I DON’T give a s**t about Canelo. Not two s**ts. For me, in my own brain, I look and I think. I’ve planned this out in my own head and I’ve been dreaming about this since I was a little boy fighting in my front room. I’ve visualised this day coming. I’ve had dreams of this day happening since I was about five or six years old. I’ve got all the way here. People might think it’s not like me to be serious but I think with a fight of this magnitude you’ve got to be a bit level-headed. I’ve put a lot of time into training and camp, a lot of thought has gone into this fight. You can only be serious about a fight like this when everything on the line.
A lot of people see the interviews and see some of the clamour around them, but my training has always been serious. I think this time I have taken myself away a couple of months earlier, got the extra bit of work in because he’s an extra special fighter. People can say I ain’t lived the life. I ain’t done it right, but I’m here, two-weight world champion.
I’ve been away training since the end of January. There’s no excuse about time. There was a big concern this fight would be sprung on me at the last minute but I’ve had plenty of notice. We stayed in a house out in Vegas before flying down to Texas. We left Fuertaventura after 10 weeks, and we headed out to Vegas to finish the last month.
It has been a long, good camp and I’m starting to get excited now. When you are in Vegas there is so much exciting you, you just want to get out and go to the mall, keep your mind off the fight and do something to stop going insane but it is nearly over.
I’m happy I’ve got the shot, now I’m just asking for a fair shake. I might go there and get knocked out in one round, we may not need judges. He might spark me in 30 seconds. If we do get to judges, if I win by two or three rounds then it is hard to get that unless they’re fair scorecards.
I was under the impression there would be a British judge there but apparently the commission doesn’t allow it. In my agreement there was a British judge when I did the deal but Eddie says the contract says different. Sometimes it works better if the underdog comes through and does a good job like we saw with Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz. As long as I get a fair shake I don’t care what side of the fence anyone is on.
In the Travelling community they settle their differences by fighting. You go until one’s had enough and puts his hand up and says you’re the better man. Personally I’d go and go and go until I couldn’t breathe. Them words would never come out of my mouth; ‘I’ve had enough’.
To be born into that culture, it’s hard. Everyone will say they had a hard upbringing. You could be fighting everyday so, we’re born for this job… I’ve been brought up in this culture and I’m never too far away from it. I’m always in touch with it.
There’s no pressure on me. At the end of the day there will be 70,000 people there and they’re not coming to support me, they’re coming to support him. There’s zero pressure on me. Look what’s on the line, there’s added pressure that comes with the fight, but there’s no pressure on me that I have to do this and have to do that in the ring to please myself. There’s more pressure on his end than mine.
But this means everything to me. Absolutely everything. More than money, more than fame, more than everything.
I want to win this so badly it’s a joke.