Danny Garcia Reflects on His Boxing Journey with Andre Ward & Roy Jones Jr. | EXCLUSIVE

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1:10For J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study Award information, visit jdpower.com forward slash awards. Awards based on 2025 model year, newer models may be shown. Okay, so quick behind-the-scenes moment about my business, because people always ask me, how am I actually able to run everything? We got Brown Girl Grinding on social media for the stories, but browngirlgrinding.com is Shopify in the merch. Shopify is literally the platform where I turned this tiny idea into a real business. And right now my storefront, browngirlgrinding.com and the Black Effect storefront are booked and busy. And Shopify is handling all of the heavy lifting, y 'all.

1:49I'm so excited about the fact that Shopify is gonna show up at the Black Effect Podcast Festival this year in a really big way. Go to Shopify.com slash B-E-N. If I can do it, trust me, y 'all can do it too. What up? It's your boy, Roy Jones. I'm hanging out with my man, Andre Ward. We threw Hall of Famers to bring y 'all a new show called A Hall of Game. A show where we discuss boxing, sports, life, and entertainment from our view. How much better than that can you get? Me and Roy don't always agree. The one thing you will get is a Hall of Fame with the game. I want to welcome to the Hall of Game a man who's a three-time two-division world champion.

2:33He's an 18-year vet in the game. He's a businessman. He's an entrepreneur. I want to welcome to the show my brother, Danny Swift Garcia. Danny, I appreciate you taking some time with us today. I appreciate you guys. Andre, Roy, I appreciate you guys, man. Thank you for having me on. Man, congratulations on your last fight, October 18th against Daniel Gonzalez at the Barclays Center. I think this was your 10th time at the Barclays Center. That fight was billed a farewell fight. Was it really a farewell fight? Yeah, I feel like it, yeah. I mean, you know, after you win, it's like, yo, give me whoever.

3:11But going into the fight, yeah, I don't want to be one of the fighters who just keep fighting for a long time. I've been in the game a long time. and uh part of the reason is like um i'm not as passionate as i used to be about it and i just don't want to keep fighting just to fight so um that's part of the reason why i knew i got a family now and stuff like that so i kind of want to start thinking like life outside of boxing start letting it go a little bit at a time you know what i mean tell me about the passion conversation like what things are happening or have been happening over the last few years that that you notice are different like i don't do this like i used to i don't think like i used to yeah so a part of the um when i start to realize like maybe i'm not as passionate as i was like i started to think like driving to the gym on a swarming day i'm like damn i'm really i'm really driving to the gym to go fight this is a hell of a job yeah you know everybody go to the gym for different stuff so i used to i started to think like damn do i feel like doing this today you know like i'm really going to the smoke i'm really going to fight and uh things like that just like thinking about sparring days and but like running and all that i still like that but it's just probably like the more physical part about it that i started to think about it twice man that's crazy you said that because that's that's one of the markers that i had when I kind of knew like, man, this is different.

