1 00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:07,200 Oh well, there off a weekend that has seen Alexander Usik become the undisputed 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,279 heavyweight champion with a very impressive near ko but ultimately split decision when over Tyson 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:20,079 Fury. We are ready to recap that the entire ring a fire card in 4 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:25,160 Saudi Arabia a plus, we also have an upset with another Ukrainian fighter winning 5 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:29,280 a world title in the top rank ESPN main event to go over. We're 6 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:33,200 ready to recap all the fights, fight news, fight nostalgia and more. 7 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,759 You found the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast. I am the somewhat competent host, 8 00:00:37,799 --> 00:00:41,200 TJ. Reeves. He is our insider Dan Raphael back once again. 9 00:00:41,280 --> 00:00:45,159 Fight Freaks Unite is his substack. Make sure you're subscribed. Make sure you're 10 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:49,079 on his email newsletter. Also make sure you're finding us and following us on 11 00:00:49,079 --> 00:00:53,000 this podcast feed. I have had not one, not two, but three 12 00:00:53,079 --> 00:00:57,359 different people already contact me as we release this pod Sunday night and the Monday 13 00:00:57,399 --> 00:00:59,679 saying when's the pod out? Or I can't wait to hear what you guys 14 00:00:59,759 --> 00:01:03,200 have to say about Usik and Fury. So with that, Dan Rayphiel, 15 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:04,680 welcome in. We've got lots to go over. We're gonna spend a lot 16 00:01:04,719 --> 00:01:08,680 of time, obviously, because it's it's warranted, it's worth it to talk 17 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:11,799 Usak and Furick. How are things as we get things underway on the recap 18 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,840 pot, things are good. I'm glad we're not getting on this on this 19 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:21,280 conversation talk about the shitty judges or some controversy that we had a mega fight 20 00:01:21,719 --> 00:01:25,040 that lived up to most of the expectations. It was a great matchup, 21 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:30,920 heck of a fight, the entertaining undercard, no controversy, close fight, 22 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,200 competitive fight, everything you want in big time boxing. And we don't have 23 00:01:34,239 --> 00:01:38,959 to sit here and piss and moan and rail about some terrible judging or some 24 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:42,519 controversial referee call. Everybody did their job and it was a it was a 25 00:01:44,599 --> 00:01:47,599 good dight, a good a good day for the sport. Someone say there 26 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,120 is some slight controversy on whether there could have been a stoppage or not with 27 00:01:52,159 --> 00:01:55,439 the referee. We're gonna get into that some controversy before we're gonna get there. 28 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:59,239 I'm not that's I would do, but not over arcing big problem. 29 00:01:59,319 --> 00:02:02,840 Controversy can always go just just a matter of a discussion. Point sure, 30 00:02:04,439 --> 00:02:07,599 and also the judging and the decision is a split decision, and there were 31 00:02:07,639 --> 00:02:10,240 a lot of people believing draw. We'll get into that. There were a 32 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,960 lot of people thinking at the end this could be a draw, but of 33 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:19,000 course the knock down round made it very difficult for how is the math going 34 00:02:19,039 --> 00:02:22,400 to work out for it to be even and a draw? All right, 35 00:02:22,479 --> 00:02:25,719 So a lot to get They find a way though, j sometimes they never 36 00:02:25,879 --> 00:02:30,599 underestimate the ability of that, all right, So a lot to get to. 37 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:31,840 Again, thank you for finding us. We come your way. Preview 38 00:02:31,879 --> 00:02:37,000 pod into the weekend, recap pod off the weekend. On most occasions, 39 00:02:37,039 --> 00:02:39,120 I will say again, Rayfield, with summer coming up here, there may 40 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:43,479 be an occasion where there's not a pod as a previewer, as a recap. 41 00:02:43,479 --> 00:02:46,479 We're going to do our best, but I can I can tell you 42 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:50,479 in my household there's an I don't even think I've told you this. There 43 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:55,560 is an upcoming cruise to Alaska for the Reeves household. So we are trying 44 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:59,960 and my wife is one of those we love our wives where she's planning everything 45 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,639 and packing everything now and we don't leave for another week and a half. 46 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,639 So that's kind of going on in my house while we do all this, 47 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:08,759 but I did. I did five fine time to be able to watch all 48 00:03:08,759 --> 00:03:14,039 of this long day on Saturday. So let's get into it here, and 49 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,560 let's start with the best for last. I can tell you this that I 50 00:03:16,719 --> 00:03:22,240 went with some other people and was able to see the fight because I had 51 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,680 it on the laptop, had it subscribed through PPV dot com. Wasn't able 52 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:30,199 to hear it as well. I've now rewatched with the commentary on it. 53 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:37,199 You obviously were locked in completely. What are what are your thoughts on Usik 54 00:03:37,319 --> 00:03:40,039 getting the win, getting the decision and he's now undisputed for however long that 55 00:03:40,199 --> 00:03:45,199 lasts coming up, TJ. My thoughts are to start off with what I 56 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,840 say pretty much every single week when we get going on on the recap of 57 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:53,039 the fights we have seen, and first and foremost always the single most important 58 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,639 thing is we got our money's worth, We got our times worth. It 59 00:03:55,680 --> 00:04:00,800 was a tremendous card. The main event was the asked, which is the 60 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:02,080 way you want it is for the main event to be the best of what 61 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:04,879 was on the card. But it was a very it was a long undercard. 62 00:04:04,879 --> 00:04:06,560 I'm not complaining. I'm just saying it was, like you said, 63 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,800 it was a long day of boxing. I started watching fights at literally about, 64 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:13,360 you know, a couple of minutes after a twelve pm Eastern time, 65 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:15,079 because I picked it up. I didn't watch the preliminaries, but I watched 66 00:04:15,079 --> 00:04:18,279 the you know, from the beginning of the main card, and then when 67 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:20,519 it was over, I was writing, and then I was paying attention also 68 00:04:20,639 --> 00:04:24,720 to the top rank card. So it was a good thing the family was 69 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,920 out of talent because I was useless to them today. They've been out with 70 00:04:27,959 --> 00:04:30,720 my wife and my son at one of his activities for like the last several 71 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,680 days, so there was no no family obligations in terms of Saturday whatsoever. 72 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,759 So I could just devote it to the entirety, to the fight card and 73 00:04:38,759 --> 00:04:41,720 to the other show. But the main thing was it was a good fight. 74 00:04:41,759 --> 00:04:44,519 It sort of lived up to the hype, which is hard to do, 75 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:46,720 you know, when you get the first time there's an undisputed heavyweight title 76 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:50,439 fight in twenty five years, and and there's been a lot of expectations, 77 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:55,800 a lot of talk, a lot of anticipation, it's hard to live up 78 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,439 to it, you know, inevitably you're often gonna come away a little bit 79 00:04:58,439 --> 00:05:00,240 disappointed. But I have to say, well, I don't think this was 80 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:02,800 the fight of the year or anything like that. There was great drama, 81 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,240 there was great personality, There was good action, There was good ebb and 82 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:13,480 flow. As we discussed many times that the the the odds makers and the 83 00:05:13,519 --> 00:05:15,600 public thought this was a close fight. That's how it turned out. It 84 00:05:15,639 --> 00:05:18,680 wasn't. It was a good judging. It was nothing crazy in terms of 85 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,319 you know, even if you thought that Usik was the winner, there was 86 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:26,680 no crazy like one eighteen scorecard that was the outlier that we often see. 87 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:31,000 You know, everybody did their jobs the right way. I thought. In 88 00:05:31,079 --> 00:05:34,079 terms of the Zonne the broadcast, I remember I bitched and moan when they 89 00:05:34,079 --> 00:05:38,279 had these long cards that they just have no sense of timing and they drag 90 00:05:38,319 --> 00:05:41,720 stuff out forever and have a half an hour between fights. That's the pacing 91 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:45,680 for a card that was eight fights long on pay per view was excellent. 92 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:47,879 I mean to helped that. There were some early knockouts. So from top 93 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,720 to bottom, you know, you really can't get a lot better, Like 94 00:05:51,759 --> 00:05:56,800 when you take into account quality matchups, good entertaining, actions, some good 95 00:05:56,879 --> 00:06:00,639 knockouts, some you know, some back and forth and upset here there, 96 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:03,319 and then to top it all off, you know, a superb main event. 97 00:06:03,319 --> 00:06:06,079 And by the way, it's all over at least for us here on 98 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:10,000 the East Coast anyway, at a very reasonable hour. Maybe not if you 99 00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:12,160 were at the fight in Saudi Arabia where was the middle of the night. 100 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:15,639 But I wasn't there, so I'm not complaining. But in the end, 101 00:06:15,120 --> 00:06:24,480 Alexander Usik made history. He becomes the first ever four belt undisputed heavyweight champion. 102 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:29,199 He's now only the third four belt undisputed male champion in two weight glasses. 103 00:06:29,199 --> 00:06:34,920 He joins his other fellow pound for pound top guys in that small group, 104 00:06:34,959 --> 00:06:39,920 which is Terrence Crawford. Has a welterweight, in a junior welterweight and 105 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,279 in a way as a bantam weight and a junior featherweight. Now Husik is 106 00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:46,839 a undisputed champion. He had done it previously at cruiserweight, now at heavyweight. 107 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:51,000 When I interviewed him when he was about to make his heavyweight debut and 108 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:55,519 we talked about what his goals were, his thing was, I want to 109 00:06:55,519 --> 00:06:58,920 emulate what my man Holyfield did. I've already done it as a cruiserweight. 110 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:02,519 I want to follow the footsteps and also become the undiscrited heavyweight champion, just 111 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,639 like he did. And that's now a few years ago, and then I'll 112 00:07:05,639 --> 00:07:09,920 be damn the man did it, and did it in upset fashion, mildly 113 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:13,600 anyway, and got the job done, and didn't just get the job done, 114 00:07:14,279 --> 00:07:17,240 made some got the job done with some emphasis because of the fact that 115 00:07:17,279 --> 00:07:23,319 he almost knocked Tyson Fury out in the ninth round after having to rally because 116 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,319 he was behind, you know, in the first part of the fight, 117 00:07:26,319 --> 00:07:28,639 and as a matter of fact, looking at the score cards, he was 118 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:32,160 trailing on two score cards after seven. He was even on another scorecard after 119 00:07:32,199 --> 00:07:35,399 seven, and from there he basically won the rest of the fight, including 120 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:40,160 nearly knocking out Tyson Fury, and a lot of people could argue, not 121 00:07:40,319 --> 00:07:45,399 controversially, but could argue anyway that Mark Nelson, an excellent referee generally speaking, 122 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:47,199 certainly could have stopped the fight and no one with a blink because Fury 123 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:49,199 was all over the place, he had no legs, he was laying on 124 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:51,680 the ropes. They held him up. He called the knockdown but the ropes 125 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:57,079 helped him up about ten times. And what can you say, Usick is 126 00:07:57,319 --> 00:08:01,079 he's the man. Now he's the man. So let's get into a couple 127 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,839 of aspects for the first part of the fight. For the first couple of 128 00:08:03,879 --> 00:08:09,360 rounds of the fight, Tyson Fury gave away rounds clowning around and not being 129 00:08:09,399 --> 00:08:11,199 busy enough in the first couple of rounds. I thought, quickly, do 130 00:08:11,279 --> 00:08:16,240 you agree with that? Before we then move into the fight was like in 131 00:08:16,279 --> 00:08:18,680 stages, So the first stage is the first couple of rounds, and I 132 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:24,160 believe that Usik easily won the first couple of rounds because Fury was spending too 133 00:08:24,199 --> 00:08:28,319 much time clowning around, et cetera to do much in those. Again, 134 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:30,639 I didn't quite have it like that. I gave him the first round, 135 00:08:30,879 --> 00:08:33,240 but I think if I remember, I don't have my scorecard in front of 136 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:35,039 me, I could go grab the book in the other room. But because 137 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:39,120 I actually on this particular fight, actually wrote it down instead of just even 138 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:41,279 typing in, I wanted to have posterity in my score book that I keep, 139 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,200 so I have it written down of my round by round spart But to 140 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:48,480 my recollection, I believe I had the fight five rounds to one in favor 141 00:08:48,519 --> 00:08:54,600 of Tyson Fury after the sixth round, giving Alexander Usak the first round. 142 00:08:54,639 --> 00:08:58,320 So second round I did give to to Fury, but they were they were 143 00:08:58,399 --> 00:09:01,279 kind of close ish, you know, it wasn't like a huge amount of 144 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:05,720 I don't think that Fury landed a significant punch really in either of the first 145 00:09:05,759 --> 00:09:07,440 two rounds. And I finally started to land that uppercut. He landed one 146 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:11,960 of them like in the third and he and he certainly did in the fifth. 147 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:13,240 He got his attention with an upper cut in the fifth, and that 148 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:18,440 seemed to be a tactic he and sugar Hill Stewart, and the tactic was 149 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:20,559 trying to lure him in and hit him with like the bolo right uppercut if 150 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:24,639 you will, as a bigger fighter. And he was having success with that. 151 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:28,759 So he was in control in the middle of the fight. And then 152 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:31,799 he was so control I thought he's going to stop him at some point, 153 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:35,320 right, he was so in control, And and so why did it flip 154 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:37,960 handling, Why did it flip in your mind with him in control? Then 155 00:09:39,759 --> 00:09:43,759 I think it's probably because he finally got touched up by USI's left hand. 156 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,840 He took a big shot, uh, you know, a couple of big, 157 00:09:46,919 --> 00:09:50,120 big, not I can't say big shots, but shots that maybe got 158 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:52,879 his attention more than he expected, you know, if you go back, 159 00:09:52,919 --> 00:09:58,200 and I think certainly before the knockdown in the eighth round anyway, took a 160 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:01,840 shot on the nose that definitely caused some some problems and he was trying to 161 00:10:01,879 --> 00:10:05,200 deal with that. There was a little bit of blood, and you never 162 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:07,279 know how a guy's going to react, and that's that was not the greatest 163 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:11,480 reaction. He lost that round, and then he actually seemed to be coming 164 00:10:11,519 --> 00:10:13,759 back a little bit in the in the ninth round, and as big of 165 00:10:13,799 --> 00:10:16,360 a round as it turned out to be for Usik, it really wasn't until 166 00:10:16,399 --> 00:10:20,080 the final thirty seconds where he did the bulk of that damage when he when 167 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:24,480 he just you know, landed a but man, did he do damage? 168 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,759 All right? Say, so let's go right to that. So the noses 169 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:31,480 bloody, he's been shaken up a little bit, and I thought, tactically, 170 00:10:31,519 --> 00:10:35,639 give me your insight, but I thought this the right hook followed by 171 00:10:35,639 --> 00:10:39,200 the straight left hand. We saw it repeatedly in the back half of the 172 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:45,639 fight, and that's what's set up Fury really on rubber legs, almost on 173 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,000 roller skates across the ring, and he caught him with that combination two more 174 00:10:50,039 --> 00:10:52,559 times after the initial time. Right hook, straight left hand, right hook 175 00:10:52,759 --> 00:10:58,240 straight left hand. What were your thoughts and and did you believe in that 176 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,519 moment, like many believe, this may be over right? Absolutely? First 177 00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:07,240 of all, I do think that it took Usik a few rounds to settle 178 00:11:07,279 --> 00:11:09,679 down. I mean, as experienced as these men are, both of them, 179 00:11:09,919 --> 00:11:13,799 there's still nerves. You're still trying to get your sea legs under you, 180 00:11:13,879 --> 00:11:16,159 so to speak. You still got to kind of get your flow going. 