I read the interview that you had with Mr. [Sechew] Powell and there were a few things that stood out with me personally. One of them was when he spoke about K9 being a fraud and about his faith and Christianity. That touched home with me and was real personal on my end. To me, that is more serious than my husband being champ of the world. You know, I take that very seriously. To counteract what Sechew Powell said about my husband being a fraud in that area about God, this man is really a man of God. I'm right there with him and I'm seeing all of this. I see him studying his Bible; just all of the conversations that we have about God and just how powerful his conversations are when he talks about God like out of the water. K9 cannot have Bible study over the phone; he initiates conference calls for Bible study just like you do with boxing conference calls. He will call his friends and family members and have Bible study. What really takes the cake is this man has a big lime green sign and it says "Jesus Loves You Honk Your Horn." This man will stand at the corner on like a service drive and hold that sign up and people will be honking their horns. You know, you can't fake that. I mean, to do something like that, that has to come from within to do something like that. You can't fake having God in your life and go on a corner and do something like that. And this man is a world champion and holding a sign up saying "Jesus Loves You Honk Your Horn," you cannot fake that. That's impossible to fake something like that. You cannot manipulate God. God knows everything. You can't manipulate Him. You can't be saying to Him and crying out to Him and then He gives it to you knowing how you are going to act afterwards. You cannot manipulate God. God knows He gave us this world title knowing we were going to act accordingly to how we were supposed to act as Christians. If we weren't going to act that way, He wouldn't have gave us the world title. Sechew is saying we are faking it, but it is impossible to fake it and receive a bigger blessing to become a world champion. You know, God knows our hearts and He knows our intentions. Soon as He sees that, this person crying out to me because he wants something, but as soon as I give it to him, he is going to be out in the club or partying, doing this and doing that. He is not going to give it to you. So God wouldn't have given us this title if he thought we were faking it.
There's a quote from Sechew saying, "He has 9 months to give me a shot at the championship. If I had to guess on what kind of guy and what kind of fighter he is, he is going to wait the whole nine months and even after the nine months, unless he totally has to, I don't see him fighting me."
One thing I noticed about Sechew Powell is he wants to fight us on his terms. Not on our terms; he wants to fight us on his terms. The champ gets to decide when the fight is going to happen. That is why they have mandatory dates. They have the leverage to explore their options. They can do whatever they want to do until the mandatory is due. Those are options that the champ has. We didn't make the rules. The rules were set for a reason. We aren't about to jump into something when we have all the top guys just floating around the 154-pound division. He knows what happened last time when he was #1, so he doesn't want to take a chance with that happening again I guess. I'm not sure what his intentions are, sweating us or whatever he calls himself doing. That's why he is basically begging for a shot before his mandatory is due. So my question to you is what makes K9 afraid of you because he is exploring his options, making good business moves? If he was in this position, he would be laughing at the mandatory because the 154-pound division is so hot right now. He wouldn't be trying to get a fight with us if we were his mandatory. Because the division is so hot, he would be laughing at a mandatory right now.
Then his comment saying, "Yeah, he is trying to get a big name fighter and a payday, but what does that say about your confidence? What does that say about yourself as a fighter?"
I was reading that and I think the stuff he is saying makes no sense. Just because K9 is going after a named fighter means he is going into it to lose? I'm not sure what he was talking about when he made that comment. K9 has never been a fighter that fights just for money. He has never had an opponent mentality. Whenever he steps in the ring, he steps in to win. Even though he has come in as an opponent sometimes, in his heart, he knows he is the favorite within himself. Whoever he gets in the ring with, he knows he can beat. A couple years ago, we were offered $200,000 on 12-days notice to fight. If K9 was about the money, he would've taken the fight. One thing about us, we are about winning first.
Then he said, "That means you don't feel you can win fights and earn big paydays or win fights and become the guy who is the name who is worthy of a big payday."
Again, my question to him is, so winning the championship shouldn't earn big paydays? What is the purpose of winning the championship if you can't get a payday off being a champ? I don't understand that. What is the purpose of being champ if you can't get a payday off of being champ of the world? I don't know where he gets his comments or questions; I'm not sure. In regards to our title fight, we didn't knockout a guy across the street. We didn't fight for a vacant title. We beat Cory Spinks for the belt. And I thank God for that victory because it was all Him. He was the one who put us in that position and He was there when we won that fight.
Then he said, "He is nothing like most of the real champions out there because real champions fight whoever is next in line, whoever is on deck, to give them an opportunity."
We are in the hottest division in boxing. There are major huge fights to be made. What I can't understand about this guy is he is a mandatory; he fights for the belt regardless. Whether K9 vacates and fights Pacquiao or Mayweather for $5 million or keeps the belt and defends it, Sechew Powell gets his shot regardless. K9 has not been champ a full 3 months and this guy is whining and crying wolf. He is not 3 months past his mandatory; it ain't been 3 months since we been champ, and he is acting like it is 3 months past his mandatory date. If anyone should be crying wolf, it should be K9 because we waited 18 months in total to get our shot at Spinks. K9 was 9 months overdue in his mandatory and this guy is making a fuss 2 months into our reign. We didn't sit around and cry. We stayed focused, patient and just prayed on it. We just prayed we would get the fight and everything goes well.
In another comment he made, he said, "He is looking to give the belt away and he wants to give it away for some big money. And if he can't give away for big money, he wants to hold it hostage. Not like the killers like myself, he wants to hold the belt hostage."
