Shannon Briggs

00:00Two, one, boom, and we're live. Let's go champ. The champ! Let's go champ. If you said anything else other than let's go champ is the first thing you said in the podcast, it would be a giant disappointment. We had to start it off right. It's the champ, Shannon the Cannon. Let's go champ. How did you get started doing this, man? That is the, you would think that something like as simple as let's go champ, like that would catch on. Right. How would that be so inspirational? Oh man. I see your videos every day. I get pumped up. Oh, thank you, brother. Thank you. I appreciate it. And by the way, pleasure meeting you finally. Pleasure meeting you too, man. You too as well champ. Let's go champ. I appreciate this. I made it. I'm here with you. Your videos on Instagram get me fired up. Thank you. You're positive. Thank you. They're exciting. They're fun. They're real. It's infectious. It's real. It's real. It is real.

00:49It's real me. It's me. Dude, I've been a fan of yours as a boxer for a long time. Thank you, brother. But I love how you kind of reinvented yourself over the last few years. You know what I mean? Like you've reinvented yourself with social media. Is this something you've always been doing privately? You've been talking like this privately? 100%. Like, you know, honestly, like this is the first time in my life. I'm 44. I'll be 45 in December 4th in a few weeks. This is the first time in my life, honestly, that I'm really being myself. I'm not putting on a show for anybody. I'm just showing my real personality, which I'm silly. I'm goofy. I'm serious at times. I'm political at times. I'm a family man. I'm diverse, you know? I love hip-hop. But I don't like listening to rap lyrics, so I just listen to beats. So this is who I am. And thanks to social media, I'm able to just show it to the world.

01:43And I let my guard down, to be honest with you. I'm finally being like, I'm not trying to be a tough guy because I'm a boxer. I'm just being who I am. Well, it's fun, man. You can tell because there's no other forum where you would just have a camera pointed at you. You're just saying, champ! Champ! And you're like mixing smoothies and talking about organic blueberries and all the healthy shit you eat. That's it, champ. It's very exciting, man. I mean, you'll do a video just telling people to drink water. That's true. And you're like, fuck, man. I'm going to go out and drink some water. That's serious. You got to stay hydrated, champ. You know, I listen to you as well. And you have a war on sugar. Yeah. They say a war on sugar. And I'm totally for that because it destroys you, man. It destroys you at every level, mentally, physically. It just takes away from you.

02:28So I try to tell people, you know, eating right and changing my diet changed my life. I was like finished. I was like gone. I was 403 pounds. I was out of boxing. I was financially in ruin. And, you know, changing my diet just totally made my life different. Well, I love your story because I love a guy who, I love a success story, but almost more than a success story, I love a success, then fuck your life up, then get it back together again story. I like that because there's like a, there's a certain amount of enthusiasm that you have that you, you, you know that you've seen dark days, but now you're back, you know, and that's part of like the fun of what you're doing. You know what I mean? Thanks, brother. Thank you. Thank you. The sugar thing is a fucked up thing, isn't it? Like totally. That most people don't know. That's what screwed me up.

03:18I told you, I was like every day McDonald's, um, and this is after years of eating right and just letting myself go. And that's a whole nother story. But, um, I fell into like deep depression. I was just eating junk food all the time and Krispy Kreme and, you know, warm sugar was just part of my diet and it was making me crazy mentally. I was in suffering from depression. I wanted to off myself for over two years. I was contemplating suicide champ. I was just like to the point I didn't have a clue what to do. You know, um, although financially I was doing well, I had to got out of boxing and I had to got a job and, but I was just, I had seen, you know, so much darkness in my life from, from a child. And, um, it just, it was overwhelming because what I did, Joe, was throughout my life, I would store things and put them in the closet.

04:00You know, I was told very young that, you know, you gotta be the man of the house, you know, so, um, you gotta, you know, get over it. So you're doing that when you're 11 years old, 12 years old, eight years old, that becomes, you know, over, over time, I just, you know, it snapped. Like too much pressure. It was just too much pressure. And then, you know, I'm, I'm a kid, honestly, fighting guys like George Foreman, Lennox Lewis with a very little amateur experience. This is all happening fast. So it just became at the point, you know, when I got older, that was just like hard on me. Well, when you were young, you were so hyped up, you know, you had this crazy look with the dreadlocks and Teddy Atlas is behind you and all these big names and everybody's like Shannon the Cannon Briggs is the next big thing. And, you know, you had a lot of success, but there were some people that felt like you

04:42didn't live up to your full potential. And then you went away for a little bit and then you came back and you look better than ever. Right, right. Well, this is, this is like, honestly, this is like my third comeback, maybe fourth, to be honest with you. This is like my fourth comeback. So, um, cause I've, I've always had like a foot in boxing, but it was nothing. It wasn't really something that I was really dedicated to or had the right team behind me. It was always something that was to get, you know, to get me by, to make a living. And it's finally come to the point now at 44 being 45, I think about three, four years ago when I got to the point, I was like, you know what? I know I'm good at this. This is something I've, this is a talent that I've had because I've had one foot in and one foot out and I've done great. You know, they say you can't cheat boxing. I won the heavyweight title twice.

05:26You know what I'm saying? Not that I cheated boxing, but I never, I never had the stability and the deep, um, backing. I mean, I had, I had a team behind me. Don't get me wrong financially, but I don't, I wouldn't say they were for my best interest in the sense, whereas like it was a marketing, you know, I could, I could bring in big money from investors and stuff like that. But then it got to the point, I was like, you know what, Shannon, I'm better than that. But I wasn't given an opportunity to have a real training situation. You know, I was on my own for a long time. I really been on my own, if you look at it since like 1995 when me and Teddy Atlas split, I basically been on my own with different trainers and different promoters and really no management, just doing what I had to do to make a living. When you look back on your career and you look back, especially in the early days when you,

06:10there was so much hype behind you. I mean, you were the next big thing out of Brownsville. You were this guy that everybody was looking forward to that this is going to be the next big heavyweight. Is that too much pressure in a sense, in a lot of ways, do you almost like not train a hundred percent to give yourself some excuses? Is that possible? It's possible. I guess for other people, it wasn't for me. What was going on for you back then? Like, what was that like to be that young up and coming prospect with all those eyes on them? Right. That wasn't really, it was overwhelming in a sense. It was fun. Don't get me wrong. But it was overwhelming in a sense where it's like, I know I wasn't ready. I had a very limited amateur background. From day one, I was put on the top level. I mean, I had 10 amateur fights. I was on the USA team.

06:52I fought Felix Savone, who had 300 fights when I had 18 amateur fights on ABC Wild World of Sports. This was a little overwhelming for me. I mean, 18 amateur fights and here I'm fighting a guy, you know, a gold medalist. Right. But, you know, it happened. So I kind of started out young knowing that, you know what, you're going to be on a big screen. You're going to be out there, although you're not prepared. So you felt like you were always playing catch up? Always. Until the last couple of years where I was home making videos and had time to get in shape. You know, I haven't had a drink in over five years. I started drinking when I was 13 years old. Whoa. You know what I mean? I was 13 years old. I was drinking. I was homeless from when I was 13 to about 20 years old, living here and there. So I've been on my own since basically since I was a kid, you know what I mean?

07:32And so when I was put on an amateur top level, I've always been in a situation where besides playing catch up, I'm on the big screen and I'm not ready. But I got to do the best I can. And I've always done that. And that's what I try to tell people. Do the best you can. You know what I mean? Do the best you can because you never know. But that I'm not ready thing seems to have been a constant theme. Like that was always in the back of your head? Right. A hundred percent. And that was confidence. That's what confidence is. If you go into any fight saying, damn, I'm not ready, you already have defeated. And I was so talented that I could still overcome, you know? Right. I fought George Foreman basically on my own. I was in one tag. We had split. But I met a guy down there, not a guy, a friend of mine is now, Carlos Aboune. And we trained for about eight weeks.

08:22And here I was, you know, battling George Foreman and got a close decision. But here I was. I didn't get knocked out. And I was happy with that, you know? And I became the linear heavyweight champion. I was like, wow, you know? What is it like to beat George Foreman? Unimaginable. There's a Mount Rushmore of boxing when it comes to the heavyweight division. For sure, George Foreman's on it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Great guy. Great guy. Great guy. It must have been a trip, too, to just be looking at him on the other side of the ring. It was. You know, again, I wasn't ready, but I was there. You know, I wasn't ready confidence-wise. You know, I just met the trainer. We, you know, got through him. He spoke no English. All he would tell me is, give me a jump rope and say jump. I jump rope. You know what I mean? He spoke no English. He spoke very little English.

09:07And I speak very little Spanish, but I understood work. And we just worked, and I won the title. Wow. Yeah, it was cool. Vamos campeon. Vamos campeon. Is that where it came from? Yeah, pretty much. Living in Miami, you know? No, when you split with Teddy Atlas, that was a big deal, too, because Teddy Atlas is like a notorious hard ass. Oh, man. You know, I mean, he's the hardest of the hard. I mean, even when you look at him, that big scar across his face. And, you know, he talks very brutally. And he was, like, open publicly, like, saying that he just didn't think that you were all in. Yeah, yeah. That was a real down point in my life where I really felt like. That was one of the times where suicide definitely came into play. And I know that may sound crazy, but the reason why is because, you know, when I got with Teddy, I was like 19, 20 years old.

09:53And he was very overbearing in a sense where it's like, you know, I wanted to make it. You know, I was homeless. I wanted to make it. And I was willing to do anything he said or what the management said to make it because it was either that or die in prison. My dad was in prison at the time where he eventually died. My mom was on drugs. She was on heroin and crack. So it was like, OK, I got a manager now and I got an opportunity to have a trainer. I had Teddy Atlas who used to train Mike Tyson. So I gave myself to him in a sense where I was like, anything he says I'm going to do. And in doing so, I felt like when we split and he went publicly and said that about me, it hurt so bad because I looked at him like a father figure because Teddy spent many days, I think, you know, tearing me down so he could control, you know, my mind. And that was cool. You know, whatever.

10:40I knew I didn't come to him as a kid. I came to him as a 19, 20 old. So when we split and he went publicly, I was just at a down point. And everyone, I was undefeated. I lost on HBO, Night of the Heavyweights. It was a big, you know, montage about me and everything. And here I was the highlight of the show and I got knocked out by Darrell Wilson in that third round. And when Teddy went out, I was just like, damn, you know, what happened to the days when it was like me and you? Like, you know, I was with him for three, four, five years almost. And it was so much mental telling me that, you know, without me, you're nothing. And you don't have this, you don't have that. But then fight time, you can do it. So it was such a mental, you know, puppet type of thing. When we split, I contemplated committed suicide. I was in my management's basement. I had a shotgun. I was like, man, you know what?

11:28Because, I mean, I was just in a bad place and everyone turned it back on me. I mean, the newspapers ripped me apart. And Teddy's influence with the writers and, you know, the New York City crowd was so strong. He had built a great relationship with, I don't want to put anybody out there, but he had built great relationships with certain writers. And they just, everybody assaulted me. I mean, this is crazy. It was war on Shannon Briggs. So I survived that, though. So that was part of me saying, this is why I tell people I'm the champ. Because I've never spoken about this publicly. This is my first time. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. You know, but you could probably hear the emotion in my voice, but I apologize. But, you know, the whole thing is like, that was, that was, that's part of the reason why I call myself the champ. You know what I mean?

12:11Because although when I beat Foreman, you know, people say, oh, you really lost and this and that third. I won the title. That wasn't winning. Winning was doing that when my mom had just died on my birthday. You know, that was, to me, why I'm the champ. You know, because I went out there with, you know, without a stable, stable trainer. And I still fought and went 12 rounds. That's why I'm the champ. Then, you know, those type of moments in my life is why I say I'm the champ. Winning the title again with one second left on the clock with Lajkovich. Which, that's not why I'm the champ. No, because I fought that fight with an asthma attack. You know, I was born asthmatic. The fact that I'm even boxing is unreal. You know, I spent my childhood in the hospitals. I got a, I hardly got an education. I dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, Joe.

12:54So, you know, I never, part of my school, they used to go on trips, was to come visit me in school because of my asthma. You know what I mean? So, for me to become heavyweight champion in the world two times and about to be three very soon, this is an accomplishment for not only myself, but for asthmatics. And people who didn't give up. Because I wanted to give up when Teddy left me. I wanted to give up, champ. Well, people who don't know boxing maybe don't know the legend of Teddy Atlas and how he directly connects to Customato and the early hard days of the Tyson camp. And, you know, Teddy's a, he's like a famous motivator, I would say, you know, in a lot of ways. But I think there's a certain amount of intoxication that comes from people telling you you're a great motivator and you start to believe it and buy it into yourself. You remember the Tim Bradley fight? Yes.

13:40Well, he's in Tim Bradley's corner and he's like, we're firemen! We fight fires! What do firemen do? They fight the fire! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love Teddy. Listen, man, you know, it's hard for me to talk about this now. Right. Because, like, this is before the fame for Teddy. Right. Like, when we met Teddy, I think he was working in a liquor store. I'm not, you know, sure. No disrespect, but, you know, that's just a fact. Mm-hmm. And he wasn't doing well financially and my manager was like, you know what, like I spoke about earlier about, he was a guy who can go out and raise capital. And he had this young kid from the same neighborhood as Mike Tyson. I had just won the national, excuse me, the U.S. Olympic Championships, 92. And 91, no, 92. And he was able to go out and get a guy and say, look, back my guy. You know, like racehorse. You know, let's keep it real.

