"When you look at the talent in this whole entire world, when you mention the top 10 or 15, you have to mention my name. So anybody in the top 15 on down, I would love to fight them. I don't duck no one. I always seek out the best fights, and not the best fights in terms of I know I can beat him and get another win. I have 21 fights as a professional; I ain't got no business fighting no damn bum like Deontay Wilder is about to do with over 30 fights. He still fighting tomato cans, man. This is why the heavyweight division has been watered down," stated heavyweight contender Amir Mansour, who shared his thoughts Deontay Wilder and much more. Check it out!
PC: Amir, you back in the gym putting in work, huh?
AM: Yeah man, I'm back in the gym working, you know. I'm in here trying to take things to a whole 'nother level, you know. Each fight is a learning experience; whether it's win, lose or draw, it's a learning experience. I'm just taking the experience from my last fight and doing the best I can with it moving forward.
PC: You told Cunningham and Naazim after the fight that you had to make some adjustments in your camp. Do you feel you have made those adjustments?
AM: Oh, fa sure, man. This is a professional sport, man, so you're gonna have to be a master when mastering this craft and you have to deal with what it takes in order to move forward. At the end of the day, you have to be a professional because everybody else is. I have definitely been making the proper adjustments, but the fight with Steve is not gonna define what adjustments I make. It's only gonna be a pedestal to help me make certain adjustments. There are a lot of things as professional fighters that we can do to better ourselves in that ring, you know what I mean. So not necessarily trying to take this fight and make a blueprint off of it, but taking everything that I have and that I don't have and using that as an example to move forward with my craft.
PC: Do you feel like the heavyweight division is in a better place as opposed to when you and I first started talking and you thought it was terrible?
AM: A little bit, man. It's really not anywhere near where it has the potential to be because everybody ducking each other. I will speak for Arreola. Arreola has stepped it up as far as fighting top heavyweights. He represents the country when it comes to that. He ain't ducking anybody besides me. But besides Arreola, I can't think of any. Arreola comes and puts on a good show and puts his heart out there, but besides him and myself, everybody else is playing this politic games. Deontay Wilder goes on some website talking about he'll knock me out and I'm old and I'm this and I'm that, and he's fighting Jason Gavern, you understand what I'm saying. That's somebody that I knocked out in less than 2 minutes. He's supposed to be the future of this sport and that's the type of guy that they go out to get for him to fight. It don't make no difference who he fights, but he's always fighting these bums. He hasn't fought nobody really. I believe the best guy that he's fought was Price, and like I have said before, anybody can go look at him and Price's fight and see he hit Price in the back of the head; the referee ain't let the man get himself together and he took him out. But having said that, he still ain't fought nobody. He hasn't fought anybody and they counting him as the best thing in the sport right now and that's crazy to me. And they continue to play the politics and they protecting him. And that's understandable you wanna protect your fighter, you wanna sneak him in and get him to the top, but look at what's happening over the last 10 years. We protect them, and then we sneak them in and then we get them to the top and then they go over there against one of the Klitschko's and get annihilated. I think that it's safe to say that anybody that ever saw me fight knows that if I go over there and fight Klitschko, they know it's gonna be a rumble and it's gonna be a fight. And win, lose or draw, it's gonna be a good fight. It's not gonna be one of those fights where a guy is gonna go over there and lay down and get beat all up. We are both gonna leave with some bruises and the best man is gonna win, but it's gonna be a fight. With a lot of these guys, you already know they gonna go over there and get beat up. A lot of these heavyweight championship fights, we haven't even been interested in watching them. Stiverne and Arreola fought for a world title on ESPN, man. On ESPN, so to the Showtime and HBO's and these big networks, that fight wasn't even worth showcasing and that was a heavyweight championship fight, which is ridiculous. Haye and Wladimir fought each other, two heavyweight champions of the world colliding, and it wasn't even a pay-per-view match. Come on, man. And as long as we keep playing these politics and ducking each other and not giving people what they really want, this is what's gonna keep happening. We gonna remain underpaid and we gonna remain under watched.
PC: Any talks of a rematch with Cunningham?
AM: I think a rematch is out of the question. I don't think that his camp really wants it. I know my camp really wants it, but we haven't been able to make that deal and we should have been able to. It was such a good fight, people really want to see it again. But I'm just moving forward, man. I would love to fight a Tomasz Adamek or Wilder or Arreola; anybody. When you mention the top 10 to 15 heavyweights in the world, you gotta mention my name. I've earned that. When you look at the talent in this whole entire world, when you mention the top 10 or 15, you have to mention my name. So anybody in the top 15 on down, I would love to fight them. I don't duck no one. I always seek out the best fights, and not the best fights in terms of I know I can beat him and get another win. I have 21 fights as a professional; I ain't got no business fighting no damn bum like Deontay Wilder is about to do with over 30 fights. He still fighting tomato cans, man. This is why the heavyweight division has been watered down.
PC: You hold Evander Holyfield in high regard. He recently announced his retirement from the sport. What are your thoughts on him as a fighter and his retirement?
AM: From a financial perspective, we don't know his situation. We heard some rumors or whatever about him from a financial perspective, so maybe his longevity in the sport was based from a financial standpoint. We don't know. But he's such a warrior and courageous fighter that sometimes these guys have fighting embedded so deep into their heart that it's hard for them to walk away. They are just born fighters. Evander Holyfield is a true warrior and a true fighter and so maybe that was the case. It was just hard for him to walk away from something that he's been doing since he was a kid and he finally realized at the end of the day it's time for him. I think he's 50 plus years old and come on; I tell you this much, if he goes away and trains properly, the way this heavyweight division is, these dudes ducking everybody and fighting a bunch of bums, half of the top 15 in the world couldn't beat him. He really had every right to stick around with the state that the heavyweight division has been in. And sometimes we look and we say, "Why did he sour his legacy? He should have walked away at this point or walked away at that point," but you know what? He's been one of those fighters that's given us great championship fights and he's given us great fights and we gotta respect that and we gotta applaud every decision that he's made when it comes to boxing.
PC: I hope to see you back in the ring soon. Best of luck training and keep me posted. Is there anything else you want to add?
AM: Okay, fam. You take it easy, man, and I thank y'all at FightHype and as soon as I got something coming up, you already know y'all will be the first ones to know.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]