PBD - Patrick Bet-David - "America Needs Help" - Oscar De La Hoya on Fighting, Donald Trump And The State Of America

Aug. 9, 2024 - PBD - Patrick Bet-David

01:32:47

"America Needs Help" - Oscar De La Hoya on Fighting, Donald Trump And The State Of America

Oscar De La Hoya opens up about his legendary boxing career, the challenges of fame, and his thoughts on America's current state. He shares untold stories, including his encounter with Donald Trump and the intense rivalry with Floyd Mayweather, offering a rare glimpse into the life of one of boxing's greatest champions. --- 🇺🇸 Represent Valuetainment! Buy ONE hat and get ONE FREE - https://bit.ly/VTTEAMUS 🏦 Purchase tickets to The Vault Conference 2024 featuring Patrick Bet-David & Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson:https://bit.ly/VAULT2024 🎟️ Meet Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson! Join the Minnect League Championships for your chance to win a meet-and-greet with The Rock at The Vault 2024 | Sept 4th – Sept 7th | Palm Beach Convention Center: https://bit.ly/4aMAar8 🎟️ Purchase tickets to PBD Live - "Reagan" Movie Screening & Live podcast w/ Dennis Quaid on Friday, August 2nd: https://bit.ly/3xNPhCS 🎟️ Purchase tickets to The Vault Conference 2024 featuring Patrick Bet-David & Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson: https://bit.ly/VAULT2024 Connect one-on-one with the right expert for you on Minnect: https://bit.ly/3MC9IXE Connect with Patrick Bet-David on Minnect: https://bit.ly/3OoiGIC Connect with Tom Ellsworth on Minnect: https://bit.ly/3UgJjmR Connect with Vincent Oshana on Minnect: https://bit.ly/47TFCXq Connect with Adam Sosnick on Minnect: https://bit.ly/42mnnc4 Connect with Rob Garguilo on Minnect: https://bit.ly/426IG0R Purchase Patrick's new book "Choose Your Enemies Wisely": https://bit.ly/41bTtGD Register to win a Valuetainment Boss Set (valued at over $350): https://bit.ly/41PrSLW Get best-in-class business advice with Bet-David Consulting: https://bit.ly/40oUafz Visit VT.com for the latest news and insights from the world of politics, business and entertainment: https://bit.ly/472R3Mz Visit Valuetainment University for the best courses online for entrepreneurs: https://bit.ly/47gKVA0 Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! Get PBD's Intro Song "Sweet Victory" by R-Mean: https://bit.ly/3T6HPdY SUBSCRIBE TO: ‪@VALUETAINMENT‬ ‪@vtsoscast‬ ‪@ValuetainmentComedy‬ ‪@bizdocpodcast‬ ‪@theunusualsuspectspodcast‬ Want to be clear on your next 5 business moves? https://bit.ly/3Qzrj3m Join the channel to get exclusive access to perks: https://bit.ly/3Q9rSQL Download the podcasts on all your favorite platforms https://bit.ly/3sFAW4N Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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	I have to tell you a little secret here is Are you joking?
	No, nobody knows this, but it's in the context.
	But when I won the gold, I mean, the experience is the best moment I've ever had.
	And right there and then, I knew my life is going to be different.
	It's not going to be the same.
	America needs help.
	And right now, with our current president, I just feel that it's not getting the help.
	necessary to make this country what it is.
	And that's great.
	What was your first experience with Trump, meeting him?
	Oh my gosh.
	I golfed with Trump.
	So that story came out.
	So Trump calls me two minutes after that.
	I'm not coming.
	I'm not coming back.
	I've gotten hit by fighters who have taken testosterone, whether it's a man or female.
	It feels like getting hit with a baseball bat.
	Has there ever been a boxer that went to UFC or no?
	We're not that stupid.
	He was my childhood idol.
	And I end up fighting him.
	I hit rock bottom not once, but several times.
	When I realized that I cannot perform, I started to convince myself that I wasn't worthy of anything.
	At seven years old, you signed, you're going to win the gold medal.
	I'm going to win the gold medal in 1992.
	Is this anywhere?
	Oh, I have that poster.
	So obviously when you're doing a podcast with Oscar, you got to talk to him about a lot of different things.
	And Ryan Garcia, we talked about today.
	He had some interesting things to say about Ryan.
	Ask him when's the last time you and Ryan spoke and how he feels about the whole thing with permanently, you know, being banned from, he'll give you the detail.
	We talked about Canelo.
	We talked about the Mayweather fight.
	And he told me something I had never heard before.
	Because, you know, most of the time when you hear about his fight with Mayweather, even Ryan said, well, Oscar knew how to better negotiate the contract that he was able to get the things, the terms to be on his favor.
	But there's one thing he missed out, and he'll tell you, which caused Mayweather to retire for one year and one day.
	And there's a reason for that, never spoken about.
	He tells that story.
	I asked him about Trump, and he said many years ago, he asked Trump to come to his fight that he was having with Khan versus Canelo.
	And he was having this fight in May of 2016.
	And he calls Trump in 2015 and say, I want you to come to the fight.
	And they get on a phone call together.
	And Trump says, great, I'm going to come to the fight because I'll be in Vegas.
	But let me check my calendar.
	And then Oscar had leaked something he said to the AP that Trump found out about.
	He says, I'm not coming to the fight.
	But then I asked him a question today, which he was uncomfortable.
	You'll feel it as well.
	And I said, if you were to vote for Trump today, would you consider the vote?
	I'll let you know.
	Watch it for yourself to see what his answer is.
	We talk family.
	We talk decision making.
	We talk Bob Aram.
	We talk promoters.
	We talk about boxing potentially going away fully to the Middle East because, you know, on the other side, Turkey has the money that these guys can't pay.
	There's a lot of things that was talked about.
	But I think at the end of the day, you're going to enjoy this, especially with today being the Olympics and him talking openly about the Algerian boxer when he won the gold medal in 1992.
	And he told a story about Michael Jordan and these guys that you just have to, again, if you're a sports guy, you like competition, you're following a boxing story, you're going to love today's podcast with Oscar De La Hoya.
	30 seconds did you ever think you would make it i feel i'm so close i could take sweet victory i know this life meant for me Why would you clad on Goliath?
	But we got Bet David.
	Value payment, giving values contagious.
	This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to hate it.
	I run, homie, look what I become.
	I'm the one.
	So today I'm sitting out with Oscar De La Hoya.
	Here's some stats for you to consider.
	He's won 10 different titles, six different weight classes.
	Today's the Olympics, right?
	This guy won the gold medal in 1992 at the age of 19, the same year that the great dream team was playing.
	Michael Jordan, Barkley, he was telling me stories.
	I said, Oscar, I don't want to hear the stories.
	I want to hear the stories on the screen is what I want to hear.
	And then at the same time, I was pulling up another stat.
	We're in the next door.
	My kids are over here.
	We're in Vegas at our annual conference.
	And I asked Dylan, I said, Dylan, Sean, Dylan's 10 years old and Sean, my nephew, is turning 15, I think, tomorrow.
	And I said, so how much do you think Oscar De La Hoya's career earnings was in boxing?
	And Dylan, he doesn't follow boxing a lot, but he knows.
	He says, well, $20 million.
	I said, $20 million.
	So, Sean, what do you think?
	Sean says, $153 million.
	I said, try $700 million.
	Try being the 27th highest paid athlete in the world.
	We're not talking boxing only.
	So there's obviously there's a lot of some people love Oscar.
	Some people don't like Oscar.
	This is the world he's in.
	He's got his personality.
	He has a reputation.
	He's been around the block for, he's been a famous celebrity for many, many years, three decades plus.
	But you cannot sit there and not respect the numbers that he's at in the space and what he's done.
	And then we had a chance to do business together on a deal, on an insurance deal together, I think seven, eight years ago with Gabriel Brenner.
	And the former owner, he was one of the owners of a Houston Dynamo.
	He got involved very early.
	I won't give the numbers, but let's just say it was a beautiful exit form Oscar.
	It's great to have you on the podcast.
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	Good to see you.
	Congratulations.
	Thank you.
	It was interesting how it happened because one of our guys, Greg Scher, we meet at an event through another guy named David Finnimore.
	And then Greg says, I'm looking for some insurance deals.
	And then Greg gets a hold of Tom.
	They talk, they come and they want to raise $10 million.
	He brings Gabriel Brenner.
	Gabriel Brenner, you know, the first Mexican-born professional sports owner in America.
	This is a guy that sold the Disney home he owned for $74 million a couple of years ago.
	So he's made a couple dollars.
	And then they said, hey, what do you think about Oscar?
	And what if this is a little Oscar, Hispanic, our agency, 54%, ended up working out for everybody?
	So, okay, a couple of things.
	Olympic's going on right now, right?
	And there's a lot of different stories.
	And when you think about Olympic gold medalists, like if we were to say the top 10, 20 famous Olympic gold medalists that people tell the story, you're one of them.
	Your story always comes up.
	Whether people follow boxing or not, they know, right?
	They're Oscar De La Hoya, young, 19 years old.
	You were doing what you were doing.
	When you went in, controversy comes up with this Algerian boxer that I'm sure you're, you know, you followed.
	I even think you commented on me.
	You said a couple words about it, right?
	The main Khalif, if I'm butchering the name, forgive me, Algerian.
	At first, everybody's saying, you know, male boxer, all this stuff.
	In 2023, I think she failed a gender eligibility test for the world championships.
	According to the IBM, when they asked what it was, they said they found something, but they never said anything.
	In 92, when you went in to the Olympics, there percent America, what tests do they do on you?
	What backgrounds do they get on you?
	Is it just blood?
	What kind of testing did you get?
	I don't remember any testing.
	I don't remember any blood work, any urine tests that they do.
	I don't remember that.
	And back then in 92, it was more about, I guess people respected you more.
	They had confidence in you that you were not going to take any type of supplements or any enhancing type of drugs that are going to help you win gold medals.
	So it really wasn't popular at the time, I don't think.
	Maybe randomly, once a year, they would test you or once every six months.
	But yeah, I don't remember getting any tests done in Barcelona.
	So when you saw the story about this Iman Khalif, the story that we're hearing about, and you watch her box and the Italian boxer quits, I think after 46 seconds, some number like that.
	And she says, I've never been hit like this before.
	And then at first, everybody posts, transgender, this, just, that.
