S2 E32 | The Mental Game of Boxing: Stevie Morgan's Path to Championship - Happy Hour Holidaze

Episode Transcript
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Sean Febre & Manny Febre (00:00):
All right, everybody, welcome to
Happy Hour Holidays, the podcastwhere we cheers to business,
entrepreneurship and lifestories.
We want you to go out there andfollow your dreams and make
them happen.
Get off your ass, stopscrolling, and go out there and
make it happen.
I'm your host every single weekManny Fresh, we got the resume,
sean Fabre, and in studio todaywe got a fighter Watch out, rip

(00:21):
your ass Stevie Morgan in thehouse, lightweight fighter.
She's got a big old fightcoming on April 26th.
We're excited about it.
Everybody else is excited aboutit.
What's up, stevie?
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, I know, great.
So I mean Vince.
Obviously you guys know Vince,right, mm-hmm.
So you know we reallyappreciate Youngest in the Yacht
Club giving us, uh, stevie,yeah, mr rano.

(00:42):
So, stevie, tell us a littlebit about you know you're up
like I would say.
You know we always start off inhigh school because you know
that's when we're really kind ofgetting into life.
What kind of influenced you?
Or you know, wanted you to be afighter, or you know?
Tell me a little bit about yourstory on how you got to this
point.
Um, from from that point on, orif it's earlier on, you know
that's cool's cool too.

Stevie Morgan (01:03):
No, boxing came later, but I was always an
athlete growing up in school,middle school and high school.
I ran track, played basketball.
I played HCC for a year, oh soyou're from Tampa.
Yeah, born and raised here.
Oh, yeah, went to Gaither HighSchool, gaither, we went to
Sickles.
Okay, we were rivals.
We're rivals, big rivals.

You know they said that.
But I'm like, you know, I wasnever an alma mater kind of guy,
you know?
Yeah, same.
But, then Alonzo came along,and then Alonzo I mean because
it was Gaither first, thenSickles, then Alonzo came along,
and then Sickles and Alonzo.

But I think overall it was always Gaither
against Sickles.
Yeah, gaither and Sickles wasalways the biggest rival, I
think when I was there what wereyou running in track and field?
I ran uh early on, like middleschool and right when I started
high school it's a hundred and200.
Then it turned into the 400.

Oh shit.
So like Shaquiri Williams typeshit right.

I was a good 400 runner, for sure.

Yeah.

Monyette (01:55):
Yeah so so so did that , played basketball went to
college for a year.

Anything, yeah, I wasn't tall enough, so
transitioned into boxing.
I played the Tampa Breeze.
Oh, the lingerie footballleague.
Yep, I know a couple two girlson that team.

You dated two girls on that team.
I think it was Elise Zuckelmanand Alexis.
She had Hyman or Hammond.

She might have been after me.
Yeah, she might, elise, I know,yeah, elise, yeah, yeah, shout
out to Elise.

Yeah, that was a pretty cool concept.
I mean, is it still going onright now?

I believe so.
I'm not sure.
I think it's way more organizedthan it was.
We kind of like pioneered it.

Yeah, was it physical though?
Yeah, I know it was pads on,but it was just lingerie on.

Yeah, we were hitting for real and no
protection Did you ever getinjured?

No, no .

Some teammates did, but I never did.
Yeah, yeah.

So where did you transition into
fighting then?

Wandered into a boxing gym.
I had some friends that boxedand wandered into a gym and
naturally I just like to compete, so I wanted to do it as well.
There was a little girl thatwas training in there.
She was like I don't know,probably 12 years old or so, and
I was like dang, I want to belike this little girl.
So, yeah, I fell in love withit then and in and out of my

(03:25):
life boxing.
You know, boxing is a weirdstory for me, but finally ended
up around Coach Moniette,moniette shout out to Moniette
right here, man, he's over here,he's on another level.

He didn't want to jump on the
camera, but we'll get him again,man, so he's the one with fully
, so he's fully training you asfar as the 100%.
Oh, that's awesome.

Yeah.

That's great.

I had an amateur coach.
Monyet's been in and out Likehe's been around my whole
amateur career.
But I had an amateur coach,john Casella.
He kind of got me started andif it wasn't for him I probably
would have never ran into Monyet.

Is there something that you like
about fighting, like gettinganger aggression out, or
something like that?

I mean.

I mean , I know you like competing yeah
competing.

I don't know you get to like hurt people and get
away with it.

You have to have.
I guess you have to.
What is it?
You have to be licensed throughthe Professional Boxing
Association, pba, right?
Is that what it is, or is itPBR in order to fight
professionally.

Every state has.
Just you have to be yeah, youhave to be licensed, for sure,
and every state has a differentlicense.

Did you ever like get into scraps
when you were in like middleschool?

or high school.
No, I wish.

You wish, yeah, yeah, now, with no
one would you know.

Yeah, no, I've never been in a street fight,
it's on my bucket list.

Oh shit.
So April 26th, you got a bigfight coming out.
Where is it at?

So April 26th we're fighting in Medellin.
Colombia.

Oh shit, I get to be a two-time
world champion.

So it's a big fight, a big step up.
We'll be fighting for a WBCbelt, not the world title title,
but at one of the regionalbelts.

So it's a big fight.
Damn so how many people?
So what's your record right now?

currently, I'm 15 and 2 15 and 2 damn.

So you fought quite a few fights
already.
Yeah, what's been your, what'sbeen your toughest one so far uh
, my toughest one was amandaserano.
Amanda Serrano.
Yeah, she was tough.
How long does it normally lastthese fights?
Because is it like three roundsor is it five rounds?

They're all different, so most of my fights
are 10 round fights now,although we'd be getting them
out of there in like one round.

Oh, okay, so I have 13 knockouts, 13
knockouts.
What happened to the two thatyou lost?
Was it like the beginning ofyour career?

One was a big first step up and I really won
the fight.
They just didn't give it to me,so I feel like I got robbed.
That fight it was a splitdecision, it was a majority
decision.

Oh, it was, it was a super close fight
.

I knock girls out .
That's what we do.
And I didn't knock her out, sothe judges probably felt she
deserved it.
And then my second loss wasAmanda Serrano.
So she's the greatest femalefighter in the world.
You can't really knock it Damn.

So I mean, as far as getting into
professionally boxing, I knowyou walked into the gym.
You're like, hey, I want to belike this chick, but what made
you pursue it professionally?

So my first goal I wanted to be an Olympian.
I didn't really not that Ididn't care too much about
turning professional, but Ididn't really think too much
about it.
I just really wanted to be anOlympian for whatever reason,
and I wanted to be the best.
And so when I started competingas an amateur, that was the
goal was to be number one in theworld, and we went for it.

(06:49):
I started kind of late.
As you know, boxing usuallystart when you're young and my
first amateur fight was when Iwas 28 years old, so started
late, worked really hard and wewere able to like you know,
close the gap somewhat and wemade it to number three in the
country number three in thecountry number three in the
united states, and then you gotto be number one or number two
to be able to compete to go tothe olympics.

so we got close damn well, it's not
over yet, right?
I mean, you can still go for noI because I mean, the olympics
are going to be held in theunited states next summer.
Olympics right is what we'retalking about and boxing is in
the summer olympics I think yeah, but now I'm professional, so
so we're way past oh okay, sothen all right.

So only amateurs can fight in the olympics I
think, I think you can turn pronow and be an olympian.

But hey, you really just don't want
to do it yeah, I've knew whatdoes stevie do outside of boxing
, outside of boxing?
Or is boxing consumed yourwhole world?
Boxing is pretty much my lifeno, but you gotta have something
for fun right for fun, yeah I'man entrepreneur, so I have my

(07:58):
own business.

I've had for about 11 years and we do grab
and go food at the airport.
Okay, yeah, so I have thatgoing.

For Tampa, tpa or TIA, I think, is
what it's called.
Yeah, can you tell us a littlebit about that?

