The Bill Simmons Podcast - Emergency Kawhi/Raptors/WTF Saturday Pod with Joe House, Plus Andy Ruiz Jr. Stops By | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Episode Date: June 8, 2019

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House to recap game 4 of the NBA Finals, Kawhi’s historic playoff run, game 5 predictions, NBA Summer moves, and more (2:05). Then Bill sits down with boxing heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. to talk about his exhilarating fight with Anthony Joshua, his fight prep, the rematch, and more (1:02:40). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Joe house. And I are going to break down a memorable game for, and just an incredible point of Kawhi Leonard's career and NBA history feels like it's shifting a little bit on its axis. Then Andy Ruse Jr. Coming up after that. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right. It's not too many things that would get us to, A, work on a Saturday,

B, wake Nephew Kyle up where he's ready to go at 9.45 in the morning when I picked him up, and then C, pull house away from his family on a beautiful Saturday in the East Coast. But hey, a lot of shit going on right now. The finals, it's three to one. Toronto is one win away. More importantly, Kawhi Leonard is close to putting a ribbon on one of the great postseason runs of all time.

House, your brief thoughts. Oh, Canada, our home and native land. My briefest thought is congratulations, Canada. You're going to have your first major sport title since 1993 because the Toronto Raptors are winning this series. Unless Kevin Durant flew to Germany overnight last night from the West Coast and is going to arrive in Toronto Monday with some kind of blood transplant, surgically enhanced calf replacement surgery. The poor warriors are done. Yeah, Kobe and LeBron would have figured out some sort of foreign country help by this point, I feel like.

I think KD likes to stay in America. You know, I'm glad you brought him up because I was thinking last night, and kudos to Toronto and Kauai and all that stuff. Injuries happen every year. This is not an excuse. It would have been really cool if KD was in this series healthy battling Kawhi. I really think that at the level Kawhi is playing at now, if KD was at the level he was at two rounds ago,

those guys going mano a mano would have been really special. That could have been potentially one of the five or six greatest powwows we've had in the finals. So we were cheated of that. But the real mano a mano would be Kawhi healthy as well because his left knee is messed up. He doesn't dunk off of one foot. He hasn't dunked off one foot this whole series. Yeah, and that's what's made... It's weird.

I don't feel like the announcers have talked about that enough. It does seem like he's like 75% healthy or 70% healthy, but his footwork is so good. And just the force of will he has. I'm trying to put in perspective historically what he's doing. And it's pretty crazy. Like you're talking,

he's averaging a 31-9 for this entire postseason, which, you know, 22 games now. That list of just dudes who have done that, you're talking LeBron last year, Jordan 92, Hakeem in 95, LeBron in 17, Jordan in 91 and 89, Kareem in 74, Jordan in 90, Kareem in 80, LeBron in 09,

Jerry West in 66. And that's it for people who played 14 games or more. Just 31-9. Just to do that night after night for two months is insane. But then on top of it, the two-way play and his defense, not just this series, but especially against Giannis when they really needed it. And then on top of it, just we don't see forwards usually dominate the finals like this or the whole postseason like this.

There's only been a couple. Even Durant has never had a own the playoffs through four rounds type of things. We're talking LeBron. We're talking Larry Bird. We're talking Tim Duncan. And that's kind of really it. Yeah, I have a few inputs on these historical superlatives to share also,

and then I have a question for you. I want to ask you first, the list of NBA players with 35 points and zero turnovers in a road game in the NBA finals. Do you know that list? Is it just Kawhi? Kawhi and Michael Jordan. Wow. And so just quickly interrupt you on that.

I think that's been one of the things that has made this Kawhi run so special. He's not just doing this at home. Really some of his best moments have been on the road. I think Zach Lowe wrote in his ESPN piece today about the three that Kawhi hit in game four of the Philly series. When they were down 2-1, it just seemed like Philly had more talent than them. You and I both thought Philly was going to win that series. And I think Redick had just hit a three. It was 91-90. Kawhi came down. They're double teaming him with Embiid. And he somehow figured out a way to get this three off right before the

shot clock buzzer goes in. They're up four. They survive. They tie the series. And then that leads to what he did in game seven. But he's been really, really big and really, really clutch on the road. Game five, Toronto. The game last night, you know, we felt like you felt at halftime. We all felt like, oh man, how is Toronto only down four? Like, this is, this is crazy. They absolutely suck. This is the worst they played in three weeks.

They're down four. Come out at halftime and he hits those two threes in a row. That was like some Jordan shit. Didn't you think? Yeah, exactly right. They played in three weeks. They're down four. Come out at halftime and he hits those two threes in a row. That was like some Jordan shit, didn't you think? Yeah, exactly right. That is the only comparison that's appropriate. He comes out. It's a force of will moment.

He refuses to let his team win. There are two junctures in the game. He scores 14 of his team's 17 points in the first quarter because whether it's conscious or subconscious, he detects the fact that there is something wrong with his team in the first quarter of that game. They're missing energy. They're missing chemistry. They're missing something. So he just takes over for his team the offensive responsibility. And then he, you know, same way, processes during halftime what his team needs and comes out and immediately resets the agenda for the rest of the game

with two humongous, really series-defining shots that, you know, will go down in Toronto lore as really, to me, the turning point of the entire series and the thing that defines him individually. And it's the reason that he's going to be the MVP of the NBA Finals. And I don't say this casually because I thought about it last night and I thought about it this morning. I'm ready to say this and I don't feel like casually because I thought about it last night and I thought about it this morning. I'm ready to say this and I don't feel like it's hyperbole.

I think Durant is one of the best 15 players of all time. And I still think I would have him ranked higher than Kawhi just because the depth of his career and the consistency and the year after year after year and some of his greatest moments. I just think he's had a better career. I think Kawhi's ceiling is a tiny bit higher because his ability to kind of control a game without controlling it

and then step in when necessary, which he's been doing basically for four rounds, where his sense, which is really at another level of the game's going this way, I'm going to let it go this way, I'm going to let it, and now I'm going to kind of grab the reins back.

Yeah, it's beyond basketball IQ. Yeah, it's something different. He's an Einstein-level basketball genius. It's like intuition. Well, what's crazy is there was really no inclination of this until two years ago. The 2007 postseason when he was really brilliant

and that was kind of lingering over the whole Kawhi trade thing last summer. It was like, well, the upside is that guy in the 2017 playoffs was out of control. I mean, he'd already won the 14th title. He'd done a really good two-way job against LeBron and all that stuff. But what he did the entire 2017 season and then in the playoffs, it was like, oh, that's the ceiling if you trade for this guy and he ends up being healthy. What he's doing in this playoffs and especially these last three rounds

where I think he really went to another level. I just don't know if Durant could be that consistently impactful on both ends. I think he can be 90% there, but there's something going on with Kawhi that I can't say I've fully ever seen with Durant. The control of every aspect of the game, I don't feel like KD ever put all of that together.

We have the luxury and I'm going to knock on wood right now. Cause I don't want anything to derail this, but, uh, Kawhi is three years younger than Durant. I mean, he's 27 years old, so we should have,

again, I'm knocking on wood at least another solid four years, five years, maybe six years, if he could stay healthy and be in the right system. And maybe this is the new iteration of regular season NBA basketball. Maybe your superstars only play 60-some games because we have now observed how grueling the finals are, the postseason is. And when they start the season in October, the way they did to space out, you know, over

the course of the regular season to eliminate, you know, or minimize the back-to-back games, you have to manage these guys minutes. I mean, another, you know, series defining sort of element of this quick sub-tangent is Steph Curry being entirely out of gas last night. Like, he's just dead on his feet after an unbelievable performance Wednesday night. And sub-sub-tangent, can we please complain? Why the F did they play last night? Why wasn't that game tonight?

Why did they play Friday night, Bilson? I looked at it, and you end up having to do Friday if you're going to do it correctly, unfortunately. What does correctly mean? Because you can either do multiple Saturdays or just have the one Friday where you just kind of get it out of the way. Because what they wanted was the two days rest between each road trip. So that was the reason for it. Because what they wanted was the two days rest between each road trip. So that's that was the reason for it. So what? They control

their schedule. Go forward. Push it back. I know. Listen, I looked at it. They could go Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, Friday. Like there has to be a Friday no matter how you flip it, unfortunately. Why? Just take the extra day.

I'm just telling you, I looked at it. Anyway, I'll leave that alone. They control their own schedule. Anyway, I'll leave it alone. So the regular season versus playoffs thing, I was trying to think of how many guys actually got better in the playoffs. Because Kawhi is better in the playoffs than he is in the regular season.

