First Ring

FIRST RING OUTGOING CALL — R. JOHNSON TO C. McCREADY ONE CALL. ANSWERED ON THE FIRST RING. SUBMITTED TO STRIFE MEDIA OPERATIONS BY THE FIGHTER WHO MADE IT, WITH THE OTHER PARTY'S PERMISSION, WHICH WAS GIVEN IN THE FIRST MINUTE AND IS ON THE RECORDING. --- Attached note, handwritten, block capitals, no signature: LAST TIME I LEFT NINE MESSAGES AND NOBODY PICKED UP. I SUBMITTED ALL NINE SO NOBODY HAD TO WONDER. THIS TIME I CALLED ONCE. SAME NUMBER SHEET. SAME REASON. I AM SUBMITTING THIS ONE FOR THE SAME REASON I SUBMITTED THOSE. I DID NOT HAVE A MESSAGE READY. --- [TUESDAY, 9:41 A.M. — CONNECTED AFTER ONE RING] McCREADY: Aye? JOHNSON: Mr. McCready. This is Rod Johnson. We haven't — McCREADY: Aye, Ah know who ye are, big man. Ah've a telly. JOHNSON: …Right. McCREADY: Ye sound surprised. JOHNSON: I am, a little. I'll be honest with you. The last man I called didn't pick up for eleven days. McCREADY: Ah heard. Ah read them. Everybody read them. Ye put them on the internet. JOHNSON: I did. McCREADY: Nine. Ye left that poor bastard nine. JOHNSON: I did. I should tell you up front, before we go any further, that I'm recording this. I record everything I do that anybody might later ask about. If you don't want that, say so and I'll stop and we can talk anyway. McCREADY: Naw, ye're all right. Record away. Ah've said worse on camera wi' a drink in me. --- JOHNSON: I'll say what I called to say, then. I like to talk to a man before I fight him. I said that to Mr. Healy and I'm saying it to you. In five days we're going to be locked in a room — McCREADY: Ah'll be there. [Pause. Roughly four seconds.] McCREADY: Ye still there? JOHNSON: I'm here. McCREADY: Ah'm just saying it so ye don't have tae wait for it. Ye said in wan o' them messages ye wanted a man tae say it. So. Ah'll be there, big man. Ah'm always there. [Pause.] McCREADY: That's sort of ma problem, if Ah'm honest wi' ye. JOHNSON: How do you mean? McCREADY: Nought and six. Ah've no' won a fight in this building. Ah've turned up for every wan o' them. Reyes-Montoya, first night, tournament. Ah turned up. Rancid. Turned up. The big silent fella wi' the mask. Turned up. Healy — turned up, got battered, shook his hand, we walked out the cage together. Then two more after that. Turned up. Lost. Shook hands. Every time. Naebody in this company has ever had tae wonder whether Callum McCready's coming. That's no' a thing anybody's ever lost sleep over. JOHNSON: No. I don't suppose it is. McCREADY: So ye'll understand if Ah find it a wee bit funny. That the one thing ye're frightened of is the one thing Ah've never once been accused of. JOHNSON: I'd say that makes you the right man to be calling. McCREADY: Aye, well. Somebody had tae be. --- [The recording runs for a while here without much talking. Johnson can be heard drinking something. McCready can be heard lighting something.] JOHNSON: Can I tell you what I noticed? On your tape? McCREADY: Go on. JOHNSON: You shake hands. Every time. Win or lose. Mostly lose — I'm not saying that to be unkind, I'm saying it because it's on the record. You shake the man's hand after he's beaten you. After you've spent twelve minutes trying to take his head off, most of it fair and some of it — let's say creative. McCREADY: [laughs] Creative. Aye. That's a nice word for it. JOHNSON: I've watched you do things at that wall, with the referee standing right there, that I wouldn't do. And look him dead in the face while you did them. McCREADY: Allegedly. JOHNSON: I've watched it four times. It's not alleged. It's on the tape. McCREADY: Aye, fair enough. Go on. JOHNSON: And then you shake his hand. And you mean it. I can see you mean it. And I've been trying to work out how a man does both those things in the same twelve minutes. [Pause.] McCREADY: Can Ah tell ye something, big man? Seeing as we're recording? JOHNSON: Please. McCREADY: Ah boxed. Before all this. Thirteen, amateur, then a wee bit pro. Ah was decent. Ah had a manager for three year. Lovely fella. Bought ye a pint. Came tae yer maw's for Sunday dinner. He was taking ma purses. The whole time. Every fight. Three year. So here's how Ah do both. Inside the cage, Ah'll take any bit o' the rules Ah can get away wi', because the rules were never once on ma side, no' when it mattered. That's the job. That's the fight. But when it's done, Ah shake the man's hand, because he's the only one in the whole bloody building who was honest wi' me all night. He came tae hit me and he hit me. That's more than Ah ever got off ma manager. [Long pause.] JOHNSON: I was offered less money to fight worse men for the last three years of my career. McCREADY: Ah know. Ye said. On the internet. JOHNSON: I'm not saying it for the record. I'm saying it because you told me yours. McCREADY: …Aye. Ah know ye are. --- McCREADY: Right. Go on, then. JOHNSON: Go on what? McCREADY: Tell us. Which bit. Ye do that, don't ye? Ye tell the fella which bit's going tae go and what minute. Healy got the knee. Which bit's mine? JOHNSON: Not on a phone. McCREADY: Ach, come on. JOHNSON: Not on a phone, Mr. McCready. Not in your ear on a Tuesday where nobody can check it afterwards. I'll say it out loud, in the building, at the door, under the house lights, in front of everybody who paid. That's the only way it means anything. You'll hear it the same time they do. McCREADY: Fine. Then Ah'll tell ye mine. JOHNSON: You don't have to do that. McCREADY: Naw, Ah want tae. Ye've been honest wi' me for twenty minutes, it's making me itchy. I'm going tae throw The Cut. Same as Ah said Ah would the last time somebody asked. Off the spin, at the wall. And Ah'm going tae throw it early, while ye're still telling the front row what ye're going tae do tae me. JOHNSON: Is that true? [Pause.] McCREADY: It's something. JOHNSON: [laughs — first time on the recording] All right. McCREADY: Ye don't believe me. JOHNSON: I'm going to treat it as true. That's the only way I know how to do anything. If it is true, I'll be ready for it. If it isn't, that's on you, not me, and I'll still be ready, and I'll still be there. McCREADY: That's very annoying. JOHNSON: I'm told. --- McCREADY: Can Ah ask ye wan thing? JOHNSON: Anything. McCREADY: The three fellas. The ones that went quiet on ye. [Pause. Roughly six seconds.] JOHNSON: Go ahead. McCREADY: Naw. Ah'm no' going tae ask what ye think. Ah'm going tae ask what ye'd say tae them. If they picked up. Now. Like Ah just did. [A long pause. Eleven seconds by the recording.] JOHNSON: I'd say: I'll be there. McCREADY: That's it? JOHNSON: That's all I've ever wanted to say to any of them. I just never got to go first. McCREADY: …Aye. Well. Ye went second tae me. Ah'll no' hold it against ye. --- McCREADY: Right, big man. Ah've tae get tae the gym. There's a fella called Davie holds the pads for me and he gets awful upset if Ah'm late. JOHNSON: Thank you for picking up. McCREADY: Ye don't have tae thank folk for picking up the phone. That's mental. JOHNSON: It isn't to me. McCREADY: Naw. Ah suppose it wouldnae be. [Pause.] McCREADY: Saturday. JOHNSON: Saturday. You already know. McCREADY: Aye. Ah usually do. Doesnae help. [CALL ENDED BY C. McCREADY — 38 MIN 12 SEC] --- Second attached note, same hand: NINETY SECONDS AFTER THE CALL ENDED, A TEXT MESSAGE. REPRODUCED IN FULL. "also the wall thing was only twice" I HAVE WATCHED IT FOUR TIMES. IT WAS THREE. GO AND READ IT. END OF RECORD. ONE CALL. ONE ANSWER.