Off of a weekend that has seen Gervonte Davis return and get a big KO
in the PBC on Amazon pay per view main event. It also saw David
Benavide's debut as a light heavyweight and get a victory an easy win, although
not a knockout in his light heavyweight debut. It is seen a shocker in
the one hundred and forty pound division as Suprio Mattias was beaten in his home
country of Puerto Rico and decisively. We're ready to recap all of this and
more. It's the Fight Freaks Unit recap podcast. Hello there, welcome back
in I'm merely he's somewhat capable. Host TJ. Reeves. He is cross
country traveler Dan rayphiel our insider. Fight Freaks Unit is his substack. That's
the tag name here on the podcast on the recappod Bigfight Weekend dot Com.
He was there in Vegas at the MGM gram for the one hundredth main event
Slash and Or pay per view in MGM Grand Garden Arena History. So uh,
you have traveled back at the time we're talking. Good to be with
you and good to be rolling in with the recap of the fights and some
news and some nostalgia. How is the flight everything good? Flight was fine,
she manute slight, but all good, no bombs. I was on
the same flight home back to Washington, d C. With Gary Antoine Russell
of course, who lost his uh uh in the world title interim world title
fight on the Undercart Saturday night, his brother Gary Junior, and their team.
I was already in my seat. They stopped, you know, as
they're waiting line and sitting there. See, we shoot the shit for a
minute or two. You know. I think, just in my brief encounter,
I think Gary Antoine's taking it hard. I mean it's somebody she knows,
he knows, damn well, he should have won. We'll get into
that when we get to that part of the show. But uh, that
was my my day, and this country travel was better to you this time
than trying to return from the Canelo Alvarez fight, which which you almost took
up permanent residency at the MGM Grand trying to get back back after the Alvarez
flight at the beginning, you know. So that's a great They changed the
time of the era of the of the flight schedule. I've been taking that
American flight from Vegas to Washington for I don't mean it's been the same basically
a schedule. I have fifteen years something like that, and it's always leads
somewhere between like two in the afternoon and four in the afternoon. They switched
into like ten thirty, which is fine because I got home earlier. But
I was freaking so tired because I barely stupped at all because I was so
busy for different reasons after the fight, doing a bunch of different things.
But anyway, I'm glad to be home, glad to be doing the pod.
Got to actually see my son before they went to bed, because we're
a b Two later, I I got home on Father's Day. So that
was it. So let's rock and roll. Let's do it again. Thank
you for finding us, however you have done so again. Follow Subscribe on
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Help us out from one dad to another. Rayfield and me and all
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Okay, So without further delay, let's get right into what you saw last
night ringside MGM Grand Garden Arena with the main event. Gervonte Davis not unexpected
in the in the narrative of the fight, was not tremendously busy or active.
Frank the Ghost Martin was probably at least even if not winning the fight.
It seemed like as it went on and then not unexpectedly, the big
punch happened. It seemed like we kept talking about this on our preview pod
and the bet Us Show and Boom. So give me the give me the
Rayfield recap, including the Boom moment as it came about. Yeah, I
mean, I don't agree that Frank was winning the fight. I know a
lot of people thought he was ahead. It was close, though. The
all three judges had the fight at the time of the eighth round knockout sixty
seven to sixty six in favor of Tank. I haven't studied the scorecard close
enough to see if they all agreed how they got to that score. But
look, however, you had it, if you had Tank you know,
up by a point or two. If you had Frank Martin up by a
point or two, that's fine because there's you know, it is different strokes
for different folks. He was boxing very well, doing a lot of good
movement, and you know, Gervonte talked about after the fact that their plan
was to like make him use his legs, tire him out, and then
go get him, which is what they did. So for the first about
six rounds, Frank was having a lot of good success. Round seven was
a very big round for Tank Davis, and then he put him out in
round seven and one of the most spectacular knockouts I have seen in a long
time in person. He look I have not really. I mean, I
respect Tank's abilities and his punching power. He's obviously a very good fighter.
He was tremendously talented when he was kicking ass and taking names at one thirty.
His thing there was, you know, not making the weight and having
to vacate the title or getting stripped of the title, and then you know,
had some time off and wasn't fighting the best guys even as a lightweight.
I mean, people still quarrels about certain elements of his resume, and
that's that's a fair conversation. But Frank Martin was a good contender. You
know, I'm not gonna sugar, I'm not gonna like say he was no
good. He may not have had a big resume, he was a very
good, fundamentally sound fighter with some solid victories on his record and a good
game plan in that fight, and Tank, you know, did what he
does. So I'm more on the Tank bandwagon now, I think after seeing
that knockout the other night than I've been in the past. I guess it
was. It was a really outstanding performance from Tank because we talked about how
he doesn't throw a lot of punches, but his high you know as the
high connect percentage, that's by design. This is not like he just can't
get the punches off. He doesn't get it up. He's so freaking smart
in the ring. He really studies the opponent. He's so accurate with his
punches. He doesn't waste anything. Basically, a lot of guys that they
throw all kinds of wacky combinations and flurries, and you know, they waste
punches, and you know they may land some here and there, but the
percentages are not great. He makes his punches count, and they're hard punches.
He went to the body. He landed good solid left hands, you
know. And I'll tell you this about Frank Martin. Even though he got
as I call it, it was an an eraser. Let's go before I
get the Frank Martin, let's talk about that knockout. So he had him
hurt in the seventh round. Looked like the fight was getting away from from
Frank at that point. And at that point after round seven, in my
mind, I'm like, Okay, this fight's basically over. Maybe another round,
maybe two, maybe three, But the point is it's going to be
a painful for Frank Martin to get through whatever he's gonna fill, you know,
uh get to after that round seven. But in the eighth round,
he had him up against the ropes. He landed, you know, I
don't know if it was a by design, but he threw her right hand
a jab. I don't know if he was just trying, you know,
blumber really get him with it, but it certainly he definitely saw and maybe
it clipped him a little bit, but whatever, even a split second of
not being focused on what was coming next, he hit him with a left
uppercut that just changed his life. And then basically because he was out,
you know, he digged, you know, he dipped down. He was
out along the ropes basically, and he was wide open and Tank had a
literally a free shot and took the overhand left and to clean this clock flatdum,
he hit his head. You know, you were talking with a double
knockout, and he got clipped with the punch and then his head hit the
canvas. And by the time so so Harvey Dock was the referee who did
a fine job. You know, he didn't really see him involved at all.
Before he finished the count, Tank was on the other side of the
ring. I was gonna say, so, I'm watching that moment and there's
obviously a ton of people watching that moment on TV, and we had something
different than you had because on the live TV you see Davis run over and
turn his back to everything and his dancing up on the third strand of ropes
while the count is still going on taking us Because you were there, I
mean, it was weird because I know it's highly unlikely he was going to
get up, but the fight was not waved off. Doc was still counting,
right, so it was a weird, just dynamic for a second.
So at the press conference after the fight, I actually asked Tank that specific
thing. I said, Wing, you caught him with the second left,
which I said, was one of the best knockouts I really ever seen,
you know, such a brutal shot. And then you were already running to
the to get in your position to do your backflip. You know, were
you sure the fight was over? He says. You know, I'm paraphrasing.
You can see the exact quote in the article that I wrote about the
fight, but he basically was like, yeah, I knew the fight was
over because not only did I have you know, I felt it, but
he hit his head on the canvas, and I knew he wasn't going to
go on so and he was right. And Harvey Dock, you know,
obviously counted him out. I mean, Harvey, you know he counted,
but he could have probably stopped it without counting. But whatever. Uh and
and that was all she wrote. And then and then Tank, you know,
he always does the backflip. I don't know, maybe I just haven't
seen one in a little while or whatever, but that that backflip was like
he had air on that backflip like I was like, he did a he
did a backflip at the at the uh after the way. And also and
I was joking around with one of the people I was talking to about how
you know, boy or boy do a backflip at the way and then you
fall the wrong way, you spring your ankle and the fights off at the
way, and you know, we don't need to be getting hurt there.
But he did his His back flip off the rope after the knockout was you
know, high air like it was a huge backflip, like he could join
the circus with that kind of backflip. But uh, you know, listen
and I'll tell you so it was. It was a great knockout, and
it was like typical tank fight. It was. I mean, it was
a good fight, but it wasn't like, you know, an enthralling memorable
like you know you're gonna go back and watch over and over again. It
was a good fight. But the reason that I said many times that tanks
fights are not generally exciting, this maybe was a little better than your average
tank fight. But the reason why it's so memorable and people just want to
go see him is because when the moment happens when the knockout comes, it's
just like an explosion. So when he scored the knockout, there was like
thirteen for there was like that was a tendance thirteen two hundred and fifty something
whatever at the team at the MGM Grand Garden was the announced attendance. And
it was like just an explosion when that happened. Because number one, it
was a huge tank house. I mean, it was pretty much all all
Davis fans and when that happened in particularly, they were excited because the seventh
round, I think everybody kind of consensed that the end was near. This
is a matter of how how far longer would would be able to go.
But when that knockout happened and it was so spectacular that the crowd just went
absolutely crazy. I mean that's you know, that's the moment as a fan
and as a reporter that goes to the events to be in the arena to
cover them, those are the moments that you live for. I mean,
it was absolutely phenomenal. It's like, you know, when you would see
Mike Tyson knockout an opponent or something like that, that's the kind of ferocity
that tank Davis has with his punching power, he is a a really good
puncher. And that being said again, he got touched up because he had
swelling under the right cheekbone under the right eye was red. It was swelling.
It didn't impair him. And so now everybody wants to know what happens
in the future, what happens next? I guess the first thing, and
this is legitimate, is does he behave does he stay out of trouble something
that he has frequently had problems with in between fights? And then who does
he end up in front of next? So what are your thoughts? Have
been around it and heard them talk and what you what you were able to
dig around and find out being out in Vegas. Well, hopefully he doesn't
wind up in front of a judge number one other than a boxing judge.
The guys opposed to a court judge. Very nice and listen, don't I
don't know if I should take it seriously seriously or not. But some of
the things that that he talked about pre fight and post fight, because he
was asked about it, you know, was having been incarcerated after the Ryan
Garcia fight last April and doing some time you know, you could take him
at face value. It's up to him to prove that what his words are
are legit. But he says, look, I've learned, I've matured.
I mean, we kind of heard the song and dance before. I kind
of get the feeling. Maybe he's a little more serious this time. He
is twenty nine years old. He's not a kid anymore. This you know,
he's a grown man. You got to take responsibility for your actions.
So you know, he's he's got a great career going, he's making a
lot of money, he's a big popular figure. He's got children, he's
got family. I mean, he's he's what all the whatever, the rough
parts of his growing up were in Baltimore, which is a very difficult upbringing.
It a tearable neighborhood. All that he made it out. You know,
he should be proud of that and now just behave yourself. I hope
he doesn't. I hope he's serious about his words about having found that maturity.
Now in terms of his boxing, if he does stay out of trouble,
look, he's going to be in a huge fight because he is a
star. End of story. And the guys that are there we know and
they were the ones who were mentioned. It's Vasilly Lomachenko, It's Shakhorse Stevenson,
maybe a rematch with Isaac Cruz, you know, in one hundred and
forty pound weight class. I mean they fought the first fight that they had
in the one under thirty five pound weight class. If you want a really
big fight, I don't know if there's another opponent out there that brings you
that level of a fight. There's really there's nobody that stands out to me
that you would think that would be the big name to make a giant fight
for him in terms of a guy that would be coming up less, say
from one hundred and thirty pounds. You know, every time you make think
about big fights, I mean, isn't a big fight if you were in
to fight like oh, Shaki Foster or the champions are Navarette or Lamar Rochro.
So those are not those are not big fights. So the champions at
one thirty five besides him, I mentioned Shakor and Lomachenko, Dennis Brentschick is
not. I mean he's a good fighter, but he's not. That's not
a big fight. So the two names that have titles are are Loma and
Shakur. And one thing that Tank has never done, he has never had
a unification, whereas Shakuor has been a unified champion at one point thirty Loma
Chanko has been, you know, a unified champion at lightweight. That's that's
something that that Tank does not happen as resumes, So I would think that
would be attract that he said that he would have no problem fight neither one
of those guys. Chakor obviously has a fight coming up July sixth in Newark
against Hartytunian, which is the guy that actually lost to Frank Martin last year.
Anyway, so we'll see. I mean, I think, even though
they're on different platforms and different promoters, the way that the boxing situation goes
right now, if there is that kind of fight that means money, I
think it is doable. Shakur will be a free agent following the July sixth
fight, which would certainly make that easier, even if Loma is still with
top rank. You know, they've shown the ability to work together at times,
so for a fight of that magnitude, that's a big fucking fight.
Let me tell you now, I don't think he doesn't want to go to
one Yeah, exactly, he doesn't. He has said doesn't really have a
desire to go to one forty, and I kind of get it. He
was really like only one thirty three and change for the way, and so
he didn't like have a hard time apparently making a lightweight limit. So there's
no reason in his mind anyway that I should push myself all the way up
to one forty yet and for what. Okay, t Fimo Lopez is a
champion, that would obviously be to me, that's that's my favorite fight.
If you said to me, Raphael picked your Tank opponent, what's the best
fight? What's the fight you want the most, I would say, bring
me Tank Davis against t Fimo Lopez had one hundred and forty pounds. But
the other guys, you know, good Devin Haney fight, it would it
would be a pretty big fight, but given what happened to Lahaney in his
last fight, it would have some lust or loss because of his loss to
Ryan Garcie, even if that result gets changed because of the drug testing situation.
You know, the other titles are hit Boll Cruz, which is one
possibility that was mentioned. And then Sabrill Matias has lost the title, which
we'll talk about the barrows. So and Parr is gonna be definitely not fighting
Tank Davis in his next fight anyway. Me the logical fights are either Chakor
Stevenson or Loma Chango. Those are both bona fide pay per view fights.
I think those fights would do big business. I'd love to see him go
one at a time, fight both guys. You know, let's pick,
you know, flip a coin, pick the order you want your core first.
If you win, dou Loma or vice versa, you know, and
if they don't fight, if he doesn't fight Lomo or Shakor, if Shaquor
wins in July, I'd like to see Shakor fight Loma, and the pit
Bull Cruise would make sense as a rematch somehow, some way somewhere down the
road. Uh, let's say, and Lomachenko not getting any younger, so
let's let's see if that can maybe get on for late in the year.
Can we have good things as it relates to Gervonte Davis. Uh, we
list one thing about us, yes, you know, one thing about Frank
Martin. I know he lost and he got knocked out, But I thought
he handled it very well, least when he came to the press conversin and
they you know, he gave the credit. Look, he fought a good
fight. He's got nothing to be ashamed of it. He just lost one
of the best fighters in boxing. That's the kind of loss. I know.
It is harsh getting knocked out like that, but you know, take
a little break obviously, and then reassess what you want to do. But
I think that Frank Martin still has an absolute future in this sport. I
think he absolutely can be a world champion. No cushion in my mind about
that. You know, whether he wants to continue at one thirty five.
He did have a little struggle making one thirty five, but I don't think
that he even said, you know, yeah, we all have trouble making
weight, But that was not any kind of detriment to his performance. In
his performance. To the detriment was he didn't get He didn't see the left
hand, you know, was what he said. He said, he just
never saw the punch that the one that really hurt him. But so,
yeah, this is this is the kind of loss where you never like to
lose. But if you're going to lose losing a way where you performed well
and you made a lot of fans I think the other night because of that
performance. And you know, he acquitted himself well, he handled himself well
in the in the build up, So I think he can absolutely win a
world title in and be involved in some other significant fight. Just because he
lost does not me and his career is over. He's now eighteen and one,
but he's still twenty nine years old and he's still I think has a
future. And by the way, I mean, for what it's worth,
Javonte Davis has done this to several opponents as of late with one shot and
Ryan Garcia is included in that group too. That couldn't that couldn't get by
him got knocked out and onward you March Okay co feature fight saw David Benavidez
move up and beat Alexander Vosdik to win the vacant interim one and seventy five
pound WBC title. Benavitez was very impressive. You and I both believed knockout
on our bet Us show. It did not come to pass, even though
he was in control of the fight. And then the most interesting takeaway is
him talking about hand injury leading up to the fight. What right hand injury
leading up to the fight, and that's going to be a concern, but
go ahead. Yeah, yeah. So he said afterwards that he tore a
ligament in his right hand in the training camp. Here at his left hand
in training camp, and he also suffered about three weeks ago a cutover his
left eye in training camp. But he really did not want to pull out
of this fight. He knew it was a big card. He obviously got
a big paycheck coming. He wanted to still go. He wanted to make
sure the fans got the right you know, the right card with Tank Davis
on the same show. And he just is not that kind of guy.
And he was, you know, he fought through it. My perspective was,
had he not had the hand injuries, I strongly believe he would have
knocked out Alexander Vodes because as it was, he was tattooing him later in
the fight, he was kind of beating him down a bit. I thought
David looked very good in the way in the fight, even with the injuries.
He's still won going away, and Vodick wasn't. There's no joke,
I mean he may not be what he was at his absolute peak, but
he's still a very formidable guy. He'll beat a lot of fighters in the
light heavyweight division. He was in great shape, and you know, he
showed a good jebb. He really was not able to mount too much offense
besides that in my mind, but he ended up Benivide's winning, you know,
eleven rounds on one's core card, nine rounds on another score card,
in eight rounds on the other one. I thought the one sixteen one to
twelve was pretty damn generous. I guess me, we always talk about the
range of acceptable scores. To me, you could have the fight anywhere from
a shoutout to nine to three, and you'd you know, in my mind,
that's reason why eight for that's a little bit stretching it. But nonetheless,
Benevide's look good, his defensive solid, you know, he now he
was talking about the postfight press conference about now I know that just when I
went like the punches he was landing on Vodick might have ended guys at super
min awight a little quick. But the guys that light headweight, not only
are they bigger, but they also they punched better. And they also are
used to taking bigger punches. But I think David Benavidez, after that performance
space on what I saw, he is gonna be just fine in the light
heavyweight division going forward, you know. And that's not to say he's gonna
beat a better be over our people, but he's gonna hang and compete and
and make some great fights with a lot of guys for quite a few years.
I know we often talk about variations of the S word. You don't
want to hear the S word in terms of health surgery. Was he talking
about that the hand or both of them might need surgery or not? Really?
That never, that was never, that word never came up. I
think it's right now. It's about like let me wrest, let me take
care of it, and you know, we'll be back in business soon.
But he'll be obviously he's gonna be solved for several months because he's got he
was nicked up and you know the hands and the eye. But uh,
David fought, Uh, he thought a good fight. I mean, it's
it's it's everything. You could have won it other than knock out in his
debut by like heavy one. You fought a good opponent, not a bum.
You fought a very solid, formidable former world champion, former UH top
lineal champion, was an Olympian but by the way, had Alexander Usik visiting
with him in the dressing room before the fight. You know, they're good
friends from their Olympic days. They stayed close, Kim Loma, Uh,
Usik, Barentschik and and also obviously Usik Uh. You know, they're they're
all on the same team and Uh and they have a relationship with each other,
and so the you know, the the undisputed champ was there in the
house to give his guys some support. But I thought, David, look,
David, is he other Like I said, other than the knockout,
I don't know what else you could ask for. I mean, he he
threw a combinations, he ripped big body shots. His left hand was solid,
even with the right hand he said he re injured it in the in
the third round. And it was a good fight. I mean, you
know, it wasn't super competitive, but it was certainly entertaining that you know,
I don't think the fans were upset about that fight. All Eiser wasn't
it was. I enjoyed it. I listened to see Tank. I mean,
we talked about this, I think a little bit in the preview.