	And then the story comes out.
	She was born a female.
	Here's a picture with the dad when she was a kid.
	But then they're going back and chromosome this, testosterone this.
	She didn't pass this.
	You're in the world.
	You're in the space.
	What are your friends?
	What are you guys talking about right now when you sound like that?
	Well, I was watching it with my partner, and it's dangerous.
	Any type of high-level testosterone that any athlete might have, whether it's a man or female, it's just dangerous, especially when you're in a sport where you're not throwing a football, you're not kicking a ball, you're literally hitting somebody's head.
	So I just felt that, look, I mean, you look at the body of the person, and my gosh, it looks stronger than the opponents, than the women opponents that she's fighting.
	And so when I start reading, you know, X, Y, chromosome, and this and that, and she got suspended prior to the Olympics, I believe in the world championships.
	You know, you start thinking to yourself, my gosh, what is the IOC thinking?
	What is the AIBA thinking?
	The governing bodies of boxing.
	And, you know, they have to literally get their shit straight, basically, because it's been going on for a long time.
	Boxing is a sport that is very fragmented.
	Boxing is a sport that is really not universally organized, you know, like other sports.
	You have the NBA, you have, you know, you have soccer, you have major league soccer, all that.
	Boxing is just so fragmented that we don't have people who are who are literally policing every single move and making sure that things like this don't happen.
	Got it.
	So there's two topics that I want to go to.
	The fragmented part, which is you very brilliantly explained, like in UFC, it's easy.
	Dana makes a decision, but in boxing, you got bomb, For these guys, who are those guys?
	You got the promoters, you got the contractors, you got pay-per-view.
	There's so much politics in boxing where there's not that much politics in maybe the UFC.
	But let's go back to Olympics.
	Based on what you've looked at with this, I mean, you're in boxing, so you're going to follow some of the boxing events that's going on.
	But are the conversations behind closed doors amongst peers where it's like, look, I thought maybe she was a guy, but okay, now they're saying she's a girl, fine.
	But she must be on something.
	She must be on testosterone.
	She must be on some PV.
	Is that kind of where you're at now?
	Absolutely.
	I mean, look, testosterone levels in boxing are dangerous because you're punching somebody's head in.
	That's the bottom line.
	And, you know, there's a strong argument you can make either way.
	So the bottom line is that whatever they're going to decide, the IOC is what people have to go with.
	They have to believe.
	So I just feel personally, because I'm a fighter, I'm a boxer.
	I've been there in the ring.
	I've gotten hit by fighters who have taken testosterone.
	And let me tell you, you don't want to be in the ring.
	It feels like getting hit with a baseball bat.
	It really does.
	It changes your body.
	It changes your physical inside and you become stronger, whether you're a man or a woman.
	And so that testosterone level is, yeah, it's dangerous, like I said.
	Got it.
	But you think there was something going on.
	Like, you think there's something very unreal about the situation here going on?
	And what happens though?
	Because when I'm asking you in the 1992 Olympics when you won the gold medal, you're saying they didn't do any testing on you back then.
	It was just kind of like, hey, you're representing America.
	Come on in.
	So I wonder, do you know if they're testing now or is it just kind of like you're representing and come in?
	Yeah, no, no.
	The testing is most likely every single day, basically.
	After you compete, before you compete, they're always testing you every single day.
	So if that is the case, wouldn't they know if the Algerian boxer is using PEDs or not?
	Or is there still a way for her to get away with it?
	There's still ways.
	I mean, as you know, as soon as they come up with something, there's always, or some kind of steroid or high testosterone or whatever you want to call it, they'll invent something.
	Yeah, create a test for it.
	Some kind of masking mechanism over here.
	So it's always evolving.
	It's always changing.
	So you just never know.
	92, you're in there, 19 years old.
	You're going in.
	This is in the history of NBA basketball, there's never been a more exciting team that was ever put together.
	Even Magic Johnson, there's this one four-minute clip on YouTube that I've watched probably 100 times where Magic says, hey, the best game ever played at the Olympics in 1992 wasn't the game.
	It was us against each other when Michael said, sir, I'm the captain.
	He picks Larry.
	He starts putting the team together.
	And Michael decides to destroy him.
	And Magic is talking shit to Michael.
	And then Larry eventually turns Magic and says, look, it's officially his league.
	Leave it alone.
	And then Michael comes in and the world says, oh my God, Michael Jordan, you're coming up in boxing, sir.
	Like at this point, you're Oscar De La Hoya, but you're not yet Oscar De Hoya.
	Right, right.
	You're 19 year old Golden Mole.
	So are they coming to your fight?
	Are you going to their game?
	Is there any interaction?
	Are you seeing Michael?
	Are you seeing these guys?
	What is that like?
	Funny story.
	The whole team would go to every single fight.
	They would literally have this, I think the fifth row for them cleared off.
	And so to make sure they watch the fights.
	But Michael would be at the Michael would be there.
	Magic Johnson.
	That's cool.
	Barkley, everybody would be there.
	And they would leave him alone, like as if they weren't famous.
	It was pretty odd.
	It was crazy.
	But they love boxing.
	They love the sport.
	And you can tell, I believe it was Magic Johnson who was more into the boxing.
	He would just stay there.
	And just, I mean, you couldn't talk to him.
	You couldn't say anything to him.
	And you're noticing this while you're in the ring.
	In between rounds, you're watching these guys like, wow, Michael Jordan just said, just wave to me.
	It was pretty distracting, but at the same time, motivating.
	But at this point, you're not famous yet, right?
	No, no.
	This is the first fame you experience.
	What is it like 19-year-old?
	You're like, Michael's booting for me.
	Right.
	It's a surreal moment.
	I mean, you don't believe it.
	You think you're dreaming, right?
	It put added pressure to me to win the gold.
	I mean, first of all, I had the pressure of winning it for my mother, who passed away from breast cancer a year prior to the Olympics.
	So that pressure from America, because the media now is making me the darling of the Olympics.
	You know, Oscar De La Hoya winning the gold for his mother.
	Can he do it?
	His dying mother from breast cancer.
	And so that pressure for a young kid.
	I mean, imagine.
	And then on top of that, having my dream team, you know, when you battle, I mean, wow, it was, it was a pretty surreal moment.
	Did you have like when you won, like, who was, was there a moment when you got the gold, some guys come and congratulating?
	Was there moments where the channel together behind closed doors?
	Everybody, yeah.
	We have to do that.
	Do you have any stories of?
	Oh, yeah, no.
	Well, first of all, when I won the gold, I mean, the experience is the best moment I've ever had.
	That's your best ever.
	On top of the podium, listening to the national anthem of America, and plus thinking about your mom who just passed away, I mean, you can, I mean, I get chills now.
	It was just incredible.
	And yeah, the world just fell in love with me after that.
	I became the golden boy.
	That is, and now obviously golden boy.
	You know, you got the promotional company, all this stuff that you're doing.
	So, okay, so that's going on.
	You're coming back from that moment of coming back into the fight scene.
	You know, what was the level of fame from there?
	What happened next?
	What was the next thing that happened for you?
	I mean, obviously, before the Olympic Games, I did have some kind of like fame, local fame in my neighborhood.
	You know, the young kid coming up from East LA, winning gold.
	But when I landed in the U.S. in LAX, and this is when the public airports, they would let people in all the way into the gate.
	You didn't have to go through security.
	OTSA.
	There's no 2009.
	That's right.
	That's right.
	That's a good point.
	So the stewardess opens the door to the plane, and I'm right there standing, and there's a sea of a thousand people just chanting Oscar.
	And I'm thinking, who are they chanting for?
	I asked the stewardess, and they're like, my gosh, they're here for you.
	And right there and then I knew my life is going to be different.
	It's going to change.
	It's going to be, it's not going to be the same.
	How'd you handle fame at that time?
	Because fame is when I watch a lot of guys at a smaller level.
	Yeah, we're running an insurance company.
	We got 10,000 guys at MGM right now at conference.
	And I'll notice you get up on stage and you edify one of the guys in front of thousands of people.
	All of a sudden, they get like this.
	Some of the guys you do, they're like, oh my God, I'm humble.
	I don't like it.
	I'm uncomfortable.
	How do you manage and handle fame at a 19 year at that age?
	Yeah, I always felt I had an angel on my shoulder, you know, and that's my mother that was looking out for me, that was kind of guiding me and telling me what to say at every moment, you know?
	And I handled it staying humble.
	I handled it.
	The fame was a little overwhelming at first, you know, with women coming at you and taking pictures and wanting to, you know, your autographs.
	And it was a little difficult for me because I'm a shy kid, right, at the time.
	But in terms of, you know, winning big purses professionally and handling my money and then handling all these people who are coming at me from all sorts of walks of life, I handled it pretty good.
	At that time, at that time, at 19 years old.
	Were you always a womanizer?
	Like what Shukrashen mostly talks about, what it was like, he says, when we were, you know, in the amateur fights, we would always go to Alabama or Michigan or this or that, and we'd go different places and we'd fight.
	And then we'd have a chance to go out there and party and the girls.
	And he would always, you know, he would tell stories about you, like how it was.
	Were you always pretty good with girls?
	Was that like no, or did it?
	No, I was the shyest kid ever.
	I was, you know, and ironically, I was so focused on my training, on my boxing, that all that came afterwards.
	You know, when I started getting fame, when I started getting money, I became a little reckless, you know, after after all that fame a bit.
	But in the beginning, no, I was just, I was a super shy kid.
	When did the recklessness show up?
	What age was the reckless?
	I think it was after it might have been after I retired from boxing.
	What was that?
	Yeah, I was 30, I believe I was like 38 years old.
	So, Oscar, so you're saying from 19 to 38, no drugs, no hardcore partying.
	No, nothing.
	Zero from 19 to 38.
	Oh, not at all.
	Literally.
	I was super focused.
	Okay.
	It started happening.
	It started happening.
	I started feeling empty in my last fight against Pacquiao.
	Yeah.
	When I knew that my skill level was diminishing, when I knew that I wasn't the same fighter when I started boxing.
	38.
	At 38 years old.
	I was a hard worker.
	I was the first one to be in the gym.
	I was the last one to get out.
	I was always the one waking everybody up at four in the morning to go run.
	So I put my body and my mind through basically through hell for all those years.
	I dedicated my life.
	I had people in my life that were great for me that I just, you know, shoot away because I was so focused.
