1 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:10,359 The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now 2 00:00:10,519 --> 00:00:14,599 here is your host, DJ Leaves. Well, we get ready for a 3 00:00:14,679 --> 00:00:20,359 weekend that has some title fight action in Japan, that has a prominent super 4 00:00:20,399 --> 00:00:25,079 middleweight headlining coming up this weekend as well. We've got fight news, We've 5 00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:29,559 got Tyson Fury, nostalgia and more. It is the Big Fight Weekend Preview. 6 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,119 I am the somewhat capable host, TJ Reeves. He's our insider. 7 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,679 Fight Freaks u Nite is his substack Big Fight Weekend dot Com. Hello, 8 00:00:36,759 --> 00:00:40,320 Dan Rayfield. Good to be back with you here on the pod as we 9 00:00:40,359 --> 00:00:45,119 get ready to head into the weekend February almost done, March March. Of 10 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:49,159 course, we love college hoops, but March's gonna have some wild boxing as 11 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,840 well as college basketball. But we've got some interesting fights this weekend to preview 12 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,039 and get all about it. But I don't want to get too far ahead 13 00:00:55,039 --> 00:01:00,960 of myself. Pleasant greetings, warm, warm salutations. How are things? 14 00:01:00,359 --> 00:01:03,239 Things are good? Ready to go? You are all right? Keep it 15 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,239 on the phone. I gotta wait, wait, give me fifteen more minutes. 16 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:10,040 I'm talking to this person. I'm texting this person, finding out different 17 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:12,599 news and information. Very busy. I know you got. We get to 18 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,439 stay tuned for the news coming up after the fight, previews and the stuff 19 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,040 that you have been working on, stuff that they read in your substack. 20 00:01:19,079 --> 00:01:22,599 By the way, be with us here on the podfeed, Apple, Spreakers, 21 00:01:22,599 --> 00:01:26,319 Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. Make sure that you are following or 22 00:01:26,359 --> 00:01:29,519 subscribing, whatever the case is, because we come your way with the preview 23 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:33,719 going into Friday morning, come off the weekend with the recap going Sunday night 24 00:01:33,799 --> 00:01:37,480 into Monday twice, the ray Field twice, the fun. As we say, 25 00:01:37,599 --> 00:01:41,599 rate us and review us before the big big man gets grouchy here about 26 00:01:41,719 --> 00:01:44,200 ratings and reviews, let's get a couple of them going here for February. 27 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,519 The five star reviews do help. So we love that. If you like 28 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:49,519 what you're hearing, give us some love. Give us some love with that. 29 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,319 All right. So with that, as I mentioned, let's just go 30 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:57,599 chronologically because it's going to be good. Go ahead, well, say you 31 00:01:57,640 --> 00:01:59,920 got to tell them we got the big interview this week. Oh that's said, 32 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,680 that's true. We do have featherweight contender ray Ford, who is going 33 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,560 to be an action what March the second coming up as part of an ESPN 34 00:02:07,599 --> 00:02:09,319 top ranked double header. They're going to hear from him in a little bit 35 00:02:09,479 --> 00:02:13,360 busy show, a lot to get to on the program. So I look 36 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:16,439 forward to that conversation that you had with ray Ford here just recently that we're 37 00:02:16,439 --> 00:02:20,960 going to play on the pod. But we got a we've got a Japanese 38 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:25,479 doubleheader fight hard coming up. Well, it's actually triple header right of championship 39 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,639 fights. Are we gonna go chronological or you do want to go more importance 40 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:32,680 because it's in the United States with Edgar Berlanga headlining the match Room Bizel show. 41 00:02:32,759 --> 00:02:37,000 I let you, I let you decide on that. Did you look 42 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,280 at the rundown? I am looking at the rundown, but you got three 43 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:45,120 You've got three world title fights and it's happening before the Berlanga fight, and 44 00:02:45,159 --> 00:02:49,039 you're usually a stickler like for chronology. So I'm just laying it out there 45 00:02:49,039 --> 00:02:53,080 for you on whichever one you prefer. So you prefer Berlanga first in the 46 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:59,120 match Room Dezone main event with Padrick McCrory that is coming up for Saturday night 47 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:02,439 not far from me at Orlando, Florida, about seventy miles away near the 48 00:03:02,479 --> 00:03:08,120 mouse. All right, thoughts on Berlanga's return here, because he's obviously a 49 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:13,599 prominent name at one sixty eight. Well, it's about time, number one. 50 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:17,719 Remember in June of twenty twenty two, he got a win against Romer 51 00:03:17,759 --> 00:03:21,719 Alexis Angulo, and that was a fight that he won the decision but tried 52 00:03:21,719 --> 00:03:25,560 to bite his shoulder or ear or whatever and got suspended by the commission for 53 00:03:25,599 --> 00:03:29,280 six months and fine. Then he was out for a bit longer than that 54 00:03:29,319 --> 00:03:31,919 because that was at the point where he separated from top rank Amicallely, but 55 00:03:31,960 --> 00:03:36,280 nonetheless out of the contract early, so he was offer a year between the 56 00:03:36,319 --> 00:03:39,639 suspension and that situation, signed with Mattrum. Came back in June of last 57 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:46,759 year, was supposed to absolutely pummel and destroy the smaller adjacent Quigley. He 58 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,319 won pretty handily, dropped him a few times, but still ended up having 59 00:03:50,319 --> 00:03:53,400 to go the distance. So the guy that scored all these first round knockouts 60 00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:57,319 like a crazy person at the beginning of his career has now gone a number 61 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:00,319 of fights without a knockout, and now he's coming back for the first time 62 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,439 since that fight last June, which was his only fight in twenty twenty three 63 00:04:03,639 --> 00:04:09,000 to fight the undefeated. Very tough, solid, I think Pedrig McCrory. 64 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:12,599 I know he's not a big name, but if you follow it all the 65 00:04:12,639 --> 00:04:16,120 Irish boxing scene, he know, he was with Michael Commins team, so 66 00:04:16,199 --> 00:04:20,560 he and some of his fights and some of his stablemates were on some of 67 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:25,600 these ESPN Plus cards that top rank brought in from Ireland. You know, 68 00:04:25,639 --> 00:04:28,399 he's not a big puncher, but he's not bad. I mean, I'm 69 00:04:28,399 --> 00:04:30,920 not saying he's something spectacular, and he's a little bit older, he's thirty 70 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,079 five years old, but I think he's a pretty solid guy. I mean, 71 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:38,319 but Berlanga is supposed to win the fight, and for Berlanga's sake going 72 00:04:38,360 --> 00:04:42,160 forward, their team is praying he gets a knockout for a change. I 73 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:46,160 mean, we went from them desperately trying to extend him past the first round 74 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,759 right and couldn't do it, And now they can't get him, you know, 75 00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:51,279 to get a knockout, no matter whether it's the first round or the 76 00:04:51,319 --> 00:04:54,519 last round. So what do we make of that? I mean, you've 77 00:04:54,519 --> 00:04:57,040 been doing this for a long time. Is it just that the step up 78 00:04:57,079 --> 00:05:01,920 in competition he doesn't have the same punch against better fighters. Is it. 79 00:05:02,199 --> 00:05:05,600 Is it an anomaly that he's gone this long without a knockout really at all, 80 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:09,079 much less a personal knock part of it. I think it's a little 81 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,040 bit of both. I mean, number one, yes, he has stepped 82 00:05:11,079 --> 00:05:14,560 up the opposition because you know, starting with the fight that he had, 83 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,560 what five fights ago or so, he fought Demon Nicholson, not a top 84 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:23,040 name, but a sturdy guy, an experienced guy. He did drop him 85 00:05:23,079 --> 00:05:26,879 multiple times, but went to distance in the Cosaras fight. You know, 86 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:30,240 that was the fight where he had the bad bysip injury and got knocked out 87 00:05:30,279 --> 00:05:31,240 for the first time. So you know, he made it through the fight 88 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,920 and so won, but with the with the with the injury, you know, 89 00:05:33,959 --> 00:05:39,439 getting the knockout was probably unlikely. Steve Roles had only been stopped ever 90 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,879 by Triple G. No shame there, and that was you know, the 91 00:05:44,079 --> 00:05:47,480 you know in all of his entire career, So again that was not a 92 00:05:47,639 --> 00:05:51,120 terrible thing to go the distance with an experienced fighter like that. Then came 93 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:54,959 the Angula fight. That was another fight where he went to distance. Angulo 94 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:58,000 a very noted tough guy. I mean, he's fighting legit guys. The 95 00:05:58,040 --> 00:05:59,839 guy that was the one that was like, dude, you got to get 96 00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:02,319 an out against this dude that was the quickly fight. Now we knocked him 97 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:08,000 down four times total, twice including in the twelfth round. I felt like 98 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:11,759 maybe that fight could have been stopped in the laby going as a turnout. 99 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,920 The ref, you know, had his opinions and this is the only one 100 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:16,519 that counts, and so he ended up going twelve rounds. So it's just 101 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,680 been a matter of I think whether it was the injury with Cosras, the 102 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:25,839 better level of opponent, the fact that the ref decided to let the quickly 103 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:29,360 fight go instead of stop it. You know, you met, you mixed 104 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:32,600 all together, and so part of it's just bad luck quote unquote. Part 105 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,519 of it's because he's fighting better guys, and you know, and and when 106 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:40,279 we saw those first round knockouts, maybe some people got carried away that he's 107 00:06:40,319 --> 00:06:42,879 the next coming of Mike Tyson and that's just not the case. So, 108 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,839 uh, he's in a situation now with McCrory, who is eighteen and oh 109 00:06:46,879 --> 00:06:49,279 so he's obviously never been stopped, but not a big puncher, but a 110 00:06:49,319 --> 00:06:54,079 competent opponent and they're looking to set him up for a much bigger fight, 111 00:06:55,439 --> 00:06:58,199 perhaps Mangia, depending on what happens with Ninia. If he were to get 112 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:00,600 the Canelo fight. You know, hearn has thrown his name out there as 113 00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:03,680 you know, Canelo should fight him since he doesn't have an opponent that has 114 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,519 set yet for May. Uh, there's a lot on the line for Edgar 115 00:07:06,560 --> 00:07:11,879 Berlanga because whatever uh his future is going to be, he's he really needs 116 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:15,000 a good performances. You know. It's it's not that his a performance have 117 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:16,920 been bad or anything like that, but they've they've left a lot to be 118 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,800 desired for a guy that got as much hype as he did the Chosen One, 119 00:07:21,199 --> 00:07:26,600 all the KO one victories. Time to kind of show out a little 120 00:07:26,639 --> 00:07:29,240 bit and and uh and take it to your opponent. And uh, obviously 121 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:30,920 McCrory's gonna have something to say about that because he wants to win too. 122 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:33,920 But uh, that's what's that stake here is. You know, are we 123 00:07:33,959 --> 00:07:38,399 going to see some evolution from Edgar Berlanger? Are we going to see him 124 00:07:38,439 --> 00:07:41,720 do some damage, get a knockout, set himself up for a bigger fight, 125 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,480 Like I mentioned, whether it's the longer shot of a Canelo fight or 126 00:07:46,079 --> 00:07:50,439 possibly a Mongia fight or something more significant. Well, and again we've may 127 00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:56,639 mentioned this before, there is a real Puerto Rican fan base in Orlando. 128 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:01,240 Top Ranks has had some fight cards there, Matt Troom as well, so 129 00:08:01,399 --> 00:08:05,120 Berlango will have some backing from the Puerto Rican community, not only just fighting 130 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:09,120 in New York or fighting in Miami for example. So we'll see if that 131 00:08:09,199 --> 00:08:11,279 kind of boosts him along. And yeah, you're right, I mean at 132 00:08:11,279 --> 00:08:16,240 some point you're gonna get questioned here on what's going on with why you can't 133 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:20,879 stop anybody in this in this situation in this way class? All right? 