Peruvian-Born Rapper Eff Yoo and His Love for Boxing

Enrique Vernazza – the Peruvian-born, New York-raised MC know as Eff Yoo – is as well-respected for his brilliant discography as he is for his knowledge and love for boxing.

Spending the first five years of his life in Lima, Peru, Eff Yoo spent the remainder of his childhood moving around New York before finally settling down in Queens. As the son of a boxing aficionado, Eff Yoo discovered the violence visualized by the sweet science and took his time refining his mind towards the strategies of fighters. With nearly three decades of boxing and mixed martial arts studies under his belt, Eff Yoo rarely misses a fight – whether live or on television.

A devoted father and family man, Eff Yoo is also an extremely accomplished and sought-out MC, delivering conceptualized albums full of clever wordplay and introspective philosophies ranging from street stories to academics. Always thinking and always delivering, Eff Yoo released his latest solo gem The Eff Word on April 21, 2016.

After The Eff Word listening party in Queens, New York and between shooting episodes of his new web series Don’t Be A Piece Of Shit Your Whole Life,  Eff Yoo took the time to speak about his love for boxing, his favorite fighters, his favorite matches and the current state of the sport of boxing.

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Note: This interview was conducted on April 24, 2016

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ON CEREBRAL ASPECT

That’s one part of the fight game I respect and I think a lot of people don’t understand: the cerebral part of it. So many of these fighters are so awesome at getting in your head – you get in there and all you can think about is the shit they said, the shit they said they were going to do. And that was just a mind game. Then they stick to their game-plan and that’s how they beat you.

It’s something to me that’s still kind of unexplored. People don’t talk about it because I guess they think it’s boring – but I think it’s some of the most fascinating shit.

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ON MUHAMMAD ALI

I think (Floyd) Mayweather (Jr.) was one of the best to get in an opponent’s head. Before that, Muhammad Ali was one of the best to do it. Every time I talk to someone about Muhammad Ali, I’m like, “Well, he wasn’t the greatest ever – he was the greatest ever because he told you he was the greatest ever and you believed him.” Which is awesome! But he wasn’t the best fighter ever.

Your casual fans will be like, “Aw, what do you mean?” Well, I mean I know what the fuck I’m talking about and you don’t.

Ali was one of the first ones to start it. The Thrilla In Manilla? When he was calling Joe Frazier an Uncle Tom, beating on that gorilla puppet and shit?

Dude, that was some of the best mind games ever.

And people don’t realize: yo, he was being a racist against his own fucking color. But he was so ill at it – you were so busy laughing – you didn’t think about it that way.

Not that he meant anything malicious by it; he wasn’t really a racist. But the shit he was saying: if I was to call him a fucking monkey Uncle Tom and beating on a gorilla puppet – they’d be like, “Yo, this guy’s a racist.”

But he started that shit and it was so great. And it’s trickled down to now. Even (Conor) McGregor – that’s part of his game.

One of the best to do it now – you’ve got to say McGregor; McGregor was great. (Daniel) Cormier was doing great before he got hurt, getting into Jon “Bones” Jones’ head.

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ON BEST MMA FIGHTER IQ

This might surprise a lot of people: Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. And I’ll tell you why: because a lot of times he gets in the ring and his opponent might be better than him at something. But he’ll quickly change it up to something that he’s better than his opponent at.

He’ll get in there and if the guy’s better at wrestling than him and they’re wrestling, he’ll turn it around and be like, “Fuck it, let’s just strike.” If he’s better at kicks, then he’ll wrestle him. He’s so quick at changing up what his game plan is after he decides what you’re better at and which direction he should go, he’s one of the smartest fighters out right now.

He might not be the best fighter – and a lot of people like to put him in that category. The only reason I don’t is because there are other people who can beat him at different things. But he’s definitely one of the smartest fighters; one of the best fighting IQ’s.

Because once he gets in there, he’ll figure you out and then just do what it takes to beat you at it. To me, that’s fucking genius.

You saw (Henry) Cejudo kicked him; “Mighty Mouse” dropped or fell, got back up and was like, “Oh OK – that’s what we’re doing? Alright, so how about I just punch you to death.” And he kept it close! If you notice that after he got kicked and he almost fell, he kept it close. He said, “Alright, I’m not giving you enough space to give me a hard kick like that again.”

And then he just beat the shit out of him.

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ON “PRINCE” NASEEM HAMED

I remember some of the earlier fighters, watching with my Dad: Mike Tyson, Julio César Chávez. Watching them on Channel 5 – not Pay-Per-View or HBO – Channel 5 with my Pops.