181 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:20,720 And certainly when you're in Usik's position and you're fighting a guy that big, 182 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:26,840 which is much bigger. Even though Usik has not got this was only 183 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:28,480 he's only got a handful of heavyweight fights. I mean, most of his 184 00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:31,759 career was a cruiserweight. He had two kind of you know, softy kind 185 00:11:31,799 --> 00:11:37,000 of heavyweight fights to sort of get to know you against Witherspoon and against Chesaora. 186 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:43,080 Then he went into the two fights against against Anthony Joshua, and then 187 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:45,720 he of course in the summer last year, had the Duba fight. So 188 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:48,039 that's it. That's the heavyweight resumes. It's a total. Going into this 189 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:52,159 fight, he'd only had two softies two Joshua and Duba. Five fights. 190 00:11:52,159 --> 00:11:56,000 This was a six heavyweight fight, and all the men he'd face as a 191 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:01,679 heavyweight were much smaller than Tyson Fury. Not to say that Anthony Joshua was 192 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:03,120 small, but I'm just making the point that if you put him next to 193 00:12:03,639 --> 00:12:07,360 a guy like Tyson Fury, it's going to be a lot different. So 194 00:12:07,399 --> 00:12:09,159 the point is he still it took him a few routes to sort of get 195 00:12:09,159 --> 00:12:11,799 the geography, if you know what I mean, to figure out like how 196 00:12:11,799 --> 00:12:16,120 he's gonna deal with the big, tall guy who's coming at him and has 197 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:18,440 what I think was touching him up with some pretty good power shots. So 198 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:22,279 he finally got a shit together basically, and when he started to land, 199 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:26,360 he realized, you know what, I can hurt this guy also, And 200 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:30,879 at that point his best combination, I mean as a southball is a right 201 00:12:30,919 --> 00:12:35,360 hook and a straight left hand, and you know, Fury, it was 202 00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:37,480 a big target. There's a lot there to hit, and he was able 203 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:41,360 to land those punches and Fury, as we have seen numerous times. Has 204 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:45,480 never been the sturdiest guy when he gets caught. I mean he's been down 205 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:48,639 a bunch of times, including against a real small heavyweight you know who was 206 00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:52,440 a cruiserweight and Steve Cunningham years ago, you know, about a decade ago. 207 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:56,399 So yeah, I mean, didn't we talk about on the US show 208 00:12:56,440 --> 00:13:01,320 what the odds are it was a half a knockdown right on the handicapping show. 209 00:13:01,399 --> 00:13:03,559 Yep. Yeah, I said, there's a really good chance that they'll 210 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:07,000 be a knockdown. Now. I didn't necessarily think it was gonna be Usik 211 00:13:07,039 --> 00:13:11,159 knocking down Tyson Fury, but hey, that's exactly what happened. And so 212 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:13,559 he asked me, did I think he was in the verge of being stopped? 213 00:13:13,799 --> 00:13:18,320 Absolutely when he took the second like dip into the ropes. He was 214 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:22,799 really really hurt, really hurt in that moment, and I believe many many 215 00:13:22,879 --> 00:13:26,399 referees would have stopped the fight. I'm not being critical of Mark Nelson because 216 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:31,960 obviously by letting it continue, Perry showed that he was able to continue, 217 00:13:31,039 --> 00:13:33,399 and I think he was, if I can interject, I think he was 218 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:37,039 also aware and we talked about this numerous times. Like with the famous Chavez 219 00:13:37,440 --> 00:13:41,519 Taylor ending at the Mildred Taylor at the end of the of the fight, 220 00:13:41,639 --> 00:13:45,559 at the end of the round. I think Mark Nelson was aware that it 221 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,679 was the end of the round because you could clearly on the PA constantly hear, 222 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:52,679 even with the crowd roaring the clap clap, that you're in the final 223 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:56,200 ten seconds of the round. So he was giving the benefit of doubt. 224 00:13:56,279 --> 00:14:00,360 Did it surprise you because even in the moment, this is not after the 225 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,960 fact and trying to be twenty twenty hind sight, I was surprised that Usik 226 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:07,759 didn't hit him one more time along the ropes, the Buster Douglas moment of 227 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:13,879 hitting Mike Tyson one more time to lay him out in the tankyo, he 228 00:14:15,039 --> 00:14:18,159 no, Yeah, go back and watch. He goes to swing the left 229 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:22,240 hand and he stops. He stops and sees Fury in the ropes, and 230 00:14:22,279 --> 00:14:26,080 if he follows through in that moment, which is not illegal, if he 231 00:14:26,159 --> 00:14:28,399 follows through, I'm not sure that Fury gets up. I don't know what 232 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:33,000 happens after that, but I just believe live and I've I've reconfirmed watching it. 233 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:37,120 He could have hit him along the ropes and he didn't listen, so 234 00:14:37,159 --> 00:14:41,440 that's supposed to me. Here's the main thing. Had the referee stop the 235 00:14:41,519 --> 00:14:46,039 fight, mm hm, I believe there would have been no outrage from anybody 236 00:14:46,519 --> 00:14:48,000 or anything like that. You know, maybe maybe Fury would have complained a 237 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:52,879 little bit, but in the end, you know, he was damaged Goods 238 00:14:52,919 --> 00:14:56,320 big time. And he's very very lucky that when it was when he did 239 00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:00,320 take the eight count, because you know, of course it was. The 240 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:03,480 reason was called the knockdown was not because Fury's on the deck. It's because 241 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:05,559 the rules say if the if the referee deems that the ropes have held you 242 00:15:05,679 --> 00:15:09,320 up, then they can call a knockdown, which is the reason why it 243 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:11,519 was called. So he administered the count. Now, he's very lucky that 244 00:15:11,559 --> 00:15:15,879 as soon as the count was over and he wiped his gloves off, the 245 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:18,639 round ended. Had the round had another you know, fifteen to twenty thirty 246 00:15:18,639 --> 00:15:22,360 seconds left, you know, Fury might have been knocked to the canvass and 247 00:15:22,399 --> 00:15:24,679 out out of the fight. So he did have the full minute to recover. 248 00:15:26,399 --> 00:15:28,960 And you know, he has shown, as we talked about in his 249 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:33,480 career, the ability to come back and show resilience as he did against multiple 250 00:15:33,559 --> 00:15:39,279 knockdowns, four knockdowns and all against Deontay Wilder, against I mentioned the Steve 251 00:15:39,279 --> 00:15:43,519 Cunningham knockdown years ago. Anyway, he had the heart and the grit to 252 00:15:43,559 --> 00:15:46,519 sort of get through it. So you know, I don't I don't view 253 00:15:46,559 --> 00:15:50,080 it as a controversy. I viewed as an exciting moment of a very meaningful 254 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,440 moment in the fight, because here's the reality, TJ. If Busik doesn't 255 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:56,320 get the knockdown, the fight winds up a draw because the scorecard that was 256 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:00,600 one fourteen one thirteen would have been one fourteen to one fourteen, and that 257 00:16:00,639 --> 00:16:03,879 would have been a split dry out of one judge scoring the fight for Fury, 258 00:16:03,919 --> 00:16:07,000 one judge scoring for Usic, and one judge having the fight. Even 259 00:16:07,039 --> 00:16:11,720 so, the knockdown saved the day all the more reason why if you can, 260 00:16:11,799 --> 00:16:15,960 and this is just how it is in sports and how it is obviously 261 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:18,440 in a brutal sport like boxing, if you can end it, end it. 262 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:22,080 And he did not there, and it's then surprised me. Let's segue 263 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:25,759 on as we talk about this and go over it all. It surprised me 264 00:16:25,799 --> 00:16:27,639 that he didn't press the advantage at the beginning of the tenth round. Let 265 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:30,960 me find out if he's still shaky, which I believe Fury was at the 266 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,840 beginning of the tenth and the lorder that Usik didn't press it. I think 267 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,039 Fury got his faculties back and got his legs back under him. Your thoughts 268 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:41,320 on that, No, I agree with you about that. I mean, 269 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:44,679 we don't agree on a lot. We don't agree on everything all the time. 270 00:16:44,679 --> 00:16:47,240 But I thought you're right. I mean, he he didn't jump out 271 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:51,519 after him. He might have felt like, you know what, I'm in 272 00:16:51,559 --> 00:16:53,840 control of the fight. I've had the knockdown. I'm ahead. You know, 273 00:16:53,879 --> 00:16:56,799 we can't speak for what the mentality was. The one thing was at 274 00:16:56,799 --> 00:17:00,519 the I watched the postfight press conference that they both conducted after the fact, 275 00:17:00,919 --> 00:17:03,200 because the interviews in the ring were so rough. We'll get to that, 276 00:17:03,599 --> 00:17:07,000 oh yes we will. But somebody asked him about you know, when you 277 00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:11,160 heard that the fight was a split decision before the scores were announced, you 278 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:15,319 know, what were you thinking because they had announced obviously for a Fury won. 279 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:18,079 For he says I believed I won. You know, he says, 280 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:22,160 I do good work. I don't worry. So he seemed confident afterwards. 281 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:26,279 So uh, that's the mentality why I'm making the point where he didn't necessarily 282 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:30,359 rush after Tyson going into the beginning of that next round thinking he might be 283 00:17:30,359 --> 00:17:33,759 able to get him out of there. You know, strategically it might have 284 00:17:33,799 --> 00:17:34,640 been a good thing. Obviously, if you can get the knockout, it's 285 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,240 always better because you don't have to leave it in the hands of the judges. 286 00:17:37,279 --> 00:17:42,599 And fortunate that the judges weren't good this particular fight, so you know, 287 00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:45,880 that's kind of nitpicking. But look, he he had such a rough 288 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:49,039 start to that fight, and I tell you, like a lot of us 289 00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:52,720 were, you know, going back and forth. I'm hexted with a bunch 290 00:17:52,759 --> 00:17:56,720 of boxing people over the last twenty four hours, like he was in trouble 291 00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,640 where you thought Fury might end up stopping him in those first seven rounds, 292 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:04,319 because that's how bad Usick was dealing with the size and the length, and 293 00:18:07,359 --> 00:18:10,799 I never I never thought he was in serious trouble. Fury caught him a 294 00:18:10,839 --> 00:18:14,440 couple of times with the bolo uppercut, but was not dominating him, was 295 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:17,480 not overpassed, certainly, not like the Wilder fights where Fury would just do 296 00:18:17,599 --> 00:18:21,920 whatever he wanted walk him down. He wasn't walking him down. He wasn't 297 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:25,799 walking him down. I don't. I don't mean dominating him in a physical 298 00:18:25,799 --> 00:18:29,440 sense where he's beating him up and busting him up. Just he's like slowly 299 00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:32,400 but surely building up the momentum. He's touching him, touching him, touching, 300 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:34,319 and at some point that was going to take its toll. It hadn't 301 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:37,960 manifested yet, but I felt like I could see that coming, and it 302 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:42,839 wasn't until there was a dramatic change, uh in around the eighth round where 303 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,160 where it became the other direction and back in the back half of the fight. 304 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:51,519 Fury was not in tremendous condition again, that was obvious. He had 305 00:18:51,559 --> 00:18:55,000 trouble putting punches together. He got his nose popped, he got hurt in 306 00:18:55,039 --> 00:18:59,559 the ninth and Usick did the same thing to Anthony Joshua, which is the 307 00:18:59,599 --> 00:19:02,759 back half of the fight. He outperformed Joshuae both of those and won the 308 00:19:02,839 --> 00:19:06,359 decisions. I know you know that, So listen, alexanders Is, He's 309 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:08,160 an all time great fighter. I mean, I don't I've said this before 310 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,000 fight. I mean, before this fight, he was already a first ballot 311 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,960 Hall of Famer before he ever touched gloves with Tyson heartt. The guy's accomplishments 312 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,839 are as good as it gets. He's an Olympic gold medalist, which culminated 313 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:23,000 a monster amateur creer, which he did everything. You know. He comes 314 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:27,599 off that famed Ukrainian Olympic team where his teammate was his very very close friend 315 00:19:27,599 --> 00:19:33,519 Lomachenko. They also had Alexander Vodzick in that amateur group who went on to 316 00:19:33,559 --> 00:19:37,000 become a white heavyweight champion. Point is, you know, they don't mess 317 00:19:37,039 --> 00:19:40,240 around, and he had the accolades as an amateur. He was able to 318 00:19:40,279 --> 00:19:42,839 come into the pros and do big time work and become the undisputed champion at 319 00:19:42,839 --> 00:19:47,720 cruiserweight and then move up to heavyweight become now the undisputed heavyweight champion. You 320 00:19:47,759 --> 00:19:49,920 can make an argument in my opinion, and I wrote this on my social 321 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:56,240 media after the fight. For the last number of months it's basically been a 322 00:19:56,279 --> 00:19:59,759 two man race who's number one pound per pound because we saw in a way 323 00:19:59,799 --> 00:20:03,359 in offered last summer, have those two fights in very short order in the 324 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,960 span of a week between Crawford defeating Erl Spence and also in a way defeating 325 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:11,839 Steven Fulton and now and now of course in a way has done even more 326 00:20:11,839 --> 00:20:17,400 because he's become the undisputed champion and in his way class and defended it as 327 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:19,000 well, even though Crawford hasn't yet had another fight. My point here is 328 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,160 this, it was basically a two man race, right. It's either however 329 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,599 you just order them. It's it's in a way and Crawford are your two 330 00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:30,000 top pound for pound guys. Busik was a little bit of an afterthought because 331 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:33,440 he'd been kind of inactive. Well, he didn't look great against Dubois in 332 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,839 the summer fight last year, but after seeing what he did against Tyson Fury 333 00:20:37,839 --> 00:20:40,960 in the way he did it, you really have to have a three man 334 00:20:41,039 --> 00:20:44,960 race now. Like if you tell me that based on that performance, you're 335 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,440 gonna make Uhsik your number one pound for pound fighter, I could not argue 336 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:52,079 with that, So I guess the point is it's now a three man race. 337 00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:56,880 And by the way, it's not always like this, but those three 338 00:20:56,920 --> 00:21:02,680 guys are so are so good. They're all three of them are first ballot 339 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:07,079 Hall of famers already. Crawford in a way and and ou sick that. 340 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:10,839 You know, it's been a long time trying to think the last time where 341 00:21:10,839 --> 00:21:18,160 you could really have a a real conversation about the reasons why you could have 342 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,079 one, two or three different guys pound for pound. Typically there's one standout 343 00:21:22,519 --> 00:21:26,079 or maybe there's two. We've went through the year where people were debating between 344 00:21:26,079 --> 00:21:30,240 whether it's Mayweather or pac Yao. There was a time, you know, 345 00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:33,599 when I first started doing this where when Roy Jones was sort of on a 346 00:21:33,599 --> 00:21:37,480 long layoff and not really in the ring much. There was conversations maybe it's 347 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:42,119 Bernard Hopkins, maybe it's Shane Mosley, things along those lines. But we 348 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,920 really have a three man race right now, and it's it's really cool to 349 00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:49,400 see because there's such they're so great and they do such different things. But 350 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,559 one thing that they all do they all are consonant pros, they all well 351 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:57,359 rounded, they all they're not one trick ponies, which sometimes the pound for 352 00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:02,559 pound guy can be like that to some degree. It's a beautiful thing to 353 00:22:02,559 --> 00:22:07,519 see if you ask me, and Usik again, very very talented boxer, 354 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,920 very much tactical with this as the other guys are, like you're pointing out 355 00:22:11,279 --> 00:22:15,440 and there was a lot of method to how he finished that fight off. 356 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:18,960 And again, you know, everybody goes back and forth about their cards. 