RING IV Recap: Devin Haney PROVED Everyone Wrong + Andre Ward Reveals The Truth Behind Kovalev I

28:33And he puts on that kind of performance. You got to respect it. One thing that a puncher will only respect is if you hit him in the mouth. And he hit him in the mouth and he looked at him. They don't care about your boxing ability. They only thing that a real punch or somebody that's really like that the only thing they're really going to respect is when you when they hit you you hit them back in the mouth and you look at them and say yeah that's what you signed up for that's what happened in the second round but i'm disappointed in norman i respect norman and pop his pops and his movement man but it's one thing to get dropped unexpectedly and to be shocked for a round or two and try to get yourself together.

29:20Norman didn't really start shaking back until maybe like the 10th or 11th round where I really start seeing him open up. He was shell shocked from getting hit like that. He never wanted to really take chances. He stopped believing in himself. He wasn't listening to his father. And that part was disappointing for me. I expected more from Norman in that space. You know, just like you said, man, it just seems like you just couldn't adapt to it at all. I mean, I've seen the inexperience in that sense. And, you know, of course, you know, just leading up to that fight, I didn't see too much of Norm.

29:52I didn't know too much about him, but I just was, of course, I was hearing all of the scary talks of all the power. I'm like, okay, we're going to see what we got. You know, of course, just me just knowing Devin and just seeing, you know, what happened that second round and just looking at his face. Like I said, we know what this feels like because we've been in battle. So we know how it looks, you know, for a guy to knock another guy down and get that type of confidence. And we know that Devin has all those tools in his back pocket. That's the only thing that he needed. That's the only thing that he needed was that confidence boost.

30:27And you just seen him just go to work. So I can say you got to respect it. I got to give a shout out, though, to Brian Norman Sr. Because as I listened to the corner work of Brian Norman Sr., I never heard him panic. he had urgency he was he was speaking directly to his son like hey man but I never heard him panic he stuck to the game plan even late in the fight when you could tell the fight had gotten away from them I never heard pops panic and get so emotional where he showed that he was a rookie pop stayed under fire and did his part you can't put this one on Brian Norman senior I think junior Brian Brian Norman Jr.

31:06was trained well. I think he was prepared as best he could have been game plan wise, physically, training camp, all that stuff. But he also got coached really, really well in that fight. If you listen to the instructions, Brian Norman Sr., he was stuck on the game plan. Hey, this is what you got to do. Gave him two, three instructions, and then he moved on. Man, shout out to Brian Norman Sr. for the way that he tried to carry his son through that fight. What's your thought on what Bill Haney said, the fact of them of course making a mistake and just getting over to Saudi Arabia a lot later than they probably should.

31:40You think that was just a bad decision on their part? Yes. It's a terrible decision. When was the last time that Brian Norman fought in Saudi Arabia? That's inexperience. That's inexperience because I interviewed Devin a week before his fight and that's one thing that he pointed out he said brian norman still not here at the highest level it's all of those little things that make up a big thing yeah it ain't just i had a good training camp brother have you been resting enough have you been training the right way anybody can go in the gym if you've been boxing for a long time and sweat and you know exhaust yourself have you been resting what's your diet like what's your weight cut like and if you're fighting in another country did you invest the time and money and resources to get over there at least two weeks before.

32:36Especially when you're going to do a ring walker 4am in the morning local time. That's crazy. That's a rookie mistake from Team Norman. That was a good call from Devin Haney and Bill Haney to invest the time to be inconvenienced to get to Saudi Arabia in plenty enough time. He was posting IG stories and posting it on his grid about getting to the gym at 5 a.m. for two weeks straight. And that's one thing about Bill, man. One fighter had been there, and you can see it, and the other one had not been there, and you can see that as well. And that's one thing about Bill, man. Of course, like I said, we know Bill.

33:17He likes to have fun. He likes to be on the internet talking to that. But when it comes to Bill and how serious he takes his game, he really does take the training and the whole strategy leading up to these fights very, very seriously, man. You got to respect that out of Bill, man. You have to respect it. Yeah, you can get caught up in the wordplay with Bill and the antics with Bill. But I hear what you're saying, but I'm too busy watching what you're doing. And when I watch the moves that Bill Haney has made for his son, he's done the right matchmaking. When it's the right move to be with Hearn at this point, Eddie Hearn, I'm going to go with Hearn.

