"I can't think of anyone outside of Pacquiao that would even give Mayweather a good 12 rounds at this point. I think if he can keep doing what he's doing, he can retire the best pound-for-pound fighter period, undefeated. So that's a high possibility. Shane only caught him in the 2nd round and then he spent the other 11 rounds defending himself. He's a bad boy man and he got some hands, but I would love...let's keep it real, we all want to see that Pacquiao joint though. Floyd has to have that fight before he retires. He can't...it's kind of like the Holyfield/Tyson thing. He can't go his whole career and not fight that man. To be the greatest, you have to fight all of the best and Pacquiao is currently one of the best," stated actor, writer and director Gary Sturgis as he shared his thoughts on the highly-anticipated showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, the current state of the heavyweight division and much more. Check it out!
PC: It was a pleasure meeting you at the Mayweather-Mosley fight. Thanks for granting me this interview. I never want to limit myself to just fighters, trainers and managers because when you go to a fight, that's not the only people you see. How is everything going with you?
GS: Everything is going great man. I can't complain. I'm just soaking up some of this warm weather.
PC: We actually hung out for a couple of days leading up to Mayweather-Mosley and you were on the fence prior to fight as to who would win. What did you think of the way the fight turned out and where do you place Mayweather right now in the boxing world?
GS: Yeah, I told you when we met that it was an interesting scenario for me because I met both men before. I met Shane out in California and I met Mayweather when I was shooting "Daddy's Little Girls." He and I met at the hotel. I'm a big fan of both men. The way that fight went down was definitely in the advantage of Mayweather and at this point, I can't think of anyone outside of Pacquiao that would even give Mayweather a good 12 rounds at this point. I think if he can keep doing what he's doing, he can retire the best pound-for-pound fighter period, undefeated. So that's a high possibility. Shane only caught him in the 2nd round and then he spent the other 11 rounds defending himself. He's a bad boy man and he got some hands, but I would love...let's keep it real, we all want to see that Pacquiao joint though. Floyd has to have that fight before he retires. He can't...it's kind of like the Holyfield/Tyson thing. He can't go his whole career and not fight that man. To be the greatest, you have to fight all of the best and Pacquiao is currently one of the best in his weight class so...I know there is a lot of technical stuff that goes on with the fight game or whatever, but I hope they can work it out for the fans sake because I think it's important that the fans see the guy who is probably the best pound-for-pound fighter out there, in Mayweather, fight everybody in line. Pacquiao is the only one standing between him and the undefeated crown and a perfect career. He can go down as one of the best who ever done it, so it's a pretty interesting scenario. So I hope that they can work out the numbers and the technical stuff and make that fight happen.
PC: We always see a lot of celebs at the fights, from actors, actresses, singers etc. What made you become a fan of boxing?
GS: For me, I grew up down south man. When you grow up in New Orleans, sports is kind of a big deal. I love football and I love boxing. I'm a Lakers fan, but I'm going to throw this out there, I actually like boxing more than I like basketball. It's football and then boxing for me. I always just liked the concept of two guys getting in the ring and duking it out until the best man wins. You know, fighting used to come off as may the strongest man win, but anybody that knows the professional fight game knows that styles make fights. It's like at the end of the day, you put a boxer against a brawler and something about that boxer, the condition of I'm just going to go in there and win round after round after round instead of trying to go for a quick knockout. Depending on the mentality and the trainer on the other side, man, it makes for an interesting fight because 9 times out of 10, the boxer can avoid those slugs and win the fight. I've always been fascinated by the art of the game. It's like watching chess with two men who are hitting each other. A lot of people just see two guys punching, but it's a lot of strategy that goes into it. These people in the corner are watching what the other guy is doing and reporting it back to their fighter. It's just an incredible game. I wish...I think we talked about this too, but I wish the heavyweight division could do what it used to do because there just aren't a lot of challenging heavyweights out there right now. You never would have thought that with the heavyweights, but now, the smaller divisions are bringing in the bigger fights and they just have more interesting fights at the smaller weight classes.
PC: You seem to play the bad guy in all of the movies you are in and even a couple of appearances on Tyler Perry's "House of Payne." With that being said, how many actual fights have you been involved in?
GS: (Laughing) That is an interesting scenario too because, honest to God, and I hope...this is a knock on wood kind of comment...I hope someone doesn't read this and see me and be like, "Hey buddy, let's fight!" But I've been fortunate. I guess because of the kind of roles I play and the way I carry myself, people don't come up to me and challenge me like that. I think the last fight I had, I must have been in high school. I don't think I've had a physical altercation since then because of the roles I play. A lot of people think that I'm some gangsta Mafioso type of guy and they kind of approach me more with respect. When we were in Vegas, I stood there half of the day with you guys and that was just hanging in the lobby. A lot of people approached me and I did some photos and things like that, but I think people are pleasantly surprised that I don't come off as the guy they see in the films. That's what I tell them; it's called acting. I don't walk around mad everyday man.
PC: That has to be funny to you when you get the occasional fan that comes up to you and they can't separate the acting from the real Gary Sturgis.
GS: It is kind of strange. And for all of those fight fans out there that will read this, if you are also a movie fan, just know actors that do their job well, that's all they're doing is their job. I remember walking out of the premier for "Daddy's Little Girls" and women were walking up to me hitting me and talking about, "What's wrong with you doing those little girls like that?" I'm like, "It's just a movie!" That's what I do; it's not who I am. People do get caught up in television and they do believe some of the things they see. They believe the hype. People usually come up to me respectful because I do play the bad guy, but there is always one drunk crazy fan saying, "Oh you think you bad. You think you can do this and do that?" I'm like, "Umm, no. I don't think I'm bad. I'm just at the club trying to get my drink on" (laughing). There are some crazy fans out there, but I love them all though. Anybody that takes the time out to care and watch what I'm doing, I got major love for them.
