Rick "The Racoon" Glaser is back. The man of a thousand monikers (professional boxing businessman, promoter, international agent, and matchmaker) has been  involved in boxing since 1992. "The Racoon" also provides sparring partners for training camps all over the world. His knowledge of professional boxing is deep and, at times, controversial.

Glaser, 54, never met an opinion he didn’t like. Recently I spoke to the fearless facebook forecaster (Glaser rarely gets a fight wrong) about a variety of boxing related subjects. As always, Glaser held nothing back.

John Raspanti: The recent passing of Emanuel Steward has brought great sadness to the boxing world. Your thoughts?

Rick Glaser: He was a great manager. The greatest trainer ever. And, the most knowledgeable TV commentator ever. His passing is a very sad thing. His passing shows how human we are all. One night your watching him and a few month later he's gone. It puts everything in perspective.

JR: Will Mayweather and Pacquiao fight in  twenty-thirteen?

RG: As of right now, I don’t see it happening in  twenty-thirteen. There are various reasons. Number one is ego. And in this case all the ego's are huge. It was a bad sign when Freddie Roach and Pacquiao are out begging for the fight. If Floyd was leading the way, that’s fine. Pacquiao is saying he’ll take forty five. You don’t see Bob Arum saying that. I don’t think it’s going to happen. There’s no way they are going to tell Mayweather what he’s going to get.

JR:  It looks like Floyd Mayweather won't fight anyone until 2013. The opponent could be hotshot Canelo Alvarez. Could Canelo beat Mayweather?

RG: No, unless Floyd gets old overnight, nobody can beat him. At this point, age is the only question with a Mayweather fight. That’s the only way he's beat. Canelo is too green. Mayweather would set traps for him all night.

JR: Why have our recent Olympic boxing teams won nothing at the Games?

RG: They haven't won any medals for two reasons. There’s an obvious one and a not so obvious one. Our team is not together enough. As soon as the Olympics are over, other countries are all ready picking a team for the next Olympics. Our team doesn’t have enough International experience. We have boys of eighteen and nineteen taking on grown men. Their teams are all pro compared to ours. They’ve been fighting for years. It’s like an pro football player facing a high school player. So, why wasn’t it different years ago? The scoring was different back then. Here’s another thing nobody talks about. When we were good, there was a German team, a Russian team, and a Cuban team. Now, Russia went from one country and one representative to thirty one countries and sixteen representatives. So, every time we are fighting it’s against another good fighter. Before, you’d beat a Russian, a German, and a Cuban. Now there’s a whole bunch of other fighters you have to beat to win a Gold medal. Another thing is a number of countries have raised their boxing programs with the help of their governments. We don’t have that.

JR: Will professional fighters ever compete in the Olympics?

RG: As it stands right now, I’d say no. I don’t know the mindset of the Olympic committee though.

JR: You were ridiculed for picking Julio Cesar Chavez over Sergio Martinez (won by Martinez) last month. Will you pick Chavez again in the rematch?

RG:  Oh, absolutely, I’ll pick Chavez again. I think he’s learned a lot from the experience. He had a poor camp. He started too late. He figured him out too late. I think he learned a lot of things from the first fight that he’ll apply in the second. He’ll start putting pressure on Martinez a lot earlier. There were three things that went on in the first fight that disgusted me. There’s no way Martinez won the 11th round. Every judge gave the round to Martinez. The judges were asleep. Freddie Roach lost complete control of the training camp. Freddie should have used the dignity he's always had and left camp with his dignity in tact.  All he did was complain after the fact. All he did was make excuses. BS! The real truth is he stayed and picked up a paycheck. Freddie should have been proud enough to say, ‘I’m resigning.’ Remember, I like Freddie. This is not personal against Freddie.

JR: What makes Andre Ward so good?

RG: Why is he so good? I think when you’ve been undefeated that long I think it starts with supreme confidence. We know he has all that natural ability, but other fighters have natural ability as well. Andre Dirrell has natural ability. Kessler has natural ability. Ward has the confidence, but not the arrogance. He goes to the gym and hones his body and his skills to say, ‘I am the best.’ The only other guy who thinks in the ring like Andre Ward is Mayweather. He’s the guy with supreme confidence, speed, and intelligence. Every time Andre Ward gets in the ring, we are looking at supreme greatness. Andre Ward is (a) great role model. He’s been loyal to his manager. He’s loyal to Dan Gosseen. His game is great. His mind-state is there. His machismo is there. He’s saying to the world that nobody will beat him. There’s nobody that can beat him. I think he could have beat Roy Jones as a super middleweight. Calzaghe was a great fighter as well and a classy guy. He beat Kessler, Jones, and Bernard Hopkins. I still think Andre Ward beats him. Ward is at a higher level.

JR: Will there ever be another great American heavyweight?

RG: When you talk about ever - thirty years from now?  Yeah, I do think so. Right now, I don’t see anyone on the horizon in the United States.

JR:  Is Seth Mitchell the best American heavyweight fighter now?

RG:  There's no way. If Seth Mitchell ever wins a world championship he'll be a one title defense, and out. Our heavyweights can't seem to draw crowds like the Eeastern Europeans can.  

JR: So why aren’t the good athletes going into boxing?

RG: Because there’s no instant gratification in boxing. In football and basketball, you come out of college and sign a big bonus. You’re set for years. We don’t have that in boxing. In boxing, you’re fighting for nothing for awhile. Then you don’t even know if you’re going to make it.  There’s also an element in boxing that people don’t want to be involved in. We all know what this is. It’s the ugly side of  the sport. There’s no ugly side in the other sports. We have an ugly side in our sport. A lot of people – including corporate America,- don’t want to get involved in it.

JR: Are steroids an epidemic in boxing?

RG: Well, with all these fights being cancelled - I would say it’s really bad, but worse on a worldwide level then in the United Sates. Some of these guys are really juicing. I think there’s more then just the juicing. There also putting  performance enhancing drugs in their blood to increase their endurance. I think they need to have Olympic style testing for any fighter in an eliminator or a world title fight. Also, any fighter that fights for fifty thousand dollars or should more should also be tested. That’s my whole opinion right there.

Follow and visit John on Twitter: twitter.com/#!/johnboxing1

-- Questions/comments johnboxing1@hotmail.com

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