4:38Like my last probably two fights, probably the Kovalev two fights. Like I'm going back to my training condo and I'm, and I, and I can count the big shots I got hit with. Like, I know like, man, I, man, I got hit with two good ones today. Like I never thought twice about it when I was a lot younger or I started thinking the same thing that you used to think. I said, man, most of my kids parents you know fathers they going to work at whatever type of way they're going to work i gotta go fight three dudes today right i got three dude i'm paying them to try to do something to me to try to fight to try to fight hard try to hurt me my trainer putting a bounty on my head if you're knocking down i give you extra thousand dollars right it just starts seeming crazy like i'm going to the gym to fight somebody on a random monday yeah and then it's like days you have a bad day you really think about it like you get your ass kicked you like do i still have it like yeah that was crazy i sat home a couple times like in the gym like after the gym i'm like you know i go home with like a little weld on my eye or something i'm like damn but yeah that's that's pretty much that's probably like the only thing you know what i mean and just like uh the nerves and all that stuff i think it takes a hold on you after a while you know just trying to stay strong well i know you wired a little bit different so i don't know if you ever had no days like this but have you ever had something like this happen where you i ain't never had nothing like that almost happened to me i ain't finna lose no rounds in the gym ain't nobody finna hit me two three no uh uh i'm just i was i was i was just i was awful you understand when i came to training it was like bad you feel me i was just i was really awful about this and I was very anal about boxing so and I still am my guys don't understand why I'm so hard on them in training is because I know what it takes but what I wanted to ask you too though Danny was how was it man being able to manage because you did something that I definitely could not have done but you was able to manage having your father's your trainer the whole time how was that how did that work out you know uh that's a good question you know me and pops you understand like we started from nothing together you know i mean like when my father came out of prison when i was eight years old nine years old we just we just started to dream you know we were homeless we didn't have nothing so i think we kind of built a special bond and a friendship outside of boxing that was able to keep us together as a you know a fighter and father trainer and i think you know the bond that we have outside the ring is what really kept us together you know you know so that's that's pretty much it that's a great it but but it's been tough it's been tough i have a lot some days i'm like man why you didn't tell me to do that like i go home and watch the tape i'm like how you didn't see that you know because sometimes you don't see it you don't see it in the ring you get i'm like pops why you didn't tell me you was blocking the uppercut hit me with the uppercut he's i couldn't see it i'm like me but you know something we had stuff like that like we'll argue about stuff like that see that that's what the difference is with most people it's like you you just said a key word you argue about stuff like that you understand me where the problem goes wrong is when the father's a dictator and you can't even argue back with him that's where the problem comes in well that's what people don't understand that's why i asked you that question i want to hear you say that so i make sure i had it right but with you being able to speak your mind your father's allowing you to be you you know i'm saying whereas in most cases Like myself, my father was not going to allow me to be me.

8:13That's why I had to leave. Right. Well, because he probably always looked at you like his son, like a kid. Exactly. You know, a lot of fathers, no matter how old you are, they always going to look at you like a 10-year-old kid. Exactly. That's what the problem is with most people. Well, I had to explain to him, like, you know, I'm a grown man now, Pops. Like, I got three kids. You got to, you know, I made it this far because you were in my corner, but, you know, I had a one or two. So you got to, you still got to listen to me a little bit. You know, we got to work together. and he was like, man, you're right.

8:40And then we just, that's how we work. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, I think that's the difference maker. Like, you know, most fathers are going to be fathers. Most fathers are going to always, you know, even look at their grown son. That's my baby. You know what I'm saying? He ain't a baby, but that's my baby boy. And I think it's that adjustment though that once your son speaks up the way you did, that they can make that adjustment. I think that's really where it's at right there. No, absolutely. It's a communication. Like both people got to be one to understand and learn. and pops is not the easiest person to deal with he's crazy but for some reason i'm like the only person he listens to that's a good thing though at least he does listen but he won't believe it he won't listen to nobody else listen to you though that's a great thing that's the blessing for sure man i want to go back to the erizlandi laura fight in september 2024 and getting back to the the conversation about the passion and the desire danny you wanted to the toughest fighters that I've seen you come from you know a fighting city and um you don't have any turning but I could see in that fight that it wasn't about you being afraid it wasn't about any of those things it was just that you could just tell that like you just like I don't you know like like I'm here but I don't know if I want to continue to do this like what were you feeling in that fight to make you say in that night front like now I'm good and then be able to be okay with that moving forward You know, part of the reason why my last fight, that's where I really went to fight my last fight.

10:06Because I'm like, oh, they calling me this. They calling me a quitter. I got something for them. Like, it don't matter who I was going to be in the ring with. But going back to that fight, I was out the ring for 28 months. You know, everybody knows, like, inactivity is a fighter's worst enemy. So I remember, like, just training. And I just couldn't get my mind back to that championship level. Like, you know that type of mindset you got to have? to go into those big fights so you could perform at that level. I just couldn't get back. I couldn't, I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was the weight.

10:38Cause remember I went up to middleweight. Um, I was out the ring for 28 months. I just couldn't get, I just couldn't get my mind back to that level. You know, I just, I didn't really have no excuses. It's just, I just, I just wasn't feeling it, you know, and I didn't want to get hurt. So it was like, you know, I got a life after boxing. You know, people always going to say something anyway. Cause when I was winning, when I was beating everybody, they was calling me a cherry figure. So I know in the boxing world, you know, people always going to say stuff, but I know that I'm built. I wish it didn't end like that.