	And I lost a lot of friends, a lot of family because of the sport.
	But once I retired, once I knew that my body wasn't the same anymore, my mind wasn't the same anymore.
	I mean, when you're sleeping in silk pajamas, it's hard to wake up in the morning now, right?
	After so many years of that.
	And, you know, whether it's in bodybuilding, whether it's in military, whether it's in NBA professional sports, they'll say when an athlete that's competing at the highest level, meaning you're a champion, and then there's the sudden retirement, marriage doesn't work out, recklessness comes up, you don't know how to handle stuff, you kind of lose some of the people around you because you went from such, like, I don't know if you've ever seen a movie, Hurt Blocker, where he goes, he comes back,
	he just can't wait for the next bomb to work on.
	And it's like, it's too peaceful, it's too this.
	So you can't handle the chaos coming back.
	Do you kind of feel like that was it?
	Where it was the chaos was so much when it stopped.
	Yeah.
	Now you have to create chaos.
	Well, yeah, I was so disciplined in my craft for so many years since I was six years old that when I realized that I cannot perform anymore any longer inside the ring, I started to make, I started to convince myself that I wasn't worthy of anything, you know?
	38.
	At 38 years old.
	It was incredible.
	It was a time of my life that was the lowest moment of my life.
	A lot of things happened that I regret, but at the same time, I use everything that I've done, everything that's happened to me in my life, I use it as motivation.
	That's the bottom line.
	So let's go back to, let's go to 18.
	You're training, you're young, you're innocent, you're hungry, you feel like you got something, you're Mexican, you know, and your community wants to see the next guy coming up, the next chavas.
	There's always been a good boxer.
	Was the vision gold medal?
	Was the vision champion?
	Was the vision, you know, being the Chavez, the face?
	What was your vision as the 18 or pre-winning anything big?
	My vision since I was nine years old, actually, was to win the Olympic gold medal.
	Yeah.
	That's your number one.
	That was my number one.
	Why since nine Olympic gold medals?
	Back in 84, I believe it was, a fighter by the name of Paul Gonzalez from East LA won the gold medal as well.
	And so as a kid, I was like, my gosh, I want to be like this guy.
	I want to be a superhero.
	I was already involved in boxing and training for fights since I was five.
	So I was already immersed into that world, into that sport.
	So I said, you know what, might as well reach the pinnacle of the amateur boxing.
	And so when 1992 came around, that was my goal for many years.
	In your room, you know, as a kid, like if you came to my Army barracks when I was 18 years old and you looked around, you would see a bunch of supermodels and you would see a bunch of bodybuilders.
	I wanted to be Mr. Olympia.
	So we'd see Ronnie, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, Kevin LaVrone.
	You would see all these bodybuilders on the wall.
	And then you'd see Angel Tebas, Amy Fidal.
	You would see all these, you know, Monica, all these girls that were on the wall.
	And then you would also see John Trabolta on the wall.
	It was a given.
	Because for me, staying alive Saturday Night Fever, I was like the Middle Eastern Tony Monero who I was in Tennessee.
	And by the way, you know whether that is why, you know, the bell bottom is the whole shirts from the shirts that you couldn't afford to buy.
	You would cut off it.
	You have to buy it from the, what is a Goodwill store, Goodwill shoes.
	But what would your room look like?
	If somebody went back and looked at your room right now at 16 years old, what posters were on the wall?
	Fight posters.
	I had nothing but fight posters.
	Like Salvador Sanchez, old school, like Azuma Nelson, Julio Cesar Chavez, when he was coming up, he was my childhood idol.
	And I ended up fighting him.
	Crazy.
	Yeah, that was.
	97 and 98.
	Yeah, that was a crazy moment.
	But yeah, Muhammad Ali was a big one.
	I remember I received some kind of poster.
	I believe it was the 1980 poster.
	Somebody gave it to me, a family member.
	And I actually gave myself my first autograph to myself, like this, to Oscar, Olympic gold medalist.
	Get out of here.
	1992.
	I still have that poster that I signed for myself.
	How long before the Olympics?
	Oh, that was, I was like, I was like seven years old.
	Yeah.
	So at seven years old, you said you're going to win the gold medal in 92?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Is this anywhere?
	Is this?
	Oh, I have that poster.
	Yeah.
	Are you joking?
	No, no.
	At seven years old, you signed, you're going to win the gold medal.
	I'm going to win the gold medal in 1992.
	Yeah.
	Who knows this story?
	Was this in the documentary?
	Oh, yeah.
	Well, there's another story of the documentary where I was in kindergarten, I believe I was, and a teacher gave us an essay to write and, you know, homework, whatever.
	And one of the questions was, what do you want to do when you grow up?
	And I wrote, I want to be an Olympic gold medalist.
	So at the end of the class, the teacher calls me up, right?
	And I'm a kid reading my paper, you know, and my homework.
	And I say, okay, what do you want to be when you grow up?
	Olympic boxing gold medalist champion.
	And not the students, but the teacher starts laughing at me.
	And right there and then, I didn't, I started tearing up just a bit.
	But right there and then, I told myself, you know what?
	I am going to work as hard as I can to prove you wrong, to prove the teacher wrong.
	That's when my motivation was just amped up a thousand percent.
	Yeah.
	I had to win that gold.
	I wrote a book last year titled, Choose Your Enemies Wisely, right?
	And I talked about this word.
	People that make it to the highest level and become champions or winners in business, they typically have three people in common.
	They have somebody that gave them unconditional love.
	You did anything wrong, that person still loved you.
	It's a mom, right?
	Number two is somebody that no matter what you ever did, you would never please or win over.
	Never.
	It was never enough.
	Yeah.
	Either laugh from the teacher or something like that.
	And the last one is they chose their enemies wisely.
	Michael, you know, political leaders, business owners, Elon Musk.
	They typically go through that.
	So it's interesting.
	You found that story about.
	So, okay.
	So it was a gold medal.
	You win the gold medal since seven years old.
	Signature, 92, you're going to win this.
	19 years old.
	Then four years later, at 23, you're fighting a 34-year-old Chavez, which I believe at the time, his record was 97-1 and 1, or 99 and 101, 99.
	99 and 101.
	He was going for his 100th win.
	He was going for his 100th win.
	Oh, against you.
	That's right.
	So 90.
	So he's fighting you.
	And by the way, just to give context here, when I was going through it today, I had no idea when I went through this.
	This is the comparison I made.
	So you're 23 fighting a 34-year-old Chavez.
	And in boxing, what would you say is prime?
	31, 32, 33, 31, 32.
	Okay, so he's 34, a little bit past.
	A little bit past.
	Okay.
	And then, you know, I also looked up when the first time Canelo fought Mayweather.
	Okay.
	Canelo was 23.
	Sure.
	And Mayweather was 36.
	Right.
	So the comparison.
	23, 34, 23, 36 was kind of interesting when you see those dynamics.
	It is.
	So the first one you guys fight, I think it's a TK, is it seventh round, eighth round where they stop?
	Fourth round.
	Fourth round.
	Yeah, he didn't come out for the fifth.
	He didn't come out for the fifth.
	And they're like, well, you know, we need to do it again.
	Sure.
	And then you fight him again.
	At this point, I think he's 101.
	He's had a couple more fights, 100, 101.
	He fought a lot.
	And then you beat him again.
	I did.
	So what was first, how do you feel about it the first time you beat him?
	But second time, Ron, how did the Mexican community feel about you?
	Did they hate you?
	Oh, yeah.
	Like, I can't believe you said that.
	Chavez, who the hell do you think you are?
	Were they still, I mean, even the story with your father saying, prime, prime, Chavez would have beaten you.
	That's all part of his rough.
	Exactly.
	How was that whole experience?
	I mean, including a couple uncles to this day tell me, why did you beat our hero?
	I'm your nephew here.
	Come on, just give me, give me some credit, right?
	But no, it was interesting because think about it.
	I win the Olympic gold medal.
	The world loves me.
	I can do no wrong.
	I'm the golden boy, right?
	Everything I touch, I turn to gold, whatever.
	Everybody loves me.
	And I fight Julio Caesar Chavez.
	And now the whole world is against me.
	I didn't understand it.
	I didn't know how to handle it at first.
	I would, you know, bark back at people.
	Hey, what are you talking about?
	I am Mexican.
	My parents are Mexican and I was born here.
	What is the criticism they're telling you?
	Well, you're not Mexican enough.
	You're a gringo.
	You're born in the U.S. You know, you're not full Mexican.
	You know, just childish things, I guess, you know.
	But things that would irritate me.
	And so I remember facing my hero.
	I remember walking up to the ring, outdoors Caesar's Palace, sold out.
	You've seen Jack, you know, Nicholson in the front with Dustin Hoffman and everybody there, you know, and the Bruce Willis.
	I can see him there sitting down going for Chavez.
	Going for Chavez.
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	He was the one that was rooting for it.
	He would always root for me, actually, Bruce Willis.
	When I was fighting Prince Whitaker, I can see him in one of the rounds where Prince Whitaker hits me, and I can see Bruce Willis standing up and just cheering.
	Oh, yes.
	Oh, he chewed against me.
	Okay, got it.
	Against me.
	And this is at the time, he's got his big movie.
	So he's like, Oh, yeah, he's a Molly Wood.
	Yeah, absolutely.
	And I saw him the other day, a couple of years ago, I saw him at one of my fights I was doing at the garden in New York that I was promoting.
	And he was the super nicest guy to me.
	I'm pretty sure he was just super nice to me.
	Yeah, it was pretty cool.
	It was pretty cool.
	Good times, you know.
	So, Chavez, so you win first time, you win the second time.
	When you're in there and you're watching, because there's got to be an element of guys that remember, right?
	Because to me, when you hear stories about a guy that, oh, you're against me, you're going to root against me, no problem.
	I'm going to remember you for the rest of my life.
	Are you also, as a fighter, looking around to see who's rooting for you?
	Are you catching those small little things?
	Or are you so focused in the fight that you're not seeing any of that?
	At the moment, when you're in the fight, like, for instance, when I fought Chavez, I can walk up the ring.
	Yeah.
	I scope the people out.
	And then once you step foot inside the ropes, it's game on.
	You're laser focused.
	You're just completely in tune with your opponent.
	There's nothing else that exists.
	You just want to win and knock out your opponent.
	Did anybody, when you win, so you win?
