"Victor Ortiz showed a lot of heart in doing so, which a lot of people questioned if he had heart. He's a big strong dude and he's a lefty. People say Floyd has trouble with lefties, and he hits hard and again, he's young. That's a pretty interesting fight and Floyd is coming off of a 16-month layoff. Who else is out there doing that when they take time off; challenging a young hungry lion? He's not fighting retreads, he's fighting a young gun and I can't wait for the 24/7's. Obviously, love or hate Floyd, he's always entertaining and it's going to be interesting to watch," stated world-class boxing and MMA trainer Ron Frazier as he shared his thoughts on Mayweather-Ortiz and a number of other recent fights, including Klitschko-Haye, Williams-Lara, Khan-Judah and much more. Check it out!
PC: As much as it pains me to bring it up, Haye/Klitschko was supposed to be the fight to make not only fans, but networks interested in the heavyweight division again. Obviously it did not do that. What were your thoughts on the fight and the division?
RF: It's the same ol' same ol' in the heavyweight division. The Klitschkos are just so big that if you're not an athletic 6'3" to 6'4" about 235-pound fighter, you really don't stand a chance. I mean, I knew what David Haye was going to do. He talked his way into a great payday where he got $15 million and a 50/50 split with Wladimir, but he's just not big enough to do any real damage. He would have had to take chances and use his speed and he didn't want to do that because he didn't want to get hit, and you saw that throughout the fight. He was scared to engage because he was worried about this guy, who outweighs him by about 40 pounds, and what was going to happen in return fire. It's the same ol' same ol'. If you look down the heavyweight charts, what do you have? You don't have no young, up-and-coming heavyweight that you want to see. You don't have anyone like Tyson that is creating a buzz by knocking people out in 30 seconds. You just got retreads and guys who are boring to watch fight.
PC: Paul Williams got a questionable decision to say the least. The judges were, in turn, suspended, but the decision wasn't changed and I personally thought the suspension went hand in hand with the decision, so I felt that the decision should have been changed as well.
RF: Absolutely. Lara took a lot of punches in that fight and he gave out a lot of punches to Paul Williams, who I think is done; shop worn. His style and the way he fights, as far as moving up in weight and then moving back down, it's taken a toll on him. And obviously the Sergio Martinez knockout took a toll on what I think was left of his career. And like you said, suspending the judges was all fine and dandy because you're saying, "Hey, there was something amiss and this was a bad decision," but why are you suspending them? Was it because the decision was bad or was there some improprieties going on? I think you have to be very careful to clarify that. Are you saying something went on where they were going to give Paul Williams the decision no matter what, or are they bad judges that need to be retrained? Those are separate issues if you're going to do that. So now, these judges have a stain because you suspend them, but now you have to clarify for the boxing fans why did you suspend them. Was it something amiss, did a promoter do something, did some fight camp do something or do they lack training? I think there was no follow-up in that direction and that causes a problem because not only does Lara have a stain on his record, but now these judges have a stain and we don't know why. Yeah, it was a bad decision, but there are a lot of bad decisions in boxing. You have to be very clear on why you're doing it so at least these people...you can say, "Hey, they are honest people and they are trying to put forth their best effort; they just got it wrong." I don't want them to be tainted with something that they're not supposed to be tainted with unless that evidence is there.
PC: I think ever since we have been talking, you were never too fond of Paul Williams because you felt maybe he needed a second set of eyes in his camp. You were quick to point out his physical advantages, but never really felt he utilized them.
RF: Absolutely. I mean, you look at his fights, you can go back to the Margarito fight, he faded late in that fight and he was getting hit a lot. His style is fun and exciting, but it's not like he's a big puncher. He has okay pop, but he's not like Tommy Hearns was at welterweight when he was 6'1" and devastating people. He was a guy who had pretty decent pop, no head movement, and he is 6'1" with an 83-inch reach, which is tough for people to overcome, but I started looking at this guy and saying, "There is nothing special about him. He doesn't make people miss and make them pay for missing." I knew at some point that was going to cost him in his career. Once he got in there with guys who were either just as big who can thump, or guys who were really good defensively or they were volume punchers themselves, what else does he bring to the table other than going straight forward and throwing a lot of punches that he don't even land? It's not like he's landing 50% of those punches. Yeah, he'll throw a thousand punches, but he only lands 250 of them, and a connect percentage of 25% is just not getting the job done. And you're right, his trainers don't seem to think that there is nothing wrong with that style and that's why his career has kind of run its course. I don't think he can recover from the punishment that he's taken in these fights. Somewhere along the line, they think he can and I think if he faces Lara again, I think he will lose and if they land this Martinez rematch, they are trying to close his career out when he gets knocked out again. I don't know if it would be in the 2nd round, but he gets knocked out again against Sergio Martinez. Sergio Martinez is still ascending, even though he is in his late 30's and Paul Williams is not.
PC: This goes for David Haye and Paul Williams, but as a trainer, if you have a fighter that's 30 years old and already talking about retirement, that can't be a good thing, right?
RF: There is something about that. It tells me that it is something in them that says, "Hey, I'm closer to the end of my career than the beginning." Or maybe they just don't want to sacrifice...there comes a point in every athlete's career in every sport where it's not worth it anymore. You start to look for that exit door and for guys so young to start doing it is rather obscure. If they were undefeated and they had a Mike Tyson or Larry Holmes type of run and then they say, "One more and I'm done," maybe I can understand it, but these guys haven't had that kind of career, so I'm not understanding it unless there is something there in the back of their mind where they know the clock is ticking. It has to be something inside of them saying, "Let's get out of this."
