Speaker 1: All right, it is my great pleasure to welcome to
our podcast this week. It is but other than the
lineal and WBO Junior Wealthyweight Champion of the World, Tafimo
Lopez and Tafmo. I'll explain to our listeners what you
have coming up. They probably should know by now for
crying out loud, you're a very big fight. You're taking
on the WBC lightweight champ. Should course, Stevens today is
going to move up to fight you. You'll headline the
Ring Magazine card on his own pay per view January
thirty first at the iconic Madison Square Garden where you
have fought before. And before we get into it, first
of all, welcome to the show. Thank you very much
for doing this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Obviously, you're a man that knows boxing, and that really
is to me. Honestly, I looked up to everything that
you always did as far as speaking on the sport,
and you always put good faith, in good.
Speaker 2: Faith into it, so I love that.
Speaker 3: I'm very excited for this upcoming bout between myself and
schequel Stevenson and I can't wait to.
Speaker 2: Rock and roll.
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate those kind words. Remember meeting you and
your dad when you were probably like four and oh
or something like that, and get to know you guys
a little bit. But before we talk about the big
one with Shaqui, I actually I wanted to ask you
a little bit about your last fight. It was a
really good performance that you had in the Turkey's Ring
Magazine Times Square card that was back in May. You
want a decision against Arnold Barboza to retain your title,
and I wanted to ask you what that experience was like,
because i'ven't spoken to you since then. You guys, not
just yourself, but the different competitors on the card. You
guys took cars from the location where the dress rooms
were to get to the ring. You're fighting in this
iconic location of Times Square, even more iconic than Madison
Square Garden, but there was only a few hundred people
right there because of the logistics of the event. What
was that like for you? Sort of like really cool
but kind of weird.
Speaker 2: Well said, yep, cool and weird at the same time.
Speaker 3: It sure was definitely historical, though, the best part about
it was that it was historical and it wouldn't have
been possible without his excellency of al Chic and all
those that contributed into that night, so especially the promoters
going to Boy and Matchroom.
Speaker 2: So yeah, overall though it's been it's been fun, it's
been great.
Speaker 3: When it came to Times Square, uh kind of felt
like a little bit of the bubble.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. That's a good point. You fought there in
the bubble.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it kind of felt like the COVID times though.
It was a little too quiet compared to what we
were expecting. So but you know, we we still got
a job to do and that's what we did, you know,
to have fulimited uh, familiar faces come in.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I had Snoop Dogg carrying one of the freaking ring
cards and stuff, which was hilarious. I'mdy gonna shoot in
the middle of a fight, definitely one I say that
I appreciate though to be on. But yeah, definitely cool
and weird, definitely all right.
Speaker 1: Okay, So after that, but before this fight which Shakur
was finalized, there had been a deal agreed to for
you uh to fight Devin Haney, who was obviously a
big name also and he had signed the agreement and
your team had said you guys had agreed. Ultimately you
did not sign it and it didn't happen. I wonder
what was if you could give your a version of
what happened. There wasn't a matter of the weight situation.
Was it because you were gonna have to move up
a little bit? I guess in that particular fight, was
it money? What was the reason why? Because a lot
of people thought that was a great matchup. Also, I would.
Speaker 3: Say it was just honestly, I'll go off with my
what Keith Connelly said. It was just personal things that
I had to still finish up and deal with, still
dealing with divorce. So I just had those things that
I still had to finalize and finish off before I
get back into the the mojo jojo of boxing.
Speaker 1: Okay, But now look at the end of the day,
the record fight is here. That's the big one. I
sense from boxing fans to you, Fimo, a lot of
excitement about this matchup. Two young stars, guys in their prime.
You guys can talk a lot of trash with each other.
You know, there's big stakes. You're in a gree arena.
Can you just describe for me what does it mean
to you of being in this sort of event. I
think it's the biggest one of your career.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think moving forward, every fight is
gonna be the biggest one in my career. And this
one right now is the front runner. And it's a
it's a it's honestly, it's one I wouldn't trade it for.
I mean, this is the mecca, you know what I mean,
This is the mecca. And this is a moment right
now in time where you're getting to fighters that are
possibly heading into their prime.
Speaker 2: They're gonna face one another.
Speaker 3: That believe they at the top of the top of
the food chain and are gonna put it on display,
you know, come that night, Saturday night, And what better
way than having it hosted in Madison Square Guarden, the
world's famous arena. And to really put it into perspective,
it's gonna be one that people are gonna talk about
for a long time.
Speaker 1: Well, it seems to me anyway that the fight has
sort of been for the last few years kind of
inevitable because you at your core, even though you haven't
necessary in the same weight class, you've been not separated
by more than a division. You know, you're around the
same age, You've got the both Olympic backgrounds, you know,
have fought good competition during your careers, and you were
both with top ranked together for a long time. You
even fought. I went and looked this up two times.