11:08Maybe I could have finished the fight, but everything happens for a reason. But long story short, just my heart wasn't in it. And I just couldn't, I just couldn't get my mind back to that level. I don't know what it was. How did Pops accept that or deal with that? That night and, you know, after the fight? no pops was uh surprisingly like usually he's like you should have did this you should have did that you know how it is the night after but he was like look danny the risk wasn't worth the reward your health is worth more than anything to me so when i was like when he told me that i was like damn you know it was like yeah i guess he did see somebody you know i guess he saw he looked in my eyes and knew that i wasn't there so he was just trying to protect me but he didn't he didn't take it back he just always tells me like your health is worth anything to me you try to be great you try to go up two divisions the middleweight against the active champion who's a little older but never took a lot of punishment and he a lot of a fighter so i don't want to take no credit away from me him either but it just my heart wasn't in it that's it i couldn't get my mind back to that championship level especially being out the rink for 28 months going up a weight class I felt all the hits from round one it just like I felt I felt every hit from the first round to the ninth round like my body wasn't absorbing the hits right I know what you mean man I know what you mean I can relate and not only that I don't know what Laura doing because he got a second third fourth fifth win like he just started his career like he like let's go I'll fight anybody bring them all I'm like brother you got rounds in the bag you got tough fights under your belt you still want to and he seemed like he's not who he used to be in terms of all the movement and all the stuff but he found a way he's you know he's sitting down more and stuff so that's been interesting to see but man i just want to i think a part of him is that he felt like he'd been overlooked you know some fighters never really get that that's what keeps him hungry like you know i got the same i had i had all that stuff had the spotlight on me but he's one of those type of fighters who never really had the spotlight on him and that's just keeping him hungry like that that type of mentality where it's like i'm gonna earn it i'm gonna i'm gonna show you i belong here and the money too he's trying to get that back in bad he like you know i need to get mine because one day i won't be able to do it so this is a great time to be in boxing your era with with al and pbc was the best time you could have been in at that time the money was at the highest and then you know turkey ella chic and everything that got going on the side he took it to the next level so i think he's just trying to make sure he get that back.

13:49And, you know, he's got enough of an IQ where he can trick a lot of the younger guys and still survive in the sport. But I want to switch gears. It's funny because I was asking Roy, you know, Roy on that farm, I was asking Roy where the roosters was at. So I think I talked him up. So, you know, they doing their thing right now. I thought I was like a wrench on the thumb. Yeah, that's Pensacola, Florida. I want to commend you, Danny, for, you know, just speaking up. The weight was worth it. positive affirmations and all the hard work the keys to your dream home from the vision board have been secured i see you a whole new future awaits your planning from top-notch decor but on a budget to the late night backyard summer cookouts life feels good now comes time to fill it with memories what will you host first maybe a movie night game night stories that make us laugh and space tournaments that make us cry first you need to get movers and new furniture And what about party favors?

14:47Will there be a theme? Of course it's a theme because you're always doing the most. Oh yeah, the food to cook or to order out. Don't forget to put it in the group chat so everyone can already see who all gonna be there. All the planning can be stressful, but ensuring your home shouldn't be. And that's where State Farm comes in. Because State Farm agents can help you choose the coverage you need. Just call, go online, or check out the app. Any agent is ready to help so you can focus on showing off your new home. If you know, you know. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Wait, this is a soda?

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16:08like our 15-acre tropical water park, wildlife sanctuary, world-class golf course, and so much more. Visit Bahamar.com today. And, you know, we do one of the toughest things that anybody can do, be a professional prize fighter. Your team gets you ready, but your team gets out that ring and they walk down them steps, and it's just you and that other man. You take off that robe, you put on small gloves, and it's gladiator school in front of the whole world. and you've done that for most of your life so you don't owe anybody anything but i appreciate you speaking up about mental health i appreciate you speaking up about your struggles and even coming on here and talking about what you actually felt in the laura fight because it's really not something that fighters talk about they'll you know give you a line or two and say i just my arm was hurt uh you know i just didn't feel right but they won't get into the detail brother i appreciate you taking the time to talk about these things and normalizing these things and not just hiding behind what we do or what we did for a living, bro.

