TalkingBoxing Interviews
Talking Boxing with WILLIE GIBBS
FRI June 10, JERRY CASAREZ - The USBA title came calling and Willie Gibbs answered the challenge. Having taken the title fight on four weeks notice, Gibbs caught himself in a vicious cycle of gaining and losing weight before his first professional loss at the hands of Daniel Edouard. "I killed my body two weeks prior before that and felt weak," said Gibbs, who is the cousin of Bernard Hopkins.
Gibbs has since moved on, but not far enough to forget a re-match with Eduoard. "The only way I can redeem myself is to fight Edouard again, Gibbs said. "If he don’t want to fight, then I understand, and I'll go on until he wants to fight again."
Gibbs, who fights out of Philadelphia, will put his 18-1 record on the line tonight on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights and moves closer to the top of the middleweight division with a win. Gibbs understands he may have taken a step back with the loss, but is ready to move past that and up the rankings.
"By the end of the year, six months to eight months, whatever it takes. I want to be ranked in the top eight, to top six in the world until I am number one," Gibbs exclaimed. "I see myself fight Friday night, moving up another step up the ladder."
TalkingBoxing’s very own Jerry Casarez recently had a chance to speak middleweight contender, Philly's own Willie “The Gladiator” Gibbs...
Jerry Casarez: How are you doing Willie?
Willie Gibbs: Doing fine, doing fine. Just wrapping up this training
Jerry Casarez: How’s your training been going for Friday's fight?
Willie Gibbs: It’s been going good. Ya know. Ready to fight. Get over that hump.
Jerry Casarez: You’re coming off of a fight back in April. That was your first fight back coming off of the Daniel Edouard loss, going into that fight. How did you feel?
Willie Gibbs: Uh, coming into that Edouard loss, going into that fight, I was more relaxed, more focused and more determined to get my job done. My camp was excellent. Coming into that fight, uh, had didn't have to worry about stress, I just had to go in their and win.
Jerry Casarez: And I think you showed it. You definitely looked good in that fight against Andres Pacheco on Friday Night fights. What do you think you learned from the Edouard fight going into that fight?
Willie Gibbs: I believe I learned a whole lot coming from the Edouard fight. I learned that first and foremost you have to take care of yourself. You are in that ring, nobody else. It don't matter what nobody else say, trying to confuse you while you training and you are in the ring to keep focus on the fight. That only you know what you have to do, get the contract signed on the dotted line before you take the fight. So everybody know what’s gonna happen , so I know what’s gonna happen in the fight.
Jerry Casarez: Do you fells you has d any distractions going into the Edouard fight that might have played a factor into the fight?
Willie Gibbs: In my loss, yes, I had, uh, going into the Edouard fight, it was just my training camp that was bickering going on the promotional side of things and off of that, it just discouraged me a little bit because honestly I wasn’t gonna take the fight. It was too late for me to get into training for the fight and wasn’t gonna take it and but I took that fight on the air because I did want that USBA belt. So I took the fight on late notice. I killed my body two weeks prior before that and felt weak. I ate, to bring my body back up, so I could feel good. Once I did that, I had to lose the weight just before the fight and I killed my body.
Jerry Casarez: I think that showed in the fight, where you came out strong at the beginning of the fight..
Willie Gibbs: Yeah and burned right out.... It's like when you light a firecracker, you’re all set, it only sparks for a minute, but once it gets down to the gunfire, you hear a loud BANG and that’s what happened. I only had that little bit of spark; but if we would've gotten him outta there in the first round, everything would have been fine, you know what I’m saying, but since I didn’t get him out of there on the first round, my legs died, so that’s what happened.
Jerry Casarez: What do know about your opponent going into Friday’s fight?
Willie Gibbs: All I know is that he likes to come forward, pretty slick. He thinks he's a boxer.
Jerry Casarez: Is the Edouard rematch something you look forward to not looking past your opponent?
Willie Gibbs: Yes, an Edouard fight is something I look forward to in the near future. I will be glad to fight Edouard for the belt again, because that’s who took the belt, you know that’s the only way I can redeem myself IS to fight Edouard again. If he don’t want to fight, then I understand, and I'll go on until he wants to fight again. I will continue climbing the ladder until he wants to fight again. It's what the people want, ya know what I’m saying? If they call out, Willie Gibbs to fight somebody else, then I'll fight, because that's what I do. It’s my job.
Jerry Casarez: That's awesome. Do you think that with the middleweight division now heating up like Trinidad’s departure, Winky Wright’s here, we got Taylor fighting Hopkins, Where do you want see yourself in the division?
Willie Gibbs: By the end of the year, six months to eight months, whatever it takes for me to ranked in the top eight, to top six in the world to until I am number one. I see myself fight Friday night, moving up another step up the ladder. I believe the Edouard fight didn’t hurt me, but it put me back where I did not want to be. It didn't hurt me, but I lose and I am one step back. I want to redeem myself, get a belt, get in the top eight, ya know what im saying, so when Bernard decides to leave, or if he don't leave, or when jermaine Taylor decide to take another fight or wants to fight me, or I just want to be in the top 8. So when the belt becomes vacant where I can get a chance to fight for world title.
Jerry Casarez: You want to position yourself to fight for one of those world titles. Just a year ago, I can remember you calling out Jermaine Taylor even before the Hopkins fight looked like it was gonna happen, is like now, one year later, he finally decided to step up to fight Bernard. How do you see that fight playing out?
Willie Gibbs: How do I see Bernard vs. Jermaine Taylor fight coming out?
