i don't do a lot of interviews like this

so there's not a lot of people that do

get to see this side of me chris

eubank

jr

the biggest fight of his life growing up

i was always chris eubank son a lot of

people would say you're trying to steal

your son's limelight to a certain extent

maybe he was i have to do something here

to where people know me for me

i got myself into this gang some kid had

gotten my number

he was like wait till i find you i went

into school with a baseball bat to find

this kid i take the baseball bat out

that changed the path of my life

[Music]

the first time i went to dubai there was

a young guy there and offered to train

me

that was your brother

i just started crying man it was you

know one of the worst days of my life i

knew my brother was in dubai and i

didn't go and see him

that would have been the last time i

would have saw him before he passed

um

a man named nick blackwell he got taken

to hospital he actually died on the way

to hospital he had to revive him with an

adrenaline shot those types of incidents

are what put things into perspective and

make you think about what you're doing

have you ever had this conversation with

your father about your emotions

this is too much

so without further ado i'm stephen

bartlett and this is the diary of a ceo

i hope nobody's listening but if you are

then please keep this to yourself

[Music]

chris

one of the really remarkable things

about your story that i was

that kind of broke the mold a little bit

was someone that comes from a family as

you described where you did have comfort

because your father was very very

successful in his career

it seems like a little bit of an anomaly

that you had such

discipline

and appetite for

struggle and pain because usually that

comes from typically stereotypically

that comes from

a background of intense hardship

so i guess where my question is like

where did that come from in you and is

that

something you saw in all of your

siblings

i always had that

very competitive

uh

personality you know and before i found

boxing

i was heavy into sports in school

cricket rugby football athletics

swimming um

and i i just got a high off of

competing and winning

just

just competitive that's all i all i want

to do was test myself against other guys

and then obviously when i found boxing

i

quickly understood that this was

the ultimate form of competition

you couldn't get anything

more intense more hardcore

more pure

than

two guys putting gloves on getting into

the ring

and

and going until somebody can't go

anymore

did you have

that from your dad at all was he ever

pushing you in those early years before

you even knew he was a boxer to be

competitive to win and that that was

important or was it more just

innate in you

you know it's funny my father actually

he was the opposite in terms of

supporting or you know pushing me

towards boxing

he he banned me from going to boxing

gyms for a couple of years

he didn't think i'd be tough enough you

know so uh you know i was begging him

all the time let me let me go to the gym

let me let me let me go and spa let me

go and train

and he he would just tell me no no

you're not going

stick with your athletics stick with

your rugby stick with your football

stick with your studies

that was a big thing for him you know

because he didn't have that education

growing up

um

boxing's gonna be too tough you know

you've got so many look at look at where

you are you're in a mansion you go to

private school

you know you've got everything you need

and want here why do you need to go down

to the gym

and and get your ass kicked every day

so um you know it took years of me

nagging and begging let me do it let me

do it

um

finally he gave in

and i guess the rest is history now

we're here

when i was younger i remember my older

brothers could all eat really spicy food

and remember someone saying to me at the

table maybe one of my brothers maybe my

mum she was like don't give that to

steve he can't eat it when i heard that

it sounded like a challenge to me

now when you said that about your dad it

almost sounded like a dare it sounded

like a challenge did you receive it like

that him saying you're not tough enough

to do that absolutely you know as a kid

um

when you're told you can't do something

you want to do it

ten times more do you think he was aware

of that

he's a smart man

you know what i've never thought of it

like that i've never thought about that

like was he

was he trying to bait me you know was he

saying this or stopping me so that when

i actually did start i would go so hard

that i would actually you know make

might make something of myself in the

sport i have no idea

if he did then that's that's a hell of a

you know a thing

but um

no i mean i i genuinely think that he

he did really think i wasn't tough

enough

i mean world champions the best fighters

in the world

generally come from

poverty from hardship from broken homes

and they fight because they have to

fight

there is there's no other option for

them if they don't win if they don't

succeed in boxing they don't eat

you know they don't have a home to go to

they can't pay the bills

um

so that's what fuels them to

to make it they have no choice

uh whereas me i had

i have many choices so in a way

i see it as i i see it as actually more

of a

an accomplishment

because i didn't have to go through

