"After Cotto won, you knew they were going to try to rehabilitate a Manny Pacquiao rematch or an Antonio Margarito rematch, neither of which deserves to happen. The catchweight thing would be absolutely ridiculous. I don't know how they would sell a catchweight fight for the 154-pound belt. They fought at a catchweight for the 147-pound title. What, is Cotto going to have to weigh in at 149 or something? That would just be ridiculous if that happened and it would be making a mockery of the title," stated world-class boxing/MMA trainer Ron Frazier as he shared his thoughts Miguel Cotto, Manny Pacquiao, Andre Ward and much more.
PC: How was your vacation, man?
RF: My vacation was good, man. I just went to one of the Loews Resorts and hung out. It was pretty good, very family-friendly and very kid-friendly. I had a good time. It was a good way to get out of the city for a couple of days. It was all good.
PC: I was shocked when you texted me back that you didn't even watch UFC 116 live. It's tough for me to stay away from the fights when I'm on vacation. Was it tough for you to stay away from everything?
RF: Normally, it is pretty hard, but you know what? I've been going hard for like 5 years strong with the amateur boxers, pro boxers and MMA guys. I really hadn't had a real vacation. I go away for fights, but no real vacation. It was time. I was due, so it wasn't that hard not to watch.
PC: I promised everyone I would ask you. You predicted victory for Yuri Foreman against Miguel Cotto and of course we know the result. What did you think of how that fight played out?
RF: I had it wrong. Miguel showed me that he had more in his tank than I thought and Yuri was not as good as his last fight indicated. But he [Yuri Foreman] did show me a lot of heart in that fight.
PC: A lot of people are crediting Emanuel Steward for the win and others are crediting the move up in weight. You disagree with both of those assessments though, right?
RF: I think I texted you during the fight a few times that they were going to give Manny way more credit than they should have. It was more of being a big step up in competition for Yuri and Miguel had a little bit more in the tank. But to me, Cotto's still not a legit 154-pounder and he came off of a loss and fought for a title, so that should tell people some stuff about where the matchup was going.
PC: And now there are rumors of Pacquiao-Cotto 2 for the junior middleweight title, but there are talks of a catchweight again. Does that fight remotely interest you?
RF: After Cotto won, you knew they were going to try to rehabilitate a Manny Pacquiao rematch or an Antonio Margarito rematch, neither of which deserves to happen. The catchweight thing would be absolutely ridiculous. I don't know how they would sell a catchweight fight for the 154-pound belt. They fought at a catchweight for the 147-pound title. What, is Cotto going to have to weigh in at 149 or something? That would just be ridiculous if that happened and it would be making a mockery of the title.
PC: Andre Ward thoroughly dominated Alan Green. Did that fight go as you expected it to?
RF: I wasn't surprised at all. I think Alan Green is better at 160 than he is at 168. Andre Ward is just on another level right now. He was really dialed in to what he wanted to do in the fight. I think Green kinda got on his nerves a little bit with all of the stuff he was talking. He fought on the inside; he fought a very smart fight and almost got him out of there. And then here comes the excuses from Alan Green. "I don't want to make no excuses, but it was my third training camp since December." You just got your butt kicked by a better fighter. A lot of them do it though. They say, "I'm not going to make no excuses," and then as soon as they say that, that's when you hear a million of them. He's a good fighter, but he's never going to be an elite fighter. He's a guy who would give a guy who is champion a hard time and if the champion is not on his P's & Q's, a guy like Green would beat him. But if he is a true champion, and is smart and dedicated to his craft, a guy like Alan Green would never beat those guys.
PC: You guys recently had guys from your camp fight one another in Tyson Griffin and Evan Dunham. Ward's next fight is against good friend and Olympic teammate Andre Dirrell. How difficult is that and who do you favor in that fight?
RF: I think it's very difficult. I think I favor Ward because I think Dirrell looked up to Ward, sort of like a big brother, so I have to kind of favor the big brother. I think Dirrell has the skills to beat Ward, but Ward is fighting at a different confidence level right now and Dirrell...we don't know. Even though he won the fight [against Arthur Abraham] and was winning it going away, we gotta see what that disqualification knockout took out of him mentally and how much does he respect Andre Ward? You can't be tentative in this type of fight. You kinda gotta go for it.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]