Speaker 1: Well, it's my great pleasure to be joined on our
Speaker 1: podcast this week by other than the lightweight contender, Abdulah
Speaker 1: Mason Abdullah. I will let everybody know what you have
Speaker 1: coming up. You're going to be challenging for the vacant
Speaker 1: w Deal lightweight title, taking on fellow undefeated Sam Noakes.
Speaker 1: It'll take place November twenty second on the Ring magazine
Speaker 1: k per view that Turkey Alshikh is putting on in Rea,
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, and I wanted to start off by saying,
Speaker 1: first of all, welcome, I'm very much looking forward to
Speaker 1: this event. I think your fight is it's a deep card,
Speaker 1: but this is this is a really interesting matchup on
Speaker 1: that show was four years ago, almost to the day
Speaker 1: that we're doing this interview. You were seventeen years old
Speaker 1: when you turned professional. You were boxing on an undercard
Speaker 1: on a terrific fight between MICHAELA. Mayer and Mai Vahammadus
Speaker 1: to unify two of the titles in one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty pound division for the women. I was ringside for
Speaker 1: that fight in Las Vegas. I had been hearing about
Speaker 1: you before your professional debut. I've been knowing Brad Goodman
Speaker 1: from top rank for like thirty years and telling me
Speaker 1: to take a look at this kid. He's going to
Speaker 1: be something else. Scored a second round knockout, you look
Speaker 1: really good, and four years later, here you are right
Speaker 1: on the verge of fighting for a world title. So
Speaker 1: I wonder if you could just like briefly just sort
Speaker 1: of sum up that journey from pro debut on a
Speaker 1: deep you know, deep on an undercard now going off
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia fight for a world championship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a It was definitely That's something I've
Speaker 2: been thinking about too. You know how we four years
Speaker 2: ago you said that was almost like to this exact
Speaker 2: date where I first turned pro, and right now, I
Speaker 2: would say it kind of feels the same way in
Speaker 2: a sense, you know, competing going overseas, competing for this
Speaker 2: world championship, you know, going from those amateurs to that
Speaker 2: pro debut, it was like a different experience, and going
Speaker 2: from where I'm at now to this world championship, it
Speaker 2: kind of feels the same way in a sense. That's
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like, it's gonna be different experience for
Speaker 2: me fighting overseas. You know, my first twelve rounder a
Speaker 2: different crowd, so my main thing is just keeping the
Speaker 2: same focus through you know, the differences, and making sure
Speaker 2: I'm doing the same thing when it comes to my performance.
Speaker 1: So as a young prospect, you got a lot of buzz,
Speaker 1: a lot of people picked here as the prospect of
Speaker 1: the year over the last couple of years. And like
Speaker 1: you said, now here you are getting ready to fight
Speaker 1: for world titles. So you've got nineteen fights, nineteen wins,
Speaker 1: seventeen knockouts. How do you feel as though you've been
Speaker 1: brought along and prepared for this moment?
Speaker 2: Oh? I feel like I've been prepared perfectly.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I've been with a great team, you know, J Prince
Speaker 2: Management Top Rank Boxing, and my team, my trainers, my father,
Speaker 2: my head trainer, and my brothers as well. You know, everybody.
Speaker 2: Every fight that I go through, they've been pushing me
Speaker 2: to be better or you know, tweet this, tweak that,
Speaker 2: and every fight I've you know, been through, its getting
Speaker 2: better and better and better. So with each opponent they've
Speaker 2: put in front of me, I end up doing the
Speaker 2: same thing, you know, or better, you know, even though
Speaker 2: the opponents are getting better and better. So Sam Noaks
Speaker 2: is the best opponent to date, you know, he would
Speaker 2: be the best opposition for me, and I feel like
Speaker 2: this performance will be even better.
Speaker 1: So when you had the fight with Johan Vasquez in
Speaker 1: November of twenty twenty four, you scored a second round
Speaker 1: knockout against him, but before he knocked him out, obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, the the headline, I guess was that he
Speaker 1: knocked you down two times in the first round. And
Speaker 1: after that fight there was a lot of people that
Speaker 1: had sort of hyped you up there We're like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe we're not so sure about this guy. He got
Speaker 1: dropped twice and there was some criticism. I sort of
Speaker 1: looked at it the other way. I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, guys get dropped and come back, you know,
Speaker 1: with a raging theory and go on to greatness. Not
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. It's boxing, you get hit,
Speaker 1: So I sort of looked at it from the other perspective, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we've seen the young man deal with adversity
Speaker 1: and he came through it like a champ and you know,
Speaker 1: ended up getting the knockout. I wonder what was that
Speaker 1: experience like for you and maybe dealing with some of
Speaker 1: the criticism that came along with that, especially as a
Speaker 1: very young fighter.
