IINTERVIEWU@AOL.COM ENJOY!Feedback is appreciated. my 2nd interview I have done so far. Thanks
Q: Iceman, tell me, how did you being added to Team Remillard more as a working trainer come about??
ICEMAN: The thing is that I have known Matt since way back when he was a kid boxing in the juniors. I actually used to spar with him sometimes back then and would bring a couple of my boxers over to spar with him back when he was in the amateurs, too. So it was the kind of atmosphere where after the sparring we would all sit around and talk about how things went that day, what worked, what wasn't working, things like that. And sometimes his coach would have me show him a few things. Then when Matt turned pro they officially added me as a cornerman and from his pro debut I have been there on the team for every fight except for one where I had to be in California on the same day with another fighter, Matt Godfrey.
Now I guess it is a thing where Matt is advancing well, his career is really starting gain momentum, and I guess his management felt he needed to buckle down and focus on some of the more intricate aspects of boxing and when they asked if I would work with him a couple days a week one-on-one I said "yes, of course, anything you need."
And that was that.
Q: What types of things are you working on with the young featherweight?
ICEMAN: Well, for me, one thing I always concentrate on with any fighter is the jab. I think that is the one punch that I am very good at teaching, I have a good handle on how to properly execute the different types of jabs there are and with Matt that is something I have really focused on for a long time. I remember one time back around eight or ten years ago when he was just a kid I copied a video tape of Mark Breland for him to watch over and over again because Breland always had a very good jab and he had a very good way of delivering it in almost effortless fashion. So that's my main thing probably. I also put a lot of emphasis on adding to the leverage he gets on his punches, transmitting his weight better so that he can get better results. His body punching is key area we focus on in that regard. He is a very good body puncher and I am just trying to show him how to place his shots a little better and at the right times to maximize his results. How to get more body into the punches, how to shift his weight better.
And, finally, I think he is going to be feinting a hundred times better than ever before. That's the goal anyway. When I was fighting I always knew how to feint but I didn't do it nearly enough, it wasn't really part of my automatic reaction and it was something that I always felt I should have done a lot more. Matt is picking that up very, very well because he is a smart kid, he knows boxing and understand the mechanics of the game. We work constantly on his jab and his feinting and on different techniques that you don't see every day. Not just the run of the mill jab, right hand, left hook combination.
As an example I can tell you about something that literally just happened two days back(December 9, 2009). On Tuesday I was working with him in the gym on a specific move, a body punch that I learned from Mike McCallum. A sneaky shot, there's a particular way to deliver it. It's a punch that can't just be thrown, it has to be executed, you know? And literally less than five minutes after we first worked on it he drilled one of his sparring partners with it like he had been doing it all his life.
And then, just twenty four hours later, he was sparring with a much bigger guy and he apparently executed the punch - I wasn't there, he told me about it after it happened- so perfectly that it put his opponent down to his knees. So that's just an example of how quickly he can pick something up whereas another fighter may take a week or a month even to get the same results, if ever.
Q: I know that you have worked his corner in the past and can be seen on more than one cable outlet giving him some stellar advice in the corner between rounds. I have also seen in print more than once where you stated that you believe your background as an amateur and professional boxing is what has made you one of the top up and coming trainers in the world today. Any particular moments that stand out in your mind as ones where your background as a boxer came into play and/or made a difference?
ICEMAN: I think there are many instances in my particular case where I called upon my previous boxing experience to know what I needed to have a guy do in a particular situation. I mean, no one really taught me how to be a trainer. I'm just using my boxing experience to guide me. I can think of one fight down in Baltimore, I forget the name of the opponent right now (Note: April of 2009 technical knockout victory in round three over Jesus Salvador Perez), and Matt was kind of taking his time and boxing the guy. It wasn't a great fight or anything and I felt Matt was having trouble getting his range because the guy was a little more elusive and a little more cagey and when Matt would take his time and try to pick his spots the other guy was reacting quickly and letting his hands go, catching Matt in the middle of things. And, it's weird, but sometimes I feel like a perceptive fighter can look at another fighter in action and because he's been in the same situation, he can tell not only what the guy is thinking in there but also what the guy is feeling. And from my own experience I know that feeling of trying to be calm and patient but your opponents speed and ability to keep distance between you can be very frustrating so I told Matt in the corner to forget about the boxing, forget about taking his time. He needed to be able to change the strategy right there in midstream and turn the fight into more of a back and forth inside brawl so that he could minimize the guys ability to counter him from a distance.
And the very next round ended up being the last round of the fight (Remillard scored a stoppage)and Remillard won.
