FREDIA GIBBS - Fighting for Every Bite

In this powerful episode of Eating While Broke, host Coline Witt sits down with legendary three-time undefeated world kickboxing champion Fredia Gibbs, also known as "The Cheetah." Fredia shares her extraordinary journey from the projects of Chester, Pennsylvania, to becoming a global champion in kickboxing and beyond.

As they cook a meaningful dish of steak and asparagus—Fredia’s go-to meal during tough times—she opens up about overcoming bullying, battling and defeating a cocaine addiction, and surviving a harrowing encounter with the Grim Sleeper. 

Through laughter, tears, and heartfelt storytelling, Freedia reveals how resilience, determination, and the will to never give up fueled her rise to the top.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very
special guests. Three times undefeated world kickboxing champion Fridia Gibbs
aka the Cheetah is in the building. How are you
so fantastic?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Colle Thank you for having me. How you doing I'm
doing good.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
I'm excited to have you cooked for me.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Am.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I and I have never got I don't think I've
ever been able to interview a obviously, never interviewed an
undefeated three time world champion in any sport, but let
alone kickboxing before. But before we get into all the conversations,
I need to know what are you gonna have me
eating today?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Okay, today we are going to eat some steak in asparic.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Steak and asparagus. Okay, what are all the ingredients to
make this this extra special?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
The ingredients to make this extra special? Obf, she gotta
have a one sauce, you gotta have virgin oil. There
are we gonna include butter, salt, pepper, garlic, salt, and
some my garlic globe.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Okay, got it? And asparagus and stick. Now, if you
guys are EVI a listener to eating while broke. I
don't eat red meat, so out of the spirit of
the show, I will take a bite and I will
judge her very hard. Okay, and I don't even I
don't think. I think the last time I tried a
one or steak sauce was like probably like when I
was like twelve or something. So we're gonna really live

(01:31):
it up today on the show. So go ahead. See,
we don't leave you a lot of cooking room. Hun,
Are you gonna really box it out right now?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm going to like, chap.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
This is a this is like a fake. This is
a stove set.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, you gotta look out marinate that through. You gotta
throw some karate chops at the steak there flipping the
steak here on. During the time that I'm flipping the steak,
I'm thinking about all the times I had to flip
my mindset for from survival to success. That makes sense. Yeah,
had added a little bit of garlic salt on my

(02:03):
survival mode. That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I've never seen someone beat up with steak like this.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
But I had add a little bit of that there.
I had to go into that success mode cooking. Now
what it makes me feel like I feel like I'm
celebrating progress.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Now, okay, okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
We're gonna add some salt and some pepper. We already
add the garlic salt there, right, yeah, add a little
pepper there.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
This is I think he is one of those twisters.
I think you got it right here.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Show me.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Let me try to help you out. Poor steak is
about to get murdered. She's frying up the garlic. She
done beat up the steak for real with her hands,
seasoned it with steak. It was salt pepper. Now you're
going in with the butter.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, going in with the butter, baby girl.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
All right? Now, is this that's just for the steak,
right yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
This is for the steak and asparagus.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
See what a lot of people don't know is you
got to cook the asparagus and the steaker. There got
cooking combined. That's why you cooked the steak first.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
So essentially you're put in the butter, the garlic you
see in the steak, and the asparagus is all going
into one pot exactly.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, because when I was broke, I only had one pot,
you know what I mean, And that's the one pot
that I used, and I learned how to cook multiple
different foods than the one pot. It makes sense.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, yeah, you was always washing dishes.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah, no, I don't like washing dishes. That's why I
always had one pot, one big plate.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
But that's what I'm saying. After every meal you had.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
To wash it.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
I always had a dish washing okay, okay, so you
wash your three three, your three four.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
No, I would wait until they pile up.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Okay, So I'll just keep buying dishes. Oh god, you're hilarious. Okay,
So take me back to what was going on during
the steak and asparagus error. Take you back to one
What was going on during this time.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Back when I was broke. I had to dress up
oodles and noodles, That makes sense. Yeah, And I would
call a t bone steak and asparagus because that's something
that was like my vision. Yeah, during that time when
I was broke, and what I had to do as
just done here. I had to season it with some
hot salt, you know what I mean, seizing my food
with faith because I was only eating noodles and noodles,

(04:07):
how it was broke.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
But were you eating oodles and noodles or were you
eating steak and asparagus.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Back in the day when I was broke, I was
eating oodles and noodles, but my vision was to have
steak and asparagus. I couldn't ford steak at the time.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Okay, so what did you you ate noodle ramen noodles?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah? I would mix it up with the vegetables and
chick a little bit of chicken here and the steak
here and there, and just mix it up and make it.
Look when you go into these ramen stores today, what
do you see they mix it up with everything. Yeah,
they got that from me.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
You're hilarious, you know they got that. Wait, why are
you making steak in this?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
This is what I'm cooking today because this is what
I strive for. This is what's my vision.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Oh you know, so you switched up our whole show today. Yeah,
you're supposed to be cooking me a broken dish.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
I was wondering the whole time.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
I was like, oh damn, she has me.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Take me back to the oodles and noodles day. Yeah,
take me back to what was going on during that era.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Oh what jeez, man.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Take me back time and everything it's okay for putting
steam in.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Go ahead, okay. Well, during the oodles and noodles era,
that was doing my fighting, Ara, I didn't really have
a job. I had to fight for food, meaning that
during the time I was competing, but I wasn't getting
paid at the time because I was just an amateur.
I was working side gigs. I had to fight. Like
I said, I had to fight for food. I had
to figure out how I was going to keep the

(05:28):
roof over my head during my oodls and noodles days
and back in those days keeping my oodles and noodles.
They coming back to twelve.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
But before you started fighting for it, where did the
oodles and noodles start? Take me back to like, prior
to you even starting to fantasize about kick boxing, Take
me back to your childhood life.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Childhood life, Oh jeez. I'm obviously from Chester, Pennsylvania, south
side of Philadelphia, from the projects there a fairground project
during those days. We grew up very poor, but we
didn't know we were poor. That makes sense, Yeah, and
that's when moms was back on welfare during those days,
back that time. Sosehold, I've always come from a two
parent household. I've had my grandfather, my grandmother, and my

(06:07):
great grandfather and grandmother. So I've always come from a
two parent house. How many kids, it's three. I'm the
oldest of three.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Okay, did anyone else get into kickboxinger.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
No, my brother got into fighting. My sister she'd got
into boys. But you know how that works, right, Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
But yeah, okay, so you come from this two parent household,
it's me closer to where you start to get the
idea that you want to get into a very kickboxing. Yes,
I used to get Yeah, I was gonna say, I
want to say an untraditional sport. But okay, you were
getting bullied a lot.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, I used to get bullied a lot. It was
pretty smart in school. In elementary school, and the girls
in the classroom, they would make me do their homework.
At first, I started out helping them. You start off
helping somebody. Then I started helping them do their homework
because I was always excelling in class. And then it
got to the point where I would do them a
favor and do their homework one time. And then it
got to the point where they were forcing me, making

(07:00):
me do their homework. You dig and it got to
the point where I was tired of doing their homework.
And when I decided that I was tired of doing
their homework and I felt they should do their own homework,
that's when they decided to beat me up and toss
me in the bat in the trash can in the
girl's room.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Oh no, we were you.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
I believe I was bullied.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, I could believe it. There's a lot of people
that are successful today that I had to hold that
were you smaller inside and stature at the time.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
I was a little medium height, little muskar as. I
was athletically built because I was built like a track
runner and the medium height, and I wore glasses all
the time, just like I do today. It was like
a little nerd.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
So these girls started bullying you. Did you go home
to the parents and say, hey.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Guys, nom my mom. No one knew for almost a
whole year. You dig And then, like I said, I
decided I'm not doing your homework. So they said, we're
going to kick your behind when you get off the
bus going home from school. So I was I was terrified.
So when we got on the school bus, right Coley,
I said to the bus driver, listen, can you let

(08:00):
me off at the stop ahead? Because they said they
gonna beat me up, And the bus driver said no.
I was like, what I said, put that whole school
gonna beat me up. She said, listen, this is what
you do. I said, well, she said that everybody, when
I let you off at your stop at the fairground,
I want you to let everybody get off the bus,

(08:21):
and you'd be the last one to get off. I said, okay,
and I'm thinking about that. I said, okay, so everybody
got off the bus. Just listen to this. Everybody got
off the bus, all the.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Kids even get you a headstart.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
So now I go, yeah, exactly. So she said, now
I want you to walk to the back of the bus,
and I unlocked the emergency door. So I went ahead
and walked to the back of the bus. And when
I walked back in the bath. When I walked to
the back of the bus, everybody outside, all the kids outside,
walked to the back of the bus. Unlocked the door.