14:25And he got this famous trainer to train his own racehorse. Right. And it was Teddy Atlas. And I submitted. I was like, hey, whatever, Teddy. You were all in. I had to listen. Right. It was this or jail. I said, dad was in prison. My stepdad was in prison. Mom is in the streets. And the manager was like, hey, you know what, sign with me. I'm going to put your mom in rehab. And I was like, hell yeah, okay. And he did everything he said he was going to do. And he gave Teddy. He believed in Teddy. And then I believed in Teddy. And Teddy in the process, I watched him say, he told me I would never be a commentator because he doesn't feel it is right to talk about fighters. This is what he told me. He said he would never be a commentator. But of course he is a commentator. This was before he became a commentator. Yeah, so he decided to become one. Right.

15:08A lot of things that were said, basically, when we split and he went on television, New York One, and said, hey, you know, he didn't think I had this in a third. I was like, damn, all the times that we were winning, it was we. When I lost that one time, it was me. So, you know, I just, you know. There's not an exact science to motivating people, right? There's not an exact science to training. And a lot of the relationship between a trainer and a fighter comes to, like, a perfect trainer for you might not be a perfect trainer for another guy. Right. It's just you've got to have that bond together. And whether you do or you don't, you don't find out until you're in there, right? Right, right. True. Now, looking back as a man now, as an accomplished man, and you look back on your days when you were 19 or 20, what do you think would have been different?

15:51Like, what would you have done to motivate yourself or to talk to yourself differently back then? You know, what I'm doing now, to be honest with you. I honestly tell you, Joe, like, what I'm doing right now, I'm being free. You know, everyone's not that type of fighter. You know, he worked great for, I guess, certain people. I'm not that type of guy. Look, I'm a funny guy. I like to have fun. I like to laugh. I like to bug out. You know, I like to live. You know, I'm happy. I'm a happy guy. Teddy is not. We different in that way. You know what I'm saying? And for a long time, look, for example, Ali. Yeah, Ali trained through Archie Moore. He trained with other trainers before he got to Dundee. Right. Dundee knew how to train Ali. Let him do him. And this is what I'm doing now. People say, you know, my guys who work with me, Jesse Robertson, Stacey McKinley, the great

16:35Stacey McKinley, the great Jesse Robertson, these guys know how to train me now. And although I'm 44, I'm 45, I've learned later on in life how to just be me. Be free. This works for Shannon Briggs. Win, lose, or draw, it works for Shannon Briggs, opposed to being someone else because someone else said. And I've done a lot of that. And it became a syndrome where it's like, you know, I grew up in this with a manager, with a trainer, and an investor. It became like a process for me to go through it over and over and over again. It's linked to the point where you're a man, champ. Do you feel like all these people were trying to shape you and you were resisting it or you were confused by it? I was going along with the program, champ. You know, whatever, you know, survival. You know, go along with the program. The hardest thing for me in my life was being homeless, you know, being a homeless teenager

17:21and losing my home. Because it wasn't like something that I was used to. I came home from school one day. I was going to Bishop Lockerbie High School and I came home and we were evicted. And I looked in the peephole and I looked and the apartment was empty. And I lived it all my life. I was born and raised in Atlantic Towers, you know. So that was a turning point for me. I left that building that day a homeless teen, homeless kid. And no more comic books, no more toys that I grew up, you know. And now people who look at me on the gram, they see my personality. You know what I'm saying? They see the comic book side of me. They see the television side of me. Whereas I lost my childhood that day. When I went home and we were evicted, that day became like I had to become a man that day. I took the bus to my aunt's house. And, you know, that night she kicked us out.

18:09So my life was no longer had a color TV in my room. And, you know, it was all about survival. You know, I started getting in trouble and life took me to where I am now. Wow. And you were boxing at the time too? Nah, never boxing. When did you start boxing? I started boxing when I was like 16, 17. So you started boxing as you were homeless? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And how were you doing that? Like where were you sleeping? Different places. Sometimes an aunt's house, a cousin's house, a friend's house. You know, sometimes a shelter. Wherever I could jump, to be honest with you. And so it wasn't until you started having some success as a boxer that you stopped being homeless. Yeah. Well, I got an apartment. My, rest in peace, Jimmy O'Farrell, my savior. I found his gym, Starratt City, when I was about 16 years old. And I slept there many nights too. I would stay in the gym. And that's kind of what came.

18:59It was funny because boxing always drew me back in because, you know, I might get in trouble, go to jail, get arrested or whatever as a teen. And if I wanted to get out of trouble, I'd have to go to get Jimmy O to hopefully sign for me for probation or something like that. And then I'd have to use the gym as my residence. I'd sleep in the gym, man. It was freezing many nights. But it's what I had to do. And so I was drawn back to boxing. You know, I wanted to, I always had the talent. So, you know, like for instance, let me tell you this. My first guy that ever looked, gave me some money was Shelly Finkel. Wow. The first guy, I was like 17 years old, 18 years old. He was looking for me. He was crawling around gym to gym. They said, that kid's homeless. It got back to me. And Shelly Finkel was looking for me. I couldn't believe it because Shelly Finkel was, you know, Shelly Finkel.

19:44Legendary boxing character. And I never forget, I swear to God, I went to see him. I went to see him, Joe. And he gave me five grand. He was like, you're going to make it. He said, I want, you know, seeing you, you know, with my team or whatever. I was like, I couldn't believe it. And I leave this building. I leave this building. I go to the, I'm in the train station, Joe. And I take out the money to get a token. This is when they had the token booth. And this had to be like 89, 90. And a guy seen me with the money. I was homeless at the time. He seen me trying to get a token. I took out one of the hundreds. He tried to rob me on the train. He followed me. I couldn't believe it. I had never seen $5,000, let alone. I had it in my pocket, right? And I'm thinking this, right? So he tries to rob me on the train. Bro, I beat this crap out of him. It was crazy. Picked the wrong dude. Yeah.

20:35Now, when you went that long period of your life where you're boxing consistently and then you stopped for a while. Right. What was going on there in your life? Let me see. How long did you stop for? Just three. How many years? A year here, two years here, three years here. I wasn't consistent. I wasn't consistent. Again, man, it goes back to the confidence. Just never really had the confidence to really want to do it, to just really feel like I had my feet solid in the ground. And these last couple years gave me that. It gave me the opportunity to just train nonstop. I call it not that I'm making up for lost time, but I call it making up for lost time because I'm training every day nonstop. I get my rest, of course, but I've dedicated my last four years to this. You know what I mean? And what made you decide to just clean everything up? Eat healthy? Stop drinking? What was it?

21:27How did you make that decision to just stop and get it together? I was suicidal, Champ. I was like, it's over. I had a daughter. I had my baby girl. I have two sons, Chan Briggs, my boy. I love him with death. Let's go, Champ. He's 19. My son, Caden Briggs, who's 10 years old. I love him, too. Let's go, Champ. And my baby girl, Chloe. And she changed everything. She's four now, and it was four years ago. I always relate everything to four years. Four years ago, my life changed. She came, and she was a spitting image of my mom. And I was just like, that was it. So when she came out, I could see my mom and her, and it was like, my mom reincarnated. I'm the only child, and here it was. I was back with my mother again. I could see it. It was an ear. It was like a ghost. And then I was fat. I was depressed. I held her every day. I sat on the couch with her every day for one year straight. Like 364 days. I kid you not.

22:19I sat. My wife would, in the morning, I would just give it to my wife to breastfeed. I held her every day. And then it was like 364 days. I was fat. I was a balloon. I'd get up only to get, like, food. You know what I'm saying? I'd eat a big bowl of, a box of cereal. I kid you not. I'd put the milk in the fridge. I'd put a whole box in a big, huge bowl. My friend called her the Unger Bunger Bowl. And I'd sit there and I'd eat a whole box, you know? And I would hold her all day. And then finally one day I said, you know what, bro? You're going to kill yourself. And I couldn't imagine her in this world, you know what I'm saying, having to do things to survive that some women have to do. You know what I mean? And just looking at her and the love for her, I got up and I started walking, man. I started saying, let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. You know? I had no entourage, no more friends. My money was gone.

23:06You know, I had an entourage at one point. I thought they jacked the show from me, you know? I had friends. I had calls. I had a lot of that. And, you know, that all disappeared. And it was just me and my baby girl and my family, my wife. Alana, shout out to my babe. Let's go, champ. And, you know, it was just a lot of hurt and memories and anger. And I was like, you know, I got to fuel this, champ. You got to put this in the right place, you know? And shout out to Teddy Atlas. No disrespect. I got nothing but love because I learned a lot from him, good and bad. You know, I won't say bad, but the bad things that I survived, those things made me who I am today. And that's why I have a family. That's why I'm able to, you know, be here with you today at 45 years old because I'm strong. You feel me? But one thing he told me, he told me a long time ago, 1992, he said,

23:50whatever your fuel is, whether it's anger, love, whatever, use it. It may be for some people may say, oh, it's wrong because anger. Some people may say, you know, oh, use positivity. Use what you got to use. You know what I'm saying? Do what you got to do to get what you got to get. And it was a lot of hurt and anger from my past, from that situation, from other situations, other management. And, you know, I mean, I've been through so much, champ. You know, I've been heavily involved with some of the biggest deals in probably this country's history. I kid you not. Live Nation deal. I was involved with that. I mean, one of the first reality shows, you look at the contender. I was involved at the top level of things, you know, disappointments, things not happening. What I was heavily involved in, I got shagged. So I was like, damn, you know what? Four years ago, I was like, yo, you know what?

24:36You've done everything, Shannon. You've done business. You did well. You know, I didn't make money. I haven't made much money in boxing. You know, I'm around guys like British Bow and Holyfield every day, guys who've made hundreds of millions of dollars. I'm lucky if I made $4 million, $5 million in boxing. You know what I'm saying? And the money I made, I've had, it wasn't given to me, champ. You know what I'm saying? I've been shagged. I'm going to keep it real with you. I've been shagged. So, you know, for me to, I'm sorry, I'm jumping around. You know, I learned to use all that, the fuel from that, the anger, from getting shagged so many times. Learning, Shannon, you're not a businessman. You're a boxer. Every time you was homeless, every time you was down and out, boxing saved you. You ran back to boxing. You was doing business. You made this, you made that. But boxing, you know what I'm saying?

25:26Having peace with that balancing act, like the negative moments that you had in your life not defining you and figuring out how to use them for fuel, figuring out how to look back on those negative moments and don't, like, wallow in them but say that's never going to happen again. Right. Isn't that, that's the great balancing act of the successful fighter because there's not a single successful fighter that hasn't come from some kind of conflict. A hundred percent. There's no other way. But, you know, I think we do this, some of us do this, in hopes there is a finish line. The finish line is you want to retire with money. You want to hopefully leave a name for yourself. You know what I'm saying? And you want to walk away with your brains. You know what I'm saying? So for me, I'm trying to leave with my brains. I'm trying to leave with some money. You know what I'm saying? And I'm trying to leave with a name.

26:10And I'm using that fuel. I'm using my past and my present because I got to tell you the truth. Although there is some past hurting, you can probably hear when I talk about certain things, there's so much positivity. There's so much great things that's happening right now that's surpassing the disappointments. Excuse me. The disappointments. So much positivity is happening right now, champ, all around the world. People saying, let's go, champ. Yeah. I couldn't imagine it, champ. I wanted to commit suicide. And now I'm walking everywhere I go, people going, champ. Champ. Dude, I got texts from everybody. When we put on Instagram that you were coming on here, I got texts from everybody. Michael Bisping, UFC middleweight champion. Let's go, champ. He was like, I love that guy. Let's go, champ. That's my man. So many people love you, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

26:56You are spreading so much fun and positivity through those posts. That's the real fuel. Honestly, champ, look, you're two tanks. There's the disappointments and the hurt. And then there's the reality that right now I'm alive. I survived bad food. I survived myself drinking, champ. Champ, listen. At one point, Joe, they had me on Deprico, Seroquel, Xanax, Zoloft, and Paxil. All together? Not together, champ. But they gave them to me. Now, listen. I didn't take Deprico and Seroquel because I was like, come on, champ. You can't be serious. When is that stuff? It's like tranquilizers. Jesus. That's how bad I was. They were trying to slow you down. They were trying to kill the champ. You know what I'm saying? Let's get this big killer and go to sleep. And I survived that. That's why I'm the champ. That's why I'm the champ because I survived that. It's overcoming to be like, you know what? I lost 160 pounds.