	Okay, typically it's like, hey, you know, it's your birthday.
	You get the most random text message.
	Oh, shit.
	Those guys, my family didn't wish me happy birthday.
	That's kind of cool.
	Okay.
	Hey, got a Christmas card from these guys.
	Yeah.
	No shit.
	Get them Christmas one.
	Okay, cool.
	I'll take it.
	That's nice.
	And then, you know, after fights, you're winning.
	There's a big victory you have.
	Some people will call you and say, hey, just want to tell you, man, great fight.
	Love what you did.
	And you're like, wow, I didn't know you were a fan of mine.
	When you beat Chavez, who were some weird people that called you who rooted for you?
	Famous celebrities that we would know where you're like, Ridley, you rooted for me against Chavez.
	Against Chavez.
	Oh, my gosh.
	Probably every single Mexican celebrity you can think of.
	Oh, so the Mexican celebrities were calling you?
	Oh, yeah.
	Why were they happy that they meet him?
	From presidents like Presidento Salino Zegortari?
	He was, I mean, he's Mexican, right?
	From Mexico.
	Oh, man.
	Oh, absolutely.
	But are they saying something like, look, you know, I like Chavez, but I just wanted to that kind of a diplomatic answer to diplomatic.
	But was anybody that called and says, look, bro, I'm glad you beat him.
	I'm glad you beat him.
	A lot of people called me.
	They don't want to give their name.
	They don't want to give their names out.
	Would we know?
	Oh, yeah.
	Okay.
	Oh, yeah.
	So let me ask you, how, how, like right now, my wife and I would go to Argentina.
	We're having a nice little steak at the steakhouse.
	Everywhere we went in Argentina, I asked everybody the same question.
	Okay.
	The question is, hey, Maradona or Messi?
	Oh, you can't ask that question.
	Or some people would take it offense.
	How could you ask a question?
	I'm like that.
	Of course it's Maradona.
	You're talking about Maradona?
	Yeah, Messi.
	Messi's not like Maradona.
	And they would be like almost a little bit annoyed with a, how could you ask a stupid question like that, right?
	But then some people would be like, ah, you know, it's like having two kids.
	You know, you have to love both of them.
	I love both of them.
	Is that kind of your thing when you go to Mexico?
	Did they say stuff like that to you?
	Or, you know, what do you get now?
	I get a lot of whispers from Mexican nationals who tell me, you know, you beat Chavez.
	Great job.
	We respect you, but we love Chavez.
	We're Mexican, you know?
	And they whisper it in my ear.
	They don't want to say it out loud.
	And it's simply because he was born in Mexico.
	You're born in East LA, right?
	He's the hero.
	He's the Messiah.
	He's like, he's God in Mexico, right?
	I wonder if it's kind of like Maradona and that's.
	That's exactly right.
	So I'm pulling up lists.
	Okay.
	I'm just trying to see what lists say the greatest Mexican boxers of all time.
	And I got to realize most of these writers are older people, so the writers are not going to be writers.
	Number 12, this one list has Rodolfo Baby Casanova at 12.
	Then you have 11, Marco Antonio Barrera.
	Then you have 10, Eric Morales, fun to watch.
	Ricardo Lopez, Miguel Canto, and you have Vicente Saldivar.
	Then you have Alberto Baby Arizmendi.
	Okay.
	One, Manuel Marquez.
	I was at the fight when he knocked out Pacquiao and I was sitting next to his wife.
	His wife was gone.
	Four, they have Carlos Zarate.
	Zarate, yeah.
	And then they have Ruben Oliveiras.
	And then they have, you know, you, Chavez, and then Salvador Sanchez.
	Right.
	When you look at some of these lists, right?
	Yeah.
	The greatest Mexican.
	You know, some of them say, well, he's not a Mexican-born, so you're American.
	So on that list, it's really this.
	It should be Oscar.
	But if you put in some of the lists as greatest boxers of all time for that weight, you're ahead of what Chavez did.
	But some of the guys, old school guys, will get so annoyed if anybody says that.
	Sure, no, I would say that, yeah, take me off that list because there's been so many great, great champions that hail from Mexico who are Mexican nationals.
	I'm Mexican-American.
	I was born in the U.S.
	I happen to have Mexican parents and my blood is Mexican.
	And you speak fluent Spanish.
	I speak Spanish.
	Because Ryan gets the criticism, Garcia, but he doesn't speak Spanish.
	So he gets your criticism, but a little bit more.
	So you'll speak our language.
	Like when I was, when I asked my guys, you know, our company, 54% Hispanic, a lot of guys from Choacana, a lot of guys from, you know, Oaxaca or Sinaloa or Zacatecas, and they were so proud, you know, that they're from all these different places.
	And my dad speaks fluent Spanish, and I'll say, so tell me about, you know, Chavez, Oscar, you know, and Ryan.
	And they'll say, well, listen, Mexican, Mexican, Chavez.
	He says, but Ryan, you know, at least, you know, he spoke our language.
	He was with us.
	I mean, Oscar.
	And then they say, but Ryan doesn't speak Spanish.
	And for whatever reason, anybody I ask, they always give him a hard time about that.
	I think, Ryan, if you're watching this, go on Hook Town Phonics, learn how to speak Spanish.
	Stop this criticism they're giving you, bro.
	I mean, my wife is learning Spanish right now.
	I'm sure you can get a good tutor.
	Well, it's funny because so with me, I win the gold medal for the U.S., right?
	And if you notice, when I lifted the flags at the end, winning the gold medal round against Germany, Marco Rudolph, I lifted both flags, the Mexican and the American flag.
	So it's funny because, and I call him a friend, Salina Zegortari, Mexico's president, at the time, I believe, in 92, yes.
	He calls me and invites me to the White House, which is called Los Pinos in Mexico.
	So you have the Mexican president calling me.
	You have, I believe it was Bush Sr. who was president at the time calling me as well.
	So there's a famous little film back when I went to the White House, I believe it was, when the president invites you to the White House.
	And so Bush talks about me and how I did it for my mother.
	It was a very inspiring story, by the way.
	But I go on to the Jay Leno show back in the time when he was the Tonight Show.
	He was the guy.
	He was the guy.
	It was my first time ever.
	And I told him, so I come out with my gold medal with my red, white, and blue jumpsuit.
	You're 19.
	I'm 19 years old.
	He introduces me as the golden boy from East LA.
	Everybody's going crazy.
	And he tells me, so Oscar, Jay Leno asked me, so Oscar, I hear you went to the White House.
	And so I tell him this story.
	Oh, yeah, I did go to the White House and I was roaming around, you know, with my gold medal, my red, white, and blue suit, and I found the restroom.
	So I sat down and I was thinking to myself, wow, so this is where George Bush has his best ideas on this throne here.
	And the people just went crazy.
	And that's where the Golden Boy was born, right there on the Jedi.
	Oh, wow.
	Okay.
	And did you think about saying that or off the cup?
	It just came off.
	Oh, okay.
	So what was like, well, you know, you're not, that's cool because that makes it easier.
	It was just so innocent that people just 19 years old.
	I'm sure that I cut this clip and put it somewhere on TikTok with that clip being there with the flag.
	But so, so, okay, so after winning, and you're at this phase, we're still on this topic with Chavez and all these other guys.
	Do you consider yourself like for me, my mom's Armenian, my dad's a Syrian.
	Yeah.
	I'm born in Iran, but I'm kind of made on America.
	Sure.
	And I'm an American, right?
	So people ask me, what do you think you are?
	I'm an American, right?
	Because what I see myself.
	For you, what do you think of yourself?
	I'm American.
	You're American?
	Yeah, I was born in the U.S.
	So you call yourself American, but proud of your Mexican heritage.
	It's very interesting because back then, it was rough when you talk about races and nationalities.
	Like, for instance, I was the gringo.
	I was like, oh, you're not Mexican enough, and you're not one of us.
	You don't have Mexican blood.
	I was criticized left and right.
	But I stuck to my guns.
	And my message was always: I'm born in the USA.
	I love this country.
	It's my gosh.
	Especially back then, the U.S. was better off, right?
	You're saying Biden, Kamala, haven't played shots.
	I'm not saying anything.
	A little bit offended, Biden.
	I'm not saying anything.
	Oscar.
	Let's not go there.
	But it was rough, especially when I fought Julio Cesar Chavez, because now I'm fighting a real Mexican.
	So now I'm the outsider.
	I'm like the villain here, you know, against all of Mexico.
	So it was, yeah, some challenging times, but I stuck to my guns.
	I'm proud.
	I'm U.S.
	I was born, you know, won the gold medal for the U.S., but my roots are Mexican and I love my Mexican people.
	All my family's Mexican.
	You can't do anything about this.
	But it's odd because now all those people that were against me.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	Back then when I fought Chavez, all those people that were against me.
	So now they have kids that were born in the U.S.
	Now in my position, right?
	So now they understand and respect me for that.
	It took a generation maybe for that to happen.
	Let me ask this question.
	So is there, again, for me, I followed this purely from a fan standpoint.
	My friend Saul Lopez, who's now with us at Bedebi Consulting, he used to live in Sylmar.
	You know Sylmar.
	So he was in Sylmar and they would always go and watch the matches.
	And we wouldn't, one time we're at their place, they're making caranesada.
	Everybody's there.
	These guys are full-blown Mexicans.
	I'm talking Mexican superstitious, very superstitious.
	Like, no, you can't do that.
	When he did that last time, he lost the fight.
	I want you to do this.
	All these weird things, right?
	And it's always fun when you're around Mexicans who are superstitious because you can have a lot more fun with them.
	But we're watching the, is it Vargas against Tito?
	I think it's Vargas Tito.
	That's a good fight, right?
	They knock each other up.
	It was a good fight.
	You know, they're proud to have somebody that's a Mexican-born.
	So would you say it is still Canelo's love comes from people because he is born in Mexico?
	Is that kind of where the pride comes from?
	Absolutely.
	Where he is a Chavez type because he's born in Mexico, and you and Ryan are American, but your family came from Mexico.
	Yeah, it's different.
	It's totally different.
	And, you know, I happen to have a fan base that is global because of the Olympics, because of Barcelona, because of my mother's story, winning the gold for her, died of breast cancer, impacted a lot of people all over the world.
	So I don't think people will ever forget that.
	Whether they like me or not, that's a whole different story.