17:10So I just want to commend you on that, man, but also ask you why the shift a couple years ago when you first start talking about it and still talking about it to this day? Why the shift? Because I've been holding that in my whole life. And I just felt like some days I just, I wanted to tell somebody how I felt, but it just felt like growing up in Philly and growing up where I come from, it's like, you can't tell people you're weak. Like not weak, but you know what I mean? Like a sign of weakness, like, damn, I don't feel good. Or I was always taught to just be tough and just go for it, you know?

17:46But once I started like having like symptoms, like alopecia, like bald spots, that's when I knew that I had to start speaking up. And that's why I'm so open now because I don't want to have nothing on my chest. I don't want to, I just want to be free. I want to be who I am. so um yeah once i started getting like ball spots and i'll be dizzy in the gym and the room be spinning and and just all these type of symptoms i was getting i'm like i had to tell somebody you know i gotta tell somebody first person i told my father he was like man why you never told me you felt like that and i was like you know i'm a fighter at first i thought i was just focused you know you're so like i just thought i was locked in i was so focused on everything that i was feeling that way but it really wasn't it was until i went to the doctors and they told me that I was going through, like, I was given alopecia because I'm going through, like, so much stress that is attacking my hair.

18:39I'm like, oh, yeah, I got to start speaking up. I got to start letting people know how I feel. And ever since I spoke up, it just, I've been an open book. And then, like, it touched so much people in the world. Honestly, I didn't know that much people in the world went through that type of stuff. I'm talking about rappers, actors, all types of entertainers, football players reached out to me. It was like, look, man, you changed my life. I've been feeling like that my whole life, but I never thought nobody else felt like that. And I was just speaking from my heart. Like that day when I did the interview and I started crying on the national television on Showtime, I didn't wake up that day and tell the world I was going to cry on TV.

19:15Who would have thought that would have been my most famous moment, right? All these people I knocked down the world and my most famous moment is me crying on a post interview. You know, so it's just, that's just, my heart was just telling me to speak about it. And that's what happened. man it's powerful i want to ask you roy like because you know we talk about this a lot and just your upbringing and you know just where you grew up in the country it is a different mentality right like the inner city has a mentality fighters in general have a mentality but then you know you got a country mentality where you got to get it out the mud in a different type of way as you have aged and gotten older has that gotten easier for you being able to talk more and communicate it's gotten easier because you know it's like it's like to me that's god's way of showing us that we still can grow as we get older yeah you know so he got old enough to understand that hey it's okay to talk about issues that you have that you think people may not understand or people may not be going through because when you speak out about it you find out a whole world of people are going through what you're going through and feeling just like just like you feel afraid to say something because they don't want to see me or come off as weak.

20:24But the way I was raised was just that way. I don't want to hear nothing. But as you get older, you learn to understand that by speaking or talking things out, it always makes it better for you. And you find that your dreams, just a lone soldier, is a lot of other people just like you. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's dope. No, at first I'm like, wait, am I taking too much hits? I'm like, I'm just taking head punishment. But I was like, no, because I've been feeling like that since I was a kid, to be honest. I always felt like that. I've been going through that since I was a kid. Like, I had got a ball spot when I was a kid.

21:01My dad thought I was a ringworm, like, when he first came out of prison. So I was going through a lot of stress as a kid, you know, because my family, my dad was away, you know, houses foreclosed, wasn't going to school, you know, going to truancy court and things like that. So as a kid, I was really stressed, but I didn't know. and that's I had alopecia when I was a kid too but my father thought it was a ringworm and then as our life got better then my hair came back and stuff so this is something I've been going through as a kid that's how I know that it didn't come from boxing you know I mean a lot of people oh it comes from boxing it had CTE had punishment no this has been it's just my that's the way my brain been working as a kid I always been like a worrier like a person who just worries too much but now it's just like I realize that you know as much as I love everyone I can't save the world.

21:49You know, you can't save the world. So that's the type of mentality I have now. That's for everybody, but I can't put my mind to that type of pressure no more. Yeah, man, it's interesting, Denny, because I dealt with that a lot growing up, a lot of anxiety. Like, that stuff has been generational in my family. I'm talking about, like, extreme anxiety, you know, and I used to have little things that I used to do that my dad could pick up on when I was dealing with anxiety. But we never talked about, like, the word anxiety. He never talked about like dealing with depression and these kind of things.

