This Saturday night on HBO, Danny Garcia defends his junior welterweight title against Amir Khan in a big fight in Las Vegas. Before Khan vs. Garcia, the two men held a pre-fight conference call to discuss the bout, their training, their futures and the long, winding road they took to get this fight put together. Take a look at what each man and their teams had to say right here.
Danny Garcia
You know, first thing I want to say, I’m having a great training camp. I feel good. I feel strong and I’m just ready July 14 to give the fans a great fight.
Oscar de la Hoya
I would also like to introduce to you needing no introduction with such a young career already has an incredible record who is the former Unified Super Lightweight World Champion at just 25 years young we all know he won the Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at just 17 years old and he has already defeated future Hall of Famers like Marco Antonio Barrera. He’s been against Andreas Kotelnik, beaten Dmitriy Salita, and defeated former WBA Welterweight World Champion, Paul Malignaggi.
He’s one of these fighters that is a fan-friendly fighter. That’s what fans always want to watch because he brings everything inside the ring and leaves everything inside the ring. I want to introduce to you out of Bolton, England with a record of 26-2 and 18 knockouts, Amir Khan. We are very happy to be putting this fight together. Danny Garcia and Amir Khan are two tremendous, tremendous fighters. First off, I would like to get on the call with you a fighter who holds a perfect record at just 24 years old. He is the WBC Super Lightweight World Champion and he is considered one of boxing’s brightest young stars. He owns wins against Nate Campbell and Kendall Holt in 2011, and he made his HBO boxing debut against a future Hall of Famer in Erik Morales in March when he defeated the Mexican warrior and tremendous puncher, exciting fighter, and here is another guy who prefers the judges stay at home.
So, without any further ado, looking to solidify and once again stay undefeated and become one of the best at 140 pounds, he’s got a record of 23-0 and 14 knockouts, hails out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that is Danny “Swift” Garcia.
Danny Garcia
You know, first thing I want to say, I’m having a great training camp. I feel good. I feel strong and I’m just ready July 14 to give the fans a great fight.
Oscar de la Hoya
I would also like to introduce to you needing no introduction with such a young career already has an incredible record who is the former Unified Super Lightweight World Champion at just 25 years young we all know he won the Silver Medal in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens at just 17 years old and he has already defeated future Hall of Famers like Marco Antonio Barrera. He’s been against Andreas Kotelnik, beaten Dmitriy Salita, and defeated former WBA Welterweight World Champion, Paul Malignaggi. He’s one of these fighters that is a fan-friendly fighter. That’s what fans always want to watch because he brings everything inside the ring and leaves everything inside the ring. I want to introduce to you out of Bolton, England with a record of 26-2 and 18 knockouts, Amir Khan.
Amir Khan
Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining this conference call. Training camp has gone really well. It’s been a very long camp for me because of the first fight that got called off against Lamont Peterson, so I’ve still kept training and we’ve just been very professional and focused on what we need to do. The game plan not really changes much because it’s quite similar fighters. We’re going to be more than ready. We’re going to bring the ‘A’ game to the table and come July 14 we’re going to put on a great fight for the fans and for all the fans watching at home. I’m looking forward to it and hopefully the game plan that we have for the fight will be perfect and we’ll win the fight.
Q
Danny, you had that excellent win that you got in March against Erik Morales, got one of the world titles. I know it meant a lot to you, was a good performance. I don’t think everybody expected that this type of fight would be what was in store for your first defense. When you heard about this fight and it was presented to you I think you were happy about it, but did you think when you got a chance to maybe think about it a little bit maybe come a little bit quicker than you had expected to happen, not the fight that maybe was on the tip of everybody’s mind when you won your title? They thought there might be some other fights and that this might be a much bigger fight a couple of fights down the road.
Danny Garcia
I knew my division was a tough division with a lot of talent so I never put it past me, but the opportunity came across and I was excited. You’ve got to fight the best to be the best. I’m the champion so the champion’s got to fight the best. I’ve been presented an opportunity and I’m ready to perform.
Q
Can you talk a little bit about the differences that you think you may see between somebody like Erik, who was much older, still had the heart but maybe not the speed or the agility that he had when he was at his prime, compared to somebody like Amir, who is still extremely fast, still in his prime, still one of the best guys out there? It seems to me like a much different kind of fight between you against Erik and now fighting Amir.
