VERNON FORREST: "I"M MORE INTERESTED IN MAKING BIG FIGHTS THAN ANYTHING ELSE"

Congrats on your title winning effort over Carlos Baldomir. Can you give us some thoughts on your performance? "I haven't seen the replay of the fight yet, but I was happy with my performance because I did what we were working on in the gym. I got like 85-90% of it down. I got away from a few things from time to time, but I stuck to what we worked on most of the time. I had a gamepland I and I followed it well."

GL: Coming into the fight you made it clear that you were going to throw a lot of punches to the body, which you did. But you did also manage to land quite a few head shots, are you hands 100% following the fight?

VF: "My hands are well. I hurt them a few times hitting him on the elbows and head, but they're fine. There's no broken bones and I'm very happy about that."

GL: Was there anything about Baldomir that surprised you?

VF: "Yeah, his durability. Actually Baldomir has slow feet, but he's got pretty quick hands. He's faster than people give him credit for and he has power. He's a very strong fighter, but I knew going in he was going to be tough. I was really surprised at how well he took a punch."

GL: Did he hurt you at all in the ninth round and do you feel the point you lost for low blows was warranted?

VF: "He didn't hurt me. I read some articles where some people said he hurt me and then I hit him low. The game plan was when I was in close, I was supposed to kick back and hit him with a short left hook to the body. But he pulled my head down and that's the reason the shot landed low. It wasn't an intentional low blow and I didn't think I deserved to lose a point, but it was a hard shot so the ref thought it was intentional but it wasn't."

GL: Where do you go from here?

VF: "I'm going home and tell my mother to put some steak on my eye so my swelling can go down."

GL: I have a bit more time to talk than Larry Merchant did so I'm just not going to acccept the I'm going home answer on Boxingtalk.

VF: "G-Mizzle. You're my man and I always keep it 100 with you. At this point I haven't been champion for 24 hours. The answer that I gave last night wasn't anything but the truth. I've been away for five months and right now all I want to do is rest. The boxing business will take care of itself. Am I interested in unification? I'm more interested in big fights moreso than unification."

GL: Can we expect to see you back in action before the end of the year?

VF: "Absolutely."

GL: Is there anything you'd like to say in closing?

VF: "I'd like to say I hope everybody that tuned in enjoyed the fight and are looking forward to bigger and better things from Vernon Forrest and Fight Night Promotions."