S2 E32 | The Mental Game of Boxing: Stevie Morgan's Path to Championship

The path to boxing greatness requires a level of sacrifice most people can't comprehend. Lightweight fighter Stevie Morgan (15-2, 13 KOs) pulls no punches discussing what it really takes to succeed in professional boxing's unforgiving world.

Born and raised in Tampa, Morgan's athletic journey began with track and basketball before transitioning to boxing after wandering into a gym and being inspired by a young female fighter. Despite starting at the relatively late age of 28, her natural competitive fire quickly propelled her through the amateur ranks to become #3 in the country before turning professional.

Coach Moniette, her trainer and manager, doesn't sugarcoat the brutal realities of boxing. He made Morgan study for a full year before her second amateur fight, ensuring she understood the sport's dangers—including the approximately 13 fighters who die annually in the ring. This sobering perspective shapes their approach: "You're not just training to win; you're training to kill... and be willing to die."

Women's boxing presents additional challenges beyond the physical demands. Despite training three times daily like their male counterparts, female fighters face dramatic pay disparities, often fighting for free or even paying to compete. As Morgan explains, "That's why every woman fight is hard—we're not doing it for the money." This reality forces many, including Morgan, to balance boxing with entrepreneurial ventures to sustain their careers.

The mental game proves equally demanding. Boxing requires what Morgan calls "selfish winning"—sacrificing relationships, family time, and conventional life experiences to pursue greatness. There are no vacations, no balance, just relentless commitment to the craft. As she prepares for her WBC regional title fight in Colombia on April 26, Morgan's philosophy remains unwavering: "Plan B is to make Plan A work."

Ready to witness true dedication in action? Follow Stevie's journey on Instagram @Stevie_Morgan_Boston and experience what it means to pursue greatness at all costs.

Transcript

Meet Lightweight Fighter Stevie Morgan

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:00

All right, everybody, welcome to Happy Hour Holidays, the podcast where we cheers to business, entrepreneurship and life stories. We want you to go out there and follow your dreams and make them happen. Get off your ass, stop scrolling, and go out there and make it happen. I'm your host every single week Manny Fresh, we got the resume, sean Fabre, and in studio today we got a fighter Watch out, rip your ass Stevie Morgan in the house, lightweight fighter. She's got a big old fight coming on April 26th. We're excited about it. Everybody else is excited about it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 0:30

What's up, stevie? Thanks for coming. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I know, great. So I mean Vince. Obviously you guys know Vince, right, mm-hmm. So you know we really appreciate Youngest in the Yacht Club giving us, uh, stevie, yeah, mr rano. So, stevie, tell us a little bit about you know you're up like I would say. You know we always start off in high school because you know that's when we're really kind of getting into life. What kind of influenced you? Or you know, wanted you to be a fighter, or you know? Tell me a little bit about your story on how you got to this point. Um, from from that point on, or if it's earlier on, you know that's cool's cool too.

Stevie Morgan 1:03

No, boxing came later, but I was always an athlete growing up in school, middle school and high school. I ran track, played basketball. I played HCC for a year, oh so you're from Tampa. Yeah, born and raised here. Oh, yeah, went to Gaither High School, gaither, we went to Sickles. Okay, we were rivals. We're rivals, big rivals.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:21

You know they said that. But I'm like, you know, I was never an alma mater kind of guy, you know? Yeah, same. But, then Alonzo came along, and then Alonzo I mean because it was Gaither first, then Sickles, then Alonzo came along, and then Sickles and Alonzo.

Stevie Morgan 1:37

But I think overall it was always Gaither against Sickles. Yeah, gaither and Sickles was always the biggest rival, I think when I was there what were you running in track and field? I ran uh early on, like middle school and right when I started high school it's a hundred and 200. Then it turned into the 400.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:49

Oh shit. So like Shaquiri Williams type shit right.

Stevie Morgan 1:53

I was a good 400 runner, for sure.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:54

Yeah.

Monyette 1:55

Yeah so so so did that, played basketball went to college for a year.

Stevie Morgan 2:06

Anything, yeah, I wasn't tall enough, so transitioned into boxing. I played the Tampa Breeze. Oh, the lingerie football league. Yep, I know a couple two girls on that team.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:19

You dated two girls on that team. I think it was Elise Zuckelman and Alexis. She had Hyman or Hammond.

Stevie Morgan 2:29

She might have been after me. Yeah, she might, elise, I know, yeah, elise, yeah, yeah, shout out to Elise.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:34

Yeah, that was a pretty cool concept. I mean, is it still going on right now?

Stevie Morgan 2:38

I believe so. I'm not sure. I think it's way more organized than it was. We kind of like pioneered it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:43

Yeah, was it physical though? Yeah, I know it was pads on, but it was just lingerie on.

Stevie Morgan 2:49

Yeah, we were hitting for real and no protection Did you ever get injured?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:53

No, no.

Stevie Morgan 2:54

Some teammates did, but I never did. Yeah, yeah.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 2:57

So where did you transition into fighting then?

Stevie Morgan 3:00

Wandered into a boxing gym. I had some friends that boxed and wandered into a gym and naturally I just like to compete, so I wanted to do it as well. There was a little girl that was training in there. She was like I don't know, probably 12 years old or so, and I was like dang, I want to be like this little girl. So, yeah, I fell in love with it then and in and out of my life boxing. You know, boxing is a weird story for me, but finally ended up around Coach Moniette, moniette shout out to Moniette right here, man, he's over here, he's on another level.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 3:35

He didn't want to jump on the camera, but we'll get him again, man, so he's the one with fully, so he's fully training you as far as the 100%. Oh, that's awesome.

Stevie Morgan 3:44

Yeah.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 3:44

That's great.

Stevie Morgan 3:45

I had an amateur coach. Monyet's been in and out Like he's been around my whole amateur career. But I had an amateur coach, john Casella. He kind of got me started and if it wasn't for him I probably would have never ran into Monyet.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 3:59

Is there something that you like about fighting, like getting anger aggression out, or something like that?

Stevie Morgan 4:05

I mean.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:05

I mean, I know you like competing yeah competing.

Stevie Morgan 4:08

I don't know you get to like hurt people and get away with it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:13

You have to have. I guess you have to. What is it? You have to be licensed through the Professional Boxing Association, pba, right? Is that what it is, or is it PBR in order to fight professionally.

Stevie Morgan 4:26

Every state has. Just you have to be yeah, you have to be licensed, for sure, and every state has a different license.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:32

Did you ever like get into scraps when you were in like middle school?

Stevie Morgan 4:35

or high school. No, I wish.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:37

You wish, yeah, yeah, now, with no one would you know.

Stevie Morgan 4:40

Yeah, no, I've never been in a street fight, it's on my bucket list.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:48

Oh shit. So April 26th, you got a big fight coming out. Where is it at?

Stevie Morgan 4:51

So April 26th we're fighting in Medellin. Colombia.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 4:55

Oh shit, I get to be a two-time world champion.

Stevie Morgan 4:58

So it's a big fight, a big step up. We'll be fighting for a WBC belt, not the world title title, but at one of the regional belts.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:10

So it's a big fight. Damn so how many people? So what's your record right now?

Stevie Morgan 5:12

currently, I'm 15 and 2 15 and 2 damn.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:15

So you fought quite a few fights already. Yeah, what's been your, what's been your toughest one so far uh, my toughest one was amanda serano. Amanda Serrano. Yeah, she was tough. How long does it normally last these fights? Because is it like three rounds or is it five rounds?

Stevie Morgan 5:32

They're all different, so most of my fights are 10 round fights now, although we'd be getting them out of there in like one round.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:38

Oh, okay, so I have 13 knockouts, 13 knockouts. What happened to the two that you lost? Was it like the beginning of your career?

Stevie Morgan 5:47

One was a big first step up and I really won the fight. They just didn't give it to me, so I feel like I got robbed. That fight it was a split decision, it was a majority decision.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 5:55

Oh, it was, it was a super close fight.

Stevie Morgan 6:00

I knock girls out. That's what we do. And I didn't knock her out, so the judges probably felt she deserved it. And then my second loss was Amanda Serrano. So she's the greatest female fighter in the world. You can't really knock it Damn.

