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TYLER LEPLEY DISCUSSES 'RINGSIDE' AND THE YIN AND YANG OF BOXING: "MAYWEATHER TALKS ABOUT IT ALL OF THE TIME"

By Percy Crawford | August 31, 2016
TYLER LEPLEY DISCUSSES 'RINGSIDE' AND THE YIN AND YANG OF BOXING:

"Floyd Mayweather talks about it all of the time. Some of the best athletes in the world would be done inside of 2 minutes in that ring. So it was much harder than I thought...When you get to the level of a Mike Tyson or a Floyd Mayweather or my character, Jaxon Hollie, where you're fighting for $60-$70 million purses, the stakes are so high and the business aspect of it could actually wear you out more than the physicality of it...I think what people will be able to take away from this is not only what a boxer has to go through to get a victory, but what a real man has to go through to hold his family together," stated Tyler Lepley, actor and star of the new TV One Original Movie, 'Ringside', which debuts this Sunday. Check out what else he had to say about the movie, his role, and much more.

PC: How are you doing my man?

TL: I'm doing well, man. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. I appreciate it.

PC: I appreciate your time. You're from Philly. You get presented with the opportunity to be involved in a boxing movie. I'm sure that wasn't a hard decision.

TL: (Laughing) Not at all. I come from a little bit of a boxing background. My cousin is a boxer, my dad was a boxer, and so was my uncle, so it was naturally in me and it's one of the best workouts that I ever had, so I still, to this day, do it all of the time. But man, when I saw that breakdown, I was excited like, "Man, we gotta go after that."

PC: Not to say you always wanted to be in this type of movie, but being so rooted into the sport of boxing, once the opportunity presented itself, was it a dream come true?

TL: Absolutely! You know, because with something like this, you're physicality has to be so on point in order to be authentic. So a lot of times, you might have to tap into past experiences to make some of those things authentic. I remember I seen a dancing movie recently. I forgot which one it was, but the actress, granted, she was a great actress, but she was just blowing me away with her dancing performances. So I started researching her and I forgot that she was a dancer in the past. It made so much sense. So at this level, this is definitely a dream come true; something like this or playing football, in which I got a scholarship to play. These are dreams coming true to book these roles. It was a lot of fun.

PC: Most athletes or entertainers that play some type of boxer role say that it was the toughest training regimen they ever had to incorporate. You are in great shape; a former running back. Was the boxing training what you thought it would be or even tougher than expected?

TL: Man, quick version, it was way tougher than I thought, especially coming from…you know, I was a college athlete, running back, starter, and I was running for touchdowns. I was running 90-yard touchdowns, so I would like to think that I had some wind like I can really go. Man…I remember getting into my first sparring match. You can hit the focus pads and chill a little bit. You can hit the heavy bag and do all of the road work, but when you put that headgear on and that bell rings, it's a different type of cardiovascular output. For me, it was so much harder than I expected. I thought I would be able to go in there and coast through because I know I can put my hands together, but that's the first thing you have to master is like, what do I do when the shit hits the fan. It can happen in the first minute if you're not ready. Floyd Mayweather talks about it all of the time. Some of the best athletes in the world would be done inside of 2 minutes in that ring. So it was much harder than I thought.

PC: Boxing movies always have that real feel to it and I think it's because you guys have to subject yourself to the type of training and discipline that fighters do to be convincing. Not saying they don't do it in basketball movies or football movies, but it's a different animal being in that boxing gym and learning how to take shots and throw shots and carry out these scenes.

TL: I couldn't agree more and I think that's exactly what it is. You know, different performances are going to evoke different emotions, but you talk about people being drawn into boxing, unlike a football or baseball or basketball type of movie, and I remember my cousin told me, this a long time ago and it's a saying that all boxers use, but it's like, you play football, you play volleyball, and you play golf; you don't play boxing. I think it goes all the way back to when we were in the coliseum and people wanted to see people get killed and stuff like that. It's the nature of combat that people love to watch. And that's also why I think people love the sport itself, but even as an actor, you can't go in there and half-ass a role like a boxing role because as a viewer, we are going to be able to see that in a second if it's not real.

PC: When you're explaining to someone how tough the sport of boxing is, they think about the training aspect of it and how it must suck to get punched in the face, but this movie 'Ringside' shows the toughest aspect of the fight game and that's the business side of it.

TL: Absolutely! Some people just don't understand what these guys sacrifice in order to have that hand raised in victory or to put food on the table or to make weight. There are just so many sacrifices that these fighters have to make, especially the business side. When you get to the level of a Mike Tyson or a Floyd Mayweather or my character, Jaxon Hollie, where you're fighting for $60-$70 million purses, the stakes are so high and the business aspect of it could actually wear you out more than the physicality of it. I think it just goes back to how high the stakes are and how many places a boxer touches or a fighter actually touches, and then you go ahead and add $100 million to it and you have all of that stress that you have eternally and emotionally, now you have it on the business side, so it's like a double whammy. So I think what people will be able to take away from this is not only what a boxer has to go through to get a victory, but what a real man has to go through to hold his family together; what a real entertainer has to battle behind the scenes in order to make the pearly whites look bright underneath the bright lights. It's just a lot more than meets the eye. So I'm just excited for fans to take away the yin and yang that you guys see on fight night.

PC: I don't want to give away too much, but 'Ringside' has the scandal and betrayal and some of the things that I'm sure your cousin has informed you of that really takes place within the sport. I'm sure you were able to draw from his experience and incorporate it into your character.

TL: Absolutely! He got started out boxing in LA. We all come from the east coast and when he was boxing in LA, he was a part of a camp; we'll keep names out of it, but there was like a camp that had heavyweight boxers here in Los Angeles. There were just a lot of outside pressures to fight certain ways and these cats were getting paid already and some of them would succumb to some of the pressure. It was like they were choking off of the money. You got to see the downside to this business, "Look, I want you to go fight this way and do this or else," so there was a lot of pressure outside of the ring, whether that was money or outside circumstances or family, and it's great that we are able to watch this on Sunday because a lot of average boxing fans don't see that. The average boxing fan is not you or me.

PC: When we're watching Jaxon Hollie, are we seeing a little bit of Tyler Lepley or did you have to come completely out of character to pull this role off?

TL: I think it's a bit of both. I think there are certain things that Jaxon experiences that I have never experienced. I had to use all of my imagination and submerge myself in it. And there are also situations that I directly connect to. Even if it's like being influenced in a negative way by people that I call my family. I love them to death and at the end of the day, I love them, but I'm being influenced in a negative way and I had to overcome some of those things in order to get where I'm at today. So I think to answer your question, it's a little bit of both. There are some things that I didn't experience, but there are definitely things that I drew from in my real life.

PC: You were a boxing fan prior to being involved with this movie. Any fighter in particular you ever wanted to meet or train with?

TL: Rest in peace, but I would have loved to be around the great one, Muhammad Ali. Rest in peace, but I would have loved to be around Sugar Ray Robinson. I've been blessed to be around Floyd Mayweather. The cousin I was speaking of, he actually trained out of Mayweather's Gym and I was down there watching him train with Roger and that's where I picked up some of the mitt work because I used to be a personal trainer, so I was using it in some of my training sessions. I have been blessed enough to be inside of the Mayweather camp to see how the great ones do it. I would love to meet Mike Tyson too. I always appreciated how he bit down on that mouthpiece and took it to you. Those are some of the greats. I'm a boxing fan just like you, so the list could go on. I don't want to bore you to death (laughing).

PC: (Laughing) For sure. And fighting is fighting with us. Are you a fan of mixed martial arts, and if so, who are some of those guys you like to watch or wouldn't mind running into?

