The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, TJ. Leaves. Well, we get ready for
a huge weekend of action from Las Vegas to Puerto Rico and even to England.
We're ready to cover all of it on the Big Fight we can preview.
Hello there, welcome in and to all the dads, Happy Father's Day.
I'm merely TJ. Reeves. He's another dad, Dan Rayfield, Happy
Father's Day to you, my friend, And I know, I know,
Look, you love being around your family and around your son, but there's
probably secondarily nowhere you'd rather be right now than where you are. The venue
that you're going to be in, which we're going to talk more about and
a big time Gervonte Davis headlining David Benavitez Co feature pay per view that we're
ready to discuss on the Big Fight Weekend preview. I am merely TJ Reeves
our insiders, Dan Rayfield. Fight Freaks United is his substack Big Fight week
Hello, Las Vegas. You are ol on location at the MGM Grand and
getting ready for everything that's going to happen on Saturday night. How are things,
my friend? Things are good? T Jo. I'm excited to be
here. You know, this is my home away from home. I wasn't
going to miss the one hundredths of vent here. I've been to a lot
of them. I've enjoyed it, and it's just there's been a lot of
I mean, people are looking forward to the fight of course with Tank Davis
and Frank Martin, the co main event with Benavides against Alexander Vodzik, but
there's been a lot of conversation with my colleagues in the press room and people
involved, people from the casino, people from the world of boxing, even
the fighters have been talking about it and we're going to get to it in
our nostalled dis section. But just the ridiculous, amazing history of boxing in
this building that I have been to so many times. It's a real privilege,
and the fact that you get to celebrate it on a you know,
one hundred just sort of a random number, but it's one hundred, so
people make a big deal about it, and it's great to look back.
We look back every week the show and the amount of history that has been
made right here, you know, downstairs from where I am is just remarkable.
And I've been really fortunate to be there at ringside for a lot of
it. All right, we're gonna get into the fights here in just a
little bit. We got Jervonte Davis on the show. Dan was right there
getting some Q and a opportunity with him. Got a couple of questions in
you'll hear from Tank Davis. Not been in the ring since he was in
Vegas beating Ryan Garcia. I keep saying this, Ray Phiel, we got
it. We got to keep track of all the jail time and every he's
been in jail, now out of jail, now ready to go in his
in his latest big time event. You'll hear from Javonte Davis in a little
bit. We're going to tell you more about our friends at PPV dot com
that sponsor us. We want you to utilize them as a one off purchase
for this fight. No long term subscription required to get the Jervonte Davis main
event. David Benavitez Co feature pay per view. PPV dot Com is our
sponsor. We're going to hear more about that later in the show. But
look, we've also got prominent fight card in Puerto Rico that has IBF Junior
welterweight Champs Subrio, Mattias Puerto Rican defending against Liam Parro and in England the
WBO Cruiserweight titles on the line earlier in the day on Saturday US time Saturday
night in London for Chris Billum Smith and Richard Riakapore, which is a rematch.
So we've got a lot to cover here on the preview here on the
program. And by the way, you need to rate us and review us
if you enjoy the coverage, preview going into the weekend, recap coming off
the weekend, all the interviews, etc. Hit the five star button,
rate us and review us. That will help. But I mean, Dan,
we got across the board. We got a lot to preview and a
lot to get into here on the show. Let's do it, baby,
Let's do it all right, So again, set the scene just real quick
before we get into the specific matchup, Davis and Frank the ghost Martin.
You've been there now for a couple of days at the time that we're talking.
It is hot. I was there with you eleven months ago in July.
We know it's hot in Vegas in June. How figuratively hot is Vegas
right now? Midweek? Building to this paper view. Well, it's funny
when people say it's hot in Vegas. All I know is when I walked
in the door to the kid when I got out to the hotel on Wednesday
morning. My plan is to not walk out the door until I go to
the airport on Sunday morning. So I'm in, you know, because what
happens when the fights are at the T mobile you're outside. You know,
you're you're in the plaza. You maybe you walk over there. You know
you're certainly walking somewhere afterwards, whether even it's just to get a cab or
go to the hotel across the street. You're outdoors at some point. When
you're here at the MGM and the fights in the in the physical building,
you know you're not unlessarily leaving. Now, There's been plenty of times where
you go with folks and you may have dinner off the strip, or maybe
there's a media thing at a gym, or you go to see another fighter
working out or something like that. This particular week, there's none of that.
Everything is in the casino. So I'll see the outdoors on Sunday morning.
But the fight, Look, there's a nice crowd gathering the signages here,
people are talking about the fight. You know, it's a it's a
good event. They're really Besides the promotion of the actual matches that are on
the card, there is a lot of stuff related to the one hundred.
The MGM and has become, in my mind, sort of like the primary
home of boxing for the biggest fights in the United States. It's been that
way for a number of years and they want their customers and the boxing fans
to know it, and they're doing a good job of it. And again
we say that Gervonte Davis has drawn all over the country. Whether he's fought
in Las Vegas as he did a year ago, but he headlined for a
pay per view in Atlanta that drew. He headlined in his home area of
Baltimore that obviously drew. He's been at the Alamodome in San Antonio during the
COVID Crazy What twenty twenty twenty twenty one time frame and drew massive crowds there.
My point is he's a drawing card and as we build this and we
get ready to preview this fight, that's a big reason why he's part of
this one hundred show at the MGM Grand He's been a draw. No,
he's all. He drew in Los Angeles. He drew in Baltimore, Like
you said, he's sold out in Washington, d C. Not far from
Baltimore. Did the biggest gate in the history of the Capital One Arena in
Washington, a building that's been around for twenty some twenty five years or whatever,
has hosted major sporting events, has hosted the biggest concerts. So he
set the all time record a gate of over five million dollars, not even
for a mega fight when he fought Hector Luis Garcia, not exactly the name
of Ritan Garcia. Yes, Tank is a superstar. There's no doubt about
that. How he's going to sell this fight on pay per view, we'll
get into that because Tank hasn't done any promotion. He didn't do really any
He didn't. He did a bunch of scrum interviews on the day of the
news commerce to announce this fight, which took place on on the on the
day of the Canelo Alvarez Himon win Gie fights I was here that took place
in the same media center we're here for this week. He didn't do any
interviews during the during the training camp at all. Blackout and then skipped the
arrival ceremony and then did some interviews yesterday, which is Wednesday. At the
news conference, I had a chance to speak to one on one. I'll
hear that later in the show, and he was The thing that's so weird
to me is that he was really good when he did the interview. I
think he kind of likes dealing with the press to some degree. So I
don't really know why he he put on he put on social media. There's
been no promotion for this. Is that because he's mad? It does he
does? He did? He neglect to do it himself. What's your read?
Because as you said, he promoted it before. He was good when
the media was around him. What do you think is up with this?
So in the interview that they'll hear in a few minutes, I asked him
about that, and I basically approached it like, hey, you were in
a really good mood today at press covers. He was very you know,
it was very pleasant to say, he lo to me to see me,
you know, you know, it was me and Benny, how you've been
whatever, smiling and in a very tripper mood. And they'll hear I won't
ruin it. I'll let them here because heslaying it in its own work.
He'll tell you exactly why he skipped the skip the arouse. I don't agree
with his reasons, but that's his business. Excellent tease on that front.
All right. As for the matchup in the ring first mentioned, we will
handicap it more go on the record on the bet Us Boxing Show Live on
their platforms Friday one Eastern time, YouTube, Twitter, et cetera for bet
Us. But as a matchup, I am intrigued. They're not paying us
to say this, but I am intrigued here because I think Frank Martin is
a very talented fighter, and there are question marks on Gervonte Davis being out
of the ring for more than a year. Pick it up on that point,
please, I have no I mean, they're just the same. What
you said could perfectly true, but I don't believe that there are fourteen months
out is going to have any bearing on Tank Davis's performance. If he loses,
it's not going to be because he's been in the out of the ring
for fourteen months. That was another subject that we talked about in the interview.
But my perspective is, you know, he's been doing this for most
of his life. He trains, he's been training for a while. You
know, it's like muscle memory, and I fourteen months is you know,
it's a long way up. But it's not two and a half years.
You know, it's not you know, some kind of crazy amount of time
thof I mean, now give you an example. You know, sure there's
times where guys come back and maybe they're rusty, and certainly that's part of
it. But I do think it's each each each guy is an individual case.
So I'll cite you the example. Say Floyd Mayweather, for example,
who was you know, used to be Gravante's promoter. They once were,
you know, a mentor and fighter. Not not so close anymore. But
the point is when Floyd went into his retirement and he was out of the
ring for I don't know about three years or so, two and a half
years, something like that, and he came back to fight Onemanuel Marquez,
who was one of the pound for pound best in the business, Floyd shut
him out. Basically, there was like you wouldn't if if somebody didn't tell
you may whether it had been retired and hadn't boxed for you know, a
few years you wouldn't know that you would be like, the guy looks as
amazing today as he did last time he had their gloves on. So I
think that Tank's going to fall into that kind of category and that the layoff
is not going to be a factor at all. Now, whether Frank Martin
has the skills and or the punch to to defeat him, that's a different
story. But I don't think whatever is going to be the case is going
to be because somehow the fourteen month layoff is going to have some kind of
terrible impact on Tank Davis. All Right. As for Martin and his legitimate
chance to win, when last we saw him, it was a July,
basically eleven months ago, he won a unanimous decision over Ardam Harttunian. He
also has a win over Michelle Rivera, another fellow contender that was an unbeaten
against an unbeaten fight That was December of twenty twenty two. Size it up
here on on Martin's chances to hang in there with Tank Davis in the preview
mode. Well, I like Frank Martin as a fighter quite a bit.
I've had him on past prospect lists. I've thought very highly of him.