everything i went through to get to

where i am today

34th of fights 32 wins

the pain the hardship the sacrifice the

suffering i didn't have to do any of

that

i could have

stayed in school i could have

kept the rugby up all the or the or the

football or the cricket

um

you know and i i would have made it in

any sport that i wanted to make it in

i know that

why

just just because of my passion and my

my drive you know once i once i zone in

on something i want to do

nothing else matters

and i will i will do it and i will get

there

by any means necessary

people that don't know about boxing or

don't know how to fight

they think that you got to be big and

strong and mean and full of hate and

that's what

enables you to be a great fighter or to

be able to to win in the fight game

and sure some of those things are going

to help you you know speed power all of

that stuff

plays a big part for sure but the

biggest part

of being able to be a great fire is is

this

and a lot of people don't realize that

or don't know

that it is

in my opinion

i don't know 70 80 mental

you know

the balls and the the grit that you have

to have

to

you know walk through crowds of that

thousands of people

and while you're walking there knowing

that you know once you get

to that ring and walk up those stairs

you're gonna have to take off your

jacket

the bell's gonna go and you're gonna

have to fight somebody

you're gonna have to get hurt and you're

gonna have to hurt somebody in front of

thousands of people and millions of

people around the world

that in itself

that that walk

most people on the planet could not

cannot do that

just the walk let alone the fight part

it takes a lot of mental strength

it takes a lot of of guts a lot of heart

you know mental strength

it's a huge thing in boxing

it's a big thing in life

even outside of boxing right in business

and

in all i think great endeavors do you

think it's something that you can from

what you've seen in the gym something

you can teach or train

i think you can have you seen it talk to

someone that didn't have it

i've seen fighters

improve

you know i've seen fighters over the

years become more confident and

in their abilities and you know

that does transfer for that just

transfer over to their performances in

the ring

i think to a certain extent you do have

to have

that strength that that belief and that

courage and that

that mental fortitude to fight

it can be enhanced

in some ways

but only to a certain extent

because at the end of the day

there are going to be times

in training inspiring and definitely in

in the fighting

where you're going to get hurt you're

going to be in a position where

you're questioning yourself

what am i doing here

am i gonna be okay can i beat this guy

um

should i give up should i find a way out

this is too much

every fighter experience is that that

that moment you know have you

experienced that yeah in a fight

there's one time where i was close to

giving up

one time

i went to cuba

before i turned pro

out there obviously they have the

olympians and

you know their their olympic

training is second to none you know

these guys are animals they're monsters

um

in cuba they have this thing called

technical sparring which i had never

done and i never did

ever again until maybe up like two years

ago

but technical sparring is basically um

you're sparring but you're not aspiring

to hurt the guy

you're aspiring to work on technique you

know so it's like an agreement all right

listen i'm not gonna go all out here you

know we're gonna work on the jab today

or we're gonna work on foot movement

um we're not trying to bang each other

out

you know they they they're big on that

they're big on technical sparring

i had never done anything like that my

my whole mentality was if i'm going to

spy you

i'm going to try and get you out of

there

because that's how my mentality is going

to be when

i'm in a real fight

so i i need that's just how i need to be

um

the cuban

olympic heavyweight representative

walks up the stairs and gets into the

ring i thought he was coming into the

ring to to shadowbox and warm up for his

sparring session with somebody else

he said no no you guys you guys are

going to spa

i was like

uh

dude he's

about three times the size of me what do

you mean he's like yeah yeah it's okay

it's okay we you know he'll work with

you he'll work with you

technical sparring

so i thought sure that's fine let's go

first round goes first bell goes this

guy

sprints over to me

and just starts

laying into me the biggest shots

bang bang bang

head up moving out the way dungeon

running around the ring and he's just

coming at me and i can't get this guy

off of me

he knocks me out of the ring he punches

me i i fall out of the ring i drop down

it's like a three four foot drop onto

concrete

my knee hits the hit hits the concrete

my leg goes dead

right

this is the second round that this

happened i still have one more round

afterwards

so i'm getting up

legs completely gone

i'm looking up

in this heavy weights like leaning over

the the ropes looking at me looking down

at me

and i have a decision to make

do i get back in

or do i say listen my knees bad you're

too big

i've got a concussion let me know let me

just take a break

so i'm sitting there i'm looking around

everyone's looking at me my dad's there

i was like you know what let's [ __ ]

