RC:  Jack from what I understand your name is now being mentioned in the mix to possibly Oscar De La Hoya for his May 5th Showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. What can you tell us about that?
JM: Well that’s true, I thought since Mayweather Sr. is not going to be training him, I said well I might as well go in there and train him. I trained Shane twice to do his thing against Oscar. I am a two-time trainer of the year, so I have the credentials, and it would be a big story to blow the fight up. You can sell that story all around the world, people know me all around the world. Like I said that would be huge, that would be very big and it would be a huge story to sell the fight, the whole bit. Money is not an issue; just pay me the fair amount, that’s all.

RC: You just said that Mayweather Sr. will not be training Oscar for this fight, are you saying that Mayweather Sr. is definitely out of the equation in this fight as far as being a trainer?
JM: I don’t think he is going to train Oscar. It is up to Oscar to make the decision because you know he is fighting his son. I will never train anybody to beat up my son; I don’t care how much money is involved. Suppose I train somebody to beat my son up and they end up injuring my son to where he can’t fight anymore. Lets say he is damaged and can’t walk and I am the one that trained him to do that to my son. Now how would I feel? That’s stupid, I wouldn’t do it, and I wont take that chance it is not even worth it.

RC: Now…not that I am for Floyd Sr. training Oscar to fight Floyd Jr., but… I don’t think you can compare your relationship with you son Shane to Big Floyd and Little Floyd’s. Even throughout the period when you weren’t training Shane, it never got anywhere near to the extent that the Mayweathers have taken it. They have exchanged insults and much more, where as you still always supported Shane and we saw you ringside rooting your son on even when you weren’t in his corner. So from what you have been hearing do you think there is a possibility De La Hoya wont have Floyd Sr. in his corner?
JM: Yeah…

RC: Now I know you can never be 100% on something like that when it comes to Oscar, but how accurate would you say that is.
JM: I just don’t think that Oscar is going to let Floyd train him to beat up his son. That is the way you gotta think Oscar feels, I am not sure but I don’t think that he is leaning towards that way. I might be wrong but I just don’t think … well if Oscar uses his good sense… if I was Oscar I wouldn’t do it. I don’t care what type of relationship they got, that is still his son. So I would stress that.

RC: Have you and Oscar actually sat down and discussed the possibly of you training him?
JM: No I haven’t actually sat down and talked to him about it… I have mentioned it to him, but we haven’t actually sat down and talked about it.  I haven’t spoke to him at length about it or anything like that. I just let him know what can be done, how it can be done, the whole bit and that I know how to do it.

RC: And how did he receive your initial mentioning of it?
JM: Good

RC: Before you went to Oscar I would imagine that you spoke to Shane about it first?
JM: Yeah I spoke to Shane, I let him know and everything. He said it would be good, and he said that I will probably have to go to Puerto Rico to train him, and I said that aint a big thing, I haven’t been there in a long time anyway.

RC: Is the idea to train Oscar a permanent idea of just for now because of the circumstances with Mayweather Sr. and Jr.?
JM: That’s up to Oscar, I have no control over that, that is up to him if he wants to go back and let Mayweather train him after this fight, that’s fine with me. Working with Oscar for this fight will also help me in becoming three-time trainer of the year because that is something that I want to accomplish

RC: Give us your take on Floyd Mayweather as a fighter all together and what do you feel it will take for Oscar to beat Floyd?
JM: Floyd has fast hands but I feel that Oscar has fast hands too, and he has more power and he takes a better punch. I really don’t think Floyd can take Oscars punch. What he would do is try to fight him like he did Baldomir. He is going to be in and out and all of that kind of stuff. So my job will be to make sure Oscar has enough speed to keep up with him because everything else will take care of itself.

RC: Now, from my understanding they are three names in the mix other than Mayweather as possible trainers, that’s includes Freddy Roach, Ignacio Bernstein (According to David Avila’s article on thesweetscience.com) and yourself. Tell everyone out there why you feel you are the man for the job.
JM: Everyone knows my son Shane has been an elite fighter for a long long time in many different weight classes, and he has been winning in different weight classes. He just knocked out Vargas with one punch, so he is going to have to look at what Shane has put out there. The speed and the footwork and the whole bit. That comes with me working with Shane, nobody else…. Okay. I don’t work the mitts like Floyd, I don’t do that pitty patt stuff, that’s just for cardio., I do work the mitts and I do have a high intensity way that I work the mitts but it is for power, speed and cardio. That’s what Oscar will get, the power the speed and everything else, I don’t think Floyd would have a chance against him.

RC: No one can deny what you taught Shane since he was a kid to make him a very talented and successful fighter, do you think it might me a little too late in the game to teach Oscar your style of Power boxing?
JM: No, because he is an athlete, he will be able to easily pick it up, in fact I think he will like it.