	But yeah, the fact that you're born in Mexico, like Chavez, like Canelo, and the fact that Canelo took up English and now connects with the American public is it's a plus.
	It's great for his career.
	You can see it in his pay-per-view numbers, for instance.
	I remember, because I promoted Canelo for many years, throughout his whole career, I was with him for, you know, since the beginning.
	And I would tell Canelo, speak English.
	It's very important that you speak in it, even if you just say a few words and have a connection with the American public.
	And sure enough, I mean, it did wonders for his career.
	In these uncertain times, if there's anything we need is we need people to believe the future looks bright.
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	It's wild you're saying this.
	You know how my boys came, my son came here and met you, my nephew, and we're talking soccer, right?
	And I say, hey, these guys are this and Messi, Ronaldo, which one are you?
	And they're kind of giving their argument.
	It's like Messi doesn't do interviews in English.
	Sure.
	Right.
	And Ronaldo does.
	So that allows him to have a wider range, or maybe statistically for championship, World Cup, you know, Messi has more, but because he doesn't do a lot of English speaking, many would say they don't really fully know Messi that well.
	They feel like they know Ronaldo a lot better.
	So that's a good point with Canelo kind of speaking.
	It's more of a connection.
	Right.
	You feel closer to that person who's speaking your language.
	It's an element of thank you for taking the time to learn our language.
	We respect you.
	We're willing to give you loyalty.
	That's a good point.
	Let's go back to boxing.
	Trump for many years was a jersey, all that stuff, boxing.
	You hear Dana talk about Trump, what he did with him, right, opened it up for him, and the loyalty and the relationship that the two of them have.
	What was your first experience with Trump meeting him?
	Oh my gosh.
	It was actually pleasant playing golf.
	And this is a hilarious story.
	So I was promoting Canelo versus Amir Khan.
	And Amir Khan is Muslim and Canelo is Mexican.
	And you remember at the time when I believe Trump stated to the country, you know, all Muslims must 16.
	Oh my gosh, was it 16?
	Oh my God, if it's the peak, I ain't.
	No, it was right at the peak.
	This was before he was going to run.
	This was before he was in the past.
	I remember this.
	I talked a whole picture of it.
	There were whispers that he was going to run for office, whatever.
	So I have this political person on my team, right?
	He's like my PR guy at the time.
	And I had played golf with Trump two weeks prior.
	And it was the funniest, most hilarious golf game I've ever had because this man hits the ball and I think he has like three balls in his pocket, right?
	And with a hole in it.
	So he hits a ball out of bounds and he'll say, oh, it's right next to the pin.
	It's right next to the, and we know that he's like lying.
	We know he's cheating, right?
	So Front Ford, we're in Las Vegas.
	I'm promoting Canelo and Amir Khan.
	And my PR guy tells me, you know, we have to sell the fight.
	It's really not picking up, you know?
	So I tell him, why don't I, why don't we invite Trump, President Trump to the fight?
	You know, he said these controversial comments about Muslims and Mexicans, you know, building the border and they're bad people.
	And so that would create a lot of hype and noise.
	And we can sell more tickets.
	So I get a hold of this person that knows Trump.
	Long story short, Trump is on the phone.
	I'm inviting him to the fight.
	And he's like, yeah, I'll consider it.
	I'm actually going to be in Las Vegas that weekend.
	So let me call you back in about five minutes so I can find out from my team.
	So we hang up.
	Two minutes after that phone call, an AP story breaks because I told the AP that I golfed with Trump and that he cheats.
	So that story came out.
	So Trump calls me two minutes after that.
	I'm not coming.
	I'm not coming.
	Bye.
	Came over.
	That's end game over.
	That simple little experience.
	Now, here's what's weird about it.
	And by the way, I looked at the dates.
	The comments he made was December 6th or 7th of 15.
	Okay.
	And the fight I just looked up was May 7th of 16th.
	So that's six months right after the comments.
	I was making one of you.
	That's interesting.
	What I'm saying is the fact that the timing of it, but you said something a few months ago.
	I just looked this up myself when I went Twitter.
	I think you said something about who wants Trump for president.
	Question mark.
	The reason why I say this is because America sucks right now.
	So, you know, are you, even though maybe you made those comments about him back then and you even talked about in 2018, you thought about running for president in 2020, whether that was marketing or whatever it was.
	It was all marketing.
	It was all marketing.
	So when you make, I mean, you see, some people say that, but some people, a guy said that and he actually became a president.
	I thought it was marketing.
	Right.
	Has your position about Trump changed where you're at today?
	Where I'm at today, I just feel literally that our country needs help.
	It really needs help.
	I mean, look, I was born in California, in Los Angeles.
	Taxes are through the roof right now.
	I'm walking my streets.
	I have a place in Beverly Hills.
	And even there, you're seeing the homelessness, just the situation is just, it's getting worse.
	And so I'm not sure if it's this party's fault or that party's fault, but America needs help.
	And right now with our current president, I just feel that it's not getting the help necessary to make this country, to make this country what it is.
	And that's great.
	Our country is great.
	It should be great.
	Better than any country in the world.
	I just personally feel it's not.
	Do you think when, you know, I lived in California 20 some years, right?
	And Elon Musk, who voted for everybody on the left for the most part, California, right?
	Living in San Francisco, he leaves.
	Joe Rogan, let's legalize marijuana.
	I'm going to vote for Bernie Sanders.
	The vaccine is a good thing.
	He even said it on his special.
	He used to say things like that.
	He leaves California, goes.
	Since 1851, the first time ever California had a net migration, which means more people leaving your state than coming in.
	2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2000, first ever were back-to-back-to-back net migration of people leaving.
	Numbers came out during COVID, those four-year period.
	Two states, Oscar, lost a trillion dollars of asset under management.
	So for example, you live in California.
	Let's just say you have, I'm going to make up a number.
	Let's say you have $300 million of assets under management, and your guys from Morgan Stanley or Jamie Dimon, J.P. Morgan or Goldman, whatever the money is, right?
	You leave from California to Nevada.
	California just lost that $300 million under management to leave.
	Two states lost a trillion dollars.
	You have California, a trillion left.
	Some of them went to Vegas, some Arizona, a lot of it went to Texas.
	New York lost a trillion dollars of management.
	Some of them went to Tennessee.
	A lot of it went to Florida, right?
	So one could say, you know, where forget anything but policies.
	The policies on the left loses job creators, those who want to build a business, those who want to make money, and they're leaving blue states to go to Red State, you know, New York to Red State.
	Right.
	Would you say, like, looking at that, some of the bad policies of California on the left is what pushed you out of California.
	Is that fair to say?
	Yeah, it's fair to say.
	Okay.
	It's fair to say.
	And, you know, I'm really not political.
	I just want somebody to do a great job.
	You know?
	Do you think the four years that Trump was in office, you felt safer, you felt better about the economy, you felt safer about going and making money?
	I actually did.
	You did.
	I actually did.
	In my world, I felt safer.
	Yes.
	And this is on a personal level.
	Of course.
	I totally get that.
	But, you know, it's so many people, like the stories that are coming out right now where it's kind of like, I never thought I would say this, but I would actually consider right now to do this.
	Would you actually consider, even though that AP story happened in 2015, would you actually consider voting for Trump in 2024?
	Would you consider it?
	You would consider it.
	I literally would consider it.
	I have to tell you, I have to tell you a little secret here: I actually just purchased the Donald Trump shoes.
	No, you did.
	I did.
	Seriously.
	I just got them in the mail two days ago.
	I'm not joking.
	Seriously.
	I'm probably going to wear them for the way in one of my fights.
	Jet Addict, yeah.
	I don't really know.
	No, nobody knows it.
	I'm really considering it.
	So look, whether it's Trump or somebody else, or it's our country needs help.
	It just needs help.
	That's the bottom line.
	I don't know exactly what the policies are and where we can get help from and what we can change, but our country needs help.
	Well, I appreciate you talking about that.
	I just kind of thought about what you were saying with it.
	So let's go to boxing.
	You said something earlier.
	You said boxing is fragmented, right?
	That's the word you use.
	And for me, when I look at NBA, I would see there's a commissioner, boom, they call the shots.
	Then you have the Players Association.
	You have the Owners Association, and then there's a collective bargaining recruitment.
	But for the most part, the NB is going from the top and there's a decision being made.
	When you look at boxing, you see the WBA, right?
	Which is what?
	The World Boxing Association.
	Yeah, the organizations, the belts.
	You got the WBC, World Boxing Council.
	You got the IBF International Boxing Federation.
	You got the WBO, World Boxing Organization.
	Then you have the promoters, you, Kearn, Aram, the Al-Alchik guy, who's doing his thing.
	Who is the shot collar on boxing?
	Is there anybody that is a shot collar on boxing or no?
	There is no shot collar.
	You can argue maybe the commissions.
	Like, for instance, if you fight in Vegas, the commissioner rules.
	The commissioner is the one who calls the shots because he can basically give you a license or not license you to fight in his state in Nevada.
	So they own the most power?
	Would you say that?
	I say they would have the most power, the most influence.
	Got it.
	Las Vegas, Nevada, the mecca of boxing.
	This is where all the big major fights have happened.
	A lot of history here.
	So there's a lot of experience here in Nevada when it comes to boxing and the commissions.
	But like I mentioned boxing is so fragmented.
	Well, every state has a commissioner.
	So every state is making their own rules, is making their own decisions.
	So basically, there's, I mean, it's kind of like the Wild, Wild West, basically, where if you go to Nevada, you have different rules than New York or New Mexico.
	Who has the best rules?
	Who has the rules that you're like, you know?
	The enforceable rules are here in Nevada.
	They enforce them.
	Who feels safest here?
	Promoters, fighters, or the media platform that make the money?
	I think all of the above.
	All of them?
	Nevada has figured it out.
	Nevada has figured out, okay, we need network.
	We need promoters.
	We need the fighters that take care of everybody and be fair.
	So one would say, I don't know if you can play this card, but let's see if you could or not.
	Being a devil's advocate, okay?
	And saying, hey, Oscar, but look at UFC.
	Look at what they're doing.
	Look how they've grown.
	Look how, you know, there is no politics.
	Dana, like, it's the only thing where if the referees get it wrong, he'll chew out the referee and be like, I can't leave.
	Well, what was he thinking?
	What is that all about?
	While in NBA, they're so diplomatic.
