Speaker 1: M mm hmmm, mm hmmm.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 3: All the smoke currently under new management. God damn right.
Speaker 3: We work for ourselves now.
Speaker 4: My collar off, I done popped it last couple of
Speaker 4: days off. Yeah, I'm gonna keep this one on it.
Speaker 3: I like that you got on l V. Yes, sir,
Speaker 3: you know it. Man, we got a man one of
Speaker 3: the greatest to ever do it today. But I'm gonna
Speaker 3: go ahead and let you introduced since you're a boxing guy.
Speaker 4: Oh man, Well, it's somebody who is definitely a legend.
Speaker 4: We've had boxes like Roy Jones, Tank Spence, Al Spence,
Speaker 4: Charloe Ron gonna say everybody speak highly of them, look
Speaker 4: up to him and admire him.
Speaker 2: Somebody that they try to pattern their careers after.
Speaker 4: Five time world champion, Hall of Famer s og the
Speaker 4: legend Andre Watt, Sir, Welcome to the show, bro.
Speaker 5: Happy to be on with y'all.
Speaker 3: Man, honor to have yes, sir, congratulations. Book inspired memoir
Speaker 3: Killing the Image about your incredible boxing journey and life
Speaker 3: outside of the ring. Can you speak to why you
Speaker 3: felt it was time to write this and share your
Speaker 3: story with the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Man, it's a time and the place for everything and
Speaker 5: you don't always know, you know, when that exact time is.
Speaker 5: But I always knew I was gonna tell my story
Speaker 5: one day, you know, even when I was young in
Speaker 5: the game nineteen two, I knew, like, man, I don't
Speaker 5: want to give everything to the media, and I don't
Speaker 5: want to try to, you know, promote my fights through
Speaker 5: my family trauma, our struggles, and it's you know, it's
Speaker 5: a give and take with that, and it's pros and cons.
Speaker 5: Some people may say, well, you know, if you'd did more,
Speaker 5: you would have been more relatable. It's like maybe, but
Speaker 5: that stuff was like very dear to me and very
Speaker 5: sacred to me.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 5: Not my mother wasn't ready to talk about that stuff.
Speaker 5: My father had passed, and I for sure wasn't ready
Speaker 5: to talk about it. So as I started progressing throughout
Speaker 5: my career, you know, I started getting you know, some
Speaker 5: movement like Will was like, man, let me try to
Speaker 5: pitch this book. And I thought I was ready to
Speaker 5: write it six seven years ago. But y'all know, being
Speaker 5: in media and taking on these projects, it's a process.
Speaker 5: So it popped off. When it popped off, the doc
Speaker 5: jumped off first on Showtime, and I think it was
Speaker 5: the perfect time and because with the doc we touched
Speaker 5: on it, but with the book we go a lot deep.
Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite or most meaningful chapter or
Speaker 3: story that you could share that's in the book.
Speaker 5: I really love talking about my childhood and the good
Speaker 5: and the bad. You know, the boxing part. You know,
Speaker 5: it's a chapter in a book called A Champion Is Born,
Speaker 5: and that's a story about me and my father watching
Speaker 5: George for Mean and Michael Moore. You know, Michael Moore
Speaker 5: was was beating up on George for most of the fight,
Speaker 5: and we had at that time, you know, it's an
Speaker 5: early nineties, so we got the big screen TV that's
Speaker 5: on the floor and were watching the fight. And you know,
Speaker 5: my dad was a big George Foreman fan, and I
Speaker 5: just see George Foreman. He figured it out. He pulled
Speaker 5: through four punches one two, stepped back through another one two,
Speaker 5: and Michael Moore is on the canvas in Vegas, laid
Speaker 5: out and we went crazy. And from that moment forward,
Speaker 5: I started dreaming about and what would it be like
Speaker 5: to be in that arena, What would it be like
Speaker 5: to have those commentators talking about me? So that's that's
Speaker 5: on you know, just the origin of my love for
Speaker 5: the sport. That's very dear to me. But if you
Speaker 5: look at like the back of that book, it says
Speaker 5: what if I die? You know, that was a moment
Speaker 5: where I was in the streets, heavy, using drugs, numbing
Speaker 5: with alcohol. I didn't really care about boxing no more.
Speaker 5: I was through with it, giving.
Speaker 3: My whole life.
Speaker 5: Man, this was like eighteen years old, eighteen nineteen years old.
Speaker 5: It's about eighteen years old and almost had an overdose.
Speaker 5: We popp an, ecstasy, all kind of stuff at that time.
Speaker 5: And that's meaningful to me because it could have ended
Speaker 5: right there. But that was my new birth. That was
Speaker 5: my rebirth right there. And so when people see me
Speaker 5: today and they hear me talking about my faith or
Speaker 5: they see me move the way that I moved, it
Speaker 5: all started from that moment.
Speaker 3: That's deep the city San Francisco, California. Tell the people
Speaker 3: that don't know that clump the bay altogether. What's the
Speaker 3: difference between the city and the town which is Oakland.
Speaker 5: It's just different, slightly different culture, same culture, but different.
Speaker 5: So cats and Frisco made dress a little different, maybe
Speaker 5: talk a little different, but it's really it's really all
Speaker 5: the same. You know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: it's a thirty minute drive from San Francisco to Oakland,
Speaker 5: So slightly different flavor, slightly different way they moved, but
Speaker 5: it's really a lot of the same.
Speaker 3: Talk to us about your upbringing, young Dre before you
Speaker 3: got to the point where you wanted to box, What
Speaker 3: was your childhood like growing up in the city.
Speaker 5: Man, I really had normal childhood in some respects. And
Speaker 5: then what made me different than most of my peers though,
Speaker 5: is that, you know, I had two parents that were
Speaker 5: drug ad My mother was a full blown addict. You know,
Speaker 5: she was in San Francisco. I was in East Bay,
Speaker 5: and all I knew was that my mom was struggling
Speaker 5: with crack cocaine. That's all I knew, and I just
Speaker 5: knew she wasn't there at that time, and that affected me.
Speaker 5: And I didn't realize how much it affected me until
Speaker 5: I got older and started not relating to women, will
Speaker 5: having trust issues, not knowing how to put myself out there,
Speaker 5: being guarded, and from my father, he was a functional addict.
Speaker 5: He owned his own business. He would work all day
Speaker 5: and when he came home he would have that monkey
Speaker 5: on his back and his Drugger choice at that time
Speaker 5: was Heroin. So everything was normal except that.
Speaker 3: When you get older now and you kind of look back,
Speaker 3: you know, because I've gone through therapy in my life
Speaker 3: to unpack my childhood. What was kind of your advice
Speaker 3: or what you did to kind of unpack that childhood
Speaker 3: trauma or those childhood issues you struggled with. Did you
Speaker 3: ever seek counseling or anything like that? Was that beneficial
Speaker 3: for you?
Speaker 5: Very beneficial because you know, I have a tendency to
Speaker 5: to not talk and like a lot of men, but
Speaker 5: for me, you know, like I would internalize a lot
Speaker 5: of a lot of trauma in pain and I just
Speaker 5: say that I'm good and I'm really not. And it
Speaker 5: really took me, you know, really my faith was the
Speaker 5: intersection that I needed. And a lot of times people
Speaker 5: hear about faith and they look at it like a
Speaker 5: crutch or you know, they look at it like, you know,
Speaker 5: what about these people over here being hypocrites? And it's like, well,
Speaker 5: I can't speak for them, but what I do know
Speaker 5: is is if I did not have a personal relationship
Speaker 5: with God, if he didn't come and touch my life,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't be standing here right now, and not only
Speaker 5: just a personal relationship, but I found a church and
Speaker 5: my passion Napoleon Kaufman form a raider all American that
Speaker 5: you do. Connecting with that man and then him helping
Speaker 5: me understand the things he overcame his childhood trauma and
Speaker 5: how he got delivered and set free and he was whole.
Speaker 5: I said, man, I want that. And then I started
Speaker 5: looking at the community of people within the church, like, man,
Speaker 5: that's a good brother right there. Man, that's another good
Speaker 5: brother right there. So it's really me opening myself up
Speaker 5: to God and me opening myself up to community is
Speaker 5: really what helped me heal and continue to grow. And
Speaker 5: I'm still I'm still going through process.
Speaker 3: Do you feel like opening up and sharing some of
Speaker 3: the most vulnerable moments in your life, whether it be
Speaker 3: your book or your doc, has also kind of been
Speaker 3: therapeutic for you?
Speaker 5: Yes, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, cause I had to overcome
Speaker 5: a lot of shame doing you know, my my my
Speaker 5: doc and my book. And that's really what the title
Speaker 5: of this book is all about, you know, talking to
Speaker 5: my pastor and I'm like, man, these Joxas don't understand. Man,
Speaker 5: I didn't been through this. I didnet did way more
Speaker 5: than what they did. He said, Dre, you gotta kill
Speaker 5: the image. And at first I thought he was saying that,
Speaker 5: you know, it was something pretentious of fate that I
Speaker 5: was present. He said, no, who you are is real.
Speaker 5: It's just not who you've always been. And I had
Speaker 5: to dig deep, and I had to open up those
Speaker 5: old wounds, and I had to come face to face
Speaker 5: with young Dre. Even though I had overcome a lot
Speaker 5: and I had healed a lot, it was still some
Speaker 5: things that I was still carrying shame about, because you know,
Speaker 5: it is you look at your younger self, like, dude,
Speaker 5: you was tripping, and I'm so far removed from that individual.
Speaker 5: It's hard to believe writing this book, going through this
Speaker 5: doc that I did some of those things, or moved
Speaker 5: the way that I move, or had some of those mindsets.
Speaker 5: So but it was necessary and doing that it may
Speaker 5: kill some of the images that people have in me.
Speaker 5: It may make you be a stronger believer in what
Speaker 5: in what you know I say I believe in and
Speaker 5: who I am. But it was a necessary thing that
Speaker 5: I had to do. And the testimonies that I've been
Speaker 5: getting from the doc in the book had been just
Speaker 5: crazy from all over the world, just people saying, Man,
Speaker 5: I can relate. My mother was on drugs too. Man,
Speaker 5: I didn't know you went through that.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 5: It makes me even more more of a supporter. So, man,
Speaker 5: it's been a blessing.
Speaker 4: I think that's why it's even more important to have
Speaker 4: a relationship with God, because, like you say, you talk
Speaker 4: to the therapist who they go to with their problems,
Speaker 4: who they talk to about their problems. Right, So it's
Speaker 4: important that you have a relationship with somebody that's the
Speaker 4: only person that's not gonna judge you, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, because you can go to a therapist, you
Speaker 4: can give them all you they going to somebody with
Speaker 4: their problems.
Speaker 3: Who you going to?
Speaker 4: Yeah, right, So that's the only person that you should
Speaker 4: go to. And I tell people all the time, I
Speaker 4: know I'm not perfect, but I live my life every
Speaker 4: day to show God I deserve everything he blessed me with.
Speaker 4: So I'm fine with that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And that's that's how I keep myself in a good space.
Speaker 5: Now that's real, and I feel so strong about what
Speaker 5: I believe because I know me, I'm not the type
Speaker 5: of person that can read a dead book that has
Speaker 5: no power and just follow a bunch of laws and
Speaker 5: precepts and ideas. Like at some point, that's not gonna
Speaker 5: do it for me, Like if it's just knowledge. But
Speaker 5: something hit me that that I never felt before, and
Speaker 5: I can't deny it. I don't know everything about the word.
Speaker 5: I don't know everything about I'm a minister of my church.
Speaker 5: I'm a youth pastor. I'm still growing. I don't know everything.
Speaker 5: But what I do know, I can never deny the
Speaker 5: power that hit me and how it changed my life
Speaker 5: and how it kept me these last twenty years, because
Speaker 5: y'all know how it is. It's pressure and daily it's
Speaker 5: daily pressure. Every city you go in, it's somebody pulling
Speaker 5: on you. It's a it's a pit, holes, it's a
Speaker 5: it's a pothole, it's something that, it's something, it's a game,
Speaker 5: somebody trying to run and man, I say, God, keep me.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 5: Throughout a twenty year career. Did I do everything right?
Speaker 5: Absolutely not? But did I know that, Man, I'm being
Speaker 5: kept by a power that's stronger than myself. Absolutely.
Speaker 4: Picking up in boxing in the nineties it was looked
Speaker 4: at as a great Virgil Hunter talk about virgin he.
Speaker 5: Was a guy saying because you know, he was already
Speaker 5: playing a duo fither role when I met him. You know,
Speaker 5: I met him at the gym. I had another trainer
Speaker 5: at that time, and that trainer, you know, he was
Speaker 5: more like, you know, take two punches to give one.
Speaker 5: And my father, who loved Muhammad Ali, he was like,
Speaker 5: I don't want my son to get hit. You know
Speaker 5: what you mean, it's boxing, He's gonna get He said, no,
Speaker 5: I need to teach him how to hit and not
Speaker 5: get hit. What just so happens that Vergil sitting there
Speaker 5: that day at the gym, listened to the conversation and
Speaker 5: he said, Man, you want your son to learn how
Speaker 5: to hit and not get He said, come talk to me.
Speaker 5: He said that that's my special that's what I do.
Speaker 5: And that sparked my dad's interest right there.
Speaker 2: So you didn't know him then at all.
Speaker 5: I didn't know him at all. I had, you know,
Speaker 5: it's what you call a house train, like a guy
Speaker 5: that you go to if you sign up at this gym.
