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I'm very pleased to welcome in for
our first podcast episode of twenty twenty four,

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my man Virgil Ortiz Junior, the
undefeated, one time welterweight contender,

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now hopefully a junior middleweight contender as
far as he's concerned, Virgil, you

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have an important fight coming up your
first morning a while on Saturday. First

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of all, how are you doing. Thank you so much for doing this.

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Hey, thanks for having me.
I'm doing pretty good. You know,

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I've had a really good training camp
that's of great right now. You

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know, I was just joining the
bag earlier today, and you know we're

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very excited for Saturday. Well,
I'm doing this on a zoom call.

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The people who are going to listen
to this, they can't see that big

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smile on your face when you said
that, So I'm glad you're in good

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spirit. So we'll let folks know. You're fighting Saturday night at the Virgin

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of Hotels, Las Vegas. It
is the Golden Boy first fight of the

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year at on his own, and
you'll be making your junior middleweight debut,

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taking on Frederick Lawson, who's thirty
and three with twenty two knockouts. Also

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moving up to the junior middleweight division, and I'd just like to start out,

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you know, I mean, I'm
sure you're gonna hear this, or

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you've heard this a lot in the
in the recent past. You'll hear it

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leading up to the fight. I'm
sure you have been out of the ring

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since August of twenty twenty two because
of your health issues and that sort of

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thing you had, the blood disorder
that's been well chronicled. How is your

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health now as you get back in
the ring. I mean last time it

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was around this time where you know, the week of the fight you suddenly

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were out of the fight against danionis
now we're getting close to how do you

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feel and are you ready to sort
of start that new chapter? I feel

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great, you know what? And
this is this is this kind of feeling

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that I'm feeling right now. It's
really familiar, you know what I mean,

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Like this reminds me of when I
was I was at my best,

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and you know, it's it's it's
kind of funny thinking about it because I

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was like, man, I haven't
felt this in a long time. So

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you know, I have a really
good feeling about this, and you know,

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I'm just kind of down, but
they used to be honest. You

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know, it's crazy because you know
sometimes in Wayne week, I'm like,

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I'm hungry, man, I just
I just want to eat something. I

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just know whatever. Right now,
I don't even care about the hundred.

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I'm not hungry at all. I
just I just keep thinking I want to

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fight, like I need to fight, so like, I don't know,

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I just it's it's in my you
know, it's in my crosshairs. I'm

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ready, So I was. That's
the other thing I would ask you about,

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mainly, so if your health is
good. I mean it seems to

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me, as somebody that has watched
your entire career picked you, you know,

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a few years ago as the prospect
of the year. You're still undefeated,

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all your wins by knockout in nineteen
to o, still a young man,

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and seems to me that the only
thing that stands in the way between

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you and major title fights and you
know, big money fights and real stardom

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is your own health, not because
the lack of ability or the opportunity.

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Would you agree with that, I
agree with it, But I mean I

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feel like there's there's it's more.
It's it's not black mite, you know,

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I feel like a lot of the
health issues came from me. A

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lot of it was overtraining, but
not in the sense of high intensity.

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It was more of too long as
in fights weren't happening and they were supposed

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to, you know, like like
when I was gonna fight mckinson, Uh,

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they announ say it was gonna be
a WB eliminated to fight Stanionis,

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who had the regular title, and
so I knew before I found mckinson.

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Hey, like, once I beat
this guy, I gotta I'm gonna fight

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this guy, and we're supposed to
fight that year. But you know,

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some I don't know fucking bullshit or
excuses what was happening from there, but

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you know we ended up not fighting
at He's getting the fight schedule to March,

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and then you know he had to
have surgery till April. You know,

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well, I've been training since,
you know, like a month after

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the mckinson fight, getting ready for
my first World Tighter side. You know,

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I'm gonna take it seriously, No, no, no day is off,

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you know, just just working as
hard as I can, try to

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stay ready, and you know,
it's it's just it's it's a lot of

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the same stuff over and over again. Now nothing's consistent. You know,

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like if if you know this,
when I was at my best, stop

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for one second when you say at
your best, when was that? Like?