But when I first started understanding boxing? The fight that actually made me fall in love was “Prince” Naseem versus (Marco Antonio) Barrera.

Because up until that point, I loved “Prince” Naseem; not only for his clowning… My father hated him! That’s the funny thing. My father hated “Prince” Naseem. And I thought he was awesome: flying into the ring on a red carpet – that’s all part of the cerebral shit. He would have arguments with his opponents – his camp versus their camp – as to how long it’s going to take him to get in the ring. Like, “Dude, it’s taking five minutes to walk to the ring, bro! My guy’s cold already!”

They’d have arguments because he’d want to do tricks on a horse, fucking jump off a trampoline. Like, “Yo, you can’t do that. That’ll take you fifteen minutes!” But all that shit was brilliant.

Even if he didn’t want to do all that shit, it was smart enough for him to make you think he’s going to do it. Because now that’s all you’re thinking about. Like, “What the fuck is this asshole going to do? Great, now I have to put up with this clown.”

Meanwhile, he’s going to knock you the fuck out.

His style was so awkward… “Prince” Naseem was awesome; he was awesome in his time. I’m mad that he retired after that.

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ON FALLING IN LOVE WITH BOXING

The reason I fell in love with boxing after that was – one, because I was a little older and I could understand it better. When I was watching Tyson and Chávez, I was a kid – five years old.

You just watch it because it’s fun, two guys beating each other up and your dad loves it so you love it.

But that’s when I saw – I didn’t think “Prince” Naseem could be beaten; definitely didn’t think Barrera was going to do it.

I was like, “Oh shit, anybody could win in this if they’re good enough. You have to know what the fuck you’re doing in there.” You have to be smart. You can’t just go in there and try to be the toughest guy and win. Because up until that opponent, I was like, “The toughest guy wins.” Mike Tyson wins all the time; even when he loses, he kind of should’ve won. Chávez – same thing. He was the toughest dude; he has the hardest head in the world. He’s going to win. (Johnny) Tapia – same thing: he’s the toughest dude, he’s going to win.

That’s all I thought about. And Naseem: I just thought he was tougher than Barrera, because Barrera was a quiet guy. And then I was like, “Oh shit – I got to start studying this shit.” And that fight is when I fell in love with boxing. I just loved both sides of it; I loved “Prince” Naseem’s side and I loved Barrera’s side. I was like, “This is dope; I’ve got to understand this!”

I started watching fights and understanding more and more. That’s when I started rooting for the person I thought was going to win rather than the person I wanted to win.

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ON FLOYD MAYWEATHER, JR.

I was having a conversation; we were talking about the (José Luis) Castillo-Mayweather fight. A lot of fans – and I’m talking about even people who know what they’re talking about – called that a robbery for Castillo. I was talking with a friend of mine and he said, “Yo, at the end of the fight I had Castillo winning.” And I was like, “Well, at the end of the fight I had Mayweather winning.”

Very close match; I don’t think anyone can deny that it was very close.

However, you’re taking away the fact that Mayweather’s shots were so crisp and clean. You’re looking at a guy who knows what he’s doing versus a guy who’s good – but he’s kind of just catching lucky shots. He’s throwing fifteen shots and catching three – and they look sloppy; they look like, “Oh shit, I’m glad I caught those three.” But Mayweather’s throwing two shots and catching one-and-a-half. And that’s why I think he was winning that fight, and I think a lot of people hate him because he chooses.

He won’t throw a hundred shots and hope to land fifty; he’ll throw fifty and hope to land fifty.

So his output is a little lower; he talks a whole gang of shit. But my number one pet peeve is when people are like, “He runs. He’s a runner.” What the fuck you mean he’s a runner? The number one rule in boxing is hit and not get hit. Number one rule. Any trainer – you walk into any gym – that’s what they’re going to tell you. The object of boxing is to hit and not get hit.

So if he’s making you miss fifty times and he’s tagging you every time, how is that running from you?

And he’s never run; I’ve never seen him turn his back and run. I could never say, “Oh, Mayweather’s on his bicycle.” He’s trying to not get hit.

You talk to real boxing analysts – people that know what they’re talking about – they will all say Floyd Mayweather – whether he made mistakes and said things he shouldn’t have said and did things he shouldn’t have done – he was one of the best boxers of our generation, that we’ve seen right now. There’s no doubt about it.

Any real boxing analyst will tell you that. Whether they like him or not, they will give you that answer.

