Well, well, well, first of all, we are coming your way
early this Christmas weekend because there's so much to talk about. And at the
same time, frankly, TJ's a madman on Christmas Eve as it is,
so, we already have the recap podcast out early. As you're with us
on the Fight Freaks Unit recap podcast. I am merely the somewhat capable host.
I did go third person TJ Reeves. He is our insider. Fight
Freaks Unite is his substack Big Fight Weekend dot Com. Dan Rayfield, we're
coming your way early because there's so much to talk about. From day of
reckoning, it has happened, and my god, a funny thing happened on
the way to the two megafights with Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua. How many
times did we say they both have to win, even though Rayphael and I
and the rest of the planet didn't believe that either one of them would lose.
That's why it's boxing, that's why it's unexpected. And now is that
out the window. We're about to discuss that with the mighty on. Hello,
Dan Rayfield, you and I doing this just a couple of hours after
the pay per view is over, and we consumed it. It's amazing to
run down everything that has happened with this pay per view, but in particular
the Wilder. The Wilder Fight's gonna take up some of the real estate.
At the beginning of the show, how are you, my friend, I'm
good. Listen. I enjoyed that pay per view thoroughly. I thought that
it was a long day. I started watching at eleven o'clock in the morning.
I didn't take a piss till about four o'clock in the afternoon. I
took a little break between the Wilder fight and the Joshua fight. But look,
I mean, as we talked about beforehand, for the price point of
thirty nine to ninety nine, now, for the depth of the show,
and the name guys on the show, and the titles on the show,
and all the heavyweights on the show, and all I don't know about you,
I felt like I got my money's worth, and I was very happy
with it. A little bit for everybody. Oh, no job, I'm
gonna make you. I'm gonna make you laugh. Because I'm in my living
room at the palatial Reefs estate in suburban Tampa, Florida. My wife leaves
with my twin teenage daughters because she had to run something to him mother's house.
Had go buy Starbucks, of course, to get them some coffee and
whatever they wanted. They went somewhere else to a store, God help them.
On the day before Christmas Eve. They get back two hours later.
I'm in the same spot, still watching boxing, and she says, you
haven't moved, and I said, we still got two fights to go because
the Wilder fight hadn't happened yet. So it was a long day. By
the way, we have a lot to talk about the same thing in my
house. My wife and my son. They went out to run a couple
of errands and then they came home for a little while. I was still
in the same spot basically. Then they went to a movie in the afternoon
and came back and I, you know, I had gotten all times and
whatever, but I was still in this in my office on the on my
big screen, watching and writing and all that. So yeah, all right,
it's where it was, a labor of love. Labor of love.
All right. Again, thank you for finding us. You're on the Big
Fight Weekend podcast. For you. This is the Fight Freaks U Night recap.
Typically we would come your way Sunday night into Monday, but again with
the Christmas holiday, we are doing this early and because it's so appropriate with
the pay per view, So rate us, review us, thank you for
finding us, follow subscribe the whole bit. All right. So in the
chronology, let's talk about the Wilder loss to Joseph Parker. Full credit to
Parker. He outfought him. He had a good plan. Okay, so
that's on the front end. Give him credit for the win and for the
upset. He was as much as a five to one underdog. I didn't
see it coming. I think many didn't see it coming. He got it
done. Now that being said, I'm gonna tee you up here. What
was that from Deontay Wilder? Because there are theories everywhere on Saturday night from
and maybe it's a combination. He's washed up. His skills were never tremendous
to begin with, and now they've eroded at thirty seven thirty eight years of
age, over the last couple of years, he's not active enough. A
combination of all of it in the stew but my friend, he did almost
nothing for twelve rounds. From where I sat and watched your thoughts watching Joshua
Wilder go up in smoke over twelve rounds Saturday night in Saudi Arabia. Well
as far as what up with Deontay Wilder, I think it is definitely a
combination of those things. You know, he hadn't fought but less than one
round in a year plus prior to that, he had been annihilated by Tyson
Fury two times in a row with a year between. Even though the third
fight was competitive, he scored his own set of knockdowns, but he took
a hillacious beating and bad, bad knockouts in the second and third fights.
And as you mentioned, he is now thirty eight years old, and you
put all that together and maybe he is washed up? I mean, you
know, you just the uh preponderance of the evidence would suggest that he probably
is. And I say that not with joy, but because that's the nature
of life. That you are a thirty eight year old heavyweight that has had
all the things I just mentioned to you, and he's had injuries and things
along those lines too. And he even admitted in his post fight interview when
asked about his future, you know, are you are we going to see
you again? And me. He kind of paused and he wasn't sure.
He's like, well, if this is the end, you know, I've
had a great time. I've you know, done this, I've done that,
and you know, I'm content in my life. I'm happy in my
life, and maybe it will be the last. I've my money, I've
invested my money. He said that too to Chris Mannix after the fight.
Did so all those things taken into account, and you know what, Look,
if he does decide to call it a day, I'm very happy for
him. I mean, you know, I think back to the first time
I met Deontay Wilder. It was like the day or two before his professional
debut in a hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, and he was this skinny little
rail two hundred and eight pounds or something like that. He was only two
thirteen today, amazingly, and the future was bright, bronze medal winner American.
You know, we're you know, his Shelley Finkle still his manager this
day. You know, we're going to bull come up into a big heavyweight.
It didn't turn out that way in terms of the bulk, but he
certainly achieved everything they could have hoped for. At that moment when he was
just you know, a young pup about the term professional. Went on to
make tremendous amounts of money, had a five year title reign with the WBC
belt, defended that title ten times, was involved in some mega fights with
Tyson Fury, and scored some of the most electrifying, brutal knockouts you'll ever
see a true bona fide knockout artist. I still whatever you thought about his
performance in the fight against Joseph Parker, to me, he's the greatest pure
puncher I've ever seen covering boxing for as long as I have, I think
he will go down as one of the great heavyweight punchers in the history of
the sport at the level you know, in conversations with like the George Foreman's
and Ernie Shavers and Mike Tyson and those caliber punchers, so you know,
at the end, you know he has nothing to hang his hat ont Tonight
was a terrible performance. Let's be honest, I'm looking at the copy box.
I mean, I know, we don't have to dwell on it.
He only threw two hundred and four punches in a twelve round fight, and
he only landed thirty nine. I mean, he almost broke the record,
but this was not a title fight, so you know that was that was
a very poor output. And you could tell and this is not the first
time, by the way, TJ, that you go into a Deontay Wilder
fight and you know, and the whole world knows that the guy is looking
to land the right hand. It's like when Ricky Henderson, I mean the
age myself in the mid eighties, when Ricky's on first base, the whole
fucking stadium knows he's going to try to steal, steal second and then maybe
still exactly the same thing. Everybody knows Deontay Wilder's going to try to land
a right hand. And he never could land the right hand. And Joseph
Parker took a few, but not clean and flush, and he did just
enough, kept busy enough. He didn't throw a whole lot more punches than
Deyonta. He landed almost double the number, but he did what he had
to do and he didn't run. He didn't like make it a snore fest
on his end. He tried to fight the guy. And all credit Joseph
good. He's a good heavyweight and I give him credit. He's a he's
a likable guy, and he got a big, big, big win.
I think, as he said, this was a bigger win for him even
then when he won the world title against Andy Wiz back years ago, because
of the name and magnitude and the upset. I would agree with all of
those things. So let me go back to something on the Disown pay per
view broadcast, and I thought this was right on. In the middle of
the fight, Chris Mannis said, beware here because this is the same thing
as the second Luis King Kong Ortez fight where he did absolutely nothing, not
active, not jabbing, not combinations, not anything, and then boom.
So Mannix was right on it to point that out. We've seen this before.
And then I thought the Latin snake props to him had a great point,
which is it's one thing to look for the knockout, but he's not
doing anything to set the knockout up with a jab with feints, with anything.
And my friend, you know this, You've been doing it forever at
the highest level. It was the same thing over and over and over again.
It was almost like groundhog Day. Round after round. He's not jabbing,
he's not doing anything. To set it up. He's almost hoping,
praying that there's gonna be an opening where I land the straight right, the
hard right, and it ever came. It was just that you were around
the ninth round, You're like, yeah, if he had landed the shot
the big right hand, I think he is a good chance he's gonna knock
Joseph Parker because Joseph's been hurt before, Joseph's been down before, Joseph has
been knocked out before. And what was only last year where he got knocked
out by Joe Joyce, who is a good puncher, but not on the
level of a Deontay Wilder, and he could never find that big shot.
