Terrell Gausha, 2012 Olympian, Aims For World Championship As 36th Birthday Looms

CLEVELAND — 2012 Olympian Terrell Gausha understands the importance of patience as a fighter. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that he understands that time is ticking and with hopes of becoming a world champion, it’s time to press the gas. With his 36th birthday looming and potentially outgrowing the 154-pound division, Gausha understands it’s time to get going. 

Patiently awaiting his next move, you would have to go back to 2017 to find the Cleveland native’s last multiple fight year. He’s only competed once, something he hopes to change this year with a potential fall return. With a stellar resume, Gausha stands at 23-3-1, and admittedly, always takes the opportunity to face the tougher opposition when potential opponents are placed in front of him. Hoping to capitalize on his March knockout of Brandyn Lynch, who also happens to be the nephew of Hollywood royalty, Eddie Murphy, Gausha is poised for his next fight date and victim. 

Gausha talks to Zenger News about a potential September return, and if he’d welcome a fight against Olympic teammate Errol Spence Jr., and much more. 

Zenger: It sounds like you will be getting back in the ring soon. I see you’re working hard. How are you feeling? 

Gausha: I feel good. I’m just ready to get back out there and stay active. Hopefully I can fight in September and get back in there in December. 

Zenger: Since 2018, you have only averaged one fight per year. I’m sure that is something you are hoping to change. 

Gausha: Yeah, for sure. It’s not just me. It’s a lot of fighters, but my thing is to stay busy. I like to fight. That’s why I’m in the game. 

Zenger: Especially coming off of a spectacular knockout over Brandyn Lynch back in March. Keep that momentum going in a hot division is important, right? 

Gausha: For sure. When you get them knockouts you’re ready to get right back in there. But it’s the game. You gotta be patient. The time will come and it’s just part of the game sometimes. 

Zenger: How do you feel about your last performance against Lynch? 

Gausha: To be honest, I watched the fight a lot afterwards. I would say, I did pretty good considering the time off. Even though he’s not a big name, he was decent. I knew the guy. We sparred back in the day. I felt like I did good. I could have got him out of there maybe a little earlier if I wasn’t rusty. 

Zenger: You have one of the better resumes at 154 pounds. The record of your last 4 opponents is a combined 69-3-1. Is it safe to safe that we can expect a high caliber of opponent for you next? 

Gausha: (Laughing). For me, I think to be the best you gotta best the best. Whenever the opportunity presents itself for me to fight the better fighter, I’m going to always take that one. That’s what I’m about. I feel like if you a steppa, you can’t pick and choose your battles. You just gotta do what you gotta do. You gotta step with everybody. At the end of the day, I never pick a fight, but when they present multiple names to me, I always pick who I think is the better fighter. 

Zenger: Win, lose, or draw, do you take a little more away from fighting top opposition than you would against guys who, on paper, you should beat? 

Gausha: Of course. It lets me know different things I gotta tweak, because I’m right there. It’s levels to this game and I’m learning… even my first world title fight. There was a lot of pressure, a lot of different things I saw in the ring, but I took that, and I grew off of it. I don’t make excuses. You’ve never heard me make excuses after a fight. I just always try and get better. That’s what it’s all about. I either win or I learn. I never lose because I come from nothing. Where we’re from, you can’t lose. 

Zenger: With the unified champion moving up two divisions to face Canelo Alvarez, do you feel like this will open the division up, or do you think there is a chance he comes from 168 back down to 154? 

Gausha: It’s possible because you also have Errol Spence and Terence Crawford stepping up to 54, and they are stablemates, so they probably don’t really want to clash. If he wins, there might not be much left for him to do. Charlo is already undisputed at 154, if he can go do the same at 168… who knows. All of those scenarios are good for me, because there are a lot of steppas in the division. 

Zenger: I’m not sure if there is an unwritten rule for Olympic teammates to not fight one another or not, but with Spence moving up to 154, you guys were on the same Olympic team in 2012, is that a fight that’s off limits?

Gausha: For me, I wouldn’t ever say that I wouldn’t fight someone because you never know what they would say. For me, if a person would say, yes, I would always say, yes. Personally, I would never want to fight him because he is a good friend of mine. Who knows? I wish Errol Spence the best. That’s my guy. I heard he activated his rematch clause; I hope he can pull it off because I’m pulling for him. But we will see how everything plays out. 

Zenger: Spence talked about being a welterweight his entire career and expressed that continuing to cutdown that low became too much. That makes me think about you being at 154 for a very long time. How are you feeling about staying at the division? 

Gausha: I’ll be 36 on September 9th. I’ve been fighting at this weight for a long time. My last fight wasn’t even at 154. It’s definitely hard, but we make those sacrifices and do what we gotta do. We will see going into this next fight what weight I fight at, and then go from there. If my body can make it, I’m open to everything. 

Zenger: The goal is to get busy and remain busy, do you feel it’s somewhat of a double edge sword in needing breaks because you’re about to turn 36, while in the same sense, needed to stay active because you’re about to turn 36? 

Gausha: I can see both. I know a lot of fighters say this, but to be honest, I don’t feel like I have a lot of wear and tear. I feel fresh. I don’t get hit a lot. I train smart and hard. I feel like I’m good. I just feel like right now, it’s time to press the gas. I want to get the big fights. Get everything that I can in this game. I’m looking to be a world champion, so I’m looking for the bigger fights. Hopefully, this next fight will set me up for a named guy. Somebody who everybody knows. I feel like they took a named guy off of my resume, so I need to get them fights, so I can get the bigger fights. 

Zenger: Good luck to you, brother. Anything you want to add before you go? 

Gausha: I appreciate you. I feel good and it’s going to be good, bro. 

Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Newsdesk Manager