Off a weekend that has seen Oh What a Bomber and cancelation for the English
Heavyweight Showdown the Contenders Showdown between Anthony Joshua and Gillian White. A weekend that
has seen Jake Paul get a victory overneath Nate d As not unexpected in the
boxing match. In the MVP promotion's main event in Dallas, Amanda Soronto defended
her titles. We're ready to recap it all for the weekend. Give you
a little news, give you a little nostalgia. Welcome in. It is
the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast. I am the somewhat competent host, T
J. Reeves. He is our insider. Hello, Dan Raphael. Fight
Freaks Unite is your substack big fight Weekend dot com insider. How are things,
my friend? Everything good? Happy Sunday in the dog days of August.
Yes, indeed, and again we've got some fight news. We've got
the recap of the Pole Diaz fight where a thirty nine year old Nate Diaz
hung in there. That's about the best thing you can say for that thirty
eight thirty. I thought he is he thirty nine soon? He's not thirty
nine yet. I know he's thirty eight. That's what matters. It's thirty
eight, and I do know that Jake Paul had him by at least a
decade. So we're gonna get into that fight and recap it. And Amanda
Serano looked good as expected, although that that fight was very one side.
We're gonna get into all of that. Some fight news involving Mike Tyson says
he's training someone. There's a tease for that. Um, So we have
a lot to get to here on the program. Again, a reminder,
however, you found us, thank you for doing so, Rate us,
review us, etc. On all the platforms Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
Spotify. We're out with the preview going into the weekend Thursday night into Friday.
On this podcast feed. We are back with the Fight Freaks Unite recap
that comes your way on the Sunday evening Monday timeline. As is the case
here, however, you found us on that all right, So there is
one piece of business here that we have and we're gonna do this officially live
to tape right now, Brother Ray feel and I'm going to declare the winner.
So this is how Dan doesn't know what I'm doing this is how we're
going to do it. At random. We asked you to rate us and
review us and take a screenshot of it. We were bribing you. Essentially.
Ray Field likes it when we tell the truth. We were bribing you.
Rate us, review us, and we got a really cool random draw
gift, which is the program correct we were spangling. We got the program
for Spine Crawford that is going to go to somebody here at random in just
a second that rated us and reviewed us and send us the screen shot so
that we could find you at a later date. Very imputed detective work on
that, brother, ray Field. And by the way, the program is
really cool, and I'm not just saying that because I wrote most of it.
Not only is it the program from one of the biggest fights of our
generation in terms of historical significance between Spans and Crawford, with a Hall of
Fame performance from Terrence Crawford, but the program comes inside and it's easily removable
because it just comes on like a little sticky thing. On the glossy pages
is a four car panel of four different cards. Errol Spence, Terence Crawford,
No, Needo, don't air who Box on the undercard his actually his
rookie card, believe it or not, even though it's the end of his
career essentially, and also Isaac Pitt Bull Crew is his rookie card. And
they are they're perforated and you can either break them apart if you show desire,
you can leave them intact as a panel. They're official because they're you
know from the promotion that that that you know, had the program produced PSA
grades them if you so desire. Anyway, it's a really cool thing,
and they're they've got some value. But I just love them because it's a
great set. And uh, that's like a bonus that comes in the program.
So someone's gonna get a really sweet item. So this is a cool
thing. So right, I almost don't want to give it away through well,
but you have one for yourself. I mean I do know that you
got one for yourself. So now we're giving one of the peeps. We've
been pledging to do this and we're about to do this live. So what
I have it again, I'm gonna go by my camp one. Bah blah
blah blah, blah blah blah blah. I got seventeen seventeen of you that
followed the instructions and took the screenshot of your rating in review. Now,
if you did not take a screenshot where we could find you, thank you
for reviewing us. But if Detective Reeves can't find you, then I can't
put it in the hopper. It does me no good that you are Alexis
ARGUEO fan twenty three or whatever on social media to find you. So these
are the seventeen that I can find. Dan has no idea because he cannot
see the list. So all I'm gonna say to you sorry. I mean,
I know some of the ones that did it because I know, but
you don't know what you don't You don't have any idea what order. You
can't see what I'm doing. And I know it's unfair when we do these
random things, because psychologists will tell you that most of the time, you're
not going to pick the first number in a list or the last number in
a list. So I'm sorry upfront, at random if you're one or if
you're seventeen, and I don't know who that is. So Raphael, I'm
pretty confident, is not going to give me one or seventeen point blank.
Give me a number a number right now between two and sixteen. Give me
a number seventeen. You're gonna wait, You're gonna go against me after I
just said that on purpose? All right. The seventeenth name that I am
looking at is Mark Keison, Naso and brother Rayphel. You're gonna see this
because I'm gonna show it to you that it is legit. There's his name.
There's number seventeen. Mark Keison Naso, who rated us and reviewed us.
I don't know if I have the date on when he did it.
He paid Social tagged us on July twenty, j twenty. If he's social
tagged us, he rated us and review us said, my favorite podcast,
Dan Rayphel is fantastic, he says, teach about us to downplay his bio
blah blah blah. So Mark Keison, Naso or Naso, you are the
random seventeenth name. And Rayphel had no idea what I was doing or what
I was picking, or who was what name, what number, what order?
There? It is at random and Dan can see what I'm doing live
as we can see each other on video contact. There's our one, brother
Ray Fiel. I'm gonna get you that out. No We just have to
make sure that our winner touches base with you, not with me, and
gives you his address so I can when I Otherwise you will be sending the
program to Loots, Florida, the northern suburb of Tampa where I live,
and I will collect the program. But I'm just kidding. Mark Keison,
if I have that right, or Marcus on NASO, if I pronounced it
correctly, you are our random winner. You followed directions along with sixteen others.
We just drew you at random. Ray feel again had no idea of
the order of the seventeen. He just went number seventeen. I don't even
know a famous seventeen. Who's a famous seventeen? Maybe sports? I don't
even know. But Mark Keison or Marcus On, you're the winner of the
Aerospans program at random from us on the Fight Preaching IPI, we already have
a winner. We're five minutes into the show and somebody's already a winner.
So there you go. Congratulations. Keep rating us and reviewing us, especially
on the Apple podcast platform. We didn't have to well hear this, and
or you're going to reach out on the social post or however direct message him
get them get the address. Yes, and sometime, you know, when
I get around to the next week or so, we'll get it out to
you, beautiful. And that joins other winners. Edree, our buddy entered
in California. What is it? Homer, who's the lawyer in washing DC?
He won, and forgive me we had another winner. I want to
say, Scott in Nebraska. Maybe it's wrong. Whoever the fan is in
Nebraska? You also won. We're giving stuff away here is part of I
mean, we've given away some cool stuff, and ess I think this is
probably the best thing we've given it away. You ask me, it's a
pretty cool thing. Although I'm partial to my Tyson Holyfield hat because there's not
a lot of those floating around that had never been worn before from the ninety
six first fight Tyson Holyfield one. My man Homer got that hat. So
bravo. So Markison or Marcus Son, Congratulations, we'll get in touch with
you. You've won the program right off the top on the show, Did
you like how I started with something cheery and butter. I hope when he
gets it he'll do what our other winners have done, which is also take
a picture posted on social like they're sitting on the couch reading their program or
whatever. So we can make selfie everybody that you won courtesy of the Fight
Freaks to Night Recap Big Fight, we can podcast be so you like how
I started with something cheery on the program. Now we got to go to
the downer. We'll get to the review of the Jake Paul fight card in
the win over night Diaz lo and behold, Saturday morning. I'm going about
my business. You're going about your business. It's a Saturday. We're getting
ready for fights that night later that night, and suddenly there's an announcement from
match Room Boxing. How about Dillian White admitted in his social media post later
he didn't know this until match Room sent that out. He didn't know that
the fight was off. How about that? So, I mean, the
fight is off, and what a surprise. And I'm gonna be a little
strong with this, but go ahead in just second. What a surprise that
a clown that's failed two previous drug test has failed another drug test, his
third, and the fight with Anthony Joshua is now off. The debate now
becomes can Joshua find another opponent? You're about to give us inside on that.
