In this episode, I sit down with my good friend and former UFC fighter Danny Garcia. We talk about his career in the UFC, how he got into jiu-jitsu, and what it's like being a professional boxer in the early days of his career. We also talk about some of his favorite memories from his days in the octagon, and some of the craziest things he has ever done in the ring. I hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for more of his stories and stories from the streets of Youngstown, Ohio. If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your content. I am always looking for new guests and am always open to suggestions for guests. Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to my other shows, The Anthropology, The Urban Report, and The Athletic. I appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Peace, Love, Blessings, Cheers, EJ & Rory. -Eugene & Rory -The EJ Crew -Your Hosts: EJ, Rory Mcgregor and EJ McCartan & EJ Wrigley -Jon & Rory Mclean -Mikey Garcia -Mark LaMica, Mikey Garcia, Jr. & John Rocha, Sr. Mikey and Rory McAfee, Jr., Sr. & Mark Lammacchia, Sr., Jr. & Sr. Mikey, Sr.. . Jon & Rory and Jon talk about Danny Garcia's recent trip to the UFC Hall of Fame. . . Jon talks about his time at UFC 246 and how he's going to be a little bit in the middleweight class. John talks about the upcoming UFC fight in the future of his future in UFC and much more! Mike talks about what he's looking forward to in MMA and what his plans are in MMA. Jon and Rory talk about being a little more in MMA, and much much more. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The EJ's new podcast! -Rory talks about being in this episode. -Jon talks about some other stuff. and Jon talks a little about his future plans for the UFC and what he s going to do in the near future. Thanks for listening to this one. Jake talks about it.
00:00:21.000Also, I came out, you know, a couple things...
00:00:23.000As we mentioned earlier, a buddy of mine, Mark LaMica, throwing some ideas around and kind of just taking a week out here in California to, you know, keep moving.
00:02:10.000It always weirds me out that the UFC has little padding on the gloves, but there's no padding on your shins, no padding on your elbows, no padding on your knees.
00:02:20.000It's a terrible way to take a beating.
00:02:22.000It is, and people get into the brutality of it.
00:04:10.000Well, another reason why I came out and was talking with Mark and everything, but, you know, I don't want to leave nobody ever on either, you know?
00:04:17.000This is something— You just think— I'm really thinking about it, and I'm working out, losing the weight, but at the same time, there's a lot of process behind that, too.
00:04:26.000I would have to sit down with the family— Just go over a lot of things, you know.
00:04:53.000You know, the thing is, everybody, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, and the first thing that came out about it was, he needs the money.
00:05:33.000So that's where it's going, why I don't want people also, the rumor mill starting that, he's broke, he needs the money, because it's absolutely not the case.
00:06:08.000I don't know if it's even good to say, but combat role champion athletes and fighters, mentality-wise, you're always going to have that mentality.
00:06:18.000And my only reason why I'm even throwing this around, and I guess that's the right term to use, because if nothing comes of it, I don't want to backlash on that either.
00:06:29.000Because I'm still only 36, and I'm at that point where I got that small window still, you know, where I'm not 40, I'm not 38, and, you know, I've been healthy for, you know, four and a half years, and I've been working out.
00:06:44.000What made you decide to go powerlifting?
00:07:17.000Yeah, but as I got older, yeah, it started getting a little more difficult to keep that, and I started getting up to like 175, almost 180. So now you're looking at a, and I'm still skinny at that point, so now you're looking at having to lose 20 more pounds again to get down at that age.
00:07:34.000And it came to a point which caused a lot of issues for me in one fight with the Martinez fight, and after that, we had to jump up.
00:07:45.000Yeah, that point of diminishing returns, right?
00:07:47.000When you're just cutting too much weight.
00:07:49.000When you fought Jermaine Taylor, that was 160, right?
00:08:26.000But also, you know, some of that commentating though really made that fight, especially at the end, in my opinion, made that fight kind of what it was also, you know, besides the fact of me getting dropped and everything.
00:08:36.000But I didn't agree with the judging of it.
00:09:04.000Well, you know, I mean, we've had this conversation a hundred times in this podcast, but judging in boxing and judging in MMA, judging is just terrible.
00:09:18.000There's so many really reliable people that you can call on that would do a great job of figuring out what's going on in a fight, and for whatever reason, they don't get those jobs.
00:09:27.000I think they've got to start doing something soon in boxing with that.
00:09:30.000They have to figure something out with the judging.
00:09:36.000There's a handful of people I had the argument with that actually thought Charlo lost.
00:09:41.000I didn't think that he looked as good as he could have in that fight, but I thought he won the fight, you know, 116 and 112. But I don't know what system they could try to break down for that or try to get to actually start making some of them fights fair, but boxing's doing fantastic the past two years.
00:12:19.000Well, Teddy Atlas was explaining it too when he was on the podcast.
00:12:22.000One of the things that he was saying was that they take these people out to dinner.
00:12:25.000Like, they're all in cahoots and friendly with each other.
00:12:28.000And if there's a certain result that the promoter would like to see, these judges will lean towards that if they have a good relationship with that promoter.
00:12:49.000And the fights, you got three or four weight classes right now that's so interesting.
00:12:52.000But the bad part about it is you don't get interested in it or you don't get as excited anymore because you're afraid of the outcome of the fight.
00:13:00.000I wasn't terribly upset at the Wilder Fury decision.
00:13:45.000I mean, it was one of them fights where, yes, you're 100% right, that it could end in a draw, and I think everybody would be kind of satisfied with that.
00:13:52.000Unfortunately, with the count knockdown, which I was so frustrated with the comments, and I had to stay away from the social media and the boxing groups and things like that.
00:14:26.000Another thing where Wilder kind of hurt himself, the referee tells you in the locker room before the fight, and he explains it to you, go to your neutral corner.
