50 Cent: Boxers don't have the 'energy' they used to have

Rapper turned boxing promoter and all-around entrepreneurial business person Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, star of the movie Righteous Kill, talked boxing and hip-hop with BET recently, and gave his thoughts on what has changed in the fight game from the days of Mike Tyson, which apparently was the golden age of the sport now that it's not the current thing happening.

"Fighters don't have the same energy as they had in the past," Fif said. "[Back then] they created the intensity that made you not want to miss the show no matter what. It wasn't as transparent. The sport wasn't as visible to the public, where they'd see the actual fighter choose the opponent versus them fighting whoever wanted it."

Jackson has had something of a rough go as a boxing promoter, as he was at one point thought to be starting a promotional firm with a then-jailed Floyd Mayweather, who upon his release broke association with Mr. Cent, leaving 50 holding Yuriorkis Gamboa, Billy Dib, and the bag. SMS Promotions has mostly piggybacked on the shows of more proven promoters, particularly Top Rank, Mayweather's sworn enemy, as it were.

Dib has become a non-entity at featherweight, while Gamboa has fought twice and wasn't particularly impressive either time. He returns to HBO in a main event, make or break fight with lightweight titlist Terence Crawford on June 28.