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ROYCE DA 5'9": "I'M A REAL BOXING FAN...BOXING NEEDS GUYS LIKE ADRIEN BRONER"

By Percy Crawford | April 18, 2014
ROYCE DA 5'9

"I'm a real boxing fan. I'm not a casual boxing fan. I love these fighters with my emotions. I love these fighters the same way I love my music. I'm gonna always be brutally honest... Boxing needs guys like Adrien Broner. It's all entertainment, man. They can talk about the art of boxing and the essence and all that, but at the end of the day, it comes down to who can fill seats. It comes down to the numbers. Pacquiao is great and Tim Bradley's great, but that fight wasn't sold out. There is no villain and it's not that great of a sale," stated rapper Royce Da 5'9", who spoke more about his love of boxing and shared his thoughts on Mayweather vs. Maidana, Cotto vs. Martinez, and much more. Check out what else he had to say!

PC: We left off with you talking about the decline of Manny Pacquiao and how you have been on social media debating with fans that he's not the same guy. Battling fans about their favorite fighters on social media could be an endless battle though. They feel like you are taking shots as opposed to giving constructive criticism.

Royce Da 5'9": Man, you know what? I'm a real boxing fan. I'm not a casual boxing fan. I love these fighters with my emotions. I love these fighters the same way I love my music. I'm gonna always be brutally honest. I'm well documented saying how much of a Manny Pacquiao fan that I am, so I don't stand to gain nothing by tearing him down and I'm certainly not trying to convince people to not like him, but this is not the same Manny. I don't really like the way decisions are getting made and the people they are putting him in front of because it's gonna start to tarnish his legacy. I say the same thing about all of my fighters; Roy Jones and all of my fighters that I love. I don't want to see Roy Jones fight again. It's not because I'm not a fan of his, but because I don't want to see him tarnish the legacy.

PC: I feel the same way about a guy I love as a fighter, James Toney. I would really like to see James walk away from the game right now.

Royce Da 5'9": And what can you tell a guy as tough as James Toney? You're gonna tell him you're not as tough as you were? They don't know they are tough guys. They been tough guys all of their life. James Toney is like one of the realest dudes in the history of boxing. How will he go? And that's the sad part about it all, and it happens in all genres; all forms of entertainers. It happens to rappers and musicians, singers and athletes; especially athletes. Point guards especially. I didn't want to see Jordan start posting people up and fading away. He wasn't off the dribble anymore; it's sad is what it is.

PC: I'm glad you said that because from a music standpoint, when will Royce Da 5'9" start to think it's time to hang up the mic?

Royce Da 5'9": I guess you gotta look at the response and the overall feeling out there and you gotta judge it based on how you feel about what you are doing. If you don't love it no more, you shouldn't do nothing that you don't love. Once you are just out there, it's time to start thinking of another plan. Me personally, I'm gonna do it until I don't feel the same love for it no more. I'm fortunate to be blessed enough to still have the genuine love and hunger for the music. Maybe it's because when I accomplish something or I hit a goal, I set new goals, so I'm always striving for more. And my new thing now is I want to do a classic. I want to do a classic before I'm done. I want to be able to contribute a classic to hip hop. When I saw Nas on that Coachella stage, the way that Illmatic just kind of supersedes everything; anything that Nas ever did in his career that you didn't like, Illmatic supersedes it. And that's a prime example of the music speaking. Nothing else matters but the music and that's where I want to be now. So that's how I feel now. I want to be able to provide that one solo project that just doesn't ever go away, and that's a goal of mine now.

PC: I gotta talk a little more boxing with you, but before I go back to boxing, is it tough being in the game today, the type of MC you are, to collab with some of the music that they are putting out or to feel you can mix with some of the stuff they playing on the radio in today's game?

Royce Da 5'9": I try to move around as open-minded as possible. I never close my mind to different opportunities and different kinds of ways that that I can learn new things. You can find a jewel in a lot of weird situations. You never know what you could learn by getting in the studio with somebody that you feel may not do the same type of rap style that you do. But there is a reason why people are drawn to them. Not to say that I am running around trying to work with everybody, because that's not really what I do, but I can't really knock other people for working with people. I would never be like, "Ah, I would never work with him." If the opportunity presented itself and it felt to me like it was the right opportunity, I would definitely consider it. I'm not at a point in my life where I'm just shutting down stuff because I think I got all the answers. I don't think nobody does.

PC: For sure. Moving back to the sport of boxing, Adrien Broner is a guy you went to bat for at times on Twitter. He will be back in the ring on the Mayweather/Maidana card. What are you looking for from "The Problem"?