(08:54):
Boom boom. She said, now walk back to the front
of the bus. So I walked back to the front
of the bus. Everybody outside walked back to the front
of the bus. She said now when I counted three,
I want you to run bus out that door and
run as fast as you can. That's the bus driver said.
I said, okay, she said one. Now I'm stand at

(09:16):
the front of the bus with the bus driving. All
the kids at the front too. Outside she said two,
she said three, took off. I took off. Run who
bust off the back of the yellow fool bust or boom,
And I had hand started on whamp. I'm a hardtown.
I was running and I got to my mom's crib
and I busted U turn and I busted my mom's door,
shut the door real fast. And my mom she's playing

(09:38):
solitary at the time, so all the cards flew off
to the table. She's like, girl, what the hell wrong
with you busting this door like a black super woman?
What you gonna do? Lost your mind? But I shut
the door. Boom. She knew something was wrong. I had
the door shut, and I was cool because I was safe.
I went on in the house, my my own business.
My mom heard all the kids outside making all this

(09:58):
your noise. So she went to take a look out
the window, and she saw all the kids outside. She's
what the hell is going on with this here. Then
I had to confess because I couldn't run all my life.
So she went outside. She said, what the hell is
going on out here? They were like, we gonna kick
Fredy's butt, and my mother was like why and cousin,
she didn't do our homework. And then my mom was like, Sissy,

(10:19):
get y'all.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
You can do it.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Okay. My mother said, Sissy, get your motherfucking ass out
here right now. She hand me the broom. Yeah, call me,
she said to the she said, now, which one of
y'all want to fight her? And all three of the
girls raised their hand. My mom said she ain't fighting
all three of y'all. She said, now, which one is
the baddest one? Then this girl gilded raised the girl

(10:48):
raised her hand. I'm gonna let that cook. A little
bit girl raised her hand and it was the biggest one.
My mom said, what's your mama's name? She said Fanny Lou.
My mom said figure. My mom said, after this is over,
you go down there and tell Fanny Lou you ever
put your hands on my daughter gain, I'm gonna come
down there and beat Fatty Lou's ass. She said, you
let Fatty Lou know that. She said. Now, since this

(11:09):
is who you're gonna fight, she said, Now, I'm gonna
tell you this here. I want you to beat her ass.
You hear me, And if you don't beat her ass,
you're gonna get two ass whoopings. All right, Now here's
the bru beat her ass. That's exactly what my mama said.
You know what, shall we come to? Go ahead?

Speaker 1 (11:25):
I promise you shout all the black mothers to speak
like this. Yeah, that's how we grew up. If you
don't whoop they asked, you don't come home, and you're
gonna get a second ass with us, so they gotta
look worse than you. Otherwise you gotta come home in trouble.
But shout outs to the parents that did that, because
you know what, shout out to your mom. Undefeated world champion.
All started with this fighter, get it.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
Really, but you got two women my mind. I lost,
but I didn't hear a whooping. So after it was
all over with, the fight was over with, I came
back in glasses off, one shirt off, pull over. The
broom was half of a broom?

Speaker 1 (12:01):
What was he gonna do with the broom?

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Hit her with the Oh I did hit her with
the broom. She was bigger than me. So that's why
my mom gave me the broom.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Yeah, that's right. Your mom asked for the bigger and
the baddest one. Exactly, thanks mom.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
So we fought. Every time I run back to my mom,
she talks me back out there. She said, can we
go in that. I run back to buck, he talks
me back out there. I had no other choice. I
had to fight.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
So we fought between the mom and the bus driver.
I don't know, I know.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
The women back then.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
It was amazing. But just to backtrack to the bus driver,
she could have let you off. None of this would
have happened. If she would have just let.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
You off, I could have caught my grandparents run back
in exactly.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
I would have hated that bus driver. On that's you're
not burning this steak.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
No, because steak has to cook all the way through,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Mary's donner.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, I'm a well donner. Okay, you a well donner.
That's because that the garlic is very important. It's also
it's healthy for our inside, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah,
for a body. As an athlete, we eat guard clothes
all the time. Before running. Oh yeah, right, yeah right,
like gum yeah raw.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Did you see that movie Centers when they had to
eat the garlic?

Speaker 2 (13:10):
I've not seen that. You got to see that movie.
I gotta check it out there, gotta.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
Shout alright, go back to your story.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
You don't win the fight, okay in my mind. But
I went back in the crib there and I sat
on the bed expecting to get my butt with and
my mom came back in there, and my mom said,
that's this is what's gonna happen. You should have told
me that this was happening. I didn't know. She said,
this is what you're gonna have to learn. Put your
head up, she said, put your head up and put
your shoulders back. You got to understand it. In this world,
there are wolves and you're going to have to learn

(13:38):
how to fight, and there's gonna be people out there.
You're going to have to learn how to fight. Now.
You got it in your sissy, but somebody's gonna have
to wake it up because you got that fight in you.
That makes sense. Yeah, But I was like fine, I said,
but I don't want to go.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
I don't want to go because.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
That's my family called me call me sister because I'm
the oldest one. And I was like, I don't want
to go back to that school. So my mother called
my grand I said, I want to go to Chichester.
That's the predominant white school, because I was going to
Chester to predominantly black schieh. I want to go to Chichester.
So my grandmother, my mother called my grandmother, my father's
mother and you know, my father's people that I lived

(14:14):
a double life, project middle class. I lived a double life,
so my father's people. My uncle, my father's brother, is
a marshal art master, so he came my grandmother told
him what was going on, and I told my grandma, look, Grandma,
I don't want to go to that school. In fact,
I just don't want to go to school at all.
I want to learn it home. And then when they
forced me to go to another school, I was I

(14:34):
still met another bully, you know, and transferred to another
school and met another bully. I was sitting in art
class with my knees up doing art. Girl came over
and just kicked me, writing the ass braym. I just
turned around like.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
A white girl a black girl.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I was like, they're everywhere so at this time, I
didn't want to go to school all. Then I was
told my grandma said, look, I was at my grandmother's
house on the weekend and and I said, look, Grandma,
I'm not going back to school, and they were gonna
they're gonna force me to go back to scoul I said, listen,
if you're going to force me to go back to school,
then I'm gonna take myself out. Why should I allow
them to kill me? Yeah? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (15:12):
How old are you?

Speaker 2 (15:13):
I was like twelve eighteen? I said, why should I
continue to allow them to hurt me?

