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AMIR MANSOUR: "WE'RE PUTTING SOME THINGS TOGETHER FOR HBO...I'M NETWORKING WITH THESE PROMOTERS"

By Percy Crawford | September 06, 2011
AMIR MANSOUR:

"Let me tell you something, Dominick Guinn woke me up. I know that there are gonna be guys that got that strong chin and that strong neck where you just not gonna knock them out. Dominick Guinn is one of them. But what he did though is he pissed me off. You are going to see a stronger 'Hardcore' in this next fight. I'm about to step my game all the way up when it comes to strength. And you gonna see a harder hitting 'Hardcore'. And you already see what my punches do to somebody. You gonna see me hitting harder, faster, and sharper now. I'm going back to the drawing board and I'm going to step my game up 100 notches...The only one finishing guys in this heavyweight division is me. I haven't lost and I fought Dominick 10 rounds and I didn't lose a round. I don't know man, I just know what I see and what I honestly feel in my heart and Tony Thompson would get blown away if he fought me like he fought his last couple of fights," stated fast-rising heavyweight contender Amir Mansour, who's recently become a hot commodity with a number of promotional companies, including Top Rank, Main Events, DiBella Entertainment and Don King Productions, bidding for his services. Check out what he had to say about his future plans and much more.

PC: So you have started visiting with promoters and it all started with Don King. How did that go?

AM: First man, I gotta say one thing, everybody that wants to say bad stuff about Don King, they really can't because at the end of the day, you sign a contract that both of y'all are gonna be held too. If I sign a contract that is not beneficial to me and is only beneficial to him, I can't get mad at him because he outsmarted me. This is business. I got a degree in law and I can dissect a contract. Now that's not to say that I am a lawyer, but I can read over contracts very well, so fighters can't blame that man for outsmarting them. At the end of the day, you sign the contract. But everything is going good, fam. I just came from visiting Don King. He definitely rolled the red carpet out. Let me say this much, the money and numbers and everything was good, and Don King even advised me that before I signed the contract, I should seek counsel. That's what I chose to do and he continued to treat me like a king, man. He gave me some gifts that will last for a lifetime, you know? And he didn't act like he wanted to take the gifts back (laughing), you know what I'm saying? We left on good terms with a handshake and a hug, man.

PC: Say what you want about him, the man is legendary within the sport of boxing. What was it like going out to Florida and meeting with him?

AM: It was definitely an honor to be in this man's presence. When you think about what he did in the midst and conditions during the years that he did it in, I mean, this man put together multi-million dollar fights when no bank in America would give him a penny, even though they knew that they could recoup the money. They just didn't want to put that type of capital into a black man's hands. That man stretched across 9,000 miles across that Atlantic and got in touch with some of the brothers in Africa and they put the money up for Ali and Foreman, which was one of his biggest money fights. He put Ali-Frazier together and made millions off of that fight as well. What he did under the dark cloud of racism and oppression, he still came up. And at that time, the mob ran a lot of things and they ain't want this brother to run his own show. All you gotta do is Google the man. The mob shot him up and blew his house up. People idolize people like "Bumpy" Johnson and Frank Lucas, who fought the mob, but Don King fought the fucking mob for a righteous act, and he fought it for a righteous corporation and righteous business, and he won, man. This man did a great deed for not only himself and his family, but he did a great deed and a great justice for black people, man. You have to really look at his history.

PC: You talked briefly about earning your degree in law. How important is that, when sitting down to negotiate a contract, to not just be told what you're reading, but to know what you're reading?

