May 7, 2025 • 46 mins
Get ready for an epic episode of the Daly Dose, as we welcome the incredible Cam F. Awesome, a 12-time national boxing champion, 3-time Olympic Trials champion, and former captain of the USA National Boxing Team!
Join us as we delve into Cam's journey into the world of boxing, explore his remarkable amateur career, and uncover the origins of his distinctive fighting style. We'll also take a look at the challenges Cam has faced and how his unwavering fighter mentality and sheer determination have propelled him through them.
Cam will also share the inspiration behind his book, Becoming Awesome: How to Make Success Inevitable. Plus, we'll chat about the Netflix documentary Counterpunch, where Cam was featured, and hear some of the fascinating stories that might have been left on the cutting room floor!
You won't want to miss this powerful and insightful conversation!
Join us as we delve into Cam's journey into the world of boxing, explore his remarkable amateur career, and uncover the origins of his distinctive fighting style. We'll also take a look at the challenges Cam has faced and how his unwavering fighter mentality and sheer determination have propelled him through them.
Cam will also share the inspiration behind his book, Becoming Awesome: How to Make Success Inevitable. Plus, we'll chat about the Netflix documentary Counterpunch, where Cam was featured, and hear some of the fascinating stories that might have been left on the cutting room floor!
You won't want to miss this powerful and insightful conversation!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Wednesday, May seventy, twenty twenty five. You are listening to
the Daily Dose Sports podcast and I am your host,
Clint Daily, coming to you from my icity. You're in Denver, Colorado,
and we are back for another week of talking sports
with a dose of common sense. Hey, Happy Wednesday to you.
Hope your week is going well. I hope your week
is off to a strong start and that you, your family,
(00:27):
your friends, everyone is staying strong and staying healthy right now.
And you know, the NBA playoffs are now down to
the final eight. We have had some chaos because the
Western Conference is pretty tough, but then you know, Game one,
we see the number one seed Celtics getting knocked off.
We see the number one seat Oklahoma City Thunder getting
(00:49):
knocked off. I don't think either one of those is
gonna hold, but it is interesting. And already gone are
the number two seed Houston Rockets, the number three seed
Los Angeles Lakers. I mean, it's been at least a
little bit interesting, kind of ugly basketball to watch, but
it's been at least interesting. Meanwhile, the Stanley Cup playoffs
(01:10):
are also down to their final eight, and we actually
just have two teams from Canada remaining. Yeah, sorry for
all of you out there wearing denim right now, just
two teams left that are gonna have to try to
make it all the way to the Stanley Cup. And
over the weekend we did get some news that the
(01:32):
sport of boxing might actually have a fight that could
pull the sport back to the forefront of the sports
world this fall. And I mean it's been a while.
When was the last fight you felt like you had
to watch? But after when on Saturday over William Skull?
The state is now set for the blockbuster mega fight
(01:56):
between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford. Now, Crawford is thirty seven,
he will have to move up two weight classes to
challenge Canelo, but if he actually beats Alvarez, he would
become the first undisputed champion in three different weight classes. Meanwhile, Canelo,
(02:16):
who's thirty four, is a two time undisputed super middleweight champion.
The Alvarez Crawford card will be the first event promoted
by Turkey A La Chic and Dana White's TKO Boxing. Yes,
we'd heard the Saturdays, We're getting involved here they are.
The fight is now scheduled for Friday, not Saturday, Friday,
(02:40):
September twelfth this fall. The card will take place on
a Friday to avoid competition from college football and of
course from UFC the following day. And get this, they
say it's going to be held in Allegiance Stadium in
Las Vegas. Kind of bizarre that the home of the
Raiders is going to you see a championship take place. Now,
(03:02):
how will the sport of boxing screw this up? I mean,
besides the fact that this fight is already happening, like
ten years after we all wish it was happening. But
there are just so many possibilities. We know that every
time it gets a big stage, boxing rarely fails to
shoot itself squarely in the foot. But ay, this could
(03:24):
actually be a fight that grabs some serious attention. Speaking
of the fight game, today, on the Deal of Dose,
we are going to be joined by a very special guest.
And I'm telling you we have a ton of things
to get to today. We need to jump in right now.
Joining us this week on the Deal of Dose, we
have a very special guest. Today's guest is someone who
(03:45):
knows what it takes to turn challenges into championships. Literally,
Cam f Awesome. Yes you heard that right. Cam f
Awesome is a twelve time national boxing champion. He's a
three time Olympic Trials champion. He's a former captain of
the USA national boxing team. He was formerly known as
Lenroy Thompson. He's a boxer best known for winning the
(04:08):
US title in two thousand and eight, ten, thirteen, and
fourteen and the Golden Gloves in two thousand and nine,
twenty eleven, twenty thirteen at super heavyweight. If you see Cam,
he's not a giant guy. I want to know how
he's fighting at super heavyweight. He has an absolutely insane
fight record of three twenty six at thirty. He is
(04:28):
featured in the twenty seventeen Netflix boxing documentary CounterPunch. If
you haven't watched that, I would encourage you to. He's
the author of the book Becoming Awesome, How to Make
Success Inevitable. He's been on ESPN. He's doing some comedy.
He does motivational speaking. Please welcome to the show, the One,
the only, Cam f Awesome. Cam, Welcome to the Daily Dose.
(04:50):
We are so glad to have you here with.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
M Michael Buffer has nothing on you, man, what an introduction.
I'm digging it already.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Cam, you deserve that introduction, you know, I was. I was.
We were talking a little bit before we started recording.
I was telling you I watched that documentary and Cam,
I was rooting for you. I'm cheering for you. Holy cow.
I was like, I can't wait to talk to this guy. Camp.
Take us back a little bit to your childhood. Where
did you grow up?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I grew up in the Long Island, New York in Uniondale.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah okay, wow, okay, so you're you're in New York,
big area. Obviously a lot of people there. What sports
did you grow up playing back back there?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Oh? None? I tried out for many of the teams.
Someone say all of the teams, but well I got
cut off every team except for eighth grade JV football team.
I got injured before cuts, so technically I never got
cut from that team.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Were you a boxing fan? How did you end up
getting in to boxing? What happened? You're you're not playing
other sports. You're you're not you know, doing that kind
of thing. How did you How did your trail go
down to the boxing path?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I was I was dealing with bullying and what's anxiety?
And I didn't know what anxiety was. But in hindsight,
I was dealing with anxiety and I was afraid all
the time, and I was struggling with weight issues. And
I figured if I joined the boxing Jim, I could
defend myself against police, I can get in good shape
and I could be more confident. That was it was
(06:30):
really to protect myself, and also it was cool, and
I thought it would allow me to be accepted. Yeah,
because that's cool to a sixteen year old.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Well, and so many kids, whether or not they have
the love of the sports, so many kids go into
the athletic realm because they're like, hey, this will help
me be accepted. I'll kind of find my my social
you know spot, and so a lot of times, even
though maybe people aren't drawn to it naturally, they're like, hey, no,
I kind of found what worked. And obviously this worked
for you because cam you do it right away, you
(07:01):
started to have some success pretty early, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I because I'm very analytical and I think
I'm very logical, and we all think that. But with boxing,
I joined the gym to lose weight. So they never
taught me out of box. I just watched other people
and did what I thought made sense, and it gave
me the opportunity to ask the question, well why am
(07:28):
I doing this with everything that I did, and it
allowed me to develop my own unique boxing style that
was efficient for the scoring system.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
No, you're right, because if you watch when I watch
you box, you have a really unique style. And I
want to talk about that because you reminded me a
little bit of one fighter. And when I say it,
people are going to think I'm crazy, But I'm going
to get back to that camp. Did you have a
coach early on that made like an impact on you
that got you, you know, kind of enthralled and kind
of fall in love with a gym like that.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah. His name was Ralph Morgolo. He was He was
a former marine with a very dirty mouth, and he
was an Italian from New Jersey and he was coaching
me down in Florida when I was seventeen years old,
and he was as delusional about me as I was.
(08:30):
I So I'd never made I had never made a
team before. So when I won my first boxing match,
technically I was undefeated as a human being, sure, So
I thought I was like, Oh, I'm the greatest boxer ever.
I must be special. And I carried myself that way.
(08:51):
So and it's not in the documentary, but in my
high school. In high school, my boxing gym was six
miles away, so I had a six mile walk every
day after school.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And I didn't have music. So I would just make
up stories in my head. And this is not me
saying I knew what it was going to be, and
I just happened to make myself a winner. In all
of these stories, I was kicking butt and all these stories,
I was knocking everyone out. I had all the money,
all the cars, all the jewelry. I was the greatest,
and after winning my first flight, I believed all that.
(09:23):
And I would just tell myself that for three hours
a day before going to the gym. And there was
a direct correlation between how highly I spoke about myself
and how well I did in the gym. And it
allowed me to become this more confident person. And I
think that confidence is what allowed me to succeed in
(09:45):
the ring because I just thought I should win.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Well, it clearly worked because you began winning right away, Kim.
You hadn't been boxing very long. You got invited to
the boxing National championships in two thousand and eight. What
do you remember from getting that invite and then going
and winning your first national title? But what do you
remember from that very first one?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So before I went there, I went to the reason
why I got invited, That is, I qualified for the
two thousand and seven two thousand and eight Olympic Trials.
