The ever entertaining and always exciting Emanuel Augustus, 31-24-6 (16 KOs), will be facing another tough opponent in Oscar "El Torito" Diaz, 21-1 (11 KOs) on August 26 at the Thunderbird Wild West Casino in Norman, Oklahoma and televised live on ESPN2's Friday Night Fights. Fightnews caught up with Emanuel to ask him about his recent fight with Ray "Sucra" Oliveira and his upcoming fight with Diaz. Emanuel tells us how bad he wants a rematch with Floyd Mayweather and to avenge the loss Kostya Tszyu suffered against Ricky "Hit Man" Hatton. Augustus gives us his take on how to defeat the pound for pound king Mayweather.

Emanuel, in your recent fight against Ray "Sucra" Oliveira you put on a show and looked great against one tough opponent in "Sucra" who suffered a pinched nerve injury during the fight on the left side of his neck. You were praised by everyone in boxing for displaying great sportsmanship and not throwing more headhunting punches after that point. What are your thoughts?
Well, boxing gets a lot of bad publicity because of the way that people expect a lot of just straight brutality from boxing and you know fighters don't really have a reputation for having a heart inside the ring. I didn't want to be responsible or I didn't want to have it in my conscience, that somebody died at my hands. The fact that I saw that he was on his way. I saw a little bit of the fight that Ray had with Ricky Hatton (on tape), so that other things (Ray being KO'ed by Hatton) flashed into my mind. So, again I didn't want to take that man's life in any way.

When you mentioned that you saw the fight between Hatton and Oliveira, do you think he left something of himself in the ring against Ricky Hatton?
I'm not going to say that he left it there but I am going to say that the injury more or less got noticed, (Oliveira sustained the pinched nerve in his fight with Hatton) put it to you that way. In the first round (versus Ricky Hatton) Oliveira got dropped because he got caught in the ear. Ever since that round, everytime he gets hit on that side of his head, he would show a little anguish, you know, disarray. When the fight finally got stopped it got stopped because he got hit on that side of his ear and he just quit.

Which was the same side of his head (when Oliveira experienced serious pain) that you hit him on right?
I am not going to say that I hit him exactly there because I didn't try to, but it was probably going to be a little (Augustus actually hit Oliveira on the side behind the ear) closer to that. Yes, but I guess you can say (about hitting Oliveira on the spot he got hurt in the Hatton fight) yeah, but again I am not saying that my punch caught him on the ear but it may have and it wasn't on purpose. (Oliveira had bent down towards Augustus when Emanuel had released the punch that was aimed at Ray's chin and instead connected upside the head)

But Oliveira still put up a valiant effort considering the many punches he averaged per round. He actually outworked you in some rounds even though the more punishing punches came from you. He threw more than but not to say he was landing them. In other words you threw less punches but at the same time the more effective and damaging ones too.
Yes, but again I am not trying to have no punch output war with nobody. Like referee and judges, you can't pin it on what they want, on what they want from a fighter and what determines a victory. (less but more damaging punches, or more but less effective punches) Throwing all those punches and stuff, I am not trying to be matching anyone with punches, I might get a punch output title for throwing a lot of punches but that is not my intent.

But Emanuel, if somebody outworks you, and remember you told me this once and you just said it again. What are the judges going to be looking (on who wins a round) for? What happened in the Jermain Taylor versus Hopkins fight did you get to see that?
No, no I didn't get to see that fight, not yet but I did get my feelings hurt.

Why?
Because I expected Bernard Hopkins to win.

