When the sport of boxing, like every other aspect of life, was turned on it’s head with the enforced lockdown back in March many a show across the world was cancelled or postponed with little knowledge of how & when we’d see any kind of resumption. One such fight was the anticipated grudge match between Luther Clay & Chris Kongo, Luke of SimBoxx caught up with Chris to discuss the rescheduled bout, lockdown & more...
First & foremost we hope you & you’re family are well, how did you manage to keep fit & active during lockdown?
Easy, as a fighter you have to find ways to train as they say if you look hard enough almost anywhere will work, as long as you do, so I definitely found it easy.
You bout with Luther Clay was originally scheduled for back in March, how much of a frustrating time was it given you was close to fight week at the time of lockdown being enforced?
Very frustrating it was so close I was sharp, on weight and ready to go so it had me down for about a week or so but then I got straight back into training.
There seems to be a little bit of needle or bad blood between yourself & Luther, can you expand a little on where that originated?
It originated from when his manager was speaking to Boxing Social saying they were looking elsewhere to fight they didn’t want it anymore and other comments online via Twitter they weren’t interested in fighting as they know it‘s a dangerous fight for them. Luther then come to realise that Eddie wouldn’t do business with him again if he pulled out so they then changed and the real reason was he wasn’t training. It had been for 5 weeks he’d been sitting at home doing nothing and saying he needed a proper camp. I mean what kind of professional boxer are you? We’re professional you should always be training but we finally got it over the line and it’s now in August but what you need to remember is that I’ve been training and was ready for July he wasn’t and he’s catching up to me. I’m maintaining so I know both physically and mentally I’ll have the edge over Luther.
Was there a point in which this fight almost didn’t happen behind closed doors?
Yes as I explained before they never wanted the fight there was even another excuse Luther said he only wanted to box with a crowd and not behind closed doors he had plenty excuses.
What’s your thoughts on the fight taking place without fans/atmosphere? Is it a worry you’ll struggle to self motivate?
I’m ok because I’ve had the experience fighting in small arenas boxing for GB so I know how it is to fight with only 5 people in the crowd he doesn’t so I’ve got another edge over him.
Can we get a prediction for you fight to finish?
This fight is not going to last I promise it will end in a knockout in devastating fashion I’m ready to go NOW!
You can catch Clay vs Kongo on the huge PPV card, August 22nd, headlined by Dillian Whyte vs Alexander Povetkin & also featuring Katie Taylor vs Delfine Persoon.
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