Royce Da 5'9": Well, I wanted to see if he could take a shot when he fought Maidana. I felt like everybody else, I felt like they moved him up too fast. As far as his fight against Molina, I'm looking for him to just give him a boxing lesson. I think that's a good choice for "AB". Come back with somebody a little bit smaller and just take it a step at a time. You gotta think, when Floyd was 23 or 24 years old, he wasn't even at 47; he wasn't even at 40 yet I don't think. So I think they tried to move him so fast because he showed flashes of greatness. But I don't think he's great yet. I think he's a very good fighter and I'm a fan of his. I'll support him to the end because I like what he represents, but I think he just gotta take it a step at a time. I think he should walk through Molina. I don't think that the Maidana loss damaged him in no type of way. I think it was just an eye-opener for him. Whether he wants to publicly admit it or not, he learned something from that fight.

PC: He showed tremendous heart in the Maidana fight and he doesn't really get credit for the heart that he showed. Obviously he gets a bad rep within the sport for some of the things he does outside of the ring. Do you think that's fair?

Royce Da 5'9": Boxing needs guys like Adrien Broner. It's all entertainment, man. They can talk about the art of boxing and the essence and all that, but at the end of the day, it comes down to who can fill seats. It comes down to the numbers. Pacquiao is great and Tim Bradley's great, but that fight wasn't sold out. There is no villain and it's not that great of a sale. But with Adrien Broner, he don't even have the record and the background of some fighters, but he is a bigger draw. And I think his outside of the ring antics got a lot to do with it. I personally think a fighter can say and do whatever he wants to outside of the ring as long as when he gets inside of the ring, he is strictly about his business. Floyd is a perfect example of that. You can say what you wanna say and disagree with whatever you want to disagree with him outside of the ring, but when he gets in the ring, he never lets you down. He don't get in the ring and foul. He don't get in the ring and get disqualified. They don't take points away from him. He is like the highest level of sportsman that you can pretty much look at. I don't think he get enough credit for that. So "AB" just gotta get on that level inside of the ring and he can do what he want to do outside of the ring if it doesn't affect what's happening in the ring. That's how I feel about that. It just goes back to what I was telling you about Illmatic; it's the same thing. The only thing that matters is that piece of music. It's like with the fights, the only thing that matters is the fight; the skills. Everything else, "Ah man, I don't like the way he dress, I don't like the way he acts," that's people becoming fans of somebody and people think that they own the person that they are a fan of. They want them to dress a certain way and act a certain way and want them to be role models and want them to be this. Well, you want them to be a good fighter too, but you gotta take the good with the bad with people. Nobody is perfect. So if that man gets in the ring and he does his job, your job is to watch it and his job is to perform; win, lose or draw. Once he gets out of the ring, he's off your clock. He should be off your clock.

PC: Before I let you go, I gotta get your take on the May 3rd fight between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana. How do you see this thing playing out?

Royce Da 5'9": I think it's a stylistic dream for Floyd. Maidana is super slow and awkward. I can understand the Floyd and Adrien comparisons because Adrien goes in there with the shoulder up and keeps his left hand down, but Adrien is flat-footed a lot. He's flat-footed most of the time. He's not really even bouncing. He tries to walk every fighter down. Floyd switches it up and he never really has a moment where he is flat-footed. I don't think there is a fighter who is comparable to him. And he is gonna dominate Maidana. It's not gonna look nothing like that Broner fight. It's gonna look like the Floyd/Gatti fight. That's probably what it's gonna look like.

PC: Any other fights on the horizon you looking forward to?

Royce Da 5'9": I'm looking forward to Martinez and Cotto. I'm looking forward to that one. I think Cotto is a better fighter than Martinez; I'm just a little worried about him going up to 160 to fight him. I'm concerned about Miguel at that weight. But Miguel is a real strong dude and, like I said, I think he is a better fighter than Sergio Martinez. I think Sergio Martinez is a little bit overrated. I'm just being honest as a fan. I think he has been riding the wave of that Paul Williams knockout since then and I think Chavez coulda got him out of there if Chavez would have went in there with him confident early. I think he would have beat Martinez and I just think Cotto got a shot, man. I think Cotto got a shot to probably stop him. Cotto is gonna be getting hit harder at this weight, but he can take a punch. Freddie Roach got him looking real good, man.

PC: I appreciate your time. We got some good fights coming up and I'll definitely be hitting you up and getting your opinion on them. Thanks again for your time. Is there anything else you wanna add?

Royce Da 5'9": Nah, that's it, man. Thank you. Thank you, P. I appreciate you, man. Pleasure talking to you my brother.



[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]

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