AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 1
On this episode of Knuckle Up, hosts Mike Orr and Cedric Benn sit down with up-and-coming boxing prospect Bradley Wilcox to discuss his upcoming 10-round main event bout against Larone Whyte on May 6th at The Brantford Civic Centre. Get an inside look at Wilcox’s training, preparation, and mindset as he gears up for this important match. Don’t miss this exclusive interview with one of boxing’s rising stars. Tune in now to Talkin Fight!
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Transcribed
Foreign [ Music ] thanks for tuning in to today’s episode of Knuckle Up of yours truly Mike or guys remember.
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app and now guys we’re getting back into it here it is.
We have them in Bradley, Wilcox, industry Main Event, uh 10 under against larone white, this Saturday, that we will be streaming live on this channel.
So we got him in the studio, guys we’re gon na bring him in and we’re gon na uh we’re gon na get down to it and find out all about uh about his career and uh.
This fight that he’s prepped for this weekend, so yeah Bradley.
Thank you.
Thank you for uh taking time to come and join us here on talk and fight to uh chat it up ahead of your fight this weekend.
Uh.
You know this Saturday uh Brampton Civic Center, larone White wow, it’s gon na be a good one, guys you’re, not gon na, want to miss it so make sure you tune into it.
I can’t wait.
It’S gon na be good, uh Bradley, Let’s uh, let’s, let’s just get right into these questions.
You know: let’s uh, can you tell us about your first memory of boxing and what sparked your interest in the sport? Actually, my first uh first memory with boxing isn’t even really so much about me.
I remember being eight years old running around at Frampton cup uh in Brampton, with my older brother Stephen, he was only he was the only one fighting at the time.
My brother Jesse was in kickboxing and uh, just just watching all the little guys go at it and then eventually my dad just said: uh uh, like he asked if we wanted to get involved with it, and then we did, but until we were, I think, with In boxing now now you can box when you’re eight right back, then you had to be 10 turning 11.
So we had two years of waiting.
Okay um, so you were, you, were you were eight when when you, when you started uh, so what led you to pursue it seriously? Is it? Is it because of the family uh? So so we grew up.
East Hamilton and uh, like we were East Hamilton, boys, yeah and they’re, one of the rougher parts of Hamilton and uh, I’m pretty sure my parents, I think they’re my now we’re older, so they tell us their mindset that figured having five boys.
He knew.
One of us were gon na get in trouble.
If you didn’t do something, so he kept us what he did, what he could do and that was put us in as much Sports as we want.
There wasn’t a sport that they didn’t allow us to try whether they had the money or not.
Would they always let us do whatever we wanted and uh then one day uh, my dad took my brother Stephen to the boxing gym and then he’s seen how much Steven liked it and just at the side of the at this at the side of the boxing They were running a kickboxing class because we were too young, so we uh, we were doing kickboxing whilst even did boxing and then uh that gym closed and my dad noticed how much like me, my brothers enjoyed it and loved it uh.
So he thought.
Oh, I got ta keep my boys involved in it and then from history right right in the history, the guys he is part of the Wilcox Clan.
If you don’t know, they’re literally like the the dynasty family of Canadian Boxing, you know you’re trying to set a Guinness Book of World Records.
We did talk about that.
You guys that one card would be amazing, uh.
Yes, honestly, what what a great story? Um! Your biggest inspiration in boxing when you were starting out well, I know, like you, have your whole family, but is there anybody else that inspired you uh to to really get in there and do it? Oh, it’s funny because growing up, I I never really like, took the boxing right away.
I was more of the hockey player out of me and all my brothers.
I I really wanted to chase the hockey dream and you know how that is in Canada.
I did the same thing until I was 18.
yeah, never get there and then and then it got to the point.
I think I was in Peewee when I decided, like I’m [ __ ], sick of people, blaming the goalie, I’m sick of people and then I started.
Then then you started to go to Nationals.
You started to travel.
Then then you started to get to have fun and then then I decided, you know what I screw hockey.
