Heavyweight Joey Abell Talks Arron Lyons Fight

By Ryan Burton

 

Heavyweight Joey Abell packs a vicious punch as his knock out ratio of 25 knockouts in 26 victories attests.  The Minnesota native returns to the ring on July 17th at the St. Paul Armory in St. Paul, Minnesota to try to avenge his first loss as a pro.  Abell talks to BoxingScene.com about the upcoming fight and wants people to know that he is more than a knockout puncher. He believes that it will be his athletic ability that will lead him to success in the coming years.

 

BoxingScene.com:  Tell us about your upcoming fight, a rematch versus Arron Lyons.

 

Joey Abell:  Arron Lyons gave me my first loss.  I have four losses but I believe I am better than every one of those guys that beat me but I still give them credit for beating me except for the one fight that I was disqualified.  I don't hold it against anybody for beating me.  I just take it as a learning experience.  Everyone who beat me was cool about it except for Arron.  After he beat me he kind of degraded me as a boxer and degraded my abilities.  I am really looking forward to this fight.

 

BoxingScene.com:  So is this a fight you told your team to try to make?

 

Joey Abell:  Yes.  If there was one of my losses that I wanted back this is it.  Three of them it isn't going to do me any good to fight again.  Rankings wise even the Arron Lyons fight won't do me any good but mentally I feel like I need to make a statement by beating him.

 

BoxingScene.com:  What went wrong when you fought him?

 

Joey Abell:  I was I think 9-0 at the time and I think he was 3-0.  Everybody at the time was telling me that I needed more rounds and that if I catch him in the first round just let him off the hook and don't jump on him like I always did before.  That was exactly what I did.  I caught him and he was staggering a little bit and I backed off instead of jumping on him.  While he was staggering he was swinging wild and he did catch me.  I will give him that.  He got me on top of the head or something like that.  I was blocking but I wasn't returning and that was a learning experience.  I wasn't taking a bunch of punches but I wasn't returning them either.  The ref at the time I think it was his first professional fight and he jumped in and stopped it.  That was the circumstances behind that fight.

 

BoxingScene.com:  You are known for your power.  25 out of your 26 wins have been knockouts.  Is it safe to say that your power is your biggest attribute?

 

Joey Abell:  It seems that way but I don't think it is my biggest attribute.  I think my athletic ability is my biggest attribute.  I have power I think from my five years that I spent in college.  I became a good fighter in college.  The college and trying out for the NFL helped me develop my athletic ability.  All the things I had to do to prepare for tryouts helped me a lot.  Personally I think its my athletic ability but I guess it depends on who you ask.

 

BoxingScene.com:  If you get the win over Lyons that gets you to 27 wins.  When do you think you will be ready to step up to top 20 competition?

 

Joey Abell:  I think I am ready now.  I think at the same time that I don't have the experience yet even though I think it is easier to fight people who are ranked ahead of me because you kind of know what they are going to do.  When you fight guys who are ranked low and are just in there to fight, you never know what they are going to do.  They can throw punches from all over.  Boxing is the sweet science but when you got people ranked below me it isn't a science.  You just got people in there fighting.  Once you get to the top 30 it turns into a science and you just got to be smarter than the other guy.  To me it is hard to outsmart someone who doesn't fight more conventional.  For example when you play poker and you play with someone who knows what they are doing they aren't going to call a hand that they shouldn't call.  When you are playing with somebody who doesn't know what to do and doesn't care if they lose then they will go all in every other time.

 

BoxingScene.com:  What are the fans who are in attendance for your fight on the 17th going to see?

 

Joey Abell:  I guess it kind of depends on what Arron does.  Entertainment wise I think it will be exciting.  Arron has had I think 15 or 16 fights and he hasn't been knocked down or anything like that.  I am going to be in shape to go double the rounds that I am actually going to go.  It is going to be a very exciting fight.  I have had criticism before for knocking people out in the first round.  If I do knock him out in the first round I will be happy about it. I don't know I see the fight going three or four rounds.