Danny Garcia
Yeah. It’s a different fight. I’m fighting a young guy like me with speed and power. Anytime you put two young guys in there going to give the fans a great fight and like I said before, you’ve got to fight the best to be the best. Khan says he’s one of the best. I’m the champion. I want to fight the best and we’re going to make our adjustments in the ring, follow the game plan, and come out victorious.
Q
Amir, first, how was your arm last night at the Dodgers game?
Amir Khan
It was great. It was an honor, first of all, to be throwing the first pitch. It was like throwing a punch, to be honest with you. It was good. The crowd was good. There must have been about 57,000 people there so it was somewhat different.
Q
It’s been a long camp because you were getting ready to fight the rematch in May with Lamont Peterson and then the situation happened. You switched to Danny, moved the date a bit, a month and a half or so. I’m wondering when you got the new assignment with Garcia compared to Peterson, did you in your mind think, “Oh, I’m in a much tougher fight or I’m going to be in a bit of an easier fight,” or how do you deal with that when you make that change and you have to mentally change from preparing for a rematch a lot of folks anticipated, were looking forward to after a great fight the first time, a little controversy now taking on this opponent?
Amir Khan
Well, you never go into a fight and you think it’s going to be easy. Every fight is a tough fight and I always like to train like a challenger and train very, very hard. When the new name came up and we spoke to Golden Boy Promotions and they said, “What do you think of Danny Garcia as a new opponent?” I jumped to the occasion and the reason we got Danny and we got this fight so quickly after the Pederson fight got called off because Ramadan is coming up and I want to take off boxing around that time. It’s a week before Ramadan this fight’s going to happen so it works out perfect.
When I saw videos of Danny Garcia, I remember watching the highlights when he beat Erik Morales and won the WBC title. He’s a good fighter and it’s a name that I thought in the future it will happen because he’s young, he’s coming up, and there will be a big fight because of any world champion out there, he’s a good fighter. I thought I’m going to keep an eye on this name. Maybe one day when they ask me for opponents I can put the name to my team, what do we think about Danny Garcia?
The fight came up and when Golden Boy asked me I said, “Look, I’d love to take that fight.” I think it is a similar fight because Danny is strong. Peterson is strong. We both have kind of similar speed and similar movements and stuff and also with both being orthodox, I think it helps. The game plan had to kind of change a little bit from the Peterson fight, but the training we’d been doing and the conditioning work was just kind of perfect.
Took a couple of weeks off and then went back to training camp again and kind of reviewed everything and kind of got a new game plan for the fight. We’re going to be more than ready for this fight. We know what to do and I think maybe the fight we had lined up before was a fight that maybe is going to give us more experience and in a way help me a little bit more because it’s giving me extra training and I’ve spent more time in the gym.
Q
When you are training for Danny do you still have thoughts in your mind at any point about what might have been with Peterson? I think it’s kind of discussed about what happened not only with the first fight the way it went down to find out that he had taken some sort of banned substance prior to that fight then what occurred to have your fight cancelled.
Amir Khan
Well, yeah, you still think about what happened and stuff because I would have kind of preferred to settle the score properly and gone in there and fought him. I mean even when he got caught positive I thought there was still a chance of me fighting him and I told my team and my team still advised me not to because it’s not fair, but I would have like to have settled the score properly. But now I’ve just put it behind me because this is another tough fight for me and I need to stay focused 100% for this fight because we know when we start thinking ahead and looking too far ahead you can make mistakes and we don’t want to do this. I’m at my peak now where I like to be very professional because in the future there are some super fights out there, so it’s all about winning this fight, taking fight step out time, and not really looking too far ahead.
Q
You were so focused on getting that rematch with Peterson, how difficult has it been to be distracted by all that went on with that fight and to be in camp so long and now to focus on a new fighter? What was involved in transition in that though process for you?
Amir Khan
To be honest with you, not much. What got to me a little bit was just not having the chance to win my titles back and to kind of put things straight. I would have definitely changed a lot of things from the first piece of the fight because I know I made a lot of mistakes in there and our plans were too lazy and stuff and standing there taking shots. I have to take shots and stuff but I just put it behind me, to be honest with you.
