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Well, it's my honor to welcome
back to the podcast for another appearance.

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It's got a big fight coming up
and it's none other than the junior wealthyweight

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Champion out the World Lineal and WBO
Tafimo Dopez Tafimo, thank you very much

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for doing this. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Dan. It's always a

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pleasure man, and I appreciate the
interview and taking your time out today.

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You bet anytime, so we'll tell
the people. You have your first title

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defense of the title you've won in
a second way class. He'll take on

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a Jermaine Ortiz February eighth, live
on ESPN at the Mandalay Bay in Las

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Vegas, one of my personal favorite
venues to see a fight at. And

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I'm interested in one of the things
about this fight that somewhat intriguing. I

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had the same sort of conversation back
when Shaquor Stevenson was fighting on a Thursday

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night before a big event in Las
Vegas. He fought for a lightweight title

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on the on the couple of days
before the big Formula One race in Las

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Vegas. You are now in a
similar scenario where you're on the Thursday night

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in Vegas at a great arena just
a few days before the biggest event in

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this world, the Super Bowl.
Give me your thoughts about being in that

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position. Be a lot of like
casual sports fans were, casual boxing fans

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were there for the Super Bowl in
town looking for things to do. Maybe

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turn out and come and see you
fight on the Thursday night. Tell me

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your thoughts on fighting on that date
in that city, with that event.

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Well, Dan, I know right, tell me about it. Well,

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this is the super Fight I can
alic. Like I said, you know,

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I want to thank Vegas. I
want to thank Las Vegas, Nevada

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for giving me the opportunity. I
want to thank top Rank and Bob Ariam

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and Todd to buff. I also
want to thank, you know, ESPN

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for the beautiful platform. It's all
about the kids at the end of it

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all, and just giving the fans
what they want, the best sportings platform

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in my eyes, you know,
that's ESPN. So when it comes to

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it, Manly Bay, I really
want to thank them for having to be

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hosted there at the michelob Ultra Arena, which so much history behind it.

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So many great fights have happened in
that arena and so many things have happened

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just along in the Mandela Bay alone, you know, from champions to champions,

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I mean upsets, people losing their
lead world title, from winning their

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lend new world title. I mean
so much history behind it. And then

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what better way on Super Bowl Week, you know, I mean where it's

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the whole world is going to be
there. I mean they already just announced

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it just right now. I think
there's three hundred and thirty eight thousand football

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fans and going to be in Las
Vegas. Gonna be big. It's going

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to be huge and I and what
better way than to have the greatest SHOWMN

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right here? T Melope is entertainer
the take over and it's great to be

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back. You know, I think
I graduated from Heisman Night and now win

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the NFL league, from college to
the pro. So before we get into

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your fight with Ortiz, because I
haven't talked to you since before this fight.

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You look so great when you won
the title against Josh Taylor in June.

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It was a real outstanding performance.
You won the title in the same

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ring at the theater in Madison Square
Garden where you suffered your first and only

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lost when you lost the lightweight title. So I was thinking about that aspect

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of that fight besides just the performance. And you know, I wonder do

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you. I mean, you know, you have the big, huge win

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against Lomachenko where you unified all the
titles in the lightweight division, but it

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seems to me that that was your
best performance and one of you and probably

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your second biggest win, if not
biggest, because so many people doubted you

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going into Taylor. Do you think
that that Taylor fight was your biggest win?

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And if so, why and or
why not? I believe every every

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kind of fight that I go to, it only gets bigger, you know,

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so absolutely, especially this fight alone
where Jamine Artiz is gonna be a

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big fight for me. Going back
to your question about Josh Taylor. Yeah,

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absolutely, I believe that was my
best performance that I've seen myself in

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my whole career, you know,
despite the beating Lomachenko for undisputed you know,

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at that time. So you know, just for those things, you

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know, especially in twenty twenty when
me and Loma Fai, it was so

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quiet. Yeah, there was no
audience, you know, and me,

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I'm someone that and I'm sure himself. You know, it's like what would

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have happened if there was an audience
there that night, you know, who

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would have started off their gears faster
and or or whatnot. So that that's

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in the past now. But when
we think about Josh Taylor, yeah,

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so many people written me off.
I mean, it was pretty much a

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unanimous decision that I was going to
lose that night, and I'm just thankful

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for the way I planted the seeds
to have it that way. You know,

