The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host. DJ leaves Well, we get ready for an interesting
Friday card in Saudi Arabia. Rayfield wants me to say it as many times
as possible. Knockout chaos is coming from Saudi Arabia Anthony, Joshua Francis and
GTTU plus a lot of championship fights on the undercard to go wold. But
we're ready to talk about it on the Big Fight Weekend preview. Again.
As we released this, we understand it is fight Day, Friday afternoon US
time, Friday night late in Saudi Arabia, Friday primetime in the UK and
in Europe. Welcome in. Thank you for finding us, however, and
wherever you found us through Dan's substack, through the Big Fight Weekend dot com
website. Make sure you're following, make sure you're subscribing. Hey, this
week has been a jumbled mess. We've already done the bet Us Boxing show
by the way that we typically do to handicap, I'm all screwed up.
I think it's like Saturday now, and then it may be Sunday when it's
actually still Friday, and it could be Tuesday when it's actually Saturday. Did
I confuse you yet? Hello Dan, ray Phiel. Good to have you
back. Yeah, I don't know what the hell you're saying. I don't
know, but I've dealt with you already, is my point. I dealt
with you on Wednesday on the Live bet Us show talking about this card.
But it's coming up, it's about to be here. They've had the way
ends, they've had the press conference. You talked to Francis and Ganu recently,
So we're going to break down that fight card before we get there.
We've got Jet Wait, Jake Paul who Jake Paul, Mike Tyson News to
talk about. You also have an interview. Speaking of interviews that we're going
to have that we're playing coming up with Callum Walsh, who's on the Saint
Patrick's Day weekend card on UFC Fight Pass Junior Middleweight contender Prospect. You'll hear
from Callum Walsh in a little bit, So all of that to come,
we'll get to the we'll get to the knockout chaos a pay per view in
a moment. But you and I are my our own business on Thursday,
and then suddenly Jake Paul and Mike Tyson and Netflix and MVP Promotions announce there
do I air quote it fighting, They're fighting, They're they're fighting Rayphael,
they are Tell me more about this? What what have we learned? As
the day has become the night here on Thursday, I figured for the beginning
of this, I'd get a I'd get a here, what are we doing
here? Is it the question I kept getting And you've been getting this and
I saw you answering on social media? Is this a legit fight? With
Tyson about to be fifty eight years old later this year, is he going
to be licensed in a legit fight? Or you know, is somebody going
to show up like Logan Paul with a folding chair and are we doing WWE
stuff? Well? I don't think we're doing that, Okay, but the
the the official status of the bout is not determined, at least not publicly
disseminated. So just the backtrack a little bit. They announced early on Thursday,
the MVP people Ni Kisa Badari, which is Jake's business partner, and
Tyson and Netflix. They announced that this event, we'll call it an event,
is taking place on July twentieth at at and T Stadium in Arlington,
Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys, where I have covered most of the
boxing events that have taken place there. This will be the eighth event,
by the way that takes their takes place there in terms of boxing, and
it will be live on Netflix, not a pay per view. Remember when
Tyson had his last exhibition in November of twenty twenty, during the height of
the pandemic, they did an exhibition. He did an exhibition with Roy Jones
Junior that did a huge number on pay per view pretty much because everybody was
at home not doing anything. And as it turned out, Jake Paul with
no fans there in the crowd because it was a closed thing. It was
just for the pay per view because nobody could gather at that time. You
had Jake Paul this second professional bout on the undercard, scoring the viral knockout
against Nate Robinson, the NBA player, a former NBA player, And now
here we are four years later and they are supposedly fighting each other. Now
you said is it an official fight? In the official press release that was
sent out to all the media, it did not indicate it's any boxing match.
It didn't say anything that it wasn't official. It didn't mention anything about
the change or amending of any kind of rules as far as you know,
whether shorter rounds or bigger gloves or anything like that. It was projected as
a full fledged boxing match. Furthermore, and this irritates me, they did
not announce the number of rounds the event was going to be. For now,
you don't have to worry about the weight because obviously it's going to be
a heavyweight fight, because Tyson's not going to be making you know, cruiser
weight or anything like that. So I did my due diligence. I sent
the PR folks, who are very nice and easy to deal with at MVP,
a very friendly note asking the question, is this an official fight?
How many rounds is it? I did not hear back. Hours later,
I sent a follow up. I have not heard back. As I take
this, I have sent I have sent multiple text messages to Nikisa Meadarian from
MVP, who I have a very friendly relationship with. Not a big deal.
And I said to me in one of the text messages, and if
nikkeis if you're listening, i'd appreciate a response I said, I don't want
to bother you. I know you're busy. You got this huge announcement,
So if you could respond in some fashion, you know, real quick,
I'd appreciate it. Even if you said I can't tell you, I would
accept that, just you know. I don't like being ignored. So I
didn't get a response back about that either. So the answer is I don't
know. Now. What I have done is I have spoken to my people
at the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. They are the people that will
regulate any boxing event that takes place in the Lone Star State, where I've
covered many fights over the year, so I know people down there. And
I called up one of the people that I know for a long time and
I said, hey, you know, this fight got announced. You know
what's the story? And what I was told was the only thing that's official
as it relates to this event is that MVP has requested the date for an
event at at and T Stadium, which is the normal course of business.
Anytime you're a promoter and you want to do an event in a particular location,
you have to go to the local commission and request the date before you
can get rolling. Now, they're not obligated under Texas rules to provide them
with at about lineup until or at least you know, some of the fights
anywhere at the main event whatever it is, until at least twenty one days
before the fight. So MVP is on there, no obligation to ask them
about anything to do with this. But if it's going to be a real
fight quote unquote real fight meaning official counts on the records and all that,
they're gonna have to make sure. I mean, Jake Paul will get license,
not a problem. He fought in Texas against you know, I think
the Na Diaz fight was in Texas in Dallas. Yes, so they're familiar.
They've worked with the Texas regulators before on MVP event, So you know,
getting a fighter like him licensed in Texas is not going to be an
issue. Is if they're going to try to make it a real fight.
Getting a fifty seven year old man who has been retired for going on twenty
years, no matter how great of a name he is, how much of
an icon my tyson is, that seems to me to be a heavy lift.
Now it's gonna go, and it's gonna have to go through them is
the point. That's why you contacted them. They're gonna have to prouse whatever
it is, so we'll knowing like that way. Not only that, but
it would be one thing if they wanted to have Tyson match up. Let's
say the Roy Jones fight like they did in California, which was an exhibition.
But if they want to do a real fight. I mean, I
don't endorse this, but at least they're like the same age bracket, right,
Jake Paul is twenty seven years old, Mike Tyson soon to be fifty
eight years old. He'd be fighting a man, you know, thirty years
young, right, thirty one years younger than him Tyson soon I'm fifty eight
later this summer. By the way, that's my point. So you know,
I don't you know, I've never seen that kind of discrepancy in a
boxing match because typically you don't have men in there, or women for that
matter, fighting that laid into their lives in a real fight. Now,
what I found to be ironic about the whole situation is that as we tape
this on Thursday, it was thirty seven years and we're not gonna We're not
going to cover this in nostalgia, but I'll throw this out there. Thirty
seven years ago on Thursday, it was Mike Tyson as the reigning WBC and
WBA heavyweight champion. This is even before he became undisputed. He defended those
titles on an HBO fight against James Bonecrusher Smith. That fight took place ten
years before Jake Paul was born. I love that. So on the thirty
seventh anniversary of this title fight that Tyson was in, he announced his next
fight. And by the way, it was just a couple of days earlier
that Mike Tyson made his pro debut. So thirty nine years after he turns
pro, he announces his next fight. Now. Also of note, Tyson
hasn't had He did have the exhibition against Roy Jones a decade earlier or so,
he had another exhibition match, but he hasn't had an actual official fight
since he got knocked the fuck out or quit really against Kevin McBride in a
fight that I covered in Washington, d C. You know, not too
far from where I live. And you know he got stopped. That was
in two thousand and five. And remember also, you know, for all
those who were given Mike a chance at you know, saying well, he's
still in great shape, and we see the little eclips of him on the
social media. He looks explosive. He got knocked out by complete you know,
by journeyman opponents in his in his last two fights, and in his
last three last fights he got knocked out three times, got drilled by Lennox
Lewis on a one sided fight. Then he won his last bout a knockout
against Clifford atn in forty nine seconds, and then got got shmered in his
last two fights by Danny Williams in four rounds and in six rounds by Kevin
McBride, where he you know, quit basically all right, So you gave
us a lot. Here's details still to come. Obviously they want as much
attention as possible. They're gonna they're gonna put this on Netflix, which I
want your opinion on that here in a couple of minutes. But to me,
just sitting here from the cheap seats, this is not gonna get sanctions
as a legitimate fight for the reasons that you just gave. So I don't
know what this is. I'm just on the record making that prediction. For
the for the reasons you go. Let's see, I just don't know the
answer. I mean, we don't know, we don't, we don't know.
Now, what about the Netflix jumping in on this, because there had
been rumors that Jake Jake Paul was looking at putting fight cards on Netflix and
or Premiere Boxing Champions was talking to Netflix. What do you make of that?