But first your reaction that we're trying to have a mild Saturday morning,
relax and we got this go ahead. I mean, the main thing is
just disappointment and unfortunately not not always a huge surprise when these things happen because
Dad's boxing. I mean, not everybody uses peeds, but unfortunately many of
the fighters do, and some of them are stupid enough to get caught.
And Dylan White got caught. It's the third time. So, as I
have said in the past, you know, if you get busted one time
and there's maybe a reasonable excuse, somebody gave you something, you took it
by accident, there is that contamination does exist. You know, maybe you
just did it and you realize you shouldn't have and you you're sorry about it.
I mean that all that is fine, and you pay your pricing,
you move on with your career in your life. I get that. The
problem is when it becomes a trend. So one time I don't approve of
it, but I can kind of get it, I guess. Sometimes then
you have a second one happened, and then you're like, oh, man,
did you don't like you didn't learn your lesson the first time. Then
then it happens a third time, and you're like, you're like a serial
cheater, because if you look a look at Dillian White's track record, you
know you have to go way back. First of all, in twenty nineteen,
he had the test that was a failure against when he was getting ready
for a fight with Oscar Revis, where it was discovering a few days before
that for a steroid called Theanna ball Ucod actually ended up letting. They had
a hearing emergency hearing, They did not notify Oscar Revis or his team and
the fight went forward anyway, and basically Dillian got off on a technicality.
If you go back to twenty twelve, this is before he was a top
contender, he tested positive for a stimulant whose name I'm not even going to
try to pronounce it as so many letters, and that was a post fight
drug test conducted by Yucat after he scored a knockout victory. This is as
a younger fighter on the way up. He actually did take a two year
ban for that situation, so he was punished for that fight. He was
not really punished in any meaningful manner for the twenty nineteen drug tests. Remember
the twenty nineteen drug test was he had, you know, he was the
WBC's interim heavyweight title holder when that happened. He ultimately was reinstated when he
got off on the technicality because the WBC really kind of couldn't keep him from
not having that belt. Once the UCAD people let him off and he was
good to go, so again sort of he got to keep the belt on
the technicality, which he ultimately lost. But anyway, now here we go
with the third one for a substance which we're not sure of because that has
not been an ounce I've been trying to join my damn this to find out
the details of it. Hopefully I will come up with that in the next
day or too. It's a little more difficult on a weekend when a lot
of folks aren't really you know, checking their emails or picking up their phones
or checking their text. In any event, it's a huge disappointment because the
year you had maybe not the greatest matchup in the world, but a rematch
of a real fun fight with Anthony Josho, who was looking to use this
as a fight to springboard himself into a fight at the end of the year,
early in January or early next year in January against Deante Wilder in a
huge fight. It messes up Natchum's plans. This was a pay per view
in the UK on his own obviously the rest of the world that was a
regular event. But still they're trying to keep it together. Now, by
the time people listen to this on you know, could be I guess Monday
on Sunday night or you know, we're taping it Sunday evening Eastern time.
By the time people may get around listening to this come Monday morning hour time,
it'll be the afternoon in the UK time. I know from speaking to
the UK folks, to the matchroom people, they're trying to find a replacement
opponent to keep this card alive. I was told that on Sunday they have
been notifying and talking to some people that are on the undercard that are traveling
from places other than England that they should continue with their travel plans and come
to the UK. So they're trying to get this thing where they're going to
be able to still have the event, whether it winds up still as a
pay per view. If they have this seriously downgrade the opponent. You know,
all that remains to be seen, So it's still a fluid situation.
But I know they don't want to lose the date. They got a lot
of other fighters, you know. That's what I always felt bad about TJ
is when something like this screws up a fight and it impacts I mean,
look, I'd like to see Joshua get his fight. It I'm not worried
about josh from a financial standpoint. The guys made hundreds of millions of dollars.
You know, he's a wealthy guy, fair enough, But all these
other folks on the undercard, they're not super wealthy guys and gals. That's
how they make their living, them and their trainers and their managers and all
the people that that depend on these events going forward. So they're all in
a jam. You got Matrium that's been working their ass off for this event
for however many months, try to get everything start away, and you got
a you know, a positive drug test that can possibly mess everything up.
So hopefully by the time people listen to this, they'll have sorted it out,
they'll found another opponent, and they'll be able to go forward with the
event. But Dillian White you know, I'll give him the opportunity to make
his case and listen to what he has to say. But on the surface
that just sounds terrible, as is this third one. He made a cookie
cutter, you know, sort of run of the mill. I'm sorry,
I'm devastating. I had no idea. Blah blah blah blah blah. The
dog get my homework, all right, So more on the scenarios and what
might salvage it in just a second. But let's just finish up on Jillian
White. First of all, this is rather obvious, and we are going
to bag on him. When you're a repeat offender over and over again,
you don't get to benefit of the doubt. As far as I'm concern,
he doesn't get it again here uh and again his his behavior has been clown
behavior. Now going back to when he bagged the fight with Otto Violin and
was acting like it was a shoulder injury and nobody could get out of him,
which shoulders hurt. And he's making h you know, making it that
it's an injury and we knew it wasn't an injury. He was trying to
fight Tyson Fury and signed that fight and then he doesn't want to participate in
the promotional part at the beginning of that fight because he's pouting or whatever.
And here's more clown behavior again doing it. It's probably I'm just speculating.
It's probably a weight loss drug where he was trying to cut some weight.
You would think that he got cut, but that he got caught with We'll
find could it could be, it could be, it could be anything,
but I'm just gonna speculate. I'm just speculating, and it's a weight loss.
He's trying to cut weight, and that's what others have had trying to
lose some weight. If you're thirty pounds or forty pounds overweight, you're trying
to do it more rapidly and get in better shape and got caught. We'll
see, We'll see what it is and what comes to me. Look,
his history is it tests. One was for us steroid, one was for
a stimulant. So you know, I don't it doesn't whether it's a drug
that would help him lose a few pounds or not. I mean, obviously,
if you're a heavyweight, it doesn't matter what your weight is for the
fight. I don't to me, it's not even really relevant what it is.
I mean, I'm just curious frankly to know. If it's a stimulant,
then often weight loss related. If it's a steroid, that's not necessarily
weight loss related. So I mean, who gives a ship what the substance?
And here all the other and here's the other important thing too. This
was a VADA test correct clarify for me, which means that is different than
the UKad testing and in terms of who does it, who handles it or
whatever, because the UKOD part of it goes back to Connor Band a year
ago where they were trying to do the appeal and slide it through and it
was only when the media found out that the firestorm started a couple of days
before the Connor Band Chris Eubank thing. But the VADA thing, they couldn't
slide it through to the UK. What happens is the VADA test happens,
and when the results look when people have to understand about VADA, it's not
they don't make the rules, they don't punishments. They test, you know,
they collect a sample, they send it to the proper labs. They
take care of the results as far as you know, noting them and then
they don't make a statement, don't put it out publicly. Their job is
to do the testing and notify their clients of the result. And when the
test comes back, whatever it is, negative or positive, they notify the
people who are supposed to be notified, which typically would be the boxer and
their team, meaning the promoter. There's a designated person to receive it on
behalf of the fighter, usually a promote a lawyer or a manager or somebody
like that. They notify both sides. They notify the Association of Boxing Commissions
about as United States Company, and they also notify the regulatory agency in the
country in which this takes place. So they notified the British Board and that's
who gets to the results. So we still don't know that the substance.
You know. Somebody asked me like, well, when are they gonna announce.
Well, they're not going to announce. It's gonna be up to some
people like myself. We're gonna dig and call and harass, you know,
not harass, but you know, it kind of twist arms a little bit
to try to find out what it is and maybe get the paperwork or somebody
that had it is going to leak it, which you know, that's what
I hope for. That makes a lot easier. Or Gillian or another scenario,
Gillian White will say, this is what they told me I tested positive
for, and I and I believe it was in contaminated food or drink.
That's another current lie and shirk of responsibility. You know I had tainted I'd
had tainted meat, I had attainted what was one attainted tea? Or maybe
he'll admitting what it was. This is more about Anthony Joshua. Okay,
this is about him, so his schedule so he can get ready for a
wilder fight. All on that point. Absolutely, is your belief he's trying
to fight come next Saturday? Or is your belief right now? And again
subject to change here in the next let's say twelve to thirty six hours,
that they're just going to have to move on rather than find him a last
minute opponent. What's your belief from what you're hearing? Because some I mean
I wrote this when I wrote the story Saturday, would say, okay,
why not fight Philip Hergovich, who's the number one IBF guy. But that's
complicated and Hergovich may not want to do that, and Hergovich may want more
money. It's not even about me. It's not that. It's not that
easy. I called Hergovich is a manager, Keith Connelly one hundred percent.