I was boxing for less than two years. I lost
the first day, but it was cool that I made it.
Everyone who lost either quick boxing or turned professional, okay,
(10:30):
And the light bulb went off in my head. If
everyone who lost quit or turned pro and I don't,
aren't I automatically the best? And man, the Olympic cycle changed.
All those guys turn pro and the new crop of
boxers came around, and they're new to boxing, just as
(10:53):
new as I am. But to them, I'm the guy
from the last Olympic cycle. Now I'm the most I'm
the veteran. And they looked at me when I went
to that nationals in two thousand and eight, they looked
at me like I was the guy to beat, so
I just pretended I was.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That is absolutely incredible, dude, The way your mind just operates,
That's that's the power of the mind. No, you're right,
you know. And when they talk about you know, getting
these placebo effects and that kind of thing, not only
do these things work, sometimes they like they'll say, hey,
we put someone into surgery. We told them they were
(11:34):
going to bleed less. Guess what they bled less. That
is the power of the mind. And you are absolutely
an example of that. You qualified for the Olympic team.
Also in twenty twelve, then, cam you were suspended from
Olympic competition when you failed to make yourself available for
Olympic drug testing. Not that you were doing anything illstit.
In fact, you tested cleaning later that week. You were
(11:57):
just not there for them to test when they wanted
to test you. That cost you. What did you learn
from that whole experience?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Though? I learned that life doesn't care about your feelings.
Like I made a small error. I forgot to send
an email that I was leaving the country, and I
had to deal with that consequence, and I lost all
the confidence I had because I had put all my
(12:25):
value and worth in sports. Like I never had friends,
but then when I started boxing, I had all these
friends all over the world. And you have to love me,
You have to accept me, look at my national championships.
I am the best boxer in the country. But then
I got suspended and I couldn't say any of that anymore,
and I was like, well, then who am I?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And I realized that I looked at boxing as like
a as like a wife or a girlfriend. And I
spent so much years going after her and giving her
everything I had. And then last minute, see this took
another boxer on a date instead of me, Like another
boxer went to the Olympics, a guy I fought six
(13:08):
times and beat six times, and it it ruined me.
And I took a look at my life and I
had to be honest with myself. And I had no skills,
I had no certifications, I had no degrees. I had
to box again, There's there's no other options. I mean,
I could have turned pro because I was the reigning
(13:31):
number one heavyweight in the country for four years. I
could have done pretty good in the pros and made
some immediate money. Yeah, but I didn't see longevity in sports,
especially boxing. Someone's willing to fight twice as hard for
half the money, just for the opportunity. And I figured
if I turned prone boxing, I might make a bunch
(13:52):
of money right off the bat. But what am I
going to do later on in life?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So I decided to go back to the to the amateurs,
do the Olympic run again, but this time rebrand myself
and be more than just an athlete. Because when I
identified as an athlete, sports was taken from me. I
lost my identity. Now I'm going to identify as an
entertainer and I'm gonna wear the capes. I'm gonna dance
(14:17):
in the ring. I'm gonna flip in the ring and
build a career for myself outside of sports. It wasn't
shown in the Netflix documentary CounterPunch, but when I would
travel for fights, like if I went to go fight
in Denver, I would reach out to schools in Denver
and I would speak all week leading up to the fight,
(14:40):
and my coaches that drove them crazy. They're like, why
are you focusing your energy other places? You have a
fight coming up, this is championship, this is Nationals, And
in my mind, I'm like, oh no, I am past boxing.
I'm using boxing just as an avenue to get what
I want in life. Because athlete privileged, this like I
(15:02):
get opportunities I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I speak on
stages I shouldn't be speaking on. I meet people I
date outside of my looks because I'm really good at
a sport. But the problem that that relevancy dissipates faster
than the sweat on your jersey from your last practice.
Like after your sport, you're no one unless you use
(15:23):
your time as an athlete to build like a runway
for yourself.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, and was this at that time, because I know
it was in twenty thirteen you changed your name? Was
this all part of that whole thing? Was that the
significance of changing your name?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Oh? Well? Yeah? That? And also in the comments a
lot because I was cocky before I got spended. One
of the major comments was I bet he's humble now okay,
And it didn't sit right with me.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I looked up the definition of humble. It's having a
low estimate of your own importance, and I realized the
greatest things I've accomplished is when I spoke it into existence,
and I thought I deserved it. And changing my last
name to awesome was a for one. I had to
(16:17):
rebrand myself for boxing and try to be bigger than
the sport. And when the news shows up to interview
the boxers, they know nothing about boxing. Because they see
someone with the last name Awesome, they're going to interview him.
Oh yeah, I got all the interviews, I got the documentaries.
It worked. Also, I threw away the concept of being humble.
(16:40):
I needed to believe in myself wholeheartedly, unapologetically, and I
understood that was going to rub. That was going to
rub some people the wrong way. So I changed my
middle name to this letter F. So if you don't
like that, I know I don't like you. Sure saves
me a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
You also decided to make a lifestyle change. You slim down.
You fought at the heavyweight class instead of the super
heavyweight class. You went vegan, Cam, How did you manage
going vegan and boxing? How are you doing this?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I lost a bet. I'm a man of my word.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
You did not. It's not really true.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I swear I lost the bet. It was a many
Packia versus Timothy Bradley, June twelfth, twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Oh, Cam, you got robbed right.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah. I didn't even watch the fight. I was playing
Monopoly with a bunch of a couple of people and
I got a text saying, guess who won. So I
had to be vegan for twenty.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Eight days and you just liked it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I felt so good after the twenty eight days. Okay
that I said, I'm not gonna be vegan, but I'm
just gonna do this until I find a reason not to.
And I don't judge anyone for how they live or
how they eat. You do what you do. I'll do
what I do. And it's been the teen years I
haven't found a reason to stop. And I think that's
how we should live life. I mean, try something, and
(18:06):
I would have if I didn't lose to Bet, I
would have never tried it. Sure, and it changed for
one it and I think you can it changed the
way my relationship with food. And even as a kid,
I struggled with eating and I struggled with my eating habits,
and even when I was boxing, my weight always fluctuates
(18:27):
and I didn't have the greatest relationship with food. And
this kind of helped put some rains on that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Kim, you have a really unorthodox style when I watch
you fight, and this is despite being a super heavyweight.
I'm gonna make a comparison. And you can call me crazy,
but when I watch you fight, you fight to get points.
It reminds me of a giant guy fighting like Prunell Whittaker,
because I will see you use that reach, use that length.
(19:00):
You'll squat clear down if you need to. You will
get to where you can to earn points and avoid
giving them any points. Was there a fighter that you emulated.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
For one?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
That is there?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Compliment? Sweet Pee? I love love his style. It was
partly him. And if you ever heard of Emmanuel.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Augustus, I don't know that I have.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You probably wouldn't. He's never won any world titles or
anything like that. His record's probably upside down. He calls
himself the drunken Warrior, but he's so slick and he's
dancing and laughing the entire time he's fighting. And to me,
for you to be able to have that much fun, right,
(19:45):
you win automatically of course if you get a chance.
Look him up. Magel Burton he changed his name as well.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So okay, well, and that's interesting because a lot of
people talk about sports, they'll compare it to war. I
remember when I was coaching basketball, we'd have you know,
you'd have some coach come into a clinic whatever, he'd
be like, oh, read read the Art of War, and
I'm like, man, basketball is not war. I will say this.
Boxing isn't war, but it's getting real close to war.
Is hand to hand combat. You're getting real If you
(20:14):
can go in and have fun in the ring and
you look like you have fun in the ring, you're
ahead of most everyone else because you're getting as close
to battle as you actually can be. That's actually very impressive.
I also want to ask you this. You didn't sit
between rounds. Was this a practical thing? Did you want
to stay or is it just a strategy? This is
(20:35):
intimidation and I don't need to sit rounds.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
One, I don't need to sit down in between rounds.
You don't sit down in between rounds and sparring when
you train for your fight. Fair, whyever would you sit
down in between rounds during a fight. The second reason
why I don't sitting down between rounds is I need
to look down at you because at some point you're
(20:59):
gonna have to get up, and I want to look
at you while you are getting up, and I need
you to know him better than you. Whether that's true
or not. I just need you to believe that in
those moments, you just get a little bit of into
their armor and you can just tear a person down psychologically.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
It's so funny to me when I was watching you
fight and you genuinely you just spoke about it. But
I'm watching you and I'm going he is having fun
in the ring. The other guy might not be having fun.
He's having fun and outpointing him and for the most
part winning the fight. But it didn't matter. You look
(21:38):
like you were in the ring. I'm having a good time.
I'm here to beat you. I'm better than you. You
always know that guy when you walk in the gym,
and as basketball coach, I know the guy that walks
in the gym. Oh I can tell right here who
really believes they are the best in the gym. You
had that belief when you walked into the gym. Hey,
I'm the baddest man here.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah. And it rubs some people the wrong way, of course,
but I think that's how we should enter not just
the ring, but every phase of our lives. Yeah, it's
you are the best version you will ever be at
this given moment. You're literally the greatest. You've ever been.
Why would you walk into a situation like you're not
(22:17):
and with this placebo effect working the way it is.
