(APR 17) Tomorrow super middleweight Richard Pierson will go to battle for the New Jersey Super Middleweight Title as he steps between the ropes against Charles Hayward. Since turning pro in 2005 by exploding on to the boxing scene with a quick first round knockout, Pierson has put together an impressive record of 10-2 with 7 KO’s. Whereas most up-and-coming prospects are coddled and held by the hand through their first few fights, Pierson was thrown to the wolves and found himself fighting in top venues—including Las Vegas and Atlantic City—while still a green fighter.
Pierson was considered a “B” fighter who was to be brought in to make a promoter’s “A” fighter look good, though he spoiled the plan on several occasions. The slick middleweight with the heavy hands has dealt with his share of adversity within the ring, almost being punished for doing so well in his young career. Despite the setbacks and obstacles he has faced, Pierson has persevered and moved forward.
By doing so Pierson has established himself as a top rising super middleweight, but what continues to separate this prospect from the others is what the fighter does outside of the ring.
I recently sat down with Richard Pierson to ask him to step outside of the box (no pun intended) and tell me how he viewed the ‘big picture’ of his career and life.
What is the biggest thing that you want to bring to the boxing world and the community in general?
My whole thing I’m trying to bring to boxing is to stop the stereotype. If you are a boxer then you are considered uneducated. It’s crazy; there are a lot of labels people throw on you. I didn’t realize it until I experienced it firsthand. Nobody ever called me a dummy, but the minute I began to talk or speak, people would say ‘wow, you are intelligent’; and they’d be surprised that I am a boxer.
Things like that; it makes me wonder if they consider me unintelligent because this is one of those sports where you don’t need an education to step into the ring. You can go to prison, get out and become a multi-millionaire and champion of the world like Bernard Hopkins. That’s what I’m trying to achieve, but at the same time do the same exact thing in the everyday world.
Because nowadays I can just be walking down the street, and someone sees me, and they think that because I’m black, that I’m a thug. And I’m not. Did I grow up on the street? Yes. Am I a thug? No.
That’s my thing. I want to help break that stereotype. I want to have my children grow up where they don’t have to talk in the slang language to feel cool. Or wear their pants low. I want to show people that they can be the most intelligent people in the world, and still be cool, even inside the ring.
It’s a lot more than fighting to me. I was the guy who never got into sports. Once I started watching boxing, even though I didn’t understand it, I understood that it was messed up. There are a lot of people in boxing who are messed up, all the way down to the way it is judged. In my opinion you should be scored for your defense. If someone is swinging big and you’re making them miss big, you should get credit for that.
Why do you feel people view the sport the way they do?
One of the main reasons is that since people no longer call boxing “the sweet science anymore”, people forget that we are scientists within that ring. You have to be a scientist to figure things out. Every moment of each round—just like in everyday life—there are equations being thrown at you, and if you can’t figure them out in a split second, how far can you really go? In the ring or in life?
Boxers aren’t crazy and we are not dumb. It takes a real scientist to get inside that ring and take his craft, which is art, like a painting, and paint that picture. And to have everybody that sees that picture be able to say 1,000 different words about it.
But if you are just going through the motions in the ring or in life, just waking up to have your coffee, then you are not doing anything. Life expectancy is 70 years or so. I am 31, so before I leave, I’m trying to make a statement, an impact. It’s not about leaving my name in lights; I just want people to change. Because I don’t believe with the brain we have, which is more powerful than any Dell or Mac, that we are dummies. People get offended if you say that we evolved from monkeys and cavemen…well stop acting like them. The way things are going right now, that is true, and it seems that history is starting to repeat itself because now we are in a world of smart phones and uneducated people.
How did you avoid getting caught up in the streets, and trying to be someone you weren’t?
I think honestly what it is that even growing up in tough neighborhoods and tough towns, as a kid, and even to this day, I was a huge fan of comic books. As an adult, I look back at is as this: we all have the choice to be a super hero or a villain; we all have the power. What separates the villain from the superhero isn’t his power; it is his sense of thought, and what he wants to do.
Take Superman for example. He is a God amongst men. His biggest enemy is Lex Luther, who is nothing but a human. Superman has the power to walk over to Lex Luther and pluck him on his forehead and decapitate him, though he chooses not to. All he does is stop the man from robbing a bank and put him behind bars. He has the power to actually be bad, but he chooses not to. He has the power to make us all bow down to him, but we are his weakness, because all he wants to do is help us and see us happy.
Kryptonite isn’t his weakness, us humans are.
That is just how I feel. Nowadays in boxing you see too many people trying to play the villain. I mean, I choose to be a super hero. When it comes to my fights, I don’t care if I sell one ticket. I will never sell my soul or be a villain just to sell $1 million of tickets. I’m not going to do it; I refuse to, because if I had the power to change the world I will have them moonwalking not Crip walking.
Can I portray a villain? Yeah, because I was once in the streets, but I choose not to live like that anymore. Selling this and that, walking around with your pants low, getting your guns. Get your Tupac thug life. No, I’m not going to do that. I’ve already walked that route and I saw where it got me, which was nowhere. The best way to get in shape is to go running. But if you run on treadmill and I run outside, I’m going to outdo you every time. Living on the streets is like running on the treadmill—you’re going nowhere fast.
There are fights that look like I was losing, but I made adjustments; those are the equations in front of my face. That’s the proof that we are not dumb because we figure out how to live and not to die each day. Knowing how to survive, how to outthink the other person.
One of the best games is chess. When you are inside that ring you encounter different styles, just like there are different styles of chess. Speed chess, regular chess; some people can’t play speed chess. When you are inside that ring the clock is ticking and outside of the ring, it is the same thing—the clock is ticking. Every day you wake up you have choices to make.
Before you go to bed, you should already have your next day planned ahead of you. Even if you wake up with a plan and suddenly something unexpected gets in your way, you have a split second to think ‘do I take on this challenge or do I come back to it?’ You have to know when it is a setup or a booby trap. A lot of people are not using their own brains because they want to be other people. You have grown men calling themselves 50 because they are looking at Curtis Jackson, and they don’t understand that Curtis Jackson calls himself 50 because of another guy. My message is be yourself, who you are; when you are not, the result is you making the wrong choices. My style is my style.
You can’t walk in my shoes. You can’t take a step in my shoes, even if we wear the same size. You can’t walk in my shoes because you don’t have my type of balance. That’s my whole goal. For everybody to not only be themselves, but to be educated and not be ashamed of being educated.
Nowadays you see too many people ashamed of being educated; it’s become a stereotype. People hear me speaking and say ‘he’s trying to speak white’. I never realized white was a language. That’s like me saying to you if you come outside and say ‘what’s up’, are you trying to sound black.
If that’s the case, then we are all trying to sound like Bugs Bunny, because he constantly said ‘what’s up doc’; and he was chewing on a carrot while doing it, very unmannered.
But you’re trying to talk black and I’m trying to talk white. No, this is how we speak. This is how, if you paid attention in school, you were taught to talk. Slang came up because of people no having the proper vocabulary, so they break words down. Once you figure that out you decide ‘this is how I want to speak every day, and practice the same manners every day.’
People should talk all the time as if they are on a job interview—respectful and educated. You see a lot of children who are disrespecting their mothers and fathers who go out every day and break their back for them. The parent will say something to their child and the response will be ‘what’ or ‘I don’t care’, but then the same child gets in front of a judge and says ‘yes your honor.’ Is it because he has the gown and gavel? It can’t be that way.
I just feel that way about the world; everybody has their good and bad. That’s the message I’m getting out; there’s nothing wrong with being educated or being cool, but don’t be ignorant cool.
Do you find it hard to be a father raising kids in today’s times and society?
No, I have children ranging from the ages of 14 to 3. When a child is young like my 3-year-old, they are like a sponge. You can teach them as much as you can, but they are human, and going to make mistakes, but also they are going to challenge the things you teach them. It’s up to them to accept what we teach.
Nowadays, what I do with my 9-14-year-olds, I say watch your friends do this to you, or watch what happens if you do that. At one point my children thought I was a psychic. But I tell them I’m not psychic; I’ve just been there. And because of this my teenager daughters aren’t afraid of coming to talk to me about anything, just the same way you and I are talking. My son who is 8, he comes to me, and we sit and talk, because he knows I have been there already, and I can touch upon and relate to anything he needs to talk about.
There’s nothing greater than people listening to you, and following your walk; and there’s nothing greater than be a leader. Even a follower can be a leader, because if you’re standing behind a leader, you can learn his walk, and that’s why I tell my children, ‘I’m not going to be here forever.’ When I’m gone, the walk must continue.
At the end of the day, what would you like to be most remembered for?
The greatest impact for me is for people to look back and realize that I was a real man. A man who puts God first. A man with no excuses. A man not afraid to say if I was wrong and I’m not going to brag if I’m right. A man who loved music; I’m a fighter who is non-violent. There’s nothing wrong with being peaceful. I don’t believe you need good and bad for the world to be balanced. The world is a cylinder on a tilt; how can you get a ball to tilt? It doesn’t make sense. I believe the reason it’s like that because people are off balance, and leaning over to the wrong thing. We are not supposed to leaning.”
When Richard Pierson is not fighting, he is a single father and a full-time student. He works hard in and out of the gym to provide for his family and give them a better life, and he uses them as his motivation and drive to become the best.
Pierson has the talents and dedication to become world champion.
Don’t miss Richard Pierson fight for the New Jersey Super Middleweight Title tomorrow night at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, NJ.
For tickets contact Lou Esa of Winning Method Management at 973-885-7962.
Published on WBAN. We cover women’s boxing and men’s boxing.