22:19And I used to be bad, you know, even as an adult, early adult, you know, where I may be going through something with my wife or going through something with my kids. And instead of like opening up and trying to find my words, I would just shut down. That was also a thing in my family generationally. I know you mad because you ain't talking to me. I know you. Isolation. Isolation. Yeah. You isolate. You don't want to talk to nobody. But but my faith in God has really, really helped me because I've learned to to obviously talk to God and invent invent that way. But then also, you know, just finding my words to talk to whoever I'm dealing with, man.

22:57It's a powerful thing because it is it is it is a release. And they say stress to kill you before anything. Right. And I notice with us as athletes, not just fighters, that most people are dealing with just their normal stressors and pressures that they got. But we got a unique situation. We can't just go in public and do anything. People watching. People got phones. That's pressure. And a lot of times with athletes, what they do is instead of going through the tough work or talking about it, finding their faith in God and having these outlets, substance abuse. if i just drink enough i feel better when i drink so that's what i'm gonna do or they smoke or whatever they do whatever the vice is women whatever it is and that's why i think we see a lot of us especially in retirement going by the wayside and then people say oh look at these athletes they always do that no that's why it's important to speak about it because you can you can start doing stuff you never did before and that's a different type of gateway you don't want to go that route i want to talk about danny the businessman i don't think your your your business acumen who you are as a businessman your investments are talked about enough i don't know if you still have the barbershop but you've had a barbershop for many years i know you invest in real estate you know you like a little you know you like a little ice too and the ice ain't nothing wrong with i kind of went playing jane on him i'm playing jane now yeah you did i'm almost touching 40 years old so i gotta you know i can't even i still got a little necklace but yeah i'm playing jane now with the watches the fashion is really big to you yeah what who is who is danny the businessman and how you spend and invest your money my father when i was younger he always told me like taxes and real estate taxes the number one killer like you don't even know but your money's halfway gone before you get it you know fighters you know you get your whole check so it's not for you to pay at the end of the year so um my father just like save your money let me go buy some real estate so i bought a lot of real estate like 10 years ago and all that's double now i'm still buying real estate and then um i remember when i used to deposit my checks like in the bank the lady was like no you should speak to wealth management you should speak to wealth management because they can help you like grow your money but me coming from you know philly coming where i come from i'm like man i ain't buying those stocks like I ain't losing my money.

25:20Like, you know, everybody tell you you're going to lose your money. Yeah, I got to tuck it. I got to tuck it away. Yeah. So one day I just bought like a Warren Buffett book and I just read it. I read like a Warren. And he was like, yo, the stock market only crashed like 10 times out of the last 100 years. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to take that. I'm going to take that meeting with the wealth management. I'm going to see what they're talking about. And then, you know, they can give me like 7 % a year, 8%. And one day I would just like, I just put the whole thing in there. I just put all my money in I invested the entire thing in real estate and stocks and bonds and stuff like that and to me it's the best thing it's the best thing I ever did because it forced me to be on a budget like it forced me, I just didn't have access to my money I just couldn't go get that money and spend it they were paying me interest payments every month and it forced me to be on a budget but at the same time my money was growing so I feel like that's the best thing I ever did was invest all my money because if it was liquid cash i knew i was gonna spend it oh man yeah so i just i just invested the whole thing i mean it was pretty simple real estate and just investment stocks that's it i feel like that's another way for us to as fighters to you know exercise that competitiveness and getting kind of you know that basically have a different type of mission is to get involved in in different things like that because if you invest in a business you you you invest in certain investments like that competitiveness like you yeah your money's in there but you also want to be successful you like i want this thing to work so it's like for me it's been helpful for me to do those kind of things you know i may research a property like it's exciting to me to kind of do the research on that make the phone calls hey why are they selling at this price okay let me see let me see you know the inspection report what's going on with this i like that kind of stuff and for me that kind of feeds me uh as an athlete as well so challenge so the first time i made money outside of boxing it was like i was so happy i was like i could really make money without fighting you know so that that really motivated me you know once i touched money like doing something else without boxing and it worked it was like man you grew this is like you know there's a life outside of boxing i mean i want to say every every business every business is not a good investment you know because a lot of people do do lose money in businesses but you got to find like safe investments you know because boxing's already risky you don't want to risk your money twice so you know real estate safe you know i mean unless somebody don't pay their mortgage or the rent for you then you know but it's always going to be pain in the butt with everything but it's just about figuring it out and just working through it i don't know how pennsylvania real estate is but but man rory got a good in in florida man i'm in california you buy a little of nothing it's gonna be a million dollars yeah facts like a freaking 500 square foot home like two million dollars it's crazy yeah for sure i got two more for you dan um 18 year career you have managed to stay out the way danny for 18 plus years we don't hear your name in the headlines for the wrong stuff you know it ain't no whispers about danny garcia in the game how have you managed to be at the level you've been at be the type of person you've been because you You're a man of the people too.