00:14:35.000If you come out of your neutral corner, I will stop the count.
00:15:49.000I don't know what the issue is with that, but he neglected that body a lot throughout the fight.
00:15:53.000And I just thought that's why Tyson won most of those rounds.
00:15:56.000You know, he just controlled the action, the pace, and was kind of able to do what he wanted to.
00:15:59.000And I think that if Wilder went back with his trainer and watched the tape of that fight, they're going to see a lot of opportunities that were missed in that fight.
00:16:07.000Well, you know, what's crazy about Wilder is how little time he's actually been boxing.
00:16:26.000Well, back then also, were big guys who came up.
00:16:29.000Usually most of them were football players or something like that.
00:16:32.000And they kind of just got into the sport and...
00:16:34.000Still, even to this day, you're talking about maybe three heavyweights that really could throw down, as where some of the other guys are just big, sloppy guys that come in.
00:16:53.000I think right now, Parker's one of the guys that could actually still upset anybody in the heavyweight division, especially with that style that he has.
00:17:37.000That's one of the things where you either have it, you got it in the cradle, or you don't.
00:17:43.000That's another one you try to explain, even like in baseball.
00:17:46.000You're either a home run hitter or you're not.
00:17:48.000You could work on it a little bit and maybe knock one or two more home runs out or knock a guy or two out more, but if you don't have it, you're not going to unless you really go back over and find the time and patience to Reprogram that fighter and change the whole style.
00:18:03.000Yeah, it feels like one punch knockout power you either have or you don't.
00:18:07.000But the guys who can put it on you and stop you, like Julio Cesar Chavez, never had really that one punch knockout power, but he fucked a lot of people up.
00:18:22.000When he was in his prime, the way he would fight was constant bobbing, weaving, moving in, and then once he put that pace on you, it was just constant damage, constant punches, the volume, the volume, the accuracy, and the fact that he never got tired.
00:18:37.000He would just keep that pace up, bap, bap, bap, bap, bap, and you would see guys just start to wilt, just backing up all the time, just wilt under that pressure.
00:18:44.000And that's that body attack that he had.
00:18:47.000How he invested into that body from the early rounds.
00:20:42.000What I mean by that is because, yeah, he'd make you miss, but Purnell Whitaker a lot of times put himself out of range by moving like that.
00:20:49.000You know, he'd make that move or he'd do it too much and then he wasn't there to counter.
00:20:54.000You get guys like Chavez or Duran or guys like Mikey Garcia now, they take that one little step, inches and angles.
00:21:02.000They take that one step and they're right in position for that punch and They take the opposite step to suffocate your punch and throw you off.
00:22:01.000You know the thing with Lomachenko is this.
00:22:05.000And I tell people also, Floyd Mayweather is an unbelievable defensive fighter.
00:22:10.000But Floyd was really good on drawing you in and kind of countering off that.
00:22:15.000His defense and his reflexes were amazing, but he kind of lured you in a little bit, made you make a mistake, and then he would counter you.
00:22:23.000Lomachenko, on the other hand, is a guy you could throw a punch and that punch could be in midair, and he's spinning and he's already behind you.
00:23:15.000Again, and that was another argument on these that I get a little frustrated reading.
00:23:21.000Second pro fight, usually in boxing, it goes like the first year, you're up four, six.
00:23:28.000Second year, maybe you start getting up to eight.
00:23:30.000But you get a good amount of fights under your belt before you start getting into the 10 rounds and 12 rounds.
00:23:37.000You're talking about a kid coming out of the amateurs, fighting three three-minute rounds or four two-minute rounds, depending on whatever tournament or international tournament it is.
00:23:46.000And he's going right into a 12-round fight.
00:23:49.000I know myself coming up, and the process that Top Rank brought me up, which was a great process, too.
00:23:57.000They picked the fights, and they made sure that the fights that they picked for me were the correct fights.
00:24:01.000And they groomed me the right way, you know, by rounds and everything else.
00:24:04.000And I know just jumping from 6 to 8, the difference in that, you know?
00:24:09.000Let alone being a kid, and you're going into your second pro fight, and you're fighting a 12-round fight.
00:24:14.000So if he lost that fight, which he came back and he made it a really close fight, I would have to tip my hat to him just on the fact that he was able to go 12 rounds.
00:24:23.000People take a lot away from that fighter.
00:24:26.000What he accomplished is something that not many can do.
00:26:15.000I believe now there was at one point it was seven world champions and just that short period of fights I believe it's around eight now eight world champions he's fought in just that short period three different weight classes I think when he fought Rigondi out,
00:26:33.000you really got a chance to see how he handles a real world-class, you know, Cuban amateur system-trained, top-of-the-food-chain boxer.
00:27:00.000And I thought that, you know, I was like, it's going to be a boring fight for the first, like, four rounds, which I still would have liked because I like watching that type of fights, you know?
00:27:08.000And I see I go in there and I'm expecting this fight, you know, the amateur background of both guys, how talented the guys are and the skill level of both guys.
00:27:18.000And then next thing I know, I'm two or three rounds into it and I'm going, he's playing with Rigondeau.
00:27:51.000I took Lomachenko in that fight, but I thought it was going to be a close fight, a really close fight, and I thought Lomachenko was going to pull ahead in the later rounds and win that fight.
00:28:03.000Well, it was a stunning display of talent.
00:28:06.000He's such a weird guy, too, because his background, you know the story where his father took him out of boxing and made him do traditional Russian dancing for several years and just made him learn that for footwork.
00:28:18.000It seems like his dad was just a mastermind architect of a champion.
00:28:23.000Yeah, you probably know more on this than I would.
00:28:25.000Didn't he also have a martial art background?
00:28:38.000His footwork, though, is so extraordinary.
