I mean the first fight was really tough it was grueling it was brutal we got fight of
the year round of the decade you know things like that we just tried to kill each other
for ten rounds I ended up winning the decision in that fight the second fight stop right
there for a moment are you really trying tokill each other well I'm not really trying to kill
him but if it happens it happens wow I'm not in there trying to kill him by no means but
if so be I mean it could happen it's part of the sport it might sound brutal but that's
the way it is I rather hit him then him hit me yeah you'd rather be the one that's not
dead right right wouldn't you want to be the one hitting instead of getting hit right right
right sorry to interrupt you so fight number two so the second fight you know it was my
biggest purse up to that date funny story is three years before I fought Gatti I was
fighting at Wonderland Ballroom for like six hundred dollars and four years after I fought
Gatti my second fight for a millionso if I gave up back then when people said give up
you can't do it you know your hands this that yoy know you're not gonna be nothin' if I
listened to them I wouldn't have made it but I knew I could do it that's why go with your
mind go with what you want to do that's why I want you here today I want you to tell those
kids never never never give up right exactly but the second one was we fought and I made
that money not because I made the money but I mean we fought the second one and um he
caught me in the third round with a right hand over my jab hit me right in the side
of the ear here and knocked me down I was out pretty much I went down and they gave
me an eight count and the referee and this is a funny story and this is a true story
too and it's crazy but the referee give me an eight count so now I'm wobbly I'm all over
the place and the referee says you okay yeah of course okay okay okay I'm going like this
because I said he hit me behind the ear but he didn't listen to me so anyways referee
says okay fight so he comes at me like a mad man and I'm going against the ropes I'm trying
to like block I'm like ready to fall over again right luckily the ropes are there so
I'm against the ropes and he lines me up with a right hand he goes boom boom and he goes
boom caught me with a right hand whack I was out I was ready to fall when he hit me with
that right hand it woke me up I wasn't even hurt no more I came at him after that he ended
up beating me that fight he ended up beating me in that fight and our third fight he ended
up beating me again third fight but my uh I got hurt in that last fight the people didn't
want me to fight I said no I'm gonna fight him the third time and my brain ended up shifting
in my skull in the seenth round and stuff like that so plus I suffer from post concussion
syndrome now which I'm in the study with Dr Robert Cantu and Chris Nowinski donate my
brain when I pass so they can study the affect of concussions and how to monitor them or
to not get 'em you know just wonderful of you to do that yeah now ring magazine which
is the big magazine or was the big magazine in your day they tout your fights as the fights
of the year am I right about that right yeah uh I'm one of only like six people in the
history of boxing or seven people maybe that was involved in fight of the year three consecutive
years I mean some guys have got it four years some guys have got it five years but only
six or seven of us got three in a row like I think Ali uh maybe Carmen Basilio or someone
like that back in the fifties but only three like seven guys got three fights like I got
two thousand one two and three a kid from Lowell and if I gave up and I was fighting
in Wonderland if I gave up and listened to the people that said I could't do it then
I would've probably been paving right now there's nothin' wrong with paving but i probably
would've been you know construction again This excerpt is brought to you by the Massachusetts
School of Law