Is there any times where you get, you're kind of over it? And then, like, what keeps you going once, when you get in that, like, mindset?

So me with boxing, I have a tremendous amount of love for boxing.

I love boxing so much, it's my passion.

So I never get tired of boxing, to be honest with you.

Uh, I do get tired sometimes of, um, other stuff outside of boxing, like politics, like fights take, these fights never happen.

I put in all the work to make these fights happen, you know, and sometimes, you know, the fights that are owed to me don't happen.

Um, but that's really the only thing that I get, I, I get tired of.

Okay, let's say this was younger you, like what advice would you give this guy? [laughs]

Why not stick around and watch the fight?

I don't know, man.

I think it's just, um ...

I think what it, some- there's like a civil war between Mexicans and Mexican Americans, you know? Uh, where I'm ...

You know, every- everybody says I'm not Mexican.

The people from ...

You know, there's some people from Mexico that they say I'm not Mexican enough, this and that.

Mm.

I was saying to myself, "Damn, i- is- is this him inching his way to becoming a heavyweight, or is it just to grab these belt, go back down to light heavyweight?" What's your intent with all of this?

Oh, so, you know, I'm not even thinking about heavyweight right now.

You know, I have to give the cruiserweight, uh, division the respect it deserves.

And I'm coming up here to clean this division out.

After these two titles, wanna see, you know, if the other world champions at cruiserweight are willing to fight.

And, um, we're just gonna be ready to make the biggest and best fights happen.

After this, if there's an opportunity to fight Bivol and Artur Beterbiev, that's what we're gonna do, or if there's an opportunity to fight for another belt, uh, at cruiserweight, then that's what we're gonna do.

Do you believe that at this stage of his career, Canelo Alvarez would ever choose to fight you?

You know, there's always a, a, a healthy balance, like you said, between, "I believe in myself, and I believe I'm the better man." You gotta have that conviction as a fighter if you're gonna be a champion and be a champion for a long time, but where's the balance between confidence, unwavering belief, and then, "But I gotta, I have to be honest about what I'm fighting, and then I may even have to give my opponent a little bit more credit to make sure that I do what I'm supposed to do"? What's that balance for f- to, explain this to fighters and just fans who don't know how this works.

Yeah so, a hu- you're 100% right.

There has to be a balance.

So what I like to do, I like to give, uh, the opponent a little bit more respect than they really deserve.

You know, not that, not that they deserve, but you know what I mean.

I pr- I, I make sure that I'm preparing for the best version of whatever opponent I'm going up against.

So that being said, I'm making sure my defense is on point.

How has the relationship worked with your dad just at this level that you're at?

And Jake with boxing bullies, I mean, there's so many great opportunities that come from starting the sport of boxing.

So I, I, I feel like boxing is also, like, a representation of life because no matter what way you look at it, you have to put in the work, you have to put in the OT, you have to work harder than everybody.

Sometimes, in all of our careers, we get to the point where it's like playoffs or championships, and sometimes there might be a person outperforming you, so, you know, you gotta have this little rivalry with him that make sure you get him out the way.

But if you take s- like, if you take the lessons that you learn from boxing, not everything...

You won't get good over one day, over one week, over one month, over one year.

It takes time and patience, 10 years, 20 years.

But in other careers, in one year, nothing's gonna change.

Who are you watching in camp on film? Are there any specific go-tos you've always gone to since the ear- your early days?

A lot? How many times?

I sparred him, I sparred him a lot.

So the thing about when I was coming up, I usually, I ...

We lived in Los Angeles.

At that point, from, I think, what was it? 2015 to, like, 2020, all the champions were there, and at my weight class too.

Sully Ramirez was there.

Bivol was there.

Okay.

But once you fought him, I was just like, "There's nobody gonna fight you."

Yeah, and they, I mean, he was for a time.

You know, even Canelo didn't wanna fight him.

You know what I mean? There's a lot of great fights, but, like, you know, at the end of the day, you have to set yourself apart from all these fighters, and the only way to do that is to call out the great fighters.

You know, nobody wanted to fight Morrell either.

I beat the shit out of Morrell.

Caleb Plant, you fight him.

Yeah, Portland, yeah.

Last thing, David, anything you wanna say to your fans, people at home that are gonna be watching this on November 22nd?

Yeah.

Also, uh, I wanna thank everybody for the love and support, and also I wanted to talk about something that, you know, I very recently, um, fairly like two years ago, I really got into.

You know, I really, um, I found my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and I've been praying a lot, you know what I mean, um, every single day.

You know, I feel like now some people...

When, when you have some blessings, you don't have to wait for something bad to happen so you could look for Jesus Christ or, you know, you don't have to look for something, you know, to ask for Jesus Christ to help you.

I feel like every day if you, you know, give, you know, the time of day, Lord Jesus Christ, you pray to him at least 10, 20 minutes a day, you know, I feel like you're able, not able or not are you only more protected, but you have more strength within yourself.

Mm-hmm.

What do you think? makes a world champion versus people that never become one

so what makes a world champion is the individual itself how much he's willing to push how much how much or how big the dream is within himself my it's been my lifelong dream since i was a little kid to become a world champion and not only to become world champion be one of the greatest of my generation you know i can't everybody gets motivated by different stuff.

But with me, what I would say is I never really cared about the money.

I really didn't care about none of that.

The only thing I cared about was becoming the best in my sport.

You know, I became, and there was not no natural given talent.

There was not no God given talent.

How did you get into it? Was it a buddy? Someone said, hey...