Q: So it is safe to assume that you have high hopes for Remillard in terms of bursting onto the world scene at some point in the future? Tell us why. And let boxing fans who may not be familiar with him know what it is about him that should have them stay up late to catch him on a televised card.
ICEMAN: Well, I mean, I certainly think he is a legitimate prospect if that's what you mean. He has the work ethic, the develping skills, the ability to pick things up quickly. He seems like he takes a good shot. He's a strong puncher, a tough kid. He has good size for a featherweight, he has a very solid amateur background, he's learned many skills and tactics through several years of having sparred with some very accomplished professional fighters. Probably his greatest asset is his mental strength and focus. I mean, and there are not a million guys you could honestly say this about, but if his entire training and management team were to go away for a month and leave him alone with no verbal or physical contact whatsoever, I have absolutely no doubts that his weight would still be pretty much the same as it was on the day we all left. And if he had a fight coming up he would be at the contracted weight. You don't have to check on him, you don't have to hold his hand, you don't have to remind him of how important dedication and discipline is. And that's not the case with far too many fighters to be completely honest with you. So in that regard Matt Remillard would make easy for most guys to train him because the out of the ring craziness and the discipline problems and the kid not running, not eating right, not doing his homework is not really an issue. He's very self sufficient in that way. The trainer doesn't have to worry about telling him to make sure he does his crunches, make sure he runs, make sure he works hard on his own.
Q: Looking in another direction, who is in your stable these days? Who are your boxers and what do they have coming up on the horizon?
ICEMAN: I am in the gym every day at a spectacular facility in Middletown, Connecticut called The Lions Den and I have a nice bunch of guys I am working with. A good bunch of guys that I have a lot of fun with every day. I have some young amateurs like Jarin Clay-Bey (son of 1996 U.S.A. Olympian Lawrence Clay-Bey), who is a pretty promising amateur light heavyweight. I have some other young guys trying to climb the amateur ladder, just starting out. I have a junior lightweight named Joey Perez who is currently 1-0 as a pro and is boxing next week on the same show as Remillard in Knoxville (Tenn.). Mike Oliver (former IBO Super Bantam World Champion) should be boxing again in January and then there's Matt Godfrey (NABF champion and world rated cruiserweight) who is in negotiations to fight Steve Cunningham for the vacant IBF title.
The Golden Gloves tournament also starts in about three weeks so everyone in the area is getting ready for that, too.
Q: What in your mind makes a great trainer? A successful trainer? What are problems with trainers today? Give us the Iceman's take on the training aspect of boxing as you see it.
ICEMAN: You know, for me there are so many things that go into making a good or a great trainer and one of them, to be honest, is opportunity. There are a lot of trainers out there that no one has ever heard of who have a great deal of knowledge and boxing intelligence but for one reason or another they haven't had the chance for the boxing world to see or hear them in action.
Take Naazim Richardson for example. People know him now for his work with Hopkins and most recently with Shane Mosley. It's only recently that people are talking about him more and more, especially after the fight with Shane and Margarito where he had some good quotes in the corner on TV, telling Shane to "swim without getting wet." Everybody ate that one up and many people are into him now but the thing is many of us have known Naazim for a long, long time from back when he was training so many top notch elite amateurs for all those years. I mean, I first met him way back in 1994 and I got to know his sons and his nephews and some of the other kids he trained and these are elite level, and in some cases world class, amateur boxers we are talking about. Sometimes I spoke to him on the phone or sat and talked at tournaments and it was always apparent that he had a very keen boxing mind but it wasn't until 2008 or 2009 that people in the boxing community really caught on to that. So the thing is that it stands to reason that there are other guys out there just like that with great insight and knowledge that most people wouldn't know if they stood right in front of them. It isn't just the famous and well connected trainers who have the most knowledge and skills.
And I'm not talking about a guy who just says he's a trainer just because the way the game is set up allows him to do so. The guys who concoct flashy routines on the pads so that they can show off with this big elaborate show for the guys in the gym or some guy who keeps yelling out generic slogans so that he can sound like he knows what he's doing. They'll keep yelling, "Angles, angles! Bob and weave, jab, keep jabbing. Shoeshine, put the stick on him, throw the hook!"
I mean, they yell for the guy to throw the hook but they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason behind the instructions, you know? Too many guys just yell stuff out because they feel they have to yell something.
Q: On another front, Ice, the entire boxing world is anxiously awaiting the pending Mayweather versus Pacman fight. How do you see that match going and who do you favor?
ICEMAN: So hard to say because both guys have so much going for them. I may change my thinking closer to the fight and I do think Manny's speed and tenacity and power are going to cause problems but, for me, as much as I really like him as a fighter, it's just harder to pick against Mayweather than it is to pick against Manny.
Q: Finally, we recently saw the seemingly atrocious scorecard turned in the night of Paul Williams versus Sergio Martinez by ringside judge Pierre Benoist. What was your take on that scorecard and how do you see the controversy surrounding boxing judges in this recent era???
ICEMAN: There are so many bad decisions in the sport of boxing but, to be honest, to be fair, I have to say that I myself wouldn't want the pressure of being a boxing judge. To have to concentrate on every single aspect of a fight for the entire three minutes of a round and decide who to give the round to isn't as easy as someone may think. I wouldn't want that kind of pressure on me. And, I don't know, I mean, I can't name names but I think it's a realistic notion that there are probably some judges out there who really and truly have no business being boxing judges. It's a lot of power to have and it seems that most are highly qualified but it can't be denied that some scorecards we've seen bring up realistic questions, specifically "Is this particular guy being completely honest and ethical here tonight? and "Does this guy really and truly know what he is looking at?"
Boxing is kind of a crazy set up if you really think about it too deeply. I mean, you have a close fight, a tough fight, and basically your entire career and reputation and record and future comes down to you trusting that this guy in a suit at ringside knows what he's looking at. You don't know if he even has any real boxing experience behind him, you don't know if he has ADD, you don't know if he is biased you and your style. Maybe he doesn't like you from having seen you fight before. He thinks you're too cocky or he hates your interviews or he has a beef with your trainer or manager. But there he is, in charge of your fate.
It's not like the 100 meter dash where no one can say you didn't run faster than the guy who obviously finished three feet behind you.
Iceman Scully Officially Steps Up Training Duties With promising featherweight Remillard
Connecticut based trainer, and former IBF world light heavyweight title challenger, "Iceman" John Scully is as busy as ever these days. Coming off of his November 21 induction into the Connecticut Boxing Hall of Fame, the Iceman is not only in the gym training the likes of junior lightweight pro Joseph "Chip" Perez (1-0) and amateur light heavyweight Jarin Clay-Bey, son of former heavyweight contender and 1996 U.S. Olympian Lawrence Clay-Bey, but he has also seen his involvement with featherweight prospect Matt Sharpshooter Remillard (19-0) officially upgraded from cornerman and sometime advice giver to co-trainer.
Both Perez and Remillard are slated for undercard action at Cotton Eyed Joe's in Knoxville, Tennessee on December 19th
From his recent stint on ESPNNews as a special in-studio analyst for the Pacquio-Cotto fight to the upcoming release of his tome, The Iceman Diaries, the Iceman remains as cool as ever. Read on to see the latest with one of boxing's true renaissance men.
Both Perez and Remillard are slated for undercard action at Cotton Eyed Joe's in Knoxville, Tennessee on December 19th
From his recent stint on ESPNNews as a special in-studio analyst for the Pacquio-Cotto fight to the upcoming release of his tome, The Iceman Diaries, the Iceman remains as cool as ever. Read on to see the latest with one of boxing's true renaissance men.
Q: Iceman, tell me, how did you being added to Team Remillard more as a working trainer come about??
ICEMAN: The thing is that I have known Matt since way back when he was a kid boxing in the juniors. I actually used to spar with him sometimes back then and would bring a couple of my boxers over to spar with him back when he was in the amateurs, too. So it was the kind of atmosphere where after the sparring we would all sit around and talk about how things went that day, what worked, what wasn't working, things like that. And sometimes his coach would have me show him a few things. Then when Matt turned pro they officially added me as a cornerman and from his pro debut I have been there on the team for every fight except for one where I had to be in California on the same day with another fighter, Matt Godfrey.
Now I guess it is a thing where Matt is advancing well, his career is really starting gain momentum, and I guess his management felt he needed to buckle down and focus on some of the more intricate aspects of boxing and when they asked if I would work with him a couple days a week one-on-one I said "yes, of course, anything you need."
And that was that.
Q: What types of things are you working on with the young featherweight?
ICEMAN: Well, for me, one thing I always concentrate on with any fighter is the jab. I think that is the one punch that I am very good at teaching, I have a good handle on how to properly execute the different types of jabs there are and with Matt that is something I have really focused on for a long time. I remember one time back around eight or ten years ago when he was just a kid I copied a video tape of Mark Breland for him to watch over and over again because Breland always had a very good jab and he had a very good way of delivering it in almost effortless fashion. So that's my main thing probably. I also put a lot of emphasis on adding to the leverage he gets on his punches, transmitting his weight better so that he can get better results. His body punching is key area we focus on in that regard. He is a very good body puncher and I am just trying to show him how to place his shots a little better and at the right times to maximize his results. How to get more body into the punches, how to shift his weight better.
