Law Have Mercy!
Law Have Mercy! isn’t just about the law anymore—it’s about life, business, health, and everything that sparks curiosity. Join Personal Injury Attorney Chaz Roberts as he dives into candid conversations that mix legal insights with lifestyle tips, entrepreneurial wisdom, and personal growth. From breaking down complex legal issues in simple terms to exploring the challenges and triumphs of health, business, and beyond, Chaz brings his unique perspective and passion to every episode.
Whether you're here to learn, laugh, or find inspiration, Law Have Mercy! has something for everyone. Just remember: the opinions of our guests are their own, and nothing on this podcast is legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship—it’s all about entertainment, exploration, and empowerment. Let’s make it fun!
Law Have Mercy!
Fighting Forward: The Power of Boxing and Mentorship with Gym Owner Derrick Gary
To connect with Derrick, our guest, you can find him on Instagram at @derrickgsmoke or book a session with his gym B2BG Boxing at https://b2bg-boxing-club-llc.square.site/
In this episode of Law Have Mercy! podcast, we are joined by a man who has had a huge impact in my life this year: Derrick Gary, a Louisiana native, boxing coach, and boxing gym owner. This episode is a must-listen for every sports enthusiast and anyone who believes in the transformative power of discipline and determination. Derrick gives us an exclusive tour into his world of boxing, and shares insights about the hard work it takes to excel in this sport and the talented young fighters he trains.
But boxing isn't just about landing punches winning matches. Derrick is a former drug dealer who has used the principles of boxing to turn his life around and channel his experiences into inspiring young athletes. We discuss how boxing provides essential life skills, and teaches discipline, mental toughness, and physical agility, making it an invaluable tool for everyone.
We also delve into the importance of mentorship in boxing and how it translates into life. Derrick shares his experiences working with youth, asserting his belief that any child can turn their life around given enough time and structure. He also talks about his efforts to create an inclusive environment at his gym, B2BG, breaking away from the traditional boxing gym stereotypes. Lace up your gloves and step into the ring with us for an episode that promises inspiration, transformation, and a whole lot more!
Music is Funky Trap by artist Royalty Free Music. No Copyright infringement is intended. This podcast is produced by Carter Simoneaux and Kayli Guidry Bonin.
You can watch most full episodes of Law Have Mercy on YouTube!
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If you are in need of legal guidance, visit our website: https://www.chazrobertslaw.com/
This show is co-produced by Carter Simoneaux of AcadianaCasts Network, Chaz H. Roberts of Chaz Roberts Law and Kayli Guidry Bonin of Beau The Agency, and Laith Alferahin.
I want every kid to know you know, never chase money. I always chase your dreams, you know, chase what you was gonna make you happy.
Speaker 1:Fighters come from rough areas and then you see the boxing gym's going rough area.
Speaker 2:We can't control what's going on. We shouldn't cry about it. You know Whoever's hiding you, or whatever your belief is to be. Give it to them.
Speaker 1:You are listening to Law have Mercy. Hey, this is Chaz again with another episode of Law have Mercy. I have my second non-lawyer guest and it is a good friend of mine, derek Gary. He owns a boxing gym of all things, born to be great boxing B2BG boxing he's doing tremendous things and I am so happy that he's taking his time to come talk to us today. What's up, derek man? I'm good in yourself.
Speaker 2:Good bro, good man, I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it, man. You've done so much for me and helping develop me as a boxer and giving me so much good life advice and really helped with my son, Jake. We could talk about that in a little bit, but man, what's good, Same old staying busy just trying to put things together.
Speaker 2:It's about it, man.
Speaker 1:You're a business owner now, so you got I see you working that cell phone bro all the time. Every time I see you work, you either got some mitts on your hand or a cell phone on your hand, right.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a thing. I should tell you that.
Speaker 1:And you're going to be probably getting into hosting some boxing events and all that good stuff. So you just recently opened your gym. I don't even know if you're officially open, but there's always a ton of people there and training there, and you're located next to the Pizza Village on Ma.
Speaker 2:Street In 1915, ma Street, right next to Pizza Village. Okay, you got to Dude.
Speaker 1:Your gym is huge. Yeah, it's a big. I think it's the biggest boxing gym I've ever been in, for sure.
Speaker 2:It's one of them here, for sure.
Speaker 1:Because the ring is like in a spot, but you can't even tell there's a ring in there, because the gym's huge.
Speaker 2:You have a lot of space.
Speaker 1:And you work with all ages shapes sizes and Ages.
Speaker 2:I started seven years old.
Speaker 1:Seven. Okay, so you work with seven-year-old all the way to adults.
Speaker 2:All the way to adults.
Speaker 1:And you have people that come there that have never thrown a punch before and you got professional boxers, professional boxers. You introduced me to that guy the other day. You think you told me he's like 30? He looks 20.
Speaker 2:20? Oh yeah, that's like my little brother, kaelin Alfred Hell of a fighter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to see him on TV. Oh, most definitely, he's the real deal.
Speaker 2:He's a great fighter, great talent, great talent Not just him, man. We have a lot of talented kids that come through here Like a lot of decorative kids. I got the Not all of them is my kids, but some of them are like Mr Sheldon kids. Then they got some kids that come from Papillon's Boxing Club too, but it's a few of them that I train also. You know what I'm saying and they do well. I'm talking about some ranked kids in the nation, some of the best kids in the nation Before you were just working out of your garage or something.
Speaker 2:No, first it started with just me and my son. We started making progressions, we started learning from people from different cultures, different places, different things, and she just kept doing it. One thing led to another. We here now. When did you pick up boxing? I picked it up with my little cousin, brad Solomon, probably about 13, 14 years ago.
Speaker 1:And you were actually doing the boxing.
Speaker 2:Really and truly. No, I just wanted to fight because I thought I could have fought. That's how that started. I started training with him. I never used to train at all. I started training with him and from there just fell in love with him. I fell in love with him. I'd go to the gym, do everything that the fighters would do, and then I would spar every now and then. They had a coach from Texas. He really taught the highly of me. He asked me to spar a couple of his fighters and I sparred. I did well, I did real well.
