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With 16 Wins and 0 losses Chordale Booker organically opens up and answers questions about his past and how he dreams of opening a facility for the youth in his neighborhood.
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0:01
[Applause]
0:04
[Music]
0:14
my birthday they already giving me a
0:15
gift
0:17
come on man we got him up here
0:20
we got him right here man come on we got
0:22
him right here give it up
0:23
man cordell the gift booker ladies and
0:26
gentlemen hey
0:27
welcome to bridge business brother man
0:31
come on this is this is this is like a
0:34
dream right here for real
0:36
man i can't believe this hey champ man
0:39
listen man you earned it man
0:40
everything listen i know your life
0:42
brother you earned you earned your way
0:45
everybody want to talk to you now man uh
0:48
i'm sway you no first time official
0:50
introduction
0:51
that's my homie my partner in crime with
0:53
bridge business tell them who you are a
0:55
horse
0:55
on a big horse cordell what's going on
0:58
champ peace
0:59
um i actually had the pleasure of
1:01
meeting both of you at the uh
1:02
at the doomsday event i believe it was
1:05
oh
1:06
oh at the youtube studios yeah yeah yeah
1:19
you know if you mayweather came up on
1:21
sway in the morning he spit a burst
1:24
adrian broner spit a verse come on man
1:27
you sure man i might have to find
1:29
something
1:30
right there i know you left that i know
1:33
you left out of that siphons
1:34
inspired i know you had wanted to do
1:36
some bars
1:38
a lot of people i i remember a lot you
1:40
know i actually
1:41
stayed in contact with a few of the um
1:43
artists who got up there
1:44
that night um well that day
1:49
sammy uh sammy benjamin um
1:54
um oh gosh man
1:59
my boy was from connecticut um johnny
2:03
okay johnny um big red that's really
2:06
what i call him
2:06
i'll played basketball with him
2:08
connecticut stanford
2:10
and then um homie who was out in uh in
2:13
philly
2:14
cortez nah cortez that's my guy got your
2:18
dog right
2:19
yeah he you know of course him um but um
2:23
i'm gonna think of his name i'll be
2:25
talking to him though too
2:26
uh sean smith you talking about sean
2:28
smith okay
2:30
i think you might be talking about sean
2:31
smith from philly rapper
2:33
hey cordell man see it's good it's
2:34
interesting that you like the the rap
2:36
scene you know when we did
2:38
the dunes that was sway in the morning
2:39
that's all about the battle you know
2:41
what i mean that's about the mono e mono
2:43
you know hey can you see similarities
2:46
in rap battling and boxing absolutely
2:50
it's competition it's head to head
2:52
nobody's stepping in for you i mean
2:54
you know the crowd you feed off the
2:56
energy of the crowd just like you're
2:57
doing boxing
2:58
but it's really only up to you you know
3:02
once you step
3:03
those steps through the ropes you enter
3:05
that battle rap arena
3:07
it's up to you to perform now
3:11
hey cordell where you from you from
3:12
brooklyn are you from stanford where are
3:14
you
3:14
i'm from stanford i'm from stanford
3:15
connecticut um the brooklyn thing
3:18
happened
3:19
more so cause my family's from brooklyn
3:21
and
3:22
when i was coming to when i was coming
3:24
to new york beating these dudes in new
3:26
york
3:27
they were telling me that like oh he's
3:29
from they were snitching on me saying
3:30
like yo he's from connecticut he's from
3:32
connecticut
3:33
but but when i first came it was yo he's
3:35
a soft kid from connecticut beat him up
3:38
and i started you know he turned it up
3:40
one of them and it was oh
3:41
he's from connecticut so now i wouldn't
3:43
got an id
3:49
oh man that's dope in the name of the
3:51
gift where you get that from the gift
3:52
man the name
3:53
man where you get that the gift isn't it
3:56
isn't
3:57
like a conceited thing or like a
3:59
self-centered type of thing
4:01
it really is something that came from so
4:04
make a long story short i got i got a
4:06
gun charge drug charges when i was 18.
4:09
i was gonna go in i thought i was gonna
4:11
go in i
4:13
ended up started boxing because i needed
4:15
an outlet to get off the street
4:16
start boxing the judge you judging my
4:18
court case
4:20
judging the good judge white yeah
4:23
white was judging the um judging the
4:26
golden glove belt
4:28
and i went in the bathroom like i was so
4:30
excited i won i was changing
4:32
and he walked in the bathroom started
4:33
washing his hands i'm like
4:36
judge white he turned he looked at me he
4:38
said
4:39
who are you i know you're from i was
4:41
like
4:42
you just judging my court case and he
4:46
said
4:46
oh and he's walked out so i thought i
4:50
messed up you know i'm like no
4:51
why did i even say anything and i come
4:54
back
4:55
in like a month or two he gave me pro
4:57
three years probation
4:59
you know like he saw that i was doing
5:01
something mm-hmm
5:02
and he didn't want he didn't he didn't
5:04
want to send me the job you know
5:06
and then and it came from there just
5:08
being a gift and so now
5:10
i'll give back to kids who going to get
5:12
into trouble like me i started my own
5:14
youth foundation
5:15
and um our culture foundation so i got
5:18
two foundations that i'm running right
5:20
now with you
5:20
what's the name of the foundations go to
5:23
distance foundation
5:24
is my um this is my youth program and
5:26
then revolution training is my coaches
5:28
youth program that i've been running
5:30
since i was uh 19.
