Joe and Jada - Eddie Hearn on Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez, Anthony Joshua's tragedy & Devin Haney's beef with Ryan Garcia

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Joe and Jada Show — Eddie Hearn on Boxing’s Biggest Stories

Episode Title: Joe and Jada - Eddie Hearn on Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez, Anthony Joshua's tragedy & Devin Haney's beef with Ryan Garcia
Date: January 29, 2026
Guests: Eddie Hearn
Hosts: Fat Joe, Jada
Podcast: The Herd with Colin Cowherd — Presented by iHeartPodcasts and The Volume

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Episode Overview

This episode brings together legendary promoter Eddie Hearn with Fat Joe and Jada for a lively, unfiltered exploration of modern boxing: its wild personalities, business evolutions, and the drama surrounding recent and upcoming fights. The trio breaks down the Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez matchup, Anthony Joshua’s recent personal tragedy, and the ongoing beef between Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia, all while drawing parallels between the boxing and hip hop worlds. The conversation is rich with personal stories, candid opinions, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes that reflect the current boxing landscape’s raw energy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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Eddie Hearn's Family Legacy & Authenticity in Boxing

[02:05 - 04:18]

• Eddie shares his roots: son of Hall of Fame promoter Barry Hearn, who rose from humble beginnings ("council estate") to work with legends like Lennox Lewis and Naseem Hamed.
• Anecdotes about growing up ringside, learning boxing’s realities from childhood, and almost becoming a fighter himself before gravitating to promoting.
• Eddie Hearn: "Everything for me was about sport and winning, but that’s how I grew up. Win, win, win. Whatever it takes, win. You work your bollocks off every day, 24/7. You’re given nothing without hard work." [04:02]

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Lessons from Naseem Hamed & Team Dynamics

[03:36 - 04:29]

• Discussion on boxing’s possible pitfalls, like surrounding yourself with the wrong people. Hearn feels Naz never reached his full potential due to bad influences and ill-advised management.

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Boxing Icons & “Warrior Fighters”

[08:17 - 10:47]

• Fat Joe reminisces about legendary fighters—Lennox Lewis, Micky Ward, Gatti, and Diego Corrales—admiring their heart and “get knocked down, get back up” styles.
• The contrast between entertaining brawlers versus technically cautious, “boring” fighters.

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Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia Controversy

[10:47 – 14:11]

• Eddie on Haney’s last fight: disappointed as a fan in Haney’s defensive tactics, but respectful of his achievements.
• Fat Joe: "Is the three pounds really a big deal? In the streets, you fight fat guys, diesel guys—nobody’s asking about weight class!" [11:57]
• Hearn explains the stakes: when a fighter misses weight and fails a drug test, it creates unfair and unsafe circumstances.
• Haney’s lawsuit against Garcia—unique but misunderstood ("Not really. I’m suing because of the situations around it."). Hearn defends the decision, stressing the principle over the optics.

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The Crossover of Hip Hop & Boxing

[14:11 – 16:49]

• Analogies drawn between battling in hip hop and fighting in boxing: reputation, business, and real consequences.
• Fat Joe reflects on taking on battles despite being the underdog, likening it to Everlast battling Eminem.
• The pressure to always “come out” for challenges, whether in the ring or in rap battles.

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Saudi Arabia’s Influence & 'His Excellency' Turki

[17:16 – 22:43]

• Insight into Saudi Arabia’s takeover of the boxing business, as both hosts and Hearn describe meetings with Turki Alalshikh, Saudi’s main sports and entertainment maestro.
• Eddie Hearn: "We are a fast moving train. Do you want to be on the train, or do you want to be standing on the platform waving as the train goes by?" [21:06]
• Discussion of massive investment, the scale of recent events, and the vision behind the kingdom’s sports expansion.

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Fighters’ Post-Career Struggles & Money Management

[28:34 – 34:14]

• Fat Joe discusses the difficulty athletes face after retiring, especially in boxing.
• Hearn and Joe lament how legends like Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr. suffered financially due to mismanagement.
• Modern fighters like Canelo are seen as savvier, capitalizing on global bidding wars and planning for their futures.

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Boxing IQ vs. Raw Power — Shakur Stevenson vs. Teofimo Lopez

[34:14 – 36:15]

• Eddie calls Shakur Stevenson’s boxing IQ "one of the best," likening him to Terence Crawford.
• Teofimo’s only chance is to "dirty it up":
  • Eddie Hearn: "If I'm Teofimo, I'm pressing it. You ain't going to outbox Shakur. He’s a genius." [35:28; 36:08]
• Prediction: If Shakur is "allowed to be Shakur," he’s almost unbeatable.

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Boxing Dads, Drama, and the Human Side

[38:03 – 41:06]

• Fat Joe recounts a heated confrontation with Teofimo’s father and the recurring theme of overzealous boxing dads.
• The emotional impact family and management have on fighters' careers and performances.

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Predictions & Favorite Fighters

[41:27 – 48:46]

• The hosts debate picks for Shakur vs. Teofimo, with Jada switching to Shakur after hearing Hearn’s analysis ("If he’s able to be him, it’s going to be a tough night for Tio." [41:40])
• Fat Joe’s infamous betting luck—he admits never betting correctly and losing significant money on underdog fighters.
• Reflection on Oscar De La Hoya’s antics and the importance of controversy in keeping boxing relevant.

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Loyalty, Frustration, and Resilience in Boxing & Hip Hop

[46:09 – 48:46]

• Fat Joe equates the lack of loyalty in hip hop business and boxing: investing in talent often leads to heartbreak.
• Eddie Hearn: "Some will respect what you've done, others won’t. It happens all the time. My dad retired to get out of the aggravation." [47:26]
• Both discuss the need to accept this reality to survive and maintain mental health in the industry.

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Don King, Branding, and Hip Hop-Boxing Crossover

[49:14 – 54:24]

• Hearn hails Don King: "Probably the greatest promoter of all time," noting his flair for branding and showmanship.
• Fat Joe shares the story of bringing a rapper to walk a fighter to the ring—claiming he pioneered the now-ubiquitous boxing-ring rapper entrance.

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Taking Risks and Accepting Loss in Boxing

[54:24 – 55:44]

• Hearn argues for challenging matchups and not protecting undefeated records at all costs.
• "If you’re in the great fights and people remember those nights, it’s not the end of the world." [55:39]

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Anthony Joshua’s Recent Tragedy

[56:14 – 59:15]

• Hearn shares somber details about Joshua’s car accident, losing two best friends and getting injured:
  • Eddie Hearn: "It's so sad. AJ himself, you know, injured, busted a couple of ribs up, but more importantly, lost his two friends. Stuff like that takes a long time to sink in, you know?" [58:41]
• Fat Joe relates, describing his own process seeking therapy after significant personal loss, and the importance of mental health.

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Episode Wrap: Eddie Hearn’s Top 5 Fighters of All Time

[61:54 – 63:56]

• Eddie Hearn’s List:
  1. Sugar Ray Robinson
  2. Sugar Ray Leonard
  3. Muhammad Ali
  4. Floyd Mayweather
  5. (Tied) Terence Crawford, Usyk, Evander Holyfield
• Special mention for Crawford, whom Hearn feels never got the consistency of elite opponents he deserved.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• "Everything for me was about sport and winning, but that’s how I grew up. Win, win, win. Whatever it takes, win." — Eddie Hearn [04:02]
• "We are a fast moving train. Do you want to be on the train, or do you want to be standing on the platform waving as the train goes by?" — Turki Alalshikh (as recounted by Eddie Hearn) [21:06]
• "If I’m Teofimo, I’m pressing it… You ain’t going to outbox Shakur. He’s a genius." — Eddie Hearn [36:08]
• "Loyalty in boxing and hip hop, it’s rare. You can’t let it make you miserable." — Eddie Hearn [47:26]
• "If you’re in the great fights and people remember those nights, it’s not the end of the world." — Eddie Hearn [55:39]
• "AJ himself, you know, injured, busted a couple of ribs up, but more importantly, lost his two friends. Stuff like that takes a long time to sink in." — Eddie Hearn [58:41]
• "I fuck with the Jake Paul and his brother Logan Paul… they fight, and they’re fucking tough… If he would have beat Anthony Joshua, I’d have gave up." — Fat Joe [57:47; 58:11]