Speaker 1:And this is from pretty much teaching yourself. Yeah, nothing from this and just watching, observing.
Speaker 2:This is me straight coming from the streets. He thought I lied to him so he thought that I actually had been boxing and I'm like, no, this is just what I got you. So I ended up sparring one of his kids, or two of them. They were both good, but they both didn't push me. So in my mind, man, that's all it's about. So I'm figuring I got it all figured out and when you come next week I'm going to have a kid that's getting ready to compete at Nationals. I'm like, all right, cool, bring them. I'm thinking who you bring, because I'm thinking we'll get the same result, always going to be the same thing. And that kid came running was totally different and I understood at that point in time.
Speaker 2:Boxing was just about strength or athleticism. It was about being disciplined, expecting the sport, having to train the right way to beat, because you could go so far with just being good or just being talented. You know what I'm saying? You have to put in the work some way somehow to become on another level. You could be an average, you know, because you got a lot of average people. But to peak above average you need to push yourself mentally, physically, challenge yourself, because you might do something a day and it was easy work for you. Then next week was an easy work, and then you get this job and it's like you just can't figure it out. So the tough task is the best task. That's what makes you hurdle over.
Speaker 1:And that's every, every, every part of your life whether it's being a lawyer or a football player, a boxer or anything else. You have to push yourself.
Speaker 2:Like, if you want to be the best at it, if you want to be great at what you do, you better push yourself Like you know what I'm saying, unless you're going to plan on just staying on that same playing field to me. Every individual, no matter who they are, what they doing, husband, wife boxing you got to push yourself to be better.
Speaker 1:When did you really get a passion for not only boxing but teaching others how to box?
Speaker 2:With my kid. You know, like I was staying in Houston and I moved back and it was just like the relationship, the bond it called between me and my son. You know how old was your son at?
Speaker 1:the time Ten. Your son was ten. He was ten. You were still in Houston, I was still in Houston. Were you living the right way.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. I wasn't living the right way by a long shot. You know, everything I did was from high live. You know, I came from the streets. I sold drugs all my life. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And, like a lot of people, sit up there and they're hot. I don't hot Nothing, because my past is what make my present, because if it wasn't for my past, I wouldn't be the person that I am, you know. And when I was younger, a lot of people asked me like you know why you didn't fight? And I'm like man, I ain't motivated to fight. You know I come. We ain't come. We ain't had money. I'm 20 years old with over $150,000. So I'm not motivated to do nothing else but give money, like my dream, me being so young and naive to life. I'm thinking when I get 23, 24, I'm gonna be a millionaire. Not knowing jail, not thinking it could have happened, not knowing you know all other stuff that come with the streets. You know what I'm saying Not understanding responsibility. So I'm thinking this is just gonna keep repeating itself. Man, that's not how it really works.
Speaker 1:If it was this, everyone would do it. Why is everybody selling?
Speaker 2:drugs right, like you know. So that's one thing with the kids I want every kid to know you know, never chase money. I always chase your dreams. You know. Chase what's gonna make you happy. You know what I'm saying. So, really, then you know, it didn't pan out like that and it gave me a different flow, doing something different, and when I started engaging with kids and seeing the difference that I could make with the kids, it kind of motivated me even more.
Speaker 1:Well, you, you, I've seen you really tune in to kids, right? You have a way of speaking to kids and getting things out of them, being able to make kids push themselves further than they thought, and I think it's because you grew up in the streets you have that credibility. Like I've been there, you don't want to go there, right, Right? Would you agree with that?
Speaker 2:I think more is to be honest with you. Like seeing things man I'm so big on. If you say he can't, I know he can. You got two arms, you got two legs. Just because he can't get there as soon as the other kid or the other person got there, just like it's no. You can't tell me no kid can't. Like I really don't believe in it. Like no kid, I don't care if he's a super athletic kid, I don't care if he's a goofy kid. Every kid can do whatever they want to do if they put their mind to it, you know. And if people put belief in time too, you know, because you might have a kid that's super advanced and you got one that's not so advanced. But at the end of the day, you know, we all ain't walk at the same time. You know everybody do things at different times, different cycles. So I just feel, you know I believe in every kid that you bring to me.
Speaker 1:I think that because you were finding yourself and trying to get out the streets when you found boxing and saw the development of your son at 10, that's what enables you to see potential in other kids who might be 9, 10, 11 to a hot. I'm trying to figure out how you have that ability to see potential in kids. Most adults don't.
Speaker 2:I tell you one thing that really that a lot of people don't know, because I don't really share it. I have two sons, by the way, and when I engaged with my younger son, I saw how much I missed out with my older son and it rubbed me like the wrong way, you know. So it was kind of like what if I would have did that with my older son, put that much time and effort, as I put it, into my younger son, how he would have developed. But don't get me wrong, he's a great kid, he works hard, finished school, he's an amazing young man. But it's just like I wonder what the result would have been if I would have put that type of time. So, with that being said, me spending time with my kid. It helped me develop to see different things with kids period, just watching them, watching their body language, watching when they feel like they can't Watching them and, like with kids, you could just sit up, I ain't gonna see you.
Speaker 2:But a person that's really when you got a passion for something. You see different because you're looking through love, you're not just looking through a like, you're not looking through a dollar sign, because I tell it to anybody, no matter if somebody give me 50 grain, 100 grain, I don't feel nobody could pay me for what I do to those kids. I'm not seeing them the best, but I observe and I believe in every single one of those kids, and that's a lot of things. Coaching is coaching. You could coach any kid you really could coach, but if you don't instill something in a kid, you never really completely coach them, because you just coach them to listen. That's all you ever coach them to do is listen to somebody else. No, you got to coach them to listen to his heart. Like to listen to his desires, like it's not just about Listening to a coach. You don't want a robot, you want somebody that you could groom when they get old, let them do his own, like.
Speaker 1:That's what I believe you're teaching them to have Internal motivation. Yes, sir, internal desire. Right, because you can. You can create a robot. You're trying not to create a robot essentially sure.
Speaker 2:I want all leaders.
Speaker 1:No, follow them to build it within, like my son Jake. Jake, I want you to know that you're the man right.