So I started as a meal delivery service.
It was called Cater Me Fit andI was the first meal delivery
service in Tampa.
We had shoot.
I had like 40 employees upuntil COVID hit and when COVID
hit just had to shut it down.
And when the airport reopenedwe kept that side of the
business going and yeah, Was itkind of like?

what's that place off of just north of
Wine Ball that Johnny's momused to work at, Dinner Done?
Have you ever heard of Dinner?

Done.
Oh yeah, so like walk in andmake their dinner.

Well, it's just, they give you like an
almost done meal and then youjust take it home, you pop it
into the oven.
Is that kind of what it is?
It?

was like.
The meal delivery service wasmore for busy professionals and
athletes that wanted to eathealthy, so we delivered your
breakfast, lunch and dinnerright to your house.
And then shut it down in 2020?
Mm-hmm.

Okay, do you follow any?

sports other than boxing.
I mean women's basketball, yeah.

Yeah, All right.
So great debate here.
Kaitlyn Clark or Angel Reese.

I'm a Kaitlyn Clark fan.
Yeah, me too.

Yeah, shout out right.
Yeah, I mean shit.
So what do you think when AngelReese says yo, they're watching
, because of me too, but Kaylaand Clark's putting up the
numbers?

I'm not going to get in the middle of that.

No.

No.

So what does it take to be a boxer
of your level?
Like what kind of dedication?
What are we talking about dayin and day out?

I think the most important thing is a good team
and a good coach.
So I would say that's like,first and foremost, aside from
the discipline and the hard work, definitely your team and who's
you know who's teaching youeverything.
So number one as far as thediscipline and the hard work.
Like you have to work harderthan everybody all the time.
It's a it's all day thing.

(10:00):
It's 24 hours a day, seven daysa week, no days off, like it's
a constant grind.

Can you take us through your daily
routine then?

So a typical, especially in camp.
So in camp I mean, he'll tellyou better than me.
But let's say, like, wake up at4.30 and run, come back, rest,
eat, run how far it depends onthe day, but three to four miles
typically on a Monday throughFriday.
We do 10 on Saturdays.

(10:29):
So do that Go to the gym at8.30.
Come back, rest, recover, goback at 2.30.
Come back, rest, recover andback at it at 7.

Holy shit.
So what do you do for themental aspect of it?
Because physical is one thing,one thing.
But when it comes to mental,when you're talking about, hey,
I want to be the best in thewhole world, what, what do you
do?
Or what, who's your mentor?
Or what else do you have thathelps you with your mental game?
Because I mean, I feel like insports, I mean that's the number
one thing.
I mean you could be as physicalas you want, you can be as
talented as you want, but if youdon't have the mental game,

(11:00):
you're gonna fucking fall apart.
There's a lot of athletes thathave mental coaches.

There's such a thing I didn't know that was a
thing until I did get into thelevel that we have.
Mignet tells the truth all thetime.
He always takes you throughthose mental reps.
It's a lot in training tooNever pushing yourself past
where your body can go every day, no matter what, no matter how
you feel, no matter if you'resick we're still in there.

(11:28):
If you have COVID, we're stillin there.
Something hurts you're still inthere.
So like coming in the gym andgiving yourself like a thousand
percent every day, no matterwhat, and just putting yourself
through those mental reps allthe time.

Yeah, yeah.
And how does it get to thepoint where what was one of
those inflection points whereyou're like, damn man, like can
I be number one, or was yourmindset always?
I don't give a shit?
I never had like a like youknow, a point where you're just
like maybe this is not for me,or was it always?
No, this is for me, this iswhat I'm going to do.

This is.
This is for me, so it's like itdoesn't matter.
Maybe it's going to take 10years.
Maybe, it's going to take 20,.
You know, maybe it'll take two,but it's going to.
It's going to work out for meLike there's no and that's just
with everything in in our life,like whatever you want to do,
you can do it.
For sure it's not like there'sno plan B.

You just literally always had a
killer mentality.
I'm not going to fail.
I'm always going to achievewhat I set out to achieve.

Yeah, and not just in boxing, that's in
everything in life.

Yeah, and what is the driving factor
behind that?
I mean, did you, I guess, havea hard childhood, or something
like that?

I mean everybody has a story right.

Yeah.

We want to know your story.
Just typical dysfunction, likeI don't know it, it's not really
.
I don't say that it motivatesme at all.
I don't think I've you know ifthat makes sense but it builds
up some anger.

Maybe well, maybe not anger motivation
driving factor, wanting tosucceed at something that you,
because it seems like you neverdoubted yourself thatyou can
be a champion, which is whatchampions are made of right yep,
definitely.

Um, we always aim , you know, ever since, even as
an amateur.
It was always we're trainingfor the number one girl in the
world, and even now we'retraining for the number one girl
in the world and we go forperfection and what's what's be
close?
You know you might not reach it, but you're gonna get close.
So I don't know, we neverreally knew how far.
We never really know, like, howfar we're gonna go in this or

(13:29):
where you're gonna end up, butit's like the journey that we've
are in love with right.

Yeah, they say uh, shoot for the stars
because, or no, shoot for themoon because, you'll still end
up in the stars.
Yeah, how did you end up on thelingerie football like how was
that like transition, because Iknow that was you started off
like right when it started.
So how did that wholeorganization kind of start and
how did you get involved in it?

same thing, I'm just competitive.
I overheard some people talkingabout it and I was like there's
women's tackle football, like Iwant to do that, and uh, found
out who I needed to talk to, howto try out, and yeah, what was
the?
Pay like it was crappy.
It was like 50 bucks a game.

Are you shitting?

me Mm-mm.

It was like a professional cheerleader
.
You know they don't make money,Weren't they selling tickets at
like $25 or something perperson.
It was in Emily Arena, wasn't?

it.

I mean , would they get packed?
Yeah, it was sold out.
Yeah, and yeah, we didn't get50 bucks a game.

I think now the girls have contracts.
Yeah, I think it's a littlebetter, so they didn't even
start none whatsoever.

And then, like I mean, I'm assuming
as a professional boxer you havecontracts, do you have an agent
?
My manager and trainer manager,yeah, so boxing is a little bit
different from like, say uh,football or soccer, hockey,
basketball probably.

Uh, I mean, I don't know like some, some
fighters have agents, I'm sure,or promoters and different
managers and stuff.
I just got lucky and have themall in one.

So then, when you fly out to
Colombia and you're about to boxin Medellin, are you doing
anything in Colombia?
Are you sightseeing, Are youhaving a good time or are you
just like 100% focused?
Nothing could deter you andyou're just in the hotel room
waiting for the fight.

Yeah, we travel all over the world but we don't
really see everything, becausewhen you're going for a fight,
you know you have I wouldn't saybutterflies, but you know
you're focused on the fight.
So to do anything before thefight is never going to happen,
and then we just go handlebusiness and leave.

So, yeah, yeah, so it's a
sightseeing going on.
Does this sound like a job?
Then it's like a job almost,unless you really like it.
It's my job for sure.

Yeah, yeah absolutely, um, I guess, uh.
Another question here iswhere's the coolest place that
you've been to?

Sean Febre & Manny Febr (15:54):
coolest place I've been to, hey she's
like I can't really rememberbecause all I was worried about
is knocking the when I talk tostevie, I feel like stevie's, so
that you know it's just likethere's nothing else.
I don't know the coolest placeor, you know, like some place
that you enjoyed.
I mean, I know you really don'tget to sightsee or anything
because you're just focused onripping somebody's head off, but
at the same, time there's gotto be something memorable.

I mean Columbia's pretty cool.

Yeah, I've been there a couple times
and food's good well, when itcomes to the boxing aspect of it
and the, the professional tour,I mean, how many places are you
traveling?
It's all over the world, or isit just on the united states?

oh no, we fight in the united states all over
the world.
Uh, for sparring.

We travel all over the world, so
you know we're all over now asfar as like, uh, do you have, do
you have a lot of like sponsorsor something to kind of keep
the cost going when it, whenyou're going to all these
different places, cause I meanit's costly and I mean what,
what?
What are we talking about whenyou went about, or when you
fighting about, like, how muchmoney are you making over here?
What are the purses?

like.
I mean, they vary, they vary.
So sometimes you're not gettingpaid.
Sometimes you're getting paidgood, but you know the purses
vary.
Yes, then we.
You're getting paid good, butyou know the purchase vary.
Uh, yes, that we do getsponsors for each fight, or I've
had good sponsors along the way, for sure.
Um, looking for sponsors therewe go.

