Full transcript: Roy Jones Jr. on London Real
2:08 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Roy Jones Jr., the American boxing champion, trainer, commentator, and entrepreneur.
2:26 You began boxing professionally in 1989 and have won 66 professional fights and 12 titles across the middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight divisions. You’re the only boxer in history to start your career as a junior middleweight and go on to win a heavyweight title and are widely recognized as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time. In 2003 you won the WBA heavyweight belt, becoming the first former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title in 106 years.
2:52 On November 28th you are set to face the former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, as you both make a comeback to the ring, with you at age 51 and Mike at age 54. The fight is available exclusively at Fight.TV and Triller in the US and BT Sport here in the UK. Roy, welcome to London Real. Thank you, my brother. So glad to be here.
3:15 Hey, thanks so much for coming. I appreciate it. You know, Roy, for people that have never been in a fight in their lives, what are these last few days of preparation like? What is the mental process? Do you go kind of quiet?
3:28 Do you go introspective, or, you know, what is it like these days before? About, you’re going to learn perspective, but you also go about trying to figure out no or realizing how good life has been, how good God has been to you. You try to appreciate the things that you’ve accomplished, the things that you tallied in your life. It’s very important that you reflect on your life and know who you were, who you are, because nothing promises you that you’re gonna come out the same.
3:55 So you have to get your one or two last glimpses of life as it was. Get your last few words out to anybody you need to. Fix anything up where you need to fix that, because you never know what tomorrow holds. So when I get down to the last moment, it’s like getting ready to go to war in a sense, because when you get on a plane to go to a war, you don’t know that you ever coming back. And that’s the same way you’re doing a boxing match.
4:20 You don’t know that you’re ever going to be the same. So when you get down to the last few days, you just kind of reflect on your life, are you show your appreciation, you enjoy what you’ve done. And if you really love fighting, then you feel like it’s the happiest time in the world for you. Have you always had this gratitude ritual, or is this something that you appreciate more as you get older? I’ve always had that gratitude ritual.
4:45 Always. Wow. And is this ultimately why you fight, then, to give you those moments of clarity where you can be grateful for having this opportunity to be alive? I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily why I fight, but I do know that that’s part of why I am who I am, because if you don’t appreciate things, then if you don’t have something that’ll make you appreciate it, then you’ll take it for granted. But fighting makes me appreciate.
5:11 Yeah, because like I said, I know anytime anything can happen. I mean, look what happened with Nigel Benn and Gerald McClellan. Gerald thought that was just gonna be another fight that he’d win, and look what happened. Never fought again. So you have to know, take those things into perspective before you go in the ring, because any day can be your last day.
5:30 Tomorrow’s not a promise to nobody. Yeah, I had Nigel Benn in the studio years ago, and we talked about that fight, and I remember I started that interview off, and I said, “Nigel, you’re a boxer.” He said, “No, I’m not a boxer, I’m a fighter.” He said, “When I go in there, I don’t know if I’m coming out.” And it’s serious business.
5:47 But I think a lot of times as a fan, we don’t see that aspect of it. You don’t see the aspect of it, and you don’t hear the aspect of it, and that’s why it’s so different with even other sports, because sometimes people don’t understand that when you go into a fight, it’s not guaranteed that you’re coming out. I think you once said, and this is a quote from you, you said, “Quote, I’m from a world where it’s about animalistic survival. The animals don’t run, they don’t make excuses, they don’t cry, they fight, they win or they die.”
6:17 Is that the mentality you’re talking about? Exactly that mentality. So many people take that mentality for granted or don’t get the fact that this is life. This is what it really is. So you know, we get away from things like that, yet like I said, what confuses me is that like even in my country, this country, you have to take, and at 17 years old or 18 years old, you have to sign up to be drafted to a war.
6:42 If you get drafted to a war, you have to put your life in line. And for most kids, it’s something that they never thought of, something that they never had a nightmare about. They know nothing about putting their lives on the line at 17, 18 years old. Are you serious? But if a war breaks out, they have to be signed up to be shipped off to war, but they tell you that they don’t want you to associate with animals or anything like that, that that will fight to death.
7:08 And I understand what they’re trying to say, but if you don’t send my kid to fight for the, to the death, and put his life on line, at least give him some parallels or something that he can relate to, to giving him an idea of what he’s about to go face. Do you think we’re too disconnected in this world, where, you know, it’s about the Netflix and the Starbucks, and we don’t have a real appreciation for how valuable our life is, because it’s not tested on a regular basis? We’re far too disconnected.
7:34 We’re so disconnected that we got to walk around now with masks on, that’s supposed to prevent you from catching a disease. And they also tell you why you got a mask on, that you got a social distance. Wait a minute. If the mask has stopped me from getting the disease, then why do I have to stay away from people with it? Does that make sense?
7:51 If the mask is stopping anything, then why do I have to stay away from people too, and if I can wear the mask, but oh, I can take it down to eat? But it don’t take for a second for you to inhale and get it. So if I can take it down to eat, then why am I wearing it? Because if I take it down and eat, if there’s diseases anywhere around, I’m gonna catch it. So if I took it down to eat, then why do I have to even put it on?
8:13 And like I said, once again, it’s proven that people that have been wearing the mask still come up with a disease. So is the disease really about the mask, or is the mask about something else? It’s hard to really say. So I choose, preferably, not to wear a mask, because if I get it, okay, I get it. I don’t care.
8:31 I don’t, but I don’t really care, because if I wear a mask but I can take my mask down to eat or drink water, and I’m still making myself available to whatever virus this is that they’re talking about. So I think life has gotten so bad, and people are used to getting bullied now. People get bullied into everything. They’re putting us into wearing masks. They’re bullying us into taking vaccines.
