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Speaker 1: Well, it's my great pleasure to be joined on our

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podcast this week by other than the lightweight contender, Abdulah

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Mason Abdullah. I will let everybody know what you have

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coming up. You're going to be challenging for the vacant

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w Deal lightweight title, taking on fellow undefeated Sam Noakes.

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It'll take place November twenty second on the Ring magazine

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k per view that Turkey Alshikh is putting on in Rea,

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Saudi Arabia, and I wanted to start off by saying,

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first of all, welcome, I'm very much looking forward to

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this event. I think your fight is it's a deep card,

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but this is this is a really interesting matchup on

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that show was four years ago, almost to the day

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that we're doing this interview. You were seventeen years old

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when you turned professional. You were boxing on an undercard

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on a terrific fight between MICHAELA. Mayer and Mai Vahammadus

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to unify two of the titles in one hundred and

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thirty pound division for the women. I was ringside for

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that fight in Las Vegas. I had been hearing about

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you before your professional debut. I've been knowing Brad Goodman

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from top rank for like thirty years and telling me

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to take a look at this kid. He's going to

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be something else. Scored a second round knockout, you look

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really good, and four years later, here you are right

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on the verge of fighting for a world title. So

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I wonder if you could just like briefly just sort

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of sum up that journey from pro debut on a

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deep you know, deep on an undercard now going off

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to Saudi Arabia fight for a world championship.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a It was definitely That's something I've

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been thinking about too. You know how we four years

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ago you said that was almost like to this exact

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date where I first turned pro, and right now, I

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would say it kind of feels the same way in

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a sense, you know, competing going overseas, competing for this

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world championship, you know, going from those amateurs to that

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pro debut, it was like a different experience, and going

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from where I'm at now to this world championship, it

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kind of feels the same way in a sense. That's

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what I mean, Like, it's gonna be different experience for

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me fighting overseas. You know, my first twelve rounder a

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different crowd, so my main thing is just keeping the

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same focus through you know, the differences, and making sure

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I'm doing the same thing when it comes to my performance.

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Speaker 1: So as a young prospect, you got a lot of buzz,

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a lot of people picked here as the prospect of

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the year over the last couple of years. And like

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you said, now here you are getting ready to fight

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for world titles. So you've got nineteen fights, nineteen wins,

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seventeen knockouts. How do you feel as though you've been

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brought along and prepared for this moment?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I feel like I've been prepared perfectly.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: I've been with a great team, you know, J Prince

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Management Top Rank Boxing, and my team, my trainers, my father,

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my head trainer, and my brothers as well. You know, everybody.

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Every fight that I go through, they've been pushing me

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to be better or you know, tweet this, tweak that,

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and every fight I've you know, been through, its getting

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better and better and better. So with each opponent they've

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put in front of me, I end up doing the

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same thing, you know, or better, you know, even though

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the opponents are getting better and better. So Sam Noaks

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is the best opponent to date, you know, he would

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be the best opposition for me, and I feel like

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this performance will be even better.

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Speaker 1: So when you had the fight with Johan Vasquez in

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November of twenty twenty four, you scored a second round

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knockout against him, but before he knocked him out, obviously,

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you know, the the headline, I guess was that he

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knocked you down two times in the first round. And

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after that fight there was a lot of people that

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had sort of hyped you up there We're like, well,

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maybe we're not so sure about this guy. He got

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dropped twice and there was some criticism. I sort of

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looked at it the other way. I've seen a lot

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of you know, guys get dropped and come back, you know,

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with a raging theory and go on to greatness. Not

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that big of a deal. It's boxing, you get hit,

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So I sort of looked at it from the other perspective, like, hey,

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you know, we've seen the young man deal with adversity

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and he came through it like a champ and you know,

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ended up getting the knockout. I wonder what was that

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experience like for you and maybe dealing with some of

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the criticism that came along with that, especially as a

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very young fighter.

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Speaker 2: I think, well, the experience for me, it was a

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I would say overall, it was an amazing experience and

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at the time it was shocking. But for myself and

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for those who know Box and I feel like we

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all saw it the way you've seen it as it

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was a great thing to happen as far as you know,

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going through the adversity and coming out the way that

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it did. It shows a lot of growth, a lot

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of goodness and just the way we prepare or you know,

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just where I'm at in my career, and uh, there's

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always going to be critics, so there's not too much

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to you know, to pay attention to on that side,

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so you've got to I just got to make sure

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I'm doing what I'm doing no matter what, you know,

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keep growing or you know, learning from that. But it

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was definitely a great, great learning experience and uh, like

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I say, it was a turning point for the better.

