Well off of a weekend that has seen both Xander Ziaz and Bruce Carrington win
their fights in the Top rank Boxing show at the Madison Square Garden Theater.
A weekend that also in New York saw Oscar Colazzo win on a Hall of
Fame weekend at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York and defend his
WBO Strawway title. And was it the end of Adrian Broner in South Florida.
For this weekend, we're ready to talk about all that and more.
It is the Fight Freaks United Recap podcast. I am the somewhat competent host
TJ Reeves. Our insider is Dan Rayfield. And we got lots more besides
the recaps, Like is Ryan Garcia still in jail? I don't even know
that answer while we do the podcast, he got arrested on Saturday. Mike
Tyson and Jake Paul are fighting again. We got a lot to go over,
including some nostalgia. Dan Rayfield Howard. Things off the weekend, Things
are good, TJ. Things are good. Not the biggest weekend the road
got bigger fish to fri next week. Yes, because it's now fight week
for Javonte Davis's return for the first time in over a year, speaking of
Ryan Garcia since his went over Ryan Garcia and speaking of jail, him being
in jail. He's now out of jail and he's back pay per view in
Vegas. Dan Rayfiel on the way, David Benavetez, by the way,
I hope you heard him on the preview podcast on Fridays in the co feature.
So you're hited out to Vegas later this week? Are you packed yet?
Are you ready to go? Or is that later in a week.
I mean, I've made so many trips to Vegas, I don't worry about
pack until like the night before. I mean, I at least Wednesday morning.
I'll pack like Tuesday night. You do recall that I last joined you
from the Sea Tac Airport, flying back from the seven day Alaskan cruise.
We may have the laundry done by July the fourth. The washing machine has
been going between my wife, my twin sixteen year olds to be and me
since Friday, and it ain't over yet. It is like a saga right
now, like a soap oper to get all the clothes done, just because
we had all the winter wear with us. But you know what, people
don't care about our laundry. Well, here's what we care about. Rate
us and review us. Go find us on all the podcast platforms. Give
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If you enjoy the preview going into the weekend, the recap coming off the
weekend, the special interviews that we have for you, be on the podcast
feed, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. All right, well, so let's
go chronologically and will we spend more than ninety seconds on Blair Cobbs wiping out
Adrian Broner Friday night at the Seminal Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
I said at the beginning the show, is this the last time we're really
going to be talking about Adrian Broner after how awful he looked the other night?
What are your thoughts in the recap mode? Well, I think it's
worth more than ninety seconds, and whether it's the last time we talked about
Broner in any meaningful fight, it very well could be. First of all,
you got to give Greg the Blair Cobbs he was you know, he
he scored his second win in a row against a fighter with a good name,
even if this is not the Adrian Broner when he was the good Adrian
Broner. He also as to win coming off a two year or a twenty
two month layoff against Maurice Hooker, who's a very credible opponent that he defeated
in his most recent fight. So Blair Cobbs is like in a actually an
enviable position right now in terms of the welterweight division because it's not as deep
as that had been for many years. He is coming off those two wins.
He did look pretty solid against Adrian Broner. He dominated the fight,
he knocked him down. And you know, again, I'm not saying Blair
COB's gonna be, you know, the the undisputed champ of the world or
make anybody's powner for Powerless, but he can fight a little bit. He's
got a good personality. He made a fun fight and I expect that he's
gonna get some type of opportunity out of it and that it's up to him
to do with it what he can. In terms of Adrian Broner, look,
he's been pretty much done for like six seven, eight years anyway.
But he did come off the layoff and get a win in his first fight
with Don King last year against a certain level of opponent. And if he
could have gotten a win against Blair Cobbs, say whatever you want, he
probably would have got himself into another pretty big fight just because of the fact
that he does have a name, and you know, people kind of either
love him or hate him, but he definitely, you know, gets conversation
going. Let's put it like that. He just looked awful though. I
mean, you know, he look he looked washed, he looked slow.
What did you say. I saw him get knocked down in the second round
with a big, big, big shot. You know, Blair Cobbs could
not miss with his left hand the whole fight. He got tooth knocked out.
And you know, Adrian being a good sport that he can be at
times. I saw he posted a photograph on his Instagram of him with the
gap tooth because he did get teeth knocked out, and so he was making
light of that. That's not you know, it's nothing a joke about it.
I mean, gett your teth knocked that's no fun. I'm sure but
at least he's got a decent sense of humor about the whole situation. But
the thing that was think about it is when Adrian Browner was coming up,
And I'm not going to be revisionist in my in my view of what his
career was, there was a time when he was a young fighter that people
really believed and it seemed like he was on his way to the real megastartom.
He did win a bunch of world titles, but they were kind of
the softest world titles you could win in boxing. I mean, are you
picking vacant beltz er, you know, not really beating top guys to get
those titles. You know, he'll be probably the only four division world champion
that won't make the Hall of Fame put a thing like that. But you
know, he was a tremendous talent. I mean, people viewed him favorably
with the top fighters of that time because of his association with Floyd Mayweather.
Back in the day, people thought maybe he might be the next Floyd Mayweather
quote unquote. And the thing that's disappointing, it's not that it was that
he didn't have the ability or that he was a fraud or he couldn't fight.
He's the one that wasted the talent. That's the thing that is.
So I don't know why I'm upset about it because it doesn't affect me.
It should be the person who wasted the talent that should be the one that's
upset. But he threw it away because of his horror habits in terms of
outside during dealing with his life, dealing with things that were not boxing related,
whether it's substance abuse or you know, getting in legal issues or financial
troubles or whatever it was, and boxing did not seem to be the top
priority, you know, and instead of portunate. You know, Adrian I
always thought had a good heart, even if he had, you know,
a lot of issues in his life. Hopefully he can deal with this because
the days where he can overcome a loss and make money, you know that
he may still be able to do that, but the amount of money is
going to be dramatically diminished in the coming time. And you know, but
the main thing is, if you bought the paper, he was actually a
pretty good fight to watch. I mean, there was definitely entertainment value.
There's some good undercard fights in terms of the action, just touched very briefly
TJ on the co feature, which was an abomination. That was a fight
on paper that sounded pretty good, which was the heavyweight fight between Michael Hunter
and Cash as Cheney. Two guys that you know, with a win,
you know, in a good style, could push themselves, you know,
into a bigger fight maybe you know, scratch that top ten type of situation.
And so no knock on Hunter. He did his job and peppered the
guy with body shots and and uh and jabs a whole fight. But Cash
is Cheney, TJ if he threw ten punches on probably overestimating it. I
mean it was and I say this understanding specifically what the word means, maybe
single most pitiful performance I've ever seen from a professional fighter ever in my life,
because he just would not or could not throw a single punch for ten
rounds. And Cassie Cheney came in as like a decent guy, like who
might have a chance, who had some power, who I've seen, you
know, explosive when he knocked out Trevor Bryant in his previous fight. So
that was the co feature, but the main event, Cobbs gets a good
win and Browner's gotta probably start. I believe that I said at least once
or twice on our preview show or on the bet Us show from Friday.
By the way, you were touting yourself last week Reeves four for four on
the bet Us Show with the hand four four. Also, yeah, well,
picking Bruce Carrington at twenty five hundred to one to win doesn't count on
your record. Sorry, sure, else, if I lay the money,
why don't you go Why don't you go ahead and predict the Sun's gonna come
up in a few hours. So in any event, I believe I said
more than once let the buyer beware on that pay per view. So the
fact that you got a stink bomb co feature fight and you got a washed
and Adrian Broner that couldn't do anything, including after getting knocked down, you
get what you get. And as more than one person was snickering and putting
on social media, welcome, welcome to Don King, still trying to do
this. This is what he has. You mentioned Trevor Bryan. Remember when
he had the Big Return pay per view and Trevor Bryan was fighting some heavyweight
secondary title fight or whatever, and there were about thirty seven people in Ohio
in the arena watching this is what it is right now, and like you
said to me, like off of a recent what was at the Navarat fight,
I think we've spent like about two minutes too long because I don't know
that just real quick. Is Blair Cobbs a legitimate contender to win a title?