357 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,799 I thought, going into the eighth round it was four to three Fury. 358 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:26,079 I had given Usik the first two. I gave him the fourth round in 359 00:22:26,119 --> 00:22:30,079 a close round. Five, six and seven were definitely Fury's rounds and eight, 360 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,000 nine, ten, eleven, twelve. I can't believe all three judges 361 00:22:33,519 --> 00:22:37,680 gave Usik the twelfth round. I gave Fury Fury the twelfth round because Usik 362 00:22:37,759 --> 00:22:41,279 landed the most significant punch at the beginning of the round and at the end 363 00:22:41,319 --> 00:22:44,599 of the round. Right at the end of the fight, he landed a 364 00:22:44,599 --> 00:22:47,839 couple of significant punches. So that kind of sit a cross and that and 365 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:52,440 that and those cards, I mean it was hanging in the balance on one 366 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:55,240 of them. That gave Fury the win. The ten to nine in the 367 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,920 twelfth round on one card. All right, So they read the cards, 368 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:00,799 Okay, I love this. On the Recap podcast, when you heard split 369 00:23:00,839 --> 00:23:04,640 decision, what give me your initial immediate reaction? Did you think, oh 370 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:10,519 my god, what did you think? I heard the one card for Fury 371 00:23:10,599 --> 00:23:12,880 and the one card for it was sick, and even though I knew mathematically 372 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:18,400 it couldn't probably happen, I kept in my I swear to God, I'm 373 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:21,559 like, fuck, they're gonna call this one thirteen, one thirteen, even 374 00:23:21,599 --> 00:23:25,519 though I know with the math mathematically, because of the knockdown, that's extremely 375 00:23:25,599 --> 00:23:30,359 impossible to happen. But I'm so and it's so unfortunate that I'm so fucking 376 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:33,599 jaded, and I'm sure most people are that you just expect there to be 377 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,200 a fucking shit show. When they started reading split decisions scores or scores in 378 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,359 journal. One of the guys that I'm watching with me, one of one 379 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:41,000 of the guys that was watching it with me, is going, this is 380 00:23:41,039 --> 00:23:44,039 going to be a draw, and I was explaining the same thing to him. 381 00:23:44,079 --> 00:23:47,480 I said, the problem is the ten to eight round is going to 382 00:23:47,599 --> 00:23:49,519 keep it from being even after twelve. It's not a problem though, that's 383 00:23:49,559 --> 00:23:52,160 a good thing. Well, yeah, right right, the problem with the 384 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:56,200 idea of a drawing. I'm just glad that he brought his own two judges 385 00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:00,599 for the knockdown, yes, because it saved the Just imagine twenty five fucking 386 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,400 years to try to get an undisputed champion and they finally fucking fight and they 387 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:06,880 put on a good fight. We have a year and a half way to 388 00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:08,960 get the fight. You you can't even really if it had been a draw 389 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:15,200 without the knockdown, you couldn't really even I wouldn't even call that controversial. 390 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,720 That was like legitimate scoring because with with with the way the scores were, 391 00:24:19,279 --> 00:24:22,240 it was like a six to six ish or seven to five kind of fight. 392 00:24:22,279 --> 00:24:26,240 And by the way, also, I'm thinking in my mind when we 393 00:24:26,319 --> 00:24:29,200 had the first fight, this is going back, you know, a couple 394 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:30,200 of years ago, but it's not that long ago, and it's still kind 395 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:34,559 of was fresh in my mind because of what was happening when Jamal Jamel charlot 396 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,319 And and Brian Castango had their fight the first time, when they met for 397 00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:42,400 the undisputed title at junior middleweight. What happened, it was a draw and 398 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:45,160 it took another period of time for them to have the rematch. Now, 399 00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:49,279 in this particular case, well, Wilder Fury, Wilder Fury was a draw 400 00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:52,400 after the knockdown, true, and I did that, but yeah, number 401 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,680 one, that was not for the undisputed But here's the here's the reason why 402 00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,640 it would have been even more of a disaster then your average draw in this 403 00:25:00,720 --> 00:25:06,480 kind of high profile fight. Because even though they had an automatic rematch, 404 00:25:06,559 --> 00:25:08,720 whatever the result was draw, win loss. However it goes like they do 405 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:14,880 presently, they could have had the rematch, you know, in the next 406 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:17,920 fight come October, which is when they're planning at. October twelfth, is 407 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:21,640 a date that's penciled in. Here's the problem, TJ. If they had 408 00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,079 done the rematch, it would not have been the undisputed title because, as 409 00:25:25,079 --> 00:25:27,880 I have said a thousand times and people are finally starting to listen to me, 410 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,960 the contracts stipulate that the IBF title is going to be vacated. So 411 00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,119 that would mean that that belt will not be on the line for the rematch, 412 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,720 whether it's off a draw, it won't be on the line. In 413 00:25:40,759 --> 00:25:45,640 a USIK theory two based on an Usik victory, because June first, Philip 414 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,359 Herkovic and Dania Duwa are fighting for the IBF title and it's only matter I 415 00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:53,079 don't know the exact date, but sometime in the next two weeks that title 416 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,599 is going to become vacant. End of story. So we would have waited 417 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,200 all that time, had a hell of a first fight that was a draw, 418 00:25:59,319 --> 00:26:00,880 maybe they would have the rematch and it still wouldn't have been unisputed. 419 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:03,960 But none of that happened. On the hypothetical. We got a we got 420 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:07,759 a victor. We got a clear winner, I believe, and you believe. 421 00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,920 Congrats to Usakh. Let's get to the post fight. Oh enough. 422 00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:12,279 Oh, And I wanted to say Fury did bitch and moan a little bit 423 00:26:12,279 --> 00:26:15,880 about it, and he did, and I thought was a well, let's 424 00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:21,640 gary it. Let's get I'm gonna say after the after the fight he basically 425 00:26:21,799 --> 00:26:26,119 said in the ring interview anyway, he basically said they gave it to Usik 426 00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:29,319 because everybody felt sorry for him because his country is at war, which was 427 00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:32,920 absolutely preposterous. And you know, Frank wal didn't say this. He was 428 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:36,559 basically sticking up for Tyson Fury. That shit gets said, and you know, 429 00:26:36,599 --> 00:26:38,359 please don't make a big deal about that. But look, he's responsible 430 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:41,960 for what he says. He's, you know, a public figure, and 431 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:45,119 he's coming off of the win and the ara coming off of the fight anyway, 432 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:47,440 and and he was asked his opinion and he gave it. So I 433 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,039 thought that was as a first reaction to think that some judge is going to 434 00:26:51,079 --> 00:26:55,839 give Alexander Usik a favorable score because the people in this country in a war. 435 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:57,279 I mean, that to me was ridiculous. Yeah, you're just grasping 436 00:26:57,279 --> 00:27:02,039 at anything because you got beatn up. Is beaten up, so you're grasping. 437 00:27:02,079 --> 00:27:04,480 But that said though, other once that was done and he's at the 438 00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:10,359 press conference. Other than that, feury was Actually I wasn't sure how he 439 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,759 would react to a loss. He reacted a lot better than I thought he 440 00:27:12,839 --> 00:27:18,240 might have. He was was, he was okay, He's like, look, 441 00:27:18,319 --> 00:27:19,400 we got a remass clause, we made a lot of money. I 442 00:27:19,440 --> 00:27:22,519 respect him, and I'll talk to Frank and we'll see what's going on. 443 00:27:22,559 --> 00:27:26,240 They didn't really commit to the rematch right off the bat, even though it's 444 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,400 in the contract, at least not for October anyway. All right, Well, 445 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,000 I will say this though, after the fight and you come at this 446 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:37,559 and you preach your resume and how long you've been doing this. So I'm 447 00:27:37,599 --> 00:27:41,079 just sharing with the audience. I've been in broadcasting for thirty two years. 448 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:45,599 I've done this at the national level for over twenty years. I interview people 449 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:51,720 every weekend in the national Football League after a game, losing locker room, 450 00:27:51,839 --> 00:27:55,720 winning locker room. I have spent my whole career doing interviews, even in 451 00:27:55,759 --> 00:27:59,359 tough situations. So I'm laying all of that out, not trying to be 452 00:27:59,799 --> 00:28:03,480 right by the way Ryan I got you, But I'm about to come with 453 00:28:03,519 --> 00:28:08,079 something here stand by so as somebody who does this for a living. I'm 454 00:28:08,079 --> 00:28:11,920 not being just arrogant and giving you my resume just to give the audience my 455 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:17,920 resume. I'm saying I have credibility with what I'm about to say. Horrific. 456 00:28:18,599 --> 00:28:25,519 Horrific job by Ali Oladipo of de Zonne after the fight. I do 457 00:28:25,759 --> 00:28:29,079 understand it's chaotic when you've got a lot of people in the ring and you're 458 00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:33,119 trying to get the interview. But the man just won the undisputed heavyweight championship 459 00:28:33,799 --> 00:28:41,440 and you don't ask him a single question about the fight, including the moment 460 00:28:41,519 --> 00:28:47,599 where he almost scored the knockdown. I'm sitting back going this is horrible. 461 00:28:48,119 --> 00:28:53,799 A I can't emphasize enough a horrible job to not ask the new champ something 462 00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:59,079 anything about the fight. How did you win? Did you know you could 463 00:28:59,079 --> 00:29:02,279 set him up for the big left? Did you think you had him knocked 464 00:29:02,279 --> 00:29:03,880 out at the end of the ninth Ask him, did you think you had 465 00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:07,920 won the fight in the twelfth round? You didn't fight maybe all out in 466 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:12,000 the twelfth did you think you There was not a single question about the fight. 467 00:29:12,319 --> 00:29:17,240 And I'm going back through the pantheon of our lifetimes, of the people 468 00:29:17,279 --> 00:29:21,920 doing those ring interviews, from Larry Merchant to Jim Gray, on and on 469 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,000 and even you know worldwide, Howard Cosell used to go up in the ring 470 00:29:25,039 --> 00:29:26,359 and get the interviews. Tim Ryan would go up in the ring and get 471 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,160 the interviews. Rayfield, you gotta be you want me to say it? 472 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:34,400 What are we doing here? And then he turns immediately to Tyson Fury, 473 00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:41,160 and I realize there's a big influence by Frank Warren and Queensberry Promotions and that 474 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,440 relationship and the Brits, and there were Brits on the broadcast with Todd Grisham. 475 00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,160 I get all of that. But then he's asking Fury about the fight. 476 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,119 He's asking Fury about the blood. He knows he's asking Fury about landing 477 00:29:51,119 --> 00:29:55,000 the uppercut. I'm like, why did you not ask Goosick anything about this? 478 00:29:55,279 --> 00:29:57,440 Well, so there where I come down on that all right. First 479 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:02,400 of all, turn to Fury. I kind of get that because he's there 480 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:04,599 and you don't know if he's gonna leave. True, So that's important. 481 00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,559 You know, you got to take what you can get. I've I've talked 482 00:30:07,559 --> 00:30:11,799 to these different people that do those interviews over the years and understand the position 483 00:30:11,799 --> 00:30:14,960 they've been in. And I've done not necessarily for TV interviews, but I've 484 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,839 interviewed a thousand guys and sometimes you got to grab somebody we can get them, 485 00:30:17,839 --> 00:30:19,200 So that's correct. I can't really, I can't really come down on 486 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:22,920 that part of It's a language barrier. Ustic does not his English is not 487 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,359 the best. He got somebody that has to translate for him. He speaks 488 00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,319 in broken English when he does speak. I'm not knocking for that. That's 489 00:30:29,359 --> 00:30:33,519 just the reality of what happens. Uh, But yeah, it look ADDIE's 490 00:30:33,559 --> 00:30:37,240 a good dude, but he was a little overwhelmed. I think in the 491 00:30:37,279 --> 00:30:38,960 moment. Yes, you know, to be to be, to be quite 492 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:45,559 honest about it, when you're doing entering interviews, it's a lot different when 493 00:30:45,599 --> 00:30:48,640 than when you're in a studio or you're standing on a host position. It's 494 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,920 a different animal because there's a lot of people around you don't know what tech's 495 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:55,920 going on. These two guys just laid it out for twelve rounds and and 496 00:30:56,240 --> 00:31:00,680 all that. But yet I would have liked the The quotes were not great 497 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:04,000 from from Oostik. You can't tell them what to say, but you can 498 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:08,920 set them up to say something that's going to be informative because you ask him 499 00:31:10,039 --> 00:31:15,680 something about what went on, he didn't and so that's a a horrific miss 500 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,839 as far as I'm concerned on that, and otherwise, I mean, I 501 00:31:18,839 --> 00:31:19,920 thought it was a good broadcast. They had a lot of people on it, 502 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,640 and I thought Todd Grisham did a fantastic job, because again, most 503 00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:29,319 of the time, when we're in the United States in one of these fights, 504 00:31:29,359 --> 00:31:32,799 we're seeing a different broadcast than what they have on his own. Mike 505 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:37,000 Costello is their play by play guy. Their guys Barry Jones and it's Darren 506 00:31:37,039 --> 00:31:41,400 Barker right were also they were all for live Mike on the call Costello, 507 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,000 you were only hearing every once in a while the play by play guy make 508 00:31:45,039 --> 00:31:48,880 a comment. But Todd Todd did a great job of setting the other guys 509 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:51,720 up and saying what do you think, what's going on? What's going through 510 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:52,680 your mind? I thought he did a really good job. The property, 511 00:31:52,759 --> 00:31:56,759 I mean mostly the owne is you know, US and and Britain based. 512 00:31:56,759 --> 00:31:59,960 So what they did was they took the two main crews that do the show 513 00:32:00,119 --> 00:32:02,200 was in the States and in Britain, and they merged them together and then 514 00:32:02,279 --> 00:32:06,839 had other people to talk, whether it was you know, you know Kate 515 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:10,960 Abdo as the host or or or Addie who did interviews and and other things 516 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:15,039 in the broadcast. Obviously Mannick, Chris Mannix was there doing his things, 517 00:32:15,039 --> 00:32:20,559 scoring and being part of the host position as well and doing his general you 518 00:32:20,559 --> 00:32:23,000 know, Jack of Vaalta. I guarantee Mannix would have asked Alexander Russick about 519 00:32:23,039 --> 00:32:25,759 something about the fight. I know that. I do wish they would have 520 00:32:25,799 --> 00:32:29,920 had, you know, Chris in that position after the fight, because when 521 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:34,240 I think about entering interviews in tough moments or after big moments or big fights 522 00:32:34,279 --> 00:32:37,559 or significant things, the first thing I always think about in that and this 523 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,400 is the master class of the interview. There's two master classes that come to 524 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:47,400 mind. It's Jim Gray finally getting Mike Tyson after he bit Evander Holyfield's ear 525 00:32:47,559 --> 00:32:50,519 when he had to go back to the jets room and get him. And 526 00:32:50,559 --> 00:32:53,160 I think about Larry Merchant with his arm around Busker Douglas was about to cry 527 00:32:53,839 --> 00:32:57,960 because of what's been happening in his life and he's overcome by emotion. Has 528 00:32:58,039 --> 00:33:01,480 just won the undisputed title against Mike Tyson. Uh, and those those if 529 00:33:01,519 --> 00:33:07,599 you're a broadcaster, those are masterclasses in the way to deal with different kind 530 00:33:07,599 --> 00:33:08,880 of moments. One guy was angry, one guy was happy. But I 531 00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:14,400 mean, you're still dealing with human beings were highly emotional, and and the 532 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:17,039 way you can let them say their thing and guide them along me, that's 533 00:33:17,079 --> 00:33:21,200 brilliance. And uh, you know we didn't see that on Saturday unfortunately. 