Want to shout out any of your
sponsors?

right now.
Do we want to shout out anysponsors at this moment?
Oh yeah, we have a esposito law, a law firm here in tampa
actually I've heard of this,yeah cool guy, uh, hot work,
sponsors me um college hunkshauling junk oh, fuck yeah yeah,
roman and omar they.

They've been um helping me out since I
turned pro, so yeah how do yougo about, like, do they reach
out to you or do you reach outto them?
Do you have a team that isactively searching for sponsors
for you, or how does that work?

Sometimes they reach out.
Luckily, I've met in thebusiness community.
I've come across a lot ofpeople and was able to network,
have a team that helps me outtoo, so it's kind of a team
effort.

What would you say is probably the
biggest obstacle an up andcoming fighter as a female has
to face if they want to be atthe level that you want to be?

The biggest obstacle for a woman, I would
say, is the pay.

It is.

Yeah, because we have to do all the same things
that men have to do.
We still have to train threetimes a day to be on this level,
right.
So to be on this level takes100% dedication, like there is
nothing else you can do, and wejust, you know, at least men are
getting paid for it so they canafford to live that life, and
as a woman it's just not.

So what would you say?
So then, do you have to, liketake other jobs as well when
you're up and coming, in orderto be able to?
I mean a?

lot of women are entrepreneurs, a lot of fighters
have jobs, but that will alsohinder you from making it to the
level.

Because you can't afford enough time to
just commit to it for whatsounds like 16 hours a day.

Exactly, it's your life, so there is no time
for a job.

How'd you overcome that?

I've had my own business, and probably the
biggest reason that I startedthe business was because I
learned when I was playingbasketball.
I was only able to come in andtrain one time and I had to go
leave for a job and the coachwas like the girls are saying,
oh, they're coming back fortheir second and third training
session of the day.
I'm like, dang, what if I couldtrain three times a day?
Like how much better could I be?

(19:31):
And so that's always been.
That's what kind of like turnedme into an animal to create, to
think of you know what can I do?
That could work itself so thatI could focus on what I want to
do.

So you've also had amateur fights,
I'm assuming right.
How many fights in the amateurranks did you have before you
decided that?
Hey, I'm turning professional.

That was about almost 40, probably about 40
fights Holy cow 40 over a periodof what time?
It was like three years, fouryears.

What's the recovery period?
Like?
I'm assuming they didn't hurtyou then, because if you had
that many fights, amateur.

You're just go on , go all the time.
You could fight every week alot of the tournament
tournaments that were in theirfive-day tournaments.
So you're making weight andfighting multiple times and, uh,
you know, back to back to backyou ever been knocked out?

no no damn.
So you knocked out.
So you knocked out.
So your amateur record.
What's your amateur record?

It was like 40 and 8, something like that.
Holy cow.

Never been knocked out either.
Now, have you ever seen stars?

I saw stars.
I saw stars one time.

Yeah, yeah, as an amateur or as a.

As an amateur.

What made you choose boxing instead
of UFC fighting?

you choose uh or boxing instead of, like ufc
fighting?
Oh, that's a good question.
I feel like maybe it's just mypersonal opinion, but I wasn't
around you.
I wasn't around any mmafighting, so maybe, had I had I,
I probably would have maybe,but I feel like you have to
start as a child for for sure.
There's so many, you know somany disciplines that you need
to learn and there's I don'tfeel like you could be good over

(21:08):
.

Like that's not something you can
start off later on.

Yeah, how can you start late and master all of
these things?
You can maybe master one, butfive or six, I'm not sure.

What do you look up to as far as like
an athlete when you wereyounger and you decided to
become a boxer?
It could be male or female, whoyou know, it doesn't matter
shoot.

We study all the grades like in all the sports.
So you know, kobe, you know Iwas a candace parker fan.
Um all the old fighters, likeold fighters, like charlie
burley and salvador sanchez andjust any anybody that was at the
top in any sport like that's.
That's who he studied.

Sean Febre & Manny Feb (21:45):
Muhammad Ali.

For sure, a thousand percent.

What do you think about his
personality, his candor with themedia, where he was so eloquent
and poetic, I mean it was kindof inspiring.
I mean what he says like hey, Imurdered a rock, I've paralyzed
the stone, man, I'm?
I'm so quick, or no, I'm sosick, I make or no, I'm so what?

(22:10):
I don't know what he says but.
I make medicine sick and I'mlike bro, this guy could talk.
He was so charismatic and he wasa great talker and he was able
to sell himself because, I mean,he lost fights.
A lot of people don't know thatthey well I mean at least our
generation, you know, the olderpeople watched it, um, but they
didn't realize that muhammad alididn't win every fight and, uh,

(22:30):
he's.
He's been knocked out too, um,but his ability to brand himself
, to be so eloquent and poeticis the reason why he like rise
through the ranks, becausepeople wanted, wanted to hear
him talk.
Yeah, you can't just look at himonly for his boxing ability but
, what he turned himself to beas an entertainer and

(22:51):
motivational speaker, because Imean there's some motivational
speeches that I listen to andit's like a compilation and
there'll be a plug of MuhammadAli and I'm like bro, this
motherfucker said that and itjust blows my mind that he was
able to come up with that.

So what sport do you think mastered entertaining?

Probably boxing.
No, the NFL WWE oh yeah thereyou go.
So if you, see Muhammad Ali.

that's who he studied Wrestlers.

They've mastered it right, right yeah,
I mean for me, I really likeMike Tyson.
I just liked how he was justlike fucking, didn't give a shit
.
I mean, I don't know how muchcoke he was on sometimes, but
motherfucker, I just liked hislike kill mentality and that's
what I feel like I got.
I see in you, stevie, it's justlike when you look at you
you're like dude, I'm not hereto fuck around, I'm just here to
knock your head off, and that'swhat you need to be a fucking

(23:46):
boxer.
There's no fear, there's justpretty much hey, I'm coming in,
I'm going to win.
There's nothing about it.

You spar with men , I do.

Yeah, You've knocked out some men too.
I have.

No, unfortunately there's not many women who box,
and then there's not many thatbox on a high level.
So sparring, sparring, gettingwomen sparring is hard.

So we have to spar men, but in the
same weight class.
I'm assuming it's not likeyou're going above your weight
class.

With men.
Yeah, no, we'll spar anybodythough.

Oh really, mm-hmm, Holy cow.
All right, guys, when we getback with Happy Hour Holidays,
we'll continue the story withStevie over here and you know,
like comment and subscribe andwe appreciate all the fans out
there We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Happy HourHolidays.
Manny had to step out of theoffice.
You know life happens.
And now as guest host, we gotMouniet of Mouniet Boxing, all

(24:47):
right, and this guy has beenboxing since he was, or fighting
and boxing since he was sixyears old.
And how old are you now?
41, now 41 here, 41.
So shit, man, that's a longtime.
I wonder how did you meetStevie?
Because you are her trainer andher coach manager and shit

(25:10):
friend, I'm assuming.
So how did it all come about?
How did you meet?

Monyette (25:17):
And I mean yeah, we met through a mutual
acquaintance.
It's like Stevie was boxing, Ididn't.
I didn't think she was boxingfor real.
And then, you know, one day Iwas around there and I was like,
oh, you want to box for real.
And she's like, yeah, but thenI still didn't take a serious
until I met a trainer that wastraining her name John Casella,

(25:40):
and the stuff he was teachingand she was like on the phone
talking to me about like I gotto do this, I got to do this and
I'm like man, you want to boxfor real.
So it got my attention.

Yeah, and since then?
I mean, how long ago was that?

Monyette (25:54):
That was like eight years ago.

Eight years ago, oh shit.

He came and watched me spar.

You were 19.
Because you're 27 now, right?