PC: I actually found out something about you that I didn't know. I had no idea you were the voice of UPN for a long time.
GS: Yeah man. I was the dude saying, "Coming up next on UPN, The Parkers, Moesha, Half and Half and One on One." I promo every black show UPN had for 8 years and it was one of those jobs that has no fame or no glory to it, but yet, it's a real good job. I'm traveling around town and people say, "What do you do? It looks like you upgraded your life. What do you do?" Because it was hard to explain that I do voice promotion, I always told people, "I'm the guy that puts the peanut butter and jelly on the sandwich on the 'Got Milk' billboard." Somebody's gotta do it. I would always say ridiculous stuff like that. It's tough being a black guy out here in Cali and people asking you what do you do. I just say, "I surf." It's hard to explain what you do if they can't see it, you know, so voice promotion was a tough one to explain. It's been nuts man.
PC: You also told me about a series you are trying to get on HBO called "Pimp 24/7." How is that coming along and what else do you have going on?
GS: Well, as far as Pimp 24/7 goes, the cable series that we're trying to get on HBO, we're actually going to be in Seattle for anybody that is reading this; we will be in Seattle this month. We're going to screen the show and we're actually going to 10 different cities, DC, New York, Chicago, Atlanta and a whole bunch of cities on the docket where we're going to bring this thing for the next 4 months and we're going to do a test market survey city by city. So we can come back to HBO or Showtime and show them that we've gone around with the show and people are interested in the show. You can get more information on my Facebook. I keep it updated pretty good.
But I have a couple of other projects out there. On the 20th of July, I have a film dropping called, "A Gangland Love Story." It features Reagan Gomez, A.J. Lamas. It's a real cool joint. It's like an updated version of Romeo and Juliet. That's going to be coming out on DVD on the 20th of July. I think it's on video and Demand now. I just directed, and people don't know I do this, but I just directed my first movie, which features Miguel Nunez and Emilio Roso, called "Double Crossed!" we're actually editing that and I may write and direct a sequel to that. And the last project that I just did was a film called "Joshua Tree" with the same guy, Emilio Roso. This guy is really going to be the business here soon. He is an incredible actor and he's a chameleon sort of, like Vin Diesel. He can change his look. This is an assassin's joint called "Joshua Tree." We got half of the Soprano's cast. It's an incredible cast and it's funny because we were talking about Vegas, but ironically, I was on my way to Vegas and I was just pulling up to Cesar's Palace when Emilio called me. He said, "Hey man, I want you to do this movie." I said, "Well, what is it?" He said, "It's my own thing and I'm shooting it tomorrow." I'm like, "Tomorrow? I'm in Vegas." He said, "You would be doing all of your scenes with Michael Madsen." Then I'm like, "Well, let me drive right back." And sure enough, I had dinner and I drove right back and was on set at 8:00 in the morning. I don't play when it comes down to my movies or my money. So those are some of the things that I have coming up. Anybody wants to check out my work, I always update what I have going on my Facebook page. It's under my name, Gary Sturgis, and I really interact with my fans and my friends on there, so anybody who wants to participate and find out what I'm doing can catch me on Facebook.
PC: How do you balance everything? I know you get out to a fight when you can, but you also stay very busy in the film industry. How are you juggling things?
GS: Well, you know, there are 24 hours in a day and I try to use all 24 of them, man. I don't sleep a lot. Those that know me, and especially on Facebook, be like, "This dude must be a vampire." That's just me though. I have a family, a wife and two kids. I spend time with them and do our thing. We did the whole 4th of July thing by my brother in law; shout out to Roddy Grimes. We were all together and I had to drag my family home at 2:00 in the morning. They wanted to stay another night, but I had to get back to work. I had my computer out there. Everywhere I go, I take my laptop with me so I can stay focused and keep working because you know I'm a writer as well. It's a hard thing, but I manage it. My body just quits on me when it's time to go to sleep and tells me that's that. It will lock down on me, but I get up and grind some more. But I do love what I do and I do love the fight game.
PC: It's always great to find someone that appreciates the sport of boxing for what it is and you have a great understanding of our sport.
GS: I always tell people that boxing is truly an interesting sport and it's not just two men swinging at each other. There is really some chess going on there and for those who know the sport, they can really appreciate it. Keep being a fan of the fight game. I know it's kind of slow right now with the heavyweights, but I'm sure the American heavyweights are going to make a comeback. I gotta put this out there because I said it to you guys, who would have thought in 2010 Rocky would have become a reality. We used to watch the movie back in the day like, "A white heavyweight champion? That will never happen." And now, all of the heavyweight champions are white cats and not even American. That's interesting for the heavyweight division because that's the division that African Americans dominated for years. I'm really shocked because there are no dominant American heavyweights. It's not like the Lennox Lewis days, George Foreman, Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson. You just wait around and see which one is going to step up and right now, no one is poking their head up saying, "I'm that man." All of the heavyweights out there, the American heavyweights, step up your game guys. We need our belts back. Straight up! Bring the belts back home. I love my American heavyweights. I just want to see all of the belts back where they belong. I own 6 title belts in my office right now, but I never fought for them. I just collect them (laughing). I know we got some cats out there that can do it. Ya'll gotta call Don King to get the fights set up, or whoever you gotta call to get the fights set up, but let's get some of them belts back to America baby! It's been too long!
PC: I appreciate your time. I know you are a busy dude. We will have to bring you back on to break down some big fights for us.
GS: I would love that man. I love what you guys are doing with the site. It's all good stuff and I totally appreciate the interview man. Everybody out there, keep fighting!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]