Speaker 1: We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: on which this podcast was produced, the Galligle people of
Speaker 1: the orination. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present.
Speaker 2: It's twenty twenty three and we're bedside in a Sydney
Speaker 2: hospital with Billy Dibb. The world champion boxer is facing
Speaker 2: his toughest fight yet cancer. He's in unbearable pain and
Speaker 2: thinks this could be the end of him. He pulls
Speaker 2: out his phone and starts recording videos for his young son,
Speaker 2: a special message for each milestone he won't be there for.
Speaker 2: He diligently puts them all in a folder and prepares
Speaker 2: instructions for his wife on how to find them. Billy
Speaker 2: knows all too well what could happen next. He watched
Speaker 2: his first wife go through this less than a decade ago,
Speaker 2: tragically losing her battle. It takes all of Billy's strength
Speaker 2: and courage to continue this enormous fight outside of the ring.
Speaker 2: I'm at Middleton and this is head game. Today a
Speaker 2: Billy did masterclass on overcoming adversity with faith, family and friendship. Now,
Speaker 2: Billy is the former IBO super featherweight champion and the
Speaker 2: IBF featherweight champion, and I say, former mate, you're looking
Speaker 2: in great shape. Maybe you should go back and get
Speaker 2: those belts. You know, I'm looking at you. You're looking well, mate,
Speaker 2: You're looking You're looking fresh. How you're feeling.
Speaker 3: I feel good, man, I feel really good.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's good to be alive. I feel fit, I feel
Speaker 3: strong and man, it's just good to be healthy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know what this is the gratitude, especially once you've
Speaker 2: had a career like you've had yours and you just
Speaker 2: won an award recently, didn't you? I did, man, So
Speaker 2: before we go into your childhood and go what award
Speaker 2: did you win?
Speaker 3: So recently? I overcame cancer and then I decided that
Speaker 3: I wanted to leave boxing on my own terms. I
Speaker 3: never wanted cancer to be the reason why I retired
Speaker 3: from boxing, so I decided to have a comeback fight
Speaker 3: and I won that comeback fight in Germany. And then
Speaker 3: His Excellency and the team at the Ring Magazine contacted
Speaker 3: me and said, look, we would like to invite you
Speaker 3: to London for the Ring Magazine ceremony and I was
Speaker 3: given a comeback story of the Year in front of
Speaker 3: all the greatest champions, you know, to finally receive your
Speaker 3: flowers on such a big platform and in a big stage,
Speaker 3: it was just unbelievable.
Speaker 2: It's huge.
Speaker 3: It's like the longest standing boxing magazine in history. So
Speaker 3: you know, his excellency border Off Oscar the lawyer, you know,
Speaker 3: so to be at this event, you had Canela Alvaze,
Speaker 3: you had aj you had Usik, you had all of
Speaker 3: these great champions there and I was given this award
Speaker 3: in front of all of them, and I was given
Speaker 3: a standing ovation, which was unbelievable because you know, obviously
Speaker 3: a lot of people respect the fact that I overcame canceled.
Speaker 2: Billy. Honestly, there's a reason why you got that award,
Speaker 2: and we're going to dig deep into that right now
Speaker 2: because your story is fascinating. But let's dig into your
Speaker 2: your childhood. Where were you born, Billy, and where did
Speaker 2: you grow up?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was born in Australia. I grew up
Speaker 3: in the Suthern tire of Ingadein, which is a predominantly
Speaker 3: white area. And I grew up with five brothers and
Speaker 3: a sister, you know, in an area that basically wasn't
Speaker 3: kind to us, and was that because we come from
Speaker 3: an Arab descent. My father is Lebanese, my mother is Palestinian,
Speaker 3: and we look the way we look, and you know,
Speaker 3: for us growing up in Ingadin, we sort of stood
Speaker 3: out like a sore thumb. And I don't really blame
Speaker 3: the kids because as a kid, you see what's different.
Speaker 3: You know, we were different, looked different. We had brown,
Speaker 3: brown hair, we had brown eyes, you know, we were
Speaker 3: tan skinned. It was people feed that, you know, like
Speaker 3: who are these people? Where do they come from? So
Speaker 3: people would often spray on our fence at home, Go home,
Speaker 3: you dirty wogs, you know, and things like that was racism. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was pretty much right. Yeah, it was really really bad.
Speaker 3: And I mean, look, I'm grateful for that because the
Speaker 3: truth is is that without that, I would have never
Speaker 3: found boxing. And that's that's what led me to boxing.
Speaker 3: You know that the the bullies, you know, the people
Speaker 3: who you know, spat at me, people that pushed me around,
Speaker 3: that kicked me, you know, I mean, all these sort
Speaker 3: of things, that's what led me to my destiny. And
Speaker 3: and I'm forever grateful because without them, I wouldn't be
Speaker 3: where I am today. I'm really grateful for each and
Speaker 3: every single person that did that, and the true to God,
Speaker 3: you know, we were able to turn them around anyway,
Speaker 3: you know, because through the support of my family, I
Speaker 3: was able to overcome that, become a world champion, do
Speaker 3: my thing, and you know, the naysays became supporters. Do
Speaker 3: you know what?
Speaker 2: I love that they became support. Your enemies became your
Speaker 2: friends ultimately. But let's let's dive a little bit deeper
Speaker 2: into that. So did you clash yourself as as an
Speaker 2: Aussie or due to the racism did you sort of
Speaker 2: fall back on your on your parents? No?
Speaker 3: Well, look, we my father was a very proud man
Speaker 3: and he always made sure that we held the Australian
Speaker 3: flag up first. You know, even like when I boxed
Speaker 3: wherever I boxed in the world, my dad was always
Speaker 3: very very like, You've got to make sure you take
Speaker 3: this training flag with you. And I was always going
Speaker 3: to do that anyway, you know. But my dad was
Speaker 3: such a proud Australian and he used to always tell
Speaker 3: us like, Australia has done everything for us. Lebanon and
Speaker 3: Palestine did nothing for us. Australia gave us the opportunity.
Speaker 3: You guys are living a good life because of Australia
Speaker 3: and you know, like my dad had been very very patriotic.
Speaker 3: I actually was on the you know, on the way
Speaker 3: to represent in Australia at the two thousand and four
Speaker 3: Big Games, but due to a motorbike accident, I lost
Speaker 3: my opportunity. And then Lebanon came knocking on the door
Speaker 3: and they offered me this amazing opportunity to represent Lebanon,
Speaker 3: you know, at the All African Games and to try
Speaker 3: to win my opportunity to represent Lebanon to do the
Speaker 3: Me Games. And my dad, I was all in. My
Speaker 3: dad was like, absolutely not. We're going to have to
Speaker 3: say thank you for that opportunity, but we're not doing that.
Speaker 3: And I was like, Dad, why would you do that?
