I erred on the side of caution — I said 2-2 going into five, and there were two points of emphasis on that for me:
- I had to take into consideration where we were — we’re in his hometown-ish, you never know what the judges are looking at, and the last thing I wanted was another (Jared) Cannonier moment where we didn’t put the gas pedal down, and then…
- I didn’t want Sean to be at C range; I wanted him to be at A range, where we fought the entire fight. I didn’t want him to run laps around the cage and just be done, and maybe we’ve done enough because that would also put us at a kicking range Izzy wanted us at where he could inflict some damage with hard, heavy kicks.
And the last thing, honestly Spence, was I wanted to put my foot on his throat; I wanted to make that statement in Round 5, put a stamp on that, and I think that last 30 seconds when Sean went off on him, screaming, really won the crowd over.
As a football player and guy that loves sports, that was going to be a moment I remember for the rest of my life. I just remember standing up and clapping. It was amazing. I wanted to watch my guy go HAM.
(I felt good) right after that first round when we got the knockdown and I said, “He’s no boogeyman, is he?” and he said, “No he’s not; he’s human just like us.”
In the back, he was nervous; I’ve never seen him that nervous.
We had a good conversation before we walked. Manel (Kape) won, and I ran back, and it was very quiet, very ominous. I let it sit for a second or two, and I just said, “Hey MF’er — you’re gonna beat this dude! I don’t care who believes in it — all that matters are the five of us in this room that believe you’re gonna win this fight. Now tell me!”
And he said, “I’m gonna win this fight.”
“Say it again.”
“I’m gonna win this fight!”
We all had a big hug, and I looked at him and said, “We’re in this s*** together!” and I felt his energy pick up a little bit. He said to me after the fight, “You motivate the s*** out of me. I look over at you and I feel like I can do anything. I appreciate your compassion and love towards me.”
And that’s it, man — sometimes you just need those guys next to you that believe in you.
It looked and sounded like you got a little emotion there talking about it. What’s it like for you to be a part of this one?
All of them are different, but Sean — everyone knows his story, a part of what makes Sean winning this title so great is that he’s a kid that bounced around from gym-to-gym because he couldn’t stay anywhere, and then he showed up at Xtreme, and you said, “Go do your thing, but when it’s time to dial in, when it’s time to focus, I need you listen, I need you to trust me.”
He did, and now he’s a world champion. What’s that like for you?