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ThaFormula.com - That fight you had with Klitschko was a great fight man, what made Klitschko and his team choose to fight you?

Lamon Brewster - When he had the title as the champion I was the #4 contender, but he never would fight me. Whenever you are in the top 5 you become a mandatory fight, and then it seems like everybody that was ranked over me all lost.  So they kept moving me up and moving me up to the number one position, but Klitschko would still never fight me.  So then what happened was when he lost to Sanders, Sanders was supposed to fight me, but he wouldn't fight me either.  So they ended up stripping him of his title.  He gave up his belt just so he wouldn't have to fight me and that's when he fought Vitali Klitschko.  Then I was supposed to fight my man David Tua but he wouldn't fight me either.  Then I was supposed to fight Klitschko and he still wouldn't fight me.  He tried to get them to just give him the title as opposed to fighting me.  So we said, “if you give him the title over me since I'm ranked over him, we are gonna sue you.”  So they had no choice but to fight me so that's really how the fight came about.

ThaFormula.com - It took you 8 years to get to the position you’re at, were there many times that you thought about just quitting?

Lamon Brewster - Many times.  It's only natural for anybody in my position to be frustrated and a lot of times I thought about quitting man.  I would think “what am I gonna do with myself?”  I mean you can only deal with so much before you are willing to give it up.  But you know it's by the grace of god that I was given this opportunity.  I looked at it like God is trying to test my faith and patience.  One of the things that I realize is when you ask God for something, he builds you up for it and sometimes he will test you and put you through a waiting period. It paid off so I'm glad that I didn't give up.

ThaFormula.com - How do you think that Klitschko team felt at the press conferences leading up to the fight?

Lamon Brewster - I think that they were definitely confident that he could win a fight because I hadn't fought in over a year and I had lost 2 fights that I shouldn't have lost.  I'm not gonna say that they underestimated me or took me lightly because I heard rumors that he was worried about fighting me.  

ThaFormula.com - Watching that press conference I felt that you really wanted it more then he did…

Lamon Brewster - Yeah you know my trainer  Bill Slayton passed and he was real when it came to the boxing game.  So I didn't want to lose to a guy who basically the only reason why he wanted to fight was so that he and his brother could hold a world title at the same time. He's not in boxing because he needs the money.  He's not in boxing because this is the only thing he's capable of doing.  He's in boxing because it's just a sport to him.  That makes me mad because I fight because I'm poor, I fight because I'm broke and it's the only thing I'm good at.  This guy got a PHD so what the hell he wanna do this for?  I was just like “man, this is a game to him.”

ThaFormula.com - I know the money is not good when you’re starting out and when you are not that known, how did you get by all those years when things weren't going to good?

Lamon Brewster - Shit man, I got by on my knees just praying to god man.  I had a lot of support from my family and then the good thing about being a successful amateur is that you get managers that want to manage you.  So a lot of times you get a lot of managers that want to manage you so a lot of times what they would do is ask if they could guide me as an amateur.  On two occasions I did allow myself to get tied in with a manager to make it through to become a professional.  But like I told people man, I done worked at fast food restaurants and did what I had to do.    

ThaFormula.com - How was your mind frame towards the fight with Klitschko after your trainer passed Lamon?

Lamon Brewster - My thoughts on the fight was like, “this dude right here is gonna have to kill me to beat me, I'm not gonna lose to this guy.”  It was just keeping a positive attitude and saying “I don't care who he is, who he fought, what gold medal he won or who is training him, when we get in that ring, can't nobody else get in there but him and fight me.”  I had to basically just say, “I don't care what I'm up against.  I don't care and this dude is just gonna have to come with it.”   

ThaFormula.com - Now during that fight Klitschko came out bombing, were his hits as powerful as you expected?

Lamon Brewster - I think he wasn't as powerful as I thought.  That's the problem a lot of times with tall guys.  Unless they can hit you at the end of their punches, they can't really hurt you unless you allow them to like I said, get their reach fully extended.  Even when he caught me with the end of his punches, I wasn't even phased by it.  He could punch but you know, he wasn't no spectacular devastating puncher like Butler or somebody like that, that I have had the pleasure to be in the ring with.

