August 14, 2024 • 47 mins
Oscar De La Hoya sits down with Shannon Sharpe at Club Shay Shay for a conversation that explores the multifaceted layers of his life, career and boxing. Oscar reflects on his illustrious boxing legacy, emphasizing that while his achievements in the ring are significant, they do not entirely define him. He ranks himself among the greats of his generation but remains humble, placing himself second to last, just ahead of Canelo Álvarez.
Oscar delves into his iconic bout with Floyd Mayweather, expressing his conviction that he won the fight in spirit, if not by decision. He praises Floyd's unique qualities, including his intelligence and ring generalship, and credits Floyd Sr. as the best trainer he ever had. Oscar explains why the Floyd vs Manny Pacquiao fight would've been better five years earlier than it happened and revisits his fight against Pacquiao, revealing the profound personal struggles he faced at the time, which made him feel as though he wanted to die during the fight.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on with you and Dana? You guys were cool.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Just because I wanted to start a little competition.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
He gets all over.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me scream louder when a guy slaps his wife
in public when his mom writes a book about him,
saying that he's a douche.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
That's all I have to say.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, ped Price,
One slice Got the bronc geis swap all my life.
Be grinding all my life, All my life, grinning all
my life, sacrifight, hustle, pe Price, One slice Got the
bronc geis swap all my life, be grinding all my life.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Sha Shay. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp, but I'm also the propriud
of Club Shasha. The guy that' stopping buy for conversation
and drink Today is one of the most popular boxes
of all time. He had a sixteen year professional boxing career.
He won ten world titles titles. He's the first box
certain history to win titles in six different weight classes.
He won the Olympic gold medal in nineteen ninety two.
(01:05):
He's a Grammy nominated singer. He once accumulated the largest
pay per view draw ever. He generated over seven hundred
million in pay per view biased. An icon, a legend,
a champion, an international Boxing Hall of Famer, an accomplished entrepreneur.
He's the first American of Mexican descent to own a
national boxing promotional company. He founded the highly successful, highly
(01:26):
successful Golden Boy Promotion. He has a statue in front
of Staples Nice crypt dot com arena. He's from East
Los Angeles. Here he is the Golden Boy. Mosca de
la Hoya. Thank you for how was that intro? That
was great? That was amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think I think you have a such a career
announcing me everywhere I go, announce him.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Let me when you hear what you've been able to
accomplish and people, because everywhere you go, everybody knows who
you are, your world renowned. Do you look back and like, damn,
I really did all that? The first to win titles
in six different weight classes, right?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I literally do have to remind myself quite a bit. Actually,
I don't think about it.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm the type of person that I just lived my life,
you know. I I have a job at hand in
front of me. I focus on that. I focus on
you know, uh, my beautiful partner. I focus on myself,
my business. It's like I don't think about like what
I accomplish, but when I do talk about it, when
you did interview, you like, oh damn, I didn't accomplish
(02:34):
quite a few things.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Because when you hear them talk about all these other boxers.
Obviously we're going to talk about Floyd, but you hear
about Ray Larder, you hear about Marvin haglerrist, so you
hear about at many Pakia a division champ. If I'm
not mistaken, the only the only when you hear and
people start talking about it, like, hold on, wait a minute, now,
did y'all forget about the Golden board? Do y'all remember
what I've done? I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I don't really, I don't really tell myself fat or
I really don't focus on what everybody else is talking
about or who they're talking about. Like I accomplished, You've
done it quite a few things. I'm proud of it.
I realized it. I recognize it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And it's so be it. You know. Now I'm just me.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Now, I'm just focused on, you know, just living the
life that I should be living and deserve to be living,
you know, just being happy and and and and doing
some good business, uh, promoting the right fights, right building fighters.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So yeah, it's but uh, yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's sometimes I do have to pinch myself a bit
and uh and remind myself of what I accomplished.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's pretty well. It wouldn't be Club Shasha if we
didn't ask you to rank some of these fighters. So
where would we put Oscar de la Hoya if we said, uh,
Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones, Junior Canelo Alvarez.
Who else would belong in that? Uh? In your generation?
I mentioned Canelo?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Okay, Trinidad Trinidad peito, what our sweet pee? Yeah, we
had all of them, We had all the greats. I
would I would rank myself second to last. Really, yeah,
in front of Canelo?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Why would Why would you put Canelo last?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Because he's not better than any other fighter you just mentioned, right,
and he's certainly not better than me.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Right. But here's the thing, though, you look at what
he's done one sixty one sixty eight light heavy three division.
He's a four division three division three division. So what
sixty sixty eight seventy five. Yeah, yeah, and so you
got optionally, you got Floyd Floyd. Floyd goes without saying
you got Manny paciyao, who's an eight division champ. You've
(04:51):
got Bernhard Hopkins uh one sixty one sixty eight one
seventy five. Uh. Roy Roy was untouchable for about a decade.
Roy was untouchable. Amazing. So you're like, Okay, where would
you put where would you Okay? Rank? I did? This
is how we're gonna do it, Manny Pacquil Floyd May.
Where the Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones Jr. Ranked those guys?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I fought I fought three of those guys that
you just mentioned, and and they all beat me. So
so the key here is that I fought them, and
I was willing to fight them. I was, and I
fought them in order to to make history right, which
which fighters don't do nowadays. No, they did, They just don't.
(05:36):
They wait till you get older.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I was.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I was waiting for myself to get older to fight
those guys in their prime.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
So except for Bernard Hopkins, I was forty eight years
old when I fought him. But he's he's he's a
he's a machine.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know that that. But you had moved up, you moved.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
To sixty and fight him to make history. That's what
it's all about. So I think, I think, look, Floyd
flo It is a great fighter. Obviously, he's undefeated. Everybody
can make an argument, well he's not the best. Yes,
he is the best. Everybody has their opinion and that's fine,
that's okay. You look at their records. Okay, well maybe
(06:13):
with this guy he lost, maybe it was controversial, maybe
it was a close fight. Everybody has those on their records.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I have.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Three losses that I can't debate with Pachyel because he
stopped me, with Hopkins because he stopped me, and probably
who else, Shane Mosley the first one, which was an
epic fight at the Staples Center now Crypto Arena. So
those fights there, I can't. I cannot, like you know,
(06:43):
debate with anybody that I lost. But the other fights, yeah,
they're debatable. You know, you can make the argument just
like every other fighter that you just mentioned now on
the list. Every fighter has their debatable losses and wins.
Are they great?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yes? Are they?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
The very very asked who knows. It's a debate.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Let me ask you this. I've heard you on several
occasions said, you feel that you beat Floyd in that fight. Sure,
obviously that might've been one of the last fights that
I've been to. I was at that fight. Why do
you feel you won that fight?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You know, when you're a fighter inside the ring, when
that final bell rings, you know it in your heart.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
In your gut, if and physically, if.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
You won or you lost, you just feel it's it's
a sensation, and I just felt it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You know. Whether I was wrong or whether I'm right,
I don't care. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I fought against the very best in Floyd Mayweather younger
in his prime, just you know, undefeated, and I was
over the hill, tons of injuries. So I was pretty
proud with what I accomplished that night. So maybe I
was conveyed. I see myself that I won, But I
(08:03):
did feel it physically and mentally that I did enough
to uh because I was the champion in that fight, right,
so read out.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Normally you have to beat the champion to.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Take to take its title, so you take all those variables,
and I felt that, you know, okay, maybe let me
convince myself that I won that fight.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Right, do you feel because it looked like to me
you started that flurry like the first nive or six rounds,
it was you, and then all of a sudden you
started to tire, you started to come up. Did you
feel that you have done enough early and because he
didn't stop you, he didn't put you down, that you
had had enough points up until that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, it's it's it's a twelve round fight, correct, And
you know, as an elite fighter, you're always keeping track
of what you're doing every every second, every minute. Okay,
I have this run in the bag, I have this one,
this one. Wait, that's that's maybe six or seven.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Let me cruise.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Let me if I get injuries, just the way I
did during the fight because I had torn rotator.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Oh you got your rotating you tore your rotated, comping
up of them.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
No, I going into the fight, going into the fight, okay,
but you know you start thinking, okay, wait, if I
just cruise here and land a few punches, I got
the first fight the first half wand already, so maybe
if I just win one more round, I can win
the fight seven to five, maybe a draw.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So you start.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Thinking that right and that that can be a mistake
or it can be a plus. And obviously that night
for me, it was a big mistake. I should have
just went out there and just give it my own.
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shay Shape. What makes Floyd so unique because he fought
you know, He's fought Packy y'all. He fought you, he
fought Gotti, he fought Corrals, he fought Ricky Hatten. He's
fought so many and all these guys, a lot of
these guys had titles at the time, were formal world
champions like yourself. What makes him so unique his pedigree.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Look, I'm good friends with his father. The best trainer
I've ever had. Wow, by far, he is, well except
for the professor who trained me for the Chavist fight
when I beat Chavis in nineteen ninety six. But Floyd
Senior is the best trainer I've ever had. He's a
teacher and that's what Floyd Junior grew up with. He
grew up with a teacher who disciplined him to be
(11:21):
the very, very best. And I love his patience. I
love the fact that he's a hard hitter and he
has a chin. See people discredit him for not having
a chin. He has a chin and he has.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
A big heart.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So I think that what makes him unique is obviously
his boxing ability, but his ring generalship is what does
it for me.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
He knows how to pick his spots.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He knows how to get you tired without even throwing punches.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I mean, I can figure this out. But that's who
Floyd is and that's what made him great.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
But people say he doesn't well, he don't have any knockouts,
he doesn't have power.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh he has power. He has power. He has power.
