Donyil Livingston: “I’m going to fight my way to believers.”

Walker can either make you look good going out early or terrible going out late or surviving. Livingston hopes he comes to fight as usual. A fast start from Walker would play right into Livingston’s aggressive boxer/puncher style.

“He’s a go-getter,” said Livingston of Walker. “I am hoping he fights me in his go-getter style. If he does that he’s going get hurt. We’re at middleweight. He’s fluctuated from junior middle to as high as 165. At middleweight, I’m coming down from light heavyweight. I definitely have that as my advantage. I’m stronger than the average middleweights that I have been fighting thus far. I am looking to use my speed and my strength to my advantage in this fight.”

Livingston feels he is right on the cusp of being in the mix at any weight from 154 to 168. As an amateur he fought at light heavyweight. Since he has been pro, he has fluctuated from 160 up into super middleweight. With a wide frame but only standing 5’9” Livingston is built like Hagler-type. It will be interesting to see if he is able to get down to the junior middleweight limit and who will be waiting when he does.

“They’re the hottest divisions. At 154 you have Alvarez. At 160 you have Chavez. At 168 you have my cousin [Andre Ward] and all those other guys,” said Livingston. “We can go from 154 to 168. Not overlooking anybody. The stronger the competition becomes the better I will be. We’re looking for the top guys. We’re looking for the great, hard fights. The world would love a fight between me and Kirkland, me and Saul. So it’s a great division.”

Livingston feels with his combined amateur and pro experience, despite his young record, he can fight anyone in the world and compete legitimately for a win. A big reason for that is his work at the Wild Card. Some of the best fights happen on sparring days there and Livingston has been a part of that culture for years now. That kind of work ethic takes care of the fear of taking on a late replacement opponent. While he is probably five to ten fights from fighting a top tier HBO fighter, Livingston prepares for anything with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.

“They say who is this guy? And sure, amateurs to pros is high school to college. Absolutely. But at the same time, where do you go to college?” asked Livingston. “You are only as good as you train to be and as you think you are. If you can’t have confidence in yourself who will? I honestly believe that there are people in the top ten that right now I can get them out of there in a ten round fight. In the meant time, we’re just going to keep chopping, get our record up there to put us in a position where they can’t ignore us.”

In 2010, Livingston was a promoter-less fighter struggling to make it as a pro boxer. In 2011, his career took off and he is now enjoying the benefits of fighting often. He’s sharper and thus ready to have breakthrough fights like his victory over Kurtiss Colvin in October. Above all, the stress of wondering when he will fight again is gone.


“I definitely see the difference. We have something to strive for. We have something to fight for. We have something to train for vs. ‘When we gonna fight? Man I don’t know. Call that person, this person, that person. Maybe next month.’ No. We’re real fortunate to have met up with Mario [Yagobi, Boxing360’s president and owner]. “Mario is doing a great job. He’s going to work. A fight fall off? Mario is on it with another person. Boom. ‘We’re not going to miss this fight. We prepared for this fight. We’re going to get you a fight.”

A fighter with the desire to work hard and get the job done combined with a hungry young promoter seems like a match made in heaven. Livingston has a lot to look forward in the coming year. All he needs to do now is continue winning.

“One of my favorite sayings is ‘Actions speak louder than words.’ I could call out this dude or that dude and see how the public likes it. Or I could just have you put this dude in front of me and I will show he doesn’t belong in the ring with me,” said Livingston. “I’m going to fight my way to believers. At the end of the day, if the fans don’t want it is not going to happen. So actions speak louder than words.”


Bias or enthusiasm?

As you probably know, HBO commentator Jim Lampley is one of the producers of “On Freddie Roach,” a cinema verite look at the Wild Card and trainer Freddie Roach’s life premiering this week. I had a chance to catch up with Mr. Lampley at the press junket for the show. Everyone else wrote a synopsis of the show so I’ll leave you to read those. Lamps and I discussed the subject of bias as it relates to journalists or in his case, a commentator. Beyond producing his show, Lampley and Roach, along with Max Kellerman and I believe Dan Rafael of ESPN, all share the same agent, Nick Khan. Because of this I had to ask if it is hard to remain objective calling a friend’s fight.

“It has to be a piece of self-discipline,” Lampley told me. “Somebody actually asked me the other night in New York to be totally honest with you. A reporter said “Do you think that your closeness with Freddie affected your call of the Khan-Peterson fight. And I thought about it for a second and I said “No, I did not. I don’t think that my relationship with Freddie changed my view of what the referee did. Or affected the fact that I have never seen a pushing penalty before.’ Even this reporter I knew that had Khan winning the fight despite the point deductions wasn’t sure what that question was all about. But it’s worth considering. Then I went home and thought to myself if you are going to accuse me of being biased in favor of Freddie, wouldn’t Pacquiao-Marquez III be an even better example? Where I was the one who said all along that I thought the official scorecards would reflect Pacquiao’s activity level and that was at odds with the way most people saw the fight. So that’s a better argument there. But the bottom line is obviously it’s my job to assert a dividing line there and make sure that my alliance with Freddie does not affect the way that I am calling fights. And I am trying to do that and I hope I succeed.”

If anything Lampley feels he is perhaps naturally empathetic with the fighters and as such, he lets his enthusiasm get away from him at times.

“I think I am more human than most. I tend to be an emotional guy that sometimes leads with my heart. But I have to be disciplined about this and constantly remind that I have been objective with calling Freddie’s fights,” he said. “I think that is more because I am a fan of the sport. I never thought to myself that I had to create excitement in calling boxing matches. There have been many occasions when I have said ‘This is a dull affair and I don’t care to watch it.’ Larry has probably been a little quicker in making that assertion than I am. But I’ve certainly said it sometimes. But the bottom line is when I am hyped and really excited on the air it’s usually because I am allowing the fan in me to come out and say how I appreciate what I am seeing in the ring.”