8:55 It’s just all about being bullied now. Everything’s about bullying you. The same one thing that they always talked about not happening is what’s happening to us now, because if you don’t wear a mask in certain places, you can’t go, you can’t participate, you can’t shop, you can’t do anything unless you have a mask on. A mask that does not stop you from getting this virus, because if it did, then while we have to stay six feet apart, which also is not a good distance, because if somebody sneezes you need to be 15 to 25 feet away from them in order not to catch whatever they sneezed out in their sneaks.
9:30 So that’s still wrong too, but you know, all of this to make us wear a mask, right? It’s almost like, Roy, we’ve lost the chance to fight for ourselves, right? To stand up and fight back. I mean, you fight in the ring, but it’s almost like we’ve lost the ability to even fight for what we believe in, and they’re steady taking that right for us to fight for ourselves away from us every day, and they convince so many of us that it’s right, and that’s the right thing to do, that we’re not even paying attention to what’s really happening.
9:57 Listen, look at it. Why wear a mask if the mask is not stopping you from contracting the disease? How crazy is that? And if you can wear a mask, but oh, you can take it down to eat, or you can take it down to drink, then obviously you’re still making yourself available to catching lava, to catching that disease. So why is that man so important?
10:17 It’s not, it’s really not. But you defacing us by covering those rings coming like this. No emotions you can’t read, just eyes. The emotions happen with the whole face. If you hide this much, there’s no emotion.
10:30 You can’t see many emotions at all. So you see no love, you see no hate, you see no you, see nothing, and it’s not really good at home. Yeah, well, I could definitely talk to you for a couple hours about that. This whole issue, that’s for sure. We’ve had quite a few discussions about it.
10:46 Do you think this year has been interesting, Roy, because people have had to see their life potentially end for decisions they’re going to make, whereas you know, you have been aware of this for a long time, but a lot of people reacted in ways we didn’t expect them to this year, when all of a sudden they’re faced with there being a chance of death, even though we all know every day there’s a chance of dying. Has it been strange to watch the public react to this new situation? It is.
11:12 It’s very strange, because I know it, because I deal with it on a daily basis, because I box, but people in the public, normal public people, don’t deal with every day, because they have no clue that this is what’s really happening. So it’s been strange to watch other people go through it, because not many people can understand it until they’re hit with it. Now that they’re being hit with it, it’s funny to see how some people react. It’s also fun to see how people use fear to control people.
11:39 Yeah, no, it’s true. We keep losing your picture there, but hopefully we can figure that out. It’s true, because you know, every day we have a chance of dying, and yet this year, all of a sudden, because of what’s in the news, it seems like a lot of people completely change their behavior, when the truth is, is that every day is a risk, and some people know that. You know, I guess people like you that jump in the ring. But it’s been fascinating.
12:00 I’m sure you’ve seen it. Some people you expect to react one way, and some people react another way, and it’s not always what you thought, never what you thought. It’s always totally different from what you thought. Yeah, it shows real character, that’s for sure. Tell me, Roy, what’s it like to be looking at this match coming up only days away to know that this looks like it’s trending to be the biggest boxing match of the year according to oddsmakers in Vegas?
12:26 Did you ever think or imagine that at 51 you’re going to be part of the biggest boxing match of the year in 2020? Only the grace of God could have made this happen this way. I never would have thought at 51 that I’d even be close to a boxing ring, and I definitely never thought that at 51 I would be getting involved in probably the biggest fight of my life, in the biggest part of my career. So only God can do things like that. This is the biggest fight that I probably would ever take part in, and like I said, it’s just a blessing to me from God that we are able to experience a fight at this time, because both myself and Mike Tyson are two guys who feel like we miss that social media era with Floyd.
13:06 Made all the money at, and we missed it, but we were probably way more exciting, but we missed that era. Now we get an opportunity to come back and revisit this era, and it’s got to be a blessing from God. And what about the timing? I mean, how much does the world need something like this, Roy, to get our minds off the post-election malaise and the lockdowns and the pandemics and the masks? I mean, people more than ever, they just really need this release, don’t they?
13:32 Yes, they do, and that’s really the only reason I think I probably agreed to it so quickly, because I feel like with God giving me this opportunity at a time like this, is God saying, “Look, you ain’t the kind of person that’s gonna say no when people need you,” and right now people need something. So one might ask, God, I already knew that I was gonna say yeah, because this is a time that people need something to do. And really, it’s like being in need is a great thing for us, because it gives people nothing other to do than to sit home and see something that they wish they could have seen 20 years ago, but here it is.
14:08 It’s a spectacle. Here it is, and there’s, it’s the thing happening that weekend, right? I mean, that’s pretty, that’s pretty interesting, and on Thanksgiving weekend. So thank God for giving us these opportunities, because it’s a truly thankful weekend. Do you remember the moment when you actually got the first call and proposed this thing, and do you remember, like, literally those microseconds that went through your brain when it finally was like, whoa, what, what are you talking about?
14:32 Could this really happen? Can you, can you walk me through the emotions or the logic going on when I got the call? I was like, man, they talking about six weeks from now, September 12th. And from what I’ve seen for Mike Tyson, there’s no way he can beat me in six weeks. I’ve been active.
14:47 He hasn’t. So they’re gonna give me a fight with Mike Tyson, but September 12, six weeks? Yes, yes, I’ll take that. Of course. People inside from the pandemic, they don’t know what to do.
14:57 They have no, in, they have no entertainment right now. Everybody’s looking for something to do. Two of the biggest names ever in the sport of boxing get together and can fight. I mean, whatever, if they call it exhibition, call it what you want, but this is Mike Tyson. So you know, no such thing as exhibition when it comes to him.