Well, I will tell you something, personally I had the fight scored as a draw and the judges gave it a split decision win for Taylor, but it's Bernard's own fault by giving Taylor the early rounds, which was apparently Bernard's strategy to have the inexperienced fighter (Taylor) run out of gas by expending Taylor's energy early and in the late rounds Bernard would come hard at him and try to knock him out, which he almost did but evidently it didn't happen and like I said Taylor outworked Bernard early and won the rounds he needed for the win as it showed in the judges official cards. Now if it were a 15 round fight, Taylor would have been KO'ed in the 14th or 15th round.
Isn't that the case with us? (referring to himself and Bernard who are two experienced veterans of the ring) Where I always wish "hey man, two more rounds!" (after the fight is over and it goes to the scorecards and his opponent is close to going down or quitting and barely surviving the 10 or 12 round fight)

Exactly, and that's the way it is with you guys, you veterans, you know it's a long distance fight and you pace yourself and try not to outwork too much and leave enough in the tank for the last couple of rounds and finish strong, isn't it?
Well, I can't speak for most people but for me, my mind set in boxing has been changing through the years. Now, my mind set now is just to win. So, if I can get them out of there early I am doing that, but I also try to fight hard every round, so it's really not so much, at least not for me, it's not so much as to be coasting through the fight but being able to fight in the tenth round as hard as I did in the first, second and third round.

Emanuel, I have to tell you that everytime we do an interview on you here at Fightnews we get a ton of emails from boxing fans, your fans who write to tell us how you are the most underrated, most known prizefighter and just how much they enjoy watching you fight. They write to let us know how you dominate your opponents time in and time again and how you are always facing tough opponents who were set to fight you to gain a big name fighter on their record by beating you but it backfires.
Yeah most known guy without a deal. (without a shot at a world title)

Everyone (boxing fans) wishes you would get a shot at a title. Now going back to that, you are now with Lou DiBella and he has got you fighting again keeping you busy this coming month, fighting another tough fight against a good opponent in Oscar Diaz. Now, he doesn't have your experience or has even fought the same high caliber type fighters you have faced in your career. To him, you would be his toughest fight to date and to you it will be another tough opponent in your long list and line of tough opponents. Would you consider that this is a bigger fight for him than it is for you?
Well, to me it's my biggest fight up to date as well. I am not going to just sit out there -- just like Ray Oliveira, I am not going to take neither one of this guys for granted but again I am looking to the next fight. Again, beating Oscar Diaz, what will that get me? (knowing that this win will get him closer to a title shot). That's where my whole mind set is at, for the most part people want to focus on how I beat him but you know I am not a big time knockout artist so (KO's) are only going to come when they do and if they don't, they don't. As long as when the fight is over with I am not too badly hurt or cut and bruised, but again, I have to be able to take this guy out man, and move up to the next level or the next guy that's going to get me in there with Mayweather and Ricky Hatton.

Now with Lou DiBella promoting you and getting you the fights and being televised on ESPN, how has that changed your boxing career?
It's getting better, I mean it shows more, let's just say that hope is being defined more and more. (hope for a title shot) The more I work with DiBella the more fights I win the more the things that I hope for and want in life are becoming defined. It's happening at a slow rate but it's happening and as long as it's consistent I'm ready. I have been training and all I can do is get better until I get too old to get any better.

Let me tell you Emanuel, it seems you are getting better with age, it seems you are coming into the ring with this vast experience and knowledge of all you previous battles, with the tough opponents you have faced and those wars that you have had are finally paying off and their worth is the experience that you have gathered through out those fights. It seems that when you are up there in the ring you are so confident in your abilities against the opponent that you are fighting and you know that whatever he brings to you, it isn't going to trouble you because you have been through it all before. Now it seems that at 140 you are going to be that roadblock that the top prizefighters in the division who want to be up for a title shot or be recognized for one have to go through you.
Right, for the most part, yes. You know it's, I mean basically there is nothing to answer to that, you just said it all. I mean I have been through it and I have fought a lot of hard people I wasn't supposed to beat and to me honestly I look at it the same way. This is another guy (Oscar Diaz) I am not supposed to beat. This is a guy like you said, is going to use my little name to bring himself up, but in my eyes I'm not the gate keeper here, he is. So, I am just going to go out there man and be classy, be stylish, impress the judges. Hopefully they won't use too much of my special talents against me.

You are talking about the "Drunken Master" style of fighting you display?
Right. I hope they don't use that against me too much.

