"They injected him with something...."

GL: Not a lot of people in America got to see your fight with Junior Witter. What went wrong and why didn't you come home with the title? "First I would like to thank God for getting me back home safe in the United States. It was a horrible fight I was in. We got there seven days before the fight. They wanted us to come in three days before the fight and they didn't appreciate that we wanted to come in seven days before the fight and I think that was wrong. When we got there they didn't give us any food money, have anybody to bring us to the gym. I had to train in my hotel. They didn't start paying for the hotel until Wednesday, but the fight was everything you shouldn't expect in a championship fight. There was nobody allowed from my corner to make sure that his hands were getting wrapped properly. He's not a big puncher, but every time I'd get hit and bruised up. It was the worst experience I had. When I had got dropped in the seventh round his corner jumped into the ring before I got counted out. That's a disqualification right there. His corner isn't supposed to jump into the ring until the referee calls off the fight."

GL: So You feel the whole situation was shady?

Vivian Harris: "It was all shady. The day before the fight he was losing weight to make the weight at the hotel. Then on the night of the fight he's bigger than me and stronger than me. I don't know if they injected him with stuff, but I know I was there to fight and the first time I got hit I started getting bruised and he fighting like he was a puncher. He's never beaten anyone of my caliber so for him to hit me with shots like that and hurt me, something was wrong."

GL: Do you not give Witter any credit for winning the fight?

VH: "I don't give him no credit because he didn't beat me fair. He knows he didn't beat me fair. The night of the fight he was so confident and being scared the whole week and that's because of what they did to make sure they win the fight any way they can. My cutman tried to point it out to everyone how they jumped in the ring before the fight was over."

GL: But you were eventually counted out right?

VH: "Yeah. I was on my feet when he hit the ten count. At the count of seven they were in the ring and they weren't supposed to be there. They were also supposed to have somebody watch his hands get wrapped. Anything could have been in his gloves, and it wasn't a fair fight."

GL: Clearly it wasn't your best night, I'm just trying to figure out if it's because you're saying Witter did something shady or the way you were treated from the time you landed early.

VH: "I was treated unfairly when I first landed and they did something to him."

GL: If this protest goes nowhere, have there been any discussions of where you go from here?

VH: "It is going to go somewhere. Me and my manager and my lawyer are going to fight this all the way. This was bad for boxing. On the night of the fight someone from my team is supposed to be able to watch them wrap his hands and he should have been disqualified when his people jumped into the ring early. I'm not thinking about it like it's not going to go somewhere because it is, we have two legit points."

GL: Are you confident that if the fight were shown in America there would be an outcry from the fans demanding a rematch?

VH: "Definitely. That's why the fight wasn't shown in America and brought to America. They wanted it to be in England so they can control everything. If we had to fight over here the fight would have had to be fair and all of that wouldn't have taken place so I would have been very successful."

GL: Are you concerned that people reading this who have not seen the fight might look at this as you just making excuses for the loss?

VH: "I don't think so because everyone knows when you go to England this is what happens. England is not a fair place to fight. Fighters have gone there and bad things happen to them. Fighters have gotten hurt badly over there. This is the first time I got dropped in a fight where my mind told me not to get up. The second time I got dropped my mind told me to stay down, but my will brought me up. I just got up too late. Thinking about it, I'm glad I got up too late because with how his hands got wrapped, I'm just happy I didn't get hurt. I don't care what nobody thinks, I have a family I have to live for but the fighters need to be protected and they didn't do that over there in England."

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

VH: "This is the first fight I lost that I know I didn't lose fairly. I was in better shape and stronger than him until the night of the fight. Then I was weak and he was so powerful. Something went wrong in that dressing room, something went wrong with his blood and I hope we get a urine test or a blood test. But I'm not stressing that because they could control that too. I didn't even know I was training at his gym until after the fight. I had no protection over there, everything was in his favor and I got set up for the loss. They knew this was his biggest fight and they did what they had to make him win that fight by injecting him with whatever they had to."

M

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