JA: Congratulations on your big win last Friday night Matt. What can you tell us about the fight? MR: Thank you. It was the first time that I went six rounds in a professional fight. It was definitely a tough fight. We talked before about if you put his experience against mine, his record was 3-3 and 1 draw against my 7-0, you can see that he fought a lot of the higher opposition that I fought. He was a technical fighter, I knocked him down in the first and again in the second but he kept on getting up. He came to win, he didn’t come for a payday and after I knocked him down a couple of times it seemed that he got a little desperate and started throwing some bombs.
JA: When you knocked him down in the first round did you think that you had him?
MR: I hit him with a solid right hand in the first and I was a little surprised that he got up and was coming back for more. After the second time that I knocked him down I think that he started to respect me more and he started to box me more, I think that he realized that I could punch and too not take me so lightly. With his style and with me coming in with an undefeated record, he never lost against and undefeated fighter. I think that he gets more up for the fight when he fights an undefeated fighter and that is what I think he is more determined to make a statement, that is what he tried to do but I was calm, boxed him nicely and got the six round unanimous decision.
JA: This is a two part question. If you could give yourself a grade from 1-10 what would you give yourself and did you do everything that you wanted to do in the fight?
MR: I would give myself an 8 out of 10. For everything that I wanted to do in the fight, I am my own worst critic but everything that I worked on in the gym this past year came into play in the fight. If it went two more rounds I believe he would have been out of there. To go six rounds for me and not breathing heavy is an accomplishment for myself. There are things that I could have done better, most notably probably not letting him tie me up. Like I was telling you in the previous interview that I had it in my head that I had to go six rounds, I allowed him to tie me up and if I didn’t allow him to tie me up I think that I could have gotten him out of there.
JA: Are you back in the gym or are you taking some time off?
MR: No I am right back in the gym; I am going to be fighting on the May 10th card with Godfrey Vs. George as the main event. I would love to fight at least once a month if that is possible.
JA: So are you feeling more confident now Matt?
MR: I feel great and I think that its like you said its about the confidence and the mentality of finally being able to go six rounds. I have been working hard in the gym and too see where I have come in the professional ranks has been great I think. Just from my mentality being able to go six rounds you are going to see me doing a lot more rounds going up against a lot better opposition. I am a distance fighter
JA: It doesn’t seem like that Matt [laughs].
MR: [laughing] I am definitely a distance fighter and I shock myself some times when I hit these guys and they don’t get back up or the get dazed. With the smaller gloves and no headgear I think that I shock some people because when they look at me they don’t think that I have that pop or that power, I guess there wrong when they get hit.
JA: Is there anything that you would like to say in closing Matt?
MR: I just want to thank my whole team and thank them for everything that they do for me. I want to thank my team Paul Cichon, John Scully, Jackie Kallan, CES entertainment, my father Mike Remillard, and a great supporter of the team Carmine Napolpnao. I would like to thank Boxingtalk.com for conducting this interview with me.
Heavyweight prospect Brian Minto(23-1-14KO) was kind enough to sit down with Boxingtalk to talk about his upcoming fight against Billy Zumbrun (19-6-1D). This fight will be on ESPN2, on April 28th at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville CT, and is slated as the Co Main Event along side Samuel Peter vs Julius Long.
MORE
Send questions and comments to: aldenjimmy@cox.net