15:12 So I’m like, wow, in six weeks he can’t possibly beat me in six weeks. So yes, I’ll take it. Then all of a sudden they say, now we’re gonna push it back to November 28th. I had to take a little breath on that one, because now I have my plans, for out the window. Yeah, you got to go look at it from a different set of eyes.
15:34 So that’s how I’ve been doing it. Roy, let me ask you a question. How do you deal with the universe when it throws you those type of challenges? Do you look at it as, is God just throwing you this challenge and he knows you can handle it? Is this part, if you really want to do something great, is it always going to have extra challenges on top of it?
15:55 To be great, you have to do exceptional things. So if it doesn’t have extra challenge on top of it, it won’t make you great. So to be great, you have to do great things. Great things come with great challenge, great risk, great rewards. So everything is a risk, but it’s a great reward, and the greater the risk, the better, the greater the reward.
16:13 So with me, I already knew that, you know, coming with great risk would be great reward. Now that risk can be liken, but that reward could be everlasting. So who knows? So you’re first thinking, okay, wow, now you got an extra two months plus to train, and then now some other things start changing, and you’re thinking, okay, this is a whole different ball game than what I signed up for, but at the same time you can look back and say, now I got the n-shaped mic.
16:41 So when I’m, you know, 20 years from now when we’re talking about this, this is a different conversation. Is that the kind of thing you’re thinking? Yes, I could beat the best. Mic that might could have got. They gave him time to go get ready for me.
16:52 They gave him time to go get rid of me. So now I beat him. I beat him when he got to be, he got the opportunity to be at his best. He can’t say, well, I wasn’t at my best. It happened six weeks, because that’s what I was looking at at first.
17:02 I was why would I not do that? I know I can get better, get ready in six weeks. He can’t. I know I can’t. So I’m like, why would I not take that?
17:09 But now you give him two, two months, three months. It’s a little bit different, but guess what, he gets a chance to be his best, and we’ll see what happens, right? And there’s been more excitement, more build-up, more interest as this has gone on. So in some ways it has made it more interesting. Tell me about the transformation you’ve watched of Mike.
17:28 It’s like you said when he first agreed to this bout. I mean, if you see pictures of him on his show or whatever, I mean, in the nicest way possible, he looks like kind of the middle-aged man down the street. You know, he looks real out of shape, with the kind of the pop belly and stuff, but now he’s been training, and you know he had that interview with Rogan, and the interview after with Rogan. I know you’ve been and talked to Joe as well, but it’s almost like two different people, two totally different people, but that’s what three months can do for you, and that’s what I expected.
17:56 You know, I knew that if he got three months he’d come like a totally different man. But guess what, I’m ready for either one of them, so I don’t care which one I’ll show up. They already got me in a situation where I couldn’t really necessarily say no, I don’t want to do it now, because it’s not fair. But guess what, fair is fair, y’all bring whatever you got. You know what I’m saying?
18:10 Y’all want me to bring my best friend, your best, I take your best and I make the best of it. So bring me your best. That’s what I love doing. Bring me your best and I’ll take care of the rest. You know, Mike had said he’s moving out of his house now because he can’t even be around his family.
18:23 And like I said, well, that’s the same with you. Yeah, you just got to get away while I’m up here in Pittsburgh. I can’t deal with Miami’s right now. It would be unfair to them. Is that because everything sets you off at this point, because you’re, you’re getting honed and ready to go in for an ultimate battle?
18:39 Is that why, or is it just distractions? No, everything sets you off right now. Any little thing that happens, you go from zero to 100 quick, immediately. Okay, that might zero to a thousand, right? Okay.
18:52 Even at 51, is still the same thing. The brain doesn’t change. You’re fighting, you’re fighting at heart. That doesn’t does not change at all. If that’s what you are, that’s what you are, and that’s what we are.
19:04 I’ve heard of, you know, NFL players on Sunday. You know, they get quiet, you know, and their wives leave them alone, and like, I’m not to compare myself to what you do, but before like a big episode, man, you better just let me get in my own head and let me mentally prepare. A lot of things set me off. Is this this a natural human phenomenon? Same exact thing, same thing.
19:24 Okay. And you could see the way Mike was talking to Joe on that second episode, man. He had an edge to him. It was like that, that Mike was back, and Mike always said he didn’t like that mic, and for the first time I could see why I didn’t like that mic, because we like the mic and we like the guy that fights that way, but to live with that guy all the time is probably not a pleasant thing. That’s probably true, right?
19:48 It’s probably true about you too, being you don’t want to be in that mode all the time. I hate to be in this mode at any time, because this, this, the guy that was capable of doing anything, this guy could, who cares, he don’t give a damn, and that’s not good. So when they put him in that mode, that’s we got to be, that’s what he got to be, that’s what you’re going to face anyway. So why not? Right, right.
20:08 Tell me about the, just the details around the fight. You know, they’re calling it an exhibition. I want to get your thoughts on that. I don’t know how many rounds it started off at, but as what I understand, now it’s eight rounds, and it’s two, it’s two-minute rounds. Tell me about all of the talk, the hype, and now the details of this.
20:25 How does it change things? Well, it started out probably a three-round exhibition, three-minute rounds, then it went to six rounds, then it went to eight rounds. Now I dropped two minutes. Then it went from 14 hours and head gear to 12-oz gloves and no head gear. Kind of exhibition, is that you fight Mike Tyson with 12-oz, which is only two ounces bigger than the normal fight gloves, no head gear, and you call that exhibition, and then you give him a two-minute round, so he doesn’t get an opportunity to gas out as quick, so you make him more dangerous for a longer period of time, for a long amount of rounds, but you couldn’t rise down to two minutes.
20:58 Okay, so you try to make sure everything you can fix to fit Mike Tyson, to make sure he’s okay. You gonna make it like that, which is cool with me. I mean, just don’t worry, never will be fine. Don’t ruin the sacrificial lamb. Watch the sacrificial lamb go to work.
