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 intriguing
weekend, not only in London with a light heavyweight eliminator, but also a
British fighter fighting in Las Vegas who is still under some scrutiny in Connor Ben.
We're gonna preview both of those fights and fight cards. We've got fight
news, We've got nostalgia and more. It is the Big Fight Weekend preview
pod. Good to be back with you. I am merely the somewhat competent
host TJ Reeves. He's our insider fight Freaks Unitis his substack. He also
contributes as well at Big Fight Weekend dot com. Hello Dan Rayfield. We're
in a new month, my friend. We're in the month of February already
and ready to get underway with a lot of different action and news items and
much more. How are as we head into the first weekend? Here?
It is as we release the podcast. You know, I do interview you
a lot, and it could seem like groundhog Day. It is literally groundhog
Day Friday, as we release the podcast Thursday night into Friday, and I
don't know if punks a tawney Phil saw his shadow for like eight more years
of ray Field. For me, I don't know what that means with the
groundhog in Pennsylvania. H I know if the groundhog, whether he sees the
shadow or he doesn't see the shadow. When you hit February first, it
just means you're you got December and January behind you, and we're one day
closer to the spring, where one day closer to the greatest day of the
year was when we turn the clocks and everything is late for another extra hour
because I'm one of those people that hates when we have to switch the box
and it gets dark at four o'clock here in the Northeast, or as the
internet meme has it, if the groundhog saw his shadow, it does mean
two more weeks of Taylor Swift all over TV, including for the Super Bowl
with the Chiefs and the forty nine ers. Somebody will get the punch line
in there. I don't know if everybody will get it in any event.
All Right, so thank you for finding us. Make sure to rate us
and review us. That does help us. As we preview going into the
weekend, we recap with the Fight Freaktion Night recap coming off the weekend RTUs
review us particularly like you've gotten some feedback that people liked the interview with Ben
Shalom, the promoter of Boxer. We're about to talk about their card coming
up. If you liked it enough, give us a five star review.
Put that on Apple or Spotify or Sprinker wherever you can review us and held
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follow subscribe, but rate us and review us. That also helps. And
again we come your way. We have been diligent with this. I know
I keep petting you and me on the back, but it isn't like we
take weeks off. We have rarely taken a week off in going on almost
two years of doing this. And if you appreciate that, peeps, fans,
savages, just give us a five star review. How am I doing
on selling that? Yeah, pump us up, pump us up a little
bit because it does help us with the algorithms, etc. All Right,
with all of that being said, let's get into it. Speaking of Ben
Shloman, I enjoyed that conversation. It is fascinating that he is the youngest
big time worldwide promoter, and it's an interesting deal that they have now with
a goliath over there in terms of sports and TV Sky Sports in the UK
and also now in the United States and the deal with Comcast, NBC Peacock
and the streaming. It is interesting that it's his fight card that we are
going to lead with that has a delayed because of an injury to dana Z's
a delayed Buoze Joshua Boozzy dana Ze's WBA light heavyweight eliminator. So good segue,
good entree now into the preview of this fight card that's coming up Saturday
afternoon US time, Saturday night in London. And I know you're excited about
this. We've been looking into it in the preview mode and here we are
to talk about it on the podcast. Yeah. I am looking forward to
this card. I mean not just to see the main event which has got
a lot of stakes there, but also the undercard, which we'll talk about
in a minute. But Bouwatzi is an Olympian, he's undefeated. He's moved
a little slower I think than a lot of people had anticipated or hoped for,
I think himself included. He obviously had he got into a beef with
Matchroom Boxing. He ended up leaving them. He's not with boxer. There's
a lawsuit going on, but it's got. It's got. It's not going
to stop the fight or anything like that. But so there was definitely some
issues there. But you know, for our purposes as fans, uh,
you know, does it make a difference to you whether he's on a Mattchroom
card or a boxer card. No, I couldn't care less. It's a
do I put on his owne and watcher or I put on Peacock and watch
it. So to me, it's all in the same. I am very
pleased though that that a boxer does have that deal with Peacock is now we
can watch it, uh live in you know, perfect streaming color and technology
without having a look for you know, boot legs or highlights or this and
that or YouTube after the fact two o'clock Eastern time, by the way,
on Peacock for the show, uh in any event. But the thing also
about that is they don't even mess around with like international feeds. They literally
on Peacock showed the exact same broadcast as what if you lived in your you
know, your home or you're flat in London and you were popping on Sky
Sports. It's the same thing. It's just the exact same transmission and just
we see it here in the United States. So I like that. But
in terms of the fight, Look, these guys are good buddies, DJ,
They've sparred together, they've been friends for years, they're roughly the same
age, they're roughly the same experience level in terms of where they are in
their careers, and they've both gotten to a point where you know, it's
become not just a fight they would do, but a fight that makes sense
for both guys because of what's at taken. As you mentioned, it is
an eliminator fight. Asis is a little bit older, he's thirty four and
Biasi is thirty. But the point is, in terms of their professional experience,
it's about the same, and the winner will be the WBA's mandatory for
the belt that is currently held by Dimitri Bibel. Now, whether the winner
actually gets a chance to fight people or for a vacant title remains to be
seen, because if you're following along here, the strong likelihood as that come
June it'll be Dimitri Bebel against Arthur better be in a unification fight, you
know, for undisputed, and what happens after that, you know who the
heck knows and you know, then they'll be down. If they're going to
hold onto all the belts, they're gonna be down by the rotation system.
So there'll be four organizations with mandatories. I'm not sure where the WBA would
fall, but suffice it to say is a big time fight for both of
these men and their careers. By far, their biggest fight so far,
because of the stakes, because they're both undefeated, and because they're friends and
you know, sometimes I've talked to different boxers over the years when they're friends
with a guy, sometimes they don't want to fight, but when they do
fight, they want to win even more because there's more at stake in terms
of the bragging rights. Because if it's somebody don't know, don't care about,
never met, you know whatever, you just move on. If it's
somebody that you're going to be seeing and hanging around with for the rest of
your life, you know, there's gonna be a little chirping going on there.
So they definitely got the machismo going in terms of, you know,
the personal relationship and look they match up well against each other and they it
is a worthy kind of fight. They're both very quality fighters in this weight
class, and you know, I look forward to it. The one thing
Bawatzie does definitely has an advantage of, besides being a few years young,
is that he's a lot taller than than a disease. But as he's though,
listen, he he you know, Blosi came with some credentials, skitt
of the Olympics, and he was kind of handled in that manner like he
was. I won't say he had an easy path, but it wasn't the
hardest path, you know, let's say, in terms of what Azi's had
to deal with, like when he won the European title in twenty twenty three,
about a year ago, Marshall last year, he didn't have it the
easy way. He had to go to France and fight on the other guy's
card. You know, he he had to fight some of the top British
fighters that were, you know, good solid guys at the time. He
fought, for example, a Rocky Fielding who may not have been you know,
a top level world class guy. You know, a guy who got
pummeled by Canelo, but he still could handle himself, you know, and
he's he had to go through you know, some some of those types of
fighters. Blazzi I don't think has had as rigorous a schedule, at least
in terms of his recent fights. You know, he did have a win
over Craig Richards, which is a is a pretty good victory in terms of
the opponent's sacred fight from Truthfully, though, if I recall, he did
not look great in that fight. Oh he was, and so but he
won. He got the win, and it was over a year and a
half ago that that fight happened, right, Yeah, So I mean it's
I think that Aziz has a little bit of a better resume. Obviously in
terms of the amateur background, it is Bwazi, given that he was in
the Olympics. Look, it's it's what you want to see, right,
I mean, it's not for the world title. Fine, it's to get
the world title shot. It's two worthy guys, two guys with great records
and uh and they've they've paid their dues over the last few years, so
let's let's get it on. So that's a good, solid main event for
this card. And again in the case, this is interesting in the case
of Azaz, he had been fighting twelve round fights for the European light heavyweight
title. His last fight, though last July, was only an eight round
fight. It was a distance fight that he won. So do you have
an explanation as to why he backed off and not? No, that was
that was simply let's get in the ring, let's move around, let's be
active. Because remember this fight with Bowatzi was originally scheduled for last ball.
