with Floyd Mayweather Junior and how that came about:
“I just remember sparring everybody in the gym. I was sparring Stevie Forbes, James Crayton for like five weeks and my trainer asked me if I wanted to spar Floyd Mayweather. I was supposed to spar on Wednesday, right, and it was a Monday. My trainer came back on Monday night and asked if I wanted to spar and I said yeah. I had to get some work in anyway, regardless. I just think of it as a workout. I never really made a big deal about it, but it is what it is. We sparred.”
On whether he believes he got the best of Mayweather during that sparring session:
“Yeah, I definitely believe that. I’m sure his team will say that he was out of the gym, and this and that, but I look at it like you’re not going to go in there unless you have total disrespect for a world champion, then you’re not going to go in there not in shape and not ready to fight. You’re thinking you’re going in there and it’s going to be an easy night, an easy day, and that’s it. But you know what—sparring is sparring and when the lights come on, that’s what it’s all about.”
On whether he treated his experience with Mayweather more like a real fight than a sparring session:
“I treated it like a sparring session. You know what I mean? That’s what it was. I’m sure the best of him wasn’t there that day and I know the best of me wasn’t there that day. I mean I just treat it like it was a sparring session. That’s what it was. One thing about it though, you can’t make that up what happened. I’m not the one. I didn’t bring a video camera to the gym. I never told my trainers to make sure they video-taped that. No, I wasn’t with that, but somebody from his camp or somebody else did that. That’s what it was. You can’t make it up. It is what it is.”
His views on comments made by Floyd Mayweather Senior on the previous week’s show when he said, “Spadafora can get that fight. If he needs the money, he can get it. If he needs a whopping, he can get it and a whopping he’s going to get because if he takes the fight that’s what’s going to happen. But with that fight he’d be more than glad to take it. We will oblige him with that fight. I’m going to tell you this right here, there’s no question, no doubt about it—Spadafora would get stopped”:
“For real, I think that’s a beautiful thing. That’s a great opportunity for me to fight this guy. Everybody’s got an opinion. There ain’t nothing he’s going to do that someone else didn’t do. There’s nothing he’s going to say that someone else didn’t say. I’ve been fighting my whole life. I’m 35 years old. I got a lot of amateur fights. I got a lot of pro fights in me. Regardless of how you look at the competition and whatever is, I’m a real person. I look at things as real as it is. If that’s his opinion, if that’s what he thinks—I mean me personally, I think the total opposite. I guess that’s just being a fighter, you know what I mean? So I would love to have that opportunity to prove everybody wrong and win another title. When you get an opportunity like that even with Pacquiao or any of these guys that are great, if you get the opportunity to fight one of them and you beat them and you do what you do. I’m just going to do exactly what I do, box. I’m going to do exactly what I do and I believe I would win the fight, and now you win the fight and everything changes. Now they’re talking about you instead of him, period!”
His views on what he would need to do to be successful in a fight against Mayweather:
“I would just have to be myself. That’s the only thing I would have to do, just be myself. I can’t be anybody else. I’d just do exactly what I do and do it with my A game and that’s going to overcome. That’s what I feel. I mean I’m not going to change the way I fight. This is what I do best is box and make guys miss and that’s it. I feel that’s enough right there in itself to win the fight.”
On how many more fights he believes he would need to be prepared to fight somebody like Mayweather:
“I’m ready right now! I really felt when I first came home from boot camp that I was ready right then and there. You know what I’m saying, but I took the time. It could be right now, right this second. Of course I’m training for a fight in late February/early March, but whenever it would come about that’s what I’m going to do. Of course I would pull out of the fight if I was going to get a fight like Mayweather, but hey! That’s it.”
On whether he believes the fans would be interested in seeing a fight between him and Mayweather:
“I don’t know about that. I can’t really comment on that because I really couldn’t tell you about that. I don’t know about all the fans in general, you know what I’m saying, because I haven’t been out there. I haven’t been out there for someone to say, ‘How come you won’t fight Spadafora?’ I could just assure you it would be an interesting fight with Mayweather and it would be definitely worth watching.”
His views on how good he is now compared to when he was at his best as lightweight champion:
“I really, really believe that I’m a lot better, just because I live a better life. I do the right things. I’m a lot smarter. I have a lot of experience. I don’t waste as many punches and when I put punches they’re on time. I’m not just throwing punches. I feel that I’m better.”
On how he first started using the nickname ‘The Pittsburgh Kid’:
“Well my original trainer was called P.K. His name was P.K. Pecora. He was my original trainer. He passed away when I was 14-0 as a professional. I called his wife up and I asked his wife. I called Rachel up and I fought a week after he died, and I asked Rachel if she’d be okay if I used ‘P.K.’ as my nickname. It was never really meant to be ‘The Pittsburgh Kid’. It was meant to be like P.K. Pecora. That’s my trainer and he helped me out in life.”