00:28:41.000And if that really is that dancing background, like learning the footwork and the way he's so agile with the stepping of his feet, I think a lot of people are going to learn and mirror that.
00:28:53.000Yeah, his training regimen is pretty brutal.
00:28:55.000So I got a buddy, Roger Romo, a good friend of mine.
00:28:59.000He's actually, he was working for a little while there up until the last fight.
00:29:02.000He was a strength and conditioning coach with Cecilio Flores, who was mine when I was in Oxnard training.
00:29:07.000And they said it was just crazy, the hours that he puts in, how he trains, how hard he trains, and some of the drills that he does.
00:29:14.000You know, I'm looking at them and going, I could use these not for me, but I could use them for some of the athletes that I got now.
00:29:23.000And, you know, you get those guys, and it's kind of a shame that he's a little too small for Terrence Crawford, you know?
00:29:30.000I mean, I really would love to see those two fight.
00:29:33.000But it seems like Crawford's just a little bit too heavy for him.
00:29:38.000I agree, but that's another touchy subject, because I kind of agree with you, but I also go back, because I'm always trying to really break down and nitpick.
00:29:47.000I look at guys like Manny Pacquiao, who came from, I believe, 112 or something like that and went up all the way to junior middleweight.
00:30:27.000Footwork, the way he does it, it's something to watch, man.
00:30:31.000It's just the ability to move and also to anticipate the other fighters' movements.
00:30:38.000It's like, especially earlier in his career, it's like he was fighting guys that just seemed so crude in comparison to his approach.
00:30:45.000Yeah, and you know what's even more crazy about it is being the opponent, because usually you go into a fight and you break down film and you're going over to film and you got a good idea of what he does right, what he does wrong, and what you might have to do.
00:30:59.000Lomachenko, it's hard to pick up where he's going to go.
00:31:04.000After he throws the right hand, he likes to move over to the left because he does it one time and then the next time he's totally somewhere opposite.
00:31:12.000And yeah, the angles, it's really almost impossible to break film down on him.
00:31:42.000I believe in cross-training, and I think that there's certainly some skills that would make you better at different martial arts.
00:31:49.000And I feel like if you have the ability to wrestle guys and move guys' bodies around that you would get from something like Sambo, I just feel like, as an elite boxer, having that extra strength, that extra ability to move your core that way,
00:33:32.000And I think my personal opinion of what happened, it wasn't fixed, you know, or fake.
00:33:36.000I believe that he got hit with that right hand and seeing how strong and how the defensive skills that Mayweather had, and I think he said, you know what, this could be a long-ass night.
00:33:46.000And then the next couple punches, he just kind of went down because he's seen what could happen.
00:33:51.000He knew which way that fight was going.
00:35:28.000Sometimes in a fight, a lot of times in a fight, the whole issue is you get hit with that and you're fighting and somebody taps you with a certain punch.
00:35:36.000Your brain, you'll be surprised how fast it works, you know, and all the things that go through that mind.
00:35:44.000And I think at that moment right there, he just knew going in, you could feel, just when somebody hits you on the arm or the shoulder, you know, how much power they have.
00:35:53.000And I think he was trying to, after that, he knew that was going to be a long night.
00:35:58.000It's so crazy they paid him $9 million for this.
00:37:54.000I still think that he would win that, but I'm just saying as far as stand up and letting the hands go, I think those are one of the two better ones in the MMA. Yeah, I mean, that guy's got all the right in the world to just keep fighting freak shows.
00:38:20.000But if you go and get beat by one of them guys, that could change the whole outlook of a career.
00:38:24.000It's interesting how guys who are really good defensively, they're not just really good longer because they have such good technique, but also they've taken less damage during their career so that they're more durable as they get older as well.
00:43:01.000And there was a lot of things that sometimes if you could go back and you wish you could do it over again, but there was a lot of other things going on why we didn't postpone the fight.
00:43:11.000First of all, it was sold out and the Youngstown people bought all the tickets.
00:43:17.000We had the issue with the Paul Williams fight that it fell through.
00:43:21.000So I just came off fighting Gary Lockett, who was really not a well-known name, a household name.
00:43:29.000So if I would have postponed that fight, the backlash on that would have been bad.
00:44:33.000When you think about your legacy and you think about looking back at your career, those kind of fights where you had to take it when you were compromised, how do those factor in to you?
00:45:13.00040-2 with 34 knockouts is a hell of a record.
00:45:16.000You know, I held the belts for over three years.
00:45:20.000I beat a handful of guys that were legit when I beat them.
00:45:25.000And then I look at the fight, though, I fought Bernard Hopkins, and I got my ass whipped in that fight.
00:45:31.000And there's no other way of putting it, you know, it's the truth.
00:45:33.000So how much did that damage, you know, people remembering that?
00:45:38.000Nobody looks at the fact of the two-way class jump.
00:45:40.000And then coming back down and defending against a very game Antonio Rubio.
00:45:45.000And then, of course, the Martinez fight, which a lot of people, and it was documented on HBO with the commentators, you know, the weight issue in that fight.
00:45:55.000What was the weight issue in that fight?
00:46:48.000And so I think right now I'm kind of content and happy with my career.
00:46:52.000Of course, I think anybody says it could have been better and I wish it was better.
00:46:56.000Yeah, maybe a little bit, but I'm not going to ever beat myself up over it.
00:47:00.000Well, it's just one of those things where when you look back and you think of all the great things that you did accomplish, then you realize that you retired at 30. Yeah.
00:47:16.000I think they say 32 for a professional fighter they consider most athletic primes at 32. It was, but I look back on it again, the 42 fights.
00:47:56.000You know, like even now with my podcast and what I'm doing With some of these other adventures, it's because I got bored and I'm on to have fun.
00:48:30.000And I've been out in California training or in Oxnard training for almost a year, which most fighters leave at the beginning of their career.
