“A lot of people talk **explicit**, but the bottom line is Jermain will not beat me”

After learning that unified Middleweight champion Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor will likely return on April 14th against Season one Contender champion Sergio “The Latin Snake” Mora 19-0(4). Boxingtalk.com contacted the popular East L.A. native to get his thoughts on the possible upcoming match up. “Until it is on paper and it is signed and I am training for it that is when I am excited about it. Other than that it is just hear say” stated Mora, who added “I have issues with him (Taylor) from the Olympic trials (2000)”. In this One on One, Sergio gives us the run down on how their amateur bout played out, his blueprint on what he feels it will take to dethrone Taylor, his reply to Bob Arums comments, and his must read take on the upcoming Ishe Smith-Sechew Powell match up set to take place February 17th on HBO B.A.D.

RC: What’s going Sergio? Looks like you have some good news coming your way
SM: Well, I hope so…. But you know what man… I am very very disappointed in the talk going on in Boxing. First you hear something then its not, and then you hear it and it is not. Until it is on paper and it is signed and I am training for it that is when I am excited about it. Other than that it is just hear say, so its been a word me and Jermain me and Jermain and you know what I would love to fight Jermain. Because I got…I mean even before he looked like **explicit** in his last three fights. Even before that they were talking big about it. I have issues with him from the Olympic trials, and even back then I thought I can beat him. I thought it was a good fight when we fought in the Olympics trails, and I can’t wait to meet him in the pros, he hasn’t changed much.

RC: According to Lou DiBella, the between yourself and Jermain Taylor will take place April 14th in either Los Angeles or Vegas. What’s the latest you have been told on your end?
SM: All I really know is they offered me this fight last year. They offered me the fight in December when he fought Kassim Ouma and I turned it down. It wasn’t right then, and aside from that, the money wasn’t right. Now from what I hear, he is looking for a good opponent, and they are offering me a title shot. I am excited about it, I am willing to take it if everything works out and materializes. But like I said, it is all just talk until we sign it.

RC: So in other words, nothing has been presented to you about this potential April fight?
SM: No not at all man, not even like a solid offer or nothing. It is all talk, they are telling me we can do this, we can do this and this is how much. But it is nothing solid, I keep wanting for it to materialize and just come to fruition, and it has not been happening. I am just doing my part staying active, that’s it.

RC: Greg Leon recently conducted and interview with Bob Arum here on Boxingtalk.com, in which Arum stated that you facing Jermain Taylor is a disgrace, and adding that you won’t last two rounds with Taylor. Give us your thoughts on his comments?
SM: Well okay… I think he is crazy. I mean, I think if anything Kelly Pavlik wont last two rounds with Taylor. He gets hit solid. We found that out with (Jose Luis) Zertuche. He gets hit too solidly and he has no defense. He has good technique but he is slow as hell. He has power though, that makes up for it and he can take a hell of a shot. So obviously I am not talking nothing negative about Kelly Pavlik’s potential, but him fighting Jermain Taylor doesn’t make sense, Jermain will knock him out. I think in order to beat Jermain Taylor, you need speed, you need defense, you need to bang him in the body and back him up. I feel Kelly Pavlik can back him up, and that’s it. He doesn’t have the speed or the ability to make him pay. It would be a great night for Jermain Taylor if he fights Kelly Pavlik, because Kelly Pavlik obviously cracked the top ten, he is undefeated, he is a good looking tall white boy that can punch. So it will be a good feast for Jermain. I mean it is just the promoter’s job for him to say that. I got respect for Kelly Pavlik, but not for Bob Arum for talking smack like that.

I sincerely feel if I go into that fight with Jermain Taylor, I am not going in there to pick up a paycheck. I am undefeated myself; I want to become champion myself. I have issue with Jermain, he stopped me from the Olympics, and there is no way he is going stop me from a world championship. So, I just hope that it happens because I know that everyone is going to be against me saying that I have no chance. So every little spark of action that I give in that fight people are going to be surprised. Kind of like when sugar Ray Leonard fought Marvin Hagler. Any little good thing that Sugar Ray did, it magnified. So I think that is how this fight would happen, they think I am a reality T.V. fighter, I go in there and start giving this guy some problems, winning some rounds, and people are going to start thinking different. You have to change people’s mind. I told myself that when I reached 20-0 I was going to fight for a title, I told myself that when I was 1-0. So I am 19-0 now, and destiny is a hell of a thing. I believe in everything that has been happening for me, so I think this shot is going to happen whether people want it or not. I just want it to happen already.

RC: Sergio, let me ask you this. How much does it bother you that…. I kind of get the feeling sometimes that you are sort of picked on because you won a reality series. So the people don’t really look at you the same way they do other fighters.  Despite you beating guys like Manfredo (Twice), Ishe Smith, Najai Turpin (R.I.P.) and even an undefeated guy in Les Ralston people tend to look at you as sort of……
SM: (Cutting in) The T.V. guy… the guy that basically was on T.V. because… I don’t know…. I am not the greatest looking guy n the world… **explicit** I don’t know why I was on T.V. but the bottom line I was, because…. The bottom line is look… I have to change people’s mind. If I would have never been on that show, I would have been respected. They would have been saying this kid is undefeated and he is pretty good. It would have been different, but all of a sudden I am on T.V., everything sounds too good. I beat these guys on NBC. I won a million dollars; I fought in front of a national audience. So all of a sudden, you have to depreciate me in some way.

