Nightcap Hour 2: LIVE from Las Vegas - Ryan Garcia Predicts EASY Victory vs. Conor Benn

Shannon Sharpe (0:01)

You gotta be different to be a boxer, though. Well, you gotta go, cause it's just you and them. And man, you gotta have some mental toughness. I tip my hat to them cats.

I enjoy watching boxing, man, and how those guys stay disciplined, stay in elite shape. They probably the most elite shape athletes there are.

Chad Johnson (0:18)

Yeah.

Shannon Sharpe (0:19)

Man.

Chad Johnson (0:19)

And you gotta be mentally wired a little different, too.

Shannon Sharpe (0:21)

You do, bro. You gotta been done went through something.

Joe Johnson (0:24)

I was about to say, I'm serious, bro.

Shannon Sharpe (0:26)

Like, you, you probably done went through something. You was bad as I don't know what as a kid.

Joe Johnson (0:30)

They had to find other ways to try, you know what I mean?

Shannon Sharpe (0:32)

Like, I just feel like there ain't nothing you just pick up and be like, oh man, I think I wanna be a boxer. You ain't become no boxer when you had silver jobs as a kid. That damn show didn't happen. You become a boxer because that's it. Yeah.

You grew up very, very hard. You grew up rugged. You grew up tough. You go back and look at those guys like James Braddock. They're telling the story how he like, man, he fought because I gotta feed, I gotta feed seven, seven, six, seven kids.

Joe Johnson (1:00)

Hello. I gotta feed a family.

Shannon Sharpe (1:01)

Hello. What else am I supposed to do?

Joe Johnson (1:03)

Hello.

Shannon Sharpe (1:03)

Ain't nobody, ain't nobody hired at this time, you know, in this economy, this climate. And you look at the boxers, look at, when you tear, here's the story of boxers. A lot of them is very, very similar. Yeah. A lot of them coming from impoverished backgrounds. Some come from broken homes and this is the only way out. Some like, you know what, I got tired of getting beat up, I learned how to fight.

Now, I'm a professional boxer. Whatever it is that took you to get there, you have to be wired differently. Just like to play football. To go out there and to hit somebody, to take your body and to crash into somebody else, you're different. Yeah. Everybody can't do that. Everybody, oh, I could, no, no, no, no. Everybody cannot, cannot train, even if you want to, to train your body to go run into another man at a very high rate of speed.

To do that, it takes a special type of person. And boxing takes an even more special type of person.

Chad Johnson (2:10)

What's up, boss? You good? Nice to meet you, man. Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure.

Shannon Sharpe (2:14)

What's up, bro? How you doing, man? Yeah, nice to meet you. Yeah, you good, you good. You can sit on the table right there, bro.

How you been, bro? How are you? Man, you got to pronounce, Raphael, you have to pronounce this last name.

Raphael Akpejiori (2:33)

Raphael Akpejiori.

Shannon Sharpe (2:34)

Akpejiori?

Raphael Akpejiori (2:35)

Akpejiori, A-K-P-E.

Shannon Sharpe (2:37)

Oh, Akpejiori.

Raphael Akpejiori (2:38)

Akpejiori. Oh, okay.

Joe Johnson (2:40)

19-18 KOs. Okay, okay.

Shannon Sharpe (2:42)

Bro, 18 KOs in 19 fights?

Joe Johnson (2:45)

That's what we do. You gettin them up out of there, huh?

Raphael Akpejiori (2:47)

It's my job. It's what I do for a living. It's where I get paid. Knock him out and keep you steppin.

Shannon Sharpe (2:52)

Go ahead, Ochocinco. Nigerian boxing with an orthodox stance.

Chad Johnson (2:57)

Hey, how was camp? How was camp?

Raphael Akpejiori (2:59)

Camp was great, you know.

Right before this fight, I had a fight in May, which I unfortunately lost, but I was fighting for WBC International in Germany. And just after that fight, I mean, that was one of the fights where I had to go the distance for the first time. Not for the first time, for the second time. Yes, sir. Second time. So I got to really see myself on film and see what I'm about, see what I can do.

I saw a lot of things that I didn't like. I saw a lot of the corrections that my trainer, Glen, has been talking about. Just seeing the first time, I saw my progression through a fight. For the first round, second round, sixth round. You know, everything kind of made sense because in the fight, I mean, you know you box, so you know how life feels after this fifth round. Everybody comes to fight in the first round, then fifth, sixth round, that's where the champions come out. So I saw my progression in the sixth round, and I saw how, just watching the fight, I saw I could imagine, I could remember what I felt at that time and why I wasn't doing the things that I was doing. So I came back from that, went back to work. I had a meeting with my whole, my entire team. Everybody shared what it was about. I kind of shared what I was thinking and what I was doing and how I was feeling and why I didn't do certain things that were asking me to do. And from that I just put in the work. I'm in a much better space now. Got all the sparring I need. I was with Tyson Fury the other, last week.