"The Roy Jones you saw against Danny Green and Antonio Tarver, you did not see the Roy Jones that's going to be in front of Bernard Hopkins. They are not going to see it, so anybody that's counting the fight out and saying I'm not going to watch the fight, tune into the fight because it will be a different Roy Jones. Roy Jones knows what he is in front of and he knows the magnitude and the man that is Bernard Hopkins. Trust me, he is going to bring more to the plate. Last time he brought this much to the plate was when he fought James Toney. That's the last time he took a fight this serious as he is taking this fight...You are going to see a different Roy Jones, but at the same token, Bernard Hopkins is the X factor and that's a problem," stated world-class trainer Brother Naazim Richardson as he talked about the long-awaited rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., Shane Mosley's highly-anticipated showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and much more. Check it out!
PC: How have you been doing Brother Naaz?
NR: You know me; just holding on with both hands brother.
PC: You have a lot of irons in the fire right now, with Steve Cunningham, Shane Mosley and Bernard Hopkins all preparing for fights. How do you balance everything out?
NR: I'm going to balance it out to the best of my ability and whatever the Lord has for me, I accept it. I'm just going to do the best job that I can around it.
PC: Oliver Suarez wrote an article about you basically saying that people can't forget how much of a role you could play in the Mayweather-Mosley fight. When you hear things like that, is that pressure that you welcome, because having someone think that you being in Shane's corner can play a major role in the outcome is an honor and, to some degree, a little pressure?
NR: Yeah, well you welcome that kind of pressure because anybody that wants to be on the list with the elite, this is the job that we all sign on for. It's just that we are not always blessed to be in a position to be a part of it. These are the kind of fights that I think Shane Mosley should be fighting. He's already established himself as one of the top guys in the game.
PC: You said something interesting to me the other day. You said that when you're fighting a Hopkins, Mayweather or Mosley, you have to have more than just a great training camp. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?
NR: Well, my thing is I watch fighters say they want to be in super-fights and every young athlete and their trainers want to be involved in a super-fight. And my thing is when you are dealing with the elite level of boxing, it doesn't come down to a great camp. Everybody goes and has a great camp. If somebody told you tomorrow that they were going to give you a shot at Klitschko, you would run and put on the best camp of your life. That's not enough when you're going against guys of this magnitude. It has to be a lifestyle. That's what I send out to all of these young fighters and their trainers coming up. It has to be a lifestyle. It has to be a guy who has been working on this for years. Floyd Mayweather, Shane Mosley and Oscar and all of these guys who have reached this level, they reached this level because they have been working on it for years. They didn't just run out and have a great camp. This young fighter of ours just came up short the other night against Glen Johnson. Glen Johnson has been working on this at an elite level for years. Glen Johnson can't even really say, "This is the greatest camp of my life." He's been in great camps preparing for that moment the whole time. You can come and put on the best performance of your life against a Glen Johnson and it still might not be enough at this level with these guys.
PC: Something else we touched on off the record, and I wanted to get it on record, was our discussion about American fighters not being hungry and you said it's not just in boxing, but in society these days.
NR: Hey man, listen, something I've noticed, especially from young kids coming up from the hood, I've noticed this not only in boxing, but in sports, society and even in the rap business; I was just talking to my son and some young guys the other day and we were talking about rappers and lyricist and I was saying, back in the day, to be a rapper, you had to put something together that made sense. You couldn't just jump out there and throw some words together and it didn't make sense when you have guys like KRS-1 and Rakim and these guys rapping. You couldn't just put something together; even if you go back to the R&B. You couldn't take someone that could sing a little bit and think that they're going to go out and compete with the Four Tops and the Temptations.
Now we are in the microwave era. We put a kid out there that can throw a couple of punches or we put a couple of guys in front of him and he crack the guys in the mouth and we put a piece of jewelry around his waist and we start calling him champion and he only has 12 or 13 fights. He's already being called a champion. I was telling Steve Cunningham the other day that he must be the only fighter that don't have a belt. I'm watching television and every fighter that came on the card, each guy came to the ring with 3 to 4 belts behind him; 3 to 4 belts! And this is guys you've never heard of. You have never seen this kid fight before and he's holding up 3 belts.
Here's the thing, we are in a microwave era. We throw that jewelry around the kid and we stick him on that pan and then he has a tough night and gets knocked off and we grab another one and throw a bunch of belts around him. I'm sitting here watching him fight for championships and I'm watching him fight and the fight looked exactly like a fight I saw him fight in an amateur fight. I saw this not too long ago. A guy fought for the title and he looked exactly like he did when he fought in the Olympic box-offs; the same exact fight. He lost in the title fight and he lost in the box-offs the same exact way. Nothing changed at all; the same athlete. This is the business of growth. Listen, you have kids now with $450 video games and $150 cell phones. We as a society are not hungry anymore. I bet you can't show me a kid from Argentina that isn't hungry. I bet you can't show me a kid from Nicaragua that isn't hungry or the Philippines.
