George Peterson; “We don’t duck nobody and we haven’t ducked anybody”
 By Gabriel Montoya (Aug 17, 2007) Doghouse Boxing (Photo © German Villasenor)
This week, I received a call from WBO welterweight titlist Paul Williams’ manager George Peterson. We spoke on Paul’s future plans as well as some of the other welterweights in boxing’s hottest division. If you have never spoken to Peterson, his words in print may throw you a bit. When he speaks, you can hear the smile cracking across his face. With Mr. Peterson, the line between vehement and jovial is blurry in a good way.
Gabriel Montoya: Hi Mr. Peterson. Thanks for returning my call.
George Peterson: (laughs) You been trying to get a hold of me for a minute.
GM: Yeah. So I wanted to talk to you about Paul and what his future plans are.
GP: Well, we want to fight Cotto. We want to fight Mayweather. Those guys. We want the gold, you understand? We’re done fighting the tough guys. Matthyse. Everyone said ‘Oh no, don’ fight him. He’ s got 25 fights and 25 knockouts’. Guess what? We stopped him. They said ‘Don’t fight Mitchell he’s too crafty’. We stopped him, too. They said you ain’t going to beat Margarito. Guess what? We’re done with all that. We want the easy fights now.
GM: All the top guys are taken at this point. Hatton and Mayweather. Mosley and Cotto. One guys that available is Cintron. I talked with Cintron this week and his manager Manny Steward. They both want Paul in December. Would you be into that?
GP: (laughing) We don’t need to fight no crybaby, Similac needing fighter. He needs to go and fight Margarito. Him crying in the ring. You don’t do that. Did you see that fight?
GM: I did. What I didn’t realize is that Cintron had broken his hand, ruptured a tendon and had like 4 weeks to train and only two where he could use that hand going into the Margarito fight. It kind of changed my view of the way he broke down and the way Margarito took him apart. Does that change anything for you?
GP: No, no, no, no. There was no hand… we went into the Margarito fight with a rib injury. And we went in there with a hand injury as well. You may have heard that we were in the hospital in Puerto Rico. Did you hear that?
GM: I heard rumors but I heard that that it wasn’t true from someone near your camp. So it was true?
GP: Those rumors you heard, they were true. He had a rib injury and a hand injury. Five days before the fight I was contemplating stopping the fight. Not going on with on the fight. And sure enough, I don’t know how the media got a hold of it but they got a hold of it.
GM: Well, I stand corrected. I was sitting at ringside saying ‘no, no he’s not injured. He’s fine.’
GP: That’s right. That exactly right. Well, that’s why we couldn’t sit down on our punches. And that is another reason why he had to work those angles why he did. We knew he couldn’t take no tremendous body shots.
GM: And he still did. He took a few…more than a few tremendous shots.
GP: He took a few, he took a few. I think the adrenaline got to him; started to flow and got him going. But if that was the case with Cintron and he claimed he had a hand injury in there, then why isn’t he trying to get back in there and, and, and, and, and, and ask for ...Uh, uh, uh …
GM: For Margarito?
GP: Yeah Margarito.
GM: He did. He told me this week, I literally interviewed him yesterday –
GP: (Cutting in) I don’t hear, I don’t hear an all out move trying to make that fight with Margarito and they last fought Matthyse so why didn’t he ask for Margarito then?
GM: You know… did you watch the broadcast of the fight? Because I have the answer to that question.
GP: No.
GM: He called out Mosley because he thought Mosley was going to be available and that Margarito would beat Paul and the Cotto fight would be set. You know, Cotto and Margarito was set.
GP: Nobody out there at 147 lbs. going to beat Paul Williams. 147 or 154.
GM: Would you be willing to fight Margarito or Cintron if he called you guys out? ‘Cause he called you guys out.
GP: He has to beat somebody. He hasn’t beat nobody. If he avenges his fight with Margarito, we get the winner. Look, there’s no gold fighting Cintron. There’s no nothing. And like I said, you gotta get this guy some Pampers and a milk bottle. He’s a big crybaby.
GM: Not even the belt. You don’t see taking his belt and then dangling that in front of the other champions?
GP: We don’t need that belt. There’s just nothing there, you know? He’s a big crybaby. We run from nobody. Nobody. Margarito. Walter Matthyse. He [Cintron] beat Walter Matthyse after we beat Matthyse and tore him apart. He was no more good after Paul got to him. Beat him for ten whole rounds. Beat the brakes off of him.
GM: So where does Paul go from here? I mean, end of the year’s coming. TV dates are getting pulled up. Mosley, Cotto, Hatton, Mayweather, those guys are all taken. Who do you see that’s left for the rest of the year, that isn’t Cintron, but is at a level that Paul wants to be at? That’s somebody that is an easy fight, that’s the gold that you are talking about?
GP: Well you know, Margarito would be another good fight. Zab Judah would be a good fight. You know, those guys come to fight. They ain’t no crybabies. They get out there and they fight.
GM: But Zab Judah is coming off a loss. As opposed to Cintron who is coming off a win. Why is he better?
GP: Listen to this. Why is he better? Did you see the fight between Cotto and Zab Judah?
GM: Twice. Yeah.
GP: You saw it twice?