Speaker 2: I think, well, the experience for me, it was a
Speaker 2: I would say overall, it was an amazing experience and
Speaker 2: at the time it was shocking. But for myself and
Speaker 2: for those who know Box and I feel like we
Speaker 2: all saw it the way you've seen it as it
Speaker 2: was a great thing to happen as far as you know,
Speaker 2: going through the adversity and coming out the way that
Speaker 2: it did. It shows a lot of growth, a lot
Speaker 2: of goodness and just the way we prepare or you know,
Speaker 2: just where I'm at in my career, and uh, there's
Speaker 2: always going to be critics, so there's not too much
Speaker 2: to you know, to pay attention to on that side,
Speaker 2: so you've got to I just got to make sure
Speaker 2: I'm doing what I'm doing no matter what, you know,
Speaker 2: keep growing or you know, learning from that. But it
Speaker 2: was definitely a great, great learning experience and uh, like
Speaker 2: I say, it was a turning point for the better.
Speaker 1: So you have won three fights in UP since then,
Speaker 1: so obviously it's not been any you know, impact certainly,
Speaker 1: and you're stolen defeated in the fighting for the title,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, uh before this fight with no because
Speaker 1: I guess your biggest fight, your biggest name, your biggest
Speaker 1: win must have then I think anyway, your fifth round
Speaker 1: knockout of the very battle tested, uh, you know contender
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Nakatiya back you know a few fights ago, and
Speaker 1: he was a guy that had fought you know, some
Speaker 1: quality fighters. He had lost to them fair enough, but
Speaker 1: they were guys that that boxing fans know, of course, Stevenson,
Speaker 1: Miguel Burtchelt, you know people along those lines, Raymond murtya
Speaker 1: even the prospect Tito Mercado. So what do you think
Speaker 1: that win did for you in terms of your thoughts about, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know what I can compete with these experienced veterans
Speaker 1: whose only loss is have come against guys that have
Speaker 1: gone on to you know, become champions or you know,
Speaker 1: people that boxing fans know, or even like Mercado, top
Speaker 1: prospect like yourself.
Speaker 2: One thing about me is anytime I kind of get
Speaker 2: in a ring with somebody with more experience or you know,
Speaker 2: even in the past before I turned pro sparring with
Speaker 2: like world champions. Every every time I step in ring
Speaker 2: with someone like that, it's more of a solidification of
Speaker 2: what I have, you know, in my mind, I'd be
Speaker 2: like Okay, it shows me what I have. Okay, I'm
Speaker 2: good at this, I'm good at that, or I'm at
Speaker 2: this level, or Okay, that was kind of easier. I
Speaker 2: could step it up a little more, or whatever the
Speaker 2: case may be. Oh I got to work a little harder.
Speaker 2: But it's usually a silification letting myself know, you know,
Speaker 2: and letting my team know that what we have is
Speaker 2: is something good and the something that we're definitely grateful
Speaker 2: for it, but it's something that we've been working on
Speaker 2: the right things.
Speaker 1: I understand that that fight I mentioned against Nakatiya, originally
Speaker 1: that was going to be the co feature. The main
Speaker 1: event that night was Keshawn Davis supposed to be defending
Speaker 1: the WBO lightweight title against Edwindale Los Santos. You know,
Speaker 1: anybody that follows boxing knows what happened there. He came
Speaker 1: in four pounds plus overweight, The fight got canceled. Top
Speaker 1: rank you know, decided to keep the show on when
Speaker 1: they couldn't work it out. Obviously, you got elevated into
Speaker 1: the main event. What was sort of like, you know,
Speaker 1: your thoughts about, Okay, now I'm in the main event
Speaker 1: was did it add any pressure to you? Or nerves
Speaker 1: or just feel like, you know what, I got an
Speaker 1: opportunity now as the main event, maybe this show myself
Speaker 1: to a greater audience.
