{"id":2087,"date":"2010-04-13T20:47:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T00:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=2087"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T18:35:28","slug":"singer-and-songwriter-bertie-higgins-takes-the-rsr-readers-on-a-journey-from-key-largo-to-the-world-of-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=2087","title":{"rendered":"Singer and Songwriter Bertie Higgins Takes the RSR Readers on a Journey from Key Largo to the World of Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=2087\" rel=\"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=2087\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1211\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px;\" title=\"Bertie Higgins header\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/Bertie-Higgins-header.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a>Exclusive Interview by \u201cBad\u201d Brad Berkwitt (Reposted for Archive purposes)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;Fame got a hold of him (Mike Tyson), some drugs and of course, women! We are only men, so what I can say? He may be a has been now, but at least he has been!&#8221;&#8211;Bertie Higgins<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The 1980s was such an amazing era when it came to music and the videos that would accompany them.\u00a0 Being able to grow up in that era that was the \u201cSummer of my Youth,\u201d I was blessed in my mind to have this great music that almost 30 years later, is still as loved as when it first came out.\u00a0\u00a0 I can remember falling in puppy love or what I thought was at least real love, in the eighth grade. On our local radio station Y100, in North Miami Beach, Florida, a song would come on and was a love song for my crush that I went to school with.\u00a0 That song had a great line that went, \u201cWe had it all, just like Bogey and Bacall.\u201d\u00a0 The song was \u201cKey Largo\u201d and the artist whose smooth vocal that came out of the speakers was Bertie Higgins.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The track Key Largo was released on the album Just Another Day in Paradise in 1981 and hit the number #8 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and spent 17 weeks in the Top 40.\u00a0 It also went to number #1 on the Adult Contempary Charts.\u00a0 Bertie Higgins became a household name that year and seemed to be on every show in the US and many around the world performing the song he will forever be linked to and in this exclusive interview, he is very proud of that fact.<\/p>\n<p>The hit song Key Largo has allowed Higgins to travel the world and see things that he is still in awe about and with a deep passion, he wants to impart his wisdom onto a younger generation of musicians. In the music world today, there is a lack of great songs in this interviewer\u2019s opinion for the most part, and Higgins is a welcomed voice.<\/p>\n<p>You will hear Bertie in his own words talk about his journey into the musical world,\u00a0 brush with fame, being a truly a proud Papa, and from there, he breaks out the boxing gloves and talks about boxing, a sport he truly loves\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>Ladies and Gentlemen, RSR brings you in his own words, Bertie Higgins\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 You just came back from a gig in Las Vegas this past weekend. How did that go?\u00a0 Also, let\u2019s catch up the RSR readers on what you have been up to recently.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The gig was at a place called \u201cTexas Station Casino\u201d and went really well.\u00a0 We are almost finished with a new CD for Toucan Cove and distrubuted by Universal. In addition, we just finished our second feature film called \u201cPoker Run\u201d and we are considering starting another one. We have been playing around the world recently and really enjoying it.\u00a0 During the last year, we came off the road to finish Poker Run which screened at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. It did well and is being repersented by a company out of Toronto, Canada called \u201cCinema Vault.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Growing up in Tarpon Springs, Florida, do you think that molded the type of music you have done over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Damn if I know!\u00a0 I actually think all creative things come down through the gene pool.\u00a0 My Great-Great Grandfather was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German poet who penned &#8220;Faust&#8221; and my Grandfather was a painter, Grandmother was a piano player and my Aunt was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter\u2026so I guess it all kind of came together.<\/p>\n<p>During my time in Tarpon, I was always interested in theatrical things at around twelve years old and started out as a drummer. For a period, I played drums for Tommy Roe (Had hits with the songs Sheila and Dizzy).\u00a0 From there, I picked up an acoustic guitar and started writing songs.\u00a0 There were not a lot of opportunities in Tarpon Springs in show business growing up.\u00a0 Nobody really cared what you did or put pressure on you to go to college.<\/p>\n<p>I really knew that music was going to have to be it for me and there was nothing I could do to get away from it because it was all over me.\u00a0 It really was a very interesting time in my life after a few years of college and also serving a couple of years in the Army along with getting married at the age of twenty-three.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 What did you do in the Army?