Andy "Kaos" Kolle Interview
By Tim Hocking

Andy, give us your thoughts about your first opportunity to headline a card in Fargo, there must be a lot of excitement building for you.
Oh, I'm really stoked to finally get back into my hometown, in front of a crowd that I've grown up around, and that have grown up watching me fight. I'm really excited to be the headliner; I was the main event one card here last year. I'm just looking forward to testing my skills, going the distance, I haven't gone the distance here in a long time, and I'm looking forward to that.

Tell us how training has gone for you.
You know, it's gone really great. We started in January training for the February 24th card and haven't let up. So we haven't had to start and stop like we did for the last fight so we are really ready to go. So I've just kept learning and learning because I didn't have to get in shape first.

Tell our readers what you feel are the biggest strengths you bring into the ring are.
You know my conditioning and my heart. I have a fighter's heart. I don't like to back down and I have a hard left hand. I try to stay really busy in the fight, action packed the whole time!

It's said that a fighter learns a little something in every fight. I would assume with the bright lights on in your fight with Andre Ward you learned quit a bit, tell us about your experience on HBO.
It was a great experience. I probably learned more about myself in that fight than in any other fight. I learned a lot about pressure, something that is helping me now that I am headlining a card in my hometown. You have to deal with a lot of pressure, a lot of people know about the fight, a lot of people wanting to talk to you everyday. You just have to try to put that aside and focus on the fight and not worry about what's going on around you. This is a little different since it won't be televised, but these are the people I need to see everyday after the fight, so just knowing how to deal with that pressure (from my HBO experience) really helped me out.

What do you know about your opponent for this fight?
I don't really know a lot about him to be honest with you. I know he is a tough rugged vet with a lot of fights and he's coming to win the fight. He's gone the distance a lot of times, the last time he was stopped it was by Mikkel Kessler, so if you are going to be stopped that is a respectable name to have on your resume. So I'm just going to go in there and see what I can do and hopefully get some rounds in for this fight. I'm just looking to learn since the longest I've been is 6 rounds so I just really want to go deeper than that to see where I am in my career to be able to go 8 rounds, 10 rounds, you just don't know until you get there.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I would assume for some of these fights you just simply want to worry about improving on what you do the best in the ring, and do that to the best of your ability and then know that everything else will take care of itself. True?
Oh yeah, that's definitely true, I'm going to go out there and look to establish my jab and make this guy fight my fight. If he's going to try to come in all rough and rugged, do his thing, impose his will on me, I just have to keep my composure and focus on doing what I want to do.

You know, we began this conversation talking about some of the bigger names in and around your division in Minnesota. Do you feel you are ready to step it up against some of those fighters around your weight class?
Definitely, without a question! I'm ready to go right now. I would love to fight Matt Vanda, I would love to fight Kenny Kost. Troy Lowry, we tried to get him for this card and he went MIA just like that. Some of these bigger names with good records to give us some rounds and give us a good challenge, that's what we are in this business for. We aren't just trying to build up our records we want to make it somewhere in this sport and the only way to do that is to fight the top guys in this state otherwise you'll never be able to venture out of this state.

If you had your way, what would 2007 look like for Andy Kolle? How busy would you like to be and what would the year look like?
I'd like to fight five more fights this year. I'd like to stay as busy as possible. I love fighting. God willing we don't get hurt, some stupid cut or something, something that doesn't need to happen in the ring. So as long as that goes I'd like to fight every month. So hopefully then I can get fights with Matt Vanda, Troy Lowry, and Kenny Kost. One, two, three. That's a good lineup right there. Just keep building from one fight to the next.

Anything you would like to say in closing?
Hopefully everyone comes out to the show in Fargo. I'm looking to put on a good show. All of the bouts that are lined up are solid, so it should be an action packed night of fighting. So I know everyone will have a good time. A lot of shows we have had going on in the state here lately, like the card last night (Heavyweight Invasion at Target Center) the local fighters got booed out and that's not going to happen up here. People are going to come out have fun and enjoy themselves.

Send Questions or Comments to Tim at timandanita17@yahoo.com