PETER MANFREDO, JR. DROPPING DOWN TO MIDDLEWEIGHT
By Doveed Linder

Boxingtalk: You have a fight coming up this Thursday against Ronald Weaver (29-18-2 with 22 KOs).  What do you know about your opponent and what kind of results do you expect to produce?

Peter Manfredo: I don’t know much about him.  I just know that it’s a stay-busy fight for me.  I’ve been training in the gym and frustrated because I wanted to get a fight.  And I finally signed with TKO Promotions and this is my first fight with them.  And I feel real good.  I’m ready to go.  I don’t care who you put in front of me.  I’m coming back at middleweight.  I’ve been campaigning the past three or four years at super middleweight and I made it to the top level, but I just couldn’t win the title.  In my opinion, I’m just too small for that weight class.  So I’m going back down to middleweight and I think I have a better shot at winning a title at that weight.    

BT:  Assuming you are victorious against Weaver, what’s your next step and when can we expect to see you against one of the top guys in the division?

PM: Well, I want to fight again right away.  I want to stay busy.  It’s up to my promoters.  I let them know what I wanted and it’s up to them to keep me busy.  But I told them I want to fight right away again and obviously as I keep going I want to get better as the opponents go on.  Like I said, I haven’t been in the ring for six or seven months.  I think it’s the perfect fight for now.  But in the future, obviously, we need the bigger fights and the bigger names.

BT: How much farther do you see yourself taking your career and what do you want to accomplish while you’re still in the game?

PM: Well, I’m gonna be 29 at the end of the month and I never see myself going past 30, 31.  I got a couple years left where I can probably make some noise.  Obviously, I want to be a world champion.  That’s everybody’s dream in boxing is to be a world champion.  So that’s what I’m gonna shoot for.  That’s why I’m dropping down to 160 [pounds] and sacrificing myself.  And this is what I want.  I want to be a champion, so I’m gonna try it at this weight.  I think I have a better shot.  I mean if (Sergio) Mora can do it at junior middleweight…  Everybody seen I was competitive with him both times.  So I think if he can do it I know I can do it.

BT: You’ve been in with some of the best at super middleweight.  What did you learn from those experiences and what would you have done differently?

PM: Well, I think, for instance with my last fight with (Sakio) Bika, obviously I should have boxed him.  I went in there with the wrong game plan.  I just wanted to do what got me to that point with that fight.  Because with the (Jeff) Lacy fight, I was boxing real nice and I lost control of that fight.  So I didn’t want to make the same mistake with the Bika fight.  And with the (Joe) Calzaghe fight, I never really got a shot with that fight.  But being in there with the best in the world at a different weight class, at a big weight class where they’re obviously too big for me, it gives you the confidence and the experience you need for when I do fight again at that championship level in the middleweight division, I’ll know what to expect.  And I’ll have the experience from super middleweight and I think I’ll have a much better shot because the guys will actually be my size, except for the freaks like Paul Williams and (Kelly) Pavlik.  I mean those two guys are freaks. They are the division’s best.  And you know that’s the goal – to fight the best.

BT: At this stage of your career, do you believe that you can still get better and improve as a fighter?

PM: I hope so.  I mean if you can’t get better then you shouldn’t be in the game anymore.  I think you can always get better.  You learn something new everyday.  I don’t know everything, so obviously I’m still getting better.  I’m still learning.  I’m not punched out yet.  You know, obviously I can still speak, so that’s a good thing.  I just want to get to that level and win a big fight.

BT: I know you’ve trained with Freddie Roach in the past.  What did you learn from Freddie and has your experience with him had any impact on your approach to the ring?

PM: I think so.  From Freddie I’ve learned so much.  To be a better boxer, to be much smarter, to figure out my opponent better, to get in the best shape of my life…  Freddie’s obviously, in my opinion, the best trainer in boxing.  I learned a lot with him.  I’m just not making the money I was once making when I was with “The Contender” so I can’t afford to move out to California for six weeks at a time.  So I take what I learned off him and I try to apply it in these next fights and hopefully if I do get the big title fight, I’ll be right back up there in LA training with Freddie.

BT: Being that you spent a lot of time fighting at super middleweight, I’m sure you’re keeping an eye on the Super Six.  What are your thoughts so far and who do you expect to come out on top?

PM: These are great, great fights.  I think boxing really needed something like that.  And as far as a prediction on who’s gonna win, for me, it’s either going to be Arthur Abraham or Mikkel Kessler.  I wanted to see the Americans do it, Andre Dirrell or Andre Ward, but I just don’t think they’re ready yet.  It’s really too early for them to be champions.  Those guys (Abraham and Kessler) got a lot of experience, a lot of fights, and those guys seem like the ones that are gonna win it right now.

BT: Do you have any closing thoughts for the fans?

PM: I just want to thank everybody obviously and let them know I am back at middleweight where I fought on “The Contender” and I feel real good and we’re gonna try and make one last run on it.   So I want to thank everybody for their support and that’s it.  In closing, we’ll get our first win on Thursday night. 

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