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Timestamps for Noteworthy Segments

• Eddie’s Boxing Heritage & Upbringing: [02:05 – 04:18]
• Naseem Hamed & Team Problems: [03:36 – 04:29]
• Fat Joe’s Fight Stories (Lennox, Micky Ward): [07:57 – 10:27]
• Haney vs. Garcia Lawsuit Explained: [11:08 – 14:11]
• Rap Battles vs. Boxing Reputation: [14:11 – 16:49]
• Saudi Arabia & Turki’s "Train" Metaphor: [17:16 – 21:06]
• Managing Fighter Finances/Joshua’s Tragedy: [28:34 – 34:14; 56:14 – 59:15]
• Shakur vs. Teofimo Strategy Breakdown: [34:14 – 36:15]
• Boxing Dads & Drama: [38:03 – 41:06]
• Loyalty in Boxing & Hip Hop: [46:09 – 48:46]
• Don King's Promotional Legacy: [49:14 – 54:24]
• Taking Risks, Not Just Protecting the 'O': [54:24 – 55:44]
• Eddie Hearn’s Top 5 Fighters: [61:54 – 63:56]

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Episode Tone & Final Thoughts

The conversation is rapid-fire, passionate, and peppered with bold language and streetwise humor, lending authenticity and accessibility to technical boxing talk. Eddie Hearn is candid, analytical, and occasionally vulnerable—especially about Joshua’s loss and the realities of broken loyalty in sports. Fat Joe’s stories and humor keep pacing lively, while Jada’s reactions ground the discussion in fan perspective.

Whether breaking down the purest technical aspects of the sport or lamenting the heartbreaks of the business, the core message is about resilience, grit, and owning your choices—both in the ring and out.

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Recommended for:
Anyone wanting a vibrant, insider view of contemporary boxing—with all its rivalries, business, heartbreak, and glory—delivered straight from those who live and love the fight game.

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Transcript

[Fat Joe]

No. Almost beat up Teofimo's father.

[Eddie Hearn]

Really? Most people have tried to do that in boxing or something. He's a character.

[Fat Joe]

True story. I have to tell your pop. I'll you up. What up, y'? All? This Joe Crack the Dawn.

[Jada]

It's your boy Jada. You know what it is, the Joe and Jada Show. Every show legendary, every show iconic. And that's what we doing today. We talking boxing. You know what I mean? When you think of boxing, this guy right here is putting on the biggest fights he got, the whole wave of boxing right now. Ladies and gentlemen, let's make some noise for our partner, our guest, Eddie Hearn.

[Eddie Hearn]

Thank you.

[Fat Joe]

Well, Eddie, welcome. Well, yeah, I've been around you 20, 30 times. Yeah. We never got to speak.

[Eddie Hearn]

Not really.

[Fat Joe]

I mind my business. And when two friends or two people do business, and I personally don't understand the business, I just support the person and mind my business. Just love him and whatever the case may be, when I see you at the Belonga fights, you know you're responsible for taking him to where he got. I just be like, I respect him as a former fighter. You know, we are like that. We're like the rap rapper superstar veterans that now we come on here and we talk like Shaquille o' Neal and Charles. So that's how we feel. We are. And so you're pretty much the same. You know, boxers trust you because you've been in boxing for so long and they think you'll look out for them. But we finally get to talk, right? The mean streets of the uk. Use a boxer at first.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, a little bit. I mean, you said something earlier when you were talking off camera about your kids. You said about your daughter. She's a Napo baby. Yeah, right. Which is really. I guess I am as well. So my dad came from, you know, I guess you guys would call a project. We call it a council estate. Right. His dad was a bus driver. You know, he came from no money, but he was like a real, again, what you guys might say, hustler in a sense that from a young kid, he just wanted to make money. His mum, my nan, my grandmother, she cleaned the houses of people with money. And he hated it. He was like, I just. I want one of them, you know? And he became a chartered accountant. He was one of the youngest ever to qualify to do so at like 19, because he thought being an accountant would make him money, and found his way through snooker, which you won't know about. And then he. Then he found his way into boxing. And he was one of. He's a Hall of Fame promoter, my dad. So he's Was the Hall of Fame promoter. Correct. So big, you know, I mean, he was one of the greatest boxing promoters from the uk. Never really came over to. To America, but, you know, represented Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno, Nigel Ben, Chris Eubank, Nazim Hamid, all of the top fighters of that generation.

[Fat Joe]

I love Nazi.

[Eddie Hearn]

So does everybody. Everybody.

[Fat Joe]

I loved him, man. I never missed a fight.

[Eddie Hearn]

He was box office, remember, he used.

[Fat Joe]

To come in the flying carpet and.

[Eddie Hearn]

Shit, was doing it. Every entrance was unbelievable.

[Fat Joe]

Biggest like at that time.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, he had so much ability, but, you know, it's kind of like a lesson for boxing in that what happened with him. And you guys will see it in your industry all the time. You start to see they lose their head a little bit and before success or. Yeah, a little bit, but just maybe. Ill advice or just, you know, sometimes you want to kind of push back from the norm of the industry, right? So you want to do it on your own. You want to. So next thing, he had like six or seven brothers. Next thing, every brother has got a job within the team. And next thing, his business manager is this guy, one of the brothers who. I know what he used to do. Ran a car sale. Yeah, well, whatever, right? And you're sitting in a room like so. In my opinion, Naz never actually achieved what he could have achieved. And he was an unbelievable.

[Fat Joe]

You have the right team.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah. Because when he went and fought Marco Antonio Barrera at the MGM grand in Las Vegas, that was like the big, big signature fight.

[Fat Joe]

I think I was out there.

[Eddie Hearn]

Barrera was in the mountains training up in Big Bear, and Naz was in La Quinta or wherever he was in. In the, you know, by the tennis courts with all his brothers, all his family sitting there laughing up at the mountains, going up there, you know, and then fight night comes and. And, you know, that. That was. That was Nas. But my dad promoted all of those guys, promoted the Barrera fight. He started promoting boxing when I was about 8 years old. So from 8, I was at every show, and I was just like the little kid who just got everywhere, you know, I'd carry the belts out for all the fighters. They're all my heroes. I'd sit in the gym, I'd watch the sparring, you know, that kind of stuff. And. And I. I'd see the arguments that my dad was having with Don King, Bob Arum. They were his competitors. Right? I was in the room, I was listening. I was Hiding. I was watching. I would see fighters, you know, go to hospital. I would see them break down in tears through victory. I'd see everything in boxing. When I got to, like, 12 or 13, I thought, you know, I could. I could be a fighter. And, you know, I started at a couple of amateur fights, nothing major, which when I got to about 15 or. My dad always said to me, because he was petrified of me being the spoiled rich kid, he always said to me, you're my project. I said, thanks. He said, I'm going to build you the way that I would want to build my son in this world. And everything for me was about sport and winning, but that's how I grew up. Win, win, win. Whatever it takes, win. You work your bollocks off every day, 24, seven. You're given nothing without hard work. This is. This is his mentality. He said to me, and what I'm going to do is when you get to 18, I'm going to take you down the gym and I'm going to spy you and I'm going to beat you bad, and I'm going to just show you what the difference is from where I come from and where you come from. But it'll be a great education. But unfortunately for him, I was like 6 foot 2 at 16. So he bought it forward by two years. And we went into the gym and he put. We had like 8 ounces on in front of all the fighters, and he was. He was trying to take my head off. And I ended up stopping him in like the third round with body shots because he was just getting old and he was so proud, you know what I mean? He was like, jeez. And he was in the pit, like he couldn't stop telling the media. My son, I took him down, he was firing and it was like, that's. That's how I was raised. So I was raised in boxing and I never wanted to be a boxing promoter. I probably wanted to be a fighter more than anything. But what I didn't know at the time was I was receiving all the education I need, needed from the industry to probably go on and do what I'm doing now. Because sometimes when I got into boxing promotion, which was about 16 years ago, people were like, what's this guy know about boxing? I'm like, mate, I've seen everything. Four years in my life, I've been around boxing now, and I love it more than anything. My greatest passion, I see it. Greatest UK boxer of all time, probably Joe Calzaghi. I mean, all Time strong. But this is a guy that was undefeated. Like, come out to America, beat Jeff Lacey, beat all these guys. Probably not got the props that he deserved because he was from Wales. He was a little bit low key, you know, Lennox Lewis, another. Another great heavyweight.