Just I’m just gon na be a Housey player and I I played hockey until I couldn’t play it anymore, but never really took it super serious.
It was more for fun just to get my head outside of boxing right.
Yeah right.
Did you uh as growing up in doing boxing so young? Did you find it hard to balance uh both like your academic um? You know your academics and boxing or it was just like you – know: academics at the window, um, actually, academics isn’t our our strong suit, but we’re definitely – and it’s probably from the boxing and uh, all the all the sports.
We played growing up right.
We just had to work a little harder for the education I uh.
I graduated from Mohawk College civil engineer technology uh.
I got a good job with the city so as much as people probably remember me when I was in grade four five: six, seven, eight yeah not being the smartest kid.
I think I got a pretty sweet career if something you got a pretty sweet.
Gig now yeah, that’s definitely that’s, definitely uh a great job um did you face any obstacles or challenges when you were first starting out in boxing and um, if you did, how did you overcome them uh? To be honest, I think the only obstacle was probably my dad, because my dad always had that mindset of you’re young just fight, whoever take the losses as they come and my dad would pretty much throw us in like there was one time uh we went all The way to I think it was it was all the way in Sarnia we went and fought in sarni.
I think it was no was that border city boxing club think so and they brought over a team from Detroit and and they told us he only had a couple fights more than me.
Then I ended up getting stopped.
I was 10 years old.
Uh ended up getting stopped in the second round, turns out the guy had 40 fights because in the States you can start when you’re eight 40 fights.
He was two years older.
They were but but no there weren’t really any big obstacles, just uh, not being afraid to fight anybody willing to take losses and then that’s it right and uh.
You, you had a you, had a pretty highly decorated amateur career yourself with 135 fights yeah uh.
What was that? What was the final record out of the amateurs uh it’s hard because they give you these little black books and they’re like the passport or little blue books and they’re your passport, and then you lose them over time like we lost them once in Kansas City, and Then we lost, like you, just lose them traveling and stuff like that, but I probably I’d probably be around like 90 and 40.
, maybe maybe a little more like 130 30 losses or something, but that that comes from uh fighting anybody really that never like there were Some times where we we would always go to a show, and because for anybody who knows, boxing shows exactly what happened on our last weekend.
Club show that we had for our amateurs, fights fall through right.
So, even if I wasn’t in shape – and I wasn’t training to fight my dad – would bring the boxing passport with them and then as soon as fights started, falling through he’d be like oh Brad can fight like there was sometimes there was no prep for it.
It was just going: oh wow yeah, your dad.
Your dad had every bit of confidence in your ability, yeah well.
Well, we knew from from day one we we always try to enforce the footwork and defense right.
So it don’t matter who you’re in there with you’re, not gon na get hurt right.
What are what are, what are some of what like, what are some of the drills that you do to work your footwork uh? Obviously, the agility ladder and stuff like that and uh growing up.
We had a coach named Zaya yonan and he was he was everybody who started boxing’s worst nightmare when it came to footwork.
We had a lot of people get really frustrated because when you first started boxing for the first two weeks, if you wanted to compete, he would make you literally just bounce on your toes forward and back forward and back left right.
Just literally for like two weeks.
Oh wow and then then he would add a little bit of balances and then so I I would like to give him a lot of credit for the footwork uh he was.
He was very adamant on teaching us that stuff he really like made.
It made it.
Second, nature: no, no, no, you know not even have to think about it.
You just do it now.
Yeah yeah yeah really really grinding it in there uh.
What uh do you remember your first uh amateur boat uh? We actually have a video of it and uh.
It was with another professional boxer named Mike McWilliams – I I don’t know if he’s retired from boxing, but he did take a little bit of a break uh.
We were both 10 years old turning 11.
.
I was 55 pounds, he was 65.
I remember my dad like I was small.
I was 55 pounds and my dad always had the okay for me to fight somebody with a big, bigger difference.
Right.
I remember those days we used to be able to go neat before weigh-ins, not a war but uh yeah.
No, that’s done but uh yeah, I know uh.
