Champs Page #11

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you see him going

back to boxing,

establishing his own promotional

company to not only help

the young boxers develop

into good boxers,

but to help them not make

some of the bad choices

that he made.

I was very critical of Mike.

I'm happy to see

him at a place where

I think he's much more

at peace, and at a better

place in his life than

I've ever seen him.

The Mike Tyson

that's there right

now is an honest guy trying

to do the best he can

to be happy and

live a good life.

His core love of

boxing stems from the amateurs.

That's when it was all

about the love of the game.

It wasn't so much about money.

And that's when boxing and

the sport is at its purest.

It's the adversity

that you face as a boxer that

really brings out

the true champion.

Bernard, and Mike, and

Evander, all of them

have faced that

kind of adversity.

Inside the ring, to be sure,

but outside the ring as well.

And I don't think we can measure

the arc of some of these people

until we see them go

through the adversities.

And when they do, it takes

a lot to come back from it.

The one thing that I think

keeps them coming back,

both in the boxing

ring and in life,

is the fact that boxers

have perseverance.

I'm on a different mission

now that some ain't gonna like.

And they shouldn't.

What I would like to do

in my second half of life

is to raise what

they would perceive

to be hell amongst the

people that want to keep

a society of prey to exist

so they can take advantage

of the backs, and blood,

and tears of a fighter.

We need to start thinking

about things in the long term,

and I think some of

that responsibility

falls on those that interact

with the fighters on a more day

to day basis.

There's one particular fighter

that has really stepped out

in front, and that's

Bernard Hopkins.

Being a part

of Golden Boy Promotion, what

I want to do is to take every

fighter that comes through me.

You've got to have

your own account.

You've got to have

your own attorney.

You've got to know what

the business is about.

This was the sport of kings.

This sport changed history, man.

This sport had more to

do with the advancement

of the civil rights movement

than any other sport.

From Jack Johnson to Joe

Lewis to Muhammad Ali.

This is a sport that is

ingrained in the fabric

of this country.

I think that a

resurgence is possible,

but there has to be

some changes made.

The

ultimate opponent for a fighter

is truth.

If he can be truthful

with himself,

if he can look at his

limitations and then

work on them.

If he can understand what he

does well and then enhance it.

But he has to deal in truth.

When you lose, you can

only blame yourself.

Go back and just look

at what you did wrong.

It's the ones that know how to

lose, and make yourself better,

and come back.

That's boxing.

In boxing,

you have to have challenges,

and you use those challenges to

take it to a different level.

I'm a fighter.

I'm that type of guy that

could've been anything else

in my life if I

chose to be that.

We all have talent in us.

You just gotta find it.

Everybody's

tested in one way or another.

It ain't easy.

Your priorities

gotta be lined up.

I have just as many

distractions as somebody else.

but I really wanted to be great.

Victory is how you're

able to inspire

people to want to be better.

This all comes down to family,

love, and forgiveness,

and respect.

Bridging the gaps between who

I am and who I want to be.

I'll find different

ways of becoming

more conscious about myself.

Human beings think a lot

of themselves, you know.

To think that we'll be

that privileged to see

the end of the world.

I don't think we're gonna

have that privilege.

I know there's things

that have been bad,

but you have to look at all the

good that's happening out here.

I see a new birth in the world.

I see people

respecting people more.

We have to evolve.

This is a great world,

and it's the best deal

we ever got in our

life, you know.

Life itself.

We got it for nothing.

Look at all we got in return.

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