Arran McLachlan gets Rolly’s take on the state of the sport today
Arran McLachlan: Hi Rolly. How are you doing?
Rolly: I’m good, thank you, man.
Arran McLachlan: So I know we don’t have a lot of time today and you’ve been doing a lot of media the past few days, so I really want to avoid the generic Q&A where I ask a bunch of questions you’ve already answered.
Rolly: Please, just ask me questions about boxing.
Arran McLachlan: Can we just have a conversation about boxing?
Rolly: Perfect.
Arran McLachlan: So Rolly, you and I are the same age, which means we grew up watching the same fighters. For as long as we’ve been alive the welterweight division has really been running the sport; guys like De La Hoya, Mosley, Mayweather, Cotto, Judah, Tito. Are there any fights or fighters from that era that made you think, “that’s what I want to be a part of”?
Rolly: The first boxing fight I ever watched – that I really paid attention to – I was a kid. It was Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky Hatton. I started boxing at 17, so that was 2008. I wasn’t boxing then.
Arran McLachlan: Did you go back and look at any of those guys? Did you catch up on that era?
Rolly: Yeah you watch all those fights. You rewatch them. You learn something new from each one. Boxing’s an interesting sport, man.
Arran McLachlan: Something about that era feels quite special when I look back on it – all these stars crossing paths and actually fighting each other.
Rolly: It’s not the same anymore. Boxing’s dying.
Arran McLachlan: Yeah, almost a different sport.
Rolly: Boxing’s not even dying. It’s on life support. Straight life support.
Arran McLachlan: What do you think has changed to put it in this state?
Rolly: There are a numerous amount of things. The pay-per-view death. The exhibitions. The slap boxing. The bare-knuckle stuff. The exhibitions where it’s all about money that could be thrown into actual real fights. The YouTubers. Overpaying fighters that don’t deserve it.
Arran McLachlan: Everybody wants to be a star.
Rolly: No, no, it’s not that everyone wants to be a star. Everyone wants to cash out the sport. That’s another one. I said this a long time ago. It’s good for fighters to get paid. It’s not good for fighters to get overpaid. I said this way back in January 2024, and now everyone’s starting to see what’s kind of going on in boxing where it’s like they can’t build new stars now. Because there is no money for new stars. Also on top of that you get everything the generational thing, right where it’s like everyone instead of going to boxing gym, they want to go behind their ipads and all that stuff, not like boxing was before, you know?
My generation’s last one that truly had it. Like, you know, we fought for real for real, you know, like all of you know, all of us, right? Because after that, you know boxing was kind of like life or death where it’s like you have to box to make it. Now it’s like boxing’s a privilege… Like if you don’t do your homework, you can’t box, you know.
Arran McLachlan: Do you think that mentality is part of what’s kept you on the sidelines for the past year? The “everyone wants a big payday” stuff?
Rolly: Everyone’s protecting their zero. “I’m undefeated, I’m worth more money.” It doesn’t work like that. Look at all them MMA fighters, they all lose all the time and they’re still in deep marketing demand. What sells is good fights. But these guys are all confused and manipulated because they think “oh im undefeated, im worth more money” but it’s not like that.
Arran McLachlan: Do you think that’s a lasting legacy from Floyd?
Rolly: Yeah, a bit you know, but the thing is the thing the difference with Floyd is Floyd was doing it in a pay-per-view era and you know, he was entertaining you, the trash talker, you know the whole lead-up was entertaining. And he was fighting dudes who actually wanted to chop his head off. And then Floyd was an exciting fighter in his younger days too, so he had already gone through the “i’m gonna fight to the death” and all that stuff. So by the time he turned into Money May it was completely different. Platforms were different. It’s the pay-per-view. It was a whole different era where you can actually make that kind of money. You can’t generate that kind of money in boxing anymore. There was no way.
Interview sponsored by Campobet
