J Prince: Discovering Floyd Mayweather, Taking Dre from Trap House to Gold Medal & Dodging Hitmen?!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Man, Welcome back to another episode of the Art Award,
and today I got somebody who's not just a guest,
but he's family.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
He's many things to many people.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
He's a mogul, he's the owner and founder of rap
A Lout Records. He's a manager, he's a shrewd businessman.
And God has used this man in a powerful way
in his community in Fifth Ward, Texas and around the
world to touch many people and to be a blessing
to many people. He's the Godfather of the South. I
want to welcome my brother to the show, James Prince.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Oh yeah, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
This is a long overdue, long overdue man. I appreciate
the time, and you know, I'm gonna get straight into it.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Man.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
We know a little bit more about you now since
you came out with the book The Art and Science
of Respect, and you've been on many platforms discussing your story.
And you know, I think that was a powerful, powerful
thing because.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
People see the man, but they don't know the story.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So I appreciate you, you know, pinning that letter to
the world than just you know, sharing that that just
your story.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, no, And it's a privilege and honor to be
here with you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, it's a long time coming. Yeah, man, I want
you to take it back.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Man, Like, what was young James Prince like in elementary school?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
And man th type of dude? Where you growing up?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Oh? Man? Uh, how would I describe myself growing up
a hustler? You know, I really remember myself being a
kid with like an uncanny love for money, you know,
and I know how to save it, Unlike all the
kids that was my age. You know, I was hustling

(01:43):
cutting grass, you know, I had chickens. I was selling eggs,
you know, yeah, shooting dice, you know what I mean,
any kind of way you know, I could make money,
you know I was. I was trying to have some
money in my pocket.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
You talking a book about, you know, in poverty all
around experiencing poverty. It's a lot of people, just say,
in America that have poverty all around them, generational poverty,
and it's really nothing in them that wants them to
get up and go change it or break that generational curse.
And you talk about that, What was the origin of

(02:17):
you saying I want to be something different, to do something.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
Different, you know, as I spoke about it in my book,
you know, I witnessed a lot of pain, you know,
growing up in my household where all of my family
was concerned. You know, I witnessed like people crying because
the bills was, you know, being cut off, being evicted

(02:41):
out of the house. You know. I was a kid
that didn't have meals every day. You know. Sometimes I
learned how to eat sugar on my bread and water
with my cereal, you know what I mean. It made
it appear to be like milk was on those serious
So it was the constant debt, you know, witnessing uh,

(03:03):
you know, my family members dying from lack of help,
uh being able to get you know, uh proper help
from the doctors and different things. So it all impacted
me in a strong way.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now, your mother she was real young, you know. She
had your sister is.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
A Zania s Zena Zena Yeah, at fifteen, I believe,
And she had you at sixteen and and and y'all
grew up in a in the coke apartments.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
But they also called it the bloody nickel.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, and that's in fifth ward, right. What was that
like growing up with a mother that young.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
She's a kid with kids, Yeah, I n you know,
I don't remember her being a kid. Interesting, you know,
I just uh remember uh my mother being a hard worker.
And you know, I can remember the seeds that she
planning in me as a kid, wanting to get out
of those projects, you know, staying to me, I wish
I could, you know, have my own house one day,

(03:57):
and you know, me and my sister, you know, we
would of course go to school in the morning and
then we would come home and be by ourselves up
until night time before she came home from work. So
I just witnessed a hard working woman man that you know,
she became a hero.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Mm. What's the story with your pops? Man? Was your
pops around? Did you know him? Was he in the community?
Was he in your life?

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah? You know I had I had a cumbination of
fathers that helped shape and mold me, you know, and
a few of 'em was my stepfather. But they were like, uh,
you know, real hard working, proud men that planted or
work ethic in me, you know, even as a kid.
That I think saved my life till this day. So

(04:46):
you know, I I tapped into my biological father, you know,
after I got grown, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
That one seen him before you became wrong.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
I seen him, but I didn't know who he was,
you know what I mean, as I as I wrote
in the book, I didn't. I didn't really know who
he was, and I was told he wasn't my biological father.
So I went almost half of life not anymore. But
I went a long time without, you know, knowing that truth.
But it was life changing once I found out who

(05:18):
he was, and once I tapped into the Prince side
of the family. It really was like a missing puzzle
in my life where I didn't I didn't know who
I was, But to meet that side of the family,
I quickly tapped into who I was.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
But you think it is about that generation man, like
you know them kind of secrets or them kind of
issues where it's like, you know, I remember the football
player teyl along as it.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
Daddy lived down the street. Yeah, for years he didn't know.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, And it's like that kind of stuff where that's
my daddy. I heard it's my daddy.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
I don't know if it's really that's some heavy stuff.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, it's heavy, And I think it has a lot
to do with a lack of education where a lot
of those people are concerned like, for example, Well, my
mom was concerned. I think she was kind of going
that direction because the m the the man that she
told me was my biological father, was a hard working

(06:16):
man that provided and took care of me. Okay, you
know what I mean. So I think it was a
token of love with her, you know, making that decision.
But you know, uh, the truth is always better, feels better.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, you gotta is your father still living?

Speaker 3 (06:35):
No, my father died at fifty five. My stepfather that
raised me died at forty four.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, but you you was able to make peace with
Pops and forgive him and get that right before he passed.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Oh man, most definitely. You know, he and I had
opportunity to spend a lot of time together. I fell
in love with him, you know, because I was him
he was you know I mean. And to witness those genetics, man,
it's a it's a powerful thing. So I always advise
everybody to really tap in and know your bloodline and

(07:10):
who your people are. Because I almost dated my sister,
m you know what I mean. So imagine that I'm
in junior high school looking at my sister and her
her cousin. Her cousin end up having my second child
for me, So it came that close because I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
You know.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, that forgiveness thing is big man for closure.
I know it's easy, you know, in a situation like that.
My situation was different. My mother wasn't there and my
father was there. But it's easy to hold on to
that stuff and keep that bitterness and I done forgiveness going.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
But it's a powerful thing to release it.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Cause a lot of time, not to say it's an excuse,
but them parents and stuff that wasn't there. Sometimes you
start really digging, you see the addictionaires like man, I
I did not want to be there. I just I
couldn't figure it out. Yeah, And to be able to
give them that blessing or forgiveness and enjoy the la
the later years of their life, it's a powerful thing.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
Oh man, it was a real blessing to me. And
and as you're saying, you know, it's you know, even
against say, for example, like my mother, my grandmother and them.
You know, felt like this man didn't do anything for me.
How could you be blessing him the way you blessing
him today with houses and cars and different things like that,

(08:19):
And uh, you know, I understand the scripture. You know,
I know your mother and your father and you know,
say if they do this or whatnot, just say on 'em.
So you know I was obedient to that, and uh,
I think I was blessed man for forgiving him not
only well he was concerned, but for myself.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
And how you feel like the way you were raised
shaped you as a father and you saying, man, I'm
not gonna do that, i'm'a be different or w how
does that shaped you just as a father in general,
just the way you was raised?

Speaker 3 (08:48):
You know it. It was a a learning experience, you know,
over time of evolving and and really uh uh would
helped me a whole lot. Is is a scripture, you
know what I mean? With all my decisions in life.
But you know, when you know better, you're supposed to
do better. So you know, through my journey of you know,

(09:11):
in life, I learned to be a better father. You know,
things that I may not have witnessed in the household
that my wife at the time taught me. And like, yo,
this is the gardly thing to do, you know what
I mean? So I was a student, you know, because
I wanted to be the best father I could be
to my family.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
And tell me about your faith, because you know down
in that Bible belt man in the South, if you
don't do nothing else, you're going to church.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Oh yeah, but how do you How.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Did you find a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, this ain't just a thing I do on Sunday.
The man.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
I'm trying to walk this out every day of my
life and communicate with him every day.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
That's that was an interesting thing with me because I
remember the bus coming to the project, said my mother
wouldn't go to church with me, but she would send
me on that bus. And you know, I believe at
a young age of eight nine years old, it's some
kind of connection that you know from hearing that preacher.