I'm not saying this was like that, this is not that you know,
them fighting the two greatest opponents ever and it was a double hader. But
we're not going to see Thank Davis and denevite Is on the same card again
because there are two guys that can easily carry their own pay per view.
I mean, Bank was asked about that at the post fight, and I
thought his answer was, you know, it was nice to hear even though
I know it won't happen. He was like, look, I'd love to
do it again, and next time I'll fight in the co feature and you
know David can fight in the main event. Now. That was very uh
you know, sporting of him, you and I. You know, in
the realistic terms, that ain't happening, but it was cool to hear him
say that. They had a healthy respect fan O. They're going in because
they know how good each other are. By and by the way, fight
fans are the ones that benefit when those better fights are on there. But
we're just being realistic. They're both pay per view headliners at this point,
especially Benavidez down the road when he gets a title shot, if and where
he gets a title shot, either one seventy five or moving back to fight
Canelo Alvarez, if that ever happens. At one sixty eight, all right,
you mentioned Gary Anchwin Russell beaten by Albert Poeo for the vacant WBC interim
one hundred and forty pound title. I don't know why we have to have
an interim one hundred and forty pound champ because Devin and he is the champ
and I don't know, but anyway, he got that fight. You got
Carlos Adamis who returned for the first time in a year. He won his
WBC middleweight title for the real title fight, although not a very good fight,
did enough to be Terrell Gachet. So what else? What else from
those fights on the pay per view? So the Pueo in Russell fight,
that was the one that was the real shocker, because nothing against Pueo.
I mean, he's a pretty solid fighter. Obviously he got to win last
night. He deserved it. It was close fight, but you know he
won by a couple of points. Uh, he won by by one fifteen,
one twelve and one fourteen one thirteen. There was a point deduction from
him also, so it would have been a little wider, would have been
eighty four and seven to five. The one judge though, who gave it
to Russell, uh had it one eighteen to one O nine. To me,
that that I mean that Look, if you want to tell me that
you think maybe Gary eked it out and you had him winning by one point.
I can't, like argue st strenulously against that, But to score that
fight one a T one O nine, I mean, that's the kind of
thing you just have to if you're running the commission, you got to call
the judge in and sit down and have a conversation. Say hey, listen,
we love you. You've been a good judge, but that was a
bad situation. Kid. You try to, you know, explain what you
were seeing that you made you score ten rounds to Russell when Fueyo was clearly
winning the fight. I don't know, I mean whatever, I can't get
to what you said. I know you're not that you're not that crotchety yet
in the podcast, but we've talked so many times about accountability. There's got
to be accountability when you have that horrific a card, that's what you mean?
Yeah, I mean then there's always, not always, but oftentimes you'll
see a fight that's close, or maybe it's not close, but you know,
everybody sort of agrees on they're like, again, the general range of
scores, and then there's one wacky outlier where you know, basically the general
public and the other judges agree this is like a you know, an eight
to four kind of fight, and the other judge has it like ten to
the other way, and you like, what the fuck is going on here?
Uh so that was a backguard. But but but Mormans, though Gary
Antoine Russell, he's gonna go kick himself if he goes back and watches his
fight. He is so far superior of a boxer than Peyo is in my
opinion, so much better of a puncher than Playo, Younger than Playo.
A tremendously fast fighter, tremendous IQ background, upbringing, Olympic pedigree, everything
you wanted to see. But you know what he doesn't have. The guy's
been a professional for almost what eight nine years? He has seventeen fights.
He's not activing of my existence and of everybody in this sport. The activity
level is ridiculously pathetic because when you are only seventeen and oh after having been
an Olympian in twenty sixteen, I believe it was, and you only have
now seventeen professional fights. You know, when a young fighter turns pro typically
they have a bunch of rural you know, fights in a row right at
to be So I didn't look at his record since yesterday, but he probably
racked up seven or eight or nine fights in the first you know, year
and a half for something of his career. So his activity level has been
absolutely pathetic. Now. I know he took some time off when his father
passed away, understandable. Obviously a lot of guys had their schedules impacted,
you know, for you know, a year or two because of COVID and
all that. But that's still seventeen fights and all that time with that kind
of talent. Gary Antoine Russell at twenty eight should already be a multi time
world champion. He should have been on the pound for poundless. That's the
kind of ability that this man has, and we know it runs in the
family. We saw how good his brother was, who was still o who
I talked to him on the airplane. By the way, who says he
still plans to fight. He's going to maybe come back at one thirty maybe
even one thirty five. We'll see that that when it happens. But that
that has to be if you're if you're a Gary Antoine Russell supporter, that
is just a just a horrific outcome. You know, maybe I'm not giving
Playo enough credit, but I didn't think he did anything spectacular just looking at
it. He had three fights in twenty seventeen, his debut year. He
had four fights Gary Antoine Russell in twenty eighteen. He had five more fight
in twenty nineteen before the pandemic, year before the death of his father,
at which we understand we're accounting for that, but that's still most of his
fights in the first three years and almost no fights in the last four years.
That's your point. When he turned ro, I'm not looking at his
record. Did those three fights he had in his debut year within near the
end of the year, that's I figue that is correct. Yes, he
fought in May, in September and in November of twenty seventeen, came right
back and fought in March April and May and August of twenty eighteen, so
he basically in the span of one year had eight fights eight twelve months.
Not active enough, not activities. Still he still can be a top quality
fighters just because he took a decision loss that was close, you know,
to Alberta Playo. It's not like his career is over. Same thing we
were talking about with Frank Martin getting knocked out by Tank Davis. I mean,
you go on, you dust yourself off, and hopefully you'll come back.
But the activity level is just not good. Now that's partly on the
fighter because sometimes fighters and speak specifical about Gary's case, but some guys are
inactive because they have a certain expectation of what they should be being paid.
And PBC for a period of time was kind of really spoiling their fighters relative
to other promoters because they are paying persons that were not commensurate what the actual
market was. It was sort of a fake market that was being created.
But sometimes if you want to get to the promised land, which is big
world titles, which then of course the money goes with that, you got
to be willing to fight for a certain amount. I can't speak to what
Gary's particular reasons were. But seventeen fights and then his eighteen fight on Saturday
Night, what do you expect if you're not active? That's one of the
I truly believe, I truly truly believe if Gary Antoine Russell was fighting like
a regular contender type fighter, and let's not even let's say he had three
fights in the year, I'm not going to say he should have six.
Let's say in twenty twenty three he had three bouts. That's not a heavy
lift, especially when he's knocking guys out, he's not going deep in fights
or taking huge punishment. Three fights is highly reasonable. I believe he would
have been sharper and better and were a tune to what was going on,
he probably would have won the fight my opinion. Nonetheless, he loses and
gets to start over now and again. Carlos Adamis was on the first fight
on the pay per view, again, his first fight in a year while
waiting to be elevated to WBC full middleweight champion, and Terrell Gachet deserves the
credit because he took the well to this extent. He took the shots for
a lot of the fight, but there was just not a lot to this
go ahead. You were there in the Iran So Carlo Sadamis did what he
what he does. He came forward, he threw punches, he was you
know, his punches were somewhat heavier obviously. You know, he's a pretty
solid guy, particularly in a middleweight division at the moment that is not exactly
the strongest that we've ever seen. And he won the fight going away.
I mean he won eleven to one on one card and ten two on the
other two cards, and that was a total domination. He kicked his ASTs.
Carol Gache, I have nothing bad to say about him as a human
being. I've met him a couple of times in nice guy Olympian represented the
United States of America, had a good amateur career, but as a professional,
he's the most negative fighter you could want to see. He doesn't bring
anything to the table positively in his boxing matches. His fights are terrible to
watch. He has no fan base. He doesn't really and again it's not
his fault. And again I'm not trying to hate on the man, but
he doesn't have a personality, so there's no reason to like get excited about
him or like really want to follow him. And he goes in there,
he faints, he runs, he holds, you know, he might throw
a few punches here and there. It's so fucking agonizing to watch. It's
such a negativity. It's to the point where if I see that Terrell is
gonna be on a cart, I'm gonna purposely not watch his fight. I
mean, it's that bad. And the only thing to his credit is he
knocked He knocked Tim Zoo down in his United States debut in the first round
of the fight. So that's about the only noteworthy thing with that laundry list
that you went down. So that's one moment, right. How many years
has the man been a professional? How many years? I mean, that's
one memorable thing. And he still lost the fight. How much because you
were in the arena? How much a damas being off for a year being
rusty? Tank Davis talked about it. You just talked about it with Gary
Anchwin Russell. How much did that affect him, not being able to put
put the pressure on and get him out of there? What do you think
if at all? I mean, well, one thing about about a fight
is it does take to to fight, and Tarol Gichet was there to have
a high guard, keep the keep the ear muffs on, as they say,
and was not going to engage him. So it's hard when a guy
is not willing to fight you, or and if he is, it's only
in spots. So I don't I don't really I think that was more because
uh arl Gie, you know, the one thing he does have this good
his defense is pretty good. Can't argue with that. So no, I
don't really think the layoff had much to do it that. I mean one
thing about a Damas man, he was an absolutely phenomenal condition, uh and
he he thought LOWI he fights. You know, he came forwardy three punches
and you know, his defense was actually pretty decent. Although you know,
it wasn't hard to have good defense, I guess I guess it owner that
really was very and throw any real punches. But I just remember one time
being in twenty seventeen, I was at Bark Play Center when Terol Gichet fought
Erislonni Lara in one of the worst matchups on paper you could ever imagine.