[Fat Joe]

Lennox hit me one time.

[Eddie Hearn]

Really? Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

From the club mansion or some. I was playing with him and he hit me. Boom.

[Eddie Hearn]

Playing around.

[Fat Joe]

I was like, this hurts.

[Eddie Hearn]

Big, strong. Was.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah. A little body shot for no reason, you know, maybe Joe think he tough.

[Eddie Hearn]

Boom.

[Fat Joe]

I said, oh, Lennox. Oh, what's the guy? I think they made a movie about him. I used to watch all his fights from the uk. Little Irish guy, he would get knocked down and get back up and.

[Eddie Hearn]

Oh, you talk about Mickey Ward. Mickey Ward, I mean, American Irish out of Boston. But he was the guy who had the wars with Gatti.

[Fat Joe]

Oh, yeah. So he wasn't from the uk?

[Eddie Hearn]

No, he was from Boston. But he's Irish.

[Fat Joe]

He's, you know, he was Irish, though.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Mickey Moore. They would come over here. Let me tell you something. Ireland, they fucking come for them fucking fights. You go on Madison Square Garden, they fight, you, forget you. There's Puerto Ricans and blacks in New York, the fuck Irish come.

[Eddie Hearn]

You know what the best atmosphere I think I've ever witnessed was Madison Square Garden, Katie Taylor against Amanda Serrano.

[Fat Joe]

That was it. That's what I'm referring to. That's what I'm referring to.

[Eddie Hearn]

I promoted that fight, right? And it was unbelievable. Nah, half Irish, half.

[Fat Joe]

I forgot I was in New York. No, not even half. Half like Irish had us.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, but I was trying to. I was trying to be nice.

[Fat Joe]

You're trying to be generous. Puerto Ricans ain't buy them tickets like that because the we walked up in there, I thought I was going to hear the. The bongos, that shit was. And they celebrate different overseas. They got some shit. Oh, you go to them soccer, they got the hooligans and shit. The motherfuckers start, they scream different. Yeah, but Mickey Ward, man, he was somebody I really. And Gotti, you know. You know, I don't gamble much, but one guy, I definitely. I don't gamble much. So much that I know who I gambled on. Arturo Gotti. I lost about two, three times. It just would always get me like he was like a Robin Hood or a Cinderella. He would fall down, get back up. And I always loved those style of boxers. I've always loved get up, knock them out, they knock you out. That Diego Corrales.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, yeah, but that's what you want to watch as a fight fan, isn't it? I mean, you know, it's not always the greatest. The problem is, sometimes I'm guilty of it. You want a fighter to be entertained right now, really, if you really look trying to do it the right way, you don't really want to be an entertaining partner. You want to be a smart.

[Fat Joe]

You want to win and be smart.

[Eddie Hearn]

Don't want to get hit. Yeah, that's boring to watch, really. So me as a promoter, I'm a little bit conflicted because I'm like, I want you to go out there and have a war. That's what I want you to do. But also know.

[Fat Joe]

But, you know, I seen you and your guy threatened that over. Y' all was over there, Saudi, and y' all was like, man, this guy's boring. He don't want to fight.

[Eddie Hearn]

Who?

[Fat Joe]

You was talking about Devin Haney.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But listen, I'm. I'm being honest. And people say. You never said that when you represented him. I said, well, one, I'm not going to say that when I represent him, straight up. But number two, he never fought so much defensively like that and holding and stuff like that. And I'm sitting there, he got scared.

[Fat Joe]

He got scared.

[Eddie Hearn]

I love. Listen, what he's achieved in the sport is phenomenal, Devin, and he's a great fighter. But I'm just saying, as a fan sitting there watching that, I don't think it was entertaining. And I can say that if I don't represent.

[Fat Joe]

He was. I mean, but ever since he got. Yeah, he felt that.

[Eddie Hearn]

But I feel bad for him about the Garcia fight because he. Garcia came in three and a bit pound over Garcia.

[Fat Joe]

Is that really, like, in the streets, you fight fat guys, diesel guys, all type of shit. Like everybody says, yo, what's your weight class? You had a bar, you argue, you fight.

[Eddie Hearn]

It's definitely like.

[Fat Joe]

It's the three pounds. Like, really, like.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, but, Joe, it's like, that's the rules, mate. You know?

[Fat Joe]

Like, oh, no, I know the rules, but in real life.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, but we're not on the streets. This is a fight where, you know, what you're doing is you're. You're boiling yourself down to make that weight, which is what Devin did. The other kid didn't really, so. And. And also on fight night, the kid's weighing a lot more. Forget that. He also failed a drugs test on the night. Right. And by the way, Devin got battered. Yeah. And showed amazing bravery in that fight. Anyway, came out the other side. And everyone's like, he's going, that's not fair. The guy coming overweight and found a drug, said everyone, like, Devin Haney's the villain. What he actually. He should have come out.

[Fat Joe]

You're in a fight where it's mano a mano. And I think him choosing to sue and take the belt, you know, once you start playing these type of those games.

[Eddie Hearn]

But let's break that down. Yeah. What he did was actually unique in that respect by suing. Yeah. I think he sued Ryan for battery or something like that. Yeah. But the fact is, contractually, anyway, forget like, what you say, you know, on the streets, he's this size. He's that size. The guy had performance enhancing drugs in his system. Now we don't know, but now we don't know if that was intentional or not. But if it was intentional, he had.

[Fat Joe]

It on his system.

[Eddie Hearn]

If it was intentional, you're going into a fight with another man, that's incredibly dangerous. Cheating to get a physical edge. Now that.

[Fat Joe]

I even like that in baseball players. I don't like that in athletes.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, but, man, listen, baseball's baseball.

[Fat Joe]

This is a fight even in Hanson, I don't like.

[Eddie Hearn]

But, Joe, what are you talking about?

[Fat Joe]

Of all this is. Yeah, yeah, but I don't like it. I don't like it in. No, it should be.

[Eddie Hearn]

It should be. But what I'm saying is, I think Devin thought, you know what, I went in there, I got beat up. Right. I lost my reputation, my undefeated record, probably a little bit of my physical character. And we've seen that maybe moving forward, you know, I know what he was trying to do, but it went against him because everyone went, you're suing for getting beat. It's like, not really. I'm suing because of the situations around it. So I actually get what he was doing. But also. I understand, but I don't think you can go, oh, you can't do that. It's the fight game. Because the circumstances weren't. Weren't fair. Do you know what I'm saying?

[Fat Joe]

They weren't. But, you know, but what you want to do, same thing in hip hop. I said. I said something the other day that went so viral, and I didn't even think it was just my opinion. We have one of this generation's greatest rappers, J. Cole, got called out for a battle, and he been rapping about he's the number one rapper in the world. And then he didn't come out to fight. So it's almost like One of them famous fights where you got the ring and the guy just walks. What was that famous fight where the guy just. The fight was gonna start.

[Eddie Hearn]

He just got out.

[Fat Joe]

You guys just walked out the ring.

[Eddie Hearn]

Referee, the referee.

[Fat Joe]

No, in this corner. This was a championship fight. Homeboy set, not too long. He walked out.

[Eddie Hearn]

So tell me, educate me about this J. Cole.

[Fat Joe]

Nah, we don't want to. Because it's one of Jadakiss. It's one of Jadakiss's best friend. So.

[Eddie Hearn]

No, no, no. But in that situation, why has he chosen.

[Fat Joe]

You gotta come out. I've been challenged by guys that were whipped my ass in hip hop. And Fat Joe came out. I gave it to talk about Ireland. The Irish. Everlast got challenged by Eminem. Everlast fucking came out, knew he was going to get his boot smoked.

[Eddie Hearn]

But when you come out. Right. It's a business as well, right? Yeah, so.

[Fat Joe]

Oh, yeah. It's not. It's not. It's not. I don't think it's great for business.

[Eddie Hearn]

Educate me on the business.