ThaFormula.com - Did you feel at any point in that fight that things were about to change in your favor? 

Lamon Brewster - Yeah because I took a whole different approach to fighting that dude.  I wasn't trying to fight him to prove that I was the more skilled.  I was fighting him to prove that I could beat him and they always say “there’s more then one way to skin a cat,” so in training to fight him, I looked at this dudes tapes trying to do my homework like anybody who is smart would do.  I noticed in those tapes that after the fourth round this dude pretty much shoots his wad.  So I said “the smartest thing for me to do, is to train to fight this dude to make him fight at my pace.” If a man is constantly in your face, even if he ain't hitting you, he is putting pressure on you.  I figured if I make him fight at my pace and by the 4th round he's tired, I think I will knock this dude out.  It was already known that his chin ain't the greatest.

ThaFormula.com - When he knocked you down the first time did you think that maybe this was not gonna go down like you hoped?

Lamon Brewster - Nope.  I was just telling myself to be patient and don't get frustrated and I think because I play chess, that that really helped me.  Sometimes when you are playing chess you might make a move and pay for it, but the thing in chess is you gotta be patient even when you’re down.  I kept my patience and I just said to myself, “hey don't panic.”  So when I went down I asked myself “am I hurt?”  So I took my time to get up because when you jump right up after getting knocked down you feel dizzy.  So when I got up I said “psychologically he thinks he got me hurt.”  So I got to go right to this dude just to psyche him out and make him say, "man, this dude took my best punches and I still can't hurt him."  So when I ran up to him it just really blew his mind.  

ThaFormula.com - As a fighter do you hear when the crowd goes crazy during the fight?

Lamon Brewster - I don't hear it because if I hear it, then I'm not 100% focused on this guy in front of me trying to knock me out.  So as much as I would like to play to the crowd, I know also at the same time that I can't allow myself to get mentally caught up.  

ThaFormula.com - When he went down in the 5th round, did you know that was it for Klitschko?

Lamon Brewster - I didn't know.  Tha only thing I knew is that we had 12 rounds and I was just getting started.  If you look at the fight, when they ended the fight I was back in my corner sitting on the stool waiting to come out for the next round while he was on the ground getting counted.  At the time my trainer was standing in front of me so when they stopped the fight, I was like, "Oh damn." 

ThaFormula.com - Now one of the things that really bugged me about that fight is when you were rocking him and the referee broke it up and gave him a standing 8 count while you guys were still on your feet…

Lamon Brewster - That was some garbage.  I wasn't supposed to win that fight man.  They didn't want me to win at all.  Matter of fact man, that was a crazy fight because the ref was really helping him.  In the history of any heavyweight title fights, they have never given a man a standing 8 count until him.  If you look at any heavyweight title fight, you will see that they have never given a man a standing 8 count before hitting the floor, but they gave him one.

ThaFormula.com - Yeah I really noticed a lot of people in the audience going crazy when they did that and then I started thinking “why is this guy getting a standing 8 count if he hasn't even hit the canvas yet?”

Lamon Brewster - I guess that's the privilege of his color.  I try to tell people that we all support our race no matter what color you are.  You always try to support your own race.  In every sport you want your race to be the champion.  So you know I totally understand that, but don't cheat to get it.  Don't give a man a standing 8 count when it's illegal to give a standing 8 count in the fight.

ThaFormula.com - Do you feel that they have shown a lot of favoritism towards the Klitschko brothers because of their skin color?  

Lamon Brewster - Yeah.  If you look at the HBO trailer man, they didn't even show me on the trailer.  That trailer was all about him.  All the advertisements leading up to that fight was all about him.  They didn't even show my face.  They just showed my name.  They were more interested in showing how they were gonna make history by being world champions at the same time. 

ThaFormula.com - Has Vitali stepped up to challenge you?

Lamon Brewster - Hell no man!!

ThaFormula.com - I figured since he challenged Corrie Sanders after Sanders defeated his brother that he would challenge you after you did the same thing.  He wanted to avenge his brother’s loss against Sanders but why not against you?

