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here are some quotes from him. He was a sparring partner to tszyu for the hatton bout. I can see why DIOS compares Hatton to Ward/Gatti. Emmanuel Augustus is one of his favorite fighters.
You were in attendance there in Manchester, England for Tszyu's fight against Ricky Hatton. What did you think of the fight?
I didn't like the fight even though I talked to people that said Kostya Tszyu should have had a better plan and all that other kind of stuff you know. It's kind of hard… It's still hard to fight people that just hold, and then he also had other kind of situations. I am not the type of person to come up with excuses and things like that but I am the kind of person that likes to fight. I box I don't wrestle, you know and everything was so much against Kostya Tszyu even though he was the champion. Even when Tszyu would try to do the same things back to Ricky, (Ricky was doing all the holding) he would push him to the ropes, hold him on the ropes and fight him on the ropes. When Kostya Tszyu tried to do it, the referee stepped in and broke them apart, then allowed Ricky to keep holding as if the referee was saying "the only people that can hold here is Ricky" and I didn't think that was the respectful way of how to treat the champion, after he traveled and came to the challenger's hometown, which is why, I guess I see why champions don't travel to defend their title.
Many say the time slot of the fight and the change of Kostya Tszyu's training schedule might have had some effect on Tszyu's performance that night.
No, you can't say nothing about nothing. We trained and made adjustments since the fight was going to happen at two o'clock in the morning. Everybody got enough rest and everybody was prepared and we made the proper adjustments when we flew over from Australia to London, but that has nothing to do with it. Truly, you know he did loose to the better man that night, but again you know, it just still had too many things that went against him as far as… you know I'm a fighter and most fighters would prefer to fight instead of wrestle and that's my biggest…that's my real, truly biggest complain of the whole fight was the fact that Ricky Hatton's main fight plan was to wrestle and hold, back him back on to the ropes, that's not boxing, even when Kostya tried to do it back the referee wouldn't let it happen you know there was only one person going to do all the holding and it was like if it was already said "Ricky Hatton is going to win" and that's that. I do feel bad that I couldn't of done more to get him ready for, you know he picked me (to train with Kostya) because I throw a lot of punches and I apply a lot of pressure but he should have picked somebody else that do a lot of holding so he could have been better prepared.
Ha, ha... So you say he should have picked a wrestler for his preparation in training for the Hatton fight instead of you?
Yeah! Because when he picked me, he picked a person that likes to fight. That's me, to help him get ready. He didn't pick someone that likes to hold, cause I don't like to do that nor do I like to get held. If me and Ricky fight, I already know how the fight is going to turn out, it's going to turn out just like me and Micky Ward, because that's who he reminds me of a younger Micky Ward. Ricky likes to go to the body much like Ward used to is that why? Yes, although he holds. ***Ricky uses many tactics like when he uses his head to split your gloves. He head buts a lot if you look back on that film whenever Kostya Tszyu was on the ropes, first thing Ricky would do was to put his head right between Kostya's hands (guard) to split the middle***.
***Ricky is crafty***
You were in attendance there in Manchester, England for Tszyu's fight against Ricky Hatton. What did you think of the fight?
I didn't like the fight even though I talked to people that said Kostya Tszyu should have had a better plan and all that other kind of stuff you know. It's kind of hard… It's still hard to fight people that just hold, and then he also had other kind of situations. I am not the type of person to come up with excuses and things like that but I am the kind of person that likes to fight. I box I don't wrestle, you know and everything was so much against Kostya Tszyu even though he was the champion. Even when Tszyu would try to do the same things back to Ricky, (Ricky was doing all the holding) he would push him to the ropes, hold him on the ropes and fight him on the ropes. When Kostya Tszyu tried to do it, the referee stepped in and broke them apart, then allowed Ricky to keep holding as if the referee was saying "the only people that can hold here is Ricky" and I didn't think that was the respectful way of how to treat the champion, after he traveled and came to the challenger's hometown, which is why, I guess I see why champions don't travel to defend their title.
Many say the time slot of the fight and the change of Kostya Tszyu's training schedule might have had some effect on Tszyu's performance that night.
No, you can't say nothing about nothing. We trained and made adjustments since the fight was going to happen at two o'clock in the morning. Everybody got enough rest and everybody was prepared and we made the proper adjustments when we flew over from Australia to London, but that has nothing to do with it. Truly, you know he did loose to the better man that night, but again you know, it just still had too many things that went against him as far as… you know I'm a fighter and most fighters would prefer to fight instead of wrestle and that's my biggest…that's my real, truly biggest complain of the whole fight was the fact that Ricky Hatton's main fight plan was to wrestle and hold, back him back on to the ropes, that's not boxing, even when Kostya tried to do it back the referee wouldn't let it happen you know there was only one person going to do all the holding and it was like if it was already said "Ricky Hatton is going to win" and that's that. I do feel bad that I couldn't of done more to get him ready for, you know he picked me (to train with Kostya) because I throw a lot of punches and I apply a lot of pressure but he should have picked somebody else that do a lot of holding so he could have been better prepared.
Ha, ha... So you say he should have picked a wrestler for his preparation in training for the Hatton fight instead of you?
Yeah! Because when he picked me, he picked a person that likes to fight. That's me, to help him get ready. He didn't pick someone that likes to hold, cause I don't like to do that nor do I like to get held. If me and Ricky fight, I already know how the fight is going to turn out, it's going to turn out just like me and Micky Ward, because that's who he reminds me of a younger Micky Ward. Ricky likes to go to the body much like Ward used to is that why? Yes, although he holds. ***Ricky uses many tactics like when he uses his head to split your gloves. He head buts a lot if you look back on that film whenever Kostya Tszyu was on the ropes, first thing Ricky would do was to put his head right between Kostya's hands (guard) to split the middle***.
***Ricky is crafty***