Speaker 3: And he's like, listen, if you go and represent Lebanon
Speaker 3: and you end up finding Australia in the first round
Speaker 3: of the tournament and you win, he goes, hey, I mean,
Speaker 3: could you ever come home? You never coming home, like
Speaker 3: you'll forever be the enemy. And you know, I didn't
Speaker 3: understand it at the time, but I do understand it now,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean obviously as I as I grew out,
Speaker 3: I started to understand these things. And you know, obviously
Speaker 3: the support and love that I've been shown by this
Speaker 3: shame public has been unreal.
Speaker 2: But growing up it must have been quite hard to
Speaker 2: because you've obviously got a very positive mindset to be
Speaker 2: able to think like that, or you had a very
Speaker 2: positive influence behind you. Are you your dad and your
Speaker 2: and your mom. It's very hard not to sort of go, well,
Speaker 2: fuck you, you know, and and then fall back on on
Speaker 2: on you know where you where your parents came from, right,
Speaker 2: But was there any moment joined your childhood that you
Speaker 2: that you went to go down that avenue or you
Speaker 2: you felt like that at all?
Speaker 3: Never, Honestly, I never never went down that avenue. I
Speaker 3: never felt that way. I just felt like, you know what,
Speaker 3: especially at the at the young age of you know,
Speaker 3: sixteen or fifteen, I was representing Australia all over the
Speaker 3: world and I was wearing the Australian colors and carrying
Speaker 3: a flag. I was so proud, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: to be able to represent Australia at the World Cadets,
Speaker 3: the juniors, the seniors. I went all over the world.
Speaker 3: I literally boxed all over the world. They wrote that song,
Speaker 3: I've been everywhere man, that's about me because I literally
Speaker 3: been everywhere, you know, I boxed everywhere for Australia and
Speaker 3: I was so proud to carry the flag so high,
Speaker 3: you know, and like obviously I made a lot of
Speaker 3: good friends overseas. And you know, where do you come from?
Speaker 3: I come from Australia. So, man, you do look Australian,
Speaker 3: I said, I said, what does an Australian look like?
Speaker 4: Home?
Speaker 3: And home in the way your neighbors. I'm like, nah, mate,
Speaker 3: I'm from Australia. I'm thinking, though, you.
Speaker 4: Know exactly way at Nay, you said that when you
Speaker 4: were younger, you know that that sort of helped you
Speaker 4: to and you're grateful for it because it helped you
Speaker 4: sort of transform into boxing.
Speaker 2: Why did you get into boxing first and foremost? And
Speaker 2: when did you realize that not only you had a
Speaker 2: passion for it, but you were Talenteday, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I'll be honest with you. The first day that
Speaker 3: I walked into the gym, I remember like it's the
Speaker 3: most vivid moment in my life because it was a
Speaker 3: life changing moment that right in that moment when I
Speaker 3: walked up the stairs, I was wearing the boxing gloves.
Speaker 3: I actually knocked on the door with my elbow for
Speaker 3: the train at open door. And once he opened the door,
Speaker 3: and I actually saw a boxing ring right in front
Speaker 3: of me, and there was all these posters of Muhammad Ali,
Speaker 3: Mirk Tyson, Costas, Jeff Fennick, all these amazing fighters. And
Speaker 3: I was like, Oh my god, this is what I
Speaker 3: wanted to do in my life. This is exactly I
Speaker 3: was twelve years of age. I seen two guys fighting
Speaker 3: and nobody stopping in the fight. I was like, oh
Speaker 3: my god, this is right up my alley. And I
Speaker 3: knew writing that moment that I had walked into my destiny.
Speaker 3: And I was like, my vision right in that moment
Speaker 3: was so clear. I was so clear, Like the vision
Speaker 3: was so strong that I need to work out what
Speaker 3: it takes to be like him, him, him and him.
Speaker 3: What do I going to do in that moment? And
Speaker 3: I was like I was going to stop at nothing.
Speaker 3: And I literally stopped that nothing. Because my consistency followed.
Speaker 3: I was on point every single day i'd turn up
Speaker 3: to the dem I train. My dad was a really
Speaker 3: hard man and he was really hard on our education.
Speaker 3: So if I ever played up at school, he'd be
Speaker 3: like listen, you're not going to boxing for a week.
Speaker 3: And I'd beg and kick and screaming. He said, no,
Speaker 3: no boxing for a week. You did what you did, mate,
Speaker 3: cop the consequences. Yeah, And so then I'd it quickly
Speaker 3: turned from from the back of the class to the
Speaker 3: front of the class, from getting like fifty percent to
Speaker 3: get an eighty and ninety percent. Because I wanted to
Speaker 3: do anything just to get to the boxing gym. I'd
Speaker 3: run home, give my dad my homework. Dad, I've done
Speaker 3: the homework already. I've got to go, Dad, to catch
Speaker 3: a train of the gym because I just wanted it
Speaker 3: so bad.
Speaker 2: And what made you walk into that gym in the
Speaker 2: first place. I love that experience where you walked in
Speaker 2: and obviously hit you in the face. You know that
Speaker 2: was your destiny, that's what you wanted to do. But
Speaker 2: what made you knock on that door, well, elbow.
Speaker 3: It all started with with the bullying, you know, it
Speaker 3: all started with the bullying. And then my father was like, listen,
Speaker 3: we need to enroll you guys in some after school sports.
Speaker 3: Maybe you guys can make friends with the kids outside
Speaker 3: of school and then, you know, break down the barriers
Speaker 3: that led to some football rugby league, and then that
Speaker 3: really didn't sit well for me, and the trainer pulled
Speaker 3: out some pads one day and some gloves and said
Speaker 3: we're going to do some boxer size today. And I
Speaker 3: grew up in the household where the Rocky franchise was
Speaker 3: the number one franchise in our home. All we did
Speaker 3: was watch Rocky movies from there. Yeah, I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: sevest Salon and Apollo Creed, all them guys were having
Speaker 3: Yeah they were our heroes, no joke, and same with me. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So and then for me it's like, you know, I
Speaker 3: just thought, you know what this is right up alley
Speaker 3: and that's what I want to do, and walk me
Speaker 3: into that gym and never look back, never look back.
Speaker 2: And you say that your childhood sort of shaped you.
Speaker 2: So do you think once you started boxing and you
Speaker 2: realized that you were good at it, do you think
Speaker 2: their respect then was it easier for you to integrate
Speaker 2: with with finding new friends?
Speaker 3: And yeah, I didn't have to find the new friends
Speaker 3: because what I did was one day the PC yic
Speaker 3: linked me up to have my first amateur fight, and
Speaker 3: I thought this is the greatest, Like this is such
Speaker 3: a great opportunity, your first fight, my first ever fight.
Speaker 3: So you know what I did. I made a poster
Speaker 3: and I went to the school and I said to
Speaker 3: the principal, said, I'm going to be fighting at the
Speaker 3: Southern pc RC. Can I invite the whole school to
Speaker 3: come watch me fight? And he was like, you can
Speaker 3: put the poster around whoever. So I basically plastered this
Speaker 3: school with posters. I'm not joking, and like maybe sixty
Speaker 3: or seventy kids come to watch me fight. Never seeing
Speaker 3: how crazy, I was like, oh my god, this guy
Speaker 3: is the real deal. You know, I'm not messing with
Speaker 3: him anymore, you know, I mean, so I quickly got
Speaker 3: my respect.
