Speaker 1: This is cut to it with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm John and this is cut
Speaker 1: to it. Good do it, Good do it. They's getting
Speaker 1: down to do it. Good do it. We asked the
Speaker 1: questions you always want to know, but no one ever asked,
Speaker 1: let's cut to it. You ain't heard them about it?
Speaker 1: Then we're about to let you know. It's all fellas, fellas,
Speaker 1: what's going on, What's what up? What up? What's on
Speaker 1: your mentor just looking as we get into two like
Speaker 1: as like everybody else, just hoping like it's you know,
Speaker 1: continues to get better than the previous year, two year,
Speaker 1: two and a half years. So I mean that's really
Speaker 1: all it is. I mean, you know, we we've been
Speaker 1: we haven't been together for a couple of weeks because
Speaker 1: of the holidays. And I actually got COVID Welcome to
Speaker 1: the club Man. It was based the VP section is
Speaker 1: over here around the corner. Nah, boys had me waiting
Speaker 1: the line. Yeah, I basically spent Christmas recover. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a second time to have it. It was Yeah, I
Speaker 1: was I was where where were you now? I was
Speaker 1: in the house. I was just I was I had
Speaker 1: my own restroom, had own bathroom, and I sat there
Speaker 1: and who it was so bad. Even my dog Tigo
Speaker 1: was like, no, you got that. Rona was coming to
Speaker 1: room and she was like, nah, yeah, that's that's that
Speaker 1: sick brother and walk right on. When I had it, it
Speaker 1: it was same thing, like I kind of posted up
Speaker 1: in bonus room I ended up taking because our our
Speaker 1: kids bathroom is connected there, so I took their bathroom.
Speaker 1: They couldn't use that anymore. They had to use our bathroom,
Speaker 1: me and my wife's. And so it was just and
Speaker 1: the drains on you man, like being being Western like that.
Speaker 1: Like the only thing I could do is like I
Speaker 1: wake up early in the morning go for a walk,
Speaker 1: just just because I needed to leave the house and
Speaker 1: be away from them. But then it was just and
Speaker 1: it was something else bro not me. I was just
Speaker 1: being inside that now that was messing with my mentor
Speaker 1: I had to It's only so much sleep you can get.
Speaker 1: There's only so much sleep. It's only so much. It's
Speaker 1: only so much you win games I could watch. But
Speaker 1: you've traveled with me, you know I could sleep it
Speaker 1: don't it? Don't it don't matter. Like I did the
Speaker 1: same thing. It's it's only so much sleep you can get.
Speaker 1: So I got it all. I can tell you. I've
Speaker 1: been to watched squid games the whole time. That was
Speaker 1: that was the highlight. Well, I can tell you when
Speaker 1: when I had it, and I don't know how bad
Speaker 1: it may have gotten, but I know, uh Angie, Steve's
Speaker 1: wife just concocted us like silver and this and that
Speaker 1: and and all kinds of appointments and pills and mentally,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was taking, but I can
Speaker 1: tell you, Like I said, I don't know what it
Speaker 1: would have been like, but ours got through pretty quickly,
Speaker 1: so hopefully she took care of you at the house
Speaker 1: as well too. So I was on nebulizer just keep
Speaker 1: my lungs, just to keep my luck. We already have one,
Speaker 1: just to keep it because I was coughing and I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't want the coughing, so doing that. But
Speaker 1: do you still have like a slight one a little bit? Um.
Speaker 1: It's been a while, so I'm it's getting better now.
Speaker 1: When I'm working out and starting to I would tell
Speaker 1: that linger for a while after after I had it,
Speaker 1: I would tell you though. I did lose some weight. Okay,
Speaker 1: COVID diet program. I'm getting lean pretty good. So it
Speaker 1: had it had his benefits. It had his benefits. And
Speaker 1: her brother slept. I slept a lot like so, uh
Speaker 1: just switched my mind a little bit. I got the
Speaker 1: opportunity to go out to the Rose Bowl, um, you
Speaker 1: know and see University of Utah. But I got to
Speaker 1: go time to go home, and I went home with Peyton,
Speaker 1: my oldest and so we were uh University of Utah,
Speaker 1: were staying downtown. Um, we stayed kind of in between
Speaker 1: because I wanted to kind of have that time just
Speaker 1: be with Peyton and my you know, just being my son.
Speaker 1: So I just didn't want to have the distraction of
Speaker 1: Steve Smith former Utah play area out for a bowl game.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to be you know, Payton's dad. And
Speaker 1: so on the way there, we took a I took
Speaker 1: the street, and so I went to the went went
Speaker 1: onto the street and went to this little this little
Speaker 1: taco um taco place and it was you know bout tacos, burritos,
Speaker 1: you know, burger whatever. You know. If you ever been
Speaker 1: in California, California has a plethora of mom and pop,
Speaker 1: hole in the wall, independent places, and so this is
Speaker 1: a place that I went to, and it was right
Speaker 1: there on Pico and those a lot of cultures. And
Speaker 1: one of the interesting things was I was sitting there
Speaker 1: at that I was just sitting there and I kind
Speaker 1: of smiled, grabbed our food. Were sitting out there, and
Speaker 1: we're just sitting outside and we're eating and um, so
Speaker 1: how was he was like, yeah, it was good. It
Speaker 1: was in and so just watching people, watching watching all
Speaker 1: the people and all that stuff. And I remember I
Speaker 1: had a moment and I was sitting there and I
Speaker 1: was remembering what I went through as a kid growing
Speaker 1: up back home, and Peyton had a moment that he
Speaker 1: was seeing part of Dad's past. And so on the
Speaker 1: wee eight when you know, went to the to the
Speaker 1: Team hotel. We saw some folks, got our tickets, got
Speaker 1: our stuff, and then we were driving back. Um, and
Speaker 1: I had said, you know, I was thinking about and
Speaker 1: I was like, man, when I was sitting there eating
Speaker 1: that food with Peyton, I was going backwards. I remember
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, and when I was a
Speaker 1: kid at something point. I love that Lafe. It's my home.
Speaker 1: That's my You know when I asked people at their
Speaker 1: hometown is Charlotte is my Charlotte is the place where
Speaker 1: I call home. But the place I called my hometown
Speaker 1: where I'm from. Man, it's l A and the l
Speaker 1: A taught me a lot. But it also at the
Speaker 1: time it damaged me. And I remember I was sitting
Speaker 1: there and I was like, man, when I was a
Speaker 1: young pup, I was just sitting there, going, will I
Speaker 1: ever make it out of here? Will this be big
Speaker 1: stent of me riding a bus? No driver's license? I
Speaker 1: don't get my drivers like charge twenty two years old
Speaker 1: when I was out in Utah. I just remember that,
Speaker 1: and just remember, and when you're sitting there, if somebody
Speaker 1: rolled up that you know, from the opposite circle of friends,
Speaker 1: you have to that lights witch had to go on,
Speaker 1: even if he was eating from fries or burger or taco.
Speaker 1: That lights which had to go on. That lights which
Speaker 1: go on. And you can't take that. Hell, man, you
Speaker 1: can't get molly wapped and lose your lunch. And I
Speaker 1: just remember that, and I was smiling because now I'm
Speaker 1: looking at it, I'm looking at my got two generations.
Speaker 1: Now I'm sitting there and and so we're in the
Speaker 1: car back and and I told, I told Payton, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, sitting there, I remember I never thought that
Speaker 1: I would have a son, and I'll be coming back
Speaker 1: for playing sixteen years blah blah blah. And he goes,
Speaker 1: you know what, Dad was funny as I was thinking
Speaker 1: the same thing, but I was thinking the opposite. What
Speaker 1: would it take? I wonder how would I have handled
Speaker 1: living there? Would I have been able to make it?
