With his Showtime bout not happening and so much talk about bantamweights, we thought it was a good time to have a chat with “The One” Willshaun Boxley. Below is our conversation.
Willshaun Boxley, Courtesy SnapLocally.com
M…. How has training been going?
Boxley…. Excellent, after the cancellation of my Showtime fight I took a little over 1/2 of a week off. But this week I’ve surprised myself with unbelievable hand speed and incredible power. I feel alive again, I’ve never been in shape like this, and at this point I can say that I have never hit this hard before. I feel like if I keep this up it can only get better and better. That’s why I have not taken more than a week off. I don’t want my body to fully heal, I want to push it to the limit. I want to come in the gym as if I have no energy every day!
M….You were set to fight on Showtime on the 18th but things didn’t work out. What are your thoughts about it?
Boxley…. Oh, everyone knows a guy with 6 fights, with my skill and experience is totally capable of fighting a guy with 11 fights, but they blame it on the records. I felt at first like it was definitely going to happen. I said to myself and Ron Lyke– we are about to upset them. I thought I had this fight in the bag, since they had rushed to sign the contract. In my mind I was happy, thinking- boy, we have this one because they’re fooled, they think they have just another opponent. But as the training got tougher something in my mind said they’re going to try to pull out. I thought that it was going too good in training, I felt great about this fight. I wanted to shock the nation with this win by ko. With 1 & 1/2 weeks left I saw that they took my name off of boxrec.com and put some guy up to fight him who had more than 10 fights but it looked like a tomato can, because he already had lost 8 times! I talked to Ron Lyke then and he said that they were trying to pull out because the amount of fights I had wouldn’t be enough to make it a great show on Showtime. He told them ”If Boxley doesn’t knock your guy out, I’ll give you my cut of this fight!” My opinion was that they were making excuses not to fight me!
M…. October 17 is your next fight date, what weight will this bout be at?
Boxley…. 122lbs.
M…. Recently there has been a lot of buzz about the bantamweights, where do you see yourself in the mix?
Boxley…. In Minnesota, everyone knows that I’m #1 Bantam weight!
M….Do you have any problem with Brad Patraw and Antwan Robertson fighting for the bantam state belt?
Boxley…. I don’t have a problem with them fighting a rematch, but I do question why would they be fighting for the state belt when I’m the top bantamweight in the MN. It’s a lie, since neither of them would ever choose to fight the best. And I have a question, do they even have any official rules on that belt, like if whomever has the belt at anytime and they are challenged for it, but has not fought that guy within a certain period of time, does he get stripped of the belt? Because we all know that you can’t be a champion if you haven’t beat the champion, lol, ass holes!
M…. Would you like the opportunity to take on the winner?
Boxley…. Yes, but it will never happen, one, because Brad Patraw is too chicken sh%$% to fight me and two, Antwan Robertson is too inexperienced to fight me. Which makes me ask this question, why are they fighting for the state title? One more question, if they knew they could beat Boxley, would they have already fought him? I’ll answer that, yes, because that’s all Brad Patraw fights are guys who he knows he will beat, sound like a pussy huh? At least Antwan R. fought two guys that he could have lost to if he didn’t bring his A game and he only lost to one of them!
M….Caleb Truax and Jeremy McLaurin are going west to Big Bear, have you and your team thought about taking a trip like this?
Boxley…. Yes, in the beginning of the year we’ve talked about it, I would love to do that, because I’ve sparred with so many great fighters that I feel like it’s just challenging myself. Many boxers here in MN don’t want to get in there with the best, I get happy everytime there’s a chance to spar. Sometimes I feel as if nobody wants to spar with me, but there is always another day!
M….What is the story with you and Allen Litzau?
Boxley…. Allen Litzau and I fought in the amateur days. I think I had three years experience at that time, but he had already announced that he was turning pro, so at the end of our fight they raised his hand instead of mine. I took it as a gift as the crowd booed him, I knew that I had won, everyone told me I won easily. I had simply outboxed Allen.
Around that same time Wilton Hilario had lost to Jason Litzau. Both Wilton and I were with the COD, and we were rivals with Rice Street gym. So me and Wilton Hilario drove together down to Rice Street to spar with Allen and Jason because they’d never come to ours, lol. So I sparred with Allen first. I can still remember it to this day, we were just feeling the ring out the first round, the second round he hit me with his best shot( left hook ) I looked at him and smiled yelling great shot as I rush in and started to paint his face. I wrote my name across that boy’s head, oow wee (^: I whoop him so bad after we were done sparring Jason L. wanted to jump in there with me before sparring Wilton. It was clear that he wanted to redeem his brother, but I laughed and said “Now you have to spar Wilton. I got what I wanted as I lol”
M…. In a perfect world what would the next 12 months hold for you?
Boxley…. I would want to have at least one fight set every two weeks… I feel I am one of the many who can pull it off because I get hit in a fight less than I do in sparring, so if I don’t take much damage why not fight right after a fight.
M…. Is there anything you would like to add?
Boxley…. I would like to thank everyone on the Seconds Out team for putting up with my ass, because I know I can be a little pushy at times, but I guess it’s because I’m so passionate about this game I love. I want to thank all of my family and all of my supporters who show up time and time again to see Boxley fight. Never last and never least I would like to thank God for giving me this great talent and health.
Interviewer Todd Bechthold,