Real quick, before we get today, I want to just go back
to the sanctioning of a real fighter, an exhibition match or whatever. When
they did the Roy Jones exhibition with Mike Tyson. That was made very clear
by Andy Foster and the folks in California. This is an exhibition fight and
there were there were certain rules that they had to follow. And even though
they may not have made this part public, I know for one hundred percent
fact that they went and spoke to both men in the dressing room prior to
it and made sure, listen, guys, we're we're here to have a
good fight, but we're not going for knockouts. We're not looking to hurt
each other. We're looking to move around the ring and put the put a
good show on for the fans, and we want everybody healthy and good to
go and this sober, and they basically did that. I don't know what
the situation is with this, but I do know when they announced, for
one example, when they announced Tyson Fury Francis Naganu, there was a lot
of discussion, is to say real fight in exhibition. They didn't make that
clear off the bat either, and they never really answered the question, and
ultimately it obviously became the fact that it was officially a fight. It is
counting on their records. So in case of Jake Paul against Mike Tyson,
we don't know the answer. And I also, you know, it was
just a few days ago that he scored a first round knockout, you know,
against an unknown, you know, but professional boxer to some degree,
as he wanted to developmental fights. He didn't say what he wanted to do
next, but what he did say was, you know, if a big
money fight comes, you know, I'm gonna look at that. Also,
I don't blame Jake Paul for taking this kind of fight. Who he's gonna
Why why fight you know, some dude on an undercard, you know,
on a small ish, relatively speaking show, even though it was a big
deal in Puerto Rico when you can make crazy amounts of money from Netflix.
You asked about Netflix. Now, it's not a pay per view, so
obviously there's a ceiling of what they can earn because it's not a pay per
review where you make money off every buy. But the fact that Netflix is
doing this, I don't think it is an indication that Netflix is looking to
somehow suddenly become a player in the boxing space. I think they look at
it the way that Netflix looks a lot of things. This is a big
event. It's like the same way if they have a big documentary or a
big, you know, limited series, or they acquire the rights to some
you know, big screen player, or whatever the case may be. So
I mean, it's not a bad thing if they want to get involved in
boxing. And I assume if it's done like MVP has done their events and
any other boxing promoter does their events, it'll have an actual undercard, which
will be great exposure and a chance for professional fighters who may not be well
known to the masses to show their stuff to the public. Who's going to
watch this fight because it's not going to cost extra money and Netflix is everywhere
all around the globe and it's going to be hugely promoted, and it's going
to be a spectacle, without question. Now it may not be everybody's comp
of tea. I've seen the most massive hatred for it already on social media.
I don't have a problem with it. I just want to know the
answer is that a real fighter is at an exhibition fight. I don't think
that's too much to ask for. I don't endorse the idea of a thirty
year gap between a twenty seven year old, strong, an athletic guy in
his prime and a fifty seven to be fifty eight year old Mike Tyson who
hasn't been in a real fight in twenty years and got knocked out in three
of his last four fights. That's all different conversation, all right, And
one more thing on this, and I promise we're moving on to the pay
per view. And I wrote about this and I went back and found it.
So in June of twenty twenty one, nearly three years ago, because
he had that original fight on Triller when it existed Triller Fight TV and the
pay per view had the deal with him, and they paid Mike Tyson twenty
five million dollars to be part of that. That's documented in the lawsuit that
Triller filed against Mike Tyson for breach of contract because he was attempting to go
outside of them and have a fight with a Vander Holyfield in one of these
exhibitions, and Triller successfully stopped that that summer from happening. There were also
reports later on I'm looking at this too, that he was trying to fight
Lennox Lewis later in twenty twenty one. I don't know what the status of
any of that is. It's three years ago, practically two and a half
or three years ago. But why do I get the feeling that that's not
going to come back around on this at some point? Maybe maybe there was
a settlement of some kind. I'm not aware of it. I just know
that Ryan Kavanaugh, the CEO, went on a media binge holding up the
contract and saying we have a multi fight deal that he can't just that way.
So who knows. That's not going to impact this at all in my
opinion. And the thing is, I'm sure Netflix is paying a lot of
money for it because they view it as an event that's going to generate a
tremendous amount of publicity. And eyeballs. And you know, when you're in
the streaming business and there's so much churn, you have to continually offer your
subscribers some kind of you know, some kind of interesting or hot thing to
make sure that they're subscribing. So you know, I'm watching, I'm probably
gonna go to tell you the truth. You know, I'm gonna they feel
ready for the cowboy hat, the the the boots and the bear and the
belt buckle. No, listen, I've covered a lot of fights in texts.
I never weard how many boots in my life. You were there for
the you you've been there for the many Pakiow fight that was there. And
I keep telling you every time that you go up into the press area and
at and T Stadium for the football for your beloved Dallas Cowboys, just kidding
you. And Mauricio Suliman, they have the photo of that paki how pay
per view from the up the top of the stadium showing the show. Question.
My question about Jake Paul against Mike Tyson is this can it break the
all time United States indoor attendance record, which was set in two thousand.
In twenty one, when Canelo Alvarez unified the titles at super middleweight against Billy
Joe Saunders. That you were there, I was. They drew a crowd
of seventy six thousand in change. It broke the record set by the rematch
between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks and their second heavyweight championship. I took place
at the Superdomain, Ne Orleans, and if they priced the tickets appropriately,
you know, and I think it might be able to break the record given
the iconic nature of the two men involved in the in the in the in
the fight. But like you said, there's still details to be uh to
come out. I mean, the devil's always in the details. And it
does drive me a little wacky that, you know, they can't announce some
basic information, particularly the number of rounds. That just blows my mind.
But it's like, I'm assuming it's gonna probably be an eight rounder. Jake
has been fighting eight rounders Tyson as Jones was an eight rounder. You know,
I'd be a little surprised if it was a ten rounder. Obviously,
don't take the commission. Even if they even if they approved the fight,
I can't see them allowing it to be a ten And I'll I'll tell you
just one other thing, those who think Mike Tyson has a chance to win
the fight. Obviously it's boxing. If you land any but anything can happen.
I talked to a matchmaker type in the business, do I have a
lot of respect for today to ask their opinion about this, and it was
not even It took about all of like two seconds that Jay Paul wins the
fight. So that does lead us into Friday afternoon US time, Friday night
late in Saudi Arabia, the return of Anthony, Joshua and Francis and Ghanu.
We just saw Joshua in December with the Stoppagevado Vaileen and Ghanu acquitted himself
well, as we've talked about leading up to this week and now to the
fight against Tyson Fury. Okay, we again, full disclosure. You and
I have already been over this on the bet Us show that's been out there,
so it's a little odd we had to juggle that because of the fight
card being Friday, So I didn't know that you and I seem to think
the same thing here. Joshua wins, but ultimately in Ghanu is going to
hang in there, all right, So your thoughts here as that is the
main event of them get into the undercard a bit as well here too for
the Friday pay per view. Listen, I'm always happy to see Joshua in
the ring. And you know you said that the gun who quitted himself,
Well, when he fought Fury in October, I think he downplayed it.
A lot of people thought he won the freaking fight and he dropped him,
and maybe too many people should have walked out of the ring as the lineal
heavyweight world champion. So he did more than to quit himself. Well,
he went basically straight up with the number one heavyweight in boxing. Now,
maybe maybe Fury wasn't taking it as seriously as he should have. That certainly
seemed to be the case. He wasn't in the in the greatest kind of
condition that you would expect. However, Anthony Joshua watched that fight, saw
he knows what happened there. And so the gun who's not sneaking up in
anybody this time, that's right. But I think the guy who realized he's
not sneaking up on anybody this time, and he looked they both looked an
unbelievable condition in terms of the Way, and that doesn't always necessarily tell the
story, but here they go. It's an interesting fight. You know,
it's not for the heavyweight Championship of the World or anything like that, but
it's still, you know, one of the more interesting fights you can make
in the way class based on what's happening today. And what people should also
remember is that this was supposed to be the weekend of Anthony Joshua against Deontay
Wilder. It's not Anthony Joshua's fault that the Deontay Wilder got completely outclassed by
Joseph Parker on the undercart in December and lost the fight, and therefore that
deal went down the drain. So now Anthony Joshua regroups with Matt True Boxing
and Eddie Hearn and the Saudi's and they say, well, what's the next
biggest fight we can make. Well, Tyson Fury is not available because he's
fighting Usik for the undisputed title in May. Ferdy fought Usick twice. He's
not available, So what's the next biggest fight. It was pretty obvious that
it was Francis Nagan, who coming off of what most people felt, not
most, but many people felt was a victory against Fury to make a big
spectacle, while Joshua waits to perhaps fight the winner at some point of Fury
and Usik, or at the worst fight for what will eventually become the vacant
IBF title. So from that standpoint, he's making a ton of money,
as is Naganu, and they're gonna put this fight on, and they've put
together and I'm not kissing anybody's asked here. This is just the way I
feel, you know, and we've listened to the show knows. I try
to keep that real as possible. Very good undercard for this event. Can't
argue one iota about this at all. More on the undercard in a second.
We didn't really cover this on the beat Us show, but I just
want and again they can watch you and I going in depth about it there.
We're talking about a little bit here. We both think Joshua ultimately wins
by decision. But let me pose it this way. In the event he
does not win, Anthony Joshua, he's thirty four years old, and this
would now be a fourth loss to a third different fighter. Again, he's
favored to win. But if he does not win, what do you think
that means. Now for Joshua, just to the short term speculate, what
do you think. I mean, anytime a big name loses a fight,
if you know, even if it's a second or third fight, oh my
god, he's going to retire. He should retire. You know. First
of all, I don't get into that. Number one, You got to
see what actually takes place in the fight. Number two, let's try to
say Gavar against say he did lose to Naganu. I mean, if people
still want to watch him, if he's still has the wherewithal to go train
and get in shape and be ready to fight, you know. And again,
he's not like he's forty five years old. He's still thirty four,
which relatively speaking, is not an old man. He has had less than
thirty professional fights. You know, it's not like he's going to go suddenly
find a cure for cancer. So fight until you know, you know,
as long as you're still healthy and you can still make money and people still
have an interest to watch you. If he does lose, I mean,
obviously some of that made diminish a little bit, but it doesn't it doesn't
take it away. So I don't even entertain that it'll be up to him
to decide. There's he's not in a situation where even if he did lose
where you should suddenly say, oh my god, he should retire. The
fact of the matter is this is going to be his fourth fight in like
eleven months. Maybe he wasn't fighting the biggest names in the weight class,
but he's fighting very solid, reputable heavyweights, and you know, he's been
a lot more active than some great absolutely. I mean, he scored a
nice victory against Otto Valleen, who was at the time like a top twelve
is kind of heavyweight, had the big knockout against a used up Pillennius,
but he came in at last minute. Wasn't Joshua's fault that Dylan White felt
the drug test. You also had him fighting, you know, a very
reputable, solid opponent like Jermaine Franklin, who was not a bum by any
stretch of the imagination, and then you know, he gave him a pretty
good fight. And so no, I mean, what's going to be is
going to be He's making a big, a big event and a shitload of
money, and good for him and good for Naganu, who, by the
way, you know, is living out his dream of being a professional boxer
now after you know, being a superstar MMA champion. Okay, So that's
the main event immediately before that, and again we've handicapped these I know where
you're coming down, and I'm coming down the same way. Off the bet
Us Show, Julai Jiang defends the interim WBO heavyweight title against Joseph Parker.