Speaker 2: Perhaps for myself, I would say I was more excitement involved, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm excited, it's my main event. You know I've been
Speaker 2: here before. As far as that's that was the same
Speaker 2: Virginia at the same time where I had the other
Speaker 2: big fight, you know with Vasquez, I was excited to
Speaker 2: be able to come back and main event there. But
Speaker 2: it was also composure because I know that it's the
Speaker 2: same thing as any other fight. You know, you got
Speaker 2: to stay focused and stay composed to that. You know,
Speaker 2: even being the main event. You know, people might be
Speaker 2: crazy excited or want me to go crazy in there
Speaker 2: and try to knock his head off. But for me,
Speaker 2: it's you know, I got to keep my composure and
Speaker 2: do the same thing, you know, main event or not.
Speaker 1: So when when even going into that fight, you know
Speaker 1: where you're rated in the WBO, you know that you're
Speaker 1: getting close to being perhaps a mandatory Obviously, once the
Speaker 1: title was tripped from him, the WBO, like the organization Zoo,
Speaker 1: they look at their top rated contenders. There was you
Speaker 1: in one position and Sam Noaks in another position, and
Speaker 1: you came to fight for the vacant title. But the
Speaker 1: title shot kind of came out of the blue because
Speaker 1: nobody expected that Kishon would miss weight and be stripped
Speaker 1: of the title. So this is probably coming a lot
Speaker 1: quicker in terms of the title opportunity for you than
Speaker 1: maybe originally expected. So when what was like your reaction
Speaker 1: when you realized I'm getting my title shot in the
Speaker 1: next fight. It's not against you know, Kishon Davis, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna be against Sam Noaks for a vacant title.
Speaker 1: But how did you feel when you realized, okay, title
Speaker 1: is stripped, I'm getting the shot at this vacant delt.
Speaker 2: Again, it was excitement. You know, being a world champion
Speaker 2: or contenting for a title is a huge step up
Speaker 2: in boxing from anything else. You know, from from Olympics,
Speaker 2: from you know what, multiple time national champion as an amateur,
Speaker 2: or you know, any of these smaller titles as a pros.
Speaker 2: You know, being a world champion is I'm huge. So
Speaker 2: being able to contend for that and not just being
Speaker 2: ranked at the number one spot but actually contending for
Speaker 2: the world title, it's like I don't know. I would say,
Speaker 2: it's just something that I'm looking forward to now like
Speaker 2: once once once that was once that was right there
Speaker 2: in front of me, it became my reality.
Speaker 1: Kind of like kind to pinch yourself a little bit,
Speaker 1: you say, what kind of like have to pinch yourself
Speaker 1: a little bit, Like I I'm I know my position,
Speaker 1: but now I'm actually getting the.
Speaker 2: Fight right right? No, for sure? Yeah, yeah, because I
Speaker 2: knew I was creeping up on it. You know, I
Speaker 2: was already ranked number two at the time. I was
Speaker 2: about to fight for it. But you know, being able
Speaker 2: to ford to turn over and for me to you know,
Speaker 2: contend for that right now is like I said, it's
Speaker 2: also involved composure, but I'm also excited. So you know,
Speaker 2: we just uh we can't wait for it, man, like
Speaker 2: two three weeks now to come.
Speaker 1: So, so what do you think about Sam Oaks. I've
Speaker 1: seen him fight a few times. You guys have a
Speaker 1: very similar record. He has seventeen fights. You have nineteen fights.
Speaker 1: But you're twenty one years old. He's twenty eight year
Speaker 1: Old's a little bit older, a little bit of a
Speaker 1: later start or uh, you know, in terms of how
Speaker 1: he's been brought along your I looked at your record
Speaker 1: just to clarify. It feels to me like you faced
Speaker 1: roughly more kind of opposition. You know, he in the
Speaker 1: UKU and the United States. What is your take on him?
Speaker 1: What do you what do you think about him?
Speaker 2: I feel like Sam Oaks is a He's a worthy opponent.
Speaker 2: You know, me and him are, like you said, we
Speaker 2: have faced similar opposition in a sense, and we're in
Speaker 2: the same places in both of our careers, So it'll
Speaker 2: be just as much of a test for him as
Speaker 2: it is for me. You know, we both undefeated right there,
Speaker 2: closing in on twenty fights, so it's a perfect test
Speaker 2: for us both, and it's going to show uh boxing.
Speaker 2: I guess you know a lot about you know, whoever's
Speaker 2: going to be his next world champion.