Jerry Casarez: Yeah
Willie Gibbs: This is how I look at it. Ya know, not to be bias or anything like that, but Bernard is on different level and unless he gets old that night, Jermaine aint gonna beat him, ya know what I’m saying? Unless Bernard decides he can’t do it any more and he gets old over night, or in the second round he gets old, Jermaine can’t beat Bernard. But on the other side, if Jermaine beats Bernard, where does that leave me? That what I’m looking at. That’s leaves me chasing Jermaine because, he only wants to fight the #1 guy in his weight class. That's what's gonna happen. You look at what Roy Jones did. He only fought the #1 guys in his weight class, ya know, that wanted to fight. Whoever was #1, Jones didn't go down to #4, say okay I'll fight #4 because that’s what the people want, he aint gonna give you what the people want.
I want Bernard to win, no comments, fighters thing is just political. I want him to win, so that I could keep on gambling, so I can keep shooting my dice, but if he lose, that is gonna put me on a position where I got to make the #1 spot to fight Jermaine Taylor.
Jerry Casarez: That’s right
Willie Gibbs: So let me ask you one more question, if I had won the Daniel Edouard, I would have grabbed the belt, would Jermaine Taylor have fought me? No.
Jerry Casarez: No. You probably would be fighting Sam Soliman in an IBF eliminator right about now.
Willie Gibbs: You’re right, you’re exactly right, Thank you. He took on Daniel Edouard because Daniel Edouard was already cracked. He was just like an egg that needed to be picked off; a shell. Daniel Edouard, at the end of our fight was hurt? He took the fight 5 months later, or a few months later and knowing that your body needs time to heal. It was a good management move for Jermain Taylor’s people to push that fight for Daniel Edouard to fight him, yeah, because Daniel Edouard beat Willie Gibbs and Willie Gibbs is calling out Jermain Taylor, so where does that put Willie Gibbs at? Back where I’m at right now. My only questions is why they didn’t fight for a belt? He had the USBA title, Jermain has the WBC title, ya know what I’m saying, why they didn’t fight for it. So I guess it was politics.
Jerry Casarez: Your cousin Bernard is now Golden Boy East, What’s the future with you and Bernard working together? Who’s your current promoter?
Willie Gibbs: My current promoter is Richie Cappiello, out of Boston. He’s promoting [Kevin] Mcbride, he’s fighting Tyson on Saturday. That’s my promoter.
Jerry Casarez: You’re still training with Charles Ramay?
Willie Gibbs: Yes. The near future, if time permits for me and Bernard to hook up together, for a promotion contract with Golden Boy Promotions, then ya know, I’m all ears. I would love it, that way when I do win the belts, they stay in Philadelphia.
Jerry Casarez: Keep it in Philly?
Willie Gibbs: What more than that would Bernard want? When he leaves [middleweight], don’t you think he should have somebody in Philadelphia to keep the belts? One of his relatives, ya know what I’m saying. That would be a great story, to keep it in the family.
Jerry Casarez: You’ve worked with Bernard in the past in the gym, what have you learned from him.?
Willie Gibbs: I learned, in my last fight, I didn’t even work with Bernard but you know what, we sat down, we talked, ya know what I’m saying and it really helped me. It's not even working with him, just talking to him, it put me on another level. We talked about rushing my fight, getting in there, use every bit of that ring that I can. Use the referee, use everybody, they getting paid for it, use them. That's one thing I didnt know. I was coming from the amateurs and the whole thing was time right and the point system. That changes in the professional ranks. You always have to be busy. In the pros you don’t always have to be busy you just have to be busy enough to win the round and I was doing enough to just beat my opponent down. I’m smarter now.
Jerry Casarez: So do you think that now you’ve learned that you have 10 or 12 rounds to break an opponent down where before you were just looking to knock a guy out?
Willie Gibbs: Yeah I learned that after the Edouard fight. Just take rounds as they come and don’t try to rush anything. And in that fight I gambled. I knew I wasn’t coming into that fight 100% but I wanted to knock him out early so I could call it a night. But if we get Gibbs vs Edouard 2 it will be something totally different. I would love it. You look at Willie Gibbs now as a different person and as a different fighter. But that’s something I already had but I want to show you all whats the real deal. I want to show that I have Great boxing skills but most of all my fights end in KO’s. In the Edouard fight I didn’t set anything up I just went in there trying to knock him out straight up and call it a night. For all my other fights the way I got my knockouts was because I would set all my opponents up.
Jerry Casarez: And I think that showed in your last fight with Andres Pacheco.
Willie Gibbs: Oh yeah. Even though he showed up overweight it wasn’t my fault. He signed the contract 4 weeks ahead of time. So I came in well conditioned...I didn’t even have to lose a pound the day I stepped on the scale. I was so ready to fight that night I didn’t care who would have stepped in that night. The same result would have happened. You would have still seen beautiful work ethic in the ring and the knockout comes because I set it up.
Jerry Casarez: Whats your weight looking like for this fight?
Willie Gibbs: Well today I weighed in at 162lbs. In Philly we weigh in the same day as the fight so I have one day and the wake up so I should be fine. I’m in great spirits and you know, I’m just ready to fight.
Jerry Casarez: Is the contracted weight for this fight 160lbs?
Willie Gibbs: For this fight its 162lbs.
Jerry Casarez: Is there anything you would like to say to your fans at TalkingBoxing.com that are reading this out there?
Willie Gibbs: Yeah I would like to say to the fans out there. Thank you for your support and keep on watchin Willie Gibbs. Help me become the next middleweight champion by keepin on watching me and by sending your emails and telling everybody about me and how much I‘m a gentlemen and everything else. And keep God first because thats who’s watching over us. That’s what I’d like to say to my fans.