(10:16):
And I would go to Sunday school sometime, but it
didn't mean as much. But this pastor realmend C. L. Jackson.
You know, my spirit connected to him and and I
think I abnormal way compared to the people that was
my age, because wasn't nobody else going to church with me,
you know what I mean? In the hood, I found
I found myself, you know, after I moved out the projects,

(10:40):
you know, uh, catching the city bus to go myself
because I was so in love with yeah, like hearing
the wisdom that was coming from this man's mouth. So
it was it was real different for me to be
so young.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Mmm. Yeah, and that's something that's been with you, stayed with.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
Me, stayed with me, and I the things I heard,
I put in the action, and you know, I could
uh testify the day that I was rewarded for a
lot of wisdom that was spoken from the poor pit m.
You know, it carried me through a lot of storms.
You know, even though I got off track, you know,
I got off track, but those words was uh so

(11:20):
sound and real with me until I came back, just
like the words say now.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Your book man, you know, Uh, tragedy struck the family.
You know, you talk about your sister losing your sister, man,
she here the day gone tomorrow. You talk about how
the night before y'all had sort of an abnormal conversation
that lasted a long time. Can you tell me about
that and then actually what happened? Yeah, Yeah, that was Ah,
that was an interesting night.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Uh. My sister was we was twelve years old when
she passed. I was eleven. I was in the sixth grade.
She was in the seventh grade. That particular night, our
last night together. I remember staying up to like one
o'clock in the morning, which was really abnormal for us
because we normally be in bed by ten or something

(12:07):
like that. But she and I stayed up, you know,
talking about what we wanted to be when we got
grown and what we wanted to do for my mother
when we got grown.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
I think the chapter was a house in the Vacuum.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yeah, a house and a vaccuum, because that was her goal.
You know. She used used to have more chores than
I did around the house, so she wanted a vacuum plane.
She said, when I get grown, i'm'a buy mother a
vacuum plane. Right, So I said, well, i'm'a buy a house,
you know what I mean. Because the seed was planning
in me that I want my own house. One day,

(12:42):
So that morning we got up and you know, going
to school like we normally do, and uh my sister
would always get dropped off first because her school was closer,
and she would kiss my mother, but she normally wouldn't
kiss me, but she stole a kiss from me morning
and uh mm, you know that afternoon, after I got

(13:04):
out of school. I was uh playing football in the
in the prayer in the hood, and I saw students,
uh coming from school and a few of 'em was like,
your sister got ran over by a train. So I'm
thinking that's he talking about my sister and a few
others your sister got ran over by by train. So
I'm like, where sit up there on the track. So

(13:27):
I ran toward, you know, the the accident. And when
I got there, they had already taken her. But I
remember the coat that she had on, and I saw
like her flesh, you know, meet with her coat, and
that's what made me like confirmed, like yo, this this,

(13:48):
this is real. She had this coat on. But by
that time they had took her to the hospital. And
what had happened was she got ran over by a
train and and literally like I cut in half, you know,
with a leg and a arm off. And yeah, they
rushed her to the hospital and she passed I think

(14:08):
three or four days after that. Man.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, is that a route she normally would take.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, we go that route, but my mom you know,
told us to when it's a train because I was
you know, I was a boy, so I was always
jumping trains, and I used to go feed hobos, and
you know, I called myself being a good servant. You know,
I was feeding hoboes and everything on those tracks. So
she warned me in front of my sister, don't cross

(14:36):
those trains, this and that. But my sister was walking
home with a friend of hers and her friend the
train in the in the in the ghetto. They'll stop
on the track and just sit there like a hour,
you know what I mean, just making everybody late. And
her friend hopped and crossed the train and told her
to come over. And when my sister got on the

(14:59):
train to uh the cross of the jerk real hard
and she fell between the uh the carts that hit
her head, and yeah, it all went bad.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Man. How how do you how old were you at
that time?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
I was eleven?

Speaker 2 (15:14):
That jee?

Speaker 1 (15:15):
How you how you were covered from something like that?
How did you deal with something like that?

Speaker 3 (15:19):
You know? That was I think that was traumatizing to me.
You know, I probably in this day in time should
have got some type of therapy or whatnot. But it
was a it was a devastating blow. And and how
I know it was a devastating blow is after that
you know, I couldn't sleep at night. When I would
try to sleep, you know, I saw her in my

(15:42):
dreams and my visions, and I would go to class
and you know, fall asleep in class. So it was
devastating to the extent where my my mother let me
go and live with my grandmother. And that was, uh
the transfer of me, you know, moving with my grandmother

(16:02):
and kind of stayed with her and never really lived
with my mother again. You felt like that changed you though,
I feel like that. I felt like it helped me
a lot, you know, because I.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Mean your sister passed. You feel like that.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Changed Oh, most definitely, you know it man, it traumatized me,
you know, it traumatized me. But it also made me
want to get that vacuum for my mother, you know.
And at the end of the day, you know, I
I ended up getting a vaccam in the house with
my mother. Yeah. Yeah, made good on that. Oh yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
You seeing that, You seeing the family members, you know,
going to the pier, you seeing people, you know, you
hearing about stuff.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
You seeing the addiction and the drug use.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
When did you first start jumping off the porch and
you went from making you know, hustling to just saying
the man, I want to see what this is about.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
What age were you?

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (16:51):
I think I was. I was nine years old when
you know I was, I was doing naughty things, you know. Yeah,
you know even at yeah, at nine, because I was,
I'm surrounded by it, you know what I mean, I'm
surrounded by it. So even at nine years old, you know,

(17:12):
I'm nine, ten and eleven, I'm witnessing that, Uh, these
guys is paying money for marijuana. And a friend of
mine father's growing these plants. Right, so I'm like, yo,
sweep up these plants, and you know what I mean.
So it was a mechanism of being able to have

(17:33):
a little money, and I was about having money, right.
So you know, coming up in an environment where you
know you're surrounded by that, by those type of things,
it's hard to escape without doing something. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, and say about nine years old, Yeah, what was
your first real taste of respect?

Speaker 3 (17:53):
H Well, my way, A lot of them weapons I
got was my real taste of respect. You know. Then
you know, learning to do like my others, Uh what
what they do? You know what I mean? And when
I wouldn't they let me know I was being disrespectful.

(18:15):
So I remember a lot of those.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
But I mean, when did you first feel like, oh,
they respect me. Your first taste from that.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Standpoint, Oh, I think that came uh in my latter
years after I graduated, and I decided that, you know,
I wanted to play ball with the street guys a
little bit. And of course I was viewed as a

(18:43):
mental in in uh in the ocean of sharks, m So,
you know, in in the hood, in ghettos and and
you familiar with this, you at some point, at some time,
you have to prove some kind of way, you know
what I mean, that you demand your respect. And yeah,

(19:04):
I had to learn definitely being at a disadvantage being
small like I am. You know, I had to learn
how to think and how I think muscles, you know,
meaning the bigger guys with muscles. So I was I
figured it out.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
So, man, you you you delving into this life.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
You're still trying to get money, You're trying to better
your situation.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
You have some jobs that you worked at.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
I think you worked at a bank or something, and
you know, you saving your money, but then you got
fired from the bank.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
As you get deeper into.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
The street life, you said, you had a You I
don't know if you prayed this or you ask God.
You had a conversation with God about making a transition.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
You said, if you do this, I'll do this. What
was that prayer? Like, yeah, you know that was that
was in the closet prayer. You know what I mean.
When it came a point in my life where I
wanted to make a transition into corporate America, and I
was familiar with scripture, you know that the Creator would

(20:04):
give you the desires of your heart and different things
like that. And with me, I wanted to be a millionaire.
You know, I always knew that that would mean. Yeah,
it wasn't no doubt about it. For some reason, you know,
at nine ten let them all the way up. You know,
I felt like becoming a millionaire would would break the
curse or would give me the power to like in

(20:25):
the whole poverty curses where my family was concerned. So
with that being in mind, you know, in me believing
that he would the Creator would give me the desires
of my heart, you know, in that clauset, I'm like, Yo,
this is what I'm finna do. I'm talking to him like,
you know what I mean and you say that you

(20:47):
would give me the desires of my heart, you know,
if I'm you know, doing the right things and whatnot.
So I wanna challenge your word, you know what I mean.
I wanna wanna see if that's so. And I'm gonna
on a my part of it. I'm I'm I'm never
gonna look back and do these things again, but you know,

(21:09):
I wanna, I wanna see if your word is real.
So for the next seven years, you know, with me
uh stepping into the music industry, it was like a
real test for me, a real temptational test, weeb. You know,
I'm I'm having thoughts in my mind where I can
make one move and you know, satisfied all of this

(21:33):
I don't have right now. So imagine like having that
type of temptation you know, in your mind, And a
lot of it was on a phone number in my
pocket or in my wallet that you know, would give
me access to that power. So one year, riding down
the freeway, I decided number right here is temptation, you

(21:56):
know what I mean, And I gave the creative my word,
I ain't never go back. So I told that number up, okay,
and threw it out the window, you know, on the
freeway man. And what a what a a relief, you know,
because it's one thing I learned about temptation is not
good to have it around you if you don't if

(22:17):
you're trying to go straight in there.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah, so you fall in love with the music gang.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
What was your love for music in general as you
got into the game.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
What was it eighty five, eighty six, eighty forty five?

Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah, yeah, started in eighty six, because well, I always
had a love for music personally, you know what I mean.
I used to have a Michael Jackson voice at nine
ten years old, come up, you know what I mean.
Then I hit my teenage years and things got they
changed on change. But I was a Motown fan, you know.