He goes up a level, which is kind of what we dream about in our little hot take media world of the guys who come through and it matters. And this guy goes up a level when the playoffs happen. Doesn't happen very often. You know, I think even, even if you just go through stats and stuff and you just look at regular season stats, playoff stats, people are usually around the same. The field goal shooting goes down a little bit. Pretty rarely do you see somebody go up a level. I think Jordan was somebody that did that. I think Hakeem Olajuwon did,

especially the two Houston years. Shaq, no question, in 2000, 2001, 2002, just kind of ratcheted up a notch other than that people usually are who they are

regular season playoffs Kawhi is better in the playoffs you're supposed to be your boy Kyrie that was supposed to be the distinguishing factor I'm not talking about him

no remember remember I wrote a column and then I did a whole thing about it in my basketball book about the 42 club? The most simple way to decide whether somebody was having a meaningful postseason

was points, rebounds, and assists for an entire playoffs. And it had to be at least 13 games. And somehow that turned out to be the perfect number where it was able to cut off all of these Carl Malone playoffs. You and I, he's like our least favorite playoff player. If you do the 42 club where the guy had to make the finals,

here's the list house. LeBron did it five times. Bird four times. Jordan four times. Shaq those three straight times. Moses twice in 81-83. Hakeem twice in 94-95. Oh, by the way, this is post-ABA

merger, so 76 on. Kareem in 1980. Magic in 91. Barkley 93. Kobe in 01. Iverson in 01 is the only outlier on this whole list. Duncan 03 and Kawhi in 2019

he's a 45.4 right now that's the entire list that's an incredible list look at that, LeBron, Bird, Jordan, Shaq, Moses, Hakeem, Kareem Magic, Barkley, Kobe, Iverson, Duncan, Kawhi other than Iverson those are probably the best players

of the last 45 years. That's true. Except for Durant. Durant's the only one missing. Durant came really close, and he actually did it in 2014. They didn't make the finals. So then there's the 42 club no finals, where

you play at least 14 games or whatever. LeBron had three, Jordan had two, Malone had two, Westbrook had two, Magic won, Shaq won, Duncan won, KG won, Durant won. Blake Griffin, 2015, 44.3. And then Giannis this year. I want to go back to your point about

Durant in the top 15, not Kawhi. I mean, we're making a pretty good case here. It's coming. I feel like it's coming. Again, I'm knocking on wood here, but I think because of what Kawhi does on both sides of the ball. Now, it has over the last, like, say, 18 months, Durant has improved his defense, and there's been public recognition,

acknowledgement of how impactful he is defensively. He would be guarding Kawhi in these playoffs and that would put Draymond in his natural roving defender, the incredible job that he does. So everything flows from the proposition of, of Katie playing defense, you know, uh, on Kauai.

And it is the single thing to me that is really, again, sort of the series defining thing. Golden state cannot stop Toronto. They cannot string together stops to keep Toronto from running downhill. Toronto has won 13 of 16 quarters in these finals so far. But I think Kawhi on both sides of the ball as a 27 year old, and if he stays healthy, his ceiling to me is higher than KD.

I just, you know, I think he is an MVP candidate every year, except I think the correct thing for him, if he has these leg troubles, is just to play between 60 and 65 games a season and then come in and kick ass in the postseason and define his legacy, his career that way. He was going to be one of three players to have won an MVP finals award on two different teams.

It's a list of three. Yeah, it's early. I need to see a few more seasons at this level because I think the thing that's separate, when you start getting into that top 20, one of the variables you have to have is the consistency and just banking great seasons. There's been guys who have had-

You want some endurance. you want some endurance. You want some endurance. Yeah, you need some stuff. Like, yeah, Bill Walton's the worst example of this because he really only had one great season. But you want, you know, when you're doing it, Katie's talked about this, the consistency of year after year,

being out there, being healthy, putting up great numbers, being in big games. Once you get into that top 14, 15, those are the guys that have been doing that for 12, 13 years. I think what Kawhi has shown this playoffs combined with 2017, combined with what he did in the 2013, 14 when he was young, is he has a chance to be one of the best forwards of all time. He's probably already there, but I always thought the best forwards of all time.

You're talking Duncan, talking Bird, Durant, and I'm leaving somebody out. Duncan, Bird, Durant. I mean, you can put LeBron alone, dude. No, LeBron. Sorry, LeBron. Yeah. The greatest forwards of all time are LeBron, Duncan Bird. Durant was in the four spot. Kawhi's climbing.

I think this leads to, I know we're going to talk about this all summer, but if they do win the title and they win the title on Monday night and he's in a really great situation and he's in a really great situation. And he's got an awesome front office that's not afraid to spend money. The Gasol trade has paid off in dividends. The passing and just the know-how that he's brought the last two rounds has been really important. So smart.

Lowry's an expiring. Ibaka's an expiring. They actually have a chance to make one more run with this team, but then also potentially rebuild a little bit. This is probably the best basketball situation for him going to the Clippers, you know, and all of these new people that you've never really played with. And you're trusting that other people are going to come.

If he does that, that's purely lifestyle. There's no other reason for it. Cause he's in a better basketball situation where he is right now. He's in the best possible basketball situation he could be in. You're right about that.

You used the word trust. I mean, part of that trust thing, and it's what soured his relationship in San Antonio, is they clearly have an understanding and a game plan as it relates to his health, his well-being, his wellbeing, his load management. They sure did knock that out of the park from my perspective,

because he, he's dinged and he's still killing it. These, these playoffs. Do you feel, do you feel like it's realistic now that he stays? Cause I thought I would have bet anything. He's going to the Clippers.

If he wins the title with the outpouring that, you know, this Toronto thing has been really fun to watch from afar. I didn't even realize that they hadn't won a title since 93. And they had the Blue Jays and the Canadians that same year. They've gotten their ass kicked in the Stanley Cup finals, I think five or six times since. And this is now 26 years. That's a long time. That's older than Kyle. Kyle, what year were you born?

93. Kyle's now here. Kyle's an adult male with a girlfriend. It's been a long time. The outpouring of that combined with how smart the front office and organization is, combined with the fact that this team really fits him well, kind of be weird if he left.

I think it'd be super weird if he left again, I support his decision, whatever he wants to do. It's his life. He's earned the right to self-determine, you know, is the sort of employment trajectory, but what a, what an awesome opportunity in Toronto. And, you know, repeating is hard. Like, you know, making it to the NBA Finals is hard. The East is getting better. And especially, who knows what happens this offseason with KD.

If KD comes East, you know, this Brooklyn trade, this Brooklyn Atlanta trade, holy cow, things are happening in the East. Oh yeah. Hold that. Cause we got to talk about that in a second. Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. But I'm just saying like for, for his assessment of like, how do I define myself?

What do, who do I want to be in, in, in my basketball legacy? I think it's right to stay. I mean, that's, that's the best way to, to make the point. I'm not even sure. I don't think he thinks about legacy. I just think he is a pretty simple guy with this stuff. I think he'll assess

it and he'll just go, I'd like to win the title again. I'm going to do a one-on-one contract. One-on-one is great. So smart. I actually think that's how I went from thinking the Clippers were like a minus 600

favorite to sign him. I think now the most realistic one is he does a one-on-one. Nobody in the history of basketball has won the title and then left the team. It's never happened. That doesn't mean it can't happen, but it's never happened. And I can't even remember it happening in baseball or football.

I'm sure it has, but I don't remember. For a guy at his level, um, who, uh, could sign a longterm thing. What is, what size insurance policy does he have to get?

Does he have to get a $300 million insurance policy? If you do one in one, you can't risk. And he have to get a $300 million insurance policy? If you do one-on-one, you can't risk and you have, you know, you know that you have some leg trouble. You have to have some kind of assurance. Yeah, you're right. Shit. Is it a $250 million

policy? Especially because he's playing on a semi-compromised leg right now. Yeah, you're right. He can't do one-on-one. It's too risky. Well, no, he can. You can get a policy. Somebody will underwrite it.

It just might cost him $10 million in premium for that policy. We can need an insurance expert to come on here and help us understand the math on it. But I honestly think one-on-one makes the most sense in terms of his basketball self-determination. On the other hand... He has to take off the table, that downside case.

Well, on the other hand, if, if he, if he won the title for them and he left, there's no bitterness at all. Right? The Raptors are so grateful. It would be like, if you're a virgin and you're 18 and you meet somebody and they're like, I'm just going to have sex with you for three months and then it's going to end, but you're going to have sex for three months. I would have been like, cool. Can you sign me up right now?

I would take that now. I'm the best looking person you're ever going to have sex with and it's going to be three months and then it's going to be over. You'd be like, well, what about a long-term deal? I'd be like, no, that's great. Sign me up, three months.

I think that's what the Raptor fans are so thirsty and happy and they needed this so badly. They'd probably throw him a parade as he left. Why not? Why not? All he's done is he's the quietest dagger. Like, seriously, think about historically. Who's the quieter?

Him and Tim Duncan are the only two that I can think of. Kareem was kind of quiet. Not really that emotive. A little bit off. He was quiet on the court. I think Moses didn't speak, so he's way up there. He is the quietest dagger. This is the Moses Malone Award.

Wait, I have a follow-up thought on this, but I wanted to mention Big Little Live, our post-game show for Big Little Lies, which is really good this season. I've seen the first three episodes. If you watch Big Little Lies on HBO, the show ends, and then go to Twitter,

at Ringer, or hashtag Big Little Live, and you can watch Amanda Dobbins, one of the queens of the Ringer, along with America's sweetheart, Mina Kimes from ESPN. They will be breaking down Big Little Live right afterwards.

So you just go to at Ringer or hashtag Big Little Live. Oh, and speaking of things we care about here at the Ringer, don't forget to check out the Rewatchables 1999 on Luminary. That is our spinoff series from the very popular Rewatchables podcast. We're dissecting some of our favorite movies from 1999. Did Office Space last week. You can check it out. Check out Luminary's premium content for free

when you sign up at luminary.link slash Simmons. After that, it's $7.99 per month. Luminary.link slash Simmons for two months of free access. Cancel anytime.link slash Simmons. After that, it's $7.99 per month. Luminary.link slash Simmons for two months of free access. Cancel anytime. Terms apply. And speaking of the rewatchables, Dead Poets Society is coming Tuesday night now, it looks like. So me, Chris Ryan, Mallory Rubin, and it's really good. All right. I want to talk about the Kawhi personality thing for a second. This happens rarely, but it's happened here where the entire team has taken on his personality. It is this quiet assassin team. There was this video of them leaving the court after game four. They'd just gone into Oakland

and taken two road games. And you would have thought it would have been one of those people stalking off the court, yelling, chest bump. Yeah, fuck you. None of that. They just walked off the court. And it reminded me a lot of the 04 Pistons. And that's been the analogy people have been using for two weeks here. That if here's the case for the Raptors, they're just better.

The math says they're better. The personality they have, They have the great player. They can get stops defensively. And they could do an 0-4 Pistons here. The Warriors are banged up. A little like the 0-4 Lakers where they lost Carl Malone right

before the series. And there's an 0-4 Pistons blueprint here. And that's what this feels like in a lot of ways. Where that 0-4 Pistons thing, as you know, because me, you, and Sal have been wagering during this whole time, I thought the Warriors were going to win this series. After game one, I flipped completely. And after game two, did the wraps in five for 17-1 odds.

