Article: http://cagejunkies.com/2013/02/floyd-mayweather-jr-the-money-team/
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Marty Garabedian- Abner, I want to thank you for taking time away from training and answering some questions for the fans…
Abner Mares- Thank you for having me.
MG- Two years ago I interviewed your promoter, Frankie Espinoza Jr., prior to your fight with Yohnny Perez. We both agreed that you had the potential to be a future champion and a bona fide boxing star. Is it safe to say our predictions were accurate at this time?
AM- Thank you for the compliment. It’s always been my goal to become the next Mexican Icon. And I don’t think I’m there yet, but I feel I’m on the right path. Hopefully thru my hard work and God I will reach my goal.
MG- One thing the fans love about you is your willingness to fight anyone. You’re like a throw back fighter. What gives you the motivation to face top opposition?
AM- I want the fights that the fans want. I don’t believe fans should wait years to see two guys fight in their prime. I also enjoy challenging myself. Fighting different styles will only help me become a better fighter. I’ve said it before. I’m not afraid to lose. I will always give it my all for the fans.
MG- Speaking of taking tough fights, your next opponent in November will be Anselmo Moreno, who really made a name for himself with the boxing clinic he put on against Vic Darchinyan…Have you seen Anselmo fight, and are there any concerns with the style he’ll bring come fight night?
AM- I’ve seen some footage of Moreno. But I’m one of those fighter who don’t like to study films. I let my trainer do all that. We feel we have the right game plan for Moreno and know we can beat him. I don’t think it’s going to be easy but at this point of my career… why should any fight be easy?
MG- How has preparation been coming along in camp? Is there anyone specific you had to bring in to mimic Anselmo’s slick style?
AM- We are having a great camp. I’m working really hard with my trainer and my strength and conditioning coach. We do have a sparring partner who tries his best Moreno imitation. And he’s giving me great work. He’s 6’1 and has about 20 pounds over me. But all that will help with the reach and style of Moreno.
MG- This is Anselmo’s first fight in the Super Bantamweight division. You just defeated Eric Morel for the vacant WBC Super Bantamweight title. Do you see size being an advantage for you in this fight?
AM- I don’t think so. I believe Moreno will feel just like I did once I fought at 122lbs. So, no I don’t think there is a huge advantage in that.
MG- Most feel the Super Bantamweight division is one of the deeper classes in Boxing, do you feel the smaller weight classes get enough recognition?
AM- Absolutely. The super bantamweight has always been an exciting weight class from Barrera, Morales, Pacquaio, Marquez, Vazquez and more. I’m glad to be in it. I think we are getting good recognition. Hopefully the fight fans appreciate us.
MG- On October 13th, there’s another huge fight in the division, Nonito Donaire taking on Toshiaki Nishioka. Both fighters have been vocal in the past about facing you. If victorious are you eyeing the winner of this fight?
AM- Thats the plan. I think its only right that the winner of my fight with Moreno fight Donaire. But first thing first,I have to get past Moreno.
MG- Do you feel it’s justifiable for some to label you as a “dirty” fighter?
AM- I don’t pay attention to all that anymore. I have thicker skin from all that. I think by me giving Agbeko a immediate rematch. And beating him more convincely, should erase all those doubts. But everyone is entitle to their opinion.
MG- Up to now in your young career, who can you say was the quickest and hardest puncher you’ve faced?
AM- The hardest puncher… I might say Vic Darchinyan.
MG- Looking into the future, how do you think you’d fare jumping up to Featherweight and facing the likes of Salido, John, Russell Jr., and Mikey Garcia?
AM- You know me, I don’t back down from any challenge. I will love to eventually fight at 126lbs. There are a lot of good fighters in that division. And hopefully in the near future, I will have my chance against one of them.
MG- You felt Pacquiao defeated Bradley and there’s been an ongoing issues with controversial decisions in the past. What do you think Boxing needs to do to fix these issues and clean up the sport?
AM- Judging is hard job. And I wouldn’t want to do it. But I do feel the commission should try to have more seminars( to help judges continue to strive to be better) and evaluate the judges after a certain period.
MG- Does Boxing have too many belts and/or to many weight classes in your opinion?
AM- I don’t think so. For an up comer winning a belt means more income. Just have more unifications.
MG- Espinoza Boxing probably has the best young talents around. How has your experience been with both Frank Sr. and Jr. and is there anyone coming up through the promotion for whom the fans should keep an eye out?
AM- They are great people. They have been with me since my comeback. And help me get where I am today. I’m very thankful to have them apart of my team. They have a kid I have seen spar a few times, Antonio Orozco and Oscar Valdez.
MG- What’s your opinion on 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather Jr. starting their own Promotions, The Money Team? Is this good or bad for the sport?
AM- I don’t think The Money Team Promotion is no longer active.
