InTheRing caught up with Maurice “Mighty Mo” Hooker (23-0-3, 16KO’s) from Dallas, Texas at his training camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado. “Mighty Mo,” an undefeated fighter in the junior welterweight division is on the verge of the biggest fight of his career when he takes on Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KO’s), the former WBO lightweight champion for the vacant WBO Junior Welterweight belt.
A belt vacated by former Junior Welterweight champion, Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KO’s), who has now moved up in weight, and happens to be friends with Mighty Mo. Both are training together in Colorado Springs, and each are training for a world title fight.
Crawford has plans to take the WBO Welterweight title from Jeff Horn (18-0, 12KO’s) on June 9th and Mighty Mo happens to be fighting on the same day. This may be a coincidence, but something tells me it is not. One will be a new world champion and the other can be a new champion in another division.
Crawford dominated the 140lb division and has moved on, and now Mighty Mo has intentions of taking over the Junior Welterweight division.
But first he must go to England, the home country of Flanagan, where he has a huge fan base and the country on his side. But when I asked Mighty Mo how he felt about going to England and fighting Flanagan, he said “It doesn’t matter, I’m ready to shock the world.”
When asked if he had seen film on Flanagan and what he has worked on to fight against him, Mighty Mo said “He’s quick on his feet, he got speed but he doesn’t have any power….I’m gonna use my jab and have a good night.” “I’m gonna make him adjust to me and go in there and do my thing.”
In this training camp, he said he just did twelve rounds of sparring and is now going down in rounds toward the end of his camp. As far as the altitude is concerned in Colorado he said at first he wasn’t used to it, but he is now.
When asked about people saying he is the underdog, he said “I love being the underdog, it motivates me to work harder, it don’t really matter to me, once we get into the ring, we will see who the underdog really is.” ”I might shock the world in the first three rounds."
The fight was rescheduled from April to June 9th but Mighty Mo said the delay didn’t effect him, it motivated him. He is having the best training camp for his scheduled world title fight and said “I hope Flanagan is ready and he trained hard, because I don’t want any excuses.”
Flanagan is moving up in weight, but Mighty Mo has fought at 140 for a long time, and that is why he said he will be stronger. He is also taller and has the longer reach, so his jab will make the difference, and if he connects with that Tommy Hearns left hook and straight right hand, it could be over quickly.
He went on to say, "Flanagan is moving up and has never been hit by anyone like me, and “I will bring the belt back to Texas.