You mentioned Parker beating Deontay one, and I like what you said earlier in
the week. I mean, what do we really know about that performance?
How much of it was Parker being good versus Deontay Wilder just being awful.
We do know this, Jang's got the big punch, the big straight left
hand, and he put it on Joe Joyce not once but twice KO and
then Ko validated in those two fights. All right. So that's on the
immediate undercard, and there's obviously some intrigue here because the winner, particularly if
it's Jang, very much relevant in the worldwide scope with the China angle and
all of that. All right, So thoughts on the co feature, Well,
whoever wins is relevant because they're the WBO interim champion, which more importantly
makes them the mandatory to eventually get a chance to fight the winner of Fury
versus Usik, which would be certainly very interesting. I mean, it's if
it's Jang against either one of those guys, it's interesting. Joseph Parker has
held the WBO title, he has lost a competitive fight to Joshua. I'm
not sure if he's ever going to fight Tyson Fury. They're very close friends,
They're part of the same camp. I mean, I guess you know,
Fury would fight anybody for the right amount of money. I'm sure Parker
would do the same. But this is a good fight. And what I
like about it. Number one, You know, every promoter whoever promoted boxing
would tell you, you know, as they often do when it's complete nonsense.
But in this case, it's not that this fight as a co feature
could easily be the main event on its own card. One hundred percent.
This could easily be the main event on its own card, no question about
it. But I also like about the fight is the fact that Joseph Parker,
after he got by Joe Joyce, who later himself got knocked out by
Jang. You know, Joseph Parker didn't sit around for a year crying about
it and being ticked off about it and you know, waiting for the phone
to ring. He went out there and proactively has fought and fought and fought.
He's got like four fights in the past year, and he's been very
active. Now he's not been fighting super top names, but he's been scoring
some knockouts. He's looked very sharp. He then went in the ring against
Deanty Wilder. While he didn't get a knockout, he got a well deserved
one sided decision. And he's earned the opportunity nobody handed him this particular fight.
He went out there, he beat Deontay Wilder, he wrecked the Anthony
Joshua fight, and this is his reward, a big payday for an interim
title, but more impoorantly, the possiblity of a position to fight for the
Big Boy title. And he's doing it against Shang. Had no fear about
taking on a guy. He was outweighed TJ by what forty pounds or something
like that. I mean he came into the weigh in Joe Parker, and
he's a big dude. I've stood next to josephark He's a solid big man.
He's two hundred and forty seven pounds. Zang was well proportioned. You
might say that's ridiculous, but he looked good at two hundred ninety one pounds
and for someone that's believed to be around forty and he was big even up
against Joyce, who's a bigger heavyweight, he looked big up against him.
This is this is This is a very very good fight for the undercart.
And there's a lot of other good undercard fights, but this is, you
know, whatever you think about the crossover with when Naganu from MMA and and
all that stuff, this is a bonafide heavyweight fight. If you're making unbiased
heavyweight rankings, then there's no doubt about it that Jang and Parker are among
let's call them the top five heavyweights in boxing. It's Tyson in no particular
order. It's Tyson, fury Ooh Sick Jang, Joe Parker, and Anthony
Joshua again not necessarily in that order. Those are your top of the group.
I don't think that's I don't think that based on the wins and the
activity. I don't even think that's really up for debate. You might quibble
with the order here or there. Maybe you put Joyce. You know,
I mean, you put Parker ahead of Joshua, now bye. He put
Joshua ahead of him because he won against him. You know, whatever you
want to do. But those are the guys, and they're and and three
of them are on the same card together. And then you got Naguan who
was sort of like his own separate situation off to the side. Really good
matchup. And again you and I are on the record we like the Jiang
Ko So if that does in fact happen, it becomes even more intriguing the
China angle and the interest for that for the future. I don't know when
he can get his hands on on the winner of Fury and Usik. It's
gonna be a little wild who knows, but it's gonna be a little while.
But it's at least he stays in that position and he stays in the
mix of these major events in Saudi Arabia, because, as everybody knows,
Fury and Usik have a two fight deal. Joshua was probably gonna be first
in line after that's over it because of the fact that he's got the name
and the Saudis can pay whatever they want to pay. Maybe if he's waiting
for that, he'll fight for the IBF title, which would then become another
unification fight. But there's a lot of things that are gonna happen and nothing,
nothing really matters right now until we see what happens on on on fight
night. All right. Speaking of fighting that and again, we've got the
interview with Callum Waltsh that you did coming up in just a few moments.
We did not talk about this fight on the bet Us Boxing show. You
did briefly mention this. This is the Madromoff Urban Off vacant WBA Junior Middleweight
ted to fight right, feel I can't keep up. This fight was on,
this fight was off. This fight's back on, all right, So
tell me more about what's been going on the last twenty four to forty eight
hours. And as we put this podcast to bed, we believe all is
good. Everything's medicals, and they are fighting. So go ahead and clear
all of that up as we get ready for that title fight on this car.
There are no issues. So going back a few days ago, look
Israel Majmov and Maga met Burbanoff. I've been in training and preparing for a
fight that was going to be on this card. The question was was the
WBA going to act in time for it to be for the vacant title.
Jamel Charlot hasn't boxed in the weight class for a while. He did fight
Canelo Algaism lost, He's not committed to whether he will fight that weight class
again. He sidelined with his own legal issues, and so the WBA did
exactly what the WBC did, which is they reclassified Charlot as a champion in
recess. Said listen, let us know if you're going to fight in this
way class, how your legal situation is going. And when you come back
and you want to fight for this title, you've got the first shot.
And that's what's going to happen if he decides to come back. In the
meantime. The title is now vacant and these are the next available, top
leading guys in their rankings, Magi, Mov Kurbanov are fighting for the vacant
title. So what happened was Israel Madromov had an MRI or a normal pre
fight scan medical thing, and when it was read, they found an anomaly
on the scan and they had the people look at it or not look at
the actual scan. The way it was explained to me. They read the
report of what was on the scan, and the British Boxing Board of Control,
which are the folks that oversee and regulate the events that take place in
Saudi Arabia, said that he was not going to be permitted to fight because
they didn't like what they saw or what they read that they saw. So
his team went to the regulators. They asked to have another test on and
to have a more in depth study of the original scan taken. So when
the scan was read, combined with the results of what we're seeing on the
second batch of tests, which took place within about a five or so day
period of time, so they were very close to each other the original.
As it turns out, according to by sources, that original scan that was
the reason for him not being allowed to fight was misread and that there wasn't
an issue, and the second one backed that up, and therefore he was
licensed and now he and Kurbanoff will get in the ring and fight for this
vacant title. It's an interesting matchup. Kurbanov is not a well known fighter.
He's twenty five and zero from Russia. His big win, which was
actually on ESPN Plus back in twenty twenty one, he scored a very solid
but close decision against Liam Smith. He's also defeated Patrick Decida, who's the
former WBO title holder in that weight class. He's got to win over Michelle
Soro, who had the crazy back and forth two fights with a Magic Model
and one was like a no content or a technical draw because of an accidental
foul. And then there was a very controversial knockout Lossity suffer because Magmuff hit
him well well well after the bell, but it wasn't his fault because nobody
including the referee heard the bell. I mean, so he had to suffer
through that situation anyway. So now they're fighting for this vacant title and that's
a really interesting matchup. But you ask me all right again, well covered
on that and then but wait, there's more. There's one more title fight.
And we did handicap this as well on the bet Us Boxing show that
again debuted on Wednesday. I keep explaining, we've already done that. You
don't need to explain to them. They know we're on the bet USh God,
I got you. They can go see that. But for here and
for this purpose on the podcast, if you didn't see it. We're intrigued
by Nick ball unbeaten out of Liverpool, England and Ray Vargas moving back down
to featherweight after having fought at junior lightweight WBC featherweight title fight, and the
featherweights have been in the news after the main events last weekend in Verona,
New York. All right, so again, tell them more about this and
what's more and more agreement from you and me about what's going to happen here,
But go ahead, yeah, listen. This is a solid interesting fight.
It's sort of a Ross Rose Is kind of fight. Vargas is a
little bit older, Nick Balla is much younger, still very fresh. The
first big opportunity for Nick to fight for a world title. The thing about
Vargas is, as you mentioned, he first of all, he'd been a
long time title holder at the junior featherweight level. He had a layoff.