Speaker 1 (15:18):
But now backtack, you said that you had an uncle,
or get.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
To my uncle. So when I told my grandmother that part,
then my grandmother went ahead and got my father's brother,
my uncle Bill, who is the martial art instructor. So
he said, I saw I heard. He said, So I
heard you having issues in school. I'll never forget him
putting his hand on my shoulder. I'm just I'll never
forget that as long as I live. He said, So
I heard you having an issue in school. You're being bullied?
Said yeah, he said, so I heard you don't want

(15:43):
to go to school. Anymore. I said yeah. He said, listen,
free diya. You cannot run all of your life. Adversity
is going to follow you wherever you go. You got
to learn how to stand firm. This is what I
want to do. I said, what now? He got a
hang had on my shoulder. He said, I want to

(16:04):
teach you karate. I said, no, man, no, I don't
want to fight. Man, I don't want to fight. He said,
This is not about fighting. This is about us rebuilding
your self confidence. This is about us rebuilding your self esteem. Now, maiie,
I'm like twelve thirteen, man, I'm like, what self confidence?
He says. Self confidence is about having no doubt and

(16:28):
your God given ability. That's what self confidence is. I said, oh, okay,
having no doubt in my talent? Okay, what self esteem?
What's that? Because I didn't know, So he pulls out
the dictionary. He says, and self esteem is about whatever
I forget. He says, yeah, okay, great. I said, okay,

(16:51):
So it's not about fighting, he said, exactly, We're gonna
rebuild that. I said, okay, find I can do that.
I can do that. And at the time, that's when
Bruce Lee came along.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
You know what to say. The karate kid wasn't out ye, Bruce.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
Lee was the man at the time that's cooking allway through.
Let the cooking.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
But yeah, I would be I would understand it where
your stances like, Man, I'm not trying to be a fighter.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
I'm trying to be that. So I never forget going
to karate school for the first time. He gave me
my gear, he gave me my white gi and my
white belt, and it's cool. It's like a major transformation.
And I'll never forget being attending class for the first time.
And before I walked in the door, he said, anything negative,
any negative thoughts that you have in your mind, any
negative energies, I want you to keep it out this
door right now. Don't bring it in here.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Oh I didn't know that's what like karate and all that.
I never knew that's what it was about. To be honest.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, it's very spiritual. And I thought, Wow, leave it
all out there, all attitude egos, leave it out there, okay,
And I got that message. So when I walked in,
it was all black men, businessmen, judges, engineers, lawyers, and entrepreneurs.
These all black businessman and one white guy. And this

(18:01):
white guy was nerdy, but he would keep going.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
So they weren't even you were joining a class full
of kids.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
No, I was with men. I was with all men.
Oh yeah, all men, all masters and on the wall
and masters, you're all masters and on the wall calling.
What was cool is there's this big question that says,
why are you here? Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, and
we're all lined up. Now. I'm the little white the
white girl, so I'm at the end there. But I'm
the only female amongst them. So it's like I had

(18:29):
to grow real fast. Yeah. I learned a lot from
these masters. I had no idea what they were pouring
into me. That's how I became champion.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
But when you first walk into that room as a
young girl, are you as a part of your mindset
semi eye rolling, really serious.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
No, I wasn't that type. I was that type to
have ego. I wasn't type too talk back. I wasn't
that type at all.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
But you knew you were walking into this self confidence, selfness.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
I had no idea. I had no idea what I
was walking into. But I knew what I was walking into.
Seeing the judge that I knew who was very respectable
in my community. The lawyers that I knew who were
very respectable, the businessmen who were very respectful, upholding individuals
in our community. I knew that I was.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
You knew who these people were.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yeah, they were very well respected. So I thought, wow,
how special. This must be special for me. But wow wow,
And that's when they started teaching me how to throw
punches correctly, because back in the day, we just grabbed
your hair. Yeah. But then they started showing me how
to throw punches correctly, you know what I mean. Starts
showing me how to move. That makes sense. Then they

(19:34):
start showing me how to use my knees and showing
me how to use my elbows, showing me how to
go for the groin. Because they were men, and whenever
they compete against each other, whenever one man was balpidating
the other throwing martial arts, they go for the growing.
That makes sense. So that's what they taught me. So
I'm a master going for the groy because that's all
I went with one up against those guys at the time.
The way you so I was little at the time,

(19:56):
but each kick you think Bruce Lee threw over ten
thousand kicks I threw over to one. Wow, you understand
me over twenty thousand. I had no idea. And what
was crazy is as these masters, I'm the youngest one here,
but as these masters, we're all throwing technique or kind
of techniques or whatever. I'm feeling all the energy and
power come down to me. That makes sense. I felt it.

(20:17):
It was like permeating me. It was transformed me. I
realized that, Wow, so this is confidence. That makes sense.
I was feeling the confidence from the top master all
the way down to the master who was adjacent to me.
That makes it. Now I'm just as little white belt,
but I don't know exactly what's going on, but I
know I feel something. And what I know feel I
know is now, Yeah, you know what I mean. I

(20:39):
knew it was transforming me. That makes sense. Yeah, I
knew that. When I saw those bullies again, I beat
the ass so fast that things know why killed me, Cheetah,
That makes sense.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
I'm just curious, did you ever go backing with some
of these bullies?

Speaker 2 (20:53):
But actually, what was crazy is I did go back, yes.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
And Mexic School.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
No, No, I went back to visit. No, I didn't
go back to the school and when I ran. Once
I left, it's just like in a relationship.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Officially, Yeah you left school.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
No, I didn't leave school, but I left that school.
It's like a relation. Once I leave, it's a rat
you did. I ain't going back, That's the way I am.
But I did see them as I got older. Yeah,
and I'll never forget Guilded. Guilda was made with guild
and Loretta.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
The bullies.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
The bullies. Yeah, first of all, they were all wait,
all of them were fatten out of shape. Even to
this day, they're all like wells.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I hope they see this, by.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
The way, all four of them.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Oh well bully Oh damn little plumpers. Huh, Oh my god.
They what I.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Forgot, the people over here in this here. But yeah,
they're all like wells. But I'll never forget seeing Guilder.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
No, we could dissed the bullies.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Okay, get that, Yeah we can't. And Guilda and the
girl who kicked me in my butt, Lisa right out now.
I saw her about three years ago. Lisa started that,
the one who kicked me in my button. And I
was at quiet store and the school there, and my
uncle introduced to for a long time, and she was
starting some she was talking like she wanted to start something.
I was like, Lisa, cut that, undefeated, Lisa little This

(22:10):
is my exactly is Lisa little girl. I will beat
your ass so fucking fast. You'll know why they call
me cheetah. Now I'm not the same person you kicked
any ass that she tried. And I sat in front
of everybody and I said, you want something, you could
have something, knut. No, she didn't want them. You want
something you can have because we were already in the dojo,

(22:32):
So you want something, you could have something, you know
what I mean? And I supplied this is four years ago.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
That's crazy, crazy, bully, bully what I'm saying, huh I
after knowing you are undefeated, that's done three times over.

Speaker 2 (22:48):
It doesn't even make sense and exactly, and Gildas popped
the one time in the mouth I wanted to were
First of all, our hands are My hands are registered.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Like some kind of life.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
My hands are register and when I use my weapons,
I have to use it if it's a matter of
life and death. That makes sense. Yeah, so I have
to really be threatened, and she wasn't no real threatening
I learned early how to walk away. That makes sense,
That makes sense. Yeah, yeah, what you're thinking, she's a moron.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
I'm lucky. She's lucky. She's lucky in your hands on
registered she's lucky. And I'm sure you've acquired so much,
you've mastered like internal discipline right in this sport.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, I will despite the fact that I can fight,
I'll walk away.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Are you slow to anger?

Speaker 2 (23:33):
I've always been slow to anger as a very kid,
young kid. My mom's getting mad at me. I'm glad
you said that, my mom, Sissy, you're supposed to be
angry about this. No, I don't like the way anger feels,
you know what I mean? Yeah, I didn't like the
way the energy was the fire.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
So like your siblings could annoy you to death and
you would be like whatever, Really, how much older are
you than them?

Speaker 2 (23:55):
Two years one?

Speaker 1 (23:56):
That's pretty good, sixty eight that's pretty good, two years apoon.
I feel like after this episode a lot of people
are gonna be saying sissy, huh.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
Yeah, yeah, yess. My parents, my mom and I used
to call me sissy. My mom called me sissy, and
my dad used to call me chips, Friedo corn chips. Crazy, Huh,
I like that?

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Yes, okay, so you go through this training and now
you're walking around with confidence. You go through this, I
guess predominantly white school. Is people peeping your energy change?

