When WBC junior middleweight titleholder Tony Harrison had his chance to speak his piece on Jermell Charlo lashing out, Harrison breaks down what his June 23 rematch means to him and why he thinks Charlo has been proving that he can’t deal with adverse situations.
Harrison on if this rematch is personal:
“Very personal. It’s very personal. I’ve never been this motivated to win a fight a day in my life. And at the end of the day, if my career was to stop after this fight I’m cool with that because this fight is so personal. I haven’t been up for a fight, mentally, like mentally up for a fight, you know what I’m saying? Like everything is just a sport so you get up, you grind, you looking of when to fight, but like mentally I’m just on the fuckin’ edge, I’m on a tear. I’m on the edge because of sucker shit that’s been happening man-to-man.
“Like my circle’s so solid, I’m a solid guy. I’m probably the most solid motherfucker around in life. You know what I’m saying? Like, I don’t need to be around somebody that I don’t need to be around. I don’t talk how I don’t need to talk. I don’t give you a story that’s never happened. You know what I’m saying?! What’s me is what’s me. What I’ve been through is what I’ve been through, it made me what I am. So I’m not a pretender.
“So when I come out here and I put my life on the line and you put your life on the line — respect me as a man. Don’t get out here in front of the world and say ‘oh he said I won’, that’s hoe shit. That’s bitch shit. So whoever raised you, my nigga, we need to go upstairs in the VIP and we need to go sit down with them people that raised you to figure out where you getting this hoe shit from. Because that’s hoe shit what you just did because it was all respect, all love before you lost..but the fact that the man can’t face adversity, you never faced adversity then...’cause if the shoes had flipped I would’ve never did that.
“I know what adversity feel like...I’ma bend, I’ma bend, I’ma bend. You can bend me all the way down, but motherfucker I won’t break. What I just did is I just broke him. I just showed the world that that man has never been broken but he’s broken. He’s broken, man.”
On if he thinks Charlo’s energy has changed:
“I mean he’s broken! I mean he was on suicide watch for a minute! He didn’t post a goddamn thing. I’m on my DM like ‘is this motherfucker still straight?’ You know what I’m saying? Because the sport can demand so much from you and put in you in a place that’s so low because of social media and outlets and everybody ‘oh now he’s a fraud, he’s a fake,’ which I always said he’s a good fighter...His characteristics as a man is fraudulent...but he’s always been a good fighter to me, man. But don’t like diminish the character of another man because you lost from it...”
On what he gains if he beats Charlo again:
“I take nothing from it. I take nothing from beating him again. My thing is I’m the ultimate competitor. There’s nobody in this world that can compete more than me...Controversy was the best thing to happen for this fight, because it made everybody wanna see it again..”