Because I was just like, I don't think the Warriors have answers. Like they, like if they hadn't gotten red hot for the first six minutes of the third quarter game too, they would have lost that game. And I loved all the shots the Raptors were getting. I thought they had way more answers. I thought Kawhi was the best part in the series.

And if Durant's not going to come back, it actually makes a lot of sense to me that the Raptors would win this series in five. Does it make more sense to you now? I don't know. I do believe that Toronto is going to win this series. I wouldn't be surprised if the Warriors win game five, though, because this is the last guess from a super proud, these guys have in their dna that that the

nba title is they're entitled to it you know what i mean no i i think like we haven't draymond and iggy you know together can score like 30 points the problem golden state has problems on both sides of the ball. They can't string together stops. They can't get enough scoring out of the front court. And Boogie, boy, oh boy. The apparition,

that Game 2 tricksterism, he can't play. He's not ready yet. Well, that was the thing. Game 2 is a gimmick. They used Toronto's defensive strategy to... he can't play. He just, he's not ready yet. Well, that was the thing. Game, game two is a gimmick. They, they use, they use Toronto's defensive strategy where Toronto is basically crowd in the

perimeter and they used it against them in a really smart way with boogie, a guy that people forgot can be a pretty good passer. If you're just letting them stand up there and pick people off. But once Toronto figured out how to solve that, they didn't really have a plan, a plan B, you know? And then you think like, I think the biggest mistake Golden State made in this series was beating Curry into the ground in game three.

And I said this after game three in the podcast with Priscilla, we were talking, we were arguing about the rest thing. And I, and I come and go on the rest thing and how important it is. I think we overrate some of it. I think we underrate some of it. I thought the game three, the workload Curry had in that game on both ends, what they asked from him, how hard he played, how physical the Warriors were with him,

everything he did in that game was really debilitating. And it was, in my opinion, too risky because I didn't think they really had any chance in that game anyway, without clay and without KD and to ask Curry to just go all in, like it was a game seven and you lose anyway, then you got to play 48 hours later. That's why he was dead. I'm not making excuses for the guy. I think he, he looked really worn out to me. And I don't, I think I would just would have thrown away game three and tried to put all my chips

in the game four basket. What do you think of that? I agree with this. And the corollary to that is Klay looked so good last night, was so active, had so much bounce in his legs, six of 10 from three.

Like, he, how hurt was he on Wednesday? You know what I mean? Yeah. He could have played, but I think they were worried about making it worse.

And what they didn't realize was they were going to make Curry worse for game four. And, uh, I, the best part, if they just thrown away game three completely would have been how mad everyone got.

Oh my God, this load management. Now we're doing in the finals. People would have lost their fucking mind. But I actually think that was a good strategy because the Wednesday, Friday combo is brutal. But then we go two days rest Monday.

We go two days rest to Thursday and then two days rest to Sunday. So it's the only time you basically just had to game it so that game four, we're all in. We have to win game four. And what we saw from Curry last night, he just looked dead to me the whole game. And they've really worn him out. The other thing they did, and I couldn't

believe the announcers missed this. They, the Toronto just played a crazy frenetic, frantic pace first half. They went out, they, they were just like, we're, we're playing like we're Loyola Marymount in 1990. And it wore down the Warriors. And it worked. Toronto didn't even play well in the first half, but the pace they set, the Warriors couldn't keep up with it, and they died, I thought, in the second half. Did you see that?

It crushed Steph. All the juice that he had was gone by halftime. And it's the thing that, that let, uh, Toronto come out and win that third quarter 37 to 21. I mean, it was a classic. It's not a surprise that golden state and Toronto led the league and third, third quarter differential, um, this, this season, cause we've, we've seen it now in the, in this series, like the big team that went to third quarter wins the game.

And that's why it's three to one Toronto right now. But Toronto has all the healthy bodies. They have all that depth. Well, they're also doing, Toronto's doing something that you and I love and we've been advocating ever since we've had this, we've been doing podcasts together. He's playing seven and a half dudes.

He's like, I got my seven and Norman Powell's going to play five minutes each half. And that's my team. All you guys are playing, you're playing big minutes and here we go. And I think Nick Nurse has been spectacular. Really? I had no idea he was this good of a coach.

Like even the stuff like playing with that crazy pace in the first half, I thought that was just brilliant. They clearly went into that game thinking we have to make... Because think about in the past. The one thing you didn't want to do with the Warriors was play like that. Right? Because if you played

like that, that led to chaos and that led to how dangerous they were because when there was chaos, that's when the Warriors thrived. When it was like, everybody's flying around. It's like, oh, I forgot. Oh, clay's open. Shit. And then he makes a three.

And then there's whatever, loose ball and all of a sudden Curry makes a 28 footer. And that's like exactly what you didn't want to do with them. And they kind of embraced it. I thought that was really, really smart. And I think the way that the team has learned to play off Kawhi, where this is, it's a version of hero ball, but it's not because he's making

the right decisions all the time. It's not like some sort of mid-2000s Kobe thing where it's like, give me the ball, get the fuck out of my way. They're playing off him. There's picks. There's people rolling off. He's making decisions. He's finding Danny Green, who they've just decided to

leave open, which is and take their lumps. He was 0 for 6, remember, in the first half? Then he starts making them. They basically decided, fuck, Kawhi's playing so well, like Lowry and Green and Gasol, we kind of have

to hope they miss. And that's when you're dead in the finals, I think. When you're just praying that guys aren't going to make wide-open 23-footers, then flipside, Golden State's really having trouble getting good shots, and that's been the case all series. The lesson is, KD was the best player in the league four weeks ago and he's

not there and they have not been able to adjust to it. What a lesson. Yeah. You, you lose the best, you, you lose your best player and you, you,

you can't, you know, beat the second best team in the league. But here's the thing. So now I'm looking back at this whole five year thing and they took so much beat the second best team in the league. But here's the thing. So, now I'm looking back at this whole five-year thing and they took so much shit for signing KD and he took so much shit for going there. But actually,

do they win another title without him? I mean, it's a lot more in doubt. Let's say they gave Harrison Barnes Oklahoma City team In 2016 And they did lose to the Cavs And let's say they bring Harrison Barnes back And they just run it back With Harrison Barnes for 100 million dollars

Because KD goes to the Celtics So I think plan B would have been Alright let's bring back Harrison Barnes Not convinced that team wins In 17 or 18 KD goes to the Celtics. So I think plan B would have been, all right, let's bring back Harrison Barnes. Not convinced that team wins in 17 or 18. Do you think it wins? Me either. No.

It's not nearly this kind of a certainty that we've come into each of the last three seasons. No way. Because I think in 2015, which was just a really weird season, they probably won the title a year before they were ready. And if you look back, that probably should have been the Clippers. I think if you look back, the Clippers were probably the best team that year.

Or you could have said the Cavs if they hadn't had all those injuries. And the Warriors were right in the mix. It was one of those three. And the Warriors ended up winning it. 2016 was their best year. They actually should have won the title that year. And then Draymond punches LeBron the balls. They were going to win that series in five and it flipped.

But now, I think the league just got better in 2017, 18, and now 19. The league now is the most competitive it's been this whole decade with teams. And I don't know if you just could have run the 2015-16 team back for the rest of the decade and expected to just keep winning titles. They actually needed Durant. You saw...

I went from thinking this was... They were in fuck you run, fuck you KD. They're just going to roll through. I did not believe in the Toronto team like this. And I really thought part of their success was that Philly was so screwed up and Milwaukee was, you know, Milwaukee just kind of wasn't ready.

But now it's like, oh shit, we actually underrated Toronto. I mean, Toronto, what was the line for those first two Toronto games for the finals? Was Toronto underdogs? Yeah, they were underdogs in both. Well, guess what the line is for game five?

Toronto by five and a half. Toronto by three and a half. People still believe in this Warriors team without KD. I just said. Yeah, we were...

You can't count out Golden State. You know. Never underestimate the heart of a champion. I will say this. The biggest winner of this entire series from the Golden State side is Looney. Because that guy looked like he was in legitimate pain yesterday and

gutted it out. And I'll tell you this, House. I'd rather have Looney than Kyrie next year on the Celtics. If you gave me like Looney's door A and Kyrie's door B, get Kyrie the fuck out of here. I'd rather have Looney. Seriously. Kyrie, just leave. You don't have to worry about that. Kyrie's already

gone. Good. Please. He's in New York. Can you make sure? Can you write the goodbye letter now so I can officially say goodbye to you, Kyrie? Don't come back. Nobody wants you. Don't worry. It's already been submitted. The Players' Tribune has had that letter for three weeks.

Good luck in Brooklyn. Good luck. Good luck with another young team and high expectations. I'm sure it'll go great. Look, let's talk about Brooklyn, though. They just cleared out some space for another Mavs contract. I like that trade. You know what's funny about the NBA?

Brooklyn's like, guess what they never should have done? Giving Alan Crabb a giant contract offer. And then Portland stupidly matches it. It was like, wow, we dodged a bullet. Oh no, we're still going to trade for Alan Crabb a year later. And then it's like, oh, now we need two first round picks for Alan Crabb a year later. And then it's like,

oh, now we need two first round picks to get rid of Alan Crabb. And then everybody's like, great job, Brooklyn, including me. But sometimes that's how it goes in the NBA. They have room for two max slots now. I felt this way for three weeks and I feel this way right now.