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was in Supply and did about six years between serving on Active Duty and the Reserves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: Doing research for our interview, you have been put in the company of legendary Jimmy Buffett who has also done well for himself over the years. Do you agree with that assessment and where do you see the simlarities between your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t agree that Jimmy and I are doing the same type of music, but I guess folks think that because we sing about tropical things in our music.\u00a0 The only thing we would share is that we are both song writers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Watching a lot of your videos of yours on Youtube.com and seeing your fun personality come out, I am surpised you were not offered a Variety Show.\u00a0 Why do you think you never got the call?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No I was never offered a shot at one. That type of stuff really is right place, right time.\u00a0 I probably shouldn\u2019t have moved back to Florida when I hit with the first project and should have went to Los Angeles, California.\u00a0 I look at my career and tell young people trying to break in to to the music business and ask them, where are you at? They may say Topeka, Kansas and I say: \u201cGet the hell out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course get your musical chops up wherever you may be, but you have to move a market where this an opportunity to have someone walk in and take a look at you.\u00a0 It\u2019s like you can\u2019t be a Sponge Diver and live in Kansas because there are no sponges there.\u00a0 (Bertie was actually a Sponge Diver in Tarpon Springs many years ago).<\/p>\n<p>My plunge was Atlanta, Georgia, where I had connections from my Tommy Roe days and that kind of helped.\u00a0 I was in Atlanta about eighteen months and had the number one song in the nation which was an amazing thing to me and the local musicians were like: \u201cWhere the hell did this guy come from?\u201d\u00a0 I was more than ready when I hit and probably should have gone five years early.<\/p>\n<p>Management is so critical to any artist and I am sure you would agree that it\u2019s the same for a boxer.\u00a0 Without decent management, you really can\u2019t do much.\u00a0 Finding good management is very hard because there are so many ripoff artists or folks who claim they have this or that going, but have nothing at all. The critical thing in management is who you know.\u00a0 I think looking back that is maybe what happened to me on the Variety Show thing.\u00a0 Along with some other factors, but with all that said, I have had a good time and seen a lot of things that I have been able to do because of the opportunities that came from performing my music.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Who are some of the singers that inspired you when you were growing up?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Johnny Mathis really blew me away. He had a lot of passion when he sang.\u00a0 I also really like Julio Iglesias who, when he sings, you know he means it from the heart.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 What do you enjoy better the singing or songwriting part of the music business?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am not sure I enjoy any of it anymore.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean that in a detrimental sort of way, but it\u2019s all hard work.\u00a0 About three years ago, I fell into the film thing with my son Julian who is a film graduate and one of the reasons I came to LA to get him through school and to work with him some.\u00a0 We kind of teamed up on the first two movies we did and I think did something interesting. That\u2019s from the writing of the screenplay to the production of the movie, directing and everything that follows suit. I even took a role in both of the films.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: In 1981, you recorded a smash song that appeared on the album Just Another Day in Paradise and has kept you on the airwaves and in fans hearts for 26 years now. That song was \u201cKey Largo,\u201d which had the great line: \u201cWe had it all just like Bogey and Bacall.\u201d\u00a0 What was your gut feeling when you laid down that track and the story about this great song?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I really had no clue. Well, OK, I had a little clue.\u00a0 Key Largo was very interestingly recorded.\u00a0 We were playing in a little bar in Augusta, Georgia, called \u201cSmokeys,\u201d and it truly was a gun and knife club where you had blood on the floor from a fight the night before.\u00a0 I had written Key Largo, but at that time, it was a combination of two songs from real life that happened to me.\u00a0 My Producer at the time Sonny Limbo who was working with me, gave me one line, \u201cHere\u2019s looking at you kid\u201d which I didn\u2019t have in the song and we were playing this club which we had to play five times a night.<\/p>\n<p>I thought I had something with this song and went to the club owners and asked them to invest $2000.00 to get it recorded on pure speculation and they wouldn\u2019t do it.\u00a0 I literally borrowed $700.00 from my Mother and took my road band into the studio in Atlanta and cut Key Largo.\u00a0 Now funny thing, it was not cut in one session, but over two or three months.\u00a0 The studio would call and say: \u201cHey man, we have a cancellation, get your guitar player in here for a couple of hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So with all of that, it really became a serious effort.