Yuri Foreman: “Victory over Lara definitely puts my name there”

"Camp was great. It was a lot of hard work and I'm looking forward to Friday. I feel ready, today was my last hard workout. What to expect is for me to be more aggressive and see how it goes, but I'm going to be careful while in the moment,” Yuri Foreman said who is planning to take matters into his own hands by blasting out WBA/IBO junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara.

- Who are some of the guys you sparred with in preparation for this bout?

- All southpaws obviously, Sean Cameron, Akil Auguste, and Wesley West, who will be making his pro debut soon. They all gave me great work and I'll be ready.

- When is the last time you fought somebody like Lara who is a boxing oriented as you are?

- You know what? I would say Lara is different from everyone I've fought, I've never fought anybody like him and that kind of excites me. I'm looking forward to step in the ring, work and do my fight.

- This is your first significant fight since returning to the ring. Do you feel that the guys you faced prior to Lara were ideal to prepare you for a fight of this magnitude?

- I feel great Greg, I know he's very smart and a very good fighter and that makes me train harder to fight someone like him and be able to showcase my skills against him.

- I spoke to Lara's trainer Ronnie Shields and he said it's very important that they don't let you get ahead of them, with that being said how important is it for you to get off to a great start and get ahead early in this fight?

- It's very important, I know I'm fighting him in his backyard so I'm probably going to be two rounds down when the first round starts. Boxers like us, it's important to prevent the other guy from being able to do what he wants to do. Again it's going to be a very interesting fight and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

- So we haven't confirmed that the referee can count to ten yet.

- No, we haven't, but I'm confident that if I follow the game plan I will the fight. The fight will be televised on Spike TV so everybody will see what happens no matter what.

- The last time we spoke you let me know what your motivation is for this fight and what you're fighting for. Can you refresh Boxingtalk readers memories please?

- Any victory is great, but a victory over Erislandy Lara definitely puts my name there and it also gives me a great accomplishment as a fighter, competitor and professional.

- Any trouble making the weight?

- Oh no, I've been kind of busy to make sure I keep my weight and it's not too low.

- Closing thoughts?

- Tune into to Spike TV on Friday night, it's going to be a great fight. Thanks to all boxing fans, boxing supporters and I'll see you there.