In your previous fight against Oliveira you finished it up early (8th rd TKO) and you didn't receive much punishment or injuries. How do you feel after that fight and fighting this soon?
Honestly, the same way It was after fighting Mickey Ward, I'm ready for the next fight. (Augustus fought a war with Mickey, in a "fight of the year"). Mickey Ward was a tougher fighter, but this is what I live for, this is what I train for, you know.

Winning this fight and being showcased again on ESPN should do more for you and getting a shot at Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather. What do you think about them and giving you an opportunity?
Well, I would love the chance to fight some of these guys man. That's why I basically name Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather, but to be honest with you I don't think these guys want to fight me, but at the same time there is another guy that I want to fight. Carlos Moussa who just beat Vivian Harris. I really think I can beat him and win that title. I don't know how confident his management is with him but I do think this fight can happen and out of all the other champions he would be the one most likely to give me a chance at the title. The belt that he has would put me on the way to get close to the Mayweather and Ricky Hatton (fight). I want to thank and let the people know, my fans, that I am going to keep on winning and keep on going to get a world title. I will try my best and continue to not be an embarrassment or a disgrace to the sport of boxing. I want to leave out of here on a good note, because when people talk about me and boxing I want them to say good things about me in boxing.

Talking about being respected. You trained with Ebo Elder for his fight against Juan Diaz that got canceled.
It was a joke. (sounding upset) It was no respect, no business. Not very good businessmen at all. Just lack of respect.

I heard, through my sources, that you were sparring with him and there was some exchanges of disrespectful verbiage at you from his corner.
No professionalism you know. It's not professional (the incident). If they want a sparring partner they should get a sparring partner that does not speak English. That way nobody got to hear the trash talking they be talking during the sparring. It's sparring man, they are not supposed to antagonize their sparring partner.

Was it because maybe you were having your way with him in the ring?
No! He was already antagonizing on junk. I am only saying you could use that in a fight, you know, to make the opponent mad, but you don't use that "Oh, he aint nothing", "Ah, he is finished, let's see what his got", "He aint hurt you!", "He ain't got nothing for you", Son of a bitch, shut the f**k up!.

Was all that maybe because, you were actually hurting him?
I don't know and I don't care. (sounding dejected and upset to remember the incident.) The point is, in my mind he shouldn't have been saying anything like that. Those aren't the words used to keep a good relationship in business. I am there to do business (Emanuel gets hired most often to prepare top quality fighters in sparring for championship fights, because he gives them hard work for their money) to work with the man and keep him together and ready for his fight. I am not there to fight a fight, you know, you are going to have to pay me more, you know what I'm saying. Because if you are going to do this, you are going to start talking that shit and I am going take it to heart and I am going to start to turn the sparring and turn it into a fight and they going to be talking bad about me. (Emanuel is well respected in the boxing community as a seasoned professional who works with the best in their training camps) I didn't really kick his but, but if I did do it that way then they was going to say " OK, Emanuel is not a good sparring partner" You know what I am saying. I would have gotten a bad rep, had I gone with what he was saying.

We know Emanuel, and what else is there to say but that you immediately got hired to work as Kostya Tszyu's sparring partner for his fight with Ricky Hatton.
EA: Oh, Kostya. You know I don't want to toot my own horn but I have been in a lot of peoples training camp you know. It's time for me to do some things man to go to places. I mean, I have been in De La Hoya's training camp, I have been in Miguel Cotto's training camp, I have been in so many people's training camp man, it's a shame (Elder's training camp). Guys that I have fought against and lost to have hired me for their training camps man. What the hell you want me in your training camp for, to beat me?

You have trained with Cotto?
Yeah. (making it sound like no big deal)

What do you think about the kid? Working with him?
I ain't going to lie, I mean his strong and stuff you know. I mean you step down in weight for anybody like that and you are going to shine like him.

Exactly. When you work with these guys there at their walking weight, not killing themselves yet, dieting and starving right. Like maybe Cotto who is known to walk around 158 or 160 pounds right?
Right. I am glad you said that. Have you seen how big Cotto is in his last couple of fights?

