he had alot of interesting things to say in another website. This Joe Pastore, his ex manager and strenghth and conditioning coach
ill quote him
"FACT: The injury to Kermits hand was originally sustained as an amatuer. FACT: He fought his first 24 fights wit han injured hand and one them all, 22 by KO so the injured hand excuse is wack. FACT: I have seen him quit in sparring, but I have also see him box Bernard Hopkins to a standstill for 24 rounds. FACT: I have never seen him legitimately hurt until David Estrada. FACT: Before fighting Margarito Kermit scarcely lost a round. SInce moving to Manny Steward he has gone life and death in 3 out of 4 fights against b-c level boxers. What it comes down to is basically this. Kermit is weak mentally. If you let him gain any confidence early he will most likely knock your head clean off your shoulders, but if you challenge him you have a good chance of breaking his spirit!"
Q. Kermit boxed Bernard Hopkins to a standstill in sparring?
"Sure did. 24 rounds total. All were extremely close. Sparring had to be stopped the first day because it became so heated. It was getting out of control. But yes, 24 rounds and very hard to pick a winner in every round. But, I also watch him quit against Yusef Mack, Andrew Lewis, and Erik Mitchell."
Q. Out of curiosity, what happened.. why did he move on?
"He moved on because he met a girl who wanted to be in control of him and his career, and him being the weak minded individually that he is he went for it 100%. His preparation for Margarito was laughable. He missed entire workouts. Routinely showed up 30-60 min late. Quit in the middle of sme workouts. Quit in sparring. Quit in some of his runs. Totally neglected his strength training. He would have his girl and her kid come into the gym to train. All he cared about was his new relationship, and when we tried to get his head into training all it did was further alienate him for us."
"When I say he quit in sparring I need to clarify and be more specific. He didnt stop sparring and take his gloves off. He would just submit. Go into a shell and stop fighting back. To put it in perspective go rewatch the last round or two of his fight with Margarito. Look at his face when he was looking at us in the corner. He looks for a way out.
I dont recall when it happened, but the thing was he might do it one day, then the next week he might box Bernard to a standstill, or drop Kassim Ouma. So we tried to stay positive and chalk it up to a bad day, but Marshall always suspected he lacked th heart to dig deep, but even Marshall began to believe in him when he dug in for the fight with Reid. Unfortunately our wirst fears about him turned out to be true."
Very interesting things from joe Pastore
what do you guys think?
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