It turned out to be such a horrible, putrid, disgustingly bad fight that
the crowd had already laughed. It was the main event. There was some
other undercard fights of conswits. The arena had largely almost emptied out because it
was such a bad fight by like the middle of the fight. But there
was a group of guys sitting behind the media media section who were cheering like
lunatics every time they'd hit the ten second clapper, becacause the round was over.
It was very it was they were being sarquapa and when the fight ended,
the big giant cheer. But that's what Terrelle brings to fights. He
doesn't bring any entertainment value. Who in the world would buy a ticket to
watch this guy fight? Now you're putting in a world championship fight. He's
the one that made the terrible fight Damas did with the Damas dost. He
was aggressive, he threw punches. But get just again, I have nothing.
I don't dislike him as a human being. I just you know,
if he wants to fight that way, that's his right, but it's also
my right to not like it and not watch it. All right, what
else from the nine we got one other view part? What else? What
else stood out go? So that was the pay per view, But on
the prelims. I think this is one of the biggest upset of the year.
You have the super prospect Elijah Garcia that everybody had a lot of high
hopes for go in there and ship the bed against Kyron Davis, who was
the veteran who did a hell of a job. He's being trained by Steven
Bradman Edwards. They had a great game plan. They took Elijah Garcia apart.
Part of it was because Garcia, I think his own issues. He
didn't make the weight. They made him do a morning weight check smartly on
Saturday morning, so he couldn't be more than ten pounds over. He was
like, I think one seven one sixty three point two for the way,
and so he can only go up to one seventy three point two, which
he weighed in exactly at the morning weight check. I remember this was a
fight that was supposed to be on the March thirtieth card. I don't know
if this has anything to do with Garcia's you know, bad performance, but
that fight was postponed because he had come up sick a few days during you
know, during fight week, and they had to call that fight off.
But Elijah Garcia did not look like the prospect that we've raved about that has
looked dynamic and explosive and total pressure fighter, you know. And Kyron Davis
was there to test him. He didn't just test and he licked him.
He beat him. It wasn't really even that heart of a fight to score.
The judge is actually all pretty much agreed. It was ninety seven,
ninety three twice in ninety eight ninety two. Garcia looked like he didn't have
any snap on his punches. He looked lethargic, he looked kind of lost.
I mean, I don't know what was going on with that dude,
but that was just a very very disappointing performance from a guy that he fought
with. Maybe like literally the best prospect in boxing are close to it,
isn't it fair? Maybe not in shape, not in shape, didn't make
the weight and not you know, not in shape for the fight, and
looked like it for that. And Kyron Davis is the consummate professional. I
don't think anybody's gonna mistake him for like, you know, mister world champion
or pound for pal material. But he's a hard worker. He fights guys,
he takes tough fights, and he was prepared, he was in shape,
he had a you know, they had a good game plan. Obviously
he's got a top notch trainer with Steven Edwards, and they went out there
and they did the job. I mean, remember, this is a guy
that had a draw against Anthony Durell, who was a heavy favorite when they
fought. You know, he's beaten like like, okay, secondary guys.
I mean, he fought David Benivitez. He did get stop by him in
two thousand and twenty one, you know, in a one sided fight,
but he fought the guy. Listen, that's a career win for Cairo and
Davis. Now to beat that young fighter, you know, Elijah Garcia.
That was you know, if you were asking ask people from other promotion companies
who are not related to PBC, they'll tell you they thought he was one
of the best prospects in boxing and they wish they had him in their in
their stable of fighters. Hopefully he can make a comeback. He's still a
very young man. I mean I'm not really I'm not gonna write him off
because he had one, you know, pretty terrible performance. He's only twenty
one years old. Hopefully he learned from it. I'll put it like that.
That was the one that was even a bigger shocker than Gary Russell,
Gary Antwin Russell losing to alberta play on the card. That was a huge
upset in my mind. All right, there you go, anything else from
the trip to Vegas, anything else off the cards or are we good on
that one? And shall we move on to to talk about shocker what happened
in Puerto Rico? Shall we? Yeah? No, I'll just wrap it
up and say it was a hell of a fight week. It was a
good fight gig overall, a good card. Thoroughly enjoyed all the historical memories
of the fact there was the one hundredth championship event at the Grand Garden Arena
for boxing. You know, they had a beautiful reception a couple of nights
before the fight in the arena, and they showed the highlight video that I
was asked to be part of. So that was cool and it was a
great time to go over all those memories of those incredible fights. And I
hope that people who go and check out my newsletter. I don't you know,
we've been doing the podcast a long time. Very rarely do I give
a plug to my own and stuff, but I would encourage people to go
on my website. I wrote a piece about the history of the Grand Garden
and the fights, and I did a stuff about that, and then I
also did my top ten ranking, picked some of the great moments, the
most iconic moment, the best knockout, the biggest dud, blah blah blah.
I would hope people will go check that out. And by the way,
we should be plugging these Dan Raphael Substack, why are you not subscribing
and on the newsletter, great social media stuff with all the pictures of the
ceremony that they did, or at least the gathering that they did on Thursday
night, and all the stuff they had in the arena for the one hundredth
and we talked a lot about it in the build up for it. So
again for all time, Gervonte Davis wins the one hundredth won by knockout.
So that was pretty memorable in its own right. On that all right,
So let's move on to what is the upset of the weekend. You talked
about the upset of Gary Ajewin Russell is a bigger upset right here with what
Liam Paro did against Subrial Matinas. So I was locked in on this fight
while you were locked in obviously on the PBC card. I was writing it
for Big Fight Weekend dot Com and I am sitting here approximately twenty four hours
after that fight while we tape the podcast, and I still am be fuddled.
I'll use the word be fuddled here on a Sunday night, that Mattias
didn't kick it into gear middle of the fight later in the fight and try
to get Paro out of there. Was it that he couldn't that he wouldn't.
Paro deserves a lot of credit for being active out of the south paw
stands for landing. When Mattias would hit him, he would fire back and
make Matias stop. He used good movement, he used angles. He just
out fought out boxed Suprial Mattias. And I am befuddled as to what the
heck happened with Ever with the table set in front of him, big fight
coming if he wins, huge home country backing. He couldn't make the crowd
roar ray Field more than two or three times that entire twelve round fight.
What a job by Liam Paro. We shouldn't set him short sell him short.
But I just in watching that round after round, I'm like, where
is the Mattias stepping on the accelerator? It never came, my friend.
Well, a lot of fighters didn't want to fight Sybril Mattias. They called
him the boogeyman. They say is the most avoided fighter in the junior walterweight
division, maybe one of the most avoided fighters in the sport of boxing period.
But Liam Paro from the time this fight was approached as a possibility when
they were looking for an opponent. This is soon after he that suberal Mitis
had signed with match from Boxing and they were trying to go through what the
possible opponents were. He was always in the mix. He always in his
public comments, was willing and interested to take the fight. Had no problem
traveling from his home country of Australia to Puerto Rico to do the match.
You know, he hadn't really fought much outside of Australian and his whole cre
Like you've mentioned, he fought the fight in Tampa, but that was you
know, he wasn't the main event. It wasn't world championship fight, that
sort of thing. Now he's taking the step up. But if you know,
his perspective was to look, maybe these other guys don't want to challenge
Matias, maybe they think he's the boogeyman. But I want my world title
shot on bringing the bell to home to Australia. And you go in with
that kind of mentality and that game plan, and you were able to do
that for twelve rounds and maybe you do catch Mattias on a little bit of
an off night, maybe you do catch him celebrating the homecoming more than paying
attention to the opponent, and you add that all up and it ends up
as a you know, a close but pretty clear unanimous decision in favor of
part made me think about, you know, a few years ago watching when
Jared Hurd was was the Dream Been Away Champion and he was having a big
homecoming event in uh he lives in Akacique, Maryland. They had to fight
in fairfaxt Virginia, which is you know where I live at the George Mason
University. It was about maybe like fifteen twenty minutes from where he lives.
And the whole week was him, you know, homecoming, lots of you
know, who's gonna sing the song, Who's gonna walk us in. What's
this? What's that? Everything was being discussed except for the actual fight,
and Julian Jay Rock Williams came in there and cleaned his clock and won the
fight. And this sort of had it made me think a little bit about
that. I'm not saying that the fights themselves were the same, but a
guy gets focused on the hometown fight on you know, doing the appearances and
the tickets and you know who's singing the anthem and all the shit that you
really shouldn't be worrying about other than your opponent, and you get sidetracked and
you're not focused in and the other guy meanwhile, you know, he's ready
to go. He's like, I'm gonna come in there and I'm gonna do
my job and I'm gonna I'm gonna embarrass it in front of your home crowd.
And to your point, I mean, Matias had the elaborate ring walk
with the rap star and it took full ever for him to get to the
ring, and it did not bother Liam Paro. Liam Paro remained focused.
If that was gamesmanship, if that was strategy to try to get him off
his game or rattle him, it did not work, and I thought a
key juncture. And again I know I watched this much more closely than you
did live because you were working the other ones in Las Vegas. But when
Mattias got control of the fight at the end of the third round, he
scored several times. At the end of the third round, the cro crowd
is warning, you're going, okay, here we go. You and I
both like the knockout pop. You're thinking, here you go. Barrow came
right back and won the fourth round, was more aggressive, landed the bigger
punches and he won the fifth round. And that says a ton for him.
Just follow up on that plase. Well, there was just no logical
reason to pick him in the fight. His resume was extremely thin, and
you know he had a decent win against Jomar Almo. That was the fight
that you were at in twenty one. Yeah, prior to that anybody in
his career. Rock Jarvis was anundefeated fighter from Australia. So it was a
two n defeat in Australians, but neither one of them were accomplished, so
you know, I guess it looks good on the record. He actually scored
a first on knockout. But I did never really gave him a lot of
credit for that win. He stopped Montana Love in the sixth round, but
that was that was Love coming off of that wacky disqualification. And I never
thought much of Montana Love in the first place, you know. Uh So
I didn't give him a huge amount of credit for that either. So that
was his resume, basicly, And for them to go in there against Mantias
and and and win, no controversy. And you know, it was no
controversy because he got the unanimous on the other guy's hometown basically, you know,
in his that's where there wasn't just they fought the fight in Puerto Rico.
