ESPN MMA’s Brett Okamoto spends time with Jorge Masvidal riding through Miami in a classic Lincoln Continental as they …
have you ever really taken like a video Cruiser I’ve never seen this house before man never nobody has get y’all here I just I never let nobody come in my house you know and that’s just is that because of your kids or is that just because combo I just like feel like that’s my privacy you know nobody needs to see that you know there’s a different you coming in then the whole world coming in you know what am I gonna do that yeah it’s like a little Pond I’m working on it though she got sick of it so I’m gonna make it like a nice outdoor shower working on that then I got these are like the rooms I was telling you about got a room in here kitchen bedroom little living room everything my coach that you’ve met a couple times you should say that he lived with me for like three years but then he got his own place and took off I was gonna say I saw him this morning I was like yeah if he still lives here yeah yeah no no no he doesn’t we got him a big old nice house down the street so now he lives down the street but he was with me there you know that’s great this is our Tiki car there he is right there yeah that’s what I like to cook my uh Brazilian meat picano much like April 8th served up you know just right and that’s my attack dog but you ain’t got to worry because I’m here so he ain’t gonna attack you you mow the lawn yourself nah you know it’d be very therapeutic but not doing all that yourself it could take a while huh take a minute you know so all of that that last part over there from like that water there it’ll be like a rail I mean it’ll be a course of like all these obstacles that I’ll be jumping and moving so I was kind of weirdly I like that the the road is right there it’s like that high wall yeah gives you a lot of privacy it’s a Turnpike that’s that’s one of the reasons why I took it and that’s also one of the reasons that house was on the market so long nobody wanted it because the noise and stuff but when I closed my door since I have the the impact windows and all that you can’t hear anything and I don’t have no neighbors like you said so nobody like messes with me I’ve never seen those people and these people mind their own business the last thing they want was attention so nobody ever messes with me I don’t have to see nobody the best thing yeah I mean it’s far enough away that yeah the sound the sound is almost kind of like like being back here it’s almost gives it kind of like this echoey thing I kind of like it and then once I’m in there like in my room like I could hear if somebody smashes on their brakes or like accidents I’ve heard yeah but for the most part fall right asleep it’s funny that you’ve had this for four years though because it looks like you are still like right yeah we had a lot of work to do when we got here yeah like all the this uh that’s why you see a lot of these guys like walking around all this stuff I had to take it out you know put news in there the painting I finally settled on the corner so the house is like different colors by the time you come back like three months from now it’ll be all white like this it’s my little pillar so your everyday car is uh BMW that’s to go to American top team in back that’s what I’ve used all the time I got my poor suit getting there I’ll whip it around and when I’m in Miami and stuff there’s more of the bends over there and then uh in the classic cars I never really drive them you know I got them but I don’t really stun on them like that I’ll take him to like a photo shoot I would literally get the car towed there he said with me don’t have it there and they’ll do like the video or photo shoot or whatever nobody even drives it or even turns it on you know and then they pay me for that so I was like bro if ESPN want to pay me cool if not no biggie you know I mean this is going to be so sick dude because it’s a special occasion when you drive it’s like are you looking forward to driving it today hell yeah put you in a certain mood like getting this old school’s definitely yeah definitely no AC really just a naturalness you know how did you decide on the classics that you bought um some since a kid like the Shelby I always wanted it from from myself you know but my dad was even like a bigger fan of that car he loves that car so I was like Papa do true quick these uh this one A friend of mine actually found it and uh I always liked this car but I wasn’t like to get this car and I saw this car and when I saw it I was like I have to get the car the price was great top down suicide doors I was like man I gotta get this bad boy I know the Impala I always wanted the Impala always as a kid I always wanted that that more or less year model of the Impala so as I’m getting that bad boy as well this is like called the Horse because you see all the houses here got like Big Lots and big lands you know it’s a nice little suburb of Miami yeah like how how is like the geography of Miami and like the the like does this it rolls straight into like good neighborhoods bad neighborhoods like like how would you describe like the city itself Miami’s a big Melting Pot you know and and a lot of I would say like clicks here and there you know like all the Jamaicans are here all the Colombians are there the freaking Russians over here you know but then in some point they’re all like meat you know it’ll be like a neighborhood with all me but they’ll have we’ll have like our our stronghold neighborhood you know like this neighborhood is mainly Latin and Latin descent nothing more more people are coming to Miami by the truckloads we’ll get like Americans from like up north now I’m more in this area but this used to be just like predominantly Latin only you know and your life you’ve kind of been all over the place in Miami yeah from north to south east or west I’ve lived in all the parts of Miami so I I could say I know Miami like pretty damn good you know and that was that was because of what like uh um well my mom we were in those apartments that I showed you when I got back from uh from Peru I lived in Peru for about four years and when I landed back here went straight to those apartments we were chilling there life was great you know I had like a nice that we were nice and steady there for like a while like four or five years then after that my mom bought a house it was right after Hurricane Andrew hit and this neighborhood got like devastated by by Hurricane Andrew like wrecked and it was like a decent neighborhood you know so my mom was able to like buy a house here because the prices that dropped it the the neighborhood wasn’t like shambles because this hurricane had like utterly destroyed it and they have massive uh they have like a massive Lake in there and that Lake created tornado so like the damage was just Amplified you know so my mom was able to get like a seal of a deal bought this house and we were there for maybe um about a year then after that she she had to like start renting at the house because we couldn’t we couldn’t afford it you know but my mom’s a thug just like me she showed me perseverance so she would rent it out every time we started coming up short for like a year or two years to the years or whatever and um doing that we were actually able to save the house because we we really couldn’t afford it after some time so that’s what led me to be bouncing all over Miami since around like 14 years old we we uh we started bouncing around and stuff and more showed me already because by the time I was like 13 14 I was like a little man already you know I do what I had to do train and stuff and just try to get money from me and my mom so it really realistically like how many how many different how many different places did you live between the age of like 14 and I don’t know like when you started you’re in a big career well I started my MMA career at 18. profession I’m 38 so that’s 20 something years right there cuz what’s up um I’m gonna say I don’t know between like 14 and 18 probably like four places because it was like I rent the place for like a year or stay at your house for a year or or the gym or let me sleep there for a little bit so might have been even more there’s a couple of places you know but I say from like 14 to 20. is where where I was like bouncing around a lot just trying to figure it out but not really caring just kind of like if I’m a surfer and a wave just just handling whatever’s given to me you know because back then I did not care to have a car a nice car I did not care to have nice clothes I did not care to have nice shoes I did not care to have [ __ ] jewelry which I I for the most part a lot of me still doesn’t give a [ __ ] about all that but I gotta look nice for TV and some of these things that do like you know so so I have them but when I was growing up I you know I had a grown up not having it since I was a kid so then when I got older and I had more awareness I was like I don’t even need this because this doesn’t help me out for the fighting you know and I always knew that my gifts as long as I relied on on the gifts that God had given me I’d be all right I’d get everything that I ever wanted you know and it usually was taking off more and then I would see the you know it’s not the same thing but I would see how well boxers were doing and how well I could I could be doing myself I was like man this is this is the way out for me I don’t give about what’s happening right now where I’m sleeping in you know none of that stuff matters you know why do you think like it was so easy for you to really believe in this though because like you said that to me before where you just weren’t stressing about it you knew like you always knew I always knew that it was going to end up all right but like sleeping in a car and moving around and you’ve talked about not having food in the fridge I mean that would stress out a lot of people yeah but it was the thing is when I was young it was a lot worse than just like sleeping in the car or or like you know um not having food you know those were things that obviously nobody likes I didn’t I didn’t like them but [ __ ] man it didn’t like always make or break my Dane since I also grew up in that situation where I got home and there was no lights for like a month so now I have to go like shower try hey I’ve seen my mom’s work ethic too you know since uh when I was young she had like a very good work ethic work Drive so that really helped out with everything man how’s your uh your diet pretty restrictive at 170 or you can no 170 is you know as long as I uh I don’t overdo it I’m I’m all right you know 155 was a different story be like eight to ten weeks of a strict diet of lots of fasting lots of running it was a different lifestyle you know um at 170 I have a lot of the leeway it’s not like I could eat like a pig or nothing but I could maybe what I’d like to do is just eat clean you know I don’t want to eat like food like everybody knows I love junk food and stuff so I try I stay away from that a lot just because it’s not good and I try to do it more so than ever now at my age year round is back then I wouldn’t have fights like I’m eating whatever I feel like you know a seafood diet whatever I see is is getting wrecked now it’s more I want a burger okay I’ll have the discipline to wait till I get to my house I’ll make the burger myself with my condiments with my you know the best source of meat that I could possibly get maybe not put cheese and buns in it I’ll put some lettuce and stuff like that and then it just makes my life easier but doing it when it really counts is is on off season because it’s everybody’s can be disciplined when they got eight nine weeks and that was always me those eight nine weeks that could be very disciplined but outside of that that’s why I’d always get myself into trouble you know stopping at these places at 2 30 in the morning at that place right there got great chicken wings flanigans yeah you ever heard of them no man they got bomb ass chicken wings spot right there you uh when you retire you have what kind of physical shape do you think you’ll be in that that’s a good question and everybody asked me most of my close friends offered they’re like he’ll be 250 pounds minimum you know because I have a I don’t look it but I have a massive appetite man I could eat I could eat and I I think that’s maybe the one trauma that I have from like growing up I think that uh constantly being like hungry and like working and stuff and I get a lot of my meals at school that was like a constant thing for me I had all the free lunches and then I knew everybody’s free lunch code so also after a certain age I think I remember like right around 13 14 is when my appetite switch and I was just like heavy eater like I’m hungry you know and I’m hungry more often than not which is a good thing especially for like young boys to feel that trauma to feel that to get after you know so I wanted to eat there was no food at the house there’s I’m never gonna play the victim oh I gotta get after man I would work I’d have gigs if I was like cutting grass for the whole week or if I was painting houses or I was doing demolition I always had money in my pocket you know just not just for myself but for me and my mom I always made it work you know so I uh I got after man and that’s right all the bad situations are like this is just this is just now this is not forever you know I’m gonna get out of this with these right here yeah I’ve heard you say a lot of just like open the open the fridge and there are drinks in it like yeah that’s not something that yeah a lot of people then I’d be like well I gotta get up early tomorrow and go to school then if I want to eat so then I get to breakfast sometime you know but I’m I’m the only guy you knew that had all the lunch period I had lunch period one two and three and everybody would see me like bro you got all the lunches yup yup how far away is the school you went to well you probably went to a few huh and went to uh yeah for I went to numerous schools and that was because um the board is problematic but I ain’t gonna lie shout out to all them teachers I had to put up with my ass but yeah I got kicked out of like what three different middle schools I got kicked out of Elementary fifth grade summer they waited to that was the longest school that lasted in fifth grade summer Charles R Hadley Elementary’s when they kicked me out of school in fifth grade in summer school they just had enough of me I went to like a private school like that because my mom was worried so she found this like little private school the teacher told her like Hey listen if if you put them now in a public school system he’s gonna have to go to these special program middle schools which is not like it’s like Little Joe you know it’s not but a bunch of me’s hanging out there in the networking is going to be the worst and the teachers that scared the crap out of my own like we love your son it sucks and he got kicked out but you shouldn’t put him in uh and like these alternative schools you know maybe try to find another route and my mom found like this private school that was like affordable you know to an extent and um you put me in there and then I got kicked out of that one you know and then I went to uh another Middle School up north like four hours up north from here I managed to do fine there then I came back to Miami after like six eight months of completing the school there and then eighth grade um I get kicked out of middle school again so my mom’s just like fed up on my ass you know for for what fighting all types of things you know all types of things when you would get kicked out like a middle school didn’t you have to like go home and tell her or they would call her oh wait I’d never tell her I said always call her this looks all nice and stuff now but like 15 years ago this Walgreens was like a bowling alley in like there’s a Troublesome spot to hang out I got into so many fist fights in this place you’re just hanging out just being a kid I wasn’t even I wouldn’t look for trouble nothing but trouble would find me a lot this area of Miami is is where you were predominantly though no not predominantly where and it just depends at the age all the way up to like 15 16 where we went for the apartments that’s where I was mainly at in that area over there and where is that from here uh 20 minutes north yeah Northeast like we will I’ll show you there on the way uh on the afternoon Drive okay did not graduate from high school I got a GED I dropped out as soon as I could legally drop down started like honing in on the craft one just training morning day night just telling my mom like it’s cool stuff you know I I already know that I’m not gonna be a lot of these things that are offered to me in school I know that I could fight I’m gonna have to hire people maybe you know I’m singing like the smarter people but this fighting stuff is on me that’s all I need to do you know I could already read write do math and stuff like that I was like man I got it obviously many years later I kept like educating myself and learning more reading books moment you think you know it all you [ __ ] up you know whatever you said you fell in love with wrestling too like like but that wasn’t like a high school that was like that gym yeah no um I fell in love with rushing maybe the first time not the first time I saw it but like because the first time I saw it I was a little bit I thought they were like bodybuilders because they had the singlets on and then these guys are like doing all these acrobatic things and flipping around and wrestling and then I started to like you know as I got older then when I went back back to high school I got to I got to join the team but I didn’t have the grades to compete so I was with the team practicing and it was a big part of fighting I I already understood like man if I can’t wrestle I can’t punch in a sense you know because if the guy takes me down puts me on my back what what good is it that I could hit harder than Bruce Lee you know it wouldn’t matter so I was very focused on my wrestling defensively always since a young kid like when you made the the when you came to the realization in school they’re like this is I’m not going to do any of this stuff like were you looking at fighting as uh well this is something that I I I’m gonna it’s gonna be my job or like you you also just confident though no at the the beginning the end the middle and at all times I love them more than anything yeah there was nothing else that consumed me that that I wanted to talk about look at listen study research absorb it was just fighting I didn’t care about nothing else I told you not another Sport and and even for a long time like girls or or parties or any of that I just I didn’t care I was completely submerged into the crafts without even knowing like it just consumed me you know I didn’t I didn’t give a [ __ ] you know if it was a Saturday night and you called me you’re like hey I got the best house party in Miami too so-and-so and souls and soul is going with her freaking three friends and you know she’s got a crush on you come to my house tonight all right I can’t bro I’ll be watching the fight I didn’t give like about nothing else but that fight you know you think you were you would have been born into like privilege and you would have been a risky and you still would have loved fighting because it was just like um you know I don’t know if I would have been as good because it requires a lot of discipline sometimes that discipline is fueled by a little bit of trauma you know so I I don’t know if I would have been that good you know maybe I would have been better because I would have had more discipline to if having to have money and I I don’t know the the levelness of how good I would have been but I know one thing I probably still would have been fighting you know I would have seen it rich or not rich and then like that’s what I want to do and and uh I’m a hard Force to stop when I say I’m gonna do something I you know more times than not I get it done when you’re in the gym and obviously you’re like you’ve been around Fighters your whole life what percentage of them do you think are like that where they just love it and what percentage of them are like what this is like what I’m good at this is what I’m doing like for memes but like like are a lot of them like you that they were just born like to fight or do you think so a lot of them I think a lot of them might like fighting a lot you know but like actually when they when they’re in there like enjoying the fight I don’t think too many actually yeah I I know so not so many I could tell by a lot of them a lot of them are having to deal with a lot of nerves and that right there makes it not as fun for them though they’re great competitors there’s a lot of people that I’ve always looked and I’m like I don’t know why I would compete with you I’m not going to mention names of them but I’ve been around a lot of people that are like backstage or like throwing up they’re they’re really going through the nerves and it’s like man if you’re throwing up every single time you fighting you’re getting so nervous and stuff me personally I wouldn’t do it because it’s not fun you know but there’s a lot of guys that are that are like that and still put it off and compete at a high level thank God I wasn’t one of those people it was like hell yeah you know I used to get more nervous for grappling competitions yeah than fighting competitions always since a kid and that’s because since maybe my grappling I wasn’t always the best at it especially like offensively I would feel like oh you know I’d get more nerves more like damn you know but with with the fighting with this it was just like a fish to water you know punch holes and tires and stuff put the little glue on them I had all these little drops I just didn’t last long because you show up and say that you you knew how to do the job no no no no I just space cadet a lot of times you know a lot of these things like bro you gotta be quick gotta learn quick I wasn’t the quickest learner and uh I was just like space kid all day long thing about fighting I can’t wait to get out of here to the gym I’m gonna get that what was that how did you choke me on I’m thinking about it all day at work and I’m like I’m gonna get them like this like yeah and hey go take their orders or whatever boom my second time they do that my ass is fired bro yeah did you ever really work at a uh like a food place because that would that would translate to free food I uh I got five and they never put me in the register you know this is my area man they know me everywhere let’s go there’s one Latin dude they grow in every neighborhood the black neighbors the Asian neighbors no matter where I had that credit that good credit everyone I didn’t have good credit with like you know Corporate America and stuff back then but I had the good credit with everyone else you know and uh why how come because I didn’t know karate but I knew crazy they knew that Chico was crazy man I used to do Sprints right here actually would work on me and Joe Romero when he came out here because he was living by over here he work out with me right there you know this all looks nice but man this is a little spots yeah it looks a lot different uh I mean more up-to-date more kept up than new houses buildings but like uh back then you know if you were too lighted it light-skinned it you didn’t want to walk around here you know not unless you meet somebody this is where the fight sick place I haven’t been here in some time though how’s it feel being back freaking awesome kimball slice and me we grew up like around here I mean this looks I mean it is it’s straight out of the Kimbo movies man this makes me think of Kimbo definitely this is where we were slanging fish make a better way for ourselves like you just said make a better life for yourself like you were fighting like just two guys fighting in a bet in a backyard right here as like and then was seen by millions of people man right here what’s going through your mind when you drive through here foreign that’s one you know because I think like uh no no offense to anybody that is living at neighbors where I lived at but like a big part of me is like I never I’m never going back I just uh you’re not sending me you’d have to kill me before I I had it the way I had it because you know I uh and they have a lot of freedom man and believe it or not it’s freeze run this country and this is the greatest country in the world I say it every time to really be free though you need to have money you need to you need to have it you know and a lot of times the thing when I was running around these parts and stuff well I didn’t have that freedom I’d work my mom didn’t have that freedom my dad literally didn’t have freedom because he was locked up and my mom my mom was working all the time and stuff so I saw a lot of things like man you you got to work man you got to get after it bro you know and I understood since a young age that you got to have a hard work driving you know because we weren’t born with with the next guy had you know because you were going to school and every year you had the new shoes and I’m like man I had the same shoes like two three years in a row you know you’re 16 you got a car I joke to my Mom like yo when am I gonna get in my car she’s like yeah you wish you go buy your car and I’m like I am you know so when I think of these things I’m like no not me man I you know I work hard for all this and I’m never going back you know so first thing is like Gilbert and the stretcher because he’s he’s trying to send me back here he’s trying to take my money away you know and I know his little Brazilian asses he has that Envy in his eye I see it in his face you know he wants to be me he wants what I have he wants the draw that I am in the sport it’s not gonna happen buddy you up bad brother but you know what I’ll send you a gift basket because I got a lot of money now to the hospital then you’re in well ain’t no one taking the [ __ ] I work for for me bro but like when you think about your son and he’s a kid right you know and he’s doing kid stuff when do you think I hope you understand what um and I hope I phrase this correctly but like when do you think you stopped being a kid like when do you think that that was over when I stopped being a kid like officially was around like 13 years old already where a lot of a lot of things have happened the my mom’s house was getting uh no it was like yeah 13 14 the house was under foreclosure she wasn’t able to come up with the money for like numerous months so then we were like hey we gotta leave we gotta rent this out you know things are gonna change she went one way I went with another way and and then I just started hustle and go get money and I already knew like life’s been tough up till now I gotta send the loads for my mom like I said a Hustle Man hustle and hustle just make it happen for me my mom you know and also I was already at the gym if not every day every other day working out doing something you know that right there is Joel Romero’s gym you know Joe didn’t grew up in Miami but since he came out here I brought him to this area I showed him this area around here because I used to live around here and then he like ended up moving by here as well when he brought his family from Germany and uh and my boy opened up a gym here not far from where me and Campbell used to grow up one of the best fighters that ever come out of Florida you gotta point the camera that way cuz you got to get Joel’s gym right that’s that’s the man’s gym right there you know I don’t even know if they’re in there right now that’s my brother right there man we worked out many times you feel like you’re like representing Miami in this fight or like you represent yourself you know when when uh when people see me no matter what part of the city no matter what their background of their Caucasian if they’re freaking Haitian if they’re Jamaican if they’re Colombian when they see me they lose their mind because I am the city bro um I am Miami Dade you know I’m the dude didn’t have this or that or wasn’t the perfect fit for this or that but the same mentality that we all have when we get in and we all still have here and it’s like the Immigrant mentality mixed with that I’m not a victim I’m not a victim I don’t care what you say you the color of my skin or my IQ or this is not like I’m not a victim and I’m not going to sit back and and be in the passenger seat to anybody I’m gonna be in control driving this vehicle towards the destiny that I want and that’s Miami right there so see me they’re losing mine because they know I embody that win or lose I’m gonna go out there and give him my all and win and I’ve won numerous times for my city and with a lot of style and grace and it’s not just for my city I represent myself I represent my my Latin communion in the world wide scale wherever they are in the world and all the people it’s like me man that are go-getters you know I don’t care what your race is your religion or nothing if you’re like me you’re out there getting it you didn’t start with the best situations in life but you made it out let’s go bro you know that’s what I think he’s in Miami lose it well all over the world especially here in Miami you know as soon as they they recognizes me realizes me they can lose their mind bro Everywhere I Go and that’s a very humbling feeling for me you know horn here yeah Miami Florida Jackson Memorial by like the where we’re gonna be up later I’ll show you and then but why did you go to Peru uh when my dad got locked up he got locked up when I was four years old they took him away for 19 years so when I got locked up my mom just you know she didn’t have [ __ ] at the time not a dollar to her name nothing you know and all she thought was like how am I gonna work provide for my son and still be a mother and give him the time so she sent me to go live with my grandparents in Peru you’ll ever do like the uh the bite uh the book route or the movie route like you think there’ll ever be like a documentary or a book out on your life we got the book dropping in 2024. do you really yeah finish with a high value name company um they’ve done some of the best-selling books they they line up a lot with my political beliefs as well stuff like that so I’ve been talking to like I don’t know four different book companies for a while now for like two years and um bro I speak Spanish English besides my story of fighting being interested to like a regular person that wouldn’t know much about fighting amongst the fighters and the crazy Fighters I have like one of the most interesting stories period yeah so I know the story of mine and then what a lot of people don’t know is like my upbringing how Wild it truly was so it’s took in the right book deal to get me to be like all right I’ll open up and you guys are the ones who run the project because I I know I’m worth a lot yeah just because I speak English and I speak Spanish and the Lang Community is so supportive on me they they go to war for me you know me knowing that I had to make sure this book not only comes out right represents us right but that your boy get paid I love you got you what was he saying he was saying your mom she’s all nah he’s just Walling he’s like bro he’s the hardest thing out in the city go get him go kill them show that what’s up who we are show them who we are I told you to go crazy when they see me bro yeah I embodied at Miami you know go get it attitude and then it’s just not me that has this attitude our football players you know a lot of a lot of the nation’s best football players come from this city Miami Florida you know and it’s like the same attitude like kill or be killed come back with your Shield or come back on it you know like and give it all you got because that that’s how they play ball because those that’s all they got as well a lot of the ball players that come out of here they have nothing else they didn’t have another plan is just bro it’s going to be football it’s going to be football injury through injury or no matter what food or no food it’s gonna be the same thing that’s why we go Hardy man shot at the Dolphin shot at the um kicking ass I think we’re gonna assume we’re winning a Super Bowl next year right Chris Tyree my dog Tyree we’re gonna win the Super Bowl this year I think man City’s gonna go nuts I’ll bring that belt I go bust up Leon same time we got a Super Bowl ring it’s gonna be crazy man everybody’s out signing people freak out when they see me yeah wait till we get the other spots so people really know that they recognize that it’s me they’re a loser in this car dude like all right huh this used to be a Toys R Us and went down you’re like good at telling your story too like have you have you uh so you’ve already started that process of like talking to the book guy like the writer and all that like if you started that here’s the thing I uh I got all these book offers and I was like and you know I I think the UFC for making me the businessman that they’ve made me to because the UFC has made me work so hard for every cent that I know my value I know what I bring because when I come to UFC I’m like hey you know I want to raise this night get out of here yeah you know hey but you know I sold the most pay-per-views two years in a row I get ready it’s like I gotta come with more than that like yeah hey this is why I want more money no yes so this has made me a master of my craft and negotiating and stuff so when the book deals started coming around I was like yeah I get it you’re giving me all this upfront money but what’s going on in the back end this is my story nah it needs to be more here no well you know we’ve never done that for the well then I’m not giving you my it’s my story I’m not gonna do it you know so it’s took in a lot of work together um and basically I picked out my own writer from all the different writers that I had maybe you heard of them Don Yeager he’s done a bunch of books bestsellers New York Time Best Sellers either the Muhammad Ali book he’s done he’s done a great amount of work and I researched him up well and then we had our initial meetings and we had to drive up the Coconut Creek where we just talked and then after that we we did it on the way back down again and I really clicked well with the dude I was able to Vibe with him it didn’t feel like uh I was you know spilling my guts as much as I was just having a conversation just flowing and talking you know so I like that dude I brought him on board and then I told him well then you write my book we’ll finish it up and then I’ll take it to like the Publishers and and I just I was thinking I’ll just pay for it out of my pocket rather than some publishers pay for it and then one more money in the back end like no I got money I could do it my damn self you know so that’s the route we started going and uh that that was my my thing right there but one of these major Publishers found us and they were like bro you’re a gold mine and you’re willing to do this already which we’ll take care of this this and this for you but we want to do business with you how much what do you want in the back end back end meaning like what am I going to get per book that I sell because that’s really what I’m after you know like if I’m selling my life story and I’m sending these books and I get it if we don’t get rich offsetting these books I’m not trying to get rich but if we hit gold and I sell a million copies and up you better believe the money’s coming to my [ __ ] pocket you know not nobody else because it’s again my life story and I don’t have to tell it but if I’m gonna tell it I’m gonna make sure I represent myself well my people well and and you know make a nice penny for it you know so it’s gonna have a lot about my childhood and my upbringing and you know the wild ass trouble I got myself into she got the police station right away you familiar with that one this one uh they just dispatch and they won’t they won’t bring you there but all of the jails in Miami unfortunately I’ve been to them you know numerous times from Juvenile Hall to the county the TGK and uh I never went for any federal crimes but I went to the federal prison my whole youth because of my dad you know to go visit him I did read Don’s book online yeah he’s got a he’s got a couple bangers out there you know that’s good he knows how to present it you know in a way that uh I feel a lot of people could gravitate towards it you know then they got me to reach out to the Latin Community he’ll get them out of the Caucasian money yeah you know stuff you know could be a good thing then after that I got all the rights to it right there’s no nobody else going forward so I’ll find the right movie producer if that comes around the right time to write everything as long as I’m in complete control of everything and I get the most money then maybe I’ll take it to the big screen if not I’ll just stay with the book you know yeah but I love to do this stuff because when I was growing up there and still to this day the especially the way Hollywood portrays and stuff Latin people are always either cleaning the hotel room the bad guy or something you know I love to show my Landing people like that’s not all we’re cut out for you know we could do it all too we could do a lot more you know so me me getting out there and doing things like this is not just for myself and getting my pockets bigger but just like myself when I saw somebody like Roberto Duran or these great Latin Fighters fighting and I was like man they’re just like me and they speak Spanish like me and you know this and that and they did it I want to do it too I I could do it and I know I’m gonna inspire many many that are just like me right now that are not in the best situation that are immigrants to this country or whatnot or maybe they’re not in this country they’re in their country wherever the hell they’re at but they see me and they know I can get after he did it I could do it too now where we was at now look there look look now huh man my happies every day look at this look at everything God’s blessed me with I got this long road but nobody with me here nobody bothers me my mom my kids my my dad they got everything they need it’s just real life Man this ain’t my vacation home this is me all year you know dude when you think of uh like the book deal and the you know potentially making millions off that in a movie and then your fight’s still like like what what do you still want money for like what what do you like financially what like we said um money sets your financial freedom and not just Financial Freedom nowadays even more freedom we saw how things had things got with the Corona and this and that and and where the government is headed to right now on the more money you have the more protection layers you could also put between you and them whether it be getting lawyers or having the right people on your team and on your side like it’s it’s money is this thing where yeah you might have a couple million but so what you know especially I didn’t come this far just to come this far you know the hardest part was probably to get to that first hundred thousand dollars coming from absolutely dirt Zero have a hundred thousand dollars saved up when I ain’t have even a card on my name and I had to do all that from scratch that was like the first hardest thing once I got that that money rolling why would I stop now why the [ __ ] would I sell myself short you know and I’m telling you now because I like to you know before I shoot that a ball in there I always will call the pocket you know I have several hundreds of million in my bank account before I’m done you know whether they come from fighting promoting or one of the businesses that I got up and running because that’s what I’ve set my mind to man to be as good as I can at fighting have as much money as possible so I can stay free thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus