The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. No.
Here is your host, t J. Lees. Oh, it's a
Big Time Championship Weekend. Top Rank ESPN Undisputed Language Showdown, Devon Haney,
the Silly Lomachenko. We're here all about that. We're here all about Katie
Taylor and Chantell Cameron in an undisputed women's world title fight in Ireland. You'll
hear from Katie Taylor in a little bit. Lots of fight previews, lots
of fight news. Welcome in. Good to have you back here on the
big fight. We can't preview. I'm the somewhat competent host. He is
our insider. Work in the text message like a maniac right now, about
seventy five different directions. I'm like, Raphael, when can we start the
podcast? Hold on, I'm texting with this guy. Stop bothering me.
I gotta find out about this. I gotta find out about this. I
gotta find out about that. Okay, we found a loop hole here.
We found a window where we can record the podcast. Because he's always about
the information. Hello, Dan raypheel Inside from Big Fight Weekend dot com.
Are you ready to go for Haney and Chenco, what everything Else's weekend?
I'm ready. It's a good weekend. And you know, the best thing.
As I've said before, we got two big time shows, and thankfully
one is taking place here in Las Vegas in the United States. One is
taking place in Dublin, Ireland, which means if you're here in the United
States or anywhere actually in the world, if you get him on your whatever
screen and don't conflict what a concept nowhere is, it's just going to be
a long, marathon day. I will commence with probably an undercard early undercard
fights on the Taylor in Cameron card on Saturday afternoon. The main card is
at two o'clock Eastern time. We will move on to the top rank Hany
Lomachenko. You know pre pre fight card, you know the preliminaries. I
think that's at six. We got some regular ESPN fights at eight. Ten
o'clock is the pay per view. It's gonna be a long with fun boxing
day. Yeah, you'll find a little time in the middle of those two
to maybe take a leak and get a little earlier dinner. But that's that's
the plant TMI on the bathroom thing. But you also might want to say
hello to your wife and your son on the weekend as well with all this
going on, And anyway, thank you for finding us. We got an
action pack shown again. You'll hear from Katie Taylor in a little bit,
Dan talk with her one on one midweek. This is arguably one of the
two or three biggest names in women's boxing. And this is I realize we
live in the United States, and I realize it's women's boxing for all,
you chauvinist, pigheaded Neanderthals. I get the fact that you might look down.
Dan loves my adjectives. I get that you might look down on women's
boxing. This is a massive deal in Ireland. We don't live there,
but this a big deal, Dan rayphel and you talk to her midweek.
I did. I'll say this, and it's with no disrespect any of their
fine, outstanding women's boxers that populated to sport these days. But I would
submit to you that Katie Taylor, she is the singular biggest name of women's
boxing period. Well, Russa's Shields would argue with you, Well, that's
fine. I mean, listen, Lars is a tremendous fighter, she's up.
She probably pound for pound number one, but pound for pound number one
doesn't mean you're the biggest start. And if you want to compare gate receipts
and viewerships and attendance figures and social media followings and all the metrics that might
indicate your popularity, it's no contest. Period. What you're saying is Claressa,
go sell some tickets and some pizza at the Little Caesar's Arena in Detroit
and you'll move up the gate receipt list with Dan and rightfully so, because
Katie Taylor could have easily sold forty or fifty thousand. I heard Eddie Hearn
talking about this just for a second. She could have sold forty or fifty
thousand tickets in the Croke Park. Do I have a correct stadium whatever that
stadium is. He said, we wanted it to be more intimate, and
we wanted to make more off the live gate, so we put it in
an arena instead. And that's your point about her pl that part of the
world. They had some security concerns and things along those lines. And just
let me backtrack for a quick sand. I'm not in any way, shape
or form am I knocking Flaressa Shields, just making the singular point of the
following that every single women's boxer in the planet would love to be at the
popularity level in terms of what they can sell and what they can attract in
terms of viewership and ticket sales and sponsorships and soup to nuts. What Katie
Taylor can do, there is nobody else right now that comes close in my
opinion, and I think they acts back that up the fact of Madison Square
Garden Showdown with Amanda Serrano and a great rematch coming with that. We'll see
what happened. You'll hear from Katie Taylor in a little bit. Again.
Thank you for finding us, whether you've found us off a social media link,
Dan substag. Dan's newsletter does a great job promoting. By the way
rate us in review us, A couple more of you have done that.
We need several more of you to do that. Keep helping us because it
helps us in the rankings for podcasting, in particular on Apple podcast. If
you will rate us and review us, tell us how much you like the
show. And again, I continue to get tremendous feedback that we are consistently
here Friday, going into the weekend, and then off the weekend by Monday
morning or Monday midday. You're hearing us with the fight Freaks Unite recap every
weekend. Right now. We've been consistent for over a year. Ray has
put up with me for over a year doing this and me with him.
So again, I think a lot of people enjoy that. So we're gonna
roll the sleeves up and get into it right now. All right, we
are on the cusps as we released the podcast. They're gonna have the weigh
ends later on Friday. We're on the cusp of Devin Haney Vasilly Lomachenko undisputed
one hundred and thirty five pound title fight. It is fight week in Vegas
yet again, where just a few weeks ago it was Jervonte Davis and Ryan
Garcia. And this one is of serious magnitude, a four belt undisputed title
fight between an unbeaten American and one of the guys that's been on those pound
for pound lists for about seven or eight years or more. All right,
Dan, how repped up are you? Here? We go? Well,
listen, it's a great fight. I mean, it is one of the
best fights you can probably make that was doable in the sport. Certainly the
lightweight division, as we've discussed many times, as a very popular hot weight
class. You know, I'm not sure if you do we include Ryan Garcia
and Tank Davis in the lightweight division. Obviously Tank has a second tier belt
in that division. Ryan has had his previous two fights in the one forty
division. Their match that was a huge success was one hundred and thirty six
pounds, so they're basically lightweight. Certainly, I think Devin A. Gervante
Davis's next fight will probably be back in the lightweight division when he returns after
you know, a little breakup. So you include those two guys, and
then you got the undisputed champion, Devin Haney, and then you've got obviously
Lomachenko who was a former unified champion who was number one on the pound for
pound list pretty much universally for quite a long time, and several other quality
fighters in the division. It is a tremendous weight lass. But this is
the pinnacle. This is you know, putting what we were just talking about
with Katie Taylor and all that business, putting popularity and ticket sales and and
and those sort of elements do you want to just get down to, like
talent and skills and the fight. This is a great matchup. It's the
young, slick, outstanding pound for pound level elite talent in a Haney against
the guy with all that same stuff who was a bit older, more experienced
in Lomachenko. Well, I don't know what else you could want in a
boxing match. I mean people want to complain about the best, don't fight
the best. Well, guess what the best are fighting the best on Saturday.
There's no doubt about that. I mean, by any any way you
want to measure it, because he's got all the belts and and the skills.
You know, you got to consider Devin Haning number one and Lomachenko whatever
number you consider me certainly in the top I don't know what two or three.
And he's been at the top of the mountain for a long time,
set all kinds of records in terms of the quickness to get the titles,
and his amateur career and the Olympic gold medals, and you know, the
level of main events he has been in. He's fought all kinds of top
quality guys from basically the first day of his career. This is not a
fighter that had a professional apprenticeship. Really, his first fight was a professional
debut in a ten rounder against like a B level contender. So this is
about as good as it guess. And you know, I would just say
to people, if you're thinking you're gonna go watch this on pay per view,
I think you're gonna get some kind of crazy, wild action fight.
Kralos, Castillo, Gaddy Warred Barra, Morales, you know, Riddick bow
and a Vander Holyfield. That's This is not that kind of fight. This
could be a very fun, entertaining fight, but you got to have a
little more appreciation for the skills that these guys possessed. There. They can
fight and they can bang it out if necessary, but this is going to
be a bit more of a boxing match, and it's a high drama situation,
in particular for Lomachenko a chance to be four belt undisputed, which Haney
already is. Haney already won the four belts by beating George Cambosa's last summer
roughly ABO and then that he unified right because he had the WBC belt,
but he won the other three and then he validated it by beating Cambosis again.
But I think it's fair to say right now, just with what you
just said in the build up, this is the biggest moment for Devin Haney.
This is even bigger than the four belt fight with Cambosas because of the
guy that he's fighting. This is no disrespect. We've said no disrespect like
six times already in the podcast, no disrespect to Cambosa's for winning three of
those belts against Tafimo Lopez. But Cambosa's was not and is not Lomachenko in
terms of accomplishments. This is a bigger deal to me. If Haney can
beat Lomachenko still in his prime. Maybe you say towards the end of his
prime. What do you say to that about significance for Devin Haney. I
mean, I don't know if you can overestimate the significance this is. This
is the type of victory if he can achieve it, that you check off
the box of like I beat a Hall of fame type of guy. I
would say to you that Lomachenko was no longer in his prime, but he's
still really good. And look, here's the thing about Lomachenko. He was
the champion, he had the belts, he was ranked number one. People
had him on the pound for pound way high up there. He lost against
Tiefimo Lopez and lost those belts. That was considered a big upset. He
looked terrible in the fight. He's still almost won because of a late comeback
in that fight. Again, I'm not big on excuses, but the reality,
just from the factual point of view, is he exited that fight and
went at shoulder surgery. His shoulder was problematic. He had a serious injury
that required surgery. So I'm not taking anything away from what Tithimo Lopez did.