134 00:08:20,959 --> 00:08:24,600 So what else on the court? Including Andy Cruz, the former Cuban two 135 00:08:24,639 --> 00:08:28,959 time gold medalist, and do I remember correctly, he's been having promotional problems 136 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:31,240 and that kind of stuff. So what else is going on? Well, 137 00:08:31,279 --> 00:08:35,639 he's a one time gold medals He's won a ton of gold medals in the 138 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:39,759 World Championships, in the America Games. I mean, he's one of the 139 00:08:39,799 --> 00:08:43,159 most decorated amateur fighters of recent times. I mean at the very very very 140 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:46,679 top level, and with a whole bunch of victories in the amateurs against Kishon 141 00:08:46,799 --> 00:08:50,080 Davis, who was you know, who kept running into him, you know 142 00:08:50,120 --> 00:08:52,960 in the big tournaments. Matter of fact, he defeated him in the Olympics, 143 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,200 and Andy Cruz got the gold medal in and Kishan got the silver medal. 144 00:08:56,559 --> 00:08:58,799 Uh. And he's a little older. But you know, it took 145 00:08:58,879 --> 00:09:03,200 more while to get here because of coming from Cuba and having to defect and 146 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:07,240 go through all the very difficult times of making his way here to be here 147 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:09,360 legally and to take care of all that. But now he's a professional and 148 00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:13,799 at two and oh, he's Lomachenko ish in this from the standpoint that he's 149 00:09:13,799 --> 00:09:18,000 twenty eight years old and only two and oh, but he literally can fight. 150 00:09:18,039 --> 00:09:20,799 I would tell you right now you could put him in the ring with 151 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:26,440 pretty much any lightweight in the world period and he would at worst just compete, 152 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:28,039 and he probably would beat a lot of those guys too. That's that 153 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,720 kind of talent that he has. I mean, I know the pros are 154 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:35,840 different than the amateurs, but certain guys can make that adaption much more quickly. 155 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:37,320 You know, it took Lomachenko, you know, a couple of fights. 156 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:41,480 He won a role title in his third fight, you know, Andy 157 00:09:41,519 --> 00:09:43,759 Cruz, if he had the opportunity, I have no doubt in my mind 158 00:09:43,759 --> 00:09:48,039 that he could compete at the very highest level of the lightweight division. Do 159 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:52,080 you believe that he's going to be fast tracked in that regard where maybe here's 160 00:09:52,639 --> 00:09:54,679 fourth fight or his fifth fight could be a significant fight, if not a 161 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:58,360 title fight coming up later twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five. I mean 162 00:09:58,399 --> 00:10:01,840 the title fight that's in some manner that's out of the hands of everybody, 163 00:10:01,919 --> 00:10:05,320 because that's about who's available, what belts there are. Can you make a 164 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,879 deal broadcasters, promoters, the appetite for the opponent to fight you, so, 165 00:10:11,159 --> 00:10:13,279 you know, part of its lock, part of it's your connections. 166 00:10:13,600 --> 00:10:16,200 But in terms of just the ability to do so, yes, they will 167 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:18,399 fast track him. He's already fast tracked. Here's a guy that turned professional 168 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:22,639 against a legitimate guy in his professional debut against Juan Carlos Bergos. Yeah, 169 00:10:22,639 --> 00:10:26,120 who's longer in the tooth. Fine, but the guy was in the ring 170 00:10:26,159 --> 00:10:28,360 with everybody. He fought Keishan Davis. You know, he went the distance 171 00:10:28,399 --> 00:10:31,840 with him, but he won, you know, ten to nothing on two 172 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:33,279 scard cards and eight to two on the third. Sport card. And then 173 00:10:33,279 --> 00:10:37,879 in his next fight, he stepped up against another experienced, legit pro in 174 00:10:37,039 --> 00:10:43,240 Giovanni Staffron Streifon, and and he won in a devastating third round knockout, 175 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:48,440 just blitzed him. And now he's taken on an experienced fighter Zama Rippa, 176 00:10:48,480 --> 00:10:50,840 that was on a previous Matchroom card, and so this is another ten round 177 00:10:50,879 --> 00:10:54,039 fights. So you know, most guys don't turn pro in ten rounders. 178 00:10:54,039 --> 00:10:56,799 This guy's haven't. His first three fights are ten rounders, not four rounders 179 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:01,600 or six hunderds. You know, the opponent who I mentioned is brayon A 180 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,200 Zama Rippa. He gave a very solid account of himself and lost a split 181 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,200 decision to Angel Fierra, who was considered you a lower part of the top 182 00:11:09,240 --> 00:11:15,080 ten type lightweight contender. So he's fighting legitimate opponents right now, and it's 183 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:16,919 not going to be too long until he's in real fights. You mentioned his 184 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,879 promotional problems. He doesn't have a promotional problem with Matchroom. They are co 185 00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:26,200 promoters with an outfit called I Believe It's New Champion Promotions. They are the 186 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:31,879 outfit that he assued alleging that they misdirected funds meant for him that they took 187 00:11:31,039 --> 00:11:35,320 that they weren't allowed to. Mattroom is in the lawsuit because they are his 188 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,559 promoter and they're the ones that had to under their contract make the payment. 189 00:11:37,799 --> 00:11:41,080 But he's not in a beef with Mattroom. He's not looking for anything from 190 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:43,720 them except for them to fulfill their contract and put him in the fights. 191 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:46,639 What you're doing. The problem he's having is with the other folks. And 192 00:11:46,840 --> 00:11:50,799 obviously right now, you know, any kind of litigation doesn't take you know, 193 00:11:50,879 --> 00:11:54,360 two minutes to go through. He's got to wind this way through the 194 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:56,080 court system. So that is what is occurring. That lawsuit was filed, 195 00:11:56,120 --> 00:11:58,639 I want to say, maybe like probably about a month or two ago, 196 00:12:00,039 --> 00:12:03,480 and you know, but it's that's on the one side right now. For 197 00:12:03,559 --> 00:12:05,720 him as the athlete, it's business as usual. He's going to get in 198 00:12:05,759 --> 00:12:09,600 the ring and I suspect he's gonna look quite good on Saturday. And what 199 00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:13,120 really gave me hope and excitement, frankly was in the last fight where he 200 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,480 just blew away his opponent, was he came out with a purpose. He 201 00:12:16,519 --> 00:12:22,679 didn't come out like the stereotypical great amateur from Cuba. That's content to still 202 00:12:22,679 --> 00:12:26,120 fight in an amateur style, which is to hit and run and not engage 203 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:28,000 and fight on the back foot and that sort of stuff and play defense most 204 00:12:28,039 --> 00:12:31,399 of the time. Now, he really he stepped on the gas and he 205 00:12:31,440 --> 00:12:33,159 went after the guy, which is all you can ask for. You know, 206 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:37,279 I'm not saying go put yourself in its kind of a dumb situation, 207 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:39,279 leave your chin out, you know, for it to be his. But 208 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:45,080 you there's something to be said for being defensively responsible, but also when you've 209 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:46,720 got an overmashed opponent, to let your hands go a little bit and step 210 00:12:46,759 --> 00:12:48,759 on the gas and get the guy out of there. That's why we should 211 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,840 drive me absolutely freaking crazy about a guy like Riggando, as he would be 212 00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:56,720 completely dominating, but if you would take one step forward and throw a shot 213 00:12:56,759 --> 00:13:00,240 on you know, offensive minded, he'd get rid of the guy. But 214 00:13:00,279 --> 00:13:03,440 instead he was you know, pitty pat back up and and you know, 215 00:13:03,480 --> 00:13:05,120 play with his food, so to speak. I'm glad to see at least 216 00:13:05,159 --> 00:13:07,679 in last fight, Andy Kruz did not do that, and we'll see if 217 00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:13,720 he can continue that trend of being a more professional style fighter. And what 218 00:13:13,799 --> 00:13:16,600 I said to you when we talked about his last fight, which I liked. 219 00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,039 He didn't go to the Cuban school here in America to find that type 220 00:13:20,039 --> 00:13:24,679 of trainer. He went to Philadelphia to train with with Boziannis, the father 221 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:28,240 of Jeron Bootsennis. You're gonna go spar in Philadelphia. They're not gonna let 222 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,360 you get away with that shit. They're going to make you fight, and 223 00:13:30,440 --> 00:13:35,480 he wanted to become more offensive minded in terms of his professional career. So 224 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,799 the selection of Boziannis as his trainer, to me anyway, from the standpoint 225 00:13:39,879 --> 00:13:46,360 of being defensively responsible but offensive minded, I think that was a great a 226 00:13:46,399 --> 00:13:48,799 great choice. And in terms of the rest of the card, you got 227 00:13:48,639 --> 00:13:52,799 a couple of w BA elimination fights in the welterweight division with shak kam Yasov, 228 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:56,600 who's fourteen zero was a good up and comer against the long in the 229 00:13:56,600 --> 00:14:00,279 tooth Pablo sazar Cano. I'm not really sure how and why that qualified as 230 00:14:00,279 --> 00:14:01,960 an elimination fight, but I don't make those rules. And then you have 231 00:14:03,039 --> 00:14:07,000 the American Olympian one loss, Antonio Vargus, who is probably selling some tickets 232 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:11,320 for this show because he's from the Orlando area. He is an a WB 233 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:15,240 eliminator in the bantamweight division against Jonathan Rodriguez, who says the one loss that 234 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,159 actually kind of shapes up in my mind like it could be a sneaky good 235 00:14:18,159 --> 00:14:22,519 fight in this card. So you know, it's not the biggest card in 236 00:14:22,519 --> 00:14:26,200 the world, but there's different reasons to be interested in each one of those 237 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:30,200 bouts, and obviously Berlanga in the main event. All right, so we 238 00:14:30,279 --> 00:14:33,759 have that again. Ray Ford coming up here in a few minutes with Dan 239 00:14:33,039 --> 00:14:37,000 first, though earlier in the day US time, in fact, in the 240 00:14:37,039 --> 00:14:43,440 morning US time. Saturday night in Tokyo, Alexandro Santiago, alex Santiago and 241 00:14:43,519 --> 00:14:50,279 Junto Nakatani for Santiago's ws BC bantamweight championship is part of a three fight title 242 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:56,399 fight card. That's the main event. Santiago best known for having beaten Donito 243 00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:01,679 don Ayr. You and I were there. I'm making rhymes. I'm making 244 00:15:01,759 --> 00:15:05,399 rhymes. We were there together back last July. All right, So Santiago 245 00:15:05,399 --> 00:15:07,960 against Nakatani, who we know had the spectacular knockout of Andrew Maloney. He's 246 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:13,279 had other title fight wins. Tell me more about this for Santiago's belt in 247 00:15:13,399 --> 00:15:18,039 Tokyo's Saturday morning United States time. I mean, Nakatani is just a badass 248 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:22,360 basically. I mean he's he's a real kind of very exciting, entertaining, 249 00:15:22,360 --> 00:15:26,399 crowd pleasing kind of guy. I mean, we all know the number one 250 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:28,279 boxer out of Japan obviously at the moment is in a way for sure, 251 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:31,039 but not you know, and then there's Karaji and they've got some really talented 252 00:15:31,039 --> 00:15:35,320 fighters in there, there's Zayoka. But in terms of the younger guys, 253 00:15:35,399 --> 00:15:39,519 how do you not love Nakatani. You know, he's won, you know, 254 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:41,600 some impressive knockouts. You mentioned the one that was a knockout of the 255 00:15:41,679 --> 00:15:46,759 year against Maloney, But he's had a world title in the flyweight division, 256 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:48,639 and you know, he didn't defend that too many times. He moved up. 257 00:15:48,639 --> 00:15:52,360 He won the title obviously against Andrew Maloney in the one hundred and fifteen 258 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,159 pound weight class. That was obviously you said that he completely dominated that fight 259 00:15:56,200 --> 00:16:02,840 and then just one of the most frightening, violent, hillacious, just cataclysmic 260 00:16:02,879 --> 00:16:06,720 knockouts you'll ever see in round twelve. Uh. And then he did defend 261 00:16:06,759 --> 00:16:11,039 that title one time back in September, he actually went to distance with Rguie 262 00:16:11,039 --> 00:16:14,759 Cortes, who is a very solid, good chin fighter from Mexico. But 263 00:16:14,879 --> 00:16:17,480 now he's going up to Wait again to go for a title in a third 264 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:21,600 weight class against Santiago, who try to become the bantamweight WBC champion. And 265 00:16:21,639 --> 00:16:23,799 as you mentioned, Santiago did win this belt, you know, in a 266 00:16:23,879 --> 00:16:27,440 in a legitimate win against Donino Dunair. You know who is long in the 267 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:32,440 tooth. Uh. I think Santiago you know, is in a lot of 268 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:34,960 trouble though against Nakatani. But he surprises against don Air. You know, 269 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:37,639 we'll see what he can do. And you know, you never know how 270 00:16:37,639 --> 00:16:40,039 a guy is going to react when he's moving up and wait. I suspect 271 00:16:40,279 --> 00:16:44,519 given the bill that Nakatani has that he'll be just fine in that weight class. 