Kerrang! 2003
HAVE YOU ACTUALLY FOUGHT ANYONE?
"Well, I got my own trainer, and then you start to
think, 'I want to try sparring'. And then you think, 'I
want to fight in a white collar fight'. A white collar
fight is just bringing together guys like me, who
aren't professionals."
LIKE 'FIGHT CLUB'?
"But not so sinister. You're not going out there to kill
each other - just to have fun with it. And I've had a
couple more fights since then. Actually, I had an
amateur fight set up, and I got my ass kicked. The guy
just beat the hell out of me."
WHAT INJURIES HAVE YOU SUSTAINED?
"Nothing worse than fat lips and black eyes. I had the
worst black eye of my life a few months ago; one side
of my eye was just puffed out with blood. It looked
really horrid. And I went to bed, and over the course
of the night, the blood spread out all across my eye."
WHAT DOES YOUR WIFE THINK OF ALL THIS?
"She is not supportive of it in the least. She doesn't
want me to go to the gym and she doesn't want to see
me fight. She just does not like it."
HAVE YOU HAD ANY FIGHTS OUTSIDE THE RING?
"No, except for little scraps when I was a kid. I don't
walk around acting like I'm a tough guy, because I'm
not. But boxing's not like that it's different because..."
IT'S A GENTLEMAN'S SPORT?
"(Laughs) It's all about strategy and skill. It is! Plus, in a
street fight there are no rules. There's no referee saying,
'No hitting below the belt with your baseball bat'."
DO YOU HAVE A KILLER NICKNAME. LIKE BIFFER, BRUISER OR ROCKY?
"Not yet but my trainer gives me really bad nicknames
all the time that I can't repeat here. It's nothing that's
gonna stick, though. I kinda like 'The Tiger'."
THAT DAVE GROHL IN YOUR SIDE-PROJECT BAND - COULD YOU TAKE HIM IN A FIGHT?
"He's a pretty big guy. And he's used to drumming.
Outside of the fact that he's my friend, he'd probably kill
me. He's a foot taller than me!"
BUT YOU'VE GOT THE TRAINING.
"Have you seen him play drums?The guy's got fast
hands. That's a big part of the sport."
HOW MANY ROUNDS WOULD IT GO?
"Well, he smoked for a long time, that might be to my
advantage. But if it went the distance, who knows?"
WOULD YOU BET ON IT?
"My money would be on Dave."