Shaw eyes Hatton-Urango winner for Diego Corrales

Boxingtalk.com recently spoke with promoter Gary Shaw to get his take on the ShoBox super middleweight tournament. As previously reported here on Boxingtalk, Shaw made it clear he plans to protest the draw between his fighter Anthony Hanshaw and Jean Paul Mendy to both the IBO and the Mississippi athletic commission. Also in part one of this two-part interview, the GSP President gives us the scoop on his failed attempt to match Diego versus Margarito and Mosley, and informs us of which 140lb fighter he’d like to put him in with the Urango-Hatton winner. He also, gives us his take on Casal-Izquierdo performance, as well as his future plans for both fighters. Read on, as he also talks more about his MMA venture and much much more

RC: Gary, give us your take on the Super Middleweight tournament that ended Fri… well that was suppose to end last night but it looks like it will going on again. Give us your take on the match up between Jean Paul Mendy and your guy Anthony Hanshaw ending in a draw.
GS: I believe it was controversial, I believe there was some mistakes made I am going to protest to the Mississippi commission and I am going to protest to the IBO. I believe that fight should have been stopped in the 12th round, a point deducted from Mendy for an intentional head butt, and it gone to the scorecards. In which case Hanshaw would have been the winner. It’s clear that the headbutt was intentional, and the butt has now caused Hanshaw probably not to be able to fight for probably six months

RC: Any update on Hanshaw’s cut after he went to the hospital?
GS: It was a brutal cut, it was as bad as any I have seen, so when I say six months I mean that he has gotta get stitched up, he has gotta get healed and he cant go into real training unless that is done. So maybe it is four months, five months or whatever it is but I am going to protest the decision.

RC: Give us your take on the (Nick)Casal’s performance last night in which he suffered the first loss of his professional career?
GS: I thought Nick ran out of steam. I thought Nick had (Jose Antonio) Izquierdo in the first round. He hurt him; he hurt him a couple of times in the fight. I thought he should have jumped on him a little more. Look Nick is very young, it was a good fight for him. Hopefully it was a learning experience for him and you know we will bring Nick back. But Nick has to work more on his defense because he is getting hit with shots that he should not be getting hit with, that’s number one. And number two his cardio training obviously has to be improved. He has gotta dedicate himself to the sport of boxing because you cant have these fights and run out of steam. It was only an eight round fight; he has fifteen fights under his belt. If it was a twelve round fight he probably couldn’t have made it. But in the positive of it, besides it being a good learning experience he proved what a great warrior he is and finished the eight rounds, and a credit to his Dad who I know was thinking about stopping the fight in the eighth round.

RC: Well, why don’t you give us your take on the upcoming up with Cha….
GS: (Cutting in) well before you go there, I want to go to Antonio Izquierdo who won the fight. He also seemed to be tiring towards the end; he has to dedicate himself more towards the cardio. I spoke to him, I ran into him actually at a restaurant late at night, and he said that Casal was one of the hardest hitters he has ever faced and that he is using fight as a learning experience as well.

RC: Does this mean you will be working with Izquierdo in the near future?
GS: I have both guys, and I am not dropping Casal. I believe in Nick, I just think that Nick has gotta believe in Nick and do the right things.

RC: Any idea on what’s next for Izquierdo?
GS: We will bring him back probably at another tough fight at 135lbs. I feel he is probably maybe four or five fights away from fighting the very top of the 135lb division.

RC: Despite the Super Middleweight Tournament ending in a draw and there being no clear cut winner, that was a great televised card Friday night. At first, many didn’t seem to crazy about the Super Middleweight tournament you put on, but I think that you might have opened up the eyes of many by showing that they are many other good fighters in that division other than the names we are use to hearing.
GS: Its interesting your comments and I appreciate it, it is the first time on any ShoBox show that I have ever done, I must have gotten about a dozen emails. Not from my sons who say, “Good show Dad”, but from other people. One said that the show had the feel of a real world championship big time fight. There was one that said “Awesome”. They were from different people that I respect that had the same comments as you, and it just shows that they are other fighters other than (Joe) Calzaghe or Mikkel Kessler that are legitimate and can put on really good fights.

Look I don’t want to digress too much, but in boxing if we all stop being haters and get behind different things that people do, it helps the whole sport. Now someone else can do a 135lb tournament or whatever and show that it can work, and that is can be exciting and you don’t have to start off with the eight top names or the six top names, you can create it and show that it is legitimate.

RC: Speaking of the haters…. I think it’s great that you are thinking outside of the box by getting involved in the MMA and bringing it to ShowTime. And I am curious and I am sure many are wondering how have the people in boxing accepted that. Especially when you came on the record (on Boxingtalk.com with Greg Leon (http://www.boxingtalk.com/pag/article10754.html) predicting that the MMA show will do better than any boxing Show that Showtime has ever done?
GS: Well it is interesting; it is being better accepted by the people in boxing, than it is by the people in the MMA. In the MMA they are a lot of haters that are blogging saying, “Well Gary Shaw is a Johnny come lately” and whatever. Everybody in boxing knows how I feel about boxing. The best thing is that everybody thinks I am out of the boxing business. So while everybody is sleeping I am working.

So while everybody thought I had a bad 2006 all I was doing was reloading. I got some great fighters, Mario Santiago; I am talking about young fighters, and now Timothy Bradley.  I just signed the Bey Brothers and I got James Kirkland, I mean I got some really young killers. Then I got guys that are now graduated like Chad Dawson who is coming, I still have Diego (Corrales), so I am not worried about the fighters that I represent and I believe that I can do both. I have a thriving boxing business and boxing company, and I have a thriving MMA business now on ShowTime with a three-year contract.