534 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:27,920 All right, but it doesn't dissuade the performance by Usik. All right. 535 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,759 So you've already made mention and laid out there is a rematch clause, and 536 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:36,200 it's been described as an automatic immediate rematch clause. Fury said in the ring 537 00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:38,119 and after the fight, we want to do this in October. Here I 538 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:43,200 go with my ray field meter. What's the likelihood that we are seeing this 539 00:33:43,519 --> 00:33:47,079 again as soon as October? Which by my count, is about four and 540 00:33:47,119 --> 00:33:52,680 a half months away. Yeah, that that that that's a little tight in 541 00:33:52,759 --> 00:33:58,079 today's boxing era, particularly when they just went through a very grueling fight and 542 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,519 they just made, you know, a ship loads of money. Uh, 543 00:34:01,279 --> 00:34:05,240 they did say what they said in the interviews, in the in the in 544 00:34:05,279 --> 00:34:07,840 the ring commentary. If you watch the press converences, both of the guys 545 00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:12,280 did not It's not that they didn't commit to the fight, but they definitely 546 00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:15,639 didn't commit to October. Fury was like, look, I'm gonna, you 547 00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:17,320 know, go home. I'm gonna in adult things that fighters say, I'm 548 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:20,360 gonna, you know, relax. I mean, look, he made the 549 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:22,920 point. This is not like they went through one camp and had a fight. 550 00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,599 There was multiple training camps because of the cut, forcing the fight to 551 00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:30,079 be postponed, so there was a much longer than normal camp. Uh. 552 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:31,760 You know, he was away from the from the from the family for a 553 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:36,599 long time because he trained a part of the time in Saudi Arabia. Uh, 554 00:34:36,639 --> 00:34:38,639 you know, and he's just off an emotional emotional subter. He just 555 00:34:38,679 --> 00:34:42,840 took his first loss. So look, he you got to give him a 556 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:45,199 couple of weeks to decompressed. So I would say two three weeks. You 557 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:47,960 know, him and Frank Warren will have the conversation. Uh. You know, 558 00:34:49,199 --> 00:34:52,760 maybe Turkey al Hik will have his uh a conversation with them to see 559 00:34:52,760 --> 00:34:54,639 what's up, because they want to do this fight as part of the opening 560 00:34:54,679 --> 00:35:00,199 of the next read season's festival. Uh and Usik his, I did the 561 00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:01,280 same thing. And look, I've been in training, training, training, 562 00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:04,840 he goes, I missed my daughter's birth I missed the birthdays, I missed 563 00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:07,639 the family holiday, all because I've been training and so focused on this fight. 564 00:35:07,760 --> 00:35:09,559 So now I don't want to talk about another fight. I just won, 565 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:13,639 you know, the undisputed title. I'm going home. I'm going to 566 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:15,960 enjoy my family, my friends. I'm going to church, and I'm gonna, 567 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:19,000 you know, just relax, which he has every right to do, 568 00:35:19,079 --> 00:35:21,760 by the way, that's right, and then we'll see. So, you 569 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:23,920 know, could it happen in October? Like the thoughts aren't Yeah, what 570 00:35:24,119 --> 00:35:27,280 is sure? Is it? Like a three on the ray Field meter for 571 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,639 October? A four? You give me a five? I give you like 572 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:34,000 a five and a half. Like in other word, it's a little bit 573 00:35:34,039 --> 00:35:37,199 better than fifty to fifty that it does happen in October. I do think 574 00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:40,199 it's gonna happen. It's if they have to push it back, you know, 575 00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:43,360 a few weeks or a month or whatever, it wouldn't be a shocker. 576 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:46,760 Look, remember this fight was supposed to be in December after Fury Naganhu 577 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:50,000 and I always thought even if Fury went in there and drilled the guy, 578 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:52,719 that it was a lot to ask for him to be back so quickly and 579 00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:55,719 uh and uh, and obviously didn't happen, and you know, it got 580 00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:59,199 pushed into the to the new year, and then it got delayed because of 581 00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:01,119 the cuts. So I do believe the fight's going to happen. There's a 582 00:36:01,199 --> 00:36:05,880 lot of money at stake for both guys. It's something that the Saudis want. 583 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:08,000 It was also the kind of fight where you know, when you see 584 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:13,679 an automatic rematch, like I mean it was, the loser had to exercise 585 00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:15,679 that option, which Eryl Spence did to use that as one example. But 586 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:19,639 there was no way to make that actually happen because who in the heck wanted 587 00:36:19,679 --> 00:36:21,679 to see it. There was no way it was going to make any money 588 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,039 in terms of pay per view. It just no there was no public demand 589 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:29,119 at least in terms of Fury and Usik having a rematch. There's gonna be 590 00:36:29,159 --> 00:36:30,000 a lot of people that would want to see that because it was a very, 591 00:36:30,119 --> 00:36:32,639 very good fight and they put on the heck of a show. So 592 00:36:32,880 --> 00:36:37,039 I don't think anybody's gonna object to that. I want to see it, 593 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:38,719 but I don't know that it's going to be much different. It wasn't much 594 00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:44,280 different in the Anthony Joshua rematch. I think there is a strong argument too, 595 00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:45,000 give me your quick opinion that we're going to move to the rest of 596 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,480 the card and then we're going to get to the ESPN top rank card and 597 00:36:47,519 --> 00:36:53,199 another Ukrainian upsetting Emanuel Navarate is a seven to one underdog late Saurday night in 598 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:58,800 a forgettable fight. By the way, what about the argument we've seen the 599 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:04,599 best of Tyson Fury previously and uh and Saturday Night only maybe gave you a 600 00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:08,760 taste when he's in against a skilled, talented fighter, that this is what 601 00:37:08,880 --> 00:37:13,679 we're gonna see in the rematch along those lines, I Francis well, I 602 00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:15,719 mean, if Francis and Ganu gave him problems, which he did, and 603 00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:20,719 now this is the next fight. Hold on, hold on, they're totally 604 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:24,199 different. He didn't train for Nagana that and that's on him, So I'm 605 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:30,000 not it's not the over in the overarching point. Have we seen the best 606 00:37:30,039 --> 00:37:32,760 of Tyson Fury when he was putting it to Deontay Wilder in the aftermath when 607 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:36,960 he beat Dillian White. Do you believe he can summon it again? What's 608 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:38,480 your take? Well, I think we have seen the best of Tyson Fear 609 00:37:38,519 --> 00:37:42,440 and the best of Alexander Ussik. We've seen the best of Anthony Joshua and 610 00:37:42,519 --> 00:37:45,960 the best of Deantay Wilder. These are older heavyweights. They're not what they 611 00:37:45,039 --> 00:37:47,480 were when they're at their best. But one thing I'll say about Tyson Fury, 612 00:37:47,679 --> 00:37:50,920 and anybody that's followed me, or reads me, or knows me or 613 00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,000 listens to me knows, I've never been like a big Tyson Fury defender. 614 00:37:53,039 --> 00:37:55,920 I find them to be borish about a lot of things. And there have 615 00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:59,360 been times where I've not been a fan of his. Uh, But I 616 00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,000 give the man respect me because when it came to do the rematch against Deontay 617 00:38:02,039 --> 00:38:07,320 Wilder, I remember specifically I asked him, I said, you know, 618 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:09,480 when he when he's talked about how he was going to fight the rematch, 619 00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:13,440 and he said, I'm gonna come out there blasting away and I'm gonna go 620 00:38:13,519 --> 00:38:16,280 get this man. He had switch trainers at that point, even though he 621 00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:20,320 was coming off a draw, and he went with sugar Hill. I said, 622 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:22,679 why are you going to make the change? You know everybody thought you 623 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,159 won, but you know it was still a draw. You didn't lose. 624 00:38:25,199 --> 00:38:28,480 And he's like, because I didn't win, I got to do something different. 625 00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:30,239 So he said, I'm going to go get the guy we all thought 626 00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:31,440 he was full of shit. He went out there and he got him. 627 00:38:31,559 --> 00:38:37,000 I'm making a point here, and if somebody is capable of changing their style 628 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,760 to fit the need that they have to fight in to get a win, 629 00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:44,840 Tyson Fury is that guy, in my opinion. And it's not like Alexander 630 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:49,000 Usak's getting any younger. He's actually older than Tyson Fury. So and it 631 00:38:49,079 --> 00:38:52,480 wasn't like he had an easy time he got. I felt pretty dominated in 632 00:38:52,519 --> 00:38:55,199 the first half of the fight, and but for a knockdown and we have 633 00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:59,800 a draw and everybody keeps her title. So I don't think he has to 634 00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:02,719 make massive adjustments to get a victory over Alexander Russik. He's not unbeatable, 635 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:06,519 So yeah, do I think we've seen the best of him. We both 636 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,519 win the rematch, absolutely, yeah, right, And and we both thought 637 00:39:10,599 --> 00:39:15,840 Fury would win going in, and Usik proved us both wrong. And I 638 00:39:15,079 --> 00:39:20,920 think he solidifies himself right now in the modern era of the last let's say, 639 00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:25,360 seven eight years. He's the guy because if you thought Anthony Joshua was 640 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:29,960 the guy, Usik beat him twice. And if you thought Tyson Fury's the 641 00:39:30,039 --> 00:39:34,880 guy because he beat Wilder twice and Usik handled him. And again, I 642 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,880 don't We're not going to keep going over. I don't think Fury dominated the 643 00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,679 first half of the fight. I thought Usik won the first two rounds and 644 00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:45,559 I thought he won the fourth round. So clearly Usik dominated the back half 645 00:39:45,599 --> 00:39:47,360 of the fight. And there's questions about conditioning and all of that. I 646 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:50,519 heard a couple of people say, hey, Fury's going to come in much 647 00:39:50,559 --> 00:39:53,280 bigger in a rematch and try to use that to his advantage. I thought 648 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:55,920 this was an excellent point. Too late, late late, lad, and 649 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,639 you were probably still watching. I was trying to go to bed in the 650 00:39:59,679 --> 00:40:04,039 east and I'm watching the ESPN State of Boxing show on ESPN Plus, and 651 00:40:04,239 --> 00:40:07,159 Tim Bradley made a very interesting point. I thought that I didn't even really 652 00:40:07,199 --> 00:40:10,000 hear on the his own broadcast, and we should eliminate it just here real 653 00:40:10,119 --> 00:40:15,440 quick. Fury has had a lot of success tactically with leaning with all that 654 00:40:15,639 --> 00:40:21,400 size and weight on fighters including Wilder and others, and he could not really 655 00:40:21,519 --> 00:40:23,920 do it because Usik mainly wasn't letting him do it for much of the fight, 656 00:40:24,159 --> 00:40:28,039 wouldn't get close enough to him to get grappled, held leaned on, 657 00:40:28,639 --> 00:40:31,920 and and Bradley's point was he could not wear him down doing that when he 658 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:36,920 had worn other guys down doing that, And I thought very insightful comment there, 659 00:40:37,199 --> 00:40:38,840 quick take, and then we'll go on from here to the rest of 660 00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,880 the other part. Quick take on I think Bradley was right about that he 661 00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:45,239 didn't really lean on him. The one thing he did try to do because 662 00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:49,760 obviously if you watched other Usik fights, certainly if you watched the Duboi fight, 663 00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:53,519 that the one place where he maybe there was vulnerability in Usik was body 664 00:40:53,599 --> 00:40:58,440 shots. And if you look at the copy box, he landed like seventy 665 00:40:58,519 --> 00:41:01,679 body punches in the fight. He really targeted Alexander Usik's body, but it 666 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:05,320 is to no avail. He took the shots. Well. Now, he 667 00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:08,280 didn't land like the perfect digging shot like we've seen you know, certain guys, 668 00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:10,760 uh you know, score knockouts with where you hit him right on the 669 00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:15,159 liver. But he was trying, and he was landing some of those shots, 670 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:19,119 and it and it really uh you know, it didn't it didn't work. 671 00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,159 And and and uh, you know, Fury, Fury tried to go 672 00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:24,840 to the body. I made a mistake on the number. It was Usik 673 00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,880 that landed a number of body shots, but Fury landed. I don't think 674 00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:30,400 he landed. I don't think he landed seventy. Yeah, my bad on 675 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:34,039 that. He he he, But he was targeting the body. He may 676 00:41:34,079 --> 00:41:37,519 not have landed, but clearly part of his strategy was to go downstairs and 677 00:41:37,559 --> 00:41:40,400 see if he gets softened him up having seen what he saw and Usik, 678 00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:44,360 I think it was just a matter of I don't think he was targeting the 679 00:41:44,400 --> 00:41:45,599 body, even though he landed a number of them. He's the one that 680 00:41:45,639 --> 00:41:49,639 the landed the seventy body shots. I think that wasn't so much part of 681 00:41:49,679 --> 00:41:52,320 the strategy. I think part of it was because Tyson here is so damn 682 00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:55,000 big that that was what was available, right, So he was tried in 683 00:41:55,039 --> 00:41:58,360 there because a lot harder to hit him in the in the in the in 684 00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:00,519 the face and the chin when he's so much caller than is when the guy's 685 00:42:00,599 --> 00:42:04,239 you know, trunks, you know as uh you know his torso is right 686 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:07,480 there in front of you. But uh, yeah, I mean in the 687 00:42:07,599 --> 00:42:08,440 end, TJ. The bottom lines, we had a hell of a fight, 688 00:42:08,800 --> 00:42:12,199 and we're probably gonna see it again, and we'll get back and we'll 689 00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:14,760 have another conversation about what we think is gonna happen. Everybody look at what 690 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:17,079 happened in the first fight and uh and make their assessments. All right, 691 00:42:17,159 --> 00:42:20,400 so we went, we went for a while on that one, all right. 692 00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:25,199 Rest of the undercard, we saw ji Opataia defeat Marius Bradis for the 693 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:30,480 second time, validating his previous win. For the record, Reeves had the 694 00:42:30,559 --> 00:42:34,519 decision and the over on the bet Us Show on that one. Although Braidus 695 00:42:35,079 --> 00:42:37,239 Uh once again suffered the broken nose and you were wondering, is he gonna 696 00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:42,800 be able to survive nose rebroken again? He did I saw the tweet by 697 00:42:42,840 --> 00:42:45,719 the way that Opa Tyle was also in the hospital after the fight. They 698 00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:49,880 took a tweet where both of them were there getting checked out. Opa Tile 699 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,039 was in a hospital gown in the in the bed behind Braida's taking the photo. 700 00:42:53,519 --> 00:42:58,639 They were both there together. Yeah, So give me thoughts on that 701 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:01,159 and what else stood out on the undercarter as we go down piece by piece. 