Speaker 1: And it was just great. He was just like, damn,
Speaker 1: he says, man, Dad, I don't know how you made it.
Speaker 1: And it was just really cool for his authenticity to
Speaker 1: kind of just not justify or make me feel good.
Speaker 1: But it was a father and a son thinking about
Speaker 1: one place the same how I made it and how
Speaker 1: he was thinking how he can't make it or what
Speaker 1: it would entail. He was just so thankful, you know,
Speaker 1: for those bruises that I experienced because of that. I
Speaker 1: just felt, you know, I just I just personally feel
Speaker 1: like to grow up always on high alert. Man. There's
Speaker 1: no way to grow up. There's no way to thank you.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish I wouldn't wish that on someone. And
Speaker 1: so I was it was just that cool moment that
Speaker 1: I had with my son that it wasn't something that
Speaker 1: I tried to make. It was something that just experienced it. Man,
Speaker 1: it was really cool to start off the new year,
Speaker 1: to be able to look at your you know generation,
Speaker 1: somebody that will carry on your name, that he he
Speaker 1: gets it, you know. And there's y'all are parents with
Speaker 1: kids that aren't of age of mind. I'm just telling
Speaker 1: you when you're sitting down with Tyson or me at
Speaker 1: some point, you're sitting down with Ava at some point
Speaker 1: and they go, Dad, I get it more of anything,
Speaker 1: he said, Dad, I get you. Man. That's the things
Speaker 1: that I pray for. You know what, what a great
Speaker 1: story for you to be able to share that with him.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't planned, it was undernounced. You just stopped
Speaker 1: and in that moment you were reliving what you went
Speaker 1: through and you look at Peyton and be like, yo,
Speaker 1: you don't ever have to do this. But he gets
Speaker 1: it and he understands. He didn't. Oh whatever, Dad, it
Speaker 1: ain't nothing, you know. I mean for him to see
Speaker 1: that is you don't you have no idea like want
Speaker 1: I'm not even lying like people walking by and those
Speaker 1: people walking by you just kind of like scratch your
Speaker 1: head and you know, like the way they're walking by,
Speaker 1: and you gotta think about it. It's l a Friday,
Speaker 1: like to thirty in the afternoon, right five, hydrid leaking
Speaker 1: and it's water all over the place, straight dogs, single mom,
Speaker 1: single dass. Like it's just every walk of life, every
Speaker 1: culture and just seeing it and it's your hometown and
Speaker 1: it's in your hometown is talking for you. Like we
Speaker 1: weren't at thirstree problem. No, we weren't at the highlighted places.
Speaker 1: We were off the beaten path where you know those
Speaker 1: places that you know, you when you hear about people,
Speaker 1: when you hear about people when they go back and
Speaker 1: they say, oh, such and such a from here, and
Speaker 1: they always hear that that's you know, that's what. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think what you said is really like
Speaker 1: you said, that's the I don't want it to go
Speaker 1: and say it like when you say that's an answered prayer,
Speaker 1: like that's big. That's that's the things that you do
Speaker 1: pray about. That's the things when you talk about generational change,
Speaker 1: those are the things you want because at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, like it's great we do the podcast you.
Speaker 1: Everyone has their own business endeavors. You do all that stuff,
Speaker 1: and that's fantastic, and you leave a financial legacy and
Speaker 1: you do all those things. But that is what you
Speaker 1: hope for. That you can um change your lineage, you
Speaker 1: can change the generation and uh, you may have been
Speaker 1: going or family treatment have been going one way and
Speaker 1: the course corrects and go another. That's that's really what
Speaker 1: it's all about. The good days the bad days. It
Speaker 1: makes it all worth it. When you can know that
Speaker 1: your children and that you've left an impact with them,
Speaker 1: that's all that's that is. That is literally what it's about.
Speaker 1: It was really cool, right, and then I took them
Speaker 1: some other places. Uh, took them around the corner. I
Speaker 1: was showing them one of the duplexes that we grew
Speaker 1: up in UM And I have a driver's but I
Speaker 1: used to drive to school. Had a car right that
Speaker 1: I bought. I was driving to listen to this. I
Speaker 1: bought a car for two d fifty bucks, drove it
Speaker 1: to school and he used to pick up my boy,
Speaker 1: one of my homeboys, Dwayne, and got pulled over because
Speaker 1: expired tags and they didn't take they didn't arrest us.
Speaker 1: They made us pull over we had to catch the
Speaker 1: bus to school, and then we waited, caught the bus
Speaker 1: to the car, picked up the car, and then drove
Speaker 1: it on you know. And uh, but I used to
Speaker 1: hide it around the corner and go through this, go
Speaker 1: through this other apartment complex. And myself, I was like,
Speaker 1: and I was driving like four fifteen, sixteen years old.
Speaker 1: I was driving to school, no license, no insurance, no nothing.
Speaker 1: So that was just in the first week. I just
Speaker 1: imagined the rest of the y which you gonna be
Speaker 1: able to dive into those other conversations. You go ahead.
Speaker 1: That was pretty cool though, but you know, and then
Speaker 1: he's taught lawson. We were depressed ever since. Man, let
Speaker 1: me introduce our our our next guest. There's a guy
Speaker 1: who's from Flint, Michigan. They they say some of the
Speaker 1: dudes for some about of the dudes from Flint, Michigan. Man,
Speaker 1: they're tough as they come. Yeah to time, w b
Speaker 1: C super middleweight champion, professional boxer, a father, a husband,
Speaker 1: a son, a nephew, and a guy that's uh, it's
Speaker 1: really overcome a lot of things in his life. So um,
Speaker 1: cut to it. Welcome to the podcast, Anthony Derell, Thank
Speaker 1: you for coming. Thank you guys for having me and
Speaker 1: this man were Donna. We're gonna get right into it.
Speaker 1: Um Man, we got this. I love these little icebreakers
Speaker 1: show man. Just growing up? You know obviously, Uh get
Speaker 1: deeper into your story. Man, name your top three boxers
Speaker 1: growing up? Uh? Mohammed Ali is at the top of
Speaker 1: the top of the list for me. Uh you got
Speaker 1: you got uh Sweepie fill Uh, I mean I and
Speaker 1: Roy Jones. But it's so many people, man, You just
Speaker 1: I just can't name three is a tough number. Three
Speaker 1: a tough number, especially with all the grades that you know,
Speaker 1: I came by watching you know, I just can't name three.
Speaker 1: So name some other ones. But tell me why, tell
Speaker 1: me why they what? What you what did you admire
Speaker 1: about them growing up? Right? Because for me, Mike Tyson
Speaker 1: was all always that guy. He intimidated. He was short,
Speaker 1: he was stocky, he was powerful, he was quick, he
Speaker 1: was intimidating. But he was also a boxer's boxer. He
Speaker 1: was a hood boxer. He was whoever watched them, he
Speaker 1: was that individual if you if you were a businessman,
Speaker 1: he was he was. Yeah, he was an entertaining like
Speaker 1: he's gonna get you what you want, and it was
Speaker 1: gonna be. But we knew what to expect out of
Speaker 1: Mike Typon. We was younger, all our family used to
Speaker 1: go for my grandfather's house and and watch it, and
Speaker 1: it an end so quick that we just had the
Speaker 1: rest of the night just to fool around, you know, party.