272 00:16:44,879 --> 00:16:47,600 But it's definitely an intriguing fight if you like the smaller weight classes, 273 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:51,120 if you're interested in the bantam weights and Nakatani, you know, pound for 274 00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:53,480 if you're making like your pound for pound list of guys who are exciting, 275 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:59,159 I would say one hundred uh, Nakatani would be somewhere or should be on 276 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:00,919 your list, somewhere. So that's the main event. I'm very interested to 277 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:04,559 see that and how it unfolds. He's twenty six, nineteen KOs in the 278 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,599 twenty six fights. I do remember, I do listen to you. I 279 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:12,240 do remember you saying that you didn't have a lot of long term championship prospect 280 00:17:12,319 --> 00:17:17,079 hopes for Alex Santiago. In fact, you said it would not surprise me 281 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:21,000 if he drops the title right away to somebody that's legit. Okay, let's 282 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:22,599 see if he shows something here I mean, and it's to his credit that 283 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:26,799 he's going to Japan to fight Nakatani. Here interesting first rest where the money 284 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:30,920 getting money? There? We go go where the money is first reference will 285 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,200 handicap this more on the bet Us Boxing Show one Eastern Time on Friday, 286 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:37,559 that Nakatani despite being the challenger, you would think he's favorite, but he's 287 00:17:37,559 --> 00:17:41,680 favored like five and a half to one over Santiago. That's interesting for the 288 00:17:42,519 --> 00:17:45,960 main event there on that fight card, and let's see, let's see what 289 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:51,119 happens on that. On the immediate co feature. This is the brother of 290 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:53,960 Naoya in a way to Kuma in a way, and he's fighting in a 291 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:59,880 WBA banhamweight title defense against a familiar name, a veteran name in Jerwin and 292 00:18:00,079 --> 00:18:04,359 Hahas tell me more about this one. So when Naolia in a way vacated 293 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:08,559 the bantamway titles after he become undisputed to go up and ultimately become the undisputed 294 00:18:08,599 --> 00:18:11,519 champion in the junior featherweight division, one of those belts he vacated was the 295 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,839 WBA title, and his brother was in line to fight for that vacant belt, 296 00:18:15,839 --> 00:18:21,000 which he won in April of last year against le Boreo Solis. Thee 297 00:18:21,079 --> 00:18:22,400 was the vacant belt he won that fight, and now this is going to 298 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:26,119 be his first fight since then in the ten months. And you know, 299 00:18:26,559 --> 00:18:30,319 if you're an American boxing fen and you're watching your showtime cards where you're watching 300 00:18:30,519 --> 00:18:33,240 ESPN cards, you know on Cajas he was with Top Rank for a long 301 00:18:33,319 --> 00:18:41,240 time. Now he's with PBC and and amany Pacio product, and you know, 302 00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:44,039 he's moving up where he had been. He'd been the longest reigning title 303 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,039 er in the junior bandamweight division when he held the title, you know, 304 00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:48,880 for a few years, and now he's going up in wait to try to 305 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,880 win another title after having lost his title at one fifteen and then losing again 306 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:57,039 to his conqueror in a rematch. So this is a great opportunity for him 307 00:18:57,039 --> 00:19:00,359 and for in a way, obviously he's got that last name, doesn't have 308 00:19:00,519 --> 00:19:03,799 the ability, the skills, the talent, the popularity of his brother, 309 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,799 but he's still a pretty good fighter, and this is a this is a 310 00:19:06,839 --> 00:19:08,519 worthy fight. I mean, you know, Acasa has been a good fighter 311 00:19:08,559 --> 00:19:11,920 for a long time, getting opportunity in another weight class and in a way, 312 00:19:11,559 --> 00:19:14,720 you know, like I said, has the great name, and uh, 313 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:18,480 he brings attention, and this is that fight. And you know, 314 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,160 again we don't I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but if you're 315 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:26,039 gonna have two bantamweight title fights on the same show, and they're sort of 316 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:30,559 all within the same group over there in Japan, particularly Nakatani, and in 317 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:32,960 a way, you know, I don't know if they'll do it immediately, 318 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,200 but at some point you would hope to think that the winners of these two 319 00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,160 fights would fight each other to unify the titles. That doesn't always work like 320 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,519 that, but that would be something that would make a lot of sense. 321 00:19:41,559 --> 00:19:45,880 And it's not the first time we've seen in Japan where they'll have multiple world 322 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:48,680 title fights in the same weight class on the same card, and so this 323 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:53,359 is all about the bandam weights in those two top fights, all right, 324 00:19:53,559 --> 00:19:59,119 and then a vacant junior banhamweight title fight also on that card as well, 325 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:06,119 Tanaka, and help me with the name base Gua correct. I don't know 326 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:11,319 anything about Christian Bakasagua or however you say that in the junior bantam weight division. 327 00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:14,079 I defer to you on those, but that's also on this same card 328 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:21,200 from Japan ESPN Plus from Tokyo. Well, Tanaka is one of Japan's best. 329 00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:23,119 Also, he's nineteen and one. He's going for a title in his 330 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:27,079 fourthweight division. He's won the titles in the smaller weight classes. And I'm 331 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:30,759 not that familiar with the opponent either, so I'm not going to tell you 332 00:20:30,839 --> 00:20:33,400 if I think he wins or loses or draws, but he's clearly this is 333 00:20:33,519 --> 00:20:37,960 made for Tanaka to have the opportunity to go for the fourth title. But 334 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:44,079 I you know Tanaka is you know in terms of what he's done before. 335 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:48,400 His only loss is to Ioka, who was to me. Anyway, I 336 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:49,920 think he's got a pretty good case already to be a Hall of Famer, 337 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:53,119 and Ioka stopped him. This is back in twenty twenty. That was in 338 00:20:53,599 --> 00:20:59,000 one hundred and fifteen pound world title fight. So you know this is the 339 00:20:59,079 --> 00:21:00,400 opening I'll call it. It's not even the open. I think there's a 340 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,960 total of four fights on the stream, but in terms of the world title 341 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,799 bouts, this will call this the appetizer for the bantamweight fights. Good enough 342 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:11,240 on all of those. Are we ready to get to it? Let's do 343 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:15,279 it. You spoke recently with Ray Ford, who is fighting for the vacant 344 00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:21,319 WBA featherweight title on March the second. It's the main event of the top 345 00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:26,279 ranked ESPN plus a featherweight title doubleheader in New York. Let's hear your conversation 346 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:30,599 with him right now in the preview mode for that fight coming up here soon. 347 00:21:32,799 --> 00:21:34,680 Well, very happy to welcome into our podcast this week is the featherweight 348 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,279 contender ray Ford. And Ray you have a very important fight, the most 349 00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:42,519 important fight of your professional career so far. You'll be taking on odeback Comatov 350 00:21:42,599 --> 00:21:48,880 for the vacant WBA featherweight title Mark second at the main event of the ESPN 351 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:52,279 plus card at the Lovely Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. 352 00:21:52,839 --> 00:21:56,480 And you know, it's your first really big opportunity to be seen, I 353 00:21:56,559 --> 00:22:00,119 think by a big audience. I know you've had a lot of your all 354 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,319 your fights pretty much on his own, coming up on these undercards. But 355 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,680 now you're step into the main event in a world championship fight, and I 356 00:22:06,759 --> 00:22:07,880 wonder if you could. But because a lot of people, right, I 357 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,039 mean, I've watched you your whole career. I don't think a lot of 358 00:22:11,039 --> 00:22:14,839 people have really necessarily gotten a chance to see you so far. So for 359 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:18,440 those who don't know ray Ford, describe your style and what they can expect 360 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:23,839 to see from from the way you fight, I guess you could say I 361 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:29,440 got like a flashy style boxer. I'm sure I guess I got I got 362 00:22:29,519 --> 00:22:37,839 some pop, I'm exclusive, fast, got good defense. Yeah. So 363 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:42,319 that's that's basically my style right there. And the south paw to right and 364 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:48,839 a south pawa south paw two yeah yeah, the south yeah yeah, south 365 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:53,359 bo. So you're fighting Komatov for the vacantile. You guys both come into 366 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:59,079 this fight undefeated. You're fourteen oh to one with seven knockouts. Komotov he 367 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:02,680 is twelve and oho with eleven knockouts. Uh So, like you said, 368 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:07,599 there's some pop there. He's not that he's not very well known either. 369 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,200 I've watched some of his fights also, and he was he was most impressive, 370 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:12,640 I thought when he knocked out Martin Ward, which was the fight that 371 00:23:12,759 --> 00:23:17,920 got him in the position to challenge for the title before Lee would vacated. 372 00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:21,400 That was the last march in the eliminator. I wondered, did you see 373 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,799 that fight, and what were your thoughts about that fight and and just about 374 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,279 your your opponent in general. Yeah, I've seen that fight. I watched 375 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:33,039 whatever I could find and you know, dig it up on him on YouTube, 376 00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:37,680 so I definitely watched it. I didn't think much of it. I 377 00:23:37,759 --> 00:23:41,079 think Ward was actually giving him some problems, to be honest, I think 378 00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:48,160 he was touching him up at times, and uh, I just think Ward 379 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:49,440 didn't have enough to you know, keep him off of him. And I 380 00:23:49,519 --> 00:23:56,680 think he didn't fight the proper style to deal with Komensov. But Clemensov is 381 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,160 a side of fighter so far from what we've seen against the opposition that he's 382 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,160 been up against. What type of fight do you expect. I mean, 383 00:24:04,319 --> 00:24:08,759 you you are a boxer, but you can also fight. He seems like 384 00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:12,839 he's he likes to really fight, but he's got that amateur background, which 385 00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:15,799 you know he's also a good boxer. I wonder in your mind when you 386 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:18,680 guys run through the how you think it will go, and you go over 387 00:24:18,759 --> 00:24:22,599 the game plan with your with your team, what type of fight do you 388 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:26,160 guys go in there thinking it's going to be. I think I think early 389 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,240 on, I think he's going to try to, you know, see what 390 00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:32,960 I want to do, and I'm see what he want to do. And 391 00:24:33,079 --> 00:24:37,559 then I think, you know, as browns on Son going and I start, 392 00:24:37,839 --> 00:24:41,119 you know, to pick up a little bit more, I think he 393 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,759 might start trying to, you know, change up game plan and try to 394 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,599 you know, stet to me a little more. See if I'm a if 395 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:52,799 I'm a full debt. But I think he gonna he gonna he gonna run 396 00:24:52,799 --> 00:24:56,960 into some things that he's not gonna be expecting. So we're just gonna have 397 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:00,880 to wait and see them. What would winning title mean to you? I 398 00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:04,640 mean that's the dream of every young fighter to become a world champion. Yeah, 399 00:25:06,599 --> 00:25:08,559 it's gonna mean everything to me. This is where I've been working so 400 00:25:08,759 --> 00:25:12,279 hard for all my life, So it's gonna mean the world to me. 401 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:17,160 But I'm not gonna be like satisfied with just this world title. I'm not 402 00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,000 gonna be one of those guys who's just trying to hold on to one world 403 00:25:19,079 --> 00:25:23,920 title. I want to win more so and go up in different divisions and 404 00:25:25,079 --> 00:25:27,680 you know, face the best fighters up there, you know. So that's 405 00:25:27,799 --> 00:25:30,519 that's the awesome and google But you know this is just a you know, 406 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:36,000 a step in the right direction. Well, you actually brought up the next 407 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:38,240 question I wanted to ask about. You're the main event of this card, 408 00:25:38,279 --> 00:25:41,799 but they're calling it the featherweight world title double header because the fight before you 409 00:25:42,079 --> 00:25:45,319 and Kolmotov get it on. In the main event, you've got the IDF 410 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:49,880 champion Luis Alberto Lopez. He's gonna defend his mandatory against Raya Abe from Japan. 