The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #175 with Shakur Stevenson

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Joe sits down with Shakur Stevenson, a professional boxer, four-time world champion, and Olympic medalist. https://www.youtube.com/@ShakurStevensonTV https://www.boxrec.com/en/box-pro/790719 Perplexity: Download the app or ask Perplexity anything at https://pplx.ai/rogan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Rogan podcast, checking out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. Anyway, thanks for coming down here, man. Appreciate it. And congratulations on that standout performance against Tiafima. Because that was a giant wake-up call for the entirety of boxing. The level that you're on was it so high that you could be in there with a world champion,

a world champion and make him a guy who beat I mean legit guys including Lomachenko That was a big victory for him And you made him look like he had no business in there Honestly

It's just hard work dedication and God given ability God given ability I think you have all that Plus intelligence Plus you start a real young And there's something about those dudes

who start real young, you grow up with that. It's like in your central nervous system as you're a young child. Yeah. I mean, would you start boxing at five? I started boxing at five, but honestly, you could say the same for Tio too because he kind of started at like seven.

We both was kind of similar in like experience, but I just felt like with me, the God-given ability of my instincts always kick in. Like when we fought, I felt like, my brain just knew how to win. Like, it just, everything was just like, my instincts kicked in and everything just took over.

Like, I didn't even, it felt like an out-of-body experience. Well, you're a very tactical guy. Like, you know, there's a thing, one of the things I love about watching you fight is I love watching a guy who sets traps and who avoids damage. And you are one of the absolute very best ever at setting traps and avoid damage. You take so few punches in your fights.

Yeah. There was that one fight where you decided, recent fight, where you decided to stand with that dude. Who was that? William Zepeda. That's right. Zepeda's a tough guy, man. He is.

But you fought that in a different way. Did you do that on purpose? It was partly on purpose and partly to get his respect. Because I really ain't have a choice but to get his respect. Because if I try to outbox him and move around the ring, I probably would have made the fight harder than it had to be. So I knew, like, I got to, like, make him respect me early. And that's what I kind of, like, started the fight.

Hot. Why would it make it harder than it had to be if you boxed him? Because sometimes when you, like, a guy, like, if you watch today's boxing, judges give the fight to mostly the guys that's coming forward. So if I'd have went in there and bagging up and moving around the ring while he was more active, it probably would have looked as though he's winning the fight. So I had to make sure, like, the judges know who's winning. So I kind of had to take some in order to give some in that fight.

There was a very unusual fight for you. I saw an interview with you after that fight. We were like, I'm not fighting like that again. Fuck that. Yeah, because I know, like, I see, like, the modern day, like the old school boxes and, like, the punishment that they take in. And you'll see them today, they can't really talk as well as, like, like the Andre Wars and the Floyd who can talk good and still articulate things to their

grandparents, to their grandchildren, to their children. For me personally, it's like I want to make sure that I'm able to really speak well to my kids and my grandkids and all of that. So taking punishment ain't for me. Yeah. I support that 100% and I applaud fighters like you for setting an example for young fighters coming up. Like, defense and tactics and understanding the game is the most important thing.

These guys that want to put on an entertaining fight and just go in there and slug it out, like, man, you are giving up your brain for some people who don't give a fuck about you. About you, oh, my God. That's the guys on the truth right there. I'd be seeing a lot of fighters nowadays where they stand there, like, punching bags, and let people hit on them. You'll see them after the fight they marked up. a few

years I don't think that they're going to be able to speak as well as like somebody like me so. No, there's a bunch of examples of that

obviously we could all see it but you know it's a complicated sport and for people that don't understand the sport and don't appreciate

the sport they just see two dudes punching each other but they don't see subtle movements and you were doing this like half out jab

and then popping them with it and you could tell he had no idea it was coming It was so frustrating for Tiofimo. It was watching out. I was like, there was a bunch of times where I was watching. I just was yelling out by myself in my house going,

woo! That check right hook. Ooh! It was so pretty, man. You hit him with some pretty shot. But it was just, you were just tuning him up. It was a beautiful performance, man, because it was everything that I love in boxing.

Skill, movement, understanding, ring IQ, knowing what's happening. And every time he was. would get fired up and try to take it to you, the most he could do is touch your body. Yeah. It's all he was able to do. Honestly, for me personally, I feel like I'm, like, the best fighter in boxing.

And I don't like, mean this in no disrespectful way because I got a lot of fighters in boxing that I still watch to this day that I like. And I'm like, okay, they, I'm still this. So I'm Ussick, I love Ussic. I love Ussk. I love Ussk, I love Usskvah, I love them Eastern European styles. But for me, like, I just feel like I'm a fighter that could do it all. Like, I can do it all.

Like, whatever needs to be done, to get the job done, I can do that. So some nights you might see, I might outbox people. Then some nights I might stand there and beat a guy up and beat them at their own game. So I think for me, I'm the most complete fighter in boxing. Well, that mindset is what you need, especially in a sport where you've dominated divisions. Yeah. So if you've dominated divisions and you're still looking to achieve a higher level, you can't just look at the guys that are your competitors. Yeah.

Because at 1.35, it was so hard for you to get fights. Yeah. At 140 now, what are you going to do? You just do that to Tiafimo? It scared a lot of people. Yeah. No one wants to look stupid. I mean, Tiafimo's had some good fights in the past and he's lost in the past, but he's never looked out of place.

Yeah. And he looked out of place in that fight. It's crazy, though, because when I seen him, when he fought in New York on the Times Square cart, I'm like, man, this dude is nice. Like, I'm sitting there. I'm like, whoa, like, I couldn't believe, like, how good he was. But it kind of, like, just made me get up. Like, I'm like, okay, I want to. Yeah.

I want to see, like, what he can do with me. Right. Because the way he made Arnold Barbosa look in New York was, like, he just made him look like he's not on his level. Well, he wasn't on his level. But then, Tiafimo's not on your level. I mean, this is the beautiful thing about competitive sports, especially boxing, this one-on-one, which I think is the purest form of competition, boxing in MMA, is that you can show that as great as a fighter is. People could watch the Tiofimo fight and have no idea how good he is. Yeah, for sure.

And I would say, go watch the Barbosa fight, go watch the Lomachenko fight, go watch many of his fights. The guy was an excellent fighter. Still is an excellent fighter. But there are levels. Yes. And the mindset that you have, I am the best fighter in the world, period, is what allows you to beat guys like that. That and the hard work. For sure.

Like I said, I'm God-given, and I work super hard. And I think the biggest thing that I don't get credit for is my discipline. Like, I feel like I'm very disciplined when it comes down to making the sacrifices and making the life changes that I need to. make in order to be 100% on fight night and I feel like a lot of people don't give me. I mean, they don't know. They don't know. That's all it is. You know, I'd be seeing like fans tweet and they'd be like, oh, get off Twitter or get

off social media. But I'll be on social media like right after I just left the gym. I'm like, what's the problem? Like, I'm just talking my talk on social media right now. Like, let me live. Well, people are always looking to criticize. But there's no way you can have the kind of performances that you're having. And not be locked there.

And not be locked in. It's not possible, especially over 12 rounds. Yeah, for sure. Because, I mean, you know better than anybody alive, that the kind of discipline that it takes to be in the kind of condition that you have to be in to fight 12 hard rounds, they put on a virtuoso performance. So it's like, dun-da-tah.

It's crazy, though. Everybody, like, like, y'all love the performance because y'all got to see it that day. But, like, for me, when I'm in the gym, it's still levels that I feel like I haven't got to show. to the world. Like, I kind of only really shown, like, 70% of, like, what I really could do.

And I feel like with that performance, it was just like, okay, this is, this is like an okay day in the gym. Like, an okay day. It ain't, like, my best day in the gym. Like, I have, like, days in the gym where I'm like, ooh. I don't know how I just did that, but I'm just, like, on point.

So it was a good day, though. The thing is, you're getting better. Yeah, for sure. You know, that's the thing. It's like those days that you have in the gym and this performance. And the mindset that you have, like, it's still not saying, I did it all. Not seeing, okay, virtuoso performance, still only 70% of what you're capable of. That's what takes a guy from being a very good fighter to being an all-time great.

Yeah. And it's a matter of maintaining that over years and years and years that is so difficult for people. Yeah. And discipline is where that comes in. enthusiasm and motivation is great in the beginning a lot of people have enthusiasm and motivation in the beginning but it's when you've been a champ for five years six years you know the the grind of it all the the 12-week training camp away from your family people don't think about that yeah that's why i'm kind of glad that i got the all of the things that happened in my career where i had a little trials and tribulations happened early so when i had my hand problem and i had had a fight where I didn't perform as well as I wanted to, it kind of got me prepared for

like now. Now it's like I'm 100% on top of my game. Like you're not going to be able to beat me without me being like fully prepared. Like you're going to have to be a bad dude to come in the ring and beat me like because I just don't see it happening with none of these guys. Well, it's like how far you've gone, right? Like you started off at five and been intensely focused for all these years. How old are you now?

28. 28, which is prime. Yeah. That's it. Like 28 to like 34 is the best year. But then again, you look at Terrence. I mean, he's at an age where a lot of people say it's over and he put on the performance of his career against Canello. I don't know how he do it.

He's like a different human being. He's so smart. If I'm honest, he is like the reason. I'm not going to say he the reason why I am who I am today. But he bought my game from, like, where it was at to, like, a very high level. And he don't even realize, like, he done that. Like, me just being in a gym able to watch him and pick up on, like, the little things that he's doing, his bad days, his good days, his, I'm seeing everything.

And, like, when he come out there on fight night, how prepared I'm, how ready, how confident. Like, honestly, that dude kind of, he put me into a whole different world to now to where I'm like, oh, I can, I can beat anybody. I get in there with Terrence Garford and if I can spar with him, I can, how are you going to hurt me? How are you going to beat me? Like, I'm in the ring with the best fighter in the world.

One of the best of all time. You feel me? Yeah, one of the best of all. And one of the most versatile of all time. Yes. Because that's a guy who switches up, left, right. There's nothing he can't do in a boxing ring. Nothing.

Nothing you can't do. And the way he sets people up, we were talking during the podcast I did with him, he did this one sneaky thing where he was throwing a straight left, and then Canello would go to counter, and he would hook it right off of the punch. Like, on the extension, Canella would lean back to counter and pop! And catch him on the chin. You could see it. It's like, oh, my God, that's pretty.

I've never seen him throw that punch until Canelo, though. That's the crazy part. Being in the gym with another guy who's an all-time great pound-for-pound best, that is so valuable. And so many guys don't like that because they don't want to be the second best or they don't want to be in there with someone who's as good as them. You know what I mean? Like iron sharpens iron.

For sure. And for you to be a young guy, whoever guys is, Terrence is 10 years older than you? Yeah. Have a guy who's further down the path and be able to see him and absorb all that. That's better than any coach of the world. Yeah, but it's been going on for years.

It ain't like just a new thing. People don't understand. Like, when I was 19 years old, I was around Terrence. Oh, wow. I was at his house, playing him in 2K. We go to the gym, argue. Like, he really one of the most competitive persons I ever met. in my entire life, but...

You have to be. I just never, like, for me, I just know for a fact, my game has up because of that dude. Yeah. It has to. It's also, you're seeing this level that is so high in boxing. Like, you can compare it. You could go back and look at Sugar Ray Leonard.

You can look at Pernell Whitaker. You look at all these guys. And you can compare Terrence to the people that the pundits sit down and say, all-time grades. Terrence is unquestionably an all-time grade. He might even be better than them. He might be. All due respect to the legends. I agree with you. He is that good. He's that good.

I feel like there's a thing that was happening before the Canello fight where a lot of people were sort of dismissing his previous opponents and saying he never beat anybody and Canello's another level. I know a lot of people bet a lot of money on Canello. I was like, that's not a good bet.

Man, it seemed like that's the thing in boxing to where it's like if they don't know the opponents if you're not fighting somebody that's like a bigger name they makes it seem like the opponents is not good and that's like not true

because at the end of the day it's low level opponents that don't get the type of shine that the high level opponents get but they will beat the high level opponent and are they really high level opponents at this point?

Right. I don't know. Well there's hot there's high level and then there's the elite of the elite, right? Yeah, for sure. There's always that. There's like some guys that if they're in, like I always said that about Roy Jones during his prime. Like everybody said, Roy Jones didn't find anybody.

Not true. Roy Jones just made everybody look like they weren't anybody. Yeah, for sure. Because he was that, he was so elite. Yeah. And that's kind of the problem that Terrence was facing up until the Canello fight. Because when a guy goes up, two-way classes, All the way up to 68.

He's crazy. Right. I mean, starts his career at 35. He's crazy. Last fight he fights at 68 and then puts on a virtuoso performance. Virtual shut out. Maybe Canella won one round. Yeah.

You know, I mean, then everybody has to shut the fuck up. Yeah, he shut everybody up because you had to see, like, he used to say that he wouldn't fight Canella. Like, he used to be like, oh, Canella's too big. I wouldn't fight him. Then, like, it's like, out of nowhere he had to change his mind. And then, like, he just went and attacked the situation. And it was a bad situation to be in. Like, you're going to go fight somebody two-way classes higher, punch hard, bigger than you.