The true fight there I fought someone who was on illegal substances but I just put it behind me now and now I’m just looking in the future and the future holds another big fight for me, which is against Danny Garcia, for the WBA title and the WBC title, so I’m just looking forward to that one. I’ve kind of put everything behind me and I have to focus on wanting to do in this next fight come July 14.
It has been a long training camp but it’s helped me, as well, because I love spending time in the gym. I’m one of them fighters who loves training and working on new things so this gave me time to work on new things and also normally training camp’s nine to ten weeks, but this time the training camp has been 16 weeks. I’ve kind of paced myself but worked on stuff I want to work on, not over train myself and kind of took my time and built up on training. It’s come perfectly really and I’ve loved every minute of this camp.
Q
How was the news for you to know that the WBA finally appears to have sanctioned this fight for your old title?
Amir Khan
It’s thrilling to know that because I think they’ve seen there was some wrong and they have made the first move. I’m glad that the title will be on the line now. It just makes the fight even more exciting and also having two world titles makes the fight even bigger.
Me and Danny are young fighters. He’s 24. I’m 25 and to be in this position fighting a huge fight with so many titles on the line I think is brilliant. We just hope that the IBF may do the same thing, put that title on the line, as well, which will be coming on this unification. I think the WBA made a great choice and I just want to thank them for….
Q
Hey, Obviously, Amir and at one point Tim Bradley were the primary focuses of this division. As a young guy coming up I’m sure you were looking at those guys as guys you eventually wanted to fight. How big for you would a win over Amir be in terms of having watched him and having known that he was kind of the standard bearer of the division for so long?
Danny Garcia
Man, a win would be big. It would put me in a new category, superstar category, and we’ve been working and I’m pretty sure that we’re going to get the job done.
Q
I talked to your dad about this and it’s a big fight for you. Some people are saying that maybe it is too soon. When you hear that what motivation does that give you?
Danny Garcia
It makes me train harder, keep me focused, keep me motivated, but I don’t feel like it’s too soon. If you’re the world champion who are you supposed to fight? Are you supposed to fight bums and pad your record? If you’re the world champion you’re supposed to fight the best people in their prime and that’s what I want to do. I want to be the best and when you’re the champ you’ve got to fight the best. That’s what I want to do. I want to build my legacy starting young.
Q
How much, Danny, when would you say you grew up the most, against Campbell, against Holt, or against Morales, or was it a combination of all three? Can you talk about how the blocks that were put into place over the course those three victories?
Danny Garcia
I think every fight I learn something different and you grow. You grow as a professional every fight and you just get smarter, you get more confidence, and I think every fight helped me in a different way and led me to this way.
Q
Last question for you, in the Morales fight was there any moment of adversity that you felt you really overcomed that really kind of has embedded some real confidence in you? That was a pretty tough fight against a guy who really I thought when out on a shield.
Danny Garcia
Yeah. I think I showed my heart in that fight. I showed a lot of heart. In the eleventh round when he cut me on my eyebrow and I started bleeding and my nose was a little swollen I stood there and I traded with a Mexican warrior and the fans loved it and that’s what people want to see in boxing. They want to see blood, sweat, and tears, and when the time got heated when people thought my nose was broken and my eye was bleeding, my heart could have easily went off but my heart got pumped up. I stood there and traded and like I say, I showed anything that fight was my heart under pressure.
Q
Danny’s undefeated. Is there any extra pressure coming into this fight?
Amir Khan
Well, you know I’ve fought a lot of undefeated fighters in the past and I think the two undefeated guys I do remember I knocked them out in the first round. One was a European guy for I think it was my fifteenth fight, so I’ve fought undefeated fighters before and we’ve beaten undefeated fighters before so we know what to do.
It’s always tough when you fight an undefeated fighter because he’s never tasted defeat before and they come in the fight confident. I think sometimes they can mistakes because coming into a fight too confident or coming into a fight not tasting defeat kind of wants to make you get involved sometimes and make mistakes and you think you can get away with it, but I think this is a different now. You’re at the world class level. You’re at the elite level of boxing and every little mistake now Garcia makes I’m going to jump on it.
I’ve been in with all kinds of opponents, experienced guys, all the guys, fresh fighters, and guys who go backwards, so we know what to do. With the experience I’ve had I’ll be more than ready in this next fight.
