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| Will Power! |
In this exclusive one-on-one interview with KO Digest, Rosinsky discusses both of his careers, his recent fight with Edwin Rodriguez on SHOBOX, the controversial scoring of that fight, as well as several other topics including his thoughts on CompuBox, judge Glen Feldman, and where he hopes to go from here.
At 26 years of age and with a record of 14-1 w/ 8 KOs, Rosinsky is poised to make a run at the top after putting his name squarely on the map following his outstanding performance against Edwin Rodriguez last month on Showtime.
KO Digest caught up with Will Rosinsky two weeks after his SHOBOX war with friend & rival Edwin Rodriguez. Here is what "Power" had to say:
KO Digest: Many fight fans might not realize that fighting is not your only job. Can you talk about your career as an EMT in New York and how you first got involved with that?
Will Rosinsky: I work for the NY Fire Department as an EMT and I love my job. It's a totally different way of living in terms of boxing. As an EMT, I'm trying to help people. As a boxer, I'm trying to hurt them. I got into it by seeing some promos for it at a local B&B and I took it one step at a time and ended up doing what I'm doing now.
KOD: How long have you been an EMT?
Rosinsky: I got my certification about a year and a half ago, but I've been working for the fire department since February of this year.
KOD: Are there any similarities between your career as a boxer and your career as an EMT?
Rosinsky: I think they are two jobs on different ends of the spectrum. In fighting, you are trying to hurt people, as an EMT you're trying to help people. Both jobs definitely take patience and just being calm in situations. That's a similarity they both have.
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| All in a day's work: Saving lives and kicking ass! |
KOD: As an EMT, what has been your most memorable on the job experience?
Rosinsky: Actually, the day before I had my little vacation, my days off to get ready for the fight - we had a lady, a call came over for respiratory distress. She had a problem breathing, we got there and she was already in cardiac arrest. Myself, my partner, my Captain, and the paramedics who got on scene after us helped to bring her back and we got a pulse. We got her to the hospital in more of a lively state, she was still unconscious, but her body was functioning again.
KOD: It sounds like you saved her life.
Rosinsky: Ya, well, not just me. I had help from other people.
KOD: Let's shift to boxing. How did you get "Power" as your nickname?
Rosinsky: When I was an amateur, I actually had that name already, not because of any type of punching power but rather because somebody in the gym once told me while I was working out hard, "You just keep going, you have a lot of willpower." So from there, it just kind of caught on with the name and just in terms of having the will to just keep going and keep moving forward. So, it stuck.
KOD: You mentioned your amateur career, what was your amateur record?
Rosinsky: I don't know exactly, but I usually tell people it was around about 85 wins and 12 losses.
KOD: Can you talk about your amateur accomplishments?
Rosinsky: I won the Golden Gloves from 2005 to 2008. I was US National Champion in 2005. I won the "Outstanding Boxer" award in the tournament in 2005 for the Golden Gloves. I won the New York Metros twice. I won the Northeastern Regional once. I participated in the PAL a couple of times, the National Golden Gloves, got to the semi-finals and fought twice, unfortunately I lost there. And I was the captain on the USA team in 2005-2006 when we went to Russia, for the world championships and in Hungary for a duel. I was able to be the captain for that which us a good experience.
KOD: In the amateurs, did you fight anybody who went on to have any notable success as a professional?
Rosinsky: A lot of guys are still making that success. I fought only 3 or 4 years ago in the amateurs so guys like Brandon Gonzales who just fought the week after me against Ossie Duran, I fought him. I fought Marcus Oliveira. Guys that are undefeated now I fought and beat in the amateurs. Guys like Romell Rene, he beat me in the amateurs, he's had success. He's undefeated, 12-0. I had some good experiences.
KOD: Can you describe your friendship with Edwin Rodriguez and how that originated?
Rosinsky: They used to room the 165's and 178's together, so he was fighting at 165, I was fighting at 178. So he was one of the guys I got along with on the team because we were roommates, but not always. He'd always want to room with Demetrius Andrade who was from Rhode Island so they knew eachother much better. It was me, Edwin and a couple other guys and we just clicked being on the team together. We were in China together, we were in Hungary together, so I guess when you're with somebody often or when you go elsewhere, away from home and you're with the same people, you just start getting comfortable with them. And so we became friends that way. He's a real good guy and we just clicked.
KOD: Your recent SHOBOX fight against Rodriguez was very entertaining to watch. What was it really like from your perspective to be in there fighting so violently against a friend?
Rosinsky: You know what, you put all that stuff aside. It was actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. I knew it was gonna be a tough fight from the get-go. I knew the kind of heart that Edwin came with. So everything that happened, I expected which doesn't always work out like that. I expected him to be tough, and I expected him to throw good body shots. I knew that he wasn't gonna give in to anything, so a lot of it I expected and that helped me with the fight.
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| Rosinsky having fun in there! (Photo: Pattee Mak) |
KOD: Have you had a chance to sit down and actually watch the fight on TV?
