Well, it's my great pleasure to be joined on our podcast this week by other than the lightweight contender, Abdulah Mason Abdullah. I will let everybody know what you have coming up. You're going to be challenging for the vacant w Deal lightweight title, taking on fellow undefeated Sam Noakes.
It'll take place November twenty second on the Ring magazine k per view that Turkey Alshikh is putting on in Rea, Saudi Arabia, and I wanted to start off by saying, first of all, welcome, I'm very much looking forward to this event. I think your fight is it's a deep card, but this is this is a really interesting matchup on that show was four years ago, almost to the day that we're doing this interview. You were seventeen years old when you turned professional. You were boxing on an undercard
on a terrific fight between MICHAELA. Mayer and Mai Vahammadus to unify two of the titles in one hundred and thirty pound division for the women. I was ringside for that fight in Las Vegas. I had been hearing about you before your professional debut. I've been knowing Brad Goodman from top rank for like thirty years and telling me to take a look at this kid. He's going to be something else. Scored a second round knockout, you look really good, and four years later, here you are right
on the verge of fighting for a world title. So I wonder if you could just like briefly just sort of sum up that journey from pro debut on a deep you know, deep on an undercard now going off to Saudi Arabia fight for a world championship.
Yeah, that was a It was definitely That's something I've been thinking about too. You know how we four years ago you said that was almost like to this exact date where I first turned pro, and right now, I would say it kind of feels the same way in a sense, you know, competing going overseas, competing for this world championship, you know, going from those amateurs to that pro debut, it was like a different experience, and going from where I'm at now to this world championship, it
kind of feels the same way in a sense. That's what I mean, Like, it's gonna be different experience for me fighting overseas. You know, my first twelve rounder a different crowd, so my main thing is just keeping the same focus through you know, the differences, and making sure I'm doing the same thing when it comes to my performance.
So as a young prospect, you got a lot of buzz, a lot of people picked here as the prospect of the year over the last couple of years. And like you said, now here you are getting ready to fight for world titles. So you've got nineteen fights, nineteen wins, seventeen knockouts. How do you feel as though you've been brought along and prepared for this moment?
Oh? I feel like I've been prepared perfectly.
You know.
I've been with a great team, you know, J Prince Management Top Rank Boxing, and my team, my trainers, my father, my head trainer, and my brothers as well. You know, everybody. Every fight that I go through, they've been pushing me to be better or you know, tweet this, tweak that, and every fight I've you know, been through, its getting better and better and better. So with each opponent they've put in front of me, I end up doing the same thing, you know, or better, you know, even though
the opponents are getting better and better. So Sam Noaks is the best opponent to date, you know, he would be the best opposition for me, and I feel like this performance will be even better.
So when you had the fight with Johan Vasquez in November of twenty twenty four, you scored a second round knockout against him, but before he knocked him out, obviously, you know, the the headline, I guess was that he knocked you down two times in the first round. And after that fight there was a lot of people that had sort of hyped you up there We're like, well, maybe we're not so sure about this guy. He got dropped twice and there was some criticism. I sort of
looked at it the other way. I've seen a lot of you know, guys get dropped and come back, you know, with a raging theory and go on to greatness. Not that big of a deal. It's boxing, you get hit, So I sort of looked at it from the other perspective, like, hey, you know, we've seen the young man deal with adversity and he came through it like a champ and you know,
ended up getting the knockout. I wonder what was that experience like for you and maybe dealing with some of the criticism that came along with that, especially as a very young fighter.
I think, well, the experience for me, it was a I would say overall, it was an amazing experience and at the time it was shocking. But for myself and for those who know Box and I feel like we all saw it the way you've seen it as it was a great thing to happen as far as you know, going through the adversity and coming out the way that
it did. It shows a lot of growth, a lot of goodness and just the way we prepare or you know, just where I'm at in my career, and uh, there's always going to be critics, so there's not too much to you know, to pay attention to on that side, so you've got to I just got to make sure I'm doing what I'm doing no matter what, you know, keep growing or you know, learning from that. But it was definitely a great, great learning experience and uh, like I say, it was a turning point for the better.