00:48:38.000You know, when they don't have a family, when they're not making the money, that's their opportunity to try and go and make money.
00:48:43.000Not when you're 12 years into it, you know.
00:48:46.000And so I went out there and that kind of took a little bit...
00:48:50.000From here, as far as the sport, even though I loved it and it was great training with Robert Garcia, I learned so much that I didn't think I could learn at that point in my career.
00:49:00.000And when that Andre Ward fight fell through, I was done.
00:49:04.000I mean, I rolled over, I never forget, I rolled over and told my wife, I said, I think I'm done.
00:50:09.000Unfortunately, we've seen, and you know, when we're talking about this with me getting the itch earlier, there's a lot of things I take into consideration.
00:50:17.000Like, I'm really into it, and I'm really debating on it, and I'm hitting the gym working boxing.
00:50:23.000Then I see things like this Adonis-Stevenson situation, you know?
00:50:27.000And those are the things where I say, I've got to sit back and talk.
00:53:12.000Yeah, and then to see him when he fought Nigel Benn, same situation, laps into that coma.
00:53:18.000We don't know how Adonis Stevenson is going to come out of this, but a lot of times when a guy does have a traumatic brain injury like that, they're never the same again.
00:54:01.000Do you ever go back and watch highlight reels and then you start shadowboxing and getting itchy and really start thinking about it?
00:54:08.000And it's weird because I'm in my gym and there's people lifting weights and I'm in the back.
00:54:12.000I got a couple bags back there and you start hearing the bags popping and everybody, they're not used to seeing it.
00:54:18.000So everybody gets curious and they come back and you see them peeking around the corner and watching me hit the bag and Then I get a little embarrassed.
00:57:33.000That kind of format is, well, boxing fans in particular, well, I should say, just combat sports fans in particular, they love to comment on things, love to get in on it.
00:57:44.000I mean, whenever there's a big fight, social media just lights up, both with boxing and with MMA. And the ability to go back and forth with a guy like you and get your questions answered and stuff like that has got to be huge.
00:58:52.000We'll have a bunch of guys in here and we'll watch the fights and talk shit while the fights are going on and people play it alongside the commentary.
00:59:00.000So it's like they're watching the fights with us.
01:00:10.000Everybody went crazy in the media room, and I thought I was fighting again.
01:00:13.000After five years of being retired, I thought I was fighting.
01:00:16.000I mean, they were just asking, and I was trying to squeeze stuff in and tell them what I was doing.
01:00:21.000And then it was cool also because Bernard Hopkins was there, and I was already a year into the powerlifting.
01:00:27.000I was still about 230. And he came up and gave me a big hug.
01:00:31.000And it was awesome to be able to, after a fight, and being able to go in there with him to see how nice he was and how humble he was after that.
01:00:59.000He could have told me everything he wanted in the road.
01:01:01.000He could have sat down for an hour with me, and I wouldn't have remembered what he said.
01:01:04.000I was, you know, everybody's seen the fight, so I need not to say much more on that.
01:01:09.000But a little bit of it, because my trainer was there, it was, you know, keep your head up.
01:01:15.000You're a hell of a fighter, you know, and, you know, I'm experienced, and go back, go back to the drawing board, don't get too down on this, and come back strong.
01:01:23.000He goes, you're a champ, and that was what he said.
01:01:25.000Yeah, I remember something where he said that you needed to learn how to fight like a black guy.
01:01:31.000And maybe he might have said that in an interview after with somebody, and that's what people thought, but I know he didn't say it in a fight.
01:01:40.000It was, you know, one of his best performances.
01:01:43.000I mean, he had so many great performances late in his career, the Tito Trinidad fight in particular, because nobody thought he was going to win that fight.
01:03:02.000Trinidad was probably one of the best technically sound fighters ever, if you actually watch him, you know, the way he threw his punches.
01:03:08.000He never made mistakes on that part of it.
01:03:11.000But I think he needed a little bit more, changed it up a little different with Bernard Hopkins in order to have even made that fight kind of close.
01:03:18.000One of the most ridiculous Trinidad fights ever.
01:03:20.000Remember when we fought Ricardo Mayorga and Mayorga let him punch him in the face?
01:04:19.000You know, it's actually like for your brain.
01:04:21.000People say the—a lot of folks—I actually bought some—I never tried it, but I bought some nicotine gum to try to see if I would write on it, like if it would help me writing.
01:04:30.000Because apparently it works as a nootropic, as a cognitive enhancer.
01:04:34.000Nicotine is actually an effective cognitive enhancer.
01:12:33.000And when he filed the civil suit a couple months into this, the criminal charges were supposed to be dropped at that point because the prosecutor and everybody knew that it was all about money.
01:12:43.000So they were going to drop the criminal charge.
01:15:09.000Harry Arroyo actually held the title in the same weight class around the same exact time that Mancini did.
01:15:15.000You had Jeff Lampkin, Greg Richardson, and then you had a handful of other guys like Roland Cummings and fighters out there that were making noise out of Youngstown.
01:15:26.000A guy, Ken Signorani, who fought Chavez and Camacho out of Youngstown.
01:15:30.000But, um, Being there like that, it brought a lot of attention and people wanted.
01:16:51.000A lot of it came down to—and everybody's different, so I'm speaking for myself— I trained my ass off when I trained.
01:17:01.000I was a six, seven hours a day type guy, and that's what got me to throw as many punches as I did a round, and I was in great shape for every fight.
01:18:09.000Maybe some of the stuff I was doing, especially as I got older, in between fights, the drinking, I think that that may have hurt a little bit.
01:18:16.000I don't think it was enough to make any significant changes in my career, to be honest with you.
01:18:32.000Yeah, on the outside, in the suburbs, you know.