I believe it was either I want to say it was October or maybe early
November, and so that was to sort of be the tune up fight to
get him ready for that fight. And then that fight was postponed, which
is why it's happening on Saturday, because as he's at a minor setback with
a back injury that he needed a little bit of extra time. So that's
why that fight got postponed. A matter of fact, on the podcast,
when I was speaking with Ben shaloone one of the things that he lamented and
I felt his pain was the first event that was supposed to be part of
the boxer deal with Peacock was supposed to be this fight in the main event.
The fight was postponed the rest of the cards still went on as planned.
They moved it to a smaller venue, but it was not in any
way, shape or form the bigger kind of fight that they were hoping for.
Then, post that fight, the next show that they did, which
was also on Peacock, was the recent Chris BILLM Smith title defense against Masterneck,
which was a heck of a fight. And now here we are in
February for this world title fight, all right, so again that one will
be the main event. Also on this card as well is Adam a Zeem,
not to be confused with Dan a Z's. A Zeem is a junior
welterweight. He's got a lot of promise. Tell me more, I don't
know anything about the opponent. This is why we defer to you. But
this is on the undercard Saturday evening in London, Saturday afternoon in the US.
What else about this one? Well, Adam Azeem is one of my
favorite prospects in boxing, and I've said that several times on the show.
I had him on my top fifteen prospects list at the end of twenty twenty
three. He's just a really, really exciting fighter with a lot of potential.
He's only twenty one years old. He's already been in a main event,
He's already starting to draw crowds. He's got swagger, he's got a
good personality, he's got great punching power. He's got a I think anyway,
but you know, and who knows, because when you get to this
level where you're starting to get the money and the acclaim, sometimes it goes
to your head. But thus far, it seems like in talking to Ben,
having seen the way a Zeem has handled himself interviews and that sort of
stuff, he feels like he's got that maturity that's not normal for a twenty
one year old who was about to hit the big time. So if he
can keep hisself together with all the things that are going to come at him
with the success, that will bode well for him. So it feels like
he's got maturity for being such a young age with so much right promise coming.
Like I said, big punching power, ken box a bit. Also,
he's not like he can't box. He was, you know, he
did have an amateur cur even though obviously at a very young age he didn't
go into like the Olympics for the big international competitions and that sort of stuff.
But he did win the European one hundred and forty pound title in November.
That was a really good performance against Frank Pettigen, who was not a
great fighter or anything like that, but a very solid, very experienced European
fighter, and he took the title off him. And Pettitjen had gotten the
vacant belt because Enoch Poulsen, who was the opponent that Asim is going to
fight, I guess he got injured and that it was vacated, but he
was the number one contender. So once that fighten Azem and Pettitgen took place,
you know, Paulson was there in the crowd knowing that he's getting the
winter next, so he got in the ring with Azem. After the fight,
they started to jaw a little bit, you know, in a good
manner to help build it up. And so, look, Paulson is undefeated.
He's fourteen and zero. You know, he's a bit older, he's
in his thirties, already's thirty one years old. He's a guy from Denmark.
But you know, it's it's still it does bode as the most significant,
toughest fight that he has had so far. Now, if you want
to do any comparisons, when when he won the European title, this is
what I'm talking about. When Enoch Paulsen won the vacant in European title that
was in twenty twenty two against Petiging. He went the distance with him in
a way in a decision, and ultimately when he was injured and couldn't go
to the post to defend the title, Petogen won the vacant title. He
ended up getting stopped by Azim. So my point is Azeem's got the knockout
against him, the other guy's got to win in the distance. That doesn't
always translate, of course, how they're going to fight against each other.
So you gotta like Azeem given the youth and his recent performances. But for
where the kid is in his career and the potential that he has is a
step up fight. It's an interesting fight, a little less pressure, maybe
because it is the undercard as opposed to the main event. But I'm actually
from an action standpoint. You know, Batzi and Azis, I'm not sure
that to me could go either way. It could either be a little bit
of a slow dance and not so much exciting, even though it could be
at a high skill level or if they decide to trade it out, who
knows. But I do believe that a Zem and Pulson has the potential to
be a good action scrap besides also a great building block for a Zem if
he's able to win the fight. And one of the things I love about
this show and about your wealth of knowledge and what we do here on the
podcast is we are global. And again, this guy's a much bigger deal.
Obviously in the UK, A lot of American fans don't know a lot
about Adam Azeem. So I just ask you, is he still, like
all of this year from being really relevant at the highest level at one point
forty if he continues to win, is it going to probably be twenty twenty
five before I think? What do you think I think? Given his age,
given that he just won the European title. Now, the European title
is an important stepping stone, significant regional title has a huge amount of history,
you know, the traditional way that British fighters have done things through the
course of decades. If they can try to win the British title, the
Commonwealth title, the European title, and that point they can then move on,
hopefully for their sake, to the world level and fight for a world
title. But because Adamazim is only twenty one years old, he just won
the European title. It's not the kind of title you're gonna make, you
know, a whole million defenses of you're gonna you know, ideally, and
if you know, you can look through history of the greats that have won
the European title, make a couple of defenses, three four defenses maybe at
the most, and then they're off to the races. So I do think
and I didn't talk about this, particularly with Ben in the interview, but
it strikes me that if history, you know, is a guide that if
he's successful against Paulson on Saturday, you figure he probably defend the title a
couple of more times this year, you know, get in three fights at
least in twenty twenty four, and then, like you said, come twenty
twenty five, by that time, be in a position because just because he's
European champion doesn't mean he doesn't continue to or be ranked and rise among the
sanctioning bodies to position him for you know, either an eliminator in a world
title fighter, perhaps a world title fight, but I do think this year
is the European title defense here and then probably has come twenty twenty five.
We'll see him if he continues to win and you know, get into the
picture of those bigger fights because he's so young. He's got the backing of
Sky which is huge, and you know, continue to create, you know,
noise and excitement and credentials and you know, make people want to see
you more and let's build your career because he's got all the time in the
world. It seems good stuff on Adam a Zeem. Again, we got
to keep it straight. Dan a Z's in the main event with Josh will
Boo outsee and again those will be on Peacock streaming in the United States,
sky Sports in the UK Saturday afternoon. So we are still in the preview
mode and it involves again a British fighter, but it's a long way away
from England, all the way out to Las Vegas where Connor Benn who is
still and I know we're going to get into this briefly. We don't have
to go down the rabbit hole. He is still not licensed in the UK,
but he is allowed to fight in the United States and he is fighting,
and he's headlining the Matchroom boxing card in Vegas against Peter Dobson. This
is junior middleweights. Ben had been fighting at welterweight, now at junior middleweight
main event. And if I understand all of this correctly, because of his
prominence in the UK, they are fighting earlier Eastern time and Pacific time in
the afternoon US time, so that it's in prime time, so it actually
will maybe overlap or be competing with the boxer card. Tell me about Connor
Ben or what's the update there on that? All right, so a few
things. So the boxer card starts at two o'clock Eastern time East, you
know, the United States. The Connor Ben card starts at three o'clock Eastern
time, and obviously have undercard fights, so you know, but the whole
reason you just mentioned he can't fight in England right now, but the audience
for him is still in the UK. It's not here in America. So
the fact that he's fighting, you know, in the afternoon time in the
United States is irrelevant because all of the Matchroom cards that we watch from the
UK start at you know, two three o'clock. Also on the East coast.
