Speaker 2
it probably would have been different too because he there was no footage to prepare for you Right like the only footage that he could prepare was watching you fight in MMA Yes, he was a There it is
Speaker 1
Why are you dancing in front of him when we started a fight, when the referee said, okay, you guys go to your corner, he said, let me take you to school. So that was, the dancing was like, I think you're a bad professor. You're a bad chick. That was the only reason why I did that. He a funny guy man he's funny he's very entertaining yeah oh he's so entertaining he's so entertaining he's just a show guy yeah that's happened to really like being very uh talented yeah boxing good at it but he's an entertainer oh i mean he's the way he sells it i mean even the way he was playing with his fat,
Speaker 1
next to you, like rubbing his belly. Like sometimes he will insult you. I don't know if he's insulting you or if he's making fun. But it's just funny that you have to laugh. You really
Speaker 2
have to say about it. He kept talking about how big your dick must be. He's a funny dude, man. He's a funny dude he said that since the first he started
Speaker 1
said those things the first time we met and he will put some stuff up sometime that you know i'm like what and i really have a hard time understanding understanding what he's saying oh i do yeah and english is my first language and they have to translate to tell me what he said. His English
Speaker 2
is hard to understand. The Gypsy King, he's quite a character. Did you hang out with him at all after the fight?
Speaker 1
No, we didn't hang out. But I think we both respect each other. I think he always, I mean, he was entertaining, but he always showed respect. And I know that he respected me, even from the beginning. It's not like this was after the fight. Even from the beginning, he could have said everything that he would say to make his show, to laugh, make people laugh. But he's very respectful.
Speaker 2
That's cool. Yeah. Was there any talk the fight about a rematch
Speaker 1
yes there is a uh there was even a rematch close um how they call like um first regard of rematch close there was some sort something in the contract of it about the rematch close Was that if you beat him? Was if I get in the eighth round. Really? Yeah. Wow. So the deal of the rematch was if I get in the eighth round. So
Speaker 2
why didn't the rematch materialize? I
Speaker 1
think it's a timing. I think it's a matter of a timing. Hmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2
So you go from that fight to the Anthony Joshua fight. Yes. So tell me about the preparation and leading up to that fight. In fact, the preparation
Speaker 1
for the Anthony Joshua fight, then I started, you know, after having like four months of training camp for the Tyson Fury fight, I had this feeling, you know, and then I get a little confident. And now I know how it works, like 10 rounds, and then it was pretty good. I think I sparred like 10 rounds for like two weeks. Yeah, like four sparring of 10 rounds, barely. But the Anthony Joshua fight, six weeks before the fight, I was, no, I wasn't 10. No, the Tyson, yeah, four weeks before the fight, I was already doing like 10 rounds. And I was feeling good, you know, even a little lighter. But things play out different. And I think, unlike the Tyson Fury fight, that nobody expected me to do anything. Here, they were expecting me to do something. So things played out a little different and then we get into five week and then every time that we're gonna do something in the five week whether it's media they're gonna pick me up and then i get there have to wait like one hour and a half before he arrives. And that was like maybe the third day of the week, that Dewey Cooper, he said, Oh, he started to get really mad, upset about it. Like, yes, this is how they do it to get fired and tired. But at the time, I didn't know what was going on. So I'm like, no, come relax. It's okay. I didn't know until we get to the five day. Five day, receive an email. Pick up time. I mean, this is one thing among others. Pick up time. 10.30 from the hotel. And then when they say 10.30, by 10.20, there is a car in your door waiting. We go to the supposedly fight time, between midnight to 1 a.m. We get to the arena, 10.45. There is a producer coming to the locker room. Say, oh, guy, we are running late on the broadcast. Now we are going to go around 1.45 each. I'm like, okay, 1.. It's 1045. Three hours.
Speaker 2
Okay. You know. So what do you do? Do you eat? Do you sleep? What do you do when you know you have three more hours? You
Speaker 1
don't know. You just stay there and then you have like a drug test guy around waiting for you to pee. How far before the fight do you eat? Usually maybe like four, five hours. Yeah, like maybe five to six hours, and then you get some snacks in between, you know. And then, yeah, it was around 1 30 that he was antonio joshua arrived i saw on screen i'm like so we're supposed to fight at 1 45 he's arriving at 1 30 what does that mean it's going to so so they're playing games until we we fight at 1, at 3.30. Oh, wow. At 3.30. I have been in Saudi for almost two months, training to fight between midnight and 1.
Speaker 1
was my training time. By 2, 3, I'm
Speaker 2
in. So they wanted to keep you anxious, drag on psychologically put it in your head you don't know when you're gonna fight pretty much yeah
Speaker 1
but even at that time i didn't know what was happening right he was after after everything that i'm like what's going on because i get into i get to the point that i was so tired i was in the locker room, heating meat, then sit down, feeling asleep. Then I tell Eric, Eric Nixik, like, bro, something wrong. I'm asleep. I feel like I want to sleep. Like, I'm sweating. But we just keep doing. So that's fight. I mean, not to say Anthony Joshua can win me. I think if there's somebody that you can lose against him, he's the guy, you know, and he's one of the best of doing it, you know. But, and this is definitely not on him because he wasn't the guy that was sending all those emails, was organizing. So I'm not blaming about anything. But the organization, bro, nah, they did quite some stuff that wasn't fair. Wish on the Tyson fight was perfect. Everything was perfect because I wasn't a threat. I wasn't, nobody cares about me. Everything was organized. We get in the locker room, I think, was two hours before the fight properly. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Hmm. So then I'm like. Well, Anthony Joshua is a veteran, you know. He's been in the boxing game for a long time. He knows all the different tricks. They also obviously very much prepared for your style. They saw you fight Tyson Fury, so they had tape on you. Tyson Fury did not have boxing tape. He didn't have any footage to study, but Anthony Joshua did, and it was very clear that he knew you had certain tendencies and there were certain things that you did with the Tyson Fury fight that he exploited in his fight maybe
Speaker 1
and then I think again I think he's capable to figure out everybody. I think he's capable to win everybody. But in this case, I feel like in some ways, they stand on my way a little bit.