5:32
so it was a gift that you got in trouble
5:34
so when you was 18 you was a kid running
5:36
around
5:37
and what
5:41
oh did he freeze yeah hey horse you you
5:45
froze up a second
5:47
let's see if we get him back that's a
5:50
crazy little still frame too
5:52
right
5:57
hey you can hear us
6:04
yo uh you're frozen though
6:09
oh
6:15
we gonna have to get him let's see if we
6:18
come back
6:18
okay hey let's pick it up uh you was bro
6:22
you was breaking down so you 18. oh yeah
6:24
so
6:25
so you're 18 years old so getting in
6:27
trouble was like a gift for you so when
6:29
he was 18 what was it about boxing
6:31
that made you say hey man i want to stay
6:33
boxing was you frustrated it was your
6:34
kid that had a lot of anger built up in
6:36
you and it was the only outlet for you
6:38
you hit it right on the head i mean that
6:40
was
6:42
i mean you basically it sounded like you
6:44
had some kids or you yes you yourself
6:46
went through it you know
6:47
like just to be able to call it like
6:49
that you know what it is it's like most
6:51
boxes that you notice that most boxes
6:53
they need that outlet like you know they
6:54
have a lot of frustration that built up
6:56
them because you know
6:56
you know we kids we we men we young
6:58
kings coming up
6:59
so being from connecticut i don't know
7:01
what it was about connecticut was
7:02
connecticut rough growing up out there
7:03
in stanford and all that where you from
7:05
to be honest with you connecticut isn't
7:08
really like
7:10
it's it's rough in a different way like
7:12
you you it's so
7:13
small like you wouldn't look at it like
7:15
in new york north new jersey or like
7:18
chicago or detroit or anything like that
7:20
but it's so
7:21
small in connecticut that like it's kind
7:23
of like
7:24
worse in a sense because you could see
7:26
people with money
7:28
and then your hood would be so little
7:31
and then another person had to be so
7:33
it'd be like four hoods in stanford
7:34
right
7:35
and it'll be so small that you just like
7:38
see a bunch of people
7:39
just having having money having things
7:41
so it's like
7:42
a small povers area
7:45
in these towns and it kind of hurts you
7:47
more because
7:49
you're going to school with a bunch of
7:50
people who got everything
7:53
they got they come to school with bmws
7:55
and
7:56
you just like yo bro like i don't know i
7:58
gotta walk to school like they didn't
8:00
even send a bus to the east side
8:02
so i used to walk to school every day
8:04
you know and that
8:05
that was something i just like maybe
8:07
like damn
8:08
i'm living in this town and people think
8:10
it's just like it's just
8:12
goody goody here but like i gotta walk
8:13
to school everybody else driving the car
8:15
taking a school bus but
8:17
they don't even want to give us you know
8:19
our side of town a school bus
8:23
all right when you was in school what
8:25
made you think you could fight though
8:27
like did you fight at school would you
8:28
get your ass whipped or were you not
8:30
i mean what was it that made you
8:31
thinking
8:33
i mean i gotta i got a few lumps you
8:35
know i wasn't defeated with a kid
8:51
i used to get upset about things and
8:53
then the only way that i felt like i
8:55
could handle it
8:56
was if i had to fight about it which
8:59
also kind of was an insecurity for me to
9:01
be honest with you
9:02
it was more so like if you made fun of
9:05
me i'm gonna fight you
9:06
so that way people didn't think i was a
9:08
punk even though like i fight the
9:10
biggest dude
9:11
like who i know i couldn't be but like i
9:13
just had to let them know like
9:15
i'm not going to tolerate that because
9:17
really deep down it's an insecurity you
9:19
know i mean i just want to pick on me so
9:22
once they did it was like all right well
9:24
we got to fight now
9:29
he had to take a few l's man i look i
9:32
love the story though bro because
9:34
uh i feel like even if some people they
9:37
get in a position of power to get a
9:38
position of light
9:40
where you got attention on you and they
9:42
run from that responsibility of being a
9:44
role model
9:46
but you embraced it you really embraced
9:48
it
9:49
that's what i appreciate about you but
9:51
you wasn't always there who was that one
9:53
person
9:54
you could give credit to to help you
9:56
kind of reach this threshold
9:58
definitely my coach my coach was uh a
10:01
huge part of that
10:02
um because he did it for you know he did
10:05
it for me
10:06
you know it was like i i i didn't even
10:09
know what i really wanted to
10:11
do besides boxing but i didn't know like
10:15
how i was gonna really get there and
10:17
like what
10:18
like what was my plan b or what was
10:20
gonna help me
10:21
during the time where i couldn't only
10:24
box you know because
10:25
you know you gotta start off at the
10:26
bottom not make money
10:28
be an amateur and he took me under his
10:31
wing
10:32
he taught me how to do personal training
10:35
i went got my personal training
10:37
uh certification i quit walgreens i was
10:40
working at walgreens like 60 hours a
10:42
week
10:43
and still kind of box and then um i quit
10:46
i just i quit and i said i ain't looking
10:49
back i'm a box i'm gonna be a personal
10:51
trainer
10:52
and then when when he did all that for
10:55
me i said
10:56
i'm going to run the youth program now
11:00
that was like you know like i saw him
11:02
doing the youth program and i said
11:04
i i want to do that what you did for me
11:06
i want to do that for kids
11:09
um because do you do you see any of the
11:10
kids that you are training
11:12
at your program like do you see yourself
11:13
in them like hey man i was just like you
11:15
when i walked in this place
11:16
and i met a person like him and i could
11:18
see it in your eyes you're going to be
11:19
somebody do you see that a lot
11:20
when you're with yeah i see it a lot and
11:23
and
11:25
like i try to sometimes not get too
