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That's the biggest problem with boxing in the United States. They do not promote it like they used to, when it used to be Howard Cosell and they showed it on 'Wide World of Sports.' Everybody knew all the fighters. Everybody was looking forward to the year when the Olympics came on.
Fighters like Broner and Gervonta want all of the spotlight and when they see another fighter getting that natural spotlight, they seem to get aggravated or frustrated about it unless you are a part of their camp. I don't care what they say about us or try to bring out to the table.
Fighters don't just fight. Not the good ones who have long, long success. The guys who make championship runs. The guys who fight for world titles. They get fizzled out, chewed up and spit out like a revolving door and then the next guy or the next female comes in to take their spot.
I have fought fighters in the past who I don't like as people, but you have to block out any type of dislike or hate. Whatever he's done, whatever he's said, you can't be thinking about that. You just have to see him as a man that you have to outpoint, outgame, and beat on the night.
I'm probably not going to be popular with the fighters with this one, but my biggest problem is guys playing it safe. I understand it from a coach's standpoint and a manager's standpoint. I understand why you'd want to play it safe and want to win the fight, win every fight. I get it.
If I see a fan talking down on my resume or another fighter, it just motivates me to go out there and prove them wrong and fight the fighters that they say will beat me or that will give me trouble in the ring. They ain't going to never really give you no credit, no matter what you do.
With my fighters, there's no excuses like, 'Hey, listen, he's a dumb guy. Came from the mean streets of somewhere. He's just not all that bright.' These are educated guys, most of them went to college, they have families, children, etc. These are smart, rational people I'm dealing with.
The two don't necessarily translate, especially if you're a prize fighter: you've fought all your life, you've fought all these fights, and now you're trying to do a movie. You see that happen a lot - a lot of professional fighters don't necessarily make it so well into the movie world.
As a fighter, I pay very close attention to the amount of marketing that goes into and around my fights, and I can tell you that you'd be hard pressed to find much that has been done to promote me outside of 'TUF 24,' which was minimal in comparison to other fights, fighters, and shows.
As a fighter, I recognise that the one thing we fight for is prizes. The one thing that motivates us is money. A lot of fighters do come back because of money. The biggest spur they have is financial, and thank God my finances were secure, and I didn't need to come back for that reason.
Everybody besides my piano player has been with me since the very first day. We were a four-piece band for a solid two years. It was me playing acoustic and rhythm electric guitar, a bass player, a drummer and a lead guitar player. For a couple of years, we sounded like the Foo Fighters.
A lot of fighters don't like to critique other fighters because this is a fighting sport. But just like when you have good days and bad days, we are OK to talk about it. It's not so bad for me and my twin brother to critique each other because we have been criticized by everyone else too.
Flying Colors is more alternative pop with a prog edge. Think the Beatles meets U2 meets Muse and Foo Fighters. It is the opposite of Adrenaline Mob, which has more classic metal influences like Black Sabbath, Van Halen, Pantera, or Disturbed. They are completely different ends of spectrum.
Seeing Mexicans in the media is rare. Seeing role models on TV is rare. So who do we look up to? We're not seen on football fields or basketball courts. So we look up to fighters; they're Mexican. They are out there fighting, representing their people, and winning champions. We look up to them.
Too many fighters stay in the game for too long. They stay because it's awfully hard to walk away from the roar of the crowd. Really hard. You live for that and so you stay too long. And you might have a wife and kids to feed. So you keep fighting because you don't know how to do anything else.
I've been lucky enough to have fulfilled so many ambitions, and gone way past anything I ever thought I would do. I could never have imagined the career that I've had with the Foo Fighters - playing stadiums and having songs on the radio. It's amazing, and my goal is really just to carry on playing.
The fans, man, the fans have a little different way of thinking. They really applaud the spirit of fighters, and that put a huge influence on the type of energy I fought with, rather than if I won or lost. America's a real win-or-lose culture, where with the Japanese, fighting with spirit is enough.
