Interview: Alex Steedman
BN: Explain what you’ve been through since the war against Conor Benn came to an abrupt end.
You can’t have a more frustrating experience than going through a whole camp, losing weight, and then fighting for 48 hours before you have to go to the ring. What’s even crazier is that it’s still unresolved. There are still many unanswered questions. For me, I have to come back as soon as possible. I tried to make this fight with Liam [Smith] happened in December but we couldn’t do it, so it was January. The plan was then to fight in the summer and again at the end of the year. I want to be active. I [i]yes[i] to be active.
patient: You gave Benn weight, even after the fight was cancelled. How does it feel?
It’s terrible because you know you’re losing weight and then don’t fight. It made it harder, but I said I would, so I did. It feels terrible – I doubt any boxer has lost weight knowing they didn’t have a fight by the end of it. It’s hard because you know you don’t have to. You’re sitting there starving and thinking all the time, ‘You really don’t have to do this. You can eat and drink as much as you want.’
That will never happen again. If and when that fight comes to Conor, he will lose all his privileges. I won’t drop to 157lbs, he doesn’t deserve it anymore.
BN: And Roy Jones is on your team again.
Yes, he was here for a week. [before Christmas] and then returned to his family. I always say I want to be with Roy for the rest of my career, it’s a fight [versus Benn] when I want my old man to be there and Ronnie [Davies] In the corner. There’s history there but outside of that, I want Roy. He’s a genius and we work really well together.
BN: How is your father?
We’re staying away from Dad’s stuff, but he’s okay.
BN: What is your memory of Liam Smith?
That was, I don’t know, six or seven years ago. I fought him and his brother, Paul. I don’t remember the crossbars. He told me straight up that he hit me with a gun that nearly knocked me down. So I said, ‘Well, I guess I need to sit up more because my body is vulnerable. Thank you for letting me know.’
BN: Did you notice those things?
Well, the guy was talking so I listened to him. But does it affect my thought process or my confidence? Is not. I would also say all sorts of crazy things if he said he didn’t remember the match, why not? You knock me down with a shot to the body? Sure, go for it.
BN: Always have ‘needles’ in your matches. How much of it comes from you?
It’s on both sides. My opponents always have a lot of negative things to say about me. It’s always like that, I don’t know why. I get a lot of criticism from my opponents and the ‘haters’ in the boxing world who still don’t believe in me and what I say. Obviously I’ve never been the type to just lay still, so I’ve become good at counter-attacks, teasing the bear. The difference between me and many fighters is that I know how to talk. I have a vocabulary, I’m not an idiot. A lot of these guys are uneducated. All they have is, ‘you’re an asshole’, ‘you’re a tit for tat’, ‘I’ll knock you’. What did Lam say? ‘You think you’re a superstar but you’re far from there’. It’s all basic student stuff, what a shame. I can express it a lot better so it seeps into their skin and it soaks into everyone’s skin.
BN: What motivates you? Money, performance or becoming a world champion?
Neither is more important than the other, it all goes hand in hand. I put myself in a fighting position whenever I was called upon to fight. I should have fought for more world titles than I have but it’s something to promote, all I can do is beat the guys in front of me. I want world titles but I also want to make a living. Sometimes they go hand in hand but most of the time, especially these days, you don’t need a world title to make a lot of money in boxing. We’re seeing this happen to YouTubers and other wars. If you have two names that people want to see against each other, you don’t need a world title to be financially rewarded. This fight with Smith proves it.
It’s about taking these guys down, it’s hard. I was an interim champion and was in a position but the subsequent world titles didn’t happen. Now, I’m 33 years old, so to force this, I have to push it. Fighting with people like [Gennadiy] Golovkin must happen.
BN: What about Benn?
That fight will still happen, 100 percent. Now we have our own story, our own beef. It’s not about our father, it’s about us. The war will always interest me. I wouldn’t consider it a war with Golovkin but a war [with Benn] will happen soon enough.
BN: If you fail the exam, how do you see the outside world?
It was a very bad look when it appeared. I don’t think he’ll be able to say or do anything to make that look go away. He will always have that black mark on his name, that will never go away, it doesn’t matter what his lawyers and scientists say. He will always be seen as a cheater. That’s only if you fail the drug test twice. If that happens, it will be the most challenging boxing match of all time because we can never let anything like this happen again. The question is, is he worth the fight and payday? If you’re innocent, you won’t be missing for three months. He should get up, apologize and beg for forgiveness.
BN: What kind of performance can we expect from you against Liam Smith?
I haven’t decided yet. While Liam can only fight one way, I can fight five or six different ways. I know one thing that it will be interesting, I know that from the way he fights. It can’t be boring and it will be as fun as I want to do.
