In this media scrum caught by FightHype, IBF welterweight titlist Errol Spence gives some insight as to why PBC fighters are so fiercely loyal to manager Al Haymon. Check out some excerpts from the interview below...

Spence on Al Haymon’s influence on his career and why he garners so much loyalty from his fighters:

“Well the main thing with me, even before I turned pro — like I was deciding who I was gonna sign with, and Top Rank was coming at me with a bigger signing bonus and things like that — and it was my father that really got me to sign with Al because he was saying ‘it’s not about right now, it’s about later.’ And when I talked to Al, Al was talking about life after boxing, he was talking about retirement and I hadn’t even had a professional fight yet, and he’s talking about retirement [laughs]...I’m like ‘man, what the hell you talkin’ about, life after boxing? I’m not worried about that right now, I’m worried about the fights.’

“So, Al always been that guy that every time I talk to him or we have conversations about business and things like that, he always talking about life after boxing, always talking about setting us up for the long run and, you know, boxing is only a little bit part of your life. So you wonder why a lot of guys stay loyal to Al, a lot of guys don’t go against the grain because you’re a boxer but he cares about the person outside of boxing.

“Just like other fighters that needed help like Paul Williams, and a lot of guys pay for their funeral and stuff like that, you don’t hear about but he does that thing. So, he helped me out a lot, different Roth IRAs and different things like that, to help my career outside of boxing and for my kids and stuff like that. So, you know, I’ll never go against the grain with Al because he’s never been nothing but good to me, not only outside of the ring but inside of the ring so it is what it is.

“People can say what they want, ‘oh they loyal to Al for no reason’ but he’s setting us up for a future outside of boxing, not just right now.”

On if he’s given any thoughts to what he wants to do after boxing:

“See, that’s what I’m telling you. Al been setting me up where I don’t have to do nothing when I retire from boxing! [Laughs].”