"Celestino is getting to the point where I like because he wants the fight; he's dialed in and ready to get it on. The one thing with Celestino is this, he is a tall guy and when I first got with him, all he wanted to do was bang. He has great boxing ability. He has great defense and great head movement and when he gets in his rhythm, forget about it. Whoever you put in front of him is in trouble. Now that I'm working with him, I think that's going to come out more. You're going to see a Celestino that's going to be doing some boxing, moving his head, and a little bit of clowning. It's going to look like clowning, but it's him. He's going to be doing his thing in there. He's a great defensive fighter," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather as he talked about Celestino Caballero's clash with Jason Litzau this Saturday night. Check out what he had to say about the fight, his thoughts on Paul Williams, Sergio Martinez, and much more.
PC: What did you think of Sergio Martinez's knockout win over Paul Williams?
JM: Wow! Shocking! Don't get me wrong, I knew he could win, but not in that fashion. He's never shown that kind of punching power, but the right punch could knock anybody out. But at them same time, Paul Williams has been basically able to overwhelm everybody with his volume of punches and that's really been his only asset because the guy has no defense; no head movement at all. He don't fight like a guy that's 6'2"; he fights like a guy that's 5'4". And that's his biggest problem is he likes to mix it up too much. I don't think that no one took the time to teach him how to fight like a tall guy should because if they did, he would only fight when he had to as opposed to making that his first option. That should be his last option, to be banging with someone.
PC: I tend to lean towards, if not getting a different trainer, maybe bringing in another set of eyes. Anytime I hear of a guy training someone since they were 10 years old or something like that, I just think he may have taught him all he knows about boxing already.
JM: A lot of times, it boils down to loyalty. He may have a relationship with him beyond boxing and it's one of those things that, as a fighter, if he wants to continue to progress in the right direction, sometimes you gotta man up and just say, "It's time for me to move on with somebody else or time to bring somebody else in that can help me keep this afloat." There is no way a guy that height should be fighting that way. Another way you can look at it is like this, "These guys got me here and I'm going to sink with the ship. I'm going to stay here because without them, I would have never been here, so I'm going to take my chances." And there is nothing wrong with that.
PC: No there isn't, and it's commendable, but if he wants to make improvements and prolong his career, then it may be necessary.
JM: Yeah. A lot of times, a fighter just needs someone fresh to come in and show them what the other trainer hasn't, and that could reinvigorate the fighter. That doesn't necessarily mean what he is telling him or teaching him is that much greater, but what he is doing is adding to what he don't know. So that right there gets the fighter going again and feeling good about himself. A lot of these guys get excited when they are learning something new and sometimes, that in itself is enough to reinvigorate a fighter. But at the same time, a guy like Paul Williams, at some point in time, someone is going to have to say, "This man is 6'2". He is not 5'6." Why do you think the Klitschkos are so successful? They fight like tall men are supposed to. Paul Williams has no head movement or no anything. Even if he just fought like a tall guy with no defense, you would still see improvements and he would be better.
PC: And him fighting like a tall guy may not be appeasing to the fans, much like a lot of people complain about the Klitschkos, but this is his livelihood and sometimes what's not best for the fans may be best for the fighter.
JM: Right. And not only that, but the other thing is this, that's what added years to Marco Antonio Barrera's career. I mean, Marco Antonio Barrera was nothing but a complete slugger and he made a complete transformation like, "Wait a second, hell no. I want to try to keep my career going. Let me start boxing." The same guy who was a slugger was outboxing everybody and looking good at it. And that's the thing Paul Williams has already showed, his willingness to go in there and battle, and his heart. He's shown that, but the thing is, that part of him is never going to leave him, but he has to fight like a tall man. Once somebody gets past that jab,1 then he can drop that left on them. That's how boxing is; it's real real simple when you're tall.
It's the same thing I applied to Ray Austin when he fought Sultan Ibragimov. I know how to make a world champion. I knew that when Sultan was getting ready to fight Shannon Briggs, he couldn't just slug him. He had to become a boxer. He was too small to try to go blow for blow with Shannon. I turned him into a boxer. But Austin, who has less talent than Shannon, and Shannon probably has a lot less talent than Sultan, but Ray was focused, he worked hard, and he listened to exactly what I told him to do. I said, "Any guy this tall, if you can just fight a little bit, you got a chance to win it. All you gotta do is implement a plan." And I gave him a plan, and he didn't follow it right away because he got caught in the 1st round, but when he came back to the corner, I told Ray, "Look, you've done it your way, now let's do it my way." He listened and he ended up getting a draw and he was a 7-1 underdog. And in a lot of eyes, he won the fight. And that was the fight, to be honest, that was my coming out party because the one fight I did with Shannon, a lot of people didn't see it. It was a 3-round fight, but at that particular time, the fight between Ray Austin and Sultan Ibragimov was the most viewed fight on ESPN. That was when everybody was like, "Wait one second, he can train too!" And after that, I didn't look back and people realized that I had something and gave me a try and put me on their team to see what he can do for them.