01:18:35.000Is it, I mean, it's got to be strange to have grown up there, been a child there, and then become an internationally famous world champion boxer and celebrity and still stay there.
01:20:34.000I'm not sure if they'll ever fall into the situation that HBO did, but you have these apps coming out now, ESPN +, DAZN, and again, what they just...
01:21:30.000And they also now have a deal with the UFC. So into 2019, now the first UFC event is going to be January 19th, which is TJ Dillashaw versus Henry Cejudo for the flyweight title.
01:21:40.000And they're really putting on some great fights on ESPN. It's just exciting to see MMA being recognized by ESPN. But it's exciting to see ESPN put Lomachenko fights on.
01:22:00.000I think they need to actually keep doing that maybe on a different night.
01:22:04.000But now they're putting the Lomachenkos and they're putting the world-class fighters on ESPN. Was Terrence Crawford's last fight on ESPN? I believe it was.
01:23:05.000I could have 40 people there on a big fight night, UFC fight night or a boxing fight night, and I could just put that phone right up to the smart TV and we could watch it on there instead of paying...
01:24:10.000Last thing on my mind that I was worried about was who was ordering fights in Youngstown when I'm here in Atlantic City or Vegas right now fighting, getting ready, trying to make weight.
01:24:21.000And doing the interviews and the press conference and everything else.
01:24:25.000What kind of asshole says that you should have to pay?
01:25:02.000And as we just, what happened earlier, we don't know what's legal and what's not either anymore with all the different internet stuff and apps that you have with the smart TVs.
01:25:37.000Because with Apple TV, anything you're watching, you can watch a YouTube video and you just stream it to that TV with a quick swipe and a press.
01:26:09.000You know, I think what's also great is some of these inside stations, you know, local stations and inside putting these fights on also, like they used to do back in the day, you know, the ABC fights.
01:26:52.000And even the apps, which I think is great.
01:26:54.000You get a lot of guys in their 40s and 50s who don't want to have to watch an app on their TV. So I think if they start bringing back just a little more variety of shows or something.
01:27:06.000Well, it seems like, especially with boxing right now, the talent level is extremely high.
01:27:11.000I mean, it is with MMA as well, but I mean, with boxing, it seems to be on an upswing.
01:27:15.000And it also seems like people are really interested in some of these big rivalries, like Triple G and Canelo.
01:27:31.000Because when you get a guy that hits as hard as Triple G does, and you get a guy that's as good as Canelo, and even though they're not getting dropped and they're not getting knocked out, Them type of fights take a lot out of you.
01:27:46.000And they shared a lot in those two fights.
01:27:48.000And we don't know, even right now, if the next fight or the fight after that Canelo starts showing some of the effects from those first two fights.
01:28:05.000I think a third fight will shorten the career of Canelo.
01:28:09.000I'm not going to say Triple G because Triple G is my age now and I... I have a feeling that his might be getting short here pretty soon anyways, just due to age.
01:28:17.000But Canelo, I mean, those are brutal fights.
01:28:22.000Did you think that, some people thought that Triple G won the second fight as well.
01:28:26.000I thought it was a much closer fight than the first fight.
01:28:29.000But did you think that Canelo or Triple G, I think Canelo showed some improvement, but it's also possible that Triple G might have slowed down a little bit.
01:29:06.000The first half of the fight, I gave Canelo a lot of rounds because I thought he controlled the fight with the body shots.
01:29:13.000Everybody thought Triple G was controlling it with the jab, but the reason why Triple G wasn't using his size and strength and was using his jab was because of the body shots that Canelo was landing.
01:29:23.000I mean, they were brutal, and I just thought Canelo dictated the pace of those first couple rounds.
01:29:28.000I thought he won enough of the early rounds, and obviously Triple G won most of the second half of the fight.
01:29:36.000But I thought it was a little too late, you know, and I had Canelo up by a round or two.
01:29:42.000Yeah, those are two fighters that really sort of epitomize what people like to see when they like to see these classic rivalries, right?
01:29:53.000Like a guy like Triple G who's just forward pressure, constant, throwing bombs, knockout puncher.
01:29:59.000A guy like Canelo who's just one of those classic Mexican fighters that has incredible heart, wants to fight the best of the best, like really takes it...
01:30:45.000Everybody's got a game plan until they get hit.
01:30:49.000He might have got touched, like I said, even with the tension in that Mayweather fight.
01:30:53.000The whole brain might have just started going 1,000 miles an hour trying to figure out, okay, this ain't going to probably work tonight with this guy because he's a lot stronger than I expected.
01:31:03.000And he was just trying to maybe tire him out.
01:31:05.000The only issue is now when you're on the ropes like that and you're getting hit by a guy that hits that hard in the delts, in the elbow, in the forearms, and to the body.
01:31:14.000And then you're tightening up and you're tensing up really hard and you're cutting the oxygen off to the blood.
01:31:19.000It tires you out quicker and it wears you down, you know, more than what he was doing in the middle of the ring by pop-shotting and counter-punching.
01:31:27.000And he could have dictated how fast he wanted, you know, how much he wanted to punch, how hard he wanted to punch.
01:31:32.000Yeah, we certainly made some big improvements in that second fight.
01:31:49.000You know, and again, I don't know how long Triple G's going to fight because, as you mentioned, and I agree with you, I think he's starting to—his age is showing up a little bit with him.
01:31:58.000Well, I mean, he got avoided by a lot of people, and we— You know, when he had a pay-per-view a couple years back that only got 150,000 buys, and I remember thinking, that is a damn shame.
01:33:21.000Just them two guys right there, I would have to take.
01:33:23.000Not so much overall skill-wise, just size and being at that weight.
01:33:28.000And, you know, you got guys coming down like B-Vol from 175 to 168. I think that his better days are going to be at 160. Does he have a hard time making 60, or did he just have an opportunity to fight 68 and he took it?