Ever since I first saw him. I've seen him come up on some of
these major undercards and he's look good. He's definitely got skills. He has
a good amateur background. He's also not a baby. He's twenty seven years
old, so he's in terms of his physical presence, he's a grown man
now at this point, and he's got a good experience in terms of his
professional fights as well as the types of guys he's been in the gym with.
He's been part of that, the tremendous training camp that is down at
the Derek James Jim you know. One of the interesting aspects of the fight,
it's not has nothing to do with what will happen in the ring,
but I find it interesting is that his promoter of record is Errol Spence Junior,
who's been here talking up his guy. And he's also trained by Derek
James, who obviously he spent all that all those years training Errol. So
when you saw at the news covers, Errol Spence and Derek James sitting a
few feet apart from each other. Even though Darren broiled in this pretty nasty
litigation over the accusations that Derek has made that Errol Spence has shorted him what
he owes him financially, but at least for this week, they're on the
same team because they're both just here to support Frank Martin. So he has
had the experience in that gym, he's had great training, he's worked with
Errol, you know, so he's I think he's ready for this fight.
And I also get the sense, and I've said this before, not to
say that the other opponents that Tank Davis fought were scared or you know,
had no confidence or anything like that, but I get the distinct feeling from
being around Frank a little bit and seeing this his body language and the way
he asks is he really does believe he can win the fight. And I'm
not so sure that was the case with some of Tank's other opponents. Not
to say that they weren't confident, they didn't try, but there's a certain
part of why arrogance about Frank Martin where I get the feeling like he's like,
don't worry about what I say, just watch what happens on the Saturday.
Now. Whether I'm feeling it the right way or not, who we'll
see, you know, in a couple of days, but I don't think
he's gonna go in that ring fearful. My question is does he have the
physical skills and tools to actually win the fight. He's gonna have the box
a perfect fight because at some point Tank Davis, even though he throws very,
very few punches, he's very inactive, but he has a massively high
percentage of landing his punches, so he's gonna land something at some point.
The question is can Frank Martin take that shot. If he can, maybe
he's got a chance to win some rounds. In terms of his boxing buildy
because he does have quick hands, he does have quick feet, he does
have a good IQ. I'm not so sure about his chin, and not
because I'm saying he has a batch, but we've never seen him take,
you know, the biggest punch in the world. He hasn't fought that level
of puncher in terms of his professional experience thus far. But I think this
is a real fight. But Tank Davis has the great equalizer. He's one
of the great punchers in boxing, and I think he has a little bit
of underrated boxing cells. I personally don't find his overall fights the most enthralling
and exciting. What is enthralling is exciting is when he finally lands and he
knocks the opponent out. And so the question is, can Frank Martin do
enough to avoid the big giant punch and can he time Tank's punches because he'll
have the chance to do that because Tank throws very little, so he'll have
time to maybe pick off the shot, land something in between, because he's
not going to be, you know, facing an avalanche shots. Like some
guys, they just bring so much pressure you can't get away from the punches.
That's not Tank's king. He throws a couple of shots here, a
couple of shots there, but he's very accurate. The question is can he
time that and punch between it and land his own shots and do some damage.
We're gonna find out, We absolutely are. You'll hear from Tank Davis
momentarily. I'm just looking at the recent history. We know that the Garcia
fight ended with a body punchunch to the ribs, and we now know revealed
after he had either a cracked rib or a badly bruised rib, that Davis
found the magic button with hitting him with that punch. You were there obviously
in January a year ago when he beat Hector Luis Garcia. He wore him
down, he stopped him. Rolando Romero was one shot, one wicked punch
caught him coming in. That was May of twenty twenty two, and I
harkened back. I mean, you know, these knockouts are all different.
You know, he wore down Mario Barrios in a competitive fight, but he
starched Leo Santa Cruz with one big uppercut. He clearly. My point that
I'm finally getting to is he can clearly in the fight with one shot.
We saw it against Garcia, we saw it against Romero, we saw it
against Leo Santa Cruz, and Martin's got to be careful of that one more
time. Well, I'll put it to you like this, if you told
me that your scenario was the following that were into about the sixth round and
Tank has been getting out box and maybe you have Frank Martin up four rounds
to two. Let's say they're going into the seventh round, and it looks
like, you know, Martin's been doing a heck of a job out boxing,
was staying away from the big punch. He's leading in the fight,
and then all of a sudden he gets not cold. That's an absolute scenario.
I can see it happening because that's the kind of power and the precision
and the poise and the patients a lot of peas that tank Davis has.
And I agree with you, and we've seen the demonstration of that now because
I mean Santa Cruz in their fight was getting to him, was landing until
he got annihilated with the uppercut. Garcia was even having some success fourteen months
ago until he got back with the body. I can't get with you.
I can't get with you on the Santa Christians fight because that to me was
always a mismatch that was always going to end that way because Leo was a
much smaller guy, right, It has never been the biggest on defense uh,
and it was to me anyway. It was simply a matter of time
till Frank, I mean tell a tank rather connected and ended uh Leo that
night. But the other fights you're right in terms of Ryan Garcia, they
can, you know, they can. He can match uh tank for speed.
He also was a very powerful punch, although a different kind of power.
He was more of an electric snapping left hook where his tank is like
a brupe bludgeon type of type of a connect when he hits his opponent.
To me, the the onus that is going to be on Frank Martin.
Can I stay away and box enough to win some rounds and to frustrate him
and whatever, But it's Tank finds a way to get the guy out of
there. All right, we've teased it enough. You had a chance to
speak with Tank Davis right after the press conference. Let's go to that right
now and hear his frame of mind as you said, what's up with the
promotion or lack thereof? Get the answers from the man himself right now in
a preview, Hey, how are you? My man? Been a while?
Could talk to you, first of all, not to believer the point
about it. I just want to he look like you were in such a
good mood today, fucking stuff with Frank back and forth. What was up
with yesterday? I saw your tweet you didn't come out to the to the
oval. Was you know they had a fight up and they had a big
man then fight on on the MGM. Why they ain't pit me up there?
That's why I feeled though, like what's going on? Like why I
wasn't up there. Oh, so it was that that was not I feeling
though, They're not like when I fought Ryan, you know what I mean.
It was flyers everywhere. There was a lot going on for this fight.
The feelings though, like they're not going enough. I mean, they're
not going where they're supposed to be going, you know what I mean.
So it was all that was the whole thing. So then I went past
the again, I went past the MGM, and I ain't seen my band
down or this is what you know what I mean. When I came to
Florid fight when I was young, I seen the band down as I seen
all that came with fighting and the jim hanging down the side of the door
then and I said that that's where I wanted to be. That's what everybody
come in to fight for, you know what I mean. He didn't come
in. I didn't get all the way here to get cheated, you know,
halfway, you know what I mean. So now you come back after
what was I don't know if you considered the biggest win of your career,
but certainly the biggest fight of your career against Ryan Garcia last April. Do
you think that was your biggest win, biggest fight. I finished that.
It was my biggest fight. You could have such a big deal. A,
yeah, it was. It was a huge event, you know what
I mean. It was two young superstars going at each other undefeated. I
finished, though. Just a good fight, I mean, a big fight
too, to be honest. That's what I was asked about. Do you
feel like, I know this is a big fight because it's the next fight,
But I wonder like in your mind, because you had such a massive
event in the last one, is it at all hard to sort of like
get back up for that fight for this fight given what was the hoopla of
the last fight. For sure, because I finished though, to be honest,
I finished though that, So it is harder to get it back up
for it. No, it's not, it's not hard. It just aftertered
though that technical like I skill for skill, I feled though Frank and Ryan.
It's like similar hand as like what skills. Okay, So as far
as a punch of power, I don't know till he get it to get
in that one, you feel like whatever Ryan presented it Frank is on that
level. Yes, I feel I feel go for sure. So after you
beat Ryan. You know, we all know you how to go do your
forty four days and in jail. How hard was it to go from the
highest of highs of that huge victory, a big knockout, a lot of
hoop, a lot of money, and then all of a sudden, you
know you're you're doing your time? Uh? It was? It was It
was hard once up when once I first got in there one because I felt
like I was I was getting out. What once once I knew I was
standing there and it was like, Okay, I gotta do my time.
I got to like basically not turning to one of them, but just like
I just start working out more. I just start you know what I mean,
reading and there I started going a lot of things that just to get
my mind off during the time. So I was asking when you when you
were able to come out, where was it? Uh? How hard was
it to get back into the boxing methole, to get back in the gym
without with Calvin? It was it was soon soon soon I got out.
That was my mind just to get back focused on That's when That's why I
started training. When I was in there, I'm like, I gotta get
back. So it was a fourteen month lof though, you feel like it
would be as sharp as you were when you knocked out Ryan Garcia because you
had been active, you had you had fought in January against the other Garcia.
Yeah, I'm really not sure how I get in there, but I'm
for sure that I've been doing this fun, you know what I mean,
so long. So I don't think that fourteen months, you know what I
mean, I was inside, I bought inside play that on that highest level.
And when from when you have this fight? Now, I know nobody
likes to really look ahead the fighter wise, but what this is a big
fight, But what's your big big fight after this? Do you think?
It's a lot of great guys and lightweights and you're welcome, it's a lot
of guys we got, we got a lot of people like I'm I'm over
in the fight for all of them though, But people don't know that.
I just not judge, but I've probably been in month thirty five to I
was like, I mean like for like two years or two years, like
I ain't really grow into the one. Fair to say, you're not looking
to go to the forty three? If I if if it's a great avitune
in like a great fight Abbatueen and yeah. But other than that, I
mean, it's not really like Rush. I'm not rushing to go to the
one. All right, thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you again.
