"This opens up the door for a lot of things. You know this Perc, just as well as I do, you will have guys sign with certain people just so they don't have to fight certain fights because they know this guy's not dealing with that one or doing business with this side. So hopefully that ends all of that and we can move forward because if these two can agree to fight, there are no excuses now, so I'm excited it got done and the people that read the article got what I was saying," stated world-class trainer Stephen "Breadman" Edwards, who had a lot to say about Al Haymon, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, and their impact on the future of boxing. Check it out!
PC: Al Haymon is doing some major things in boxing right now. Whether you have a fighter with him or not, you have to be excited about what he has going on.
SE: Man, you know, the only people that don't like Al Haymon are the people that don't have a fighter that's with him. You know what I mean? It's like a weird phenomenon with him because he's mysterious and things like that and everybody can't talk to him, he's not accessible, but I think that that's part of his power. You can't get access to him, you can't take a picture of him, you can't call him on the phone or email him. I think that enhances his power. But Al is a good dude, man. He's been a man of his word and he's treated my fighters more than fair and that's all you can ask for in this business. I understand it's a business and I understand that one day, if one of my fighters start losing, they can get cut or they may have to take a fight that they can't win. I understand that. I don't go into things with false expectations. But with the exposure that he's getting these kids and the paychecks that he's given them...ask one of Al Haymon's fighters, the well-known ones, how well do they get paid. Every one of them gonna be like, "Man, we straight." If you ask him for some money for training expenses, he don't even ask for it back. I've never had a problem with Al Haymon. Like I said, the people that have a problem with Al Haymon don't have any fighters with him. You're not going to hear fighters, trainers, or the managers of the fighters that is with him complain about him.
PC: When Roc Nation came in, people called some of Haymon's fighters crazy for not taking the big money offered to them by Roc. Can you just talk a little bit about the ins and outs of jumping on a deal like that?
SE: You know what, man, I don't really know too much about Roc Nation. You know, Jay-Z is just as successful of a business man as Al Haymon is. Maybe not in boxing, but he's obviously a successful business man, so I wouldn't be a person that says Roc Nation is going to fail or anything because I really don't know. But what I do know is Al Haymon contracts state that he has to approve you if you go to a promoter. It don't matter if they offer them $10 million. If he don't approve of it, you can't sign off on it, so that's the part that people don't realize. And they say, "Oh my God, they so stupid. Al is just the manager. Why wouldn't you take the money?" Well, they can't sign off on it anyway unless it's approved. The most notable fighter I have is Julian Williams and he hasn't been with a promoter since 2012 and that works out for us. Here is something that people don't realize. When you are with a promoter and a big network offers you the license fee, they take a cut off of that. That's something that nobody realizes. Everybody just be talking, but they don't understand the business of boxing. So for an example, lets just say with the Andrade/Charlo fight, right, if Andrade was offered $500,000, that don't mean Andrade was getting $500,000. That means he got a $500,000 package. No one knows what his promoters are going to take off of the top. His promoters could take $2-300,000 off the top. So if you Andrade, he don't care what the license fee is. He cares what he coming home with. He cares what his check is gonna be. And the people giving out the license fee, which is Showtime or whatever network that him and Charlo was gonna fight on, they don't have nothing to do with how much his promoter takes. Don't get me wrong, it's not the worst thing in the world to be with a promoter, but a lot of times, people just say that because they don't understand. That's why a kid like Andrade will say, "Man, I'm not gonna get the right amount of money," because of how much his people are taking. So everybody's situation is different. Al just makes sure you get paid above market value, and at the end of the day, you don't want to spend 10-15 years of your life taking punishment to have to leave boxing and go get a job. Julian tells me all the time, "I don't want to do this past 32-33 years old. I've been boxing since I was 12 and the last thing I want to do is leave boxing and have to go work with no college education." That's the last thing he wants to do, so people on the outside looking in don't understand what these kids sacrifice and put their body through. So I just let 'em talk. I don't walk around correcting people. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Al Haymon has made some mistakes in his life. I'm not saying he hasn't, but the bottom line is these kids wanna get paid and they want to get paid a lot of money in a short period of time because you never know when your boxing career will be over. It's just that simple!
PC: It's a very small window of opportunity in boxing.
