Gotzev responds to Toney, speaks on Liakhovich-Briggs!

By G. Leon

28/09/2006

Gotzev responds to Toney, speaks on Liakhovich-Briggs!

GL: James Toney had quite a few harsh things to say about you in response to your last interview with Boxingtalk. I'm sure you've read the interview, is there anything you'd like to say in response to his remarks? "I really feel for the guy because he must be hurting emotionally to go out there and say such derogatory remarks and obvious threats that could eventually land him in jail. But I'm not going to take it personal I'm just going to stay focused on the business side of things and making the rematch a great fight. It was a great fight the first time around and it will be even better the second time around. I'm really excited about the potential of the actual fight. What James needs to do is focus on Samuel Peter because this isn't about me and James, this is about giving boxing fans Peter-Toney II."

GL: What can you tell us about Toney's comment where he talks about the letter your daughter passed his daughter at school?

IG: "Well, I don't know whether James Toney has forgotten or is suffering from amnesia, but this was about a year ago when I found out that my daughter was in class with his daughter. I was excited because I used to manage James back in the day, so what I did was I passed my phone number, it was simply my phone number with my name so one day he could call me so we could chat. Now he's making it like it's some type of letter, but I do understand it's been emotionally difficult for him to deal with the loss he took on September 2."

GL: On a lighter note you were in Phoenix for Red November, Sergei Likhovich and Shannon Briggs, which is scheduled to take place on Showtime Championship Boxing on November 4.  Tell about that presser.

IG: "We had a non-stop schedule with a bunch of different sports anchors. We had a great day of promoting, we kicked off this great fight with a great promotion and we had the attention of all of Phoenix. Don King showed once again why he's considered to be the greatest of all time. He did a good job and we stand behind him and this promotion is taking off in a great way. There was still a lot emotion on the Briggs side, he said he was going to do major damage. He ripped his shirt off to show off his muscles and he was loose with his tongue, so to me all that shows is that he knows he better be at his best because on November 4 he's facing the best heavyweight champion in the world. I give Shannon Briggs a lot of respect for fighting the best when Wladimir Klitschko ran from him and we feel he was the toughest available opponent for us on November 4."

M

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