"If Pacquiao wants to fight one more fight next year and then retire, they going to have to be strategic in who they pick because that Pacquiao that I saw, I don’t want to see in front of Spence. That Pacquiao that I saw, I don’t want to see in front of Porter. We had Keith Thurman come back...he may be a candidate for Pacquiao or Broner. Thurman is looking to get right back in the mix," stated world-class trainer Naazim Richardson, who shared his thoughts on Pacquiao's win over Adrien Broner and much more. Check it out!
PC: Brother Naaz, you told me going into the Pacquiao-Broner fight that you were giving Adrien Broner one more chance. Obviously, he didn’t perform up to your standards, but being he is someone you have known since he was a kid, what did you see that Saturday night?
NR: What I saw is a guy that got away from some of his foundations. He’s a grown man, he can make his own choices, but that was a fight where he needed to be listening to what Mike Stafford had been telling him since he was a kid. He’s not confident in his abilities anymore, just like the rest of us is not confident in betting with him anymore. We can’t be confident because we can’t be sure what Broner’s going to show up. That’s the answer you are going to hear from anybody when you ask them about a Broner pick. “I don’t know which Broner is going to show up.” Well, it’s gotten to the point where he don’t know which Broner is going to show up. He’s still a talented kid and I think he attempted to fight well at times during that joint. He just didn’t have the confidence to push that envelope like he knows he has to do. He won’t go after you like he went after [Jason] Litzau. Litzau was a dangerous kid that he jumped on and blew out of the water early. He made his name off of him. But he wouldn’t jump on Pacquiao. And I thought him being hesitant hindered Pacquiao. Pacquiao couldn’t get off like he wanted to, but once he got Pacquiao in that position, he wouldn’t take advantage of it.
PC: Bernard Hopkins hit an undefeated Joe Lipsey with a single uppercut and Lipsey never fought again. Many feel like Felix Trinidad was never the same after being stopped by Hopkins. Most boxing observers feel like Marcos Maidana is responsible for this apprehensive version of Adrien Broner. In your opinion, can one fight do that to a professional fighter; take them out of their game both mentally and physically?
NR: I think in sports and as humans in general...a raggedy boyfriend or a shitty girlfriend can change the way they approach things and relationships moving forward. You hear an angry woman talk about, “My baby’s father”; next thing you know they treating every other brother like it’s their baby daddy. I remember we had a kid who played quarterback for the Eagles. He was a beast. He got hurt real bad, shit…turned into a puppy. He wouldn’t take them chances no more and he was a monster, ya know what I mean. You’ve seen people have a car accident and they are never the same person. I know a person who drove up to Big Bear and they got so intimidated by the mountains, they won’t drive again on the highway. These are the things that can happen. Broner is a talented dude and he proved it to me. He still was able to compete with Pacquiao. I told you I was going to rock with him in that one and I rocked with him. I went to the gym and took my lickings. The “I told you so” and all of that shit. But I went out with him and I don’t feel bad for going out with him. I feel he did some of the things...one of the things I saw, he did get in shape for this motherfucking fight. No matter what nobody says, he gets in fights, like this fight and the Maidana fight where there are moments to where if he wanted to quit, he could have a legitimate reason to. Maidana gave him a legitimate reason not to get up off the canvas. He could have easily stayed down and nobody would have thought the worse of him. He had to be in shape because Pacquiao caught him too and he stayed right there. We know he has that, but it’s not enough for him to just stand back up. I’ve always said something, so people don’t think I’m being biased. I have a kid I work with and I love to death, Steve Cunningham, and Steve gets up off the canvas and people say, “Well, Steve don’t have a chin,” and I tell them, “Steve’s got a chin because Steve gets back up, and not only does he have a chin, he’s got a heart.” Steve gets back up and tries to win. He don’t just get back up and try to roll out with you. He’s going to get back up and go after you.
