GL: Congrats on your title winning effort over Carlos Baldomir. Can you give us some thoughts on your performance? "I haven't seen the replay of the fight yet, but I was happy with my performance because I did what we were working on in the gym. I got like 85-90% of it down. I got away from a few things from time to time, but I stuck to what we worked on most of the time. I had a gamepland I and I followed it well."

GL: Coming into the fight you made it clear that you were going to throw a lot of punches to the body, which you did. But you did also manage to land quite a few head shots, are you hands 100% following the fight?

VF: "My hands are well. I hurt them a few times hitting him on the elbows and head, but they're fine. There's no broken bones and I'm very happy about that."

GL: Was there anything about Baldomir that surprised you?

VF: "Yeah, his durability. Actually Baldomir has slow feet, but he's got pretty quick hands. He's faster than people give him credit for and he has power. He's a very strong fighter, but I knew going in he was going to be tough. I was really surprised at how well he took a punch."

GL: Did he hurt you at all in the ninth round and do you feel the point you lost for low blows was warranted?

VF: "He didn't hurt me. I read some articles where some people said he hurt me and then I hit him low. The game plan was when I was in close, I was supposed to kick back and hit him with a short left hook to the body. But he pulled my head down and that's the reason the shot landed low. It wasn't an intentional low blow and I didn't think I deserved to lose a point, but it was a hard shot so the ref thought it was intentional but it wasn't."

GL: Where do you go from here?

VF: "I'm going home and tell my mother to put some steak on my eye so my swelling can go down."

GL: I have a bit more time to talk than Larry Merchant did so I'm just not going to acccept the I'm going home answer on Boxingtalk.

VF: "G-Mizzle. You're my man and I always keep it 100 with you. At this point I haven't been champion for 24 hours. The answer that I gave last night wasn't anything but the truth. I've been away for five months and right now all I want to do is rest. The boxing business will take care of itself. Am I interested in unification? I'm more interested in big fights moreso than unification."

GL: Can we expect to see you back in action before the end of the year?

VF: "Absolutely."

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

VF: "I'd like to say I hope everybody that tuned in enjoyed the fight and are looking forward to bigger and better things from Vernon Forrest and Fight Night Promotions."

M

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