Q
Do you think Danny will bring anything to the table? Do you think that he could bring something to the table that you’ve never seen anything before in your career?
Amir Khan
Well, yeah, probably he can. Every fighter has something special about them and with Danny he seems like a tough fighter who comes forward and likes to exchange and likes to throw big bombs and stuff. We have a great sparring for this fight and we’ve had a great training camp so we’ll be ready for whatever he brings to the table. That’s one thing about me, I train very hard when I’m in the gym and I go through all different kinds of sparring partners, all different kinds of training methods just to be ready for this fight. We will be ready because I know this is a big, big fight for me.
Q
Danny, going into this fight this is your first title defense. Is there anything that was different in this fight camp compared to others preparing for the fight?
Danny Garcia
Well, now we do the same thing just smarter and harder. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It’s been working for me so we’re just going to keep doing the same thing putting our hard work in and keep winning.
Q
Recently there has been a lot generated in this part of the country that there were arguments between your and Danny Garcia’s father, saying both of you were just promising to knock each other down. Is it about some personalized thing or a proper WBA, WBC Light Welterweight challenge?
Amir Khan
Well, for me I go into a fight I train hard. I’m focused and it’s all about just being smart in this fight. All arguments that surface are promotion for the fight. I’m not really retaliate to Danny’s father or Danny himself. I’ve just stayed quiet and been the professional one. I’ve been in this position so many times. I’ve had people call me names or saying things about me. I’m a professional fighter and I like to keep it professional. I let my fists do the talking in the ring because the only people that are going to be in the ring are me and Danny so we can sort out things out in the ring.
If it helps them guys to talk trash outside the ring it’s fine because at the end of the day Danny’s father is not the one who is going to be the ring fighting. Like I said, it’s not like that at all. It just made me train harder, to be honest with you. It’s pushed me and they just want me to go in the ring and take these titles off Garcia and win them.
Q
You have become tremendously popular with the youth of Pakistan so what do you expect from them in the future and what should they be expecting from you in this title fight on the fourteenth?
Amir Khan
First of all, on the fourteenth it’s going to be an exciting fight and it’s just great to know there are many fans around the world who are excited to see this fight. Every fight I’m in is always exciting. I like to dig keep and if I have to dig deep, I dig deep. I can box. I can fight. It’s going to be an exciting fight for the fans around the world. I just want to thank all my fans in Pakistan who are very supportive and who show so much love because I’m not only winning the title for Britain, I’m also winning it for Pakistan is where my family’s roots are from. It’s going to be an honor to win the titles and become world champion again.
Q
There have been reports that you desire to move up to the 147-pound division if successful against Garcia for potential bouts with boxers like Floyd Mayweather and Timothy Bradley. How do you see it happening in near future?
Amir Khan
Yeah. I take my time and we’ve learned by not looking too far ahead. My ambition and my goals are to hopefully get through this fight, win this might, and then move up to the next weight category and the next weight category is the 147 category and then face the big names in that division. Just like Danny said before when you are world champion and you’re at the top of your game, you want to fight the best out there. You want to fight the best and that’s what I want to do. My ambition is to fight the best and one day when I leave the sport of boxing I want to recognize Amir Khan for the best and for everyone who was out there.
Q
First, since Peterson failed the drug test a number of other boxers have failed drug tests. Do you think the sport of boxing is rife with drug cheats?
Amir Khan
No. It’s only a handful of people who have been caught and stuff. I’ve never taken any drugs and never will take drugs because we know how dangerous it is. The good thing about it is it’s cleaning up the sport and those people who do think sometimes, “Oh, should we take this and should we take that to help us perform better?” I think it will make them think twice now because I think boxing is clamping down on drug cheats, so I think it’s a great thing that they’re doing these random tests. It’s just proven how many fighters at top level who we never thought would get caught or who we never thought would be on any substances are getting caught now. Like I said, it’s cleaning the sport of boxing up and I think it’s a good thing.
Q
Okay. Just to touch back on Danny Garcia’s father, Angel, who was disrespectful towards you at a press conference, will you have to hold back anything when you two come face-to-face during fight week?