(22:47):
I grew up in a household where you know, my
my auntie, my grant, all of them was jamming Motown
all the time. So I think that, uh helped my
ears as I got into music game. But I really
got in the game because of my brother, you know.
And his name was Sir rap a lot, and I
didn't want my brother in the streets, you know what

(23:09):
I mean. He would rap in my ear all day
every day, So I told him, I say, man, if
you you real about this, I'll support you in the
music game. Just give me your word that you ain't
gonna be in these streets. And that was my introduction,
you know. Of course I got a couple other guys
along with him that was skipping school, you know, and

(23:31):
I convinced them and brought them together and called them
the ghetto Boys. See.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
The thing that get me though, is it ain't just
you know, the entrepreneurial mindset, but it's the eye for
the talent. Tell me about the eye to be able
to see something or somebody and say that could work.
You had UGK, you had Do or Die, You had
individual artists, you know, Scarface that broke away from ghetto Boy,
you had. You had all of that, but you had

(23:56):
to see them at some point in time. What's that
And it's the same eye you got in by Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
I think it's definitely a gift, you know what I mean.
I think it's it has a lot to do with
my intuition and my desernment as well as being able
to uh identify the human side of things like skills
and talents were where different artists is concerned, like for music,

(24:24):
for example, that was a trial and error situation because
I I really didn't know, so it took me awhile.
You know, it took me seven years before I got
a hit in me. Really, yeah, seven seven years of
relentless hard work, you know what I mean, stand up
two and three days in a row, just like grinding

(24:46):
and losing, losing, losing on every project I will put out,
you know, seven years of not having a hit, and eventually,
you know, you figure things out, just like you had
to do in the ring. You know, you became a
champion from blood, sweating tears over time. And you know,
as I learned, as you know, I figured out like

(25:08):
a lot of people would purposely give me information to
fail in the music game. But cutthroat business, Oh.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah, it's worse than boxing.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's cutthroat. You know. They they twins, Yeah,
they twins.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
How often are you wrong? In music?

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Boxing? Business?

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Women, I ain't the right invest How often are you wrong?

Speaker 3 (25:29):
I think I may be wrong more than I'm right, really,
you know what I mean. I had more flops than
hits in music, and I had more uh opponents and
contenders than champions in boxing. That's true. So that's that's
a part of the game though, And I think that

(25:50):
may go on with everybody, but.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
The right one he did the right ones.

Speaker 3 (25:55):
Yeah, yeah, I had to make up for the losses, right.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
I don't want to get too deep incidents. But as
you as you building what you building. You know, in
your words, you said you were targeted by the federal
government for ten years. Yeah, that's a lot of pressure.
Brow How you deal with that kind.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
Of pressure, you know, And it was longer than ten years, Yeah, yeah,
it was longer than ten years. I I believe I'm
a target to this day, you know what I mean,
because of what I accomplished and and how the Creator
brought me through the things. You know, I'm I'm like
a real flower. And then that came up in the concrete,

(26:34):
you know, I really believe that, And and I know
without a shadow of doubt who brought me through. So
to answer that question, how I was able to do it,
it was all I give all credit where my faith
is concerned, you know what I mean. I always felt
that if he be for me, the world could be
against me, and I I walked boldly in that, you know,

(26:55):
I became fearless fear is not of God. So I
couldn't allow myself to move that way in spite of,
you know, uh, feeling like the United States of America
versus James Prince was you know what I mean, that's
a that's a hell of a feeling to have such
a monster like that going to get you. But in

(27:18):
the midst of it all, you know, God brought me through,
you know what I mean. His favor was on me
and it's still on me to this day.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
And you speak openly about it, Oh, yeah, you name dropping,
you naming the guys that did what they did, and yeah,
came after you, and you know some of.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Them guys got in trouble because they wasn't, you know,
living above the Lord and coming.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
After you the right way. Yeah, and you you speak
openly about it.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Yeah, No, I believe in that, you know, I believe
in uh, not being fearful where that's concerned. You have
to shine the light on darkness, and the things that
they were doing was was darkness. You know. They put
a hit man on me that that killed like seven
eight people, you know what I mean. And this was
a fact, you know, And I believe his objective was

(28:04):
to knock me off. Yeah, and you know, everybody know
the story. You know, this guy pulled me over at
night time and aksed me to go in the back
of a dark McDonald's to you know what I mean.
I'm like, wasn't feeling that I'm b I was born
that night but not last night. So you know, yeah,
they say pull over here, I pull over in the light. Mm.

(28:24):
You know what I'm like, what's the problem? Or you
were swerving? No, got the wrong man, I want't swear.
I don't even drink the swerve. What's the problem? How
much money you got in your pocket? That's what they
aksed me say, Man, you need to borrow some money
and something. Why you aksed me to buy my money?
So you know it went on from now man, because
I was a target and they had a plan to

(28:48):
do what they wanted to do, but the creator had
another plan.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
But no charge is brought on a company on you.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Now, i'm'a I sit here today, I don't have a feeling,
you know what I mean. I'm I'm I'm a slate,
you know, and I'm thankful for being able to be
a clean slate with all the weapons that was pointed
at me, Man.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Let's get into this boxing game.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Man, I hadn't heard you say many times that boxing
was your first love.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
I thought I thought music was your first love.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
No, no, you know it was an interesting thing. And
this the analogy I give. I got it from Roy
Jones that won his fights, and I think we may
have been there together in New Orleans when Roy kept
hitting that dude and his shoulder on his arm and
he ended up knocking his shoul out of place. And

(29:40):
I didn't understand that, you know what I mean, because
I'm thinking, Yo, why Roy ain't digging to the body
of trying to take this dude's head off. So I
had to talk with Roy after that, uh, after that fight,
and Roy left me with some profound wisdom. I said, Roy, Man,
why would you kept hitting that dude in this shiit
his arm? What's the strategy behind that? He said, Man,

(30:04):
I had to take what he would get me until
I could get what I want. So when I think
about the music game, I had to take what I
could get until I can get where I wanted.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Man, Come on, yeah, now, don he had a heavy
influence on you, Don King.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, as a kid, you know, Don King. Muhammad Ali.
You know, we would all gather around the TV, and
you know it was measlerizing to me to like to
see them, you know, brothers united together in the boxing
ring and different things like that, which I wanted to box,

(30:39):
you know what I mean. I wanted to become a fighter.
And it wasn't a gym in my neighborhood. So yeah,
I just loved, uh the sport of boxing. I fell
in love with it way back then.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
So so Don did did you?

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Did you talk to Don before you got into the
officially got in and became a manager.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
No, you just jumped straight in.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
I just jumped straight in.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Who was your first major fighter, your first big.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Fighting Uh, my first big fighter was FLORYD. Maywell.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Floyd Maywell.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
You know. I I remember being attacked by the FIDS
and like attacking my business every day, you know what
I mean by the fact they them guys was hating
me so bad. Back then, they went through my hood
and like thank arrested over a hundred and something people oom.

(31:24):
And it was then where I decided to diversify my
portfolio versus getting up every morning to be harassed and
and going to my bill my office or going to
my hood to only be a rash. You know. I
decided to build a boxing gym in fifth Ward, you know,
in my community, because I always say, if I ever

(31:47):
made it, I would build a boxing gym in a community.
And I did that. And when I first second, third
day or whatnot, when I started going to that gym,
witnessing those kids coming to gym, I decided, I'm like, yo,
loove this man. This is what I'm gonna do. And
that's when I hit my knees. I remember, I prayed

(32:08):
for a champion and I worked out a I had
a friend of mine that called Mike Tyson. I said,
let Mike Tyson know that I want to meet with him.
I want to I want to work with him. I
was that bold until I felt like, you know, I
pray for something, all I have to do is step
out on it and it may come to fruition. Right.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
You ain't even hesitated that. Mike didn't know you.

Speaker 3 (32:31):
I didn't know the man, he didn't know me. You
know what I mean. Yeah, I want to meet with
I want to be in business with Mike. Mike was
the biggest back then. So my my friend Tom, you know,
Tom passed on now he knew Mike, and he made
the connection, and Mike accepted the meeting, and I came
out here to Las Vegas and uh went straight to

(32:55):
the gym. You know, I had been going to Mike
fights for quite a few years, so I'm like really
excited to walk into a spawing session where they like
really chunking in there, and I'm just like, whoa they
going at it? So you know what I mean, I'm
a fan. I'm sitting there watching Mike trying to take
this guy a head off. And in the midst of
doing that, you know, Floyd, you know, walked up. He

(33:17):
was in the gym too, and he walked over to
me on a couple of occasions and like, Yo, Yo,
I know, I know what I did. And the dude, Jay,
you know, I know you rap Ali woo woo, Like okay,
I didn't know what right. I had no idea who
this kid was. So I'm like, I'm in my mind. Really,
I'm like, yo, man, I'm trying to watch this spawn man,

(33:39):
you know, so bam he came over again. Yo, Jay,
if you you know, decide to go somewhere tonight to
woo woop, it's my number. You know, call me, I
come through and get you and all this kind of stuff. Right,
I'm like, cool, cool, alright, alry little Homer, so bam. Afterwards,
I go to Mike tyson house and Mike, you know,
we have a commer, say, and I shoot the spiell

(34:01):
at Mike, Yo, I want to be on your team.
And Mike was familiar with me. I didn't know, you know,
Mike was familiar with the Ghetto Boys and the whole movement.
So he was impressed with me being able to do
my independent thing. And we had a conversation one that
I thought was a great conversation. He even got his

(34:21):
wife on the phone at the time of you know,
I think the lady out of DC who he was
married to, and got on the phone and told her
I want j Prince to be a part of my team.
So I left that meeting, you know, that night really excited,
feeling like, oh man, God didn't answer my prayer. I'm

(34:41):
gonna be with Mike, right yeah. You know. The next
day I reached out, you know, to call Mike and
to get back with Mike, and all the phones disconnected,
you know, I couldn't reach it. Like, man, what didn't happened,
you know what I.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Mean, Like he switched it up on you.

