Exclusive Boxing Interview: Lanardo Tyner

What’s wrong with a fighter who throws every punch with deadly intent? Who can fight anywhere between 135 and 147? And add to that, he wants to do it at least six times a year.

Lanardo “Pain Server” Tyner is upset. Someone is keeping food off his table. Whether it’s shady promoters with false promises of big fights on major networks, up-and-coming fighters with comparable records who want to fight him on two weeks notice or journeyman who fight those selfsame up-and-comers for big paychecks, Tyner has a history with guys trying to give him a good look at the backs of their heads.

Just pull up a chair and he can talk you ear off about it.

SaddoBoxing did just that, speaking to the native Detroiter from his Houston home about his upcoming bout with Hugo Lewis that somehow turned into a last minute bout with Covington, Tennessee’s Marteze “Too Sweet” Logan. But the Pain Server has already turned that frown upside down.

“He’s a last minute replacement,” Lanardo admits, “but he fought some world champions and guys that knocked him out. And by me not having my mind focused on him, it’s gonna be a lot harder. That’s what I get for not having a promoter.”

He expounded on his predicament, saying, “Nobody will give me a chance. Everyone I want to fight on my level don’t want to fight me because it’s a risk. I’m caught in a dilemma because the guys with the same record, they don’t want to fight me because they be trying to build.

“And the guys who want to fight them don’t want to fight me because I’m known as a hard puncher and they want to make money. If they fight me and I knock them out, they got to wait four months before they can fight again. I really need a promoter that’s known. Gary Shaw or Bob Arum—somebody like that. Somebody with TV dates.”

Tyner got his first taste of the sport when he was a child. One of his eight uncles used to get on his knees and let the children punch him in the face until he had a bloody nose. He would go on to have a brief amateur career after he turned 26, going 16-2 before his pro debut three years ago.

Despite Marteze Logan’s dismal-looking 25-29-2 record, Tyner doesn’t view “Too Sweet” as a pushover. “I’m not looking for a knock out,” he says, “but I’m quite sure if he can be kayoed, I can do it.”

I asked him what happened to former opponent Hugo Lewis: “I guess he pulled out. I don’t know.”

Add to the fact that opponents are putting him through the ringer, if not outright avoiding him, he was actually hungry when SaddoBoxing spoke to him. “Getting ready to get this weight,” he says. “Can’t eat right now.”

But his goals for next year could have him with a full plate, appearing in the ring at least six times, some on short notice. “At least six or seven times. At least. Just to be able to get that fight. I wanna be able to get that fight to push my name up there. I ain’t got time to be playin right now. I see what I have to do. I have to fight the guys who want to fight me on a two week notice.”

“Have you had two week notices?” I ask him. “I had one with [both] the Peterson brothers,” he begins. “Both of them I could have fought, but I need at least three weeks. Tyner takes on the Peterson brothers, either one. Randall Bailey tried to call me out with a week or two. But I had a fight already with Shamone Alvarez but something must have happened to him. I can beat him.

“He’s a southpaw and he wanna just stand there and fight. He ain’t looking just to survive. Like this guy, I wanna fight now he just gonna try to survive. He’ll try to win if he see the opportunity. It’ll be a big thing if I knock him out. I’m damn sure gon’ try. I feel I’ll be in the door. That’ll stand out.”

Perhaps some see him as just another slugger wanting to take his opponents out with one shot. In his bout at the Palace of Auburn Hills, he was noticeably gassed in the latter rounds against Martinus Clay. “That guy was a 154. He was a last minute replacement. He had to lose seven pounds the day of the weigh-in. I saw him on the treadmill. I weighed in with my clothes on.”

But the Pain Server says he can do more than brawl. “My boxing ability,” Tyner responds when I ask him what the most underestimated thing about him in the ring. “They don’t think I can box. They think I slug every time. If I have to box, I can box. Someone have to make me box.”

I ask him if his crowd-pleasing style works against him at times and he says, “No, I don’t think. In what way can it?” But when I point out his performance against Clay, in which he eked out a majority decision he laughs and acknowledges that it can be problematic.

His hunger keeps him going. The Pain Server has that old style attitude by having no fear of mixing it up with his opposition and being unafraid of anyone in the three divisions he can compete in. Tyner knows what it will take to get “fed’.

“I’m just looking for a promoter, just give me a chance. Just give me an opportunity. I don’t wanna be a kid who was good who never had a chance. Just give me three weeks and I’ll fight anybody from 147 to 135.”