Hehrgevich is not fighting josh or Or That is not happening, So forget about
that. It's a good matchup and it's interesting, but both guys have too
much to risk on taking that fight on short notice for money that's not gargantelin
so Hrgevich has scheduled to fight on the undercard against Demsey McKean. He is
sitting there with the number one position. He is the IBF mandatory challenger.
That fight is due next after Dubois gets his mandatory in the w BA,
which takes place on August twenty six. Krgovich is not gambling. I mean
he's gambling it because he's gonna fight against McKean, and if he loses,
obviously there goes to mandatory. But it's a big difference fighting McKeen than fighting
Anthony Joshua so and the same goes for Joshua. He's not gambling a gigantic
you know, tens of millions of dollars fight against Deontay Wilder in Saudi Arabia
to fight the underfea the Olympic medallists undefeated big power punch er Pheliphergovich on less
than one week's notice. So that's not happening. Whether they can get one
of the other a heavyweights on the undercart into that fight or they find somebody
else remains to be seen. So you ask me, what do I thinks
happen. I know Matchroom from what they have told me, is endeavoring to
find a replacement opponent to fight Josho, whether it's from one of the four
heavyweights that's on the undercard or some other heavyweight that's outside of this undercard.
They're trying. Whether it actually happens or not, I have no idea,
and I don't think they have any idea. So we're all gonna have to
like roll with the punch. So if you're time, it's out correct clarify.
Is Kergovitch training in the United States or is Hergovich old in Europe?
Or what do you know? Hergovitch trained in Houston, Texas with Ronnie Shields.
My understand hold on, hold on, I am told that on Sunday
afternoon or early evening Ronnie Shields, Kergovich and their team boarded a plane in
Houston en route to the UK Okay, so that's where I was coming.
You knew where I was going with that. So that's is to me.
He's most likely fighting McKean because there's a lot of speculation in the British media.
I read this Sunday before we did the podcast, that they might work
it out where McKean fights Anthony Joshua and Hergovich fights somebody else, a lesser
somebody else. They won't think the card. I have no idea. I'm
just telling you what. Nobody knows the answer, and even the match room
people don't know the answer. I can tell you Hergovich is not going to
change opponents. This is a very specific thing. He's taking this fight because
the IBF who has him number one, says he's got to be active in
fight. He wants to fight before he gets the title shot. The title
shot is due to be made by the end of this year, I think
sometime in like late October, November or whatever, and this is that opportunity.
He hasn't fought for a while. He doesn't want to go into a
title fight off of a year and a half plus layoff. He hasn't fought
in quite a while, and so this was designed to get him busy.
They're not fighting a bum, but they're not fighting like a super top contender
either, So that's the fight that's happening. And uh, they're not going
to switch opponents on them. So that's why I don't believe McKean will be
the opponent, because then you got to just go find somebody else for pargavs
that they got to agree and that makes it more complicated, which is why
they're gonna take somebody from the card. You're taught the other heavyweight fight is,
is uh Derek Tassor against Gerald Washing? Now what they could do?
And again I'm sure Natchem's having these conversations with the Zone. See for us
here in America and the rest of the world doesn't make a difference. It's
a pay per view. I mean it's it's not a pay per view in
the UK. If you're gonna dramatically downgrade the opponent from Dillian White and you're
gonna do like a chess Or or a Gerald Washington or whoever, you gotta
make it so people will buy it. So I think they're trying to get
trying to talk to the Zone about maybe taking it off of pay per view,
but there there that changes the economic setup of the event. So you
know, none of us know exactly what's happening. The only thing I know
from what they said to me is they're trying to get into opponent for Joshua.
How it's going to be delivered, be a pay per view in UK
or otherwise is not not knowing it this I've always love to doing this with
the number one. It'll never happen. Ten it absolutely happens. So where
are you on? The whole card is canceled because they can't find an opponent
for Joshua, and they tell Hrgovic, sorry, reschedule with McKean if you
want to fight him. But we're not following through with this because financially it
doesn't make sense. Where do you come on a number one the card absolutely
is not happening, the card at all, or ten the card is absolutely
happening. Where's the right field numbers we go into this? Just speculate,
I would say, speculation wise, and from what I've heard from people I've
talked about undercard fighters and the situation with them trying to get into opponent,
all the things that go into it. I would say it's like maybe like
a six and a half. The card happens. If you're gonna che three,
okay, if you're gonna tell me three, then we're in trouble.
And again it's perfectly logical if the main draw for the pay per view can't
find an opponent that there is no card, that they just suddenly say we
can't follow through here because the people in the UK, the people in Europe,
they're not tuning in buying Lord for Philip Hurgovic, jmse McKean and Derek
Jasa, Gerald Washington, the se Anthony Joshua, whether it's golf and gardening
or going for a new personal best at NERF and we know sometimes body pain
can stop you in your tracks. Time for the power of New NERF and
long lasting for body pain relief that lasts up to twelve hours day are nice.
So you keep doing what you're doing and we'll do the long lasting body
pain relief up to twelve hours pain relief refers to a two by three hundred
milligram cop seal does NERF and long last and three hundred milligram prolonged release hard
cop sules contain improofing for backache and muscular pain and perid pain. Always read
the label. If Joshua was not on the card, the fights, the
card probably isn't happening at all, all right. I mean, you think
you're you're confident, fairly confident. They can find somebody and the next day
or two we think for Anthony Joshua and we'll see, well, so I
mean we'll see it's a great oppera ttunity for somebody that would accept the fight.
But remember we're basically in fight week. I mean training camp. Training
camps are over. In other words, the guys were on the show,
Joshua, Dylan White for his own issues, but Gerald Washington and Chicasa and
Hergovic camp's done. You get to the UK, you're in fight week.
You do your media obligations, you know, you go to the gym,
you shake out, you just you know, you you move around a little
bit, you hit the mits. But that there's no more sparring, there's
no more like serious you know, road work. You're done with camp.
I mean that's that's the way these things work. So they need to find
somebody that's in some kind of decent shape, you know. And you know
I've said this before, the old saying that I've heard fighters use. You
know, if they're buy the phone, you know, you stay ready so
you don't have to get ready. So they need to find heavyweight that's are.
Now, let me just tell you one thing. I have to if
if, if my good friend that's the promoter, Dmitri Salida, is listening,
I wasn't ignoring your text message, but I got a text message.
I've just remembered this in the middle of the First of all, Dmitri,
don't text me in the middle of a fight. Number one, he texted
me in the middle of the Jake Paul fight, which I was writing about
an contrygun. He texted me to let me know that his fighter, Otto
Whalen was willing, ready and able to go to the UK to fight Anthony
Joshua on short notice. So I'm not sure if they've made contact with him
that would be a reasonable replacement. You can still put that out of the
pay per view. He gave Tyson Fear a really tough fight. He's a
very solid heavyweight contender. It's a fight that Joshua probably should win, which
from their perspective is what it's all about. So I would have no opposition
that that's an interesting fight. Otto hasn't really had the opportunity and for a
significant fight. Jack. That's the fighter that Dillian White suddenly had the shoulder
injury against and didn't fight because they had set up a match Room main event
and he begged out of it to go try to negotiate and fight with Tyson
Fury. And maybe we'll Lane deserves one poetic justice. Yes, yes,
that he could step in. So maybe it's that, but we don't know
that, and we spend a lot of time on this. Time will tell
As Monday morning becomes Monday afternoon, I will say this, peep, we
don't know this on Sunday night. If it's Monday afternoon Monday night and match
Room doesn't have an announcement about a Joshua opponent, I think it's likely the
card is off. I'm not saying I have that on any authority because they
got a plan on who is it? How do we market it? As
you just said, can we still market it as a pay per view?