They're just doing it. They're pretending they're in England basically, right,
you know, even though he can't be there. So given always lunchtime in
the Pacific time zone in Las Vegas, win the card begins. I'm just
pointing that out. Yeah, So they are designing the timing of it for
the British audience so much to the point that Matchroom Boxing, which has you
know, obviously several American boxers under contract, but they're bringing over, you
know, several of the British fighters to fight in this card to give the
British fans what they want to see. So while we will see two prominent
American prospects that match from has and that is Austin Williams. Austin am L.
William is the undefeated, up and coming middleweight. He's on in the
co feature. I'm excited to watch him fight. You also have the light
heavyweight Khalil Coe, who has now been fighting on the Before the Bell part.
This is his first time being on the main card. He's also an
American. But the others that are on the show are the they brought Brits
over the popular heavyweight Johnny Fisher and then two other younger prospects, George Littard
who's a middleweight, and also Jimmy Sayin's a middleweight. So it's geared towards
the British crowd. You mentioned him out. The main event with Connor Ben
technically is a junior middleweight fight. They've announced it, they've promoted it,
they've discussed it as a welterweight fight, and that's all well and good if
he decides to continue, you know, to go back if he fights a
big fight in the in the welterweight division. The contract weight from my understanding
for this about is one hundred and fifty pounds, so it's technically a junior
middleweight fight. It's not like, you know, it's not like it's one
forty eight and you can still okay, fine, it's welterweight because it's not
a title fight. One fifty is you know, limits, so you're basically
halfway between the two weight classes, So call it whatever you want, but
it's one hundred and fifty pound. Mack. Look, he's he can't get
the license over there, so I think a lot of people are sort of
like kind of you know, why in the world can he fight here?
But not there. At the bottom line, we went through this pot.
You want me to ask it, why in the world can he fight here
and not there? Oh? I thought you said what. I thought you
were gonna say, what are we doing here? Well? No, you
want me to ask that too, what are we doing here? Well?
Is he banned? Is he not banned? Continue place? All right?
So everybody who's followed this saga knows he got busted for peds. He failed
two tests that were that were issued by Vada as they were getting ready for
the fight. The second one against when he was getting ready to fight off
a fight against Chris Ubank Junior in a huge UK pay per view fight,
and the test had occurred, but the result had not become public until the
week of the fight. That was a story that was broken by I believe
it was the Daily Mail in England, and without them the fight would have
happened, no question about it in my mind. In any event, the
fight was canceled and it's been a scandal and a problem ever since. The
Connor and his team have in my opinion, I've said it on this show
before, I've said it elsewhere. Don't if you were making a handbook of
ways not to handle a crisis. This is how this is how they went.
They did everything you would teach a class off of this. Yes,
they did every single thing you could want to do wrong. They broke the
cardinal rule during a crisis when you're in a hole, stop digging that they
dug deep, deep, deep. So he was out of the ring for
seventeen months. And there there has been a board in the UK that lifted
his provisional suspension. But the British Board of uh UH and the and the
and the folks that you cod they have, they don't. They're they're in
a disagreement. So they have appealed that ruling. And so it's supposed to
come to a head sometime I believe later this month in February, in which
they're supposed to have another hearing to determine what his fate will be in terms
of a UK license. However, UH, the American Association of Boxing Commissions,
which placed him on an indefinite suspension, could not get this is what
they told me. They couldn't get the answers that they were seeking from the
British regulators about the timing of when his hearing was going to be when it
was going to be adjudicated and all that, and their opinion was, well,
we can't like notes not let him fight forever until you guys got to
figure it out. So he was taken off the ABC suspension list. Once
that happened, he was then permitted to seek licenses in the United States Commissions.
They were going to Florida. He wanted to box, you know,
on the matchroom card that took place this past September in Orlando, and so
that's exactly what happened. They now so fight on a few days notice.
He came back in the ring, had one hundred and fifty three and change.
He had a ten round decision win against a Mexican you know, unknown
kind of guy, but a rugged's toff, solid dude, nam Ridolf al
Rosco. He won the fight, you know, almost by a shutout on
two of the cards, closer on the third. Didn't get the knockout.
You know. Some might say, well, they didn't get the knockout because
he was being VOD attested and he was clean. Others might say, you
know, that's just the way things go. I'm not making an assessin I'm
just telling you what you could infer because I don't want to get sued.
However, he won the fight and so now they're carrying on as business as
usual. He is licensable in America. He got a license from the Nevada
Commission, which really had no They didn't really have a mechanism or reason not
to license him. He just fought in America. He's not medically ineligible and
he's followed through on the rules that you have to do here. So they've
matched him with Peter Dobson and look, this is about hope from their perspective,
hoping that things go well at their hearing and he's able to get licensing
in the UK post this hearing coming up, at which point he's going to
be live for any major fight, whether they try to redo u Bank.
They've mentioned about Liam Smith. Well, I mean, obviously that's the fight
they want if they can make it happen. They've wanted it for two years
the Ben camp, and they want it on pay per view and it's a
lucrative deal. So yeah, talked. In the meantime, he's got to
get back in the ring here for the second time. Right, There's been
talk about maybe cal Brook would come out of retirement for a bigger fight.
There's been banding about about some American names. They've thrown around the name Devin
Hainey. There is a back and forth between him and Devin's father Bill.
They've thrown around the names you know of others of Jaron Boots Ennis as a
possibility. Who knows what will actually happen, But the bottom line is none
of it that matters, license or otherwise if he doesn't take care of his
business on Saturday against Dobson, who, like I said, he's undefeated.
But this is this is not supposed to be a competitive fight. Peter Dobson,
He's thirty three years old, he doesn't have a lot. He's been
boxing professionally since twenty fourteen. It's only got the sixteen fights. This is
going to be the first time. But one other fight he had two fights
ago that he was scheduled for ten rounds. This is going to be his
first ever scheduled twelve round fight. And like I said, he's only had
one ten round fight and most of his fights prior to that were six and
eight. Yes, one he's fighting six round fights. Then he fought a
ten round fight, then he fought an eight round fights. So yeah,
and he's also fought up. You know, he's not fought you know,
guys who are known were accomplished just you know, regular kind of club fight.
I mean, it wasn't that long as he's spending guy twenty seven and
thirty seven. I mean, just you know, if Connor Ben loses this
fight, that's like it's a disaster. It's catastrophic, right, absolutely,
So this is should be a win. Now. The question I have is
Ken Dobson hang on, you know, and stand up to him for the
twelve rounds and not get knocked out. I mean, he has never been
knocked out because he had no losses. He's only got nine knockouts and sixteen
wins. So you know, the idea here is I'm not going into this
particular show thinking I'm gonna see a classic fight. I mean, I'd be
pleasantly surprised if we got something like that. You're really looking at this fight,
if you're gonna watch it to see what has been looked like. He's
only had the one fight. Granted it was a good solid ten rounds.