go let's go walk back up knowing knowing

what i was about to receive once as soon

as i got back in the ring

and that's like what happened

crack click uh you know clapped us back

in

just starts laying into me again for

another another another two rounds

but my whole thing was

i have to finish the three rounds

why

because i said i was gonna do the three

rounds

i said i would bar him three rounds

i'm not leaving this gym

with everybody knowing that i quit

why not

why not because uh

i couldn't i couldn't live with myself

i've gotta i've gotta go home and go to

sleep

how am i going to go to sleep with that

on my mind you know i can go to sleep

with getting my ass kicked by a guy

who's three times bigger than me i can i

can sleep like that

i can't go to sleep knowing that he

another man made me quit made me run out

of the ring no

so i got back into that ring and i took

my beating like a man

and from that day on i was never scared

again

so that was the worst

experience of my life in terms of

boxing but it was also the best

experience

because i knew

i knew what i was capable of i knew i

had it inside me to not give up

i knew i could take a shot

i knew i had what it what it would take

to make it if he can't make me quit

who's gonna make me quit nobody

so that stuck with me for the rest of my

career

something really interesting which i i

gained from that

which is like we basically create a

personal like philosophy or story with

ourselves and in that moment when you're

looking up at stepping back into that

ring with that massive guy in there

it's like you're you're writing or

making a

story about yourself one that will

probably follow you forever and i think

about this sometimes when i'm on my own

and i'm on my like peloton and i'm

either exhausted or knackered and i know

there's seven minutes left and i know i

can just get off it but this thing in my

head goes but then steve you're changing

your own

personal story which is that sometimes

steve quits when it's hard

and the thought of having to live the

rest of my life with that per and it

sounds like a very strange thing i've

never said before but the thought of

having to live with that personal story

that personal philosophy that that's who

i am is never worth getting off the bike

because okay it's seven minutes today

but it's a lifetime

of thinking that's who i am and it

sounded like that in that moment you you

had a choice about who you were going to

sit you know and it's a self thing i

know there's other people there but

sometimes when i'm sure you have it in

the gym or whatever where no one's

around it's just

you and you yeah you have a decision to

make about who who you are right

happens a lot in training i imagine as

well right no that that's actually when

it happens the most you know there are

times you know i'll be i'll be on the

treadmill

where i'll be running and you know i'll

get a cramp in in the uh in my calf

yeah i've still got eight minutes to go

because you said you were gonna do

because i i've set the timer for 40

minutes on the thing

so i'm on i'm on 32 minutes

the cramp starts going

you're on the treadmill yeah

you got

you got eight minutes to go

and i'm i'm running like this now

but i'm not getting off the treadmill

because i've got to do the eight minutes

why no one's there nobody's there

but if the treadmill can make me quit

what happens when i get into the ring

with a guy who's hit me and i'm hurt

yeah he's gonna make me quit too so i'm

i'm on that treadmill for eight minutes

like that

just try and just try and not try not to

get the pressure on this leg

but i'm finishing the 40 minutes

now that is

you know it it's huge because

it teaches you

to believe and to know that you know no

matter how hard things get you will find

a way

you'll find a way

it doesn't matter who's watching you

know you know because

yeah no one's around right now so no one

would know if you took that break

but what happens when you're in a

situation where the world is watching

and you're in that same position of pain

or of

of un you know uncertainty about you

know

so you got a big speech or you you know

some something's happening and

everyone's watching and you don't know

you don't really want to keep going

you know

then you'll get that same feeling you

know what i'm going to do it

not

oh well listen i'm i'm i'm done i just

this is too much you don't ever want to

put that

uh

that spirit inside yourself you know

you got to you got to keep those demons

out

you know and they are demons you know

and if you and if you let them in

enough they take over

i don't let anything like that inside me

i always beat

what it is

uh that's in front of me what it is

whether it's mental whether it's

spiritual whether it's physical

um

i always make sure i come out on top

one of the ways we learn about who we

are and i was i guess that self story

that i was talking about there is by

looking at others we can sometimes

compare ourselves to our peers or those

around us or whatever it might be and

say

i know that i'm

different because everyone around me

isn't like this thing they're not like

they don't have this trait or quality or

think in this way that i do

when i look at your career and what

you've done it is remarkable because

as you said you had so many other

choices but you chose what i consider to

be

the

most tumultuous

struggle-filled one

and so i when i when i sit here i go

what is it about you

that's made you where you are today in

this this great champion

the character traits the attributes what

is it

i've always had a strong mind i've

always had a strong soul

i've always known what i wanted to do

uh and that i was never gonna stop until

i did it

um

i had a lot to live up to

you know growing up

i was always chris eubank's son

you know from an early age i was like

yeah but that's not my i'm not chris

that's not my name

my name is chris he made it even harder

by calling me chris he made it even

harder this guy

um

but i knew that that's not i couldn't go

the rest of my life

as that as just being the son of

oh that's chris you know i have to do

something here

to where people know me for me

that was a big driving factor

becoming my own man

doing something that people would be

proud of and that my family would be

proud of and that i could say was my own

now some people would say well then why

did you go into boxing with which is you

know the same sport your dad did

um

you know it's a good question i mean

i guess that

you know

i guess that competitive

uh

soul inside of me maybe

wanting to see if i could be better than

what my dad was

see if i could be better than the guy

who said i i wasn't tough enough

um

i'm sure that was

in my mind in the early stages

now that i've done so much it's it's not

at all you know i don't ever compare

myself to my father people do all the

time you know who would win in a fight

if you you and your dad fought or you

know did would you ever spar with him

um i don't i don't think about any of

that you know

i just have to be the best fighter i can

be um

because at the end of the day

um

especially in boxing you know

you know you you're only going to be

competing with yourself that's how you

that's how you elevate that's how you

get better

not by focusing on other people and i

think that that goes for you know any

industry if you if you're constantly

looking at other people and what they're

doing and

you know

why they made it or why they didn't make

it you know you

you're losing out on on you and what you

know and on what is best for you and how

you're going to progress

i never looked up at anyone and said i

want to do that and i want to be there i

just i always just thought to myself you

know what

this is going to be so hard as it is i

don't want to put any added pressure on

myself

i don't want to you know

can i can i get as many wins as my dad

or you know can i be more famous or make

more money like

all that stuff would it's just it's a it

just messes with your mind so you just

have to focus on day by day

week by week fight by fight

just being the best you can be and

that's what i did and i just built that

up over the years

until you know until i had made my own

name and made my own

uh

path um

my father's always been there he's

always been there to support me and

guide me

i think

he's now taking a back seat a lot a lot

a lot more than he was originally he was

frightened and said at the beginning of

my career you know

you you look back on youtube at the at

the the press conferences and the

weigh-ins he was right there

you know and he'd be talking on my

behalf sometimes

a lot of people would say you know oh

you you're trying to steal your son's

limelight um

