I recently was afforded an opportunity to speak to former IBO middleweight champion, Daniel ‘The Real Deal’ Geale who is scheduled to face Miguel Cotto on June 6th, at a catchweight of 157lbs. Geale is coming off of a win in December and is looking to recapture a middleweight title belt. Geale discusses his upcoming challenge against Cotto, and also talks rebounding from his TKO3 loss to Gennady Golovkin. Daniel also speaks on the agreed upon catchweight, and what options will be available should he win. Additionally Geale shares his thoughts on last weekends super fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Here is what Daniel Geale had to say.
Robert Brown: You got a fight coming up on June 6th against middleweight champion, Miguel Cotto. How do you feel about the fight coming up?
Daniel Geale: We’re definitely very excited about this fight. It’s a huge fight for myself, it’s a huge fight for Australia. It was something that was pretty hard to make happen, I’m just lucky that I got a great team and great people around me — the guys at the Grange, Billy Treacy and my coach, Graham Shaw and Gary Shaw in the US. Without that team, it would be almost impossible for this to happen.
We’re excited, we know things are going to be tough in New York on the 6th of June, but we’re just training very hard and looking forward to this one. It’s a huge thing and it’s something that we’ve dreamed about for a long time. I haven’t had the opportunity to fight for the WBC title, so I’m going to take it with both hands.
Robert Brown: You’re last fight was against Jarrod Fletcher, a fairly easy win for you on the scorecards. I think it’s fair to say it wasn’t your best night, were you still suffering effects from the Golovkin knockout? Do you feel you’ll be in top condition for this fight?
Daniel Geale: Yeah for this fight I’m going to be one hundred percent, I’m going to make sure of that. The fight against Fletcher, it was sort of what I wanted coming off of the Golovkin fight. We knew the Golovkin fight was going to be tough and unfortunately, everything was stacked against me and I had four minute rounds and cuts and things like that happening during the fight. You take all of that on the chin and you learn from everything but I’m feeling as good as I’ve ever felt.
This training camp has been a good one, I’ve felt great in sparring and when it’s time to get in the ring, I’m going to make sure I have the rounds behind me after the Fletcher fight and I’m going to be one hundred percent for this one in June.
Robert Brown: You’re going up against a future Hall of Famer who is coming off an exhilarating win against Sergio Martinez. What do you feel your strengths will be against Miguel Cotto?
Daniel Geale: Obviously I’m going to be the bigger fighter and that’s why I guess they made the fight at a catchweight. They’re trying to bring me down a little bit in weight, trying to bring my strength down a little bit also. We gotta make sure we do everything properly. Everybody’s seen him fight, he’s fought some of the best and he’s going to be right there in front of me.
He’s the smaller guy, so obviously he’s not going to stand back and box, he’s going to come at me. He’s gonna be swinging bombs the whole time and he believes he’s going to be able to knock me out and if he can’t catch me with that big punch, he believes if keeps the pressure on he’s going to be able to wear me out because of the weight issue. We’re making sure that’s not gonna happen. I’m concentrating on what I need to do. I know Miguel Cotto’s strengths and weaknesses but I’m focusing on my strengths and weaknesses and making sure that I perform on that day.
Robert Brown: The catchweight is 157lbs, do you feel you will be strong enough against Miguel Cotto and you will be able to go the twelve rounds if necessary?
Daniel Geale: Yeah, one hundred percent. That’s why we decided to take this fight. We knew what was going to be part of the contract and I haven’t winced about it at all, I haven’t said that it’s crap. It’s not ideal by any means but we are gonna do it.
We’ll chomp it out and do the last few pounds and make sure that I do make weight. The thing is, I’m going to be strong, I’m going to be just as good as I was at 160lbs and it doesn’t matter what they think, I’m gonna go out there and do my thing.
Robert Brown: Cotto has fought in New York many times; do you feel that you feel that you’re going to have to be dominant in this fight to get away with a decision if it goes the distance?
Daniel Geale: Yeah one hundred percent. If it goes to a decision, it’s gonna be tough to sway the judges because of the crowd. That fine, that just makes me want to work a little bit harder. I got to work a little bit harder to get that weight off and I know in the fight I know I’ll have to work that extra little bit harder. At the end of it, it’s going to make it all worth while. I want to bring that title back home to Australia.