Professional Boxing Journey

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 6:16

So I mean, as far as getting into professionally boxing, I know you walked into the gym. You're like, hey, I want to be like this chick, but what made you pursue it professionally?

Stevie Morgan 6:27

So my first goal I wanted to be an Olympian. I didn't really not that I didn't care too much about turning professional, but I didn't really think too much about it. I just really wanted to be an Olympian for whatever reason, and I wanted to be the best. And so when I started competing as an amateur, that was the goal was to be number one in the world, and we went for it. I started kind of late.

Stevie Morgan 6:50

As you know, boxing usually start when you're young and my first amateur fight was when I was 28 years old, so started late, worked really hard and we were able to like you know, close the gap somewhat and we made it to number three in the country number three in the country number three in the united states, and then you got to be number one or number two to be able to compete to go to the olympics.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 7:11

so we got close damn well, it's not over yet, right? I mean, you can still go for no I because I mean, the olympics are going to be held in the united states next summer. Olympics right is what we're talking about and boxing is in the summer olympics I think yeah, but now I'm professional, so so we're way past oh okay, so then all right.

Stevie Morgan 7:31

So only amateurs can fight in the olympics I think, I think you can turn pro now and be an olympian.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 7:36

But hey, you really just don't want to do it yeah, I've knew what does stevie do outside of boxing, outside of boxing? Or is boxing consumed your whole world? Boxing is pretty much my life no, but you gotta have something for fun right for fun, yeah I'm an entrepreneur, so I have my own business.

Stevie Morgan 7:58

I've had for about 11 years and we do grab and go food at the airport. Okay, yeah, so I have that going.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 8:06

For Tampa, tpa or TIA, I think, is what it's called. Yeah, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Stevie Morgan 8:12

So I started as a meal delivery service. It was called Cater Me Fit and I was the first meal delivery service in Tampa. We had shoot. I had like 40 employees up until COVID hit and when COVID hit just had to shut it down. And when the airport reopened we kept that side of the business going and yeah, Was it kind of like?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 8:34

what's that place off of just north of Wine Ball that Johnny's mom used to work at, Dinner Done? Have you ever heard of Dinner?

Stevie Morgan 8:42

Done. Oh yeah, so like walk in and make their dinner.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 8:44

Well, it's just, they give you like an almost done meal and then you just take it home, you pop it into the oven. Is that kind of what it is? It?

Stevie Morgan 8:52

was like. The meal delivery service was more for busy professionals and athletes that wanted to eat healthy, so we delivered your breakfast, lunch and dinner right to your house. And then shut it down in 2020? Mm-hmm.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:04

Okay, do you follow any?

Stevie Morgan 9:04

sports other than boxing. I mean women's basketball, yeah.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:08

Yeah, All right. So great debate here. Kaitlyn Clark or Angel Reese.

Stevie Morgan 9:13

I'm a Kaitlyn Clark fan. Yeah, me too.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:15

Yeah, shout out right. Yeah, I mean shit. So what do you think when Angel Reese says yo, they're watching, because of me too, but Kayla and Clark's putting up the numbers?

Stevie Morgan 9:26

I'm not going to get in the middle of that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:27

No.

Stevie Morgan 9:28

No.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 9:29

So what does it take to be a boxer of your level? Like what kind of dedication? What are we talking about day in and day out?

Stevie Morgan 9:40

I think the most important thing is a good team and a good coach. So I would say that's like, first and foremost, aside from the discipline and the hard work, definitely your team and who's you know who's teaching you everything. So number one as far as the discipline and the hard work. Like you have to work harder than everybody all the time. It's a it's all day thing. It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no days off, like it's a constant grind.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 10:06

Can you take us through your daily routine then?

Stevie Morgan 10:09

So a typical, especially in camp. So in camp I mean, he'll tell you better than me. But let's say, like, wake up at 4.30 and run, come back, rest, eat, run how far it depends on the day, but three to four miles typically on a Monday through Friday. We do 10 on Saturdays. So do that Go to the gym at 8.30. Come back, rest, recover, go back at 2.30. Come back, rest, recover and back at it at 7.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 10:38

Holy shit. So what do you do for the mental aspect of it? Because physical is one thing, one thing. But when it comes to mental, when you're talking about, hey, I want to be the best in the whole world, what, what do you do? Or what, who's your mentor? Or what else do you have that helps you with your mental game? Because I mean, I feel like in sports, I mean that's the number one thing. I mean you could be as physical as you want, you can be as talented as you want, but if you don't have the mental game, you're gonna fucking fall apart. There's a lot of athletes that have mental coaches.

Stevie Morgan 11:07

There's such a thing I didn't know that was a thing until I did get into the level that we have. Mignet tells the truth all the time. He always takes you through those mental reps. It's a lot in training too Never pushing yourself past where your body can go every day, no matter what, no matter how you feel, no matter if you're sick we're still in there. If you have COVID, we're still in there. Something hurts you're still in there. So like coming in the gym and giving yourself like a thousand percent every day, no matter what, and just putting yourself through those mental reps all the time.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 11:40

Yeah, yeah. And how does it get to the point where what was one of those inflection points where you're like, damn man, like can I be number one, or was your mindset always? I don't give a shit? I never had like a like you know, a point where you're just like maybe this is not for me, or was it always? No, this is for me, this is what I'm going to do.

Stevie Morgan 11:58

This is. This is for me, so it's like it doesn't matter. Maybe it's going to take 10 years. Maybe, it's going to take 20,. You know, maybe it'll take two, but it's going to. It's going to work out for me Like there's no and that's just with everything in in our life, like whatever you want to do, you can do it. For sure it's not like there's no plan B.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:17

You just literally always had a killer mentality. I'm not going to fail. I'm always going to achieve what I set out to achieve.

Stevie Morgan 12:25

Yeah, and not just in boxing, that's in everything in life.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:27

Yeah, and what is the driving factor behind that? I mean, did you, I guess, have a hard childhood, or something like that?

Stevie Morgan 12:36

I mean everybody has a story right.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:38

Yeah.

Stevie Morgan 12:41

We want to know your story. Just typical dysfunction, like I don't know it, it's not really. I don't say that it motivates me at all. I don't think I've you know if that makes sense but it builds up some anger.

The Business Side of Boxing

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 12:52

Maybe well, maybe not anger motivation driving factor, wanting to succeed at something that you, because it seems like you never doubted yourself that- you can be a champion, which is what champions are made of right yep, definitely.

Stevie Morgan 13:06

Um, we always aim, you know, ever since, even as an amateur. It was always we're training for the number one girl in the world, and even now we're training for the number one girl in the world and we go for perfection and what's what's be close? You know you might not reach it, but you're gonna get close. So I don't know, we never really knew how far. We never really know, like, how far we're gonna go in this or where you're gonna end up, but it's like the journey that we've are in love with right.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 13:34

Yeah, they say uh, shoot for the stars because, or no, shoot for the moon because, you'll still end up in the stars. Yeah, how did you end up on the lingerie football like how was that like transition, because I know that was you started off like right when it started. So how did that whole organization kind of start and how did you get involved in it?

Stevie Morgan 13:52

same thing, I'm just competitive. I overheard some people talking about it and I was like there's women's tackle football, like I want to do that, and uh, found out who I needed to talk to, how to try out, and yeah, what was the? Pay like it was crappy. It was like 50 bucks a game.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 14:09

Are you shitting?

Stevie Morgan 14:10

me Mm-mm.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 14:12

It was like a professional cheerleader. You know they don't make money, Weren't they selling tickets at like $25 or something per person. It was in Emily Arena, wasn't?

Stevie Morgan 14:22

it.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 14:23

I mean, would they get packed? Yeah, it was sold out. Yeah, and yeah, we didn't get 50 bucks a game.

Stevie Morgan 14:30

I think now the girls have contracts. Yeah, I think it's a little better, so they didn't even start none whatsoever.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 14:37

And then, like I mean, I'm assuming as a professional boxer you have contracts, do you have an agent? My manager and trainer manager, yeah, so boxing is a little bit different from like, say uh, football or soccer, hockey, basketball probably.

Stevie Morgan 14:55

Uh, I mean, I don't know like some, some fighters have agents, I'm sure, or promoters and different managers and stuff. I just got lucky and have them all in one.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:06

So then, when you fly out to Colombia and you're about to box in Medellin, are you doing anything in Colombia? Are you sightseeing, Are you having a good time or are you just like 100% focused? Nothing could deter you and you're just in the hotel room waiting for the fight.