to a certain extent maybe he was or

maybe he

i don't think he was doing it

consciously like oh i want to i want to

steal a sunset but it's just

he's such an entertainer he's such a

people person he just couldn't help

himself

you know he'd have to get up in the

middle of a press conference and do some

poetry

or or talk [ __ ] to my opponent or he had

to he just that's just who he is

um

and early on i actually didn't mind it

because

i was so hell-bent on just becoming

a good fighter

i didn't even really want to talk to the

public

and i and i i always got and i still do

get a lot of

uh

trolls online social media

so it gave me like kind of like a bad

taste

for

publicity and and media and and

so i didn't really even want to deal

with that i just wanted to fight i just

wanted to get my record up so that

people could start saying okay yeah this

kid's a bad boy that's all i cared about

so it was actually him he actually did

take a a lot of pressure off of me by

him kind of doing the talking for for a

certain amount of years

um

now that i'm established

now that i am you know where i am in the

sport

uh

that isn't needed

you know i'm 32 years old now i can't

have another man at my press conferences

speaking on my behalf it's just this

it's just not gonna fly

so for the last few years

he hasn't been doing that

i'm comfortable in front of a camera now

i wasn't comfortable at the beginning

in the beginning i was very and i looked

back and i looked back at the all these

pictures i used to take with fans and

interviews and i was always very

serious and stone-faced

and not

fun to really listen to in interviews

and people would say oh yeah i met you i

met you uh you know i met you in in 2013

2014. look look here's a picture and

then and then and i'd be sitting

standing up some like this

what was that you just

you just had a bad opinion of that

no i just i was just so serious i was

just so obsessed with boxing like

and

for me when i'm in the fight i don't

play

you know some guys you know they they

walk they walk in into the ring you know

manny pacquiao's and joshua's in the

high-fiving guys and smiling and

you know dancing to the music

i'm not that guy i can't i can't be like

that if i know i've got to fight

i'm a barbarian

you know i'm it's wartime

um

and even though i'm light outside of the

ring now

as an adult

one even now i i still want this fight

time i'm not smiling

i'm not a nice guy

now as at the start of my career i guess

i couldn't i couldn't separate

the fighter from

the guy in the street they were the same

guy

so whether i was in the ring or i was

taking a picture with the fan

i i wasn't smiling i was a serious dude

now

as you get older you you know you

understand you can't

you can't be like that around

normal citizens

because it's

it's it's just weird you know you you

have to be able to smile i i smile at

all my pictures now

because these pictures they have them

for the rest of their lives

and and they show them to their friends

their family

um

and what do you want do you want

that or do you want

oh he's a nice guy or oh he's an [ __ ]

he couldn't even you couldn't even smile

he looked so serious he didn't look like

he didn't want you want to be there

you know that's one thing i've learned

it's very important

being

in the public eye

you have to give people time

and you have to be happy about it

uh

because

you know one encounter

is not just one encounter

if you meet somebody you're actually

meeting their friends

their family their son their daughters

you know that one person it's a spider

web

so that one person is actually

a thousand different people and it's

either gonna be

he was a really good guy he was a cool

guy he said he took he took a picture

and he spent you know he spent time and

talked to me

that's that's the story that goes out to

the thousand people or

what an [ __ ] what a wanker

um

which one of those stories do you want

being

spider webbed out into the universe you

know and it all comes back around

because you meet the friends you meet

the family you see the tweet yeah you

see the tweets you know it all comes

back around so

good energy positive vibes give people

your time you know

because those pictures and those stories

stay with them for the rest of their

lives

and becomes your karma

and becomes your karma it becomes

how people treat you that you've never

met before

you know you really got to be aware of

the power of your energy towards other

people if if you give off bad vibes and

then you get bad vibes if you're a good

person if you give people time

it all comes back around

there's been this kind of perception

because of that because if you're very

stone-faced that you're unemotional

sure you've heard this before

yeah

what's the truth in there are you

unemotional

i've heard that i've heard that word

many times

throughout the years with girls i've

dated

that's always been a really

bad or hard thing for them to

to get past is that i'm not

an emotional guy

apparently i'm very hard to read

when i'm in a relationship or on a date

or whatever it is um you know they don't

know if i even like them

um

am i emotional no i'm not

i have emotions obviously but

you know like

for you to upset me

is it's damn near impossible

and you know i will never sh i i don't

think i've

i can't remember the last time i shouted

at somebody

i don't have that emotion to

you know if you if you do something

wrong to me or to disrespect me or

okay

and then i just never see you again

i i don't get that like

you know what are you doing you know

like that so many people get i don't

have that in me i don't know why

you know if i knock somebody out in the

ring

i stand there

i look at them while they're on the

floor that's it

you know 99.9 percent of fighters they

they knock a guy out

[Music]

jumping up onto the brink

high fiving people

crying

you know i don't i don't have that

emotion it's like yeah i knocked you out

this is what i said i was gonna do this

is what i've trained for

for my whole life

so

yeah that's what happened

um

do you ever worry though that that's

gonna get in your way a little bit in

terms of especially romantic

relationships women

are a little bit more emotional than men

um they're more in touch with their

feelings i mean the data shows that

quite clearly so

do you ever think that's gonna inhibit

you from forming romantic relationships

i mean i've never really thought about

it and it's not

because she said you wanted kids i

remember hearing you say that of course

yeah i mean who doesn't

um well i mean some people don't but

eventually i do want a kid

but you know

the woman i'm going to have a kid with

is not going to be a woman that needs an

emotional man you know some women don't

need that

um was your father emotional

no

no your mother

yeah

yeah father emotional at all

no

affectionate

i knew he loved me and that you know i

knew i could i knew he wanted the best

for me

um

[Music]

he was emotional enough to for me to

know that

uh that's my dad and i would do anything

for him and i love him you know some

some people don't have that relationship

with their dads you know

i love my dad i res but i respected him

and i feared him

um

i did fear him

so

and that was you know he was very strict

growing up i couldn't get away with

anything

i think that's sometimes about myself i

think you know i i actually grew up i

still to this day called my mum and dad

by their first names never called them

mum and dad and then i think there was a

lack of affection and emotion in my

child in my childhood so

i had to kind of learn

growing up how to be affectionate and

emotional i remember someone calling me

their best friend and me feeling this

like internal

repulsion like the [ __ ]

and then when i would when i'd get into

a relationship with well no this was

even worse when i'd find someone that i

fancied and i'd pursue them the minute

they showed interest in me i'd reject

them and so until i realized that was

going on and i had this like weird thing

in me it controlled me and it meant that

27 i had my first proper relationship

so

yeah that's uh i'd learn a bad model of

affection relationships and emotions so

i feel like i've become a little bit

more emotional as i've gotten older

you know before

nothing could phase me you know doesn't

matter what would happen nothing would

phase me

up until a few years maybe maybe over

the last like two or three years

there's been a few times where i've

watched movies

and

i'd get this like

you know something sad would happen and

i'd get this this feeling you know like

and i i never cried you know but

you know that like that start of like i

might cry

um

[Music]