27:43Look at me, champ. You were great. Look at me, champ. Goddamn. Look at me, champ. And you're 44, almost 45. I'll be 45 in a week or two. And people are ducking you like crazy. Man, they don't want no piece of the champ. That's interesting. They don't want no piece of the champ. David Hay said he was all in. Saw for the baby shit. He said he was all in. I'm sorry. I curse. I apologize. That's okay. Curse away. Let's go, champ. David Hay was all in at one point. Yeah, soft. Saw too many left hooks in the liver. Soft in a biscuit. Soft in a biscuit. Yeah, yeah. What happened? I went over to England, which I love. What's my UK hat on? You went over there just to fuck with him. Man, totally. You got an apartment. Totally, totally. And again, that's the feel. That's the feel. Like, honestly, I was down and out, champ. Listen, so many days, you know, I was like, man, you know what?

28:25I'm trying this thing, man, and no one's giving me a shot. And I'm like, you know what, man, maybe I should get a job. And maybe I should. I'm like, you know what? Then I woke up one day and guess what? Snoop Dogg said, let's go, champ. Really? I swear to God. I remember that. He was smoking weed. Yeah. He was like, I'm fucking with you, champ. Let's go, champ. Come on, champ. That was the night before. I was like, bro. The night before, I was like, yo, bro, you really trying, champ. You have fights, man, and maybe it's never going to happen for you. You know what I mean? I was like, yo. And then I woke up like four or five in the morning. And Snoop Dogg was saying, let's go, champ. I said, I'm back. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. I said, I'm back. That was beautiful, man. Yeah, champ. Well, you've done some crazy shit, too, though, man. Like, especially with the Klitschkos. Yeah, soft. He's softening the biscuits.

29:11You've had a lot of fun videos, though, showing up, drinking his water. Yes. Fucking with him. Yes. You knocked him over when you were riding a boat. He was on the paddleboard. I got him. Chomp. How long ago was the paddleboard incident? I don't even know. I lost track of Tom, champ. I was like two years, maybe. But he just, you couldn't get a fight with him. Nah, nah. He's soft. I mean, listen, I've been chasing Klitschko, honestly, since like 2005. I was supposed to fight him. Like, honestly, we were supposed to fight. He fought in New York City. He was supposed to fight Shannon Briggs. Everything was, you know, set to go. And he wound up fighting Calvin Brock, who was from North Carolina. No one could, I couldn't understand it, where we had, you know, we literally had a contract. Yeah, it was a great fight. Right? It was going to sell out. A lot of fans. All the time. All the time. You know what I'm saying?

29:55Because I'm bringing that. That's what I come up with. He didn't want it. Because I was dangerous. And that's what I'm going through right now. They can say what they want about me, Joe. This and a third. Oh, he's crazy. He's this. But guess what? I'm dangerous. I've got tons of emails. I'm not a snitch. Listen, I've got tons of emails of guys with their managers saying, no, not right now. He's too dangerous. I've got Deontay Wilder backed out of a fight with me for $2 million. He can't front. I've got emails and everything. Let's go, champ. I'm getting excited, as you can tell. Once you started calling him Beyonce, I was like, uh-oh. Let's go, champ. Champ went to DEFCON 4. He started calling him Beyonce Wilder. As you can see, the meter's rising now, champ. The meter's rising now. Now we're talking about what I want to talk about, fights. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Yeah.

30:40It's the champ and Joe Rogan. Oh, man. Yeah. The Klitschko one was particularly hilarious because he was on that paddleboard. There's nothing more humiliating than to get knocked over on a paddleboard where people are talking shit. And he still wouldn't fight me. He still wouldn't fight me. Here it is right here. Look at him. First of all, what is he doing out there on a paddleboard by himself? Look at him. It's stupid. In the middle of nowhere. I mean, this is almost like a setup. Nah, it's stupid. He does this every Wednesday. Does he? Yeah, he does this every Wednesday. Where does he go? Go ahead. Where does he go? I got mine. Where does he go? Oh, he's at the coast of somewhere. Where is that? Is it Miami? Yeah, Fort Lauderdale. That's Hollywood, champ. Shout out to Hollywood, Florida. Best town in the world. Does he live down there? Yeah, he lives down there. I live down there. We all live down there.

31:27And so he would stand on that paddleboard, go out in the middle of the ocean, and he'd be paddling. And he'd just knock him over. Yeah. And he would just be paddling around. Yeah, that's his exercise. What a weird exercise. Yeah, he's a weirdo. He seems like a strange guy. Yeah, he's weird. That's how the beef started, Joe. Shout out to Chris Lawrence, the heavyweight factory, who's the greatest guy on earth, honestly. It wasn't for him. This guy put the fuel, put the cash behind me. I was flat on my face. This guy came and was like, you know why I believe in you. I was fat, depressed. He seen me in a fresh market. He was like, damn. I was like, you know. He seen me. I came back seven, eight months later. I came to his office. I was like, yo, champ, what's up? He was like, damn. He called me a week later and was like, yo, we should do something. I was like, let's go, champ. And here we are today.

32:11You know what I'm saying? I've been traveling the world, thanks to Chris. And now I've actually been ordered, the WBA has ordered a fight between me and Lucas Brown. And hopefully we can make that happen very, very soon. I was seeing something on your Instagram that it's still not signed yet, though. No. You're disappointed in that. Very disappointed. Now, is Lucas Brown trying to avoid it? Or what's happening? Is there complications? I don't know. You know what? You know, Joe, honestly, I've been through so much in the last couple of years with Wilder, with Klitschko, with Hay. I fought on Hay's undercard. I went over to England. Shout out to the UK. I love it. My second home. It was a big fuel injection behind what I'm doing right now because I went over there and I've never felt that type of love anywhere in the world for myself to go where we speak the same language. We speak their language.

32:56And just to have the love, man, it's just incredible. Everywhere I go, let's go, champ. You know, it's just amazing, man. That really put a lot into what I'm doing right now. But you decided to go over there and get an apartment. Yeah, I had to. I had to because I was flat on my ass, champ. And I was like, you know, trying to move up in the rankings. I gave everybody a call. Al Heyman, every Labella, everybody, everybody, the Cubans. I gave everybody a call. I was like, yo, I'm trying to get back in the game. Nobody believed in me. Chris Lawrence called me and was like, yo, I believe in you. And I was like, you know what, Chris? He said, yo, you're a little crazy. I said, I am. I've been diagnosed a little crazy. I suffer from PTSD. This is true. You know what I'm saying? But I'm exciting. And I'm going to make it happen because I'm a believer. Nothing can stop me, champ. You look at me. Nothing can stop me.

33:38I don't care who you get. Whoever say they can beat me, they lying. Because when we put you in the bell ring, champ, I'm a whole different person because I'm charged. Look at me. Look at what I've been through. Look what I'm telling you. You can hear the emotion in my voice. The pain still live, champ. I'm in. Let's go, champ. I'm in. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. I don't understand why it's so hard to get you fights. This is what drives me fucking crazy. Because I'm dangerous, champ. Look at me. Look at me. I see. And I'm crazy. I believe that. I'm here. But if I was a promoter. I don't care. I don't care who I fight. They can say what they're in. And I'm also not stupid. I'm not going to fight fights for guys, for pennies. That's meaningless. That's going to beat me up. I'm 44. I'll be 45. I already got so much limit on this body. I'm a heavyweight. I fought George Foreman, champ. I fought Vitaly Klitschko, champ.

34:22For free, by the way. We'll talk about that later. How is that free? For no money down. We'll get back to that. Right. I fought Francois Botha. Ray Mercer. You feel me? Yeah. I fought some big punches. George Foreman. So for me, I'm not going to go down. I'm not going to fight every guy out there just to try to build myself. I'm a former two-time heavyweight champion in the world. That alone should get me a title fight. That alone. That's how it used to be. Guys have come out of retirement from the beginning, from the Sullivan days, and came out of no fights and got a title fight. What drives me crazy is you're so marketable. That's what drives me crazy. The best ever. If you were in the UFC. No promoter. The best ever. They would be lining up fights for you left and right if you were in the UFC. Listen, champ. I know. I know Dana. Dana's my boy. Now, that's another story in itself.

35:061993 or 4, Meyerowitz is his name, right? Bob Meyerowitz. He sold the UFC to Dana and him, right? Yeah, in 2001. Call Rob right now. He tell you who his boy is, Shannon Briggs. He was sitting on the couch with me waiting for Mark Roberts to come home to try to get Mark to go in with him with the UFC. Wow. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Sitting on the couch with Rob. Well, boxing is hard to get fights lined up because there's so many different conflicting promoters and different, you know, everybody wants their piece of the pie. And then it's hard to get fighters to agree to fight someone like you who's dangerous. Yeah, I'm dangerous. I mean, you know, I'm fast. I punch hard and I got a chin. So, you know, they only count on one thing, that I run out of gas. And I say this all the time, champ. If your biggest asset is hoping that I run out of gas, you fucked up. Excuse me. I apologize, boys and girls.

36:01Don't apologize. You messed up. Excuse me. I apologize, boys and girls. You messed up. If you're relying on me running out of gas, that's your biggest. If you're going into a fight, talking about, man, I just hope you run out of gas. You already lost, champ. You already lost. Now, why are they worried that you're running out of gas? Because I know that you've concentrated a lot on your cardio. And it's one of the things you put on your Instagram. You're always doing cardio. You're constantly doing cardio. I'm cardio. I was born with underdeveloped lungs. I was born less than two pounds at birth. My mom was on heroin when I was born. Jesus. Yeah, so I came out the womb fighting to survive. I didn't go home for seven, eight, nine months before when I was born. So look at me now. That's why I'm the champ, Joe. That's why I'm the champ. Because if you can overcome, you're already the champ.

36:48You had underdeveloped lungs and asthma. Yes. All my life. You can ask anybody I went to school with. I went to Risen Christ Lutheran School in Brownsville, Brooklyn for seven years. Then I went to IS55. Then I went to Bishop Lachlan High School. Then I went to George Wingate where I got dropped out. Now, what causes asthma? What exactly? People like me who don't have it, you know it's bad, but you don't know much about it. What is it? I don't know, champ. But looking back, my mom lived in the towers, but where my grandmom lived on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York. Looking back, it was an abandoned building that my aunt bought from the city for $7. And they constructed, I'm sure it had asbestos in it and that whole type of shit, you know, looking back. Right. But, you know, I grew up, man, in the hood, champ. I grew up in the poor New York City, 1970s. I remember everything, the blackout.

37:37I was on the train by myself when I was nine years old. You know, I grew up hard. You know what I mean? So when you get an asthma attack, is it like, what does it feel like? I can't have to say asthma is really in the city, in the cities like that. It's worse than in the cities. In the cities. Chicago, L.A., I mean, you know, New York, shit like that. So you think it might be related to environmental stuff? Definitely. Yeah. 100%. Now, what does it feel like when you get an asthma attack? Oh, it's the worst thing in the world. It's like nothing you can ever imagine. Because we take it for granted because we take oxygen for granted because it's just here for us. But, you know, you can go without food and water. I say it all the time for, you know, days to weeks. But you can't go without oxygen for five minutes, four minutes, three minutes. And that's what it's like. It's just really you're dying.

38:18That's the bottom line. You're dying. A friend of mine described it as, he said it's like trying to breathe through a straw. It's like all of a sudden all you got is like a little straw hole. That's it. That's it. That's it. Have you ever had that happen in a fight? A hundred times. Really? Yes. Whoa. Yeah. What does that feel like? The worst. It's a fear, panicking. And you start talking and coming up with things and believing and doing anything you can do. You know, that's why a lot of people are religious and a lot of people go to different things for something outside of themselves that they can, you know, hold on to or ask for help for. You feel me? Me? I'm a little different. I know it's just me. I got to deal with these lungs and I got to do what I got to do to expand them. And when I'm in a fight, if that fear or anything comes overcomes, so what? Let's go, champ.

38:59Now, when you have an attack, does it just take a while before it relaxes and comes back? Like, what is the feeling? Man. I mean, I know people take inhalers and I guess inhalers dilate your lungs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like being in the water, champ. You're drowning almost, I guess. You know what I'm saying? You're panicking, I guess. You know, you're suffering. You're trying to get that oxygen. But, you know, it's something that I really, thanks to, you know, things that I'm doing now, my diet first. And I really feel like, you know, I've overcome it. So, the diet, cutting out the sugar, eating really healthy. No dairy. No, nothing that causes inflammation. Yes. No inflammation. That made a big factor. Inflammation is key. Inflammation is key. CBD, shout out. Yeah, CBD is amazing, right? CBD is amazing. Unreal. Now, from doing that, you don't have any asthma attacks anymore? No. Wow. That's amazing.

39:51I feel a great champ. I feel like a man of steel. I honestly do, you know? I feel like I'm in the best shape of my life, literally. Have you ever done any breathing exercises? You ever gotten? I have to. I have to, you know, and it's hard, Joe, because I'm a family man. I got, you know, kids and no excuse, but I have a family to take care of, provide for, and I have a career. So, that's a lot of things people don't understand. Like, I've always juggled both, you know, taking care of my family and myself and a boxing career. And it's been crazy, but it's been an amazing ride, champ. And where I'm at right now, ooh, let me tell you, boy, Joe, everywhere I go, champ. Yeah. Well, when did you, when did the social media thing kick in? When did you start doing it? My nephew, Craig. Shout out to Craig Brown. Let's go, champ. My nephew, Craig, came about four years ago. I had my first Instagram account.

