GL: It's been a while since we've had you on Boxingtalk. We all know about your big fight with undisputed middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, can you give us some thoughts on the fight? "Man Jermain Taylor is a great fighter and a great champion and I want to thank him for the opportunity. May 19 is going to be off the chain, Memphis is only a hop, skip and a jump from 'tha Lou'so the STL is going to be in the building, Arkansas is going to be in the building because they right around the corner too and you know I'm going to have a few surprises for the champ on May 19."

GL: Oh yeah like what?

Cory Spinks: (laughs) "I ain't going to tell you much about the surprises I got for Jermain in the ring just yet, but me and Kevin going to put it together. But you know how my ring entrances is off the chain man? Well, let's put it like this ain't nothing changing come May 19."

GL: Can you give us some thoughts of Jermain as a fighter?

CS: "It's like I told you man, he's a great fighter. He's like me, he wants to fight the best and he'll fight whoever they put in front of him. I was looking for the big names at 154 but you got guys like Mosley running down to welterweight, Floyd's fighting Oscar, HBO didn't step up to the plate for the Ouma fight, but Jermain stepped up to do what the so called pound for pound best wouldn't so how can I not have a lot of respect for him?"

GL: I understand the two of you have been cool with each other for quite some time.

CS: "Yeah man, I mean me and him have a lot of history. We came up in the amatuers together, we went on all sorts of trips together, the junior Olympics, all that. He was always one weight class bigger than I was, so ain't nothing really change now except we're going to be fighting each other."

GL: Since the two of you have respect for each other and are cool, could that make for a boring fight?

CS: "Hell no. We cool and we have respect for each other, but when we get into the ring it's a different story, all that goes out the window until after the fight. He's going to be in there looking to overpower me, he's going to try to take my head off. My job is to make sure he misses and leaves himself open enough so I can put these thangs on him."

GL: How do you feel about being considered a big underdog in this fight?

CS: "It's nothing new to me, but I like it. When I won the title in Italy I was the underdog, when I fought Mayorga y'all thought I was going to get knocked the hell out, Zab was the favorite in our first fight and Karmazin was the favorite last July. It's nothing new to me, but man I ain't never lost a fight where I was the underdog so I'm not worried."

GL: What does a victory over Jermain Taylor do for your career?

CS: "I think it does a lot, but right now I'm focusing on winning the fight. I'll leave figuring out what it does for me to you and your friends in the media."

GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?

CS: "Boxingtalk.com and my boy Greg Leon is doing they thang like always. I want to thank my fans for their support and I want everyone in Lou to come through on May 19 to see what I got for the middleweight division."

M

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