Speaker 1: You know, we wasn't partying like that because as kids
Speaker 1: at the end of the at the end of the
Speaker 1: you know, late and all the grown up so you know,
Speaker 1: they get smashed, They they play cards, music, you know,
Speaker 1: all of everything. But like I say, Tyson was one
Speaker 1: of the people. You know, you knew what you was
Speaker 1: getting if you paid the pay per view fifty dollars
Speaker 1: to get it, you knew what she was getting. Your
Speaker 1: first second, first half of the fight is over. Some
Speaker 1: ficing go like that, but you know it's boxing, that's
Speaker 1: what that's what you know boxing is. And uh but
Speaker 1: I'm just happy that, you know, I I got to
Speaker 1: watch them the people growing up, you know, and learned
Speaker 1: a lot from them growing up, especially I leave to Sweepy.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not as quick as Sweepy or as
Speaker 1: slick as he was, but you know, you always have
Speaker 1: learned something and try to imitate what he had Roy
Speaker 1: Jones and other guy. He was fast, pomp, one of
Speaker 1: the best, especially back in his day. Uh that I
Speaker 1: mean I was just there. Uh when Antonio Tarbert not
Speaker 1: Roy Jones out like that was one of the saddest moments,
Speaker 1: you know, for me and my fact, because we, yeah,
Speaker 1: we idolized Roy Jones. Man. We thought he was just
Speaker 1: the best and nobody can defeat him. But obviously it
Speaker 1: was wrong. I think what killed him was he went
Speaker 1: up to heavyweight and came back down. That really takes
Speaker 1: a toll on your body, especially losing that much weight,
Speaker 1: uh for a fight at that magnitude. Your old school
Speaker 1: we didn't, you know, we didn't play golf together and
Speaker 1: talk smack. So I know your old school cat man.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, man, some of the some of some of
Speaker 1: your cartoons, your favorite cartoons growing up. Uh ah man.
Speaker 1: I mean like like with me, I ain't watched a
Speaker 1: lot of cartoons, but I was like, I was like
Speaker 1: that that kid that like wrastling like the w W
Speaker 1: E R w w F then used to come on
Speaker 1: on Saturday Morning Superstars. Yeah, but it came on on
Speaker 1: Monday's two. And when it came on on mondays. I
Speaker 1: used to had to run to the remote, and my
Speaker 1: brother would not let me watch it if he got
Speaker 1: it first. Ye turned into the to the wrastling and
Speaker 1: if we we gotta watch Raszl because I got there first.
Speaker 1: And that's it. That's what my grandpa sailing. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's just what it is. That's just how you know,
Speaker 1: you know, how I grew up. I wasn't a cartoon guy.
Speaker 1: If I did, I probably watched like a Simpson's or
Speaker 1: Jimmy Neutron type thing, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: I wasn't like a big cartoon gout. I was, you know,
Speaker 1: more real. But when I first came out, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: a lot to watch that Simpsons can. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: The reason I say cartoons is because I think I
Speaker 1: feel like Man Saturday cartoons. It was like bye bye,
Speaker 1: like eight. You were started about seven thirty, eight o'clock.
Speaker 1: They cut them up by thirty by noon, you was done.
Speaker 1: Now he was watchingba inside stuff right now. No no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no side no even before that Batman right yeah, same
Speaker 1: batcha same tune in what oh what was it Robert
Speaker 1: bro you're talking about? Robin had me clowning or like
Speaker 1: what Adam West? They say, what is? What are we
Speaker 1: gonna do? Batman? You know Batman want to say, shut
Speaker 1: up rightly? Porcupines? Yeah all right, um man? What's your
Speaker 1: favorite sandwich? And with that sounds what you're having when
Speaker 1: you got some chips fruit my favorite? Second, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go turkey lettuce put some mustard on their little mayonnaise
Speaker 1: America with you know light. Uh yeah, I'm having chips,
Speaker 1: chips and probably like I don't drink like right now.
Speaker 1: I don't drink pop really like that. I just drink
Speaker 1: it sometimes just to get that burn in my throat.
Speaker 1: I wa yeah, yeah, I probably have a water okay,
Speaker 1: water water. I love cut to It and I love
Speaker 1: it even more when you download us and subscribe, and
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media too, Smithie, where
Speaker 1: where at? That's at? Cut to It on Instagram? What
Speaker 1: about Twitter? Act? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It
Speaker 1: featuring Steve Smith singr what about online? And you can
Speaker 1: follow us at cut to It podcast dot com where
Speaker 1: you can buy merch and you can subscribe to us
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I got all my questions answered. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm here for. A brother cut to a podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: All right, well we already said it, but I always
Speaker 1: like to ask, man, where are you from the place
Speaker 1: you call your hometown? Let mission always rap it. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it bolded me to the person that I am.
Speaker 1: He gave me doing the toughness and the confidence that
Speaker 1: I need to go on with life for sure. How
Speaker 1: how would you describe growing up in Flint? You know
Speaker 1: from your point of view? Uh, it was rough. I mean,
Speaker 1: not not as rough as now. It was definitely rough
Speaker 1: because uh, just a neighborhood, the property we lived there GM. Uh.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all noticed, No, y'all probably do.
Speaker 1: But GM was known for Flint, Michigan cars. Uh. A
Speaker 1: lot of people want to start their families here and
Speaker 1: move here. But now it's it's gone. But we're back
Speaker 1: then we had GM, but it's still was. You could
Speaker 1: tell a point was on the decline, especially with the
Speaker 1: murders and everything that was going on. Back then. We
Speaker 1: couldn't uh you couldn't say Flint without talking about how
Speaker 1: bad it was. And that's you know, still to this day.
Speaker 1: But it just moded me. So, like I said to
Speaker 1: the persons I am today, Uh that in my family,
Speaker 1: but uh Flint man, I always reperent today I got
Speaker 1: an a one off on my arms Flint, Michigan. You
Speaker 1: know that that's just me. You know, I think everybody
Speaker 1: from Flint, that's somebody that made it out will tell
Speaker 1: you Flynn is is home. We'll always reply. So I
Speaker 1: got a uh got homeboards from Flint. And he told
Speaker 1: me that, uh Anthony used to mop up dudes at
Speaker 1: Burston Field House when you was a young kid. And
Speaker 1: he said that Flynn has a boxing lineage that has
Speaker 1: really not talked about speak on that it is. You
Speaker 1: know we Uh Chris Burg came out out of Flint.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think too many people give Chris
Speaker 1: Bird credit for what you know he came. You know,
Speaker 1: he came from his daddy grades from a kid as
Speaker 1: coached him and his mama. But it's uh, it's rough man.
Speaker 1: Flynn is rough and bursting is you know, wanted the
Speaker 1: dang near the stumping ground and everybody if that's somebody
Speaker 1: then being a bursting or either ashooping boxing you know
Speaker 1: to anything football whatever. You know, they haven't been there
Speaker 1: worked out or play basketball there for sure. So how
Speaker 1: did those days at Burston, running through the streets at Flint,
Speaker 1: how did how did shape you? Uh? Just hanging around
Speaker 1: the people, you know, taught me right some wrongs, Uh everything.
Speaker 1: It's like I said, Man, it's it's home. I mean
Speaker 1: just like probably where you're from. Man, it's you know,
Speaker 1: that's home. You can always go back and feel comfortable there,
Speaker 1: Uh with anything that's going on. Um, And that's how
Speaker 1: Flint is. I'm still in Michigan. I'm about fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: from Flint, but you know, I I try to help
Speaker 1: Flint get back as much as possible. But it's hard
Speaker 1: to do it by yourself. Yeah, definitely, anything it's hard
Speaker 1: to do by yourself, especially trying to impact the community.
Speaker 1: Um that has been through a lot of the stuff
Speaker 1: Flynn has been through, you know, weather, it's uh, you
Speaker 1: know systemically, UM, lack of water, like a lack of
Speaker 1: lack of education. Um, it's it's it's really tough man.
