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Raycorey
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London,England
Age: 34
Posts: 20,873
Points: 31,834.10
Bank: 1,796,480,382,476.12
Total Points: 1,796,480,414,310.22
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PC: Being that you are a trainer, at what point in that fight do you think about perhaps stopping the fight, and what are your thoughts on Margarito's trainer, Robert Garcia, saying he never thought about stopping the fight?
RF: I think he wasn't looking out for the safety and welfare of his fighter. At some point, he had to know that he ain't gonna catch this dude. He's not a one-hitter quitter guy anyway; he tends to wear you down on pressure. So by the 8th round, if you ain't won a round, you have to start looking out for the safety of your fighter. I would have told him in the corner...after that point, it becomes 1 round at a time. He would have had one more round to show me something. Why let him get beat like that? Everyone knows he's a warrior. The hand wrapping issue aside, everyone knows how he fights. He comes straight forward and he takes as much as he gives. We know that about him, but why put him in the hospital with fractures in his face and maybe his career being over? If he can't resurrect his career, at least give him a chance to have a career if that's what you want to do. He doesn't deserve anymore fights anyway...plus he's just not good anymore. He was one of those guys that had lost a couple of fights in his career, but Shane Mosley exposed him and took that code of invincibility away. It was like, here is a guy that no one wants to fight and now, he's turned into a guy that everyone wants to fight because they've found the prescription to beat him. It's like, "Oh, let's give this guy some movement."
Pacquiao fans have blinders on, and I'm not here to try to convince them that he's not great because I never said that he wasn't great. Is he one of the greatest ever because he has 8 titles and 4 of them are made up? No! He's one of the greatest in his era, which puts him in the argument of greatest of all time. If you are the one of the greatest in your era, it puts you in the argument of greatest of all time, but are there guys that I thought throughout history that could beat him? Yeah. And there is a guy out there that could beat him now and that's Floyd Mayweather. If he is so great, then why didn't he fight Shane Mosley 2 years ago? Shane was willing to go to 140 to fight him, and I think it would have been disastrous, but Shane isn't known for making the best career decisions. The whole state of boxing...I'm just like where are the future stars? Who are we going to watch 5 years from now?*
PC: Do you think we see Mayweather/Pacquiao in 2011?
RF: I would have to say no because Floyd is out here doing stupid things and getting himself in legal trouble. So I don't know how that is going to play out. Obviously Roger has his legal troubles. I don't know how they would square that up in time to be able to train properly for a fight of that magnitude. So at this time, I would have to say no, which is unfortunate because it's a fight that should have been made and we should have already seen it and we may never see it. But you know, boxing will go on. Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe never fought, Dariusz Michalczewski and Roy Jones Jr. never fought, and Wilfred Benitez and Roberto Duran fought late when they could have fought real early. Aaron Pryor and Roberto Duran never fought, and neither did Pryor and Leonard, so there were some great fights that could have been made out there in the boxing world that never happened, for whatever reason, and this may go along those routes.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope the situation with Floyd gets cleared up and they can make this bout and I would love to see it. If Pacquiao can prove me wrong and be the better man, I would be the first to admit it. I don't think so, but I wonder if anybody would admit that to me if Floyd beats him? That's where I'm at with boxing right now. It's just disappointment man. I just want to see some good fights; some quality fights. Hell, give Andre Berto a shot. I think Pacquiao beats him because I think he's just too good at this point in his career, but hell, he's young, he's strong, and he's fast, and if he wins, you have a star. If it's a close fight, we have a star. Just give us somebody that we can get behind. Pacquiao ain't going to fight forever, Floyd ain't going to fight forever, and Shane Mosley is trying to fight forever (laughing), which we don't need him too. At some point though, you have to develop the young stars in this game and I just don't know where that's going to come from. I don't know what promotional company is going to do it. Obviously Top Rank doesn't care. It seems like Golden Boy doesn't care and Main Events is non-existent, so who is going to step up and create those new stars? We had the Super Six, which has become the Dreadful Six. At least Lucian Bute signing with Showtime gives us the hope of possibly seeing him fight against Andre Ward, and a star will be born at 168, but you have so many guys that are over 35 years old and they are still dominating the game and people are still talking about them. Where does that leave the sport? And that's the sad part because I've been a boxing fan since I was 5 years old and to see the state of the game right now is just sad.
PC: Switching gears to Zab Judah, did you have him winning his fight a few weeks back against Lucas Matthysse?
RF: I thought Zab lost a close decision. If it went his way, it wasn't too much to scream about because he probably won the first 6 rounds. But if it would have come up with Zab losing, which I thought would have been appropriate, then that would have been cool too.
PC: Quick prediction, Martinez or Williams on Saturday night and why?
RF: I like Sergio Martinez in this one. I picked Paul Williams the first time and he eked out a decision, but Paul hasn't advanced to me. He hasn't progressed. I remember a few years ago, someone asked me was Paul ready to fight Floyd and I said not at that time because Floyd had so much more experience. I figured 2 or 3 years from then, when Paul started to tighten up his game, it would be real dangerous for a 6'1" guy with an 82-inch reach that fights at welterweight to fight any of those guys, but he has not improved to me. He gets hit too much and he fades late in fights. I just don't think you can continue to do that and be on the winning side. I like Sergio Martinez in this fight because I have liked the way he's looked in his fights. I think he gained a lot of confidence. He cracked Paul harder than Paul cracked him in that fight.
PC: Give me some closing thoughts Ron.
RF: I just hope the boxing game comes around and starts developing its young stars. Hopefully the Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather fight will happen. It's time for all of the talk to stop. I'm tired of all of the commentators on ESPN calling people cowards. If you don't cover the fight game or you're not a fighter, quit calling people a coward. Step in the ring somewhere. Just put your money where your mouth is and then see who the coward is. People call Floyd Mayweather a coward and the dude has been in boxing his whole life. He was sparring with world champions when he was 15 years old. You might not like his style, but a coward he is not, and neither is Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao has done some great things, and I'm not gonna blame him for his promoter doing what he's done to get these titles. He just goes out and beats the guys in front of him and he's beat them all, and he's beat them all handily since Juan Manuel Marquez. So hats off to him and I give him props for that, but let's get down to business, take the blood test, and do whatever it takes to get in there with Floyd and see where you guys are at. Other than that, I'm going to stick with MMA. I want to thank my sponsor, Inflict Sports, and I will continue to develop my young guys in MMA.
PC: I take it your ESPN commentator calling people cowards was directed at Michael Wilbon, and I couldn't agree more. Any time a reporter calls any fighter a coward and then follows that by saying, "I haven't watched boxing in years," kind of bothers me.
RF: Yeah, I mean, just keep playing golf in Phoenix and kissing Lebron's ass.
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11-19-2010, 05:20 AM