Rosinsky: I would say I've watched the fight 20 to 30 times!
KOD: That must be a very surreal experience for you. What did you think about the Showtime announcers, they all scored the fight a draw, 95-95.
Rosinsky: I don't want to say they were against me but they were underestimating me from the get-go. If you listen to them talk in the beginning, it's very negative, "Will hasn't fought anybody yet. Will has been brought up very lightly. Will has not been tested at all yet. Will got dropped in his last fight against a guy that was 11-11." And then when they spoke about Edwin, it was, "Oh Edwin has been brought up perfect. Edwin has great body shots. Edwin has a great trainer in his corner." For the announcers to actually round-by-round, switch to the other guy which was me and say, "Rosinsky is showing a lot more than we expected. Rosinsky is staying in there and being aggressive, I actually had him winning this round!" - that was a good feeling and I think I deserved it the way I performed.
KOD: By the way you fought, it sounded like you earned their respect, do you think that's true?
Rosinsky: Absolutely. I did earn their respect and I don't think they expected a lot from me so when I came with that kind of fight, which I told them I was coming with, I think they started to open their eyes and say, "This kid has absolutely come to fight." As a fighter, you always talk confident, no fighter is gonna go to an interview and say he's not ready for a fight. Fighters always talk confident but it takes action to actually prove yourself and I think once they realized I was talking confident but that was because I was being honest - they saw that I was really there to fight.
KOD: Let's talk about the controversial scoring. All three judges scored the fight 100-90. You called that a "mockery" at the post fight press conference. You also said that you were not busy enough in the ring and it seemed like you accepted that you'd lost the fight even though you were not happy with the wide marginal of victory for Rodriguez. Talk about your initial reaction to all of that and how, if at all, your feelings have changed about it since.
Rosinsky: First of all, people have been putting words in my mouth about that, that I thought I lost. I just felt I could have been busier. As a fighter when you go into a fight, you have a picture in your head on what you want to do. My goal was to be busier than I was. To say that I wasn't busy enough doesn't necessarily make me say that I thought I lost the fight because I wasn't busy enough. I also mentioned something about the scores at the post fight press conference. I said whether it's 100-90, 99-91, or 98-92 - it's still a loss. The point there I'm trying to make is that everyone is making a big deal about the 100-90 loss, but for me I don't even care about what the score is. The fight is over, I already lost the fight so even if it's scored 96-94 and I lost the fight, I still lost the fight! I didn't want to even accept the fact that I lost. People are making a bigger deal about the scoring rather than the fact of if it's a loss or a win.
KOD: Do you think you won the fight against Rodriguez?
Rosinsky: I think I won the fight, yes. If you asked me that the day of the fight, or right after the fight, I would have said that I'd have accepted a draw. The reason why I say that is because you don't sit there and count the rounds that I feel I won or lost right when you're done with a fight. I mean, you don't know! It's really something you have to watch first. I felt I put up a good fight. I felt I won a good amount of rounds but I can't say I definitely won the fight because each round was close. But then when I go home and watch it closely and I can see how much more aggressive I was and how he was backing up and how he was on the defensive; it's like how did these judges see that round as even close? He's backing up the whole time and he landed one big punch in the last 15 seconds and they're gonna give him the round? Meanwhile, I'm aggressive and landing the harder shots, it's just crazy. But when you're in a fight you don't sit there and count the rounds. The fight was close, I would accepted a draw but when I got home ans watched it, I say I won the fight 5-4 with one round even or 6-4.
KOD: You were recently quoted in an interview by the Boxing Tribune and you made a comment about knowing "the fix was in" when you first heard the 100-90 scores. Can you elaborate, what did you mean by that?
Rosinsky: Edwin is the guy that they're promoting. Edwin is the guy that they're putting money into. I'm not the guy that they're putting money into. As soon as I heard 100, I didn't even need to hear the rest, I knew the decision was for him. I knew the decision was not gonna go 100-90 for me. Obviously, if the fight is halfway close and I hear 100 as the first score, it's like, "this fight is fixed" and when I say fixed, look I'm not gonna say the DiBella people paid the judges off because I don't know what goes on behind the scenes but that's gonna raise eyebrows to anybody who watched that fight even if it's ten years from now. Even people who have nothing to do with boxing are gonna say that something was going on there. That's evident. For that one judge, Glen Feldman - for him to say that he tried to give me a round but that he couldn't find one, it's just ridiculous because the performance that both me and Edwin put on, to make that comment that he was looking for a round to score for me shows me that he came to the fight biased. Nobody is asking you to look for a round to score for me. Score the fight as it is, you don't have to look for anything. You go round by round and score for who you think won the round, but looking for a round to score for me, that's ridiculous.
KOD: The CompuBox stats for the fight seemed to statistically justify the wide margin of victory for Rodriguez. Have you seen the CompuBox report?