SE: Especially your moneymaking years. Your moneymaking years are only about 5 to 6 years. Everybody's not Bernard Hopkins. You only got about 5 or 6 years where your earning potential is at it's highest.
PC: Speaking of J Rock, there was a lot of talk about an Austin Trout fight. Is that the fight you guys wanted and can you tell us what happened with that possibility?
SE: It's just this simple, I don't really want to speak for Austin Trout or anybody else, but the name Austin Trout was brought up to me, and Vanes Martirosyan, and I simply said, "Julian Williams could fight anybody in that stable as long as it's for something." Now I don't know why the fights haven't happened. I'm not saying people are scared of him or turning him down. I just know we didn't turn them down. We didn't turn the fights down. Both Trout and Martirosyan was brought up to me in passing and now Vanes Martirosyan is fighting Charlo, which is a great fight. I'm cool with Ronnie Shields. I really like Jermell and I hope he pulls the fight out. Julian wants a big fight. He's ready to fight. When names get brought up to me, all I need to know Perc is a date. I don't know if Austin Trout turned the fight down; all I know is that we didn't turn the fight down. And I understand that that is a dilemma a little bit with being with Al Haymon and he has two guys that have to fight. He has to look out for the best interest for both guys. I don't get into the what he said and didn't say, but I know there is a video out of Austin Trout saying Julian Williams can get it. The person in the video kind of misquoted Julian saying that he was after Trout and that's not true. Trout's not even a champion in the divis" After that, I didn't hear nothing, so you'll have to ask Austin Trout if they want to be truthful. I don't have to go back to Julian and say we gonna fight Austin Trout. All I gotta say is Austin Trout is coming up, and we start camp and line up sparring. It's all good, we will see. Trout has had some comeback fights. I don't really know how many comeback fights he needs to get in there with Julian Williams. In an interview that somebody posted on my page, he said he wanted the rematch with Lara, Canelo, and I even heard him say he wanted a rematch with Cotto. The person that won the fight usually don't ask for the rematch. Austin is the one that asked for a rematch and when he said that, I was like, damn, he asking for a rematch with a guy that he beat. And then he wants the rematch with Lara. Well, you lost every round to Lara. Julian is ranked #7 by the WBA, so if you wanna fight with Lara, why don't you go ahead and beat Julian and then be the mandatory to Lara? I don't know, man. I'm a trainer. I don't get into calling guys out, but I will say we were asked would we take the fight and I said yes to both Vanes and Austin. I think Julian would shine like a million bucks against both guys. He just needs the opportunities to get the fights, that's all.
PC: I wanted to let you clarify something before I let you go. We spoke awhile back and if you read the article, you understood what you were saying, but if you just read the headline, you may have thought you were saying that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was bad for boxing. You were actually saying that the fight not happening was bad for boxing, correct?
SE: Exactly! Obviously it's the biggest fight that can be made in the history of boxing, and now that it's been made, it can turn boxing into a mainstream sport again, especially if the replay is on CBS or regular TV. That would be amazing. It's made now, but what I was saying, to clarify it, was that the fight not happening puts a negativity on boxing and it would have created a domino effect. Fighters know what their predecessors do. For example, Muhammad Ali lined up Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton. So the next biggest star after Ali is who? Ray Leonard. So what did he do? He lined up Benetiz, Duran, Hearns, and Hagler. So then the next biggest star after Ray Leonard is Oscar De La Hoya. People can say what they want about De La Hoya, but look what De La Hoya did. He fought Bernard Hopkins, Pernell Whitaker, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Felix Trinidad, and Ike Quartey. See where I'm going? Now you go to this era and you got the two best fighters and they don't fight. So I'm glad it got made because that lifts that burden off of this era of fighters. I just didn't want it to be a situation where these younger guys could say, "Floyd and Manny ain't fight. It's a business decision. I gotta do this and do that." And another thing it created when it wasn't made was Top Rank not doing business with Al Haymon, Golden Boy in the middle of it, and everybody being pissed at everybody and then you don't get big fights being made. So this opens up the door for a lot of things. You know this Perc, just as well as I do, you will have guys sign with certain people just so they don't have to fight certain fights because they know this guy's not dealing with that one or doing business with this side. So hopefully that ends all of that and we can move forward because if these two can agree to fight, there are no excuses now, so I'm excited it got done and the people that read the article got what I was saying.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]