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I pretty much I should be an
actor man, because I pretended like

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I was going I was going off
the rails again, and and that's the

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way I do it now, you
know. I just you never know what

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you're going to get from me,
especially on fight week. So I go

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off with the media. Well,
I mean, listen, I've I've dealt

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a lot of fighters that have used
the media as a way to motivate themselves

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perhaps or perhaps as a chip if
they were being picked against. But in

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the aftermath of that, you know, really outstanding victory and performance that you

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had that we just talked about the
best of your career, you thought,

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and I thought, then you asked
the retirement, so I know that obviously

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that didn't stick, and I don't
think anybody believed it at all for even

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two seconds. But what was what
was in your mind? I saw some

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of your comments that said you were
just sort of like pretending and trying to,

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you know, get some attention and
fake people out and everything. It

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sure didn't seem that way. But
can you just just run through exactly what

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your thoughts were about that. I
know you were going through some stuff in

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your personal life at that time.
What was it deal with the five second

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retirement? No, my whole thing, with the whole retirement situation. I

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think there was also a loopho.
I know that the Top Ring wanted me

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to come back in December, and
you know I already have fought three times

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in the nick of ten months,
and I didn't really get to spend time

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with my son, you know,
I mean as part of sacrifices that we

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make as champions and as fighters.
However, you know I missed his first

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steps, I miss his him crawling, I missed his a lot of moments

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that I that I really wanted to
be there for him. So personally,

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I did it for my own my
own my own think of being a father.

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Well, I'll interrupt you for a
quick Secon because you could have done

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all that, and that's beautiful stuff
because I mean, as a father myself,

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No, you could have just taken
the time off, didn't you.

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I know I couldn't have. I'm
at a point now in the pinnacle of

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my my career where I have to
think strategically through my career. Whether I

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retire after Ortiz, so be it. You know, it's just just like

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stuff that I have to do to
maneuver from loopholes so that I don't have

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these fighters or you know, I
want to say Poco would do it.

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However, I just can't trust nobody
when it comes to business because they say

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it's business, not personal. So
they can say I have a mandatory and

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I have to succeed that mandatory within
these months and then I have to fight

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in December. If I say no
to that, then maybe they'll take my

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belt away, Brunal, They'll take
my belt away and stuff like that,

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and then there goes my my reign
of champions. So yeah, you mentioned

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how you said the top rank was
talking about maybe doing a fight in December,

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and I guess what would have been
the Heisman night back in New York

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against Jose Ramires was the opponent that
was being discussed, who was a former

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champion himself, so that didn't happen. And then he was offered to you

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as your opponent for this date in
February. You're fighting Ortiz, but Ramirez

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was the guy gets the top rank. Made a handsome offer to I'm told

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more than two million dollars to fight
to plus yep, I'll come back fight

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for good money if you lost to
fight. He turned that down. Do

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you feel like that he was just
sort of ducking you? I want to

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say, Doug, he just said
that he wasn't ready in time for the

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fight. You know, that's not
my fault. You know, a true

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champion stays ready, you know,
doesn't get ready on when they get the

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call, you know. And I
actually been training since August. So I

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took about six weeks out after Taylor
and I celebrated my win with him and

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everything, and then after that,
I just started saying, I said,

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let me get back in the gym, you know. I started off slowly

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in August and ever since then,
I mean we're in January now, mid

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January, almost at the end of
January. I've basically been in camp for

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like almost six months already, So
it's been a long time and it's a

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long time coming. I knew that
I wasn't done with the sport. I

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just needed some time off mentally,
physically, spiritually from just the sport itself,

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and also to let my wife,
which is boxing, you know,

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let her feel all these other fighters
out and let her choose who she wants

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back. You know, if I'm
always in the mids, she may not

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know who she needs back in the
game. And it showed, you know,

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And also it showed, you know, I thought of a bigger picture.

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You know, I love Madison Square
Garden. It's always my home.

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You know, I fought there nine
times. I've, like you said,

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I've won my titles, lost my
titles, and won them back again.

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You know. So I have a
lot of great history in New York.

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However, you know, I'm thinking
about a bigger, greater scale for me,

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you know, and that's Super Bowl
stuff like this. This is the

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biggest, huge, This is like
the most This is the biggest, the

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biggest. It's like ginormous event in
sporting events in Las Vegas, and it's

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hosted here for Super Bowl. I
mean, this is bigger than Formula One

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Formula one. Yeah, Formula one
was more europe than it was American.

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This is everybody knows. Everybody knows
NFL football is America's number one sport.

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Yeah, no doubt about it.
And I know that one of the other

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fights, when it was being discussed
of what your schedule would be like,

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who you would fight in your first
fight back in this year. I know

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that that Bob, you know,
from Top Break, he had meetings with

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Oscar de la Hoya from Golden Boy. They were discussing the prospect of maybe

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you and Ryan Garcia, which is
a huge fight. No offense to Jamaine

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Ortiz or even to Jose Rimrres,
but obviously that's a much bigger fight given

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the names involved. But between yourself
and Garcia and then that's sort of nothing

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really ever team of that Was that
a fight that you were interested in?

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I mean, you've got Ortiz now, But what happened there in your mind?

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I think that it was just miscommunication. I think managers, I think

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people like Middleman just trying to come
involved in trying to get their hands in

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something that that they shouldn't get themselves
involved in. You know, whether it

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was on one side, my side
or their side. I think that this

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is just something that needs to be
handled through the promoter themselves and the fighter,

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not the not the managers. I
think the managers need to step aside

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and let the fighters and promoters deal
with good stuff. Well, however,

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however, you know, it doesn't
work that way sometimes, and it happened

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the way it did for those reasons. You know, maybe it wasn't the

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right time. And you know,
whether that comes back around LA later down

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this year or next year, whatever
it comes next, you know, then

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that's something that we could talk about
again. But in the means times,

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my main focus is Jamain Ortiz.
Now, Jermaine Ortiz, he had I

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mean, you have the win over
Lomachenko, which was obviously a very big

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victory and a big fight for the
sport. He didn't beat Lomachenko, but

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he certainly gave him one of the
toughest tests he's ever had, which is

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probably one of the main reasons why
he's getting the opportunity to fight you.

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He didn't win a fight since then, what do you think about him?

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His performance against Loma and now he's
moving up to fight you for your title.

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Well, no, you know,
this is great I'm always about fighting

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the best and competitive fighters and challengers. I mean, me and Jermaine Ortiz

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have history between each other from nine
years ago in twenty fifteen and the National

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Golden Gloves in the finals. Everybody
knows the National Golden Gloves is not something

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that's light. It's very hard to
compete in. You're fighting five days straight,

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so you're fighting one time every every
day, so for five days straight.

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So you know, for him to
even make it to the finals that

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year in twenty fifteen, I know, I'm up against somebody that's definitely competitive,

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has the skill sets to handle himself. And then look, he faced

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the City Limachenko. But you know, I heard some reports and it's it's

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a true report that he had prior
to that, has sparted with Loma for

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months prior to that. So I
think that Jermaine already knew what kind of

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style Loma was going to give him
when they faced each other, and he

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performed the way he did, maybe
with just because of confidence. But see,

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the thing is different now. You
know I faced Lomo when he was

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in his prime. You know,
number one pound for pound, even in

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your eyes, you have number one
pounds of pound one of the best fighters,

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Untouchable over Canelo, over Crawford.
So when it came to it,

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you know, these guys are facing
somebody that I took. I took the

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heart out of it, you know, so I'm not really overlooking him at

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all. I don't ever overlook any
fighter, you know. I think a

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lot of people are thinking that I'm
taking or tease lightly. But it's okay,

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I don't think that at all.
I don't think that at all.

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No, No, I'm not saying
you. I'm just saying the other ones

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are casuals that maybe not understand the
depth of boxing like you understand the study

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of boxing. I mean, this
is what you've done. You covered boxing

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for longer than my life. So
about how old are twenty six? You

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know, it's not that far off. I'm going into your twenty four,

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so it's close, okay, So
imagine that though, So imagine that though

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you've seen a lot in those twenty
four years, you know, and it's

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like you've seen and covered a lot
of great champions, real champions. You

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know, this day in the era, this modern day era of boxing is

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a bit different, you know,
it's a bit more. You know,

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it's a it's a slap to the
boxing world. But going back to it,

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you know, I just great guy, great fighter. We try to

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fight everybody else. We try to
get everybody. When I didn't have a

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contract in front of me, we
try to put Sabrill Matias in the mix.

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He said he had a hand injury, whatever the case will be.

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We try to give these guys opportunities
to face us. You know, don't

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call me out if you're not ready. It's pretty much what I say.

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And because I'm that type of person, will step and have my team send

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you a contract. And no one
stepped up to the plate. But the

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moment that we signed our deal with
Jamyn Ortiz, how many people called me

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out. Well, let me ask
you about the the Germaine Ortiz part of

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it. Though you mentioned about that
twenty fifteen National Golden Globes final. First

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of all, do you remember the
I know, you know you fought him,

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obviously, do you remember the actual
bout? And and I've seen these

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types of matchups in the past where
you've got fighters that have amateur experience against

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each other, you know, and
maybe even a big spot, and you

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know, it's not necessarily the same
thing happens in the pro meeting, but

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it always lends itself to a storyline
going into the fight. So what do

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you remember about that matchup? And
do you think there's anything at all,

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whatsoever that can be gleaned from you
or from him as you go into a

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professional match that has any bearing whatsoever? What will happen on February eighth.

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H To be honest, like,
I'm not gonna say much, but all

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like to say is that his style
hasn't changed. It's been the same since

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twenty fifteen. My style has definitely
changed because I look to challenge myself,

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challenge my skills, challenge my IQ, and challenge my h when I train.

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I'm gonna be honest, Dan,
When I trained for these fighters,

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I trained on how to beat myself
because I know that's their main focus.

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Their main focus is trying to throw
overhead rights. Their main focus is trying

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to pressure or box try to wait
for me to come in. I mean,

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I know their game plans. I
mean there's not much that you can

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do at that moment. When I
think about all those things and I focus

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on it, I have my trainer, trainer of the Year that Eddie Fletcher

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Ward in twenty twenty two, if
you will open Senior. So you know,

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we study these things, and we've
been watching film. I you know,

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the only reason why you've seen that
type of performance with Josh Sailor is

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because that was the first guy I
actually started watching film and studying. So

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I'm only gonna get better from this
point oh forward, because we're watching NonStop

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every night after midnight, we're watching
and sitting down. Sometimes I even fall

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asleep watching Jamina. T's just just
because of the fact that I'm studying him

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that much, because he's not exciting, right, No, No, I'm

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just exciting for sure, you know, and I'm not you know, so

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all those things you know, comes
to play. I know this kid has

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a lot to gain rather than lose. But that amateur fight, that amateur

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fight thing you think has had nothing
to do with anything going on on the

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eighth h It's a lot different,
man. I'm a lot different, you

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know. When we face each other, I was seventeen. I mean I'm

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twenty six now starting to get my
man strength, you know what I'm starting,

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and same as him. You know, he's just coming up to the

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one forty division. He had a
rough, rugged fight against Moran, but

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he still prevailed and came on top. So obviously he has a he has

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a bit of flame in his heart, and it's all about that night.

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Who has more about champion's heart?
Now, I know obviously that this is

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the fight in front of you,
but I've also seen your comments about Terrence

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Crawford, and certainly it is not
out of the realm for the guy who's

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the junior welterweight world champion to meet
the guy who is the welterweight champion.

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It has happened a million times in
boxing, and obviously thank you. Well,

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I mean, it's it's not like
you're calling out the guy that's the

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light heavyweight champion or you know,
a guy that's the featherweight champion. It's

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one division different. To make it, they try to make it seem that

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way, well, let me say
they got the straight You were lightweight champion,

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he was lightweight champion. You are
the junior welterweight champion. He was

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the junior Wealth weeight champion, and
now he's the welterweight champion. So it's

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it seems to make sense to me. But I wonder what put that germ

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in your mind? Do you think
it's possible. I mean, I saw

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you know that back and forty guy. I'll be honest, Dan is the

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only guy that gets me going yeah
yeah, like not not why he they

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have their own agenda with him.
It's not Ryan Garcia, it's not Devin

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Haney. It's Terrace Crawford. Because
that's the macdaddy of all these other fighters,

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you know, it's that that's the
mac daddy. You know if these

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guys chaquor, all these guys look
up to him like that's their macdaddy.

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And I always like that, you
know. I always like facing the guy

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that everybody looks up to the most. And that's just who I've always been.

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You know, you think he's the
best. Okay, great, I

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know I'm the best. He thinks
he's the best. You know. But

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Bob called me yesterday, tell me, just, you know, focus on

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this fight we'll get with Jamino Tiz. There's no point in expressing more about

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Crawt until this fight, you know. And and I totally understand, and

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I take his advice. And I
told Bob, you know, hey,

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I'm only coming back just so that
so that you can have you can have

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a bit of say so coming back
into this, you know, with with

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with just his fighting to So we're
going to get to see more of you

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this year then, I mean,
you got this fight coming up, I

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mean the Crawford fight. Who knows, there's other champions in the weight class.

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If you decided you want to pursue
a unifier you mentioned about Garcia.

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Are we going to get to see
you more than just a one time this

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year? You think? Oh yeah, most definitely. I mean, listen,

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you gotta think about it. I
mean, I thought three times in

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ten months I needed some time to
relax and rest my body. At the

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same time, now that I have
all this recovery, recovery and all this

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time to within myself, to know
myself and thyself, I've come to realization,

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you know, three to four times
is only going to make me better,

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you know, So I look forward
at least minimums three times. You'll

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see me four times. If if
I even even if I got to do

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a one off outside of top ring, just to do like an exhibition or

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something, I'll take that chance,
you know, and give top rank percentage

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from that. You know. I'm
just I'm at that point now where I'm

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in a great position. All I
can say, I really am Dan.

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It takes a lot of It took
a lot of time. However, with

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all these other stable mats of Top
Rank losing and looking the way they do,

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it only makes me greater. And
what I do on February eighth is

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only gonna make it best. So
you got I'm going to wrap up with

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this te female. You have the
fight on the Super Bowl week? Did

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00:18:25,039 --> 00:18:27,359
you sound very excited and am th
up for that? Look the people are

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00:18:27,359 --> 00:18:30,119
gonna hear the video or hear the
audio, but I see you smiling and

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flexing those muscles of yours. I
saw the recent video the Top Rank did

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that they did with you, and
they put on their social media about you

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know, I'm a boxer and I
do this, and I'm a boxer I

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00:18:41,559 --> 00:18:45,039
do It was absolutely hilarious and I
would encourage our listeners to go and search

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that out. But it was really
well done. But the point I'm making

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00:18:48,559 --> 00:18:52,000
yours. You were very up beat. You came across incredibly well in that

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video. You seem like you're very
happy and in a good place right now.

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I know you've had other stuff going
on in your personal life and everything.

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Are you in a happy place right
now. To be honest, I

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am. You know, that's what
I needed. I think spending time,

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quality time with my son. I
mean it's my first kid, you know,

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he owes my name Dan to femal
Lope is the fifth. And for

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me, it was more about,
like, I want to reconnect with my

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childhood and that was my son and
having that moment just those six months,

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whether it was yeah, it was
six months of just spending time with him,

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getting to see him grow every day. He brought light into my heart

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and that's really what made me happy. And that piece, you know,

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outside of all the darkness that comes
around and in our sports and stuff that

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doesn't even matter, you know.
So when it came to it, yeah,

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you know, I'm in the very
happiest. I'm at my happiest place

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now because of that. You know, I'm at my happiest because I know

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my son is okay, he's happy. We've seeing his dad. He he

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00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:52,680
loves me. He sees me as
a as his hero. And all I

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00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,039
could do is and another thing,
you know, he knocked me out.

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You know, my son is he
just turned too. He knocked me out

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for the belt. So I got
to defend his championship belts. You know,

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come February eighth. You know,
if not I got to go talk

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to the champ over there, he's
gonna have to talk to Daddy again.

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00:20:07,799 --> 00:20:11,400
So I hear that. Well,
I can just say that a happy tia

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00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:15,839
Fimo Lopez, who's active in bringing
big fights and excitement is a good thing

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00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:18,319
for the sport, and I guess
good for you also, So I wish

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00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:22,920
you good luck against Ortiz and I
appreciate the time. Likewise, Dan,

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00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:26,279
thank you and to everyone listening,
yes, you guys did not want to

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00:20:26,279 --> 00:20:32,079
miss his fight stout February eighth at
the migalo Ot Arena and Mandela Bay.

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00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:36,640
You'll be live on ESPN and you've
also seen on ESPN Plus AT and Sky

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00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:40,079
Sports for everyone in the UK.
You got you got the promotion down pad,

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00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:41,440
So good luck. And I don't
even have to say because you just

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00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:47,319
let everybody know take on promotions,
Yes, sir, thank you very much

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00:20:47,319 --> 00:20:48,519
to Fimo, you got it then,