33:56When it's the right move to do a one-off for a two-off with top rank because I want to get this Loma situation, I'm going to do that. If it makes sense to go over here with Turkey Alashik, okay, we're going to get that alliance going. That's what I'm going to do. Masterful out-of-the-ring moves that has led Devin Haney to being the champion, the multidivisional champion. I think it's three-division, five-time world champion and still going. He secured another big bag. He got another big bag on the way. they leave it in the private jet to go enjoy the fruits of their labor and you gotta respect it.

34:32I wanna make a quick comment though about the scorecards. I don't wanna belabor this point. I know people make mistakes there's human air when it comes to judging fights but I think this situation is unacceptable when you heard the scorecards you have two judges one had it 117 110. That's an accurate depiction of the fight. You had another judge have it 116 111 but then you got Mike Fitzgerald 114-113 how with all due respect to Mike Fitzgerald Mike has been around what fight were you watching if those other two judges have a bad night this could alter money, history legacy reputation especially Devin Haney coming off the last performance and then the performance before that you have to get this right and if you do not get this right and you're the eyeball out of two other judges who had it very very close in terms of how they saw it there has to be a sit-down process where you need to be suspended and you need to explain how you got that scorecard we need to walk through this fight it's really that serious stop saying we care about fighters when we don't take the time to address situations like that because that scorecard depending on what the other two judges did could have altered history, could have altered legacy, could have altered money.

35:57That's unacceptable in my opinion. It's a fact. I mean, everything you're saying is true. I mean, we've been seeing it, you know, throughout the years in the fight game. It's a very tough situation. And I don't know, you know, sometimes we need to kind of find a certain type of way to try to see if we can get that fixed in some type of way. I don't know how, but like I said, it is what it is. It's so funny in boxing, man, because as fans and fight, We like pick and choose what we want to get on the soapbox about and scream and bang on the table about. If we're going to bang on the table about anything, it's the scoring and the judging.

36:31Sometimes a referee can see a fight a certain way and maybe there's a two-round, three-round difference. That's understandable because judging is hard. It's not an easy thing to do. But when this is your job, when this is your one job, right? It ain't like the old days where the referee was also a judge. Well, I got to ref the action and judge it. It's not that. You got one job. You got the best seat in the house. Your seat is raised up, right? You're not on the floor with the fans. Checking out all the action. You should have the best seat in the house, and you should be able to understand what you're looking at because it's that serious.

37:11If we're going to get on a soapbox about anything, it's about the judges and how they're judging and holding them accountable when they don't meet the mark. what do you think that is why do you think that is to be honest if you see three three judges sitting there you have one judge that is completely off what do you think that is like what is programming in your mind or what you think that is because it's i mean of course this is something we've been seeing i don't know how long but why you can't be that you know i mean i think i think it's a combination of reasons. I don't want to ever believe that it's anything nefarious going on.

37:51It's anything underhanded going on. I'm not one that rushes to that. I'm not saying in this case, but I'm saying just in general. We're talking about bad judgment. Yeah, we're talking about just in general. I try not to go there. I need to see some proof before I put that kind of jacket on somebody and say, man, they paid you off. I'm not going to do that. I got to see some proof. They gave you the check. Yeah, they gave you the check. I do think that there's relationships in the games, though. So you'll have a judge that hasn't done well his last two or three fights, or even a referee, and he keeps getting big assignments.

38:24I question that. Is that a relationship thing? Is that your homeboy that you've been knowing for 20 years, 30 years? Because these relationships do happen. That could be a reason. I think sometimes people have a skew. They lean toward a certain type of fighter or I like this guy's story. Man, I really like him. Man, I think he won the first fight. So, man, I'm leaning toward him for the second fight. There's a lot of different reasons, a lot of different things, right? Or sometimes a judge might not know what they're looking at. You can't say that, brother. You can't say that. It's ridiculous to see these judges get picked for huge fights like this.

39:10You know what, in front of the world? In front of the world, huge fights like this, important fights, and not know what they're looking at. You wouldn't think that, huh? I'm not going to accept it. I'm not going to accept it. That's what I'm saying. We pick and choose what we get on the soapbox about. What we do is we complain about it Saturday night. We complain about it a little bit more on Sunday night, But then football come on on Sunday and we forget all about the bad judging. We don't worry about how that bad judging affected that fighter. And then it's a few hardcore fans that keep tracking with the situation.