Amir Khan
No. It doesn’t involve that guy. He is going to stay calm. They know that it’s going to be me in the ring and I know exactly what to do. I let my fists do the talking. I’m not one of them guys who likes to get in arguments and stuff. I’ll show everyone in the ring what Amir Khan’s all about. Like I said, I respect everyone outside the boxing ring. It’s just that when I’m in the ring it’s a different story. My team is very professional. They sit back. They chill because they know I train hard. I work hard and we know exactly what to do.
Q
Okay and your good friend David Haye he’s going to be involved in a controversial fight on the same night as you against Dereck Chisora. Just wanted to know your opinions on the fight and if you will get a chance to watch it.
Amir Khan
I don’t really watch many fights on the day of the fight when I’m fighting as well because I just like to stay nice and chilled and calm and not get too excited before my fights. But David is my friend, so I’ll probably get to see his fight probably after mine, but I wish him all the best and I think it’s going to be a nice walk over fight for him. This is the sport of boxing. One point can change a fight, especially in the heavyweight division, but I’ve got my money on David.
I think David is the one who’s going to go in there and knock Chisora out and put him back where he belongs really because Chisora does talk a lot of trash. David has been the quiet one and he’s being very respectful, so it’s going to be another good fight. It’s a good of boxing, especially for the British fans because you’ve got two big fighters on that night. It’s going to be something to wait for there and watch.
Q
They just moved the summer Olympics, I wondered did you manage to get your hands on any tickets and will you be watching our future boxers trying to match your feats at Olympics?
Amir Khan
Yes. I’m an ambassador for the Olympic Games so I’ll be there. A couple of weeks ago I did the torch relay so I lit the caldron. Yeah, I’ll be part of the Olympics. Like I said, I’m an ambassador so they want me doing commentary and help out with TV and stuff and also go to different events, so I’ll be at the opening and closing ceremony also. I got a letter through e-mail just … and they want me there. Yeah, I’ll be there.
I’m going to be supporting the Olympic Games and I think it is brilliant to have the Olympics in Britain because when will we ever get that chance again in our lifetime to have the Olympics in our country? I want to make the most of it. I’m going to enjoy every minute of it and I’m going to try going to every event because when I was in the Olympics in 2004 I never had a chance to go any other sport apart from boxing. That’s when I was fighting, so at least this gives me an opportunity to go to the other sports.
Q
Looking back at your fight with Morales, which I expected to be a pretty closely contested fight, obviously that was definitely your toughest fight, not just because of who the opponent was but just in a sense that you were in a war, a fight that was really up in the air going to the last couple rounds. Now a fight like that certainly goes to show that you are a beatable fighter obviously.
Morales really gave you hell but at the same time you were able to overcome it. You beat a legend. You dropped him, which was a huge surprise for me. What does that do not only to your confidence in that you are able to overcome adversity and beat a guy like Morales but also to show you that look, hey, there’s still some things that I need to work on as I move forward?
Danny Garcia
You’re always going to get better. After every fight you’re going to get better. You’re going to learn more. You just get more seasoned and Morales he’s a legend. He’s done this most of the time he’s been in big fights his whole life. That was my first fight on HBO against a legend in his home. He picked the gloves. He picked everything. He picked the ring. The only advantage I had in there was me being in shape and my confidence and it showed that I can go into anywhere, be the underdog, have nothing on my side, and still win.
Q
Was there a certain point in the fight when you thought to yourself, “You know what? I’m going to be able to pull this off?” Now, surely you’ve got confidence going into the fight but with the fight being such a war was there any certain instance in the fight whether it was when you dropped him or something before that when you thought to yourself, “You know what? I can pull this off.”
Danny Garcia
In WBC fights, they tell you the scores every four rounds and at the eighth I was up seven to one so I knew I was winning the fight already. Other people had it close. I knew I was winning the fight but the only time I faced adversity in the fight was when he cut me. I was trying to out box him but I stood there and I traded with a legend and it was a great feeling and a great experience.
Q
Now surely the fight with Khan was a little unexpected due to other circumstances with Peterson, but had Khan ended up facing Lamont what was your game plan? Did you have something in mind in terms of a specific opponent at this time? Were you looking to jump right into another kind of mega fight or maybe just defend your title against any number of contenders?