40:39I was like, it was just photos then. And I was like, you know what, man? I'm going to lose this weight. And it sounds like a corny thing. Everyone's doing like little blogs, but I'm going to just do my own, you know, even for myself. And I put it up. I had nine followers, champ. And it built to like, you know, 2,000. I was like, man, if I could ever get to 5,000, man, you know, I'll be there. And I never paid for the followers. And they went through this whole thing where they dropped everybody who would pay for the followers. And I wound up being like 5,000. I was like, man, if I could ever get to 10,000. And then they came up with the video. And Craig came to town. I was like, yo, Craig, I'm going to work out every day. And I want you to film it. And we're going to put it on Instagram and see how it goes. And it just took off. But it's just hilarious how much it's taken off. It's too much, champ.

41:23Like, when I tell people that you were going to be on, man, I'm telling you, like, not like anybody else that's ever been on. They got a wave of people that got excited about it. I appreciate that. Because they don't have a publicist, champ. I do everything. We do everything in-house, champ, which is just me and Craig and my family. We do everything. We don't have any marketing behind us, nothing. We just out here grinding. And fortunately, we've got the shot now for this WBA Heavyweight Championship. It's been ordered. As far as Brown and their team, they've been delaying. I'm not sure if he's going to drop out and just give me the belt. I'm not sure what's happening. But we've been waiting for them to pull the trigger. They said they were going to, you know, find a venue and everything. We talked about Australia. They talked about China. Who's the promoter?

42:03Well, you know, his management team and his lawyer, Leon Michaelis, are handling most of it. But if they don't come with a deal, champ, but basically, I already feel like everybody's scared of me. So I think they can just give me the belt. Because I just want to fight Klitschko, to be honest with you. Because I want to prove to the world that he's softened in a biscuit. Because he really is. I fought his brother with one arm for 12 rounds. One arm for 12 rounds. This happened in the first round, Joe. You tore your bicep. In the first round, yeah. In the first round. Not only tore the bicep, the tendon popped. They had to go through both sides. This was in the first round. I took, like, unreal punches to the head. I forgot how many numbers it was. But I took unreal punches to the head. They left me for dead. I didn't even get paid for the fight, champ. Now, what happened there? How'd you not get paid?

42:45Listen, I started a promotional company called Golden Empire. It was basically backdoored and changed to the empire. We fought. The company felt as though certain things that were allotted to me, I don't know. They said I had a tab. I don't know. It was crazy. But the tab was never produced. The company that I started basically wasn't my company anymore. And I was supposed to be giving shares. This company wound up going to try and purchase EDC, Electric Daisy Carnival, through my introduction. It got crazy. It went public. The night before my fight, the stock was up. I had no shares. I said I'm not signing nothing until I know I'm guaranteed a purse. It was crazy, champ. This is what led to my depression. This is why I went home after the fight. I was like, yo, what happened here? I fought Vitality Clistico for 12 rounds. I took ass from it. I didn't even get paid. That's crazy.

43:39And I was in court with them for eight months before I settled out on pennies on the dollar because I had to take care of my family, champ. And this is what drove me to pure depression. But then I overcame that. And now I'm here with you. How much did they fuck you out of? Champ, who knows? Who knows? I mean, the fight, and this is facts. This is facts, champ. Like they say in New York, facts. You feel me? Listen, it was the highest grossing fight as far as TV coverage in history, either one or two in German history, Shannon Briggs versus Vitality Clistico. Well, he's a huge star in Germany. Huge. And I went over there and I bought action. And the people was like, yo, listen, this guy can sell. We want to see this fight. The ratings were unreal. It was like the highest rating in history. Champ, I didn't get $1. That's so crazy. Not $1, champ. How can I not fall into depression?

44:27But how could I not come out of it? I've been fighting since day one, champ. Fight to breathe. I've been fighting to breathe, champ. So that was the last big, bad moment. Yeah, that was harsh. Yeah, that was, I'm back to normal. Yeah, that was harsh. But you came out of it, man. Yeah, champ. That's the beautiful thing about it. You came out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt. Now, at 44, almost 45 years old, how much- Sagittarius, December 4th. How much have you had to alter your training? Like, as you've gotten older, you've gotten wiser with it? Because I remember there was something that Larry Holmes talked about a lot when he got older. He's like, what he did that was smarter, he goes, I'm not training seven days a week anymore, six days a week. He goes, I'll train four or five. He goes, and I won't do three hours. I'll do an hour and a half.

45:14You know, and he just, he still was able to maintain a very high level by, but understanding the limitations of his body. Yeah, shout out to Larry Holmes, who's always giving me nothing but great advice. He's an assassin. The man, one of the greatest of all times, if not the greatest heavyweight of all time. He just had the unfortunate of being right after Muhammad Ali. 100%. People just didn't appreciate him or love him. 100%, but he could definitely get busy. Oh, yeah. He was a great boxer. He's been giving me advice since the 90s, I mean, early 90s. He told me recently, he said, don't stop fighting. He told me, don't stop fighting. Whatever you do, don't stop. He said, keep fighting. I don't care what they tell you, win, lose, or draw. He said, don't stop fighting. I was like, really? He was like, I'm telling you, don't fight to the end. That's what we do.

45:55He said, if I could have, I would have stayed fighting to the end. I remember when Larry came back, when Mike Tyson went to jail. He's like, fuck it, I'm coming back. Mike Tyson's locked up. And he came back and he outboxed Ray Mercer. And I was like, wow, look at Larry, man. That's right. To skill and talent and that jab. He had like one of the most underrated jabs ever. The best. The best. So when you are now at 44 years age, you're healthier than ever before. You take care of yourself better than ever before. You look fantastic. Thank you, Jeff. Have you altered your training at all? Like, what have you done to make sure that everything is, you know, going smooth? Yeah, when I first came back, I was ODing, of course. I was like, again, trying to make up for lost time. So I was training every day, every day. And the injuries were just coming in. You know what I mean?

46:39And the Achilles, this one, that one, the elbows. Just going too hard. Yeah, I was going too hard. Then I met Dr. Buck at Whole Foods one day. Shout out to Dr. Buck. And he was like... Who's Dr. Buck? He's a nice guy, man. He's a... What is he? Chinese doctor? Chinese medicine doctor. And he gave me a great plan. He was like, you know, champ, you should train three days, take a day off, train two days, take two days off, train four days, take three days off. And I was like, wow. He was like, trust me. It'll work for you. He was like, the body needs rest. And I started doing that, champ, and he's been working for me great. I feel better than ever, honestly. I've never felt this strong. I've just sparred day four yesterday. Shout out to Trevor Bryant. I've been coming heavyweight. He gives me great work. It wasn't for him. I'm where I'm at thanks to him. He's been training me for the last three years.

47:22I've been watching him train, sparring. We sparred the other day. I'm going to get you because he put me in the eye, by the way. But I'm still pretty. Let's go, champ. And I've been training me. I've been sparring. I'm the fastest I've ever been. I'm strong enough to have been. I see everything. You know what I mean? In the ring. When I was young, man, again, I was battling with, I'm not supposed to be here. Right. Now I'm in there like, you're not supposed to be here. You feel me? You're not supposed to be here. You know what I'm saying? Y'all feel good, champ. I get it now, man. Let's go, champ. I get it. But it's all about getting yourself prepared for the moment where you can perform. Right. And I think so many guys leave too much in the gym because they have this thing in their head that you can't do too much. Train smarter, not harder. That is it, right? And it's a balancing act. Train smarter, not harder.

48:11Trying to find that balance between the correct, like, you don't want to sell yourself short. You don't want to not push hard enough to reach your potential. But how do you figure out, like, when you're in and when you're out? How do you figure out how to reach that perfect potential? Because only you know. You know, I was working with a guy, and I love him. Shout out to Billy Beck. And Billy Beck told me, he said, you know what, you got to once in a while push yourself to see how far you can go. He said, you know you can run 15 miles, but can you run 20? And I was like, damn. You know, so once in a while I do give myself that, you know what, what can you do? You know, I'm going to try to make it up and down these stairs, you know, 100 times. You know what I mean? I'm going to do the best I can just once in a blue. And then I give it, you know, and I might do that again in three months or two months.

48:56You know what? You got to know your body, too, champ. You got to be honest with yourself. Because I wasn't always honest with myself. Because of asthma, I was having high anxiety when it came to running and when it came to, like, pushing my lungs. Because this is something I've experienced all my life since birth. I can't remember, you know, finishing school because I was always in the hospital. I grew up in St. Mary's in Brooklyn, St. John's in Brooklyn, Kings County in Brooklyn. I grew up in the hospital. I can tell you what the children's playrooms look like. You know what I'm saying? I mean, kids ward. So I grew up in these places. So for me, to become a boxer and have to use so much breathing, it's amazing. You know what I'm saying? I'm not trying to give myself a blowjob, but it's just the truth. You know what I mean? Right, right.

49:36I mean, what other heavyweight and champion in history can honestly say they suffered from something with undeveloped lungs and became a champion in it? Am I the greatest champion? Hell no. But could I be? Possibly. Because if I had the lungs that some of these guys had, who knows how good I might be. I'm fast. I hit hard. I'm crazy. I'm with whatever. I'm with whatever, champ. You know what I'm saying? Joe, they haven't seen the best of me, to be honest with you, champ. They've never seen the best of me. No one has. And that's why I'm back. Because I don't want to leave this earth or wherever I'm going, the next level, the next dimension. I don't want to go saying, man, I wish they had seen me. Because I'm nice, Joe. Honestly, those who really know me, I'm really good at this boxing thing. I'm self-taught. I watched Muhammad Ali and Ray Robinson, too.

50:19I was blue in the face as a kid, and I mimicked them as a heavyweight. You got one of the best left hooks to the liver. I got that from Chavez. Vamo's Campeon. Oh, yeah. There you go. Let's go, champ. Vamo's Campeon. Shout out to Geraldo Gomez. Geraldo Gomez. Part of this comeback. My brother. Yeah. I got that from Chavez. It's a stabbing left hook. I got it. I go around here. You get in there. I reach around. Yeah, you get in there. You get in there. I reach around. I reach around. I snatch it. Shout out to Mike. You know black people when I shout outs. Mike McCallum. Mike McCallum. I got that from him. Oh, yeah. I met Mike when I was like 18 years old in Prospect Park. Oh, wow. I remember when he knocked out Donald Curry. I was a huge Donald Curry fan. I got so depressed. I had to go running. I shut the TV off. I was like, fuck. I went running. He hit him with a left hook to the body and went upstairs. Boom.

51:09Knocked him out cold. Shout out to Terry. Shit. I had to go running. I ran and I said to myself, I'm never going to get depressed out of somebody else's loss ever again. I was a kid. Shit. I was so bummed out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was a huge Donald Curry fan. Donald Curry was crisp. Mike taught me the hat, but I watch Chavez so much. Body snatcher. I watch Chavez so much that I just, I feel like if we're heavyweight, I've got it perfect. If I get you there, you can call it goodnight. It might catch up to you later though. It might be chilling for a minute. Round, next round, you'll be like, oh shit. Gotcha. Yeah. In there. Let's go, chap. Now, do you follow a strength and conditioning program? Do you have a trainer that you work with for strength and conditioning? Yes. I work with different guys. What kind of shit do you do? Oh, type of shit, champ. Oh, you name it. I've been doing this for years.

51:51I worked with Mackie Shillstone, champ. Oh, Mackie. Back in the days before this was popular. I mean, he was back. He worked with Spinks. Don't get me wrong. But I work with Shillstone. I've worked with guys. This ain't nothing new to the champ. You feel me? Well, Shillstone was the first guy that really became prominent as a strength and conditioning coach for boxing. Yeah. Yeah. Tom Shaw. Yeah. I worked with the great Tom Shaw. Tom Shaw is the man. Yeah. I worked with Duke Roos, man. You know Duke Roos? I know the name. Duke Roos. I worked with Duke Roos out of New Orleans. He's the best in the world. Rod Gillis. I worked with everybody, champ. And Mackie Shillstone was the guy that pumped Spinks up when he fought Larry Holmes. That's right. That's right. He bulked him up a little bit, but didn't slow him down. That's right. He had that speed, boy. Didn't he work with Holyfield, too?

52:29He worked with Holyfield as well, I think. No, I think he worked with Haney. Lee Haney. Oh, okay. He might have worked with Holy, though. Holy's the man. Holy worked with everybody, too. Holy was the real guy who bought that into prominence. As far as strength and conditioning. And boxing. Especially in boxing. You know what I mean? Especially in boxing. Well, he was one of the first guys where weightlifting became accepted. Exactly. Because for the longest time, boxing trainers would tell you that weightlifting slows you down. That's right. Which it kind of does, because it makes you sore. This is true. And then you don't perform as well in the gym. But once you recover, then you're fast again. Yes. So Holyfield was like one of the first guys to make that leap. Yes. To understand, like, look, he's going to go from a cruiserweight to a heavyweight. Yes. And he became a legit heavyweight. One of the best ever.

