By Mike Coppinger
BoxingScene.com caught up with welterweight Randall Bailey (41-7, 36 KOs) at the Broadway Boxing show in Brooklyn, N.Y. this past Saturday to discuss the 36-year-old contender’s upcoming plans. Bailey was there to work the corner of fellow Floridian Danie van Staden – a third round knockout victim of Gabriel Bracero in the main event.
“The Knock-Out King” advised BoxingScene.com that his next bout will come on Sept. 3 on the undercard of the IBF title fight between Jan Zaveck-Andre Berto in Biloxi, Miss., possibly against British fighter Ashley Theophane (30-4-1, 8 KOs).
“Easy money,” Bailey proclaimed regarding the prospects of a fight with Theophane. “He got a big mouth too. I’ve already said so much to him on Facebook, he don’t want it with me. We already offered him a fight once before and he turned it down. So I don’t know why he’s running his mouth. “
Bailey, considered one of the biggest punchers in the sport, is not impressed to say the least with his potential foe’s power.
“That boy can’t crack an egg,” Bailey declared.
Bailey is currently the mandatory for the winner of Berto and Zaveck, so he already has his sights on the prohibitive favorite in the HBO bout, Berto.
“I’ve been wanting to fight [Berto], but it was always up to him,” Bailey said. “If he wanted to fight me, I never said no. He doesn’t put himself on my dinner plate by taking a fight with Zaveck.
“Now [Berto] can’t say ‘No he don’t want to fight’, he’s gotta take the fight now, or be stripped. I wish he still [was considered to have the greatest chin], so when I do knock him out, everybody knows he’s got a glass chin for real.”
Mike Coppinger is a regular boxing freelancer for USA TODAY and Ring Magazine. He’s a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, the Ring Ratings Advisory Panel and the Yahoo! Sports Boxing Panel. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger.
