Middleweight Curtis “Showtime” Stevens, 24-3, 17 KOs, held a media conference call Thursday to discuss his upcoming 10-round main event against Mexican Saul Roman, 37-9, 31 KOs, on August 3rd. The NABF middleweight championship fight will be nationally televised by NBC Sports Network on the popular Fight Night boxing series.
You don’t want to miss what Stevens had to say, especially about his prospects following this fight, and his desire to land a championship fight, including against Gennady Golovkin.
“I train for the knockout,” Curtis Stevens said.
“But if the knockout don’t come, it don’t come. It doesn’t really matter, as long as I get the win. In my eyes, it really shouldn’t take that long. I watched a couple tapes on him (Roman). If he gets hit good, he goes down. But somehow he gets back up and fights. He’s a tough Mexican. But he’s never fought anyone with the power that I have. The way I see it, if I hit him, he’ll go down and not get back up. But if he does get up, I’m a finisher. So it’s over.”
And when asked about his future beyond the Roman fight, Stevens said, “I’m ready right now. If it was up to me, I’d fight a champion right now. But the question is, do they want to give me a shot? I’m high risk. Nobody wants to get in there and get hit by me. If it was up to me, I’d fight Gennady Golovkin because he’s the most feared middleweight. I’m calling him out. People are scared to fight him; I’m asking to fight him. But I just have to wait my turn. I’m anxious to get it, but I have to wait. They are the champions, so I have to hope they will give me my shot.”
“We’re all very excited about this fight,” Kathy Duva said.
“Curtis is fabulous because he will absolutely fight anyone at all. So our job as promoters is to build him to the point where when that title opportunity comes, he will be well compensated for it. So August 3rd is going to tell us a lot more. Every fight tells us more about how ready he is. And we have complete 100% confidence that he will get there. But the obstacle right now is Saul Roman. If he doesn’t get past him, all that goes away.”
Jolene Mizzone added, “We have to mold Curtis at 160 pounds to be ready for the Golovkins of the world, the Chavezes, the Quillins, the Geales, all the champions. Roman is a guy who’s going to come straight forward throwing punches, like Golovkin. I’m not comparing the two, but he’s the type of guy that Curtis needs to be able to handle. He needs to be able to handle the pressure. So before he fights a championship fight, he needs to get all that (experience) under his belt. Roman is a guy who has power. Anything could happen. He’s a guy who is going to come straight forward. He’s a guy who had eight weeks of training. He’s a guy who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain. So all of that went into picking him for as an opponent for Curtis.”
“My theory on boxing, especially professional boxing, is there is no overtime in this game,” trainer Andre Rozier said.
“The least amount of time spent in the ring extends your longevity. If you can get in and get out, it makes it a little bit better than having a 10-round war. So I prefer for him to get in, do what he has to do, score a knockout and get out as soon as possible. From what I’ve viewed from some of Roman’s fights, he’s a straight forward, come at you type of fighter, and that should play right into Curtis’ hands. He’s going to come right to him. And if it all works out the way it’s supposed to, we should see another Ayala-type performance.”
