"I already let Mr. Haymon know that we down to do it. If Jermall wants it, we will go to Houston and fight for the IBF title. I think it would be a great fight. I got a lot of respect for Jermall and Ronnie Shields. I know they are going to put together a great game plan. They have seen Julian fight a bunch of times and we would have our work cut out for us," stated Stephen Edwards, world-class trainer of undefeated jr. middleweight contender Julian Williams, who talked about a potential clash with undefeated jr. middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. Check out what else he had to say!
STEPHEN EDWARDS ON POTENTIAL JULIAN WILLIAMS VS. JERMALL CHARLO CLASH:
Jermall and Julian is cool. I like Ronnie. We've seen each other on a lot of these cards. Julian is cool with both Charlo brothers and I like both of them. Julian said to me, 'Yo, listen, if you cool with somebody, y'all can help each other get some money. We can get paid together. Jermall is the champ. I don't think he deserved a title shot before I did, but nevertheless, he got a title shot, so I'll go to Houston and fight him. I respect the fact that he's a champion. I beat him, he can come to Philly and fight me.' He just has an old school mentality. Bernard Hopkins went to Ecuador to fight Segundo Mercado. James Toney went to Iowa to fight Michael Nunn and Marvin Hagler went on the road to fight Alan Minter and came to Philly to fight a bunch of killers. And for some reason, Julian don't have the red carpet rolled out for him. He gets treated real good, but there are other guys who get opportunities before him, so he just feel like if he could beat Jermall in Houston, then what kind of statement would that be about me being a killer amongst killers in this era. Like I said, I'm not going to hold him back. He feels like they could make some money together. It ain't personal, but, you know, it's funny Perc because he got a lot of respect for Jermall. He thinks he's a big puncher and he picked him to beat K9, but it's just certain things that he sees in him.
Fighter's look at fights different than people who analyze a fight. Fighters are a little bit more dismissive. So whenever Julian say something about a fighter, I take heave to it. And it's really, really crazy because he told me he was going to knock out Cuello in one. And he's always been like, "Man, Jermall can punch," and I'm not going to say exactly what he said because I don't want to tip off the game plan, but he's always known he could beat him. I swear he's always said he knows he's big, he knows he could punch, but he always felt he could beat him. And he told me how and I actually agree with him. And he's always said, "If I ever fight Austin Trout, I'm knocking him out." He told me that he would knock out Austin Trout when he fought on Austin Trout's undercard in San Antonio when Trout fought Canelo. He's always said it. He just said it under his breath like, "I'm telling you, I'll beat him right now." Back then, I said, "Julian, you gotta wait your turn." I think it's his turn. He's always seen something. Listen, he don't have no picks. Those are just the two guys that we keep hearing their names. A lot of people are whispering, everybody that works with Mr. Haymon, because we all work with the same staff, a lot of people are like, "Man, Julian and Jermall is the fight. Those are the two best guys that we have at 54. That's going to be the fight." Julian feels Jermall can't beat him. He don't know why everyone keeps thinking that's the fight. He told me, "I'm going to knock Jermall out." He's always told me that. I'm not going to hold him back, Perc. I told him, if you say you would go to Houston and fight this kid, then you gotta understand that he may call your bluff and say bring your ass to Houston. And Julian says, "I don't give a fuck. The people in Houston can't help him. And if I win, that mean I could fight my fights in Philly and be shotcalling. I don't care about going to Houston. I want the whole crowd to be against me." It's weird because the more people that's against him and pick against him, he use everything as fuel. He likes people picking guys against him. A reporter called me the other day and said, "Trout's too big of a step." I told Julian that and he said, "Let's go back in the gym and start working on some southpaw tactics."
I made him take a couple of days off. Even though the fight was easy, the camp was really grueling. He loves the negativity. He loves the fact that The Ring has Jermall ranked one over him. He thrives off of being the guy being overlooked. So if Jermall calls up Mr. Haymon and asked for us to come to Houston because he's going to call Julian's bluff, we going to Houston, Perc. That's real rap. It's up to Jermall because Julian has already told me that he wants to do it. I already let Mr. Haymon know that we down to do it. If Jermall wants it, we will go to Houston and fight for the IBF title. I think it would be a great fight. I got a lot of respect for Jermall and Ronnie Shields. I know they are going to put together a great game plan. They have seen Julian fight a bunch of times and we would have our work cut out for us. But the best soldiers are volunteers. Nobody wants to fight a 6'1" super middleweight that just knocked out K9. Jermall is going to be a super middleweight one day. He just knocked K9's head off. People usually don't call guys out like that, but for some reason, Julian don't care, man. We can rock and roll. If they want it, we could do it next. I'm not saying Jermall ducking him or scared, but I'm telling you we down to go. We going to make it easy. We willing to go to the guy's hometown. He's making the most money. It's up to him if he want to take the fight, and if not, we'll move on to somebody else.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]