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Unlike his fighter Hank
Lundy, Coach Charles Ramey is not the trash-talking type.
Ramey has been in the boxing game for decades, and speaks
much softer than his brash boxer. However, he and Lundy
share the same confidence and believe that Saturday’s fight
with Terence Crawford, at Madison Square Garden Theater, is
one that Lundy will win.
Although Lundy’s staff
has been like a revolving door through the years, Ramey was
Lundy’s first trainer, and now finds himself back in Lundy’s
corner for the biggest fight of the 140-pounder’s career.
They joined forces the day Hank first entered South Philly’s
Marian Anderson Rec Center, fourteen years ago.
“I am the original
trainer,” Coach Ramey said. “I had him from the
beginning.”
Lundy separated from
Ramey due to the typically greener pastures that a rising
prospect often perceives elsewhere. In the years that
followed Hank’s split from Ramey, Team Lundy changed faces
numerous times and much water passed under the bridge.
However, for the past year or so, Hammerin’ Hank has been
reunited with Ramey, and both trainer and fighter think the
return to roots will help bring the title back to Philly.
“Now, after two fights
back with me, he’s getting a world title fight,” Ramey said.
“The opportunity is there, now it’s just time to maximize on
it.”
IS HANK A MORE
MATURE FIGHTER THIS TIME AROUND?
“This fight has made a difference,” Ramey said. “He’s
more focused. He’s more intense in his training. He’s
taken everything up to another level for this fight. He
knows this fight is about to be a career-changer for him.
It’s a wonderful fight. The whole camp feels that it’s a
very wonderful fight.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK
ABOUT CRAWFORD AS A FIGHTER?
“I have the utmost respect for him,” Ramey said. “So
far, everything he’s been expected to do, he did it in good
fashion and form. To me, he’s a very well-disciplined
fighter. But come February 27th, I don’t like
him and I don’t respect him no more because that night I’ll
have someone on the other side of the ring from him.”
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO
BE CAREFUL ABOUT VS. CRAWFORD?
“To be truthful with you, everything. Everything,”
Ramey said. “He’s a sound fighter. That’s why he’s number
four or five in the world pound for pound.”
WHAT DOES LUNDY
BRING TO THE FIGHT?
“He has been in there with much better opposition than
Crawford,” Ramey said. “Not downing Crawford, but Crawford
hasn’t been in there with athletes like Hank has. Hank has
beaten some top, world class fighters. Crawford’s 27-0, but
he knows that this is probably going to be his toughest,
hardest fight that he ever had because he’s in there with a
guy with comparable speed. In there with a guy that can
switch up and do the same thing you do. What I’ve seen so
far, he (Crawford) hasn’t had that look before. So he knows
in his mind that they both talk a lot of smack back and
forth, but believe me, both of them has the utmost respect
for each other.”
HANK IS CONFIDENT;
COULD HE BE TOO CONFIDENT?
“You can talk one thing, but in your inner sense, you
know what you’re going up against,” Ramey said. “You know
what this man (Crawford) is bringing to the table. I feel
both of them have a certain amount of respect (for each
other). Hank knows this may be the hardest fight of his
life and that a lot of the things he’s been doing in
previous fights, he can’t do in this fight because this boy
will capitalize on it. So he knows. He’s more focused.
He’s listening. He’s doing things I’m asking him to do. So
that tells me that he’s done took it up to another level.
He’s respecting Crawford because how do you not respect
him? The man’s never been beat. He can fight. So you’re
crazy not to.”
IS BEING THE
UNDERDOG A GOOD THING?
“Everybody has Hank as a big underdog, and I love that,”
Ramey said. “I love being the underdog because you don’t
have that pressure. Crawford not only feels he has to win,
he has to look good in this win. If Hank puts a hurtin’ on
him and Crawford just gets a win, that’s not good for him
because they have him on this platitude of being the best
pound for pound. One of the best. So he always has to
WIN. That’s the kind of pressure he has on him.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT
WILL HAPPEN ON FIGHT NIGHT?
“This is what’s going to make this fight so interesting
come the 27th,” Ramey said. “Which one can impose
their will on the other? Which one can stay with the game
plan and execute and throw the other one off their
strategy? Crawford’s a very huge favorite because he’s been
doing everything right. 27-0 with 19 knockouts. But you
never see fear in Hank. He fears no man. He don’t believe
no one can beat him. He don’t believe even Mayweather can
beat him.”
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