RC: You just said you don’t believe Floyd will have a chance, does that mean with you in Oscars corner there is no way Floyd goes the distance?
JM: I think if Oscar hits him really good Floyd is going down.

RC: Well let’s turn our attention towards Shane… What would you say is the key to you and Shane’s recent success as trainer and fighter once again?
JM: We are just doing what we have been doing. We never changed anything. He has always been used to me and he wanted me to train him again. I had him since he was eight years old. We have a winning combination, a winning formula so why break the formula if we can win 99% of the time, or 100% of the time for that matter. Shane is older, but he is not messing with the weights like he use to so he is going to be a lot better and faster.

RC: When we have spoke in the past, when you and initially stopped working together as trainer and fighter, you insisted to me that things were still the same between the two of you, other than you being in his corner. But I would imagine that after the two of you reunited as trainer and fighter again it had to enhance your father and son relationship a bit more to some degree. What was that like?
JM: The same thing, aint nothing changed. Nothing has changed at all brother. I am still me and I haven’t changed for nobody, and Shane is Shane, I am not changing man. When you see me that is me, I have been this way since I was four years old. I am not changing nothing for nobody. That is the way I am, what you see is what you got.

Listen in my mind he will always be my son. No matter what… you hear that word? NO MATTER WHAT, that is like until death do us apart or whatever. He will always be my son, and I cant change that, that’s is my blood that comes from me and my wife. So it isn’t no greater, no less or nothing because that is always going to be the high point, I am talking about my kids. Every time that I see them it is always a blessing and a miracle that they are still alive and woke up that morning. It is always great; it is never anything less than that.

RC: How is Shane looking for his upcoming February 10th bout for Luis Collazo?
JM: He is training his butt off; I was training him 23 rounds a day before he started sparring. No I got it broken down to about twelve.

RC: Who has Shane been use to help him prepare for Collazo?
JM: I got him working with three guys up here (Big Bear) sparring. I got one guy name Enrique, I can’t think of his last name right now. Another guy is Jose, he is from NY, and I we have Fred Tukes.

RC: Give us your take on Shane’s opponent Luis Collazo?
JM: From watching the tapes he likes to kind of counterpunch, be in the middle of the ring and wants to box. He has fair power; I don’t think he has great power. He doesn’t really fight that good off the ropes, that is one of his major weaknesses I see. He let that little itty-bitty dude Ricky Hatton punch him around. He started beating up on him in the 11th and 12th round, and I think had he done that the whole fight he would have beaten Ricky Hatton with no problem.

RC: It’s clear when he decided to Box he clearly gave Ricky Hatton fits, as Ricky was successful most of the time only when they were on the inside. Will you guys try to use the same formula to beat Collazo?
JM: The way I see it; I don’t care what he does. He isn’t going to be able to change Shane from boxing, punching or whatever Shane wants to do. Unless Shane just give him too much respect and let him do something. But if Shane wants to jump on him he will knock him out, I might be wrong but that is the way I feel.

RC: So you are saying that this fight with Luis Collazo won’t go the distance?
JM: I don’t know, but it shouldn’t. I mean I could be wrong, on paper Shane is more experienced, more powerful and a better boxer than Collazo is. Now Shane is not overlooking Collazo, he is still a fighter out there…but based on his record and Shane’s record he shouldn’t be a problem for Shane. In his eyes he (Collazo) has everything to gain and nothing to lose, so he is going to try and let it all hang out there and of course Shane will do what he normally does. Shane has been looking better since the Vargas fight, in fact Shane has already made his weight. He has been as low as 149lbs, he is back up to 152lb right now, but he has been around 149lbs and a half. So all Shane is doing is working on technical stuff, he is already in shape.

You can’t take anything away from Collazo, he looked real good against Ricky Hatton but Hatton is no Sugar Shane. Ricky Hatton looks like Phillip Holiday who Shane fought when Shane was sick, one of those guys that just come out and throw punches, but he just ties up a lot. But he couldn’t do none of that to Shane. I just don’t think he is going to be able to take the power that Shane has. If you look at the Vargas fight the second time around we worked on the left hook and that’s the punch he got him out of there with. Going into the second fight people was saying “Vargas is going to do this to Shane” and “Vargas is going to do that to Shane” and I told them that Vargas aint going to do nothing but get knocked out, and that’s what happened. I told them Shane would be victorious in a brilliant fashion.  Vargas didn’t even see the punch; he had to take a look at it on replay.

Shane has a hard jab, when Collazo feels that jab when he really hits him with it Collazo is going to be like “Damn this man hits hard like a rock”. It’s going to feel like a cop nightstick hitting him upside the head. When he hit my man upside his head he is going to be like “Damn, they were right” Everybody is saying Shane is a has been and Shane is that, but then when he starts kicking butt again they are going to say “Ooh he is regrouped, he is back”, but the truth of the matter is he never went no where.

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