Definitely not, I wish.

Monyette (26:07):
Yeah, same.

Nice.
How old are you?
I'm 36.

Oh, I thought you said you were 27.

No, my first amateur fight was when I was 28.
Oh, okay.

You had some good questions back
there.
All fair, you were coming upwith some good stuff.
What were some of thosequestions that we want the
people to see?
We want the people to hear fromStevie.

Monyette (26:29):
It's about something like who are some of her dream
opponents?
Like three dream opponents shewould have loved to fight in the
air.

You didn't want to answer it either,
or do you?

If I could pick any female to fight that ever
lived, I'd probably love to getin the ring with Christy Martin.
That's one, two more.
The Sea Riker, two, that'd be,that'd be a good one.

That'd be a banger.
That'd be a good one.

Mm-hmm, and who would be another one from back
then?

Queen Elizabeth.

I'd get her out of there in one for sure In one.

How about in like 10?

seconds.

I mean , well, she's dead now.
But yeah, I mean, if I couldfight anybody, it probably would
be, and just to see is GenghisKhan, but I would need a sword
or a gun and he'd have to be noweapons.
What about you?

Monyette (27:34):
Oh, with me.
My favorite fighter of all timeis Roberto Duran.

Okay.

Monyette (27:39):
So I love to just fight him, probably with just
hand wraps on no gloves andnothing, just me and him see.

Yeah.

Monyette (27:47):
Yeah, I like to go all the way back.
Old school, bare knuckle almost.

And I know we were talking a little
bit off air also about celebrity.
I know you don't want to answerthat question that you would
like to meet, question that youwould like to meet celebrity you
would like to meet.

I had to think about that one what about you?

Monyette (28:08):
I would love to meet Sugar Ray Robinson.
You know he died non-boxer,non-fighter, that's all we do is
boxing.

I know I get it, so it's hard to ask
other questions.

Monyette (28:17):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know probably I would love to
meet Malcolm X to ask otherquestions.
Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Probably I would have loved tomeet Malcolm X.
Malcolm X, okay, malcolm X.

Sean Febre & Manny F (28:26):
Historical figure?
Yeah, I'd like to meet,probably Julius Caesar.
Julius Caesar, yeah, I mean,the guy dominated all of Europe.
It was wild, but let me, let mestand back here.
I mean, you got some goodfighting questions for her.

Monyette (28:41):
Yeah, what's your top three favorite female fighters
of all time?

Top three favorite Sia Riker for sure.

Monyette (28:57):
I mean Kirstie Martin.
Yeah, Kirstie Martin's myfavorite.

I like watching Ann wolf knock everybody out um
you're gonna name yourself,right oh, people that are that
are alive right now yeah, itcould be you you could name
yourself.

I'm my favorite fighter, for sure
there you go yeah and, uh, hesaid that you had five belts.
What, what were they?

So I was a UBO world champion, wbf world
champion, abf world champion,wbn world champion.
What's the other one?
I think I defended it.
I had like an intercontinentalbelt, won and then got the world
.
So that would be five.

I had like an intercontinental belt
won and then got the world, sothat would be five.
So then are you just fightinglight heavyweight throughout all
those belt victories, right,Not?

light heavyweight .

Oh, I'm sorry.
Lightweight, yeah, yeah,lightweight throughout all those
.
So have you ever moved up ordown a weight class?

No, I fight at 135.

I would.

I'll fight anybody.
I can go up.
I can go down is there a reasonwhy you wouldn't just if
opportunity comes?

yeah, and and in terms of
opportunities, because we weretalking about this there isn't
much for women in terms of thethe pay disparity, and is.
I mean, what are we talkingabout here?
You said you fought for free,sometimes as a professional.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes we have to pay for
fights, what?
Yeah, that's just how boxing is.

Pay to enter.

Pay to play basically.

Monyette (30:32):
It's more like you covering yourself to even get a
fight, because a lot of peopledon't even support women boxing.
So the whole point of they theysay I'm not paying you nothing
to fight on our show, so nowhere we go fighting and not
getting anything out of just toget the exposure and paying just
like paying for your hotel,paying for your, paying for the

(30:53):
flight and you, you come out inthe red aren't most of these
fights pay-per-view though?
No.

No, mm-mm.
So when?
All right.
So let's say there's a majorboxing event and let's talk to
the uneducated boxing viewer.
Let's say that there's an eventthat is being hosted for men's
boxing.
Are there women on that day aswell, or do women have a

(31:20):
separate day and men's boxingtakes place on another day?

no, they're all together, but not too many.
Not too many promoters supportwomen's boxing or are promoting
women's boxing, so why is that?
I'm just I don't know ifthere's just the viewership
isn't there, I'm not sure.
I'm not sure, like we'd have toask a promoter, to be honest,
but there's.
There's probably like a handfulyou can count on one hand of
women that are signed topromoters that we know, and

(31:46):
everybody else is like the other.

Sean Febre & Manny Fe (31:47):
Thousands of girls are just fending for
themselves out here, so so, whatit makes for an opportunity to
fight one of those five you know, would it make sense to
actually start a woman's boxingpromotion company?

It could.
Um, I believe MVP, believe MVPis trying to do that.
I think they're supportingwomen's boxing heavy and with
Amanda Serrano being the pioneerof that, and they just signed
like four more females.
So Jake Paul, I think I meanright now he's the only one
doing it- Jake Paul, as in the.
Yeah, Jake Paul, Jake Paul.

Yeah, so he's starting what mvp?

I'm sorry most valuable promotions, it's jake
paul's promotion and he'spromoting.

Is it social media fights?
Is what he's promoting, or ishe promoting?

he's promoting real women's boxing really and
he's trying to.
I don't know what you would say, but he's trying to not just
promote women's boxing, but he'strying to not just promote
women's boxing, but he's tryingto get the exposure that women
need and the pay that womendeserve.
And you know he's a hugeadvocate for women's boxing.

When did he start that?
Is it recent that he's beenpromoting women's boxing now?

I'm not sure exactly like as far as years,
but a couple of years for sure,A few years, yeah, a few years,
yeah A few years now, and do yousee it as something that is
going to grow, hopefully?

I mean , where is he releasing these
fights?
It's pay-per-view, right.

So these are being exposed on Netflix.
So I think he's doing a goodjob, whether we're a part of it
or not.
He's doing a good job offinally getting eyes on women's
boxing we're a part of it or not.
He's doing a good job offinally getting eyes on women's
women's boxing and I thinkthat's the biggest issue, uh,
with women getting paid andwomen getting signed with big
promoters is because not toomany.
There's not boxing in general,like it's not mainstream anymore

(33:34):
.
It used to be on tv, it used tobe.
You know, you used to see theolympics on tv and it's just not
getting the exposure that itwas.
So the fans aren aren't.
There's not a fan base.

Have they reached out to you or I?

mean I fought on their show when I fought Amanda
Serrano, so yeah, oh, okay.
Yeah, so we did get thatopportunity.
And it's like women'sbasketball, like Caitlin Clark
got a contract for what?
76 grand?

Yeah, but I mean through her
promotions, through hersponsorships and Nike.
Yeah, you, I mean through herpromotions through her
sponsorships in Nike.

Yeah, you got to get money from other ways.

I mean , it's the same thing.
Like Tiger Woods only made $192million on the PGA Tour, but he
made his billion.

Yeah, but only $192 million.

I mean that's a lot of money.
Don't get me wrong, I ain'tcomplaining about that.

Compared to $76 grand.
Yeah, yeah.

You can't, but I'm not debating that
fact but also viewership.
It's viewership which youbrought up.
I mean, if people aren'twatching, it's not making money.

Yeah, if people aren't watching it, it's fair
that they wouldn't get paid.

But the problem is if it's not being
promoted.
That's why people aren'twatching it, because they don't
know that it's on.

They don't know it exists.

Yeah.
So I mean, jake Paul, shout out, jake Paul out.
Jake paul, good for you for,yeah, for trying to put new eyes
on, uh, the sport.
Because I don't know about you,I like watching sports, period.
I don't care if it's it'swomen's boxing or men's boxing,
I like watching sports.
And if there's nothing on tv,I'm not gonna put on like big

(34:55):
bang theory, I'm gonna go to thenearest sports that I can find
and I I'm going to turn it onand I'm going to watch it.
So I mean, I do understand thedisparity in wages and it sucks,
it sucks for you, yeah, itsucks for you, it sucks for
women, and then it's just boxingin general Like boxing in

(35:18):
general MMA.
like you have to pay to be a fan, do you think that UFC has
actually taken some viewershipaway from boxing?
This is a question for both ofyou.

I don't know if it's taken it away, but I think
it has more exposure, right Like, more people are watching it
because you have access, moreaccess, maybe, I believe.

Monyette (35:34):
MMA taken away because years ago MMA wasn't around no,
it wasn't, and boxing was thenumber one sport.
But now when MMA came, MMAbelieved in the best fighting
the best, and boxing kind of sopolitical now, where the best
don't fight the best.
So of course we losing some ofthis team we had years ago.
It's still up there.

(35:56):
It could be better if the bestchallenge the best more.

So let me ask you you said boxing is
political, so basically you haveto get people to want to have
you fight the best, or like.
What do you mean by that?

Monyette (36:11):
uh, political is like.
It's like this side is againstthis side.
So it's like a lot of peoplewant to control their own money
and their their money is ontheir side, so they don't want
to bring you in and give you achance to take some of their
money away.
So it's more political on how.

It's kind of like who you know.

Monyette (36:28):
They kind of pick who they want to be the champion.

How do they pick it though?

Monyette (36:33):
Because the best don't fight the best.
They almost giving belts awaynow Almost.

You know, like the last fight I saw
that what I would assume thebest would fight the best was
Manny Pacquiao and FloydMayweather, which was like.
I'm pretty sure that was likefive years ago or six years ago
or maybe even further backLonger than that.
Yeah, maybe like eight or nine,ten years ago, and I remember it
was a big deal because we wentto a hotel to watch the event on

(37:04):
a projector screen and andthere was rows of seats like not
even at the actual fight, justto watch the fight on a
projector screen and um, I waslike this is the best thing ever
, like shit, this is what boxingis.
I feel like after that fight, Imean it, it kind of UFC took
over, almost.

Monyette (37:25):
The reason why is because the whole world almost
stopped to watch that fightbecause it was the best against
the best.
But when they seen the outcomeit was like, oh, this boxing
it's just hit and not be hit,it's not entertaining.
Like MMA is MMA.
You see a lot of blood, you seepeople tapping out, you see
knockouts with the smallergloves and in boxing it's all.

(37:45):
It's a sweet science, you know.
You got to know what you'relooking at to enjoy it.
And for a regular fan, youdon't know what you're looking
at when you're watching boxing.
But a fighter, do Like youcould watch Shakur Stevenson and
say like, wow, man, I can't getinto it, but you could take me
and I watch Shakur Stevenson.
I say, wow, man, that's somebeautiful boxing, you know.

(38:06):
So it's like really on whatpeople want to see.
People want to see blood andthey want to see knockouts, see
people teeth flying out theirmouth.
But in boxing, you see, you seelike the sweet signs and then,
if you keep watching, you'lleventually see the knockouts and
how this person break them down.

So do you think the politics has something to do
with that?
Like, fighters have learned tohit and not be hit and are
scared to fight more because ifthey lose they're not going to
get that next opportunity.
Like, do you think that hassomething to do with it?

Monyette (38:34):
Oh yeah, it have a lot to do with it.
It's more like they control whothey want people to see.
They want people to see, theywant people to see the rock
about boy movie, yeah now.
So they put the not too smartfighters in there.
Now you know, you don't seehigh-level boxers fighting each
other, no more.

You see, you see the ones that come
in, rock them, sock them andthat's what's up on april 26,
where we're going to see twohigh-level fighters fight.
Right, to see two high levelfighters fight.
Right, that's right.
I mean you're right.
What people want to see isblood, right?
Maybe?
Great question you think Rockyfucked it up for everybody?

Monyette (39:12):
Rocky brought a lot of attention to boxing.
When the best is not fightingthe best, that's what's killing
boxing, really.

That's why he made me, he instilled in me to
be a successful fighter.
In general, of course you haveto win, but to make people want
to see you you have to knockthese girls out.
That's always been from thebeginning.
I wasn't allowed to turn prountil I started stopping people
in the gym.
Once I was able to do that, heallowed me to turn pro.
That's the whole thing like.

(39:44):
Unless you're knocking peopleout, they're not going to want
to see you.

So I mean that's pretty much a fact.
I mean that's great advice inmy opinion, because, as an
average viewer that doesn'treally know too much about
boxing other than you know, I'vetaken classes here and there I
mean nothing to the level ofwhat you guys are at, but, um, I
mean shit when I look at it.
I understand when they'reslipping and they're you know, I
get it, but I want to seesomeone get knocked the fuck out

(40:07):
now, not too quick either.
I mean let's put on a show alittle bit.
You know I'm paying per view.
I mean it's nice to see someoneget knocked out in five seconds
.
Actually that's cool as shit.
But no, I get it, I get I getwhere why the sport is, I
wouldn't say struggling, becauseit's not.

(40:28):
I mean you got, like you said,logan paul, the one that fights,
so jake paul jake paul's theone with the promotion company,
but uh, one that fights is jakej.
Yeah, I watched his fight.
With what was it?
Mike Tyson?

Oh yeah, I just know about that, yeah what a
fucking shame.

Monyette (40:45):
Yeah, you was expecting a knockout.
Yeah, I was expecting MikeTyson to knock him out?

Yeah, for sure.
And then, instead, what do Iget?
You know, fucking.

But did you see the girls fight before then?

No, Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor.
Yeah, now they put on the show,yeah, and maybe that's where
the promotion therein lacks,because they didn't promote that
fight.
I mean, yeah, it was in theundercard, but what they really
want to see is the main eventand that's.
I didn't watch any of the otherfights, just that one, but it

(41:16):
doesn't matter, because theywere still pay-per-view whether
you watched it or not.
They should, in their contract,at least state that there is a
percentage that is delineated tothe fighter while they're
performing during that event,because they bought it for the
event, not for the one fight,even though some people did.

Does that make sense?
A lot of sense.

Yeah people did Does that make sense,
a lot of sense, which, I mean,does kind of go back to a
question is why not UFC?
And I know you said because youhave to learn this stuff at a
young age, but I mean shit.

I mean, I'll fight anybody.

Monyette (41:57):
MMA and boxing.
It's like it got its own goodsand bads.
It's like in MMA, them guys are.

That's like real brutal.

Monyette (42:05):
You got to be ready for everything.
Those smaller gloves, yeah.
And then shout out to BlakeSmith.
I trained MMA.

Martin lay him down Brown.

Monyette (42:13):
He did MMA yeah shout out his fight.

What is it?

Monyette (42:16):
Martin Brown, Blake Smith fight April the 19th in
Tampa, and then Martin Brown andEdgar Delgado they fight.
April 25th in Clearwater.

Is that in the Amelie Arena?
No, where in the 19th?

Monyette (42:33):
The 19th is I don't have the address yet, but it's
in Tampa for sure.
And then April 25th is StarBoxing and Clearwater.
Martin Brown and Edgar Delgadoand all of them do MMA, and
Blake Steele do MMA.

I went to a couple MMA events One in
Orlando actually, where Vincewas supposed to fight, but I
guess his opponent backed out orwhatever it was, and I haven't
been able to see him fight inperson.
But I mean, I didn't realizethere was this many events going
on in this area.
I mean, like it's happeningmultiple times a month.

(43:12):
I mean there goes the promotionright, because they're not
promoting it.
Maybe they're promoting itthrough social media, but I'm
not seeing it.
They're not promoting it on TV,I'm not seeing it.
Maybe they're promoting itthrough social media, but I'm
not seeing it.
They're not promoting it on TV,I'm not seeing it.
I mean, in most of those eventsthat you're talking about, the
fighters are fighting for free,right.