You're going to go do that? So, for me, he just, dude is amazing. He's amazing. And another amazing example for young fighters, you know, incredibly disciplined, never out of shape. And has all his faculties. Don't drink. Doesn't do anything. All his faculty is intact.

and he's leaving the game with 100% no undefeated record, no questions asked, fought everybody. There's no one lining up to fight him right now. He's older and he did it all and he came out unscathed. Bye-bye.

That's my biggest goal. It's a perfect goal. My biggest goal is to leave boxing. And when I leave boxing, be good enough, well, not good enough, great enough financially to where I don't ever have to get back in the boxing ring.

I don't want to be one of them fighters that's like need boxing. Like I hate that. Like, that's my biggest pet peeve. Like, as long as I'm having fun with boxing, I want to be doing it. But once it's not fun no more, I don't want to have to like, oh, we got this $20 million payday. I need it. And I don't want to feel that way. Like Floyd.

Yeah. Like the situation that Floyd's in right now. This is crazy. I was having a conversation with a friend of mine right now. And he's like, why is Floyd fighting? again. I go, because he needs money. He was like, what? How? Floyd made more money than anybody ever. It's like, yeah, but he spent more money than everybody ever. Yeah, I try to stay out of that because I don't know, like, the real situation with Floyd,

because I'm not really in tune on it, but I only thing with Floyd is kind of weird to me is, like, he love boxing so much. Like, you got to actually be around him. Like, he want to be in the gym. He won't like, so it'd be hard for me to just believe, like, okay, he's just dead broke. Like, I don't know. It's hard to believe that. Well, if he's not dead broke, he's definitely got issues. Yeah. Right?

So he's got a bunch of lawsuits where he owes money. You know, Logan Paul says he owes a money. He owes money for some other things. I don't know. I'm with you. I don't know. But it's also, it's like, I like a guy like Andre Ward. I like a guy who goes out on top and, you know, they offered on.

Andre a ton of money to come back and fight Canello after Canello beat Kovalev. And he was like, you know what? I think I served boxing better as a commentator and a spokesperson for the sport. I made plenty of money. I'm undefeated. Two-division world champion, Olympic gold medalist. Bye-bye. That's it.

All faculties intact. No worries about his brain health and everything like that. That's the way to go out. Andre Ward is another dude who helped my career. Yeah? He helped my career a lot, too. He, um, if I had to, if I need something, right, let's say I need something and I need to figure out how to do it or what to do in a situation with weight or whatever it is when it comes to boxing. If I'm calling Andre Ward, he's going to give you the best explanation.

Like out of all the guys, like he explains things from detail, like, he's going to detail in and make me really understand what I got to do. like, Andre Ward is somebody who I looked up to since the kid, so he's another guy. I just wasn't around him enough in a gym as I wasn't around, bud. But, like, Andre Ward is my favorite fighter as an amateur. Oh, really? Yes. Well, most people don't know that Andre Ward fought most of his career with one arm. Yeah.

Which is crazy. But it's crazy. That one arm is his best arm. He's left-handed for real, for real, so. But it's still crazy. It is. It's still crazy. Think about all the guys.

he beat and he beat them with a left hand. Yeah. And then finally got shoulder surgery and then had a right hand. And still kind of fucked up. It's not 100%. You know the misconception about his career? I feel like

when he beat Kovalev, people don't realize how good Kovaleh was. Oh, he was good in the day. Like he was insanely like power, boxing, length. He had everything, a great jab, a great right hand.

Yeah. And for Andre Ward to go beat that dude, that put the stamp on, like, his career. And got dropped. Yes. Got dropped and hurt and recovered and still won. Yeah. That was big. Yeah.

People see Kovalev when he lost to Kinello. He was already kind of washed. Yeah, he was already washed. He was done. He's been drinking a lot. Yeah. There was a lot of, you know, a lot of these fighters, they get to, like we're saying, it's sustaining that will, that drive, that discipline, that focus. It's hard to do.

But if you go back when he had it, man, when he was in his prime and he was a world change and he was fucking everybody up, man. He was a killer. And he was scary. Yeah, he was a killer. Scary right hand. Woof.

Yeah. It was a pissed. I'll go back and watch him too. He another guy that I'll go back and watch. I like the way he keep his distance. He keeps his distance really good. He got that Eastern European. Like, those guys are really good boxes.

Like, when I watched them, I'm like, okay, like, I love watching Beauvoir. Beavall's amazing. I love it. He's got such an amazing style. I mean, him, Usook, Lomachenko's kind of a cat. That's a fight I really wish would have happened between you and him, man. Was there ever talk about that? I messed myself up.

I kind of did this to myself, so I understand why a lot of fighters wouldn't fight me. A lot of fighters wouldn't fight me because I sparred him. I messed myself up. When I was trying to spar him at that time, I never thought. it would be a day of me and him fighting. Like, I didn't think that far down the line. I really was just thinking he was the best fighter in boxing, number one pound for pound.

I want to be able to go get in the ring with him and see how I can do. Like, they told me they wasn't even going to pay me for the sparring. I'm like, okay, I'm cool. I don't want to get paid. I'm just here to get in the ring with Limachenko. But years later, yeah, the fight. How did that go?

How the sparring went? Yeah. See, I don't diss nobody in sparring, so I can't say that. We don't have to diss him. I'll keep it real with the sparring. I felt like I was outboxing him, but I also knew the level he was on was like his conditioning. And that's when it made me like, okay, I got to be in like tip-top conditioning. Because the first day we sparred, we did six rounds.

I felt like it was like, okay, I can out-box him. the next time we spar, he made me do 12 straight. Really? Yeah. So he made me do 12 straight. For the first eight, I'm good. Like, I'm good for eight. But, like, the last four rounds, I want to say,

he started, like, picking up the pace, and he ain't get off on me, but he got the better of the last four rounds, I would say. And you feel like it was because of fatigue a little bit? Yeah, it was for sure because of fatigue. But it wasn't, like, the skills. Like, skillfully, I feel like I feel like I was. was the better fighter.

Like, I felt like my range and my distance and my speed was kind of better than his. But, like, from a standpoint of being in shape

and throwing more punches, I felt like he was kind of, but he was getting ready for his fight. I was getting ready for my fight too, so. Well, that's a very valuable

learning experience, right? Yeah. You mean, better to learn it then than to learn it in a fight. Yeah, but,

for real, for real, it messed me up. Because now it's like, if I'm Limchenko and I know he was, what, 126 pounds at the time, he was a kid. Now I see him all grown up, he bigger, stronger. And I seen what he was doing as a kid, I'll probably be like, why would I test the water with him? Like, I wouldn't really want to see that guy. That's not the guy I ever want to see.

That's funny. So you think that those sparring matches were the reason why you never got to fight with him? Yeah, for sure. I was surprised T.O. For me, honestly. I was very surprised. Did you spar him as well? Yeah.

Yeah. But when we sparred, we only did three rounds, but he made it seem like he kind of got off on me, but honestly, I felt like I was the best fighter. Well, Tio's a very headstrong guy. Yeah. He's tough. Very tough, very confident guy. I mean, look, when he beat Lomachenko, that was a standout performance. He had that piston jab, man.

He was sharp. He was sharp in that fight. I watched that fight a thousand times before my fight. Well, I just think he knew that Lomachenko was a ghost who's so hard to hit. And just he came out explosive. He looked so good in that fight. Yeah, I just think Lomachenko had a speed to, like, get his respect. Mm-hmm.

Like, I feel like Tio was kind of faster, and he knew, like, from a speed standpoint, he was going to use it to his advantage. Also, Tio was a lot bigger. And he was dangerous. Like, he was throwing danger with every punch. Even that jab had danger behind it. It was crazy. I felt like he was strong when I was fighting him.

Oh, he's strong as fuck, man. Everybody think that he wasn't, but I'm like, man, I ain't going to lie. It was some shots. Like, I would catch on the glove, and I'd be like, I don't know what you doing in your training, bro. Don't kind of solid. Well, look at the size of that motherfucker. I mean, he's jacked. He looks great.

He's ripped. He's ripped. Yeah. He's just. But, you know, he's not done. And a fight like that with you is a wake-up call. for a guy like him too. It's like, man, I got a tight and some shit.

It's 50-50, though. It's 50-50 because sometimes they can play with your mental. So some guys don't be the same after getting an embarrassed in front of the world like that. Well, he's come back before, like the Combosa's fight. Combosis dropped him early, and that was a crazy upset. Yeah, but it was different because in this instinct he got really embarrassed. With Cambosis, it was like it was 50-50. He felt like he won the fight.

left feeling that way. But getting dropped by Combois. Nobody saw that comment. Nah, I didn't see that coming either. I ain't a lie. For sure. I think it was like second round too, right? It was the first round, but T.O. was fighting dumb.

I never seen T.O. even fight like that either. He went in there, like, just trying to not come out from the first round. I think after the Lomachenko fight, he felt like this dude is not on my level. I'm the best fighter in the world. You know, that can fuck with your head, too. Overconfidence can fuck with your head. Yeah. I be trying to like, with...

I be trying to like... like stay away from that, like, because I'm very, like, confident in myself, so I'd be scared of being too confident, so I'd be trying to, like, make guys bigger in my brain, like, oh, this guy is, he's the truth, so. That's smart. Yeah, I got to, like, I don't have no choice because I'm very confident. We've all seen fighters that go in unprepared and think that a fighter is not on their level, and then that guy puts a-knock him out.

Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson. Perfect example. 42 to 1 underdog and it was a perfect storm because Buster's mama just died and Buster was always one of those guys that was known to be super talented in the gym super talented but not dedicated

just not driven just didn't make the most of his talent but for that one fight he was like I'm fighting Mike Tyson I'm not scared of him my mom is dead I'm putting in the fucking work and he came out throwing that jab with the hook off the jab pop-wap pop-wap and it was a totally different buster douglas like the best buster douglas we've

ever seen ever yeah that final combination when he knocked mike tyson out dude i didn't even watch that fight live a friend of mine told me about it i was like are you fucking serious he told me at the gas station he's like buster douglas knocked out mike tyson i was like what the fuck are you talking about and then i went home and watched it and even while i knew that buster douglas had won I expected Mike Tyson to get up and kill him. I was like, I can't believe this is happening. Yeah, for sure. That's how much of an upset that was.

Yeah, that was definitely one of the biggest upset. I think, I don't know because I wasn't during that time, but from what I've seen, it just looked like Mike didn't expect him to be that good. Like, it was a shocker. I think it was a shocker for everybody. Yeah. Well, that's... But that's boxing.

That's what can happen in this war. I don't see that happen plenty of times. And honestly, it'd be some guys that I see in a gym that I'm like, bro, if you do that stuff on fight night, bro, you'll probably be champion of the world. I guess a lot of gym fighters who really got talent. But when the bright lights come on, a lot of fighters be kind of different. And what do you think that is? I think it's pressure. I think it's nerves.

I think it's like, it's a lot. It's a lot. Because I know I felt it. Like, I felt it for my fight with, Tio. I felt pressure. I felt all of that kind of stuff. But I'm too tough. Like, I know my mental ain't gone.

It's me or that person at the end of the day. My life or your life, and I'm going to choose my life when they come down to it. So I was good, but I know it's a lot of fighters that I see in the gym. And I'm like, man, I don't understand how you don't perform like this on under the lights. There's always guys like that. There's always guys that are potential world champions in the gym. And, you know, some people bank on them and some, you know, you go, this guy just needs a mental coach, needs something to get him over that hump.

But it's always interesting to me because what is the difference between a guy who could just walk out there on fight day and perform at 100% of his ability versus a guy who gets dwarfed by the moment? The moment comes, the big pressure. It's all mental. It's all in your head. Yeah. What you're thinking and what you believe in and the things that's going on in your brain is what's going to come out.

Like, I'm already telling myself, like I said, I'll tell myself it's either me or whom. So my life of your life and one of us got to go. Yeah. One of us got to go. But what do you think is going on in the, I mean, everybody experiences pressure, everybody experiences nerves. But what is it about fighters that are so talented that let them? that overcome them versus fighters. Oftentimes, they may be not even as talented,

but they rise to the occasion when those lights are on. When those lights are on, there are fighters that fight better. Like, sometimes they look shit in the gym. And then when those bright lights are on. I don't have moments like that. I don't have moments where I'm like, man, I felt bad in the gym.

I don't know what I had this camp. This was a horrible camp. And then fight night coming, I'm like, on point. Well, you know, that's what they said about Ali when he fought George Foreman. Yeah. They said he looked terrible in the gym and everybody was nervous about him, but he had a strategy. I think with, like, some fighters is fear.

Like, I think it's fear of, like, losing or fear of the negative happening. I think with some fighters, they allow fear to control them. Yeah. As in some other fighters who, if I get fearful, I'm going to attack my fears. Like, I'm not scared to even go and give it a try. Whatever happened is going to happen at the end of the day. It's all written already. Is this something that you built up over time,

or is it something someone imparted on you when you were young and you embraced it? Like, how did you learn to have that champion mindset? I think it's wild to say, but I think it's really my little brothers and my little sisters, but really my little brothers. I used to go to amateur tournaments, and if I lose and I got to come on to my little brothers, oh, they on me. They on me. And it's like, you got to come home and they remember the name of the opponent that beat you when they were throw it in your face.