Speaker 1: You know, I think this is Uh, I got I
Speaker 1: got why why boxing? But I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it's a more in depth question to have. Is growing
Speaker 1: up for you boxing? For me, it was sports. You know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you only can make it out with an opportunity
Speaker 1: and whatever that is, whether it be a you know,
Speaker 1: somebody wants to be a veterinarian, it doesn't matter, right,
Speaker 1: But you know when you have when you don't have
Speaker 1: a lot of options, you know you you gotta stick
Speaker 1: to something that can help you propel yourself to to
Speaker 1: give you an opportunity to go to college or get
Speaker 1: a job or professional trade that gives you an opportunity
Speaker 1: to advance yourself, to get out of the to get
Speaker 1: out of the lower class of the rat race. We're
Speaker 1: all in a rat race to some degree, but to
Speaker 1: the lower concitor of the rat race. Um, what did
Speaker 1: boxing mean to you at such a young age? So
Speaker 1: my grandfather got us into it. I was nine when
Speaker 1: I started, so I've been doing it for a long time,
Speaker 1: my brother, but nine, I was nine. My first fight
Speaker 1: was at nine. I'm thirty seven now, so God that
Speaker 1: that's almost thirty years Uh in the sport of boxing.
Speaker 1: Uh never had really a childhood. I guess I live
Speaker 1: my childhood through my kids now I can't. I mean,
Speaker 1: we got the side by side to poort whillis to
Speaker 1: everything you know and and I see myself in them.
Speaker 1: I give them my opportunity to that I didn't have
Speaker 1: any other sports because I don't want my kids to
Speaker 1: box at all. Do I want to learn to defend thatselves? Yeah,
Speaker 1: boxing is just I think it's so cricket that I
Speaker 1: don't want to see my kids go through it. What
Speaker 1: I not And now I'm gonna say what I've been
Speaker 1: through because I've been fortunate enough to have a smooth career.
Speaker 1: But what like my brother been through a bad situation.
Speaker 1: But I want to see my kids grow up in
Speaker 1: and do something else, and it don't have to be sports,
Speaker 1: agree anything, but something better than what I had. But
Speaker 1: can you break that down? Because you're still boxing right
Speaker 1: at your thirty seven years old, you're still boxing. How
Speaker 1: why would you not allow your children to box or
Speaker 1: to do a profession that you're currently still in. So football,
Speaker 1: I'll take your support for example, you guys have a union.
Speaker 1: You know you have somebody looking out for you. You
Speaker 1: know you're gonna get depend on you depending on who
Speaker 1: you ask. There's some guys who would disagree about the union,
Speaker 1: but you know, I'm just understanding. I agree about it
Speaker 1: because if somebody looking after you what you need. You
Speaker 1: to get what you need in boxing, I have to
Speaker 1: do everything for myself. If that's going out to get sponsors,
Speaker 1: I have to do it for myself. I don't even
Speaker 1: care about that. Like if a sponsor approached me and
Speaker 1: we're talking good numbers, yeah we could do it. But
Speaker 1: I'm not going out to look for nobody. If I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get somebody, they're gonna come to me. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to them like I'm I'm I'm what you want.
Speaker 1: If not, then I don't care. But it's just it's
Speaker 1: that part the un you have nobody looking out for you. Uh.
Speaker 1: The pay. Let's take Jake paul Uh for example. He
Speaker 1: hasn't fought a real boxer yet, but he's getting paid
Speaker 1: six figures four and this is that was his four
Speaker 1: or fight, but he's been getting paid six figures since
Speaker 1: his first fight. Why can't a real boxer get paid
Speaker 1: that the same amount of money as him? Starting out?
Speaker 1: Like it? That's where that's where it's it's And I
Speaker 1: got so many questions. I figured we was gonna wait
Speaker 1: till the end, but I got so many questions around
Speaker 1: around that, and and and how and how that's even
Speaker 1: filtered out. It's just disrespectful to boxers, you know, real boxing.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's not a real boxing but he
Speaker 1: hasn't fought a real boxer yet. He bought M M
Speaker 1: A fighters and he bought a basketball player that's not boxing.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so it's it's a disrespect. I can't go
Speaker 1: into into the NBA and say, let me get a
Speaker 1: tendaid contract and put Lebron on the bench. We're gonna
Speaker 1: happen and without a base mark of anyone's even seeing
Speaker 1: you play basketball. Yeah, it's not It's just not gonna happen,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But boxing, I guess it's
Speaker 1: one of those sports where you know you can do that,
Speaker 1: but it's just disrespectful, like in the networks to see it,
Speaker 1: like his pay per view numbers was crap, But it's that.
Speaker 1: It's it's torturing. You know, when I when I lose
Speaker 1: weight and can't eat for a certain amount of time,
Speaker 1: that's torture. You know, for me, it's torture. And I'm
Speaker 1: torturing myself granted, but it's still a torture. I gotta
Speaker 1: do something to entertains and thousands of people So someone
Speaker 1: someone listening to this, listening to this would say, based
Speaker 1: off what you said and I and I actually I
Speaker 1: wrote it down and it's gonna be it was gonna
Speaker 1: be a follow up, how unhealthy is cutting weight? But
Speaker 1: before you answer, but before you say, someone listen this
Speaker 1: would say, well, you don't have to do this. No,
Speaker 1: no one is. No one puts a gun to your
Speaker 1: head and say lose weight. Right, They're not doing that.
Speaker 1: But I can't. I can't. I can't do what Jake
Speaker 1: Paul didn't go into the NB. I want to do
Speaker 1: the n B. I can't go in there, attend a
Speaker 1: contract and give me get some money. I can't do that.
Speaker 1: So I gotta do this. If this is my job,
Speaker 1: I have to do it. And I have to be
Speaker 1: responsible and dedicated to the sport, to the career that
Speaker 1: I chose. So at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: have to do it, you know, if I want to
Speaker 1: keep UH providing for my family and doing what I
Speaker 1: need to do to UH succeed in life, I have
Speaker 1: to do this. So for somebody to say I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't have to. I have to. This is just
Speaker 1: this is what I know. I mean. I'm not saying,
Speaker 1: this is all I know, but this is what I know,
Speaker 1: and I want to give my kids another opportunity to
Speaker 1: a different path to take other than this sport, because
Speaker 1: it's like I said, And then you gotta look at
Speaker 1: this NBA players or football players, and football players was
Speaker 1: getting y'all was getting done in for a little bit.
Speaker 1: I think they're starting to grow now with the guarantee money. Uh.
Speaker 1: But basketball players they're getting two hundred million dollars boxes.
Speaker 1: Some boxes weren't ever see that. Floyd Mayweather, there was
Speaker 1: an exception. You know, you would never see two hundred
Speaker 1: and some million dollars guaranteed. Canello is an exception. But
Speaker 1: you you want to get certain few, you gotta pick
Speaker 1: that grain of rights out. That's good. If not, then
Speaker 1: you're not gonna get two hundred million dollar contract guaranteed.
Speaker 1: You can't get that, So let's find something else to do.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you do. I didn't want my
Speaker 1: kids playing football, honestly because it I didn't want to
Speaker 1: playing football or boxing because with football and so many
Speaker 1: concussions and CTE. Like I I read up on that
Speaker 1: stuff ct that goes around, you know, getting injury and
Speaker 1: when you gotta concussion. Sometimes you don't know and you
Speaker 1: still go out there and it just mess you up
Speaker 1: more with football. With boxing, you gotta concussion. Like I
Speaker 1: had a concussion and I had a headache for a week.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe I was getting hit button you know,
Speaker 1: I get hit, of course, but it was just with
Speaker 1: and with football, like you gotta sit out, you gotta
Speaker 1: can CUSSI pro cusion protocol. You start with boxing, you
Speaker 1: gotta keep going or you're done, You're lost. So I
Speaker 1: gotta keep going even though I got a concussion and
Speaker 1: keep fighting. I mean, it's it's I want. I want
Speaker 1: to go for my kids. So take us through, and
Speaker 1: take us through your your boxing journey right just as
Speaker 1: you started nine years old. I can't imagine, right, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine. Like I look at my kids and see,
Speaker 1: you know, my son's played travel baseball, and I've seen
Speaker 1: how that is. It's challenging, especially here in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: North Carolina is number one in youth soccer. Right, it
Speaker 1: is crazy. I'm in the basketball circuit now with au
Speaker 1: living breathe and can't even take you know, can't even
Speaker 1: take regular holiday trips because spring break or Christmas I
Speaker 1: mean day after Thanksgiving, son is playing in Atlanta after Christmas.