Monyette (43:27):
No no.
Oh they're getting paid.
Yeah, they're getting paid, forsure.
You know, it's just the wholepoint.
It's not pay-per-view, soregular people don't know about
it.
You know you kind of got to beinvolved in the sports to keep
up with what's going on in yourarea.

So then do you see a lot of the
same audience members show up tothe same fights, maybe also the
same.
So essentially it's the wholecommunity coming in, buying the
tickets and probably showing upto support the fighters.

Monyette (43:53):
Yeah, every fighter got his own fan base so they're
able to get tickets or gettickets out, get their people in
there and then the promotiongot his own fan base, and
different fighters just bringdifferent crowds.

And is it from different parts of the
country?
It's not like everybody justfrom Tampa.
It's probably some other peoplefrom different parts of the
country also fighting.

Monyette (44:13):
Yeah, for sure.
People from New York, peoplecome in from Canada, florida,
all over.

And you're not from Florida.
No, you are from Memphis,tennessee, my wife's from
Clarksville, tennessee, so theother side of the state.
But why Tampa?
I'm just curious, why'd youdecide to move to Tampa?

Monyette (44:33):
I moved from Memphis to Las Vegas first, and I was in
Vegas like nine years trainingand helping fighters, and then I
moved here when COVID hit.
And then Stevie she was thereason I came here too, because
of her dedication to the sportand I told her.
I said, if I I said the onlyway you're going to really make
it, I said I got to kind of bearound you too.

(44:55):
So that's how that happened.
So I came when COVID hit and wehit the ground running.

I'm going to ask this question for
Vince.
You don't have to name nobody,but I promise Vince, how do you
feel about the business ofboxing and women's boxing in
general?

Monyette (45:16):
it's a bad time to ask women about women's boxing
because, you know, I asked it,vince.
Yeah, the business of boxing islike normal, but women boxing
is kind of harder than menboxing, really, because it's
like giving women authority, youknow, and they just don't know

(45:38):
how to use it.
Don't know how to use theauthority, so they like kind of,
you know, head, I mean, I sayhead swell up, fucking head
swell up.
And next thing, you know, youknow, they think that they can
replace you with anybody andmake you feel like you wasn't
even there at the beginning.

(45:59):
It just it's weird.
But women boxing is I'mstarting not to like it, I mean,
and I was the one of the onesthat really supported it, like I
trained females so but it'slike I'm starting to not like it
too much, you know.

Anybody that in particular may have
pissed you off.

Monyette (46:19):
No, just the fight game.
What come with?

I'm trying to dig in there.

I can't say it there's no friends in boxing
there's no friend.

Yeah, okay, and this was a good one
that you put it pointed out, andso did you.
It's a lonely world, right,very lonely you.
You mentioned that likespecifically, you said you know
this is it like your friends arethe ones in the gym, your
family and nobody else?

yeah, and it's family's even hard to say
because we don't see them mucheither.
You know it's a sacrifice tosacrifice.
Uh, you know he's away from hisfamily.
I'm away from my family.
Fighters have to be away fromtheir family.
Like you miss birthdays, youmiss everything.
You miss everything.
You just.

Sean Febre & Mann (47:03):
Anniversaries , everything yeah.

So you kind of be a bad kid to your parents, you
kind of be a bad parent to yourkids, can't really cultivate any
kind of friendships and thingslike that.
And then in the gym you feellike that would be your, that
would be the few friends you dohave, and that's not even true.
So so, yeah, it'd be.
It's a lonely road.

It's kind of like it's a, it's a
lonely road that you travel andyou know.
Even so, you're just alienated.

Yeah.

Sean Febre & Manny (47:35):
Essentially .
But what people don't realizeis that is what's necessary
Definitely.
But what people don't realizeis that is what's necessary in
order to succeed, becauserelationships are our job.
I don't care what anybody says,relationships are a
motherfucking job.
All right, you're spending thismuch time on your relationship.
That means you're not spendingthis much time on your goal,

(47:57):
your dream, and your parents maynot understand.
Your friends may not understand, but it's not their fucking
purpose to understand.
It is your purpose tounderstand what you want.
You don't need validation fromanybody as long as you are on
the road that you chose to be on.

Yeah.
So people that are not in ourworld.
They'll say, oh well, you needto figure out balance and this
and you need to make time foreverything.
Fuck that.
So I don't know who said it, itwas a Tim Grover, somebody.
Like balance is an illusion,like balance, balance, you know,
you add more things to yourplate rather than focus on one
thing.
So balance is crap, you know,and I mean that's how we feel.

Well, the fact of the matter is let's
put it this way way you can'texpect people that have never
achieved what you're trying toachieve to understand what
you're doing, and you can neversee, uh ask for validation from
those people because you'regoing to be somewhere where
they've never been yeah, andthey don't understand the
journey, especially in thissport, like, maybe football
players can go it's not just asport, it's in life.
Life it's in business.
Yeah, for sure, yeah.

But especially in boxing.
Like boxing is one of thosevery unforgiving sports, like if
you take a break one day, onemoment, like maybe a football
player, football has teammatesor basketball has teammates, you
know.
Like maybe they can afford togo hang out one night or they
might go drink something or gotake a vacation Right, boxing,

(49:26):
we can't afford those things.
We can't have one off daybecause our life is on the line
when we get in there, yeah, andyou might, you might go hang out
with somebody and you canliterally die.
So it's not like that's a fact,it's not like a guess, and
that's just the sport that we'rein.
So there is no fun out, thereis no smoking, there's no
drinking, there is noextracurricular activities.

(49:48):
Like ever since I've never beenon vacation.
Like there's no breaks, becausethe moment that you do
something bad could look likeyou know, like something the
moment that you do.

Somebody is out there working somebody's
working harder than you.
Yeah, yeah and what you, andyou have already realized that.

But when you get in the ring.
You're by yourself yeah you'reby yourself.

So anything that you've done or did
, or if you're not, you knowlike you're in there by yourself
, you don't have a whole team tolike bail you out if you are
not fully prepared at thatmoment, at the end of the day,
all the consequences fall on you, which could be death, because
there's been many boxers thatdied in the ring.

Yeah, it's the hurt business.
I think we've just seen it waslike 13 fighters average that
die a year.
We don't hear about them all.
Oh shit bro.

Monyette (50:38):
That's the truth about boxing A lot of people.
Don't talk about it becauseit'll detour a lot of kids from
wanting to do it.
It's a lot of deaths in it,it's a lot of comas, it's a lot
of people who's, you know, likevegetables right now.

You just recently lost a friend to boxing in
Carson.
Yeah, I didn't hear that.

Monyette (50:56):
It, just it come with the territory.
So it's like when you training,you're not just training to
just win, you really training tokill, but people don't like to
talk about it, you know.
It's like when we're in the gymtraining torturing ourselves,
it's really to try to really getrid of them.

I mean , that's the whole.
Goal is to battle.

Monyette (51:12):
Exactly.
Yeah, you're going to war.

I mean that guy's not your friend or
girl is not your friend.
They're there to hurt you.
They're trying to hurt you.
Yeah, they're trying to knockyou the fuck out.
And with that we'll be rightback with Happy Hour Holidays.
Welcome back to Happy HourHolidays, where I am the host.
Since Manny is not here and Iam clearly an alcoholic, let's

(51:39):
fucking go.
So we left off at, uh, where weleave off, guys lonely sport
lonely sport yes, lonely sport,and people not understanding
that this and friends, family,not understanding that.
This is what it is and it's inlife, it's in business, it's in

(52:03):
everything, every aspect of ourlife.
How does one overcome that?
How does one overcome that?
Both of you have done it.
Both of you have gone throughit.
What's the advice to theindividuals that are maybe
pursuing it now on how to dealwith, let's say, relationships
with families and friends andhow to tell them hey, listen,

(52:25):
you're not on the same path.
I am, and you know.
How do you, how do you guys doit.