and i was like what what the hell is

this you know like this is weird and

that's only have started happening over

the last couple of years

so i don't know if i'm becoming more

mellow

or

i don't know but i'm just i'm just not

an emotional person you know i haven't

cried

you know the last time i well i was the

last time i cried i was

i was 12 years old

and then i cried again when my brother

died last year

so

you know that's

that's 20 years in 20 years i've cried

once

so yeah i mean i guess you could say i'm

not emotional but that's what i needed

to be

to do the things i've done in the ring

that that that was that was my journey

that was that was how i was able to do

it

um i had to get my emotions out

to be able to perform

ice cold

you know some guys use their emotions to

help them fight more

that was my path you know if i ever

if i ever felt emotions getting involved

in you know whether it was hate or anger

or

being afraid i would

i noticed that it affected my fighting

negatively i would make mistakes

you know if i went into a sparring

session i really didn't like the guy

you know and i went out there and really

tried to hurt him i'd actually hurt him

less than if i was just cool calm cold

and calculated you know

i'd make mistakes i'd attack when i

wasn't supposed to attack or i would

i'd move and i would do certain things

which i'm just i'm only doing because i

just want to get him you know and it's

like

boxing is a chess match you know

at the highest levels

you have to think about everything that

you're doing

the guys that think while they're in the

ring not just react those are the guys

who who make it to

the top of the top

have you ever had this conversation with

your father about your emotions

about dealing with emotions suppressing

emotions whatever because

i don't know i struggle to believe that

you're not emotional as you've seen you

does come out in you but it just seems

like you've

learned how to

suppress and not express those emotions

i have never had this conversation with

my father no we've never talked about

emotions or

feelings

i'm not gonna say he's not that type of

guy because he actually may be now at

this stage in his life

you know he's he's found god he's very

religious now

um

so maybe i actually could have this

conversation with him but

you know

10 years ago

20 years ago

there's just no way i could never sit

down with him and

and talk about my feelings you know

he'd be like feelings

come let me take my belt off and show

you about feelings you know

really

it was not you know very strict very um

[Music]

yeah very

uh

you you i got away with nothing as a kid

you know but i i think i needed that

because i was very boisterous i was very

i had a lot of energy

you know i got myself into this gang

when i was a kid and

you know i was going around i was

fighting i was

you know skipping school um

[Music]

the only thing that

somewhat kept me in line

was knowing that if i got caught or if i

went too far

my dad was waiting for me at home

do you really think he would have taken

his belt off if you tried to chat with

him back through here i'm exactly i'm

exaggerating that part yeah but listen

the belt came off many times

but when i stepped out of line as a kid

yeah

um

you know that strictness those that

punishment

uh

stopped me from

going even more overboard than i already

did

and i did go overboard you know you can

go on to youtube right now and see a

video of me street fighting at 16 years

old in the car park in brighton

and i was doing that every other week

you know

so imagine what i would have been doing

if i could if i could just have free

reign if i had nothing

stopping me from doing anything it would

you

know i'd be in jail

100 percent

um

[Music]