21:14 Those two-minute rounds, where is the leeway there, Roy? I mean, you know, eight two-minute rounds, and I’ll tell you right now, but it is a lot of league winner, trust me. It’s a lovely win. I’ve been working around it. It’s a lot of leeway, so I’m good with that.
21:29 Now, at first I had a problem with it. Now I’m good with it. Why is that? Because you, you settled with it, or you got to see the cracks inside that setup? I got to see the cracks.
21:39 I got to, I started. I started out working on a different strategy, but now I see the cracks in the two-minute strategy, and I see where, what, what the real deal is there, so I can work with that. Is there anything you can share with us, that’s the crucial element that no one’s seen? No, but you know what? Yeah, it’s a crucial element of one sin.
21:56 I am still Roy Jones. You almost forget I’m guessing that when, when the, in the fifth round, and the beldings and you both are coming out, it doesn’t matter at that point. At that point, it’s on, and it doesn’t matter if it was four-minute rounds even Steven. At that round five is even Steven. Hot damn, that’s, that’s when they asked me to bring out the spices, because it’s time to cook.
22:23 All right, so that’s it then. The round five, when, when you’re there, then it’s time to cook. You’re gonna bring out your spices because it’s time to cook. All right, and until then, I’m telling you, I gotta play smart. No, survive, do my thing, make sure you don’t get caught with nothing crazy.
22:37 Just be Roy Jones of old, but by round five he’ll come to hot salt paper. You know, I was watching some old docs with Mike Tyson, and he said he used to suffer from asthma, and I don’t know if he still got that, but obviously we know most of his career, it was over really quick when it went in the later rounds. It didn’t usually go for him. Are you expecting that to be a case as well? No, I’m not really expecting that to be a case, because I play in California, PA, where I trained.
23:03 I was running up this mountain when I first started, and I think I might have. So both of us might be sharing some asthma, asthmatic symptoms, but now we’re gonna be, eyes like the longer it goes the better it is for me, because of my speed and my head movement and my reflexes. So I was a guy who was a speed, reflexes, and got, and the longer fight goes, the better it is for me. Okay, now the odds in Vegas started off with you the favorite. Now they got Tyson the favorite.
23:32 What do you make of that? I hope they keep him the favor. Okay. You’d rather go in that way, because it’s like I like a little chip on my shoulder. I like when they tell me I can’t do it.
23:43 That’s what I love. That’s what I live for. Okay, hear me, I can’t think. I ain’t watch me. How are things different at 51?
23:52 You, I think you said the speed hasn’t gone, which almost shocks you. You said. But what is different? I don’t think the difference is recovery time. You got to take more recovery time.
24:02 You can’t do it three, three or four days back to bed like you could when you was 25 or 31. Yeah, recovery time is important. That’s what I got to start working on right now, because now I’m at the crucial time where recovery time becomes very costly to me. If I overdo it right now, I can lose the fight before I go into it. But if I keep it right, right now, I know y’all saw my short week, right?
24:31 He got a shark right here. Roy, do you visualize? The wind, is that your type of thing? What’s that do all the time? Okay.
24:40 And how do you do that? If I don’t mind, Nasa, do you see yourself with the hands raised? Do you see yourself at the after party? How do you visualize it? Just see what I said, with the hands raised, walking around the ring.
24:49 That’s usually it. Okay, and you’ve always done that? Always. Okay, how do you still have the speed of 51? Right, man, this is what I’ve been trying to figure that out myself.
24:59 I don’t really understand. Honestly, this is not me being facetious. This is not me being arrogant. No, I’m just telling you, I understand the truth. I really don’t understand how in the heck I still can be so fast at 51 years old.
25:13 I always have to go look at my own perspective, but I know because the next day I feel it, but when it’s happening, when I look at it myself, sometimes that, wow, how, I don’t understand, but I guess it’s partially technique and mostly gift from God. Okay, wow. Tell me about this, the details of the fight. You’re getting drug tested by USADA. Is that true?
25:37 It’s all by the books in that sense, but it’s the exhibition, though. USADA. In the exhibition, really? Is it to protect Roy or to protect Mike? What does it [expletive] us?
25:50 I don’t know. You saw it in the exhibition. Have you ever heard, have you ever heard of something like that in your life? No, you started in an exhibition, really? So it’s just really exhibition.
26:01 So it’s not an exhibition. You’re slowly picking out the clues like I did. Huh. It took me a little while to figure it out too, but I got it. I got, thank God we got it in time.
26:11 I got the memo. The same, more memories you just got. I got it too. And what does that, does that bother you that this isn’t being called a real fight? No, I don’t really, it doesn’t bother me.
26:19 It just bothers me that y’all tried to trick me and say it was exhibition at first. That’s what bothered me. Okay, gotcha. All right. I don’t know.
26:26 Still, y’all still got the label exhibition, but y’all got 12 eyebrows, y’all got soda. I mean, y’all got no head gear. What, what, really? Okay, okay. I think everyone’s treating this is a very serious fight, you know?
26:43 Like my man Buzzard say hello. But, like, USADA’s in the house, so you both got, both you guys are getting tested, and that’s all legit. All right, because Mike looks great. All right, and that’s all happening. That’s all hit me.
27:00 Okay, all right, and so you fly out to LA in the next week. You’ll get, Conde, you’ll get set up there, and then it’s on for the Staples Center zone. Yeah, okay. There’s been a lot of people talking about this fight. Some people saying good things, some people saying bad things.
27:16 It’s usually other promoters that aren’t getting in on the action. That I’ve noticed, some, some here in Britain as well, and some are saying, guys your age shouldn’t be in there, this shouldn’t be happening. What do you say to them? Guys, they shouldn’t be had to wear a mask, so they have to worry about COVID-19. So everybody got their own problems, right?