Speaker 2:And every time you do something, jake, and it's gonna it might people might laugh, they might look, but nah, jake really know in his on the inside, like he becoming better, he's getting better, he's confidence in is a belief system, because you could fight as good as you want, if you don't have that belief system You're gonna fail every time because the simple fact, as soon as that challenge come, I'm not the man, I'm not the pro now, but when you mentally there, it comes with what I'm doing, like me getting knocked out. That comes with what I'm trying to do, whatever it is. That comes with the territory, what I'm trying to live. That's how I'm trying to live and ain't nothing gonna stop it. And once you get there Cuz you could get talent and then tally quit on you.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna ask you a tough question why is boxing Such a good vehicle to teach children?
Speaker 2:because to me, to me, boxing is life Boxing in life. You, you get knocked down. You got to get up. You lose things in life, you got to learn how to still deal with it. You know what I'm saying. You lose your mom, you lose your dad, you lose your uncle, you lose family, friends and you still got to live like. And to me, boxing it's the ultimate to to Make you ready and prepared for life.
Speaker 2:For me, you know I'm saying that's how I look at it, because you learn how to deal with losses and understand when losses come in something else that come with. That you know, and Nobody want to lose nothing, but we ain't got no choice. So once you understand we ain't got no choice, we got to let it go and give it to the higher power, whatever that is, for whoever it is. So it's like you know I'm saying if we can't control what's going on, we shouldn't cry about it. You know, whoever hiding you or whatever your belief system is, give it to him and Just move on with it. Like you know, you have to get your feelings involved and your feelings gonna be involved, cuz if you love something, you gonna love it, but you have to also understand when you're not in control, no more.
Speaker 2:We get life punches you in the face back to back, over and over and over again and then you thinking life, tripping life and tripping life, just being life. And it's the truth. You know, you like wise picking on you and a picking on you. It's like that for every soul, every person that was created. Is like that for everybody. It mighta Came more than what you might have got dropped 50 in chance. Mighta got it one time, but that one time might have just been enough to destroy him. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:you got fitted, but what are you gonna do to react? It's the thing, right, you? Got punching them out. What are you gonna do to react? I don't know. If you know. There's a famous Mike Tyson Quote everybody has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.
Speaker 2:You ever heard that? Yeah, I actually had it on my wall in the gym and I and I think about that now that I'm into boxing.
Speaker 1:I think it's it's very true in boxing, but it's really true in life, right, everything is good till it's not good. How are you gonna react? Right, and what I've learned how to do is just shake it off and keep on moving. And boxing has really what's great about sports is it's it's life happening in real time. Right, the ups and downs of a game, the ups and downs of a boxing match, is happening in 10 minutes, 15 minutes. In life it takes a little bit longer, but we go through the same things, right. Right, we're gonna have ups and downs. Somebody's gonna let you down, right, somebody's gonna talk some, some shit on you and that's that's the biggest thing.
Speaker 2:Somebody's gonna let you down, but I never let my kids believe nobody the only person that could let you down as yourself, you should never let nobody let you down. How do you deal it? You down, this is just finding rooms. To me is an excuse period, because that's another way to say that D or him or her, nah, like you know, I'm saying you got to get it together, like because I never want none of my kids to blame life on nothing, on Nobody husband, wife, teacher, friend. No, you still got a chance to get it together. That's why you still here. You know I'm saying they left. You find another one, keep pushing, do something else, just like I don't like fun to live with no excuses. I don't want no excuses. You know what I'm saying. It is what it is. You know, like deal with what you got. That's what make life fun.
Speaker 1:Do you think Kids that compete in other sports Basketball, football, baseball, whatever can benefit from learning how to box?
Speaker 2:Almost definitely. I think it don't matter what sports you come from. If you got the right, the person Installing certain things in you, it doesn't matter what sport you come from. The discipline of boxing this is the biggest thing with boxing. You get some kids right now that people consider bad kids, right Out of control kids, and the biggest thing is what you do is you take all that out of control. You take all that bad, you put it together and you show them how to use it and when to use it. And that's life Like.
Speaker 2:You know showing control your anger. You know no wind to use your anger like because, after it's all said and done, and you clean it up in your polish, you make a great person because they know how to conduct itself completely. You know. They know like now I can't conduct myself like they got people over here so I'm a leader alone and they big enough to walk away With her because they know in the hardwood stands like see a lot of people that do things, even kids in the street.
Speaker 2:They don't do it because they built like that. They do it like that because they saw a shame of what other people go think and when you start thinking about what other people gonna think you're gonna react the way you gonna react because you gotta prove Something to Chas and to her into him. You ain't proven nothing to yourself, you just want to prove to them that I could have do that and you know that wouldn't even your heart to do that, you know. But it's too late now. You didn't did it and that's the biggest thing with the kids these days everything's about proving something to somebody else. It's never them. You don't go hurt nobody because of you just don't like him you know, you got.
Speaker 2:You got killings going on and it's not fun, it's for nothing. Like point-blake, nothing, maybe, cuz he talked to your girl, cuz he said this on the internet. I mean, you're really gone beside yourself. So you're proving something, though, to the internet, into people, that you really a fool. If you want to call a speeder speeder, that's what you really a fool, because now you are being controlled. Be controlled by people, that's exactly what your pressure? Yeah, you being controlled, you even in control of yourself. Look what you just did.
Speaker 1:And so boxing. What I'm saying is you're just trying to instill that confidence within to where they don't need approval of anyone else.
Speaker 2:You know, just instilling in them, man. I got kids right now, man, and it's crazy 14 years old. I could tell them strap up with you and go fight. They don't care about what people and they're going to fight you for real, like a man, and don't care about the result. Get up mod bus, go wipe their lip Like you. Good, let's do it again.
Speaker 1:Sorry. So you talked about the mental part, all right, the box, and no doubt the discipline, the internal motivation, no doubt boxing teaches that, like better than any other sport I've seen. But I've noticed since I started boxing a lot of like physically I've been able to move better. Like what? What do you think that boxing teaches any athlete that they can get better at?
Speaker 2:Pretty much, basically everything you know speed, you twitch muscles, you react. See, in some sports you might go. In a lot of sports you'll go. I think boxing is probably to me one of the only sports where you have to be mindful every single time. When we in a game I might not have to be mindful we got 12 people on the field. When I'm in that ring, I have to be mindful of every movement. My study on you is my job. My job is to study. You study your weaknesses. So when you in a gym and when you're learning to box, when you're learning to be uh, to use your feet, your hands you're not just using your feet and your hands you have to pay attention to what's in the front of you. So I think the discipline of seeing that and understanding, like you know, you're looking a man in the eye that want to hurt you because his job is to hurt you. We can't call a time out.
Speaker 1:Being engaged for every second.
Speaker 2:Every second into that bell ring. So it's a whole different mindset from uh, man, I'm tired. I could serve. Uh, I could coach come in. No, coach can't come in, none of that. So it's just being engaged that whole time, knowing that you know you could be humiliated at any given time too. You're going to get knocked out in the front of all your family and friends.
Speaker 1:You know, but that's a different type of pressure that you're preparing for.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. It's like you know, it's totally different. But I had a kid that came in man, he was a he's a great kid. He got, he got scholarships coming from everywhere and he uh came in his footwork, his agility and it was crazy. He went to a camp. It was in New Orleans. He wouldn't rank on nothing but he'd been coming for about four to five months. His dad would bring him and when he left Nick Saban off of my scholarship he got one from Texas. He because of they were so shocked on how he moved, so good for a big guy. They didn't understand, like how he moved, like that he's six, four, two, 50 in the 10th grade, like how, and it was just the drills, the drills, over and over the footwork and everything that's the finesse and it's crazy, because in his mind said he was so big in one day we was in the gym so he was like, derek, when you going to let me spar?
Speaker 2:I said, man, you show you ready to spar. But in his mind I'm the biggest dude. There's just some little bitty dudes in here, so I'm the biggest, I'm like. I said, man, I don't think you're ready to spar. It's not the same thing, you know. So he was like, nah, coach, I'm gonna spar if you got somebody Nobody my size. I said, hold on, I got a kid, that's 130 pounds. I said I'm going to let you spar him. He looked like him.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, spar on me Half a size.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he looked and I said strap up, so they go in, they put the gloves on, you know man? And he swung the first punch so hard and the dude just move. And he kind of smirked at him. And then he moved again and he punched him dead in the face and he's like he got mad.
Speaker 2:So I thought he thinking get mad, gonna get the job done. And he was just like coach, I just can't hit him. I said you won't, he won't let you hit him. His job is to not let you hit him. That's the only way you could win, and he know the only way you could win is if I let that big ball hit me. But now I'm not attending, you're about to get tired anyway. So they mindset is understanding how to defeat the opponent, whether they're on the upper end of it or on the low end. And that's one thing that I think for boxing, even if you come from basketball, don't show you how to win because you could just make it. It. Show you that man, though, even how to use his left hand. It show you he don't know how to use his right hand. It show you, every time you talk trash to him, he get, he get mad. So you find weaknesses not with just what you do with your hands. You find weaknesses everything you know.
Speaker 1:Because you have to study your opponent so closely in a boxing match and be conscious of his left foot, his right foot, his left hand, his right hand, his head, his chest everything, everything.
Speaker 2:And then you find out man me and Chad's been having all this trouble, but he don't like a body shot. That's it. That was the whole key to the fight. I've been struggling, I lost every round and this dude don't like a body shot. But that's life. You're learning on the go. When you get in the ring, you don't just know. You got to figure it out and that's why it's so. That's what makes it fun, because you could just engage with somebody and you just could look straight through these. So you just feel like he got one more round and I'm like he done.
Speaker 1:Hey, derek's a good salesman because he got everybody out there thinking they're going to learn how to play chess and there's some of that. But when he's going to put you against a wall and have you squat for two minutes straight and do about a thousand sit ups, you're going to see why you can do, why that big boy went and his feet got better in four months. Right right, derek runs a tight ship but you look, you learn how to jump rope. You learn how to you squat more than you ever thought you would squat in your life. You do more sit ups than you ever thought because the strong core is everything in boxing.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And then your punches come harder, your hand speed gets quicker, your feet get quicker. I mean it truly is a full body workout and you get better at everything. And look, if you could go a box around for three minutes. What can't you do, seriously?
Speaker 2:I mean, that was definitely.
Speaker 1:So, all of a sudden, a 40-yard sprint ain't too bad right? Oh no, you go three minute rounds At all when you throwing punches.
Speaker 2:And it's not just the punches, it's the adrenaline. You got to control People just thinking you're there and you're throwing punches and you're getting there because you might get in there and you might like I feel strong, I feel this. You do feel that that's what you feel, and when you punch the dude, they're just like all right, let's go.
Speaker 1:You're like well, I just used all my energy.
Speaker 2:I just punched him. He's not even reacting. I'm like you're reacting, chas, we're going to have to do a little better. So it's just like the mindset in. What was the crazy part is that yesterday we was to the gym and we were just messing around. We had a class for ladies and one of the females. They just thought, oh, I could punch. And then they punched the guy and it's like I'm punching him but he's not doing nothing.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing that people don't understand. They don't understand what that person facing in that ring, just on the outside looking in, you feel you could do better. But when you hitting somebody or when you think you're supposed to be hurting them and you're not doing nothing, it goes back to your mind. Now you start dogging yourself because, like I can't hurt them. But just because you can't hurt them, it doesn't mean you can't win. So you see the thing of boxing the games that plays with your mind, mentally, physically. That's why I don't want none of my kids to believe that they can't do nothing, just got to do it in a different way.
Speaker 1:So, derek, I met you through some friends that told me about you and we came from the same place. I knew your brother and we linked up and I said I think I'd like for you to train my son, jake, I'd like to learn from you, but I really want you to see if you can crack that nut. That's my son, jake, and you were kind enough to take it on, and can you talk a little bit about that? So my son, he's an amazing, amazing kid. He really is, but he's not the most athletic or he's not really drawn to sports like his younger brother, not the most coordinated. He's big and tall and kind of not as coordinated. And I introduced Jake to Derek and I think y'all hit it off pretty quickly, right, right, can you talk a little bit about, like, what you saw and how you? What was your plan of action? Let?
