Mike Weaver: “I consider Larry Holmes one of the top five greatest champions of all time.”

I had a chance to speak with former WBA heavyweight champion, Mike ‘Hercules’ Weaver. Mike fought a total of sixty professional fights in a career that spanned twenty eight years and saw him face legendary fighters like Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis. In this interview, Weaver speaks about his entrance to the professional ranks and his first title fight with Larry Holmes. ‘Hercules’ also spoke about his two controversial bouts with Michael Dokes and gave his views on the fighters of today. Here is what Mike Weaver had to say.

Robert Brown: Can you tell us how your career in boxing got started?

Mike Weaver: My career started in 1969 in the Marine Corps. I got in a fight in the Marine Corps with a boxer and I knocked him out and a few days later the coach asked me if I would join the boxing team. I said, “I don’t know anything about fighting,” and he said, “The guy you knocked out was the heavyweight champion of the Marine Corps.” I joined boxing right there.

Robert Brown: In the early part of your career you had some losses because you went in to fights on short notice, you were on the B side as an opponent. Can you tell us what it’s like to be on that side of boxing?

Mike Weaver: I was brought up on the hard road. I didn’t take fighting that seriously when I turned pro. I took fights on short notice; I lost to people on hometown decisions and stuff like that. I didn’t take the fights that seriously at that time and if you don’t take it seriously, things happen. I was just brought in as a stepping stone until I started taking fighting seriously years later.

Robert Brown: What was the turning point for you? What made up your mind to start training hard and start taking boxing seriously?

Mike Weaver: I used to be a sparring partner for Ken Norton and we used to always have wars in the gym. Ken Norton told me, “Michael, if you take fighting seriously and start training, you can make it. You just don’t train.” He encouraged me and hearing that from Ken Norton at the time, I started taking training more seriously. I got a new team manager and from that point on, it carried me on to the championship.

Robert Brown: People first started to notice you when you got a title shot against Larry Holmes. What are you memories of that fight?

Mike Weaver: Of course, that fight was on HBO — it was the first time they had a boxing match on HBO. I got ranked in the top ten by knocking out a couple of guys like Bernardo Mercado and Stan Ward. Larry Holmes was looking for an easy opponent to fight before he fought Earnie Shavers and they thought I was an easy opponent for Larry Holmes.

At first the television did not want to buy the fight — ABC, CBS, the major channels didn’t want to buy the fight — they said, “Who is Mike Weaver? It will be an easy fight for Larry Holmes.” So HBO wound up buying the fight and it turned out to be a good fight between me and Larry Holmes.

I would have taken the fight more seriously but I think for the Larry Holmes fight, I trained for four weeks for that fight. I put on a good show, I was ranked number eight in the world and after that fight they moved me to number two in the world. It helped me out.

Robert Brown: Do you think if you had a full training camp you could have beaten Larry Holmes?

Mike Weaver: I don’t know if I would have beaten Larry. I consider Larry Holmes one of the top five greatest champions of all time. It was an honor to fight Larry Holmes. I’m not saying I would have beaten him at that time but it probably would have been a much better fight. I was honored to fight him. I wasn’t in the best of shape and maybe he wasn’t either, he said he wasn’t either, but who knows.

Robert Brown: What are your memories of your fight with Gerrie Coetzee?

Mike Weaver: Coetzee had a very hard right hand. I took a lot of good shots from Coetzee but I knew I was gonna knock Coetzee out, like I said. I knew he got tired in the later rounds and that’s what happened.

I told everybody I would knock Coetzee out but they thought otherwise. I told Coetzee, “I didn’t come ten thousand miles to lose my championship in South Africa, I came here a champion and I’m gonna go home a champion.” He was one of the hardest punchers I ever fought.

Robert Brown: You had two fights with Michael Dokes and in the first fight everyone agrees that it was stopped too early. The theory is that the referee was jittery because of what happened in the Duk-koo Kim-Ray Mancini fight. What are your thoughts?

Mike Weaver: That’s not the case, that’s the excuse they used but the referee actually bet on Dokes stopping me in the first round. He bet himself and then he went and refereed the fight, so what do you think happened? It was a fixed fight. The first time I went down, he stopped the fight. He didn’t ask me anything — he said he did but he didn’t ask me anything. He stopped the fight and I wasn’t hurt. It was just politics.

Robert Brown: So the referee bet on the fight?

Mike Weaver: The referee bet on the fight, we found out and that’s how we got the rematch so fast. The WBA found out he had bet on the fight.

Robert Brown: What are your thoughts on the second fight with Dokes and do you think you should have gotten the decision?

Mike Weaver: Like I told everybody, yeah I thought I won the fight but they stole it from me. I felt I won the fight, it was a good fight but I know if I didn’t knock out Dokes, I wasn’t gonna get the decision. Unfortunately I didn’t knock him out, so they just called it a draw and made him retain his title. We felt that was very unfair but I have to live with that. Everyone felt that I won the fight but I said, “Well I’m not the champion, he is.”

Robert Brown: What are your thoughts on the current heavyweights? How do you think the Klitschko’s would have done in your era?

Mike Weaver: The Klitschko’s are champions, I’m not gonna downgrade them, they’re doing a good job with what they’re doing. They’re big guys, they’re big and strong and knock out a lot of people. I have nothing bad to say about any of the heavyweights.

The Klitschko’s are champions, I met them and they’re good guys. If you ask me how I would have fought them, I don’t know. I don’t know how I would deal with them. When people say, “How would you do with the Klitschko’s?” and I say, “I don’t know, it’s a different era.”

Robert Brown: A big fight that people are talking about in the sport is Pacquiao vs. Mayweather. Who do you think would win between the two and why do you think they haven’t fought yet?

Mike Weaver: Why haven’t they fought each other? I don’t know. It’s a fight I’d like to see. Of course I think Mayweather wins, I think Mayweather is a little bit faster. Even though I think it would be a good fight, I see Mayweather winning against Pacquiao because he’s a little craftier and has more elusiveness. That’s my personal opinion. Why they don’t fight? I don’t know, I would love to see the fight.

Robert Brown: If you were ever in a situation in your time where you could be in a fight where there was fifty to seventy million dollars on the table, of course you would take the fight wouldn’t you?

Mike Weaver: Of course I would. If you offer me fifty million, I would take it today. Of course I would.

Robert Brown: Is there anything you would like to say to the millions of Mike ‘Hercules’ Weaver fans out there?

Mike Weaver: Yeah to those who know me and who are my fans, I appreciate it very much. Hope you have Happy Holidays and God bless you all.