13th April, 2012
Undefeated Cruiserweight contender Nigeria’s Lateef Kayode in this interview with fighthype.com, the spoke about his coming 26 May bout against former Light Heavyweight champion, Antonio Tarver, boasting that he would defeat him.
How is preparation going for your fight against Antonio Tarver on 26 May?
Training is good. I am getting some good training to be ready for this fight.
You didn’t appreciate Tarver being critical of you during your fights on Showtime?
Yeah, I watched a couple of fights and he always talked bad about me like I’m usually sloppy. I’m not a sloppy fighter. All of the people I’ve fought, if you watch, I place my punches, but this man never liked me. Even when I hit my opponent, you never say that. He was still saying he’s just doing his job, so I go back and watch my fights and with this man, all he says is I’m sloppy. If you go back and look at my fights, the only thing he says is I’m sloppy. I told myself, I’m better than this guy, so on 26 May, I will show the World who is better. He wants to talk about experience? I don’t care. You can never handle me. The only thing Tarver can do is talk. I don’t judge people, but you can talk and say bad things and feel like he has the experience in this game, but all I want to do is I want to fight and I want to knock him out.
It seems that this is personal with you?
Yes! The way it started is he tried to bring me down, you know? And now, in my training camp, I’m working on everything because I hear this guy say to his trainer and promoter that, I’m not ready for the fight and to that, I say, Whatever he likes. When he saw me face-to -face, he was fine, like everything was cool, and on Showtime, he always saying something bad. I kept calling him out and I did an interview and told my fans to put it on YouTube. Whatever was the best way to get Tarver to see it. That was my message to him. I now said I would like to fight him to show that he can do all the talking, but I’m better than him. So he called my promoter and my manager and said the fight would be good and that’s why the fight is happening.
Have you been studying Tarver’s fights as a Cruiserweight, Light Heavyweight, or both?
I looked at fights when he was a Light Heavyweight, Cruiserweight, and his fight at Heavyweight. That was a wash. I was there when he fought at the casino and that was a wash. He couldn’t even do anything. It’s a dream to fight him. I want to fight him so he can say, “Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.” I see all of his sneaking. I see everything, so I told myself, I can fight this guy. He is not better than me. He can say I’m sloppy, but when I fight, the guys I knocked out, and even the guys I didn’t knock out, I still show courage because this job is not easy. You can’t just come from nowhere and disrespect me. In my country, where I come from…every time I see Tarver, I say, Hey Tarver, how you doing? If you don’t respect yourself, you will destroy yourself, so we don’t give him respect no more. Where I come from, we respect people younger and older, we give respect, but if you don’t respect yourself or show respect back, disgrace you.
Do you think you can be the first person to stop Antonio Tarver?
I will, I will, I will, I will, and I will, and I’m so real about it in the name of God. I will knock him out. I know he will want to run, he will want to move on me and he will want to grab me, but what I will do, because if you have ever seen me on Showtime or something like that, I give clean fights and I will knock you out.
I look forward to this fight. The Cruiserweight division truly needs this fight. I wish you the best of luck. Is there anything you want to say before the end of this interview?
I just want to say this is a great opportunity that has come up and I want to thank Tarver for taking this fight and making it happen so we can show the world if he is better than me or if I am better than him. I don’t disrespect you, but you disrespect me and where I come from, there is no disrespect. We have respect for each other, so I will leave it at that and as far as Tarver is concerned, we’re going to see on 26 May.