RC: Are they any concerns for you with Dawson going into his first world title fight with a new trainer (Floyd Mayweather Sr.)?
GS: No because I think Mayweather Sr. is top of the heap, and anytime that you can switch and get a trainer like Mayweather Sr.. Look I don’t blame Chad Dawson; Chad has told me that he has learned things that he didn’t ever know before. So I try not to get in between the trainer and the fighter, I don’t do that. I don’t ever go there, though they’re trainers that try to get in between the promoter and the fighter for whatever reason. But you keep good karma and keep going forward and everything works out. Fighters that fight for Gary Shaw knows they have to fight. I mean the proof of the pudding was with Izquierdo and Casal both whom I represent. So Chad knew that when he signed with me that he has to fight and now he is there. He is on the big stage against (Tomasz) Adamek who has plenty of experience, and been in a couple of wars with (Paul) Briggs. This is a big big opportunity for Chad. He felt he didn’t want to be with the past trainer, or his manager who I admire so much, Mike Criscio, and that’s there decision, I don’t ever stand in the way of their decisions and they are happy with their decision.

RC: So what’s the deal with Diego, a couple weeks ago you told Greg Leon you were still waiting on Diego to decide whether he wants to fight at 140 or 147lbs…
GS: (Cutting in) yeah I called Arum yesterday and tried to make a Margarito fight, and he said Margarito is going to fight I think next month and then he is going to fight Cotto on a Pay Per view, so although I wanted to make that fight I had to look at a different fight, and a big fight for Diego at 140 or 147lbs.

RC: Does Diego have a preference as to what weight he wants his next fight to take place at?
GS: Well Diego wants to fight big fights. So I am not interested in fighting Kendall Holt, or anybody of that level. They have to be big and meaningful fights for Diego, he has already said that, so that is what I want to do. So if it is at 140 or 147lbs I want to fight the biggest fights I can get for him out there.

RC: Any other names you want to throw out there for a possible opponent for Diego?
GS: Well hey look I wanted to fight Shane Mosley but I was told that Shane Mosley does not want to fight Diego Corrales. So I tried that one with Richard Shaffer. I am giving you the ones that I tried don’t want to fight Diego for one reason or another. I’d love to fight Hatton at 140lbs after Urango, and I will speak to Artie Pelullo. I believe there are good fights out there; the question is making the fight. Maybe Juan Diaz, if Juan thinks he is really strong maybe he wants to come up to 140lbs and fight. I would do that fight with Diego; I will fight Juan Diaz with Casamayor at 135lbs. I will fight Freitas with Casamayor at 135lbs

RC: Do you have…
GS: (Cutting in) Yeah, I am partner with them with Casamayor.

RC: Any update on the Vic Darchinyan-Victor Burgos fight?
GS: Darchinyan-Burgos looks like it is going on the first Saturday of March (3rd) on ShowTime I have come to an agreement with Don King. I am working on Rafael Marquez against Vasquez right now trying to get that fight made. So I got a lot of stuff going.

RC: You seemed pretty excited about James Kirkland when you mentioned him earlier, I know he will be fighting February 2nd on ShowTime. What can you tell us about him?
GS: Ooh James is a killer. Not in the true sense of the word, but in the ring. I think he is for sure a future world champion, and I would think hat you will see great things out of him within this year and I believe that we will be fighting for a world title either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

On another subject, I have “Vicious” Vivian Harris fighting (Juan) Lazcano for the number one Mandatory in the WBC. That fight will be taking place under the Shane Mosley fight (February 10th on HBO) So like I said I have a lot of my guys fighting, and a lot of things. If all of my guys win it could be a spectacular 2007, and if they don’t win then you will be calling me asking “Gary how do you feel about 2007”.

RC: Any other fighters in your steep stable that you’d like to touch on?
GS: Mario Santiago I think he is a great 126lb fighter, and he is not getting enough credit. But I think within the next six months he will have one or two defining fights. He is trained by Evangelista Cotto and when he gets those defining fights everybody will be talking about Mario in the 126lb division.

I also got someone new that I cant divulge yet that I will be singing probably within the next week, another young guy so nobody has to worry about me running to the MMA because I am still reloading my guns. But these are the guys that I am representing and will be your future stars. Everything that everybody is talking about are the old timers. I am not saying that they are not good a quality. Bernard Hopkins on a personal level, I love Bernard. I mean he is one of my favorite long time people and we go back a long way. But we keep recycling the same names; I mean we might as well bring back Willie Mayes in baseball and Johnny Unitas in football. We gotta bring some new blood. Our sport is suffering two things right now. Number one: not enough U.S. fighters, too many from Europe and international fighters. When you go through the rankings they are names you don’t recognize, names that T.V. doesn’t want to buy, very few Americans. Number two: they’re not enough fresh faces that can really fight and that is what we have to work on. So if all we are going to do is keep recycling the same names over and over and over… and that’s the excitement then we are in deep deep deep trouble.

 

Stayed tuned for Part two of this one on one Interview with Gary Shaw, in which he talks in debt about his February 10th MMA card to be televised on ShowTime. You don’t want to miss part two, as he informs Boxingtalk.com that he signed the brother of one of Boxing’s brightest young stars to his MMA Company.

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