And, finally, I think he is going to be feinting a hundred times better than ever before. That's the goal anyway. When I was fighting I always knew how to feint but I didn't do it nearly enough, it wasn't really part of my automatic reaction and it was something that I always felt I should have done a lot more. Matt is picking that up very, very well because he is a smart kid, he knows boxing and understand the mechanics of the game. We work constantly on his jab and his feinting and on different techniques that you don't see every day. Not just the run of the mill jab, right hand, left hook combination.
As an example I can tell you about something that literally just happened two days back(December 9, 2009). On Tuesday I was working with him in the gym on a specific move, a body punch that I learned from Mike McCallum. A sneaky shot, there's a particular way to deliver it. It's a punch that can't just be thrown, it has to be executed, you know? And literally less than five minutes after we first worked on it he drilled one of his sparring partners with it like he had been doing it all his life.
And then, just twenty four hours later, he was sparring with a much bigger guy and he apparently executed the punch - I wasn't there, he told me about it after it happened- so perfectly that it put his opponent down to his knees. So that's just an example of how quickly he can pick something up whereas another fighter may take a week or a month even to get the same results, if ever.
Q: I know that you have worked his corner in the past and can be seen on more than one cable outlet giving him some stellar advice in the corner between rounds. I have also seen in print more than once where you stated that you believe your background as an amateur and professional boxing is what has made you one of the top up and coming trainers in the world today. Any particular moments that stand out in your mind as ones where your background as a boxer came into play and/or made a difference?
ICEMAN: I think there are many instances in my particular case where I called upon my previous boxing experience to know what I needed to have a guy do in a particular situation. I mean, no one really taught me how to be a trainer. I'm just using my boxing experience to guide me. I can think of one fight down in Baltimore, I forget the name of the opponent right now (Note: April of 2009 technical knockout victory in round three over Jesus Salvador Perez), and Matt was kind of taking his time and boxing the guy. It wasn't a great fight or anything and I felt Matt was having trouble getting his range because the guy was a little more elusive and a little more cagey and when Matt would take his time and try to pick his spots the other guy was reacting quickly and letting his hands go, catching Matt in the middle of things. And, it's weird, but sometimes I feel like a perceptive fighter can look at another fighter in action and because he's been in the same situation, he can tell not only what the guy is thinking in there but also what the guy is feeling. And from my own experience I know that feeling of trying to be calm and patient but your opponents speed and ability to keep distance between you can be very frustrating so I told Matt in the corner to forget about the boxing, forget about taking his time. He needed to be able to change the strategy right there in midstream and turn the fight into more of a back and forth inside brawl so that he could minimize the guys ability to counter him from a distance.
And the very next round ended up being the last round of the fight (Remillard scored a stoppage)and Remillard won.
Q: So it is safe to assume that you have high hopes for Remillard in terms of bursting onto the world scene at some point in the future? Tell us why. And let boxing fans who may not be familiar with him know what it is about him that should have them stay up late to catch him on a televised card.
ICEMAN: Well, I mean, I certainly think he is a legitimate prospect if that's what you mean. He has the work ethic, the develping skills, the ability to pick things up quickly. He seems like he takes a good shot. He's a strong puncher, a tough kid. He has good size for a featherweight, he has a very solid amateur background, he's learned many skills and tactics through several years of having sparred with some very accomplished professional fighters. Probably his greatest asset is his mental strength and focus. I mean, and there are not a million guys you could honestly say this about, but if his entire training and management team were to go away for a month and leave him alone with no verbal or physical contact whatsoever, I have absolutely no doubts that his weight would still be pretty much the same as it was on the day we all left. And if he had a fight coming up he would be at the contracted weight. You don't have to check on him, you don't have to hold his hand, you don't have to remind him of how important dedication and discipline is. And that's not the case with far too many fighters to be completely honest with you. So in that regard Matt Remillard would make easy for most guys to train him because the out of the ring craziness and the discipline problems and the kid not running, not eating right, not doing his homework is not really an issue. He's very self sufficient in that way. The trainer doesn't have to worry about telling him to make sure he does his crunches, make sure he runs, make sure he works hard on his own.
Q: Looking in another direction, who is in your stable these days? Who are your boxers and what do they have coming up on the horizon?