11:28
attached to the kids because
11:30
like me i i don't even care if they're
11:34
going to be a fighter
11:35
i just wanted to do good and some of the
11:37
kids
11:38
they like just still want to do like
11:40
knucklehead stuff
11:42
you know so it it it bothers me
11:45
you know but i still stay in contact and
11:47
try to get them to be
11:49
better but they men you know some of
11:51
them are men now because
11:53
that was 10 years ago when i started so
11:55
some of those kids are now
11:58
you know like many 20-24
12:01
you know so like i can't tell them what
12:03
to do but you know
12:05
so because i'm not that much older 29 so
12:08
it's like kind of like a thing where
12:10
like i'm kind of too close to the age
12:12
for them to really
12:14
respect me fully but then they respect
12:16
me because of what i'm doing as far as
12:18
boxing too you know yeah
12:20
so i know i notice you talk about the
12:23
amixes coming up and all that and you
12:24
was boxing in new york and all that i've
12:26
seen some footage of you and edgar
12:27
balinga man and y'all you know y'all
12:29
went at it when y'all were younger man
12:31
what was that like man what was that
12:33
like in gleason's gym at that that was
12:35
gleeson's gym that's the mecca of boxing
12:36
in brooklyn
12:37
what was that like you were edgar going
12:39
at that man that was big
12:41
um at that time edgar was he was
12:44
like he was the the way he the man like
12:46
on top-ranking tv now he was the man
12:48
in new york then wow everybody expected
12:52
edgar to beat me
12:53
um at that time but to be honest with
12:57
you like that was like the
12:59
that was the chip on my shoulder like
13:00
everybody who they said had a name i was
13:02
like oh
13:03
line them up like let's let's just get
13:06
it
13:06
and um was nice edgar was he
13:10
like that's that's what we were going to
13:11
see too like he he better than what like
13:13
just the knockouts um
13:17
but gleason's every time i fought in
13:20
pieces i showed up
13:21
i would just say that i'll go ask you
13:23
about that energy and gleason's what was
13:25
it about gleason was that really the dog
13:26
house it was like was that the dog
13:28
that you need gleason was the dog house
13:31
for real
13:32
because everybody showed up to places
13:34
the whole brooklyn would come to
13:35
greece's
13:36
if there was like um the fights that
13:38
they wanted to see
13:39
like a little b-hop mm-hmm earl newman
13:43
myself
13:44
was on the car everybody was coming to
13:47
the
13:47
it was jam packing it was people who
13:49
came before us
13:51
pulling up to those fights so we used to
13:54
get the the crowd going
13:56
yeah and i see years later you got a
13:58
little bigger and i see you sparring
13:59
sean
14:00
porter and i'm like i was that sparring
14:04
this i'm like hey this guy's
14:05
spawning prize fighters and all that how
14:07
was that sparring these prize fighters
14:09
uh to be honest with you like
14:12
it was a good experience but it was also
14:14
kind of whack
14:16
why would because i
14:19
you look like you was going hard look
14:21
you look like you was going hard i was
14:22
like
14:23
filled up he was on why was it why
14:27
because like i i don't know if y'all
14:29
noticed but like i'm a southpaw
14:31
i see that i'm a lefty so sean
14:34
called me to come through right and i i
14:37
pulled up to come through
14:39
and then when i get there he like yo can
14:41
you fight me righty
14:45
but i don't fight right you know what
14:47
i'm saying i'm like
14:48
but why like i'm not gonna be
14:51
comfortable
14:52
he like oh well i'm fighting keith
14:54
thurman so i need a righty
14:56
to commitment keith thurman i'm like but
14:58
it's a hundred righties you know what
15:00
i'm saying like
15:01
everywhere like it's only a few
15:03
southpaws
15:04
wow well i just really wanted to work
15:06
with you so now i had to work but then
15:08
they had all the cameras in the media
15:11
and so after the spa he started
15:14
telling me like teaching me like how to
15:16
throw a jab
15:18
at me and i'm like bro
15:22
i don't know how to fight
15:26
it was like he was teaching me how to
15:27
box i'm like bro you know i'm a softball
15:30
like i'm i don't i feel
15:31
off balance just standing like this you
15:33
know so i just thought that was corny
15:36
that he did that
15:37
i didn't say anything to the media that
15:38
day because it was about him
15:40
yeah i just felt like that was whack but
15:43
how serious is sparring though because
15:45
it looked like because you know when
15:46
when y'all was in there sparring i was
15:47
like man they seem like they're going a
15:48
little hard a little bit like you know
15:50
y'all flat footing fighting you know i'm
15:51
like man
15:52
they're going through the head gibbs
15:53
turning left and right i'm like hold on
15:54
it seemed like y'all was going a little
15:57
well you know for him for him is gonna
16:00
be
16:01
he can't get shown up by somebody who
16:03
only got four fights
16:04
i only had four fights at that time and
16:07
for me it was like
16:08
you you picked me to go righty
16:12
because you knew that you could do
16:13
whatever you want to me now
16:15
so now it made me have a little like i'm
16:18
gonna try to hit you for real i want
16:20
people to know that i can fight you know
16:22
so i was trying to
16:23
lay some leather on them
16:27
hey i was looking at that i was like hey
16:29
man what kind of sparring is this right
16:31
here because you know i'm looking at i'm
16:32
like there's this guy prize fighter that
16:33
was like
16:34
what did this guy get hurt you know so
16:36
i'm saying looking at that was great man
16:39
hey are y'all still cool though since
16:40
then uh
16:43
i mean i i wouldn't say we got no beef
16:45
it's just been
16:46
it it was kind of whack what he did on
16:48
my last fight too like he knew i was
16:49
coming off of achilles injury