You kind of just can't feel bad about it, that's
right, yeah.
You kind of have to be selfish,but in a good way, if that
makes sense, like it is of haveto be selfish but in a good way,
if that makes sense, like it is.
You got to be selfish andpeople are going to try to pull
at you and not understand andyou just can't feel bad, even
though you will sometimes.
You know, sometimes we feel bad, but at the end of the day, no

(52:59):
they're not paying your bills.
They're not paying the bills,and not even money.
It's just, it's a personalthing, and this is my path, and
this is what I'm trying to do.

You've actually dealt with it because
you're you're since 1920s iswhat you said.

Monyette (53:13):
I have a cousin here at Armstrong.
He probably, if you had to saythe greatest feet farthest ever
lived, he'll be one of them Topthree.
If I just ever lived, he'll beone of them Top three probably.
He was back in the 30s 40s 50s.
He paid away for me with myfamily.
He's my cousin on my mom's side.
It's like if you compete, ofcourse you can stay average with

(53:36):
everybody just competing, butif you want to win you got to be
selfish to winning, becausewinning is selfish.
They don't care how hard youtrain, you still got to say that
, yeah, winning is selfish.
Yeah, winning is selfish.

They don't care.

Monyette (53:49):
They don't care about nobody.

Oh, you mean, oh shit, oh fuck.

Monyette (53:53):
Yeah, so it's like that's philosophical right there
.
Yeah, so it's more like you.
You got to put in the time, yougot to take time away from
family and friends and beinghanging out and all that just so
you can win.
And sometimes winning stilldon't give it to you.
You get in a fight, still mightnot get your hand raised, but

(54:13):
it's like that's the risk thatwe take, you know.

And we were also talking about the
pure violence of the sport andhow people have died and that's
what kind of turns off a lot ofpeople on, uh, wanting to maybe
join boxing, right, yeah, I mean, you have to overcome that.

Monyette (54:32):
what would you give fighters advice in terms of
people that want to startfighting, maybe amateur level or
professional level, like hey,this is actually a risk oh, what
I do is some people walk intomy gym first, I ask their goals
and that goes got to be bigenough for me to even want to
help them hey, you were tellingme that.

Yeah, what'd you say?
You said it's not enough tojust want to be a world champion
.

Monyette (54:55):
Yeah it's not being aware of champion nothing
material can a material thingcan't be your goal.
It got to be something big.
You got to be like changingyour goal.
It got to be something big.
It got to be like changing yourfamily life.
It got to be doing this foryour country.
It got to be as big as you know.
Just find something to bespecial.

You just want to be great yeah.

Monyette (55:15):
Greatness is somebody special Like you can name on one
hand the greatest fighters thatever lived.
You can't name on one hand howmany world championships it was
so many of those.
That's a great fucking point.
Yeah, you want to be special inboxing because it's a big risk.
And then the second thing Itell them is I point all the
people on the wall.

(55:35):
I say all these champions onthe wall.
This guy right here, hehomeless and broke.
This guy right here, he's in acoma.
This guy blind because ofboxing.
These guys, these two died inthe ring.
I tell them the truth about itand I let them give them a
choice, give them a chance toreally come back to me and let
me know if they still want to doit.
If they still want to do it now.

(55:56):
They know the risk that'sinvolved.
You got to be willing to kill,really, really be willing to die
, if you want to kill somebody.

He made me take a whole year before I Took one
match.
So I fought my first amateurfight and then, before I had my
second amateur fight, he told meto take a whole year to study
boxing and to study this study.
The history and to study this,study the history of boxing, the
greats of boxing, but also allthe bad things that could happen

(56:26):
to you to make sure this is thepath you want to go, so that by
the time we're doing this, weknow what we signed up for.
So he made me take a whole yearand really make sure this is
what you want to do, because ifthis is what you're going to do,
this is what can happen.
Are you okay with that?
What made you think to yourself?

well, not think to yourself.
You decided yes, this is okay.
I mean what's?

the alternative.
I'm not sure.
I don't know.

You can get it by car plane could
flip upside down, roll over on aI'd rather die trying to be
great than die walking down thestreet.

I don't know.

And then you came to terms where
you're like this is what I want,I'm willing to die or kill for
it, and I mean that's honestlywhat seems to be.
The reason why you're sosuccessful in boxing is because
you came to terms with that.
And, damn bro, great coachingstrategy.

(57:22):
Hey, this is what can happen.
To terms with that.
And damn bro, great coachingstrategy.
We're hey, this is what canhappen.
Research this shit, Make sure100% you're okay with this,
because you have to come toterms with the fact that you
could kill someone or be killedin the ring.

Yeah, and like are you okay with that?
Are you okay with leaving yourfamily behind?
Are you okay with leaving yourkids behind, like you're all
right if you have to be in acoma the rest of your life?

Did you fight while you were
pregnant?
That's probably a stupidquestion.
Yeah, but I mean I probablynever been asked that before I
came out fighting.
They went for the body shot, Islipped and then boom, she's out
, no man.
But yeah, I mean shit, yeah,that's real.

(58:08):
And then we were saying that,like I think you said, 13 people
had died, like on average dieevery year from boxing, as I'm
assuming amateurs orprofessionals.

Yeah, probably mostly pros, but I think some
amateurs do.
But you know you don't hearabout it often, you don't hear
about it, but it happens.
Amateurs or professionals yeah,probably mostly pros, but I
think some amateurs do.
Yeah, um, but you know youdon't hear about it often, you
don't hear about it, but ithappens all the time do you ever
watch uh creed?

no, yeah, yeah.
So is there?
I'm sure there is.
Remember how you started offthe movie boxing in mexico?
There's shit like that going onwhere you can make money and
bet on yourself and just likecollect.
Are there those kind ofunderground fights in america
where you can make money and beton yourself and just collect?
Are there those kind ofunderground fights in America
where you can and you don't haveto name any specific places if
that shit happens or if it doesnot?

(58:49):
I know that's the amateur shit,but I'm saying is there places
like that?

Monyette (58:55):
Oh yeah, I'm sure For sure.
Like private, yeah, not evenprivate.
It's like if you're in the areayou'll hear about it or you'll
be a part of it.
But you got to start somewhere,and boxing ain't about where
you at, it's really where youwant to go or where you're going
.
So you kind of got to startdown there, like Mexico and
places like that you knowunderground stuff, just so you

(59:17):
can.
Because those aren't sanctioned?
Right, yeah, they'd besanctioned.
Oh, because those aren'tsanctioned, right, yeah, they'd
be sanctioned.
Oh, okay, yeah, they'd besanctioned.
Sometimes you can get someunderground just for gambling.
We did it all Fight withKnuckles when I was growing up.

BKFC.

Monyette (59:31):
We was doing that before BKFC even came out.
Oh shit, yeah, we was alwaysfighting.
It was like when you box, a lotof people don't really
understand that.
When you see a fighter, youlook at them, you just think
that they box.
So you don't want to be on thestreet fighting.
But they don't understand thatwe love fighting.
So it's like we just want toget paid for it, but we'd rather

(59:52):
fight anywhere.
You know, fighting is fighting.
So if you love it, you love it,but it don't matter what it is.

What is it about fighting you like?

Monyette (01:00:01):
I grew up in this in my blood.
I get it, yeah, like youspecifically?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre (01:00:05):
What is it about fighting that you
like I?

just like to hurt, I like to crush motherfuckers.
There you go, I like to breaktheir shit.
You know, even in the corner,like coaching, I like pain.
You know I like to make thisguy.
You know, because it's personalto me.
You know it's personal and youknow like.
You know how you'll saysomebody keeping you a hater out
here, or somebody don't want tosee you make it, or this person

(01:00:30):
stab you in the back, I believe, when you get in the ring with
your opponent.
He did it, you know, he the one, he trying to put you back in
that situation.

You're thinking everything that
happened in your life and thenjust pointing it straight at
that person.

Yeah, it's personal, because he in the way of your
dreams and your goals.
So I say we get through him andgo to the next.

Stevie Morgan (01:00:51):
Teddy Atlas said it right Life isn't fair, or
hasn't been fair maybe for a lotof fighters, and you can get in
the ring and make life fair.
So it's like you kind of liketake it out on your opponent,
stuff that happened to you inyour life or people that did you
wrong, you kind of get even.

