"Wild" Will Tomlinson Interview: Ready to Make His Mark
 By Daniel Smart, Doghouse Boxing (Oct 30, 2012)
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"Wild" Will Tomlinson
may be largely unknown at international level, but the popular
Australian fighter is looking to make his mark on a world scale
sooner rather than later. At 19-0-1 with 12 stoppages, the
entertaining banger is looking to keep his winning streak alive when
he faces slick Panamanian Irving Berry 22-3-2 (9) on the undercard of
the Danny Green-Shane Cameron fight on 21st November in Melbourne, Australia. In this interview Tomlinson
discusses his amateur career, his pro fights to date and a potential
clash with IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib.
Daniel Smart: This is
Daniel Smart reporting for DoghouseBoxing.com. I’m here with IBO
super featherweight champion Will Tomlinson. Will, how are you today
mate?
Will Tomlinson: I’m
good thanks, mate.
DS: I’ll start out by
welcoming you to DoghouseBoxing. You’re obviously well known to us
in Australia, but for our international audience would you like to
give us a bit of background on yourself, where you’re from and how
you got into boxing?
WT: Basically
I started boxing as a young fella, when I was about 12 years old I
had my first fight as an amateur. I continued on to about 21 and
represented Australia at the top international level, at the world
amateurs and those types of things. In 2008 I turned professional.
I’ve had 19 pro fights for 19 wins, 12 by knockout and I’m now
the IBO super featherweight world champion.
DS: You’ve obviously
made a very strong start to your career. What would you say has been
your coming-of-age fight?
WT: I’ve
had a couple of big step ups in my career, some early, some later in
my career. There was a fight when I fought Verquan Kimbrough in my
tenth fight, he had much more experience but I stepped it up and won
that pretty convincingly. Since then I’ve had some more good
fights against world rated opponents…
DS: Herrera?
WT: Rey
Labao, I fought November 2010, he was number 5 in the WBO at the time
and I took care of him pretty convincingly. Shortly after that I got
the shot at the IBO title against [Alan] Herrera. Everyone who saw
that vouched to me it was a pretty good fight to watch and I believe
it was a pretty good performance on my behalf.
DS: Absolutely mate.
Just for our international audience, jump on YouTube and punch in a
search for will Tomlinson vs Alan Herrera, still to this day it’s
one of the best fights I’ve seen. It was Australian fight of the
year last year if I’m not mistaken…
WT: Yeah,
a few sources named it the fight of the year.
DS: it was just an
absolute war, two guys just pouring their hearts and souls into their
professions. As I’ve said before it was by far one of the best
fights I’ve seen for a very long time, so well done to you Will
that was a helluva performance and one that sticks in my mind. Now
Will, you train in Sydney at the Blacktown Hit Squad with one of
Australia’s best trainers in Lincoln Hudson. What sort of influence
is that on your career?
WT: I’ve
been training in Sydney since I turned professional with Lincoln. We
work together well, we haven’t had any major setbacks as of yet. We
continue to get the job done and that’s all that matters, so
everything’s going good.
DS: With your title
defence coming up on 21st November in Melbourne on the undercard of Danny Green-Shane Cameron
against Panama’s Irving Berry 22-3-2 (9), what can you tell us
about him?
WT: I
can tell you he’s going to be a very different style of fight to my
last couple of opponents I’ve faced. He’s a very slick, evasive
style of a fighter, he’s a switch-hitter, he can box pretty well
out of both the southpaw and orthodox stance. My last couple of
fights have been against the tough, aggressive Mexican-style fighters
and been pretty much in front of me the whole twelve rounds and been
relatively easy to hit. This guy is going to give me a different
style of fight. He’ll give me different angles and movement that I
haven’t fought for a while. I’ll train accordingly and I’m sure
on the 21st of
November I’ll have him sussed out by them and I’ll be able to
figure him out and catch up with him.
DS: I’ve seen a
little bit of this guy and you’re right, he is quite slick. But I
think this fight is tailor-made for you, I think you’re the type of
bloke who’ll go forward and put it on him and if you do that,
you’ll come away with a comfortable win. Now look, I’ve
interviewed Australian IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib a couple
of weeks ago for a radio show I did in the States. He basically said
that after his next title defence he’ll be looking to move up to
super featherweight. Mate I’ve got to ask you the question, any
chance of you getting in the ring with Billy Dib and making it
another Aussie blockbuster?
WT: I
think that would be a good fight. I think he’ll want to make sure
he’s eating his vegetables and getting some protein into him before
he gets into the ring with someone bigger and stronger than him. But
it’s the type of thing you need in boxing, a rivalry is always good
to build up your career and to generate good interest in a fight. He
would make perfect sense to try and build that with, so I’m all for
it.
DS: I think it would be
great for Australian boxing. In recent news we’ve heard that Daniel
Geale will be taking on Anthony Mundine we think in January next
year. I think this is the next best fight that can be made by two
Australians, between yourself and Billy Dib. So further on down the
track mate, there’s obviously a huge opportunity for you both to
earn a good payday and it would be one helluva fight and one I
definitely know I would pay to see. Last but not least Will, you’ve
just released your new DVD. For our readers, how do they go about
getting a copy of that mate?
WT: The
best way to get a copy of it is to go to my fanpage Wild Will
Tomlinson and order through there. Send a direct message and my
missus will sort you out with a copy.
DS: For all your fans
out there, where can they follow you on Twitter?
WT: It’s @WillTomlinsonAU
DS: Just to wrap it up,
thanks for your time Will, I know you’ve got a pretty heavy
workload and you do sound quite tired mate. I do really appreciate
your time and I wish you all the best moving forward. I really hope
you get the win on the 21st November in the co-main event of the Danny Green-Shane Cameron IBO
cruiserweight title fight in Melbourne. If you can’t get tickets,
make sure if you’ve got Foxtel, Austar, Optus around the country,
get on to Main Event and watch these fights, they will be absolutely
sensational. Again Will, thanks for your time and I hope to speak to
you again soon.
WT: Thanks
for having me.
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Questions? Comments? Contact Daniel Smart: bellebelle78@yahoo.com.au
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