TL: Absolutely! I gotta give those guys so much credit. Just like I give credit to boxers going in there and playing chess, not that there is not chess in MMA, but to see these guys put on 4 oz. gloves and go in there and maul each other like that and come out for round 1, 2 and 3, I gotta give it up to them. I'm a huge fan of MMA. I love what Conor McGregor is doing. I'm a huge Conor McGregor fan. You know what I like about Conor too, he reminds me just a little bit, and don't kill me with this statement, but he reminds me a little bit of Muhammad Ali. Just because you can sit down at a press conference of Muhammad Ali and you were a fan before you even saw him fight. He brought that aspect to it and that's why he was able to be so big outside of the ring. It's not just the trash talk either. I like how Conor introduces some of that, so I'm a big fan of his also.

PC: I was fortunate enough to view 'Ringside' in advance and I thought it was a great movie. Can we expect a sequel or for this to turn into a mini-series?

TL: Yeah, yeah, the one thing I can say is the writer and the producer, Russ Parr, definitely wrote the story to have a part two. Whether that part two is to have a 'Ringside 2' or that part two is a series, he talks about it often. I think that he wrote this with a period here, but he's reloading another sentence. So I definitely think there will be something following this, absolutely.

PC: Is there anything else you have going on that we can keep an eye out for?

TL: I just got back from shooting the latest season of 'The Haves and the Have Nots.' They can look forward to that because what I just shot won't air until the top of the year in 2017. But right now, you guys can look for the season finale, which is actually going to air next Tuesday. So we will go 'Ringside' on Sunday and 'Haves and Have Nots' on Tuesday, which is on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey network. And in between that, man, it's really just getting back to what got me here; staying diligent with my acting coach and my voice coach and my therapy. Everything it takes for me to access my feelings as an actor. I just keep plugging away because in order to get to a Floyd Mayweather status of 49-0, this is 25 to 30 years in the making. It takes due diligence every single day. So for me, outside of those two projects right now, it's back to the drawing board and I gotta put in more work. I'm taking the step of making an EP, so I'm about to throw my hat into the music world. But man, just working on myself every day, I think that's what will take us all to the next level, just that due diligence.

PC: What's your training regimen like, just as your regular routine?

TL: For me, when you tie it all together, it's a 7-day thing. I start off with what's going to give me, in terms of not only looking the right way because I always want to look right, but longevity as well; it starts off with nutrition. I still eat my cheeseburgers and I'm going to eat my steaks and my chicken and stuff, but I think one of the big things is to stay away from the heavily processed foods. I'm going to eat a cheeseburger just like the next man, but I'm going to have my girl cook it for me or I'm going to cook it for myself. I know where the meats come from and I know who cooked it. It's not a bunch of filler to feed like 5 million people. The biggest thing is I stay as organic as I can with my food and I supplement that with my cardio because I want to keep the fat off. I don't do too much heavy lifting anymore because I've had the surgeries and what not from playing college ball and all of the scar tissue kind of hurts, but that's when I really get into the boxing. When I want to stay cut up, I'm boxing 3 days a week. Whether it's hitting the heavy bag or sparring or shadowboxing with weights, I'm probably in the boxing gym 3 to 4 days a week. I'm on the road and doing my cardio maybe one day a week, two if my knees can take it, and I bring everything together with the nutrition and that's pretty much what it is with me.

PC: I encourage everyone to watch this movie; it definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat and there are a few surprises as well. Let us know when, where, and how we can watch it and give us your social media handles so we can keep up with you and everything else that you have going on.

TL: All of my social media handles are the same, @TyLepley! Let's make sure we check out 'Ringside' this Sunday, September 4th on TV One at 7 pm. It's Labor Day weekend so no one has to work that Monday, so you can catch it and if you don't, there is an immediate encore at 9 pm. And I just wanted to say real quick, man, thank you for taking your time and anyone else that may be reading this interview and the gentlemen that I'm speaking with today, a movie like 'Ringside' doesn't go anywhere without that support, so I really appreciate it and I don't take it lightly when you say that you will be watching and tuned in. I appreciate you brother!



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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