Kubrat Pulev: We don`t need cyborgs in the ring.

I did my best to translate the interview of Kubrat Pulev for one of the biggest sports newspapers in Bulgaria - 7 DAYS SPORTS. Here it is:

Question) There has been exchange of words between you and Wladimir Klitschko at the press conference. What exactly happened?


Answer) I am not a man who can just sit and suck this bullsh1t talk up. I am not a windbag and I didn`t go there to twist the words all day long. I just wanted to reach some kind of an agreement with him, and I believe I was absolutely right. It was about the PED control. I am at disposal and undergo doping tests at any time. That is how my contract with the Austrian anti-doping agency (NADA) is signed, which puts me under the obligation to declare where I would be every single day in the following 3 months. Every day I have to be at disposal for one hour to take the test. My last test was 2 weeks ago, I gave blood and urine. I am constantly checked at any time during my preparation. But Klitschko has a contract that allows him to be tested only after the fights. In the other time he can do whatever he wants. I`ve put this question during the press conference. He stood up talking and I interrupted him and then the exchange of words happened. He asked me: “Don`t you have respect for me? Wouldn`t you listen to what I have to say?” I told him that I just want him to answer my question.


Q) He told you that if you don`t want to fight you can stay at home?


A) Yes, and I replied to him that I am ready to fight right away if he wants. But he didn`t say anything. They said Povetkin had also brought the PED test topic up. But I have nothing to do with Povetkin. They were trying to wash away the subject. I just wanted him to say clear “YES” or “NO” about the doping tests. His manager Bernd Boente and another man from his crew started to quibble and said a lot of nonsense. But I told them: “Just cut it short and clear what we are going to do about that”. The rules should be the same for everybody. Boxing is a sport, one of the greatest and most manly of them all. Why do we have to morally corrupt the sport in that manner? Rules should be the same for both of us. That`s what I said to the journalists in Germany. And from Klitschko`s camp started pointing that they have won the purse bid to organize the fight. Boente said it clear that if my camp had won the bid then we would have been in the position to talk these things. I got into a temper and told him this is how it works in boxing nowadays - the one with the money is making the rules. It seems I have to reconcile that because we had not enough money, I will now have to do all the PED tests, at any time. And he will not have to. Is this the sport? This is not a war, we should not play these dirty tricks, we have to stick to the identity of boxing. This is what I told them, interrupting them all the time, because they were talking bullsh1t. Most of the journalists at the press conference were also selected by Klitschko. Several of them tried to shut the exchange of words by changing the subject, but I interrupted them too, because I needed a clear answer of the question that really mattered for me. This was the most important in that case, everything else said was just blah blah.


Q) Klitschko said to Russian medias that you are trying to find excuses and even find a reason to duck the fight.


A) No way. Even in front of RTL, the television Wldaimir is under contract with, I said I am ready to fight right away. I am going to fight even if the PED testing rules stay like that. I am gonna fight him and I am still gonna beat him. This is not stopping me. There is someone watching from above. There is God and he will judge who wins the fight.


Q) Another thing Klitschko said is that it`s not you that really believe these things but it is Sauerland that wants you to speak like that.


A) Kalle Suerland did not even come to the press conference and I was really surprised by that. You can imagine what kind of synchronism we have in our relations. I went there with my coach and my friends. We had not discussed this topic before the press conference. It just came right there and that`s how it happened. I am glad Klitschko is paranoid and he knows that all this is being talked about in boxing world. He is once again underestimating me.


Q) What are your concerns about the PED issue?


A) I just want everything to be clear and according to the rules. He just does not want to undergo the same testing as I constantly do. To be tested at any time as I am being tested. I have been tested in restaurants and different institutions, everywhere. I go into the toilet and give a sample right away. In the beginning I was also reluctant to do this because it`s a torment at some extent, obsession, you have no freedom. How could I inform where I would be every moment? But this is the big sports scene, and it is right and it should be like that. It is not good when the world champ is being tested twice a year and that is only after his fights. During the rest of the time he can do absolutely everything. That way we go 30 years back in time. We, Bulgarians, we are not fools. We know very well how things work and we can do them. The question is why not do everything clear, honest, clean and transparent. We should keep the spirit of sports. We don`t need cyborgs in the ring, because this is not sport.