His views on Manny Pacquiao as a fighter:
“I think he’s a great fighter. I mean there’s no doubt about that. I mean he’s unbelievable. He punches at different angles, he mixes his speed up, he throws lots of punches, and he’s clever, too. He’s clever, too. You have to give him all of the props in the world.”
On whether he believes Shane Mosley has a chance to beat Manny Pacquiao:
“Oh there is no doubt about it! You can never, ever sleep on Shane Mosley! I mean I know I’m not going to sleep on him. I know that. I mean that’s a great fight. That’s a fight to watch. I think if I had to put my money on it, it would be 50-50 odds. I’d have to go with Mosley. I would go with Mosley! I would go with Mosley because he’s bigger, stronger, faster, and more experienced. I’d go with Mosley. That’s what I would do. Mosley’s a great fighter.”
On how it felt when he won the IBF lightweight title against Israel Cardona in August 1999:
“It was like a dream come true. Obviously winning a world title, I’m from a different type of neighborhood. I’m from a different type of family and it was like a dream come true. It was like I accomplished something for my family and it was a great thing.”
On his twelve round draw against Leonard Dorin in May 2003:
“Here’s what I can tell you, I can tell you this—if I would have gotten a rematch I would have stopped him the same exact way that Gatti stopped him. It might not have been that early but I can promise you I was going to stop him. I fell in love with that moment. If I wanted to box and this and that, and I should have done that, that’s what I should have done. But even if I had the rematch with this guy, I was convinced because I hurt him so bad to the body that I was convinced I was going to stop him. And what happens? He said he was going to retire, but then he comes out of retirement and fights Arturo Gatti and gets stopped in one or two rounds, with a body shot at that.”
On whether he can comfortably make weight to compete against the best at 140 pounds:
“Oh, there is no doubt about it. I can definitely make that weight. Make no mistake about it. I can make that weight. It’s going to take a six to eight week camp. If I eat everything right and do the right things I can make the weight and be really strong at that weight.”
His views on the upcoming fight between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander:
“I’d go with Timothy Bradley. I just think he can adjust really quickly. He can adjust in a fight when he’s been down and he’s been hurt. He’s known to adjust and I got to go with Bradley just on that alone.”
His views on Amir Khan’s victory against Marcos Maidana:
“I watched that fight like about 50 time so far. I have HBO On-Demand, but what I thought about that fight was Khan showed a lot of, lot of heart. He’s very, very hard to beat. If he boxes the way he boxes it’s going to be hard to beat a guy like that. Maidana obviously showed character, came off the canvas, backed him up, and had him hurt. I thought it was a great fight. Marquez and Katsidis or Khan and Maidana were fight of the year.”
On whether he believes Erik Morales has any chance against Juan Manuel Marquez:
“I believe he’s in a lot of trouble with this guy. This guy’s a serious guy. Marquez is a serious guy. He’s going to be hard for anybody to beat and I think a guy like Erik Morales is going to have his hands full.”
On whether he would be willing to fight Amir Khan over in the UK:
“100% no doubt. Here’s how I feel about myself. I feel that I could be in the ring with anybody. Do you know what I’m saying? I don’t feel like there’s somebody who I shouldn’t be in the ring with. Obviously styles make fights, this, and that, but I have a lot of experience. I’ve been in the gym so many years and I just think it’s a matter of time for the right moment or the right guy. It’s going to make me do what I do and that’s win. I would be lying if I told you something different.”
On whether he has any idea who he might be fighting in March:
“Whatever my promoter puts in front of me, whoever I can get, you know? I mean I’m ready. I want to be in there right now, right now with the best of them.”
His views on how far away he is from getting a title shot:
“I have no idea. I just do boxing. I get up, go running, go to the gym, do the right thing, and let my promoter and my manager do all of that. I really couldn’t tell you but I know it’s going to come. It has to come. As long as I keep winning something is going to come. I had a belt for five years. I had eight title defenses. I’ve been on HBO four times. I mean I think that someone is going to give me a chance and that’s it. It’s just a matter of whoever gives me this chance and that’s it.”
On what he would say to Floyd Mayweather Junior if he was on the air:
“I would have to say just be ready. I’m not one of those guys to talk crazy, but expect the unexpected. That’s the perfect thing I can say to you. Like my Mom always told me, ‘Expect the unexpected’. That’s it.”
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For those interested in listening to the Paul Spadafora interview in its entirety, it begins approximately twenty-three minutes into the program.
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