"Terence Crawford has a fight coming up on December 10th in Omaha, Nebraska and I notice that Top Rank, who we are both promoted by, they like to keep us together. I was supposed to fight on an Omaha card when he fought Hank Lundy. They have demonstrated that they enjoy keeping us together. If I can get on that December card in Omaha, I would definitely get that in," stated jr. welterweight contender Mike Reed, who talked about his latest victory, his future plans, and more. Check it out!
PC: Congratulations on your 6th round TKO win over Aaron Herrera. How do you feel about your performance?
MR: I felt like it was one of the strongest performances of my career. I've had 1st and 2nd round knockouts, early knockouts against good guys, but with Aaron, he presented different problems and different challenges. He's a naturally bigger guy and then he came in 3 pounds over contracted weight, which was 141+1 and he came in at 145. They called in advance and asked if the contracted weight could be 142 instead of 141 and it's supposed to actually be 140+1 and initially he wanted 141+1, so apparently he was struggling and he weighed 145. As far as my performance, I think I looked sharp. I did what I needed to do in the ring. I listened to my trainer and everything that we worked on in training camp, I was able to do in the ring. My dad told me I had been getting hit a lot. And my comeback was, the guys didn't have any power or I could've moved my head more and he was like, "Show me. Just because a guy doesn't have power, it doesn't mean you should take punches. You're a sharp fighter." He wanted me to get back to being sharp, and that's what we did. We seasoned him and then we got him up out of there.
PC: A guy coming in overweight like that can be looked at as an advantage to the guy who missed weight because he didn't cut down all the way, or it could be looked at as maybe the longer the fight goes, the more the guy who came in over can be broken down. How did you view him coming in at 145?
MR: It was a little bit of both. It's like you said, when guys miss weight, you can look at it like he's the bigger guy and if I get hit with a shot, that could be a problem for me. I have to watch out and be more cautious. Or you could say he's overweight, so that means he didn't prepare properly and I can test him early. It all depends on the fighter. He didn't look like a drained fighter at the weigh-ins. I could see that he had been cutting down, but he didn't look drained at all. As soon as the fight started, from the first jab he threw, he didn't look flat. He came to fight.
PC: It has to feel good to not only get the stoppage, but to get rounds in and show that your power and endurance holds up during the course of a fight.
MR: Right! I have no problem with my power or endurance. I have no problem with going rounds. When I train, I know I'm ready for a fight. The fight is actually the fun part. It always has been. I like to fight and you can feel yourself get in that groove. It's like a quarterback who completes 3 or 4 passes in a row. If you have a quarterback that's struggling and you get him 3 to 4 easy throws and completions, or a shooter that's struggling in the NBA and he sees a couple of free throws go through the net, it helps him out. With me, establishing my jab early and making them miss and making them pay sets the tone for the whole fight.
PC: Herrera was a seasoned guy and your record is full of seasoned guys with winning records. Do you feel, with your amateur experience, that you just didn't need a lot of soft touches?
MR: Exactly! I came into the pro rankings being one of the top 141-pounders in the amateurs. I was young, I turned pro at 20, but I had a lot of experience. I still had a lot of things to learn as far as adjustments to the pro rankings, but I didn't need the typical 5 or 6, 4-round fights and a ton of early confidence building 1st round knockouts.
PC: Do you think we will see you compete again this year or was that your last one?
MR: You know, man, I love boxing and I always watch what goes on in the boxing world. And Terence Crawford has a fight coming up on December 10th in Omaha, Nebraska and I notice that Top Rank, who we are both promoted by, they like to keep us together. I was supposed to fight on an Omaha card when he fought Hank Lundy. They have demonstrated that they enjoy keeping us together. If I can get on that December card in Omaha, I would definitely get that in. It would definitely be a quick turnaround for me, but I didn't take too much damage in that fight. Of course I woke up sore the next morning because I strained my muscles, but it was a clean fight for me; no headbutts or bruises. We getting back in camp this week.
PC: You're 20 fights into your career and you're only 23 years old. What's your goals for 2017?
MR: Realistically speaking, the goal for 2017 is to be lined up for for a world title shot by the end of 2017. And I say realistically speaking because I'm 20-0, but I don't think I'm ranked too high by any of the sanctioning bodies. I think 2017 will be my year to get ranked high. I know rankings is all politics because you had Lomachenko, who had 2 fights fighting for a world title. It's about politics, but that's how I want to be built. I'm not a Lomachenko, who was basically a professional amateur. He had 300 amateur fights. I'm not that guy. I'm only 23 years old and I think by the time we are 24-0, I think that'll be a good way to start marketing myself in world title contention.
PC: The 140-pound division has a few vacancies with Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, and Amir Khan all fighting north of the weight class now. I'm sure you want to be in the middle of filling those voids.
MR: I think 140 is still the division. I think everyone moved up chasing Floyd and chasing Pacquiao because that was the money fights, but now we have to fight each other to weed out the weak and see who is going to be the next superstar at 140 pounds. I think it's great to see guys like Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol fighting to unify belts and that's what we need. That's what the division needs and that's what boxing needs, two guys in their primes fighting each other. When I go down the line of prospects, I think Top Rank has a good list of prospects coming up at 140; myself, Julian Rodriguez, Jose Ramirez, Alex Saucedo, and you have a guy out there like Regis Prograis. You have a lot of guys out there like that where we are all jockeying for the same position. We have records that are very similar and we are in the same group and wanting to move forward and if we see each other, we see each other. At the end of the day, we all have the same goal, which is to become a world champion in the division.
PC: I appreciate your time. Congrats again and I hope to see you on that December 10th card. Is there anything else you want to add?
MR: Thanks again for having me. It's always a pleasure, man. We have been catching up with each other for a very long time and I just want to say thanks for following me, man. I appreciate it.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]