He got the victory and accounts since that loss that William Machenko has suffered.
He came back. He looked tremendous in battering and defeating and knocking out
a much taller, bigger guy in Nakatani. He also did a number on
Richard Comey beat him up. You know, was asking the referee to stop
the fighting. He was had been interesting, such a beating had knocked him
down. And then the next fight, which was his most recent fight,
he had the ten months off. Remember, people got to remember this.
He was supposed to be the guy to go to Australia to fight Cambosis for
the three belts. He decided to not go through with that fight because he
decided to stay home at Ukraine. In Ukraine where the war with Russia had
started, and there was a lot of things going on and he just was
not prepared. So Devin Hainey, you know, took to the opportunity to
find himself in that fight and then they were able to unifyd Ve Gantless spute
it. If you go back even further than that, when Lomachenko was the
three bell champion, he had defeat he had two titles. He had defeated
Luke Campbell for the vacant WBC belt, which gave him three belts. At
that time, Devin Haney was the interim title holder. That was a mandatory
that was about to be called by the WBC, and loma Chenko, at
his request or his team's request accepted, and we don't have to get into
a debate about it, took the WBC's franchise title that vacated the regular the
full title. Hainey was elevated. That was because he wanted to take the
fight, and I understand this. I don't I'm not even knocking it.
There was a was a much bigger fight financially and in terms of attention and
media and ease of which to make because they were both with top rank.
He took the t Femo fight. That was a huge deal when that was
made, So Haney didn't get the shot at Loma Chenko. Now we've come
full circle. It's now Haney who's the undisputed champ, who has all the
belts, and now it's Loma Chenko knocking on the door as the mandatory to
get this opportunity. And you know, it's a story that's been written over
the last you know, a couple of years, and they're finally gonna gonna
get down the business on Saturday, and it's I mean, it's like to
me, it's I can't miss kind of fight. You have to. I
don't know, if you're a boxing fan, what's the objection. I mean,
you know, even if you don't love it on pay per view,
it's still it's still a twenty dollars cheaper than most of the paper or you
know, fifteen dollars cheaper than a lot of the pay per views. It's
not seventy five bucks. It's it's sixty bucks. Now, I'm not I'm
not chilling for it. I'm just making it, giving you the facts.
So yeah, it's a it's a it's a great matchup. You know,
Lomas a future Hall of Famer without a question, and you know, Haney
with a victory, you know, can certainly start putting together a few more
notches on that resume as he you know, and he's only twenty four years
olds, like they maybe has potentially a long time left in this sport.
And because even at twenty four, with a lot of years theoretically ahead of
him, he there's nothing about his past. It tells you he's going to
be a short term guy because he's got good defense. He doesn't really get
hit a lot. You know, he's got that very good defense and uh
not an issue. I do suspect that, you know, whatever happens,
I know he says he may stick around a late Wait, I think he's
gonna move up. I mean, I've made this point, TJ. When
eyes have won the four belts, in this era of four bell champions,
there have been a few guys that have defended it once. Usk defended it
once for example, when he fought Tony Bellu after he became undisputed. You
know it has happened, but I think that this is the first time that
there's been a four bell champion, at least in men's boxing. Women's boxing.
Obviously, you know it's happened many times. Katie Taylor as an example
that a guy is going to go and try to make two defenses, which
this would be Devin's second defense. He defended the undisputed in the rematch against
Cambosis, this would be the second one. But if you take a look
at other guys that were four belt champions, Bernard Hopkins stayed at middleweight that
got stripped so never defended all four. Terrence Crawford won all four in the
junior welterwight division. He immediately vacated and went up to the welterweight division.
You know I mentioned about Alexander Us. He made the one defense against Tony
Bellue, then he vacated and went up, you know, to the heavyweight
division. Josh Taylor, he became the undisputed champion in one hundred and forty
poundweight class. He made one defense, the controversial win over Catall, and
then all the bet started to be script or he vacated, so and that
those are just off the top of my head. I mean there's other guys.
Charlow has yet to defend against anybody since getting all four belts with castaniol
in the win at one fifty four, And am I correct the monster Naolia
in a way defended once, right? Or has he even defended once before
he vacated? He didn't even know he The Butler fight was the undisputed fight,
right, and then in the Butler fight he won the WBO belt to
add to the other three, and again within a few weeks after that fight
he vacated, and he's now he's gonna go up to one twenty two on
challenge for the unified belts with Stephen Fulton in July. So I'm only making
the point that what Devin is doing is already unusual to make a second defense
of a four belt championship. So the notion that he's going to stay at
lightweight after this fight if he should win Franklin, obviously he's not going to
stay if he loses would be a rather a surprise. So I expect him
to go to one hundred and forty pounds. This is going to be the
Swan song in my seems to me at lightweight, and if you if that
is the case, he'll have made several defenses of the of the least the
WBC title, and you know, he beat some okay guys. He beat
Jojo Diaz, he beat Jorgelen rs. I mean, he's not fighting bums
or anything like that. And now you win the undisputed because you unify all
the belts against George Cambosis. And by the way, you go on the
other side of the world to do so to his hometown. You don't know
if your dad's going to be there in your corner. Turns out he was
able to be there, but that was a big issue. He went back
there several months later, honored the contract. You know, a lot of
guys might have tried to get out of that. Did it again in Australia,
and now he's got this big fight against Lomachenko, and it's just it's
a great matchup and I'm going to be very fascinated to see a couple things.
Number One, how does how does Lomachenko deal with the size disparity against
a guy that's similarly skilled. It's one thing when you're Lomachenko and you're beating
up on Nakatani, who's much bigger, who's not nearly in the same level
of skill, it's a whole different matter. When you're dealing with a Devin
Hainey, who's also going to be much taller and longer, but has a
much better skill set, is much quicker, is much more defensive minded.
You know, that's going to be very difficult. What I was going to
say to you about Lomachenko previously, though, was when I mentioned about the
two you know, pretty easy wins relatively speaking, he had post the Tifemo
loss in the surgery against Komey and Akatani. But the reason why he's perceived
as this big underdog and not big, I mean he's like three to one
or something like that underdog is because in his most recent fight that took place,
you know, several months ago, that was at the Madison Square Guard
Theater in New York, he fought the undefeated Jamine Ortiz, and he didn't
really look good. He won the fight, Okay, there's no dispute there,
but it was not a great performance at all. I mean, he
looked a little ragged. I don't know you want to attribute it to because
he just wasn't up mentally, because Ortiz was not a big name, and
you know, Lomachenko was, you know, basically been a guy that's fought
top guys pretty much, fighting and fight out. There was no title,
let's stay it's hard to get motivated. He was coming off the ten month
playoff. Obviously, he had been dealing with all the issues that had been
taking place in his home country of Ukraine. So you know, King,
you give him a pass for like a bad night, and though he's still
going handily. I'm only making the point that that's what's in most people's minds
most recently about Lomachenko, and they should not forget that he's still a superb
fighter. But I think they like the fact that Hany's younger Hainey, has
been more active. Haney is the champion. Haney has got a big future
in front of him and has the size advantage, Like there's a lot of
boxes he checks that are in his advantage in this fight. But I never
would count out an old war horse like Vessel Lomachenko to come up with another
big night with the type of skills and the type of resolved and fortitude that
this man has. The conversation will continue in a moment. If you are
looking to attend, listen up the Handy Lomachenko fights Saturday night at the MGM
Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. We've got an offer from our friends at
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Haney and Lomachenko, it's tickets Smarter. Love all of that, and again
on the bet Us line, we'll just kind of segue this Lomachenko two and
a half to one underdog over under ten and a half. For that one,
we'll make predictions on the bet Us Live Show one Eastern time, the
Live bet Us Boxing Show on all their platforms, YouTube, etc. Depending
on when you're hearing us today, find us on bet us and we'll make
a live betting prediction. In some more analysis of Haney and Lomachenko, let's
quickly go through the rest of the undercard that includes Oscar Valdez. It also
includes a world title fight earlier on the undercard in the super flyweight division.
All right, give me more, give me more on this top ranky ESPN
undercard in Las Vegas, please. Well, the interesting thing about this so
so people are aware, and I know I've had a lot of questions about
the timing of the whole thing. The pay per view card, the main
pay per view starts at ten o'clock Eastern, which is a little bit different
than a lot of normal pay per views, which typically are nine o'clock.
If you go back to the and Garcia Tank Davis one that was a little
bit different. Also, Showtime began that card at eight o'clock for the main
card. This one is a ten pm Star Time. But the main card
only consists of three bounts, so you're not gonna have to wait the extra
hour. The other fights that would theoretically have been on the pay per view
are going to be on regular ESPN in that two hour block leading up to
the beginning of the pay per view, and that part of the card includes
the title fight that you mentioned, which is Junto Nakatani from Japan taking on
Andrew Maloney. From Australia. They will fight it out for the vacant w
BO Junior bandom waight title. What is that is that was vacated by the
Japanese fighter Ioka because he is going to have a rematch, a rematch with
Joshua Franco. That was you know, he made it. It was more
a bigger deal for him to fight a rematch for a lot more money after
the draw he had with Franco than to take on Nakatani's Japanese countrymen for the
vacant belt. That would not have been nearly as big of a deal anyway,
in terms of that fight. Nakatani is a former title holder in the
flyweight division. Very good, exciting fighter and maloney. You know, we've
all seen him fight a bunch of times on these top ranked shows. Him
and his twin brother Jason have been around for a bit now. The interesting
thing about this fight makes it kind of a fascinating situation is we just had
last week, you had his brother won a world title, and so now
here we are. That was on the undercard of the Jennebec wipe out against
Steven Butler. He defeated the Filipino fighter Astralabio to win the vacant title in
the bandom weight division, one of the four belts that were vacated when in
a way decided to vacate and move up and wait. So the opportunity here
is on Saturday for Jason Maloney has handled part one of the Maloney Brothers trek
towards world titles. And if Andrew Maloney can win this fight against Nagatani and
Andrews, you know, I don't know what the odds are. Frankly,
I haven't really looked at him, but I would make him a slight underdog
in the fight. But if Maloney can win this fight, it makes Jason
and Andrew simultaneously world champions at the same time. And they're twins, and
I mean we've seen it I think only one time ever before that was a
few years ago when the Charlotte brothers both had titles at the same time.
I guess they both have titles presently also back when they did it at the
first time, they were both champions together in the same weight class. The
Maloney's will be separated by the one way class the way that the Charlottes are
presently, but it's still it's brothers winning titles was unusual. Twin brothers is
even more unusual. I agree. It's a great story and it's it's very
achievable. It's very achievable. Nakatani, by the way, is a minus
four fifty or four and a half to one favorite, Maloney three to one
underdog for what it's worth on the bet US show. Since you were asked
a little thing, but that's the wigh in on that officially on the bet
US Live shows, stay tuned for more on what we like for that for
handicapping. But so Nakatani Maloneys, that's a nice fight that they're two worthy
guys. U Nakatani was in exciting fights in the fiveweight division. Maloneia has
obviously been around for a while. He's fought a lot of good opponents.
But that's not that would I mean, if they had done this as a
standard paper view starting at nine pm Eastern, you can pretty much bank on
that would have been on the pay per view. But that's going to be
the main fight on the ESPN part of the non pay per view. But
it's still a good matchup to watch. He mentioned about the rest of the
pay per view. Oscar Valdez is in the co feature Oscar Valdez, as
everybody knows, if he wins the fight. He's fighting for the WBO Junior
lightweight title in August against Ananuel Navery with you know, his Mexican countryman.
Fantastic matchup, can't miss action kind of fight. But he's got to beat
Lopez. He's the favorite, I'm sure, no doubt about it. But
he did have a fight with Adam Lopez in twenty nineteen. Remember that was
the crazy fight where Lopez was supposed to be on the undercard and in the
other fight on the card, you had Oscar Valdez supposed to fight Andres Gaudier.
Is what the problem was. Gaudier showed up at the weigh in not
one pound over TJ. It's like your GINSU knife commercial. He wasn't two
pounds much would you pay now? Not two pounds, not four pounds.
He wasn't five pounds over. He wasn't eight pounds over. He wasn't even
nine or ten pounds over TJ. He was eleven pounds over. Out of
that, he got kicked off the show. He got kicked out of the
hotel. Bob Aaron, you know, dropped about fifty f bombs and off
he went. But you know, to Lopez's credit and to Valdez's credit,
they agreed to fight each other on one day notice. You know, he
was already on the card, Lopez. Anyway, it was a good,
solid fight. It was highly competitive. Lopez dropped Oscar Valdez. Oscar came
back and stopped him in the seventh round. As the story goes, Oscar
said, I'll give you a rematch sometime. Obviously it didn't happen for a
while. He went and had other fish to fry, so to speak.
But he's coming off of the loss last April thirteen months ago where he got
you know, you know, dominated and dropped by Chicor Stevenson in their one
thirty pound unification fight. He was supposed to come back and have the fight
with Navarette for the vacant title. He suffered a back and a rib injury
with the slip when he hurt himself, and so he then went into ringside
and watched Navarett win the title in that great fight a few months ago.
And now Navarette's the champ in the w BO, and Valdez can put himself
into the match later this summer if he wins against Lopez in the co feature,
But on its own, Lopez Valdez in a rematch is probably going to
be another, you know, action kind of fight. Wins Oscar Valdez not
in that kind of fight, especially when he's fighting a guy like Lopez who
doesn't know any other way but to come out and start throwing a lot of
punches. So that fight is not meaningful unto itself in terms of a title
in that co feature, but it is meaningful because a it should be a
good fight and b because if Valdez is the winner, he's going to get
the title shot, probably this August against Navarette, which is a great fight.
And so that's the co feature of that and then the other fight on
the paper view that's the third fight that opens the main card, is another
fascinating fight. Raymond Murataia is an undefeated Robert Garcia trained lightweight out of you
know, California. I believe his record is like seventeen and oh and he's
been you know, We've talked many times TJ about the depth of prospects that
Top Rank has on its stable. They have a lot of tremendous prospects.
Muratai is a guy that's kind of like been overlooked a little bit, but
he might be the most one of the most advanced of the of the guys
who was ready to take that next step. But he has shown some inconsistencies
where he's winning, but if he's fighting a certain level guy, he sometimes
doesn't look so good or he gets a little bit lack of days ago,
but there's other times where he just looks phenomenal. This is the chance now
for him to show that he's a serious, you know, no longer let's
say a prospect, but now can move into that like a young contender sort
of role. He's taken on Jeremiah Nakatia, who was battle tested. You
know, he's fought for the title. He's been in the ring with Shaker,
He's been in the ring with Jamal Herring, you know, retired Jamal
Herring. You know, it's a it's a it's a very interesting fight,
I mean, because you gotta figure Mortie is gonna win. But the only
loss is that that Nakatia has taken was a decision against Shakor Stevens and they
were fighting back when they were one hundred and thirty pounds for an interim title,
and then after that fight, you know, a couple of fights later.
It wasn't Harry my mistake. He went in there and he knocked out,
and basically I made a mistake when I said about herring. He knocked
out and basically probably ended his career in some respects. Miguel Burchelt, who
was the former title holder, he just obliterated him. That was his most
recent fight. That took place in March of last year. So he's been
off for a little while, about fourteen months, but he's no joke.
And Murtia is still very untested. You come into the ring with a guy
like a Nakata and you're not on your game, he's gonna probably beat you.
So I just side. I find that to be like a good It's
like to me, it's sort of the exact recipe of what you would call
a crossroads fight. Murtia the prospect trying to take the next step. He
got a Nakatia, you know, although coming off a big win, trying
to force the issue and say I'm here and I can be a contender.
At one hundred and thirty five pounds. All right, So that's the ESPN
Top ranked show. They're in full and again we'll make handicapping predictions on those
fights coming up on the bet Us show one Eastern time on Friday. Let's
move on to earlier in the day, the match Room Boxing to Zone show
again in Dublin. We're looking forward to seeing Undisputed against Undisputed. Now it's
Katie Tay. They're moving up to one hundred and forty pounds to fight Shantell
Cameron. Again, we've already touched on this. You're gonna hear from Katie
Taylor in a few moments. But this is a prominent fight. She is
a big deal, a former Olympic champion and she am am I correct.
I believe you probably asked her about that. She has not had a world
title fight in Ireland, so this is a big deal that it's a world
title fight for her in Ireland. She has fought in England, obviously,
she has fought in the United States when she fought Amanda Serrano. Right,
so give me a little more and then we're gonna hear from Katie Taylor,
who's actually the challenger moving up in this fight. Daan Raphael Well a couple
of things. Not only she not had a world title match in her home
in Ireland, she's never had a professional fight in Ireland right right now.
Look, the reasons for that are kind of complicated, but the bottom line
is, and this was involving of the Irish mafia and some gangster business that
was going on. Someone would tell you that it was Daniel Kinhan his people
were involved in the bottom line was there was a boxing card that was taking
place in Ireland. There is a gang related or a Moberly shooting at the
way in and at that point basically they shut down professional boxing in Ireland.
That was around the time where she you know, she wasn't u she was
not in the in the level of professional experience that she is now. You
know, back then she was just on the on the verge of getting to
the level where she might be, you know, fighting at home and those
types of I turned pro in two thou sixteen. So there hasn't been big
time boxing and any kind in Ireland for several years. There's been some smaller
shows and that sort of stuff. And we're not talking about Northern Ireland,
where there's been plenty of boxing like Michael Collin fights and that sort of thing.
But they finally got all that stuff worked out, and so now the
time was right. She really wanted to go home. This is the homecoming.
They're doing the fight at the three Arena in Dublin. It has sold
out. Shantel Cameron is the undiscuted champion in the junior welterweight division. She
is the champion Katie in the lightweight division. And if you remember, this
was supposed to be the rematch between Taylor defending the lightweight title in the match
against a man to Toronto. They had that fantastic fight that took place a
year ago. When Toronto dropped out or withdrew because of an injury, Katie
Taylor certainly wanted to still fight, and as you'll hear in the interview that
I did with her, I asked her about the way that she secured this
fight with Chantel Cameron. She did it in like the nicest way possible.
You know, when when boxers call each other out, there's a lot of
yapping and back and forth, and a lot of it sometimes gets personal and
gets nasty. But because Katie Taylor is like literally one of the nicest human
beings you can ever meet boxing or otherwise. She's such a sweet and nice
person. It's hard to believe that she's a fighter, but she is just
a class individual. And what she wanted this fight. She went on her
social media and she like very politely called out Chantel Cameron about to be an
honor to fight. So I forget how to say please. Did she say
please? Because even in my house we're working on manners. Did she say
please? Not like would you please fight me? So she did that with
Chantel, and she also did that with her own promoter, Eddie Hurnt,
to try to save the date and lo and behold and it should be this
easy and men's box also, and Katie and I discussed that a little bit
to tease the interview a little bit more, but literally, like within a
few days, it felt like they made the match and they saved the day.
And now instead of taking on Serrano, the undisputed featherweight champion who was
going to come back to fight her for her lightweight title, Katie is going
up to junior welter where she won a title a few years ago. Singular
single belt of quickly vacated and went back down in wait to defend the title
in that division in any event, if you like women's boxing, when we've
seen some big matchups, whether it was Bomb Gardner and Nikael Lamayer, or
Savannah Marshall against Claressa Shields, or you know any number of fights we've seen
in the past. You know, Cecilia Brecusa against him, Jessica McCaskill.
Of course, I mean this is on that level, like these are the
best of the best fighting each other. I mean it did in boxing,
in women's side of the sport, happens on a regular basis. So you
know, Cameron's got nothing to lose. She knows, I mean, she
knows she's up against it. She's undefeated, but she's going to the lines.
Then she's from England, She's going to Ireland putting her titles on the
line. No one's gonna do her any favors there. Katie's the house,
Katie's the promotion darling, she's the one that's the star, etc. Etc.
So you gotta you gotta camera in the credit. But she's also going
to make more money than she's probably, I bet you and I don't know
the person is exactly, but I'd be willing to bet you the amount of
money that Chantel Camera is going to make for this fight is going to be
more money than she's made. If you added up her entire post, I
would agree with you. I saw something. I saw something in the British
media where she may be getting over two million dollars for this fight. So
theological question is has she made two million dollars in prize money? I would
make that's doubtful. I bet you she hasn't made a million dollars in her
career, right, I mean, it's probably less than that. I don't
know if she's made five hundred thousand dollars in her career. And Katie Taylor
is that golden of a ticket right now, and this is that big of
a deal revenue wise for everybody to make the deal. But it's a listen,
it's a it's a good fight. I mean, here's the thing.
Yes, of course, Katie's the much bigger name. Katie's the one that's
the star. Katie is obviously the champ at one hundred and thirty five pounds,
But this is a real fight. Chantell's bigger, Chantell's heavier, Chantell's
Chantell just be Jessica McCaskill. By yes, she beat McCaskill, but she
also beat some other like reputable fighters she'd beat. You know, I'm again
I'm not like an expert expert on women's boys. I certainly know a lot
more about the men, but I know the top gals. You know,
she beat Victoria bus Though, she beat Mary McGee, who was a good
fighter. She beat Melissa her name, and as I mean, she's beaten
the women that she's supposed to beat, and these are not like walkover kind
of fights. So you know, Katie obviously is gonna be the favorite to
win this matchup for many different reasons. But I would not count out Cameron
the same way I don't count out Lomachenko. It's a different situation obviously when
he fights Heney. I'm just saying that whatever the odds are, it seems
to me that it should actually be closer than whatever those numbers say. And
this is actually just on the bit us line and again will make the predictions
on the Friday Show. Katie Taylor is only a minus one eighty, just
a little under two to one, and Cameron is plus one fifty one and
a half to one, a fifty fifty fight to your point. So that's
that's why we like this. All right, Are you ready to hear from
the champion, unisputed lightweight women's champ who's fighting in her home country. You're
ready. We ready. As I said to you the last time when we
played our interview with Regia's program in the last podcast, I already know what
she said because I'm the one that did the interview, so it's true.
For the rest of us, Are we ready? I'm ready? All right.
Now for the rest of us, we get to hear Dan with Katie
Taylor. I'm very pleased to be joined today on the podcast by somebody I've
been actually very interested to interview for a while for the show. It's none
other than the undisputed women's lightweight champion of the world, Katie Taylor. Katie,
you're looking to become the undisputed junior welterweight champion this coming Saturday, your
homecoming fight in three Arena in Dublin, live on the Zone. Thank you
very much for doing this. I appreciate it. No, No, to
be here is great to finding well, virtually at least virtual we have met
before. I was at your fight in New York when you fought out Delphine
Pursuon a few years ago. I don't know, you remember there's a lot
of hoopla going on that week for any seasons, Anthony Joshua at any event,
Uh, you know, I want to start off by just asking about
the homecoming. A couple a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to
interview Cannelo Alvarez before as he was getting ready for his homecoming fight in Guadalajara,
Mexico against John Ryder, your match room boxing stable mate. Then even
I asked him, you know, he hadn't fought at home in eleven years,
or more than eleven years, either in his hometown or in Mexico.
And I asked him about his feelings about that. He said, you know,
I'm gonna be more nervous. It's gonna be different. I'm gonna have
some more butterflies than usual. And this is a guy who's been in,
you know, the biggest events in boxing. I just wonder, from your
perspective, you fought in big arenas and main events, and you know,
big, big time championship level fights. How do you think you're gonna feel
When I heard Cannello talk about butterflies. What's your feeling do you think going
into that arena for the first time as a professional in your home country.
Yeah, I definitely think there's going to be a few butterflies, that's for
sure, unless you're if it's got any more than usual pose and right now,
Peo Pico about it. And I've been in these big fight situations before.
I think that's gonna that experience. It's gonna holding well. I was
on Saturday Night as well, But right now I'm just absolutely excited to be
here. A few years ago, I didn't think this home kome was was
ever gonna happen really, and I have a chance to become a two way
on the Spieler champion in front of my home crowd. Um, the atmosphere,
I think it's gonna be absolutely electric. No, that there's gonna be
a few are like like there always is for a big fight situation. But
um, I just can't wait to step in there. Though. What do
you think, Katie took so long for this moment to be achieved, for
you to have a hometown, home country fight in front of your people.
Yeah, I'm not too sure obviously that those t details are obviously altam of
my control. But here we are six years into my pro career, and
then it's crazy to think that this this, this is my first fight as
a prom I just cannot waited the step in there. Really and this isn't
I think we could have picked any easier fight. But this is on the
Champions, on the Petit Champian. This is one of the biggest fights to
walk to find out. I believe even I think it has all the mantons
of another epic flight as well. So, yeah, you mentioned about like
it could have been an easier fight. I was going to ask you about
the fact that when Amanda Serranto withdrew from the rematch because of her injury,
and I know you wanted to still fight and uh and have some type of
event, But you know, I don't think anybody even if you fought,
even if you didn't take the Serando fight in the first place, you decided
to fight somebody else. No one in Ireland or anybody in boxing was gonna
give Katie Taylor, who's bought all the toughest women out there and been a
credit to the sport for so many years, was going to give you grief
if you went home and had a fight against you know, any opponent of
your choosing or you know, anybody you wanted to but you went for like
basically the once Amanda was out of the out of the date, he went
for the hardest fight. It seems to me anywhether you could have fought a
bigger woman, also undefeated woman, a younger woman, what was it that
made you go that direction for your toughest opponent instead of maybe a more of
a celebratory hometown like, you know, let's put on a party kind of
fight. Yeah, I think that minute we heard that tserandos Ai instantly tallish
Chantel Carma, she's young one that could really fill the gap there. I
just want to be involved with the big fights. I don't understand why.
I just don't. I wouldn't be motivated for any other fight, I don't
think. I just want to be involved. The biggest challenge is the biggest
tests, and I have a chance to become a two way on a bit
of change, and that's very very special. And over the last few months
I've just been completely motivated for this kind of fight, and I was going
to be a big, a big test and a big challenge, but this
could possibly be the biggest I'm my career so far. Today Paul goes well.
Well. One of the things Katie I found it very interesting about this
fight, besides just the fact that it should be a very good fight,
was how it was made, which was when when Amanda withdrew the injury,
you very politely, and you know, I don't know most boxers when they're
calling out opponents are not usually polite, but you were so nice about it.
When you went on your social media, you'd like you said you wanted
to fight Chantell. You very nicely asked Eddie Hern, your promoter at match
Room, to keep the date alive, and all of a sudden, like
it felt like like I don't know, was it like a few days later,
like maybe a week later, whatever it was, Suddenly the fight was
made. And that's like, why can't everything in boxing be so easy in
that sense? Why do you think it is that in women's boxing, you
ladies all seem to fight the best that are available, not just yourself,
but plenty of other women I could detail who've gone in the ring and without
worrying about undefeated records and all kinds of different issues. You go in there
and you fight the best, and it's so hard in men's boxing I'll give
Harold Spence and Terrence Crawford as an example, but you women just get get
deals done very seemingly easily. Yeah, I don't know why it is.
I think obviously there's so many undisputity champions in Women's Boss as well. We
are there you willing to take the big fights, to take the big risks,
and I think probably because we're not getting the big fights on a regular
occasion, so when the big fights there will be jump on the opportunity.
Um, these kind of fights have to happen for the sport to grow,
I think for Women's Boss and to grow as well. And I think these
kind of fights are absolutely vital for the growth of the sport. And um,
I think all lives are going to be honest and started even but as
well as as obviously Skura versus Devin Partner Denver, so those these kind of
fights are aboually great for the support board and um yeah, I think that's
probably we don't we don't get that that many opportunities as as female fires,
so when we get the opportunity, we have to jump a lap. All
right, So the last time you took a one fight for a up to
the junior welterweight division and you want a world title, and then you quickly
vacated that title and you return to the lightweight division to continue to defend your
undisputed championship at one hundred and thirty five pounds. So now, if you
win this fight on Saturday, you will not only have another title at one
hundred and forty, but you will be the undisputed champion at one hundred and
forty. You will also be simultaneously the undisputed champion in the lightweight division.
And I'm wondering, uh is your intention with a victory to stay at one
hundred and forty pounds and continue to defend that title. Would you want to
go back to one hundred and thirty five pounds and try to reschedule the Toronto
fight in that weight class? What is your thought about the weight class in
which you think you will be You have a lot of options. That's undisputed
in two weight divisions. Yeah, I think wherever the biggest flights are,
we if the man surrounding we match is going to happen. I love Ze
will be ready to teach at back down to one thirty five. Well,
well, I guess to make that decision after so sciety even them, I
just want to be involved in biggest flights of whoever those flights that are.
I'm very want this to take a back down to one three five or or
stay one for forty. So well, I guess we'll see what happens,
all right, So I just want to wrap it up with this. I
mean, you've you know, you're thirty six years old. You're you're even
older than you know Chantel by a few years. I guess you've done everything
of a boxer can do. You've won an Olympic medal, you perform in
two Olympics, You've been two division champion, undisputed a lightweight, chance to
be undisputed now in a second weight class. Uh. What else do you
think there is for Katie Taylor to do in the sport of boxing that you
haven't accomplished? And what would motivate you to continue to carry on? Um?
I mean, I just still absolutely absolutely love my sport, good honest,
and I'm still so passionate about the sport and I'm not tired. I'm
getting up in the morning and say that yet and I'm getting munch in the
phase. I absolutely love the training. I've done the whole process of getting
very very big fight, and I think one stacks obviously, then I have
to step away from the sport right now. I just absolutely love the sport.
I I love these events, and um, I just yeah, I
just I think this is the greatest sport in the world. So, um,
I absolutely absolutely love coating about so as as so passionate about it.
I'm going to be involved now that I want to be involved and these big,
big bang of fights. That's a great answer because as long as you're
loving the training, and I guess if you like getting hit occasionally in the
face, it's not the worst thing to carry on ess while you're still really
good at it and can make a lot of money and put a lot of
fans in the seats and on watching you on their screen. So that's a
pretty good way to go. Katie, thank you very much for doing this.
I really appreciate it. I wishing nothing but the best against Chantel Caraman
Saturday Night Live on his own. Yeah. Absolutely, thanks so much,
Sam, you bet good luck to you, Katie Taylor. There she is
the undisputed women's lightweight chamber of the world. Maybe a too weight on the
undisputed champ after Saturday night, all right, and good on match Room and
everybody involved with the promotion to make her available with you nice job and the
one on one interview, and they have they have been smart with building this
up and publicizing this. I saw at the press conference as we release this
overnight Thursday and a Friday. They had the press conference earlier on Thursday,
and she actually said something to the effect of, yes, I am anxious
and I am eager, and I think she's even probably got to be a
little bit nervous now that here we are, that this is about to happen
for Katie Taylor and Ireland. We'll see one of the things that we talked
about. And it struck me when I mentioned this to her. People who
listen to the interview, will hear this. A couple of weeks ago,
when I had done the interview with Kennello alba As prior to his fight with
John Ryder, Cannello and I spoke about him going home to fight in front
of the hometown and him even though he's been involved in these megafights in Vegas,
in all kinds of different places. He's fought in La in New York,
in Texas. You know, he's fought in all the biggest arenas against
the best fighters. But he was talking about how he was gonna have it's
gonna be a little bit different for him going in front of all his people
at home, that he would feel that he would feel a little more nervous,
little more butterflies. And Katie, basically, if you listen to the
beginning of the interview, basically said the same thing that because of the fact
that she's never fought at home and this is a big deal for her,
that compared to the other huge fights he's had, whether it was Madison Square
Garden against Serrano or some of the big your shows he is headlined, or
even when she's fought on undercards but a guy like cards headlined by Anthony Joshua
that were huge stadiums in that light and that sort of thing, that this
is going to be a special moment for her and she deserves it. She,
like I said, she's been a credit to her sport. She comes
in shape, she trains hard, she's been fantastic from day one, it's
not her fault that the boxing was shut down in Ireland for that long,
and she didn't do anything wrong. And so I think that the amount of
love and the atmosphere you're gonna, even through the TV or your device,
will feel when you watch that is going to be pretty much off the charts.
Like I mean, I was in Las Vegas on the night that Valdez
and she, of course Stevenson fought. That was the same night that Katie
fought Serrano and the guard. So I was in Vegas, but we watched
the fight on my laptop in press area and myself and some of the other
reporters. But I've talked to other people that were there in the garden on
the night of that fight, and they'll tell you it was every bit as
good of an atmosphere as some of the big other fights they've been to,
whether it's heavyweight fights or Feelix turned to Dad fights or Miguel Codo fights,
and that, like I have to electric, it was electric that night and
it's again to be one more time. What we said earlier in the show.
We are in the United States. This is a massive deal for Irish
sports fans because she won an Olympic gold medal. She is a famed fighter
there, She is a star in that country, and this is the first
time that she's fighting there, so it will I don't think it will be
any less electric when she comes to the ring and they and they put up
the music starts for the Irish National anthem and the whole bit. Look out
for what this is gonna be like on Saturday. And we'll see if Cameron
would stands all of that, because again, anything Katie Taylor does, they're
gonna roar, They're gonna go bonkers in that arena. So it should be
a lot of fun on Saturday afternoon. Anything else off of that card,
I know there's another women's world title fight. Speaking of Lady Cecilia, Cecilia
Breako, she's on the undercard with Terry Harbert. Right. Cecilia is a
future Hall of Famer. She was one of the great women's boxers of all
time. She held the young women's welterweight title for many, many years.
She made ten years, ten years. Say did I say twenty years?
You didn't say twenty, but yeah, Tan, you said many years,
ten years. She at the time that McCaskill beat had been the longest reigning
champion men or women in a single division by far, at she made more
than twenty defenses. Yeah, she of course suffered the upset back to back
losses to Jessica McCaskill. But she's decided she's not retiring. She's moving up
to one hundred and fifty four pounds to challenge Terry Harper for the WBA title
in that weight class. Terry Harper had won a title a few years ago
in the one hundred thirty pound weight class. She's moved up quite a bit.
But this is a good opportunity for Cecilia to become in the twilight of
her career, you know, a two division you know, champion against a
very reputable opponent, you know, and basically going on the road again.
I know Harper is not from Ireland, but she is from England, and
you know, it's it's not quite the same as you know, she's going
to be the not the fan favorite because of break House not being from there.
So it only made sense for there to be a big, huge women's
fight and then for Matchroom and everybody to figure out another quality women's matchup to
put on the same show. And so I've always liked Cecilia Bracco. She's
a lovely woman, She's a hellible fighter. It'll be my honor to vote
for her in the Hall of Fame someday, but you know she'll be in
there regardless. But if she can win this fight and grab another belt against
a quality opponent, that just another great notch that will go on her little
bio when she gets inducted. We'll keep rolling along here on the preview.
First, a quick word for our friends at PPV dot com. They're proud
sponsors of the Big Fight Weekend podcast and also on the website. PPV dot
com is your only US streaming distributor of the Shantell Cameron Katie Taylor undisputed Women's
Junior Welterweight title fight this Saturday afternoon from Dublin, Ireland. You don't need
a subscription ever. All you need to do is sign up through PPV dot
com and they have the live stream of this fight beginning at two Eastern time
eleven am Pacific time to go in and see this without a subscription purchase necessary
for the women's undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor, the big fan favorite that we're
talking about taking on Shantell Cameron of England, who is the undisputed one hundred
and forty pound champion. So again, PPV dot com is the place.
No subscription necessary, no six month commitment, no hearlong commitment, Just buy
the pay per view. If you're interested, go to PPV dot com.
Great fan experience, interactive with live video reactions, live chat, etc.
As part of PPV dot com, stream the whole card the Matchroom pay per
view Saturday afternoon US time through PPV dot com. All right, Saturday afternoon
US time, Saturday night Primetime for those fights, those ladies title fights,
Cameron Taylor, the main event from Matchroom and Zone from Ireland. Some news
quickly than some nostalgia before we're done here on the preview pod Okay, Regis
program was supposed to fight all Australia is Liam Paro. We didn't even We
didn't even get two weeks into this and Liam Paro is out now as the
opponent. What do we know as we head into the weekend, because the
date is June seventeenth, there's still time to find another opponent. What do
we know right now for the WBC one hundred forty pound champ who just got
a three year deal. Speaking with match Room, we've been talking all about
this. You interviewed read Us about that three year deal last weekend, so
I'm sorry, the three fight deal and I say three year, the three
fight deal. You just interviewed him about that this past weekend, and now
the first fight, they've got to find another opponent. So what do we
know? Well, just the match Room on Thursday announced that Paro had withdrawn
due to an injury. They did not identify the injury. I've not yet
really done too much. Is it a wiggle in the back, niggle?
Not a wiggle, not a jiggle, not a giggle, the niggle in
the back. I don't know. We don't know what the injury is.
But he's out. So the bottom line is Liam Paro is not going to
be in the ring against Regis Progress fighting for that title on June seventeen,
so they're in need of another opponent. Matcher made that announced that Regis made
a video that he posted on his Twitter account where he was basically like a
you know, a minute or so talking about, you know, disappointment of
him being out. But his perspective was I think that the next guy that
they're offering it to, or maybe that's next in line, whatever you want
to however you want to phrase it was Arnold Barboza, who was an undefeated
contender that fights under the top rank banner, who was managed by Rick Marridgian,
who was the same manager that manages Josie Ramires. And because of all
the stuff that went on between program and Ramiers in that fight not being made,
Regis and Marridgean have had their back and forth on social media. I
feel like in a good natured way, but cutting both ways because you know
both are you know, are good guys. I don't. I don't.
It was more like, you know, in it was serious, but it
was in jest. It wasn't like anybody was like being terrible to the other
guy. But the point is, it'll be interesting what happens if Barbosa is
gonna gonna be formally offered to fight and take it. Before we started to
tape this, who knows what'll happen, you know, in the next day
or so. As this uh it's posted, But I texted that was one
of the texts that you mentioned at the beginning of the show. I was
texting with Marijan about the situation, and he was like, we haven't gotten
a formal offer, but if we get one and it's you know, within
I forget how we phrase it, but basically, if it's within reason or
it's a decent offer or whatever, it was like, you know, we're
definitely interested. And you know, Barbosa has been waiting for a shot.
He's an undefeated fighter, he's got some good wins, he's not getting any
younger. You know, he needs to make the move. And so if
he gets the offer and it's not, you know, a joke of an
offer, and that's for them to decide what they feel like is a joke
and what is not a joke. The bottom line is re just needs an
opponent, and Barbosa is a quality opponent. In my estimation, it's a
better opponent than Leamparo if he were to fight Barbosa, and I'd like to
see that happen. I mean, all things consider it. I mean it's
a good division, but Barbosa deserves his opportunity. He hasn't had that level
of a fight just yet with top rank as long as he's been there.
So we'll see if they can make that. If it doesn't happen. I'm
not sure who the next guy that they're even talking about as far as names,
but you can you can be sure that come June seventeenth, as long
as Regis progress is healthy, he will defend his title. Whether it's it's
not going to be against leam Paro, maybe against be against Barbosa, maybe
it'll be against somebody else. But Regis is going to be back in the
ring mid June, and I'll be interested to see regardless of who he's fighting,
because I like watching Regis broke it. But if it is against Barbosa,
you know, sign me up. That's a good, solid fight.
I'm interested. And hopefully they can find an opponent that can be prepared and
be healthy and be in the rank you know, next month. All right.
Other news, you were tweeting about this and writing about this as well,
and not unexpected in that the w BA has said we want Alexander Usk
to fight Daniel dubuon next You had told us on the podcast and had written
for Big Fight Weekend and your substack previously. They were looking at trying to
make this fight and make it potentially for Poland as opposed to in the UK.
Duba's home country. That has not come about yet. And now the
WBA says, okay, folks, deadline here for a purse bid. That's
the latest. Give us some more on that, right. So the two
sides certainly well can I imagine we'll continue to talk and try to hammer something
out. But they want to sort of the w B a set of fire
under them, basically give an end game, if you will, in terms
of win, this will all be over with. So in that respect,
it's good that there's a deadline because now you have a window to make a
deal and if they don't make a deal, will go to a purse bid,
and you know, may the richest promoter win. I guess. So
they've scheduled. There was the original deadline for them to make a deal was
May second. That came and went without them having an agreement. So they
now gave them a little bit of flexibility. And now here we are a
little while later and they have not ordered this purse bid. It will take
it a schedule for May twenty fifth in Houston, and so they still have
between now and then if they can make a deal to do the deal.
What I find to be interesting is we all know that Usk and Duba is
the mandatory, and I'm down for it because to me, I just want
to see the w b A get rid of the extraneous belt whoever is the
winner of the fight. But it feels like that's going to be happening regardless
of there is a fight or not, because if there is not a fight,
they have stated that if Dua is unavailable for any reason, then that's
it. He's going to lose his position. So not only would he lose
his position, he would lose that second year title and they would move on
and order the mandatory against the next guy in the WBA, which is Duwa
is the regular champion, so he doesn't have a numerical rating. The number
one numerically rated guy is Deontay Wilder. Wilder against Alexander Usik is a much
bigger fight, and the Wilder camp has said, yeah, of course we're
interested. They want if they would love to fight for the world title,
and Usik against Wilder from a financial perspective as a way way bigger fight than
Duwa, So it would behoove us if he wants to fight, and Duwa,
if he really wants to fight, to make a deal because I can't
I can't imagine that a purse bit for that fight. Yeah, there'll be
people be interested, but it's not going to be that big level of a
money as there would be against a Wilder a type of it. But the
other thing also is, you know, there's also we've discussed it, there's
that sort of hanging over boxing, this this you know, this mysterious Saudi
Arabian business that's going on where they maybe want to do these two fights at
the end of the year on the same carb No less Usik versus Fury,
Wilder versus Joshua again, they're talking. I'll believe it when I see it.
But the bottom line is some of the rubbers going to hit the road
May twenty fifth, that there's no deal between Usk and what. And I
say that because and this is important right now. Even though Joshua recently fought,
and Fury fought at the very end of last year, and Wilder fought
in October and Do Wah fought on that Fury undercard, these top heavyweights are
all stagnating right now. They're just waiting for this perceived pot of gold.
You're being kind that Wilder fought Wilder through one big punch is that fighting.
He won the fight. You know what I'm saying, though, you know
what I'm saying, and you're right. I mean, USK hasn't fought since
last August. Get in the ring. Get in the ring. I realize,
I realized the whole roundabout with Fury did result in an undisputed fight.
But now get in the ring. And I'm just curious, just one more
than we got to move on. I wonder if the management team for USK
will ramp up before the purse bid and make the best possible offer to have
the fight in Poland, because if Frank Warren outbids them, the fight's going
to be in the UK if it's happening in Dubois homes and so that's going
to be a very interesting dynamic in the next week. Becaues that happen next
week? Does the bigger offer maybe come now for that thing to happen in
Poland before there's a purse bid. That's the only thing I would add to
that what you said, No, I mean that that all makes sense.
I'm just saying that I'm glad though that the first domino at some points going
to fall. What the result of that Domino falling. I'm not I'm not
sure because there's lots of things that may take place, but the heavyweight division
because of the perception that there's this pot of gold in the Saudi Arabia market
for these types of fights at the end of the year in December, which
would mean all these guys will be offered quite a while, right I'm you
know, the whole division is at a standstill right now. Look, Look,
Fury was on social media earlier Thursday calling out everybody but Dan Raphael.
Can I fight somebody? He would just kept going on and on about I
tried to fight usik I tried to fight Jang, I tried Andy Ruiz wants
twenty million? What does he want? You know, going on and on.
So usik U has moved. Should have given he should have given us
his percentage on the yes, but he wants to try to fight. I'm
with you, Fury wants to try to fight this summer. Who knows if
that happens. I'm with You're not gonna fight at all, all right,
almost almost no chance of that happening. He is stagnant, and I like
your word stagnant. Before we get stagnant, we got to talk a little
nostalgia in a couple of moments. Any other news of note here. Alberto
poo suspension, not surprisingly, has been at least temporarily upheld by the Nevada
Commission for testing positive again for the female fertility drug Holme. It is the
is the brand name of it. They want to hear more and they want
more evidence about this. So this is about a month from now. Right,
he's temporarily still suspended, right, I mean, this is the this
is the normal course of business when this happens. Guy test positive. Commission.
When they get the result from the you know, either Vada or whoever
does the testing, they put the suspension out. Obviously that happened. He
was dropped from the Roly Romero fight. That's why Barroso was elevated from the
undercard who was already Plaos mandatory challenger, so he was on the sidelines.
WBA put him in as the recess champion and now they're waiting to see what
the Commission does. Next step in that process is you put him on the
agenda. That Nevada Commission had a meeting this past Wednesday, you know,
yesterday as we tape this and at that meeting, they did what they totally
expected. The Commission voted five to nothing to extend the suspension, meaning now
we're going to go through the actual adjudication process. So the next meeting,
which is going to be in June, no date one hundred percent yet,
but I'm told it'll probably be June twentieth. At that hearing, or rather,
i'm sorry, at that meeting he will have. That'll be when he
can bring his defense with his lawyer and his people and whatever. They could
ask for a continuance and it could be pushed back into July or longer,
but the Commission is not going to look to postponent. That'll be up to
the Playo team. But they will go before the Commission. They'll make their
case. They'll say, if there's mitigating circumstances, what the reasons are,
blah blah blah. But I've covered the Commission for a long time. This
to me, whatever his reasons are, they claim it's because they were fertility
issues with his with him and his wife and they were trying to have it.
Maybe, but it's very clear cut. They don't even deny. I've
talked to people on the PLAYO team. They don't deny that he took the
substance. The way they operate in Nevada is on the basis of strict liability.
Yep. It's not why it's in your system or how it got in
your system. It's that it's in your system, and that's your problem,
not ours. So while they may take mercy on him and that issue a
crazy long suspension or something along those lines, unless they can prove that they're
again because they're not even denying that it's there. So I don't think they're
going to reverse course on that. They're going to just have to make their
best case of to get the least punishment they can. Okay, So it's
my it would be my expectation that they'll try to explain all the things I
just said that they were taking in here's why, etc. But he didn't
ask for an exemption, he didn't disclose it when he filled that as his
forms with VODA, and then he tested positive. I'm not aware if they've
had to be sample tests or not, but if he's admitting to using it,
it probably is not relevant and probably a waste of money because it's going
to be positive. Also, so the end result is going to be how
much of a suspension will he get. Gotcha, It seems to me that
he's looking at even if the if they wanted to be the most merciful they
could be, he's probably looking at at least six months. And even if
that's the case, that alone was not the end of the world, because
they'll backdated to when the test was taken, so it'll be backdated to like
sometime in what mid April, I guess, so six months certainly not at
the end of the world. But what it means is he's not he's going
to be stripped in terms of he's already been stripped of the title. WB
will drop him from the recess championship level, and he will still be able
to carry on his career. But for a guy like him that doesn't have
a big name, not a big reputation, not a big fan base,
not a super exciting style, now we sort of gotta he's you know,
he loses on big financial opportunities. When you have the helps you make more
money, and he's not going to have the belt, so you know,
you feel if he was using it for the right reasons, he also could
have been still getting a benefit as well. Yeah, because it absolutely is
a performance enhancing steroid. It's exactly what it is, and it is not
something we keep talking about this. I keep him openly mentioning this on this
podcast that I've mentioned a little bit too much other places, but I'm just
gonna share with you I took plumit as part of fertility, and that's what
his claims going to be. But the point that you made and we're moving
on now, is it doesn't matter to the Nevada Commission because this is a
PEED and so strict liabilities tolerance, whatever you want to call it, they
are. They're going to drop the hammer to what extent we will find out.
One more piece of news and that is the WBO earlier this week saying
to Jamel Charlow, the one hundred and fifty four pound undisputed Charlo get in
the ring with Tim Zoo provided Tim Zoo defeats Carlos Ocampo, which we suspect
he's taking another fight. Get in the ring with Zoo by September thirtieth,
or we're going to elevate Zoo if he's victorious to being the world champion in
the WBO. And I say bravo to this I said to you when the
Zoo fight was made back about ten days ago. It's incumbent right now on
Jemel Charlo to tell us as boxing observers and fans, what is your injury
status and when are you fighting? And I just say good on the WBO
anything else, I can't are you that? I mean, you know,
listen you I never like to see a guy lose a belt because of injury
or reasons that are not other than losing a boxing match. But at some
point, you know you don't have a right to hold the title forever.
So an injury I feel bad for about that, obviously, but we thought
it'd be back in June. I understand a hand injury. I don't.
Again, I don't know all the details of the specifics of the nature of
that injury. Hopefully he's got the whole summer, you know, to get
ready, to be healthy, to go through a training camp and to look
at the winner for by September thirtieth. So, and it's not just Zoo,
because if Carlos Ocampo pulls the big upset and beat Zoo, he would
become the interim champion and therefore would probably be the guy that has to next
fight against him in the mandatory because they're the ones organization wise that's next up
in the rotation system. So whether it's Zoo or it's Ocampo, unless Charlo
vacates or decides to leave the weight class, his next opponent is going to
be either Tim Zoo or Carlos Ocampo. Obviously, the Zoo is a bigger
deal. That's a that's a good fight. It was supposed to be a
Showtime main event in January. Hopefully Charlo is healthy. If Zoo wins,
you know, hopefully we'll see that fight sometime, you know, in the
early fall. That that would be a good matchup. Then I hope Charlo's
okay and he's healthy and ready to go. Let's hope. So as we
release this podcast, let me say happy birthday, Dan Rayphael to Thomas Reeves
Senior, who is seventy seven years old on May the eighteenth. He and
you're gonna smile. He and Reggie Jackson Ship Reginald Martinez Jackson of your New
York Yankees of the Baseball Hall of Fame share the exact same birthday, both
seventy seven years old May eighteenth, nineteen forty six. May eighteenth, also
significant because brother Raphael has talked repeatedly on these podcasts and with nostalgia about the
Gattie Ward trilogy. It began on May eighteenth of two thousand and two.
Say a little more here, because you've been putting the memorabilia out through your
substack through social media. It all began on a May eighteenth, back twenty
years ago. It's a remarkable fight. What can you say? It's one
of the greatest fights of all time. I don't think it's the greatest fight
of all time. Then I actually, you know, there are a few
fights in my ten year of writing bout boxing and I would actually rank ahead
of it in terms of just overall trauma and excitement. But there's no doubt
that these guys put on just an absolute InCred show. They fought three times.
The first fight was a phenomenal fight. The second fight, if he
had never seen the first fight, was a really good fight. Maybe he
didn't move up to this level of the first fight, but how could it
so? And as we have the talctors, typically at least one fight in
the trilogy that's the one that's the least memorable. That would be the second
fight. But still a very good fight. And then of course the third
fight was the fight of the year also in just another incredible fight, just
an awesome matchup. I was very privileged to be ringside for the second and
the third fight. I've told the story many times. I was supposed to
be at the first fight. I was writing a boxing for USA Today at
the time, like a day or two days before I was supposed to travel
to Connecticut, I got a real bad bug and had a fever and was
sick as a dog and couldn't couldn't do anything, and ended up having a
mist to fight. I watched a fight curled up on a ball on a
bed in a guest room in my old townhouse with a you know, with
a cold washcloth on my face and my head, and watched these two guys
deliver one of the greatest fights of all time and was to this day,
twenty one years later, it's still depressed me that I was not present for
that fight. And as you mentioned, I did post one of the treasure
of my expansive boxing collection. I consider it to be perhaps the centerpiece of
my five thousand plus poster collection. It is an extraordinarily rare site poster from
the first fight. They put up a handful around the casino property just to
advertise a fight, not for sale, not in any kind of big print
run or anything like that. I have that poster. I actually have two
of them, believe it or not. But the one I put up the
picture of is actually signed by Mickey Ward and Artarogatti. That was gifted to
a former executive at the Moleigan Sun that years later I purchased in a private
transaction. And I will say this without telling you the amount of money that
I spend on it. You know I have a gargantuan boxing collection. I
do. It is the most money I have ever spent on a singular in
my entire life. Let's just put it this way. Could you have made
a good down payment on an automobile or a home potentially, I don't know
about a home, but probably on a car. I like that fair enough,
and anyway, one more, by the way, one more, we
would agree haggler hearns in terms of action and angatude, that's maybe the greatest
fight ever. Some would say thrilling Manila. You could you could go down
Buster Douglas's upside of Mike Tyson Coralisio. That's fine. All of those all
of those are title fights. All of those are title fights. Is Gotti
Ward the best of the non title fights. That's something to ponder well,
because if when you say title, you're talking about a world title or maybe
a regional title. No, a world title, a world world title?
Yes, is that is that one? Is that one? I mean,
there becomes the mind better than Gaddi Ward one. I'm not going to say
better then, but there are other fights that were non title fights that would
maybe be in the conversation, let's say, and just again, I'm not
saying this is the one, but it's one that just springs to mind immediately.
Take a look at Morale, Eric Morales against Manny Pachyo. There none
of their Amazingly, they were two of the greatest fighters of their time.
They both won world championships and the multitude of divisions. They both were involved
in some of the biggest title fights of their day, and certainly in those
smaller weight classes. But amazingly, Manny pack Yeo and Eric Rolls spot three
times. First two fights were great, third fight was a complete blitz.
First fight is special for all three of them. Were not title fights,
so they were for regional belts. But if you say not world title fights,
you could put Morales versus pack yeo one in the conversation. But yes,
off the top of my head, in terms of a non title fight,
I'm thinking of other fights that were fight of the Year caliber kind of
fights. So one year we had and this was Mickey Ward and being involved
in this also his incredible fight against Emmanuel Augustus that was a Friday Night Fights
fight, maybe the best fight in the history of that ESPN two series.
But I don't think I would rate that ahead of Gaddy Ward. So yeah,
I mean again, I bet if I spent some time really like going
through my old list of top fights of the year, Yes, most of
them are title fights, but not all of them for sure, because I've
never made it a matter of it has to be a title fight to count
to be on that kind of list. But that's the one that you kind
of in more modern time, Hagler, notwithstanding that, you measure like an
action fight that was like the throwback to the you know, the old fifties
fights you're watching on your black and white TV. You know, not that
I was back then, but people that I you know that you hear talk
about that. So Bird Sugar would say things like that back when before he
passed. So yeah, I mean, it's a truly special fight. It
obviously was a super close fight. Mickey got the very you know, got
the very close call in the first fight. And the funny thing about it
is, TJ if you asked, like fifty boxing fans, hey, what
will happen what was the result of the first fight, I guarantee a lot
of them would not know the winner. They would get it nixed up because
they wouldn't realize it. And that just goes to show you who gives a
shit who won. What it did was because Mickey won. It helped pave
the way for their b a rematch. Had there not a Mickey word victory
in fight one, They're most likely would not have been a rematch, which
then, of course, there would not have been a third fight. The
thing I find endearing about their their rivalry with each other is when they first
fought in the first fight, this was a single fight on Boxing after Dark
on HBO, not a lot of high hopes or and I shouldn't I hope
people thought it would be a good fight but didn't have a lot of meaning,
but it was just a good match. They were celebrating the anniversary of
the series and they wanted to make just sort of a throwback kind of fight,
and they got that in there and much much more. And of course,
if you listened to the call and some of the comments that were made
during the course of that fight by Jim Lampley, by Emmanuel Steward, by
Larry Merchant, I mean it's among the most memorable. Who can forget Emmanuel
Steward, you know, talking about you know, they said it would be
the fight of the ear. They didn't tell us to be fight of the
century. I mean that might have been back but yeah, which one said
it, but that was one of the lines. But the thing about it
is they didn't really know each other going into the first fight, Mickey Ward
and Artaragatti. Then you have that kind of fight with each other, obviously
gained respect and there were always were good guys at all. And then the
second fight takes place and they get to know each other a little bit better,
and you know, they're talking shit about the fight, but it's all
good natured. They're not really trash talkers and Mickey and Gaddy were never big
trash talkers anyway, always were respectful of their opponents. Now by the time
they get to the third fight, they become good friends, and by the
time the rivalry is over, they're literally best friends to the extent that Mickey
Ward now becomes Our Taro's trainer because he retired after the third fight. And
what's remarkable is here, this is still blows my mind if you look at
Our Taro gott his career and he is in the Hall of Fame, a
worthy member. And I know people they bitch and moan about that. I'll
have that. I'll die on that hill and I'll go down all the reasons
why he certainly deserves it and belongs there. But before he fought Mickey Ward
for the first time, which is considered like the most action pack fight of
his career, Our Tara had already had a whole bunch of great fights and
some he won, some he lost. He had tremendous battles with Wilson Rodriguez
and with Ruellis, and the two fights with Ivan Robinson and Angel Manfreddie and
the underrated war with Calvin Grove, and I could go on. Then he
has the Mickey Word trilogy, and you got to figure after that kind of
stuff, after those wars and all the fights that we mentioned before, he
had fought Oscar dal Lajoya in an underrated action fight where he got dominated but
still put up a great fight before he got stopped. If you take all
those out of the equation, you just looked at his post Mickey Word career.
He went on and one another world title. He made multiple defenses,
and he didn't be bums. He beat like solid guys, I mean,
maybe not the elite of the elite. And then you know, obviously that
came to an end when he fought me Weather, who completely obviously outclassed him.
But I'm saying he had some of his biggest moments and biggest defenses and
biggest pay days post Mickey Ward. Remember this, Artaro Gotti was supposed to
be done going into the Oscar fight. The day La Joya fight was his
golden parachute career, high purse one point eight million. Here's your good retirement
plan. Go in there, get your ass kicked by Oscar, take your
money, and enjoy retirement. He lost that fight, yes, but he
got the Ward fights after that he got another world title. After that,
he made a lot of more money, made even more fans continue to sell
out arenas. He packed the arenas at the main arena at a boardwalk hall
for nine I believe it was nine consecutive fights. After the first Mickey fight,
which was in Connecticut, the second two and three we're in in Atlantic
City. So that fight is sort of like where you can have the line
of demarcation for Arturo's great career. But a fantastic fight. A great documentary
that HBO did a few years later that encompasses the rivalry between Mickey and Arturo.
That they covered all three fights and they called it Legendary Nights. It
wasn't done in the same style as the original documentary series in terms of thirty
minute shows, but a great, great documentary to watch if you're interested in
those fights. But that first fight, I can guarantee you that when we're
done with this podcast, I'm going on YouTube. I'm watching that fight again.
I'm watching those big shots, I'm watching those great rounds. I mean,
it's just one of the most legendary fights of all time, and it
was made that way not only by their unrelenting ridiculous action and that fight really
didn't really pick up and steam up until around the fourth round. But you
have to give the props to my friends from HBO who you know, Jim
Lampley, Larry Merchant, and un Amingo Stewart who their call of the fight.
They they elevated it. They rose to the and realize what they were
watching and they made it bigger with how they called it. I completely agree
on that because that only adds to it. Great stuff on GADDY Ward one,
which was twenty one years ago on Thursday, as we released this podcast
into Friday. With that, it has been a busy show. All right,
one more time again, we'll be on the bet Us show making betting
predictions depending on when you're hearing us One Eastern Time. Will make the betting
predictions including Hany Lomachenko, which we talked a lot about at the beginning of
the podcast, and also the Nakatani Maloney world title fight that is on the
undercard, as well as Shantell Cameron Katie Taylor undisputed one hundred forty pound women's
title fight. Will pick all those fights on the bet US Show One Eastern
Time coming on Friday, and as I always like to say, as we
wrap it up, what say we come off the weekend and recap everything that
happens on the Fight Freaks Unite recap. You up for that. No matter
what happens is weekend, we'll be talking about it on this very podcast feed
when the weekend is over. My friend, I'll be up for it.
Does a bear shit in the woods? I believe he does. I don't
know where else he would. On that note, have a great weekend,
Dan rayphel Let's see what happens in Vegas and in Dublin, Ireland. Great
stuff here, nice job talking with Katie Taylor. Let's see if she has
a big victory in her home country or not. We're all good. Thank
you. Enjoy the weekend. See on the bed show. There is one
Dan Rayphael. I'm merely GJ Reeves again. Follow or subscribe on the Big
Fight Weekend podcast feed. We preview going into the weekend. We recap with
the Fight Preach Unite recap. You get us twice double the ray Field,
double the fun every weekend, So make sure you're following or subscribing for now.
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