702 00:43:01,639 --> 00:43:05,800 Well, in terms of that co feature, high class fight, excellent 703 00:43:06,199 --> 00:43:08,400 matchup, a remash that I think a lot of us wanted to see. 704 00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:14,960 He broke Opataia's jaw in their first fight when they fought back in Opataia's home 705 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:19,400 country of Australia, and Opataia persevered through it and won the lineal title and 706 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,199 the IBF title by beating by beating Bretist in that fight. Now, Bradest 707 00:43:22,199 --> 00:43:25,840 hadn't fought since, and even though Opataia had been off for quite a while 708 00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:29,760 due to the injury, he had fought two times since. Of course, 709 00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:32,199 he had two fights, one in England where he defended the title, and 710 00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:36,440 then the fight with Elizera, which is a first round knockout, which is 711 00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:39,239 why he got stripped of the IBF title because of the nonsense with the IBF, 712 00:43:39,320 --> 00:43:42,920 but an end, he fought for his old belt. It should have 713 00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:45,800 been a defense, but he won it back against Greatest. But here's the 714 00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:50,800 thing about Bredest. He's a real solid, top level cruiseway and has been 715 00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:52,400 for a number of years now. He's getting on in years in his late 716 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:54,679 thirties. I think he's thirty nine years old now. But if you go 717 00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:59,400 and look down the career of Alexander Usse and you said to yourself, who's 718 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,639 the toughest ever had, maybe if you put Fury to the side, you 719 00:44:02,679 --> 00:44:07,840 would say it's probably Mayris Braidis who gave alexand usk a very difficult time, 720 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,400 not in terms of physically beating him up, but in terms of just out 721 00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:15,280 boxing him in long stretches and winning rounds and coming off the close to defeating 722 00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:17,599 him. It was Usik that had to go to Latvia, which is where 723 00:44:17,679 --> 00:44:22,079 Braidest is from, and eke out a split decision, but a legitimate one. 724 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:25,440 But that was a very hard fight. That was a unification during the 725 00:44:25,679 --> 00:44:30,239 World Boxing super Series. So my point is that Braidest is no joke. 726 00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:34,400 If he can go essentially straight up with a prime Usik at cruiserweight. You 727 00:44:34,519 --> 00:44:36,519 know, he's a real fighter, and he showed a lot of grit and 728 00:44:36,559 --> 00:44:38,119 heart because, like you said, he had the nose broken. Opatai is 729 00:44:38,159 --> 00:44:43,320 a heart puncher and a guy with good stamina and very sturdy, and he 730 00:44:43,480 --> 00:44:45,760 was getting his ass kick basically for the first eight rounds of the fight, 731 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:50,000 not necessarily physically other than the nose, but losing every round on the scorecards. 732 00:44:50,400 --> 00:44:52,880 And he never gave up. Man, he came storming back. He 733 00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:54,400 won probably the last, you know, three four rounds of the fight, 734 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:58,719 and he inflicted damage on Opataia. Kind of fight where I'm watching it and 735 00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,920 you think you're something very good. Yeah, what if we were still in 736 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:05,840 an ear where there were fifteen round fight, would Opataia still be standing when 737 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:07,559 the fight was over? I'm not so sure about that. But the end, 738 00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,559 as Opataia said, he goes he broke my nose. Iyebusted his nose. 739 00:45:10,559 --> 00:45:14,800 I mean they both had their they both got their pound of flesh, 740 00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:17,480 so to speak. It was a It was a good fight. All respect 741 00:45:17,519 --> 00:45:22,159 to Myris Bradis. He's a warrior, Opataia the same thing. But Opataia 742 00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:24,119 can not move on from Bradis and see what else he can do. He 743 00:45:24,199 --> 00:45:28,559 mentioned that he would like to unify. He said Bill and Smith against Okoli. 744 00:45:28,639 --> 00:45:31,199 He misspoke. He meant Bill and Smith against Rie Kapoor, who fight 745 00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:35,440 in their mandatory coming up uh you know, uh later, you know, 746 00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:37,039 in a few weeks from now, which would be a good fight. But 747 00:45:37,079 --> 00:45:42,039 he has designs on unifying in the weight class, and you know, it's 748 00:45:42,119 --> 00:45:44,760 just a matter of time. Like Usik, he's gonna move up to heavyweight 749 00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:46,119 at some point and see what he can do there. And by the time 750 00:45:46,199 --> 00:45:51,159 Opataia is done doing his business at cruiserweight, you know, figure another you 751 00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:52,840 know, year, year or two in that weight class by that point, 752 00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:57,039 you know, Fury, Usik, Wilder, Joshua of those guys, I'm 753 00:45:57,039 --> 00:46:00,400 not saying they're all going to be retired, but they'll have petered out probably 754 00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:02,599 in terms of you know, at the super top level, and there'll be 755 00:46:04,639 --> 00:46:07,119 a spot for some of the newer guys and some of the newer blood in 756 00:46:07,159 --> 00:46:08,679 the weight class, and I figure opata is gonna fit right in there. 757 00:46:08,679 --> 00:46:13,119 But this was a good win, a worthy co feature. Maybe not the 758 00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:15,400 all out all action of the first fight, but certainly interesting because of the 759 00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:19,119 way that Bradist came back in the in the last part of the fight, 760 00:46:20,280 --> 00:46:22,719 all right. Also on the card, we now know more about this name 761 00:46:22,960 --> 00:46:30,679 Anthony Kasachi, who ends up getting a Kasachi. He ends up getting the 762 00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:35,480 TK over Joe Cordina. There was some controversy though, because he hurt the 763 00:46:35,559 --> 00:46:39,960 Cordina with a punch that was clearly on the break, and the fight changed 764 00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:43,239 after that. I believe it was the third round that he hit him on 765 00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:46,280 the break. The referee didn't really do anything, and Cordina not the same, 766 00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:52,960 eventually down and eventually down again and stopped. Shocker, shocker, what 767 00:46:52,079 --> 00:46:55,440 about it. I don't think it was dirty. I don't think it was 768 00:46:55,480 --> 00:47:00,039 on purpose. I think that shit happens in professional boxing matches. Like Kasachi 769 00:47:00,079 --> 00:47:02,159 said after the fact, you know, it wasn't dirty. It just had 770 00:47:02,159 --> 00:47:07,039 you know, that's what happens. I thought the referee, Bob Williams, 771 00:47:07,159 --> 00:47:09,760 was awfully slow. He did not physically get between them. I understand if 772 00:47:09,800 --> 00:47:14,800 you say break, you're supposed to listen, but the onus is also on 773 00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:19,559 Cordeena. You know, I remember covering Floyd Mayweather against Victor Ortiz and this 774 00:47:19,679 --> 00:47:22,440 became a big thing. Protect yourself at all times, and Cordeena did not 775 00:47:22,559 --> 00:47:27,480 do that, so it's on him. And in the end, Kasachi, 776 00:47:27,559 --> 00:47:29,880 you know, was able to take advantage and he was able to score the 777 00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:34,760 knockout. But even before that, it wasn't like Cordeena was light the lighting 778 00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:37,920 the house on fire and the way he was fighting. You know, Kasachi 779 00:47:37,199 --> 00:47:39,519 was not known as being a big puncher, but he got the job done. 780 00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:43,519 I think, honestly, I know cordeana't make a lot of excuse about 781 00:47:43,559 --> 00:47:45,480 this. This is my opinion, so I'm not saying Cordeena is bitching and 782 00:47:45,519 --> 00:47:50,280 moaning about it. I think he's really tight at one thirty and he probably 783 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:52,599 should have maybe moved up, but he had the opportunity to defend the title 784 00:47:52,639 --> 00:47:55,840 on this cards. I think we're going to be hearing about Cordeina moving up 785 00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:59,880 and wait in the not too distant future. Baddie, you gotta respect to 786 00:48:00,280 --> 00:48:01,599 you know, he came in and no one gave him a chance, a 787 00:48:01,679 --> 00:48:05,400 big, huge underdog and never faced anybody, even though he has a nice 788 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:08,679 record and I only had the eight knockouts or the seven knockouts rather in the 789 00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:13,360 twenty twenty one wins coming into the fight, got the job done against a 790 00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:15,119 fighter that a lot of people thought was like that. I don't the division. 791 00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:16,960 I don't know what it was on our bet us line, but I 792 00:48:17,039 --> 00:48:22,800 think I saw you could have cashed a plus sixteen hundred ticket for a CASTETCHI 793 00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:27,719 knockout of Joe Cordina. This is why we love boxing. They talked about 794 00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:30,360 a rematch a little bit. I don't know if we're gonna see it make 795 00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:34,360 the way can Cordina? I think on your point on that, and let 796 00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:36,000 me just say, I know you're not saying it, but let me just 797 00:48:36,039 --> 00:48:38,079 say this. When you have a punch like that, when a guy is 798 00:48:38,159 --> 00:48:43,039 relaxed because you've said break even for a half second, and it changes the 799 00:48:43,079 --> 00:48:45,360 fight last night like that, there has to almost be an astisk. But 800 00:48:45,559 --> 00:48:52,239 beside what goes on after that in my mind, because that's a given, 801 00:48:52,559 --> 00:48:57,119 I'm saying for me, that's a different fight from that point on. He 802 00:48:57,320 --> 00:49:00,320 I don't think he really recovered after that punch. I thought, shit happens 803 00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:05,280 in boxing matches. You have to be prepared, you have to be ok. 804 00:49:06,199 --> 00:49:08,880 I got you may give you a hypothetical, let me get hold on. 805 00:49:10,079 --> 00:49:15,079 I'm the one gonna beak. I'm making my point. I'm making my 806 00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:20,079 point. I'm making my point. I'm making my point. If he goes 807 00:49:20,159 --> 00:49:23,360 down on a knee after that punch and says I can't get up, what 808 00:49:23,559 --> 00:49:28,320 happens. One of two things happens. It's either a d Q, which 809 00:49:28,360 --> 00:49:30,719 probably wouldn't have happened, or we're gonna call it a technical draw because we 810 00:49:30,800 --> 00:49:34,960 haven't gone to four rounds if that happened, because the referee, the ref 811 00:49:35,159 --> 00:49:37,920 well, if he had gone down, if Cordeina had gone down on a 812 00:49:38,039 --> 00:49:42,599 knee after the punch, you would have had a mess in the ring because 813 00:49:42,599 --> 00:49:45,480 he clearly said break. Everybody could hear it. The punch is after that. 814 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:49,679 And if Cordeena had gone down and not gotten up, we got a 815 00:49:49,760 --> 00:49:52,639 mess on our hands. So it's not an insignificant you are making. You 816 00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:58,760 are making an assumption that the referee is gonna call it a foul because he 817 00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,320 said break. I don't know if that's he would have a hard time reeling 818 00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,599 it back in when he said break, and the punch is after that. 819 00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:07,800 And again this is a questionable referee, by the way, but seeing the 820 00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:08,920 way of the Referhenandile. It wouldn't shocked me at all. If he went 821 00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:12,679 down on a knee, that fucking guy would have gotten counted out. Now 822 00:50:12,719 --> 00:50:15,039 there'd have been a controversy, I guess on the counter, but it still 823 00:50:15,039 --> 00:50:17,559 would have gone down as that's my victory for Casachi. So you know, 824 00:50:19,119 --> 00:50:22,239 my opinion is that you're making a little bit too much of it. All 825 00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:28,000 right, we have different opinions. All Right, you did put on the 826 00:50:28,079 --> 00:50:31,039 rundown. My boy a Gekaba Yelle also wins on this undercard. How impressed 827 00:50:31,039 --> 00:50:36,280 you should embrace your boy. Now it's a knockout of Frank Sanchez with body 828 00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:39,760 blows and I know it's gonna be a while, but does it put him 829 00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:44,039 in the mix twenty twenty five, he's he got to win another fight or 830 00:50:44,079 --> 00:50:46,079 to what I mean to get him in the mix. He gets a significant 831 00:50:46,079 --> 00:50:51,119 win on this card. It's a hugely significant win because he's now the official 832 00:50:51,199 --> 00:50:54,559 mandatory challenger for the WBC Heavyweight Championship. So when the next time they called 833 00:50:54,599 --> 00:50:58,599 the mandatory, he's the guy that's gonna fight whoever is holding the belt. 834 00:50:58,679 --> 00:51:01,920 Now that's the good news for a g Cabil Your boy the problem is the 835 00:51:02,079 --> 00:51:06,679 WBC is not coming up in the rotation anytime soon. And there's other fights 836 00:51:06,679 --> 00:51:09,159 that are gonna take place because you're gonna see the rematch most likely between Fury 837 00:51:09,199 --> 00:51:14,079 and Sick, which will still involve the WBC title. And there's other fights 838 00:51:14,119 --> 00:51:16,639 that are out there in the in the ether that that that that I think 839 00:51:16,679 --> 00:51:22,559 are going to happen at some point that you know, let's just go detective 840 00:51:22,639 --> 00:51:24,400 work off the top of our heads. We know the ib F is next. 841 00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:28,519 That's the reason why there's the strip. We know the w b A 842 00:51:29,239 --> 00:51:32,559 was last summer and that's how the Dubois fight happened. Would the WBC be 843 00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:37,000 next, Would the WBO be next? I guess that's the rub Well you 844 00:51:37,079 --> 00:51:38,800 got it back in up. It would be next, right. The previous 845 00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:43,920 WBC mandatory was when uh Fury fought against I believe it was when he fought 846 00:51:43,920 --> 00:51:45,559 the Dylan White fight. That was a WBC mandatory. So by the way, 847 00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:50,199 the w BO, who knows, But they can also they can ask 848 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:52,280 for exceptions, they can try to do other things. There's willing and dealing. 849 00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:57,039 I guarantee you one thing, a g cabil your boy is going to 850 00:51:57,119 --> 00:52:00,880 have another fight before he fights for the title. The good thing for Caviel 851 00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:06,760 is that he's now ingrained to a degree on the Saudi Arabian cards because he 852 00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:09,960 had this win against Frank Sanchez on the card. His previous fight where he 853 00:52:10,039 --> 00:52:15,519 beat Makmandu in very impressive fashion, that was on the December card in Saudi 854 00:52:15,519 --> 00:52:19,239 Arabia. So he's part of that heavyweight landscape. I know they spoke about 855 00:52:19,239 --> 00:52:22,719 it in the in the in the broadcast, because even though he's WBC mandatory 856 00:52:23,079 --> 00:52:27,000 doesn't mean he can't go get a shot at some other belt or some other 857 00:52:27,079 --> 00:52:30,880 fight. They talked about the prospect of maybe him against Joseph Parker, who 858 00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:34,760 was part of the broadcast, who's now the holder of the WBO's interim title, 859 00:52:34,960 --> 00:52:37,880 who's going to be waiting a little while for his own title shot because 860 00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:40,519 of like you know, the the rematch that's going to take place. So 861 00:52:40,639 --> 00:52:45,239 he's the next up in terms of the WBO mandatory. But the main thing 862 00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:50,239 is Cabiel scores a career victory. He looked absolutely terrific. Now Frank Sanchez 863 00:52:50,559 --> 00:52:52,440 did not fight like the Frank Sanchez that we used to Now I'm not making 864 00:52:52,519 --> 00:52:57,039 excuses for he was wearing the knee brace. Clearly his right knee was fucked 865 00:52:57,119 --> 00:53:00,719 up. He was not moving like he normally does. He came into this 866 00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:02,280 fight compromise, no doubt about it. But I'm sure he went through with 867 00:53:02,320 --> 00:53:06,159 it because of the stakes, because of the money that was on the table. 868 00:53:06,519 --> 00:53:09,119 Thinking Cabriell is not necessarily a guy that I can't handle. That was 869 00:53:09,159 --> 00:53:14,760 obviously a miscalculation because not only did he lose, he lost basically every single 870 00:53:14,880 --> 00:53:19,239 round and then he got knocked out. This was a very, very very 871 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:22,840 bad loss for Sanchez, not that he lost, but the way he lost. 872 00:53:22,320 --> 00:53:28,119 For Cabell tremendous performance. He's strong, he's got stamina, he threw 873 00:53:28,159 --> 00:53:30,199 a lot of punches. Looks like he takes a good shot based on seeing 874 00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:35,039 recent fights. He's a guy in my opinion, that's coming into his own 875 00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,880 that the more he fights the better opponents. He's more confident in himself and 876 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:43,360 he's doing the or beating Feary or beating all these guys, Joshua whoever. 877 00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:45,679 But I would not mind seeing him against any of these types of guys. 878 00:53:45,719 --> 00:53:47,960 You want to put him in the ring with Joe Parker, I'd be happy 879 00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:51,480 to watch that. You want to put him in the ring against Deontay Wilder 880 00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:52,840 against his Jang Whin. You know, the winner of that fight, or 881 00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:58,440 any the heavyweights that are not theory and usick as they go towards a rematch. 882 00:53:58,679 --> 00:54:00,840 Cabiel can probably hang and make a fun fight with any of those dudes. 883 00:54:01,800 --> 00:54:05,800 All Right, anything else on the Ring of Fire card that stands out? 884 00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,440 Or shall we move on to ESPN top rank and the Barren chick upset 885 00:54:09,519 --> 00:54:14,480 of Navarate. Well, I'll mention that the future of the heavyweights we saw 886 00:54:14,599 --> 00:54:17,239 possibly in this fighter, the nineteen year old British fighter named Moses Atama, 887 00:54:17,599 --> 00:54:23,119 who I don't think is hugely position in terms of his size as a heavyweight. 