Albert Sosnowski was recently interviewed ahead of his WBC heavyweight championship fight with current champ Vitali Klitschk ahead of their title clash this Saturday, May 29th. Here's the actual transcript of the interview.
Do you feel the pressure connected with the fight at the moment?
Yes, the final countdown to the fight already started. The remaining day will surely go very fast. I'm rather calm by now but sometimes I have thoughts mobilizing me to intensified work. This is the fight of my life, I want to take the chance because such occasion may not happen again. Everything goes well by now. My training sessions go satisfactorily, especially sparring. Apart from that, I'm healthy, I didn't catch any injury which makes me really glad. There's anything which hampers my hard preparations. Additionally, we cooperate with a psychologist in order to be well mentally prepared. It will help me to maintain full concentration despite of the big pressure. We'll see. Let's hope that everything will be 110% completed. I hope that the top of my form will fall on May 29th which will allow me to perform excellently.
You know very well what to expect from the Klitschko: jabs, powerful left blows dealt from a distance. The whole world knows his style of boxing. What will you use so as to surprise him?
That's right. Vitali Klitschko is a magnificent fighter having his specific style of boxing. The style is unpredictable, he deals various kinds of punches. He has both left and right hand atomic. Everybody knows that his clean punch results in KO. How do I want to surprise him? Among others by my positive approach to the bout. I'll enter the ring in order to defeat him. I won't have the clash already lost before the first bell. It's not enough for me that I face the world champion Vitali Klitschko. The endurance to the final bell won't be enough to satisfy me. I want to show my character, the self-confidence and the belief in the final victory. The crucial issue will be my speed, aggressiveness, and determination which will make him a bit nervous and hamper him. Subsequently, I'll try to take a risk regardless of the fact that the possibility of my defeat by KO will be higher. I'll be definitely striving to surprise him somehow, to take a serious risk. Surely, I won't be focusing only on avoiding KO but I'll be fighting to win victory over him, I can promise. Will I be successful? It will be verified in the ring.
At first sight, the tactics to fight the Klitschko brothers may look very simple: to shorten the distance. However nobody has succeeded in doing it by now. Where's the key to push the way through his jabs?
As I said previously, the key element will be my mentality, my approach to the contest. The majority of boxers who came face-to-face with the Klitschko's had their bouts already lost in their warm-up rooms. Their dream already came true when they got the fight against one of the Klitschko brothers. The high salary they had been proposed fully compensated the probably poor performance in the ring. That was enough for them and obviously they were paralyzed in the ring later. Frankly speaking, I don't know how will it will look like in my case. However, I must have a proper speed, a tight defense, and good movement. Klitschko's not a machine, he also can have a bad day, or just disregard me. But we don't count on that. I expect Vitali perfectly prepared, showing his best. Thus, we work form this angle. If it will happen differently, it will be only advantageous for me. I'm concentrated on myself. If we compared his and my boxing skills, our experiences and all the remaining elements, it would turn out that my chances are only minimal or I'm deprived of chances completely. On the other hand, my self-confidence, a proper mental approach or simply a fluke, may cause that the whole bout looks differently. I
believe that if I only have one opportunity, I'll take such a chance in the championship bout. I don't want to promise so much, I don't need to make loud announcement, to speak high-flown words. However, I'm determined to achieve a big success. Everything shapes up very well in this way. I'm content with my cooperation with the head coach Fiodor Lapin. I'm satisfied with my attitude to the fight and my tactical plan. Our talks conclude that we believe in the success which motivates the whole team to the intensified work.
Your sparring partners were David Price and Evgeni Orlov. Price is the type of a fighter who can imitate Vitali Klitschko with his great left jab. How do your sparrrings look like?
Actually, David Price only just only became a (? maybe saying he was temporary..), he still has a quick left jab. He deals numerous blows which is characteristic for amateur boxers. Price transferred this style to the professional boxing. It's a pity he had to leave early in connection with his clash. I'm really content with two conducted sparring sessions. I was hitting him frequently, he also endeavoured to exert pressure. We asked him for imitating Klitschko for constant hunting with a straight right. I was defending myself very well. Additionally, I had one sparring with Evgeni Orlov, which I'm also glad about this training fight. Orlov, a bit taller than Klitschko, was very inconvenient, he has a powerful punch. I also managed to hit him numerously. His boxing style doesn't resemble Vitali's, but our aim was to exercise a few tactical elements. I'm also training with Mariusz Wach, because sparring will be prolonged. There is also a chance that Tyson Fury will visit me. All the sparring partners are very tall, we're still focusing on exercising a few tactical points we had planned. we want to prepare several types of actions to make them automatic for me. We planned 10-round and 12-round sparring. I want to check my physical ability. Apart from that, I'm grateful for the help of my sparring partners who strived to imitate Klitschko. It was so important for me.
What were the main points you put an emphasis on during your preparations? Was it improvement of your technique or rather conditional issues? It's known that Vitali is quite an old fighter and you have been always famous for your great endurance.
As far as my conditioning abilities, I showed them only in my last fights which was a bit unexpected. Previously, I had a reputation of a 6 round boxer. The majority of my bouts were scheduled for 6 rounds. The passing to longer contests was very beneficial for me. Last year I fought two 12 round bouts in a good pace, on a big level, and I'm happy about it. We work mainly on the tactical points and on my defense in order to avoid punches. We also focus on proper movement, not only backwards but also sideways. We derived it from the workshop of Tomasz Adamek who's trainers showed him that before the fight against Chris Arreola. The element will be really inconvenient for the rival as tall as Klitschko because it will be harder to hit me. The question of endurance will be also significant. Noticeable crises sometimes happen to Vitali. Such crises may happen again if the pace will be high, and obviously if he doesn't manage to hit me. I'll try to take my advantage then. Of course, it's easier to say than to perform. However, we prepare various options, we work on various elements in order to combine them. It looks great so far. I'm content with the whole work, and I'll try to show my best on May 29th!
Here's the actual interview on video.
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