“I’ve been hearing that we might get a title shot against Jarrett Hurd, but if that’s on hold, Ishe could just fight Julian again and we could end all of that...pay Julian more than he pays Ishe, let Julian be the A-side and bring his butt over here to Philly and we can bump in like March and end all of this. That’s a simple solution if we’re going to be honorable,” stated Stephen “Breadman” Edward, who responded to recent comments made by former world champion Ishe Smith regarding judging in their fight. Check it out!
PC: You heard what Ishe Smith had to say about the fight with Julian. What were your takeaways from that interview?
SE: First off, I want to congratulate Ishe Smith on a tremendous performance. That was one of the better performances of his career. He’s not known as an exciting fighter and he put up a great fight. I got nothing but respect for the guy. I spent a month away from my wife and kids for training camp, so I definitely respect him all the way around. But sometimes people can confuse a person who performs better than expected for getting robbed. He didn’t get robbed; he just fought a good fight. I thought that Julian won the fight 7 rounds to 3, which was 97-93, which is what Dave Moretti scored it and he is a Hall of Fame judge. I’m not going to lie to my guy in between rounds. If I think we need a round, I’m going to tell him we need a round. I thought Ishe Smith won the 5th, 7th and 9th rounds, and I’m coming from a place where I wasn’t even happy with Julian’s performance. But sometimes...and I feel bad for Ishe Smith because boxing politics haven’t always been on his side, but sometimes when you draw up a conspiracy theory, sometimes you just gotta take a step outside the box and look at everything, Perc.
We tried to make the fight 3 years ago and Julian didn’t do anything for Ishe Smith. So Ishe Smith asked for Julian and got him when he wanted him, where he wanted him, on his promoter’s card, in his hometown, he was the A-side. He walked out last and he was first on the billboard. He got paid way more money at the weight he wanted; it was 156 catchweight. We wanted 154 and we took VADA testing because we was ranked in the WBC and I’ve been asking to get tested and we took the testing. Ishe, for whatever reason, I don’t know, I’m not saying he wasn’t clean because I do believe he is a clean fighter, but he wasn’t in the WBC clean testing program. So Perc, knowing all of those things, and I’m sure Ishe would admit to all of the things that I’m saying, who was the odds stacked against; Julian Williams or Ishe Smith?
PC: Definitely J-Rock!
SE: Everything was against us. We didn’t even complain.
PC: And obviously you guys didn’t pick the judges.
SE: We didn’t object to one judge. When I got the list of judges...I didn’t know who the judges were going to be until the day before the fight. And it was his promoter’s card. This is all the truth. We asked could we watch Ishe Smith wrap his hands in the dressing room; you know what we were told? “They don’t want y'all in here and we only do that for championship fights.” We tried to make it for an NABF or USBA or something like that and they said, “We only do that for championship fights. Y'all can’t watch him.” And we still didn’t complain. I wasn’t even going to talk about this. Ishe say lil' things like he hurt Julian. I think he buzzed Julian in the 7th round. I’m an honest guy. I believe he hit Julian with a good right hand and buzzed him for a second, but they hurt each other. Julian made his leg lift up with a body shot and he hurt him with a left hook in the 2nd or 3rd round. It was a good, tough fight. I wasn’t happy with Julian’s performance, but I was happy with the win. I knew Ishe was going to fight like that and try to steal rounds. I’m a big fan of Ray Leonard and I saw Ray Leonard wish Ishe luck. We were prepared for that, but the thing that Ishe did that Ray Leonard didn’t do, Ishe was taking punches for the first 2 ½ minutes of the round. Ray Leonard employed that stealing the last minute of the round against Hagler, but people forget, he was making Hagler miss the first part of the round and then he would let his hands go at the end of the round, so therefore the defense and ring generalship was taken away and carrying the day. What Ishe Smith was doing was he was trying to walk Julian down. He was eating punches and then he would flurry at the end of the round. It was a great strategy; Julian is a younger, faster guy. I don’t have nothing bad to say about him. But all this conspiracy theory, everything was against us; it wasn’t against him. I think what happened was, Austin Trout was commentating the fight and he was giving Ishe Smith rounds that he didn’t deserve. Let me ask you Percy, who do you think won the fight?
PC: I actually scored it 7 rounds to 3 for Julian. I’m not sure if I gave Ishe the same rounds that you gave him, but I had the same score.
