David Diamante Interview — The Passion Behind The Voice
During the Gassiev-Dorticos fight week we managed to catch the voice of the World Boxing Super Series backstage and asked about his opinion on the sport he loves.
Gleb Kuzin:
The fight. Murat Gassiev — Yunier Dorticos. What do you think?
David Diamante:
I think this is an incredible fight, but not just for boxing. There’s more ramifications than just one fight — this is what world boxing super series is doing by unifying the titles. It’s what the fans really want. So yes, it is a great fight but also great that the fight that was last week — between Briedis and Usyk — and the winner of this fight to fight that for all four title — it’s incredible.
But this fight specifically — amazing. It’s a fifty/fifty fight.
GK:
Who would you bet your money on if you had?
DD:
It’s a fifty-fifty fight. I mean, you toss a coin… It really depends, I mean both guys have alot of strengths and it depends on who’s gonna land that big strong punch early and who can handle that because both of these guys have alot of power.
GK:
How did you like the last week’s fight? Usyk v Briedis.
DD:
Oh man! What a war! Two lions going head to head and nobody buckled, nobody wavered — they both went at it to the very final rounds. I think they both can hold their heads high after that fight.
GK:
Who do you think won the fight?
DD:
I’m not a judge and I didn’t score the fight but I think that the judges got it right. I think it was very close, very close. One of the judges had it even and the other judges had it only one more round for Usyk. I think it’s that close of a fight. These professional judges are very good so I trust what they see.
GK:
Did Usyk impress you alot? Or do you think the punches that he ate — if he ate those kind of punches against either Dorticos or Briedis could’ve meant big trouble for Oleksandr?
DD:
Every match-up is different, when a guy has a different skill set you fight him differently differently. Their power, their reach, their footwork, their speed, their experience — it’s all matters. Usyk is a good boxer: he’s cagey, he’s smart. I think it’s a boxer’s job to neutralize the power of the other fighter. You just don’t stand there and take a guy’s punch. I think if anyone stays in front Gassiev or Dorticos, they go to sleep. So you just don’t stand in front of them, you gotta box, you gotta move. So that’s what we have to see.
Whoever comes out of this they’re gonna have to get to Usyk. You can’t knock a guy out if you can’t touch him in the right way. So we’ll see, it’s gonna be interesting.
GK:
Do you seek Usyk as the favorite to win the tournament?
DD:
Well he is the number one seed, but I think all that really goes out the window. I don’t really look at that because, look, at this point of the tournament, it could be anybody’s. It really comes down to who wants it more, who shows up to fight, and who lands those big punches so it could really be anyone’s. I don’t care about seeds at this point whether you’re a one, two or four I think this is anybody’s tournament.
GK:
Okay, the most anticipated fight of the year. Golovkin, Canelo, The Rematch.
DD:
Well I don’t think it’s the most anticipated fight of 2018, it’s one of them but there’s alot of the anticipated fights, you got alot of other great fights to come but I think it’s a very good fight, of course. And of course GGG is here and that’s gonna be a very interesting fight. You know alot of people think GGG won the first fight and he was robbed but at the same time when you watch that fight, Canelo landed some really good strong punches, counter punches in that fight so it depends how you scored it.
Going into the next fight some people are saying that GGG is maybe slowing down just a bit, maybe losing a little bit of a step. I could tell you this: Canelo comes to fight every time, so does GGG. These guys, I think next time, next fight, whoever wins it, they’re gonna be looking to make a statement. Because I think GGG felt that he won that fight and maybe he didn’t put an exclamation point on what he needed to do to really say “I won that fight”. Canelo I think for the most part, you know he fought the way he needed to fight GGG is counter-punching and kinda evading that big power, but he had some really nice crisp shots and his handspeed was very good in that fight.
So it’s gonna be very interesting to see, I can’t wait for the rematch!
GK:
You seem like a very passionate boxing fan, how much do you enjoy your position right now? Just being there, being able to announce the fights.
DD:
Let me tell you this. I literally one day I think to myself “What is the best job in the world?” and I sit and I think — Ring Announcer, of course. Because Boxing is the best sport in the world. Enjoying the center of it all — how amazing it would be? I’m gonna do that, I think. And I did it. And it took many, many, many years to get here, but what’s really wonderful about it is the fact that yes, it’s great to be here. You know I’m doing the fight in NYC next week in Times Square and later that week I’ll be in Canada doing the fight, two smaller shows and I’m just as happy to do those two.
I love the sport of boxing and I’m so honoured to be in this position, it’s an honour for me to do it and I love doing it that that shows because it’s the best job in the world, that’s why I got into it.
GK:
It’s an honour to have such a passionate person doing the job for us.
DD:
Thank you. Thank you so much, very nice to meet you.
GK:
Thank you so much. Nice meeting you.
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