16:52
i started i fought a dude who who just
16:54
previously fought four weeks ago
16:56
i was supposed to fight a guy who had a
16:57
long layoff who do you feel son
17:00
sonny davidson that guy is sonny
17:02
duversen
17:04
three or four weeks before he fought me
17:06
he fought three or four weeks before
17:08
that
17:09
so he's fresh and he just came off a
17:10
camp with jason rosario who fought
17:12
charlotte
17:13
so you know he fresh i'm coming off of
17:17
the achilles tear
17:18
17 months out so i just took the fight
17:21
because i needed to get back in the game
17:24
but i mean yo the whole commentating was
17:27
just like
17:29
you feel like there was against you they
17:32
felt like you
17:32
yeah like it was like he didn't like if
17:35
i landed a punch it was like
17:37
oh cordell cordell needs to put more
17:39
into the punches
17:41
you know i make him miss some punches he
17:43
like oh cornell looks like he's getting
17:44
tired
17:46
let me but let me ask you this because
17:47
he did land some leather on you though
17:49
i mean yeah he got a couple punches in
17:52
there and then towards the end of the
17:54
fight i remember hearing the
17:55
commentators
17:56
talk about your stamina too work but
17:58
were you a little like
18:00
did it surprise you that he was making
18:01
that kind that contact and did did it
18:03
hurt your stamina
18:05
uh it didn't surprise me i knew it was
18:07
going to be a tough fight because i
18:09
didn't
18:10
i wasn't uh in the game for a while and
18:13
then
18:14
i also didn't have the proper training
18:16
because
18:17
that was my first fight in kovitz so i
18:19
didn't really know how this
18:21
covert procedure went i didn't i didn't
18:23
have any sparring
18:26
i couldn't leave out the gym i could
18:28
only go home because i had to take two
18:30
cover tests every
18:31
um tuesday and thursday and then when i
18:35
got there
18:36
i had to just be locked down in my room
18:37
i didn't work out for
18:39
for a day and a half you know so now i
18:42
understand you know how to move around
18:44
like i'm out in detroit and i'm getting
18:45
the best farm
18:47
of my life so after after you watch the
18:50
footage of that fight
18:51
what did you how did you judge your
18:53
performance after you've seen that fight
18:54
yourself because i know you went back
18:56
and you saw it several times how did you
18:57
judge your performance after that fight
18:59
i gave myself a c it was it was
19:02
like you know like i got by i just got
19:05
by
19:06
you know and uh i think a lot of people
19:10
think like that maybe i don't feel like
19:12
that
19:13
and i mean i really don't care what the
19:15
fans really say i know i
19:17
like me i'm going out in my next fight
19:19
and i'm i'm looking to prove something
19:20
to myself
19:22
you know like i could really bounce back
19:24
and show
19:25
you know and perform the way i should
19:27
perform
19:28
um i i just
19:32
i just i i really hate the way that i
19:34
perform this sudden that's like
19:36
i'm internalizing you know i'm telling
19:38
y'all that's for real like this this is
19:39
my truth like it's something that i
19:41
think about every time i go spar
19:43
everything you know i gotta get back
19:45
into my moving and grooving and
19:48
how i do my thing so um being out here
19:51
with tony harrison and all these
19:53
dogs in detroit has brought the best out
19:55
of me
19:56
hey man well y'all was training when you
19:58
and tony was training
19:59
did y'all have like a picture of trollo
20:01
on the wall with
20:03
his face crossed out
20:09
god
20:10
[Laughter]
20:14
you don't got the lifestyle
20:18
you kind of
20:23
[Laughter]
20:33
that back and forth between between tony
20:35
and jamal man that that
20:37
classic serious
20:41
do y'all talk about those fights yeah
20:43
did y'all talk about the fights
20:45
um we talked about it well we haven't
20:47
talked about it since like
20:49
in person right now we talked about it a
20:51
little bit uh
20:52
just on instagram and stuff you know
20:56
i got close with tony through my two
20:58
fights ago um
20:59
he commentated on one of my fights and i
21:01
just he was just really uh
21:03
like informative and just giving me
21:05
advice i'm like why
21:07
like you know we're in the same weight
21:09
class yeah yeah yeah
21:11
he was like yo listen man when i see
21:13
skills i don't care
21:14
like you you nice kid and so
21:18
so right now what's on your wish list
21:20
right now if you can box right now
21:21
who's on your wishlist charlo's the top
21:23
of that right now on your wish list
21:24
right now that you want that belt right
21:25
there
21:26
yeah i mean my whole the the goal is
21:29
charlo
21:30
you know and so like i'm fighting nate
21:32
gallimore
21:33
on um the 17th under tony harrison car
21:38
and he's a big puncher
21:42
so it's something that's going to show
21:44
me like all right well
21:45
this is this is how i got to navigate
21:47
around guys with
21:49
who with a lot of power who come to
21:51
fight um he's
21:52
of course he's not charlo but it's like
21:55
if i could beat him
21:56
all right now what's the next step to
21:58
getting closer to charlo or somebody
22:01
who's
22:01
similar to that who could fight like
22:03
that you know
22:04
um i'm not trying to rush myself into
22:07
fighting charlo you know because he'd
22:08
been pro for a long time
22:10
but like my my end result is i want to
22:13
be the chain
22:13
you know i want to beat the best i want
22:15
to fight the best and see where i'm at
22:18
you know what i find interesting about
22:20
you you you i mean you fight at 1
22:22
154 is it 154 but you have your before
22:26
too right
22:28
yeah i bought um i thought i 160 also
22:31
at 160. how low would you be willing to
22:35
go
22:35
or is 154 the place that you want to
22:38
clean up that division and do you want
22:40
to go up or would you challenge like
22:42