Oh, man he is huge.
That motherf***er ain't no 140.

Talking about weight. Your boy, Pretty Boy Floyd has been calling out Winky Wright at 154 but he want's Winky to weigh in the day of the fight at 154 and not the usual day before the fight.
Who wants who where?

Floyd Mayweather wants Winky.
He ain't got nothing to do with that (weigh ins). He better shut the f**k up. If he wants to fight Winky, goddamn it, he needs to fight with the rules that have already been set. He can't make up his own. He might be Pretty Floyd but he ain't that motherf***ing pretty to be making up new rules. Like I have said before. If Floyd Mayweather gets scary, he is f***ing scary. He don't want to fight nobody that can hurt him. Fighting me was an accident. It was a mistake (by team Mayweather) they wasn't supposed to fight me because I wasn't supposed to fight him like I fought him. I was supposed to be out of there, you know, they couldn't get me out of there so they got my corner to stop the fight.

When you say that about your corner, are you saying the fix was in?
Bsssssh! (breathing out) I can only call a spade a spade once I see the spade.

But you saw something fishy in there didn't you?
Man, anybody that saw the fight that was not hypnotized by Mayweather, will say "hell yeah something's fishy." (Augustus fired his corner after that fight)

You weren't hurt in that fight were you? I mean you were connected consecutively by punches from him but then again when haven't you been connected before him?
Man, how the f**k you are going to compare Mayweather power to the people I have already fought? These guys that I have known were jaw breakers and neck crackers (explaining how much power his been hit with before). I mean his little hands and rabbit punching ....you know what I mean? The dude, man!

He can't hit hard?
Man, I wish I could, man, they better never get the fight between me and Mayweather together.

Well, what do you think about what he did to Gatti?
That fight made me so f**king mad, because I just knew that Gatti, after the first three rounds, he would revert to his old way of fighting he would be like, (Emanuel had picked Gatti to win the fight by KO) the only reason I said it was because he would have realized that he can't box Mayweather, that's not the way to beat Mayweather. You know, the way to beat Mayweather is to say "F**k it" and just go right at him.

True, which was exactly what Jose Luis Castillo did in his first fight against Mayweather and to me and many other boxing critics Castillo did beat Mayweather in their first fight. Castillo went right at him.
Right, but there is more than one way to beat a guy like Floyd Mayweather, you don't need to just bang the hell out of him. You can just set yourself, right because the thing with Mayweather is that he is going to be right there to hit anyway because he ain't got no head movement. He don't really have no defense. That little crawl up, ball up thing he do.

Shoulder roll?
Yeah. (acknowledging) Straight right hand, left hook or over hand right, left hook and then you just drop down come back with an uppercut.

Seems like you have studied him well? You did punch and connect him more than anyone can say other than Castillo as you did in your fight with him.
I tell you what. His hands, he said his right hand gave him some problems when we fought. So he going to have to end up breaking both of them on me. He is a power puncher now, he is trying to knock people out. I am going to like that. I am going to be ready for him. All I got to do is keep winning these fights, I keep winning and I will make it up to Mayweather and it's a wrap. My only concern is how long do I have to fight. How many people do I have to fight, who do I have to fight? I am not really saying it's a concern but it's a motivating tool for me because I don't know how long it's going to take, I don't know who I have to fight. I'm just waiting for him and I am ready for him, this is what I'm training for.

That's your mission?
Yes sir, yes sir.

So, who is the toughest fighter in the ring and you have faced? You just said Mayweather doesn't have the punch, so tell me who is that one fighter that really punches hard like a mule kick?
F**k! Ever heard of Teddy Reid? Not necessarily the way he punched but his size, his punch would feel like a club. The other hard puncher was Terrence Churchill, I fought him early, very early in my career. He was coming up but after that fight you never heard from him, after me and him fought, he got the win but he didn't win, you know, the crowd booed him and everything (after the decision was read) but after that fight he didn't have nothing about him no more. He was a prospect.