Speaker 5: He was the house training. Verse just happened to be
Speaker 5: there working out, and so I'm hitting the bag and
Speaker 5: I'm looking over at Verge and he's nine in his head.
Speaker 3: Like what age were you with this sign? I was nine, okay, he.
Speaker 5: Giving me a nod of approval. I'm looking at him
Speaker 5: looking at me, and then him and my dad, like
Speaker 5: I said, started started dialoguing, and he made boxing fun
Speaker 5: for me. My dad was too. My dad was all
Speaker 5: or nothing. Man. I told you to throw the jam,
Speaker 5: get your hands up, and me, as a kid at
Speaker 5: that time, I just shut down. Verse made it fun like,
Speaker 5: look at this baby, go through it like this, Okay,
Speaker 5: get your hand up. It was like a song and
Speaker 5: a dance. So I knew right away I wanted to
Speaker 5: train with him. But I'm grateful for that man because
Speaker 5: when my father passed when I was eighteen in two
Speaker 5: thousand and.
Speaker 3: Two, and he stepped right in and stepped up.
Speaker 5: And Verge grew up in West Oakland. He knew how
Speaker 5: to move into town. He knew the ins and outs.
Speaker 5: He was twenty years as a probation officer, and he
Speaker 5: knew how to talk to me at that time, and
Speaker 5: he would get on me. He would say to me, hey, bro,
Speaker 5: God got his hand on you. I don't know what
Speaker 5: you're doing out there. But it ain't gonna work for you,
Speaker 5: and I would get mad. I would fighting, Man, why
Speaker 5: are you speaking on me?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 5: I'm just why you speaking that on me?
Speaker 6: Man?
Speaker 5: I'm trying to do my thing. And but if I
Speaker 5: didn't have that man saying stuff like that to me
Speaker 5: and even being having a prophetic voice in my like
Speaker 5: telling me stuff that's gonna happen before it happened, I
Speaker 5: would have crashed out. I would have crashed out because
Speaker 5: I needed a strong mail figure.
Speaker 4: What would you say besides him being the you know,
Speaker 4: being there at the time when you were starting to
Speaker 4: seeing something in you, what would you what would you say?
Speaker 2: That major a great pair.
Speaker 5: I just liked how how he thought. I liked how
Speaker 5: he coached, you know, like, I'm not a dude that
Speaker 5: needs to be I don't need Roy Roe. Yeah, like
Speaker 5: I'm already like I'm very much in my head and
Speaker 5: I'm very competitive and I don't like to lose. So
Speaker 5: I don't need that drive and I don't mind working hard.
Speaker 5: I need you to remind me of who I am
Speaker 5: at certain moments. Remind me while we here and you know,
Speaker 5: talk that talk to me, baby, you know.
Speaker 3: Why we're here.
Speaker 5: He don't know what he getting into, but we finish
Speaker 5: showing him. That's the kind of stuff that Vergil do.
Speaker 5: He just knew how to push them certain buttons, and
Speaker 5: I took it and ran with it.
Speaker 4: You've been in a Hall of fame, and just to
Speaker 4: be a good question for you, how important is to
Speaker 4: have a good trainer?
Speaker 5: Man, I honestly think you got to have more than that.
Speaker 5: To survive at the highest level, you gotta have Sometimes
Speaker 5: that trainer is a counselor sometimes that trainer is a
Speaker 5: father figure. Sometimes he's a brother. Because it's so many
Speaker 5: emotions you're going through when you're not in the ring,
Speaker 5: stuff you're dealing with in life. Then when you get
Speaker 5: a fight coming up and you in training care it's
Speaker 5: a lot, man, and you need somebody to know you
Speaker 5: beyond just a fighter like I couldn't imagine having just
Speaker 5: a higher hand, just somebody that I only see you
Speaker 5: at the gym. I needed a father figure. And you know,
Speaker 5: vergis to tease me, you know, when I was even
Speaker 5: a profiler, said, man, you a head case because I
Speaker 5: never felt like I was doing enough. I always felt
Speaker 5: like somebody's out working me. He tells me to take
Speaker 5: it down. I can't take it down, he said, Man, dude,
Speaker 5: you just sparred twelve rounds a day. We got three
Speaker 5: weeks before the fighter is coming.
Speaker 2: You good?
Speaker 5: I'm not good?
Speaker 6: Man?
Speaker 5: You a head case?
Speaker 3: May you trip it?
Speaker 5: I needed that. I needed him to talk to me
Speaker 5: that way and be that father, figured that brother and
Speaker 5: that counselor at times.
Speaker 2: Because we can be our worst enemy at times.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I needed that. I needed that because, you know,
Speaker 5: like a lot of the things that made me a champion,
Speaker 5: if it's not under control, it cannot be good, you know,
Speaker 5: because it's an unusual type of drive. And New York
Speaker 5: realized who I hadn't lost since I Man, I've been
Speaker 5: on a crazy win streak. I haven't lost since I've
Speaker 5: been like fourteen years old, all throughout Nationals, Olympics. That's
Speaker 5: a lot of pressure. And in hindsight, that probably affected
Speaker 5: me in my pro career a little bit because I
Speaker 5: just I didn't want to lose so bad that I
Speaker 5: probably didn't fight as loose as I could have faught
Speaker 5: sometimes and flow like I could have flowed because I'm
Speaker 5: trying to be so perfect and make sure I meet
Speaker 5: the mark and do everything I was supposed to do.
Speaker 5: But Verge is always there to talk to me. How
Speaker 5: to talk to that kid in me, even in my
Speaker 5: twenties and thirties. Baby, you know, that's how you talk
Speaker 5: to me as a kid. So I know when I
Speaker 5: hear that, that's verse talking to me as a young man,
Speaker 5: and I would always respond man. So it was much
Speaker 5: more than just a trainer.
Speaker 4: I see a lot of the coaches, coaches and trainings
Speaker 4: these days training their sons. Yeah, what do you think
Speaker 4: of the state of boxing with the trainings and coaches.
Speaker 5: Now, I'm not one that says it can't work, It's
Speaker 5: just not It's not easy.
Speaker 2: It got to be rare like Boots and Bozie something
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think I think. I think Bill is
Speaker 5: doing a good job with Devin. It's tough because you
Speaker 5: know a lot of times fathers many they as a father,
Speaker 5: you gotta you gotta know that you work for your
Speaker 5: son because he's paying you. But I'm still your father. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and you got to know when to be dad, and
Speaker 5: you gotta know when to be training. And you also
Speaker 5: can't live through your son. That's your baby. I don't
Speaker 5: care how big you get, how how old he is,
Speaker 5: that's your son. And when you when y'all get in
Speaker 5: their ring, you're gonna walk down them still apps. And
Speaker 5: that boy you raised, he gonna be in that ring
Speaker 5: with that a man by himself. So you gotta always
Speaker 5: remember that. For the sons, they got to know when
Speaker 5: they let dad be dad and say, man, he's telling
Speaker 5: me the right thing. But when they say no, that
Speaker 5: I got this. So it's a lot of dynamics, man.
Speaker 5: That that's that's hard for trainers and uh, for sons
Speaker 5: and fathers to tow them lines. It's hard, but it
Speaker 5: could be done. It's just rare.
Speaker 2: Who did you idolize in boxing? Coming up? Man?
Speaker 5: My big three was you know, Roy, Hollins, be Hop,
Speaker 5: and Floyd And my first one was was Roy. Country
Speaker 5: boy came up in Pensacola, Florida. Roy had the duct
Speaker 5: tail in the back to get the little I must
Speaker 5: have forgotten man.
Speaker 3: He was.
Speaker 5: He was a country boy with swag though it was
Speaker 5: something different about him and I like the way he talked,
Speaker 5: I liked his accent, I liked his fighting style and
Speaker 5: he did everything wrong but it worked out for him.
Speaker 5: And you know with be Hop, identify with be Hop
Speaker 5: because I never felt like I was the most talented
Speaker 5: and be Hop wasn't the most talented, but he was super,
Speaker 5: super disciplined. I would talk to him on the phone
Speaker 5: and he have the type of dude that if you
Speaker 5: bring it, if you bring a soda and did you
Speaker 5: that's boison, he'll get at He'll get at you for
Speaker 5: bringing a soda in the gym, and you know that
Speaker 5: red meat like he was that way, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. Spent a lot of time in the independ
Speaker 5: and I related to him as far as his discipline,
Speaker 5: and that's why he beat a lot of guys he
Speaker 5: shouldn't beat. And with Floyd, his work ethic, Floyd, we know,
Speaker 5: you know Floyd got you know, Floyd got the money
Speaker 5: he got, he got the big whips, he got the
Speaker 5: big houses, but he worked like he was broke still
Speaker 5: to this day, even more exhibitions. I took something from
Speaker 5: each one of them dudes, and I felt like I
Speaker 5: was a hybrid of all three.
Speaker 2: How would you describe your style of fighting?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't have one. And whatever I need to
Speaker 5: be that day to win tonight, I may need to
Speaker 5: make it ugly. We hey, I may need to let
Speaker 5: you feel my physical strength. Let you know I'm not
Speaker 5: gonna let you bully me physically, like when I'm fall
Speaker 5: sock kre Beacon. It may be a night when I
Speaker 5: fight Michael Kessel for my first title fight. I'm an
Speaker 5: outbox you bro. You got a European style, you straight
Speaker 5: up and down, no special effects, and I'm gonna let
Speaker 5: you feel that. Then you may have a situation where
Speaker 5: Alan Green, where I gotta go in there and make
Speaker 5: it inside game. You've seen a different side. So it's
Speaker 5: like Bruce Lee said, I was formless. I'm what I
Speaker 5: need to be because if I just have a certain
Speaker 5: style at some point I get exploited because they watching
Speaker 5: film on me like I'm watching film on them, and
Speaker 5: I can ill afford to have a bad night. So
Speaker 5: I got to figure it out. So I didn't really
Speaker 5: have no style.
Speaker 3: We spoke to this before we got on camera about
Speaker 3: athletes mentality, particular NBA players and sitting out and resting
Speaker 3: or having a feeling like you're having an off night
Speaker 3: coming into a game and being able to, you know,
Speaker 3: turn that around and turn it into a solid game
Speaker 3: or give maximum effort the mental side of your game,
Speaker 3: because it's just you and your teammates can't help you.
Speaker 3: No one else can help you. How do you have you?
Speaker 3: Have you ever gone into a fight like damn? I
Speaker 3: don't feel like I have it. Stipend obviously been able
Speaker 3: to pull it out.
Speaker 5: I had a handful of those.
Speaker 3: I had you one with a messed up hand, with
Speaker 3: a broken hand right.
Speaker 5: Me and Carl Froch. Physically, I felt good. I just
Speaker 5: had you know, I hurt my hand and I knew
Speaker 5: it was bad, and that was one night.
Speaker 2: But you knew that before getting in the ring and
Speaker 2: still winning there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I don't have no guaranteed contract. Yeah yeah,
Speaker 5: I eat what I killed. I gotta go in there.
Speaker 5: If I don't work, I don't eat. And we already
Speaker 5: the week of the fight too, so it's like, what
Speaker 5: you're gonna do? We already here on the East Coast
Speaker 5: were a couple of days out, so I had to
Speaker 5: take that when I fought Coble, same thing Tod my
Speaker 5: ACM in two thousand and eight, and just the training,
Speaker 5: the running, the sparring, all the stuff that I did,
Speaker 5: it slowly start getting worse. That was the worst training
Speaker 5: camp I ever had. The whole camp. I'm stopping and
Speaker 5: going stopping and going shut out, shut out. Should I
Speaker 5: pull out of the fight? I was telling me, Man,
Speaker 5: God got you. There's gonna be some adversity, but you're
Speaker 5: gonna be all right. I got my lawyer and my
Speaker 5: brother Josh Duben said, Bro, you can't go into the
Speaker 5: fight like this. Jay my manager, he like, Jay, you know,
Speaker 5: Jay like, well, let's just wait and see, let's hold
Speaker 5: on to see. Jay thinking the business side, because you know,
Speaker 5: we had just got in business with Rock Nation. It's
Speaker 5: the first big fight. We don't want to pull out
Speaker 5: and send that kind of message. So it was a very,
Speaker 5: very very difficult situation. I'm finding the most dangerous man
Speaker 5: probably in the game at that time. I'm at my
Speaker 5: rented house two hours before we getting ready to go
Speaker 5: to the arena, and I'm looking at this doctor Drane
Speaker 5: Flewid on my knee, and I'm in disbelief, like, man,
Speaker 5: you like I couldn't believe. It's like it's almost like
Speaker 5: a dream, Like, man, this is really happening. Like I'm
Speaker 5: really gonna fight this dude with one one good leg.
Speaker 5: But I'm not gonna say I'm built different and nothing
Speaker 5: like that. Man. I just I just got a certain mindset, man.
Speaker 5: I just like, I'm gonna bring it and you might
Speaker 5: get me, but it's not gonna be easy. That's just
Speaker 5: my mindset. I'm not always gonna look great, I'm not
Speaker 5: always gonna feel great. But if you beat me, you're
Speaker 5: gonna be a good man, because I'm coming ready, even
Speaker 5: if I don't feel one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: What's your take on the way young boxes these days
Speaker 4: taking criticism because, like, especially with social media being so
Speaker 4: and everybody having opinion, like y'all was criticized, Mike Tyson
Speaker 4: was criticized more than anybody, But.