And I will say also must be given credit for the work that Andy Lee
has done with Joseph Parker. Andy Lee, you know, is in that
school of Emmanuel Stewart, the late great trainer and somebody I was close to
before he passed. But you know, Emmanuel was the trainer and worked with
Andy from the time he turned professional. And Andy learned at the knee of
the great one. And he's taking you know, it's like in a professional
coaching in football or in basketball. You know, the college coaches or some
of the pro coaches, they have their coaching tree. Well, Emanuel may
no longer be with us, but the the Kronk tradition and the Kronc name
and the Kronc style. Harry's on with the outstanding boxing mind like Andy Lee
who trains Joe Parker, who had the assistance and help in the camp from
Andy's cousin who happens to be Tyson Fury, who was very close to Joe
Parker, so he helped him in terms of like the game plan because he
had fought against Deontay Wilder three times, certainly was able to provide him was
mis sparring at that tall height, and so as a team they did a
hell of a job. But Andy Lee, Andy Lee drew up the perfect
game plan and more even it's one thing to draw up the game plan.
Coaches can draw great game plans all the time. You have to have an
athlete that can stick to it for as long as you tell them. They
got to stick to it. And Joseph was able to be disciplined enough and
focused enough to maintain that plan for the entirety of the fight, because,
as we all know, if he deviates from that for even a split second,
it might cost him monockout loss. And he did a great job by
just having that tonal vision and you know, the team in the corner,
they did a good job to keep him on on on that path and uh,
you know it was it was a great victory for Joseph Park. I'm
I'm I'm happy for him as a as a person and uh, you know,
as a fighter, he's going to get into some other big fights.
What his next fight is, that's hard to say, TJ. Because it's
a big, huge win and he's certainly going to be in play for any
big name. I don't think there's really any public interest or appetite at this
moment, at least for him to have a rematch against Anthony Joshua. Obviously
Joshua defeated him several years ago when they meant to unify the heavyweight belts back,
you know, in front of a huge crowd, you know, like
eighty thousand or whatever in Cardiff. Uh, but he's he's right there for
anybody. I mean, maybe he gets a fight with Angelais for example,
I mean the interesting you know, I don't I don't think there's gonna be
a I mean maybe he'll ask for a Joe Joyce rematch. You never know
that that may be something. Who that knows Joe lost the fights to to
to Jang anyway, but uh h, Joe's in business right now. He's
gonna have a wonderful holiday. And then they'll they'll re uh you know,
they'll they'll they'll reconvene in the early part of next sure to figure out the
next step. Again, full credit to him, But the bigger story is
what in the world and maybe it is the end here. And I will
just say this as somebody that has been on this podcast now for the last
six or seven years touting Deontay Wilder the power, like you were saying how
much fun and entertainment it was. It just appears that and you theorize this,
that Tyson Fury took most, if not all, of it out of
him with those two knockout losses. We didn't hang on. We didn't really
learn anything from the Hellnius fight because it was one thunderous punch early. But
now what we learned fourteen fifteen months later is he's thirty eight years old and
could not produce any offense and at some point father time, those two wars
with Fury where he ended up on the wrong end of both of them.
There. I mean, we're just fewing facts here. Did deont to the
public. Did Deontay Wilder look like he's ever going to be able to summon
anything in a future fight? I don't think so, not at the big
level, not after what we saw. So, yes, those those Fury
fights, without question took something out of the I think the same can be
said when you take a look at the way that Fury performed against the Gando
and even against the Sword, who he won every round, but it took
him a long time to get rid of him. That that those fights took
a lot out of Fury also multiple times. I mean, you know,
when you get to be older, as heavyweights or any athlete for that matter,
was a matter what way class you're in. Uh, you know,
as you mentioned, time waits for nobody. I mean, there are there
are freakish occurrences where George Forman can win a heavyweight belt in his mid forties,
Where when Bernard Hopkins can still have effective wins, you know, into
his fifties, even eventually it comes to an end. I mean, I
remember when Lennox Lewis was going strong, and he was like in his mid
thirties. They would talk about how he might be done. And you know,
now we here we have fury At around that same age now, and
we have Deontay Wilder, you know, four years older than that roughly.
So, uh, this era and and and Joshua was thirty four now I
think so this era it's not closed yet, but the windows starting to close
on this group of guys. And that next group of guys is theoretically waiting
in the wings. And that's guys who are at least a little bit younger.
Jared Anderson of Philip Herkovic, you know, some of these other heavyweights
a you know down the road, maybe when Jai Obataya goes from cruiser weight
to heavyweight. We'll talk about his win in a minute. But those are
the guys that are younger that are gonna replace them. The question is,
out of that group, who can emerge as the star? It doesn't happen.
It's hard to get that because it seems to me, if you look
at the way the heavyweights have gone, it takes a little while to regenerate
because you have like the Great Year of the nineteen seventies home to the Prime
Foreman and Fraser Ali and plenty of other you know, good quality heavyweights.
Whether I mentioned before, you know, an Ernie Shavers, there was Kenny
Norton, there was Jerry Quarry. I mean, there was a bunch of
different quality heavyweights at that time. And then the eighties you had the great
Larry Holmes, and you had a lot of other guys that were good,
but nobody that became a dominating fighter or a star. And then then you
had to wait till the emergence of Tyson in the eighties, and that on
pretty much through most of the nineties with the second coming of Big George and
Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield and Michael Moore and Tommy Morrison and Razor Ruddick and
Ray Mercer. I mean, go on, there's a lot of like good
quality heavyweights at that time. And then you had the emergence of the clitch
Goes. But it was a division that was pretty much, as I'll say,
the word that you love, bereft of other top talent. And so
then it came after them the next group into the two thousands, tens plus
twenties that were now Wilder Fury, Joshua Zang, you know, Joe Joyce.
I mean, these are the guys that have replaced him. So we
may be in for a moment in time where we're gonna do the same deal.
We're gonna go and skip that decade ish where until we find the next
group of guys that can become stars. Just the way's work, good point,
love Dan's inside. Okay. So that set up the final fight of
the co main event, which is Anthony Joshua. We've already tipped it you
obviously. If you're a boxing fan, you know this. He won over
Otto Violin. He was impressive, a little bit of a slow start,
but man, once he got going with the jab in the right hand,
he busted vealeen up. I believe it's as we're doing this. I haven't
heard the official confirmation, but I think his corner thought his nose was broken,
bleeny, because you heard the corner man say you're done. He said
it to Veleen, you're done after the fifth round, and the punches said
it to him and said we're stopping this thing. So Joshua, very interesting.
Give me your thought. He's back in the locker room and he's watching
what happened to Deontay Wilder and the non performance in Parker dominating the fight and
winning on a virtual shutout. I wonder what we're just speculating. I wonder
what you think is going through his mind because now he's got to focus on
going and fighting. I don't know. So he said in the interview with
Mannix after the fight that he did not see the fight on the minor,
he did not watch it, that he didn't know that that Deontay had lost,
but he hadn't watched the fight. Obviously, he's gloving up, he's
shaking out, he's warming up, he's, you know, focusing on what
he's got to do at hand. He's you know, going over the game
and whatever. He's not paying attention necessary to Wilder. So while he knew
the result, you know, he's a listening. But here's the thing,
Joshua was a professional. I mean, he puts it out of his mind.
He's like, I've been all weak. I've been asked about that,
and I just have to focus on the opponent because I can't disrespect Auto Valleen.
He knows him. They had sparred together, they had had an amateur
fight together. He knows that he's a quality headweight. He wasn't going to
be disrespectful and stub his own toe, so to speak, and and not
do his part. So he went in there and approach it like a pro.
And whatever happened with Wilder, he's still he didn't. It's not like
suddenly Wilder lost. Now I don't have to fight my fight. He's and
so I would submit to you. He was everything Wilder was not in his
fight. He was aggressive, he was sharp with the jab, putting combinations
together. It was I mean, it was an impressive performance. I thought,
what did you think watching Joshua was Saturday night in Saudi Arabia. I
thought it was the best that Antony Joshua has looked since before he fought the
fights with Usik, without question, in terms of the fights he's had since
the Usik fight, which are the two wins he had this year earlier against
frank and and and against Helenius, you know where he went a distance with
Franklin, knocked out Helenius and then tonight knocked out Otto. This was by
far and away his best performance since those uh those of the three comeback fights.