Speaker 2:me see, you just said something. Before I forget about it, I'm gonna say something. You got the other kid that's athletic, as he loves sports, he loves to engage in sports. And then you got him and you say, well, he's kind of. You say it's not the other kid that could be super athletic, super talented Jake, already beating them without even competing, because Jake have a physical attribute to what people look for. They didn't even look for talent, look. No, we need him right here. Right, we don't even care if he good, we're gonna make him or we're gonna make it because he have everything he need.
Speaker 2:When you five two and you're good, and basketball not out of 10, you're not going to the NBA, right, you could be seven foot and not good at all. So when people see certain things, I have to look at it in my eyes, not in with the way they think, not because of what you seem, because they're trained, took off and they look good. That don't mean it's a ride for you. So, going back to Jake, jake, to me as a kid still being a kid man it was a time that he told me he like I think it was a well, y'all telling me he liked dinosaurs and I'm like some people want their kids to grow so quick and just forget about being a child Like no, like your dinosaurs. That don't mean you don't, because what your brother doing don't mean you need to be doing, because your brother is not your competition, first and foremost, when you get there. It's when you get there, as long as you know you're going somewhere. That's number two. And for me, with Jake, he's a passionate kid, like and I'm not saying I ain't gonna say nothing to make you smile or to make your wife smile. That's not my type, that's not what I do. I'm gonna say what I feel in this, or what I feel like you know, he's a he's, he's a motivated kid in his own way. It might not come from you, it might not come from your wife, it might not come from his grandpa, and it's just like filling them out.
Speaker 2:Because it came to a point to where I went to your house one day and Jake didn't want to do what you told me, you know, and I'm like you was like tell him Jake, but Jake didn't want to tell me because Jake didn't want to disappoint me. So would Jake not disappoint? Not him showing he don't want to disappoint me, showing that he want to be better, because he could have disappoint me and say I don't want to do it anymore, but he chose not to. He told it to you, but he didn't tell it to me. So my belief of him is him believing in himself, and this is the reason that he didn't tell it to me, because, like everything, we don't have to train, mean there's a couple of times after we train, hey, hey, come see my dinosaur connection. Why not go see your dinosaur? Don't think that's weak, don't think that's that's. That's not a good thing. No, man, you got people that you might be a dinosaur. That's what you might do for the rest of your life. You might make millions and millions doing dinosaurs. So I'm gonna shut you down for it. To go be athletic no, that's not what. When you doing yours would win. Don't have to be boxing, I have to be a lawyer. That you do you.
Speaker 2:And I think that's what a lot of things go wrong. Because, uh, with with the wood kids is everybody want him to be what the spotlight caller for him to be, not Just let him do him. And being with Jake man, it was one of those days and I was to your house and I'm like, uh, jake said something, he's like a right coach. I said, right, I'm a highlight you later and he came and he just hugged me like tight, like, and for those moments that's the game changer for me. It's getting that kid to really trust and believe in me and that affects me and with that affect me, that's my drive, like right at this. That's it.
Speaker 2:Like Jake, you just want every championship out. You ain't got to get in the ring. The thing got a raise your hand. You just want it with me. You just want it.
Speaker 2:And I teach all my kids you don't need a referee To raise your hand to be a winner and you don't need to be caller winner to be a winner. You know what it is. You went out there, you give it your best, you won. Because when you start waiting for people to Solidify what you did, you already lost because they go have haters. They go have people. No matter what you did good, you could do everything good, and they go.
Speaker 2:He's still not a good lawyer, still opinion, and they got nothing to do with you and they got nothing to do. What you're going and that's my thing with kids, period, and even with Jake is like their relationship. The other day he trained with one of my other coaches and he was like you gotta understand, like doing the things that I did, seeing the things that I said, seeing Jake told me and your wife was there he said, coach, you know I had fun today but I wish I had a little more time with you. That's that's it. That's it like that kid ain't had to see that you ain't meet him.
Speaker 2:See that His mommy made us and this came straight from the heart and that's what I love about kids. They appear Show me anything more period in life than a kid. You can't. What they say is what they mean. What did he write or wrong, but his peers coming out, the heart, your mommy, he told you to see that your daddy ain't told you to see that for him to come and just be like I just wish I had more time with you was like Ain't, nobody could give me no money to do it. Ain't, nobody can make him feel the way he feel. Not even being a good coach could make him do that.
Speaker 1:But farming a bond in relationship with him could make a child do wonders, you know you said something to me and I've repeated it 15 times and One day Jake didn't want a box. All right, he was just being lazy. It was not that he didn't want to be with you, it's not that you want to compete, it's not. He was just being lazy, because if you give a kid too much leeway, right.
Speaker 1:Right right and you turn to me and you said Jake can make his own decisions when he's 18 years old. Right now, he does what the parent tells him to do.
Speaker 2:Correct, because I don't believe in giving a kid a choice. You're a kid. You got a way to you, old enough to make a choice. Right now, your daddy see your boxing. I don't care if you like it or not, that's what you're doing. He paid me to come here, be with you. That's what you're doing. And to me, when you give kids options, they become the adult, you become the child.
Speaker 2:That don't work. Like it At the. It's no options. That's the wrong. That's the thing with kids. Now they have too much options Option to either go play the game, go here or don't go there. It's like it's no options, like now. This is what you're gonna be doing and you don't have to do this for the rest of it. This is not like you're asking Jake to fight. You're not asking. I'm telling you what you're gonna do. This you know, and that's what it is. So I Hate when Anybody give a kid a choice to me. I hate. I hate it. You got something stored for your kid and that's what you want at that particular time. That's your kid. So how do you?
Speaker 1:take the good in the particular kid and still push him, While respecting that kids particular Dreams and talents. How do you continue to push him?
Speaker 2:Me, I push and then I let I push and I watch. I push and I watch. I don't push no kids, I push and I watch, because as you push and you watch, you get a chance to see if that's what they want to do, if that's where they want to go. So it's like if I keep pushing you to something and you know you don't want to paddle, might not be your ride. And they don't mean just in boxing, I mean in life.