411 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:52,640 So you've got the two world title fights at stake, you know, 412 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,720 on the same event. Uh, So you'll be getting ready for your fight. 413 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:59,400 You're gonna peek at the monitor or check out what's going on in the 414 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:03,920 main event, because you know it's your division. It's another championship. No, 415 00:26:03,079 --> 00:26:07,599 I when I fight, I don't really watch the other fights. I 416 00:26:07,799 --> 00:26:11,640 just I foolus on what I gotta do. I'm in debt, warming up. 417 00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:15,440 I'm I'm either either watching my pony for a little bit. Well, 418 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:18,799 I normally watch my opponent before I go to a meaning, but I either 419 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,359 watching somebody else that I like to watch, like either like it's your cool 420 00:26:22,559 --> 00:26:27,359 or a boost in this or you know somebody that you know I like watching. 421 00:26:27,519 --> 00:26:33,240 So but other than that, I'm just training. And uh, we're 422 00:26:33,279 --> 00:26:34,920 not training, but you know, warming up and you know, locking in 423 00:26:37,039 --> 00:26:38,640 so is uh you know down the road. I mean, I know you're 424 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,119 not with top Rank, You're with Mattroom and this is you know, they 425 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:45,400 they have the fight because of the deal that was made. But I wondered, 426 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,000 is it is it in the back of your mind that you know I'm 427 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,119 gonna win this title and you know what, I like to fight a unification 428 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:53,599 with the winner of the other fight on this show. And have you talked 429 00:26:53,640 --> 00:26:57,000 to Matt Troom Boxing about about what maybe in the future, depending on if 430 00:26:57,039 --> 00:27:03,039 you win this matchup now, I haven't talked to any anybody about my you 431 00:27:03,160 --> 00:27:07,200 know, about the future after this. You know, he's just been focused 432 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,880 on, you know, this fight. But if the if it makes sense, 433 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:14,759 if the money is right and everything, I unify against anybody. I 434 00:27:14,839 --> 00:27:18,839 can fight the other Mexican that they got, the tall guy, Raphael, 435 00:27:21,599 --> 00:27:25,880 Yeah, I can fight him. I'm gonna fight anybody who is either gonna 436 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:30,640 bring a lot of money or another title, anybody. And Espinosa probably is 437 00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,160 headed towards a rematch or the Ramirez in the summer. Uh So we'll see 438 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,079 if that could possibly happen. When you were coming up in your in your 439 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,720 uh when your first turn pro, you know, you look really good. 440 00:27:40,759 --> 00:27:42,000 You had some uh you know, you were getting the job done and you 441 00:27:42,039 --> 00:27:45,920 were learning the ropes. And I've and like I said, I've watched all 442 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,640 your fights. To me, anyway, it seemed at times you were a 443 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:52,319 little inconsistent. You know, you had an eight round draw in one fight 444 00:27:52,640 --> 00:27:55,519 that I know must have been disappointing to you with Aaron Prez. This is 445 00:27:55,559 --> 00:27:59,240 back in twenty twenty one. Then you come back, you look fantastic in 446 00:27:59,279 --> 00:28:03,839 a knockout again to re Spallati, then the split decision against Vasquez. Do 447 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,720 you agree that at times in that early stage that there was inconsistency to your 448 00:28:07,759 --> 00:28:14,400 game. Yeah, but just learning experience. That doesn't define who I am. 449 00:28:14,559 --> 00:28:17,680 You can clearly see like those fights, and then you see my other 450 00:28:17,759 --> 00:28:22,000 fights where I'm performing on the whole different hy level. I don't even in 451 00:28:22,079 --> 00:28:26,039 those fights. I'm not even fighting the scene. My my footwork is not 452 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:30,039 there. I'm not as as sharp, like it's not even it's not even 453 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:36,000 a comparison like. So it's like, it's just it comes with It comes 454 00:28:36,039 --> 00:28:38,799 with the learning experience. Everybody gonna have rough fights and tough fights and things 455 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:44,039 like that. You never know what nobody's going through. So I feel like 456 00:28:44,119 --> 00:28:45,799 a lot of the boxing worlds sleep on me for that reason, and he 457 00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:51,519 judged me off of that, but they don't really they're gonna they I don't 458 00:28:51,559 --> 00:28:55,519 know. All I can do is, you know, just focus on myself 459 00:28:55,599 --> 00:28:57,960 and coming there and do and know and do what I know how to do 460 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:03,519 best, and that's be sharp and you know, be myself. Well, 461 00:29:03,519 --> 00:29:07,960 I was to say, moving beyond those matchups I mentioned where some were outstanding 462 00:29:07,039 --> 00:29:11,160 and others were not bad or anything, but maybe not at the same level 463 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:15,559 of those other matchups I mentioned in your last fight, which was last April, 464 00:29:15,839 --> 00:29:19,759 you were supremely impressive. You won a twelve round lopsided decision against Jesse 465 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:23,359 mcgalena, who used to be a junior featherweight world champion. You dropped him 466 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,480 two times. I thought you looked terrific in that fight. What did you 467 00:29:26,519 --> 00:29:30,119 think of that performance? Did you think that's the best you had performed so 468 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:38,440 far in your pro career? Is it the best? Certainly the biggest name 469 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:42,119 apponent that you had faced so far. Yeah, he's the biggest name. 470 00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,559 But I feel like I could have stepped on it. I could have did 471 00:29:45,599 --> 00:29:48,119 a lot more, like put the ring off as far as like, you 472 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:51,799 know, when I was on my ways and stopping them, you know, 473 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:56,079 keeping the pay step. But I feel like I let him slip away, 474 00:29:56,160 --> 00:30:00,400 get away. But you know, Magdalena's he's he's a vet. He's been 475 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,640 at the world title stage before, so you know how to survive. Like 476 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,640 he started, you know, to use his legs, and it was kind 477 00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,960 of difficult for me to you know, catch up with him on top of 478 00:30:11,079 --> 00:30:14,119 me not wanting to run into shots too. So like I still had that 479 00:30:14,279 --> 00:30:17,440 in the back of my mind, like I could you know, blit him 480 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:21,440 in Russian. But I don't want to really get like run into something I 481 00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:23,359 don't see, so I was kind of like being a little more cautious. 482 00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:27,519 But yeah, I feel like I don't know. I feel like I definitely 483 00:30:27,559 --> 00:30:30,880 could have performed a little better. I could have got to stop it if 484 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:33,119 I, you know, just picked up a little bit more. Like I 485 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,240 watched the video and I seen the rush he was about to jump in it 486 00:30:36,319 --> 00:30:41,880 at times, so that that was like my only, uh, pretty much 487 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,519 mistake in that fight. I feel like when you finished that fight, did 488 00:30:45,599 --> 00:30:48,000 you feel like, you know, because again, he was your biggest name 489 00:30:48,079 --> 00:30:52,200 opponent anyway, uh, the first former world champion that you had faced. 490 00:30:52,559 --> 00:30:55,039 When you're finished with the fight and they raise your hand, do you feel 491 00:30:55,079 --> 00:30:56,359 like, you know what, I'm now ready to fight for a world title. 492 00:30:59,559 --> 00:31:02,160 I feel I was. I felt like I was ready before that fight. 493 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:06,680 Okay, me going twelve rounds, I'm like, all right, I 494 00:31:06,799 --> 00:31:11,200 know I can do twelve rounds in the gym and things like that, But 495 00:31:11,519 --> 00:31:12,319 in a fight, you know, it's different. You know, you're dealing 496 00:31:12,359 --> 00:31:15,880 with different things. You're dealing with camras, you're dealing with nerves and stuff 497 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,839 like that, so it's a different thing. It's a different you know, 498 00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:23,480 difference in your mentality and things like that. But me getting at twelve rounds 499 00:31:23,519 --> 00:31:26,039 out the way I felt, I felt good. I wasn't tired at all. 500 00:31:26,759 --> 00:31:30,240 I felt like I was in shape. But once I got the twelve 501 00:31:30,319 --> 00:31:32,079 rounds, I'm like, all right, now, I know for effect, 502 00:31:32,119 --> 00:31:34,799 like I can go twelve rounds and do a world title fight and I'll be 503 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:40,880 good. So you came into the fight against Magdaleno, you had only had 504 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,400 the one fight in twenty twenty two. He was your only fight in twenty 505 00:31:44,559 --> 00:31:47,279 twenty three, And I don't know the reason for this. Was there a 506 00:31:47,319 --> 00:31:51,880 reason for the inactivity the fight into I had more than one fight into twenty 507 00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:53,119 twenty two? Is that right? Okay? Maybe I just read your record, 508 00:31:53,119 --> 00:32:00,640 but certainly only the one fighting three you are correct in twenty twenty three, 509 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:05,480 it was just a one fight with Magdaleno. Was that because of a 510 00:32:05,559 --> 00:32:07,319 particular reason? Was there an injury? Was there some kind of issue, 511 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:12,720 or it was just a scheduling thing or what? Nah? It was just 512 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:19,000 it was more like just a business part Like I think my team they just 513 00:32:19,039 --> 00:32:22,200 wanted me to you know, wigh and see what's going on with the belt, 514 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:27,799 because you know, Lawer headed then Leewood got it, then he fought 515 00:32:28,079 --> 00:32:30,039 Larrenton, so and then we had to wait on what was it bet So 516 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,519 it was just like it wasn't really me and my fault. I wanted to 517 00:32:35,599 --> 00:32:38,440 fight, you know, but my team just thought it was best for me, 518 00:32:38,519 --> 00:32:42,119 you know, just to you know, wait and see what's going on 519 00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:44,519 with the belt. Well, I guess that worked out from that same point 520 00:32:44,519 --> 00:32:49,039 because here you are fighting for the for the vacant WBA World Championship. You 521 00:32:49,119 --> 00:32:52,200 know, you're You're from Camden, New Jersey, and as the reputation of 522 00:32:52,279 --> 00:32:54,319 a really rough place to grow up. I suppose, uh, what was 523 00:32:54,359 --> 00:32:58,920 it like for you growing up in Camden? It was it was rough. 524 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:04,920 I used to get into a lot of fights, got expelled from every school 525 00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:09,279 that I went to in Camden, getting in a lot of trouble. My 526 00:33:09,359 --> 00:33:13,720 mom she moved just because she was like scared that I was either gonna end 527 00:33:13,799 --> 00:33:15,640 up dead or in jail. So she moved us to a Sclaville. We 528 00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,160 lived out there for a few years, and then we moved to Philly. 529 00:33:19,319 --> 00:33:22,480 I started getting in trouble again out there, and then I actually went to 530 00:33:22,599 --> 00:33:27,599 Julie and then my mom moved back to Camden, and when I was sixteen, 531 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,799 so when I came home, I started getting in trouble again, so 532 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:36,799 she sent me to move with my dad. And I've been with my dad 533 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:42,279 since until I was like, what was seventeen, And then I was eighteen, 534 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:46,240 I got back into boxing, and yeah, that's when I started, 535 00:33:46,279 --> 00:33:50,839 you know, taking this serious again. And I turned pro like a year 536 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,440 and a half later. So pretty much staying out of trouble since boxing became 537 00:33:53,519 --> 00:33:58,920 your thing, I guess, yeah, pretty much. One thing about Camden 538 00:33:59,039 --> 00:34:00,200 and I don't know if I want to ask you if you're familiar with this. 539 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:06,000 You're just the latest in the line of of professional boxers to come there. 