Danny Garcia
I really didn’t know at the time. I was just in the gym training because if that would have happened I think that would have been his last fight at 140. He would have went to 147. I make 140 pretty easy. I’m going to stay here for a little bit so I really didn’t know who I was going to fight or big names or what. I just knew I’d be fighting soon. I just didn’t know who it would be and then when the opportunity came across for Khan I thought I was a perfect opportunity because I’m a young champion. He’s a young fighter and it will be great for boxing.
Q
Looking back at that Peterson fight I got a chance to watch it again a couple days ago, it was a fight that you certainly were in the trenches a bit more than what I expected you to be in. Certainly that made for an entertaining fight, but was there something innate about Peterson’s style that kind of convinced you or made you decide to kind of be more working on the inside because surely you’ve got the speed and the style to box well from the outside? I half expected you to try to do that as opposed to be more on the inside and it seemed almost like you were fighting his fight. Again, was there anything in particular about him that forced you to do that?
Amir Khan
Well, I think in the fight itself at times we got lazy and stuff. We weren’t feeling the effects of his punches so we just stood there and took punches that we shouldn’t have taken. I think we were too brave really. That’s why I knew in the rematch I was not going to do what I did in the first fight and make the silly mistakes I did make. There are some things that we did in the fight that I shouldn’t have done.
Also, outside of the ring there were a few things in training camp I did that I’ll never do again. I’ve changed them around and I feel like a totally different fighter now.
It was a great learning curve for me, the Peterson fight, because it made me realize that look, I need to do things and I have to be more professional and I can’t do this and I can’t do that. Sometimes it’s a good wake up call.
Q
Now you mentioned doing things outside the ring. Is that related to just in the way you were training or just simply having outside distractions and not being completely focused?
Amir Khan
No. Distraction-wise I’m always focused on the fight. It’s never an issue. Maybe with the training side like making the weight and stuff and also on my conditioning and stuff I’ve changed conditioners from Alex Ariza to Ruben Tabares and I feel like a different fighter now. The work that we do in sparring in public and everything is perfect but just a little change that we made I feel like a totally different fighter and I feel a lot better.
Q
Now with the way things turned out with Peterson obviously with the drug testing and all that stuff does that make you kind of wary moving forward, regardless of who you’re getting in the ring with about having proper testing and that sort of thing?
Amir Khan
Well, I think it’s a great thing that we’re doing by doing this random test. Me and Danny Garcia we also agreed on taking the tests randomly in camp and also before the fight, so it just shows we are cleaning the sport of boxing up and we are fair fighters and clean fighters. And even the fight being that close, he was on medication that time so it just shows that that the medication on performance enhancement drugs really that’s going to help his performance.
Maybe if he wasn’t on that maybe the fight would have been stopped within mid to end. Maybe that’s what kept him going and kept him going forward and taking so many shots and still coming forward. You don’t know but I’m glad boxing is now cleaning up and there are so many different tests happening in between fights and in between training camps..
Q
I know for this fight you won’t be working with Alex Ariza. I’m sure you passed on it before in the past press conferences but could you maybe describe in detail the falling out of that relationship? How has training been without him in this training camp compared to your last training camp?
Amir Khan
Yeah. We’ve changed from Alex to Ruben Tabares and it was just a change I needed because it’s always good to have a change and work on new things. There are a few things in camp I changed and I didn’t change. It was a big wake up call for me after the Peterson fight and there were a few things I could change. This was one of the things that changed was my conditioning coach.
Now training with my new conditioner, Ruben Tabares, he’s making me work hard and he’s pushing me. It’s a new challenge, as well, which kind of drives me and I think that’s what young fighters need because you can get bored doing the same thing so I think it’s good when you get new challenges thrown at you and think, “Wow! This is what I have to do.” It’s exciting to do new things with him.
Q
Now, Amir, recently a perfect example would be Victor Ortiz. Victor Ortiz was scheduled to fight Andre Berto and that fight got canceled and he had to do a replacement. I don’t think he claimed overtraining was part of the reason that he lost but it could have definitely added to it. Do you feel that you’re at risk of overtraining for the fight being that you were scheduled to originally fight about two months ago and then changed to this fight?
Amir Khan
Yeah, you kind of over train at times and that’s why I’ve got a close team who is always with me. My conditioner he’s always with me. Even when I went back to the UK to relax for three weeks I was still taken over. All my life I’ve been in the boxing gym when I was an amateur and from an amateur to the pro. I know I’m not over trained and that everything is perfect. We’ve been very professional the way we’ve done things. We’ve kind of took the fall for the gas a little bit and then put it back on the gas again, so we’ve done everything perfectly.