Speaker 3 (34:59):
It wasn't him, it was it was these other powers
that be I believe, Okay. So I couldn't reach him.
So I'm like, man, we tried all day, rolled by
the gym, it's locked down. So I left with that
number in my pocket. I'm like, yo, who is this dude? Say, oh, man,
that's Floyd Maywell. He the lightweight champion of the world,

(35:21):
red light you know, go off in my head. I'm like, whoa,
I prayed for a champion. So long story short man.
Within the next two weeks, I had to done a
contract with Floyd Maywell and manage him for the next
four years.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Now, I'm gonna go ahead say this.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
You got to give Al Hayming credit for what he's
done in Floyd's career at a certain point.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
But I don't hear you brought.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Up like I feel like you should be brought up,
and I want you to speak to this. You know,
when you got to Floyd's whatever, you comfortable shame when
you got to Floyd's situation.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Let's just put it like this, it needed some work.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Right from the numbers he was getting and all these
different things as opposed to what he was supposed to
be getting. And I don't hear that talked about a lot,
because before it was money Mayweather, it was pretty boy Floyd.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
But you taught Floyd the money game.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Me and you used to talk and you was like, man,
Floyd was always worried about I gotta fight him, Jake,
he the best, and you said, don't get caught up in.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
The name game. Be caught up in the money game, right, And.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
You really helped him restructure his situation from a business standpoint,
but even personal, how you move with his money. Can
you tell me about that meeting you had where Floyd.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Senior was there and this was like the start.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
Of you saying, hey, we getting ready to change this
thing and it's gonna be different from here on now.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah. Yeah, that was interesting meeting, you know because you
know during that time, I became a target when I
started managing Floyd, you know, from from the powers that be,
you know what I mean. It definitely top rank building
because you know, Floyd Daddy and his uncle was his

(37:06):
manager at the time, and when I came in, I
saw things where Floyd should have been in control of
that he wasn't and Floyd, you know, I told Floyd,
we had a conversation. I'm like, yo, you know, if
I come in and I can't make your situation better,
you don't owe me nothing. I don't want to, you know,

(37:26):
and I'm not here to try. And you know, get
no free ride based on what you already have. So
you know that particular meeting. What led to that meeting
was the disrespect that was taking place where his father
and him, you know, speaking publicly about one another, and

(37:47):
you know, me being from the South, you know, I
felt it was important. I never liked, you know, to
hear somebody you know, disrespecting their parents, you know what
I mean. They just didn't sit right with me, no
matter otter what the reason would be. So I called
Bob and we agreed to have a meeting just to

(38:08):
allow these guys to you know, come together, meeting of
the mind, to agree to not publicly disrespect one another.
That's what I thought I was coming to a meeting for,
you know, And I got Floyd to agree to do
that with me, because you know, he never you know,
found some type of delight and you know what I mean,

(38:30):
he would just respond when he was being attacked. So
in this restaurant, a real nice restaurant out here, yeah,
out here in Vegas. Me Floyd Bob Maywells Senior and
taught either of the five people at this meeting. And

(38:51):
you know, as we sit there, I saw a note
being passed to, you know, Floyd may Well. And one
of the first things he asked me, uh uh what
you give my son to sign? So I'm like, yo,

(39:12):
mister Maywell, we're not here to talk business. But you know,
if Floyd gave me permission, I no, no, no, no, no, daddy,
we ain't here for that. We ain't here for that.
Yeah that's Floyd Jr. So bamn, I'm like, okay, yeah,
we're not here for that. Right. So uh he comes
somebody passing the glasses and uh the passing, Yeah, passing

(39:37):
the glasses and uh he uh he said, uh uh
you know he's seem to like be getting angry. Man. Uh,
you know, I don't care for somebody put a bullet
in the back of my head, you know, something to that.
And then he stood up, you know and started like

(39:59):
you know, walking my way right, and you know, I'm
I'm sitting there at me. You know me. I'm you know,
I'm always kind of preparing and ready for y'all. Just
gotten trained that way, right. So as I seen him,
you know, come away, I say, mister Maywell, Sir, I say,

(40:21):
you seen to be getting angry. I say, but I
want you to know I can't take no punches, can't
take no punches. So that was my way of letting
them know. You know, I'm not a nice person to be.
You think you fin the tr phone, it ain't gonna
it ain't gonna go right. And uh, Floyd he he
overstood that. Floyd stood up. Floyd like no, no, no, no,

(40:43):
and Floyd stay started taking his jacket off. What Floyd
gonna do? Yeah, Floyd, and then squared up.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
I'm like, whoa she say, Floyd got up, took his
jacket off. Yeah yeah, something to Floyd singing, Well, he
got up, letting him know. You know, my reading of
it is, you got to come through me. You know
what I mean if you think in which I I
think was a really wise decision, You know what I mean,
because I think Floyd, well, Floyd kind of knew, you

(41:12):
know how I was sitting there and I know it
would be better for them to fight if they had
to fight, then for that man to tee off on
me that day, you know what I mean. So I
end up standing between them and I'm like, yo, let's go.
You know, we didn't we didn't come here for this.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
What's bobbing doing when it's going?

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Oh, bobbed them at that point to turn red, stop it,
stop it, you know what I mean. But it had
been already hit that point of no return, you know,
so I'm like, Yo, let's go, man.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
And I think Floyd was one thirty, one thirty five
at that time, one thirty.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
So what I remembered what we talked about.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
The money went up, HBO, license fees, everything went up
exponentially when you came into the picture.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
And to me, that moment you tell me if I'm wrong,
And that moment around.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
That time was was was the catalyst of you going
from just being a good fighter to now you becoming
a businessman.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
And i'm'a help you get there?

Speaker 3 (42:07):
Oh yeah, no, that and that was from day one.
You know, I was expressing to him and setting him
up to be a businessman. But what had happened with
that whole you know, I caught flack from Floyd or
calling a think a twelve million dollar deal that HBO
had offered him a slave contract. And the people at

(42:29):
HBO set Abraham, all these guys, Lou de Bella, they
was highly upset about that situation. So what I'd done
was I'm tryna like put that fired. So I went
and met with the head of HBO at the time
because I wanted to know, how do we get above
and beyond this contract that y'all offer him? He not

(42:52):
happy with that, So how do we give me the
tools to get past that? Because that was my mechanism
of being in business with him, is improving the deal.
And after having a long conversation and listening to Set,
you know, like really express himself being upset about him

(43:13):
publicly calling that a slave contract, he said something real
interesting to me that you know I left with that was, uh,
I think life changing for Floyd. And that was that
Diego Corrales. You know, if y'all not Diego Corrale's office,
you fight Diego Corrales. This contract can be doubled and

(43:36):
up from there. And that's what you know I left
there with, and that's what I had to sell to Floyd.
You know what I mean, I'm like, yo, you say,
this's a slave contract, But here's how we can get
past that and take your career to a whole different level.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
And it was a sale because Floyd didn't wanna fight
Diego Corrals at first.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Yeah. Man, I went over let's see, I went over
floyd house about ten or eleven that night, and I
talked to Floyd for probably four hours or better, trying
to convince him to fight dig or PARALYSI. And Floyd
was telling me that it's not the right time. No no, no, no,

(44:21):
no, no no no no, al Jay no, it ain't the
right time for that right now. I'm like, ain't want
that right now? Yeah, you know what I mean. I'm like, man,
it's perfect time in Floyd. I'm like, yo, I didn't
study this dude. Man, he got a case right now,
you know, with his with his ex wife or fiance.
You know, he didnet jumped on her. Yeah. I'm like,

(44:43):
he distracted, I say, And most of all, we we
got a marketing concept for we can we can say
we're gonna whoop him for all the battle women in
the United States of America. So I'm selling, you know,
all of this to him. Trying to convince him, you know,
and plus you can beat him, you know. I always
felt like he could beat him. So I left there

(45:03):
with him not uh wanna fight Diego. And I came
home in the same house and went to sleep and
woke up and he had left him left me a
message saying, oh, ok Jay, okay, man, I hired you
to be my manager. Man. If you think we should
do it, I'm with it. Let's do it, okay, And

(45:24):
I rejoice for joy, only to to find out that HBO,
you know, they were still kind of tripping and they
were saying, oh, well, we should do this next year.
And this was uh I think this was uh David
toore and and Lenox Lewis fight that we had went

(45:45):
to during that time in some kind of way. So
I came up me coming from the hip hop culture.
I I never was able to get radio in video,
so I used to help to figure out how to
use publicity to sell a record. So I brought that
blueprint to the boxing world. And during that fight, I