This is why I love having you on scene. I love you for
many reasons, but I love having you on scene. You were standing right
there with him on Wednesday after the press conference, So what did you make
What did you make of his demeanor, et cetera, having been right there
face to face with him, tej I thought I thought. I thought Tank
had a great demeanor. I thought he was in a good mood. He
was smiling, he seemed happy to see me and others in the media,
where he hadn't done any interviews the entire promotion up until pretty Wednesday anyway,
which it's unfortunate because he only hurt himself. He's going to be the one
that makes money off of the number of pay per view sews, so it
seems sort of count or productive. That's a whole different story. But look,
Tank is ready for this fight. I think he's excited to get back
in there after being off for the period of time he was off, and
he's just looking forward to to putting on another big fight. I mean,
this is what he does. It's sort of like muscle memory. He's been
doing it since he's a kid. I mean, this is how this is
how he makes a living. This is what he does. He's who he
is, and I think he's pumped up to be back in the ring.
You may not think Frank Martin is a big name, but he's a talented
guy. He's a worthy challenger for Tank Davis's lightweight title. Tank is,
you know, and like I think a lot of the fighters on this card,
they're excited to be part of this historical card because it's a one hundred
boxing event taking place at this you know, legendary venue. So yeah,
I mean everything is as they say, TJ all systems are going. We
love that, all right, So moving on on the card. We've already
heard from David Benavitez on this podcast feed in advance of fight week. Excellent
job getting him on board. You've now been around him as well at the
press conferences. Obviously a Friday way in coming as we do the podcast here
in the preview mode Thursday night into Friday, and Alexander Vodzick obviously he's a
former world champion at light heavyweight. It's Benevedez moving up. Thoughts on this
in the preview mode is it's about to be upon us. I mean,
I may be wrong about this, but I think Benevie is gonna look sensational.
He's had an easy weightcut, from what he says, because he always
struggles to make one sixteed even though he's made it. This is you know,
he's got a big frame. He's very excited for the card, as
he always is. He's you know, he's definitely looking at this as a
great opportunity to make a name for himself in a new weight class, a
weight class where I think he can thrive in for a number of years.
And Votik is a good opponent. I'm not. I have nothing negative whatsoever
to say about Alexander Votzik. The only detriment in my mind is the fact
that he's ten years older, and he has that in a real fight in
quite a while, because the last time he was in a quote unquote real
fight, he got knocked out by ar Through better be if it was a
competitive fight, but he took a lot of damage in that fight. He
retired for three and a half years, and even though he's looked pretty decent
in the comeback fights, you know, one of the comeback fights was against
a complete nobody, the other two against little bit better of a competition.
But that's a whole different ball of wax when you compare him to and in
your prime physically motivated, hungary, dynamic puncher, brawler, uh big man
like David Benavidiz who also has great stamina on a great chin and and a
lot of tremendous attributes that you know he may be able to wear out the
older guy. Now, Vodik spoke about he always gonna use his footwork at
the at the press cover he was talking about and whenever a guy say he's
gonna win because of his footwork, getting the fuck out, you know,
you know that's sort of like that to me is like I just when I
hear a guy say he's gonna win because he's got experience in his you do
his ring generalship. That's not what bodes E said. I was giving you
other examples when a fighter says that that's a lot of like word style,
that doesn't mean shit. It's who's gonna be able to you know, punch
out, you know, out punch the other guy and and and do some
damage and win somewhere rounds And then to me, that's David Benavide's in this
kind of fight because he is a prime guy ready to go. I mean,
it's a it's a it's a legitimate match up in terms of him moving
up and wait. But like I said, I think he's going to thrive.
He looks strong in a very very good frame of mind. I believe
maybe I'm just a little biased because of the attitude in the way that he's
spoken when I interviewed him for the podcast you mentioned that we played last week.
But the opportunity, to me anyway, what makes this card interesting.
And again I'm not kissing anybody's ass, I'm just being real. Tank Davis
and David Benavidez are among the two or you know, the top American boxing
stars there are, whatever level you assigned to them, but they have headlined
their own pay per views that have been successful. You know, Tank did
the million plus against Ryan Garcia, but his non Ryan fights have been in
like you know, in the twos, which in today's era is actually pretty
good because there's not a lot of guys doing that. Canelo obviously is not
American, but he does the bigger numbers. And David's two pay per view
events were maybe slightly below two hundred, but still fights that did pretty well
all things considered. So that's who we have. So this is a chance
for him to make himself a bigger star. But we get to see both
of the guys I just mentioned. I'm the same card. It's not going
to become a regular thing. I think this is like a special situation,
partly because of the hundredth, partly because of PBC's own situation with their gates.
But we got the two top American stars in pay per view at the
moment in my mind, other than maybe a Ryan Garcia, but he's got
his own set of problems, and they're fighting reputable, quality, solid legit
opponents. You know, Yes, the stars are the favorites, but it's
not like either. They're not fighting the Peter mcnei's of the world. They're
not fighting hobos. They're fighting real, solid, strong professionals that come from
good cedigree. That we're good amateurs. I mean, Vodzick is an Olympic
medals and a former lineal and WBC World Champion. There's no joke. So
David is pumped up for this fight as he should be, and I'm pumped
up to watch him fight in person, and again we'll talk more. Second
mentioned on the bet Us show, is it going to be a knockout?
Well, Benevetez has plunged translated light heavyweight. All of those are questions that
we're going to get answered coming up on Saturday night. All right. Rest
of the card that includes on the pay per view, Gary Anjwin Russell and
Albert Playo vacant WBC interim Junior welterweight title Carlos Adams. Also, hey,
defans the full WBC middleweight title. He's been elevated. This is his first
title defense against an American Intererell Gachet, So say something about those fights real
quick before we move on. Well, Gary Antwine Russell, everybody knows,
I think if you're a die hard enough to be listening to this podcast,
that he's the brother of Gary Russell Junior, who's the former featherweight champion and
the brother of the vandaweight Garytonia Russell. So he is a tremendous fighter.
Though I think he's maybe has the potential to be the best of the Russell
bunch. He was an Olympian, he's undefeated seventeen and oh with seventy knockouts.
The big thing to me is he's just inactive like a lot of fighters.
Unfortunately, he has not fought in ten months, which for a fighter
of his age and at level, is really unfortunate. But he's a dynamic
fighter when he gets in the ring, he's got good power, he's got
great skills. He's a top amateur. As I mentioned, he was an
olympian, and Plao was a former world champion. But he's the guy that
lost his title because he got busted for a positive drug test. He got
dropped from the fight. As you remember, he was supposed to defend and
he was tripped, and we saw Roly Romero fight a different opponent. I
just feel like that style Wiseyo, well, of course, I'm sure give
a good effort, but the speed and the defense and the punching power Gary
Anton Russell is already in my mind if you match them with any of the
top not I mean, Touyo is a good opponent, but I think Gary
Russell is ready to tangle with like the tia Fimo lopezz of the world and
the Devin Haynes and the Ryan Garcias, and you know, pick your guy
at one forty who you like, I mean, any of the top guys
he can definitely compete with. I think Toyo is probably a little bit of
a notch below that. But it's an important fight for both of these guys,
because for Playo, he just had the one fight since he was suspended,
and he's not getting any favors by having to fight Gary Antoine Russell in
that fight back. But I expect Gary Antoine to shine in this fight.
Part of the reason for the layoff, I think was probably they were mourning
the death of their father, Gary Sr. You know, who is just,
you know, the the pillar of the of the boxing community in the
DC area and obviously of his family and a trainer and all that, and
uh, you know that was not easy for them to overcome. And now
Gary, uh, Gary Junior, the former world champion has been training you
know, his younger brother. So it's you know, it's a it's it's
always been a family affair with the Russells. But when when the when the
bell rings, you know, Gary Antoine is there to take care of business,
and he's been flawless so far as looked. There's not even one fight
you could look at in Gary's career where you would say it was a little
shaky that night. He's been very dominant and very impressive, even against you
know, a pretty solid group of guys, even though not too active like
he has, you know, an easy win over Rancis Partellom. He's a
former two division champion. You know, he knocked out Victor Postal in a
in a fairly dominating victory. Before he got the knockout, he beat up
on Jovanni Santiago, who had a lot of people thought gave Andrew and Bruner
lost and that Broner got the gift. So he's been fighting pretty good guys.
It's just he's been, you know, not fighting nearly as often as
we'd like to see these top guys fight. And with Carlos a damas so.
By the way, right before I came up to my room to hate
this with you, I ran into Carlos and his team, uh in the
in the you know, in the walkway before or we got to the elevator.
Bacon, my old friend, uh my boy, the Lormete, the
former contender is now part of the Carlos A. Damas team. So we
stopped. And you know, I've always had a friendly relationship with Thomas and
you know, we uh said alone to each other. And you know,
I had met Carlos a couple of times, but it's been a while.
He reintroduced us, and Carlos, you know, had a big smile.
But he looks in phenomenal condition. He's in a he's very happy that the
WBC finally did what they should have done, is to elevate him when they
enshripped Charlot because Charlotte been holding that belt hostage for three years. So he's
very pumped up for this fight. And you know, Gashay good the amateur
olympian, Uh no knock and I'm always willing to fight the best guys.
Good Chin has some losses but never been knocked out. But uh really been
a natural one fifty four pounder coming up. And Adam Adamas is a big,
strong, powerful puncher. You know, again, it's not an unreasonable
matchup. But if if it goes the way it should Adamas, you know
it should should, I think Shine Frankly in this kind of fight, and
and in the middleweight division that we've talked about numerous times, it's not the
deepest in the world to make a little bit of a statement say, you
know, I have the WBCNT away title. I'm willing to fight the best
guys come and get me. I think that's what he wants to let the
public know with this kind of performance study. And he hoped to put it
on on Saturday Night. And again, I've been I've been an admirer of
his body work, his body punching a Damas in his last couple of fights.
Let's see if that continues on Saturday Night. And what I mean again,
he's been off for a year. We've got several unanswered, you know,
questions about length of time off from some of the fighters on this card,
and a Damas is one of those. Through no large part on his
own, he was waiting to see do I get a chance to fight Jamal
Charlow or not, and that never materialized obviously over the course of the last
year. All right, so he's been itching, he's been itching to get
back in the ring. Now. Shot this is some of the guys are
not like that. Damas is the guy, it's like, let me fight.
Like he hasn't really made money. It's not like he was making a
ton of money. Even when he fought his last fight, he wasn't making
a million dollar. He was probably making a couple hundred thousand, which is
you know, it's good for you know, normal people, I guess,
but for a top professional boxer in a world title fight, you know you'd
like to be a little more accivent in padan And look, we all want
to make a couple hundred thousand dollars, but that's not going to last forever.
You want to make the bigger dough, the bigger bank, the bigger
bag, as the kids say these days. You got to get back in
the ring. All right. We'll get to the other fight cards in a
moment. Let's tell you more about how to see this. Gervonte Davis main
event, David Benavidez co feature PPV pay per view with our friends at PPV
dot com. Let's tell you more about that right now. You know,
you know that if we've got a big time pay per view, it's going
to be on PPV dot com. Gervonte Davis getting back in the ring for
the first time since since last we saw him dispatch Ryan Garcia. Oh,
by the way, David Benavitez in the co feature very easily could be headlining
his own PPV. You're gonna get both on PPV dot com. And as
always, I love to welcome in here on our podcasts. Senior vice President
for Events and Programming with PPV dot Com. Hello, Mark McCarty, Happy
summer, and we're back with another big time Las Vegas boxingpayperview on PPV dot
Com. My friend CJ. It's always exciting to come on, not just
because I get to talk to you, but because it means we have a
big event coming up, and we've had a bunch of them lately. We
got another one this weekend, so we're pumped. You know. Let me
use my public school education. Canelo pay perview definitely exciting in the fight with
Heimimongia, the undisputed Usik fury definitely exciting as well. So now here we
are with Gervonte Davis coming around also, and we also had Devin Haney,
Ryan Garcia. So for those that somehow are saying that there's not interest,
there obviously is interest with the bigger names in the sport fighting During fight season
and we know this. Yeah, and I'm going to use my Catholic school
education to confirm what you just said, Jay and say, indeed, there
is a lot of excitement around the sport, and I think it shows when
you put the big fighters against big fighters and you make big fights, it's
going to get a lot of attention. In the last few months have been
a really good example of that. You mentioned Tank coming back on Saturday night,
and he hasn't fought since last April, correct, and that was a
huge fight. We had a big twenty twenty three in the sport of boxing.
So yeah, there'll always be the naysayers about boxing being dead and whatnot,
but it's very much alive and thriving, no doubt. And for Javonte
Davis again, there's a lot of intrigue because I mean, we've been talking
about this in the build up. He hasn't fought. He's been in jail
previously for for over sixty days. Now he's back, He's taken his time
get on the schedule. Here he is in June, and this opponent,
Frank Martin the Ghost, is a legit contender that can test him. So
there's a lot of intrigue coming up on PPV dot Com Saturday night. Yeah.
Absolutely. You know, Martin's so intriguing too, and he's played this
role of being the underdog, not just in this fight, but in life.
He started boxing a little later than most guys do. He really I
just work his way up. He's not a household name. So the pressure
is really on Geronte Davis, not just to win, but I think to
look good as well. Ring rust is a real thing and it's been a
long time, so he's got to shake that off. He's got to look
good and he's got to win. So Frank Martin can go out there and
you know, he's got no pressure. He can take some chances and see
what happens. And it's the biggest moment obviously for him. Davis has been
these big moments, but it's a huge moment for him. Yep. And
as I alluded to, David Benavetez, who is the former WBC Super middleweight
champ on two occasions now moving up to light heavyweight. This guy has been
a headliner. We've had you on before on PPV dot Com. But he
realizes a couple of things. First of Gervonte Davis brings a massive audience be
part of that pay per view, and he and Benavitez believes he's got bigger
things ahead at light heavyweight where he's moving up and this is the next step
in that against a former world champion in Vodzick Alexander Vodzick. But this guy
is arguably as dangerous a fighter that doesn't have a world title right now.
David Benavidez, would you agree with that? I would. If there's anyone
in boxing who you would say he's the real deal, David Benavitez is the
guy who would be the number one name that I would mention the guy's legit.
You can see that there's a lot of smoke around the concept of a
Canelo Benavidez fight, likely because Canelo realizes Benavitez is the fact the real deal
and could pose a significant threat. So listen, I think it's really smart
for Benavidez to be the comain on this card. He's going to get a
lot of exposure. I think a lot of people are going to see what
all the talk is about, and it'll set him up nicely for whatever his
next big event is, which undoubtedly will be a headliner, So so smart
business move, I think, and again like with Jamonte, he's got to
go and perform though, and benavide Is obviously put it on Caleb Plan and
then demolished Demetrius Andred in a couple of headlining situations. So we'll see what
he looks like at one hundred and seventy five pounds. And I know we
talk to you about this all the time that we want the fans to plug
in on PPV dot com for the fantastic experience. I mean there's a couple
of big keys that we always emphasize, no long term commitment with a subscription,
buy whatever you want on PPV dot com, but the interaction and your
guys are boots on the ground in Las Vegas right now. The Jim Lampley
there, Lance Pogmyer, one of the great insiders of the last ten or
fifteen years in boxing right there for PPV dot Com, as well as our
bud our bro Dan Kenobio, who does a great job with his inside boxing
show with PPV dot Com. Those guys are there interacting with the fighters.
They'll be interacting on fight Night on PPV dot com as well. Hey,
well, let me just sprinkle in a little extra added bonus for this one
too. So this fight is the one hundredth boxing event at the MGM Grand
Garden Arena. So talk about someone who was really the voice of the MGM
Grand Garden Arena in Jim Lampley. He's called countless. I shouldn't say countless
because you can count it, but you know, in this spur of the
moment, I'm just gonna say countless big events at the MGM Grand So all
week he's going to be doing a lot of reflecting on the biggest events that
he called. He'll be chatting about it on Saturday night with the fans.
So it's a really good opportunity to ask him about some of the biggest events
that the sport has ever seen that he has called in this building. So
are really cool. I think you know a way to tie all of this
together. And I know Dan Rayfield has already said this a couple of times
that out of the hundred I believe he's tolded it up, it's either fifty
five or fifty six of them that Dan has been at of the first ninety
nine and he's there again as part of this. So you got a lot
of that. But again back to PPV dot Com, Jim and Lance and
Dan are going to be interact throughout the evening and it is It is a
great feature for the fans to get immediate insight and reaction from these guys while
you're watching on PPV dot Com. Yeah. Absolutely, And I think,
like I said last time, the response we've gotten from fans has been incredible
about having this opportunity to talk to these experts during events. With each event
we've been doing, you know, largely because it's been successful, but I
can come on here and talk about it. We have more fans participating every
single event, so it's catching on. It's I think, a really cool
way to watch and this Saturday night will be no different. Love it so
one more time. Gervonte Davis headlines and his return in twenty twenty four here
defending his version of the lightweight world title David Benavitez, and the co feature
a couple of other title fights as well. On this pay per view PPV
dot com the place to get it and mark we emphasize again no long term
commitment needed. That's the whole idea. That's right, No subscription required,
Come on Saturday Night by the Fight. Promoters often get criticized for not putting
together good cards. It's all about the main event. This happens to be
one of those events where that's really just not true. So I think it's
a good a good value. You're going to get a lot of action,
you get your chatting with Jim, Lance and Dan, and it's going to
be I think, a night with a lot of fireworks. So we're looking
forward to it should be a lot of fun. We are definitely looking forward
to whatever happens in the ring and we want you again to purchase it with
our friends at PPV dot com. Mark McCarty, thank you. As always,
I'm looking forward to another exciting night of boxing and we appreciate the time
here. Good luck with everything going on at PPV dot Com. Thanks TJ.
We'll talk to you soon. All good stuff, and we appreciate them
being a sponsor of what we do here for the Big Fight Weekend podcast and
Big Fight Weekend dot Com with PPV dot Com. All right, so we've
spent a ton of time previewing that card, Rayfield, that's not all we
got World time fights in Puerto Rico. But wat how much would you pay
now? We got title fights in Puerto Rico, we got title fights in
England. Let's get to the Desonne match Rooms show in Puerto Rico. It's
been anticipated for a bit here, Suprial Mattias in his home country fighting the
Australian Liam Parro IVF Junior welterweight title defense. Big things potentially ahead from Attias
after this fight, but he can't look past Parro, Who's got some skill,
got some punch. I actually saw Liam Paro in person. You're impressed
when I get a chance. Oh well, on location to see fighters.
I saw him on the Jake Paul undercard with Tyron Woodley the rematch in Tampa.
Paro fought on that undercard December of twenty twenty one. So he's an
unbeaten Australian. I don't know how much of a threat he's gonna be,
but this is a main event in Puerto Rico, where obviously decided home country
advantage from Attias. Anything he does, they're going to be roaring for him.
Thoughts on this day and Saturday night. Sabril, Mattias parted ways with
PBC and he signed with matt From Boxing, a co promotion along with his
you know, his p Puerto Rican promoter at Fresh Promotions. The plan was
the first fight is going to be a hometown fight. He hadn't fought in
Puerto Rico for a few years, certainly not in a world title fight,
so he really wanted to go back and have a fight in front of his
people, which is getting the opportunity in this fight. And they were looking
for opponents and Paro, you know, not a lot of guys call Nobody
calls out Sirbril Mattias for a lot of reasons. You know, a lot
of people consider him like the boogeyman in the one hundred and forty pound way
class. But to Liam Paro's credit, he's like, look, I want
to win a world title. So if I got to go to his hometown,
which is what he's doing, so be it. So I admire that
aspect of Liam Paro. He's not a big puncher, so he's probably gonna
have to use some boxing skills in terms of to try to win the fight.
And if you've watched Sabril Matias, you know he's a stone call look
assassin. I mean, he's a guy that just goes in there to direct
the opponents, and you know, when he was talking about the fight that's
coming up with Parro, his perspective is he wants to be reckoned as the
number one ju were wealth the right in the world now, titles aside.
Some people might make that argument that they might man him ahead of Tafimo Lopez.
I don't personally do that because I think Tfmo's got the better wins.
But he's certainly a big time puncher. He's got twenty wins, he's all
all his wins are by knockedout, just the one loss. And in the
comments he was making leading up to the fight this week, he was talking
about I don't just want to knock w Liam Paro out, I want him
to suffer. You don't hear fighters say that. That was sort of like
that kind of freaked me out, And I have to be honest with you.
It's one thing for a fighter to say that, a fighter like Sirbill
Mattias, who was in the ring and whose opponent died from his fists in
twenty nineteen when he knocked out Maxim Dadaschev, it was a little surprising to
hear me or to hear him say that, I want my opponent to suffer.
Kind of underve me a little bit, but that's the mentality the fighter
he was talking about. In the context of how and why he said that,
he was talking about how when I'm in training camp, I feel like
I'm a caged animal, and you know, I want to just get in
there and I want to destroy my opponent and fight and you know, knock
him out and make him suffer. So I think there was a little motion
of like I've been I've been locked away doing a rough, rough, tough
training camp for the last you know, month and a half or two months,
so you know, I'll cut him all a slack on that. But
he's going in the ring to do damage. And when doesn't Sibril Matias go
in the ring to do damage, and his boxing fans, that's one of
the reasons would like to watch him, because he goes in there not just
to the data and try to win. He goes in there to get the
knockout and to do damage. And he made the other point in one of
his comments that I know I might have to take some damage also, and
he's willing to do that as long as he can lay on his fist to
dish out his own and you know what, if you get into a punch
out with sybril Matias. I'm picking him against ane hundred and forty pound in
the world because he can take a shot, I think decently. But there's
not a lot of guys you're gonna stand up to the to the flush shot
from this man. He's a devastating puncher. Just go back and look at
any of his fights. This is going to be a second defense. He
did it when he fought Harkaschef, he did it against Ponse when he won
the title. He did it against an Non you know, when he avenged
a one loss. I mean, he's he's a here puncher, and that's
what makes him exciting. He goes there to rumble and I'm sure he's gonna
have a big hometown crowd rooting for him. But I give I admire Paros,
you know, is his desire to try to get a title on it.
Like you said, if he's got to walk into the Lions, then
to do it, He's ready and willing to do it. So I'm I'm
actually pretty interested to see this fight. I got to figure out the timing
of how I can if I can watch it live. I'll be in the
arena for the card on you know, Saturday, that's here at the MGM.
At the very least, I'll see it in a short delay. But
I wish they weren't all conflicting, but it it is what it is.
And in Mattias's case, his last fight was last November, which was the
knockout of Ergashev, and he had won the title the previous February in beating
Ponce for the vacant belt. So this is third fight really in about a
year and a half for him, but he expects to be busier, maybe
even by the end of the year if he's victorious here, and let's see
if it's spectacular against Parro in that one again, that is Saturday night in
Puerto Rico on his own coming for that. All right, we're not done
yet though, but you said that they're talking about like what might be next
for him. I think there's a reasonable chance that if he wins and looks
pretty good. Number one, you know, Devin Haney still in the HOUN.
We'll see what happens with his belt. He's got a purse bid coming
up for the fight with Sander Martin maybe and I don't know anything about this
in terms of like back, you know, behind the scenes things. But
I don't know if he has the appetite to do a Sander Martin fight,
which is probably not worth a lot. But they're both you know, Mattias
is promoted by Mattum. Devin Haney may not have a long term contract,
that'sal but he certainly works with Eddie and they have a good business relationship.
I could kind of see a case perhaps if that was a fight that was
interesting to Haney where maybe he just doesn't continue to hold the WBC title and
he simply challenges but he is the IDF title. That would be one possible
scenario. And then the other one, of course, is that Regis Program
is gonna want to come back, and he's with mattrom boxing also, and
I know he looked terrible in the last fight when he thought Haney different kind
of style, I think a much better fight in terms of the entertainment value
for sure. Could you imagine Program against Sabrill Matias. I think that's a
possible fight. Also, then again, we thought pro Gray was going to
do something with Devin Haney and he did nothing in that. I don't know,
I don't know what the marketability is there. But first things first,
Mattia's got to take care of business Satday night in Puerto Rico. Now earlier
in the day, US time in the Boxer Promotions show. It will be
part of Sky Sports in London and on Peacock, the streaming app in the
US. Chris Billum Smith one of my kind of current championship favorites, kind
of the hard way up, not given a lot of credit, doesn't have
tremendous skill, but has a lot of hard has a good punch. He
defends the WBO Cruiserweight title against Richard Riakapore, as we said earlier in the
show, and Riakapore owns a win over Bill Smith previously. Now he challenges
Bill Smith for his title. So give me a little more in the preview
mode on that one earlier in the day. Yeah, this is a mandatory
fight, so they don't really a choice to do this fight. They are
friendly with each other, Bill and Smith and Richard are but if you go
back to twenty nineteen, now, this was a time when they were simply
guys on the rise of you know, Richard at that time was like nine
to zero. They were fighting on an undercard of a bigger fight at the
O two Arena for a like just a regional belt and a ten rounder and
Riekopoy won a ten round split decision. But he's but nobody really argued that
because he's the guy that got that knocked and he dropped Bylan Smith in round
seven and he ended up winning. You know, it was the cards were
kind of weird, but he won on two of the cards and so they've
both gone on their merry way since then. And Rik Kopore has looked good
in his fight since that. He's been knocking a lot of guys out,
very strong, always in tremendous condition. It looks like a like a freaking
beast in the ring, muscular and just in tremendous shape and a good puncher.
So he finally gets this opportunity and Billim Smith he kind of, like
you said, he kind of came up the hard way. He won the
title back in twenty twenty three in a very impressive performance. It was a
majority decision, but it was in front of his raucous hometown Harry in Bournemouth,
England. We beat Lawrence O Coley to win the title. But in
the next fight that was in December. He got the eighth a knockout against
Masterneck. But it was a very rough, tough fight. I mean he
took some damage in that fight. He got a rib injury. This fight
against Ria Kopori was supposed to be a couple of months ago, but they
ended up having a delay it because of the fact that he was still getting
you know, healed up from those injuries, the niggles and some of the
other stuff that happened in that fight. Head cut, had a bad cut
over the eye too, had to heal right. Yeah, so it took
a little time to get this fight schedule, but now it's on it.
You know, in terms of the cruiserweight division, in terms of British boxing,
this is like a marquee matchup. This is a fight that he's going
to have a great crowd. They're doing this at the football ground at a
Crystal Palace they call it in London, so it's sort of like a you
know, a non traditional boxing venue. Uh. You know, when they
try to bring some of these bigger fights there and do them in these like
soccer stadiums and that type of thing, and they're gonna be there's a tremendous
crowd there. And the thing is they're not doing it in Bill You know,
Bill Smith has been like the home he's got, like the fortress.
You know, when people go up to that area in the northern part of
the country and they hold his fights there, you know it's the fortress he
you know, his crowd goes absolutely wild. But I give Bill Smith critty.
He's going to do this fight in London, which is where Rio Ko
Pore is from. It's his home down now. I'm sure some of Bill
Smith's fans are making the trek down to London for this fight, but you
know the other guy's going to have his fans also. Just a good matchup
and the winner of this fight is get a much bigger fight. The cruiserweight
division is a lot of action right now. With Opatai has been in some
good fights. He's been prominent on the Saudi cards as the number one guy
in the weight class. But there's a lot of fun, exciting fights that
you can make in this weight class. And it wouldn't shock me if they
If these guys put on a great match and it turns out to be a
really exciting fight, maybe it's super competitive. Why not have a trilogy between
these two guys and Zerto Ramirez also has one of the belts, if I'm
not mistaken on that at the cruise aways. Let's see Billim Smith again.
We know a couple of things. He's gonna try to land and he's gonna
get hit again. Not the most skilled tough nose can punch some Let's see
what it looks like Saturday afternoon. It will not be dull. Let's put
it that way. I don't You're not going to see two guys that don't
hit each other and put on a boring fight. That's me saying that for
Saturday after I agree with you. I mean that to me would be the
biggest upset of the weekend. If Philla Smith and Riga Party is a boring
fight, that would be a little surprising. Yep, all right, So
again Peacock streams it in the US sky Sports in the UK. I know
we got a lot of fans that listen to us all over the place to
be able to find that one earlier in the day Saturday US time Primetime in
England. And then obviously we roll into the Dezone show from Matchroom in Puerto
Rico kind of going on while the pay per view from PBC and Amazon is
going on in Las Vegas, then much later in the night there as well.
All Right, so we've set the table more than sufficiently for all the
preview mode. Let's get to some news and then I want to get to
your nostalgia and all these great fights that you've been to at the MGM Grand
Garden Arena where you are right now. Lo and behold, we do have
an opponent for Boots ns can I say on the Big Fight weekend? I
was not expecting a mega fight, but this with David Avanzian, who's the
guy that Terrence Clawford dispatched back in what December of twenty twenty two, This
doesn't do a whole lot for me. I know, they had to find
a guy for him. They found a guy for him. Pick it up
on that they found a guy for him, TJ. They found a guy
for him. What can I say? I mean, listen, the one
thing about David avanasty Look, he's a quality professional, he'll try. He's
not a bad fighter. I don't know if he's at the same level as
bout Tennis, but I don't know. I don't think Cody Crowley was at
the same level, So to me, there's not that much of a difference.
In my mind, David Evanesting and Cody Crowley have totally different kinds of
styles the way they fight it, but I think they're kind of at a
similar level. They're both good professionals. They both maybe beat some guys on
a given day, but against the very best, they're life them up short.
And I think Evanesting is in that same situation. So, as you
said, they had to get a guy. Now he's got some accomplishment.
He made a name for himself when he retired Shane Moseley back a few years
several years ago, he did get knocked out by Terrence Crawford, but there's
no shame in that. Terrence Crawford was you know, you know, he's
at the top of his game. He's just a bruising, skilled and powerful
puncher. And know a lot of people think he's the number one fighter in
the world pound four pounds. So it is what it is. I'm glad
they found an opponent that's at least a reputable opponent that they don't have to,
you know, blow up the date, which I don't think they were
going to do. There's still more than enough time for everybody to be ready
for July thirteenth, and hopefully they put on a good show. But of
course, anybody that was expecting anything less than a Boots victory against Crowley,
it should be the same against Evan Astein, you'd think, but they got
to fight to fight. I'll say one thing, Avan Asking is definitely a
better puncher than Cody Crowley is. So if there's that if you can land
something solid on Boots tennis, maybe you can do a little more damage than
it would seem to me that it would happen if it was Cody Crowley landing
a punch. I still feel bad that probably was bounced from the fight because
of his injury, that the eye problem. You know, doe to make
your biggest payday, get a chance at the world title and have that just
sort of ripped away from you as an unfortunate situation. But you know,
for all the misery that that Cody's going through because of that, you know
it's a happy day for Avansting because he's getting another out of the world title.
He's gonna make probably a good purse for the fight, and he'll go
in there and give a great effort. All right, that's coming in July.
You also have been doing I've been reading my Dan Raphael Substack. You've
been doing some reporting this week about the Anthony Joshua card. Not not fully
set, but you've got some names in particular on the undercard for September twenty
first. What are you hearing Tell the audience here on the pod what you're
hearing about September twenty one. So September twenty first, no secret, that's
going to be the second read season event outside of Saudi Arabia, the first
one being August third, the Terrence Crawford Najamov card that's going to be in
Los Angeles. That's very stacked. That's already been announced. The next card
they're doing is September twenty first at Wembley Stadium in London, and it's they
haven't made an official but everybody knows it's gonna be Anthony Joshua. Joshua himself
said on the broadcast of the Five on five, I'm getting ready for September
twenty first, and the lightly opponent is going to be Daniel Duba, who
defeated Philip Perginvich to win the IBF interim title in that on that undercard,
there was already a deal done that if it was Hergivic that was the winner,
that he was going to be the Joshua opponent. It's actually a bigger
fight in Britain that he's fighting the way if that's the fight that gets finalized,
because they're both Brits. By the time the fight comes around in September,
Usik will have been either stripped or vacated by the IBF. I know
they gave him time to keep it, but by the time September happens,
you know that title was gonna go to Duba. It'll be'll be elevated unless
something absolutely ridiculous happens, So it will be Joshua challenging for the IBF title
against Duba, who will be elevated to the full title holder. And then
you have as the Saudi's doing. This is one of the reasons why they've
been good for boxing thus far is because they put on tremendously deep undercards and
again, none of these fights are done. This is just what I've been
told and heard from a different group of different people that know sort of what's
going on that and some of them may happen and some of they may not.
But as again, it's a work in progress. But you'll probably see
the return of the cruiserweight champ Jai Opataia. I'm not sure who the opponent
would be. They one half Hamasus Sharras on that card, who's coming off
the big win against Amma Williams on the five on five card. There's been
a lot of conversation that maybe you'll fight Chris Ubank Junior, who is a
free agent. He's no longer with Wasserman Boxing. My understanding is whatever overtures
they made the Chris u Bank, he has turned them down, apparently not
happy with the financial situation. But we'll see if they can make that right
and have that fight happen. If it does, that's obviously a pretty big
fight. You know, we talk about the lack of middleweight names. U
Bank is one of the better names in the division, and Sharaz is one
of the top young guys on the rise. They're talking about doing a fight
and this is not wouldn't be a shock to me at all. When Willie
Hutchinson defeated Craig Richard on the five on five card, he then got the
opportunity to become the mandatory to fight Joshua Blatzi for the interim light heavyweight Telly
because better bms that with the injury that was because Anthony Yard he dropped out
of that because he's in an illegal contracts dispute with Frank Warren. So the
the WBO approved Blatzi against Hutchinson for that interim title and ordered them to negotiate.
Could go to a purse, but there's probably be a very solid and
strong chance that that fight could wind up on this card and then they would
not have to bother with a purse bit. And then also if you remember
from a few months ago, we saw that outstanding British heavyweight fight between Fabio
Wardley and Fraser Clark that ended in a draw, tremendous battle. There's a
lot of conversation, uh from that March original fight that they'll have the rematch
on this undercard. Also, they're talking about possibly a Liam Smith fight coming
back off of his uh, you know, his uh writing, you know,
getting the revenge when he won the fight that he had. So again,
I don't know if all these fights are gonna come to pass and all
they're gonna get done. It's gonna be fucking loaded. Those names that you
that you named, obviously we are hardcore, but those are huge UK names,
you know, aside from Opataiah. But there's a there's there's a list
there of UK names you just named that if they're all on that show,
we've been seeing stacked undercards and so that would be a good thing. On
the twenty first, stay tuned, stay tuned for who the opponents are and
the details, and you gave us a good list there. And if you've
been following the news, there's all that conversation that the Saudi's are looking to
buy up these other promoters and and create their league, and you know,
if that happens, I'm not Can I just tell you I'm not on board
with that. Give me your initial reaction that I'll give you mine. I'm
not on board with that, and I'll tell you why in a second.
But go ahead once you're read you're not on board, Like you don't you
think it won't happen or you don't want to. I don't want it to
happen because I think competition is a great thing. I think having different promoters,
different outlets, different things is better for the fighters. You put it
all under one umbrella where one, you know, where one can dictate like
monopolistically. Wow, that's a big word on the POD. I don't think
that's a good thing, so I'll give you okay. So my take on
that is this, if it rates in the manner which is essentially a monopoly
like the UFC, it's been good for the fans for sure, because they
make all the they buy and I don't watch, I don't watch, but
hold on a lot of the people that I know that are involved in fight
and and watch and pay attention to cover you see, tell me all the
time while we get all the best fights all the time. Okay, fine,
but the fighters don't get paid the way they should get, right.
So why do you think Nagan who wanted a box? Why do you think
Connor McGregor wanted a box? Why do you think Nate Diaz and Masbadal?
Why are they come in the boxing? Because they want to make the bag.
They want to make the bigger money. Now, the saudis the way
they pay. They're very generous and they take care times that are involved in
the events. They paid the golfers three hundred million dollars to go and leave
the PGA to go to liv Golf, so they take care of the guys
financially. So my point here is this, First of all, we don't
know all the details. We got the devil's always in the details. When
we find out more specifically, I would have a better way to say what
I think is good or what I think is bad. But here's the scenario.
If they do buy up these entities and create this super league, and
they're able to make the kinds of fights the way UFC makes their fights and
the way frankly the Saudis have been doing on these undercars, the five on
five and the Joshua nagan who went Tyson Ferry Usk and obviously the the the
original one which was Fear versus Naganu. They've made a tremendous amount of top
notch cards. All you gotta do is look at the August card, look
at the types of fights are trying to do for the card on September twenty.
First, if they're doing those types of fights and they continue to pay
the fighters what they should make, I can't really argue with that. But
if it's a UFC situation and there's gonna be constant back and forth where the
fighters not being paid the way they should be, and there's no other entity
for them to really go to to make that kind of money, then I
would have a problem with it. But I think the way the Saudi has
been handling their boxing has been top not so far. If you ask anybody
that's been involved, they don't mess around with the money. You say,
if we tell you're getting this, they live up to and the money's in
the bank, no problem. So from that perspective, I think it could
be a great thing, and it could definitely be a humongous benefit for the
sport. But I'll I hope it. If it does come to pass,
I hope it's in the right way. I'll reserve judgment, but it sounds
good at least cursory. We'll see there's nothing there's Look, everybody lose is
in monopoly situations. That's the reason why in our government, in our world,
in the capitalistic world that we're in, they don't allow it to happen.
So we could go for another ten or fifteen minutes. It would be
better for the different promotions to remain somewhat independent, be able to do their
own deals, and then when the Saudis want to put a show on,
bring your fire that would be better. So and who knows. The theory
being out there is only the first step. That doesn't mean that any of
this is actually going to be reality on them buying everything up. It's just
a theory, all right. Other news, real quick, Canelo Alvarez.
I keep saying, brother Rayphiel, this is on the rundown. He's not
fighting this guy, William Skull. So the IBF has now postponed the purse
bid again early next week. June eighteenth is now the rescheduled first bid.
Do you have any more there in Vegas on what's going on here? Is
it a step aside? What do we think? They've postponed it twice now.
Keep saying he's not fighting it. And while I don't necessarily disagree with
you, what I do what I do disagree with is I would not say
unequivocally he's not fighting William Skull. I think I've been famously wrong a bunch
on this podcast. Let me be famously wrong again. I've been wrong.
Also, I'm just saying I don't think it's an absolute that he's not fighting
the guy. I don't think he is. I hope he isn't, but
it's not impossible. And I've outlined the scenario previously where I thought it was
possible, and this Saud he's going to be involved with that. But you
don't normally see a purse bid postponed two times, especially within the IBF,
unless something else is afoot. Canello clearly doesn't want to vacate the title.
He wants to keep the belts intact. Some people say that's stupid, what's
sarto accomplished, you've done it, whatever, But the athlete never wants to
give up the belt. He likes being called undisputed. That's just a fact.
And he's made enough fuck you money where he doesn't have to worry about
if he's going to take a little bit less here or there, if he
wants to pay the sanctity that his business. So I think they're trying to
figure out a way either a to how can we make the fight happen under
a reasonable scenario, or like you said, maybe they're going to do some
kind of step aside. Is it may more likely? Isn't it more likely
that they're working out whatever the step aside is? And like you theorize before.
Okay, let's say he's fighting in September against whomever Canelo. That skull
is on that card getting a payday in addition to that, however, they
can work it out. Isn't that the more likely route we're headed here and
why this has been delayed? I think that's probably more likely, But it
doesn't mean that the other scenario was not possible, so that he would fight
him again, I kind of doubt it. Also, I just would not
say you never say never, I guess is the point. So again,
it's just unusual for there to be two postponents. Let me let me give
you a cross sport example. For the last week, there was all this
talk that Danny Hurley, the Yukon basketball coach, and you're a basketball college
basketball fan like I am, was going to leave and coach the LA Lakers
and Lebron James on that whole circus where they go through coaches like underwear right
now out in Los Angeles. And I said on the record over and over
again, it's not happening. Zero percent chance you can have all this hype.
He went out there and met with him Hurley. I know this is
a boxing podcast but it's a similar analogy of he made it up here that
he was interested. He's flattered there. I kept saying, it's not happening.
He's not leaving that situation. Well, I mean, in that case,
the amount of money that the Lakers offered him was not that much greater
than what he makes the Conneticut compared to what the understand. But I don't.
I don't think even if they had offered him more, I think he
wants to be in college basket. So from my standpoint, similar in this
different sport, Canelo has no interest in fighting that guy. It's not a
it's not a you like to say all the time, not a commercially viable
fight. From a historical perspective, it means nothing. They'll work something else
out right. But the thing is, I agree with you about the viability,
But he's trying to figure out, I believe this to be the case,
how can I maintain my delta? All right, Well, let's put
heym bottom line is they stripped him before, and that's what he knows.
They stripped him with the IBM belt, which we've talked about, So sate
the bottom here is the IBF those I mean, I look, I don't
I don't hate on the IBA from the standpoint of they follow the rules and
the folks that work there, I know them, I like them. Darryl
Peeples is an honorable guy. I've got nothing bad to say about them,
but their rules suck. They got to take some things. They're terrible.
And the fact that William fucking Skull is the number of mandatory challenges that you're
telling me. If Canelo Alvarez doesn't fight this dude that no one ever fucking
heard of that's got no wins of consequence on his record, we're gonna shrip
the undisputed champ who's the biggest star in boxing because of that. Give me
a fucking break. Figure it the fuck out. Make him fight somebody before
you honor him with the mandatory spot and you call it due. I hate
the way that they conduct their rankings. That's why you listen over, That's
why you listen to the podcasts here the big fight we can't preview in the
fight freaks your night. You get it. You get Raphael F. Bauming
away because he's grouchy, because he's been working all day and he wants some
dinner. I'm not grouty in facts and you're pewing good opinion and I like
that. We're almost done with the news than the nostalgia. One more item,
and that is interesting trainer change for Jared real big Baby Anderson as he
gets ready to fight upcoming Martin Bucoley on that August third card in Los Angeles.
And the name is a very familiar name, Dan Rayfield, you were
reporting it on your substack this week. Give us more about the new trainer
for Jared Anderson and how it ties in well, He's now going to be
head trained by sugar Hill Stewart, of course, the nephew of the great
Emmanuel Stewart, who is also the trainer sugar Hill is of Tyson Fury.
Sugar Hill is obviously familiar with Jared Anderson because Jared Anderson has been a part
of past Tyson Fury training camps under Steward where he sparred with Tyson Fury.
So he's already familiar with Jared Anderson. But the interesting thing in terms of
the way that the parent came about was because there was Turkey Alschk who posted
on social media that he was going to be trained with sugar Hill Stewart and
that it was him that gave him, you know, the brought it up
with him, And I don't know if I can't say he convinced him or
told him to do it or whatever, but clearly gave him the suggestion,
and I guess Jared Anderson took him up on that. And now he'll be
working with sugar Hill now. His original trainer who's been with Jared Anderson from
day one is a trainer n in Darry Riley. My understanding is that Riley's
gonna stay part of the team, but they're bringing in sugar Hill, and
if you bring in tugar Hill, he's not taking a back seat. So
Riley I feel as like a similar scenario with Dean Wilder who brought in you
know, Malik Scott to be his head trainer. But Jayd's who'd been his
trainer from day one, has always been part of the team, still part
of the team to this day. So to me, that's the kid the
situation that'll be sugar Hill will run things, but Riley is a guy will
still be part of the team. Interesting and again that's coming for August and
it's a big moment obviously for Jared Anderson, And that's a that's an interesting
move to make to that guy, because I correct me if I'm wrong.
Wasn't he sparring at one point with Tyson Fury? And sugar Hill may or
may not have been part of the camp at that point. I think he
came later, but it's sugar Hill was definitely Tyson Fury's trainer at least at
one of the points when they sparked. How about that? So there's a
connection there too. That's what I said. He saw him in the camp
and sure knew what kind of talent he had. And remember Fury has always
at least given rave reviews to the work that Jared Anderson gave to him when
they did spart with each other. Love that all right? One final piece
here as we put this pod to bed, and that is you currently reside,
not permanently, but currently timporarily reside at the MGM Grand right now getting
ready for the Tank Davis David Benavidez pay per view. And you've said it
a couple of times on this podcast. It is the one hundredth Big Time
Boxing event Slash pay per view that will be in the MGM Grand Garden arena.
You're totaling it up. Still, what's the official number? What number
is this for you? Is this Demaggio or is this one beyond Amaggio for
you? Fifty six game hitting straight for Joe Demagio. Look it up,
Ken, google it. What is Joe for you? Joe did fifty six
in a row. I haven't covered my total in a row, but I
have covered so Saturday Night will be for me from since my first fight at
this building, which was in January of two thousand and one, which was
the Floyd Mayweather Dio Carlis fight. Will be my fifty six fight at the
MGM Arena. Now, remember I didn't cover any fights in this building from
ninety four to two thousand because I wasn't covering boxing from ninety four to ninety
nine, and when I started on boxing with USA Today in two thousand,
my first Las Vegas events in that year took place actually at the Mandalay Bay.
MGM didn't have fights much into in the in in that particular year in
two thousand and so I didn't cover my first mental January of oh one,
so I missed the first You know, I wasn't covering boxes, so I
didn't cover the first twenty seven events in the building. So the way I
look at it is, I've covered now fifty I've been eligible to cover seven
three of their fights. I've covered now fifty six of them. But this
is not about me, though. This is about the amazing, just incredible,
phenomenal boxing history that this building is. It's like a living, breathing
monument to the sport of the last thirty years. All the big stars,
at least in America have fought there. There's been as many memorable fights as
you can imagine, the biggest fights in the world, even if they were
not great fights like maywether Pack Yell for example, was here. Biggest money
fight was Anti It wasn't a great fight, obviously, but all the big
names. I would submit to you that as famous as some of the fights
we have seen in the eighties that took place in the famed outdoor that they
would build temporarily the stadium at Caesars Palace, that this is a more important
building to boxing. Yes, Tommy Hearns fought Sugar Ray Leonard at the Caesars
Palace outdoor arena. We had huge fights there, Sugar Ray Leonard against Marvin
Hagler and obviously Hagler versus Hearns and Larry Holmes against Jerry Cooney and some Omega
fights, but they were fewer in number. The MGM Grand An Arena has
had fights that are megafights and touns of them, way more than Caesar's Palace
in their heyday, I mean, every single Here's the thing. The folks
at the MGM commissioned a reflection piece, like a video piece about the history
of this great building, and I was interviewed for that piece. I got
a chance to watch nine minutes. I was shown it today in the media
center by one of the people that worked on it, and I got goosebumps
watching this thing because the history that's been in this building is just phenomenon,
and you know, it was a privilege to be asked to be part of
it since I've covered so many fights here. So they're gonna make the full
nine minute thing, what I was told, because folks can check it out
on Prime Video. They're gonna play about a two or three minute segment of
that piece within the pay per view on Saturday Night. But the highlights,
the number of superstars and big fights. I mean, I'll just run through
a couple just off the top of my head. I mean it started.
The very first event here was the first fight between Julio sayzar Chavaz and Frankie
Randall. And the reason why that became a historic fight is because not only
did Frankie Randall score the first ever knockdout against julios A z ar Chabas,
but I saw the highlight of in the piece, and I got the chills
when I watched that is that he handed Chavez his first loss. He was
eighty nine going into that fight, and Randall won the title, and they
had the very famous rematch also in this building, and that was just the
start you had. George Foreman, you know, a guy given no chance
against Michael Moore, knocked him out with one punch and had lost every second
of every round, knocked him out with one shot in the tenth round.
The famous Jim Lanthey called it happened. It happened, and he regained the
heavyweight title twenty years almost to the day after he got knocked out by by
Mouhammad Ali INSI year, you go through all the other greats, this was
basically that in many ways the house that Oscar de la Hoya belt. Had
a huge amount of big time fights here, you know, big big events.
The Mayweather fight was here in this building, which at the time was
the biggest money fight in the history boxing. They called it the Fight to
save boxing. Just a mass a massive event, and he had. He
didn't win that fight, but he had other huge fights here, you know,
the great beatdown and just monumental explosion in the crowd. I can still
remember the crowd going freaking crazy when he knocked out Ricardo on my or going
to regain you know, a title in the one to fifty four division.
He had the Bernard Hopkins fight. I mean, there's a ton of Oscard
Alloy fights to you know. You can just go on down the line.
This was an era where Mayweather packed out both out of your tons of times,
Floyd, I think I got to count it up. I believe he's
got the record fifteen fights at my Red. But so many of Floyd's biggest
fights were here because the Tmobile Arena wasn't yet a part of the landscape.
So he fought Canelo Alvarez here in this building. He fought Nanny Pack out
here in this building. He fought the Maydonna fights here. He fought,
you know, so many of his big fights that that he was the moneyman
of the time and nanny pack are the same thing. You know. Many
had some great wins here, but he also suffered in my mind in terms
of my own experience of being here. For me, the singlest memorable moment
that I have ever witnessed in this building was when he got knocked out face
first in the fourth fight against one Manuel marqu Yes. But there were some
other extremely memorable fights. I mean I mentioned Nabe, I didn't even mention
they're one of the greatest events I ever covered, which when he fought Ricky
Hadden, uh, you know, in the craziness of that fight weekend,
then he knocked out Ricky Hadden. And then I mentioned too about Manny Paco
getting knocked out by Marquez's being a very memorable moment, maybe the most memorable
moment for me. On the other hand, as I say, you know,
sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. It was the other
way around when it was Manny Paco who absolutely obliterated Ricky Hadden in this building.
I mean the history that this building. If I said, Tyson Holy
Field and the most bizarre of endings with the earbite MGM Grand Gardener Arena and
the first fight which he got knocked out in the big upset. I didn't
cover either of those Tyson holy Fel fights, but those are you know,
among I actually would say to you, all things considered, maybe the greatest
fight slash event in the history of the building might have been a vander Holyfield
versus Mike Tyson number one for a thousand different reasons. That was huge,
and I mean, you know, there's just so many big, big fights,
and everybody fought here. You know, Fury Wilder to the World Championship
changed hands, the lineal title and the WBC title were then unified, if
you will, when Fury knocked out Deontay in the second fight that took place
in this building. You know, Team Mobile has kind of taken over to
some degree because it's a larger facility. It is partially owned by MGM Resorts,
so it's this is still the fight host hotel when the when the fights
take place at the Team Mobile. But it's good that they still have important
fights in the building, like this fight coming up on Saturday with Tank Davis
against Frank Martin Benevitez against Bozick. But then the number of big time fights
here is remarkable. Look, I mean, I'm just forgetting some. You
got Eric Morales against Marco Antonio. Where are their third fight? Ye,
fight of the year, culmination of one of the great trilogies in history.
I was here for that fight, one of the most phenomenal fights I've ever
seen, ring sign. They fought that here and as I said to you
just a minute ago, if the walls could talk, you know, Tim
Bradley, you know, getting the gift of all gifts here against Manny pacco
in the fight that they had, and they had their trilogy, I mean,
just one after another. One of the fights I think, and I
mean I've been to a lot of fights, but just on a personal level,
I think the fight that I and I joke around with Todd de buff
about this, He's the president of Top Rank, the fight that I personally
was the most excited in my entire career to go cover because I thought it
was just absolutely spectacular and I was a huge fan of both fighters that were
involved in the fight. And that was when Manny Paccio fought Miguel Codo I
could not have been more excited for that fight. That fight was here,
Margarito versus Codo. The first fight took here, obviously gained revenge of New
York City. But one big fight after another is like again, if you're
making your boxing bucket list, go to a fight at the MGM Grand because
it's boxing history. And you know they're gonna, I mean, we're gonna
we're taping this before and but later on Thursday night, they're having a reception
down in the Grand Garden arena where they've invited some dignitaries and a hotel personnel
and media members and all that to have like a little cocktail party, and
they're gonna unveil a banner for the one hundred fights. So I'm looking forward
to attending that later this evening. That's gonna be a hell of a lot
of fun, awesome. All the big names, Tito Trinidad fight here,
Bernard Hopkins fight here. You know, you name the star, you know.
Kelly Pavlck and Jermaine Taylor had their rematch here. After the middleweight title
fight, the extremely memorable undisputed fight between Costa Zoo and Zab Judah took place
here when Costazu, you know, gave him the Bambi legs and knocked him
out in the second round. Oh. Another incredibly memorable fight Marco Antonio Barrera
against Nassim Hahmed when he ended the Prince's undefeated rain and just completely took him
apart. I was here for that fight also, just a remarkable performance from
Barrera. Just I mean, there's so many great fights, Floyd's fight against
Like I said, the first fight I had recoverer Floyd Mayweather against Diego Corrales,
a fight where I picked Diego to win, and I joked with Floyd
over the years that that was the last time I ever picked against him and
I would never do it again. A lot of people thought that that Chico
was going to win that fight. I wasn't the only one. And in
there, in my opinion, had the greatest performance of his entire career,
where he scored five knockdowns and stopped him in round ten, and it absolutely
virtuoso kind of performance. Just that phenomenal, phenomenal performance. And then of
course there's the fights that I didn't cover before my time. You know a
bunch of those Oscar fights you mentioned about the chombst fights that were here.
The Melgic Taylor two fight was here. That was, you know, a
situation where they kind of had to have the remap, even though it was
maybe a little pass these best days. But anyway, just an unbelievably historic
building that I'm sitting in, and it's an honor and a privilege to come
here every single time and cover these great fights here. Love it. You
did such a great job over Kenny. The one thing I kept thinking when
you were saying that, Madison, I'm doing that off the top of my
fucking I know you are. I can verify to the audience. He was
not going over notes. He's just going off of his his memories of having
been there. That's why you're you, Madison. Square Garden is the all
time iconic venue and has been around much longer, but I think it's fair
to say the MGM grand is now right there in terms of the consciousness of
the last twenty five years ish that you're talking about thirty years really going back
to the mid nineteen nineties. Incredible, incredible, and so we look forward
to more of your coverage on your substack about this. The pay per view
coming up Saturday, night, we'll talk more about it. There was a
first. You could get a lot of people on that one being the first
Frankie Randall, Julio says ar Chavez and now this is the one hundredth Gavonte
Davis and the main event with frank the Ghost Martin and a ton in between.
We leave anything else out? What else? Well, I was just
gonna say another hugely historic one that that took place here not that long ago,
was when Canelo Alvarez knocked out Caleb Plant to become the undisputed super middleweight
Chamian. That fight was here in this building. That wasn't dow long.
When was that twenty twenty one? In November of twenty one. I mean,
there's so many big fights here. It's just ridiculous. If I like,
we're to like start to sorting through like my poster collection, the amount
of posters I have from places. I say again, I just want to
be the curator of the Raphaeld collection in my retirement. That's all I want
to be. And a lot of it from the MGM. Grand Uh listen,
I know you do. I hate that I'm not out there with you.
It's only going to be in a rare occasion when I get to be
with you on one of these. I did one of these a year ago,
and that was at the T Mobile. Haven't ever seen one of the
mgine I have stayed in the MGM Grand Missus Reeves and I a couple of
years into marriage, did stay there and in a side arena, not the
Grand Garden arena. We saw Rick Springfield, Hello in a futuristic show.
True story, Springfield was very entertaining. You better love somebody. He was
entertaining futuristic show. I won't sing lots, but he was Rafael flying around
on a saucer literally playing the electric guitar that was suspended obviously by secret,
little invisible wire cables. And like a week after we were out there,
guess who fell off the futuristic saucer and broke his arm and couldn't play the
show for a few weeks. Oh, we were glad we could see the
man that's sang Jesse's Girl and all those other songs Rick Springfield in the MGM
Grant. But my point is, I've never been in that arena where you
will be now for the fifty sixth time. I've never been in that arena
much less for a world title fight. But that doesn't I mean even even
other fights I've been here. They've had lots of fights in the conference center,
in ballrooms. I've been to some of those fights also, like back
in the Friday night fights. But in terms of big arena one hundred events.
But you just made me think about that when you said you and your
wife came out here for that Rick Springfield thing and you went to the concert
here in this building. So I have obviously come to Las Vegas a ton
of times, well over one hundred times. I think I'm up to like
one hundred and thirty trips or something like that. But the only time I
ever came here not for boxing was the very first time, in like nineteen
ninety nine or nineteen ninety eight. My wife and I my girlfriend at the
time, we flew out here because one of my friends in college who lived
out here was getting married and we were invited to Way, which is that
the Harris Casino. So we came out of here for a couple of days
and went to the wedding and we made a little vacation out of it.
And because I'm such a die hard boxing fan, I wanted to see the
MGM ran to me that was boxing in Las Vegas. I mean, of
course I remember as a kid Caesar's Palace. It wasn't it wasn't the current
place that was doing fights. So we came over to the MGM Grand one
day when we were here on that trip for the wedding, and I went
to the front door of the arena, you know inside because it's not like
it's locked up, it's just part of the the you can just walk right
over. The door was locked, there was nothing going on, but I
got my picture taken in front of that. And who in the world would
have ever thought that, you know, like two years later whatever it was,
that I would be coming here on a regular basis to cover the fights
because my thought was I watched Tyson and holy Field, I remember seeing Big
George knock out more remember, you know, the great matchups like you know
with when Randall upset Javaz and just all those earlier fights that I didn't cover.
But I wanted to see like the home of what I considered sort of
like the home of boxing, all these great fights that took place at the
MGM. I mean, who can forget you watch a showtime fight back in
the day or an HBO fight. They'd open the broadcast and they have the
beauty shot of the shining emerald Green, you know building that stands up in
the desert right in the middle of the strip. I mean, it's just
a glorious situation. I love it. Listen, I haven't thrown you out
yet. That's good. Here's the fifty six more my friend fifty six.
We love it. Great stuff on the preview. We'll read more on your
substack in the coming next twenty four hours or so as we release this podcast,
and it's fight Night on Saturday night again. PPV dot com is who
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us. And you also heard from Jervonte Davis as well. Let's see what
he looks like. Hey, why don't we reconvene separate outlet on the bet
Us Boxing Show on Friday at one Eastern time. I'm YouTube, Twitter,
etc. And we'll handicap some of these big time events we've been talking about.
Sound good. Everything good sounds good. All right, Go get some
food, Go get some rests on location in Las Vegas. Thank you,
Dan Rayfield. We look forward to the weekend. Thank you, sir,
there is Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ. Reeves. We come your way
twice every weekend, previewing on the Big Fight, Weekend Review, Fight,
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