888 00:54:23,679 --> 00:54:27,119 But one thing I did notice now he wasn't fighting like a top guy. 889 00:54:27,159 --> 00:54:30,920 He buzzed through mezen keV in like two rounds, very very easy knock 890 00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:35,079 that win. But the one thing that stands out when I've seen most is 891 00:54:35,119 --> 00:54:37,480 a tom of fight. I've seen him now he's nine and no now I've 892 00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:40,360 seen him several times. He has super fast hands, and as a heavyweight, 893 00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:43,920 you know, you can do a lot of damage if you've got super 894 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:46,159 fast hands because even if you're not the biggest puncher, if guys don't see 895 00:54:46,159 --> 00:54:49,360 the shots coming, you can do a lot of damage. So that was 896 00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,000 impressive with the way he did that. And the other fight that was kind 897 00:54:52,000 --> 00:54:58,960 of sad to watch was watching the the Here Too four unknown Robin safar At, 898 00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:02,679 a cruiserweight who was in the ring as the hand picked opponent for the 899 00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:07,599 former light heavyweight champion now fighting at cruiserweight, Sergate Kvallev, who was two 900 00:55:07,679 --> 00:55:10,320 years past his the most recent fight his first fight at cruiseweight. Look, 901 00:55:10,440 --> 00:55:14,920 every single one of his forty one years got absolutely dominated. And to put 902 00:55:14,960 --> 00:55:17,920 the cherry on top of that, he had Safar scored a big knockdown in 903 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:22,960 the final seconds of the fight and the bell ended the fight. And it's 904 00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:30,239 just a it's such as there was a time when Skvallev was one of the 905 00:55:30,280 --> 00:55:32,960 most dominating pound for pound forces in the sport. He was a guy guys 906 00:55:34,039 --> 00:55:37,000 did not want to fight. He was a devastating puncher, the crusher. 907 00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:39,800 He was on big time fights on HBO, beating quality guys, whether it's 908 00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:45,880 Pascal or Bernard Hopkins, and just destroying opponents. Three time light heavyweight champion 909 00:55:46,079 --> 00:55:50,960 obviously he lost the title for the final time when he got drilled by Canelo 910 00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:53,199 when he was already passed his best days. But to watch him as a 911 00:55:53,599 --> 00:55:57,880 as an old shot cruiserweight, you know, in the second fight of a 912 00:55:58,000 --> 00:56:00,840 long, long eight card eight fight Carr pay per view, was kind of 913 00:56:00,880 --> 00:56:04,559 sad to see watch him get wrecked like that. I hope he calls it 914 00:56:04,599 --> 00:56:07,440 a day bother time waits for no one And we talked even on the bet 915 00:56:07,599 --> 00:56:12,079 Us Show on Friday when somebody brought it up, does he have any tread 916 00:56:12,159 --> 00:56:14,920 left on the tires? And the answer now is no, all that. 917 00:56:15,159 --> 00:56:19,800 But these guys always, they always, they always keep going. So I 918 00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:22,199 don't know if Covid level keep going. He's a guy that's gonna wind up 919 00:56:22,239 --> 00:56:23,360 on the Hall of Fame ball and I think he's got a good chance to 920 00:56:23,400 --> 00:56:27,599 be elected a Hall of Fame. But certainly that was not a Hall of 921 00:56:27,679 --> 00:56:30,280 Fame type fight we saw from it at the end of his career looking terrible, 922 00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:35,679 Okay, I won't use the word terrible. How about less than attractive 923 00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:38,480 as a phrase. The main event of the ESPN Top Rank Show all the 924 00:56:38,559 --> 00:56:45,079 way past midnight Eastern time, justure time zone Accordingly, some twelve hours after 925 00:56:45,119 --> 00:56:49,719 the Ring of firecard began at noon Eastern time, we finally had it in 926 00:56:49,800 --> 00:56:55,039 the ring and Denise Barancik did win by split decision over me I Manuel Navarate 927 00:56:55,159 --> 00:57:00,760 vacant WBO lightweight title, the top ranked main event in San Diegh. Your 928 00:57:00,880 --> 00:57:05,159 thoughts, I'll have a couple, but your thoughts mainly watching that it certainly 929 00:57:05,280 --> 00:57:07,840 was a bookend with a Ukrainian fighter winning a world title after Usik had done 930 00:57:07,840 --> 00:57:12,559 it a few hours earlier a continent away. Yeah, I mean a huge 931 00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:15,599 couple of two weeks for Ukraine obviously, because two weeks, you know, 932 00:57:15,719 --> 00:57:19,880 the previous Saturday, Lomachenko from Ukraine won the IBF lightweight title in Australia on 933 00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:22,800 the George Cambosis home turf in Australia. Then you had what happened with Usik 934 00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:27,400 becoming undisputed, and I guess the cherry on top was the unknown brand chick 935 00:57:28,199 --> 00:57:30,000 in the biggest fight of his career against the best opponent he's ever faced, 936 00:57:30,239 --> 00:57:32,639 you know, granted he was the Olympic silver medal winner, was undefeated, 937 00:57:32,639 --> 00:57:38,159 but had a very very inactive schedule. I'd never fought anybody coming to overseas 938 00:57:38,239 --> 00:57:43,679 to enemy turf. Navaret's the big favorite, and you know he he deservedly 939 00:57:43,719 --> 00:57:45,559 won the split decision. The first thing I thought about when they went to 940 00:57:45,639 --> 00:57:49,920 the cards was a split decision, unanimous draw, whatever it is. It 941 00:57:50,039 --> 00:57:52,239 was ring of boredom, that ring of fire. I mean, that was 942 00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:55,840 a great some real stinkers. That was a give me your impression. I 943 00:57:57,000 --> 00:58:00,440 thought Navaraate looked slow. I thought he was tired the back half of the 944 00:58:00,519 --> 00:58:05,920 fight, and I kept saying too much weight, doesn't have the punching power, 945 00:58:06,119 --> 00:58:07,840 not in shape. I thought all of those things. What did you 946 00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:10,719 think. I may disagree with you about a lot of shit, but I 947 00:58:10,760 --> 00:58:13,920 agree with you one hundred percent on that. He did not look like he 948 00:58:14,039 --> 00:58:17,559 was in shape, a little flabby at lightweight. You know, I under 949 00:58:17,960 --> 00:58:21,880 not the same puncher either. I mean, he was connecting and he just 950 00:58:22,159 --> 00:58:23,920 yeah, I mean, no, guys, he was laying out as a 951 00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:28,119 lightweight, I mean as a junor lightweight, a featherweight. Barentshak was like, 952 00:58:28,239 --> 00:58:30,280 he laughed at him. Basically, what do you you know? That's 953 00:58:30,320 --> 00:58:31,719 nothing. I mean, it's a guy that's fought his career in that weight 954 00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:36,199 class and never at that. Remember he started his career as a junior featherweight. 955 00:58:36,239 --> 00:58:38,280 And you know, some guys can carry it up the scale. Uh. 956 00:58:38,760 --> 00:58:42,559 I'm not saying that Never Never at they can't carry up the scale. 957 00:58:42,679 --> 00:58:44,960 But if he's gonna come in that kind of condition, it's not going to 958 00:58:45,000 --> 00:58:46,800 be that it's not going to do the damage because he just wasn't in top 959 00:58:46,880 --> 00:58:50,679 shape. And I don't, I don't. Look, that's your job. 960 00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:52,960 You're going for a world championship and a fourth day class. You're looking to 961 00:58:53,039 --> 00:59:00,159 join a pantheon of great Mexicans that have done for divisions people you know or 962 00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:05,039 superstar fighters. You know Marquez for example, you know Eric Morales. I 963 00:59:05,119 --> 00:59:07,480 mean there's a lot of you know, not a lot, but several of 964 00:59:07,599 --> 00:59:10,960 the of the of the more modern legends in Mexican boxing. And you know, 965 00:59:12,039 --> 00:59:14,400 we I didn't feel like he showed up the right way for that fight, 966 00:59:14,519 --> 00:59:19,960 and the combination of that loss plus the less than spectacular performance in the 967 00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:22,840 one hundred and thirty pound title fight he did last fall when he got a 968 00:59:22,920 --> 00:59:25,320 draw with Consints out. No, maybe we've seen the best of Emmanuel Never 969 00:59:25,360 --> 00:59:29,880 at that at the clarifive for me, did he vacate the one hundred and 970 00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:34,159 thirty pound title. That's confirmed. We know that he could. He could 971 00:59:34,239 --> 00:59:37,639 go back down, get in shape, and go back down if he wanted. 972 00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:42,880 Here, I am playing amateur manager and career advice, but it would 973 00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:45,360 seem to me get in better shape and go back down to one thirty where 974 00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:49,880 your punching power is going to get better, because that was sloppy and I 975 00:59:49,880 --> 00:59:52,519 don't know what the future is at one thirty five. They also talked after 976 00:59:52,559 --> 00:59:55,840 the fight about his his hand being hurt and he's been plagued by injured hand 977 00:59:55,920 --> 01:00:00,480 broken hand before. He didn't use that as an excuse after the fight, 978 01:00:00,599 --> 01:00:02,159 Dan Navarat, I don't know about the hand, but in terms of the 979 01:00:02,280 --> 01:00:06,519 title, he still owns the WBO one hundred and thirty pound title if he 980 01:00:06,599 --> 01:00:08,280 does choose to go back to that weight class to defend the title, which 981 01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:12,280 I kind of find I mean it's possible, I guess, but you know, 982 01:00:12,360 --> 01:00:14,800 he always struggled with the way. If he does go back there, 983 01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:19,000 what it does is it makes the prospect most likely that they'll have a rematch 984 01:00:19,039 --> 01:00:22,800 with Oscar Valdez, who won the interim title back a few weeks ago. 985 01:00:22,719 --> 01:00:25,519 You know what happens in boxing today, which is different than it used to 986 01:00:25,559 --> 01:00:29,880 be, is when guys are holding belts and they change weight classes, the 987 01:00:30,039 --> 01:00:32,599 organizations moved to fill those titles quickly with interim titles and then elevate the guy 988 01:00:32,760 --> 01:00:36,719 as opposed to let the title become vacant then order the title fight. So 989 01:00:37,079 --> 01:00:38,639 in case of the undercart fight, which we're going to talk about, that's 990 01:00:38,679 --> 01:00:42,320 what Brian Norman and Santian we're fighting for, which is, in essence, 991 01:00:42,679 --> 01:00:47,360 what will soon become the vacant WBO title. So when when Valdez fought Liam 992 01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:52,880 Wilson not that long ago and won the vacant WBO interim title at one thirty, 993 01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:55,760 everybody was like, yeah, because Navarrete is going to go to thirty 994 01:00:55,800 --> 01:00:59,800 five and stay there. But if he does decide to retain the title come 995 01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:02,400 back, the WBO was gonna order the rematch Beting and Navarette and Valdez, 996 01:01:02,440 --> 01:01:05,880 which, for my money, I mean, yeah, Valdez lost. The 997 01:01:05,880 --> 01:01:07,280 first fight was a heck of a fight. I mean, there's worst fights 998 01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:09,440 you could have rematches for. That would be a fun fight. Again, 999 01:01:09,719 --> 01:01:13,239 I'm not sure the two guys are too interested in doing that, once again. 1000 01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:15,679 But we'll see what happens. He's got to make those decisions, but 1001 01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:20,079 he's not gonna be effective at lightweight in that kind of condition. Yes, 1002 01:01:20,159 --> 01:01:23,480 and Navarate has got some marketability. You mentioned Mexican fighter, multi division world 1003 01:01:23,559 --> 01:01:27,280 champion, that would be big. That's the first loss for him since twenty 1004 01:01:27,360 --> 01:01:30,079 twelve. How much do we credit Baroncheck for being tough enough to hang in 1005 01:01:30,760 --> 01:01:35,840 versus I mean, we shouldn't down that versus Navarate being sloppy and seemingly out 1006 01:01:35,880 --> 01:01:38,199 of shape back half of the fight. Yeah, I mean, and listen, 1007 01:01:38,840 --> 01:01:40,840 I think we spent too much time on this fight because it sucked. 1008 01:01:42,119 --> 01:01:44,519 It sucked the bone. Basically, it was a ship fight. So can 1009 01:01:44,599 --> 01:01:46,880 we move on to the undercard? We can, But Barncik deserves credit. 1010 01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:51,039 He got his hand raised and emotional for Ukraine and the whole bit, and 1011 01:01:51,159 --> 01:01:53,480 there we go, all right. So on the on the iratulation to Barnchick, 1012 01:01:53,480 --> 01:01:58,159 he did the job absolutely. On the undercart and the co feature fight, 1013 01:01:59,079 --> 01:02:02,119 we saw a a relative I gotta say this, a relatively unknown American, 1014 01:02:02,159 --> 01:02:06,880 but the son of a former fighter, a former US fighter in Brian 1015 01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:12,360 Norman as a welterweight put on a heck of a performance against Giovanni Santion. 1016 01:02:12,559 --> 01:02:15,559 Santion, a San Diego native, with the crowd roaring with him beginning to 1017 01:02:15,719 --> 01:02:20,079 end in San Diego. And I got some thoughts on this, but give 1018 01:02:20,119 --> 01:02:24,000 me your impressions on Norman getting the KO stoppage with the two brutal knockdowns in 1019 01:02:24,039 --> 01:02:27,840 the tenth round after he had cutting him up and busted his nose. Go 1020 01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:30,519 ahead, well, this fight was made, you know, however long ago, 1021 01:02:30,519 --> 01:02:32,920 a month or two ago when the fight was made, and then it 1022 01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:36,519 was only a few days before the fight that they got the sanction for it 1023 01:02:36,599 --> 01:02:38,599 to be for the interim WBA welterweight titles. So these guys were going to 1024 01:02:38,679 --> 01:02:43,559 fight regardless of whether it was a championship level fight or not. But like 1025 01:02:43,679 --> 01:02:47,360 I mentioned, this is basically the WBO filling the welterweight title before it's actually 1026 01:02:47,400 --> 01:02:51,320 vacant because Terence Crawford, who's going to be fighting in the one to fifty 1027 01:02:51,320 --> 01:02:55,199 four pound weight class when he takes on Israel Majumov for the WBA belt on 1028 01:02:55,320 --> 01:02:59,079 the big reat season card that's going to be in Los Angeles, August the 1029 01:02:59,159 --> 01:03:04,079 third, there's a high, high, high probability that Terrence Crawford is going 1030 01:03:04,119 --> 01:03:06,320 to stay in that weight class. He's not coming back to welter wake. 1031 01:03:06,519 --> 01:03:09,000 You never say never, but it's highly unlikely. So in essence, Brian 1032 01:03:09,079 --> 01:03:12,800 Norman is gonna in the next you know, a couple of months. Once 1033 01:03:12,880 --> 01:03:16,519 that situation is taken care of, he's going to become the w BOUH welterweight 1034 01:03:16,599 --> 01:03:20,920 title holder full you know, not no interim tag. And the same thing's 1035 01:03:20,960 --> 01:03:23,360 happening with the other organizations. You know, we've seen them be filled over 1036 01:03:23,440 --> 01:03:28,079 time, whether stanionis or you know, Boots Ennis did his thing, and 1037 01:03:28,159 --> 01:03:30,000 now you know Santana is in that position. And if you take a look 1038 01:03:30,039 --> 01:03:32,239 at the other, uh, you know what's the other What did I miss 1039 01:03:32,280 --> 01:03:35,920 the w Norman Norman is in that position. You meant to say, by 1040 01:03:35,960 --> 01:03:37,400 winning the fight over Santion, Yes, exactly, yeah, no, And 1041 01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:40,760 I mean also but if you but here's the point. Crawford became the underspeeded 1042 01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:45,239 champion, and slowly but surely they're all being filled, even though he hasn't 1043 01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:49,840 vacated everything he got stripped to the IBF that was filled by interim champion garon 1044 01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:52,960 en Is being elevated. Brian Norman now took over the WBO interims. He'll 1045 01:03:52,960 --> 01:03:58,599 become the full champion when Crawford vacates or or whatever happens there. And then 1046 01:03:58,639 --> 01:04:00,840 you also have Mario Barrios, who was the WBCs interim champion. He'll be 1047 01:04:00,880 --> 01:04:04,440 elevated. He just had his victory, you know, on the card a 1048 01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:09,039 couple of weeks ago, and Stanionis will become as the regular champion of the 1049 01:04:09,079 --> 01:04:12,400 BA. He'll become the only title holder in the way class. My point 1050 01:04:12,480 --> 01:04:15,400 is that you know it was fleeting for undisputed and now all of a sudden, 1051 01:04:15,719 --> 01:04:20,000 the welterweight the division has had a full facelift and Brian Norman's the latest 1052 01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:23,679 guy. Now you mentioned an obscure fighter that you never heard of. He's 1053 01:04:23,679 --> 01:04:26,400 twenty three years old, the son of a former fighter. He has been 1054 01:04:26,440 --> 01:04:30,079 fighting regularly on top ranks UNDERCRS as one of their fighters that they had signed. 1055 01:04:30,320 --> 01:04:34,000 I have seen Brian Norman fight numerous times, numerous times, and it's 1056 01:04:34,119 --> 01:04:38,559 so it stood out so much to me that actually made comments about this to 1057 01:04:38,639 --> 01:04:42,920 people about how unimpressive he had been in the fights I had seen where they 1058 01:04:43,000 --> 01:04:45,760 hyped him up and I watched the kid fight. I'm like, this guy 1059 01:04:45,920 --> 01:04:49,159 is what you're talking about. He's not much. I was super disappointed every 1060 01:04:49,159 --> 01:04:53,000 time I would watch him. But when he finally stepped up to the big 1061 01:04:53,079 --> 01:04:56,239 stage and got a chance to fight for a belt, to do it on 1062 01:04:56,400 --> 01:05:00,400 the main card, not on the on the preliminary card, and having to 1063 01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:03,599 go do it in Santion's hometown of San Diego, where everybody was cheering for 1064 01:05:03,679 --> 01:05:08,960 Santion and he's the one that brings in the big crowds. He rose to 1065 01:05:09,039 --> 01:05:12,119 the occasion because not only was he winning the fight consistently on the cards, 1066 01:05:12,400 --> 01:05:15,039 then as you mentioned later in the fight, is when he did the damage. 