Because Joshua has a certain amount of money he expects from this so stay tuned,
stay tuned to the news, Stay tuned to Dan's Twitter feed is fight
for each tonight substat Big Fight Weekend dot com. We will tell you more
when we know more about that announcement, and you may know more as we
release the podcast Monday morning in the US, as Dan mentioned, is Monday
lunchtime in the UK. They may have an announcement by then or not.
On that all right, we continue as you mentioned, Jake Paul and Nate
Diaz was the main event, Most valuable promotions. Again. I sat on
the front end, not only on the preview podcast but also on the bet
US show that because this is not a boxer, I was not as much
into this. Let me set the scene, brother, ray Feel. You
were probably kicking back at the palatial ray Feel Estate checking out the pay per
view. I actually was with a group of people, do not laugh at
me, do not mock me. Earlier evening, we got some chicken wings
out of place, and we're watching the beginning of the WWE pay per view
because one of the guys at the table has peacock and the pay per views
available pays the subscription, so we're watching the beginning of it and We're watching
Logan Paul Wressell as the first match in Detroit, and we're all cracking up
about how is he gonna get to Dallas on a private plane? Blah blah
blah. That became a whole thing. So then we went to one of
the guys at the table's house and if they're listening, they now know what
we're talking about. So there's a group of us that are watching the wrestling
pay per view now on a TV. I've got the Jake Paul card up
on the laptop on the computer. We're watching both at the same time.
We kept almost taking wagers on whether Logan Paul was going to get there,
and I kept saying, guys, Jake Paul is gonna wait until his brother
gets there, even if the Serrano fight ends early, He's gonna wait till
his brother gets there. Jake Paul, by the way, much like Rayfield
comes into the Dallas Air American Airlines Center on a tank. Did you love
that? Did you ever in your twenty plus years of covering World Championship in
major fights, you ever seen a fighter come to the come to the arena
in a tank, sitting on top of a tank. And I don't know
if that was a movie prop tank or if he went to the Army reserves
about the tank. It was a tank, if I'm not mistaken. When
Jamel Herring was defending his junior lightweight title in Fresno, California, I believe
it was on either veteran I think it was on Veterans Day or maybe it
was Memorial Day. But but Jamel is a Marine Corps veteran. He served
in Iraq. I believe when he came to the ring and he was led
by a group of Marines that he actually did come to the ring on a
tank. He came to the ring on a tank, because in this case,
that was a huge tank that they parked underneath the American Airline Center that
Paul rolled up to the arena end. So that's a that's an entrance.
So then we have the fight. The fight goes ten rounds. Your thoughts.
I got a couple of thoughts, but your your thoughts. Jake Paul
gets the decision win another victory for him as a pro boxer. Your thoughts
on the fight with ideas well. First of all, Logan, Paul did
make it there on the private plane and he got there in time to walk
Jake to the ring. He was still in his gear whatever his costume was
from the summer shower, no shower, right, I mean, listen,
the fight was when it was I First of all, again I say this
every time we re recap and you want to get into the nitty gritty of
the fight. First and foremost, I was entertained by the action. It
was a fun fight to watch. Whatever you think of Jake Paul in that
whole situation, I was entertained by it. I had no problem with the
first fight on the card that happened earlier in the night with Alan Sanchez was
a freaking war. That was a tremendous battle. Um So the card overall
was fine. You know, Ashton Silv looked good with a knockout against William
Silva. You know we'll get to the Heather Hardy and then Mena Serrano fight.
Yeah. Jadasha Green, the women's super middleway contender, she was a
little disappointing to me, to be honest. I you know, with all
the hype she's gotten, I figured she's gonna stop her opponent. Looks like
she was ready to go several times. But in terms of the main event.
Jake Paul is a guy who he's coming off the loss to Tommy Fury,
who was the only time he ever fought a full time boxer, and
even with that, even though he got the loss, it was still a
super close fight. He loss a split decision, you know, Fury eked
it out. It seemed to me and Nate As, who's obviously a combat
sports legend from his days in UFC and having some huge pay per views Connor
McGregor and others, obviously has some competence when it comes to punching or you're
not going to be a star and mixed martial arts. But as I said
a thousand times before this fight, before other fights at Jacas had against other
non boxers being Anderson Silva, Kyron Woodley, and asked her in whatever boxing
in and then they are different sports. And so if you take them made
fighter and you put him into the boxing ring, and you take a guy
like Jake Paul who's even not the most experienced boxer in the row, but
still that's all he does, is trained in boxing for the last three years,
that the chances are under the boxing set of rules, he's going to
win the fighting that is exactly what happened. I actually thought he was gonna
getting need Nate. Diaz looked so gassed and tired the first couple of rounds.
I thought for sure that that, uh, you know, that Jake
was gonna get him out of there. Now. My, when we did
our bet Us show on Friday and made our picks, I picked Jake Paul
by decision with the over at plus two seventy five. I'm looking pretty good
with that, because, you know, he looked gas and even though Jake
dropped him in round five, and frankly, he had such a one sided
ass kicking in the first round, and I don't do this often, every
once in a blue moon. I scored that round on my card ten to
eight, even though there was no knockdown, because he had him badly hurt
from the last hand to the temple. He had him wobbily, he had
him all over the place. I thought he was gonna get to stop,
and he had him hurt in the first thirty seconds of the fight. I
think I think Paul. I think Diaz was surprised, maybe a little bit,
by his power and all that. When he came back the knockout,
I had the knockout prop and I thought I was good in the fifth round
because there was a ton of time left after the knockdown. But here's what
I want to put to you. If we're gonna be a little critical,
I think we should be a little critical. We should analyze him. I
think Jake Paul was tired for a lot of this fight. I think he
was tired in the back half of rounds over and over again, especially in
the sixth through the tenth round. The back half of the round he looked
tired. He's holding a lot, not as much on his punches. I
thought he was also trying to load up that right hand. Like the last
seven or eight rounds of the fight. It was like, I want to
load up the right hand, and other than that, there wasn't much else
together off the jab. What were your thoughts to what I just said.
I actually thought his left hand was a dominant weapon in the fight, which
is something I was surprised. But he did a great job with He landed
a lot of clean jabs, he landed a lot of good body shots,
a lot of uppercuts, And as far as being tired, I mean he
never went ten rounds before in a fight, so I thought he gassed.
Hank was fine. I mean, you know, any fight like that,
you're gonna be a little bit tired when you're known have the experience. I
thought he did a hell up a job. To be honest, he went
to ten. I just I saw Nate d As like walking away from him
and turning his back and like come get me, come hit me. And
Jake Paul I thought over and over again, was either apprehensive, tired,
or whatever not going out. That's Nate Das playing poss him and doing stupid
shit like that. You don't fall for that. I think he was.
I'm going to disagree with you. I think he was tired. I think
he was tired. As rounds continue, I'm not I'm not saying he wasn't
tired. I'm saying he's not going to be stupid and go run after a
guy because he just happens to drop his hands like that, trying to lure
him in. Jit. You know, whatever you think about NATed As MMA
or you or or boxing, he's a KG veteran. You stay in your
plan and you do what you're supposed to do. You don't you don't let
the other guy dictate your actions unless he's just gonna literally stick his chin out.
So I felt like that it was something he wasn't gonna get caught up
in that he knows he's leading on the cards. He'd won basically every single
round. There was no reason to get stupid about it. I thought he
thought a very intelligent fight. And I always think to myself, you know,
what would Jake Paul be if he had a real amateur career and instead
of starting boxing at age twenty three when he first picked up gloves, if
he was like a lot of the top fighters who have found boxing. You
know, when he's ten, twelve, fifteen, and you have an amateur
career and you're brought along as a pro by a real promoter or a real
manager, and you're matched the right way. You know, given his physical
stature and the strength that he has, clearly his dedication to his training.