Speaker 1: But how much like it's some football players or let's
Speaker 1: say bad, let's some basketball players who started off right
Speaker 1: in high school and still made it leave Like what
Speaker 1: my my thing is Sometimes you gotta let a kid
Speaker 1: be a kid like my my my boy and his
Speaker 1: son they go they do travel, basketball, travel baseball, so
Speaker 1: the kid can't be a kid, Like when is the
Speaker 1: point that you say, let's stop and let's get your
Speaker 1: body arrest Because at the end of the day, you
Speaker 1: still might not do it. They still might not do it.
Speaker 1: So I give my kids opportunities to choose what they
Speaker 1: want to do. But if you do something, you can't
Speaker 1: quit until that seasons after yep, But if you want
Speaker 1: to quit after, you can't. I don't, I don't, but
Speaker 1: you're not. We're not gonna be lab with as twitters
Speaker 1: in the middle of the season. But at that but
Speaker 1: at that time they might start like dang, I like it.
Speaker 1: Oh it's getting better and better than they're gonna keep going.
Speaker 1: So it changes their minds set, you know, saying if
Speaker 1: you want to do it, you could do it, but
Speaker 1: I don't want to force him to do it because
Speaker 1: I still want them to be a kid. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I was never a kid, Like I
Speaker 1: never I was going so much and tournaments and shows
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. I was never a kid. I
Speaker 1: always had to go fight and go make weight. So
Speaker 1: it was always rough to me every weekend, or we
Speaker 1: will miss school to go to tournaments for the whole week,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's never a kid.
Speaker 1: It was just work, work, work, work work. So it
Speaker 1: just turned. It just turned into the Norman because you
Speaker 1: you mentioned you you alluded to your brother earlier, but
Speaker 1: you know you're I know your your older brother Andre,
Speaker 1: like he was, he was into it as well. Yeah
Speaker 1: he gotta fight coming up soon to uh soon. He
Speaker 1: got the Olympic bronze medal uh in a lift he
Speaker 1: lost the triple G. I thought he wanted but he lost.
Speaker 1: But like I said, it's uh we it was constant, man,
Speaker 1: every weekend, every week I mean it just all the time.
Speaker 1: We we was running to schools. So we're going to school, sweaty,
Speaker 1: running to schools. We have to do track after school.
Speaker 1: So it was it was ongoing like this man, and
Speaker 1: I don't want to see my kids do that. I
Speaker 1: want to see him have a kid life. But once,
Speaker 1: once it gets serious, that's when I'll start getting serious.
Speaker 1: And because it means nothing. Now, honestly, you anything means nothing.
Speaker 1: Do you learn? Do you get kind of responsibility? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you can get that somewhere else, just doing other stuff.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. I want to really show
Speaker 1: them that sports is not the only way be a kid,
Speaker 1: you know, because life ain't life ain't along, and uh,
Speaker 1: you gotta live your life, you know, to the bulls.
Speaker 1: I noticing I noticing in boxing less now, but more
Speaker 1: for the older guys like yourself and obviously an older guy, older,
Speaker 1: much older guys than you. A lot of boxers don't
Speaker 1: really get their big opportunity until after they've participated in
Speaker 1: the Olympics. And not even that because I never went
Speaker 1: to Olympics, so uh, like I went to Olympic trials,
Speaker 1: I got I forgot what it was some bullcrap, I know.
Speaker 1: Like that's what I'm saying. Like you look at Sugar.
Speaker 1: You look at Sugar Ray, Sugar Ray Leonard, Right, you
Speaker 1: look at Mike Tyson, you look at all these guys,
Speaker 1: Floyd Mayweather We're guys who have maybe got the bronze
Speaker 1: or got the shilver, they didn't necessarily win or something
Speaker 1: have but they haven't won. And you hear about, you
Speaker 1: hear about the disappointment either in Olympic Trials or the Olympics,
Speaker 1: and then after that they become they blow up, they
Speaker 1: blow up. Why is what is it about the Olympics
Speaker 1: or Olympic trials? And it's not it's not even that.
Speaker 1: It's just just from the outside, like for me looking in,
Speaker 1: who's not That's all I have as a reference because
Speaker 1: there really is no televised, um, you know, internet accessibility
Speaker 1: of understanding who's coming up in the rankings other than
Speaker 1: what is either flashed up on TV, put through ESPN
Speaker 1: or Friday Night Boxing, Saturday Night Box. Like it's just
Speaker 1: it is. It's the developmental piece of boxing seems to lack.
Speaker 1: And you gotta understand, I should have been like and
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I should have been well more known
Speaker 1: than him now, but I should have been up there
Speaker 1: like I had cancer and won a championship. That is unheard.
Speaker 1: I even pitched this when I won my first championship.
Speaker 1: I had my boy and which which is a white Man,
Speaker 1: but that's my one of my best friends. But me said, like,
Speaker 1: we got one too, but I can't. I can't talk.
Speaker 1: Don't worry John part White Singers, because they're gonna throw
Speaker 1: me off like it ain't nothing, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I gotta get somebody else who really can talk
Speaker 1: to him, talk to him. So I pitched my story
Speaker 1: after I want my title to Sports Center. They denied
Speaker 1: it so bad man, and then put some on their
Speaker 1: man that I've seen that was interesting and even the
Speaker 1: issue there and stuff. You have to pick. You won
Speaker 1: a championship and you got to pitch your own story.
Speaker 1: I gotta see them on like, let's just stop after
Speaker 1: cancer and got a pitch malls. Come on, man, that's
Speaker 1: unheard of. Let's getting down to do with Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? You mean? Oh? Yes,
Speaker 1: I got it from cut to a podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys
Speaker 1: at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go
Speaker 1: on buy you a T shirt subscribed to us wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts two thousand four you break your
Speaker 1: hand while while fighting. Yeah, in the maturer on my
Speaker 1: hands had surgeries on my so you so you broke
Speaker 1: your hand in the match. How did you have I
Speaker 1: have bone spurs in my hands. That's when well, I
Speaker 1: have bone spurs in my feet. So I can I
Speaker 1: can't understand. I couldn't. I couldn't even lift bags nothing.
Speaker 1: So I went to California and got them shaved down.
Speaker 1: But now I never had a problem with it. Two
Speaker 1: thousands cancer, no hospital, BOM. I deal with that for
Speaker 1: two years and chemo therapy, and you were training in
Speaker 1: between sometimes like I run first of all, even sometimes
Speaker 1: even sometimes I can't. I'm down two weeks with a
Speaker 1: head cold, so I don't you know. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: tough like cancer is like like before I even went
Speaker 1: into the building. I'm talking, I'm throwing up before i've
Speaker 1: been because I can smell the chemo therapy and I'm
Speaker 1: right there. Before I even get into the building, I'm like, dang,
Speaker 1: so I gotta go in here. Once I get it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw up and then you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: feel better. But the next three days after I had it,
Speaker 1: I couldn't do nothing. But I get I get that
Speaker 1: every two weeks. Uh, it was tough. Man it was
Speaker 1: for you and for me to go through it, for
Speaker 1: me to say it was tough, It was tough. So
Speaker 1: I went to a cancer hospital for ye is and
Speaker 1: seeing all them, it brought me to tears. But man,
Speaker 1: it's so hard. I don't I don't even understand how
Speaker 1: the kids doing. But they get through it. And I'm
Speaker 1: so happy, Uh go through that, man, because it's it's
Speaker 1: so tough, man, And I know, we gotta cure for cancer. Man.