One thing about us, we are about business; smart intelligent business. K9 is calling out Oscar [De La Hoya] just for a payday? Defeating Oscar will probably have these other champions wanting to fight K9. Maybe we got to beat Oscar to get one of these Ring Magazine champions. Maybe we got to beat Oscar. Let's be honest, Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn't become this megastar until he fought Oscar. Same with Pacquiao. He didn't become this megastar until he fought Oscar. We are trying to become a megastar by defeating Oscar. We want the great, so K9 can prove he is great. K9 is not calling out Oscar empty-handed. Obviously that would be foolish to call out this man with nothing to offer him. K9 is giving Oscar a shot at this beautiful belt I'm staring at right now. This belt is beautiful. Trust me, it is nice and beautiful.
Another comment Sechew made was, "He keeps saying he was a kid back then; I'm younger than him. He has me by at least 4 or 5 years. I'm younger than he is. So if he was a kid, I was an adolescent. If he was a kid, I was an infant. I was a baby then if he was a kid."
Anybody would know K9 is speaking of a child in experience. He is not speaking of a kid in age; he is speaking of experience. He didn't know much. K9 didn't know much when he fought Sechew Powell. Sechew had had 3-4 fights on ShoBox before K9 even fought him. K9 had never been in a main event on television prior to that fight. Sechew, I'm sure, had a long amateur career when K9 had like 12, maybe 16 amateur fights. Sechew was well-rounded, he was taught the basics, while K9 was left to teach himself on the job, sparring with kids to get his rounds in. That's how he learned, sparring with kids because he wasn't taught early on in his career. He basically had to learn himself. But now the tables have completely turned. Now K9 has more experience than Sechew Powell. K9's Contender experience gives him more experience than Sechew Powell, not including experience from being champ of the world. A lot of experience comes with that; way more experience, way more confidence.
As for when he said, "When I see guys like him, he shouldn't have even gotten an opportunity to fight for the belt. Where did it come from? Where did this opportunity come from? I mean, I never monitored this guy's career, except to know he was losing fights. One minute, I know he had a no contest with Yuri Foreman and that was it. Then I look up and this guy got a shot at the belt. I'm sure he fought somebody or gave somebody a letter or wrote a letter to someone. Something had to transpire for him to get a shot at the belt. I just don't see how he got the shot...I don't know how he got it because he was never in the rankings like that."
I want to clear this one up too. When K9 fought Kassim Ouma and defeated him, that's when K9 first got ranked. I'm not sure if he was ranked real fast because of the politics in boxing, but if Ouma would've won, he probably would've fought Verno Phillips for the belt because I think the day before that is when Phillips took the belt from Cory Spinks. After that fight, K9 was ranked #13 in the IBF. Then K9 went on to fight Grady Brewer and dropped a split decision to Brewer in the IBO eliminator. Then 2 weeks later, K9 gets a call from K2 Promotions in Germany on 2 weeks' notice to fight the undefeated European champion. He was 19-0 with 14 KOs and that fight was for the #2 mandatory title eliminator. So K9 went over there and stopped the guy in 6 rounds and that made K9 #2 mandatory in the IBF. At the time, the #1 spot was vacant. According to IBF rules, if the #1 spot is vacant, the #2 spot is as good as the #1 spot. K9 paid his sanction fees to hold his #2 spot and everything. This happened in December 2008 that K9 got his #2 spot. Then in April 2009, Cory Spinks and Deandre Latimore fought each other. Cory Spinks won that fight and became the champion. We thought we were going to fight Cory Spinks, being that #2 is as good as #1 because the #1 spot was vacant, but it didn't turn out that way. The IBF ordered us to fight Yuri Foreman for the #1 mandatory spot to fight Cory Spinks. That fight turned out as a No Contest. We weren't supposed to fight Yuri Foreman because according to their rules, the #2 spot is as good as the #1 spot if the #1 spot is vacant. So Yuri Foreman took another route and fought for the WBA title, where he was ranked #1, and that left us with no one. By the grace of God sending Emanuel Steward to work with us, we got out of the contract with the Contender and then we signed a deal with Emanuel Steward. God worked with us through Emanuel and we got that shot. He solidified the deal with us to fight Cory Spinks. But while we were still with the Contender, they tried to get us to fight a third eliminator overseas again with another guy. So they tried to do whatever they could to prevent K9 from fighting Cory Spinks. Then Emanuel came on board and worked things out and we got the fight with Cory Spinks. So nothing was given to K9. That man earned his way to that spot to get his opportunity to fight Cory Spinks. I'm not sure if Sechew Powell really doesn't know what's going on in that area or just ridiculing the situation. I don't know. Only he knows the answer to that, but K9 earned his shot and got his shot and that is why he is champ right now. I'm not sure what is up with these guys. I guess they are just upset. Knowing if they were in this position, they talk that good talk, but they know they would not be looking back for no mandatory. With all of the activity happening between 147 and 154, and the 147 guys are moving up, K9 is surrounded with big fights. So we are going to explore our options and we are not even thinking about a mandatory. So that makes K9 less of a champion because he is not fighting Sechew Powell on his terms? I mean, we are not thinking about that. God has blessed us and He has put us in a position where we don't have to look behind us. He has put us in front of the line and we would be wrong within ourselves if we keep looking behind us. We are not paying attention to people behind us. God has us focusing on the present and on the future and we are not paying attention to what's behind us and guys are upset about that. But K9 is the champ and he is weighing his options out and doing what he has to do. Sechew Powell can say what he wants to say; his words are not affecting anyone. It is not affecting me and it is not affecting my husband. My main reason for wanting to speak out is for people to know who the real K9 is. K9 ain't no fake, no fraud, no phony, or whatever the words that were used in the prior interview. This man is really focused and really a man of God. That's our life. I don't play that in between stuff. We are focused on God and it is all about Jesus in our household and family.