[Fat Joe]

I don't think it's good for business. I don't think.

[Eddie Hearn]

Well, for him to do that.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, he did a much smarter move.

[Jada]

He didn't lose anything.

[Fat Joe]

No, but what we saying is, he's saying in hip hop, I don't believe that the rap battle or the beef helps you sell you. If you win, it super helps. But if you lose.

[Eddie Hearn]

But isn't this. Isn't this the difference between your reputation, not necessarily on the street, but all the bigger picture. You're doing it. You said, I got challenged, I came out.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah.

[Eddie Hearn]

Is that because it's in rather than I came out?

[Fat Joe]

When my mother would call me and be like, son, don't come out. I came out when my mother was calling, talking about don't come out. The people who did know, my mother was like, he's going against a guy who sold 30 million records. Is he crazy? This guy finishes people's careers. And I came outside, to me, you always got to come out. Like I said, Everlast, Eminem, Everlast got challenged. Let's jump around, jump around, jump up and get down. And he battled Eminem. And we gotta tell you how that went.

[Jada]

He just said, it's the Irish. He's Irish. He came out.

[Fat Joe]

You know, let's talk to turkey. I like this guy. Yeah, right? And did he just come boxing? Number one boxing fan. That's like a super trillionaire. And how did he get into the fight game and become the number one buyer? I Guess what you call those guys.

[Eddie Hearn]

Who really pay the money, like an investor. He's a bubba. It's more of a business now for them. I mean, look, he was a guy that was running sort of tourism and entertainment, or mainly entertainment in Saudi Arabia, right? And you look at what they've bought to the kingdom over the years, particularly recently. Formula One, wwe, you know. Yeah. Tennis, every football. And we were doing some boxing in Saudi. But then all of a sudden, they did Fury against Ngan. And I had a bit of a nightmare, actually, because the guys that I was working with in Saudi, I it on lock in Saudi. Just me. You what I did lock down inside.

[Fat Joe]

You had the whole Saudi lockdown.

[Eddie Hearn]

I put the first big fight on there, right? I was like, man. And all of a sudden, my guys, they're gone. Turkey comes in, right? Next thing, he puts on Fury against Ngan. Right? Now, I made the big mistake of opening my mouth. This is. What is this? Fury's a world heavyweight champion. He's fighting a guy that's never had a fight before. What a joke. Blah, blah, blah. This. And this is all being done by Turkey. So I become enemy number one, right?

[Fat Joe]

They don't take.

[Eddie Hearn]

Anyway, next thing, the fight happens. I'm a good fight, actually, in Ghana. I thought won the fight. It was a very. So the fight finishes, and then people are saying to me, you know, this guy Turkey, he's now running boxing and saddleback. He's the guy. I'm like, oh, now.

[Fat Joe]

And they're going, story of my life.

[Eddie Hearn]

He don't like you. I said, why? I said, because you. You slagging off the event. I said, listen, I'm just telling you what I thought of the event. He went. Anyway, he comes to London and I'm like, I'm gonna slide in his dms. So he's in London. I'm like, turkey, I understand you're. You know, I've done a lot of boxing in Saudi Arabia. Let me know when's good. I'll meet you while you're in London. Sing. No reply. Like, so I fall. Anyway, the next day I thought, we'll just go for one more. Yeah, Let me know when suits scene. Nothing like, oh, God. Then all of a sudden, they start talking about aj, our guy fighting, you know, Fury and all this guy. Anyway, then I get a phone call from one of his guides. This is like. This is on his next trip to London. His Excellency would like to meet me in the hotel. I'm like, oh, let me just check my diary. I'd already started the engine. Anyway, go up to London, sit downstairs in the hotel.

[Fat Joe]

So they call Turkey His Excellency. He's part of the royal family.

[Eddie Hearn]

Not the royal family, but that's tied it. Yeah. All right, so go into the hotel room. Lobby will be called up soon. I go up there, it's like eight people in the room, big sofa like this, actually about 10 times bigger than this. Sit down. And he's like, I'm sitting where you're sitting, man. You had a lot to say for yourself. And you know, when I did that fight and I said, I got to be honest with you, I'm just pretty honest. Like I'm going to speak my mind. And I thought it was. And then it happened and I thought it was pretty good to be honest with you. So, you know, I don't like a lot of the things you said, blah, blah, blah, blah. I said, okay. And then he said to me, and I've told this story before, and he don't mind me saying, he's the guy is funny as one of the funniest people ever meet. And he says to me, let me tell you something, he said, we are a fast moving train. Do you want to be on the train or do you want to be standing on the platform waving as the train goes by?

[Fat Joe]

Invisible train of success. One of my best stories, but go ahead.

[Eddie Hearn]

And I looked him straight in the eye and I went, that's actually, I said, yeah, true story. And he just started laughing. And from there we've been very close. You know, we've done a lot of business together across a lot of sports matchams, not just boxing. It's a lot of sport. We brought a lot of sports. Saudi Arabia, he doesn't have any preferences, like he'll use me and our company and my fighters, but if something else suits him, he'll do that instead. His word is good and that's everything.

[Fat Joe]

His word is everything.

[Eddie Hearn]

And, and you know, he's, what he's done in boxing is pretty amazing. You know, they've spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions, but they can do that.

[Fat Joe]

And does he have like endless money, would you say?

[Eddie Hearn]

You know, obviously there's his personal wealth, but it's, it's the world government country and the government to help bring, you know, major sporting events and, and exposure to the kingdom. So, you know, there's that part. But what he does have is a big passion for boxing, genuinely. And what you said earlier, like, you know, is this just some very rich fight fan. I mean, this is a fight fan that has access to, you know, considerable budgets, but a fight fan that has a quite a unique vision. You know, like he's next level thinker but it's not just a guy. Yeah yeah, let's do that and spend like he's the ring magazine obviously TKO now like all this kind of stuff there is a vision. Will it worth it? I don't know but everybody's benefiting.

[Jada]

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[Eddie Hearn]

Got it.

[Jada]

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[Fat Joe]

Hard Rock Bet baby. Let's go.

[Jada]

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[Eddie Hearn]

But no one should be hating, you.

[Fat Joe]

Know, the most money, you would say the purse. But the most money I ever get paid for was a show in Africa.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

And he too, was the leader of tourism.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

And I go over there and at one point he tells me, I want you to come. You know, rap is different. We, we, you know, we ain't go to college for this shit. He's telling me, y', all, I want you to go do an interview. I said, I ain't doing shit. So the man says, just the kind.

[Eddie Hearn]

Of we, like, yeah, yeah.

[Fat Joe]

I'm like, yeah, we. I ain't doing shit. I'm over here. Ready? This, this, that. He said, yo, I got $50,000 cash for you to come. I called the whole crew. Yo, meet me at the lobby. We gotta do this ill interview, right? So he takes me to the basement parking lot. It's a true story. And he walks into, like, a Lincoln Town Car, an old school car. And he opens the trunk and the.

[Eddie Hearn]

Whole thing is filled with money.

[Fat Joe]

Pallets of hundred pallets of hundred dollar bills. The man took out $50,000, and it looked like a toothpick. That's how much cash he had in that trunk. At this point, I felt like killing them. And I didn't know how I get out the country with all this money. Like, I really, really. Anybody could do it. Like, I'm telling you for this one second, I said, could I kill this dude and just break out with all this? There's just no way I could have done it.

[Eddie Hearn]

Like.

[Fat Joe]

But it felt to me at that moment like they were making money like. Like they were printing the money. When he gave me 50,000, felt like a toothpick. And it was so much money. I was like, damn, this shit is unreal. Like, you know, And I feel like Turkey is similar in Saudi. Like, he got that ultimate bad, you know? They call me the Tyson Fury of hip hop.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Because looks are deceiving. I don't have a muscle, but I knock you out, you know? And Tyson Fury, that boy flabby, and he'll knock you out, man. Yeah, I love Tyson Fury. I remember the day he won that fight, and then he got on the bike the next day. No, no, who that was? That was Conor McGregor.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Right?

[Fat Joe]

The next day, it's the stupid double G. But Tyson Fury, I'm a. I'm a huge fan. Is he coming back to box?