\u00a0 Then from there, the Publisher of the song Bill Lowery had us cut it in his studio called Southern Tracks in Atlanta which is a great place. The only thing on the track that was not performed by my road band was the four piece string section from the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.\u00a0\u00a0 Then the label Katz Family Records owned by Joel Katz out of Atlanta who had a distribution deal with Sony and they turned it down four times.<\/p>\n<p>They even offered me $10,000 dollars to buy it for I think BJ Thomas to record and I turned them down.\u00a0 And keep in mind that I was starving to death at that time.\u00a0 I eventually beat him (Joel) up enough that he put out about five-thousand copies to radio and it exploded.\u00a0 You really just don\u2019t know man.\u00a0 You try to dial in and get in front of a live audience and see if they like it which really is my only gauge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 With you singing Key Largo and your line \u201cWe had it all, just like Bogey and Bacall\u201d (Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall who were married) and also the song you did called \u201cCasablanca,\u201d I am going to assume that you like Bogart a lot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I absolutely loved Bogart and thought he was a tremendous actor.\u00a0 And to add on, I loved Bogart\u2019s love story with Bacall.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 With Lauren Bacall still being alive, (Humphrey Bogart died of Throat Cancer in 1957 at age 58) has she ever heard you perform the song or have you met her where she talked about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I never ran into her in person, but years ago, she was on Broadway appearing in Woman of the Year, I think, and I sent her roses when Key Largo was a top ten hit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Have you ever done any covers of a song that was made famous by another artist that you also recorded?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Actually on the new album, I did some covers \u201cStir it Up\u201d by Bob Marley, \u201cBrown Eyed Girl\u201d by Van Morrison and \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d by Roberta Flack, who I did a concert up in Montreal with her a few months back.<\/p>\n<p>We also did a new version of Key Largo to celebrate the 26th year anniversary of its release and I thought it was really interesting that the girl who just did it with me as a duet which we just finished man, was the original girl who sang the answer part on the original recording of the song.\u00a0 Her name is Cheryl Wilson and she is one of the top jingle singers in the world today.\u00a0 We paid her fifty dollars to do the little answer thing and at that time\u2026it was her very first time in a studio. I called her and asked her to do the duet with me for the new version of Key Largo and it really turned out terrific.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: Since you just covered Key Largo again, how would you compare your voice from the 1981 version to the new one in 2008?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I think it has gotten a little lower and I can\u2019t hit some of those screamingly high notes I hit 15 years ago. But you know what?\u00a0 I think in some ways, it\u2019s mellower and I sing with more confidence today. I can recall singing Key Largo at least 50 times in the studio before I would accept a take.\u00a0 Today, if I don\u2019t nail it in three of four takes, I will just walk out.<\/p>\n<p>When you sing in the studio, it\u2019s a combination of musical accuracy and emotion.\u00a0 You must emote behind the words and live these lyrics as you do in the studio.\u00a0 If you do it too many times in the studio, you lose the feeling in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: I recently did an interview with another gentleman in your business named Gregory Abbott who had a hit song with \u201cShake You Down.\u201d\u00a0 During that interview, I asked him about the affect of MTV had on his music which you even more so than him, came at the very start of.\u00a0 Do you think that really helped you achieve the success for Key Largo and how fun was it making your video?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I actually have an interesting story about that.\u00a0 VH1 actually launched Key Largo.\u00a0 MTV was more of the rock wing videos and VH1 was more of the adult contemporary videos. Scott Shannon who was becoming a major player in radio in Secaucus, New Jersey and New York was in Tampa Bay at a station that would not play Key Largo. These P1 stations as they call them are afraid to go out of the box and play something that is say built up from the secondary markets and brought into the big city. Today, a lot of radio consultants are doing programming now, but back then, a lot of independent or groups of radio stations owned corporately had their own Program Director within the confines of their local station as it was in Tampa. Scott wouldn\u2019t play it, but here is what happened.<\/p>\n<p>Andy Warhol\u2019s (American artist and a central figure in the movement known as Pop Art and coined the pharse \u201c15 minutes of fame\u201d) director came down to Tarpon Springs and directed the video for Key Largo. We shot it on 35 MM film against an advance on the royalties of the song and I think it cost us about $35,000 which was fronted by CBS Records.<\/p>\n<p>At that time, VH1 didn\u2019t even exist and I couldn\u2019t figure out at the time, why we were doing a video?