I mean he didn't hurt me, but he has power.
He has a lot of I have a good chin.
Hackel didn't hurt me. Bernard didn't hurt me. I mean
he caught me with that body shot. I have a
good chin. But Floyd does have power. But if you
look at Floyd at a lot of weight class, he
were stopping people. It wasn't until he got to one
forty seven fifty four. Yeah, and then his hands he
(12:20):
had to be he had to be careful with his
hands because the last thing you want to do is
throw a shot, break a hand, and then all of
a sudden you gotta fight.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
The link next ten eleven rounds.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's not a broken hay Well, I think I think
what happened with Floyd is and this is where he
played it smart. You know, you have to give credit
where credit is due. Floyd after he beat me, if
you notice, he became money Mayweather.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yes, well, he became a businessman. Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So then now okay, let me let me let me
have you know my career. You know the longevity of
my career. I'm going to extend it as long as possible.
I'm not gonna get hit. I'm gonna throw punches and
pick and choose so my career can last longer and
make more money.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Very smart. Had Floyd been around in the eighties and
he had to fight Hagler, he had to fight Leonard,
he had to fight Hearns, he had to fight Barkley
or he you know, just just say some of those
durand you know, how would he have fared with those
(13:19):
because all those guys, those guys had dynamite. Sugar Ray
was a lot harder punching than people give him credit for. Yeah,
and he had he had a heart of a lion.
Would Floyd would have fared? Now I'm not saying he'd
probably go up to because Floyd is a small man,
and that's what makes it he was so great because
he's not having to drop twenty thirty pounds to make
one forty se exactly. He's probably walking around at one
(13:40):
fifty the entire his entire life. He's a professional.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, you know, he knows how to he knows how
to staling. Yes, and stay active and always in the gym.
And you know, and and fighters and kids who want
to become champions should emulate exactly what Floyd did inside
the ring, inside the gym.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And you asked me the questestion about.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The eighties and the four Kings, right, Yes, Duran and
Hearns and Hagler and Leonard. It would have been quite interesting,
would I would have probably called it the five Kings.
You know, he's that worthy of fighting those guys and
making great fights.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Everybody had their own unique style.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yes, Duran was a beast, Yes, Hagler was a beast. Yes,
sugar a. Leonard was a beast. I mean Hearns and
either one had their own you know, attributes, whether it
was a right hand from Hearns, punches and bunches from Durant,
who would just eat you alive and sugar Ay Leonard
just had it all.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So I don't know, it's it's.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Hard to say whether he would have won or lost,
but I think being in the mix would have made it.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Just, I mean, that much more exciting because back then,
as you said, after he bought you, he became more
of a businessman. Back then, there was no you had
to fight. You know, if you go back and look
at the seventies and eighty with the heavyweight, Norton had
to fight Ali. Ali had to fight Fraser, so he
had to fight for him, and Norman had to fight
so forth, so forth and so on. Yes, and so
(15:07):
there was no situation. There was no business and he
came along at the great time. Right, not to discredit him,
because he's historically he's transcendently great, but in that era
there was no businessman like Floyd turned out to be
during that era, so he would have had to fight.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, look what people don't understand and know or maybe forget.
I promoted Floyd's sixteen fights roughly when we were building him, hm,
you know, he was under Golden Moy Promotions and obviously
I owned Golden Boy Promotions. Was that after top rank
that was right after top rank okay, and so we
(15:44):
got him the Ricky Hans fight. We positioned him to
fight you know, Juan Manuela Marks Canello, who actually I
told Canelo, do not fight Floyd because you're too young,
you have no experience.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Well, but he's a much bigger man.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
No, he is, but he's twenty one years old flexing
his muscles like I can take on Floyd.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I'm the very best. Guess what you got schooled? You
got school pissed the shut up exactly. I mean it
wasn't even close.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So so my point is Floyd played his cards right.
If there was if there was ever a winner in
Las Vegas, it's Floyd.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's Floyd. Let me ask you a question, why do you
guys have a rematch? You and Floyd?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Why didn't we have a rematch? Well, this is something
that the world doesn't know, and I'm gonna actually say
it now. We had a rematch for a year contractually.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Guess what Floyd did.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
He retired for a year and one day let the
contract expire and I was asked out.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
That's it. Had you had to rematch? Do you feel
you could have a been what happened earlier?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
No, no, my body was breaking down. My body was
was over it. That was that was the final Yeah,
that was the last straw.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It was.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I felt it in the seventh eighth round where my
because my job is my weapon. That's I mean, I
throw my jab, I knowbody can beat me, and I
just yeah, I just couldn't throw it, and so it
was over.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
My body was breaking down.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I fought pack yao, and uh, I was a dead
man walking. I walked inside the ring and I was
my legs were shaking, and I was like, please just.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Knock me out, just stop me right here. Really. Oh yeah, Well,
if you, Oscar, if you know your body is breaking down,
you know you're not the fighter that you once were,
Why take a fight with Pakia when you know he
the dangerous man? Because I dared to be great.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I always dared to be great.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
You had already had that, Oscar, I want some more.
You and Floyd follow on. If I'm not mistaken, it
was it was sink on my old wink. Yeah, when
you saw him come out there with this Mexican get
what were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I was thinking away the hats on backwards and he's
put it on right, you know, No, it was appropriate.
I was just thinking at that time, man, I want
to knock his ass out right, you know, because I'm
a competitor.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
But then you think, because I'm a businessman too.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I started Golden Boy Promotions way before I even finished fighting,
so I was already thinking, Wow, what a genius. That's
a great marketing tool there. And sure enough, sure enough,
Floyd was built to be the villain. Floyd was built
with his opponents that we put in front of him,
you know, from Miguel Coto to you know, to everybody,
(18:41):
he was the villain. And in the movie you need
the hero and the villain, and.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Floyd was the perfect villain. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
People people love to hate him, and guess what, he
made a whole career about it, and he's one of
the greatest.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Do you think people tuning in to watch the greatness
or tune in to watch him lose?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
A lot of people tuned in to watch him lose,
but a lot of people also tuned in to watch greatness.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Do they really do? People?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Do?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I know? The purest, the purest, like you said, people
that's been around the boxing game, the fight game for
an extended period of time, they understand who he is.
But do you think the casual, the late person realized
how great he is.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I don't think so. I don't think so. It's it's
it's what happens. What happens is that we don't realize
how wonderful of a person that individual is, or what
great of an athlete that person is until there may
be past or until it's until they're old.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, we don't realize. We don't. We don't. We
don't tend to do the the research, you.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Know, and and and uh and and study the careers
and and and and and label him as as a
great one or you know, it's it's just yeah, it's
it's till the end, obviously. And and I think that
Floyd Mayweather is just a great, great fighter. He's he is,
He's one of the best.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I think the thing that what makes him so unique
is that he didn't hang on too longs. A lot
of the great fighters they hang on too long. They
fight these young lions and then they and then it
somehow one or two losses diminished the greatness that we
saw for over a decade. And Floyd never.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Succumbed, right, which is smart, which is great.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I mean, he didn't get.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Hit much in in in his career in the amateurs,
in the pros, and uh, and he did it smart.
He played it smart. That's and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It is.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
The business is great, you know, but it wasn't my
It wasn't my cup of tea. My cup of tea
was you fight everybody in their prime, in their peak.
You fight against the best, and guess what you're gonna
The chances are of losing are are pretty great because
you're fighting other great fighters. And that was my position.
(21:00):
That was my mentality going into every single fight I
I signed for. You know, with Floyd, you can make
you can make the argument, well, okay, this guy was
he should have fought him two years prior, He should
have fought him earlier.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Maybe he caught him when he was older. You can
make the argument.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
But at the end of the day, when you watch
the skills inside the rings, it's just different.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, it's undeniable. Had you had because you had Floyd Senior,
where's your trainer up until you got ready to fight
fight Floyd? If I'm not mistaken correct, Had you had
Senior in your corner fighting Junior, do you think you
win that fight. Knock him out. I'll knock him out.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I would knock him out really absolutely. If I was
one year younger and had Senior in my corner, I
would knock him out.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Really. Senior was that good of a trainer, You have
that much confidence in your ability, you would have done
something that. No, man, I mean he, I mean, I've
only seen Floyd take really maybe a handful of solid punches. Sure,
and you feel you were gonna be able to put
together a package to.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Not absolutely and you know what the key was, and
the key is to that style. This is a job
opens up all the doors. When my job failed me,
it was over. I knew it in my heart, in
my head, I knew it was over. Floyd was coming
after me because he closes the show. He knows how
to reserve his energies and his gas tank to close
the show at the end. And I'll tell you a
(22:29):
story that nobody knows. We were negotiating to fight Floyd
again after the contract expired, and I started negotiating with
Floyd's father to train me to beat his son. He
wanted too much money, and I just said, you know what,
(22:52):
aside from the money, okay, I understand that it's a
lot of money that I have to pay you, so
I'm going to pass. But aside from that, morally, I
think I just thought it was wrong, you know, his
father being in this corner, being because I think at
the time they were having a little, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Little issue.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You know, it happens in every family. It happens in
every family. So I said, you know what, No, I
can't do this. I cannot do this to a family
who has been in the business for a very long time.