It took place, you know, not that long ago. But other than
that's you know, seventeen months out of the ring because of his own problems
with the ped situation. So that's the main event of the card. But
I mean, like I said to you, I'm interested to see the heavyweight
Johnny Fisher from England on the under card, who's you know, you know,
real green and only got ten pro fights, but always exciting, scoring
lots of knockouts. And like I said, Co and Williams two good American
prospects. Interested to see those guys. So again, is this the biggest
weekend in boxing history? Absolutely not, But is it worth checking out the
boxer card and the matchum card for different reasons? Absolutely yes. All right,
good stuff in the preview mode. Let's get to some news and there
is a lot of it. Emanuel Navarat, who again I put this out
there over and over and over again, has been an entertaining, largely active
fighter over the last few years, and so he will now move up again
in weight and go for the vacant WBO lightweight title. Tell me more about
this situation and the opponent and do we have a ballpark on when it might
be go ahead? Well? Never atte First of all, he is entitled
because of his status with the WBO to seek a title in the next weight
class up and get the automatic first shot at that title. So and if
he wins, then he has I believe it's ten days. I forget what
I wrote it to my substack up well and check out that article. But
I'll have ten days to decide in which way class he will retain the title.
And never Atte has wanted to move up. He's already won WBO titles
in three way classes. His most recent fight in November, which was on
the under part of Schaquarurse Stevenson's UH when he won the lightweight Bacon WBC title.
Uh Naverette fought to a draw with Robson Kosasaw in a you know,
a pretty good fight, you know, and it was kind of a surprising
result, obviously, particularly because never they did score two knockdowns in the fight.
But nonetheless it kind of the plan was. I don't think it was
necessarily going to be next, but there was a strong possibility that if he
was successful the next fight or you know, sometime this year, we would
see an eventual match between Stevenson and Neverette. But that stays alive because he's
got a chance to win the belt. And maybe make unification. Now we
can get to chaquarse Stevenson's fake retirement in just a minute. Uh do we
have to because thirty seconds on it nobody believing it. But anyway, but
in terms of Arete, so he's taken his his WBO a loud shot at
this vacant title. Remember it's vacant because when Devin Haney was undisputed and vacated
all the belts, the WBO title has still not been filled. So the
mandatory challenger is not a joke either. He's a very solid, you know,
guy with a with a real chance to win. It seems to me
his name is Dennis Barnchek. You probably if you've watched some of the ESPN
plush cards. His most recent fight over the summer, he fought on the
undercard when Alexander Usik had the knockout victor against Dangiel Duba. He was in
one of the featured doubts against Anthony Eget on that card. In any event,
he's an accomplished fighter. He is undefeated. He's a little older at
thirty five, but he was a silver medallist for Ukraine in the twenty and
twelve Olympic Games. So he has that big amateur background and look, you
know, Navaret's taken a shot. You know, he throws a million punches.
He's got power, it seems to Haspoll. It's followed him up to
scale from junior featherweight. We'll see if it gets with him all the way
up to lightweight. But there's no time frame in terms of exactly when,
because they just got the order from the WBO that they should start to negotiate,
and if the fight goes to a purse bid at that point, you
know they'll know you know, exactly when it will be. But the purspid
they just announce they just ordered the purs bit earlier this week and so they
had I guess, fifteen days to make a deal. If neither side wants
to negotiate, they can ask for the immediate purspit. I would expect,
you know, again, within a couple of weeks they'll be a date for
that per spit and you know, probably by the end of the month we'll
see it either you know, take place and then they'll be able to figure
it out. But you figure if they go to a purspit sometime the end
of February. Usually they have sixty days to put on the fight. Maybe
it's ninety days. Depending point is, we'll see the fight probably like in
the if it happens, probably like the late spring. I would imagine,
you know, probably, you know, depending on who wins the purspid.
But if it's top rank, you know, you figure it'll be a main
event on one of their ESPN cards, you know, whether it's on the
network or on Plus. But you know, that's that's cool, it's interesting.
And obviously, if he wins, he's got a belt, and I
can't imagine he would give that up and go back to one hundred and thirty.
You know, I'm sure he'll love putting on the extra five pounds,
So it seems like he's not long for the one hundred and thirty pound way
class. And again, it sets up if he's the winner, and I
don't discount Baroncheck's chances to win, but an eventual fight with Shakurse Stevenson.
So let's talk about that for just a quick minute, even though I know
it's nonsense. He put on Twitter a couple of nights ago that he was
retired. Now it just so happened that he put the tweet up after he
made mention about this order from the WBO. He seemed the inference was that
he was upset that the WBO allowed that instead of somehow me be letting him
fight for the vacant title, which would go against the WBO rules. But
that's a different matter. The point is, I feel like Shaquor is just
frustrated because he's taken a lot of incoming because of how shitty he looked in
his last fight that put everybody to sleep. Then he'll set records for a
fewest punches by his opponent. That was just one of the worst fights you
could ever watch, even though he won the fight. I don't think that
was even controversial or anything like that, but he's taken a huge amount of
criticism for being in an extraordinarily not just a boor but boring fights one day.
Well, but if I remember slightly sense he hurt his shoulder and tried
to hide that through the fight and couldn't throw what was at the left or
whichever it was. I couldn't try to put that out of but whatever I
mean, we we it was forgettable. Nobody believes this guy's retired. Nobody,
he said He's going to go in the gym and train guys and try
to everybody perfect their sport, and he's gonna work. All I know is
this. Of course, Stevenson is twenty six years old. Yes, his
last fight sucked rocks, but he's still one of the most talented fighters in
the sport. He's still pound for pound level ability, and he still probably
beat any lightweight in the world, you know what I mean. Still it
definitely beat an one hundred and thirty pounds in the world, and he damn
will have a hell of a shot to beat the top guys at one hundred
and forty pounds also just because of his speed and his defense and is just
innate you know, ring IQ if you will. So nobody believes that he's
actually retired. The only question is will it lasts longer than Tiafimo's five minute
retirement. We'll say about that and boxing retirements, please grain of salt,
especially as you laid out, twenty six year olds still in his prime can
make millions and millions and millions over the next couple of years with his fights.
Okay, so we did have press conferences this week, the PBC,
Amazon Prime pay per view with Tim zu and Keith Thurman and the undercard fighters.
Was earlier this week on Wednesday. Let's start with that when anything of
note as they kicked off the promotion for this, the ticket sales for this
coming on March the thirtieth. Yeah, I mean it was an It was
a I guess, an entertaining press conference, although you know, I must
say say whatever you want about the inactivity level of a Keith Thurmont, but
he certainly was on his game in the press conference. He's always been entertaining
when he talks to the media and talks to his opponents. So Keith was
in very, very enjoyable WWE mode in the way he was talking to Tim
Zoo. Tim is you know, Tim Zoo is not a boisterous, a
not a hugely outspoken kind of guy. He takes after his father in that
respect, Costazoo that you know, he's more about letting my hands and my
actions in the rings speak for myself than anything. I can stay sitting here
at a news conference on a on a chair at a dais so that you
know, they definitely have divergent personalities from that standpoint. But Tim got in
a few licks and uh, you know, The one thing I did notice
that, you know, when Keith was fighting as a welter road, he
was always one of the bigger guys in the division. When I saw him
face to face with Tim Zoo, it was clearly a smaller man, There's
no doubt about it. And here you have Tim Zoo is much younger,
who's been much more active, who has been fighting at an extremely good level
and fighting good opponents over the last bit. And like you know, the
thing we talked about a lot of times, activity matters, whereas you got
a guy like Keith Thurman, who you know, the inactivity has just been
it's been here. I tell you something, Can I tell you something?
We don't rehearse this. So I live here in the Tampa Bay area.
We've talked about this, Keith. Keith is well known in this market,
the Tampa Bay medium market, which is a large medium market. And there
was absolutely zero coverage at all about this press conference midweek. What does that
tell you about whether he registers anymore even in his home area that it really
didn't get picked up on that. Hey, he's in Vegas and he's fighting
here in a couple of months. So again I realize he had a name,
and I want him to do well, but let's be real. We
try to keep it real here on the podcast. He hasn't been active enough.
He hasn't fought at junior middleweight. So I just don't know what true
interest there is if there's not even interest in the Tampa series you know about
on that. So when he was, when he was for a period of
time, he was the best welterweight out there. I mean back to back
wins against Sean Porter on by the way, that was a Showtime produced card,
but it televised live on CBS. Yes, it did well in access
of three million viewers in prime time. That was a big number for them.
Keith Thurman then faugh Danny Garcia in another big spot I believe, also
on CBS in a unification. So he's had the credentials. He went through
those two guys in good, really exciting fights if you and not only that,
but he was the So this is the first Amazon you know, PPV
with PBC. Keith has been on ESPN, Keith has been on Showtime,
Keith has been on CBS. As I mentioned, he was on NBC.
Matter of fact, right when NBC made its first ever I think it was
the very first show. Also in March two thousand and seven, which I
was at, he fought Robert Guerrero in the very first main event of their
PBC's first ever card under the PBC name. That was the main event.
Broner was on the undercard at Mars card. Anyway, since that fight in
March of twenty fifteen, where he won, kicked off PBC and then within
you know, three fights later, had unified the titles against Danny Garcia.
But since March of twenty fifteen, he has fought seven times. That is
in activity at a higher he thought one time most importantly in the last four
and a half years. So going back to the Pacquia fight, and again
I just was thinking this when you were saying this when he won. I
still remember this. When he won the fight, I think over porter he
was a media darling all over the TV, all over the local coverage in
this area. And again I'm not saying it's everything, but this is an
indication of how far off the radar that he is at the moment. And
again I don't wish him ill. I want him to do well, but
let's let's be realistic. If he's not being covered in his own local market.
I don't know how much interest there is nationally. Sermons a little bit
of a like, I'm kind of torn. Like the matchup itself, I'm
not bothered by I mean, it's not a title fight. They're doing it
at one hundred and fifty five pounds because and I felt like and I talked
to Paco Vark Carsel from the WBO about it. I talked to one of
the other folks of the WBO about it. They did the right thing.
They're like, look, we're not going to break our rules. He hasn't
fought at one hundred and fifty four pounds, he hasn't been active, he's
not ranked. He like checks all the boxes of why you wouldn't be able
to fight for the title. So does it detract from the you'd think you'd
want your first pay per view main event to be a world championship fight,
but okay, it's not. It doesn't change the matchup. I actually do
think it's going to be a pretty decent fight, just because Keith is usually
in good fights, even if he has been inactive, and it's not the
first time he's come off a level of inactivity, and though some of those
other times made for pretty good fights, like when he fought hoses Seed to
Lopez, that was a fun fight. When he fought Paka, it was
a good fight, even though he lost. When he fought Barrios, it
was a pretty good fight. So he makes good fights and I mean so.
And other than the inactivity, there's really not a lot to like Ragon
Keith about. He's been a good fighter when he's been in the ring.
I happen to think that if he had stayed active not had the injuries that
he had, you know, he was looking at the possibility of being in
the Hall of Fame. You know. Now we'll see what happens the rest
of his career, but I'm think that's happening, even though he's got some
you know, nice wins against Porter and Garcia, but that window I think
is probably closed. But you never know. But he had the chance to
be a really special fighter and his prime was not long enough, and he
again was so inactive. But that doesn't mean he can't come in here and
maybe surprising people. But that said, TJ. Timseh has been fighting so
well and handling good equality opposition, you know, the way he defeated guys
like Tony Harrison. Uh you know the way he went through Brian Mendoza,
a tough, tough dude. I mean these are not you know, joke
shrinking and by the way we went through. This is not Joscito Lopez,
this is not Mario Barrios, and this is not an h Manny pakiaw.
This is legit one hundred and fifty four pounder that can punt, that could
punch, that could pop him. And that's the intrigue, that's the interest.
Way that he take that punch. We'll see the aging many Paco beat
him to become to set the record as the oldest ever welterweight world champion.
So and he knocked Thurman down in the opening round. I believe the being
two rounds of the fight. In the first round it so long ago,
it's fuzzy again, I say, for like the eighth time. I have
much love for Keith Thurman out of this area. But this okay, So
they had the press guy. Anything else noteworthy on that one because we'll move
on to the other press conference that also happened in cambosas I thought it was
a good press coverce the one thing that surprised me. They're making such a
big deal about Amazon Prime that's available in two hundred million homes, and even
though that's not true, it's actually like one hundred and seventy million, but
who's counting. The point is, though, if that's your partner and they're
going to be helping you promote and sell the pay per view, I was
rather shocked at the that the that the presentation of the press comerce so only
available to watch on the on the PBC's social media, Like I watch it
on their YouTube channel, right, I think it was maybe also on their
ex Twitter. They didn't have it, for example, on Amazon Prime Video,
which was bizarre to me. I don't get that. I mean,
so that was weird. You know. I'm still when they announced the deal
with Amazon, okay, great, I'm happy they got a deal, they
were extremely light on the details, and I think there's a reason for that.
We'll see what Amazon does and how they get behind this, if they
care about it. You know, it's one thing to have a property under
the umbrella of the company. It's a whole different matter of how they treat
that property. I spent fifteen years working at ESPN which had contracts and rights
deals with a thousand different outfits, whether it was the NFL all the way
to you know, the smallest collegiate thing or some wacky offbeat sport and exactly
whatever the point is. You know, I can remember being in Bristol one
time, because I used to I went, you know, I would go
to Bristol like every you know, a few months or when I was going
to co host Friday night fights. It was up there, you know,
two three times a month. Anyway, I'm not going to say what the
property was, but there was a very important property that ESPN had a contract
with that they had just made a big deal with. And you would walk
through like the area where the offices were, where just the people had their
their cubicles or their offices, and on the walls it was signage in the
workspace, you know, basically reminding everybody, make sure you pump this up.
I forget what the words were, but you know, remember this is
important to us. This is our priority. And so every show you watch
they would talk about that particular thing. They're not doing that on Amazon about
PBC right now. So the level of what their promotion is going to be
I'm still very intrigued by how much they're going to get behind it. And
your dubious I can tell on whether or not you know it's not dubious.
I'll use the word dubious. I'm dubious on how long term it is,
how successful it's going to be. It's a wait and see. It's like
Missouri, show me, stay, show me, show me that they care.
So for me, it's not a matter of being dubious. To me,
it's a matter of being of reigning in the enthusiasm. Not because I
don't want to be enthusiastic. It's because I want to see what am I
enthusiastic about? What are you going to do to help promote PBC, which
in turn helps lift the whole sport. You know, the rising tide lifts
all ships. I want them to be massively successful because that will help the
sport overall. Whatever outfit, whatever promoter, whatever broadcaster. But if your
first ever event is not even on your platform for a press conference, which
is supposed to be a big deal for what you're going to ask people to
spend sixty to seventy dollars on, I am a little bit skeptical for party
So speaking of ESPN Top Rank press conference for them earlier in the week with
the silly Lomachenko and George Cambosis. Cambosis was in Australia, Loma in what
in Vegas I think via the satellite hook up. I saw it was in
la with the hookup. So they made the announcement of this fight, of
this fight being made. They didn't really get specific on win. And you've
also learned about undercover. Tell me, well, give me the details.
