EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: JOHN SCULLY
By Percy Crawford

PC: How’s everything going John?

JS: Good. I just got out of the gym and I’m trying to get Mike Oliver ready to fight next week for the USBA title.

PC: I’m sure you attended the fights in Providence. What are your thoughts on them?

JS: I go back a long way with both guys, but especially Peter. I remember Peter when he weighed 125 pounds in the Junior Olympics. It’s really good for me to see him come up the way he has. A lot of people think that he’s looked great lately, but I think he’s always had that potential. He’s just finally relaxed enough to realize it. Those fights on The Contender are so fast paced, it was hard for any of those guys to show there skills. Even the better guys, like Ishe Smith, couldn’t really show his skills because everything was so fast. I think Peter is able to show people much more than he was able to show on The Contender.

PC: There has been a lot of talk of a Manfredo/ Jones fight. Do you think Peter is ready for a fight of that magnitude?

JS: Here’s the thing; its like a no-win situation in a way because he’s a super middleweight and Roy is a light heavyweight coming down from heavy. He would be fighting Roy at a time when even if he wins, people would be saying he beat a shot Roy. It wouldn’t mean as much. If people think Roy is finished, it would just solidify that. I don’t think the reward is as much as the risk. He’s still Roy Jones. Even though in his last fight I didn’t really see it, but people who I trust they opinion say he looks good. Critics would say he didn’t look like he did when he fought James Toney and those guys. If you had never seen him fight before and you saw the Badi fight, you would say he’s pretty good. The crazy thing is Roy Jones at 80% is still better than 80% of the guys out there. Unless you just want to say you fought Roy Jones, I don’t think it’s worth the risk.

PC: You’ve sparred with both Peter and Roy. How would you see that fight playing out?

JS: One thing about Roy is, you don’t really lose power. Any fighter has reasons to have or not have confidence going into the ring. I can see why going into the 3rd fight with Tarver, Roy didn’t necessarily have confidence. The Johnson fight after getting blasted, he fought like a guy that had no confidence. In the Badi fight, he stepped down a level and his confidence comes back. The fact of the matter is Peter is the smaller guy. He’s a legitimate 68, but just in stature, Peter is not an imposing 168. He’s not big like Ravelo and Allan Green. I think Roy would definitely be more confident fighting Peter than if he was fighting Tarver. I just don’t think Roy is quite to the point where people think he is. I just wouldn’t put him in the stepping stone class just yet.

PC: Looking at where Peter Manfredo’s career is today, how important do you think it is to keep a show like The Contender around?

JS: Well, from the people I talk to about the show, the general perception is that they’re TV stars. Like Survivor. People are under the impression that these guys are like college boxers. Peter has probably produced the most out of anybody. He’s proven he’s a real guy. Sergio Mora needs to step up. Soon, as one of these guys fights somebody real and gets blasted out, everyone is going to say they were a bunch of clowns. If I were a young guy and they asked me to be on the show, it would be a 50/50 thing. Some of these guys that lose early on the show are forever known for that. It’s like coming in 8th on a game show. If you’re going to go on a show like that, you better win it or make a name for yourself. Look at the kid De La Rosa from the first show. He looked talented to me, but is he still even fighting anymore. He committed career suicide for not only going on the show, but doing what he did on the show.

PC: The fight scene out in your area (Rhode Island and Connecticut) is picking up. What do you credit that too?

JS: I guess it just goes in waves, you know. I remember a time when New York City was full of champions. All 5 Burroughs had a champion. I remember they had Camacho, Mcgirt and Breland. Everybody was there. It’s just our turn. 

PC: You’ve had some heated exchanges with Cory Spinks trainer Kevin Cunningham. Team Trinidad seems to be very interested in the Spinks fight. What are your thoughts on Spinks vacating his IBF junior middleweight title to challenge Trinidad at middleweight?

JS: It just shows you what the titles mean and don’t mean. Jake Lamotta didn’t give up his title unless he got beat to death. Now they put them in trash cans. I think it would be similar to Peter and Roy. To me, I could care less. They want you to believe that they beating Tito of the past and it’s a huge win, but come on. What Winky did to him was unfair. I could picture Spinks boxing Tito and winning, then Kevin Cunningham sitting around wondering why they’re not superstars. If Prince Badi had beaten Roy, he still wouldn’t be a star. Everyone would have just said Roy really is done. It kind of illustrates what people think of championships. I hate that. I wish I could see a guy who doesn’t want to lose their title and will do anything to keep it. Tarver and Johnson both gave up their titles to fight each other. Which is a great thing in a sense, but it was terrible it had to come to that. I’m glad that they stuck it to the sanctioning bodies in a way. I could never understand why a sanctioning body wouldn’t want you to unify. 

PC: Do you think we’ll ever see boxing with one champion in these weight divisions, like when you fought?

