by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 111th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-2, 23 KOs), who is scheduled to face WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) on March 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayorga spoke about his upcoming fight, reflected back on some key moments from his career, and expressed his desire to land a fight with Pound-for-Pound King, Manny Pacquiao. Here is a complete transcript of that interview:
JENNA J: It is actually time for our third and final guest of this week’s show. He is the former junior middleweight champion of the world. We have the one and only Riacrdo Mayorga. How’s everything going tonight Ricardo?
RICARDO MAYORGA: I’m here and I’m training hard here. Everything is going good for now.
JENNA: Well that is great to hear. Ricardo, you have an excellent opportunity. You will be taking on WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto on March 12. How do you feel about this title fight?
MAYORGA: Well I know he’s a world champion and he’s the champ right now, but I’ve champion too and I think the one that should be proud and be happy at the privilege that he’s going to fight against me is Cotto.
JENNA: Alright, now what do you think of your opponent Miguel Cotto?
MAYORGA: I recognize he’s a world champion, but as a fighter, I don’t see him as a fighter. Miguel Cotto is a nobody!
JENNA: During the promotion for this bout you have been very, very vocal towards Miguel. Do you have anything personally against him?
MAYORGA: Well really, I dislike Cotto. I really don’t like him at all and it’s not for promotion, it’s just that I personally don’t like him.
JENNA: What particularly do you dislike about Cotto?
MAYORGA: He swears too much as a human being. He thinks he’s all that, and really there is nothing for me to have respect for about him.
JENNA: Now Ricardo, in preparation for this bout you fought Michael ‘Midnight Stalker’ Walker. It was your first fight in over two years. Do you think that was enough preparation to fight someone like Miguel Cotto?
MAYORGA: For that bitch, that he’s so dumb, yeah I think I’m ready for him.
JENNA: Alright, well we’re also joined on the line by my co-host Geoff.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hi Ricardo! It’s a pleasure to have you on the show.
MAYORGA: Hi to everybody. It is a pleasure for me to be on your show, Geoff.
CIANI: Thank you, Ricardo. I wanted to start things off by taking a look back to when you first shocked the world when you beat Vernon Forrest after he shocked the world when he beat Sugar Shane Mosley. What were your thoughts going into that fight with Vernon Forrest?
MAYORGA: Something that I didn’t know was that in a boxing career you can win a lot of money but besides that, I like boxing and I liked it too because I beat him twice.
CIANI: When you fought Forrest and you beat him and you became this new sensation, at that point how good did you think you could be?
MAYORGA: I never counted on myself as a good fighter. All I thought was that I could do what I did. I beat him and if I beat him I thought I could beat somebody else.
CIANI: Now Ricardo, the one fight that I thought you won was your fight with Cory Spinks and in a lot of ways I think that fight kind of acted as a turning point in your career. Reflecting back, what do you remember from that fight and did you think you deserved to win?
MAYORGA: I really had the fight won, but the referee and the judges gave that fight to Cory Spinks. Personally, that fight was for me.
CIANI: After that fight it seemed to me that your attitude towards boxing changed and you were hit or miss in terms of being motivated. Is it true after that fight with Spinks that you weren’t always fully motivated and that it took a big fighter to get you motivated?
MAYORGA: It wasn’t because I lost against him. It was more about the money that I won. At that moment I thought the money was never going to end, so I started looking at boxing like anything else because I had money at that time, but motivated? No. I was always motivated. It was just that having the money got to me. Now days, I’m not interested in winning a title anymore. All I really want is to win the fights and win the money. When I was world champion the first time, it was something that I can’t explain. I felt like Superman, somebody that nobody could beat me. When I won my second title with Forrest, I was happy but it wasn’t the same because I already knew the first time how it felt so it wasn’t nothing new again.
JENNA: Ricardo, sticking with the theme of some of your past fights, after you lost the belts to Cory Spinks and you won a tune-up bout with Eric Mitchell, you took on all time great Puerto Rican fighter Felix Trinidad, and in this particular bout you allowed Trinidad, who was coming off a long layoff, to take open shots at you. Do you at all regret the way you fought that fight?
MAYORGA: I never regret what I do, but I learned a lesson that the man from the thoughts he has, he has to learn.
JENNA: How was it that you decided to start your boxing career? What made you want to be a professional boxer?
MAYORGA: Really, I was vicious but more than that, to give my mother and father, they’re fans of boxing. My father told my mom one day that he would love to know what it feels like to have a boxing world title in his hands. I was a kid. I was only 12 or 13 years old, and I told my mother, “Mother and father, I’m going to have a title in my hands and you’re going to have it too with me”. My dad’s dream was to one day get on a plane, which he had never gotten on an airplane in his life, but I told my mother and father that “When I fight for a world title that both of you are going to get on a plane in first class so that when I knock out the champ, you’re going to have the title in your hands”. That promise that I made my mother and father, that’s what made me train for three months and one week. That’s why when I won and they put it on my waist, I said, “I’m going to take it off and I’m going to give it to you guys”.
