Boxingtalk caught up with Peter Manfredo Jr., who finally spoke on the very quick stoppage loss he suffered against world super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. That loss occured in Wales earlier this month. You don’t want to miss what Manfredo had to say about the fight, Freddie Roach, and his plans for the future. Only on Boxingtalk!
BT: Peter, talk about your recent loss to Calzaghe.
PM: I think everyone that’s seen it knows what happened; they didn’t even give me a chance to fight. I was just getting warmed up the first couple of rounds, feeling him out, you know. He picked up the pace in the third round and I wasn’t ready to pick up the pace yet. Maybe I wanted to see him wear himself out a little bit, you know he is 35 years old. I was against the ropes and he was hardly hitting me with anything. He didn’t stop punching so I started rolling under and making him miss and that’s when the ref jumped in. It was just a premature stoppage. I didn’t even get started yet. I wasn’t gonna get started until the fifth or sixth round, I was gonna start picking up the pace and turning things around.
BT: So you were just trying to get a feel for Calzaghe and his style?
PM: Yeah, I was feeling him out. I wanted him to punch himself out and get a little tired. I wasn’t intimidated by him at all, he can’t crack for nothing, and he’s got no power, so I didn’t have any respect for that. I just felt really confident that in the later rounds I could have put the pressure on him and worn him out, but I didn’t get the opportunity to.
BT: Were you ever hurt at any point in the fight?
PM: No, he doesn’t have the power to hurt me. He caught me with a couple shots, but nothing hard. He doesn’t commit to his shots. He doesn’t really turn his shots over. He’s more of a slapper puncher than anything else. I was just disgusted, I trained so long for the fight, three months and it was two and a half rounds and they stop a fight like that. It’s a world title fight. I think back on George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, how Ali stayed against the ropes and Foreman was just whaling on him for like, rounds at a time. He wore Foreman out and ended up knocking him out. It’s just a strategy of boxing and they didn’t give me a chance to do anything in the fight, it was retarded.
BT: I understand you’re already making a comeback on May 11?
PM: Yeah I’m making a comeback, I’m gonna fight on May 11 (Manfredo will be fighting Ted Muller, as first reported on Boxingtalk). I’m ready to fight. I really don’t feel like I lost the fight, I was never hurt; I was never out of it. It was more of a sparring match to me than anything else, a bass bomb match (laughs). I did all that training, I’m still in shape and I wanna get right back out there and fight. I wanna stay busy.
BT: Obviously this is a tune up fight for you, though your opponent is pretty tough. Is this going to be a ten-round fight?
PM: It’s supposed to be a ten-round fight, but I don’t think it’s gonna go the ten rounds. I wanna make a statement and show these people that I’m the real deal. Everyone keeps calling me a reality TV star and a TV fighter and its bothering me.
BT: Earlier in the week your father told me that there were some problems with your strength and conditioning coach not showing up. Can you touch on that?
PM: There were a lot of problems in the camp. I mean Freddie (Roach) leaving, my father taking over as head trainer, you know the strength and conditioning coach when we got to England just missed his flight, never showed up, never called, never nothing. You know nobody called, Freddie never called me, I had to call him before the fight. All my supporters kind of left me. But I didn’t let that get to me; you know it’s a world title fight. I know what I had to do. We called Danny Milano and he flew in and helped us out in the corner because we had no corner men. We found out Sugar Ray Leonard wasn’t gonna be in our corner through an interview! It was just crazy stuff, and it was just something we had to get over and go fight.
BT: So when you signed the contract did you know that Freddie Roach was not going to be in your corner?
PM: No, we didn’t know that because we signed the contract before Freddie was asked to work with De La Hoya. I don’t event think Freddie knew at the time we signed the contract.
BT: How did Freddie leaving affect your confidence going into the fight?
PM: Before I took the fight I thought that I needed Roach in the corner cause I wasn’t gonna win the fight without his expertise in a championship fight like this. But then once I was training in camp and you get your mind focused on the fight. You don’t think about oh Freddie’s leaving now, what am I gonna do. I had to stay focused, I had to stay strong. I believed in my father and that’s what I went with. In the fight though, I don’t think it would have made a difference. The way they stopped the fight on me was premature. Something was fishy going on there. The referee was taking to Calzaghe’s father the day before at the press conference and the rules meeting. There was just something fishy going on. I could’ve had Jesus in my corner that night and it wouldn’t have made a difference, they would’ve done the same thing anyway (laughs).
BT: So what is your future like with Freddie Roach?
PM: I don’t know, as of right now I don’t know. I got to fight May 11. I’m staying here to train to train for it. My father is training me for this fight. You know, I’m just gonna take it one fight at a time right now.
BT: Obviously, your main goal is to get another title shot. What are your plans after this tune-up fight to get back into contention?
PM: I’m gonna fight right again in June. There’s another card down there in June. I just wanna stay busy.
BT: So you want to do like a bum of the month thing?
PM: (Laughs) we’ll see. I’m an old school fighter; I’ll fight once a week if I have to. I don’t care, I just love to fight.
BT: Is there any specific fighters on your radar who you would like to fight on your way back to another title shot?
PM: I wanna fight (Jeff) Lacy, I wanna fight them all. (Mikkel) Kessler, whatever I have to do to get up there, you know, I wanna fight for the world title. (Anthony) Mundine, is that the other one? I mean, I’ll fight them all, I’ll fight any of them, I don’t care. I wanna prove that I’m a world champion. I belong up there so whatever I have to do to get there. (Omar) Sheika, Lacy, whoever I gotta be to get up there, I’ll fight them.
BT: Calzaghe now want’s to go after a really big name like Roy Jones, Bernard Hopkins, or Jermain Taylor. Do you think these guys can beat Calzaghe?
PM: I think they can all beat him, but if they fight him over there they ain’t gonna beat him. He’s got the home court advantage. When you go over to his country, you’re not just fighting him. You’re fight the ref, you’re fighting the judges, you’re fighting the crowd, you’re fighting his father and he’s slapping you with is hands open at the same time. It’s gonna be tough to beat him there, you really gotta knock him out over there.
BT: Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans in closing? Because you know you certainly got a lot of them over here in America.
PM: I love my fans. I just wanna say I’m sorry that they didn’t get to see a performance that night. I mean, I’m always disappointed on that more than losing. I’d rather have lost falling on my face in the 12th round, getting knocked out and carried out on a stretcher than losing the way I did by them stopping the fight. The fans and the fans that paid to see it, they didn’t get to see a fight. So, I’m just sorry for that and don’t worry, I’m gonna be back May 11, I’m gonna show you a good fight. Just stay tuned.
AA
Send questions and comments to: jonesjr36@yahoo.com