I think KD and Kemba go to the Knicks. And I think Kyrie goes to the Nets and I think he goes there. You ready house? Dramatic pause? Go ahead. Yeah. No inside info at all. The ringer's JJ Redick. I think he

joins him. That's pretty good. It's his backyard. I mean, that makes perfect sense for JJ Lives in Brooklyn Friends with Kyrie Duke guys Kyrie's been on his podcast

They had a great podcast On the Ringer Podcast Network Before I was ready to drive Kyrie to the airport And uh How about this house? What about trading D'Angelo Russell to Phoenix? How do you feel about that I feel fine with it

where do they get back could I get the six pick for him hmm that seems fair seems fair right yeah it seems fair he's better than

than anybody you're gonna get get in six. Could I then take that six pick, put it with Karis Levert and Jared Allen and in that future pick in 2022

and something else and try to get AD? Now, that's a package. That's a package. That package rivals anything the Lakers could do.

Because I started coming up with my quiet resignation that the Lakers are going to get AD eventually. I don't think so. I actually think the Knicks have a better chance. I really think the Knicks are in the pole position with this. Yeah, I really do. How can that be? The Knicks don't have anybody.

They have KD and Kemba, and then they trade everything else for AD. There's no everything else. There's nothing else. Number three pick. You just put together with the net so much better. Number three pick and Kevin Knox and the Dallas picks. Those Dallas picks. Smells like a poop.

Those Dallas. That Dallas pick is going to stink. Yeah. But what if Porzingis, what if he's just never that good? And it's just like Luca and no draft picks and not a lot going on. Those picks, those picks aren't as bad as people think.

35 to 38 win teams. They're going to win 38 games that way. So if you could get number six, Jared Allen and Karis LeVert for AD, you would do that? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Would you rather have holiday and Zion? and Karis LeVert for AD, you would do that? Yes, yes, yes. Would you rather have... The two Holiday and Zion?

Would you rather have number four, Brandon Ingram, whatever the hell is going on with them health-wise, Kuzma, and Josh Hart? And Lonzo. No, you have to have Lonzo. Otherwise, don't even talk to me. If you're Phoenix, would you rather trade the number six pick for Lonzo

or for D'Angelo Russell in a sign-in trade? Ooh, that's a good one. I like D'Angelo Russell. He did it. He's done it. You know, Lonzo's just potential, potential, potential. It's an awesome feeling. I really enjoy watching Lonzo.

I think he is going to be an all-star, but I'll take the all-star. We have an all-star. I know who the all-star is. His name is D'Angelo Russell. Because here's the thing that nobody has mentioned with this Kyrie Brooklyn thing. Somebody has to be sacrificed. They already signed Dinwiddie. He's making like 10 a year. Kyrie will cost like 30. You can't also, but putting D'Angelo Russell and Kyrie together is one of the dumbest ideas of all time.

Sean Marks is not going to do that. Sean Marks is too smart. So you flipped D'Angelo Russell. Could they get, I wonder, could they get, could they get six and something else for D'Angelo Russell? I would trade six for D'Angelo Russell right now if I'm Phoenix. Sign me up. It's a great deal

for them. Are you kidding? I wonder if they'd get D'Angelo Russell and Devin Booker? Throw in weirdo Josh Jackson in that. That doesn't sound like a win. Oh, you mean for Phoenix to get rid of him? Yeah, well, just for Phoenix to throw him in the trade and then Brooklyn has one more thing to try to go get AD with. Brooklyn's definitely up to stuff. If we've

learned anything over the years, it's that when a team is just aggressively clearing cap space, aggressively, something's up. I agree. They know there's some sort of move.

Remember when right before LeBron came back to Cleveland, they made that crazy trade that ended up getting the Celtics. It was like a three-way. It ended up getting the Celtics to pick that they ended up flipping for Isaiah Thomas. And it was all because they had to just dump some contracts and people like, wow, this is weird. Why are Cle, why is Cleveland dumping these contracts? Then it was like, Oh, cause they're getting LeBron James. So with Brooklyn, I don't think KD is the second piece though. I think if he goes to New York,

he goes to the Knicks going to Brooklyn. And that's a, that's a lame. I want to add, I want to add some entry to this. Yeah. You know, who, who just left Brooklyn and went to New Orleans in an assistant GM role? Who? Oh, no, not assistant GM. Pardon me. How dare I?

It's an outrage. The new GM of the Pelicans trading Langdon. Formerly of the Brooklyn Nets. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right, we've cracked this one.

We're going to do some dealing. There could be some dealing. Do you think they have a good relationship, Trajan and Sean Marks? I think, if I had to guess now, I think Jimmy Butler goes back to Philly. I think Kyrie goes to Brooklyn.

I think KD and Kemba go to the Knicks. I think Kyrie goes to Brooklyn. I think KD and Kemba go to the Knicks. I think Davis goes to either Brooklyn or the Knicks. I think he goes to New York. And I think the Lakers get cut out. And I'm not just saying that because I can't stay in the Lakers. I really think there's a world in which the Lakers get cut out and they're looking at like Tobias Harris.

And that kind of that level of free agent. Nothing would make me happier. If they get cut out, I do think it's in play that LeBron might ask for a trade or something. Or the Chris Paul scenario that we've talked about. Because that's the other thing that could happen if they could flip Chris Paul for a... Oh, I mean, just bring back the whole banana boat.

Dwayne Wade can come out of retirement. Camelo is available. Bring the whole boat back. Well, Dwayne Wade's going to be living in LA. Really? Yeah, because his son and LeBron's son are going to Sierra Canyon together. Awesome.

And thank God not with Zoe Simmons in the ninth grade. I think it would have been too weird. No, if my daughter and LeBron's son became friends, that would have been really weird. I don't know how I would have been able to handle it on the podcast. House.

I think we, I think we hit it all, but you, oh, there's one last thing I wanted to hit. When does Trump get involved? In what? When does Trump get involved? In what? When does Trump get involved?

When does Trump get involved in what? The Canada thing? Yeah, the fact that Canada wins the NBA finals. It feels like Trump is going to do some tweet. I'm feeling it on Monday night. Now we've lost the NBA championship to Canada. Sad! Exclamation point.

Nah, nothing out of Trump. He already knows the NBA is the third rail for him. He understands how unpopular him and everything about his whole regime is to anybody

that likes the NBA. I actually think, give me more realistic. Toronto wins by 20 or Golden State wins. More realistic, I think Toronto wins by 20. That's how I feel too. I think this reminds me of game five, Pistons-Lakers in 2004. That kind of feel. This is now a

train steamrolling down the tracks and there's no stopping it, in my opinion. I agree with this. I don't know what can change. What can Golden State do to change things? They don't have... They have to send Kevin Durant to Germany to get his casket.

That's the only option they have. Are you buying? When will we hear whether or not KD's playing? I mean, I think they were hoping he'd play in game four, and Jalen alluded to this on Countdown, and I heard similar. They did like a sneaky test run with him On Thursday and it was terrible

And he just can't He just He's not ready to play So he's not playing And so this is over I think he's going to play in game 5 would be my prediction I just don't think he's going to be Effective

So here you go House Go ahead talk to me would be my prediction. I just don't think he's going to be effective. So here you go, House. Go ahead, talk to me. Toronto minus 11 is plus 310. I'm on that. Love it. Good one. That's one.

Keep going. Let's just point out, Golden State over and over again over the years has surprised us when their backs were not only pressed against the wall, but somebody had their hands around their throat. They've had a way of rising to the occasion. They're going to have two days rest. We will have full curry and clay. We will have Draymond. We will have Andre Iguodala, future Hall of Famer, great big game player.

We're going to have Looney on God knows what kind of pain medication. And, you know. Three points for Iggy last night, by the way. He's old. He's our age. And potentially KD playing 20 minutes. They're not going to go down fighting, but I do think it's more realistic Toronto blows them out than Golden State wins. And I don't really know what's going to go down fighting, but I do think it's more realistic Toronto blows them out than Golden State wins. And I don't really know what's going to

happen. And I think anybody who says they know when KD is such an unknown variable is losing their mind. That's right. But we'll gamble on it. Yeah, we're going to gamble on it. I have some real equity now in that Toronto 17-1 win in five bet. That could

be one of my better bets. I missed it. It was too late when I saw that, that comparing your notes on that one. I couldn't jump in. What are you going to do when, when the refs for game five are Dick Bavetta, Scott Foster and Mark Zuckerberg.

That's great. Now that, that now we're talking about, this is, this is one way for sure. Let's see what that lineup we're talking now this is this is one way for sure let's see what that lineup is when do they announce that

that's that's I'm gonna put this on my calendar I wanna know what time they announce the ref it's in the morning the morning that day oh

it's gonna be so good let's let's be sure to tweet that out and see if there's any conclusions to be drawn the ref the ref did not get to the free throw line last night by the way.

We didn't talk about the idiot minority owner of the Warriors, Mark Stevens. But let's not talk about him. What a moron. He was drunk. I think he... Why is it in the front...

So many people got so outraged over this guy lightly shoving Kyle Lowry, which was... Obviously, he's a huge douche and he should lose his seats, all that stuff. I haven't heard the conversation of what made him do that. What chain of events led to him being, he seemed mad at Kyle Lowry.

And I watched a clip from every angle and it seemed like he was mad that Kyle Lowry went barreling into the stands that violently. Like he was like, come on, man. Jesus, we're sitting here. Like he just, it was just a complete break from reality of what it's like to sit at a basketball game. Perfect. It was insane.

Perfect break from reality. That's what alcohol and drugs do. You're under the influence of something. Now he's probably a couple of jigs. That brother was not sober. He's just what a dumbass. No, I actually think it's really conceivable

that he was sober and he just is a dick and was like, oh man, you can't come in. We're sitting here. We've paid good money for these seats, man.

You can't endanger us. He's a co-investor. If it's true, and he should have had to go take a P-test afterwards, but if it's true that he was sober when that happened,

then he needs to be required to relinquish his investment in the team. Yeah, but here's the thing. I mean, that... My staff was... It's funny how my staff reacts to some of this stuff.