When he came back, he got like a one, you know, a
tune up fight, and then he fought Mark mcsio, who was undefeated at
the time. They did that fight in July of twenty twenty two, and
Ray Vargas won a split decision and won the WBC featherweight world title, and
though he didn't really immediately defend the title. Instead he took the opportunity,
as lots of fighters do in one way class too, with the approval of
the sanctioning body, if it's available, move up to the next weight class
and fight for the title there. In this case, this was for the
vacant WBC Junior Lightweight title which had been vacated, and so he fought O'shaki
Foster for the vacant title, and O'shaki Foster gave him a boxing lesson and
won the vacant title. And at that point, Ray Vargas has a decision
to make. Do I stay at one hundred and thirty pounds where I'm really
not worth it anything without a world title, Where I go back to the
to the featherweight division, where having a title, you know, is an
economic important economic aspect from my career, because the title is what makes him
And so he made the only decision that made sense, which as long as
he could make the way, he went back to featherweight. So now he's
going to make his first defense coming off of that loss. But at age
thirty three, five years older than Nick Ball, having been in a lot
of tough fights, and he's defending the title against Nick Ball, who was
an undefeated fighter. As you mentioned Englin, who's looked really good. I
mean, he's got a bunch of knockouts in recent fights, but he was
not. In his last fight though, that was the most impressive name anyway,
where he won a very clear decision against the former junior featherweight title or
Isaac Dogbay. That was a really outstanding performance and kind of made his name.
That was on the undercard of of a card that had a whole bunch
of like you know, British title fights and other you know, regional important
titles and so, but that was like the standout performance on that show,
it seemed to me. And he gets this opportunity because you have a Brandon
figure Out with the interim WBC title, but him and Vargas was supposed happening
end of last year. That was a PBC thing. They couldn't get it
together for showtime, so figure Out was still kind of on the shelf.
But there was the opportunity to make this fight with Nick Bos with Frank Warren,
the promoter of the card in Saudi Arabia, and so the WBC said
Okay, you can do that fight because he was the mandatory. The fight
against Dougby was the eliminator, and so therefore this is the fight that's happening.
The crazy thing about this fight is when you see the pictures of these
two guys in the way in or at the press commerce or the photographs,
Ray Vargas is like the jolly green giant and Nick Ball is like, you
know, the tiny little guy, like it looks like a smurf. Next,
I saw that interesting compact. It's about five six different five six inches
difference in them. It's a big big It's like, yet you and I
are believing in Ball, who's what four years younger or five years younger.
We're believing all here. We're believing in Ball that this is his moment here
against Vargas. And I know you're concerned too about having to move back down
in weide here in the weight cut, he did make the weight. He
was even what a pound under. I think I saw he's the one coming
off a year layoff. He's the one that's fighting on and he's the champion
going into the fight. But it's really Nick Ball's card, if you will,
from the standpoint that it's his team that's involved in the fight. It's
the British Boxing Board that's overseeing. I'm not saying anybody's doing anything untoured,
but if you're gonna go, you always like to be on your own team's
car, not the other guy's card. So he's got a lot going against
him in that sense, and again hasn't fought for a while. Well,
look, Ray Vargas, he's not the most exciting guy in boxing in terms
of his action in his fights, but he's a very competent boxer. He's
got a lot of experience and it's a big moment for nick Ball and he's
I think he's got a real chance to win. And the fact that he's
that much shorter doesn't really to me. It's not a big deal. Just
banging that body, you should be fine. Bang that body, all right,
Four good fights on that saudy card. Again, as you're listening to
us, as who released this on Friday, begins Friday afternoon, with the
main event probably coming just after six Eastern time. Adjust your time zone accordingly
on Joshuay and Ganu, And again, a lot of it will have to
do with how long do the undercard fights go if they go longer than the
main event, maybe a little later, but we'll see what happens with that
timeline. All right, With all of that, let's get to a conversation,
not this weekend, but next weekend as we release March fifteen, Saint
Patrick's Day Weekend, a Friday night fight card from three sixty Promotions at the
MSG Theater, features Callum Walsh, unbeaten prospect junior middleweight riser in the junior
middleweight division. While we're talking junior middleweights, and here he is right now
on the Big Fight Weekend preview. I'm very pleased to be joining on the
podcast today for my very first interview with the up and coming junior middleweight prospect
soon to be a contender, I guess Callum Walsh. Callum, thank you
very much for joining me on the show today. I want to talk about
your upcoming fight, your career. How you doing. Thanks for joining me.
Yeah, I'm very good. Yeah, thanks very much for helping me.
My pleasure. We'll tell the people you're nine to zero with seven knockouts,
You're only twenty three years old, you're training out in LA but you're
from Ireland. Got the great trainer Freddie Roaching, your owner, and you've
got the main event coming up on March fifteenth at the Madison Square Garden Theater.
Being Irish, that's a big deal because that's Saint Patrick's Day weekend,
and before we get to the Saint Patrick's Day element of it, I'm interested
just from your perspective as a young fighter. Anytime a young fighter gets a
chance to be the main event for the first time or second time or whatever,
it's kind of a big deal. You're doing it in a place like
New York City at Madison Square Garden with a guy that doesn't even have ten
professional fights yet. Can you just tell me what that means to you,
if anything, about the fact that you're in this hallowed venue headlining. Yeah,
you know, it feels it feels very good to be the main event.
I've I've been the main event every fight since my since my second fight,
just not there, not at a venue like Madison Square, out of
the venue like that, but but still, you know, I've been the
main event on every UC Fight Pass, Carol, I fought on everyone of
tom shows. I've been main event. And also I feel like, uh,
I feel good. Obviously it's some people would feel a lot of pressure,
you know, being the main event in a place like Mangins Square Garden.
But I don't know, twenty three years old, and I'm enjoying it.
You know. I love being the main event. I love going in
there and knowing that all these people are showing up to see me, you
know, and just to be able to do this at such a young age,
you know, I'm just I'm trying to enjoy it as much as I
can and I not feel too much pressure. Well, you mentioned your promoter,
Tom. That's Tom Loffler from three sixty Promotions, a man I have
known for probably almost twenty five years, and I know that he's very,
very excited about your future and your career. And he's doing, you know
what promoters are supposed to do. He's going to put you where, you
know, as they say, fish where the fish are. Not only is
he bringing, you know, a top young Irish talented fighter like yourself to
New York City and putting him in a place like the Madison Square Garden Theater
where there's a big Irish community in the area. But he's doing this fight
with you and the garden on Saint Patrick's Day, weekend. Can you tell
me about your thoughts about being in that position where you know it's going to
be a heavily Irish crowd that turns out. And I've been at Madison Square
Garden on Saint Patrick's Day weekend for fights involving Irish fighters and it's quite a
scene. What are your thoughts about that that big spot. Yeah, I'm
definitely looking forward to I know, the last time even I thought there in
November and there was still a massive Irish crowd, So I can only imagine
how many of them are going to show up Saint Patrick's that weekend. And
yeah, like I said, no, I'm just focus on the fight right
now. You know, I'm not too word about the crowd. But after
I get the win, I get my job done, I'll enjoy it.
Then, you know, I'll look out in the crowd and I'll take in
I'll take in how many people showed up to see me fight, and yeah,
we'll go out after and I'll enjoy it. Then are you how aware
are you of the at least in recent times anyway, of the other Irish
fighters that have done what you're doing also in other words, fighting, you
know, becoming popular figures within the Irish community, particularly in New York and
fighting out a place like the Madison Square Garden or at the theater. And
I'm talking about and fighters I've covered d Michael Comlin, John Duddy, Matthew
Macklin, you know in major fights, Andy Lee, you know who is
a world champion. That's a pretty good group of guys that that you're sort
of following in their footsteps. Have you do you know about them? Have
you thought about that? Yeah? I know I know them fighters, Yeah,
yeah, and yeah, you know, I'm just I'm just doing my
own thing. So I'm not trying to follow anybody's anybody's part or trying to
be like anybody, you know. I'm just from just being myself and just
being Calum Wulch and seeing what I can do. You know, they've all
made their own names and in the sport of box and I'm trying to do
the same thing, just make my own name. So for those who don't
know, you were obviously a very top level amateur. You were you were
poised to fight in the twenty twenty Olympics. They got derailed because of the
pandemic. You ended up turning professional. Uh So, you had that amateur
background, and you're moving, you know, somewhat quickly as professional. As
we talked about a little bit. You know, you had your first schedule
ten round fight only in your sixth professional fight. And I know that,
like I said before, Tom Waffler, your promoter's got a lot of belief
in you. Obviously, Freddie Roach must have the same feeling. How do
you feel about the way you're being moved in the speed with what you're moving,
You like the pace you're at, the type of levels you're stepping up
in your opposition. Yeah, I definitely like you. You know, I've
had one hundred and twenty amateur fights and I've had nine profiles now, so
I felt like I was at a higher level earlier. You know, I
was fighting six rounds and just like you know, I need more runs.
I need to fight ten you know, I need, I need to get
myself better fights. And because I was, I was at a way higher
level than my opponents already. You know, my first three fights in total
was like not even two minutes. You know, I was in like thirty
seconds. You know, it was like there was no point in me even
fighting them. So he needed more runs we needed tougher opponents, you know.
And and that's the thing, you know, That's that's why I'm being
in moved so fast because I forced it. You know. I was just
knocking people out when I and they were like, really, we need to
get better opponents to actually get cut them from roans. So that that's why
I'm being fast tracked, because I was just knocking everybody who and now I
have to fight tough opponents to be able to have good fights and be able
to put on fights for the crowd and get myself rones an experience. You
know. So your your last fight that you had against Ishmiel villar Reale,
that was in November. I thought that was your your best opponent, at
least on paper. Going into that fight. You want a very spirited decision,
but clearly a victory for you. It felt like that was maybe a
little bit of a turning point in your development where you're now taking on i'm
not not superstar opponents but more more professional competent like guys that are going to
give anybody probably at least a little bit of a tough night. Did you
feel like that in that matchup, and if so, what did you sort
of take away from the experience, at least taking a somewhat of a step
up in your opposition that night. Yeah, I knew. I knew it
was going to be a tough fight. You know. I knew he was
a young prospect. You know, he was going to come and try and
beat me. And I was fighting him in his own and his back out,
you know, and I was fighting in his hometown. He brought a
lot of fans, you know, he didn't want to lose there in front
of his family or whoever was there. You know. So I knew he
was gonna come and he was going to fight hard, and he was he
was going to try to win, and he did. You know, we
fought. We fought ten rounds. I felt that wasn't easy enough. You
know, There's there was no doubt there that I wanted to fight, But
uh, I wasn't really I wasn't really happy with my performance. You know.