earl spence jr or terence crawford and
22:45
go down
22:47
uh i think i can make 47 but i would
22:51
need the proper
22:53
because like uh i'm a little more
22:57
muscular than those
22:58
than those guys but i am the same height
23:00
as i'm like i'm short for 154
23:04
but it kind of helps me in that way too
23:06
a little bit because i get under the
23:07
punches and i'm a little you know my
23:09
defense
23:10
but yeah i mean i would love to fight
23:13
somebody like earl spence
23:15
um terence crawford
23:19
154 160 147 those are all hot divisions
23:23
you know and denny garcia talking about
23:25
he gonna move up to 154
23:27
so yeah danny garcia need a test
23:31
that's a good stop right there that's a
23:33
great that's a great fight right there
23:34
you and danny garcia welcome
23:36
54. that's a great yeah they always they
23:39
always need one of those like where
23:41
they're like well this guy's not that
23:42
good so we'll give you this guy
23:44
yeah or like he's kind of new so
23:48
maybe i'll be that guy you never know
23:50
you never know what can happen
23:52
hey since you came into boxing at 18 who
23:54
were some of your favorite fighters that
23:56
you seen fighting you patting your
23:57
skills after like as far as your style
23:59
in boxing
24:00
and being a southpaw at that so my first
24:03
um like i didn't know a ton about boxing
24:06
but so like my first
24:08
like i wanted to like oh this is great
24:11
floyd mayweather was i was just like
24:15
amazed by him so floyd and then zab
24:19
of course because just him being a
24:21
softball
24:22
uh the way he fought floyd until you
24:24
know he you know floyd got in his head
24:27
and everything you know get zab
24:30
has all the like physical gifts but
24:33
floyd had the you know the mental part
24:35
um so that was like a huge influence of
24:38
like the southpaw
24:40
work and then when i learned more about
24:42
boxing this
24:43
uh pernell whitaker became my favorite
24:45
fighter uh marvin hagler
24:48
like i look like i like marvin hagner
24:50
and pernell whitaker more than both of
24:52
those guys now
24:54
um but those were my you know what i'm
24:55
saying those were the ones i loved when
24:57
i first started boxing but then when i
24:59
learned more about
25:00
boxing those are my two favorites you
25:03
know
25:03
and of course ali but those are the two
25:06
for my softball like
25:07
those are my softball go-to's to look at
25:10
you know what i wanted to know as a
25:11
boxer
25:12
when you go in there and you have a game
25:14
plan for a fighter right like if you go
25:16
in there with a game plan like you said
25:17
sean introduced you told you to come in
25:19
and fight him and he walked in there and
25:21
now you had to go into a um
25:22
orthodox stand how many fights that you
25:25
have to do like you saw a guy that you
25:26
thought was gonna come forward you had
25:28
to box more how many fights that you had
25:29
so far did you have to make those
25:30
adjustments as far as like you thought
25:32
he was gonna come one way
25:33
you just had to use your skill and what
25:34
you know
25:37
uh and the pros yeah the pros right now
25:40
so far
25:41
uh i would say i have 16 fights so i'm
25:44
saying maybe
25:47
12 of them because like a lot of those
25:50
fights
25:50
a lot of those fights were like fights i
25:52
didn't know who these people were
25:55
you know they just had a name and they
25:57
sent me a record
25:58
and they said all right do you want to
26:00
fight
26:01
and i just me i just thought like okay
26:05
well i won the nationals i want the
26:06
golden girls
26:08
uh i went to the olympic trials got a
26:10
bronze like i should be able to beat
26:13
anybody in my weight class who
26:15
has the same experience as me um so
26:18
i just kind of took some fights that
26:20
were like
26:22
you know like uh i don't really know too
26:24
much about this guy but i should be able
26:26
to beat him because i don't know too
26:27
much about him you know so
26:29
he didn't do too much in in the amateurs
26:32
[Music]
26:34
so there's been a lot of like a lot of
26:35
adjustments on the fly when you're in
26:37
the ring
26:38
just boxing skills just the science of
26:40
boxing you have to know how to box and
26:41
you have to go to fight
26:42
because it seemed like you're the type
26:44
of fighter it looked like you'd be like
26:45
you know what i'm gonna go in there and
26:46
take his best shot if his best shot
26:47
don't knock me out i'm gonna finish him
26:49
because you you
26:50
you want to get you get hit you ain't
26:52
one of the guys
26:54
you ain't one of the guys that go in
26:55
there and say oh the otter box is not to
26:56
get hit it's like yo you go in there and
26:58
be like alright what you got
26:59
cause you come i mean i could do i could
27:02
do both
27:02
you know like i like i adapt to whatever
27:06
whatever is in front of me you know if i
27:08
if i really gotta sit down and i gotta
27:10
just chest up
27:11
and just dug it out like i can't get
27:14
away from
27:14
the punches or the guys is that much on
27:17
me then i just gotta sit down and bite
27:19
down
27:20
and just dug it out but if i got the
27:23
capability of where i could make this
27:25
dude miss like
27:26
like the fight i had lean well amatoso
27:30
was good but the fight you had with a
27:31
lean too
27:32
let's start with that one on your six
27:34
fight you know
27:35
showing off your footwork
27:39
you just made that dude miss so much you
27:41
was like literally dancing in the ring
27:43
man and it was like he couldn't hit you
27:47
could you see every punch or you you was
27:49
just
27:50
bouncing to a rhythm to be honest with
27:52
you i was like
27:53
that was like until now that was my best
27:56
training camp
27:58
that was my best train like i was
28:00
sparring i was sparring i was doing
28:02
sparring days like 22 rounds
28:05
like some days where i was just like in
28:07
the zone where i'm like yo coach don't
28:09
take me out
28:11
you know so i just was i was really in
28:13
my bag at that time
28:15
that's why i tore my achilles a month
28:17
after that and i was
28:18
i might i was depressed i was crying
28:21
i was like yeah i you know thinking am i
28:24
going to be able to come back from this
28:26
the doctor's telling me i might not ever
28:27
be the same
28:28
i may not have that spring ever again so
28:31
then
28:32
i kind of went into the sunny duverson
28:34
fight with that with that whole
28:35
mentality of like
28:37
am i the same i didn't even train i
28:40
ain't spar nobody
28:41
i support my coach and he ain't really
28:44
sparring me for real like
28:46
i was questioning myself like that's the
28:48
first time i ever
28:49
was feeling like a like i felt like a
28:52
human you know
28:54
nobody you feel like an average fighter
28:57
yeah
28:58
you know i went into that fight with
29:00
like my mentor just not in the right
29:02
place
29:03
and just like that's why i brought
29:06
myself here because now i'm just back to
29:08
like
29:09
i'm so i can't wait to fight and that's
29:11
how i've always won before like
29:13
i'm about to go if you you you if you
29:17
like the wally open social fight
29:18
yeah i'm bringing that back you bringing
29:21
that back
29:22
yo that fight right there like everybody
29:25
you name it
29:26
uh pernell whitaker floyd mayweather all
29:28
these different people that you studied
29:30
i could see a little bit of them in that
29:33
fight i could see that in you
29:35
your movement the way you was ducted
29:36
punches the way you was rolling your
29:38
shoulder you know moving your head
29:41
and then the footwork again in a lean
29:43
fight when i was seeing how you was
29:45
you know moving around him and catching
29:47
them at different angles i was like damn
29:49
this dude doesn't study
29:52
i was a little more green at that time
29:54
you know
29:56
at the lean fight so i i i still watch
29:59
that fight and i
30:00
just be just to go back and look and say
30:03
well i should have did this here
30:04
and then i watched over my tulsa fight
30:06
and say oh well i did that here
30:08
so i learned you know and but i still
30:11
always refresh my memory you know
30:13
it's just it's something i'm a student
30:16
at a game because i started so late that
30:18
i like
30:18
i enjoy going to watch different
30:20
fighters and measure myself by the
30:23
by the performance on uh on video uh-huh
30:26
i i i heard you say once that uh you
30:29
remember going from the amateurs into
30:31
the pros
30:32
and then trying on the boxing gloves and
30:34
the first time you fought with pro
30:35
gloves you couldn't believe what it felt
30:37
like that he feel your knuckle hit
30:38
somebody head like that
30:40
and it got you excited see i thought you
30:42
was going to go wow i didn't realize i
30:44
can get hurt if i don't punch right
30:46
but you wanted to man it got me excited
30:49
i started thinking maybe cordell need
30:51
therapy man cause this dude
30:55
you just something about pain man what
30:57
is it with your relationship with
30:59
bringing the pain man
31:10
[Laughter]
31:15
ain't nothing wrong with that man let me
31:17
tell you something bro
31:18
i watch you after your fights man i
31:21
watched
31:22
some of your interviews i think it was
31:24
the armatoso fight afterwards you just
31:26
you just burst it out in tears
31:28
like of joy tears of happiness and for
31:30
me
31:31
you know i grew up in oakland you know i
31:33
grew up around a lot of
31:35
macho dudes but the day they learned
31:37
that crying is okay
31:39
and how good a good cry could make you
31:41
feel they became more well-rounded
31:43
people
31:44
what's that emotion you'll be feeling at
31:46
the end of the fight what be going on in
31:47
your head
31:48
man like it's this is like i could have
31:52
just not
31:53
been here you know like my mom
31:56
my mandatory was like 32 i'm i'm uh
32:00
29 so i would have still three more
32:03
years
32:04
wow you know and it's like what i what
32:06
i've been able to do
32:08
from 18 to 29 right now
32:12
it's just amazing you know like
32:15
it's like it's undescribable for me
32:19
you know it's crazy so
32:23
like even just sitting here yeah
32:26
come on bridge business baby
32:30
bring that gift baby come on we bringing
32:32
that gift hey so
32:34
training training right now training
32:36
right now since it's pandemic and all
32:37
that and you're back in the gym and
32:39
you're in detroit right now and you
32:40
training
32:41
how is it how do you you think it's
32:44
gonna feel when it's no crowd out there
32:45
again and you have to go out there you
32:46
got to put on your best performance
32:48
right now in front of the world and it
32:49
ain't no real
32:50
no real like the crowd that you really
32:52
like like a whole
32:53
arena like you really like crowded uh it
32:55
make it tough
32:56
it makes it tough for me because i i am
32:58
uh
33:00
like i like to move around and get the
33:03
crowd to like oh and i
33:05
and and that give me like my second win
33:07
and it made me do a little it made me
33:09
put some things out of the bag that i
33:11
might not have tried that early
33:13
or you know wouldn't have tried if i
33:14
ain't here to oh
33:16
damn but i'm gonna do that again i'm
33:18
gonna add an extra punch to that
33:20
you know so it is kind of it's kind of
33:23
boring it's like it's kind of like gym
33:24
atmosphere
33:26
um but how hard i've been training
33:29
it don't even matter to me because when
33:32
i
33:33
haven't ran a mile in two years
33:36
i've been running five and a half miles
33:39
monday wednesday friday
33:41
then sprinting two and a half miles
33:43
tuesdays and thursdays
33:44
i'm in shape look at him he's good
33:50
i like it man hey man what i guess
33:53
what i love talking with you man i'm
33:55
dreaming i feel like i'm inside your
33:56
