Unfazed K9 hits back at junior middleweight division

This weekend, IBF junior middleweight champion Cornelius “K-9” Bundrage (31-4, 18 KOs) called to speak out about a few things.  At the time, he was riding in a limousine, out celebrating his wife’s birthday.  And just before this interview took place, K-9 stepped out of the limousine and was shot at by someone in his neighborhood.  This incident sounds like a random act of violence, not truly targeted at Bundrage, but K-9 explains it in his own unique way. 

Doveed Linder: What’s on your mind?
 
Cornelius Bundrage: Let me tell you what just happened…  I’m in a limo, right?  I go to pick up my wife in the limo because it’s her birthday.  And there’s a block party going on.  And I get out the limo.  They’ve got rides for the kids and stuff.  It’s like a little carnival.  And people started shooting at us!  They’ve got that courage juice in them or something.  They get crazy at night time.  And my wife had to grab my son and we had to get gone.  People must be trying to get me out of the way.  They don’t want to see me defend my belts.  These other boxers are putting hits out on me.  I gotta think about who’s in my division and who’s saying what, so I can realize who put the hit out on me.  They must not like K-9 too much in the 'hood.  We’ve got the champ in the house, it’s my wife’s birthday, and they started shooting at us!  They don’t even know what they’re doing.
 
But listen…  The economy is bad, right?  And I just rented this limo for my wife’s birthday.  So what I’ve got to do is go knock off the winner of Cotto-Margarito or knock off the winner between Alvarez and Gomez.  What I’m spending on this limo, I’ve got to get it back.  The people want to see it.  They don’t want to see me fight that raging diva [Pawel "Raging Bull" Wolak].  He’s actually, the desperate diva and I’m not worried about “The Desperate Diva”.  He says I’m 38, but 38 is the new 23.  He needs me, I don’t need him.  He’s acting like a girl.  I don’t have time for no girl, man.  But I just want everybody to know that you’ve got to go hard for Jesus, man.  I’m taking my wife out here in this stretch limo and since I’ve got to spend money, I’ve got to get the money back.  So I’m knocking out the winner between Cotto and Margarito or the winner between Alvarez and Gomez.  We’ve got to unify the belts, man.  And the people want to see me fight the winner of Floyd Mayweather and Victor Ortiz.  They want to see a real fight.  They want to see K-9 and Manny Pacquiao.   
 
DL: Is Don King doing anything to land these fights for you?
 
CB: Oh, yeah.  Don King is out there working.  He’s talking to Golden Boy and he’s talking to Bob Arum.  I’ll take any of those guys.  We’re gonna unify the belts.  Don called me yesterday and he said “K-9, you proved your point.”  I beat Sechew Powell.  I beat the guy who gave me my first loss.  I got him back and it was an easy fight.  Now, Floyd’s got my leftovers.  He’s using Sechew Powell and Kassim Ouma to help him get ready [as sparring partners for Victor Ortiz].  They’re my leftovers.  I dusted those boys off, so Floyd can use them for sparring.  But I’ve got to get my money, man, because I spent all my money on my wife today. [Editor's note: Bundrage split two fights with Powell but won the most recent one].
 
DL: What happened to the possibility of you and Ricardo Mayorga? [The IBF reportedly balked at sanctioning Mayorga in a title fight].
 
CB: Don’s working on that, too.  He called me yesterday and wished my wife a happy birthday.  I call my wife Lil Mama and mama said knock you out!  We’ve got bills to pay, so we’ve got to knock these boys out.
 
DL: Who do you think comes out on top between Cotto and Maragrito?
 
CB: Man, that’s a dangerous fight for Cotto.  The Bible says that revenge is God’s.  So I don’t know why he’s trying to get revenge.  But Cotto has a good chance because he’s being trained by my manager Emanuel Steward and he’s the best.  I’m pulling for Cotto, because a fight with me and Cotto makes more sense than me and Margarito.  I’m pulling for him, but it’s a dangerous fight.
 
DL: How about Alvarez-Gomez?
 
CB: Alvarez is gonna win.  They’re picking and choosing.  That’s why they picked him [Gomez as an opponent].  But I’ll knock both of them out in the same day.
 
DL: It looks like Pawel Wolak, the man you call “The Raging Diva”, will be fighting Vanes Martirosyan.
 
CB: He don’t even want to fight Vanes.  His style is too predictable.  He’s just one way.  One style.  He’s too little, too easy.  He never sent me a contract.  He’s desperate.  He’s the desperate diva.  All he does is talk.  My manager Emanuel Steward gets paid to talk on HBO.  But nobody cares what the desperate diva” says.
 
DL: Anything in closing?
 
CB: Just want to thank everybody for supporting K-9 and the Bundrage family.  We ain’t going no where.  We ain’t going to let boxing retire us, we’re going to retire from boxing.  But we’re going to show the whole world that we are the best.  We ain’t ducking nobody, they’re ducking us.  And don’t be shooting up no blocks like the people in this neighborhood.  They just shot that block up.  It’s terrible.  Go to church and praise God.  Listen to some gospel music.  These people here just tried to blow up the block.  But we didn’t get hit tonight.  They missed.  And just like these bullets can’t hit me, these other fighters can’t hit me. I’ve been working on my defense.  Stick and move, baby!  Stick and move!  (barks like a dog)
 

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