(46:06):
came up with the plan. I told Floyd, I said,
We're gonna go to this fight. Diego corral is gonna
be at this fight. Here's what I want you to do.
You know, I'm gonna have the homeless surround Diego Corrales
at the press conference, and I want you to push
him and we're gonna break it up. M because I
felt like that would get enough publicity to kind of

(46:30):
make people want that fight. And uh, it happened just
that way. You know, he pushed Diego, we broke it up.
That was a Saturday, I think that Monday or something
front page in the Sports of Las Vegas, Floyd and
Diego and Charlotte. After I got a call from HBO
saying we got a date.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
They make good on the money, doubling that contract.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Well, yeah, it positioned us to do it. They it
wasn't a one fight situation.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
We got to get this.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
Yeah, we was able to skip the line and went.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
Up here from one of his best performances.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Oh yeah, it took him to a whole different level.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
It's one of his best performances. What is it about
being around Floyd? You know, young Floyd and old Floyd
got a lot of the same similarities, but young Floyd
was more wild. But what was it about him that
that you being around him with people you could say, man,
this is why.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
He became who he became.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
His work ethic, you know, floyd work ethic was. I
would compare him to the binding man, you know what
I mean, because you know I was I was pretty
good at staying up late and doing different things, you know,
being coming from the entertainment industry. But this dude had
an energy man that was was kind of abnormal. No drugs,

(47:49):
no old drugs, no alcohol. Just if anything. I saw
him eating them candies all the time, a sugar high
or something. But this dude, man, we would go and party,
We would go and do things, a lot of things
that that people that drink and get high due. But
this dude would do all of that and then come
home and take off running, you know, six eight miles.

(48:14):
And he was binding man. So his work ethic was
was second or none. You know. He would, you know,
come in that gym and give it it's all.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
You know.

Speaker 3 (48:25):
He wasn't like the type of guy that was spa
and being a rush to leave. He gonna spa, he
gonna hit the bags, he gonna mitch do it all
like he loved it.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yeah, the youngsters don't know.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
He broughtly kept his running shoes and is I he
would leave the club four or.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
Five in the morning and go run ten ten miles
going home.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Yeah. No, he was a beast man. So everything that
he accumulated he deserved, you know from his work ethic
that he he were relentless with his work ethic.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
Now y'all had a good thing.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
From your perspective, why would you say that relationship didn't last?

Speaker 3 (49:00):
OK? I say it didn't last because of the people
around him, you know what I mean. It's always, uh
a challenge when you help someone get to a different level.
There's always a challenge with individuals that's around you won't
your position, you know what I mean, and trying to

(49:20):
like devalue you or different things with they word and
with their words. And it's only the strong, you know
what I mean, the strong could could stand that test
of time y you know, because it's coming, you know,
any anybody where y'all reach a certain level of success together,

(49:41):
the divide and conquer is coming like automatic. Yeah you know,
And I think that, uh, that's what divided us, you know.
I think that was a major part of it. And and
from there, you know, hey, that's how it happened. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
I'm gonna give your flowers, man, because I I.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Don't think that Floyd becomes who he becomes.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Uh without that that period in his life.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
And it's a lot more stuff we ain't even getting
into right now, where you you know, with the spending
habits and and just teaching him. Man, you can't do that, man, Man,
you gotta save you. We gotta do certain things. And
you can only teach a person so much. They gotta
wanna pick.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
It up and run with it.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
But that foundation, Yeah, and not even just what you
told him, it's what you showed him.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Oh Yeah. The most important part that I think that
I shared with Floyd is how to save his life,
you know what I mean? I really believe if he
hadn't learned certain things, they would have killed him out
here in Vegas the way he moved.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Yeah, yeah, cause Vegas is a melting pot.

Speaker 3 (50:50):
Yeah, and you you know, it's a it's an art
to knowing how to move, and you know the calculation
and the thoughts and different things that go into moving.
And he got that, you know what I mean. I
think it was life saving for.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Him before before you laced.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Him just wide open, you know, wide open, and had
a lot of enemies here in Vegas. You know a
lot of streak gang enemies out here in Vegas that uh,
you know, I feel like I contribute to making peace
with and also teaching him how to move where you know,

(51:34):
it wouldn't be as attractive for one to try and
do something to you because they know consequences was was
coming afterwards.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Yeah, man, yeah, I got I extend that to you.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Yeah, because I know a lot of them stories and
even the ones we ain't even touching right now.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
So yeah, yeah, you gotta get your flowers on that one.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
When did Roy come into the picture because you you
didn't manage where you advised him?

Speaker 3 (51:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (51:57):
How did that happen?

Speaker 3 (51:58):
Roy? Man? Was my brother? Man? Uh we connected. I
went to his fight. Uh we fought, uh REGI and
Reggie Johnson? Yeah, oh man, we went to a fight.
I think we had a whole lot of the ward
there and them guys was you know, chen fief Ward

(52:19):
and Roy let loose one of them pieces man and
looked at um say, man, y'all don't start that, you
know what I mean? And uh, afterwards, you know, he
and I had the opportunity to to kick it in
and like really tap into one another on how we
love the same things, you know what I mean? Roy

(52:41):
a country boy color, Yeah, and fifty percent of mes
country the other fifty city. So it was like really
interesting to meet somebody that had all of those love
you know, well chickens and hunting and fishing and all
that kind of stuff. You know what's concern what's a run?

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Was that though?

Speaker 1 (53:01):
When Roy was on that run, man, he was right
there with him, Like what that run feel like being.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Right next to him.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
It's beautiful, man, It's beautiful to see. Roy is a
good dude. It always had a good heart, you know
what I mean, a big heart, a good dude. And
the run was it was amazing to see him because
he worked hard as well, you know what I mean,
he worked hard. So the witness him in the different
camps and see how he was executing that speed that

(53:30):
he had was different, man, really different, really different man,
because I believe Roy was faster than Floyd. When I
would see Roy, you know, with that hand speed hitting
him bag, I'm like, yo, I thought Floyd was faster
than him, But this dude faster than Floyd. Yeah?

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Yeah, did they ever connect cause they seemed like they
was kind of it was respect, but they never really
embraced each other.

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Yeah, nah, I didn't. I never uh, it never was
a big connect action that Roy gave me some wisdom. Well,
fighters was concerned, man, you know. And it was I
remember this situation where James Page and Floyd you know,
we was all out here in Vegas and James Page

(54:16):
went to get in the car with me and Florida
and Florida, no no, no, no, no, no no no, Paige,
you can't get in here. And Page, you know, you know,
they had kind of been clashing a little bit, you know,
Senior and James Page and all of that. And and
Page let me put you, you know, jugging at me. Man.

(54:38):
No whoop you Florida woo me?

Speaker 2 (54:41):
You whoop me?

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Oh we're taking this jewel, Holy jake. So they get
out under the MGM finished square off, and I had
a home as to stop him. I'm like, yo, man,
y'all kill that man. We ain't finna do that, man.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, but don't know James Page from Pittsburgh, California, where
I'm from.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah, man, he couldn't do nothing else. That man can hit.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Them, you man, hit like him to you man. But
but Floyd, you know, he had a way of when
fighters that's close to his fighting weight would come around. Yeah.
It was almost like besize your up type of thing,
you know. Anom Another incident me and him, Vernon Forrest

(55:23):
was riding in Vegas and Floyd was driving, and all
of a sudden, Floyd told me say, yo yo, yo
yo j I'm gonna beat everybody at one thirty five.
I'm gonna beat everybody at one forty. Then I'm gonna
come up and beat everybody at one forty seven. So
I'm sitting back. I'm like, yeah, yeah, so I'm gonna

(55:43):
beat everybody at one forty.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
Burning, like, hold on, Donna, my whit class? What are
you talking about?

Speaker 3 (55:49):
You know what I mean? Floyd emphasized that two or
three times, man, and at that point I know he's jugging,
you know, burning back there. Quiet to strike a deal
with Vernon. Right, we negotiate, man. Vernon got out of
the car. Man. We was walking back to the MGM, like, man,
don't never take me around that dude. Man no more

(56:10):
in life. Man, I ain't here no more from Vernon.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Man, you and Floyd used to have these uh the
stay up competition to see who could stay up.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
All night, who's gonna fall asleep.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
I mean it was a natural. You know, I'm not
in turnal, so you know I could hang with him
to a certain extent. But man, when it started getting
daylight and he kicked in a whole nother you know,
I'm looking at him, like, Yo, what's up with this dude. Man,
dude to come home and jump in the swimming pool,
started swimming laps, you know, after wedding, came out of

(56:43):
the club and it's daylight. I'm like, yo, Yo, this
dude got a different kind of as You're going on
different Yeah, Man, I.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
Only hear your side of the story on this. So
I talked to Roy about this thing.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
You know. Roy moved up to heavyweight.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
St.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
John Ruis went up all these different weight classes. I
was at that fight and I was in an all
gold soup.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
Man.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
I think I had just came back from the Olympics,
so I think I just came back.