28:36So you're in the community. You're around people. They can reach out and touch you. How have you managed to stay out the way that long? Just stay positive. I don't feed into negativity. Even if somebody says something bad about me, I never say nothing back. That's just how I don't like bad energy. I feel like if you feed into bad energy, then you're going to be into that stuff. So you can say what you want about me, but you probably never hear nothing back. you know so i just think i always focused on positive things and if you focus on positivity then you're going to get you're going to get positive back but you know negative stuff comes my way all the time but i just walk past it and i think that's why maybe you know thank god nothing but uh yeah so i think i just focus on the positive that's the most important thing for me what's next for Danny Garcia if this is your last fight in retirement what is the next mission for you you know be a family man you know I got three kids I definitely want to see my kids grow up like my daughter's Philly's 10 I feel like I missed everything yeah I feel like I missed everything like I look at her sometimes I'm like what grade are you in like you know what I mean like it goes quick great she's in um so I my my son Danny he's one you You know, my daughter, Pala, she's three.

30:00That's the most important thing. I want to just see my kids grow. I want to invest my time into them. I want to make them become successful. You know, teach them how to be good people. And then, you know, just keep promoting boxing. I want to keep promoting boxing. Keep meeting new people, new business ventures. You know, just keep doing everything. Anything comes my way that makes sense, I'm going to try to make it happen. I'm going to give you the last word, Roy. but I just want to say this to you bro I appreciate you man because you're doing the right thing you you owe nobody you don't owe anybody anything you've fought enough rounds you've had enough training camps you you've done all that you've established yourself in the history of the sport you've been in a sport that you've been in since you've been a kid and you've made a king's ransom doing it and you're a great example man and you also reach back to the people you reach back to other fighters you're putting people along you're giving people opportunity danny you're not crazy for starting to count those punches you're not you're not crazy for feeling like man this is different um you're doing the right thing man trust what you feel it's always going to be hard to leave this sport you know i have good days with it and i have bad days with it some days i I feel like, man, you real smart.

31:24And other days I'm like, brother, what are you doing? Right. Right. What did you leave on the table? That's the battle we always going to have to fight. Roy understands it. You getting ready to get into it and understand it. But I just want to tell you, bro, you're not crazy, man. Keep doing what you're doing. We need more examples like yourself, man. Outside the ring, inside the ring, bro. Let the people talk. They're going to always have something to talk about, but they're only talking because you did something significant. So, brother, I salute you, man, and I appreciate you. Roy, take us out And I echo everything Andre just said I think you had A brilliant career Coming from where You came from And the story That you and your dad The way y 'all did that Where he came from Man, it's amazing It's uplifting It's heart-filling to me Because I know How that goes And I know how hard It is to pull that off And for you and your father To be able to pull that off It's a beautiful thing, man So just like he said Man, I'm very proud of you You're doing the right thing There ain't nothing wrong With you at all You're not crazy and I think you're very smart and you're now going to become a great example for young guys to follow because you did it the right way.