[Eddie Hearn]

Talking about it. I mean, he retires every other week, you know what I mean? And, like, he's done with boxing, and now he's training in Thailand. He's like, the most motivated he's ever been. And, you know, I think. I think a lot of these guys, boxing saved them at the start, you know? I know, I know. AJ's a good example of that, you know, and think when you take it away from them, it just leaves such a massive hole. So now I can see it, like, he's training now for a fight. He looks happier than he looked for any day that he would retire. Do you know what I mean? He's got the fight. It's like, this is what I like to do.

[Fat Joe]

I love him. You know, the craziest thing is, I believe that's in all sports. You know, these guys, especially dangerous sports like football, boxing. These guys are like gladiators. And when they walk out that tunnel in football and everybody screaming, 80,000 people. Then when they retire.

[Eddie Hearn]

But isn't that the same for anything? Isn't that same for you guys as well?

[Fat Joe]

I mean, we never retired. He almost killed Smokey Robinson. When you. Sweet. He. He's still performing live.

[Eddie Hearn]

I'm talking about when you do, like.

[Fat Joe]

You know, I'm never.

[Eddie Hearn]

Well, there you go.

[Fat Joe]

As long as we got a voice.

[Eddie Hearn]

It'S the buzz, is the love for what you do. Why do you want to keep going?

[Fat Joe]

Well, I love it. Plus, we have huge bills, so, you know, our family feels like, you know, like it's Little house on. They won't stop. Brother and boy, I've been working at this. Is this any hobby or any type of shit that you could work on? Fat Joe has tried to be a fake accountant. Slash, let's. Let's minimalize. You know, there's a word for it. It's called minimal. I tried everything. They looking at new, bigger houses. And this. This. I'm finally somewhere where I feel like I can die. And I'm comfortable, like, because I'm a dreamer. If I had a million dollars, I bought a $10 million house. Like, I'm a guy, and I'll pay that 50,000amonth. And that's. That's been my life. You know, I believe. You know, I. I invest and I don't care. I'll find the money. I'm gonna make it. Now. I finally got a sense of peace. And they don't want peace. They just keep showing me bigger houses and bigger yards and bigger. And I'm like, yo, we can sleep. Like, we finally at the place where these bills don't hurt us. We good. Chill. They don't want peace. They say, yo, you need bigger so that you could just go out there and keep going. They want to run this shit to the wheels fall off, right? And with boxes, unfortunately, we've seen too many greats, greatest of all times and all that keep coming back because they mismanage their money. And like I love him, I don't just love him, I worship him. But I do not want to see Mike Tyson in the ring again.

[Eddie Hearn]

But it's crazy. How can you have been in the fights that have been and I mean, I think financially probably in a much better place now than he was 10, 15 years ago.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah, how on earth even 10, 15 years ago, Mike Tyson had the mansion, the new even bad. But I went to his house when he was bad and his was a 10 million dollar house, brand new cost. Like when they say he was broke, he was broke in a 10, 20 million dollar weight that wasn't like he wasn't back in the Jets.

[Eddie Hearn]

But how can you earn that much? Roy Jones is a great example. How can you earn that much money and be mistreated really, or be that ill advised or if that, that kind of people around you that would enable you to be in that position. It was crazy, right? Is now much better educated on the finances of sport and much better supported from it from a team perspective, do you know what I mean? But the infrastructure back then, you know.

[Fat Joe]

When you know this Canelo guy looks.

[Eddie Hearn]

Like, oh, Canelo's, you got it, you know, oh, Canelo's like that guy you turned up to and had the money in the boot. I mean he's, he's raided the bank of the sport. But he's smart, right? And he's, he's taken his time, he's understood the sport. He's also hit the sport when there's a lot of bidders and buyers, right? So Canelo can get his money from him, from him, from him, from him, it doesn't matter, you know, I'm a.

[Fat Joe]

Sucker for a good fight. So I'm going for Eddie Hearns. And then when they show the Mexican guy running up the mountain talking about his moms used to feed him rocks for dinner. That's. And I'm like, oh, Eddie got a fucking problem. This guy's carrying fucking 18 wheeler tires up a mountain. The air here is different. He eats rocks for dinner. I'm like, yo, they got a fucking. You know me, I'm a fighter, right? Well, years ago I was a fighter. I was just telling my story, all right? We don't need to elaborate, but I used to love to fight. So I walked out my house every day to fight. Whether I was winning, losing, I would come out and fight. And the worst fight is when you hit a guy with the kitchen sink and he looks at you like, oh, I've been waiting for this. That's when you like, what the fuck? At the project, the Connect Zone, whatever we call, they come out 500. If you get your ass whipped in the projects, that's going viral in the hood, like, you know, yo, Fat Joe got his ass whipped by son. Like, ooh, that's a bad day for you. When you punch the guy with the kitchen sink. And I try to tell boxers that all the time. I said, listen, you could have the power, but when you hit somebody with all you got and that motherfucker look at you like, hello, you got a real battle going on that night with you. So you saw, you was a little kid. You studied boxing. I don't know if you remember it, because you definitely gotta be a bigger historian than me, but there was a fight that Floyd Mayweather was losing till about the sixth round. He switched up the whole style, and he won the fight. He beat the shit out of the guy. And then when they interviewed him, he said, I don't know, I'm saying the wrong name, but he said, one of them legends, like, he was like Jack Dempsey in 1949. I went back to the videotape that my father played me when he was bouncing the dick, is it also in boxing, it's more like physical strength or iq, make the best fighters.

[Eddie Hearn]

I mean, IQ that you got. Like this weekend, for example, Shakur, Stevenson, probably one of the best IQs. The other one is Terence Crawford, right? These guys, they just see it, you know, so during the fight, they know exactly what you're going to do. They know exactly what to do. They sit on the ropes, you know, the. The pulse rate's not moving. They're calm, they're slipping shots. There's just different styles. Ultimately, the style to watch is the guy that's going in there and having the war. You know, for the purists, which I'm a. Probably a purist, as a pipe man, I watch those guys like Crawford and Shakur and Floyd and probably the greatest of the generation, so calm. Do you mean the IQ's on another level? But you can go in there and what. Doesn't matter what you bring, what style you bring, how you switch it up during a fight, he will be out of control. The situation in the moment. And that's when, like, you know, like I said, Shakur is probably that new guy who's capable of doing that.

[Fat Joe]

And Tiafimo, you think he got tfimo? I think. I think tfimo's more bad. Battle tested.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah. I just feel like if I'm Teofimo, I'm sticking it on.

[Fat Joe]

What does that mean for regular people?

[Eddie Hearn]

I'm pressing it. You are on them. Yeah. Because they're both great athletes. They've both got great iq. They're both quite reactive and faint and twitching and, like, you know, great movement. But beating Shakur at that game is. Is a very difficult game to play and will probably lead to not the most entertaining part. If I'm. If I'm Teofimo, don't get me wrong. If you're aggressive against Shakur, that's also a problem.

[Fat Joe]

That's when you get hurt.

[Eddie Hearn]

A counter. You. He wants to, you know, but if you're fast and you're powerful, I don't know even if it's possible to beat Shakur. But I think if I'm Teofimo in this fight and I'm the bigger guy.

[Fat Joe]

You dirty it up. You got to dirty it up.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, I'm trying to make it a fight rather than trying to just outbox him. You ain't going to outbox Shakur. He's a genius.

[Fat Joe]

The fight. This guy right here, he's a slick one. He wants front row seats to every event. And if he don't know how to tell you live on tv, he doesn't.

[Eddie Hearn]

Get to say nothing in his podcast, does he either?

[Fat Joe]

Bingo.

[Eddie Hearn]

You know what I mean?

[Jada]

He's 66.

[Fat Joe]

He's a little bit under the weather today.

[Eddie Hearn]

He's shot.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah. Nah, he ain't shot. He ain't shot. You got any questions for the login that he heard?

[Eddie Hearn]

All I've seen him doing this is this. When you're talking. Who's that?

[Fat Joe]

Eddie the Man's on the clock. Yeah, he punched in. He's getting paid. Whether he says something or he don't, the man's sitting there happy.

[Eddie Hearn]

You guys have got to make your predictions and calls for the weekend, right? Madison Square Garden, Tio and Shakur, he's great at.