Rosinsky: Yes, I have. I looked at it. It shows him landing some more punches percentage-wise. One thing that CompuBox doesn't show is ring generalship. It doesn't show how much a guy is on the defensive. A guy can still be a boxer and move and box, and still win a fight. I'm not saying that a guy coming forward getting blasted with shots is always gonna be the aggressor, or the guy who should always wins the round but I think those CompuBox numbers are a little deceiving.
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| How did CompuBox score this punch? |
KOD: In the 8th round, he hit you with a monster left hook that seemed to stun you. Were you hurt by that punch and if so, how did you manage to take the punch so well and hide the fact that it hurt you by coming right back with shots of your own?
Rosinsky: I wasn't hurt. It was a good punch. I really wasn't hurt and I think that mainly that is because I was in great shape. When you're in great shape like that I guess your body can do a lot more and it was only one punch. He didn't come back with anything. Maybe if he'd come back with something it would have hurt a bit but it was almost like he was satisfied with that one punch. It looked a lot worse than it really was because my head came back. I wasn't hurt. And if I was, I wouldn't have been able to come back. I tried to come back quick, just to show him that I wasn't hurt because I know that sometimes by the way your head goes back it almost looks like it had to hurt, but really - I wasn't hurt with that punch at all.
KOD: Rodriguez is known as a body puncher. You stood up extremely well to his body attack. What do you attribute that to and what is it like to be hit in the body by Edwin Rodriguez?
Rosinsky: It's all about being in shape. I was ready for that. I know that's his signature, going to the body, so we were doing a million crunches a day. He caught me with some good body shots, nothing that hurt me though but it was stuff that I felt. But it was nothing that took me off my game and made me stop what I was doing.
KOD: Promoter Lou DiBella said after the fight that he was interested in continuing to work with you moving forward. Have there been any developments between Lou and yourself in terms of what's next for Will Rosinsky?
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| Let's make a deal? |
Rosinsky: I believe Lou wants to do more of a long term thing. There was something in the contract for the Rodriguez fight that he would have a three fight option on me. I think he wants to throw that out and do something long term. If the offer is right and the deal is right, I'm willing to do that. I do have a job, so it depends if it's worth it for me to leave my job as an EMT and do boxing one hundred percent. There a lot of advantages that my job has that boxing can't offer. I'm gonna cross that bridge when I get to it.
KOD: What can your job as an EMT offer you that boxing can't?
Rosinsky: A pension, health benefits, things like that. Things that people look past. Nothing is guaranteed in boxing. The money is great but I'm thinking long-term like what I'm gonna being doing in 20 or 30 years. But if the price is right, we can work something out and then I'll have no problem signing something. That's something that will need to be worked out and I'm in the midst of doing that right now.
KOD: How much was your purse for the Rodriguez fight?
Rosinsky: Fifteen thousand dollars.
KOD: The Rodriguez fight was your first scheduled ten round fight, only your second fight outside of New York, and your first fight on a major cable network. A huge step up and a big risk. In the end, was it worth it?
Rosinsky: It was worth it. I wish I had come back with the win but it was worth it. The main reason I took this fight, I knew it was a big risk against Rodriguez, but I knew that if anything, if I were to put on a great performance - and this is the honest truth- and I said this to my trainer, I said if anything funny goes on, like a funny decision or something ridiculous, the whole boxing world will be able to see it and that's the only reason I took the fight. Because it was on Showtime, and unfortunately funny things did go on but a lot of people saw my performance and a lot of people got to see what I'm all about. Now, if I would have fought him in the middle of Brooklyn or in the middle of Worcester, MA on a card where the place fits a thousand people and only a thousand people saw that fight, all that's gonna be is a sweep win for Edwin that nobody got to see and it would be me crying robbery and nobody would be able to say, "You know, I saw that fight." I have people I don't even know coming up to me at work and they say, "Oh, you're that kid who fought on Showtime and got robbed!" It feels good because people got to see it but it still doesn't take away from the fact that I actually lost, but at least people got to see it.
KOD: Rodriguez said after the fight that sometimes friends put on the best fights. Guys like Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward are an excellent example of that. Do you agree with that?
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| Friendly Pride! |
Rosinsky: Yes, because you know eachother from a different level. I guess that makes a difference. I don't know why that's the case but I definitely agree with that. It's more of a pride thing, you have more pride when it comes to fighting a friend and I guess you have more to prove to eachother.
KOD: As a young up and coming fighter, what did you learn from the Rodriguez fight and from the controversy that followed it?
Rosinsky: Don't leave it in the hands of the judges! If I could knock out everyone in the first thirty seconds, I would but it's not that easy. The main thing I learned is maybe to look for the KO a little more rather than scoring points and I never do that because I'm not a huge puncher. I don't look for the knockout ever but maybe I should start.
KOD: Thank you Will. In conclusion is there anything you would like to add?
Rosinsky: Thank you to everyone watching, listening, and writing about the fight. I appreciate the support and look out for my next fight. I'm not sure when that will be but I can guarantee I will put on an even better performance than I did in the Rodriguez fight.
