Courtesy Walters Photography, all rights reserved
As I am sure those that have been reading our site would guess, I was absolutely jazzed to be able to sit down with Andy Kolle. He is definitely a favorite of MNBL. Kaos was more than happy to answer emailed questions from Minnesota boxing fans. Thanks to those that sent in questions. Sorry we were not able to ask him all of them, we also had an interview to conduct. Now to your questions…..
Nathan…. “What is it like going into a fight like the one with Paul Williams?”
Kolle…. “Its one of those things that make you motivate yourself to train like you have never trained before. You know, nobody else wants to fight him. Margarito and Mosely were offered millions and millions of dollars to fight him and wouldn’t. You see him (Williams) on TV and they list him at 6′ 1″, I got in there and it was like, damn, he’s huge. He was bigger than I was.”
M…. “What was the scenery like going into the fight? Were there lots of recognizable boxing people there? Also, what were the differences compared to a Minnesota fight?”
Kolle….“We got there late Sunday night. Monday morning all of the opponents were gathered at 5 AM and we didn’t get back until 8 at night. It was a real rugged day. We had to sit in office and get MRI’s, cat scans, anything you could think of before a fight and elaborate on that. They really ran us, we flew in late and up at 5. That’s one of the things where they don’t treat the opponents, if you want to call us that, the same way as the featured fighters. That kind of stuff gets in your head and then the rest of the week you have to catch up on your sleep. As far as fight night and weigh in stuff, Obviously Paul Williams was there, we also got to see Chris Arreola, James Toney, and William Mccullough, actually Mccullough was staying at the hotel we were at. It was pretty cool to talk with those guys.”
Tarah…. “How many days a week do you train leading up to a fight?”
Kolle….“Its usually about a six day a week thing, I do strength with Adam Daily, we do cattle bells four days a week. Cattle Bells are something kind of new to the USA, they help muscle endurance and strength. You use every muscle in your body. I try to be in the gym 5 or 6 times a week. I’m a firm believer in listening to your body, if your body tells you to take a day off, you listen to it. Rest is just as important as anything else. You hit that wall when your training. Once you hit that wall you need to rest and take a step back and go after it again.”
Miller….“Whats your opinion on why some Duluth fighters tend to get the short end of the stick in discussions of Minnesota boxing?”
Kolle….“We get it cause we are up here and they are down there. Almost every fighter in the state who has a fan base live down there. Most of those with a voice live and watch those fighters. Just like if you’re in Minnesota, you like the Vikings, if you live in Wisconsin you’re usually a Packer fan. There’s no real reason, just where you live.”
Shane…. “What made you decide to train out of Horton’s gym? What is your opinion on why in some circles Chuck Horton has been given a bad name?” (I would like to say here, I think its sort of the nature of the beast. Success breeds detractors. In the short time I have been running this site, I have observed how harsh fans can be on managers, trainers, and promoters.) Todd
Kolle….“First of all, Chuck gets negative attention because he is so aggressive. If Chuck thinks something is wrong he means it, its not up for debate. Chuck says what he thinks, that’s one of the reasons I came up here to train. I see how loyal he is to his fighters. I met him as an amateur, and saw just how loyal he was to Zach (Walters). Zach told me about how when he fought Robert Linton in Washington, Chuck had Zach’s back and was ready to go to war for him. In the boxing world there is not a whole lot of loyalty going on. A manager is a manager to get paid by the fighter, promoters do their thing and so on. Its not all about the money for Chuck. We all have formed a friendship over these years. Friends first, business partners after. I watched Chuck’s fighters, I liked the way they fought. I also loved that he is out of Duluth. Duluth is one of the best places to train, with all the hills for running. Chuck’s boxers had such sharp skills. I watched Zach when he was in Fergus Falls and then saw him after training with Horton. It was obvious how much stronger and quicker he was.”
M…. “Have you noticed a difference in your game since having Chucks influence on you?”
Kolle….“Definitely, I trained in Fergus, we trained hard. Basically we came to the gym, did push ups, sit ups, ran 3 or 4 miles then sparred. That’s all we did. At the end of practice we hit pads for a few minutes. Then I moved to Fargo for school and trained in my back yard and garage. You watch my amateur career and now, I have changed so much. I didn’t have the power back then. If you would have told me then that most of my wins would be by knockout, I would have laughed at you. I was all defence and wait until you come at me. Chuck brought out my power.”
Please keep your eyes open for much more from Andy “Kaos” Kolle.
Todd
“You just couldnt let the fans have all the space here, You had your own full interview and still it seems like you asked as many questions as the fans got in. Looks like Todd loves him some Todd.” Bear
Tags: Andy Kolle,
boxing,
Chris Arreola,
chuck horton,
James Toney,
Margarito,
Minnesota boxing,
Mosely,
Paul Williams,
William Mccullough,
Zach Walters
Photo Courtesy of SnapLocally.com
Seconds Out promotions and Most Hated Entertainment announced today that they have joined the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which is also known as (ALS) Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, is a disease that weakens and eventually destroys motor neurons of the human body.