We ended up actually growing up having a cup like I lost, I lost uh, I lost to him and then I lost to my provincials.
He was kind of the guy who was always beating me and then, when uh, when I decided to excel in boxing, I ended up.
I think I got the better of them.
I think I won four or four out of seven times that we probably fought but and when I was older, but no he’s a good guy.
He like he still messaged me every once in a while and his dad.
His dad really keeps in touch.
She always messages me my brother’s messages, saying like good luck before all of our fights so right now, um.
What advice would you give to? You know someone who’s just trying to start out in boxing uh uh? It’S it’s a sport with a lot of up and downs and there’s a lot of politics involved that I don’t think people who are getting punched in the face should even have to deal with politics the best management, but for some reason it’s always we’re always battling Politics uh.
I think I think the big thing is stay focused, uh fight, as often as you can.
As long as you’re not getting hurt, it’s a win and just listen to your coaches.
That’S all right um! So you have this long, amateur career and uh.
You know you’re going to turn pro um.
Can you can you tell us the transition and and how you felt when you were going through the transition from the amateurs to the pro and and what kind of adjustments you had to make to your game to uh? To do that transition it was actually a a pretty fast transition that me and my Dad decided uh, I don’t know I think was 2015.
I went I did I I can’t remember when I went pro uh 2017 June 30th.
Okay, yeah covert kind of screwed up the dates because yeah those years just disappeared, 2017 national championships were going on and uh like.
I said, there’s lots of politics and uh.
I guess boxing.
Canada decided it wasn’t my year to win so that that hurt me and then literally three weeks after Nationals, because we knew I was in shape doing a four rounders, not much different, because in amateurs, you’re doing three threes and I said Dad, I want to go Pro like like, if I don’t I’m, losing the love for the sport and that’s the main thing is to keep the love for the sport.
I said I’m sick of fighting the politics at the time I was starting my career and the way box in Canada works.
Is they kind of want to own you yeah and uh as soon as you, I’m sure, you’ve heard it all as soon as you get on the team, they want you to move they wanted to move to Montreal.
They want you to do this.
They want you to do that and then they don’t want to pay you yeah, there’s no support.
That’S there’s a support system for it, which is it’s it’s a shitty thing.
To be honest, so to me I kind of take it as a blessing that that kind of happened like obviously I would have liked to see.
I would have tried one more Olympic cycle, but it was nice to like my career was starting and I I got a job with the city and I just graduated or I was graduating.
I was like Dad like, even if, even if I did win Nationals like [ __ ], I can’t up and leave the Montreal for two weeks right.
So so then I just decided to go pro, so the transition was kind of fast.
It was like three weeks.
We decided to go and then the rest was history and we are where we are now today.
Yeah and you know what what a journey it’s been man from start to finish.
Like you know, all those amateur fights now being an undefeated Pro.
You know 10-0 five Knockouts uh.
Let me ask you this: do you remember the first knockout yeah? I remember my first knockout because uh it was actually my first fight, my uh, my brothers.
My brothers always bugged me about it too, because if you look at the video, it’s all my it’s on my Instagram but uh.
It’S pretty funny because I heard them and he went on the ropes and I literally wound up as hard as I can and I ran across the ring: yeah [ Music ] a little too much into that one.
But that’s okay! It was my Pro debut and I was fighting a guy, Nine and Nine for my Pro debut so yeah, even the commission was kind of like, are you sure, and we said no? No, no, like we’ll be fine, like we at least have video on this guy.
It will be okay and then ended up.
Yeah man – oh that’s, uh! That’S crazy! 99! First, like for the debut, that’s that’s huge um! You know looking back on the start in boxing.
Is there anything that you would have done differently, or are you perfectly content with where you’re at and and how you did it? Obviously I would have liked to uh chase the Olympics, but but I gave it two cycles and stuff like that and uh.
Obviously, that’s everybody will say that that they wish that they could stay around for that, but even that’s very political now for boxing, so I’m actually thankful.
I didn’t stay because when I did stay all that rumor of boxing getting pulled from the Olympics was starting yeah.