SE: Okay, so Austin Trout was scoring the fight, he was giving Ishe Smith rounds that he didn’t deserve. So, the same way that Floyd said nobody won the fight 9-1, Floyd’s probably right, but there were a lot of people from Mayweather Promotion’s that walked up to us after the fight that said, “Y'all won the fight, but it was a good ass fight. Ishe fought his butt off,” which is what I think he did and I showed him all of the respect in the world for it. But here is the thing, man, we got good treatment out there; there was no disrespect, no uncalled-for stuff at all. I’ve been hearing that we might get a title shot against Jarrett Hurd, but if that’s on hold, Ishe could just fight Julian again and we could end all of that. But here is the thing though, Perc, Julian’s got to get more money. He got to be the A-side because that’s fair. Ishe is an honorable man, so we did all of that to get the fight. We took all of his demands and just fought; well now he got to give it back if he wants to fight Julian again. He can get his promoter to put up the money, pay Julian more than he pays Ishe, let Julian be the A-side and bring his butt over here to Philly and we can bump in like March and end all of this. That’s a simple solution if we’re going to be honorable. I don’t have no problem doing that, but I don’t want to wait around for 6 or 7 months for this kind of stuff when we could be getting a title shot. I don’t really know, I’m waiting right now. I’ve been hearing a couple of names; maybe Gallimore or Hurd. I’m interested to see what we’re going to do with that. Hurd is a great fighter, we would definitely be up for the challenge, but if it’s not going to come in the next few months, then we can fight Ishe in the first quarter of next year like in March and end all of the controversy and Julian can go out and execute the game plan like he was supposed to the first time and we won’t have to go through all of this nonsense. I don’t think the fight was controversial; I just think it was a good, solid fight and Ishe outperformed expectation. But I don’t think it was this controversial robbery. You can’t confuse a good fight with being a robbery.
PC: A lot of people felt Julian would walk through Ishe and when that didn’t happen, do you think people automatically assumed the fight was a draw or the guy who didn’t get rolled over won because the notion prior to the fight was that he was going to get rolled over?
SE: That’s exactly what happened. I gamble, I went to the sportsbook to bet, bro, Julian was a 10 to 1 favorite. I would’ve had to bet a $1,000 to win $100. I said, “Yo, that’s too much.” I’m going to be honest with you, Julian should’ve been like a 3 to 1 favorite over Ishe. He shouldn’t have been a 10 to 1 favorite. You’re not going to hear a trainer say that, but I think the expectations were...man, here’s the thing, Percy, fans don’t know how to score fights. I’ve heard fans say stupid stuff like, “Well, that guy ended the fight well, so that means he won.” A guy doesn’t win a fight because he looked great in the last two rounds. A fight is judged on individual rounds. So this fight was judged on 10 individual rounds. So if Julian won the first 7 or the last 7, it don’t matter, it was 10 indivdual rounds. A round doesn’t have a carry over affect. I think Ishe started flurrying at the end of some rounds, he got the crowd involved, he started getting hype, which was great. He’s a little league football coach; everybody started to get excited, he started getting some momentum, and then people started carrying rounds over. Boxing don’t work that way. People don’t understand how to score a fight. It’s individual rounds, and listen, I’m not mad at him. He’s supposed to think he did good or whatever, but the conspiracy theory part, bro, that’s just not true. Everything was against us in this fight. I never talked bad...matter of fact Percy, you tried to call me up and get an interview and I wouldn’t give you an interview because I didn’t want to stir up no pots about nothing.
PC: That’s true.
SE: I was humble about the whole thing. I never said a word about anything. I gave Ishe Smith a big hug after the fight. I respect that man, I really do, because boxing is not an easy sport and he’s been through a lot in boxing, but guess what though, Percy, when Ishe Smith lost a majority decision against Vanes Martirosyan after getting knocked down twice, I didn’t hear nobody complaining then. He didn’t say, “Yo man, I didn’t deserve that 95-95 scorecard.” How did he get a majority decision loss? That means one judge had that fight a draw when Vanes Martirosyan knocked him down twice and won at least 6-rounds? How did he get a draw? So, you see how it goes. That shit goes back and forth, man. Listen, hats off to Ishe Smith, Floyd Mayweather, and Leonard Ellerbe did a great job with the promotion, it was a great crowd in there, we had a ball out in Vegas, but that wasn’t a robbery and everything wasn’t against Ishe Smith. We had to take short money and go to that man's hometown and be the B-side and win that fight. Ishe needs to give Julian his respect for that. He just fought good. If he thinks he could do better next time, lets fight again. Just come to the east coast and give up everything Julian gave up. That’s all he gotta do. Give up the money and do everything Julian did and we can fight again. It was a lot that wasn’t in our favor, we just didn’t complain and let the judges do their job, we let the officials do their job, and we let the testing do their job. We did everything the right way for that fight. Every time I was told “no” about something, we just chalked it up and trained harder and that’s it.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]