Speaker 2 (24:23):
No, I went to What happened. I received a scholarship.
I went on and excelled in basketball and excelled in track.
We became state champions in track, and I received a
double scholarship Division one scholarship the Temple University. Okay, yes,
when I went to Temple, I was only there a year.
I flunked out. I know. I met this guy. First
time I'm ever away from my family. I met this

(24:45):
guy named Jamain. He was super cool. Fell in love
with him. He was staying with me. He drank a lot.
Doing all the basketball games. This is this is some
real stuff. Doing all the basketball games at wind Lose
a draw. All the superstars, the athletes would go into
this locker. It was private room and there was cocaine. Beauties. Yeah, beauties,

(25:07):
black beauties is speed, oh speed speed alcohol. All the
male basketball stars and not just basketball. All the male
stars pitt Wether was basketball, football, track. We all went
into the females too. We all went to this room,
and we used to all just celebrate and have a
good time. The only thing I remember is taking a
drink and waking up but damn naked, grabbing my dad,
trying to find my clothing and get running down the hallway,

(25:29):
like what the heck gonna happen? And it just happened
multiple times, like we entering and guys on guys, girls
on girls, everybody on everybody. That's just the way it
was the university. That's the way it was in the university.
The athletes, that's what I saw. That's how it started off.
Now whatever happened between I don't remember because I got
blacked out, that makes sense, And to this day, I

(25:50):
still don't remember what the heck happened.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's really dangerous, Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yeah, and then that's how I got kicked out of school, Yeah,
because I was As a newspaper said, too much too soon,
you did free day Gibs lose her scholarship, too much
too soon. It was. I never did hot drugs when
I was in high school. I never even touched a joint.
I didn't even drink. But when I went to Temple,
I became a cocaine addict. I became a blueberry blue

(26:18):
black beauty addict. You did, I became an attic.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Wow, So then how do you after you first of
all going back on to your parent, your mama and
telling her that, now did she take the news?

Speaker 2 (26:28):
What happened was my college coach said, look here, we
need to have a meeting. So they called me there.
I was in the office. I'll never forget it as
long as I lived. And she said that your grade
point after zero point zero. She said, when we found you,
discovered you free d you were here, you are now here.

(26:52):
Why do you choose to go back here when you
can go here? I'll never forget her saying this. She said, well,
we gotta let you go. You're suspended. We got to
kick you out the university. But I didn't care because
I was strung out.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
That makes sense, did they and they didn't know you
were strung out?

Speaker 2 (27:09):
No, they didn't because I could play basketball real well,
I was. She still kicking button, doing my job, just
doing my job. That makes sense. And I'll never and
then again maybe they did, because this is what happened.
I gotta let this cook through. This is what happened.
So I went to the bank I'll never forget to
get money to leave, and I'll never forget hearing this tailor.

(27:29):
And now I was in line, I'm hearing this tailler. Yeah,
oh my god, No, Fredia Gibbs didn't. I was like,
that's me. Then I heard her say to the other lady,
did you hear what Fredia Gibbs did to us? And
I thought, what did I do to them? I don't
even know these people. And then as I got closer,

(27:50):
they were talking she loves too much to school soon,
Fridia Gibbs loses her scholarship too much, too soon. Temple
didn't allow me to even get cash my check and
get home. And it was all on the newspapers and
everything that makes sense. Yes, I go to the bank,
I go through the train station near Philly to go
back to Chester, and newspaper all over the place. I'm like,
holy count, I'm hearing everybody talking all of a sudden,

(28:12):
you know, me already being strung out, and I'm hearing
all these voices. I'm thinking, hearing this woman, we're talking
about what did I do doing? There's too much too soon?
What does she do to here? And I'm thinking, what
do you mean? What did I do to you? I
didn't understand, but I knew something was going on, you
know what I mean. It's like it was war, all
these voices war. So I get off the train in
Chester the projects. First thing one of the Whinos says

(28:32):
to me is, Fredia, what are you doing back here?
And I was like wow, But I wasn't the same
Freda I was when I left and the projects in
Philly Chester they protected the superstars. That makes sense because
we were They were proud of us. We had a pass.
That makes sense to enter all the projects. That makes sense. Yeah,
today they killed the superstars. Did you know that?

Speaker 1 (28:54):
If you go back there now.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
They killed superstars, all the superstars back in my projects
that I grew up, that I grew up, they killed
them because they're jealous of them. And I'm like, wow,
they're killing them now.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Stars And you're more known at this point for basketball
and track, basketball, track and kickboxing, oh and kick Okay,
so you come.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Back So I'm back there. Yeah. So I'm back there
just letting that do his magic. Yes. And then I
go back there and I talked to my mom. I
let my mom know what's going on telegony. Yeah, I'm comfortable.
I got kicked out and she said, what happened? I said,
I got strung out? She said, what happened? I said,
I met this guy named Jamaine, and I got strung

(29:36):
out on cocaine, the same thing I told you I got.
I was a rookie and I was with all the superstars,
the seniors, you know what I mean. And they introduced
me to something and I tried it, and ever after
every game we went there and Jamaine he got me
hooked on a beer and liquor and things like that,
and he was staying with me. So that's what happened,
you know, Okay. And then my brother, he was a

(29:56):
big time drug deal at the time. My brother's name
is Brogie Lucas and and he was a big time
drug deal at the time in Philly. And I'll never
forget me wanting And that's what I'm so anyway, I go.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
You said earlier that your mom had said that he
had turned you out.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah, Jermaine to turned me out. Okay. What happened was
what I learned, and this went on moving forward. What
I learned moving forward. After I left Temple and told
my mom, I went to my father's people, and I
let them know, and I stayed with my father's people
after I left my mom. Now many I was strong,
I said, with my at my mom's I still had

(30:31):
access to cocaine, you understand, but I didn't want to
deal with it from the streets because my brother was
a big time drug dealer and with the black folks.
I didn't want to do it get it from those guys.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Why Why is that?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Because I didn't trust my brother mixing it. He was
mixing crack with cocaine at you know, I didn't want
to take the chance. So I decided to stop. I
wanted to stop cocaine and everything all together. I wanted
to go back to the clean freedia that I was
before I left.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
And what was driving this want or this desire?

Speaker 2 (30:59):
Because because I knew that wasn't me. Okay, that makes sense.
It wasn't me.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
And what was just going back to your mom's response,
what was her response to hearing this news.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
She was very surprised. Okay, yeah, she was very surprised.
That's why she said, I got turned out. Ok Yeah,
she said, I told you, sissy, there are wolves out there. Yes,
she did remember that when I was younger, when I
was young, she said, I told you there are wolves
out there. Wow. Yeah, and you got caught by a
wolf because you was sheep, you understand. So I went

(31:29):
to my grandma's house because I knew I didn't have
access to everything. And at my grandma's house for three days,
I didn't sleep because mine I got all this stuff
in my bain. I didn't sleep, like three four and eight,
like we And all of a sudden, I'm trying to
clean myself. I'm not I'm trying to keep it hidden
from my grandparents.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
And but oh they don't know, but they know you're there.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, exactly. So all of a sudden, it was like
late at one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning, I
started trembling that stuff and shaking and et cetera. And
my grandmother came out, said, Grandma, they knew I was
strong at that time. Yeah, And they called the ambulance.
When they called the ambulance took they took me to
the hospital. And I'll never forget this as long as
I lived. Clean here, I am lying on a bit.
I see my mom, I see my grant, my mother's mother,

(32:08):
and I see my father's mother, and I see my
family there like sticking me up with Ivy and the
other and they're looking at me like, not in disappointment,
but what happened to you? You know what I mean?
And I'll never forget looking up at them a tear drop.
That's when it was like reality hit me. So what happened.
That's why my heart is not as strong as it
is today because me at the time, being strung out

