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NAAZIM RICHARDSON: "MAYWEATHER-PACQUIAO...THERE IS NO FIGHT...YOU WILL SEE THE FLAW"

By Percy Crawford | November 22, 2011
NAAZIM RICHARDSON:

"That fight, to me, gave me the impression that the only person that can beat Pacquiao by decision now is Mayweather. If these cats don't knock Pacquiao out, they not gonna let them disrupt that money. Quiet as kept, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight now is really about nothing but money now. There is no fight. They would have to give us a Hagler-Hearns fight with 4 more rounds for it to match up to this long of hype...There is nothing slow about Freddie and there is nothing slow about the Mayweathers. They are very intelligent and they are great boxing minds. Even though I never came out and flat out said this is what it is and this is what this guy does wrong, they see it...If people go back and watch the tape, I never told anybody what the flaw was. I told them to go back and watch the tape and you will see the flaw. They see it now," stated world-class trainer Naazim Richardson, who shared his thoughts on the close, controversial clash between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. You don't want to miss what he had to say as Richardson discusses the weakness he believes he exploited in Pacquiao's game during the Mosley fight, whether or not Pacquiao and Mayweather will ever fight, and much more.

PC: Brother Naaz, how is it going, man?

NR: Holding on with both hands, man. What's the word, Perc?

PC: I'm trying to get it from you my man. When is Steve Cunningham gonna get an opportunity to right that wrong?

NR: January 14th. We go back out there on January 14th and see if we can turn this thing around. I said, "Damn, we gotta go back there?" That's like me sending you through an alley where I have been robbed 5 times (laughing). But you know Perc, it's a situation where a good dude is caught in a bad situation. This cruiserweight division runs through Europe, man. You see Enzo Maccarinelli got the hell out of that division. I don't know how that big joker made 175. He is a tall dude and he got the hell out of the cruiserweight division, so we gonna go do what we do, man, and we gotta leave no doubt this time.

PC: Cotto and Margarito is starting to heat up. Who do you like in that one?

NR: I think this fight will be different. I don't think Cotto believes he was legitimately beat down, so now he's coming with a different mentality. I just hope Margarito don't take anything for granted. Margarito done took on this image where he looks like a Don in a mob (laughing). Dynamite and my sons were saying that the other night. Margarito looks like some mob boss. Margarito's like, "Fuck it! It is what it is" (laughing). Like I said too, these last couple of pay-per-view shows has been flops for the viewing public and I hate to think that this one is going to do the same; Cotto goes to punching this boy in his eye and the doctor go to the corner knowing his history and he gonna stop it immediately.

PC: I said the same thing earlier. I think if they keep it in New York, if the doctor has to come in and look at Margarito's eye just once, the fight is over.

NR: Yeah! That's for certain.

PC: I gotta get your take on the picture that Miguel Cotto carries around because you are the guy who caught the plastered wraps. To me, the picture Cotto has looks a little worse than what you discovered.

NR: Yeah, you take a second look like, whoa! Cotto takes that picture with him and Cotto got his shit together. Cotto said, "There is supposed to be nothing but gauze over the knuckle, right? Then what is this shit right here?" Margarito got to speaking that fast Spanish. That picture Cotto got though, that shit that Margarito had on his knuckles in that one was made out of porcelain (laughing). I said, "Ah, man."

PC: I'm sure you checked out the Chavez Jr. and Peter Manfredo fight. What were your thoughts on that fight?

NR: I'm one of the few guys that believes in Chavez Jr. The guy can't prevent who the fuck his father is. People want to say he's this or that because of his father. That's his nature though, man. The kid grew up into it. I mean, what else was he gonna do besides be a fighter. Regardless of how it goes down with this kid, he is gonna rack up some memories. They snuck 40 fights up under this kid when nobody was watching. I remember when this kid had 5 fights and now this kid has almost 50 fights. It's like I tell people about Butterbean. Butterbean got like 60 fights, and you learn how to do something in 60 fights. You pick up a thing or two in that many fights. And Chavez Jr. been around a lot of inspiration; he's been around a lot of education and he has a lot of activity. When I first saw Manfredo come out, they say he wanted to be aggressive and he wanted another Gatti/Ward, man, listen, them Gatti/Ward fights just happen. You can't live up to nothing like that. Them things just come along. We don't know when they gonna come. You don't know when we gonna get a Berto/Ortiz shootout. You can't predict those fights. They just come along. One guy is swinging hard that night and the other guy decides he's just not going down. You cannot predict you are gonna have one of them fights. If anything, you just run into one. I thought Chavez buzzed him a couple of times earlier in the fight, but by Chavez being inexperienced, he didn't catch it. A couple of times, I thought he landed a few shots on Manfredo and Manfredo looked a little woozy, but I think Chavez never really saw it. He didn't catch on to it.