	No, when you can't say something like that, fine $50,000, fine, Mark Cuban Favour, fine, because he said something.
	But in UFC, I think it's the only sport where the commissioner running it calls out the referees who get it wrong.
	You don't see that in any other sport.
	I don't even think you see it on boxing.
	In boxing, sometimes, you know, the criticism with boxing is the fact that, you know, I think for every three fight that goes into decision, one of them people going to be like, it's fixed.
	I don't trust it.
	There's bullshit.
	It's the map.
	It's the dad, da, like all this up.
	Zero things like that said with UFC.
	Why do you think UFC has been able to grow the way it has where a lot of people say maybe one day it'll take over boxing?
	Why do you think they have done that?
	First of all, the UFC will never take over boxing.
	I think it's two separate sports.
	And there's room for all of us.
	The UFC, when Dana White and the Fertida brothers bought UFC, it was a distressed asset.
	I believe they bought it for like $2 million.
	And that space, that combat space, was never developed.
	There was no other league.
	It's not like boxing where you have history and years and years, hundreds of years where boxing existed, right?
	And so our system was already in place.
	Our distressed system was already in place for boxing.
	With the UFC, they built from scratch.
	They built it from the start.
	So they made up their own rules.
	They consolidated everything under one roof and they were able to build a monster.
	How much of that would you say because money backing?
	How much of that you think is because Dana's a great operator?
	In my opinion, he's the best commissioner in all of sports.
	I don't think anybody does a better job commissioning than him.
	How much do you think it's him?
	How much you think it's the money, the marketing, the opportunity, the support to Trump?
	Or it's the collective?
	What would you think?
	It's collective.
	It's collective.
	And we cannot forget about the Fertita brothers, the brainchilds behind the machine.
	You know, Dana White has done an incredible job with running the machine.
	But the Fertida brothers are the ones who had the vision to buy the UFC and literally build it from scratch.
	See, you didn't have UFC promoters competing when they bought the UFC.
	You didn't have combat sports promoters at all.
	That space was empty.
	That space was forgotten.
	Boxing was running a thousand years prior to when they bought the UFC.
	It was already a mess.
	And to undo the mess is probably almost impossible.
	Yeah, I think when you hear the story, it's Dana, this guy who builds the UFC, and his idea is to have sharks swimming around the cage.
	I don't know if you've seen this or not, but the guy had ideas of sharks literally swimming around the cage, and we're going to fight in the middle.
	And it's like, oh, my God, this is crazy.
	And then Dana brings this up to the brothers and they're like, okay, let's go.
	And then they split it up, I think, equity-wise.
	It wasn't 10%, 90%, whatever the structure was.
	And Dana ends up making a lot of money with it.
	But you see that turning into where it's at right now.
	Do you think anything can happen to boxing to fully destroy the sport?
	Is there any risk boxing has to destroy?
	Or you think boxing is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger?
	Because when I look at fights, the highest purse, highest paid fights of all time, right?
	I think when you fought Mayweather, you got the payday, right?
	You got 53 million or 55 million when you fought it.
	Yeah, made that plus the pay-per-view.
	I mean, I'm not counting that.
	Plus that pay-per-view.
	You look at, you know, so what year was that when you guys fought?
	That was what, 2007, maybe?
	2007?
	Yeah, 57.
	Okay, so 07, 17 years ago, right?
	Then you have Oscar, YouTube, you guys, Mayweather Canelo.
	That's 80 million.
	Mayweather made Fury made 100 million.
	The recent fight.
	Disappointing fight to be as a fan.
	I was disappointed.
	I was expecting a better fight.
	I was disappointed after Nganu fought Fury.
	I'm like, what was this all about?
	Nganu got him with the left.
	Exactly.
	And it was kind of like even, you know, anyways, that was a little bit different.
	A part of that could be political because they definitely didn't want Fury to lose because then the fight couldn't take place.
	You know, where Alexander could do his thing.
	Then you have Connor and Mayweather.
	You know, Connor makes the 130.
	Mayweather makes the 280.
	Then Mayweather Manny, Mayweather makes the 250.
	Manny makes the 150.
	Do you think the best days of boxing are behind us to get that kind of payday?
	Or do you think that's going to come up again?
	Because what is the next big fight like Mayweather?
	Or, you know, it would have to include Canelo currently.
	I think he's the cash cow, like they say in boxing.
	Any type of exhibition.
	These exhibitions are getting to a point where it's like, why don't we do more if it's generating so much money, right?
	Like Jake Paul, for instance, fighting a McGregor or let's say Mayweather having an exhibition with Jake Paul.
	That can be huge.
	But those days, yes, you can make an argument that they're over, but they're not until the right fight is made.
	I strongly feel that in boxing, you can have a dry spell for so many years, and then you have this one big mega fight that will bring everything back.
	And that's probably what's wrong with boxing.
	We're not having that consistency like the UFC.
	We're not having consistent pay-per-views, main events happening every weekend.
	It takes time, a lot of negotiating with fighters.
	Sometimes fighters don't understand negotiating the right way.
	Sometimes you outprice yourself.
	Like, for instance, Canelo right now is asking for $200 million to fight Jose Benavidez, which would be a huge fight.
	But when Canelo is asking for $200 million, that's obviously saying that you don't want to fight.
	What should he be asking for?
	100.
	I think 100 is a fair number.
	So you think Canelo is bigger than Fury?
	You think he's a big fan of that?
	That fight can be a huge number.
	Do you think Canelo is a bigger draw than Fury?
	Yes.
	Okay.
	So Fury got $100 million.
	He's probably sitting there saying, if you guys are paying Fury 100, why not get 200 million?
	So he can ask.
	Yeah, he can ask for it, but he's not going to get it.
	You don't think he's going to get it?
	I've talked to Your Excellency and Turkey, and he's like, no, Canelo's outpricing himself.
	We're not going to do it.
	Even they're not going to do it.
	Even they're not going to do it.
	And they have, I mean, they have money grows on.
	Exactly.
	Right.
	They actually, exactly.
	When they say money grows on trees, it actually does literally does.
	So he's even not willing to do 200 million.
	Exactly.
	Got it.
	So are you saying like, you know, he's only saying 200 because he's dodging the fight or are you saying it because he just wants to get paid?
	And that's what it is.
	It might be both.
	But in boxing and over the years, when you don't want to fight somebody, you outprice yourself.
	Canelo.
	So when I had Ryan on the first time, first time Ryan was talking smack about you.
	And this is kind of like where you guys are going back and forth.
	You know that season.
	Just like a year ago or whatever the season was.
	And then he's like, you know, Oscar is who trained Mayweather on how to negotiate contracts, like a Haskell trade.
	He says what Oscar was able to do is Oscar was able to negotiate for Mayweather to get heavier setup gloves than him getting lighter gloves.
	And Mayweather eventually learned to be able to negotiate better on the contracts later on in his career because earlier on he didn't know how to do that.
	How much credibility do you give to the fact that you were the better guy at how to put deals together that protected you versus maybe Mayweather had to learn that later on?
	Sure.
	Well, I mean, I look, before Mayweather fought me, he was making two, three million dollars on my undercards.
	Before Pacquiao fought me, he was, nobody knew who he was.
	And so after beating me, Mayweather becomes Money Mayweather, right?
	And he becomes this global superstar because he has the platform on pay-per-view.
	I think we sold 2.something million homes.
	And with Pacquiao as well, a star was born after fighting me.
	So they got a little taste of how to negotiate better terms for yourself because my negotiations were one-sided against them.
	Because you had the leverage?
	I had the leverage.
	I was the golden boy.
	I was the ticket seller.
	Mayweather at the time was not selling out arena.
	So could you say you use bigger gloves than me?
	You can actually say that in a contract?
	You got to wear, I'm not sure what Ryan was talking about, but yeah, you got to wear the same size gloves.
	You can, let's see, what did we change with the Mayweather negotiations?
	It was basically we, no, it was basically an even negotiation, except for the purse.
	I believe I negotiated a 90-10 for myself.
	Wait a minute.
	So you made 53, he made 5 million?
	I believe he made something like 8 million all said and done.
	And what did you make all said and done?
	And that's why I had to be closer to 80.
	So you made 80 million, he made 8 million.
	So the negotiation was 90-10?
	90-10, 80-20.
	That's insane.
	So, okay.
	Now, who is at that time, who is doing, are you technically involved in knowing how to do contracts or you're trusting somebody to do it?
	Which one were you?
	Are you heavily involved in a contract?
	I'm pretty heavily involved.
	Yeah.
	Even then.
	Absolutely.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	So, but who did you learn from?
	Who screwed you over for you to realize how to protect you?
	I learned everything from Bob Aram.
	Did you get screwed in any contracts or I didn't see?
	That's the thing is I didn't get screwed from Bob Aram.
	What happened was I'm fighting Trinidad, right?
	And at the time, it was the biggest fight ever, Mexican-Americans against Puerto Rico.
	And we were undefeated, world champions, unification.
	And so Bob Aram offers me a flat fee of $24 million.
	Okay.
	And he tells me, Oscar, do you want the guarantee of 24 or do you want to take the risk and take some pay-per-view money at the back end?
	I'm like, I want the 24.
	I'll take the 24 right now.
	Big mistake.
	Bob Aram ended up making more than me in that fight because of the pay-per-view revenue.
	And I made a good piece of a good chunk of money.
	But then I learned to my, I said to myself, you know what?
	If I take the back end, if I get a smaller guarantee and take the more numbers in the back, I can make a lot more money.
	How much would you have made if you took the back end?
	I would have made close to 70.
	So he kept the 70.
	So he kept that 46.
	He kept a nice chunk for himself.
	Okay.
	So he didn't steal from me or rip me off.
	He just out-negotiated.
	Did you watch the Elvis movie that came out?
	Yes.
	Have you seen a movie?
	Yeah.
	Did you kind of feel like that relationship with Bob Aram was kind of like the relationship?
	In a way.
	So was he straight up?
	Was it kind of like, let's just say I'm Bob, you're Oscar.
	Now it's public.
	Everyone knows the 46 that could have gone to you went to me, let's just say the 70 million, 24 million, whatever, right?
	We have the meeting, and I know you know, and you know I know.
	Is the meeting is his style to say, Oscar, you chose to take 24 million.
	You could have chosen to take backhand.
	Yeah.
	I know you probably know how much money I make, but that was the risk you took.
