Kolle Recaps Bonsante, Talks About Truax Fight
By Jesse Kelley
5-27-09

 

27 year old Andy "Kaos" Kolle (18-2) became the top dog in Minnesota's stacked middleweight division on March 28th, lifting the belt from former title holder Anthony Bonsante. Fighting in front of an electricly charged crowd, both fighters went toe to toe for three intense rounds. Each fighter shined but Kolle's size and movement gave him the edge in the bout. The action would come to a sudden halt as Kolle's left hand connected with Bonsante's jaw at 1:37 of the third round. The punch put an end to one man's elustrious career while shooting the other to the top of his class in MN. Andy Kolle recently shared his thoughts on the fight with Anthony Bonsante with MinnesotaBoxing.com.
On another intersting note, it was recently revealed that Horton's Promotions and Seconds Out Promotions have verbally agreed to co-promote yet another marquee bout coming in either September or October of 2009. Kolle will face "Golden" Caleb Truax. Kolle also discusses the potential bout with Truax...

 

I would like to start by revisiting the lead up to your fight with Anthony Bonsante. Can you discuss the game plan going in and what things you concentrated on while getting ready for Bonsante?

Well Tony’s style was no big secret to those that follow Minnesota boxing. I watched his fight with Carl Daniels a few times because it was his most recent fight and also to see how he deals with southpaws. Not a whole lot of difference between that fight and the others I had watched of his live. He liked to work his way in side with that double or triple jab and once in side he would get rough, work the body and throw that vicious uppercut of his. Seeing this we worked in camp a lot on stuffing that jab before he could get it going. We worked a lot at timing the jab and coming over it with my own jab to try and keep him off balance and keep the fight on the outside. Even though we worked extensively on that simple aspect we knew eventually, being such a crafty veteran, he was going to get in from time to time. Knowing that it was something I worked on a lot in sparring with Gary Eyer and Jungle (Zach Walters). I had Jungle throwing so many uppercuts at me in sparring that it became drilled into my head that I can’t let the fight stay inside for to long.

Physically, I don’t think MN fight fans have seen you look as strong as you did in the ring with Bonsante. Bonsante is a rough guy especially on the inside. Was part of the plan to work on your physical strength training more so for this one to have the edge if things got rough like most people, including myself thought it would?

Absolutely! A huge part of our camp more now than ever is strength and conditioning. Myself and Jungle started working with a new strength and conditioning coach, Adam Dailey. He tortures us for a solid hour 4 days a week to get me ready for a war. I never felt as strong as I did going into that fight. I knew there was no way I was going to get muscled around. Even though I felt bigger and stronger with this added training I had a hard time holding my weight. In fact, a month before the fight I was 165! Although it was nice to eat that extra food to keep the weight on I knew that after this fight I had to move down in weight to give myself that extra edge.

Talk about your movement in the fight. I don’t think we have seen you circling and moving so effectively like you did against Bonsante.

Movement was also a big part of our camp. We knew that Tony likes to come straight at his opponent to impose his strength and even though I knew I could compete on the inside with him I wanted this fight to be a showcase of my ability, not his. Taking away his best weapons worked right into my strengths and kept it more of a boxing match then an all out fight. My movement was better then previous fights but that was also impart to the style matchup.

When you landed your shots early, did you feel right away that they were affecting him?

Yes I could see the look in his eyes when I landed flush shots that he knew I was a lot stronger then I had previously been given credit for. Mainly how hard my jab was kept him hesitant of coming in and every time he hesitated I would do my best to capitalize.

How would you rate Bonsante's punches? Were his punches what you expected?

Tony had decent power but I was never expecting his shots to be that hard. I’ve never really known (or heard) of Tony being a real knockout puncher. His thing is wearing you down with that inside work and getting you tired and finishing you off. That was my whole thing leading up to this fight training the way I do. I knew there was no way I was getting tired before him.

Any other thoughts or key moments that stick out to you that you remember as the fight was taking place prior to the knockout?

Honestly the fight played out a lot like we thought it would. I was just happy that the things I worked on in camp worked so well. I thought as the fight continued and the things he was doing weren’t working being the fighter he is, he would adapt and change his game plan but the fight was over before there was time. One thing that does stick out from my memory of the fight is the look on his face after the first round, he had that look like "shit why didn’t anybody tell me this kid was so strong".

Bonsante seemed to catch you with a decent shot in the third round. You went right back after him and that is when you knocked him out. Did you see it this way, and talk about the punch you caught him with.

