"I want you to put this in bold writing here, we have asked just about every top 10 fighter in America to fight me and these guys have turned me down, and they haven't turned me down because of the money. The money is there and the money has been offered...Chris Arreola, he don't wanna fight, Stiverne, he don't wanna fight, and Tony Thompson don't wanna fight. I'm still gonna try and get Tony Thompson for November. I've been going at Tony Thompson because for one, he's a top rated heavyweight in this country, which is unbelievable, but he is. And he is, what, 42 or 43 now? I think it would be a great thing to have two 40-year-olds getting it on, especially when we're considered over the hill or whatever," stated undefeated heavyweight contender Amir Mansour, who aired his frustrations about the unwillingness of other top ranked heavyweights to step into the ring with him. Check it out!
PC: I understand you got some stuff you want to get off of your chest, man. Let me know what's up?
AM: Yeah man, I'm basically at the top of my patience with these guys, man, running around the country portraying themselves as the top heavyweights in this country and they keep turning down fights with me. At the same time, their managers are running around saying, "My fighter will fight anybody!" I want you to put this in bold writing here, we have asked just about every top 10 fighter in America to fight me and these guys have turned me down, and they haven't turned me down because of the money. The money is there and the money has been offered. It's like Takum; he got offered a lot of money to come over here and fight me. He turned it down. We already know Vargas pulled out; ain't nothing happened to that boy nose. We already know Seth Mitchell won't fight me. Seth Mitchell not even really worth me fighting no more, but he don't want to fight me. All of these top heavyweights keep ducking this work, and then these organizations are ranking these guys that don't even deserve to be ranked and they try to stand by their rankings.
I was trying to get a particular fight for a particular belt and a guy with a way better ranking; they turned him down because I guess whoever is representing him, they didn't grease the organization's palms or whatever. I think boxing fans gotta really start speaking out as to who they really wanna see fight, man. And a lot of people come on my Facebook and Instagram and they tell me they would really like to see me fight Seth Mitchell or this guy or that guy. Well, we need to set something up where we start letting the fans decide to put in a huge vote and get these fights together and get them happening. The only two heavyweights in this country that I wouldn't really wanna fight right now is Bryant Jennings and Malik Scott because those are guys who I consider my young bols. Both of them are undefeated and I would hate to be the one to mess their record up or mess their career up, you know what I'm saying. But other than those two dudes, man, Chris Arreola, he don't wanna fight, Stiverne, he don't wanna fight, and Tony Thompson don't wanna fight. I'm still gonna try and get Tony Thompson for November. I've been going at Tony Thompson because for one, he's a top rated heavyweight in this country, which is unbelievable, but he is. And he is, what, 42 or 43 now? I think it would be a great thing to have two 40-year-olds getting it on, especially when we're considered over the hill or whatever. He is the top ranked heavyweight in the country and in the world as far as American heavyweights.
PC: And it's not like you have watched these guys fight, saw a weakness, and decided to call them out. I was texting with you the night Mitchell and Banks rematched and for the Thompson and Price rematch and you weren't even watching those fights.
AM: Man, the first time I ever seen Tony Thompson fight was when he fought Maurice Harris, and just recently you sent me the video clip of him and Price's rematch and I only watched a couple of rounds of that. I look at these guys and I'm just overwhelmed and flabbergasted that they even made it that far, man. But this is why I'm obliterating these guys that come in the ring with me. They haven't fought nobody like me. And people might say, "Well, you haven't fought nobody!" But I tell you what, everybody they put in front of me, I obliterated them. And it's known throughout the world that I've been trying to get all of these top heavyweights in the ring with me; Adamek done already said straight up and down he don't wanna fight me. He just straight out admitted he don't want to fight me. I can respect that at the end of the day, but these other guys...Arreola, Mitchell and Banks...I haven't even went after Banks. I feel as though he wouldn't even be worth my time going after him. But if people want to see that, I'll fight him too. All of these guys. I wanted to go after Eddie Chambers, but he went down to cruiserweight.
I'm tired of this, man. I was trying to get a fight for my August 23rd date against a worthy opponent to where a big network will pick it up and none of these guys are willing to fight. It's not the money; like I said, we getting these organizations to put up their titles to make it a title fight, but these guys are straight up scared. I got a list that my manager has of every single fighter that we tried to get to fight me for this August 23rd date. I already gave you a list of other fighters that turned down fights with me and I'm gonna give you this list, man, and I want you to put these dudes on blast. We gotta make this "Chickens Run" list a reality. And let the people see that the reason why this heavyweight division is weak is because a lot of people are ducking and running from the competition, and by doing that, they don't give the American people a chance to see who exactly is out best American heavyweight. Who can we get behind and support so we can send somebody over there and they gonna bring that belt back instead of sending people over there and they getting knocked out in the 3rd round and 4th round or just getting beat up for 12 straight rounds. These promoters aren't giving the American people the opportunity that they deserve, as supportive as the American people have been to boxing and the heavyweight division for centuries, and they are no longer giving the fans the respect that they deserve where the fans know fully well who their top guy is. Right now, you don't know who to believe. You don't know who is the top heavyweight because they are allowing everybody to duck everybody. They let these guys build records up off of fighting nobodies; that's why Seth Mitchell was, what, 30 something and 0? And then he fights against Banks, a little guy, and gets knocked out in the 2nd round. Why? Because he never fought nobody leading up to that point. Chazz Witherspoon exposed his chin. He should have never really beat Chazz. Chazz lost his composure, and I give it to Banks, he kept his composure and that's why he won that first fight with Mitchell, but Chazz Whiterspoon coulda took him out in the 1st or 2nd round as well because Chazz, in my opinion, is a way better boxer than Banks is on any given night.
PC: You're saying we need more fights in the heavyweight division where you don't know the outcome when the fight is signed.
AM: Exactly man. Like I said, they aren't giving the fans and the American people the opportunity to say, "This is our top guy. This is the guy we need to be sending overseas to fight one of the Klitschkos so they can bring that title back to the shores of America." They are not giving you guys, dedicated boxing sites and reporters, they are not even giving you guys the opportunity to get behind the top heavyweight. I ain't taking nothing from the Klitschkos because, at the end of the day, they fought everybody that these promoters and organizations put in front of them and beat them up. Even though they are recycling these dudes, these brothers have been through some wars in their careers and they have beaten down everybody they put in that ring. Everybody that they put in them rankings and put up there as their mandatory, they are beating them up, so you gotta give them credit. You can't knock them. They handpicking too, but at the same time, you gotta give them credit where credit is due, especially when you have organizations that have me ranked less than 15 and less than 20 when I was just the #6 guy. I haven't lost no fights, so when they stop playing these politics, we can finally give the American people what they want, which is a heavyweight champion. They don't want no heavyweight that's suspect or he can't box or he can't fight or they don't know if he gets in the trenches if he is gonna give up and give in. They want somebody that they know is a warrior. This is why we loved Mike Tyson and we loved Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield. We knew these guys were warriors, we knew that they just wasn't gonna crumble and we were gonna see a fight with these guys. Now you don't see that and these organizations and these promoters aren't giving the American people the opportunity to see that for the simple fact that they keep allowing these bums to duck good fights. They keep on allowing it.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]