Or was he just that much better than a wash Adrian Broner. That's
the real question. It's probably a combination of both. I mean, in
the right circumstance, maybe he can. I mean, again, he did
look good against Maurice Fucker who was not pound for pound type of guy,
but was a very legit pro and had a major world title and defended a
major world title and all that. So you know Cobbs's uh, you know,
he's not again, can he get a world tiller? Can he win
a world tell in the right circumstances? Yeah, probably he can because it's
not a hugely deep division at the moment. I'm not I wouldn't pick him
against you know, some of the that the guy's the very top of the
division. I don't think he's going to go in the ring. And and
you know, I'll give you an example like, uh, you know,
Chris Crawford's gonna be vacating everything. So is he gonna be like an Amanta
Stanionis for example, I'm just just off the front of head. He's going
to be the WBA bot Tennis bot tennis who has the IB He's not going
to beat a boot Sennis. He's probably not gonna be the STANDI on us.
But he'll make a good fight. That's the thing. I mean,
at the end of the day, it's entertainment for those of us to watch.
So whether he wins the fight or not, that's you know, that's
a secondary scenario as far as I'm concerned. But uh, look, I'll
give him credit. He put in a good night's work and he got a
good win. And uh one thing I'll say, he got brown or even
though he look completely washed and his his speed and his skills and his power
are not what they were when they were at his best, you know,
he still got the fighting heart. He tried, He hung in there,
he tried to make a go of it. Late in the fight, he
knew, you know, you got to figure he was behind I. The
judges actually were a little generous to them, gave it ninety six ninety three.
I thought that was a bit wide. I scored to fight a shutout.
I mean the one judge an other just had ninety seven to ninety one.
Uh. But Brunner, you know, hung in there and tried,
but had there was no there was no chance he was winning the fight,
all right. Uh. Title win for Oscar Colaso not unexpected at the Turning
Stone Resort. They're in Verona, New York. Part of the Hall of
Fame weekend. You're gonna touch on the Hall of Fame inductions that were Sunday.
Uh here in a few moments. Colaso wins virtually every round against Toroaldo
Zapata. Not unexpected, and we're we're more looking towards what is next for
him? What's the future unification? Does he move up? Your thoughts on
the Puerto Rican champion Colaso's victory, Well, you did mention that he won
going away on the scorecards. You know, you look at the cards and
you're like, oh, that was a one sided you know, no problem
kind of fight. One nineteen and one, nineteen one, O nine,
one nineteen one, O nine and one seventeen one ten. But the biggest
moment in the fight came in round two when he almost got knocked out,
he almost got his clock clean. He was staggering all over the place.
He was able to write the ship. There were still like I think,
I want to say, maybe like a minute minute and change left in the
fight when Zapata landed a tremendous punch and you know that that was the moment
of the fight, and so you know, Zapata could not step on it
and get them out of there and finish them off as great finishers do.
And Klaso showed the wherewithal to keep himself together as best as possible to get
to the end of the round and you know, get his legs back together.
But that was a big time issue for him. But look, he
came through the fight. He won. Whether he goes up and wait and
challenges for a title and the next way class, whether he can get a
unification fight, it really remains to be seen, you know, making unifications
and those types of small weight classes, especially when there's not a huge amount
of money on the table. Usually to begin with, the strawweights are you
know, fairly anonymous. The other title holders are you know, you got
to from Thailand and from Japan. I mean, they're just not well known.
They're not even well known names where they're from usually, So you know,
even if he could get one of them, it's not like going to
be next a big money for either side. So I think right now,
Golden Boy, look around and see what he wants to do. Try to
keep him busy. He may be best served, you know, maybe maybe
going to one hundred and eight and trying to to to get to get another
title there and because that at least there's some better names there. And the
other thing is, you know, he's not he's not like he's twenty one
years old. He's not an old fighter by any stretch of the imagination,
but he's you know, he's in his mid twenties already. He's twenty seven
years old, So that's that's on the older side. Let's say for a
straw weight. He's made some defenses already, so it's not like there's huge
accomplishments that he's looking to do. I don't think he can get a unification
fight terrific. If you can't, you know, I'm not sure what the
purpose is to just make these regular defenses where you're not being paid big time
money, you know, see what he can do. But one thing about
Oscar Claso when he's fighting, I'm watching because I enjoy watching him fight.
He's exciting. And now he showed a little bit of the of the the
pension for drama, you know, by getting rocked the way he did but
surviving, so you know, and he's got a good, very likable personality.
So you know, I'm all in and watching Oscar Closo fights well.
And one of the other things that we've always been advocates of is he has
been fairly active, and we like that as well. Because that was his
fourth fight, going back to the fight when he won against won the title
against Melvin Jerusalem last May, he's now had three title defenses, but you
know, four fights basically in thirteen months. So let's see how soon he's
back in there, whether it's another defense or like you said, whether he
moves up in weight to one hundred and eight pounds. Oscar Colazo we're talking
about, all right, we advance on to Saturday Night and in both cases,
Xander Ziaz won impressively. Will debate about whether he should have gotten Patrick
Tashera out of there or not. Bruce Carrington also wins by TKO late rounds
with his late replacement opponent De Grasia. All right, so what are your
thoughts on the top rank show. Let's start with the main events. Zias
gets the win. Was he impressive enough for you in the ten round decision
win? I have mixed feelings about that, TJ. I mean, first
of all, you know, it was a big night for him. He's
the headline fight. First of all, it's the first main event of his
career. And remember, anytime a boxer gets to be the main event for
the first time is the big deal. Now you're throw in the fact that
he's the main event on ESPN. That's a big deal because of ESPN's wide
reach. Now you're throw in the fact that he's headlining at a very famous
venue like the Madison Square Garden. The theater also has hosted plenty of major
fights and important and notable fights over the years. And then you take all
that and you throw in the fact that, by the way, I'm fighting
a former world champion who, by far and away, at least on paper,
is my best opponent, not even close. And then the last of
all the things to put on that list, Oh, by the way,
I'm the main event at this hallowed arena against his quality opponent, and it's
the eve of the Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend, and I am Puerto Rican
and this is my night, and this has been built for me, and
it's what I've dreamedout since I'm five years old, is what he said.
So if you put that in your mind, that's a lot of pressure.
So if you keep that in your mind and then you watch how the fight
unfolded, you can't be disappointed with how Xander's eye has performed because that was
a big spot. You know, would he have liked to get the knockout
leak? He said absolutely. Would he have liked to be a little bit
more spectacular, for sure. But when you really examine it, he got
ten good rounds under his belt, first time he ever went past eight rounds
in his career. That's another thing, first time he ever fought a south
opponent, and he still gets to win in fairly entertaining style, shut out
on two score cards. One judge actually gave to share a one round,
which I haven't seen the official cards, so I have no idea which round
they gave him. But I have no idea how they gave him a single
round because to me, there wasn't a single round that was even close.
When you were talking about cash as Shaney, I mean t Shera didn't offer
much more than what you relate about changing. He landed an occasional shot.
He landed an occasional shot, but he didn't mount a lot of offense.
And I thought, especially second half of the fight, I thought Ziaz was
going to maybe step on the gas corner him and get him out of there,
and it just didn't happen. Follow up on that well, first of
all, to share it, to compare his performance to Cheney's is not appropriate
in my opinion at all, because one guy at least tried. You can
take away whatever you want to say about to share his ability to do anything,
but he was he tried. Chaney'd never tried. But be that as
it may, I think that Xander did step on the guests and try to
get him out of there late in the fight, and you know, sometimes
guys are just not getting knocked out, you know, you you know,
I remember the famous quote from Marvin Hagler in the HBO documentary series talking about
you know, his fight with I believe it was were talking about Tommy Hearn's
right of the rail intern fight. You know, you're gonna have to hit
me with that damn ring post to get me out of there, right.
You know, The point is that's the mentality to share a you know,
he had a fighting heart. He's just a little older now, a little
slower, didn't look like he was in the greatest shape of all time.
And and he and he took his beating like a man, I guess is
the way to say it. And he lost every single round. Uh,
but he you know, he he gave him a different look. Because I
mentioned it's the first time that Xander had ever fought a south Ba and uh,
this was not an unexpected thing that Xander would win the fight. He
couldn't get the knockout, but you know, so I guess the answer to
the question is I give him credit for all the things I mentioned and dealing
with all that stuff in the pressure of the situation. And he did look
fine, and he did actually keep going for the knockout even in the tenth
round. Him he could have sat on his lead. He no, he's
up big time, but he still went for it. So that's a that's
a check mark in the right spot. But in the end, even though
he won and won handily, I guess there was a little bit of me
that was like, I just wish it would have been a little bit more
spectacular. So I'm not gonna I don't hold it against him. I still
think Xander's got a very bright future. And I love his marketability, I
love his personality. He's got skills, he's a hard worker by all accounts,
does not cut corners, takes a very seriously as he should, and
he's still a work in progress. So I'm you know, and again all
the pressure stuff I mentioned still when you're when you're going and you're going to
the you know, past eight for the first time and you're not really winded.