[Fat Joe]

He's three. And, oh. On the playoffs of the football, this is boxing.

[Jada]

But after listening to you now, I was. I think I got to switch it.

[Eddie Hearn]

Up a little bit, because if Shakur.

[Jada]

Is able to beat Shakur, he will win and a fighter be born.

[Eddie Hearn]

Not necessarily boring.

[Fat Joe]

You know, when you see Two guys scared, they hit each.

[Eddie Hearn]

Other, and they thinking, over, he's just what you said. First of all, I'm going to use that for all my media this week. If Shakur is allowed to be Shakur, he can't lose, so you got to make him not be Shakur. I won't credit you for any of that, but thank you.

[Jada]

They've been taking my lines for years.

[Eddie Hearn]

Somewhere, but you're right. So you've got to make him not Bishop.

[Fat Joe]

So what's your prediction?

[Jada]

But now, I mean, I don't know.

[Eddie Hearn]

If you've got any affinity. Brooklyn against Newark.

[Fat Joe]

No. Almost beat up Teofimo's father.

[Eddie Hearn]

Really? Most people have tried to do that in boxing or something. He's a character.

[Fat Joe]

Be the true story. I had to tell your pop, I'll. You up. I was like, yo, Pops, I you up. You got some flags, too, Eddie. That's a time to throw it. Just throw it. Foul on the play. You got it. His father just came at me, screaming at me one day, talking about, Edgar Balanga ain't the only Latino. And, you know, you the biggest Latino, and you don't co sign my son and this and that. They was just talking crazy. And I was like, like, really crazy. I was like, yo, Bob, we'll fuck you up in here. Like, I don't know if, you know, like, don't play with me. And then, you know, he hit us back the next day and was like, yo, I'm sorry. You must have been high or some shit, like, you know what I mean? Because, you know, them fathers are real passionate about that.

[Eddie Hearn]

But that's easy. He's actually.

[Fat Joe]

You heard this a million times.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, Yeah. A million.

[Fat Joe]

You almost made up.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, because I had a fight. We did TFIMO against George Cambosis, when Cambosis beat him at the Garden. And they blame me. I didn't even have even fire. I won a purse bid. And the dad's like, you. You. I'm like, what you just got? What's it got to do with me? And he's like. He's a very emotional guy. She like his daddy. He. He's. I think he's got a good heart, but he's a little bit crazy. He's going to be a major factor in this fight. He can't afford to lose his mind in this fight, the dad and start being emotional, you know what I mean? They've got to be. They've got to be honest, especially against your cook.

[Fat Joe]

That's the old school shit in the Bronx. Now, where Olivia's PCs and people's herpes triangle. Keep his father out of here. Uptown, you know, the old school. Like his father. I'm telling you, the man was screaming on me, like out of contrast to your pops.

[Eddie Hearn]

The story, you know, that he told us. I saw him tell a story to someone recently. He said that he put it on you.

[Fat Joe]

Teofimo.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah. No. Teofimo's dad said no. Fat Joe come at me. And I said to him, you. And then apparently you just turned your back and walked off. I didn't think that was true.

[Fat Joe]

I'm the most respectable guy you ever seen in your life. Especially for somebody's father.

[Eddie Hearn]

This man, this is what we do.

[Fat Joe]

Yo, Eddie. This man came at me like, yo, fuck that belonga ain't the only Latino. My son is this and this and that. Unfortunate enough because the kid is nice. He. He got knocked out two days later, right where he was at in Atlanta. He touched the canvas. Teofimo touched the canvas two days later.

[Eddie Hearn]

That was cambosis. Right after he got dropped in the.

[Fat Joe]

First place, he threatened me, his father. Two days later, he touched the canvas for the first time. I said, what the fuck? They called me. We was in Canada or something. They was like, yo, homeboy touched the canvas. I said, you know, his father, he was talking that I was with Elder Barge when he was cursing me out. Elder Barge, That Dan Clarkett recipes with us.

[Jada]

Everybody gonna be tuned into the fight this Saturday. And Hard Rock BET is doing a special Joe and Jada profit boost on the Shakur and Teo Fimo fight. So you know what I mean, Be considerate when you think of who you gonna take this Saturday, who's the winner of this fight?

[Fat Joe]

Kiss. Cause you always is.

[Jada]

This Saturday.

[Eddie Hearn]

This Saturday. Yo. Female. Poor Stevenson. I thought you were going for tfimo.

[Jada]

No, I'm just giving it.

[Fat Joe]

He's on a roll.

[Jada]

I mean, after talking to you, I gotta go with Shakur, man. I mean, I gotta go with Shakur just cause you told me how much of a genius for boxer he is. And if he's able to be him, it's going to be a tough night for Tio. I'm going Shakur.

[Fat Joe]

Brooklyn got.

[Eddie Hearn]

Brooklyn's a new cause.

[Jada]

You was about to have a fight with his pop.

[Fat Joe]

Listen, I don't want no beef with Teofimo. You want to know what I'm going for? Teo Fimo. But never bet where I go, because I'd never win. So I'm telling you right now, anybody I yell out I won once. Who I won. Terence, Go from now I put a bet, they don't take my bet. How about that? How about that? They won't even take my bets. I call all the bookies, they like, yo, Joe, your money's not good. I swear to God, they don't want me to bet. They might win. And you go start fucking losing all your money like, Joe. No, they won't let me bet. I lost Balanga against Canelo. Like, I really believed it. Like, I really bet like 20, 30,000 on. No, I'm not lying. Like, I really bet it and lost it. One fight I lost on. I'm sitting there with Chris Gotti in Vegas. And, well, one of my greatest fight. My favorite fighters, Chris Gotti. And what's the guy he used to win all the fucking. He was banned from Vegas. Cause he was the best gambler. Phil, Ivan.

[Eddie Hearn]

Phil, Ivan.

[Fat Joe]

And these motherfuckers don't stop. Yo, let's bet, let's bet, let's bet. I said, I don't bet. Let's bet, let's bet. Let's bet. I don't bet. Let's bet, let's bet. And one of my favorite fighters of all time is. Rest In Peace, Diego Corrales.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, that's right. Boy.

[Fat Joe]

And I used to love how he get knocked down and get up and this and this and that. And I said, all right, 20,000. They called and said, 20,000, Diego. Boom, through the ropes. The guy knocks him like. I mean, safe, like out the ring like you never seen in your life. The way he fell out that ring. I was at that fight, I lost in a split second. I figured, can I take it back? They came to my room about 20 times that day. I could not leave Vegas without giving him the 20 grand. They did not trust me. And so De La Hoya, with the shit he does now, what do you. You know, we got a lot of rappers trying to be relevant, doing the most amazing clown shit we ever seen in. What do you think about De La Hoya with all this he's doing?

[Eddie Hearn]

I mean, it's an interesting technique, you know, I gotta say, like, in terms of active promoters, he's out there. I mean, he's, he's. He's promoted. But the clap back Thursdays and all this kind of stuff, it ruffles feathers that can sometimes fragment relationships. And, you know, sometimes someone. I'm not going to work with him or whatever, but, you know, legendary fire. And I mean, obviously the big. The big cup was with your boy Edgar. Yeah, you know, for the last.

[Fat Joe]

Edgar wins that fight. He's the man. Yeah, Edgar wins that fight, he's the man. But he shut down De La Hoya to the point of where. That's a good point, where somebody got to choose to be the villain. Somebody got to choose to be the hero.

[Eddie Hearn]

No, it could ruffle the feathers of the industry, but people are talking about it, and conversation is key, you know, in. In the world where at least people are out there talking about it, people are liking it, people are hating it, people are loving it, you know, but it's better than doing nothing. I mean, you got.

[Fat Joe]

Does he have a bad case of, like, he can't fight no more because he's older? He's so upset. Della Hoya, because it looks like if he could get in the ring, if you started a senior citizenship, he's fighting.

[Eddie Hearn]

Well, you can. Yeah. One thing you can never take away from him was he was one of the greatest fighters of all time and, you know, fought everybody. So probably sometimes he's looking at some of these guys now thinking, I would have bossed his ass.

[Fat Joe]

You know what I mean?