27:32 You deal with your problem, I deal with mine. How about that? Okay, do you and Roy, do you think we’re gonna see more fights like this, or is this kind of a, you know, lightning strikes where the two of you are in the perfect point? Honestly speaking, I don’t know if we’re going to see any more fights like this. I know that from my standpoint, I was just looking at an opportunity to give the public something at a bad time, at a time when everybody was shutting and having all these issues with COVID-19.
28:02 People were having nothing to do, no entertainment. I thought this would be a great opportunity to entertain people. When it came across my desk, that’s the only thing I thought about. I didn’t think about nothing else, nor the fight, but the fighters. I ain’t care about what nobody else do, and I still don’t care what nobody else does.
28:20 But my trainer yesterday, not yesterday, before yesterday, told me in training that he’s having so much fun that after this fight, everything goes well, we should probably at least try to do it one more time, where he get that conception from. I don’t know what I mean. I guess he’s in the back of his mind. So I guess we have to think about it, because I have a team player, and as a team player, you have to kind of look at doing what your team want to do.
28:47 So is that one more time with Mike, or one more time with someone else? You don’t give damn who it is. They need to do that. All right, so we could bring back the classics. Frank Bruno, Evander Holyfield, line them up.
29:01 We don’t give a damn who would eat. Now you’re, correct me if I’m wrong. You were sparring with Chris Eubank Jr. over there as well, and, and other people that are keeping you fresh? I work with them a little bit. I respond with my work with them, but yes, spoil some sparse guys keep me fresh, from young guys, younger heavyweights for sure.
29:19 And, uh, yes, everything’s been going well. Okay. You know, one thing we’ve seen from Mike is we’ve seen all of these short highlight clips, but we haven’t seen sparring footage, and I mean, I mean, I see it, and it’s impressive stuff, but I mean, as Bruce Lee once said, “Boards don’t hit back.” So it’s one thing on the pads, another thing, inspiring. What do you make of that?
29:39 Well, he had his farm, because I see him not longer. He had a cuddle, was that? And he didn’t get that cut over that from, from, from pads. So he doing something, just ain’t showing you. Don’t be fooled by they’re trying to.
29:50 But like I told you, they tried to tell you it’s an exhibition. Now they trying to take games, spawning, and putting up the clips like he ain’t doing. Where that cook came from? I ain’t never got cut hitting the pads. Where it could come from?
30:02 All right, so all right, all right, so you think, all right, so you think part of this is, is trying to get you to come in the ring not prepared, relaxed, thinking, oh, ha, it’s just an exhibition? Yeah, okay, all right. Now there was a, there was other names thrown around before you were announced with the fight, whether it was Evander or Shannon Briggs. Why do you think it finally happened with you, and how does that change the dynamic of the fight? None of them cute as I am.
30:31 None of them are as fan-pleasing as I am. None of them know how to talk, to talk like I talk, to talk, and walk to walk. Nobody really is interested in seeing them. They already seen that with my text. They want to see something new, something exciting, something creative, something that’s innovative, somebody that come in with a whole different mindset and make things happen the right way.
30:54 That’s angle. One guy, Roy Jones, Superman, Captain Hook. You once said, “Roy, you’re addicted to fighting.” Can you explain that? I still am.
31:06 I’m so addicted. Like to say, when I got told on that yesterday, I mean before yesterday when he told me that we need to do it again. I wanted to say no right away, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t make myself say it. I would say, no, this is the last one, we do that.
31:19 That’s what was in my mind, saying, please tell them no, that’s it, we ain’t doing them all, but it just won’t come out. I’ll try to say I just couldn’t get it out. That mean you have an addiction? You know, that’s a pretty bad addiction. Explain that addiction.
31:33 Are there healthy addictions? Do those exist, or in your mind, there are healthy addictions too, but this addiction is the worst, because it will be a healthy addiction if I, like, just training and not fighting, if I like to just train and stay in shape. That’s really healthy. That’s a great addiction, and I do have that one too, but the problem is what I’m doing. If you say something wrong to me, get me rubbed the wrong way, I can’t say no to a good, I just, I just can’t say no to it.
32:00 So it’s like I said, know the drugs. My whole life I said no. Alcohol, I said no. Cigarettes, I said no. I said no to all kinds of things I suppose say no to, but fighting just never was on my knowledge.
32:10 I just can’t. I mean, with my call and say, you want to fight me? I just, I just thought about it. I said, this might take some fool. You did the one, you ain’t gonna be the guard though.
32:17 Yeah, he can hurt you. I said, you know you’re right. She tell them no. Yes, I’ll fight. Oops.
32:26 And what is that? Do you want to show the world? Do you want to show yourself about showing the world? Well, I’ve seen it already. They can go back and look at YouTube.
32:33 They got enough. I gave them so much entertainment back then. They can look at that for now. I gave them enough to look at. It ain’t got to do it.
32:39 The world ain’t gotta do the word at all. It’s this cycle that lives inside of here. There’s two beads. There’s one that’s got sensitive, one that don’t cast. I don’t have as you see.
32:50 So there’s a sensible guy and an unsensible guy. An unsensible guy usually bullies the sensible guy to making things happen that the unsensible guy want to make happen. The sensible guy tried to say no, but the unsensible guy goes crazy until he gets his way. Amen. That’s the story of most people’s lives, watching this right now.
33:10 And, but you know, Roy, you got to admit that’s usually the fighter’s curse, is that guys don’t know when to stop. We’ve seen it over and over again. Hey, Tyson’s last five years, it was when not being able to say no, so how do you work with that dynamic as a fighter? Well, how you work with that dynamic as a fighter is, if I couldn’t sit here right now and have a good conversation with you, and couldn’t understand what you were saying to me, and you couldn’t understand what I was trying to say back to you, then it would be, it would probably be time for me to start considering saying no.