Stevie Morgan 15:22

Yeah, we travel all over the world but we don't really see everything, because when you're going for a fight, you know you have I wouldn't say butterflies, but you know you're focused on the fight. So to do anything before the fight is never going to happen, and then we just go handle business and leave.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:37

So, yeah, yeah, so it's a sightseeing going on. Does this sound like a job? Then it's like a job almost, unless you really like it. It's my job for sure.

Stevie Morgan 15:52

Yeah, yeah absolutely, um, I guess, uh. Another question here is where's the coolest place that you've been to?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 15:54

coolest place I've been to, hey she's like I can't really remember because all I was worried about is knocking the when I talk to stevie, I feel like stevie's, so that you know it's just like there's nothing else. I don't know the coolest place or, you know, like some place that you enjoyed. I mean, I know you really don't get to sightsee or anything because you're just focused on ripping somebody's head off, but at the same, time there's got to be something memorable.

Stevie Morgan 16:17

I mean Columbia's pretty cool.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 16:18

Yeah, I've been there a couple times and food's good well, when it comes to the boxing aspect of it and the, the professional tour, I mean, how many places are you traveling? It's all over the world, or is it just on the united states?

Stevie Morgan 16:31

oh no, we fight in the united states all over the world. Uh, for sparring.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 16:34

We travel all over the world, so you know we're all over now as far as like, uh, do you have, do you have a lot of like sponsors or something to kind of keep the cost going when it, when you're going to all these different places, cause I mean it's costly and I mean what, what? What are we talking about when you went about, or when you fighting about, like, how much money are you making over here? What are the purses?

Stevie Morgan 16:55

like. I mean, they vary, they vary. So sometimes you're not getting paid. Sometimes you're getting paid good, but you know the purses vary. Yes, then we. You're getting paid good, but you know the purchase vary. Uh, yes, that we do get sponsors for each fight, or I've had good sponsors along the way, for sure. Um, looking for sponsors there we go.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 17:14

Want to shout out any of your sponsors?

Stevie Morgan 17:17

right now. Do we want to shout out any sponsors at this moment? Oh yeah, we have a esposito law, a law firm here in tampa actually I've heard of this, yeah cool guy, uh, hot work, sponsors me um college hunks hauling junk oh, fuck yeah yeah, roman and omar they.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 17:37

They've been um helping me out since I turned pro, so yeah how do you go about, like, do they reach out to you or do you reach out to them? Do you have a team that is actively searching for sponsors for you, or how does that work?

Stevie Morgan 17:51

Sometimes they reach out. Luckily, I've met in the business community. I've come across a lot of people and was able to network, have a team that helps me out too, so it's kind of a team effort.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:05

What would you say is probably the biggest obstacle an up and coming fighter as a female has to face if they want to be at the level that you want to be?

Stevie Morgan 18:15

The biggest obstacle for a woman, I would say, is the pay.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:19

It is.

Stevie Morgan 18:20

Yeah, because we have to do all the same things that men have to do. We still have to train three times a day to be on this level, right. So to be on this level takes 100% dedication, like there is nothing else you can do, and we just, you know, at least men are getting paid for it so they can afford to live that life, and as a woman it's just not.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:39

So what would you say? So then, do you have to, like take other jobs as well when you're up and coming, in order to be able to? I mean a?

Stevie Morgan 18:45

lot of women are entrepreneurs, a lot of fighters have jobs, but that will also hinder you from making it to the level.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 18:55

Because you can't afford enough time to just commit to it for what sounds like 16 hours a day.

Stevie Morgan 19:02

Exactly, it's your life, so there is no time for a job.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 19:06

How'd you overcome that?

Stevie Morgan 19:09

I've had my own business, and probably the biggest reason that I started the business was because I learned when I was playing basketball. I was only able to come in and train one time and I had to go leave for a job and the coach was like the girls are saying, oh, they're coming back for their second and third training session of the day. I'm like, dang, what if I could train three times a day? Like how much better could I be? And so that's always been. That's what kind of like turned me into an animal to create, to think of you know what can I do? That could work itself so that I could focus on what I want to do.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 19:42

So you've also had amateur fights, I'm assuming right. How many fights in the amateur ranks did you have before you decided that? Hey, I'm turning professional.

Stevie Morgan 19:51

That was about almost 40, probably about 40 fights Holy cow 40 over a period of what time? It was like three years, four years.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:01

What's the recovery period? Like? I'm assuming they didn't hurt you then, because if you had that many fights, amateur.

Stevie Morgan 20:08

You're just go on, go all the time. You could fight every week a lot of the tournament tournaments that were in their five-day tournaments. So you're making weight and fighting multiple times and, uh, you know, back to back to back you ever been knocked out?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:21

no no damn. So you knocked out. So you knocked out. So your amateur record. What's your amateur record?

Stevie Morgan 20:25

It was like 40 and 8, something like that. Holy cow.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:28

Never been knocked out either. Now, have you ever seen stars?

Stevie Morgan 20:32

I saw stars. I saw stars one time.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:35

Yeah, yeah, as an amateur or as a.

Stevie Morgan 20:38

As an amateur.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 20:39

What made you choose boxing instead of UFC fighting?

Stevie Morgan 20:46

you choose uh or boxing instead of, like ufc fighting? Oh, that's a good question. I feel like maybe it's just my personal opinion, but I wasn't around you. I wasn't around any mma fighting, so maybe, had I had I, I probably would have maybe, but I feel like you have to start as a child for for sure. There's so many, you know so many disciplines that you need to learn and there's I don't feel like you could be good over.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 21:08

Like that's not something you can start off later on.

Stevie Morgan 21:11

Yeah, how can you start late and master all of these things? You can maybe master one, but five or six, I'm not sure.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 21:19

What do you look up to as far as like an athlete when you were younger and you decided to become a boxer? It could be male or female, who you know, it doesn't matter shoot.

Stevie Morgan 21:28

We study all the grades like in all the sports. So you know, kobe, you know I was a candace parker fan. Um all the old fighters, like old fighters, like charlie burley and salvador sanchez and just any anybody that was at the top in any sport like that's. That's who he studied.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 21:45

Muhammad Ali.

Stevie Morgan 21:46

For sure, a thousand percent.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 21:49

What do you think about his personality, his candor with the media, where he was so eloquent and poetic, I mean it was kind of inspiring. I mean what he says like hey, I murdered a rock, I've paralyzed the stone, man, I'm? I'm so quick, or no, I'm so sick, I make or no, I'm so what? I don't know what he says but. I make medicine sick and I'm like bro, this guy could talk.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 22:14

He was so charismatic and he was a great talker and he was able to sell himself because, I mean, he lost fights. A lot of people don't know that they well I mean at least our generation, you know, the older people watched it, um, but they didn't realize that muhammad ali didn't win every fight and, uh, he's. He's been knocked out too, um, but his ability to brand himself, to be so eloquent and poetic is the reason why he like rise through the ranks, because people wanted, wanted to hear him talk.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 22:45

Yeah, you can't just look at him only for his boxing ability but, what he turned himself to be as an entertainer and motivational speaker, because I mean there's some motivational speeches that I listen to and it's like a compilation and there'll be a plug of Muhammad Ali and I'm like bro, this motherfucker said that and it just blows my mind that he was able to come up with that.

Stevie Morgan 23:07

So what sport do you think mastered entertaining?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:10

Probably boxing. No, the NFL WWE oh yeah there you go. So if you, see Muhammad Ali.

Stevie Morgan 23:20

that's who he studied Wrestlers.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:24

They've mastered it right, right yeah, I mean for me, I really like Mike Tyson. I just liked how he was just like fucking, didn't give a shit. I mean, I don't know how much coke he was on sometimes, but motherfucker, I just liked his like kill mentality and that's what I feel like I got. I see in you, stevie, it's just like when you look at you you're like dude, I'm not here to fuck around, I'm just here to knock your head off, and that's what you need to be a fucking boxer. There's no fear, there's just pretty much hey, I'm coming in, I'm going to win. There's nothing about it.

Stevie Morgan 23:53

You spar with men, I do.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 23:55

Yeah, You've knocked out some men too. I have.