I know I'm a lot better than what I showed that night, and
uh I'm looking forward to showing how much better I am this next time than
I was last time. Well, it seems like again you're taking another incremental
step up in your opposition. You're taking on there and you loosen off.
He's a little older. He's eleven three and one with ten knockouts. Like
I said, you're twenty three, he's thirty seven. But he's got experience.
He comes from a boxing family. His brother was an Olympic gold medalist.
How do you feel like that that is in terms of your next step,
Like what do you expect that you loosenough when you come into the ring
on that night? You know, I don't expect. I just expect everybody
that that fights me, you know, to bring their bad everyone that's going
to show up and fight me, especially as a main event in in Maxis
Square Garden, there's a massive opportunity for anyone that anybody that fights me,
you know, if they beat me, that's that's a massive for them,
you know. So everybody's gonna bring their best when they come to fight me.
And to be honest, I'm not thinking too much about him, you
know, I'm just thinking about myself on side. The show up and I'm
fitting, I'm in shape, and I perform. There's there's nobody will beat
me. Tell me a little bit about what it's like working with the great
trainer Freddie roach My old Palo. I've known for a very long time.
He's not the kind of trainer that just goes and works with anybody. You
know, He's usually got to be excited about the fighter or see something that
he really feels like the guy has a future or a chance to do something
if he's going to spend his his time and energy trying to trying to help
the young man or woman and get to where they want to go. What's
your what's your relationship and what do you what's your take on working with Freddie
Roach? Yeah? No, me and me and Freddie have a very good
relationship. You No, I don't. There's no I don't fuck around like
I go to the gym. I do. I do what he tells something
to do. You know, he's the coach and and I'm the student.
I suppose, you know. I go there and I learn every day,
and I'm I'm willing to learn. That's why Freddy likes to work with me.
So I don't go there and like some pros, you know, they
want to do their own thing or they want to be you know, the
boss or whatever. But I just go there and I learned, and that
that's how it's always been since my amateur career. You know, if my
coaches were always there and they tell you what to do, I show to
the gym and they say what to do, and you say yeah. If
you say no, you just go home, you know, they just tell
you to leave. So I feel like I brought that to the gym and
and Freddie respected it, you know. And I obviously brought a very big
amateur background and some good boxing mom once I inspired here the first day,
Freddie wanted to keep me there. So but I feel like it's a good
mixture, you know, from with my amateur background and now Freddy's experiencing the
pros. It's like a good mixture, you know, for the styles I
can. I can box and move if I have to, and I'll learn
from Freddy for the last three years. I can stand down to fight,
you know what I mean, and get to get the fight over. So
one of the things that does intrigue me at your career is it's sort of
being done in a little bit of a non traditional manner. And I say
that because you and Tom uh you know, it's being done sort of outside
boxing circles in many ways, because of the relationship that you and Tom have
forged with Dana White from UFC. You fight on UFC Fight Pass, not
really a traditional boxing platform. UFC is tied corporately with the WWE, and
you had your this fight that you're going to have coming up on March fifteenth.
You know, they promoted it and showed you in video on their UFC
recent UFC card. They did the same on WWE Monday Night Raw. How
do you feel about sort of being put in front of that audience which is
not really a boxing audience, but certainly can't help. I can't hurt.
I should say the marketability and the and the and the getting your name out
there to not necessarily boxing fans, but just people that are taking time to
watch combat sports. Yeah. Absolutely. You know when I when I was
growing up, I was a much bigger UFC fan than I was a boxing
fan, you know I was. I always watch UFC every weekend, you
know what, watch the UFC fights. And and now being able to actually
be around the UFC, be around the UFC fighters, be able to go
to any UFC event I want, like having like working with Dana White and
Tom lovel you know, and Freddie Rose and I have the best team in
the game, I think right now, you know, and being able to
to combine both fans, you know, the UFC fans and the boxing fans
is a much bigger audience, you know, for for fights. And you
know, I love I love UC. I love the sport of m m
A. You know, I love to learn. I love to train sometimes
when I'm not not in camp for for a fight or whatever. So who
knows, maybe some day down the line, I might cross over and on
and and make my UFC davy. That'd be interesting because these days it's usually
the the m m A fighter that tries to come over to boxing, and
it's very it's much more rare. I guess that the boxer that crosses over
into the UFC cage. And I know that that you that you love that
that Uh what what the UFC people bring to the table for your career and
helping promote you and the things I just mentioned. Uh, But do you
feel like at some point because most boxing fans, which is really what you
want to grow, they're not no offense to UFC fight Pass or anything like
that, but that's not a place where most boxing fans look to watch boxing.
So your fights are primary only on UFC Fight Pass right now, do
you feel like at some point you need to be on a platform at least
sometimes that more that's more catered towards boxing fans and MMA fans, So more
of boxing fans can get a chance to know you and see you and follow
you. Yeah, you know, I don't make the plans. I don't
put the fights on the TV, you know, I just didn't. I
get in the ring and I and I do my job, and I presume
I don't know. I don't presume I know Tom and then and however have
a have a good plan for me? So or just I trust them.
I just getting the ring and I fight, and they make the plans,
they put the fight on the on the TV and all that stuff. So
yeah, like I said, I just I just fight. But I'm sure
they have a plan for me. So I'll wrap up with this. Then
you talk about the plan. As I mentioned, you are nine to oh,
but you're advanced as a nine to OZHO fighter. You have been in
main events all the time, You're fighting in a hallowed arenas like Madison Square
Garden. In your mind, how how far in the future do you see
yourself stepping up against you know, even top level opponents. Nothing against the
guys you've been fighting. You're being brought along. It seems to me the
right way. But where you're fighting, you know, more meaningful fights,
Let's say regional titles, eliminators, you know, names that other fight fans
might recognize. Do you have a mind a mindset of how far along that
will take? You know, how far in the future that may be.
You know, my mindset is my job as a fight So whoever they tell
me to fight, you, wherever they tell me to fight, I'll be
there and on fight. You know that. That's it. It's just like
I said, I don't I don't make the plans. I don't make the
fights. They just tell me you're fighting whoever on this day and I just
okay, No. They don't even ask me, do I want to pick
this opponent? What opponent? Do it? They just say you're fighting this
guy this time, and I say, okay, So whoever wants to fight
me, whoever Tom wants me to fight, Dana wants me to fight.
They just tell me when away and I show up and we'll get the job
done. I have to think that you got an opinion about like, you
know, when you feel like you're ready for a bigger step up, right,
I mean, yeah, I know you're leaving the business to the folks
that architect that, but you got to have your own feeling about like you
feel like I'm ready for a twelve rounder or I'm ready for a top a
better level of opponent. Do you do you feel that at all? Yeah,
I feel like I'm ready for ending. You know, I'm in the
worldcaret Boxing Club. I'm sparing world champions and sparing the best of the best
all the time, so I know I know I'm ready. It's just whenever
they tell me to fight, I just say, okay, Well they did
tell you to fight on March fifteenth at the Madison Square Guard Theater, say
weekend, I know you'll be there against Darren you loosener, Callum. I
wish you the best of luck and I really appreciate you taking time to talk
to me today. Yeah, but yeah, I appreciate thank you. Okay
again, so just to clarify that, it's not this weekend, that is
next weekend, March fifteen, Saint Patrick's Day weekend. He's coming up.
But what about Callum Walsh. We should be paying attention to this guy.
Yeah, good prospect, I mean growing fan base. He's from Ireland.
He trains in Los Angeles, like you heard us talk about. His trainer
is Freddy Roach. Freddie Roach is one of the great trainers in boxing history.
He doesn't usually take on guys if he doesn't see something in them that
he thinks they can get to the next level. This kid, Calum Wash,
a tremendous amateur, you know, because of COVID related reasons, wound
up not going to the Olympics or not trying to finish off to kind of
you know, to actually fight in the Olympics. He's linked up with Tom
Loeffler from three sixty Promotions, and what I found interesting that we talked about
is they're doing it in a non traditional way. Tom is putting him in
these shows. The Garden is interested to bring in that Irish community. So
it's his second consecutive headliner at the Madison Square Garden Theater. Most of his
fights have all taken place in southern California, and they're building him, but
he's not being presented thus far in front of a boxing audience, necessarily because
his fights are all on UFC Fight Pass, and that is because Dana White
has a relationship with Tom Loeffler and has met the kid and likes the kid,
and they're helping support his career by putting his events on the UFC Fight
Pass. So the UFC fans are seeing him and they're shout him out at
the at They gave like a video thing and introduced him at the last UFC
event. They did the same thing on a recent episode of Monday Night Raw.
Because UFC and and WWE are now owned by the same company, so
he's getting some great exposure in terms in terms of mainstream audience from you know,
big fan bases at UFCNWWE. He just hasn't necessarily yet made the name
in boxing, but he's good. I watched some clips and saw a couple
of fights and that, you know, talk to some different people that have
watched him. He's a lefties from Ireland. He's got a good style,
he's got a lot of knockouts. He's been increasing his competition. You know,
he's got a chance. I had him on my top fifteen prospect list
at the end of two thousand and twenty three, So there's that, and
so luck to the kid. He's a nice, nice interview and I wish
him good luck. So now some news, and we have been talking about
this. We talked about it on the Recap podcast. We also talked about
it on the US show midweek that now it looks like we're headed to the
finish line Canelo Alvarez Heimimongia. What is the latest on Thursday night? Still
fluid, but I know you've been doing some digging here. What's the latest.
