Tommy Gun ready for fight in Latvia
The man known as Tommy Gun faces Rashida Kodzoev in Latvia on July 27.
Although Thomas Oosthuizen would love to drop in weight and fight at light heavyweight, his next fight will once again be in the cruiserweight division.
“I’d like to fight at light heavyweight, but cruiserweight is where the opportunities are at the moment,” he says.
“The plan was to move up to cruiserweight and take Kevin Lerena’s belt, but his promoter, Rodney Berman, is in charge and when Rodney wants the fight then we’ll come to the party. Now we are getting offers there (at cruiserweight).”
Oosthuizen’s last fight was also in Eastern Europe, where he dropped a decision to Aleksei Egorov.
“I’ve been abroad a couple of times, so I can’t make excuses, but it was my first time away from my son, little Thomas, which played with my mind a little bit. I wasn’t as focused as I should have been, I wasn’t as fit as I should have been.
“I gave the fight away due to a lack of preparation and lack of focus,” says Tommy Gun.
The former International Boxing Organisation (IBO) super middleweight and light heavyweight champion believes this fight will be different.
“You get a wake-up call,” he says.
“I’m a sportsman that competes for victory and I’ve got to do everything according to the books and get the win in the bag.”
Talking to Oosthuizen, he sounded like someone who has had a hard look at himself.
“I have to stay humble. I’m somebody who lets his imagination run wild then I want to fight this guy and that guy. I’d like to fight everybody, but at this moment it’s just this fight,” he says.
This doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have dreams for his career.
“I want to be world champion again. I’ve been world champion in two divisions. I want to be a legitimate world champion. I want to unify titles. It was a goal since I first became world champion. The unification fights for me just didn’t come.”
While talking to Tommy Gun, one can’t help but talk about his last two fights where he lost to Egorov and Thabiso Mchunu.
“Obviously, I’m not happy with the last two fights,” he says.
“Thabiso Mchunu and the Smiths are cowards. I beat him the first time and I outboxed him from the outside. I should have done that in the second fight around, but I didn’t, I was pressing the fight because I wanted to knock him out.
“I realised in the first fight that he can’t hurt me and I can hurt him. I was the aggressor instead of the boxer and I’m a classic boxer. I gave the fight away on points because I wanted the knockout.
“After the fight, I proposed a third fight and let’s settle that thing and they cowered out. Sean Smith said ‘Tommy fought the wrong fight and he gave the fight to us and we are not going to return the favour’. They didn’t want the third fight.”
Oosthuizen says he would like to move down in weight again.
“My personal plan is to move back to light heavyweight. I’d like to get my body back. I like being ripped, looking lean and being light on my feet,” he says.
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