I don't know how many generations. Mogle Roger, not his
I think his other uncle Jeff, who I fought.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So yeah, they I mean.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Boxing runs in their blood and I so I just
couldn't do that to them, and we didn't make.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
The fight Pacquiao Mayweather. What would have been different had
they fought let's just say five years earlier, because everybody
believed all that they wanted that fight. We had been
clamoring for that fight for five ten years. Had they
fought five years earlier, is the outcome any different?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Let's just say it would have probably in a controversial decision,
you know, like a closer fight. But I still think
that Toy Brody probably would have pulled it off.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I really do think so. Pack Yall.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
At the time when he was coming up, when I
fought him, he was he was literally a pac man.
He was just chomping at me like there's no tomorrow.
He wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop throwing punches. That pack
Yall probably gives Mayweather.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
A better fight. Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know if he wins, but he
gives him a better fight.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And so you feel this fight happened a couple of
years a little too late.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You know, you want to see you want to see
a back and forth, and you want to see, you know,
evenly matched on paper when we saw it live. Yeah,
I mean as as a fighter myself, I know exactly
what's going on with the fighters mentally and physically, and
pack Yao wasn't the same. And you know, you can
(24:54):
make the argument for Floyd as well, you know, on
at their peak.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, I still think that Toloy would have what would
have won the fight when you fall Pacquiao, I think
they stopped the fight in the eighth round. I didn't
come out for the ninth. Yeah, you didn't come out.
You're right, you didn't come out that had to be
because Mexican fighters, you guys are pride for you guys
are down that shield and you're that You know, when
(25:20):
we talk about Mexican fighters, we know they're tough. We
know they're fearless, and they don't fear any they don't.
They'll walk through hell for a fight if they need to.
Right for you to not get up off that stool
and take that bail in the night, what was going
through your mind at that time, Oscar?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Well, what happened in that fight? I mean I was
a zombie. I was drained. I think I had fought
Bernard Hopkins at one six sixty and then I said,
let me, let me dare to be great again and
fight this young kid who they're talking about at one
forty seven. I literally waited one forty four for that fight,
(25:59):
and I was just I was a skeleton.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It was too much.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So I knew in my heart, in my head that
it was over for me. The first round happened, he
punched me. I couldn't throw back. My instincts weren't there,
my fast twitch muscles weren't there. And every single round,
every single round. If you watch my documentary that came
out on HBO called The Golden Boy. It explains to
(26:24):
you what I was thinking, what I was feeling. I
literally wanted to die in that ring. In the eighth round,
everybody was going to stop it, okay, or the seventh round.
One of those rounds, everybody wanted to stop it, including
the referee, the trainer, and I said, no, I want
one more because in my head I was thinking, if
he punches me, maybe I won't I won't wake up.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
You know, Well, there's some other things going on that
you wanted to die in the ring.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Of course, I wanted my whole life to die, the
whole life that I was living at the time, you know,
having to go through rehabs, having to go through you know,
all this fame and money and women and this and that.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
It was just overwhelmed me. And now I can't perform.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Now I don't have the last thing that I love
that I worked so hard for. I don't have it anymore.
So just ended here in the middle of the ring.
Just punched me so I can die.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right, Wow, So did you underestimate Manny? Did you understand
what he was? I think he moved up from what
once one of Sister One to twelve and had blown
through everybody thirty thirty five, forty forty seven. So you
didn't underestimate him. You knew what he he got packed man,
(27:40):
that name, he got that name for a reason. Oh yeah,
I underestimated him. But it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Even if I true, even if I was, I was
a dead man walking I was.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I couldn't have taken the fight at fifty four.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I don't think they would have done it because he
was coming, like he said, he was coming up and wait,
it was probably too much at the time, but.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Even at fifty four he probably still No. Shamee in
my game, Shane Mosley, So shame you fought Shane Mosley.
Like you said, There's one thing they can't say about you.
I mean, people might say a lot of different things
about you, and but they can't say that you ducked anybody. No, no, no,
(28:22):
you fought Shane.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
No, I thought, Shane when nobody wanted to fight.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
No, no, no, that was the hell of a fight.
It was. It was what made Shane.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You need well, I've known Shane since we were kids,
and you know him beating everybody labeled as like sugar,
Ray Robinson, not Ray Leonard sugar Y Robinson.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Because he had dynamite. He was amazing and he can punch.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Yes, but we grew up together, and I think we
fought twice. I think he beat me twice, right, or
it was one in one. So I knew what I
was up against, you know, I knew why people didn't
want to fight him, right, So I said, you know what,
why not, come on, let's go. Let's there to be
great again. So Staples Center. It was the first fight
(29:07):
ever we opened it up for the Staples Center from
promos exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
I mean it was Shannon. It was like the Oscars.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Wow, it was crazy, and I mean I was like
in I was stars just watching everybody in between rounds,
like who's there, Who's there?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It was incredible, and I'm just happy that it was
a great fight. It was an amazing fighter. Yeah, I'm
sad that I lost, but it was a great fight.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
In nineteen ninety seven, at the age of twenty four,
you had five title fights in one year. Yeah. You
beat Miguel sweet Pee, Yeah, Camu Camacho Yeah. Yeah. Would
we ever see a fighter fight five fights in one year?
(29:58):
A game fight? Forget? Forget. I ain't saying, no, we're
not gonna see title fight, But will we see a
boxer fight five times in one season.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
At the elgit at the elite level, at the elite level, No, no,
we won't see it.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
We won't see it.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
It's one thing about boxing that's taken place over the years,
and maybe it's the Floyd effect.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
They now think business first, you know, and that's.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
A big problem. It's a big problem.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Fights are not being made because everybody wants to get
you know, the big big of course, so there's not
enough money to go around. So guess what, Let me
fight this uh, let me fight this guy who is
gonna cost me of pennies on the dollar instead of
fighting Benavitez, you know who, who equally should share the
(30:47):
purse with Canelo or maybe six But you can't give
you seventy thirty. You can't give them ten to twenty.
I mean, come on, it's not fair, right, Yeah, it's
not gonna happen. Ever again, I think I wish it would,
but it's it's just hard to make those fights happen
because of the business.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
So like when you like you're a promoter and you're
trying to put fights together. When you go to your fighter,
he was like, Okay, this is a fight that I
think we can make happen. I think the split should
probably be fifty five forty five sixty forty. What do
you think about that? You take it to the guy
and you know, y'all bounce ideals off of each other.
Is that how it works? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I mean it all depends on the opponent. It depends
on you know, how long he's been championed, is he undefeated,
does he have a fan base? See that's important. A
lot of fighters today think that they're superstars because they
have a world title. But guess what, they can't sell
a seat, which is a big problem.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, once we get the right, once we get the
fees from television, we have to sell tickets, sponsors, this
that pay per views. Well, guess what, maybe because you
don't sell, I'll give your salary. Maybe i'll give you
a flat fee, right, and it's going to be the
biggest person of your life. But you are not quite
ready to be to to make those pay per view.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Dollars, you know, to a headline. So that because I
think you're right, because I think a lot of guys
are like they're more concerned with being undefeated than taking
a big fight. Because Oscar, all things being equal, I
can't blame them. If I can fight this, if I
can fight Fighter B sure and make fifteen million, and
I know I can beat him, well, there are a
(32:27):
ninety percent chances I can beat him. Why would I
fight Fighter A for twenty million when it's fifty to
fifty sure?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, look, first of all, the problem is that fighters
are thinking they're going to make fifteen million.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Dollars, I just do it. Number No.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
But but that that's a perfect example. Fighters have to
realize their their own worth and they create their own worth. Yes,
the promoter knows how to navigate your career and get
to the right wins and position you to become a
world champion, but.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
It's up to you to sell yourself. Right, it's up.
Look at Floyd, look at look at look at.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Ryan Garcia, look at these fighters like Canelo, who who
have skills, who fight hard. But at the same time
they have that a huge fan base because they're working
it outside the ring.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Right. But the thing is Oscar, people want to see knockouts.
People don't want to see well, don't want to go
to the cards, and too many guys keep going to
the cards. Yeah, you might be twenty and zero, but
your fights are boring. If you're not knocking people down,
if you're not putting people out, people are not going
to pay. They're harder money on a pay per view
or to go to a fight.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I'll give you a perfect example of a young fighter
right now in that position. It's course Stevenson, the greatest
fighter I've ever seen. Beautiful style, yes, great technique, has
the punching power, has the chin. But he needs the
confidence to fight. He has to believe in himself to
put on a good show and sell seats. That's the
(33:56):
problem he's having. He's not selling seats. He's a great fighter,
he's the all this money and fights are not being made.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
But in order to be a great fighter and to
put people out, you have to be willing to take
a chance. You have to because if you throw a punch,
you can't block like and throw the punch, so you
subject yourself to something coming back. Is he afraid of
taking chance? Is he afraid of receiving something that's coming
back when he throws? Well, yeah, there's a saying.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
What is it's scared for losing or you know, it's
it's it's it's true. I mean, look fighting, there's a
stigma in boxing like that if you lose your oh.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
It's over, your career is over. No, it's not. It
depends how you fight.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
You can be an undefeated fighter and not be a fighter,
and not be an attraction and not be a guy
who everybody wants to see. It all depends on how
you perform, and you're as good as your last fight.