I think a lot of the people who don’t like him and don’t give him that respect is because they put a lot into what he says and what he’s done; he’s boisterous with his money. Yeah, but also: Muhammad Ali took a picture on top of a $10,000 stack and it was in fucking Sports Illustrated! What are you talking about? That’s not being boisterous?

A lot of these boxers in the ’80’s, ’70’s, ’60’s – they walked in the ring with furs on! They came from humble beginnings; they came from shit, they came from nothing. Of course they want to exploit what they have.

Mike Tyson was head-to-toe Gucci suits; he bought two fucking white tigers for God’s sakes. It’s just that he’s that good, and he backed it up.

The Mayweather haters: they’re focusing on things besides technique.

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ON MAYWEATHER, JR. vs PACQUIAO

You have no idea how many arguments I’ve gotten into over the (Manny) Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. To me, that was a No Contest fight; Floyd Mayweather beat him to the punch every single time. Mayweather made Pacquiao miss so many times, he just looked old; he made him look old.

I thought it was a great fight. It didn’t live up to a lot of people’s expectations, because I think they wanted a brawl. But you’re paying for a Mayweather fight expecting to see a brawl? You’re a fucking idiot! He doesn’t brawl. He’s a technical boxer; he boxes the shit out of you.

He plays the sport; he plays the science. He hits and doesn’t get hit.

You want a brawl, then you want to see Pacquiao-(Juan Manuel) Márquez; that’s what you want to see. But then don’t pay for a Mayweather fight bro, because that’s not what you’re going to get. You are going to get a W, though – by Floyd Mayweather. That’s guaranteed.

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ON GENNADY GOLOVKIN

“Triple G” is one of the best fighters right now. Another thing I got into an argument about: “Gennady Golovkin is great because there’s no one for him to fight.” Dude, he’s beaten everyone he can and he’s beaten people who have given some of your favorite fighters a harder fight – and he destroyed them. He’s destroyed everybody.

Then they’re like, “He should move up to 168.” There’s nobody at 168. He still has Danny Jacobs at 160, Peter Quillin, Billy Joe Saunders; (Miguel) Cotto could come back and fight him. He still has a lot of fights to be made. They don’t want to make them. Billy Joe Saunders flat-out said he doesn’t want to fight him and he has a fucking belt! You’re the champion! You kind of have to, man! He doesn’t want to fight him; he’s scare shitless of him.

Danny Jacobs said he’ll fight him. Miguel Cotto: I liked him a lot; I think he definitely did have skill. I think he’s past his prime. The Sergio Martínez fight was kind of a fluke, because he hurt his leg. I definitely had Sergio Martínez  winning that fight. And it was proven when Canelo (Álvarez) dismantled him, and Canelo’s not even a Middleweight. He just took your belt from you.

I think it’s a travesty that these Commissions are not making their fighters fight “Triple G”. It’s a fucking travesty.

Not for nothing, but I thought WBC had told Canelo before that “Triple G” was his mandatory; before he decided to fight (Amir) Khan. I don’t know when the rules were bent there. I know that José Sulaimán is his godfather, so that might have a lot to do with it. We’ll see if they get around that.

The Canelo camp is pretty much said they don’t really think it’s a good idea to fight “Triple G”. You’re basically saying you’re scared for your fighter to fight the next guy in line – that’s not a true champion to me.

I hear a lot of people when they say, “Show me his opponents. Who has he fought?” Fair enough. But when you’re watching him fight – even these bum opponents that he’s fighting – it’s beautiful, man; it really is. And I don’t say that about a lot of boxers. To watch “Triple G” dismantle these fighters: I defy you – defy you – to name someone in his division that he cannot beat with his skills. Defy you. Tell me – one person.

The only person who I think can give him a fight – maybe – is Canelo Álvarez. Only person I see in his division – even though he’s technically not in his division, let’s be honest – who can give him a fight. He can take shots, he hits hard, he moves around the ring – I think those are great weapons to fight “Triple G” with. You need all three of those things if you want to even get a fair fight with “Triple G”.

Besides that, who’re we talking about? Danny Jacobs? He don’t have any power. He’s going to get hit and get put to sleep. Peter Quillin? Peter Quillin’s going to get put to sleep. Saunders? Saunders would be done, that’s why he doesn’t want to fight him. Let’s bring 168 in: who’s at 168 that can take him right now if he decided to go up eight pounds? Who? Nobody. There’s nobody.