They were... They were just like banning this guy for life, all this stuff. Here's why that can never happen. They can't set a precedent that can then be used against other owners in similar situations. All these owners, all they're thinking about is how does it, no, listen. The 30 owners are like, how does this affect me? They're not thinking like, oh, I'm worried about the league. They're worried about like, I'm worried about me. And if we set a precedent that the fine is like $3 million or you lose your team forever,

you immediately have to sell your rights, then where does that end? So I knew it was going to be one of these things like one year ban, 500K, whatever. What? There's no precedent. I knew it was going to be one of these things like one-year ban, 500K, whatever. What? There's no precedent. You can't be sitting courtside and intentionally put your hands on a player. I'm with you. That violates the precedent.

There is no punishment that's too high. The other owners all have the basic self-control to not deliberately try and touch a player who's entered the stand from the field of play. Listen, he's banned for a year. He's a public pariah. And he's probably going to have to sell his stake in the team. That seems like a pretty good punishment for, for what he did. I agree with that. If you go more than that,

like that's, that's crazy. Why? Why is that crazy? Cause you can't just like, he just touched him. No, he didn't.

He pushed him. It was intentional. How about this? Do you, do you think he didn't. He pushed him. It was intentional touching. How about this? Do you think he should have been... I'm very familiar with intentional touching. That was an intentional touch. Do you think he should have been given the electric chair? Like, should we have killed him?

Could we have executed him? This is ridiculous. What about lethal injection? What about lethal injection? How far do we go? He got the second biggest punishment in the history of the league. He deserved it. This is the whole thing they can't have the fans this is the league

that had the malice of the palace we agree this was not the malice of the palace he lightly touched the guy and gave him a sneer you know why because Kyle Lowry was level headed enough to not turn around and bust that dude.

He should have. I wish he had. Fuck that guy. No, no, he should not have. Kyle Lowry was a perfect gentleman under the circumstances. He went directly, he appealed to a higher authority. He pointed out to the ref. He pointed out to the coaching. That was the correct move. That's how we live in a civilized, there's an order of law. We live in a civilized society. There are rules. There's a way of remedying our grievances

without busting people in the chop. Maybe Kyle Lowry will think the next time he goes flying in the stands for a loose ball. Maybe he learned a lesson too. The whole thing was so stupid. The guy is a public pariah. However this played out was the worst possible scenario for him. Whatever we find him and whether he has to relinquish his stake or not,

he is now the guy who got involved with Kyle Lowry. And that is the worst possible punishment. He's Scarlett Letourneau. You can't do worse than this for him. You can find him more money. The guy's a multi-billionaire. You can ban him from NBA games for a year.

You think he's going to be back two years from now sitting courtside? We're never seeing this guy again. He's never coming back. Ever. So what? I think he's got a lot of other things he can do with his life and figure out how to be happy. He needs to go to douche rehab. Well, what's the over-under on when we get some kind of small story?

It'll probably only be out in the West Coast in San Francisco. You know, dumbass douchey owner, you know, enters rehab facility. He needs to go to a personality rehab. He's antisocial. I agree with this. It was antisocial behavior. It was antisocial. It was bizarre. He was genuinely mad at Kyle Lowry for chasing a loose ball and into the first row. It's like, I don't even understand the mindset. My guess is these guys feel like they're on the team.

They own a piece of the team. They get so into it during the games. Lowry was an agitator provocateur this whole series. So he probably like was mad at Lowry anyway. And then Lowry comes flying in, almost cleans out his date. And he's just like, come on, man! Jesus!

Shoved him. It was fucking crazy behavior. Maybe you're right. Maybe he should have been fired more. Can we increase his fired? Big links. Big links to that guy. Mark Stevens.

Pariah. All right, House. Fairway Rowland, want to promote that really quickly Mark Stevens. Pariah. All right, House. Fairway Rollin, want to promote that really quickly? Yeah, I do. Our nation's championship is a week away, Bill Simmons. Yeah. The U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Love it.

The iconic, legendary, perhaps the greatest public golf course in the world. St. Andrews is right there with it, obviously. The greatest public golf course in America.. St. Andrews is right there with it, obviously. The greatest public golf course in America. We have three shows coming up. We have a Monday preview. We're going to set the table, talk about storylines. I think there are only like 10 to 12 guys with a legit

chance of winning this. We'll go through that. Wednesday's show, a lot of angles. We're going to talk about how we might allocate a little capital, how you want to put in your fantasy lineups, your DFS lineups, and then we'll have a recap late Sunday night here on the East Coast.

This is one of my favorite things, by the way, Bill. It's Father's Day on the Sunday completion of the U.S. Open, and I get to watch it in prime time. The East Coast gets to enjoy that final round, and it's a prime time thing Each coast gets to enjoy that final round. And it's a prime time thing because we have that West Coast timing.

It's one of my, just glorious when the USGA comes up with this. We'll have a recap right afterwards on Fairway. Rollers! I get to watch the final round of the US Open with my dad on Father's Day. I'm very excited. He's going to be in town. Yeah. So there you go. That's the way it's supposed to be. All right. House. Try not to shove anybody who comes barreling into your row at any of any events you go to these next, are you still celebrating your birthday?

There was another birthday party yesterday. Yeah. How many birthdays are you celebrating? I had another birthday dinner last night. A bunch of my DC homies. We went to this terrific Italian seafood restaurant called Fiolo Mare. A lot of heavy hitters. Adam Rappaport was in town. Jim Bankoff and Vox. All the heavy hitters came out.

I played golf with Tony Kornheiser yesterday, by the way. That's incredible. You've spent more time with Tony this year than I have. Well, you got to come out here and do PTI. They're dying for it. No, they're really not dying for it. They're like, can you come in late July, early August when there's no sports?

Want to fly back and spend three days in 105 degree D.C.? Any interest? I don't know. Not that enticing. Nice quiet time here in D.C. I have my new show. I'm hosting a new game show with Mark Stevens

called Douche or Not a Douche. It's going to be great. Mark Stevens is going to weigh in. It's a spin-off of Magic Johnson tweet. He's the world's biggest douche. He's going to then weigh in on other behavior of other douchebags and decide how douchey that behavior was. Douche or's biggest douche. He's going to then weigh in on other behavior of other douchebags and decide how douchey that behavior was.

Douche or not a douche. Coming on the Ringer Network soon. I'm looking forward to it. House, a pleasure as always. Thanks for coming on on a Saturday. Talk to you soon. All right, we're going to bring in the champ, Andy Ruiz Jr. We taped this a couple of days ago.

I've been dying to run this. He was awesome. He beat Anthony Joshua Last weekend And was kind enough to come in And hang out with us here at The Ringer Before we get to that though Wanted to mention Ringer Dish

Our new celebrity culture podcast Launched this week To rave reviews Tea time was on there Jam session Relationship deep dives Four realsies With my daughter and Liz Kelly. We did four last week and we're going to keep it going.

Subscribe to that. You could also subscribe to the press box. The old channel 33 feet has been converted into the press box. David Shoemaker, Brian Curtis, the podcast that no other than nephew Kyle has said, it just makes me smarter I did say that

just raises my IQ every time I listen to it it's really good so subscribe to those hey speaking of things we love ZipRecruiter finding a new job

it's a lot of work before Nephew Kyle we made a move to LA he was a PA on my HBO show the show got cancelled I was like I still like this kid.

I see something in his eye. There's a hunger. We teach him how to do podcasts. And now he's the world's best podcast engineer. And it took a fucking while. It did. Now he's really good at it. It's work. Well, what if you had a personal recruiter to help you find a better job? ZipCruiter's technology can do that for you. Download the ZipCruiter job search app. Let it know what kind of jobs you're interested in. It's technology. It starts doing the work. The ZipCruiter app finds jobs you'll like.

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the sooner it can help you find a better job. All right, let's bring them in. Andy Ruiz Jr. Here we go. All right, we are taping this Wednesday around lunchtime. The champ is here. Andy Ruiz Jr. Unbelievable. I we go. Alright, we are taping this Wednesday around lunchtime. The champ is here. Andrew Ruiz Jr. Unbelievable. I watched it. Couldn't believe it. Thank you, man. I appreciate that.

I wish I had known that you had the hand speed like that against Joshua because the odds were unbelievable for you. Unbelievable. You were like 11-12-1 underdog. Everybody that betted on me, they're making a fortune right now. Have you talked to anybody who actually bet on you? Actuallydog. Everybody that betted on me, they're making a fortune right now. Who did you have?

Have you talked to anybody who actually bet on you? Actually, my whole family betted on me. Stop. I wanted to bet, but I kind of didn't want to jinx the stuff, you know? Of course, I had confidence that I was going to win, but I didn't want to put some money in and do all that. But my parents won like $10,000. Shut up. Seriously?

Each one. My little brother won like $7,000. So they were convinced you were going to win. That's an old Floyd Mayweather trick, I think. Yeah. He used to go to the casinos and put huge bets on himself before fights. I was like, that's one of my models too, bet on yourself.

Maybe I should have done that too. Well, you wanted this fight. That was one of my favorite things about it. Who was the guy who fell out because he failed a period of time? Gerald Miller. Yeah, so he falls out, and you're pushing for the fight. Talk about the stuff you did. So after my fight of Alexander Dimitrenko on April 20th.

Yeah, which was not that long ago. It was not that long ago. It was on April 20th. Luckily, I won. During that camp, there was a lot of interviews that I was doing, and I was like, man, I would love to fight AJ. If they find a replacement, make sure that I would be the first person to say yes. And what do you know, I ended up winning Alexander Dimitrenko.

It wasn't hard, it wasn't easy, but we got wasn't easy but we got him out there we got him out and in the fifth round so there is more hype of the Anthony Joshua fight and they're like man Andy

if they call you right now would you take it I was like hell yeah man I just got done fighting like a few minutes ago but but I'll go back straight to the gym

and if they give me the opportunity so two days later two days later I'm at home with my wife and my kids, and I just messaged, yeah, what the heck, I'm going to message Eddie Hearns. Hey, Eddie, give me the opportunity, man. I could do better than all the other guys that you have lined up for AJ. Let me do it, man. I have these Mexican people behind me and what do you know?