MG- And my last question before I let you go. Abner, when your career is all said and done, how would you like people to remember you in the sport of Boxing?
AM- I want fans to remember me putting on great fights and giving my all. I also want them to remember how I never ducked anyone.
MG- Is there anything you’d like to say to your fans or any shout outs?
AM- Thank you for the support. I’m training hard and will be ready to go on Nov 10th. Don’t miss it on Showtime!
MG- Thanks again for taking time to conduct this interview, and good luck in your fight with Anselmo Moreno….
AM- Thank you!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xrinqr_vid00614_sport Interview
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xriorl_george-mitt-work_sport Mitt Work and Defense
Sat down with Coach Semore, where we discuss several topics…
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqdoo0_coach-semore-pt-1_sport
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqdpvz_coach-semore-pt-2_sport
got to sit down with the NY Badass Phil Baroni and get his opinion of a few topics, and also his future plans….
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpmmgp_vid00614_sport
Marty Garabedian: Mr. Fried how were you contacted to train Koscheck?
Alan Fried: Through Nick Zinkin actually, we are both attorney’s he contacted me through Facebook and we reconnected. We got to talking and he told me what his brother DeWayne Zinkin did…I have been friends with the Zinkin’s for years…So I told Nick I have been trying to get a job with the UFC for years…Nick invited me out and I spent about 10 days, met with some of the guys at the gym…MMA has always been something I loved, with my history of wrestling and actually had one fight back in 1997…so I came out and checked out the gym, saw Jason Craft and all of the wrestling guys I knew from back in the day..…I spent so much time training to get to the 2000 Olympics in Wrestling…when that didn’t work out I focused on different things in my life, studying law, music, etc. so when the opportunity came up to come out to Fresno I took it… the atmosphere out here just made me feel excited, it was organized, it felt like home, like it was back to what I really loved to do….
MG: Speaking of Olympics, word is Kurt Angle making a comeback; do you think he will be successful at his age?
AF: Tough to say, it’s going to come down to his health, obviously. I think he’s going to be right in there though, training with him in 1996 out of Iowa, he has the perfect discipline…he impressed me and I wasn’t the bit surprised he won gold….
MG: I think the economy & Title 9 has really hurt funding for the NCAA wrestling programs, does that directly affect the quality of guys coming into MMA since a lot of the guys in the overall history of MMA have come from a predominant wrestling background?
AF: That’s a good question, and TITLE IX is one of the issues I have spoken out against at a town hall meeting in Chicago. I suppose when you measure the success of the USA in international competition over the last, let’s say 15 yrs., Yes, we have had our occasional superstar, but I believe we have not won nearly as many medals as we did in other 1-2 decade periods and that really could be a result of the ever-thinning competition due to TITLE IX. I’ll tell you now that I’m in Fresno and I see what a wrestling and fighting/MMA centered town it is, dropping that program was probably the biggest TITLE IX hit to wrestling that I’ve seen.
TITLE IX is way off course in my opinion. When you’ve got instances of no boys’ team for some sports at a school and then the boys are trying out for girls’ teams, its run a foul, as they say…I don’t know why these decision makers are so careless with the athletic ambitions and dreams of boys. In my personal experience at a very athletic oriented Div. I school a lot of the girls I competed with in college had a good laugh at how little they had to do to get college for free. A lot of them were very cavalier about it and it infuriated me. Girls who were serious athletes that were there to compete felt the same. But, that’s what you get with back-boneless politicians who use federal funding as leverage over greedy school administrators. When I become President, as they say, it’ll be UN-TITLE IX I like the gender equity spirit, but the implementation has been really un-American.
MG: One of the interesting debates with the fan base is what’s more tiring wrestling, boxing or ju-jitsu.
AF: Oh by far wrestling is way more tiring. I just did 15 minutes of jiu-jitsu even though its hard work… it couldn’t compare to the solid two minutes I wrestled the other day which made me want to puke! And I know how to wrestle. And, I was wrestling a guy 25 lbs lighter than me, so it’s the most tiring sport in the world…I don’t care what anyone says….in my opinion patience is the key to Jui-Jitsu while out working your opponent pays off in wrestling. The sport can be determined based off shape, it equalizes super technique quite often, and I haven’t seen that in Jui-Jitsu.
MG: The sport is definitely not how it used to be. The development of wrestlers cannot be one dimensional like they were in the earlier days of the sport.
AF: Yeah we wrestlers thought we would blow through everyone. Then Gracie came in with Jiu-Jitsu and started to do things that appeared to be really exotic, stuff nobody had ever seen. Then wrestlers got wise on how to defend, then the boxers and Muay-Thai guys came in and did their thing….and now we have guys coming in that are cross-bred with all of these disciplines…just incredible athletes. Guys like Jon Jones, Jose Aldo I can see these guys using these skills to do great things.