1067 01:05:15,360 --> 01:05:16,679 He popped him with the shot. I believe it was the end of 1068 01:05:16,719 --> 01:05:19,920 the eighth round. The blood came streaming, a lot of broke noses as 1069 01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:23,199 we get boy, I think we got three broken noses I can think of, 1070 01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:27,400 uh and so that was a problem. And then the blood was all 1071 01:05:27,519 --> 01:05:30,360 over him, I mean streaming it was. It wasn't quite the level of 1072 01:05:30,079 --> 01:05:33,000 Ra and Tim Zoo, but it was getting close though, because it got 1073 01:05:33,039 --> 01:05:35,000 all over the referee, who we're going to talk about in a minute, 1074 01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:39,960 it was all over Norman, all over his chest, his shoulders. It 1075 01:05:40,039 --> 01:05:43,760 went for a two rounds, still bleeding there in the ninth round, and 1076 01:05:43,800 --> 01:05:46,599 then he finally, you know, just the two absolutely devastating uppercuts that ended 1077 01:05:46,639 --> 01:05:49,960 in the tenth round. So you got to applaud the young man. He's 1078 01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:54,360 twenty three years old, he stepped up to the plate against a good veteran 1079 01:05:54,840 --> 01:05:57,840 and uh and now he's going to become a world champion and then not to 1080 01:05:57,960 --> 01:06:01,000 distant future. Based on the interim, I thought, and I put this 1081 01:06:01,159 --> 01:06:03,920 on social media. Here we go again on name the name Ray Corona was 1082 01:06:03,960 --> 01:06:10,000 the referee. I thought he did a poor job. I loved I go 1083 01:06:10,159 --> 01:06:15,159 back to when David Benavitez was brutalizing Demetrius Andre and we caught the referee mic 1084 01:06:15,199 --> 01:06:17,840 of Thomas Taylor coming in the corner telling the Andre corner, I can't see 1085 01:06:17,880 --> 01:06:23,360 another round like that. I'm gonna stop the fight. I thought after the 1086 01:06:23,480 --> 01:06:28,960 eighth round he could have easily come over to the santition corner because Norman was 1087 01:06:29,000 --> 01:06:31,679 scoring. He had busted his nose. I can't you know you're cut up. 1088 01:06:32,159 --> 01:06:34,599 I realize you know, I'm saying all of this. You're not gonna 1089 01:06:34,599 --> 01:06:38,559 say it in the corner, but taking it all into account, I realize 1090 01:06:38,599 --> 01:06:43,280 you want to try to win. I realize it's an interim situation, but 1091 01:06:43,599 --> 01:06:45,960 you're taking a brutal beating and I'm just gonna go a step further. This 1092 01:06:46,159 --> 01:06:49,719 is how people get seriously hurt. I thought he was done in the ninth 1093 01:06:49,800 --> 01:06:53,960 round. I thought to me, what did you think on Santition. I 1094 01:06:54,039 --> 01:06:56,840 thought he was done, and then we have a tenth round where there's a 1095 01:06:56,920 --> 01:07:00,920 knockdown and Corona doesn't stop it, and then we got a brutal second knockdown, 1096 01:07:01,199 --> 01:07:04,000 and I'm just saying on the Fight Freak to Night recap podcast, We're 1097 01:07:04,079 --> 01:07:08,960 lucky that that wasn't more serious injury on the second knockdown. So where I 1098 01:07:09,079 --> 01:07:13,440 stand in that is I felt like I was okay, okay, okay, 1099 01:07:14,079 --> 01:07:15,840 and maybe it should have been stopped after the first knockdown of the tenth round. 1100 01:07:15,880 --> 01:07:18,559 At that point, I'd have been fine. The second knockdown seemed a 1101 01:07:18,559 --> 01:07:23,079 little gratuitous because it was a fucking brutal shot. Yeah, you could see 1102 01:07:23,119 --> 01:07:26,119 a couple of mile away Santion was done and he's got a warrior heart. 1103 01:07:26,159 --> 01:07:30,320 He wasn't gonna quit, and Norman's not that big of a puncher where he's 1104 01:07:30,320 --> 01:07:32,199 gonna just ice him with one shot. He's gonna have to kind of keep 1105 01:07:32,239 --> 01:07:34,760 beating on him to take care of business. And that's the way it sort 1106 01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:39,159 of seemed to me. And after that first knockdown in the tenth round, 1107 01:07:39,960 --> 01:07:41,960 you know what, that could have been the time to pull the plug. 1108 01:07:42,039 --> 01:07:44,400 But you know that's the way it goes. Hey, it's a brutal sport. 1109 01:07:44,519 --> 01:07:46,119 It is a brutal sport. But again, if we're gonna preach I'm 1110 01:07:46,159 --> 01:07:49,679 not saying you, if we're gonna preach fighter's safety, then everybody's got to 1111 01:07:49,719 --> 01:07:55,440 be on board, including the referee. And no one, including his camp, 1112 01:07:56,280 --> 01:07:59,239 can say that he had a realistic chance to win. In the middle 1113 01:07:59,239 --> 01:08:01,519 of that ninth round. Blood flow everywhere from the bus to nose cuts, 1114 01:08:01,639 --> 01:08:06,199 not fighting back very much, taking punishment. It was done as far as 1115 01:08:06,280 --> 01:08:11,360 I was concerned, all right, So just one more real quick Norman now 1116 01:08:11,559 --> 01:08:15,640 becomes a possible player for unification. Does he have to fight another fight and 1117 01:08:15,760 --> 01:08:19,640 then maybe a unification fight, But again, this is largely out of nowhere. 1118 01:08:20,239 --> 01:08:24,840 He's not even the champion yet, so there's no unification he just had 1119 01:08:25,800 --> 01:08:28,199 but likely will be. Are they not? They gonna make him fight a 1120 01:08:28,279 --> 01:08:30,159 vacant title fight, is my question? No, no, no, no, 1121 01:08:30,239 --> 01:08:32,760 no, He's gonna when Crawford is whatever happens with Crawford, when he 1122 01:08:32,920 --> 01:08:39,119 decides he's no longer a welterweight, whether it's he loses the fight against Magiumov, 1123 01:08:39,399 --> 01:08:42,000 or he vacates ahead of time, or he vacates, you know, 1124 01:08:42,079 --> 01:08:45,279 within the couple of weeks after the fact. The reality is Norman's gonna become 1125 01:08:45,359 --> 01:08:49,399 the WBO champion period, end of story. He's not gonna fight between now 1126 01:08:49,479 --> 01:08:51,680 and then anyway, It's not like he's gonna have a fight in you know, 1127 01:08:51,800 --> 01:08:55,239 before Crawford fight. So right now he's gonna sit back and watch what 1128 01:08:55,279 --> 01:08:59,319 happens, and sometime later this summer, he'll become the WBO champ. They'll 1129 01:08:59,359 --> 01:09:01,439 have a ceremony for him, the'll probably invite him to Puerto Rico. They'll 1130 01:09:01,479 --> 01:09:04,159 give him the belt and they'll have a big thing about it. And then 1131 01:09:04,199 --> 01:09:08,319 they'll go about the process with top rank of planning a fight for the fall, 1132 01:09:08,680 --> 01:09:12,279 which will be theoretically his first title defense, and then we'll see what 1133 01:09:12,359 --> 01:09:15,439 happens. I mean right now, there's no reason to think anything about what's 1134 01:09:15,479 --> 01:09:17,119 out there. It's not gonna be a unification fight. In my mind, 1135 01:09:17,159 --> 01:09:20,199 the top rank does not have the guys in that weight class right now. 1136 01:09:20,720 --> 01:09:24,760 The other guys are dealing with their own stuff. Barrios just fought, you 1137 01:09:24,800 --> 01:09:29,479 know, Uh, Stanionis just fought on that same card. Uh. There's 1138 01:09:29,600 --> 01:09:31,640 belief that the two of them may fight down the road because they're also be 1139 01:09:31,680 --> 01:09:35,319 the same umbrella. Stanionis and Barrios. We'll see. So you know, 1140 01:09:35,399 --> 01:09:40,720 there's no there's no obvious fight. That the the problem and not I shouldn't 1141 01:09:40,720 --> 01:09:43,720 say a problem, but the But the main thing is that in the in 1142 01:09:43,800 --> 01:09:45,720 the welterweight division, it's not super deep like it once was. I mean, 1143 01:09:45,800 --> 01:09:47,800 the guys I mentioned to have the belts are sort of at the top. 1144 01:09:48,319 --> 01:09:51,840 Uh. And so you know, he's not fighting Jian and John and 1145 01:09:51,960 --> 01:09:55,199 this is off doing his thing. He's got to fight coming up to summer 1146 01:09:55,199 --> 01:09:58,640 in Philadelphia, so they'll look around, and I wouldn't. I don't think 1147 01:09:58,760 --> 01:10:00,960 his first defense his They're not looking to put him in some mega fight. 1148 01:10:01,159 --> 01:10:04,239 There isn't a mega fight. They're gonna get a regular opponent. We try 1149 01:10:04,279 --> 01:10:08,479 to make a thing, try to like get him some attention. You know, 1150 01:10:08,680 --> 01:10:12,159 he comes from the Augusta, Georgia area, and maybe they'll look to 1151 01:10:12,199 --> 01:10:15,359 bring him to the hometown like they did with Jared Anderson in Toledo, like 1152 01:10:15,479 --> 01:10:18,800 they're gonna probably do with Keishaan Davis and Norfolk at some point, like they 1153 01:10:19,079 --> 01:10:24,680 did years ago by bringing Kelly Pavlick to Youngstown or Terence Crawford to Omaha. 1154 01:10:24,920 --> 01:10:27,000 You know, fish where the fish are, see if you can build them 1155 01:10:27,079 --> 01:10:29,640 up into a little bit of an attraction. And Atlanta twenty three years old. 1156 01:10:29,720 --> 01:10:31,520 And Atlanta is a fight town too, by the way, Conyers, 1157 01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:34,960 Georgia is where he's from. The northern suburb trains and fights out of Atlanta. 1158 01:10:35,079 --> 01:10:38,000 So maybe he gets up, he gets a fight in Atlanta. And 1159 01:10:38,039 --> 01:10:43,640 top ranks done shows in Atlanta as well. So let's see, let's see 1160 01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:45,199 what it all looks like. All right, some news because we've been here 1161 01:10:45,239 --> 01:10:50,159 for a little while, and then some nostalgia. Uh, speaking of Santion 1162 01:10:50,279 --> 01:10:54,640 who had that big win over Alexis Rocha and a Golden Boy main event. 1163 01:10:54,680 --> 01:11:00,439 Another top Golden Boy fighter is William Zapaida. Give me more on Zapeida's fight 1164 01:11:00,520 --> 01:11:04,239 coming in July real quick. I mean I had reported like a last week 1165 01:11:04,319 --> 01:11:08,920 or sometime that his date was going to be on July six to headline to 1166 01:11:08,960 --> 01:11:12,159 his own card, and then on Friday, Golden Boy announced he would be 1167 01:11:12,199 --> 01:11:15,800 fighting Giovanni Cabrera in the main event of that card. It'll take place in 1168 01:11:15,960 --> 01:11:18,439 Ontario, California, and they're just going to keep Willmings Debta going. He's 1169 01:11:18,479 --> 01:11:23,039 a very exciting fun fighter to watch, big puncher from Mexico Southpath to boot 1170 01:11:23,439 --> 01:11:25,680 thirty, you know right now, with twenty six knockouts, and they're just 1171 01:11:25,720 --> 01:11:28,000 looking to keep them going and see if they can line them up for a 1172 01:11:28,039 --> 01:11:31,000 big fight. I don't think Cabrera qualifies as a quote unquote big fight. 1173 01:11:32,319 --> 01:11:35,039 You know, he didn't look particularly good in his one loss that he's coming 1174 01:11:35,079 --> 01:11:38,439 off of. When he lost. It was a split decision, but I 1175 01:11:38,439 --> 01:11:41,560 didn't really think it was that close. He lost the Pitbull Cruise they boxed. 1176 01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:44,680 You were there on the undercard of the Aarrow Spence Terrence prodist fight. 1177 01:11:45,079 --> 01:11:47,439 You know, it's just a chance to see Zepeda continue to do his thing. 1178 01:11:47,760 --> 01:11:50,680 See if Cabrera can score the upset. But one thing about Zapeta, 1179 01:11:51,119 --> 01:11:55,600 he's a hard puncher. He throws a bazillion punches, and he's been going 1180 01:11:55,640 --> 01:11:59,560 through guys like you know, like like yeah, through a goose as they 1181 01:11:59,560 --> 01:12:02,880 say, he's been entertaining, that is for sure. So we'll see him 1182 01:12:02,880 --> 01:12:05,479 again in July. Oh, he pound it out with your last fight. 1183 01:12:05,800 --> 01:12:09,680 He just beat the little thing with Jesus out of Maxi Hughes, who is 1184 01:12:09,760 --> 01:12:12,239 coming off of a fight where a lot of people thought he'd beat Cambosis. 1185 01:12:12,640 --> 01:12:16,000 So that's what what Zepeta does to his opponents. All right, more here, 1186 01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:20,000 let's back up to June and the Gervante Davis Frank Martin pay per view. 1187 01:12:20,199 --> 01:12:25,479 You have learned that Gary Antoine Russell is going to apparently be part of 1188 01:12:25,520 --> 01:12:28,479 that card. What have we figured out here, Well, they are in 1189 01:12:28,520 --> 01:12:31,239 the process of finalizing this fight between Gary Antoine Russell, who was an undefeated 1190 01:12:31,279 --> 01:12:34,319 fighter and who was an Olympian and is the brother of the former featherweight title 1191 01:12:34,319 --> 01:12:41,960 holder Gary Russell Junior. The boxing family. Gary Antoine's schedule maddens me because 1192 01:12:41,960 --> 01:12:45,560 he's mega, mega talented, maybe even better than the brother. But like 1193 01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,319 the brother. He's just fighting like once a year. It's just it drives 1194 01:12:48,359 --> 01:12:51,279 me absolutely crazy. No injuries that I'm aware. I know he took time 1195 01:12:51,359 --> 01:12:56,279 off because his father had passed, and that's totally understandable, but that's that's 1196 01:12:56,359 --> 01:13:00,399 been a while now and he just doesn't fight enough. But I'm glad to 1197 01:13:00,439 --> 01:13:03,479 see he's coming back. He's gonna be on this pay per view for the 1198 01:13:04,479 --> 01:13:10,079 for the like you mentioned, the Gervonta Davis Frank Martin Carr June fifteenth at 1199 01:13:10,159 --> 01:13:13,600 TMGM Grant. It's the PBC on Prime card, which will also be on 1200 01:13:13,680 --> 01:13:16,960 PPV dot Com, and he's gonna take on Alberto Pueo, who was the 1201 01:13:17,039 --> 01:13:23,199 undefeated Dominican fighter that at one point was the WBA title holder in one hundred 1202 01:13:23,199 --> 01:13:25,840 and forty pound way class, but of course he got stripped when he felled 1203 01:13:25,880 --> 01:13:29,159 the test. This fight with Orlando Romero was canceled, so he's had one 1204 01:13:29,199 --> 01:13:31,880 win since then. He's served the punishment and a penalty. So they're matching 1205 01:13:31,960 --> 01:13:36,319 up these two undefeated fighters. They're gonna fight for as much as it annoys 1206 01:13:36,359 --> 01:13:41,399 me, the WBC's interim title one forty I get the usage of certain interim 1207 01:13:41,439 --> 01:13:44,159 titles. This one seems to be quite ridiculous in my mind. And I 1208 01:13:44,199 --> 01:13:46,600 say that because Devin Haney has the one hundred and forty pound title of the 1209 01:13:46,760 --> 01:13:50,079 WBC, didn't lose it even though he lost the fight to Ryan Garcia because 1210 01:13:50,119 --> 01:13:54,880 he was Ryan Garcia was overweight there, and so he's still the champion. 1211 01:13:54,920 --> 01:13:59,880 And on top of that, they just ordered the Devon Haney mandatory to start 1212 01:14:00,000 --> 01:14:02,920 their negotiations for him to fight Sandor Martin. So you've got a champion that's 1213 01:14:02,960 --> 01:14:08,000 been active, it's not injured, that has a mandatory order that literally went 1214 01:14:08,039 --> 01:14:11,800 out like last week. So why are we making an injurim pedle say, 1215 01:14:12,119 --> 01:14:16,119 don't you know what we're doing here? So that drives me a little whacky. 1216 01:14:16,159 --> 01:14:19,319 But but put that, put the bullshit aside of the title. At 1217 01:14:19,359 --> 01:14:23,880 the very least, uh, it's at least a quality matchup. It's two 1218 01:14:23,960 --> 01:14:27,720 undefeated guys. Toueyo is an experienced fighter, been a champion, and Russell 1219 01:14:27,840 --> 01:14:30,199 is a superb young talent and uh, you know, we'll see if he 1220 01:14:30,239 --> 01:14:33,760 can stay undefeated. He's seventeen and oh with seventeen knockouts. Toyo's not a 1221 01:14:33,800 --> 01:14:36,560 puncher like that. He's twenty two and oh with ten knockouts, but as 1222 01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:40,720 a as a third or fourth fight down, that pay per view actually would 1223 01:14:40,760 --> 01:14:44,000 be the fourth fight down because you're looking at the two main fights with Tank 1224 01:14:44,079 --> 01:14:46,880 and uh and Frank Martin. He got the David Benavidi's light heavyweight fight with 1225 01:14:46,960 --> 01:14:53,680 Vodzig. Then you've got after that. It's gonna be with Carlos Rodonas exactly 1226 01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:58,039 taken on UH. So he's defending the middleweight belt for the first time against 1227 01:14:58,159 --> 01:15:01,560 uh Who's his opponent again, it's Carol Gachet. Then we'll see Gary Antoine 1228 01:15:02,000 --> 01:15:04,760 presumably that's going to be the order of fights, and then the other fight 1229 01:15:05,039 --> 01:15:08,640 it's not going to be on the pay per view, but it'll be one 1230 01:15:08,640 --> 01:15:12,560 of the free streaming fights that are part of the prelims that they've done a 1231 01:15:12,600 --> 01:15:15,520 really good job. HEBC of these recent fights they've been doing with Prime Video. 1232 01:15:16,000 --> 01:15:19,600 They're going to reschedule Elijah Garcia. It was one of my favorite prospects, 1233 01:15:19,760 --> 01:15:25,199 a tremendous talent, twenty one year old middleweight. They were supposed to 1234 01:15:25,239 --> 01:15:30,119 do Garcia versus Kyron Davis was supposed to be a streaming preliminary on the night 1235 01:15:30,159 --> 01:15:32,640 that Tim Zoo fought Fundora back in March. But a couple of days before 1236 01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:36,199 the fight, Garcia came down with an illness and they had a postpone a 1237 01:15:36,319 --> 01:15:40,359 call off that fight. They put the young kid, kermel Mouton in that 1238 01:15:40,399 --> 01:15:45,319 spot on the prelims. Now they've rescheduled Garcia and Kyron Davis to be one 1239 01:15:45,319 --> 01:15:47,279 of the prelims on the night that Tank and Frank fight each other. So 1240 01:15:47,600 --> 01:15:53,199 those are two more very solid fights that are going on that card. All 1241 01:15:53,279 --> 01:15:58,119 right, to the nostalgia, and it was thirty four years ago. I 1242 01:15:58,199 --> 01:16:01,640 remember this fight on day as we released the podcast into Monday, May nineteenth, 1243 01:16:01,840 --> 01:16:09,680 nineteen ninety. Then Unified lightweight champ Pernell Whittaker beating another fellow future Hall 1244 01:16:09,720 --> 01:16:13,520 of Famer, A Zuma Nelson, who was the WBC's one hundred and thirty 1245 01:16:13,560 --> 01:16:17,800 pounds champ. Huge HBO Maine event. Great win for sweet Pee Whittaker. 1246 01:16:17,920 --> 01:16:24,159 We love being nostalgic about these fighters, late eighties, early nineties. Here 1247 01:16:24,199 --> 01:16:29,720 we get thirty four years ago. Goodness, I mean, Parnel Whittaker. 1248 01:16:30,079 --> 01:16:33,279 This is this is notable because he defeated a Zuma Nelson by decision this fight. 1249 01:16:33,560 --> 01:16:36,560 It was in his next fight after that that he was able to defeat 1250 01:16:36,640 --> 01:16:42,119 one Nazario by a first row knock got to become the undisputed lightweight champion. 1251 01:16:42,199 --> 01:16:45,039 He was just one belt shy at that point, back when his three belts, 1252 01:16:45,079 --> 01:16:46,560 but a Zuma Nelson, you know, he had the loss in like 1253 01:16:46,640 --> 01:16:48,960 eight years, he got to go all the way. Only he came into 1254 01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:53,880 the fight with Parnell having had one loss as a guy who was maybe like 1255 01:16:53,960 --> 01:16:58,239 what fourteen or fifteen fights into his career, unknown at the time, just 1256 01:16:58,319 --> 01:17:02,880 an absolutely obscure fighter of Africa on that night and he lost the Salvador Sanchez 1257 01:17:03,119 --> 01:17:06,960 r. The great Hall of Famer, in what was Sanchez's final fight before 1258 01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:10,960 he tragically was killed a few weeks later in a car accident. But as 1259 01:17:11,000 --> 01:17:14,960 Zuma Nelson pushed him all the way in that fight in a very very competitive, 1260 01:17:15,000 --> 01:17:18,439 outstanding fight before the Great Salvador Sanchez stopped to Zuma Nelson in the fifteenth 1261 01:17:18,520 --> 01:17:21,399 round. But as Zuma Nelson came back and made a name for himself, 1262 01:17:21,439 --> 01:17:25,960 became a champion and was doing damage at one hundred and thirty pounds and was 1263 01:17:26,000 --> 01:17:28,199 one of the best fighters in boxing. He moved up to one hundred and 1264 01:17:28,199 --> 01:17:31,119 thirty five to take on Colonel Whitaker in this fight, and at the time, 1265 01:17:31,560 --> 01:17:34,119 I don't think it was as hyped as what when you look back and 1266 01:17:34,159 --> 01:17:36,640 you see, my goodness, these were like two great Hall of famers that 1267 01:17:36,680 --> 01:17:40,760 fought each other. Back at that moment in time, it wasn't perceived like 1268 01:17:40,880 --> 01:17:43,880 this is an all time pairing. But if you go back and you take 1269 01:17:43,920 --> 01:17:45,840 a look at the career of Colonel Whitaker, and he had a lot of 1270 01:17:45,880 --> 01:17:48,119 big fights, and he fought a lot of top fighters. I dare say 1271 01:17:48,159 --> 01:17:51,399 that you could make the argument it's maybe not the greatest win of his career, 1272 01:17:51,800 --> 01:17:55,920 but this is in the upper echelon of the victories that Parnel ended up 1273 01:17:55,920 --> 01:17:58,199 having over the course of that long career. You know, it was not 1274 01:17:58,279 --> 01:18:01,960 an easy fight. He did win decision, It was somewhat competitive. You 1275 01:18:02,039 --> 01:18:04,159 know, Whittaker was, you know, a pretty good favorite in that fight, 1276 01:18:05,039 --> 01:18:10,039 and you know it was when you look back, you realize that this 1277 01:18:10,319 --> 01:18:14,199 was, you know, too legitimate all time greats against each other. Peano 1278 01:18:14,279 --> 01:18:16,439 would go on and become the number one fighter in boxing pounds for pounds for 1279 01:18:16,479 --> 01:18:20,520 many, many years. Azuma Nelson had long reigns as a champion at one 1280 01:18:20,560 --> 01:18:24,039 hundred and thirty pounds. You can argue a lot of people do he's the 1281 01:18:24,079 --> 01:18:28,319 greatest African fighter of all time. You know, had some classic battles and 1282 01:18:29,239 --> 01:18:31,760 you know at the time it wasn't of that magnitude, but when you look 1283 01:18:31,880 --> 01:18:34,279 back, you realize, wow, we were lucky to see this kind of 1284 01:18:34,319 --> 01:18:40,079 fight between these two legit all time greats doing their business on a fight that 1285 01:18:40,159 --> 01:18:43,039 wasn't a pay per view, that was regular old HBO. We often say 1286 01:18:43,079 --> 01:18:45,720 this to the kids. YouTube it up, right, That's what the kids 1287 01:18:45,720 --> 01:18:47,600 say, Oh, YouTube it, YouTube it up and got exciting fight. 