Speaker 1: So when the bell rings, what kind of style fight
Speaker 1: do you see it? I am assuming that either yourself
Speaker 1: certainly your team have taken a look at some of
Speaker 1: the videos to sort of get a take on what
Speaker 1: he's all about. And when you when you think about it,
Speaker 1: how do you feel like the fight goes in terms
Speaker 1: of the style.
Speaker 2: In terms of the style, I feel like this is
Speaker 2: gonna be a fun fight that's all I'm gonna say
Speaker 2: is I ag. Yeah, that's that's the style of it.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be really fun for y'all. It's gonna be
Speaker 2: fun for us.
Speaker 1: No one's gonna be running around the ring. I don't believe.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: So this is kind of a big thing that I
Speaker 1: think about. If you win this fight, you become, at
Speaker 1: age twenty one, the youngest active male world champion in
Speaker 1: boxing of all the guys in that titles. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you knew that the youngest presently
Speaker 1: is your fellow top rank fighters andrews Ayas, who was
Speaker 1: twenty two years old when he won his world title.
Speaker 1: He is now twenty three years old. Did you realize
Speaker 1: that was going to be the case if you're the winner,
Speaker 1: and if so, what does that mean to you that
Speaker 1: you could, you know, create that kind of history.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did realize that. That's that's something that's huge
Speaker 2: for boxing, but not just for boxing, but also for Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 2: You know, to have not won a world champion, but
Speaker 2: to that world champion, being the youngest active male world
Speaker 2: champion is it's something he used to bring back to
Speaker 2: my hometown and to be able to want to contend
Speaker 2: and have a fight in Cleveland again. I don't know
Speaker 2: when that would be, but soon. I would love to
Speaker 2: do as soon, but that'd be a huge thing, and
Speaker 2: I'm just excited for that because it's it's something that
Speaker 2: you hear what Mike Tyson has become world champion at
Speaker 2: what like twenty years old or something or.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was not only not only the youngest champion
Speaker 1: in boxing at time, but in the history of boxing,
Speaker 1: had become the youngest heavyweight champion at that age.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that's huge, that's huge, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: excited for it.
Speaker 1: Well, certainly if you are the champion. I'm sure having
Speaker 1: been the covering top rank for a long time, they
Speaker 1: know how to bring their guys home for the hometown fight.
Speaker 1: They've done it a million times, but lots of their
Speaker 1: their championship fighters. I wanted to just wrap up with this,
Speaker 1: but when you found I mean, you knew you're gonna
Speaker 1: be fighting Oaks for the vacant title, but I don't
Speaker 1: know if you necessarily knew that it was gonna be
Speaker 1: uh in Riad, Saudi Arabia. So I'm wondering what were
Speaker 1: your thoughts about you know, making the trip to Saudi
Speaker 1: Arabia to have this opportunity with all of your other
Speaker 1: fights obviously have taken place in the United States.
Speaker 2: Yeah, once once you learned it was gonna be in Saturday, Arabia,
Speaker 2: we knew it was gonna be different, and we knew
Speaker 2: it was gonna be something big, you know, like this
Speaker 2: is a huge car for World Championship fight on the
Speaker 2: same fight card. Originally we had thought it might have
Speaker 2: been on the Crawford Canelo undercard, but for some reason
Speaker 2: it was pushed back for a while because I think
Speaker 2: that was a good date to have it at the time.
Speaker 2: But everything happens for a reason, and right now, November
Speaker 2: twenty second, I feel like that still be the time
Speaker 2: for me to shine.
Speaker 1: Are you excited in any way to be fighting, you know,
Speaker 1: in that sort of environment, you know, different than what
Speaker 1: you're used to, and to make that trip overseas for
Speaker 1: the fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, for sure. But the first things first
Speaker 2: is you got to handle business, so you know, wherever
Speaker 2: I go to fight, you know, the first thing on
Speaker 2: my mind is handing on that business. And then I
Speaker 2: could be excited about the results after.
Speaker 1: Totally get that. Abdullah I appreciate that time. I wish
Speaker 1: you the best of luck in the fight and hopefully
Speaker 1: we get a chance to talk after the fact.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, for sure. Thank you Dan. It's great to
Speaker 2: learn that you were at bout pot you because we
Speaker 2: had first mentioned and I'm like man like peace out
Speaker 2: like he was there, you know a lot of about it,
Speaker 2: but you being ringside of something excitement as well. So
Speaker 2: I appreciate you for your support along the way you back.
Speaker 2: That's for luck for you, yes, sir, Thank you. M