Robert Brown: Assuming that you get past Cotto and you get the title, would you like the opportunity of a rematch against Golovkin?
Daniel Geale: Yeah definitely. I’ve said it before, if it came up again, and everything fit back together again, I’d love to fight Golovkin again. I don’t believe he’s invincible, he definitely has weaknesses. I definitely felt on that night that I had a bad night and everything was against me but having said that, I’d love another chance. If I went back over there again, I’ll definitely make sure that things are much different.
Robert Brown: Did you have a chance to see the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight? What were your thoughts on it, and did it go the way that you expected?
Daniel Geale: Yeah, I did watch it, I watched it very closely. I actually thought it was a pretty good fight. A lot of people were disappointed that it wasn’t what they expected but to be honest, I’ve seen Mayweather fight many times and it was basically what I expected it to be. He’s extremely fast, extremely skillful, extremely hard to hit.
Mayweather did everything that he needed to against Pacquiao, he made it a more boring sort of fight but it was the Mayweather that I’ve been used to and that I expected. I also expected that at some stage Pacquiao could hurt Mayweather, because he does have incredible power and he throws many punches. I think that moment was Pacquiao’s moment and he couldn’t land the next punch. It was pretty much exactly what I expected. It was just pure class and skill from Mayweather and I enjoyed it.
Floyd Mayweather was being praised for his excellent defensive skills?!!!, Namely: arm locking, head locking, pushing, hugging, holding, throwing elbows, throwing four low blows , running, retreating, plus favoritism from the referee and judges! An excellent defensive genius? How can you hit a running opponent? How can you hit when he hugs you?, arm locking you? etc. Floyd Mayweather used this illegal skills to halt Pacquiao ‘s offensive assaults. Floyd is big and tall and yet he ran and retreated against small former flyweight (112lbs.) Pacquiao. REMEMBER, Pacquiao moved up in weight from 1. FLYWEIGHT, 2.(superflyweight) skip 3. bantamweight, 4. SUPERBANTAMWEIGHT, 5. FEATHERWEIGHT, 6.SUPERFEATHERWEIGHT, 7. LIGHTWEIGHT, 8. LIGHT WELTERWEIGHT, 9. WELTERWEIGHT! his 9th division!!, and yet he is still the aggressor while the bigger and taller Mayweather is running, retreating, hugging, arm locking, throwing four low blows throwing elbows, etc. trying to survive the round, without being deducted by even single point. Is that The Best Ever? Excellent defensive genius? OPEN YOUR EYES PLEASE! Floyd Mayweather is a disgrace to American people!
U don’t know boxing
Neither are you.
Floyd Mayweather was being praised for his excellent defensive skills?!!!, Namely: arm locking, head locking, pushing, hugging, holding, throwing elbows, throwing four low blows , running, retreating, plus favoritism from the referee and judges! An excellent defensive genius? How can you hit a running opponent? How can you hit when he hugs you?, arm locking you? etc. Floyd Mayweather used this illegal skills to halt Pacquiao ‘s offensive assaults. Floyd is big and tall and yet he ran and retreated against small former flyweight (112lbs.) Pacquiao. REMEMBER, Pacquiao moved up in weight from 1. FLYWEIGHT, 2.(superflyweight) skip 3. bantamweight, 4. SUPERBANTAMWEIGHT, 5. FEATHERWEIGHT, 6.SUPERFEATHERWEIGHT, 7. LIGHTWEIGHT, 8. LIGHT WELTERWEIGHT, 9. WELTERWEIGHT! his 9th division!!, and yet he is still the aggressor while the bigger and taller Mayweather is running, retreating, hugging, arm locking, throwing four low blows throwing elbows, etc. trying to survive the round, without being deducted by even a single point. Is that The Best Ever? Excellent defensive genius? OPEN YOUR EYES PLEASE! Floyd Mayweather is a disgrace to American people!
