[Voice memo. Transcribed. McCready's iPhone, recorded approximately 19:15 on a Tuesday, parked outside a chip shop on Dumbarton Road, Glasgow. Heater running. A bag of chips on the passenger seat — untouched at the start, gone by the end.]
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[0:00 — engine off, heater fan audible, rustle of a chip bag]
McCREADY: Right. Shawn Cortez.
[pause]
McCREADY: "Simply" Shawn Cortez, if we're bein' fair tae the man's billin'.
[sound of the chip bag, a pause to eat]
McCREADY: They've got me openin' the show. Card position ten — first match, first bell, lights up, McCready. Now there's a school a thought says openin' the show's a demotion. I'm no' in that school. Somebody's got tae walk intae a cold room and warm it up for the rest a the night, and the federation's looked at a roster a twenty-odd and went: McCready. Send McCready. The cold room's no' a problem for him. He's fought in colder.
McCREADY: I'm takin' that as a compliment. I take most things as a compliment. It's cheaper than the alternative.
[0:50 — chip bag, traffic passing outside]
McCREADY: So I've been watchin' tape. Cortez against the Doctrine, BCD 8, the main event — nineteen minutes and a bit. And I'll tell ye straight, because tellin' ye straight's the only thing I do for free: the boy can fight. He can really fight. He walked up tae Morse before the bell and telt him exactly what he was gonnae do. Telt him the openin' tae his face. Then went and did it, tae the second, like he was readin' it off a card. That's no' nothin'. That's a hard thing tae do and he did it.
McCREADY: So I'm no' here tae tell ye Cortez cannae go. He can go.
[pause — sound of him setting the bag down]
McCREADY: Here's what I cannae get my heid round, though.
McCREADY: The boy's got a folder. He's got a woman who carries it, or carries somethin'. He's got another fella stood behind him that doesnae say a word — just stands there bein' a wide unit in a good jacket. He writes documents. Scoutin' documents. Since 2018, I'm telt. Been writin' wee reports on people for years like a polis buildin' a case.
McCREADY: And I'm sittin' here in a Vauxhall outside a chippy on Dumbarton Road wae a phone and a poke a chips, watchin' the same tape he watched, and I'm wonderin' — what in the name a fuck is all the rest of it for?
McCREADY: Because here's the thing nobody in Miami's gonnae tell him. The folder doesnae come in the cage. The woman doesnae come in. The quiet fella in the jacket doesnae come in. The Crucible's got the one door and it shuts, and then it's two men and whatever they brought in their hands. I've checked. Twice. There's no filin' cabinet in there.
[2:30 — heater fan, he picks the bag back up]
McCREADY: He can write me a document if he likes. He can walk up before the bell and tell me my whole night, openin' tae finish, the way he done tae Morse. I'll listen. I've lovely manners. And then I'm gonnae hit him a Discus Punch he didnae have a heading for, and we'll see how the methodology reads when it's lyin' on its back countin' the lights.
McCREADY: That's no' me bein' clever. That's just the difference. He's got a philosophy. I've got a record a 0-4 and two hands that still work. One a those things travels intae a cage and one a them stops at the door.
[pause]
McCREADY: He'll bring the apparatus. I'll bring the hands. I've been the second man four times now and I'm gettin' awful tired a the view.
[3:40 — chip bag crumpled, window cracked, cold air in]
McCREADY: Respect tae the man. He can fight. I've said it and I meant it.
McCREADY: I'm still gonnae knock the folder clean out his hands.
McCREADY: That's the memo.
[End recording.]