PC: Devon Alexander is another guy that you have expressed to me may need another set of eyes in his corner. What are your thoughts on Alexander as a fighter?
RF: Maybe we overhyped him a little bit and overrated him. Maybe the guys they were fighting was past the point in their career; maybe Urango was done and got hit with that shot to let us know that he was done. Instead of saying that it's Urango, we try to be objective and go, "Okay, maybe this guy is that good. Maybe he is the next big thing," and it turns out that he's not the next big thing. One thing about him is he moves and runs a little too much, so either he is going to have to get better strength and conditioning in his camp so that he can move that much in a 12-round fight or learn to slide to the left and right a little bit. He wastes so much energy moving. He was getting tired, and plus he gets hit a lot and that was zapping his strength even more, so something's gotta give. They had times where he would slip to his left and right and he was fine because he could stay in the pocket and not get hit, but he can not do it at a sustained pace?
PC: Yeah, even Roy Jones made comments about his wasted movement, bouncing straight up and down as opposed to side to side or whatever.
RF: There has got to be a reason why you're moving and if you want to have that style where you move a lot and utilize a big ring, then you better have the strength and conditioning to back that up. They should be training 9-minute rounds instead of 3-minute rounds; whatever it takes. Something has got to give and maybe a second set of eyes...you know, loyalty is an awesome thing. As a trainer, I admire that and I like that and I want my fighters to be loyal, but at some point, you have to look at your career as a fighter and go, "Something ain't right. I'm missing something that I need." You may have to look at your trainer or somebody, but something needs to be changed. You saw Zab Judah bring in Pernell Whitaker and it didn't work out the way they wanted it to, but he did have a fresh set of eyes, and not only that, those are Hall of Fame eyes.
PC: Zab Judah is the next guy I wanted to talk about. I compare him to Shane Mosley because I see a guy that can still look tremendous on a scale, but just can't pull the trigger anymore, and Whitaker was giving great advice in the corner.
RF: Absolutely I can say Zab Judah is the poor man's Shane Mosley because at least Shane, in his biggest fights against Oscar De La Hoya, he won, but who has Shane really beat outside of that. Well, when you look at Zab Judah, he's beaten a lot of people, but when he's stepped up to that next level, he hasn't been able to close the deal, so you definitely have to look at mentally what he's bringing to the table. And yeah, he can get in great shape at his age, but you know what? Pernell Whitaker was telling him what he needed to do and he didn't do none of it. Now on the other hand, Amir Khan, I think he is a good fighter, but HBO please get off of him; please stop riding his jock. I mean, they were 30 seconds into the fight and nothing had happened yet and they were talking about how much physically bigger he was than Zab Judah and how he was imposing his will. They were only 30 seconds into the fight and he's imposing his will? He hasn't even thrown a punch yet. He hadn't even done anything yet, so it's like, come on man. It was absolutely ridiculous. So then after he wins the fight, they were like, "He is an elite performer because when Zab steps up in competition, he's never been able to beat an elite performer, so obviously Amir Khan is an elite performer." Also, Zab Judah is 33 years old now. He's on the backside of his career, so Amir Khan, at this stage of his career, is supposed to be able to handle guys like Zab Judah. The thing is this, after the fight, when they interview him, they say, "We know when you got knocked out, you drained yourself to make 135 and that's the reason it happened." No, he got hit with a good shot. Give the other guy his props and give him his credit. He hit him with a good shot and got him out of there. It had nothing to do with him cutting weight to 135 because I had never heard that before about him being drained at 135 until he got knocked out. Yeah, the kid is growing and he's getting bigger, but I don't think he will grow into a full-fledged welterweight. I think he is a big 140-pounder. Let's see when he steps up in competition how it goes for him. I mean, his last 3 fights...let's not forget, they weren't all that spectacular.
PC: You can hate him or love him, but Floyd Mayweather announcing a ring return is big news in boxing. Do you like this Victor Ortiz fight?
RF: I love this fight. It's like, "I can't get Manny Pacquiao, so what do I do? I'm not gonna fight has-beens or retreads, but I'm going to go out and get a young champion; ayoung guy who is hungry who just kinda resurrected his career in a fight where nobody thought he was going to beat Andre Berto coming in." Victor Ortiz showed a lot of heart in doing so, which a lot of people questioned if he had heart. He's a big strong dude and he's a lefty. People say Floyd has trouble with lefties, and he hits hard and again, he's young. That's a pretty interesting fight and Floyd is coming off of a 16-month layoff. Who else is out there doing that when they take time off; challenging a young hungry lion? He's not fighting retreads, he's fighting a young gun and I can't wait for the 24/7's. Obviously, love or hate Floyd, he's always entertaining and it's going to be interesting to watch.
PC: We can't let this much time past without having you on. I got a few hate emails with people just kinda thinking I wasn't on my job getting you on. Give me some closing thoughts Ron.
RF: Thanks for the love, I appreciate those people and you know what? We're just busy, that's all. We missed each other a couple of times, but I'm always here and available for you Percy and for FightHype.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]