By Lem Satterfield
New Jersey junior middleweight contender, Pawel Wolak, would welcome any of a few big fights.
That includes bouts opposite either WBA junior middleweight king Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KOs), Urainian southpaw WBO junior middleweight king Sergiy Dzinziruk (37-1, 23 KOs), IBF king Cornelius Bunderage (30-4, 18 KOs) or WBC champion Saul Alvarez (36-1, 26 KOs).
The 29-year-old Wolak (29-1, 19 KOs) is coming off the biggest win of his career -- a sixth-round stoppage of former WBA champion Yuri Foreman (28-2, eight KOs) also on March 12.
The win over Foreman was his eighth straight, his second consecutive knockout, and his fifth knockout during that run of consecutive wins.
BoxingScene.comn has reported that Wolak is being considered for a June 24 or July 8, bout on ESPN's Friday Night Fights against Delvin Rodriguez (25-5-2, 14 KO).
BoxingSCene.com spoke to Wolak in this Q&A.
BoxingScene.com: So what have you been doing since your March victory over Yuri Foreman?
Pawel Wolak: At this point, I'm just staying in shape. I know that my manager, Ivan Edwards, has been talking to Joe DeGuardia about Delvin Rodriguez, and they're trying to decide about that fight.
They're looking at coming up with a venue and the money and the tickets. That's going to be on ESPN's Friday night fights. I was hoping to be able to fight Sergiy Dzinziruk.
I think that it's the perfect time for me to go and get him. I've talked to Ivan about it at length. I'm not frustrated. I'm happy where I'm at.
BoxingScene.com: But you certainly have worked for your position, right?
PW: Yes I have, but I'm happy that I'm this close to even be considered for a title shot. So if I have to wait it out for a couple of more months, you know, that's no problem.
With anything in life, anything with my boxing, you wait a little bit and the good things will come along. I have good people around me, so, you know, I'm not really worried.
I believe that eventually, dealing with Top Rank Promotions and with my management, Ivan Edwards, that the good things and the big fights will come.
BoxingScene.com: Do you feel pretty good about what you've demonstrated with your most recent performances?
PW: I think that I've shown that I'm a fan-friendly fighter. I think that that's very important. I think that most people are appreciative of me and that they like to come out and see me fight.
I think that I've shown that I'm exciting to watch and that I've shown that I can handle good, top-rated guys. I've come back and gotten up from a knock-down and that' important.
BoxingScene.com: What are you hearing from your fans during your travels?
PW: I'm hearing from fans that I have an exciting style and that they like my style. A lot of people do still question me though.
Som people in the know that are boxing critics that follow boxing all of the time, they're like, 'Yeah, but we'll see what you can do.'
There are still a lot of questions about style matchups and the fact that Yuri Foreman was coming off of a knockout loss to Miguel Cotto and that he had been experiencing a long layoff.
So, there's still questions about me, but, you know, I'm find with that. There's always going to be questions about every fighter and what he can or can not do, unless you happen to be Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather.
That's fine with me, because I realize that I have a lot to prove and a lot to improve on. That's just going to motivate me to work harder and better. That's no problem.
In the meantime, there are things that I'm trying to do to get people talking about me to keep my name in the mix at least. I've got a guy working on a website and I'm going to start doing Twitter.
But Ivan always says to me that you can do all of that internet stuff, but you've got to win, and that's it. That's the bottom line.
So we're going to be on ESPN fighting Delvin Rodriguez. I'm not sure about the place or the date, but I'm hoping that in conjunction with the Twitter and all of that stuff, it's going to work out perfectly for us.
BoxingScene.com: Who would you want your next opponents to be after Delvin Rodriguez?
PW: I've thought about all of the 154 pound champions, and I would like to go down the line where I think maybe Cornelius Bunderage, if he doesn't fight Sechew Powell.
Then I would go with, probably, Canelo Alvarez and then Sergiy Dzinziruk and probably Miguel Cotto at the end. That's not saying that I believe that Miguel Cotto is the best out of all of them.
They're all tough. I'm just saying that from a promotional standpoint of building up to the biggest fight.