Oh, don't make me go get Joseph Adorno. That's a real guy that beat me back in the day. Shout out to Joseph Redorno. But I used to have to hear that in the house. And now I still be with them. So it's like, I know I got to go home to my little brothers and see them after these fights. And I had that in the back of my head. I'm not coming home to them.

That's crazy. Without the win, like, they got us no. Did you tell your little brothers that they do that for you? No, I don't even think I ever said it to them. It just was so natural because I used to always get in fights with them, and they used to always bring up an opponent that beat me. And I'm like, now if I beat everybody, they can't say it no more. That's hilarious.

That's hilarious. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything, like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 988, Canada's suicide crisis hubline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada.

Well, because different fighters develop, you know, different ways of rise into the occasion, different ways of maintaining a championship's mindset. And some of them, they learn it from their coach, you know, Most Tomato famously trained Tyson and even hypnotized him and told him that you don't exist. Only the task exists. And he had Mike Tyson just like a fucking machine when he would get into that ring. I think, shout out to my grandfather too, because my grandfather is my coach. And, like, his energy during fight week, like, they don't even realize, like, it wasn't even just the coaching that he was doing.

It's like the energy that he kind of gave off to me. It reminded me of me when, like, I was a kid, and me and him would go to amateur tournaments, and, like, he just so, like, amped up and, like, ready, and, like, it kind of brought on to me, and it kind of got me, like, amped up as him, like, okay, I got a, I got a stand-on-bus for my grandfather. I got to. I don't got no choice. Oh, wow.

But he's definitely a great coach. So family is a big thing for you. Yeah, family is everything for me. Like, I enjoy spending time of my family. Like, I'm not like a lot of these boxers, like, with all due respect to them. They like the fame, the, all that kind of stuff, the cars, the, I'm more so, like, I get a big check. I want to go on vacate my family or go chill with my family. And I don't like doing stuff.

Like, I enjoy spending time my daughter. That's great. Like, I'm different. I'm not like them guys. That's so small. It's so smart because all that other shit just drains your bank account, distracts you from your goals, gets in the way of things. It's like when I was a kid, I used to want the fame. I used to be like, oh, I want to be famous.

I want everybody to know me. But it's like, once you get it, it's like, ah, I don't like this. I don't like this. Like you go places people pulling their phones out and like they're trying to record. you like, bro, why are you, I'm just a regular person. Like, that's how I feel. Like, everybody bleeds. We all the same.

We all human. Right. So I kind of move with that kind of thought process. And I feel like a lot of people don't move with that. Like, especially people in my position. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you can get inflated. Your head can get screwy.

It's like you got to balance two things at the same time. One, you are the elite of the elite. You are a world champion and one of the pound for pound best to ever do it. And then on top of that, you're just a human being. Yes. And we're all just human beings. But what we like, what people love about watching championship caliber fighters and championship performances in any sport is watching just a regular human do something extraordinary.

Yes. And that gives us inspiration. When I watch a great fight, I feel better for the rest of the day. Like when I go to bed, I feel great. I watched that fight. I went to bed. I was like, woo! I felt great.

I text Josh. right after, right after it was, like, right after it was happening. And that's how we got in touch. Josh Dubin, shout out to Josh. Shout out to Josh. But I remember, I texted him. I'm like, dude, that was extraordinary. And then next thing you know, we're on the phone.

Definitely was a great, great night, great night of boxing. I enjoyed it. I'm just glad to be here. Like, all glory to God, I'm glad to be here. I've been here. I've been telling people, like, I'm the best. best. I'm better than these guys. You have, but you needed that breakout. You right. You needed that breakout performance.

And the problem is everybody knew you were so good. It was hard to get someone to sign up for that breakout performance. Because for a breakout performance, you need another dude who's had breakout performances that everybody respects and knows. Like Tiafemale. Yeah, that's why I, that was my main reason in fighting. I'm telling you, I watched them in Town Square. I looked. I said, we fight him. We fight him. I want to fight him. He looked really good. He looked really good. That Times Square card was weird. He was the best fighter on the car.

100%. No question. It looked like everybody was playing it safe on that card. Yeah, it did. It did. Like Devin Haney. The Devin Haney fight was odd. What I learned from that card, I felt like, I felt like those fighters didn't have enough adrenaline pumping. Like, I feel like, Ryan, I know when he got in the ring, his adrenaline couldn't be, like, too high because it was,

It was like sparring. Like it was like not a lot of people there. It wasn't like that much pressure. You could hear everything somebody is saying. I know Ryan heard me all night. Like he had to hear me. I was cheering him on like telling him like, man, throw the hook, throw the hook, throw the hook. But that was when he fought Roli, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was a wake up call too. Like that was another fight where people did not expect Rory to beat Ryan. Yeah, I'd be throwing off. I didn't expect it either. That was one of the fights where I kind of like vouch for Royale. Brian, I'm like, man, he got skills. He's a skillful fighter. Then he got in there. I don't know what he was doing. Like, I didn't understand what was happening. You know, it's one of them things where he has the fight with Devin. He beats Devin, gets popped, you know, for whatever he was on, Osterine.

And then there's like, he's got a long time off. There's a lot of people mad at him. There's a lot of people, you know, which is such an unfortunate thing. if you think about his performance against Devin because that was incredible. Yeah, but the problem is he got caught. He got caught, yeah. So, like, I don't know, like, for me personally,

if you got caught, it's like, I can't really, me, I can't give you the credit for that. Right. I don't give them credit for that day, that night with Devin. Yeah, but steroids don't help you land punches. I get you. They help you recover in training. They help you train a little harder.

It might give you a little bit more power, but that left hook was on point. Yeah, but that little bit of more power probably was enough to hurt Devin. Because if you really watch the fight and pay attention to the fight, and people might not agree with me on this, but I feel like Devin was winning the moments that was quiet. Like when people's not really, ah, Devin is winning most of the, like, boxing match other, but the moments where Ryan was so loud and like everybody got to see him get hurt and knocked down to where like

I just feel like Devon, if he didn't get dropped by don't punches, he could have won that fight. But he did get dropped. That's the problem. And also, I think... But what if the Asterine was helping his power? Yeah.

I mean, what was his last fight against? Delgado? Who was his last opponent? Who? Ryan. Who was the guy who just beat? Mario. Barrios.

Barrios, that's right. Barrios is a guy that was like tailor-made for a guy like Ryan. Like, he's a tough dude. He's very durable. Takes a good shot, but he's not that fast. And Ryan was super fast in that fight. He looked real good. Yeah, he looked real good.

He looked good. Real good in that fight. And it wasn't just like, because people think when I'm saying like, oh, well, you don't know whether he's cheated or not. I'm not saying that in the aspect of his boxing skills. Like he clearly got boxing skills. Like, you can clearly see Ryan know how to move his feet. You know how to keep his distance.

Right. He can clearly box. I've been saying this for years. Yeah, he boxes very well. And also, he showed that he has a right hand too. Yeah, that was surprising. Yeah. And he used it like the whole night.

Like, he just kept throwing it. So that was very surprising. But, I mean, of course, if you want to, be a complete fighter. He had to develop a right hand and start using it more because that left hook is just world class. Yeah, and he was not only like throwing it straight. He was throwing it around the guard. That was kind of, it was beautiful. Yeah, it was nice. That was a beautiful performance for him. Has there been any talk about YouTube matching up? Yeah, yeah, yes. But like I said, everything got to make sense. Like, people don't understand that I walk around in my 40s. So if I'm

walking around in my 40s, I don't think, like, me going to 147, like, when I fight at 147, I think that would be my last weight class, like in my career. Like, I don't see myself going past 147 ever, but I'm 28 right now. I got a long way to go, so I don't plan on moving to 47 no time soon, so if the fight happens at whatever weight class that I say, then I'm cool with it. He said he could. He the one who came out and said, like, let's fight at 140. He said that.

So if he said that, it's like, okay, you could make the weight, then let's do it. What way was the Javante fight? Was that 140? That fight was at 136. That's right. And then he gave him a rehydration clause, too. Yeah, 10 pounds, yep. Very smart.

Very smart. Very smart, right? I mean, yeah, it was. It was in that situation, but, I mean, I just felt like with, the rehydration clause at that time when you already bringing somebody down to like a weight class that they haven't fought in years it's like you could have not put the rehydration clause like it wasn't necessary at that point in time i think it was necessary i think it helped a lot it did it helped a lot if you if you can only rehydrate 10 pounds and you know he's way bigger than that Ryan's a big guy he

looked weak on fight night like he didn't look the same but i guess those dollars that that paycheck. It was just too tempting. Yeah, I never understood that move. I never understood it. Because if I'm Ryan Garcia and I got a big name in a sport and all of that kind of stuff, why would I accept everything into somebody else's favor? I think because that's the only way he could get the fight, you know? Well, this is the same thing when Canello fought Floyd, right? Floyd made him go down to 152, remember? But it wasn't a rehydration clause.

Was it? Nope. No? No? Even if there's not. Floyd didn't never a rehydration clause, nobody. Well, that's good. But if you make a guy get down to 152, even if you give him a rehydration clause,

like that's going to drain something out of your tank. But is, my question is, wasn't they fighting at 154? Wasn't Canelo fighting at 154? Normally, yeah. So he only came down two pounds. But you know that last, you're not a big weight cutter, but if you were, that last two pounds is death. Oh, for sure. When you're already drained out.

Because he was a big guy for 154, and to drain out and get all the way down to 152, that had to be hard. He didn't look the same on Fight Day. You don't think so? Well, I think Floyd was just a virtuoso that night. I mean, Floyd looks so good that night. That night, I don't think if he was 154, 160, I don't think he was being Floyd. I think you're probably right, but I also think Floyd was smart to get him down to 152. For sure, the business.

Yeah. It's like every. angle you can get, every advantage you can get is a good one. I do agree with you about the rehydration clause. Like, get out of here with that. But we got to understand too, right? Because I get Floyd

in that instincts. If a guy is going to blow up to, let's say what, we'll just do me and Ryan Garcia, for example. Okay. I'm going to blow up like 148. He's going to blow up 160.

to 170. Now it's like you in a ring with somebody that is like 20 pounds bigger than you and Floyd still

allowed Canello to get big because he got big at the getting down to 152 so it's like I kind of feel

it in a way like I understand it now the rehydration clause is kind of crazy but I will only do a rehydration clause from fighters if I go up to

147 pounds because I'm not a 147 pound or so well when I fight at their weight class where they're comfortable. Right.

Just make it easy for them. Like, I don't. Well, the thing about a fighter like you is it's just difficult to find big names. I mean, if Gervante fights again, that's a big fight if you, but that would probably be at 135, which you could probably still make easy, right? Easy. No problem. So you have fights at 135 and fights at 140, but it's just going to be hard to get someone to step up.

That is going to be that big pay-per-view selling. fight. Yeah. That's the problem. That is the problem. You're too good. That's the problem. You're too good.

Somebody told me that before I went pro before, they was like, you're going to have a hard time in the pros. I'm telling you. Yeah. But I understand it now. Do you remember your first pro fight? You remember what it felt like? It felt like a whole new experience.

Really? Yeah. How so? I've been, when I was in the amateurs, guys wasn't as like dirty. as the professionals, like, you don't get introduced into dirty boxing until you turn professional. Didn't you get headbutted in your first fight? He headbutted me, and that's what kind of...

On purpose, right? Yes. Not an accidental headbutt. That's what kind of make me say, okay, I understand. This is a whole different atmosphere. It's not the same amateur in the pros. And a lot of guys from the amateurs don't adjust to the pros as well as I did. so.

Well, it's all about styles, right? Like, there's some guys who have styles that are just much better for point fighting and fighting managers. No, it's actually, you got to develop a lot of things, like punch placement, like, punching hard is really a real thing in the pros. Like, you've got to have something to make somebody respect you.

That's why when I hear people say, like, I got pillow hands, I'm like, y'all clearly must not be watching. Who's saying that? It'd be a lot of people. They say I got pillow hands. No, you just fight smart. Yeah, but I don't understand it because it's like if I had pillow hands, right,

why guys don't just go in there and just knock me out? Like, if I'm fighting somebody with pillow hands, I'm just going to put my shield up and just swing for the fences because they can't hurt me. Like, I don't understand why nobody won't do that if I got pillow hands. You don't have pillow hands. It's nonsense talk. What you have is a boxing intelligence where you're,

you know when to hit full blast and when to just touch them up and crack them a little bit. Yeah. And the accumulation of blows, the frustration, the mental confusion that a fighter gets when they can't hit you and you can hit them. And then you start ramping it up. And then you start tuning them up. I mean, the people that are saying that just don't understand what you're doing. Yeah, for sure. What you're doing is just perfect.

You're fighting intelligent. Yeah. And that's what I love. I love watching a guy. just outbox the fuck out of somebody. I love it. Like I said that, that, like, you were doing this, like,

half-speed jab, and then from right there, and you could tell Tio was like, Jesus Christ, you could tell he was confused. It was so fast. Too fast. It was so fast. But that accumulation of blows over time, and his corner, it was crazy.