PC: You have a big fight coming up on Saturday as your student, Celestino Caballero, will face Jason Litzau on HBO. What are you expecting out of your guy?
JM: Everything is good. Celestino is getting to the point where I like because he wants the fight; he's dialed in and ready to get it on. The one thing with Celestino is this, he is a tall guy and when I first got with him, all he wanted to do was bang. He has great boxing ability. He has great defense and great head movement and when he gets in his rhythm, forget about it. Whoever you put in front of him is in trouble. Now that I'm working with him, I think that's going to come out more. You're going to see a Celestino that's going to be doing some boxing, moving his head, and a little bit of clowning. It's going to look like clowning, but it's him. He's going to be doing his thing in there. He's a great defensive fighter. And that's not to say that's how Paul Williams should be fighting, but to a degree, he should be fighting that way; from long range. He's proven over and over that he has the ability to fight inside. The kid only has 2 losses and it's not the end of his career, but his career needs to be salvaged or it could be the end of his career. Now everyone has a blueprint, and everybody ain't Sergio Martinez, but there are guys out there that punch harder than Sergio Martinez.
PC: Paul Williams has all of the attributes that will drive an opposing corner crazy. He can fight in multiple divisions, he's 6'2" and he's a southpaw. I just haven't seen him utilize any one of those advantages on a consistent basis.
JM: Right. He's got all of those attributes, but he's a guy that just goes in there and goes to war. Don't get me wrong, like you said, the fans love it, but what the fans love could also be your demise. All of those wars eventually gonna catch up with you. At the end of the day, any fighter that I train, my first objective is to teach them defense because I don't want to be that guy who sits there and on a particular night...I mean, anything can happen in boxing, whether you teach great defense or not, but that's my first asset to any fighter that I have. I don't care who they are or how great they are, the first thing I'm going to teach them is defense. Like I said, I don't want to be the guy that watches his fighter over there in a coma because he didn't have his hands up or did whatever he was supposed to do even though he was taught. I think that, as a trainer, the reality is a fighter is putting his life in your hands. People don't realize the magnitude of that until something tragic happens. I'm thinking of that the second a person says, "I want to train with you." My first thought is to teach him every aspect of defense that I can. Even if they are not that great of a fighter, they gotta be able to protect themselves and walk away from this sport. I will tell a fighter, "This is not for you" or "You need to find someone else because you're not going to make it. Someone else might think that you can and they can change your mind and do what you need to do to be a much better fighter, but me myself, I can't." I get personal with my fighters because I take it very seriously that a person has chosen me to be in control of their life. Anything can happen when they step in that ring. It's like sending a kid off to Vietnam. When this happens, that something tragic happens, that's the magnitude of it, but people don't think about that until it happens. When it happens, it's nothing but a fight and you assume everybody is going to come home safe, but that's not always true.
PC: My man interviewed Cory Spinks and he mentioned wanting you to be his trainer. Is that something that has been in the works?
JM: I haven't heard nothing about that. That's news to me. I would welcome Cory though. He's the kind of fighter that fights the style that I like. He's a good boxer. He's not the greatest puncher, but he's just like me. He's a mirror image of myself as a fighter. Of course, if Cory reached out to me, I would train him. I got mad respect for Cory. I just think he lost focus. I can't see...not to take anything from Bundrage, but I can't see Cory losing to a guy like that because he has too much talent. I just think he lost focus and, like I said, a lot of times, it's just a matter of change. Sometimes you need change just to rejuvenate your career to feel good about yourself. You have to realize that it's not over with yet and I think Cory would be a great asset to my team. That would be great. I know some guys that actually knows him, so all he has to do is get in contact with them to get in contact with me and it can happen. That would be a great story, Mayweathers and a Spinks. You have two of the top boxing families from generation to generation and for us two to come together, that would be great for boxing. I don't think that Cory is done, I just think he needs a spark to rejuvenate him and make him feel like he wants to still do this. He will have to work hard again.
PC: Best of luck to you on Saturday night with Caballero, and I hope to see you and Cory working together soon.
JM: Alright, thanks Percy.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]