540 00:34:06,039 --> 00:34:09,199 It has produced some very famous fighters, most notably the former heavyweight world 541 00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:14,480 champion Jersey, Joe Walcott, the great Hall of Famer Dwight, Mohammad Kawei, 542 00:34:14,559 --> 00:34:17,159 and others. More recently, Jason Sosa, for example, are you 543 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:22,480 familiar with that, let that that tradition of Camden, New Jersey. Yeah, 544 00:34:22,559 --> 00:34:27,000 yeah, I haven't really watched too much of like the older guys fights, 545 00:34:27,119 --> 00:34:30,119 but you know, I've been in the gym with me, and we 546 00:34:30,559 --> 00:34:35,840 trained in the same gym when he was active his last few fightspar Sosa, 547 00:34:36,159 --> 00:34:39,400 So yeah, I'm in tune with like, you know, who's been champion 548 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:43,559 and things like that in the city. So what it would then be, 549 00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:45,880 even I know, you want to win the world title, be even a 550 00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:50,039 little more meaningful than to carry on the what I guess is a tradition of 551 00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:55,039 of of your city producing some top notch professional fighters. Yeah, and I 552 00:34:55,159 --> 00:34:59,800 want a statue in my city. They just put up a statue of Jersey 553 00:35:00,039 --> 00:35:05,239 we'll cut down at the at the waterfront, So yeah, I want to 554 00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:07,920 statue up there next time. So maybe someday we'll go to Camden. We'll 555 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:13,280 see Jersey Joe's statue and the ray Ford statue exactly. Yeah, for sure. 556 00:35:13,639 --> 00:35:16,480 Well, I guess the check my kids and my grandkids and stuff. 557 00:35:16,519 --> 00:35:20,800 They would be always be able to go there, you know see that and 558 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:22,480 you know, be proud of them. So yeah, for sure, Well 559 00:35:22,519 --> 00:35:25,000 that would be pretty cool. And I guess the first big step to the 560 00:35:25,079 --> 00:35:30,679 possibility of that happening is coming up on March March second, with your fight 561 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:35,800 against Kolmotov for the vacant title. Ray thank you very much for doing this. 562 00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:38,199 I appreciate I wish you best of luck in the fight. Thank you, 563 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:44,320 I appreciate you. All right again, Ford and Kolmotov and and a 564 00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:49,679 lot of people are very interested in Kolmatov for this. This is an interest 565 00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:53,400 you talked to you. This is intriguing vacant title fight coming up here for 566 00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:58,679 sure. Yeah, this is the belt that Lee would vacated. Colmotov was 567 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:00,800 his mandatory when he vacant to go up to one hundred and thirty pounds. 568 00:36:01,199 --> 00:36:06,480 Ray Ford was the next leading available contender, also undefeated like Komatov. And 569 00:36:06,599 --> 00:36:08,400 I think it's a good style matchup because if you I've seen both guys fight, 570 00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:14,920 Homatov is a kind of a brawler that can box and ray Ford is 571 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:19,360 a boxer who can brawl and is more of the technician. So style wise, 572 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:21,920 you know, he's a left hander. There is some you know, 573 00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:24,079 different style to the way that they fight each other. And you know, 574 00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:29,599 ray he's coming off as we talked about his biggest win against the former title 575 00:36:29,639 --> 00:36:34,679 holder at junior featherweight in Jesse Magdaleno, and you know he's got this opportunity. 576 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,199 Now. The interesting thing is like he's a match from boxing fighter. 577 00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,079 This is a top rank card. They signed Coma Tov, but Top Rank 578 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:45,159 got the rights of this in a purse bid. So they're putting this fight 579 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:46,159 on in the main event, and they got a good undercard fight. In 580 00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:50,199 terms of for I don't know if how competitive it will be, but in 581 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:52,880 terms of the landscape at featherweight, you've got the WBA title in the main 582 00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:59,000 event, you've got the Luis Alberto Lopez defending the IBF title in the in 583 00:36:59,039 --> 00:37:04,760 his mandatory defense on the undercart against the Japanese mandatory against Raya Abe, and 584 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,519 obviously if you're top ranked again. You know we were talking about with the 585 00:37:07,599 --> 00:37:10,800 Japanese cart, they are two weight classes the same. I'm not saying it 586 00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:15,400 will be the next fight, but if their two guys win, ode Bekkomatop 587 00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:17,440 and Luis Alberta Lopez, it's not out of the realm that they would fight 588 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,400 each other. They're gonna have more action in the featherweight division later this year, 589 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:23,360 because it's not done yet and there's no date official, but they're trying 590 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:29,119 to or they're going to do a rematch between Robessi Ramirez and Rafael Espinozo, 591 00:37:29,119 --> 00:37:32,360 who defeated him in that great, great fight, upset to have their rematch. 592 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:36,000 So there's gonna be a lot of top rank action in this weight class, 593 00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,840 and it's all being set up for the eventual arrival you would think next 594 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:44,119 year of Noya in a way to that new weight class. And these are 595 00:37:44,159 --> 00:37:46,760 important fights on their own as well as what it may project to down the 596 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:52,639 road. All right, good stuff on that with ray Ford, and you 597 00:37:52,719 --> 00:37:54,840 got to stick with us because Dan's knocking out some other interviews. I know 598 00:37:55,119 --> 00:37:59,119 as you put it out on social media, tim Zo, you have talked 599 00:37:59,159 --> 00:38:00,760 to and there's some others that are coming in the pipeline here with these fights, 600 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:06,199 especially in March. So stand by, be subscribed on the podcast feed, 601 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,480 be following in and subscribe and you may get some of these a standalone 602 00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:13,199 interviews, is my point, outside of the preview, outside of the recap. 603 00:38:13,639 --> 00:38:15,920 So good stuff there, all right, onto some news. This is 604 00:38:15,039 --> 00:38:21,960 interesting that the Devin Haney Ryan Garcia fight we knew would be for April twentieth, 605 00:38:22,079 --> 00:38:24,480 that was announced, the location had not been announced. I will point 606 00:38:24,519 --> 00:38:29,239 blank say to you, I was surprised that it's not in the West at 607 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,840 least in Los Angeles, if not Las Vegas, Barclay Center, Brooklyn, 608 00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:37,840 New York. How surprised are you that it's not at least in the West, 609 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:39,920 if not Las Vegas, but instead in New York. Well, I'm 610 00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:44,239 not totally surprised, because there's always it's always hard to find the venues, 611 00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:49,079 particularly at that time of year when you got the NBA Playoffs coming around and 612 00:38:49,119 --> 00:38:52,639 the NHL Playoffs, and a lot of these buildings have blockout dates, you 613 00:38:52,679 --> 00:38:54,719 know, even if their teams haven't officially made the playoffs, so it's really 614 00:38:54,960 --> 00:39:00,880 really hard to get those dates on those Saturday nights. So look, Oscar 615 00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:02,000 de la Joya when the fight was made, said it's going to be Las 616 00:39:02,079 --> 00:39:05,760 Vegas. He said it to me on the podcast that we had with him. 617 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:08,119 It was gonna be Las Vegas. What'd you call that? Yess And 618 00:39:08,199 --> 00:39:10,320 he was hoping they could work it out. Obviously, if you're going to 619 00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:14,199 do this fight in Vegas, you know, you're talking about three buildings for 620 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:15,760 a fight at this level, you probably have to rule out Mandali Day, 621 00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,599 it's probably not big enough. So you're talking about the team Obile Arena, 622 00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:22,960 MGM Grant and Thomas Knack Center, which is not affiliated with the MGM, 623 00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,320 which is the ones who usually buy or put up some kind of money or 624 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:29,639 ticket buy for these types of fights. So in the real world, that 625 00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:32,559 meant to me T Mobile or the MGM. Oscar floated the idea of Allegiance 626 00:39:32,599 --> 00:39:36,079 Stadium, but that was Oscar being Oscar. I never believed that was going 627 00:39:36,119 --> 00:39:38,079 to happen. They will host a fight at Allegiance Stadium someday, I am 628 00:39:38,119 --> 00:39:44,199 sure, but it's not going to be for a fight like Devin Hainey against 629 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:45,679 Ryan Garcia, which is a very good fight, but it's not that kind 630 00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:49,119 of fight to bring in that kind of crowd. That's going to be for, 631 00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:53,360 you know, a really really big fight. So the issue was not 632 00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:59,920 so much that the venues are necessarily filled with other activity on April twenty. 633 00:40:00,039 --> 00:40:02,960 It's a matter of the way that the deals work when you do these types 634 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:07,800 of events in any place, is that if you're doing another event that's very 635 00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:13,000 similar, then they have the ability to block out things that come before it, 636 00:40:13,079 --> 00:40:16,360 so they don't cannibalize their ticket sales. PBC has a lockdown on May 637 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:20,800 fourth for a proposed Canelo fight. Now there's no official opponent yet. But 638 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:22,679 Canelo, they know he's the big draw, He's the big daddy over in 639 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:28,360 Vegas, and so they weren't going to release that date to allow Golden Boy 640 00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:31,360 to put that fight in either building. I think they talked to PBC tried 641 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:35,760 to get them to do that. It might have been easier to do if 642 00:40:35,800 --> 00:40:38,679 they had made a deal between Canelo and Mangia as part of that, because 643 00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:42,800 they're the promoter of Mangia. They could have maybe somehow figured that out. 644 00:40:43,039 --> 00:40:45,199 But in the end, they weren't going to be able to work it out, 645 00:40:45,199 --> 00:40:47,960 and so they needed another building. And Barclay Center in Brooklyn is as 646 00:40:49,039 --> 00:40:52,000 good of a venue as any place in the country, in the world for 647 00:40:52,079 --> 00:40:53,599 that matter, to host a boxing match. They've hosted something like fifty or 648 00:40:53,679 --> 00:40:58,800 so fight cards, plenty of major fights with big names for the last you 649 00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:00,760 know, almost fifteen years they've been open. I have covered most of the 650 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:05,719 events that have taken place in that building, and so I'm absolutely fucking thrilled, 651 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,800 even if it was for the wrong reasons because somebody put the block on 652 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:13,360 them doing the fight in Vegas. If the byproduct of that meant they're coming 653 00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:15,199 to the East to do a fight in New York. It's a wonderful thing 654 00:41:15,239 --> 00:41:20,960 in my opinion, because even though Devin Haney is born in Oakland lives in 655 00:41:21,079 --> 00:41:24,159 Vegas, and Ryan Garcia is from Victorville, California, lives in Los Angeles, 656 00:41:24,199 --> 00:41:28,280 both West Coast fighters. Obviously, they're big enough names and big enough 657 00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:30,679 stars that they can definitely do a huge crowd and make a big event in 658 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:36,800 New York City. And New York City is desperate for a big, big 659 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:40,159 fight. I mean, in the entire calendar year of twenty twenty three, 660 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:44,280 there was not a single boxing match at the Barclay Center. The previous fight 661 00:41:44,519 --> 00:41:46,960 to my recollection, which I was at, was October of twenty twenty two. 662 00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:51,800 Main event was Deontay Wilder's first round knockout against Robert Lnius. That was 663 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:53,480 a Fox pay per view of it, and you missed it right in the 664 00:41:53,519 --> 00:41:58,119 main event in exactly Wilder right hand bomb. Yes, And there hadn't been 665 00:41:58,159 --> 00:42:00,880 a fight in Madison's. I mean, there's been a lot of activity in 666 00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:06,280 the Madison Square Garden Theater, but that's the smaller arena, that's the one 667 00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:08,519 that holds you know what, five thousand or so, But in terms of 668 00:42:08,559 --> 00:42:13,280 the famed arena if you will, the big main arena. You know, 669 00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:15,119 they've had a lack of activity in that building also. I mean, I 670 00:42:15,159 --> 00:42:19,360 mean it's hard to get dates there also because they've got concerts and the you 671 00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,960 know, the the hockey team and the basketball team, and they host college 672 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:24,679 basketball and all that kind of stuff. Right, the last time they had 673 00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:29,159 a fight card in the main agrena at the Madison Square Garden. Again, 674 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,960 I was also at the fight talking about December twenty twenty. That was when 675 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:37,679 Tiafimo Lopez had the very big struggle but won the close split decision against Sander 676 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:42,039 Martin. And that means the entire calendar year of twenty twenty three, there 677 00:42:42,119 --> 00:42:45,000 wasn't a single boxing event in the main arena. Like I said, there 678 00:42:45,079 --> 00:42:47,519 was other fights of worth in the in the smaller building, you know, 679 00:42:47,599 --> 00:42:52,239 including Ka Femo when he defeated Josh Taylor to become the junior wilterweight champ. 680 00:42:52,519 --> 00:42:55,719 So for that city, such a bastion for boxing since you know, boxing 681 00:42:55,800 --> 00:43:00,360 has pretty much existed in this country. Finally we get a big fight back 682 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:04,519 in the in the big Apple and Barclay Center is just as good of a 683 00:43:04,559 --> 00:43:07,000 place to have a boxing match as anything. So I'm really happy about that. 684 00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:09,920 I'm definitely gonna be covering that fight come April, and uh, that's 685 00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,639 why it's in New York City and they're gonna they're gonna put on a big 686 00:43:13,679 --> 00:43:15,360 show there and I think that it's gonna do a very very healthy gate, 687 00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:19,519 probably sell out in my mind. You know, it's a pay per view 688 00:43:19,559 --> 00:43:21,480 here in the United States. I mean, you'll you'll see a lot of 689 00:43:21,519 --> 00:43:24,360 marketing, I'm sure for that fight. They've got Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia 690 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,679 and their teams are headed out on their media tour. They're gonna hit a 691 00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:30,920 press conference in New York on Tuesday. They're gonna do Los Angeles on Wednesday, 692 00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:35,239 and there should be some fireworks with that. These guys are both theatrical, 693 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:37,960 you know, they're both a little bit have the pension for drama, 694 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:42,440 perhaps a little diva ish. It's gonna be interesting to watch watch how they 695 00:43:42,559 --> 00:43:44,480 do with each other. And they know each other so well. I mean, 696 00:43:44,639 --> 00:43:47,000 well, we saw them last at the Super Bowl radio row, not 697 00:43:47,159 --> 00:43:52,519 exactly exchanging pleasantries as they were departing from the radio row with the video cameras 698 00:43:52,559 --> 00:43:57,119 rolling. It's a ring as well as outside the boxing ring. Yeah, 699 00:43:57,199 --> 00:44:00,079 we'll see if we'll see if some of that happens. All right, if 700 00:44:00,079 --> 00:44:02,960 you did make mention of this, we know Canelo Alvarez is fighting, we 701 00:44:04,079 --> 00:44:06,960 still don't know who it is. And this is one of the things you 702 00:44:07,039 --> 00:44:13,719 were working on Thursday evening before began the podcast that apparently David Benavitez he's maybe 703 00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:16,239 involved with Canelo, but has also now got a backup plan in place and 704 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:20,239 it involves him moving up to light heavyweight. Explain more about what you've found 705 00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,159 out here in the news at what we know now as we release the pod 706 00:44:22,199 --> 00:44:25,119 overnight. All right, So the benavites people, and that's David and his 707 00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:30,039 father and Sam Selukawitz, the promoter. They're obviously very convinced that Canelo has 708 00:44:30,079 --> 00:44:34,480 no intention is not going to fight them come May, which see they're probably 709 00:44:34,559 --> 00:44:36,559 right. I mean, no matter what, they're just not going to get 710 00:44:36,599 --> 00:44:38,840 that fight. They weren't going to just allow Canelo to dictate their life. 711 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:44,199 So what they've done is they're going to maintain their position as the mandatory challenger 712 00:44:44,599 --> 00:44:46,840 in the super middleweight division in the hopes that whatever Canelo does in May that 713 00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:50,760 he'll fight he'll win, I guess, and then fight them in September on 714 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:54,840 the Mexican Independence Day weekend. But in the meantime, David has gotten the 715 00:44:54,920 --> 00:45:00,280 approval from the WBC to go up to light heavy because it's the interim champion 716 00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:04,599 and the mandatory they're going to make the WBC's interim light heavyweight title available. 717 00:45:04,679 --> 00:45:07,719 David certainly has the build to be a light heavyweight, and he's going to 718 00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,559 fight the former unified champion and lineal champion who's been on the comeback trail and 719 00:45:10,599 --> 00:45:15,559 won a few fights since his retirement that lasted not all that long, in 720 00:45:15,679 --> 00:45:20,119 Alexander Vodzig. So that fight is apparently, according to Samson Lukwitz, who 721 00:45:20,119 --> 00:45:23,639 I spoke to on Thursday, that is their bad agreement is signed and that 722 00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:28,840 fight is approved by the WBC, which put an announcement out on Thursday evening 723 00:45:29,079 --> 00:45:32,079 that they had approved that fight and they'll fight for the WBC interim title. 724 00:45:32,679 --> 00:45:36,960 No date specific, but what Samson was telling me is probably early JUNI you're 725 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,320 looking at the likelihood of another Amazon Prime pay per view fight, which really, 726 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:43,079 right now, it seems like that's all they have right now. Are 727 00:45:43,119 --> 00:45:49,360 pay per view fights in the pipeline, but as Samson explained, Canello has 728 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:52,079 an offer in front of him from PBC to fight David, he has not 729 00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:57,239 yet officially ruled it out. He has not yet accepted it. He had 730 00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:59,719 given a decision one way or the other. They're assuming he's going to say 731 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:05,320 no. When that happens, that will then make the Vozic fight definitely the 732 00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:07,920 next fight. If Canelo accepts that fight, obviously things would change. But 733 00:46:08,079 --> 00:46:12,360 I doubt it, and the reason is because I think Canelo wants Fodic to 734 00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:17,000 get the opportunity against Benavides, because Vodzik is part of Team Canelo. He's 735 00:46:17,079 --> 00:46:22,280 with their promotion company, and he's been on Canelo's recent undercards like he's part 736 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:25,760 of the group. So I don't know if Canelo is going to go looking 737 00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:29,360 to ace his guy out of that fight. So we'll see how that works. 738 00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:34,000 But the likelihood is that Canelo will fight whoever come May fourth, den 739 00:46:34,039 --> 00:46:37,440 Aviz will fight Fozick, you know, sometime in early June. As Samson 740 00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:42,119 said, if he wins, he'll come back to one sixty eight in the 741 00:46:42,159 --> 00:46:45,760 hopes that he can line up as the mandatory, which Hopefully the WBC at 742 00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:47,400 that point will order the fight and make it where you either got to fight 743 00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:51,599 Bavid or you're gonna get stripped, and we'll see that big mega fight in 744 00:46:51,679 --> 00:46:57,360 September. But a lot of don't know. I heard thes we don't know. 745 00:46:57,519 --> 00:47:01,159 But maybe connecting the dots, maybe it's give Vodzick the chance here while 746 00:47:01,199 --> 00:47:06,239 Canelo fights somebody else, because you're setting up to fight Benavidez in September. 747 00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:08,280 We could hope that the only thing I'm gonna say. You want me to 748 00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:12,920 say it, don't you If he's not fighting Benavidez and it is going to 749 00:47:12,960 --> 00:47:16,119 be Jamal Charlow who he picks Canelo, what are we doing here? I 750 00:47:16,199 --> 00:47:20,519 mean this, this to me is just a waste. But and we've said 751 00:47:20,519 --> 00:47:24,920 that many different ways. We don't know, But yeah, I don't know. 752 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:30,199 Oh yeah. I would encourage anybody that listens to us to read my 753 00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:35,840 column from like Wednesday night into Thursday, where the whole it's all my random 754 00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:37,119 thoughts and it's pretty's lot of stuff in there. I think it was actually 755 00:47:37,119 --> 00:47:40,199 a really good column, to be honest. But the top whole section is 756 00:47:40,199 --> 00:47:45,199 all the thoughts about what are we doing here about fight Benavidia's it's not rocket 757 00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:49,320 science. Yes, they're all doing these mental gymastis about why he's just fight 758 00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:51,400 this guy? Why he should? You know what, I'm gonna go ahead 759 00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:52,880 and say it. All right, So part of the legacy at the end 760 00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:58,440 of his career has got to be are you going to fight somebody of note? 761 00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:01,559 Because the last two five it's John Ryder. Okay, you fought him 762 00:48:01,559 --> 00:48:07,679 in Mexico. Return to Mexico. Jamel Charlo garbage, garbage guy that moved. 763 00:48:07,280 --> 00:48:08,960 I don't have a problem with that. I didn't have a problem with 764 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:13,719 that one for a reason. What do you mean, Jamel Charlow. Yeah, 765 00:48:14,239 --> 00:48:16,400 no, Jamel Charlo's a garbage fight because he's not a super middleweight. 766 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:20,599 He moved up to weight classes. We are allowed to disagree, disagree with 767 00:48:20,880 --> 00:48:24,519 Okay, Can I finish the point? Can I finish I'd love to finish 768 00:48:24,599 --> 00:48:28,119 my point. It's my point. I'd love to finish it. Can I 769 00:48:28,159 --> 00:48:31,320 finish the point? So if the third fight after that is Jermal Charlo, 770 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:37,320 what are we doing here? Agreed? That's it now? I finished the 771 00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:39,199 point. Go ahead, Okay. No, I was only gonna say we're 772 00:48:39,199 --> 00:48:42,559 allowed to disagree in the merit of the Charlot fight, the first, the 773 00:48:42,679 --> 00:48:46,519 Jermeal Charlot fight. But we agree, and I think universally boxing fans and 774 00:48:46,599 --> 00:48:52,199 media agree that Canelo versus Jamal Charlot in this spot in time is a gutter 775 00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:59,800 bys On that note, a couple of other news items, and then I 776 00:49:00,159 --> 00:49:04,679 we're getting some excellent nostalgia, which is Tyson Fury Deontay Wilder II where my 777 00:49:04,800 --> 00:49:09,000 man Rayphiel was RINGSI on and that fight still resonates at the moment with the 778 00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:14,559 magnitude of two nostalgies. Yeah, we got excellent nostalgia, all right. 779 00:49:14,559 --> 00:49:19,440 So Golden Boy had another announcement and that involves Zerdo Ramirez challenging for the WBA 780 00:49:19,559 --> 00:49:23,400 Cruiserweight Championship coming up also in March, and it will be on the same 781 00:49:23,519 --> 00:49:29,599 night of the Amazon PBC card with Zoo and Thurman and the undercard elsewhere. 782 00:49:29,960 --> 00:49:36,519 This one will be in California and Arson Gula Marian or Gula I get it 783 00:49:36,559 --> 00:49:37,599 right, g La Maurian, Okay, I got that right. We'll be 784 00:49:37,679 --> 00:49:42,159 defending the cruiserweight title. He's unbeaten. Tell me a little more about this 785 00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:45,719 and how intrigued are you by this? I mean it's fine. I mean 786 00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:49,400 it's there's nothing wrong with us at all. I mean Zerdo won the elimination 787 00:49:49,519 --> 00:49:52,599 fight against Joe Smith. He looked really good when he made his cruiserweight debut. 788 00:49:52,199 --> 00:49:55,400 Gl Maarian has been a very inactive fighter, but he's undefeated and he's 789 00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:59,480 been an active largely because he's had a beef with his promoter in France. 790 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:01,559 I think, I'm not sure if it's been worked out, but it's been 791 00:50:01,559 --> 00:50:04,840 at least worked out enough where Golden Boy was able to make the fight. 792 00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,559 I know they were having some issues there. You know. I wrote about 793 00:50:07,559 --> 00:50:09,760 this fight and reported about the fact that this was likely probably a month ago, 794 00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:14,480 but it's taken a little bit of time to get through all the ups 795 00:50:14,519 --> 00:50:16,079 and downs and trying to make the deal and all the bullshit that's been going 796 00:50:16,119 --> 00:50:19,920 on with it. But now it's a done deal. March thirtieth at the 797 00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:23,079 YouTube Theater in Inglewood, which is in that plaza that that area that that 798 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:29,400 part next to the Sofi Stadium, sort of near where the Forum is, 799 00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:32,199 and they've built the whole conflex there and this is Goldenway's had a fight there 800 00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:37,320 before, and so It's a great opportunity for Go Mari to finally get back 801 00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:39,440 in the ring defend this title against a known opponent, which he hasn't really 802 00:50:39,519 --> 00:50:43,800 done so far. Great opportunity for Zerdo to challenge for a title in a 803 00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:45,800 second way class, you know, because he had held the title in the 804 00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:49,480 one hundred and sixty eight pound weight class. When he fought for the title 805 00:50:49,519 --> 00:50:52,400 in the light heavyweight division, he got wiped out by people and that didn't 806 00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:53,360 really work out well for him. But now he's gone up to a cruiser 807 00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:57,039 weight. He looked really good at the weight when he fought Joe Smith, 808 00:50:57,519 --> 00:51:00,519 and you know, this is a very worthy main event. I can't argue 809 00:51:00,559 --> 00:51:01,920 with that. And the only thing I'm disappointed is that it's going the same 810 00:51:02,000 --> 00:51:06,440 night as the uh As, the uh As, the Tim Zoo fight against 811 00:51:06,519 --> 00:51:07,840 Keith Thurman. But uh, what are you gonna do? That's that's the 812 00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,119 way it goes. And you know, you've got to make your choice. 