He wanted to meet up. He wanted to talk and that's how it all started. I'm not sure you're aware of this but Mexicans like boxing. This is kind of a big deal. It is a big deal. This is the first Mexican-American heavyweight champ ever. I'm trying to think. What's the

pantheon of Mexican boxers, Mexican-American boxers? Like, who are the icons? Like, when you were growing up and you were boxing since you were seven, who were the guys for you? I liked Fernando Vargas a lot, you know? Fernando Vargas, he was a U.S. And I liked him, Chavez. Chavez was ridiculous.

He fought for, like, what was he, like, 25 years? Chavez, Eric Morales, Barrera, all the Mexican fighters that my dad would make me watch when I was a young kid. And we would have all the family gather up at our house to watch the fight. So I was just this little kid, chubby little kid, thinking like, man, I want to be in that big stage. I want to become a champion. And what do you know? I'm the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world. You were fighting since what, man, I want to be in that big stage. I want to become a champion. And what do you know? I'm the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world. You were fighting since what, six, seven? Since I was six years old.

I went to a gym when I was six years old, and I started fighting when I was seven years old. And you were good right away? No. The first, when I was six years old, the first few weeks that I was in there, I would get beat up. I would get beat up. I would tell my dad, you know what, dad, I don't want to do this no more. And he was like, no, don't be scared. You can do it. Just keep training, keep training. And

what do you know, I trained a whole year. I turned seven years old. I had my first amateur fight in San Diego, California. So I was always this big husky kid, right? And being at seven, there wasn't no kids at seven-year-old that weighed as much as me. So I always had to fight older guys. So I think that's what gave me the...

I wasn't scared, you know? I was never scared of anybody besides God. We have quick hands. Quick hands go a long way with boxing. I think that i mean that fight was that third round is an all-time round i love when both guys go down in the same round wow i think i'm sure you probably don't like it as much no well it was my first time um testing the canvas so oh that's first time ever it was the first time ever that i've been dropped that i've been hurt um but i thought I took it well. I got dropped.

I took some breathe there. And what do you know? Wait, let's go backwards because I want to get to this. So you take this fight. You have five weeks? I have a month and a week.

How long does it take to recover from the last fight physically? At least a week, right? Or do you go right back in your training? You know what? I was a month and a week. How long does it take to recover from the last fight physically? At least a week, right? Or do you go right back in your training? You know what? I was more sore, more tired for when I fought Alexander Dimitrenko than Anthony Joshua. That felt like a dig. Yeah.

But I was, of course, I was tired and all that, but luckily I wasn't hurt. If the fight would have been like a 10-rounder, because that's what it was. It was a was a 10 rounder fight but i got him out of there in fifth round so uh i thought it was perfect you know it was a perfect moment perfect opportunity i just got done fighting and i'm fighting again so we jumped from one camp to another camp and i thought it was i thought it was perfect i felt ready and the thing with you is you get getting compared to Rocky Balboa. And there's a couple similarities, obviously, where you get called in last minute.

They need an opponent for the champ, all that stuff. But the thing is, like, you were talented. Like, top rank targeted you and you were there for a while. Like, you weren't somebody that was just this journeyman dude. Like, you were considered to be a talented guy yeah of course you know i've been doing this almost all my life since i was six years old or i could say seven years old since i had my first fight at seven and you know top ranks they they always um they took care of me you know they they did what they had to do but ever since i left top rank so many blessings have

been coming my way and it's just, I'm pretty sure top rank right now, they're pretty mad. Oh, they're going to be gone. Because if I was with them, they would have had the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world, but things happen for a reason, and I'm happy that I'm here with PBC and with Al Heyman. Because it's funny, now

it's swung around, where people are like, no, that dude, of course we knew this. Like, come on. The odds said that nobody believed in it. But I do think like, you know, it seemed like the diehard boxing people were at least like, this is going to be, this isn't like a rollover match. This isn't like a last minute person. Actually, the people that really know about boxing and they know the ability that I have and they seen me fight with with other um heavyweights you know yeah heavyweights they know the ability that i have and i think those are the people that were kind of scared like oh my god he's gonna fight anthony

joshua like jesse vargas um canelo asker de la olla they they all told daddy herons you know what there's gonna be an exciting fight i don't think you should pick this mexican guy he's gonna go in there to to to kill you know so but that's the that's the main thing you know what a great opportunity for you would you get paid for the fight do you remember i do but i don't know you don't talk about it yeah you're gonna pay more for the next one yeah of course do you have there's a rematch clause but you're in control of what happens with it. I'm in control of what happens. Good. They wanted to take it over there, but I want to keep it here in the United States. Yes.

Or take it to Mexico where all my people will be there. I don't know if, despite being in Mexico, that would actually be, that might be too crazy. Yeah. I don't, I can't even imagine i went to i saw i was at azteca once for a soccer game in 2009 between the mexican national team and the american team and that was the craziest crowd i've ever been and i've been a lot oh my god people throwing people throwing piss at the guys taking corner kicks but like but they they were so into it and i've just never i wrote a whole piece about it for espn i had never been in a crowd like that.

You defending the heavyweight title in Mexico, I can't even imagine. Imagine being the other guy walking into that, Joshua. That's how I kind of felt when I was over there. There's a lot of Brits over there. Everybody was booing me. And then it flipped. Yep, it flipped. People were rooting for you.

Exactly. I thought it was like Rocky IV when the Russian crowd starts cheering for Rocky midway through the fight. When he fights over there in Russia. And the announcers are like, now they're cheering, Balboa. It's like, eh, probably not. But it actually, this was kind of the real version of this. Some were cheering, but somebody, a lot of them were shocked. They were quiet.

They were like, whoa, what the heck just happened? So you show up for the fight. The weigh-in, are you starting to feel? Are you seeing anything in his eyes? The weigh-in, I was confident. I was confident the whole time I was over there in New York. Are you sizing him up? Of course.

Are you looking for a little? So what are you seeing? We size him up. We see how tall he is. See where my jab could, because I was hitting him a lot in the body. See where my jabs could go through. So the guy's in a suit, and you're looking at him, and you're going, all right, so he's this big.

If I do this, I'd have to reach this way a little. You're sizing all that up just looking. All those little things start coming to your head. You didn't size me up that way, did you? No. All right, look. You're sizing all that up just looking. Exactly. All those little things start coming to your head. You didn't size me up that way, did you? No. All right, good. So the weigh-in, you see anything in his eye, like a little bit of fear or like he's looking past you, he's not even worried? What did you see?

That's what I was thinking. You know, I think that he was underestimating me just because I was short, chubby, and maybe because I weighed a little bit more from my last fight because that was the plan, not to lose too much weight so I could be even stronger. You added five pounds, right? I added five pounds, exactly. But yeah, I think that was a perfect advantage. So then you walk out.

He's out there. You're in the ring. We're just staring at each other. What are you seeing there um i'm just staring at his eyes he's staring at my eyes and i'm just like fuck this is this is my time this is my opportunity this guy's in my way this guy's in my way and i don't want to leave it to the judges because when i fought joseph parker um i left it to the judges and um because of the training camp that I had for that fight, a lot of people don't know, I trained myself for that fight. When I was over there with Abel Sanchez, he had too many fighters going on. So I kind of had to train myself for the most important fight of my life against Joseph Parker. That really does sound like Rocky.

Yeah. And, you know, I got the loss over there. But, you know, things happen for a reason. And not just to win one bout, but to win four bouts is just a blessing. I watched that fight on Sunday. I missed the Parker fight. I didn't watch it. I don't remember what the timing of it was, but for some reason I didn't see it. It seemed like you took a couple rounds off in the middle, and that's why you lost it. I still felt like you won, but it became one of those things like that happens in boxing where once it gets to the cards, you just have no idea.

That's because of the training too. You know, I needed the trainer that I have right now, Manny Robles. He's always on me. He's always looking for me. Hey, where you at? Come back to the gym, this and that. And I think those are the kind of trainers you really need, you know, somebody that's going to be pushing you to the limit and making you be great.

So the first two rounds, what are you seeing? What are you feeling? And Anthony Joshua fight, I was kind of sizing them up. I was doing what my coach was telling me. I worked the body. I worked the head. And you're feeling good. You're moving around.

You're bouncy. I was feeling good. I was feeling light Throwing some combinations And Until we hit to the third round You didn't catch him at all in the first two rounds though, right? It seemed like a feeling out

Yeah, it was like a feeling out So third round it's on He tagged you early The third round he tagged me early He got me with the upper hook. I fell to the canvas. I took a few seconds just to recover really fast because usually a lot of people that get knocked down by the first time,

they get up right away and they're like, oh, dizzy. So I kind of did a mature thing and I kind of waited until he counted to six, seven, so I could get some air and I got up. And I knew he was going to try to finish me off. But you'd never been down before, so had you been down in

practice, nothing? Nothing. Not even street fights. And I've been in a lot of street fights. And nothing. Because that's famous of street fights. Right. And nothing. Because that's famous for your jaw. Uh-huh. Clean shot until I put my pants up and I said, you know what? I got to return the favor.

And I did it not just one, but two times in the third round. I mean, it was insane because it seemed like he was just watching it, knowing nothing, watching it live. It seemed like he was like two it, knowing nothing. Watching it live. It seemed like he was like two more punches away from you going down again. And then you snuck in this sneaky one on the top of his head, which I didn't even see it live. And then

like two punches later, he was kind of stumbling. It's like, wait a second, what's going on? And all of a sudden he was down. But it's funny. I saw Max Kellerman on first take, who's really great with boxing. And he was down but it's funny i saw i saw max kellerman on first take who's really great with boxing and he was saying how the guys who learn how to box later versus somebody like you that's been boxing your whole life the hand speed is different but then also the ability to know in a situation like that all your reps come in and you know what to do. You're calm.

