Amir ‘Hardcore’ Mansour is one of the most exciting Heavyweights in the division and he is looking to return to the winning column on November 8th when he takes on veteran Fred Kassi. On this “On The Ropes” interview with Amir Mansour, I speak with him about his return to the ring, and get his thoughts on his only defeat. Mansour also talks about heavyweights Shannon Briggs and Wladimir Klitschko. Additionally Amir shares his views on Floyd Mayweather’s future, and in closing talks about getting a shot at the title. Here is what Amir Mansour had to say.

Jenna J: You will be returning to the ring on November 8th, can you tell the fans about the encounter you have ahead of you?

Amir Mansour: His name is Fred Kassi, he’s 18-2. He’s never been knocked out or anything like that. He’s got 10 knockouts so I’m sure he hits pretty hard like I do. I’m sure it’s gonna be a good fight. I really don’t know too much about him — I never study any of my opponents’ tapes, I let them study me. I can give different looks each fight, so I’m not worried about that. I’m just gonna go out there and do like I always do, leave everything in the ring.

Jenna J: Lets talk about the last time we saw you in the ring, you were facing former champion, Steve Cunningham. Now that you’ve had time to reflect on that fight, what are your thoughts on the performance you had?

Amir Mansour: Nobody that has spoken to me thought I should have lost the fight, but what I gained from that was just making sure I keep my composure in the later rounds and if a knockdown occurs, continue to keep my composure.

Jenna J: I’m sure you’re referring to the fifth round in which you had Steve Cunningham down and a lot of people thought you should have finished him there. What do you think you did wrong?

Amir Mansour: The first time he was down fourteen seconds, and the next time he was down for twelve seconds. We stopwatched it and we posted it. I talked to a former commissioner — I’m not gonna put him out there and say his name — and he told me that if that fight was in New York, they would have took the referee and suspended him for his actions. Not because of the long count, but because we later found out that him and Steve were in the Navy Reserves together.

If you have any contact or any relationship with a fighter outside of boxing, you’re supposed to disclose that information and you’re not supposed to referee a fight that they’re in. We’ve been in fights with Steve before and ordinarily a referee would have stopped that fight. If you look at the undercard fight of that fight, it was stopped somewhat prematurely, let alone somebody going down twice over the ten second period.

After the fifth round, going into the later rounds, I was going for the knockout again and I lost my composure. A lot of people commented on conditioning, but when you look at a heavyweight fight of only ten rounds and you got a guy throwing 535 punches, that’s not being out of shape — that’s more punches than Maidana threw against Mayweather in a twelve round fight.

It wasn’t the conditioning, it was just that I lost my composure and got angry. It’s a learning experience, to just keep you’re composure no matter what happens during the fight.

Jenna J: Do you think you will go for another big fight after you get past your fight on November the 8th?

Amir Mansour: I’m gonna be honest with you, a lot of the sports writers, a lot of the people that were there at the Cunningham fight, it wasn’t really a loss to me in my heart. It wasn’t a setback that a normal loss gives you. We were definitely ready to fight another big name but a lot of these guys they shy away from fighting me.

Believe me when I tell you, we contacted a lot of fighters to fight me on November 8th and a lot of them turned it down, or they asked for astronomical amounts of money. So we’re just gonna continue to go after any name that’s bigger than mine.

I tell my people this, “I don’t want to fight anybody that’s ranked below me. Try to make a fight with anyone, whoever it is, if they’re ranked above me, try to make that fight happen.” That’s what I’m gonna continue to request and continue to attempt to do.

Jenna J: If you look at the biggest story coming out of the heavyweight division, it was Shannon Briggs dunking Wladimir Klitschko in the water. What do you think of Shannon Briggs and the way he’s trying to promote that fight?

Amir Mansour: Come on. Shannon Briggs to me is a clown, he is a clown. He is trying to mimic his way into a title fight. He’s trying to play clown games in order to deserve a title shot.

Get in the ring and beat somebody and say you deserve a title shot, don’t say or claim you deserve a title shot because you can find this man on a surfboard out in the water and make some waves and knock him off. That’s not what gets you a heavyweight title shot. Your work in the ring and winning fights gets you a heavyweight title fight.

Jenna J: With the attention that he’s getting, people want to see him fight. Would you ever entertain fighting Shannon Briggs is he was willing to take up that challenge?

Amir Mansour: If I go and beat Shannon Briggs up, where is that gonna leave me at in the rankings or in the eyes of the world? Where is that gonna lead me? Nowhere, because he’s nowhere in the fight world, do you understand what I’m saying?

He’s making a little noise playing these games with Klitschko but he claims he’s making a comeback, where is the comeback? The comeback should occur in the ring, not clown tactics, stalking this man basically. That’s where you make a comeback at, in the ring, you don’t make a comeback by taunting a guy and saying, “Hey I’m back, I lost a couple of pounds, I deserve a title shot,” and when he got his title shot he got his ass whooped. That doesn’t work for me, you want to put that work in if you wanted to work for me.

Jenna J: I want to get your views on Floyd Mayweather. There are a lot of people that are saying that Floyd should fight Manny Pacquiao and give the fans they want to see. Do you think he should give the fans the fights that they want to see instead of the fights he wants to make?

Amir Mansour: I’m one of the many who would like to see Floyd fight Pacquiao, I would like to see that fight. But to be honest with you, Floyd’s been fighting quality opponents. Lets be realistic, he’s been fighting quality opponents. He’s fought guys that have beat Pacquiao up — Marquez, he couldn’t touch this man in twelve rounds, he beat the mess out of Marquez. He made Marquez look like he couldn’t fight a lick and we know the history of Marquez and Pacquiao.

We also know that styles make fights, so while you can fight a guy that I can’t beat, but I can turn around and beat you. We saw that with Vernon Forrest and Ricardo Mayorga and then Shane Mosley and Mayorga. Shane Mosley just could not beat Vernon Forrest and Vernon Forrest just could not beat Mayorga but Shane Mosley took it to Mayorga. Styles make fights, we know that.

I would like to see the Mayweather Pacquiao fight. Mayweather has the demand, I don’t know if those demands are met. One thing I do know as to why Floyd does not want to fight Pacquiao, and I think his real reason is valid is he doesn’t want to do business with Bob Arum.

Jenna J: What can the fans expect to see from Amir ‘Hardcore’ Mansour on November 8th?

Amir Mansour: Blood, sweat and tears if they have to be. They’re gonna see me give it my all. You’re gonna see the same person that you’ve always seen before — a gutsy guy, no quit in him, aggressive, strong, focused. I’m gonna show more of my speed.

People don’t know how fast I am, so I want to show more of my speed because people are always talking about my age. I want to show more of my speed and show that if I’m not the fastest, I’m at least in the top three in the entire world in the heavyweight division when it comes to speed.