Did you listen to the fight? Did you go back and watch it? Yeah, I went back and watched it. His corner's like, you got to hit him. Like, what? It's so crazy, though, because, like, What I see with his corner is like he been doing this. Like his dad been getting in the ring and giving him some type of instructions.

But Tio has been always so good to where the instructions he's giving them really does not matter because he's in control. He's winning these fights. He's doing what he's supposed to do. But that night he did need a real coach. He needed something better than that. Yeah, well, not that his dad's not a real coach, but he needed some tactical advice. He needed some instruction on what this guy's doing to you

and you got to switch it up entirely. You got to do something that confuses him. His dad is used to something different. That's why he went in there and said like, where's your power, bro? He's used to Tio's power showing up and the amazing things that Tio does in the boxing ring. He's used to that.

But whenever you're going against somebody who's on a different level, also you got to. be well prepared within like a game plan. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. And I didn't see no game plan. Did you know anybody that was his camp or ask anybody after the fight? Like, what was his game plan?

What did he think was going to be different? No, I didn't, actually. I'd be interested to know that. Yeah, I do too. But I did run into him after the fight. I ran into T.O. in the back. Was he cool? Yeah, it was cool.

It was actually a good conversation. I felt bad that he was by himself, his man. manager kind of clinked it up, but during the moment that I seen him in the back, he was by itself, so I didn't like that. Oh, man. I didn't like that. No, that's a bummer. Yeah.

But, I mean, they said they was with him all night, so respect to them. So maybe he just caught him in a moment when he was alone. Bad moment, yep. Yeah, that's the last thing you want to see is a dude who gets abandoned after a loss. Like, oh, my God. And then you got to go back to camp with those assholes? I don't even like how the sport is kind of treating him now. Like, everybody acts like he just did.

terrible fighter, but... Oh, that's crazy. I don't understand it when you got to give him respect. Like, this dude actually stepped up and for the guy that nobody else wants to fight. So he did it. He got in the ring and laid it on the line. It didn't go his way, but he did. He tried.

The thing is, I don't know if that guy's ever going to separate from his father. You know, I don't know if that guy ever is going to bring in another world-class trainer that maybe would be able to recognize some things that he's doing that he can prove upon. You know it's so crazy? During the fight, he had a coach in his corner, and I know the coach I don't. He's from Florida, I want to say. His coach was telling him some good advice.

I don't think he heard him or was listening to him. But he was telling him some good advice. Really? Yeah, I don't want to say what the advice is because I got future opponents. I got to make sure. Well, someone can go back and listen. Yeah, I can't tell what the advice was,

but he was giving him some good advice is. Interesting. Yeah, it's hard. Those father-son teams, there's always, there's a lot of conflict with those. Yeah, because I don't watch it over the years. I feel like dads, like, stay on top of the fighter. And they, like, they make it less fun. And I feel like, that's why I think my granddad is one of the best coaches

because he allowed me to love the sport of boxing myself. Like when I had my football games and my pop-wanted games, he came to my game, watched them cheer, don't want to support in me. But as soon as I lost, I'm going to feel crying. I'm like, oh, he comes up to me, he says, you know, in boxing, you only could lose because of yourself. And I'm looking, I'm like, what do you mean, bro?

I'm like, oh, that is true because, like, you're the way. going in a boxing ring doing the boxing. And then when I lost that football game, he was basically trying to say it was my coach's fault. So, like, he just allowed me to choose boxing, though. Like, he always supported me when I did other things, but he kind of like, he ain't just stay on top of me, like, howl me with it.

Right. He just took me to the gym. Well, you got to let a young man become his own man. Yeah, he allowed me to choose. And I think fathers, and the sport don't allow their sons to choose it too. Like, they're choosing their foot them. Right.

And a lot of them are overbearing in the corner. It becomes a problem. Yeah. Yeah. And they kind of be... Coaches should listen to what I'm about to say. The father coaches. There has to be a difference between a father and a coach.

So when you're coaching your son, you have to be a coach in the boxing room instead of the father. when you're the father, they're going to reciprocate things wrong. And I feel like with coaches, when you coaching, they can hear you a lot better. The moment you've been waiting for is here. GMC's truck month is on. For a limited time, get 0% financing for 72 months on the 26 GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab pro graphite.

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where the father wants a son to listen to him. Listen to me. I'm your father. You're going to do this. You're like, fuck the fuck off of me. Fuck off me, dad. And you're doing more harm to your son than actually doing good for him. Well, especially not giving him technical advice.

Yeah. Like, that is where he needed real technical advice. Yeah. Because there was a lot of shit you were doing that he just did not have an answer for. He didn't understand. Yeah. He didn't understand. He didn't clean up his bad habits.

And that's the thing with these fighters. A lot of them got bad habits and things that they do when I'm going to expose it. Well, I mean, the environment that you came up in and having a guy like Terrence and having other elite fighters that you train with all the time, that's, important. It's so invaluable. Because all that shit gets exposed in the gym. It does. That's where you work on it at. Yeah. That's what you work on it. If you ain't work on it in the gym on fight night,

it's going to be exposed. There's no if fans or buts about it. Yeah. How important do you think an amateur career is? Like, do you think a guy like Lomachenko maybe would have been an even better boxer if he didn't have so many amateur fights and went into the pros at an earlier age? I think an amateur career is important because you got to have an experience

but I don't seem different to where like guys have developed a lot more in the gym like I don't see guys stay in the gym not go to tournaments and they'll get better and better and then out of nowhere they'll go to one tournament and then you'll be like who the fuck is this guy?

Right. Where did he come from? How did he get so good? I think like developing and in the gym is like the biggest thing. Like who you sparring, who you training with, all of that stuff really matters the most. The amateur experience is cool.

Like, oh, Limonchenko, but if Lemmichenko had different things around him in a gym, I feel like he probably would have been a better fighter. Well, he's already good. With Lamacenko, it's so crazy because he really should have been fighting at 126. I mean, he really was never a 140-pound fighter. Yes. He's a small guy. Yeah, I don't understand that.

I didn't understand that. because I think it kind of tarnish his career in a way to the way people look at him. People don't look at him the same as they should because he was really, really good, but he was at a weight class that he really wasn't supposed to be at. So, of course, you're going to have, like, a harder time with them bigger guys. Right, like Tio. Yeah, like Tio. Yeah, that was a perfect example.

Tio was huge in that fight. He looked so much bigger than Lomachenko and just so dangerous that it, like, fuck Loviceko's strategy. Because, you know, you got missiles coming at you from a giant dude. I mean, Tio's stacked. Yeah. And so you got to think, like, for those guys, I guess it's just about chasing the multiple world titles and the bigger money at the higher weight classes. Yeah, that's what with Limchenko, though, he acted like he wasn't really like super money hungry, so I never really understood. It seemed like he's maybe, yeah, you're right about to, he was chasing undisputed.

Yeah, undisputed in world titles. I feel like he got robbed in the Devin Haney fight, though Do you think that? To this day, yeah, I do think Yeah, I scored the fight for Lomachenko Yeah, I did too I watched it three times in a row Because I was like, what am I getting wrong here?

Am I getting this wrong before I started talking about it? Yeah. And I was like, no, no, Lomichenko should have won. Yeah, I thought Lomichenko won. That was one of those where I was like, ooh And I think that fight fucked with Devin Haney's head a little bit Like, that makes you feel like shit when you win a fight and everybody thinks that you lost the fight and you got like

then you have to carry that around with you everywhere like looicego beat you you like no he didn't yeah it's a mental battle yeah it's like and then you got to get it better i think in that fight he really wasn't even fighting the best version of devon because devon was fighting at a weight class he really shouldn't have been at what was that fight at was that 35 yeah and then devon should have been at 140 at that time yeah he should have been at one 40 he was too big for 35 yeah Yeah. It's interesting, man, that balance of we're all fucked up in MMA because MMA, there's too few weight classes. Yeah. And so there's giant gaps, like huge gaps, like at 185 to 205, you know, 155 to 170.

Those, there's no weight classes in between. I mean, that's nuts. Yeah, that's insane. I agree. I mean, it's guys that's like little fighting bigger guys because it ain't enough weight classes. for them to be in, so that sounds crazy. It's stupid. It's the one major complaint that I've had with the UFC for a decade.

I was like, we need way more weight classes. And they're like, no, we're going to keep it pure. These are the champs. It's only eight champs. Like, no, that's crazy. I need to start watching the UFC. Oh, it's fun. There's one this weekend in Vegas if you're around. I'm going to watch some of it. It's a good one. I'm going to watch it because I'm

like lost. Like, I'm not really in tune with like a lot of the UFC guys and the USC people would be kind of mad at me when I say boxing is better, but it's my sport. Of course you're going to think it's better. It's what your life is based around. For sure. Of course.

And if you talk to Max Holloway, he's going to say M.A. is better. Exactly. And they got good explanations. Like, I understand what they're saying. Yeah. You could do, it's more like skills you got to learn the MMA. But for me, I just feel like boxing, like the skill level and the talent for me I like better. Well, there is no question.

The skill level and the talent when it comes to punching is way better in boxing. You see some sloppy shit that people do in MMA with boxing. But you also have to think they're thinking about takedowns. They're thinking about their calves getting kicked out from under them. Their legs getting kicked, their body getting kicked. So it's messing up. They're punching, huh? Everything.

Knees, elbows. And then there's stuff that you do in boxing that you can't do in MMA because, like, your legs exposed. You know, like there's certain positions that you use. you would throw punches in that a guy would just calf kick you. Yeah, for sure. And you get hit with one of those and you're like, oh, shit. And all of a sudden your calf is numb and you're not moving good and your ankle doesn't work. Yeah.

It's terrible. But that's the beauty of that sport is that it's so diverse. But the beauty of boxing is that it's so concentrated on hand techniques. Yeah. That the boxing techniques in boxing are far superior than what you're going to see in MMA. You see a few guys in MMA that could make it as pro boxers. but you don't see your level or you know or they can't be elite level no you just no way you can impossible no you ain't been doing it for long enough just like you don't see these elite mma fighters

that could compete in jiu jitsu tournaments yeah and win world championships is very very rare they used to the only way that happens is if they were a world champion in jiu jiu jitsu before they got into m m m and they still have those skills at a very very high level yeah then And some of those guys can kind of compete in world-class levels. So what would you say is, like, the best skill in, like, the MMA? Wrestling. Wrestling. I knew it.

I already knew it before I ex. Because wrestlers can take everybody down. And if you get taken down, you're fucked. I want to learn how to wrestle. It's a great. Well, Terrence, show you how. I know. Terrence is, like, one of the only boxers that are, like, if that guy fought in

MMA, he could do very well. He would. He would do very well. I watched some own wrestle with actual, like, USA team. wrestler and he was kind of he can wrestle yeah he was kind of he was good he was good he wasn't getting he's not lost yeah he knows what he's doing and look his son just want a state title

yeah for sure he's the truth yeah I want to learn how to wrestle though it's a good thing to know it's a good thing because it's a humbling thing I feel like they're the strongest people oh yeah like I feel like when they're kind of strength like real strength yeah their bodies are like stronger than most oh it's a different thing when they get a hold of you you feel like a child. You just get ragdolled. You're like, this is embarrassing.

You know, that's the most important skill, I feel. But every fight starts standing up, you know, every round starts standing up. You know, at the beginning of the round, you're standing up again. So that guy's got to take you down again. And in that transition, that's when you can catch someone. Yeah, that's when you can catch someone. Yeah, I figure that. Look, there's elite fighters that aren't great wrestlers in MMA, like Alex Pereira,

who's a two-division world champion. But he's just a destructive kickboxer. He's such a terrifying kickboxing. What is John Jones? John Jones is a wrestler. He's a wrestler? Well, he's an everything fighter. He could do everything.

But he started out of his career as a wrestler. I like him. Oh, he's the best ever. The best ever. He's the best ever because he's the smartest of all of them. I mean, that guy studies. That's why I liked him. That's exactly what I like him.

I've seen a video of him saying like he watches everything like from top to bottom. He'll watch your interviews. He's going to watch every single thing until he find a weakness. Oh, yeah. That's why I like him. Yeah, he gets inside their head. He knows every tendency they do. He sets traps.

He does everything. It's funny, Daniel Carmier, who I loved to death, is a great friend of mine. When he fought John Jones, they were talking before the fight about tendencies. And Daniel's like, oh, I know what you think I'm going to do. You think I'm going to lean towards the right, and you're going to kick me in the head. And John did exactly that in the fight. It was so crazy when he landed it. Like, I love both of those guys, but Daniel's a close friend.

And so when he landed that head kick, I was like, no. You know, and I'm doing commentary, so I've got to be balanced. And, you know, and I do love both of those guys. But I was like, damn, he did exactly what he said he was going to do. You said it on the commentary? No, I didn't say it on the commentary. I don't want to call it out there. But in the pre-fight, they were talking shit to each other.