53:11One of the best ever. I mean, his performances against Mike Tyson. Unreal. Come on, man. That first fight in particular. How about him and Bo? Oh, what? Sheesh. Him and Dokes. Him and Dokes. Yes. Come on. Oh, man. The Dokes fight was crazy. You ain't seen me and him move another day? Me and Holy? No. On Instagram? No. He still got it. He still got it. How old is Holyfield? Holy like 50-something, but he got it. Is he still fighting? No, he ain't fighting. He stopped. No, but he still got it, champ. I was moving with him another day. Wow. He still got it. Wow. Bo still. Bo too. Riddick Bo. He in the gym with me every day. Really? Every day. Every day. Wow. Yep. He live in Florida. He's a great guy. He's a funny. Is Holyfield in Florida too? Yes, he is. Wow. So he still trains all the time? Every day. How come he doesn't fight anymore? He chilling. He like, yo. Just said enough is enough? He chilling. We're good? Yeah, he chilling. Wow.

53:58So when you work with a strength and conditioning coach, what is a week in the life of Shannon Briggs when it comes to training? Say if this fight gets signed and you know you're going to get started, how do you organize your weeks? I already started, but what I'm doing is basically I'm using a strength and conditioning day with boxing, a running day with boxing, a rest day, a strength and conditioning day with boxing, a run day, then another run day. Do you ever fuck with yoga? The best, yes. Do you? Christine. Yeah, Christine is great. Yeah. So you got all kinds of stuff going on. Flexibility. I have to. I have to. I'm doing everything I can do, possibly cryo machine, you name it, hyperbaric chamber, everything I can do. I'm looking for the edge because everyone's there. They got it, champ. I'm broke. They got money. So imagine what they got. And now I'm scrambling to get everything I can get.

54:45You know what I mean? To get to the next level. I know. I know. I see it. I see it. I see it in you, man. And me, like many other people, rooting for you. Thank you, champ. It's frustrating when I see you getting close to these fights with guys like David Hay. Yeah. And then it falls apart. He is such a sucker. What happened with him? He said he was going to fight you. I went over to England, champ, and they showed me nothing but love. They seen the true character of who he really is and that he ain't really a good dude, man. He's a businessman, but he's also like a, you know, he's a weird dude, man. You know what I mean? I shook his hand. We said we had to go. It was a great fight. We didn't lose a draw for either one of us. And everything was said. And I did everything they needed me to do. And then he just deaded. He was looking for another deal.

55:29And the truth of the matter is, I heard this from inside, that he was like, he's too dangerous. You know? That's just the bottom line, which is what they all say. Well, he's a fairly small heavyweight. Yeah, I smashed him up. That was an easy win for me. That was a layup. I was like, oh, look at him. I'm going to smash. And he was scared. I looked at him in his eyes. I'm from Brownsville. I got one thing. I can smell when you're scared. I'm from the same neighborhood as Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe. I know when a man's scared. I went up on him, Joe. I looked in his eyes. I seen his lips. He was trembling. He was scared. I could smell it. I was like, ooh. I said, this is a layup. This is a layup, champ. This is an easy one, champ. Yeah. What does he weigh? He's not only a heavy guy. Nah, I had that one, champ. I could see me just snatching him. And just ripping him up. He went vegan, too.

56:09He went vegan, so he lost even more weight, probably. Oh, yeah, exactly. I'm eating bulls and cows and all types of dinosaurs. I'm a straight animal. What is your diet like? How do you organize your diet? Organic, everything. You know what I'm saying? Just to try to, you know, if it's meant to be meant to. Camping out at Whole Foods. I camp out. They know me well. You know what I'm saying? They should be sponsored by me. Shout out to Whole Foods. I'm there every day. It's $150 to $200 a day for the family. Yeah, it's every day. Every day for the last four years, we've been eating from Whole Foods. Whole Foods is not cheap. It's not cheap. $150 to $200 every day is bad. And I'm not bragging. I'm actually complaining. But that's what it took. Because no sugar. I'm eating right. I use coconut sugar. You know what I'm saying? I just tried to do the best I can. Considering I'm not a nutritionist. I live on my iPhone.

57:00As you can tell, I'm always posting. I'm always looking for new recipes or the next edge. You know what I'm saying? The best I can for myself. So I eat fairly well. Organic meats. I don't eat pork. I don't eat shellfish. No dairy. You know what I mean? I'm just keeping it as best I can. Do you get your blood work monitored? I do that as well, yeah. I try to keep my levels where they need to be. Do you supplement? Do you take vitamins? No, unfortunately. No, not right now. Not right now. Some CBD that I've been, you know. And I was ahead of the game with that too, champ. And I'm not trying to give myself a blowjob. But I was suffering from depression, champ. And I was fortunate to, I went and got like 10 different MRIs. And I was like, what's wrong with me? I'm always depressed. I'm always feeling like, you know, I feel anxiety overcoming me. And I was given this and that.

57:44And then I was hip to CBD five years ago, four years ago. And a life-changing experience. You know what I mean? But I'm here, champ. I'm here. Well, CBD, it's an interesting thing because it's a part of marijuana, but it's not psychoactive. Not at all. So a lot of people, they hear about it and they get worried about it. Right. They feel like it's drugs. Yes. Yes. But it has nothing to do with that. It's like one of the beneficial parts of the plant. Right. It just eliminates inflammation. And for people that have arthritis or all kinds of other injuries or just hard training like you're doing. And I was drinking since I was a kid. You know what I mean? Honestly. And I had a family member that was a marijuana smoker. And this person was abusive to me. Very abusive physically and mentally. And so the smell of marijuana was something that always reminded me of those times as a child. So, you know what I mean?

58:35Growing up. So I never was attracted to weed ever. But drinking was my game, which was worse. You know, I was drinking since I was a kid and I shouldn't have been. And they let me down some dark days. Were you drinking during training camps? Not really. I was never that type of drinker. But after a fight, you know, celebration, Heineken and Hennessy was, you know, chasing and just being, you know, a kid. Yeah. Being an idiot. Not a kid. Being an idiot. And how did you get off it? My daughter. Man, you know, my daughter. You know, I was taking, like I said, I was taking the different antidepressants. And they gave me Xanax as well. And my mom was a heroin addict. Like I told you. And, you know, she died on my birthday of an overdose. And I said, if I was ever hooked on drugs, I'd rather die than, you know what I'm saying, be a slave or hooked on something.

59:23And I remember not taking the Xanax for a couple of days and just having like the jitters. And I was like, yo, this is horrible. And that happened. That went on for like six months. And I was blessed. And when I was introduced to CBD, because my life changed. I went from not knowing what I was going to do and fearful to calming down. And this was all from my past. So many things happened to me as a kid. I don't need to harp on, but my childhood was rough. And people don't realize how much kids internalize and become adults. A broken kid is a worse adult. It forms you. Yeah, it forms you. And when I got money, champ, I was 20 years old. My manager, you know, moved me out to Jersey. I was living in South Orange first. West Orange, big mansion. You know what I'm saying? I always lived in a nice house. I had a car. It was, but I had no money. But I had the things that, you know what I'm saying? To me, I made it.

60:15I had a credit card to get clothes. All I had to do was fight. So I had a nice thing going. But I wasn't really dealing with the fact that my mom was on drugs. My dad was in jail. You know what I'm saying? You weren't at peace. I wasn't nowhere near peace. And that's what yoga has done for me. Yoga has done that for me. People, you know, they see the crazy side of me. Like, I'm like the spiritual crazy warrior. Don't even say spiritual because I'm not even spirit. I'm just like the crazy warrior. But I get centered when I have to. And that's what I'm learning. Like, I never knew how to turn on the let's go champ. I tell everyone, listen, there is a champion with all of us. People see me hype how I go from. That's me turning on the champ. Champ. That's me turning on the champ because I didn't know how to do that. That's why I said I'm in the best shape ever. Because now I can zone out.

61:00I was on my way over here, champ, in the car. And I was like, damn, I'm nervous. And let me tell you why. When I was fat and depressed and down and out, I was watching you. And I said, damn, I need to get my shit together. And to do that, one day I'll be on Joe Rogan's show. And I'm not bullshitting you. Anybody can say whatever they want to say. I'm sitting to be honest with you. So on the way over here, I was mad nervous. But I was like, let's go champ. No need to be nervous, man. You know one of the things I love about you, too? You push that positivity on other people. And you want them to be positive, too. It's not just about you. You call everybody champ. Everybody's a champ. They're all smiling. You look at your videos. That's real. That's a real thing. I'm happy, man, because I'm happy to be alive, Joe. I wanted to kill myself. So many kids commit suicide around the world, champ.

61:46I've got thousands of emails and texts. Kid you not. I can show you on my phone. Thousands of emails and texts from people around the world. I said, champ, I was suffering from depression. And I wanted to kill myself, but thanks to you watching your videos, I'm motivated. And I'm not BSing you. Thousands, over 15,000 of people telling me, champ, thank you. Champ, thank you. So this, for me, is amazing. No publicist, no company behind me. This is just me and Craig. That's all you need, though. That's the beautiful thing. You feel me? But that's why I feel good, champ. Yeah. Because I'm like, damn, if this was not real, organic, I'd be like, okay. I could be like, oh, you know. But this is just real. Right. It's not like a marketing game. It's me, champ. And I'm either going to win, lose, or draw, and ain't going to be no loser being who I'm going to be for once in my life.

62:27Well, that's the beautiful thing about social media is that it lets you be you 100%. That's right. Like, there's no director going. Let's go, champ. Yeah, there's no director going, Shannon, I see what you're saying, but now I want something different from you. Right, right, right. You've got the let's go, champ. Right, right, right. So let's try. I'm sticking. I tell people when it comes to that, people say, oh, it's boring. You know, you do the same thing on Thomas. It's just me, champ. Fuck them. Yeah, I'm like, you know what? You watch it too much. Come back later. Yes, yes. Come back later, champ. That's exactly. Look, I tell people that about my podcast. You know, they go, man, I'm tired of listening to you. Good. Take some time off. I get tired of me, too. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Take some time off. That's right. That's all. I'm not changing shit. Just relax. Man, Joe, I'm happy to be here.

63:06I ain't going to lie to you, champ. I'm happy to be here, man. I'm happy to be here, man. This feels good, man, for real. I need to vent, too, as you can hear. You know what I mean? I need to vent a little bit about the Atlas thing. And not that, you know what I mean? I held it in all this time because it's fuel. It's fuel. I ain't going to lie. You know, I watched it many days. I said, damn, man. Like, you know, why you threw me under the bus like that? And you know what I mean? It hurt. So now I spoke about it. He's a hard man. He's a hard man. By the way, I got a huge article coming out for ESPN by Bryn Jonathan Butler. It's unreal. For him to do this piece, he's the guy who's done, like, he's done some amazing pieces, champ. Mike Tyson, Tupac. He's done some amazing pieces. He's got a piece coming out that's going to be unreal into the money. Not that I'm plugging him.

63:44I just want you to know this is going to be unreal. Beautiful. It's going to be on ESPN? Yeah, ESPN. It's going to be sick. Wow. Yeah, it's going to be sick. That's giant. Well, there's a lot of momentum in your side. It's just a matter of getting a fight signed. Yeah, yeah. You know, and the heavyweight division right now is pretty exciting. Yeah. It's done. The fight's done. The fight's done. I'm just saying for Brown and those people to act like they were going to grab the bull by the horn and not be able to come up with a deal. You know, they had to. I think they have a couple days until we go to purse bid. Like, if that was the case, we should have just went to purse bid. I'm ready now. Right. You know what I'm saying? I'm ready now. I don't want no more delays. I don't want to play with this boy. I don't want to call him a boy. I don't want to play with this man, this young man, with a family.

64:25I don't want to play with him. I want the bell to ring because he in my way. Right. I understand. But he's in my way. Right. And there's nothing, like, people don't understand. Like, you can call me crazy, but that's okay. Look, in my mind, in my mind, this is like already written. Destiny, I was out of shape. I was down and out. I wanted to kill myself. And now I came back with nothing behind me but the people. The people share everywhere I go. He's in my way. He's just like a tornado coming. He's a road. I'm going to tear him apart. He's just in my way because I got a bigger picture, Jam. All the belts. I want the people around the world. Yeah, all the belts, Jam. I want people all around the world to be like, yo, hear my story. I don't have a great record. I've got like six or seven, five, six losses. Who knows? I had ups and downs. I've never been considered a great.

65:10But I fought guys who will tell you on the low. Man, he get busy. Ask Lennox Lewis. They'll tell you guys who know me or who boxed. Ask Chris Bird. They say, you know what? Shannon never really. I've never really seen Shannon. Shannon. They've never really seen Shannon. I'm keeping it real. They never seen me. They're going to see me. When this fight gets done, they're going to see me. They're going to see the real Shannon. They're going to say, wow. We didn't know you had all that talent. We didn't know. Let's go, champ. Yeah. They're going to see it, champ. They're going to see it for real. This is a lot of suffering and pain, champ. I believe it. And a lot of love, too. Because they're all around the world. They're saying, let's go, champ. And they're feeling the positivity. And they're saying, you know what, champ? We're behind you, man. The people, champ. That's not happening in boxing, champ.