Well, the latest is that come May fourth, at the Team Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas, Sinco de Mayo weekend, we will see Canelo Alvarez
in the ring. He will be fighting his Mexican countryman Heimimongia. If you're
not fighting David benavite'z, that's a tremendous fight as far as the action that
the fans can expect and it will take place. And the curveball, if
you will in this is that it will be not only an Amazon Prime pay
per view as part of the PBC deal, but it will also be carried
on pay per view by de own. That was I guess. I'm sure.
And just to be clear about this, number one, it's not the
paperwork is not signed. The deal is agreed to. I am told by
person with direct knowledge that's involved, and that's no you know in the room,
so to speak. So that's the that's the first thing. So they're
putting everything to paper, and if everything on paper reflects what everybody believes they've
agreed to, we'll get a signed contract. And we got to be real
careful about that stuff. Point being it's not signed, but apparently there are
no issues, and that the fact that it's Canelo going to be on Amazon
Prime. He did a one fight deal with Hayman. Now, remember when
he fought to Charlot Fight in the fall. It was the first of what
was supposed to be a three fight deal. Then they had their issues and
he ended up splitting with them. He's now been with two fights remaining.
He's now back with them on a one fight deal. I am told that
he is. His his take is north of forty north of thirty five million
dollars. I think it's probably close to forty million dollars just for Canelo,
and I don't know this for one hundred percent, but I am under the
very strong impression that the number for Mongia is a little north of ten million.
Interesting. So the bottom line is that PBC and Hayman under stood that
if they have any prayer whatsoever of making things work as an Amazon Prime pay
per view platform as a plan for their events, you can't let the number
one attraction in the business walk. And I don't know this, but common
sense, knowing enough about the business you're reporting and watching all of this go
on, that obviously everybody is getting something they want. What you just said
is important for premiere boxing champions. They need a big name to kick off
their pay per view type stuff. What Canelo gets out of this is he's
not obligated to another fight with them. And what obviously Dizone couldn't do is
they couldn't do this financially on their own, or they would have done it
right. That's common sense. So now everybody, everybody kind of gets what
they want because it's going to end up that's interesting, It's going to be
offered on to Zonne pay per views. Yeah, but here's the thing,
A couple of things about that. I understand what you're saying, but if
Hayman was not doing the fight in the Zone, I think the Zone could
have guaranteed the money if they wanted to, absolutely, but I don't think
Canelo wanted to work with Golden Boy. And so even though Golden Boy is
involved with Mangia and and the way it's explained to me is they help negotiate
the Mangia deal. They are his promoter along with Zanfer Promotions, but they
are not a co promoter of the event. I don't know if that means
that Golden Boy and Oscar will be around, you know, there's team will
be around during the fight week. Obviously, canelowhen Oscar don't have any kind
of relationship at this point, and he's sort of kind of been, you
know, punitive against Oscar to some degree. But that that's, you know,
the bottom line for you and me and for the the person of watching
the fight, that doesn't really mean anything. Who gives a shit who's up
there on the podium talking about the fighter, whether it's Oscar de la Hoya
or you know, Tom Brown from you know, TGB Promotions that handle the
PBC events or whoever. We're gonna get this fight, and it's a good
one and it should be exciting, and I'm sure that will be a huge
Mexican crowd and the like you mentioned. The biggest thing is that it allows
Canelo Alvarez when the fight's over, to go and do what he wants to
do with this series of short term deals are one fight deals, and he
can then go back to PBC if he wants to, if he wants to
fight one of their guys, or he can go talk to you know,
anybody else that has a fight that's of interest in, whether it's another fight
with his own or a fight with Matt Trow Boxing or you know, Golden
Boy or who knows, or top rank or whatever's out there for him,
do it on his own however he wants to do it. I mean,
he's basically running his career in the similar manner that Ray Leonard ran his career
for all those years. He worked with lots of different promoters to his career,
oftentimes with top rank, but oftentimes not, and he had his advisor
that made the deals and he got paid a huge amount of money. And
if you believe in your skills and you're good enough, you don't have to
worry about losing, or even if you do lose. Canela Obas's career is
not over. He can, you know, get back on and get into
another fight with whoever, because he's got such a popularity and such a big
name and such a legacy and all that. And it's funny that this deal
comes, you know, like you know, right around the anniversary, you
know, within a day or two when Canelo first won his first world title
at the junior middleweight division. I mean, tells you he's been around for
a long time, but he's still at the top. He's still making big
deals, still doing big fights, and it's a testament to a staying power
and what he's done in the ring as well as the team he surrounded himself
outside of the ring to help get these deals done and make that decision to
go on his own. So it's been thirteen years as of March fifth that
he won the first world title here and is now undisputed supermdoweight chat and make
another big fight against Heimi Mungive. And so this is a good segue.
As we mentioned earlier that our friends at PPV dot com not only have knockout
Chaos, but they're going to have the Canelo fight coming up as well.
And let's tell you a little bit more about that right now. On our
podcast, we keep talking about Knockout Chaos, and now we're going to talk
more specifically about how to see it and why you want to utilize PPV dot
com. The senior vice president of Marketing and Programming, Mark bro Carti,
is back with us. I don't think I've gotten to say yet Happy New
Year to you. It's already March, and I'm just saying talking to you
in the new year, my friend. I feel neglected on my end right
now, but it's good to be with you. Good to be with you,
and I think you're just about the of saying happy New Year. So
let's just say Happy March. March madness, going on, spring training,
baseball, any number of things, flowers blooming, oh by the way,
boxing, boxing in Saudi Arabia, and Knockout Chaos pay per view Friday afternoon,
US time. As they hear US with Anthony, Joshua Francis and Ghanu
in the main event, all right to I mean, we're looking forward to
whatever this is going to be, and certainly in Ghanu made a lot of
believers out of how he looked against Tyson Fury that he is coming with credibility
here and may have a legit shot to win this fight, Mark, that's
me saying it. How excited are you for this? Yeah, I'm really
excited to see what this means for in Ganu. I mean, look at
the other side first, Joshua. He needs this win. He wants this
win, right. It sets him up for a huge next event against the
winner of fury U six. So he's coming in very motivated. In Ghanu,
as you referenced, looked great. I say great. He looks way
better than anyone thought when he did fight Fury back in December. I think
one question though, that remains unanswered, is was that a function of Benganu
really coming in as strong as we all saw or was it an perhaps slightly
unmotivated, slightly lacksadaisical of Tyson Fury. So I think this fight will help
answer some of those questions. But I love in Ganu's confidence coming into this
event. Right, every interview, every print story you read, every a
TV interview you see he's talking about how confident he is coming in and that
is just fantastic to see from someone who's had one professional fight. Very true.
The footwork, we keep talking about this, the skill level. All
right, we'll see what it looks like. And one thing that we keep
honing in on and promoting. They want to watch this through ppv dot com
for a couple of primary reasons. Number one, great interactive experience, tremendous
ten eighty or better, four K whatever, you have to be able to
view it with the interaction that you have with your guest moderators, et cetera.
And secondly, no long term subscription commitment here. You just buy the
pay per view through ppv dot com. Yeah, that's exactly right. Two
important things to hit on. The second one is super important, no subscription.
It's free to create an account and then you buy what you want,
you leave, you come back when you want, which is great. Number
two in terms of watching the event, a little bit of news too for
your listeners. So for this fight for our chat host, our chat moderators,
we have not only Jim Lampley, but Kevin Ioli is going to be
the co chat host and Kevin is pumped to join us. He'll be there
taking fans questions, all fight, commenting on, commenting on it. So
it should be a really active chat and to you know, legends within our
business. And again for Kevin, for those who are not familiar, he
has been covering the big time fight scene for the better part of four decades.
He and Jim Lampley can break it down and terms of not only the
current but the historical perspective here in the heavyweight division. So that's fantastic.
Kevin Ioli there with Jim Lampley, all part of the interaction WITHPV dot PPV
dot com. Let's hit on it one more time though, too, because
so much is being pushed on people with subscribe, subscribe, subscribe to whatever
the streaming app or service is. We hone in again. If you just
want to watch the Knockout Chaos pay per view all the fights, including the
main event, you only need to buy it one time at PPV dot com
with no further commitment, right right, Yeah, there's no ongoing obligation.
You can buy this fight and then lucky you, you can come back on
March thirtieth and purchase the next big pay that we have, which is the
Therman Zoo event. So yeah, the concept of the whole concept of the
service is we didn't want anyone to have any commitments. Everyone has enough subscriptions,
so this is just a very simple buy at a la carte. We
love that again. In terms of the heavyweight division, I know we've got
Tight and Fury and Alexander Usik coming up here. We don't know if Deontay
Wilder ever gets back into the mixed as one of the young guns suddenly get
into the mix. But one thing we know to bring it back to Friday
afternoon US time, Friday night late in Saudi Arabia, Friday night primetime in
Europe, is whoever wins this fight Joshua Enganu, Mark Bucardi very relevant in
the picture for later twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five. One more time.
Oh yeah, absolutely. I think the winner of this sets up a
mega heavyweight title fight against the winner of the Fury Usik And that's as simple
as I can say it, and as clean and as big a fight in
boxing as you can have. Is an undisputed heavyweight championship title fight. And
that kind of feels like the path that we're going on, which is really
exciting as a fan of the sport. Gonna be a lot of fun.
Again, Mark, thank you so much. We appreciate the partnership with PPV
dot Com. We repeat one more time. If you are looking see knock
out Chaos on Friday afternoon, March the eighth, do it through PPV dot
com. Thank you, my friend. Let's see what happens here with this
one, and promise me I get to chat with you again before we start
talking Tim Zo, Kim Keith Thurman on PPV dot Com at the end of
March. We look forward to all of it one more time, Mark,
Yeah, no, it'll be great. We're gonna have a great spring on
PPV dot com, a lot of big fights and I look forward to not
waiting so long to see you again next time. Great stuff, And again
we emphasize they're gonna be doing these different one off pay per view purchases,
whether it is the Saudi Card Friday, Zoo and Thurman into the month obviously,
the Canelo obviously, the Fury Usik, and we're proud to have them
partnered up with us here as part of Big Fight Weekend, the podcasts and
also the website. More news and then a little bit of nostalgia. You
already touched on a little nostalgia, but a little more nostalgia before we're done
on the rest of the news. What is it, Rayphaiel, What is
this about? Connor, Ben and Manny pakiaw they're in soul to Arabia.
