He’ll ‘Keep on Fighting the Biggest and the Best’

Question: Have you watched a tape of the fight?

Answer: I’ve watched it. What can you do?

Q: Did the tape bear out your initial conviction that you won?

A: I was pleased and actually surprised by what I saw. I thought I did even better than I had thought that night. I was keeping Mosley at bay and landing good punches. He came forward later in the fight because he knew he was behind, knew he was losing. But I used long punches to win rounds. The strategy was always to lure him in. I could have gone forward, no problem, but I let him make the mistakes. After watching it, I definitely feel comfortable saying I won.

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Q: It seemed both of you were waiting for the other guy to make a mistake. With two fighters who know each other as well as you two do, it became, at times, as much a chess match as a boxing match. Is that a fair analysis?

A: If I made any mistake, that was it, being too conservative.

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Q: Any problems in the fight with your left hand, which has been injured so many times in the past?

A: No, actually I was very surprised that it gave me no problems. I was hesitant to throw it for a while in the fight because I thought I might injure it, but there was no pain at all. It was great.

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Q: Any regrets about your announcement afterward that you were launching an investigation into the judges’ decision, an announcement you backed away from several days later?

A: I do regret it. I realize it’s going to be impossible to pursue. When I made that comment about an investigation, I wasn’t really thinking too much. But one thing I want to make clear to the public, and I talked to [Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director] Marc Ratner about it, I want the whole process on how judges are picked to be made public. How they are picked and why they are paid so little? The public is demanding to know.

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Q: What were your initial feelings when ring announcer Michael Buffer declared that all three judges had given the fight to Mosley, 115-113?

A: While I was fighting, I didn’t feel like I was losing. When the final bell rang, I didn’t feel I had lost. When it was announced that it was 115-113 all across board, I was very confident. Then I lost focus [on Buffer] because I was busy greeting people. When he said “the new [super-welterweight champion],” I kind of heard it in slow motion. It was weird, very weird.

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Q: You stopped discussing retirement the day after the fight. What about your prefight declaration that, if you lost to Mosley, you would retire?

A: I didn’t lose anything. I didn’t get beat up. I feel great and I’m going to keep on fighting the biggest and the best.

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Q: When exactly did you accept the verdict in your mind and look to a continued future in the ring?

A: That night, as I was getting stitched up at the hospital from a head butt, everybody in the hospital was coming up to me and telling me that they heard it was a bad decision. Right then and there, I said to myself, “Let’s move on. Let it go.”

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Q: Any idea of when you’ll fight next, and against whom?

A: I don’t know yet. It’s only been a few weeks. I’m still kind of like regrouping. I’m going to need a little more time before I make any decisions. In the next few months, I should have a schedule for the rest of my career. I do know I can’t take a year off anymore after a fight.

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Q: Mosley, who has now beaten you twice, says he would be interested in fighting you again within the next year if you are interested. Are you interested?

A: I’m glad Shane is feeling that way.

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Q: In the first two fights, your purse was much bigger than Mosley’s. You had a $17-million guarantee last month to $4.5 million for Mosley. Wouldn’t the purses have to be a lot closer for there to be a third fight?

A: Let’s just say that whenever he fights again, we will have to see what his market value is. That’s the way I work. What I would recommend for Shane would be to test his value by fighting someone else, like [Ricardo] Mayorga. Then, if he won, it would be an even bigger event when he fights me.

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Q: Would you consider taking a lesser opponent as a tuneup before your next megafight?

A: No, I’m going to go after a Mosley or a [Fernando] Vargas, or even a [Bernard] Hopkins. At this point, I’ve got to go after those guys. I might as well go for the best because I don’t plan on fighting forever. I’m not going to stay in this sport very much longer.