32:29Absolutely, I appreciate it. I mean, if you really think about it, I was supposed to be done when I fought Amir Khan. For me to be here 13 years later is a hell of a journey. So I appreciate it, man. Thank you all. Man, thank you for taking some time on the Hall of Game, brother. I'm going to double back with you at another time man and do a real sit down where we can really do a long form interview man because i'm sure that people really want to understand your upbringing those that don't understand it man but brother keep doing what you're doing man i hope to see you soon thank you andre roy appreciate you guys i want to talk about somebody that the boxing world has written off for a very long time danny talked about he's supposed to be written off 12 13 years ago and that's erickson lupin he has a fight this Saturday against Virgil Ortiz very very tough fight if Lubin doesn't show up the way he's supposed to this could be it for him what do you think about this matchup where Ortiz is right now with with Boots Boots has been in the wings and been spoken about for several years now but it looks like it could be a reality but he's got Erickson Lubin to get through before that becomes a reality well the tough thing is that erickson lubin is a guy who we expected a lot of good things from um he started out really really good um ran to the charlo fight and i just one of those lucky shots you know and instead of just knocking him down it kind of took him out you know and that was very unfortunate and so he got back up and got himself together a bit more but then he took on the towering inferno who's a hard job for anybody yes he's a hard job for anybody so he came up short on that again then he got another fight and he won a decision that a controversial decision but he won it you know so somehow he keeps coming back and for me i take my hat off to him because most people when they fail the first time then they fail again they're giving up.

34:31Lumen has been very strong in his chase to become a world champion. He's been very dedicated to it and it's like he don't quit. So he has another hard task in front of him. He's a guy who has never been given nothing easy. You know what I'm saying? He's a guy that every time he tried to get it has been in almost impossible circumstances. And if you look at this fight with Virgil Ortiz, Virgil just stopped the guy, I think, or beat him pretty bad, that Bud last fought before he fought Canelo. You understand me? He beat the mess out of him. And that's saying a lot. You feel me? So that tells you what Virgil is in his career right now.

35:13Lubin, on the other hand, is a guy that's probably going to be his third strike. You know what I mean? He's going to make it this time. He's going to hit a home run. But if he strikes out this time, he may not get another shot. So I'm hoping for Lupin because of how hard and how diligent he has pursued, how diligently he has pursued trying to become a world champion. I'm hoping he can catch a break this time. But it's going to be very tough because Virgil Ortiz is, to me, peaking right about now. And I think he's the toughest and best matchup for, say, a guy like Boots Ennis. This is what fans don't know.

35:52they think that because you have a good amateur background and because you start out hot in the sport of boxing and you got buzzed that it's a foregone conclusion that you're gonna graduate to contender and then graduate to be a long-standing world champion it's not that easy one punch can change the trajectory of your career and we saw that with erickson lubin erickson lubin was a top prospect and then he graduated to a contender lubin can fight southpaw uh he got flavor he got fundamentals he's got all the stuff and then he took the fight with jermaine charlo in 2017 and some felt like it was too soon right they had bad blood the money was right it it made sense for him to take that fight and the worst possible thing can happen when you on your way up and you get that first shot like that first shot where you facing your first real guy a first round knockout is the worst thing that can happen to you and it was a bad knockout and you don't even have to get knocked out to be written off in a sport of boxing you could just get dropped I was dropped early in my career he's not who we think he is he's supposed to be a blue chipper he's a gold medalist he's got no chin they'll say you don't have a chin if you get dropped he got knocked out and for me getting dropped early in my career and then having to deal with the media uh negativity and all the stuff for the first time in my life that was like a two-year fallout where i wasn't ruined but i was rebuilding so you got lubin now seems to always be in a rebuild so he had the charlo situation he's in a rebuild six seven fights to get back then he gets the towering inferno sebastian fondora in 2022 he fighting life and death he's all of a sudden he's got grotesque swelling on his face and the fight gets stopped i believe in the ninth round and i don't know how to quantify lubin's career i i like lubin and you you pull for him because you don't want to see that happen to nobody but he just can't seem to get over the hump and does that mean that he can't take a shot or does that mean that he just got hit with the right shot and it just took his career in a different direction i think that first shot took his career in a different direction but he definitely can take a shot if you see the grotesque like you said swelling that was on his face that didn't come from no light punches and he still was on his feet i think he might have dropped the italian frontal once so it's not like he it's not like he can't take a punch he can take a punch just that one like we speak where we spoke at another episode about what that one shot in the right place can do.