[Eddie Hearn]

So what's done? He's done. But obviously his big fallout was with Canelo. Now, those guys were together for years, and then, boom, Canelo sued him and. And, you know, it all got a bit ugly and nasty.

[Fat Joe]

We got that in hip hop.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Cool. Well, with me, I stopped discovering artists and investing. So similar to your father, I grew up in the connect. What you call that? The projects over there. The connect, how you say it?

[Eddie Hearn]

Council estate.

[Jada]

Council estate.

[Eddie Hearn]

Council estate. Yeah. Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Here's the projects. And I made a name for myself, but I grew up dirt poor. Like you would go through my family tree maybe 100 years. None of us never had money. And so I take pride in if I create this opportunity for someone who is talented. But I'm going to put you in the right rooms. I'm going to get you the right people to collaborate. I'm going to promote you. And once I do that, you start becoming a millionaire, making big money. Then you start saying, fuck Fat Joe. He never did nothing for me. Right. That put a bad taste in my mouth. And the thing they do. Pause and the thing they do in hip hop is you could rest assured that they breaking out the second they can. The second they see that light in the tunnel and they say, I could do my own thing, I don't need this guy, they gone. And so there's really no real loyalty in hip hop. When it talks about spending money on the artist and making the artists. And, you know, I see it happens to you, too. I mean, it must break your heart.

[Eddie Hearn]

It does, but you become accustomed to it because it's the game and it's never going to change. Some people are loyal. Some people will respect what you've done for them. And others won. It happens in boxing all the time, so there's no point losing. My dad says to me sometimes, have you fucked? Like that sort of thing might happen. And I'll do an interview and I'll go listen. Unfortunately, I think we did a lot for him, and maybe it wasn't recognized, but good luck. Good luck in his career. My dad goes to me, how do you fucking put up with. You know, my dad retired from boxing to get out of the aggravation of boxing because he was just. He got sick. Like, he just thought all these people, like, you know what I mean?

[Fat Joe]

Broke my heart. I stopped signing people. I could have signed people like pit bull Rick Ross, the biggest artist in the world. I was already so turned off. Yo, why are you giving that face? I'm telling you the truth.

[Eddie Hearn]

Why are you giving that place?

[Fat Joe]

You know, I discovered. I discovered DJ Khaled, I discovered Big Pun, I discovered all these guys. So I had the opportunity to sign these other guys and I passed on it. And right now, Rick Ross has his own yacht, his own every. He's the richest motherfucker in the game. If I'd have got 1%, I'd have been good. But I was so turned off by the industry that I was like, I'm tired of doing this. I'm tired of this.

[Eddie Hearn]

But it probably. It probably gives you a bad reflection and understanding of life because you think that's the norm. So, like in boxing, you just have to understand it ain't normal. And it actually can not make you a bad person, but make you a little bit unhappy because you go, do you know what life's full of? I can't believe this guy's doing that. But not everything in life is like that. But unfortunately, boxing is like that. Probably your industry the same. But if you get. If you allow it to play with your emotions, you're going to be a miserable person.

[Fat Joe]

You know, over here we get a big bad name for Don King, right? Because you hear the story, Mike Tyson beat him up. He allegedly stole his money. Mike Tyson says that Don King, he's a legend out here.

[Eddie Hearn]

Well, Don King's probably show away from the ethics. Probably the greatest promoter of all time. And the reason is, is that when There was a show in town. He made sure you knew about it, right? And what he was, was he was a performer as well, right? He come out there with the flags when they, like, I mean, like, you.

[Fat Joe]

Knew he might have invented branding and marketing.

[Eddie Hearn]

Promoting, that was, you know.

[Fat Joe]

But he'd be with the UK flag. The us the uk. When he got the UK up, he don't give a joe.

[Eddie Hearn]

You know, he's still going, right? He still has fighters. And still to this day, he's the hardest person to deal with. Like, whenever I say there's a. There's a guy who's a world cruiserweight champion. Ah. Who's he with? He's with Don King. I'm like, fuck, yeah. Now he's impossible. Impossible to do a deal. He just can't help himself. Even now he's like.

[Fat Joe]

Because he owned the whole game. He owned the tv, the pay per view. He got that building over there in West Palm where this chick got the donkey. Don King. Don King's a guy that, when he dies, they're gonna run under that mattress sofa. They're gonna. He's gonna be like El Chapo. They'll break. They're gonna break the walls looking for some shit. Don King got cash that nobody's ever seen. Like, you talk about small face, 20s, yo, that Don King, I'll tell you a story. We're the first rappers. And every time I say this, you know, they got a thing with me now on the Internet, like Fat Joe lies. But we're the first rappers to ever perform and bring a boxer in. So now all that bullshit you see, with every boxer, everybody, we started it. Me and Big Pun. Shout out to Carl Kanad Cheeto. Trinidad was my favorite boxer. Muhammad Ali's my first. But the second was Tito Trinidad. Puerto Rican power loved him to death. So he's fighting De La Hoya. So I tell Carl Kana, I know he knows Don King. And I'm like, can you introduce me to Mr. King? So he says, sure. You know, I'll be in Miami next week. We could ride up together. So we ride up to Palm beach, wherever his shit. That's where I see the building. This, this, that. So Don King standing there, he got a guy playing the piano. He's looking at the guy playing the piano. Maybe an hour or two, he doesn't say a word. Sitting there, well, what the fuck you want? Like, hey, Mr. King, by the way, we're the biggest rappers on the earth. We just broke a record. First Latino to sell 2 million. I said, we on fire. You understand what I'm saying? So, like, we the biggest shit. So I'm sitting there, he goes, how can I help you? Because I know you here to ask me for something. I said, well, Mr. King, you know, we. We love Tito Trinidad. We're the number one rappers, this and this and that. Yeah, well, I got Ricky Martin for that. I said, but, you know, this is fighting, right? And Big Pun in Fat Joe, you know, it makes more sense for Tito Trinidad to come out with us, you know. But of course, Ricky Mon. Come on, everybody, let me do that. He had that. No, no, living life, the conga. He's a legend. But what I'm trying to tell you is he was going that route. So he sat there, I said, yo, we're the biggest. We selling millions of records, this and that. Till he looked at me, says, I think about it. Leave your number. This, this, that. So when we left, he probably asked some grandchildren, some nephews, yo, you know, Big Pun and Fat Joe, they was like, yo, them boys on fire. Like, are you crazy? They really are the guys. So he calls me up, he says, I'm going to make it happen for you, but you got to pay for all your own shit. I'm not spending a dollar on this shit. It's up. We said, all right. So we flew out to Vegas and we walked our idol in, Tito Trinidad, me and Big Pun. And that started all that. Like, I seen people's eyes open up in the crowd like they'd never seen a rapper rap with a boxer. And he won that night. Trinidad won that night. And you know, if I boxed, right? Welcome to the Fat Joe and Jadie Joe Delusional Records. And if I boxed and I knew I didn't have a shot, I go in there that first second round with all I got and try to bring them with the kitchen sink blow, you know, not just bullshit. And eventually, you're gonna lose anyway. And then we see that over and over in boxing when somebody tries, like, you know, you about. You know, about that eighth round, he gonna stick that jab.

[Eddie Hearn]

There's a saying that someone says, you know, well done. You did just enough to lose. I don't like that. That's what so many people get into a fight, and they're like, you know what? Losing on points ain't the end of the world. I can come again. So. But you never tried to win, did you? Really talk to good game.

[Fat Joe]

Hardest sport in the game. You lose one fight and that's it.

[Eddie Hearn]

You'Re a bum, huh? Yeah. But I don't think. I think that's the perception to. A lot of people try to protect the O. Right. And really, if you're in good fights and you people want to watch you fight, it doesn't matter. You know, we're known for our competitive matchmaking sometimes. We had last Saturday, Andy Cruz, a Cuban. He's 6 0. He fought the world champion 23 0. Right. Our guy's the Olympic gold medalist. He's only had six fights. So we gambled. We lost a real close decision in a brilliant fight. And everyone's going, why'd you put him in that early? You know, he's like, no, no. We all believe he was ready for that fight because he's an exceptional talent. But guess what? He was in a great fight. Everybody loved the fight. Everyone said respect to you. You had six fights. You rolled the dice. Next fight, he'd be back, and guess what? His profile will be higher, and we'll go again. So it doesn't. Don't get me wrong, you never want to lose, and you don't want to lose two men.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah.

