"That's why (Oscar) De La Hoya was my first preference. He has something I want, the WBC championship, but he's said if he fights again, it won't be until next year. Since Oscar said he won't fight Floyd Mayweather this year, I'm offering Mayweather an opportunity to fight for my world title. He turned down $8 million to fight (Antonio) Margarito, Winky Wright refused to fight Margarito for $4 million, so I'm willing to fight Mayweather or Margarito for $3 million. If neither of those fights happens, I'm open to fighting the winner of (Shane) Mosley-(Fernando) Vargas or (Roman) Karmazin-(Cory) Spinks. I was supposed to fight Vargas a few years ago on HBO, but I hurt my wrist. Don King promotes me, Karmazin and Spinks; that unification fight should be easy to make. I'd even be willing to fight (WBO champ) Sergei Dzindziruk in Germany for both belts as long as the money's right."

 

Rivera is a true working class world champion who is a full time court officer in Worcester, Massachusetts. As far as anybody knows, he is the only world champion with a fulltime job outside of boxing. Jose may be the only world champion boxer working a 9-5 job as well. "I work a fulltime job for the security and benefits the State of Massachusetts offers me," Jose explained. "It's hard working fulltime and training for world championship fights, but I have two children now and I'm thinking about their futures, as well as saving money for their college education.

 

"I'll continue fighting as long as things go good. I don't want to fight as long as Bernard (Hopkins). When I was younger I said I didn't want to fight past 35. I want to start pursuing other parts of my life. I will go to college. I want to major in criminal justice and become a juvenile probation officer."

 

Rivera won the lightly regarded IBO welterweight title in 1997 by stopping Gilberto Flores in the second round. Eight years later, Jose defeated previously unbeaten Michel Trabant (38-0) by majority decision for the vacant WBA regular welterweight championship [Editor's note: there was a WBA super champion at the time]. Last year, Rivera lost that title by split decision to Luis Collazo. Jose decided that the strain on his body to lose weight was simply too much for him at 147 and he successfully moved up to 154 and beat Garcia. Rivera is the first Worcester world champion since Lou Brouillard in 1931.