LOS ANGELES – It didn’t take more than a few minutes for Nick Young—Swaggy P, the ex-NBA guard, part-time rapper and human meme who on Saturday will make his professional boxing debut when he takes on the hip-hop star Blueface—to make news. Asked last week which NBA player he would like to get into the ring, Young let slip a wide grin.
“D-Lo,” Young said.
D-Lo—or D’Angelo Russell—is Young’s ex-teammate who in 2016 famously recorded a video of Young admitting to cheating on his then fiancé, pop star Iggy Azalea, a video that was subsequently leaked. The video quickly went viral, resulting in the end of Young’s engagement and creating a significant rift in the Lakers locker room.
And Young wasn’t finished. “Some guys on the Lakers,” Young told me. “Some guys on the Warriors.”
Anyone else?
“Luke Walton,” Young said.
His ex-Lakers coach?
“That would be an easy one,” said Young. “That would be a first-round knockout.”
Young is the latest NBA entry into the world of celebrity boxing. There have been highs (Deron Williams’s decision win over Frank Gore), lows (Nate Robinson’s face plant knockout loss to Jake Paul) and whatever it is Lamar Odom is doing. Young, who will appear on the undercard of a show headlined by YouTuber’s Austin McBroom and Anson Gib, believes his foray into combat sports will be successful.
“I’ve been doing this for a while,” Young told me. “I’m not just going to come in there being wild and throwing wild punches. I’m going to shock a couple of people.”
Young first picked up the gloves last summer. “For conditioning,” Young said. Out of the NBA since 2018, Young found himself looking for ways to stay in shape. A friend suggested boxing. “And I just fell in love with it,” Young said.
Thoughts of fighting came soon after. Celebrity boxing, once an occasional sideshow, has become mainstream. Logan Paul and KSI, a pair of YouTubers, drew 12,000 fans to Staples Center in 2019. Jake Paul, Logan’s brother, has become a bona fide pay per view headliner. Recently KSI, in partnership with streaming service DAZN, launched a new series that will heavily feature social media stars.
Young wanted in. A few months into training, Young, 37, started kicking around ideas for potential opponents. His manager suggested Blueface, a West coast rapper who dabbled in amateur boxing. Young, who at 6’7″, 215-ish pounds has a significant size advantage over the 6’4″, 175-ish pound Blueface, was skeptical he would take the fight. “But give him credit,” said Young. “He didn’t back down.”
Young admits: He’s nervous. His fear isn’t losing. It’s losing like Robinson, whose loss to Paul blazed through the internet. “That’s what’s on my mind,” Young said. “He hasn’t bounced back. You don’t hear from him anymore. That’s something that stays in the back of my mind. You don’t want to be a meme, you don’t want to be known for that. You’ve been playing basketball your whole life and now Nate is known for the guy who got knocked out. And you know people love to crack jokes on me so I know I’ll be right there with him. I set myself up for things like this, so hopefully I’m going to come out on top.”
By any measure, Young had a solid career. He played in 12 NBA seasons. He logged 720 games, another 35 in the playoffs. He averaged 17 points in a season (twice), collected nearly $40 million in career earnings and was part of the Warriors team that won the 2018 title. His slip ups—the video, the ill-fated end in Washington, the viral memes—have been well-chronicled, but Young had more success than most mid-first round picks could hope for.
A bad night in the ring, Young says, could wash away the memory of it. Despite routinely playing in packed arenas, Young is anxious about making his first ring walk at Banc of California Stadium. “I go over it in my mind all the time,” said Young. And while he is confident he can beat Blueface, he admits jumping into an individual sport is nerve wracking. “It’s just because I’m by myself,” Young said. “On the court I have my teammates. You can hide a little bit. A bad play here is only going to get you on Not Top-10 but it isn’t something that’s going to be your legacy like you got knocked. I think you have to take chances. That’s why I’m doing this. You never know unless you go through the fire. So that’s what I’m going to do it for.”
Young is focused on Saturday. But he hopes his first fight will lead to another. And another. “I want to see how far I can go with this,” Young said. He’d like to get in the mix for fights with some of the top YouTube stars. He named Williams, who notched a split decision win over Gore last December, as someone he would like to fight. Down the line, he wouldn’t mind dropping to the cruiserweight division and taking on a legitimate pro fighter.
“I don’t see myself fighting a heavyweight because they hit harder than most people,” Young said. “I would have to lose a little more weight.”
And Russell? Russell appeared to respond to a clip of the interview over the weekend, tweeting, “My name keep dude relevant, and I’m going to grave with “I ain’t do that shit.” It’s unlikely Russell, the Timberwolves starting point guard, wants anything to do with boxing Young. Which won’t stop Young from trying to goad him into it. “That would be like some Mike Tyson [stuff],” Young said. “You know how Mike Tyson fights. First round. First eight seconds. It’s a lot of built-up anger.”
But first: Blueface. Young says he often hears from members of the NBA fraternity. From Kenyon Martin. “He said I better throw those hands,” Young said. To DeMarcus Cousins, who Young talked boxing with at Draymond Green’s wedding. “He was just talking and talking,” Young said. He knows there will be a lot of eyeballs on him on Saturday. And he intends to impress. “On the court I’m just smiling, having fun all the time, so this is different,” Young said. “That’s why I’m doing this. To shock people. The shock value means more to me.”
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