BT- Heard your fighter J.D. Chapman has an upcoming fight against a guy named Marvin Hill. Can you tell us a little about it and what you expect? "I don’t know who Marvin Hill is, but I am sure that I can get some tape on him and see what kind of style he brings to my fighter. I’m not really worried about him because I have my assistant in Norman Wilson and myself and the rest of the team will get J.D. ready for anything. I was the type of guy who really never looked at tapes, because I know what I can do. If I do everything right then I am not worried."
BT- In J.D.’s last fight you said before that both of you had a sinus infection going in and still fought and had a pretty tough fight against Ed Gutierrez. You said that there are never any excuses going in, but was this a good lesson learned for your fighter?
MM-Sure it’s going to be a lesson to be learned, because he has never went 12 rounds before and being that he had that sinus infection I did not have him trained for the last 3 days before the fight, because a virus feeds off of warmth. I didn’t want him to do anything before the fight because he would have been weaker; he was winded already in the 2nd round because of the infection. That is no excuse, being a fighter you can never find an excuse and if you are able to adjust and be the type of person that you train to be then you know you had done everything right and you take that into the ring with you.
BT- Being that you were a southpaw when you laced the gloves tell us what kind of transition you had to go thru and how difficult it was to train an orthodox fighter.
MM- It was difficult at first, because the punches coming from different angles but I finally adjusted, because I wanted to train my fighter the proper way so I had to change. So, once I adjusted, everything just came naturally. It’s all good now.
BT- Do you ever spar with your guy?
MM- I don’t put the gloves on anymore, only mitts that’s it. We get in the ring only, show I can show him technical things; I’m not the kind of guy that will just stand outside of the ring and say “Oh, throw that punch, do that, and do this I’ll get in there to show him the proper way and work on it until it is done right.
BT- We talked about your fighter J.D. now let’s hear about Michael Moorer. Basically, on ESPN you announced your comeback to boxing and then after your longtime trainer/friend in Teddy Atlas said right after to you while on the air that you shouldn’t fight and then you changed your mind. Are you a full time trainer now or do you still think about putting the gloves back on?
MM- Fact of the matter is that Teddy was a person that was very honest to me, always will tell me the truth and a lot of people wont tell me the truth just because they want to keep me fighting. Why fight again for someone else’s gain? When I was with Warriors boxing there was a lot of fights promised but never materialized, it was a discouraging thing but Warriors and the Seminole tribe of Florida were very good to me. I just got bored waiting for something big to happen. You know, I still have my mind set right. Why risk going back into the ring and get hit, you know, one punch can do it. I could either be in a coma or have a blood clot, I can die and I don’t want to do that. A lot of people want me to fight again but I think I can be a very good trainer instead.
BT- It seems that Teddy does actually care about you very deeply.
MM- Teddy does care about me, and people criticize him, saying “Teddy’s this, Teddy’s that” but they don’t know teddy like I know him. Teddy has a very good heart, very good father and husband and he has a hell of a family. I am thankful for Teddy, very much.
BT- Lets talk about a man who you have a deep history with, a guy who is criticized for actually not retiring. If you could say anything to Evander Holyfield what would it be?
MM- Evander is a very nice gentleman, what he does in his personal life is his own business but in boxing he needs to retire. He is slurring a lot and looking bad, but back in the day when he said that he was going to do something he always did it, now it isn’t happening. He just needs to hang it up, enough is enough. You have some young guys out there now that would just blow him away. Some people were talking about me coming back and fighting Evander again, if they want me to fight him, they would have to talk a lot of money. They would have to show me at least 5 million dollars for me to fight him again, that would take anybody out of retirement. It would be a grudge match.
BT- 5 Million dollars and Michael will come out of retirement. People, remember where you heard it first! (Laughs)
MM- And I would destroy him, put him in retirement.
BT- You don’t want to do that really do you?
MM- No, I wouldn’t. But if the money was right I would have to. He thinks that he still has it, but he doesn’t but he cannot be honest with himself.
BT- Any words for your fans?
MM- To my fans, I’m not coming back to fight again, thanks for all the support that everyone has given me. My time is up, 3 time heavyweight champ, 1st southpaw in the history of boxing to win a heavyweight belt, and I can’t do it anymore. But, if they give me 5 million, I will train and get in the best shape possible. And look for J.D. Chapman coming up. He will be a force to be reckoned with.
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