He looks in great condition. He was able to go to ten rounds,
Like I think to myself, like he might have actually been a real legitimate
prospect maybe if he had the early start. Maybe. All right, So
on this we once again, and I think it's fair, we once again
see him fighting an aged MMA fighter, who doesn't have any boxing experience and
it ends up being a decision. I am on the record, I don't
need to see this anymore. I'm done. I'm done with fighting MMA guys
that are older or smaller and or inexperience both. At this point, it's
played out. If he's not gonna fight boxers, That's where I sit on
this. So here's the thing. Number One, nobody gives a shit what
you think about that. Number two, nobody gives a hold on. Hold
On, nobody gives a shit what I think about that. I don't disagree
with your assessment. But here's the thing. Hold On, they put like
twenty thousand people in the American airline, did they an? I didn't see
that. What did They said? It was a sellout, So it's about
I was told twenty thousand. I don't know if that's exactly the bottom line
was. It was a huge crowd, I'm sure because the fact that they
were able to put this for however, they were able to work these deals
out. No, I mean the Zone pay per view was the main broadcaster,
or they were the ones that did the production the whole thing, but
it was available on PPV dot com. It was available on linear television as
a pay per view. It was available even on ESPN plus pay per view.
My point is it wasn't limited where you could buy it, and just
the fact that it was everywhere alone probably helped goose the numbers to some degree
that I suspected probably did pretty well. Jake has his fans, NATed has
his his fans, So yes, you and I is boxing fucking dorks can
think it's played out and don't need to see him fight MMA guys Again,
that's fine, but there's a lot of people that enjoy the entertainment dali that
they bring. So it now, I've always made the distinction. I've never
been at Jake Paul hater at all. In fact, I've enjoyed watching his
career and do what he does. I don't you know. Look, and
if the juxtaposition of this is so perfect, We had Jake Paul against Nadas
and what is still considered too many people sort of like a side show,
a circus, a freak show, whatever you want to call it. Coming
one week after one of the most significant serious fights we've seen of them the
last number of years between Terrence Crawford and Errol Spence, to me, those
two fights posed the opposite ends of the spectrum in the sport. But to
me, there's still a place for both of them, and I enjoyed both
of them. So yeah, I'd like to see Jake step up and fight
a boxer again. He wants to have a rematch with Tommy if here there's
some other similarly name guy that's on his sort of experience level, Like he
tried to fight Hassim Rockman Junior not that long ago. It did not happened,
not to his own, you know, not the fault of Jake's.
So yeah, I gets where you're coming from. It is a little bit
played out. But as long as they're putting asses and seats, as long
as they're selling tickets, as long as they're getting media, as long as
they're selling pay per views, it's going to continue. And by the way,
the big headline, if you will, is when the fight was over
and Jake has scored the victory, which Nate Dias didn't argue with. I
mean, he gave a good effort. Yeah, he couldn't argue the boxer.
They want to do a rematch, but do it in the cage.
I listen, I've never bought an MMA pay per view. In my life,
if Jake Paul fights Nate Daz and they do it under MMA rules,
I'm buying that pay per view. And by the way, there be there
will probably be more appeal for that from the crossover UFC fan MMA fan.
There will be more appeal for that. Then there would be a boxing rematch,
or even if Jake Paul's going to fight another non boxer, or even
if he fights a lesser known boxer, so more appeal for the MMA part
of it all. I'm gonna say I got you. All I'm gonna say
in this is We just devoted about fifteen minutes talking to him, and we're
talking about another two minutes because I got something else to say. You got
one more thing in a moment. We have devoted a lot of time talking
about him, and my hand is up. I went to the Tyron Woodley
fight in Tampa and covered it, and we talked about it before and after.
That's before you and I hooked up. We talked about the Anderson Silva
fight last summer that he had, which again is another non boxer MMA guy.
We then talked a bunch about Tommy Fury, the half brother of Tyson
Fury, because now we're on a boxing track. Now we're fighting boxers.
This is a boxing show. So I'm just saying to the audience, I'm
losing less and less interest if we're not fighting boxers. That's all I'm saying,
all right, go ahead. Number One, Jake is gonna also attempt
to do MMA he is affiliated now with That's correct. So they have a
standing offer between Jake and the PFL two Day Daz to do a MMA rules
fight in a cage for ten million dollars. There's interest on the DS.
I think they want more, but whatever, they'll try to figure that out.
So would that would be a big deal as far as if that fight
happens. And the thing about also is this Number one. When Jake does
these events, he gives opportunities to a lots of other boxers who are full
time real boxers quote unquote, real boxers on the undercard. And more importantly,
we are talking about it this weekend because there was no other fights of
consequence this weekend. As Multure August, It's not that we're talking about Jake
and Nate Daz at the expense of some other big championship event. That we're
not talking about. If, frankly, if there was no Nate Daz fighting
Jake Paul this weekend, this episode would be a lot shorter because there's not
much else go on. Okay, And to that end, perfect segue mighty
one. Amanda Serrano did win her co feature fight, and this is like
at least a third or fourth time she's been the co feature on one of
his boxing pay per views. She defeats and we did not believe this was
going to be much of a threat. She was a twenty five to one
favorite on the beat Us line. She defeats Heather Hardy in the rematch.
I saw my man Raphael right away on Twitter saying I'm over there because she's
beaten the daylights out of a fighter in Hardy who's game but doesn't have much
to offer. I was really surprised as that went on that the corner,
the doctor somebody like the seventh or eighth round didn't say enough enough was Serrano
beating her up Hardy. I know it's important to these fighters. I want
to go to the distance, but I mean, really, what are we
doing here? And I see you shaking your head, So your thoughts on
Serrano's impressive one sided win in the co feature. It was this, It
was on paper. It was a grotesque, horrendous, terrible mismatch, completely
unnecessary fight. Remember in twenty nineteen, when Heather was the WBO featherweight champion,
she fought Amanda Serranto on a match room card at the Madison Square Garden
Theater. They brought a lot of fans in there. Both you know,
friendly from Brooklyn, so they did have some fans there and Serranto that night
proved her point. She beat the living shit out of Heather Hardy to only
credit to Heather was the heart that kept her up for ten rounds. That
fight was almost knocked he was almost knocked out in the first one or two
or three rounds, getting absolutely destroyed. So you know, she went to
distance in that fight. But Heather lost a very lopsided decision, lost her
title to Amanda, who would go on to win all the belts and become
the undisputed featherweight champion. So she gave her a rematch entirely unnecessary. Heather
is now not like she's better than she was in twenty nineteen. She's forty
one years old. She'd only fought three times since that twenty nineteen fight.
She had gone one and two in those fights against just normal opponents in six
rounders and eight rounders and just nothing to really make you think why she should
get a title shot. But okay, so Amanda is a friend of hers
and basically said after the fight, she just wanted to give her the payday,
you know, but they took our pay per view money, right it
was, you know. And so Heather, in what I hope is her
final fight, she made a career high paiday one hundred thousand dollars, which
even after you pay your expenses in your corner and all that, you don't
have a whole lot left. But you know, she gave her the hundred
grand and beat the living shit out of her again. And once again,
I have nothing bad to say about Heather Hardy as a person. She's got
a tremendous heart, all due respect to that. As big a heart as
you know, what anybody you want to see. You can talk about Artaro
Gotti, a Vander Holyfield, and pick a fighter that's a favorite of yours
that has a big heart. She's got the heart and she's got a hell
of a chin because a man is a pretty good puncher. She hasn't scored
many knockouts recently, but she's been known to score some knockouts against some quality
opposition. And she hit Heather Hardy with everything but the kitchen, saying,
so I just I was just depressed and sort of repulsed by the entire fight
because from the thirty seconds of the opening of the fight she had no chance
to win because she doesn't have a lot of punching power. Hardy and Serrano
was beating a living crap out of her from the moment the bell started.
So it was like, I don't enjoy watching just someone takes unmitigated violence.
There was no competition that you know. I've said this before. Sometimes you
see a fight and it's competitive, and it's an action pack fight, and
it's a war back and forth, but one person maybe getting the better of
it, and at a certain point it becomes like the competition has has has
ended, and now it's just like a public act of violence. This was
a public act of violence from the opening bell that served no purpose except to
give Heather a payday of some significance relative to the rest of her earnings and
to destroy many of her brain cells unnecessarily. So where can I interject cynical
about this match? Where's the quarter, where's the commission, Where's somebody after
the fifth or sixth round where it's obvious she's not going to land a Haymaker
punch? Where is the boxer safety? And I know then, yeah,
right, four wins and three losses with four knockouts, right right, she's
not going to score one punch knockout after the fifth round, after the sixth
round of taking that punishment, You're still getting paid. And it doesn't matter
to anybody five days from now about whether or not you got stopped or you
finished in the tenth round. Your brain is gonna matter. And he went
over to the door. Two. He went over the doctor a couple of
times. I just and where's the corner? Two on? Yeah, and
the La Paul who was the ref was looking in there kind of nonchalantly.
