Mitchell turned down Cotto fight!

[borikua]

Mitchell said in an interview with Greg Leon that he turned down "nearly $800,000" to fight Cotto, cuz he can't make 140 anyome...any BT member that can post more info about this interview???

[SacTown1]

Mitchell said in an interview with Greg Leon that he turned down "nearly $800,000" to fight Cotto, cuz he can't make 140 anyome...any BT member that can post more info about this interview???

The guy nearly lost his life vs. Tszyu, I'm sure that the weight was just an excuse to preserve what little life he still has left

[AintGottaClue]

lol mitchell would get KO'd in 1 round at 140 or at 147

[Allen_Poe]

seeing as how Cotto steps into the ring at about 160, Cotto could fight him at whatever weight he wants

STOP ACTIN LIKE A *****, YOU SCARED!!

[PRboxingfan]

Here you go. I had to do some "trickery" to get it since they disabled highlighting and right-clicks on their web page. But here it is, nonetheless. Enjoy:


GL: What's good Sharmba? "Right now I'm just starting
to work out and I'm getting ready to get back in the
ring in a couple of months. You know they wanted me and
Cotto to fight, but I can't do it at 140. I would've
fought him at 145, but I can't go no lower than that no
more. I can't make 140 without draining myself and I
won't subject myself to that again."

GL: I hear you're no longer with Gary Shaw Productions,
who is your new promoter?

Sharmba Mitchell: "I don't have a promoter, Gary was
just acting as my promoter. Right now I'm a free agent."

GL: So if people out there want to make a fight with
Sharmba Mitchell who should they call?

SM: "They should call my office or call my management,
CMG."

GL: Do you have a target date for your welterweight
debut?

SM: "I want to go in May, but whenever they come up with
a date for me, I'm ready. I'm just ready to get back in
there some time soon. Right now I'm enjoying my time off
because for the last three years I've been fighting
constantly so this rest is serving me well. I needed a
break, I think I was wearing my body down."

GL: What do you think about Kostya Tszyu vs. Ricky
Hatton?

SM: "I think Tszyu's going to stop him but it's going to
be a pretty good fight."

GL: Do you like Tszyu early?

SM: "Yeah I do. Hatton doesn't know how to stay away and
you really got to be able to move around with Tszyu. If
you aren't great at moving around the ring with Tszyu
he's going to get you. And Hatton doesn't know how to
box like that."

GL: Who are some of the guys you're looking at for your
welterweight debut?

SM: "There's a few guys we're looking at, but obviously
Shane Mosley, Oscar De La Hoya and your man Zab Judah
are the guys I want to get to. You know they offered me
a date to fight Shane Mosley in February, but they
weren't offering no money, so I didn't take it."

GL: What's no money, like a couple of hundred grand?

SM: "Yep. So I was like they don't want this fight."

GL: It might not have been a good idea to fight Mosley
so shortly after the Tszyu fight.

SM: "I'm up for all challenges so I would have loved
that fight. The Tszyu thing there was a lot of weight
issues that hurt me in the ring. I'm a natural
welterweight and I think I stayed at junior welterweight
about a year and a half too long. I think junior
middleweight is a little too big for me, but
welterweight is the perfect place for me to be."

GL: Following the peformance against Tszyu, your critics
will say, 'Sharmba Mitchell is a good fighter with a
great record, but he doesn't have any real big, career
defining wins. How important is it to you to immediately
get yourself into the mix for a big fight at
welterweight so you can change that?

SM: "Very important. I don't want no tune-up fights or
junk like that, I want to fight the best out there and I
don't think I need tune-ups or things like that. The
game plan against Tszyu was for me to have the energy to
be able to move around and things like that, and I just
didn't have it. I know what I need to do and I have no
complaints about what happened with Tszyu, I just know
what I need to do to get where I want to go.

"Did you know they offered me damn near $800,000 to
fight Cotto at 140, but I wouldn't do it because I can't
fight at that weight no more."

GL: So they offered you almost $800,000 to fight Cotto?

SM: "Yeah."

GL: Isn't that more than you made to fight Tszyu?

SM: "Yeah. But I don't care about the money, it's not
more important to me than my health or my career. People
have no idea what it's like to make that weight and what
you have to go through to make it. There's no money out
there that could make me fight at junior welterweight,
but like I said if they want to make the fight at 145,
all they gotta do is call us."

[Fareastwarrior]

Put an extra zero behind the $800 0000 and wait for his reactions. Of course this won't happen, cause Mitchell is not worth 8 milion dollars. He can only dream about this. Mitchell's days are outnumbered, the Thunder of Down-Under smacked this guy into an uninteresting object.

[DLT]

I believe him. Why do people get upset when someone says they cant make weight no more after they lose when it is true. Alot of these fighters are killing themselves to make weight but they do it because they are mostly champs who havent lost in a long time even though they feel themselves slowing down. They will take it for as long as they can but whenever they lose they will say thats enough because I know that I wont be 100% at that weight anymore. Thats why guys like Mitchell and Spinks go up. Why would Mitchell be scared of Cotto and not Zoo? He knew that he couldnt be at his best at 140 anymore just like Spinks knew that he was getting slower at 147 and had to move up.

[Arfan1]

if hes getting old and less powerfull he is looking abiously for the moeny, his also probilly scared

[SacTown1]

Mitchell isn't exactly chiseled out of stone, I'm sure he could make 135 if he really trained hard, the fact is that when some fighters get embarassed in the ring at their natural fighting weight, they automatically use the Weight Card to justify their loss (Toney vs. Jones, Morales vs. Barrera 1, Spinks vs. Judah, Forrest vs. Mayorga, etc etc etc)....Mitchell knows that he'll never be at the top of the 140 lb division, so he used the Weight Card as an excuse for his lack of firepower and ability vs. Tszyu, I hate lousy excuses and weight is one of the lousiest

[Hisoka]

I believe him. Why do people get upset when someone says they cant make weight no more after they lose when it is true. Alot of these fighters are killing themselves to make weight but they do it because they are mostly champs who havent lost in a long time even though they feel themselves slowing down. They will take it for as long as they can but whenever they lose they will say thats enough because I know that I wont be 100% at that weight anymore. Thats why guys like Mitchell and Spinks go up. Why would Mitchell be scared of Cotto and not Zoo? He knew that he couldnt be at his best at 140 anymore just like Spinks knew that he was getting slower at 147 and had to move up.

I'll have to agree.