Let's called him since his defeats against Usik, but uh, you know,
he he was on his toes to some degree. He had his punches
were sharp. Uh, he just had a spring in the steps. He
seemed like he had a good body language, like he was happy to be
there, like glad to be in the ring, you know, in a
in a happy place. I mean, look, he before he lost sic,
this was a fight that took place with a very small crowd. This
was during COVID when he knocked out who brought poole v right pretty good at
that fight. The fight before that was when he had the rematch against Andy
Ruis and regained the title. And even though he thought a brilliant fight that
night and stoock to the perfect game plan that his then trainer H. Robert
McCracken had installed for him, he looked tentative in that fight though. He
looked like he didn't want to get hit in that fight, Like there was
definitely still some cobwebs and some memories of getting knocked out by Ruiz in the
previous fight. So it's been a little while since he's been back in this
spot. You got to probably go back maybe to like the Povetkin fight,
even which is before he fought Andy for the first time, when he was
righting hot and unified the title. So you know, look, it's good
to see him back. And again I don't want to make too much and
it was Auto Valeen. It wasn't a Hall of Famer or a former champion
or a guy with big accomplishment. You know, again, not to knock
Auto at all, but in essence, it's the guy that made a name
off of a of a competitive loss to Fury, So we got to just
keep it in perspective. But that's it. It was a very excellent performance
from Joshua. You want to watch him again. It was exciting. He
threw a lot of punches. He can still hit hard and he's still got
a fan base, and you know, it's good when the big names are
back in action. It's just unfortunate that we won't see the Wilder fight.
And so what we said was and this has now been born out. Even
though Valeen may tactically as a south Paul, try to use the jab,
try to use the handspeed and the footwork, he's not Alexander Usik, and
it makes it more impressive what Usik did over two fights with Joshua to keep
him at bay with the a land, the fast, hard combinations, because
Valeen couldn't do any of that to keep Joshua off of him. Into Joshua's
credit, let's prop him up. He got it done, he got the
win. And so the best question that I always pose to you is,
now, what I know what Eddie Hearn was saying after the fight, because
now the the Joshua Wilder fight is completely out the window. He was saying,
Philip Hergovich for the ibfuh interim title, if not eventually the full title.
I say, so what do you so? What do you think?
What do you think realistic? What's realistically next? It's not the interim title.
It will be the vacant title is what it will be. Now,
whether they make that you know, fight official or not, you know,
that still remains to be seen. But the reason why that's the case is
because the IBF has already mandated that Hergovic, who's been the mandatory, that
the winner of Usik versus Fury, must fight Hergovic's next or be stripped.
And since they have a rematch clause, the likelihood of them not doing a
rematch and taking a much smaller fight financially, just to maintain the IDF is
very basically zero chance of that happening. So the point is that most people
believe accurately I think is at once Fury and Usik takes place in February,
the winner of that fight will soon after either vacant or ultimately be stripped of
that title. Then Herkovich, who was not gonna he was supposed to get
the winner, won't get the winner. He'll get the next guy. Now
you say, why did Joshua fight Otto in the first place. People were
saying he might be dangerous because he's southpaw and all that. The reason was
because even though the Wilder fight was there, if he had won at the
time that the fight between him and and Otto was finalized, that the Wilder
fight was not made yet. That's that's a true point. So Otto had
won an IBF eliminator for number two in his previous fight that was in the
like September, I want to say, and he became the number two contender
in their rankings with the victory over Gassia. So Joshua, I think is
like three or four. When he lost, Joshua was going to move up
if the title becomes vacant, they'll order the number one contender, which is
her to fight the next leading of albut contender, which will be who tj
reeves. I believe his initials are Aja, Yes, sir, that'll be
Anthony Joshua. So he had that in his back pocket that if the Wilder
fight doesn't work out, at least I've got a pathway set and squared away
for me to become a three time heavyweight champion, which is important to him
to some degree, and that'll be the opportunity. Are makes Are you telling
me that we have logic intervening late Saturday into Sunday and then on March the
ninth, instead of what was supposed to be set up with Joshua and Wilder,
that will go ahead and get a very compelling one versus two in the
IBF that's potentially for the will be for the world title in Saudi Arabia between
Herkovic and Joshua. It makes too much sense. By the way, call
me crazy crazy. There's a reason why Hergovich was on this card because he
has a three fight deal with the Saudi's. It was this fight to quote
unquote stay busy. It was the title fight next, whoever was going to
be against was the winner of theory you was sick or potentially Otto Valleen if
he won, or potentially Joshua if that was what ended up transpiring. And
so we will see him back on one of these cards, you know,
probably against Joshua at some point, unless you know, I mean the monkey
wrench there. I was saying this to somebody earlier. Let's just say for
the argument's sake that uh, there's an interest on behalf of this audience,
because when they've got that money, they can make any fight they want.
Let's say they want to say, hey, let's make Anthony Joshua against Francis
Naganu for fun. That could happen. Not crazy. Do you hear my
silence? Yes? I do. I'm just I'm speaking. I'm just being
real. So I understand what they could do. But why, I mean,
off of this, Because Herkovic destroyed the opponent that he was supposed to
in one round, why would you not make Herkovic and Anthony Joshua march and
have the fight fans fired up. All I'm saying is you never know.
That's the logical thing. It's what the IBF is going to order. You
got to wait to see what acts transpires with a theory and husk, that's
the probability. But it's boxing. There's always monkey wrenches that get thrown into
things, and maybe some other thing will come up that's more interesting to the
Saudi's and or to Joshua. All right, but that seems like the logical
thing that will happen, but you never can say for sure. Is a
bottom line. I don't disagree. We matriculate along on this here recap podcast
down the fight carst Oh, before we get down, I gotta i gotta
bring up this point, please. It's not related to the fight itself.
I'm watching Joshua against Auto Valleen and there's always fucking something with the zone.
For three rounds of that fight, there was no fucking audio, I know.
And what pissed me off even more. First of all, I thought
it was just mine and I'm tapping. I'm like, I'm like, did
I hit mute? Did I go? What did I do? And after
like sixty seconds, I'm going, where is the audio? And then they
put the dreaded audio difficulties up on the screen with a graphic and I'm like
what a time. I wouldn't have been upset if they put like Mannix and
Mora and Todd Grishaman you I'm just joking with my voice. No, but
even if I'm not listening to that announcements, I would like to hear the
crowd like the sound of the natural punches in the in the audience. This
was total silence, and they put the apologies for the delay for three rounds.
Somebody made the point to me on social media that shit doesn't happen with
HBO or Showtime. Now. Maybe there might be ten seconds where there's an
audio glitch or something like that. Maybe the audio had to go to the
bathroom. After eight hours of doing all the pay per view the A two,
the audio guy had to leave the truck for a couple of rounds.
All I know is you buy a pay per view, you expect audio.
And what pissed me off more to rub salt in the wound, is because
those motherfuckers show commercials between rounds of a pay per view. That's disgusting.
First of all, I already bought the show. You you're gonna give me
commercials is making me? Let me see replays and corner audio. The audio
worked fine for the damn DraftKings commercial, but it didn't work for the for
the fight. So that was like just a slap in the even more even
more maddening because that commercial is being run somewhere else. That's why. But
yeah, that was a mess, but we did get something point now,
they got the they got the fight card to its conclusion, so I understand,
uh, I understand the issue on that, right. So let's back
up to just before the uh, the the Wilder upset loss, and that's
Daniel Dubois victorious. Oh Bevol just before that, so let's go chronologically,
so Bevol wins. My takeaway there, he was impressive like we thought.
I thought he would get the ko Rayphael all over it as usual with the
decision on the bet Us show, you cashed on that. The the one
thing that I took away from that fight. He's impressive, yes, handspeed,
yes, tactically yes, but you have to begin to wonder when they
kept emphasizing he hasn't knocked anybody out in six calendar years and the different fights,
you have to wonder if he fights better be at if if if down
the road, does he have a big enough punch because we know better beef
can punch. So what did you make of Bevoll's performance? And then the
natural next level question, how does he do if the if the big punch
doesn't seem to be there. I have never been obsessed with somehow a detriment
if you can't get a knockout, because to me, if you we had
to win, he looked brilliant. He won every single round he knocked him
down. He was within probably literally one punch of knocking him out in the
twelfth round. And it was only because Lindon Artis pull it for that late
ko as the beef and I did not get it, and you got the
de lind And Arthur was game. You know, he was able to throw
an uppercut and and the ref saw him throw him back, and you know
he looked over at the ref and I think he said something, so the
ref knew he was there even though he was getting hit, and so he
was able to stay in the fight for those last you know, uh,
you know, half a minute or whatever the fight or a minute of the
fight. Uh, you know, Lyndon Arthur was he was trying, but
he was just outclassed. As I said beforehand, when I was talking about
this fight in the preview, lynd And Arthur is a good light heavyweight.
Dimitri bu Bull is the elite of the light heavyweight. He's a pound for
pound caliber fighter. Maybe down the road he's someday maybe a Hall of Famer
if he keeps going. This was his eleventh title defense, and he's got
some very good wins on his records through the years, including Canelo Alvas,
including Joe Smith, including Sullivan, morera you know Tonight's shut out against Lyndon
Arthur. He's beaten, you know, quite a number of good fighters.
I mean he's and he's not really been you know, he shout out Gilberto
Ramirez. He has not really been challenged in most of those fights. He
had like a little bit of an off night back against Craig Richards, a
fight where even though it was maybe his best night, he's still clearly was
the winner. He's got to win over Joe Smith, He's got to win
over Pascal. I mean, the guy's beaten a lot of good names through
the years out so I don't trip on whether he's got knockcots or not.
So how he matched up with better be a better be of as a beast.
He's a great animal like puncher. He's got all the knockouts you could
ask for every win in his career undefeated. He's the only champion today that
that has a one hundred knockout percentage. But Dmitri Bibull has got excellent defense
and good speed and a good job and he can you know, he can.
He can. He can fight going backwards, he can come forward,
he can you know, hit with both hands. So has he that has
a style, an interesting style. Mest that he hasn't had a knockout for
a while. You know, I don't really care about that because frankly,
he could have easily had a knockout tonight if the ref you know, had
decided to pull it there in round twelve. So I don't I don't really
worry about that now, as they were talking about after the fight, and
this is obviously something they have to take into account, the same exact shit
that happened with with the Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua. So Bivel has done
his part and won his fight. Now their fight's not made, but the
Saudis are interested, and you know that they can put up the money that
they wanted. There's no guarantee the Better be Of beats Callum Smith. Callum
Smith's a quality fighter, a former champion at super middleweight, one loss against
against Canelo Alvarez. Uh And now he's taken on this mandatory fight against Better
BV. And if he wins, you know, maybe we'll see that fight
for the undisputed title. If he doesn't, hopefully we'll get the Better be
a fight. It's not quite as cataclysmic, let's say, is what happened
with Wild. They're losing because they can't just go ahead and make Joshua versus
Parker because nobody really gives a damn about that fight. In terms of as
much as we've invested in, hopefully to see Uh Better be Of against Dmitri
Beevoll, it wouldn't be quite the same as Calm Smith, but it would
still be for the undisputed title. Theoretically, it's still a quality guy.
He just wouldn't have had as much build up. Hopefully, you know,
you know, we'll see a good fight between Smith and Better Bev, and
they'll make the mass between him and the Winter. But either way it's fine.
And look Beevill's signature win over Canelo completely out boxed team took his best
punches. I think that, you know, the the concern I still have
is can he can he keep better Be off of him? If better Be
throwing the big punches, can he win? They intrigue guy that throws a
million punches. He's economically with his shots, and and Dmitri Buble's got superb
defense. I'm not saying it's intrigued. To me, It's a winnable fight
for both guys because better Be is a good enough boxer, and he has
that incredible punching power. And even though Bevall is shown that he's not like
a devastating puncher, even though he's got some knockouts, he's a supreme boxer.
He can do everything in either direction. He's very snappy with his jab,
he's got quick hands, and uh, you know he does a run,
he'll fight. And better Ba is getting older. I mean he's in
his late thirties at this point. And know he's he's been bloodied in a
couple of fights. I mean, he's not invincible in my mind. Uh
you know, he hasn't had Uh he's had some good wins, but he
hasn't consistently fought like the elite elite guys. Tom Smith's probably gonna be one
of the best opponents of his career. He ask me, all right,
okay, so it's just so tough to keep track of everything and what went
on over that is the Dubois victory over Let's just let's pull this turn neck.
Look on the rundown. I'm with in order. I'm with you.
I got you on the rundown. So Dubois, which happened somewhere after lunch
Eastern time, defeated Jarrell. Speaking of lunch, Jirell Hippo Miller. We'll
call him hippo instead of big baby because he looked like a hippo with the
trunks pulled up almost there. But look, I mean he had the trunks
pulled up almost to the nipples, I mean all the way up. It
was bad. It was bad. And so let me further say that for
all the blatherer, because you love the adjectives, for all the blather,
he looked like an out of shape, three hundred and thirty pound fighter,
like in the third round of the fight, swinging wildly, mouth wide open,
out of shape, and Duboi is not going to make anybody, forget
Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis, but he was very workmanlike with
the jab work in the body. The only question was gonna be can Miller
land a lucky punch? That was really the only intrigue in the last three
or four rounds. He was a punching bag. I mean, it was
target practice. I thought, there's my thoughts, go ahead. I thought
the boll looked absolutely horrible for like the first two rounds. He looked tired
actually after the second round and Miller was coming forward and even though again he
wasn't in the greatest shape, I grant you, he was throwing a lot
of punches. They were moving a Dubois at times, and he eventually he
slowed down and was able to I felt like in the second half he kind
of got a second wind. Actually, he started to get a little more
confident, a little more comfortable, and was able to fend off some of
those brief charges that Miller was making. And you got to give him credit.
Look for as much as we ripped on Dubois for quitting against Usik and
for you know, the complaints about the low blow that that wasn't a low
blow or I'm sorry that was a low blow, but he thought it was
an authentic punch. That that you know, he can hang his hat on.
This is now the next fight. And for all the grief he got
for that fight, you got to give him the credit of this fight.
You know, as he said in his postfight interview, you know, I
had approved to myself I was a real fighter, and I'm glad I could
show the heart and you know, he had to get through some mental things
and all that, and he did that. Now, on the one hand,
it was against Jerrel Miller, not against an USIC caliber fighter. But
on the other end, that's still important because now he proved to himself he
can do it. And he made a good fight. He still got good
punching power, he still was in great shape, it looked like, and
you know, he's now put himself in position in a heavyweight division where there's
going to be some opportunities he would think with some of the other contenders to
get himself into another big fight. And for Miller, uh, you know,
what, what are you gonna say? He got his was he talks
so much shit. He's a very unlikable guy. In that sense. But
you know, he was all love afterwards. You know that's fine. And
then Duban and him were cool afterwards, like you know, respect. I
mean they they fought a good fight. I mean it was an enjoyable fight
to watch as a fan. Uh. It's not like Miller is going to
retire. He's got one loss, you know, hopefully for his sake,
he can you know, get in better shape and uh and be more serious
in terms of uh of of the way he goes about conducting himself in a
fight week. But it was a goodness. It's a tremendous victory for Dubah,
not because of the opponent, but because of everything that he's got with
in his own mind and and the grief he got for what happened with Usik.
Uh makes you want to see him again and and uh, I've always
found it to be a likable guy, other than the way he acted in
the immediate post fight of the Yusig fight. So big win, good for
him. I mean, he's back, and it's always fun to have another
big punch and heavyweight on the scene. And I got that one Dubois on
the Moneylet I think a whole lot else but I got that one on the
money line, and who knows what his future is. But he's still young.
Also, teach, he's only twenty six years old, so he's got
maybe several years of good fights out there. And it needs to be said,
because we spew facts, this is why you don't come in fifty or
sixty pounds overweight. I mean, he was legitimately at least fifty pounds overweight,
and he looked like it. Jarrell Miller absolutely looked like it. I'm
not making excuses for him, but he actually fought at the exact same weight
that he fought his last fight at it, so it wasn't like he was
one weight and blew up. I understand that's still fifty or sixty pounds.