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At what what I was? I
was gonna tell you just straight up,

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when I find Houston against this Sasho's
guy, and then I fought in

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May against Racio Herrera. Then I
fought in August against Antonio Rosco. Then

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I fought in December against Solomon Well. Dude, that I fought four times

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back to back to back to back. I was, I was on the

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roll. I had momentum. I
was training, fighting, resting, training,

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fighting, resting. Then it got
to a point where I was I

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arrested after you know, let's say
the mckenson fight, and then just so

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people know the mckin we'll just put
that up the times frame the mckenson fight,

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which had been postponed from earlier in
twenty twenty two, because if your

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health issues took place in August of
twenty twenty two, which is the last

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you were able to fight. Yeah, so you know, I fought with

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Kinson and you know we're waiting for
this fight, you know, so I'm

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training, I'm getting ready for it. This fight doesn't happen. It's gonna

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happen maybe like a few more months
down line. Well, be back off

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with training a little bit. I'm
still in the gym, but I'm still

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training. Not not as hard necessarily, but I'm still training. I gotta

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stay active. And then you know, we pick it up against when get

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ready for training camp, and then
the fight is postponed, and then I'm

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still training. I'm just training.
I'm just training all the time, NonStop,

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you know, and it's just it
gets to my body. You know.

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You know, no one can do
that. So how come you didn't

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back off a little bit? I
mean, you know, I mean you

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knew the fight was going to be
real scheduled, but it would be maybe

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a couple of months down the road, and you know, not to say

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like get completely out of shape,
but just back off, just you know,

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relax a little bit, you know, put get your body together,

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your your your your mental state together, and you know, and and get

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back to it. More seriously,
when you know the fight schedule, you

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see, that's that's that's a hard
thing to do, especially as a boxer.

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You know, they say, you
know, get ready, stay ready,

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so you don't have to get ready, you know what I'm saying.

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And I had him fight yet,
Well what if something else came up?

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You know, let's say say,
Okay, you know, maybe you're not

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going to fight this kind of but
you gotta you can fight this guy in

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in some so we okay, Well
I'm ready. I've been I've been staying

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ready. We've seard those stories before
that. Oh well, I was already

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in the gym for like, you
know, four six weeks already. They

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gave me the call and we just
went in and you know, so we're

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just I'm just doing my job.
So so tell me what was it that

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happened. You were scheduled to fight
Stanni Onus for the for the for his

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w B a regular title on three
different occasions. Uh. First you had

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your issue, then he had the
appendectomy, then you had the final one

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that forced the fight to finally be
canceled, which was I guess the week

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of the fight. Uh this past
summer. It was in July, I

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believe, and uh, you know, you were working out, as the

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story goes, you fainted. They
had to take it to the hospital.

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It was a deemed that it was
a matter of dehydration that you were,

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you know, struggling to make the
forty seven pounds limit. Can you describe

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to me what happened during that situation
during that fight week that led to you

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landing in the hospital and having to
cancel this fight for the third time.

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Well, wake cut was going good, and and so I just I just

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couldn't, you know, like my
body just started like kind of like just

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saying no. And I don't want
to say, like, I don't want

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to say exactly what happened, because
you know, it's it's if it was

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anyone else, it would have been
triumtizing. If I'm being honest, Like,

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if I'm being completely honest, I'm
not. I'm not a dramatic diet

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right, but it was it was
scary. I just put it that way.

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It was it was a little scary. Yeah, Well, we're all

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happy that you're good now, and
you know, you sound good and you

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look good. So that's important that
you're back and back in the swing of

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things. And now that your health
is back in and you have a fight

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that's set and I'm sure you're you
know, as you said, excited to

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get back in the ring against Lawson. On Saturday. Uh, I know

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how frustrated Stanionas is because he hasn't
fought since uh that was canceled either,

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and has been struggling to get another
fight, you know, before the end

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of last year. Has nothing scheduled
so far yet this year. And uh

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and I know you you got to
be frustrated. Also, can you describe

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just a level of disappointment frustration ever
you want to describe it? Not only

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was it an opportunity to win the
WBA secondary title, but big payday associated

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with it. Golden Boy, you
know, made a big, big purse

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bit on that on that fight,
and everybody was looking forward to getting paid

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and putting on a great show.
I can't tell you how many fans were

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very excited for the matchup, myself
included. Yeah, I mean it was

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it was extremely disappointing. The disappointment
isn't even the word say anymore. You

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know, I was beyond frustrated,
you know, especially happening for I think

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my third time, and uh,
you know, it was just I don't

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know, definitely something I do I
do not want to happen again, you

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know, just you know what suck
anymore is when uh, after you think

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you're done, Like how do I
say, dealing with not fighting or whatever,

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like, okay, next one,
fine, you know, I'm getting

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ready game. My confidence is coming
back up. Had some people come up