Stevie Morgan 24:01

No, unfortunately there's not many women who box, and then there's not many that box on a high level. So sparring, sparring, getting women sparring is hard.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 24:13

So we have to spar men, but in the same weight class. I'm assuming it's not like you're going above your weight class.

Stevie Morgan 24:18

With men. Yeah, no, we'll spar anybody though.

The Mental Game of Fighting

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 24:21

Oh really, mm-hmm, Holy cow. All right, guys, when we get back with Happy Hour Holidays, we'll continue the story with Stevie over here and you know, like comment and subscribe and we appreciate all the fans out there We'll be right back. Welcome back to Happy Hour Holidays. Manny had to step out of the office. You know life happens. And now as guest host, we got Mouniet of Mouniet Boxing, all right, and this guy has been boxing since he was, or fighting and boxing since he was six years old. And how old are you now? 41, now 41 here, 41. So shit, man, that's a long time. I wonder how did you meet Stevie? Because you are her trainer and her coach manager and shit friend, I'm assuming. So how did it all come about? How did you meet?

Monyette 25:17

And I mean yeah, we met through a mutual acquaintance. It's like Stevie was boxing, I didn't. I didn't think she was boxing for real. And then, you know, one day I was around there and I was like, oh, you want to box for real. And she's like, yeah, but then I still didn't take a serious until I met a trainer that was training her name John Casella, and the stuff he was teaching and she was like on the phone talking to me about like I got to do this, I got to do this and I'm like man, you want to box for real. So it got my attention.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 25:49

Yeah, and since then? I mean, how long ago was that?

Monyette 25:54

That was like eight years ago.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 25:56

Eight years ago, oh shit.

Stevie Morgan 25:58

He came and watched me spar.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 26:00

You were 19. Because you're 27 now, right?

Stevie Morgan 26:05

Definitely not, I wish.

Monyette 26:07

Yeah, same.

Stevie Morgan 26:08

Nice. How old are you? I'm 36.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 26:10

Oh, I thought you said you were 27.

Stevie Morgan 26:12

No, my first amateur fight was when I was 28. Oh, okay.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 26:17

You had some good questions back there. All fair, you were coming up with some good stuff. What were some of those questions that we want the people to see? We want the people to hear from Stevie.

Monyette 26:29

It's about something like who are some of her dream opponents? Like three dream opponents she would have loved to fight in the air.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 26:39

You didn't want to answer it either, or do you?

Stevie Morgan 26:44

If I could pick any female to fight that ever lived, I'd probably love to get in the ring with Christy Martin. That's one, two more. The Sea Riker, two, that'd be, that'd be a good one.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:01

That'd be a banger. That'd be a good one.

Stevie Morgan 27:03

Mm-hmm, and who would be another one from back then?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:10

Queen Elizabeth.

Stevie Morgan 27:13

I'd get her out of there in one for sure In one.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:15

How about in like 10?

Stevie Morgan 27:16

seconds.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:17

I mean, well, she's dead now. But yeah, I mean, if I could fight anybody, it probably would be, and just to see is Genghis Khan, but I would need a sword or a gun and he'd have to be no weapons. What about you?

Monyette 27:34

Oh, with me. My favorite fighter of all time is Roberto Duran.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:39

Okay.

Monyette 27:39

So I love to just fight him, probably with just hand wraps on no gloves and nothing, just me and him see.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:46

Yeah.

Monyette 27:47

Yeah, I like to go all the way back. Old school, bare knuckle almost.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 27:51

And I know we were talking a little bit off air also about celebrity. I know you don't want to answer that question that you would like to meet, question that you would like to meet celebrity you would like to meet.

Stevie Morgan 28:05

I had to think about that one what about you?

Monyette 28:08

I would love to meet Sugar Ray Robinson. You know he died non-boxer, non-fighter, that's all we do is boxing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 28:15

I know I get it, so it's hard to ask other questions.

Monyette 28:17

Yeah, yeah, I don't know probably I would love to meet Malcolm X to ask other questions. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Probably I would have loved to meet Malcolm X. Malcolm X, okay, malcolm X.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 28:26

Historical figure? Yeah, I'd like to meet, probably Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar, yeah, I mean, the guy dominated all of Europe. It was wild, but let me, let me stand back here. I mean, you got some good fighting questions for her.

Monyette 28:41

Yeah, what's your top three favorite female fighters of all time?

Stevie Morgan 28:48

Top three favorite Sia Riker for sure.

Monyette 28:57

I mean Kirstie Martin. Yeah, Kirstie Martin's my favorite.

Stevie Morgan 29:00

I like watching Ann wolf knock everybody out um you're gonna name yourself, right oh, people that are that are alive right now yeah, it could be you you could name yourself.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:13

I'm my favorite fighter, for sure there you go yeah and, uh, he said that you had five belts. What, what were they?

Stevie Morgan 29:21

So I was a UBO world champion, wbf world champion, abf world champion, wbn world champion. What's the other one? I think I defended it. I had like an intercontinental belt, won and then got the world. So that would be five.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:40

I had like an intercontinental belt won and then got the world, so that would be five. So then are you just fighting light heavyweight throughout all those belt victories, right, Not?

Stevie Morgan 29:46

light heavyweight.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:47

Oh, I'm sorry. Lightweight, yeah, yeah, lightweight throughout all those. So have you ever moved up or down a weight class?

Stevie Morgan 29:55

No, I fight at 135.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 29:57

I would.

Stevie Morgan 29:58

I'll fight anybody. I can go up. I can go down is there a reason why you wouldn't just if opportunity comes?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 30:06

yeah, and and in terms of opportunities, because we were talking about this there isn't much for women in terms of the the pay disparity, and is. I mean, what are we talking about here? You said you fought for free, sometimes as a professional.

Stevie Morgan 30:22

Yeah, I mean, sometimes we have to pay for fights, what? Yeah, that's just how boxing is.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 30:28

Pay to enter.

Stevie Morgan 30:31

Pay to play basically.

Monyette 30:32

It's more like you covering yourself to even get a fight, because a lot of people don't even support women boxing. So the whole point of they they say I'm not paying you nothing to fight on our show, so now here we go fighting and not getting anything out of just to get the exposure and paying just like paying for your hotel, paying for your, paying for the flight and you, you come out in the red aren't most of these fights pay-per-view though? No.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 30:59

No, mm-mm. So when? All right. So let's say there's a major boxing event and let's talk to the uneducated boxing viewer. Let's say that there's an event that is being hosted for men's boxing. Are there women on that day as well, or do women have a separate day and men's boxing takes place on another day?

Stevie Morgan 31:24

no, they're all together, but not too many. Not too many promoters support women's boxing or are promoting women's boxing, so why is that? I'm just I don't know if there's just the viewership isn't there, I'm not sure. I'm not sure, like we'd have to ask a promoter, to be honest, but there's. There's probably like a handful you can count on one hand of women that are signed to promoters that we know, and everybody else is like the other.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 31:47

Thousands of girls are just fending for themselves out here, so so, what it makes for an opportunity to fight one of those five you know, would it make sense to actually start a woman's boxing promotion company?

Stevie Morgan 32:01

It could. Um, I believe MVP, believe MVP is trying to do that. I think they're supporting women's boxing heavy and with Amanda Serrano being the pioneer of that, and they just signed like four more females. So Jake Paul, I think I mean right now he's the only one doing it- Jake Paul, as in the. Yeah, Jake Paul, Jake Paul.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:20

Yeah, so he's starting what mvp?

Stevie Morgan 32:23

I'm sorry most valuable promotions, it's jake paul's promotion and he's promoting.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:28

Is it social media fights? Is what he's promoting, or is he promoting?

Stevie Morgan 32:31

he's promoting real women's boxing really and he's trying to. I don't know what you would say, but he's trying to not just promote women's boxing, but he's trying to not just promote women's boxing, but he's trying to get the exposure that women need and the pay that women deserve. And you know he's a huge advocate for women's boxing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 32:50

When did he start that? Is it recent that he's been promoting women's boxing now?

Stevie Morgan 32:57

I'm not sure exactly like as far as years, but a couple of years for sure, A few years, yeah, a few years, yeah A few years now, and do you see it as something that is going to grow, hopefully?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 33:08

I mean, where is he releasing these fights? It's pay-per-view, right.