You're in the moment. And you flip it on him. And all of a sudden, his head's spinning because he's not nearly as experienced as you. He's like, wait, I was just knocking this guy out and now I'm on the canvas. And from that point on, it seemed like he lost his confidence. Yeah, I think that's what happens, you know. But, you know what, thanks to God, everything happened the way it happened. I got him with that clean left hook in his tempo.

I think ever since, I didn't think he recovered from that shot. I don't think he did either. He didn't recover. I feel I could have got him out of there sooner, but I think I was just taking my time, just trying to be cautious and not to be smart. I was really impressed by that watching in the moment because so many times when this happened this happened the guy then he's just But you were actually like kind of taking your time waiting waiting and then like my 10 seconds left you got him again

Mm-hmm, and if the if that round went 30 more seconds, it's over Yeah, but at that point it seemed like you had the thing fourth round. You can't finish them Seems like he was getting his legs back a little bit but something was off i think that i think that from then i had a since since i didn't get him down he was getting his legs back he was getting his air back i had to continue to pressure him continue to follow him let him throw um while i'm catching his shot as well you know and and work the body some some of the stiff jabs that i throw to the body um if shot as well, you know, and work the body. Some of the stiff jabs that I throw to the body, it's really effective, you know.

And I think he felt those as well. And the thing that Chris Mannix did a good job with this, he doesn't really have the jab yet to keep somebody like you off. Because once you had your distance and you kept coming, coming, and he couldn't just, like, keep you at bay because he doesn't really have that jab yet. You just stayed inside him. When you fight somebody with speed, it's kind of hard to throw something because you keep thinking like, oh, my God, if I throw this, he's going to come back with three, four other punches. So I think he was thinking a little bit too much. I think I was thinking a little bit too much. I think I was thinking a little bit too much as well.

But, you know, I stayed composed and I stood my ground and I got him a lot of good shots. And then seventh round. Seventh round. I didn't think he wanted to continue. I think the referee was kind of babying him a little bit, you know, because once he's on the floor and they're still counting, counting, he still had to be counting because he was, like, going over here. He didn't even know what he was doing.

I knew it was over because he spat his mouthpiece out before he got up. And he did it intentionally. It wasn't like it fell out of his mouth. He actually spat it out, and I think the ref missed it. But when he did that, I was, like, I was watching with my wife and my son, who was going nuts, and I was like, he's done. He just spat his mouth. When you do that, you've given up.

And then he just seemed like he was in his corner. He kept looking to his dudes like, you going to stop this? Hey, I'm not going back out there, right? And wasn't listening to the ref and that was it you must have sensed you must have known i think i already had my head yeah when when he was already gonna stop it and at first i was like man what the hell what is he doing but after he was looking at his team and i was just like yeah man i fucking got it i got it man i got it how many how many times did you practice that moment over the course of your life?

You winning the heavyweight championship. Man, I had been through a big roller coaster, dude, for my whole professional career. A big roller coaster. And now that I'm here visualizing everything that I wanted and now everything becoming true. You just like black out? Do you even like remember what's going on? At times, you know. That 10 seconds after you realize you're

going to win, it must just like go black. It did. I can't even imagine how you'd remember it. I don't know. I was just screaming. That's all I could remember. I was screaming, jumping. It was just an amazing feeling. So you do the interview.

You go in the back. How many people do you have at this point? I have all my family in the back in the room with me. So you have like 20 people in there? Yeah, you could say 20 people. Doing all the drug tests, all them taking blood out of me. Because there's a lot of drug testing in this fight, you know, especially from what happened to Miller.

They were testing me constantly and showing up to my house without me even giving them their address. They didn't know exactly where you're at. So then what happens? But from then, I was still shocked, man. I was still shocked. Party? Everybody's telling me, congratulations, this and that. And I'm just like, whoa, I was still shocked. Party? Everybody's telling me,

congratulations, this and that. And I'm just like, whoa. What the fuck just happened? Did I just win? And I have all the belts right there. You get three belts. Four belts. You got four?

I thought it was three. It's the WBO, IBO, WBA, and the IBF. So it's four titles. Those last two. Like WBA has the IBF. So it was four titles. Those last two. Like WBA has been around forever. When I was growing up, it was WBA, WBC. And then they added IBF in the 80s. So I just need one more bout.

And then Wilder has it, the WBC. And I'll be the undisputed heavyweight to have all the belts well that's another guy who started fighting late right and and i know the guy he's i have a lot of respect for him as well um walder a really good guy um he'll talk some shit yeah he'll talk some shit he was actually supporting me for this fight he was telling me that andrew ruiz he's not somebody just to look over, you know? He got skills. He got the movement. But I always give him respect.

I always give respect, all the fighters respect, you know? Going in the ring, we're risking our lives. Yeah. So what happened that night? Where's the party? How many people are there? To tell you the truth, I don't really party until I get back home. But I was just still shocked.

I was just still shocked. I was in my room. After we did the drug test and everything, I went straight to my room. We went to eat. I went straight to my room. I didn't go to sleep until like 10 in the morning in New York time. I was just like, man, what the fuck just happened? I'm just crying.

I'm so happy. When did you know that, like, on social media and stuff, you had already become a cult hero? Because you're chubby. People were like, oh, my God, how is this guy the heavyweight champion? And then they saw the clips, and you're just kicking ass. And you were, like, relatable. Did you feel that?

I did, but, you know, all the hard work and dedication, it's all paying off, no matter how I look, if I'm chubby, if I'm fat. I think the TV makes me look a little bit more big than I am in person, you know? I was going to say, yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. in person, you know? I was going to say, yeah, I would agree with that. But, you know, for all the kids that think that they can't do nothing just because of the way that they look, all they have to do is just stay dedicated and, of course, pray to God and all that for your wishes and all that,

but work hard, work hard on your craft. So what's the ideal weight for you, do you think, going forward, like where you were this last fight? I think, no, I want to be at 245. So the loose skin that I have, I want to make it into muscle. So now that I have

good enough time to get ready for the rematch, I want to look impressive. Like, whoa, this guy is really taking it serious. This guy is going to look like a Hulk, you know? You think you could do that? Because I feel like the weight helped you in this fight a little bit too, right? Because he has a little power to help me.

But I'll be more explosive. I'll be more faster. Yeah. The punch, I'm always going to have it. I've been having it since I was a little kid, knocking guys out since I was a little kid. Yeah. Um, but yeah. Well, it's interesting because this happens in basketball too, where even if somebody

looks like they have a little extra weight on them, if you have fast feet and in your case, you also have fast hands, but I, you don't, you carry the weight, whatever the weight is. I carry the weight actually really good. I know how to work with it. Like you're not slow. No. Thank you.

Yeah, no. In boxing, all you need is fast feet and fast hands and the ability to take a punch and throw a punch. That's it. So if you get down to 245, what happens? So what do you have to do? Change your diet? Yeah, change the diet.

That was the plan. But yoga? Some hot yoga? Oh, you know what I heard? I heard that that's really good, too. But ever since I fought Alexander Dimitrenko on April 20th, that was the plan to get back in the gym, to keep working. But we got the Anthony Joshua fight, and we're like,

damn, we don't want to lose too much weight. Right. Because the guy's fucking big. So when do you think that fight is going to be? October, November, or March? December. I'm thinking December. And you can't fight anybody before that?

I can't. That's a bummer. It is a bummer, but— You can have, like, the one tune-up fight. I think tune-up fights are useful sometimes. Yeah, of course. I think the Alexander Dimitrenko on April 20, I think that was a good tune-up fight. Then I went back to June 1st for the world championship.

I think everything fell in the right place. And Anthony Joshua hasn't fought like nine months before me. Which is dangerous. I like three, four times a year if you're the champ. So tell me what your dad said. My dad was just really happy. Was he crying? He was crying, and my dad never drinks, right?

He never, ever drinks. Since I grew up with him, he's never drank ever. And he said, son, if you win, I'm going to drink. I'm going to drink and celebrate with you. And I was like, what? All right. So he's buzzed immediately? Like two sips of a beer? No, actually, he still owes me those shots, though.

He hasn't drank. Oh, he still won't do it? You didn't even have, like, one that night? Because nobody did. I didn't either. So we're waiting until we get back home. There's going to be a big parade for me. Because where I live at, it's in Imperial Valley, a small town where everybody knows everybody.

So everybody's really, really happy. So you got to go to Imperial Valley first. And how close is that to Mexico? It's like, what, 12 miles? Yeah, like 10 minutes. Go to Mexico. Parade in Mexico too? Maybe.

But where I live at in California, that's where they're going to be the parade at in Imperial Valley. So there's going to be a few people there. There's going to be a lot of people there. What's the plan? Just to show kids that everything's possible, you know? Just where you come from, how you look, you know, everything is possible as long as you have your mind straight and pray to God. This is incredible.

I love when this happens. Boxing out of all the sports. It's really the MMA, I guess it can happen too. But in boxing, especially the heavyweight title, it just is a different kind of impact, I feel like. It takes one shot to change the fight, and that's exactly what we did. Plus, the other thing is the division's really fun right now. It is. You know, we had like this 12-year—I've loved boxing my whole life.

We've had this 12-year stretch where, you know, I call it like the Klitschko era. But even before that with Johnny Ruiz and people like that, it just wasn't that fun to be a fan of heavyweight boxers. And now we have you, we have Joshua, we have Wilder, we have Fury. I'm sure there's a couple other guys coming up. It feels like we're back. Is there anybody else you like? Any unproven or not unproven but unknown people out there?