Speaker 2: Y'all they dealt with a different way and not like
Speaker 2: it's perfect example.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's people that be at the fights that y'all
Speaker 4: see every day. The commentators who y'all have no relationship
Speaker 4: with that's say worse things. But you're gonna see somebody
Speaker 4: who have to say the same thing they say, but
Speaker 4: you have a relationship with them and you take it
Speaker 4: a different way. Why why is it not taking the
Speaker 4: same way from the same you know, from when it's
Speaker 4: been said about the same people, the same thing been
Speaker 4: say about different people.
Speaker 5: I think for the youngsters, man, I think they expect
Speaker 5: that from the boxing media. But people outside the boxing media,
Speaker 5: they got respect for they and they like not you too, right,
Speaker 5: not you like you can call me with that, like
Speaker 5: while you get online. I think that's a lot of
Speaker 5: the mindset. Yeah, it's rough, bro, it's rough out here
Speaker 5: in the social media streets, man, because you gotta really
Speaker 5: be strong. You gotta really be strong because you got
Speaker 5: you got random people, and you got people.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: It's harder now, it's harder, bro, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: We we was get criticized really just basically off our
Speaker 4: game to what we're playing now.
Speaker 5: I mean, you got to look for it too. You
Speaker 5: gotta read the newspaper. You got it, you know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying. Like, you pick your phone us you ever
Speaker 5: a bad game or a bad fight. You see all
Speaker 5: the mentions one hundred fifty fifty men, you already know
Speaker 5: what time it is. You click that mention its own
Speaker 5: just that quick. It's hard, right, you have to pick
Speaker 5: up the paper.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: It's different, So it's not easy for the youngsters, man,
Speaker 5: But it's also it's also a necessary evil though, And
Speaker 5: I say that because you can't always like you need
Speaker 5: some people that's that element is good for you.
Speaker 2: Only talk about you because it's great though.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's good for you. Keep you humble, right, any
Speaker 5: part of it, and it keeps you. It keeps you grinding.
Speaker 5: Like as a fight, it's not normal to getting a
Speaker 5: ring with another man with eight downs and ten do
Speaker 5: houns gloves on and fight in front of the whole
Speaker 5: world like it's normal because you grew up doing it,
Speaker 5: But it's really not normal. You got to keep having
Speaker 5: reasons why you're doing this. So at first, I don't
Speaker 5: want to be a champion when you got that. Now
Speaker 5: I don't want to make money. Well you got a
Speaker 5: few ms now now with your So I'm not saying
Speaker 5: you give a bunch of people credit, right because I
Speaker 5: evolved into that. At first it's like I'm gonna prove
Speaker 5: y'all wrong. Then I evolved into the people that's been
Speaker 5: rocking with me. I'm gonna prove y'all right, y'all gonna
Speaker 5: be wrong just by default. But you got to keep
Speaker 5: as your career evolves, why do you do this?
Speaker 3: What are your reasons?
Speaker 5: And getting that backlash when you have a bad night
Speaker 5: is just a good reminder. They don't love me. No,
Speaker 5: this is a business. Let me let me treat it
Speaker 5: as such and not let me get to I can't
Speaker 5: romance the game too much.
Speaker 4: But you also got people that know you're better than
Speaker 4: your performance too sure, that really supports you, and that
Speaker 4: want to see you reaching for.
Speaker 5: The got to be able to take that on it exactly.
Speaker 4: That's that's my point. Everybody that's talking about you not
Speaker 4: saying it.
Speaker 2: To the mean you. They want. They want to see
Speaker 2: you do better and know you have better in you.
Speaker 4: And I take that ship to heart because the stuff
Speaker 4: they said about me and a brawl when I was,
Speaker 4: about the person I was when that shit happened. It
Speaker 4: feels good for me today to sit here today and
Speaker 4: looking at these people knowing that they're wrong, totally wrong,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: So that's what I'm say.
Speaker 4: He got people have They have to learn how to
Speaker 4: use that shit as ammunition, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: Because they gonna.
Speaker 2: Talk about you regardless.
Speaker 4: But I love people talking about me because I'm doing
Speaker 4: something great they ain't talk about nobody ain't doing shit.
Speaker 2: So you got to know how to use both of you,
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. I'm the master at that.
Speaker 4: I'm the master at that because I love people said
Speaker 4: the worst things about me, and I probably got some
Speaker 4: of that shit tattooed on you.
Speaker 3: Something it's true.
Speaker 2: Some of it is true.
Speaker 3: Runner.
Speaker 4: You spent your majority of your career cleaning out the
Speaker 4: super super middleweight division hundred and sixth They then you
Speaker 4: became the king of the lightweight division, like heavyweight streaming
Speaker 4: like heavyweight one seventy five.
Speaker 2: A story career.
Speaker 4: Uh, let's go through a little bit of Michael Kessler
Speaker 4: into the Super six tournament. That was special. I wish
Speaker 4: they would do that again. Talk about your experience that
Speaker 4: Super six Tournament moment.
Speaker 5: I had to really be who I said. I enjoyed
Speaker 5: that I got thrown into the deep man, I I was.
Speaker 5: I was talking in the in the in the in
Speaker 5: the water. It was up to my you know, my waist,
Speaker 5: and then they took me out the pool and threw
Speaker 5: me in the deep end.
Speaker 2: That was the coming out party. It had to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: What I mean by that is if I don't perform,
Speaker 5: I'm a sink. It's gonna get ugly. I was in
Speaker 5: there with all the dogs in the in the division,
Speaker 5: So yeah, sinker swim moment Man. One of the hardest
Speaker 5: punches I ever fought.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: One of the hardest punch I ever fought. Hit me
Speaker 5: the jaz just one jazz straight shot in the first
Speaker 5: one Bio. I said, everything they said about that power
Speaker 5: is real, and I don't want to get hit with
Speaker 5: that again. I start boxing, boxing, beautiful, beautiful fight that night.
Speaker 5: I can't let you hit me with that again. I
Speaker 5: felt it.
Speaker 4: That's the part of the first round. Everybody ain't got that. Yeah,
Speaker 4: everybody can't change up like that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, because that's one of them. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 5: that's one of them. You could easy going to self
Speaker 5: preservation mode quick and be like bro. You know so
Speaker 5: I was smarter, but I was still trying to get
Speaker 5: mine on.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the difference between going to survival mode. But
Speaker 4: you you you were still fight. Yeah, you knew not
Speaker 4: to take a points, but you still was engaged.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm trying to win.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: When I said I'm trying to win, I'm trying to
Speaker 5: win bad Chad Dawson Man. I got a lot of
Speaker 5: respect for Chad Man and I feel bad about that
Speaker 5: fight to this day. Yeah, I feel bad about that fight.
Speaker 2: You had to do that to him. I had to
Speaker 2: to do that.
Speaker 5: He said my name. But I feel bad because he
Speaker 5: got tricked. Gary Shaw's promoter. I'm sitting there watching a
Speaker 5: fight with him and Bernard Hopkins the second one, and
Speaker 5: like me and Chad wasn't close, but like I watched
Speaker 5: him from a distance. James Prince was was both of
Speaker 5: our managers, and I respected his fight game. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm like, man, I like Chad was not think. Chad
Speaker 5: was not on my radar. And I'm sitting there with
Speaker 5: my wife and he beat Bernard Hopkins the second time
Speaker 5: and Max Kellerman, who you want to fight next? I
Speaker 5: want to fight Water. I fight him at one sixty eight,
Speaker 5: one seventy five and I come to Oakland. Looked at
Speaker 5: my wife, I said, what I hear? Jay like Jason, Yeah,
Speaker 5: I heard it.
Speaker 3: We're gonna hold the time too.
Speaker 5: But he's a prime example about why you gotta be
Speaker 5: you gotta think man. He was so eager and he
Speaker 5: said my name. His promoter, Gary Shaw at that time,
Speaker 5: leaned in, call our ward bad mistake, bro number one.
Speaker 5: That's cool. If you feel like you want to fight me,
Speaker 5: the best should want to fight the best, and I
Speaker 5: was at the top at that time in my weight
Speaker 5: class and he had just beat but now the second
Speaker 5: time he was at the top. But dude, you negotiated
Speaker 5: the whole fight on HBO and we held him to everything,
Speaker 5: so I knew he gonna be weight drained coming down right.
Speaker 5: But I'm also not gonna give you a pass either.
Speaker 5: And that's probably one of the best camps I ever had,
Speaker 5: because I had to come right with Chad. He was
Speaker 5: that good. And I talk about this in the book.
Speaker 5: Probably like three weeks before the fight, Verse called me
Speaker 5: to his house. We had a two like two houses
Speaker 5: side by side in training camp. He said, hey, man,
Speaker 5: I just got the one with James Prince. He said,
Speaker 5: Chad got knocked out and sparing, I said, knocked out.
Speaker 5: But so he got knocked out by one of one
Speaker 5: of my old opponents, Edison Miranda Edison. If he can't
Speaker 5: do nothing else, he can crack. And first thing, I'm thinking,
Speaker 5: they gonna they're gonna they gonna cancel the fight. He said, no,
Speaker 5: they trying to get it together. They're not gonna care.
Speaker 5: We had spies everywhere. Man, when I'm fighting everywhere, we
Speaker 5: knew everything. I knew the days he took off. I
Speaker 5: knew the good days he had and spared. I knew
Speaker 5: the bad days he had. So I thought the fighter
Speaker 5: was gonna get canceled. He said, it's not gonna get canceled.
Speaker 5: I didn't say nothing the whole three weeks. It didn't
Speaker 5: leak nothing. The whole week of the fight. We seeing
Speaker 5: each other press conference here there, and at the way
Speaker 5: end we faced the face. I still didn't say nothing.
Speaker 5: To that moment, my team John, his team John. I
Speaker 5: looked at him, so we looking at each other. I
Speaker 5: leaned in. I said, hey, bro, I heard what happened
Speaker 5: in training camp. You better tighten it up tomorrow night.
Speaker 5: And I leaned back. That boy said his whole face dropped,
Speaker 5: shoulders slump. The fight was one right there, damn done.
Speaker 5: All I got to do is execute tomorrow. The life
Speaker 5: went out of his body, like, oh you knew that, checkmate.
Speaker 5: And then I went there the night of the fight
Speaker 5: and took care of my business.
Speaker 3: But you know who did that. Tain't did the same
Speaker 3: thing to Ryan.
Speaker 4: Remember that he told him about his real the day
Speaker 4: of the press come.
Speaker 2: He told him right up there, I heard you got knocked.
Speaker 4: I heard you got knocked out, and heard you got
Speaker 4: a real problem, and he told him and he just
Speaker 4: knocked him out the same punch.
Speaker 5: If your team is not if your team don't have
Speaker 5: feelers out.
Speaker 3: You're working, they're not doing their job. Yeah, speak to
Speaker 3: for the casuals, the importance of that weight dream coming up,
Speaker 3: coming down, and what that means and how you can
Speaker 3: get back to that your weight the day of the fight.
Speaker 4: Like, speak to that and to touch with his question,
Speaker 4: how important those those one seventy five to the weight?
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, the seven pounds in between.
Speaker 5: Like, if you've been at a weight like check dad
Speaker 5: was at one seventy five for a long time. You
Speaker 5: don't come back down. Your body's adjusted, you're getting older,
Speaker 5: you don't. You don't come back then, you just don't.
Speaker 5: He should have made me come up. He should have
Speaker 5: challenged me and say, hey, you're doing your thing in
Speaker 5: one sixty eight, come up to one seventy five. If
Speaker 5: you want to fight a big dog, that's how you
Speaker 5: do it.
Speaker 2: But you don't.
Speaker 5: You don't. Yeah, you don't cut, you don't go down
Speaker 5: and wait. So that's an issue even with Ryan, Like
Speaker 5: if I'm Ryan. I'm not taking that clause, right, If
Speaker 5: I'm tanked, you can't knocking for taking that clause because
Speaker 5: you didn't have to take it. Only think Ryan is
Speaker 5: big of a draws. Tank is Ryan was a big
Speaker 5: draw too. They don't do them numbers if they don't
Speaker 5: have each other. And Ryan should have said, look, bro,
Speaker 5: we're not doing that. That's when you use your social
Speaker 5: media if they doing that in negotiations. Look, bro, I
Speaker 5: want to make the fight, but this is what he's
Speaker 5: trying to do.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 5: He trying to weaken me so and.
Speaker 3: He got that kind of following too to move the
Speaker 3: needle point.
Speaker 5: So him being just overly eager and trying to you know,
Speaker 5: be too zealous to make the fight, he took a
Speaker 5: clause and it probably hurt him, but I think it
Speaker 5: would have been the same result without it. You know,
Speaker 5: I like I like Ryan, right, but you know Tank
Speaker 5: is a bad boy. And they talk about the power
Speaker 5: and all of that, but Tank tank doing to set
Speaker 5: that power up very skillful, underrated skills.
Speaker 4: What you walk around at, like when you was fighting,
Speaker 4: what you walk around at. So when I was like,
Speaker 4: when you're not in camp.
Speaker 5: I'll be about ten or fifteen have you over.
Speaker 4: So say you walk around at one sixty eight, but
Speaker 4: you're fighting at one forty seven and you and you
Speaker 4: take and you trained for two years and to keep
Speaker 4: that way down in one forty seven for two years.
Speaker 2: That's not gonna take a toll on your body.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's gonna start to get you, yeah, for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but it's that's why your team got to know.
Speaker 2: Like, because that's what he did after you. Guys.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a it's a it's a it's a misnomer
Speaker 5: in boxing that you know, if a dude has been
Speaker 5: at a weight class for a long time, he's the
Speaker 5: bigger guy. I don't believe that. Yeah, I don't believe that.
