Photos: GETTY IMAGESFIGHTING FIT:Pendleton has barelychanged since hisdays as a fighter12 l BOXING NEWS l NOVEMBER 23, 2017 www.boxingnewsonline.net
Q & A‘CHAVEZ RAN TO THEMOUNTAINS AS SOON ASMY PLANE LANDED’With bravado typical of a retired fighter, Freddie Pendletontells James Slater about the struggles of being too goodESPITE suffering 26 defeats in a professionalDcareer that began 36 years ago this month,“Fearless” Freddie Pendleton speaks today asthough he never took a punch in his life. ThePhilly warrior who never had anything easy inthe ring, taking short-notice fights and oftenbeing the victim of some highly debatablescoring, refused to give up. In his 53rd fight, Pendleton captured theIBF lightweight title. Today, the 54-year-old, who believes he’s fitenough to fight again, is working on his autobiography.How many of your 26 defeats do you accept as genuine?In all truthfulness, I feel I have only eight genuine losses on myrecord. I was robbed so manytimes. Frankie Randall who I foughttwice [l rsf 5, draw pts 12], the firstfight, I went right after him andwas beating him up. I took thatfight on two weeks’ notice. In thefifth round, the ref called me overand he said I was cut, I said, ‘Sowhat?’ He said it was running intomy eye and they stopped the fight.Later I found out he had refereedaround 150 of Frankie’s amateurfights. We fought again and it wasa draw - I think I won, he thinks hewon. But we screamed for a thirdfight, my team and I, but he neverwanted it. He said, when he wasWBC [super-lightweight] champ[Randall upset Julio Cesar Chavezto win the title in 1994], that henever wanted anything to do withme ever again – that I hit him morethan anyone else did in his wholecareer. And this is the guy who hadChavez on his ass! We both wereunder the same guy, Carl King, butthat third fight didn’t happen.You’ve said before that Chavezducked you. Please explain.Three times! We had big offers from all the TV networks, butChavez didn’t want to know. Don King called me and told me to gospar with Chavez in Mexico.I didn’t want to, I wanted to fight him for real. But anyway, Iwent. I got there, to the gym, and asked where Chavez was; theysaid he’d gone up into the mountains as soon as my plane landed.He packed up and left.I called Don and told him to get me the hell out of there and helaughed. He told me later that Chavez gave him hell for getting meover there to try and spar with him.THE END: Pendleton retires with a 47-26-5 (35) record afterlosing to Ricky Hatton in 2001‘MAYWEATHER OWESME A LOT - BUT HE HITME THE HARDEST’When you finally became IBF lightweight champion, in your53rd fight, you must have felt great?Nah, not really. I knew I’d beat Tracy Spann [w pts 12 after atechnical draw five months earlier]. I was having such an easy timewith him, that’s why I got put on my ass in the first fight. I startedplaying and I got caught. I never did that again. For me, the JorgePaez fight [w pts 12, Pendleton’s sole title retention] was a goodfight. When I beat Paez that made me feel more like a real worldchampion. He had skills, I respected him a lot.What would you say was your best win?Have you seen my fight with Tyrone Trice? I had one week’snotice – I was playing basketball on the street and they calledand said I had the fight. I neededmoney and I asked when the fightwas. They said Tuesday and I saidit is Tuesday! So [I had] seven daysto get ready and they all said I wasgoing to get knocked out for sure,that Trice was the next TommyHearns [Pendeleton won in thefirst round].The fight with RogerMayweather [w rsf 6], well, heowes me a whole lot. I helped himbecome champion both timesthat he did it. I sparred him beforeboth of his word title fight wins.But I never understood why heagreed to fight me: I was alwaysbeating on him in the gym. Theythrew me out one time, for hittinghim too hard. Roger is probablythe hardest puncher I ever fightthough. He stunned me bad in thesecond round and I had to movearound and get out of trouble.What do you think of fighterstoday?Today, there’s nothing awesomeout there, nothing really great.Look at Andre Ward: he retires and then comes back, retires andthen comes back. I say good riddance. He doesn’t give a damnabout the paying fans.When I was fighting, that was the thing: putting on a great showfor the fans who pay money to see you fight. I put it in each andevery time. I wanted people to say, ‘Man, that kid can fight.’ MikeyGarcia, he’s a good fighter but he’s not a world champion to me.No way would he have lived with all the greats in our era – noteven close.Today, all the fighters care about is getting paid. But whose faultis it? If you watch garbage they’ll continue to give you garbage.www.boxingnewsonline.net NOVEMBER 23, 2017 l BOXING NEWS l 13
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