01:34:16.000That fight was, to me, well, it was a good learning experience for him to be in there with a guy who's as slick as Floyd is, but also a good learning experience that you're not supposed to suck that much weight out of your body.
01:34:53.000I think, if anything, there's too many world champions.
01:34:55.000I think it's ridiculous that in any organization that one guy could be a WBC world champion, the other guy could be a WA, there's an IBF, there's a WBO. I mean, like, that's crazy.
01:35:05.000It's crazy to have that many world champions.
01:35:54.000Now you're looking at these four guys, and you can start taking these prospects and start saying, this would be an interesting fight with this guy and this guy.
01:36:02.000And then I do believe that they should make happen one undisputed champ.
01:36:34.000You can't have multiple world champions.
01:36:36.000When Anthony Joshua is walking around as a heavyweight champion, but also Deontay Wilder is walking around as a heavyweight champion, what is this?
01:36:44.000Are you the heavyweight champion, or are you the champion of an organization?
01:36:47.000That falls into what we were talking about earlier with the Jermaine Taylor thing when he vacated the belts.
01:36:53.000In my mind, you won the unified title.
01:36:56.000Unified or universal or recognizable middleweight champ.
01:37:42.000You know, I didn't want to pay the sanctioning fees for all four of the belts, but I still wanted the IBF and the WBA to put in the trophy case.
01:37:51.000But, unfortunately, a lot of them fights fell through.
01:37:54.000When you were coming up when you were a kid and you were watching boxing, were you a Hagler fan?
01:38:01.000I was a Hagler fan, but that's another one that's actually weird with me.
01:38:05.000Even having guys like Mancini and Arroyo from Youngstown and guys like that, I never really had this one person that I was like, Or a poster in my bedroom, you know, like Deloy or something.
01:38:16.000You never had one guy that, like, you emulated or you were really looked up to?
01:38:20.000And I think that's what helped me get as far as I did in my career.
01:38:23.000I mean, even when I was 16, I could watch a 9-year-old sparring and see him do something cool and hit a guy and I'd be like, damn, you know, I'm going to try that.
01:38:54.000But yeah, so I followed it more as a fan, you know, and I watched, and I took from this person, I took from that person.
01:39:01.000We had, as I mentioned, we had some prospects in the amateurs coming up that train in the same gym, and I would kind of copy their style, you know, coming up.
01:39:08.000So I was always trying to keep learning.
01:39:10.000Like, I even do, and working out now, I find different things that work, you know, and what don't work.
01:39:16.000And that's what I did as far as boxing.
01:40:00.000Even the heavyweights, you got your olders, oh, Muhammad Ali was the best.
01:40:05.000Then you have your guys in the early 40s tell you that to Mike Tyson.
01:40:08.000So it's kind of like whoever grew up on that.
01:40:10.000Me personally, you got to get past that because, again, that becomes biased and everybody's going to kind of go with what they grew up with.
01:40:53.000Well, what I'm hoping is more emerging talent in the heavyweight division will sort of take a little bit of this spotlight that you're seeing now that's going on.
01:41:03.000Fury and Wilder and Joshua and a little bit of Ortiz.
01:41:08.000I'd like to see more guys get in the mix there and have it be Like it used to be back then, where there are a bunch of really exciting contenders.
01:41:15.000And you look forward to these big fights.
01:41:17.000Because right now, there's like four guys, five, six guys at most, that are going to fight each other.
01:41:22.000And hopefully what it does is it gets these other bigger guys, these athletic athletes and skilled athletes, and hopefully it brings them into the boxing again.
01:43:06.000And apparently there was some article that I read a couple of years back that he was planning on making a comeback when he gets released.
01:43:13.000But again, he's deep into his 40s as well.
01:43:16.000Yeah, and it's hard to make a comeback.
01:43:17.000And no matter if it's heavyweight or not, at that level, you know, after being out, I tell people all the time with even young kids that are 21 and 22, when sometimes these promoters freeze their contract or there's a dispute going on and they sit out two years, sometimes...
01:43:33.000They may not ever come back fully from that.
01:44:59.000But that's why I say if they're keeping the fight game open and they're showing that, I see it coming back.
01:45:05.000Especially if Showtime stays with the boxing and doing as big as they are in the box office with the numbers.
01:45:11.000I see HBO. I think it would have to come back.
01:45:13.000Well, I think with things like Netflix and Amazon Prime, they're making these television shows now that are so popular and they're such high budget, but you get things like Game of Thrones.
01:45:25.000It costs so much money to make, but so many people watch it.
01:45:28.000I think they're concentrating on those kind of things because they're so profitable.
01:45:32.000And I don't think it's the networks anymore that got to worry about shutting down, too, with all these other Zulu and Amazon and Netflix being out.
01:45:40.000You know, I think eventually some of the cable companies are going to have to worry.
01:47:31.000You know, I think when the fans like to watch and see, you know, they want to hear from the historian or the guy that's the other commentator who just knows the sport and who can speak well.
01:47:44.000But I think at some certain times during a fight, they like to hear from the fighter like, Hey, what the hell is going through that guy's mind?
01:47:50.000He just got smashed with that right hand.
01:48:30.000And he's smiling, he shakes my hand, and he walks down to cover the fight.
01:48:35.000And I'm sitting there, and Look at watching the fights, and then I'm getting ready to head out after, you know, the fight's about over, and he comes walking up, and he goes, hey, if they offered you $10 million, would you make a comeback?
01:48:47.000I'm like, I couldn't find a reason why I wouldn't.
01:48:52.000And he smiled and he walked away and I was going, I'm scratching my head, I'm going, I wonder why, you know, why he would ask me a question like that.
01:49:00.000And I seen recently that he's looking at certain fighters as a possible comeback.
01:49:05.000Oh, so he's thinking about doing it again.