Tony is a good fighter and yes he caught me with some good shots but I think that the punches looked harder then they were because like an idiot, I went straight back instead of side to side. Like the champion he was he tried to come at me and finish me off. Everybody made so much of the Paul Williams KO but like I said before it didn’t affect me the way everybody thought it would. Bonsante, knowing I’ve been hurt before figured he could do it again, and I don’t blame him for that. I am just glad to prove that I can still take a good shot. Not that it was a fluke but lets face it, Paul Williams is one of the best p4p fighters on the planet.

Was it one of those moments where you knew immediately he wasn't getting up?

I had caught him with a couple left hands before that and I could tell they bothered him but I missed my mark a little on those shots. Then I landed a decent one that sent him back and made him taunt me a little bit which proved to me that he was hurt. I wanted to play it cool and be patient because Tony was always good and playing mind games so I was a little weary to dive right on him. Right after I hurt him the first time Shark (Chuck Horton) yelled at me “that’s real son” referring to him actually being hurt, but before I could do anything about it Tony came right at me and I dropped a jackhammer left hand on him that sent him down. When I hit him I knew the fight was over, I said to myself “if this guy gets up he’ll be down there again in a few seconds”!

Bonsante was the Minnesota middleweight champ. And in this state, that is saying a lot considering all the talent around that weight. After all the hard work and build up, how satisfying is it to have the MN state belt and be at the top of the mountain?

Well I have the title but no belt yet! But yes it feels great that the hard worked paid off and I am the Champ! There’s nothing more rewarding in boxing then seeing the fruits of your labor paying off. All of us fighters know how hard it is to get ready to go to battle with another warrior. It takes a lot of personal sacrifice and you have to almost alienate yourself from most of life’s pleasures. It feels really good when fight night comes because all the hard work is over and it’s time for the fun part of our sport, performing in front of a jacked up crowd.

After your victory, you told those in the arena that you feel 154 is your best weight. Is it your plan to fight at 154 for the time being, 160, or both in the near future? Discuss your plan as to what weight you would like to fight at right now.

I have been trying to campaign at 154 for a while but with the fights in Wisconsin the weigh-ins are 8 hours in advance so its been difficult to get an opponent at that weight. My plan for the future is to fight at 154 for a while because that is where I will feel the strongest. But anything’s possible. I would like to defend my title and fight the toughest opponents out there, but for the the time being 154 is my new home.

Starting in November of 2007, it’s safe to say you have not had an “easy” fight. In fact every bout has been a marquee, headlining fight with guys like Jonathan Reid, Matt Vanda, Paul Williams, and the Anthony Bonsante respectively. Talk about the last year and a half and how preparing for each one of these fights in that time has affected you.

I am glad you touched on that subject. With the exception of the Paul Williams fight I have went to camp and trained like crazy to guarantee that I will have my hands raised at the end of every fight. Fighting Matt let me know that I can go to war for 8 hard rounds and still feel fresh at the end ,even if I didn’t fight the smartest fight! That fight also taught me a lesson in humility when I got dropped. My pride was hurt a lot more then I was, but I learned I could get up and go on to dominate the rest of the fight easily. The best thing about having these tough fights back to back is that it kept me in the gym training hard so I was able to get better in between each fight and also keep my conditioning up. That way when the fights got made I was able to focus on strategy and build up a game plan. Another thing I wanted to prove was that I wasn’t a ruined fighter after Williams. That’s why we called for the Bonsante fight. I didn’t want to take a tune up fight because I didn’t feel that I needed to take a step back in my career.

 

You have a fight scheduled for June 18th in Duluth, MN . Is there anything you can share at this time about the card or possible opponents?

I have nothing for you at this point hopefully after the May 21st fight up here I will be able to announce something.

It was recently revealed that you will be facing Caleb Truax later this Fall. What are your thoughts on this match?

I am really excited about this fight! The reason being is that Caleb is a tough fighter and the fans really get behind him. I know that people feel that he is the number one contender for the Minnesota title and I want to give him the same opportunity that Tony gave to me. Also, I want to let it be known that if I need to keep validating myself as the best middleweight in this state I will and this is a challenge that I welcome. I wish Caleb the best in his next couple fights so we make this fight happen in the fall.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I want to take this time to thank everybody who came out to support us in Hinkley. The crowd was very electric and it made us fight that much harder. I also want to thank Tony Bonsante for giving me the opportunity to fight for his title. I’ve always respected Tony but that respect is elevated now. He fought hard and was a class act throughout. Thanks goes out to you as well Jesse for the continued support and coverage of Minnesota Boxing!