MG: Yeah it seems that these Brazilian fighters have really good take-down defense. They bring in American wrestlers for training, For instance a lot of people thought Cain Velasquez could take down JDS without any problems. But JDS made a statement that his takedown defense shouldn’t be overlooked.
AF: Right, I have been a big spectator of the sport while I have been doing other things…keeping up on the sport. I think the wrestlers figured out these guys are learning to defense the take down. And you can’t just rush in their in the first 20 sec of fight to expect a double leg takedown…there is more game planning that’s involved. I was trying to help these Jiu-Jitsu guys back in Chicago to improve their take down defense but they weren’t that interested…but I think it’s an important technique.
MG: It seems these newer MMA fans start booing when the fighters are on the mat wrestling. Doesn’t it all come down to winning the fight? And not pleasing the fans at the end of the day? Regardless of your technique right?
AF: It annoys me when people start booing and say all he is doing is wrestling. I mean would you want to get grinded on your back for 20 minutes? I don’t think so. Imagine getting slammed on the concrete outside in a street fight…that’s going to do some damage…the guy is going to get knocked out. Some of these people should learn some basic shit about wrestling before they start booing….getting a takedown is a huge accomplishment in a fight and it should be rewarded.
MG: What do you think about implicating the ½ pt system?
AF: I don’t think that’s the answer. It’s still going to be controversial unless one guy finishes the other.
MG: This is your first training camp with Kos, what are the keys to him beating Hendricks?
AF: Both guys favor standup over wrestling…I think KOS being a powerful explosive double leg kind of guy translates over to MMA a bit more…then for instance attacking one leg at a time…also an important key in my opinion is having the right state of mind…feeling good…great support system it really makes a difference.
MG: You tried your hand in MMA overseas…Participating in “Shooto”, how was that experience for you?
AF: My one and only fight came against Rumina Sato, I lost and became discouraged which prompted me to not fight in MMA anymore…knowing who Rocky Marciano was, and understanding there was undefeated boxers who were sports heroes…I lose the very first minute of my first MMA fight, and I’m thinking I’ll never be one of the greats…And my mindset was the only way to be great like boxers…is to not lose, and I blew it.
MG: Speaking of Boxing and having no losses, Floyd Mayweather gets quite a bit of hate because of his cockiness and the public feels he’s only interested in protecting his “Zero”….
AF: Of course that somewhat has to be in his mind, but you also want to be about competition, as well as your legacy, integrity and character….you don’t want that asterisk in your career..you want to go out and prove your worth against the best in the world…When I was a Senior in HS, I decided to challenge a real tough guy two weight classes above me, fully realizing millions of dollars weren’t on the line, it was still important to me.. I might have lost the match…but I was proud of myself for taking that challenge because people wanted to see it…
MG: Dewayne Zinkin brought you out to CA…you are an All-American at Oklahoma State and 3 Time Ohio high school champion… 1994 NCAA Champ…91’ and 92’ runner up and only four time Junior National Champ.. was it easy for you to make the jump out here?
AF: Yeah one thing lead to another…..Actually I don’t know how but everything has worked out so well…it’s serendipitous actually…haha….I can say for the first time in a long time… I’m happy with training, and my future in athletics that lie ahead of me, I’m getting a chance to be involved in MMA, being involved with old wrestling friends, Josh is building something here…Fresno is going to be the main place for him to train…its gonna be great…my dog and I are happy to be in California…but I’m out here to train, I’ve been in the gym more since my time training for the 2000 Olympic trials. I love the grind. I love getting to the gym even though the legs are shot and your tired from yesterday…but it’s the day to day grind that bonds the team together because we overcome the obstacles together…this is something I missed when I was away from the sport…the family camaraderie, the competition, etc.
MG: I’ve heard some scary weight cut stories, was that ever an issue for you?
AF: I was usually on point with my cuts, but I did have a few bad experience on the scales….my plastics ripped and I was about 4 ½ over, with about 45 minutes to go…I felt decent with the cut, but I realized I needed to cut ½ pound in 25 minutes….I went to the Sauna, jumped around…counted to 500, I got lost in the gym, and I had to go outside for about 25 minutes and pour water on my head…I ended up making weight, but my performance wasn’t the same….another incident I tried to cut 13 pounds on my own in a day…I got to about 11 or 12 pounds down and started to seize up in the shower, that’s where the wrestlers found me…I was laying in 2 inches of cold water…I’m sitting there naked haha, and every part of my body was cramping…I couldn’t move…I needed IV injections that day….
MG: before I let you go, can you give me your predictions on the fight May 5th?
AF: I don’t predict… I prepare…..
MG: That’s true, that’s why they fight, and anything is possible…thanks again for your time, it was a pleasure and good luck with the fight
AF: you’re welcome, and thank you for the interview…
martygarabedian 