\u00a0 We shot it as I said in Tarpon Springs and till this day, I get a lot of questions about the girl in the video.\u00a0 The director actually went over to Tarpon Springs High School and pulled her out of the Senior Class.<\/p>\n<p>So we shot the video.\u00a0 Scott Shannon and I actually became friends.\u00a0 I had a boat at the time and Scott, another DJ and I went out and had a few boat drinks and had a party.\u00a0 When we came back to my house, I gave Scott a three \u2013quarter copy of the Key Largo video as a gift.<\/p>\n<p>About three months later, to my surprise, Shannon is now a VJ at VH1 and one of the very first ones there.\u00a0 They had no programming to speak of and he actually rolled the video of Key Largo at least eight times a day which really drove it home to become a hit.<\/p>\n<p>It really did make the song become a bigger hit and today, it is well into the eight to ten million range in airplays.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 How do you feel the music industry has changed since you first came into it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Same old shit\u2026\u00a0 What\u2019s really changed is the retail market place which really has hit record companies down low.\u00a0 Record companies for years feasted, but now it kind of like a famine for them because they cannot sell product like they used to, with a lot of illegal downloads and you can\u2019t stop them.\u00a0 I think that it\u2019s going to hurt a lot of artists financially. It may deter folks from wanting to get into the business because the money isn\u2019t what it once was.\u00a0 I really think it all relies on the song man because I am a song guy.\u00a0 You just cannot put out a bunch of crap and think it will get airplay and then sell even though I think we both agree, there is a lot of crap out there today.\u00a0 Honestly, throughout the many years music has been around, you will always have crap out there along with the great stuff.<\/p>\n<p>I think personally that the American Song Book is dead!\u00a0 You just don\u2019t have those monster hit songs around today, but occasionally you have a song like John Mayer did called \u201cDaughters\u201d which is just great.\u00a0 It stands above the crowd and will cross all genres of people.\u00a0 Twenty years ago or more, you had a lot of these songs which I call the American Song Book. But today, you have less and less radio programming that cater to that adult contemporary music.<\/p>\n<p>I think the future of the music industry is in downloading and live performances if you can get them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: Do you have funny stories during your musical career that you can share with the RSR readers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most funny to me and embarrassing story is this one\u2026 I was on cruise ship with Jerry Lewis shooting a remote for the MDA Telethon a few years back.\u00a0 We did a show that I think is on a clip somewhere on the internet. I was sleeping in my cabin with my wife and two children.\u00a0 I started sleepwalking (Laughs) in just a T-shirt and underwear, opened my door, and started down the hall.\u00a0 Keep in mind, all of the cabins had doors that had card locks on them.\u00a0 There was one door that was ajar and I went it in it.\u00a0 Of course, I am sleepwalking and have no clue this is going on, and proceed to get into bed.\u00a0 The next thing I know, I wake up the next morning and there is an older African American man and his wife who sees me in bed with them and they start screaming at me.\u00a0 I wake up and start screaming at them.<\/p>\n<p>Security wound up coming up and I am standing in the hall in my underwear.\u00a0 The old man says to me, you know it\u2019s about two in the morning I am laying in my bed asleep and hear someone open the bathroom door and I check to find my wife beside me while I hear someone pee in the bathroom, then come and get in bed with me which I found really interesting!<\/p>\n<p>For the rest of the cruise, we became the best of friends\u2026.. (Big laugh)<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Recently along with your son Julian, you have written and also acted in two movies called \u201cThe Wrath\u201d and \u201cPoker Run.\u201d Talk about how it was working with him.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Actually, if I could, let me talk about all my children.\u00a0 My oldest son Damian is a DJ who goes by the name \u201cDiesel Boy\u201d who is one of the top three rave DJ\u2019s in the world today.\u00a0 He is doing extremely well traveling all around the world doing his stuff.\u00a0 He was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and went right into music. Julian is my next oldest, and my daughter Kim works for Southwest Airlines, thank God!<\/p>\n<p>Julian is a very talented Writer\/Director for someone who is just 24. I have watched him direct these films and of course, we butt heads a lot.\u00a0 I am pretty hard headed about the creative process just like he is.\u00a0 Then my youngest Aaron just turned 21, and he is a drummer who has been in and out of bands who I am trying now to encourage him to stay with it, so I can get him a deal going while I still can.\u00a0 Those are my children.\u00a0 Julian and I are finishing up work on Poker Run as we speak and have a deadline coming up very soon to get all the extra stuff done.\u00a0 One other note about my son Aaron, he designs all my CD jackets in my studio.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 What are your words of wisdom to the young man or woman who is aspiring to be a singer or a songwriter?