JENNA: Back to your fight with Miguel Cotto, what do you think is your biggest advantage against him?
MAYORGA: First of all, my experience. I hit harder than him. I’m bigger and stronger than him. I know how to think when I’m fighting in the ring. That is something he does not know how to do—think while he’s fighting in the ring. Really, I’m going to show everyone. I’m going to knock him out in the fourth round.
JENNA: Alright now you mentioned before that you’re bigger and stronger than Miguel Cotto, and this is the theory that a lot of people have when they talk about you having an advantage, that you will be able to come into the ring somewhere over 170 pounds. Do you think your weight will be the telling point in this fight?
MAYORGA: It could be true. It could not be true. Who knows what’s going to happen. All I know is the day of the weigh-in I’m going to go in weighting 152 pounds.
CIANI: Ricardo, I wanted to get your thoughts on the biggest star in boxing today, Manny Pacquiao. What do you think of him as a fighter?
MAYORGA: After I knockout Cotto, there are going to be two stars that people pay for to watch—Manny Pacquiao and me. We’re two stars who are going to be there. When I fight Cotto and I beat him, I’m going to tell Pacquiao that I want a fight with him. And Pacquiao, the day that I fight with him, I’m going to knock him out before the eighth round, and my new son Miguel Cotto—and they’re not going to call him Miguel Cotto anymore. Like he’s going to be my new son, they’re going to call him “Miguel Mayorga”.
CIANI: Okay Ricardo, I’m curious, when of the guys you fought, Sugar Shane Mosley, is actually fighting Pacquiao next. How do you see that one going down?
MAYORGA: Honestly, my opinion and with what I know about boxing, it’s going to be a hard, hard fight for Pacquiao. My opinion on that is that maybe Mosley could knock Pacquiao out. Mosley has strength. He hits very hard and he moves quickly and he has a lot of experience. If I was to bet on that fight, I’d go with Sugar Shane Mosley. Mosley can knock him out in between the fifth and ninth round.
CIANI: Now if you win your fight with Cotto, would you most like to fight the winner of that fight between Pacquiao and Mosley? Would that be your number one target?
MAYORGA: In any case, unless it’s for the money, I’m going for Pacuqiao. That’s going to give me more money. That’s going to produce more money. When you’re talking about Mosley, yeah, alright! It’s less money, but I want to get revenge for what he did to me. During the years that I was not active after I fought Sugar Shane Mosley was because fifteen days before I fought Trinidad, I had a car accident and I was matched after that, I fought Trinidad, De La Hoya, and I couldn’t feel my legs. After that, I couldn’t. I couldn’t fight no more, because of that accident I had a pain in my lower back. So in those two years that I was not active, I recuperated from my back injury. I had surgery and I’m coming out to show the best I have. In life us humans don’t last for a long time. After this year I plan on retiring from boxing. I’m going to become the famous boxer of Latin America, knocking out that clown Miguel Cotto and the world champion right now, Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines. After I beat Pacquiao all of the Filipinos are going to be sad because I’m going to beat Pacquiao, and all of those people betting on him are going to lose money, because they’re going to bet on him and they’re going to watch me beat him by knockout.
JENNA: Alright well Ricardo, we have just a couple of more questions before we let you off the line. If you are able to beat Miguel Cotto, how much will it mean for you to regain the title after so long?
MAYORGA: I’ll retire with giving thanks to God, to Don King, and the public because I’m going to retire with a victory, a knockout, and a lot of millions.
JENNA: Alright Ricardo, is there anything you want to say to all the people that forgot about Ricardo Mayorga in the time that you were away from boxing?
MAYORGA: I came back with more strength in my hands to score a knockout, and to Manny Pacquiao, go to Vegas to see me fight that way you see that I’m going to knock Cotto out in the fourth round and you and that you could see that I’m going to knock him out in the sixth round. Once I knockout Miguel Cotto, if Pacquiao is going to be at ringside, come in the ring! Once I beat Cotto, come in the ring and tell me you’re going to give me a fight with you that way the public knows. When I knockout Manny Pacquiao I’m going to enter the Hall of Fame.
JENNA: Well Ricardo, I have one final question. Is there anything you want to say to your fans and supporters around the world?
MAYORGA: I want to thank all of my fans who are following me and that have faith in me. Watch my fight and buy the fight , because I’m not going to disappoint you. I’m going to win this fight and you’re going to see the new Mayorga come back. And for all the Latin people, you know that I’m a strong fighter and like I always say, I come from a land where the women give birth to men. I’m going to show it by beating Miguel Cotto easily!
JENNA: It’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you Ricardo. We thank you for your time and wish you the best of luck on March 12.
MAYORGA: Well you can wish me the best, but wish that to Miguel Cotto because he’s going to need it. Thank you guys for your time.
CIANI: Thanks Ricardo, good luck!
MAYORGA: Thank you.
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For those interested in listening to the Ricardo Mayorga interview in its entirety, it begins approximately fifty-six minutes (56:34) into the program.
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