GM: Yeah.
GP: Did you see Zab Judah step to him and lay him down and did you see what Cotto did?
GM: Oh. You’re talking about the low blows?
GP: It made a big difference.
GM: It did. It had an effect. I’ll agree with you there.
GP: It made a big difference so you can’t take nothing away from Zab Judah. Zab Judah is a good guy. And people need to recognize that. Because sure enough, if Cotto hadn’t gone to his Plan B, Zab Judah would have laid him down, brother.
GM: At the same time, Zab Judah hasn’t beaten anybody.
GP: Huh?
GM: He hasn’t beaten anybody. He got knocked out by Kostya Tszyu, lost to Mayweather, and he lost to Cotto. Low blows or no –
GP: People got knocked out by Kostya Tsyzu.
GM: A lot of people, but what I am saying –
GP: Kostya Tsyzu knocked out a lot of people, brother.
GM: That’s what I’m saying. Who’s Zab Judah beaten? Why is he any better than Cintron?
GP: Cintron hasn’t beaten nobody. Who has Cintron beaten? He cried. He broke down like a newborn baby. Look at the fight with Margarito and Cintron. Even if he did have one hand was there any room for him to break down like? He ain’t got no heart. He reminds you of the Wizard of Oz. You remember the old lion that was on the Wizard of Oz that had no heart? Man, you don’t break down like that.
GM: I have trouble disagreeing with you but I don’t know the man’s heart so I don’t know why –
GP: You’ve seen the fight? You’ve seen that?
GM: Oh, I’ve seen it a few times. Yeah.
GP: Well, you watch that. Man if you lose, you lose. That’s it. You go back to the gym. You go back to the drawing board. But man you don’t do that. Not in front of the public. Not in front of the people. You don’t do that. I’ve never seen that done.
GM: Only time I’ve seen it done is Mayweather when he wins.
GP: Those are tears of joy.
GM: Yeah. I guess you can do whatever you want when you win. So who do see out there? There’s Clottey. Andre Berto’s out there. He’s more of a prospect.
GP: I think Berto’s going to be a good fighter.
GM: I think so, too.
GP: I really do. I like Berto. And with a little more experience and a little more toning I think he will be someone to contend with. I really do. I really like him. I’ll give credit where credit is due. But I like the young man. Clottey is all right. I like Clottey, too. Clottey be another one. He step on that scale, he ain’t no crybaby. He broke his hand with Margarito.
GM: He broke both of them.
GP: Huh?
GM: He broke both of them I think.
GP: Yeah. Yeah so we don’t have no trouble with it. We’ll reach back and get him, too. That’d be a tough fight and he’ll fight. We know that so we don’t have no trouble with that, either. But we don’t want no crybabies ‘cause we’re not in the babysitting business, you know what I’m saying?
GM: Okay. I’m telling you. I talked to both Many and Kermit. They want you in December. That was the headline.
GP: They just talking off their head. They got to win some fights first. They got to do something. They haven’t done nothing.
GM: So you’re saying if Cintron beats Margarito, you’ll be all good?
GP: Give us the winner of that fight. We want the winner of that fight. Tell me this here. Wouldn’t you think it is most appropriate for you to avenge your loss?
GM: I tend to agree with you and he does, too. He straight up says he wants the fight. But to me, looking at that card on July 14th –
GP: I know his management team, Francisco and Sergio, I know they would jump on that fight in a heartbeat.
GM: I think Margarito would want either of those fights, you or Cintron. I hear everyone’s looking for Judah right now. Do you guys have a list? Is there anyone in particular you are looking at right now?
GP: No, not really. You know the way we been doin’ it, Gabe, we just been taking on…anyone that Paul Williams call out that’s who we been asking for. Last one was Mayweather and Cotto and before that was Margarito. And before that It was Matthyse. Before that it was Sharmba. Anybody that is going to get on that scale, that is going to give him a fight that isn’t going to cry big crocodile tears, we’ll talk about. Somebody that is coming to fight.
GM: Okay.
GP: You know what I’m saying?
GM: Yeah. I hear you. I hear you. Last question and I’ll stop bothering you.
GP: You ain’t bothering me. I’m enjoying this right here.
GM: I gotta say this is my best interview this week.
GP: It has to be, it has to be. (Laughing) You seen Wizard of Oz?
GM: I did. As a child.
GP: (laughing uncontrollably) That’s what that is.
GM: You look at that as worse than say quitting on your stool?
GP: Huh?
GM: You look at emotion like that as worse than say quitting on your stool or something like that?
GP: (Getting serious) Well, you know. I can appreciate that.
GM: Yeah. Every fighter knows themselves, I imagine. They know what they can take what they can’t. Is there a possibility that Paul doesn’t fight this year?
GP: No. We gonna fight somebody.
GM: Would you be down with fighting on the undercard of say Mosley/Cotto or is it strictly headlining from now on?
GP: You’d have to talk to the other part of the management. The promoter about that.
GM: Well thank you so much Mr. Peterson.
GP: One more thing and I want you to write this down.
GM: Okay.
GP: We don’t duck nobody and we haven’t ducked anybody.
GM: Got it. That’s the headline. Thanks again.
GP: Thank you, Gabe.
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