Floyd Mayweather's Romanian Contender | Ronald Gavril | Coffeez with Joe Shalaby Ep. 317

Coffeez with Joe Shalaby

Ronald Gavril, the Romanian former light heavyweight champion and WBC title challenger, shares his journey from a farm in Romania to becoming a professional

Key takeaways

• Gavril's discipline stems from a strict Orthodox upbringing and early life on a farm, shaping his dedication to boxing.
• He faced severe hardship after arriving in the U.S., losing his manager and being stranded without a gym or coach for months.

Main topics

• Ronald Gavril's early life in Romania
• Transition from amateur to professional boxing in the U.S.

Notable quotes

"I was champion of respect. Champion so it was crazy for me to come here where I don't know nobody."

Conclusion

Ronald Gavril's story is one of resilience, discipline, and unwavering b

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:17) Gabriel. Speaker 1 (0:17) The real deal. Oh, the real deal. I like that. Nice Speaker 3 (0:22) to Speaker 1 (0:22) meet you. Welcome to Coffees with Joe Chalabi. Speaker 3 (0:25) Yes. Speaker 1 (0:25) Now, can I get you a coffee? Speaker 3 (0:27) Yes, the coffee I ordered is vanilla. Speaker 1 (0:31) Okay, a vanilla latte. Iced vanilla latte. Do you know who Victor Ortiz is by any chance? The actor, boxer? Yes. Champion Speaker 3 (0:40) from LA, right? Speaker 1 (0:42) Yes. Well, he said that he could take you. I'm just kidding he didn't say that. Don't tell him I told you that. Speaker 3 (0:49) I'm Speaker 1 (0:50) kidding. I don't Speaker 3 (0:52) know he's retired from boxing. Speaker 1 (0:54) Well let's see. We'll Speaker 3 (0:55) have Speaker 1 (0:55) to see what Victor Ortiz says. I'm just kidding. The drama. I'm just trying to just create Speaker 3 (1:00) stuff. Speaker 1 (1:00) It's not Speaker 3 (1:00) drama. It's my job. It's not drama. Oh Speaker 1 (1:04) perfect Ronald. Come on over here. Follow me. I have your coffee ready. Let's go on and say hi to Joe. Hey, Speaker 2 (1:11) Joe. It's Speaker 3 (1:12) a Speaker 2 (1:12) pleasure to meet you, sir. Thank you so much for coming. It's an absolute honor to have you on the show. Have a Speaker 1 (1:17) seat. Speaker 2 (1:18) What's up, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Coffees. I am your host, Joe Shalaby. And today we have Ronald Gavriel, the vicious, the champion, one of the best fighters to ever walk on this planet, former European champion. Former light heavyweight contender, one of the best in the game and he's going to be fighting coming up this October for the belt. Please welcome the one, the only, Ronald Gabriel. Speaker 3 (1:44) Hello, sir. Thank you for the invitation. Speaker 2 (1:47) Thank you. Thanks so much. I appreciate you coming. Did you come in from Vegas? You drove down from Vegas? Yes, Speaker 3 (1:52) yes. Yesterday. Oh. All the way from Vegas. Speaker 2 (1:55) You got any big plans while you're here in Newport Beach? We got to celebrate. Speaker 3 (1:58) I can't Speaker 2 (1:59) wait. Speaker 3 (2:00) podcast first and after that I have flight to Romania tomorrow. Speaker 2 (2:03) Flight to Romania? You're flying out of John Wayne? Speaker 3 (2:05) Yes. Speaker 2 (2:07) It's a great airport so Speaker 3 (2:08) it's worth it. Speaker 2 (2:10) Ronald, I'd like to start the question off the same way I ask every guest but for you I'm going to learn a lot here. What's your morning routine? My morning routine Speaker 3 (2:19) is wake up, drink water, you know, go to restroom and just Speaker 3 (2:29) First hour I didn't eat nothing, just drink, water, coffee. Sometimes I make the juice with ginger. So after that I have the big meal like protein, eggs. Very, very good, very good meal. So after that gym, going to my routine, my boxing schedule, right? Go to the boxing gym. So this is my morning for me. Speaker 2 (2:54) So but then it's like working out. How many hours do you train a day? Speaker 3 (2:58) Well when I'm in training camp for for the fight It's like two hour in the morning in tune and afternoon one have to own nothing. It's four hour a day Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:06) so you're in you're in camp right now. Speaker 3 (3:07) Yes. I'm in camp. I'm a preparer for my money fight So Speaker 2 (3:11) what's life like when you're like in a camp? It's two hours of training and then like What are you doing in between the next training session? It's my life Speaker 3 (3:22) from a long time ago was like very disciplined life. You know, everything was about to stay in shape, to stay out of problems, to stay out from clubs, to have the good station, the good coach, to get to improve every day, to get better and better, to challenge all the greatest champions. This is my program, is sport 24 hours and discipline. Speaker 2 (3:48) Yeah, I mean, you're from Europe, so Europe, you know, It's crazy. You guys party all night long and it's like the schedules are inverted over there. You know, people go to bed at six in the morning in Europe. Speaker 3 (4:00) Some Speaker 2 (4:01) of them. Yeah, I guess. So like, do you think that your discipline has really helped you like withstand that temptation? Speaker 3 (4:12) Yes. Yes. I come from a very good family. We are four brothers, one sister. Mom and dad give us good education to stay to stay in the line to stay out from troubles from drugs from alcohol from all of that so i grew up with this mentality so it was not very hard for me to deal with that. Speaker 2 (4:35) I Speaker 3 (4:35) start boxing when I was 14, 15. So I already have the program because my family has a little farm in our house. They have a farm, right? So we have already the program, the mentality, we help my father, we help my mom. Like every day we're working. Come from the school, we're working. So I already, when I start boxing, was nothing new for me to working hard every day. Because I was working hard every day home. Yeah so for me to keep this program is was like Easy like not easy because it's a lot of work to do but I know what I want and I know where I want to be Yeah, Speaker 2 (5:16) so Speaker 3 (5:16) when you have this mentality He actually is not sacrifice or something because you love what you do. So for me that was love to do that, to be the best. Speaker 2 (5:31) And you grew up like in an Orthodox household. Yes. So it's like strict church and they do the fasting. Yeah, exactly. So it's, you know, it's part of life. Like the Orthodoxy is kind of condones that rigidness and the discipline. because of your faith anyways. Right, Speaker 3 (5:49) right, right. We do go to Sunday morning in the church with my family. Yeah. Go back home. It was, you know, grew up very, very nice. Speaker 2 (5:57) Now, you left Romania and you came to America with really nothing. You didn't speak the language and you decided you were going to become a world champion. Was that belief or were you like crazy to think, hey, I can actually make this happen? Speaker 3 (6:14) It was a little crazy because Speaker 3 (6:18) To come here where you don't open nobody and to speak English, it was very hard to leave my country, to leave my family. Ten years of my career, I was champion of Romania for ten years. I was in the Olympic team for ten years and I represented Romania in the World Cup, European Championship, all the tournaments. I fought in China, Cuba, everywhere. I represented Romania for ten years. So I have my name over there. So I was champion of respect. champion so it was crazy for me to come here where I don't know nobody but I say to me if I don't do it now it's not going to be I'm not going to do it when I'm going to do it so I was 24 years old So yeah, I take the chance and I come here. It was very hard for the first three years I say until I signed with a big big company with Speaker 2 (7:13) Mayweather for Speaker 3 (7:14) you there We're Speaker 2 (7:15) gonna get into that but we could talk about it right now, right? How did you get signed by Mayweather? What did he see in you? Speaker 3 (7:22) First I like to introduce how I come to America and how I because first time I come to LA I Live in Laguna Beach for for a few months. You Speaker 2 (7:32) came from Romania to Laguna Beach I Speaker 3 (7:34) can't even Speaker 2 (7:35) know about the manager Speaker 3 (7:36) the manager who bring me here. He lived in Laguna Beach So he helped me we signed the contract. He was managed boxing manager Romanian guy. He helped me to come here We signed the contract to fight here right in LA in America and Speaker 3 (7:53) I don't know what happened after three months, my manager has problems to pay the bills, to pay the rent, you know? Because the guy who's supposed to be the man, he died. He died, unfortunately, an American guy who has a lot of money. He has big factories in LA. Speaker 3 (8:22) Bad luck, right? To come here and the guy dies. Yeah, yeah. So it was a very hard time. I didn't have the gym. I didn't have the coach. You know, cost money. All the coach, when you come from everywhere, you have no fights. You have zero fights. You have experience, amateur, but all the coaches ask for money. So I didn't have coach. I didn't have gym because Laguna Beach, I have no gym, right? Speaker 3 (8:51) So after a long, long, long time, I find a way to go to Van Nuys. Because over there, the Bulgarian manager opened a boxing gym. One friend told me, you know, if you want to go to the gym, he's going to open a new gym in Van Nuys. So, okay, give me the phone number. I call the guy. He invites me to the gym. And guess what? I see James Toney there. in the gym. So when I saw James, I know him, he's a big legend. And I told my management, listen to me, I don't want to go back to Laguna Beach. I need a place here close to the gym. I want to work with this guy, James Toney. Speaker 3 (9:36) So I got lucky to meet the man like James, to learn from him. Speaker 2 (9:42) You might be the only guy ever to say, I want to live in Van Nuys over Laguna Beach, by the way. Crazy, right? Crazy, right? From the top to the bottom. That's the exact opposite. Because when I came to America from Egypt, we came to Van Nuys and then we moved to Newport Beach. Opposite, right? Yeah, but this was my Speaker 3 (10:04) way. But Speaker 2 (10:06) now you'll be back in Laguna Beach. Yeah, Speaker 3 (10:10) always I go there. Always enjoy. But there's Speaker 2 (10:14) no gyms there. No Speaker 3 (10:15) gyms, but I see the hotel where I lived before. I saw the places. I go to movies sometimes. Very nice place, clean, beautiful. Speaker 2 (10:22) Yeah, it's not that nice. You need ghetto. You need poverty. Speaker 3 (10:25) So when I moved to Van Nuys, yes, I see, whoa, oh my God, what's here? Speaker 3 (10:56) So that was starting my history here. The good thing for me was when I met James Toney and I sparred him a few times, he teach me a lot. Imagine, guys from Europe very hard to come here to fight because different style, professional. You need a coach. You need a coach, the real coach, to teach you how to do it because it's not the same like an amateur. You have different position, different... This gym? Speaker 2 (11:27) Styles. Different style, yeah. Speaker 3 (11:29) It's very different. So I meet James and he teach me how to be, if you want to make it here, you got to do that. So he come pick me up every day, 5.30 in the morning. We go to the gym. He take me back home every day for one year. James Tony. Speaker 2 (11:46) Wow. Why did James Tony invest in you that kind of time and that kind of effort? You should ask him this Speaker 3 (11:54) question. I think he sees me in the gym when I beat everybody. I go to Freddie Roach's gym. I beat the guy who was 17-0 undefeated. I beat all those guys who put in front of me. Everybody. Everybody. So that's why he started putting like... He was like a friend. He was not my manager. He was not my promoter. He was like a friend. He sees me like how I beat everybody. Speaker 2 (12:23) Now, what do you think scared you more, losing a fight or that dream never happening for you? Speaker 3 (12:30) What's most, it's hard to say, you know, it's hard to losing a fight. You know, sometimes it's good to lose a fight because you're going to learn more of that. It's happened to me when I lost my first fight. It changed my, changed everything, changed everything. Speaker 2 (12:54) It's true. You learn more from losses than you win from right then we learn from wins winning Speaker 3 (13:00) uni Okay, you think you know, it's good. It's okay, but you know when you lost you're gonna You're gonna take time and you're gonna watch you're gonna look what's what was the problem? So Speaker 3 (13:15) It's hard to decide say who's gonna much easier. Speaker 2 (13:19) You know, I was having this discussion with someone now The earlier today it's like, you know Competition and lot losses are what make us better there what drive innovation there what make you compete more there what make you practice more and It's it's applicable boxing is really like it's life You know, it's you could correlate everything that happens in boxing to life Because you compete, you fail, you lose, you get hit, you get back up. It's very similar to chess. Speaker 3 (13:48) Exactly. You've got to have this mentality because the most important thing is to wake up, to get up when you lost a fight. Some people don't. When you lose the business, right, you've got to come Speaker 2 (14:07) back and do it again. Now, let me ask you, why boxing? What did you see in your brothers that made you want this life? Speaker 3 (14:17) Nobody in my family do that. Like my grandpa, my father, my nobody, right? So my father was, my brothers was. Speaker 3 (14:26) bigger than me like one year and two years both not that big so when I when I want to go to the gym with them they say man you we go to the boxing gym you stay home Speaker 1 (14:37) why Speaker 3 (14:38) because I have a lot of work to do home with my father right in the farm so after that I stay home I didn't go from the first but when I saw them become champion winning the belts winning the the medals Speaker 3 (14:55) He said, man, I need to go. I want to go. I want to be champion. So that's how I start. Nobody knows when I go to the gym. I go, like, different hours. They don't know when I'm going there. So I go with old men, teaching the job, teaching the position, the feats, everything. So that's how I start. Speaker 2 (15:16) So your brothers were world champions first? Speaker 3 (15:18) No, it was a Romanian champion. Yeah, Romanian champion. They become national champion for a few times. Did Speaker 2 (15:24) they used to beat up on you? Speaker 3 (15:26) One of them, yes. We tried to play each other, you know, but he get very, very nervous sometimes because I catch him, you know. So he jump hard, heavyweight. It's not like my division here. So he come hard sometimes. So I say no more. Speaker 2 (15:44) But they're not boxing anymore? Speaker 3 (15:45) No, no, no, no. They retired from very, very young age. Speaker 2 (15:50) What are they doing now? Speaker 3 (15:51) They have a business back home. Entrepreneurs. Yeah, Speaker 2 (15:54) yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're still... I mean, do you have any businesses like your brother's? Speaker 3 (16:00) No, no, no. I have my company promotion. I have my company promotion. Yeah, I know your promoter Speaker 2 (16:05) now. Do you have any good fighters under your promotion company? Speaker 3 (16:08) Yes, we do. We do have very good fighters. I have one who I'm going to fight next month. He's going to fight his second fight, second pro fight. He's going to fight next month. So it's a lot of good kids from Romania. You're developing young fighters. Do you have a Speaker 2 (16:22) gym in Romania that you're training? Not Speaker 3 (16:23) yet, not yet. Because I'm looking to have a gym, to bring a coach from here. I already talked to one coach from Las Vegas. I bring it to Romania to take care of them. Speaker 2 (16:36) What is with the passion to develop fighters out of Romania? an affinity to Romania? Is it, you know, a passion for the sport? The passion is, Speaker 3 (16:47) I've been in this situation and