Stevie Morgan 33:12

So these are being exposed on Netflix. So I think he's doing a good job, whether we're a part of it or not. He's doing a good job of finally getting eyes on women's boxing we're a part of it or not. He's doing a good job of finally getting eyes on women's women's boxing and I think that's the biggest issue, uh, with women getting paid and women getting signed with big promoters is because not too many. There's not boxing in general, like it's not mainstream anymore. It used to be on tv, it used to be. You know, you used to see the olympics on tv and it's just not getting the exposure that it was. So the fans aren aren't. There's not a fan base.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 33:42

Have they reached out to you or I?

Stevie Morgan 33:44

mean I fought on their show when I fought Amanda Serrano, so yeah, oh, okay. Yeah, so we did get that opportunity. And it's like women's basketball, like Caitlin Clark got a contract for what? 76 grand?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 33:55

Yeah, but I mean through her promotions, through her sponsorships and Nike. Yeah, you, I mean through her promotions through her sponsorships in Nike.

Stevie Morgan 34:00

Yeah, you got to get money from other ways.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:01

I mean, it's the same thing. Like Tiger Woods only made $192 million on the PGA Tour, but he made his billion.

Stevie Morgan 34:08

Yeah, but only $192 million.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:10

I mean that's a lot of money. Don't get me wrong, I ain't complaining about that.

Stevie Morgan 34:14

Compared to $76 grand. Yeah, yeah.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:17

You can't, but I'm not debating that fact but also viewership. It's viewership which you brought up. I mean, if people aren't watching, it's not making money.

Stevie Morgan 34:26

Yeah, if people aren't watching it, it's fair that they wouldn't get paid.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:28

But the problem is if it's not being promoted. That's why people aren't watching it, because they don't know that it's on.

Stevie Morgan 34:33

They don't know it exists.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 34:34

Yeah. So I mean, jake Paul, shout out, jake Paul out. Jake paul, good for you for, yeah, for trying to put new eyes on, uh, the sport. Because I don't know about you, I like watching sports, period. I don't care if it's it's women's boxing or men's boxing, I like watching sports. And if there's nothing on tv, I'm not gonna put on like big bang theory, I'm gonna go to the nearest sports that I can find and I I'm going to turn it on and I'm going to watch it. So I mean, I do understand the disparity in wages and it sucks, it sucks for you, yeah, it sucks for you, it sucks for women, and then it's just boxing in general Like boxing in general MMA.

Women in Boxing: Challenges and Opportunities

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 35:18

like you have to pay to be a fan, do you think that UFC has actually taken some viewership away from boxing? This is a question for both of you.

Stevie Morgan 35:25

I don't know if it's taken it away, but I think it has more exposure, right Like, more people are watching it because you have access, more access, maybe, I believe.

Monyette 35:34

MMA taken away because years ago MMA wasn't around no, it wasn't, and boxing was the number one sport. But now when MMA came, MMA believed in the best fighting the best, and boxing kind of so political now, where the best don't fight the best. So of course we losing some of this team we had years ago. It's still up there. It could be better if the best challenge the best more.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 35:59

So let me ask you you said boxing is political, so basically you have to get people to want to have you fight the best, or like. What do you mean by that?

Monyette 36:11

uh, political is like. It's like this side is against this side. So it's like a lot of people want to control their own money and their their money is on their side, so they don't want to bring you in and give you a chance to take some of their money away. So it's more political on how.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:27

It's kind of like who you know.

Monyette 36:28

They kind of pick who they want to be the champion.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:31

How do they pick it though?

Monyette 36:33

Because the best don't fight the best. They almost giving belts away now Almost.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:38

You know, like the last fight I saw that what I would assume the best would fight the best was Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, which was like. I'm pretty sure that was like five years ago or six years ago or maybe even further back Longer than that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 36:52

Yeah, maybe like eight or nine, ten years ago, and I remember it was a big deal because we went to a hotel to watch the event on a projector screen and and there was rows of seats like not even at the actual fight, just to watch the fight on a projector screen and um, I was like this is the best thing ever, like shit, this is what boxing is. I feel like after that fight, I mean it, it kind of UFC took over, almost.

Monyette 37:25

The reason why is because the whole world almost stopped to watch that fight because it was the best against the best. But when they seen the outcome it was like, oh, this boxing it's just hit and not be hit, it's not entertaining. Like MMA is MMA. You see a lot of blood, you see people tapping out, you see knockouts with the smaller gloves and in boxing it's all. It's a sweet science, you know.

Monyette 37:47

You got to know what you're looking at to enjoy it. And for a regular fan, you don't know what you're looking at when you're watching boxing. But a fighter, do Like you could watch Shakur Stevenson and say like, wow, man, I can't get into it, but you could take me and I watch Shakur Stevenson. I say, wow, man, that's some beautiful boxing, you know. So it's like really on what people want to see. People want to see blood and they want to see knockouts, see people teeth flying out their mouth. But in boxing, you see, you see like the sweet signs and then, if you keep watching, you'll eventually see the knockouts and how this person break them down.

Stevie Morgan 38:21

So do you think the politics has something to do with that? Like, fighters have learned to hit and not be hit and are scared to fight more because if they lose they're not going to get that next opportunity. Like, do you think that has something to do with it?

Monyette 38:34

Oh yeah, it have a lot to do with it. It's more like they control who they want people to see. They want people to see, they want people to see the rock about boy movie, yeah now. So they put the not too smart fighters in there. Now you know, you don't see high-level boxers fighting each other, no more.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 38:49

You see, you see the ones that come in, rock them, sock them and that's what's up on april 26, where we're going to see two high-level fighters fight. Right, to see two high level fighters fight. Right, that's right. I mean you're right. What people want to see is blood, right? Maybe? Great question you think Rocky fucked it up for everybody?

Monyette 39:12

Rocky brought a lot of attention to boxing. When the best is not fighting the best, that's what's killing boxing, really.

Stevie Morgan 39:21

That's why he made me, he instilled in me to be a successful fighter. In general, of course you have to win, but to make people want to see you you have to knock these girls out. That's always been from the beginning. I wasn't allowed to turn pro until I started stopping people in the gym. Once I was able to do that, he allowed me to turn pro. That's the whole thing like. Unless you're knocking people out, they're not going to want to see you.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 39:46

So I mean that's pretty much a fact. I mean that's great advice in my opinion, because, as an average viewer that doesn't really know too much about boxing other than you know, I've taken classes here and there I mean nothing to the level of what you guys are at, but, um, I mean shit when I look at it. I understand when they're slipping and they're you know, I get it, but I want to see someone get knocked the fuck out now, not too quick either. I mean let's put on a show a little bit. You know I'm paying per view. I mean it's nice to see someone get knocked out in five seconds. Actually that's cool as shit. But no, I get it, I get I get where why the sport is, I wouldn't say struggling, because it's not. I mean you got, like you said, logan paul, the one that fights, so jake paul jake paul's the one with the promotion company, but uh, one that fights is jake j.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:38

Yeah, I watched his fight. With what was it? Mike Tyson?

Stevie Morgan 40:42

Oh yeah, I just know about that, yeah what a fucking shame.

Monyette 40:45

Yeah, you was expecting a knockout. Yeah, I was expecting Mike Tyson to knock him out?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:49

Yeah, for sure. And then, instead, what do I get? You know, fucking.

Stevie Morgan 40:54

But did you see the girls fight before then?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 40:55

No, Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor. Yeah, now they put on the show, yeah, and maybe that's where the promotion therein lacks, because they didn't promote that fight. I mean, yeah, it was in the undercard, but what they really want to see is the main event and that's. I didn't watch any of the other fights, just that one, but it doesn't matter, because they were still pay-per-view whether you watched it or not. They should, in their contract, at least state that there is a percentage that is delineated to the fighter while they're performing during that event, because they bought it for the event, not for the one fight, even though some people did.

Stevie Morgan 41:37

Does that make sense? A lot of sense.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 41:38

Yeah people did Does that make sense, a lot of sense, which, I mean, does kind of go back to a question is why not UFC? And I know you said because you have to learn this stuff at a young age, but I mean shit.

Stevie Morgan 41:53

I mean, I'll fight anybody.

Monyette 41:57

MMA and boxing. It's like it got its own goods and bads. It's like in MMA, them guys are.