PC: What did you think about Marquez and Pacquiao's fight my man? It was another close one.

NR: As far as Marquez and Pacquiao, I'm 0-3 and if they fought 3 more times, I would probably be 0-6. I dig Pacquiao and I'm a Pacquiao fan, but I just think Marquez is a better fighter. And then they fought at 47 and I figured Marquez might have enough defense now to where he won't go down from the first heavy shot. I thought that might be the difference and I think that was the difference. When I watch the fight, like I said man, Pacquiao is a phenom. And some guys, you know as well as I do that when some people are in the light of a phenom, some people can handle it and some people can't. I told you before, these dudes that look at Pacquiao think he is Jesus. He is one of the best things we have seen and one of the best things we will probably ever see, but I think Marquez is a better fighter than he is.

That fight, to me, gave me the impression that the only person that can beat Pacquiao by decision now is Mayweather. If these cats don't knock Pacquiao out, they not gonna let them disrupt that money. Quiet as kept, the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight now is really about nothing but money now. There is no fight. They would have to give us a Hagler/Hearns fight with 4 more rounds for it to match up to this long of hype. No fight can live up to this long of hype. We talking about 4 years and everywhere you go, people stopping you wanting to know about Mayweather and Pacquiao. It's to the point now where my line is, "I don't care." Don't get me wrong, I want to see these great matchups, but I'm not waiting on anybody that long. It's like in your high school days when you wonder how long you were willing to wait for a girl to call you, man. I can't wait that long. Who's gonna wait all of that time? Then imagine if the fight comes off and Mayweather is in his defensive game and Pacquiao has decided he's not gonna take a whole lot of chances against some of the smaller guys who are just as fast as him. Then you standing there with that look in your eyes like, "Whoa, that was it?" You go back to your young bull days when you watch this girl all night and she dance with you all night and she got on this tight outfit, but after the dance, she goes her way and you go yours. It's like, "That's it?"

There is nothing slow about Freddie and there is nothing slow about the Mayweathers. They are very intelligent and they are great boxing minds. Even though I never came out and flat out said this is what it is and this is what this guy does wrong, they see it. They see it based on the premise of me saying, and they thought I was crazy when I said, "Hey, Shane showed people how to fight this dude." People call me crazy and say, "Well, he beat your guy." If people go back and watch the tape, I never told anybody what the flaw was. I told them to go back and watch the tape and you will see the flaw. They see it now. They see what's going on and they want to make the excuses of it's this and it's that. Pacquiao's strength trainer said something before the fight to where if I wasn't confident in Marquez, I was after Pacquiao's strength guy said what he said. He said, "God himself could not help Marquez in this fight." First he said it would take Divine Intervention, and then he came back later and said God himself couldn't help him. He said, "I don't think God himself could help him." Whoa, whoa, now my thing is for you to mention God's name, you gotta know enough about God to even know what that statement says. The only person would make a statement like that is someone who doesn't know God; little kids would say that. When he said that, I was like, "Okay, God himself, huh? Okay!" And then after the fight, they scream leg cramps. Well, maybe the leg cramps was God-sent. You gotta stay in your lane, man. We can't let this thing we do get us too caught up. I understand you enjoy this guy's level of success and what he has done in this sport, but come on, man. God could close the show down whenever he ready, from my understanding of God. Certain guys look at things different. I just watched the movie the Immortals and some people follow that legion with God, but the bottom line is I don't even cross those kinds of boundaries.

PC: At the end of the day, this is just a sport.

NR: Yeah man, stay in your lane. But that Marquez, and I watched it again because I like to check myself; I said, "I might be biased. Maybe I'm biased." But what I saw is what I think I saw.



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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