By Per Ake Persson
200+ amateur fights, 37-0 in the pros, countless number of tough sparring sessions, 34-year old Danish welter Thomas Damgaard, a southpaw, has seldom failed to excite with his brawling take no prisoner style of boxing. He is currently in training for the biggest fight of his long career as he takes on another crowd pleasing veteran Arturo Gatti on January 28 in Atlantic City.
Q: When do you leave for the United States?
A: We depart on January 21.
Q: Does that leave enough time to recover from jetlag, adjust to weather, etc?
A: Oh yes, all of my heavy training will be done by then, my weight is allright and I´m in great shape. The last week is more to recharge the batteries.
Q: How do you see the Gatti fight? How do you plan to fight him? It´s for 12 rounds, right?
A: Yes, it´s 12 rounds, it´s for the IBA title. It´s going to be a war, we are very similar in styles but I feel I´m the stronger fighter.
I´m a full blown welterweight while he comes up from 140 and that should give me an advantage. We haven´t made any definite plans on tactics. I got a lot of experience by now and know what to do and when to do it. I will feel him out and then we take it from there.
Q: You sparred a lot with former EBU champ Christian Bladt (who fought another Damgaard sparring partner - Maxim Nesterenko, on the Kessler vs Lucas show), loser of five of his last six, what do say about him, is he over the hill?
A: Christian? No, I don´t think so. We alreday know each other very well from the amateurs. I think Christian still has it, he may lack a little in conditioning but other than that there´s no problem.
Q: You also recently switched your trainer, why was that?
A: Well, it´s not much to it, My old trainer John Johannesson retired as there wasn´t much going on in my career for awhile. Poul Duvill took over, but John and his wife are invited and will be with me in Atlantic City.
Q: Is there any change in how you train now?
A: Not really, Poul has had me work very hard in the gym and I´m in great shape.
Q: Assisting Poul is retired heavyweight Brian Nielsen, how did that come about?
A: We are good friends, I was with Brian to the U.S. when he prepared for the Mike Tyson fight and now he helps me.
Q: Let´s say you beat Gatti, who do you want next?
A: Oscar De La Hoya. I´ve always wanted to to fight him. If Oscar can´t make 147 anymore, I´ll meet him halfway. Floyd Mayweather is also out there.
(note: I heard a rumor that Main Events´ Carl Moretti has stated that if Damgaard beats Gatti, they would want to make Damgaard vs Gatti II).
A: And if you lose to Gatti?
Q: I haven´t thought about that. I guess it depends on how I lose. If I get knocked out baldy, I don´t think I would want to go on.
A: You have a lot of business outside of boxing, don´t you?
A: I have some real estate, yes.
Q: In the summer of 05 you were all set, or so it seemed, to challenge Oktay Urkal for the EBU title, but then you pulled out, what happened?
A: I needed more time to prepare. Another thing is that I have already been the EBU champion in two weight divisions. I wanted to have a big fight, a world title fight and as it was I did the right thing.
Q: You were waiting a long time for this WBA title fight to happen.
A: Yeah, first I was to have fought Trabant, then Jose Rivera, then my father was very ill and eventually passed away and Rivera got injured. I got sick and then Rivera lost the title to Luis Collazo. It´s been a long wait, but now I´m ready for Gatti!
