by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J) – As always, this week’s 122nd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured the show’s newest Correspondent, heavyweight contender Chauncy Welliver (47-5-5, 17 KOS) who is coming off of a fifth round TKO victory against Galen Brown (35-16-1, 22 KOs) Saturday night in Topeka, Kansas. Welliver, who is currently ranked #10 by the WBC and #9 by the WBO, spoke about his performance and discussed his future plans in the sport. Here is a complete transcript from that portion of the show:
JENNA J: Since we’re on the subject of this past week’s fights our very own Co-Host and heavyweight correspondent Chauncy Welliver fought this past weekend. Chauncy, can you tell us a little bit about your performance?
CHAUNCY WELLIVER: It was great. You know it was in Topeka, Kansas. It was more or less Galen Brown my opponent’s hometown. He lived an hour away, but still more or less it was more his hometown than mine. Let’s say that. He had a lot of fans there so there was definitely a lot of pressure. There were a lot of people booing me and really wanting me to lose. The first round I started a little slow because I wanted him to get tired. One thing I have supreme confidence in is that I have the best conditioning out there and that these guys will get tired. So I went out in the first and just kind of jabbed away. He was throwing some jabs. I’d throw two or three for everyone he threw. It kind of got stuck in a rut, though. We kind of just were doing that, jab, I throw two, he throws one, I throw two.
Well in the third round he hit me with a low blow and I’m telling you this was intentional. I mean he kind of let it be known it was intentional by winking at me and laughing when he hit me low and he dug it in pretty good. Well the referee came to me and said I had five minutes and I said, “No, no, no, I want to go right now”. So I went right then and from that point on I fought with a little bit of, I don’t want to say anger because it was very controlled, but I went out there and I went for the kill. In the fourth round I opened up on him. In the fifth round, I get a lot of stoppages because like I said, my conditioning is good. So usually I stop guys. With this I hit him with a left hook and he was out! I mean he was out against the ropes. It was almost like Tommy Morrison-Ray Mercer. He just sunk against the ropes and he couldn’t move. I was teeing off on him when he was out. It was a little weird for me because I’m not used to being in that position. I’m used to a guy being tired and saying, “I quit”. But this time I actually hurt the guy and put him away and he was one shot away from actually really being hurt. So I am glad that they stopped it.
JENNA: Alright now this is your third straight stoppage victory in a row. What’s with the power surge?
WELLIVER: You know me and Joe Hipp have been working a lot on the power, kind of strictly on the power because we know in the heavyweight division. You know for a long time I was getting all of those decisions and my manager finally told me, “You know we don’t get paid by the round”. So I figured I might as well start getting some early stoppages. We’ve been working a lot on sitting down. Where before I would go out there and throw a lot of arm punches, no we’re still moving and stuff but I’m sitting down on my shots. I’m digging in. I actually want to hurt guys because I don’t have that much longer to go in my career. So I know the earlier the fight goes that’s the sooner I can fight again and hopefully I can fight again in May or early June. Usually if we went twelve rounds my manager would say maybe we should take a little bit of time and go in July or August. This kind of gives him incentive to say let’s go we’re back in the saddle. We were back in the gym the very next day, so I’m absolutely ready for any time in May or June and thanks to this stoppage it’s going to make it that much easier.
JENNA: Now are there any potential fight cards you can get on that you see coming up that might be a possibility for you to fight again?
WELLIVER: You know my manager might get me on a card in Jefferson City, Missouri. I don’t know how solid that is. That’s only being talked about at the moment. You know it would be great. It would be great to go fight down there. I kind of like the Midwest. It’s very nice people, a knowledgeable fight crowd, and they drink when the fights are going on so they go absolutely nuts.
JENNA: Chauncy since your last loss you’re 12-0 with 5 stoppages. What do you think about the perception of fans that you’re still not fighting the best out there and you really aren’t deserving of your ranking?
WELLIVER: I’m really not fighting the best out there. I’d be slapping you guys in the face lying to you if I said that Galen Brown was a top ten heavyweight or should be and he’s just being overlooked. No, I’m not but I don’t have a promoter that’s willing to put up the money to get me these tougher guys. A lot of guys will say don’t blame it on the promoters. Well I don’t have the money to get the opponents, and guys are asking for a lot of money because if they’re going to risk losing no matter who it’s going to be they want to be compensated for it. I had seen somebody recently saying why would these guys be calling out Klitschkos but not Chauncy Welliver. Simple, they’re only going to make anywhere from $10,000-$15,000 to fight me when they can make $150,000-$200,000 to fight the Klitschkos. So if they’re going to lose they might as well get paid for it.
So I’m definitely ready to step it up! The way I look at it, I had 57 pro fights. I look at it as I have twelve fights. After the Solis fight I was born again. Call me crazy, but that’s when I started to really take it seriously and since then I’m 12-0. I feel great and in that meantime I’ve learned so much. I finally took boxing seriously so I’m moving along and slowly stepping up. I look at it as I’m a 12-0 fighter because I didn’t have this great amateur experience or anything like that. Sure I sparred a lot of guys, but that’s in the gym. Actually going out there, working hard, giving everything I got, I’ve only been doing that for twelve fights. If it was any other say 12-0 fighter they’d be saying I’m moving along alright. Yes I do have that past experience, but we are ready to move up against anybody. If anybody is willing to fight, I have never seen anybody call me out. I’ve called out plenty of fighters but there’s not one guy saying I want to fight Chauncy Welliver. If I’m such an easy beat to these guys then they would be chasing my ranking but for some reason they’re not.
JENNA: From what I’ve seen there has been a drastic improvement. I can remember when we had you on episode 2, we had Greg Haugen chastising you about how you should get in shape and you could be so much better. Your improvement since then I think is definitely great and I’m looking forward to seeing you get out there and get in with one of those top guys. The one thing that is holding you back though, you got to get a TV fight and that’s my final question for this little segment here. What do you think it’s going to take for you to get on an ESPN or a Showbox or a channel like that?
WELLIVER: That’s something that is kind of the question to my career right now. We’re waiting for one of those fights. Really the only way in would be coming in as the opponent and we have no problem with that. That’s kind of why we would like a fight with Chris Arreola. We’re not going to get a call from Showtime or ESPN saying hey come fight whoever you want that’s approved for TV. If we’re going to be fighting an Arreola we have to come out with a really big win! We have to come in as the opponent and we have to beat whoever it is, whether it be Arreola, or Kevin Johnson, or any of these guys, Kali Meehan. I have to beat one of those guys and then from then on, I think my style is exciting enough that I would be a constant on TV. The problem is breaking through that door to get there. To try and go in as an opponent, we’re ready for it! If any of these guys want to step up and fight on TV, the boxing world is very small. Their promoters know how to get a hold of my manager. We’re ready!
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