(32:30):
on cocaine, I didn't know. So at that time, what
happened was my family suggested I go to Philly, put
my aunt Bunnie on my father's side because she was
like a powerhouse. Oh yeah, she was like a little powerhouse.
Get me out of Philadelphia because it was nothing there
but cracking cocaine going on. That was it. That was
doing a cracking cocaine era.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
So I went ahead to Philly and Bunnie. Things didn't
work out well with her because she left me in
abandoned home for two weeks. Yeah, she left me with
peanut butter, jelly and water. Now she was determined to
make sure that I got clean out. It makes sense.
She's determined to help me. Now she's a powerhouse, you know,
what I mean.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
She did that to help you, to help me out.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
And I'll never forget this as long as I live.
So here, I am two weeks in in her building
with these hermit monster doors, and all I got is
peanut butter, jelly and water. Now, I didn't know that
I was gonna I thought I was gonna be there
for the weekend. I had no idea, okay, that she
was gonna have me locked in there for two weeks.
In fact, it probably would have been a month. But

(33:28):
I broke out because I could. I realized I couldn't
even get out. I could get she locked me in.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
That ain't funny, I'm sorry, but no, but her mission
was too exactly that was.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Her mission anyway. I will never forget this as long
as I live here. I am lying down on the
couch you back in day, you know when we had
those handsets and that cassette where you put the cassette in. Yeah,
you know what I'm saying. I was listening to Luther
Vandros at the time, lying down, you know what I mean,
pod alright, Then I dozed off and suddenly I don't

(34:02):
know how long I was asleep, but I woke up
and I saw that I was very close to the ceiling,
and I'm thinking, why am I so close to the ceiling?
And I've put my fingers thrill and it's going through
the wall. So I scanned around, like what the world?
And the soft voice said, looked down. So I looked down.

(34:26):
I saw my body there. What the hat sets my
whole frame there? I was like, and I slammed back
into my body cramp. I jumped a wallful. WHOA Ain't
nobody gonna believe this was I hallucinating? What was going on?
At that time? It was time to escape. It was

(34:47):
time to escape. It really was now Manie, like I said,
she had this big hermit monster door, like this mansion door.
That mom was gigan. It was big and the shatn
feet tall. He was determined and he got these walls
on the side right here. So what I had to do.
I had to even put one foot on this wall,
one foot on this wall, climb up there. And there
was this window up top. That was the only way

(35:08):
I could get out. I had to bust the window.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
That room was small, No, the hallway.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
The house it was a big it was a motel,
but it was up top and by this window up top,
so I had to climb up and I was weak,
So I knew that I had to make be successful
this first climb because I was physically weak. Got it,
you did? So I'm climbed up. Wa. I cramb onto
the window real fast, and I and I cleared all
the glass from there, et cetera. And I looked down.

(35:34):
I was like, whoa shit, Oh that was a long fall.
I was like, damn, it's gonna be a long ass wall,
I said, but I gotta do it. And I couldn't
turn my body around to let my legs go first.
My body would only go head first. So I counted one, two, three,
and I was ready for the fall. And as I
went through it, I was falling. It was just as
long as fall. Then I hit the ground boom. I'll

(35:56):
never forget it. I don't know. I must have passed
out because three four hours had passed by, but I
was on the other side and did.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
The dag You free?

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:06):
What friend Lance?

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah? Once I got through, came woke up a few
hours later, I unlocked the door and.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
I crawled out back on cameras.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
I crawled out and I was free, just like I said,
I found a phone. I called my mom collect I
was crying. I told her what my aunt Bunny did
locked me in his place for two weeks. If I
still be locked up, keep you safe. My mom called
my brother, get me now, min My brothers one of

(36:35):
the biggest drug dealers in Philly. You did he come
picked me up in the Camaro convertible, et cetera. Were
rolling on back from Philly going to the Projects. He's
look and the cop All of a sudden, the cops stoppers.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
I'm like, what is people?

Speaker 2 (36:49):
What is God? I said, you know what, you only
stopped us because we blacked. It's a nice car, I said,
because we was up here in mind the own business.
Wasn't nobody doing nothing?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
But was there anything in the car?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Okay, let me tell you the car. So I just
after the officer he said go, He let us go.
So we're going down. My brother like that. That's a
bigger stop. He stopped at the Projects. He pops the trunk.
Guess what he takes out bigs Adidas bag of crack
and the biggest Deidas bag of cocaine.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
I was like, that's exactly what I thought.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Holy gosh, Jesus was on your side.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
So that that was the story. So anyway, he goes,
drops it off. I'm there wait for him come back.
All of a sudden, I see him running out. He
jumps in the car, doesn't even open the door, and
he tells me put my head down, put my hand.
He says, put your head down, and puts my head down.
Way did dash for? You know what I'm saying. All
of a sudden he he gears in reverse, God runs out.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
I was like, what, dude, you should have stayed in
the house, Like whoa.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
He gears up, peeling, peels up, takes me back to
the project. I tell my mom would have nothing like
this fool's creak. We just got shot at. We just
got shot at. Now I don't went the waters one man,
crazy and money. Yeah you understanding. I'm like a skeleton
this year.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
The backtrack. It's not funny. But you we appreciate your
aunt bunny though, right, appreciate it because you gotta think
these pivotal moments are will bring us to undefeated world champions.
So super grateful for the little evil bullies, but more
grateful for the aunt bunnies. That was like We're gonna
make sure you come out good. Obviously came out strong

(38:24):
because he took a leap of faith jumping off. Go ahead,
let's start this dish. Let's try it. Yeah all right,
so what are we doing?

Speaker 2 (38:32):
We just garlic steak?

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Garlic steak? All right, I'm gonna try the try a
couple of asparagus is and I don't really hear. Let
me try to get one of your knives. I'm gonna
take this steak is so good, I may have to
risk my entire internal.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
So that's how that story ended.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
But that's how. And by the way, your brother he
knew that. Okay, my brother was your brother knew that
you battled this addiction?

Speaker 2 (39:04):
Did he he didn't know?

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Everyone kept it from him. Did your mom know that
he was doing?

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Oh yeah, everybody doing. He was. Everybody knew who he was.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Let's try this as well done. So you're not even
using a one sauce.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Oh it's so good, it's good.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, shout, I'll try it. So after all of this,
how do you end up getting back on track too?

Speaker 2 (39:29):
That's what I'm telling So I go back to my
my father's people mine. There was a coach, very good
college coach. Good, thank you. This college coach, in fact,
coach has heard that I lost my scholarship because the
newspapers during the time that I was in New York,
they were reaching out to my grandmother. They wouldn't reach
out to my mom because they wouldn't make it into

(39:51):
the projects. They wouldn't make it out the projects. You
had to send somebody black into projects. Okay, you hear me,
Just keeping the one hundred, I'll be big. He reached
out to my grandparents.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
There's a great stake, by the way, and I'm never forget.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
During the time that I was at my grandmother's house,
I was getting myself together, and I'll never forget she's
this real nonsense a lot about it. Oh, by the way,
now that you're together, so they knew what they were doing.
Send her, asked back, and Bunny, she'll take care of her,
she'll clean her out. Now that you're back together, I
wanted to let you know that this basketball college coach

(40:27):
has stopped by here, has been calling here checking up
on you. That's how I was too. I was like, what,
because Maya, I was never gonna play basketball again.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
He did, and I said, I loved that there was
so much loving faith in you, like from everybody. But
gone continue.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Sorry, I said, what's his name? She said, Mike Tanagli.
In fact, here's his number. He's been calling here checking
up on you, so I reach out to him. He
takes me to care any college. It's all white school,
probably like three blacks. It's on the main line, so
it's adjacent de Villanova, so it's an upscale school. Me

(41:08):
coming from the project, I never seen BMW's and Mercedes
and Lamborghinis and all that stuff. I never saw that
in real life on your TV. When I went to
that college. That's what I was seeing on the regular,
on the regular, every joy and wasn't nothing but money. Wow.
And he said, look, we know that you're a Division

(41:30):
one athlete, ain't no doubt about. We also know that
there's no way that we would ever get someone of
your talent and your calenber here at this university. But
we also know that you've had problems, you lost or
the Division one scholarship. Now this is the deal, free
to you. Here, I am amongst all these white men
businessmen university. You give us your talents and we'll make

(41:53):
sure that you get a good education.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Okay, that was fair, right, Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
We want you to build and turned on women's basketball
program around and our athlete programming around. Okay, I said deal,
and that's what I did, turning around, turned the whole
program around. They went from being Division one nai A
to the NCAA because of me, because I was already
in the NCAA Division one, so they already had my

(42:20):
names in NCAAA. They already had my name in the system,
scores and things like that. Then when I went to
the Division three school, they have me my freedom Gives
name still there, but I'm in n AA ai A,
but I'm originally from NCAA. So what they did with
the university that I went to, they went ahead and
switched them to NCAA because of me, because my name
kept popping up at NCAA. All the people at the top,

(42:43):
they already knew who I was. That mentioned.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
Yeah, So turned the whole program around, went and joined
went to the Olympics to try off because the European
What happened is the European basketball coach they come over here.