Speaker 5: When I went up to one seventy five, Covilev had
Speaker 5: been there, he had a whole career one seventy five
Speaker 5: and I started at one sixty, went to one sixty
Speaker 5: eight and one five. I was the smaller guy on paper,
Speaker 5: but already knew it. I knew your lifestyle, I knew
Speaker 5: how he got down, and I knew that, Bro, you
Speaker 5: struggle to make weight, so you may look bigger, but
Speaker 5: you're not gonna be stronger than me. And when you
Speaker 5: struggle to make weight like that. Right around that fifth
Speaker 5: sixth round you start to feel it. I don't care
Speaker 5: how great to shape you in the body, saying I
Speaker 5: can't this. The boxing is the only sport where you
Speaker 5: drain yourself for three months, crazy right, and then get
Speaker 5: twenty four hours to rehydrate and it go be great
Speaker 5: the next night. Everybody else get to walk around, I mean,
Speaker 5: get to play it. Whatever weight they walk around, it's
Speaker 5: my playing weight either football, basketball. We don't get that opportunity.
Speaker 5: So it's no way you can strip your body down
Speaker 5: covid leb, Ryan Garciia, Chad Dawson and get it back
Speaker 5: in twenty four hours. It's not gonna happen. But guys
Speaker 5: get caught up. And that's the Oh he's bigger than me?
Speaker 5: Is he stronger?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 5: And covid leb wasn't stronger? So yeah, you stay had
Speaker 5: to wait a long time. It's gonna get to you.
Speaker 5: It's even like it's even like Bud and EJ right,
Speaker 5: Like people keep talking about the fifty fourth thing, and
Speaker 5: it's like them moving from one forty seven to one
Speaker 5: to fifty four. And my thing is like you don't
Speaker 5: think be stronger, right, right, This is a two way street, right,
Speaker 5: you're talking about what right?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: So they need to move up, but you don't think
Speaker 5: bug gonna.
Speaker 2: Be strong right exactly exactly.
Speaker 5: The gotta help me with that one, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So that's another question.
Speaker 4: When they when they when they have that twenty four
Speaker 4: hours to rehydrate, what do they do because you can't
Speaker 4: eat too much to get too heavy, like you don't
Speaker 4: want to be sluggish, Like, yeah, biggas, So what's so
Speaker 4: what's the best thing y'all do to rehydrate?
Speaker 5: Biggest thing is hydration just drinking. Yeah, you gotta get
Speaker 5: that fluid. You gotta get the fluid in you like that. Yeah,
Speaker 5: some people do that. Yeah, you gotta get the fluid
Speaker 5: in you. And and you also but it's tough because
Speaker 5: it's like it's two things going on. You're hungry, but
Speaker 5: you're really thirsty. You're more you're more parched than anything.
Speaker 5: You're thirsty, and it's hard because you're trying to drink
Speaker 5: the fluids, but then you're also trying to eat. It's
Speaker 5: a tough thing you gotta do. So everybody got their
Speaker 5: own way on how they hydrate. And my thing is
Speaker 5: like get the fluids in me, and then when my
Speaker 5: stomach settle with the fluids after a couple of hours,
Speaker 5: and I get some food in me. And you don't
Speaker 5: want to stuff yourself up, but you gotta eat because
Speaker 5: what you eating on a night, the food you eat
Speaker 5: the night before, that's what you're gonna be fighting on
Speaker 5: the next night.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna read a quote here I consider one of
Speaker 3: the best fighters of all time. He had a sense
Speaker 3: of class about him, which I absolutely loved. He wasn't
Speaker 3: your typical boxer. When you hear that from Michael Jordan,
Speaker 3: what does that make you think?
Speaker 5: Man, that's big. Anything coming from Mike, that's Mike. You know,
Speaker 5: Mike don't comment on everybody, so you know, and that's
Speaker 5: one of the reasons why you signed me, and Mike
Speaker 5: don't sign everybody. So it's big, man. I appreciate it,
Speaker 5: and I'm comfortable, man, with the legacy I left, you know,
Speaker 5: in the ring. Absolutely, if they would have called me
Speaker 5: a couple of years before, they probably would have got
Speaker 5: the other guy they was looking for. You know what
Speaker 5: I'm saying right, Yeah, to turn up and all of that,
Speaker 5: they probably would have got that. But you know, for me, Man,
Speaker 5: God had brought me through a lot, and I was
Speaker 5: still changing. Even when I turned I was still in
Speaker 5: the process of becoming you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 5: I had seen a lot of that stuff growing up,
Speaker 5: you know. And I don't knock nobody in how they
Speaker 5: get down, but for me, I was like, Man, I'm
Speaker 5: a fierce competitor. You're not gonna step on me. And
Speaker 5: no promotion or nothing like that, no press conference, but
Speaker 5: I'm gonna try to do this in a classic way.
Speaker 5: You're gonna you're gonna feel feel my presence, but I'm
Speaker 5: gonna try to do this in a classic way, your way,
Speaker 5: the way I felt like God to do it, because
Speaker 5: at the end of the day, I knew my career
Speaker 5: was gonna be over it at a certain point in time,
Speaker 5: and I'm not trying to build this monster that I
Speaker 5: got to live with now and retire.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I dropped my kids off at school. You know, I'm
Speaker 5: able to still do business. Me You're talking about it
Speaker 5: all the time, doing business and these projects and stuff
Speaker 5: like that. I wanted to have a life outside of
Speaker 5: this sport, and sometimes the sport wants you to crash
Speaker 5: out and they don't care what happens.
Speaker 3: To you after at all at all.
Speaker 5: So I've been able to make a great living outside
Speaker 5: the box and being retired six years now and I
Speaker 5: ain't took it through a punch in six six years.
Speaker 5: That's what that was the goal.
Speaker 3: That was the Jordan.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about jo because I'm on the joy Into.
Speaker 5: But Who's your Reggie was one of my reds Mark Ravelin.
Speaker 4: So for me that was growing up and not being
Speaker 4: able to afford them and have been sponsored by Jordan.
Speaker 2: That was the best feeling, one of the best ones
Speaker 2: I've ever had in life. Man, talk about it, getting
Speaker 2: them boxes, them elite.
Speaker 3: Listen, you still get them?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I need to find your repen. I got
Speaker 2: a boxing about four months. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Hey, motherfuckers back Larry.
Speaker 5: Miller, that's my brother. Man. Larry said, Man, you're a
Speaker 5: Jordan athlete for life. I said, Mary, hold you do it.
Speaker 2: Always too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, But man, like I don't know what it is
Speaker 5: with me and shoes. Always was a shoe person. I
Speaker 5: look at your shoes first, and I look at everything else.
Speaker 3: You can tell a lot some clean shoes a lot,
Speaker 3: you can tell a lot that I just.
Speaker 5: I used to call my grandmother Grammy, what shoes you
Speaker 5: got on? I just that's how it always was. And
Speaker 5: my dad used to tell me, he said, this boy,
Speaker 5: ever get some money off a whole lot of shoes.
Speaker 4: Dude, and I do clean shoes. It's just like looking
Speaker 4: at the one with Opatow shoes on, he ain't done.
Speaker 3: They beat up.
Speaker 5: That's a lot but that. But that's also the culture
Speaker 5: in the Bay too, like we'll have some some Jordan's
Speaker 5: on and some regular jeans and a white T shirt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what is your shoes clean? Yeah? You all right?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's the same way today.
Speaker 3: How did the conversation and the deal come together for
Speaker 3: the Jordan thing? And what was that first conversation with Mike?
Speaker 3: Like did you almost pass out when you met him?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 5: I was, I don't get in. I don't really like
Speaker 5: get in all with a lot of people, and not
Speaker 5: from a disrespectful standpoint. I just you know, it's like
Speaker 5: that's so and so that's cool.
Speaker 3: But Mike is did Mike is different.
Speaker 5: Mike got an r about it, like he not even trying.
Speaker 3: He just might.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So they just you know, they had that. I was
Speaker 5: on the radar and it was a lot of you know,
Speaker 5: back and forth and they'll send me a couple of
Speaker 5: boxes and stuff like that. And it was a lot
Speaker 5: of talking. But you know, it's a couple of years
Speaker 5: of that and then then we finally locked in a deal.
Speaker 5: But Mike Man, he got he got all Man, he got,
Speaker 5: he got it. He walk in the room walking right now,
Speaker 5: everything on stop.
Speaker 3: He don't want nothing fake around him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he don't want no fans when he want everything
Speaker 4: family in genuine.
Speaker 2: He don't want like he a normal dude.
Speaker 5: He talked crazy and he competing to this day, whether
Speaker 5: he golfing, and you know he like to play cars
Speaker 5: and stuff. Man, I got a lot of love from
Speaker 5: Mike Man, a lot of love. When I was getting
Speaker 5: ready to do the documentary, my brother, uh Deontay Thomas
Speaker 5: and we grew up together and he worked with be
Speaker 5: Small Productions, and he was like, Bro, we gotta get Mike. Like, Bro,
Speaker 5: I'm not calling Mike, not doing it. So he was
Speaker 5: going back and forth for weeks and I said, Bro,
Speaker 5: I'm not calling Mike. Bro he said, Bro, just calling
Speaker 5: You gotta be able to do stuff like this if
Speaker 5: we're gonna make this doc do what to do? All right,
Speaker 5: bro call him. So I called Larry Miller. I said,
Speaker 5: Larry Man, look, I know Mike busy. So I did
Speaker 5: that whole thing. He said, let me let me make
Speaker 5: a phone calling and see what's up. He called me
Speaker 5: right back. He said, Mike wants you to call him.
Speaker 5: Head up. So I called him.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 5: We flew out to North Carolina to the facility. We
Speaker 5: knocked it out. That was the easiest interview we did.
Speaker 5: That's how Mike is a last car.
Speaker 3: We still ain't got to sit down with him, but
Speaker 3: that's how he car Like Mike Romos. It's a little different. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we ain't talk to him like that, but we still
Speaker 3: wasn't on the interview. But he said he's with us coming.
Speaker 5: He came this. I called my kids though, So we
Speaker 5: were all in like a boardroom at the facility. He
Speaker 5: come in there scanning shoes.
Speaker 2: You bet not have nothing. You know. I was good,
Speaker 2: You know, I was good, Mike.
Speaker 5: One of my one of my guys had on some Adidas.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 4: You don't care if it's Guccia or whatever. If it
Speaker 4: ain't Jordan, it's not they.
Speaker 5: Take like people that's in that industry. Oh it's serious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he takes this.
Speaker 5: He came in. What's something about everybody?
Speaker 2: You know? Everybody?
Speaker 5: What's up with your man? I'm like, what you mean?
Speaker 5: I said? But I told you, Bro not to wear them.
Speaker 5: We can get it right, man, But yeah, your boy good,
Speaker 5: but he got he ain't right. He ain't right for that.
Speaker 3: You make him take his shoes off almost damn near Bro.
Speaker 2: We went to NASCAR.
Speaker 3: How the NASCAR team they got them all they won.
Speaker 2: Jordan's about changing tires.
Speaker 5: They take it here, it's crazy take it.
Speaker 3: He take everybody though, that's dope.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: Any truth that he would text you had a fight
Speaker 3: sometimes or before fights.
Speaker 5: He just send me voice memos all that year. Yeah,
Speaker 5: And I'm not comparing myself to Mike, but man, we
Speaker 5: got a lot of the same juice and mentality in
Speaker 5: terms of like it's win or die. It ain't no
Speaker 5: win or lose, win or die period. And people will
Speaker 5: be like, hello, you come on, man, you're taking it
Speaker 5: too far. No, That's how I felt like I used
Speaker 5: to think in training camp on them tough days, like man,
Speaker 5: what Sunday night, late night gonna feel like after this
Speaker 5: fight Sunday morning, when I wake up, I'm thinking about
Speaker 5: looking at my wife and my kids, and I remember
Speaker 5: the last loss I had and what I felt.
Speaker 3: Like you said at fourteen, though, yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 5: John Reverish from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Country. We was in Lenxic,
Speaker 5: Kansas at the National Silver Gloves Nationals and we in
Speaker 5: opposite brackets fourteen fifteen year old division, so he was fifteen,
Speaker 5: so he's a little bit older. And I'm out boxing
Speaker 5: people doing my thing, and it's three rings, so you
Speaker 5: kind of see like, man, you fighting, but then the
Speaker 5: dude you might fight, he fighting in this ring right after.
Speaker 5: So I'm watching him the whole week and he knocking
Speaker 5: dudes out. Bang bang, they going out, man, And I
Speaker 5: remember seeing him around the hotel. And I didn't tell
Speaker 5: Verge this, but that's the last time I ever got
Speaker 5: intimidated and allowed myself to get beat before I got
Speaker 5: in the ring a mental side and I wasn't spook
Speaker 5: like oh my god, but I was like, well, he
Speaker 5: kind of strong, like I had a little hesitation about me.
Speaker 5: It was a closed decision. Of course, I thought I won.
Speaker 5: I should have got the nod, but deep down I
Speaker 5: knew when I was going home, I'm on the Southwest flight,
Speaker 5: had a whole road on myself, curled up in the ball.
Speaker 5: I remember that. I remember looking at Verge's face and
Speaker 5: looking at my assistant training his face. I remember being
Speaker 5: home that week and ah, man, you lost hunh. I
Speaker 5: remember that, and I never wanted to feel that again.
Speaker 5: And I made up my mind that day nobody will
Speaker 5: ever beat me Before they get in the ring with
Speaker 5: me again, they gonna have to earn it. I lit
Speaker 5: your appearing and I let you, being a little older,
Speaker 5: and the way you was taking care of your business
Speaker 5: getting me never again, Never again.
Speaker 3: Favorite J Eleven's for sure.
Speaker 5: Really, I love eleven guys. I love elevens, but I
Speaker 5: also love the ones too.
Speaker 3: He's the first person I heard.
Speaker 5: I love the ones because I can dress them up
Speaker 5: and dress them.
Speaker 2: But you got I'm gonna give you a chance.
Speaker 3: What's your favorite for?
Speaker 5: And I love for too.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I love all the ones I couldn't afford when I
Speaker 5: was a kid.
Speaker 3: Yeah you know what I'm saying, Like, I couldn't get there, the.
Speaker 4: Threes and four us, that's the dope boys growing up,
Speaker 4: they had them on the block.
Speaker 3: That's the ones we always wanted.
Speaker 5: The ones I couldn't afford them the ones I gravitate.
Speaker 3: To the mom You ever consider using some retros and
Speaker 3: and and shape them in the boxing shoes?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I would love to. Man, Like we we took
Speaker 5: a couple of runs at it with the with the
Speaker 5: Jordan team, man, and we weren't able to like get
Speaker 5: something that can go out. But like I got that
Speaker 5: kind of mind, man, Like, I think about like that
Speaker 5: kind of stuff all the time because I'm you know,
Speaker 5: I'm a creative type. And it's a need for that
Speaker 5: kind of stuff in boxing. Like GE's some shoes out there.
Speaker 5: Most of them are not great. You got a few
Speaker 5: that's like they okay, But we need something that's like
Speaker 5: standing test of time. It's like Roy's uh boxing boot
Speaker 5: you know that he had with Jordan. That thing lasted
Speaker 5: over a decade strong And I might be putting something
Speaker 5: out like that one.
Speaker 3: Come on, Mike, you hear him quick question?
Speaker 2: What was what's your relationship with Mantell?
Speaker 5: I ain't talk to him in years?
Speaker 4: And man, that's my boy, because when we was playing, yeah,
Speaker 4: he was going to relationship.
Speaker 5: We had the same uh, we had the same lawyer
Speaker 5: at that time, Jeffrey. That's what it was so we connected. Man,
Speaker 5: that's my boy. Man. He always showed love.
Speaker 4: Did he ever get involved in boxing, like as far
Speaker 4: as on the management side of.
Speaker 5: I don't think so. I think he might have had
Speaker 5: a young fighter.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he you know, a kid from
Speaker 4: d C because I remember one time he stayed here
Speaker 4: trying to get into it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, but I don't know if he actually ever did though,
Speaker 5: But he always showed love. Man.
Speaker 2: Bro. He's doing great right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's in Dallas, great father with his family, his
Speaker 4: son and his daughter doing great in sports. Yeah, you're
Speaker 4: doing good right now. Yeah, his soning just like he
Speaker 4: like him and all that. We don't hear much from
Speaker 4: you out the way.
Speaker 2: He don't want to be.
Speaker 3: He've been trying to get him on the show out
Speaker 3: the way you look at the message and just talk
Speaker 3: about something else. Really. Yeah, he don't like to talk. Man.
Speaker 5: He originally from what Louisiana.
Speaker 2: Miss Mississippi. But the way, you know, we all have
Speaker 2: a little especially you know, and he has that right.
Speaker 4: The way his career ended, the game didn't appreciate him
Speaker 4: the way they should have on his way out, you
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, They kind of pushed him out
Speaker 4: and treated him.
Speaker 2: You know, it didn't do it.
Speaker 4: They didn't game, didn't do him right going out that
Speaker 4: I can see why he kind of stayed away from stuff.
Speaker 4: Remember that, you know what I'm saying, because he deserved more.
Speaker 3: Twenty fourteen, you have an unfortunate setback. You got to
Speaker 3: sit out a year due to some legal dispute with
Speaker 3: your promoter, JANKI promoters. Can you share what happened and
Speaker 3: how often this kind of happens with fighters?
Speaker 5: I would say this, you know, I can't get too
Speaker 5: deep into it. And it was really two years. Oh really,
Speaker 5: I think the simplest way I could put him in
Speaker 5: as I was fighting for what I believed in. And
Speaker 5: I'm a type of person that when you know, my
Speaker 5: mind is made up and I feel like it's something
Speaker 5: I need to do, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go
Speaker 5: for it. And but it's really one of the hardest
Speaker 5: times in my life, man, because I can't really talk.
Speaker 5: It's a it's a it's open litigation. Promoters they got
Speaker 5: they got the media, so you hear you see headlines
Speaker 5: like oh, War would rather fight in the courtroom than
Speaker 5: fight in the ring, Like what sinse do that name.
Speaker 2: They controlling the narrative, the.
Speaker 5: Money going out, no money coming in, like you think
Speaker 5: I want to do this, and the media made it
Speaker 5: into I'm being selfish, I'm being a bully, I want
Speaker 5: more money, and I'm wasting my career. It's like, dude,
Speaker 5: do you realize that, like fighting is what I do?
Speaker 5: Do you realize that this is how I provide for
Speaker 5: my family and how what y'all saying makes no sense?
Speaker 5: And y'all never took the time to like get to
Speaker 5: the bottom of the situation. And a few times that
Speaker 5: they did, I would explain it to them and we
Speaker 5: just don't get it. And I just realized at that time,
Speaker 5: y'all not gonna get it, Like we're not the same,
Speaker 5: Like you have a certain mindset and I have a
Speaker 5: different mindset. And even to this day, people are trying
Speaker 5: to give me credit for my career, but you know,
Speaker 5: you lost two years. It's like, nah, nah, I ain't
Speaker 5: lose two years. I gained two years, Like I preserved
Speaker 5: my body two years. I learned a lot, I grew
Speaker 5: a lot, and I got my respect to that negotiating table.
Speaker 5: So the next deal that I had were rock Nation
Speaker 5: front and center the whole way negotiating through. So they
Speaker 5: don't see that kind of stuff because boxing at that
Speaker 5: time it was a lot of you know, still a
Speaker 5: lot of writers involved in so like that's new media now,
Speaker 5: so it's different.
Speaker 3: But but they probably didn't want to see that side anyway,
Speaker 3: because their side sold the papers, pushed the imager.
Speaker 5: That's not good for business, right, that's not good for business, Like,
Speaker 5: just shut up the fight. And I'm just not built
Speaker 5: like that, you know, Like I studied the game and
Speaker 5: I would ask questions like why why why the fighters
Speaker 5: always end up with no money? Why always messed up?
Speaker 5: And he would try to explain it to me, and
Speaker 5: I just knew, even before I really knew what I
Speaker 5: was saying, like, I don't want to do that. I
Speaker 5: want to be different. But it take caurage, though, because
Speaker 5: when you're making that kind of fight, you're not just
Speaker 5: fighting individual fighting the media, you fighting the narrative. And
Speaker 5: the deal I did with Rock Nation, I was with
Speaker 5: them three years before I retired. I made more money
Speaker 5: in that three years than I did the ten years previously.
Speaker 5: And I've heard people to this day, well, you know,
Speaker 5: the Rock Nation thing didn't work out the way you
Speaker 5: thought it was going to. And I'm like you sure
Speaker 5: about that? So it's all these little narratives and stuff
Speaker 5: that you got to fight through. But what I love
Speaker 5: about the game is that my peers, the younger ones,
Speaker 5: the ones my age, and even the older ones, they
Speaker 5: get it and they respect it. And that's really all that.
Speaker 5: It's not about the media. It's not about your YouTubers.
Speaker 5: It's not about you writers. Y'all are gonna have y'all
Speaker 5: perspective for any sport. Y'all, notice what your peers say
Speaker 5: about you. That's really matters most, and that's the truth,
Speaker 5: because they gonna keep it real immediate, y'all, high and low,
Speaker 5: hot and cold, depending.
Speaker 3: On the that we got someone in here, DeMarcus Cousins
Speaker 3: just that narrative of issue problem this, But you asked
Speaker 3: players around the league. He was a killer and you go.
Speaker 2: In the league right now and be a top five
Speaker 2: big man right now in the league.
Speaker 4: But the way they put it is why he's not playing,
Speaker 4: because they controlled the narratives.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. It sucks.
Speaker 3: Shut out, Boogie you in the building. Uh you spoke
Speaker 3: to Rock Nation, speak to that relationship how that came
Speaker 3: about and what made Jay different.
Speaker 5: I followed Jay the business side of his life for years,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean. And I said this in
Speaker 5: the doc that everything he touched seemed to be successful.
Speaker 5: And you know, we got through with the lawsuit. You know,
Speaker 5: j said Rock Nation. I was like, what you mean.
Speaker 5: I didn't know about the sports part. I mean, I
Speaker 5: knew they were agents in the game, but I didn't
Speaker 5: know about the boxing part of the sports agent. He said,
Speaker 5: they're getting in the game. Jay's a big, big, big
Speaker 5: boxing fan and he wants to sign you. So that's
Speaker 5: what started it. And like I said, man, me and
Speaker 5: me and me and me, Jay and my lawyer who's
Speaker 5: my good friend, and my brother, Josh Duby Man. We
Speaker 5: negotiated that thing together. And you know, desert Rae Perez
Speaker 5: and one and Jay z Men. I appreciate them, you know,
Speaker 5: for believing in me. We believed in each other because
Speaker 5: I was taking a risk on them too. And uh,
Speaker 5: it was the right thing that I needed coming off
Speaker 5: that lawsuit.
Speaker 3: Because it was new, not to cat off, but it
Speaker 3: was their division was new, right, the boxing.
Speaker 5: Boting division was new. But I didn't want to go
Speaker 5: back to the old, same old thing that I had
Speaker 5: just come out of. Right, you know, I respected that
Speaker 5: time and season of my life, but it was time
Speaker 5: for something different. It was time for something new, something innovative,
Speaker 5: and rock Nation was the answer.
Speaker 4: I've been honored to be to be in this boxing
Speaker 4: space now getting accepted by a lot of the boxers,
Speaker 4: you know, being a basketball player, and I'm honored to
Speaker 4: be in the space. And I got a show which
Speaker 4: I love to have you on coming up and all
Speaker 4: the fight times. I had a lot of champions on
Speaker 4: my show, and we talked about the politics of boxing.
Speaker 4: Give me your take on the politics of boxing then,
Speaker 4: and what would you change to make the sport better?
Speaker 5: I would say the politics that there's politics like it
Speaker 5: like it is with in every sport. A couple of things.
Speaker 5: I think you got to learn how to navigate the politics.
Speaker 5: Can't fight every battle. It's a time to speak, and
Speaker 5: it's a time to be quiet and watch and process
Speaker 5: and digest what's going on. And then you got to
Speaker 5: get to a certain point where politics, opinions, narratives, they
Speaker 5: don't move you like I'm a firm believer and I
Speaker 5: got this concept from my pastor. He said, man. He
Speaker 5: used to call him minute man.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 5: They hating on me. Man, they you know, Man, I
Speaker 5: just fought a great fight.
Speaker 3: They saying that.
Speaker 5: He said, Oh so the media, He said, Man, stop
Speaker 5: giving these people so much credit.
Speaker 3: In your life.
Speaker 5: Like what you mean? He like, they can't do nothing
Speaker 5: to God, don't want don't allow them to do. And
Speaker 5: if he's allowing something to happen, it's for a purpose
Speaker 5: and a plan to build you and teach you and
Speaker 5: grow you. So it shifted my focus where it stead
Speaker 5: of y'all hate, y'all blocking, you can't block me. And
Speaker 5: that's not an arrogant statement, that's a that's a that's
Speaker 5: a fact. You can't do nothing that God won't allow
Speaker 5: you to do. And if he's allowed on it, I
Speaker 5: gotta I gotta ask, Okay, God, what you're trying? What
Speaker 5: do I need to get out of this? So, yes,
Speaker 5: it's politics. You got to learn how to navigate that,
Speaker 5: Like I said, you got to know how to move
Speaker 5: with the politics. But at the same time, at the
Speaker 5: end of the day, man, you can write what you
Speaker 5: want to write, you can say what you want to say.
Speaker 5: The purpose in my life is gonna be fulfilled. The
Speaker 5: only thing that can stop it is me if I
Speaker 5: crash out, But if I stay the course, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: let this work for me. And I'm gonna forgive y'all
Speaker 5: in the process because y'all saying stuff a boy, my family,
Speaker 5: y'all saying stuff about me. Man, I forgive you now.
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna do an interview with you, but I
Speaker 5: forgive you.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna hold that against you. But y'all not
Speaker 5: gonna stop like I can't. I can give you a
Speaker 5: list right now of things that the media said was
Speaker 5: not gonna happen in my in my career, or question
Speaker 5: marks that they had, or you know, things that they say,
Speaker 5: Alway's got an amateur style, he can't take a punch,
Speaker 5: He's not gonna retire undefeated, He's not gonna beat this guy.
Speaker 5: Nobody wants to see him fight. Oh he's born. All
Speaker 5: these things, and I just kept chipping, kept plowing away,
Speaker 5: kept chipping, and it got to the point where when
Speaker 5: y'all finally gave me just doing respect universally, I was, yeah,
Speaker 5: see y'all later, because I really wasn't in it for
Speaker 5: y'all y'all's approval. I had a mission at the timetable.
Speaker 5: My time is up. So I beat the dude the
Speaker 5: second time that y'all didn't think I was gonna beat
Speaker 5: the first time since I had questions the first time.
Speaker 5: Let me put this stamp on it right here, and
Speaker 5: I'm out best fighter in the world, I'm gone.
Speaker 2: What fight do the world need to see right now?
Speaker 3: Yes, man, that's a good one.
Speaker 5: I want to see Canelo. I wouldn't mind Canelo fighting
Speaker 5: Terrence or Benevidez. You got two options. You go somebody
Speaker 5: in your way class, or you can try to pick
Speaker 5: on the smaller guy, Terrence Crawford against Terrence right now
Speaker 5: with no against nobody, body don't doing it. I would
Speaker 5: love to see Tank fight Shakur or Devin. I know
Speaker 5: that's probably a little early, a little bit more seasoning.
Speaker 5: I think that'll make the most sensum a financial standpoint,
Speaker 5: and I want to seek.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what that's that's that's the fight.
Speaker 5: And they didn't rumble a lot.
Speaker 2: That's the fight.
Speaker 5: They didn't rumble a lot in spy, you know so.
Speaker 5: But but I really want to see but go out
Speaker 5: the way he want to go out, and he can.
Speaker 5: He can go out if and I don't know if
Speaker 5: they're gonna do the rematch him and Arrow, so they
Speaker 5: can run that back. But if they don't, I would
Speaker 5: love to see but get Canelo and then right off
Speaker 5: in the sunset.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know if I want to see the
Speaker 3: rematch with Spence. That was brutal.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of money for both of them.
Speaker 3: If there's a ton of money, that's a ton of
Speaker 3: money for both of them.
Speaker 4: I think they got to do the rematch regardless, how
Speaker 4: if the same thing, So what's it's a great business.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but still that's taking I feel like you don't
Speaker 3: want to see. It's gonna take some years off his life.
Speaker 4: Bro, the car, all the stuff he has been through
Speaker 4: has took a toll on this. This next fight is
Speaker 4: not gonna do nothing more damage than it's already. You
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying, he's already.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but it can. Yeah, come on now
Speaker 3: and it will a new punch. Come on, man, that was.
Speaker 2: I mean, the fight go the same way, just the
Speaker 2: same damage.
Speaker 3: But it's again, it's happened if that's a whole other layer,
Speaker 3: I'm saying, happening again, the same kind of damage happening again.
Speaker 2: I just don't see it being that.
Speaker 4: I don't see it going I see I see budd
Speaker 4: winning still, but I don't see it being that dominant.
Speaker 5: That's another that's another car accident.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, right, face first, j he no one.
Speaker 5: Way like he's a fighter. He gonna he gonna bring it,
Speaker 5: no matter. He ain't gonna make no excusees. He gonna
Speaker 5: bring it.
Speaker 4: That's how I feel, right, he gonna bring my attitude.
Speaker 4: You gonna understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: But look, but but but no one way too. So
Speaker 5: that's that's that's two Max trucks to having another accident,
Speaker 5: another collision.
Speaker 3: You gotta knock me out, but that thing.
Speaker 5: Will that they's gonna stay with you though, right we
Speaker 5: look we stopped watching the night of the fight. All right, man,
Speaker 5: I'm moving on.
Speaker 2: You know I was a good fight.
Speaker 3: He got that punch with I got hit by a
Speaker 3: car and got up and shooting again.
Speaker 4: So I ain't got no understanding different, But understand you
Speaker 4: would have got You can't make me understand if you
Speaker 4: would have.
Speaker 3: Got here with that car three more times, it would
Speaker 3: have been a little different. Last till your I would
Speaker 3: have got hit by the car again.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 5: Let me just chime in as a guy who you
Speaker 5: know lived it, took a few punches and dished out
Speaker 5: a whole lot of punches. It's gonna good.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't feel that got to here.
Speaker 5: The thing, they getting older, the miles, they racking kids.
Speaker 3: You want to be able to do it with your kids.
Speaker 4: Just like saying you retired, but somebody run up on
Speaker 4: your dispect, you ain't gonna fight them.
Speaker 5: Them hands still works, they still work.
Speaker 3: That's automatic point. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 5: But I'm saying like, but he you're still going as
Speaker 5: a competitor. Listen, if I'm in Erol's position, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: really need some counselor and not take that next fight.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna need my pastor, my wife, my brothers, people.
Speaker 5: I need y'all to really sit me down and explain, like,
Speaker 5: help me understand why this is not a good idea today.
Speaker 5: I understand about my health, understanding that, but he beat me,
Speaker 5: and he beat me in such a way. I gotta
Speaker 5: get that back. So I understand that from a competitive standpoint.
Speaker 5: But me being out the game six years now, me
Speaker 5: being a big brother in the game, me knowing how
Speaker 5: that punishment can start soaking in, especially when you get older.
Speaker 5: I don't want to see it. From that standpoint. This
Speaker 5: ain't no disrespect to EJ. I love that dude, and
Speaker 5: I love good. They both my brothers. Yeah, but I'm
Speaker 5: gonna keep it a hunting. You don't want to go
Speaker 5: through that again. EJ is good with his money.
Speaker 2: Took care of his stuff. He lived his life.
Speaker 5: He didn't been through a lot with the car accident,
Speaker 5: multiple two of them. One of them had him in
Speaker 5: the hospital, the other one he walked away from and
Speaker 5: and he fought after that. And then he thought, but man,
Speaker 5: we're talking about we talking about quality of life. Bro.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't have no understanding the texts though.
Speaker 5: Sorry y'all, but but but I understand what you're saying.
Speaker 5: That's why I say I'm gonna need counselor.
Speaker 4: And not take the fight shield. But that's that's how
Speaker 4: I live my life. I'm going out if if I
Speaker 4: go out the dumb way, it's the way I want
Speaker 4: it to go. Yeah, I'm not barring nothing. I'm standing
Speaker 4: in front of in and everybody, So you you taking
Speaker 4: the win to lose. I'm not backing out from nothing
Speaker 4: in life.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 5: They say, Man, you can take this fight, make half
Speaker 5: the money and then maybe see how you feel and
Speaker 5: then maybe come back to But you're gonna.
Speaker 2: Do that, I would do.
Speaker 3: I mean the business decision, but I'm still taking the fight.
Speaker 4: What I'm saying, you're not gonna not take the fight,
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna not take the fight.
Speaker 5: I respect it.
Speaker 3: I'm not And that's just how I live my life.
Speaker 3: With anything. What you're gonna do, man, you ej Come on, man,
Speaker 3: the quality of life. I love my kids. I love
Speaker 3: to be able to talk. That's why to do all
Speaker 3: this other show. That's why we work. Go ahead and
Speaker 3: crash out, go crash out. I'm go crash I'm gonna
Speaker 3: be happy with it.
Speaker 2: But I understand.
Speaker 5: I understand.
Speaker 2: I respect it.
Speaker 3: I definitely that don't check the mind.
Speaker 2: I see it.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, I feel like.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 3: We and our man forties. Like to me, I'm thinking
Speaker 3: like life after basketball, life after boxing is way different,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? And you see people who've
Speaker 3: been punched drunk and have issues.
Speaker 2: Now you've seen basketball players that can't walk.
Speaker 3: It's real anyways. Uh you once said, when I walk
Speaker 3: away I want to have a body of work, not
Speaker 3: just in the ring, but as a man that young
Speaker 3: fighters could point at and say, man, I could pull
Speaker 3: off something from I could pull something from that dude.
Speaker 3: Anybody in the game that remotely reminds you of yourself today?
Speaker 5: Yes, your core probably fault.
Speaker 2: Yeah damn not identical. Bro.
Speaker 5: When I hear his mind like that, dude really like
Speaker 5: one of his problems. He don't leave a gym like.
Speaker 5: I got to a point where it's like, Bro, I'm
Speaker 5: not sparing unless there's some money on the line. Nless
Speaker 5: I gotta fight, I'll go hit the bag. I had
Speaker 5: to mint that I'm not taking no punches unless it's
Speaker 5: training camp time.
Speaker 3: Bring yourself out.
Speaker 5: This dude was fun, Like, Bro, I did sixteen rounds
Speaker 5: a day. Why he loves it that much? So when
Speaker 5: I'm around him, he reminds me of my younger self,
Speaker 5: the one that just loved boxing before the business side
Speaker 5: came in. And you know, people keep questioning him being
Speaker 5: a dog and all of that, but he he got
Speaker 5: plenty dog in it. He got plenty dog in it.
Speaker 5: But he's still trying to figure it out. But for
Speaker 5: a fighter like Charkur, all these fighters really, not just scharkur.
Speaker 5: They trying to figure it out in front of the
Speaker 5: whole world in real time. So you're gonna see the
Speaker 5: bad nights and you're gonna see the good knights. So
Speaker 5: he still got a lot left that he's gonna accomplish,
Speaker 5: and I'm excited to see it. But yeah, he probably
Speaker 5: Chour is probably the one that I say, man, he
Speaker 5: mind me and myself probably more than anybody.
Speaker 4: By far, the best defensive fighter I've seen since you
Speaker 4: and Floyd. Yeah, by far. It's not even close. We're
Speaker 4: just talking about him. Who's the most skilled fighter today.
Speaker 5: But but it's definitely one of them, for sure. Takes
Speaker 5: your cord, Devin, Boots, Boots. It's a lot of them.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of them, and they're skillful in different ways,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. But somebody that like I
Speaker 5: can bet the house on. But because me and him,
Speaker 5: me and him, we so much alike in our mentality.
Speaker 5: Like soon as soon as I see this dude, he
Speaker 5: come in the room where I come in the room,
Speaker 5: we start arguing my basketball, wrestling anything. Bro Like, Man,
Speaker 5: you can't, man, you look at what you meant. I'm
Speaker 5: looking at small you look at like it's just that,
Speaker 5: like you gotta really hurt that dude to turn them
Speaker 5: away and to try to stop him from doing what
Speaker 5: he want to do. So skillful, yes, but this and
Speaker 5: this it's different.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 5: It's not a lot of guys like that out there currently.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of guys that talking. But until you
Speaker 5: get in that real fire, I'm not saying a guy
Speaker 5: you fighting a guy you should beat. I'm saying a
Speaker 5: guy that's a fifty to fifty matchup. We don't really
Speaker 5: know what you have. You don't even really know what
Speaker 5: you have. And I've seen Bud testing. I've seen Budd
Speaker 5: tested outside the ring. Things that they said about him,
Speaker 5: how they treated him, narratives that were that were that
Speaker 5: were put everywhere about him. And I seen him fight
Speaker 5: through it. I seen him push through it. I've seen
Speaker 5: him navigate. I've seen him you know, like Bud is
Speaker 5: a but is a business. He's a he's a business
Speaker 5: but he's a businessman. And Bud just don't talk about
Speaker 5: a lot of his stuff. So now everybody love him,
Speaker 5: but but been that guy, but has been marketable, But
Speaker 5: has been a great fighter. But people questioning his resume
Speaker 5: anybody they put him in there with. He handled him
Speaker 5: and did what he was supposed to do. He wasn't
Speaker 5: duck in no smoke. So and I say the same
Speaker 5: thing for EJ. Like like I remember talking to Earl
Speaker 5: years ago, like what you're gonna do?
Speaker 2: You gonna fight?
Speaker 5: He was like, Bro, listen, I'm not ducking him. I
Speaker 5: just want to get all the belts and have the
Speaker 5: leverage that I need at the negotiating table and then
Speaker 5: I'm gonna fighting him. And he did that. So, like
Speaker 5: Budd EJ, I'm not really impressed by skill. It's cool
Speaker 5: to see it, like he's skillful. When I see that
Speaker 5: other side, like, Bro, he's different. He a dog. That's
Speaker 5: the stuff that get me on my seat. And that
Speaker 5: don't mean you taking you going punch for punt. It
Speaker 5: just means that when you need to be that guy,
Speaker 5: you can be that guy. Yeah, it's not a lot
Speaker 5: of people like that in the game that it's a
Speaker 5: lot of talking but not a lot of walking.
Speaker 3: And Bud, it's definitely that. How true was it was?
Speaker 2: It?
Speaker 4: Is it even true at all that you and Canelo
Speaker 4: was about to fight? Is that any true to it?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 5: The only reason why me and me and Canelo was
Speaker 5: brought up in the same conversation. Is because we thought
Speaker 5: that we thought a common opponent. Yeah, my name and
Speaker 5: his name never crossed paths during my career, even after
Speaker 5: even after I beat covid that nobody said nothing about that.
Speaker 5: And that's probably the closest I ever came to coming
Speaker 5: back is after he when he was fighting Covid V,
Speaker 5: I said he called my name, I'm there, yeah, and
Speaker 5: postfight press con, I'm gonna talk to my team and
Speaker 5: he just didn't do it. So it never nothing ever materialized.
Speaker 5: But that's probably the closest we that I ever came
Speaker 5: to feeling like, man, I may want to pick up
Speaker 5: the phone to call Jay and see if it's something near,
Speaker 5: But it's just a common opponent. But it ain't no,
Speaker 5: it ain't no, it ain't no beef, it ain't no PHNK,
Speaker 5: it ain't nothing. He's never said my name in a
Speaker 5: disrespectful way. He's never said that he wanted to do
Speaker 5: that type of dude. No, it's really just the fans,
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, retired thirty two and oh top of the game,
Speaker 3: number one pounds found fighter in the world. Why did
Speaker 3: you feel like it was time to walk? And was
Speaker 3: that a tough walk to make?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I wanted to retire really two three years before I
Speaker 5: did it. You know, like I started hearing the R
Speaker 5: word come up in my in my conversation. I'm like, dang,
Speaker 5: but I still had to drive. But I was like, man,
Speaker 5: I'm you know, I'm I'm like my father. I'm a
Speaker 5: I'm all or nothing type of person. My preparation and
Speaker 5: you know it just you start, you know, you're missing
Speaker 5: stuff with your kids. I'm in training camp six months
Speaker 5: out the year. You know, my body's starting to break
Speaker 5: down a little bit because I'm because I'm grinding away.
Speaker 5: I'm grinding in training camp, and I just wanted my
Speaker 5: freedom back. I'm like, man, I don't know how much
Speaker 5: long I want to do this. You know, I'm stacking
Speaker 5: my money. So I'm like, all right, I think I'm
Speaker 5: good on that front. And it just got to the
Speaker 5: point I thought I was done after COVID ed one,
Speaker 5: you know, based on how the training camp went with
Speaker 5: the knee everything, and then went in to fight. Some
Speaker 5: people felt like I won, some people felt like I lost.
Speaker 5: It was just like, why am I still doing this
Speaker 5: and what's the point. And I stayed out of the
Speaker 5: gym probably for three months, didn't touch a gym and
Speaker 5: I had never done that, and I didn't miss it.
Speaker 5: So I was like, man, this is what is this?
Speaker 2: Like this?
Speaker 5: I ain't never felt like this before. And I went
Speaker 5: and talk to my pastor because he had the same walk.
Speaker 5: He played six years in the NFL for the Raiders,
Speaker 5: and then he walked away. It became a pastor never
Speaker 5: never came back. I said, man, and I thought he
Speaker 5: was gonna co sign how I was feeling. I'm like, man,
Speaker 5: I ain't feeling it. I ain't got no desire to
Speaker 5: be in the gym. And he was like, I think
Speaker 5: I can see you doing one more He's like, you
Speaker 5: ain't got to gott to be what you rather you
Speaker 5: do or don't, but think about it. I think I
Speaker 5: can see you doing one moment. I remember being upset,
Speaker 5: like man, like, every time I get ready to try
Speaker 5: to talk about retiring, it's all the way the gold
Speaker 5: post get moved. One more year. Now it's one more fight.
Speaker 5: And I remember leaving there kind of dejected, like, man,
Speaker 5: that's crazy. But he was right though I had to.
Speaker 5: I had to seal my legacy the way that I did. Now,
Speaker 5: they always gonna have something to talk about. But for me,
Speaker 5: I had to make sure there was no doubt what
Speaker 5: happened to the first fight and leave no doubt the
Speaker 5: second fight. And I felt like I was gonna retire.
Speaker 5: But before the second fight was over, like that, I was.
Speaker 3: In my mind.
Speaker 5: Got some rest a month or two after the fight,
Speaker 5: and I started like, man, well, maybe you know I
Speaker 5: could do a couple more, Like let me all these deals.
Speaker 5: My Jordan deal came up, they was getting ready to,
Speaker 5: you know, pay me. My HBO deal came up. They
Speaker 5: wanted to do a commentating deal and a boxing deal,
Speaker 5: so it was a lot of money on the table
Speaker 5: and I'm like, man, well, maybe a couple more. And
Speaker 5: then I woke up one day and I was like
Speaker 5: I don't want to do it no more. And I
Speaker 5: remember I had tears in my eyes. It was like
Speaker 5: early in the morning, and my wife was like she
Speaker 5: didn't really say nothing. I remember thinking like, girl, I'm
Speaker 5: like spilling my heart right now. You ain't got nothing
Speaker 5: from me. She was like, look, man, take the kids
Speaker 5: to school. We'll talk later. And we ended up talking
Speaker 5: that night now, mind you, She's the one that was
Speaker 5: always telling me, I ain't time yet, baby, it ain't
Speaker 5: time yet during a lawsuit period. Man, if I can,
Speaker 5: if this lossuit keep going on, Man, I'm gonna retire
Speaker 5: on my terms. Baby, it ain't time yet. That night
Speaker 5: she heard me, she said, Man, I ain't never heard
Speaker 5: you sound like this before. She said, I think the
Speaker 5: decision has already made, And I never heard she never
Speaker 5: co signed that, and I was the first time she
Speaker 5: ever co signed it. And I got on the phone immediately,
Speaker 5: let's start undoing stuff. Because my HBO deal, I was
Speaker 5: getting Redy to announce it in two days, a new
Speaker 5: three three three year deal. All my deals, I was
Speaker 5: getting Redy to announce. Jordan I renewed, HBO I renewed.
Speaker 5: There was a couple other ones on the table too,
Speaker 5: And I remember just I was like, for real, and
Speaker 5: I just I didn't waste no time. I got on
Speaker 5: the phone with my lawyer and we just started doing stuff. Man,
Speaker 5: and I haven't looked back now. You asked me a
Speaker 5: question earlier about it. You know how hard it was.
Speaker 5: It's probably one of the hardest things, outside of losing
Speaker 5: my father, that I've ever had to deal with and
Speaker 5: for a lot of reasons because I had I've had
Speaker 5: to retire multiple times. Like it ain't just that day
Speaker 5: that I retired. It's that drive, that hunger, all that stuff.
Speaker 5: Y'all know, it don't go away. But what I learned
Speaker 5: is I got to redirect it somewhere else. And what
Speaker 5: I also knew, I've been doing this my whole career,
Speaker 5: but it got you know, more or less confirmed after
Speaker 5: my careers, Like boxing is what I did. You know,
Speaker 5: it was a it was a you know, a teacher
Speaker 5: for me, Like, but it's not completely who I am,
Speaker 5: you know, Like I said, I'm a minister in the past,
Speaker 5: a youth pastor, and like that's my real call. That's
Speaker 5: what I'm really called to do.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 5: Speaking is one of my gifts, you know, Motivating people,
Speaker 5: helping people, encouraging people, Like that's one of my gifts
Speaker 5: and that's really what I'm put on this earth to do.
Speaker 5: So it's really just trying to embrace that and understanding
Speaker 5: I have my time and just embracing a young life
Speaker 5: man and encouraging a young life and trying to help
Speaker 5: them as best I can. That's what's fulfilling.
Speaker 3: To me, love it home stretch. We almost finished twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one. The Boxing Hall comes calling, legendary class, yourself, Floyd, Vladimir, Clitch, Clo, Clitsko,
Speaker 3: Leila Ali, to name a few. What was that like?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 5: It was It was surreal. It was unreal it man,
Speaker 5: I bro bring tears to my eyes because like that
Speaker 5: class was crazy. Like I was upset at first because
Speaker 5: it got delayed because of COVID, But then when I
Speaker 5: looked at the end, I'm like, bro, look at all
Speaker 5: these people I'm getting inducted with, like my big three,
Speaker 5: all the people I just named to you, they're in there.
Speaker 5: I grew up watching Leila, I grew up watching Ann
Speaker 5: Wolf coming up. Like I think Shane was in that
Speaker 5: class too. I couldn't believe it, man, Like I'm the
Speaker 5: baby in the buy. I think I'm the second youngest
Speaker 5: fighter ever next to Wilfred Benitez, that ever got inducted
Speaker 5: into the Hall of Fame. And I'm sitting up here
Speaker 5: on the stage and it's like I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 5: Like I know I earned the right to be there,
Speaker 5: but it's still hard to believe. And I think the
Speaker 5: hardest part for me that week was just like really
Speaker 5: just allowing myself to enjoy it and embrace it, cause
Speaker 5: I don't celebrate my wins very well. My whole life
Speaker 5: is always been yeah, you did that, We're gonna enjoy
Speaker 5: it for a couple of days. We gotta get back up,
Speaker 5: you know, we gotta get back to work. And it's
Speaker 5: just always just pushed my accomplishments to the side and
Speaker 5: just keep grinding. This was one of the times that
Speaker 5: I had to really smell the roses to and embrace
Speaker 5: what was happening. But it was surreal being in the room,
Speaker 5: being in a room with them people. I mean, it
Speaker 5: was crazy.
Speaker 2: Winning the goal. Hell of experience. Can you talk about
Speaker 2: that in ATHLETs.
Speaker 5: Man, It was special. It was very very special. And
Speaker 5: part of the reason is because I almost missed it,
Speaker 5: that that moment we talked about that barely came. Bro
Speaker 5: that barely came, Like I barely got myself together in
Speaker 5: time to qualify because at that time, like normally you
Speaker 5: win in the United States and you're on the team
Speaker 5: and you just go to the Olympics. But they changed
Speaker 5: the rules where you get on the team and then
Speaker 5: you got to qualify your weight class by doing another
Speaker 5: tournament and then you can go. I just everything had
Speaker 5: just like fell into place right on time. And I
Speaker 5: had just lost my father fresh out the streets. I
Speaker 5: just gave my life to God, trying to figure it out,
Speaker 5: got two young kids at home. It was crazy. We
Speaker 5: had just gone to war in two thousand and four,
Speaker 5: so we had like a six secret service with us
Speaker 5: the whole time. Like it was. It was crazy and
Speaker 5: man to look up and be the last man standing
Speaker 5: on that podium, you know, it just it's just surreal.
Speaker 5: But it's that's some were planned since I've been a kid.
Speaker 5: Like it don't sound normal to normal people, but like
Speaker 5: for us, like a gold medal was like realistic. We
Speaker 5: was like, we got eight years, you're gonna win the
Speaker 5: gold medals, never about bronze or silver, and to like
Speaker 5: actually do it, and to do it coming off of
Speaker 5: what I just came off of us. So even my teammates.
Speaker 5: I was talking to Andre Derill the other day, He's like, bro,
Speaker 5: now I understand why you was in your room a
Speaker 5: lot of times reading your Bible. Now I get why
Speaker 5: you were you wasn't doing certain thing. Now I get
Speaker 5: why you were so focused. Because he understands the story
Speaker 5: behind the journey. Now, Like, Bro, I was almost lost
Speaker 5: my life and a lot of my teammates they young
Speaker 5: like I was, so they like all they got, you know,
Speaker 5: they they probably got life going on, but it's really
Speaker 5: about boxing. Dude, almost lost my life and God gave
Speaker 5: me a second chance. So you've seen somebody that's a
Speaker 5: little bit mature and was trying to lock in on
Speaker 5: God and then't fight for my dream. So I was
Speaker 5: a little bit different. Now they understand why because they
Speaker 5: got the story.
Speaker 3: Did you ever think you're a stunt man?
Speaker 2: Never? Never pulling stunts and creed? How did that happen?
Speaker 3: Never? Man?
Speaker 5: Ryan Coogler, Ryan Coogler, Man, that's my brother. Yeah, Ryan Cooler,
Speaker 5: that's my brother. We had been hearing about each other.
Speaker 5: We come from the same you know, we're both from Oakland,
Speaker 5: and we finally connected and he was like, Bro, I
Speaker 5: got a roll for you gotta roll like I don't act.
Speaker 5: He was like, I gotta roll for. He took the bar,
Speaker 5: which is a train station for us in the Bay Area,
Speaker 5: all the way to Cheese k Factor. We sat there.
Speaker 5: He broke down the whole scripting, Like Bro, he said,
Speaker 5: I had you in mine. Bro. This this person is
Speaker 5: from Oakland, same career background, gold medal, all this stuff,
Speaker 5: and man, it's one of the best experiences of my life.
Speaker 5: Super hard work, those twelve hour days, but it's dope.
Speaker 5: Like you get your script the night before and you
Speaker 5: get to your trailer, you got your outfit for that day,
Speaker 5: you got all these you know, these cast members and
Speaker 5: all these extras and stuff. They in the arena, so
Speaker 5: it's like they dressed up like it's a fight night.
Speaker 5: It's crazy. Like I loved it. Man, I want to
Speaker 5: do more acting.
Speaker 3: Speak to his greatness stuff.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 5: Man, Ryan Cooler is different, Bro, He's different. When I
Speaker 5: was on set, I don't know how old Ryan was
Speaker 5: at that time, but man, he had to be probably
Speaker 5: in his twenties, you know. And I'm seeing a young
Speaker 5: dude manage your room with all these middle aged people,
Speaker 5: different walks of life, different races. I'm seeing him commanded.
Speaker 5: Then he had slide up on me when I'm in
Speaker 5: the reing you good, I'm like, I'm good, bro, Like
Speaker 5: are you Eastern?
Speaker 2: I'm good?
Speaker 5: Bro? Like he wasn't shaving, he wasn't cutting his hair, nothing,
Speaker 5: because like, this is my opportunity. I went from Foodvale
Speaker 5: station of this, I was giving a Rocky franchise. I
Speaker 5: can't lose, man. I got so much respect for that dude.
Speaker 5: He would call me at two in the morning after
Speaker 5: we shot.
Speaker 2: Like, Bro, you're good.
Speaker 5: I'm like, Bro, I'm good. Like why you're not sleep Bro,
Speaker 5: I'm just trying to make sure you know you're good.
Speaker 5: But I appreciate what you're doing. I appreciate you. The
Speaker 5: charisma he has, the mindset he has, and how he moved. Man,
Speaker 5: it's different.
Speaker 6: Bro.
Speaker 5: He very quiet. Bro, but that dude got a wealth
Speaker 5: of knowledge and he got respect the.
Speaker 3: Whole the whole room.
Speaker 5: He commanded respect from the whole room. So what he
Speaker 5: did with black Panthers and all that stuff, I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 5: I was just proud.
Speaker 3: We uh yeah. I got a chance to go up
Speaker 3: on the Disney lot when he was first shooting the
Speaker 3: first one, and we just walked around and looked around
Speaker 3: and there was nobody to look anything like us. He
Speaker 3: was taking me to the different stages in different spots,
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, Bro, this is unbelievable, so special.
Speaker 3: Special dude. Big Warriors fan obviously from the Bay any
Speaker 3: memorable moments as a Warrior fan.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Man, you know the whole run they had, you know,
Speaker 5: when they were still at Oracle Arena in Oakland. Man,
Speaker 5: I was right there from.
Speaker 3: Different me.
Speaker 2: Us.
Speaker 3: People don't understand though, It's what Oracle used to be
Speaker 3: about us.
Speaker 2: What you was around forget come on, forgive me.
Speaker 3: But Oracle was a character in itself. It was because
Speaker 3: you could smell the weed at the top of the buildings,
Speaker 3: like it was.
Speaker 5: It was different, Bro, I man, Bro, I used to
Speaker 5: we had all these executives at the fight, HBO, all
Speaker 5: this stuff, Show time too. And I'm in the locker room. Bro,
Speaker 5: I'm looking at I looked through the curtain. I'm like, Bro,
Speaker 5: they hot boxing.
Speaker 6: The whole, the whole fight, the whole Come on, bro,
Speaker 6: Like they don't go to tank fights. List don't go
Speaker 6: to tank I.
Speaker 5: Was an alliance. Then it's crazy. I'm like, these people
Speaker 5: looking at us crazy. They came and they supported me,
Speaker 5: but now they that's why they call it rural though,
Speaker 5: because it's different. Like a lot of my opponents, what
Speaker 5: was your tough fight, the fight that you They always
Speaker 5: go back when I went to Oakland, they just they
Speaker 5: can't really explain it, but they didn't like it. They
Speaker 5: didn't like it.
Speaker 3: Steph Curry intended a few of your fights, got a
Speaker 3: chance to build a personal relationship that we talked about.
Speaker 2: Steph good brother.
Speaker 5: Man, very humble as you know. He just like he's
Speaker 5: a superstar, you know it just doesn't act like one,
Speaker 5: which is very very rare, and he keep getting better.
Speaker 5: I'm just proud of him, man, just the way he
Speaker 5: has lived his life on and off the court, and
Speaker 5: uh yeah, it's a beautiful thing to witness.
Speaker 2: This dad molded him to be who he is.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, He's exactly who he's supposed
Speaker 4: to be because his dad is such a stand up guy.
Speaker 2: His dad was wasn't an All star, wasn't one of
Speaker 2: the best. He was one of the best.
Speaker 4: Shooters, but the guy he was everybody respecting. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, step is the same way. I'm well
Speaker 4: put you on the spot. Before we get to these
Speaker 4: quick hitters. Top three NBA players of all time.
Speaker 5: Oh, I ain't gonna say no order, just give me
Speaker 5: three for me, Jordan for thank you, Magic for sure,
Speaker 5: and uh man, I need you one more. I love
Speaker 5: Reggie Miller.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is the odd three we've ever heard. History said,
Speaker 2: We've never heard that three before. This is the first
Speaker 2: time we heard that those three guys.
Speaker 5: Reggie don't Reggie don't get shouted out or notough.
Speaker 3: Reggie doesn't have a championship because our dumbass. Yeah, but
Speaker 3: I'm saying that's why he don't have a championship because
Speaker 3: of us.
Speaker 5: But he was a killer in Christ truth respect.
Speaker 2: Not much competitor.
Speaker 3: Dog.
Speaker 5: Nah.
Speaker 3: He wanted the ones from Meggie, is that no question?
Speaker 5: He wanted the ones from me for sure. Oh, Gary Payton.
Speaker 3: Town business the glove.
Speaker 4: I gotta talk to GP because I saw something that
Speaker 4: bothered me recently. Vernon Maxwell say he knocked him out
Speaker 4: in practice. Was there he didn knock him out? He
Speaker 4: said he knocked him out. Okay, all right, it was
Speaker 4: he put something on it. He got off, all right,
Speaker 4: quick hitters. First thing to come to mind, let us know,
Speaker 4: if you can sit ring sided any fight in history,
Speaker 4: which one would it be and why they gotta be
Speaker 4: like any fight ever that actually happened.
Speaker 5: Mm mmmm Sugary Robinson fight. He had one hundred and something,
Speaker 5: so pick one. But Sugar Robinson, it's different.
Speaker 4: True a true boxer, Sugar to say that, because like
Speaker 4: anybody else would have said something, fight that we all.
Speaker 5: Know, Sugar, I want to see what rings like? What
Speaker 5: that looked like?
Speaker 3: Yeah, top five box all time?
Speaker 5: Man, y'all out here, make let me work today. I'm
Speaker 5: gonna give you my big three, Roy, Bernard, Floyd. I'm
Speaker 5: gonna say Ali.
Speaker 3: And Robinson easy enough.
Speaker 2: I thought I was gonna say.
Speaker 5: Hey, I got on my wall in my house. I
Speaker 5: respect it. But I'm gonna say but I'm gonna give
Speaker 5: my my three in my era. And then I gave
Speaker 5: y'all to just.
Speaker 3: All all time. I get it fight night or training camp, rotation.
Speaker 3: Three artists you're messing with.
Speaker 5: I don't know if y'all know the Cray Yeah, come on,
Speaker 5: gospel rapp Dodshi my boy KB Yeah, gospel rapper and
Speaker 5: uh and the Truth the Truth he from Philly, another
Speaker 5: gospel rapper. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Something you wish you were better at anything, don't even
Speaker 3: have to be boxing related. Man.
Speaker 5: I wish I could sing, Wish I could hold a
Speaker 5: note blow.
Speaker 3: Ye, God knew not how to let me sing. Boy,
Speaker 3: I would have been sucking the mother if I could say.
Speaker 2: It really wouldn't have been fab Yeah, boy, you really
Speaker 2: been on.
Speaker 3: I would have my hair weather pause because I'd be
Speaker 3: shaking my ship.
Speaker 2: You could sing.
Speaker 3: If I could sing, I would hold a note five
Speaker 3: din against that are alive.
Speaker 5: Holly Robinson.
Speaker 3: Uh my daddy m m yes.
Speaker 5: At this point in life and talk through it. Yeah,
Speaker 5: my grandfather, we called him dad.
Speaker 2: And uh.
Speaker 5: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 4: We'll come back to that one doing during this interview
Speaker 4: that I'm not. I wasn't the Hall of Famer and
Speaker 4: the and the superstar and my sport as you are
Speaker 4: on yours. But during this interview I realized we were
Speaker 4: like we more like than I thought we were. Yeah,
Speaker 4: especially the way we think about our family, how much
Speaker 4: we care about like the father and all that type
Speaker 4: of stuff.
Speaker 3: Like all that stuff resonate with me. So I'm glad.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you came.
Speaker 2: Bro.
Speaker 3: We more like than I thought. You want to get.
Speaker 2: M hm.
Speaker 3: One guess you would like to see on all the
Speaker 3: smoke real quick?
Speaker 5: Probably my probably my uh my fifth one will probably
Speaker 5: be my grandmother.
Speaker 3: Grandmother three family, two boxes grandmother.
Speaker 2: If you if you can see one guess on all
Speaker 2: the smoke, who would it be?
Speaker 5: Y'all said y'all had roy already.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'm gonna interrupt real quick because we named
Speaker 3: three heavy hitters on this show tonight that you cool
Speaker 3: with the guy to put the shoes on your feet.
Speaker 3: I didn't finish the question though, the manager, the manager
Speaker 3: of Rock Nations, and the little homie from the Bay. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so go, but finish the question.
Speaker 2: My bad.
Speaker 3: I interrupted. But before you answer your question, you have
Speaker 3: to help us get your.
Speaker 2: Answer on our show.
Speaker 3: So it's got to be somebody on your phone. Be moved, bro, No,
Speaker 3: so I did. I did something different with him, But yeah,
Speaker 3: I've been I've been trying to get him.
Speaker 2: I ain't been on here.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy episode I did. I did to
Speaker 3: sit down with him. He dope.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's my.
Speaker 3: Best moved shout out to all right last one childhood crush.
Speaker 3: We can't let you go home without this one man. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and whoever sending him his boxes. I ain't had a
Speaker 3: box and fold months.
Speaker 4: They're trying to tell you. They've been trying to tell
Speaker 4: me for the last couple of years. But I've been
Speaker 4: threatening people, so maybe my threats ain't working.
Speaker 2: No more. Got a letting people for shoes and yeah,
Speaker 2: I did most of them.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you how I'm about to I'm about
Speaker 5: to spend this one. Me and my wife, we married,
Speaker 5: we married young, we met young and married young. So
Speaker 5: his wife wife is my childhood crush. I respect that
Speaker 5: because when I seen her, It's like, who's that? And uh,
Speaker 5: she was different.
Speaker 3: She was different from the bank. She from Seattle, Okay.
Speaker 5: And it's crazy because it was like it was a
Speaker 5: bunch of people around. I had just went to go
Speaker 5: visit my brother for the first time because he moved
Speaker 5: from the Bay Area to Seattle. So I went and
Speaker 5: visiting him as his birthday. They was getting lit out
Speaker 5: of h out of school and they was in high
Speaker 5: school at that time. We always in high school. And
Speaker 5: I'm like, who is that? And like I hadne had crushes,
Speaker 5: but like she was different. Like so when I seen her,
Speaker 5: I liked her. When I talked to her, I really
Speaker 5: liked her. And I knew without even fully knowing how
Speaker 5: that how it was going to happen, if it should happen,
Speaker 5: how it's gonna happen. Man, I want to be with her.
Speaker 5: And to this day, bro believe it or not, Man,
Speaker 5: twenty years we've probably been together twenty two, been married
Speaker 5: twenty Man, I still got that same love for that girl,
Speaker 5: same love, and I tease her all the time. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 5: I got the girl like I got. I got the
Speaker 5: girl that I wanted. So I got to shout my wife,
Speaker 5: our man to me, and I got to shout her out.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 5: You know, I get a lot of the interviews and
Speaker 5: a lot of the press and stuff like that, but
Speaker 5: she's one of the main reasons why I'm still standing
Speaker 5: doing what I'm doing. And man, she a soldier. Man,
Speaker 5: I love my wife cause she ain't no scary wife either,
Speaker 5: Like she not closing her eyes at ringside, like giddy
Speaker 5: giddy back. And I can't tell you the amount of
Speaker 5: stuff even to this day that I bring home to her.
Speaker 5: But I'm trying to talk through it then through it.
Speaker 5: And man, she's solid, bro, she's so wise. And man,
Speaker 5: I got the girl that I want her good.
Speaker 3: Man is a great woman.
Speaker 5: I'm grateful for my wife.
Speaker 3: Well man, thank you. We appreciate your man for someone
Speaker 3: who to me, I felt like, really didn't get the
Speaker 3: respect that you deserve. But it's just like, to me,
Speaker 3: after this interview, none of that shit mattered to you.
Speaker 3: You know, your path was what was planned out and
Speaker 3: you made it work. And the transition you made, although
Speaker 3: now we know it was tough, you made the transition
Speaker 3: look seamless into your next, you know path. So Man,
Speaker 3: we appreciate your time, we appreciate having you, and best
Speaker 3: of luck.
Speaker 5: Bro Man, I appreciate you. But I'm gonna say one
Speaker 5: last thing before I go. You know, I know a
Speaker 5: lot of people, and I know it's really because they
Speaker 5: rock with me and they support me, and I appreciate
Speaker 5: that when they say I didn't get the respect that
Speaker 5: I deserve, I really did, though you think so from
Speaker 5: the right ones. Yeah, And what I didn't get it
Speaker 5: wasn't mine. And I truly believe that that. You know,
Speaker 5: God blessed me, you know, in many different ways. Just
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna use boxing through the boxing game. But
Speaker 5: he he ain't let me fall in love with it
Speaker 5: so much that when it was time to walk away,
Speaker 5: I couldn't walk away. So he me get my taste
Speaker 5: and and and you know, he let me get my
Speaker 5: love and stuff like that, and it's and it's worldwide.
Speaker 5: But he also blocked me too and didn't let me
Speaker 5: get so much that when it was trying to walk,
Speaker 5: I couldn't walk. So I'm at peace with what I did.
Speaker 5: I'm at peace with what I received, and I'm at
Speaker 5: peaceful what I with what I didn't receive.
Speaker 3: Beautiful. I see you got your lineup on point in
Speaker 3: this motherfucking cover right here? Where can everybody get.
Speaker 5: I gotta shout my boy out of barber he in Vegas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, boy is winning right here. And I'm not talking
Speaker 3: about the book. I'm talking about the hair. Where where
Speaker 3: can everybody get your book at? Right now?
Speaker 5: You get the book anywhere? Books you show, uh, you
Speaker 5: let your bookstore, Barnes and Nobles, you can Amazon, you
Speaker 5: name it.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna keep this one. I'm gonna keep this one.
Speaker 5: And the audio you get the audio or the physical copy.
Speaker 2: D man.
Speaker 3: We appreciate your time, time, brother, I appreciate you.
Speaker 2: Man. Man.
Speaker 3: That's a wrap. Andre Ward and so g the new
Speaker 3: all the smoke you I don't even know where you
Speaker 3: catch this?
Speaker 6: Now?
Speaker 3: Where you catching is that?
Speaker 2: It's not? Is it?
Speaker 3: Is it? So YouTube?
Speaker 2: We ain't got to say that no more? Manus now
Speaker 2: yeah we owners now I gotta say.
Speaker 3: That all the other boy catch us on YouTube, you know,
Speaker 3: we're gonna be where we're at with a little bit
Speaker 3: more money this time. Man. We'll see y'all next week.