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First off, never accept the word \u201cNO\u201d from anyone\u2026the hell with them! If this is something you really want and are willing to sacrifice and you must for this profession, then you must go for it. If it\u2019s something you are just given, you will piss it away. The other thing you must know in your heart and soul is that you have talent and are really able to sing with something different to offer.<\/p>\n<p>Songwriting is a craft that you have to work on. You must listen to what is out there and the structure of the song to include the time and stuff like that.\u00a0 Environment is very important as well.\u00a0 Young singers or bands, with guys or gals around twenty-two, get comfortable in a local band when they get a little following, but unless you are in a town that can break it for you, then you have to move to somewhere that will break it for you and that takes a big set of balls sometimes to do it. When you make the move, surround yourself with people of the same feather that are struggling like you and you can feed off creatively.\u00a0 I really feel like in boxing, you must have good people around you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Do you get into politics at all? If so, what do you think of the Presidential race this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s put it this way\u2026.\u00a0 I have done a lot of charitable events over the years as freebies, but it seems when politics got involved in them, things got a little crazy.<\/p>\n<p>Where did all the money go?\u00a0 Currently, I am a little bit disappointed in Barack Obama\u2019s choice for Vice President when he picked Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>I thought Hillary Clinton would be more of an electable team with him and I really believe that. Now, I think Obama\u2019s win is in question.\u00a0 I think John McCain could make it in and it worries me because he seems to want to perpetuate the war in Iraq.\u00a0 He appears to have a lot of the same goals as George W. Bush has had which worries me because it\u2019s killing us financially and emotionally.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 We talk about the 4000 plus military members who are dying over there and that is horrible in itself, but how about Mothers and Fathers over in Iraq who have lost children who have just been blown up. I think about them as well because they are people too.<\/p>\n<p>In my mind, I think good politicians enter into the world of politics with the best of intentions, but then get into the circle of it. From there they say: \u201cOh my God, this is going to really be hard to do.\u201d Every turn they make to pass a bill or legislation, they are opposed at every single turn.\u00a0 My hat is off to them for getting into a very hard profession.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: What are some things you can share with the RSR readers that the public doesn\u2019t really know about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I really believe in positive thinking and have always felt, if you can see it, you can be it.\u00a0 Never accept no because that means maybe and maybe means you\u2019re dam right!<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: Let\u2019s now talk about boxing.\u00a0 How long have you followed the sport?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have followed it for at least 30 years. Going back to Muhammad Ali of course and to be honest, I loved his show business side even more so than the boxing.\u00a0 I thought he was a cute guy who just gave boxing a great look.\u00a0 Just this last week, I was with Bob Halloran who is the Head of sports for all MGM properties.\u00a0 That means all the big boxing matches you see on HBO or other places are his doing.\u00a0 We always talk boxing when we are together in Las Vegas. I always loved Roberto Duran!\u00a0 In fact, with my beard, they used to call me \u201cElberto Duran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Who are top three favorite fighters of all-time and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As I said in the last question, Roberto Duran is number one. He was a monster in the ring.\u00a0 He could box and really take a punch. He reminds me of the actor Benico Del Toro, whose always so damn serious in his acting roles like Duran was in the ring.\u00a0 He was just a tough guy.<\/p>\n<p>Muhammad Ali is another. I loved as I said his showman side, but he could box and make a fight a true event.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, John L. Sullivan from everything I read on him sounded really tough and, just think, he fought bare fisted.\u00a0 He was a bad man.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 If you had to pick one fighter since the day you started following boxing who you feel moved the sport ahead the most, who would that be and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It would have to be Muhammad Ali.\u00a0 He came out of the 1960 Olympics as a Gold Medal winner and had a really nice clean attitude.\u00a0 I don\u2019t feel that is a huge secret. He brought it into the limelight where it should have been.\u00a0 He made some young men want to become boxers based on what they saw him achieve and do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: Is there one boxing match in all your years of following in that you would say that was the single most exciting fight I have ever watched?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I would go with the \u201cRumble in the Jungle\u201d back in October of 1974 when Muhammad Ali faced then Heavyweight Champion George Foreman. It was a great fight with Ali doing what so many thought was impossible when he won by knocking out Foreman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: Who are some of the fighters you follow today?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I follow Oscar De La Hoya today and kind of drifted away from boxing the last four or five years, but really want to get back into it. My cousin Edward who passed away about three years ago and played congos with me on Key Largo was my inspiration to hang in there with boxing because there was no bigger fan then he was.\u00a0 We both loved Roberto Duran.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Do you feel the sport of boxing has moved ahead or backwards since you first started following it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately right now, I think it\u2019s kind of at a stand still. I have watched it surge up and down for many years.\u00a0 It\u2019s really is a great sport and an athletic sport for what these guys go through taking punishment up to twelve rounds is just amazing.\u00a0 We really need a new star to carry the sport as Muhammad Ali or more recently, Mike Tyson did.\u00a0 Who is it going to be is the big question?<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: It seems when I do these types of interviews Mike Tyson always comes up.\u00a0 What do you think of him and what do you think happened to him?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Mike came into the sport, he was a humble man who came in the ring with no shirt or socks on just like fighters from the old days.\u00a0 He had every opportunity to become \u201cthat guy\u201d and for a moment he was.\u00a0 Fame got a hold of him, some drugs and of course, women!\u00a0 We are only men, so what I can say?\u00a0 He may be a has been now, but at least he has been!<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 What is your favorite boxing movie of all-time and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I really dug Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe. It ended great and was just a great story.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB: If you could change one thing in boxing today, what would you change and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Honestly, there is nothing about the sport I would change, but what is bothering me is we used to have this monster boxing matches which garnered a lot of attention even with people who didn\u2019t follow the sport.\u00a0 There were so many big boxing matches in Vegas over the years that I saw and loved.\u00a0 We need better promotion in boxing, so there is the thing I would change.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Do you favor a mandatory retirement fund for all boxers and if so, how would you like to see it accomplished?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The problem with boxing is it\u2019s an individual sport and the other sports that have a retirement fund, are team sports.\u00a0 I think the boxing commission should put the boxing fund into place.\u00a0 It\u2019s sad to see many fighters we both loved and watched in such bad shape both financially and physically today.\u00a0 So yes, I would fully support a retirement fund.\u00a0 How do you make it work? What do you think? Do you feel it will ever come to pass?<\/p>\n<p>I think the commissions are corrupt so it would have to be an outside organization that monitors the money going into it.\u00a0\u00a0 Many people say it needs to be regulated by the Government, but I think a reputable outside group that manages retirement funds could do it.\u00a0 All boxers would pay into it and of course the bigger fighters would have to pay more based on the large amounts of money they are making.\u00a0 I can tell you that for ten years now, I have been vocal about it and asked anyone I have interviewed and I have brought it up on TV along with radio I have done as well.\u00a0 In my heart, I want it to finally be implemented, but the boxers have to also realize how important it really is and get behind it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BB:\u00a0 Finally, what is the saying you live your life by?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Wow, these are questions I have never been asked before\u2026 The saying would be: \u201cNever Quit.\u201d\u00a0 When I die, I will slide 50 feet because I will be running.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Welcome To The &quot;Bad&quot; Brad Berkwitt Show\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SI1AfkBrG3I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F2087\" data-token=\"34630ff85b44fc64d4703242a2032773\" data-token-time=\"1777418463\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >Email Message Comment<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; 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We are only men, so what I can say? He may be a has been now, but at least he has been!&#8221;&#8211;Bertie Higgins The 1980s was such an amazing era when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[32,76,83,105,145,329,339,387,431,446,503,515,522,523,549,566,745],"class_list":["post-2087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews-by-bad-brad-berkwitt","tag-acting","tag-barack-obama","tag-bertie-higgins","tag-boxing","tag-casinos","tag-hiliary-clinton","tag-humphrey-bogart","tag-joe-biden","tag-key-largo","tag-lauren-bacall","tag-mike-tyson","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-music-gigs","tag-oscar-de-la-hoya","tag-political-landscape","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}