Speaker 2:So I got a kind of back and like you know what, how would y'all feel of Jake told me this doing? I don't want to box them, I just want Derek to come over here and play with my dinosaurs. Y'all people like huh, no, I just wanted to come play my dinosaur. It'd be like a man can come. Why not do? That's his dream. But for a mother, for a father, now you can't get that man to come over. Well, you shouldn't get them in the box or play sports, neither how you gonna knock what he like because of what you want. We want to put him in a box, don't we you know.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and it's like parents want to put their kids in a box.
Speaker 1:I, you know we're trying to protect them is what we're trying to do. Right, it's coming from a good place. Yeah, most definitely, every, every every parent that tries to push their kids to sports, or whatever, it's coming from a good place, right, good. Right, we want them engaged. We want them to learn team sports be Accepted by society. Right, we're trying to do it out of love right.
Speaker 2:Well, so what y'all doing is none is incorrect. I don't think no parent really want to do nothing incorrect for each hour. You know, no matter what the situation may be. Then you might have some. That's, you know, that's what it is, but that's for another, another day, but like but like. Everybody, everybody want their child to be better than them. They want their child to succeed. They want you know, but the big successes guide them, discipline them in understanding them, understanding the time frame.
Speaker 1:Are you seeing, because you deal with a lot of kids and a lot of parents, are you seeing that kids Run the household in too many situations?
Speaker 2:Oh, man, I see, not just kids. I seen it in older ones, man, because I got Kids. They come to me that you wouldn't believe it, you know. They come to me in there, they walk straight down now and everywhere else there's problems. You know what I'm saying. And, uh, they not no problem kids, the great kids, but it's just the structure of what you do with those kids, you know.
Speaker 2:So I don't even believe in bad kids, to be honest with you, because I believe if you give a kid enough time and enough structure, they'll be alright. Might not be today, but like because I said, because I get all kind of kids, I get kids that people consider bad. You know, talk to people that been in prison for a long time. You know like. So I don't believe in bad, I just believe in like. I believe in this when you're gonna start doing anything in life and Not giving truth for statements to people that mean something to you, that's bad right out the gate.
Speaker 2:Derek, I don't like the way you conducted it. Yeah, you got to tell me that. You got to make me better too, and I think when you give somebody being, when you straight with somebody, letting them know they wrongs, that's genuine to me. When you got him right in you, just you know what I'm saying. Just letting them do that and thinking is right, you're hurting them more than anybody else Because everybody, sometimes some people, don't have the rules to tell the people because they don't see him, they don't talk to him if you are a parent of a 14, 15, 16, 17 year old and you see your kid going down the wrong path, what would be your advice to the parent?
Speaker 2:To the parent pay attention, pay attention, see why they choosing that path. You know, I'm saying, before you jump on a kid and it's like you got to get them to trust and believe in you, don't be so judgmental because they made mistakes. You know, because if you coming out, if I tell you something right now, be like well, mom, listen, I like this guy, but the this, dad and other, and you'll be like no, I don't want you talking to nobody, you just shut her down. You just shut the whole thing down by what you want. Listen, it's not about what you want. You know what you want in your heart, but you have to listen. Now she don't want to talk to you know, so started talking to you. She talking to the streets, she's talking to other people.
Speaker 2:That's given all the wrong advice when you would have should have just sit back, listen to what you Can't have to see and give her the best advice that you could have given, and I think that's a big thing. It's like kids gonna make mistakes. We all make mistakes, but as a grown-up, sometimes we forget about our mistakes and we, like, want the kid to be so perfect and that Trying to make them so perfect make them fall for them further away from us. You know, and it's not that there's a bad thing on the parent, it's just that you have to be an understanding parent. You know what I'm saying and I'm not trying to tell people how to be a parent, because I wouldn't always a good parent. I'm not even saying that I'm a great parent. But when it comes to understanding, listening in, you know, making these kids a, believing what they're supposed to be doing, instead of judging them, saying you not this or you not that, I just the judgment. Stuff is not good. I don't you know what I'm saying. Judge, we're pretty nobody.
Speaker 1:No, but you never. I'll give you a lot of credit. You never claim to be a perfect person and you wear your scars. You talk about the life you were living before and and how you Snapped out of it and you realize there are ways and you're trying to do better. A lot of people don't.
Speaker 2:A lot of people don't own this they've done before, right, right, and you're using that to inspire others and it's crazy because of Talking about the life, of what I used to doing, compared to what I'm doing, I was like out of everything. You know, you, you you look at life and you wonder what makes you change sometime, like you wonder, like what makes you would change. You know, when you put genuine people, especially kids, it changes everything for you, it changes a lot for you. You know I'm saying it changes so much, and not just with kids. Good people, you know, having a good wife, good girlfriend you know what I'm saying good surroundings, good parents, because for me, honestly, I Don't know how I end up doing the stuff I did because I had great parents, and I mean Great parents.
Speaker 2:Some people could say they dad wouldn't in their life. Some people could say, no, I have the most amazing parents, but still, as an adult, I chose to do what I wanted to do and it's nothing they could have told me to. But now, as I get older, I feel I turn back into my parents, especially my mom, because that's the most Unjudgment, a person that's the most amazing person in my life. Like you know what I'm saying, if I could have married somebody, I would have married my mom. I never seen her a day in my life talk about a soul? Never, ever.
Speaker 2:And I'm telling you ever, if Chaz liked this church, well, chaz, that's good. If she doing this, well, derry, you never know what they going through. So that's where my non-judgmental come from. I ain't never saw a judge nobody, ever and I mean ever Talk about nobody ever. If it went something good, it wouldn't come out of my mouth. That's amazing and I'm not saying it to put up there, I'm just saying the facts. If that's what it really is, you know, never in my life. So me growing, I tell it to my mom all the time. I say I think I really am getting old, cause I'm starting to act like you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that doesn't sound like a bad thing.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. It's a great thing. It's a great thing. And since we were kids, my mom was into, like Martin Luther King Association, all kind of stuff, doing stuff for kids. And guess what, I'm growing older and I'm doing stuff for kids in a different way.
Speaker 1:You definitely have a way of communicating with kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't explain it either. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I watch you, I mean, and I go to the gym too and we're going to talk about the gym a little bit. We got to, we got to, we have to talk about the gym, but I go there and I see you interact with the kids and it's like dude how does he, how does he get on their level, but still strict and demanding and and you hold a high standard for him, but also are loved and adored by them.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know, sometimes I wish somebody could answer that question for me. Now for real we might have got to the bottom of it.
Speaker 2:It might come from your mom, but this is the thing, even with my girlfriend LaBarre, like my kid, like they are so scared of me, like I don't with my own children, I never did. They could be in the gym playing. As soon as I walk in, they go, start exes Like I beat them or something. I'm like, what? Like if you would think it was like man, why are they so scared? He must beat them, children. And it's like I don't know where it come from or why they act the way they act, but they always give me their all Like and I could first I could do anything and did on complain and it would would.
Speaker 2:Irks means that I watched some of my kids be so I'm like both of you don't bring it, and he'll go here, do it and he'll do everything. And then as soon as they leave all and I see him like they get around the parents and everything just go back to normal for him and I'm like that's the norm, right, and sometimes I pull someone like man, why you do that? Like you know, like why you conduct yourself like that with me, but you don't conduct yourself like that with your parent and I never met him. What ever would a good answer get you know? And it's just like, why, like, like, there's somebody that genuinely love you, like, so why would you do things to be disobedient to him? Like, what's your purpose?
Speaker 2:And you go, come listen to a stranger? Well, because I know, when you said you mean it, I said so what? You don't think your parents mean it, but the comfort, the comfort. That's just like anything in life. Once you get comfortable with it, you feel you could get away with this. Then you could get away with that, because they ain't gonna do me nothing. The most I might get is a whipping, and me I ain't never even whipping you and listening, you know. So I don't know. It's just a something I can't really even. I can't. I wish I could have answered, but I don't really know how to give the correct answer for that.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna shift a little bit. Tell me about the gym. What, who can go to the gym? I know you just. You just opened. Did you open officially yet?
Speaker 2:No, I ain't had it like a grand opening. But you don't open until the gym is open to anybody Born to be great. B2bg, born to be great. It's open to anybody. Doesn't matter what you're trying to do, I don't care if it's if you're coming for basketball, football, whatever, soccer, whatever it is. It's just a and it's a great environment. I got a couple of good coaches. I got a good team all in one.
Speaker 1:So if it's your first, have you never put on a set of gloves before? Or if you're a professional boxer, it's open. It's open Ages to 99. 99 we taking them.
Speaker 2:Even if you have to push them around and show them how to throw a one, two, we got them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's open and the gym was made especially for more than boxing for me, for people to engage. Every person. I don't care where you come from the streets, I don't care where you come from a family of a million. Now, I just wanted to show that people could engage with everybody. I think that's the biggest separation and that's something I wanted to prove to people. It don't matter where you come from, what you do, you know everybody could engage Well.
Speaker 1:I feel I feel very comfortable there and everybody comes up to me show me love. Come show Jake love, and you know I think it's. I think you're achieving what you set out to. So you want. Your vision is I want to create a boxing gym. Boxing gyms Correct me if I'm wrong are typically pretty gritty places Right Okay. Just the nature of boxing. Boxing is typically in rough resides of town Right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Traditionally. I don't care if you're talking about Mexico, talking about the Bronx, talking about Thailand fighters come from rough areas and then you see the boxing gyms going rough areas, Correct, the history of the sport is nothing. I'm not breaking any news here. What you're trying to do is create a boxing gym where people can have all races, ages, creeds, our skill level could. Come in box, do your thing, get a good workout in and be comfortable. Right, Because? Did I? Did I? Did I capture that? You said it perfect? All right, Cool, you said it perfect.
Speaker 2:Correct me if I'm wrong. The thing about it is that when it comes to engaging, I would I would say I would not want no kid or adult, not. You shouldn't be able to feel like I can't go there or I can't. No, I could go where I want to go and I want them to actually know in the heart I could go where I want to go and I know how to conduct myself in every place that I do go.
Speaker 2:Sometimes people like boxing gym, like you said in real gritties is a mean and I understand why it's like that. Because you you're training the mindset of a warrior. You're not training to go root to win this, you're training a hard. You're training them to be hard. You're training them mentally. But a lot of times with gyms now we even with great fight with good fighters, you ain't had to train them hard. Some of the greater fighters are not as dead in son's relationship. You know what I'm saying. You ain't had in the reason that the dad stuck to the kid like that is because he didn't want them to go through all the hard stuff. He show them how to be smart. He show them how to make better decisions. He show them how to like the new things you know, like he show them how to what and what not to put in his body, what and what not to do, times before, and that plays a. That plays a big role. When you're so disciplined that you know you can't eat this, that and that because you have to be 135 pounds the day of the fight, I'll ounce over your disqualifier. That's disciplined. That's disciplined. That's not like that. In really no other sport Basketball no matter what your weight is, you could go and play. No, because if you're waiting like that, that mean you wouldn't work and that mean you wouldn't be in discipline. That mean you was out last night. That mean you was drinking.
Speaker 2:One thing about the boxing gym it always tell you the truth Every single time. It will never lie to you. Because you could lie to me right now, coach, I ran two miles. I been hitting the bag. I write sparring day and you don't need to tell me nothing. He ain't been running. He ain't been working on his jab. He was up late last night. I could tell. I read your body language. I know what you can and can not do. I've been around your lung enough. So tell the truth, and that's what I love about it you tell the truth without speaking, you not go lying boxing.
Speaker 1:Rob Markman. But you know some of that old school mentality. I mean, if you look at let's just use boxing, just but football, what a football practice looks like today is completely different than what it looked like 10 years ago. What a weight room looks like, they got exercise bands. Tom Brady wouldn't even lift and weights anymore. Like technology and nutrition and what we know about the human body continues to evolve, and so some of that old school mentality that we grew up on, me and Coach Wagsback and football it's like things have changed and people are getting with the program.
Speaker 1:What you're saying is all right. I think I know why those boxing gyms were gritty and they're that served the purpose for that mindset at the time. But there's some things that are completely unrelated that will get you better results that have nothing to do with the grittiness. It's about relationships and being smart.