You can’t think I am King Kong, which I am not, but it is not a gold medal. A gold medal solidifies you. A T.V. show is just kind of not the same. So either you are a fan or you are not, and obviously in the boxing world it is a big skeptical world. So you have to prove yourself and I don’t mind, I don’t mind that. It is all good. I feel good about it, because whether they want to watch me get knocked out, or they want to watch me win. They are going to watch and it is all good, because I always come prepared to fight and I am going to fight until the end. I got that already in my heart so… I mean people are going to see it little by little. They have seen sparks of it, and they can’t totally hate on me now. They know that I fight through cuts; I fight through knockdowns, I fight when I am behind. So I am not going to be like this one cat, the Argentinean (Julio David Roque Ler) that fought (Jorge) Arce. I am not going to do something like that, I am not going to try not to win, that is embarrassing. He went in there and just tried to survive, nah….it’s either you want to win or you don’t fight. I think people have seen sparks of that in me and they just need to see the whole thing.

RC: Well, before we continue, for those out there reading Boxingtalk.com, why don’t you give us your take on exactly what happened in the amateur match between yourself and Jermain Taylor?
SM: I will tell you exactly how it happened; I wasn’t even suppose to be in the Olympic trials (2000). I had 45 fights as an amateur, when everyone else had over 200 fights. Jermain Taylor had been ranked all the way since the 1996 Olympic trails. I was just boxing for three years; I ended up making the trails. I beat this one dude, David Estrada, and I won against Sechew Powell and he claims he beat me, but the guy is weak minded and he ended up body slamming me once I punched him in the mouth. So I ended up fighting Jermain in the finals, and I sincerely felt that it was a damn close fight. Obviously he did win, and not by a six point margin. If anything he won by one or two points, and that was because in the last round I found out the score was like seven-three and I was behind. So I threw my game plan pout of the window and just rushed in, and I started getting hit with jabs I shouldn’t have got hit with and he ended up winning a decision.

The bottom line, he can tell you… if you interview him. If you interview him tomorrow, you ask him “When you fought Sergio in the amateurs was it an easy fight?” and he will tell you that guy is tougher than you think. He told me that after the fight, and I know he will tell you that people underestimate me and that’s all good. My strength, my speed my defense, everything, my unorthodox style, I feel it was a closer fight but he did win. I am not ignorant. He did win.

I felt something, I felt more power and I didn’t feel he had that great a speed and he wasn’t as aggressive with me as was when he fought Anthony Hanshaw and when he fought Kelly Pavlik.  When he fought me he was tentative. And that’s actually another thing why he beat me, is because I felt he was going to come towards me and I ended up being the aggressor.  So I have nothing to complain about Jermain, Jermain is a hell of a guy, he is great for boxing, and he is a hell of a dude. You can’t get two young dudes that have history on the way up, kind of the same sage and the same thing going for them, only he is the champ and not have a good fight.

RC: Sergio, seeing as how you have laced them up with both fighters before, Sechew Powell in the amateurs and Ishe Smith as a professional. Who do you see winning their highly anticipated grudge match on February 17th set to take place on HBO?
SM: I think it is going to be … they are both talented guys. I think they are both talented guys that aren’t willing to go the extra mile though. So it wont be an exciting fight. I think it is going to be a unanimous decision, boring fight Sechew Powell winning it..

Now if you are going to print what I just said, you have to print this. My heart…. I wish… I hope Ishe wins, but my calculated bet is on Sechew, but I hope Ishe wins. That is the dude that I think should win but I don’t think he is.

RC: I’m kind of shocked that you are hoping Ishe wins...now can that be because by him beating Sechew Powell it inches him closer to a possible Sergio Mora rematch?
SM: Yeah definitely, he needs to do something. He needs to definitely win because since the show he hasn’t really had any good fights; he has fought what two times? And the two guys were nobody. So he definitely needs a good win under his belt and if he beats Sechew man… definitely it brings him back in the limelight a little bit and gets him back into that status. So hell yeah, he starts building his name a little bit more then why not. Me and him had a good close fight when we fought on The Contender, so if he can pick himself up and just dust off all of the things people say about him and just do what he does. Ishe is a hell of a dude, a hell of a fighter, he jut needs a little bit more grit and that is why he loss on the contender, he didn’t have that grit, that extra mile. And that is what I mean by not taking the extra step. I don’t think either of those guys (Smith & Powell) have that extra grit to take it to another level. They just have damn good hands and talent, but that aint enough.

RC: Many are expecting that fight to be a good one seeing as how they genuinely don’t like each other, but stylistically it can turn out to be more of a chess match.
SM: Man I hope it is an exciting fight, not only for… for everybody it is good for boxing, its good for the contender show if Ishe comes out and wins because he is known from the show. If Sechew ends up beating Ishe, I think he is the slightly better boxer, I think they are equal talent, equal speed, equal power, equal ability, I sincerely have everything equal except one is a southpaw, and one maybe punches a little bit harder, and that Ishe. So I don’t see it as an exciting fight because like I said, both of them guys aren’t willing to take it the extra step. That’s why it wont be an exciting fight, but I am not saying it won’t be a good fight. I am pulling for Ishe, Good luck, but I think Sechew wins the decision.

RC: Anything else, you would like to add before I let you go?
SM: A lot of people talk **explicit**, but the bottom line is Jermain will not beat me like people think he will. It is embarrassing to me and for everyone that knows boxing. For those that know boxing and still thinks it will be an annihilation, I am going to be a Mohammad Ali **explicit** once that fight is over.

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