Speaker 2: It was such a racism to stop there.
Speaker 3: No, I tell you there was. There was a few
Speaker 3: incidents after that, but it didn't it didn't last long
Speaker 3: because I was like I was quick to put an
Speaker 3: end to it, you know, I mean, it was like
Speaker 3: you had I had to like stamp my authority. This
Speaker 3: is what this is what's going to be, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, you're going to show me respect.
Speaker 2: How consistent did you have to be in order to
Speaker 2: follow your passion?
Speaker 3: My dream of becoming a world champion was an absolute obsession.
Speaker 3: There was there was no other obsession in my life. So,
Speaker 3: you know, like when I was growing up, you know,
Speaker 3: I had a lot of cousins who were my age.
Speaker 3: They were all going out, partying, eating fast food, you know,
Speaker 3: doing all the all the fun things that you do
Speaker 3: when you're a kid. But I was so disciplined. I
Speaker 3: was like, every time they offered me to go somewhere
Speaker 3: and be like, no, I got to go, man, because
Speaker 3: I've got to training tomorrow. But I'd always like, I mean,
Speaker 3: I'd have fun with them and stuff, but I was
Speaker 3: always like, this is number one. Boxing is number one.
Speaker 3: I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it.
Speaker 3: And if that means saying good night to my cousins early,
Speaker 3: then That's what I'm going to do. Because I was
Speaker 3: there was nothing more that I wanted them to become
Speaker 3: a world champion. I wanted to be forever a stamp
Speaker 3: in the history books.
Speaker 2: How important is that, you think for any youngster to
Speaker 2: have that that obsession, because obsession does lead to discipline,
Speaker 2: does lead to drive, it does lead to the determination grit,
Speaker 2: and a lot of youngsters don't find that, do they.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, look for me, I'll tell I'll tell you.
Speaker 3: I actually developed the brand called Believe, which is based
Speaker 3: on my story coming up. So I believe is that
Speaker 3: Billy Did had to believe in himself before anybody else did.
Speaker 3: And the brand is actually be I douby ve so
Speaker 3: Believe and the slogan that goes with the done that
Speaker 3: it's clever, vision, consistency, success. Everything in your life starts
Speaker 3: with the vision. The consistency in the middle will only
Speaker 3: help you find success. If there's no consistency, you'll never
Speaker 3: find success because to find success you need to have consistency,
Speaker 3: and to find consistency you have to have a vision.
Speaker 3: If your vision is not clear, if you're waking up
Speaker 3: in the morning saying I want to be a lawyer sleeping,
Speaker 3: I'm not saying you want to be a doctor. Waking
Speaker 3: up next morning saying you want to be an athlete,
Speaker 3: that's not a consistent vision. That's just the thought. We
Speaker 3: all have thoughts. But it's the consistency once you find
Speaker 3: that vision, that will help you find success. And that
Speaker 3: was for me Boxing, You know what I mean. Boxing
Speaker 3: obviously gave me the platform to be who I am today.
Speaker 3: You gave me the platform to inspire and to be inspired.
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm forever grateful to the sport of boxing,
Speaker 3: to any kid out there who wants to be great
Speaker 3: in whatever they want to do, because each and every
Speaker 3: single one of us has greatness within us. It's whether
Speaker 3: you're willing to tap into that fight that greatness to
Speaker 3: find it. You know, we could take you to the water,
Speaker 3: but we can't make you drinks. So any kid out
Speaker 3: there who has a dream of being anything in their life,
Speaker 3: as long as you're consistent, you'll find success. If you
Speaker 3: find something that you really want, you'll stop at nothing,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, you know yourself, You've been there before,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean when you want something really bad,
Speaker 3: you know, it's takes session, right, it takes an obsession exactly,
Speaker 3: and not many people have it. I think there's only
Speaker 3: like a select amount of people who have that, you know,
Speaker 3: that obsession thing, you know. I mean, it's like I
Speaker 3: really want this, I'm willing to do whatever it takes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when did that happen to you? When you thought yourself,
Speaker 2: do you know what? I could become a world champion.
Speaker 3: When I first started amateur boxing, I actually lost my
Speaker 3: first amateur fight. I had the one that I invited
Speaker 3: the whole school to was an exhibition, so there was
Speaker 3: no winner or a loser. But then after that I
Speaker 3: started fighting. I had my first amateur fight, I lost,
Speaker 3: but the obsession grew. After the loss of the obsession grew
Speaker 3: and next thing you know, I ended up having one
Speaker 3: hundred and thirteen amateur fights. I had ninety eight wins
Speaker 3: and fifteen losses. I was ranked as high as number
Speaker 3: six in the world at one stage, so I basically
Speaker 3: got the opportunity to represent Australia all over the world.
Speaker 3: And a lot of the people that I saw around
Speaker 3: the world, the guys who became world champion during the
Speaker 3: time that I was world champion in the pros, a
Speaker 3: lot of them. But there was that point where I
Speaker 3: hit my fiftieth fight and I thought, man, no one
Speaker 3: can beat me at the moment. I'm on this winning
Speaker 3: streaks like, no one can touch me at the moment,
Speaker 3: So you start to believe in yourself. And then when
Speaker 3: I was a young boy at the age of seventeen,
Speaker 3: I got on a plane and traveled to the UK
Speaker 3: where I met Princet Sim And when Princess Sim and
Speaker 3: I met and we started training together, he pretty much
Speaker 3: said to me, listening, you're destined to be a world
Speaker 3: champion and trained with Princess Sim I trained. I was
Speaker 3: being friends with Na since the age of seventeen till today. Wow,
Speaker 3: we're very close friends. And so when I went over
Speaker 3: there when I was seventeen and worked out with him,
Speaker 3: he was like, man, you got all the schools and
Speaker 3: attributes to become a world champion. You know, if you
Speaker 3: believe you can do it, you'll do it. And I
Speaker 3: didn't only just become a world champion, but I actually
Speaker 3: won the same world title that Princess Seim held in
Speaker 3: the same weight division. He was the IBF Fatherweight Champion
Speaker 3: in ninety seven and I was the IBF Fatherweight Champion
Speaker 3: in twenty eleven, which is unbelievable. You know, that was
Speaker 3: my dream. My dream was to follow in the footsteps
Speaker 3: of my childhood here and I was able to do that. Wow.
Speaker 2: So you're training with Prince Nazim, you obviously entered the
Speaker 2: elite there. You know, it was there a stage that
Speaker 2: you realized that, listen, I'm training with the elite. Now
Speaker 2: need to step up from the amateur sort of realm
Speaker 2: to a professional realm. And when did that first professional
Speaker 2: fight come who did you go looking for it or
Speaker 2: did it come obviously looking for you due to your
Speaker 2: amateur record.