It seemed to me in like round nine and ten, like I don't did
he not see her getting rocked with every shot and taking probably five to one
and punches landed. I mean again, I'm glad that Jake Paul has given
Amanda platform on which to fight, to show the world her talent as one
of the best female boxers out there. You know, it's nice that she
wanted to give Heather a payday as she put herself in position for a much
bigger fight later in the year, but it just was entirely unnecessary. I
did not enjoy that fight at all, you know, what can I say?
And not my thing. I don't like seeing those types of matchups.
And now, listen, the main thing here is Serrano. She's back in
position now. Obviously she was hoping to have a rematch against Katie Taylor.
But Katie, obviously when Amanda dropped out, she fought Chantel Cameron ended up
losing. So they're going forward a rematch that takes place this fall. So
even if Amanda fights a rematch with Katie down the road, it won't be
this year. So the question is what's her other big fight. Well,
as it turned out, Alicia bomb Garner, who was the undisputed junior lightweight
champion one way class above, where Amanda is not two way classes above the
way Katie is. She was ringside, she was doing commentary for the Zone
pay per view, and that's a fight that Amanda is interested in. That's
a fight that Alicia said that she's interested in. Alicia's like, I'm gonna
I want any of these fights. I'll fight Cameron, I'll fight Taylor,
I'll fight Serrano. I mean, that's the beauty of women's boxing at that
level, between one hundred and twenty six and one hundred and forty one hundred
and forty seven, there's a lot of good opponents and the women don't really
seem to have a problem making those fights, are moving up a few pounds,
dropping a few pounds whatever compared to the men. And bomb Garner said
on the broadcast she has one fight remaining on her contract with match Room slashed
the zone. She does have a mandatory to do against the former champion in
Troy from South Korea, so that may be the next fight because the WB
I believe has ordered a purse bid for that fight and so they'll have to
do that. Then the question becomes does she do a new contract and can
they make one of these big fights because Toronto has been fighting on Jake's cards,
but they've done business with Matchroom, and Katie of course is with match
Um. Chantel Camera is there also, So I hope that Bomb Garner gets
one of these big fights. I'd love to see her in Serranto mix it
up. That to me, it's maybe not the same popularity as a rematch
with Katie, but I'm gonna tell you Toronto versus Bomb Garner, the undisputed
champ at featherweight challenging the undisputed champ at junior lightweight, that's a hell of
a fight and they would draw a crowd. You know, Licia did a
nice crowd in Detroit when she fought recently. Amanda has fans in New York
as she and Katie sold at Madison Square Garden. That's a good fight.
And you know what, if you're a zone. That's the thing about these
women's fights. These ladies can make their biggest purses, buy a lot,
and it still doesn't break the bank for the broadcaster because they're not commanning as
much money as the men, because they don't sell as much on pay per
view or take gets her get that much publicity relative the speaking. But everybody
can make money on an event like that, and it would be all of
a fight. So I'd like to see Bomb Garner in Serranto in the next
fight after she does her mandatory with Choi, who was a champion and only
was basically put in recessor stript or whatever, which allowed Katie I'm here,
which or allowed Seranto rather to get the undisputed title. So she really does
have a reason to fight her Bomb Garner? Does I meant bomb Garder not
Santo? Yes, sir knew what you meant there, and that would be
an entertaining fight for Serrano and Bomb Gardner. Some news and some nostalgia before
we're done. Oh, Mike Tyson hun last we saw the undisputed former heavyweight
iconic Hall of Fame fighter. He was designated coin flipper for the Terrence Crawford
Errol Spence a fight. And now he's got a new role and it involves
Tyson Fury's battle. Speaking of boxing an MMA with Francis and Ghanu, Mike
Tyson gonna work, Tyson gonna work within Ghanu against a Tyson Tyson Fury.
Well, I guess he needed a new job after such a shitty job of
flipping a coin. I notice you're saying that remotely as opposed to up close
to him where you could get decked, like in the hangover with that big
right hand. Hey, miss Champ still got it would say, Mike's my
guy, Mike and I are getting. We have a good relationship. We
always have. Uh so that would I would, I would say that in
a joking manner. But anyway, here's a thing about that. So they
made the announcement that Tyson was going to be one of the you know,
the trainer for Nagano as he goes into the Tyson Fury fight, which,
as you mentioned, it's Tim training, being Tyson training and Ghana to fight
against Tyson. As everybody should know, Tyson Fury was named by his father,
John Fury, Tyson after Mike Tyson, so he's named after that fighter.
So that should make for some interesting uh photo ops and some conversation during
the lead up to the fight. Uh. Look, Mike was never the
most diligent trainer after the Customato days. I mean, I think that's not
exactly breaking new ground here, So I'm not sure something he's going to become
hugely dedicated to training friends and the gun who probably could use all the help
he can get given that he's never been a boxer before as good of a
MMA heavyweight champion as he has been. So I kind of feel like this
is a little bit more publicity minded than actuality minded. I'm assuming that there'll
be some other boxing trainer in the in the gym with them helping them get
ready. Not to say that Mike, who was a very intelligent boxing person,
knows his stuff quite well. You know, I've had the chance over
the years, you know, to in a private moment just sit and talk
boxing stuff with Tyson, and he does know what's going on, both in
terms of the history of the game as well as the nuance of the XS
and oast. But again, he was never the most dedicated trainer when he
was, you know, a prime heavyweight, and now that he spends a
lot of his time, you know, smoking marijuana and doing it. I'll
use the phrase on a sunny night tranquilized for a lot of his existence right
now on cannabis. I'm not sure how legit it is. Again, I
think it's a lot of this is publicity related, which is good publicity because
if you can get Mike Tyson involved with your event, it's run the canher.
So look, I'm sure you can impart some things on not gone to
show him a few tips. I can only assume it would be some other
boxing trainer also in the gym, working with him on like the specific things
of holding the mits and the bags and and the more you know by moment
training camp as opposed to you know, more of a supervisory role overseeing things,
making suggestions. But if you can have Mike Tyson involved in what is
supposed to be a big heavyweight fight, I don't think that's a bad thing
and it's certainly going to get a lot of attention. So you know,
that was that was an interesting news bite that came out in the last couple
of days, and it'll be interesting. Mike was at the at the at
the Arrow Spence fight, as you mentioned, with Crawford flipping the coin very
badly, and now he's got another job. Hopefully there's no coin flipping involved
and that's not gone to training camp very nice in that fight. For late
October. Okay, I'm gonna make you smile. Match Room Boxing has an
announcement and my question is is it worth more than one of us passing gas
to talk about Ja Catterall and Jorge Lenares speaking of later in October for a
match Room to Zone show in Liverpool, England. L Ray feel you're less
than thrilled this is what we get here in October. I mean, I
know Catterall's got to have a fight, but go ahead. Well, first
of all, as I mentioned earlier, this is the early times of August.
There's not that much happening. So this was announced, so you know
what, it goes on the rundown because we gotta have something to talk about,
right. But Catterall is an excellent junior welterweight contender. He obviously a
lot of people thought he beat Josh Taylor for the undisputed title, but he
didn't get the decision. He's had trouble getting the rematch made. It got
postponed and canceled. You know, a bunch of times he switched promoters blah
blah blah. And now he's with match when he's had one fight since that
union. He won the fight, not a particularly memorable fight or a particularly
great performance. They are going to set him up for something big. One
can only assume that if regis progressed defeats Devin Haney, that maybe he'll get
the call and get the opportunity for that fight. So, like you said,
he's got a fight. So they when they dug up the remnants of
Jorge Lenaris without a lot of other possible fighters out there to do this fight
on October twenty f that the M and S Bank Arena in Liverpool, England.
And when I saw this, I mean, you know, I'm pretty
chill these days when it comes to ripping fights, you know what I mean,
I've seen too much of this. I don't you know, I'm over
for the most part, but I had to take a shot at this one.
This is just the fucking pathetic mismatch. It's just a disgraceful fight.