you know we're jamaicans we're built

differently you know we're

there's just something in our dna which

uh you know we

we we have this thing where we

you know we we like to cause trouble man

i don't know why

um

my father was the same you know he got

into all types of trouble as a kid you

know stealing and

getting arrested and fighting you know

that's just

i don't know we just we we come from a a

bloodline of

of uh of ruffians you know it's just how

we are

i'm a lot more

um

refined now as an adult you know i look

back at some of the things i was doing

and i'm just like

what what was i thinking i remember

i went to college

for maybe

a month or two before i ended up moving

to america

some kid from

this uh the school that was opposite

from the college had had somehow gotten

my number

and i had i got in a fight with his

brother and these are these two really

big kids um and he he got my he called

me like 2am woke me up he's like yo who

do you think you are

i'm gonna [ __ ] you i'm gonna do this i'm

gonna eat you i'm gonna do this stuff to

you

you know watch wait till i find you

watch hung up the phone

i i knew who the kid was because i heard

i knew his voice right

the next day

i went into school with a baseball bat

in in my gym bag

so i have the gym bag so obviously no

one can see it

lunch bar rang went picked up my bag

started walking across to the other

school

to find this kid

and when i say find him i mean like

i was walking in and out of classes

i was opening the doors

and seeing

you know the teachers looking like

who are you what are you doing don't

worry about it so i was walking from

classroom to classroom to classroom to

classroom on your own on my own yeah to

find this kid

with the baseball bat in my bag and you

know

um

i thank god i thank the good lord above

that i didn't find him

that i didn't see him

because you know

i walk into a classroom or i see him on

the football field i take the baseball

bat out i hit him with it

finished

you know one i could kill the kid

i'm in jail for the rest of my life

um

you know

i would i would have been banned from

going to america

so my my whole

my whole foundation

uh everything that i learned going over

to the states as as

at 18 years old having my first amateur

fights training with floyd mayweather

and his father

that would have all been washed away i

would have never i would have never done

it

so i would never have done anything in

boxing because that was that was that

start

was what built me up

you know

you know i just so i just thank god that

he wasn't there that day because that

could have changed the part of my life

you know and i just look back at that

like

how what were you thinking like how

stupid could you be but obviously as a

kid you you're not thinking about

consequences or america you know you you

know you're just upset that some kid

called you up and and called you an

[ __ ] and said he's gonna mess you up

the next time you see him you're not

thinking about

traveling and getting bands and going to

prison and you're just thinking i want

to be a big man and and show everyone

i'm hard

you know so it's just

you know you have to have that's why i

say i thank god for my father as well

for how strict he was because

you know

there were other times where there were

things that i was going to do

but i didn't do them because i didn't

want to

suffer the consequences of my old man

so um

yeah

you talked earlier about your the death

of your brother

sebastian

the first time i went to dubai

i went to the gym there

and there was a young guy there that

came over and offered to train me

and he trained me for

about

i think two weeks

individually i was your brother

got loads of photos hundreds and

hundreds of photos of him training me on

the bags there

i remember him as being just the most

generous

pure

pure is the word that i always come back

to

giving person he did not ask me for any

money he never asked me for a thing he

trained me on the bags both times that i

came to um

dubai and i wasn't he didn't necessarily

know who i was or what i was doing but

he did that out of the goodness of his

heart and then he continued to message

me and speak to him on instagram about

superfoods and we talked a lot about

that

obviously he there was a tragic accident

and he

passed away from that

what can you tell me about that incident

and the

lasting impact that's had on you and

those those around you

i mean you know

this is fresh this is this only happened

a year ago

um

and i never had to

i've never dealt with anything like that

in my life

um

i told you i'm not an emotional guy

the last time i cried i said i was 12

years old

but the day i found out

i cried the whole day

i cried the whole day i cried for like

two days straight

um

yeah yeah my so my dad actually

i had covered i had covered when i found

my dad came to my house

uh

he woke me up

he said come outside

and i thought i'd done something wrong

because he had he had a look in his face

which was uh

i don't know i just couldn't i can't

describe it but it was

i knew something was wrong

um so i thought that you know i don't

know i i i wasn't sure what what i was

about to hear he took me outside my

little brother my little brother joseph

um

he's he lives with me and i have an

outhouse

uh so he lives there he went and got him

and he sat us down and he told us and um

you know i just started crying man it

was you know one of the worst days of my

life and um

you know

it's just it's so crazy to to think that

somebody that is so healthy you know

like you said he's telling you about the

superfoods and

you know he trains every day you know

peak physical condition

um

can just you know have a heart attack

and just gone

just still just blows my mind you know

um

i thank god that you know he didn't

suffer he didn't he didn't really feel

anything he just went

um and i also thank god that he had a

son

his son was born

maybe a month or month before he passed

and he raheem

and he looks just like him

so we have that you know

um we have raheem to carry on his legacy

and i thank god for that every day um

you know he's just now starting to walk

learning how to walk

he has a seven or eight teeth he's he's

a great kid

very good looking kid

um

i guess

that one

instance

i feel like that has made me more of an

emotional person since that's happened

um

it makes you think just like how

before something that happens to you you

hear about all that stuff on your news

and to other people and you see it in

movies

and it's just like well whatever you

know it doesn't it doesn't really

register but when there's a death in

your family then

then the next time you hear about

someone passing away then you get that

immediate feeling of what you dealt with

and then you start to sympathize and

empathize and

with the people that it's happening to

that you don't know

um and i never had that emotion before

until until this happened um

and it just you know

like i said i had covid

and

uh

that meant that i actually couldn't make

it to his his funeral which is

you know it's just crazy like i was in

florida for the whole of covert right

and

when i say that these guys didn't care

in florida like

the beaches were full

no one's wearing masks i i remember

going to the beach and i would walk

along the beach thousands of people and

i'd be wearing a mask this was like peak

covered and people would be looking at

me like what are you wearing a mask for

like they did not care

i was in i went to texas i was in dallas

for a month i was partying every night

never got covered

and then

the day my brother dies i have covered

and i can't get on a plane

and fly to dubai for his funeral because

i have covered and

in the muslim

religion they have to bury him as

quickly as possible

um

they couldn't wait

i thank god that my family were able to

go out

i had to stay

um

you know i don't

i don't believe in regrets

um

i believe what's meant you know what's

meant to be will be

and you know you should be happy with

whatever happens in your life you know

but i would say there is one regret i

have in my life

uh and that was

i actually went so i hadn't i hadn't

seen my brother for quite some time

and

uh

i was

i had a holiday this was i don't know

maybe three or four months before he

passed away i stopped off i had to stop

off in dubai and i stopped off in dubai

for like a couple days before i flew to

this destination

and um

i didn't want to i didn't want to see

anybody

nobody knew that i was making this trip

i knew my brother was in dubai and i

didn't go and see him

i just i didn't want people knowing i

was in dubai so i just i stayed in my

hotel room and i didn't see anybody

and then i left and i went to the next

destination

that's that's probably the one regret i

have in my life now is that i didn't

go and see him you know because that

would have

that would have been the last time i

would have saw him before he passed

um

[Music]