AM: Well, it's so important because if I didn't have that knowledge, I would be making mistakes right now. I should be top 10 in the world with the WBO when their rankings come out next month. I am already top 11 in the country. I got there through good boxing skills, but I also got there from making intelligent decisions and understanding contracts and the business side of boxing. People don't realize we did a lot of hustling, a lot of scrambling, and a lot of moving and shaking to get where we are at. At one time, Atlantic City had suspended me for life, when I first tried to fight there, on some bullcrap. I had to go through the business end of it and get that overturned. Knowledge is very important. I will tell you what, one of the so-called founding fathers, and he's a white guy who said this way back in the day, his last name was Hamilton, he said, "There never was and there never will be an ignorant people who remains free at the same time they remained ignorant." And there never will be, he's right. So if you don't have any physical shackles on, you will have invisible shackles on if you're going to walk through life ignorant, man. You have to have knowledge no matter what you doing, even if it's running to McDonald's and flipping and serving burgers. You got to have the knowledge of that game.

PC: I'm glad you brought up your ratings because I recently spoke to Tony Thompson and he basically said he never heard of you and you need to beat ranked guys before you could call his name. How do you respond to that?

AM: Well, the man did his thing. He's been doing his thing. He's been managing to stay in the top 10. But he is a fighter, just like me, and I can respect his hustle. But when it comes to fighting, you should have told him that I just fought a top 10 heavyweight and blew him out, and that I am in the top 10. When it comes to fighting, like I said, if he comes into the ring with me and fights like he fought Klitschko or like he just fought Maurice Harris, I assure you, and I'm putting everything on this man, I would stop him. Let me tell you something, Dominick Guinn woke me up. I know that there are gonna be guys that got that strong chin and that strong neck where you just not gonna knock them out. Dominick Guinn is one of them. But what he did though is he pissed me off. You are going to see a stronger "Hardcore" in this next fight. I'm about to step my game all the way up when it comes to strength. And you gonna see a harder hitting "Hardcore". And you already see what my punches do to somebody. You gonna see me hitting harder, faster, and sharper now. I'm going back to the drawing board and I'm going to step my game up 100 notches. I don't think he is gonna beat Chambers. I think Chambers is a little too savvy and fast for him, but you never know. The performances these guys have put on in their last couple of fights, you never know because they are so inconsistent. You don't know who is going to win because nobody is hurting their opponents and doing damage. The only one finishing guys in this heavyweight division is me. I haven't lost and I fought Dominick 10 rounds and I didn't lose a round. I don't know man, I just know what I see and what I honestly feel in my heart and Tony Thompson would get blown away if he fought me like he fought his last couple of fights. Did you see his fight with Maurice Harris? Do you think he would hit me with any of those slow punches? I would look at this guy and smile all night. It would be an easy fight for me, and I believe I would stop him. He's not the only guy up there in the rankings, and I'm going to respect this dude and I'm not going to badger him or anything. I wish him the best of luck when he fights Eddie Chambers, but when it comes to boxing and somebody asks me can I beat this person, I'm going to keep it 100!

PC: Going back to you starting to entertain promoters. Are you looking for a promoter that can get you a network deal, money, or someone that could land you the fight with one of the Klitschkos?

AM: I'm looking for a promoter, man, that can go ahead and show the world who Amir "Hardcore" Mansour is. I can show you already thousands of letters, emails, messages on Facebook, people from the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and China, all over, and we're just scratching the surface of what we call a real fan base. My fight that I just had, we got a couple hundred thousand buys. We sold the arena out. This is big for someone who supposedly only has a local fan base. We got over 50,000 buys in Canada and over 80,000 buys overseas. So we're doing okay, but we do feel as though we need one of the major networks to showcase who Amir Mansour is and that's what we are trying to do right now. We're putting some things together for HBO even though I'm networking with these promoters, like Top Rank is knocking on the door, Main Events is knocking on the door, and Lou Dibella is knocking on the door, and of course Don King, who I went to see first out of respect for him and admiration for him and I wanted to give him the first chance. I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not going to sign with Don King because it's a great chance that I may sign with Don King after I revise this contract and make it formidable and look better for me and him. I'm going to send it back to him and if he green lights it, then we're going with Don King. He offered some good money and we already know what Don King can do with a good heavyweight.

PC: Well, keep me in the loop. I got MMA fighters and followers hitting me up about you, as well as people I went to school with who have been following you since we started talking, so keep me posted for sure.

AM: You already know we on speed dial, baby. One love, baby!



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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