I don't think about losing or worry about losing. I'm not afraid to let it go and I don't care if you beat me. If you do, that means you were the better man, but only elite fighters can beat me. There can't be shame in losing because you are up against great competition and there's always that chance.
Some people believe I have an automatic advantage over other female MMA fighters, so they think 'well she has to be stronger, because she used to be a male,' but if they look into the science of it and what the hormones do to the body, to the male body once taken over a period of time... it dissipates.
Fighting comes down to who you are as a person. With B.J. Penn, he has no problems, not a hard upbringing and came up with money or whatever and he's just a fighter, he enjoys the fight and he refined his skills so I don't think it necessarily has to be a rough upbringing for guys to be great fighters.
I know what I am getting into with heavyweights. Not one of them can dictate against me because, firstly, they don't have feet fast enough. Secondly, while there are far better athletes and stronger fighters than me, even some who are quicker, they don't have the ring IQ I have. It allows me to dictate.
Boxing should focus on pitting champion versus champion - those are the fights that everyone wants to see. The sports also needs to work on developing new heroes and personalities. I'd like to see more vignettes on fighters, focusing on their lives, goals and stories. Boxers need to be larger than life.
Gray Maynard? Kenny Florian? All these guys, they're UFC fighters, that's all. They're pushed by the UFC, but when they leave the UFC, they're forgotten. When's the last time you heard Josh Neer's name? You haven't. When's the last time you heard about Roger Hurerta? You haven't. They're no ones anymore.
It makes me very, very happy to get someone a world title shot, which I've done with a few fighters, or a European title shot or a British title, and I see them lift that belt above their waist and they come to me and say 'Thanks Ricky. I've just paid my mortgage off with that.' That's what its all about.
I haven't had the recognition I deserve. You can go back to anybody's career - Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe, David Haye, Amir Khan, Chris Eubank, Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, Naseem Hamed. My record is better than all of theirs. I've won against more unbeaten fighters than any of them, had more exciting fights.
I'm over here with the French counterterrorism experts talking about the 'Charlie Hebdo' case, how we can stop foreign fighters from coming out of Iraq and Syria to Europe, but then we have this phenomenon in the United States where they can be activated by the Internet, and, really, terrorism has gone viral.
One can construct a strong legal and ethical argument for minimizing the fees that are paid to world sanctioning organizations in conjunction with championship bouts. It's not uncommon for skilled fighters to be denied championship opportunities while less-talented but better-connected boxers fight for belts.
There's a reason why the Foo Fighters don't blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them. You know, that's hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn't really come up, or it just hasn't felt right.
I'm not a union guy in the sense that I know a lot about how they operate. But I know fighters. They are individual athletes. This is not a team sport. I think it's going to be hard to say, 'Hey, do you mind not fighting on Saturday and walking around the arena with a picket sign instead?' I just don't see it.
The key to WWE's success and longevity is that they are, as modern and as relevant as the company may be in modern social media and platforms and contemporary distribution, the company is still built around old-school promotion. Who are these two fighters? Why are they wrestling? And why should I pay to see it?
Conor McGregor has a beard because of me, because I'm the one who allowed it. If it wasn't for me, none of these guys would have a beard. The same thing with the belly. Fighters who don't look like bodybuilders wouldn't be in the UFC if it wasn't for me. There's a lot of things I've definitely paved the road for.
Canelo is not only the face of boxing, but he is probably pound-for-pound one of the best in the sport. He's one of the most recognized fighters in all our sport. I think a victory over him, a convincing victory, would definitely solidify my spot and it would be inevitable for people to know who Daniel Jacobs is.
Most professional fighters, male and female, hold day jobs, but the women's game attracts a wide social spectrum: hash slingers, teachers, police officers, landscapers, stuntwomen. Many are wives and mothers. Their husbands or boyfriends work their corners, or hide in arena restrooms, scared to watch their bouts.
UFC is a moneymaking machine. The most important thing for this organization is a brand and its marketing. They have a couple of good fighters, and there are also some very good champions, but they are trying to keep everyone at the same level. The most important thing for them is the promotion, not the fighters.
