"Vanes told me he was hurt. I just don't think we threw enough punches. I don't think Vanes is better than Willie. I don't think either guy was better than either one. We just got out-hustled, and that was the outcome of the fight...I think Austin Trout or Glen Tapia would be good fights for us right now. I know Willie proved himself the other night, so either one of those fights makes sense to us," stated Jack Loew, trainer of jr. middleweight contender Willie Nelson, who talked about their recent loss to Vanes Martirosyan, their future plans, and more. Check it out!
PC: Willie Nelson came up short against Vanes Martirosyan. You didn't seem pleased with the way he chose to fight.
JL: You know, now that I look back at it, I wasn't so much frustrated with the way he was fighting; I just felt we were getting out-hustled at everything we were doing. Willie's jab was working well, but he wouldn't throw enough of 'em. We would hit Vanes with one and Vanes would hit us with two or three; or at least threw two or three. Even on the inside after the 6th round, Willie would hurt him a couple of times and we would throw one punch and Vanes was slapping us with three or four punches. Obviously it was looking better on the judges' cards. To be honest with you, the one judge that had it 96-94, I actually thought after the 7th round we were up by one point. I thought we blew the last 3 rounds. The way Julie Lederman had it scored, it was ridiculous. I thought her score was outrageous. I thought it was a great action-packed fight. If I was not involved with Willie and I was there as a fan, I would have walked away from that fight very happy. That was a hell of a fight; two guys beating the hell out of each other. It was a good fight, they both took some big shots, and it turned out to be a good fight.
PC: You expressed in the corner wanting him to be first and when he was jabbing, he was, but like you said, he just wasn't jabbing enough.
JL: Yeah, every single time he threw his jab, when Vanes was getting ready to do something, he stopped that motion. But again, he would only hit him with one jab. My thing is, if you can hit him that easy with one jab, why can't you hit him with two and three? And then follow up with the right hand. I think that truthfully, if he would have thrown two jabs, three jabs, and then followed with the right hand, it could have been our night. When we threw one or two, we hit him, so why not set up something in a bigger position with a bigger right hand coming off of a second or third jab? He just wouldn't do that. He made it good enough to stay in the fight with the little that he was doing. Hopefully it's all correctable and hopefully it was just his first major major fight because I thought he held up well with Vanes. Vanes went the distance with Lara until the cut and everything and got a draw, and he fought Andrade and lost a decision. He dropped him in the first round. It was a guy with a wealth of experience and Vanes fought the fight of his damn life. I've never seen him fight that accurate and that busy like that. I gotta take my hat off to the kid.
PC: Based on what you had saw from Vanes, what did you guys want to get done against him going in?
JL: Well, I expected him to pretty much fight like he did. And like I said, if Willie fought like I knew he could've... we had such a great training camp and that's what pisses me off. If we would've threw more jabs and just threw more punches in general, followed by right hands, we just got out-hustled. I don't think it was a matter of who was the better fighter or who hit who harder. Vanes told me after the fight, "Willie hit me so hard in the 7th round, I couldn't feel my feet, but I didn't show it." Willie is so damn tall, every time he gets hit a little bit or just a little bit hurt, his legs wobble and it just looks like that. Vanes told me he was hurt. I just don't think we threw enough punches. I don't think Vanes is better than Willie. I don't think either guy was better than either one. We just got out-hustled, and that was the outcome of the fight. I told Willie after the 7th round, and from what I understand people that were working it said they heard Joe Goosen tell Vanes that he was in a 3-round fight now. The winner of those 3 rounds were gonna win the fight. If Willie would have had a big 3 rounds, maybe we could have gotten a split decision, but he made it easy on the judges. That being said, I can't take anything away from Vanes in those last 3 rounds. He wanted it more looked like.
PC: Obviously Willie got a few bumps and bruises. Would you like to see him back this year or are you guys gearing up for 2015?
JL: We probably won't fight no more till after the 1st of the year. If you ask Willie, he would say he would love to. I don't want to say I want a tune-up fight because I don't. I don't think that's the way to go because we lost on Showtime. We lost to a good fighter. If we would have gotten blown out, then I would say, listen, lets get a little tune-up in to get his confidence back, but I think to do that to a fighter is demoralizing. Hey, I come off of a good fight on Showtime; okay, so I didn't win it, I lose a close decision, and you're talking tune-up? I don't believe in doing that to fighters. I want to fight somebody like Austin Trout. I would love to fight that kid that Top Rank has that got stopped by Kirkland.
PC: Glen Tapia.
JL: I would love to fight Glen Tapia. I think Austin Trout or Glen Tapia would be good fights for us right now. I know Willie proved himself the other night, so either one of those fights makes sense to us.
PC: The 154-pound division is very interesting and there are some intriguing fights to be made for sure.
JL: Absolutely! I always look at the responses. I don't pay attention to it too much because I've been on both sides, the good and bad (laughing), and what I liked to see at the end of the day when I looked on there is that nobody tore into Willie. It was more like, man, what a great fight, two great warriors, somebody had to lose. When you see stuff like that, it's good for the kid and it's good for the sport of boxing because it was a great fight. Like I said, as a fan, I would have walked away from that saying, "Wow man, that was a great fight." I think we deserve to be back on TV. I know Gordon Hall and the guys at Showtime was extremely happy afterwards and they want to get him back on the channel. I'm gonna be talking to Cameron Dunkin and Lou Dibella and we wanna go forward. Don't try to baby us. We're okay. We're big boys. We took it on the chin. We're okay and we will be back, but we don't want to take a step backwards when we fight again. We want to fight a named fighter again because you never know what you have. You have to jump back on the saddle and go. We don't need tune-up fights. We are top notch fighters and we need to fight and if we can't hang with these guys, we gotta find that stuff out before somebody gets hurt.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]