Status: Heavyweight contender. Record is 33-6 (24 KO’s).

Ht: 6-2  Wt: 230

DOB: December 29, 1973 In: Flushing, NY

First Boxing Memory: “My first boxing memory growing up I guess was watching Pazienza vs. Greg Haugen on Wide World of Sports.”

Inspirations: “I guess definitely watching the old time fighters like Marciano, Lamotta. Old time fighters. I would put them up there.”

Hobbies/Interests: “I’m always in the gym. I love being in the gym. I like watching movies on TV.”

Last Book Read: “Good question. Senator John McCain’s autobiography when he was running for President.”

First Job: “Garden World. I was bringing trees out to customers, stuff like that.”

First Car: “Pontiac Firebird (black).”

Current Car: “BMW (black).”

Pre-Fight Feeling: “Great opportunity for me. I gotta take every chance to win it this time. I gotta give it everything I got. This is a chance I’ve been dreaming about since I put the gloves on.”

Greatest Sports Moment: “I guess just being in all these classic fights, that I’ve been on ESPN 2004, 2005. Fighting overseas. Just every fight that I go in the ring. HBO pay-per-view with Minto.”

Most Painful Moment: “Probably getting knocked down in the Minto fight, 10th round (2004, ESPN2 Fight of the Year). Only time I’ve ever been down. I got right back up. I wish I could take that back. Never been down in my career. And that was the only time I’ve been down on the canvas.”

Which Fight Were You At Your Best: “Probably the Shannon Miller fight. 2005. ESPN. I knocked him out in the fifth round but it was just a great fight, back and forth action.”

Funny Boxing Memory: “Just in the gym, a lot of funny stuff in the gym. Gleason’s Gym, over in New Jersey. All the years. A lot of stuff goes on [smiles].”

Strangest Fight: “When I fought Julius Long. The guy was seven-foot-one. And I took him on two days notice. Tough fight. It was a no-contest. They stopped it on cuts. I wish they could take that one back.”

Embarrassing Boxing Memory:  “No. None that I can recall.”

Funniest Boxer Encountered: “There was a guy out of Gleason’s – Buck Trap is a guy that I used to see spar in the gym. He made you laugh [smiles]. The guy definitely made you laugh. He did some time, he was away upstate for a few years. He came out. One of the toughest guys that you never heard of. He’d be in the ring and you just start laughing, he’d do an Ali Shuffle in the middle of a sparring session. So that was definitely one of the funniest.”

Hardest Puncher Encountered: “I gotta say, through all the years sparring – I say Oleg Maskaev, who had one of the strongest right hands I’ve ever been hit with.”

Favorite Boxers To Watch: “Probably Pacquiao. He throws, he’s a tough guy, he loves to fight. Gives you all punches all over the place. But he’s the kind of guy who boxes too. He mixes it up with boxing, does a little bit of everything.”

Toughest Part Of Being A Boxer: “Just staying committed, just staying focused. That’s all it is. Ten weeks before a fight – diet, no drinking, staying on the strict routine.”

People Qualities Most Admired: “Just a good guy. People who come up and say hello to people. The way I treat people – the way you want to be treated back. And that’s how you look at everything.”

On Boxing Tomasz Adamek in Newark, NJ on December 9: “Hopefully the Polish fans will be on my side after the fight when they see the effort that I give. This is probably my last chance to prove to everybody – I’m gonna do it.”