"The only thing I'm telling people Perc is when they see what happens Saturday night, I still want Margarito to be a beast and I'm going to tell Larry Merchant that in the pre-fight meetings. When Shane do his thing, I don't want them to discredit Margarito like they tried to do when X beat Pavlik," stated world-class trainer Naazim Trainer as he talked about this weekend's clash between Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito. Check out what he had to say about Mosley's training for the fight and much more, including his thoughts on some recent comments made by Roy Jones Jr.
PC: How is everything going Brother Naazim?
NR: Everything is going real good.
PC: It sounds like you had a long camp?
NR: Yeah man. It was long, but comfortable. We've been out here for about 8 weeks and now we're heading up to the city and it's time to go.
PC: This is your first time working with Shane Mosley. How did everything in camp go?
NR: Everything went well. I tell people I'm not here to teach Shane how to fight because he's been knowing how to do that. I'm here to find weaknesses in Margarito's game and implement a gameplan that can exploit those weaknesses and I have the athlete to do it. I've been a fan of Shane the fighter since the first time I've seen him fight and I've been a fan of Shane the person since my kids were babies man. He's a real good dude.
PC: Have you guys found some good sparring for Shane?
NR: Yeah, a lot of young bulls. Tough and much bigger fighters. Margarito has that one thing you can't train for and that's his chin. He's got that cranium, but every fighter has weaknesses and I'm as confident in this gameplan as I was for the plan Bernard had against Pavlik. The thing about it is not only am I confident in the gameplan, but I'm also confident in the athlete. See, Phil Jackson could draw up the best play in the world and it could have me curling around and receiving a pass and slamming it home at the end. That's a great play, but if you expect my big ass to get up there and dunk a basketball, then you better find another player, coach (laughing). I'm not getting up there. So not only do you have to have the right plan or play, but you have to have the athlete to carry it out and I have that athlete.
PC: Has anything surprised you in this camp by this being your first camp with "Sugarman?"
NR: It amazes me when I see a guy, who has accomplished so much and is such a great fighter, still willing to listen and want to learn. He's a pleasure to work with man; a true professional.
PC: Off the subject for a minute, did you get a chance to watch the Berto-Collazo fight?
NR: Yeah, I checked it out. Berto had to dig down deep. See, I said something a while back and people thought I was trying to be funny, but it turned out to be true. I told everyone that Calzaghe gets special treatment from the scoring. Calzaghe is the only fighter that gets points for shoe-shining to the body. You see, Collazo didn't get points for that shit. I'm not taking anything away from the man, but they score those punches for him and no one else. I knew Collazo wasn't going to come in there and lay down. He's a gamer. Berto is always going to be exciting though.
PC: What did you see as Cotto's biggest weakness and what did you feel led to his downfall against Margarito?
NR: I think after the fight with Shane, Cotto tried to become a boxer, which is cool, but a natural boxer can throw punches while he's moving and circle and things like that. If you watch the Margarito fight, Cotto has to stop moving to punch and every time he would stop, Margarito would be back in his chest. Cotto is used to seeing physical damage on his opponents, but against Margarito, when you hitting this motherfucker man and 6, 7, 8 rounds later, the only thing that's wrong with him is his ears are red, that fucks you up when you're used to busting these bulls up. I see a lot of people have written Cotto off, but not only was that one fight, but he's young. He has youth on his side.
The only thing I'm telling people Perc is when they see what happens Saturday night, I still want Margarito to be a beast and I'm going to tell Larry Merchant that in the pre-fight meetings. When Shane do his thing, I don't want them to discredit Margarito like they tried to do when X beat Pavlik. Pavlik was a beast all the way up to the fight with X and then X pitches a shutout and now it's, "Maybe he was too young. Jermain Taylor might not have been as good as we thought he was!" After Saturday night, I still want them to call Margarito a beast because I'm not taking anything away from the kid and I don't want the commentators to either. I'm definitely not underestimating Margarito. If anything, I'm overestimating him. What's the street code, "I'd rather get caught with my gun and not need it then to get caught without it!" That's how we're coming into this fight. We're ready for everything. I told Shane, "Don't be surprised if you done beat on him for 10 rounds and he rushes you like Ray Lewis for the 11th!" You have to be ready for that.
PC: What are you looking to accomplish with Shane in this fight?
NR: You know what Perc? I tell people I want to get the people that's picking Shane to win to be saying, "Damn, I didn't think he would win like that." That's the people I'm going after.
PC: That's the thought I had when Hopkins beat Tarver. I picked him to win, but by the 8th round, my mouth was open.
NR: That's what I want to do with this one.
PC: I saw an interview with Roy Jones and he said he was fighting Omar Sheika because Bernard or Glenn Johnson didn't want the fight. I know you have a response.
NR: Man, who the hell don't want to fight Roy Jones right now? What has he done in the past couple of years to make someone scared to fight him? Roy has to understand, that whole "being scared of Roy" shit is over. Omar Sheika is going to be to Roy what Collazo was to Andre Berto. Watch what I tell you. It's going to be that kind of fight. Sheika is going to come to fight. Shit, I have a fighter riding with me right now with 15 fights that would whoop Roy's ass. Shit, I'll try Roy right now (laughing). Give me 3 weeks in the gym and I'll try him. Roy has to start being honest with himself. See, he keeps putting out these greatest hits DVD's to fool himself. Those days are over with man. I'm not saying he wasn't a bad man at one time, but for him to be saying guys don't want to fight him at this stage in his career is crazy man. I say it all of the time. Tarver knocked him out, Glen Johnson beat him up and Calzaghe embarrassed him. If Calzaghe would have put his hands behind his back, it would have been over with and you could see he thought about it a couple of times. If he would have pulled that off, they could have stopped the fight.
Roy is the perfect example of a fighter that didn't keep learning. He had no desire to keep learning because he thought his athletic ability would carry him through. You look at fighters like Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley that, even at this stage in the game, they're still learning, but Roy thought he would always be untouchable. I'll tell you, if you put the 20-year-old Bernard Hopkins in the ring with the Bernard Hopkins of today, today's Bernard Hopkins would beat the shit out of the 20-year-old Hopkins in 2 rounds. Not that the 20-year-old Hopkins wasn't a talent, but he has grown so much as a fighter because he was still willing to learn. The same goes for Shane. Shane would beat the hell out of a 20-year-old Shane Mosley. Now look at Roy Jones. Man, a 20-year-old Roy Jones would beat the shit out of the Roy Jones that we see today.
PC: Damn, I never thought about it like that. Thanks for the time as always. I know you have these meetings to attend. Good luck Saturday night my man.
NR: Thanks Perc. I know these next couple of days is going to be crazy, but if you got something on your head, give me a call.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]