"I knew I wasn’t in 12-round championship fight shape. At the end of the day, man, sometimes you just have to go for it and make sacrifices and that’s what I did...I was just really angry that financially I just had to take the fight. I’m just being honest. Financially I had to take the fight and that angered me," stated heavyweight contender Amir Mansour, who talked about his recent loss, his future plans, and much more. Check it out!
PC: You have always been pretty honest in your assessment of yourself and your career. You recently posted about your 3rd round knockout loss to Filip Hrgovic. You said you got put down and got your ass kicked. Seems like an honest assessment of what you felt happened over in Croatia.
AM: I’m a brutally honest guy. Honestly, I started out training camp in April for the Kuzmin rematch. We were supposed to fight June 19th. Then we were supposed to fight June 17th. Then we were supposed to fight July 15th. Then we were supposed to fight August 18th. Around $7,500. My management always do what they are supposed to do. They always stand by me when it’s time to get ready for a fight. At that time, we were ready to rumble. Once the fight got cancelled for the August 18th date, I basically slacked off. I still was running here and there and hitting that damn heavy bag, but we wasn’t sparring or anything. So then we did get a call around the 15th of August to fight this guy Filip. So I was like, “Okay, I’m in pretty decent shape, I can get there and make it happen for September 8th.” But then, right after the signing of the contract, a week later, I’m told that that fight is off. So at that point, I’m so frustrated and I’m not doing anything obviously. Then me and Kuzmin signed that we were going to fight again for September 22nd (laughing). Then Filip’s people got back with us after about 2 weeks of not hearing anything from them and then we were hearing that they were fighting somebody else. They got back with us saying, ‘No, the fight is on.” So it was a big miscommunication on our part and their part. At that point, I knew I wasn’t in 12-round championship fight shape. At the end of the day, man, sometimes you just have to go for it and make sacrifices and that’s what I did.
PC: Did you know anything about him heading over there?
AM: Nah, I knew nothing, man. I knew absolutely nothing about him. All I heard was that he was 5-0, but he’s actually 31-1 (laughing). I knew he had won a Bronze Medal in the Olympics and he was 5-0. They do this tournament over there where they don’t count it towards their record. From what I heard, he’s 31-1. But it is what it is. I ain’t making no excuses at all. Nobody forced me to go. He did what he had to do in my opinion.
PC: You were stopped in the third. Could you talk us through what you were feeling and what was going on in your mind?
AM: Mentally I wasn’t there. I wasn’t into the fight at all. He wasn’t fast at all. Sometimes I get bull headed, man, and… going into the fight, I was just really angry that financially I just had to take the fight. I’m just being honest. Financially I had to take the fight and that angered me. I was more angry than anything. I wasn’t focused at all. My mind was on mars, man. It wasn’t in that ring at all. I felt myself getting hit with stuff that I never get hit with. I said to myself, “I can make this into an all-out war and hope to God that I don’t get robbed on this shit or get lucky and land something.” But then it was like, I can do that or try to do that, but what risk am I taking in the process of that; do you want to fight again and if you do want to fight again, you might want to be smart and go ahead and accept the loss. That’s what it was. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not taking nothing from this guy. At the weigh-ins, he didn’t look that much taller than me, but I swear, when we got in that ring, he looked like his fucking arms were 50-feet long. I was having difficulty closing the gap on him, but of course a tall guy like that, you’re not going to close the gap until the later rounds. I just wasn’t conditioned enough to force a guy the way that I know how to force them in order to get their defense down and close that gap. I knew that I didn’t have the conditioning in me in order to do that.
PC: You are 46 years old now. I know just from texting back and forth with you that you feel you have to approach this thing a little differently now. Where do you go from here?
AM: Well, hopefully…alright, the reality is this, boxrec has everybody’s record online. When you look at my record, you see I have won 6 or 7 titles; decent serious titles, but I have never gotten a world title shot. Every time I won a title, instead of my career taking off, it’s almost like I get shelved. Me and Kauffman fight for the USA/WBC title; 12 rounds. We both put our all into it because we’re told that the winner gets Wilder. Well, after Kauffman, I don’t fight for a whole fucking year. I gotta vacate another title because nobody wants to fight me and I can’t defend it. So I really wasn’t hype to win the title because I have won so many already and it’s like these titles not going to change anything. I have won plenty of titles and after winning them, I don’t get my shot. I’ve seen guys win one fucking title and then go straight and fight for the world title. I just wasn’t all that enthusiastic. I told myself I would never fight for a check; I’m on the sideline with that, I’m just being real honest. At the end of the day, I just really love boxing. I love boxing, but I also know that you have to stay active in order to be able to compete. If you’re only fighting once a year or once every year and a half and then you go and fight somebody that’s fighting all the time, you’re going to have a hard time in those fights.
PC: I hate to hear how it went down in Croatia and definitely not a fan of all of your inactivity. Best of luck to you moving forward and keep me posted on your next move.
AM: As always, I appreciate everybody showing support. The thing is now, man, I’m hoping…it’s like, “Okay, I got my ass whipped, so maybe that will show some vulnerability and other guys will step up and I can get some consistent fights in.” The reality is when I’m knocking everybody out and I’m whooping everybody ass, I’m fighting once a year and I’m fighting every 18 months and that’s no way to survive in this game. So hopefully somebody will look at that fight and say, “I can do the same thing to him,” and we will start getting some calls and start being busy.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]