This week?s 111th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former welterweight and junior middleweight champion Ricardo Mayorga (29-7-2, 23 KOs), who is scheduled to face WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) on March 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayorga spoke about his upcoming fight, reflected back on some key moments from his career, and expressed his desire to land a fight with Pound-for-Pound King, Manny Pacquiao. Here are some excepts from that interview:
GEOFFREY CIANI: Ricardo, I wanted to get your thoughts on the biggest star in boxing today, Manny Pacquiao. What do you think of him as a fighter?
RICARDO MAYORGA: After I knockout Cotto, there are going to be two stars that people pay for to watch?Manny Pacquiao and me. We?re two stars who are going to be there. When I fight Cotto and I beat him, I?m going to tell Pacquiao that I want a fight with him. And Pacquiao, the day that I fight with him, I?m going to knock him out before the eighth round, and my new son Miguel Cotto?and they?re not going to call him Miguel Cotto anymore. Like he?s going to be my new son, they?re going to call him ?Miguel Mayorga?.
CIANI: Okay Ricardo, I?m curious, when of the guys you fought, Sugar Shane Mosley, is actually fighting Pacquiao next. How do you see that one going down?
MAYORGA: Honestly, my opinion and with what I know about boxing, it?s going to be a hard, hard fight for Pacquiao. My opinion on that is that maybe Mosley could knock Pacquiao out. Mosley has strength. He hits very hard and he moves quickly and he has a lot of experience. If I was to bet on that fight, I?d go with Sugar Shane Mosley. Mosley can knock him out in between the fifth and ninth round.
CIANI: Now if you win your fight with Cotto, would you most like to fight the winner of that fight between Pacquiao and Mosley? Would that be your number one target?
MAYORGA: In any case, unless it?s for the money, I?m going for Pacuqiao. That?s going to give me more money. That?s going to produce more money. When you?re talking about Mosley, yeah, alright! It?s less money, but I want to get revenge for what he did to me. During the years that I was not active after I fought Sugar Shane Mosley was because fifteen days before I fought Trinidad, I had a car accident and I was matched after that, I fought Trinidad, De La Hoya, and I couldn?t feel my legs. After that, I couldn?t. I couldn?t fight no more, because of that accident I had a pain in my lower back. So in those two years that I was not active, I recuperated from my back injury. I had surgery and I?m coming out to show the best I have. In life us humans don?t last for a long time. After this year I plan on retiring from boxing. I?m going to become the famous boxer of Latin America, knocking out that clown Miguel Cotto and the world champion right now, Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines. After I beat Pacquiao all of the Filipinos are going to be sad because I?m going to beat Pacquiao, and all of those people betting on him are going to lose money, because they?re going to bet on him and they?re going to watch me beat him by knockout.