So you have won three fights in UP since then, so obviously it's not been any you know, impact certainly, and you're stolen defeated in the fighting for the title, as I mentioned, uh before this fight with no because I guess your biggest fight, your biggest name, your biggest win must have then I think anyway, your fifth round knockout of the very battle tested, uh, you know contender Jeremiah Nakatiya back you know a few fights ago, and he was a guy that had fought you know, some
quality fighters. He had lost to them fair enough, but they were guys that that boxing fans know, of course, Stevenson, Miguel Burtchelt, you know people along those lines, Raymond murtya
even the prospect Tito Mercado. So what do you think that win did for you in terms of your thoughts about, Hey, you know what I can compete with these experienced veterans whose only loss is have come against guys that have gone on to you know, become champions or you know, people that boxing fans know, or even like Mercado, top prospect like yourself.
One thing about me is anytime I kind of get in a ring with somebody with more experience or you know, even in the past before I turned pro sparring with like world champions. Every every time I step in ring with someone like that, it's more of a solidification of what I have, you know, in my mind, I'd be like Okay, it shows me what I have. Okay, I'm good at this, I'm good at that, or I'm at this level, or Okay, that was kind of easier. I could step it up a little more, or whatever the
case may be. Oh I got to work a little harder. But it's usually a silification letting myself know, you know, and letting my team know that what we have is is something good and the something that we're definitely grateful for it, but it's something that we've been working on the right things.
I understand that that fight I mentioned against Nakatiya, originally that was going to be the co feature. The main event that night was Keshawn Davis supposed to be defending the WBO lightweight title against Edwindale Los Santos. You know, anybody that follows boxing knows what happened there. He came in four pounds plus overweight, The fight got canceled. Top rank you know, decided to keep the show on when they couldn't work it out. Obviously, you got elevated into
the main event. What was sort of like, you know, your thoughts about, Okay, now I'm in the main event was did it add any pressure to you? Or nerves or just feel like, you know what, I got an opportunity now as the main event, maybe this show myself to a greater audience.
Perhaps for myself, I would say I was more excitement involved, like, Okay, I'm excited, it's my main event. You know I've been here before. As far as that's that was the same Virginia at the same time where I had the other big fight, you know with Vasquez, I was excited to be able to come back and main event there. But it was also composure because I know that it's the same thing as any other fight. You know, you got to stay focused and stay composed to that. You know,
even being the main event. You know, people might be crazy excited or want me to go crazy in there and try to knock his head off. But for me, it's you know, I got to keep my composure and do the same thing, you know, main event or not.
So when when even going into that fight, you know where you're rated in the WBO, you know that you're getting close to being perhaps a mandatory Obviously, once the title was tripped from him, the WBO, like the organization Zoo, they look at their top rated contenders. There was you in one position and Sam Noaks in another position, and you came to fight for the vacant title. But the title shot kind of came out of the blue because nobody expected that Kishon would miss weight and be stripped
of the title. So this is probably coming a lot quicker in terms of the title opportunity for you than maybe originally expected. So when what was like your reaction when you realized I'm getting my title shot in the next fight. It's not against you know, Kishon Davis, but it's gonna be against Sam Noaks for a vacant title. But how did you feel when you realized, okay, title is stripped, I'm getting the shot at this vacant delt.
Again, it was excitement. You know, being a world champion or contenting for a title is a huge step up in boxing from anything else. You know, from from Olympics, from you know what, multiple time national champion as an amateur, or you know, any of these smaller titles as a pros. You know, being a world champion is I'm huge. So being able to contend for that and not just being ranked at the number one spot but actually contending for
the world title, it's like I don't know. I would say, it's just something that I'm looking forward to now like once once once that was once that was right there in front of me, it became my reality.
Kind of like kind to pinch yourself a little bit, you say, what kind of like have to pinch yourself a little bit, Like I I'm I know my position, but now I'm actually getting the.
Fight right right? No, for sure? Yeah, yeah, because I knew I was creeping up on it. You know, I was already ranked number two at the time. I was about to fight for it. But you know, being able to ford to turn over and for me to you know, contend for that right now is like I said, it's also involved composure, but I'm also excited. So you know, we just uh we can't wait for it, man, like two three weeks now to come.