	Sure.
	Was it kind of like that?
	Yeah.
	Or it was never spoken about it.
	Were you like, you know what I'm saying?
	It was never spoken about it, but we knew.
	So you didn't say you made money on this fine.
	Not that moment.
	It was nothing like that.
	No.
	We just knew.
	We would look at each other and we just like, okay.
	How's your relationship together till today?
	How's your relationship with Eddie?
	Because it's a pretty competitive size.
	It's competitive, but it's so, look, I have no enemies whatsoever.
	You know, I actually literally live my life like a Buddhist now.
	I really do.
	You know, I don't wish him any bad.
	Live your life like a Buddhist.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Oscar.
	Yeah, I'm very just.
	You're in boxing.
	There is shit talking.
	You're in a he's calling you out.
	You never signed a contract.
	Did he do this?
	Did he do that?
	You're there talking shit to him, going back and forth.
	Yeah.
	Buddhists don't talk shit like that.
	Yeah, but at the end of the day, I'm at peace.
	That's it.
	100%?
	100%.
	So is that an act then, or is that the- It's promoting.
	The showmanship.
	It's all promoting.
	So let me ask the leverage with, you know, a lot of conversations are coming up about, you said who was the promoter that you called?
	And you said even the $200 million, he wouldn't do the fight, even if they do in the Middle East.
	Turkey, Your Excellency.
	Right.
	Turkey.
	Your Excellency.
	26.2 million followers on Instagram.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	Eddie's got 1.4.
	You got 1.2.
	Yeah.
	Bob Aram's not even on Instagram.
	He's not going out there posting.
	On Twitter.
	He's got 9,000 followers.
	I'm sure he doesn't give a shit because he made a lot of money.
	He could care less about that.
	Exactly.
	How much of a threat is His Excellency to come in and literally dominate the marketplace because they're simply willing to overpay things that maybe you're not willing to know, but I'm a Ronaldo went and played over there, right?
	All these guys are getting contracts.
	Come, we'll pay 200 million, 300 million, 400 million euros.
	How do you compete with someone like that?
	You can.
	You can compete.
	He has the vision.
	Turkey has the vision.
	He obviously has the money, but he loves the sport.
	And I'm all for it.
	His plan is actually, his plan is actually smart.
	He wants to not take over the sport, but he wants to work with every promoter.
	And he wants to make the big fight.
	Do you get that vibe?
	I get that vibe.
	You don't get the vibe of coming in saying, hey, we're the Yankees.
	What do you want to do?
	You can only pay him $12 million a year?
	Guess what?
	Pay him 21.
	There's nothing you can do about him.
	Come to our team.
	Because Yankees have been bullying people for the last 40 years.
	And they have a bigger ability to do that.
	I take the loss sometimes.
	It's a tax, things that they have to pay.
	Is there any percentage of risk to say if this thing goes the way it's going, 20 years from now, 80% of the biggest fights in the world will be in the Middle East and not here?
	Is there a risk of that happening?
	No, no, there's no risk of that.
	Look, Your Excellency understands that boxing is a global sport.
	And sure, he's going to promote Riyadh season.
	He's going to promote his country.
	But he understands, and he's a very smart individual.
	He understands that boxing is global.
	Boxing is, you know, you can have a superstar from the UK like Tyson Fury.
	You can have a Mexican fighter like Canelo.
	But in order to generate the monies that we're talking about, the big, big purses, you have to fight in Vegas.
	You have to generate those dollars from the U.S. market.
	From the U.S. You don't think I can change?
	You don't think I can change and be elsewhere?
	You don't think he can disrupt it to make the better argument to go over there?
	I mean, think about Ronaldo, right?
	It doesn't get bigger than a celebrity status of Ronaldo.
	Celebrity status of Ronaldo.
	He had the option to come here.
	He had the option to go everywhere.
	He chose to go play over there.
	And that was the first moment where you're like, oh, shit, what's really going on here?
	A guy like this could go.
	Sure.
	So you're not at all worried about it.
	I'm not worried about it.
	No, because I understand that Turkey is, you know, his vision is not only to stage fights in Riyadh, but to stage them all over the world.
	I mean, you talk about the history of boxing and he loves his history.
	He talks to me about Ali versus Fraser and how, you know, fights take place in Zaire and fights take place in Mexico and all over the world.
	So he's a man with a vision.
	He's a man with deep pockets and he's a man that loves the sport.
	And there's no worry whatsoever.
	Let's make these big fights happen.
	More power to him.
	Let's go to the fight with you and Mayweather.
	Okay.
	So you guys are fighting.
	Mark Anthony, I believe, is singing the national anthem.
	I intentionally went back and watched the fight again just to watch because I watched it when it happened.
	But then, you know, you want to go back and watch the fight.
	And, you know, he comes out with 50 Cent.
	This is back when they were still friends together.
	You know, nowadays 50 Cent is always, he's been going after him for a while now.
	But he comes out with 50's at his prime.
	Fight starts, tensions high, craziness on what's going to be happening.
	First three rounds, I think you're up two to three on two to one, first 30 rounds.
	And then you have moments where at one point you're like, oh, I think I got him.
	And there were some real moments where you go.
	There's many moments like that.
	Was there anything like after a fight like that where you say, two weeks prior to that, I party too hard.
	A week prior to that, I was with those three girls.
	I shouldn't have been.
	Again, I'm just making sure.
	I'm just telling you, like, hey, I was, you know, my diet was a little bit off.
	Do you go back?
	And like, I remember when Michael lost to the Pistons, right?
	Right.
	And you see the last dance, and Michael lost to the pistons and he went and watched all the tapes.
	And he says, I'm just not strong enough.
	These guys are chicken my ass.
	Or when Kobe made those two back-to-back air balls and Jack comes back and says, No, I just realized when I came out in the NBA, I was a rookie.
	I made those two back-to-back air balls because my legs weren't strong enough.
	Because in high school, you only played 30 minutes, 32 minutes, NBA's 48.
	Was there anything where you said, If I would have done this, I could have beaten.
	Yeah, was there anything like that for you?
	Nothing like that.
	Nothing.
	I worded myself off.
	I trained hard.
	The only thing that keeps any athlete from greatness is injury.
	And injury kept me away from literally winning that fight.
	I believe in the sixth round.
	I already had rotator cuff tears on both shoulders.
	Is this public?
	Because everybody knows.
	Oh, yeah, this is public.
	Yeah, this is public.
	But no, I trained hard as hard as I can.
	I was focused.
	I was laser focused and ready to beat the guy.
	When the bell, the final bell rang, as a fighter, you know, deep down inside, you know, if you win or you lose.
	Did you know?
	I felt that I won.
	I felt that it can go either way.
	I didn't feel like a loser.
	You know, I didn't feel like a loser, especially when Mayweather's father came straight at me and he goes, Oscar, you beat my son.
	Wait, he told you right after the fight?
	Oh, yeah.
	So he tells you, and by the way, he didn't even come on your corner because he wanted 2 million.
	You wanted to give a half a million plus if you win.
	Another half a million.
	So you wanted to give a mill if you win.
	You wanted 2 million up front.
	Yeah, he did.
	And he still came to you and told you that you won.
	That I won.
	And so, again, I didn't feel like the winner.
	I didn't feel like the loser.
	I felt it could have gone either way.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	A funny story about that, too.
	We had a rematch clause in our contract.
	This is something I negotiated as well.
	We had a rematch clause.
	If he beats me, I get a rematch.
	It was a one-year clause.
	Guess what he did?
	He retired for one year and one day.
	Are you joking?
	No.
	True story.
	Retired for one year and one day.
	Nobody knows this, but it's in the contract.
	Well, was when he said he retired for one year and one day, was that public?
	I believe so.
	I believe he admitted why he retired for a year.
	So this is insane.
	It's insane.
	Floyd Mayweather Jr. said he was retiring from boxing after beating Oscar Delaware on split decision on Saturday.
	I still plan on retiring, he told reporters after winning the World Cup.
	So that he announced his other retirement one day after our contract was expired.
	Wait, let me ask you: in the agreement you wrote, if now you know he did this, had you gone back, what could you have put in the agreement?
	Would you have put in even if you retire, you have to fight within a year?
	Even if you come back after a year, you still have to fight.
	I would have obviously put that in.
	So if you put it, you guys would have had the fight.
	Exactly.
	So, so, no, so how often did you guys try to get another thing going?
	It was always nope, not interested.
	No, not interested, not interested.
	I'm retiring.
	I'm out of the sport.
	But sure enough, a day after that contract was over, he announces his unretirement.
	Was it like a middle finger to you?
	Like, hey, you want to know?
	So, with you knew it, and he knew it.
	I knew it.
	He knew it.
	Okay.
	And who was representing him back then?
	Who was he?
	I'm not sure.
	I think it was Al Heyman or I'm not sure.
	So, okay, let's go back to that.
	Let's just say you guys do have another fight and a rematch within that year.
	And he kept the commitment.
	The leverage is now on his end, right?
	Because you can't now do 80, 20, or 90 cent.
	Right now, it's probably 70, 30 or 60, 40, whatever he decides to do.
	Probably would have done 50-50.
	Okay, so let's say he ends up being 50-50.
	What's your level of confidence that you found leaks in certain areas that you watched the champion that you know you could have beaten them a second time?
	Oh, yeah.
	What were some areas where Jabs?
	Yeah, jab for me was always my key to win fights because jab opens the door to everything.
	And the jab was just landing at will on Mayweather.
	But the fact that I had my rotator cuff injuries, it was just impossible to throw it.
	After the sixth, seventh round, it was just so flared up and in pain, I couldn't lift it.
	And so I believe, but even if I had the rematch, I would have lost.
	Because physically, I was just tearing down.
	Even if there was a rematch, I think I would have lost it.
	Oh, wow.
	For you to be able to say that.
	Okay, so.
	Because physically, I was not the same anymore.
	How old was he?
	How old were you when you guys fought?
	I believe he's like three, four years younger than me, four years younger than me.
	But the difference with Mayweather is that he takes care of himself.
	He eats right.
	He doesn't party.
	He doesn't stay out late, whatever.
	He's laser focused.
	And you were.
	You were at the time.
	At the time, I started to kind of derail.
	I started, my mentality was, you know, I'm kind of getting tired of this.
	It's almost time to hang up the gloves.
	So you're 33?
	You said you're.
	I believe.
	I'm not sure exactly how old I was.
	33, 34.
	Now I'm curious to know.
	But I was an old 33, 34, if that makes sense.
	Got it.
	Got it.
	And at this time, when you guys are fighting age-wise, so 07, you're born, what, 73, 07?
	Got it.
	Yeah, 34.
	34?
	34.
	So got it.
	So even if there was a rematch.
	Okay, so for yourself, the game, within your weight category, when you think about best boxers, where do you put yourself?
	You know, do you still, do you internally put Mayweather ahead of you?
	Yeah, you have to because he's undefeated and he beat me, you know?
	So naturally, I have to.
	Do you put yourself ahead of me?
	Even though I don't want to, you know, in my head, I'm the very best, obviously.
	Of course.
	But on paper, yeah, I would put myself, yeah, top 50 in the world of all time, you know?
	And then you, you go, anybody can put me anywhere they want, right?
	But yeah, I would say top 50 in the world.
	So let's talk Ryan.
	How do you think Ryan is doing right now?
	Yeah, he's a little lost.
	I think he needs some good advice.
	I strongly feel that.
	Some advice where somebody has been there who has done that, who has all the answers.
	I've talked to Ryan and every single time I talk to him, he's with it.
	He's a nice guy.
	He says all the right things.
	He wants to fight the big fights.
	He says he's focused on boxing.
	But then I go to social media and then everything just is different.
	Everything is just, you know, he's a loose cannon.
	It's crazy.
	Who's in his ear?
	Who do you have in his ear that you think is a good influence to him?
	I don't think he has good influences at the moment.
	When you were his age, do you see any similarities or not at the level he's going?
	I think it's totally different.
	You know, social media has changed everything, you know, for everybody.
	You know, it's like social media, it's its own world.
	And he believes that world.
	And real life is different.
	And so I grew up in different times and different eras.
	And, you know, my mentality is just different.
	And so I was more in tune with reality, so to speak, than where he's at right now.
	Than where he's at right now.
	So him being suspended for the whole, you know, the PED that he had, Devin Haney, they take the loss away.
	And by the way, that was so unfair that the WBC, I guess, banned him for life from fighting for a world title.
	I thought it was one year.
	I believe it's for life.
	WBC banned him.
	The one-year ban was for the controlled substance from boxing for one year after the Devin Haney fight.
	But the WBC, I believe, banned him for life, keeping him from fighting for that world title.
	Yeah.
	So has it happened before?
	Was it because of the drugs or was it because of the comments he made?
	I think it was a little of everything.
	Yeah.
	I mean, obviously getting suspended for the PDs and, you know, allegedly.
	And, you know, the comments he made afterwards, you know, his behavior is out there and nobody can control him but himself.
	So I literally hope that he does get the help he needs because he is a good kid.
	I know he's not racist.
	I know he's not a thousand percent.
	He is a good kid.
	It's the perfect example of too young and too much money quickly.
	By the way, when that happens with a fight, does he get paid for the fight or no?
	Like the Haney fight, does he lose all the money for the fight?
	No, no, he gets paid for the fight.
	He still gets paid for it.
	There's a fine that you must pay back.
	But yeah, he gets most of his.
	So do you think he'll be back in the ring fighting again for a championship or no?
	This is done for him.
	I believe he will.
	I believe he will.
	I believe Ryan Garcia will change his life for the better.
	I really do.
	I really think that this was, you know, people say you have to touch the ground in order to lift yourself back up and become stronger and better.
	And I think that's what will happen with Ryan.
	Yeah, I'm hopeful as well.
	You know, when you're going through it, you're hoping you got the right people in your ear there.
	At least listening to while you're going through it.
	Because nowadays, how different would your life have been while you're coming up if there was social media?
	So imagine if the 19 to 23 of the Lawyer, you're doing what you're doing and at social, everyday DMs, growth, all this stuff.
	How different would you have been?
	It would have been a disaster.
	It really would.
	I mean, I'm lucky I survived what I went through, you know, because I hit rock bottom not once, but several times.
	I had so many people try to take me down, corporate people, people who have Harvard degrees, people who just wanted to see Golden Boy sink.
	I had that left and right.
	And how I survived it, sometimes I asked myself, you know what?
	I was going up against guys who have all these degrees and they just couldn't take me down for a reason.
	And that reason is, again, it could be that angel, that shoulder that I was talking about, my mom, but it could also be, you know, that I learned along the way.
	I got scarred early on, you know, in business, in life, but I learned, I picked myself up.
	I was able to pick myself.
	A lot of people don't survive this.
	And so I'm just very fortunate that I'm able to give advice to these young kids who wanted.
	I'm a phone call away.
	Ryan, please call me.
	I'm here.
	When's the last time you guys spoke?
	We speak quite frequently, but it's been a second.
	And he's been off social media for a while now.
	I don't know if you've noticed.
	Yeah, he's been off social media, which is great.
	So I'm really hoping he's getting the help.
	We're on the same page because the time I've spent with him, he gives me the vibe of a guy that is going through the phase of trying to be famous, girls, partying, all that stuff.
	But he's got a side tune that's conservative.
	You know, the attention, do I lose it?
	Do I go through the Jake Paul route of making money?
	Do I really need boxing?
	Who cares about boxing?
	Let me just go because the question I asked him is, is there any pride you have to go down as one of the greatest Mexican-American boxers of all time?
	Do you want that?
	Do you want that kind of an athlete?
	Or is it just the money?
	Because the model today with what Jake Paul is doing is out there.
	And he could be a guy that could go and say, hey, I want to fight Connor.
	I would beat up Connor.
	You heard some of the comments you made about Connor.
	He fought Connor.
	He said he wants to fight Connor bare knuckles or Sean O'Malley and all this stuff.
	And who knows?
	Maybe that pays better than boxing.
	And if it does, you may lose some of these younger guys that may leave the boxing world.
	Hopefully not.
	We'll see what happens.
	Well, in the history of the sport, if you take a look at where the most money has been generated in any contact sport, it's always boxing.
	There's a reason why McGregor fought Mayweather inside a boxing ring.
	There's a reason why Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather shattered records, historical records.
	And I think it'll always, there's something about boxing that people love.
	Mano Amano.
	I mean, you were there at the Mayweather fight, Dela Jollya.
	The electricity in the air is like nothing else.
	I've been to Super Bowls.
	I've been to NBA championships.
	There's nothing like a championship fight.
	It's very weird.
	Last question.
	And we'll wrap up.
	So I saw this article the other day.
	I couldn't believe it.
	It says the 10 most difficult sports.
	Okay.
	Number 10, football, soccer.
	Okay.
	They say it's number 10.
	Okay.
	And this is by a website called Watch Mojo.
	And I think the research comes from whoever the research comes from here.
	So then number nine, they put baseball.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	You're hitting a moving ball 100 miles at you.
	Number eight, gymnastics.
	Interesting.
	Number seven, tennis.
	Okay.
	Number nine, martial art.
	Number six, martial arts.
	Okay.
	Number five, wrestling.
	Yeah.
	Number four, basketball.
	Number three, American football.
	Yeah.
	Number two, hockey.
	Wow.
	You know what they have as number one?
	It has to be boxing.
	Why is boxing, why do they have boxing as the hardest sport in the world?
	Most military sport in the world.
	Did they include most dangerous?
	Well, I'll tell you what they said.
	The long popular combat sport requires an off-the-chart level of performance in more ways than one.
	The length of each round requires a high level of endurance.
	While the nature of competition demands peak power and strength, speed and agility might not need to be quite as crucial as in some other sports discussed today.
	But depending on boxers' fighting style, there's still major factors.
	Boxing requires comparable durability to American football, but admittedly, more nerve and significantly greater hand-to-eye coordinate.
	Why would you say what would you say about boxing?
	Who's the hardest?
	Yeah, I mean, it's a good argument.
	I mean, I think that you take a look at MMA fighters who want to transition into boxing.
	They won't make it.
	You might be a champion in the UFC, but you head over to boxing and you're an amateur boxer.
	That's how difficult it is.
	The hand-eye coordination, the footwork, the ring generalship, the training is just brutal.
	It's 24-7.
	Diet, sleep, rest.
	You know, you're training, you're doing weights.
	It's a 24-hour, seven days-a-week type of job.
	And in boxing, if you don't start at a young age, you will not develop that hand-eye coordination that is required at the highest level.
	That's just the bottom line.
	You know, has there ever been a boxer that went to UFC or no?
	No, we're not that stupid.
	Right off the bat.
	No hesitation.
	Well, Oscar, this has been great.
	Thank you.
	You know, I learned a lot of stuff.
	I had no idea, by the way.
	Yeah, some of the stories you told me, like the one year and one date.
	Are you kidding me?
	Well, the funniest story that I haven't told you is, so 92, I win the gold.
	Don King called me, Bob Aram called me.
	But this gentleman calls me at home in East LA.
	My father was the manager at the time.
	And he goes, son, this man wants to take you to Vegas.
	And he says that you're going to fight for him.
	So go with him, whatever.
	I'm 19.
	He picks me up in a helicopter, okay?
	I meet him somewhere.
	Takes me to Vegas.
	We stop for gas.
	Takes me to Vegas.
	We're hovering over the desert.
	This is 1992.
	We're hovering over the desert here at the strip.
	There's no hotels whatsoever.
	It's Mr. Kikorian.
	He's telling me, son, I want to build you energy right here.
	You're kidding me.
	You're kidding me.
	Mr. Kikorian, wow.
	He was a huge fan.
	Man, he negotiated.
	He negotiated till 9, I think he died at 98.
	And he had a $10 billion net worth.
	I didn't give or take when he died.
	And he gave a billion dollars to Armenia.
	But that guy, he's a business world.
	He was a legend.
	And the Armenian community, he's the GOAT when it comes down to oceans.
	But his name is all over the place.
	Interesting.
	I didn't know.
	Oh, my God.
	I didn't know.
	He started off as a pilot.
	He used to fight.
	Seagull.
	And he used to fly all these mobsters.
	That was his business.
	That's right.
	And he turned into an airlines and then boom, he bought all the, what a great story.
	I never heard that before.
	Interesting.
	Well, Oscar, great to have you on.
	This has been a blast.
	And I'm sure we'll do it again in the future.
	We will.
	Appreciate you, man.
	Take care, buddy.
	Thanks.
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