33:41 But as long as I can talk and you can understand what I’m saying, and I got a good enough mind to know that, hey, I’m hearing you there, and we on the Zoom thing, and I know that I don’t want to be wearing a freaking mask, then [expletive] I can fight. And how did you stay that way that long? Was it just not taking shots and training intelligently? Not taking shots, not taking shots in the bar either, though. But, right, that’s no drugs.
34:08 Just being smart, you know? Just trying to preserve my life, preserve my body for the long haul, not knowing that the heart was gonna last this long, but I did want to preserve my body for the long haul. Okay, did you also make an effort not to spar? You know, in an unsenseless manner, you know, not to go in there and just leave it all in the in the sparring ring before fights. Yes, I did, and that’s something that me and my coach have things with right now.
34:35 He wants you to spar these young heavyweights and go bang it out with them, but that’s not smart for me. I’ve been boxing 40 years. I don’t need 41 years. I don’t need that much contact to my brain. I got enough.
34:46 41 years You have to have some content, a lot of contact in 41 years. I’m a 41-year vet. I’ve been boxing 41 years, and you still can understand 95 of what comes out of my mouth. That’s pretty good. Yeah, but that’s, it’s almost like new innovation in the last five, ten years for fighters, knowing not to spar too much.
35:08 You know, the old school way used to be the more rounds the better. So you were ahead of your time in knowing that, and that probably preserved you. It did. Present man also, who told me that, who helped me, who helped, further reinforce my thought, training, was Jimmy Young. I met Jimmy Young when I was about 17, and Jimmy Young was kind of messed up then, and Jimmy said, you know how I got like this?
35:29 I said, how? He said, this didn’t happen to me from boxing in the ring. Boxing, this happened for me, to me, from me sparring too much. I said, really? He said, yes.
35:39 So that’s when I knew. Wow, so smart. It’s such a simple understanding, but it makes such a massive difference, and you see it in fighters. You see it in MMA fighters as well. The guys that over-train.
35:50 Tell me, when you look at Mike’s career, especially those last 10, 15 years, you know, people look at Mike and, since they’re not fighters, Jo Roy, they don’t understand some of the choices he made and what’s going on his head. But since you were a fighter and you know what it’s like to be in the ring, see what it’s like to fight your demons, then to be in the public eye. I mean, for you to see the trajectory of Mike’s, you know, tragic career, the ups and the downs.
36:17 Can you see that and comprehend it more so than, say, the average person? Yes, I can, because actually it was nothing. It was not really a tragic career. There was some tragedies that occurred in his career, but it wasn’t tragic, and he’s actually turned around and made it even more phenomenal at the end, because now he’s doing things that he loves to do. He’s making money doing the things that he loves to do, so he turned his life completely around again.
36:41 So to me, in the end, he’s still a success story. Nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, maybe some of the choices and decisions he made, but some of the choices, I think, were wrongfully done, because I can’t see, first of all, how you put him in jail when somebody goes to his room at 10 o’clock at night and what are you going to Mike Tyson’s room expecting to happen at 10 o’clock at night? I mean, look how big Mike Jackson, what they got huge by Tyson is who goes to Mike Tyson’s room at 10 o’clock at night and not expecting something crazy to happen.
37:12 So to me, it’s like I’m not saying you should do nothing wrong to anybody, but to me it seemed like the person went there looking for trouble, almost. I’m not sure they did, but just, I’m not sure, you know what I’m saying? So it’s like you can see both sides, but some things I couldn’t, I can’t really hold him accountable for other things. You can’t hold a camera before all. So it’s like he had his life, he had his ups and downs, which we all have our ups and downs, but for the most part I don’t see him being the bad guy people always try to make him out to be.
37:44 I think he’s a better guy, man. I know he’s a lot smarter than people make him out to be, so I think his career has been really pretty awesome, with a few black spots in it. But who doesn’t have a career, an awesome career, with that doesn’t have black spots in it? Even the ones that are not seen, they’re there, so we just don’t see them. All.
38:01 So everybody has these black spots, dark spots, because some are negated differently by the public, by the media. and so I’m not here, it’s just having to all be on the media. So he’s no different than anybody else in my opinion, just except that he did a great job recovering from, we started. Yeah, it’s fascinating to hear him talk now about some of the things that he did. Have you heard him talk about, like, the times in the past when he lashed out at the press and got in the face of fighters?
38:30 When he talks about it now, he’s like, yeah, that’s, that’s the, scared me coming out. That’s what I did when I was scared and insecure. But most of us don’t understand that mentality of a fighter, because we don’t, we just think he’s just being a bad scary man, but would never understand that maybe he was actually in fear himself, and he was a lot of time, but he’s not afraid to admit that now, because he’s grown up. That’s called a maturity. He’s mature to a point to where he can admit those issues now.
38:54 When he was on top of word, he couldn’t admit that, it would make him look soft, for look weak, and people to take advantage of it. But now that he’s beyond that point, he can admit that now. It’s called Do you listen to his podcast and stuff? Because he’s a, he’s a fascinating, highly intelligent, highly spiritual guy who understands the human condition at a level I don’t think most people would ever imagine. Of course, no, I don’t listen to him, but I know he’s very smart.
39:17 I knew that. I read, so I thought he’s a very smart guy. I know that anyway. He knows a lot more than people giving credit for. So yeah.
39:24 Tell me about your heroes. Muhammad Ali and other people that you’ve seen from the past. You said Muhammad was by far the greatest, inside and outside the ring. Why do you say that? Because he stood for all the things he did, all the people he brought together.