I mean, your brain looks first to create stories, and
it looks to confirm stories you're already created with yourself,
your reticular activating system. It's basically a filter in your
brain that fills without information to show you what you're
looking for. What you seek is what you find. If
(22:38):
you say my name is Clint and I'm not capable,
your brain would sort through the billions of bits of information,
ignore all the reasons why you are capable, and confirm
the few reasons why you aren't. I started to carry
myself in a very specific way, and it was to
help me believe in myself. I realized we put so
(23:01):
much pressure on ourselves when we allow this situation to
be bigger than us. I'm fighting in the national championships. Oh,
I have to wear different shoes, or I have to
wear a different outfit, or or maybe I'll do something
different before the fight. Maybe I'll sit down in between rounds.
Since it's different than sparring. Because this is so different,
I look at the finals of a national championship the
(23:22):
same way I look at a workout on a Tuesday.
If I go out to a comedy club the night
before sparring, I go out to the comedy club a
night before a fight. I treated nothing different, and it
would rub some coaches the wrong way, but it was
how I worked mentally. And John Brown my coach, he
(23:47):
was the best coach ever because kind of just let
me do what I want.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Seems like he understood you. Yeah, yeah, that's always That's
always a very very special relationship. When you do have
one coach that gets you, understands how you operate, and
knows how to still get the best of you while
allowing you to be you. That's when you're getting into
some really, really good stuff. Kim, you came up short
in your bid for the twenty sixteen Olympics, and that
(24:14):
was a just barely coming up short, but you were
on track to go to the twenty twenty Olympics in Tokyo,
and then COVID hit wipe the whole thing out. What
do you remember about getting ready for those twenty twenty games.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So I decided because I was living in my van
at the time, I was trying to build this build
my speaking business, and I figured it'll cut out a
lot of expenses if I lived in my van, and
so I didn't live in my van, I would have
to get a job.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
And if I were to get a job, the consistency
of a paycheck and health insurance would make it harder
for me to go back out and chase my dream.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
No, you're right.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So I lived in my van for some years and
I went to sign up for Team USA and they
wanted me to stay in Colorado Springs at the Olympic
Training Center, but had a schedule booked out of high
schools and middle schools I was going to go speak
at and I was like, I can't do that. So
my dad's from Trinidad and Tobago. I fought for Trinidad's
(25:15):
Olympic team, and so I went to Trinidad. I I
trained with their team. I won the Olympic trials in Trinidad,
and they didn't send a team because of the pandemic.
But I do remember March thirteenth because I was headed
to I was headed to Trinidad on March seventeen, Saint
(25:36):
Patrick's Day, and March thirteenth they cancel the NBA twenty twenty,
so I don't watch the news. Ever, I never really have.
I don't know. I never know what's going on in
the world. Guess what, I'm alive. But this COVID thing.
I found out about it when they cancel the NBA
because someone mentioned they canceled the day. I was like, hey,
(25:56):
why and they like mentioned it. I was like, no,
what's talking about? And what a surprise. I don't know
if you heard about it, but uh, COVID.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Kind of kind of is big there for a minute.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, it was it. Yeah, it made its rounds. If
if I were to be in Trinidad when they canceled
the flights, I would have been stuck over there for
about ten months. Oh wow, it was a It was
four days short. That's when I cut everything short, four
days before I was going to go to Trinidad.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Wow, that's getting closed with with that goes my dream. Hey,
just a quick reminder make sure that you are stopping
by Dailydossports dot com every week, as we do have
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(26:53):
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Now let's get back to our interview with boxer Cam.
Awesome Cam. You were out of boxing for a little
over a year and you started noticing something going on
with your vision. What happened there?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I woke up one morning, so I journal every morning.
It's what I do. I'm a big fan of journaling,
never used to be. But I went to grab my
journal and I couldn't see out of my right eye
and it was like I could see it's just like
nothing above here, like like up there. And went got
emergency surgery. I had to detach retina and it just
happened in my sleep, and I was told it can
(27:40):
just happen.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Wow, Well that's horrifying. Was it boxing related or do
they non't?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I haven't been in the rain for almost a year
and a half at that point. It might have been
from from past, but they said it it happens. It
can happen to anyone.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Cam. You've had setbacks, You've had some things that that
people might might even deem to be unfair. The thing
I noticed that sets you apart. You don't make excuses,
you don't complain, You just keep pushing forward every single time.
Where did that drive come from? Where did you? Where
did you find that? Because it seemed like you were
(28:17):
kind of that way even as a kid, going and
starting to eat no box. Where did that drive come from?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I think one of my greatest I think there's some
pros and cons the way I think and I shared
even before even the emotional side. I remove emotional from
things that I'm very logical, which doesn't work great in
relationships or friendships because sometimes you have to see things
in other lights. And I'm working on that as a person.
But one of the things that I realized that like
(28:46):
from an early age, I believed in magic. So and
I've only said this outside a couple set us out
loud a couple of times, so it might not come
out very smooth. But when I was like eight years old,
my mom went into the store and she left me
in the car, like she went into like a store
real quick to grab something, and there was a bird
(29:06):
sitting on a fence, and I was like, if I
have magical powers, the bird will poop right now. And
when I said that.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Clint, you not nailed it.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I So I got home that day and I just
remember for the next few weeks thinking like, cause you know,
the first fifteen percent of any superhero movie is that
superhero learning how to use their powers. Of course, so
what I started to do is I implemented something. I
call it like I had one wish a day, and
(29:43):
and so I would say I had one wish a day,
and it could be a big wish, it could be
something that would alter the course of the universe. But
I can make small wishes in my life, and I
can get whatever I want. Like if I didn't study
for a test, I'm not gonna wish for one hundred.
I'm just gonna wish get a seventy three. Yeah, I
would get a seventy three. It used to work for
(30:05):
all I wish. I wish there's a little bit of
cereal left at home, and I'd go home there would
be cereal. And I don't really remember it not working.
And I thought I had a superpower.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Maybe you do.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It turned out I did because anything I wanted if
I thought about it enough, and if as long as
it wasn't too big, and I was willing to do
what I needed for it. I got whatever I wanted. Like,
this is how crazy it is this I said I wanted
a brother. Clinton, I have two sisters. Okay, yeah, I
(30:43):
had two sisters. My mom's not having any more kids.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I was twelve years old. This about two years after
I was wishing to have a brother. But two years later,
twelve years old, my dad went to pick us up
on the weekends like he usually does, and I found
out I had a half brother that's four years older
than me that was moving in.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
That's unreal.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So your rearticular activating system shows you things to confirm
stories you already believe. Yeah, I genuinely can't tell you
the times it didn't work. And that just instilled me
I had more of a power. I would talk to
myself that I was the best in the gym, and
I would go to the gym. I would be the
best in two years I want And I realized it
(31:26):
was all the way I was talking to myself. And
then in twenty twelve, I got suspended and all that
positive talk and all that magic went away, and I
lost it and I couldn't get myself back in shape.
I couldn't get myself working out. I was drinking a lot,
and it was changing my last name to Awesome and
talking to myself again saying things I want. I'm going
(31:49):
to be the best speaker ever, and I do think
at least like you. I think I'm the greatest youth
speaker in the world that speaks English because I haven't
seen anyone else who hasn't spoken English. I don't understand them.
And I have that thought about myself and if I
ever do find someone who better than me I asked
(32:12):
to meet for coffee or a zoom, absolutely, how are
you so much better than me? What did you do?
How can I do it? And then I will do
all those things. But it's like that's a part of
the magic of you can literally have anything you want,
you just have to like wish for it. Also, I
need to be more specific with my wishes.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I totally get that. And I think when you look
at someone not just even going through your life or
trying to have a success overcoming adversity, that intrinsic method
in you saying hey, I'm better than these things. I'm
going to beat these things. No, there's literally something to that.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, how do you talk to yourself, like, no one
thinks about you more than you think about yourself. I
mean you love your kids, Yeah, you think about you
more than you think about your kids. And even when
you think about your kids, whose kids are of it?
You don't think about my kids, Clint, You've never thought
about my kids? Right? I don't have any?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Okay? Is I think about them less?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
You should? He should? We don't want to think anything
into exist otherwise.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Let's not that.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
But the idea is, no one thinks about you more
than you think about yourself. That's how much time do
you spend creating the story you tell yourself? Just whatever
story you tell yourself is true. You you could have
walked past your wife and she didn't see you. When
you think, oh she's mad at me, she didn't look
at me, she's not even acknowledging me. And then you
(33:41):
told yourself the story, and then you realize she doesn't have.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Her contacts in No, you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
What are the stories that we constantly tell ourselves?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Wow, that is such an interesting way of looking at life.
I absolutely love it. I've got to ask you, because
I don't want to be selling fish. I look at
you and I say, here's a guy going out and
helping hundreds of kids. Is that why you didn't go
into specifically coaching. Because you did, you wouldn't reach as
many Because I look at you and go you would
have been a phenomenal coach.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I might disagree with you on the idea that I'd
be a phenomenal coach, maybe in one at one point
of my life in the future, but I don't think
you can be a great coach when you still think
you have it.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I get that. I understand that might go still there
too much. I totally understand that. I totally understand that,
and yet you have knowledge and drive that so many
people would need. I feel like you would be a
really good motivator. I feel like you'd be the same
thing you would speak a a athlete into existence in
(34:48):
that way, I think you would have that. And at
the same time, you're going out, you're doing motivational speaking.