Stevie Morgan 42:03

That's like real brutal.

Monyette 42:05

You got to be ready for everything. Those smaller gloves, yeah. And then shout out to Blake Smith. I trained MMA.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 42:12

Martin lay him down Brown.

Monyette 42:13

He did MMA yeah shout out his fight.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 42:15

What is it?

Monyette 42:16

Martin Brown, Blake Smith fight April the 19th in Tampa, and then Martin Brown and Edgar Delgado they fight. April 25th in Clearwater.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 42:29

Is that in the Amelie Arena? No, where in the 19th?

Monyette 42:33

The 19th is I don't have the address yet, but it's in Tampa for sure. And then April 25th is Star Boxing and Clearwater. Martin Brown and Edgar Delgado and all of them do MMA, and Blake Steele do MMA.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 42:50

I went to a couple MMA events One in Orlando actually, where Vince was supposed to fight, but I guess his opponent backed out or whatever it was, and I haven't been able to see him fight in person. But I mean, I didn't realize there was this many events going on in this area. I mean, like it's happening multiple times a month. I mean there goes the promotion right, because they're not promoting it. Maybe they're promoting it through social media, but I'm not seeing it. They're not promoting it on TV, I'm not seeing it. Maybe they're promoting it through social media, but I'm not seeing it. They're not promoting it on TV, I'm not seeing it. I mean, in most of those events that you're talking about, the fighters are fighting for free, right.

Monyette 43:27

No no. Oh they're getting paid. Yeah, they're getting paid, for sure. You know, it's just the whole point. It's not pay-per-view, so regular people don't know about it. You know you kind of got to be involved in the sports to keep up with what's going on in your area.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 43:41

So then do you see a lot of the same audience members show up to the same fights, maybe also the same. So essentially it's the whole community coming in, buying the tickets and probably showing up to support the fighters.

Monyette 43:53

Yeah, every fighter got his own fan base so they're able to get tickets or get tickets out, get their people in there and then the promotion got his own fan base, and different fighters just bring different crowds.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 44:05

And is it from different parts of the country? It's not like everybody just from Tampa. It's probably some other people from different parts of the country also fighting.

Monyette 44:13

Yeah, for sure. People from New York, people come in from Canada, florida, all over.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 44:21

And you're not from Florida. No, you are from Memphis, tennessee, my wife's from Clarksville, tennessee, so the other side of the state. But why Tampa? I'm just curious, why'd you decide to move to Tampa?

Monyette 44:33

I moved from Memphis to Las Vegas first, and I was in Vegas like nine years training and helping fighters, and then I moved here when COVID hit. And then Stevie she was the reason I came here too, because of her dedication to the sport and I told her. I said, if I I said the only way you're going to really make it, I said I got to kind of be around you too. So that's how that happened. So I came when COVID hit and we hit the ground running.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 45:02

I'm going to ask this question for Vince. You don't have to name nobody, but I promise Vince, how do you feel about the business of boxing and women's boxing in general?

Monyette 45:16

it's a bad time to ask women about women's boxing because, you know, I asked it, vince. Yeah, the business of boxing is like normal, but women boxing is kind of harder than men boxing, really, because it's like giving women authority, you know, and they just don't know how to use it. Don't know how to use the authority, so they like kind of, you know, head, I mean, I say head swell up, fucking head swell up. And next thing, you know, you know, they think that they can replace you with anybody and make you feel like you wasn't even there at the beginning. It just it's weird. But women boxing is I'm starting not to like it, I mean, and I was the one of the ones that really supported it, like I trained females so but it's like I'm starting to not like it too much, you know.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:15

Anybody that in particular may have pissed you off.

Monyette 46:19

No, just the fight game. What come with?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:22

I'm trying to dig in there.

Stevie Morgan 46:25

I can't say it there's no friends in boxing there's no friend.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 46:28

Yeah, okay, and this was a good one that you put it pointed out, and so did you. It's a lonely world, right, very lonely you. You mentioned that like specifically, you said you know this is it like your friends are the ones in the gym, your family and nobody else?

Stevie Morgan 46:45

yeah, and it's family's even hard to say because we don't see them much either. You know it's a sacrifice to sacrifice. Uh, you know he's away from his family. I'm away from my family. Fighters have to be away from their family. Like you miss birthdays, you miss everything. You miss everything. You just.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:03

Anniversaries, everything yeah.

Stevie Morgan 47:05

So you kind of be a bad kid to your parents, you kind of be a bad parent to your kids, can't really cultivate any kind of friendships and things like that. And then in the gym you feel like that would be your, that would be the few friends you do have, and that's not even true. So so, yeah, it'd be. It's a lonely road.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:25

It's kind of like it's a, it's a lonely road that you travel and you know. Even so, you're just alienated.

Stevie Morgan 47:35

Yeah.

The Harsh Realities of Boxing

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 47:35

Essentially. But what people don't realize is that is what's necessary Definitely. But what people don't realize is that is what's necessary in order to succeed, because relationships are our job. I don't care what anybody says, relationships are a motherfucking job. All right, you're spending this much time on your relationship. That means you're not spending this much time on your goal, your dream, and your parents may not understand. Your friends may not understand, but it's not their fucking purpose to understand. It is your purpose to understand what you want. You don't need validation from anybody as long as you are on the road that you chose to be on.

Stevie Morgan 48:14

Yeah. So people that are not in our world. They'll say, oh well, you need to figure out balance and this and you need to make time for everything. Fuck that. So I don't know who said it, it was a Tim Grover, somebody. Like balance is an illusion, like balance, balance, you know, you add more things to your plate rather than focus on one thing. So balance is crap, you know, and I mean that's how we feel.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 48:42

Well, the fact of the matter is let's put it this way way you can't expect people that have never achieved what you're trying to achieve to understand what you're doing, and you can never see, uh ask for validation from those people because you're going to be somewhere where they've never been yeah, and they don't understand the journey, especially in this sport, like, maybe football players can go it's not just a sport, it's in life. Life it's in business. Yeah, for sure, yeah.

Stevie Morgan 49:02

But especially in boxing. Like boxing is one of those very unforgiving sports, like if you take a break one day, one moment, like maybe a football player, football has teammates or basketball has teammates, you know. Like maybe they can afford to go hang out one night or they might go drink something or go take a vacation Right, boxing, we can't afford those things. We can't have one off day because our life is on the line when we get in there, yeah, and you might, you might go hang out with somebody and you can literally die.

Stevie Morgan 49:34

So it's not like that's a fact, it's not like a guess, and that's just the sport that we're in. So there is no fun out, there is no smoking, there's no drinking, there is no extracurricular activities. Like ever since I've never been on vacation. Like there's no breaks, because the moment that you do something bad could look like you know, like something the moment that you do.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 49:59

Somebody is out there working somebody's working harder than you. Yeah, yeah and what you, and you have already realized that.

Stevie Morgan 50:06

But when you get in the ring. You're by yourself yeah you're by yourself.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 50:09

So anything that you've done or did, or if you're not, you know like you're in there by yourself, you don't have a whole team to like bail you out if you are not fully prepared at that moment, at the end of the day, all the consequences fall on you, which could be death, because there's been many boxers that died in the ring.

Stevie Morgan 50:29

Yeah, it's the hurt business. I think we've just seen it was like 13 fighters average that die a year. We don't hear about them all. Oh shit bro.

Monyette 50:38

That's the truth about boxing A lot of people. Don't talk about it because it'll detour a lot of kids from wanting to do it. It's a lot of deaths in it, it's a lot of comas, it's a lot of people who's, you know, like vegetables right now.

Stevie Morgan 50:51

You just recently lost a friend to boxing in Carson. Yeah, I didn't hear that.

Monyette 50:56

It, just it come with the territory. So it's like when you training, you're not just training to just win, you really training to kill, but people don't like to talk about it, you know. It's like when we're in the gym training torturing ourselves, it's really to try to really get rid of them.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 51:10

I mean, that's the whole. Goal is to battle.

