Comments Thread For: Daily Bread Mailbag: Gervonta Davis, Joshua-Usyk, Erickson Lubin, More

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

The Daily Bread Mailbag returns with Stephen "Breadman" Edwards tackling topics such as Gervonta Davis and his recent knockout of Mario Barrios, the big win by Vasiliy Lomachenko, the continue run of Erikson Lubin, mythical matchups, and more.
[Click Here To Read More]

[siablo14]

FINALLY! Thanks, Breadman.

Bread’s Response: You know what I get these questions often but I never really delve publicly. But you asked me in such a respectful non intrusive way I will give you something that I never gave out publicly.

Julian Williams getting stopped by Rosario was the most disappointing day of my life, including death of family members. I hate talking about it til this day….. Julian was having a great camp. He was dominating fighters in sparring he had previously struggled with in other camps. He had stopped 2 sparring partners with body shots. But his weight was high and a month before the fight he caught a FLU. The flu turned his performance level in camp down a notch. I really think it affected him.

Cutting approximately 30lbs and then getting the flu will cause some drop off in performance. I thought about cancelling the fight but Julian insisted he would be ok once fully rehydrated and that we had time to get things together, which we did, he caught the flu about a month out. After Julian lost his title, he suggested that his cut on his eye and game plan were the biggest issues on why he lost. If offended me.

His cut was stopped by our cutman Mike Rodriguez who in my opinion is the best in business. It was under control……It also wasn’t the first time he had been cut. He had been cut in 7 previous fights and won each one of them.

Our game plan was this. Not let Rosario build a head of steam. We weren’t fixated on going forward or backwards. But we planned on not letting Rosario take more than 2 steps forward without feinting or jabbing him. Julian has a great jab and we worked on a jab and a straight right hand to the body combination for 10 weeks. I didn’t feel that Rosario defended his body well or took it to the body well. His anatomy is that of a long torso and trunk. He also holds his hands up and high. Body, body, body…

When Julian was a very young pro we used to box Gabe Rosado. Rosado was very similar to Rosario 10 years ago. He used to put lots of pressure on opponents and Rosado was more physically mature than Julian at the time. Julian and I came up with a gameplan to not let Gabe “build a head steam”. We would always stab Gabe to the body and not move too far away, so Gabe didn’t get a chance to sort of build momentum before he punched.

When we signed to fight Rosario I reminded Julian of how he used to box Gabe. He AGREEED. He agreed with the concept and game plan the same way he agreed to the concept and game plan of every other fight we had over the last decade. After he lost, he had people telling him everything that went wrong, which is easy after it went wrong. He complained to me about the game plan, although he agreed to it. During the fight I tried to tweak it some and make adjustments because Rosario got off to a good start. I told Julian to put his fire out with water, which means to CALM the fight down for a few rounds. Julian was very intense that night and I think the hometown crowd brought that about. The commentators actually mentioned me telling him to calm down during the broadcast. Julian never acknowledged that I told him the fight was too chaotic. For some reason he wanted to blame me for getting stopped and he has never talked about the fact that he cut almost 30lbs with a FLU.

So besides the DISTRACTIONS of fighting at home from media, family and friends which is never an excuse because if you want to be a star in boxing, fighting at home is an ingredient for success. The FLU and weight cut bothered him in my opinion. And I know he took Rosario lightly. He trained hard physically but mentally he wasn’t leery of Rosario. Rosario had been kod by a fighter in Nathaniel Gallimore that Julian previously beat. So his level of threat he felt from Rosario wasn’t the same. I warned him over and over about being dismissive towards Rosario. In camp I kept telling Julian that Rosario would be better than we saw on video. Julian got a little frustrated with me and told me “I can’t make him see something in Rosario that he didn’t see.” It scared me because I used to be able to tell Julian that fighters with .500 records were killers and he believed me. That was no longer the case.

You asked me what went wrong…. The fight was like Murphy’s law. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I also believed Rosario fought the fight of his life. He fought over his head. He was better than he ever was before or obviously after.

What’s very revealing to me is that Jermell Charlo and Erickson Lubin, especially Lubin fought in a similar style that I Planned for Julian to fight in. Both stopped Rosario with BODY SHOTS. Both hit Rosario with plenty of jabs. Both held their ground enough to hurt Rosario several times even before the stoppage. We worked on that and Julian looked great doing it in camp. I don’t know if the FLU compromised Julian’s punch resistance but we never made it to the part of the fight to take advantage of Rosario’s front running. To hear Julian indirectly blame me for him getting stopped was disappointing but expected. And that’s why I removed myself from working with him. He didn’t let me go, I QUIT because of principle, frustration and disappointment.

Rosario is a solid fighter but Julian made him look better than he ever was or is and that to me is the worst part. But I’ve learned acceptance in life and in boxing and moved on. For the record I didn’t wait until AFTER the fight to correct the problems. During camp when I saw his weight was stagnant, I started to make his food like I’ve always did. I would make him hot fresh meals everyday and bring them to the gym. When I saw that he wasn’t feeling well, I brought in vitamin infused chicken soup. When I saw he was being distracted and overwhelmed outside of the gym. I told him me and my wife would take his children for 2 weeks before the fight so after the gym he wouldn’t have to pick them up or drop them off. All I wanted him to do was concentrate on training and recovery without anything else. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for him within the rules to help him win. Julian Williams is a CLEAN fighter and I know all of the Little Things Matter. #thelittlethings.

I felt betrayed with his attitude towards me after he lost because he knows what I did to prevent that loss. He knows the truth….He started repeating to me, what “they” had to say. That didn’t fly too well with me. I’ve always told him the truth without being disrespectful or intrusive. There have been wins I wasn’t happy with like the Ishe Smith win. There have been losses I was proud of him in vs Jermall Charlo. He fought his ass off vs Charlo. The only thing that changed after the Rosario fight was his status and acceptance of the truth.

What happens in boxing is you have CYNICS, who have a negative opinion about everything. “They” usually don’t serve a significant purpose. “They” always give their cynical hypothetical outcome. When we fought Jarrett Hurd in his hometown, “they” said why would we go to his hometown to fight him. “If” we would have lost, “they” would have said why did we fight him on the “inside”. But we won, so “they” couldn’t say anything afterwards. Before we fought Rosario, “they” said there is too much pressure on Julian to fight at home. Well he lost. But the way “they” operate they can’t lose because they only have to be correct once, to seem like a genius. Julian became too accessible to “their” opinions and it killed us as a team.

The one mistake I think I made was even agreeing to the Rosario fight in general. I admit that’s on me. It’s not that Rosario is Carlos Monzon or anything but I know Julian is better when he’s counted OUT and not counted ON. When he told me he wanted Rosario I should have been more FIRM in my stance and FORBID the fight. For some reason he likes it when everyone is against him. That fuels him more. That’s the gas he needs in his engine. I should have went straight to the Charlo unification or Brian Castano fight which I liked and I admit that was MY RESPONSIBILTY. But Charlo had lost to Harrison and the rematch dates didn't coincide with our date. But I knew better. Julian would have been UP for Charlo or Castano and he would have performed much better. And that my friend is the TRUTH.

[pretty boy_]

I agree with Breadman. Tank-Taylor is a 50-50 fight.

Im not sure Taylor wants that work though. After seeing Tank dispatch Barrios the way he did my guess is Taylor's going to skip weight and venture off to 147.

Cashing out against Crawford is probably a better option for him than getting ragdolled by a future great.

[Oldskoolg]

I am convinced now that if Tank were to get Taylor that tank would stop Taylor somewhere around the 10th round with Taylor suffering some real scarring to the face and being a bloody mess when it happens. Tank is probably the #2 p4p puncher in the world, the kid has immense punching power coupled with a high ring IQ that allows him to figure out his opponents and when he does he dominates. I’m convinced of his chin since barrios, a big light welter, landed some big shots on tank. I don’t think you will ever see tank vs Taylor however. I don’t think either’s promotional outfit wants it

[Jab jab boom]

“Lots of media members are going to wish they didn’t write articles calling Garcia, Tank, Haney and Lopez the 4 Kings.” Its a joke that people who supposedly know about boxing had the nerve to put these guys in the same sentence as the 4 kings. I don’t think anything will ever come close to those 4 and maybe the closest we’ve gotten was the era of Oscar, Tito, Vargas and Mosley, except Tito and Mosley never fought. Even that group wasn’t nearly as good.

[ShoulderRoll]

I am convinced now that if Tank were to get Taylor that tank would stop Taylor somewhere around the 10th round with Taylor suffering some real scarring to the face and being a bloody mess when it happens. Tank is probably the #2 p4p puncher in the world, the kid has immense punching power coupled with a high ring IQ that allows him to figure out his opponents and when he does he dominates. I’m convinced of his chin since barrios, a big light welter, landed some big shots on tank. I don’t think you will ever see tank vs Taylor however. I don’t think either’s promotional outfit wants it

It's nice to give Tank imaginary victories. It's the same with picking him to beat Lomachenko.

But it doesn't mean anything if he refuses to actually fight these guys.

[Oldskoolg]

It's nice to give Tank imaginary victories. It's the same with picking him to beat Lomachenko.

But it doesn't mean anything if he refuses to actually fight these guys.

Ok, cool…….

[tritium_arma]

It's nice to give Tank imaginary victories. It's the same with picking him to beat Lomachenko.

But it doesn't mean anything if he refuses to actually fight these guys.

Tank is the king of imaginary victories. It doesn't matter that he hasn't fought a top 3 opponent in any weight class in over 4 years. He'd beat them anyways.

[pretty boy_]

It's nice to give Tank imaginary victories. It's the same with picking him to beat Lomachenko.

But it doesn't mean anything if he refuses to actually fight these guys.

The ball's in Taylor's court. If he moves up before fighting cash cow Tank then it's a clear duck. Time will tell.

[RightJabLikeZab]

"If TWO fighters really want to fight each other they will fight but both have to equally want it. They will simply instruct their teams to make the fight and if they don’t they get fired. When you see two fighters not fighting it’s because the fighters allow their teams to tell them not to fight. By the way it’s why fighters pay their teams to make these decisions. I’m just giving you the real reason. Then the team as any good team does saves the fighter’s pride and they" falsify why the fight wasn’t made. It happens every single time we hear both sides of why the fight wasn’t made. Someone has to be lying because rarely does anyone ever says my fighter is not ready. "