GL: Can you give us some thoughts on your upcoming fight with Vinnie Maddalone? "They gave me some tapes for possible opponents and they said which guy I felt was more conditioned to my style and the way that I fight and that's how he became the opponent."

GL: How do you feel about the fight?

Evander Holyfield: "I feel the same way I do about all of them. I'm more concerned about what I do and not what he does. I'm concerned with fighting the right fight and the smart fight, if I do that I will succeed."

GL: Do you consider Maddalone to be a step up from Oquendo?

EH: "I don't look at it that way, I look at it as I just fight the people that's available. People tend to be a little better than they normally would be if they fight me. I don't look at things in that sense. I look at it as they give me an opponent and my goal is to become the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, so I have to look good in every fight. I have to take every fight like a title fight. I believe that I'm the best and whether someone agrees with me or not, I feel that I'm the best and once again I'm ready to prove it."

GL: You recently reunited with Main Events. How did that come about?

EH: "For all the people out there, Main Events is the only one that I know that has the necessary experience. And trust is a big part of it, I can trust them to do their part and they can trust me to do my part, which is fight. I trust that they're going to do what they say so I'm not going to have to assume anything."

GL: How are you viewing this fight? Is this a tune-up to you?

EH: "All fights are stay busy fights to me because my goal is to be the undisputed champion of the world. All fights are championship fights because they all lead to something else."

GL: Monte Barrett has been calling you out, if things go your way on March 17 and you can't secure a title fight or eliminator, is he'd someone you'd look to get it on with?

EH: "Not necessarily. When these guys were in contention, they never chose me. Why didn't they choose me. It's sad that people only want you when their chips are down, they come out and they say your name hoping you can pull them up out of their situation, but when they were in a better place they didn't want to fight. But that's not how it goes. I believe I can beat anybody out there, but I do have a plan on getting there. If they don't have a plan or titles, it makes no sense for me to fight them."

GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?

EH: "I'm very honored to give the fans out there another opportunity to see that I'm one step closer to becoming the heavyweight champion of the world."

M

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