So even though you could say he hasn’t really had the greatest caliber of opponents – one: because those people, they see the mastery that is “Triple G” and they say, “Chill. I don’t want to put my fighter against this guy.” It’s almost a guaranteed loss. And two: go back to one. He can’t pay someone enough to fight him! No one will fight him!

Notice I didn’t even bring up Chris Eubank, Jr. – he’ll die. He might die in the ring that night. When I mention Danny Jacobs, Peter Quillin, Billy Joe Saunders – it’s only to point to the fact that there are big fights for him. Because those would be bankable fights. I don’t think they’re any competition for him; the only competition I see is Canelo.

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ON CANELO ÁLVAREZ

Canelo doesn’t seem to want to go up to 160 because he’s not a true 160-pound fighter – and he knows that. He knows his power wouldn’t carry well at 160 pounds. Even though he walks in the ring sometimes at fucking 178, but he has his guy fighting at 155; it’s ridiculous.

But I think he realizes that and wants to stay at 155. But I say: you know what? You want to make the fight at 155? OK: you come in at 155, I’ll come in at 160. We’ll both walk in the ring at 170 probably – because Canelo blows up every time. Let’s make the fight happen.

He knows if he loses again – to “Triple G” which is another Top-5 fighter – it puts him down to the stepping stone place. He’ll be like the best stepping stone you can get; because the best is “Triple G” and the second-best is whoever “Triple G”’s fighting. It’s not worth it to him at this moment.

What I really think is going to happen is the WBC is going to strip him of his belt if he doesn’t fight “Triple G” – which I don’t think he’s going to – and the next person that “Triple G” fights, the belt will be up for grabs; hopefully “Triple G” has all the belts.

And fuck Billy Joe Saunders’ belt – that’s like a bullshit belt anyway. No one cares about whatever the fuck he has, IBF or whatever.

What pisses me off is they’re calling Canelo the lineal champion – alright, he has the WBC belt. Does that just make him the lineal champion automatically, the WBC belt? How is that?

Because even when Sergio Martínez had it, they stripped him, gave him that bullshit WBC diamond champion or whatever the fuck it was. He had to win his belt back, Cotto won it from him… But all those other belts have been out there, so how could you call that lineal?

I think the lineal champion holds at least three belts. That’s the lineal champion. And all those should be made.

But I come from an era where that was mandatory. You had to fight Number Two or the guy with the other belt. Mandatory. Had to. Had to or the fans wouldn’t respect you.

But we’re at a point where all the Commissions are making money, so they’re like, “Fuck it. You don’t have to fight him, you can find somebody else.”

We’ll see. I honestly don’t think Canelo will step up and fight Golovkin; I think he’d rather lose his WBC belt and maybe go back down to Junior Middleweight and dominate there. Because him getting stripped and saying, “Well, I didn’t lose the belt; I don’t have a loss” is better than him losing to “Triple G”.

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ON SUPER FIGHTS

Look at (Tommy) Hearns-(Marvin) Hagler: they were the two best, they fought each other and no one lost respect for the other one; they were still the two best!

I’ll even go back to one of my favorite boxers: Julian Jackson. He was a Middleweight too, and had somewhat of the same thing as “Triple G”: no one wanted to fight him. Why? Because his fucking knockout streak was amazing, son! I think he retired 51-2 with 48 knockouts or some stupid shit like that [Edit: 55-6, 49 KO’s].

Nobody wanted to fight him. Then he lost to (Gerald) McClellan – he got knocked out by McClellan. But I didn’t lose respect for him for that; I still thought he was one of the greatest. And then McClellan lost the belt anyway because McClellan wasn’t really that good.

I just did think the best should fight the best, that’s it.

I understand it’s a money game. I think a lot more people would gravitate back to boxing if they did that. A lot of people left with all that controversy, the judges were fucking up giving stupid scorecards, people were getting away with shit.

A lot of people got bored with it.

I think if they just went back to making mandatory fights – the two best guys, Number One and Number Two, the Champion versus the other Champion – they would gain so many fans back to this wonderful sport.

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ON KLITSCHKO BROTHERS

I was a fan of both Klitschko brothers. I think they fell under the same thing where unfortunately they came into power at the time that the Heavyweight division was kind of wack; there weren’t that many great boxers in the Heavyweight division.

It was definitely a slow time for Heavyweights. I think if it was a better time for Heavyweights then people would’ve loved them. If there was a bunch of awesome Heavyweights fighting like in Lennox Lewis’ days – Tyson was still fighting, James Toney still fighting and they were making impressive fights – I think everyone would love the Klitschko’s.

I think they don’t love them because there’s not a lot of fights to be made and they fight people that the American audience doesn’t really know. So they put that on, “Oh, that was a boring fight.” Well, look: if you would’ve fought Lennox Lewis again, it would’ve been a great fight wouldn’t it? But there’s no more Lennox Lewis’ out there right now.

I loved them, though. I thought they were great.

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ON ANDRE WARD

I was a big Andre Ward fan during the Super Six tournament; I thought he was great. He doesn’t really have the “it” factor, though; he just doesn’t. He doesn’t have the “it” factor for boxing – but that’s fine. As long as you’re nasty and you’re knocking motherfuckers out and you’re giving people clinics – you’re good.

And he was good. Until he stopped fighting.

He got hurt and it was out of his control. Then he was in court and couldn’t fight and now it’s all good and everything. But he took like two-and-a-half years off – that’s a long fucking time to take off. So when he came back and everyone was all gung-ho about him, I’m like: yo, let’s see how he does first. Let’s not all start praising him yet; let’s see how he does.

He fought a tomato can [Edit: Edwin Rodríguez].

Then he fought another bum on BET – couldn’t sell ad space. The guy was a tomato can; I don’t even remember his name, bro [Edit: Paul Smith, Jr.]. The thing I remember most about that fight is that they couldn’t sell ad space on BET – at 9:00PM on a Saturday to get this fight going.

Then he starts talking shit about “Triple G” and “Triple G” is like, “Why should I fight you, bro? You’re not even ranked in my division right now, man!” Then everyone started making a big deal about that – that was nonsense. So he decided to move up.

Let me make this guarantee right now: the Andre Ward that showed up to his last fight gets beaten by (Sergey) Kovalev hands down; Kovalev beats him. If he takes a few more fights – maybe takes three more fights at Light Heavy and looks good and looks like the old Ward – maybe it’ll be a closer fight.

So I don’t what the whole big thing about Ward is. To me, he hasn’t proven that he’s the same Ward that won the Super Six. He’s just not the same Ward right now.

Can he be? Maybe. But he’s not right now. So let’s stop acting like he’s the fucking Holy Grail of boxing.

He’s probably a cool guy… But, “Triple G should fight him.” Should? Why? “Oh, he’s ducking him.” How do you duck somebody who hasn’t fought in two-and-a-half years and isn’t ranked in your division – even the top five? How are you ducking him?

The Andre Ward that knocked out Chad Dawson and won the Super Six is not back. That’s a definite. That’s not the same Andre Ward that left. If he could’ve ridden that train and keep fighting the best – then we’d be talking a different story. We’d be talking about him ducking “Triple G”, because “Triple G” would be on his heels.

But we can’t have that same conversation, because that’s not the same fighter that came back.

And even though he won the Super Six, the Super Six wasn’t really the best Super Middleweights in the division; it was the best Super Middleweights that Showtime could get together. Because there were a lot of other Super Middleweights that weren’t in that tournament.

Everyone has to chill. Andre Ward is not back.

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ON THE EFF WORD

The Eff Word is the greatest album you’re ever going to hear. Nothing else to say.

I put a lot of hard work into this. I feel like this record reflects my different personalities – not to say I’m bi-polar or something like that – but everyone has different things that make up who they are. This album definitely reflects that the best, whereas my other albums were concept albums; I had one direction where I wanted to go with them.

With this one, I didn’t really have a direction; I just wanted to tell different tales and explore different avenues of who I am.

There’s some pimp shit, some playboy shit, some street shit, some cerebral shit in there. I think it’s for everyone.

It all came naturally. It’s all closer to how I really speak, to be honest. I’m always talking shit, but I’m always saying some deep shit too, sometimes. And I pepper it in there when I can. The fact that it’s a throwback to the boom-bap way of rapping: it’s kind of a gift and a curse, because a lot of people aren’t checking for that. But it’s just what comes out when I put pen to paper – literally.

That’s how I write a rhyme: when I hear a beat, if I start thinking of something to write, I’ll put pen to the paper and I’ll start writing whatever comes out – then I’ll work off that. So if I get an idea for a topic, I’ll keep working at that topic. If I just start rhyming and it’s just a rap – just different shit – then I’ll just keep going wth that. It’s just whatever comes out.

I always tell my friends: when we’re talking, if I use the word fiduciary and you don’t know what it means – we know where the A-side of the conversation is. I’m the A-side of the conversation and you’re the B-side. If you know what I’m saying, then we’re equal.

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Follow Eff Yoo on social media and get The Eff Word album here.

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