Speaker 2 (57:07):
I was about to go win into I think I
just came back. Man.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Roy become a heavyweight Champion of the world, WBA Heavyweight
Champion of the World.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Yeah, you don't go back down when you.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Thene came out and from what me and you have
talked about, you said, Roy said he remembers it different. Yeah,
you said, man, I had Tyson write where we wanted him.
Me and Tyson wasn't really Tyson at that time. It's
still dangerous though. You wanted him to go fight Tyson next.
Get a big bag and then figure out what you
want to do next. But don't go fight Antonio Tarboro
withis show recollection of the Tyson potential deal that was

(57:38):
on the table right.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Now. You know, I ain't took no punches, so my
memory might be a little different. I heard from a
Roy's thing, and that's the home man. You know. I
don't know how it may have, you know, beat it different.
But here's what I remember. Like, I remember me and Roy,
you know, having a conversation about that fight first, and

(58:04):
Rob was telling me he never Tyson, never would. Nobody
could get Tyson to the table. So I'm like, okay,
you know once again, I'm like, oh, that's an opportunity, right,
So I reached out to Mike, and uh, of course Mike,
you know, accept the invitations. So I bring Mike to Houston.

(58:24):
I tell Roy, yo, I got Mike to agree to
come to Houston. Let's let's have a conversation. Let's go
out to my ranch, just us, and we're gonna have
a conversation and make this fight happen. You're like, yeah,
you got him. I'm like, yeah, I got him. Man,
I got the tickets. He he coming this after Luise
or yeah, after race. So Mike show up, Roy show up.

(58:47):
We all drive out to the ranch. You know, you's
evidence of the picture where I'm holding both of their
hands up. And we went in the office and you know,
talked about making that fight.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Oh that picture you got downstairs that said that was
that day.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
I said, my ranch. So we talked about, you know,
making that fight, and we left out there with a
meeting other minds to make that fight happen maybe two times,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (59:13):
And said Mike said we could do it twice.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Yeah, brother, you know Mike was bout it by it then.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
Man.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
So so from now, you know, we even started like
doing the marketing. I remember the Source magazine Hip Hop
Awards where you know, I arranged for Mike and Roy
to announce that they was fighting at the Source Hip
Hop Awards. That's another picture that can be verified, and

(59:43):
from now me and Roy uh decided to bring them
a loop brothers in the owners of the poem at
the time, and I think the Sacramento Kings, because we wanted,
you know, our thing was, let's get a guaranteed twenty
five million for each of us because it's gonna do well,
you know on the paper view crazy view. Yeah, So

(01:00:06):
that that was, you know what I remember us having
in mind. And I remember me and Roy taking a
meeting with the Muloose brother one of them, one or
two of 'em. And the twenty five was I think
the deal breaker because they didn't wanna guarantee the twenty five,
but they mentioned seventeen, you know what I mean, And

(01:00:28):
to me, I'm like, yo, we can get the other
off the pay per view. That's not gonna mean as much,
you know, not getting that guaranteed there, because this this
is gonna be a huge yeah, you know what I mean,
pay per view fight. And somewhere between the weight of
that taking place, you know, I remember Roy telling me, man,

(01:00:52):
I'm gonna go ahead and take this Tarboro fight. You
know I didn't. I done, took his best punch. I'm
gonna say, if he could take mine something to that
that sort. And my thing was, man, you know, this
a bird in the hands. It's big money here, Roy
you know what I mean? Why but you know, you

(01:01:13):
have to respect the decision that a man decided to make.
And that's how that went, you know, for my recollection.
And we know, you know what happened. You know, Tabar
caught him with one, you know, and I saw all
that fly out the window.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
Yeah, I think that fight. I think the john Roeives
fight was ten million guaranteed. I don't know what about
the upside, but I know that the Tarboro fight was
five if I'm not mistaken, somewhere around five or something
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:44):
You member, I don't remember. No, I thought it was
like four. It could have been.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
And then what happened happened.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
Yeah, when you're starting to see this fall out Tarboro
one happened Roy Ekbay he dig it out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
They go back again, and then.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Tarboro shocked the world, stopping Roy Jones and you and
then you see, uh, you see Glenn Johnson. Yeah, you know,
I was in Memphis at that time. I told Royd
his story. Man, when the worst days of my life. Yeah,
it felt like somebody died.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
You know, and uh you seeing is what you're thinking?

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
What you thinking after that heavyweight fight with ruie'z, something
was was lost, you know where his speed was concerned,
maybe in his legs or something. You know, something didn't
come back the same as he was before that heavyweight
So I I think, you know, putting on that weight

(01:02:41):
really like it done something. I don't know how to
from a scientific point of view, I don't know how
to explain it, but I he he never was the
same fighter after that. And roy to me, his speed
was like the key to who he was, you know,
being successful because roy All always had like a lot
of bad habits from a defense perspective as a fighter,

(01:03:04):
but he was so fast nobody could really catch him
with certain things because of his speed. And when that left,
then you know, he was able to be caught with
a lot of things that he wouldn't have been caught
with with the speed. That's the way I feel about it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Was you advising him when it start getting to a
point where a knockout start accumulating, Was you still there?

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
I'm always there with roy you know what I mean,
I'm always there. I'm always you know, giving my mind,
his opinion, you know, on what I feel if he's
asks me different things and whatnot. But you know, Roy
strong minded, you know what I mean, just like all
of us. And you know I just had to be

(01:03:47):
there as a brother for him every time. You know,
I'm rooting for him.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
I'm'a switch gears a little bit as we winding it down.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
You know, my first recollection of me and you talking
was you found me in the trap house man. I'm
talking about landline. I talking about cell phone. I'm talking
about landline. You found me in the trap house man.
And I don't know to this day how that happened.

(01:04:17):
You know, I had a and I'm gonna let you
give your side in a second, but you know I
was struggling, man, I lost my daddy.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
I was in the streets.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
I was in and out and the boxing thing wasn't
really exciting me no more. I had given my whole
life to do that and I was over it really.
But you know, Verge, my training, my guy fire, he
pulling on me. You know, He's like, man, come on,
And I had what I would do is I qualified
beat everybody to get to these nationals. And at that time,
I wouldn't show up to the Nationals. I'm in the
thicker being in the streets and they had the Golden

(01:04:48):
Gloves Nationals in Vegas, and I believe you know, I
don't know if it was.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
You and T, but you showed up. Let me see
this kid ward Man and they and they you just
I wasn't you couldn't. I wasn't here. Yeah, And somehow
you got.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
In touch with Verge and y'all had a conversation that
Versee said, Man, if you help me with this kid,
he gonna bring us a gold medal. And I remember
being on the phone with you, tripping out like, Man,
I don't know how y'all be cause I was ducking verbs.

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Verse couldn't get me.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
But somehow I got on the phone with you, and
I remember telling you everything I was going to say, Man,
I had a baby, man, and you know, I'm trying
to figure I was a kid seventeen years old or
something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
And I'm telling you all my issues.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
I had some legal issues at the time, and I
remember you said, Man, we're gonna take care of all
the misdemeanor problems. You said, but you got to get
back in the ring because God gave you a gift.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
You remember that phone call?

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
Yeah, yeah, I remember that one, and I remember how
it all came to fruition. Before then, this guy, Cameron Duncan,
you know, I rest in peace. Cameron Duncan. I was
having a conversation with him about amateurs and he mentioned you,

(01:05:58):
and he just kind of mentioned he's a great fight,
and he went on to the other fighters. But in
my mind, I'm like, it's just like registered with me
for some reason. And after I got off the phone,
I'm like, yo, what is this andre Ward? Because he
I didn't let him know what I was finna do,
but it meant something to me for some reason, because

(01:06:20):
based on how he like put it, this guy can
really fight, but woo woop, he wouldn't show up and
he's not dependable. Like okay, So I done my due
diligence and I ended up calling Verge and he and I,
you know, we talked for a while feeling one another out.

(01:06:41):
And after we you know, I think came to the
mutual respect of you know, feeling one another out. Verge
you know, he told me, say, man, he said, if
you help me with this kid, he'll win us a
gold medal. I'm like, yeah, and and my first star

(01:07:02):
was I need sin, you know what I mean. I
want to see this one thing hear about everybody brag
about how you know, every fighter you talk to say
I'm a killer, and they train to say he's a killer.
They's been a loss a hundred fights. Yeah, you know
what I mean. So I'm like, I need to see this.
And that's when you and I spoke, and ultimately you
came to Houston, and I think we put you in

(01:07:25):
the ring with a guy a heavyweight was like fifteen
and old or something.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Yeah, we we just spared a heavyweight and I spired
another dude in their name iron Man.