813 00:51:10,119 --> 00:51:14,159 What are you're gonna watch live if you're gonna even support the pay per view 814 00:51:14,199 --> 00:51:15,199 and buy it, or you know, whatever you're planning to do. But 815 00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:20,039 this is a there's nothing wrong with this fight. Zerto against Glamarin is uh, 816 00:51:20,280 --> 00:51:22,360 you know, I can't say it's like the number one fight on my 817 00:51:22,559 --> 00:51:24,320 on my on my to do list. But I got a problem with this. 818 00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:28,000 I'm I'm interested, I'm interested in it. It's a title fight, 819 00:51:28,079 --> 00:51:30,599 all right. One more news item and that is Manny pakiaw We haven't heard 820 00:51:31,119 --> 00:51:35,519 from her about the pac man in a little while. Retired, Uh, 821 00:51:35,679 --> 00:51:39,639 but now it was interested in potentially fighting later this year in the Paris Olympics, 822 00:51:39,679 --> 00:51:45,039 but denied by the IOC. I have a couple of thoughts here on 823 00:51:45,119 --> 00:51:50,039 this whole thing about professional versus amateur, but get into what the the denial 824 00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:52,840 was based upon here and then we'll debate it real quick and then move on 825 00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:55,159 to nostalgia. Yeah, so he wanted to at age forty five, represent 826 00:51:55,239 --> 00:52:00,000 the Philippines and the Paris Olympics. The IOC which now uns the boxing tournament 827 00:52:00,039 --> 00:52:05,760 because of the incompetence and the corruption of the the you know, the i 828 00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:07,039 EBA, who had done it for many years. I mean, they're a 829 00:52:07,079 --> 00:52:10,199 freaking joke. So now the IOC, which is not exactly the bastion of 830 00:52:13,039 --> 00:52:16,199 following the rules, but nonetheless they're now in charge. So the boxing tournament 831 00:52:16,280 --> 00:52:20,800 for many years had an age limit of I believe it was thirty seven years 832 00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:22,159 old to compete. It seems like a random number. I don't really know 833 00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,440 why they selected that age, but in any event, that was the cutoff 834 00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:29,760 for a long time. Then it was raised, I want to say in 835 00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:35,800 around twenty thirteen or twenty fourteen it was raised to forty. But Pacyao was 836 00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:37,679 seeking to have them either raise it again or give him an exception because he's 837 00:52:37,719 --> 00:52:44,360 forty five to compete in the Olympic Games. And the IOC said to the 838 00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:49,400 told the Filipino delegation or whoever made the request or went through the procedure, 839 00:52:49,679 --> 00:52:53,400 no, can't do you know, sorry, that ain't happenant So Nanny Paco's 840 00:52:54,159 --> 00:52:59,480 you know, apparent recent dream of being an Olympian and winning a gold medal 841 00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:02,880 is not going to happen. And he still has an exhibition coming up. 842 00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:06,199 There's still a lot of talk from his camp about for the right deal, 843 00:53:06,239 --> 00:53:07,360 for the right fight, he will come out of retirement. You know, 844 00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:12,320 he hasn't fought since he lost to Ugus. He's had one exhibition fight since 845 00:53:12,320 --> 00:53:15,480 he's been retired. You know, he's no longer involved in politics a Senate 846 00:53:15,559 --> 00:53:17,280 seat. You know, he didn't run free election. He got wiped out 847 00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:21,280 in the presidential election. He didn't even think he finished third or fourth. 848 00:53:22,639 --> 00:53:28,639 So many is a guy who's a wonderful human being and a philanthropist and just 849 00:53:28,800 --> 00:53:30,800 obviously an all time great fighter. But I think he's kind of struggling with 850 00:53:30,880 --> 00:53:32,639 what to do with the rest of his life. He's still a young man 851 00:53:32,639 --> 00:53:38,159 at forty four. Well, he obviously has options to promote and managed fighters, 852 00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:42,400 a broadcast, etc. Whatever he would like to do. Now. 853 00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:46,239 Interesting on the Olympics point, just on face value, they allow professionals in 854 00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:51,760 many other different sports in the Olympics and have for years. Professional basketball players, 855 00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:58,280 professional hockey players, even the track and field skiers in the Winter Olympics. 856 00:53:58,360 --> 00:54:01,000 They're paid professionals, and they're old. I mean, the whole notion 857 00:54:01,639 --> 00:54:07,360 of the amateur being like a college age student, late teens, early twenties, 858 00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:10,039 that's been out the window for a long time. The only objection that 859 00:54:10,159 --> 00:54:15,360 I really have is when you start getting into thirty year old, thirty two 860 00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:17,199 year old, and are we still letting them fight an eighteen, nineteen or 861 00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:21,559 twenty year old. I think you got to regulate that in terms of boxing 862 00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:24,400 when you're talking about a combat sport like this, So I don't really have 863 00:54:24,519 --> 00:54:29,440 full understanding. Are they going to allow that wide of a range where an 864 00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:31,119 eighteen to twenty year old could be in the ring with you know, that's 865 00:54:31,119 --> 00:54:36,199 an amateur could be in the ring with somebody that's been a professional at least 866 00:54:36,239 --> 00:54:38,199 in part in the past, that's so much older. That's crazy to me, 867 00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:42,440 just on face value, one hundred percent, because there was professionals that 868 00:54:42,440 --> 00:54:45,400 I've been allowed in the past Olympics recently. This was not a matter of 869 00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:49,760 allowing a professional in the Olympics. This was a matter of allowing a professional 870 00:54:50,119 --> 00:54:53,760 to fight beyond the age limit that they've established. The exception or one of 871 00:54:53,800 --> 00:54:59,519 the exceptions they were making in the past Tokyo Olympics was if you were qualified 872 00:54:59,679 --> 00:55:04,199 as a amateur and then because of all of the mayhem and the Olympics being 873 00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:07,400 delayed, you decided to turn pro Keishawn Davis was in this category and you 874 00:55:07,440 --> 00:55:10,280 had professional fights. They were allowing some of the fighters to come back as 875 00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:15,320 professionals. Now my understanding is they're letting professionals come back. My concern would 876 00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:19,199 be the age range. Are you concerned with that? Where I don't want 877 00:55:19,199 --> 00:55:22,119 to see a nineteen year old have to fight a twenty eight or thirty or 878 00:55:22,159 --> 00:55:25,079 thirty one year old. Don't I want that. I don't think that's good 879 00:55:25,119 --> 00:55:29,760 either. I think you know, look, say what you want about basketball 880 00:55:29,800 --> 00:55:31,400 or hockey. I think that's worse shit too. But whatever, I don't 881 00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:35,679 care about that. I'm talking about boxing. Boxing in the Olympics is for 882 00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:38,519 amateurs who are trying to achieve the highest level of amateur status, which is 883 00:55:38,559 --> 00:55:43,079 to win a medal or even just compete, and for some of them who 884 00:55:43,159 --> 00:55:45,840 are at that level to use it as a launching path to the next level, 885 00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:47,760 which is obviously a professional career, which has been done, you know 886 00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:52,199 for decades and decades and decades. You know, talk about the greatest fighters 887 00:55:52,239 --> 00:55:53,719 in the history of boxing. You know, Muhammad Ali was an Olympic gold 888 00:55:53,760 --> 00:55:57,199 medalist, Sugar Ey Leonard was an Olympic gold medalist. You know, we 889 00:55:57,239 --> 00:55:59,440 can go on down the line. There's been a huge amounts of Oscar de 890 00:55:59,559 --> 00:56:02,480 la Joya. Of course, there's tons of guys that became great fighters from 891 00:56:02,519 --> 00:56:06,840 the Olympic gold Lomachenko was a gold medal winner. You know, you got 892 00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:12,960 guys like Floyd Mayweather, was Alexander Us, Anthony Johnson, Lennox Lewis gold 893 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,280 medal. I mean there's tons of them, uh, and so they were 894 00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,360 able to use that as the launch pad. So I don't. I don't 895 00:56:19,480 --> 00:56:22,199 like the idea that a fighter who has been an established pro, or even 896 00:56:22,199 --> 00:56:25,039 a younger pro to come back and you know, you've done your time in 897 00:56:25,079 --> 00:56:29,119 the amateurs. You had your opportunity to win a gold medal, whether you 898 00:56:29,199 --> 00:56:31,480 didn't win it or you did win it, whatever. Now you're a professional, 899 00:56:31,639 --> 00:56:35,480 do your pro career and let leave leave the amateurs to the younger fighters. 900 00:56:35,679 --> 00:56:37,360 We're going to still make their way. So I don't I'm not I'm 901 00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:44,599 not a fan of seeing the pros in the amateurs going for a gold medal 902 00:56:44,679 --> 00:56:49,400 and Manny Pak yeah, I mean the guy was a world champion eight way 903 00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:52,719 class. The guys made literally probably gross close to a half a billion dollars 904 00:56:52,719 --> 00:56:54,960 in his career, even if he's wasted a lot of the money or given 905 00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:58,159 a lot of the money away, not for bad reasons, because he's so 906 00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:00,719 charitable, he's given a lot away. But you've done your time, leave 907 00:57:00,760 --> 00:57:02,880 it to the young kids to get there, to make their name. You've 908 00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:07,519 had your Your name is etched in history forever. A gold medal doesn't change 909 00:57:07,519 --> 00:57:13,320 any of that. Well said, all right, so nostalgia time and let's 910 00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:15,400 get after it. As we released this podcast, you and I are taping 911 00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:21,280 it on Thursday night, the Thursday being February twenty second. February twenty second, 912 00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:27,239 four years ago, just before all of the craziness of twenty twenty began. 913 00:57:28,159 --> 00:57:30,960 The heavyweight title was on the line, the WBC Heavyweight Championship, the 914 00:57:31,039 --> 00:57:37,039 rematch Tyson Fury Deontay Wilder II, the first fight ending in a controversial draw. 915 00:57:37,119 --> 00:57:40,199 There was no controversy really in the second fight because it was all Tyson 916 00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:44,880 Fury. I guess controversy from Wilder's point of view that he didn't think the 917 00:57:44,920 --> 00:57:47,840 fight should have been stopped. You were right there, he's the only side. 918 00:57:49,239 --> 00:57:51,880 Yeah, well, you were right there ringside to watch all of it. 919 00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:54,039 It is fairly recent. What do you remember. What do you remember 920 00:57:54,079 --> 00:57:57,760 the most about that night in Vegas? Now? I remember it being a 921 00:57:57,800 --> 00:58:00,320 great promotion. I mean, the first fight kind of came out of nowhere 922 00:58:00,320 --> 00:58:02,360 and it was a good promotion. But this was the one where ESPN and 923 00:58:02,559 --> 00:58:07,239 Fox came together and it was just it was like caught fire. And I 924 00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:10,320 can just remember thinking how big this fight's going to be. When I'm standing 925 00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:15,639 there in the media center in the MGM Grand and you look on one side 926 00:58:15,679 --> 00:58:19,599 of the room and on the big TV is an ESPN program and they're promoting 927 00:58:19,639 --> 00:58:22,039 the fight and talking about it on whatever show was. And you look on 928 00:58:22,159 --> 00:58:23,760 the TV screen that was on the other side of the dais and they had 929 00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:29,079 on one of the Fox FS one sports programs and they had their team talking 930 00:58:29,119 --> 00:58:31,800 about the fight, and it was massive. This was the last big fight 931 00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:35,920 before the pandemic. This was one of my final fights that I go, 932 00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:38,840 was the last big fight that I covered before I left ESPN, and it 933 00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:44,079 was a really wonderful promotion. I've said this time and again to me, 934 00:58:44,639 --> 00:58:46,039 and maybe the numbers didn't reflect that because there's a lot of theft. The 935 00:58:46,119 --> 00:58:50,440 fight still did well over eight hundred thousand buys, but it didn't hit the 936 00:58:50,519 --> 00:58:54,639 million mark, even though this was a legitimate, significant heavyweight championship fight, 937 00:58:54,920 --> 00:58:59,519 a rematch, both guys were undefeated. You had one guy from England and 938 00:58:59,559 --> 00:59:01,360 one guy for America. A black guy, a white guy. Two guys 939 00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:06,360 with massive personalities, massive size, you know, lots of punching power. 