Both you and your court fought on the same Terrence
Crawford undercart in twenty seventeen, in twenty nineteen, and you know,
knowing the way top rank handles things, that's not a
surprise to put types of fights together where they've got
guys being exposed to the same fans at the same
time on undercards together. Did you feel like this fight
was sort of inevitable through the years.
Speaker 2: I'd say, maybe maybe a little more down the road,
but yeah, inevitable for sure. It's just more down the road,
I'd say, But we're here now. It's happening much much
sooner than later. So and I think it needs to
happen this way anyways to help the next fighters that
are around different weight classes and people. You know, fights
that want to be made and people want to see, uh,
just fight, man, Just make the fights happen for the
fight fans that love the sport.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned now maybe it would have been further
down the road, which sometimes seems to me in boxing
today is a problem where great matchups with two you know,
top young guys, it waits a long time to happen.
But you guys are you know, doing the doing the
fight now and taking that gamble. But I think both
of you realize that whatever happens, whoever loses, it's not
like the guy's career is over that you are not
going to be able to earn a living and still
become a big time factor in the sport. Is that
sort of the mentality that you have, like I got
nothing to lose here, I'm gonna go in there, I'm
gonna put on a great fight and you know, take
on a top opponent, which is what you said the
fans want to say.
Speaker 3: Now, I don't think that way. I don't think the
I don't think about losing. I think about winning. And
my my my mensality on that is coming out of Victorious.
I think for a guy like Shakor, he may have
that on him. You know, he still holds the WBC
will title at lightweight. So you know, for myself though,
I'm putting everything on the putting all of it on
the line.
Speaker 2: So I can't I can't really say. I'm just happy
though that we're we're having this time to make it happen.
Speaker 1: Though for you guys, have you guys have known each
other for a long time, what's the relationship like between
you guys. I feel like it's it's respectful and cordial,
but not like best buddies.
Speaker 3: Not best buddies for sure or not. It's just more cordial.
It's just more cordial. But at this point in time,
now that we shigned the contracts, we are close to fight.
Speaker 2: There's no respect to it.
Speaker 3: No, I've worked very hard to get to where I'm at,
and I think Chakur has been eyeing me for some
time behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: And I didn't expect.
Speaker 3: That of Shakoor because he has a lot on his
already on his side. But I guess it's somebody that
likes to aim for more and I respect that part.
But other than that, we're just gonna go out there
and have fun with this guy.
Speaker 1: I have seen him quoted in some of the build
up to this fight of essentially saying in a variety
of interviews that he's not just better than you, which
anytime you an opponent, you believe you're better than the opponent,
he's actually been saying that he believes he's way better
than you. What are what your responses to that?
Speaker 2: Don't believe the hype? It's a sequet, okay.
Speaker 1: Well, one thing about you is that you have performed
at a you know, obviously an elite level, to a
level to accomplish what you have accomplished. But in your
two big wins, you came up huge against guys that were,
you know, some favored even against Lomachenko, against against Josh Taylor,
and then there's been some other times where maybe the
performance has been slightly inconsistent. Steve Claggett, Jamaine Ortiz, do
you feel like that's a fair assessment that you you
really you really turn up in your big ones, but
not always looks so great and maybe the lesser ones.
Speaker 3: No, that just has to do with myself mentally, That's
all it is.
Speaker 2: Mentally, I just wasn't.
Speaker 3: I wasn't in those fights mentally dealing with personal stuff.
Speaker 2: It ain't easy, man, but it's part of it.
Speaker 3: I needed to learn that to see where I was
making my haircups and mistakes at to get to this
point now. So all those lessons, all those fights have
prepared me for this particular fighter that we're going to
face January thirty first in Madison Square Garden, Live on
the Zone.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll just wrap up with this anti femo. What
do you think the difference is going to be in
terms of what separates winning and losing this fight? What
is the winner? Because it's such an even fight, I
think a lot of people look at on paper, you know,
two really talented guys that brings different strengths to this
particular fight. What's going to separate winning from losing?
Speaker 2: What's going to separate from winning from from losing?
Speaker 1: Is it your power? Is it his speed? Is it
your smarts? What is it?
Speaker 2: Believing in boxing, believing in the sport? That's it?
Speaker 3: Who loves the sport more and who's going to do
better for the sport. It's not about the scales at
this point. It's it's more than that. I'll tell you Dan,
it's more than that. I want to help these next kids,
and the only way is by beating this guy, this
joker that's in front of me.
Speaker 2: Beating him will give me at least a.
Speaker 3: Bit of a footing to to help these young young
fighters and young kids out there to become better within themselves.
Speaker 1: And then do you move up eventually and look for
a welterweight title.
Speaker 2: We'll see, you know, I'll speak to my team. I've
been well at this weight. I've been well prepared. I've
been training since the.
Speaker 3: Since the Honor Babbosa fight, so it's been almost all
year round that we've been staying focused, staying training despite
the personal issues that I was dealing with. So nevertheless,
it's a lifestyle and we'll see where it goes from here.
Speaker 1: Well January thirty first, we'll see exactly what happens. Well,
thank you so much for your time. Wish you nothing
but the best in the fight than the