He still looked very sharp in terms of his lungs. Last couple of
rounds and you'll find your first lefty like these are all he said, all
the right things afterwards. This was a learning experience. You know, I
got, I passed, I passed this test. He you know, I
talked about the folks at top rank his promoter to talk about, you know,
you can't go twelve till you go ten. Well he went ten,
and he did it pretty handily against a reputable opponent. So I mean,
if I'm giving him on a letter grade, I give him A. I'll
give him a B maybe a B plus. But I can't give him that
A just yet because it just seemed a little bit something lack him fair enough.
Yeah, but I think he could have gotten him out of the air
for whatever reasons, he didn't press it as much like in this eighth round,
ninth round to do so one more humorous thing. And I put this
on social media and I even sent it to you to Cheryl was rocking the
Florida Man tank top sunburn there where he obviously had trained some recently in the
sun or outside and had the and had the uh full on white trunk chain
and back but the tan around the tank top. I love, I love
Florida Man Sunburn whenever I can point it out. That's about all we can
say for the former WO world champion on that. So, you know the
thing about it is they were looking ahead to maybe what would what would be
next for him? Hey, now what might be next for him? Well,
I did think it was absolutely ludicrous for the folks to discuss him as
you know, uh, hanging with the top junior middleweightes at this time,
and they continually mentioned him in Crawford. Now, if you want to see
the young man have a fruitful and long career, you don't match him with
Terrence Crawford, not now, because that's an absolute destruction right now, right
it just is. And it's not by the way, that's not even anti
Xander's highest. That's pretty much most of the fighters in the weight class.
In my mind. Crawford is a whole different animal at this moment in time.
But the guys that Xander's yas mentioned were the ones that make sense as
you take up it's a progression, you know, people you just because he
is where he is, you know, big prospect status on the he did,
you know, all the hype because of the Puerto Rican weekend. He's
still a fighter on their eye. So he brought up names. Josh Kelly,
a guy fifteen and one in one from the UK, great amateur also,
you know, a rising contender in his own right mentioned. I don't
know why he brought that name up, but that would be a perfectly fine
fight. That's an appropriate fight at this stage of his career. The other
name that came up, which him against Vito mil Nikki Junior. Obviously,
if you're paying attention to the news, Veto, who has one loss but
is otherwise undefeated, you know, eighteen one, I believe, or nineteen
and one whatever, he is, just signed with Top Rank this past week.
They are friends, they've known each other for many years, but they
also know it's business. And Xander is only twenty one. Nicky I believe
is also twenty one or twenty two, and that's a fight. Obviously when
Top Ranks signed him, I'm sure they had that when they were making their
list of like what kind of matchups can we make for this fighter that we
just signed. That would certainly be a marketable fight, and so both of
them seem interested because Xander mentioned his name in the postfan interview. They had
done an interview earlier in the show up on the studio set with Vito,
who was there in attending. He's in Jersey in his first fight, so
that's an appropriate kind of fight. You know. Veto's eighteen and one with
twelve knockouts, Kelly's fifteen and one with a draw with eight knockouts. These
are that kind of level of where he should be at. You got to
fight those kinds of fights and win those kinds of fights before you're going to
talk about you know, him against Terrence Crawford, even him against like a
Virginal Ortiz or somebody like that. In the way class, he's on the
right path. That's the bottom line. Well, and more to come,
because we'll probably see him again in the next few months here, probably in
a headlining spot. We'll see from top rank a right on the immediate fight
before that, not unexpectedly, Shoeshoe Carrington does get the win, does get
the stoppage. De Grascia slowed down greatly. I thought Tim Bradley was right
on it on the analysis that hey, his output, his movement has stopped.
And again Carrington I thought was toying with him from about the fourth fifth
round on, could have maybe stepped on the accelerator game. Finally did got
the TKO, so he looked good. What are your thoughts of watching shoe
Shoot Carrington. They're in a big spot for him and a co feature get
the Way. Yeah, listen, Carrington stole the show. I mean that.
I mean you can say what Joan about Xander in the main event,
how he won and wanted to shut out and it was Puerto Rico Weekend and
all that, But for me, it was Bruce Carrington that stole the show.
He's a Brooklyn fighter, so he had a lot of fans there in
the crowd. Also, the Groscia was a very credible replacement opponent, as
we discussed on the preview. He replaced Vivas, but he had been on
standby and training for the last six weeks, so it wasn't like they just
got him up and Fight Weekend said make the weight. He was ready to
go. He showed a good heart, he came to fight, he came
to win. He just was outgunned by a quicker, more powerful, just
better technician and Carrington. So Bruce Carrington may only now be twelve to zero
with eight knockouts, but he's twenty seven years old. That's again, that's
on the older level for a quote unquote prospect in the featherweight division. I
consider him now, you know, to be a legitimate contender. Can beat
some of the top guys in the featherweight division, I think right now,
and so they're gonna move, I think fairly quickly. I don't think he's
getting a title fight next, but certainly in the next couple of fights,
he's gonna be right there, especially given the top rank involvement in that weight
class. But in terms of the way the fight went, you mentioned about
what Bradley said and slowing down, it was really the fifth round where it
was clear that that the gracier kind of hit a wall in terms of his
output, and you know, part of those because he was taking punishment.
He did get dropped two times. You know, he had a bloody nose.
One of the knockdowns was you know, he got knocked into the ropes
and the referee appropriately ruled today knockdown because that's all that kept him up.
Another one he got clipped on the temple and went down to a knee.
I mean, this was an all around top class performance from caring to So
we talked about what gave Xander a B maybe a B plus this permose I
got to give Bruce Carrington an A because he did everything you want to see.
He was fast, he showed power, he showed noise, he showed
patience, he showed skills, he put the damage on his opponent, He
made an entertaining you know, he showed a little swagger. I mean,
it was it was a fun fight watch, and it was a very conclusive
and an ending and he just was completely outgunned. And Carrington is going places
now again without getting too far ahead of ourselves. They were also talking on
the broadcast about an eventual fight, and this is because Carrington has been talking
about this is his target in the long run of him fighting Noya in a
way now in a way was present and was ringside for the fight. In
a way had been in New York City because on Thursday night he accepted his
twenty twenty three Fighter of the Award at the annual Boxing Writers' Dinner. He's
promoted by Top Rank. They took him to the Yankee Game. He I
think he got to meet Shoe he Otani as Japanese countryman, the other you
know, mega superstar athlete in Japan. And then they obviously had him as
a guest at the fight. They did an interview with him during the broadcast,
so he was making some of the rounds you know in America. And
he stayed and he watched Carrington's fight. He knows, you know, the
types of guys he may fight down the road. And I don't want to
get too carried away because it's not happening next but there's nothing wrong with getting
the ball rolling if you think that's a fight down the road. He's still
fighting his a junior featherweight. He's probably going to spend the rest of this
year at junior featherweight. Next year, most likely they'll go to featherweight by
then. You gotta figure Carrington will be positioned to have won a title by
then, and then maybe, just maybe it will make sense, you know,
a couple of fights, three four fights from now for uh, for
for Carrington because in a way won't be as active. And then the interesting
thing to meet TJ is that, you know, in a way after after
Carrington's fight, Carrington walked to that side of the ring, he bowed to
him, you know, uh, he was acknowledged by in a way,
and then in a way left. He didn't stick around for this Anders eyes.
He was there to see the guy that he might fight some day.
So again, this is in the future, but a smart promoter lays the
groundwork for these types of fights. So when this fight, if it if
if if if if it ever does happen. When I'm writing stories and we're
talking on podcasts and they're talking about the height for the fight. We'll be
like, oh yeah, by the way, remember how back in uh in
June of twenty twenty four when he fought Brian de Gracia and they were bowing
at each other, you know from ringside where this fight Loomwell, guy,
you know by the way here it is that this is setting up the storyline.
That's right. So for other people on social media that are getting crazy
going, oh, he can't fight in a way just yet, like,
dude, he's not going to be next. This is a long term play.