39:40They'll keep yelling about it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, maybe a week. They'll go to work with it. And then after that, you don't hear about it no more. But you look up six months later, the same judge got no type of punishment and they got another big assignment. And that's terrible, man. Like I said, we put so much into this game, and they just don't know how bad judging in certain situations can cause a guy to lose the fight and alter their full legacy of who they are. You know what I mean? Their paycheck of who they are. I mean, just so many different things that comes into that, man.

40:15Like I said, it's terrible to see, man. I think they need to do a lot more, you know, a lot better vetting when it comes to big situations like that. It's crazy. Man, you can say that again. But it's almost Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is in a couple days. And November 19th was the nine-year anniversary to award Kovalev one. And when I think back about this fight, it's so much to talk about. It's so much to unpack how the fight was made, the training camp for that fight, the actual fight, post-fight, everything. Everything leading into the second fight. But I want to ask you about the first fight.

40:54right? Like this was a guy, Sergey Kovalev, he, he was who they said that he was. Yeah. It was real. The hype was real. The talk was real. It's a guy who, a Russian fighter who really didn't care about too much or too many people. He was going in other guys, home countries, other guys, backyard, and he was stopping them. He wasn't winning. He wasn't winning no decisions. And he was a good boxer as well. He was a weight class above me. I had dominated 168. There were no, there wasn't a lot of options for me. We offered the fight to your boy, Gennady Golovkin, and they turned it down. So at that point, me and my team had to make a decision.

41:36We were getting a little bit of pressure from HBO to make it, to make a big fight. And they were wanting me to go to 175. So we made the fight. And when I made the fight, I remember reading a headline. The headline said, for all Andre's hard work, all he did was get a date with a monster. He was the monster. That's a heavy headline. That was heavy, man. A lot going on. What were you thinking about when the fight first got made? You can keep it real. It's nine years later. I ain't gonna get mad at you. Cool. I'm always keeping it real. Tell me a little bit about the training camp. Tell me about the fight, though.

42:17I want to know where you were when I got dropped in that second round and what you were thinking. When the fight got made, I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous. Give it to me. But then again, I was – Hey, bro, just talk about it, man. I ain't going to be mad, I promise. Because when I say the size of the jacket they put on this dude, of being this monster and running through everything, it was heavy. It was heavy. It was bulky. You know what I mean? I got a chance to see him really just run through everybody in the division, man. Of course, you stepped up to the plate, which I understand.

42:54I mean, that's what you do at the end of the day, of course. I mean, just me just knowing you for so long, you know, what we did in the Olympics and all this stuff. You know, like you always step up to the competition just to see where you at with it. I kind of been like that, though. You been like that. That's what they don't understand. They didn't know that, though. I'm going to give you that. I disarm them with my boys' looks and all this stuff, but I kind of been like that, though. I'm going to give you that. That's one thing with it. That's why we became cool for so long. I'm like, okay.

43:20He got a little pit bull about him. He don't care. Okay, cool. I like that. So just going into that training camp, man, that just made me nervous because I knew all the things that happened in that training camp that everybody else did now. You know, all the injuries and all these other different things that were going on in camp. And I truly thought that they were going to try to cancel the fight again or just you and Virg were just going to try to push you back again. but I know that you had your back against the wall, you know, when it came to that right there, you know, as well. Because of all the talk, like I said, from HBO, really just trying to put you in that position.

43:52Lawsuit, yeah. I mean, all that stuff. So I understand that it was something that you really, that you really couldn't walk away from. Like, you had to get it done. So I went into the fight just really thinking about all those different things. And, you know, just me just sitting in the front row, seeing it with everybody else, you know, all the partners. You know, we were there to support. And, you know, it's going in there, seeing it, man. And when we seen that first knockdown, I was like, oh, Lord, everybody. We all jumped up. We were like, oh, Lord, no, come on. But, you know, so everybody got shit up a little.

44:31It looked like the script that they wrote, it looked like it was getting ready to be played out. Ready, ready to be played out, man. Okay, yeah, Andre Ward isn't what y 'all thought he was. The monster's here, and the monster's showing up. you know, really quick. But we got a chance to sit back and just see you dig yourself out of that hole, man. You know, wheels on pins and needles the whole fight, man, to be honest. And just even after the fight, we just did not know what was, you know, going on in judges' minds. We know, we didn't know if they got sold that story as well of this guy just being a monster.