I wasn’t a big Tyson Fury fan. I respected Tyson Fury, but I wasn’t a big Tyson Fury fan. It wasn’t like I needed to see the next Tyson Fury fight. It depended on who he fought. He had a few comeback fights after he returned from his mental illness; I didn’t see those fights. I wasn’t interested because I wasn’t a fan of Tyson Fury’s like that. I just respect the fact that he was such a big man and he could get things done; big athletic man. The Deontay Wilder fight made me want to see the next Tyson Fury fight. I would say, “Hey, what night is that on and what channel?” He got up from them shots and he got up and tried to win. Do I think he won? I’m not with everybody else? “He done all of this.” Moving out of the way of punches is not boxing to me. You gotta counter with the jab or something effective. People contradict themselves when assessing that fight. I hear them say, “It was a very close fight.” A man can’t get up off the ground twice in a very close fight and win the fight. I thought Marquez had gotten up off the ground and beaten Pacquiao in past fights, but when Marquez got up, I had him winning every single round. When Pacquiao would crack him, he could sit him down, but Marquez would win the boxing match. Marquez was dominating the boxing. In a real close fight, you can have two 10-8 rounds.
PC: Do you think Adrien really thought he won the fight or was he being a salesman?
NR: When he jumped up and said he thought he won the fight, I think he felt he was quick to say he thought he won the fight because he prepared well for the fight. When people started to say about what they thought it was going to be, people thought it was going to be easy. I never thought it was going to be easy. I was asking everybody, “Who has beat Broner easy?” One dude told me, “Man, Pacquiao is going to beat the shit out of Broner?” Who has done that? Maidana put the worse whooping on him and you can’t even say that with him. He stumbled back in that joint against Maidana.
PC: What did you think about 40-year-old Pacquiao? How do you feel he performed?
NR: You could see a difference. That shows you the quality of kid he was in with because he looked much better in the Lucas Matthysse fight. He looked more dominant. In this fight, you could see some of that jumping in; if Broner would have let his hands go...I don’t see Pacquiao fighting at 40 and challenging those guys like [Shawn] Porter and [Errol] Spence at 147. He don’t need that. I mentioned a name, and everybody jumped on me saying they would like to see the fight, my young bol, Danny [Garcia] is coming off of a loss, but he rumbles. I thought Danny fought well in the fight with Porter. I know he has Adrian Granados coming up, but he gets past that fight, the Pacquiao fight would be a damn good fight. But I don’t want to see Broner or Pacquiao be reduced to being a gatekeeper. If Pacquiao wants to fight one more fight next year and then retire, they going to have to be strategic in who they pick because that Pacquiao that I saw, I don’t want to see in front of Spence. That Pacquiao that I saw, I don’t want to see in front of Porter. We had Keith Thurman come back...he may be a candidate for Pacquiao or Broner. Thurman is looking to get right back in the mix.
PC: I have to ask you this because I have been asked this question a lot. No diss to Lou Del Valle, but many questioned his decision to continue to send Badou Jack out to compete with that deep gash he was dealing with on his forehead. As a trainer, do you agree or disagree with his decision to let his fighter continue and finish the fight?
NR: Well there are sometimes where guys have an agreement ahead of time. Some guys may have a signal and as long as he shows that signal, I’ll take a chance on him and send him back out because that’s the deal that we had ahead of time. That cut looked awful and I would like to say that the cut was keeping the guy from being able to see, but for real for real, the cut was a bad cut, but damn, it’s not like Marcus Browne was doing anything else to the cut. They showed the one uppercut that he landed that opened the gash a little more, but he really wasn’t slamming that straight left hand into it or anything. I was watching it with my son and he was saying, “Maybe he should be letting that left hand go and keep that thing flowing.” I was expecting that, but I wasn’t seeing that. Honestly, I can’t say Badou Jack fought worse with the cut. There was a round in there after the cut which I thought was the best round he fought when he attacked Browne. Yeah, just so the kid won’t get hurt again or get hurt worse, we would have stopped it, but we don’t know the relationship and the communication that him and Del Valle may have. I give Del Valle the benefit of the doubt. It’s easy from the outside to say what we would do, but if you go into the fight and the fighter say, “Hey man, this is all I got for my family. I’m going to do the best that I can for my family, brother, if I’m breathing, let me fight on because I’m going to give my all.” If a guy says that to you, you look at him and say, “I don’t care what the gladiator says, I’m gonna stop it.” It’s easy to say that shit.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]