You're speaking to kids that that desperately need it. Maybe
they're not athletes, maybe they would never see the inside
of a gym, but for whatever reason, you're reaching them,
and you're reaching their lives. So what you're doing probably
way more important. I just always look for good coaches,
because that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
So. Oh well, while I have your listener's ear, USA
boxing dot org, you can go there. You can find
a gym. We're always looking for coaches, we're looking for judges,
we're looking for referees. There are gyms and fights all
around the entire country. They're in your neighborhood, I'm sure.
(35:27):
And you are in the heart of the Olympics right
there in Colorado Springs right down the block from you.
And there's tons of gyms in Denver. So if you
want to get involved in boxing, or maybe you used
to be involved in boxing, or maybe your kids graduated
and you have some free time on your hands, you're
looking to get into coaching boxing, gyms are the greatest
place to be a coach. No experience is the best
(35:49):
experience because you can learn boxing alongside and you start off.
Maybe you give kids water and you learn to bring
their elbows in when they're throwing punches. Sure, but it's
the mentorship that these students and these children need. I
don't care about the sport. I don't care if the
kid ever becomes great at fighting.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
If you do difficult things, Yes, everything else seems easier.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yeah, and athletics are there. I know it's cliche. They're
teaching life lessons. They're teaching you how do I how
do I deal with things? How do I deal with
people I don't like? How do I deal with situations?
How do I deal with losing? How do I deal
with sometimes? Like you said, life is unfair. We don't
get taught these things enough, and our kids especially don't
get these these things hot enough.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Oh yeah, losing no one. You don't get to lose
in real life. Right in sports, you objectively lose and
you and you get to watch the winner be happy. Yeah,
sometimes you have to listen to their national anthem.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I can see that, and that would be that would
be absolutely pain. But you know it's funny because I
always look at you know, somebody, you watch youth sports,
You go and, hey, we want to go out and win,
and I'm going, you know, the other team wants to win.
To everybody wants to win. Nobody likes to go home
a loser. That is that's what you're learning. You're learning
how to do these things. You're learning how to get better,
(37:17):
You're learning sometimes how to deal with the loss when
you when you absolutely thought you were better than the
other side. Does not always work that way. We're teaching
life lessons. It is so good. I'm glad you. I'm
glad you brought up you know, the the going out
and getting involved, because how many people do you know
that you sit there and you go, hey, you know,
I just I don't have a lot of motivation. I
don't go out and get involved. Go out and find
(37:39):
some a kid to mentor go out and do something.
You'll same thing. You'll find your yourself talking poorly about
yourself a lot less, right.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Exactly, and you'll be giving some good to the world.
Another thing you can do a big brother, big sister. Yeah,
you can get masked with a little and they have
a vet. You don't know what to do. They'll give
you ticket to the local baseball game. Look, take your
little and you'll have all these opportunities. And another thing
is you meet other people who have littles, who are
(38:10):
usually professionals, and they have free time on their hands.
And it's fellas, there are way more young boys waiting
for bigs than big brothers and big sisters. I mean,
it's just you can meet so many people you want
to date, like go out, do things, be active, and
(38:32):
be around the people who are doing the things that
you want to do. I mean, I see so many
people find the frustration of they don't know what to
do with their lives or they don't know what to
do with their time. And man, it's so easy to
just grab your phone and chill on the couch. Oh yeah,
I check my inbox from my laptop. But I don't
have social media on my phone for that reason. Yes,
(38:54):
some people can do it. I'm just addicted, so I
don't get it.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I can't do it. I have to say I had
to cut it off. I'm like, no, no, no, And how
many times a day you know, you get on social
media whatever, and you those things are feeding you things
just to make you angry. I'm not sitting there in
the middle of the night and I'm like reading you know,
you know, Facebook? And why am I angry? I don't
have anything to be mad about. What.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Why do I need to know what people in my
hometown are eating.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
No, and I certainly don't need to know what people
are around the world are doing. I don't I don't
need We were not meant to have all this information
it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's where a lot of the anxiety is coming from you.
And I supposed to know when your favorite celebrity died
until twelve years later, that's right, Like, Hey, why didn't
that person make a movie lately because they've been dead
for seven years? Oh, I didn't see the newspaper that day.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Are you a fight fan still? Are you? Do you
still watch boxing? Are you still involved? Oh?
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Bro, I never even watched it when I was fighting.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
You did it?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
No? It was never my thing. My friends. If my
friends are fighting, I go, like I went to Tony Mack.
I'm actually at his house right now. Tony Mack, he's
the was a boxer and Team USA with me back
in the day. I come up to Dallas and I
hang out with him and he had some boxing matches TCL.
It's Team Combat League. It's a boxing it's a cool concept.
(40:17):
It's uh it's like twelve like it's like ten different
weight classes and each boxer fights but it's only one round.
Oh wow, so it's a very Every round is like
super intense.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah yeah, wow, I kid.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Yeah. And it's a new league. It's they're on the
third season and Tony mac my friend. He's a coach
for the Dallas Enforcers, So I came up to watch
and support. But unless it's someone I know personally, I
don't really. I don't know who the champions I know
the big names because he can't. You gotta know. But
I'm I'm a Fairweather fan if you can even call
me that.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
No, I totally get that. And boxing has some some
things they got fixed, they get they got they got
some issues sometimes and I think sometimes it wears on
the on the fans. You know, we we grew up
in and I'll say we because I'm far older than you,
but I grew up in in the golden era of boxing,
and it just it just isn't It isn't the same.
(41:14):
There were so many good fighters. You knew them, you
got to see them, you got to follow them, you
followed their career from the time they were young. It
just boxing hasn't helped itself in a lot of in
a lot of ways. I would prefer to watch the
amateur stuff that you know, you know, the Golden Gloves,
the Olympic trials, that that, to me now is way
better than watching the professional fights.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Yeah, and uh from from even from like a from
the fighter sense of it.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I I don't think I don't think people understand how
hard it is to make money in boxing. Yeah, and
how much money a lot of money is.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
You chose to stay amateur and and not go pro.
Why why did you not ever make that jump?
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Because I because I could have turned pro and made
pretty good money. That money would have stopped at about
thirty five. Now at twenty three, I had the foresight
to know, I'm going to take a different path. I'm
going to bet on myself. And as I like in
twenty thirteen when I came back, as I was traveling
around the country as on the USA team again, I
(42:29):
would be speaking at schools, mceing vegan festivals, and doing
stand up comedy. As I travel around the country, Like
it was, I was doing more of that than I
was boxing, and everyone thought it was weird. But my
thing was I wanted to build myself up more than
just an athlete. So now that and I know I
(42:51):
looked crazy, okay, because even twenty sixteen didn't go Olympics,
I should have. I could just turn pro then, but
I decided to live in my van because I didn't
have any money, I could have just turned pro. But
I just saw an opportunity to bet on myself, and
I was like, if I could just toughen this out
for maybe one or two years, end up being three years.
(43:12):
That's how life happens. I will be able to build
a foundation, get good at speaking, get a clear message,
have a website built, maybe afford to get a speaking
real because I had zero budget and I was just
doing everything as I was going. And now I look
less crazy about my decision than I did ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
You've done pretty well for yourself.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I did.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I Yeah you did? Cam? How can listeners keep up
with what you have going on? Where's the best place
to find you? Where can they find your book? Where
can they follow you? What's the best place to catch
up with Cam?
Speaker 2 (43:51):
You can find me at caamfalsom dot com or at
camffalsom on all so social media platforms. Because I'm not
famous enough for anyone to try to take my name.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
I don't know if people. If people go watch this documentary,
they might want to take your name. Because I'm telling you,
I went and watch this documentary and I came away
going I got to meet this guy. I got to
talk to this guy. He was absolutely fascinating. If you
haven't seen it, go watch CounterPunch on Netflix. You will
be impressed the same way I was. Because Cam, I
(44:21):
don't know. I know it's gonna sound corny, but Cam,
you're pretty awesome. I really enjoyed getting getting to spend
some time with you today. I cannot thank you enough
for joining us on the Daily Dose. I would love
to have you back some time. I love getting your thoughts.
I love hearing a unique way of going through life
and a unique way of going about again, sometimes dealing
(44:44):
with good and dealing with bad. I just kind of
like the way you operate.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
Thank you, man, I appreciate that, and thank you for
the kind words about Doc Benter and even our conversation
before this.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
I appreciate you well.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
I appreciate you coming on. Like I said, would love
to have you back anytime. Really really enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
You say what, I'm here Hey.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Next week on the Dose, I am working on another
interview that I'm telling you I'm very excited about. But
it will give you some more information on another sport
that is in season right now, one that maybe doesn't
get talked about a lot, but trust me, it's going
to be a little different and you will not want
to miss it. So be sure you tune into the
Dose and be sure you let a friend know to
the same.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I want to say thank you so much to Cam
f Awesome for spending some time with us today. I
really enjoyed our conversation and hope you will stay in touch.