ICEMAN: I am in the gym every day at a spectacular facility in Middletown, Connecticut called The Lions Den and I have a nice bunch of guys I am working with. A good bunch of guys that I have a lot of fun with every day. I have some young amateurs like Jarin Clay-Bey (son of 1996 U.S.A. Olympian Lawrence Clay-Bey), who is a pretty promising amateur light heavyweight. I have some other young guys trying to climb the amateur ladder, just starting out. I have a junior lightweight named Joey Perez who is currently 1-0 as a pro and is boxing next week on the same show as Remillard in Knoxville (Tenn.). Mike Oliver (former IBO Super Bantam World Champion) should be boxing again in January and then there's Matt Godfrey (NABF champion and world rated cruiserweight) who is in negotiations to fight Steve Cunningham for the vacant IBF title.
The Golden Gloves tournament also starts in about three weeks so everyone in the area is getting ready for that, too.
Q: What in your mind makes a great trainer? A successful trainer? What are problems with trainers today? Give us the Iceman's take on the training aspect of boxing as you see it.
ICEMAN: You know, for me there are so many things that go into making a good or a great trainer and one of them, to be honest, is opportunity. There are a lot of trainers out there that no one has ever heard of who have a great deal of knowledge and boxing intelligence but for one reason or another they haven't had the chance for the boxing world to see or hear them in action.
Take Naazim Richardson for example. People know him now for his work with Hopkins and most recently with Shane Mosley. It's only recently that people are talking about him more and more, especially after the fight with Shane and Margarito where he had some good quotes in the corner on TV, telling Shane to "swim without getting wet." Everybody ate that one up and many people are into him now but the thing is many of us have known Naazim for a long, long time from back when he was training so many top notch elite amateurs for all those years. I mean, I first met him way back in 1994 and I got to know his sons and his nephews and some of the other kids he trained and these are elite level, and in some cases world class, amateur boxers we are talking about. Sometimes I spoke to him on the phone or sat and talked at tournaments and it was always apparent that he had a very keen boxing mind but it wasn't until 2008 or 2009 that people in the boxing community really caught on to that. So the thing is that it stands to reason that there are other guys out there just like that with great insight and knowledge that most people wouldn't know if they stood right in front of them. It isn't just the famous and well connected trainers who have the most knowledge and skills.
And I'm not talking about a guy who just says he's a trainer just because the way the game is set up allows him to do so. The guys who concoct flashy routines on the pads so that they can show off with this big elaborate show for the guys in the gym or some guy who keeps yelling out generic slogans so that he can sound like he knows what he's doing. They'll keep yelling, "Angles, angles! Bob and weave, jab, keep jabbing. Shoeshine, put the stick on him, throw the hook!"
I mean, they yell for the guy to throw the hook but they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason behind the instructions, you know? Too many guys just yell stuff out because they feel they have to yell something.
Q: On another front, Ice, the entire boxing world is anxiously awaiting the pending Mayweather versus Pacman fight. How do you see that match going and who do you favor?
ICEMAN: So hard to say because both guys have so much going for them. I may change my thinking closer to the fight and I do think Manny's speed and tenacity and power are going to cause problems but, for me, as much as I really like him as a fighter, it's just harder to pick against Mayweather than it is to pick against Manny.
Q: Finally, we recently saw the seemingly atrocious scorecard turned in the night of Paul Williams versus Sergio Martinez by ringside judge Pierre Benoist. What was your take on that scorecard and how do you see the controversy surrounding boxing judges in this recent era???
ICEMAN: There are so many bad decisions in the sport of boxing but, to be honest, to be fair, I have to say that I myself wouldn't want the pressure of being a boxing judge. To have to concentrate on every single aspect of a fight for the entire three minutes of a round and decide who to give the round to isn't as easy as someone may think. I wouldn't want that kind of pressure on me. And, I don't know, I mean, I can't name names but I think it's a realistic notion that there are probably some judges out there who really and truly have no business being boxing judges. It's a lot of power to have and it seems that most are highly qualified but it can't be denied that some scorecards we've seen bring up realistic questions, specifically "Is this particular guy being completely honest and ethical here tonight? and "Does this guy really and truly know what he is looking at?"
Boxing is kind of a crazy set up if you really think about it too deeply. I mean, you have a close fight, a tough fight, and basically your entire career and reputation and record and future comes down to you trusting that this guy in a suit at ringside knows what he's looking at. You don't know if he even has any real boxing experience behind him, you don't know if he has ADD, you don't know if he is biased you and your style. Maybe he doesn't like you from having seen you fight before. He thinks you're too cocky or he hates your interviews or he has a beef with your trainer or manager. But there he is, in charge of your fate.
It's not like the 100 meter dash where no one can say you didn't run faster than the guy who obviously finished three feet behind you.
