Interview Dated March 2006 Michael "Hamma" Hamilton Michael Hamilton is one of the latest crop of heavyweights to enter the Houston Boxing Scene. Originally from Huntsville, Texas, the 32-year-old has turned pro relatively late, and on top of that, after recovering from a gunshot wound. He is just one of several heavyweights in the stable of Houston trainer Gary Simon, and his second fight is scheduled for the 20th of this month at the Park Plaza Hotel in Houston. I spoke to him after a recent workout at the Savannah Boxing Club. HBS - How'd you get started boxing? MH - I got started at 14 with a personal trainer. But I moved to Houston and was fighting at Humble and Scott at a gym called Joe's Gym. It was the same gym Mike Williams and Reggie Johnson started out at. HBS - What attracted you to boxing? MH - I didn't like the other sports. It's just something about the physical sports, the hands, the combat. I always liked kung fu movies and just moving my hands and doing something with them has always thrilled me. HBS - So you had an amateur career? MH - Yeah, I went 15-0 amateur and then I got shot and it kind of halted my career and I kind of hesitated to start boxing again because I got shot in the back. Then after awhile I contemplated and I just started going back in the gym and from there it gradually grew. HBS - You want to tell us anything about how you got shot or why? MH - I got shot in a fight. A friend had a fight and I was trying to break the fight up and the dude that he was fighting with pulled a gun and automatically started shooting and I got hit in the back running. HBS - Where was that, here in Houston? MH - It was in Huntsville. HBS - What size weapon was it? MH - It was a 9 millimeter. HBS - So obviously that took you some time to heal. It was a pretty gutsy decision to get back in there and start boxing. When you're in there working out or sparring do you feel it at all any more or is it completely healed? MH - I had a fear at first that it would open or I would get hit and it would affect me but after so long of getting hit in the body and training and doing pushups and working my body I kind of got the confidence back that I could take a lick down there. So after that, it was mental. It was all in my head and once I got it out of my head it was enough. HBS - So you turned pro when? MH - I been pro for over a year or something. HBS - And you had a fight when? MH - I had a fight two months ago with Roderick Willis who was 6-0 and I had to take the fight because I couldn't get a fight and a debut fighter fighting a 6-0 fighter is really a massacre but I went down there and lasted the whole fight and really looked good in the fight because the crowd was cheering my name when the fight was overwith so I learned a lot from it. It was an experience. HBS - So tell us a little bit about what you learned from that fight and how you grew. MH - It taught me how to keep my hands up more. Stay compact instead of opening up to a fighter. My thing was I used to open up to a fighter. Even though I can take a lick I need to just move my head more and try to focus on giving it and less receiving it. HBS - How'd you get hooked up with Gary Simon? MH - Through a friend of mine named G.G. He called me one day because I had come down to the gym over at rap-a-lot and I was trying to make the transfer from Huntsville to Houston and he said "Man I know this good dude that could help you" and he called him and it just went on from there. HBS - You like him as a trainer and a manager. MH - Yeah. He's good. He ain't lied to me. He's tried to do his best. It's just kind of hard to get fights for me since I'm freelancing and I'm not on with a promoter but I'm just staying in a gym and training and trying to do my best. HBS - So you feel pretty encouraged after that last fight and now you're in here working out with Billy "Third Ward" Willis who's pretty well-known around Houston. What's it like working out and sparring with him? You had a pretty good session in there today. MH - It's always good with me and him. The things we work on is, I know I've got power. I know I'm big and I can take it. But it's just when I spar him, it seems like we're on a higher level. It's even competition and we're all working on the same thing to make it to the top. HBS - As you're continuing to work you mentioned what you learned in that fight and so those are things that you continue to work on in the gym now? MH - Yeah. I went back into the gym two days after that last fight and immediately started working on the things that I thought I needed to improve. Even now I'm learning more about the boxing, I'm studying tape, analyzing my fighters when I fight them, how much wind does he have, can he handle the pressure, what he's open for, anything that's going to win the fight for me. HBS - What's your height and weight? MH - I'm 6'1" and I weight 232. HBS - 32 is not that old for a heavyweight, you still have some good years left in you. How optimistic do you feel about the chances for advancing your career? MH - It's real good. I'm quick and powerful. The thing about when you have a heavyweight is you've got to have a chin and you've got to be able to think in bad situations. That's my thing. I do a lot of thinking. I always analyze, I'm always, "Okay, what's going to work for me?". I go through the motions, even though I get hit I go through the motions to learn them. That's my whole point, I've got to learn them in order to get better. So if I take this abuse to learn it, as long as I get that punch that I'm trying to implement, then it's worth it. ---------- 2nd interview incorporated into third. ----------- Third Interview 3-13-06 HBS - Tell us about how you feel. You just had a nice hard workout. MH - I feel good. I've got to up the intensity a little more. I think my punches are coming out real, real hard, (laughs), and fast. HBS - You had some other things to say about the fight you lost against Roderick Willis. MH - I made rookie mistakes, trying to supplement my body at the last minute. I felt when I did that it made me real lightheaded. The first thing I noticed when I got in the ring and started moving was I couldn't take a punch. And I got a strong chin. For some reason I couldn't take a punch and I was moving too light. After that first round I went to my corner, I said "There's something wrong and I don't feel right." Eventually I got stopped in the beginning of the third round and that was my first knockout that I ever faced. HBS - So you said the supplement was a B-12 shot and a protein shake? MH - Yeah. HBS - So obviously that's something you're never going to do again. MH - Yeah, we cut that out..... (laughs) HBS - Tell us about the Jones fight, when you won the Mississippi State Title. MH - The first round was like a feel-me-out round. We took the time to feel each other out. I kind of worked my jab to see what he was doing and see how good he was. After the second round and the third round it started heating up. He brought it to me in the third round and in the fourth round I just went all the way out and just took it straight to him and pinned him and just punched all the way through. Really the fight really was close because he was a counterpuncher. I mean he was trying to counter everything that I was throwing at him and he kept his distance. He didn't fight like a battle fight like I usually fight. He fought a smart fight. He stayed away, worked his way in, and it made me really have to get on my P's and Q's. I'm going to tell you that dude was a good opponent because he had experience and he made me fight at the top of my game and I learned so much. HBS - It must have felt great to win a belt in only your fourth pro bout. MH - Yeah it was very exciting, and my second time on T.V. I'm learning so much experience. Even though my record is 2-2 out of those four fights I've gained more experience that a fighter that is 8-0 or 10-0 fighting no-names. Just the experience level that I gained out of those four fights is going to make me better down the line. HBS - You lost your first two and then you knocked a guy out. Tell us about that fight. MH - His name was McDuffie out of Bossier City and he had over 200 and something amateur fights that I was told and he was a really, really good amateur and he really was. He come in, he stayed tall, because he was like 6'4", 6'5", but I slipped him and that's what I can do well. I knew as big as he was, he was going to slow down. All I had to do was weather the storm. As soon as he slowed down I saw the opening and I seen it pretty. He was dropping his right hand and as soon as I timed him I come right over the top. I'm kind of like Tyson. I can slip real well and I slipped and came with a left hook and put his lights out. HBS - How bad was he hurt. MH - He was out about seven minutes... (laughs).... HBS - That's got to be a really strange feeling to see that you could kill a guy. MH - The look that I seen on his face I kind of got scared because it was like he was gone. His eyes they were wide open and was like he couldn't move at first. And then slowly he came around and then I felt a whole lot better but it was scary at first it really is. HBS - Your last two fights were against guys who were undefeated at the time. One guy you fought to a draw. MH - Alvin Manley I fought in Little Rock, Arkansas on ESPN. It was a good fight. It was a dirty fight. He had all kinds of tricks, I don't know what they was teaching him but I think if it would have went six rounds you all would have seen him knocked out too. HBS - Then you lost a majority decision your last fight, obviously close loss against another undefeated guy. MH - I had fun in that fight. If you was there you would have seen it. I clearly won that fight. I dominated from the first round all the way to the fourth round. Didn't give him no break. I knew he was young. He never went past two rounds. I knew if I keep pressure on him he was going to fold ans sure enough he couldn't hardly even touch me in the third round. He was just winging it and I'm just tagging him, going off, moving real good. HBS - Why is it that you've fought so many undefeated guys and guys with such good records and more experience so early in your career? A lot of guys tend to pad their records early. Is what you're doing by design? MH - I'm not scared to fight no one. I've never been. Me and the streets and coming up I had a hard life. And my hard life dictates me in the ring. I'm not scared to fight no one. I don't care what you're record is. You could be 12-0, 15-0. It's going to prove it when the bell rings and we start fighting. That's what's going to say it all. I think made me even better, even with losses. I've gotten even better than a person that's going to take two or three years just to build him up. I'm at a level right now, I'm at a high intensity level. HBS - Now you're fighting a guy they're calling "Preacher Man". Do you know anything about him? MH - I saw him fight once. He beat a dude that I helped to train. He's a good boxer I heard but my plan is just to cut the ring off, hit him with body shots and slow him down, and once he starts slowing down I'm going to start trying to take him out. HBS - You mentioned you're working on your intensity. Any other skills you're working on? MH - I'm working with Gilbert Bustamante and he's teaching me how to get off fast, fast powerful punches, like Mike (Tyson). Everybody says that I'm similar to Mike so I'm not emulating him but I"m trying to learn some of his skills to make me a better fighter and a more powerful fighter in the ring. HBS - Obviously your plan is to keep fighting and keep winning. MH - I think I have everything it takes. I have the skill, I have the power, I have the quickness, I have the movement. I would love to fight for Houston. I've been trying to get fights down here. Everybody has their town that they grew up around. I'm from Huntsville but I know Houston is a big market and to fight for them and build Houston back to where it used to be would be my biggest goal.