“Some guys today are spoiled through their own talent,” he said. “They have talent and they get so spoiled on it because they think they can call on it whenever they want to. But they’re not diligent. And those guys with talent don’t realize that they’re supposed to be all-time greats. The determination has to be there. We can push them, but a lot of young people, some of them don’t actually pick up the understanding of what it takes to be great in what they do. I can articulate it to them the best that I can, but all I can do after that is put a prayer to the side and hope for the best.”
Being in an age where training camp isn’t a place to get away from the outside world anymore is a problem as well.
“There’s too many distractions,” said Richardson. “I can’t blame one particular vice, but between the cell phones, and the MySpace, and Facebook, they’re too distracted. Think about when guys went to camp back in the day. You lay in that bed and thought about the fight. Today, a guy can’t even think about his job – the phone rings and he’s right back home. They’ve got the laptops where they can actually look through the camera and see each other. These guys just aren’t the same anymore.”
So have cell phones been banned at Camp Mosley in Big Bear, California?
“They’ll find me buried somewhere here in Big Bear if I tried to take the cell phones away from these kids,” he chuckles. “Sometimes it becomes a problem with some of these young guys. They don’t want to hear it – they just chalk it up to ‘you’re old and we’re young.’ This is all they know, and some of these kids can’t imagine not being on a cell phone. There’s good to it and bad to it, but I see the distraction in it.”
Richardson won’t let it deter him from the task at hand. Blessed with a new lease on life after recovering from a stroke in March of 2007, he looks at life through a different lens now, but some things remain unchanged. One is that you won’t see him getting into any off-color antics in the lead-up to Mosley vs Mayweather; it’s just his style, he’s not about to alter it for anyone, and it’s in the blood.
“I have parents too,” he said. “And there are still people around who knew my parents and knew how they raised me. So for me to get out of character, some of those old people that still know my family, they’ll check me. My mother cussed me out one time because she said I cussed Bernard out in the corner. (Laughs) She said ‘Bernard was doing the best he could and you didn’t have to cuss him out like that. Where did you get all that language from?’ You know good and well where I got that language from.”
That’s not to say that Richardson isn’t amused by the antics of Team Mayweather on HBO’s 24/7 series and in the media over the last few weeks. He is, but it’s the amusement of an old pro who has seen it all more than once.
“The dog and pony show that is the Mayweather television show has kinda had its run,” he said. “Like any great show, everybody huddled around the television when ‘The Jeffersons’ first came out. But after a while, some reruns start coming on, and you weren’t that interested anymore, and the show gets cancelled. It’s the same thing with the Floyd Mayweather show – when it came out, it was interesting, everybody loved the way him and (trainer and uncle) Roger (Mayweather) worked the pads, but now it becomes – okay, we’ve seen it. Yes, we heard you were the greatest; yes, we heard you have more money than God. It’s all been done.”
“Buffoonery is always gonna sell,” Richardson continues. “You put the ‘Three Stooges’ on right now and you’re gonna get some people who are gonna stop and watch. But it’s starting to run its course now. And then he’s coming up on solid professionals who have prepared for that kind of nonsense. Floyd says he’s the greatest of all-time; I say ‘well, I agree.’ Am I doing this for my own personal gain? Wouldn’t any coach like to have trained the greatest fighter of all-time? Well, Floyd says he’s the greatest fighter of all-time and my fighter knocks him off, hey, hey, hey. (Laughs) I can do this and still stay humble.”
It’s almost as if Richardson is enjoying this whole process, like he knows something that we don’t, that on fight night, his fighter is going to upset Mayweather’s apple cart and pin the first loss on his perfect record. Well, it’s safe to say that Richardson knows more than 99.5% of us when it comes to boxing. As for the rest, that will have to wait for May 1st. But until then, Richardson is confident about what’s going to happen in Las Vegas that night.
“Mayweather’s an exceptional athlete,” said he said. “People call me and say ‘I’ve got a kid who boxes like Mayweather.’ No, you don’t. If you did, the kid would be somewhere defending his title. So all we can do is get Shane in the best shape possible, and from there, we’ll orchestrate the plan – it’s gonna be about a lot of changes and a lot of adversity, and we’ll look for the success in it, which I think we’re capable of doing with this guy.”
No trash talk, no insults, no questioning of Mayweather’s style, opposition, or heritage. It’s the polar opposite from the tact taken by Pretty Boy Floyd’s squad, and it’s refreshing. Then again, Naazim Richardson has made it a point to shatter stereotypes in the fight game for years. It’s only now that the rest of the world is starting to catch on.
“I’m not gonna reduce myself to what they’re doing – I have to answer to something higher and greater than that,” he said. “I was raised right. I did some wrong things, but I was raised right. And at the highest point of attention is the time you have to show you were raised right. I stand in front of that camera now and I represent all those young boys in the street that I mentor to and I talk to. I represent my children, who I told to do the right thing and to carry themselves the right way. I represent my gym, James Shuler’s Gym, I represent the Concrete Jungle, and I represent a lot more than just the trainer on 24/7. It ain’t just about me. I’d like to fire back, and the thing is, the Mayweathers give you so much to fire back at. It’s like they alley-oop the ball and you can’t help but slam dunk it. But you’ve got to restrain yourself. If he alley-oops the ball and I slam dunk it, it’s like I’m on his team."
real talk!
