Boxer. Television actor. Life coach. Tap dancer. Name a profession, and Tony Danza has probably made a name for himself in it. But don't expect the return of the good ol' days anytime soon. The TV icon and host of The Contender is taking off the gloves and is ready to show George W. Bush, Danny DeVito, and idiotic reality shows who's the real boss.

So, one New Yorker interviewing another...
Oh yeah? What part of New York are you from?

Flushing, Queens.
I am from East New York. Brooklyn, really.

I'm not a Mets fan though—I am a Yankees fan.
Hey. Guess what? I am a Yankees fan too.

Really? Well, what do you think about the whole A-Rod steroids fiasco.
I think Obama really summed it up best. He said, It's that one thing you do, that shortcut you try to take, that choice you make that just haunts you for the rest of your life. My old man was a garbage man in Brooklyn. He worked in the neighborhood that I lived in and would tell me, Don't do anything wrong. Someone will tell me. His great line was: "All the good you do is wiped out by that one bad thing." I think a guy like A-Rod, who is obviously the greatest baseball player of all time, to have his numbers questioned is a very big thing for him. I'm sure that if he went back now and had a choice whether to do it, he would probably chose not to.

So, did Tony Micelli juice?
No, Tony was clean. He didn't even believe in empty calories!

You're the host of the fourth season of The Contender, set in Singapore. We heard that if you so much as spit in public, you'll be subject to mandatory caning.
As strict as it sounds, you really don't feel that—I wouldn't want to test it though, at least with drugs. If you have a little bit of pot there, you go to jail for 20 years. You know what's funny? On one end you can't chew gum, but prostitution is legal. You go into a club and there is a hundred women there asking me to take them home.

So, did you?
I was very considerate—I really was well behaved.

The show's finale is tonight. Tell us a little bit about your role.
We started with 14 guys in the cruiserweight division; really big guys. The two that have emerged as the finalists, I really didn't think they would be the ones left standing. They survived because of their grit, determination, and desire for the chance that this show gives a fighter.

Boxing is in a tough spot now. There is no transcendent personality out there, and there isn't free TV anymore, for the most part, so it's really hard for the everyday boxer to work. One of the finalists, Troy Ross, knocked out the first two guys he fought—one with his right hand, one with his left. The other finalist: Hino Ehikhamenor—if you can pronounce his name, you take the title. Actually, he's a very determined guy, and beat the most experienced guy on the show to make it to the finals.

Is there anyone in the pro ranks that can bring boxing back, so to speak?
There are a bunch of good fighters out there—there just isn't anyone who's captured the imagination of the population.

Mixed martial arts certainly has. Why do you think it has grown while interest in boxing has wilted?
Remember, mixed martial arts is on free TV. That's one reason. I think it's also different; it's young, it's accessible. Everybody fights—a lot of guys even fight in the streets. They all think they can do that. In boxing, you put on gloves and you have to know what you are doing in there. I'm not denigrating the full-contact thing—I think you have to be very tough—but I think once they hit the ground and one guy puts his elbow into the other guy's face it's time for me to change the channel.

"Tough" Tony Danza (9-3 record) knocks out Billy Perez in the first round.

Speaking of putting your limbs into someone's face, you were actually a boxer early on. When was your first real fight? I'm talking about "fifth-grade, meet me out in the pines" kind of fighting.
When I was a kid—we are talking about the '50s and '60s—fighting was just another game we played. I am not kidding. We got up in the morning and said, Hey do you want to play baseball? No, let's fight. I remember the first time I came home to my father after I got beat up. He said, "Make sure you throw a right hand." He taught me how to throw a right hand and after that, I used it. Where I lived, you really had to have a reputation, you had to defend yourself. So, I was always street fighting and that's how I ended up in boxing. After college, I owned a little bar out in Long Island. Back then, I was still in fights and a couple of my friends entered me without my knowledge and I got the notice to show up for my physical—I thought I got drafted to go to war! I went to the bar that night and, with all my friends laughing at me, I knocked out the first six guys I fought in the Golden Gloves. The guy in the Daily News said I was "serving mittens instead of Manhattans." That was the beginning of it for me.

What was the best advice you remember taking?
The advice you get when you fight—I have a tattoo of it actually—"Keep punching." In boxing, in life, wherever—I think it's a pretty good motto.

If you had one stone-cold knockout left in the tank, who'd you want on the receiving end?
There are a lot of people on that list, but I would like to knockout the last president. I would like to hit George Bush in the chin so bad. I'll get in trouble for saying I want to knock out the last president, but he is a schmuck.

I've heard Danny DeVito—
I'd like to knock him out too. I am mad at him.

Why's that?
There was a big discussion in Hollywood about the work actors do with digital content, like Web shorts, and Danny was really on the wrong side of it. He was one of about 100 top-notch, A-list guys who will never be affected by the new contract, who said we'd have to make a deal we can't. Danny DeVito and Tom Hanks—those guys don't have to worry about Web episodes. The solidarity went right out the window.

Well, I guess my question about Danny DeVito flirting with a Taxi reunion is moot...
I am not interested in going back—I want to go forward. People talk about a Who's The Boss? reunion—they were great shows, especially Taxi, but I don't want to do that. And, by the way, it would be so ugly. Imagine what how bad it would look in high-definition?

Well, there's Alyssa Milano.
Some of us are going to do better than others. I don't think Danny is going to be too happy.

So, what's in Tony Danza's future?
I am actually working on some things. I have a Web venture opening in the next few weeks. It's going to be called DailyDanza.com. Basically, I am going to try to do what I used to do on my talk show, but I am going to do it on the Web.

The dancing, too?
We'll play the ukulele, we'll dance, we'll do a lot of stupid things. I also have an idea called "responsible reality." It's taking the format and popularity of reality TV and using it to do some good for society. I want a focus on education and I have a network very interested—they are putting money in—so, maybe, by the fall, we'll have a show.

Sounds better than America's Next Top Model...
Well, America's Next Top Model isn't that bad, but have you ever watched The Bachelor? That's like porno! People talk like they could possibly fall in love in a season of The Bachelor. If there is any way that we can appeal to our worse angels, we'll find it.

OK, it's almost lunchtime—where can you get the best pizza in New York?
You know, I stopped buying pizza.

That's...blasphemous?
I make it myself, actually. I've got the recipe in my cookbook [wink, wink]. You get a three-quarter-inch pizza stone at any bed and breakfast, you put it in the oven, and heat the oven at 550 degrees for a half an hour. Then, lower it to 500 degrees and you get one of those things they have at the pizza parlor, you put a little corn meal in the thing so it flies, and you make your own pizza. I am telling you, you'll like it a lot better.

Tune in for the finale of The Contender, tonight on VERSUS at 8 PM EST.