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Speaker 1: So you have won three fights in UP since then,

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so obviously it's not been any you know, impact certainly,

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and you're stolen defeated in the fighting for the title,

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as I mentioned, uh before this fight with no because

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I guess your biggest fight, your biggest name, your biggest

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win must have then I think anyway, your fifth round

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knockout of the very battle tested, uh, you know contender

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Jeremiah Nakatiya back you know a few fights ago, and

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he was a guy that had fought you know, some

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quality fighters. He had lost to them fair enough, but

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they were guys that that boxing fans know, of course, Stevenson,

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Miguel Burtchelt, you know people along those lines, Raymond murtya

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even the prospect Tito Mercado. So what do you think

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that win did for you in terms of your thoughts about, Hey,

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you know what I can compete with these experienced veterans

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whose only loss is have come against guys that have

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gone on to you know, become champions or you know,

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people that boxing fans know, or even like Mercado, top

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prospect like yourself.

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Speaker 2: One thing about me is anytime I kind of get

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in a ring with somebody with more experience or you know,

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even in the past before I turned pro sparring with

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like world champions. Every every time I step in ring

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with someone like that, it's more of a solidification of

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what I have, you know, in my mind, I'd be

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like Okay, it shows me what I have. Okay, I'm

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good at this, I'm good at that, or I'm at

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this level, or Okay, that was kind of easier. I

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could step it up a little more, or whatever the

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case may be. Oh I got to work a little harder.

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But it's usually a silification letting myself know, you know,

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and letting my team know that what we have is

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is something good and the something that we're definitely grateful

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for it, but it's something that we've been working on

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the right things.

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Speaker 1: I understand that that fight I mentioned against Nakatiya, originally

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that was going to be the co feature. The main

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event that night was Keshawn Davis supposed to be defending

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the WBO lightweight title against Edwindale Los Santos. You know,

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anybody that follows boxing knows what happened there. He came

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in four pounds plus overweight, The fight got canceled. Top

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rank you know, decided to keep the show on when

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they couldn't work it out. Obviously, you got elevated into

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the main event. What was sort of like, you know,

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your thoughts about, Okay, now I'm in the main event

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was did it add any pressure to you? Or nerves

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or just feel like, you know what, I got an

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opportunity now as the main event, maybe this show myself

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to a greater audience.

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Speaker 2: Perhaps for myself, I would say I was more excitement involved, like, Okay,

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I'm excited, it's my main event. You know I've been

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here before. As far as that's that was the same

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Virginia at the same time where I had the other

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big fight, you know with Vasquez, I was excited to

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be able to come back and main event there. But

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it was also composure because I know that it's the

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same thing as any other fight. You know, you got

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to stay focused and stay composed to that. You know,

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even being the main event. You know, people might be

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crazy excited or want me to go crazy in there

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and try to knock his head off. But for me,

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it's you know, I got to keep my composure and

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do the same thing, you know, main event or not.

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Speaker 1: So when when even going into that fight, you know

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where you're rated in the WBO, you know that you're

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getting close to being perhaps a mandatory Obviously, once the

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title was tripped from him, the WBO, like the organization Zoo,

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they look at their top rated contenders. There was you

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in one position and Sam Noaks in another position, and

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you came to fight for the vacant title. But the

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title shot kind of came out of the blue because

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nobody expected that Kishon would miss weight and be stripped

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of the title. So this is probably coming a lot

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quicker in terms of the title opportunity for you than

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maybe originally expected. So when what was like your reaction

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when you realized I'm getting my title shot in the

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next fight. It's not against you know, Kishon Davis, but

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it's gonna be against Sam Noaks for a vacant title.

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But how did you feel when you realized, okay, title

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is stripped, I'm getting the shot at this vacant delt.

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Speaker 2: Again, it was excitement. You know, being a world champion

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or contenting for a title is a huge step up

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in boxing from anything else. You know, from from Olympics,

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from you know what, multiple time national champion as an amateur,

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or you know, any of these smaller titles as a pros.

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You know, being a world champion is I'm huge. So

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being able to contend for that and not just being

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ranked at the number one spot but actually contending for

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the world title, it's like I don't know. I would say,

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it's just something that I'm looking forward to now like

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once once once that was once that was right there

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in front of me, it became my reality.

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Speaker 1: Kind of like kind to pinch yourself a little bit,

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you say, what kind of like have to pinch yourself

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a little bit, Like I I'm I know my position,

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but now I'm actually getting the.

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Speaker 2: Fight right right? No, for sure? Yeah, yeah, because I

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knew I was creeping up on it. You know, I

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was already ranked number two at the time. I was

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about to fight for it. But you know, being able

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to ford to turn over and for me to you know,

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contend for that right now is like I said, it's

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also involved composure, but I'm also excited. So you know,

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we just uh we can't wait for it, man, like

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two three weeks now to come.