01:49:55.000I had them up at the house, and I'd be leaving to go to the gym or something, and I'd look over at the belts, and I'd go, wow, you know what?
01:52:04.000They actually studied my fight down there.
01:52:06.000Something on how you can get knocked down.
01:52:09.000This is more in your field, up your alley.
01:52:12.000How you get knocked down and what gets a guy to get back up and recover, the recovery, the endurance, to pretty much have your brains rattle but be able to come back that strong rounds later and knock somebody out.
01:52:26.000And for me, the simple answer is, of course, training hard.
01:54:16.000I feel like that was one of the most fucking brutal right hand, left hook combinations.
01:54:20.000When you were talking about that, as far as what's going through your head, it's crazy because when I got knocked down, it was more of an equilibrium shot.
01:54:27.000But I could hear, my legs were gone, but I could hear certain people in the stands, and I knew what was going on, and the first thing that was in my head was, man, you worked way too hard to go out like this.
02:00:16.000The only thing that I wish I could have went back with that, now as time goes on and I'm training some athletes at my gym, is we have this machine called a Vertimax PC equipment.
02:00:51.000With the rubber band, your tension is usually gone at the beginning, and then you have to get to a certain point to get it, as where this has resistance all the way through.
02:01:20.000So I wish they had that because adding that in with the functional strength training could have definitely made me a lot better than I think it could for a lot of athletes.
02:01:28.000That seems like you could do everything with that thing.
02:04:15.000Now, when you were training and you were fighting, did you have a specific schedule of when you would do strength and conditioning and how many days a week you would run, how many days a week you would do physical exercises?
02:04:28.000As I said earlier, too, you always keep learning.
02:04:32.000It worked for me for what I did when I was fighting, and I would totally have changed it now, knowing the stuff that I know and being involved in it and researching.
02:04:43.000We used to run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday three miles, and then take Thursday off, and then Friday and Saturday.
02:04:49.000On top of that, I would do my strength and conditioning training, and then I would be at the boxing gym.
02:05:44.000Yeah, they say you need eight and you really should try to get ten when you're a professional athlete.
02:05:49.000I took my Sundays off and I rested all day Sunday and I kind of ate a good amount of carbs and kind of what I wanted to on Sundays, depending on where the weight was out and how far out we were from the fight.
02:06:01.000But I really don't believe in the theory of you've got to wake your guy up at 4 in the morning and make him run.
02:07:37.000And I would do that probably about three times at camp.
02:07:40.000For a unbeliever, you've got to watch how many times you do that throughout a camp because it builds muscle, especially running that high, doing the steps.
02:07:46.000And then when you start cutting the weight and you've got to get down, it's going to be hard to lose that extra pound, which can make a big difference come fight night.
02:07:53.000So for a six-, eight-week camp, you would only run it three times?
02:07:57.000Then I had sprints on the hills, and I did regular sprints because regular sprints is firing that fast twitch muscle, and it's also hitting that big muscle, and it's building the legs and strength.
02:08:07.000um distance was was important but still another big one to me is the pad work you know the training at the gym i'm not a big fan of bag work anybody hitting the punching bag how come because uh you learn how to manipulate the bag and you learn how to uh trick your your trainer and everybody else i could go hit a bag right now and probably do 10 rounds on it you know just because i know how hard to punch it's hard to tell as to where when you're hitting pads i know how hard my guys punch and And I'm giving him the combos and
02:09:48.000Another little thing on that with the running, you know, cement, I think now I would have my guys run on grass, track, even if it's boring.
02:09:55.000I don't care if you're bored running, you know, you're going to run around the track.
02:09:57.000It's easier on the joints and less demand on the body.
02:11:18.000It breaks up the monotony of the same training regimen all the time.
02:11:22.000Do you remember when they didn't want you to lift weights?
02:11:25.000They didn't want boxers to lift weights?
02:11:27.000Like before Mackie Shillstone, before he worked with Michael Spinks, when he moved up to heavyweight and fought Larry Holmes.
02:11:35.000I mean, remember people were saying like, they don't want...
02:11:39.000Boxers to lift weights, that it's going to tighten you up and slow you down.
02:11:43.000That was the thought process behind it.
02:11:45.000And then from him, and then in particular Holyfield, when Holyfield went from cruiserweight to heavyweight, and he put on a lot of mass, that was Mackie Shilstone too, right?
02:13:49.000Like the body, it's really hard to overtrain.
02:13:52.000I mean, the only way you could really overtrain is if you're not getting the right nutrition and you're not getting the right rest, you know.
02:14:04.000Or if your camp's too long and you don't get enough rest period in between.
02:14:08.000That's a big one, the too long a camp.
02:14:10.000You know, Tim Sylvia, or not Tim Sylvia, Tim Kennedy, who's a big, who was for one time, at one point, he retired now, but he was one of the top middleweight contenders.
02:14:20.000He went through two camps in a row because one of his fights got canceled, rolled right into his camp and then fought, and then had no endurance in his fight.
02:14:27.000You could kind of tell that he was drained.
02:15:24.000Because if I go in, I see guys all the time, not knocking at everybody, but I see them come in with their little notepad, and they have what they got, and I see them go over and they do literally only four sets on the bench, and they write down what they did, and then they go over and do some dumbbells, or same with the squats.
02:16:09.000I feel like when you write down, the only time I do write things down is if I'm doing a chart.
02:16:14.000I'll go through that chart and then when I finish with it, I finish out with so many reps in that same percentile of my PR. You know what I mean?
02:16:24.000Now, then I have a speed day, an endurance day.
02:16:28.000And that's when I rep out and I do sometimes up to 300 reps, you know, on the body part and speed and endurance.
02:16:34.000And then before I even do that, I work on, say, if it's bench or squats, I get the bands.