With the Victor Ortiz issue maybe he did something different and that’s why he didn’t perform the way he should he was. He was still winning that fight till he stopped. He retired in the corner, but we know we’re doing everything right and we know we can be ready for this fight regardless. Like I said, I’ll never cheat myself, which I’ve not done that. I think having more time in the training camp makes you a better fighter and also a more professional fighter because it’s given me time to work on my diet, my nutrition, my condition, so it’s like a full-time job.
Q
Absolutely. Last but not least, Amir, win or lose, is this your last fight at 140 pounds?
Amir Khan
Yeah, we’ll see after we win this fight hopefully and then we sit down with the team and we go through what’s going to happen. Yeah, it could be one of the last fights. It just depends on how it all goes, but yeah, I think it’s maybe time after this fight to move up to the next weight category and go for the new challenges. It’s like I said it’s just taking one fight step at a time. I’ve not really thought about it just yet. I want to think about it after the fight when we know exactly what happens.
Q
Danny, you’re coming into this fight obviously the second opponent after Peterson fell out for Amir Khan and you’re unbeaten, very confident sounding. Can you tell us why you think you have the advantages and why you think you’re going to win this fight?
Danny Garcia
I just believe that I train very hard. I believe in my training. I believe that God has blessed me with the talent. I’m fast. I’m strong just like him and I got a lot a heart and I feel like whatever it takes I’ve got to do to win then I’m going to pitch myself to the limit and I’m gonna pull through.
Q
Do you see some weaknesses in his approach in his recent fights you could take advantage of?
Danny Garcia
Yeah. We saw a few weaknesses, a few shots we put in, a few things we’ve seen in his game, but it’s a difference from looking and actually being in the ring. We’re just going to adapt to the fight and make adjustments and get the job done.
Q
Okay. Question for Amir – the announcement for the fights that this fight is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Khan Promotions, can you talk a little bit about Khan Promotions, what the state of that is, and what your plans are for it?
Amir Khan
Well, Khan Promotions we just promote myself and it’s that’s basically it really. I’m not really lookin’ to promoting any other fighters. I do get a lot of people knocking on my door and saying, “Look, why don’t you promote us and stuff?” Maybe it’s something I will look in to the future when I retire maybe I’ll get involved in but at the moment Khan Promotion is just focused on promoting Amir Khan with the help of Golden Boy because Golden Boy has been a great help. We’ve partnered with them for all the fights and they have a team who I trust going into fights.
Q
You mentioned the issue earlier of cleaning up boxing, some fighters who were using these banned substances. For this fight, other than the Nevada Commission, who is doing the drug testing for it?
Amir Khan
The drug testing is doing by USADA. We’ve been tested in camp and we’ll be tested before the fight. That’s what I think is cleaning the sport of boxing up is really being tested randomly not knowing when they’re going to turn up to your doorstep or to a gym or wherever you are. I think it’s what cleans up the sport of boxing and I think it’s good because especially when you’re going into the ring and you’re going to be fighting someone think you can’t have the ‘x’ advantage by taking something illegal. It needs to be a fair fight. Your training needs to the advantage only, so I think it’s great that boxing is getting these different types of organizations involved just to test those.
Q
Was there a reason that you chose USADA rather than other organization, VADA, that had been used previously?
Amir Khan
Well, they do the same thing. They’re testing for illegal substances, so it doesn’t really matter who you use. USADA and VADA do the same thing and I left it with the team Golden Boy Promotions to come up with whoever they think is good to use for this fight and that’s what they did.
Monica Sears
Alright. Thanks, everyone. Thanks, Amir, Danny, Oscar, everyone, for joining the call today. As I said, I will be sending out the fight week schedule and the transcript from today’s call so be on the lookout for that. Danny and Amir, good luck training and we’ll see you guys next week.
“Khan vs. Garcia,” a 12-round fight for Garcia’s WBC Super Lightweight World Championship, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Khan Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The fight will be televised live on HBO World Championship Boxing ® at 11:00 p.m. ET/ PT in the United States and live on Sky Sports 1HD in the United Kingdom at 2:00 a.m. BST on July 15.