As you said to meywhere ye when we brought this is going to be
around for a while when we brought this up not only in the preview mode
but on the bet Us show. Carrington's not going to be in a world
title fight more than likely in his next fight, it's going to probably be
another fight or two. So he's certainly much like what you said with Xander
Zyaz and Terrence Crawford, he's not going to be in front of that freight
train in a way anytime for the rest of this year and probably I'll even
go as far as to say the first part of next year. Now,
could you be looking at two or three fights from now they fight. That's
your point. What projects what's the fall of twenty twenty five look like?
What's December December of twenty twenty five, January February of twenty twenty look like?
There you go. This is this is why Top Rank has been promoting
boxing at the highest level for sixty years or so. Part of it is
you got to identify the talent. You gotta be fortunate with some good luck.
You gotta have a good broadcast situation. You know, you have to
have some boxing intelligence. They have all that, but then you gotta lay
out the storyline. And that's what they're doing because Harrington in a way sure,
and let's let's bring one more point up speak to this and then we
got to move on. Carrington's got to be in there with a better level
fighter that can really test him. Then we learn more. Same thing with
Zias, then we learn more. And Zias was fighting a former world champion,
so we know a little more about him. But when Carrington is in
there with a guy that can test him, then we learn more about him.
Forget about world title yet. And so now let's see if you agree
with that. That's that's coming in the next fight or two, he's got
to have a better test. I have no doubt in my mind that probably
in his next fight for Carrington, that they will step him up. The
thing about it is, and I know this because I know the people at
top rank very very well for a long time. When they know that they've
got a guy that can really fight, they take the hand. They're not
they don't baby him. They're very very good at moving a guy at the
appropriate speed. That's why it's taken nineteen fights for Xander to get in the
ring with a former world champion, not you know, because they had a
he gotta grow, They have a time, they've invested. They see,
but he's a young guy, he's only twenty one. With a guy like
Bruce Carrington's already twenty seven, who comes from a deeper amateur background. Remember
Bruce Carrington was a twenty twenty US Olympic Trials champion. You know he ended
up turning pro. You know, they've been able to move him much more
quickly. He didn't need the babying at his age and his vast experience as
an amateur. And now they're seeing that come to pass because he's now got
good knockouts and he's fighting up you know, and even the Garsci on late
notice is still probably the best opponent he's face so far, and he passed
that with Find Colors. He beat the shit out of him basically, and
onward and upward. I mean, if you're a top rank you have to
be happy because the two guys that you view as future headliners, who are
still in the earlier stages of their pro career, they did what you wanted
them to do. Even Standard didn't get the knockout, but Dave had done
there. What did They did what everything was expected of them and look good
doing it all right, good stuff on the recaps, news and a lot
of it. So on Saturday night, while the Top Rank show was unfolding,
the news was out social media and otherwise. TMZ Credit to Them was
the first one to have it, including with video that Ryan Garcia had been
arrested at the Beverly Hills Waldorf Waldorf Astoria hotel in southern California, taken into
custody by authorities for vandalism of his hotel room, believed to be in excess
of ten thousand dollars worth of damage done to the room. Fifteen or more.
It's a felony for anything more than four hundred dollars worth of property damage.
I thought it was interesting as and I wrote the story for Big Fight
Weekend dot com. They were called to the hotel on Wednesday. Garcia's family
called the hotel staff and asked for not clear if it was just the police,
the paramedics and the police to come to the room, and the police
deemed, okay, there's nothing here to charge him with. We've done a
welfare check, we're leaving. That was on Wednesday, so this is now
on Saturday. Later on Saturday night, Garcia's attorney said that he was taken
to the hospital by the Beverly Hills authorities. Dan, what else do we
know Sunday night into Monday, because I checked again on Sunday evening here as
we're doing the podcast, and you can't tell from online records or anything.
Is he still in the Beverly Hills jail? Is he facing an arrangement?
No tomorrow? What's the update on Ryan Garcia? I was in communication on
Sunday with his advisor of Guadeloupe, Valencia, who has put out the statement
about it, and you know he didn't get into this specifics of where he
is, but my understanding is that he got arrested. He then was basically
sent to the hospital for an evaluation. You know, Ryan has struggled with
his mental health in the past, so that's not a secret. He's been
very public about that. He's clearly having some type of issue. I mean,
it's it's like a slow moving train wreck I described it. I mean,
I don't wish anything bad on Ryan, even though he's certainly made me,
you know, one of his targets because I had the audacity to report
the factual information about his failed drug tests post the Devin Hainey fight. But
be that as a may I believe he's being evaluated, being treated. I
don't know if he's still there as we speak, but he's going through some
shit right now. You know, he put on you know what he puts
on social media sometimes you know, who the heck knows what to believe.
But apparently it's been discovered as his mother is ill. She's had a battle
with cancer ahead of her, so I think maybe that's wearing on him,
and and just the general pressures of being Ryan Garcia, which he sometimes exacerbates
on his own and that doesn't help the situation. The point is whatever happened
in that hotel is just another in a long line of things. Whether you
want to go back to all the crazy behavior prior to the Devin Haney fight,
which I don't care if you want to tell me that. People still
want to say it was totally just trolling. I don't believe that, you
know, with the drugs and the alcohol that he's been involved with his mental
health problems, with the positive drug test that that occurred in terms of that
fight of facing a punishment. There was some stuff he put on his social
media that said he hadn't been paid you get for the April twenty fight,
which Devin handes was okay. So that was That was earlier Saturday afternoon that
he put that out there, and Devin Haney agreed with him, and then
Garcia subsequently deleted the post. This after Golden Boy put a statement out.
What do you make of all of that? What I make of it is
that they have a certain number in their contract that they're supposed to get on
the night of the fighter, with the X number of days after the fight,
and that Golden Boy paid exactly what they were supposed to pay. But
then you think about a supposed big paper, You're like, where's the rest
of my money? And it's like what Golden Boy put in their statement.
And this is not just Golden with this is any promoter that's ever done a
pay per view event. Is that pay per view money does not come at
once. You know, they have to wait for those cable bills and those
satellite bills and those subscriber bills and all that stuff. That money's got to
be Not only does that have to come in, it's got to then be
distributed, and so it takes time for the pay per view money to hit.
You know, it could be six weeks. And then by the way,
this is this is fact, major pay per view fights, big ones,
money comes in and is paid out literally over the course of like four
or five years, no exaggeration. So they're going to get their money whatever
they're entitled to. But it doesn't happen over time. And you're just saying
this and we don't have to stay on it for a while, but why
four or five years in the present day with technology, et cetera. That's
the book's nineteen nineties thing. Just hearing you say that that you used to
take that long to figure it out, or because money still going to because
money still goes to cable companies, and it's again, it's a messy.
It's an inexact science. They get their money and there's audits and you know,
those types of things, but it just not immediately. So the fact
that the fight was on April twentieth, and I'm making it, let's make
up the numbers. My understanding is that Devin Hainey's guarantee like on fight night
was like three million bucks and Ryan's was probably a little bit more. The
point is they would get that then or the next day or that Monday or
whatever they agreed to it within a few days, and then it could be
if I was in April, here we are now in June, it could
literally be two months until the first you know, a batch of money hits
on the fight, and then there'll be distribution on whatever it did and what
they're entitled to. So you know, there's a reason why that that tweet
was deleted. I have no doubt in my mind. You can talk about
promoters who want to you know, in the past, I've maybe ripped off
a fighter for this or ripped off a fighter for that whatever. In this
type of situation, I have no doubt in my mind, especially knowing the
people involved in terms of who their lawyers are, that they got their money
they were supposed to get for the night of the fight. And that's that's
that. Now, maybe Ryan didn't have cash on it then was trying to
make bail or something like that and wasn't plaining because now have the money.
I have no idea, but I'm just making the point that that might be
a reason you might complain that you don't have any cash. Who knows.
I found it interesting though that Haiti backed him up right away about that.
And so what we don't know, all right, what we don't and you
do a great job at this, but what we don't know right now is
was there a payment that was supposed to happen that was missed? And I
guess we'll find out is it delayed, is it missed, is it whatever?
All I know is, besides Ryan Garcia going off half cocked on social
media all the time, Haini backed him up. Haiti basically verified I haven't
been paid when I'm supposed to be paid. So let's see, let's see
if this, if this has any more legs to it or whatever. Again,
I don't want to go for another five minutes. It just seems to
me stupid that we're talking about it takes years to find that money. We'ren't
an age now where they instantaneously charged your credit card that instantaneously have numbers and
totals and whatever. It's the technology that we have. So I'm just telling
you I've seen, I've literally I'll tell you a little story you're talking about.
