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today at DBS dot Ie. Well, hey, they're off an action packed
weekend. We are ready to recap all of it, including some dramatics obviously
for Homimungia, a huge win for Teya Fimo Lopez, and much more welcome
in it. Did the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast? I am the somewhat
capable host TJ Reeves. The man to hear from is this man, Dan
Raphael, our insider from his Fight Freaks Unite substack and Bigfight Weekend dot com.
My goodness point plenty to talk about. Good to be with you.
How are we feeling after some action pack fights. There's a great weekend between
action on Friday night, funy action on Saturday, Hall of Fame inductions on
Sunday. Been a big weekend. Yeah, we had, We had lots
to get to, lots to go over. You will talk some about those
Sunday Hall of Fame inductions. We did covered a bunch on the last couple
of podcasts, but the inductions have now happened Sunday afternoon as we released this
overnight quick reminder again, we're here twice for you. We're gonna be here
peeps as best we can over the summer. Do you realize, Dan Rayphel
that I went back and counted and checked and we have now gone like fifty
nine or sixty consecutive weekends of previewing and you took of me. Yet it's
previewing on Friday, recapping Sunday. You and I have been iron Man doing
this and we do it for you, folks, the audience. Here we
are again off the weekend with the recap, just like going into the weekend
on this podcast feed with the preview, and hope you appreciate it and enjoy
us. And if you do rate us, review us on Apple Podcast,
we appreciate those. Keep the ratings and reviews coming in because they help us
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on this podcast feed on Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, the Big
Fight we Can podcast feed. This is the Fight Freaks Unite recap. All
right, let's get to it. Let's get to what happened this weekend.
Most prominently is the Taya Femo Lopez win and what a tremendous performance by him
over Josh Taylor to capture the WBO and lineal As Dan always wants to point
out, he's the guy at one forty for the junior welterweight championship man Taya
Femo. One of the stories right now of this year in boxing with that
performance and that comeback performance for him to reclaim a world championship. Your thoughts
having watched his twelve round decision win, listen out, What can you say
other than it was a great performance. He did exactly what he said he
would do. He made a lot of people who had not been believers in
him for reasons that are his own fault, because of how bad he looked
in his fights at one hundred and forty pounds prior to Saturday, in his
loss in the previous fight that he had at lightweight, when he lost the
belts to do George cambosas junior in a great fight, but not a great
performance. I mean, for you know, circumstances. We understand now how
injured he was in a sense with his throat and everything. But look when
he went to one forty, between the way he performed in those fights and
his seemingly fragile mentality and a lot of other things surrounding his life, is
sort of was hard to pick him to win in a meaningful way against Josh
Taylor, who, even though had been coming off of a sixteen month or
so layoff and not a great performance in his own last fight against Jack Hatterall,
was still the undefeated champion, still the bigger man, and still it
seemed like maybe was a more complete fighter, all things being equal, and
Tifi Molopez went out there and as they say, he did the job.
He looked great. Congratulations at Tifi Molopez. Maybe he's the type of fighter
that, as we've come to know more and more about him as the years
go on, that somehow sometimes thrives when there's more tumult in his life in
his career. But look, what can you say, he outfought the bigger
guy. He didn't just do it in a one dimensional manner. He boxed,
he punched, He was aggressive, his defense was sound, his hands
were quick, his feet were quick. He landed punches with both of his
hands. And he also he just looked like he was winning the fight.
He had the swagger, you know, he had the little hipshimmies. Meanwhile,
Josh Taylor, you know, through far less punches, landed far less
punches. Seemed like had I used this comment earlier in the day with somebody
else, I was speaking with terrible body language, just didn't really look like
he wanted to be there, look confused at times. And you know,
judges noticed those things. Besides just clean shots that are landing. They know
they can tell a guy if he doesn't look like he's really in the fight
from a mental point of view, the way his body languages and where his
Lopez looked excited to be there and just was coming forward and letting the shots
fly. Guy have no higher compliment to the way that he performed. This
is the Tifimo Lopez that we thought we were going to see on a regular
basis when he looked so spectacular, for example, against Richard Comey when he
won his first world title, even though this was a different kind of fight
because obviously that was an early knockout, but this was the Tifimo, dynamic
kind of guy, but also an intelligent boxer that we saw rising the ranks,
who was everybody's prospect of the year a few years ago, odds on
to win a world championship that of course defeated Lomachenko. You know, there's
two words to describe the weekend, tia Fimo's back. Yeah, and he
looked at the most the most telling stat the power punches. Again according to
CompuBox. Again it's a quantitative stat, but you could just tell as the
fight went on he was landing all the significant shots the back half of that
fight, one thirty eight to sixty on power punches, including shots to the
body. Tremendous performance from dumbled. Yeah, he almost he almost doubled up
punches landed one fifty eight landed for Lopez Purst Company, box eighty two for
Taylor. But more significantly, you talk about the back after the fight,
it's really like the backgrounds three to twelve part of the fight because, again
according to their stats, which again are not necessarily exact, what they provide
a good guy. How about after round two? Josh Taylor never landed more
than single digits in any round the rest of the fight. And he also
he also females defense killer in every round of the fight except for the first
and second round. Yep, great performance from him, so as we always
do. Now what does this mean? Taylor said after the fight, I'd
love a rematch you win out of this. There's not a contractual rematch.
Taylor also says at the same time, it's difficult for him to make one
forty. He's probably moving up to welterwade so quickly. What do you think
is next? And probably a bigger payday and a bigger profile fight for Taya
Femo Lopez, maybe a unified title fight. Who knows? What do you
think? Well? I think in terms of Josh Taylor, you know,
I think he sees the writing on the wall. Even if you could get
a rematch with Tifimo Lopez at some point, it's not going to be next.
Maybe they would someday meet in the welterweight division if Tifimo moves up to
that level, you know, down the road, but a rematch team is
out of the question. Wasn't the kind of competitive fight where fans we'll be
asking for a rematch, and like you said, he's been talking about going
to welter rate, so maybe I'll go to walter rate. I'm not sure
we would fight. Their top rank is not very deep in that way class.
But you know, certainly, when you're the name of a Josh Taylor,
you are a former champion, you do have a fan base in Scotland.
There they'll find somebody solid for him to fight and see if he can
make another run. And remember the welterweight division in the not too distant future,
the belts are going to become available because whatever happens in the fight between
Errol Spence and Terrence Scarford, even if they wind up doing a rematch,
you got to figure at least one of those belts will become vacated by then.
And certainly if the rematch does take place, supposed to happen by the
end of the year, which means you're talking about, you know, maybe
in the first quarter let's say, of next year, pretty much all the
belts will end up vacated because except for the w BA, because I will
go to the winner of the standionis and a Virgil or a tise fight,
but they'll be else available, and you know, one shock me off,
Taylor found a way into the ratings to be in at least in line for
one of those belts. So that's probably his future. As far as Tiffimo,
you know, he talked about retirement after the fight, and I got
a lot of questions on social media today on my Facebook page, on Twitter
and my Instagram, and questions on the bottom of my story on my sub
stack. You think Tifimo is really retiring. Fuck no, he's not retiring.
Get to hell out of here now what he will do and he'll probably
take a bit of a break. He made the point in his post fight
interview. He's going through a bitter divorce and a custody battle for his a
toddler's son, and that's going to take a lot out of anybody mentally.
Of course. I mean, the divorce is hard, but a divorce on
top of a custody fight. You know, I've known people in my life
that have gone through those things. It's not easy, obviously, But anybody
thinks he's going to retire at age twenty five having just put in perhaps the
greatest performance of his career, and he's on the now he's on track making
millions of dollars for fights. Absolutely, no way he's retiring again. Layoff
fair enough, take off the summer, enjoy yourself. I say he's back
in the ring before the end of the year. I mean he's not taking
off a long long it's not going to be extended, extended retirement. This
is what I learned a long time ago, is you listen to what the
boxers say after a fight, a big win or a big loss, and
you reported, of course, and it's it's important, but you also have
to put it in context, and you have to learn not you know,
to take what is said in the in the aftermath of a of a raw
moment like that, after all the build up and the fight that's very physical
and all the it's like a cathartic thing. They say a lot of stuff
that they may mean when they say it, but they know in retrospect when
they think about it, that's not real. You gotta take what they say
after a fight in that immediate moment with a grain of salt. So anybody
that thinks Kifimo Lopez is retiring off of that great performance at the level where
he is now with the kind of money that he can make is a fucking
idiot. Of course not. Of course he's going to continue on. And
while we're on this subject, and no coincidence that Jose Ramirez, who had
two of those titles, was in attendance, is that the logical next opponent
or unification makes more sense for more money. Just real quick, what do
you think? Well, the two fights that are probably doable for him at
top rank are either Ramirez who is going to be uh, you know,
in a in a good you know, isn't a good position in the ratings,
and obviously his name recognition, the fact that he's a former unified title
holder. His only loss was in a unif you know, the for the
undisputed fight to unify all four titles. He lost a razor close decision to
Josh Taylor in their undisputed fight. That was basically the difference in that fight
was it was an even fight and Taylor got to win by two points on
all three cards because he scored two knockdown so he won one fourteen to one
twelve and in the fight that was otherwise dead. Even so, Ramirez was
ringside with the idea that he would campaign and get hopefully a shot at the
winner. They're both with top rank, it's a big fight, it's a
good fight. They're both you know, good amateurs in terms of their Olympic
pedigree. They both been good champions in the pro ranks. So that's definitely
a fight that the top rank could do. It's not it's an expensive fight,
but it's doable. And the other fight that makes a lot of sense
in my mind, and I think would be no, you know, no
knock on Jose Ramiers, but I think would be a much bigger commercial event
in the kind of fight where absolutely they would try to go on pay per
view. And that would be if Devin Haney elects to remain with top rank
and moves up from lightweight where he's the undisputed champion to challenge Tiefemo for the
lineal championship and the WBO title at Juniory Wealth Rate. Now you're talking about
a big event, that's a commercial event, that's an exciting event, that's
a clash of style event, that's two guys that can talk shit. I
mean, that's just a good, good matchup, you know, and there's
also you know, well if that happens, we'll hear of the epic stories
of their supposedly legendary sparring session years ago. That fight has a lot going
for it if they can make it. I would love to see that fight.
And Bill Haney was right there ringside too, So that's not a coincidence
either, and you know that, so absolutely not a quick very little in
this is a coincidence. I mean they're there checking this out. I mean
they have a relationship with top rank even if he's a fore agent at the
moment, because the other the other unifications don't make a lot of I mean,
look, is he gonna fight sab Real Matthias in the unification? Probably
not. It's not. It's it's a it's a good fight, don't get
me wrong. But it's not a big commercial fight because Matthias is not a
well known fighter. He's been with PBC, he's been a free agent.
I think he's gonna end up staying with PBC. Now you get into the
whole network thing. It's an expensive fight based on a guy that doesn't have
a lot of name recognition, even though he's very a very good fighter and
a great puncher. So I forget about that fight. Regis program has got
the WBC panel. While that would be a phenomenal fight, we all know
Regis has got all the stuff going on, He's got the fight coming up
next week. We all know that there's a good prospect of fight number two
in the in the matchroom stable is going to probably be the winner of the
Montana Love fight against Richardson Hitchens. There's Jack Catterall that is sitting out there
for him, also in that same stable, So that would seem to be
highly unlikely. The best matches that are both available, doable and commercially viable,
or either against Ramirez into a greater degree against against Devin Haney. I
mean, those seem to be the logical fights. And if it's not even
then they have other junior wealth rights. I mean, you know, if
he just wants to take like a regular fight, there's Arnold Barboza, who's
there was an excellent trepender unfeated, who's with top breaking. There's other fighters
are also, So that's that's what you're looking at for Tiahimo. Again,
he's got options and won a moment for him. You know, he hit
the final seconds of the fight. It was kind of unusual, but it
was a gratifying moment where he just kind of ran almost to the to the
corner, put his arms up on the ropes and look skywhere like I just
won, I just won the titles back. I am back, and there
you get. Thank god, by the way, it wasn't almost a draw,
because we need to discuss the shitness of those tooth squirk cards. It
seems like every single week, even in a fight where everybody acknowledges that Tiofimo
was doing, there there's some kind of controversy and then it come across some
idiot that that tries to defend the title, to defend those square cards.
I mean, here's the bottom line. I had to fight ten to two.
I saw a lot of scores on social media that were in that ten
had nine three. I don't know. I thank you, but I had
Josh Taylor winning one round after the second round. And it sounds like you
had him winning no rounds after the second round. No, I had him
winning one. I had him. I think I gave him round the ten
round ten. Ten. Yeah, So and that was really and there are
not five rounds that I know what you're saying. There are not five rounds
that he won even for one fifteen, one thirteen. Here's the thing,
win five rounds, even if you give him round ten, which seems legit.
It wasn't like he did a great job in that round. That was
more because Tiefemo just was taken a breather at Felway. But here's the thing
going into round twelve. If two of the two judges that had it one
fifteen to one thirteen, if those two judges both score it for Taylor,
that gives them both one fourteen, one fourteen. That means the fight winds
up a majority draw because the third judge already had Tithimo I had properly as
he should have been, and there's no chance in hell that's a draw,
squore card or draw fight. Even even Josh Taylor when that fight was over,
he didn't necessarily agree the wide scores, but even he knew he lost
the fight for crying out loud, so you know the right guy won,
but it was still a stinky couple of scorecards. And our guy, David
Payne, the boxing writer, he wrote about Josh Taylor, we put it
up on the site, and he said, one of those judges is a
British judge, Steve Gray, and that's I mean, you can't defend that
card. He and the other judge on where's the five rounds? That I
don't I don't think that that's because Steve Gray's a no judge, Okay,
I don't. I don't think nationality plays a lot into it these a lot
of these fights, because we've seen examples that it goes the opposite when it
was just a shit card. That's the bottom line. Yeah, all right,
So victory for Teya Fimo. We did allow on that quickly. The
rest of the undercard. Xander Zaia is impressive. He got a first round
knockdown, but then it still took the route for him to win in the
co feature. Anything else real quick besides he and what else off the undercard?
Well, Xander was there on Puerto Rican Day, pretty weekend, a
lot of support. That's why the fight was in New York, largely because
of the fact that Top Rank wanted to continue to stake out its spot as
having fights on the same weekend of the Puerto Rican de Parade. Xander is
viewed as the next guy to headline those types of shows. I thought he
looked pretty good, Like you said, he scored the first round knockdown.
I think he got a little over excited and when he couldn't get the knockout.
But Ronald Cruz, who was the opponent, was super tough that he's
lost two fights now but never been stopped. You know, got an eight
quality rounds. The fans were excited. He was dynamic at times of the
fight. Might have might have pressed a little bit too much for the knockout
once, you know, you get that first round knocked down and get all
excited about it. But again, the kid, he's only twenty years old,
he's still on the feed. He looked good. He's got a great
personality, he's got a lot of talent. There were some other Puerto Rican
young kids on the undercard with the main fight. To watch there was was
seeing Zander Dewis thing and I'm sure that in the not too distant future,
we're gonna Sae Hi headlining on this particular weekend. All right, good stuff.
Off of that, let's move along in the recap mode to himI Mongia,
Sergey derevan Chenko, and my goodness was their drama. We talked in
the preview mode that we weren't sure when these fights would line up. The
the Zone. Golden Boy main event is the top rank ESPN main event chronologically
what time. As it turns out, Golden Boy chose to escalate things on
their timeline and have the fight gets started before the Taylor Lopez main event in
New York. So they were about dan nine rounds in because I was keeping
track of both before the first bell rang on Taylor Lopez and my god,
by that point there was real drama that Drevyanchenko the veteran world title challenge,
it was about to pin the first loss on Himimungia, who looked tired,
who had been hurt earlier in the fight, and then Mungia did enough,
including a late round knockdown, to get a decision win. Tremendous, dramatic
fight. That's me saying that your thoughts on the Golden Boy main event well
as far as when it started, Trust me, Golden Boy was not worrying
about when the Lopez fight was starting, when vice versa. They were going
on their schedule and that was that. But it was a phenomenal fight.
It's a bona fi legit Fight of the Year candidate. It was a fucking
war, that's the bottom line. It was as good as you're going to
see. It's been a year we've had. We talked about any of the
fights this year that have been in that category as memorable. And you know,
there's only so many spots on the ballot for Fight of the Year when
it comes to the Boxing Writers Association of America, which by the way,
gave out the awards for A two thousand and twenty two and twenty one because
of COVID on Friday night rather on Thursday night in New York City. But
this fight between Mongia and Devinschenko will be on the ballot. I can't imagine
it wouldn't be even if there's a lot of other quality candidates. Just it's
everything you wanted to see. And by the way, I seem to recall
someone named Dan the Man talking in the pre fight saying this was going to
be the fight we're talking about on Sunday as the fight of the weekend.
And I was right about that, because when this fight was made, I
thought, no question, it's going to be an entertaining fight. Did I
think it's going to be like the fight of the Year. I don't know
if I thought that much, but I did think absolutely this is going to
be an exciting fight, and they delivered in spades on this because that was
as good as it gets. You're talking about a late round knockdown to seal
the win, It wasn't a late round knockdown. It was in the twelfth
round, with like two minutes left in the fight, where again we didn't
know it at the time, even though I think we suspected that Devin Schenko
was on his way to a close victory. And as it turned out,
Eric Morales, who was the trainer for him, Mungie had told him in
the corner after round ten, you gotta win the last two rounds. And
not only did he win the last two rounds, but he won the twelfth
round ten to eight on all three sportcards because he scored a great knockdown with
a body shot on the left hand that put him down to his knees in
the center of the ring, and that ten eight round provided the difference from
what would have been either from a unanimous decision in favor of Mungia without the
knockdown. If it's just a straight ten nine round for Mungy, it becomes
a majority draw because two of the judges would have had at one one fourteen,
So that knockdown was the difference in the fight, and it was as
dramatic as it sounds, tremendous battle. And let me tell you, you
gotta feel bad about Devin Chenko just from the standpoint that he's been such a
hard luck loser. He's now got five losses, and four of them you
could argue that he won, and the one he did lose, legit was
super close. Also, three of them in world title fights against Danny Jacobs
by split decision against Sna Glofkin to fight. I was at ringside, I
thought he won the fight, and lots of us at ringside thought he won
the fight. He lost a competitive fight, but a legit lost to Charlot
for the WBC's Mitawait title. He had a majority decision against Carlos Addamis,
who is now on the WBC's interim title older that was a super close fight.
They probably could have gone either way. And then the fight on Saturday
between him among Gay, which even with the knockdown, it wouldn't have been
unreasonable to have Sergey winning that fight by one round or so. So you
got to figure the law of averages he should have gotten in one of them
and certainly should have got the triple G fight. But he is, as
I say, here's the DELTJ. He's now two and five in his last
seven fights. He's the best two and five guy in seven fights in the
world, and he's the best fourteen and five fighter in boxing. Yeah,
and he's a hard luck loser. And we got several aspects to get into.
He hurt Mungia and had him in trouble but couldn't get him out of
there. I thought it was interesting and it was a great listen and a
great watch. Shout out to Corey Erdman, the Latin Snake, Sergio Martinez,
and Chris Mannix because they, I mean the timeout time out with disrespect,
the Latin Snake and Sergio Mora. Sergio more I said, Sergio Martinez
because I got like Hall of Fame on my brain, the Latin Snake,
Sergio Mora, who've had on the show, and Snake can make fun of
me now and call me JT instead of TJ. But in any event,
they were right on it that and Sergio was the first one to point out
Mongia looks gassed already in the fourth round, like he's out of shape.
And this is gonna lead to a bigger point, and you know where I'm
going on this on ten rounds versus twelve rounds. So then Darevan Chinko has
him hurt. He responds, this is what made it such a great back
and forth. And watching Oscar dal La Joya and Bernard Hopkins in like the
third row, center right of the center of the TV shot for like the
last four or five rounds of that fight was as entertaining as the fight because
they knew this is big trouble. He's potentially losing, he's potentially gonna get
stopped. They're jumping up, they're screaming instructions. I know there were some
at ringside, including our buddy Gail Falconhall was covering this fight. That Julio
Caesar Chavez, the Legend, was on the call on the Spanish broadcast.
On the Mexican broadcast, he was standing ending up during the round, yelling
instructions at Mungia late in the fight, but as he took off his figurative
broadcaster had it became like almost Mungia cheerleader. That's how crazy that was.
That's how rolls I've been at night were on the Mexican broadcast, and he
will have no problem getting up and giving his opinion to the fight. They
roll a little bit different in Mexico. I love it. And so then
we get into the controversy and they explained this as the fight was going on
that the day Lahoya Mungia's side wanted the fight shortened to ten rounds. Earlier
in the week, they described it as earlier in the week they wanted Darevanchenko
to agree to a ten round fight, and he said, no, no,
it's a twelve round fight. That's what we agreed to. That's what
I've trained for. I want those two rounds. How ironic, real quick,
Dan, those two rounds end up being Mungia's savior with the knockdown if
the fight ends after the ten round if if if drevan Jenko is ahead on
all three cards with two rounds, you got I thought he was hit on
all three. He certainly hit on two of them. Let me, let
me, let me take care of this one, okay. Yeah, So
yes, they signed for twelve and that's the way it was. And Fernando
Beltron, who was the co promoter with Zanford Promotions, went to Golden Boy
and said he wanted that they wanted ten. So Golden Boy did its due
diligence and they checked with the team of Sergey Devinchenko, which is the manager
Keith Connelly, and Keith was like, you know, his head, I'll
check with him, but I mean, you know, it's not for me
to decide. We signed for twelve. That's what Sergey expects, that's what
he wants. He went to Sergey. Sergey wouldn't go for the ten.
They were willing to pay him an extra six figures. I don't know the
exact amount, but well over one hundred thousand dollars more. Remember his purse
for the fight devin Chenko was four hundred grand, so they were willing to
give him at least another hundred. It probably would have been even more than
that. He could have made substantially more, but his perspective was and he
knows this, and anybody's ever watched Sergey Devinchenko fight knows this. He's a
slow starter. He got dropped in the first round in a couple of fights.
He just you know, takes some a few rounds to get going.
In a ten round fight, it's hard. So he wasn't giving up the
two rounds for the extra money, and they they forced Golden Boy to stand
by the contract. The idea was, if Mungia and his team are looking
to short it, maybe he's not in the best of shape. Uh.
They ended up to appease California, which they will do a twelve round non
title fight, but they got at the last minute. They got the WBC
to sanctioned for the silver title to give it a title fight to help the
commission, Uh, you know, sort of stick to what they prefer,
which is have some kind of title attached to a twelve rounder. And as
you mentioned, the best laid plans didn't work out because, uh, not
only did sergeate Defrenchenko would have emerged as the victor on a majority decision.
Had it gone to our scorecards after ten rounds, he would have been ahead
ninety six ninety four, ninety six ninety four, and the third card would
have been five. But but Mungia, if he wasn't in, he must
have been in great shape because the amount of punishment that they both took and
received and and dished out. Um. But the two rounds that he didn't
want are as you mentioned, they're what salvashed his perfect record as he's undefeated,
and as far as the you know, I thought Oscar and Bernber gonna
jump in the ring and start fighting too. They weren't. In the third
route. They were right there in the corral, right against that the barrier
there behind the commission. People absolutely losing their minds Oscar with shadow boxing in
like the eighth night, he got a good workout. I thought he was
in spar you know, in training for another another comeback fight. But listen,
at the end of the day, TJ JT, I'm sorry, that
was one of the that was. That was a super enjoyable fight. And
by the way, besides just the knockdown and how close it wasn't just the
savagery back and forth. The fifth round timing, Mongia was as close to
being gone as you can be without actually being knocked out. Sergei Diffrenchenko had
him out on his feet out. I'm like, the fight's over. I
was actually thinking, oh good, the fight's gonna be over well before Tiafimo
and Josh Taylor get to the ring. And somehow, some way, to
credit Mongia's heart and balls, he survived that that massive, massive destruction in
that round and came back and and one more point on this we have in
lamenting. That's the word I'll use on a Sunday night, Dan Raphael.
We've been lamenting the lack of opposition from Mungia, completely mismanaged, and finally
he's in there with a reputable guy that can fire back on him, etc.
And he looked miserable at times trying to defend himself. My god,
did he get hit a ton in that fight. And I don't know how
well this bodes for him to be a legit championship caliber contender when they've protected
him. That's the word that I'll use with guys that really could not threaten
him, hurt him whatever. Up until this point, for the last couple
of years at least anyway, man was at eye opening because I mean,
Derevan Chinko landed round after round after round, and credit Mungia for taking it.
But this is where I was just sitting back. One final point from
you, going, this is what happens when you actually challenge yourself, fight
credible competition, world championship competition, if not a title challenge, this is
what you get in return. And he's going to be listening. He's gonna
be better for this. I mean, here's the thing. When you're twenty
six now, you don't want him to take that many shots. But at
his age, he still can be in these types of battles and it won't
take that much out of him relatively speaking. Obviously, he wanted to clean
up his defense, but they've been trying to clean up his defense for ten
years. I mean, he is who he is, but he's the kind
of fighter I believe is going to become a better fighter because of this.
And when you're with a guy like Eric Morrales, I kept thinking, Eric
Morrales, when he's in the corner telling him what he wants him to do,
knows exactly what he's looking at. Because Eric is one of the few
fighters that have been in those types of worst time and again also knows exactly
what's going on. And I believe that this is gonna make Monkey a more
confident fighter, a better fighter, And we're gonna now I think see him
embark on a series of fights over the next few years where he's fighting not
the complete nobody's and guys with no shot to win. I told you,
I told everybody going to this fight, they were like well, Deverern Tengo
has got four losses. I'm gonna give a fuck about four losses. The
four losses were a good quality guys. They were very competitive. He should
have been Golopkin that night. He got robbed, in my opinion. He's
a real guy, maybe thirty seven, but he was in great shape.
He went to distance. He didn't look I mean, he was hurt in
the twelfth round, but he did a great job, and you know,
more power to him. This was a good match on paper. It was
a great match in the ring, and I think money is going to grow
from this fight. All right, great stuff there, Let's move on.
We've got some fight news at some nostalgia. Let's move on, though,
because earlier in the day, our time, the match Room main event was
Sonny Edwards IBF flyweight Champion. Speaking of things that we could almost set our
watch by. We knew, especially against the little known opponent from Chile Campos,
we knew that Sonny Edwards was likely going to win, but not win
by knockout because he doesn't knock people out. So this was as advertised as
delivered. He did what he had to do. The only thing I'm gonna
say is there's only so much interest I'm talking about worldwide outside the UK.
If you're not a big enough puncher, you don't you're not flashy enough.
Yes, you're getting wins. So I mean, this was the predicted outcome.
Everybody believed this is what was gonna happen. He was gonna be a
slick boxer, score, not get hit much and win. And that's what
pretty much happened from what I saw of the highlights, et cetera. Give
me your thoughts on the Sonny Edwards victory. Yeah, I mean that went
way it was supposed to go. He won one seventeen to one to eleven
on all three score cards. When he decided a box he couldn't h you
know, he didn't let the other guy get near him. He said in
the post fight. You know there was a couple of rounds where he decided
to stand in and and uh, the other guy won a couple of those
rounds. But looks, Sonny Edwards talks a lot of shit. He's a
good talker and he's a consummate boxer. He's never gonna be a big puncher.
Uh, you know, he's only got what he's twenty and twenty wins,
no losses, and he only has four wins by knockout. But if
he that, I didn't. I mean, I've seen more boring Sonny Edwards
fights. I didn't think that fight the other And I'm not trying to knock
Sonny. That was not like a terrible fight. I mean it was more
boxing than slugging. But that's okay. He did a good job of He
stood in there a little bit Campos, he let him come to him,
kind of throw his shots, and then he was able to use his defense
and his wheels and his legs and his and his and his his ability to
move backwards and still fire punches on the back foot. But it was it
was a solid win. But the main thing about this was and not every
fight is cretty equal. Nobody expected this to be some big, big fight
or some super fight. Everybody has these in between kind of fight. He's
coming off like a seven month layoff, that's his first fights and signing with
Matcham. The idea is to set up the unification, so he's got to
get a little of the rust off, get get kind of back in the
groove. He did that against a you know, a straightforward kind of opponent
who was undefeated, who showed a lot of heart and took a lot of
good shots, and as Sonny talked about in the pre fight and then immediately
after the fight, now it's about the unification. So he's got this one
out of the way. He got his win, he got his matchroom debut,
he got his legs under him, he got a paycheck. And now,
as Eddie Hern said in the post fight standing with Sonny Edwards in the
ring, I guarantee you the next fight for this man's gonna be unification.
And what that means is either it's going to be come the end of the
year, it'll either be against Bam Rodriguez or the WBO title as well as
Sonny's IBF, or it'll be Schulio sees Our Martinez for the WC title.
The way that the both fighters were talking, it seems like it's going to
probably be against Bammar Rodriguez. We gotta see how BAM's healing process has gone
from the broken jab that he suffered when he won that vacant title earlier in
the year. Obviously, he had dropped down from having had a title in
the one hundred and fifteen pound weight class. But if you give me the
aggressive boxer puncher like Bam Rodriguez against the consummate boxer in Sonny Edwards, they're
the two best guys in this weight class. Most likely they're both undefeated.
That's a great matchup. That's a good style fight, you know what,
and it's as flyweights go, that's probably the best fight you can make in
the weight class. So that's a fight that Eddie Hearn seems content on making
or desiring to make. That's the fight that Sonny wants. I'm sure Bam
Rodriguez got no problem with that given the types of guys he's been fighting,
you know, taken on the kind of guys he's fine quadras on short notice.
And then sir rong side, you know, him and Sonny Edwards is
a good matchup. So you know, it's not always just about what we
saw Saturday. That wasn't a great fight, but he got the job done
and he'll talk a lot of shit and him and Dan will make a good
fight. I think. All right, stay tuned for that. And yes,
Sonny is a talker, there's no doubt about that. On being able
to sell these things which we like, which we like with what we do
all right? And Adrian Broner, Oh, dear god, it's on the
rundown. Adrian Broner was Victoria. Wouldn't it be on the rundown? Because
the guy he's fighting is like a club lad. He's more popular than Sonny
Edwards is. But yeah, well to some here, we gotta give the
people what they want. My brother, we got to give him more of
Adrian Broner and Don King waving whatever flag that was that he was waving in
the ring. They did have the free tank shirts on the Broner all right,
what else from this Friday night? As he beat We like the phrase
pillar to post, we haven't used it recently. He beat this guy pillar
to post, Adrian Broner, world class fighter versus a guy that's a lawyer
by trade. Okay, I will, I will, I will tip my
hat to the toughness. Yeah, and the and the durability and the on
the heart and the will of Bill Hutchinson, who took an absolute beating in
that fight. I thought it was a shutout. The two judges are one
judge had it one hundred to ninety two judges had at ninety nine ninety one
I actually scored one hundred to eighty nine because one of the rounds where Adrian
beat him killer at a post, I gave him a ten eight round without
a knockdown. But here's the thing I don't I mean, I don't think
Browner's going back to world championship status. I do think he'll probably wind up
getting a more significant fight just because of the fact that he did win.
He looked okay. Um, he's got a big name. He has one
world tunnels and four weight classes, so he's got that name recognition. Um,
he's a great villain, a figure in any side of a promotion,
and Don King will will be a yelling at from the rooftops. So I
don't want to make too much of it. He was fighting a club fighter.
But if you're gonna go back to the promised Land, you know you
gotta take the first step, and it's one foot in front of the other
until you get there. So consider this to be his first step. You
know, who knows where it's going to lead. But given all the problems
and issues at Adrian Browner's head, and I have to confess he's been like
my friend of me over the years we've had our our. You know,
he's called me out and been a very disrespectful on a personal level at news
conferences. I've given it right back to him. But we've also had a
friendly relationship for a long time. I have known Augerian since he was a
teenager when he first turned pro. I kind of have a little bit of
a soft spot for him, you know. I know the troubles he's been
through. I mean, some of it's brought on him by himself. So
I don't excuse the boorish behavior and some of the things he has done.
But I have to say, with all the issues he's had, mental health
problems and all the other stuff, you know what, I'm glad to see
him get his win and if he can keep himself together and not be a
you know, so impetuous and do things and get him in trouble. A
knucklehead, A knucklehead. I mean, we could say some other words about
him, you know, criminal at times, you know, but I wish
the best for him. I know it would be a great comeback story if
he can somehow climb the mountain again. So you know, I have to
say, in my heart, I'm rooting for the kid to succeed not only
as a fighter, but just as a human being and sort of get his
life together all right. And I look for the Rayfield reporting on whether Don
King pays everybody this go around, unlike the Dubois Trevor Bryan mess of last
summer. Let's see what listen. I'm again, I'm not excusing what Don
did. But eventually they all did get paid eventually. Okay, So there
is the recap of the fights in the ring quickly. And we said a
lot about the Hall of Fame of the last two two weeks, but hey,
there's only one weekend out of the year where there's a Hall of Fame
induction for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. It did happen Sunday. I
know you were watching the speeches. I was watching you on social media while
I had other stuff going on as well. I really thought it was neat
to back up to Friday night's Showtime Showbox Card at the Turning Stone Resort where
they were interviewing all of the inductees on Friday and talking to them. That
was very well done with Al Bernstein and all the inductees hit the high spots
with me for a minute or two what else out of the induction stood out
to you. Well, first of all, I mean it was good because
the Hall of Fame made the entire ceremony, which last of the probably about
two and a half hours, they made an available on there on the International
Boxing Hall of Fame website. So that was that was great because there was
a nice stream and you could you know, it's I've had other times where
they didn't do that and you kind of had to hunt around for stuff.
So it was beautiful that they were able to put it there and you could
watch it all and you know, good audio and everything. But it was
just it was a it was a very, uh good ceremony. I enjoyed
it immensely. If you're if you're into boxing history like I am, and
I have a special uh and I'm not the only one. I know pretty
much all the different people that are being inducted. I've and I know them
personally and you know, and so it's it's just a thrill to see that.
So and you've been advocating for some of them and voting for them,
and and you've mentioned this, whether it's Timothy Bradley or others, this is
finally their moment. It had to be a little rewarding. I'm not making
this about you, but it had to be a little rewarding in that regard
where you're smiling and going, Okay, finally, here's their moment there,
let's let's hit hit the high spot. So Raphael Marquez, he only spoke
for about like thirty seconds about like with a with a translator, so not
a lot to say about his induction speech. Um Carl Froch spoke from the
heart. He said, he made a few notes before him, but he
hit the spots and talked about his career. I thought one of his most
poignant things he said was he said, I may not have beaten everybody and
been the best all the time, but one thing I wasn't when that was
a quitter. Because I've never been a quitter. And if you are a
quitter, you don't get into the international boxing all of fame. And he
rightfully earned his position with his victories and his uh you know, his his
great resume. And he did make fun of himself because he said so many
times after he defeated George Groves in their rematch that he had fought in front
of eighty thousand at Wimbley Stadium that kind of became like a thing on social
media, and you know, people mocked him because he couldn't ever not say
eighty thousand. So we talked about how when he made his h his first
world championship fight, he was in front of like eight thousand people in Nottingham
and he said, oh, by the way, you know, when I
had my last fight, it was in front of eighty thousand. So he
was taking a good a good nature poking himself. You know Carl's uh,
you know, he's kind of sneaky, low key like that, So that
I was happy to see that. Timothy Bradley gave a very good, heartfelt
speech. He talked about, you know, just all the things that he
went into him getting to where he was, the training with this father and
going to the gym the first time and having the old man there that I
forget the man's name that was his original the Jim, and he first went
to and and actually said to him, you know, like patted him in
the chess when he saw him work out or something the first time in the
gym, said you're gonna be a world champion. He didn't like believe him
or nobody was talking about. But he recounted that story and the other story
he said, which you know will stick with me a long time. I
never knew this particular story. He's down the night the morning of his first
world title fight in Nottingham, England, which is kind of, as Carl
Frost pointed, ironic, that Timothy Bradley won his first world title on Carl
Frog's hometown of Nottingham. That on the morning of that fight, when his
wife Monica arrived in England, she told him, we only we only have
eleven dollars in our checking account. I spent three hundred of our of our
three hundred eleven dollars on my plane ticket. You have to win, and
Timothy and Bradley talked about how that stuck with him. He went out that
won the world title on enemy territory, and he went on to make tens
of millions of dollars. And his goal in boxing wasn't so much necessary to
be a world champion, was to make sure that he and his family were
never broke again. And he has done that in spades. So I was
thrilled for Tim Bradley. I've advocated for his inclusion in the Hall of Fame
for years, and then of the of the other people that were in being
inducted, that we're not actually boxers in the ring. You know. Tim
Ryan spoke about his days covering the great fights with CBS. He gave a
beautiful tribute to his late partner Gil Clancy on the broadcast, who's also in
the Hall of Fame, said Abraham talked about being now I believe it was
the fourteenth person closely associated with HBO in the Boxing Hall of Fame set.
Of course, as the architect of what became the modern HBO Sports boxing franchise.
It wouldn't have been in existence without this man and all the things that
he did. He gave a beautiful speech. Brad Jacobs talked about Brad Jacobs,
of course as as chief operating officer of Top Rank and how how meaningful
was for him to spearhead the ability for them to come up with the proper
protocols to bring fights back during COVID among his various things that he has accomplished
in his great career. He paid tribute. A lot of people paid tribute
to Bob Aram who was there. You know, he came up from the
New York fight on Saturday to be there to see his employees Brad Jacobs and
Brad Goodman be inducted, and Brad Goodman kicked off the speeches in terms of
the non part of the non boxers. And first of all, I'll give
a shout out to Brad who gave me a shout out in his speech,
along with some of the other people that have that have been close to him
through the years in boxing. Like I said on the preview, Brad has
been a very close personal friend of mine for about thirty years. It was
a guest in my wedding, I've stated at his home. I mean,
he's my boy. But here's the thing. He gave a great speech and
pay tribute to the people that helped him get where he was. And then
he had a great ending to a speech which I didn't know about. He
kept this a secret. He said a lot of people always ask me as
a matchmaker, what's the best match you've ever made? And he said,
you know, I thought he was gonna say some great champion he helped,
you know, build up, or some big title fight or whatever. He
said, the best match ever made. She's sitting in the front row.
And then he proposed to his girlfriend Vivian at the end of the speech.
I'm pretty weird. Wait, I can go relive this on video, and
so can the audience. He popped the question at the Hall of Fame while
giving his induction speech. I gotta say this now, at the very end
of a speech that was this closing remarks, he asked her to marry him.
He had the rain. He went down in the crowd, and again,
I'm assuming that she said yes. And the reason why I'm assuming that
is because after the ceremony was over, Brad and I were texting with each
other and he didn't say anything like that. She said no, and he
seemed in a very good mood. So I'm assuming that all is good and
that there's gonna be some wedding goals in the future. So that was wow.
So the thing that was hilarious was that Brad Jacobs, who was his
colleague at top rank, was next up. After Brad gave his speech.
Brad was first, and then Brad Jacobs was second, and Brad was very
funny when he did. Then you know, that's a tough act to follow,
you no doubt so. And then the other person that made a great
speech that I totally enjoyed was when the trainer and also broadcaster Joe Goosen gave
his induction speech, and it was a large and large measure was a tribute
to his late brother, who was my dear friend, Dan Goosen, who
passed several years ago. And he talked about all the reasons why he wouldn't
be in the Hall of Fame. It wasn't for his brother, and he
went through the laundry list of things that why that was the case. And
you know, it was from a personal standpoint and from as a person who
loves the boxing history that surrounds All the Fame, I just totally loved the
way that it went. And uh, you know, anybody can watch it
on the International Boxing All the Fame's YouTube channel. You don't have to sit
there all two and a half hours or so. Over that you can go
into the you know, to the folks you would most be interested to see.
There was a few people that didn't make it. The women's candidates that
were there. Laura Serranto, she made her speech on video. Alicia Ashley,
she was there. She gave a speech about having been a dancer who
suffered a terrible knee injury that actually allowed her then to become a boxer,
and talked about all the trails that she had in getting where she went to.
It was just a great ceremony. I loved it, all right,
tremendous stuff, including that from Brad Goodman. How about that with the proposal
get down on a knee. I love that he didn't actually get on the
knee. He said it from the podium. I would assume though, that
he went down to the life, even if we didn't see it on video.
At some point. You gotta do that, you got it. He
didn't get on any he hand, he gave her the ring. I mean,
that's it, okay, all right, all right, but it's still
it's boxing Hall of Fame induction proposals are probably few and far between. That's
big time I'm giving. My wife knows Brad also, So I told,
you know. She was out today with my son and that sort of thing,
doing a few things, and I told her. When she got home,
I explained to her what she knew he was getting inducted. I said
to her what happened, and then I reminded her she didn't really I don't
think remember this aspect of it. I said this. Raphael Marquez was one
of the inductees. One of Raphael Marquez's biggest victories in his career. Most
people remember him for the great series of fights he had against Israel Vasquez,
but his probably biggest win was when he became the bandomweight champion when he knocked
out Tim Austin, who was a tremendous champion, had been an Olympian and
uh you know at some point was on people's pound for poundless. So the
night that he knocked out Tim Austin on a boxing after dark on HBO,
I watched the fight and reminded my wife that it was after watching that broadcast
late that night is when I proposed to my wife. After alright, okay,
you got romantic after a fight. What else is new in Rayfield's world?
I love that about you. All right, great planned? It wasn't
like I was. It was. It was the plan all along. But
I mean I had to watch the fight first. You know, I got
you trumped on that. I didn't do it after a boxing match. I
did it on Christmas Eve at eleven forty five with my wife and I after
all the Christmas Eve stuff, not even opening gifts yet and to say she
was stunned. She didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything for like thirty
seconds, and it freaked me out. In the end, she did say
yes. Eventually she got yes out and it all worked out in the end.
I love this about the Hall of Fame inductions. This is great stuff.
All right, some news and some nostalgia and then we're done here.
On the recap, Showtime did make an announcement that Noneito Donnair has an opponent
and it is for the vacant WBC Bannom weight title, a belt that he
has had before. In fact, he's the oldest WBC bannom weight champion ever,
not just by the way, Yeah all ba a bad but yes,
and I and and now he's trying to get the same title back again,
So tell me more real quick on the details. Yeah, I mean,
the fact that this fight is happening is not a surprise. He's gonna fight
Alexandro Santiago for the vacant WBC title. Of course, at the end of
last year, in a way, he became the undisputed champion, unified all
four belts, and everybody knew there was going to be a free for all
because he was moving up and wait, he vacated everything. He's going into
the ring in July to challenge Stephen Fulton for the unified title at Junior Featherrueight.
So it left these belts vacant. So back in February, which was
you know, a few weeks I guess, or a month or so after
in a way vacated, the WBC ordered don't air versus Santiago for the vacant
title. So now the fight has been made. I kind of knew it
was it was made. I just wasn't sure exactly when it was going to
be a figure who would wind up on one of these showtime cards. But
during the showbox card at the end when they were going over their upcoming schedule,
they said, in fact that Don't Air versus Santiago will take place on
July fifteenth. It will be at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Will be
in the co feature of the fight card that is headlined by Frank Martin against
Harry you Tunion, which is a lightweight eliminator. And so that's that's a
pretty good card. Donaor is a big name and someday not too distant future,
when he's retired three years. Hence, we'll be talking to him about
him being elected to the Boxing All of Fame on the first ballot, because
he's that caliber of a fighter. If he wins his bantomwaight title, it'll
just be another great entry onto his resume. It'll sort of be a cherry
on top. If he doesn't win the fight, it doesn't impact his legacy
at all. He's post forty as a bantam weight. He has won titles
in uh, you know, at flyweight, at danomweight, at junior featherweight,
at featherweight. He's beating lots of top guys. He's been in the
ring with a lot of guys. He's a great knockout puncher, and he's
one of the most beloved fighters among other fighters and media and fans in the
business. Just a first class guy and I'm glad to see he's getting other
opportunity, you know, in what is the twilight of his career, all
right. And also, Isaac Pittbull Cruise, you were talking about this in
the preview mode. We now know the opponent that he's going to have coming
up as well. You have more on that well, yea, as we
spoke about on one of the recent podcasts that he's going to be in probably
in the co feature when it comes time July twenty ninth for Errol Spence versus
Terence Crawford, and they're a huge fight. But now we know that he's
going to be facing Giovanni Cabret, who was an undefeated fighter at twenty one
and oh out of Chicago. A lot of people thought wasn't he with top
rank. He was with top rank, he had had given a beatdown against
Gabriel Flores Jr. Top Rank ended up releasing him, and so he was
able to go his own way, and now he's landed this fight against pit
Bull Cruz and it should be a pretty solid fight on that undercart I think
most people look at Cruz as, you know, the guy that that can
win and perhaps set up a rematch with Tank Davis when a Tank is ready
and able to get back in the ring post his current jail sentence. But
Cabret is undefeated and probably shouldn't be underestimated and shout out to Tank Davis because
seven days later, he hasn't done anything else to compound the problems him last
Sunday, not that we know of for his incarceration currently for the next sixty
days or so. All right, nostalgia and then we are done. As
we released the podcast late Sunday into Monday, it is what the eighteenth anniversary
of Mike Tyson's final fight. We joked on the preview podcast that Lennox Lewis
knocked him into Bolivion. He went to Bolivion after the knockout loss to Lennox
Lewis two thousand and two. Three years later his final fight, a loss
to Kevin McBride. That's the answer to the trivia question. And you were
there ring side on that nostalgia There any any recollections real quick? Oh,
I have a lot of recollections. I mean, the fight took placed at
what is at the time was called the MCI Center now it's the Capitol One
Arena. It's the same arena where Tank Davis had the fight in January against
Hector Luis Garcia. It's about twenty four miles from my driveway. And in
fact, when Tank Davis had the fight in January, that was the first
fight in that building since that Mike Tyson fight back in twenty five. I
was working at ESPN at the time. And because of the fight being in
Washington and very close proximity to where I live, I spent a lot time
with Tyson that week. I had spent time with him at the gym,
I had spent time with him during the pre fight build up. I had
had like three interviews with him. I worked the way in for a sports
center and did interviews when the guys came off the scale. So I was
around Mike quite a bit. And what I remember, more so than just
the fact that he lost and retired, we're two things. And I wrote
I wrote extensively about it at the time, about going to the gym that
was owned by Mark two Sharp, Johnson's father in Washington, d C.
That's about the size of my living room, a tiny, tiny little gym,
and watching Mike. Their gym was so small they couldn't even get a
regulation ring there. Instead of a twenty or twenty two by twenty two ring
in the door, I think the ring they sparted was like sixteen by sixteen.
I was just looked like a phone booth. So I had like to
sit down interview with Mike and also his manager at the time, Shelley and
and his trainer was the Hall of Famer Jeff Fennick, who was a great
fighter in his own right. So we played like twenty questions. It was
like Raphael and Tyson, twenty different topics, just all kinds of things about
his life and career, and he was great about it. You can still
google that on It's on the ESPN website still. And I watched him spar
This is like a week before the fight. This is like, I think
his list is actually literally his final sparring session. I want to say it
was like on the weekend before the fighter, maybe the Monday of fight week,
he had a sparring session with an Australian fighter named Bob Mirrovic and he
when I say he laid a beating on this dude, he laid a beating
on this dude. That's That was the second time I had sat ringside in
a private setting where I was the only media person allowed and watched Mike spar
I had had a similar experience watching the spar his last sparring session before he
fought Andrew Galata in a two thousand. But uh, Mike just pummeled the
guy, and I'm like, he's gonna blow Kevin mcgride away. I mean,
there was no doubt in my mind. I mean, I know that
wasn't a exactly an uncommon prediction. But when I saw the way he sparred
that day and how excited and how happy Fennick was about the sparring session,
I'm like, Okay, it's gonna be a whole It's gonna be a beatdown
fight night. Well it turned out that Ken McBride took it too Tyson and
knocked him down and basically made him quit, and he announced his retirement at
the press commerce And what I remember, also, again these I remember these
things more than the fight itself was was a couple of things. Talking to
Kevin McBride when he came off the scale, you know, when you're in
that situation live on Sports Center, you got a chance to ask like two
questions. Well the response I forget what the question was exactly, but McBride
started talking about how he was going to be in perfect mental shape for the
fight and ready to go because of all the work he had done with this
hypnotist. I was like, what the hypnotist? So we got to do
with thinking about the hypnotist. That's the first thing. And then the second
thing was Tyson after the postfight press commerce was over. Myself and my long
time colleague, a per former colleague from USA Today, the great columnist John
Saracino, who had covered boxing for the paper before I did, and he
became a columnist and I was hired to cover boxing. That Tyson gave John
and I like an audience. It was just a two of us for like
a half an hour, and basically he was a stream of conscience that spelled
his guts about you know, I don't have the heart for this anymore,
I don't want to do this anymore. Just was a tremendous experience to be
there with Tyson in just such a raw atmosphere in the moments after he's announced
his retirement. Now, maybe at the time we didn't necessarily believe it because
it's boxing, and as I mentioned earlier, you don't always believe what these
guys say in the heat of the moment, and that they can change your
mind. But ultimate Tyson never did come back for an official fight. He
had a couple of exhibitions and such, But I have lasting memories of being
there sitting with Mike for you know, a long period of time and just
hearing them just pour it out like a Catharsis, almost like we were the
bartenders, I guess, and talking about why he just didn't want to fight
anymore. So that was his last fight, and I have a lot of
members of that week. He did fight Roy Jones, notably in an exhibit
abition that does not go down on the official record, and the last two
fights are both losses. On the Hall of Fame. He forgot the exhibition
he had against Corey Sanders, the fighter from Rising, not the South African
Corey centers, but the Washington DC Corey centers, who were right. I'm
glad I did and I'm glad I did forget that. So there you go
on Mike Tyson and one other piece of nostalgia, and that is on Monday.
It is the anniversary of Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Lenard two, the
second fight taking place June twelfth, nineteen eighty nine, thirty four years ago.
Talk about bad decisions. Bad decisions have been around in boxing for decades.
Again, I keep I keep making you smile because all the gen Zers,
all the all the twenty some things, they all think boxing started in
two thousand and nine. No bad decisions were going on in nineteen eighty nine
as well, and I was as big as Sugar Ray Lenard fan at this
point. You were a fan like I was a teenage fan with the same
age. I am the first one to admit a Thomas Hearns beat him that
night, He knocked him down. He beat him that night, and yet
still didn't get his hand raised. The fight ends up being a draw thirty
four years ago. And unfortunately for Tommy Hearns out of out of all those
fights with the Four Kings, Uh fighting Letter twice, bombing Roberto Duran and
getting knocked out by Marvin Hagler, he only got his hand raised once in
the ko of of Durant. He should have had it raised twice against Ray.
And I'm a Ray letterd fan and he should have won on decision on
the on that fight. What are your recollections there? I'm a huge Sugar
Read Leonard fan and Uh, I mean he's one of the all time greats
and just one of the greatest fighters in history of the sport. And having
had the opportunity to work with him as a as a broadcast colleague and to
get to know him a bit over the years. He's just you know,
he's a great guy. I'm a I'm a big fan of Ray personally as
well as professionally. But on that night, you know, he got his
ass kick. Basically, he got knocked down two times in the third round
and in the eleventh round. Uh, and they called it a draw.
I think Ray will be the you know, if you get him in a
in a in an honest moment, we'll admit, yeah, Tommy probably got
the better me that night. Um, but the reality is that that Ray
won when it when it not that that didn't count. All those four Kings
fights counted. They were all all big, they're all important, But the
big one was in nineteen eighty one when uh he did I take that back
in nineteen eight No, no, you're right. September September eighty one,
the first Leonard Hurts fight, when they were both welterweight champions for the undisputed
championship. Uh, Tommy was undefeated. You know, Ray just had the
one loss to Duran in their first fight, had won a few fights since
then. This was Leonard Hearns won one of the biggest fights in the history
of boxing, period and on that night, Ray stopped them around fourteen,
and it took them another eight years or seven years or so eight and a
half years to get a rematch. They finally did it. And remember the
first fight was that welter weight. The rematch was a super middleweight and uh,
you know Ray defended his title on that night. He retained it because
it was a draw. And that that's probably when you think about a TJ.
Of the nine fights between Leonard, Hearns, Duran and Haggler, the
only one that really ended with any controversy was that fight, because if you
take a look at all the other matches in the in the in the series,
there was no there's no controversy when Hagler knocks out Earns, there's no
controversy when Leonard knocks out her other than Haggler durand because Duran was competitive,
but I believe Hagler won that night. That wasn't Yeah, there was no
controversy. I mean, you know, nobody argued that THEIRS knocked Leonard down
twice and still get did not get the decision that night. Done just it's
amazing getting two knockdowns. It's not automatically when you win up close fight.
But in a close fight that should matter to help push you across, and
it did not matter that night. He still didn't get to this. I'm
gonna give you an example. On the night that Tyson Fury knocked down Deontay
wild I'm sorry, on the night that Deontay Wilder knocked down Tyson Fury twice
in their first fight, he got a draw also, and I agreed with
that because in my opinion of that first fight between Theory and fuck everybody that
says I'm a hater and that I'm wrong, because I defy, you know,
you take the the what everybody says that it was a close fight.
But I'm gonna tell you right now, the reason why Fury and Wilder was
not such a clear cut win for Fury is based on and I've talked to
other people that agree with me, it's the first four rounds is where the
difference is. Because yes, he got outboxed a lot in the last you
know, eight rounds of the fight other than the knockdown rounds, but those
first four rounds can definitely go either way there with that close but putting that
aside, in terms of Ray, Leonard and Tommy in the rematch, there
were no other controversial fights that Duran. Leonard was not controversial. Durand clearly
won the first fight, the second fight. The only quote unquote controversy was
because Duran quit. But it wasn't like and make him quit and win and
all. You know, you mentioned Haggler versus Durand was competitive, but nobody
said it was controversial. Leonard versus Durand three was a wipeout for Ray that
was not competitive at all. The only one where there was you know,
oh, oh, I guess I should. There was controversy in Leonard versus
Haggler, but this one was even more so because Leonard versus Haggler there was
a lot of people that thought that Leonard one myself and put it in.
There was plenty people to think that Marvin won. Plenty of people the thing,
and so that was very split. In terms of Leonard versus Hearns two,
pretty much everybody thought that win. So that's why I view it as
far more controversial than Leonard versus Haggler. And by the way, let's tie
it right back when the great fight. By the way, that's the other
thing it was, it lived up to it. It's if you were ranking
of the four King fights, it's probably like the third third of the nine
fights. Had you know you got Haggler Hearns, you got Leonard Hearns one,
you got Haggler Leonard. It's probably like the fourth best of the of
the nine but those that are in the Hearns camp. Though, the only
disappointment is is that Tommy Hearns had to wait eight years to get the rematch.
Because there's more than one person has pointed out, Ray Leonard got a
rematch with Roberto Duran like immediately, like what within four months, three or
four months they were back fighting again. He had to he had to wait
eight years for the opportunity and still didn't get the hand raised. And one
more note tying it back to the legendary Tim Ryan and Gil Plancy who were
always on the call of a lot of the Thomas Hearns early championship wins and
knockout wins on CBS. They eventually were broadcast partners with Ray Leonard on CBS.
Yes, a lot of people don't remember this, but Leonard would join
them from time to time, not every week, but he was there a
lot. Was on HBOS as a commentator in and around that far more than
some and HBO he was the permanent commentator from years, but I mean he
was not every week with Ryan and Clancy on those shows. He was maybe,
as I recollect there three or four times a year on CBS. But
one of the things that goes back into this is Ray wasn't as active,
maybe as a lot of other fighters would have been, because he was catching
big time checks. Much like rayheel catching big time checks from HBO and CBS
as a commentator. And that ties back to Tim Ryan and Gil Clancy and
I still love you do two going down the rabbit hole on YouTube and go
back and watch them. I mean, like, for example, we began
the podcast talking about Julio Caesar Chavez just real quick on the commentary of the
Mungia fight. You go back and watch Chavez's US debut in the championship fight
on Network TV. That is Tim Ryan, Gil Clancy and Sugar Ray Leonard
calling it on an afternoon on CBS against Roger Mayweather. And I've got a
hole and watched that, but that certainly wasn't chob is his debut and championship
fights, not championship fights, but on Network TV in the us on CBS
when he was introduced to the to the American audience. Ray Leonard's on the
call with them on CBS. I'm just very nostalgic with the broadcasters two on
that so great stuff all the way around. Man. We had a full
recap, excellent job with lots here. We got a regions program world title
fight later this weekend in New Orleans. We got Tim Zoo for the interim
WBO title. What is the update quick answer on the dog bite? Do
we know definitively he's all good to go as far as we know for fight
week here because by the time we released the podcast, it's Monday in Australia
already, so it's fight week for Zoo and Ocampo. Right by the way,
as we taped this podcast on side night, it's already Monday, and
that's correct. As I know, everything is one percent going forward to a
matter of fact, before we got on this Zoom call to tape this podcast,
I got like my second or third uh email blast from No Limit Boxing,
which is the promoter of Tim Zoo giving us the fight week schedule.
When the availabilities are uh you know the details on what the timing is for
when they're having their press conference, way In's photo ops, interviews all that.
So they're moving ahead like there's no uh, no problem. And they've
been promoting this. They they promoted it at the end of the Showbox on
Friday night to you know, on the showtime broadcast. So this is happening
and again and again. It is Sunday afternoon in Australia the Gold Coast Arena.
There again he's a prominent popular figure in Australia, and it's Saturday night
in the US that we'll see that Tim Zoo Campo fight. With all things
being equals, We got that later a week, my friend, great job
with all the fight recaps, the nostalgia about the Hall of Fame and the
other fights. Appreciate it as always, Dan Rayphael, thank you all right.
We'll look forward to uh previewing next week. Yes, and and by
the way, I've not mentioned this throughout the program. There was one of
us out of the two that had a female Lopez plus three fifty on a
decision prop on the bet US show. It was not you but better luck
next time. On that there was also somebody that is something like uh fourteen
and two in the last three weeks. I wanted to say fifty fights over
five hundred as well. I'm just helping on with your own record fifty fights
over five hundred on that, but I did give it was a good pick
on t fema. But uh as as I've said to before, you've been
a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while, and I have had
the blindfold on throughout our prognosticating days. That US show will be back on
Friday. Brother, have a good week. Thank you, Dan Ray feel
Man. I will talk to you. There is the one and only.
Follow him on his sub stack by preach Unite substack. Get more content on
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