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Speaker 1: So, so what do you think about Sam Oaks. I've

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seen him fight a few times. You guys have a

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very similar record. He has seventeen fights. You have nineteen fights.

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But you're twenty one years old. He's twenty eight year

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Old's a little bit older, a little bit of a

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later start or uh, you know, in terms of how

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he's been brought along your I looked at your record

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just to clarify. It feels to me like you faced

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roughly more kind of opposition. You know, he in the

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UKU and the United States. What is your take on him?

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What do you what do you think about him?

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Speaker 2: I feel like Sam Oaks is a He's a worthy opponent.

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You know, me and him are, like you said, we

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have faced similar opposition in a sense, and we're in

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the same places in both of our careers, So it'll

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be just as much of a test for him as

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it is for me. You know, we both undefeated right there,

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closing in on twenty fights, so it's a perfect test

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for us both, and it's going to show uh boxing.

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I guess you know a lot about you know, whoever's

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going to be his next world champion.

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Speaker 1: So when the bell rings, what kind of style fight

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do you see it? I am assuming that either yourself

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certainly your team have taken a look at some of

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the videos to sort of get a take on what

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he's all about. And when you when you think about it,

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how do you feel like the fight goes in terms

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of the style.

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Speaker 2: In terms of the style, I feel like this is

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gonna be a fun fight that's all I'm gonna say

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is I ag. Yeah, that's that's the style of it.

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It's gonna be really fun for y'all. It's gonna be

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fun for us.

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Speaker 1: No one's gonna be running around the ring. I don't believe.

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Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.

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Speaker 1: So this is kind of a big thing that I

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think about. If you win this fight, you become, at

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age twenty one, the youngest active male world champion in

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boxing of all the guys in that titles. I mean,

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I don't know if you knew that the youngest presently

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is your fellow top rank fighters andrews Ayas, who was

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twenty two years old when he won his world title.

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He is now twenty three years old. Did you realize

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that was going to be the case if you're the winner,

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and if so, what does that mean to you that

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you could, you know, create that kind of history.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I did realize that. That's that's something that's huge

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for boxing, but not just for boxing, but also for Cleveland, Ohio.

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You know, to have not won a world champion, but

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to that world champion, being the youngest active male world

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champion is it's something he used to bring back to

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my hometown and to be able to want to contend

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and have a fight in Cleveland again. I don't know

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when that would be, but soon. I would love to

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do as soon, but that'd be a huge thing, and

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I'm just excited for that because it's it's something that

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you hear what Mike Tyson has become world champion at

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what like twenty years old or something or.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, he was not only not only the youngest champion

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in boxing at time, but in the history of boxing,

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had become the youngest heavyweight champion at that age.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that's huge, that's huge, you know, I'm

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excited for it.

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Speaker 1: Well, certainly if you are the champion. I'm sure having

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been the covering top rank for a long time, they

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know how to bring their guys home for the hometown fight.

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They've done it a million times, but lots of their

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their championship fighters. I wanted to just wrap up with this,

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but when you found I mean, you knew you're gonna

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be fighting Oaks for the vacant title, but I don't

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know if you necessarily knew that it was gonna be

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uh in Riad, Saudi Arabia. So I'm wondering what were

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your thoughts about you know, making the trip to Saudi

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Arabia to have this opportunity with all of your other

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fights obviously have taken place in the United States.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, once once you learned it was gonna be in Saturday, Arabia,

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we knew it was gonna be different, and we knew

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it was gonna be something big, you know, like this

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is a huge car for World Championship fight on the

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same fight card. Originally we had thought it might have

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been on the Crawford Canelo undercard, but for some reason

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it was pushed back for a while because I think

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that was a good date to have it at the time.

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But everything happens for a reason, and right now, November

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twenty second, I feel like that still be the time

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for me to shine.

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Speaker 1: Are you excited in any way to be fighting, you know,

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in that sort of environment, you know, different than what

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you're used to, and to make that trip overseas for

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the fight.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, for sure. But the first things first

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is you got to handle business, so you know, wherever

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I go to fight, you know, the first thing on

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my mind is handing on that business. And then I

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could be excited about the results after.

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Speaker 1: Totally get that. Abdullah I appreciate that time. I wish

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you the best of luck in the fight and hopefully

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we get a chance to talk after the fact.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure. Thank you Dan. It's great to

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learn that you were at bout pot you because we

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had first mentioned and I'm like man like peace out

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like he was there, you know a lot of about it,

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but you being ringside of something excitement as well. So

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I appreciate you for your support along the way you back.

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That's for luck for you, yes, sir, Thank you. M