THIS week has been dominated for me by the misunderstanding over my status as WBO super middleweight champion.
It is a title I have held since 1997 and you can imagine my shock when I saw online that I had vacated the title I cherish.
I contacted the Argus to tell them it absolutely wasn’t true, but obviously the most important thing was to speak with WBO.
I phoned to speak with President of WBO Paco Valcarcel and made it very clear that I had no intention of giving up the title and could well fight at 168lbs again in the future.
I sent a fax as well to ensure everything was done properly and I am glad the confusion has been cleared up.
I told him that I was proud to be WBO champion and I don’t think I have been bad for the belt either, it’s been a long and enjoyable partnership! However, as I tried to make clear in the Argus, I am NOT saying that I will definitely fight again at super middleweight, or indeed at any weight after the fight with Roy Jones Jr.
It’s incredibly difficult for me to say at this stage whether I have it in me to continue into next year.
I am 36-years old and having returned to training this week, I can say with a great deal of certainty that things aren’t as easy as they used to be! To be honest it all depends on how the fight with Roy Jones goes.
If he were to knock me out in a round – not that that could or would ever happen – then it would probably mean that I was done.
Similarly, if I have bad problems with my left hand – as I did after fighting Sakio Bika, Peter Manfredo and Bernard Hopkins in the past few years, again, that might mean I decided enough is enough.
It is also a decision that will be largely based on my desire to keep going.
Motivation is the hardest thing of all to maintain in boxing, which is why I have always said since beating Jeff Lacy that I am only interested in the biggest and the best possible fights out there.
So if we couldn’t get a top class opponent at super middleweight like Kelly Pavlik, I don’t think I could carry on preparing for a fight that wouldn’t really motivate me.
Or if I demolish Jones and it’s a great performance, perhaps that would be the perfect moment to bow out? I just don’t know.
But people should be on their toes about what I do after the Roy Jones fight, there are no guarantees and it’ll come down to how I feel at that time.
It seems increasingly likely that the Jones fight will take place in Madison Square Garden in New York, rather than at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, which would be my choice.
Roy Jones Jr has announced the date of September 20, but no formal announcement has yet been made.
Jones said that we will be splitting the fight 50/50 in an amicable manner and that is absolutely correct.
It is also true to say that I made it very clear that I preferred the fight to be in New York rather than Las Vegas.
As I’ve said many times in this column, it’s been a long-held ambition of mine to fight at the Garden.
It’s also a way of showing my appreciation to my amazing fans who came to Vegas and will want to come to the Jones fight.
It’ll be a hell of a lot easier and hopefully cheaper to go to New York and that’s really important to me.
HBO will be televising the fight in America and will be involved in the process of putting the fight together. As of yet I am not sure about TV arrangements in the UK.
Obviously, I am not going to personally be doing everything from our end; I am not sifting through the journalists’ accreditation applications, for example.
I am going to have a team of people helping me to co-promote the fight with Roy Jones, but it’s not something I am able to discuss further at this time.
Now that I am no longer with Frank Warren that was always likely, and I can only again reiterate that I hope relations between Frank and myself can be amicable and that the situation doesn’t become sour.
Finally, I just want to offer big congratulations to my mates Jamie Arthur and Paul Samuels following their wins at the Newport Centre on Saturday night.
It was the first time in a long while that I have been to a show that didn’t include a member of our stable, but it was great to be able to show my support.
Jamie won the Welsh super featherweight title in only his second fight since his comeback and Paul sparked out a guy in one round in his comeback fight.
Well done to both and to all the guys on the bill, Bradley Pryce, my uncle Sergio and I really enjoyed the night.
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