And I want to say thank you to each and
every one of you for listening to the Deli Dose
every week. Thank you for the emails, thank you for
the text thank you for the tweets, thank you for
going over to deal with those sports dot com and
checking out the new things going up there every week.
But more than anything, thank you for sharing the show,
(45:44):
for sharing me videos, and for sharing the articles. We
absolutely love it when you do that. I have to say
thank you to Jesse P. Could not do any of
this about you. I will see you all next Wednesday.
Have a great week, everybody,
Wednesday, May seventy, twenty twenty five. You are listening to
the Daily Dose Sports podcast and I am your host,
Clint Daily, coming to you from my icity. You're in Denver, Colorado,
and we are back for another week of talking sports
with a dose of common sense. Hey, Happy Wednesday to you.
Hope your week is going well. I hope your week
is off to a strong start and that you, your family,
(00:27):
your friends, everyone is staying strong and staying healthy right now.
And you know, the NBA playoffs are now down to
the final eight. We have had some chaos because the
Western Conference is pretty tough, but then you know, Game one,
we see the number one seed Celtics getting knocked off.
We see the number one seat Oklahoma City Thunder getting
(00:49):
knocked off. I don't think either one of those is
gonna hold, but it is interesting. And already gone are
the number two seed Houston Rockets, the number three seed
Los Angeles Lakers. I mean, it's been at least a
little bit interesting, kind of ugly basketball to watch, but
it's been at least interesting. Meanwhile, the Stanley Cup playoffs
(01:10):
are also down to their final eight, and we actually
just have two teams from Canada remaining. Yeah, sorry for
all of you out there wearing denim right now, just
two teams left that are gonna have to try to
make it all the way to the Stanley Cup. And
over the weekend we did get some news that the
(01:32):
sport of boxing might actually have a fight that could
pull the sport back to the forefront of the sports
world this fall. And I mean it's been a while.
When was the last fight you felt like you had
to watch? But after when on Saturday over William Skull?
The state is now set for the blockbuster mega fight
(01:56):
between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford. Now, Crawford is thirty seven,
he will have to move up two weight classes to
challenge Canelo, but if he actually beats Alvarez, he would
become the first undisputed champion in three different weight classes. Meanwhile, Canelo,
(02:16):
who's thirty four, is a two time undisputed super middleweight champion.
The Alvarez Crawford card will be the first event promoted
by Turkey A La Chic and Dana White's TKO Boxing. Yes,
we'd heard the Saturdays, We're getting involved here they are.
The fight is now scheduled for Friday, not Saturday, Friday,
(02:40):
September twelfth this fall. The card will take place on
a Friday to avoid competition from college football and of
course from UFC the following day. And get this, they
say it's going to be held in Allegiance Stadium in
Las Vegas. Kind of bizarre that the home of the
Raiders is going to you see a championship take place. Now,
(03:02):
how will the sport of boxing screw this up? I mean,
besides the fact that this fight is already happening, like
ten years after we all wish it was happening. But
there are just so many possibilities. We know that every
time it gets a big stage, boxing rarely fails to
shoot itself squarely in the foot. But ay, this could
(03:24):
actually be a fight that grabs some serious attention. Speaking
of the fight game, today, on the Deal of Dose,
we are going to be joined by a very special guest.
And I'm telling you we have a ton of things
to get to today. We need to jump in right now.
Joining us this week on the Deal of Dose, we
have a very special guest. Today's guest is someone who
(03:45):
knows what it takes to turn challenges into championships. Literally,
Cam f Awesome. Yes you heard that right. Cam f
Awesome is a twelve time national boxing champion. He's a
three time Olympic Trials champion. He's a former captain of
the USA national boxing team. He was formerly known as
Lenroy Thompson. He's a boxer best known for winning the
(04:08):
US title in two thousand and eight, ten, thirteen, and
fourteen and the Golden Gloves in two thousand and nine,
twenty eleven, twenty thirteen at super heavyweight. If you see Cam,
he's not a giant guy. I want to know how
he's fighting at super heavyweight. He has an absolutely insane
fight record of three twenty six at thirty. He is
(04:28):
featured in the twenty seventeen Netflix boxing documentary CounterPunch. If
you haven't watched that, I would encourage you to. He's
the author of the book Becoming Awesome, How to Make
Success Inevitable. He's been on ESPN. He's doing some comedy.
He does motivational speaking. Please welcome to the show, the One,
the only, Cam f Awesome. Cam, Welcome to the Daily Dose.
(04:50):
We are so glad to have you here with.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
M Michael Buffer has nothing on you, man, what an introduction.
I'm digging it already.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Cam, you deserve that introduction, you know, I was. I was.
We were talking a little bit before we started recording.
I was telling you I watched that documentary and Cam,
I was rooting for you. I'm cheering for you. Holy cow.
I was like, I can't wait to talk to this guy. Camp.
Take us back a little bit to your childhood. Where
did you grow up?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I grew up in the Long Island, New York in Uniondale.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah okay, wow, okay, so you're you're in New York,
big area. Obviously a lot of people there. What sports
did you grow up playing back back there?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Oh? None? I tried out for many of the teams.
Someone say all of the teams, but well I got
cut off every team except for eighth grade JV football team.
I got injured before cuts, so technically I never got
cut from that team.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Were you a boxing fan? How did you end up
getting in to boxing? What happened? You're you're not playing
other sports. You're you're not you know, doing that kind
of thing. How did you How did your trail go
down to the boxing path?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I was I was dealing with bullying and what's anxiety?
And I didn't know what anxiety was. But in hindsight,
I was dealing with anxiety and I was afraid all
the time, and I was struggling with weight issues. And
I figured if I joined the boxing Jim, I could
defend myself against police, I can get in good shape
and I could be more confident. That was it was
(06:30):
really to protect myself, and also it was cool, and
I thought it would allow me to be accepted. Yeah,
because that's cool to a sixteen year old.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Well, and so many kids, whether or not they have
the love of the sports, so many kids go into
the athletic realm because they're like, hey, this will help
me be accepted. I'll kind of find my my social
you know spot, and so a lot of times, even
though maybe people aren't drawn to it naturally, they're like, hey, no,
I kind of found what worked. And obviously this worked
for you because cam you do it right away, you
(07:01):
started to have some success pretty early, didn't you.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I because I'm very analytical and I think
I'm very logical, and we all think that. But with boxing,
I joined the gym to lose weight. So they never
taught me out of box. I just watched other people
and did what I thought made sense, and it gave
me the opportunity to ask the question, well why am
(07:28):
I doing this with everything that I did, and it
allowed me to develop my own unique boxing style that
was efficient for the scoring system.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
No, you're right, because if you watch when I watch
you box, you have a really unique style. And I
want to talk about that because you reminded me a
little bit of one fighter. And when I say it,
people are going to think I'm crazy, But I'm going
to get back to that camp. Did you have a
coach early on that made like an impact on you
that got you, you know, kind of enthralled and kind
of fall in love with a gym like that.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah. His name was Ralph Morgolo. He was He was
a former marine with a very dirty mouth, and he
was an Italian from New Jersey and he was coaching
me down in Florida when I was seventeen years old,
and he was as delusional about me as I was.
(08:30):
I So I'd never made I had never made a
team before. So when I won my first boxing match,
technically I was undefeated as a human being, sure, So
I thought I was like, Oh, I'm the greatest boxer ever.
I must be special. And I carried myself that way.
(08:51):
So and it's not in the documentary, but in my
high school. In high school, my boxing gym was six
miles away, so I had a six mile walk every
day after school.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And I didn't have music. So I would just make
up stories in my head. And this is not me
saying I knew what it was going to be, and
I just happened to make myself a winner. In all
of these stories, I was kicking butt and all these stories,
I was knocking everyone out. I had all the money,
all the cars, all the jewelry. I was the greatest,
and after winning my first flight, I believed all that.
(09:23):
And I would just tell myself that for three hours
a day before going to the gym. And there was
a direct correlation between how highly I spoke about myself
and how well I did in the gym. And it
allowed me to become this more confident person. And I
think that confidence is what allowed me to succeed in
(09:45):
the ring because I just thought I should win.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Well, it clearly worked because you began winning right away, Kim.
You hadn't been boxing very long. You got invited to
the boxing National championships in two thousand and eight. What
do you remember from getting that invite and then going
and winning your first national title? But what do you
remember from that very first one?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
So before I went there, I went to the reason
why I got invited, That is, I qualified for the
two thousand and seven two thousand and eight Olympic Trials.
I was boxing for less than two years. I lost
the first day, but it was cool that I made it.
Everyone who lost either quick boxing or turned professional, okay,
(10:30):
And the light bulb went off in my head. If
everyone who lost quit or turned pro and I don't,
aren't I automatically the best? And man, the Olympic cycle changed.
All those guys turn pro and the new crop of
boxers came around, and they're new to boxing, just as
(10:53):
new as I am. But to them, I'm the guy
from the last Olympic cycle. Now I'm the most I'm
the veteran. And they looked at me when I went
to that nationals in two thousand and eight, they looked
at me like I was the guy to beat, so
I just pretended I was.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
That is absolutely incredible, dude, The way your mind just operates,
That's that's the power of the mind. No, you're right,
you know. And when they talk about you know, getting
these placebo effects and that kind of thing, not only
do these things work, sometimes they like they'll say, hey,
we put someone into surgery. We told them they were
(11:34):
going to bleed less. Guess what they bled less. That
is the power of the mind. And you are absolutely
an example of that. You qualified for the Olympic team.