So I can imagine what the people who were thinking that they wanted to stay around for one more Olympic cycle and then getting pulled like I can.
Oh that would have destroyed me.
Let me let me devastating, like you know, to work so hard for something and then just have it just like plucked.
I would you know, I think that would drive anybody crazy, yeah, um, okay, uh, with your fight this weekend you know Lauren white um.
You know, I know I know you have you’re super confident with this one um.
What uh? What do you see the outcome? Being here? Uh? Oh, I don’t know a lot of people.
A lot of people know my family like uh.
We don’t like.
I personally think we’re pretty humble and uh.
I personally let my hands do the talking.
I don’t like I don’t like predicting outcomes and stuff like that.
Okay, coaches, we have a game plan on what we’re going to do, but I know larone’s coming ready.
I know he’s had his last couple: fights were tough and they didn’t go his way, but that’s why we gave him 10 weeks notice.
We want the best their own weight, we can get yeah and we’re gon na give him the brass Brad Wilcox.
We can give them and I mean, May the best man win, you know what I’m gon na be ringside, calling the fights to see it.
So I can’t wait.
I’M gon na be super excited for it of all the fans out there tune in, for it.
Um, can you talk about any changes or adjustments, you’ve made to your training uh for this fight, or do we want to just let you see, let you do it in the ring show us that way: no uh uh! No! I just been working with the coaches on specific things, uh.
Actually, I’m over at my parents house right now, because I sat down with my dad and we watched a couple of leron’s heights.
We looked at some of his in the past.
Looked at something it’s in the future like what what happened now and uh, trying to do our little little uh learning trying to learn what he does and what what bad habits he has.
Everybody has bad habits right.
He can figure it out fastest right when it takes and it takes the due diligence of watching all those tapes and going back and – and you know, watching those fights over and over again yeah those bad habits come back, no matter how hard you’re training to get Them up right, uh.
How do you mentally prepare uh for a fight? Do you have any specific routines techniques you follow uh, like you know the night before and all I to be honest uh.
I I just like hanging out with my brothers uh, we’re all pretty close.
Everybody knows that uh I just usually.
If it’s with me my little brother, we usually bring the Xbox.
We just one personal go in the hot apps and salt bath and one person will play the game like there’s.
I don’t really have a routine, my routine’s more after okay, okay! What’S what’s that? What’S that routine, like the the I guess, the wind down? After all, the intense training right – oh uh, a lot of Fighters like to uh like just go home after their fight.
I like to stay back, I like to go to the hotel and now we’re going to go back with the belt, but I like to go.
I like to go back to the hotel uh with my fiance and now my baby like I only she’s only got to go to one fight, but I like to stay in a hotel, it’s different than home right you wake up! Then you have a nice big.
Breakfast yeah, hopefully after the fight, I’m not sure where uh Bill Williams is doing the after party but uh.
If he’s gon na be doing it at the Hudson, then we go there and we get some nice food as long as my baby’s allowed in I’ll come yeah excellent, excellent! Oh man, it’s gon na be uh.
Okay, wait! Man, I’m stoked! For the weekend.
It’S gon na be great um.
How do you um? How do you balance your personal life with your boxing career right now, because I know you said you, you work for the city right and like do you find it hard to do that uh? It can be hard but uh.
Obviously it helps with my dad owning the gym and having everybody willing to help it doesn’t matter.
I could call my brother Stephen, I could call Jesse, I could call Sheldon.
I could call Spencer.
I could go well, my dad.
I could call my other coaches from the gym and they would be there right in the morning.
If I had to uh like I, I honestly could probably send a message right now and say: hey you want to go to the gym at four in the morning and they would be like yep I’m there, so that that helps and then uh.
Obviously, having a super supportive fiance, she she, she really makes it easy on me and my mom, my mom’s, my mom babysits my baby every day, so we’re super super lucky with that.
So it’s not so much like a daycare a set time like.
If I tell my mom I like Mom, can you watch the baby until eight o’clock at night, yeah he’ll never say no, and she knows that the fights are coming up so see.
