Raphael Butler: "I have nothing to lose"
By Jesse Kelley

24 year old Raphael Butler is set to headline in his hometown of Rochester, MN Saturday night at the Graham Arena. Last June, Butler faced his biggest challenge as a pro when he met "Fast" Eddie Chambers for the USBA heavyweight title. Butler boxed with Chambers for six rounds. According to Butler, he was winning the fight before a hard right hand followed by a flurry of punches put him down in the round. Butler says he got up but the ref would not allow him to continue. Earlier this month, Butler returned to the ring for the first time since the loss to try to get back on track against Texan Homero Fonseca in what was to be a tune up. Things went according to plan as he clobbered Fonseca throughout the opening round. However, by Butlers own account, he let Fonseca off the hook and would lose a disappointing split decision. Despite the recent unfortunate results, Butler got right back in ring two weeks later, destroying Lyle McDowell in the opening round.
MinnesotaBoxing.com caught up with Butler via telephone interview to get his take on the recent fights. Butler also talked about where he believes he is at in a career that has spanned 38 fights in only five years.

Minnesota boxing fans, myself included did not get a chance to see your fight with Eddie Chambers. From what I gathered from talking with people at the fight and after reading fight reports, the fight was much closer then the scorecards show prior to the stoppage. Talk about your thoughts on the fight.
I was definitely winning that fight. But It was Eddie Chamber's show. More or less, it was his show. I was the opponent obviously. The only way to beat him on that show was to knock him out. They did not bring Eddie Chambers there to lose.

So were you trying to knock him out because of that or where you still trying to outbox him?
To be honest with you, I was trying to outbox him. I knew I had a chance of outboxing him. Regardless of if the judges would give it to me, I wanted to outbox him. I am longer then him and stronger then him. I knew that when he felt my punches, he would be a little leery of them. I went in planning to out boxing him, to beat him up. See with a guy like Eddie Chambers, your just not going to go in there and knock him out. The only way you are going to knock him out is by boxing him.

You were stopped in the sixth round. Talk about what happened.
I will say he probably caught me with the best right hand of his career. But he dropped me with a flurry of punches. He needed to land a few punches to put me down. I was hurt but when I got to my feet I was ready to fight. I looked the referee right in his eyes and told him I was fine. He still said he was going to stop the fight. I couldn't believe it. I told him "No, don't do this to me!" But he said the fight is over. You know, what can I do about that?

Would you say you took something positive away from that fight then? By outboxing or at the least, boxing on even terms with Chambers?
For sure. That showed me right there that I can be on that level. Regardless of what the judges had that fight scored and regardless of the ref stopping the fight, I know that I can compete with anybody on that level. I will say that if that fight was promoted by a different person, they would have had the score right and I would have been ahead.

You followed the Chambers fight up with a split decision loss to Homero Fonseca in his hometown of Texas. Again, we were not able to see the fight. Can you talk about the fight?
Man...you know, in that fight I had a couple different things going on with me. I hurt my back and just a whole lot of stuff going on at the time. But regardless of what was going on with me in that fight. That guy should never have made it out of the first round with me. That was my mistake. I am not even going to sit here and think about excuses for that fight. I let the guy get off the hook in the first round and let him get a little confidence. Honestly, I feel like I did enough to win the fight. But in a fight like that where the guy is clearly overmatched and the underdog in his hometown, they are going to give it to the underdog.

Reports made it sound like you beat him like a drum in the first round. What happened after that?
He was throwing flurries here and there. Catching my elbows and catching my gloves. He wasn't hitting my head at all. But I guess it still looked good to the judges.

You mentioned your back being injured. Was that something that happened prior to the fight in training?
Yeah my back was pretty screwed up before the fight, but it is funny. After the first round, I went back to my corner to sit down on my stool and the damn stool breaks (laughing)! So now my back is really messed up. The F--king stool breaks and I fall on my ass right there between rounds!

Maybe the guy you fought knew you had an injury and cracked one of the legs before your fight?
(laughing) Well it wouldn't surprise me.

You destroyed Lyle McDowell two weeks ago in Red Wing, MN. You didn't give him a chance to even throw a punch really. Was that meant to be a statement that you are still the same fighter despite the recent losses?
Exactly. You know Jesse, I have six losses now. Nobody is expecting anything out of me anymore. I have nothing to lose now. I am going to fight every fight from now on like I have nothing to lose. Whatever happens, happens. I am going to go in there and bleed out of my heart. That is pretty much all I can do to get to the top.

Your opponent for Saturday night is listed on Boxrec as Billy Willis. What can you tell us about Willis?
I am actually not fighting Billy Willis anymore. I am now fighting a tough guy out of Iowa that I fought one time before named Travis Fulton. I have seen Travis in a few other fights and he always comes to fight. He is one of those guys with a bad record but has a little pop to his punches. You always have to be aware of him for the first couple of rounds. With that said, I should beat him like I did the first time. I stopped him in the second round when we fought. I expect to do the same or better this time out.

The latest rumor flying around is that a possible fight with former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman could be on your horizon. Any truth to that?
Yeah I have heard that also. I heard that my other manager Steve Munisteri said they are still putting my name out there for that one. Hopefully that fight comes along. That would be a great opportunity for me. Something like that could put me back in the public's eye. People might start saying I may have something still. Right now nobody is expecting me to do anything. As far as boxing's mainstream people, they are expecting nothing from me because of the six losses. But I plan on surprising a lot of people.

The rest of the card is as follows...

Ronnie Peterson Jr. MN (debut) vs. Allante Davis (0-1) of Wisc.

Boris Shishporenek MN (4-0) vs. Harold Johnson (5-34) of Wisc.

Mike Howell (0-1) MI vs. Rayvon Wilson (0-2-1) of Wisc.

Malcolm Cowans MN (debut) vs. Bobby Butters MN (14-32-1)