Speaker 3: When I missed out on Liby Games, we had a
Speaker 3: meeting as a team and we decided as a team
Speaker 3: that it was time to say goodbye to the amateur
Speaker 3: boxing and term professionals. So at the age of just
Speaker 3: a few days shy of my nineteenth birthday because I
Speaker 3: had a little bit of time off, but I went
Speaker 3: to see NAS. And when I was in the UK
Speaker 3: with NAS, I was pretty much on the fence whether
Speaker 3: I'm going to continue to box or not. And I
Speaker 3: was was like, listen, You've got everything it takes. Don't
Speaker 3: worry about the Libby Games. Just put that behind you
Speaker 3: and start looking towards the next goal, which is to
Speaker 3: become a world champion. And you know we're going to
Speaker 3: guide you there. And so once I spoke to ours
Speaker 3: and we had that sit down, I got on a plane,
Speaker 3: come home and basically started preparing for my pro debut
Speaker 3: and within five five tolls his training champion. After my
Speaker 3: sixth fight, I'd already become a international champion with the IBO.
Speaker 3: I won the IBO Fellow Championship in a twelve round decision.
Speaker 3: So after six fights, I already had a twelve round
Speaker 3: fight and so I was fast tracking. And then by
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 2: When fast tracking due to at this stage, you're you're
Speaker 2: you're unbeatable right in your head. So you're fast tracking
Speaker 2: because you're you're you're winning, you're consistent, you're capable. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, it's very humble of you to say you're
Speaker 2: fast tracking, but you're fast tracking yourself due to due
Speaker 2: to your discipline, due to you know, due to surrounding
Speaker 2: yourself with the right people, due to your training. What
Speaker 2: was it like being Australian, you know, being the Australian champion,
Speaker 2: knowing that you you know everything that you've been through
Speaker 2: as a child and you know, growing up and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden represents you know, the country that,
Speaker 2: as your father said, you know, gave you everything. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's huge. You know you skipped over that, but that's huge. Man.
Speaker 3: Winning winning the strained title in my fifth professional fight.
Speaker 3: I remember the auditorium was at hearstfal Entertainment Center was
Speaker 3: packed house, and uh, you know it was I mean,
Speaker 3: it was such a special woman because all of my
Speaker 3: friends and relatives were there. It was. It was massive.
Speaker 3: And I went out there and dusted this guy up
Speaker 3: in one round, like absolutely annihilated him, you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. It was it was unbelievable. It was like
Speaker 3: just what a like, what a way to capture that
Speaker 3: strained title. And and the guy that I fought, his
Speaker 3: name was John Star. Mean, at the time, he was
Speaker 3: he was doing okay, you know, and he was talking
Speaker 3: up his chances of beating me and called me a
Speaker 3: kid and said I am I am Billy the kid,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. But we'll see, you know
Speaker 3: when we'll see. Yeah. And when I did the job
Speaker 3: on him, and when I when I like when the
Speaker 3: referee stopped the fight, I was, I was emotional, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, like a strained professional champion. And
Speaker 3: then to be the best in Australia. Then I automatically
Speaker 3: fall into the common Wealth ratings because you know, we're
Speaker 3: a comonwealth country, so now we're in Comonwealth ratings. And
Speaker 3: I was excited about that. But all I my man
Speaker 3: most figuring, like my mind was just like all I
Speaker 3: cared about was being a world champion. I just wanted
Speaker 3: to follow in the footsteps of my childhood hero I was,
Speaker 3: and I had just come back from doing a camp
Speaker 3: with him, and then I won the Strange title and
Speaker 3: then I knew I was going back to do another camp.
Speaker 3: Obsession was real, I'll tell you, Like the obsession was
Speaker 3: that real that I used to cry for it. I
Speaker 3: used to cry. There would be nice that I would
Speaker 3: cry and just beg God, say God please, I'm begging you,
Speaker 3: like there's so much more to unfold with, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously I did win the world title, and
Speaker 3: you know, and a lot of people say, you know,
Speaker 3: I've reached the pinnacle and I'm done. But for me,
Speaker 3: I wasn't done there. I wanted more.
Speaker 2: Was it hard for you to win that title and
Speaker 2: then keep, you know, to edge forward and keep on
Speaker 2: going to the elite levels? Because I know a lot
Speaker 2: of people that have reached a certain stage with it.
Speaker 2: It's in their career, whether it's on a course, a
Speaker 2: military course, and they go, do you know what that's
Speaker 2: me I'm going to see at the top of this
Speaker 2: castle and away we go. Was there any any sort
Speaker 2: of any resting on your levels?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? I was just a kid. That was just that
Speaker 3: was for me. That was the starting point. That was
Speaker 3: really the starting point. And you know, and then obviously
Speaker 3: after that came like in to national titles and things
Speaker 3: like that, and then eventually I got to the point
Speaker 3: where I fought for the championship of the World and
Speaker 3: I was on the undercart of Anthony Mundine versus Crazy Kim.
Speaker 3: It was in a packed out stadium in Newcastle, and
Speaker 3: I thought a gentleman by the name of Theloni Moralei
Speaker 3: who's no longer with us, he was he was killed
Speaker 3: in his hometown of South Africa, and so you know,
Speaker 3: I fought him in an absolute dog fight, and I
Speaker 3: had to go to places that I've never been before.
Speaker 3: And you know, this is where I get this whole
Speaker 3: thing in my mind that in order to be elite,
Speaker 3: in order to be the best in the world, you
Speaker 3: have got to be willing to go to a place
Speaker 3: that the opposite is not willing to go to. You know,
Speaker 3: when you want to be the best at something, that
Speaker 3: was the night that I learned to be the best,
Speaker 3: you've you've got to be willing to go to a
Speaker 3: place of death nearly.
Speaker 2: Well, you do, you know, in order to be the
Speaker 2: best and to be the earl, you've hit the nail
Speaker 2: on the head there. Really you need to in your
Speaker 2: mind give up the ultimate sacrifice, which I think is
Speaker 2: your life. Is like that with me in the military,
Speaker 2: I was willing to trade the ultimate sacrifice for success,
Speaker 2: you know, to get the job done for mission mission success.
Speaker 2: And it goes down to that in the ring. It's
Speaker 2: no different. It's the obsession is so real that when
Speaker 2: I say to people, what are you willing to sacrifice
Speaker 2: my life? If people say in my life, I'm like,
Speaker 2: you're you're You're there, brother, You're there, you know, just
Speaker 2: keep on keep on pushing forward.
Speaker 3: I tell you, I tell you. In round nine, Johnny
Speaker 3: Lewis looked me dead in the eye because Johnny Lewis
Speaker 3: has helped me at the time, and he said, Billy,
Speaker 3: no one will question your balls if I stopped the
Speaker 3: fight now. And I looked in there and you and
Speaker 3: I said, don't you dare. I told you I'm willing
Speaker 3: to die in the ring. I'm not leaving without the belt.
