What are your thoughts on the Tommy Coyle fight now?
It was a great night. I love fighting in my own city. The atmosphere was unreal and it was a just a great show to be a part of and you have that local rivalry as well, which added that extra to the show.
Do you think it gave something extra to Tommy, because you put him down pretty early but he hung in there for a quite a long time?
Yes, he did well. He’s tough. Tommy had some really good wins on his record. He blew out [Michael] Katsidis in two rounds. Nobody’s done that. He’s had some good wins, a couple of defeats are maybe just where he’s got a bit careless and copped a lucky shot and that was it. But that’s boxing. It was a great night, I feel as though my performance was good but I can always improve on that and hopefully I look for a better performance on Saturday night.
How satisfying was that last fight?
It was satisfying because you had a couple of people thinking we were on par with each other. But the reality of it is – I’ve got all the trophies and the medals and the victories. He hadn’t. He got there through being on my shows, people were thinking he was on par with me so it was nice to finally put that to bed.
Do you see quite a lot of similarities between that and Anthony Joshua-Dillian Whyte?
A little bit. He [Whyte] reminded me a bit of Coyle, the way he talks a good ‘un, and Coyle was telling me that he could see me melting, he sees it in my eyes. It’s absolute bullshit. He [Dillian] is saying Joshua hasn’t got heart. I’ve been round the world with Joshua in tournaments fighting Russians, Cubans, Kazakhs in tournaments in parts of the world you would not want to go to in a tough environment in a tough tournament. Trust me, the fella’s got heart. I’ve got heart and it’s because no one’s seen us having to tough it out. So because they haven’t seen it, they don’t believe we’ve got it. But believe you me, I train with Joshua and like I say I’ve travelled the world with him – we’ve got it.
If he [Whyte] has to drag things up from five, six years ago to find a little bit of confidence, then more fool him. I think people move on, people improve and I’ve seen Joshua myself in tournaments slugging it out, going for it in tough fights and tough environments because I know, I’ve done it myself. I know you have to be mentally tough as well as physically ready. Tough all round.
Tommy talked about the past and it was completely irrelevant, and the stuff [Coyle] was talking about in the past didn’t even exist anyhow.
Have seen much of your opponent, Yvan Mendy?
I’ve seen a few rounds of him. He’s a tough solid fighter all round. I believe it’s going to be a real good fight to steal the show. I want people calling my name out when this show finishes and talking about me and how good I was. That’s my intention, to go out there and perform to the best of my ability and put a great fight on.