39:38 You saw, even at his funeral, there were monks there, there were Muslims, there were Christians. There was everything, every background, every ethnic background, every religious background. Everybody was there to show how much to the great Muhammad Ali. Why? Because of what he stood for and how he always tried to bring people together.
39:56 He used his blessing, his gift from God to help change the world, to try to bring people together, to unite people, to unite brothers and sisters. No matter the race, no matter the religion, he did that to help unite people, and that’s the biggest thing in life to me is to try to unite people. So I try to say his tradition is what he stood for, and try to carry that on even in my time. So right now, you know, it’s like it’s difficult, especially with the time we’re going through right now, and especially in the United States, because the country being so divided.
40:25 But it’s like we’re all supposed to be children of God, whether we believe in the same things or not. We’re still children of God. We have the most. We probably have more ways of communicating than any other animal on the planet, because we gonna write, we can talk, we can do silence, we can do it all. Yet we have the hardest time communicating and getting along.
40:47 Why is it? Because we’re not loving and caring enough or considerate for the next person? So we all out, people all out to turn us against one another. Like right now, this mass thing is making life miserable for people. People don’t know what love is anymore because they’re stuck in houses.
41:05 They step behind masks. They can’t, six miles It just, it’s the craziest thing. Yep, and it’s starting to make people get to a point where they’re even starting to commit suicide because there’s no love. You know, you go to a hospital room to get surgery, and you can’t have no family back there with you. You have no support.
41:21 Part of wanting to live is that, you know, other people care or depend on you or love you. You know, those type, these type things help you emotionally survive. These type things help you stay alive, period. But when you don’t have those things, then what you got to live for? So you’re going to get cut on, you’re in pain, you’re hurting bad, you want to give up, but you see your loved ones right at the bed saying, no, you can make it.
41:41 It gives you encouragement to fight, just like in a boxing match. You want to give me, but you see people saying, no, come on, we get, you got this, channel. You take a few more, keep going, trying to win it because you know you got people that really are hopeful that you can win it. You understand me? They are.
41:55 You’re living almost for them. They’re living by carefully through you so because you know that they wish so bad that they could do it, and that they won’t for you. So better do it because it’ll mean the world to them. You do it. But when you don’t have that, and that’s what society is doing right now.
42:11 They’re taking that away from us by covering us up, and it’s history debate. Yeah, and Muhammad always brought people together. Do you think people have forgotten what a big deal it was for him to say, I’m not gonna go fight in the Vietnam War, and to allow them to strip his title? I mean, could you even conceive of a fighter doing that these days? I mean, that was such a big move, and it’s one of the things he’s most remembered for.
42:34 That was the biggest thing he probably ever did. I mean, who would say, take my title, put me in jail, because I ain’t going to kill some people that I don’t know why I’m killing them for? Who will stand up for themselves like that today? Not nobody. We want to stand up against the people for making us wear these masks right now, right?
42:47 You can’t find people that are saying, I’m not wearing a mask, I don’t care what this look. How long survival, we’ve survived. Look how long we survived in this world without a mask. Now all of a sudden we’re gonna have a mask to survive? Is that what God really meant for us?
43:00 All the years we made it through our time without a mask. Now we take you telling me we can’t survive without a mask? We got to have a mask in order to survive, and a mess that’s still not stopping us. I don’t see the rate going down. The break still just, it’s plummeting.
43:15 It’s going high, and I mean, it’s excavating now because of, we still wear mass, but because of the time of the year, it’s still going up. So it was like, how can you tell me that the mask is doing anything? It’s not, but we don’t have the guts, now the guts enough today to stand and say we’re not doing it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you’re right. People can’t even do that, and yet there it is.
43:35 Muhammad Ali saying, “Here, take my title away, take everything away from me. The first time to do it, the worst times, racism, and everything else. I don’t care, I’m not going to fight them. People didn’t, people didn’t nothing to me. Take my title.”
43:47 Yeah, man, it don’t get you, don’t get you, don’t get them. It gets no bigger than it. And like I said, for us, we should all think about that. I wish we knew more about that, because maybe we don’t see it now that these people pushing our backs against the wall with these masks, and we should, we will fight back and stop it, but we can’t because we don’t understand history. We understand people like him, who, who, who touch so many people’s lives.
44:07 That’s why I started boxing because of how great he was and what he used his gift from God to do. He used that God they get from God to say so many things in so many different ways, but we still forget them. Yeah, you say as humans we have a hard time communicating, and I agree with you. Do you think fighting is a way of communicating? I mean, so many people watch Muhammad Ali fight who weren’t fight fans, and they watched a man get into the ring and put it on the line and stand for what he believed in.
44:34 I mean, is fighting this kind of way we can communicate with each other? Because in ways, they’re people putting their lives on the line. They’re, they’re, you can see hearts you know, it’s almost like an opera unfolding in front of you of what the human condition is. Is that why you think we’re attracted to it? Most definitely.
44:51 It’s the closest thing to life’s gym. Won’t find a fight. Is just like life. You gotta fight for everything. You gotta stand up for yourself.
44:58 You get knocked down, you gotta get back up. You understand me? Fighting is the most, it’s the closest thing, closest sport to me that’s comparable to light to everyday life, of any sport out there, boxing or fighting is the closest thing because it’s truthful, right? Because it’s there. You get hit, you either stay down or you get up, and there’s no, there’s there’s no Hollywood, there’s no editing, there’s no cover up, there’s no news story.
45:21 It’s happening in real time. You can’t run, you can’t hide, and there’s a winner at the end. Right? Exactly what it is. Is that why you love it?
45:29 A winner, loser? You better believe it. Right, yeah, there is a winner and a loser, and there’s a lesson there, always. Right? Yeah.