Monyette 51:12

Exactly. Yeah, you're going to war.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 51:14

I mean that guy's not your friend or girl is not your friend. They're there to hurt you. They're trying to hurt you. Yeah, they're trying to knock you the fuck out. And with that we'll be right back with Happy Hour Holidays. Welcome back to Happy Hour Holidays, where I am the host. Since Manny is not here and I am clearly an alcoholic, let's fucking go.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 51:40

So we left off at, uh, where we leave off, guys lonely sport lonely sport yes, lonely sport, and people not understanding that this and friends, family, not understanding that. This is what it is and it's in life, it's in business, it's in everything, every aspect of our life. How does one overcome that? How does one overcome that? Both of you have done it. Both of you have gone through it. What's the advice to the individuals that are maybe pursuing it now on how to deal with, let's say, relationships with families and friends and how to tell them hey, listen, you're not on the same path. I am, and you know. How do you, how do you guys do it.

Stevie Morgan 52:33

You kind of just can't feel bad about it, that's right, yeah. You kind of have to be selfish, but in a good way, if that makes sense, like it is of have to be selfish but in a good way, if that makes sense, like it is. You got to be selfish and people are going to try to pull at you and not understand and you just can't feel bad, even though you will sometimes. You know, sometimes we feel bad, but at the end of the day, no they're not paying your bills.

Stevie Morgan 53:00

They're not paying the bills, and not even money. It's just, it's a personal thing, and this is my path, and this is what I'm trying to do.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 53:08

You've actually dealt with it because you're you're since 1920s is what you said.

Monyette 53:13

I have a cousin here at Armstrong. He probably, if you had to say the greatest feet farthest ever lived, he'll be one of them Top three. If I just ever lived, he'll be one of them Top three probably. He was back in the 30s 40s 50s.

Monyette 53:27

He paid away for me with my family. He's my cousin on my mom's side. It's like if you compete, of course you can stay average with everybody just competing, but if you want to win you got to be selfish to winning, because winning is selfish. They don't care how hard you train, you still got to say that, yeah, winning is selfish. Yeah, winning is selfish.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 53:48

They don't care.

Monyette 53:49

They don't care about nobody.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 53:50

Oh, you mean, oh shit, oh fuck.

Monyette 53:53

Yeah, so it's like that's philosophical right there. Yeah, so it's more like you. You got to put in the time, you got to take time away from family and friends and being hanging out and all that just so you can win. And sometimes winning still don't give it to you. You get in a fight, still might not get your hand raised, but it's like that's the risk that we take, you know.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 54:17

And we were also talking about the pure violence of the sport and how people have died and that's what kind of turns off a lot of people on, uh, wanting to maybe join boxing, right, yeah, I mean, you have to overcome that.

Monyette 54:32

what would you give fighters advice in terms of people that want to start fighting, maybe amateur level or professional level, like hey, this is actually a risk oh, what I do is some people walk into my gym first, I ask their goals and that goes got to be big enough for me to even want to help them hey, you were telling me that.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 54:51

Yeah, what'd you say? You said it's not enough to just want to be a world champion.

Monyette 54:55

Yeah it's not being aware of champion nothing material can a material thing can't be your goal. It got to be something big. You got to be like changing your goal. It got to be something big. It got to be like changing your family life. It got to be doing this for your country. It got to be as big as you know. Just find something to be special.

Stevie Morgan 55:13

You just want to be great yeah.

Monyette 55:15

Greatness is somebody special Like you can name on one hand the greatest fighters that ever lived. You can't name on one hand how many world championships it was so many of those. That's a great fucking point. Yeah, you want to be special in boxing because it's a big risk. And then the second thing I tell them is I point all the people on the wall. I say all these champions on the wall. This guy right here, he homeless and broke. This guy right here, he's in a coma. This guy blind because of boxing. These guys, these two died in the ring. I tell them the truth about it and I let them give them a choice, give them a chance to really come back to me and let me know if they still want to do it. If they still want to do it now. They know the risk that's involved. You got to be willing to kill, really, really be willing to die, if you want to kill somebody.

Stevie Morgan 56:06

He made me take a whole year before I Took one match. So I fought my first amateur fight and then, before I had my second amateur fight, he told me to take a whole year to study boxing and to study this study.

Stevie Morgan 56:22

The history and to study this, study the history of boxing, the greats of boxing, but also all the bad things that could happen to you to make sure this is the path you want to go, so that by the time we're doing this, we know what we signed up for. So he made me take a whole year and really make sure this is what you want to do, because if this is what you're going to do, this is what can happen. Are you okay with that? What made you think to yourself?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:51

well, not think to yourself. You decided yes, this is okay. I mean what's?

Stevie Morgan 56:52

the alternative. I'm not sure. I don't know.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 56:53

You can get it by car plane could flip upside down, roll over on a I'd rather die trying to be great than die walking down the street.

Stevie Morgan 57:02

I don't know.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 57:02

And then you came to terms where you're like this is what I want, I'm willing to die or kill for it, and I mean that's honestly what seems to be. The reason why you're so successful in boxing is because you came to terms with that. And, damn bro, great coaching strategy. Hey, this is what can happen. To terms with that. And damn bro, great coaching strategy. We're hey, this is what can happen. Research this shit, Make sure 100% you're okay with this, because you have to come to terms with the fact that you could kill someone or be killed in the ring.

Stevie Morgan 57:38

Yeah, and like are you okay with that? Are you okay with leaving your family behind? Are you okay with leaving your kids behind, like you're all right if you have to be in a coma the rest of your life?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 57:47

Did you fight while you were pregnant? That's probably a stupid question. Yeah, but I mean I probably never been asked that before I came out fighting. They went for the body shot, I slipped and then boom, she's out, no man. But yeah, I mean shit, yeah, that's real. And then we were saying that, like I think you said, 13 people had died, like on average die every year from boxing, as I'm assuming amateurs or professionals.

Stevie Morgan 58:19

Yeah, probably mostly pros, but I think some amateurs do. But you know you don't hear about it often, you don't hear about it, but it happens. Amateurs or professionals yeah, probably mostly pros, but I think some amateurs do. Yeah, um, but you know you don't hear about it often, you don't hear about it, but it happens all the time do you ever watch uh creed?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 58:29

no, yeah, yeah. So is there? I'm sure there is. Remember how you started off the movie boxing in mexico? There's shit like that going on where you can make money and bet on yourself and just like collect. Are there those kind of underground fights in america where you can make money and bet on yourself and just collect? Are there those kind of underground fights in America where you can and you don't have to name any specific places if that shit happens or if it does not? I know that's the amateur shit, but I'm saying is there places like that?

Monyette 58:55

Oh yeah, I'm sure For sure. Like private, yeah, not even private. It's like if you're in the area you'll hear about it or you'll be a part of it. But you got to start somewhere, and boxing ain't about where you at, it's really where you want to go or where you're going. So you kind of got to start down there, like Mexico and places like that you know underground stuff, just so you can.

Monyette 59:18

Because those aren't sanctioned? Right, yeah, they'd be sanctioned. Oh, because those aren't sanctioned, right, yeah, they'd be sanctioned. Oh, okay, yeah, they'd be sanctioned. Sometimes you can get some underground just for gambling. We did it all Fight with Knuckles when I was growing up.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 59:30

BKFC.

Monyette 59:31

We was doing that before BKFC even came out. Oh shit, yeah, we was always fighting. It was like when you box, a lot of people don't really understand that. When you see a fighter, you look at them, you just think that they box. So you don't want to be on the street fighting. But they don't understand that we love fighting. So it's like we just want to get paid for it, but we'd rather fight anywhere. You know, fighting is fighting. So if you love it, you love it, but it don't matter what it is.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 59:59

What is it about fighting you like?

Monyette 1:00:01

I grew up in this in my blood. I get it, yeah, like you specifically?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:00:05

What is it about fighting that you like I?

Monyette 1:00:07

just like to hurt, I like to crush motherfuckers. There you go, I like to break their shit. You know, even in the corner, like coaching, I like pain. You know I like to make this guy. You know, because it's personal to me. You know it's personal and you know like. You know how you'll say somebody keeping you a hater out here, or somebody don't want to see you make it, or this person stab you in the back, I believe, when you get in the ring with your opponent. He did it, you know, he the one, he trying to put you back in that situation.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:00:38

You're thinking everything that happened in your life and then just pointing it straight at that person.

Monyette 1:00:43

Yeah, it's personal, because he in the way of your dreams and your goals. So I say we get through him and go to the next.