PC: Why do you think the hunger is not there? Do you think it's because they are overpaid or guys today just don't follow the history of boxing to get the hunger of a Marvin Hagler or Bernard Hopkins?
NR: It's all of our faults. It's as much as the media's fault as it is the trainers and the athletes. Today, as a trainer, we don't want to yell too loud in the gym at a kid because we might lose them. And then you have other trainers back-biting and ready to take them from you. You cuss your kid out in the gym because he did something foolish and soon, as he goes to leave, they whisper in his ear, "I thought you looked alright. I don't know why he's yelling at you I thought you looked pretty good." So the kid has so many options because if you don't want to wipe his butt, the guy across the room will wipe his butt because he can't produce a kid that good, so he's willing to worship this kid. Like they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I have had that problem with some of the athletes that I had. I had this team coming up out of the amateurs and any one of my kids could go somewhere else and be a star. So when they wanted to go somewhere else, they had a bunch of those guys calling themselves trainers scooping them up, saying, "Yo man, he's too busy for you. He's busy with Bernard and Dynamite and all of these guys. You can come over here and be the star." This goes back to the beginning of existence. Guys says, "Instead of being part of the crew and staying at this gym, I will go to this gym where they will kiss my butt and make me a star." But very seldom does that ever work out.
PC: The Mayweather fight is set and ready to go for May. How do you channel Shane from preparing for Berto and going through that situation with the pullout and the layoff to preparing for a guy like Floyd Mayweather?
NR: Well, first of all, I have to say this Perc, for the record, I have known Berto since he was a young puppy in the game; since he was a young kid in the game. I watched him and his trainer come up through the amateurs. I think they did an excellent job and I'm very proud to see that young man stay focused and disciplined to get himself to a point where he was even in a position to share a ring with somebody that has the talent of a Shane Mosley. My prayers really go out to him and his family. I watched this young man and he is an outstanding human being that happens to be able to fight his behind off. I pray that God is with him and my condolences go out to him for his loss and some shit is bigger than boxing, but all things are done for a reason. So bottom line is nothing happens unless the creator says it is time. We can plan, but the Lord is the best of planners.
With that said, you know, with Shane being a professional and with Shane being out of the ring in a competitive outing for almost 16 months when he fights Mayweather, that's a long time to be away to come back and fight one of the most athletic athletes of our era in this sport. But at the same time, I say this: you don't throw a Cadillac away because there is a dent in it. And that's what some people gotta find out. What you ask for may not come when you call, but like I say, the Creator is the best of planners, so you gotta take it and accept it and be able to deal with it regardless. Sugar Ray Leonard was out a long time when he came back and fought one of the best that ever did it in Marvin Hagler. You have to respond to it accordingly. I would have really liked to see him fight on the 30th when we were scheduled for Berto. I would have really liked to see that fight and then come off of that and then this fight happens. But like I say, it doesn't always unfold the way you would like it to unfold, so you have to make the necessary adjustments. And bar none, you can make any excuse you want, like Mayweather's fought small guys. I mean, welterweight, yeah, pretty much Oscar and Baldomir I figure is the only 2 welterweights he's fought, but this kid can fight. I have watched him from the amateurs on and he is a special kid. This kid is not only a fighter and a champion, he is special. You can't take that away from him.
I've been listening to people come up, and I guess they trying to support us and everything, and they want to berate Floyd, "Ah man, he ain't nothing and he hasn't done anything." I told them, I said, "Listen man, you can ignore that nonsense." If the guy hasn't done anything, he's learned the habit of winning. And he wins all the time and that's an exceptional habit to have. You have to prepare for that. If a man doesn't eat pork, it will be hard for you to convince the man to eat pork. How do you do that when this man hasn't eaten pork in years? If a guy hasn't lost, it's going to be hard to convince a guy to lose and it's something that he hasn't done and doesn't do.
PC: We hear Mayweather, and even Shane to a degree when everyone thought Jin ran his life, take a lot of flack. These guys are under constant scrutiny mainly because boxing fans are very passionate, but something you said to me really sticks in my head. You said these guys sacrificed it all to be great and they deserve to act and do anything within the law that they would like to do.
NR: My thing is, and I've always said this to my young athletes, a lot of times, you can measure a man's success by his sacrifices. When a guy is willing to do what others aren't willing to do, when a guy is willing to miss the party or the guy is not going to be at the family barbeque, when a guy sacrifices these things to become specialÂ…I remember when Bernard Hopkins was getting ready for a fight one time and he missed his sister's wedding because he was preparing for a fight. Most people would say, "Well, I'll just shoot down and do this real quick and then come on back." But it's that kind of sacrifice that makes these guys special man. I watched Floyd since he was a young kid in the amateurs and I had the camera on these guys when they were getting ready for the Olympic box-offs because we had 3 guys from Philly on the team: Kaufmann, Dave Reid and Zahir Raheem on the team. I had to go down and see these young puppies, so I went down to video tape these guys and Floyd happened to be on the team at the time too and I was interviewing these guys. Floyd was talking back then (laughing) the way he talks now. He was talking about all of the things that he was going to have in the pros and talking about the houses and the cars that he was going to have and he spoke it to existence, but he stayed focused and he got to it.
PC: Not only do you have the task of preparing someone to beat a guy that's never been defeated, but now Hopkins has to cross the path of Roy Jones again. How do you approach that fight? I know you're not expecting the Roy Jones that fought Danny Green?
NR: You will hear me say this 100 times leading up to this fight. You will hear me say this at the press conferences they have scheduled this week. The Roy Jones you saw against Danny Green and Antonio Tarver, you did not see the Roy Jones that's going to be in front of Bernard Hopkins. They are not going to see it, so anybody that's counting the fight out and saying I'm not going to watch the fight, tune into the fight because it will be a different Roy Jones. Roy Jones knows what he is in front of and he knows the magnitude and the man that is Bernard Hopkins. Trust me, he is going to bring more to the plate. Last time he brought this much to the plate was when he fought James Toney. That's the last time he took a fight this serious as he is taking this fight. Calzaghe or none of them did not see the Roy Jones that Bernard Hopkins is going to face and that's why I want the public to be prepared because I don't want them thinking, "Ah man, Bernard's slipping." Roy is going to show up for Bernard Hopkins. It is the reason why it took him so long to come back to Bernard because he knew he couldn't dig down and get that yet. But now that he has to, he has no options. There is nobody else with a credible status that's going to fight Roy Jones and he doesn't want to become a gatekeeper, so now, he has to step up and deal with Bernard Hopkins if he wants to keep any credibility in this sport whatsoever. You are going to see a different Roy Jones, but at the same token, Bernard Hopkins is the X factor and that's a problem. I hear everybody yelling about Mayweather's defense, but Bernard Hopkins may have one of the best defenses of this era. A guy asked me to measure the 3 best defenses and then they asked Oscar De La Hoya because he has fought the 3 best defenses of this era. He rated them 1) Bernard Hopkins, 2) Pernell Whitaker and 3) Floyd Mayweather. Now, Oscar has faced all 3 of these dudes. A lot of people will include Winky Wright, but my thing about defense is guys not getting hit, not guys deflecting punches on their gloves. If you put on a bullet proof vest, there are still bruises on the body even with the vest, but when the bullet misses you altogether, then that's defense.
PC: I always appreciate your time because there is a boxing lesson every time I speak to you. Good luck with all of your fighters coming up. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
NR: My thing is for these young athletes coming up getting their opportunities, you know the truth. You know when somebody is just maneuvering you. Then you show up at the big dance and you left your shoes at home. You're not dressed or prepared for the big party. You pretty much going to stand on the wall all night. My thing is be prepared, when you get there, to make a splash. In this microwave era of us just moving young guys because we need replacements of old guys that are in place, you gotta remember boxing is in the business of boxing. It's going to be in that business when you come and it's going to be in that business when you go. Don't ever try to hurry up and get there. When you're in the military, you don't have a guy that hurries up and puts a guy on the front line before he's trained properly just because somebody on the front line got knocked off and we gotta replace him. We gotta replace him with somebody that's prepared, so when you see these guys like Bernard Hopkins, who are at the end of their career, these young boys can't just jump up and say, "I'm the next Bernard Hopkins" or "I'm the next Oscar De La Hoya." You gotta know the preparation man to step up to get there. And in the same breath, you can't have a coach that sits at home watching you coach and say, "Oh, I can do what he doing." Well, do it because nobody is stopping you from doing it. I used to sit home and watch guys like Eddie Futch, and I don't even throw my hat in that arena with those guys, but I sat home and I felt like I can get my athletes to do that. I can get my fighters to do that. Okay, well I gotta go do that. There are no roadblocks out there to stop me. You can't sit at home and hate on these other guys. You always see me say this and I will say it 100 times more, but we gotta break down the hate in boxing. You don't have to stand on another man to be seen. You go do your own thing. Hard work will always be recognized. It always has been and it always will be; maybe not in the timeframe that you want it to be, but you keep going and it will be acknowledged.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]