Hold on before we go for another five minutes. Are you talking about
something that's happened in the last couple of years. Are we talking about something
that's many years ago? I would say it was probably like in the last
five, like five years, maybe six years, something like that. Real
quick, go ahead. I'm not going to identify the specifics, but the
bottom line was I was supposed to be sent something by a network that had
nothing to do with contracts and business. I was being sent an item that
I was doing something about, and I accidentally was sent proprietary paperwork related to
pay per view payouts that were not meant for me, that were meant for
a promoter, had nothing to do with me. I opened up the envelope.
I'm like, this isn't what I was supposed to get. It was
literally pay per view reports from like four or five pay per view fights,
all right, addressed to this particular promoter, outline to you, by mistake,
by mistake, send to me, by mistake, outlining what the payment
was for this event, how much money had come in for that event,
with the exact and precise pay per view numbers, et cetera. And that
does happen. It takes time. The books stay open, so the books
on Hany versus Garcia. Now, maybe, like you said, with technology,
it's not going to be quite that long, and today you know today,
but it's still definitely more than a year to go through the entire auditing
process and get everything paid out because it takes time to collect everything and distribute.
The cable companies, you know, they have a certain period of time
where they can take to distribute the money to the promoter, et cetera.
All I'm saying is it does take time, and they get paid. And
if you ask any big pay perview star, Mayweather, Pacio, Oscar Canelo,
you name it, they will tell you that years after big fights,
they were still getting payment from those events. All right, fair enough,
And again the most important thing is what is up with Ryan Garcia's future suspension
or not likely? Low it's going to be suspended, would you stop?
But I mean the suspension is likely going to be like a year. I'm
saying no, and you have an arrest here, what's the situation as Sunday
becomes to Monday with that regardless? So this is something I know from law
enforcement because I got a father in law law enforcement. I got many friends
and acquaintances in law enforcement. Just because they took you to be evaluated and
took you to the hospital, that doesn't stop the judicial process of you going
back to jail. So then was he whatever that is, was he bonded
out? I doubt it. Is he back in jail now? I don't
know. We're still efforting to find that out courtgate to be determined. Who
knows. So stay tuned for the details Redan Rayphael Substack as well and find
out more on that, and we'll have more on Big Fight Weekend dot Com.
All right, real quick, a couple of other things and we'll get
to some nostalgia. We talked about this on the bet Us Show. Because
it was announced on Friday. We'll mention it here again on the recap podcast
Mike Tyson, Jake Paul back On, as well as the co feature of
Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. Now, November fifteenth is a Friday night,
Now, five more months into the future. Give me your thoughts here,
as we talked about on the bet Us show, but for the audience here,
what are your thoughts and are we concerned that we're going to get to
the finish line five months from now with Tyson's health as he's about to turn
fifty eight years old later this month and obviously has problems. I mean,
you never can tell. Obviously you wouldn't, but you know, it would
could be any fight. You never know if they're actually gonna get in the
ring because things happen. It seems like this is just a setback because of
that particular flare up of the ulcer from Tyson, and by all accounts,
you know, within a few weeks they'll be ready to do whatever training he
was doing to get ready for the fight. I don't think he needs to
train streangulously for five months. That's too much if you ask me, obviously
you don't need that much time to get ready for a fight, even if
you're fifty eight, because Mike, even at fifty eight, well hope you
fifty eight, you know, coming up is still in obviously pretty damn good
shape. But you know, and when they first postponed the fight, they
said they were going to announce the new date on Friday, which was just
a couple of days ago, and they were able to do that. I'm
sure they'll work through the calendar. It seemed like everybody involved, Tyson side,
Ay, Paul's side, the Cowboys people, they wanted to keep this
event at the AT and T Stadium, Netflix the same thing because obviously they're
the broadcast, are paying a lot of the freight, and so instead of
on the Saturday, they're going to be on the Friday. And the reason
for that, my understanding, is because so they'll do the fight on Friday.
You know, it does take time to turn the stadium over from a
boxing venue or whatever event is there into the football venue that it was built
for. And so the Cowboys are playing at home, not on the Sunday,
but they host the Dallas or the Houston Texans on Monday Night football Monday
Night, right, right, right, so that all day Saturday Sunday,
and then the ballgame is on Monday, so they'll have the fight on Friday.
Here's the other thing is they from time to time will have a Saturday
college football game in that venue in addition to the Cowboys playing in that venue
on the weekend. So you've got to juggle on where do you have the
fight in relation to that? So just interesting. I am concerned, not
ultra concerned that I don't know if Serrano and Taylor's rematch will be a cat
visualty again like it is now. We get to October November and Mike Tyson
has more health problems hypothetically and we lose the Taylor Serrano fight again because we're
waiting five more months. It concerns I'm pretty I'm pretty sure that you know
if that, if, if, if that worst case scenario that you just
mentioned happened, Taylor Toronto is still a huge and attractive and important fight on
its own, that maybe it wouldn't be done on the same parameters as it's
being done in the in the uh CO feature of this Tyson and Jake Paul
event, but they will still be able to fight. I would assume because
somebody will want to put up the money. I have no problem selling tickets
for a fight like that. It could you can put that in, you
know, any number of major arenas around the United States and draw a big
crowd, whether back at Madison Square, Gardener elsewhere. Uh. And so
you know, it may may be delayed, but look, Amanda and Katie
are are great fighters, and they're going to be first ballot Hall of famers,
and they obviously haven't a phenomenally memorable first fight, and they've got tremendous
accomplishments besides just that fight. But they're near the end of their careers.
So I think whatever it takes, they're willing to wait, you know,
even if it's just a few more months to put on a the fight that's
going to pay them more money than any other and b the fight that the
boxing public wants to see more than any other in terms of women's boxing.
So I'm not concerned about that fight if it has to got. You know,
if the worst seat case there happened and I got post on a little
bit longer, so be it. That's life, all right. More news
and disturbing news about Deontay Wilder. When last we saw him Zelaijang wiped him
out in Saudi Arabia. I keep saying this is more than likely the end
of Wilder on the biggest stage. And now we have accusations from his fiance
that he has been abusive physically of her on numerous occasions, including recently she's
gotten a restraining order. Not good on the personal standpront point for Deontay Wilder,
what are your thoughts from what you've any reporting and what else you've found
out. This is not good. It's important to distinguish he's not under arrest,
but the fact that this stuff is being brought up not good. No,
it's not good. I mean, it's very unfortunate. And you know
his fiance who's been together with for many, many years. They have a
daughter together who six years old. Telly Swift is her name, And if
you've been around Deonta's fights for his events, she's you know, been by
his side for a long long time. You know, I can't say I
know her well. I've met her. She seems like a like a nice
enough lady to talk to and whatever. But she she filed for a temporary
restraining order and it was granted. This was in Los Angeles and in her
application this is again according to the reporting from TMZ, that one of the
things she outlined of the various situations of you know, her accusations of abuse,
that she was worried that when he came back from having lost the fight
to Zang the way he did, that he would become violent. He had
kicked her out of their home apparently according to what she says with Atlanta,
and she was with the daughter living in another residence today own in Los Angeles.
And it's just sad to see, I mean, it's it's unfortunate so
that the tro o was granted though appear before a judge yes, in the
coming weeks to go over whatever happened. Uh, and we'll have to just
see what what goes from there. But it just feels like Deontay, you
know, it's one thing to see your professional life falling apart with the way
he took that loss, where you kind of know what the writing is on
the wall, Uh, that your career, you know, at least at
the highest level, is basically over unfortunately, and then you have this situation
that has clearly been festering for a while in your personal life. That you
know, sometimes if you have problems in your personal life, you can turn
your focus to your professional life. And sometimes if problems in your professional life,
you know, you can take salason that things are going okay in your
personal life. Right now, in terms of Deontay Wilder's life, it seems
like there's a lot of issues on both fans and then of course, uh,
you know, his fiance and their daughter are obviously, you know,
affected by this greatly too, because you know pretty sure they just want their
their their partner, and their father back in a good way, not in
this negative situation. So you know, I just wish the best for everybody
in the whole case. But her, I'll tell you one thing, her
her accusations were somewhat detailed and very disturbing. It's been going on on for
years, according to her, numerous different instances. Now, how much has
she reported in the past, And again, I'm not gonna be labor that
because a lot of times of victims, alleged victims, are fearful to even
go forward and say this is going on, this is happening. But his
personal life is a mess, and I find him to be very engaging.