As astronauts know better than anyone else, risks, incidents, and mishaps are inevitable in the development of any high-performance vehicle. The emergence of supersonic flight during the 1940s and of the Century Series of fighters in the 1950s came with the loss of several test pilots. Still, it was a glorious time.
Boxing has a problem - a big one. Think of it as a monster that's hiding under the bed. Eventually, the monster is going to come out and take a big chunk out of the sport. Fighters, trainers, managers, promoters, even government regulators can legally bet on fights. They can also bet on fights they're involved with.
There are two different kinds of spectacular fighters. One is a subtle counter puncher who shows the work like chess. It's kind of an art, sports art. The other kind is when a guy has blood on all his body. That's a second kind of spectacular fighter, and people enjoy both. Both kind of fighters need to be respected.
The prescience of the founding fathers continues to astonish me. They were freedom fighters. They made America. They gave us this magical country. They also were slaveowners - which is confusing to their legacy. How could such brilliant men have only secured freedom for themselves, but not their wives or their slaves?
I can't put on an act, so I try to be one of the best fighters so at least I get paid. Let's say Michael Bisping, he wasn't that great. He was losing, winning, but he was making a lot of money, and that was because he was outspoken and from the U.K. But not everyone can be like that. So, I tried to be the best I could.
I'm just about the movies; I enjoy the dexterity of actors in action movies and the choreography side of things. You've just got to be a different person to be a professional fighter. I train with professional fighters, so I know what it takes. It's a very difficult profession, probably harder then the acting profession.
Boxing is for the poor man. A lot of people don't know what's going on, but I've been able to see it first-hand, and if I can speak out on the behalf of fighters going through problems, I will, because... it's important to create awareness. Everyone should speak up. Because if people are aware, maybe there can be change.
The tactical issue is ISIS or ISIL in the greater Levant area, which is essentially Syria, and Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, et cetera. But the wider problem is not just trans-regional in that part of the world, but it's also global. I mean, 40 to 50 countries supplying fighters to this current fight in the Middle East? Come on.
It was very important to me to join an organization that has an established track record of helping young fighters grow into world class athletes and champions. Gladiator Challenge has been a home to such fighters as Quinton Jackson, Rashad Evans, Urijah Faber, Tyson Griffin, Chael Sonnen, Michael McDonald, and many others.
I've been in martial arts more than 20 years; I've seen fighters who barely have a professional fight say they're the best in the world. I've seen many people use these words. At the end of the day, that doesn't matter. What matters is when the door closes and everyone clearly sees who deserves or does not deserve something.
There was an incident in Argentina when I was making a film called 'The Warrior and the Sorceress.' There were, like, 40, 50 sword fighters and martial artists on the set, and one of the sword fighters challenged me. I said, 'Look, you don't want to fight me. Nobody wants to fight me. You gotta be crazy to want to fight me.'
More time than not, athletes, specifically fighters, have a 15 or 20-year career, and unfortunately, we end up right where we started when it's over. All we have is maybe a round of applause when we walk in a room - Hey, there's the champ! That's great; I want that, but I've got to have something tangible to show for it, too.
People don't understand what fighters at the top have to go through. You know what, even half the fighters don't understand what the guys on top are going through. You're being pulled in so many directions. Contract negotiations, business opportunities, people come out of the woodwork, and it all happens when you're so young.
Yeah, like '300,' I've probably watched it 300 times. It's one of my favourite films. I've just finished watching 'Spartacus,' another great series. I relate a lot to those kind of films. I think most fighters should relate to those films. It just seems natural. I am Spartacus, I am Leonidas, I am the lead role in those films.
The freedom fighters in India's long struggle for independence from British rule, or members of the African National Congress, were once classed as terrorists. History, as they say, is written by victors, but history also has many cunning corridors - how much time must elapse before all those tricky side-passages are revealed?
After making my notes in the afternoon, I usually visit the fighters in their dressing rooms before they go out. I check what colour trunks they'll be wearing and sometimes the pronunciation of their names, particularly if they're from eastern Europe or Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia. I'll make sure I write those out phonetically.