Also in twenty twelve, then, cam you were suspended from
Olympic competition when you failed to make yourself available for
Olympic drug testing. Not that you were doing anything illstit.
In fact, you tested cleaning later that week. You were
(11:57):
just not there for them to test when they wanted
to test you. That cost you. What did you learn
from that whole experience?
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Though? I learned that life doesn't care about your feelings.
Like I made a small error. I forgot to send
an email that I was leaving the country, and I
had to deal with that consequence, and I lost all
the confidence I had because I had put all my
(12:25):
value and worth in sports. Like I never had friends,
but then when I started boxing, I had all these
friends all over the world. And you have to love me,
You have to accept me, look at my national championships.
I am the best boxer in the country. But then
I got suspended and I couldn't say any of that anymore,
and I was like, well, then who am I?
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And I realized that I looked at boxing as like
a as like a wife or a girlfriend. And I
spent so much years going after her and giving her
everything I had. And then last minute, see this took
another boxer on a date instead of me, Like another
boxer went to the Olympics, a guy I fought six
(13:08):
times and beat six times, and it it ruined me.
And I took a look at my life and I
had to be honest with myself. And I had no skills,
I had no certifications, I had no degrees. I had
to box again, There's there's no other options. I mean,
I could have turned pro because I was the reigning
(13:31):
number one heavyweight in the country for four years. I
could have done pretty good in the pros and made
some immediate money. Yeah, but I didn't see longevity in sports,
especially boxing. Someone's willing to fight twice as hard for
half the money, just for the opportunity. And I figured
if I turned prone boxing, I might make a bunch
(13:52):
of money right off the bat. But what am I
going to do later on in life?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
So I decided to go back to the to the amateurs,
do the Olympic run again, but this time rebrand myself
and be more than just an athlete. Because when I
identified as an athlete, sports was taken from me. I
lost my identity. Now I'm going to identify as an
entertainer and I'm gonna wear the capes. I'm gonna dance
(14:17):
in the ring. I'm gonna flip in the ring and
build a career for myself outside of sports. It wasn't
shown in the Netflix documentary CounterPunch, but when I would
travel for fights, like if I went to go fight
in Denver, I would reach out to schools in Denver
and I would speak all week leading up to the fight,
(14:40):
and my coaches that drove them crazy. They're like, why
are you focusing your energy other places? You have a
fight coming up, this is championship, this is Nationals, And
in my mind, I'm like, oh no, I am past boxing.
I'm using boxing just as an avenue to get what
I want in life. Because athlete privileged, this like I
(15:02):
get opportunities I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I speak on
stages I shouldn't be speaking on. I meet people I
date outside of my looks because I'm really good at
a sport. But the problem that that relevancy dissipates faster
than the sweat on your jersey from your last practice.
Like after your sport, you're no one unless you use
(15:23):
your time as an athlete to build like a runway
for yourself.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, and was this at that time, because I know
it was in twenty thirteen you changed your name? Was
this all part of that whole thing? Was that the
significance of changing your name?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Oh? Well? Yeah? That? And also in the comments a
lot because I was cocky before I got spended. One
of the major comments was I bet he's humble now okay,
And it didn't sit right with me.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I looked up the definition of humble. It's having a
low estimate of your own importance, and I realized the
greatest things I've accomplished is when I spoke it into existence,
and I thought I deserved it. And changing my last
name to awesome was a for one. I had to
(16:17):
rebrand myself for boxing and try to be bigger than
the sport. And when the news shows up to interview
the boxers, they know nothing about boxing. Because they see
someone with the last name Awesome, they're going to interview him.
Oh yeah, I got all the interviews, I got the documentaries.
It worked. Also, I threw away the concept of being humble.
(16:40):
I needed to believe in myself wholeheartedly, unapologetically, and I
understood that was going to rub. That was going to
rub some people the wrong way. So I changed my
middle name to this letter F. So if you don't
like that, I know I don't like you. Sure saves
me a lot of time.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
You also decided to make a lifestyle change. You slim down.
You fought at the heavyweight class instead of the super
heavyweight class. You went vegan, Cam, How did you manage
going vegan and boxing? How are you doing this?
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I lost a bet. I'm a man of my word.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
You did not. It's not really true.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
I swear I lost the bet. It was a many
Packia versus Timothy Bradley, June twelfth, twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Oh, Cam, you got robbed right.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yeah. I didn't even watch the fight. I was playing
Monopoly with a bunch of a couple of people and
I got a text saying, guess who won. So I
had to be vegan for twenty.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Eight days and you just liked it.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
I felt so good after the twenty eight days. Okay
that I said, I'm not gonna be vegan, but I'm
just gonna do this until I find a reason not to.
And I don't judge anyone for how they live or
how they eat. You do what you do. I'll do
what I do. And it's been the teen years I
haven't found a reason to stop. And I think that's
how we should live life. I mean, try something, and
(18:06):
I would have if I didn't lose to Bet, I
would have never tried it. Sure, and it changed for
one it and I think you can it changed the
way my relationship with food. And even as a kid,
I struggled with eating and I struggled with my eating habits,
and even when I was boxing, my weight always fluctuates
(18:27):
and I didn't have the greatest relationship with food. And
this kind of helped put some rains on that.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Kim, you have a really unorthodox style when I watch
you fight, and this is despite being a super heavyweight.
I'm gonna make a comparison. And you can call me crazy,
but when I watch you fight, you fight to get points.
It reminds me of a giant guy fighting like Prunell Whittaker,
because I will see you use that reach, use that length.
(19:00):
You'll squat clear down if you need to. You will
get to where you can to earn points and avoid
giving them any points. Was there a fighter that you emulated.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
For one?
Speaker 1 (19:10):
That is there?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Compliment? Sweet Pee? I love love his style. It was
partly him. And if you ever heard of Emmanuel.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Augustus, I don't know that I have.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You probably wouldn't. He's never won any world titles or
anything like that. His record's probably upside down. He calls
himself the drunken Warrior, but he's so slick and he's
dancing and laughing the entire time he's fighting. And to me,
for you to be able to have that much fun, right,
(19:45):
you win automatically of course if you get a chance.
Look him up. Magel Burton he changed his name as well.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So okay, well, and that's interesting because a lot of
people talk about sports, they'll compare it to war. I
remember when I was coaching basketball, we'd have you know,
you'd have some coach come into a clinic whatever, he'd
be like, oh, read read the Art of War, and
I'm like, man, basketball is not war. I will say this.
Boxing isn't war, but it's getting real close to war.
Is hand to hand combat. You're getting real If you
(20:14):
can go in and have fun in the ring and
you look like you have fun in the ring, you're
ahead of most everyone else because you're getting as close
to battle as you actually can be. That's actually very impressive.
I also want to ask you this. You didn't sit
between rounds. Was this a practical thing? Did you want
to stay or is it just a strategy? This is
(20:35):
intimidation and I don't need to sit rounds.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
One, I don't need to sit down in between rounds.
You don't sit down in between rounds and sparring when
you train for your fight. Fair, whyever would you sit
down in between rounds during a fight. The second reason
why I don't sitting down between rounds is I need
to look down at you because at some point you're
(20:59):
gonna have to get up, and I want to look
at you while you are getting up, and I need
you to know him better than you. Whether that's true
or not. I just need you to believe that in
those moments, you just get a little bit of into
their armor and you can just tear a person down psychologically.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
It's so funny to me when I was watching you
fight and you genuinely you just spoke about it. But
I'm watching you and I'm going he is having fun
in the ring. The other guy might not be having fun.
He's having fun and outpointing him and for the most
part winning the fight. But it didn't matter. You look
(21:38):
like you were in the ring. I'm having a good time.
I'm here to beat you. I'm better than you. You
always know that guy when you walk in the gym,
and as basketball coach, I know the guy that walks
in the gym. Oh I can tell right here who
really believes they are the best in the gym. You
had that belief when you walked into the gym. Hey,
I'm the baddest man here.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah. And it rubs some people the wrong way, of course,
but I think that's how we should enter not just
the ring, but every phase of our lives. Yeah, it's
you are the best version you will ever be at
this given moment. You're literally the greatest. You've ever been.
Why would you walk into a situation like you're not
(22:17):
and with this placebo effect working the way it is.
I mean, your brain looks first to create stories, and
it looks to confirm stories you're already created with yourself,
your reticular activating system. It's basically a filter in your
brain that fills without information to show you what you're
looking for. What you seek is what you find. If
(22:38):
you say my name is Clint and I'm not capable,
your brain would sort through the billions of bits of information,
ignore all the reasons why you are capable, and confirm
the few reasons why you aren't. I started to carry
myself in a very specific way, and it was to
help me believe in myself. I realized we put so
(23:01):
much pressure on ourselves when we allow this situation to
be bigger than us. I'm fighting in the national championships. Oh,
I have to wear different shoes, or I have to
wear a different outfit, or or maybe I'll do something
different before the fight. Maybe I'll sit down in between rounds.
Since it's different than sparring. Because this is so different,
I look at the finals of a national championship the
(23:22):
same way I look at a workout on a Tuesday.
