Are you ready for this? Sean Merriman A one hand effect. Boom boom boom, out go the light. This is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up? Guys? Were back again with another Lights Out podcast with me Sean Merriman, And today I want to dress something. Yesterday I've made a post as I would normally do. Obviously, you guys know that our own Lights Out Extreme Fighting. Um, I'm a owner, not only a owner, but a promoter, and so for me,
part of my job is to promote certain fights. Um when I see two two people and you know, it's funny for me right now, I really do enjoy posting these and kind of uh making light of some of these beefs is happening between athletes, celebrities or entertainment in general. Right, So I post things all the time. Follow me at Sean Merriman on Instagram. Yesterday Kwanbie Brown Uh, former number one pick from the Washington Wizards. Uh some time ago and straight out of high school when you know, let's
be quite honest with it. I mean he just didn't live up to expectations. He was a bust. Uh never really panned out. Um, it's for whatever reason that was, we we don't know we're here that you know, Michael Jordan was too tough on him. Maybe he was too young coming in or too immature. Whatever. That reason for Kwambi Brown not being successful in the NBA was it
doesn't matter, right, he just wasn't successful. Now yesterday, Uh, he came out and had some back and forth talk um with Matt Barnes NBA, Gilbert Arenas and Stephen Jackson, and you know, it started on the podcast and he were just really talking and and and in my opinion, let me say this, in my opinion, nothing was said that hasn't been said about Kwambi Brown for the last you know, fifteen years or so, right, So it's nothing new there, But I think it's struck a different chord
hearing to come from. Uh. You know, Matt barn Stephen Jackson, and Gilbert Arenas, guys who are very respected, uh and then be a very respected as a you know, post career analyst. Uh. So when Kwalmy Brown seeing that, he reacted and he just went on a entire rant, uh, saying a bunch of different things, and it was it was kind of crazy. I think that he was just fed up with the talk. Now, I'm always going to promote a fight. I mean, I really do believe this. This,
This is what I what I believe. I believe that you know, next year, two years, three years, you're gonna have athletes challenging other athletes and they're going to be uh real life fights and exhibition matches, pro matches, amateur matches, or whatever you wanna call it. It will happen. I've been saying it for the past couple of years. Uh as we see now with the Jake Paul's and these guys uh Nate Robinson in these fights lamar oldom my
belief has a fight coming up. It's gonna become more frequent than it ever has been in the past because the crossover there. It just makes sense. Um, people always want to see their favorite athletes scrap, right, That's that's why this country loves football. That's why you know this country loves the parts of hockey when they're fighting. I mean, people love to see their favorite athlete scrap is just
what it is. And so I posted, you know, kind of making a you know, a joke of it, but it was you know, when I say it's always some seriousness in a joke. I literally just posted, uh that if Matt Brown, Matt Barnes, and Stephen Jackson Gilblderina's wanted to squash this and maybe I can set up a fight for them, that offers still on the table. But the bigger part of that is, um, look in NFL, we we see guys come in all the time and and and and don't perform to Ryan Leaves, JaMarcus Russell.
I mean there's been tons, tons tons of number one picks or high draft picks that don't succeed. Uh. And I took from that conversation that I don't think they were ganging up on call me brand. It was all truth, but it's for me. It was nothing and that we haven't heard for the past fifteen years. Uh. It sounded like and it looked like they called call me Brown was just fed up with it. He was completely fed up with it. Uh. He wanted to do something about it.
And they're still going back and forth on social media. Now. I always said this and and I don't know if I've ever said this live on there, but you know I tried to leave when I was at the University Midal of my sophomore year. If it wasn't for uh Maurice Clarette and Mike Williams wide received by the USC. If they were to pass that rule and getting there after year, after being two years in college, I would have been right behind him. I would have left after
my sophomore year. I felt I was ready. I felt I was ready. I didn't say I was ready. I felt I was ready to play UM in the NFL, and I felt I was ready to go. But I can tell you when you get up to the professional level level, the game changes. And not just physically. Obviously, guys are bigger, stronger, faster, uh more athletic and explosive. And this is in the NFL and NBA, but the
mental aspect, guys get smarter. Guys get a lot smarter. Um. They start to watch film and read the playbook and out with you and smart you on the football field, and so that way it starts to take away some of your athletic god given ability. I was fortunate that that rule didn't pass for them because I wasn't ready. And so when I'm talking about, you know, a guy like Kwambie Brown, and I'm looking at myself being a sophomore coming out in college. It doesn't matter whether it's
a football of NFL or NBA. You're coming in there and basically as a kid. And there's only a handful of guys that, if you look back, that's had real success. I'm talking about real success, not guys who played in NBA fourteen fifteen. I'm talking about real success and Kevin Garnett's of the world, the Lebron's of the world. You know, those those guys who left straight from high school, Kobe straight from high school and became stars in the NBA. You know, in my opinion, one of one of Qualmie's
biggest mistakes is he wasn't ready. You know, he didn't have the mental mental capabilities of playing on that level. Excepting responsibility. Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app. Search f s R to listen live. But anyway, you know, I'm looking also at at the things that have said and look like I said, Kwamy Brown isn't the first top draft pick that wasn't success successful. He's
not gonna be the last. There's plenty of guys who have not lived up to the hype, has not gotten, has not performed, has not done anything on the next level, and been great college players or great high school players. I mean, it happens all the time. So I'm sitting back and I'm looking at some of the things that are being said, and and my question is this, you know why now you know my opinion? Why now? So? Uh you know, I got I go and and I
talked to these high school kids all the time. I talked to college players, and the first thing they'll ask asked me when I get uh to the campus, how is it to play in the NFL? What is it like? Right? So, if you're talking about college, look across the board, look at your standout guys in college, the All Americans, the All SEC, the All big you know, the Big ten, all a CC. Look at the top guys, and then
go to the next level. Take those best to take your best guys there was in in uh you know, in college on your team, and you put them in NFL and watch how many of these guys become average. So when you're talking about the levels of the game, and I'm talking to these players high school in college, that the first thing I say is it. You know, it doesn't matter. You can be all world here, it does not matter. You're getting up there now where everybody's great,
everybody's fast, everybody's athletic and explosive. So you know, I'm going back and I'm kind of reminiscent of my own situation and possibly coming out of college, my sophomore year at the University of Maryland, and how I would have not been ready. There's no way I would have been ready. You're going up there with grown men, guys who has been around with five and ten plus years. And I always used to laugh, and you know, I'll be thirty seven coming up next week. I always used to laugh.
And when somebody said old man strength, old man strength, I never knew what that was until I got about you know, after thirty five years old, where that strength kicks in. Where it's not about how, uh you know, lifting weights, working out, No, you just have natural strength
that old man I'm a grown man strength. And what happened what Kwalmi Brown is he got up there with grown men and not only was he not physically ready to handle that mentally, because I'll tell you this, there's a lot of responsibility when you are hydrated when you're high draft pick, top ten, top fifteen, first round, hell
even second round in some cases. But when you were top ten, top fifteen draft pick, and I'm speaking from experience, you know, being selected twelfth overall by the Charges back in two thousand five, I can tell you there's a lot of growing up you have to do. There's a lot of responsibility. And I was twenty years old when I got drafted. I was still in in in their eyes, in the NFL's eyes, I was still a baby. So
I don't fault Kwamie Brown. Look, he had an opportunity to change his life and his family's life by leaving you know, leaving school world is skipping college, uh, you know, going to play with the Wizards organization, being beside George, Michael Jordan and the there was more than enough reasons to go. That's that that step. But I can tell you that if you're not ready, which not everybody, not everybody is. If you're not ready, don't make that decision.
Don't make that decision. And you know a little bit of me say I want to sit back and say, you know, with the rule changes that they make you go to college for a year, or so before you go there, be a professional you know, professional basketball player or in in some cases in football, uh you know, be there for a couple of years and then go pro.
I'm glad that rule let's implemented because there's a lot of guys that aren't just ready and Kwamie Brown was a victim in a way of not being ready both mentally and physically to planing that and uh NBA period. So that that was my thoughts to me. I look, I joke around a lot on social media. Um, obviously I'm in the fight business. So it's something I love
and enjoy doing. And I on sleep to my heart of hearts, believe that the next couple of years, there's gonna be a lot of athletes and entertainers and bunch of other um, you know, people from different backgrounds and walks of life and genres that are going to be fighting. It's gonna happen. Mark my words. You guys gonna see some of the most outrageous fights or matches here coming up shortly in the next couple of years, because that
it'll just get there. It's gonna happen. Thanks guys, and listening in to another lightstop podcast, Me, Sean Merriman and the guys up this. These numbers are off the charts and the subscriptions, the reviews, um I was blown away. I was checking it over the weekend as I was coming back, um about to come back from l A and just getting the numbers. And I want to thank everybody for uh just subscribing the Lightsop podcast. Listen to me leaving these reviews because it's all important. I see it.
I wish I can respond everybody, but anybody, I want to give a huge thank you. So next week we're coming back with another one.