Speaker 1: If they're coming up with a vaccine for COVID and
Speaker 1: under a year they got a cure for cancer. Man. Period.
Speaker 1: Yeah to me, and then uh, a lot of people
Speaker 1: on on with on going on, going with the thing.
Speaker 1: I think it was two thousand and twelve. I got
Speaker 1: to a motorcycle accident. You know when you when you
Speaker 1: suspected of a robbery. Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 1: Two thousand eight. Yeah, that was two thousand eight I did.
Speaker 1: They said I robbed the bank for five thousand. I
Speaker 1: laughed at him, you know when they when they pulled
Speaker 1: me over, because so I'm leaving my house to go
Speaker 1: get my last chemo treatment, last one treatment, and he
Speaker 1: saw me. I saw him too, because I looked at him.
Speaker 1: You know, I looked, you know, and when I looked
Speaker 1: at him, he got in the back of me. I promised.
Speaker 1: He followed me for about five called me up. Yeah.
Speaker 1: When he pulled me over, it had to be about
Speaker 1: twelve cops and the news was sitting there. Uh. And
Speaker 1: they took me down. I'm laughing like I'm tripping out
Speaker 1: because they didn't tell me what I was going down board.
Speaker 1: And then once I got in the car, knew the
Speaker 1: police officer and he's like, yeah, they said you ribbed
Speaker 1: the bank, all right whatever. Uh, and they took me that.
Speaker 1: I think I was gonna spend a night in that joint.
Speaker 1: Then I went down there. Somebody when I say it
Speaker 1: had to be so many cops came to my sale
Speaker 1: when I was holding me as saying, man, we know
Speaker 1: you didn't do it. I don't know way he pulled
Speaker 1: you over for this and that wood the whoop and uh.
Speaker 1: I mean they even bringing me different food from what
Speaker 1: they eight like, they bringing me different stuff, like a
Speaker 1: whole different stuff. Uh. And then like I tried to
Speaker 1: sue the police station, nobody would touch it with a
Speaker 1: tempo po m hm, I ain't touching it. They wouldn't
Speaker 1: do it, like I don't understand. I didn't never understood why,
Speaker 1: and like you you you slander my character on TV
Speaker 1: papers everything. And when I said nobody would, I didn't
Speaker 1: even get an apology from there. Why why they pulled
Speaker 1: you over? I mean outside of you were suspected? They
Speaker 1: said no, they and I had a gun in the car,
Speaker 1: but it was my gun. It was I was registered
Speaker 1: to me, uh the gun. But they didn't, they said
Speaker 1: I rather than basically suspecting me, rather than I think
Speaker 1: it was all me because I looked at him crazy
Speaker 1: like I don't care about it, like like pull me over,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm straight, like I ain't doing nothing. Put me over,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do? Take you to jail and I
Speaker 1: get out. So with all these things, the broken hands,
Speaker 1: the broken hand, the motorcycle accident, the motorcycle accident, Are
Speaker 1: you still riding motorcycles? No? I'm happy to that. And
Speaker 1: you know what, after my accident, I promised my boy
Speaker 1: came over. Uh so he ride he was riding. I
Speaker 1: was itching to ride a bike, being like after I
Speaker 1: got to accent, my leg was still messed up and everything,
Speaker 1: and I had to like I just went down the
Speaker 1: street and came back because I had I had an
Speaker 1: itch to do it. But once I got on and
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm done, like and that that took it
Speaker 1: all the way. After I got on that bike and
Speaker 1: came I'm like, I'm done. No broken the broken leg
Speaker 1: and already had that and that and do anything. You
Speaker 1: just had to get one more ride in huh No.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't a ride. It was like it was
Speaker 1: like on my street, like it was residential street. I
Speaker 1: had to because I don't know why. Man, it was
Speaker 1: just a thing like I I gotta do it, and
Speaker 1: I did it, and uh couldn't do it. The while
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I see why I stayed off of done.
Speaker 1: So with with all those things, the broken hand, cancer,
Speaker 1: being a suspect motorcycle accident, what keeps you going and
Speaker 1: not giving up? My three little I want to show
Speaker 1: them that. Uh. And they know I became champion. They
Speaker 1: watched the fight. Uh the second time I became champion. Uh.
Speaker 1: I want to show them that. Uh. I guess there's
Speaker 1: no quick when I want to. When I want to retire,
Speaker 1: I retire at my own uh leisure. I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to do it myself. I don't want to
Speaker 1: have somebody else do it for me. Uh, but just
Speaker 1: no quick, just resilient and uh keep pushing, uh them
Speaker 1: guys out there and my wife man, and it keeps
Speaker 1: me going. You know. I talked to my wife up
Speaker 1: to every fight to see, you know, what I should
Speaker 1: do and whatnot. It's not tips, it's just you know
Speaker 1: what she said, because she can see more than I
Speaker 1: can see if I change in tide rinkers. I'm gonna say, oh,
Speaker 1: I keep going, I keep going, but she can see
Speaker 1: if I change from you know, how I fight, my
Speaker 1: fighting style and everything, and you know, we talked about it.
Speaker 1: You know, at the end of the day, it's it's
Speaker 1: not me anymore. It's us, you know, if I keep
Speaker 1: going or not, or or should I retire? And I
Speaker 1: asked that after when I thought Tyryn Davis, I was
Speaker 1: in camp and I asked her that. She said, just
Speaker 1: give it a couple more fights because you look good. Uh,
Speaker 1: but uh, she said, yeah, after the next fight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: take us through, you know, take us through, take us
Speaker 1: through a preparation of a fight. You talked about cutting weight,
Speaker 1: how unhealthy that is. You're talking about how you have
Speaker 1: to go out and seek your own sponsorship. Take us
Speaker 1: through you know with pay per view and we at
Speaker 1: an HBO. We get to see kind of how things
Speaker 1: are going on, and we get to peek into the camps.
Speaker 1: But what what part of what we see for TV,
Speaker 1: what part of Rocky is is really just drama? Is
Speaker 1: so much drama, But what is the actual preparation for
Speaker 1: boxing really looks looks like it feels like from a
Speaker 1: professional boxer. Uh, it's tough, man, because you gotta stay
Speaker 1: dedicated if you get out what you put in in boxing. Man,
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I think it's really
Speaker 1: everything you do but boxing. If you if you're doing
Speaker 1: bad and your party and all the time, it's going
Speaker 1: to show. I mean it's it's obvident. It's evident. But
Speaker 1: like with me with with the bus and weight, with
Speaker 1: the you know, you gotta stay disciplined, you know, my team,
Speaker 1: Like with my team, I tell you can go out,
Speaker 1: you can go out and do what you want. Like
Speaker 1: I don't care as long as you're there when I
Speaker 1: need you and you're doing what I need at the
Speaker 1: time that you need to do it, you can do whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'm not gonna hold you back just
Speaker 1: because I'm in camp, you know, getting ready. But when
Speaker 1: you but when you're in camp, like when you're in camp,
Speaker 1: you're about to let's just you know, hypothetically you're about
Speaker 1: to have a match. When do you start preparing mentally
Speaker 1: and physically? What two months? Three months, two and a half,
Speaker 1: two and a half months out, two and a half
Speaker 1: months and I'm locked in. Yeah, I'm locked So what
Speaker 1: are you doing my family to like about three and
Speaker 1: a half two and a half months, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't even see my family two and a half months,
Speaker 1: Like I'm in camp, I'm they're at home. I'm probably
Speaker 1: in Florida, like a last camp, I was in Vegas
Speaker 1: to camp before that I was in I was in Florida.