Speaker 2
They stood in your way. Yeah. So they played some games. Yeah. Well, they wanted to get the most advantage possible, you know, which is that's smart. If you're their coach, their manager, that's what I would do too. But it wasn't their coach that was organizing the fight. So you think it's the organization itself that they set everything up in his favor?
Speaker 1
The organization. I mean, yes, his team was part of organization because it was Queensberry and Mushroom. Those emails was coming from there. So
Speaker 2
those are the people that told you to get there three hours earlier than you needed to be? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1
Those are the people that were sending the schedule, the five-week schedule. And every day we send everything, like pick-up time, the program, and the schedule.
Speaker 2
Have you had a chance to go back and watch the Anthony Joshua fight? Yeah. I mean, I didn't. Yes, I watched it. What
Speaker 1
was your question?
Speaker 2
What do you remember about the fight? What was different watching it? Oh, even like feeling it. It wasn't, even
Speaker 1
before I went to watch it, I get in the ring. Was, wasn't, was, you know, wasn't feeling myself. And the first round, when he knocked me down, like I fell and I was like, did I slip? Like what exactly me down make me fall like this punch because I felt the punch but it wasn't the punch that will knock me knock me down you know so that's when I really get confused at that time I'm like damn what But this is the thing. From that moment, I get knocked down with a punch that wasn't that hard. You don't think
Speaker 2
it was that hard?
Speaker 1
No. He hit my hand before he hit my face. And I felt it. I felt the punch, but I was on the floor. The first one. And then I get count, then stood up. We finished the round. I went on my corner. But by the time I went on my corner, I never came back from that. I kept going. And I remember being in my corner and Dewey was like, don't go on South Paul he's waiting you on South Paul do this champ do this champ that was it that's from there I don't remember when I left the stool to get in the second round
Speaker 2
well that was probably from the big punch in the second round too right yeah but I'm talking about the first round right but the memory afterwards is always going to be cloudy after a knockout especially a bad knockout like that yeah
Speaker 1
but i'm remember i remember exactly what's happened until we get to the store i remember being there like start having blurry vision like the guy was in front of me the My team was in front of me speaking to me. And then the voice was getting distanced.
Speaker 2
So you think there was something wrong? I
Speaker 1
don't know if it was the fatigue. I don't know what was it. But something wasn't right.
Speaker 2
So something wasn't right. Forget about the punches he landed. Something else was wrong. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1
Yeah. Something was wrong.
Speaker 2
Do you think it's something you ate? Do you think it was something that
Speaker 1
someone gave you?
Speaker 1
have no proof. I don't know if maybe. Did you get
Speaker 1
the fight? Maybe it's the fact that I can, I get there at that time. So just the fatigue and the anxiety and all the hours and hours. Yeah, but something wrong. First of all, when all those things happen, you are in the moment. You don't get out of the fight and think about go get tested. you know right you process thing and then see to understand to see how he was wrong but by the time they say i think i need uh you have to do like within 12 hours to do like blood or urine, 12 and 24 hours. That was it. So I didn't do that. I can't say it was that. I don't know. But it
Speaker 2
felt like something was wrong.
Speaker 2
me, yeah. So did it feel like something was wrong, like just plain fatigue? Or did it feel like something was wrong like maybe you were poisoned or maybe playing for
Speaker 1
drugged play fatigue yeah so just fatigue yeah so yeah well
Speaker 2
this is uh also an aspect of experience right because this is only your second professional boxing fight and you know there's things that people do. Like they do very intelligent things to, like, Gervonta Davis, when he fought Ryan Garcia, he made him rehydrate. He made him dehydrate, get down to a low weight. And then there was a clause in the contract where he couldn't gain more than 10 pounds before the fight itself. So he went into the fight dehydrated. Smart for a guy like Gervonta, a huge puncher you know so there's things that like experienced professionals that have been in the game a long time will get a fighter to agree to that's not in their best interest and then there's things that they can do to you like make you wait all day and make you wait around which will fatigue you yeah
Speaker 1
but uh there wasn't a thing or something in the contract that was forcing me to do something. The only thing was, like, to show up on time. Right. So that was everything. Because, like, before that, the week before, sparring, everything feels good. I spar way more better, more stronger than what i did on the fury fight even my sparring partner was different at that time you know on the fury fight we were getting some uh some uh somebody in maybe after the uh six or eight rounds just to weigh me down, but the quality of boxing wasn't that impressive. Here, he was different, and I was able to hold. I know that if I had to fall, he would take a little more to get me down.