I saw the video and the pictures. Is this legit? Yeah, Pakial
is gonna come out of retirement and maybe fight Connor Ban. How legit on
the ray field meter. Now, whether they get the deal done or not,
that's going to depend on whether uh, you know, his excellency Turkey
al Sheik wants to spend the money on the fight. If he wants to
spend the money in the fight, and fight will get done. Connor Ben
wants this fight, Eddie Hern wants his fight, Nanny Pakia wants his fight.
Sean Gibbons' advisor wants this fight. And there they didn't just accidentally run
into each other. They purposely traveled to Saudi Arabia to see each other face
to face and to make him think about it. You might you might accidentally,
like run into each other at a New York airport. You might be
at a big fight in Vegas. You don't accidentally run into each other in
Saudi Arabia. I agree with you, right, I mean, so,
I mean it doesn't surprise me that Connor Ben win. It's you know,
Eddie's this promoter, he's there taking in the fights and all that. But
but Nanny Packou and Sean Gibbons, you know, they went purposely to to
get in front of Connor ben and for him to see him, and to
talk to Eddie Hearn and to hopefully for you know, in their perspective,
is to meet with with Turkey and to try to make a deal and try
to sell the fight. And obviously one of the ways you do that,
more so than just tweeting about it or making a phone call about it or
sending some of you an email or a text message, is you show up,
you know, right there, get all the media and the fans.
They're excited about it, you know, have a face off, stare each
other in the eye, start talking some shit respectfully. So I'm you know,
they were very respectful each other. Pack has always been a respectful guy
to his opponents, and Connor strikes me as the kind of guy that's not
going to start up with his opponent unless the other guy starts up with him.
And so yeah, there are one hundred percent serious. If both sides
get If Turkey gives the blessing and decides to open the wallet to do the
fight, this fight will happen next and probably within the next few months.
I would imagine it would happen sometime, you know, this summer, and
we'll see this fight. I mean, I don't know if it's a fight
that the world's clamoring for. I was gonna say, because Pakil has been
out of the ring for three years. Practically he's forty five years old.
Here we go again, like with Mike Tyson at the beginning of this conversation,
He's not he's not fifty eight. I understand that. But but the
thing about the thing about Manny is this a couple of things. Number One,
still an amazing condition. I've seen videos, have been working out recently,
He's had a couple, he's had one exhibition, he's got another one
coming up. But he's always stayed in tremendous condition. And the other thing
people should remember is this. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying like
I love the fact that Pakia might come out of retirement to do this,
but he's never wavered from the prospect of coming out of retirement. Number one.
Number two, when he went into retirement post the Yugos loss, Ay,
it wasn't like he got beat up in that fight. You know,
he lost the decision, but he didn't take punishment or anything like that.
And secondly, everybody knows that that retirement in quote marks was really more not
about him not having a love still to do boxing and still being at least
good enough to compete at the highest level even if he didn't win the Yugas
fight. That was because he was about to launch his presidential campaign in the
Philippines and he wasn't gonna be able to run for president and also consider himself
to be an active boxer. So when he lost the election and then his
Senate term expired because he didn't run for reelection because he was running for the
presidency. Here you have the guy that the only thing he's known in his
professional life is professional boxing, and he still loves it. And if he
can still find the right fight and make money, he still might have another
fight or too left in him. And though this is the possibility of doing
that, and it's a it is a good name. It would definitely sell
a lot of pay per view in the United Kingdom. They would probably get
a tremendous amount of money to do this fight from the from the saudis my
understanding from people I've talked to, and my own estimations is it probably takes
around thirty million dollars to get this fight made in that ballpark, and we'll
see what happens. But they like to get it done this weekend, you
know, as Pachio said in the interview he did with his own I want
to get this done before we go home, which is probably like some of
us sun there one day, get me my fifteen twenty twenty five million.
Let's do it before I go home. You gotta get us before we just
said that. Can't you get us one of those kind of deals with the
Saudis. Come on, they're right, all right, I know you're excited.
They have officially laid out the card for MACE Tokyo Dome in Japan,
the Monster Naoya in a way fighting luis near the undisputed junior featherweight champ and
the WBC mandatory, and the rest of the card has been laid out too
as well. While we're going over the news real quick on that for May
sixth, Well, so they had the press conference in Tokyo to make this
fight official. I mean, there was never a doubt that was happening.
The fight was signed, you know, quite a while ago, and then
there was the one thing that they just had the last hurdle, if you
will. But it was pretty much preordained that the Japanese Boxing Commission was going
to lift the indefinite suspension on Neari and he would be licensed and they'd be
able to do the fight that happened last week, and so they had a
press conference earlier this week to announce this fight officially. But so that's not
really so much news, although that's a big time fight and it's gonna you
know, probably you know, sell that place out fifty thousand or so.
I have to give a tip of the hat to the people at Top Rank.
Phenomenal job with the artwork. What they did was they made the poster
look very reminiscent of the Tyson Douglas poster with the same colors and it was
really sharp. So props to their art apartment and the folks that do that.
But the undercar for this fight is absolutely loaded. And you know,
we've talked about this many times on this show, TJ about what a degenerate
and a dork and how much I love and just can't get enough of these
world titled cards from Japan, even if they're coming out the arts, there's
gonna be a Japanese fight card for Rayfield, is what this comes down to.
Well, I'm a little bit I'm gonna have a little bit of a
problem because I'm thinking to myself, I'm gonna go to the Canelo fight on
May fourth, means I'm gonna get home on May fifth. And if I
always take the same flight from Vegas, as there's one NonStop a day on
my airline from Vegas to Washington, which won't get me in my house and
probably until about if we're on time, I walk in the door around maybe
maybe ten thirty eleven o'clock at night, and the fights start at four in
the morning, so and I'm gonna be all wired from being awake and being
on time. Different. So do I stay up and watch it and be
all fucked up the next day, or do I get hours of sleep and
then wake up to see the fight. So it's gonna be interesting. But
they put on the three other world title fights. You got Takuma in a
way, who was the younger brother of Noya, who just fought recently in
a title defense against was at a German on Kassas and he retained the title.
He's going to take on his mandatory challenger, a show Ishida. That's
gonna be one of the title fights on there. In a WBA Bantam White
title. You've got the WBO Banta White champion, Jason Maloney, who you
know, he won his title in the United States. He defended the title
in Canada. Now he's going to defend the title again in Japan. He's
fighting a fighter named Yoshiki Takei who is a former kickboxing champion and k one
so I guess he's a pretty well known athlete in Japan. And so Maloney
was originally being planned to be on the in Australia on the undercart of when
George Cambosa's fights against Vasily Lomachenko, but that's the following week. They got
the opportunity to put him on this card in Japan, so they are going
to go to Japan instead of fighting at home. But it's a big opportunity
to be in front of that kind of crowd on the same card with the
brother. Maybe it leads to a unification fight and then for good measure,
he got the WBA Flyway title on the line segu Akui who just won the
title against Artem de Lakian on another one of these Japanese big time world title
cards that we watch at four o'clock in the morning, and he's taken on
another Japanese fighter named taku Kuwahara. So I love these Japanese cards, and
this should be a real This is a really by this by the standards that
they've set, this is a freaking loaded card because, by the way,
I do pay attention to you, I pay attention to you. That's four
world title fights. Yeah, and I said that, I know you said
that. That's four world title fights on the same card, So it's well
worth it to be up early in the morning. Yeah, you've got a
big time main event. He got three other other fights on the show that
are interesting for different reasons. All right, all of that coming May sixth
in Tokyo, which will be a Monday right Monday morning in the US,
Monday night in that case in Japan. So some great news. You already
gave us a little taste of nostalgia. A couple of ways. We mentioned
Mike Tyson's pro debut, as you mentioned thirty nine years ago, and twelve
years before Jake Paul was born Mark six, nineteen eighty five, and Tyson
fought a barrage of fights in a year and a half before finally knocking out
Trevor Berbick and becoming WBC Heavyweight Champ. November of the next year, you
mentioned Canello's victory over Matthew I want to tell you a little bit about that
debut from Tyson. Yeah, did you last long? Right? No,
it didn't last long. It was a quick knockout. But because I grew
up in the in the in the Capitol region in New York State, the
Albany area, that's where Tyson turned pro. That's where Tyson had all those
early fights in Albany, Schenectady, Troy Glenn's falls, so he became a
local celebrity and helped us with the geography. I'm not ultra familiar. Where
is the cat Skills where he was staying and living with test Tomato in that
area. If you're in New York City and you drive maybe an hour and
a half to two hours north, you'll find yourself in the catskillar region,
not even maybe not even that far. If you keep driving another hour,
hour and a half, you'll find yourself in the alban area where I grew
up, and so a lot of his fights were in and around that place.
So if you were driving from Catskill to Albany to go from where Couss
lived where Mike was gonna fight, you're talking about, you know, maybe
ninety minutes stareabouts in the car, right up the highway, easy trip.
And so I went and I looked this up because I remembered having a brief
conversation with Tyson about his pro debut back before he fought Kevin McBride in two
thousand and five, which was his last fight before retirement. Depending on what
happens if they approved this Roy Jones of the fight between not the Roy Jones
fight, but Tyson against Jake Paul. I had the occasion because he was
training in Washington, which is where that McBride fight took place. So I
had multiple lengthy injuries with Tyson in the lead up to that fight in one
of them, and I was doing this piece for ESPN because that fight coincided
in two thousand and five with Tyson's twentieth year as a professional boxer, So
we figured that this would kind of be a cool idea. We did twenty
topics for twenty years with Tyson, all kinds of random shit, like different
fights, different opinions, you know, personal life probably you know professional life.
