Marcos Villegas, The Boxing Channel: "You're making a lot of waves in boxing with SMS Promotions. What's your overall goal with the company, what do you want to do with it, and what do you want to do to change the boxing landscape?"
50 Cent: "My overall goal is to make exciting fights. I think what changes the boxing landscape is to bring a more youthful audience that's obviously not tuned into it. Seeing people that they're excited about from different platforms, offering them someone that they're invested in. The person that's excited me, Eminem, and Adam Levine having the No. 1 record on iTunes, is actually excited about seeing 50 Cent and Gamboa on December 8. So I expect the pay-per-view numbers to be bigger than usual on this actual bout, because we're associated with this actual matchup. Outside of that, December 8 is exciting because it's Manny Pacquiao and Marquez, a fourth time showdown. With Manny experiencing what he experienced with Bradley on his last bout, I'm sure he doesn't want to leave it to the judges. All the speculation about which fight they won, which fight they didn't, makes Marquez intense. I'm excited because I've had the opportunity to speak to both of them, and I know this is World War IV. And I wouldn't miss it to save my life, even if I wasn't part of the event, I'd be there."
Villegas: "You said you've spoken to both Marquez and Pacquiao. How did you and Pacquiao start that relationship, how did that all come about?"
50 Cent: "It initially started with communications about trying to make the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. I'm glad it happened. It was supposed to happen that way. I've been able to raise $200 million from my film production company, I've been able to raise $100 million to start the conversations between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. So the $40 million that Floyd offered Manny the first time was money that I raised. So they understand that I don't have a hard time getting my hands on the money."
Villegas: "Do you feel that now with your involvement, is that matchup closer to becoming a reality in 2013? Is that something that's on your agenda, and that you've proposed to Top Rank?"
50 Cent: "It's on my agenda, because I'm a fight fan. Whether it's on Top Rank's agenda or Floyd's, my communications, I look forward to trying to make it happen again this year anyway."
Villegas: "Has the start of your promotional company affected your relationship with Floyd? Is that something that's more or less sour grapes?"
50 Cent: "Not from my perspective. Because Gamboa's obviously an asset with or without Floyd Mayweather. I didn't actually have these intentions of doing this venture on my own, but he hasn't done anything to me. I'm more upset about Koraun (Floyd's son) breaking his arm, and Floyd not actually calling or texting me to tell me himself. His son hurt himself bad, and he didn't actually call me to tell me. For me to find out from somebody else, is what makes me upset with him right now. The other stuff is not really that--"
Villegas: "So there hasn't been a lot of communication between you and him. When was the last time you guys spoke?"
50 Cent: "We haven't spoken to him in a while. But when that happens, when your son gets hurt, he should call me."
Villegas: "What problems do you see in the boxing landscape right now, and how do you want to go about fixing them?"
50 Cent: "What I see is the actual promoters are afraid. They're excited about the accolades of their fighters having titles, and they're afraid to fight the tough fights. This is what slows boxing down from those other platforms where one promoter is over all the fighters, they can make the matchups you need immediately to keep the actual platform exciting and thriving. In boxing, you've got promoters hiding their fighters from -- you run into that right away, when you actually attempt to create a matchup for Gamboa."
Villegas: "You've already encountered that problem?"
50 Cent: "Right, because they're actually afraid to fight Gamboa. They understand the talent level."
Villegas: "Who's they?"
50 Cent: "A lot of the actual fighters we approached, the promoters initially say, 'Oh yeah, I'm sure, what's the date? OK, where? Where do you want to do it? Oh, yeah, yeah...WHO?' (walks away) 'No, that's a tough fight, that's a different thing, that's a different idea, Gamboa, that's a whole different story.' When you see that two or three times in the actual weight classes, it's, like, when they actually calm down and decide, 'You know, I will do it,' it's about the finances involved."
Villegas: "Talk to me a little bit about the finances. I know the reason why you broke off and started SMS, was due to the fact money overpaying fighters with Floyd. Is that true? And if you can, tell me a little bit about that, because not many people know about that."
50 Cent: "Yeah, it's not a dispute, it's him making a decision to not put up his half of the actual money. It's fine. He can go and do what makes him happy at the moment. He's kind of trapped in a regimen of, fight, get the money, spend the money, fight. Fight, get the money, spend the money, fight. There's no investments, no income from anywhere outside of him fighting. I look forward to having him be involved in situations where he can continuously have income so he doesn't run into what fighters so often run into at the end of their career, not having any financial support or money around."