you know and these things it just

teaches you you've got to appreciate

and you've gotta

um

you know you don't take anything for

granted nothing is guaranteed you know

the people you love

be with them as much as you can

appreciate them enjoy them

don't get into fights

you know

don't do things which just wasting time

because

one minute they're there and one minute

they're gone and then you've got to

think about all the things you could

have done with them or should have done

with them that you didn't because

you know you're

you're too busy or you you know i'll see

them again another time

you know it's uh it's crazy how the

world works but yeah

i appreciate everyone at all times and

you know

family is family is number one

you know

don't let anything ever get in between

that don't take it for granted that's

one thing i've learned

you know investing a lot of time in your

relationship with rheem

absolutely yeah we're on the phone all

the time

i've got a million videos of him

on my phone my my uh my brother's wife

seb's wife salma she send me videos

every day of raheem

um

they're coming over to england actually

in uh in a month or so

and yeah so raheem is is now my son you

know that's that's how i feel

um

you know it actually makes me want to

have a kid

i was never really planning on having a

kid until after my career

and i still may not but

um

i want raheem to be able to grow up with

my son you know i don't want them to be

too

far apart

um

you know me and my brother said we were

you know a year and a half apart so we

were very close you know we did

everything together

um so i want i want raheem to have that

so you know within the next few years

we'll uh we'll see what happens

one of the things i couldn't quite

ascertain from

googling

was if you uh if you are in a

relationship or if you're dating you

keep all that stuff very private i don't

blame you to feel this but

i couldn't quite ascertain where you're

at with that um

most things said you weren't

but is it

a part of your life

absolutely yeah

one thing i've learned is that

relationships and social media don't mix

um

i've just i've seen social media mess up

so many relationships

uh that i just

you know i decided a long time ago that

whoever i was with

uh is not gonna be

it's not gonna be a public relationship

my life is public

people can see what i'm doing every day

i want something that's for me

uh

you know and you've got so many girls

out there who

you know they're they're just clout

chasers you know they they just want

they want to say that you know that look

at me look at these pictures we went

here we went there

um i don't need that in my life you know

i've got enough clout i've got enough

attention on me so i

i keep my private life private

so much so that i've actually seen

comments online saying that i'm gay

you know

this guy's never in pictures with girls

he's never gotten he's got no girls on

his instagram i think he's gay i've seen

that like multiple times and just you

know i laugh my ass off whenever i see

that but

yeah i just

i just don't i don't believe in mixing

the two i don't i don't see any

positives from it you know people see

something

if they see something

if they see people happy

some most people yeah that's great but

there's there's a large p percentage of

people that if they're seeing something

happy they they want to try and make it

unhappy that's what is as crazy as that

sounds that's what some people do you

know

so uh

i'm not gonna let anybody take shots at

or try and

muddy my relationship because

i've seen it happen before it will you

know and it happened it happens all the

time

i believe

a private life should be private and

that's that's how i've chosen to

to keep my relationships

it's good to hear i agree

i'm not gay

you talked a bit about um seb there and

his approach to like health and fitness

i actually looked back through my

conversations with him before you came

and all of our conversations were about

health and fitness he'd asked me a few

things about social media and some

advice there but

did that incident also impact how you

viewed the health implications of the

sport that you do

because you know you can get

one

one hit in boxing and it can be it can

cause really bad damage right

has that brought it more into the

spotlight for you that your the

fragility of your health and

you know i hear a lot of boxers talk

about not overstaying their welcome

tyson fury this weekend after he won the

fight talked about that as well

has that is that front of mind for you

when you you think about your career

i wouldn't say that what happened with

seb has

um

no it hasn't hasn't affected how i think

about boxing um

you know i've been doing this game i've

been in this game for a long time

i've been in fights where you know

i've hurt people to the point where they

you know have been in a coma i've fought

a a man named nick blackwell

years back and you know he

he uh he got taken to hospital he

actually died on the way to hospital and

he had to revive him with an adrenaline

shot and he was in a coma for two weeks

um you know that that was national news

um

you know those types of instance of

incidents are what

really put things into perspective and

make you think about what you're doing

and

the risks and the implications

as a youngster you don't think about it

you know when something like that

happens then you do think about it and

you and you think about even more as you

get older

because as you get older

especially in boxing you

you're affected more by the punishment

you take

i feel like when i was young it's like i

could do anything and i never get hurt

you know at 32

you know you pick up sick little

injuries and

you know you

the shots you take you feel them that

little bit more than you used to

you start forgetting things

you know

um do you think that's correlated that

forgetting things

so what you'd forget like a name or

something and you'd yeah and you'd like

my recall is is a lot worse than it used

to be

so

you know in my 20s

um

if i couldn't remember something i'd sit

there

and within five seconds i get it you

know you do that thing when you think

about it oh yeah yeah

now it's

ten minutes

you know i i it's it's it's really

embarrassing to say but

i forgot the name of somebody one time

it took me a week

every day sitting there

like throughout the day whenever i would

remember what was the name what was the

name and then a week later bang just

came to me

i just i couldn't i was just nuts you

know because now

now i force myself to remember

because it's like you're training your

brain it's called recall

so i'll i'll force myself if i'm if i

you know i could easily just go on my

phone and what was the name again google

oh yeah that was it

but now i now i force myself to pull it

out of my mind

um and that there was one particular

name and it took me a whole week before

it just snapped back

do you have recall apps on your phone i

read that somewhere that you had like a

an app on your phone to help you train

so i have an app now it's called um

elevate

and it's basically

going to the gym but for your brain

you know so i've got here so you've got

like

spelling recall eloquence precision

um

you know you have it's games it's games

that you play you know vocabulary

uh math equations you know just little

games to play each day and it just keeps

your mind working

your mind your brain is like a muscle

you know if you keep using it the more

you use it the better it gets right the

stronger it gets and i think it's

important you know especially because as

you get older you you know i do i know i

notice it you know i'll i'll

go into a room and i'll put my phone

down somewhere

and then i'll walk off and then i'll

and i'll walk around the room looking

for the bloody phone

it's you know and it's like i'm think it

shouldn't this should not be happening

um

[Music]