That was his hometown in Puerto Rico. And I thought, and I
thought Sergio Mora brought it up on the his own broadcast. He goes,
you want to know how bad this is going. He goes, there's no
energy in this building. This is the tenth round, the eleventh round.
They know he's losing, and the fight is over, and there's nobody making
any noise. They're like, they know he lost. So the Puerto Rican
fans, the Puerto Rican fans that turn out, I mean Kan fans are
very knowledgeable. They know their shit. They've got a great culture and a
great boxing history, and uh, and they knew their guy, like you
said, I mean, you're right, they knew their guys losing h And
by the way, it's not like not like uh, Mattias had some spectacular
resume either, but you just look at the way he takes guys out.
I mean it's kind of like Tank Davis from the standpoint of the power,
not necessarily in their styles, but just blitzing guys. But I think sometimes
what happens is you see and this is you know, we're all guilty of
this, and it's I think it's just human nature. You see an exciting
young finer. He comes in, he looks great, maybe not fighting like
the top guy, but he's spectacular. The guy he beats has a great
record, he's exciting. He make that two three times in a row against
not the elite fighters, and you're you know, he's starting to build them
up with more in your mind than what's actual reality. So I think that's
sort of what happened with Matias. Yes, he's a very dangerous puncher,
but it's you can't make him out to be the next coming of you know,
pick your junior world right start. But still he should have won that,
and he should have won it impressively. I know that's not what you're
saying, but the other the other part is I thought this was interesting.
As soon as the decision was announced, Mattia smiled, he clapped, he
raised leam Parro's hand, and he left. He scurried like I am thoroughly
shamed here. I'm thoroughly embarrassed. So I don't know truthfully what was going
on and why we didn't see the same type of fighter, especially in the
second half of the fight and down the stretch of the fight. He didn't
fight with desperation either, So credit Paul. Yeah, that's about Paro,
I mean. And that leads to what what does happen next here? In
what is a wealthy one and forty pound weight division with the names, So
how does he factor in? Well, he factors in because he's the IBF
champion now and I know that his What he'd like to do is they would
like to take I think I think some of the match from people were talking
about right after the fight, as do a fight in Australia homecoming fight,
but the IBF. Remember if Mattias had won, I don't think it was
signs sealed and delivered, but that the likelihood was going to be that he
was going to make the mandatory against Richardson Hitchins, who was also a matchroom
fighter who fought a couple of months ago, and that was the plan part
of when Richard when when Hitchins did his his deal with a match froom was
that was sort of like you know, penciled in, like you're going to
do this fight then the title fight, because he was the mandatory and a
matchman both guys, So that doesn't change just because the different guy has the
belt. It's still he's still the mandatory challenger. Now it's possible that he
might be able to slip in, or they might allow it to happen step
aside. Maybe they'll get it done before the actual deadline. I mean,
I think that's going to play out with the IVF probably over. It's probably
going to be pretty quick too, because I'm sure the Hitchinson team is going
to approach the IVF to make sure that they get the orderant. The Parlo
team's going to want to make sure they can organize a homecoming fight, you
know, a few months from now, so we'll see about that. So
he might get the homecoming fight. If he doesn't get the homecoming fight,
I believe the next fight would be the mandatory against Richards and Hitchins, which
is a fight that would be what Hitchins has launched all along. He Richards
and Hitchin wasn't married to. I want to fight Subril Matiaz. He's like,
I want to fight for the IV of title, right, So whether
it's Hitchens that had the belt or it's Parloa that had the belt, you
know, he doesn't care. He wants a chance. So uh that that's
I think that's interesting fight, especially given what Paro did against Mattias. So
you know, it's a new face. It adds another name to a division
that's already got a lot of talent. Member we talked about one forty,
We talked about you know, Ti Fimo Lopez and Devin Haney and and uh
and Josh Taylor and Regis Progra and obviously Mattias and now Paro has a title.
We talked about richardson Hitchin undefeated contender. It's a very good quality weight
class and obviously you have guys like you know, certainly Tank Davis and go
to one forty if he wanted to, if you want to have one of
those types of fights. So you know, that is a very very rich
division even before Para pulled the upset. Now that he did pull the upset,
it just brings another quality name and that I also forgot. Pitt pull
Cruz now has the title of the WBA and in that weight class, that's
another quality name that's in that division. And maybe somebody wants to give the
old man Barroso another shot, you know. I mean there's there's there's a
lot of guys with stories and different kinds of styles, and there's a lot
of different kind of interesting fights, and you get paid in that division for
sure. Uh And I look forwar to seeing how it plays out. Good
on Liam Parlin by the way, you know, I'm biased about this,
but Winky Wright silencing Tito Trinidad in Puerto Rico the same way. And Trinidad
was there and they interviewed him on the broadcast. What is what during the
fight, what does Mattias need to do? And he's like get inside body
uppercut and he's like shadow boxing. None of it happened, and as they
said, Tito was horrified after the fight, head in his hands. How
did he lose? But Winky didn't fight Trinidad in Puerto Rico. Well,
well correct, yeah, I didn't find him in Puerto Rico. But it
was right he beat him. I'm thinking of because a friend of mine was
there in San Juan that night when they were all celebrating and waving the flags
watching it on TV. That's what I'm thinking of. But and I was.
I was in the MGM brand in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Asn't
matter. Yes, he turned Winky Wright, turned Felix Trinidad into a human
bobblehead. Yeah, there you go on that one. And and Tito took
it tough last night Saturday night with Mattia's taking the loss, all right,
good stuff on that. We do pay mention too. That Chris billim Smith
did win the boxer main event Sky Sports in the UK Peacock in the US
the WBO cruiserweight title fight, avenged a previous non title loss to Richard Riaka
Pore. Billim Smith was busier, landed the more effective punches, workmanlike win
for him, and it keeps him very relevant for unification at cruiserweight for sure.
Here's the that's the big upshot of that win in England, real quick,
Dan, Yeah, I mean I have to be honest. I mean
I thought Ria pore was the better athlete. I thought he was the stronger
puncher. I thought he was you know, he was a guy that would
that I thought would win, partially because he had already defeated Bill Smith.
To Bill Smith's credit, though he said in his pre fight posts, I
wrote about it in one of my notebooks, where he's like, look,
that fight was so long ago. I mean not necessarily in years. It
wasn't that long ago. But his position was, I have improved so much
since then. I've had a lot more fights since, I've had a lot
more experience than I became a world champion. Obviously beat Lawrence so Cole,
who was a good fighter in that way class, he beat the mandatory in
Maasternek, and now he fights the rematch against Rick and Porey, and so
his perspective was, yeah, I know I lost to a guy, you
know, back in like twenty nineteen, but it doesn't have any bearing on
the fight. I didn't necessarily believe that, So that was one of my
reasons. So, you know, Jill Smith, he continues, I gotta
stop picking against him, and he continues to right, you know, he's
and again, maybe I'm just wrong about this. I don't. I don't
think I am. He's a very much of an overachiever. He's the kind
of guy and I say this about different fighters all the time. If I'm
like a scout and I want to sign guys, I'd always want to sign
the guy with the B talent but the A plus work ethic and mentality.
Then the guy with the A plus talent but doesn't you know that doesn't isn't
going to live up to the potential because they don't live in and breathe,
or they don't work ethic, yeah yeah, or the mentality. Chris Bill
Smith is the kind of guy who is getting every ounce of what he has
out of his natural ability, which is just simply not at the same level
as a lot of other fighters. And he he's good at getting you to
fight. Yes, he's clear him by the way, it's good. It's
it's a good strategy that he gets guys to fight his type of fight close
quarters. Uh scoring Uh, you know, inside out slugging guys. That's
the way he fights and it's worked for him to this point. And let's
see. He said I'd love to come to the United States and have a
bigger fight. Let's see if that happens for him in the cruiserweight division.
I mean I watched him. Zerda Ramirez is the WBA champion. Him and
him and the zero is a good fight, you know, the i BF
and Lineil. He's involved with these fights that are taking place, uh,
you know, with the Saudi's and the real season. He's gonna probably fight
in in Uh. I mean, he's gonna probably fight in September twenty first
in UH in England on on the on the Rea season card. The other
champion is the WC champion one on the callion. He's the don King fighter.
Was supposed to have fought on the Broner under card a couple weeks ago,
but he had an injury so the fight was called off. But uh,
every one of those sport fighters have belts in that weight class. If
you mix the match him, I believe would make for a very interesting,
entertaining fight. We'll see. But Billan Smith, uh, he's got some
good action that he can do with In the UK, there's other contenders and
and it's a it's a pretty healthy weight class over there. So it's cool
that he wants to travel and come to America, and I would certainly have
welcomed that. But uh, he's got such a great fan base there,
you know. I know this fight was in Ric Poy's hometown. That's an
our thing. I know they both from England, but he he fought and
defended his tittle in the other man's hometown. He Rictory is from London,
you know, not close to where Billan Smith is from. So you know,
good win for him. It wasn't the best I mean, I'll be
honest, I didn't get a chance to watch the entirety of the fight.
I've been I was so busy with what was going on with Tank Davis and
writing my stories on that, and then I had, you know, a
long day of travel cross country. I've not had the opportunity yet to sit
and watch the complete fight. I'll do it eventually, But from what I've
been reading and hearing is that maybe wasn't like Tomo was attract to fighting the
world rickor Pory got the point that deducted late in the in the twelfth round,
and there was a little bit of sloppiness, but I'll check it out,
but it seems like no one is arguing that it was in fact Chris
Millin Smith who was the well worthy. William Smith was getting the better of
the exchanges throughout the fight and was the winner. And he moves on.
He keeps delivering and he's active. By the way, what we've been preaching
even on this podcast, that we reward the activity. Okay, some news,
some nostalgia, and then we've done. Then we're gonna be done.
We've been here a little bit, as I always like to say, Uh,
you found out while in Vegas that Premiere Boxing Champions is looking at a
non pay per view in August. What do we know at this point on
when that might be coming and a name or two that might be part of
it, So go ahead. So when the PBC and Amazon Prime announced their
agreement, it was very pay per view heavy in the announcement, but it
was very crystal clear that they did plan to do events that were non pay
per view. And I am a very very strong believer that you know,
you were able to do a slew of pay per views with the current roster
they have. But when those pay per view fighters peter out, who's going
to come behind them and replace them. If you don't do fights at the
Public and seek, you're not gonna people that are gonna tell me by the
show, So you have to develop pay perview attractions on a non pay per
view way of viewing it. So they hadn't done any they were supposed to.
I was told they were going to do their first non pay per view
in June. I don't know why that didn't happen, but it didn't happen.
Obviously, they're not doing a show of any kind in the month of
July, but August is supposed to be a non pay per view show.
I don't know where it's going to take place. I would I would imagine
it'll be someplace in Vegas. I don't think they're going to do a big
Grand Garden arena fight necessarily, but it will happen in August. I am
told the date is either August tenth or August seventeenth, so mid month,
dead of summer, and the fighters that are being ticketed for that, Caleb
Plant, the former super middleweight title holder, is going to be on that
card, assuming they get that all wrapped up. Be good to see him
back in the ring, and along with him, the other fighter that they're
talking about being on there is the return of Stephen Fulton, who hasn't fought
since he got knocked up by I Know you in a way when in a
way became the unif you know, he lost his unified super or is unified
junior featherweight titles to in a way last summer and he's been out out of
the ring for a bit. In terms of kayleab Plant, I have not
heard any particular rumor specific about who his opponent would be. When I wrote
and I wrote, some people were a musing and saying, well, maybe
he fight Andre was coming up the lost of Benavides. That would be a
perfectly reasonable fight in terms of Fulton by all accounts, And what I was
told is his opponent, and I think Fulton I didn't see this, but
I think Fulton put it somewhere on his social media that his opponent's probably going
to be Ronnie Rios, who is the former world title challenger in the lower
weight class, but they're going to fight. He's moving up to featherweight Ronnie
fought for a title at one twenty two. So basically, it's the two
guys that used to be junior featherweights fighting in the featherweight division. And I
saw Steven Fulton and Caleb Plant when I was out in Vegas. They were
both at the show, and you know, let's put it like this,
Well, they didn't get into the details. Neither one of them was then
I'd already reported when I reported, but neither one of them denied the report.
I'll put it to you like that. That's always a good way to
find out what's going on. They didn't deny it, all right, Listen,
I'm looking for you know. I'm happy to see Caleb back in the
action. Also, he had a very good fight and he gave a great
effort in in what the distance with Benavidia's in March. I want to see
Fulton back in the learning because he he's a guy that I still think that
can do something in the featherweight division, maybe even one thirty. He's a
very good boxer. Yeah, I can't really hold a knock geut lost in
a way against anybody because in a way, such a freaking beast. And
by the way, You've talked to Brandon Figarola in the past, and that
was a tremendous fight now going on about two and a half three years ago.
Shelf life may be waning, but that could be looming at whatever weight.
That has some appeal that it's a rematch because Figarola believes he won that
fight. It was a close decision, so who knows. Who knows for
Fulton down the road. Something that broke after our podcast was put to bed
Thursday when you were in Vegas, but we did talk about it some on
the bet US Live show on Friday. The announcement though not unexpected, as
you explained that Leonard LERB and Mayweather Promotions have split, and a lot of
it has to do with Tank Davis. We saw Leonard in the ring smiling
with Tank Davis after the win on Saturday night. So fill in the blanks
here on what's going on. In particular, you're making the point Mayweather Promotions
talk about inactivity, not exactly active as a promotional outlet right now. But
give us, give us some more details real quick. Yeah, I mean
I can't. I don't know every single detail, and there's you know,
depending on who you believed you know, I think a lot of misinformation,
but the bottom line is this, Leonard Ellerby is no longer going to be
the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. They termed it in terms of Mayweather Promotions,
announcement is resignation. I think he got his ass kick to the curb.
He asked me, because Floyd is a very mercurial guide was pissed off that
Leonard is being the guy that's assisting Tank Davis. He knows him for years.
They promoted him together at Mayweather Promotions for years. But Tank is no
longer with Mayweather Promotions. He's obviously had a falling out with Floyd and he
hired Leonard to work on his behalf for these events. And Leonard does a
good job with that, and you know, he's good at what he does.
And I don't think Floyd liked that. And so it's just like typical
Floyd. If you go back to the years when him and pak Ya were
competing for the attention in front of the pound for pound number one, and
they still had not fought each other, and they were fighting common opponents.
You go to Mayweather or you remember, sorry, you go to a pack
Yall fight in Vegas, and you knew that, like the night before the
fight or Thursday night, there were gonna be some kind of announcement from Floyd
Mayweather to fuck you up and try to steal the spot. Like it happened
more than once, I think, if I remember correctly, it was a
pack y'all fight when Floyd announced he was coming out of retirement and the rumors
had broken and he was gonna fight one Nanuel Marquez and they end up having
a press conference like that weekend. I mean, it was just ridiculous.
So Floyd's always trying to one up, and I think he was trying to
ruin tanks a week he put up the bullshit on his Instagram about how the
fight was canceled when it wasn't. I mean, he's like a forty something
year old man. I mean he acting like he's in second grade. I
mean, my son's in fifth grade. He's more mature than that shit.
So when you when you started to introduce this topic, you said that it
was expected. I don't think anybody I didn't expect that Mayweather and Leonard would
break apart. They've been together for thirty years. I mean Leonard started out
with Floyd knowing his uncle Roger and his I think that's how they got together.
And when Floyd turned pro, Leonard was part of the camp. He
worked as Floyd's strength coach, strength and conditioning coach, and then ultimately,
you know, went to work for Floyd full time, not just in that
capacity, but you know, he worked in the corner, helped develop his
business obviously, you know later on when he was doing the humongous fights,
became you know, indispensable in terms of the right hand man in the business
side of things as well as still in the gym, and then became in
charge of Mayweather Promotions, which at one point was promoting shows. They had
a non televised local series to try to develop fighters that they did at one
of the smaller casinos in Vegas. They had showbox events, They had their
young prospects that appeared on Floyd's cards, so they were pretty active. They
had guys appearing on some of the PBC undercards. But they haven't done anything
lately, and so if Leonard's no longer there, even if he was there,
there was nothing for him to do because I have no broadcast deal.
They only have a handful of fighters. You know, the only one that's
a real consequence. They think the young kid Kermel mouton that people may have
scene. He ended up appearing on the preliminary card back in March, and
that was because the Elijah Garcia fight got postponed, so they were able to
put Kermel onto the television part or the streaming anyway. So it's a dormant
company essentially. But the interesting thing now, Okay, so they split apart,
whose ever side you believe, whatever it is, the bottom line is
they're not working together. But what Floyd did is he has brought back Richard
Schaeffer, who was the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions for a very long time,
was the co founder of that company with Oscar, and even though Oscar
and Floyd did test each other like a disease, it was Richard Shaeffer who
was the one that was close to Floyd. That was the reason why Golden
Boy Promotions ended up promoting most of the big mega Floyd Mayweather fights, both
at the end of his tenure at HBO as well as when he was with
Showtime when he did that big fat contract of vot Canelo and Guerrero and Maydonna
twice and all those huge fights. So it'll be interesting if Shaeffer can,
you know, do what he did when he was at Golden Boy and they
worked very closely with Al Hayman. Uh, He's got his work cut out
for him, because I don't care if you've got Richard Schaffer or Leonard Llerb
or Bob Aram or Don King or pick a great promoter around or Eddie Hearn
or Frank Warny going down, what do you fundamentally have to have? You
have to have a broadcast and broadcast partners and a broadcast partner, right,
they can they have they can sign fighters. There's talented fighters and and they're
you know, Floyd is good at identifying talented fighters, and Richard his experience
and he knows good matchmakers. Getting the talent's not the problem. There's a
lot of fighters that would love to sign with with Floyd and work with Richard,
I believe. But if you don't have a broadcaster, if you don't
have a partner that puts up any money, you have nothing. So the
onus will be on him to deliver some type of revenue based on a broadcast
deal. Otherwise you're just another promoter that doesn't you know, that's going to
farm guys out that put on small shows and it doesn't work, you know,
at least at the big time level. So you know. And but
I'll tell you this, I've known Richard twenty five years practically. Uh,
Richard knows the business and and Richard's a good promoter. And we'll see if
he can works in magic with Floyd's people. One more item and then the
nostalgia, and that is the w b A speaking of the Monster in a
way and him being Stephen Fulton. They say to the Monster, we got
another opponent for you, m j Akmadaliev that he's their mandatory challenger, the
former unified champion in the division. All right, so what do we make
of this? It's one thing that the w b A is saying you two
should fight. We keep going over this with Canelo and purse bids, and
you order this guy to fight. What do we make of this? Damn
Well, this is certainly a lot, lot, lot, lot lot better
than than order. William. I think I got I got four lots in
on that. That's good. I think it was more. I mean,
Akman Daliv is a real guy. He's a former champion. He's an outstanding
fighter, uh you know, just has the one loss, uh you know,
really really good fighter. He got the loss by by a very close
decision to Topolis when he lost the belts, and then obviously the Palis later
got demolished by in a way, but he's the mandatory for the WBA.
But the thing that's confusing to I think some people is that after in a
way won his most recent fight against Louis neary Back, you know, a
few weeks ago in the Tokyo Dome, the IBF mandatory Sam Goodman from Australia
was there in the ring, and then soon after that he scheduled another fight,
and people were like, why is he schedule a fight when he's supposed
to be up next for anyway later in here. Why would you risk that
position for just a regular old fight in Australia, not even against a big
name. I guess the way it seems to me no one's articulated this,
but it seems clear by the actions that Goodman is just not going to go
for the mandatory. And so I don't know if the timing expired, but
the WBA has taken their opportunity now to order the MJ fight. So from
my perspective, I would much rather see in a way fight Achmadalia than Goodman.
Nothing against Goodman, but if you have to pick one of the other,
I'll pick up all day. Akman Dive is a good technician. He's
very experienced. I don't necessarily think he necessarily beats in a way. But
if you're looking down there, you know any kind of independent rankings of fighters
at one hundred and twenty two pounds, and that he has not already defeated,
and m j Ackmandive is about as good of an opponent as you can
get. So they gave him thirty days, which is normal standard procedure.
They have until July thirteenth, July fourteenth to negotiate an agreement, and if
they don't make one, they'll order a purse bid. I suspect unless something
whacky happens, I guess they'll probably go through this because he's still you know,
just because it's a mandatory, it doesn't make it a not a good
fight. If again, if you're looking down rankings, Zach Mendive is probably
about the best guy you can pick from. He has accomplishment, and he
is a mandatory. I think in a way, you know, prides himself
on the belts. At this point, he probably would like to still defend
them before he moves up, you know, in the in the in the
near future, let's say next year and go ahead and make the mandatory.
I mean, it's a worthy fight, and I guess they'll try to work
it out. I mean, no one's gonna I mean, I don't think
they're gonna let a fight like that go to pers bid because number one,
as the champion, you have so much of the percentage you can win.
Even if you make a side deal with your fighter, there'd be no reason
for them to press for a purse bit on this. And you know Eddie
hearn is the promoter that works with Achmadalie of I would think they'd be able
to make a deal and let's get on a good good but one twenty two.
It's every bit is good on paper as it would have been a fee
when he was fighting Luis Nary. So that's the fight they ordered, and
I guess Sam Goodman is going to take the pass at this moment. That's
just what it seems like. I've not heard anything definitive, but I say
bring out in a way versus Acmundalith. He's coming back, you know,
in a few months, and uh, you know that's a good matchup like
that, all right. Nostalgia Sunday As we released the podcast into Monday,
the seventy third birthday for Roberto Duran. We've been talking recently about Sugar Ray
Leonard's birthday, the late Marvin Hagler's birthday. It is fascinating for the four
Kings. Their birthday is all kind of around together in the same three week
or four week period here in and around the late May, early to mid
June area. The hands of Stone seventy three years young Dan Rayphaield simply one
of the greatest fighters to ever lays on gloves. I know a lot of
people who do know about Duran, they think and that all they think about
is when he quit against Sugar Ray Leonard in the rematch, the No Mos
fight. I mean the fact that he's that that's obviously you can't ignore that.
That's a tremendous part of his overall legacy in boxing. But how his
greatness is so great that that's it's important, But it's for a lot of
guys that would be the you know, the Scarlett letter they would wear forever.
But Duran is such a great fighter and being so many great guys and
had so much accomplishment, was in so many great fights, such a beloved
figure both in his home country at Panama, and became a worldwide figure that
even though you know, we saw that situation unfold in the rematch against Sugar
Ray Leonard, you cannot ignore all the greatness of this guy has. First
of all, I absolutely adore Roberto Durant. I love him. I love
him as a fighter. I've grown to love him as a person as I've
got to know him a little bit over the last several years. I've been
around him at a number of events and spent some time with him, you
know, hung out at bars with him, and just as wonderful a human
being as you can imagine, just such a just loves of life and loves
boxing, and all you want to do is hug the guy, and like
he's like the pied piper, you know, He's kind of like there's a
few people like that that no matter where he goes, he gets a crowd
and everybody is just thrilled to see him. They just want to be near
him touch him. It's sort of like when I would have the same experiences
when I would be with Emmanuel Stewart at events. I mean, that's just
the type of guy that Duran has become, just a just a great,
great person and a fucking animal in the ring at his best. I mean,
he is widely regarded, rightly so in my opinion, as the single
greatest lightweight of all time. And the thing that's so crazy about that is
the fights that he's most famous for are don't even include his bign at lightweight,
because he's known for the Four Kings fights. Those were fights that took
place at welterweight and above. I mean, he's a guy that had been
the lightweight champion, he went up to welterweight, he had, you know,
a few fights before he fought Sugar Ray Letter, but he hung that
first loss on Ray in their first meeting, which was the first bout of
what became the nine fight round robin between the Four Kings. Obviously, he
lost the rematch in the No Mos fight, you know, in the immediate
rematch, but he went on. Besides, so if you go back in
the early part of his career, Hall of Famer Ken Buchanan, he'd beat
for the lightweight time. He had a trilogy with Estemondejesus who's also a Hall
of Famer. He beat him for the WBC lightweight title. When he moved
up, he defeated Ray Leonard. He jumped up two way classes. He
didn't stop and uh then fight for a title at one he may have had
won forty fights, but his next title fight was against Sugar Ray Leonard,
and he beat the prime Ray Leonard. I mean Ray, that was his
first loss. This was Ray. That was just you know, with an
arrow going to the moon and uh and and Ray Ray Ray got beat that
night. And by the way, it was a classic fight. I mean
Sugar Ray Leonard Rivert durand it's a fucking great fight. Went to Leonard made
the mistake of going toe to toe with the hands of stone and got beat
that night. And I believe in the Four Kings documentary that the showtime great
documentary by Matt Whitecross another shout out to him that was it was after that
fight that the President of Panama, this is how you know that you have
the stroke, This is how you know you have the people. But the
president of Panama lent Duran his private plane to utilize and Duran was gone for
so long that after ten days apparently something like that, the president is calling
Duran and his people, can I get my plane back? That's how you
know how big Duran was. He was bigger than the president of Panama.
Huge. So the thing about it is like he went on to win other
world titles. But you have to remember after he suffered the loss to Ray
in the rematch with the No Mos fight, it wasn't just that he lost,
it said he quit and that I mean that was just like incredibly unheard
of, especially for a fighter that was considered such a beastlow way where Berta
Duran was. So he won a couple of small fights the thing to speak
of that were anything you know that with anything spectacular, and then when he
finally got another chance to fight for a title, he fought very well,
but he lost in the junior middleway title fight against Wilfrim Benitez. There was
a Hall of famer who was the fighter that Sugar Rat Leonard had and beaten
for the welterweight title. Okay, that's a forgivable loss, and he fought
well in the fight, but then he fought a fighter named Kirkland Lane.
This is in nineteen eighty two. This is now we're now about a year
or at two years removed from from the quit the NOMS fight against Leonard.
This was just a regular kind of guy. He was supposed to roll past
him and he lost. During magazine picked us as the upset of the year
in nineteen eighty two, and a lot of people just wrote duran off like,
you know, okay, in a great career. He was the lightweight
champion, won the welterweight title, quit against Ray, couldn't get it done
against Benitez. Now he loses legit, you know, to this just regular
old fighter again. He came back, fought one fight, actually fought on
the undercard of the first fight between Alexis Argueo against Aaron Pryor, and he
won. And then he got a chance, not a title fight, but
against Peppino Quavis, who was another top welterweight of the time. They fought
in the you know, slightly above the weight and he knocked him out in
the fourth round and that was like an eye opening kind of win. And
what that did was it got him a shot for the title against Davey Moore,
who was only twelve to zero but was considered like a superstar on the
rise, and you know he's gonna beat Duran. It was like the perfect
sort of thing. We'll get this old guy, we'll give him the shot,
and we'll launch Davy Moore off the back of the defeated Roberto Duran.
The night well, guess what, they went to Madison Square Garden and Roberto
Duran delivered an absolute ass kicking a destruction at beat Down and slaughtered Davy Moore
that night. And I've talked to people. I always talk about the experience
of being at Madison Square Garden on the night that Felix Trinidad defeated William Joppi
and the atmosphere and the electricity, or when he came back and came out
of retirement to fight in my Orga, or the electricity of some of the
Miguel Cota fights, like the rematch against Margarito. And I know people,
particularly top rank people that were at both of those events in terms of Coto
because they promoted the Duran morphight as well as the Coda fight, and they'll
tell you that there's nothing that they could ever possibly imagine other than maybe the
night that Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frasier in Madison Square Garden, that will ever
top the joy and the explosion of happiness and electricity when Duran just pummeled and
beat up Davey Moore. So that was a Houston. This is all stuff
that he did post the Leonard fight, what part of his greatness And besides
that, after that he was back. He then lost to Hagler, lost
to Hearns, but that he was already so entrenched in these Four Kings fights
and he's still Now that's nineteen eighty three, when he beats Davey Moore,
Now he's an old man nineteen eighty nine. You know, he's not gonna
win. He's just a name. He's kind of playing out the string.
But he's still popular. He can make some money, put him on TV.
He goes in a great fight, a fight of the Air type fight,
and he beats Iran Barkley from the middleweight title. I mean, he
never defended that. That was near the end of his career. He ended
up losing the third fight to Ray Leonard. But to go think about the
span of this man's career. In nineteen seventy two, he beats a Hall
of famer Ken Buchanan for the lightweight title. Fast forward now to nineteen eighty
nine. How many years different is? That's seventeen seventy powards school math tells
us that seventeen years and he wins the middleweight title. This man is fucking
great. This is a legend. When I hear people talk about certain fighters
from today, he's a great fighter. This guy's a great fighter. Maybe
they'll become great, but they're not great fighters. They're good fighters, and
they're doing their job and they're winning and we're excited. But the word great
gets thrown around too easy. Roberto Durant is a true great period. Happy
birthday to the hands of stone living legend. He and Leonard arguably the two
biggest living legends that are out there. The Hearns knockout anniversary is this weekend.
That's forty years ago, by the way, good lord, and we
don't speak of that fight in this household. Well, but yeah, but
Thomas Hearns on that night, and that's set into motion on the Four Kings,
the Hagler fight. After that, all right, one more piece of
nostalgia and then we've got to scoot And that is an excellent one. You
mentioned before about Oscar de la Hoya, about Sugar Shane Mosley, about all
the great fighters fighting in the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Let's talk about Shane
Moseley on June seventeenth, which is Monday two thousand in seventeenth, now twenty
four years ago, beat Oscar bale Hoya. Wow, you were there ringside.
What do you remember about that night? So this was their first fight.
This was the fight they fought at Staple Center in Los Angeles. Now
right, the second fight was at the MGM. This the first fight.
The second fight was for the Jummer middleweight title. The first fight was for
the welterweight title. But the thing about it was, well, it was
a big deal because Stable Center was still a pretty new building at that time,
and it was the first time they ever hosted a boxing match and they
put the two Los Angeles fighters to you know, the Dela Hoye was an
established superstar. Shane was making his name. He obviously was known by the
boxing fans. He had been the lightweight champion. He had made eight eight
title defenses at lightweight, all by knockout. He had moved up. He
skipped over the one hundred and forty pound way class. He took two fights
at welterweight against Wilfredo Rivera and Willie Wise. This is you know on HBO,
and they were looking to do the Delahiya fight. Now, Oscar and
Shane where a friend friendly from being children, I mean they had been all
through the amateur ranks together. They had sparred and box as amateurs. And
as a matter of fact, when Shane was upset by Vernon Forrest and did
not get a chance to go to fight in the nineteen ninety two Olympic Games,
he was a cool enough guy and Shane was always a nice guy.
He actually went and helped Oscar de la Hoya prepare for his own Olympic campaign
by sparring with him, that classy move. But their fight was always something
that everybody knew was going to have to happen, bragging rates for la World
Welterweight Championship. Known each other for a long time, two dynamic fighters,
two superb pound for pound kind of guys, great power, great speed,
skills, great amateur backgrounds. I mean it was destiny, which, by
the way, that's what they named the pay per view Destiny. Now,
for me, this was a big fucking deal. Okay, maybe in boxing
was a big fucking deal also, but for me personally, and the reason
is because even though I had started covering boxing for USA Today and I'd been
hired in February of two thousand, I started working in USA Today in March
of two thousand and had covered several fights before this June fight against Dale,
between Deloy and Shane Mosey. For me personally, I always consider this as
my first super fight, my first really big fucking big time fight. No
disrespect to LENNYX Lewis's heavyweight championship defense, but to me, this was the
big one. First time I ever went to California in my life, first
time I was ever in Los Angeles, first time I ever met Oscar Dela
Roye in person, first time I met Shane Moseley in person, first time
I met Bob Aram and most of the staff from Top Rank in person.
A lot of shit went on that I have so many memories of that.
I'll tell you one thing that was just still to this day, I can
still picture the scene and I can still feel what I felt like I had
done a very extensive piece about this fight for USA Today, detailing the relationship
between Shane and Oscar as kids and their sparring together. And a couple of
days before the fight, we had gone to the Staples Center to the chick
Hern press room and we had watched a video it was maybe like ten minutes
of Oscar and Shane's sparring with each other that that Jack Moseley, Shane's father
and trainer, had gotten because Shane's mother had saved all this stuff and they
dug out the video of this sparring. See I'm using it mode to fight.
So you know, fifty sports writers are sitting in the Staples Center press
room watching not anything particular. They're basically just throwing jabs at each other.
But that was part of my story. So anyway, if I write the
story, story comes down the paper and I'm staying again. I touched my
first time being in Los Angeles. I'm in a downtown LA hotel for the
media hotel. I wake up on purpose. Early in those days, you'd
go to any big, you know, city hotel, and you'd open up
the door your hotel and they would put the USA Today at everybody's doorstep,
like they give it out free at the airports, et cetera. So you've
said this before. I know what's coming. I know what's coming. I
know. So I open up the door to get the paper because I was
so excited because I thought I had written a really good story and I was
excited to see how they put it in the papers. I didn't I know
what I wrote, but I didn't see how they were going to make it
look and you know, pretty it up and everything. So I opened the
door, I reached out, I grabbed the paper, and I look down
the hallway on both sides and every door sta has the paper. And I'm
like, damn, everybody in the world is going to see this story.
You know who reads the sports section. I was so fucking excited. You
know, it's my first really big fight, my first time in LA.
I'm meeting all these people that I've not met before, like the main people
in the sport of boxing, you know. Deloy is like with the biggest
star out there. And I've gotten to write this piece which I thought came
out well. I have to dig up. I have the clip that I
actually have the physical clipping somewhere in a bag where I've saved some of my
early clippings from USA Today, and so that was the story. It was
well received, and a couple of days later they went out. I think
that story ran in the paper like Thursday before the fight, maybe Friday before
the fight, and then Saturday was the fight, and it lived up to
every possible expectation. This is truly a sensational fight. The second fight that
they had, I didn't really think that was a very good fight. It
was controversial and that the action was not anything to write home or not,
but Shane Moseley and Oscar Deloya were both dominating physical presences, both at the
top of their game. Specta tacular fucking fight to this day, one of
the great fights in my mind, one of my favorite fights of all time
that I ever watched or covered. I still have vivid memories of being a
ringside and if you've ever watched the fight, there's a moment in the twelfth
round where they are just going after it because everybody sort of thinks the fights
on the table and you know, Lampley, who's doing the paper you for
HBO, has got the classic call. You know they're you know, they're
both going for the knockout in a classic pitch battle. If I said that
right, classic pitch and so at one point there's like some heavy punches that
they exchanged. I never forget this. Oscar got clipped with an uppercut and
he turned his head and he looked right at me at ringside. I caught
his eye. I don't know if he caught my eye, but I caught
his eye right at ringside because the way that his head swiveled when he got
clobbered with that punch. He looked right in me, dead in the eye.
I can I get the chills when I think about it. It's like
one of those just fleeting moments. But you never forget it. They had
a spectacular fight. Shane One deservedly the decision, and like I said,
first ever fight at Staple Center, which has become may Boxing, you know,
the place for the biggest fights in LA. It was the Ring magazine
event of the year, that's how big of a fight it was. It
did big numbers on pay per view. It obviously fostered a second fight because
of the rivalry that they had both as amateurs and as friends and now as
professionals. I love everything about this fight. That there is to love about
this fight, right, nostalgia, And I think you told me at one
point, didn't you go sneak down that hallway and grab a couple of USA
to day it is just to have the extra ones? Is that the one
that you did that on I thought you told me you did that. I
remember, I don't think I have a couple of extra ones for the Rayfield
collection to be that big of a fight, I don't think. I don't
think I did that because I could easily when I got back to the office,
like the next week. It it just got a couple more. But
it was that it was that big of a deal, that big of a
fight, and that was twenty four years ago on Monday. But the most
important thing is if you if you never saw that fight, that is a
true fifty to fifty kind of battle. Oscar, they were basically dead even
after six round sane, yeah, winning most of the rest of the rounds.
But it was an awesome, awesome fight and that's the twelfth round at
Oscar to this day still laments regrets that he didn't fight against Felix Trinidad.
If you'd have fought that way, maybe he wins the Trinidad decision instead of
it. I think that was part of it. He bit down and he
fought Shane with all everything he had in that like twelfth round and didn't because
I mean, I don't think anybody thought that Oscar was, you know,
way ahead and going into the round twelve that night, so we kind of
had to fight it as opposed to the Tito fight. There you go.
But I still get the chills thinking about catching his eye when he got clipped
with that shot. Always great nostalgia. All right, my friend, I'm
glad that you have traveled cross continent and back to Vegas. Great stuff this
weekend. They can read more on your substack, including the nostalgia of the
one hundred great you ranked him. You said all that on the substack of
the one hundred main events slash and or pay per views at the MGM Grand
Garden Arena, and we talked all about the Gervonte Davis and David Benavitez wins
and that whole card, the Liam Paro upset, Chris BILLM Smith win,
the news, all of it. My friend, gets some rest, good
work this weekend, and uh and we're back at it again here later in
the week with all else that's happening and the fights this weekend as the summer
rocks on excellent stuff. Dan Rayfield in the recap mode, and I think,
by the way, we got some good stuff coming up because I gotta
get the times nailed down. But I think we're gonna have two good interviews
coming up for some uh some upcoming shows soon to be in the ring,
soon to be on the podcast before they're in the ring. How's that for
a tease? A cryptic tea hope. So we got to get we got
to get everything straight up. But it seems that way. It looks like,
yeah, it's why you need to be following or subscribing on this feed,
Applespreaker, Spotify. It's the fight freaking night recap off the weekend we
preview with the big fight weekend preview going into the weekend. Dan, have
a great week, Thank you, my friend. You know what I'm gonna
do when we've get done here, You're gonna go to bed. No,
I'm not. I'm on West Coast time, I'm wide away. I'll be
up for hours. I'm gonna go on YouTube and I'm gonna watch those hinge
movie Off to delay, well mostly Oscar Taylor Oya, why not? I
watched the random Davy Moore. There you go, that's the great He did
thumb Davy Moore in the eye, by the way, and then bombing with
right hand after right hand and Moore couldn't see. That's another footnote to that,
that upset point at the garden. All right, my friend, great
stuff, thank you, have a great week. YouTube. There's Dan Rayphiel.
I'm merely TJ Reeves. You've been locked in on the Fight Freaks Unite
recap podcast. M