Speaker 3: Don't let me live without the belt, like very stern,
Speaker 3: you know, in that moment, And he didn't stop the
Speaker 3: fight even though he could have, because it was getting
Speaker 3: like that was really rough, even though it was winning
Speaker 3: but it was a rough fight. It's the first time
Speaker 3: I'd ever been knocked down in my career. We thought
Speaker 3: tooth and nail, you know what I mean, like but
Speaker 3: total to I was willing to go to that place
Speaker 3: where I nearly died to be victorious. And I'll be
Speaker 3: honest with you. After the fight and being crown champion,
Speaker 3: I remember going back to the hotel and I was shaking,
Speaker 3: like profusely, and my mom was trying to like console
Speaker 3: me and help me, but I just couldn't stop shaking.
Speaker 3: I was like, I feel like I've broken something inside. See,
Speaker 3: the body has this defense mechanism, I believe you know
Speaker 3: that's what tallts us don't jump jump, don't you know?
Speaker 3: It's a defense mechanism. And I'd never pushed the defense
Speaker 3: mechanism to that point ever. I'd never told my body
Speaker 3: go to this place. So when I took it there,
Speaker 3: it was like I've never been here before. So for
Speaker 3: a while after that, I wasn't willing to go back
Speaker 3: there again. I couldn't push myself to the point where
Speaker 3: I felt like I was going to hurt myself. And
Speaker 3: then what that led to was after winning that word title,
Speaker 3: it was like the greed of becoming I wanted to
Speaker 3: become a multiple time world champion quick because I because
Speaker 3: you could say, you could say it was greed, but
Speaker 3: it was like I had the Yeah, I had the drive,
Speaker 3: the passion, obsession was still exactly. I lost my next fight.
Speaker 3: I dropped in. I dropped dow anyway, and I fought
Speaker 3: for the wo featherweight world title, which was a world
Speaker 3: title that was held for a long time by Princeton
Speaker 3: sema Med. He made fifteen title defenses, so there was
Speaker 3: an obsession to have that. But the unfortunate thing was
Speaker 3: that I wasn't willing to go to a place of
Speaker 3: death in that fight to be victorious. And he was,
Speaker 3: and he was and he ended up. It was a
Speaker 3: very lackluster performance by me. It was a boring fight.
Speaker 3: He won a decision by two points. What that did
Speaker 3: was it reignited the fire, which then sent me to
Speaker 3: Mecca to do a pilgrimage. Once I'd done that pilgrimage,
Speaker 3: I was I remember being in a place called Arafat
Speaker 3: and my dad said to me, said, listen, when you're
Speaker 3: an Arafat, ask God for whatever it is that you want.
Speaker 3: Said anything, and he goes anything. I said, God, I
Speaker 3: know you've given me a war title, but if you
Speaker 3: could just give me one more, God, I'll never ask
Speaker 3: for anything again, right, And so I got back home
Speaker 3: and then the rebuild started. I had nine fights. I
Speaker 3: worked my way back to the number one position. I
Speaker 3: worked my way back where I was the number one contender,
Speaker 3: and then I fought for the War title. And because
Speaker 3: I was a number one contender, we were able to
Speaker 3: bring the championship to Australia. We were able to go
Speaker 3: into a purse bid. We brought the guy here and
Speaker 3: I won the fight and reclaimed my second world championship
Speaker 3: and put myself in the history books, as you know,
Speaker 3: only the third Australian to ever win a furatherweight war
Speaker 3: title in history, which was Jeff Fenick, Johnny Farmershan and
Speaker 3: Billy Dibb.
Speaker 2: Really, dam of course, is a li with your mentality, mate,
Speaker 2: and your drive and obsession and you know, willing to
Speaker 2: give the ultimate sacrifice, which it is. And it's interesting
Speaker 2: that you mentioned that on your first title win. You know,
Speaker 2: it's almost you know, hitting that pain threshold. You've never
Speaker 2: hit it before, you know, to a certain extent where
Speaker 2: your body feels like it's going to shut down, and
Speaker 2: you're going to but then you realize that you've gone
Speaker 2: from here, You've pushed that bang. This is your new limitation.
Speaker 2: Guess what limitations are there to be pushed boundaries? I
Speaker 2: really believe that once you rebelieved that did that? What
Speaker 2: is that what it felt like for your second title win?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Were you willing to go back there?
Speaker 3: And I was ready to go there again? Yeah, but
Speaker 3: you know what, I woke up on the morning with
Speaker 3: that fight. I'll never forget it. I drove to my
Speaker 3: mother and father's place and I hadn't seen them for
Speaker 3: a while because I was in camp. But then I
Speaker 3: saw my mom. Said, Mum, I want to tell you something.
Speaker 3: Don't stress, Mum. I've got a cover. I'm going to
Speaker 3: be champion of the world again today. And she's like
Speaker 3: you sure, And I'm like, Mum, listen, don't even stress.
Speaker 3: I said, all I got to do is turn up.
Speaker 3: I've already won. I've done all of the hard work.
Speaker 3: I've left no stone unturned. I promise you tonight your
Speaker 3: son will be world champion. Like you should come up.
Speaker 3: She's like, I don't want to come I said, you
Speaker 3: don't have to but don't worry. I'll bring the belt
Speaker 3: home to you. And that night I won the world title,
Speaker 3: I brought home and I said, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: I was like, like an incredible you know, to be
Speaker 3: to be the best in the world, especially the IBF
Speaker 3: featherweight world champion, to be the best in the world,
Speaker 3: and to be the first person that tweeted me when
Speaker 3: I won that world title was Oscar the Lawyer, and
Speaker 3: he was like, congratulations to my my, you know, my
Speaker 3: good friend Billy Dive. That was to me, that was
Speaker 3: an incredible feeling, Like, wow, Oscar de Laaroy is tweeting me.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean I was.
Speaker 2: I was, yeah, you knew that.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Is it still and just be completely completely honest with me.
Speaker 2: Is it still going into a defense? Is it still
Speaker 2: as as you know, sort of passionate as going into
Speaker 2: winning that time.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you, I'll tell you one thing. You go,
Speaker 3: you go into a realm of untouchable. That's in my mind.
Speaker 3: I was in the realm of untouchable, like I'm too
Speaker 3: good to be touched, unstable. Yeah, and so but when
Speaker 3: I won that world title, it was a vacant world title,
Speaker 3: so it was a vacant world title that the number
Speaker 3: one and number two were fine for. So for me,
Speaker 3: I was like, well, I'm not really going to be
Speaker 3: regarded as a great world champion until I defend it,
Speaker 3: so let me go out and make my first title defense.
Speaker 3: And poor guy that I thought in my first title
Speaker 3: defense was an Italian guy who had a record of
Speaker 3: thirty one wins without a loss. And he came over
Speaker 3: talking about he's going to do this and he's going
Speaker 3: to do that, and he's leaving back to Italy with
Speaker 3: the championship. And I said, listen, do yourself a favor
Speaker 3: and bring a pillow. I said, you're going to sleeping
Speaker 3: the kids. I said, bring a pillow, you're going to
Speaker 3: sleep and I and I actually, did you bring a pillow?
Speaker 2: Did you bring me?