In boxing, if you have a fight like let's say
Jimi Mungia and Canelo right him and lost. Okay, well
his comeback fighterf he chooses the right opponent and he
(34:59):
looks like a million dollars and he knocks him out. Well,
guess what he's back. He's probably even bigger than when
he fought Canelos. So it's all strategy, it's all how
you perform inside the ring.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
You made a lot of money. So what was some
of the first what like being from East La, you
grew up, how you grew up when you got that
big payday? What was the first thing? Oscar Bob.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Wow Man I was I was nineteen eighteen that came
out of the Olympic Games in nineteen ninety two. I
bought my I bought a home for my parents from
my dad. Yeah, for my dad. I bought a home
for my dad. And then let's see, I wow, Yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Was the big thing I bought. Yeah for anything for yourself. No, No,
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
I wasn't really a big spender. I wasn't really. I'm
not into cars.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
You know, it's like I kind of think maybe that's
why I kept all my money.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
But you like to gamble, you here and there, here
and there, you don't gamble as much as No, I
don't know, don't I don't.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I mean, i'll play within If I don't feel good,
then I'll stop and I won't play.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And I don't. I'm not. What's your game of choice?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I'll do bock Rode and dice, but I'll play maybe
one series six every year, one's series five.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
I don't. It's not it's not my thing, right. I
read that jay Z bet you one hundred thousand that
Miguel Cody would beat Canelo and sent you the money
immediately after the war.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So we're promoting Canelo at the time, Golden Boy, and
he's promoting Codo, and so I said, you know what,
why don't we why don't we place a bet here
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Okay, but it
goes to charity. So Canelo wins, my charity wins the
two fifths, and sure enough he paid it on the spot.
(36:58):
I think the next day was in the bank. So
now look, jay Z loves boxing. Uh he knows it's boxing,
but he's uh, he's a guy who, uh you.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Took advantage, who pays his bets you. It was a
close fight.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Actually a lot of people think Codo beat him, but
I had the insights.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So what made you? What made you get into the
promotion game?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
When I started, I was with Barbara. I was kind
of breaking away from Barbara. Yeah, our contract was expiring.
I I came out guns blazing saying I want to
help out the athletes. I want to be the promoter
who is like looking out for the fighters. Okay, that
was that was my main motive. That was that was
(37:47):
why I started boxing.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
So you got into the fight game and you said,
you know what, I want to help the boxer. I
don't think they're getting a fair shape blah. Blah blah,
and you're like, Okay, I'm gonna start my own thing.
I'm gonna be because you started this. You're still fighting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, I was fighting at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I was active.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I started when I fought Fernando Vargas, okay, and I
remember being in the dressing room and I was beat up.
I knocked him out in the eleventh round, but I
was just beat up, and I said to myself, you
know what, I think, it's it's almost time to retire.
What am I gonna do after boxing? What am I
gonna do?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I can drift off to the sunset and you know,
go by myself a little boat and live on the.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Beach or whatever.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
But I knew that I was not going to be
happy in the long run. So I said to myself,
let me, let me do something within the sport. Because
I love boxing. There's a lot of room for improvement.
A lot of fighters are saying, well, they need help
this and that. So let me start Golden Boy. And
that's where that's where it was born.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
So let me. How do you how do you convince
because okay, you got top rank. I think Floyd has
a company. I don't know if he's still with Alheimen
or anything like that. So I don't know what's going
on with that. Adie Hearn. I think Adie Hearn have
a fight company. Is don King still in the business.
They're four or five big promotion? So how does Oscar
de la Hoya goes insists in someone's home or his
(39:12):
mom's home, his dad home, or have a conversation and
says Golden Boy is the right promoting company for you?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Well, first of all, yeah, there's there's Bob aram.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Don King. Not really he's yeah there.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I mean both guys are like ninety five years old.
I don't know how Bob is doing it, but he's
I want some of that stuff that he's taking.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I really do, because you see him.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
He's happy promoting at ninety five. So you have about
Eddie Hearn. So literally it's PBC, which is Al Hayman.
So there's like four of us right out there. The
difference with all four okay that nobody can say, Okay,
I was a fighter. I laced up the gloves. I
know what it feels like to take the punch. I
(39:56):
know what it feels like to have to sell a fight,
to go out there and promote I know how it
feels like to being taken advantage of because I'm a fighter,
so I know all that and plus a huge advantages.
I'm the only Hispanic fighter to ever start a national boxing.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Promotional promotional company.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
So if you take a look at all the Hispanic
fighters that you.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Know, you identify with them.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
They look up to you, so it makes it easier
for me to sign them and to guide them.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
You know, I mean not only do you speak their language, literally,
you speak your language. Figure because you are a fighter
and you went through I mean you had to the
great amateur background and so forth and so on. But
when you look at boxing, people don't box. My choice
is necessity, and sometimes I feel it's either to take
advantage of someone that comes from a disinvent to improverished
(40:53):
situation because you throw one hundred thousand, five hundred thousand,
and then you set the guy and then you go
to make money over fist. Did you experience some of
that growing up when you were in the fight game,
when promoters tried to take advantage of Oscar da la Hordes.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
I experienced it right when I got back from the
Olympic Games. I experienced it when somebody promised me a
million dollars. Okay, I'm eighteen years old. Here's a million
dollars to sign with me.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
You know how much I saw? I saw like fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
What about fifty thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (41:28):
The idea taxes, I don't know. Yeah, it was even
back the tax breaking. I learned the hard way. I did.
I did. I learned that.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
But that was the best. That was a blessing in
disguise because I learned fast. I learned how to take
care of my money. I learned who to look out for. Okay,
why do I need a manager? Why do I need
an advisor? Okay, I need a promoter because the promoter's
going to guide my career and take me to the
next level. I can't do what a promoter is doing
for me. Fighters need a promoter. So I said, okay,
(42:03):
let me. That's that's a percentage off my pie. Okay,
But everything else I can just pay on salary.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
So I'm keeping all of my pie to myself. So
that's yeah, I learned the hard way, you know, fairly quick.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And because you need tax people, because you hear see
a lot of boxers they run into tax problems. And
but let me ask you this. I was reading somewhere.
It's like I think I was reading that the guy
was explaining, like Mike Tyson and Don King, like if
he's you go to your promoter, Bob Mayor at the time,
(42:40):
and you say, Bob, I need twenty tickets. Those are
not gifts. You got to pay for those. That's gonna
cook out your salary, right.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, oh yeah, And whoever's participating in the fight, it's
coming off their percentage as well.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
So yeah, nothing's free, right, so you get so oh man,
my promoter me this rolls Royce, My promoter me colding this.
And did fighters always know that even though they were
getting these things, that that was actually coming out of
their pocket or they thought they were just being gifted
those things?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Uh, it's it's it's a couple of things. A lot
of athletes, a lot of fighters, they just they just
turned away. They don't want to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
They don't want to.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
They don't want to I guess you know know that
that's real. You know, they just they just want to
shy away from it and let somebody else deal with it.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I think that it's the athlete's responsibility. You know, it's
for instance, Mike Tyson and Don King. Well people keep saying,
well Don King ripped off Mike Tyson and this and that.
Well Mike Tyson made about four hundred five hundred million dollars.
That's his money. What he does with that, it's not
Don King's fault, right, So you know, you have to
(43:52):
as an athlete, as a person, you have to you
have to look out for your best interest as well.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
You mentioned earlier when Floyd was he bought out of
his contract with Top Right. You had started your company
and for like what sixteen seventeen fights, you promoted Floyd.
I did promote Floyd.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, and then you know he was the time when
he was making the h I think it was a
showtime contract thirty forty million dollars. Yeah, we promoted all
those fights, right, you know, great experience for us. It was,
you know, it put us on the map obviously, and
you know we're now one of the top promoters in
the world.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
So look, boxing.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
The one thing that I'm not too keen on and
with boxing is that it became a business. It wasn't
a business before. Yes, you're making money. I made a
lot of money.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
But I treated.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Boxing as as as as you know, trying to be
great as a platform for me to be great. Not
a businessman.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
I'm not a b so, but can I look at
it like this. They saw a lot of other great
fighters in their career, great but broke. Yeah, and so
they say it, of all things being equal, I would
rather be less great and more wealthy as as opposed
to being great and broke.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Can you I have to disagree because I've lived it. Yeah,
I'm in these shoes. And it's again the responsibility of
the fighter, of the athlete, and it's not just boxers.
I mean, look, if I'm making thirty million dollars and
I'm spending like a madman and I'm.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Having all these revenue, I've got to get. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
But if I'm spending like I'm still making that type
of money, Chris, what, I'm going to run out of money,
And that's the individual's fault. Maybe I'm not paying taxes,
maybe I owe people money, Maybe I'm just maybe I
just want to live this lavish lifestyle so I can
get the clicks. It's it's it's the individual's responsibility.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
But you have to understand also Oscar. You're dealing with
guys that have very limited education, they come from very
impoverished backgrounds. They're trying to lift themselves, uplift them family,
their families up and put them in a a in
a social economics that had it not been for boxing,
they probably would have never been there. And so they're
(46:28):
easy to take advantage of. Absolutely, But I get what
you're saying, like, oh, it's still your responsibility. But me,
I couldn't take advantage of somewhat even if I had
the opportunity. And I know they're not man I can.
I'm gonna rob this dude, and he got gonna know anything.
That's just not in me. I'm not so sure a
lot of promoters had that same philosophy, though.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
There's a lot of and like I mentioned, the promoters
I just mentioned have never laced up the gloves, so
they don't understand, they don't live it.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shay profile and I'll see
you there.
What's going on with you and Dana? You guys were cool.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Just because I wanted to start a little competition.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
He gets all over.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me scream louder when a guy slaps his wife
in public when his mom writes a book about him,
saying that he's a douche.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
That's all I have to say.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifice, hustle, ped Price,
One slice Got the bronc geis swap all my life.
Be grinding all my life, All my life, grinning all
my life, sacrifight, hustle, pe Price, One slice Got the
bronc geis swap all my life, be grinding all my life.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Sha Shay. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp, but I'm also the propriud
of Club Shasha. The guy that' stopping buy for conversation
and drink Today is one of the most popular boxes
of all time. He had a sixteen year professional boxing career.
He won ten world titles titles. He's the first box
certain history to win titles in six different weight classes.
He won the Olympic gold medal in nineteen ninety two.
(01:05):
He's a Grammy nominated singer. He once accumulated the largest
pay per view draw ever. He generated over seven hundred
million in pay per view biased. An icon, a legend,
a champion, an international Boxing Hall of Famer, an accomplished entrepreneur.
He's the first American of Mexican descent to own a
national boxing promotional company. He founded the highly successful, highly
(01:26):
successful Golden Boy Promotion. He has a statue in front
of Staples Nice crypt dot com arena. He's from East
Los Angeles. Here he is the Golden Boy. Mosca de
la Hoya. Thank you for how was that intro? That
was great? That was amazing.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think I think you have a such a career
announcing me everywhere I go, announce him.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Let me when you hear what you've been able to
accomplish and people, because everywhere you go, everybody knows who
you are, your world renowned. Do you look back and like, damn,
I really did all that? The first to win titles
in six different weight classes, right?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I literally do have to remind myself quite a bit. Actually,
I don't think about it.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm the type of person that I just lived my life,
you know. I I have a job at hand in
front of me. I focus on that. I focus on
you know, uh, my beautiful partner. I focus on myself,
my business. It's like I don't think about like what
I accomplish, but when I do talk about it, when
you did interview, you like, oh damn, I didn't accomplish
(02:34):
quite a few things.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Because when you hear them talk about all these other boxers.
Obviously we're going to talk about Floyd, but you hear
about Ray Larder, you hear about Marvin haglerrist, so you
hear about at many Pakia a division champ. If I'm
not mistaken, the only the only when you hear and
people start talking about it, like, hold on, wait a minute, now,
did y'all forget about the Golden board? Do y'all remember
what I've done? I don't.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I don't really, I don't really tell myself fat or
I really don't focus on what everybody else is talking
about or who they're talking about. Like I accomplished, You've
done it quite a few things. I'm proud of it.
I realized it. I recognize it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And it's so be it. You know. Now I'm just me.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Now, I'm just focused on, you know, just living the
life that I should be living and deserve to be living,
you know, just being happy and and and and doing
some good business, uh, promoting the right fights, right building fighters.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
So yeah, it's but uh, yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
It's sometimes I do have to pinch myself a bit
and uh and remind myself of what I accomplished.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
It's pretty well. It wouldn't be Club Shasha if we
didn't ask you to rank some of these fighters. So
where would we put Oscar de la Hoya if we said, uh,
Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones, Junior Canelo Alvarez.
Who else would belong in that? Uh? In your generation?
I mentioned Canelo?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Okay, Trinidad Trinidad peito, what our sweet pee? Yeah, we
had all of them, We had all the greats. I
would I would rank myself second to last. Really, yeah,
in front of Canelo?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Why would Why would you put Canelo last?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Because he's not better than any other fighter you just mentioned, right,
and he's certainly not better than me.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Right. But here's the thing, though, you look at what
he's done one sixty one sixty eight light heavy three division.
He's a four division three division three division. So what
sixty sixty eight seventy five. Yeah, yeah, and so you
got optionally, you got Floyd Floyd. Floyd goes without saying
you got Manny paciyao, who's an eight division champ. You've
(04:51):
got Bernhard Hopkins uh one sixty one sixty eight one
seventy five. Uh. Roy Roy was untouchable for about a decade.
Roy was untouchable. Amazing. So you're like, Okay, where would
you put where would you Okay? Rank? I did? This
is how we're gonna do it, Manny Pacquil Floyd May.
Where the Bernard Hopkins, Roy Jones Jr. Ranked those guys?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Well, I fought I fought three of those guys that
you just mentioned, and and they all beat me. So
so the key here is that I fought them, and
I was willing to fight them. I was, and I
fought them in order to to make history right, which
which fighters don't do nowadays. No, they did, They just don't.
(05:36):
They wait till you get older.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I was.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I was waiting for myself to get older to fight
those guys in their prime.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
So except for Bernard Hopkins, I was forty eight years
old when I fought him. But he's he's he's a
he's a machine.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know that that. But you had moved up, you moved.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
To sixty and fight him to make history. That's what
it's all about. So I think, I think, look, Floyd
flo It is a great fighter. Obviously, he's undefeated. Everybody
can make an argument, well he's not the best. Yes,
he is the best. Everybody has their opinion and that's fine,
that's okay. You look at their records. Okay, well maybe
(06:13):
with this guy he lost, maybe it was controversial, maybe
it was a close fight. Everybody has those on their records.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
I have.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Three losses that I can't debate with Pachyel because he
stopped me, with Hopkins because he stopped me, and probably
who else, Shane Mosley the first one, which was an
epic fight at the Staples Center now Crypto Arena. So
those fights there, I can't. I cannot, like you know,
(06:43):
debate with anybody that I lost. But the other fights, yeah,
they're debatable. You know, you can make the argument just
like every other fighter that you just mentioned now on
the list. Every fighter has their debatable losses and wins.
Are they great?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Yes? Are they?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
The very very asked who knows. It's a debate.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Let me ask you this. I've heard you on several
occasions said, you feel that you beat Floyd in that fight. Sure,
obviously that might've been one of the last fights that
I've been to. I was at that fight. Why do
you feel you won that fight?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
You know, when you're a fighter inside the ring, when
that final bell rings, you know it in your heart.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
In your gut, if and physically, if.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
You won or you lost, you just feel it's it's
a sensation, and I just felt it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You know. Whether I was wrong or whether I'm right,
I don't care. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I fought against the very best in Floyd Mayweather younger
in his prime, just you know, undefeated, and I was
over the hill, tons of injuries. So I was pretty
proud with what I accomplished that night. So maybe I
was conveyed. I see myself that I won, But I
(08:03):
did feel it physically and mentally that I did enough
to uh because I was the champion in that fight, right,
so read out.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Normally you have to beat the champion to.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Take to take its title, so you take all those variables,
and I felt that, you know, okay, maybe let me
convince myself that I won that fight.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Right, do you feel because it looked like to me
you started that flurry like the first nive or six rounds,
it was you, and then all of a sudden you
started to tire, you started to come up. Did you
feel that you have done enough early and because he
didn't stop you, he didn't put you down, that you
had had enough points up until that.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yeah, it's it's it's a twelve round fight, correct, And
you know, as an elite fighter, you're always keeping track
of what you're doing every every second, every minute. Okay,
I have this run in the bag, I have this one,
this one. Wait, that's that's maybe six or seven.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Let me cruise.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Let me if I get injuries, just the way I
did during the fight because I had torn rotator.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Oh you got your rotating you tore your rotated, comping
up of them.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
No, I going into the fight, going into the fight, okay,
but you know you start thinking, okay, wait, if I
just cruise here and land a few punches, I got
the first fight the first half wand already, so maybe
if I just win one more round, I can win
the fight seven to five, maybe a draw.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
So you start.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Thinking that right and that that can be a mistake
or it can be a plus. And obviously that night
for me, it was a big mistake. I should have
just went out there and just give it my own.
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(10:36):
shay Shape. What makes Floyd so unique because he fought
you know, He's fought Packy y'all. He fought you, he
fought Gotti, he fought Corrals, he fought Ricky Hatten. He's
fought so many and all these guys, a lot of
these guys had titles at the time, were formal world
champions like yourself. What makes him so unique his pedigree.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Look, I'm good friends with his father. The best trainer
I've ever had. Wow, by far, he is, well except
for the professor who trained me for the Chavist fight
when I beat Chavis in nineteen ninety six. But Floyd
Senior is the best trainer I've ever had. He's a
teacher and that's what Floyd Junior grew up with. He
grew up with a teacher who disciplined him to be
(11:21):
the very, very best. And I love his patience. I
love the fact that he's a hard hitter and he
has a chin. See people discredit him for not having
a chin. He has a chin and he has.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
A big heart.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
So I think that what makes him unique is obviously
his boxing ability, but his ring generalship is what does
it for me.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
He knows how to pick his spots.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
He knows how to get you tired without even throwing punches.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I mean, I can figure this out. But that's who
Floyd is and that's what made him great.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
But people say he doesn't well, he don't have any knockouts,
he doesn't have power.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Oh he has power. He has power. He has power.
I mean he didn't hurt me, but he has power.
He has a lot of I have a good chin.
Hackel didn't hurt me. Bernard didn't hurt me. I mean
he caught me with that body shot. I have a
good chin. But Floyd does have power. But if you
look at Floyd at a lot of weight class, he
were stopping people. It wasn't until he got to one
forty seven fifty four. Yeah, and then his hands he
(12:20):
had to be he had to be careful with his
hands because the last thing you want to do is
throw a shot, break a hand, and then all of
a sudden you gotta fight.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
The link next ten eleven rounds.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
It's not a broken hay Well, I think I think
what happened with Floyd is and this is where he
played it smart. You know, you have to give credit
where credit is due. Floyd after he beat me, if
you notice, he became money Mayweather.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yes, well, he became a businessman. Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
So then now okay, let me let me let me
have you know my career. You know the longevity of
my career. I'm going to extend it as long as possible.
I'm not gonna get hit. I'm gonna throw punches and
pick and choose so my career can last longer and
make more money.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Very smart. Had Floyd been around in the eighties and
he had to fight Hagler, he had to fight Leonard,
he had to fight Hearns, he had to fight Barkley
or he you know, just just say some of those
durand you know, how would he have fared with those
(13:19):
because all those guys, those guys had dynamite. Sugar Ray
was a lot harder punching than people give him credit for. Yeah,
and he had he had a heart of a lion.
Would Floyd would have fared? Now I'm not saying he'd
probably go up to because Floyd is a small man,
and that's what makes it he was so great because
he's not having to drop twenty thirty pounds to make
one forty se exactly. He's probably walking around at one
(13:40):
fifty the entire his entire life. He's a professional.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yes, you know, he knows how to he knows how
to staling. Yes, and stay active and always in the gym.
And you know, and and fighters and kids who want
to become champions should emulate exactly what Floyd did inside
the ring, inside the gym.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And you asked me the questestion about.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
The eighties and the four Kings, right, Yes, Duran and
Hearns and Hagler and Leonard. It would have been quite interesting,
would I would have probably called it the five Kings.
You know, he's that worthy of fighting those guys and
making great fights.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Everybody had their own unique style.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yes, Duran was a beast, Yes, Hagler was a beast. Yes,
sugar a. Leonard was a beast. I mean Hearns and
either one had their own you know, attributes, whether it
was a right hand from Hearns, punches and bunches from Durant,
who would just eat you alive and sugar Ay Leonard
just had it all.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
So I don't know, it's it's.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Hard to say whether he would have won or lost,
but I think being in the mix would have made it.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Just, I mean, that much more exciting because back then,
as you said, after he bought you, he became more
of a businessman. Back then, there was no you had
to fight. You know, if you go back and look
at the seventies and eighty with the heavyweight, Norton had
to fight Ali. Ali had to fight Fraser, so he
had to fight for him, and Norman had to fight
so forth, so forth and so on. Yes, and so
(15:07):
there was no situation. There was no business and he
came along at the great time. Right, not to discredit him,
because he's historically he's transcendently great, but in that era
there was no businessman like Floyd turned out to be
during that era, so he would have had to fight.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, look what people don't understand and know or maybe forget.
I promoted Floyd's sixteen fights roughly when we were building him, hm,
you know, he was under Golden Moy Promotions and obviously
I owned Golden Boy Promotions. Was that after top rank
that was right after top rank okay, and so we
(15:44):
got him the Ricky Hans fight. We positioned him to
fight you know, Juan Manuela Marks Canello, who actually I
told Canelo, do not fight Floyd because you're too young,
you have no experience.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Well, but he's a much bigger man.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
No, he is, but he's twenty one years old flexing
his muscles like I can take on Floyd.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I'm the very best. Guess what you got schooled? You
got school pissed the shut up exactly. I mean it
wasn't even close.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So so my point is Floyd played his cards right.
If there was if there was ever a winner in
Las Vegas, it's Floyd.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
It's Floyd. Let me ask you a question, why do you
guys have a rematch? You and Floyd?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Why didn't we have a rematch? Well, this is something
that the world doesn't know, and I'm gonna actually say
it now. We had a rematch for a year contractually.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Guess what Floyd did.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
He retired for a year and one day let the
contract expire and I was asked out.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
That's it. Had you had to rematch? Do you feel
you could have a been what happened earlier?
Speaker 2 (17:01):
No, no, my body was breaking down. My body was
was over it. That was that was the final Yeah,
that was the last straw.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It was.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
I felt it in the seventh eighth round where my
because my job is my weapon. That's I mean, I
throw my jab, I knowbody can beat me, and I
just yeah, I just couldn't throw it, and so it
was over.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
My body was breaking down.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
I fought pack yao, and uh, I was a dead
man walking. I walked inside the ring and I was
my legs were shaking, and I was like, please just.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Knock me out, just stop me right here. Really. Oh yeah, Well,
if you, Oscar, if you know your body is breaking down,
you know you're not the fighter that you once were,
Why take a fight with Pakia when you know he
the dangerous man? Because I dared to be great.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I always dared to be great.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
You had already had that, Oscar, I want some more.
You and Floyd follow on. If I'm not mistaken, it
was it was sink on my old wink. Yeah, when
you saw him come out there with this Mexican get
what were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I was thinking away the hats on backwards and he's
put it on right, you know, No, it was appropriate.
I was just thinking at that time, man, I want
to knock his ass out right, you know, because I'm
a competitor.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
But then you think, because I'm a businessman too.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I started Golden Boy Promotions way before I even finished fighting,
so I was already thinking, Wow, what a genius. That's
a great marketing tool there. And sure enough, sure enough,
Floyd was built to be the villain. Floyd was built
with his opponents that we put in front of him,
you know, from Miguel Coto to you know, to everybody,
(18:41):
he was the villain. And in the movie you need
the hero and the villain, and.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Floyd was the perfect villain. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
People people love to hate him, and guess what, he
made a whole career about it, and he's one of
the greatest.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Do you think people tuning in to watch the greatness
or tune in to watch him lose?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
A lot of people tuned in to watch him lose,
but a lot of people also tuned in to watch greatness.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Do they really do? People?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Do?
Speaker 1 (19:08):
I know? The purest, the purest, like you said, people
that's been around the boxing game, the fight game for
an extended period of time, they understand who he is.
But do you think the casual, the late person realized
how great he is.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I don't think so. I don't think so. It's it's
it's what happens. What happens is that we don't realize
how wonderful of a person that individual is, or what
great of an athlete that person is until there may
be past or until it's until they're old.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
You know, we don't realize. We don't. We don't. We
don't tend to do the the research, you.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Know, and and and uh and and study the careers
and and and and and label him as as a
great one or you know, it's it's just yeah, it's
it's till the end, obviously. And and I think that
Floyd Mayweather is just a great, great fighter. He's he is,
He's one of the best.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I think the thing that what makes him so unique
is that he didn't hang on too longs. A lot
of the great fighters they hang on too long. They
fight these young lions and then they and then it
somehow one or two losses diminished the greatness that we
saw for over a decade. And Floyd never.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Succumbed, right, which is smart, which is great.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I mean, he didn't get.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Hit much in in in his career in the amateurs,
in the pros, and uh, and he did it smart.
He played it smart. That's and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
It is.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
The business is great, you know, but it wasn't my
It wasn't my cup of tea. My cup of tea
was you fight everybody in their prime, in their peak.
You fight against the best, and guess what you're gonna
The chances are of losing are are pretty great because
you're fighting other great fighters. And that was my position.
(21:00):
That was my mentality going into every single fight I
I signed for. You know, with Floyd, you can make
you can make the argument, well, okay, this guy was
he should have fought him two years prior, He should
have fought him earlier.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Maybe he caught him when he was older. You can
make the argument.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
But at the end of the day, when you watch
the skills inside the rings, it's just different.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, it's undeniable. Had you had because you had Floyd Senior,
where's your trainer up until you got ready to fight
fight Floyd? If I'm not mistaken correct, Had you had
Senior in your corner fighting Junior, do you think you
win that fight. Knock him out. I'll knock him out.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I would knock him out really absolutely. If I was
one year younger and had Senior in my corner, I
would knock him out.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Really. Senior was that good of a trainer, You have
that much confidence in your ability, you would have done
something that. No, man, I mean he, I mean, I've
only seen Floyd take really maybe a handful of solid punches. Sure,
and you feel you were gonna be able to put
together a package to.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Not absolutely and you know what the key was, and
the key is to that style. This is a job
opens up all the doors. When my job failed me,
it was over. I knew it in my heart, in
my head, I knew it was over. Floyd was coming
after me because he closes the show. He knows how
to reserve his energies and his gas tank to close
the show at the end. And I'll tell you a
(22:29):
story that nobody knows. We were negotiating to fight Floyd
again after the contract expired, and I started negotiating with
Floyd's father to train me to beat his son. He
wanted too much money, and I just said, you know what,
(22:52):
aside from the money, okay, I understand that it's a
lot of money that I have to pay you, so
I'm going to pass. But aside from that, morally, I
think I just thought it was wrong, you know, his
father being in this corner, being because I think at
the time they were having a little, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Little issue.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
You know, it happens in every family. It happens in
every family. So I said, you know what, No, I
can't do this. I cannot do this to a family
who has been in the business for a very long time.
I don't know how many generations. Mogle Roger, not his
I think his other uncle Jeff, who I fought.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So yeah, they I mean.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Boxing runs in their blood and I so I just
couldn't do that to them, and we didn't make.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
The fight Pacquiao Mayweather. What would have been different had
they fought let's just say five years earlier, because everybody
believed all that they wanted that fight. We had been
clamoring for that fight for five ten years. Had they
fought five years earlier, is the outcome any different?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Let's just say it would have probably in a controversial decision,
you know, like a closer fight. But I still think
that Toy Brody probably would have pulled it off.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
I really do think so. Pack Yall.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
At the time when he was coming up, when I
fought him, he was he was literally a pac man.