He's been on with us on the podcast he was on with you recently.
But he's got a lot of mess in his personal life with other kids by
other women in Alabama, and you just I'm concerned that all of it's gonna
unravel for Deontay Wilder coming up. Bottom line, I hope, yeah,
right now. The bottom line is this is that he's got to stay one
hundred yards away from her, the daughter. The daughter, right, and
then they've got apparently a meeting with the judge June twenty fifth, according to
the recording. So there is the latest on that with the former WBC heavyweight
champ. All Right, Hall of Fame weekend this weekend. I know you
were watching the ceremony on Sunday the International Boxing Hall of Fame, of which
you are a voter. Give me a little more on that because you talked
in the preview mode about those that would be there, et cetera. What
are your what are your thoughts having seen the induction ceremony real quick? Well,
I mean thankfully the You know, for many years it was hard to
see the induction ceremony. You either you couldn't see it at all, or
be you had to attend it, which I have done, or you'd have
to hope that somebody you know, with a handheld camera or something like that
would maybe catch a part of it and put it on YouTube or something like
that, and you'd search around for it. But thankfully, the Hall of
Fame uh, you know, has embraced at least somewhat in terms of technology,
and they put it a livestream on their YouTube channel. So I was
able to just sit back on Sunday afternoon and spend an hour or so hour
and a half watching the ceremony. It was great. I mean I always
enjoy it, you know, as I as I said on my tour,
I laughed, I cried, I mean, it was it was great to
watch. I maybe I'm more moved by seeing the inductions in recent years because
they're at a point now with fighters who pretty much everybody that's being inducted now
in terms of at least a modern category are all people that I know and
covered, which is different than just seeing great fighters who maybe met or maybe
covered a little bit, you know. But but the guys being inducted,
uh that were aducted on Sunday air, I covered all of them. I
mean, Ricky Hatten, Diego corrals, Ivan Caldern. I covered numerous of
their fights and knew all of them, and they're met family members, you
know. Michael Moore was inducted also. I I've met Michael several times.
I wrote about the end of his career. I covered you know, maybe
one or two of his fights in person, but you know, not not
at his heyday. But that's the exception these days. So I'm a little
bit more emotional about it, I guess when it's guys that I've known and
covered and you know, written extensively about. I mean, I don't know
if I've written probably hundreds of thousands of words by Ricky Hadden, one hundred
thousand words about his career, you know, over the years. So that
was it was. It was good to see it. Everybody gave very you
know, different kind of speeches, but they were there was something to take
from all of them. One of them is just the uh, you know,
the appreciation that all these men and women that were inducted had for the
work that's done by the Hall of Fame folks, Ed Brophy and his team
and uh and the fans that turn out. I mean in the city of
Canistota, the town of Canistoda that turns out and puts on the old fashioned
parade. So I just s thoroughly enjoyed. I liked hearing you know,
my good buddy Fred Starnberg, the public relations man, who gave some great
stories about him and getting involved in the in the business and his early days
working with Winky Wright and and helping you know, and it was funny.
I didn't I kind of forgot about this at the time, but when Winky
Wright and had his two fights with Shane Mosley, Winky was basically Fred's first
client when Fred broke out on his own and he was working for Gary Shaw
when he took him on as a client, and Gary was working with Winky
and then when he made the fight with Shane Mosley. By that time,
Fred was representing Winky as a publicist and Shane and so he's like, well,
who am I going to keep? And they both wanted to stay with
him, so he he gave some funny stories about, you know, trying
the balancing act of doing their fights together but trying to keep it even between
you know, working with Winky and Shane on the same event. So that
was great stuff. And hearing Ricky Hatton recount you know, his time and
uh and the things he's been through up you know, good and dad with
always with a sense of humor was tremendous. They saved him for the last
speech of the night, given that he was you know, probably the biggest
name. Michael Moore gave some very good remarks and made the point to talk
about the need for boxers posts there boxing career to have you know, an
insurance policy or some kind of you know, safety net, because too many
fall through the cracks. He one of them talked about, not in this
speech, but in the lead up to the inductions, about how basically he's
broke after making millions of dollars in his career, which is you know,
unfortunate, not surprising though happens all the time, Yeah, frequently. They
had wonderful remarks from from the widow of Nick Charles, who spoke about about
his life and career and his relationship. She recounted a story that when Nick
this is probably about what ten eleven years ago, when he passed. When
Nick was dying, the person that called Nick basically every single day, she
said, three four times a day just to talk to him was Mike Tyson
who he had known and then become somewhat close to when he covered him so
extensively when he was with CNN. And then there was they had the UH
three. They had the brother of Diego Corrals and two of Diego's children to
speak who gave, you know, great remarks about his career in life.
It was just, you know, it's always a great ceremony to watch UH.
While Matthews whoy I covered many many fights at ringside with UH during when
he was writing for you know, various New York newspapers and when we were
colleagues at ESPN, talked about you know he's involved in and UH and his
appreciation for the honor because all he did was watch the guys and tell the
world what they did as opposed to what the athletes did. So it was
just everybody, you know, hit the right notes. I felt like in
their in their remarks. It was really a wonderful ceremony. And UH.
You know it's still available if they don't want to watch it, it's on
the International Boxing All of Fam YouTube channel. You know, you can fast
forward to if there's a certain inductee that you want to watch. But it
was it was great solf about Jane Couch also by the way, from Britain,
who overcame a lot because she was not allowed to box in Britain because
it was against the law, and her talking about her her trials and tribulations
and her appreciation for the United States of America because this is where she was
able to come when she wasn't able to box in Britain and be welcomed here.
And you know, given credit to the other female boxers that that were
also pioneered. She talked about Anne Wolf and some of the others of that
time. Right, It was just it was great stuff. If you're a
boxing fan, it's just such a great uh, you know, to just
take the time and listen to what these these these people say about about their
involvement and what it meant to them, and their appreciation for where they are
now. And it's great, by the way, to see many of these
people, particularly the fighters anyway, well past their careers but still look good
and sound good and you know, have you know, good things to say,
and you know they're not broken down and bitter like sometimes these people become
later in life. But this group anyway seemed like things were pretty pretty solid
for everybody, thankfully, and that leads us to the nostalgia. You were
just talking about nostalgia with the Hall of Fame. It was forty six years
ago today as we get this podcast recorded and released June ninth, nineteen seventy
eight, that a phenomenal finish to a heavyweight title fight between Larry Holmes and
Ken Norton took place in Las Vegas. Norton had been bestowed as the WBC
heavyweight champ. Is it still the case, by the way, that he's
the only heavyweight champion to never win a title fight? He was at that
time, he was for a while. I think it is. The WBC
made him the heavyweight CHAMPI it wasn't for the vacant title. They made him
the champ, and Larry Holmes beat him in this fight, in a wild
fight, in particular the fifteenth round, Dan Rayphield, when we talk about
all time rounds, my lord, that fifteenth round. I believe I've said
this forever, and we've talked about it maybe briefly before on our conversations,
that may be the greatest fifteenth round in any fight ever. It certainly to
me is in heavyweight history. And nobody got knocked down with all the big
bombs, nobody knocked down. What a great fifteenth round? And what else
do you want to say about Norton and Holmes, just that it was their
incredible culmination of what was already a great fight. I mean, if you
like heavyweight act and you like high stakes heavy towaight championships, including by the
way, two guys who were in the Hall of Fame, as we were
just talking about the inductions of Kenny Norton and Larry Holmes are in the Hall
of Fame. Just it doesn't get better. I mean, this was high
stakes. And the thing is, of course, you know this is very
famous. Larry Holmes went in there with a biceps injury and you wouldn't have
known the way that he fought because he laid it all out there and it
came down literally to round fifteen that the winner of round fifteen turned out to
be the winner of the fight, and it was Larry Holmes, you know,
in a just a bruising, very very rough, harsh battle. It
is one of the most classic heavyweight championship fights in the history of the of
the at least in terms of heavyweight championship fights that have been recorded to video
anyway, I can't tell you about the fights that weren't recorded back on in
the old days. That's you know, that type of thing. But in
terms of since you know, TV and video existed that it doesn't get better
in this in terms of heavyweight title fight, it was just a ball so
the wall kind of fight between these two guys, both guys with big bombs,
both guys with great chins, and the thing that was beautiful about it
again, you know what will date our So this was live on ABC in
prime time. This was not a one review you know, you know,
we're in a time now where they asked forty bucks for Brona versus Blair Cops.