Speaker 1: That was three months. So I was going, I've never
Speaker 1: seen them for three months. Uh take us through that
Speaker 1: training for three months. Uh it's so I get down there,
Speaker 1: Uh condition coach down their meal prep. They ain't even
Speaker 1: meal prep. I get meals cooked. You know some people
Speaker 1: meal prep. My My meals is cooked on the spot daily. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then I got my head trainer. But conditioning is sprinting,
Speaker 1: you know, we lift weights early uh, and not heavyweights. Uh.
Speaker 1: We just lift a light to get you know, back
Speaker 1: into the groove. Uh, just a whole bunch of like
Speaker 1: exercise man, and it it hurts. That's at the beginning
Speaker 1: of camp. When when I started boxing, stuff calmed down.
Speaker 1: But it don't like on all like so Wednesdays and Saturdays,
Speaker 1: I do no boxing stuff. It's all something different, but
Speaker 1: it's still working out. It's just to give your brain
Speaker 1: to rest from boxing, and you know you're thinking about
Speaker 1: other stuff. Uh. So then the days that I I
Speaker 1: do the condition stuff when I started boxing, you know,
Speaker 1: sparring or boxing other people and uh, like a Tuesday
Speaker 1: night or something. But then them is the conditioned days
Speaker 1: I run and I don't run, uh five six, seven miles.
Speaker 1: I'm not like, I'm not a tracker. I'm a boxer.
Speaker 1: If I can get in the ring twelve rounds, I
Speaker 1: can go twelve rounds with you know, in a fight.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just what it is. I'm not a
Speaker 1: track star. But some people gotta run to lose weight.
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem losing weight. Like I'm disciplined
Speaker 1: when it comes down to lose the weight. Uh, I
Speaker 1: don't eat after seven I'm drinking nothing but water, like
Speaker 1: water the whole time. Uh, and I'm eating what he
Speaker 1: gives me. Some people it's tough to lose weight. Some
Speaker 1: people will lose twelve pounds in two three days, and
Speaker 1: that's tough. That that's what get it out of them.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. If you lose it wrong,
Speaker 1: that's what we'll discussing. Losing it wrong or losing it
Speaker 1: too fast, you know, go downhill. But it's just, uh,
Speaker 1: boxing is a lot of mental man. If you could
Speaker 1: be mentally strong in boxing, man and do what you
Speaker 1: need to do, you can definitely succeed in for sure.
Speaker 1: Is that what precluded you from moving up or down?
Speaker 1: That's yeah, I gotta I gotta degree, I got I
Speaker 1: got you know, I got all that stuff, high school,
Speaker 1: educating all all. I got twelve, I gotta g d.
Speaker 1: I don't have no diploma and we all and we
Speaker 1: all still here. That's the beauty of it. But is
Speaker 1: that what precluded you from moving up or down? You
Speaker 1: you mentioned Roy Jones before, like before he fought Harvor,
Speaker 1: but you've never done that, So what precluded you from
Speaker 1: moving up or down? It was just I was I mean,
Speaker 1: I could make sixty eight easy, like it wasn't a problem.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, when people move up, is generally a
Speaker 1: problem of you making that weight. You know, I'm coming
Speaker 1: down probably from one nine probably highest. I remember after cancer,
Speaker 1: I was two hundred or something and I had to
Speaker 1: lose all that weight in two months, uh to get
Speaker 1: back to where you know at sixty eight. But like
Speaker 1: with me, I don't uh, I don't get too far
Speaker 1: out of shape. I'm still being sure. I got a
Speaker 1: gym in the back of my house, so I'm still
Speaker 1: gonna be in shape. I still do little things, uh
Speaker 1: to keep me ready for going into camp. You gotta
Speaker 1: get ready to go into camp because it's it's tough,
Speaker 1: you know, especially for a big fight. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. You gotta be ready, you gotta stay you
Speaker 1: gotta stay ready. So you ain't gotta get ready period.
Speaker 1: So now at thirty seven is your age of benefit
Speaker 1: because you mentioned how hard it is and with age
Speaker 1: it's your age benefit at all. No, it's it's getting
Speaker 1: tougher to make the weight. Honestly, I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 1: here and say it's not. I mean, you lie. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just stubborn but but this it still comes off.
Speaker 1: Last camp it was it was easy, like I uh,
Speaker 1: I usually have a a burger, Like I really don't
Speaker 1: eat like burgers and stuff during camp, but I had
Speaker 1: a burger my last my last two weeks of my
Speaker 1: camp because I could like I was on weight. I
Speaker 1: was straight, like I can eat it. My metabola if
Speaker 1: I'm old, my metabola was gonna burn that off, queen.
Speaker 1: So it was like, no problem, man, what how would
Speaker 1: you categorize the sport of boxing to day? As far
Speaker 1: as it was though, as far as good and bad. Right,
Speaker 1: I've seen boxing, I've I've been a fan of boxing,
Speaker 1: but I've also dropped off of boxing because of how
Speaker 1: people from how it is and they're trying to push
Speaker 1: it back. But from a guy that's in the inside
Speaker 1: of a participant of the sport, I want to know
Speaker 1: what you what do you believe the state of the
Speaker 1: sport is because you're participating, Like, I'm just a consumer,
Speaker 1: and just like consumers in anything, my vantaged point is skewed, right,
Speaker 1: My perspective is skewed because I'm not I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not grind. I'm not dealing with all the stuff that
Speaker 1: you're dealing with. I'm not seeing how Paul's the sausage
Speaker 1: is made. I'm just saying the finished product and seeing
Speaker 1: seeing the finished product is you know, you don't really
Speaker 1: get a true sense of whether the direction of the
Speaker 1: sport is going good or bad. So that's why I'm
Speaker 1: asking from you, because think about it. You've been doing it.
Speaker 1: You've been participating in the sport for thirty two years.
Speaker 1: So you you you've seen it when you when you
Speaker 1: when you could barely read because you're nine years old.
Speaker 1: Right now, you've seen it to the point of where
Speaker 1: you know the contract looks like just everything if you've
Speaker 1: been exposed too. So I got a question for you.
Speaker 1: How many changes have been made to football since you've
Speaker 1: been playing? And so many it is hard to keep
Speaker 1: up with and that and that's my job, right understandable, Okay,
Speaker 1: Now none have been made the boxing? Why? Like I
Speaker 1: don't understanding? Like why haven't changes? We need changes? Like
Speaker 1: stuff needs to be improved. The judging needs to be improved.
Speaker 1: We need to put judges in the box or give
Speaker 1: them by theirselves with nobody there looking at the TV
Speaker 1: and judging it by that, how would they how are
Speaker 1: they judging it currently right there, right right at ringside,
Speaker 1: looking at it, looking at the fight ringside. But you
Speaker 1: gotta understand, if the judges behind me and the guy
Speaker 1: isn't I hit him and I hear don't you can't
Speaker 1: see it. But if he's in that booth with no
Speaker 1: sound and the you know where you can't hear the
Speaker 1: audience yelling or anything getting persuade, Uh, it'll be better.
