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“Unlike Nigel Benn and Michael Watson, I wasn’t fed patsies on the way up.
“Denys Cronin and Ron Malek were extremely strong, very persistent fighters; while Johnny Melfah was a proper contender who came closer to knocking me out with a punch than anyone ever.
“I fought W.B.C-rated Anthony Logan in just my 12th fight. He had a lot of clean knockouts with his left-hook punch and I absorbed it cleanly in the second-round of our contest.
“Eric Holland broke my rib in a clinch with his elbow in the first-round, and got up from a perfect right-hand in the last-round.
“I was left to feed on the fighters who couldn’t get fights, because I couldn’t get fights.”
“You couldn’t find a more slippery, hard-chinned fighter than Eduardo Contreras, even if you fished out James Toney in America.
“It wasn’t easy. I didn’t get on live TV until then, and I had to beat a champion who’d beat everyone he’d fought (to get there). I didn’t have it handed to me, like Watson and more so Benn. I didn’t have patsies in front of me to roll through.
“Camara and Melfah were European Top-10 and Benn and Watson never even got that far.
“It was hard fighting someone like Kid Milo, but I respected him more than the contenders in the World at the time because he took the fight. I didn’t respect him more than the champions of the World, because they’d already earned that position and I wasn’t mandated.
“With someone like Milo, there wasn’t a lot I could do with him. Barry McGuigan said, `If you knock him out in one, two, three, (or) four rounds; they say he was a push-over. If he takes you 12-rounds, they say it was a poor performance. You cannot win Chris.’
“So what I decided to do was knock him out in the sixth-round and wait for the referee to stop it, and I did.
“I wanted to make a statement against (Renaldo) Dos Santos, and figured I could only really do that by lining him up for the knock-out punch right away.”
“Gerald McClellan was one of the publication pound-for-pound Top-10 boxers going into his legendary fight with Nigel Benn.
“Against myself and against McClellan a few fights later, Benn mixed his punching power with both movement and consideration.
“We were both boxer-punchers, myself and McClellan. I got a draw... and for once I wasn’t in the zone.
“The publications, the writers... they are very subjective. You don’t live by the subjective, in any avenue of lifemanship. That is why regulations and obligations exist, you know?
“The objective is the thing. The subjective brings justifications, and the more of those - the more justifications - the more negativity clamps in.
“There always needs to be a code, (and) rules to go by, because that is proper. If you make (World) champion, for example, don’t dodge the number-one contender.
“In accordance with the warriors code - take your beating, even if you quit.”
These were taken from a Dubai sports magazine, '08
“Denys Cronin and Ron Malek were extremely strong, very persistent fighters; while Johnny Melfah was a proper contender who came closer to knocking me out with a punch than anyone ever.
“I fought W.B.C-rated Anthony Logan in just my 12th fight. He had a lot of clean knockouts with his left-hook punch and I absorbed it cleanly in the second-round of our contest.
“Eric Holland broke my rib in a clinch with his elbow in the first-round, and got up from a perfect right-hand in the last-round.
“I was left to feed on the fighters who couldn’t get fights, because I couldn’t get fights.”
“You couldn’t find a more slippery, hard-chinned fighter than Eduardo Contreras, even if you fished out James Toney in America.
“It wasn’t easy. I didn’t get on live TV until then, and I had to beat a champion who’d beat everyone he’d fought (to get there). I didn’t have it handed to me, like Watson and more so Benn. I didn’t have patsies in front of me to roll through.
“Camara and Melfah were European Top-10 and Benn and Watson never even got that far.
“It was hard fighting someone like Kid Milo, but I respected him more than the contenders in the World at the time because he took the fight. I didn’t respect him more than the champions of the World, because they’d already earned that position and I wasn’t mandated.
“With someone like Milo, there wasn’t a lot I could do with him. Barry McGuigan said, `If you knock him out in one, two, three, (or) four rounds; they say he was a push-over. If he takes you 12-rounds, they say it was a poor performance. You cannot win Chris.’
“So what I decided to do was knock him out in the sixth-round and wait for the referee to stop it, and I did.
“I wanted to make a statement against (Renaldo) Dos Santos, and figured I could only really do that by lining him up for the knock-out punch right away.”
“Gerald McClellan was one of the publication pound-for-pound Top-10 boxers going into his legendary fight with Nigel Benn.
“Against myself and against McClellan a few fights later, Benn mixed his punching power with both movement and consideration.
“We were both boxer-punchers, myself and McClellan. I got a draw... and for once I wasn’t in the zone.
“The publications, the writers... they are very subjective. You don’t live by the subjective, in any avenue of lifemanship. That is why regulations and obligations exist, you know?
“The objective is the thing. The subjective brings justifications, and the more of those - the more justifications - the more negativity clamps in.
“There always needs to be a code, (and) rules to go by, because that is proper. If you make (World) champion, for example, don’t dodge the number-one contender.
“In accordance with the warriors code - take your beating, even if you quit.”
These were taken from a Dubai sports magazine, '08
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