65:51And that is another reason that's fueling me. Looking at the boxing, look at the state of the heavyweight division. It was flat before me, champ. Chrisco was doing nothing but sticking up the vision for years. Grab hold. Grab hold. Come on, champ. You're the heavyweight champion in the world. You're supposed to be the biggest prize in sports. You're supposed to be out there doing interviews. You're supposed to be Muhammad Ali of the state. You're supposed to be around, kids around the world are supposed to know who the heavyweight champion in the world. When I was out there trying to campaign, and even to this day, you ask somebody who's the heavyweight champion in the world, they don't even know. Nobody knows. Nobody knows now. And he was a white guy. Yeah, but ask them now who's, they don't even know. Nobody knows. Nobody knows. Now, you go around, and people call me one thing, champ. Yeah.

66:32They say champ when you're fighting. Exactly. So that's what I'm talking about. Bringing back the energy to the game. Listen, people told me all the time, the people in the game, and I hear people, you know, rag you. I see you on the comments, rag me to you, and this, and that, and I appreciate you, champ, for, you know, holding me down. But listen to this, champ. Listen to this, champ. The people inside of boxing is one thing. Inside of contact sports is one thing. But when you got people who don't watch boxing, who don't never watch boxing, say, hey, champ, I watch you, champ. It's social media. It's social media. You feel me? 100%. That's what's doing it. So that's my goal. That's my point. The boxing people, cool. Not that I don't want them to know me. I'm not trying to alienate them and say, oh, no, fuck them. I'm saying, that's cool. I love y'all. Oh, you don't like me. I know I suck.

67:18I'm this, and I'm third. But the outside people all around the world who don't watch boxing, the ladies, the kids, it's the champ. Shannon the Cannon. The kids. That's who I want. I want because that's what I have right now. Kids everywhere. I came out of a place the other day, and a kid, I know he wasn't a boxing fan. He said, hey, champ. I said, wow. I felt good, champ. I felt good, bro. I was like, that was like a Wheaties moment, champ. You feel me? I felt like a Wheaties moment. Like, hey, champ. You know what I mean? And that's what I want, man. I want people to be excited about boxing because boxing saved my life. Every time I left the game, champ, my life fell down. Well, there was a long period of time while Klitschko was the heavyweight champion where literally no one could tell you outside of real hardcore boxing fans who the heavyweight champ was. Here in America, right. Here in America.

68:01That was never the case. You would ask people who's the heavyweight champion, and they would, oh, it's Mike Tyson, it's Lennox Lewis, it's Evander Holyfield, whoever it was. But for a long period, no one cared. It was just such a boring style. Yeah. He didn't want to mix it up and put it on the line. He was more concerned with his legacy, I guess, and playing it safe. And, you know what I mean? I think it's like if you look at wrestling or even like MMA, like you guys come back. You guys fight and you lose. Okay, you come back. You fight again. There's no set schedule one with these guys with boxing. And then guys don't want to lose. You know, and then they fighting guys. They fighting what I call pies. You know, they fight pies just to stack up their record. You know what I mean? So they got great records. And we all do it. You got to pass. It's the game. Unfortunately, it's the game.

68:45But if you were telling me, look, you can fight Klitschko and win, lose, or draw, you're guaranteed going to fight another fight for $3 million. You'd fight this guy all the time. Right. But what happens is when you lose, then you go back to making $500 a fight, $5,000 a fight. So guys don't want to lose. Right. It's just part of the game. In boxing, the record, the winning record is so much more important than in MMA. In MMA, it's just about being exciting. If a guy has some losses, nobody gives a shit. You know I'm 4K1, right? Yeah. Yeah, you did, right? What was that like? Getting leg kicks. The worst thing ever. Never again. The worst thing ever. Who did you fight? Erickson? Tom Erickson. Tom Erickson. Yeah. Let's go, champ. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I kicked the shit out of me, champ. Yeah. I think I'm the first guy ever to scream in the history. Ah! Did you train at all leg kicks? I did. I did. I did. And I can't shit.

69:40It was for nothing. Because he kicked the hell out of me, champ. He's a big fella. Oh, man. I couldn't believe it. It felt like it sounded like two bats hitting together. Bop! Bop! Bop! I said, if he kicked me one more time, I got to go down. I can't take it. Wow. I don't care. I don't care. You know, I said, I can't take it. If he, one more, he kicked me again. Bop! I said, ah! I said, that's it. And I jabbed him to the body. Boof! And he looked at me. Because I'm able to read fast. You got to be able to read within tenths of a second, milliseconds in boxing. I read in his eyes that that wasn't that bad. Like, he must have felt like it wasn't that strong of a punch. And he could come in. He came in the punch at that point. And when he came in the punch, I let the cannon go. The left right. Boof! Hit him, champ. Got him on top of the head. Sheesh! Let's go, champ! Got him, champ.

70:27I get excited because I know the feeling now. I've tapped in. All these years I was playing with the game. Now I finally tapped in because I've focused and concentrated on just doing this. That now I know how to put it there. I know how. This is my gift. This has been my gift. I've had a rough life, but my gift is that I have a talent in something. That I've always kind of ran from. I've had my own reasons, but now I've got it. I've channeled this shit. I've channeled this shit. How did the K-1 thing come about? Oh, man. Herman Caicedo. Shout out to Herman. He, you know, me in the hustle, me in the struggle, trying to make some bread. Man, I'm a businessman. You know, I'm a working man. Not a businessman. I'm a working man. And it's work. You know what I mean? I was going to fight in UFC. I came out to Vegas, champ. Dana put me up at the prom or somewhere. MJ, he put me up in a suite.

71:18He was talking about me fighting. What's my boy's name? The big white dude. Back in the days. I'm going to say around 2005, 2006. Randy Couture? No. No? Big white dude. Tall, tall. Tall, white dude. Tim Sylvia? No, give me one more. Stefan Struve? No. Was he? How highly ranked was the guy? He was the one. He became the champ. Okay. He wanted me to fight him. They put me in. Flew me in. Put me in. Dana know me well. Dana sees me. It wasn't Tim Sylvia? Not Tim Sylvia. Was it Tim Sylvia? It was before Tim Sylvia, probably. It was a tall dude. Real tall. Or after, rather, Tim Sylvia. Tall, white dude. He wound up fighting. Tim Sylvia fought Ray Mercer. That's them. And Ray Mercer knocked him out with one punch. He fought Ray. Oh, okay. That's him. Wait a minute. Ray Mercer also fought. Ray Mercer ain't beat him. No. Ray Mercer fought Kimbo Slice and Kimbo guillotined him. And then Ray Mercer fought Tim Sylvia.

72:14And it was supposed to be a boxing match, but the athletic commission wouldn't sanction it for a boxing match because Tim Sylvia didn't have any boxing matches. Right. I have to see his picture, though. If I see a picture, I can tell you. Tall, and his hair was hanging down, like, lying along. He can box, though. Andre Arlovsky? He could box, though. The kid could box. He had some good shit, though, with his hands. I don't know of his name, but dude could get busy. I was going to fight. He asked me to fight him. We were like, look. Hearn was negotiating for me again. He was like, yo, give us somebody a little easier. Because they wanted me to fight, what's his name? Not Mark Hunt. The black brother. What's his name? He was fighting K-1 for a while. He fought UFC 2. Gary Goodrich? Gary Goodrich. Let's go, champ. Big daddy. They wanted me to fight Goodrich, champ. Yep. Yep. Wow. Yeah, champ. I've been in the game, champ.

72:58So did you take any wrestling classes or anything? I did. Listen, you ready for this? Yeah. You ready for this? I'm ready. Let's go, champ. American top team. Dan Lambert. That's my boy. Dan is my boy. Dan is my boy, man. Dan is my homie. Dan, when they were in a storefront in Boca, no gym, a storefront in Boca, I went down there because they wanted me to teach them boxing. That was like 2001. Wow. Wow. And I started messing with them and I was doing some taekwondo and I was doing MMA, you know, jujitsu and all that and it was kicking my ass, but I was loving, I was getting strong. I was like, yo, this might be a great type of thing to cross up with the boxing. Right. That's when I'm in the clinches, you know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big difference in the clinches, right? Huge, man. That's why sprint training is important. Yeah. It's important for a boxer now in these days. So what happened?

73:49How come you never wound up doing an MMA fight? Besides not wanting to get my ass kicked. You know, just so. Wrestling's hard on the body. Hard. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. Brutal. On the joints, the neck, the back. Yeah. It'd be like me playing basketball. I can't dribble. I'm like the only black man in the world can't dribble basketball. I can't catch a football, you know? Wow. So you just decided it's just not for you. Not safe. After that K-1 experience, man, I tell you, champ, I was like, man. Yeah. You know what's funny? Because I went back to the hotel and I was chilling. I was laying in bed and I went to sleep. I just had a little cup of bruises. And when I woke up, my entire both legs were black and blue. I was like, I panicked. I was like, oh, snap. I was like, oh, shit. I was like, yo, Herman, just get me out of here. They paid me well, champ.

74:34I might have made like, in over two years, I made a good chunk of change over there. I don't want the IRS chasing me down. I got no bread. Let's go, champ. I mean, it was fun. It was fun. It was fun. It was fun. Let's go, champ. So you decided one and done with K1. Yeah, K1 wasn't a thing for me. But I love it. I love watching it. I think that the training was tremendous for me. I was in the gym the other day. What was his name? Tyrone Sponge? Mm-hmm. That's the champ, for real. Tyrone Sponge's a bad motherfucker. Yo, he's the man, for real. Let's go, champ. He said he's going to help me out with my kickboxing, you know what I mean? Because I think he definitely will help my boxing. Yeah, he's in the borderline. He's been doing a lot of boxing matches and not exactly sure if he's going back to kickboxing. He'll fight anybody, anywhere, anytime, though. I mean, he's just waiting for the right contract. Yeah, yeah.

75:16Whether it's MMA or anything. He a beast. He a beast. He's very talented. He's a beast. Very smart dude, too. He's on the ball. Yeah. I'm going to be working with him for this fight as well. Oh, beautiful. Yeah. So, you said you're very close to purse bids. Mm-hmm. So, it's happening 100% whether this guy is in or not. If they give me the belt in a box, I'll take it. I'd rather win it in the ring. Right. But, you know, I'm frustrated. I ain't going to lie to you, champ. I'm very frustrated. I'm trying to be happy about my situation because I am getting in a fight. But, again, the politics of boxing, where the ups and downs, these managers are shifty and they're saying one thing and they're telling me the way. I don't know why. See, the whole thing with me is, like what happened with Hayes happened to me so many times. I live in fear that I'm going to get shagged.

76:03Like, okay, what are they going to shag me with now? Because they're delaying. So, what's next? You know what I mean? I'm expecting something. If nothing happens, I'm hoping for the best. But, I'm ready. It's got to be a weird situation for you, right? Yeah. It's all good, champ. I'm the champ. And this is what they got to do to try to keep me down. Well, the heavyweight division right now is exciting, though. Yeah. It's pumping now. Thanks to the champ. Yeah. That's a big part of it. Yeah. But, there's a lot of good stuff happening, right? Yeah. And, what did you think about Ortiz's fight the other night? It was shocking that he went the distance, right? No, not at all. No? Not at all. Because he fought Malik Scott, who was a guy who was in top shape. Look at his Instagram. Always training. Always training. Fought very defensively. Very defensively, which is hard to beat a guy like that.

76:45It's hard to knock out a guy who don't want to get knocked out, champ. Right. You feel me? A guy say, I'm not getting knocked out. He's going to do whatever he can not to get knocked out. Doesn't mean he's going to fight you back. And, it means he ain't getting knocked out. And, that's what he did. Yeah. No, not the Ortiz, but, you know, he did what he had to do. It just happens. There was one Instagram where you're mocking Deontay Wilder's technique. Yeah. Like, his legs coming up off the ground when he was punching. I actually like him, but you know what? You got to do what you got to do. Yeah, that, for real. I like him, actually. I think he can fight. I think he's very talented. I think he's dangerous to anybody, including myself. He's a vicious puncher. He's a wild puncher. He's one of those bony strong. You know, those bony dudes hit you, boy. Woo! You're finished. You know what I mean? So, he's dangerous.

77:26He can punch. You know, he kind of, like, you know, not that he offended me because I don't give a shit. You know what I'm saying? But, he kind of took it, like, personal that I was coming after him. And, I wasn't, you know, I'm a jokester, man. I like to have fun and bug out. He kind of took it, like, a little bit, like, oh, you know, this and I'm like, champ. I ain't like that. You know what I'm saying? I'm not a street dude, but I really am. Could be whatever you want me to be because I'm from the streets. You know what I'm saying? But, I was like, don't do that. You know what I mean? You're trying to hype up a fight. Yeah, yeah, that's what I do. I do. But, I'll get busy. If you touch me, if you make me, if you put me to that point in the street anywhere, I'm known. I don't want to be, I'm not that type of person. But, I'll defend the champ because I got to make it home to my babies. I love him.