is that from

getting hit in the head i don't know is

it just i'm getting no i don't know

um sounds like me to be honest and i

don't get hit in the head i don't drink

you know you know i got i got friends

they drink every night

you know and they're very smart guys you

know they're in business they're in

economics they're you know they

they're in tech they

but

they drink

a lot sometimes so it's like and i feel

like you know

drinking kills brain cells right

just like a punch would

but they seem to be okay i don't know so

maybe maybe that maybe that impact is is

just it's just different i don't know

i am so excited to announce our new

sponsor for this podcast and that is

blue jeans by verizon for any of you

that aren't already familiar with blue

jeans they are a video conferencing and

collaboration tool who offer an

immersive communication experience that

drives pretty unparalleled employee and

customer engagement experiences me and

all of my teams across all of my

portfolio companies switched over to

blue jeans a couple of months ago and we

have not looked back the best thing for

us has been the totally frictionless

experience no glitching no sound issues

no delays or any of those things that

usually make virtual meetings really

really frustrating we use blue jeans

anywhere on any device at any time and

it's perfect for my small businesses

that just have 10 or 20 people to some

of my bigger businesses that have

hundreds of people i'm a big fan as you

can probably tell so i've been quite

excited for for some time to announce

this partnership and in the coming weeks

i'll explain the features and really why

it's perfect for you if you haven't

considered using or switching over to

blue jeans yet but if you can't wait

head over to bluejeans.com to learn more

honestly it's been one of the real sort

of game changers in my business

we talked about feelings earlier

right um

and how

there's been a lot of sort of

generational changes around men

expressing their feelings

and one of the big changes i think i've

seen in the last 10 years from 10 years

ago when i was well for 19 to now is

this topic of mental health and men and

i think it's really been pushed to the

forefront because the stats around

mental health in our country

you know you've heard them we've all

heard them that the biggest killer of

men under the age of 45 is themselves

and a lot of people point and go well

why is that a lot of the mental health

charities cite that men don't express

themselves enough they're not emotional

they don't talk and we've had all the

campaigns about talking and

um those kinds of things have you ever

experienced

anxiety or depression

or any sort of mental health um

ailment

that's one thing that i do thank god for

is that i've never experienced any of

that

um

it's hard for me to relate to

uh hearing about people with depression

and

anxiety like i've just never experienced

anything like that um i know it's a

thing

um

[Music]

but i'm i'm just an extremely happy and

content person and i'm not saying that

to you know pick myself up that's just

how i am it's like it doesn't matter

what happens i'll find

the bright side or

if there's something bad going on in my

life i'm

i'm able to just cut it off

and move on

deal with it to the to where it stops

being an issue

um i've i've never been the type of

person that will let something affect me

um

you know from day one in my career

i've had i've been i've been a target

i get a serious amount of

[ __ ] online to this day

uh

haters doubters non-believers

i have like a whole army dedicated to

just

sticking it to me on a daily basis

online it's unbelievable

um

and the funny thing is if i walk out

into the street it's pictures it's

autographs it's love

none of these guys are around

why is that

i

you know i i got it at the beginning

well actually i didn't get it at the

beginning it really got to me because

you know i'm young i'm coming into the

game i'm trying to be the you know

trying to do the best i can

and i've got people constantly coming at

me oh you think you're you're old man

you're a copycat you'll never be as good

as him

uh you're a wannabe

you know and when i when i saw when i

first started experiencing this uh

this hatred and this um

you know this trolling

it did affect me

um

i didn't get depressed

because i'm not that type of person but

angry

you know why are these people saying

these things what what have i done to

them

um i couldn't understand it you know

maybe that is why i had for so many

years that kind of

that stone wall when i was taking

pictures of doing interviews

because i'd seen so much

so much negativity online you know um

but then after a while

i i don't know it just it just switched

one day and i was just like

why am i getting upset why am i getting

pissed off with these random guys

i don't i know what it was some guy

wrote something uh i think on my

facebook

i think i just had a fight and he said

um

terrible performance you're an

embarrassment to your family name

i hope you get knocked out in your next

fight you scumbag

right

i'm i'm a 22 year old kid

i've got some and you know i'm looking

i'm like jesus like you know it's just

nuts

i clicked on his

profile i was like i've got to see who

said this i mean who is this guy he must

be some amazing guy to be

saying this to me

and uh

you know it was this

fat

bloated

just nobody you and he was sitting on

his couch with a with a beer that was

his profile picture and he ended and he

had his cat next to him and he was in

shorts and like a wife beer

um or what you guys don't say wifi

that's my american thing coming out uh

tank top

um

and i was like hold on this is the guy

that just called me a scumbag

i'm letting this guy

affect my day

nah nah this has got to stop

and from that day on i just realized

it's not it's not even me it's

they're unhappy with themselves they're

not happy with me

you know the people that are trolling

you know they've got whatever they've

got going on in their lives they're

upset they're unhappy

they and they're projecting that onto

other people who are

who they see as doing them doing well

for themselves and they you know oh he's

look at him he's you know he's got all

that and you know let me see if i can

bring him down you know i'm upset so let

me see if i can make him upset like

that sounds crazy to me to do that but

that's

what i've come to understand that some

people do

you know they're unhappy so they want to

make other people unhappy with them

as soon as i realized that

i i never i never worried about trolling

or bad comments again i actually and now

i actually enjoy them you also must know

that it's profitable for you

absolutely mayweather taught us that

absolutely yeah i mean in in boxing

that's another that's another thing

which made me stop worrying about it

because i knew

after a while i started i started seeing

these trolls at my fights

you know i'd be walking to the ring

you're gonna get knocked out what are we

i'd hear all this stuff walking to the

ring

right

and i thought hold on a second

that guy bought a ticket

he paid to be there to to shout at me as

i walked past

and i'm you know

i'm getting a percentage of that ticket

what am i upset about all right he

shouted at me but

i've just made some money off the guy

so then then i understood right

you have to be a villain