45:02We need to continue having him, you know, moving on his, you know, on his journey on doing that. So I just remember jumping up and jumping up on the, jumping up on the ring apron. And I was, you know, eyes open. I remember you looking at me like, yeah, we got it. I said, yeah, I think we got it. I was just saying, I'm just trying to just encourage my man. Like, yeah, we got it. But you really don't know. You really never know, man. And of course, you know, after we got the win, you know, it was a great feeling, man. But of course, you got a lot of backlash for it. You know, we had a lot of conversations about it.

45:35And of course, I know that you kind of stepped away from it a little bit after that win. But something in me told me, because like I said, I know you very well. Something in me told me that he's going to come back for the same. He ain't going to let it sit like this. Because I know he don't like all the chirping. He going to come back in. He want to try to make this wrong. He going to want to try to make it right. You know what I mean? So I knew that it was coming sooner or later. Man, you know, for us, and I mean me and Virg, man, I had, you know, I've been on a winning streak for a very, very long time.

46:09and people can say that like it's easy how you ain't lost since you but but do you understand how much pressure that is do you understand like even sparring days i got pressure i got a lot of pressure on me on a sparring day because i can't allow you to get off on me and i had bad days like every fighter but leading into the sparring session i got pressure because i can't let you get off on me as a sparring partner than you in your hotel room that night like hey man i got off on him, man. I put hands on him, man. I whipped him for four, five rounds. Bro, I don't think people understand what you're saying, to be honest.

46:44I don't think they understand. You need to understand just the intensity that was in that gym every day, especially having a guy like Virg, you know, always always holding you to that standing. He doesn't care if you don't feel good today. He don't care if, ah, you know, Virg, I didn't really get too much sleep today. Okay, I hear you, but we got three guys over here waiting to put it on you, and I need to make sure you show up. Make sure that they know that this saying it you understand what i'm saying so and that was every day in that gym honestly so but that's the that's the that's the spirit of excellence that yeah operated at for a very very long time like if i got hit with a two-piece two punches in a row yeah in sparring the look of disgust that i that my coach had on his face when i went back to the corner to get my mouthpiece rinsed out to get some water was like you would think that i got knocked down or something oh It wasn't acceptable.

47:35It wasn't acceptable. And, you know, the undefeated thing, like, that created this atmosphere around us where it wasn't just we expected to win every fight. But now we're at a level where how are you going to look when you do it? How are you going to win? Are you going to send the kind of dominance that sends a message not only to him but every reporter, press row, everybody in the arena, and everybody in and around your weight class? That's the pressure that I had on me. So anytime I had a performance that was subpar, which wasn't very often, anytime that I had a situation which really only happened once in my career that had that kind of controversy with Kovalev won, it felt like a loss.

48:19Because the standard was so high for us is I expect to win, but I expect to dominate. That's what the Cubans, that's how the Cubans think. That's how the Russians think. anybody that's in an elite space it's not just what you do it's how you do it's a lot of talk about those that felt i lost but they don't talk about the people that thought i won though that gets drowned out and i'll never ever apologize for winning a close victory in a close fight never how did you truly feel but how did you truly feel how did you truly feel So, you know, of course, after all the comments, of course, it was a close fight.

49:02But, you know, like I said, always holding yourself at a certain type of, you know, excellence. You always want to try to, in a way, make sure that no doubt, you know, was out there as well. So I want to know how you really felt. I mean, just being at home away from everything else and what you really thought. Just the fact of how everybody felt about the situation. you know i mean how did it yeah how did it sit on you well did you take a toll at all yeah i'm gonna start with the how the part about how everybody felt like you know i didn't really get to the point that i got to really worrying about what everybody thought because if i if i went on the everybody thought theory right like i shouldn't have been in that position in the first place i shouldn't have won the super six i shouldn't have you know i should have just stayed down on the canvas when kovalev knocked me down because he's the crush if i if i went off of what everybody else was saying.

