KLITSCHKO-STEWARD, ET AL, PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

 

By Rizwaan Zahid
 

  
 
 

 
 

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO

  1. You have had a few big fights in your career, how important is this one for you and the heavyweight division.

    1. I’m looking at it as a sporting event, and every fighter has a different training method, and I do enjoy my training, developing a strategy, and executing it in the fight. That’s my satisfaction, and I have to face it it’s a unification fight.  To me it’s not important right now, it’s important to deliver a great performance.  It is obviously important for boxing fans, and I’m looking forward to it as a boxing fan as well.  Heavyweight boxing needs consistency, that’s what I’m looking to do. 
       

  2. If you get this title, do you need the other ones to be the best?

    1. I’m not considering myself as anything.  You guys can do that.
       

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  3. Is the finger that hurt you with your fight with Brewster causing you any problems?

    1. You can ask my doctor for anything like that.  I’m healthy that’s all I can say.
       

  4. Is there anything you’re doing different in training for this fight?

    1. Every fighter you have to train differently.  He’s shorter, faster, a southpaw.  We have certain sparring partners that are the same size as him and use the same techniques he does.  I think that each fighter is different.  You can’t have the same routine and create something new when it comes time for the fight.
       

  5. A lot of people do not think Sultan has a chance of winning? (Asked by a SweetScience.com writer)

    1. The attitude that you have is wrong.  He doesn’t look impressive all the time but he knows what he’s doing, he is a champ, he’s holding a title and is undefeated.  I will not underestimate his skill, and he’s a silver medalist from the 2000 Olympics, and he’s a very technical fighter. 

MANNY: I understand what you’re saying. (Responding to the above writer).  He had a rough fight with Ray Austin, but he did beat Briggs.  I believe that I and Wlad both think after looking at him closely, that he’ll be the toughest fight that Wlad has fought in his pro career.  He’s good against the big guys, makes that physical size become a handicap.  He punches and gets out of the way.  It may be the best fighter you have fought in your career, I told Wladimir.  With Jeff Mayweather, he has changed a lot, much better fighter now and he showed that in the Briggs fight.  We have a lot of respect for him. We are not taking him lightly.
 
  1. What do you expect from him strategy wise?

    1. I expect him to be explosive and aggressive, but he can use his technical skills as well, but I am ready for either or.  I’m ready for 12 round fight, because that is the world championship kind of fight.

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  2. Have you ever met him before?  The two of you are about the same age and lived in very close parts of the world.
    1. I actually haven’t heard anything about him besides the Olympics in 2000, I never met him before, that’s the first time I met him at the press conference in Moscow.
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  3. Your thoughts on the heavyweight division and Americans and why they are not at the top anymore.

    1. MANNY: It’s not only from the Soviet Union though; it’s about solid amateur backgrounds.  Jameel McCline, had like no amateur fights, Hasim Rahman had about 8 amateur fights.  Maskeav, Ibragimov, Klitschko, Chagaev… they all have silver and gold medals. A lot of it is we don’t have a strong amateur program (in USA).   They have a lot of that.  Guy’s go through two Olympics sometimes.  Wlad had a lot of amateur fights, starting out at a young age.  It’s not just soviet, all about the foundation of boxing programs.

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  4. You’re 32, have you ever thought of when you’re going to retire.
    1. This is my best time to fight, in my best days, haven’t even though about it yet. 

MANNY:  Vitali had injury problems from kickboxing that’s why he retired.  Wladimir has a while to go.  Even in the amateur programs I don’t see anything that will be harder for Wlad. He can probably fight into his 40’s.

  1.  During you’re time off after the Brewster fight, how did you scope out your next opponent.

    1. I said always for the title shot.  I said let’s do it I think I can accomplish that and lets get the best fighter out there.  I’m thankful for Ibragimov and his team for this fight; they also realize that it’s not an easy fight for him either.  The good thing was dealing with them wasn’t difficult at all.  We agreed on everything and we finished the deal and it wasn’t complicated. My team was good as usual for making the event, from fight to fight, this kind of experience you can’t buy in a shop and we learn from each fight. 