The dates's been long established. It's going to be on May twelfth, which
is a Sunday in UH in Perth in per Perth. Yeah, yes,
and so I liked my Perth from before. But yeah, okay, May
twelfth, twelfth, that's May eleventh in the United States in prime time on
a regular you know ESPN UH Top Rank on ESPN broadcast. As you mentioned,
you had Cambosis, who was from Australia. He was there in Perth
for the press conference where they had a you know, a normal set up
with the DAIS and then they had via satellite from Los Angeles, they had
Loma Chenko, his manager, Egus Klimas, Loud de Bella, who is
the promoter, UH for Cambosis co promoter for cambosas as well as Bob Aarram
who is the promoter of Loma as well as the co promoter now for Cambosis
and uh you know this is another one of the vacant titles. It's for
the vacant IBF title. Again. When the when when Devin Haney was the
undisputed champion and you vacate all the belts, they become available. So the
WBC belt has been filled by Shakhor Stephenson in the fight that we shall never
mention again. You have the IBF title, which is going to be filled
by the winner of this fight between Cambosis and Lomachenko. You have Gervanta Davis,
who was the regular champion of the WBA, but now that just goes
away. He's now just the only champion. And the WBO lightweight title we
just spoke about will be filled by the winner of the fight that's being planned
between Navarette and Baron Check. So for Cambosis and for Loma, I mean
they're both former unified champions. They were supposed to fight each other back when
Cambosis was had the three belts, and they were supposed to do that fight,
and that was soon after the war and Ukraine started when Russia aided,
and so Ukraine was a big thing on his mind Lomachenko and he decided to
withdraw from the fight. He stayed at home and Devin Haney took his spot
and he ended up winning the title. But so now it may not be
for the same stakes as before, but once again Loma's agreed to go to
Australia to fight Cambosis. The government in Western Australia is behind the fight.
They're doing a big promotion for it. Helped for tourism purposes and for publicity
to bring people to their life part of the world. And so that's an
important factor and why the fight is taking place. They're actually the main factor.
And look, the winner is gonna be in a great spot because they're
gonna have a light white belt. If Cambosis wins, he brings a lot
of fans and money in Australia. If Loma wins, it's just another uh,
you know, great notch on what is already in my opinion, a
hall of fame resume and uh they'll they'll get it on for that title belt.
And by the way, when they did the press conference, you know
when when Cambosis when he was getting ready to fight Hani. You know,
there was a lot of chirping back and forth between those two guys. Mm
hm uh. You know, they both are like that. When it came
to the fight between Loma and Cambosis, both showed massive respect for each other.
You know, Loma's not a trash talker, and Cambosas has always struck
me as the kind of guy who will have no problem trash talking you,
but you're gonna have to be the one to start within and Loma is not
that type of guy. So they showed they they both talked about how much
they want to win and why they're gonna win and all that. Uh,
but they were respectful. And of course one of the big talking points is
the fact that they both against Devin Haney Lomachenko with the you know, somewhat
disputed close loss to him, and Cambosa's you know, got wiped out by
him twice. So again most people would look at this fight as being a
Loma layup, but again, it doesn't work like that. When you do
the three you know, how they compared with a with a similar opponent and
he's traveling. But you know, I suspect if Lomachenko still got any Lomachenko
left in him, you know he should win the fight. But I don't
count at a guy like Cambos's. Lot of people didn't think he'd lanced one
round against Tafimo Lopez and he won the fight in the title and that was
a tremendous fight, by the way. But you look at Cambos as his
most recent fight, uh, you know, he kind of got I won't
say he got lucky, but he barely straight by Naxy Hughes to win by
a majority decision. And what was an eliminator to get this shot at the
ib of built. But that's the main event. And also you've learned a
couple of things about the undercard, just real quick on Loma Camboso's as well.
Yeah, so part of their deal with the government was that we had
to be multiple world title fights, including a women's world title fight. So
while the undercard fights have not been announced yet, I am told by multiple
sources who know what's happening one of the fights, and this is not a
surprise, frankly, is that it will be the other another Australian world champion
in Jason Maloney who's going to defend the WBO bantamway title in a you know,
on this undercard in the co feature. His opponent has not been set.
And then the third title fight that's going to be on this card will
be a women's world championship fight will be the WBA Women's bantamweight champion Nina Hughes,
who just recently earlier this week signed with Loud Debella and now we know
the reason why again not being announced yet, because she's going to defend your
title on this cart against another Loud Debella promoted woman named Chernika Johnson, who
is Australian, so she'll be going to Australia to defend against the Australian in
the third title fight on the cart. So it makes for a solid show
if you're into women's boxing. And they got Maloney who's a very likable fighter
and exciting and of course Loma and Cambos is in the main event. Good
stuff on that all right, another interesting fight. Well, we're all about
the preview, we're all about the news. We even have some results.
Former WBO Junior featherweight champ Angelo Leo was in action right here in my part
of the world at plant City, Florida, the Probox TV card, and
he scored a knockout in a featherweight bouts I give me more on that result
real quick. Yeah, So, I mean he lost in his first defense.
He lost the one hundred and twenty two pound title to Steven Fulton on
a one sided decision. This is back in early twenty twenty one. He's
had the two fights since. One was at junior featherweight that he won,
and he went up and fought at featherweight which he won. And now this
is his third fight since that defeat. And again he was on this pro
Box TV card. They put on midweek cards, you know when they do
their shows, and they do a nice job with those shows. They're on
their app as well as on YouTube. I was watching that last night and
he fought Mike Plania, who's not a bum, but he's not a pound
for powd guy. But you know, I was sort of intrigued by how
is he going to do, meaning Janngelo Leo, how is he going to
perform as a featherweight against what I considered like a legitimate featherweight opponent, and
he looked good and he knocked him down and ultimately out with a body shot
in the third round. It was a little bit messy, if you will,
because originally the referee ruled at a low blow, which I don't know
how that happened because it was clear as day that it was a clean shot
to the body. But thankfully the folks that have worked for the Florida commission
all saw it the same and basically told the ref dude, that was not
a low blow, and the ref you know, then ultimately ruled at a
knockout. But you know, it was a good performance from Angelo Leo,
and we'll see if he can move into a featherweight title fighter, you know,
in the higher contention and an eliminator fight. But definitely a guy to
look out for in this weight class. He's still, you know, just
got the one lost twenty three and one now with eleven knockouts, still only
twenty nine years old, and he might be able to make some noise in
this weight class. We aim to cover all differ a angles, news nostalgia
coming up here as well. Jake Paul, they have announced Most Valuable Promotions
have announced his opponent again he'll be the co feature fight for Amanda Serrano's title
defense in Puerto Rico on March second. So the question that we always want
to know, what's the caliber of opponent. I don't know about Ryan Borland.
I don't know how much you know and have delved into that that's the
opponent named. Tell me more about what you know for coming up in March
and Puerto Rico for Jake Paul. So what Jake is doing here, He's,
like you mentioned, he's the co feature. He's trying to build himself
up like a normal prospect, and that means fighting guys who you're not going
to have heard of that he's going to be the favorite against. But the
hope from his team is that that opponent's going to maybe give him a little
bit of a challenge, show him a few things he'd get the rounds in
against guys that have been boxing for most of their lives. So and you
go back and look what happened in his last fight. That was in December,
and he fought a fighter named Andre August who was ten to one and
one who had more profights than Jake did, had been a quality amateur and
got blown away with a massive shot in the first round. Yep, I
guess him. With Jake winning the fight wasn't a surprise, I think though.
