Greg Leon: Congrats on your recent victory over Sullivan Barrera. Can you give us some thoughts on your performance? Jesse Hart: "I think my performance was great for my first time at the weight. My movement was good, but I think I got to get more adjusted to them type of guys laying on me. He was laying on me in the clinches and he kept grabbing on me, I just got to get more physically adjusted to the weight class. Overall though I would have to give myself a C performance, C+. I felt like I was getting stronger as the rounds were going on. I felt like I was the way fresher guy at going into the later rounds."

 

GL: This was a sloppy fight, is that the reason you're giving yourself a C or C+?

 

JH: "Yes, that's the main reason I'm giving myself that grade. When he was laying on me I felt his physicality. I could normally throw guys off me and I couldn't really do that with Sullivan Barrera, he was the stronger man in that fight. These guys at 175 are coming in at 190-200 pounds and it was a new experience for me."

 

GL: Were you surprised he was the stronger man?

 

JH: "Yes, because I'm used to the being the stronger man. I'm always the stronger man, even with Gilberto Ramirez I knew I was the stronger fighter. He packed on more weight, but he wasn't stronger than me."

 

GL: You've been hurt a couple of times before in the closing seconds of rounds and it happened again in this fight. What's up with that Jesse? Do them sticks sound like the bell or something?

 

JH: "I think I just get lax some times and it causes a guy to catch me at the end of the round. My mind is telling my body to stay alert, but sometimes my body doesn't want to cooperate. (laughs) It's something I'm going to continue to work on and concentrate on. I have to stay alert at all times, it's not the kind of thing a trainer can teach you. In the Nicholson fight you seen me get hurt at the end of the round, my body get lax, but at the end of the day it's something that could be worked on and I can correct it myself."

 

GL: Are you disappointed you didn't stop Barrera?

 

JH: "Absolutely. That's the statement I wanted to make. I wanted to let people know that I'm up here and I can punch. I think that first knockdown, I did push him a bit, but I dropped him with that right hand and he got back up on queer street. It was only his experience that got him through that. When I talk that shit about these fighters they get up for me and Sullivan Barrera definitely did. But I want the 175 division to be on notice because that's the weakest I'm ever going to be at this weight class, I'm only going to get better, bigger and stronger and I did a lot of that with one hand. My right hand was acting up during the fight, so I had to use my left a lot more. Imagine what I could have done to him if I had two hands that whole fight."

 

GL: Who do you want next and when can we expect to see you back in the ring?

 

JH: "I want to fight Eleider Alvarez or Joe Smith Jr next, I don't know when it's going to be. Hopefully my last fight makes these guys want to fight me more. I wanted to fight Alvarez in my first fight, but he didn't want to fight me. Hopefully he does now, we'll see."

 

GL: Closing thoughts for the fans.

 

JH: "I want to thank you and Boxingtalk for always reaching out. Whenever people want to get the latest and greatest on Jesse Hart, they've got to get it from Boxingtalk. Boxingtalk gets it first and then everybody else has to copy off them."