49:54If I went off what everybody else was saying, he's not going to win a gold medal. He may get a bronze. If I went off of what everybody else thought. So that really wasn't my focus. But I will say this though. I knew I had won, right? But I also conceded that, man, if he would have, it was close enough. He got there by a point or two. I would have disagreed, but I can't argue though. So there was no wrestling in me about what, man, I really lost, man. I knew that I had won. I've been around this game my whole life. I did what a champion was supposed to do that guy was supposed to finish me we really shouldn't even be talking about this fight being close it really shouldn't even be a discussion about if this fight is close Sergey Kovalev should have knocked Andre Ward out in that second or third or fourth round I should not have gotten that far so the way that I truly felt was I was proud of myself that I got it out the mud I had never had a fight where I had to where I'm down on the cards as a pro and had to get it out the mud like that and the other thing too that if you look at those scorecards and we're gonna put them up here so you can see them i pulled that fight out in the 12th round that's the type of stuff that i would watch on hbo for legendary nights that's the kind of stuff that me and my dad would practice my dad would say okay act like if you get knocked down what you gonna do and he would show me how to roll over on my knee get up and what take my time don't rush and then get back to fighting Hey, man, it's the 12th round and it's tied.

51:26You win this round, you win the fight. This is stuff that I practice in my living room. This is stuff that I practice at the gym as a kid growing up. This is stuff that I got to envision as a baby. I actually did it. So I was proud of myself, Burt, that I responded like a champion. When I got pressed, what was in me came out. So that was the main feeling that I felt. but the chatter i felt unappreciated i felt like it's never good enough and it made me really feel like you know what it might be time not just because of what they're saying but the message that the that that is sent to me was yeah man you give your blood sweat and tears you sacrifice and you actually do what a lot of people said that you couldn't do and instead of them having integrity saying dang man i thought covalet won but i gotta give it to ward yeah yeah oh he got robbed all you got to get.

52:18It made me want to walk away from the game and stop giving more of myself. But that's what I'm saying. I think that's why I asked that question. It was a mixed bag though. I was a mixed bag on how I felt. Were those voices getting to you like in a way that, okay, that has gotten me up to go out here and try to do it again and show these people what I'm really about and just put the silence and put the stamp on the situation and let these people know. That's what I'm saying. to be truthful. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. At the end of the day, you're a fighter. You're a champion.

52:55I mean, if you got people out here, of course, they're going to doubt regardless. But I know you and I know... I've been retired eight, nine years. They still talking. They still down. But they ain't talking about that. the boxing ring. They ain't talking about a Covalent situation no more because you put a stamp on. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. But check this out. Yeah. To your point, we got to get going. To your point, to your point, to your point. I'm human, so I heard the noise, and it did affect me. It wasn't the end-all, be-all, but it did affect me. But the greater part of me felt what I said, happy, proud of myself, man.

53:31I'm not going to apologize for winning a close fight. But once I got past all of that, once I made the decision and the money got up, right, and I said, okay, man, well, I can't use that as an excuse not to take the rematch. Y 'all got the money up. Man, only thing left to do is for me to say yes. Once I said yes, Bert. Go time. Go time. I had been in the ring with this man for 12 rounds. Yeah. What people don't realize, listen to me, young fighters, I won the second fight in the first fight. The low-hanging fruit for the casual fan is you got knocked down. What are we talking about? Brother, did you see me get up?

54:13Do you realize that I bullied the bully? Do you realize that you saw something that night that only a great fighter can show? Do you realize that I unlocked the fact that, man, he's a decent puncher, but he's physically weak. Man, he start fading that fifth or sixth round, he never caught a second win. Man, he knew he needed that 12th round. Why didn't he show up the way he was supposed to? But I have all of that in my account going into that second fight. It was no way he was going to beat me in that second fight. Download it. It wasn't going to happen. downloaded everything downloaded completely i got a good hard drive too so everything will say completely different camp too completely different camp but yes man the second camp was good we did what we had to do in the second fight and this is the sport of boxing though you're going to it's a bunch of landmines around the sport it's not if you're gonna step on one it's when and how often yeah your landmines you stepped on where some of them were the same but some of them were different in mind we all got our battles we all got our fights what's your battle what's your fight and how do you respond when you step on one because you gonna step on one that's a fact the other fun fact and really it's a scary fact for me and i didn't know this before the fight i might have i might have i might have canceled the fight if i would have knew this i might have pushed the date back right going into the fight with kovala the first time i got knocked down in my career the first time was November 19th 2005 against Darnell Boone the second time I got knocked down in my career was November 19th 2016 Sergey Covalent really yeah I would have pushed that date back my boy I would have I don't know what was going on I would have been listen man we probably got pushed back a week because I don't know what's going on that's crazy but I did not know until after the fight why didn't nobody tell me that that was the anniversary of my first knockdown they might have saved me a second knockdown then we gonna get on out of here brother I appreciate you bro my man appreciate you appreciate you guys for having me see you again soon

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