"The funny thing is Floyd lied throughout the entire interviewÂ…he said he didn't know who I was. He acted like he didn't know who I was, but you notice he pulled the race card on me right away? He was like, 'Why? Cause I'm black?' If you don't know who I am, how do you know I'm white? Me and Floyd have a little history and Floyd knows who I am. What happened is I was helping Bernard Hopkins and James Toney and fighters that I really respected. I was working with a bunch of the magazines to get them mainstream press. I was helping fighters get in Vibe Magazine, Source Magazine, XXL and Complex. I was helping fighters get in major publications. And then BHop's publicist was working with Floyd and asked if I could get Floyd in some of them. I told her, 'Sure.' So I got Floyd in Rides Magazine so he can talk about his cars. They did like a 4 or 5 page spread on him. I got him in Complex Magazine and Vibe Magazine and I've dealt with him like 2 or 3 times face to face. I sat right next to him, so when he says he doesn't even know who I am, that's bullshit," stated R.A. the Rugged Man as he talked more about his confrontation with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Check it out!
PC: How is everything going man?
R.A.: Everything is real good. I'm just hanging in there and I dropped that greatest hits record this week, so I've just been promoting that nonstop. It's tiring. That's why I told you I passed out earlier. I just took a nap man. It's been nonstop for the last week and a half.
PC: I wanted to ask you about the album before we got into the boxing stuff. You just dropped "Legendary Classics: Vol. 1." What can people who pick up the album expect to get?
R.A.: Well, what the album is is a double album DVD with 17 songs. There are 17 joints. Some of them are brand new and some of them had just been lost and got remastered that was never released commercially. And then they have a few of them that have never been released, so it's a collection of lost songs, classics and new joints. It's a little bit of history for the cats that might not know my whole history. I got the joints with Biggie Smalls on there, Mobb Deep and Grand Nubians. It's a collection of dope ass hip hop music that I think the industry could use. They need some shit like this; straight no-holds-barred hip hop.
PC: I also see you have a song on there with Kool G Rap, who is also one of your inspirations. What was it like to work with him?
R.A.: Yeah, see, I got so many motherfuckers on the album and I just woke up, so I'm trying to name everybody and I forgot my favorite rapper out of everybody. But yeah, Kool G Rap is on that shit too. It was a pleasure working with G Rap and I am also working on another project with this cat from Philly named Reef the Lost Cauze. We just did another record for his album last week. But G Rap is just a fucking insane lyricist. He's been holding it down since like '86. He's just consistently incredible. It was a pleasure working with Kool G Rap.
PC: You are an amazing lyricist yourself man. What do you feel the hip hop game is missing?
R.A.: I think that hip hop is missing some independent thinking. They let big money corporations dictate where hip hop is headed more than they're letting their own brains and musical souls dictate what hip hop music is. Back in the day, it was more like street music and it was less money being pumped into it and these cats were able to listen to the art form a little bit more rather than who is the hottest or whose got the most money. It was all about who was the dopest on the microphone; it was more about skill than flossing. I mean, there are so many amazing emcees out there that are incredible. It's not all about quick cash and quick money. It's more about the art form; at least to some of us it is. The people that are in my circle, that's what it's about.
PC: Boxing seems to be on the same page because at one point, it was about the skill and the art form, but now, it is about the quickest dollar and the flashiest fighters. How long have you been a fan of boxing?
R.A.: I have been a fan since I was like 5 years old. My father was a big boxing fan and my grandfather. My grandfather was actually a sports writer. His name was John Wilson and he wrote in the 40's and 50's. He wrote a lot of boxing articles and he was a big Joe Louis fan. I used to hear my father and grandfather have little arguments about Joe Louis was better than Ali, Ali was better than Louis. My grandfather thought Louis was the greatest ever because that was his era and my father thought Ali was the greatest ever because that was his time. Someone else asked me the same thing the other day and I told them that my first fight memory was back in the day; I can remember my father saying that Sugar Ray Leonard was going to whoop this guy named Roberto Duran's ass. I was a little kid so I wanted to see what my father had and Leonard got beat up by Duran, so I thought my old man don't know what he's talking about. But in the return match we know the "No Mas" shit happened. That was a huge fight and that was my earliest boxing memory.
Then, when I was about 8 years old, I joined a local boxing gym and boxed at the local gym and I ended up getting a little sick. I got a bleeding ulcer and my mother said she wouldn't pay for me to do boxing anymore because of the ulcer, so the only fighting I got to do after that was in the street and in the schools. I wanted to go to the Kid Gloves in the city and I think you had to be 10 or 11 years old, but I never got to do that, so I got to be a fan.
PC: You are now known as the dude that went at Mayweather, but honestly, when I heard the interview, I didn't hear a guy that hated Mayweather or thought he didn't have any skills. It sounds like you respect his skills, but don't feel he is challenging himself. Is that the case?
R.A.: Yeah, exactly! See, that's the thing, you are a fight fan. You have all of these hip hop fans that don't know the difference and say, "Ah, R.A. is just a hater." I have plenty of love for Mayweather and I was telling him he has incredible skills and he has what it takes to be fucking great! He has that gift and I said that various times during that interview. I was just saying prove it. If you are as great as you say, show it to us. The boxing game isn't as popular as it used to be in the mainstream world. We have less and less great fighters because it's less cats doing boxing. In the 60's, 70's and 80's, when Sugar Ray Leonard would fight, that shit was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Any fights that happened were covered all over the mainstream media and mainstream news. Every kid wanted to be Leonard and Ali. It is a different era now because we have very few mainstream boxing icons. Kids aren't looking up to the fighters like they used to. They are looking at other sports like football, baseball and mixed martial arts. It is a different sport now, so when I see someone with that much greatness and he's just throwing it away in the toilet and not helping this eraÂ…Floyd is just going to throw it away and play little games with his fans and the boxing world and pretend like he's fighting the best when we all know he's playing games right now. That's why all of the boxing fansÂ…I didn't know it was going to have the impact that it did.
I just went up to the radio show to promote my record, you know? I had no idea Floyd Mayweather was going to call in and then all of a sudden, everybody heard that shit, from Bob Arum to Shaquille O' Neal. Paul Williams tweeted me thanking me for the support, Zab Judah heard it, Berto and Malignaggi were twittering about it, Ring Magazine and Maxboxing hit me up. It was this big deal and I guess it's because boxing isn't in the mainstream like it used to be. It's a big deal that a hip hop artist would have the history and knowledge about something that's not in the mainstream anymore, you know? That's why Mayweather gets away with it because he fights in the mainstream and the mainstream fans believed that the Marquez fight was supposed to be competitive. They really believed that's the best fight out there. And the funny thing is when you ask him why he won't fight Shane Mosley, he says, "He's old and he sucks." And I'm like it's okay for him to fight Marquez and not Mosley? You really think Marquez has a shot at beating Mosley? Another thing is, name one top 5 welterweight that Juan Manuel Marquez could beat? He can't beat a welterweight. I don't even think Marquez could beat Timothy Bradley and them dudes at 140. Everybody that knows boxing knew before the fight that Mayweather was going to do that to Marquez. You have some fans that watch one or two fights a year who thought that fight would be competitive, but not everybody is a freak of nature like Pacman and could move up to 147 and do his thing. That's why it takes someone who is a freak of nature like Pacquiao to do that shit. Shit, I figured Pacman would beat Hatton, but I thought Hatton would have lasted 8 or 9 rounds. Pacquiao fucking obliterated Hatton.
PC: I truly believe Floyd thought he was going on a hip hop show that was going to kiss his ass like they do on 106 & Park and shows like that, so when you went in on him, he was caught off guard.
R.A.: Yeah! It's funny because my co-host on thereÂ…it was the Shade 45, the Rude Jude Show, and that's exactly what he did. "Hey, what's up Floyd, what's up?" I could tell he was a little happy to get him on, but I said, "Nah, nah. This ain't happening." Because we were just talking about him not fighting the best and then when he gets on the phone, we can't just be like, "Hey, how are you doing Floyd?" Let's ask him the goddamn questions. You gotta see some of the fucking hate coming in, like people trying to say it was racially motivated. They were saying I must not like black people and that's just fucking ignorant. I'm telling him to fight Paul Williams and to fight Shane Mosley, so why would I tell him to fight other black fighters? He hasn't fought a black fighter in 4 fights, you know? It's funny shit. They want to bring up stupid shit and make shit sound ignorant, but pulling the race card doesn't always win the argument. The funny thing is Floyd lied throughout the entire interview. When I asked him why didn't he fight Margarito for 8 million and he said he got 12 million to fight BaldomirÂ…no you didn't! Why are you lying? And then he said he got 8 million to fight Sharmba Mitchell. No you didn't! Why are you lying to me? I guess he thought that people wouldn't know and he was just going to lie throughout the interview. And let me tell you something. The other lie that he told was when he said he didn't know who I was. He acted like he didn't know who I was, but you notice he pulled the race card on me right away? He was like, "Why? Cause I'm black?" If you don't know who I am, how do you know I'm white?
PC: I will be honest with you, I thought you were black listening to the interview.
R.A.: Well, as soon as he pulled the race card, I was like, "What?" But he doesn't know who I am? Me and Floyd have a little history and Floyd knows who I am. What happened is I was helping Bernard Hopkins and James Toney and fighters that I really respected. I was working with a bunch of the magazines to get them mainstream press. I was helping fighters get in Vibe Magazine, Source Magazine, XXL and Complex. I was helping fighters get in major publications. And then BHop's publicist was working with Floyd and asked if I could get Floyd in some of them. I told her, "Sure." So I got Floyd in Rides Magazine so he can talk about his cars. They did like a 4 or 5 page spread on him. I got him in Complex Magazine and Vibe Magazine and I've dealt with him like 2 or 3 times face to face. I sat right next to him, so when he says he doesn't even know who I am, that's bullshit. Why are you even lying about something as simple as that? I didn't understand why he had to lie about shit man. And then he lied about Pacquiao being from a country that has the best steroids in the world. Where did he get that shit from? And then he slips in a, "Maybe I will fight Hatton!" Come on man! I don't feel like I done anything genius because I'm just a regular dude. I'm just a rapper and there are 100,000 people out there like me that share my feelings, so I'm not trying to act like I did something special and I know more than everybody. I'm just an average fan that loves the fight game that fucking had the opportunity to have this dude on the phone and tell him what so many other people was thinking. I think that's why this turned into this big popular thing because I'm speaking for so many people.
PC: I definitely think you said what a lot of people feel, but maybe can't express that with the thought of maybe losing access to him or something.
R.A.: Exactly! I'm a motherfucking underground rapper. I'm not scared of losing my job. If somebody with a job would talk to him like that, his PR people could call the network and it could be a big fucking stink. What do I give a fuck? What, are they going to stop me from rapping? It's nothing nobody could do to hurt my career. I do what I do. They can't fire me or get me in trouble or fined or anything. I'm who I am and it was a good situation because it made some noise. I didn't think it would make the impact that it did because it was just a little phone call, but maybe because it has made the circles in boxing, maybe something as stupid as Floyd arguing with a rapper who is a boxing fan could get in this motherfuckers head and affect who the fuck he fights next and prevent a Hatton rematch. But who the fuck knows, maybe not too. Maybe I'm thinking too far into it.
PC: So just to be clear, you're not even saying that Floyd can't beat a Pacquiao or a Mosley, but you want to see these fights played out in the ring?
R.A.: Exactly. That's the other thing; exactly! I don't think he'll beat Paul Williams (laughing), but we've seen Paul Williams not look so good against Carlos Quintana and he looked human against Margarito. Paul Williams won the fight, but it was a very close fight that could have went either way. I think Williams won more rounds, but I think Margarito was doing more damage. I think Williams is getting better in every fight and with him throwing 1,100 and 1,200 punches a fight, it's going to be tough to deal with and I don't know if Floyd can deal with that, but if Floyd is as great as he says he is, he could shock me. He could whip Paul Williams' ass, whoop Shane's ass and then whoop the Pacquiao/Cotto winner. I think he has a great chance of beating Shane. He would be favored to win the fight, but it would be a far closer fight than his fight against Marquez, who is a small guy. Shane could take anything that Floyd throws at him. Floyd's not going to be able to hurt Shane. Shane is bigger than him and Shane is going to be coming forward the entire time. Zab Judah presented some problems and I give credit to Floyd. He figured him out and did his thing, but mentally, Judah is nowhere near where Mosley is and especially since he's got Naazim in his corner. That dude is like a mathematician trainer. He knows the math and science behind that shit. He knows how to look at fights and figure shit out. That's how Shane sonned Margarito and Hopkins did the same to Kelly Pavlik, because Naazim knows every movement being made by the opponent. Shane has Naazim now, and his wife is out of his camp, so that would be an interesting matchup. But Floyd could most definitely beat all of those cats, but I just want to see him do it.
I see people saying I was disrespectful to Floyd, but I was very respectful to Floyd for most of the interview. The only time I got a little bit uppity is when he discredited every fighter, from Sugar Ray Leonard to fucking Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley and Pacquiao. Anybody you named, he discredited and acted like they weren't shit. You can't disrespect everybody. He tried to get me to be disrespectful and called me a bitch and I'm like, "We're talking over microphones." It's no reason for me to say that to Floyd Mayweather. People say I wouldn't say it to his face. Yes I would. Everything that I said in the interview, I would say to his face. I wasn't saying, "Go fuck your mother! Fight me" or "I will stick a gun in your mouth" or anything like that. I said, "Fight the best. Let's make the fights happen." But I don't know. I don't think that's being too crazy. Whatever people want to think, you know?
PC: I appreciate the interview and the detailed description of what went down. Good luck with the album. Is there anything you want to say in closing?
R.A.: Yeah man. I appreciate your time and Louisiana man, keep doing it. I will probably be passing through there in 2010 to do a little hip hop and a couple of shows and see my people out there, you know!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]