I don't know. I think Tyson Fury, I love his act. I love his personality. I love how he talks shit, but plus he believes in God as well, like me. All those things are tall. Yeah, they're really tall. But when they fight a shorter guy, that's explosive. It's dangerous for the taller fighters because they have to

fight low, you know? So I think that's what gives me the bigger advantage. That was Frazier against Ali. He was always, like, coming up from these weird angles, and it was like the one guy Ali could never totally

saw. I guess he had trouble with Norton, too. Just, you know, as you know, styles make fights. So have you fought anybody who's basically looking in a mirror? Have you had that fight yet? Just a strong guy who's your size, throwing hands. I haven't. You haven't had that fight yet. I haven't.

I don't think there's guys like me, right? The big, chubby, Mexican guy that are in the rankings like that. Yeah, I don't think there are either. No. Maybe there's somebody coming. Maybe you're going to inspire people. Maybe. That's what I'm trying to do, inspire people. I mean, think about it.

Like Cinco de Mayo is always the biggest fight of the year, right? And why is that? It's because they know. Get everybody together always the biggest fight of the year, right? And why is that? It's because they know. Get everybody together for the biggest weekend, and that's when it's going to. So if you can get through the second Joshua fight, my money is going to be on you. Thank you.

And you set up that Cinco de Mayo fight. That could be in Mexico. In Mexico or here in the United States, you know, there's Mexicans everywhere, you know, but there's never been a Mexican heavyweight bout, a championship Mexican heavyweight bout in Mexico, so that would be a historic fight as well, just by me winning the bouts.

You think Canelo's happy about this, or does he feel a little threatened? I don't know. He's kind of, this is his corner. Exactly. So that's what I've kind of been thinking about, too. He's kind of, this is his corner. Exactly. So that's, that's what I kind of been thinking about too, but.

He's like, fuck this guy. But he, he inspired me, you know? Yeah. He inspired me. He,

he motivates me. So I want to be like the Mexican heavyweight Canelo, you know? Yeah. And in, in his era

and the blessings that he has as well. I'm really impressed by him because I thought a few years ago, I went to the Mayweather fight, and it just felt like he was outclassed in a lot of ways. He just, he took the fight, he was too young when he took the fight.

I feel like he wasn't ready. Yeah, he wasn't ready. But he should have taken it because it was so much money. It vaulted him to another level, all that stuff. Of course. But the way he's progressed over the last four years and like the combinations he throws now, and I just feel like he's gone to another level i don't know what what size do you think he ends up at i don't know i think he could he could do a lot of different sizes right

now um he's big he's strong i think i was there at the him and daniel jacobs fight yeah i think it was a really good fight i think um they hit him a few times, you know. They're not used to Canelo getting hit. But I think Daniel, he did pretty good. But being that in a different way, he moved up, right? He moved up. Would you have trouble doing your same process if somebody guaranteed you $330 million? Yeah, I would love that.

Well, I'm sure you would love the money part, but I'm always, that's so, we're just in such a weird era of boxing now. Because for decades, it was like, if you win this fight, then this will happen. And now we're entering this era where, like, if you beat Joshua again, somebody's going to offer you, you know, a five-fight deal for whatever. And then it's kind of up to you to live up to it in a lot of ways. It's just we've never seen this before. Canelo, I think, is fine. That would be really good, man. But first, I'm still signing with PBC and with Al Heyman.

So whatever they have for me, it's always a blessing. Who is the most surprising celebrity who reached out to you over the last three days other than myself um anybody that you Dwayne the rock the rock reached out to you

he messaged and said that it was a really good fight that he seen me train and he kind of smelled that it was going to be like a little upset and all that. God, I wish I had smelled it at those odds. I wish I had gotten a whiff. You know, right now my Instagram is blowing up. So I haven't really had a lot of time to see all this stuff.

How many followers do you have now? Almost a million. How many did you have a week ago? 60,000. Shut up. Seriously? 60,000. You're up at a have now? Almost a million. How many did you have a week ago? 60,000. Shut up. Seriously? 60,000. You're up at a billion now?

Almost. I think it's like 800. Oh, you're going to be at like 10 million in three months. That's crazy. What about commercials and stuff like that? Have you been offered that? You must have. I haven't done the commercials right now.

But you must have been offered them. Uh-huh. Right now, we're working on the sponsors for Snickers. We're working on that right now. But you must have been offered them. Uh-huh. Right now, we're working on the sponsors for Snickers. We're working on that right now. You said, what did you say about the Snickers after the fight? You said you have one before every fight, right? I have one before the fight. Every fight or just that fight?

Every fight. But sadly, they didn't let me eat the Snickers for the Anthony Joshua fight. I don't know why. What do you mean they didn't let you? They did not let fight. I don't know why. What do you mean they didn't let you? They did not let me. I don't know why. And all the other fights, they would let me. But for this specific fight, they didn't let me eat my candy bar.

And I was really upset. I was mad. But they were telling me something about the drug testing. Oh, like the peanuts could. Yeah. I don't know. But I was upset. I needed my Snicker bar.

And I probably would have put them down even earlier. It's six red. Yeah. Well, maybe you should. Maybe. I don't know. You could open it up to any candy bar. Highest bidder.

Yeah. Maybe Kit Kat could come in. I don't know. Are you married? Are you dating? It's like if I'm married. I'm not really married yet, but I am. I got five kids.

I'm with my girl. Her name is Julie Lemos. What was her reaction to this? She was really happy. She was surprised, just like my mom. But they always told me, like, babe, you got it. You're going to win. You're going gonna shock the world

and what do you know even my dad my dad's always been telling me this you're gonna shock the world and sometimes i didn't have confidence in myself and i was like no like i'm just a chubby guy man everyone's so big everyone's so tall everybody looks like a big robot, you know, like a big, huge robot. Yeah, but maybe that's a good thing for you. Yeah. Because you're old school. I'm old school, and then I started believing in myself, and as soon as I let my hands go is— How old is your oldest kid?

He's seven. So did you watch? My son was watching. He was really happy, proud of me. Oh, my God. He was really happy. Is he a third? Did you go?

He's Andy Ruiz III, exactly. Wow. I didn't do the third. No? Yeah, I named my son. I'm a junior, and I went different name for my son. But now I kind of regret it. It would have been fun to carry it on. Alright, so what is

the next week look for you? When is all this media stuff done? You've been doing interviews non-stop. Yeah, I haven't even gone home. I haven't gone to rest. I haven't been home. I haven't seen my kids. But after this beautiful interview that we just did, I'm going to

the PBC to the Premier's Boxing. I'm going to do that and. I'm going to the PBC to the Premier's Boxing. I'm going to do that and then I'm going to drive back home, see my kids, and by the next week on Monday, I'm going to see the President of Mexico. That's amazing. He requested this.

He requested it. He wrote something. Hey, that means all for my fellow yeah um mexican uh i want to congratulate you and i want to i want to uh meet you in person and this and that so my eyes my fucking they just opened up i was like whoa what the heck man this is really this is real you know i'm trying to think what what are the other massive sports things going on

other than Canelo? Because the soccer team hasn't been doing that great. They have the professional league. Who's the biggest Mexican baseball player right now? I don't know. Matter of fact, I just got a call from Fernando Valenzuela. You know, the one... Yeah, we did a documentary about him once.

Oh, really? Yeah, that was huge. So his son called me today, and he told me that his dad would want to, he wants to meet me, and he wants me to throw the first pitch somewhere in Cancun with him. So that's a big honor. You'll be getting the Dodgers call would be my guess. Oh, yeah.

That'll definitely be one of the things that happens. I was going to do the Dodgers, but they wanted me to go the same week that I was leaving to New York. So we didn't get to do that. You might be too famous to stay where you are now. You might have to move to Los Angeles, the city of celebrities. I'm going to move to San Diego. San Diego? That's smart.

I'm moving to San Diego. Because you're like a legitimate celebrity now. I know it happened fast, but now it's like you're the fucking champ now. Yeah, but. People are going to want to make movies out of this. You're going to have all these. It's nuts. Here's my advice.

Keep your eyes on the rematch. But don't worry about all this other stuff. You have all these people in your life. They can handle it. You got to beat Joshua again. If you beat Joshua again, that's it. Then you're going to get like a five, six fight deal. You'll be able to do whatever you want.

State, this December, you think it'll be December? It all depends if they're ready in December. We'll be ready, of course, you know. I thought it was weird how he handled the aftermath of that fight, too. The whole thing was weird. Spinning out the mouthpiece was weird. How, like, happy he was for you after. I've never seen that with.

I mean, it was a great sportsmanship, but it was also like I kind of wanted him to be madder that he lost. And he just seemed like genuinely happy for you. It was just a weird vibe i just feel like he was embarrassed like man i just got beat up by this fat little kid what the heck and in the interview he was saying man i prefer it would have been wilder to knock me down instead of andrew ruiz but it's his night so he said that he said that on the that's an interview yeah i'd file that one away for later in the year. Yeah, but you know, this Chubby K got him.

Wow. My money's on you next time. This was great. Congratulations. This is such a cool time to... I love sometimes when we do... We interview a lot of people,

obviously it's fun to catch somebody at a really cool moment of their life and their career. So good luck with everything. Thank you, man. I appreciate that.

All right. Thanks to DAZN. Don you, man. I appreciate that. All right. Thanks to the zone. Don't forget to go to DAZN.com and you can sign up and you can get the Ruiz Joshua rematch. Some programming notes here. Monday night after game five, Ursula and I, I don't know how long it's going to go, Kyle. We could be there all night. Have to get good food. Could be some John and Vinny's again.

Yeah. John and Vinny's. We had it before or during game three and it was great. Might have to do good food could be some John and Vinny's again again yeah John and Vinny's we had it before or during game three and it was great might have to do it again so that's happening Monday night

no matter what happens in the game me and Rosillo and then Tuesday night rewatch Will's Dead Poets Society so

that's it enjoy the rest of the weekend and happy birthday Tommy Alter our dude alright we'll see you. On the wayside On the first side of the road I don't have to ever forget