By Ian Aldous: As ESPN brings an end to its iconic Friday Night Fights series, one of the final broadcasts bring us an intriguing battle between two East-Coast heavyweights. On May 8th, Amir ‘Hardcore’ Mansour (21-1) and Joey Dawejko (14-3-2) headline the card at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia and will go toe-to-toe for the Pennsylvania State heavyweight championship. Last week Amir took some time to chat with me over the phone about the fight and his career so far.
In the last couple of years, Amir has been a relative regular on NBCSN cards and now gets the chance to showcase his skills on ESPN. There’s an eighteen year difference between the two pugilists, but the senior fighter sees nothing in the twenty-four year old Dawejko that will worry him on May 8th. “He’s a strong kid, you know. He don’t have the skill set to be in the ring with a guy like me. I just have too many different things that I know how to do in the ring. But I’m sure he’s gonna come to win – nobody comes to lose. He’s just gonna get obliterated man.”
Sixteen knockouts in his twenty-one wins has resulted in Mansour being a commodity that many potential opponents like to steer well clear of, and one thing that he credits Dawejko for is the fact that he is willing to not only fight Mansour – but actually call him out. “He actually was up for it from the start. I don’t know if they were just trying to get his name out there, associating it with mine. But, shortly after my November 8th fight where I received (the) knockout of the year award, they began to say that they wanted to fight me. They felt like they saw something in there that they could beat. And ever since November 8th, they’ve been championing that they wanted to fight me. At this point we got an ESPN date and nobody else wanted to fight me but this kid, so there you have it. He gets what he asks for.”
Our discussion about the difficulty in his finding opponents led on to his thoughts on the current state of the heavyweight division in general. “Yeah it is, it’s very difficult. That’s why the heavyweight division is in the sad state that it’s in. Not only are the promoters playing the game of placating to their fighters and continuously putting them in easy fights – the organisations are also accepting these paper champs who have never even fought anybody. And they are allowing them to fight for their titles even though they haven’t been tested, they haven’t really proven themselves because at the end of the day it’s about the dollar. It really boils down to the fans and what they’re going to begin to demand from the heavyweight division and that is – or it should be, that the guys in the top ten are gonna start fighting each other.”
The sole defeat in Amir’s career so far came against two-time world cruiserweight champion, Steve ‘USS’ Cunningham in April of last year. Cunningham recorded a unanimous decision victory but not without toil when Mansour dropped him twice in the fifth round and came close to stopping him. The loss was an experience he’ll likely benefit from in the future as countless boxers claim their first defeat is one of the best things to help them develop. “I’m not gonna say it was one of the best things that happened to me. We’re fighters and the root of our soul is that no matter what you put before us – we’ll fight it and do our best to conquer it. And so I had to conquer that loss and of course I went back and studied the tape and corrected a lot of the mistakes that I felt that I made. If you wanna know if it was a learning experience, then of course. A two-time world champion and to do how I did against him – I was satisfied at the end of the day. But I did go back and revamp some things, that’s why against (Fred) Kassi I seemed like a total different fighter.”
Seven months later and the aforementioned fight against Fred Kassi was a make-or-break night for the future of the Wilmington, Delaware resident. In his twenty fights prior to this bout, Kassi had only lost twice and never been stopped. Late in the seventh, a brutal knockout saw Kassi face down on the mat and Mansour’s career back on track. It was a satisfying response to his sole career blemish. “Well, it was a relief. After the last (fight) – I just go to the next. The same as I had to get past the loss to Steve, I think for the most part that 95% of the people that really know boxing know that I got robbed in that fight. Just as I had to get over that – I get over the wins and I just go right back to the drawing board. Win, lose or draw in the ring after each fight I just go back to the drawing board and try and think of what I could have done better so that I can keep progressing as a fighter.”
While celebrating that win, Calvin Davis was probably the happiest man in the building. Davis is the assistant trainer in Team Mansour and the two created a bond and trained together while serving time behind bars. Now they can put their respective qualities to good use and it clearly means a lot for Amir to have Calvin as a key part of his team. “It’s absolutely important. His boxing IQ always impressed me from day one even when we were in prison for eight years. His boxing IQ always astounded me, how smart he is when it comes to boxing, not just technically but historically – he’s like a sports almanac! As long as I go in and do what this man has helped train me to do – nobody on this planet will be able to come close to me.”
Amir lost a large part of his professional career due to the spell spent inside and as such didn’t fight professionally between June 2001 – August 2010. He chose to continue with his training as best he could and that’s how the link with former pro lightweight Davis came to fruition. It would prove to be tough but worth all the blood, sweat and tears. “It was grueling. I’m a heavyweight and he’s a lightweight and when I tell you at the end of the day he was getting me on the track, I got to the point where I would almost lap him. That’s where he had my speed at, that’s where he had my progression at. Everything was crazy. He’d go around the prison compound and he’s a short guy and in prison you got two things that’s ruling over everything – egos and bigger egos. So, he would approach these big muscular guys working out and say ‘I heard you can fight a little bit, so come on over to D block and do some work with Amir’ and that’s how he’d get sparring for me. We had the privilege of being around some decent people and even some decent C.O’s (Correctional Officers) that would allow us to go inside this 10x10ft closet and allow us to train in there, they knew what we were doing. Sometimes you had a C.O that wouldn’t allow it but we were fortunate enough to have some decent people who knew what we were trying to do and really wished us the best. Now they can sit back at their desks and turn on the TV and see me and Calvin and say ‘I’m glad I allowed those guys to do what they were doing, they were doing it positively and now they’re on National TV’. Now we get a chance to come full circle and work together in society. It’s just a beautiful experience and just an amazing story.”
At the age of forty-two years, you won’t ever see Masnour look in anything other than fantastic shape and he possesses a physique that truly belies his years. When I asked him how long he thinks he can carry on in the sport for – it lead to an interesting thought about why he still has a lot of mileage left and why so many talents retire at a tender age. “Well, the thing that allows me to continue to be fast and be alert and have my speech and my faculties and reflexes at this age is because I didn’t have the 200-300 amateur fights. Holyfield was an Olympian and his career dwindled way before he finally threw the towel in. Bernard Hopkins is the perfect example of a guy like me, when Bernard was forty-two years old he dominated his division and that’s what I feel I can do. Just like Bernard Hopkins – Amir Mansour doesn’t have this extensive amateur background and that’s why Bernard can still do what he did all the way up to the age of fifty. These amateur fights – people don’t think that they take a toll on you but they do. That’s why the age of thirty and thirty-two and thirty-three has become synonymous with a boxer retiring because these stars we came to look up to in the pro ranks had 200-300-400 amateur fights. Look at David Price, perfect example – great Olympian, great amateur fighter and he’s a great fighter today but he can’t take a punch, he’s already punch drunk and he doesn’t have many pro fights but he can’t take a punch because his amateur career ruined him. I didn’t have that long extensive amateur career. I didn’t have a lot of wear and tear on my body and that’s what boils it down to longevity in this sport. How much wear and tear and beating that you have on your body and I have absolutely zero. I don’t mean to boast but I have to answer that question in a logical way.”
Peltz Boxing, Joe Hand Promotions and Bam Boxing present: Mansour Vs. Dawejko over ten rounds for the PA State heavyweight title from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Friday May 8th. Tickets are available from peltzboxing.com – 215-765-0922 and wanatix.com – 215-568-2400. The fight will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
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