Speaker 3: Translated into him in Italian? Because I wanted him to
Speaker 3: understand exactly what I was saying. I told him I'm
Speaker 3: going to knock you out in one round, and I
Speaker 3: know exactly what I did. I went out there and
Speaker 3: I dropped him with his body shot and blaid him
Speaker 3: right out in the first round. To be world champion
Speaker 3: and to win your first title defense with a first
Speaker 3: round knockout against a guy who was the European champion.
Speaker 3: I was like, man, I am on that pedestal right now,
Speaker 3: and you can't shake me off. No matter what you do,
Speaker 3: You're not shaking me off the pedestal. I was on
Speaker 3: a major high, you know. And for me, it was
Speaker 3: like when I was champion, it wasn't just about me,
Speaker 3: because you know, to be a champion you need a team.
Speaker 3: It's not just about you, It's about everybody else that's
Speaker 3: around you, you know what I mean. It's like the minute
Speaker 3: you hit any sort of adversity in your life, if
Speaker 3: you've got something to fight for, you'll find a reason
Speaker 3: to fight. But if you don't, you'll give up. But
Speaker 3: for me, it was like anytime the going got tough
Speaker 3: in the road to becoming a world champion, I would
Speaker 3: always think about all the people that were invested in
Speaker 3: me with like number one, my family, my management, my trainer,
Speaker 3: my fans, my love, like, you know, like all these
Speaker 3: people had invested in me. They were invested in me,
Speaker 3: so it was like my job was to turn up
Speaker 3: and do the job. So when I was winning, they
Speaker 3: were winning. Yeah, you know that's how I felt. I felt,
Speaker 3: like how amazing is that for my brother, who is
Speaker 3: at the time just a young kid going to school,
Speaker 3: that he can go to school and tell his mates
Speaker 3: that my brother's a world champion. Yeah, a two time
Speaker 3: world champion. My brother is a two time world champion.
Speaker 3: I was like, what an incredible feeling.
Speaker 2: On the super positive side. You know, everyone's winning when
Speaker 2: you're winning, Yeah, how about when you're losing?
Speaker 3: Well, I lost. So when I did lose, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously the people that I loved the most
Speaker 3: were still there, you know what I mean. Obviously it
Speaker 3: was that, you know, my mom and dad were always
Speaker 3: going to be there because they're always going to be
Speaker 3: there no matter what their number one fans, with the winning, losing,
Speaker 3: whatever's happened in your life, they're always there.
Speaker 2: When do you experience it's your first loss.
Speaker 3: So basically I went on a great run where I
Speaker 3: defended my total three times and then I signed this
Speaker 3: amazing contract with Floyd Malvern and fifty cent. Mind blowing contract. Right,
Speaker 3: young kid from the Verbs of Ingadeen. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: he's in Vegas signings, was gone, big time deals, and
Speaker 3: then I'm sitting I'm sitting down with fifty cent and
Speaker 3: he writes up a contract that offers me three point
Speaker 3: three million dollars of a course from nine fights. Like
Speaker 3: I was like, I've made it. This is like I've
Speaker 3: made it, you know, I mean, this is my And
Speaker 3: that was at a minimum. That was three point three
Speaker 3: million at a minimum. So I was like, I'd made it.
Speaker 3: I was like, man, I'm home and host, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean. And then and then fifty cent and Floyd
Speaker 3: Malvin had this massive fallout. I got caught up in
Speaker 3: the middle of it. And then basically Floyd Malvin being
Speaker 3: Floyd Malvern and having the power that he has in boxing,
Speaker 3: he was able to basically have me blacklisted from the
Speaker 3: TV it works. Him and fifty fell out. I was
Speaker 3: stuck in contract with fifty and Floyd wanted to make
Speaker 3: me pay for that, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, so how mental is that that you were
Speaker 2: this kid born you know, you know, as you grow up,
Speaker 2: you experienced racism, bullying, you hit the gym because of it.
Speaker 2: And then is it surreal and do you ever take
Speaker 2: yourself back to those moments when that happened to even
Speaker 2: just be sitting down with these names, you know, and
Speaker 2: you know, being associated with these names, is it not
Speaker 2: did you not pinch yourself something?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was listening, I'll be honest mental
Speaker 3: as a kid. It was unreal to be able to
Speaker 3: pick up the phone and be like, hey, fifty, can
Speaker 3: you speak to my friend for a minute, and like
Speaker 3: that's how it was. It was like that for a
Speaker 3: good year year and a half. It was exactly like that.
Speaker 3: Fifty would like be on call, you know, it was
Speaker 3: on dial. But man, Floyd Malburn became a real bully,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. He was an absolute bully.
Speaker 3: I was like, man, why are you doing this to me?
Speaker 3: What do I do to you? I don't even really
Speaker 3: know you man. Yeah, but you know at the end
Speaker 3: the day they had their feud, I got caught up
Speaker 3: in the middle of it. But it makes for a
Speaker 3: good story. Yeah. You know, I'm a good sport man,
Speaker 3: like I said, you know, like you got to ride
Speaker 3: the waves of life. You mean, there's highs and then
Speaker 3: there's loads, and you know we could we could get
Speaker 3: stuck in the loads. But you know, somebody, a great
Speaker 3: mentor of mindset this to me the other day said, listen,
Speaker 3: there's the reason why the review mirror is so small
Speaker 3: and the windscreen head is so big heady because it's
Speaker 3: so much more correct attaining life. You know, we're looking
Speaker 3: at that review mirror and getting stuck in the past.
Speaker 3: Is that's old news? You know, I mean, and I'm
Speaker 3: no longer like that. And you know, obviously the experiences
Speaker 3: that I've had in life have built me to the
Speaker 3: person that I am today.
Speaker 2: So when does the cancer scare come along and there's
Speaker 2: scare at first or is it just like no, it
Speaker 2: was it was full on, yeah, it was diagnosis.
Speaker 3: It was full on, man, it was full on.
Speaker 2: I was took me through when stoppable at the top
Speaker 2: of your game to realizing wow, maybe yeah, well well
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 3: I was rated highly with the IBF out lightweight and
Speaker 3: I was on the verge of an opportunity to fight
Speaker 3: George Cambosis in an All Australian showdown, and I was
Speaker 3: in the gym preparing for it. And then one day
Speaker 3: a friend of mine he hit me with a body
Speaker 3: shot and when he in the body he didn't win me,
Speaker 3: but there was like a really excruciating pain, like somebody
Speaker 3: stabbed me in the stomach. I thought like I felt
Speaker 3: like I had torn something. But then you know, obviously
Speaker 3: I got out of the ring, and you know, I
Speaker 3: went about my day and then the next day I
Speaker 3: come into the gym again to try to skip. When
Speaker 3: I was skipping, this thing was really hurt. And so
Speaker 3: then I was like, there's something wrong. I couldn't go
Speaker 3: to the restroom, I couldn't defecate, I couldn't do anything.