So, you mean he left everything there in the ring against you?
Well, either that or he didn't have anyone really backing him. (prizefighters have it hard with out real support financially and mentally)

That guy could punch huh?
Hell, Yeah! He could crack! Man, that motherf***er punched hard. You know that guy right there, I ain't going to lie, he was the only one that kind of had me like, 'Goddamn, I am going to get f**king knocked out!' You know what I mean? I fought Jesus Chavez (Chavez is a relentless fighter) way back when and even though all that pressure that he put on me, because he was banging the body and stuff, I still never really was in that mode to where he might beat me or was too hard to get away from. Even though I was getting tired and everything in that fight. That thought (getting knocked out) never crossed my mind because he never punched me hard enough for me to feel I was in the danger zone other than the pressure, but Terrence Churchill, man that motherf***er cracked me, early in the fight. Man, I was in straight survival mode, but that survival mode was working though and I won rounds, many rounds.

Wow, and let me ask you this, were you prepared for that fight?
Man, I was as prepared for Terrence Churchill as I was as prepared for Mickey Ward.

So, you have always been a professional, despite that you have fought in fights that you were called in to fill in on late notice, you were prepared for all of them? You were still in the ring working hard when you got those midnight calls to come and fight out of town, get on a plane tonight for the weigh in tomorrow?
Yeah! That's what I'm saying. People forget -- (releasing out a sigh of why can't people understand) True professional fighters, you know, that's their religion. That's what you do all day, every day. As long as you are in it (Boxing) because you never know when you are going to get that call. (Emanuel is a professional prizefighter who takes on fights for money, he gets paid to perform and his 9 to 5 job unlike you and me, is to get himself ready for a fight that will put food on the table for himself and his family) This is your everyday thing (training) this is what you do, eat, sleep, sh*t and do literaly. When you wake up in the morning, you do what ever is you do, you sitting at home watching TV or whatever, you drop down do some pushups and sit-ups. Three o'clock in the morning go for a run comeback home shadow box, work on technique. Things like that, so as a professional you always have to be in shape you can't afford not to be in shape.

What about your spousal duties? You are married Emanuel and you know that your legs go. (Trying to guess, just how can you plan ahead for a fight that you don't know is coming)
That's why you run and keep running. If that gets you and your legs to go then you are a weak fighter. Because as a fighter you must have your mind and body and spirit in the fight. When it's time to fight you have to have all that together, that's why me, I don't bring outside factors into the fight. Me and my wife we can have our arguments. Everyday up until the time I leave her, you know and she can call me an hour before I get into the fight and I will tell her " look I don't have time to talk, click" you know, things like that. You as a fighter got to worry about that, because regardless of what happens, when that bell rings and that dude throws the first punch. You either focus on your problems or you go in and take care of the guy that's in front of you and then take care of your problems.

Have you talked to Kostya Tszyu recently? Maybe to tell him that you will avenge him and fight Ricky Hatton?
Oh Kostya, man I have to give him a call. I just haven't gotten the chance to talk to him and what I really want to do is when ever I do get this fight (against Ricky Hatton) I want to get him the tickets to come down and watch me destroy him. That's what I really want to do, get that big fight man. I want to invite the whole team (Team Tszyu).

They treated you good didn't they? (when Emanuel trained with Kostya Tszyu in Australia for Kostya's fight versus Ricky Hatton)
Hell yeah! They treated me so f**king good bro. I want to hire him for my sparring partner and have him train with me for that fight bro. (Augustus and Kostya formed a bond while training together)

You want to pay him back the respects he offered you?
Hell, yeah. Man that dude is a wonderful guy, man. He is very respectful bro.

He was as gracious in defeat as he was in victory (against Ricky Hatton).
He is a better man than me, cause I wouldn't have said what he said. Nowhere close. How the hell you fight wrestling? That ain't no f**king fight! He said his little thing you know (Kostya saying that he was beaten by the better man) they only clapped because he lost. I bet you they wouldn't been clapping had he beaten Hatton. They wouldn't have heard a single thing he had to say. In fact they wouldn't have allowed to put him on that damn microphone.