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
I mean iron Man was a cold peep. I'm in
that every time. Come on, yes and come on yes.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Yeah. But you know I left there believer because what
you how you dismountled both of them was like unreal
to me. I'm like, they they came hit him, you
know what I mean, And it was just amazing to
see somebody that young do what you had done to
a pro. And from now, you know, my mindset was,

(01:08:03):
let's equip him, you know, and put him in a
situation where he can focus and won't you know, have
to uh be distracted you know where important things like
family is concerned, because that's important. That's why a lot
of people end up in penitentiaries around the world. That's
why a lot of people end up dying. That's why
a lot of things go on with us, you know,

(01:08:27):
in the hoods, because a lot of people, you know,
feel that way about they families and wanna provide some
kind of way. And too often, too soon, you know, Uh,
a lot of people do it the wrong way and
it it cost them. But you you know one thing
about you, you uh gave your word to me that, yo,

(01:08:51):
we can take care of this. I get focused on this.
You got my ally, you know what I mean. And
you never you never deviated from that.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Ye Man, I was talking to all of the man
I'm talking to Cameron Duncan, Shelley Finkel, you know, they
was they was in high pursuit. And but what was
different about you is I couldn't I couldn't really relate
to them, you know, I couldn't relate to them. But
when I would come to Houston for the first couple
of times, and man, I'm seeing how you move it
and I'm seeing the respect you got.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
And I'm seeing that the cars you.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
Drive, and I'm seeing the houses you living in, but
I'm seeing the homies and the respect. You know, it
wasn't like these dudes even though they worked for it
wasn't like they was workers.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
It was like, man, they really love this man. And
then they.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Embraced me, and it felt like a family situation. So
the mother guy, I said this in my book. You know,
they didn't have a shot because I'm a young kid
that's impressionable and I'm in the streets and I'm seeing
somebody that came out of the streets. We share the
same faith, and it just you were speaking my language.
And but you also wasn't intimidated about what I was
going through. You know, in fact, you was unimpressed by it.

(01:09:54):
You know, you called a misdemeaning problem. And I think
that was it for me, you know, And from that
point on, man, I just needed to Uh. I needed
to rededicate my life to God and get you know,
the bad habits out of my system and heal from
the stuff I had been going through. And uh, man,
I kept my word, you know, I kept my word.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
I went to I went to Greece and we were
we were rocking all the way, you know, from the
time we met, all the way through through the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
I was here.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
We turned pro. But man, I kept my word. I
brought that gold medal back. And then uh, you know,
we locked in a situation and you became my manager.
Yeah right, and we had a we had a tremendous room.

Speaker 3 (01:10:32):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:10:32):
And you know the thing I'm one of the things
I'm most grateful for is the business aspect of the
game that I learned.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
You know, you remember this. You know I used to
get real upset.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
You know you have an HBO or somebody. Man, you're
our guy. We love you. Okay, Man, we'll talk to
us next week and send us the offer. The offer
don't match the talk. And you know, being young in business,
I'm taking they're personal.

Speaker 2 (01:11:01):
How they gonna offer this. Man, They just said I
was their god.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
They wanted to build around me, and I remember you
showing me, Oh no, I don't relax.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
It's just the first offer. We gonna get what we
need to get. We just got to figure out how
to do it. And I learned to take a step back,
take a deep breath, and then use my mind and.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
Allow God to help me with strategy. Okay, well y'all
say this, but what about you say the same possible?

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
But why not?

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
So that's one of the things, man, I'm most grateful
for in our relationship because I use that to this day.
I don't care, you know how the person tell me
the other day somebody I'm a business with it. Man,
you know you can't. You never get what you want.
You know, you never get what you deserve. And I
had to stop him. I said no, I said, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
I don't believe that. I don't operate like that.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
I believe that I'm gonna get what's coming to me,
what's mine and what I'm I feel like I'm gonna
get what I'm supposed to get. I don't even think
like that. I don't even let that end in my mind.
So I live by that to this day. But I
want to jump to the to the Super six man.
We you know, it's his tournament with the with these
six fighters and promoters coming together, and I remember I'm
in Mexico on vacation and it's it's starting to build

(01:12:07):
steam and I'm talking to you, you like Dre, I
don't think it's gonna happen, and I'm like, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
Cool, I'm going on vacation. But it's it's it's forming quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:12:17):
So I'm seeing a little reports online and stuffing, like, man,
these dude's going to they're gonna do the kickoff press
conference in New York. And then you like, Dre, I
don't think it's gonna happen. And then Verge he said, man,
it's gonna happen. Right then we ended up coming together
and it was Verds like, man, you you missed the
first You gotta he say, you gotta get to Germany
for the second leg of this press conference.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
Man, you can't. If you let this pass you by, man,
you're gonna be You're gonna regret it. I mean, if
I had a double ear infection, I'm sick.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
I had to drive to the airport, drive my family
off back home, and get to uh, get to Germany
announce this fight. But when my deal was done, I
was the only one that didn't travel international. But I
never asked you. You and Josh, you know, our good
friend and my lawyer that's been on me for a
long time.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
I never said told you I didn't want to travel.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
How did y'all position me with that super six negotiation
to keep everything at home?

Speaker 3 (01:13:11):
Yeah, that was that was a strategy that we had.
We never we felt it was risky and we didn't
trust you being in the hands of the judges and
different things overseas because a lot of those promoters, you know,
I felt they had leverage there. So one of the

(01:13:31):
ways that I remember us positioning you to do that
is by taking the fight. What's the guy named Kessler?
Kessler exactly, you know what I mean. So we, you know,
took the big bad Wolf and positioned you, you know,
because they felt like, oh, that would be your last thing, right,

(01:13:54):
you know, and none of that would matter no more
because you would be out. So we took on a
big bad wolf, and we know what happened. You know,
we all witness what you've done to the big bad wolf.
But that was the leveraging tool that that really gave
us the the leverage to not have to go over
that at all.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
And he was so arrogant that he just accepted fighting
in Oakland.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
Oh yeah, no, they I mean, he could up his
whole team, everybody, all the other fighters. They wouldn't say
it today, but everybody felt like he would beat you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
Yeah, man, as we want march to the super six.

Speaker 1 (01:14:27):
You know in boxing it's almost inevitable you're gonna have
some trouble.

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Yeah, it ain't win.

Speaker 2 (01:14:33):
It's just it ain't if it's win and how often?

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
Oh yeah, And you.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Know I'm gonna start with our situations you talked about
in our book. You know, we probably had two deskteps
in life and all the years I've been knowing you
around trying to get this typework right, the Lakers right
in this contracts right. But you know we had disputes
about the contract. We saw a different. I ended up
filing a lawsuit. Yeah, which is big for me, man,

(01:15:00):
because you know, I'm like, man, I had so much
respect for you, but I was also fighting for my
respect and you saw different. You like, man, it ain't
nothing to fight for it. This contract is back. I'm like, nah,
I know it's not. And I remember I knew you
had been served with the contract, but I hadn't heard
from you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
So I'm waiting on it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
I'm waiting.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
I said, it's coming.

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
I don't know when you're gonna show up, And it's coming.
I remember it's like two in the morning. Man, I
see my phone ring. It's private number.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
I said, here we go, So I say hello, he said, yeah,
so I knew who it was. I'm like, who is this?

Speaker 1 (01:15:37):
He said, They called me James Print. I said, oh, Man,
we go there? He said, what's this here? With this
this lawsuit that I got here?

Speaker 3 (01:15:46):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
I said, Man, Jay, I've been trying to tell you, Man,
it is dad of day.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
I'm going through my whole thing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
And you said, Man, we ain't supposed to be suing
each other. Man were Christians? Man, I said, I.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Know, I've been trying to explain it. I've been talking
to you the whole time.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16:02):
And you said, okay, well I gotta uh, I need
to go see what I gotta do now.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
I need to go go figure this out. A boom.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
We both filed and thankfully it didn't get to the press.
It stayed under the radar. But something happened, you know,
just a couple of months, past or whatever and you
called me and you said, man, are you willing to
meet what's your pastor?

Speaker 3 (01:16:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
Right, you and your pastor flew to Oakland and met
with me and my pastor and my pastor. Man just
basically what you want, what you're trying to get out
of this with Dre what you want? He just he
mediated it from a godly standpoint. We stayed there three
four hours. When we left out of there, we had
a new deal. What you remember from.

Speaker 3 (01:16:42):
That time, Oh, man, I remember it just like that,
you know what I mean? And I think it was
so different the way we handled that. It was so
like a normal and unusual. I never I never heard
of that happening, you know, and I witness like a
mini deals, but I never heard it being done that

(01:17:04):
way where we use our faith to come together with
you know, our pastors. We listened to those guys every
Sunday and we believed in the words, So what better
mediat us to have before us where we was in disagreement?
And you know, those guys came together. Man, it was harmony.

(01:17:27):
You know, it wasn't no you know, nobody was trying
to hustle, nobody like lawyers you know do when they
in the room with one another. And we left out
of that man with a whole new journey. And we've
been together ever since.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
I mean, we got we got stronger.

Speaker 1 (01:17:43):
Yeah, And you said in your book that at first,
you took the lawsuit that I find a disrespect to
realize that I was just.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
Trying to get my respective Yeah, yeah, no, I agree
with that to this day. You know what I mean,
because originally when I saw it, I'm like, Yo, the
dude doing we Yeah, you know what I mean. As
I say, we were brothers in Christ and but at
the at the same time, you know, in retrospect, when
you look at you, was trying to be heard and

(01:18:12):
I was l I was a deafear whatever was concerned
because our we we're too strong minded individuals that felt
like we were both right and we both could have
been right. But that wasn't a point, you know what
I mean. The point was figuring out how to move
forward in harmony, so we, you know, got the tools

(01:18:33):
that was necessary that was attached to our faith. Matter
of fact, our whole career was based off of that.
You know what I mean. From that day forward, I
knew you were different. I knew you was a fighter
that was connected. So I'm always like straight with how
the Spirit leading you? Yeah, you know what I mean,

(01:18:55):
I'm like, how the Spirit because I wanted, Yeah, I
want to be in obedience to how the spirit was
leading you. And then from now, I don't care who
it was, y'all, bring it on. I'm with him, you
know what I mean. And that's the way we rocked out.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
We got stronger after that, man. And then you know,
not longer after that, we found ourselves in another speak
with the promoter. And we can't get too much into it,
but not the details of that, but just.

Speaker 2 (01:19:21):
Everything we was dealing with.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
What do you remember from that time and even how
you saw me dealing with that because I'm out to
ring for two years.

Speaker 3 (01:19:28):
Yeah, that was that was tough, you know what I mean?
That was tough because you know, overstanding the importance of
a fighter being active and overstanding at the time. You know,
like no other businesses, you have a time slot to

(01:19:49):
do what you have to do. So when we had
to lock arms and go to war, you know, with
the promoter, you know, it's something that that I was
just with you on. I didn't care you know how
nobody looked at it, you know what I mean. You
you know, once again, we wanted that respect, We wanted

(01:20:11):
to go to the next level. We wanted to do things,
and uh, I'm like, let's roll and we done just
that and we became victorious.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
Tell me about the rock Nation thing, whatever you can share,
because you know, I'm grateful man that I learned the business,
like business in general, how to manage my money because
two years money going out and no money coming in.

Speaker 2 (01:20:32):
But I didn't pan it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
And I also didn't allow myself to be put in
a situation that a lot of fighters get put into
where even though you you might have a real solid argument,
but you can't you can't fight your your.

Speaker 2 (01:20:43):
Position because you need money.

Speaker 3 (01:20:45):
Yeah, and as soon.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
As that promoter or somebody know the network, no you
need money, you lose all.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
All all the strength that you had because you gotta fight, right.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
I wasn't in that position, even though it wasn't a
comfortable season for me. But rock Nation come around, man,
and I made and I say this a lot, in
three years then what I did the first ten years
in my career, Like God gave me double for my trouble. Yeah,
how did the rock Nation thing come about? Because it
wasn't on my radar.

Speaker 3 (01:21:13):
Yeah, no, it wasn't even on rock Nation radar. You know.
That's that came about One night in Houston, me and
Jay Z was in the club together with a few
other artists, and you know, I planted the seed of
them getting in the boxing, and you know, he embraced that.

(01:21:37):
So it was a follow up from that seed being
planted and when opportunity presented itself with you know, our
thing that we was going through because we was you
know what I mean, even though with them not being
in the picture, we were still fight you know what
I mean, we spending our own money fighting. So after

(01:21:59):
speaking with him him and following up on that, you know,
with a few other conversations, I was able to convince
him to come in and uh, you know, become a promoter,
you know, with rock Nation. Uh. Probably done it for
other reasons as well, but for sure, I know he
embraced us based on our relationship and as you say,

(01:22:20):
you know, it was a real fruitful relationship and all
the the litigation and all of that, you know, was settled. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
Yeah, tell me about them last two fights that I had,
you know, when you first started hearing about covial age
and HBO like.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
That's where they wanted me to fight.

Speaker 3 (01:22:45):
Yeah, he was a boogeyman. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Once again, cover Logue was a boogey man, he had
beat Bnard Hopkins, he had beat you know.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
One of do his home country, stopping them.

Speaker 3 (01:22:57):
And he was beating them with you know, knockout. This
dude was the boogeyman. So yeah, you know we welcomed
that situation. We've done the negotiation around it that you know,
we all left the table, uh happy, and from now
you delivered.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
I mean we did so good that you know in
the build up to the fight, Kathy Due, I mean
I ain't never heard the promoter get mad at that's.

Speaker 3 (01:23:23):
What we're making.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
Yeah, like you need to give your fighter more. You
figure that out over there. I can't believe they made this, Like,
why you mad at what we making?

Speaker 3 (01:23:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
I never heard that before.

Speaker 3 (01:23:33):
Yeah, well not publicly the way she done it. So
she had to really be mad to blurt that out,
you know what I mean amongst the public like that.
But you know, all of us put our head together,
and you know that was your work at the time.
You know, all the sacrifices that you had made prior
to getting to them meant something. And you know when

(01:23:55):
we went to that table, you know, it was only
fair them.

Speaker 1 (01:24:00):
The conversation man, that first fight, what you thinking when
I go down in that second.

Speaker 3 (01:24:04):
Round, whoa. You know, it wasn't so much of how
you went down. I was glad to see you get up,
but you know, to see you go down like that,
you know, I didn't It was it was kind of
nerve wrecking. But when I saw you get up like
not wobbling all over the place, then I knew you

(01:24:27):
knew how to adjest. Yeah, and then.

Speaker 1 (01:24:31):
We get you know, we had a you know, it's
always a fight, but we had to fight a little
bit to get the money up for the second fight,
which is normal in the sport. Yeah, did you have
any idea that that might be my last fight?

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
Nah?

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
You wasn't even on your radar?

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
No, no, not at all. I didn't, Uh I. I
was kind of shocked to hit that, you know, I
was shocked to hit that. And you know when you
told me that, you know, you was, you know, kind
of confirmed it to me. Mean that you know, this
was a high calling from up above, you know what
I mean, like the spirit of Guarded. And my thing was,

(01:25:10):
you know what Guard is saying this to you?

Speaker 2 (01:25:14):
I think you're saying something like that. When I called
you what spirit? You sure? Sure you checked up. Make
sure it's the right spirit.

Speaker 3 (01:25:23):
You know. But I said, what guy? Yeah, So you
know I understand though, for you to be taking that
position like that, you know, I had to come, you know,
to the reality and like, Okay, this he's serious, you
know what I mean. It's the same spirit I've been
asking him about his whole career. What how your spirit?

(01:25:43):
What it's saying to you? So I ain't no need
of like acting like it's a different spirit now that
it's over, you know what I mean. He has to
change one.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
You had to check them.

Speaker 1 (01:25:57):
And I remember, you know, uh, well, first of all,
let me say this isn't gonna get back to that, like,
you know, coming back that second fight and closing it
out like that and leaving no doubt, like what was
that feeling for y'all?

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Felt like that was a win for us?

Speaker 3 (01:26:10):
Oh man, A big win for us, you know what
I mean. If I would have known that was the
last fight, then it would have even been I could
have like put it all, Oh, this is the end,
and it's even But to see, you know, the way
you went out and the way you destroyed this dude,

(01:26:31):
the last fight man was you know, I lived with
that jard today. You know what I mean, I'm proud
of that moaning. I'm proud of our journey and for
you to put the stamp on it the way you
put the stamp on it. To me, it's just confirmation, man,
of what you know the creator had planned.

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
Yeah, Man, I you know theday I called you, Man,
I ain't want to call it.

Speaker 2 (01:26:55):
I think he was one of the last ones I called.
I said, boy, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be
tough because I knew it was left field.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
I knew it was left field, and I had been
feeling it for the last couple of years, dealing with
injuries and just you know this thing, the sports just start,
they start weighing on you because I really went about
my craft a certain kind of way, like I didn't
play with it and that you know, you make it
look easy, but that sacrifice, yeah, keeping your weight down,
leaving your family on vacation, Like, man, I can't eat that.

(01:27:21):
I got it all of that for twenty some years. Man,
it start to add up.

Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:27:27):
You know when I did make the call, you know,
I could tell you a shock. Yeah, but you you
shifted quickly, man, and you showed support, and you showed
support this last seven eight years.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
Now, one time, if you said, man, you gotta come back,
you gotta figure this out, you said, Man, whatever you
want to do, I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:27:42):
Gonna support you.

Speaker 3 (01:27:43):
Man. Yeah. Yeah, because I overstood, man, that it was
a high power talking to you. You know, when a
man like I walk and our journey, you know, as
Christian man, we'll test it. And when that much money
is being offered and you know the possibilities of being

(01:28:05):
able to make twenty five fifty me or whatever, and
you stand stern, you stand strong where your faith is concerned.
That means something that's much strong than just lip service,
you know what I mean. And that's the type of
guy that you have been the whole journey, you know
what I mean. You you didn't just talk to talk,

(01:28:26):
You walk the walk. And I was inspired by that,
you know what I mean. I gained strength from that,
you know, because that's really as a get you know
what I mean. A whole lot of people talk about it,
you know, talk to talk, but when you walk in
the walk, mores caught them talk, man, and none of
that mattered with you. What the spirit was concerned when

(01:28:48):
it was speaking to you. And that's the type of
man that you are, and the type of man you
always been that I witness. Yeah, and I gotta end
on that note. Man, got leave it, bro.

Speaker 1 (01:28:59):
Man, I appreciate you another episode of the Art Award.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
I appreciate y'all for stopping Virom.

Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:29:03):
We're gonna see y'all next time.

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