1288 01:18:47,760 --> 01:18:50,880 Not the most exciting fight, but if you're into like like the ultimate sweet 1289 01:18:50,920 --> 01:18:55,119 science, particularly the type of Perno Whittaker fights that he would put on, 1290 01:18:55,479 --> 01:18:59,600 this was you know, this is up your alley for sure. Okay, 1291 01:19:00,079 --> 01:19:04,119 we go from like the ballet and the artistry of what Pernell Whitaker was to 1292 01:19:04,479 --> 01:19:09,479 some heavyweight brutality. It was twenty four years ago Monday, as we released 1293 01:19:09,560 --> 01:19:14,359 the podcast, May twentieth of two thousand, that there was an HBO double 1294 01:19:14,399 --> 01:19:19,560 header in Atlantic City that won Dan Rayfield was ringside for olag Moskaev and also 1295 01:19:19,760 --> 01:19:25,560 Hasim Rockmand separate fights. Both fought in the doubleheader. You were there, 1296 01:19:26,319 --> 01:19:29,640 What do you remember about that? I remember a lot about this first of 1297 01:19:29,680 --> 01:19:31,239 them all. When you think about the names that we mentioned, this was 1298 01:19:31,279 --> 01:19:38,399 a doubleheader on HBO typical boxing after dark heavyweight doubleheader. Four good solid contenders, 1299 01:19:39,079 --> 01:19:41,359 you know, all who had sown some vulnerability, but all who were 1300 01:19:41,399 --> 01:19:44,880 you know, fun to watch and made interesting fights. Think about of the 1301 01:19:44,960 --> 01:19:48,039 four guys that were in those two fights, three of them won world titles. 1302 01:19:48,079 --> 01:19:53,439 Hassim Rockman obviously became the legit lineal Big Time champion when he knocked out 1303 01:19:53,479 --> 01:19:56,520 Lennox Lewis. That was obviously a huge win. His opponent that night, 1304 01:19:56,600 --> 01:19:59,960 Corey Sanders, ended up winning the WBO title with his upset knock at he 1305 01:20:00,000 --> 01:20:04,159 against Vladimir klitchkow Oleg Maskiev, you know who had ended up with you know, 1306 01:20:04,359 --> 01:20:09,199 got two knockout victories against Hassim Rockman down the road. Uh. But 1307 01:20:09,319 --> 01:20:12,520 he also actually one of them was before this, the other one was after 1308 01:20:12,560 --> 01:20:15,840 this, But he became the WBC champion and the only guy that didn't was 1309 01:20:15,920 --> 01:20:19,359 Derek Jefferson, but he was in some exciting fights and fought some good opponents, 1310 01:20:19,399 --> 01:20:23,399 including a fight against Latimir Klitschow. Were a challenge for the title at 1311 01:20:23,439 --> 01:20:25,720 one point. So these two guys met, and you know, this was 1312 01:20:25,840 --> 01:20:29,439 classic at the time. Sedja Kushner, the late great Sedria Kushner, the 1313 01:20:29,479 --> 01:20:32,000 promoter who had all the top heavyweights for the most part and mixed and matched. 1314 01:20:32,000 --> 01:20:35,279 These guys made a very very fun double header. And uh he had 1315 01:20:35,319 --> 01:20:39,479 Ola Maskiev knocking out Derek Jefferson in the fourth round of a fun fight, 1316 01:20:39,800 --> 01:20:42,920 a fight where Derek Jefferson so all kinds of heart and balls because he got 1317 01:20:43,000 --> 01:20:45,920 knocked down and apparently broke his ankle early in the fight, but got up 1318 01:20:45,920 --> 01:20:47,560 and hobbled around and was able to still stay in the fight for a couple 1319 01:20:47,560 --> 01:20:50,039 of more rounds before obviously he had to be stopped. Wow, because he 1320 01:20:50,159 --> 01:20:53,760 just couldn't walk on the on the on the foot anymore. And in the 1321 01:20:53,840 --> 01:20:56,680 other fight he had a Rockman and Sanders. They duked it out. This 1322 01:20:56,760 --> 01:21:01,279 is a very underrated like shootout heavyweight fight. And in this fight there's a 1323 01:21:01,359 --> 01:21:05,199 double knockdown that the referee missed where Rockman grabbed onto the ropes, but touched 1324 01:21:05,199 --> 01:21:10,039 his knee down and Cory Sanders ended up on the canvas, but ultimately Rockman 1325 01:21:11,079 --> 01:21:14,159 was able to win by a seventh round knock at Corey Sanders, who died 1326 01:21:14,199 --> 01:21:18,000 several years ago from He's from South Africa, tremendous punching power, big time 1327 01:21:18,079 --> 01:21:21,880 puncher, and Vladimir Klitschko will attest to that he's a southpaw, which makes 1328 01:21:21,920 --> 01:21:26,880 it even tougher. But this was a very fun, exciting double header. 1329 01:21:26,880 --> 01:21:30,159 And the reason why I remembered so clearly is because I was still very new 1330 01:21:30,279 --> 01:21:34,279 on the boxing beat. I've always I've spoke many times about my first ever 1331 01:21:34,399 --> 01:21:39,000 experience of covering a big fight at ringside when I had gotten hired to be 1332 01:21:39,079 --> 01:21:42,359 the reporter for boxing at USA today. I've said it many times. That 1333 01:21:42,479 --> 01:21:45,520 was lennyx Lewis Michael Grant in April of two thousand. The second one I 1334 01:21:45,560 --> 01:21:49,159 ever covered, which was this card, which was in May of two thousand 1335 01:21:49,199 --> 01:21:54,720 in Atlantic City, So not the same magnitude of event, but really exciting 1336 01:21:54,800 --> 01:21:58,960 and fun in the ballroom there at Balley's on the Boardwalk when it was doing 1337 01:21:59,039 --> 01:22:01,319 lots of fights, and to see these guys up close like that and put 1338 01:22:01,359 --> 01:22:05,399 on those types of fights, particularly that main event that's a very underrated kind 1339 01:22:05,439 --> 01:22:10,119 of I call it a closet class and go YouTube that bad boy a tremendous 1340 01:22:10,159 --> 01:22:15,279 fight. And also what I remember my first boxing trip to Atlantic City as 1341 01:22:15,319 --> 01:22:18,359 the full time USA Today writer and my wife at the time, my girlfriend 1342 01:22:18,399 --> 01:22:21,840 says to me, you know, my dad loves saltwater taffy. Could you 1343 01:22:21,880 --> 01:22:25,439 pick them up a box? Say yeah, I can pick a good old 1344 01:22:25,520 --> 01:22:30,800 dad with potential future father in law. I get it. I get it, 1345 01:22:30,000 --> 01:22:32,600 no doubt about it. So the morning of the fight, that Saturday 1346 01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:34,920 morning, I must have gone up like Thursday or Friday for the show. 1347 01:22:35,239 --> 01:22:38,760 I go out on the boardwalk and then got all those shops and stuff on 1348 01:22:38,880 --> 01:22:41,439 the on the boardwalk, and I went to one that was right by the 1349 01:22:41,479 --> 01:22:44,319 hotel, and I plopped down the money and I bought a box of the 1350 01:22:44,359 --> 01:22:47,239 saltwater taffy for my future father in law. And when I was coming back 1351 01:22:47,279 --> 01:22:50,159 to the casino, and I went up the steps and I had like a 1352 01:22:50,199 --> 01:22:56,439 bunch of change in my pocket and I stopped by. I never in years 1353 01:22:56,479 --> 01:22:59,119 and years and years, I don't gamble at casinos I don't play cars, 1354 01:22:59,159 --> 01:23:00,840 I don't play black jack. I don't play the slots. But when I 1355 01:23:00,960 --> 01:23:03,399 was first starting out and I was going to casinos for the first time, 1356 01:23:03,640 --> 01:23:09,119 and this was actually my very first boxing trip to a casino, you know, 1357 01:23:09,279 --> 01:23:12,000 I played a little bit, not like crazy money. I didn't couldn't 1358 01:23:12,000 --> 01:23:14,800 afford it back then, but I dropped a little bit of money in the 1359 01:23:14,840 --> 01:23:18,119 slow machine when I walked back into the casino after buying my father in law 1360 01:23:18,600 --> 01:23:21,319 the saltwater taffy, all right, and TJ, I put a seventy five 1361 01:23:21,399 --> 01:23:25,279 cent bet in that slot machine. I won like one hundred and fifty bucks, 1362 01:23:25,359 --> 01:23:30,079 probably still ahead after all that time you were set seventy five cents. 1363 01:23:30,239 --> 01:23:33,079 It's like my mother in law on the slots, God lover. She loves 1364 01:23:33,119 --> 01:23:38,600 to go hang out in the slots on trips and whatever, and she doesn't 1365 01:23:38,640 --> 01:23:42,239 talk about the fish that got away, but invariably she will be playing the 1366 01:23:42,319 --> 01:23:46,039 quarter slots and hit one for seventy three dollars and we all applaud because I 1367 01:23:46,159 --> 01:23:48,720 love my mother in law the same way you got saltwater taffy for your father 1368 01:23:48,720 --> 01:23:51,720 in law. But the fights were better than the saltwater taf but that was 1369 01:23:53,079 --> 01:23:56,840 that was a really fun story stuff everyway, good story. And by the 1370 01:23:56,880 --> 01:24:01,600 way, one more nostalgic nugget that fry was the sixty eighth birthday of Ray 1371 01:24:01,720 --> 01:24:09,960 Charles Leonard. Sugar Ray Leonard sixty eight years young. You and I I 1372 01:24:10,319 --> 01:24:13,359 still have him number one all time as far as I'm concerned. He was 1373 01:24:13,439 --> 01:24:15,159 my fav He was my I've been talking about favorite fighter. He was my 1374 01:24:15,279 --> 01:24:20,039 favorite fighter, Sugar Ray Leonard sixty eight. I did see Roberto Duran was 1375 01:24:20,119 --> 01:24:24,119 at the Ring of Fire. They were interviewing him on his own, so 1376 01:24:24,279 --> 01:24:27,880 you know those four Kings go ahead. Yeah, Well, the reason Duran 1377 01:24:27,960 --> 01:24:30,800 is at those shows is because he's Turkey's all time favorite fighter. So Turkey 1378 01:24:30,840 --> 01:24:32,720 brings me down to the events. So that's why Duran is there, and 1379 01:24:32,760 --> 01:24:35,640 you know, he's always welcome at these big shows because you can make the 1380 01:24:35,760 --> 01:24:43,119 coach an argument that either Durant or Leonard is our greatest living fighter currently and 1381 01:24:43,760 --> 01:24:46,079 of course obviously they have their fights together, but they both have massive accomplish 1382 01:24:46,199 --> 01:24:51,119 But in terms of Sugar Ray Leonard, you know, my I divided up 1383 01:24:51,159 --> 01:24:54,800 in who I was a fan of when I was a kid, and then 1384 01:24:54,840 --> 01:24:57,960 when I became a more savvy boxing fan and became an adult, and even 1385 01:24:57,960 --> 01:25:01,279 when I started to report about boxing. But as a kid, Sugar Y 1386 01:25:01,359 --> 01:25:04,640 Leonard was my guy. When I first watched boxing on the network in the 1387 01:25:04,760 --> 01:25:09,960 late nineteen seventies early nineteen eighties, and then I was obviously like most people 1388 01:25:10,039 --> 01:25:14,920 of that day as a high school student, I was a gigantic Mike Tyson 1389 01:25:14,960 --> 01:25:17,119 fan, but Sugar Ray Leonard was my guy. I remember in the remember 1390 01:25:17,159 --> 01:25:20,760 the old like Inside Sports and Sport magazine which will come out every month. 1391 01:25:20,800 --> 01:25:24,319 Of course there were Sports Illusterated. I used to get all those magazines and 1392 01:25:24,319 --> 01:25:26,960 they would do a lot of boxing cards. I always used to clip out 1393 01:25:26,960 --> 01:25:30,159 the pictures of Ray Leonard and I had them like hanging up on my bedroom 1394 01:25:30,199 --> 01:25:33,000 door and that sort of thing. But yeah, Ray, and let me 1395 01:25:33,000 --> 01:25:35,399 tell you, sixty eight years old, but I still see him, like 1396 01:25:35,439 --> 01:25:40,159 do some video. Still looks in great shape. One of the great joys 1397 01:25:40,199 --> 01:25:43,039 of my career was the chance to get to No Ray, to meet him, 1398 01:25:43,279 --> 01:25:45,239 to work with him as a broadcast partner when we did fights on Epics 1399 01:25:45,560 --> 01:25:50,640 back in about about ten twelve years ago. And still see him every once 1400 01:25:50,680 --> 01:25:53,800 in a while. I remember hanging out with him plenty of times on those 1401 01:25:53,800 --> 01:25:58,039 shows. Just a wonderful guy and a fucking killer in the ring. Just 1402 01:25:58,760 --> 01:26:02,319 as big of a star as there was at that time. He was everywhere, 1403 01:26:02,640 --> 01:26:06,760 commercials, late night talk shows, you know, cameo appearances in this 1404 01:26:06,880 --> 01:26:11,960 show, hemeo's on that show, and and and in the ring. You 1405 01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:14,159 know, indomitable, I mean, one of the greatest fighters ever. And 1406 01:26:14,439 --> 01:26:15,359 you know, we talk a lot on this show because it's part of what 1407 01:26:15,479 --> 01:26:19,560 we grew up with, the Four Kings fights with Ray and Roberto Durant and 1408 01:26:19,560 --> 01:26:24,600 Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler. But the Four Kings, if you really want 1409 01:26:24,640 --> 01:26:27,479 to be know the truth, it's really Ray Leonard and the other three princes. 1410 01:26:27,520 --> 01:26:29,800 Oh yeah, because he was the guy. He was the lynch pinch, 1411 01:26:30,000 --> 01:26:32,960 he was the straw that stirred the drink. He's why everybody wanted those 1412 01:26:32,960 --> 01:26:35,840 fights, because he was the money man. Of course, he's everybody gravitated 1413 01:26:35,840 --> 01:26:39,039 towards it. And if you take a look at the nine fights that the 1414 01:26:39,119 --> 01:26:42,760 Four Kings fought against each other, Sugary Leonard was in most of them. 1415 01:26:42,920 --> 01:26:47,279 They ran to anybody he fought times and he won. Yeah, he won 1416 01:26:47,439 --> 01:26:50,960 four of them. He's the only guy that won four of them. Duran 1417 01:26:51,159 --> 01:26:59,319 won one and Hearn's won one. The draw aside with Leonard and Hagler won 1418 01:26:59,359 --> 01:27:03,399 two. Oh, but the four Kings don't exist with an au sugary Leonards. 1419 01:27:03,439 --> 01:27:06,760 I agreed, that's what made it go. And uh, happy birth 1420 01:27:08,359 --> 01:27:11,600 Happy birthday to Ray Leonard. So with that, and by the way, 1421 01:27:11,680 --> 01:27:14,279 you made mention of Vladimir Klitschko and we did not bring it up, but 1422 01:27:14,399 --> 01:27:16,039 a poignant moment, What a moment for him to be in the ring with 1423 01:27:16,199 --> 01:27:20,399 Usik. He was there obviously in Saudi Arabia on the invite. Why not 1424 01:27:20,640 --> 01:27:25,199 you want him there? For all the different reasons. We should not gloss 1425 01:27:25,319 --> 01:27:29,279 over the fact that there is still hell on Earth going on in Ukraine. 1426 01:27:29,760 --> 01:27:32,720 And so that moment of Klitchko being in the ring with Usik and the embrace 1427 01:27:32,760 --> 01:27:35,720 and the whole thing, that's not lost on me, you or anybody else 1428 01:27:35,800 --> 01:27:41,239 that's sports big time. They know each other well. One, they're both 1429 01:27:41,399 --> 01:27:44,800 Olympic gold medal winners. They've got that in common. Two they both are 1430 01:27:45,000 --> 01:27:46,439 you you know, have been heavyweight champions. They've got that in common. 1431 01:27:46,800 --> 01:27:49,239 They're going to be in common when they're you know, Vladimir's already in the 1432 01:27:49,279 --> 01:27:50,760 Hall of Fame and Usik is going to be in the Hall of fame. 1433 01:27:50,920 --> 01:27:55,960 But when when Alexander Usik turned professional, he was with K two Promotions, 1434 01:27:56,000 --> 01:27:59,359 which is the company that was owned by or is owned by the Tally klitchko 1435 01:27:59,359 --> 01:28:01,039 On and Vladimir c. So I'm not sure what their involvement is at the 1436 01:28:01,079 --> 01:28:03,680 moment, And Vladimir was never really involved on a day to day basis, 1437 01:28:03,840 --> 01:28:10,199 But the point is he's been He's known Usick for his entire career and was 1438 01:28:10,279 --> 01:28:13,880 involved with them promotionally from the beginning of his career. And so what I 1439 01:28:14,000 --> 01:28:16,119 was happy about not only for Vladimir, you know, and everybody knows I'm 1440 01:28:16,119 --> 01:28:20,199 a huge Latimir fan, but Vladimir because of everything's been going on in Ukraine. 1441 01:28:20,239 --> 01:28:24,239 And even though he's not an elected official, he's obviously the brother of 1442 01:28:24,479 --> 01:28:28,199 the Tally who's the Mayor of Ukraine, who was a very high level political 1443 01:28:28,239 --> 01:28:32,159 person. So Vladimir has sort of been like his unofficial guy. He's he's 1444 01:28:32,319 --> 01:28:36,279 come on trips to America, for example, to meet people in Washington, 1445 01:28:36,359 --> 01:28:41,279 to lobby at New York. Yes, he's done a lot of that to 1446 01:28:41,399 --> 01:28:45,079 sort of in a non official capacity in terms of being an elected official, 1447 01:28:45,119 --> 01:28:47,640 but as an envoy, let's say, of the brother to make connections and 1448 01:28:48,039 --> 01:28:51,399 you know, glad hand and try to drum up support for Ukraine because of 1449 01:28:51,720 --> 01:28:56,760 his relationship with his brother, but also as a well known famous athlete for 1450 01:28:56,840 --> 01:29:00,600 his time as the heavyweight champion. But he hasn't really been around boxing events 1451 01:29:00,600 --> 01:29:02,960 for quite a while. You don't see Vladimir had fights in Europe or other 1452 01:29:03,000 --> 01:29:06,319 places in Saudi Arabia, other fights in America. He's not been around at 1453 01:29:06,359 --> 01:29:10,880 all. He came to a boxing writer's dinner probably five six years ago, 1454 01:29:11,640 --> 01:29:14,920 and he's largely been out of the public eye in terms of boxing for a 1455 01:29:15,000 --> 01:29:17,680 long time. So I was really happy to see him be at the fights, 1456 01:29:17,680 --> 01:29:20,239 and you know, for his sake, his guy win the fight, 1457 01:29:21,319 --> 01:29:26,640 love it, and again some things transcend. We are detached from that because 1458 01:29:26,680 --> 01:29:30,960 we're in the United States, but it is still awful in that country and 1459 01:29:30,079 --> 01:29:34,760 for these fighters, for Lomachenko, Usik and now even to the lesser degree 1460 01:29:34,880 --> 01:29:41,560 Baron Chick to get world title wins tremendous for them. And tremendous for the 1461 01:29:41,600 --> 01:29:45,279 people there. Listen. We've done a bunch great stuff as always, and 1462 01:29:45,760 --> 01:29:49,840 I look forward to us having a great week here. Anything else In closing 1463 01:29:49,880 --> 01:29:53,680 Gamayfield, do we leave anything else out? I think we're good at this 1464 01:29:53,760 --> 01:29:55,920 stage. We covered a lot man, We got a lot of stuff in 1465 01:29:55,920 --> 01:29:58,600 the next week with Bob Catterro and Taylor two, and then after that we've 1466 01:29:58,600 --> 01:30:02,119 got the five to five right back in Saudi Arabia again. Tremendous stuff. 1467 01:30:02,239 --> 01:30:05,960 Tremendous stuff, Dan Raphael, thank you, We thank all of you for 1468 01:30:06,079 --> 01:30:09,800 listening and finding us. Again. We come off the weekend with the Fight 1469 01:30:09,880 --> 01:30:13,680 Freaks Unit Recap podcast. Follow and subscribe on the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. 1470 01:30:14,000 --> 01:30:15,760 We preview going into the weekend, we recap coming off and again everybody 1471 01:30:15,760 --> 01:30:18,880 have a great week for Dan Rayfield on TJ Reeves. Thank you for being 1472 01:30:18,920 --> 01:30:19,159 with us.