Speaker 2:Rob Markman Beings. Exactly, it's like this. Let me give you a good example. You I could have the best kid in the nation. Right now, no kid could beat him. What happened if you break his leg? What happened when he can't fight anymore? This is the thing about life At some point in time you're not going to be able to fight anymore, You're not going to be able to basketball anymore. So if you haven't built your mind to be a business person, to understand people, to understand life, I set you off a destruction. It's just one wrong move right now that's going to destroy everything. Have something to live soon.
Speaker 2:You need to tell me that's all I did that whole time, the 10, 15 years in your life, and show you just how to Play something. No, I gotta build your mind, gotta build your brain. You gotta be able to think. You got to be able to be surrounded by business people. You got to be motivated people. So you got. No, this, this old, like I don't care about it, that's all. Oh, I don't want to hear nothing about. Oh, they got a little gym and they got these little kids. They're not that tough yet, ain't tough, but you're kid gonna be working from they. Tough enough to know how to control stuff with their mind. Now, with just the hands. And that's the big thing for me.
Speaker 1:You asked me to go talk to some of your guys right exactly.
Speaker 2:You said hey, man, just come around, just come around cuz I want my guys some of my guys never seen it part of life. I Want him to see it, I want him to understand it. You know what I'm saying? Both sides and your view is never gonna be how they view things. But you give them their view is go, give them a view that they never seen before. Now they got a different avenue, like if, man, you know what I might want to be a lawyer, never thought about being a lawyer. So if I could change Jake into being a boxer while you can't change my kid into being a lawyer, I'm down.
Speaker 2:I Agree 100% so I'm saying so like I don't and you don't.
Speaker 1:You don't think that kid was never around People that are lawyers lawyers right Right. They don't have a lawyer in their family. Some of these kids never left the city, never left the state right.
Speaker 2:I mean, you wouldn't know how motivated you are coming. You'll speak to those kids and I might not be all of them. One of them kids would be like me. I Want to do that, like I want to go talk to people. I want to go talk and it might not be to the 1920, 30, but that one time they saw you do it and now that's what they want to do. Yeah, so you never know what's gonna motivate a kid.
Speaker 1:But I'm doing, I'm taking your advice, I'm building trust first. Okay they're gonna see me around Boxing doing what they're doing. See my son there. They're gonna build some trust and see I'm just like them.
Speaker 2:Man, we had a whole discussion on you the other day. It was crazy. We had a discussion cuz Doug was like my other coach. He was like, yeah, man, you know my brother, you know all. And I'm like man, listen here. He's an open guy, man, and this is the reason that I love bringing things together, because you don't never know nothing until you bring it together.
Speaker 2:And then you come in and you're having a conversation like y'all knew each other going to school with his brother and then I you know, just it's crazy man seen even your son Jake running around like he owned the joint, like he's just so comfortable, like you know what I'm saying thinking that well, when he get around those little kids he probably go dolly down.
Speaker 1:No, he went up.
Speaker 2:He went up, you know, in in that shotgun, like you seen it, it's like wait up he more active than we own. So, you never know what you're gonna get out of kids when you how do, how do people?
Speaker 1:contact you.
Speaker 2:Uh, I'm gonna start. I'm gonna start promoting a lot of things. Uh, I got flies. I'm gonna start putting out the. I have Instagram. I have a Facebook page.
Speaker 1:What's the pay?
Speaker 2:What's the page? Derek G smoke on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm gonna put it in the show notes because I've had a lot of people reach out to me to ask about you. Okay, and Everybody's excited and I know you're not trying to go crazy before you. Officially open the gym and get all you think you ducks in a row. How does it feel being a business owner?
Speaker 2:Man, it feel good, but to me I don't. I don't consider myself a business owner. I think that's my only weak link. I I'm a team player man. Like I don't Believe in employees, I don't believe in none of it. I mean, like we're gonna either go up together, we go, just stay down together, but like I'm just a team player man. No, it's my biggest thing with being a business owner. It's to me I'm not even a business owners. Be honest with you. To me, I'm building a foundation or something that's gonna change for the course of life, like period. That's my vision. My vision is not to own a business. The reason I have a business is to make a change, and that's my biggest thing is to make a change. Everybody got what they want to do, you know, and it's like because me, honestly, I'm a happy person. I'm a happy person and it's like if I could see these kids all come up and develop something From something that I give them, I'm satisfied.
Speaker 1:I tell a lot of people that want to start businesses I find holes in their business plans. But you, I support your business because you find you. You created a business out of a necessity. You wanted a safe place and a good place for people to meet in a box and it was nothing like it. So you said I'm gonna build it.
Speaker 2:And I you know one thing I'm gonna say that I never shared to this. This the thing see, like you came to the gym, your son came to the gym, your wife came to the gym, and like we, in an environment with nothing but drugs and everything, and yeah, y'all still could come and be safe right here.
Speaker 1:Never thought twice about it never thought twice about it.
Speaker 2:So it's like, don't, don't speak on it until you actually get in there and kind of like, live it, go through it. You know what I'm saying. Not everything is as bad. It's control, it's control, and if you know how to respect stuff, people gonna respect you Period. It don't matter what you had. I.
Speaker 1:Think you're knocking out the park. I think you're gonna succeed. I think you're gonna do wild, amazing things for thousands of kids when it's all said and done, and so that's why I wanted you on here, because I felt like it was very selfish of me to keep you to myself. I want people to hear the conviction in your voice and the great things you're doing, because I think you could probably help their kids, like you've helped Jake, and continue to help Jake. So, derek, I want to thank you for being here. We're gonna put this show notes so people can find you, and good luck, my man.
Speaker 2:Thank you, appreciate y'all.
Speaker 1:All right, brother. Hey, it would mean the world to me if you subscribe to the podcast and leave us a five-star review. It helps keep the show free and it helps us book better guests to provide more valuable content to you. None of the opinions expressed by my guests are that of my own, and nothing we talked about creates an attorney-client relationship or could be construed as legal advice. Hope you enjoy the show. This podcast is powered by a Kati Anna Cass network. Go to a katiana cast calm for more South Louisiana.
Speaker 2:Source content you.