02:16:39.000And I have my guys do no more than six reps and it all got to be explosion because that helps in powerlifting for that one rep max, you know, the explosion off.
02:16:48.000So it comes down, you know, and that's my theory on it.
02:18:19.000He's got some interesting thoughts about strength training in particular because he's one of those guys, he believes you should do more rest in between reps, less reps, and you should do it more often.
02:18:33.000So instead of like one brutal workout a week where you break your body down and you walk like you're getting fucked in the ass by a rhino for two days, instead of that...
02:18:46.000Don't go to failure, but do it two or three times a week.
02:18:49.000You get more repetitions overall over the end of the week, but you'll be able to recover better, and you never get that full breakdown, but your body gets just as strong or stronger.
02:18:58.000I've seen that and actually I was reading on that and I was going to put that into my program.
02:19:21.000There's only so many programs you could do where you're not tapping in and copying off this person's...
02:19:26.000I think adding that in, there's nothing wrong with that either now.
02:19:29.000Now changing it up after a while and shocking that body, I think that actually helps you get stronger and changing the program a little bit.
02:19:37.000But, you know, if that works, I don't know.
02:19:39.000And that's something that I may try one day because I'm doing powerlifting, but powerlifting ain't going to be my vacation home in Hawaii.
02:19:45.000You're just doing the powerlifting for a group?
02:20:00.000Six, seven-time world champion, powerlifting, drug-free, you know, federations like RAW and WMPF. And that's what I'm in because I feel like, you know, I'm not knocking the other people that use the steroids and stuff,
02:20:15.000but for me, I like going the natural route and, you know, it's funner.
02:20:20.000Especially if you think about fighting again.
02:20:22.000Because if you do, you don't want to fuck up your endocrine system.
02:20:25.000Well, that's where I really turned against it also is because of the boxing.
02:20:32.000I don't want to make anybody too mad, but when people use it, I feel like you're taken away, and I do feel like it's cheating.
02:20:38.000I tell people in the gym, my gym, you know, there are certain people in there that do it, and they try to come over and tell people how to work out, and it's kind of like, listen, your working out is totally different than this guy's, and what you do to get big is totally different, all because of that reason.
02:20:56.000And I got guys right now that are freaks of nature that do it, and you can tell that they're not on it because if they are, then they have to have a long talk with their dealer.
02:22:43.000But if that's all your body got to burn.
02:22:46.000What happens with people where it does get dangerous is, first of all, if you have certain genes, certain people it's just not the best diet for.
02:22:55.000And it's a lot of trial and error to find out.
02:22:59.000But it's also, if you engage in a high-fat content diet, but you also have high-carbohydrate, Which is where a lot of people cheat and fuck up.
02:23:22.000If you come off of it, you can't just indulge into the carbs either, right?
02:23:26.000Don't you slowly work that back into that?
02:23:28.000Your body always knows how to process carbs.
02:23:31.000It's more difficult to get your body fat-adapted, but once your body does get fat-adapted, what I've found is I'm not on a ketogenic diet right now, but when I've been on it, I can get back in it pretty quick.
02:26:14.000Yeah, and then the one meet, I was doing a 220-pound weight class.
02:26:19.000I was 232. And my guy was like, you ain't going to make it in six days to get down to 220. And I kind of like, I chuckled at that because I had to make 160 before.
02:26:36.000So I got down with that and I was doing it.
02:26:38.000I watched what I, I didn't even do hardly any cardio for that.
02:26:41.000And I still got down fairly easy to 220. Then, now where I'm falling into this bad habit is I'll have like a piece of cheesecake sitting in the refrigerator.
02:27:17.000Because there's only one piece left and I don't want to do that.
02:27:21.000And then the next thing I know, my sister-in-law, who's a hell of a baker, she makes something for the kids or makes me a homemade cheesecake.
02:27:28.000And the next thing I know, I'm back into the same thing again.
02:27:32.000Now, let me tell you something else that contributes to this.
02:27:36.000I think all the years of fighting and having to watch my weight, especially for me to get down to 160, and even when I was fighting at 47 in the amateurs, my life was pretty much running.
02:28:41.000I don't want to hear people say it's hard.
02:28:43.000So I'm eventually, you know, I said when I get home from this trip, because like last night I went out with my buddy and we ate pizzas and stuff like that.
02:28:52.000So, you know, I don't have the access to healthy food right now.
02:30:14.000Chances are, if I didn't have to do it like that, I didn't have somebody hounding me or over me while I was running, chances are I would actually like running and I would like doing cardio and adding that into my training.
02:30:24.000But because it was a job for all the mirrors from nine years old to 30 years old, It was like, screw this, man.
02:32:27.000I love hearing when I was playing football and when I was in high school, when you're watching these big games, and you'll see it on social, or I'll be at a buddy's house and I see, yeah, well, I would have made that.
02:33:01.000You know, I've seen that episode that was the funniest.
02:33:04.000I think it was on one of your episodes with Charlie Murphy and they were doing the Mike Tyson and like the De La Hoya situation that happened.
02:33:11.000Like the guy said he could beat up De La Hoya.
02:33:13.000And actually, I wish that could happen on a regular basis.
02:33:16.000You know, like call people out on it when you're in front of somebody.
02:33:19.000How many times I hear people say like, I could have beat him.
02:33:22.000And it's like, why is he sitting on like $25 million and you're over here picking up UPS shipments?
02:34:13.000You know, we're through the social media, so I have to.
02:34:16.000And these boxing groups, or even on our own fight, or punchline boxing group, you see the comments, and I'm just going, I'm like, I can't really answer that, though, because I'd look corny as shit if I answer that one.
02:35:35.000Yeah, but yeah, punchline.live, and then, you know, or you go to YouTube, The Punchline with Kelly Pavlik and James Dominguez, and that's the way to get to it.