He was just chomping at me like there's no tomorrow.
He wouldn't stop, he wouldn't stop throwing punches. That pack
Yall probably gives Mayweather.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
A better fight. Wow.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know if he wins, but he
gives him a better fight.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
And so you feel this fight happened a couple of
years a little too late.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
You know, you want to see you want to see
a back and forth, and you want to see, you know,
evenly matched on paper when we saw it live. Yeah,
I mean as as a fighter myself, I know exactly
what's going on with the fighters mentally and physically, and
pack Yao wasn't the same. And you know, you can
(24:54):
make the argument for Floyd as well, you know, on
at their peak.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, I still think that Toloy would have what would
have won the fight when you fall Pacquiao, I think
they stopped the fight in the eighth round. I didn't
come out for the ninth. Yeah, you didn't come out.
You're right, you didn't come out that had to be
because Mexican fighters, you guys are pride for you guys
are down that shield and you're that You know, when
(25:20):
we talk about Mexican fighters, we know they're tough. We
know they're fearless, and they don't fear any they don't.
They'll walk through hell for a fight if they need to.
Right for you to not get up off that stool
and take that bail in the night, what was going
through your mind at that time, Oscar?
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Well, what happened in that fight? I mean I was
a zombie. I was drained. I think I had fought
Bernard Hopkins at one six sixty and then I said,
let me, let me dare to be great again and
fight this young kid who they're talking about at one
forty seven. I literally waited one forty four for that fight,
(25:59):
and I was just I was a skeleton.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
It was too much.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
So I knew in my heart, in my head that
it was over for me. The first round happened, he
punched me. I couldn't throw back. My instincts weren't there,
my fast twitch muscles weren't there. And every single round,
every single round. If you watch my documentary that came
out on HBO called The Golden Boy. It explains to
(26:24):
you what I was thinking, what I was feeling. I
literally wanted to die in that ring. In the eighth round,
everybody was going to stop it, okay, or the seventh round.
One of those rounds, everybody wanted to stop it, including
the referee, the trainer, and I said, no, I want
one more because in my head I was thinking, if
he punches me, maybe I won't I won't wake up.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
You know, Well, there's some other things going on that
you wanted to die in the ring.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Of course, I wanted my whole life to die, the
whole life that I was living at the time, you know,
having to go through rehabs, having to go through you know,
all this fame and money and women and this and that.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
It was just overwhelmed me. And now I can't perform.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Now I don't have the last thing that I love
that I worked so hard for. I don't have it anymore.
So just ended here in the middle of the ring.
Just punched me so I can die.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Right, Wow, So did you underestimate Manny? Did you understand
what he was? I think he moved up from what
once one of Sister One to twelve and had blown
through everybody thirty thirty five, forty forty seven. So you
didn't underestimate him. You knew what he he got packed man,
(27:40):
that name, he got that name for a reason. Oh yeah,
I underestimated him. But it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Even if I true, even if I was, I was
a dead man walking I was.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I couldn't have taken the fight at fifty four.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I don't think they would have done it because he
was coming, like he said, he was coming up and wait,
it was probably too much at the time, but.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Even at fifty four he probably still No. Shamee in
my game, Shane Mosley, So shame you fought Shane Mosley.
Like you said, There's one thing they can't say about you.
I mean, people might say a lot of different things
about you, and but they can't say that you ducked anybody. No, no, no,
(28:22):
you fought Shane.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
No, I thought, Shane when nobody wanted to fight.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
No, no, no, that was the hell of a fight.
It was. It was what made Shane.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
You need well, I've known Shane since we were kids,
and you know him beating everybody labeled as like sugar,
Ray Robinson, not Ray Leonard sugar Y Robinson.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Because he had dynamite. He was amazing and he can punch.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Yes, but we grew up together, and I think we
fought twice. I think he beat me twice, right, or
it was one in one. So I knew what I
was up against, you know, I knew why people didn't
want to fight him, right, So I said, you know what,
why not, come on, let's go. Let's there to be
great again. So Staples Center. It was the first fight
(29:07):
ever we opened it up for the Staples Center from
promos exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
I mean it was Shannon. It was like the Oscars.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Wow, it was crazy, and I mean I was like
in I was stars just watching everybody in between rounds,
like who's there, Who's there?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
It was amazing.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It was incredible, and I'm just happy that it was
a great fight. It was an amazing fighter. Yeah, I'm
sad that I lost, but it was a great fight.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
In nineteen ninety seven, at the age of twenty four,
you had five title fights in one year. Yeah. You
beat Miguel sweet Pee, Yeah, Camu Camacho Yeah. Yeah. Would
we ever see a fighter fight five fights in one year?
(29:58):
A game fight? Forget? Forget. I ain't saying, no, we're
not gonna see title fight, But will we see a
boxer fight five times in one season.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
At the elgit at the elite level, at the elite level, No, no,
we won't see it.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
We won't see it.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
It's one thing about boxing that's taken place over the years,
and maybe it's the Floyd effect.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Who knows.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
They now think business first, you know, and that's.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
A big problem. It's a big problem.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Fights are not being made because everybody wants to get
you know, the big big of course, so there's not
enough money to go around. So guess what, Let me
fight this uh, let me fight this guy who is
gonna cost me of pennies on the dollar instead of
fighting Benavitez, you know who, who equally should share the
(30:47):
purse with Canelo or maybe six But you can't give
you seventy thirty. You can't give them ten to twenty.
I mean, come on, it's not fair, right, Yeah, it's
not gonna happen. Ever again, I think I wish it would,
but it's it's just hard to make those fights happen
because of the business.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
So like when you like you're a promoter and you're
trying to put fights together. When you go to your fighter,
he was like, Okay, this is a fight that I
think we can make happen. I think the split should
probably be fifty five forty five sixty forty. What do
you think about that? You take it to the guy
and you know, y'all bounce ideals off of each other.
Is that how it works? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:28):
I mean it all depends on the opponent. It depends
on you know, how long he's been championed, is he undefeated,
does he have a fan base? See that's important. A
lot of fighters today think that they're superstars because they
have a world title. But guess what, they can't sell
a seat, which is a big problem.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You know.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yeah, once we get the right, once we get the
fees from television, we have to sell tickets, sponsors, this
that pay per views. Well, guess what, maybe because you
don't sell, I'll give your salary. Maybe i'll give you
a flat fee, right, and it's going to be the
biggest person of your life. But you are not quite
ready to be to to make those pay per view.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Dollars, you know, to a headline. So that because I
think you're right, because I think a lot of guys
are like they're more concerned with being undefeated than taking
a big fight. Because Oscar, all things being equal, I
can't blame them. If I can fight this, if I
can fight Fighter B sure and make fifteen million, and
I know I can beat him, well, there are a
(32:27):
ninety percent chances I can beat him. Why would I
fight Fighter A for twenty million when it's fifty to
fifty sure?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Well, look, first of all, the problem is that fighters
are thinking they're going to make fifteen million.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Dollars, I just do it. Number No.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
But but that that's a perfect example. Fighters have to
realize their their own worth and they create their own worth. Yes,
the promoter knows how to navigate your career and get
to the right wins and position you to become a
world champion, but.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
It's up to you to sell yourself. Right, it's up.
Look at Floyd, look at look at look at.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Ryan Garcia, look at these fighters like Canelo, who who
have skills, who fight hard. But at the same time
they have that a huge fan base because they're working
it outside the ring.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Right. But the thing is Oscar, people want to see knockouts.
People don't want to see well, don't want to go
to the cards, and too many guys keep going to
the cards. Yeah, you might be twenty and zero, but
your fights are boring. If you're not knocking people down,
if you're not putting people out, people are not going
to pay. They're harder money on a pay per view
or to go to a fight.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
I'll give you a perfect example of a young fighter
right now in that position. It's course Stevenson, the greatest
fighter I've ever seen. Beautiful style, yes, great technique, has
the punching power, has the chin. But he needs the
confidence to fight. He has to believe in himself to
put on a good show and sell seats. That's the
(33:56):
problem he's having. He's not selling seats. He's a great fighter,
he's the all this money and fights are not being made.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
But in order to be a great fighter and to
put people out, you have to be willing to take
a chance. You have to because if you throw a punch,
you can't block like and throw the punch, so you
subject yourself to something coming back. Is he afraid of
taking chance? Is he afraid of receiving something that's coming
back when he throws? Well, yeah, there's a saying.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
What is it's scared for losing or you know, it's
it's it's it's true. I mean, look fighting, there's a
stigma in boxing like that if you lose your oh.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
It's over, your career is over. No, it's not. It
depends how you fight.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
You can be an undefeated fighter and not be a fighter,
and not be an attraction and not be a guy
who everybody wants to see. It all depends on how
you perform, and you're as good as your last fight.
