Pay Me No Mind: Roc Nation Sports’ Prospect Tyler McCreary

This week on the Pay Me No Mind podcast I finally tracked down Roc Nation Sports’ super quick undefeated featherweight Tyler McCreary – Toledo, OH’s “Golden Child.” McCreary is fresh off his victorious performance – his 12th professional win – on the televised undercard of HBO’s Sergey Kovalev versus Andre Ward pay per view light heavyweight title unification event.

I will get to an overview of McCreary’s segment in a second.

Unfortunately, the family and friends of Chicago, IL welterweight Ed “Bad Boy” Brown (20-0, 16 KOs) are vigilantly awaiting positive word from Mount Sinai Hospital’s medical staff, regarding Brown’s fight to recover from several serious gunshot wounds. Brown was reportedly hit in the head once after an unknown assailant in a moving vehicle fired multiple rounds into the car the boxer and a young woman were sitting in shortly after 1:00 AM on Saturday December 3rd. The woman was also wounded, but she is in good condition.

I caught the rangy 6’1″ hard-hitting prospect for the first time, surprisingly, on a CBS Sports Network boxing telecast back on October 1st. After being surprised another game in town actually existed besides the multiple network spanning Premiere Boxing Champions series, Brown’s scintillating third round knock out of Robert Acevedo caught my attention.

Word of Brown’s critical condition initially surfaced on FaceBook, and boxing fans as well other fighters will likely continue to turn to social media to express their sincere thoughts and hope for Brown to raise his hand again at the end of this ordeal.

While watching Brown’s October fight – a DiBella Entertainment card held at the UIC Forum in Chicago, IL – I wondered about the kid’s chances to escape the notoriously dangerous streets of Chicago that have grown so rife with shootings in 2016. Earlier this evening The Chicago Tribune reported that the Windy City’s homicide count surpassed 700 murders after another male in mid-twenties was shot and killed around 8:00 PM.

This week’s podcast started off with some amazing announcements regarding some upcoming release dates for a couple of hip hop powerhouses – the feature-free platinum-selling emcee J. Cole and the ingenious Run The Jewels. Before moving on to this episode’s guests, I had to praise Issa Rae mightily for the first season of her triumphant new HBO series Insecure. One could suggest the Los Angeles-based Insecure is a derivative of the early-00s New York City-based Sex In The City, but I would hate to place the series in any other series’ shadow – it’s really just magic.

This episode’s guest lineup is high-powered. My fellow GoingFor2 scribe Matthew Garrett (@mattgarrett41) discusses his NFL Week 12 4 Down Territory column. Fellow Indianapolis, IN-based podcaster La’Taurus Harrison briefly checks in to discuss the underwhelming pay-per-view buys for the Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward showdown, and whether Nicholas Walters’ “No Mas” against the highly-skilled Vasyl Lomachenko further sullied boxing’s good standing.

Last Saturday I attended an amateur boxing event held in downtown Cincinnati, OH and I thought it would be interesting to get some perspective from one of the event’s trainers. Cincinnati Golden Gloves trainer Terrell Nixon called in to discuss his efforts to prepare a few of his top boxers for their trip to the National Championships being held in Kansas City, MO this week. Nixon also provides some information on where and when fight fans can catch a few of his professional prospects – including previous PMNM guest welterweight Boubacar Sylla – that appeared in the last few entertaining Bang Bang Friday night fights cards.

This week’s final segment features the aforementioned Tyler McCreary who was gracious enough to do our second interview. I thought it would be interesting to hear how fighting on the televised undercard of HBO’s Nov. 19th Sergey Kovalev-Andre Ward light heavyweight unification impacted the undefeated 23-year old. We chop up it about his reaction to the judges’ majority decision following his dominant performance over Grand Rapids, MI’s Vincent Jennings. The oft flamboyant McCreary also discusses some of the boxing greats he was able to meet while in Las Vegas, his thoughts on the Kovalev-Ward decision, when (in the fight) he learned that his fight was not going its scheduled 8 rounds, and he recounts which famous Ohio comedian tracked him down after his victory to give him a few words of profound encouragement.

I couldn’t let McCreary go without him letting fight fans know what is in the works for his next appearance in the ring, which might be something big for his home hometown. Toledo is also the hometown of a lightweight world champion whose The Bunny Team is currently putting together an event in the city at the top of 2017.

Lastly, as a longstanding member of the Heads and in an effort to maintain the northern Ohio theme, “Stayin’ Out The Way” by NE OH emcee/producer Vice Soulectric. The boasts another adroitly crafted feature from Brooklyn, NY lyricist Skyzoo. You can break down the track’s wordplay to study all the Xs and Os by buying it, cop the single or Vice’s complete album Vice For President 2 at iTunes, Amazon and Google Play. Streaming fans you’re in luck too – Spotify and Tidal.

Thanks 3000% for pressing play family!

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