That’S that that’s good man, it’s good to have a very supportive family.
You know like a lot of people, a lot of people, don’t understand that you know that that, like being a pugilist and doing this as a profession, man, it’s you know, there’s a lot of time that you’re away you know, training in camps or you know, traveling For fights – and you know like, if you don’t have those proper support systems, it can be hell on you, man and uh yeah.
You know it’s great, that you have a huge family.
That’S you know, there’s there’s all you guys that box, you guys all know exactly.
What’S up, and so it’s good to have a great support system yeah and then even just at the gym, there’s lots of lots of people helping, there’s, there’s a little girl from the gym.
Who will stay and watch a baby whenever, whenever I need her to even if uh my fiance has to go out and do something I’ll have like there’s people at the gym, not just my family, so the gym is our family yeah? Definitely definitely you know.
That’S I’ve always loved that man, the the GM atmosphere that family atmosphere.
It’S great, I don’t know if it’s just a Canadian thing, but uh yeah man uh.
I know exactly what you mean uh.
How important is a nutrition and weight management to you and uh, and how do you approach these aspects of it? Oh, I think get it being a little older now like I know, I’m not old, I’m I’m 28, but that’s one thing that I noticed.
Uh is a big difference and it makes it a lot easier.
Obviously, it’s hard to stay away from the junk food and stuff like that me.
Everybody in my family has a sweet tooth right, but uh other than that.
It’S like it’s it’s pretty good.
We have a good uh, actually the little girl who babysits my uh, my daughter at the gym she wants to.
She wants to go to school, to become a chef okay.
So so I we kind of sent her like what we want and what we need and then she’s actually making us little little meals, she’s meal prepping for us and she’s.
Oh, that’s, cool! That’S cool! I mean it’s very important right when it comes to like stuff.
Like that, like, I think the big part is convenience.
Yeah, like you go to the gym, you bring it with you yeah, and it’s right there, there’s enough, you can eat it cold, like you, don’t need to warm it up like once.
It’S already cooked chicken like, realistically, you can get it in yeah as soon as you’re done training.
Yeah that, oh I I know when I was cutting weight.
It was.
It was the same thing.
You know: eating eating cold boneless, skinless, chicken, breast yeah.
I know you got your TV wait, you know like really, you can eat a cold yeah, it doesn’t taste like anything but uh.
No, but but it does it’s, it fills you up.
That’S the main thing um.
Can you talk any? Can you talk about any energies that you’ve experienced during your career and and how you dealt with them? Uh? No, just just the usual boxing stuff, just pans like everybody like.
If there’s a boxer that doesn’t have sore hands, then I don’t think they’re they’ve been boxing long enough.
Oh my gosh, all right yeah! I know those uh yeah man.
When you punch things you fist, I find I find sometimes that your hands get like so tight that, like um, what are your thoughts uh on the current state of boxing uh, and where would you like to see the sport head in the future uh? To be honest, it would be nice to see Ontario all get together and make some pretty big fights.
Uh, there’s a lot of good boxers in Ontario yeah and there’s a lot of things that can happen but, like I said it’s politics, so there’s nothing.
We can do about that, but I don’t know.
I think Canada has enough talent to do what everybody’s doing in the States, but right now I think I think we’ve um, you know, like we’ve, been slept on a little bit.
You know we do have.
We do have a huge talent pool, you know we got, we got people that are very dedicated to the sport and and to it as a profession, and it just it just sucks that we don’t.
We don’t get the recognition, we deserve right and it’s uh.
You know I I’d like to see it in the next few years.
Is you know have more Canadians in that in that you know top 15 world ranking because yeah, I I believe you know from from working with boxing Ontario and doing the amateur events, and then you know doing the pro events here.
Uh, you know we have.