I mean, when you contemplate if he loses fifty pounds, he's still to
eighty. He just it was bad, but he has been again, I'm
just seeing the facts. He's been three hundred plus in the same ballpark since
twenty seventeen. It's not like this is something like new when he just didn't
take it seriously, he put on fifty pounds right, this is where he's
been fighting for quite a while. Again, it's maybe not the ideal situation
for him, but he's also I mean, he just had nothing. He
had nothing because he's not in shape and he's got to get in better shape.
But I don't think it's gonna matter. I don't, I don't know,
I don't. I don't agree with you when you say he had nothing.
He landed a lot of good punches, look at don't. I don't
think so the guy. The guy did not. The guy did not put
two punches together in any round of the fight. In a combination. He
would occasionally land something. His mouth was wide open in the third round.
He was swinging wildly because he was out of shape. And can I tell
you, Dobois took advantage of it. All right, So there's that on
the recap. What else we've covered just about everything else? Ji Opataiah one
punch bomb not we got we got Opataia as well. What else? What
else stood out here off of this one? If we're gonna go into order,
like we said, we're gonna go with Oh, you want to talk
about my boy, don't you? Because you can't coping him up as my
boy? A cop gets the fourth round t KO off of Magma Dov,
which again was an impressive perform for him. Tell me more about what you
saw and how does this make kaba Yell somehow, who's been in the top
ten by the way of the WBC. Does this make him somehow relevant?
He's been relevant. He's the undefeated European champion. He's been in the mix
for fights with lots of big names and those fights did not happen, not
because of him, but for other reasons. He's been attached to a potential
fight with Tyson Fury in the past and others in this weight class. He
has experience, he has as Anthony Joshua said, He's sparred with Joshua,
he sparred with everybody. He's a solid heavyweight. He's now twenty four and
oh with sixteen knockouts, and he's the European champion, which is maybe not
the world champion, but it's still a notable title. And he just defeated
a guy who was the favorite, the big puncher in Makmanduf, who was
eighteen and oh with seventeen knockouts going into the fight, but a bit older,
and Kabayell picked him apart. He was much faster. He devastated into
the body. He landed some very solid head shots even if he was a
smaller guy kaby Yell, and this was a big time victory for him.
And so Kabyell is going to find himself, particularly if these cards and Saudi
were gonna be continue to take place with lots of heavyweight fights, that Kabyll
is gonna be right there. I mean, mak Mandouf was on the on
the on the uh Tyson Fury Naganu undercard. They brought him right back after
a good performance, and I see no reason why they wouldn't want to have
kaby All back in a solid matchup. He can fight pick out. You
know, Frank Sanchez will talk about it for a minute. He won on
the under card. They can make Frank Sanchez against Kabyo. They're gonna mix
and match these guys and they let the cream rise to the top. But
I thought Kabyll uh he dropped him three times in the in the third round
knockout win, and it was a very very good victory for him. And
it was and also I mean it was somewhat one sided, I guess,
but it was definitely entertainment watching that fight. I mean, they were in
there just doing their thing, and uh, uh you know, he he
landed tremendous body punches, a couple of good head shots and uh he basically
chopped down the much bigger guy knockout after knockout early on in this fight.
So, as we mentioned, Opataiah and we well covered this on the preview
podcast not defending the IBF title because he vacated, like you explained, uh
in their in their crazy chaotic reasoning that I still don't understand, like forty
eight hours after we did the preview podcast. So anyway, he did what
he was supposed to do, a booming left the knockout of the night on
Ellis Zoro. So there's not a lot to go over. Besides, that's
that's a big time shot. So what what do you think is is he
gonna fight Bradest anyway now coming up whenever Bradest is healthy like we documented,
or what do you think is next? That's an interesting question because Braidis is
still injured and not available and he's not going to be back until the early
part of next year, and by the time he comes back, it may
be that Opataia will still be ranked. I don't know how the IBF is
going to handle him vacating the title. If they were smart, what they
should do is order Braida's versus versus Opati for the vacant title, and they
could do it again. You know, it's still in a tractive fight.
Their first fight was tremendous. You know. Opataiah is with the Saudi's for
the time being. He's gonna be on some of these upcoming shows. That
left hand that he knocked out Zora with was a fantastic punch, you know,
and like he was talking about, like Eddie Hern was talking about,
at some point, Opatai is going to do what every top cruiserweight does.
He's gonna go up to heavyweight. But for the time being, he's only
twenty six. He's got, you know, probably a few a few good
more fights left in the cruiserweight division, and he's got a chance to make
a name and do something in that weight class. And there's no reason why
he can't get into another title fight, perhaps you know, strive towards undisputed.
That's obviously more complicated because he's gotta have more fights, But the bottom
line is this, he's the number one cruiserweight in the world. He's the
lineal champion. He's sored a spectacular one punch knockout against Zora, who was
undefeated going into the fight. And he's got nothing I think, but uh,
you know, rainbows and sunshine coming up on his road over the next
you know, probably a few fights are a couple of years and a couple
of impressive ko wins off a nasty broken jaw. You love it when I
go medical terminology. He had the bilateral fracture of the jaw, meaning he
broke it on both sides in that greatest fight. He's now come back to
win two fights after that impressively, and we'll see what the future holds.
He's exciting and he is a big puncher, and he's yes spoken, and
he's got some charisma. I mean, I'd like watching Opatia fight. And
by the way, the continent of Australia is paying attention to because that's where
he's I mean, in the in the down underworld. He's a big deal,
just like Joseph Parker's a big deal. So shout out to our brethren
and sistern down under that care also about what al Patia's up to. Athough
Parker's from New Zealand, you know Parker New Zealand. Yes, Opataiah there
in austral right. So Philip Pergovich, we talked about got the win.
It's a first round knockout. We talked about his future. I don't know
if anything else needs to be said on that. Well, just the fact
that the fact that they were able to get Mark the more approved as an
opponent that just you know, I know was a placeholder because he wasn't going
to risk his mandatory position, you know, against anybody serious. But that
was a freaking joke. Def I was over in the first like thirty seconds.
He turned his back and you know, it's all she wrote. So
is there not a valid question? Do we really know what we have with
Hergovic right now? Based on the last I mean, he struggled against Jiang
in August of twenty two on the undercard of the rematch of Usik and Joshua.
He's one now two or three since then. So but it's still a
good win against his because we've seen what Jang has done. So I thought
he I actually thought he eked out that fight against saying it was a close
fight, fair enough, but look, he's an Olympic medalist. He has
a vast amateur background. He's a you know, he's a good sized heavyweight.
He's got a hulking physique, right right. Sure, you know,
he come off a nice win against Denzy McKean, who he knocked out late
in that fight, and a good knockout. I mean, look, do
I Saya Kergovich is gonna be a dominating heavyweight champion being the Hall of Fame
someday? You know, right now, I'd probably say maybe, probably not,
but for what's around today, he's one of the best heavyweights in the
world and he's ready to prove it against the best guy. So he's gonna
fight for the vacant title. And uh, this fight was all about what
it was. We have a three fight deal with the Saudi's. We're going
to keep you busy, give you a you know, an easier fight,
protect that position, and we're gonna hopefully you get new into a big fight.
And now it may be an Anthony Joshua fight. And Frank Sanchez did
win over Junior five. You did referenced that just a little while ago.
I know we're going down it's an eight fight pay per view we're giving.
That was the first fight of the show and the first which happened last Tuesday,
right as we're taping the podcast. The first fight of that show,
I think, no, it was actually the same day. It was earlier
today, but it just seems like it was a while ago that that took
place. The first six rounds of that fight absolutely sucked. Now I put
it to you this way. I was having a late breakfast with a couple
of friends of mine. We were able to get together on Saturday morning,
and literally as we were paying the bill, I'm looking and the Sanchez fight
was in the ring, and I'm now talking to you on the same day,
like about eleven or twelve hours later, and the pay per view just
got over a little while ago. Sanchez did start it at brunch for me
with the win over Junior five. Continue, Okay, nobody cares about your
brunch, Okay, just saying it was that long ago. Like I was
saying, the first five six rounds of the fight were absolutely horrible. He
was like, one guy wouldn't, one guy couldn't. And then finally it
perked up in round seven when Frank Sanchez finally started to throw some punches and
Junior five, who is a guy that's big and strong, but just does
not have the best punch resistance in the world. To put it kindly,
Uh got dropped and dropped and then dropped, and then the fight was over.
I mean he was bloodied up and you know that That's all she wrote.
I mean it was a pretty basically, it was like as soon as
Frank decided to start fighting, he ended the fight. He could have probably
done that two or three rounds earlier. And uh, you know, if
I beat the count. To his credit, short heart, I'm not knocking
Junior five, who, by the way, is a rather nice guy with
an interesting background. I actually got a chance to meet him a couple of
times and you know, hang out. I had dinner with his team one
time years ago when we were I forget even where we were. Maybe were
in Burningham. I think he fought on one of Deonta's undercards or something like
that. You know, so nice guy, Uh showed heart, got up
beat the count. You know, took some big, big shots. But
look, Frank Sanchez is a is a very good boxer. When he decides
to fight and not just dick around, you know, he is going to
be a guy that can give anybody a problem. I think so whether it's
him against you know, all these other guys on the card, Uh,
those are not U easy fights for Frank or for the other guy, is
my point. And I think that in the future we're going to see when
if these fights like this continue to take place in Saudi Arabia and they put
on various heavyweight fights, we'll see some of these different fighters that we see
in separate fights suddenly matching up with each other, mixing and matching like is
you know, go back and look at the way Don King used to do
that back in the day. There was always he had a ton of heavywets
and they would always end up fighting each other at one time or another.
All right, one more item before we get off of the pay per view
was did I see you on social media going back and forth and Eddie Hearn
joining in on whether or not the two fight deal was done, And as
it turns out, in the ring after the fight, Anthony Joshua and Eddie
Hearn are saying it, and at the press conference after the fight, Eddie
Hern is saying it, Yes, there was. I mean, what a
surprise there was a two fight deal. You always like to distinguish between agreed
upon sign they were going to fight and now it's all it's now up in
smoke. But I did see that, and I wanted to give you a
chance. If you had anything else to add, since you're never one to
hold back here on the recap podcast, anything else, I'll just say that
I reported a few days ago before this fight card took place that Joshua and
Wilder had agreed to all terms, not just the money, which had been
previously reported, but that said that the deal was done. I reported that
all the terms were agreed to for a two fight deal starting on March ninth,
second fight later in twenty twenty four, and that I wrote also that
it was expected that it would be signed before they entered the ring for their
fights on Saturday, and in various YouTube interviews that Eddie was doing with some
of my YouTube friends that were in read for this event. Was obviously when
that story came out, it was picked up by everybody, and Eddie continuously
said ra if he didn't say me by name, but said no where You're
not right. You know that it's not done. It's not a done deal.
He responded like that on Twitter. I felt like he was calling in
to question the veracity of my reporting, which I don't appreciate. I've got
almost thirty years in the business as a reporter, almost twenty five years on
boxing, and I know what the fuck I'm doing. And when I write
that a deal was agreed to, I don't put my reputation out like that
unless I have it dead to rights, and I had it dead to rights.
You were off the podcast I got this on Lockdown. Was your phrase
to me that you knew about what was going on, And so now that
has come to fruition that that's exactly what was already set up before those guys
got in the ring Saturday night. So when Eddie responded on his social media
that it was not true and that it wasn't done and somebody had tagged me
in that, I responded, with all due respect, Eddie's not being truthful
here, to which Eddie then had his say. So I didn't take it
further that I'm not going to get into a pissing contest with him on Twitter
or x but the facts of the facts. He stood in the ring after
the fight with Mannix and just cavalierly said, you know, we had the
Wilder fight sign, Well, was it sign or not signed? Because it's
only been like twenty four hours since that tweet, and I said they were
going to sign before they entered the ring, suddenly negotiate the rest of the
details on the morning of the fight. So the bottom line is, every
time I write a story like that, or any reporter for that matter,
you put your reputation on the line. That's right, and there's always the
chance you might be wrong. But I'll tell you what, in my now
almost twenty four years of doing boxing, I'm probably batting like over ninety percent
with my information. And I had this one, as you said on Lockdown,
on fucking Lockdown. There you go, all right, a couple of
news items, and then we are done here on this Christmas weekend with the
podcast out early. So we did talk at length on the bet Us Show.
There's a nice segment that's right there from the bet Us Boxing Show on
their platforms on their YouTube about the Naoia in a way Martin to Polis fight.
They can go hear us at length. That fight will be Tuesday morning,
US time, early Tuesday morning. You were explaining that, and it
is for undisputed at one hundred and twenty two coming up, so we're interested
with everything going on with the rest of the weekend, get ready for that
because right away after Christmas, on Tuesday morning early, they're gonna be in
the ring before we're back on this podcast. So go ahead, yeah,
I mean, according to the I mean, it's a full card. There's
like four or five fights that they'll show on the on the at least in
the United States anyway, you know, it's on ESPN plush and according to
the folks at top rank. While the pay the the ESPN Plus card begins
at three o'clock in the morning Eastern time, midnight Pacific. The main event
between in a way and to Paulas is supposed to be approximately five point fifty
five am for the ringwalks Eastern time, so plan accordingly. But this is,
uh, you know, a day after Christmas fight is not the most
common thing, let's say, at least in Japan. Most of the bigger
fights I have at the end of the year are usually around the New Year's
weekend the following week, not necessarily on Christmas or you know, day after
Christmas. But this is a very big fight. I mean, in a
way, if he wins, He's got very good chance, in the eyes
of many, to be the fighter of the year. I've beaten Stephen Fulton
having moved up from bannawaight to win the two belts at junior featherweight. If
he beats to Pauls, will win the other two. If the Paulas somehow
scores the massive upset, I mean, that's a I think that honestly,
that goes down as one of the biggest upsets in boxing history if you ask
me. But right now, in a way, I think most people view
him as at worst number two on the pound for poundless. It really comes
down to, you know, Crawford or in a way one A, one
B and then it's sort of everybody else after them, and he's got an
opportunity to do, you know, something impressive. Crawford is the only boxer
to be a two division undisputed champion in the four belt ear he did it
at junior welter eight, you know several years ago. He did it of
course in welterweight division when he defeated Erol Spence this year and now you have,
in a way, having come from being the undisputed bannonmweight champion which he
accomplished in h at the end of last year. One year later, in
two fights, become the undisputed champion in the junior featherweight division. So that's
a very big deal. And on top of that, when you look at
the higher history of the junior featherweight division there Okay, we talked about,
Okay, the four belt era and all that, there's never been a three
belt on dispeeded champion in the junior featherweight division. And I don't even think
maybe I'm wrong about this. I don't think there's ever been a two belt
un discoutered champion in the junior featherweight division. So he's that's amazing. That's
amazing, there's been there wasn't a WBA WBC champion somewhere in the nineties or
the two thousands together in that division. Is amazing. So I'd have to
double check that. I'm pretty sure that that that's the case, though there's
been certainly fighters in the weight classes that have they considered like number one.
Well, or there was a time when there was only one title, right
because the IBF was created in the mid eighties, so that would be the
three belt era. Sure, So so you're talking about like late you know,
seventies, late seventies, eighties for this division and however long that division's
been there. That's amazing and it's about to happen. And good good,
good luck Martin Topoulos, and good luck on sticking in there for more than
two or three rounds if he can with the monster. Uh, let's see,
I'll tell you a little bit in terms of the polus. I mean,
he's not a bum fighter. Okay, he's solid. He's been a
champion in the bandon weight division. He scored a big upset win on a
split decision to take the two belts he won the IBF and the WBA back
in April when he scored that decision over mj Akmadaya, who, by the
way, in an eliminator that took place on the undercard of what was it
the Devin Haney Regis program card. He looked, he looked very good in
winning the fight. Uh. You know, when he when he's able to
come back, you know, from that loss and put himself in position.
You know, he totally wrecked Kevin Gonzales in that fight that was in fact
the undercard of No No, it was the it wasn't the the Regius program
card. It was the fight card that was last week with Sonny Edwards and
in Bam Rodriguez. In any event, so MJ bounced back. But you
know he lost the lottery ticket because he got upset in this fight by the
pass. So Tapaalais is no joke. I mean. The one thing though
that gives me pause is his best days were probably at bandam weight and he's
got three three knockout losses and in a way is very simply one of the
best or two knockout losses, I should say, in his three fights.
But in a way, he is one of the best punchers in boxing.
You can hurt you to the head and he's probably the best body puncher in
the sport. So he won the lottery ticket and I'm sure he'll give it
a good go. And like I said, if he wins, massive,
massive upset. But I think we're about to see the coronation of in a
way as a two division on disputed champion. You know, it's just an
he's already a lock for the Hall of Fame. That's just another great line
item on that resume. And you know what, I don't know if it'll
be in the next fight. But I suspect sometime within the next you know,
two or three fights, and you'll see in a a rise to featherweight
to go after some more builts. And who's stopping this guy in the short
term while he's in his prime. That's the real question. Moving forward twenty
twenty four to twenty twenty five, that's a great debate for later on.
Let's see what happens Tuesday. So you just say one thing about in a
way you talk about in his prime. I mean he is thirty years old,
which is kind of on the older and older end of things for a
guy that's been abandoned weight. Now, O your feather we're in our fifties.
Don't tell me the thirties down hill. Thirties is not downhill as a
as a junior featherweight moving up who started at a freaking as a junior flyweight.
You know, it's it's not you're he's still probably in his prime.
What I was gonna say, though, is that other than the first fight
against Don't Air, which was the fight of the year that year in a
was it twenty nineteen, right, If you take a look at the entire
career of in a way, he has never really taken much punishment. He's
very fresh from that same point because he's dominated virtually every one of his fights
and won most of them. Uh you know, other three fights went the
distance. But twenty five wins and twenty two of them are knockouts. And
he's just a spectacular fighter. What can you say? He's literally one of
the If you said, Rayfhael, in your years of covering boxing, make
a list of the best fighters you've ever seen, He's on that list,
and it doesn't take longer. You know, that's Mayweather, Pack, Yeah,
Roy Jones, Canelo, Triple de la Hoya. You know the greats,
Bernard Hopkins, the Klitchko's, people of that ell because Shane Mosley,
even, I mean Jan Daniel mark Haz. I mean, the point is,
if I'm making like the ray Field top twenty five of the twenty some
years I've done this, NOI in a way has finds himself definitely on the
list of those greats, no doubt. All Right, a couple more news
items were about done. There's not really nostalgia, although Rayfield wants to joke
around here in a couple of moments. Good news after something that was concerning
and scary that the long time forty plus year HBO boxing analyst Larry Merchant was
rushed to the hospital on Thursday night, and it turns out that it's not
serious. He's in stable condition. I don't know if you've conversed with him.
You and I did not rehearse this and talk about this, but there
are some that have. And Larry was even saying to our colleague Michael Woods,
who wasn't intending to talk to Larry. He had sent Larry a couple
of messages, hadn't heard and he was intending to leave Larry a voicemail just
saying, I hope you're okay. Just let me know that you're okay.
And Larry picked up the phone on Friday and Larry said, what do you
mean. It's on TMZ and I'm an internet thing now. And apparently Jim
Lampley also has weighed in that he has spoken with Larry, and I know
you're very close to to Larry and to Jim Lampley. That is it's good
news that it's not serious, not believed to be serious to say. Whatever
else you've found out is when you're ninety two and you're in the hospital for
multiple days. It is serious, so let's not joke around about that.
It's nice. However, it is not the caliber of a drama that TMZ
portrayed in its story. And I was happy to hear that. So I
saw that and look like everybody else, and I actually texted Larry and I
said, Larry, listen, I mean, I saw I read that your
rush of the hospital. I hope you're okay. If you're able, please
just text me back. Yes, you know whatever. I didn't hear from
him. I mean, I wasn't surprised me that I didn't know if he
even had his phone or whatever. So this is kind of an interesting thing.
I'm literally watching round eleven of the Bight. He has just knocked down
Lynn and Arthur, and in the moments as like literally as these landing the
punches, my phone rings. It is and you know, because I'm very
close to Larry. It was Larry's son in law calling me to tell me
that he saw the text, and Larry wanted him to call me and to
tell me that it was that. Yes, he's in the hospital. Yes
something happened. It wasn't as dramatic as it was made out to be and
that he's going to be okay, and you know, I was joking with
his unlock ause Larry. I didn't speak Larry. He was there in the
room with him, and I was like, just do you tell Larry to
you know, if heel up, get better and when he's when he's up
to it, tell him to give me a call and I'll give him the
rundown on what happened on this card in saudiy Raby. Because Larry still pays
attention to the big shows, the big show, so I was very pleased
that it was not to say it wasn't serious, but it's it was not
nearly the level of it was made out to be. So you know,
Larry was kind of embarrassing and kind of kind of pissed off that he had
to go in the able and say, if if it had been just you
know, people with him at home, they would have just taken to the
hospital to have him checked out and you know, maybe checked in to take
care of whatever was the issue. But it was not like he's, you
know, imminently gonna die. Thank God, all right, and ninety two
years young, that's amazing. A couple more things you also have been reporting
this about Connor Ben will be back. That's been talked about again. Can't
get a license to fight in England. And I don't want to go down
the rabbit hole for fifteen more minutes because we're about done here. But he's
now going to be able to fight in Las Vegas when he can't get a
license to fight in England. So here we go with shopping to a different
country, a different venue. So he's going to be back in February.
It's not Chris Ubank. They couldn't agree. Just say something else there that's
on your mind. Well, the point here is this, I mean,
whatever your personal viewpoints of whether he should be boxing, not boxing, get
a license, not get a license, the fact is that when he had
the last fight in Florida, it was because he was taken off of the
American suspension list by the ABC that occurred. There was nothing and no reason
why the Florida Commission wouldn't or shouldn't give him a license, and the same
goes for Nevada. So they're not venue shopping, which is something that does
happen. He is an eligible again. You can agree that he shouldn't be
eligible that's fine, but he is currently on the laws and rules that are
on the books. He is an eligible fighter to be licensed in the United
States. He doesn't have medical problems that anybody is aware of. He just
goes through the normal process. He's not suspended in the UK because the provisional
suspension was lifted, but they won't license him because the case is still being
adjudicated from the standpoint of yu COD and the British Boxing Board, which appealed
the decision by the other board that oversees that sort of thing to remove this
provisional suspension. A lot of it is semantics. They're supposed to be hearing
coming up. I think it's in February, maybe at the end of January.
But in the meantime he is free and clear to fight outside of the
UK, so that's what they're doing. He will headline on his own member.
They were trying to make the U Bank fight that had been canceled in
the first place because of his positive drug tests on February third. It ultimately
fell apart. Connor was having his own financial problems in terms of coming to
win agreement with Natroom Boxing. I believe they got over those issues The problem
then came down to you Bank having a disagreement with his people at Wasserman Boxing,
so that fight broke apart. So they're not going to just leave Connor
not fighting. He's coming to America on February third, or headline on his
own. They say it will take place normally the American the Zone card take
place in the evening eight o'clock start time Eastern. This is going to be
more of an afternoon star time in Las Vegas to be in prime time in
Britain, which is where the audience for him is. He's going to fight
at the Cosmopolitan, which is not a big room. It only holds maybe,
like I forget the exact number. I'll say around two thousand or so.
I've covered a few fights there in the over the years. And he's
going to fight a New York fighter who's not not very accomplished. He's a
undefeated fighter, but he's got no has no names that are even remotely recognizable
on your when you look it down his ledger, it's a fighter named Peter
Dobson. You know, I don't know how difficult of it it's going to
be. Dobson's only had one previous ten round fight. This is going to
be scheduled for a twelve rounder, but they're keeping him busy because the U
Bank fight and is still going to be there. And if it's not,
he's still the Steepson winning. For better for worse, He's going to find
himself in a bigger fight in the welterweight division. Where this fight, if
they announced it as a welterweight fight, my understanding, it'll be a few
pounds over though actual one to forty seven min but that's not really a big
thing. Is not like a you know, a world championship fight or anything
like that. So yeah, they announced sat on Friday, Connor benn is
back in the main event on this to his own card. All right.
I have one more thing that's not on the rundown, and I don't know
that you have seen this, but the Showtime final thirty seven thirty six thirty
seven minutes, thirty seven minute retrospective on the thirty seven years. I don't
know how thirty seven years, and I think thirty six or thirty seven minutes,
it may have gone right at that number for the thirty seven years of
Showtime. That final retrospective is now up on YouTube where they released it.
And for all I know, because I don't have the Showtime service, they
may have it available on demand where you can click it and watch it,
but you can watch it on YouTube. And this is this is me saying
this, and I brought this up to you when they did the final show
and the final tribute. Again, to me, it is disreve I don't
know what's going on, right, I'll be the first one to admit I
don't know what's going on. But if Steve Albert is able and Steve Albert
is living, Steve Albert is seventy one years old. He's the youngest of
the Albert brothers. He was on there. They had him on there,
Okay, or mention it. At least, can I finish for Steve Albert
to not be given an opportunity to say anything about covering Showtime boxing. The
only time that he was mentioned was for about three or four seconds by Maro
Ronalo and they showed him on screen with al Bernstein, and he said,
I remember watching that fight with Steve Albert and al Bernstein and they showed him
for like three seconds on screen. This is the guy I'm doing my Rayfield
now. This is the guy that called the Evander Holyfield knockout of Buster Douglas
for the undisputed title on Showtime to help them really get rolling, He called
the Chavez Whittaker dramatic draw, controversial draw. You move on through the Chavez
Hoggin at Mexico, the two Tyson Holyfield epic, memorable fights. He's on
your one of your favorites, if not your favorite, Corrales Castile. He's
on the call of all of those fights for twenty four years. He's on
those fights. I don't understand why you could not have him on for ninety
seconds to see someone not yet for ninety seconds to say something about having called
Showtime Boxing and what a privilege it was as somebody that is in this business.
To me, that was insulting, that was disrespectful. Me. Ask
your question and I don't know the answer this. I him and asked him,
I have no idea, and I said that at the top. But
here's what. Let me ask you another question. Do you think if they
called Steve Albert and said you want to be part of this, that Steve
Albert would have said no. Probably he's out of town, maybe he's on
vacation. Maybe he's tied up, maybe he's ill, who knows. Here's
the point, though, you're missing the big picture, the big pictures.
I watched the feature and while it's very nicely produce and it told the story
to a degree of today's Showtime crew, and they went behind the scenes of
them preparing for the Benavds and Andre Card, which was their last pay per
view, not so much the card that was the last show that they did
up in Minnesota. I still don't have my all time highlight reel. Right,
that was what was hugely disappointing. So I'm I'm not happy Showtime is
out of business. I'm going to miss a lot of those people if I
don't see them down the road or deal with them or talk to them on
a regular basis like I have done for many, many years. But they
they did not put together an adequate highlight reel of the greatest Well, they
did a three minute one that they showed that night of the broad him you
may you may say not good enough, but they did one. Again.
I'm in this business. I have been in this business for the last thirty
years, and the man is the foundation of what they started doing, calling
the fights. He's the soundtrack that's there with Ferdie Pacheco and Bobby Chez,
et cetera. And to an extent, Barry Tompkins wasn't involved in this either.
I think part of it, because I know enough about the business part
of it is they wanted to do this at the same time with all their
people available to say goodbye on the pay per view, and they spent two
or three days around that weekend putting it together. I get that. I
just I reiterate again. I watched in amazement that they couldn't find ninety seconds
sixty seconds to have him come on and say something. Did they mention Bobby
Chez? Did they mention Furdie Checho? They did all the other people.
Not Freddy Pacheco's not living. I'm not making jokes and I know you're not
saying that Freddy Pacheco's not living. I don't know where Bobby Chez is,
but again, this guy was Showtime Championship Boxing soundtrack. His great calls of
they did fight. I mean again, maybe in passing they did, they
didn't really talk about it. Jay Larkin, that founded the damn place.
I don't think they ever mentioned him on the thirty seven Manyue didn't mentioned Ken
Hirshman, who did the Super six Tournament and many other top grade fights on
Show with Time. So you know, listen to me. You're annoying me
because he had alleviated from the rundown. But whatever, I'm just putting something
out there. I'm putting something out there that they put it out there,
and as a broadcaster, I mean it would be it would be the same.
Steve Albert, by the way, is in the International Boxing Hall of
Fame for calling Showtimes fights for twenty four years. Yeah, I know,
I voted for thank you. I rest my case. He should have been
part of the retrospective. With that, I think we've covered everything in a
full show because we really don't have nostalgia except for the only nostalgia we really
have is you want to set it up, yeah, the rematch? Well
no, not the rematch. I got to set it up correctly. Apollo
Creed is dead December twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five. Copy years ago is
at nineteen eighty five. That's now thirty eight years ago, right, That
is when Rocky beats Drago in Moscow on Christmas Day to help bring an end
to the Cold War. Right, probably one of the most important items of
nostalgia we could talk about in the show, except as we often have joked,
and we joked even in the lead in on Friday, it was not
Christmas Day. It was July and Vancouver when they filmed it in a small
arena, acting like it it's Christmas Day, no money, And that's because
we don't have the fight December twenty fifth, what what Christmas? So there
you go. That's the real. Yeah, that's about the only nostalgia there.
So go relive Rocky, Go Live, relive Rocky full. It's got
to be on somewhere this weekend Christmas, I'm sure as part of as part
of Christmas where they're beating the daylights out of each other, he and Drago.
And by the way, the arguments with people, though I always say
Rocky three is number one, a lot of people will tell you it's Rocky
one or Rocky or Rocky four. Those I mean, I don't we're going
to get into an argument now, that Rocky argument. First of all,
let me help you. It's not Rocky one. It's called Rocky the first
well, yeah, the first one, the first one I think stands.
And then Rocky three is probably better than Rocky two. And I know you
love Rocky three for the montage at the beginning, which you've explained well for
other reasons also, and Rocky four. Yes, Rocky five should never have
been made. And then Rocky Balboa a six to one good I like that
movie. Yeah, that was a good one. Good way to answers I
like to say about Rocky six. Meaning about Rocky Balboa is I got to
shoot scenes for that film, and as I joke with my good pal Brian
Kenny, our scenes were cut. They didn't even make the the deleted scenes.
You were on the cutting room floor on that one. But still good
stuff. Rocky Drago Christmas fictitiously. So here's the question. Forty years ago,
let's ask you the question. Is Rocky four a Christmas movie? That
is a good question. I think it is so because we talked about on
the bet Us show. Diehard is absolutely a Christmas movie. You love el
So that's a that's a standby. I think I might have to put Rocky
four on just for the heck of it. At some point this and around
all the other day. I think they showed at one point in the show
I think there was a Christmas tree show that wasn't there, and then in
the movie, and they made a big deal about to be trying to remember
when he's training supposedly in Russia, which is actually like Jackson Hole, Wyoming
was where the training scenes were shot where he's in the snow and all that
in the mountains. But in any event, I don't remember a Christmas tree.
Maybe they did have one there. Maybe it was chopping down me if
you're boxing in a big heavyweight fight which was not for the title was actually
I think technically did not count as an official fight. I think it was
supposedly like an exhibition, right, But anyway, it was on which if
your film is set to the backdrop of Christmas Day, it's a Christmas movie.
I grant you that, all right, my friend. We've done a
bunch here again. This has been a special version of the recap where typically
Sunday night into Monday. Of course it's New Year's Eve, so we got
to figure out for next week as well what we're doing. But we brought
this to you twenty four hours earlier Saturday night into Sunday for those that are
about to participate. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Festivus for the rest of
us. Happy New Year coming up. We're almost done. We're almost done
for this calendar year, and we gave the peeps a lot here on this
program. Anything else, anything else, will be good. I'll just tell
all of our loyal listeners that we appreciate them, and I hope they have
a great holiday. Absolutely, and hopefully you enjoyed this year podcast. Subscribe,
follow, rate us, and review us as well. Those ratings and
reviews do help, whether it's Apple podcasts, spreakers, Spotify, wherever you
can rate us and review us, review us, please do so. For
now, we are good. You have been listening to the Fight Freaks Unite
recap podcast. We're back one final time. We'll recap the in a way
fight whatever happens from Tuesday, and we'll preview the final weekend of twenty twenty
three at a later date on the Big Fight Weekend podcast week But for right
now, we're good. My thanks to Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reef.
You've been listening to Fight Freaks Unite in the recap podcast.