JS: In my day we had the WBA and WBC. That was good because you had Leonard and Hearns unification matches. That was awesome, but now you’ve got some guys we never even heard of that says he’s the champ, so you can’t be undisputed. Unless the government or someone steps in, I don’t see that changing. The crazy thing is, you and I right now, John Scully and Percy could get together right now with our money and start a sanctioning body. Here’s the thing. I could make a comeback and we could put me at number one in the light heavyweight division and no one could do anything about it. People would think, who have I fought, but hey that’s our opinion. We could put Goofy and Mickey Mouse at 2 and 3 and it would be legitimate. Think about it. Me and you can’t get together and start our own baseball team. In boxing, anybody could start a sanctioning body. I wish sometimes a fighter would say, nah I don’t want to fight for that title. It’s to the point now where everyone has a belt.

PC: How is Jose Rivera doing and is there a set date on the Travis Simms fight yet?

JS: He’s supposed to fight Simms from what I hear, but there’s no date as of yet. I guess DKP is busy with their other stuff, so they’re trying to rearrange some things. He’s doing well and training hard, but we don’t want to get him crazy in the gym yet. He had a spell there to be honest with you where we thought the Spinks fight was going to get made or even Quartey or Margarito. We thought we would get one of the big names and when they said we had to fight Simms, I think Jose had a letdown. He was frustrated. I remind him, and he knows, when you’re a champion, every fight is your biggest fight ever. I don’t care who you defend against, that’s the biggest fight ever. He’s waiting this long, who knows, maybe the timing will be right and Floyd will move up to 54 and he wants to fight Winky and they need the title to make their fight bigger. Maybe he would want to try Rivera to get his feet wet. One day Buster Douglas woke up and guess what, Mike Tyson wants to fight you. It’s a messed up game in that regard and it’s a beautiful game in the same sense. It’s like a guy all of a sudden wins the lottery. It’s like a Rocky movie. The unknown guy gets his shot. I mentioned this the other day when I was talking to some guy. We have to fight a mandatory, but De La Hoya has been a champ for how long and he doesn’t have a fight scheduled. No one has said anything about this. That kind of stuff boggles my mind. They come out with all these rules, but what happened to the rule that you have to fight to keep your title. What they’re saying is everyone in the top 10 in the WBC is on hold because this guy is bigger than the game and that’s just messed up.

PC: I want to get your opinion on some fights, like Mayweather vs. Baldomir?

JS: Mayweather now is like Roy Jones in his prime, you just don’t bet against him. You could say the guys going to give him a good fight, but to actually beat him. I just don’t see anybody in that weight that can actually beat him. He has so many tools. I’ve been in the gym with him and I’ve heard about his work ethic, but watching him, he impressed me. He talks a lot and is cocky and everything, but he works. He really, really works. One of my amateur kids was with me and when he got home, he was doing all the exercises that he got from Floyd. Seeing Floyd’s work ethic lit a fire under him. He was telling people how hard Floyd worked. I think he kind of thought Floyd hung out and jumped a little rope, but Floyd’s a hustler man.

PC: What about the two heavyweight showdowns? Liakhovich vs. Briggs and Klitschko vs. Brock?

JS: With Klitschko, you never know which one is going to show up. I don’t think he’s going to lose, but him and his brother, you just never knew which one would show up. In the other fight, I actually talk with Shannon on the internet quite a bit and he seems really motivated. That’s a very competitive fight. I see that fight as 50/50. People would be surprised if Shannon won because they remember him getting beat by Lennox, but Shannon is a good fighter man. He has all the tools. The power. And I guess overall he would be considered an underachiever. It definitely wouldn’t surprise me to see him win. I think win or lose he’s going to go out fighting hard.

PC: The last fight I want to get your opinion on is Pacquiao vs. Morales.

JS: I guess Manny Pacquiao. It really just seems like his time. He’s got Freddie and he’s hot right now. I’ve really been watching Freddie train. I like his demeanor and the way he talks to his fighters in the corner. Even though he’s respected, I think he’s underrated. People don’t realize how good he is. He’s not just a knowledgeable guy, but he really knows how to talk to his fighters. Personally, I think that’s where Manfredo’s success is coming from. Roach isn’t just teaching him technique, but just how he talks to him in the corner is a big help too. He talks to you like a professional. It’s like when you treat a kid like an adult, they turn out to be more mature.

PC: We’ll definitely be speaking again. In the meantime do you have any closing thoughts for the Boxingtalk readers?

JS: I’m still here. I’m working hard in the gym. I got Mike Oliver, a super bantamweight who’s up and coming. He’s 16-0 and is fighting for the USBA title next Saturday the 28th. He’s fighting a good fighter in Adam Carrera from California. I’m hoping we win this to get in line for one of the bigger titles. Before I started to train Mike, I never paid attention to the smaller guys too much, but I guess I’m going to have to now. He had over 300 amateur fights and he’s fought everybody all over the world as an amateur. He’s been boxing literally since he was 2 years old. He’s 27 now, but he was literally in the gym at 2. Boxing is this guy’s life. I’m hoping we can take care of business next week.

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