I mean, Jorgelen Rs has lost three fights in a row. He's been
stopped multiple times. He hasn't been a relevant fighter for probably about six years,
five years, you know, back in twenty sixteen, seventeen. You
know, he was still sort of near the top when he was a lightweight
champion. But the fact that they dug him out for this, he's not
even really one hundred forty pounder. When he fought at one hundred forty pounds
on a matt room card, I might add he got knocked out in the
first round by Pablo says Arcano, who's not exactly a punching A ticket to
the pound for pound list, So this is just an unfortunate situation. Jorilen
rs Is is an old, an old fighter at the thirty seven going on
forty seven. It's just uh, it's I'll tell you one thing, Catterell,
he'd better shine against Lamars or his stocks and take a big dip because
this is just a sick mismatch. In my opinion, Passing Gas might outrat
it. Okay lightweight contender battle William Zapata for Golden Boy will be fighting in
September. Tell me more about this one in the news items real quick.
I mean as as as I'm not saying Zapada versus Marcido Hesta is a great
fight, but it's like freaking Spence versus Crawford compared to a Catterall versus y
len Ar. So look, Zapata is a really exciting fighter. He's a
southpaw with huge power from Mexico twenty and with twenty four knocked outs with Golden
Boy, He's sort of like the dark horse in that lightweight division. You
know, when everybody talks about the lightweights, you hear about Devin Haney,
here about Vasili Lomachenko. You know, you heard about cambosis, you know,
you hear about you know Jervanti Davis, of course, Uh, you
know, guys in and around that weight class is a Painta's sort of the
guy every sort of forgets to mention. No one's calling him out, no
one's asking to fight him. And you know Hesta, you know, a
Kisa veteran. He's been around, he's fought for the title, he's lost.
You know, he's a little bit older, thirty five years old.
But he's coming off his biggest win in a long time. He beat Jojo
Diaz, which was a solid win for for for Hesta. So this is
a fight that Golden Boy made. They want to keep us a pay too
busy. He's exciting um Hesta probably in this fight should make it interesting from
the standpoint that he's not going to run around and try to get you know,
spend twelve rounds fleeing away from from Williams Zapeta and and Zapetas look really
sharp. Also, he's got the win over Jojo Diaz. Also, um
again, it's not the biggest fight in the world. It's on Mexican Independence
Day weekend, uh September sixteenth. They'll do this fight in Commerce, California,
and uh, you know it's it's a the Zone main event. And
I dare say that even though it's not an A plus fight, if you
compare it to the other fight we just talked about that we're passing gas on,
it's a plus. I love that nostalgia time. And let's go back
to two thousand and four before we wrap up the pod. August seventh,
two thousand and four, So that means the anniversary nineteen years ago is Monday,
Diego Corrals and Popo fret Us? Did I come closer? It's Freate
this correct, It's Freetus. What is right us? No other he WBO
lightweight title fight? You were ringside for this one? And why was it
so good some nineteen years it wasn't? I have mixed emotions about this fight
because anybody that's followed me or listened to me or read me knows that my
all time favorite fighter is ur Tarogatti, and number two on that list is
is the Brazilian big puncher Asteleno Popo Freitas, who was the former unified champion
at one hundred and thirty pounds then became a champion at one hundred and thirty
five pounds, a dynamic, dynamic puncher, a huge superstar in his home
country of Brazil, such a big deal back in the day. Then when
he got married, his wedding was on national television in his home country.
And Diego Krause. There was another fighter that I covered a lot of it.
Who was you know, rest of the Soul was a tremendous puncher,
and you know has was involved in some major fights. Obviously was the winner
of what any of us consider maybe the greatest fight of all time. Certainly
the greatest fight I have ever covered was his comeback victory to knock out Jose
Luis Castillo in two thousand and five, two of the lightweight titles. Popofredus
though. You know, he had won the vacant WBO title over the very
experience and long reigning a fighter from Germany, Arthur Gregorian, and he stepped
up to fight Popo Freds. Now, this was a big deal fight in
two thousand and four. They were cornerstone fighters on showtime going into this fight.
This was no joke. I mean, Carrels had a couple of losses,
including most notably to Floyd Mayweather, but Aslino Fredis at the time,
he's a two division champion. He had unified at one thirty by beating Joel
Cassamayor. He entered the fight against Kraus thirty five and oh with thirty one
knockouts, a devastating puncher, and people expected to be a slugfest, but
they weren't quite sure, you know, as Fredus his chin gonna hold up
against you know, Carels, who at that time was considered like one of
the fiercest punchers in boxing. This was like an A plus matchup. I
mean it was a big deal, every bit as big a deal back then
as like say Hainey Lomachenko was, you know, back a couple of months
ago, although not for Undisputed. And Freda's absolutely toyed with and played with
Diego Cross for seven rounds, boxed his ass off, winning easily, and
then he got knocked down, and then he got knocked down again, and
the fight probably should have been over after the second knockdown, but he got
the balls to get up and then when he got knocked down the third time
in the tenth round, you know, we got knocked down again in the
tenth round, which was a third time he was down in the fight.
He got up, but he basically quit, and he kind of gave him
a bad rap as being a quitter. And I always my thought was,
you know, I wish the ref would have stopped it, or he would
have stayed down after the second knockdown, which was a massive knockdown and there
would have been any grief. But he got off from that, and he
you know, he stopped after the third knockdown. But coralis with you know,
people remember the great comeback against Castillo because of the drama of getting off
the deck from two knockdowns in round ten to stop him later in that round,
the spitting of the mouthpiece, the whole drama of that to unify the
titles. But in any ways, this was just as impressive if they come
back because he was down. Like the Castillo fight was super competitive back and
forth on the you know, super tight on the carts, and this fight,
Popo was dominating. He would probably won the first seven rounds of fight,
and he was able to you know, clause way back in and get
the stoppage. So it was it was a sad night for me on a
personal level because I'm such a big Popo fan. So I got to tell
a little story about this, and I do I have time to tell a
quick story. Go all right. So after the fight is over and I
filed my article and they had the press conferents and all this stuff, I
went back to my room at Foxwood's I gotta get up early, I gotta
get on the plane whatever. So I'm in my room at the hotel and
I hear like all this commotion outside the door, like, you know,
an hour later whatever it was forty five minutes later after I get back to
my room and I opened the door to see what the heck is going on.
As it turns out, it's and I didn't know this going into the
fight, but it's Popo his whole team, Art Pololo, his promoter,
who you know, is a long time friend of mine, and they're they're
going to Popo's room. I didn't realize. I'm in my room and like
five or six rooms down the hallway at the end of the hall, in
the big room is Astelenos Freights Sweet. So I opened the I poked my
head out and I see Art Polulo coming down the hallway with Popo and the
and the crew and He's like, come on over. You know. They
were like, you know, hanging out. They were having some drinks,
they were having out some food whatever. So all right, So I got
back, you know, I put my shoes on, and I went over
to UH down the hallway and popped into their sweet and it's a big sweet
and and there's commotion. Popo's mom is there. She's like cooking, and
the lawyer is there and she's cooking in the middle of the night. I
love this, Okay, keeps cooking in the middle of the night. Whatever
some Popo some meal heat wanted or whatever. And they're you know, they're
packing and they're doing this. And Uh Oscar Suarez, who was Popo's trainer,
the late Oscar Suarez. Uh died a few years later, unfortunately,
but I was friendly with him. And it was always kind of funny because
Oscar spoke Spanish but Popo spoke Portuguese. But there was enough commonality where they
could communicate even if it wasn't a perfect translation. So I'm minding my business.
I'm chatting with some of the guys out there with Art and with you
know, some of the guys Popo's team that I knew and Oscar comes out
of the bedroom and says, Dan, Popa would like to speak to you,
because I had seen Popo when he came in. You know, he
gave me a hug week you know, I said hello, you know,
too bad, you know, rough knight. Whatever. So they called me
into the room and I'm there. This is I'll never forget this as for
as long as I live. I get in the room and ask Leno.
Fredus is laying on the bed. He's wearing a Joe Lewis brown Bomber sweatshirt
and he faces all messed up from a tough fight. He looks like he's
on his deathbed. And I mean, thank god he wasn't. But it
was a rough knight. He know, he was in, he was down,
he h he had lost a really rough way. And and so it's
me, it's Oscar, it's Popo laying on the bed, and off in
the corner of the room is his wife Elena there now Aliana. They're now
divorced. She was a very attractive woman. She's almost naked and she's packing
all their stuff for the trip up. She's pulling shit out of the closet
and like I'm trying not to air and whatever. So this is better than
the fight recap. Keep rolling. So and this is God's on his truth.