So, so what do you think about Sam Oaks. I've seen him fight a few times. You guys have a very similar record. He has seventeen fights. You have nineteen fights. But you're twenty one years old. He's twenty eight year Old's a little bit older, a little bit of a later start or uh, you know, in terms of how he's been brought along your I looked at your record just to clarify. It feels to me like you faced roughly more kind of opposition. You know, he in the
UKU and the United States. What is your take on him? What do you what do you think about him?
I feel like Sam Oaks is a He's a worthy opponent. You know, me and him are, like you said, we have faced similar opposition in a sense, and we're in the same places in both of our careers, So it'll be just as much of a test for him as it is for me. You know, we both undefeated right there, closing in on twenty fights, so it's a perfect test for us both, and it's going to show uh boxing. I guess you know a lot about you know, whoever's going to be his next world champion.
So when the bell rings, what kind of style fight do you see it? I am assuming that either yourself certainly your team have taken a look at some of the videos to sort of get a take on what he's all about. And when you when you think about it, how do you feel like the fight goes in terms of the style.
In terms of the style, I feel like this is gonna be a fun fight that's all I'm gonna say is I ag. Yeah, that's that's the style of it. It's gonna be really fun for y'all. It's gonna be fun for us.
No one's gonna be running around the ring. I don't believe.
No, I don't think so.
So this is kind of a big thing that I think about. If you win this fight, you become, at age twenty one, the youngest active male world champion in boxing of all the guys in that titles. I mean, I don't know if you knew that the youngest presently is your fellow top rank fighters andrews Ayas, who was twenty two years old when he won his world title.
He is now twenty three years old. Did you realize that was going to be the case if you're the winner, and if so, what does that mean to you that you could, you know, create that kind of history.
Yeah, I did realize that. That's that's something that's huge for boxing, but not just for boxing, but also for Cleveland, Ohio. You know, to have not won a world champion, but to that world champion, being the youngest active male world champion is it's something he used to bring back to my hometown and to be able to want to contend and have a fight in Cleveland again. I don't know
when that would be, but soon. I would love to do as soon, but that'd be a huge thing, and I'm just excited for that because it's it's something that you hear what Mike Tyson has become world champion at what like twenty years old or something or.
Yeah, he was not only not only the youngest champion in boxing at time, but in the history of boxing, had become the youngest heavyweight champion at that age.
Yeah, so that's that's huge, that's huge, you know, I'm excited for it.
Well, certainly if you are the champion. I'm sure having been the covering top rank for a long time, they know how to bring their guys home for the hometown fight. They've done it a million times, but lots of their their championship fighters. I wanted to just wrap up with this, but when you found I mean, you knew you're gonna be fighting Oaks for the vacant title, but I don't know if you necessarily knew that it was gonna be
uh in Riad, Saudi Arabia. So I'm wondering what were your thoughts about you know, making the trip to Saudi Arabia to have this opportunity with all of your other fights obviously have taken place in the United States.
Yeah, once once you learned it was gonna be in Saturday, Arabia, we knew it was gonna be different, and we knew it was gonna be something big, you know, like this is a huge car for World Championship fight on the same fight card. Originally we had thought it might have been on the Crawford Canelo undercard, but for some reason it was pushed back for a while because I think that was a good date to have it at the time.
But everything happens for a reason, and right now, November twenty second, I feel like that still be the time for me to shine.
Are you excited in any way to be fighting, you know, in that sort of environment, you know, different than what you're used to, and to make that trip overseas for the fight.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. But the first things first is you got to handle business, so you know, wherever I go to fight, you know, the first thing on my mind is handing on that business. And then I could be excited about the results after.
Totally get that. Abdullah I appreciate that time. I wish you the best of luck in the fight and hopefully we get a chance to talk after the fact.
Oh yeah, for sure. Thank you Dan. It's great to learn that you were at bout pot you because we had first mentioned and I'm like man like peace out like he was there, you know a lot of about it, but you being ringside of something excitement as well. So I appreciate you for your support along the way you back. That's for luck for you, yes, sir, Thank you. M