Being in an age where training camp isn’t a place to get away from the outside world anymore is a problem as well.
“There’s too many distractions,” said Richardson. “I can’t blame one particular vice, but between the cell phones, and the MySpace, and Facebook, they’re too distracted. Think about when guys went to camp back in the day. You lay in that bed and thought about the fight. Today, a guy can’t even think about his job – the phone rings and he’s right back home. They’ve got the laptops where they can actually look through the camera and see each other. These guys just aren’t the same anymore.”
So have cell phones been banned at Camp Mosley in Big Bear, California?
“They’ll find me buried somewhere here in Big Bear if I tried to take the cell phones away from these kids,” he chuckles. “Sometimes it becomes a problem with some of these young guys. They don’t want to hear it – they just chalk it up to ‘you’re old and we’re young.’ This is all they know, and some of these kids can’t imagine not being on a cell phone. There’s good to it and bad to it, but I see the distraction in it.”
Richardson won’t let it deter him from the task at hand. Blessed with a new lease on life after recovering from a stroke in March of 2007, he looks at life through a different lens now, but some things remain unchanged. One is that you won’t see him getting into any off-color antics in the lead-up to Mosley vs Mayweather; it’s just his style, he’s not about to alter it for anyone, and it’s in the blood.
“I have parents too,” he said. “And there are still people around who knew my parents and knew how they raised me. So for me to get out of character, some of those old people that still know my family, they’ll check me. My mother cussed me out one time because she said I cussed Bernard out in the corner. (Laughs) She said ‘Bernard was doing the best he could and you didn’t have to cuss him out like that. Where did you get all that language from?’ You know good and well where I got that language from.”
That’s not to say that Richardson isn’t amused by the antics of Team Mayweather on HBO’s 24/7 series and in the media over the last few weeks. He is, but it’s the amusement of an old pro who has seen it all more than once.
“The dog and pony show that is the Mayweather television show has kinda had its run,” he said. “Like any great show, everybody huddled around the television when ‘The Jeffersons’ first came out. But after a while, some reruns start coming on, and you weren’t that interested anymore, and the show gets cancelled. It’s the same thing with the Floyd Mayweather show – when it came out, it was interesting, everybody loved the way him and (trainer and uncle) Roger (Mayweather) worked the pads, but now it becomes – okay, we’ve seen it. Yes, we heard you were the greatest; yes, we heard you have more money than God. It’s all been done.”
“Buffoonery is always gonna sell,” Richardson continues. “You put the ‘Three Stooges’ on right now and you’re gonna get some people who are gonna stop and watch. But it’s starting to run its course now. And then he’s coming up on solid professionals who have prepared for that kind of nonsense. Floyd says he’s the greatest of all-time; I say ‘well, I agree.’ Am I doing this for my own personal gain? Wouldn’t any coach like to have trained the greatest fighter of all-time? Well, Floyd says he’s the greatest fighter of all-time and my fighter knocks him off, hey, hey, hey. (Laughs) I can do this and still stay humble.”
It’s almost as if Richardson is enjoying this whole process, like he knows something that we don’t, that on fight night, his fighter is going to upset Mayweather’s apple cart and pin the first loss on his perfect record. Well, it’s safe to say that Richardson knows more than 99.5% of us when it comes to boxing. As for the rest, that will have to wait for May 1st. But until then, Richardson is confident about what’s going to happen in Las Vegas that night.
“Mayweather’s an exceptional athlete,” said he said. “People call me and say ‘I’ve got a kid who boxes like Mayweather.’ No, you don’t. If you did, the kid would be somewhere defending his title. So all we can do is get Shane in the best shape possible, and from there, we’ll orchestrate the plan – it’s gonna be about a lot of changes and a lot of adversity, and we’ll look for the success in it, which I think we’re capable of doing with this guy.”
No trash talk, no insults, no questioning of Mayweather’s style, opposition, or heritage. It’s the polar opposite from the tact taken by Pretty Boy Floyd’s squad, and it’s refreshing. Then again, Naazim Richardson has made it a point to shatter stereotypes in the fight game for years. It’s only now that the rest of the world is starting to catch on.
“I’m not gonna reduce myself to what they’re doing – I have to answer to something higher and greater than that,” he said. “I was raised right. I did some wrong things, but I was raised right. And at the highest point of attention is the time you have to show you were raised right. I stand in front of that camera now and I represent all those young boys in the street that I mentor to and I talk to. I represent my children, who I told to do the right thing and to carry themselves the right way. I represent my gym, James Shuler’s Gym, I represent the Concrete Jungle, and I represent a lot more than just the trainer on 24/7. It ain’t just about me. I’d like to fire back, and the thing is, the Mayweathers give you so much to fire back at. It’s like they alley-oop the ball and you can’t help but slam dunk it. But you’ve got to restrain yourself. If he alley-oops the ball and I slam dunk it, it’s like I’m on his team."
real talk!
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