This was forty This was free on ABC in prime time. I mean,
this is no pay per view, no streaming service, back when people
had basically three or four TV channels to choose from, and so it had
a huge audience. It was in the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion, which is
the smaller, not the big famous outdoor arena they would build for the big,
big fights, but the five six thousand cedar that was there that my
only put it like this my dime of covering boxing the heyday of Caesars as
the host hotel had kind of passed. They were the host hotel for some
events who took place at the Thomas and Maxenter. So I've stayed at Caesar's
Palace and covered fights they were involved with on a number of occasions. But
the only time I ever was in the Caesars Palace Sports Pavilion was not for
any of the number of great fights that were there, Holmes Versus Norton,
you know, Sugar Ray Leonard against Benitez, wil Fredo Gomez against against Salvador
Sanchez, on and on and on. My only experience with the Sports Billion
is it was the media center during the fight weeks when Roy Jones fought John
Ruiz for the BBA heavyweight title. But the point is this was not in
the big, huge arena, but it was a phenomenal fight, as good
as it gets, and it was a long time ago and it's still after
all those years, one of the most memorable heavyweight fights ever. And like
you said, in terms of fifteenth rounds, like there, if you were
to like go through boxing history and you like pick the best, not the
fifteen best rounds, but the best round for each number round, Like,
what's the best first round? You might say probably Hagler and Hearns. Yes,
what's the best fifth round? You might say, I think it was
Gaddy Ward, Bara Morales won. You know, if you were to say
what's the best tenth round, you would probably say Corrals Castillo off the top
of my head. Yes, But then you were to say what's the best
fifteenth round, You'd be hard pressed to find a better one than Homes Kenny
Norton and I was gonna go there with Hagler Hearn's opening round where they're just
waylaying and nobody gets knocked down. This is not quite that extent, but
they're bombing each other Holmes and Norton and I always love bringing this up,
and I brought it up with you before. When you go back and see
the video on social media where YouTube it up? Holmes Norton, June ninth,
what nineteen seventy eight, forty six years ago, Watch in the third
row TV left in the third row where one Sylvester Stallone of Rocky fame is
standing for like the whole back half of the fight with Chevy Chase White Hot
actor Saturday Night Live Movies and the Roberto Duran. The three of them are
going absolutely crazy during the final rounds and the fifteenth round of that fight.
It's as ain't entertaining to watch them as a Where's Waldo watched the fight and
watch the end of the fight to tell you how good it was. I
just want to explain about why they bestowed the title one or because when Larry,
when Muhammad Ali lost to Leon Spinks and lost the title, Leon Spinks,
you know, gave him the immediate rematch, which I guess was I
don't know if it was in their contract, but the bottom line was that
made the most sense. And so yeah, Kenny Norton had been sitting there
as a number one contender. This is back when they didn't use interim titles,
and so when they didn't go through it that fight, he had won
the eliminator. Rather than make him fight another fight for the title, he
just basically was in what would be today an interim champion being elevated to the
full champion, which is what he was, and then made the first defense
against Larry Holmes, which was I believe a mandatory fight and he ended up
losing it. So he got the belt, but never defended it and never
actually officially won it in the ring, although I guess if you looked at
the eliminator that he won, that would be I guess the fight that would
count as his title victory. But that's just to explain why that was the
way it was. I believe it's still the case. He's the only heavyweight
champ that never won a heavyweight title fight. And Holmes Band. Holmes had
such a great chin for all the accolades about the jab and the big right
hand and the victories. He could take a punch and he had to on
that night. Couple more quick nostalgia items moving forward to June ninth of two
thousand and seven Sunday, as we released the podcast into Monday. Sunday,
June ninth, seventeen years ago, Miguel Coto TKO went over zab Judas speaking
of New York, speaking of Madison Square Garden, speaking of the Puerto Rican
Parade, Eve, you were there, What do you remember? I know
you were putting out memorabilia on the social media about that night. What else
do you remember about that fight and Coto's win? Spectacular night. You know,
I've talked often when we discussed atmospheres of fights. I've done this with
you as well as others, and I always bring up to William Joppy fight
against Felix Trinidad, and even maybe Miguel Coto's fight the rematch he had there
against Antonio Margarito. But if you're for my money anyway, in terms of
the atmospheres, I've been at Madison Square Garden Anthony Joshua against Andy Ruiz their
first fight, Miguel Coto against Zab Judah was way way up there. Just
a phenomenal atmosphere because you had not only the great Puerto Rican crowd that was
there to support Codo who was defending his welterweight title, but I remember Zab's
a New York fighter, and Zab was a popular fighter who had his own
fan base and they turned out. So this had the best of both worlds.
You had a great New York crowd many were rooting for Judah, got
a great Puerto Rican crowd rooting for Miguel Coto, and then just boxing fans
that may have been from New York that maybe were split, but it was
just an unbelievable atmosphere. It was a terrific fight. It was a really
good match fight. Zab was still good at that time. Coto was just
coming into his own and it was just a bruising back and forth. There
had been you know, cuts and knockdowns and appoint deductions and just a ball
to the wall kind of fight. Judah, you know, finally was kind
of broken down. He took a knee in the ninth round after being you
know, having Quota just kind of poured on and then Codo got the stoppage
in the eleventh round, and you know, they called the fight. I
posted the picture of the poster explosive X you know, dash and P l
O S I V with the big explanation point. It lived up to that.
It's like, you know, that was what they were hoping for in
the promotion, and it lived up to that. Was a really outstanding fight,
and to this day it's probably one of my I think it's my second
all time favorite Miguel Coto fight, besides the rematch with Margarito, just because
the way he was able to kick the ass of the cheater. But having
been a fan of Coto, having you know, been very interested and excited
and somewhat of a fan also of Judah and I've known Zach for a long
time, always liked zaf That was just a great matchup and they delivered big
time and the garden was going crazy to that. And that's that was one
of those early fights of Miguel's on the Puerto Rican Parade Day weekend, the
eve of that parade, that they helped build that into what we now see
as a has become a tradition over the last you know whatever fifteen or twenty
years or so. And that was one of those, you know, cornerstone
events that helped that. That was, you know, the brainchild of top
rank to find that spot for a Puerto Rican the same way we see big
Mexican fights on Cinco Demio or the September Holiday. They found this date for
a Puerto Rican fighter and a xanders Ice they think might be the next guy,
but the first guy that got that date was Miguel Cota was basically created
for him. And this is one of those quintessential fights on that date.
Spectacular, spectacular fight and just a great atmosphere. Neil Codo for sure,
all right. And then on Tuesday this coming week is the nineteenth anniversary of
the last time Mike Tyson officially fought, when Kevin McBride beat him. You
have talked even recently about being around that and covering that. We do make
mention that he fought Roy Jones in an exhibition. We know that, but
this is the last in twenty twenty. This is the last official boxing match,
and Tyson was taking losses at the end of his career. We talked
back on the preview podcast about Lennox Lewis beating him. He was beaten several
times at the end of his career, including by someone named Kevin McBride nineteen
years ago. Tuesday. Now you mentioned about how you know he had the
exhibition against Roy Jones back in twenty twenty. People kind of forget that too,
like soon after this fight, I think in two thousand and six,
so about a year or so after he retired, he actually had another exhibition
against Cory Sanders, who was one of his sporring partners. There's two Corey
Centers. There was the South African Cory Sentators that defeated of Vladimir Klitsch going
the big upset, and then there was the Cory Sanders whose last name was
spelled with an ey who was an African American fighter from Washington, d C.