So one of the things I asked him about was his pro debut.
You know, I'd never really heard him talk about it. I've seen some
pictures and you know what the pos looked like in that sort of stuff.
But you know, it took place in Albany, just north of Katskill where
he grew up. He had a first round knockout, like you said,
March sixth eighty five, he fought a fighter named Hector Mercedes, obviously a
footnote in history, and I looked up the quote from that interview. He
said, I remember it. I fought Hector Mercedes. He was a little
small Spanish man, pudgy guy, and it was real quick. Those were
the best days. You could tell that Tyson just had such a great set
of memories from those early fights because he was fighting every week and making his
first money, as you know, as a young man, and trying to
make his way into sport. You know, with Cuss all the time,
with his team, and you know, if he could have bottled the time,
he would have stayed there, you know, for a long time.
But that was that was his pro tibut, like you said, a long
time ago, thirty nine years ago, and what a meteoric rise in and
around that area. I still remember watching and you did too, those fights,
several of them on wide World of Sports that were either in I don't
remember Albany as much as like Glen's Falls where he was fighting like Quick Tillus
and Marvus Fraser and some of the others. So Man, the time to
go back to that time, Pats like to drive this from to Glenn's Falls,
Troy, Albany, Schenectady. Those are all within like thirty thirty five
minutes of each other, all in the same capital region. And then the
world began to know who this guy was the next year, in the year
after that, and it still goes on now in the present. In twenty
twenty four with Tyson, you also made mentioned Canelo's first world title, the
win over Matthew Hatton, came March five of twenty eleven. That was earlier
this week on Tuesday in the Nostalgia and what a career he's had, and
also Julio Caesar Chavez and miguel Anhill Gonzalez. We're also nostalgic for this week
as we do the podcast on Thursday, we got another Mexican hero that has
milestone as well. Tell me more, Tell me more about March seventh,
nineteen ninety eight in the Nostalgia Dan Rayfield, Do you want to hear about
Hadden first? You want to hear at the shots first? Either way?
Go ahead, Well, I mean Hadden. Hadden was Ricky's brother, and
it was a vacant title, and Canelo was only twenty years old. And
here we are now he's what thirty thirty three years old and still at the
top of his game in some respects, and you know, won titles in
a multiple of weight classes from junior middleweight all the way up to light heavyweight,
become the biggest star in the sport at one time, you know,
for a period of time, the pound for pound number one still you know,
by all accounts, you know in that top few pound for pound for
sure. And here we are on a day in which he's making this big
fight with Timi Mongia that it is just a few days after he won his
very first world title. When you think about all the world championship fights that
this man has been in since that time, But at that time, nobody
knew what he was going to accomplish. I mean, he was the favorite
to beat Hadden, of course, but I think if you put truth serumon
people on March fifth, twenty eleven, when he got in the ring,
they say, yeah, you know, Canelo is going to defeat Matthew Hatton
and he's gonna win this WBC one hundred and fifty four pound title. But
is he going to become like arguably the greatest Mexican fighter of all time,
lock Hall of Famer, you know, win titles in all those weight classes,
be involved in some absolutely mega fights, some of the biggest fights we've
seen. Fight Floyd Mayweather fight Triple G twice or three times, really fight
you know, any any host SLUA fighters that are top guys. The answer
would have been out. But against Matthew hadn't you know, he won pretty
much every single round. It was a shutout. The only reason it wasn't
one twenty to one await in all the cards because at one point in the
fight, Canelo had a point deducted for hitting on the break. I believe
it was and you know, he cruised to that win. And who would
have known that thirteen years later it'd still be Ryan high and doing his business.
I mean back then he was a prospect still. I mean he had
never really fought. He'd fought some OK guys. He had fought love More
and dou who had been a champion. At one forty, he had scored
as spectacular one punch knockout against Carlos Valdimir who had been the welterweight champion.
I was at that fight, and let me tell you, that was like
a shotgun going off when he hit him and he dropped him. But he
won the title against had and that was off to the racis. And as
far as the other card you mentioned, uh, Chavez against Miguel Angel Gonzalez,
that was a good That was a really that was one of don King
special, like a pay per view that was carried by a showtime pay per
view. They did it in the bull ring in Mexico City, and you
know it was they were Gonzales and Chavez were like rivals. There's been a
lot of talk about them fighting each other for a long time. Check out
these records. I looked this up because I knew were going to talk about
this going into that fight. Chavez is the reigning WBC Junior welterweight champion going
into the fight, There's a fight that, like I said, been highly
anticipated by the Mexican fans for a long time. Miguel Angel Gonzalez at that
time was forty two wins and one loss, and the only loss that he
had ever suffered as going into that fight was when he lost by he had
lost to I think it was Oscar de la Hoya was the one loss he
had going into that fight. That was, you know, certainly not a
bad kind of loss. That was you know, de la Hoya at is
you know, really almost at his maybe one of the best performances of Oscar's
career, and that was a decision, and so you know he then he
then lost you know, later on after that, but it was, you
know, this was considered like a very significant fight, is the point.
So when he fought chob Is, you know, I don't know if he
was like considered that he could maybe if he was considered like a big time
chance to win, but he's like he's like two fights removed from a close
loss or a competitive but a wide but competitive loss anyway to Oscar who jabbed
him all ay along. But nonetheless he's forty two and one going into that
fight. Julio Caesar chov Is going into that fight, ninety nine two and
one. He's looking for number one hundred going into that fight, and that
was part of how they promoted it. And it was a draw, and
it was a close fight, and it was a good fight. And the
fight that I actually loved more than the main event is the co feature,
because that featured one of my all time favorite fighters, Ricardo Finito Lopez,
who is now in the Hall of Fame as he should be. He was
forty seven and zero going into that fight. He had been the long ragning
WBC champion at strawweight. He had Rossendo Alvarez from Nicaragua who was the WBA,
and going to that fight he was twenty four to oh and that was
the most vulnerable that Lopez ever won. Now, Ricardo Lopez is literally one
of the most perfect fighters you could find, balance, speed, defense,
offense. You know, can go backwards, go forwards, you know,
chin power, I mean, especially for a guy that small, could knock
your block off with one shot. I mean, really one of the great
terrible things in boxing is that he never got the chance to fight some of
the the other top top guys, you know, maybe up to the flyweight
division. But they ended up in a technical draw because of an accidental headbut
situation, and it turned out to be a technical draw after the seventh round.
Now they did have a rematch and that was the fight. Whereas Alvarez
didn't make the weight and got stripped to the title, but Lopez took the
fight even though he was outweight, and straweight's like a big deal. He
was like over three pounds. That was like a big difference at that time,
and he was able to win the vacant title and he ended up winning
the fight and it was another great battle. But this is like if you
like the little fighters, and we spent a lot of time talking about,
like, you know, the smaller weight classes, whether it's the flyweights or
the junior bandon weights or you know some of the great young you know,
smaller guys that are around today. If you like those types of fights,
you need to go watch Ricardo Lopez, you know, on your trust the
YouTube, because three of those guys equals July Jiang's wait practically for him being
in the ring in Saudi Arabia just pretty much yeah, exactly. But this
was this was a really good you know, it was a pay per view
with you know, two top notch fights too, Hall of famers and Lopez
and Chabaz fighting real guys and competitive matchups. And I just love that shit.
And that was we do. Like we said, that's the anniversary back
in ninety eight, I got one more piece of nostalgia. You can be
the first as we released the podcast over nine into Friday to wish me happy
birthday. You want to wish happy birthday. Happy March eighth, nineteen seventy
I joined the world fifty four years ago, March eighth, nineteen seventy one.
How many pay per views did it? I don't know. Not.
My birth March nineteen seventy one. My first birthday is Ali Fraser the fight
of the century on my first birthday. How about that? So we've talked
at length about Ali the Ali Fraser. We brought it up numerous different times.
But that's the anniversary of that fight in nineteen seventy one where Joe Fraser
handed Muhammad Ali his first loss, which means coustry your birthday is the anniversary
of the fight between Canello and Billy Joe Saunders. How about that from March
eighth as well, and now knockout Chaos coming in from Saudi Arabia in twenty
twenty four. You never know, but all good stuff, all good stuff
here on that man, It's been a busy show, lots of stuff at
the beginning on Jake Paul and Mike Tyson the previews of the Saudi fight card.
You've heard from Callum Walsh, You've heard from our buddy Mark Burcardi from
PPV dot com. We've given you news, We've given you have We given
you about all that we can give here for the preview podcast. I think
we have pretty much again as you're hearing this, Friday afternoon is when the
fight card is in Saudi Arabia. I told you I got to keep all
on my day straight because we're not doing the US Boxing show tomorrow. We
already get it, as I keep mentioning to preview this, So Friday afternoon,
whatever happens, you and I will come back off the weekend and recap
everything that goes down, whether Joshua gets the winn or gets upset, what
happens with those other title fights. We're gonna recap all of this coming off
the weekend. Dan, right, Phiel, look forward to it here with
this rare it's a rare big time Friday afternoon pay per view in the United
States. So we'll see what happens with all of that. We will.
I'll be watching all day all with respect to all that. Check him out
on his sub stack with the recaps recaps as well on Big Fight Weekend dot
com. My friend, have a good weekend, Let's see what happens with
the fights, and we will talk to you on the recap podcast off the
weekend. No matter what happens, Dan Rayfield, I suspect we're gonna have
a lot to talk about. Well. I believe we will too. Keep
it locked into for the latest with the news on the Canelo official announcement and
much more with Dan. For now, we are good if you have been
listening to the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast