As he prepared to leave for battle, young boxing sensation Abdullah Mason took his cat, Sheba, and left her with friends.
By the time Mason returned from thrilling the live crowd in Norfolk, Virginia, having come through a wild two-round Fight of the Year contender, a blistering shootout with Yohan Vasquez, the boxing world was buying into the Mason hype a little more, but Sheba was a little less enthused.
“We had to give her to our friends when we flew out to our fight and she got a little too comfortable, so we’ve got to get her back,” smiles Mason, a few days after he had tasted the canvas for the first (and second) time in his career.
“I love cats, man. They be chillin’. They respect their owners. We say they match energy. That’s what they do. So we like cats.”
Mason might have won the appreciation of more boxing fans than ever before against Vasquez, but he was going to have to win his cat over again.
Back in Cleveland, sat in an empty club with bright neons in the background lighting up vacant tables and chairs, the venue where friends and family who did not travel to Virginia held a watch party for the Norfolk fireworks, Mason is happy to relive his brief but crazily-exciting and somewhat unexpected slugfest, and he is self-aware enough to analyse both the lessons and the flaws.
There was plenty of drama crammed in the four minutes and 59 seconds his fight with Vasquez lasted. Mason was down twice and floored the Bronx-based Dominican in an all-action first.
The Scope Arena in Norfolk erupted time and again.
“It’s work,” Mason adds calmly. “Every time I get in the ring, everyone wants more and I leave the fans satisfied. That last fight was a crazy fight, but everyone’s saying it was the most exciting fight on the card, they’re saying it was the Round of the Year, a lot of people are telling me it was the best fight they’ve ever watched live, it’s exciting and it’s a lot of fun.”
Even before defeating Vasquez, in his fifth fight of 2024, Mason was being heavily-touted as the prospect of the year. He’s boxed just 13 of the 40 rounds he’s been scheduled for and has not been beyond eight rounds yet, but the hype is swelling. There is an increasing amount of attention paid to him and he can feel it.
“Oh yeah, of course. Every time I step out there everyone has a little more to say,” the 20-year-old southpaw explains. “They want to see more, or they start putting names out there or want to see me with certain world championship fighters. We know that it’s growing. It’s coming. But that’s what we’re looking for, that world championship, so we are just inching closer and closer to the titles and we’re gonna keep on putting on the same performances and keeping everyone excited so I can keep growing.”
Asked whether he knows how good he can be and what his ceiling is, he smiles once more and adds: “Yeah – I do.”
“I would say with me being where I’m at now, I don’t think we’ve seen a fighter at my age with the same skill level. I know, [with] two-three years of focus, we’re going to be so much further forward. No matter how much time we put on it, as long as I stay focused, and I know that I have a lot more room to grow, that room will be filled up.”
Of course, being dropped twice by Vasquez was, for some, far from ideal. It is certainly something Mason hopes to avoid again, and while it might have given the naysayers ammunition, the Top Rank starlet has adopted a mature outlook in that it has allowed him to see how he can improve and what he must concentrate on.
“Staying focused” is near the top of the list. “There’s always more work. But just keep it simple. Be doing the same thing and you just know. There’s more work.”
It is around this time in a fighter’s career when they can double down and keep working, or they can have their heads turned by the lure of success and celebrity. Mason firmly denies there is any chance of him coming off the rails. He is ambitious and driven, and by his own admission, Vasquez served as a warning shot.
“This last fight has made me realize more than anything that boxing is mental. It’s all mental. The physical aspect, the fighting aspect, the training aspect, the gameplan aspect, being in shape is one thing, but when you’re mentally locked in, it takes everything to a whole other level,” Mason continues. “I can see, it’s opened my eyes to a whole bunch more, outside the ring, but mentally, you’ve gotta be in all the way, and that’s one thing this fight has shown me. Just mentally, you know, that world championship level or just growing to that next level, it’s all mental and this fight has put that on me a little more than any other fight I’ve had.”
Mason’s many supporters will say it was all good experience for the young contender; that getting dropped and having to show heart and courage is par for the boxing course and the rite of passage any future champion must endure to progress to the next level. It is more education than distress flare. That is certainly how Mason has it. And he’s taken that with him from the canvas in Norfolk and into 2025.
“Inside the ropes, it’s making sure I’m dialled in on what my trainers and brothers tell me. That was a simple slip up, but anything simple in boxing is major, and I know that, but this has shown me first hand that no matter how simple it is, you have to listen to what your corner and your brothers are telling you. And those simple slip ups caused those knockdowns, but that’s what I’ve learned inside the ring. You make sure you listen to every single detail, no matter how small it is.”
While the world might have frozen for the Top Rank brass ringside, watching the highly-touted Mason unexpectedly being sent sprawling, time sped up for Abdullah. It was a position he had not been in before and he recalls the knockdowns vividly.
“I wasn’t concerned. I wasn’t,” he insists. “We train for those type of moments, as you see from how I came back from those, but, man, it was surreal. The first time I got knocked down, everything sped up like 10 times. When something like that happens, the whole fight just speeds up. It’s like, say you’re doing a back flip and someone’s recording it. When you’re doing the flip, you can feel yourself doing the flip. You’re in the moment. But when it’s recorded from the outside, the flip just happens. You’re off your feet and then you land on your feet. When you get hit with something like that, it’s like the same speed like it’s being recorded. You get hit, and then everything happens so fast. You’re off your feet, you’re back up, you’re fighting, the fight has ended. The fight just sped up so much after that first knockdown, but my training has kept me prepared for that moment and it let me know that I’m prepared for much more, and most of all, mentally, this has put me on another level, so I know I will be ready for anything that’s to come, no matter who’s in front of me, I’ll be prepared to fight them physically and mentally.”
Mason, 16-0 (14 KOs), speaks with passion and assertiveness and self-belief is not an issue. He digests some of the fallout from his fights on social media, but not all. He certainly does not live and die by the comment sections and is content separating the real world from the digital planet.
“That’s not something I’m dialled in on,” Mason adds. “That’s not everyday life, everybody who’s watching, they’re watching with their own opinion, and there’s so many people in this world, you can’t look at everyone’s opinion and let it affect you. Everybody has their own opinion, so I know what I have to do, and I know what I’m in it for. We’re just focused.
“My motivation is inside the ring, as soon as the small mistake happened, that was something that flipped that switch, ‘Nah, that can’t happen no more,’ so no matter what anyone else says, no one’s in your shoes but you. Nobody knows what would have happened if they were the ones in the ring or they fought that opponent. Everyone’s path is different, and I know that next time I step in there, I’ll be looking to have a better performance, as I do every time.”
Plenty have had more serious slip-ups on their way to stardom, and Mason has been learning about the greats as he has gone along, particularly from watching the likes of Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali.
“Everybody who shaped the sport to be what it is today,” he says of the ones he has studied, before returning to the Vasquez feedback and adding that it’s been “Overwhelmingly positive.”
“The excitement is crazy. It’s through the roof. They’re comparing it to amazing fights, but for me, I’m a fighter first. I would never want to see myself slipping up at all, but it was an exciting fight and that’s what I look for, exciting fights, so with that being my last eight-rounder, I can’t wait to go crazy when I hit the 10 rounds and we’re looking to get into the rankings. There’s been different people reaching out. Different organizations, so looking forward, we want the world championships, so that’s where we’re headed to.
“I’m glad that everybody had a positive outlook on this fight and they can’t wait for the next one, ‘Don’t ever put him on the undercard again, we want to see him in the main event.’ But that’s what I like, going in there and stealing the show.”
Mason remains engaged discussing the ups and downs, literally, and he doesn’t sugar-coat what happened in Norfolk 10 days ago. It was a firefight. Perhaps it should not have been. It was a lesson, and he learned.
“I’m my own critic, so it’s no bigger than what I put on myself, what my father [trainer Valiant] has put on me, so our expectations are through the roof. That’s nothing, so there’s no pressure on me, in that aspect. I’m not under any scrutiny. You can’t write off any fighter in the ring. Everybody is somebody, no matter how they look or their record is. They’re getting in there and they can throw a punch as well, they’re able, they’re capable, and at the same time, everyone has had a training camp for the opponent they’re going up against. Nobody is a journeyman to that aspect where they can’t fight or you can write somebody off. One punch can change anything and, as we’ve seen in my last fight, I got up from two punches, and I got the job done.”
Mason’s mature perspective is equally refreshing. Everyone knows he is one of boxing’s bright young things. Many believe he might be the next big thing. But, despite being around the sport for almost all of his life, the switch did not immediately flick and despite his natural talents, it was not the center of his world. It took a while for him to realize his dreams lay in the ring.
“It was my own choice [he said of his first visit to the boxing gym], and I didn’t really get serious about it because it was something that I did for fun, that I enjoyed. I didn’t get serious about it until my father and my brothers actually dialled in. I would say specifically my brothers, because my father’s always been there. Once my brothers got serious about it, and once I knew that they were going to be alongside me on the journey, that’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do and I would say we dragged each other in. Once they knew I was serious, they made sure I was doing the things I was supposed to do. Same for the other way around. I’ve always been training. But there was a boxing gym around the corner from where we lived, I first started going there when I was around nine, 10, and my brothers all joined in and I got actually serious about it when I was around 12, 13.”
Of those brothers, Abdullah is the third oldest of five professionals and their hopes and dreams are very much entwined. The others are: Amir (4-1 junior welterweight), Adel (1-0 featherweight), Abdur-Rahman (2-0 junior lightweight), and Ibrahim (1-0 junior lightweight).
Asked who the best is, and whether there is a secret weapon among the Mason boys, Abdullah does not give much away.
“Whoever’s in the ring at the time. I’m the one kickin’ the door down right now so that when my brothers come, everyone won’t know who’s the best.”
However, asked whether his older brothers showed him who was boss when they were growing up, he initially replies: “Oh my.” Then he changes direction: “Nah, nah nah. Nobody kicked my butt.”
But Mason said his childhood was a good one. Family came first and even if there was temptation to deviate, the streets never called him the way they have so many.
“It wasn’t rough. The environment in Cleveland, Ohio, is rough,” Mason says of his upbringing. “But I was raised with my family and we always made sure we were busy with something. We were doing something with our hands. Whether that was boxing or something else. My older brother Amir, he cuts hair, he cuts my hair, he’s the only person I let cut my hair, we did other stuff, construction, but we were always busy or moving around. My father had a fragrance shop and he used to sell the body products, but we were always busy with something. Now we’re in boxing, this is what we’re busy with and we’re taking this all the way.”
Mason, his hair – shaped by Amir – immaculate and his face unmarked despite the recent excitement, speaks of his father with great reverence.
Is Valiant his dad at home and a sergeant major in the gym?
“I would say he’s the best at home and he’s the best at the gym.”
“He has the most support for us, inside and outside the ring. He makes sure that we have everything we need. He’s always in it. Even if he’s not in the gym, he’s doing something for us. Everything he does is to better us and what we’re doing.”
Abdullah laughs when asked who is the boss at home, his mother or father, but he retains his diplomatic disposition.
“My father, he provides for everybody and my mother makes sure we have everything we need as well.”
And then Abdullah moves on to the next question but declines to answer when he last shed a tear.
“Ah man. Ah man. One thing I can say, I did not like those knockdowns,” he laughs.
“Have you cried in the last five years?”
“Next question.”
So on we move. Mason was never motivated by an Olympic berth. He was ready for the pros and wanted to start making money.
“There were a few promoters hitting me up. I went 5-0 with three stoppages [at the junior Olympics] and a few people reached out. I spoke to my manager J Prince and I felt that Top Rank did it right, they did it how I wanted it. They know how to move a fighter. And we got with them and everything’s been going smooth.”
Does he have much in common with promoter Bob Arum, who is older than him by some seven decades?
“Boxing,” Mason smiles.
“Just like how boxing wouldn’t be what it is today without the greats, Bob is one of the greats outside of the ring who’s the head of what’s going on in Top Rank and he has a platform for the fighters and you can’t leave him out of anything when it comes to boxing.”
In a business where controversy sells, fake grudges have become a staple, and the characters become larger than life on their way up through the ranks, is talent alone enough to get Mason where he needs to be? He believes that, provided he lives in a boxing myopia, he can worry about anything else when he needs to.
One can only imagine the accolades he might be on the cusp of amassing. He thinks he could be two fights away from championship level and three or four from a title.
“You need to be focused and you have to be mentally in it, you’re using your talent, your IQ and you have to be in shape. Talent takes you far, but everything else takes you to the next level.
“We will see. Right now, my skill is taking me there. Of course, that’s not all there is to it, but if you’re in the sport of boxing you have to have the people come behind you, you have to have the support, you have to be able to sit people down and you have to have exciting fights, but right now I’m in the most exciting fights and I’m yet to have a main event fight. I can’t wait to have a main event fight, put on for my city of Cleveland, Ohio. That’d be a first step to all of that, the next level, having that first main event, those 10-round fights as a contender, moving toward the world championship, all that comes with being at the next level. Of course I have what it takes to be that big brand in boxing, as they call it the Face of Boxing nowadays, I have to have that. We got the excitement in the ring down, we’ve just got to stay focused.”
Mason hopes that he could be ready to challenge for a title in three or four fights and he wants to make a statement to open 2025. “Start strong,” as he puts it.
Fighting at home, alongside his siblings, is a high priority for his career.
“Every stadium in Cleveland that can fit how many supporters that I have, I want to fight in that one,” he says when discussing his goals. “I like fighting where I feel I have support, and everywhere I’ve fought so far, I feel like they’ve welcomed me. That’s one thing I do like about boxing, after you fight you gain certain supporters that you call ride or dies, they’re with you from day one or as soon as they find out about you, they’re rockin’ with you, so I would like for all my supporters and day ones to come out, wherever I am and to put on a performance. A place is a place, but the people what make the place what it is, so anywhere.”
And, in that respect, there is no place like home.
Having watched the Davis brothers (DB3) light up Scope Arena in Norfolk, it only whet Mason’s appetite to do the same thing in Cleveland with his brothers.
It is talking about that, and possibly his cat, when Mason lights up the most.
“That’s been a goal since before I turned pro. Fighting in my hometown along with all of my brothers. All five of us would be on the same card, so that’s been something that we’ve been talking about and everyone around us has been talking about since way back, when we were amateurs. Once we got serious about boxing, everyone was, ‘Man, wait ‘til y’all turn pro and you fight here in Cleveland, all five of y’all on the card.’ Everybody there supporting. One of us after the next, getting win after win, everybody was saying, ‘If y’all come to Cleveland and had a show, there wouldn’t have to be anyone else on the show because we would have five fights.’ That’s something big that we’ve been looking forward to. I’m glad they [the Davis brothers] had that hometown performance, but me and my brothers are looking forward to that and hopefully we will have that soon.”
It will be there when Mason can match their energy.
And then Sheba will be waiting for him at home.