And one of the things is like you have some tendencies, Daniel, and I'm going to exploit those tendencies. And he's like, oh, you mean how I dip to the right? And he did it exactly that. He caught him with that head kick. I was like, no. Oh. Wow. But look, that's the goat.

That's the guy, man. He's the guy who always figures out a way to win. He figures it out. I heard it was somebody that he was supposed to fight, though, that wanted to fight him. It was like somebody really good. Oh, Tom Aspinall? Yeah, that's what I heard. Yeah, well, see, the thing with that is, you know, John is at the stage of his career where he's like, I want to fight legends and I want to fight fights that are like big fights against big names that matter.

Tom Aspinall carried a high risk. He wasn't a very well-known fighter, even though he's the heavyweight champion. And he was really the heavyweight champion because John resigned the title. All right. So he was the interim heavyweight champion, so they had like an interim title. and John was the undisputed heavyweight champion and they were supposed to fight and they didn't make that happen

but now you know after that fight John is still trying to figure out if he's going to fight again if he's going to fight again maybe he'll fight because there's a big White House card in I heard about that yeah and the White House card is a big one and if that happens that it won't be

aspirin all probably because aspirin all just went through eye surgery yeah two different eye surgeries He got poked in the eyes in his fight. Aren't you, like, involved in the USC? Yeah, yeah, I'm the commentator. Okay. I'm one of the commentators. So are you going to be doing like Zoufa boxing too?

No, no, no, no, no, no. No, that's Kellerman, Andre Ward. You know, they do a great job over there. I'll definitely watch some of those fights, though. I think it's interesting. Look, I think it's good to have more organizations that are competing to get the fighters because then the fighters would get more money. Money, yes.

And I think Eminem. M.M.A. could use that too. Unfortunately, the UFC is the big name in MMA. And MMA, unlike boxing, is all about the UFC. In boxing, it's all about who's the champ. Nobody gives a shit if it's Golden Boy or Bob Aram. Nobody gives a fuck who the promoter is. It's like, who is the fighter that's fighting? Is it Triple G versus Canello? Who are the fighters? Yeah. And unfortunately, with MMA, it's not that. It's like, if you are an excellent fighter, but you fight for the PFL, nobody knows.

Nobody knows. Yeah. There's a small audience of hardcore people that pay attention. Somebody fight for the PFL. Clarissa, huh? Yeah, she fought for the PFL. She's crazy. That lady's wild.

She's the best. She's the best. She's the best. There's nobody better. I mean, she's the heavyweight champ now. It's crazy. I just wish she was kind of smaller, so like some of the smaller girls

who really think that they can be her. Right. can see like... There's levels. Man, she's the goat. She is the goat, but she's not getting... I mean, as much as the love that she does get, she's not getting what she deserves.

And it's just because there's just not a lot of competition. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. It's just two Olympic gold medals, undisputed several times in the sport. I just don't get it. Well, it's just women's boxing does not have the same level of respect and appreciation that men's boxing.

does unfortunately well Clarissa I respect and appreciate you and you are my goal so yeah I do as well I've had her on she's awesome I've had her on the podcast I'm a big fan her and I'm just the only one that had the courage to fight in MMA I mean that was crazy she's tough and she really did like not bad but she was fighting against lesser competition so yeah but she definitely was like you could tell she was charing she would she had to learn the grappling from a beginner's perspective And she was breaking out of them like choke clothes, she was kidding. It's crazy. She knows how to win, you know, and sometimes that's enough.

You know, at that high a level, as elite a level as she is. But I think she's rightly just concentrating on boxing because I think she realizes that to be a world champion in the MMA, she kind of have to abandon boxing. Yeah, for sure. And it would be a long process. Journey. Yeah. And she'd probably have to absorb a couple more losses.

Yeah. It's like, watch me do that. It ain't really worth it. Fuck these girls up in boxing. And I know she don't like losing. No, not at all. No. She's a fun fighter to watch, though.

If anybody can get people to pay attention to women's boxing, it's Clarissa. Yes, because she's exciting. I don't see. That's why I don't understand. I don't get it. I don't get it. She deserve all her flowers. She's the true fan.

I've never seen nobody. No. female as good as her ever in my life. No, she's probably the greatest of all time. I think everybody would agree. You know, you've had a few, there's a few great fighters over the years that have been female fighters, but she's the real standout.

Yeah. No question. It's just, unfortunately, that sport, I mean, there's not a lot of women out there that want to get punched in the face. If you had a room full of a thousand women, there might be like one or two, they'll be like, I'll try that. You know what I mean? Now, I think it's some solid female fighters

in the sport of boxing. I'm not a lot. There are, but not in comparison the numbers in men. Men's boxing is just this, you know, a lot of kids grow up, they want to be a boxer. Yeah, for sure. Not a lot of women are like, let me put the doll down and fuck some chick up. That's an unusual mindset. Yeah, it is. You know, it's just, you know, it is what it is.

It's, we're fortunate to be able to have her, though. Like, because, like, if there's anybody that's going to elevate the sport and bring in new fighters, is going to be someone who is really the only person in the sport that gets a tremendous amount of attention as a woman. Yeah, she then became a superstar. Yeah. It's definitely interesting seeing her in, like, those big arenas and having all the people walk out with her.

It's amazing to see, so I'm enjoying her process, and I'm glad that I'm here to witness it. Yeah, me too. Yeah. I mean, but, you know, other than her in the past, there haven't been enough like women that have like really you know Christy Martin

Layla Lee and there's like a few that I like Anne Wolf was a beast Yeah I like her She was one of the few that could flatline a chick With one shot too Yeah like she was the truth Oh yeah man

And a great trainer too When she was training in Kirkland Yeah Bro they showed those videos Of what she was putting him through And you know When he fought Canello He didn't have her in his corner

I was just about to say the fights that he lost, he kind of did not have her. Exactly. And the fights that he won. She was a general, dude. She was a general. She put him through some brutal shit.

But those were the fights that he was ultra-prepared. Yeah. You know? I think that's the, like, people don't realize, I feel like the best coaches in the sport of boxing

are the people that kind of box. I bet. Like Robert Garcia. I think he's the truth as a coach. Sure. Beaumack. Mok, another fight. Yep.

Buddy McGirt, he was a good. Oh, he was a great fighter. Yeah. I just feel like the coaches that's been in there is kind of right. They know. Sure. Yeah. I think it helps a lot.

I mean, there's a few guys, like Emmanuel Stewart, did he have an amateur background? I think so. Yeah. I'm not sure. I think so, though. I think so. Emmanuel just had a brilliant mind for the sport. Yeah, I like the way he talked to.

I'll be watching some of his old videos. Yeah. He actually, it was something that I was doing. in my fight for this fight but I watched the video of him and he said um fighters overtrained like they're overtrained and when I seen it he started explaining the reasons why you know that they're overtrained and then I seen it I started cutting back on some of the things that I'm doing I'm like man I don't want to overtrain and don't come out at my best amateur boxing career he compiled a record of 94 wins three losses in the amateur including

winning the 1963 National Golden Gloves Tournament in the Bantamweight Division. Wow, Bantamweight, that's crazy. I mean, he was small. That's crazy. But, man, what he did with a cronk gym, he also had this gym, like, cranked up. He made it, like, 98 degrees in there all the time. So everybody was, like, training in the heat. Yep.

He had a lot of boxers that was, like, top-level boxers in there, so they was pushing each other to get better. So, that's the Cichol already. Oh, it is the Cichol area. code, right? Iron sharpens iron. Yep. Yeah, you can't be the best boxer in your gym and have everybody else that's way below you and really

get to that world class level. No, impossible. It's impossible. You've got to bring in guys that's on a high level. And honestly, for me, I keep, like, the young kids that's, like, up and coming. Like, my little cousin, he's a great boxer.

And he's up and coming. And I just was in the gym with him yesterday and play sparring with him. And, I keep a lot of good boxes around me, a lot of good boxes. It's another kid that man, you all chance. He's like 19 years old. Like, they are so skillful right now to where, like, when I'm around them, I'm still picking up things from them, and they probably don't even know it,

but I'm definitely, I got my notepad out everywhere I go. That's so important, right? Mentally it's locked in here. Like, I'm watching and studying. Well, so, everybody does everything different. Yeah. You know, and you can just pick up little things here and there from what they do and start incorporating that. Yep.

People don't know right before the fight with Tio, it was a, I'm going to tell you a fight that I was watching. Okay. I'm going to give out a little secret. It was an eight-year-old kid, Tremaine Williams. He fought a guy named Dusty Harrison, and, like, they literally eight years old. But I liked the way Tremaine was fighting in that fight. He was using his jab. He was the shorter fighter, but he was keeping his range and distance.

And I was literally watching an eight-year-old kid fight right before the biggest fight of my life. That's amazing. And you were studying it. Wow. I swear. That's great. That's such a great mindset. Yeah.

I mean, that's how you really grow and learn. You could absorb something from everybody. Yeah, you can learn from anywhere. Like, I was watching an interview with you once where you were talking about Terrence and you said, you really learn more watching Terrence than you... Than being in there. Yeah. I still feel that way.

Like, I feel like... I learn more from, like, seeing the things he's doing than, like, being in the ring with him. And when we in the ring, it's always chess, like, we having chess matches. But when I'm watching, I could see some of the things he's doing. And I'm like, damn, this dude is just different. Like, I knew before the Spence fight what was happening. I knew before the... Nella fight, what was happening.

Even when I was in the locker room, I'm in a locker room, I'm looking at him. Call my Batman, I'm like, yo, put me some more money in. I know what time it is. No lot of. But watching him in the gym, you got to see

hard training sessions. You got to see when he looked great. You got to see bad days in the gym. You got to see how he recovered, how he came back. Yep. Like I said He's one of the most competitive

Human beings I've ever met So I do get to see All of it Like I get to see Go home with him And Okay let me see how he's thinking about this He'll go back and watch the sparring

And when he watching it Oh my God He's adjusting His brain is just adjusting To the sparring that he just watch And then we'll go in the gym The next day Now he's just doing things

And phew Poooo! Everything's just on point So do you do that? Do you watch your sparring sessions? I learned that for Room. Yeah? I used to really never used to do that. But I had seen him, I forget what on sparring session he was watching.

I want to say on this iPad and he was watching it. And then I seen him spar the next time. And I'm like, we look like a million bucks. Like the adjustments that he made was just insane. So I started doing the same thing. I'm like, if I have a day I don't like, I go home, why did I have this day? Oh my God, I keep doing that. Why do I keep doing that?

Okay, I'm not doing that no more. Oh, I can hit him with this. I see that shot is open. Okay, now I'm going to hit him with this shot. And I think that helps me tremendously. That makes sense, like watching yourself as an observer the way you would watch an opponent. Yeah.

Yeah. You got to see what you do good and, like, what you do bad. Yeah. And correct the things that you do bad. Instead of just remembering it from the, training, watching it. Yeah, because I have like a bad habit sometimes when I'm like in a boxing

gym, I like a fight. I don't have like, I don't know why I will get in there. Sometimes I just turn into a fighter instead of realizing that I'm a boxer. And then sometimes I get hit with shots and I'm like, oh, why am I getting hit with that shot? I'm like, I know my mental, my brain was already locked in on fighting instead of being locked in on boxing. Then you fight.

Explain to people, what is the difference between your mentality fighting and your mentality as a boxer? When I'm fighting, I'm emotional. And I don't want to be emotional, but I'm emotional. And I'm fighting somebody. I'm trying to beat them up, and I'm having a contest of who's the bigger and stronger guy. And when I'm boxing, I'm just on top of my game. And it's like, I'm able to hit you and you're not able to hit me. And that's what I do best.

So I try to like stick with what I do best. And it's going to be a time to fight. So I have that in my arsenal for sure. But I don't like just doing it for no reason. Do you sometimes feel yourself getting emotional a fight and have to pull it back? I never had it happen in a fight. But I don't have it happened. like in the spark to where like, all right, bro, you, your emotions is just taking control

and instead of like you're just having fun and enjoying what you're doing. Right. So, yeah, I don't have no moments in the gym for sure. So it's just like a composure thing. You're all of a sudden you're now not thinking as much. You're just trying to beat his ass. Take the emotions out of the situation and just be you. Yeah.

Be present. That's really my main thing. I want to be present in what I want to be present in what I'm. I'm doing and not moving off of like feelings. Right, right. That probably fucks up a lot of fighters, don't it? Yeah, for sure. Because so many, especially men, they're so wrapped up in their feelings and their

emotions when they're fighting. Yeah, but fighters don't study their self. Like, I study myself. Like, I got to check in with myself and see, like, what am I doing wrong and what am I doing right? And I correct it. You think that's rare? Yeah.

I think that's a rare attribute on. Because fighters depend on their coaches. They depend on their coaches to do everything again. I depend on my grandfather when I need him, but I know that I'm the fighter that's in there. So I'm not trying to just depend on them. I want to depend on myself also. So, like, do you try to get the other guys in the gym

to follow your footsteps and watch footage? You tell them, like, help them out with that? Yeah. Like the younger guys that I just mentioned, My little cousin and my little brother, damn there, Mani, I try to tell them to tune in with themselves and do the same similar things, watch yourself, see what you're doing wrong, and try to correct it. But they're younger, so as time go on, they will, like, pick up on it.

But I can't rush how I feel and my beliefs on them right now. Well, the best thing you could do is lead by example. Yeah, always. That's my main thing. Yeah. If you do all the hard work and you put it in it, and they'll see. your success. When they have harder moments, they'll go, okay, what do I need to adjust?

Yep. Let me follow Shakur. Yeah. Well, let me see what the champ is doing. Yeah, that's the goal. That's my main goal because, like I said, I ain't going to be boxing forever, so once I'm done, I'm going to sit back and I'm going to help them out. Do you plan on coaching when you're done?

I probably don't coach. Just help out in the gym? Just call me a secret weapon. Call me a secret weapon I'll be that guy Do you already think about What you're going to do when you retire I've been trying

Boxing is a sport Where you're when you retire You still have so much life ahead of you Man that's the truth But I've been trying to like Figure it out Because I know it's going to be within boxing But whatever I do

I'm going to do to the best of my ability I'm going to want to like Make tons of money for what I'm doing and if I'm a secret weapon, shit, I might make money just being a secret weapon, so let's see. Right. Just someone bringing the camp. I'm the right guy for it.

Yeah? I got all the IQ. I watch too much boxing. Like, my life is, like, literally sit down and watch TV, watch, iPad, watch. Right. I just live boxing, so I think that would be kind of easy. but I just see myself, like, taking over the world. In what way?

I don't know. Like, I can't tell you. Like, I don't know, like, my brain kind of, like, different. Like, I don't feel like, I know for a fact I'm not going to be boxing for long. Like, I don't plan on getting in the ring, doing the wrist and doing all that forever. So when I take over the world, it's going to be more so, like, me just locking in and using the same focus that I got for boxing into whatever else that I'm. I'm doing and take over. Like, whatever I do, I want to be the best.

So you don't even have a thought of what it's going to be. You'll figure that out when you get out of boxing. I journal a lot, so I'll be writing things down. Oh, really? So I can't tell you exactly what it's going to be, but I do know that I'm going to be making millions in a different atmosphere. Well, that's a great attitude to have. I'm glad you say you journal, because this is one of the things that I wanted to bring up.

I wish more boxers were interested in writing books because I think there's some of the things that you're talking about today and some of the things you're talking about in terms of like watching yourself, analyzing yourself, things you've learned. That would be very, very valuable if it's written down. But boxing knowledge is all word of mouth in the gym. It's all people who know things, tell other people and they learn things. and you got to go to these gyms and talk to these people, or you get boxing knowledge from the commentators, like Andre Ward will spit it out, or Roy Jones will spit it out.

Like that is where boxing knowledge gets sort of recorded. Yeah. But I think it would be great if boxers could sit down and write just on boxing. Because you think about what a huge sport boxing is. Huge sport. Like one of the pinnacle. of sports of combat sports, but yet there's not a lot of books written about technique and style and how they learn things and what they learned and why and what changed.

And I learned that in this fight and this fight this changed and I adjusted this about my training sessions. And I heard Emmanuel Stewart talk about overtraining and so I realized maybe I was doing that. It is one book. What is it? Andre Will book. Oh, that's right. People got to read it, but I'm not fully done with it either,

but as I read through some of it, he's giving out some free game. It's free game in there that people could go listen to and read it and check it out because it's definitely like... Did he read it for the audiobook? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I know I got the actual book, so I just read it. But I didn't finish it.

I won't say that I finished it, but... But he talks all about those things? It's a lot of things in there that's like free game. Like, okay, ooh, I like that. I like take that like if you're training, even if you're a training the fighter, like, you're training the fighter. It's something that I saw that he said that I'm like, okay, I'm going to take that if I'm a trained fighters. Narrated by Andre Ward, perfect, killing the image, champions journey, fighting and forgiveness.

He's the perfect guy to do that too, because like I said, he's the guy that did it right, you know? Went out on top. What's that? you understand. Yeah, yeah. Well, we need more books like that. I'll read that book. I haven't read it, but I'll read it.

Because I think it's just there's so much knowledge out there in certain camps and it would benefit the entire sport if someone would document some of that stuff. Because some of that stuff is only told to the fighters that this guy's training and only told to the other fighters this guy trains with and it's not out there and it could get lost. You know? Like, I'm sure there's some shit that Floyd knows that only people around him know that have been told that will be lost. Yeah, for sure. You know what I'm saying?

It's something he told me before this last fight that I took in and I'm like, ooh. Really? What is that? I'm using that. It's simple, though. It's very simple. I don't, like I say, it's hard for me to keep giving out the, maybe when I retire. Oh, come on, man.

What do you say? No, he just told me, um, stretching. Stretching. Stretching. How powerful, like, stretching these. And I just gave up. It's simple, though. Like, people just know it, but do people do it?

Dude, people don't even do it in MMA. Yeah. You know how crazy that is? Where you have to kick and people don't stretch. Yeah. Like, I was having a conversation with this dude who was a world champion, and I was explaining to him to a jiu-jitsu position. I was like, this is why it's effective.

He's like, oh, I can't get my legs up that high. I go, what are you talking about? You can. You just have to stretch. I don't really stretch. I go, that's crazy. Every, no, there's a lot of fighters in sports that's like, I won't see it. That's crazy.

I'll see it. Well, Floyd has always been a guy who did everything right. I mean, if you want to emulate a guy's career, Floyd has been hit hard maybe three times in his whole career. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah, he's the truth. 100%. Every time I watch him,

he's a wizard. I barely seen anybody like that good. Like for me personally, like, barely like, it's only a handful of people that I can say like, okay, they're that good. His brain just working at a different level than a lot of people. Also, just insanely disciplined, always in shape, always took care of himself,

would go out to a club, drink water, and then run home in jeans. and jeans. That's tough. I heard he had on like boots. Boots. I never heard of that like that before. I can imagine.

I mean, but that's the results, right? You get a guy who's just head and shoulders above everybody he fights. And just a master of pinpoint precision and movement and knowing where you are. And hard to hit but stood right in front of you. That's the crazy thing about Floyd. There's a lot of guys that were hard to hit. were like fleet of foot and moving around and footwork and Lomachenko style, you know? Yeah.

Not Floyd. Right in front of you. Right in front of you, you can't hit him. Kind of similar. Crazy. Kind of similar to me. Yes. But I think he's definitely, he's a Chico.

Yeah. His mental was just too far ahead of everybody else's. Yeah. That's the main thing. Well, the one fight between like guys who retired and came back that I'm still interested in seeing is him and Mani. and I know they're going to do that on Netflix. Floyd. I think that's still a high-level fight, though.

That's what I love about it. Because I think Manny is still a high-level fighter. And Floyd, even in these exhibitions that he's been doing... He'd be looking good, huh? He looks great, man. He looks great in sparring. You see him at sparring, like, good Lord, man. It doesn't look like he's lost a step.

Yeah, honestly, I don't see Manny being able to beat Floyd Mellner. Like, I don't see it. I think Manny looked solid, his last fight with Barrios, but I just don't see Floyd losing. Like, I think it's some guys that he could come back today in the sport or boxing and fight. Yeah, I think so. Like, guys like Barrios?

Yeah, right. I think he would. He would light Barrios up. Yeah. Yeah, but, I mean, it's like, there's levels. I mean, no matter what he's lost being 46, they haven't gained that yet. I mean, they're not, they were never there in the first.

first place. So if he was here and he's lost this much, they're still here. Yeah. And even though he's not Floyd that fought Canello or Floyd that fought Ricky Hatton, it's not the same Floyd. It's not that much different. Yeah. He's still so far ahead. Because he's not drinking. He's not fucking his body up. He's not doing anything stupid. He stays in shape. He eats right. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate Floyd too because that's one of the that I never did no business with ever, and he still kind of helped me. So I appreciate him, man. I think he's a real dude. He got my love and respect. Well, I always say that if you wanted to have a style that you emulate, well, you want to have a great career, look at that guy.

Like, really very few times his career ever got hurt. Very, very few. You can count him on one hand, you know, where he was in any kind of trouble at all. Yeah, that's my goal. And then in rematches, oh, my God. In rematches, he's always just like, like, Maidana. Like, Maidana, the first fight was a rough fight. Yeah. Second fight, he looked like a master.

I'm not going to lie, though. He's one of the guys that makes me want to, like, feel the experience of, like, getting hurt. Because, like, when he fought Shane Mosley, that moment of, like, he lost his whole balance, everything almost went to his feet, but he stayed up. Yep. And then he fought back harder. Like, I feel like that was like an amazing moment of his career. And, like, for me, I want to have the experience, like, of that moment.

Like, I have never got hit, like, crack like that yet in the pros. So I actually want to experience. You really want that? Yeah. Really? That's crazy. That's crazy. That you could do it.

Yeah. Like, you've got to see, like, I got more in me to just than just. being like a good boxer. Like I'm a good boxer, but I'm tough too. The Mosley fight was probably the fight where he got it hurt the most. Yeah. Yeah. And the most dangerous because it was like, I think it was kind of in the middle of the

round, right? Yeah. Yeah. I want to feel that experience. Wow. And that was prime mostly too. I told Andre Ward that he told me, he's like, man, why would you want to? Why would you want to?

But I'm like, I don't understand why, but I definitely do. Who do you think out there could do that? I don't think nobody. I don't think they're, like, mentally on the level of team. I think I'm just too far ahead. But that's the problem of being too far ahead is that it's kind of be hard for you to get fights. Yeah.

What are they talking about right now? Is there anybody that they're talking about right now for you? No, I haven't really heard none from a business standpoint since my last fight. The problem is the last fight was too good. You know, like you would have probably got some offers, Before that fight, but after that fighter, but it's like, hold on. I don't know if I want that to happen to me. Yeah, I don't, I have no clue who I'll be fighting next.

Who do you have your sights on? Like, who do you, like if you could make the decision? Who do you think is interesting right now? If I can make a decision interest, what interests me may be, and this is crazy to say. I may go back to 35 and get that ring belt. Really? I may. We'll see.

Yeah? I can't promise that I will, but I may. What makes that more interesting to you? I like the ring belt. Like, I like the ring magazine belt. I don't know what it is about it. It's classic belt. But for me to have a ring belt at 1.30,

and then I had, I got a ring belt right now at 140, but I never had a ring belt at 35. And it's like, should I just go get that? ring belt just to have it so it's the belt not even the opponent I know the opponent that I would have to fight to get it I'm hearing this on Raymond Morritaya he's a good fighter he just beat Andy Cruz so nah this ain't the opponent it's more so just to have the ring belt that's crazy like you're at a position where you're not even thinking about opponents you're thinking about belts you'd like to acquire

for sure that's pretty cool though I mean that's a beautiful place to be in. Yeah. That's beautiful. But what about opponents? Is there any opponents? Like, if you had, like, if no one could say no, and you were like, I'm going to orchestrate my career, who would you like to fight?

If it was no opponents, I mean, and I was orchestrating, I probably. Because the fight that I would think that would generate the most amount of interest at 135 would be tank. Now, I know Tank's got some legal issues now, and I don't know what his status is currently. But when in terms of big names, Tank is the big name at 35. Yeah. I would love for it to happen, but the way that he went on, like, social media and kind of like bashed me in a way to where it was like he made it seem like I need him. and I just feel disrespected about it

because at the end of the day, I'm a grown man. I make my own money. I'm living a spectacular life. I don't need nobody. So if he feels as though I need him and if it's that kind of stuff, then it's like whatever.

I'm not in need of that fight. The thing is, is like Tank had gotten a bunch of those high-profile fights. He killed Ryan. He's had some big high-profile fights. He looked great. And so for him to say that, he's probably, you know, he's talking shit, obviously. But he's like looking at you as like you haven't had before the Lopez fight.

You haven't had that big breakout fight. But now you have. Now you have. And it was more spectacular than me if you wanted to write out a perfect result on paper against a world champion like Tiofimo. That would be the fight you would say. Yeah. So that's, I mean, if I had to think of like a big fight for you, if I, was the guy with the magic wand that would set up i would love the fight i would love for that

that fight that would be a big fight oh that would be a big fight especially after you just beat lopez that'd be a big fight i would love for the fight to happen that might be the only big fight that i could think of other than you going up but 47s like you said that's a that's a that's a big jump man yeah i'm not i'll make it though i'll make it soon soon i mean later than sooner but do you think if you did that you would want to prepare and put mass on, or would you just stay at the weight you are and just get accustomed to fighting bigger guys? If I was to go to 47, I would want to, like, prepare.

Like, I would want to do it slowly. I wouldn't want to just jump the 147. You would want to put on weight, you think? Yeah, some type of weight, yep. Yeah. Because I'm little, like, I can't just jump the ring at the size that I am. at 147 pounds

when I know guys is going to be a lot bigger Right Especially when you're talking about Ryan being 170 When he gets in the ring He might even be bigger than that And he was big and ripped

In his last fight He looked fucking great Yeah for sure You know But it's like That's one of those things too Is if you do go up Going down

Gets real hard Going back Like if you go up To 47 I don't understand The reason with that Because your body I think it's accustomed to being bigger.

True. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, so if you put on mass, right, so if you put on muscle and you go up to like 147, and so you're walking around at 155, 160, something like that, you drop down to 47, you've got more shoulder muscle, chest muscle, back muscle, leg muscle. If you stay at that weight and then you've got to cut down to 35, you're going to feel like shit. And the example that I always use is Roy.

So when Roy Jones went up and fought John Ruiz won the heavyweight title, then he went back down to light heavyweight, he never looked the same. Because he was 200 pounds solid at a heavyweight, ripped like muscular 200 pounds. For him to lose 25 pounds of weight and go back down to light heavyweight, that is fucking hard. Yeah, I get that. I get that. I feel like when Roy did that, Roy was like, I think he even, He must have been trying to set up a big heavyweight fight maybe, or was he just trying to just win the title?

I mean, I think he was just trying to be like the only got to go from middleweight to win the heavyweight title, which he did. Yeah, I don't understand why he did that because you're right. When he fought Tarver, it was like, I don't know what was happening. Like, I didn't really think Tarver was as good as Roy, but Tarver beat Roy. Tarver's a bad motherfucker, though. Tarver's a very good fighter. But to beat Roy, he was.

I think Tarver in that fight, first of all, they had fought before, right? They had a real close decision loss, Tarva lost, and then Tarver got in his head at the beginning of the fight. So you got any excuses tonight, Roy? That was crazy. That was crazy. Like, to hear that, like, right when you're about to fight? Yeah. Any questions for the champion?

Any question for the champion? Got any excuses tonight, Roy? Man, oh my God. Roy, man, I don't know. That was one of the wildest things anybody's ever said. to turn me up though. Like, if he would have said that to me, like I'm trying to pitch of somebody saying that to me

right before we fight, now I'm going to want, I already want to beat you bad. Right. Now I'm going to want to beat you even bad. Or like, then after the fight, I'm going to get on the mic and what did you say? Did you say something?

But when he dropped Roy and knocked him out, I was like, oh my God, I can't believe it. Yeah. But I was worried about him because I know what that does to people when they drop weight. And dropping down from two, 200 pounds to 175 will really wear your body out.

Yeah, so you think it was more sort of weight than the skills of Tarva? I would never say that. Because I think Tarver has elite skills. I mean, Tarver's... Elite? I think he's elite. Oh, come on. I think Tarver's an elite fighter.

Elite? You don't think he's elite? No. I mean, he's had... Without due respect to Tarva. Great performances and not as good performances, but I think in the performance against Roy, he looked elite. Yeah, he looked good that night, but... Because he rose to the occasion.

I just don't know about elite. Elite level. For me, personally, I'm not the biggest target fan, so. Okay. Well, I defer to your championship knowledge. But, I mean, in that fight, you can't say that he didn't look spectacular in that fight against Roy. No, he did. He did. He looked on point.

He looked like he was the better fighter at that moment. Yeah, awkward, Southpaw. When I watched the first fight, I thought Roy was a way better fighter than him. I thought Roy just stood on a rope. for way too long. I don't know why he did that. Was the first fight before or after he fought Ruiz? It was after.

Was it after? The first fight they had too? That probably wore his ass out too. I just think once you go all the way up like that, you should probably stay there. And I don't know how we went up. I don't want to, you know, it's hard for a guy in his 30s

to put on that kind of muscle. Yeah. And generally you have some help. Yeah. So generally some Mexican supplements involved. And so the problem is... He took ostrichy. Once you have taken that stuff and then you stop taking it because you want to go back to your normal weight, your whole endocrine system gets fucked up.

This is the problem with juicers. Guys who take juice, the thing that happens is... Man, don't tell me this. Hold on. No. Listen, I'm not saying this about Roy. Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

We're good, we're good. We just talk in general. Are we good? Fighters that gain weight and have lean muscle and put on that kind of mass. Yeah. Ferex, either steroids or something that juices up your endocrine system, whether it is peptides. Yes. Damn, I never heard of this.

You didn't know? Nah. What, come on, man. You don't, for real? No, I didn't know. Oh, come on. There's a lot of fighters that took stuff. Oh, I know, no, I know that.

Yeah. I know that people is cheating. Oh, well, in the older days before they were testing. Yeah. Oh, come on, man. Like in the 90s, who knows how many guys were on steroids? Damn, that take away the credit of them guys, because I feel like, when I watched them guys, they was the truth. Now, you tell me.

They are the truth. But I don't think, I think, well, here, let me use what I know for an example. An MMA. MMA is a better example. Yeah. MMA, fucking for sure I could tell you 100% people were juicing. 100%. Because I knew guys who were juicing.

They would tell me what they were on and everybody was juicing. So then they started implementing, so then the UFC starts getting sanctioned by athletic commissions and they test day of the fight. The day of the fight test is an intelligence test. It's not a steroids test. It's like, were you intelligent enough to cycle off right before the fight? with the right kind of steroids so that on the way and day, when you get tested, you don't test positive. Yeah.

That's all it is. And a lot of these camps, like big MMA camps, they have scientists working in the camps. That's helping them cheat. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now, not so much anymore. This is scary. Because then the UFC, it is scary.

But the thing is, everybody was doing it. And then on top of that, you had an organization like Pride. And I don't know if you're aware of Pride, but Pride was the big organization in Japan. I mean, they were selling out 90,000 seat arenas in Japan for these promotions. They were fucking huge. And everyone was juiced to the tits. I don't know if everybody was, but a lot. I don't think Rampage was.

Rampage told me he never took steroids, and I believe him. But a lot of guys were juiced up. And I know for a fact they were juiced up because they told me. They told me. And they also tell him, like, Ensign Inouye, who fought for Pride, told me that on his contract... Innuay? Oh. Yeah, like, not related.

Okay. But same last name. Ensign, he was a great fighter, a pioneer at M.A. Enson told me that on his pride contract, it said in all capital letters, we do not test for steroids. Like, they incur... I had a friend of fought in Japan. They encouraged him to take steroids. See, this scared me because I got to get in a boxing ring

And I know that people be cheating Some people cheat I know it's be like low-level fighters That you'll go there and you'll be like Why do this guy punch way harder than A lot of people like Right I don't understand it and it's like I don't

Well there's a few fighters in MMA that when steroids Started being tested for Their body shrunk And then their power went away Like there was guys that were knocking everybody out And then also they couldn't knock anybody out It's crazy I mean there's so many stories in MMA

Where you see fighters' physiques just deflate Like they're a balloon They got air let out of it I feel like I seen in boxing though I see guys they kind of like get caught with steroids And then they have a fight after that And it's like... They look like shit

Where did the power go? Exactly All of your power But that's fact That's fact I get it That does happen And then there's also ways that we can't figure out what they're doing yet.

I mean, this has happened all throughout sports, right? This was the whole thing with Barry Bonds and the Balco scandal in baseball. They had developed a steroid called the Clear. And what the Clear was was a steroid that was undetectable. They hadn't figured it, but eventually they got caught. And so who knows what kind of shit. It's not like they stopped trying to innovate and come up with ways to get an advantage. There's definitely people doing it now.

But the way the UFC works now, first they brought in USADA, now they have a company called Drug Free Sport that does the same thing. And they just show up and test you. You don't get a notification. It's going to happen next Tuesday. So you can take a bunch of shit that clears it out of your system. So they just show up, knock on your door. Hey, it's time for a test.

And then you got to give them. That's what they do. That's how they should do. If I do the same thing, they just show up. Yeah, that's how they should do. You don't rain blood. Yep. Just anytime.

Actually, my last camp, they tested me like four or five times. Yeah. God damn. Well, that's the only way to know. You got to show up randomly and test guys. That's the only way to know. I'm cool with it, though, because I ain't never ever really did anything when they come to cheating. But if you go up, and this is, again, not casting any disparaging remarks about Roy, who's one of the greatest of all time.

But if you went back to the Ruiz fight, do you think they were testing him? I fucking doubt it. I fucking doubt it. There was no Vata testing back then. But then U-Sada was in boxing? No. I don't think so. No, no.

I could have sworn they was in boxing. Okay, let's find out. Was the Roy Jones-Johns-John-Ruiz Jr. fight, did they utilize Vata testing? I don't think they did. Usada. Usada. Okay, Usada. Usada.

I don't think they did. I don't think that, look, that was always a thing about Manny. Like, people always said that about Manny. I heard that too. Right. The only reason why I was believable, though, because I never... He went up eight weight classes. I never seen that in my life.

And kept the knockout power. I'd never seen that in my life. Right. I never in the history of the sport. You go from one, what, 109 or... Whatever he started at. To 154 and you're just knocking guys out. I know.

That's crazy. And his physique, you know? I mean, he looks fantastic at every step of the way. And he also had that dude would it say was not held under a modern UFC style USADA program

there's no record of being part of any independent year-round Usada Vata scheme like we see today so they just depending on the athletic commission Yeah but again the athletic commission It's just fight day

It's an intelligence test Yeah I mean I will show you Show him Alistair Overeem What he fought Brock Lesner Like at the way in Now, Alster Overeem is the greatest example in MMA of a guy who, when he was on the juice, he was unstoppable. Unstoppable.

They called him Uberim when he was unstoppable because he looked like a comic book superhero. He was so jacked. And then when they started doing Yusada testing, he looked completely different. I mean, completely different. He got softer. He's still good, but he didn't look like Uberim. When he, there's an image of him flexing on the scale. Like, look at him right there.

Come on, son. I mean, come on. Look at that girl. Look at Ariani's face. And she's looking at his back. She's like, what the fuck? And that was, uh, I mean, come on, man. He was a fucking monster.

He was knocking guys out. He was destroying everybody. He was destroying everybody when he was juiced up. And he started his career as a light heavy weight. So he started his career as a light heavy weight. There's a 205 pound guy who is thin and skinny. That is light heavy weight? Yeah, that's light heavy weight.

The UFC's weight classes are all fucked up. Like, well, I know, it's stupid. They have the same names, but different weight classes. So like welterweight is 170 in the UFC. Yeah, look at him. So that's the difference between how he was when he was juicing versus how he was. Is he the difference? It's crazy, right?

Isn't it crazy? It's crazy. Damn. So the guy on the right was just he had to move more. He was still very skillful. He was a very skillful kickboxer. Very skillful MMA fighter. But, I mean, when that guy was fully jacked up and juiced, man, he was almost unstoppable.

See, that's why I'm, man, that's why I don't like that. Like, that's my thing. I don't want to get in the ring with somebody that's cheating. Right. I feel like that's. But I'm so good to where it's, like, even if you are cheating, you ain't going to hit me. You won't be much of no mean. But imagine if you're fighting a guy that's at your level, but he's cheating.

Yeah. That's the problem. Yeah. That's the problem. Right now, there's not really anybody in your division that's at that level that's, like, really compelling. I mean, other than at 135 tank. But imagine if there's someone that's at your level and you're pretty sure they're cheating. That's got to fuck with your head.

Honestly, I feel like there's some competitive guys at these weight classes. They just not know. Right. But there's some names that's like, okay, like, even Lamont Roach. Lamont Roach is very good. That fight with Gervante was crazy because that was a knockdown. That's a fucking knockdown. He won.

He won, for sure. The fact that he took a knee and the referee didn't call it a knockdown, that's crazy. Yeah, he won. But to say, like, I'm just saying it is guys out there for me. Lamont is a great example. It would be big fights and competitive fights. And I don't spark a Lamont, so I know. him on his

He's legit Yeah I mean a lot of people did not know about him Before that fight But after that fight I mean Look that sucks man

Because that goes down On his record as a loss And that's crazy Was it a draw? Draw That's right It was a draw And he won the fight

He clearly won He won the fight Yeah I thought he won the fight Anyway Yeah I did too But the knockdown Like you can't say

I got shit in my hair And it got in my eyes And that's why I went down That's crazy That was very amateurish It was weird It was amateurish. I didn't...

It was weird. I never stood a nothing like that. Well, it's like Gervante just looked like his head wasn't totally there in that fight. Yeah, maybe. So do you require Vata testing for all your fights? And do you have that ability to do that? Yes. So in negotiations, you make sure that everybody's getting tested.

Good for you. I do not play that. Yeah, good for you, man. Good for you. I mean, we're very fortunate that we have these testing bugs. like that now available. Yeah. Because again, like, if they had a...

Who knows what a lot of fighters' legacies would be, if they were testing them at every step along the way. Yeah. They'd get caught. Yeah. Yeah. So with M.MA, it was the Wild West for a long time.

For a long time. It was the wild, wild west. Everybody was doing all kinds of shit. I wouldn't be able to do that. Like, I would not be able to get in the ring, lose to somebody, and didn't know they cheated me. Right. Because I don't know how I will react to that.

Like, that would be, like, one of the moments I may crash out, and I don't do crash out things. So I might crash out about, like, there ain't no way you just cheated me, bro. Right. Ain't no way you just cheated me, bro. Well, the thing is that with combat sports versus every other sport is your goal is to hurt your opponent.

Yeah. And if there's a thing you're doing that's cheating that helps you hurt your opponent, that is a different kind of cheating. Yeah. It's not like cheating in baseball. Baseball. Like, who gives a fuck if you hit another home run? I think they should all cheat in baseball.

I think they should all get on steroids. Make it more exciting. Like, because the only thing that's exciting about baseball is home runs, right? Yeah, I get you. That's the number one thing. If you got a way that you guys can hit more home runs, fucking give it to them. Will you stupid? Yeah, it's like harmless.

Like, it's not really going to hurt nobody. Exactly. Exactly. So I get it. Exactly. But, and boxing is like. It's life or death. Yeah.

Boxing is real life or death. That's why I don't know how, like, I would react. Don't you, anybody watching this, please don't cheat me. I am not the guy to be cheated. So just understand that. Well, I mean, whenever people are looking for shortcuts and people want to win, there's always going to be someone that's willing to do something that they're not supposed to be doing. That ain't it, though.

Like, like you said, it's life for death. Life for death. So you could cheat and hit somebody with the wrong shot and then they dead. What's the guy that killed? somebody uh, Sabrio Matias. Right. He, um, killed the dude. And now he just got popped for cheating, so it's like... Oh, he did?

Yeah. I didn't know that. What did he get popped for? I don't even know. He lost recently, right? He lost that. Right before the loss, they had popped him for cheating, I want to say. Oh. Doughton Smith. So they, he lost, so he got popped and then he lost the next fight?

Yeah, they let him fight. Wow. Yep. But it's like... I wonder if he's the same. guy after he got popped. That's what I was see to. I don't know either, but...

Because he was killing everybody. Yeah, he actually... Only killed one guy, but he actually killed somebody, but if I'm the family or somebody that he killed and now he comes out as cheating, I will be like, hold up now, bro. Can you see what Matisse got popped for?

That's crazy. He was... Who was the dude who just beat him? Dude just stopped him. Johnson Smith. Yes. Yeah. That was a crazy fight. That was crazy.

They were going to. They were going to war. They went to war. I mean, that was not an easy fight for him. Matthias is a dangerous dude, man. Yeah, that was a great performance by D'Artagnan, though. People don't know back in the day when I was in the junior worlds, me and whom went to the worlds together. So, Osterine.

Damn. Everybody's on Osterine. What is it about, I don't even know much about Osterine. What does Osterine do, Jamie? Let's find out what it does. Osterine, Selective Androgen. receptor modulator designed to treat muscle wasting conditions and osteoporosis by promoting muscle growth and bone density without the severe side effects of anabolic steroids. Popular amongst

bodybuilders for enhancing muscle mass and fat loss, it's not approved for human consumption by the FDA banned by water and linked to side effects like liver toxicity, testosterone, suppression, and cardiovascular risk. So it helps you keep muscle and bone density. Yeah. Well, it makes sense that that would be a good supplement for boxers. What are you showing me here? Before or after? Look at that guy. The one you got your link on? Jesus. Well, he looks like he's faking it in the third picture. But, I mean, you're always going to have certain people that are going to change. cheat. I hate it.

Are there any world title fights that take place that don't have Vata testing? Yeah, I think it is. I think people who don't fight without it, but I don't play that. I don't play that. I'd be thinking, man, I'd have to sparred the dude in the

gym that was, like, not good one time. Like, he's not good at all. But I'm sparring them. I'm like, man, this dude punch harder than everybody I ever been in the ring with. And I wonder, like, dude, Did that dude, do he be cheating? Well, some dudes just have natural God-given power, too.

But when you, like, fat, not kind of like, you're out of shape, then you just punch super hard and it's slow, but it's like, boom, boom. I'd be thinking people be cheating. They might be, but they might just have the gift. Yeah, that's true. The thing about boxing is punching power, you can enhance your punching power, but that crazy punching power, that's a gift. it. Yeah, you're born with it.

Like Ernie Shavers type punching power? Or Deontay. Wilder. Wilder. Wilder. The greatest example ever. Oh, my God. One shot, what Teddy Atlas is the best example. He called it the eraser. All the mistakes you made, it doesn't matter.

Yeah, because I sit there and watch Wilder, and I'm like, dog, it's some fights that I see him not punch at all until the shot is there. Right. And when the shot is there, he got you, it's over. It's crazy. It's over. I mean, he might be the greatest one-punched knockout artist in the history of the heavyweight division. I think he is. I think it's like no question.

Like, he's probably the hardest puncher that ever walks. He's up there. I mean, Ernie Shavers back in the day. Punch harder than Wilder? Wow, they all said Ernie Shavers was the, like, even Ali said nobody hit harder than Ernie Shavers. Wilder. I know, I know. And you think about Wilder, too, is he's not big.

He only weighed 209 when he fought Tyson Fury the first time. That right hand he got... Crazy. I don't think nobody could take it. It's crazy. I don't think nobody could take it. I was like a lot. I saw a fairy take it, but...

You know what he's like? He's like a giant Tommy Hearns. Yeah. That's what it's like. Yeah. Long leverage, just torque. The width of the shoulders, the snap of the punch, just blap! I wish he retired, though.

Like, I feel like he... What else is there to do? Like, you don't did a lot in the sport. You don't made a lot of money. I just wish, like, certain guys. It's just like, okay. I know. I know.

What am I doing this for now? Well, he's kind of fight Derek Jasora, which is interesting, because they're both the same age. They're both the, they both have 50 fights. They're both kind of in the same, but, you know. I like Derek Chisholore. He's a cool dude, too. He seems cool. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's a great time for boxing. There's a lot of talent, a lot of very, very compelling matchups. Are they going to do a B-V-V-Batch? Are they going to do a trilogy? I don't want to see that. I want to see BVar versus Benavides. Oh, yeah.

That's the fight, like, I don't. Well, the fight was Benavides versus Canello. But that never could get made for some reason. I mean, that dude is just too big for Canelo, though. Like, I see both sides. Like, I love Benavides and I'm a fan at whom. So I see the side of, like, like, fight me, bro. You the guy, I'm the guy.

We, number one, number one, let's fight. But then I see Canela side. like, man, this dude is 200 pounds on the regular. Right. And I'm nowhere near that weight. So it's like, why would I fight this guy? Like, I don't think it's fair. Like, that's how he felt itself.

Yeah, I understand it. But Canella went up and fought Beval. But he knew. He didn't think Beval was going to be him. You don't think so? Nah. Well. He didn't think he thought he was going to beat Bavall.

After Bavall beat him, you think that killed the chances? Yes. She knew, like, it's time. Like, I cannot fight these guys that's super big. I love watching Benevita's fight. Yeah, he's a true. He's a mauler. He is a fucking killer.

He did something that helped my hands. He told me to put on the gloves that I be wearing on fight night. And they helped my hands, so I appreciate him, too. Do you do anything to strengthen your hands? Do you do, like, exercises? Yeah, it's a... I can't tell her everybody. I can't tell everybody.

All right. Tell me later. Yeah, I'll tell you later. Does a bunch of different things people do, like... buckets of rice is a big one. Oh yeah, for sure. You do that too. Yeah.

Moving your hands around in buckets. What is it? Benevita's targets to meet you, Beval. Oh, there we go. That's the fight. That's the fight. That's the best versus the best. I think that's one of the best fights to make in the sport of boxing.

Well, he's fighting Ramirez at Cruiserweight, right? Yeah. And then he's going to drop back down to light heavyweight and fight Beval. I like that. Yeah. I want to make the biggest and the best fights happening. Fuck yeah. Yeah, that's one of the best fights in the sport.

Arthur better be of But better be of is like 40 now Yeah He's a truth though too Oh he's a truth He was a crusher forever He punched too hard Oh my God

He's another one He bangs dudes out He's got a crazy style Yeah I mean it's funny When people sparred him They have these stories Yeah

Like he hits you And you're like What just happened Yeah I can see it though When I watch him fight Beauvoir I'm in front row And like Beauvour

Like they catch shots on his glove and like I could see like how hard he was punching his glove like damn I don't know how before he's taking that I know and he was 39 back then yeah that's what's crazy it's like we missed his prime yeah unfortunately yeah we seen one fight where he fought the overseas got uh gavarra something and he beat he beat him up oh my god he beat him up well he was at one point in time, wasn't he like 39 and 0 with 39 knockouts? Which is just nuts.

At that level, that is just nuts. It's just nuts. It's just nuts that he stopped everybody. And it looks natural, too. It don't look like he's on like still like. No, no, it looks natural. It looks very natural. But didn't he get in trial, caught with something? He got caught with something? Yeah. Put that

better be of. Not better be of, man. I feel like I might be wrong. but I feel like maybe there was a tainted supplement. Man, come on. I better be. I think so.

I might be wrong. If I'm wrong, I apologize. You got to be wrong. You got to be wrong for better be at. This was 2024. Atypical. Yeah, this is what it was. Atypical drug test result.

Adverse findings may have threatened. No, what does that mean? What does it say? Look at Connor McGregor. Okay, Connor McGregor screaming and yelling. What does it say? What did he get caught with? Atypical finding is not a violation,

requires more testing. Better be have underwent those examinations at VADA request. Vata reported negative results from the follow-up test. So what was the positive test? Hmm. What does that mean? Yeah, what do that mean? Oh, here it goes.

He received atypical findings for human growth hormone and 5D Andro-Standadial, Both occur naturally in the body when an atypical finding is received. Further testing is required to determine if an athlete naturally produces the substance in his or her body at a greater level than the average or elevated levels, which were signs of anti-doping. Interesting. Okay.

So it could just be that he just has naturally high levels of HGH and this 5D Androstanadial. So that might be what it is. Or could be some sneaky shit. You know? I mean, did you ever see the documentary Icarus? This is a great documentary about the drug scandal in the Olympics in Russia. And so this was, what was this, 2016? Which was it, Jamie?

Was that the Olympics? I was at yeah I was dear what uh and they banned the whole Russian team exactly I thought that was 2020 though um they banned the Russian team the follow-up Olympics I believe because of the 2016 so this guy Brian Fogel did this documentary it's a crazy documentary and the documentary was not supposed to be 2014 winter Olympics 2014 winter Olympics so what happened was Brian Fogle was doing a documentary so he he was a he's a cyclist and a documentary guy and so he said I want to do a cycling event, a race, completely natural, and then I want to do it on steroids

and I want to document it all. And then, you know, make this document around what is the difference and just show because cycling is a very dirty sport. Yeah. Like Tour de France. Those guys, they put engines in their fucking bike to make it like easier to pedal. They do a lot of crazy shit, blood doping. So he does this naturally.

And then he gets this guy. what was his name again? Gregory Ritchenko, who was Rchenkov, who was the head of the Russian anti-doping federate, but it was really a doping federation. So what they were doing at the time

was, so he starts working with this guy. This guy's telling him what steroids to take and how to get better. At the same time, the Russians get caught. Like, while he's filming all this. And that guy has to leave the country. And that guy spills the beans.

And he tells them exactly what they did. And what they did was they took the clean urine. They made a hole in the wall. So the place where they stored all the urine, they made a hole in the wall where they could swap out the Russian urine and swap it in for good urine. And they found these micro abrasions on these supposedly unopenedable jars. And so when they looked at it with a microscope, they said they figured out a way to open these jars. So they would pass it through the hole in the wall, open the jar, emptied out, put in clean piss, and give it back to them. So essentially the entire team was doped up.

Yeah. So basically that's why they said in the Olympics, they wasn't sure if Russia was going to be able to compete, right? Exactly. And so in Brazil, the follow-up Olympics, the next Olympics, the entire team couldn't compete. The cycling team. No, the entire Russian team. All those. So the cycling thing was just this guy that was doing this documentary and he was using the head of the Russian anti-doping agency to help him do it.

Like openly. So it was just for a documentary. It wasn't like trying to win a race and cheat. He was like saying, let's see what you would give me and how much better my performance would be. So in the middle of doing all this, this scandal gets exposed. And this guy who he's using is at the head of the scandal. And then this guy tells him everything. Yeah.

And it's nuts. Russia did compete in the Olympics, though. They did compete in 2016. They must have didn't compete in 2020 then. Well, it was one of the, I think they allowed individual athletes to compete, whatever the subsequent Olympics was. But they didn't allow them to represent Russia. Okay, yeah, because it was a guy from Russia in my weight class. Oh, yeah?

And 2016 in Olympics. He definitely was kind of strong, too. Well, the Russians, I mean, they were the beginning of all this stuff, like the Eastern European women weightlifting. So they came over to cheats. Well, they figured it out. They figured it out early on. They've been doing it a long-ass time. Yeah.

So, who knows? With Better Beav or any of these guys. You've got to always assume that without something like Vada or drug-free sport or. you saw it uh there's always going to be someone who's trying to figure out a way to get a competitive advantage yeah i hate it it's gross hate it it comes with it though yeah it comes with it it is what it is so um anything else you want to cover before we wrap this up no i ain't got nothing else i think we're good listen man congratulations on everything it's been beautiful to watch you fight i'm a giant fan and i'm happy to see after the lopez fight you get all the respect

and the credit that you deserve, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Thank you. I appreciate you, and I appreciate you, and I appreciate you, giving an opportunity to come on a podcast. It's one of the best podcasts in the West. I appreciate you. Thank you very much, my honor. All right. Bye, everyone.