Speaker 2 (42:56):
To recruit Americans to go play basketball. And we went
to Colorada Springs to train for the European Basketball. Now
this is some crazy shit. I didn't know this even exists.
Check this here out. So we would Colorado Springs for
the Liperd trains and training for the basketball to join
the European Women's Basketball League, and we had to wear
panty holes. I told the coach. I was like, nah, Bri,

(43:17):
I ain't wearing no pantyhose. I said, One, I ain't
wearing no pantyhose because they itch. But two, I'm not
wearing no pantyhose because I never wore panty hose when
I was playing basketball.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
But also it is in that harder to play basketball
and pantyholes.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
I was not going to do it. So this is
what happened. So all the girls had on their panty
hose playing basketball, and I had on my shorts. Starting
from here, I was at the end of the girls
checking prove Proofal you're on this team. You on this team.
Then the coach says to me, all the European coach,
what are you gonna do for you? I said? I said, sir,
I didn't come here to make you dick hard. I
came here to play basketball.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
They want shorts over the pantyhose.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
No it was just pantyholes.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Oh yeah, absolutely, this is what I.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Said, sir. I didn't come here to make your your
dick card. I came here to play basketball.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
I nodded their heads right and on their feet. I
was going for a layup and one girl on this side,
one girl on this side hit me both side, bam bam.
I caught the girl on the left. But to this day,
that girl on the right, if ever I see her,
I'm gonna get her.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
No, you got registered hands.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
Oh no, she got me this one. She oh she
is old. This one she got me on the right.
And anyway, yeah, it got me real good.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
They jumped whaying yeah while I was playing.

Speaker 2 (44:34):
And then they went ahead and put me on the
European team. They put me on the European team on
this the losing this team. That record was zero and thirty,
the worst team ever in Germany. They were zero wins
and thirty losses. But when I left, guess what they
were champions.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Wow, they were chams.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
I took it to a whole nother level. I opened
them up.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
Now.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
It was coming from where you came from, going to
being able to travel our season. Can we just walk
through that little that experience. Just for a brief second,
I know we're going to go.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
It was tough. It was tough because during the time
I came from a nice penhouse. But I mean I
had a bad car and I had an excellent career.
You feel being a superstar at Cabrini. Oh, they came
and got me and recruited me for I had. It
was excellent. Had I gone over there first and checked
it out, I would not have stayed. But because I
gave everything away, my home and I was on the

(45:29):
twelfth floor, bad car and excellent career, and then I
went over there without visiting, I stayed. It was I
got paid two thousand a week. Wow, that was good money.
But the homes were European. It was something that I
wasn't accustomed to. They were different. If ipartments were very different,

(45:50):
and I didn't like them. They were just old agent.
During the time I was there, training was great. I
was there when the Berlin Wall came down. Now, mind you,
I don't know much about the Berlin Wall, but what
I do know is that all the athletes are running
to the Berlin Wall. And I even see old women

(46:10):
people with canes, man female walking with Kynes and I
can feel this energy and the energy is insurmountable. It's
absolutely powerful. And I'm just saying to myself, I don't
understand what they're saying, but what I do understand is
that this energy is legacy. This must be history. It
has to be because I'm looking at everything with my

(46:31):
eyes and they were like, yeah, get a piece of
the wall, Get a piece of the wall. In my mind,
I'm like, I ain't carrying no rocks around with me.
Now I had wish I had, Yeah, because I didn't
know then what I know now. You did. So that
was a real cool experience. I spent a lot of
time in Amsterdam because I had to keep the balance.
You did travel aize, So I was there for two

(46:53):
years now Maya. I had to figure out what I
was gonna do because I didn't want to stay there
another year. Yeah, figure out whatever, So what am I
gonna do from here? I saw Sin say, Benny the
jet your ti dez from Van Nis on television. He
was fighting that said that's what I want to do.
So I wrote his address down and everything Darren counting
Van night. And when I left jer I didn't resign
my contract in basketball contractors. I went ahead and wrote

(47:15):
his information down. I caught the plane and when straight
came straight to California, knocked on Sin and say Bennie
the jet door and started working with him. And like
I told him, I said, look, I want to learn karate.
He knew I was something, you know. I said, I
want to learn kickboxing. I said, I don't know karate.
I said, I don't know kickboxing, but I know karate.
I said, and I'm real coachable, So you teach me.
I'll get it. So he went ahead and took me

(47:35):
on his wing, introduced me to his brother. When his sister, Lily,
your teez got with those guys, and I started competing
left and right. That's when I started eating oodles and noodles.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Oh that's when you started eating oodles, and when I
came okay, yeah, okay, so you and how different was
the training between kickboxing and karate.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
It was very different because with kickboxing, you're kicking, you're
using your shins, you know what I mean. Your ship
is like a baseball bat, as opposed to with karate.
Sometimes you're kicking with the insect of your foot here,
so you're like slapping. But with kickboxing, you're using this part.
Let's say this is your leg. You're using this here,
this is your shin. And when your shin hits a rib,
you know, it can break a rib. When your shin

(48:14):
hits a head, it can break ahead. When your shin
hits an arm, it can break these four arms. When
your shin hits a thigh, it can break it. Because
our shin is real thick. It's like a baseball bat.
So our legs are like baseball bats, our arms are
like boots.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
That makes sense, especially the way you can do the
same thing, dude, R.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
That my mom used to say, Hen, we're off, and cup,
we're off for good.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Now your mom's fully into what you do now, one
hundred percent right.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
My mom's big tongue, big tongue.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
I love your Yeah, my mom's best.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Yeah, definitely. So anyway, I got to fight for a
world championship fight. So what happened? I need to Like
I said, I was eatings and I need to make money.
And I started working for AT and T and I
got bit into a Domino's game by this girl named Benita.
And when I went to Domino's down at Inglewood, Lonnie,
I don't know Lonnie Franklin Junior, the grim Sleeper. He
had killed over one hundred black women down in Inglewood.

(49:08):
Yeah yeah, here raped and killed him Jesus. But what happened?
Unfortunately I had met him at a Dominoes game because
I didn't know how to play dominance. We were playing domins.
He offered me a right's like two three o'clock in
the morning, and that's when I realized what the heck
it was real crowd. I realized I'm around people I
don't even know. It's two three o'clock in the morning.