     
  2.  Is there any nationalistic rivalry, the way they have with USA-England, Mexico-Puerto Rico?

    1. Of course this fight is very special in the region of Eastern Europe.  There is no bad blood though between the countries.  Each country root for their champ. But I do have a lot of fans in the Russian federation, and I never heard anything bad at all about me over there.  I don’t care who’s the other opponent across the ring, about any specific language, skin colour or anything else, I care about my performance.  The performance is about a form of art, we create the fight for the fight.  We do the preparation and then we do it during the fight.  Nothing else is important. 

MANNY STEWARD

  1. You were in the last unification heavy weight fight with Holyfield and Lewis, there’s any difference and similarities?
    1. Two different fights. Only similarity was I have both big guys in those fights.  Also, Holyfield said that God gave him the vision that he would win with a 3rd round KO. I remember everyone watching the fight very closely at that 3rd round (laughing).

Sultan is a very different type of opponent.  He has a lot of footwork and movement, Byrd just had upper body movement. We have studied Sultan a lot and were dealing on a different level.  We’re working in such a great city in NYC, which is the same place that Lewis and Holyfield had their first fight.  To me personally I find him (Ibragimov) to be a much bigger threat than Holyfield was for Lewis.

  1. How do you think Jeff Mayweather has helped him?

    1. Jeff has helped him a lot with conditioning, etc. I think that’s why he’s undefeated, Mayweather has taught him how to fight without taking risks and he’s doing that very well.

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  2. You like working with big guys. How is working with Wlad diff with Taylor and others?

    1. We spend time outside of the gym also.  He has such a great amateur background which is huge.  His footwork I helped him with first, just like everyone else I work with.  He said this is what he was doing when he was 14 years old.  His punches are much straighter and accurate.  Even guys like Tommy (Hearns), Wlad’s are like missiles straight out back and forth.  Very hard to see those punches. Moves in and out gracefully.  It’s a pleasure to work with him.

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  3. How is it diff him being a doctor.  Is he more cerebral and does it help him in the ring.

    1. I don’t have a college degree, but I’m still cerebral (laughing).  Lewis had the same thing as well.  Klitschko also wants to be perfect in every way; he’s also a chess player.  It makes a diff in the ring because of angels and wants to land his punches with precision.

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  4. What has improved psychologically in the past few fights?

    1. He never had any psychologically problems.  The doctor said what the problem was against Brewster, and I think that was one of his best performances until he lost.  They were embarrassing losses, and than he had a close technical decision against Williamson.  He said he wanted to fight Peter, when HBO asked, he said the toughest guy.  Everyone was a mess during the fight.  Vitali was a nervous wreck, especially for the 12th that was the most dramatic round.  He made it through, and then had peter out on his feet in the 12th round.  He gained a lot of confidence right there.

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  5. What are your thoughts on Maskaev/Peter?

    1. Everyone thought Peter would win. But he hasn’t been great as of late, got knocked down 3 times with McCline, and struggled 24 rounds with an overweight middleweight named James Toney.  Even with the inactivity of Maskaev, it’s still a toss up fight. Both fighters can go either way.  I didn’t make any plans on watching the fight yet.

Both fighters can go either way.  I didn’t make any plans on watching the fight yet.

  1. Is it frustrating that there are no bigger marquee names there with Wlad?

    1. Wlad is at his peak now but he doesn’t have any fighter out there with that marquee name.  Lewis was lucky enough to have Tyson even though Tyson was at the end of his career. But Wladimir does not have this.  The only thing he can do is become the unified champ.

SULTAN IBRAGIMOV

  1. Is this your toughest fight?

    1. Yes because a unification fight it’s very important.  I’m treating it like another fight.
       

  2. What has changed with Jeff?

    1. More boxing and more technical stuff now as opposed to before.

 

BORIS GREENBERG

“Not many American’s saw the big fights with Briggs and Holyfield though. He’s an exciting fighter, very strong mentally and physically.”

How are you going to fight Klitschko? Go for the KO like many fighters have tried to do?
Klitschko will have to be big and strong, that’s all I can really say.

Is this better than the fight that would’ve happened with Chagaev?
I was training in camp and then the fight got cancelled with Chagaev.  It doesn’t matter to me though.

02-14-2008

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