In boxing, if you have a fight like let's say
Jimi Mungia and Canelo right him and lost. Okay, well
his comeback fighterf he chooses the right opponent and he
(34:59):
looks like a million dollars and he knocks him out. Well,
guess what he's back. He's probably even bigger than when
he fought Canelos. So it's all strategy, it's all how
you perform inside the ring.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
You made a lot of money. So what was some
of the first what like being from East La, you
grew up, how you grew up when you got that
big payday? What was the first thing? Oscar Bob.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Wow Man I was I was nineteen eighteen that came
out of the Olympic Games in nineteen ninety two. I
bought my I bought a home for my parents from
my dad. Yeah, for my dad. I bought a home
for my dad. And then let's see, I wow, Yeah, that.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Was the big thing I bought. Yeah for anything for yourself. No, No,
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
I wasn't really a big spender. I wasn't really. I'm
not into cars.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
You know, it's like I kind of think maybe that's
why I kept all my money.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
But you like to gamble, you here and there, here
and there, you don't gamble as much as No, I
don't know, don't I don't.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
I mean, i'll play within If I don't feel good,
then I'll stop and I won't play.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
And I don't. I'm not. What's your game of choice?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I'll do bock Rode and dice, but I'll play maybe
one series six every year, one's series five.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
I don't. It's not it's not my thing, right. I
read that jay Z bet you one hundred thousand that
Miguel Cody would beat Canelo and sent you the money
immediately after the war.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
So we're promoting Canelo at the time, Golden Boy, and
he's promoting Codo, and so I said, you know what,
why don't we why don't we place a bet here
of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Okay, but it
goes to charity. So Canelo wins, my charity wins the
two fifths, and sure enough he paid it on the spot.
(36:58):
I think the next day was in the bank. So
now look, jay Z loves boxing. Uh he knows it's boxing,
but he's uh, he's a guy who, uh you.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Took advantage, who pays his bets you. It was a
close fight.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Actually a lot of people think Codo beat him, but
I had the insights.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So what made you? What made you get into the
promotion game?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
When I started, I was with Barbara. I was kind
of breaking away from Barbara. Yeah, our contract was expiring.
I I came out guns blazing saying I want to
help out the athletes. I want to be the promoter
who is like looking out for the fighters. Okay, that
was that was my main motive. That was that was
(37:47):
why I started boxing.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
So you got into the fight game and you said,
you know what, I want to help the boxer. I
don't think they're getting a fair shape blah. Blah blah,
and you're like, Okay, I'm gonna start my own thing.
I'm gonna be because you started this. You're still fighting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, I was fighting at the time.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I was active.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I started when I fought Fernando Vargas, okay, and I
remember being in the dressing room and I was beat up.
I knocked him out in the eleventh round, but I
was just beat up, and I said to myself, you
know what, I think, it's it's almost time to retire.
What am I gonna do after boxing? What am I
gonna do?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I can drift off to the sunset and you know,
go by myself a little boat and live on the.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Beach or whatever.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
But I knew that I was not going to be
happy in the long run. So I said to myself,
let me, let me do something within the sport. Because
I love boxing. There's a lot of room for improvement.
A lot of fighters are saying, well, they need help
this and that. So let me start Golden Boy. And
that's where that's where it was born.
Speaker 1 (38:49):
So let me. How do you how do you convince
because okay, you got top rank. I think Floyd has
a company. I don't know if he's still with Alheimen
or anything like that. So I don't know what's going
on with that. Adie Hearn. I think Adie Hearn have
a fight company. Is don King still in the business.
They're four or five big promotion? So how does Oscar
de la Hoya goes insists in someone's home or his
(39:12):
mom's home, his dad home, or have a conversation and
says Golden Boy is the right promoting company for you?
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Well, first of all, yeah, there's there's Bob aram.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Don King. Not really he's yeah there.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I mean both guys are like ninety five years old.
I don't know how Bob is doing it, but he's
I want some of that stuff that he's taking.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I really do, because you see him.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
He's happy promoting at ninety five. So you have about
Eddie Hearn. So literally it's PBC, which is Al Hayman.
So there's like four of us right out there. The
difference with all four okay that nobody can say, Okay,
I was a fighter. I laced up the gloves. I
know what it feels like to take the punch. I
(39:56):
know what it feels like to have to sell a fight,
to go out there and promote I know how it
feels like to being taken advantage of because I'm a fighter,
so I know all that and plus a huge advantages.
I'm the only Hispanic fighter to ever start a national boxing.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Promotional promotional company.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
So if you take a look at all the Hispanic
fighters that you.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Know, you identify with them.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
They look up to you, so it makes it easier
for me to sign them and to guide them.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
You know, I mean not only do you speak their language, literally,
you speak your language. Figure because you are a fighter
and you went through I mean you had to the
great amateur background and so forth and so on. But
when you look at boxing, people don't box. My choice
is necessity, and sometimes I feel it's either to take
advantage of someone that comes from a disinvent to improverished
(40:53):
situation because you throw one hundred thousand, five hundred thousand,
and then you set the guy and then you go
to make money over fist. Did you experience some of
that growing up when you were in the fight game,
when promoters tried to take advantage of Oscar da la Hordes.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
I experienced it right when I got back from the
Olympic Games. I experienced it when somebody promised me a
million dollars. Okay, I'm eighteen years old. Here's a million
dollars to sign with me.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
You know how much I saw? I saw like fifty thousand.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
What about fifty thousand dollars?
Speaker 1 (41:28):
The idea taxes, I don't know. Yeah, it was even
back the tax breaking. I learned the hard way. I did.
I did. I learned that.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
But that was the best. That was a blessing in
disguise because I learned fast. I learned how to take
care of my money. I learned who to look out for. Okay,
why do I need a manager? Why do I need
an advisor? Okay, I need a promoter because the promoter's
going to guide my career and take me to the
next level. I can't do what a promoter is doing
for me. Fighters need a promoter. So I said, okay,
(42:03):
let me. That's that's a percentage off my pie. Okay,
But everything else I can just pay on salary.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
So I'm keeping all of my pie to myself. So
that's yeah, I learned the hard way, you know, fairly quick.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And because you need tax people, because you hear see
a lot of boxers they run into tax problems. And
but let me ask you this. I was reading somewhere.
It's like I think I was reading that the guy
was explaining, like Mike Tyson and Don King, like if
he's you go to your promoter, Bob Mayor at the time,
(42:40):
and you say, Bob, I need twenty tickets. Those are
not gifts. You got to pay for those. That's gonna
cook out your salary, right.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Yeah, oh yeah, And whoever's participating in the fight, it's
coming off their percentage as well.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
So yeah, nothing's free, right, so you get so oh man,
my promoter me this rolls Royce, My promoter me colding this.
And did fighters always know that even though they were
getting these things, that that was actually coming out of
their pocket or they thought they were just being gifted
those things?
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Uh, it's it's it's a couple of things. A lot
of athletes, a lot of fighters, they just they just
turned away. They don't want to hear about it.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
They don't want to.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
They don't want to I guess you know know that
that's real. You know, they just they just want to
shy away from it and let somebody else deal with it.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
You know.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I think that it's the athlete's responsibility. You know, it's
for instance, Mike Tyson and Don King. Well people keep saying,
well Don King ripped off Mike Tyson and this and that.
Well Mike Tyson made about four hundred five hundred million dollars.
That's his money. What he does with that, it's not
Don King's fault, right, So you know, you have to
(43:52):
as an athlete, as a person, you have to you
have to look out for your best interest as well.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
You mentioned earlier when Floyd was he bought out of
his contract with Top Right. You had started your company
and for like what sixteen seventeen fights, you promoted Floyd.
I did promote Floyd.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, and then you know he was the time when
he was making the h I think it was a
showtime contract thirty forty million dollars. Yeah, we promoted all
those fights, right, you know, great experience for us. It was,
you know, it put us on the map obviously, and
you know we're now one of the top promoters in
the world.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
So look, boxing.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
The one thing that I'm not too keen on and
with boxing is that it became a business. It wasn't
a business before. Yes, you're making money. I made a
lot of money.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
But I treated.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
Boxing as as as as you know, trying to be
great as a platform for me to be great. Not
a businessman.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
I'm not a b so, but can I look at
it like this. They saw a lot of other great
fighters in their career, great but broke. Yeah, and so
they say it, of all things being equal, I would
rather be less great and more wealthy as as opposed
to being great and broke.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Can you I have to disagree because I've lived it. Yeah,
I'm in these shoes. And it's again the responsibility of
the fighter, of the athlete, and it's not just boxers.
I mean, look, if I'm making thirty million dollars and
I'm spending like a madman and I'm.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Having all these revenue, I've got to get. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:46):
But if I'm spending like I'm still making that type
of money, Chris, what, I'm going to run out of money,
And that's the individual's fault. Maybe I'm not paying taxes,
maybe I owe people money, Maybe I'm just maybe I
just want to live this lavish lifestyle so I can
get the clicks. It's it's it's the individual's responsibility.
Speaker 1 (46:08):
But you have to understand also Oscar. You're dealing with
guys that have very limited education, they come from very
impoverished backgrounds. They're trying to lift themselves, uplift them family,
their families up and put them in a a in
a social economics that had it not been for boxing,
they probably would have never been there. And so they're
(46:28):
easy to take advantage of. Absolutely, But I get what
you're saying, like, oh, it's still your responsibility. But me,
I couldn't take advantage of somewhat even if I had
the opportunity. And I know they're not man I can.
I'm gonna rob this dude, and he got gonna know anything.
That's just not in me. I'm not so sure a
lot of promoters had that same philosophy, though.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
There's a lot of and like I mentioned, the promoters
I just mentioned have never laced up the gloves, so
they don't understand, they don't live it.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to Club Shay profile and I'll see
you there.
Host
Shannon Sharpe
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