(49:29):
And then Lonnie gave me a drink and I took
a little bit of it. Then all of a sudden,
I started films tired, so I walked So I walked
into the bathroom to throw water on my face clearhself.
I'm like, look, two three o'clock, it's time for me
to go. Already lost all my pay check every day,
that was all my Money's not for me to go.
Threw water on my first And when I walked out
the door, Lonnie was there, and I was like, yo, man, chill,

(49:49):
I don't roll like that, because I thought he was
Benita's due. Because Benita is the one who invited me
to the game, to the Dominoes game. Anyway, So I'm like, Benita, look,
I'm ready to go. Yeah, she said, why don't you start?
I said, no, I don't know nobody. I don't want
to stay here. I want to go home and see
my own bed, she said. And then Lonnie said, well,
I take you home. And me knowing me and me
growing up around fourteen guys, because my mother has eight brothers,

(50:10):
and then my dad's brothers, and me growing around, growing
up around, and then me growing up martial arts, I
felt I thought that was cool. I felt I could
handle myself. It wasn't thinking that. So anyway, I go
to he opens the door, Lonnie does, and he opens
the door at the van door and I get on in. Now,
when I get in, he shut the door. I heard something,
you understand. I heard something with the lock. When I

(50:34):
heard something with the lock, my thoughts for father, Please
don't let me have to fuck this man up. You understand,
because I heard something with the lock. You dig So
I get on in. We driving, I say, turn right.
He turned left. I'm mind you. I'm a little dizzy,
light headed, so I'm trying to get some air because
he obviously puts something in my drink. So my head's

(50:55):
leaning on the window and saying, I said, turn right.
He turned left. I said, yo, bro, you're going wrong.
What Then next thing I know, we wind up in
this secluded area with nothing but fall And first thing
he says is let me stick it in and I'll
take you home. I said, yo, Bron, I said no,
you let me out this van. You will never see
me again, and Benita would never see me again. So

(51:17):
when he said that, I'm reaching for the knob to
try to open the door, and I'm fumbling around. There's
no knob, so I'm reaching for the other knob to
roll the window down. There's no wind. I can't roll
the window down, so I had to look. So then
when I'm looking, then when I turned back, I saw
him his face totally transformed. He had a belt on
his fist. Oh no, And he said, let me stick

(51:38):
it in and I'll take you home. I said, no, man,
let me out this van. Then that's when he went
to punch boom. And when he went to punch me
in my face and my temple, that's when I blocked it.
Boom I hang bam, and I ran to the back
of the van. I ran as hard as I could
to the back of the bed, and soon as I
got to the back of the bed, as a big
ass chain on it in the lock, I couldn't get out.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
I said, wait, fuck inside the.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Inside the van and yeah, I ran to the back
of the van to get escaped, and I ran right
into his strap. There's a big ass chain on it. Like,
I couldn't get out. So I turned my back toward
him that he was coming to the back of the van,
and I figured my only way out is to get
out his door, because that's the way he got in.
So I went diving packed. I want to push him back.
I went for by him boom, and I went to
try to open the door and on his door, and

(52:21):
that's when he grabbed my legs and pulled me to
the back of the van and then bull flipped me
over and he got on top of me. I'll never
forget as long as I lift.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
You're the grownd snatching right.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah, he said that the hotel. He said, let me
stick it in and I'll take you home. He on
top of me. I said, no, man, nah, let me out.
This damn band. You'll never see me again, and Benita
damn show, will never see me here, he said. I said.
He was getting angry and I could see he said.
I said, let me stick it in and I'll take
you home. And he was real calm about that shit,

(52:50):
and I said no. And then he said it again,
this time with much force on my wrist, and the
voice said just let him exactly. I said okay. I
said okay. As soon as he released my wrists, I
was up against the wall. I was back up on
my feet and up against the van. That's when I

(53:11):
started throwing jabs at him, pop crossing, pop, throwing leg
kicks at him, bop chopping that one leg, jop bop.
I was just chopping pop chop pumped. Then all of
a sudden, he was like, oh shit, you weren't them
fighting bitches? Yeah sucking. I was chopping that leg down
boom boom. All of a sudden, I saw fear in

(53:31):
his eyes because I knew that leg was going down.
It was going down out because my legs are like axes.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
Yeah, yeah, you got.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
Bamit busting boom. Moved to the side and say, yeah, pops,
left leg boom. Moving back to the rights out jab
boom boom. I was just chopping. Then all of a sudden,
he came running at me like a football player, and
he tackled to tackle me, and I hit up against
the van and when he went to tackle me, I
grabbed it into his shirt tail. I pulled it over
to tied it swung him down. I ran down. I
grabbed his pants, I pulled it over shoes. I stepped

(54:00):
on the chest and that's when I grabbed his dick. Yeah, buddy,
because I'm a dick grabber. And I said, where the keys?
That motherfucker he was like, I get out? Oh some down?
You want me to get out? When I wanted to
get out, I had to let you stick it in first, Okay,
I said, where the keys at? I had, you know,
live my parking in PA. Which one I reached and

(54:23):
I pull out? He got a gang of keys on there,
gang up. I said, which one is it? He says
the orange. I grabbed theim food food and I pulled
him all the way over. Two threes. Get up, get
up and shout out you wanted. When I wanted to
get out, I had to let stick it and shut
out I unlocked the door, pulled the chain off. I
kicked it over.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
You're grabbing him by the dick. The whole time, I got.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
That motherfucker holding on, clamping on. I didn't know balls
and dick. It even moved like that girl. I didn't
know that. Get stretched that damn high. I had no clue.
But I'm turning. I still stayed on his chest. I
had no clues. I was holding on to him, and
I moved over. He said, I said, now, if ever
you see me on the streets, what are you going
to say? He said Hi. I was like, He's like,

(55:04):
I said, no, you're not, motherfucker. If ever you see
me on the street, you're gonna go the opposite direction.
Do you underfucking stand me? He said, you know, get out?
And one more stuff. I made sure I was outdy,
I had my ass still had on. He had the
danger like his balls, everything on. One more that's had inside.

(55:24):
I had to say, Claire, I said, one more thing.
When the bed says no, she means no. And I
rocked him fire and I started walking out, and I
tossed the keys and I walked into a whole lot
of fog. So I kept falling, trying to find.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
You're still you still got the stuff in you there and.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
I'm trying to fall and trying to find my way
and all this fall, and all of a sudden, Colin,
I see these two tiny dots, two tiny dots, two lights,
and I'm walking toward them close and the closer I get,
the light get bigger and bigger. Then all of a sudden,
I go on the other side of the fog and
the car and guess what it was a yellow cab
with an old white man in it. He was just

(56:03):
sitting there with the lights on him. Oh wow, looking
thank you so again. And I said, and my shirt
on halfway off Teddy hanging out loft, dare shoes ranking
air ring all that shit, oh shit hanging out. And
I said, this guy tried to rape me. Gotta get
me out of here. He says, okay, so he takes off.
He takes me to my place, and I'm just thinking

(56:23):
I gotta pay him. So I go up. I said,
hang tight, I'm gonna I'm gonna pay you. Soon as
I go to the door and I turned back, the
cabin is gone. The cabin is gone. I'm like, go
and side pick the phone up. I called my mom,
this dude tried to rape me. I went out of
California right now. She said, what I said, the dude

(56:45):
tried to rape me. I went out of California right now.
She said, did Sissy, did he rape you? I said no,
I fucked him up. She said, good. Then it was
a fight, and you want to fight, We'll get you home.
We'll get you home. And I was on the next
flight back to Philly. Bad shit went. So anyway, I'm

(57:05):
back home Philly and stuff like that. Shall it stop
or continue?

Speaker 1 (57:08):
You can continue. We're over time, guys, you understand.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Yeah, So I go back to Philly. I'm like tripping
out on an airplane. I'm tripping now. First of all,
on the airplane. I'm tripping out because I'm still fighting,
you know what I mean fighting. I don't trust nobody now.
And my my everything is just hyper my hearing. I
hear everybody, and I hear everything everybody's saying. But everything
is just I heard everything. So anyway, get back to Philly.

