JRE MMA Show #175 with Shakur Stevenson

**Joe Rogan** (0:03)
The Joe Rogan Experience.

**Joe Rogan** (0:06)
Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
Well, anyway, thanks for coming down here, man. Appreciate it. And congratulations on that standout performance against Tia Fimo, because that was a giant wake up call for the entirety of boxing. The level that you're on was it's so high that you could be in there with a world champion, a world champion and make him look, a guy who beat, I mean, legit guys, including Lomachenko.

**Shakur Stevenson** (0:41)
Yeah.

**Joe Rogan** (0:41)
That was a big victory for him. And you made him look like he had no business in there.

**Shakur Stevenson** (0:45)
Honestly, it's just hard work, dedication and God given ability. God given ability.

**Joe Rogan** (0:55)
I think you have all that plus intelligence, plus you start real young. And there's something about those dudes who start real young. You grow up with that. It's like in your central nervous system as you're a young child.

**Shakur Stevenson** (1:08)
Yeah.

**Joe Rogan** (1:09)
I mean, would you start boxing like five?

**Shakur Stevenson** (1:11)
I started boxing at five, but honestly you could say the same for Tio too, because he kind of started at like seven. We both was kind of similar in like experience, but I just feel like with me, the God-given ability of my instincts always kick in. Like when we fought, I felt like my brain just knew how to win. Like it just, everything was just like my instincts kicked in and everything just took over. Like I didn't even, it felt like an out-of-body experience.

**Joe Rogan** (1:45)
Well, you're a very tactical guy. Like, you know, there's a thing, one of the things I love about watching you fight is I love watching a guy who sets traps and who avoids damage. And you are one of the absolute very best ever at setting traps and avoid damage. You take so few punches in your fights. There was that one fight where you decide, recent fight, where you decided to stand with that dude. Who was that?

**Shakur Stevenson** (2:09)
William Zapata.

**Joe Rogan** (2:10)
That's right. Zapata's a tough guy, man.

**Shakur Stevenson** (2:12)
He is.

**Joe Rogan** (2:12)
But you fought that in a different way. Did you do that on purpose?

**Shakur Stevenson** (2:17)
It was partly on purpose and partly to get his respect. Because I really didn't have a choice but to get his respect. Because if I had to try to outbox him and move around the ring, I probably would have made the fight harder than it had to be. So I knew I got to make him respect me early. And that's what I kind of started the fight.

**Joe Rogan** (2:39)
Why would it make it harder than it had to be if you boxed him?

**Shakur Stevenson** (2:43)
Because sometimes when you like a guy, like if you watch today's boxing, judges give the fight to mostly the guys that's coming forward. So if I had went in there and bagging up and move around the ring while he was more active, it probably would have looked as though he's winning the fight. So I had to make sure the judges know who's winning. So I kind of had to take some in order to give some in that fight.

**Joe Rogan** (3:11)
There was a very unusual fight for you. I saw an interview with you after that fight. We were like, I'm not fighting like that again.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:16)
Fuck that.

**Shakur Stevenson** (3:18)
Yeah, cause I know like, I see like the modern day, like the old school boxes and like the punishment that they take in and you'll see them today. They can't really talk as well as like, like the Andre Ward's and the Floyd Mayweather who can talk good and still articulate things to their grandparents, to their grandchildren, to their children. And for me personally, it's like, I want to make sure that I'm able to really speak well to my kids and my grandkids and all of that. So taking punishment ain't for me.

**Joe Rogan** (3:54)
Yeah, I support that 100% and I applaud fighters like you for setting an example for young fighters coming up. Like defense and tactics and understanding the game is the most important thing. These guys that want to put on an entertaining fight and just go in there and slug it out, like, man, you are giving up your brain for some people who don't give a fuck about you.

**Shakur Stevenson** (4:18)
Oh my God, that's the God's on the truth right there. I be seeing a lot of fighters nowadays where they stand there like punching bags and let people hit on them and you'll see them after the fight. They marked up and in a few years, I don't think that they're going to be able to speak as well as like somebody like me, so.