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When I was coming up I insisted on not being fed patsy's and I wasn't.
I insisted on being fed journeymen who usually took fights on short notice and ran prospects close but would have a camp for me. I didn't want to be over-hyped and I wanted to be challenged properly.
I insisted on some tough Mexicans be brought in who were still prospects themselves.
Jose's been in with Mayweather a couple of times but I've already been in with a guy who gave Mayweather a good workout in Tony Pep and I blew him away with bodyshots. I was 21 or 22 years old.
Then a few months later I fought former world champion Freddie Pendleton, still a young kid, where it was last chance saloon for him and blew him away with bodyshots.
Freddie was grinning before the fight because he thought it'd be an easy fight, that I looked like a little choir boy. But he was in for a shock.
Vince Phillips was another former world champion and I beat Vince more convincingly than Sharmba Mitchell did, who was the No.1 contender to the pound-for-pound best Kostya Tszyu.
Ben Tackie is another guy I beat more convincingly than Sharmba and even Kostya. That's when I said I was ready for absolutely anyone and I had just turned 25. It's no fault of mine that my promoter wouldn't deliver for another two years.
But I beat Tszyu, arguably the best pound-for-pound, when I finally got my chance and since then I've beat three world champions at two different weights, two of which tricky southpaws and the other a tricky switch-hitter and all vastly different styles in different locations.
To suggest I haven't fought anybody and that I'm not ready for Jose is berserk.
I do realise I have abit to prove because I haven't been near my best in my last couple of fights against tricky southpaws away from home where I was forced to yo-yo with weight and all that, since Tszyu people have been waiting for something spectacular and on Satuday night they are going to get it.
I'll prove I'm the real deal, by beating yet another pound-for-pounder and former world champion and then I want other world champions or pound-for-pounders because that's my game, that's what I'm about.
I insisted on being fed journeymen who usually took fights on short notice and ran prospects close but would have a camp for me. I didn't want to be over-hyped and I wanted to be challenged properly.
I insisted on some tough Mexicans be brought in who were still prospects themselves.
Jose's been in with Mayweather a couple of times but I've already been in with a guy who gave Mayweather a good workout in Tony Pep and I blew him away with bodyshots. I was 21 or 22 years old.
Then a few months later I fought former world champion Freddie Pendleton, still a young kid, where it was last chance saloon for him and blew him away with bodyshots.
Freddie was grinning before the fight because he thought it'd be an easy fight, that I looked like a little choir boy. But he was in for a shock.
Vince Phillips was another former world champion and I beat Vince more convincingly than Sharmba Mitchell did, who was the No.1 contender to the pound-for-pound best Kostya Tszyu.
Ben Tackie is another guy I beat more convincingly than Sharmba and even Kostya. That's when I said I was ready for absolutely anyone and I had just turned 25. It's no fault of mine that my promoter wouldn't deliver for another two years.
But I beat Tszyu, arguably the best pound-for-pound, when I finally got my chance and since then I've beat three world champions at two different weights, two of which tricky southpaws and the other a tricky switch-hitter and all vastly different styles in different locations.
To suggest I haven't fought anybody and that I'm not ready for Jose is berserk.
I do realise I have abit to prove because I haven't been near my best in my last couple of fights against tricky southpaws away from home where I was forced to yo-yo with weight and all that, since Tszyu people have been waiting for something spectacular and on Satuday night they are going to get it.
I'll prove I'm the real deal, by beating yet another pound-for-pounder and former world champion and then I want other world champions or pound-for-pounders because that's my game, that's what I'm about.
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