"The heavyweight division could easily be the most popular division again, but they are not executing the fights that need to be made. They are not making guys fight tough competition and it’s sad. How the hell you got a guy like me, American heavyweight, and I can’t get a damn fight...It’s just hard for me to get top quality fighters to fight me, man," stated heavyweight contender Amir Mansour, who had a lot to say about other contenders in the heavyweight division. Check it out!
PC: What’s going on with you on the boxing front of things? The heavyweight division is being talked about a lot right now and yet, no mention of Amir Mansour on the mainstream level.
AM: It’s just fucking sad, man. It really is sad, bro. Here you have one of the top fucking heavyweights in the country, one of the most decorated...I don’t even know who is more decorated than me in terms of winning all of these little titles. I don’t even know what heavyweight is more decorated. I say none of them because none of them has won every sanctioning organizations junior title I have. And they still manage not to mention my name. And then behind closed doors, whenever one of these pussies is asked to fight me, they come up with an excuse and they wiggle their way out of it. Dillian Whyte had the opportunity to fight me twice and he didn’t want to see me, but he jumped at the opportunity to fight a bum and a nobody [Lucas Browne]. We can’t even remember the guy's names that Whyte has fought since he lost to Joshua. He don’t want to fight a name. he knows Eddie Hearn is in a great position to put him right back in that mandatory position, and he can fight his way back fighting bums. The heavyweight division could easily be the most popular division again, but they are not executing the fights that need to be made. They are not making guys fight tough competition and it’s sad. How the hell you got a guy like me, American heavyweight, and I can’t get a damn fight?
PC: Just to clarify things, this isn’t you wanting time off from boxing.
AM: Hell no! I would love to fight every other month if I could. When I fought Travis Kaufmann for the USA/WBC title, the winner was supposed to fight Wilder. That was a fucking year ago. You understand what I’m saying? That was a year ago. We fought in November; that ended up as a draw on my record because of the headbutt and stuff. As far as American fighters, “Big Baby” [Jarrell Miller], he was asked to fight me. Would you believe that this guy said, “No, he hits too hard.” Who does that? You’re a heavyweight and you running from a guy that's supposed to be an old man. At the end of the day, man, the heavyweight division is terrible because the promoters are no longer calling these guys and saying, “Hey, you’re going to fight such and such on such and such date.” They are calling these guys and saying, “Hey, do you want to fight such and such?” And, they are saying, ‘No! I don’t want to fight them, get me somebody else.”
PC: You have always had a timetable in your mind of when you wanted to walk away. Is that timetable getting close for you for when you say, “You know what, I’ve had enough of this.”
AM: Yeah! All the time I have those thoughts. I’m such a fighter, man. I love doing this. I absolutely love it and doing it, so it’s hard to walk away. But there does come a time when you say, “You know what, I have done all that I can do.” And when you don’t have nobody else in this business trying to see you through, there is nothing more that you can really do. I mean, come on, man; the WBO junior title, the WBA junior title, the WBC junior title, IBF junior title, WBF junior title...I can’t fight for the world title (laughing)? Majority of these guys win one little junior title and they go off and get their title shot. I done won them all and I can’t get one title shot? It’s funny at this point. I can just laugh about it. It’s unbelievable that the people that I thought I had in my corner...it’s just unbelievable that this is the result. It’s unbelievable that they just can’t make no moves that somebody else could make. There are promoters out there that would love to have a fighter with my record, my knockout power, and my skills. It’s just crazy, man.
PC: Keep me in the loop, my man, and I hope something comes up for you soon.
AM: I may be fighting next month in Chicago. We’re still working out the details on that. I told them that I don’t want to fight somebody with a loss on their record. I want them to try and get somebody that was undefeated first. As always, I gotta fight the best competition that I can find. I can’t fight no bum. I can’t fight no trash truck driver like these guys. I gotta go out and fight the toughest guy that I can find, which is cool with me because I’m a boxing fan as well and I don’t want to contribute to the downsizing and disrespect that these guys are giving to the sport. I don’t want to contribute to that. When they are talking about this era of heavyweight boxing, I want to be one of the guys that stand out. I have beaten guys with winning records and it did nothing for me, so if I go fight a bum, that really wouldn’t make no sense. It’s just hard for me to get top quality fighters to fight me, man.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]