"David, a lot of talking in the build-up to this. A lot of people with their opinions about whether or not it should happen. It is gonna happen. What's your take on it?"
"Whether people want it or not, as you said, it's gonna happen. If you don't wanna watch it, don't watch it. If you do, fantastic. You're gonna get a great fight. Boxing's about two guys fighting each other. Obviously, with rules. We've done it without rules. And ideally that wouldn't have happened, but if that wouldn't have happened, maybe this fight wouldn't have happened with me and him. The hysteria surrounding it. The amount of media worldwide interest in this fight. The amount of people that pull me up on the streets daily, 'Fight Dereck Chisora, shut him up, the guy's such an idiot, you have to do it.' I'm like, OK then, let's get it on. So I've got an opportunity now. Summer time, I'm already in decent shape. All I've got to do is tape it down, and go out there and teach this boy a lesson. I already have taught him a lesson, in Germany when he got in my face. He got put on his back real quick. He wants to do it in a bigger forum, then OK."
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"I have to ask about that: How much do you regret what happened in Munich?"
"I don't regret it at all. I think anybody should hold their ground, if anyone comes up to them who threatens them, says they're going to break their jaw when they see them, says they're gonna beat them up, says they're gonna give them two slaps. Someone walks into your face, you've got the right to defend yourself, your property, your family. If you get a bully who tries to threaten you, to do something, gets in your personal space, I believe every man, woman, and child is in their right to defend themselves. And that's exactly what I was doing."
"So what about the fight itself when it comes to happen? Dereck fancies it obviously, he must."
"He fancies his last three title fights, which he lost. Just because he fancies something doesn't mean he gets it. I've seen him fight before. He's a solid club fighter. The only reason this fight's happening is because he's so crazy. The guy does stupid things, he says silly things, he gets arrested for silly things. The hype sold. And I'm gonna have to do it for real. He's gonna realize I'm not one of these big, tall, giant guys who's just trying to get away from him. We're the same size. He's never been hit as hard as he's gonna get hit against me."
"He's gonna be right in your face, isn't he? He'll bring the fight to you. He models himself on Joe Frazier, which is what he's gonna try to do."
"We're planning for that. I'm hoping, I'm praying for that. If you look through my record at guys who tried to press me, ever since the Carl Thompson fight, the whole blueprint to beat me is get into the second half of the fight, because I'm gonna fade, and they're going to take over. Well that's never happened. The only guy to beat me since then was Wladimir Klitschko, who outboxed me. He was only able to do that because he was so big. Good athletic, good long arms, had four inches of height on me. This guy's the same size. He's not a boxer, he's a pressure fighter. He's a polar opposite to the guy who beat me in my last fight. So for me, this is gonna be fun."
"David, people are going to be talking about the possibility still in the future of a fight against one of the Klitschkos, probably Vitali, and Bernd Boente, his manager, has already said, 'Get this fight on against Dereck Chisora, and that can still happen.' Is that your ambition?"
"Ideally, I've always said that was the only fight I wanted. And that fight doesn't look like it's happening for the foreseeable future. So with that not being there, I'm always in shape, I'm always in the gym training. So I got the opportunity in ten weeks to smash up Dereck Chisora. I think it's a no-brainer for me. It's a simple answer. 'Do you fancy having a fight?' Ideally, it would obviously be Vitali or Wladimir. That's not going to happen, so the next person on the list, I'd say, would be Chisora. So here we go."
"And finally, 35,000 probably are going to be here watching it. It's going to be a huge event, isn't it? Are you confident this time you can really deliver and do yourself justice?"
"Yeah, no doubt about it. You've got to look at the difference in caliber of the opposition. I was fighting Wladimir Klitschko. People regard him as the best fighter on the planet. I went into that fight, did the best I could on the night, wasn't enough. But his attributes and Dereck Chisora's attributes are polar opposite. The things I struggled with Wladimir, I will not struggle with Dereck. I haven't looked forward to a fight like this for a long time. Because of the stuff he's been saying, not only to the public, but to people out there in the world, people I know -- it's time to shut this guy up. The guy's a bully. The guy is used to saying whatever he wants to say, because he's a big guy. He goes up to the average guy on the street, he can intimidate people. He slapped Vitali in the face, he got no response. He spat in Wladimir's face, no response. He's used to no one reacting and responding to his bully tactics. He can't do that with me. I think he'll realize that on the night. He might try and rush in, but he's going to rush into some big punches. I guarantee you, everybody claims before they fight me, they're gonna walk through me. Once people start tasting the power, they soon revert away from just letting their hands go. I'm hoping that he doesn't, I hope he just keeps punching, because the more he punches, the more punishment I'll inflict."