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to me and say, man,
we were gonna go to the fight and

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we heard about it, and we
just looked at each other like man,

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we're We're all quiet, and I'm
just like, damn, yeah, I

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feel bad again, you know,
Like I mean, listen, I think

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most people understand stuff happens. It
just seemed like with that fight again,

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no nobody's fault necessarily, but it's
unusual to have that. It happened three

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times back to back to back where
it's you know, both both fighters have

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their issues that cause it. So
it's almost like it wasn't you just sort

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of get the feeling maybe that maybe
you and Stanionis for that title just wasn't

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meant to be in a way.
I guess it wasn't. You know,

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it didn't happen and I'm not going
out one forty seven. I can't do

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it. Well, Okay, So
that's the next question is how how are

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you now that you're able to have
you know, and and you know,

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the extra pounds at junior middleweight and
maybe should you have been there a couple

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of years earlier. Uh, Like
I said, if I would, if

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if we would have had consistent fight
bates now that that fight definitely would have

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happened, you know, uh,
you know it's it's uh, I don't

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know. Well, when you're not
fighting, and when we fight, we

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dropped down and wait and go and
you know we gain our healthy weight back

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and we dropped down. You just
consistently. You know for people in the

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podcast, you're going down and up, down and up. Well, you're

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you're keeping the weight in check.
Well, I hadn't fought in the wise,

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my weight is just healthy weight up
here. So like the the most

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I can drop is slowly creeping up
on me. So one forty seven was

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might have been out of the picture. So explain to people when you're not

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fighting and it's just normal Virgil ortis, you know, hanging out with the

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family, you know, going to
the store, you know, you know,

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doing a little bit of workout,
but not training for a fight specifically,

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what would be normal weight, you
know, as opposed to being one

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forty seven, I'm like one se
okay, So now I assume it's much

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you know, it's still hard,
I'm sure, but to go from one

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seventy to make one fifty four as
a heck of a lot more achievable in

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a safe, in proper manner than
one forty seven. Hell yeah, yeah,

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it's it makes a difference, you
know, And some people don't understand,

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like, even accounted you can make
the biggest difference. You know.

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I've always I've always said, if
if you're if your normal size person in

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your normal life non boxing is one
seventy, how can you're not fighting that

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middleweight? Let's say, because no
one else is going to do that,

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You're going to be fighting heavyweights,
right, Okay? You know, and

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you know there's a lot of people
saying, how come you don't fight?

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Hey? You wait, well,
how about I can fight out the way

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that I can make without without killing
myself? You know what I mean.

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So that's that's what a lot of
non boxers don't understand, really, is

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that that's just that's not how it
works. So when you get in the

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ring on Saturday against Frederick Laws and
all of this pent up, you know,

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aggravation and disappointment and and frustration that
we've been talking about, are you

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taking that out on Frederic Loss on
Saturday night. I don't know, you

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know, I well, you know, when I'm in the boxing ring,

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I tend to just flip a switch
and I just go into the work mode.

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You know, I just I forget
about everything. You know. Maybe

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though, maybe they will have it
in the interview. Maybe I'll take it

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out on Chris mannage or something.
I don't know, don't don't, don't

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don't do my boy Chris like that. No, not on him, but

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like just more towards the questions,
and you know, just just I have

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a lot, I really, you
know, I got I got a lot

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to say about people criticizing my camp, my trainers, me not understanding what

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happens and like how boxing works,
like not understanding that. Just people who

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don't know the sport talking to myself
that they don't know. Man, I

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have so much to say and stuff
that I'm not gonna say. Well,

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I was gonna say, you have
an open form or here to say whatever

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you want. Yeah, man,
But it's you know what, sometimes I

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just hate sportsmans. And you know, I catch myself, you know,

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I hear people I catch myself saying, man, like why did he catch

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the ball? Well, fuck,
people are saying, why didn't he make

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way? You know, I'm just
like, I'm okay, I see it,

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you know, I see it.
So I a lot of times I

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tend to keep my opinions to myself
at that point because I'm not in that.

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I didn't grow up doing that stuff, so I don't know exactly how

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hard it is. You know,
there's a lot of different stuff, and

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there's a lot of baseball things,
like, for example, the Rangers were

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supposed to win, you know,
they were one catch away from from from

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winning the World Series. I think
it was like twenty eleven or or or

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out or something like that. Well
apparently, you know, it looked like

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it was just a pop up shot
and he could have just hustled and caught

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the ball. Well, I didn't
notice until a few like years later,

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a lot of baseball players like that
was actually a really hard ball to catch.