If I go out to a comedy club the night
before sparring, I go out to the comedy club a
night before a fight. I treated nothing different, and it
would rub some coaches the wrong way, but it was
how I worked mentally. And John Brown my coach, he
(23:47):
was the best coach ever because kind of just let
me do what I want.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Seems like he understood you. Yeah, yeah, that's always That's
always a very very special relationship. When you do have
one coach that gets you, understands how you operate, and
knows how to still get the best of you while
allowing you to be you. That's when you're getting into
some really, really good stuff. Kim, you came up short
in your bid for the twenty sixteen Olympics, and that
(24:14):
was a just barely coming up short, but you were
on track to go to the twenty twenty Olympics in Tokyo,
and then COVID hit wipe the whole thing out. What
do you remember about getting ready for those twenty twenty games.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
So I decided because I was living in my van
at the time, I was trying to build this build
my speaking business, and I figured it'll cut out a
lot of expenses if I lived in my van, and
so I didn't live in my van, I would have
to get a job.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
And if I were to get a job, the consistency
of a paycheck and health insurance would make it harder
for me to go back out and chase my dream.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
No, you're right.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So I lived in my van for some years and
I went to sign up for Team USA and they
wanted me to stay in Colorado Springs at the Olympic
Training Center, but had a schedule booked out of high
schools and middle schools I was going to go speak
at and I was like, I can't do that. So
my dad's from Trinidad and Tobago. I fought for Trinidad's
(25:15):
Olympic team, and so I went to Trinidad. I I
trained with their team. I won the Olympic trials in Trinidad,
and they didn't send a team because of the pandemic.
But I do remember March thirteenth because I was headed
to I was headed to Trinidad on March seventeen, Saint
(25:36):
Patrick's Day, and March thirteenth they cancel the NBA twenty twenty,
so I don't watch the news. Ever, I never really have.
I don't know. I never know what's going on in
the world. Guess what, I'm alive. But this COVID thing.
I found out about it when they cancel the NBA
because someone mentioned they canceled the day. I was like, hey,
(25:56):
why and they like mentioned it. I was like, no,
what's talking about? And what a surprise. I don't know
if you heard about it, but uh, COVID.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Kind of kind of is big there for a minute.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, it was it. Yeah, it made its rounds. If
if I were to be in Trinidad when they canceled
the flights, I would have been stuck over there for
about ten months. Oh wow, it was a It was
four days short. That's when I cut everything short, four
days before I was going to go to Trinidad.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Wow, that's getting closed with with that goes my dream. Hey,
just a quick reminder make sure that you are stopping
by Dailydossports dot com every week, as we do have
new articles going up over there. We do have links
to the podcast, we do have links to the videos
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host as well, and you can also find links to
(26:53):
get Daily Dose gear. Maybe you need a T shirt, sweatshirt, hoodie,
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by daily those Sports dot Com each and every week.
Now let's get back to our interview with boxer Cam.
Awesome Cam. You were out of boxing for a little
over a year and you started noticing something going on
with your vision. What happened there?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
I woke up one morning, so I journal every morning.
It's what I do. I'm a big fan of journaling,
never used to be. But I went to grab my
journal and I couldn't see out of my right eye
and it was like I could see it's just like
nothing above here, like like up there. And went got
emergency surgery. I had to detach retina and it just
happened in my sleep, and I was told it can
(27:40):
just happen.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Wow, Well that's horrifying. Was it boxing related or do
they non't?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
I haven't been in the rain for almost a year
and a half at that point. It might have been
from from past, but they said it it happens. It
can happen to anyone.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Cam. You've had setbacks, You've had some things that that
people might might even deem to be unfair. The thing
I noticed that sets you apart. You don't make excuses,
you don't complain, You just keep pushing forward every single time.
Where did that drive come from? Where did you? Where
did you find that? Because it seemed like you were
(28:17):
kind of that way even as a kid, going and
starting to eat no box. Where did that drive come from?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I think one of my greatest I think there's some
pros and cons the way I think and I shared
even before even the emotional side. I remove emotional from
things that I'm very logical, which doesn't work great in
relationships or friendships because sometimes you have to see things
in other lights. And I'm working on that as a person.
But one of the things that I realized that like
(28:46):
from an early age, I believed in magic. So and
I've only said this outside a couple set us out
loud a couple of times, so it might not come
out very smooth. But when I was like eight years old,
my mom went into the store and she left me
in the car, like she went into like a store
real quick to grab something, and there was a bird
(29:06):
sitting on a fence, and I was like, if I
have magical powers, the bird will poop right now. And
when I said that.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Clint, you not nailed it.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
I So I got home that day and I just
remember for the next few weeks thinking like, cause you know,
the first fifteen percent of any superhero movie is that
superhero learning how to use their powers. Of course, so
what I started to do is I implemented something. I
call it like I had one wish a day, and
(29:43):
and so I would say I had one wish a day,
and it could be a big wish, it could be
something that would alter the course of the universe. But
I can make small wishes in my life, and I
can get whatever I want. Like if I didn't study
for a test, I'm not gonna wish for one hundred.
I'm just gonna wish get a seventy three. Yeah, I
would get a seventy three. It used to work for
(30:05):
all I wish. I wish there's a little bit of
cereal left at home, and I'd go home there would
be cereal. And I don't really remember it not working.
And I thought I had a superpower.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Maybe you do.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It turned out I did because anything I wanted if
I thought about it enough, and if as long as
it wasn't too big, and I was willing to do
what I needed for it. I got whatever I wanted. Like,
this is how crazy it is this I said I wanted
a brother. Clinton, I have two sisters. Okay, yeah, I
(30:43):
had two sisters. My mom's not having any more kids.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I was twelve years old. This about two years after
I was wishing to have a brother. But two years later,
twelve years old, my dad went to pick us up
on the weekends like he usually does, and I found
out I had a half brother that's four years older
than me that was moving in.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
That's unreal.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
So your rearticular activating system shows you things to confirm
stories you already believe. Yeah, I genuinely can't tell you
the times it didn't work. And that just instilled me
I had more of a power. I would talk to
myself that I was the best in the gym, and
I would go to the gym. I would be the
best in two years I want And I realized it
(31:26):
was all the way I was talking to myself. And
then in twenty twelve, I got suspended and all that
positive talk and all that magic went away, and I
lost it and I couldn't get myself back in shape.
I couldn't get myself working out. I was drinking a lot,
and it was changing my last name to Awesome and
talking to myself again saying things I want. I'm going
(31:49):
to be the best speaker ever, and I do think
at least like you. I think I'm the greatest youth
speaker in the world that speaks English because I haven't
seen anyone else who hasn't spoken English. I don't understand them.
And I have that thought about myself and if I
ever do find someone who better than me I asked
(32:12):
to meet for coffee or a zoom, absolutely, how are
you so much better than me? What did you do?
How can I do it? And then I will do
all those things. But it's like that's a part of
the magic of you can literally have anything you want,
you just have to like wish for it. Also, I
need to be more specific with my wishes.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I totally get that. And I think when you look
at someone not just even going through your life or
trying to have a success overcoming adversity, that intrinsic method
in you saying hey, I'm better than these things. I'm
going to beat these things. No, there's literally something to that.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Yeah, how do you talk to yourself, like, no one
thinks about you more than you think about yourself. I
mean you love your kids, Yeah, you think about you
more than you think about your kids. And even when
you think about your kids, whose kids are of it?
You don't think about my kids, Clint, You've never thought
about my kids? Right? I don't have any?
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Okay? Is I think about them less?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
You should? He should? We don't want to think anything
into exist otherwise.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Let's not that.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
But the idea is, no one thinks about you more
than you think about yourself. That's how much time do
you spend creating the story you tell yourself? Just whatever
story you tell yourself is true. You you could have
walked past your wife and she didn't see you. When
you think, oh she's mad at me, she didn't look
at me, she's not even acknowledging me. And then you
(33:41):
told yourself the story, and then you realize she doesn't have.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Her contacts in No, you're one hundred percent right.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
What are the stories that we constantly tell ourselves?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Wow, that is such an interesting way of looking at life.
I absolutely love it. I've got to ask you, because
I don't want to be selling fish. I look at
you and I say, here's a guy going out and
helping hundreds of kids. Is that why you didn't go
into specifically coaching. Because you did, you wouldn't reach as
many Because I look at you and go you would
have been a phenomenal coach.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I might disagree with you on the idea that I'd
be a phenomenal coach, maybe in one at one point
of my life in the future, but I don't think
you can be a great coach when you still think
you have it.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I get that. I understand that might go still there
too much. I totally understand that. I totally understand that,
and yet you have knowledge and drive that so many
people would need. I feel like you would be a
really good motivator. I feel like you'd be the same
thing you would speak a a athlete into existence in
(34:48):
that way, I think you would have that. And at
the same time, you're going out, you're doing motivational speaking.
You're speaking to kids that that desperately need it. Maybe
they're not athletes, maybe they would never see the inside
of a gym, but for whatever reason, you're reaching them,
and you're reaching their lives. So what you're doing probably
way more important. I just always look for good coaches,
because that's what I did.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
So. Oh well, while I have your listener's ear, USA
boxing dot org, you can go there. You can find
a gym. We're always looking for coaches, we're looking for judges,
we're looking for referees. There are gyms and fights all
around the entire country. They're in your neighborhood, I'm sure.