Lamon Brewster - Man when you find out, can you let me know because it's weird that you say that.  Usually he tries to get revenge for his brother and all that stuff.  Since I won Vitali ain't spoken my name once and he even fighting Danny Williams but he ain't fighting me and he can make way more money fighting me them Williams.  So I'm just trying to figure out what's really going on.  That's the biggest money fight out there today.  I just don't understand why this cat won't take the fight with me, I don't understand it.

ThaFormula.com - What do you think would have happened if it would have been you fighting Vitali instead of Sanders?  

Lamon Brewster - I think I would have knocked Vitali out because his endurance is garbage.  He's too tall.  He's got the frame of a basketball player so he needs to just rest a lot.  It took him 8 rounds to knock out a man who wasn't even in shape.  Then the dude be punching like a sissy man, but if he hurts you then he's brave and a killa. Man that ain't cool at all. 

ThaFormula.com -  Now you recently fought Kali Meehan.  A lot of people felt that you lost that fight Lamon, how do you feel about that fight?

Lamon Brewster - I'll tell you like this man.  I certainly want everybody to know that I apologize for this fight. See this fight right here was a hard fight for me mentally because I like this cat and the things that I failed to do is separate my personal feelings going into the fight.  This guy was a friend of mine and it was really difficult.  He was fighting the fight of his life, but I wasn't fighting up to my level.  When you go into the ring with somebody you like, you don't always go in with a killer instinct.  I felt as though I won the fight and I watched the tape and am being honest with myself.  It was a close fight.  It wasn't no fight where I won by a big margin.  I didn't do anything spectacular.  But because I am a better fighter then I was that night, I let people down.  A lot of people have big expectations of me doing great things and that's why some people say he lost.  I didn't lose; I just didn't fight up to my potential.  I just didn't bring that killer instinct into the ring and that was my biggest fault.

ThaFormula.com - So how does it feel to be the Heavyweight Champ now?  

Lamon Brewster - I'm grateful that I'm here in this position because it's truly a position that I have always wanted to be in.  I try not to let becoming the champ distract me or change me.  People ask me what's different now that you got the title.  Tha only difference now is that my phone rings more, but you don't see me driving down the street in anything extravagant.  I'm a family man and I'm not in the clubs any more or any less. 

ThaFormula.com - So how do you look at the other 3 champions out there John Ruiz, Chris Byrd, and Vitali Klitschko?

Lamon Brewster - I have nothing negative to say about those guys, but I see myself training for those guys and beating those guys.  I just think that it's just a matter of when opportunity knocks and being ready when the fight is made to fight those guys.  Right now the biggest thing for me is to show the people that I am a much better fighter and that I am the truth because I put on a terrible performance and I'm just really sorry about that.  That's why I’m looking forward to fighting any man that's willing to get in the ring with me.

ThaFormula.com - Now the one fighter that everyone seems to be dodging is James Tony...

Lamon Brewster - Well I wouldn't say dodging on my behalf.  I'm willing to fight James.  I've always been a fan of his from the time I was probably like 17 or 18 and then I had the pleasure or sparring with him in the gym everyday for a few years.  So I am very aware of his abilities and style and I think it would be a great fight.  But the money has to be right.  Let's not just fight for peanuts just to show people a good fight because he's a good fighter.  When the best are gonna fight each other, they deserve to really get paid.  

ThaFormula.com - Who do you think is the toughest fight for you?.  

Lamon Brewster - I think Chris Byrd would probably be the toughest because he's an elusive fighter.  You can stand right in front of his face and you can't hit him.  He's a southpaw at that, so personally I think it would be Chris Byrd.  I have had a lot of experience in the ring with James so I don't feel too worried and I don't think it's a fight that I can't win.  

ThaFormula.com - Now your next fight is supposed to be against Evander Holyfield, how do you see yourself doing against Evander?

Lamon Brewster – I’ma destroy him.  I say I’ma destroy him because I'm angry because I didn't fight up to my potential in my last fight.  I didn't bring my killer instincts into the ring because I liked this dude and because of it I'm taking slack.  I let people down and I'm very angry with myself so when you mad at yourself just think about how much madder you will be at your opponent.  So I’ma let Evander have it or any man the next time I get in the ring.

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