"I mean, he is a great guy. Look, this is a spoof and we had a lot of fun with it. He didn't take himself too seriously in terms of when we ended up calling off the fight because I'm Iron Fist. He played along with it and we had a lot of fun shooting it. He's got a great personality. He brings his crew with him and those guys from Ireland, man, they know how to have a good time, so it was a fun day of shooting with him...if you're McGregor, you're opening yourself up to potentially getting embarrassed by a boxer who is more highly skilled and better trained in that particular discipline. What do you really get out of that," stated ESPN ancho Stan Verrett, who shared what it was like working with UFC star Conor McGregor and his chances in a potential boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Check it out!
PC: Okay, so I gotta give the backstory to why this interview is so special to me. In 1999, I won a National Title in powerlifting while at Salmen High School. The local New Orleans news station channel 6 came to the school and really did an amazing piece on me. The lead reporter that they sent out to cover me was Stan Verrett. I'll never forget that and I remember when you were interviewing me, I told someone, no offense to the local network, because they are great, but your personality was too big for local news, and I knew at some point you would move on to bigger and better things. Low and behold, I flip to ESPN one day and there you are. So with that being said, it's an honor to be in a position at 36 years of age to be on the other side of the mic and interviewing the man that came and interviewed me as a 17-18 year old teenager. It helps that you are also my favorite ESPN anchor, a fellow Louisiana native, and a great guy. Congratulations on everything you have accomplished so far.
SV: Thank you, man, I really appreciate that and I remember doing that story on you. I still have it on tape somewhere.
PC: That's awesome. You are in an Iron Fist spoof with Conor McGregor. You don't come off as a tough guy, but you're playing the role well. How did this role come about for you?
SV: (Laughing) Our marketing people got together with Iron Fist and with Netflix promoting Iron Fist and they came up with this pretty unique idea, and when they told me about it, I was all in.
PC: You are being pulled in several directions right now and it seems you are wearing a lot of hats at ESPN as far as face time, and it's great to be in high demand. How do you balance it all?
SV: You just have to pace yourself and as projects come up, you knock them out. We actually were able to get that done in one day. I spent a part of the morning actually training with a trainer in kickboxing and boxing technique so that in the scene that involves me throwing punches and kicks, it actually looks realistic. It was part of the workout that morning, getting trained to do the fight training scene, but it was fun, you know what I mean? It was a fun shoot. Things come up and you work them in as you can. We had to shoot that on a Saturday because we had to get it in when we could.
PC: Did you have any prior experience training boxing or kickboxing techniques as far as hitting mitts or pads or was that a first for you?
SV: I did some boxing. One of my trainers out here, one of my personal trainers out here is a guy named Matthew Spencer. He's actually a professional in MMA, so he incorporated some MMA stuff into my fitness workouts, but never any sparring or stuff like that. It was just for fitness, but it is a great workout.
PC: And they matched you against the best trash talker in MMA, Conor McGregor. Although it was a spoof, you appeared to hold your own against him. What did you think of Conor overall, spending that time with him?
SV: I mean, he is a great guy. Look, this is a spoof and we had a lot of fun with it. He didn't take himself too seriously in terms of when we ended up calling off the fight because I'm Iron Fist. He played along with it and we had a lot of fun shooting it. He's got a great personality. He brings his crew with him and those guys from Ireland, man, they know how to have a good time, so it was a fun day of shooting with him. And as far as the trash talk, man, I'm from New Orleans, we can trash talk with anybody. My trash talk came from Ray Avenue and Da Goose in New Orleans. So if you can trash talk in New Orleans, you can trash talk with anybody.
PC: And I love that about you, man. Every opportunity you get, you give a shout out to Louisiana, whether it's the Northshore or Southsore, you always give a plug. How important is that for you to always represent where you are from, because sometimes we are a forgotten place?
SV: The thing is all of us is from somewhere. We didn't just show up at ESPN one day from nowhere. We are all from somewhere. And we are people. We are fans and we have hometowns, and to me, it's like, look, there were people there for me whenever I needed it, whether it was a family member, a teacher, friend, or just a person in town. So that's important to me because my success is their success too and I don't ever forget the people that helped play a part in the things that I've been blessed with. And look, we all take pride in where we're from. When there is success in New Orleans or one of the local teams, whether it's LSU or the Saints or whoever, I enjoy the success and I want to make sure to get the spotlight on it.
PC: You also interact a lot with your social media followers and I see sometimes you will have people asking you, "Why are you entertaining these idiots," or, "Why don't you just block some of them," but for the most part, you seem to like that dialogue as long as it's intellectual or an open-minded debate. Could you just talk a little bit about that as well?
SV: Again, it goes back to I'm a real person. I'm not just a talking head on TV. I'm a real person, and I have my views and my beliefs on things and they may be different from other peoples' views and other peoples' beliefs, but that doesn't mean that we can't have a dialogue and understanding. "Hey, why do you feel that way about this?" I love the unfiltered nature of social media. So as long as people are respectful and as long as people are really interested in having a dialogue or a back and forth about issues or whatever the topic may be that we may be talking about at that time. I remember one time I made an observation about a Kanye West record and that led into a day long Twitter interaction about hip hop that involved dozens of people. And it was fun. I was in the airport waiting for a flight and I had a few hours and then after I landed, I had a few hours. So it's fun. I enjoy the unfiltered interaction with people who may be viewers who see me on TV and want to know what I think about a certain thing and compare it to what they think about a certain thing. Again, as long as it's respectful and people get something out of it, I think it's a great thing.