(35:27):
And you are in the heart of the Olympics right
there in Colorado Springs right down the block from you.
And there's tons of gyms in Denver. So if you
want to get involved in boxing, or maybe you used
to be involved in boxing, or maybe your kids graduated
and you have some free time on your hands, you're
looking to get into coaching boxing, gyms are the greatest
place to be a coach. No experience is the best
(35:49):
experience because you can learn boxing alongside and you start off.
Maybe you give kids water and you learn to bring
their elbows in when they're throwing punches. Sure, but it's
the mentorship that these students and these children need. I
don't care about the sport. I don't care if the
kid ever becomes great at fighting.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
If you do difficult things, Yes, everything else seems easier.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Yeah, and athletics are there. I know it's cliche. They're
teaching life lessons. They're teaching you how do I how
do I deal with things? How do I deal with
people I don't like? How do I deal with situations?
How do I deal with losing? How do I deal
with sometimes? Like you said, life is unfair. We don't
get taught these things enough, and our kids especially don't
get these these things hot enough.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Oh yeah, losing no one. You don't get to lose
in real life. Right in sports, you objectively lose and
you and you get to watch the winner be happy. Yeah,
sometimes you have to listen to their national anthem.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
I can see that, and that would be that would
be absolutely pain. But you know it's funny because I
always look at you know, somebody, you watch youth sports,
You go and, hey, we want to go out and win,
and I'm going, you know, the other team wants to win.
To everybody wants to win. Nobody likes to go home
a loser. That is that's what you're learning. You're learning
how to do these things. You're learning how to get better,
(37:17):
You're learning sometimes how to deal with the loss when
you when you absolutely thought you were better than the
other side. Does not always work that way. We're teaching
life lessons. It is so good. I'm glad you. I'm
glad you brought up you know, the the going out
and getting involved, because how many people do you know
that you sit there and you go, hey, you know,
I just I don't have a lot of motivation. I
don't go out and get involved. Go out and find
(37:39):
some a kid to mentor go out and do something.
You'll same thing. You'll find your yourself talking poorly about
yourself a lot less, right.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Exactly, and you'll be giving some good to the world.
Another thing you can do a big brother, big sister. Yeah,
you can get masked with a little and they have
a vet. You don't know what to do. They'll give
you ticket to the local baseball game. Look, take your
little and you'll have all these opportunities. And another thing
is you meet other people who have littles, who are
(38:10):
usually professionals, and they have free time on their hands.
And it's fellas, there are way more young boys waiting
for bigs than big brothers and big sisters. I mean,
it's just you can meet so many people you want
to date, like go out, do things, be active, and
(38:32):
be around the people who are doing the things that
you want to do. I mean, I see so many
people find the frustration of they don't know what to
do with their lives or they don't know what to
do with their time. And man, it's so easy to
just grab your phone and chill on the couch. Oh yeah,
I check my inbox from my laptop. But I don't
have social media on my phone for that reason. Yes,
(38:54):
some people can do it. I'm just addicted, so I
don't get it.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I can't do it. I have to say I had
to cut it off. I'm like, no, no, no, And how
many times a day you know, you get on social
media whatever, and you those things are feeding you things
just to make you angry. I'm not sitting there in
the middle of the night and I'm like reading you know,
you know, Facebook? And why am I angry? I don't
have anything to be mad about. What.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Why do I need to know what people in my
hometown are eating.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
No, and I certainly don't need to know what people
are around the world are doing. I don't I don't
need We were not meant to have all this information
it's overwhelming. It's overwhelming.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
That's where a lot of the anxiety is coming from you.
And I supposed to know when your favorite celebrity died
until twelve years later, that's right, Like, Hey, why didn't
that person make a movie lately because they've been dead
for seven years? Oh, I didn't see the newspaper that day.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Are you a fight fan still? Are you? Do you
still watch boxing? Are you still involved? Oh?
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Bro, I never even watched it when I was fighting.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
You did it?
Speaker 2 (39:57):
No? It was never my thing. My friends. If my
friends are fighting, I go, like I went to Tony Mack.
I'm actually at his house right now. Tony Mack, he's
the was a boxer and Team USA with me back
in the day. I come up to Dallas and I
hang out with him and he had some boxing matches TCL.
It's Team Combat League. It's a boxing it's a cool concept.
(40:17):
It's uh it's like twelve like it's like ten different
weight classes and each boxer fights but it's only one round.
Oh wow, so it's a very Every round is like
super intense.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah yeah, wow, I kid.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Yeah. And it's a new league. It's they're on the
third season and Tony mac my friend. He's a coach
for the Dallas Enforcers, So I came up to watch
and support. But unless it's someone I know personally, I
don't really. I don't know who the champions I know
the big names because he can't. You gotta know. But
I'm I'm a Fairweather fan if you can even call
me that.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
No, I totally get that. And boxing has some some
things they got fixed, they get they got they got
some issues sometimes and I think sometimes it wears on
the on the fans. You know, we we grew up
in and I'll say we because I'm far older than you,
but I grew up in in the golden era of boxing,
and it just it just isn't It isn't the same.
(41:14):
There were so many good fighters. You knew them, you
got to see them, you got to follow them, you
followed their career from the time they were young. It
just boxing hasn't helped itself in a lot of in
a lot of ways. I would prefer to watch the
amateur stuff that you know, you know, the Golden Gloves,
the Olympic trials, that that, to me now is way
better than watching the professional fights.
Speaker 3 (41:35):
Yeah, and uh from from even from like a from
the fighter sense of it.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
I I don't think I don't think people understand how
hard it is to make money in boxing. Yeah, and
how much money a lot of money is.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
You chose to stay amateur and and not go pro.
Why why did you not ever make that jump?
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Because I because I could have turned pro and made
pretty good money. That money would have stopped at about
thirty five. Now at twenty three, I had the foresight
to know, I'm going to take a different path. I'm
going to bet on myself. And as I like in
twenty thirteen when I came back, as I was traveling
around the country as on the USA team again, I
(42:29):
would be speaking at schools, mceing vegan festivals, and doing
stand up comedy. As I travel around the country, Like
it was, I was doing more of that than I
was boxing, and everyone thought it was weird. But my
thing was I wanted to build myself up more than
just an athlete. So now that and I know I
(42:51):
looked crazy, okay, because even twenty sixteen didn't go Olympics,
I should have. I could just turn pro then, but
I decided to live in my van because I didn't
have any money, I could have just turned pro. But
I just saw an opportunity to bet on myself, and
I was like, if I could just toughen this out
for maybe one or two years, end up being three years.
(43:12):
That's how life happens. I will be able to build
a foundation, get good at speaking, get a clear message,
have a website built, maybe afford to get a speaking
real because I had zero budget and I was just
doing everything as I was going. And now I look
less crazy about my decision than I did ten years ago.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
You've done pretty well for yourself.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
I did.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I Yeah you did? Cam? How can listeners keep up
with what you have going on? Where's the best place
to find you? Where can they find your book? Where
can they follow you? What's the best place to catch
up with Cam?
Speaker 2 (43:51):
You can find me at caamfalsom dot com or at
camffalsom on all so social media platforms. Because I'm not
famous enough for anyone to try to take my name.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
I don't know if people. If people go watch this documentary,
they might want to take your name. Because I'm telling you,
I went and watch this documentary and I came away
going I got to meet this guy. I got to
talk to this guy. He was absolutely fascinating. If you
haven't seen it, go watch CounterPunch on Netflix. You will
be impressed the same way I was. Because Cam, I
(44:21):
don't know. I know it's gonna sound corny, but Cam,
you're pretty awesome. I really enjoyed getting getting to spend
some time with you today. I cannot thank you enough
for joining us on the Daily Dose. I would love
to have you back some time. I love getting your thoughts.
I love hearing a unique way of going through life
and a unique way of going about again, sometimes dealing
(44:44):
with good and dealing with bad. I just kind of
like the way you operate.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
Thank you, man, I appreciate that, and thank you for
the kind words about Doc Benter and even our conversation
before this.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
I appreciate you well.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
I appreciate you coming on. Like I said, would love
to have you back anytime. Really really enjoyed our conversation.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
You say what, I'm here Hey.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Next week on the Dose, I am working on another
interview that I'm telling you I'm very excited about. But
it will give you some more information on another sport
that is in season right now, one that maybe doesn't
get talked about a lot, but trust me, it's going
to be a little different and you will not want
to miss it. So be sure you tune into the
Dose and be sure you let a friend know to
the same.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
I want to say thank you so much to Cam
f Awesome for spending some time with us today. I
really enjoyed our conversation and hope you will stay in touch.
And I want to say thank you to each and
every one of you for listening to the Deli Dose
every week. Thank you for the emails, thank you for
the text thank you for the tweets, thank you for
going over to deal with those sports dot com and
checking out the new things going up there every week.
But more than anything, thank you for sharing the show,
(45:44):
for sharing me videos, and for sharing the articles. We
absolutely love it when you do that. I have to say
thank you to Jesse P. Could not do any of
this about you. I will see you all next Wednesday.
Have a great week, everybody,
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