Stony Brook is a great school scholastically and I enjoyed my time there. It taught me a lot about life and about the future that I am living now. It is an honor to have graduated from there and to be recognized as an alumnus.

I am not going to change just to promote a fight. My stance is to not go back-and-forth and I am not fighting Freddie [Roach]. That's not the man I have to box with so I am not going to go back-and-forth firing darts at each other.

I knew my time would come I just had to stay focused and disciplined and if you work hard good things happen. I am right where I am supposed to be.

I would have been more aggressive in the Ruslan [Provodnikov] fight if not because of my eye early in the fight. I had to protect that eye and be even smarter than I normally would. Don't be confused with my style just from that one fight, because I know a lot of you have only seen that one fight.

I box but I have never heard anyone say that I was a boring fighter or that they didn't really like watching my style.

I feel like I fight an aggressive style - smart / aggressive.

Boxing on Long Island - there is history there. It's been a while since Buddy McGirt and Gerry Cooney, but you know, we are in kind of a resurgence now. We are putting our show there constantly - Star Boxing shows at the Paramount have drawn big crowds over the years and there is a lot of up and coming talent there now. You see more and more gyms with competitive professional fighters.