Speaker 3: I was something wasn't right, and so I basically went
Speaker 3: to my mom and dad's place and begged my mom
Speaker 3: for mercy, know, And it wasn't until it like they
Speaker 3: actually ended up taking me to the doctors and then
Speaker 3: I saw the hematologists and they'd ended up doing a
Speaker 3: scan and they found that I had colon cancer. So
Speaker 3: they removed a nine centimeter tumor. Was actually a seven
Speaker 3: set the meter trimmer, but they cut a nine and
Speaker 3: sent a minute diameter out to make sure that they
Speaker 3: cleaned up everything. Yeah, it was massive seven. It was
Speaker 3: like it was like this, and so had that.
Speaker 2: Been there for excuse, you know, going back, but that's
Speaker 2: that'd been there for.
Speaker 3: They reckoned it had been there for a while. But
Speaker 3: how do I not got hit there? It would have
Speaker 3: continued to go without any you know, I would have
Speaker 3: not known about it. Maybe it would have been too
Speaker 3: late by the time they found it.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: In that say, when he hit it eruptured. They told
Speaker 3: me that it actually ruptured and that's how we found it.
Speaker 3: And so once they did the skin, they took it out.
Speaker 3: Then they said to me, look, we're going to do
Speaker 3: a bit of chemo therapy just to clean up around it.
Speaker 3: And I said, no, no, I'm not doing no chemo. I
Speaker 3: don't want no part of chemo therapy. And I was
Speaker 3: like why, And I was like, look, twenty fifteen, my
Speaker 3: my wife was diagnosed with cancer. She died two months
Speaker 3: and ten days later.
Speaker 2: Wow, and you're still how how do you carry on
Speaker 2: from that? How do you? How do you? How do
Speaker 2: you take a step forward.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be honest with you. Look, I'm a
Speaker 3: very God fearing person and I believe that God does
Speaker 3: everything for a reason. And like I thought about it
Speaker 3: when when Sara pass, I was like, who can I
Speaker 3: fight with them? I'm going to fight with God. I
Speaker 3: can't fight with God. I've just got to be very accepting.
Speaker 3: And then look, you know God is very merciful and
Speaker 3: very giving as well. Because today I'm married and I've
Speaker 3: got a beautiful wife and a beautiful son, and like
Speaker 3: life is good again, you know what I mean? Truth
Speaker 3: be told, I wouldn't change what I have today for
Speaker 3: what I had. I wouldn't do that, I'd say, And
Speaker 3: moving moving forward, you know, like everything is just great,
Speaker 3: everything's in it is a really good position now.
Speaker 2: So how did you what happened there after? Then?
Speaker 3: How did you know what happened? I went home and
Speaker 3: things were good for for about a week, and then
Speaker 3: a week later I was with my wife and my
Speaker 3: son and I was not feeling too well. And next thing,
Speaker 3: you know, again, I felt very, very sick, and so
Speaker 3: my wife's like, look, we've got to take it to hospital.
Speaker 3: And I pretty much begged her not to take me,
Speaker 3: and she's like, look, I'm going to ring him he
Speaker 3: told us, and just let him know how you're feeling.
Speaker 3: She rang him, She's like, he goes, look, I'm really
Speaker 3: sorry to tell you this, but we've had to look
Speaker 3: over Billy's bloods. We'll hopeing we didn't have to tell
Speaker 3: you guys to Monday, but you got to bring him
Speaker 3: straight back. We we think he's cancer spread. And so
Speaker 3: then I go back to hospital and then I was
Speaker 3: basically riddled with the cancer was all over my stomach
Speaker 3: area and my stomach lining and everything, and so, you know,
Speaker 3: I still didn't know what was going on. But then
Speaker 3: a doctor walks in. His name was doctor aber Bartacharan
Speaker 3: and we had a talk and he basically said to me,
Speaker 3: he goes, you're not in a very good state. Do
Speaker 3: you know what it is that you have?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 3: Had no idea? And he goes, mate, you've pretty much
Speaker 3: got six months to live. And in that moment, I
Speaker 3: was obviously gob smacked, but the only thing I could
Speaker 3: think about was not being a quitter. I'm not going
Speaker 3: to quit, you know. So I asked him the question.
Speaker 3: I said, how do I turn six months into sixty years?
Speaker 3: And he goes, why what you said? Yeah, I said,
Speaker 3: how do I turn six months into sixty years? And
Speaker 3: he asked me the question why? That's all he had
Speaker 3: to ask me. When he said why, I said, Look,
Speaker 3: I've got a son who's on the verge of turning three,
Speaker 3: and I need to walk into school in two years time,
Speaker 3: so I need to do everything in my power to
Speaker 3: beat this cancer. And he goes. He goes, So, he goes,
Speaker 3: you gotta start chemotherapy yesterday, And I was like I'm
Speaker 3: on boarding. He goes just like that. I said, yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's not about me anymore. This is about my
Speaker 3: son and my wife and my family. It is like
Speaker 3: I can't quit because if you're a quitter. In my mind,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking like if I quit, then I give permission
Speaker 3: to my wife to quit, who then gives permission to
Speaker 3: my son to quit. And you know, quitting is like
Speaker 3: a chain reaction thing. And I didn't want to.
Speaker 2: Be like the mold.
Speaker 3: I was never going to quit, So I said to
Speaker 3: mum board and I'll tell you, I've never experienced pain
Speaker 3: like chemo therapy in my life. It like I found
Speaker 3: the new found respect for my deceased wife in that
Speaker 3: moment because I was like the amount of pain that
Speaker 3: I that I that I had to endure during the
Speaker 3: chemo treatment and was like no other pain that I've
Speaker 3: ever tried to.
Speaker 2: Try and explain that pain. What's different about it was so.
Speaker 3: It's like, yeah, it's like you know what it was
Speaker 3: like it was bone breaking, like bone crushing pain, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean like it was the pain of not having
Speaker 3: the energy to even stand up, you know, like I
Speaker 3: couldn't even gather myself to make it to the restaurant
Speaker 3: one time. Like excuse the listeners in that, Like I
Speaker 3: was basically having accident to myself because I just couldn't
Speaker 3: make it to the restaurant. I was in a really,
Speaker 3: really bad way, and I got to the point where
Speaker 3: I actually said to the doctors, I can't believe I
Speaker 3: gave you permission to kill me. They're like, we're not
Speaker 3: trying to kill you, but we're just trying to help
Speaker 3: you get better. But this is what it takes to
Speaker 3: get better. I was like, you're to kill all of
Speaker 3: this in order for me to get better. Basically, it's
Speaker 3: a reset of the body, you know. I mean, imagine
Speaker 3: they turned every sort of power button your body off
Speaker 3: and then they turn it back on again. You know.
Speaker 3: That's what it was like. It was there was numerous
Speaker 3: twenty three hour cycles of chemotherapy.
Speaker 2: And what does it feel like to go from you know,
Speaker 2: Billy the kid, the unstoppable, the invincible, you know, to
Speaker 2: being the complete opposite of you having accident so you
Speaker 2: can't get up?
Speaker 3: Was there? Wow?