Who actually served as one of Mike's sparring partners at times, and they
had an exhibition also. That was the only other exhibition that Mike had after
his retirement before the Right Jones fight. But in terms of this fight against
McBride, who in the world would ever thought that we'd be here now,
what nineteen years later talking about this fight as it may not be Mike Tyson's
final fight because he's now got another fight scheduled against Ja Paul, which blows
my fucking mind. But this was a big event, I mean for me
anyway. I had a lot of access to Tyson. The fight was in
Washington DC. I live in the Washington d suburbs in Virginia, so I
spent time at the gym with Tyson. I got to watch him spar his
final sparring session I was there to do. I did multi interviews with him,
both by myself as well as in the scrum and uh I was I
had watched him. So the fight itself was not anything like a Great Shakes
kind of fight. He got you know, he got knocked down. He
basically quit on the stool uh. His trainer that fight was Jeff Fennick,
who's a Hall of Famer also one of the great Australian fighters of all time,
maybe the greatest Australian fighter of all time with the nuggets. But I
would you with those goods. Look, I would have never known that till
you just said that, did Jeff Jeff Finnick? And that was the only
fight Finnick work with him or did he work with him before? That was
just that was the only fight. I mean, Mike and Jeff were were
good friends, wow, but that was the one fight that Jeff was his
his his trainer for crazy And what I remember about it though, is so
more for me anyway. And I've told this story after the fight was over,
and this is part of what's part is what is my rationale for when
I think about the possibility of Mike fighting Jake Paul is that when the fight
was over and the pro fight press commerce is over and Tyson was still sitting
at the dais. And by the way, this is before there was five
hundred people with phone cameras and YouTube channels that didn't exist. It was basically
just you know, the print media at that point. For the most part,
and I sat at the table at the press conference afterwards, me Tyson
and I was at ESPN. But my former colleague from the USA Today,
who was still a columnist at that paper, John Saracino, and Tyson spoke
to us for over half an hour and it was like we were the bartenders
and he was born. He told us, and he basically said he's over
it. He didn't want any part of boxing anymore. Went on for thirty
minutes, right, so exactly so I remember that. But the thing I
did I remember more so than the fight itself. And they had a great
crowd in washing lots of people that turned out Mike was a beloved figure.
Is going to the gym in Washington, d C. During the week of
the fight. This is probably like on the maybe Monday of the fight week.
His last sparring session might even have been the Friday before the fight.
Ham Johnson, who was the father of the great Hall of Famer Mark Johnson,
Mark two Sharp Johnson had as a gym in the city that's very very
small. It sits above a body shop. Like the gym is so small
you can't really fit a regulation ring the mansion. Wise in there, so
instead of like a twenty by twenty foot ring that would be standard, it
was like a fucking folm with them might have been like, I know,
eighteen by eighteen, sixteen by sixteen it was small whatever. Anyway, So
I went there and Tyson sparred with an Australian fighter named Bob Mirovich, who
was a journeyman kind of fighter, but big and strong, had the same
kind of size as Kevin McBride, very sturdy fighter, great chin and I
sat there and watch again. This was one of those I've had the privilege
of twice being like the only immediate person allowed to watch Mike sparr. Right
before the fight, I told the story about when he sparred against Jeff Cageese
leading up to the Andrew Golotafi right before I conducted my first ever interview with
Mike Tyson. But on this day I was in the gym watching him go.
Corey Sanders was the other sporting spar part that I mentioned, but he
didn't start with Mike day that day. He just did the rounds with uh,
you know, with Mirravic that day and Tyson elated on him and I'm
like, man, he's gonna fuck up Kevin McBride bad. I mean,
Mike was Mirravic was a solid. He didn't have a great record, but
he could take a punch. And Tyson was hurting him, you know,
in the big gloves with the head gear, just ramming him with these moss
massive shots. And uh, I wrote a whole piece about that. So
I thought, Mike is gonna just pummel Kevin McBride, who was really completely
unaccomplished at that point. Uh. And little did I know that Mike,
you know, just did not have the heart to keep going when he got
touched with some shots, ended up quitting. But that was quite an experience.
It was at that a fight week leading up to this fight that we're
talking about that I had another occasion in that in that gym, but in
like a little conference area where I sat with Mike and Faniic and Mike's manager,
Shelly Finkel, and we did what turned out to be a story because
the key I recoverage at ESPN at the time was this is the twentieth year
of Tyson as a professional. So one of the things we did was twenty
topics with Tyson. So it wasn't just about the McBride fight. I had
a chance to sit with Mike on two separate occasions in the in the week
or two leading up to that fight, and just go over all kinds of
stuff. You know, tell me your members of your pro debut, tell
me about you know about custom otto, tell me whatever was you know,
your person, you know, you know your thoughts on marriage, because he
had been he had gone through some terrible divorces and why there was never a
Buster Douglas tr match. It was just all these random like topics with Tyson
that I was able to make into a really cool story. And he talked
about, you know, every topic that you could think of at that time.
It was fascinating and he was open. He was tremendous with me that
to do that, you know, because some of the questions weren't like things
you necessarily want to relive. But Mike was a total gentleman and it's the
complete opposite. And when I met him that first time, I've told the
story, which was horrendous. By this time, now i'd covered Mike for
a while, he knew me, and uh, it was, it was.
It was a lot of the fight may not have gone the way Mike
wanted it to go or in any of his people. But from my perspective,
it was as enjoyable of a fight week experience with Tyson because he was
as good as you could ask for, not only with myself but with all
the media guys. I remember there was another time we were getting ready for
the you know, this was like maybe before the press commerce or after the
workout. Myself and like a handful of other journalists that were there to cover
the fight. They were they were. We were down in the in the
locker room area at the at the university where they were conducting a lot of
the fight with activities, and he sat and he bullshit with us for like
forty five minutes, and it was just a stream of consciousness Tyson. It
gave us all great shit to write, you know, during the build up
to this fight. He just sometimes don't have that kind of access these days
anymore with these major fights, But that Tyson. Tyson was. He may
not have been still very good in the ring, but in terms of dealing
with the media, which he was a lot of times had problems with,
this was as good as you're gonna ever get with Tyson. Lead into the
Kemmic Pride fight. There you go, great stuff, and then McBride obviously
went on to the wind and might still around. And now just my memory
about one other thing I thought about. So again, I was working for
esp Insides writing. We were covering the way in live on Sports Center,
and I was the one that was going to conduct the interviews with the fighters
when they came off to scale, and so, you know, you only
have a you got to you gotta have like, you know, maybe two
questions for each guy. And so I had what I was going to ask
both guys, and the gride steps to me after he weighs in, and
I forget what I asked him, but he answers my question and he talks
about his mentality for the fight, and I'm like, you know, I'm
ready to go physically, and you know what, I'm ready to go mentally
because I've been working with my hypnotist and this was the first time anybody.
He had never mentioned it on anybody leading up to the fight, and I'm
like, hitness, I had to change up. I'm like, you know,
I asked him about the hypnotist, which was like a wild thing because
it was sort of like so out of left field that he worked with a
hypnotist to get prepared for this fight. So that just made me think about
that asking him that live on Sports Center back in you know, nineteen years
ago. It worked. It worked. He won that night over the next
night over Mike twice and listen. Busy show covered a lot recap mode Zias
win, Carrington win, Colaso title defense. Some news we'll see about the
latest on Ryan Stick with Dan substack his social media as well as Big Fight
Weekend dot Com the latest with that with Deontay Wilder as well with the restraining
order against him, et cetera. And you are headed to Vegas, my
friend. We will talk to you next from the desert for Jervonte Davis and
the Ghost, Frank Martin and David Benavitez in the co feature fight. We
look forward to that. Gonna be fight week out in Vegas, my friend.
I know you're headed there and we look forward to talking to you later
in the week. Rememberything that's going to go on with that latest pay per
view. Yeah, I'm excited that it'll be a good event. I'm excited
not only for the paper to you, because I think it's got some nice
fights on it, but I'm looking forward to celebrating and being part of the
festivities as they celebrate the one hundredth boxing event to take place at the MGM
Grand Garden Arena, of which I've covered, you know, dozens of those.
I actually count I did. It'll be my fifty six Grand Garden fight.
Incredible for a lot of those. And we see Jervonte Davis for the
first time in over a year, and again he's had a jail stint.
He's back. What kind of how does he look? What kind of threat
is Martin? We'll see, We'll find all that out coming up later this
week. Listen, my friend, have a good week, save travels to
Vegas. Appreciate it as always. Dan Rayth here, Thank you, sir,
and thank you for listening and finding us Apples Freaker, Spotify, Subscribe
to the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed where you get the fight for each United
recap. We enjoy bringing it to preview going into the weekend recap off for
the weekend. For now, We're good for Dan Rayfield. I'm TJ.
Reeves. Thank you for being with us. Tank Davis. Pay per View
Fight Week coming up later this week.