45:37 Dana White from the UFC said fighting’s in our DNA. That’s what he said. He said, if there’s a hockey match on the corner and a basketball match being played, and a fight breaks out, everybody go watch the fight. And he said, yes, and that’s, and that’s in our DNA, right? Because it means something to all of us.
45:52 Even if you’re an old lady and you never had a fight in your life, it still means something. Right? It’s nature. Yeah, it is nature. Now, you used to watch animals, and that’s how you got your fighting style, not only in the ring but even the way you would behave and act outside the ring.
46:08 Is that right? Of course. If God made nature, then what better teacher to give than nature? God made nature and didn’t give it no choices. So if you watch nature, you learn how to do things that God created, and he didn’t give him a choice to say, I want to do all this, like that.
46:21 No, he just showed them how to do it naturally. They know how to do it. They got that directed from God. So why not learn from them? And you would watch the alpha, whatever chicken or bear or dog, and you’d watch the way they behave before the fight, after the fight, because I want to be alpha.
46:37 Right, right. Because the alpha wins. Exactly, and they win, and a lot, a lot of the game happens before the fight. Right. The posture, a lot of it happens before the fight.
46:49 So you must know how to behave, how to carry yourself before, during, and after. There are three phases. And do you think the fighters that today understand that as well, or they don’t? They don’t. No, and again, you’ve said before, it’s, it’s a very much so a mental game, and I know we’ve heard that many, many times in the past, but I wonder if you could dissect it a little bit more, because you said it’s, it’s, it’s, I think 99% mental, although most people that aren’t fighters, they can’t see that, because they, it to them it appears physical.
47:22 Roy, yeah, it appears physical, but there’s so much more that goes into it mentally than you’d ever know. There’s mental, but from when, when you know you might fight somebody, you have to watch how you kill yourself around them, because they’re always looking for weaknesses. So that meant that mentality is what you must learn to have. Animals taught me, and I’m telling that you always carry yourself. So you’re the boss, so that when people see you, they know that’s a boss.
47:46 If I want to be the boss, I got to be dead boss, because that boss is the boss that carries himself. That’s how he thinks, that’s how he eats, that’s how he drinks. Everything about him is the boss. If you don’t have to start with, then he’s not really a boss. So a ball is going to be a boss from get to go, and that’s why most different animals now.
48:03 And you train a lot of fighters. I know you’re trying, you’re working with Chris Eubank Jr. I know you got fighters in South Africa, in Russia, and Europe, all around the world. Is that a lot of what you’re teaching them, the mentality, from the way they speak to the way they talk about themselves, to inside the ring, outside the ring? I focus more on the boxing inside the ring first, and if I get one that gets good enough that he can get to that point, like Chris Eubank, and later on I’ll start taking them down that road, because that’s the secondary road.
48:28 First, you gotta learn how to get the tools together so that you can be this person that you need to be. Then you know how to put the character with the person. Now you’ve got a full connection. Okay, a couple of other boxers. I heard you mentioned Prince Naseem.
48:40 I didn’t expect him to come out of your mouth when you talked about boxers you know about. I think you said kids are looking at the highlight reels. I was watching some of his stuff a couple weeks ago, and yeah, the entertainment factor is through the roof. Yeah, how important is that? Yeah, it’s very important, because it shows that you care about your, your people, that, what that are watching you.
49:02 You care about your fan base. You don’t want to go out and just get them up all night. You want them to enjoy themselves, be happy, have something to laugh at, to shout about, to be thankful for, because they enjoy spending time with you while you’re doing your craft, or are you showing them your blessing? Do you think that’s missing today? Listen, of course it’s missing.
49:21 That’s why they want to see me and my Tyson fight, because they know that me and Mike Tyson possess those type of qualities to entertain you while we’re in action. That’s what people want to see. You think a lot of fighters still play it safe and just, so they lock in the W? Most of them do. Is Floyd Mayweather one of those?
49:38 I don’t talk about nobody, but most of them, dude. No, that’s good, man. Just, just a couple more. You know, just, I know your background came originally from your father training you, and I know that was a difficult upbringing and one that didn’t necessarily end well. But do you, are you also grateful for the gifts he gave you, that allowed you to be the fighter you are today?
50:04 Very grateful. I’m not, I’m not regretful of nothing that happened to me. I thank God for everything. He never blessed me with everything. He gave me through my father, through anything.
50:11 I’m just very thankful of everything I got. I’m very grateful for everything, grateful for everything that I got, and I think it took all of that to make me who I am today. I look where I am today. Okay, all right, final question. What’s it going to be like on the 28th?
50:28 By the way, are you going to walk in? How are you going to feel when you walk in there? What are we going to see? The expression on your face, and how is it going to play out? Walk me through this, right?
50:37 Go see you. You’re going to see a guy who is always most confident, and when I look across the ring, I see that kill over there, I’m going to laugh, because guess what, there’s a bear across the ring, and guess what I’m about to do. My job tonight is to walk over there and poke that damn bear, piss him off, see what he can do. And how’s the fight gonna end? With my hands and victory, trust me.
51:07 Yeah, you got a round. I don’t have no round, but my hand gonna be raised in victory, I guarantee, because of the two minutes, it’s hard to predict what round. Three minutes, I’ll tell you, probably three rounds. But since two minutes, I don’t know, but I definitely will have my hands raised in victory. All right.
51:22 And when that happens, we might see even a one or two more of Roy Jones Jr. Anything is possible. You never know. You got a million-dollar smile, Roy. I must say, man, it’s great to see you. I can tell you’re excited.
51:35 Look, it’s happening on the 28th. People can watch it on Fight.TV, trailer in the US, BT Sport here in the UK. Roy, I really appreciate the time. You’re in amazing spirits, and I’m wishing you all the best on November 28th. Thank you, my brother.
51:46 God bless you all. All right, bless you, sir. Thank you so much.