PC: How has reporting sports news and being a sports broadcaster changed since the inclusion of social media? I remember back in 1999, I had to run home and make sure the VCR was set to record and hope I hadn't already missed it? It had to be somewhat of a transition for you when not only social media took off, but also the use and functions of cell phones evolved.
SV: First the internet and now social media just made everything more immediate. Things happen and you don't have to wait for the recap. You get the recap of what happened, you get an analysis of what happened almost in real time. As soon as it happens, people begin to digest it, they begin to put it into context, and put it in perspective almost immediately. So it's a challenge when you're in a live situation and we are on the air and a play happens in a game that's on the air while we're on the air, we have to react to that pretty quickly because that's what people expect now. They don't expect to have to wait. It just means that you have to be able to assess things and put them in perspective very quickly because as soon as they happen, you're talking about it. You're not just describing an event anymore, you're explaining what this event means. The other thing that social media does, it keeps us on our toes because there are people out there who are huge sports fans of whatever team. And I always use the Vancouver Canucks as an example. Okay, so lets say I'm a Vancouver Canucks fan and I know everything about the Vancouver Canucks. I watch every game and I watch all of the roster moves; that's my team. When that Vancouver Canucks highlight is on Sportscenter, it may be 45 seconds, but I'm locked into that highlight and Stan or Neil or whoever better get that highlight right, because I'm watching and now, not only am I watching, but I can call them out in a very public way if they don't get it right. So it puts the onus on us even moreso to make sure that we are on top of everything.
PC: It gives everyone a voice.
SV: Exactly, but you know what, I like it that way. I like the market place of ideas on social media because it's your chance to measure your own ideas and your own perspective of things and sometimes you find ideas that are better than yours. You find perspectives that are better than the ones you showed up with, so you wind up learning. It's an educational tool too if you follow the right people and you use it the right way.
PC: I definitely have to squeeze in a fight related question for you being that this is FightHype and you recently spent some time with Conor McGregor. There is a lot of talk of a Mayweather-McGregor fight coming to fruition. Are you a fan of that fight and do you see it happening?
SV: It's hard for me to believe that it will actually happen, but the potential profit there could be the thing that actually makes it happen against all odds. I said on the air the other night, I don't see what either one of them has to gain out of all of this except money. From Floyd's perspective, you're fighting someone who is not a trained boxer in the way that you're a trained boxer. Boxing is a part of MMA, but it's not his main discipline. He doesn't deserve to be in a ring with a Floyd Mayweather the same way a Floyd Mayweather wouldn't deserve to be in an Octagon with Conor McGregor. So if you're McGregor, you're opening yourself up to potentially getting embarrassed by a boxer who is more highly skilled and better trained in that particular discipline. What do you really get out of that? And if you're Floyd Mayweather, you're going into this against somebody who doesn't really belong in the ring with you as a boxer. I understand the potential for the event as a spectacle. It's a very profitable spectacle and I think they are both great champions and I think they do a disservice to their careers if they go through with this.
PC: Before I let you go, I wanted to let you speak a little bit about Stuart Scott. He trailblazed a path that should never be forgotten. He was my favorite sportscaster and then you replaced him as my favorite once he passed away, and even when you were on the local scene you were like my Louisiana Stuart Scott. How much did he mean to your career, how much did you take from him, and obviously it will never be the same up there without him?
SV: He was gone way too soon, man. Stuart was not only a co-worker and a friend, but he was my fraternity brother as well, so I knew him before I even got to ESPN. He was always there with encouraging words when I was on the way up trying to get to ESPN and he was very supportive and very welcoming when I got there. From a career perspective, he made it okay to be yourself on Sportscenter. We are almost the same age, he was a little older than I am, but we had a lot of the same cultural references and a lot of the same framework from which we operate. Our styles are very different, our approach was very different, but in doing it his way, he made it easier for me to do it my way without people questioning it because they questioned him and he answered all of the questions. So by the time I came along, they didn't have those same questions because he had answered all of those questions. And when I say that, I don't mean...he didn't just do that for black anchors. He did that for white anchors who might have been making Seinfeld references or making movie references. Anybody who ever ventured outside just the standard rope, "Scores and highlights, here's the information," anybody who ventured outside of that, Stuart Scott helped to make that possible for them on ESPN.
PC: I appreciate your time. I know you are a very busy man, so this interview really means a lot to me. I wish you the best of luck in all of your endeavors. Iron Fist looks to be an amazing series that everyone can check out on Netflix and don't let this interview, Iron Fist, Mayweather-McGregor, or any of that stuff distract you from the fact that the Falcons blew a 25 point lead in the Super Bowl!
SV: (Laughing) We will never forget!
WRITERS NOTE: THE SPOTS WERE CREATED BY ESPN'S CREATIVE WORKS TEAM TO PROMOTE THE NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES, "MARVEL'S IRON FIST!"
Iron Fist / ESPN Ultimate Showdown Part 1
Iron Fist / ESPN Ultimate Showdown Trash Talk
Iron Fist / ESPN Ultimate Showdown Part 2
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]