940 00:59:06,639 --> 00:59:09,840 Had everything to make a mega fight and a phenomenal promotion done by these two 941 00:59:09,920 --> 00:59:14,320 big networks that were behind it. And you had Top Rank coming together with 942 00:59:14,480 --> 00:59:16,679 PBC, who were the two biggest promoters in the game. I mean, 943 00:59:16,760 --> 00:59:20,800 it really had everything going for it, and it turned out to be a 944 00:59:20,880 --> 00:59:22,599 complete one sided beat down. You know, they did this fight not because 945 00:59:22,599 --> 00:59:25,760 there was a rematch clause from fight one. It's because people wanted to see 946 00:59:25,800 --> 00:59:29,519 it. There was controversy, and so this was finally made. They had 947 00:59:29,559 --> 00:59:32,960 done some separate fights. Fury had signed with ESPN, or rather with Top 948 00:59:34,039 --> 00:59:38,159 Rank, who was with ESPN, and all through the promotion, Tyson Fury 949 00:59:38,239 --> 00:59:42,000 is telling the media how he's gonna do the fight. I'm gonna go right 950 00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:43,679 to him, I'm gonna knock him out, and we're like, you're full 951 00:59:43,719 --> 00:59:46,960 of shit, you're lying like usual, and sure enough, Bucker did it. 952 00:59:47,239 --> 00:59:50,440 If Bucker walked out to the center of the ring and went right to 953 00:59:50,480 --> 00:59:52,280 Deontay Wilder, because everybody was sort of thinking and I was one of these 954 00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,480 people, It's like, well, you got to draw in the first fight, 955 00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:58,840 and most people thought you won by boxing and doing what you did, 956 00:59:59,119 --> 01:00:00,960 so why wouldn't you do that again and get better at judging. And he's 957 01:00:01,000 --> 01:00:02,719 like, well, I didn't get my hand raised. It was a draw, 958 01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:06,360 so I need to do something different. And he was at that point 959 01:00:06,440 --> 01:00:09,559 he's with sugar Hill Stewart as a trainer was more offensive minded than Ben Davison, 960 01:00:10,119 --> 01:00:15,559 and he went to Deontay Wilder and he from the second round on, 961 01:00:15,719 --> 01:00:20,280 yeah, just beat him up. And you know, he was the lineal 962 01:00:20,400 --> 01:00:23,000 champion going into the fight, but by the victory, he got the WBC 963 01:00:23,159 --> 01:00:27,719 title. Also, it was his first you know, organization belt since he 964 01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:31,559 had been stripped or vacated after his big victory against Vladimir Klitschko. So this 965 01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:36,239 was a really huge fight. Now that contract had the rematch clause, which 966 01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:38,719 is why we eventually saw the third fight, despite the fact that Wilder took 967 01:00:38,719 --> 01:00:44,599 an absolute one sided ass whooping that he then blamed on wearing a ring walk 968 01:00:44,639 --> 01:00:50,800 at five pound costume his own self inflicted doing, and well we should say 969 01:00:50,840 --> 01:00:53,440 this too. Wilder was generous to Fury, but generous to the standpoint he 970 01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:57,280 wanted to get paid a bunch. He was generous because he didn't have to 971 01:00:57,320 --> 01:01:00,360 give Tyson Fury a rematch, but he did, and in Fury eat him, 972 01:01:00,360 --> 01:01:02,960 and then the rematch had already been agreed to on both sides no matter 973 01:01:04,000 --> 01:01:07,280 who won. And then it took forever for that one to finally come off 974 01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:12,400 because of the pandemic craziness and then litigation. It finally did come off as 975 01:01:12,400 --> 01:01:15,320 a third fight. The reality is Deyonty Wilder has never been the same since 976 01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:20,519 this fight because he did, you know, he nearly won the third fight 977 01:01:20,599 --> 01:01:22,679 and dropped Fury a couple of times, but he ultimately took a lot more 978 01:01:22,760 --> 01:01:27,800 punishment and got knocked out in that fight, and he's only had the one 979 01:01:27,880 --> 01:01:30,039 fight since, or the two fights since. One. It gives a first 980 01:01:30,039 --> 01:01:32,000 shown knockout against Helenius, which really didn't mean a whole lot. And then 981 01:01:32,039 --> 01:01:35,960 of course in the recent fight in December, you know, he was beaten 982 01:01:36,519 --> 01:01:39,920 pretty handily by nothing. Right, So that night, sitting there watching this, 983 01:01:40,159 --> 01:01:43,800 what do you remember going through your mind as the fifth round became the 984 01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:49,440 sixth round and Fury's just putting it on him and eventually Mark Breelin, who 985 01:01:49,599 --> 01:01:52,599 was fired almost immediately after this was up on the ring Apron with the towel 986 01:01:52,639 --> 01:01:55,639 saying that's enough. What do you remember about that whole scene and watching that 987 01:01:55,760 --> 01:02:00,880 unfold, I remembered, really, and to this I'm still kind of an 988 01:02:00,920 --> 01:02:06,119 awe by is that Tyson Fury told everybody exactly what he's gonna do. He 989 01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:07,360 did exactly. You know a lot of guys they tried, they're not gonna. 990 01:02:07,360 --> 01:02:09,400 I don't want to divulge my game plan. I don't want to say 991 01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:14,480 he said the whole promotion. I can still remember sitting with him, you 992 01:02:14,519 --> 01:02:15,559 know, a few days before the fight, when he was doing like a 993 01:02:15,639 --> 01:02:19,239 scrum with some of the writers, and he's like, I'm gonna go out 994 01:02:19,280 --> 01:02:21,760 there and knock him out. I'm gonna go right to him, I'm gonna 995 01:02:21,760 --> 01:02:22,920 brawl him, I'm gonna beat him Up'm gonna knock him out. I'm were 996 01:02:23,039 --> 01:02:27,760 like, no, you're not by even bothering to say this, You're such 997 01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:30,199 a liar, That's what I'm thinking. And sure enough, all I could 998 01:02:30,199 --> 01:02:32,239 think about was he went right to him and did exactly what he said, 999 01:02:32,719 --> 01:02:37,239 and he looked great. Then that was you know, I don't think it's 1000 01:02:37,320 --> 01:02:42,400 fair to Monday morning quarterback and whatever fury becomes of him in the future, 1001 01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:45,840 or or whatever your issues are with the way he's handled himself, whatever, 1002 01:02:45,159 --> 01:02:49,440 I'm not ever gonna take away what he did that night is the point. 1003 01:02:50,039 --> 01:02:52,559 And he turned around and did it again and validated it even after getting knocked 1004 01:02:52,599 --> 01:02:55,920 down in the third fight. Must of the time. So there we go 1005 01:02:57,239 --> 01:03:00,519 on that one, all right. One more piece ofness to algia. That 1006 01:03:00,679 --> 01:03:05,119 is also on Thursday, February twenty second of two thousand and three, back 1007 01:03:05,199 --> 01:03:09,119 up twenty one years ago, and Mike Tyson got his final win and it 1008 01:03:09,199 --> 01:03:13,880 did not take long, and it was in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. 1009 01:03:15,320 --> 01:03:16,719 All right, so tell me more. You were ringside for this, 1010 01:03:17,639 --> 01:03:22,039 give me, give me more on the fight that didn't last a minute in 1011 01:03:22,119 --> 01:03:27,440 Memphis forty nine seconds against Clifford the Black Rhino atm you know, who was 1012 01:03:27,519 --> 01:03:30,800 an okay contender, but you know was had a glass jaw basically, and 1013 01:03:31,159 --> 01:03:35,760 Tyson made him look that way because he obliterated him. It was Mike coming 1014 01:03:35,880 --> 01:03:38,760 back from his knockout loss against Lennox Lewis, and there was a lot of 1015 01:03:38,800 --> 01:03:43,519 conversation going into that fight that maybe if he looked good. That there's you 1016 01:03:43,559 --> 01:03:45,079 know, he had a rematch clause against Lewis. He didn't exercise it, 1017 01:03:45,119 --> 01:03:47,760 but there was the possibility that if he wanted it, he might do a 1018 01:03:47,800 --> 01:03:51,760 rematch with Lennox Lewis, which I don't think would have been as big of 1019 01:03:51,800 --> 01:03:52,719 a fight, obviously, because when they fought the first time, it set 1020 01:03:52,719 --> 01:03:57,079 all the records. Tyson got the quick knockout. There was never a Lennox 1021 01:03:57,119 --> 01:03:59,519 Lewis rematch. He knew better than to do that. And this turned out 1022 01:03:59,519 --> 01:04:01,039 to be the last win of Mike's career because he still fought after this, 1023 01:04:01,159 --> 01:04:06,079 but he lost those last couple of fights. But the craziness of this fight 1024 01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:09,880 was the forty nine seconds that happened in the ring, and it was a 1025 01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:13,800 great punch and notck Clifford out. Was all the shit that happened before the 1026 01:04:13,880 --> 01:04:15,360 fight and after the fight was over. That's what made the story. The 1027 01:04:15,400 --> 01:04:18,880 fight itself was almost like a side a side light because going into the fight, 1028 01:04:19,079 --> 01:04:21,559 and I remember this clear as day. I reminded my wife of this, 1029 01:04:21,599 --> 01:04:25,519 and she remembered this also leading into the fight, this is when Tyson 1030 01:04:25,559 --> 01:04:28,960 got the tattoo on his face, right and there was a lot of conversation 1031 01:04:29,039 --> 01:04:31,039 the fight was going to be canceled. In fact, I remember talking to 1032 01:04:31,119 --> 01:04:33,880 the late great Jay Larkin, who was running Showtime at the time, and 1033 01:04:34,000 --> 01:04:36,159 he was he had called me on the phone and said the fight was going 1034 01:04:36,199 --> 01:04:40,159 to be postponed. I was like, okay, and I mean, where 1035 01:04:40,159 --> 01:04:43,800 I live in Virginia whatever, we were having like a wild blizzard, snowstorm. 1036 01:04:44,039 --> 01:04:45,280 I was worried about making my fight if I was able to get out. 1037 01:04:45,599 --> 01:04:47,760 And he calls me and says, we're going to postpone the fight. 1038 01:04:48,199 --> 01:04:54,440 Okay. Like later in the day he calls me back, he says, 1039 01:04:54,519 --> 01:04:56,039 all right, the fight's back on. I was like, all right, 1040 01:04:56,039 --> 01:04:57,960 when's it postponed? He said, no, it's still this Saturday. So 1041 01:04:58,000 --> 01:05:00,880 I'm like, oh fuck. So I had a like get to the airport 1042 01:05:00,920 --> 01:05:04,559 and what was what was the debate about whether this was the reason that it 1043 01:05:04,639 --> 01:05:09,559 was going to be off? What do you recall Because because Mike had gotten 1044 01:05:09,599 --> 01:05:14,559 that tattoo and Ettien thought that the fight was off, and Ettian went out 1045 01:05:14,639 --> 01:05:18,079 and drank and had sex and did whatever, and he was gonna because he 1046 01:05:18,119 --> 01:05:20,960 got it. Because Tyson got the tattoo, he would have thought it was 1047 01:05:21,000 --> 01:05:24,320 going to be off crazy, okay, So and he was, and he 1048 01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:26,679 was. He wanted more money. It was a whole big thing. The 1049 01:05:26,719 --> 01:05:30,760 bottom line was it ended up getting put back on. And I remember just 1050 01:05:30,880 --> 01:05:34,480 as vivid as a fucking the hand in front of my face waiting for Mike 1051 01:05:34,519 --> 01:05:38,639 to come into the media room where we were located in the hotel to do 1052 01:05:38,719 --> 01:05:42,679 a press conference, and nobody had seen anything other than the Fox News pool 1053 01:05:42,719 --> 01:05:45,880 photo of the he of the tattoo. We all wanted to see the tattoo. 1054 01:05:45,039 --> 01:05:48,280 You get a fucking tattoo on your face, you know, foxing map. 1055 01:05:48,360 --> 01:05:53,519 That doesn't sound like a good situation. And sure enough Mike shows up 1056 01:05:53,519 --> 01:05:55,320 and you could have heard a pin drop and he walked in that room. 1057 01:05:55,360 --> 01:05:58,920 I mean, it was absolutely wild. So that was that part of the 1058 01:05:58,960 --> 01:06:02,000 fight. The fight happened, It got it happened finally, and then afterwards 1059 01:06:02,039 --> 01:06:05,320 he had the very famous exchange with my man Jim Gray in the ring where 1060 01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:09,199 you know, we asked them about what happened and he goes, I broke 1061 01:06:09,280 --> 01:06:11,920 my back spinal, Well, what do you mean you broke your back? 1062 01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:15,079 No spinal? I mean it was it's the most viral clip you could see 1063 01:06:15,079 --> 01:06:17,480 but Tyson interview. It was fucking wow. So the fight itself was like 1064 01:06:17,599 --> 01:06:21,000 the least of our concerns. It was the craziness before the fight, and 1065 01:06:21,119 --> 01:06:26,039 it was the craziness after the fight. So you're saying Etn fought the forty 1066 01:06:26,119 --> 01:06:30,480 nine seconds like he was drunk and had been having sex this week and the 1067 01:06:30,559 --> 01:06:34,519 whole thing's a circus, all right, So some good nostalgia on that on 1068 01:06:34,719 --> 01:06:40,679 all fronts with respect to the heavyweights, that's for sure. Listen, we've 1069 01:06:40,679 --> 01:06:44,679 had a busy show here. On the program, we previewed the upcoming fights 1070 01:06:45,039 --> 01:06:47,400 Edgar Berlanga main event, match Room de Zone show in Orlando's Saturday night, 1071 01:06:47,559 --> 01:06:53,480 also the triple header in Tokyo headlined by Junto Nakatani going for the WBC bantamwaight 1072 01:06:53,519 --> 01:07:00,159 title held by Alexandro Santiago that Saturday morning US time. ESPN Plus will have 1073 01:07:00,280 --> 01:07:03,760 it for that triple header. You heard from ray Ford on this podcast Featherweight 1074 01:07:03,800 --> 01:07:08,199 Contend They got a bunch on this podcast. Are you ready for the weekend 1075 01:07:08,239 --> 01:07:11,920 and all of this donefold, I am, sir, And by the way, 1076 01:07:12,079 --> 01:07:14,760 we'll be back one more time before the fights happened on the bet Us 1077 01:07:14,840 --> 01:07:16,800 Boxing Show at one Eastern time. We'll do some handicapping on the championship fights 1078 01:07:16,800 --> 01:07:20,280 and probably some more nostalgia about Mike, Tyson Tattoos and Tyson Fury, et 1079 01:07:20,320 --> 01:07:24,760 cetera. Find us at one Eastern time. Bet US's platforms, YouTube, 1080 01:07:25,119 --> 01:07:28,920 social media, Twitter, Twitch, etc. For now, we are good, 1081 01:07:29,280 --> 01:07:30,840 Dan Rayfield, have a great weekend. I'll talk to you on the 1082 01:07:30,880 --> 01:07:32,480 bet US Show, my friend. I look forward to it. Thank you, 1083 01:07:32,559 --> 01:07:35,239 sir. There is Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ. Reeves. Follow 1084 01:07:35,440 --> 01:07:40,880 or subscribe right here to this podcast feed as we come your way. Previewing 1085 01:07:40,920 --> 01:07:44,280 the weekend on the Big Fight Weekend Preview, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, 1086 01:07:44,480 --> 01:07:46,960 et cetera. Right here on the Big Fight Weekend Preview