Living the Fighter Lifestyle

Stevie Morgan 1:00:51

Teddy Atlas said it right Life isn't fair, or hasn't been fair maybe for a lot of fighters, and you can get in the ring and make life fair. So it's like you kind of like take it out on your opponent, stuff that happened to you in your life or people that did you wrong, you kind of get even.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:01:10

It's like the fuel right there, even though that person had nothing to do with it. But that's the motivating factor in wanting to knock the fuck out of somebody out right in front of you.

Monyette 1:01:23

Yeah, it's personal. So you got people these days that they don't have that mentality. They don't have the mentality of this dude really want to hurt you and they're like, no, he's just boxing. Nah, he really want to hurt you. Who don't want to catch a body? Everybody want to kill something. But when you hear the top fighters talk about it, they kind of bash him and say, oh no, you don't want to talk like that, you don't want to do that. But it's like it's really, it's the truth. This guy really want to hurt you.

Monyette 1:01:47

Why do you think he trained? Why do you think he got two months of training just for you? He ain't in there just to get his hand raised. This guy want to make a name for himself and feed his family. You kind of got to. If he got an infant child and he trying to feed his child, you got to be ready to take this spoon out of his kid mouth and put it in your kid mouth. Somebody going to eat and somebody ain't going to eat. And who would you rather eat? Your child or her child?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:02:12

No, it kind of reminds me of I love the way you're explaining it the movie water boy. You ever see water boy where? Visualize an attack. Visualize an attack, and it's kind of what you're doing when you're fighting in the ring. You're visualizing everything that makes you upset, angry, pissed off, you know whatever it is, and you're saying that's the guy I'm going to fuck up because that's the mentality you need to be successful in boxing, right, yeah?

Stevie Morgan 1:02:42

And all the other stuff that comes with boxing, like the discipline it gives you a regimen keeps you in line.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:02:50

What are you in the military? No, no. You said for country, so I didn't know.

Monyette 1:02:57

A lot of people. When you're fighting against somebody from Cuba or Philippines, you see how they live the country. It'd be kind of hard, you know, like real hard and this who? They trying to change their family life and you in front of them and you've been partying all week, you've been taking days off, this dude going to kill you because he'll kill them. You know You'll kill for your family and that's what we'll do in the ring. We'll kill for your family and that's what we'll do in the ring. We'll kill for our family.

Monyette 1:03:25

I mean both of y'all are killers.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:26

It sounds like.

Stevie Morgan 1:03:27

No, it sounds like Proven.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:29

Proven. Yeah, you know Because, yeah, you said you were world ring number three in the United States. But they won't give a title shot unless you're number two.

Stevie Morgan 1:03:50

No like to qualify for the olympics is like a whole yeah, it's a whole thing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:03:52

You know amateur, I started a little late and, uh, for starting late, we still made it up there, so and that was pretty cool. So then on april 26 that fight is for a belt yeah, yeah, lightweight though lightweight, well lightweight.

Stevie Morgan 1:04:00

It's a wb regional belt.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:02

What's the difference between the belts? Because I always see some people walking out with like four or five belts. Is it just like?

Stevie Morgan 1:04:09

which one is the one that you?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:10

want, though, which is the one that you world champ, right? Is that what it's called?

Stevie Morgan 1:04:17

Yeah, there's four, so there's, or five, but there's four sanctioning bodies that everybody has. So when you say you see people with all the belts, it's because they have them all, they've acquired, they've accumulated them all.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:29

Did you ever lose a belt? Title defense. I did Just once. Mm-hmm To Amanda Serrano. No it was my ninth fight. You've only lost two, though right, I forget.

Stevie Morgan 1:04:44

And I really won. They didn't give it to me.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:04:46

Oh yeah, the majority decision. Yeah that's right. Yeah, that's kind of hurt, pisses you off. So actually this Saturday I know this is going to be released after the fight that she's taking this Saturday she also has another one april 26th. Uh, this saturday.

Stevie Morgan 1:05:06

tell us about that one real quick so we have a short notice by uh, julia cassiani, I believe, is the name what's her ranking? She's 72, something like that. So that's not even fair.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:05:22

Another victim. You're gonna destroy her. What's the plan?

Stevie Morgan 1:05:26

well, I mean we're gonna go get some sparring for our next fight that's kind of what it sounds like a spark no, but you know, I mean, is it?

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:05:35

fair to her that she's fighting you I mean, they called us so they feel like they can.

Stevie Morgan 1:05:41

They can beat us.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:05:42

They called us, so they feel like they can beat us. They called us. So Vince was telling me that there's A players and B players and usually the A player will get set up with a B player. So she was probably the A player at the time, set up with a B player, and then you come in and you're going to absolutely destroy her and now you are the A player and now she's the B player, which means that she's going to get rocked.

Monyette 1:06:13

She don't know, we know, but she don't know.

Stevie Morgan 1:06:16

She thinks she can beat us, she wouldn't get in the ring. When you get in the ring, it's 50-50. She's not taking this fight.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:06:23

Believes she's not taking this fight, not with.

Stevie Morgan 1:06:24

Stevie, come on. She's not taking this fight because she thinks she's going to lose. She's taking this fight because she believes she can win.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:06:31

Do you think she's taking it just because she wants to fight and needs a paycheck? Because I'm assuming you guys are getting paid to do it right.

Stevie Morgan 1:06:38

Yeah, but for women it's not life-changing. So if you see a woman in any professional sport, it's because they love it. They signed up for it, not for the money, and that's a dangerous fighter, oh shit.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:06:56

So every woman fight is hard because we're not doing it for the money. So I know you guys don't have too much time left here, but I want to do. What we do at the end of every episode is that we ask uh each of our guests to give their last words, their final words, words of encouragement, uh for audience members that can be uh helpful to their daily lives, whether it could be about boxing, it could be about entrepreneurship, it could be about anything that you guys want to do, just whatever you want to give to the audience members out there. Let's start with one yet.

Monyette 1:07:30

For for people that want to be a boxer and want to be a champion, want to be something special. Just know you got to give it all you got. You can't take no days off because this sport right here don't love nobody. Boxing don't love nobody. So you just do what you got to do and try to get out of it in time. You know, reach your goal. Let it go and go do something else, because it's a sport different.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:01

How can they reach you Because you are a GM right, because you're and also a trainer? How can they reach you If, if you want to share your information on how the people that, because it sounds like you only deal with serious boxers, so not all you guys out there, okay, just the ones that are ready to fight.

Monyette 1:08:22

We've got a website, Flowers Boxing Lab. I got Instagram Monyet Boxing, Monyet underscore boxing.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:30

How do you spell that name?

Monyette 1:08:31

M-O-N-Y-E-T-T-E underscore boxing. You can find me on IG and I answer everything. So they send me a DM and we set something up. See what they got.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:08:44

And you also have trainers under you as well, right.

Monyette 1:08:49

Yeah, I got trainers that help me out, you know, and not under me, you know, I look at everybody the same, so we all work together, we all are unit Colleagues. Yeah, yeah, there you go.

Stevie Morgan 1:08:58

Yeah, and then Stevie there's going to be some powerful words here. I know Thanks.

Monyette 1:09:11

She's so enthusiastic guys.

Upcoming Fights and Championships

Stevie Morgan 1:09:11

We say plan B is to you know, there's plan A, and then plan B is always to make plan A work. So basically, there's no plan B, right, and that's how we do it. I would say that's like, and everything in life, like, don't take no for an answer. Don't let anybody like deter you from what you think you can do, cause nobody's not everybody thinks like you. So you know, like we were talking about in the beginning of this, of this, of um, the podcast. Yeah, yeah, don't take no for an answer. Like, don't have any plan B's. Like, just go after what you want, make sure you get a good team around you, get somebody around you that will tell you the truth.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:09:52

And, yeah, she is filled with a lot of words. I'm just kidding. Hey, bro, thank you for coming on. Thank you for coming on, and this has been another episode of Happy Hour Holidays. Like, comment and subscribe. Oh, how can they reach you on your socials?

Stevie Morgan 1:10:08

Stevie Morgan underscore Boston.

Sean Febre & Manny Febre 1:10:11

Okay, boom, and you already said yours. And once again, happy Hour, holidays on all platforms, all fucking streaming shit. My brother usually does this part and, yeah, see you later.