78:05You feel me? So, I ain't going to let nobody ever hurt the champ. Did you ever see that video where Deontay Wilder box some internet troll? Yeah, beat the shit out of him. Yeah, I seen that. That guy's fucking crazy. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to knock Deontay Wilder out. He going to get, I'm going to knock out Lucas Brown and then I'm going to let Deontay, Beyonce Wilder, Beyonce, I'm going to let Beyonce, you know what I'm saying, put up his BC belt and I'm going to knock him flat. Starch out. Starch. I would like to see that. Yeah. I would like to see the fight for sure. Yeah, let's go champ. Yeah, let's go champ. The hat is out. Yeah, exactly. Now, when you're 45 years old in December. Yes. December 4th. Realistically, how much more time do you think you're going to be fighting? After I knock out Brown and hopefully I'll get the winner of Klitschko and Joshua, Anthony Joshua, who's a tremendous talent.

78:56After that, you know, I'll go after whoever has the belt, man. I'm going to keep, like Larry Holmes said, don't stop. Larry told me don't stop. He said, keep fighting. That's what you do. Make money. Have fun. Enjoy your life. And who's having more fun than me? Everywhere I go champ, people will be all saying, happy, happy, they're motivated. And that's, that's to me is for the first time in my life, giving me some purpose other than making money. I've been struggling to make money since I came home from school and didn't have a place to live for once in my life. For once in my life, I'm doing something that's not involved, like me using the money from a fight to buy a car and look fancy and then, you know, hang out. I'm just being myself. I'm a bum champ's a bum. I don't have clothes. You know what I'm saying? I don't buy, I refuse because that was part of my downfall, you know, you know, wanting

79:40things, wanting material things, finding, finding, um, power and things like that to make myself feel good. Yeah, I'm going to go buy a new car. I'm going to buy a chain. I'm going to buy a hat. I'm going to buy this expensive Fendi sweater. Nah, the champ don't do none of that shit. The champ dressed like a bum. This is me. You know what I'm saying? Because I'm not putting value in that anymore. What's made, what I'm finding so amazing is that everywhere I go, people are saying, hey champ, thanks for the videos, man. We love you, man. Can I get a picture? Can I get a video? Nothing can outdo that, champ, because I've had a little bit of money, never made a lot of money. Like those guys were hundreds of millions of dollars, but I made a little bit of money for me to feel good. You know what I'm saying? But I never felt love. You know, my mom was in the streets trying to, you know, put a roof over my head.

80:21I never had a dad. You know what I'm saying? I never had a brother and sister. I was basically on my own. You know, if you look at my personality, you can tell I watched a lot of television. I grew up reading comic books, you know, cartoons. So I never had love and to have what I feel is love from people who genuinely don't know me and just see me and say, man, thank you. The emails, that's more fulfilling than anything I've ever felt. You feel me? I do feel you. I think it's important, man. I think your message is important. What you're saying about having all that bullshit, all the material possessions and counting on it. You know, I remember Chuck D talking about that once. You know, it was during the height of when people had giant wheels on their fucking cars. The ball and error. And he was like, I drive a Ford Explorer. And he's like, I don't put any power in that shit at all.

81:09I felt so sad that I was a slave to it. I feel so miserable when I think about the days that I spent money on, sweaters, cars, jewelry, bottles at the club. I'm just like, damn, what was I doing? A lot of athletes go broke trying to keep up with the Joneses. It's a big thing. It's part of our culture because we never had shit. Right. So, you know, now we're like, you're feeling good because someone's admiring you for anything. The admiration is what becomes intoxication. You're intoxifying. And for me, it was that as well. You know, I'm finding gratitude and things that, you know, I was smart, though, because I always wanted to keep a place, a roof over my head. And I'll put value in that as well. But, you know, a lot of things, too, was for showing off for other people. And that, once I was able to get past that, and that was, you know, part of me was cutting my hair. You know, having locks for 27 years.

81:58And people, when I cut my hair, man, just the response from people was just, it was amazing. Just the people would look at me like, wow, look at you. You cut your hair, you finish. You'll never get, you'll never be nothing. Oh, boxing's over for you. Why did they think it was over? Because you cut your hair. That didn't make any sense at all. Bro, it was the sickest thing. It was like the most eye-opening thing. And people were literally, like, I could, they were telling me, but I could also see deeper into what they were saying. Like, you're finished. You'll never make another movie. You'll never fight. You're just like, that was your marketing tool that you were just, you're here. I was like, no, no, I can really fight. I was like, no, I really got hands. And they were like, you know, and no one believed in me. So that's what makes this thing even more powerful than the fact that I got rid of that

82:44hair and I'm still doing my thing. I'm still a champ. What a weird thing for people to focus on. Dreadlocks. Yeah. Marketing. They looked at it like it was a marketing. Well, it was back in the day. That was a big part of who you were. I mean, they always marketed your hair. Right. The crazy dreadlocks. Right, right, right. I understand, but I don't understand. Because if you know me, you really know me that that's just nothing. That was my, and again, the hair was blocking me. The hair was blocking my vibe. Because I was like, yo, the hair had its own personality. You feel me? The hair had its own personality. And then there's really Shannon and cutting the hair and seeing how people treated me. I was like, you know what? It's cool. I'm just going to be me. You know, I'm not going to try to talk correct or, you know what I'm saying? My dick, she's going to be what it's going to be.

83:30People tell me, oh, Shannon, why don't you do movies? Why don't you do this channel? Listen, I don't speak well, champ. I'm hardcore ghetto. You speak great. I understand every word you're saying. Thank you, champ. But listen, you know what I mean? I'm not the type. You feel me? I'm just keeping it real. Right. I've learned one thing, and shout out to Chris Lawrence. Stay in your lane. You know, and that's one of his best sayings. And I hear him say it all the time. But it's true. I've learned that. Stay in my lane, champ. You know what you're really good at? What's that, champ? You're really good at being Shannon. Let's go, champ. That's what you're really good at. You're really good at being you. That's it. And that took me, and thank you again, one more time. And I mean that because that's what I didn't know who I was. I didn't know who I was. I grew up overnight. What's understandable?

84:08I mean, it takes a long time for everybody if everything's worked out perfectly. Really? Yeah, man. Everybody. Everybody. Every person that's ever lived. No one ever. If you do, you're a fool. Yeah. I mean, if you're like 18 years old, you got it all figured out, get the fuck out of here. I know what I did because I had my own apartment when I was like 15. Right. So I was like, you know, not my own, but I had an apartment when I was 15. It was like a, what do you call it when you're living in a place where you're squatting in a sense. But, you know, I was like, I've been on my own all my life. A friend of mine, Jesse Robertson, said to me one day, he said, you know, champ, you've basically been making your own decisions since you was a kid. But now you understand yourself better. Yeah. I didn't know who the fuck I was, champ. Right. I didn't know who I was. I just knew that I was living.

84:53Well, going through all the bad times, I think, is probably what has made your character so strong today. And now that everything's good, you understand the importance of keeping it good. That's why this positive message that you keep pumping out. And that's why this, let's go champ. Yeah, yeah. Like it's infectious. I'm one sip away from, I'm one sip away of fruit punch from not feeling good. I went to Roscoe's yesterday, you know, great food, I guess. Chicken and waffles. Yeah. And I had a, I took a sip of the, what's it called? The lemonade, sunrise, I don't know, the fruit punch and the sugar. That sugary shit. Got me thinking bad. I was like, oh man, I feel terrible. Like, so again, I say that. You say I'm on the path and that's a great path. But it's so crucial. Diet's important. Yeah. Who I'm around is important. You feel what I'm saying? Because that's the energy. You feel me?

85:41If I'm around somebody doing some negative shit, I'm not on that. Yeah. So I don't need to be around this person. I don't even listen to like that much hip hop. I listen to beats. I don't even, because I don't want to hear you drink and you smoke it. Right. You want to screw this girl, you this, you that. You got this. You got this car. I got the watch. I don't need that, champ. I already went through that. And that was a bad portion of my life. The 90s is something that I wish never happened that I can remember. The 90s and all. Until four years ago, I don't feel like I was alive. Wow. Yeah. I don't feel like I was alive. And that's credit to my family, man. My wife and kids, man. They really held me down. I'm crazy, champ. This ain't no act. I'm really, I've been through some shit. I believe you. Yeah, I've been through some shit, man. You know?

86:20What is all that crazy music you play in the background when you do your videos? What is that? That's just beats, champ. Shout out to the Loud Lord, OG Tags. These are just beats. Razie K, all the people, man. You know what I'm saying? Courtney Scott, all the people. She's a female from LA, makes beats. She's amazing. I mean, this is, I had to like do a detox. Like, I don't watch certain things television. You know, you're flicking the channel. What you got? First 48. Lock up. You got negativity to news. I don't, I had to, I had to do a detox from the news lately. I don't watch any more news. The presidential election, all this shit is going crazy. I don't want to be involved, no, because I'm involved with something else. Boxing. I'm focused on Lucas Brown. I can't focus on Trump and Hillary. I got to focus on Shannon Briggs and me and Lucas locking ass whenever we get a date. You feel me? Yeah.

87:05So I've learned to like put things in perspective. Shannon, this ain't for you. I can't watch the internet and watch so much brutal knockout videos and this girl's doing that and this guy. I don't need to be involved with that. And that's what a lot of people need to learn. And they, and a lot of people follow me on kids and they say, thanks champ. Because what's, I see the most damaging thing right now in America, around the world, forget that around the world is that kids don't have guidance. You know what I mean? So they got uncle champ. You feel me? Some kids, thousands of kids hit me like you're like a dad to me, man. You know what I mean? I didn't have a dad. I didn't have a role model. I didn't have nothing. So they're looking at my videos. With days I don't want to make videos, Joe, I get texts, champ, you okay? You know what I'm saying? You okay, champ? We haven't heard from you in a couple of days.

87:49So I have a responsibility now to help others, make them feel happy by being happy sometimes when I don't even feel happy. Well, I think one of the things you're saying that's really important is you're talking about a mental diet as well as a physical diet. 100%. And I think you really do have a mental diet. And if you just take in nothing but negative things all day and around negative people, and especially when you just expose yourself to 7 billion people's worth of news, and the only stuff that gets popular is the stuff that's fucked up. Nasty shit, bro. And it'll fuck with your head. Nasty. Nasty. I mean, it really, not forget your head. Because then it physically starts feeling blood. Like, I felt so crazy with this election. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Physically, I was like, man. That's when I was like, you know what? That's it. I came home. I was like, that's it. No more. I told my wife.

88:30I said, no, I said, no. I said, please, do me a favor. If you want to watch this stuff, do me a favor. Please, just Tivo it and watch it when the champ's not around. Because I can't. It's really affecting me. Because I got to worry about training. I got to think about that. I don't want to be worried about what they do. What happens is going to happen. You know what I mean? You know, it's going to affect me or it's not going to affect me. I'm going to deal with that then. But right now, I got to focus on me. And that's what I couldn't do, champ. And I don't blame anybody. But if you out there on prescription drugs, I was taking all types of inhalers all my life. Since I was a primatee from early days. Kids, that stuff is bad for you mentally, champ. Is it? Bad for you mentally, man. What does it do for you? Oh, man, the anxiety, the jitters, the brain, the chemistry, what it does to your brain, man.

89:11It alters it, champ. Oh, you got to be careful. I'm not telling you, take your medicine, follow your doctors. I'm not telling anyone, don't listen to your doctors. But me personally, I had to go on a journey to find out how to save me. Because I went to every doctor. They don't know anything about hormones and this and that. They don't know anything. They don't know. I heard you once say, you want to find out about your hormones, find a super older doctor that looks great, that knows about this type of shit. Because when you're feeling depressed and your testosterone is like 80 or 20, you feel like killing yourself, champ. You got to do something. People can't hand you a bunch of pills and say, this is going to make you feel better. You're still going to have low tests, which for a man is going to make you feel like a bitch. Yeah. Excuse my language, but it's just a fact.

89:57So all these different factors play a role. And also, again, back to what you're saying, what you're watching, the mental diet. Like, if you're watching people getting killed all day, you're going to feel a certain way. All this shit is going in your brain and your mental storage. You feel me? And now you're just wondering why. And then you're eating sugar, eating cookies and donuts and fast food and Chinese food. This shit ain't helping you either, champ. Yeah. You know what I mean? And that's what I'm telling people every day. Champ, leave it alone. It's too tempting. Everywhere you go, you see fast food. Take the food home and cook it yourself. Yeah. We've got to try the best. And the problem is, it's not cheap. Right. Who can afford to go to Whole Foods every day? Right. You know what I'm saying? Who can the hell? It's hard. I'm struggling. Yeah.

90:36Who can afford every day to spend $150, $200 for their family a day, every day? That shit is hard, champ. I think what you're saying is very important. It's very important about a mental and a physical diet. It's the same thing. When you're watching all the violence on television or all the negative news, it's like sugar. Yeah. Where it's very compelling and easy to take in and not for you. Terrible. I had that sugar drink last night and three sips in. I was like, because I'm not used to it. Right. And I was like, I was feeling. I was like, yo, champ. This is what people drinking every day. All day. Every day. Like, there's nothing. And I was that big. I was dumb. Yeah. Yeah. How was I able to do it? Now I can't take a sip. It's crazy how your body adjusts. Amazing. Your body adapts to not having sugar and feeling healthy. And then when you do have something that's unhealthy, you feel it. Like, you really feel it.