[Eddie Hearn]

But if you're in the great fights and people remember those nights and those fights, it's not the end of the world.

[Fat Joe]

Somebody I really love, Anthony Joshua, destroyed Jake Putin. You biased, too. You with the UK like a motherfucker. Eddie. I watch you at all the fights. He's like you, like a little dawn kid. You got your little silent.

[Eddie Hearn]

I flagged that night.

[Fat Joe]

Yeah. That motherfucker, he looked like a Greek gladiator compared to this guy. Recently, he's in a tragic accident. I met his friends. Right. How's he doing? Have you communicated?

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, I was with him last week. I went to see him. Just. Man, so trapped. Like you said. We come off the back of the Jake Paul fight and been a tough year for him because he lost to Dubai, got knocked out for the world title. I don't think he took it that well to defeat. He's a very brave face guy. Super positive. The energy's unbelievable.

[Fat Joe]

Emotional.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, yeah. But, like, just come on. Yeah, let's do. We're on it. Yeah, let's go. You know, and then.

[Fat Joe]

That's hard.

[Eddie Hearn]

It is, because that's.

[Fat Joe]

That's hard in any game. Keep getting back up and say, yeah, I could make it. I could do it. Here. We don't sell a record. And then we still got to come back and say, I believe in myself. I'm gonna do it.

[Eddie Hearn]

That is hard, especially when you've got to go in and fight you know, in a ring with the whole world watching. So we come back, we got a Jake Paul call, which was a blessing from God. I mean, you know, the profile, the audience, the fight itself, the money, everything was unbelievable. Finished that fight, you know, busted his. His jaw up.

[Fat Joe]

Brilliant guy. Do you know what marketing?

[Eddie Hearn]

Very smart. And by the way, I still say people criticize him in that fight. Oh, he moved around a ring. Oh, he held, right. I mean, the guy was crazy. He was crazy even taking the fight.

[Fat Joe]

Second. He sat down, he got a rock legend.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah. But also, he took that shot on the chin. Don't get me wrong, it busted his jaw, but he still went down and went, wow. He wasn't asleep.

[Fat Joe]

No, no. You don't give a fuck. Let me tell you something. Him and his brother, two wild white boys, they don't give a fuck.

[Eddie Hearn]

No, but they're smart.

[Fat Joe]

And America buys into that shit because they like Rocky Balboa, and they fight and they're fucking tough. I fuck with the Jake Paul and his brother Logan Paul. I don't give a fuck. I fuck with them. But he definitely, officially, I would have said boxing is rigged. If he would have beat Anthony Joshua, I'd have gave up.

[Eddie Hearn]

People were saying to me, oh, is there a script? Oh, you're going to take it easier. I'm like, no. I mean, AJ had been out the ring for a year, and the guy was moving around, so it took him a couple of rounds to get hold of him. But see that right hand? We weren't playing. I mean, that was.

[Fat Joe]

That shit was clubber lame body blow, Glass Joe.

[Eddie Hearn]

Respect. Respect to him. And anyway, we come off that fight massive. I mean, all of a sudden, we've got this new audience. Like, women in America are like, oh, no, who is this guy?

[Fat Joe]

You know, this guy. This guy can be on All My Children, the soap opera. It's like, UK women are kidding me.

[Eddie Hearn]

Have you only just heard about Anthony Joshua? And they're like, yes. So we're on cloud nine. Like, we're flying. And then obviously goes to Nigeria as the crash. And it's just the, you know, the roller coaster of life. But that was just brutal. He's two best friends with him every day in camp. I mean, lived with them, you know what I mean? And that is so sad, you know, And AJ himself, you know, injured, busted a couple of ribs up, but more importantly, lost his. His two friends. So again, at the moment, I think stuff like that takes a long time to sink in, you know? You ever get over it? You know, Depressed.

[Fat Joe]

I lost one of my best friends, my sister, my grandfather. Same time. It took me two years. Real depression. Seeing help and therapists and, yo, Laurie. You know, it's mostly women that go see therapists, right? You ever knew that? Every week I would go, there'd be 95%. I've never seen another man. So when I. When I used to go, and I was going in secrecy because I'm really tough guy Fat Joe at that time. And they got like, these little rooms, I guess they all rent, and it's just women out there. And I was the only guy who would come every Wednesday to see the woman and shout out, Barbara Messer, man. She helped me a lot, you know, learned. And 30 years later, it was worth it. I still use what she taught.

[Eddie Hearn]

You broke the mold now, I'm sure this, huh? You broke the mold. Because it's not all women now, you know.

[Fat Joe]

Oh. When I was going in, I would ask her, and she would say, not telling their business. She was like, it's all women with successful husbands who feel like they go out of town all the time and they doing their doozy. It was just me and them. The women out there, they must have knew Fat Joe, because I was really, you know, what's love? Was like, number one in the world. And I'm going for therapy every week, and it was tough, but she taught me a lot of things, how to get help and all that. So it's very important that if, you know, he's going through that emotionally, he should seek some help. You could be a big man and walk up in there and get some help. You know, therapy is very important for that, you know, because some people deal with death. I was just talking to somebody I love today that her mother's dying, and. And I was just telling her I lost. She knows. She came to the funerals. I lost my mother, father and brother last year, three the hard way. And I told her, you know, this cycle of life, you know, that's actually. Is tragic that they're young and nobody knows how they're going to die. They died in a car accident. You know, that circle of life, man, is coming for all of us, you know, and so shout out Anthony Joshua, man. I hope he's all right, man. God bless his family. Top five greatest fighters of all time. Then we can leave it at that. I mean, let me tell you about this podcast. It's the motherfucking Joe and Jada Show. Biggest in the world on Netflix. You know, why my partner's under the weather. I Still shot it with him. Eddie Hearns gave us a 15 minute 20 minute window. He been sitting there for an hour and a half. He loves this shit. He ain't going nowhere. Eddie Hearns, top five greatest of all time.

[Eddie Hearn]

Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Lemon as my hero.

[Fat Joe]

Sugar Ray was the man. That's your father.

[Eddie Hearn]

Yeah, just a quick one on that. When I started with the Zone, we built all the punditry, the commentators, everything. And the first thing I said to him was, we need Sugar Ray Leonard. And we signed Sugar Ray Leonard to commentary.

[Fat Joe]

That's the right.

[Eddie Hearn]

Good enough to do it. But I didn't give a. I just wanted to meet and sign and, and because he's, he's unbelievable fight. So Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, of course Floyd Mayweather, I mean Crawford, you're gonna take maybe Joe. The only thing with Crawford is he never got the chance to really fight the elite guys consistently because they never wanted to fight him. He would have bought him.

[Fat Joe]

He homeboy up one at least fight. He. No, no, not Canelo, the other guy just before that.

[Eddie Hearn]

Oh, aerospace. Yeah.

[Fat Joe]

Aaron Spence was good.

[Jada]

Wasn't expense.

[Eddie Hearn]

No, but he was, he was, I don't get me wrong, he was a good win. But he wasn't in his time, I don't think. No, not after Crash, you know, crash and stuff like that. But listen, it was still an amazing win. But Crawford, I feel like he had so much more in the tank because he was that good. What I'm going to do is I'm going to tie number five with three or four guys. Crawford Usyk, unbelievable fighter. Undisputed at cruiserweight, undisputed at heavyweight. Evander Holield, one of my favorite buyers. He was a cruiserweight that went up to him.

[Fat Joe]

I loved him and hate him. He fought, he beat up Mike Tyson. I went to the bathroom and cried.

[Eddie Hearn]

But you watch Riddick Bowe against Evander Holyfield.

[Fat Joe]

No, no. And is one of the greatest supporters. That fucking jab that boy. Oh my. I tell you, he punched me. He's in the tyrant. Queen Latifah chased me with a knife. Some of these guys, they want to prove I'm pussy, you know, he punches right in the ring. Boom. Queen Latifah chased me with a knife. This ain't that.

[Jada]

That ain't this cracking kiss. Make some noise for our guests. Mr. Eddie Heard.

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