Speaker 1: But that's that's the changes. That's the changes. I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the changes. I think we need. The
Speaker 1: other changes is uh finding a way too, and I
Speaker 1: guess we're doing that, uh, finding a way to see
Speaker 1: if the fighter is really hurt, having them do the
Speaker 1: cubis cheff, you know, side to side. Uh. I mean
Speaker 1: it's the truth. I mean it's a good yeah to
Speaker 1: some extent, because if you're a ref you can stop
Speaker 1: it any time. You can do whatever you want at
Speaker 1: any time. And like, I don't think that's fair. I'm
Speaker 1: leaving my life because say, if I got a big
Speaker 1: fight and I'm winning the fight, but this one judge
Speaker 1: don't like me, he get a fight to the other guy,
Speaker 1: that messes up my money the whole time. Like, if
Speaker 1: I keep winning my pay keep going up and up
Speaker 1: and up and up. Uh. But if there's one judge,
Speaker 1: life in my hand. I mean, my career is in
Speaker 1: his hand. I want to fight. Everybody's seen it, and
Speaker 1: these judges give it to the other guy, like, what
Speaker 1: are we doing? Man, what are we doing? That's why.
Speaker 1: But the crowd persuades that, like the crowd here, Oh,
Speaker 1: even if he don't get hit, Oh, they see that
Speaker 1: and then be like, oh, he had to win that round.
Speaker 1: And then the judges is judging off the last ten
Speaker 1: seconds of the fighter, like if I if I, if
Speaker 1: I get off the last ten tickets, I went around,
Speaker 1: but I ain't win the whole round. Come on, man,
Speaker 1: it's a let's a whole lot of things that we need,
Speaker 1: and we need a union. We need somebody looking after
Speaker 1: the fighters. But we can't have that because there's so many.
Speaker 1: It's thousands and thousands of promoters. Man, that's all they
Speaker 1: got their hand out. And note we cannot have a
Speaker 1: union because everybody can't come together and bring on the
Speaker 1: same thing we need to. We need a pa person
Speaker 1: like Floyd, but he's not gonna do because why he's
Speaker 1: a promoter and he wants his money, just like everybody else.
Speaker 1: And don't nobody want to look after the fire. At
Speaker 1: the end of the day, it's not the fighter we look.
Speaker 1: We we can't look when nobody's looking after the fighter.
Speaker 1: They're looking after that for themselves. Man. So I give
Speaker 1: I give the boxing really a B to a C plus.
Speaker 1: You know how everything is going. That brother is honest
Speaker 1: and he ain't on no great in scale either, ain't
Speaker 1: no Bill Curve, I take that great man? Are they
Speaker 1: are there real boxing rivals or is it just for
Speaker 1: show that? I mean, I don't. I don't gotta fight him.
Speaker 1: The bottom want tom fight them. Like with the m
Speaker 1: m A. You gotta fight if you're gonna fight, like
Speaker 1: they're not gonna tell you you fighting, and you gotta
Speaker 1: fighter boxing. We got this guy, I don't want to
Speaker 1: fight and pick somebody else that don't make no sense. Man,
Speaker 1: how much I'm sorry I didn't cut your way? How
Speaker 1: much do you think m m A UFC. How much
Speaker 1: has that impact of the popularity of boxing? Popularity went
Speaker 1: down because of the m m A. Seriously, like m
Speaker 1: C m m A, it's taking over. People want to
Speaker 1: see knockouts, people want to see the best fight. The best,
Speaker 1: and we're not giving them that we're giving them. You
Speaker 1: just fight anybody you want to fight. Man, what was
Speaker 1: I want to fight? I don't fight anybody. I don't
Speaker 1: give it. Hell, be in there and put me on
Speaker 1: the phone book, coach, I'm rereading ye. Why are you
Speaker 1: on Alvarez? I fight anybody like and I do want
Speaker 1: him because, like right now, you gotta understand, I'm thirty
Speaker 1: seven years old, I'm the top five, I'm one of
Speaker 1: the I'm the one of the best super middleweights at
Speaker 1: thirty seven. Like I'm the oldest guy in the top
Speaker 1: five right now, oldest, like nobody in Super Mario. I'm
Speaker 1: the oldest. And I can't keep fighting for nothing. Like
Speaker 1: if I keep fighting for nothing, what am I reaching
Speaker 1: for it? Like I'm reaching for nothing like money or
Speaker 1: yeah we give money, we don't get that. But what
Speaker 1: am i? What am I actually reaching for nothing? I'm
Speaker 1: reaching for error. But if I don't fight for a championship,
Speaker 1: what am i? What am I doing? M end of
Speaker 1: the day? What am I doing? You? You play football
Speaker 1: to play for championships? You don't. You don't play football
Speaker 1: to win a division title. You play football for champions
Speaker 1: I want a championship. Forget that. I mean the money.
Speaker 1: Everybody wants money, we understand that, but come on, man,
Speaker 1: if I could, if I could read if, if I'm
Speaker 1: miss close to that bill, I want to grab it. Man,
Speaker 1: I don't want to keep reaching for error. Give me
Speaker 1: a shot, me a shot coach the next one. What
Speaker 1: would that next title mean to you? I mean in
Speaker 1: me everything. It means that you know I'm still there,
Speaker 1: you know, and people will see that. Uh with the
Speaker 1: knockout I had my last fight. I think people seeing
Speaker 1: that I'm still you know, contender and this, Uh, you
Speaker 1: knocked the hell out of that dude. Man, I man,
Speaker 1: a body, a body, a body blow, an upper cut
Speaker 1: that man, they'll leave, they'll leave, Yeah, they'll leave a
Speaker 1: lasting impression. And that was textbook upper cut ding dong nightnight.
Speaker 1: I'll let you. I agree. I think that was one
Speaker 1: of my and I knocked somebody out where he really
Speaker 1: didn't remember where he was like, he asked that we fight.
Speaker 1: Check and yeah, but you should checking you right now,
Speaker 1: I'm talking you right now. You missed a great opportunity.
Speaker 1: You should tell him. Don't worry about it. Dog. What
Speaker 1: what was your boxing dreams when you first started. So
Speaker 1: my grandfather always said, we are you know, these boys
Speaker 1: gonna be world champion. That was my dream to be
Speaker 1: a world champion. And I succeeded. I have nothing to
Speaker 1: prove to anybody, but I succeeded being a world champion.
Speaker 1: I did it twice, me and my brother. And you
Speaker 1: know that was the dream, you know, become world champion.
Speaker 1: What do you believe the lasting effects about boxing we'll
Speaker 1: have on you? Uh? Right now, I'm fine. Uh the
Speaker 1: last in effects I mean that, I mean, do you
Speaker 1: think about it any right now? I'm not really, but
Speaker 1: I do want to. You know, my mind when I
Speaker 1: first when I first pay professional, my mind is no,
Speaker 1: i'mnna be the best super midiweight you know. You know
Speaker 1: how ever, like I'm gonna be there, the top guy.
Speaker 1: And I still got the opportunity to do that. Litten
Speaker 1: me fighting Canello, I can meet him, I can be
Speaker 1: thrown him, the king, the pall king. And when I
Speaker 1: do that, if I can get the opportunity to do that,
Speaker 1: that would be my dream. That would be my legacy.
Speaker 1: So you talked, You talked about Flint at the beginning.
Speaker 1: If you were known for one thing in Flint, at
Speaker 1: the end of your life. What do you hope it
Speaker 1: would be? Just how much I helped out the city.
Speaker 1: I know, not nothing to do with sports, just be
Speaker 1: helping out the city and me trying to bring flat
Speaker 1: back up. Well, man, that's all our time. Man, really
Speaker 1: appreciate you sitting down with us. Yeah, of course, Man,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you all having Man, you are a unique person.
Speaker 1: You are well worth it, you are competent and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable. I'm Steve Smith Senior, I'm Gerald
Speaker 1: Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with Steve Smith Senior. That is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It LLC, Baltold Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple
Speaker 1: Podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from
Speaker 1: Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, SINGR co host
Speaker 1: Gerard Little John, talent and booking manager Joe Fusci, Social
Speaker 1: media team Wesley Robinson and John Show from Balto Creative Media.
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrek, Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, Lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all