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You know, it was just kind
of like the right the perfect angle

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for us or I don't know,
I see, I don't I can't even

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explain it, right because I don't
know. I don't know, determin have

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a lot a fucking baseball player.
But apparently it was a super It was

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more complicated than what it looked like. Yeah, and everybody's gonna have their

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opinions about that, where those of
us on the outside are watching and the

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athletes are the ones performing, and
you know, it kind of goes with

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the dun't I figure kind of goes
with the territory. I wanted to ask

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you just a couple more questions.
You're back training now with Robert Garcia,

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who was your trainer for you know, quite a while. You split up

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with him in two thousand endto twenty
twenty one. Have that just the one

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fight? I guess Since then with
the against mckinson, there was a lot

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of conversation. You're gonna go to
Eddie Reinoso. You ended up you and

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your dad working with Manny Roblis,
who's been a top trainer for a long

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time. Also curious what ended up
happening with Robert that that occurred, and

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now that you're back with him,
and how's that been, I guess getting

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back with him because from what he
says, it's kind of like nothing happened,

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like you've always been again exactly.
That's exactly what I was in the

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say. It literally felt like we
just picked up right where we left off,

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you know, like the vibe nothing, no, no vibes changed,

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no, nothing changed, No,
just it was in the same, like

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I don't know, it was.
It was really cool how that worked out.

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You just decided to go back and
gave him a call and said,

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hey, can we can we try
again? You know, we were thinking

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about it and then you know,
ultimately I was just like that's where I

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was at my best, you know, which is take me to go back.

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That's all it was. And Robert's
not the kind of guy that's gonna

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I don't think. I knowing him
a long time doesn't hold that against him.

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He was probably happy to have you
back in the gym. Yeah,

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he was very happy to have me
back, and I was happy to be

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back. And you know, just
to be that environment with you know,

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top fighters of the world, just
just training alongside geam, you know,

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and just helping each other get better, motivating each other. That's what it's

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all about. Yeah, that's good
to hear it. I just want to

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I want to wrap up with this. You have this fight against Lost and

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it's January. So if everything is
good and you know you're you make your

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weight fine and there's no issues with
injuries or anything like that. Based on

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that early early in the year that
you fight, it seems logical that in

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the right circumstance you might be able
to get in three fights this year,

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which would probably seem to be good
for you, and I'm sure the fans

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would be happy and golden boy after
a long time of not having more than

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one fight in the year. So
what's your ideal twenty twenty four in terms

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of the number of fights and that
caliber of fights? At least three hopefully

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for four? Uh? And I
want to I want to fight for old

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titles here for sure, because I
you know, I'm done waiting, you

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know, I just I ain't gonna
wait for nobody. And like I said,

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it's if they're trying to mannate some
shit. I'm guiltun about that.

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Like, I just want to fight, you know, And I don't know,

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I just well, the division is
in the division's kind of in flux.

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Charlote's got a couple of belts,
but no one's sure what his future

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plans are. Tim Zoo has emerged, you have they just call the purse

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spid for the vacant IBF title,
which will be dealt with. And though

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in the coming months, you got
the possibly maybe Terrence Crawford or Erol Spence

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or both of them come to one
fifty four. And so it feels like

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a division that's going in through a
change but still has you know, good

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names that are there to perhaps challenge. Do you see it that way?

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Yeah, it's good. But man, Crawford and fans better not hold up

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those bets skins because I'm not having
that shit, bro not not again.

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You know, I could have been
had in that world title one fifty seven,

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but you know they put that division
on lockdown. Yeah, for for

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it's kind of what happens. You
know, everybody wants to see the undisputed

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fight, and so there's a backup. Then we get the undisputed fight and

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now and that's great that fight.
That fight could have happened with one belt

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or two belts, you know,
I I don't know, I just I

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don't even want to talk about that. Well, they don't have belts at

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one fifty four, so that'll be
the opportunity for you and for them to

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have to go after them. Whatever
happens. Though, Virgil I wrote you

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a lot of good luck and a
lot of good health on Saturday with bloss

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and I appreciate you doing this,
thanks for having me, and it's always

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nice time you bet Virgil. Good
luck to you Saturday, and uh well,

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hopefully we'll talk again when things are
good and you're at one fifty four,

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comfortably situated and going for your world
title. Thanks a lot it,

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sir, Thank you