Speaker 2: Talk about I don't want to say a fool from
Speaker 2: Greg's it's not that, but talk about being on the
Speaker 2: size of the spectrum it.
Speaker 3: Just became like I started to understand that the importance
Speaker 3: of time.
Speaker 2: Did it affect you psychologically?
Speaker 3: No, No at all. Honestly, I had this thing about
Speaker 3: I can't quit, and I actually wrote it on the wall.
Speaker 3: My brother rode on the wall of the hospital where
Speaker 3: I was because I was in that ward for six
Speaker 3: months to get up, your son of a bitch, because
Speaker 3: Laife loves you. And every time I felt like I
Speaker 3: couldn't get up, I don't just think about my son
Speaker 3: and be like, no, I can't do this to him.
Speaker 3: He's going to go to school until his mates said
Speaker 3: his dad passed away, Like my dad quit. I'm not
Speaker 3: a quitter. If he's going to tell his friends that
Speaker 3: his dad passed away and say, my dad went out
Speaker 3: like a warrior. My dad did everything in his power
Speaker 3: to fight to be here for me.
Speaker 2: Did that become the new obsession?
Speaker 3: That was the obsession. The obsession was walking him to school.
Speaker 2: That was it.
Speaker 3: That's all I cared about. I was like, you know what,
Speaker 3: my son's not going to be that kid that goes
Speaker 3: to school. That is dad not doing that. And like
Speaker 3: three weeks ago, I got the chance to walk into
Speaker 3: school for the first time, and I really enjoyed that moment.
Speaker 3: I walked slowly, I held his hands, that this is
Speaker 3: the moment that I waited for for all those years.
Speaker 3: You know that, I thought, So he doesn't. He does understand,
Speaker 3: but he won't really understand until he's a lot about
Speaker 3: what that meant to me to be able to say,
Speaker 3: you know what, I walked into school. I beat that
Speaker 3: cancer and I walked my man to school.
Speaker 2: Did you take every single moment in.
Speaker 3: Every single step, man? And it wasn't even just that
Speaker 3: I wanted to show the world that everything that I'd
Speaker 3: been talking about about never giving up and setting goals
Speaker 3: and overcoming adversity, I wanted to show them that that
Speaker 3: wasn't just fluff. That was real talk. And I'm a
Speaker 3: real life example of that, you know. And even even
Speaker 3: the fact that when I decided that I was going
Speaker 3: to have a comeback fight, people like like, you're crazy, man.
Speaker 3: You just come off having cancer. You're talking about having
Speaker 3: to comeback for us, And listen, this is what dreams,
Speaker 3: the dreams are made of, you know. I mean, you've
Speaker 3: got to set goals, you got to have that vision.
Speaker 2: You know. How hard was it to get back into
Speaker 2: a training camp I'm believing into.
Speaker 3: Man, I never listened. It was like, there was days
Speaker 3: where I felt like, you gotta be real yourself married,
Speaker 3: you know, when you're done. But you know what, then
Speaker 3: there's a day where it just flips and everything gets
Speaker 3: better and you're like, oh, I'm back. Oh my god,
Speaker 3: look I'm letting it go. And you know, I start
Speaker 3: feeling good about myself and I start turning up to
Speaker 3: the gym every day and I'm running and I'm feeling
Speaker 3: healthy and clean and fit. And you know, you know,
Speaker 3: when you feel like that, you give off this energy,
Speaker 3: and like when you give off that energy, everyone around
Speaker 3: you starts feeling that sort of energy. They start being
Speaker 3: positive and all of a sudden, you're back. And then
Speaker 3: you know, I got to leave on my own terms,
Speaker 3: man like, and not many people led to leave the
Speaker 3: boxing Sporter boxing on their own terms. Boxing has a
Speaker 3: thing of you either leave on your back, yeah, or
Speaker 3: you retire on your own accord.
Speaker 2: Leave on your back, or you leave on your belt.
Speaker 3: That's it. And for me, I was like, there was
Speaker 3: a chance that I could leave on my back, you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, because it's coming off cancer. But obviously, being sensible,
Speaker 3: we picked the right opponent, because I'm going to be
Speaker 3: a realist. We did pick the right opponent, and even
Speaker 3: though I showed him a lot of respect and he
Speaker 3: still brought it, I was able to do, you know,
Speaker 3: I was. I was in good enough shape to do
Speaker 3: what I wanted to do nearly, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But when you think about a lot of great fighters
Speaker 3: who have left the sport of boxing on their back,
Speaker 3: I can name ten of them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: But to go out on my own terms as a winner,
Speaker 3: to leave the sportter boxing on my own terms as
Speaker 3: a champion, and to go on to get the award
Speaker 3: of Ring Magazine come Back of the Year was just
Speaker 3: like the complete top off. It was like the flowers
Speaker 3: that I always wanted from boxing.
Speaker 2: I love that village, you know. But one thing that
Speaker 2: really really stands out to me, and before we finish,
Speaker 2: is the positive mindset. You have the power of positive thinking.
Speaker 2: How important is that in life? And how do you
Speaker 2: ascertain that mindset?
Speaker 3: I think it's two for me to explain it to
Speaker 3: other people. It's like it's one of the most important
Speaker 3: tools to have in your life to be able to overcome,
Speaker 3: you know, to be able to experience that, because we're
Speaker 3: all going to experience, you know, the highs and the
Speaker 3: loads of life. And when you're high, you know you're
Speaker 3: in this amazing place. When you're in a local you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, like there's a lot of people that are
Speaker 3: going through darkness, but they just have to understand that
Speaker 3: after the darkness, there is light. And I always understood that.
Speaker 3: I always understood that, you know what, there's going to
Speaker 3: be good times and there's going to be bad times.
Speaker 3: Not everybody is going to have an amazing life. It's
Speaker 3: not written that way, you know. I mean, we're all
Speaker 3: going to experience certain things in our lives. And I've
Speaker 3: experienced certain things and that's built the platform for me
Speaker 3: to be where I am today, and that's to go
Speaker 3: on and inspire people to achieve their own greatness. You know,
Speaker 3: we all have that within us, and we're all going
Speaker 3: to go through certain things. For you of that, if
Speaker 3: you are born, you're going to go through a whole
Speaker 3: bunch of stuff and then eventually you're going to reach
Speaker 3: that point where you know, the lights turn out. But
Speaker 3: it's about just that happy medium, you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: and being an accepting person and just understand that you've
Speaker 3: got to roll with the punches. That's life.
Speaker 2: Love it, mate, I love you. You're full of positive energy.
Speaker 2: I can feel the energy from across the room here.
Speaker 2: And you know what, people are going to get so
Speaker 2: much out of your book. Pick it up. It will
Speaker 2: inspire you tenfold. Billy, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I guess today was Billy Dibb. If you'd like to
Speaker 2: find out more about his books, head over to Billydibb
Speaker 2: dot com. Thanks for listening to this episode. If you
Speaker 2: enjoyed it, please leave me a review. I'm at Middleton.
Speaker 2: See you in the next episode.