LOL at Daniel Geale complimenting Floyd. These so-called “boxers” are EXAGGERATING FLOYD’S PERFORMANCE! LOL. With the very few punches that he thrown he was able to connect mostly jabs.haha How was he impressive? He was not even able to hurt Pacquiao even when he was trained by Heredia, not just Ariza. Haha. Pacquiao just couldn’t do more as he was limited by a handicap, he had to modify the type of punches he had to throw because he was in real pain after round 4 that’s why he stopped punching, which was surprising. But he had to hide the pain and keep fighting so as not to give Floyd a tactical advantage and target his shoulder. But even then, Floyd was already doing what Pacquiao was worried about, which was Floyd targetting the injury. The pain was tolerable before getting in the ring that’s why he didn’t threaten not fighting when NSAC didn’t allow him to get the anti-inflammatory shot they agreed to give. Floyd won on records but deep down he knows he barely beat an injured fighter who wasted 2 weeks of training to rest in order to heal an injury that his “spies” aka “Pacquiao’s sparring partners” has brought about (to make the fight easy for Floyd) and wasn’t able to effectively train because of that.
Floyd is fast but not extremely fast. Pacquiao was pretty flat-footed in the fight, he looked to have rehydrated too much as he looked a lot bigger compared to the weigh-in. Fortune wanted him to come in at 153 or 154 lbs, a weight Pacquiao was never at in all of his fights.
Floyd destroyed the next best boxer of his generation. And he made it so easy that ppl were bored. It’s not his fault that he is so good that even the next bestboxer that many so called fans thought he wud destroy mayweather. Instead this boxer gets exposed so bad.
Who? Canelo? It was a fixed fight! And until now Canelo is still bitter about it.
Yeah.
By girlie punches.
By running.
By hugging.
By refusing to engage.
And he’s fighting a one-armed boxer.
watch below inside the link and you can see how Pacquiao counter Mayweather
http://forum.philboxing.com/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=266691
How about Pacquiao-Alvarez 151lbs. catchweight in Dallas, Dubai or Macao?
Geesh, don’t kill Pacquiao. His life is very dear especially to people that he helps. If Pacquiao doesn’t stop training, i think he can fight at lightweight. Canelo is over 170 pounds when he fights. Look at how big his neck is. Pacquiao was maybe 152 lbs on fight night (Mayweather fight) and he looked flat-footed with that weight.
Canelo said before he does not want to go below 154.
Pacquiao Can Thank The Money Man For Gettinh His Ass Outta The Poor House. The Bum Made More Money In That One Fight Than He Made In His Entire Life Earning. So All You Floyd Haters Out There Need To Get A Life. Pac Was Never Going To Win That Fight On His Best Dayj He Just Do Not Have The Skill Set To Beat Money Mayweather. Floyd is just A Superior fighter … End of story.L
Pac fans already have excuses lined up. A torn rotator cuff? You can’t throw punches like that with a torn cuff. Lifting your arm alone is painful . No grimacing, no tending to the shoulder between rounds. Bogus. As for “running” and “low blows”? Floyd mostly escaped with check hooks, landing, evading, and taking the fight back to the centre of the ring. If you think pacquiao was even close to winning that fight, you are in denial . Floyd hasn’t “hurt” many previous opponents. But he out boxed all of them. Manny is yet another on the list. Top 5 of all time, as many who are relevant to the sport would agree
Bs… Pacquiao won that fight. Saw the replay last night. Pacquiao won. Originally I gave rds 2,4,6,7,10. Rds 8,9 close rds but I gave it to floyd. But after seeing it again last night on HBO ppv Pacquiao was actually giving Floyd the significant blows while Floyd was pot shotting but those punches where actually being blocked by Pacquiao’s gloves n being parried. Rds 11 Floyd came out swinging at Pacquiao for the beginning first 10 second then he stop when Pacquiao started to set up and started to throw punches again and hitting floyd. Floyd again started running. 12 rds nothing happened just running n clinching waving his hands in the air declaring that he’s already won. Check out rd. 3 this could easily be Pacquiao’s rounds too. So for me now Pacquiao actually won 2,3,4,6,7,8,9,10, This is with a bum right shoulder.
The Whole world knew, Pacquiao won that fight. I repeat won the fight if the fight is boxing. but the 3 Judges chosen by Mayrunner or Mayembrace were truly amazed in Mayrunner defensive style of running & hugging. The 3 judges forgot that the competition is boxing ,they thought it is marathon or hug dancing contest. shit ! Mayrunner really disgrace!