91:20And your mood. Deep in your body. Yeah. And your mood change. You feel me? I crash. Yeah, man. I had a cheeseburger and a milkshake, man. And it was like somebody hit me with a tranquilizer. Man. I felt terrible. I'm telling you, bro. It's crazy. Before, I would eat that and it'd be nothing. Crazy. But I think what you're saying, I think, is very important for people to take in. You know? And having a person like you who's experienced these great highs and lows and then come out of it with this positive energy, that is so powerful for people. That's such an important, motivational thing for other people, though, man. There's no other way. Yeah. As much as you're helping yourself, and I know you're helping yourself, you're helping a lot of people, man. You really are. And me, too. We're helping each other. No, no. We're helping each other. I mean, honestly, there's nothing.

92:02I said from the beginning that this ain't mine. You know, I patented. I trademarked the name. I mean, I trademarked the saying and everything. You trademarked Let's Go Champ? I had to, Champ. Go to Let'sGoChamp.com. Yeah, I had to, you know? I had so many ups and downs. Like I told you, when I tell you no lie, bro, I got nothing to lie to you about. I was involved with some major deals. When I'm talking about from at the top in the beginning in business and entertainment, and the Champ didn't, you know, come out on the good side. So, a lot of times. A lot of times, enough to say, damn, am I stupid or something? But, you know, just trust and belief and getting shy at Champ. It's a dirty business. It's a dirty game, Champ. Boxing is dirty, and it's been dirty forever. Business is dirty. All business. All business is dirty. So, that's what I learned.

92:44And, you know, coming out where I am now, and, you know, I trademarked it because I said, you know what? It was starting to, like, you know, fizzle when I was like, and I was really passionate about it because it's something that I was saying. Again, I didn't have nobody around me anymore. I used to have friends with me all the time. I'm training, whatever, whatever. They all left. It was all moved on. So, for me, I was like, no entourage, nobody to push me. I got to push myself. So, I started talking to myself. Something that I never did. And that's a whole other story I'm going to tell you in the book, why I refused to talk to myself. Why did you refuse to talk to myself? Tell me. I was saving it for the book, Champ. Fuck it. We'll still really, I'll sell the book, man. You let me know, man. I'll put up links. I'll let people know. All right, well. I'll buy it myself.

93:26If we go in that route, then I'll write it. Come on. No, no. But the reason why is because I had an uncle. My mother's brother, Anthony Parham, he was her only brother. He went to the military. He went to the Vietnam War as a child, you know, as a young man, 18 years old, when he left high school. He didn't have to because it was all sisters. And he wanted to go because everyone around the town, Petersburg, excuse me, Jared, Virginia, everybody from his town, the young men were going. His cousins and everybody. So, he went. He came back disturbed. He came back, you know, different than when he went in. He was actually missing for quite a time. They were going to declare him dead when he showed up one day with a trench coat on, army boots and naked. Whoa. In Halsey Street in Brooklyn. So, this led to him being mentally disturbed. All my life, he would talk to himself. He lived with us.

94:16I slept in a twin bed here and he slept in the bed there. And he was, you know, when alcohol, when he drank, he became very violent. But, you know, he beat my mom up one time really bad, closed her eyes up. And him talking to himself was something I grew up all my life watching. And I'm like, ain't me crazy. You call him Amy. Amy, you crazy. You crazy talking to yourself. So, and I got older, I would just refuse to even have a conversation with myself. Oh, you crazy. And four years ago, I started having conversations with myself, champ. I was like, yo, you know what, champ? You got to go. And I started saying, let's go, champ. And I was like, man. I asked my wife. I said, you think I'm crazy because I spoke? She was like, yeah, we already know you're crazy. You know what I mean? So, I'm like, let's go, champ. You know? And it was my mantra. It became my mantra.

95:02You know, my friend told me, one of his mantras was, to be the man, you got to be the man. When he was tired, he was running mile 18. To be the man, you got to be the man. Right. To be the man, you got to be the man. And he just would say it to himself. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? I need a mantra. And I was hitting the bag one day, and I was tired. I was like, 400 pounds. And I was like, let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. You know? And it's in the head, champ. You know, when I'm feeling pain, you're feeling pain, you're feeling down. Tell yourself, let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Dude, I hear you when I work out sometimes. Yeah. It's yours. Pushing through a set. Let's go, champ. Yeah, it's yours. It's everybody's. It's the people's, man. The people gave me this. The universe gave me this. The people linked into it. And it's not mine. It's ours.

95:48We just want to give each other positivity and love. I meet people from everywhere, champ. I'm a little nuts because I go to every city or country, and people say, champ, I'm in the lobby or I'm in this town. Can I meet you? And I say, come over to the hotel. And they come. You know what I mean? They come. You might have to stop that when you win the title. It might get a little crazy. No, I'm the people's champ. I'm here for the people. Wow. Man, that's strong. Well, listen, if you can motivate yourself, I mean, you motivate other people, you should definitely be able to motivate yourself as well. I'm not trying. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not trying to, like, say I'm a guru. I'm a motivator. I'm just a dude who is showing people that I was down and out. I was flat on my face. I wanted to kill myself. And I didn't give up for the love of my family.

96:29And now the love of the people that's saying let's go champ, that believe in me. I want to do it for them. You need a reason. You need a purpose. Scott Hirsch. Shout out to Scott Hirsch. He told me a long time ago. He said, you know, Shannon, I think the family thing environment is just out the blue in the conversation. He just said, you know, Shannon, we weren't even talking about anything. He said, you know, I just think the family plays a huge part of our development. I said, why do you say that, Scott? He said, because it gives you a reason to go home at night. And I was like, damn, you know, we all need a reason. You know what I mean? It gives you a reason. And my family gives me a reason. And you give me a reason. Because when Snoop Dogg gave me a reason. And Cam'ron gave me a reason. Every popular rapper and unpopular rapper and guys who make beats, they gave me a reason.

97:08Because Champ ain't feel good, man. I'm going to keep it real with you. A lot of days I ain't feel good. But when I got up and seen you or Snoop or Cam'ron or Reels or Chance or anybody out there that I know that gave me a shout out or that, you know, act this to someone else. I was like, they gave me a reason. And the reason became more and more. So I felt like I was taking in the energy from the people around the world. Every text, every meme, every DM, I feel like I'm getting stronger because now the people behind me. I never had nothing, Joe. I was on my own. I was a kid by myself. And now I got the world behind me. That's all I needed, Champ. You got a lot of people behind you. I got the world, Champ. I got 150. Thanks to you as well and everybody who promotes me. And those are my promoters, by the way. The people promote me.

97:52Thanks to you guys, I got like 150 something thousand people, 156,000 people following me, right? That to me is unreal. I started out with nine. I remember when you talked about me on your Instagram because we were talking about you and how much I love your videos. And I was like, oh, shit. Shannon's listening. I love it. It got me excited, man. This is excitement for me because I've never had this. I've never had no momentum. I've never had nobody behind me. I got a reason. I feel like Rocky. You know what I'm saying? Like, keep fighting. You know what I'm saying? Adrian! You know what I'm saying? You know, I got a reason. You know what I mean? I got a reason. I never had a reason except to try to make some money to feed myself and my family or to show off or get some shit. You know what I'm saying? Some Nevo Reach type of situation. Now, I don't care about the money. Of course I got to have the money.

98:35Don't get me wrong. And I want to be paid accordingly. I'm bringing non-boxing fans to boxing. That deserves something. Now, I told you when I fought Vitaly Klitschko, they did the highest ratings ever. Not because of Klitschko, because of Shannon Briggs. He fought many people. Why so many with me? When I fought Lennox Lewis, highest ratings. When I fought George Foreman, highest ratings. I sell, champ. Now, I want to be paid for that, champ. This is a job. You know what I mean? I'm a mailman. I get up every day and go to work, do my job. But I want to be paid. I didn't get paid when I fought Klitschko, champ. I want to make money. I'm not stupid. You feel me? I was, but I'm not anymore. But that's not your primary motivation. No. My primary motivation is the people are behind me, and I want to do something that's never been done. I want to bring all these non-boxing fans like Muhammad Ali did.

99:25I want a Muhammad Ali moment. Not for me and for my ego, because I don't have it. I cut the heel already. I got a girl already. I got a wife. I don't care. You know what I'm saying? I don't care about clothes. I don't want to do Bentley. I don't care about that no more. I don't want none of that. I just want the people to say, champ. Champ. Champ. That'd make me feel good, champ. That'd make me feel good, man. That'd make me feel like, you know what? My mom looking at me, and she can say I'm proud of my boy. You feel me? He made something out of nothing. You know, we was homeless. People turned their back on us, champ. They wouldn't let us come in their place. Many nights we sat on the train, and many nights I didn't know if she was alive or dead. You know, and I was hoping, and it was rough, man. And I want her to look at me and say, man, my boy made it. You know what I mean?

100:11And she said something before she died. She said, Shannon, when we lost everything, people said, you know what I mean? She was like the big person in my family that was supposed to do something. This is all in the book. But she was supposed to be something. And she came to New York, and she was living her life, and she was making it, got a job, and she got on drugs. And she went from a beautiful woman to a woman who lost everything, but she had a son. And she took me sickly and all and stuck by my side, so I said, I'm going to make it. And she instilled in me, make it, Shannon, regardless of what you got to do, make it. And when people turned our back on us, and we had nothing, Joe, she said, Shannon, one day we're going to have something, and they're going to look at us different. You feel me? And she said to me before she died, she said, I didn't make it, but I made it through you.

100:56And that's what I'm doing this for, because she made it through. She did make it. She made it through her son, and she wouldn't want me to give up. Asthma ain't no excuse. No manager ain't no excuse. No promoter ain't no excuse. Make it. And then I came out with social media. They came out with social media. And I'm making it, champ. Well, you're making a lot of people happy, too, man. Thank you, champ. A lot of excitement. Thank you, champ. You provide a lot of motivation. Thank you, champ. A lot of enthusiasm. Let me loose. I'm in your corner, brother. Let me loose. I'm in your corner. Man, thank you, champ. Thank you for being here, man. I can't thank you enough. I really appreciate it. I had a great fucking time. I'm sorry to cut you off. Go ahead, brother. No, nothing. I'm just saying I had a great fucking time talking to you. Yeah.

101:31This has been therapeutic for me, more importantly, because I needed to vent, because no one's been able to give me an outlet, especially knowing this big has given me an opportunity to talk to so many people. And I wish I could have done this totally different now. That's perfect. No, I'm just keeping it all. This is perfect. I started out a little tripping up, but it's all good, champ. You know, this is a moment for me in life, because forget the past. I don't even remember shit. I got some type of damage. I don't even care. I don't remember this shit. This moment right now is the moment, man. I'm in the moment, man. I'm in the moment. And I appreciate it, because it means a lot to me, man, because I was flat. Nobody wanted to give me nothing. Nobody gave me a shot. I couldn't get a t-shirt. I called Everlast and said, man, let me get a t-shirt. They said, don't call back, man.

102:14Don't go here with that shit, Shady. I couldn't get nothing from nobody, man. I don't want nothing from nobody. All I want to do is be successful, have something for my family when I'm gone, so they don't have to suffer the way I did. And I want to make people laugh and make people have fun and leave my fights and say, man, he did it. Then I'm going to do it again. That's another thing. Before I go, I want to say this. I want to fight a lot. I want the heavyweight championship fight three, four, five times a year. I don't believe in this fight two years. He should fight every six weeks, the heavyweight champion. Yes. That's what should be happening. And that's what I want to be. I want to be an active campaigner. And I'll give that to Wilder. They did keep him busy before he hurt his arm. They kept him busy. But that's how you're supposed to fight the game. Be busy. Be busy. Have fun.

103:03Bring more people to the sport. And then walk away. Follow this man on Instagram. It will make your life happier. Let's go, J. Give people the address. Give people the Instagram address. My Instagram is Cannon underscore Briggs. Let's go. That's my Instagram. And my Facebook is what? Shannon Briggs? Shannon Briggs. And Twitter is The Cannon? The Cannon Briggs on Twitter, man. And my website is Let'sGoChamp.com. Let'sGoChamp.com. Buy a t-shirt, man. I'm on my own. I appreciate y'all. I'm not using the money for nothing. That's for you, champ. That's for you. I'm wearing this. You know what I mean? Shout out to my baby girl, Chloe. Moo Moo Fat. Chan and Caden and my wife Alana. I love you, babe. Shout out to everybody. If you don't mind me giving a shout out. Please. Shout out. Shout out. You know black people without shout outs. Shout out. Chris Lawrence. Chris Jr. Stacy. Amir Iman. Everybody from Brooklyn. Brownsville.

103:52I love y'all. Around the world. L.A. Compton. Watts. Ah. Everybody. My man. Ooh. Paolo out there. Jamal. Jamesey. Everybody in the crew. There's so many to thank, but I really want to thank you because, bro, I made it. I made it again. I made it before, but I made it again. This is a sign that I'm back. You're back. I'm back. Let's go, champ. Let's go, champ. Thank you, everybody. That was beautiful. Thank you, champ. You're the best ever. Please. Please shake your hand. Please. Please.