Latest / PHLV Radio / Round 1 with rising Filipino American boxing phenom, Cyrus “The Virus" on TMI

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Round 1 with rising Filipino American boxing phenom, Cyrus “The Virus" on TMI · PHLV Radio

• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Hey you guys, Happy Thursday.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of TMI with Mikayla, and we
• 0:22
  have a boxer in the house.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Can we give it up for Cyrus the virus?
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Everyone?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: What's what's up? Thank you for coming on our show.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, So Cyrus actually was at our grand opening.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: He did a whole meet and greet. What did you
• 0:36
  think of that?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: It was fun? Actually I enjoyed just being there, just
• 0:39
  being around everyone.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: So yeah, so you're actually Filipino and you you're upcoming.
• 0:45
  You're eighteen years old, so super young getting into the
• 0:48
  boxing world. So how I know you're representing the Filipinos,
• 0:53
  but I know I haven't really seen you in the
• 0:55
  Filipino community, but you were at the ground opening. So
• 0:58
  what do you want to do with the philip community?
• 1:00
  Do you take pride in it? Do you take pride
• 1:02
  in being Filipino more or being young?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: What is it?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I'd say pride in being Filipino because I also want
• 1:08
  to become more affiliated in the Filipino size so the
• 1:11
  Philippines can like be proud of me.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, Actually, Joe Koy is one of your sponsors.
• 1:17
  How did you end up meeting him?
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: So? Actually, when we were younger. He had seen one
• 1:23
  of the photos we posted and so it was with
• 1:26
  his merch and then oh cool, So he sent my
• 1:30
  little brother some toy story stuff ever since we just
• 1:32
  been friends.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Oh nice.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Actually, his mom has a show here to the Joe Cie,
• 1:38
  so if you guys see some of her stuff. She
• 1:40
  does a lot of stuff with politics. But but I
• 1:43
  want to get into a lot of questions. See you ready,
• 1:45
  I'm right, okay, so you're sure it's TMI. So I
• 1:49
  got a list of questions right here. So you started
• 1:52
  boxing at two years old?
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Right? Yes?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: What made you get into boxing?
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: So my little brother when he was younger, he has
• 1:58
  a cleft palate, so he was in and out the hospital.
• 2:01
  And I've seen a lot of kids with limited mobility
• 2:03
  and they were kind of like, not sad, but like
• 2:06
  they weren't they didn't want to be there, and so
• 2:09
  I dedicated my fights to them.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Oh that's nice.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So I actually asked your brother a while back about
• 2:15
  like getting bullied and stuff, and he talked about getting bullied.
• 2:20
  We didn't get really too much into it. But have
• 2:23
  you ever been in that situation where he did get bullied?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Did you have to step in or something.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I had to step up, you know, just
• 2:30
  talk to the person and tell him and that's not cool.
• 2:33
  So that's good. I just I just feel like I
• 2:36
  had to be the man who just like step up
• 2:38
  to the person.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: And you're you're the oldest out of your brother for
• 2:42
  you're the middle, You're the middle.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So have you ever been bullied before?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Actually I haven't been bullied? Yeah? Bad?
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: All right, I've been bullied, y'all. I got punched in
• 2:53
  the stomach once. But no, that's really good. How are
• 2:56
  you planning on getting and like serving more in that.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Community, just to get my name out there? You know,
• 3:02
  just be affiliated with like the Filipino channels and just
• 3:07
  showing love to the Filipino community.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, that's what we like to hear. All right,
• 3:11
  so you have you are still eighteen? What are your
• 3:15
  goals right now?
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: So right now, I'm still working up to become a
• 3:18
  world champion, but later on I also want to retire
• 3:22
  my parents as well.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: That's a nice goal.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Also. I want, like I said, I want to have
• 3:28
  the Filipino crowd behind me, the Philippines behind me throughout
• 3:31
  my whole career and want to inspire like others to
• 3:35
  you know, keep doing what they're doing and no matter
• 3:38
  what anyone says, just keep going. Chase the James.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, actually we so actually you guys, we kind of
• 3:44
  recorded last time. Okay, we were recording right now. So
• 3:47
  last time we talked, you did talk about like certain
• 3:51
  things that you went through, like people telling you because
• 3:53
  you are getting into this professionally, and we did talk
• 3:57
  about other people telling you that you're not cut for it.
• 4:01
  Those are some of like the barriers that you had.
• 4:04
  Can you go into more depth about that.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So there was one time there was recent this
• 4:10
  guy basically said, oh, you might want to rethink this.
• 4:13
  I don't think you're ready yet. But with the faith
• 4:16
  in God, like I just kept going and the results
• 4:20
  came out right and I put them wrong.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Good for you, Good for you.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: So we have so many like young people who has
• 4:29
  a lot of like dreams to be a star.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: I guess is that like your goal to be a star,
• 4:34
  what is it?
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: My goal is to be a star, but also I
• 4:37
  want to just give back to the community.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: So a lot of young people, especially Filipinos who are
• 4:44
  told to go to school, finish our degree and that actually,
• 4:49
  like singing, boxing and being an actor a dancer, it's
• 4:52
  not gonna it's not gonna happen, and it's not realistic
• 4:56
  for a lot of us. How does your family think
• 4:58
  of What do they say about it?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I don't know. They just they just said, just chase
• 5:05
  your dreams no matter what, because don't you don't want
• 5:08
  to let anyone tell you what to do. And yeah,
• 5:11
  just it's just always like that underdog mentality. You just
• 5:14
  got to keep going and prove them wrong. M h.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: And I know that because I'm the same way. I'm
• 5:21
  like I have their stubborn mindset. And I feel like
• 5:24
  also if you don't go after your dreams, like what
• 5:26
  is there to lose? You know, and like worst case
• 5:28
  scenario if it doesn't work out, then you go back
• 5:31
  to or you do like the regular whatever plan B
• 5:34
  you have.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: But you are in school right now, what is your
• 5:37
  plan be you? Or is there a plan being.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to become a radiologist. So actually in January,
• 5:45
  I'm going to school for radiography.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: No, nice, congratulations. So it's really different from boxing.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: How did you get Why are.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: You doing that just to be in a medical field?
• 5:58
  You know, because you know, Philip or boxers in general,
• 6:01
  they're in the hospital most of the time. I just
• 6:05
  want to be around that area, so I'm kind of
• 6:07
  familiar with it.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool, all right, So I remember I was talking
• 6:11
  about plan B and you did say that you can't
• 6:16
  really have a plan B because this has to be
• 6:17
  your first focus. Right, So are you you are going
• 6:21
  to school right now? Are you doing anything else towards
• 6:24
  your goals?
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Just just keep working hard, that's pretty much it.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so we're going to look into five years
• 6:33
  for now. So you're eighteen right now. How are you
• 6:35
  going to be twenty five? Or sorry, no, twenty three?
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Right right?
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, I didn't finish college, all right, So what are
• 6:41
  your five year goals right now?
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Of course, to be a world champion. I see myself
• 6:47
  slowly giving back to the community as well. Of course,
• 6:51
  the Filipino fan base will also be there as well. Yeah,
• 6:55
  but yeah, it's pretty much it.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: When's your next up coming fight?
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: There's no date yet, but hopefully early next year we'll.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Be What is what are the what's the process to
• 7:05
  get a fight? Is that you sign up? Do people
• 7:07
  look for you and.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Say, like, oh, this guy's real good, we're gonna sign
• 7:10
  him up.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: They could go either way. So you can either ask
• 7:14
  people for fights or they'll ask you for fights. Okay,
• 7:17
  so right now we're kind of like asking till my
• 7:21
  name gets bigger more big out there, and then so yeah,
• 7:25
  that's what we're doing right now, and then hopefully later
• 7:28
  on they just ask me, oh, do you want to fight?
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: So yeah, hopefully. And I saw you and the one
• 7:32
  asking so one was your last fight?
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: My last fight was September sixth, oh, so that was
• 7:37
  pretty recent.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, how often do you fight?
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Hopefully? Well, I haven't fought. That was like my first
• 7:44
  fight in like one year, a year and a half. Yeah.
• 7:46
  I had a little layover because I'm pretty much like
• 7:50
  a good injury that tore my shoulder a little bit.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Was it from boxing?
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah? It was it was from boxing. And then I
• 7:57
  just like kind of like just took my time with
• 7:59
  it because I didn't want to, you know, make it worse. Yeah,
• 8:02
  And then so that was my last fight, and then
• 8:06
  maybe like every three months, every four months, just a
• 8:10
  little break in and keep going at it.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: So what does your family say? What does your mom say?
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Because my brother also boxes and my all the girls
• 8:17
  in my family is like really against it. They're like,
• 8:19
  do you want to die or something? Like my grandma,
• 8:21
  my mom, they're all against it.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Well, of course she's on me because she always doesn't
• 8:25
  want to see me like hurt or anything. Yeah, but
• 8:29
  I'm I'm gonna continue to train and learn in boxing.
• 8:32
  So she's just still gonna be my day one, support herself.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: That's good. Okay.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: We love mama boys, so that's always a plus. Okay,
• 8:42
  So you did talk about your faith in God? What
• 8:44
  does how much does that play a role in everything
• 8:47
  that you're doing.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: It plays a big part because it's not just physical,
• 8:50
  it's mental as well, because there's Yeah, like I said,
• 8:55
  there's always gonna be times where there's ups and downs,
• 8:58
  but like there's like little robberies here and there, like
• 9:02
  in amateurs, it discourages you, but with the faith guards
• 9:05
  helps everything out. It goes your way.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: So how did you end up Well, I know some
• 9:10
  people don't want to say how did you find Jesus? Okay,
• 9:12
  but how did you end up being so dependent on
• 9:16
  your faith?
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Did you grow up going to church or something?
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Actually I grew up going in church, not not
• 9:23
  like school church, but you know, just going in there
• 9:25
  and just praying, and that's basically it just talking to God.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's good. Here you guys. I made a whole
• 9:34
  list of questions.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Okay, so we already asked this. So we asked, what
• 9:40
  was your biggest struggle?
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Oh okay, So my biggest struggle is I love food.
• 9:45
  Oh yeah, I didn't realize when I was younger, I
• 9:49
  didn't realize awake cut was a thing, so that a
• 9:53
  wake cut is like, oh wake cut. Okay, So like
• 9:56
  I didn't know I had to lose weight to in
• 9:58
  order to fight. I was like, oh my gosh, I
• 10:01
  almost thought it could be a simmer wrestler because I
• 10:03
  was like eating so much.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: What did you used to weigh?
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: I used to weigh in middle school. I used to
• 10:08
  be like four eleven but one hundred and thirty pounds.
• 10:12
  I was like a little like a little chubby kid.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: So well, not to talk about how much I weigh,
• 10:17
  but I used to That was the most every way,
• 10:19
  Like during COVID season, Oh my gosh, I bounced from
• 10:22
  one eleven to one thirty one.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I was like, dang, I thought I.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Was gonna be like losing weight during the pandemic. That yeah, no,
• 10:29
  I was staying home, didn't go to the gym. I
• 10:32
  was like, I was now getting a lot of weight.
• 10:35
  I was just grateful I had the mask on because
• 10:37
  my feel was getting fat. So but yeah, you have
• 10:41
  a workout.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: What's your workout? Looking like a boxer?
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, so for a boxer for me actually, so in
• 10:48
  the morning, like around eleven, I'll go to the boxing
• 10:51
  gym and just hit the bags or if the coach
• 10:54
  has just doing something, we'll do it. And then around
• 10:57
  four or five, I'll go on a run, maybe like
• 11:00
  three and a half miles or more, depending if I'm
• 11:03
  in camp or not. And at night I'll do strength
• 11:07
  and conditioning. So like play on that chick.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: So you're working out like three times a day, yes,
• 11:13
  like every day or like cheat day or something.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: For camp, it would be three times a day. But
• 11:20
  then for like just regular days there's no fight day,
• 11:23
  I'll just stay ready, I'll do two times a day.
• 11:27
  I won't run, but I'll just do strengthen conditioning and
• 11:29
  my boxing work out.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, you know that's still a lot, still a lot.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: I'm still trying to recover from just moving tables and
• 11:36
  chairs every day, so you barely have been doing any
• 11:41
  fights barely, right, But how was it the first time
• 11:45
  that you lost the fight then you got.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Knocked out or what?
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, so my first five I've ever lost was actually
• 11:53
  my first fight. Oh wow, and so I'm not gonnae.
• 11:56
  I cried. I cried so much because I was like, okay,
• 11:59
  I'm been a win this and now I was like
• 12:02
  and then I lost. I cried so much. But that
• 12:06
  encouraged me to keep going because I had my family
• 12:09
  right behind me.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Oh that's good. What did your family say when you're
• 12:12
  like crying and stuff, You're.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Like, oh, it's okay, just keep going. It's just for
• 12:16
  the experience. You'll make a big one day. Oh I
• 12:19
  just keep that.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Well that's good. Do you that first fight, because actually
• 12:25
  I'm not. I really don't even know, Like what's the
• 12:27
  what makes you professional? Is it the fights that makes
• 12:29
  you professional?
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Like when you go into it or.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: So there's the amateurs like kind of like from nine
• 12:36
  years old, the kids from nine years old to like
• 12:39
  maybe twenty five, twenty seven, and until like you sign
• 12:46
  up for the pros, you basically sign up to become
• 12:50
  a pro okay, and then that's when you call yourself
• 12:52
  a pro and and you fight. So you sign up
• 12:55
  for this, Yes, I signed up.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: First sign up to lose.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: So was this other guy like taller than you, bigger
• 13:02
  than you, younger, older than you?
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: What was it? Why did you lose his fight? Cyrus?
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Come on, So the first fight, the one or the
• 13:09
  reason why I lost my fight is because it was
• 13:12
  my first fight, so I didn't really know what to expect,
• 13:15
  what to expect. Yeah, and the dude already had like
• 13:18
  five or six fights. He was a experience.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we experience.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: So do you feel like this experience gave you like
• 13:26
  humbled you a little bit?
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Or Yeah, there's a lot of humbling experiences in boxing,
• 13:30
  Like there will be days where you say, oh, I'm
• 13:33
  better than everyone, but then there'd be another day it's
• 13:36
  like put you in your Yeah, they put you in
• 13:38
  your place and beat you up.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I had a lot of moments that had
• 13:44
  to be humble.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Like even my own family when I first gone into singing,
• 13:47
  I'm not gonna say which parent. One of my parents
• 13:50
  ended up telling me like she's not even the best,
• 13:52
  Like she's not even the good singer.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, I was like, well, shit, what you mean.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I was like, I wasn't trying to be the best
• 13:58
  thing or you know, I just wanted to make it
• 14:00
  a little bit. But we did talk about getting paid
• 14:03
  in boxing. How do you get paid in boxing?
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: Fight by fight? Don't negotiate a fight with you and
• 14:10
  they'll basically tell you the price and like the travel
• 14:13
  fees and everything. So okay, you neither say I agree
• 14:16
  and sign the contract or you don't agree and just
• 14:19
  keep moving on.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: How do you feel the first time getting a contract
• 14:23
  and getting paid?
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Man, I'm not gonna lie. I felt great. I felt great.
• 14:27
  It's just having like a little bit of money just
• 14:29
  right there in my face, Like it felt like I
• 14:31
  can spend it on anything in the world. Yeah. Yeah,
• 14:34
  after that, I just kind of likely.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just goes away and you gotta wait for
• 14:37
  the next Yeah.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: I remember the first time I got paid for singing.
• 14:41
  It was like they just gave me gas money. But
• 14:44
  I was like, no, girl, just made it. You guys,
• 14:47
  but I want to get more into I think I
• 14:50
  have like one more question for you. Oh okay, well,
• 14:54
  how can we best support you in your journey? Especially
• 14:56
  we are in Filipino Town PHV Radio. We are literally
• 15:02
  our target audience are Filipinos.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: How can we best support you?
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: Just come out to my fights because boxers are ultimately
• 15:08
  entertainers and entertainers and so whenever, if, like when I
• 15:13
  make it big, I want to give back to the
• 15:15
  community and also start a foundation for like like maybe
• 15:19
  like any hospital, just any hospital, and so like kids
• 15:23
  with limited mobility can be happy, like put I just
• 15:27
  want to put a smile on their face because they're
• 15:29
  in the hospital so much.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Yea, all right, you guys, how can we find you?
• 15:32
  Who am? Any? Last words?
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: Come find me at cyrus the virus underscore dot the
• 15:39
  underscored dot virus on Instagram and everywhere on social media.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: So all right, guys, until next time, by all right,