(57:33):
My family's there, hug My tell was going down. I'm
never gonna come. I'm never coming back to California again.
That was it. I didn't care. Leave all the material
leading card, all this stuff, I didn't care. I didn't care.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
That's how traumatic that experience was.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Yeah, I'm never coming back to California again. So anyway,
I'm back home. My fight team doesn't know that I'm
back home because we never really talked about our personal lives.
We only talked about fighting. So anyway, I'm back home
my mom. Since he stopped because I'm talking and turning out.
If we didn't realize I had PTSD, you know what
I mean, That's how I acquired TSD from that experience.
Cause I'm telling you, I was traumatized, but I was experience.
But I was ready for him.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
So anyway, you know you was beyond ready. Let me
tell you something. They could do a whole movie around
that scene.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
You know. That's funny. As moving forward to what happened
was I get this call from California Bennie de jet
thin Kidas, Hey, we got this opportunity for you to
fight for a world title. I was like what, I
was like, y'all coming to New York. I ain't going
to calling you. So my other coach, Davies, Look, you
got everything to gain, nothing to lose, now mind. They
don't know what I just went to. I said, man, look,

(58:29):
I'm not coming back. Man, I ain't coming back there.
They said, but you got opportunity to fight the most
dangerous woman in the world. So what happened? She was
on David Lennoman, right, and that's and they was like, Fredia,
free your turn TV. I'm back here in Philly. I'm like,
it's turn TV. So I see her, they like, and
the guy says to her, no, it's Johnny Carson, and
he says, if you're the most dangerous woman in the world,
He said, how can you be the most dangerous woman

(58:51):
in the world when you've never fought anyone in America?
And she said, I am here to fight flee g
I Gibbs in her French accent, and that kind of
inspired me. But it Morse inspired my mom, you understand.
Morse inspired my grandma because my mom was like, what's
a record? I said, twenty eight and two. My mom said, shit,

(59:14):
she ain't that damn dang s Gotta asked, well twice
you got damn tell her. I said that Jordan wanted her.
Mama warned her about you understand, and I was like,
I ain't gone. And then my grandmom says, listen, you
are star Fredia, and your job is to go out
there and let the world know you're a star. Go Na,

(59:36):
I ain't gone. I'm talking. I'm not gone. So then
and then finally I just want to decided, you know what, Okay,
my mom's lord, let's look at the map. I wanted
to look at the map. Where is Inglewood on the map?
Down there? Okay, I'm up here in Van and that's okay, okay, okay,
big difference. Okay, I handled that part, but I had
to see it. That makes it. I wanted to make sure,
I say, because I didn't want to run into him

(01:00:00):
on the streets. And I want to tell you this here.
Throughout from nineteen ninety three up until the day that
they call him, I've always looked over my shoulders in
fear that I would run into him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
You know what, is into ash And you still have.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
That, yeah, because yeah, because I've never had First of all,
I've never been caught and damn sardine can with someone
who was really trying to really rape me. You understand,
I've never experienced that before ever, And it was a
different kind of vibe. It was a different kind of energy,
and it was a different kind of beast that I
was dealing with, which forced me to bring out a

(01:00:35):
beast in me that I didn't know I had it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Yeah, that makes just make sense.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Yeah. So anyway, so I went ahead and took the
fight Championship. Fight, came back, started training with Saxon jan Jier.
We did our magic there u c LA Drake Stadium.
We prepared for kickboxing, multi kickboxing. We drive to San Jose.
She's standing there looking off flying. You could tell she
was a superstar. You could really tell. She's stand and
they're looking press conference. She looking fly dress on first,

(01:01:02):
I'm thinking dress. My thought was this girl looking off flying? Shit?
Did she come here to model? I came here to fight?
You did? Okay? Fine, So she comes up to me
and she says to me and oh she got this
whole entourroze all the French people. I looked on the
mop and I couldn't fight Chester and everybody started laughing.

(01:01:22):
I said, bitch, tonight, not only will you find Chester
on the map, I want you to know that I'm
the one your mama warned your ball. Okay, oh okay,
and I just stood there looked at her. Undefeated guys
at the time, I was, yeah, I was undefeated. I
was like eleven and oh with ten knockouts at the time.
So anyway, we started fighting there and then before we

(01:01:44):
go to fight, what happened is the promoter comes and
he says, we're gonna switch the fight from muy tier kickboxing.
And they was like, listen, her leg's gonna get tired
quickly because I was trained for more time. And then
that's when my coach said to me, look, all the
cars are stacked against you. They think that you're going
to be a punching bag. You understand, I said, man,
she and I'd have had over three hundred fights. If

(01:02:05):
they don't know, I had over three hundred fights in Philly, Yeah,
they don't know. They call me Lady Jack Johnson and
the Projects. Yet I'm from the projects. Man, I ain't
worrying about that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
This is my mind setting.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
So as I'm walking through to the ring, I hear
these people yelling that's the black girl who came here
to get knocked out. And at that time, that's when
I said a silent prayer to God, tonight, Father, we
are going to shock the world. You understand, we got
in the ring. She was off here. Yeah, I got her.
I got her. She come over. Bam, baby, she got me.
I didn't know girls, and look that damn fine could

(01:02:35):
fight well, she could put it all you shit. She
was putting it on me. And for real, she's putting
on me. And I was really surprised because when I
saw her, she was flying, feminine and sexy. I was
not real athletic like me, understand, and I was like, wow,
so she's putting it on me. So I had to
grab her. Then I said, okay, hold on, I'm in
for a real tough one. So we started going in
and boom. First round, yes, she won. Second round, we

(01:02:57):
was gonna oh boom, bam you fine? Yes? So yeah, yeah,
keep you bad you chest yet, So we're going there.
Then all of a sudden, the third round, I started
my legs were getting tired. Yeah, so I had to
reach deep down inside because I was seeing myself fall.
You know the old saying you see it, believe it achieved.
I was seeing myself fall. I was like no. I
kept saying no, and I can't fight no. Then I
said father, I had to reach deep and the and

(01:03:17):
I said, Father, helped me. My legs are getting tired.
Help me, Father, This is what I was saying. And
all of a sudden I kicked Bam and she went
to throw a punch and I came back and through
one of those project hooks from the project I called
my project Bram and she it connected with her and
the temple and it spent her around that I hit
her again, Bram.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
And she went on down.

Speaker 2 (01:03:34):
At that time, it was amazing. I stood over her.
The referee count. I sitot over her with my hands
up and listen to this. Here there is a picture
of me standing over the most dangerous woman in the
world in front of over twenty thousand people in the arena.
And the clock right there says age sixteen. A sixteen
is my mama's birthday. Damn. Wow, that's down in history.
Ain't that crazy?

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
And that's nice?

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
I love So that's the story. Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Let me just tell you something. They you need a movie.
You need a movie.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Thank you maya video my short film video that was
created by Sideline. I want to give them props. And
then we I went ahead and got collaborated with gold Casts.
They're very huge in Canada, and then I had an
opportunity to collaborate with TF you Sports and all of
us collectively, we got over seventeen million views which would
viral and hopefully something's real good in the basket there.

(01:04:23):
But it's very important that we learned to move in
silence and win in silence. And once we've won in silence,
then we can share it with the world. That makes sense, Yeah, yeah,
because you know there are enemies, there are people out there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
There's wolves out there, wol if it's one thing we
learned from this interview, there are wolves out there.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
I'm trying to tell you Little ride Hood is a
true story. Yeah, what you want to do is flip
the script on the wolf. That's my mom used to
tell me, Sissy, little Red riding Hood. That's a true story, baby.
But you want to learn to flip the script on
the wolf. Do you understand me? That's very real.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
That's very real. It's a great way to close out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
With that being said, can people do to keep up
with that Chitta?

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Yeah? You could just follow me on Instagram, Facebook, all
of them Twitter. It's just Freedia and the Cheetah Gibbs
at y'all Freda the Cheatah gibs your dig. That's what
it is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Oh, it's your dig at the end, Fredia the Cheatah
Cheetah gibbs your dig on all social media platforms. Thank
you so much for cooking for me, and the meal
was for the Champion side of life. She ate noodles
and noodles and this story was truly incredible. Thank you
so much for your time, Thank you for having me.
I appreciate it, thoroughly, thoroughly inspired by your entire story.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Wow, I appreciate you know, I thoroughly appreciate you guys
inviting me. It's fun.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
Yeah, it was fun, right, and you make bamba spirious.
You don't even try it?

Speaker 2 (01:05:44):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Peace out y'all. For more eating while broke from iHeart
Radio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite show