The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, Tjwaves. Well, we are ready for another weekend.
It seems as though we've been on our roll with big time title fights
and marquee fight k bit coming. We love this as part of the Big
Fight We Can Preview podcast. I am the somewhat capable host Tjbreeves. He
is back in the Eastern time zone from Las Vegas. He is not Tom
Hanks in the movie The Terminal having to stay indefinitely in the airport or in
the MGM Grand He is Dan Rayhael, our insider Fight Freaks United is his
substack Bigfight Weekend dot Com, my friend. Good to have you back now.
Full disclosure, the world is off its access right now as it is
anyway, because you and I have already done the bet US Boxing preview show
earlier in the week, so you're screwed up on jet lag and time zones.
I'm screwed up that this is a sho coming after the usual Friday Live
bet Us show. We're gonna get it all straight though. It's good to
have you and we're ready to preview Lomachenko cambosas and everything else going on,
some news and some nostalgia. How are things? I know you're back.
I'm good. I have no idea what you're just talking about with the schedule.
I'm just ready to do the podcast. I know absolutely. I'm glad
that you're back. I'm glad that you got out of Vegas, out of
the hotel room. And I had more than one person that loved your line
that you're in the same hotel room as you were for the Mayweather de La
Jolla fights seventeen years ago. It had been a long weekend for you.
Thank you for finding us. I didn't mean that like literally this, but
it still worked. It still worked for a dig at yourself, by the
way, thank you for finding us, however you've done so. Social media
link Dan Substack his email newsletter. Thank you for finding us. Make sure
you're following, subscribing, Apple Spreakers, Spotify, radus, and review us
if you enjoy the content, like for example, you're gonna hear from Edgar
Berlanga coming up in a few minutes. Quick preview Dan Rayphiel. Guess who
he wants to fight next? Right? Come now? Loo? Yeah?
You know what? Well, no, and we can discuss I discussed this
with Edgar and we can discuss it a little later we get to that part
of the show. Why I think he's probably a good bet to get to
September fight against Canelo. And you know, as you'll hear, he was
there at the Canelo Mongia fight and tried to make his case. I mean,
you can agree your disagree s to get the fight, but I think
we can all agree if he does get the fight, it'll be a spicy
promotion. All right, there's a tease, nicely done. Again, thank
you for finding us as we head into the weekend and we are ready to
preview. Give you a little news and some nostalgia. All right. So
again I'm a little screwed up. We've already done this, but we're doing
it here for the podcast audience. Vasilli Lomachenko, George Cambosa's This is Sunday
afternoon, Perth, Australia. Top Rank and ESPN have it for Saturday night
in the United States, late night, Saturday night. And again, somebody
walks out of that ring barring a draw. God forbid that. I just
say that. Somebody walks out as the IBF lightweight champion, a belt that
both of them used to hold previously. So let's get right into it.
They've had the final press conference in Australia. Lomachenko obviously multi division world champ.
Cambos has had three of the belts before Devin Hainey beat him, not
once, but twice. This is in Australia, his home country. All
right, Dan pick it up from there. We're interested to see what happens
this weekend, Sunday afternoon in Australia, Saturday night, US time. Well,
I'll just briefly correct you. Lomachenko never actually held the IBF belt.
He was in a unification with Lopez Tiafimo to try to win that belt.
That was the belt that t Timo Lopez help when Lomachenko had the lightweight titles,
he held the WBA and the WBO and then obviously was not able to
and then the WBC franchise. Nonsense, but whatever. He didn't get a
chance to win the IBF bel because he lost that fight to Tafimo. So
if he wins the fight against Cambosis, he'll pick that up and he'll added
to his lovely collection of loss and lots of belsit he's won during the course
of his brilliant career. This is a fight that became available for them to
fight for this belt because when Devin Haney, who was the undisputed lightweight champion,
decided to go to one hundred and forty pounds and challenge Regi's program for
that belt last fall, obviously he gave up the lightweight belts. This is
one of those belts that became vacant, and so they're finally getting around to
filling the vacancy in Perth, Australia, where Cambosis is from Australia. I'll
obviously the fans rooting for him. The government in Western Australia wanted to bring
a big event of boxing event and this is one that they chose to bring
to try to drum up interest in tourism to their part of the country.
So they've got a big crowd there and you know, listen, they put
together a nice card. It's you know, it's at the end of the
earth in Perth, Australia, but for those of here in America and everywhere
else, you just pop on your TV or and you know, you can
watch it on ESPN Plus and just watch the show. But this is a
great opportunity for both of these guys because Lomachenko is desperately wanted to get another
title. He's coming off of a year layoff where he fought for the undisputed
title, including the opportunity to try to win this IBF belt when he fogged
Devin Hainey back May of last year. He lost the unanimous decision, but
I mean, we can all remember back that was a super close fight.
I scored that fight a draw. A lot of people thought that that Lomachenko
should have been the victor that night and had his hand raised and become the
undispeted lightweight champion. That's the one thing in his career that has sort of
eluded him. He's had unified titles, and he's won a bunch of belts,
and he's won in various weight classes. The one thing he's not done
is become an undisputed champion. So this would be the first step towards trying
to achieve that goal once again, to get into position to fight for that.
So he's traveling to the other guy's home country. Remember back when he
was supposed to fight, it was supposed to by Cambosis when Kimbosis had the
belts after beating Ta Fema Lopez, and it was because of the war in
Ukraine that he pulled out of that fight and said, I got to stay
home and I got to take care of some business with everything that's happening with
the war. And it was Devin Haney that raised his hand and stepped in
to take his place, and so he then fought Hany. Now he's getting
an opportunity to finally fight to Cambosis, but obviously it's not for as much
stakes because there was a lot more belts involved in them time it didn't happen,
but it is a fight that seems like it was sort of destined to
take place, and for Cambosis, it's another opportunity. I mean, he
got the you know, I've never seen a guy, maybe since Hassim Rockman
make more bigger fights and money off of one singular great win like Lenox Lewis
got knocked up by Rockman, and Rockman made a career for the next decade
of getting a lot of big money fights and opportunities and really never won another
big fight the rest of his career. George Cambosis if you go back to
twenty twenty one. At the end of the year, he defeated Tafimo Lopez
to pick up all the belts, and he's lost two fights in a row
to Devin Haney he barely won, and a lot of people thought he'd lost
against Maxi Hughes July of last year, and now he's back in another title
fight. I have a hard time seeing how it goes a lot different than
the hany fights. I think Lomachenko older, fair enough, but still a
SUPERB talent, does a lot of stuff, way more versatile, way more
experienced, just way better in my mind than George. And it's no knock
on George. I like Georgie and off a lot, nice guy, hard
worker, comes to fight. Can't argue with that. Not a knock on
him at all. But I just think that, you know, if t
Fimo Lopez is I mean, vasarily Lomachenko at his best, he's an A
plus talent. Now maybe he's an A minus talent given all this, the
wear and tear in the time off and everything. And I think George Cambosa
is at his absolute best was maybe like a B talent. So I still
feel like Lomachenko. You know, this is his fight to lose unless there's
some kind of, you know, freakish thing or there's an injury that we
don't know about. But I'm looking forward to seeing anytime Lomachenko gets in the
ring. You know, I'm watching the fight period. End of story.
And again for Cambosa's you just wonder does he have a big enough punch here
in this Again, he did drop Lopez in that twelve round decision win,
but he couldn't really touch Devin Haney over twenty four rounds, and there's always
been a question He's not a big knockout guy, so does he have a
enough punch? So he also got knocked down by TFMO Lopez in that in
that victory, and like you said, he's only got ten knockouts in twenty
one wins. And the reality is when you look at the fights he's faced
the best guys, he's not knocking any of those guys. If you take
a look at his record, the best guys he fought, in no particular
order are Mickey Bay, who had a title for a minute, went to
distance, Lee Selby, former featherweight champion, went to distance, Tifi Mo
Lopez went to distance despite them trading knockdowns. Devin Haney goes to distance twice.
Maxi Hughes went to distance. He's lucky to get out of there with
a win. So, no, he's not a big knockout puncher. And
Lomachenko was a devastating puncher as a featherweight a little more so, you know,
and similarly equal at one hundred and thirty pounds, not necessarily a big
knockout guy at one thirty five. Where if you take a look at the
record other than the fight where he you know, he lost to TVMO,
but he you know, he that was a distance fight distance with Lou Campbell
knocked out Knakatani. That was a that was a great performance. Actually went
to distance with Richard Komey, whose chin has kind of been suspect. Went
to distance with Jermaine Ortiz, went to distance with Devin Haney. I mean
these are his lightweight fights. Did stop Anthony Krola, You got to go
back back twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, he was stopping some guys. You
know, had the great knockout against Rhelinaris. But he's a good puncher,
you know, he's got eleven knockouts, but he's in seventeen wins, but
he's knocked out some quality guys. So if there's a power advantage in this
fight, it goes Alomachenko, probably so. And again we handicapped a bunch.
Another mention, go check out the US Boxing Show for what our handicapping
feelings are. There's little teas for that. And again this is late night,
Saturday night in the United States, Sunday afternoon in Australia in Perth,
Australia, Western Australia, remote location there. But again they put the money
up and they've got those title fights also on that card. Andrew Maloney,
one of the Maloney twins, is now going for another world title, trying
to in this case, win the vacant WBC Interim Junior banhamweight titles. If
that's not enough to reconcile. Pedro Guivara is the Mexican opponent. Now.
Interesting that since we were last here on the Recap podcast, his brother Jason
Maloney was beaten in a bandamweight ty fight by Takai of Japan in a big
time fight. We're going to talk a little more about that here in a
few moments but now the brother gets a chance in the same well, I
mean doesn't count. It's the same week. It's Sunday in Australia. Five
days later, the brother, Andrew Maloney, has a chance to win the
vacant interim title. Guivara a veteran Mexican. He's been in with a couple
of big time fighters. Maloney has been in some world title fights. Give
me a quick preview here of what else we're going to see. Yeah,
I mean, Wouvara held this title a decade ago, and he's a good
fighter, and as I've looked at his record, and I watched his fight
where he went basically straight up with Carlos Squadros to try to win this interim
title back at the end of last year. That was a fight that was
part of the WBC's convention. It was a split decision. It really could
have gone either way. It was super close fight, good fight, really
exciting fight. He's fought as heavy as in the bantamweight division, and he's
now going to be fighting I think where he's much more natural, let's say,
at one hundred and fifteen pounds in the junior bantamweight division. But when
he held the title. You know, he was a pretty good fighter.
I mean he had wins over guys like as an example, this is back
in a junior flyweight top of fight. One of my favorite Japanese fighters ever
all action. I call him like the Japanese Daddie. But he won a
bunch of titles and was in some great fights. Akiri a Geishi, for
example, he has a knockout victory against him. He's got to win over
like Gan again, Lopez that had a world championship. So in his day
at his best, you know, quite a while ago, he was very,
very good. But again he's had a little bit of a resurgence.
I mean he went really close in a title fight where he lost majority against
Taraji, who's emerged as probably the best one hundred eight pounder in the world
in the last few years. So this is not like a walkover kind of
fights. It's a tough fight in my opinion. For you know, Andrew
Maloney, who's not ever achieved anything significant. He's been in some higher profile
fights and had opportunities that had the Wacky trilogy with Joshua Franco. But when
you go straight up essentially with Carlos Quadras who's still a very solid fighter in
that weight class and has been in with everybody, you know, including the
great rivalry fights with Chocolatito and with One Francisco Estrada and Sir rungby side.
That's the reason, by the way, why this title is is available because
when he fought Quadras and Quadras won the interim title. Because of the layoff
that One Francisco Estrada had had Quadras, you know, won the belt,
Quadras is injured and so he's no longer the interim champion. So they've allowed
Wavara based on how close that fight was to fight Maloney was high up in
their rankings. Down Maloney, you know, like you mentioned, he doesn't
want to embarrass the family name because his brother got licked in Japan lost the
title, and you know, he's also still I kind of on the comeback
because as we recall, in May of last year, he was on the
bad end of one of the most hilatious, brutal, horrible knockouts I've ever
seen against Nakatani from Japan and challenging for the vacant Wo Junior Vandamway title,
and that was just as bad a brutal and and he got beat up throughout
the fight. Then he finally and it will be one thing if he took
the knockout in round one, But when you take eleven and a half rounds
of punishment and then get absolutely drilled in the final few seconds of the fight,
uh, you know, it's it's that's a devastating situation. Was scaristically,
it was mentally yeah, it was scary. But he's bounced back and
won a fight since then, and so now here's another opportunity for him.
But I still question how how much has he put that behind him. And
it's not like he's going in the ring with a with a no good fighter.
He's going in with a very reputable experience, solid pro who's been at
the top, who's looked good in recent fights. You know, this is
like a talk. I mean, I kind of guess. I mean to
Maloney with the hometown advantage and have him put the knockout behind him. I
think with that victory that he had in December, But you never know.
And Guivara is not a joke. So crazy shit happens in boxing matches.
So there's no outcome in this fight that would shock me, to be quite
honest with you. There's another phrase for a bumper sticker from Dan Rayfield.
Uh here, what was my phrase? You said, crazy shit happens in
boxing, right, a bumper sticker. Put it on a bumper sticker and
we'll say, we'll see what happens for those two bouts. There should be
a good fight though, yes, and Maloney is a good fight and Maloney
is tough. Both the brothers are tough, and let's see, let's see
what happens there. Again. The coverage in the United States is ESPN and
Top Rank from Australia Sunday afternoon in Perth and uh and Saturday night in the
US again. One other fight by the way, and again we handicap this
more. If you want I'm pushing you again, go to the bet US
Boxing show their platforms, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, et cetera. Jessica
McCaskill will fight Lauren Price Saturday afternoon US time. That is coming on Sky
Sports in the UK, Peacock in the US, Cardiff, Wales. Price
is hometown, she's the former Olympian. We make mention of that in the
preview mode. Go watch more of our handicapping. I'm pushing you peeps,
to the bet US show because we give you the breakdown McCaskill's older Price on
the rise. Dan and I have lots of thoughts and make handicapping predictions on
that fight, so I didn't want to leave that off the preview. Here
we've done our duty and told you that fight is Saturday afternoon in US time,
Saturday night primetime in Cardiff, Wales, where Price is from. She's
Welsh, she's from, so we give you that. All right. As
we go along in the chronology, let's hear from Edgar Berlanga. You spoke
with him earlier in the week. Berlanga obviously super middleweight contender, been on
the rise now with Mattroom Boxing now would very much like to get in the
mix against Canelo Albarez. How realistic is that, Dan Rayfield talking with him
earlier in the week on that subject and more. Let's get to that conversation
right now. Well, it is my pleasure to bring into the podcast this
week. Soboy who has been on with us before, but we got something
to talk about it is one Edgar Berlanga, the undefeated super middleweight contender.
Edgar, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?
My friend, I'm good. I'm good for everything is good. So I
think it's pretty obvious you don't have a fight coming up, but I know
you hope to have a fight coming up. You were in Vegas, uh,
last Saturday to check out Canelo Alvarez, a lot of conversation that maybe
Edgar Bilink is gonna get the next opportunity to challenge the undisputed super mid away
champion. I know you are a ringside. Uh, just to start off
with that, just give me your impressions of watching Canelo do what he did
in dismantling and winning a very clear decision against himI Mungia and what was a
very exciting fight. He actually surprised me. I thought, I thought that,
you know, if he wasn't gonna knock him out, that he was
in that being in deep waters, you know, because of some effect that
you know, Mungia is a guy that he just has great conditioning and he
throws a lot of punches, you know, so I thought that will probably
like wear it to him down throughout the rounds, you know, sort of
like what BiVO did to him, you know, But obviously that wasn't the
case. You know, obviously Bibo is a much different fight event than Mugia.
You know, Bivol was a guy that moved in and out and do
a lot of punches, you know. Mogia was you know, I feel
like he just fights one way, but kind of looked definitely surprised me.
You know, he dropped him. I thought he was gonna get him out
of the arrogory. But he you know, I feel like he couldn't.
You know, I don't know, I feel like he couldn't. I feel
like if he did puss the break, like you know, at the gas
on him, I think he would have took him out. I mean,
you tell me what you think about this. My thought was maybe that because
they had so much respect for each other going into the fight, and that
Canelo had made a big thing about how he wasn't really that interested in fighting
a Mexican opponent, but he would do it, that he was sort of
I thought maybe carrying him a little bit and not embarrass him, especially at
I think that I think, I think, I think, I don't think
that. I don't think, you know, we fight us, you know,
after the day. I don't feel like any fighter would carry somebody,
you know, I think that at that level is either killed or be killed,
you know, at that point, you know what I'm saying, And
after the fight they could be buddy buddies, you know. But I don't
think he was carrying him at all. I heard that from a couple of
people that they felt that that way too, that he was part of that
carry him. But I don't think so. In the first few rounds when
Mangia was having really good success where the judges were giving him credit and he
was out to see, uh, maybe giving Canelo some problems with his jab
and just you know, the fight's just starting. Did you feel like maybe
as you watched those first three rounds prior to the knockdown unfold, that maybe
that Canelo was in some trouble that night. Yeah, I'm in a lot.
I thought it was gonna be a long night for him. Concept fuck.
I was like, Damn, I think it's going to be a long
knife for this guy. Because I was like, damn, He's throwing a
lot of punches and you know, Canelo wasn't moving his head, so I'm
like, damn, Like he's a veteran, he's supposed to be like moving
or getting out about it, and you know what I'm saying, And he's
still right there. Just I feel like like he was taking punches, you
know, like a lot. So we know we know that you. Yeah,
we know that you want to fight him. Obviously, you've been saying
that. I've heard you say, You've said it on other interviews. You
obviously showed up to be at the fight. What you saw from Canelo does
it? Did it make you think to yourself, like, you know your
game that I Edgar Berlanga may not have the experienced level of Ahima Mangia,
but I can. I can beat this guys, of course. And I
got the experience. You know what I'm saying. I do got the experience.
I know with me. The difference to me that my IQ, you
know, it goes up once I stepping up, once I step once I
stepped once I stepped in in the ring with somebody at that level. You
know. I've been boxing for twenty years, you know what I'm saying,
So it's not like I started when I was seventeen years old or fifteen years
old. You know what I'm saying. I've been box since I was six
years old, you know, and there's nothing new to me. You know
what I'm saying. I feel like it's a stepping so for me to become
great. You know, I got the opportunity, uh you know, hopefully
we get the opportunity to you know, so I could become a legend.
You know, I could be the first Puerto Rican superstar, you know Understudd
male male champion representing Puerto Rico. And that's I'm gonna be said down with.
You know, after I'm done with boxing, I to be there with
with trinid Dan and Cooto, with photo Benita as Machako Mantotor and the lisk
goes on. You know, my last name. I wanted to be legendary,
and that's something that I'm chasing, you know, is uh is you
know, it's it's success, you know, and just chasing legacy. So
so if this were like a job interview, Let's say and I said,
you know, Edgar, you're applying for this job as the next challenger for
Canelo Alvarez. In a brief amount of time, give me your sales pitch
why you should be the next challenger for Canelo Alvarez's titles. It's not more
to just say, but the only thing I can say is that. You
know, it's Mexico versus Puerto Rico. I'm the biggest thing right now coming
out of Puerto Rico. You know, I'm a I'm I sell tickets,
I got the celebrities behind me, I got the whole world bomba. So
it's like and not just Puerto Ricans. You know, you see on the
internet, I'm booming on that right now. The Mexican fans are loving me.
You know, people want this fight. You know a lot of people
can't go off to social media, but going on what's going on in real
life. You know, y'all seeing the type of love I've been getting in
Vegas, you know, the whole fight with me being out there. You
know, people want this fight. This fight is gonna sell. This fight
is gonna be one of the biggest fights and it's going to go down in
history on the sport of box in Mexico versus Puerto Rico. You know,
you got a superstar Mexican fight and you got a superstar Puerto Rican fighter.
Yeah. I don't have a title, but that doesn't matter at this At
this pointed, something in the boxing world is about if you can fight and
if you can sell tickets. You gee, what I'm saying one thing about
that you don't have a title because he's got all the titles in the weight
class. That's the point, there is no Yeah. So it's like I
couldn't fight, we couldn't fight for the title for the last three four years,
because I think that's how long it's been holding them. You know,
Well, I wanted to You brought up a very good point though. I
actually was interested to hear because I saw some of the clips of you being
like surrounded by the fans. You know, when when you're in a boxing
event that's as big as a Canelo fight, obviously there's boxing fans from all
over. So when you were interacting with those folks at the MGM or even
on fight night at the Timobile Arena, did you were these fans were the
Mexican fans that you were interacting with, and we're showing they were all Mexicans,
all Mexicans, And what were they saying to you about that? It
was saying there was actually saying that they want me to beat on alone and
that they're going for me. I'm like, you believe them? That's crazy
a thought of a set because I've already had that before, like a couple
of years, like point, but Canelo for Caleb playing. When I walked
in and the arena, they were screaming because you know, I got you
know, through the grapevine, I heard that a lot of Mexican fans don't
like Canelo, and I don't know why, you know what I'm saying,
I don't know why. I think the guy's a great dude. You know,
he represented Mexico, But you know how these guys are. I got
Puerto Rican fans that probably are going for Canelo. I don't know. But
you know that's just the matter. You know, that's just that's just what
it is. You know, it's just squarter boxing. All I can say
is that I'm a big job when it comes to, you know, me
fighting Canelo. You know, I know we're gonna we're gonna shock the world,
and I know it's gonna be something amazing for the squorter box. So
my impression is that, well, I know how much you want to fight,
you don't come at it from the point of view of animosity towards Canlo,
that you respect him, you admire him, You just want the opportunity
to fight him. Oh, of course. You know, he's somebody that
I looked up to since turn It. Bro. You know, he's Latino,
you know what I'm saying. And there's never been no animosity to him.
Obviously, I've seen him at the wayn I've seen his brother, you
know, his older brother and his brother. His older brother showed me mad
love. You know. His older brother was like that. He was a
big, big, big big fan of mine, you know. And one
of his peoples that was in the scene showed me mad love. You know.
So at the end of the day, there's no animosity, bro,
like that all I do all you know what I'm saying, this is his
boxing and a legacy, and obviously you know we're gonna collect the bag.
We're gonna make a lot of money. He's gonna make a lot of money
with me. You know, people think that all of that I'm gonna make.
No, he's gonna make a lot of money with me as well,
because from I gotta hire them. MOhm me. I got the whole Puerto
Rico. That's gonna be support, you know, and was better than in
boxing to two countries going up against each other. Well, I look at
his record and at least from the time where he became like a known tighter
in America. I no, can't speak for all of those early fights,
but he's fought three prominent fights against Puerto Ricans. The first time he fought
on a major stage in America, he knocked out Jose Miguel Cota, the
older brother of Miguel, but he got badly hurt in that fight. That
was in twenty ten. In twenty eleven he knocked out for mit Cintron in
the fifth round, and then obviously in twenty fifteen he had the Big Bega
fight where he defeated by decision Miguel Quota, one of the greatest Puerto Rican
fighters of all time. So he hasn't fought that any Puerto Ricans. So
tell me what you think about this. If edginar berlang is sitting there,
maybe wants to fight Edgar Berlanga next because he just got finished beating up on
the Mexican and he really didn't want to do it. So now what's better
to go from that to fight in Puerto Rican? Yeah, exactly, you
know, And I got to get back from my from my from my Puerto
Rican brothers for that, you know, right, now a party Quota and
the Puerto Rican assassin, like when I when I call myself the Irish assassin
also, right, you know, it comes with the sports. He was
saying he put Quota when Quota was old, you know, so Quota was
the Quota was still the champion though at that time. Yeah, but Quota
wasn't Quoto. What I'm saying, he didn't catch Quota when Quota was was
young in fresh So when I examined the weight class, and I think to
myself, and I do this very analytically, not with a matter of bias,
who's going to get the fight with Canelo? Tell me what you think
about this? I look at I say he you know, he's probably not
gonna fight Jamal charl He didn't want that in the first place, because everybody
knew it wouldn't sell on pay per view and because of how badly his brother
did in all that business. And now Jamal just got arrested, you know,
and he's got his own issues to deal with. He's not fighting Errol
Spence, which was a possibility because of what happened in Errol's last fight,
and he's out out of the picture. Even if he does go forward and
eventually there's a big fight with Terrence Bafflin. It certainly can't happen in September
because Terrence's scheduled for August. And if you keep on going down the list,
he got a great contender like Christian Mobility, but he's not known that
Edburg Berlin is. There's no need for a Heimi Mongi a rematch. You
obviously are the mandatory in the WBO, not that that's the only reason you're
available. Presumably you fit the budget for what they pay for Canelo opponents.
It is Mexico Puerto Rico. Like you said, you're gonna talk a lot
of shit. How am I doing? What do you think about my point
here? That that's why I think you get the next fight? Yeah,
of course he sho is gone. The way he's talking, you already know
it. Where is it going? And you know the fans and the hat
is are you know with with with this going? You know what I'm saying,
Uh, it's just about us, you know, just making the right
you know, the right play. You know, obviously, negotiations you know
hopefully should be starting soon. You know, he's not I know he's not
fighting Benavidez. I know he's not you know what you just said with Crawford.
You know, so the only one has on on the list is me.
Well, the reason I didn't even I didn't even bring up Benavide's or
David Morrell because they've both made their point that they've exited the way class for
the time being. Yeah, exactly, and then they moved up to him
seventy five. He's fighting June. You know, I think Morel's flying June
or we're not, you know what I'm saying. And nobody's really focusing on
Morell. You know, Morel's out there and Vegas getting drunk, trying to
make a play happen. You know, so and so have their to your
knowledge, has there I know the fight with Canelo and Mogie just happened,
But behind your scenes there's always the business people trying to plan the next event.
To your knowledge, has there been any at least contact, let's say,
made between team Berlanga and team Canelos. I'm gonna keep that on a
little, but just know that we were so for sure. You know,
I don't want to really like toning out there. Yeah, you know,
I got it, So, you know, make sure that you know he's
gives to go, but yeah, more likely. Yeah, just just you
know, people just gotta stay pacient, you know, and just get ready
for the big news. So I will then I'll wrap it up with this,
Edgar in your mind, what do you think are the odds let's say
that you get this fight. Is it fifty to fifty? Is it better
than fifty to fifty? What do you mean, like as out of one
hundred, Yeah, that they'll actually select you and make a deal for you
to be the challenger for the next match, which obviously he's gonna want to
be fighting on the September Mexican Independence Day holiday. It probably like ninety percent.
You really think that strongly? Yeah, I guess we're gonna find out
and then not too just in the future. Yes, yes, yes,
and whatever happens if it does, if you do get the fight, I'm
pretty uh sure it'll be in a fun filled, exciting week because of like
you said, all the hoopla that will go on with any kind of Mexico
Puerto Rico well championship is going to be entertaining fight. You know, we're
gonna definitely you know, obviously he got he got bulls of a line.
I got bulls of a line too, you know. So, and I'm
Puerto Rican. You know, I got that Puerto Rican blood of me.
So I'm coming to fight. I know he's coming to fight. Yeah,
he's a legend, you know what I'm saying. So you know it's sounds
for me to make my mark, you know, and and go down as
one of the greatest Puerto Rican fighters to have a you know, to have
a step in the in the ring. Well, I guess, like I
said, we're gonna find out pretty soon, Edgar. As always, I
appreciate your time and I wish you good luck with everything. Thank you brother.
All right, again, we don't know what Canelo Alvarez is going to
do for sure, but Edgar Berlanga, for a lot of the reasons you've
laid out in advance and even in the conversation there, it makes sense.
Then again, it's boxing, and things that makes sense don't happen all the
time. But put a put a bow on that whole situation. I would
say that unless there's some massive like offer, let's say, from the Saudi's
to try to do, say Canelo, if Crawford wins in August and instead
of Canelo fighting, it's the huge money is there for fight at the end
of the year, some kind of uh scenario that could potentially take place but
not is something that is is you can definitely see happening that if he's going
to stick to the regular schedule and fight as he did on Synco Demayo and
then follow up with the Mexican Independence Day weekend in September. If you look
down the list of available because we can't like just take you know, we
can't make Joe Calzaggi materialize the challenging for the title or some other great super
middleweight. You know, we can't have like the prime Roy Jones come back,
not a boxing video game exactly, we can't create. So you have
to deal with the fighters who are there in the weight class and who are
available and willing and interested in in in fighting, and the price and the
money has to make sense. Yes, yeah, I mean for sure.
So if and again, as I explained, I'll go through it just very
quickly. If you if you based on the fact that he doesn't want to
fight Benavite's unless there's some crazy, crazy offer, and then Benavitez is now
fighting at least in June in the Soup in the light heavyweight division, as
is David Morrell. So there's out of the picture. It would seem for
September, and you run down the list the Jamal Charlotte fight for a lot
of reasons, it ain't happening. I don't think we're going to get to
that in a minute. Yep. There is no Aero Spence fight. Even
if the Crawford fight could happen, it would be in September because Paris is
fighting on August third, So that's a non starter for September date. And
he can just keep on going down the group of guys. I mean,
is he gonna ask to fight, say, for example, Christian and Billy,
an outstanding contender but totally unknown doesn't bring a lot to the table,
name wise, right, Or do you go with the mouthy Puerto Rican who's
a guy that can sell a fight that is your mandatory? Not that that's
why Canelo makes fights that it kind of makes sense. You know. Berlanga
was respectful in the interview that I did with him. He spoke, well,
you know, people know his name, yep. You know. I
also feel like he's coming off of a beatdown of a fellow Mexican, a
guy that he never really wanted to fight a Mexican. So what better way
to make him feel better than they go be up at Puerto Rican because the
Mexico Puerto Rico thing goes back forty to fifty years here in boxing, and
you would have that angle. So I just think, I just think that
if everything sticks to like a normal situation, which again it's boxing, you
never know that it that for a lot of different reasons, it seems logical
to think that that would be the probable fight. Maybe I'll be wrong,
but if you can come up with a better name under a better scenario,
you let me know. Stay tuned. But good stuff there with Edgar Berlanga
is why you gotta be with us on the podcast feed. Be following and
subscribing. Okay, So in the kind of in between region of our recap
podcast Sunday Night and now this preview podcast the Monday Night in Japan Monday Morning
world title fight with the Monster Naola in a way happened in his knockout of
Luisnari, but not without drama. Holy cow, a big left hand from
Luisnary shook the Monster knocked him down, had him in some trouble. But
then, like like champions have demonstrated in the past, now let's see what
you're made of. Well, we saw what in a way was made of
for the rest of that fight in the Tokyo Dome. So let's let's just
go back in the recap mode before we get to the news. I know
we talked about this on the bet Us show, but for our audience here,
let's recap it because it's still fresh. What the Monster was able to
do go ahead, Well, what the Monster was able to do was overcome
the first knockdown of his career. That was a pretty hard knockdown by Louis
Near. He who hurts clearly. Oh yeah, you know. Near's best
attribute is his punching power. I mean he's always been a good puncher,
and he's a he's a real guy. I mean, he was a champion
in one hundred and twenty two. He's a champion at one hundred and eighteen.
He's fought a lot of quality guys only had the one loss coming into
the fight. I mean, no joke, I mean real fight. I
mean public enemy number one, as we talked about in the preview because of
his exploits and failing to make weight and having a positive drug test in previous
fights in Japan that ended up getting him a lifetime band, which obviously was
lifted in terms of the negotiations to try to make this matchup with in a
way where you know, in the the spectacle of this, forget about the
matchup was but the spectacle of having his fight at the Tokyo Dome. The
only, the only other match that ever took place here in terms of boxing
was the very famous, maybe the most famous upset in the history of sports
are boxing anyway, when Iron Mike Tyson got knocked out by Busser Douglason lost
the undisputed championship in the heavyweight division. So this was like a huge deal
and near he was talking the ship before the fight, if that if Mike
Tyson can lose his undefeated record at the Tokyo Dome, then certainly so can
Noia in a way and boom, you know, a minute and a half
or two minutes into the first round, it looked like he might fulfill the
prophecy, but with a heart of a lion and a championship mentality, and
in the ability that this man has in a way, got up off the
deck and came back and got back into the fight, scored a knockdown in
round two and at that point basically took over the fight and scored another knockdown
later in the fight, and then Boom goes to dynamite and landed another massive
shot that that knocked him out, not cold, but clearly not in any
position to continue, you know, just crushing knockout. And that's just what
inn away does. I mean. Now guy goes to twenty seven and oh
with twenty four knockouts. What's his record now? Twenty two and oher in
world title fights? Right, I mean, the guy's been a champions fifteen
of the last seventeen or KOs. While we were talking earlier in the podcast
about who knots who out, this guy knocks virtually everybody out. Dan.
He's such a spectacular fighter, Like I don't think that people appreciate it now
here us diehards in America, you know, we're happy to wake up at
some crazy early hour on a Monday or a Tuesday, you know when these
fights typically take place. This one was on a Monday, and uh and
watch it's almost like a communal thing, like it's a secret. Like we
go with our little boxing group on Twitter, all these different people and we're
all like watching in a way fight at this whack yeah, or like you
know, you take a role call who was watching at four in the morning
or five in the morning when the card started. That's right, you know,
I kind of I find that fun. We've talked many times on the
show TJ about my my devotion and love for these Japanese title cards, and
when in a Way is in the main event and it's a beautiful thing.
I'm just glad that whatever happens, I mean, I may never get an
opportun to see an in AWE fight in person in Tokyo, but at least
I can say that I saw this man fight live when he fought in California
in his American debut several years ago. He's fighting all the top guys in
his division. Near He was a top quality, legit contender, former champ.
He knocked out to Paulus who had a unified title. He knocked out
Stephen Fulton, who had the unified title. He beat Paul Butler, who
had a title when he became undisputed at Bandonwait, he knocked out Noniedo Dunair
in the rematch, which was a unification fight. Nonito had the WBC title.
I mean, you got to go back a little ways. He had
those two fights in twenty one which were not against top names, which were
fights one in America and one that was in Japan where you know he fought
maybe a little bit of a lesser guy. But then go back before that,
he fought Jason Maloney, Yeah, was a guy he just talking about,
knocked him out. Before that was the first fight against Doniedo Dunair,
which was the fight of the year in twenty nineteen. That went the distance,
but it was a great, great fight. That's the only fight that's
gone the distance like in the last seven years. And by the way,
before that, when he was in the World Boxing Super Series, he knocked
out Emanuel Arrigez in a world title fight and took his title. He knocked
out one Carlos Payano. It took his world title. He knocked out or
that was a title defense, I should say, knocked out Jamie McDonald.
That was that was where he took a world title. The dude's been just
killing everybody. Yep. It's just and I can't express this to you enough.
He's gonna go down as the greatest Japanese fighter in the history of boxing.
And there's a lot of great fighters that come out of Japan. Yoko
Gushikin, for example, There's some great fighters from Japan. It's they've got
such a great boxing culture. Boxing in Japan right now is at such a
high with so many top level fighters in a way obviously leading the pack.
But he's gonna go down as as the greatest Japanese fighter. I'm not gonna
sit here and tell you he's gonna go down as the greatest Asian fighter ever,
because I'd still say to you that Manny Pakyo is better than him in
terms of the overall accomplishment and the things he did, and obviously being Filipino
puts him in the Asian category as well. All I'm saying though, is
in a way, you know, you talk about it a great fighter currently
people like to talk about generational talent. He's that. I would submit to
you that if you made a list of the top I've said this before,
take the top one hundred fighters in boxing history. You know, I have
Burt Sugar, my dear departed friend Burt Sugar once wrote a book of the
top one hundred boxers. Obviously, it's a number of years ago, and
some of the guys might drop out compare, you know, with others from
this more current era would go in. But I would tell you that if
you were looking around today, you would list a handful of fighters that are
active currently that would be in the top one hundred of all time. And
in a way, is one of those guys. It's in a way,
it's uh, it's Canelo Alvarez, you know those types of fighters. It's
maybe Crawford. But that's what I'm talking about. He's in Fury depending on
what happens coming up. I don't I don't agree with that. I'm not
putting if he ends up becoming undisputed, I don't care. Okay, you
can say you don't care, but I'm saying there's an argument. There's an
argument. This is my top hundred. I'm not putting Fury until he does
a lot more than Beatos. That's fine, that's fair. I'm making a
point though, that whoever you put in Fury, or whoever in a way
is on that list, he's all ready his accomplishment, and what he's done
is already merits one hundred top hundred inclusion. And by the way, he
brings a crowd forty four thousand Salau crowd, scores, knockouts, dominates,
what more drawn right now? And I understand, Look, we're not going
to go down the rabbit hole for five more minutes because you and I agree.
He does not have to come to the United States to make millions and
millions of dollars. And oh, by the way, he fought a prominent
US Unified champion in Stephen Fulton and dominated him and knocked him out. So
whether he did that in Japan, or he did that in Las Vegas,
or he did it on Pluto, it doesn't matter. By the way,
let me just say to this, Chase Rookie has fought three times in the
United States. YEP. When he defeated Atmanuel Rodriguez for the IBF title,
that fight was in Scotland because it was part of the World Boxing Super Series.
So he has fought in other countries. He's not not opposed to fighting
in other countries. He said that. He said, if there's a fight
that makes sense or that's of interest to me, for you know, whatever
reason, I'm happy to go wherever I need to go. There's not a
single opponent in the United Slis States of America that he could fight that would
be even remotely close to the level of event that he can do in Japan
against whoever. So the people that say he has to come here are people
that either are jealous, don't really follow the smaller weight classes, are just
totally American centric. I mean, I'm American, I'm a patron. I
love America. I don't think that in a way has to come here to
prove anything. At this point, he is what he is. It's a
worldwide sport, and he fights, and we should and we should great box
and culture. We should thoroughly enjoy the fact that he is still actively chaoing
everybody and fighting a couple of times every year. I'd love to see him
fight three times in a year, but we get him a couple of times
every year. And there it was again, and that was a true test.
I mean that moment. Go back and look at it again. When
the bell rings to start the second round, he took a huge uh inhale
breath, like here we go because he didn't know what was coming next after
the knockdown, and I thought it was interesting too, and then we'll move
on. He said after the fight he did not really remember a lot of
the fight after that, like he was almost concussed adrenaline whatever. He got
asked, what did your father say in between rounds after the first round,
he said, I don't really know what he said. And then he got
asked, tell me about what you did differently as the fight went on,
and he said, I don't really remember. I think he was more than
buzzed and hurt and adrenaline is going et cetera. But that was a true
test and sure and it was he passed it. It was good. It
was a good day for the Innawa family because on that undercard his brother Takuma
in away who won the vacant WBA title and the bantamweight division. When when
Noya in a way moved up and waited and vacated the undispeated title, he
scored a really nice win against show Ishida. He also got knocked down in
the fight, but rose from the canvas to score a fairly one sided victory.
It didn't get a knockout, obviously, but he went the distance,
so it was a very loaded card. We talked about how Yoshiki Takai,
the Japanese undefeated kickboxer about at eight to zero as a professional boxer, uh
fought Jayson Maloney and took away the w w B Obantamway title. You know,
we gotta love Jason Molney though. This is a guy that just gives
everything every time. And Andrew does the same thing in the ring. Both
these he almost had to kay out in the twelfth round. Maybe another twenty
thirty second him, he might have retained the title, but to k you
know, emerges. You also had the Akoui, the flyweight champion of the
WBA. He scored a decision victory. This was just a loaded card for
Japanese boxing. It shows you the depth of what they have there when you're
talking about the two Naa brothers, these other champions. I just mentioned the
guys like Taraji who aren't even on this card. Just it's like a it's
a golden age right now for Japanese boxing in a way leading the way,
and there is no question it was a memorable night for those fights that built
up to it, and for that main event and the drama and the crowd
roaring in the Tokyo Dome. I realize it was early in the morning in
the US, but go back and relive that if you can, wherever you
can relive that, because it was quite a battley. ESPN plus still has
it archive, as it turns out. So he gave you some good conversation
on that, all right, some other news, and then some nostalgia.
Hey, look at what has happened, all right? Not surprisingly, unfortunately,
Jamal Charlo in trouble again. I didn't realize until earlier today. This
is the second time he's been arrested in the last four or five weeks.
He was arrested again on another like domestic violence situation or assault situation in April
that kind of went under the radar. It was like endangering a child's welfare
or something, whatever it was. And now we have a DUI with damage
where he leaves the scene of a wrecked vehicle that he hit and is chased
down by the Perlin, Texas Authority suburb of Houston. Arrested on DUI twice
the legal limit, and so Jamal Charlow bonded out of jail. More legal
troubles. We've well documented on this podcast. These troubles, I have said,
over and over again, when is the WBC going to do the right
thing? Will finally this force their hand once and for all They've done the
right thing. That night, the night that all of this got out,
at midnight, they're put this statement that, hey, we've come to the
conclusion that we're going to elevate Carlos a Damas, which again should have happened
long ago. And now Charlo I understood that statement. Charlo's not even the
champion in recess. I don't know that's it. No tripped period the end,
so forms for a damis a long time coming. It just coincidentally.
I mean, I guess he should have been elevated a long time ago.
But if you're going to wait to get elevated, might as well have it
happen on your thirtieth birthday, which is what happened in terms of when he
was elevated. Yes, so you know, look, did the WBC ultimately
do the right thing? Yeah, but it was sort of like they had
no choice. They should have done this a year and a half ago or
a longer ago. Agree, And I'm not one that wants to see people
get stripped, but it gets to a point where you're like, dude's not
fighting. Even when Charlo came back and fought in his last fight, he
didn't even defend the title. He fought in a fight that was contracted at
like what one hundred and sixty three. I believe he waged in over one
sixty six, so he couldn't even make the limit for the con which was
already three plowns over the division in which he held the title, clearly having
no respect for his opponent, having no regard for his title at all,
you know, never said afterwards what he was even going to come back to
the way class, you know, And they still there's still those rumors that
kick around about how he's going to be the next opponent for Canelo. And
I will tell you that that that is such a doa fight then on arrival
as a pay review, I can't. Canello even said when he was asked
about fighting Mangia that one of the reasons was that the original plan he acknowledged
that it was a Jamal Charlot fight, but that everybody hated it. The
media hated it, the fans hated that Holm was no good. So he's
like, I don't want to do that kind of fight if nobody really wants
to see it. You know, you can quarrel about Mangia over Benavide's and
that sort of thing. But I mean, nobody was unhappy he was fighting
Mongia. That was going to be a good fight, and it was proven
that it was a good fight. But I don't think anything has changed in
case of Charlotte except made it worse, because now it's just going to be
another set of months off, another set of legal problems, another issue in
terms of legality, drinking and problems like that. I mean, so I
just don't think he's got a prayer to get the Canelo fight at this point.
Oh, it's never happen. That's not happening anytime. No, it's
not happened. Let me tell you. Because of the fact that Jamal the
fifty four pounder who fought Canelo at SUPERMANO eight, and Jamal the one sixty
pounder who just got stripped, they're twins, and they both had all kinds
of problems TJ. I gotta be honest, I I can't keep them straight
right now. I can't remember who had which problem, because they've both been
arrested, charged this that. I mean, it's just they're in meltdown mode,
and I feel bad for Jamal. I don't think he's a bad guy.
I think he's got a lot of problems and he needs to get them
addressed before he starts worrying about, you know, what his next boxing matches,
because you know, when you see these types of situations one after the
other. I mean, he's still a younger guy. He doesn't have a
lot of damage in terms of his boxing erre He's only thirty three years old.
I sometimes questioned, were you ever going to see this man in the
boxing ray again? I mean it's valid point. I don't know he wins
two years before that fight last November. Yeah, so since so here's title
defense. So here's the other thing about that. Though the WBC in its
entire history, I had to go look this up, but I'm pretty sure
that this is accurate, and if it's not accurate, it can't be that
much difference. The WBC Middleway title come this June, so in one month
will have not been defended for three years. Correct. I don't think in
the history of the WBC that has ever been a case where the title wasn't
defended for three years. That's ridiculous. It is. I mean, I
get, I get the fact that there's time off and delays, even with
the pandemic. There's no reason for this title not to have been defended for
three years at the very least. Uh, you know, no mandatory in
that situation. Adamis with the interim title and he unfortunately for him, not
because of his own thing, but he's been off for a while. He
only had one fight last year. That's a PBC because I'm sure, I
mean, you don't have to be a rocket scientist. I'm sure they were
stringing along. You're going to get to fight Jamal Charlow hang in there and
never Here's the bottom line. SHEVC having so many issues with a lack of
dates. They've had two pay per views in twenty twenty four, rather the
March card with Fondora and Tim Zou and the Canelo card that just happened.
They've got the third one coming June fifteenth, headlined by Tank Davis against Frank
Martin. There's not going to be a June non pay per view. All
along I was told there will be a non June pay per view. The
excuse that I have been given as well. The guys that were supposed to
be on the June pay per view are people like pit Bull Cruz and David
Morrell, and now they're going to be on this August third pay per view
that the Saudis are doing in Los Angeles. So there goes our June show.
And my perspective was, what are you talking about. You've got a
whole bunch of other fighters that are capable of headlining. They don't have to
be mega fights or not pay per views, so you can still do other
attractive matchups. So my point is, why wouldn't they just tap Adamis to
be on one of those types of shows. So if I was involved,
I would say, look, he's the champ. If he wants to do
this, let's make the unification fight right off the bat. You know,
I know that janebek is out there with a July date with two belts who's
been digging for some kind of bigger name or bigger stakes. He would fight
him in a heartbeat. Top Rank has the dates on ESPN, they can
make a deal. It will be lucrative because they've got money in their budget
to spend on those types of events. Adamas would by far make his biggest
payday, make the unification right off the bat. I mean it may be
too good to ask, but uh Janne back to my knowledge, still does
not have an official opponent yet for that July date. A Damas doesn't have
to do anything schedule, to my knowledge, and I believe both fighters are
willing and able to making too much sense again, you're making too much sense
again, it's boxing well. I mean, by the way TBC has been
because they have so little dates for guys. They just made a deal with
Golden Boy, for example, for Rancis Barthelomy to fight against Josey Ramirez.
They can make a deal with Top Right. And by the way we're sitting
here taping this Thursday night on May the ninth, they could still put a
Damas on that June call with Tank Davis in a title defense and add to
the pay per view if they wanted to. You got a month, find
him an opponent. Is he not in shape? Find him an opponent,
and a month from now let him make a defense. Again, I'm making
too much sense now, I'm making too much sense on the podcast to get
the man in the ring, all right, couple more news items before the
nostalgia, oh, the Ryan Garcia saga, and again we talked about this
on the Better Show. I hear the sy We'll touch on it briefly here
on the pod as well, because it's a lot of the same stuff.
The reason that it's now relevant is he wants the b samples plural to be
open here for the two positive drug tests pre fight and post fight for the
banned substance osteren So that's going to be done. Fill in the blanks because
there's a lot being said. Again, I know you and I already talked
about this on the bet Us Show, but for the pod audience, fill
in the blanks on what's happening next, where we go from here and the
likely suspension that's probably come first of all, Basically, everything that runs and
Garcia puts on his social media is a lie or it's very very skewed.
That's not accurate, and it's it's unfortunate. I've been getting punished by everybody
because I had the audacity to, you know, rely on factual information,
have documentary evidence such as the actual letters, and let me defend you with
one more time. I've defended you like three times on this. You found
the truth, You found the evidence that Vada had notified everybody he is positive
in the pre fight test and the postfight test for us. But here's here's
the thing that hasn't changed, apparently my reporting of the factual information. I'm
I'm I hate Ryan Garcia, Bill Haney is paying me off. Victor Kanti
and I are like roommates. I mean, it's just an absurdity. People
are so fucking stupid, so ignorant, have no idea how these things work.
Have can't even spend thirty seconds on Google the shit before they make such
outlandis comments about things. So I can just tell you I did this same
kind of normal reporting I've been doing for my entire professional sports writing career,
even before I was writing about boxing. My sports writing career, I've been
doing this for thirty years. As much as it pains me to say thirty
one years, actually, if you want to get technical, thirty one years
as a professional sports writer. It is the only job I've ever had post
college. I don't know anything else, so I know how to do that.
I know I'm not a doctor. I can't fix a fucking car.
I do know how to fix my air condition. I'm not a I can't
really make good French coast though. No, I can't make French coast.
I can't do anything. But I'm a fucking good sports writer, yes,
ye are, so. I don't fuck around when it comes to these types
of things. So anybody who wants to make accusations, they can fuck themselves.
I'm telling you, I've got the evidence and the documents, and that's
what it takes. So he's gonna have the B sample open. It's I
forget the exact day, it's something like May twenty second, May twenty third.
He is allowed to have a representative be there to observe it to make
sure there's no funny business. Obviously, it will take make a few days
or you'll ever long to get that result back. We've discussed this before.
The likelihood that it's exactly the same as the A sample is like ninety nine
point Uh. We'll see how that goes. Uh. And then he's gonna
have a hearing in front of the New York Commission. But here's the other
thing that's important, and this is I don't know, if I'm such a
Ryan Garcia hater, why I wasn't told I'm a Ryan Garcia lover because I
also reported this because I all again I have the documentation about what was sent
throughout and it's not made public. But he in that original testing in the
in the April nineteenth test he had, there was a question about another substance
that was a that was like nandelone, which is a hardcore scaroid steroid.
It was it was a it was something like that, but not exactly,
but it was called nineteen nor andosterone. So they had a test in the
original one that was positive for that, but it was not what's the world
was not not conclusive and in the paperwork it's said, must have the isotope
ratio mass spectrometry test conducted on it. I will be honest and I'm looking
at my screen, so I can get that right of what it was.
So they had to do another test, and that to get a clarification of
whether he was truly positive for this particular drug, which my understanding is can
at times present itself naturally in your system. They went and they did that
test. That result came back and he is cleared of having that as another
adverse finding. So any issues related to that nandrolone like substance that's no longer
on the table. So he made a big deal on his social media as
mother did that. Now we suddenly clear see I told you I didn't pest
positive for this steroid. Blah blah blah blah blah. But forget very conveniently
that he still has two jackpots for fucking ostereine which are not going away,
which, by the way, is a performance enhancing drug on the ban list.
Absolute no no, and it's system Yeah, real quick, there's been
a little bit of a lost in translation. In New York State, you
are apparently allowed a microscopic amount of that substance before you'd be flagged for a
adverse finding. He claims that his is below that. The reality is the
Vada rules and the water rules do not permit that at all under any levels.
But even if you submit, then say okay, fine, it's point
one. The numbers of his levels that came back on the on the April
nineteenth test were like sixty times higher than what was allowed. The number the
numbers that came back on There you go with facts again. The numbers that
came back on the on the post fight test were something like thirty five times
higher than allowed. So as they say, he's got some splaining to do.
And again, if New York State goes by the strict liability concept,
whether it's point one which or point you know or or sixty times over,
that is the problem either way, because it's not that it's not how much
was in your system, it's that it's in your system. Right, it's
not allowed to be that test. End of story, all right, So
they're going to have a hearing after those b samples are open and more than
likely because almost all ways they're also going to be positive because they're split off.
At the same time, I want to interject, I was seeing all
this stuff on social media. Now there's like this big back and forth beef
between Errol Spence and Ryan Garcia. One time, uh you know, uh
stable mats because of their working with Derek James. Ryan Garcia still works with
the trainer Derek James. Obviously, Errol Spence and Derek are no longer work
together because of the lawsuit that's happening because of Derek believing he's been shortered on
the money. So now they're calling each other out and and Garcia was on
his social media saying, you know, bring on, I'll fight Erol Spence
in August. And I didn't put this up there, but all I can
think about now, you're not fighting in August because you're gonna suspended. Bro.
And by the way, a couple of more things, just on the
whole unhinged behavior, because it was bad enough that we saw all over social
media him in the clubs, et cetera. This man earlier this week is
on a video that I watched on a video in a podcast talking about how
he was high during the fight. Right, A lot of this is exaggeration
because common sense here, if you were taking recreational drugs, you would have
popped for it on the pre fighter postfight drug test. That's me saying that.
But he's bragging about how he beat Devin Haney while high. He is
out of his own mouth saying that. So take all of this and just
almost put it aside as a sideshow. That's that's going on. I mean
again, there's more. There's more obviously to come, and we'll find out
when those B samples are open what the next move is from the New York
State Athletic Commission. And at the bottom line, team, it's a year
suspension. Then we're looking at no Ryan Garcia to the middle of the next
year. Well, I mean if they if he does get a year suspension,
typically they're backdated to the data of the infraction, so it would be
backdated to the date of the de so you know that would be the case.
So right now, I would say, uh, it's entirely questionable whether
he'll fight again the rest of this year based on what's about to come down
with whatever happens in New York State. All right, Next up, we
did talk I know I keep making reference to this on the bet US Boxing
show. We had learned of Dmitri Beebel trying to stay on the car June
first, even if he's not in the main event defending the WBA version of
the light heavyweight crown. So, Dan, what is the latest. I
know you've been in some communication with Turkey Ala Chic and about what's happening there
for a light heavyweight title defense for the Russian Yeah. So, I mean,
of course, there was a huge disappointment when Arthur better Be suffered the
knee injury and how to withdraw from the fight. I mean, I think
that was that fight between him and Beevill for the undisputed title at light heavyweight.
To me anyway, and I know a lot of other boxing mans,
that has the most interesting fight on the calendar or scheduled this year that's already
happened this year. I mean, that was as good as a guess.
That's the absolute top of the food chain type of fight. I mean,
in all due respect for all the other excellent matchups that we have seen on
disputed or otherwise, to me, that was the most interesting, best fight
that you could make in the sport. Hopefully they'll reschedule that's the plan,
or better be supposedly going to be back in the September time frame. I
believe it when I see it. In any event, Understandably, bevill who's
been in camp and wants to make a living and wants to defend this title
and wants to fight and stay active, didn't want to just give up the
date and just sit around and wait for September. That didn't makes any sense
of what they've done. And as you said, you know, I was
in communication with Turkey ale Chic, and you know, he said to me
that they are going to keep Eovile on the card, and they were in
the process of figure of finalizing a fight with his replacement opponent, and not
a guy that has anybody probably ever really heard of, but an undefeated fighter
twenty two and sixteen, an oh named Malik Xenod, a native of Libya
who fights out of the Mediterranean country of Malta. Not exactly a boxing hotbed,
but he does have a good record and he's rated. But come on,
you're the encyclopedia. Who's the last world champion born in Libya and fighting
out of Malta. I mean, you would know if anybody has. I
don't think there is one. Pretty sure there's never been one. So so
that will stay on the June first card in riatt and they'll take the as
his excellency was explaining to me, they will take the Deontay Wilder Jang July
fight. That will that's one of the five on five fights. They'll make
that the main event. The second fight, technically speaking, the co feature,
if you will, will be the other heavyweight fight, which will be
Philip Pergovic against Daniel Duba, which currently is just a heavyweight fight. But
you know, in the day's post Usik and theory it will be came for
the vacant IBF title, and then we'll see the bevol title defense against Xenod
and then the rem of the other fights of the five one to five.
So I'm glad that people staying on the card. I mean, I just
hope that Arthur better Beev gets held up quickly and we can see that great
fight and they can both have their shot at history and the legacy, and
US fans get the fight we've wanted to see for a number of years.
And shout out to my man, the boxing writer David Payne in England,
because he uses this phrase all the time, Rayfael, I'm not trying to
be the profit of doom, but Better Bv is thirty nine years old and
there's got to be concerns now with a knee injury too, about the future
and about this fight. We hope he heals up. But this is not
an insignificant thing generally speaking. I'm not a doctor, I'm not even playing
one on the podcast, but I know that meniscus tears, and they described
it as a rupture that can be a three to six month thing. It
might be before the end of the year, later in the year before he's
ready to go, so who knows. On better beev and good for Beebele
who's been waiting to be able to get in the ring still on that card.
They had enough time and enough lead up for the June one to be
able to get him in the ring. Are one more news and that is
the July sixth top ranked card is official. It's got Chaquur Stevenson headline,
It's got another title fight and what else on the card. So give me
a fill in the details. Well, I mean I reported kind of be
like over a month ago at least that Chaquur would fight July sixth, that
the opponent was m Hartitunian, whose only loss was against Frank Martin, who,
of course is now going to be fighting Gervante Davis on June fifteenth in
their paper before his lightweight belt. Frank Martin, of course, was supposed
to fight Shoud Court for the vacant title back a few months ago and had
an agreement and then pulled out and they had to replace him with Edwin de
los Santos. In any event, even though Hardtunian lost that fight to Frank
Martin last July, so it will be one year since he fought. You
know, he made a good account of himself against Frank Martin. He he
did get knocked down in the twelfth round, but it was a very close
fight. And so he's getting the opportunity against Shaqur. He's going to go
to Cha course hometown of Newark. I mean, I know Chakourt looked pretty
bad in the last fight that was del Los Santos. Part of that wash
COR's uh injury issues and it was as forgettable a fight as you can see.
I expect him to be one million times better in this fight if he
is no knock on Harttunian. But it's to me, it's like as like
saying the business and no hitter. You know, chic, we're gonna just
probably, you know, pretty handily beat him. Uh. Not the most
enticing, interesting, exciting, top top of the bill, as they say,
matchup. But the other fights on the card, you'll have the return
of the WBC Junior lightweight Champion, Oshaki Foster. He'll be taking on Robson
Konsisau, which is a very interesting matchup. If you remember Kansasaw in his
last fight had the shootout with Emmanuel Neaverette. He lost rather in lou Was
Actually it was a drawn though, even though Consas got knocked down two times.
Uh, this is going to be consas A's fourth chance at the world
title. He lost a competitive decision against Oscar Valdez, and there was a
controversy with that because of the drug situation with Valdez and it not, you
know, the rules of the local commission differing from the rules of but he
was allowed to fight. There was a lot of controversy there. He then
lost a pretty lopsided decision against Schaquore Stevenson. But that was the fight in
which Aquor did not make the weight in which stripped of the titles. Concas
had the chance to win them but did not. And then obviously the most
recent fight that he had was the draw with Naverette. So what do they
say, TJ Forrest times the charm, I guess I don't know. I
don't know. So o Shakie Foster in his second fights and signing up with
Top Rank. You know, he had the close win against Abraham Nova that
was in February and then July he'll be back against Consas out and obviously,
if look, Chaquur is going to be a free agent after this fight.
If he stays with Top Rank and I'm sure there'll be others bidding for his
services. Although that said, I think Top Ranks done a tremendous job with
him and getting them all kinds of opportunities and featuring him, and he's been
making a good amount of money. But if you got the junior lightweight champ
on the same card as the featherweight champ, and you know that at some
point in time you're going to see Shakuor go up to the next weight class,
you know it could be a like a preview, let's say, of
seeing the two guys in action on the same card, because it wouldn't be
out of the realm of possibility. If he sticks top rank, that down
the road, we're gonna see Schacor fight against o Shakie Foster when he goes
looking for titles in the heavier weight classes. Then the opening fight will be
the next fight in the burgeoning career of Keishawn Davis, the outstanding lightweight prospect
twenty twenty Tokyo silver medal winner taken on a Mexican veteran, Miguel Miduino,
not exactly a big time resume, but very experienced, and you know he's
he's pretty tight with Shakor. He's like, Chakor is a good friend of
his and he's been He's fought on some of Chakor's pass undercards. So you
know, all in all, it's not a not a bad card. I
mean, you got two bona fide title fights. You got the appearance of
one of the top prospects in the sport. Who I suspect that by the
time this year is over, we'll be calling them more of a contender,
not a prospect. And there's your card that was formally announced this week.
All good stuff on the news, all right, some nostalgia and then we
are done as we release the podcast into Friday. Friday is May the tenth,
nineteen ninety six. By the way, Rayphael Wish missus reeves happy twenty
eighth, Anna Versh for putting up with me for twenty eight years as of
Saturday, May the eleventh, So as it turns out, on your nostalgia,
the night before my wedding May the tenth, nineteen ninety six, before
May the eleventh, nineteen ninety six, twenty eight years ago, heavyweight tripleheader
HBO televised and interesting names because Evander Holyfield thought Bobby Chez and also Lennox Lewis
on the card fighting Merciless Ray Mercer. And I don't know that we've ever
brought up nostalgia in the two plus years we've been doing these pods with the
name terrible Tim Witherspoon, but he was also on that card, so go
ahead speak more to it. No, that was a fun card, I
mean, and this was the kind of card that today they'd probably sticked this
shit on pay per view and not on regular HBO or whatever network we're showing
it. But back at the time, you know, this was a popular
card. Tim Witherspoon was sort of in like the research in his in his
career, and Jorge Luis Gonzales was the big, massive amateur star from Cuba
who had only had one previous defeat when he had gotten a blitz by Riddick
bow uh and uh and just got pummeled. He had, you know,
just got obliterated in that fight. That was a you know, a bad
blood rivalry fight from the amateurs. Tons of bad blood in there. He
had come back from that one, uh, you know, a lesser fight,
and then they put him in with Witherspoon again, who was coming off
of you know, he had been fighting a string advice. They were sort
of positioning him perhaps to get another time to title opportunity, and uh,
Witherspoon rose to the occasion that I won and he put Jerey Luis Gonzalez out
in the fifth round, and that was just to start in the next fight
was probably one of the most underrated fights in heavyweights of this of that era,
certainly one of the more underrated victories in the in the great career of
Lennox Lewis. I wasn't a world title fight. This was a very hard
fought battle, really close. I've watched the fight numerous times. You know,
I always scored the fight six rounds to four in favor of Lennox Lewis.
But you know, if you're if you're in the mood for like kind
of a under the radar, off the off the radar kind of heavyweight action,
then you should definitely go under your trust YouTube channel and check out that
fight. Now, to put it in perspective, this fight between Lennox and
Mercer was taking place in the period of time after Oliver McCall knocked Lennox Lewis
out, and it was the fight before he fought the rematch against Oliver matt
and regained what was then the vacant WBC title. So remember he got knocked
out by McCall, who ended up losing the title later. But Lenox was
fighting, you know, a couple less like lesser fights against Lionel Butler justin
fortune he had Pommel Tommy Morrison. Now he goes in with Ray Mercer in
May of ninety six and then in the early part of ninety seven he finally
gets the remaatch with with with Oliver McCall for the VACON title. Of the
fight that's very famous for the mental breakdown and the crying of Oliver McCall,
But Ray Mercer gave Lennox Lewis absolute hell in that fight. Tremendous hard hitting,
a lot of inside action, just banging away at each other. Both
guys showed a lot of the heart and chin and all the people that always
talk about how Lennox didn't have a chin, and that was just a tremendous
fight. And the main event more not more on the name recognition than the
merit of the matchup was Evander Holyfield, who at that time was fighting Bobby
Chez. You know, they was looking for another shot at something big.
This again, these were all non title fights, and Bobby Chez, you
know, of course, was a blown up. He wasn't a truly heavyweight
U and that was if you remember, that was a little controversial because he
stopped him. But there was all the conversation that Chez had stopped in the
fight because he had got some kind of substance in his eye that he couldn't
see. They couldn't really find anything, and they ended up stopping the fight.
H It wasn't a particularly good fight. And even though Lennox, I
mean Lenox, even though Evander got the victory and a fifth round stoppage in
the corner, the reality was he looked like absolutely he looked terrible in that
fight. And now remember also to put it in perspective, this is a
Vander coming back after having been knocked out in the brutal third fight against Riddick
Bow where people thought, you know, Vander's career is over. I mean
he you know, they had had two great battles previously, plus other fights
including Vander beating Mercer well, and he also had the heart concerns. He
had lost the title to Michael's a lot. That's a way before that,
a couple of years. But I mean they reinstated him and then that knockout
happened, so and then this was this was Yes, it's a win,
but the point is a lot of people looking at him is washed up,
right. Yeah, they thought he's done after the third Bow fight. They
stick him in the in the in the Chez fight to see what he's got
left. He looks like shit in that fight. Uh, it's not a
conclusive type of knockout. He's fighting a much. You know, Bobby was
a good champion in his smaller weight classes like light heavyweight and even then cruiserweight,
but he was not a heavyweight obviously. Uh and and and Holyfield really
couldn't do a whole lot with him, even though he won the decision.
It was that The reason why this is important is because it was at that
point that Evander looked so washed and so finished and so done and such a
shell of himself between the Bow knockout and how poorly he looked against Bobby Chez.
Finally, Don King was like, Pegia will make the Tyson fight,
And that horrible performance against Bobby Chez is what made everybody say, like we'll
finally make this fight with Iron Mike Tyson. And so that fight that I
just mentioned about Bobby Chaz that was in again this fight we're talking about May
tenth, nineteen ninety six, they made the match with Tyson that took place
that November, and Evander, of course, coming off the fights were just
talking about, ended up scoring one of the biggest upsets in a tremendous fight
and winning the WBA title against Tyson. So it was this chess fight where
he looked like Doo Doo that they were able to make the Tyson fight.
That's why it's important. I don't know that you've ever used DODO Well,
it's important to discussing nostalgia to put them in perspective of what was happening at
the US at that time. And I got nostalgia on top of your nostalgia.
You ready, I think Bobby Chaz was already doing the commentary with Steve
Albert and Ferdy Pacheco, the fight doctor on showtime, came out and fought
this fight, and he's later on He's later on the call in November of
ninety six for holy Field against Tyson, and it still rings true to me.
What he's saying. At the end of that fight, when the fight
is stopped, Bobby Chaz utters the line, exclaims the line, I can't
believe what I'm seeing, and I think part of it is because how badd
Evander looked in the fight with him seven months earlier. Look in the context
of Bobby Chesz's career, this was what turned out to be his second to
last fight. He had moved up to heavyweight and had some fights as a
smaller have you like two O five, two O six, two seven type
of weight, uh, But he fought the holy Field fight and then that
again. That was in May of ninety six. He fought then one more
fight two years later and got obliterated by uh Cory Sanders UH in a in
a third and a second round knockout. This was, you know, just
just the way the end. This is the South African Corry Sanders, who
also owned the knockout win against Vladimir Klitschkow and that was in the Bobby's career.
But in reality, the holy Field fight was sort of like the you
know, the the the Sanders site was like Dakota because it was two years
later, but after the after the Chez holy Field fight. He was pretty
much done as a fun as a really fun header triple header, and none
of them title fights, by the way, as you just made mention of
on on HBO Make tenth of ninety six. All right, So we back
up to Wednesday, May eighth, and that's the three year anniversary in twenty
twenty one of a fight you were there for as Canelo Alvarez. And we
made mention of this in the build up to the Canelo fight, about being
at at and T Stadium and seventy three thousand of Ray Faeld's closest friends also
being there for the one hundred and sixty eight pound titles as Canello. He
had some problems midway through the fight in a couple of rounds with Billy Joe
Sander Billy Joe Saunders, but then cracked him figuratively and literally under the right
eye and it was basically done. Tell me more about what you remember about
that night. Well, I remember a lot because it was, first of
all, it's not that long ago, so my memory still is very vivid
on it. It was really an extraordinary time being there. If you again,
we'll put it in perspective at the time this so I was happening,
the pandemic was just starting to subside. Many of us had gotten vaccinated.
Speaking personally, I had not been anywhere outside of my town in the year
and a half, roughly. I hadn't been with other people under than my
wife and son, maybe to stand at the end of my driveway and you
know, talk to my neighbors and that sort of thing. I mean,
you hadn't been around people, you go to the restaurant, eat outside,
so you know, life was starting to get a little bit back to the
so called normal. I hadn't been on an airplane in you know, fourteen
months or however long it had been. And so for this fight, I
was doing some freelance and I had been covering a number of events for the
Ring magazine, and I went to Arlington to cover this fight, and I
just have like memories of seeing people for the first time walking into the hotel,
which we had to you know, make sure we had a vaccination card
and later go get COVID testing. So when I got there, I purposely
flew at night, so I just would get to the hotel and go to
my room and then wake up early in the morning. And go down to
the whatever the level when the hotel to get my COVID test. The matchroom
was testing everybody because it was a massroom boxing promotion. And you know,
I remember like one of the night that that night I went to my room.
The next night I went to dinner in the We were in a hotel.
It was like a bubble like, so we were we really couldn't leave
the hotel while we're there, other than to go to the arena and it'd
be in a certain area at the weigh in. Sitting down in the hotel,
I had dinner with my buddy Keith Idach who then was writing for boxing
scenes, the manager Keith Connolly, and two of his boxers, the heavyweight
Adam Koonaki and Chris Algeri, And we had dinner at the hotel, you
know, at the restaurant and hotel together and I just remember sitting there thinking
to myself. I got emotional about it because I was like, I have
not had interaction, hadn't sat down for a meal, let's say, with
anybody in a year and a half, with anybody other than my wife or
my son. And so I would be with friends who hadn't seen in boxing
for a long time, and these fighters and the manager and obviously I saw
lots of other people there in the hotel. It was like a pretty big
deal. And then the next day when we went to the way in the
way they had constructed it was there was a it was was it? So
when I walked, you know, they had the media in a separate area,
like kind of away from the main crowd. I remember when I got
there to the way in seeing like five thousand people, like having not been
around more than a couple of people at all, like moved by this amazing
thing that we're seeing, like all these people, Like the world is somewhat
back to normal because there's five thousand boxing fans here for a way in in
front of this, you know, this great stadium. They did the way
and and then the next night, as you mentioned, it was not live
thousand, it was seventy three thousand. You get your way up dinner for
five five thousand people. Yeah, seventy three thousand people broke the all time
United States indoor boxing record for attendance. It had been set in nineteen seventy
eight by the rematch between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks, who had drawn like
sixty five thousand or so to the super Dome in New Orleans, and it
was a spectacular night. And I mean I had covered several other all the
other fights, mostly at the AT and T Stadium, and there had never
been a crowd that big by any stretch of the imagination. There had been
fifty thousand ish for Pakiao or you know, for a Canelo and that sort
of thing, but seventy for previous Canelo. And so for this to have
seventy six ersand and then for Canel to put on the kind of performance that
he did where he basically broke Billy Johners Billy Joe Saunders's face and they pulled
him out after the eighth round, and he unified the three titles. Remember
he went into that fight as a WBA and the WBC champion. He took
away Billy Joe's WBO title. Billy Joe Sanders, by the way, who
says he's going to fight again, and still has not fought since then.
In twenty twenty one, he was thirty to oh and undefeated and a two
division title holder coming into that fight. That was also, by the way,
the very famous postfight press coverence where Dimitris Andre was there trying to troll
for a fight against Keneo. He was very polite about it actually, but
the father got a little mouthy with Canelo and Canello you know, went into
meltdown mode and was like, get the fuck out of here. Pay day,
pay day pay. We knew, we knew that Canelo knew the vulgarities
in English, better English from him in the vulgarity world. Because of that,
and yeah, I think, by the way, when we looked back,
and it's hard to say at the moment, you got to kind of
wait till the career is over. I feel like when I think about the
Billy Joe Saunders fight, and of course you know, it's fresh in my
mind having just seen Canelo fight against Timi Mongia this past Saturday. I think
that if you go back and draw the chart the line Grafts say of the
of the great career of Canelo Avaras, I think that's the peak of his
career. I think that's the top of the mountain for Canelo. That everything
that he did was tremendous. It was the you know what he did at
junior middleweight, the fights with Gnati Glovkin at middleweight. You know other fights
that he had covid leb where he fought a light heavyweight and and then went
on the trek to win the super midlew eight undisputed title. But I think
the apex of his career when we look back, is going to be that
performance with that crowd, the performance against Billy Joe Sauners, the way he
stopped him, the way he unified, and the mania that surrounded his career
at that time. I think that might be the apex. I think about
fighters all the time, like I think about Manny Pacow for example, you
know, one of the biggest superstars you could ever talk about the apex of
his career. I always think about on the night that that he beat Antonio
Margarito, like he was never going to be better than that night. Like
I don't know if Canelo ever going to be better than what he did than
I he beat Billy Joe. Now, maybe I'll be proven wrong. Maybe
some might disagree and think that another fight earlier in his career was the peak
of his career. But I look at that fight and I think to myself,
that's the apex, that's the best Canelo that we will ever see the
best Cano we ever had. And remember we had not seen him because of
the COVID craziness in twenty twenty, but suddenly bang bang bang. He fought
twenty one of twenty I'm talking about he fought bang bang Bang in like December,
correct of twenty number December. Then he fought in February of twenty one
with Abney Yildrum, which wasn't much of a fight at all, and then
he fought this fight in May. I mean, we got three Canelo fights
literally in a five month time period. And then and then at the end
of the year in twenty one, in November, after the Billie Joe fight,
that's when he fought Kayla Plant and stopped him. So if you want
to talk about the peak, maybe you talk about the Kayla Plant fight also,
but it's basically those fights where he became undisputed was the peak of the
of the great career the Canelos had, and it was a it was a
it was a great experience to be at that fight because it was so it
was so meaningful in terms of the history because of what Canlo had accomplished,
but just on a level of just being an American in our in our society,
to be back among people. I wasn't the only one that felt like
that. A lot of the people that I spoke to and hung out with
that week were in a similar situation where they hadn't traveled to any fights and
quite some time. And you know not that this is the one where we're
riffing on, but on May ninth, twenty fifteen, another Canlo fight,
because of course he was always fighting on that single to my weekend, the
twenty fifteen knockout of the Year, which I was also in attendance for a
non title fight that he fought in the ginger midaweight division like a half pound
over the limit because it was purposely non title, where he absolutely detonated James
Kirkland in the third round for the knock out of the year that was at
the minute made points the one in Houston, another huge crowd for him on
that night Baseball Stadium. In that case, yes, sir, and we
we make mention again too that at and T Stadium has hosted some title fights,
none bigger in terms of attendance in that one until we get to Jake
Paul and Mike Tyson potentially for late July, and it just depends how much
standing room are they going to allow. What are the ticket prices. I'm
gonna tell you right now. Who knows, I'll tell you right now,
Jake pon Tyson's gonna break the record probably and again if depending on how they
price the tickets, et cetera, you you could conceivably have because it holds
it for the NFL where people can't sit on the field, it holds over
ninety five thousand for the standing room in the ends and the whole bit.
And now you can sit people on the football configuration the field even absolutely so
you can probably fit on the floor. You can probably fit another eight or
ten maybe say at least at least five to eight thousand, absolutely all right.
So I've been there and sat there on the field and you look around,
it's they piled up the whole the whole damn thing, plus like you
said, the standing room. So again the record stands. Uh. But
I my opinion is that it's going to be broken on that night. But
it doesn't change the fact that Canelo that night was a brilliant performer, looked
awesome, tremendous fight week Billy Joe played the ultimate villain, which he was,
and uh, that was really memorable, right nostalgia. What a full
pod we have had here heading into the weekend. Again, we previewed Lomachenko
cambosas that's the main event Sunday afternoon Australia Saturday night US time. ESPN will
televise in the United States, look forward to elsewhere. I know we got
worldwide audience as it'll be late night in the US. We previewed that fight
card you heard from Edgar Berlanga, who very much wants Canelo Canelo Canelo earlier
on this pod, and again I make mention one final time, we've already
done the bet US Boxing show earlier in the week. Because of a conflict
they had with our friends at bet Us, we had to go earlier in
the week. So that's available right now. Whenever you're hearing us on the
pod, watch it if you want, like at one Eastern time and just
reminiscences if we're there live. But it's out right now on their YouTube,
Twitter, Twitch. Whenever you're hearing this pod, you can hear us handicapping
the fights this weekend. Rayfael wants to point out he's been on a roll
the last three weeks. What are you now after last week? I think
you are now nine in four nine three nine four something like that. So
anyway, check it out, check it out there on the fit. So
I'm I'm so mad in a way for not getting to the six and a
half. Yes, did not get out of the sixth round. Did not
in that instance as a as a decked Louise Nary and look fantastic doing it.
So we've given you a bunch on the pod with that, brother Rayfield.
I think we're good. Whatever happens with the battles in Australia and elsewhere,
we're here to recap it off the weekend Sunday night into Monday on the
Fight for Each Night Recap podcast. Other than that, have a great weekend,
my friend, and let's get ready to see what Loma and Cambosas looks
like from Australia. Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing that. So yeah,
we'll talk to you on the pot on Sunday night. It should be
a lot of fun again. Lock in with him on his substack on his
newsletter as well. Read us up on Big Fight Weekend dot com. You
have been listening to the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast for Dan Rayfield, I'm
TJ Reeves enjoyed the fights,