I think even the most Arn't Jake Paul supporter would have been surprised by
the devastation of that knockout. So now he's basically fighting another opponent that's sort
of similar in terms of this Borland fighter you mentioned. So Ryan Borland is
seventeen and two astic six knockouts. He's a California fighters thirty five years old,
and he's been a boxer. He had a good amateur won like a
Golden Gloves in his home area, you know, was in the it was
in an Olympic Trials situation or one of the Olympic qualifiers or something along those
lines, but been inactive. That's sort of the same deal with what happened
with Andre August. So he's coming off of a win in September twenty twenty
two, didn't fight it all in twenty twenty three. He's won three in
a row, but the other two bouts he kint of all the way back
to twenty eighteen. So on paper, it looks reasonable with the record,
with the background, with the experience, but there's a reason, you know,
the inactivity and whatever. So again it's Jake is trying to make a
go of It's not a pay per view. He's trying to get the rounds
in, you know, do the real work it takes to from his point
of view, to do it enough to get to a point where he thinks
he can win a world title. So, uh, you know, it
is what it is. I mean, it's it's it's just it's a fighting
but and j attention. The other one was a one rounder in December,
and we said he can be active and be back quickly because it was one
round, one punch. He's back relatively quickly. He's back within about ninety
days here, and depending on what happens here, you're gonna see him again
probably. I'm saying this in the summer, depending on what he wants to
do. So just stay active, stay active, stay relevant. And I
keep saying consistently, as long as he's fighting legit fighters and trying to work
his way up, I'm in. I'm in on this. That's the whole
point here. He's not fighting the name MMA guy coming over to boxing.
He's if he was just an if he his name was Bob Smith, and
he was like an early preliminary on a top rank card and they were trying
to build him up. We wouldn't him and talking about him, but he'd
be putting in the reps, putting in the rounds to try to make something
of himself. And that's what Jake's trying to do. And you know,
bay his actions. I believe him when he says it's not about the money.
He's made crazy money doing whatever he does in business and boxing and social
media on YouTube, whatever, you know different you know business, he's investment.
He had He had a huge twenty twenty three with the Fury fight in
Saudi Arabia and Nate Diaz on pay per view, So you're right. I
mean, he gets it. It's like when when I talked to him for
the podcast prior to the August fight, we got into a conversation about how
he's basically handling his boxing career backwards from what's normal. Normally you would do
these types of fights to get to the point where you can have those types
of fights where you can make the big money on pay per view and fill
up a big arena. Well, he did that in the early part of
his career, and now as he's getting you know into the you know,
into double digits in his fights. Now he's doing the developmental part. He's
made crazy money. He's done the paper views, he sold out big arenas.
He's fought on paper. He's fought big names, albeit not boxers other
than maybe Tommy Fierry, who you know, it's questionable whether he's a big
name. His brother is of course Pyson Fury, and now he's doing it
the other way around. But whatever order he's doing it in, he's always
doing it, so good for him, all right, nostalgia And then we
are done a couple of different items. One of them twenty one years ago
as we released the podcast Thursday, February first, two thousand and three,
Juan Manuel Marquez became a world champion for the first time. Finally, Rayfield
has finally on the rundown. Marquez got into a world title fight and was
victorious over Manuel Medina. Tell me more about this for Marquez. So this
was back in the day, this is two thousand and three. Top rank
would do over the course of ear some smaller pay per views, not HBO
pay per views or you know, big event pay per views, but they
have a lot of guys they had to keep busy, a lot of titles,
guys that might have had a certain fan base that would buy the fights.
A lot of them were Mexican highlighted fights. So this was a fight
they called Night of Fury, you know, day of reckoning, Night of
fury, you know what I mean. That's the kind of things that they
would do. So the main event was Juan Manuel Marquez who was taken on
Manual Medina, a well traveled but veteran and you know, extraordinarily experienced fighter,
you know, who had been a you know, a world title contender
and had won a belt and all that. But Marquees coming up, it's
we're not talking about. I mean, yes, the anniversary is because he
won his first world title. It wasn't so much that the fight was that
memorable, although he did stop Medina in round seven to win what was the
vacant IBF featherweight title. It was because he finally got the shot at a
world title. Marquees, you know, was the epitome at this time in
boxing of a ducked guy. He had been the WBO mandatory. And I
still don't I still don't think I can forgive the WBO for not ordering the
fight. To this day, I still joke around about it with Paco.
Marquees was the mandatory for Prince Nasima Met, who I was a huge fan
of. But Nasima Met just wouldn't fight him. He just wouldn't do it.
And the WBO did not lift a finger to force the issue, to
threaten to strip him, to order a purse bid or a negotiation or anything,
and they just let him get away with it because he was one of
the biggest stars in the sport and generating crazy amounts of money, and Marquees
was very aggrieved. He finally got this opportunity and he won the fight,
and it was the beginning of what became. You know, at that time,
nobody knew he's gonna be a Hall of Famer, one of the great
Mexican fighters of all time. But this was the beginning of that. Because
it was only a few fights later he won this fight against Medina to collect
that IBF title. Two fights later he wins in a very forgettable fight not
his fault, against Derek Gainer to unify the WABA and the IBF title,
and the next fight is what led to the beginning of him becoming a superstar
level fighter, because it was the legendary draw in the first fight between him
and Manny Pacyah, when Marquez got knocked down three times in one survive and
went on to finish the fight get a draw in a fight I was ringside
for and I was definitely not alone thought Marquez, even getting dropped three times,
had done enough to win that fight. But he doesn't get to that
level without getting this opportunity on this top ranked card to go up against against
Nanuel Madina to win the title and the card itself again. Back in the
days for like Idle, like a thirty dollars pay per view was a fun
card. He had Carlos Hernandez, who was the IBFS one hundred and thirty
pound champion, defending against the one and only Diamond David Santos from your neck
of the w yes Saint Petersburg, Florida's Diamond David Santana exactly. So you
also had Miguel Coto, a young fighter at that time thirteen to zero,
taking on what was considered a step up opponent in the former lightweight title holder
Saesar Bizan. If you care a young Dimitri Salida, now the promoter,
was on the card as an active fighter going into like his tenth eleventh final.
So and that was nostalgia within the nostalgia. I like that. So
that these were the kinds of cards. I love buying those cards. I
mean again, they weren't huge superstar names and anything like that, but they
were great fun and you know, the price was not not outrageous or anything
like that. And one Manuel Marquez, you know, one his first world
ton and went on to collect the whole bunch and become a first ballot Hall
of Famer in one of the greatest Mexican fighters. We have ever seen.
One more piece of nostalgia, and this is interesting twenty two years ago as
we released the podcast on February second of two thousand and two, two different
locations. Roy Jones was retaining his light heavyweight undisputed title in Miami, while
Bernard Hopkins was fighting in a separate fight in Reading, Pennsylvania where you were
covering it. But it's it's that these two were chirping at each other via
satellite hookup, etc. Give me more on the nostalgia of Roy Jones and
Bernard Hopkins. Hall of famers being in two different places but antagonizing each other,
and we wondered when they were gonna fight, if they were gonna fight,
and it would be a while before they would fight. But what do
you remember about this, Well, you go back years before that they had
fought for the vacant IBF midleweight title. Roy Jones won the fight right and
Bernard Hopkins went on to become a top pound for pound fighter. Also,
even in the wake of that loss, Roy Jones had done the same.