So Popo knew that I had named my now long departed cat Popo after
him. Yes, so Art Polulo had told me the story that I had
sent Art a photo of the cat, and on one of his business trips
to Brazil to meet with Popo about whatever their business dealings were, he had
brought a picture of the cat and given it to Iliana and Popo and he
said to me, they put it on the refrigerator or you know, in
their kitchen or whatever. They hung up a picture of the cat. It's
named Popo. This is not you and the cat. This is just the
cat. This is just a picture of a cat. The cat outranks Rayphael
Popo. The cat is on the actual Popo's refrigerator. Keep going. So
this is my beloved cat, Jet black cat who we adopted as a stray
where my life and I used to live, and he was with us for
like, you know, until he died when he was like fifteen years old.
It was a great, great pet and we named him Popo in honor,
as we've named our other cats. I have a cat Lenox. We
named a cats Thunder after our Taro Gatti. Anyway, so point I'm making
here is that Popo Fredus the person knows that Raphael, a writer who has
covered him for many years, has a cat named Popo after him, And
so Oscar says he Popo wants to talk to you. So I approached the
bed, like if you imagine you're in the hospital and you're saying goodbye to
a loved one, you're holding their hand. I wasn't holding his hand.
You know. They're talking to you in like hushed tones, and I don't
understand poor Chuguese, obviously, and I'm listening to Popo speak, and Oscar
Suarez is now going to translate, and Popo says to me in a very
serious manner, very serious manner, I don't know what he's saying. Suarez
translates. He says, Popo says he's sorry that he lost. He hopes
that you don't change the cat's name. And I say, I'm not going
to change the cat's name. I would never do that. That's not appropriate.
You tried your best, you fought a great fight. You just happened
to get caught by the big puncher, and it happened, So I'm not
changing the cat's name. No worries about that. And with that we made
a few more small talk. But he was very when he saw me.
He was very concerned that because he had gotten his first loss and had gotten
knocked out, had lost the lightweight title, the ratio is going to change
the cat's name. Would never changed the cat's name. So I love it.
That is my story about the post fight. That is more keeps savages.
Where else are you going to get nostalgia like this? I I you
know, I don't know how we could go from last week recording the post
fight fight preaching night recap with you in the hotel room literally plaid in the
underwear. I had to get past it. TMI. I'm in neked locker
rooms all the time watching Star Wars. In the middle of it was like
a pair of boxer shorts. There's nothing but still, but still we were
watching Star Wars. That's how we were doing the pod. Now you got
the Popo story the next week where Popo thinks you're gonna change the name the
cat while the scantily clad wife is trying to pack everything up in the hotel
suite after he just got knocked out by Diego Corrales. This is phenomenal nostalgia.
She was pretty much almost naked. I gotta say, okay, the
images can stay there. Theater, the mine on that. What a story
about that and some great nostalgia to wrap it up. And by the way,
I've got one for you that didn't make your list, but I'll just
briefly bring it up. Forty years ago Monday, August seventh, nineteen eighty
three, is Hector Macho Camacho beating the Raphael Bazuka Lemon San Juan, Puerto
Rico live, US Network TV, CBS, Tim Ryan, Gil Clancy,
Sugar, Ray Leonard. We're all there in San Juan. Uh here,
I'm Beethorne Stadium right outside of the downtown area. Electric. It's on YouTube,
go watch it. That was forty years ago Monday, where Camacho delivers
the knockout on Bazuka Lemon to become world lightweight champion and on networking. But
I still remember watching that fight live right, Phil forty and Camacho was not
forty member the biggest uh you know, for as great as Camacho was as
a boxer, flashy and fast and and exciting and all that. He was
never like a big puncher, but he stopped Lemon in the in the fifth
round in a fight that he had dominated he and I'm looking back him down
early. Yeah, So what I did not realize that much dominating he had
been leading up to the knockout. He actually led forty thirty five on two
score cards and forty thirty four through the four rounds prior to scoring that knockout,
which, like you said, it got him the vacant WBC one hundred
thirty pound world title, and uh, you know, many years later Camacho
rightfully so it was in the boxing Hall of Fame as one of the most
popular fighters of the eighties. And that was you know, that win and
obviously several others after that that really put him in the conversation as one of
the most well known popular boxers that there was because of the flash and the
flamboyance, not because he was scoring huge knockouts, but he just had that
h charisma, that smile, you know. And it's unfortunately how he went
out and what happened to him leaning his life with all the problems with his
finances and with drugs and the whole thing. But at that time there was
no bigger fighter around, frankly than Hector Camacho, especially making his name on
Network TV, like you mentioned, no doubt. There you go, some
nostalgia. Man. We've had a busy show. We've had a ton on
this show. Again, congratulations to Marcus on or mckeeson our Winner will get
you, the fight program coming up, on the random draw, lots on
the Jake Paul card, lots on the latest, and again you may be
listening to us Monday morning and you already know what the truth is. Is
the Anthony Joshua fight card proceeding and with him against someone else? What have
they worked out at maybe later Monday it maybe Monday night. You would know
that answer, Dan, and I don't know that answer on Sunday. Rayfields
checking his phone right now. We don't have anything right now before we sign
off, right so we don't know that tonight on is that going to continue
or not? Stay tuned. The biggest bummer was we had I had audio
of an interview I had with Anthony Joshua several days ago as part of us.
There was about four or five American writers that had about a half an
hour with Joshua on a zoom call and I recorded my portion of that to
play for you know, about a six six minute a year. So we
kind of had a bag it because it really wasn't relevant. We don't know
if he's fighting. He spoke some of the part of it was about hit
Dillian White, you know, having a rematch with a guy years later.
So unfortunately, I would have liked to bring you the interview I had with
Joshua, but it just didn't make sense tonight. It hit the cutting room
floor, at least for now. So maybe Joshua was fighting somebody else.
We'll find out. Is that card still going on, We'll find out.
Here's what I'll do though, for the peeps. You did talk to Oscar
Valdez and it's on the podcast immediately preceding this one on the feed the preview
the Big Fight we Can Preview. I will single that out and we will
put it up on the Big Fight wee Can podcast feed because it's Valdez navarrote
this weekend in Glendale, Arizona. God willing that fight comes off. We
need that one for this weekend because it's looking like that's going to be a
huge one. Top rank ESPN show, so I will do that for the
peeps on this podcast feed. This is why you need to follow and subscribe.
You'll automatically get it. Dan standalone one on one conversation with Oscar Valdez,
who very interestingly tells you that even though he's won a couple of world
titles, he really feels like he needs to do more, needs to have
this fight for his for his status, for his credentials as a big time
fighter. You'll hear that full conversation. I'll put it up on the podcast
feed coming in about probably forty eight hours or so after this one is released.
All three of that conversation there. You go, like you said,
that'll be a heck of a fight with Nevert. We will see what happens
with the Josque fight. I actually next Saturday. Well, not because it's
the biggest card in the world, although it's not like it's a bad card,
but it's not the kind of card I would typically travel for, but
the showtime event, which will take place at the MGM National Harbor in oxen
Hill, Maryland, which is about twenty five to thirty minutes away from my
house. I will attend that show next Saturday, which is inventing Nolvan Lopez
against Emmanuel Rodriguez for the vacant i'd be a bantamweight title and two of the
younger top upper coomers from the DC area on that card, Gary Antoine Russell
and Trey von Marshall are on the other TV fight, so that should be
a fun show also, and hopefully the Joshua fight will will stay on and
they'll figure it out. We will find out in the coming few hours twelve
to twenty four hours or so as this is released on what happens with the
Anthony Joshua show over in the UK. For now, we're good with everything,
including the nostalgia and the popo story. Don't change the name of the
cat. I love that. Have a good week, my friend. Thank
you as always Dan, Rayphael, are you bet you j and we thank
you for listening, for finding us. Make sure you're following, make sure
you're subscribing on the Big Fight Weekend podcast beat every Sunday night into Monday,
we come your way recapping with the Fight Preach Unit recap. We're good for
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