dream right now
33:57
i feel like you living out a dream and
34:00
i'm one of those key players in the
34:01
dream me and horace and you know
34:03
inside your dream right now man and your
34:06
dream
34:07
right now and you manifested everything
34:10
you have today
34:11
you you made that decision to go in the
34:13
gym after
34:14
that judge white did what he did and
34:17
gave you that opportunity
34:18
you made that decision to go in the gym
34:20
that's when you met your coach
34:22
and then your coach you know gave you
34:24
this direction to help put you in
34:26
on this path that you are right now your
34:29
ultimate dream man how soon you think
34:31
it'd be before you have a
34:33
a light middleweight belt ah
34:38
i'm i'm hoping next year that's that's
34:41
that's that's really how i feel oh no
34:43
reason why i say that is because
34:46
how i've been looking at the uh
34:49
the wheelchair the super you know the
34:52
154 division
34:53
is right
34:56
if i beat nate gallimore right
35:00
he beat rosario everybody is beating
35:03
everybody basically
35:04
everybody lost to somebody so then it
35:07
leaves me
35:09
the guy who didn't lose but isn't at the
35:11
status of everybody else
35:13
so now where do you put this guy who's
35:15
undefeated
35:16
well let's test him with somebody who
35:20
maybe was a champ what maybe didn't win
35:22
the world champion
35:23
but you know tried to get there and lost
35:26
so i think i'm gonna get a terrell
35:28
gousha uh erickson lubin
35:30
or you know something around here
35:34
i feel like that's my next fight after
35:36
this and that has set me up to be
35:39
you know my next fight to be all right
35:41
well we need your title eliminator man
35:43
and then a titan so i'm probably like
35:46
two three fights away
35:47
and it's just like i'm the i'm the uh
35:49
the underground guy
35:51
you know i like it i like that
35:54
i like the axe fighters this question
35:57
when you become the champ
35:59
are you going to be parading around with
36:00
the belt like everybody else are you
36:01
going to want to fight the best fighters
36:03
that there is the fight right now
36:04
in that division i want to fight the
36:06
best
36:07
because because for me like i do want
36:10
the belt
36:11
don't get me wrong but i want to i want
36:14
to be able to hang my gloves up
36:16
and say i fought the best and everybody
36:20
can can say like okay cordell was a
36:22
credible fighter like he didn't
36:24
he didn't come on here to just be an
36:26
entertainer
36:28
you know i know it's about putting you
36:29
know ticket sales and
36:31
putting people in the seats but for me i
36:34
i love competition first you know i
36:37
fought 130 fights for free in the
36:40
amateurs
36:40
just because dude said they could beat
36:42
me i used to go to tournaments
36:44
i was already number one and i would
36:46
pull up to the tournaments in new york
36:48
just because dude said they could beat
36:50
me like i'll be like what
36:52
all right so now i'm gonna win every
36:53
tournament nobody can win
36:55
win no tournament this year in new york
36:57
because i keep talking about from
36:58
connecticut
36:59
and i and i really like that really
37:02
bothered me you know like i got a
37:03
problem with losing i'm a sore loser
37:14
hey so you started mentioning ticket
37:16
sales and we also we call this bridge
37:18
business because we like to talk about
37:20
the business too
37:21
and it's great to talk to folks before
37:23
they win a belt because that's when you
37:25
hear the real struggle you hear the real
37:26
stories you know and so what what is it
37:28
like for you as a boxer on the rise
37:31
you know just maintaining your business
37:33
you know keep keeping them
37:35
keeping above water you know are you
37:37
living check to check
37:38
are you okay uh i'm i'm okay
37:41
at one point i was living check the
37:43
check though and and i made it rough
37:45
because then you sit in there and you
37:46
like yo
37:47
when i'm fighting i took a few like the
37:51
lean fight i took that lean fight with
37:52
three days notice
37:54
i was 20 pounds overweight so i lost 20
37:57
pounds
37:58
of water weight in three days and that's
38:01
no lie
38:02
like i went to i was point four
38:05
overweight point four and they said
38:07
we're not taking the fight i said
38:08
kiss my ass i'm going upstairs and
38:11
because
38:12
there was no way i'm losing point four
38:13
you know you're like
38:15
lost every bit i could lose and i just
38:18
knew that they was going to take the
38:19
fight because of the tv fight why would
38:21
you turn that down
38:22
you know and at that time i only had me
38:25
like
38:25
i pray for a fight no lie that's me
38:27
being honest with y'all
38:29
by that time i probably only made like 2
38:31
000 for a fight 2500
38:34
and it was giving me five for that fight
38:36
so i'm like
38:41
i know he needed to because he he just
38:43
like me he only had like four or five
38:45
fights
38:45
man he taking that fight i went upstairs
38:47
they called me back yo come down you
38:49
already said they'll take the fight i
38:50
said i know he would
38:51
yeah he needed that fight but so what
38:53
what's changed now cause you you signed
38:55
with al hammy now right
38:57
right okay so how has that changed
39:00
in terms of the business do you do you
39:03
you see a brighter picture ahead of you
39:05
yeah like life got different after that
39:08
yeah talk about that what changes
39:11
um first you pay grade change
39:15
second uh you just you feel a little
39:19
more secure
39:20
with like uh his team that's around him
39:24
because uh he's very organized but he's
39:27
very ghostly
39:28
but when he want to talk to you he's
39:30
going to talk to you
39:38
so it's like it's awkward at times but
39:42
it's also
39:43
so like cool too you know like
39:46
uh but i feel a lot more secure in my
39:51
career
39:52
um and after my omatosu fight i got on
39:55
the phone with him he assured me you
39:57
know
39:58
that i'm in the good hands you know okay
40:03
that was that was i started crying i
40:04
started crying like wow
40:06
i burst out of tears like i was like no
40:09
you're lying
40:10
[Laughter]
40:13
you know what i'm saying like i couldn't
40:15
believe it i'm like what
40:17
i'm talking about boss that's dope man
40:20
hey man i want to ask you a series of
40:22
questions horizon let's let's do the the
40:24
bridge business
40:26
you know rapid fire okay let's do that
40:29
okay so i'm gonna ask you the first
40:30
question okay
40:33
uh in your opinion who are the belt the
40:36
best southpaw
40:37
boxers of all time
40:40
sweet pea marvin hagler
40:46
uh i gotta give terence crawford
40:54
definitely guys like i know probably
40:56
people will be like uh he didn't he
40:58
didn't do enough but i feel like he'd
41:00
been more than enough
41:01
with the three-way classes yeah man what
41:04
come on man they always hate no terence
41:07
legacy
41:09
terence crawford is gonna be it's gonna
41:11
be one of them things where
41:14
when he gone people are gonna be like
41:16
wow we should have gave him miss flowers
41:18
when he was here wow
41:20
wow all right you wanna hit him with the
41:22
next one horse yeah right now you in the
41:24
gym you're going hard right now
41:26
what's in your playlist right now what's
41:28
the top five songs in your playlist
41:29
right now that the gift get up to he run
41:31
his mouth he hit the bag what's your top
41:32
five songs right now you listen to an
41:34
artist all right listen right now okay
41:37
stuff that's out right now
41:38
i don't really rock it like that so
41:42
jay-z blueprint two okay
41:46
hey
41:48
um i listen to cole
41:51
i listen to cole here and there um that
41:55
that drake what's next [ __ ] bumping
41:58
that
42:00
drink
42:04
um i'll bump uh this i always play this
42:07
song uh
42:08
from j-rock called win win win
42:11
win i mean that just get me in the
42:13
that's good
42:21
that's cool you got it drake j cole j
42:24
rock yeah you give us three that's good
42:26
it's good hey we do something called uh
42:29
winning wednesdays on sway in the
42:30
morning that's the theme song that
42:32
j-rock song
42:33
win win win we play it all the time okay
42:36
let me ask you this bro
42:37
what's your and this is an important
42:39
question man let's say a lot about your
42:40
character how you answer this one
42:42
what do you think is the best boxing
42:44
movie of all time
42:48
oh that's that's a tough one right there
42:51
i think but i mean i
42:55
i grew up off the rockies though
42:58
you never say i gotta go in rocky though
43:00
rocky
43:02
yeah i grew up on the right you know
43:04
those are the first things that i was
43:05
first thinking that i see you know i
43:08
didn't i ain't really you know
43:10
i i thought creed was cool but rocky was
43:12
just like
43:14
what i saw you know so i thought
43:17
hey that's a rough life you know but
43:20
he dug it out
43:24
like that when you when you get your
43:26
championship belt in the fight and you
43:27
get your
43:28
you get your your prize you get your
43:30
prize money and you pay your taxes
43:32
what's the first thing you think you're
43:33
going to buy
43:36
oh first thing i you know i know this is
43:38
going to sound
43:39
probably people going think i'm lying
43:41
you know i want to just
43:43
i want to buy a facility for my youth
43:46
kids yo
43:47
i'm telling you these kids that i got
43:51
yo they deserve it man like they play
43:54
ball
43:55
they back they go to school and do their
43:57
school work so you know half of them
43:59
back
43:59
have them gets into me because they're
44:01
bad but they like
44:03
good kids like you know what i mean like
44:06
like and i'm just like yo if i when i
44:08
get a facility for these dudes like
44:11
where i could
44:11
like have them there for hours as
44:14
opposed to having them there for an hour
44:15
and a half where i train them where i
44:17
can like put computers in front of them
44:19
and and put some video game systems in
44:21
there
44:22
and i can have them there man
44:26
we're gonna have something special in
44:27
the town they let me get a hold of some
44:29
money like that i like that give back
44:31
man i love that give back man come on i
44:33
love that
44:34
man hey cordell man
44:38
uh man i i think at this point man i
44:40
just want to say thank you for being on
44:42
bridge business brother this was a great
44:43
conversation man yes uh
44:45
i feel like we've known each other for a
44:47
long time now
44:51
honestly it's been a honor to be up here
44:53
[ __ ] i got choked up a few times
44:55
just being being in your presence you
44:58
know like it's like
44:59
like you you make me want to you know i
45:01
mean rap poochie while you're ready
45:16
i'm so serious though man like when
45:19
cortez
45:20
said that man i had to hold back tears
45:23
for real because it's like
45:25
it's unreal seriously like i'm here
45:29
here bro and keep it up man the way you
45:31
doing it is the right way a lot of us
45:33
get we could get caught up man
45:34
that fame and fortune could throw folks
45:36
off you see it happen around your peer
45:38
group
45:38
but keep that focus man nobody perfect i
45:40
get that but i love where your focus is
45:42
at man i think that's why you could
45:44
that's part of why you keep winning
45:45
cause you win it outside of the ring
45:47
that's gonna help you win in the ring
45:49
man okay
45:50
cordell the gift booker man tell them
45:52
when your next fight is
45:54
the 17th april 17th on the tony harris
45:57
honda card
45:59
just tuning in tune in all i can say is
46:02
nate galvin we're gonna bring it but i i
46:04
i got the answers
46:06
i got the answers you got the answers
46:07
baby you heard it here
46:09
on bridge business
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