It's like the fuel right there, even
though that person had nothingto do with it.
But that's the motivatingfactor in wanting to knock the
fuck out of somebody out rightin front of you.

Yeah, it's personal.
So you got people these daysthat they don't have that
mentality.
They don't have the mentalityof this dude really want to hurt
you and they're like, no, he'sjust boxing.
Nah, he really want to hurt you.
Who don't want to catch a body?
Everybody want to killsomething.
But when you hear the topfighters talk about it, they
kind of bash him and say, oh no,you don't want to talk like
that, you don't want to do that.
But it's like it's really, it'sthe truth.

(01:01:45):
This guy really want to hurtyou.
Why do you think he trained?
Why do you think he got twomonths of training just for you?
He ain't in there just to gethis hand raised.
This guy want to make a namefor himself and feed his family.
You kind of got to.
If he got an infant child andhe trying to feed his child, you
got to be ready to take thisspoon out of his kid mouth and

(01:02:05):
put it in your kid mouth.
Somebody going to eat andsomebody ain't going to eat.
And who would you rather eat?
Your child or her child?

No, it kind of reminds me of I love
the way you're explaining it themovie water boy.
You ever see water boy where?
Visualize an attack.
Visualize an attack, and it'skind of what you're doing when
you're fighting in the ring.
You're visualizing everythingthat makes you upset, angry,

(01:02:34):
pissed off, you know whatever itis, and you're saying that's
the guy I'm going to fuck upbecause that's the mentality you
need to be successful in boxing, right, yeah?

And all the other stuff that comes with boxing,
like the discipline it gives youa regimen keeps you in line.

What are you in the military?
No, no.
You said for country, so Ididn't know.

A lot of people.
When you're fighting againstsomebody from Cuba or
Philippines, you see how theylive the country.
It'd be kind of hard, you know,like real hard and this who?
They trying to change theirfamily life and you in front of
them and you've been partyingall week, you've been taking
days off, this dude going tokill you because he'll kill them

(01:03:18):
.
You know You'll kill for yourfamily and that's what we'll do
in the ring.
We'll kill for your family andthat's what we'll do in the ring
.
We'll kill for our family.
I mean both of y'all are killers.

It sounds like.

No, it sounds like Proven.

Proven .
Yeah, you know Because, yeah,you said you were world ring
number three in the UnitedStates.
But they won't give a titleshot unless you're number two.

No like to qualify for the olympics is like
a whole yeah, it's a wholething.

You know amateur, I started a little
late and, uh, for starting late, we still made it up there, so
and that was pretty cool.
So then on april 26 that fightis for a belt yeah, yeah,
lightweight though lightweight,well lightweight.

It's a wb regional belt.

What's the difference between the
belts?
Because I always see somepeople walking out with like
four or five belts.
Is it just like?

which one is the one that you?

want, though, which is the one that
you world champ, right?
Is that what it's called?

Yeah, there's four, so there's, or five, but
there's four sanctioning bodiesthat everybody has.
So when you say you see peoplewith all the belts, it's because
they have them all, they'veacquired, they've accumulated
them all.

Did you ever lose a belt?
Title defense.
I did Just once.
Mm-hmm To Amanda Serrano.
No it was my ninth fight.
You've only lost two, thoughright, I forget.

And I really won.
They didn't give it to me.

Oh yeah, the majority decision.
Yeah that's right.
Yeah, that's kind of hurt,pisses you off.
So actually this Saturday Iknow this is going to be
released after the fight thatshe's taking this Saturday she
also has another one april 26th.
Uh, this saturday.

tell us about that one real quick so we have a
short notice by uh, juliacassiani, I believe, is the name
what's her ranking?
She's 72, something like that.
So that's not even fair.

Sean Febre & Manny Febr (01:05:22):
Another victim.
You're gonna destroy her.
What's the plan?

well, I mean we're gonna go get some sparring
for our next fight that's kindof what it sounds like a spark
no, but you know, I mean, is it?

fair to her that she's fighting you I
mean, they called us so theyfeel like they can.

They can beat us.

They called us, so they feel like
they can beat us.
They called us.
So Vince was telling me thatthere's A players and B players
and usually the A player willget set up with a B player.
So she was probably the Aplayer at the time, set up with
a B player, and then you come inand you're going to absolutely

(01:06:03):
destroy her and now you are theA player and now she's the B
player, which means that she'sgoing to get rocked.

She don't know, we know, but she don't know.

She thinks she can beat us, she wouldn't get in
the ring.
When you get in the ring, it's50-50.
She's not taking this fight.

Sean Febre & Manny Feb (01:06:23):
Believes she's not taking this fight,
not with.

Stevie, come on.
She's not taking this fightbecause she thinks she's going
to lose.
She's taking this fight becauseshe believes she can win.

Do you think she's taking it just
because she wants to fight andneeds a paycheck?
Because I'm assuming you guysare getting paid to do it right.

Yeah, but for women it's not life-changing.
So if you see a woman in anyprofessional sport, it's because
they love it.
They signed up for it, not forthe money, and that's a
dangerous fighter, oh shit.

So every woman fight is hard
because we're not doing it forthe money.
So I know you guys don't havetoo much time left here, but I
want to do.
What we do at the end of everyepisode is that we ask uh each
of our guests to give their lastwords, their final words, words
of encouragement, uh foraudience members that can be uh
helpful to their daily lives,whether it could be about boxing

(01:07:18):
, it could be aboutentrepreneurship, it could be
about anything that you guyswant to do, just whatever you
want to give to the audiencemembers out there.
Let's start with one yet.

For for people that want to be a boxer and want to
be a champion, want to besomething special.
Just know you got to give itall you got.
You can't take no days offbecause this sport right here
don't love nobody.
Boxing don't love nobody.
So you just do what you got todo and try to get out of it in

(01:07:52):
time.
You know, reach your goal.
Let it go and go do somethingelse, because it's a sport
different.

How can they reach you Because you
are a GM right, because you'reand also a trainer?
How can they reach you If, ifyou want to share your
information on how the peoplethat, because it sounds like you
only deal with serious boxers,so not all you guys out there,
okay, just the ones that areready to fight.

We've got a website, Flowers Boxing Lab.
I got Instagram Monyet Boxing,Monyet underscore boxing.

How do you spell that name?

M-O-N-Y-E-T-T-E underscore boxing.
You can find me on IG and Ianswer everything.
So they send me a DM and we setsomething up.
See what they got.

And you also have trainers under you
as well, right.

Yeah, I got trainers that help me out, you know, and
not under me, you know, I lookat everybody the same, so we all
work together, we all are unitColleagues.
Yeah, yeah, there you go.

Yeah, and then Stevie there's going to be some
powerful words here.
I know Thanks.

She's so enthusiastic guys.

We say plan B is to you know, there's plan A, and
then plan B is always to makeplan A work.
So basically, there's no plan B, right, and that's how we do it
.
I would say that's like, andeverything in life, like, don't
take no for an answer.
Don't let anybody like deteryou from what you think you can
do, cause nobody's not everybodythinks like you.

(01:09:32):
So you know, like we weretalking about in the beginning
of this, of this, of um, thepodcast.
Yeah, yeah, don't take no foran answer.
Like, don't have any plan B's.
Like, just go after what youwant, make sure you get a good
team around you, get somebodyaround you that will tell you
the truth.

And, yeah, she is filled with a lot
of words.
I'm just kidding.
Hey, bro, thank you for comingon.
Thank you for coming on, andthis has been another episode of
Happy Hour Holidays.
Like, comment and subscribe.
Oh, how can they reach you onyour socials?

Stevie Morgan underscore Boston.

Okay, boom, and you already said yours
.
And once again, happy Hour,holidays on all platforms, all
fucking streaming shit.
My brother usually does thispart and, yeah, see you later.

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S2 E32 | The Mental Game of Boxing: Stevie Morgan's Path to Championship

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S2 E32 | The Mental Game of Boxing: Stevie Morgan's Path to Championship