He had beaten James Tony. Many people had a number one pound for pound,
most people at that time. But here we are at a period that
contacts is important. Bernard had become a pound for pound level guy. He's
coming off of his knockout victory of Tito Trinidad to become the undisputed middleway champion,
and so that was obviously a huge, huge victory for him, and
the question is what's he going to do next. He was going to make
a mandatory defense against Carl Daniels, but the idea was do the mandatory.
Roy Jones was the undisputed champion at light heavyweight who was in the middle of
a stretch where he was fighting but not fighting the big top names. He
on that night in Miami was fighting a fighter named Glenn Kelly. So the
idea here, this is what HBO was trying to do. We're going to
feature them in two world undisputed title fights on the same card in different locations,
and then we're going to have them fight each other on pay per view
week and work the deal lot. They were separated by the weight by a
bit, but more they would have been able to work out the weight.
It was really about the money. Bernard wanted parody Roy Jones like go fuck
yourself sixth and so, anyway, to make a long story short, I
was in reading Pennsylvania where Bernard Hopkins, you know, dominated and stopped Carl
Daniels, you know, who was a good contender, stopped him in round
ten, retained the title. He had a decent crowd thereies from Philadelphia,
which wasn't too far away. I was a don king show and down in
Miami was the second fight of the card. Roy Jones ultimately scored a monster
knockout against the Australian fighter named Glenn Kelly. And if you don't remember that
particular knockout, I picked it as the two thousand and two knockout of the
ear. It's when Roy leaned his head in, put his hands behind his
back and did the whole chicken dance back and forth, Bob like the rooster,
Bob like the chicken, and then came from his hands behind the back
and knocked him out with one shot, just an incredible knockdout. So but
he was in a stretcher. He wasn't really fighting the big names he'd fought
like Julio Gonzalez, Derek Harmon, Eric Harding, like good fighters, but
not like the best the best, And there was a big ground swallow.
Everybody wanted to see number one Roy Jones against number two be Hop On the
pound for pound finally fight each other. HBO was desperate to make that paper.
You would have been huge numbers. And they did an interview between the
fights, and you got Larry Merchant with you know, with Bernard, and
you got Roy on the monitor before he's about to get in the ring,
by the way, so he's still thinking I got a fight, Glenn Kelly.
Bernard's at least already won his fight, and they're going back and forth,
and you know, at that point, Larry's like trying to referee.
But the memorable sound bite when they couldn't decide when Larry asked him out to
split. Are we able to make the fight? Roy Jones like sixty forty
and I'll kick your ass meaning I'll take six, I'll kick your ass,
And that became like a big talking point. So well, and take me
back to what you remember, because your ringside work in the media, how
were you able to see it and hear it? Did they have monitor they
have volume up so that you could catch the two way conversations you just to
watch it later or what happened my recollection was we were able where we were
sitting, you know typically you know in the first or second row behind where
the HBO people were, and there's monitors there because you also have the replay
guys and and some other monitors for the international and on the on the tables,
so we could see that they were interviewing them, but we could not
hear what they were saying. But because HBO had their PR team, you
had one of the PR people transcribing that interview and emailing us or telling us
what they forget, how they how they did it. But we got to
quotes for what was said in the interview, and then of course when I
got home, I went back and you know, the next day I rewatched
it on on the VCR. This is pre DVD days, because I had
made a VHS uh and watch that and that was like a big thing about
are they going to fight each other? Because they had both won, they
had both won by knockout, again, the weight would have been figured out.
I don't think it was that big of a problem. It was really
what's the split of the money. And because if you have ever been around
boxers, two of the single most stubborn people I've ever met in my life
are Roy Jones Junior and Bernard Hopkins. And when it came to them trying
to make a deal with each other, it was, you know, it
just was impossible. And the only time they were finally able to make a
deal you had to fast forward, and that was we're talking about a fight
from two thousand and three. How about now go to twenty ten when Roy
Jones is way beyond his prime, He's been knocked out a bunch of times
and is hanging on by a string. And even though Bernard was still I
won't say at the top of his game. Bernard was still a very quality
fighter at that time, but you know, he was starting to slow down
a little bit. And they finally made the fight on pay per view.
It did no business. You know, I went to that fight. I
remember writing a column about how, you know what if they threw a supposed
big fight nobody showed up. You know, I've told the story about the
press conference for the rematch that finally happened, years and years passed it cell
by date that I went to the news conference, and typically they'll have like
the you know, the TV guys go to one fighter and the writers or
internet guys go to the other guy, and then you switch to get them
to talk the other side. Well, I went up to Bernard Hopkins,
and I was the only guy in front of him, literally literally the only
one. I could have talked him for forty five minutes if I wanted to.
And I made the point also about going to the Mandalay Bay Media Center
on one of the days of the fight week that I was there, and
you know, usually the Fight Media Center, you know, is kind of
a bustling hide of activity. You got the PR staff, you got other
journalists, you got some TV people you got, whoever you know, especially
if they're putting out a spread of food, like for breakfast or something like
that. I walk in to the pressroom this again, this is for the
rematch, and there was a couple of folks from the pr staff and Rayfield,
and I made the joke that I could have like literally laid down in
a snow angel position and laid there and no one would have touched me.
And I also make the point that they had put out some stuff for breakfast
and I had all the strawberries I could possibly have. So the fight happened
was way too It was well passed when it should have occurred. But it
should have occurred back after this back and forth interview on a very highly viewed
doubleheader, they both defended the undisputed titles in their weight classes. But those
two all time great Hall of famers are too fucking stubborn to make the deal.
There's another SoundBite from Rayfield to end the podcast. On the Nostalgia Listen,
We've had a lot here on the program. Again, we previewed all
the way back at the beginning. Joshua Buwoutze, Dan Aziz, the boxer,
Sky Sports Peacock card main event. Will handicap that fight as part of
the bet Us TV Boxing Show one Eastern time on Friday, so as you
hear us and we're releasing the podcast, be live with us on bet US's
platforms, their YouTube, etc. We'll also handicap the counter bend fight,
which again he's got massive odds in his favor against Peter Dobson in Las Vegas.
We'll also handicap the Taya Femo Lopez fight. We'll just touch on that
real quick because that fight will be happening next Thursday before we're back on bet
Us. Now, you and I will have a chance to talk more about
Taya Femo Lopez on our recap podcast. In fact, they'll get a chance
to hear from him up on our recap podcast. But I'm just saying on
the bet Us show, we'll handicap these fights on Friday. Whatever happens on
the weekend, we're going to be back coming off the weekend, including hearing
from Taya Femo before his Vegas title defense. Yeah, super Bowl Week,
super Bowl Week. I spoke to t youa Femo a few days ago.
We have that interview in the can ready to go for our next show.
Yep, we look forward to that. Listen great stuff, tonight, news,
nostalgia, all of it. As we release the pod. Excellent preview.
Let's talk again on the bet US Show one Eastern time Friday. Thank
you, Dan Rayfield. All right, my man, I will see you
on the show and talk to Winter there he is. I am merely TJ.
Reeves. You have been listening to the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast again.
Follow, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, wherever you get your
podcast. We are back off the weekend with a fight freaks you night recap
you want it all right here on this podcast feed. For now, we're
good to enjoy the fights.