By Ben Jacobs
Gary Shaw is a busy man these days with some of his top fighters involved in major match-ups, not least Daniel Geale who has a huge chance to once again become middleweight champion of the world against Miguel Cotto on June 6. BoxingScene.com spoke to Shaw via telephone for an update on Bryant Jennings, Tureano Johnson and his thoughts on other pertinent subjects.
BoxingScene: Darleys Pérez's next title defence has been announced against Anthony Crolla in the UK. What are your initial thoughts on that? Any concern about the judges given a previous experience you had with Andre Dirrell against Carl Froch?
Gary Shaw: Darleys Pérez had a big win in his last fight and Anthony Crolla has had a lot of time off due to the incident. He's right back in a big fight like this but I have a lot of respect for Eddie Hearn. If he didn't think he had a chance he wouldn't take the fight.
I'm sure that the WBA will ensure that we have neutral judges, there won't be any from England, that's in the contract. So I'm not worried.
BoxingScene: Some people believe that Daniel Geale will be the bigger man when he faces Miguel Cotto and that he may just have too much for him. How do you see the match-up?
Gary Shaw: He is the bigger man, that's why Cotto has made the fight at 157. To me, if you're the middleweight champion you should be fighting at 160. That shows Miguel Cotto may not be a true middleweight. Although he's fought some of the top fighters in the world, and I have a lot of respect for Miguel Cotto, he should have fought at 160. Nevertheless, we accepted. If they are looking at Daniel Geale in terms of the Golovkin fight as to where Geale is I think they made the wrong choice.
BoxingScene: What's your take on catchweights particularly for titles?
Gary Shaw: I don't like catchweights, I don't believe in them. There are weight classes. This is nonsense. It's like in baseball one inning you've got three outs another inning two outs, that wouldn't make sense. I'm not a fan of it at all.
BoxingScene: Is Miguel Cotto's victory over Sergio Martínez tainted due to Martínez's injuries?
Gary Shaw: At one point Sergio Martínez was a really good fighter but when he fought Cotto he already had been injured, he was a shot fighter. That wasn't the Sergio Martínez of old, it wasn't the real Martínez. So, I don't give that fight a lot of credence, or the Rodríguez fight, that's why I think Daniel Geale has a tremendous shot against Cotto.
BoxingScene: What's next for Bryant Jennings?
Gary Shaw: I'm looking at getting Bryant back on HBO in October or November, he put in a tremendous performance. His stock was raised. A lot of people thought it would be a three round fight, that Klitschko would knock him out early, that just didn’t happen and wasn't going
to happen. He's a guy who has been fighting for five years, that includes amateurs. I think he's got a long career ahead of him, he has beaten a lot of top prospects and I think you'll see him as a world champion.
BoxingScene: It looks like Tyson Fury might be next for Wladimir Klitschko, could you see Fury beating him?
Gary Shaw: No, I don't see that. Not at all. Not the Tyson Fury I know. Then again I didn't think Buster Douglas could beat Mike Tyson.
BoxingScene: Is there a date yet for José Pedraza's world title shot?
Gary Shaw: That fight is going to be in June and screened on Showtime.
BoxingScene: Tureano Johnson is quite a character. Is he often nagging you for the Golovkin fight?
Gary Shaw: I really believe that Tureano Johnson would have a hell of a fight with Golovkin. I felt that fight on Saturday didn't show Golovkin well, and I think he's a hell of a fighter but he got hit with a lot of punches, a lot of jabs. I don't know if that performance was done so to have Cotto or 'Canelo' want to fight him. But I just don't think it helped his stock. At the end in the interview his face was pretty scarred up.
We had a fight with Golovkin, we had a contract but at the last minute they pulled out and switched to Willie Monroe. They said that they wanted to fight a southpaw, I don't know what it proved. I know what it didn't prove. I'm hoping the WBC will mandate Tureano against Heiland for the mandatory to GGG (Interim champion). I'm not sure Cotto will fight GGG if he beats Geale. 'Canelo' is not going to fight him, he doesn't need GGG. He does tremendous ratings and fills stadiums, he doesn't need anybody. Tureano against GGG would be a tremendous fight, but we'll see what the WBC rules and mandates.