We have a thick talent pool man and – and you know we got – we got guys that really should you know, be be starting to climb that world stage and fighting for big titles like yourself exactly yeah, hopefully, hopefully um, what’s uh, what’s uh, what’s the goal for The end of the year uh, the end of the year, uh I’d like to get I’d like to get one fight now, like after this Friday, I’d like to get one more, maybe mid-summer, I’m getting married uh in August at the end August, and then uh me Me my dad and my brothers want to do another show uh, probably late November early December and maybe we’ll be able to get that fifth Wilcox brother in the ring and then call the call up the Guinness World Record book and actually get it together and get That get that Inked in there man yeah, that would be great, so that’ll be what the most the most family fighters on one card ever right, yeah like same same blood, yeah like same same mom, dad kind of thing.
That’S that’s incredible! That’D be a great record to hold.
You know: oh um, we’re um! Where do you see yourself, five years from now uh father of three uh uh, okay, going as far as I can with boxing and just give them back to the boxing Community uh to help in the gym? Hopefully, unboxing still, if I’m boxing still, that means everything went well but and that okay, when uh, when you’re ready when you’re ready to retire uh, you know, hang up the gloves, not necessarily walk away from boxing, because you know you guys do have the gym and Everything what uh? What do you want to be remembered for uh? I actually opened up uh a Robbie like we had a brother that passed away and I opened up a foundation called the Robbie Wilcox foundation and uh.
I decided to open it up because we’ve always talked about doing it for the last uh, the last probably 10 years, like we’ve, always done cancer, fundraisers and stuff like that, so I finally opened up and organized like a non-profit organization with uh like under my brother.
I, of course, covet happened a month later, so that kind of got put on the back burner, but our our last show we did in November.
We kinda tried to bring light to it, but I’d like to even after this fight, I really want to focus on doing that.
I don’t just want to do boxing shows.
I want to help everybody right.
I want.
If you come up to me and you need, I don’t know if, if somebody needs a liver, if somebody needs anything and it’s not covered like we would sit down and make a plan on how we can fundraise.
So I’d really like to sit down and uh make that Robbie Wilcox Foundation come to life, because I know my brother’s impacted people.
That’S that’s! That’S amazing, uh, honestly to let us know when, where and how we can help and – and we will definitely do our best to to help you out there – that’s uh, it’s a great cause, uh one, one more one more question here I got you do you want To be loved, or do you want to be feared, uh a little a little bit of both uh? I don’t really care if I’m feared or not, because I’ll [ __ ], oh in the ring, it’s just them, they don’t got.
Ta fear me.
They don’t got ta fear me or not, I’m I’m am who I am right.
I and I know I can hurt people so whether they’re scared of me or not.
I love it.
I love watching you in the ring man.
You got that you got that Stone Cold, like you’re you’re, already three four thoughts ahead.
You know it’s like you’re playing chess.
It’S it’s! It’S! It’S a pleasure to watch you box in the ring man, uh, honestly uh, you know LeBron.
If he’s gon na come forward, you fight very well off that back foot and you know we’ll see uh we’ll see how this outcome goes.
Uh on Saturday, I’m looking forward to it.
Yeah it’s gon na be fun.
Yes, definitely well Bradley! I’M not gon na keep.
You too much longer uh, we’ll sign off and um and then um, yeah I’ll, say, bye and but uh for now, I’m just gon na say you thank you for coming by thanks for answering the questions being so transparent, uh yeah guys.
If you’re looking to see him fight this Saturday, Brantford Civic Center, larone White, Bradley, Wilcox, 10, rounder main event, it’s gon na be a good one.
Tickets I think, are still available.
I’M sure you will be able to catch the live stream on this channel.
Talk and fight, we will be there.
I will be commentating ringside, along with my man, Neil the deal and uh yeah.
Definitely we will.
We will chat after uh after you, uh win.
I guess yeah, that’s that’s where the outcome’s gon na be.
I can’t wait.
It’S gon na be great.
Well guys, tell the talking fight fans out there thanks for tuning in to this special episode of Knuckle Up with Mike Orr and my special guest Bradley Wilcox.
Thank you again to all the fans.
We will see you next time same channel new topics.
You know what it is: peace, yeah man, no worries foreign
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