38:38That one shot at the right time can turn your lights off. You feel me? So Mason, on the other hand, was able to bounce back from his, but he couldn't bounce back from that one. So the higher you get, the more devastating the higher you get in weight, the more devastating that punch gets, as you know that too. So, I mean, if it's a heavyweight, get caught with a punch like that, he probably is not coming back, unless his name is Tyson Fury. but all other heavyweights they probably not come back from that Tyson Fury maybe Larry Holmes because their home came back from some pretty gruesome knockdowns too but then all the two heavyweights that I know that come back from knockdowns of that sort you know so Virgil Ortiz is peaking I mean he's that's the best I've seen him in his last fight you know I've seen him make adjustments he wasn't just fighting one way and that was against a real a real dude erickson lubin has to fight almost a perfect fight not because he can't take a shot but because you got to put multiple things together to beat top flight competition and in his big moments he's shown well he didn't have a shot against charlotte because that ended so quick but even against fondora he showed a lot of good he showed heart right but maybe not always in the right spots he showed that he can still punch but it wasn't quite enough and then you look up and now you got grotesque swelling on your face and it's enough where the fight has to be stopped so i believe this is the third strike for erickson lubin good dude in the sport he mentors a lot of young guys in the sport and the man can fight but but this is the moment and if he doesn't get this right this time this may be it for him our heart wrote a hole for him i I mean, you got to think about it.

40:21If you just take a look at what he had to face, Jamil Charlo, who was undefeated at the time, the towering Inferno, who was 6 '6", fighting 154 pounds. Now, Virgil Ortiz, who just took a guy that gave Terrence a little bit of a struggle and took him to school like he was nothing. You understand me? I mean, yes. So, them three, anybody taking that, them three for their three, strikes that's a hard three strikes not to strike i don't know you feel me lubin has had it very hard very unfortunate for him but he's had a very hard task of trying to get to be world champion i would rather seen him get a little bit of an easier shot right now at the belt just get him a belt around his waist first they're not gonna give it to him unfortunately for him it doesn't happen that way but if he can find a way to get it done this changes the course of his career in another direction he got more life he got more paydays and it'll almost redeem him from them first two fights to say okay i got i got i got a young guy that y 'all are high on and i took this fight even as i'm aging and getting older and i found a way to get it done so that's gonna be a great great fight and that's gonna be saturday i want to shift gears one more time with another fighter who has a lot of talk and a lot of discussion around him this past weekend like every other Sunday, you were on the court with the guys playing ball.

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43:44Visit Bahamar.com today and discover a vacation destination where memories are made for a lifetime. Bahamar, life spectacular. He hasn't had the hardships that Erickson Lubin has had. He's had 35 fights that have all gone his way. And I'm talking about Jaron Boots Ennis. We haven't had an opportunity to unpack his last fight that he had October 11th, a first round TKO against Lima. A lot of people weren't happy with the performance. A lot of people are saying, ah, here you go fighting the same type of fighters again. There is no doubt that Jaron Boots Ennis can fight. If you got one eye, you can see that.

44:24But there's some dangers that I see around Boots. He's got 35 professional fights. He's a fighter who stays in the gym, right? So you first hear that, you're like, well, that's what you want, right? You want your fighter to be a gym rat. Yes and no. Too much of anything is not a good thing. You can leave a lot of your best moments in the gym. He's from Philly. I've heard how his sparring sessions go. He's not working in them. I'm not saying he don't work on stuff. Even when you saw Boots face a retired Sean Porter. yeah he probably pulled some punches but he was he was he was trying to hit shine with some real shots that's just how boots and his gets down in sparring my concern for him is that you get so many fights and you you spend so much time in a gym and you fight a certain level of competition he's 35 and on he hasn't fought an elite guy yet some people say nobody wants to fight him but you still got to deal with the fact that you haven't had that type of danger that you need on the other side of the ring to turn your senses on at the highest level we can see what your defense is when you got real danger in front of you we can see what your offense is when you got real danger in front of you and i see boots at times get hit with shots that works with this guy but it's not gonna work with that guy and what happens is if you spend too long at a certain level you start to get a false sense of yourself you assume and you tell yourself i can take a shot i walk through that why can't i walk through this i walk through this and sparring sparring is different than a fight this level is different than this level do you have any concerns about where jerron boots in this is right now in his career and if he doesn't get this virgil ortiz situation, what next?