By Samaarah Choubak

This coming Saturday, Chazz Witherspoon will fight Seth Mitchell in Atlantic City for the NABO heavyweight title. Witherspoon-Mitchell is the HBO televised co-feature to Bernard Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson rematch. BoxingScene.com spoke with Chazz after a recent training session in California.

Chazz Witherspoon : Right now I'm in California, I'm on the West Coast and I'm out here working hard and I've been doing a lot of training and I'm getting into really good shape for this fight.

Samaarah: April the 28th is just round the corner, how has your preparation been going?

Chazz Witherspoon : It's going pretty good. I'm doing a lot of things that I've never done before like running a lot of hills.  Actually this the first time that I'm away from home and I'm able to just concentrate on just boxing and training.  I have four boys and my oldest son is six, so I have a five-year-old, a four-year-old, a three-year-old and two-year-old and also have one on the way and that one's coming in July. I'm always there at home. I'm a really involved father and I don't get a lot of sleep, but over here I've been getting around seven hours of sleep and things are really coming along.

Samaarah: It sounds like you've got a busy home life  and with regard to the last four fights that you've won, how do you think you'll do against Mitchell?

Chazz Witherspoon : I was just laughing when you said he's a giant. I believe it's going to be a good fight because he's definitely a step up in class of opponent from the last four fights I've been fighting. I came into the boxing league myself at the age of 21 and I'm 30 now so he came into boxing about four and half years ago. I have more experience than him, so I'm going to use that to my advantage. I believe it's going to be a really competitive fight and he's going to be ready to be going in, and I'm going to be ready to be going in so we are going to bring it, you know he's throws a lot of punches and I throw a lot of punches and I think it's going to be a really good fight.

Samaarah: So that sounds like a little bit of a plan you've got going on. You turned professional in 2004, you've nearly won all of your fights, tell us about your record?

Chazz Witherspoon : I am 30 and two, with 22 knock outs and my two losses are one to [Chris] Arreolla when I was 23 and 0 and from that standpoint and I've come a long way in my career and I believe in that fight I kinda got caught up in the emotion of the fight and he came charging and I started trading with him and he's a slugger so I kinda got pulled into his fight, especially in the later rounds.  My second loss was to Tony "The Tiger" Thompson, so I've lost to the top 10 people, and I've learnt from both my losses and I believe that you get better when you work properly after you have a loss and only in boxing nowadays they write your career off as soon as you lose a fight your career is done – I don't know why that is and it makes no sense to me.  It's all good and I'm going to show my best efforts on April 28.

Samaarah: What kind of techniques can you reveal about your training, is there anything significant that your coach has told you to do?

Chazz Witherspoon : Well I cant reveal anything about the strategy, but we've been doing good and my coach is a really good coach. I would like to say that he's a genius in the ways and some of the metaphors that he uses when it comes to boxing, he knows his protocols and he's a really good strategist and he's training me really well and hard. One thing that you are gonna be sure to see is that I'm going to be in tip top shape. I definitely plan on giving my best performance in this fight and you will see me at my best.

Samaarah: What sparring partners have you had ?

Chazz Witherspoon : I've been working with a couple of guys, they've been bringing people in different days and they've been sparring with me for a minute at a time and they come out just for a minute and they've been coming at me really hard, Seth Mitchell he's a pressure fighter and I'm ready enough.

Samaarah: Have you spoken to Bernard Hopkins?

Chazz Witherspoon : I haven't actually spoken to Bernard and he actually trains at my gym back in Philly. I haven't talked to him since I've known I'm having this fight and it's going to be a really good fight and it's hard to get tickets actually. Normally my father actually sells a lot of tickets for my fights and a lot of people have been coming to my father to get tickets, but they're hard to get, so I think they must also be sold out right now. There's going to be a lot of people down there from Philly they going to come out and support me and Bernard. A lot of people will be coming from Washington DC to support Seth, so it's going to be packed out and a good crowd.

Samaarah: Lastly, give us your opinion about Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather on Cinco De Mayo, what do you think is going to happen ?

Chazz Witherspoon : I like Miguel and I like Floyd – they are both champions. I believe that Floyd is going to win the fight in the way he's undefeated, so I can't see Miguel beating him and I don't think in this fight he's going to beat Floyd.