The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. No.
Here is your host, t J. Leives. Well, we get
ready for a weekend that's gonna have a championship fight right away on Friday night
as we're releasing this podcast for the IBA featherweight title in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Hello, we're looking forward to talking about that, previewing all the actions,
some fight news, some nostalgia and more. It is your Big Fight
Weekend Preview. I am the somewhat capable host, t J. Reeves.
He is our insider from his Fight Freaks Unite substack from Big Fight Weekend dot
com as well. Hello again, Dan Raphael. Good to be back with
you as we rock along here in September. Some interesting action we got William
Zapeta also headlining a Golden Boys show in California. We got fights this weekend
of all kinds, including in Japan right off the weekend that we'll talk about.
How you feel though as we head to the weekend, I'm good God
fights this week. We didn't have any last week to really get into,
so it's nice to be back. Did not have much, that's for sure.
We got we had to get creative. It's not necessarily just a show
about nothing. Although you and I are Seinfeld fans, we did well with
the show about nothing, especially on a recap show when you didn't have a
lot of fights to recap. Yeah. Yeah, we had plenty of news,
that's for sure, all right, So we'll get into all of this
again. Thank you for finding us. However you've done so. Ray Fiel's
getting agitated, Big Dan's getting agitated. Rate us and review us. Do
that under Apple Podcast wherever you can give us a five star review. It
does help us with the algorithm and people finding us. And again I say
thank you to the audience. You do as well, because they have found
us by the thousands and thousands and thousands over the course of this summer.
Now headed into the fall, we got a Canelo fight week coming up.
Audience has grown and grown and grown. Keep it up. But rate us
and review us. It does help us. People ask us all the time
about what they can do to help. Give us a quick five star rating
in review and review. Tell us how brilliant Ray Feel is. You love
the inside of the humor, you love the f bomb count? Will it
be over under seven and a half on this episode of the pod. We
will find out so again, take care of that Apple podcast, spreaker,
Google podcast, Spotify, wherever you're finding the show. Thank you for doing
so again. We come in with the preview, usually out by Friday morning,
recap off the weekend Fight Freaks Unit recap usually available by Monday morning.
Again Savages TJ is traveling with NFL Buccaneer Football. There may be an occasion
where the recap pod, because of logistics of Dan and me trying to get
together and get the pod done, may not be there in the inbox right
away Monday morning. We're gonna do everything we can that it's there. Sometimes
it may not be there till a little later Monday. We're here for you.
We're not gonna We're not gonna leave you stranded. We will have a
recap, it just may not always be there this fall and into the winner
right away on Monday morning. I realize you can't get enough a ray feel.
I understand that we'll get it to you by the quickly as possible.
Yes, knowing what's on our rundown this week, ye this episode, I'm
pretty sure that the over under on the f bombs is going to be under
seven and a half because it's not aggravated. Yeah, you're not aggravated.
Off, not too I'm not too been out of shade about too much this
week. But wait a minute, let's just segue right away. We were
talking about a Shaker Stevenson Frank Martin fight, and there may be an F
bomb coming here because it's not happening. It's it's not happening, So tell
me what the latest is. Because Shakur is not fighting the Ghost, he's
fighting someone else. So before we get into the fight previews, what happened,
Well, no reason for FF bombs because either way it's a good it's
you know, it's the perfectly fine matchup. So as people who follow know
that the WBC title was vacant because you know, Devin Heeney was undisputed as
moving up to the one hundred forty pound weight class or the WBC made him
the quote unquote in recess Champion. The title became vacant. Chakar was number
one contender, had won the eliminator, so we's supposed to fight the next
leading available contender. So the guys who were in line for that, one
of them was Vasili Loma Chenko. One was Isaac pit Bull Cruise for they
are different reasons. They did not want to participate. Loma Chenko's taking the
rest of the year off fair enough, coming off his class to Haney close
loss pit Bull Cruise, nothing specific, but I think most people think he's
in line to be in a rematch against Tank Davis. So anyway, as
they went down the ratings, the next guy to get to was after was
Frank Martin, And as we've talked about, they made a deal with Top
Rank they were going to do the fight, and then after they had canceled
the purse bid and Top Rank and TGB were on an agreement on the event,
Frank Martin withdrew from the fight, and you know, by all accounts
it was over money, not on a top ranked TGB situation, but because
of whatever whatever Top Rank was gonna pay to the other side to provide the
services of Frank Martin, they have to then make a deal with Frank Martin,
and they did not come to an agreement on what his cut of that
money would be, and so he's out of the fight. So they went
down the line to the next available guy, which happens to be Edwin de
Los Santos, who's a good fighter, been on a pretty good streak,
and they made that deal quickly. I am told it is signed, sealed
and delivered. He's also he works with PBC as well, although his official
promoter is Samson Lukewitz who does most of his business with PBC. And so
out with Frank Martin and with Edwin de Losantos six to one, half a
dozen of the other. Frank Martin or Edwin de Losantos, both good fighters,
both good contenders, but of course Stevenson is going to be the favorite
against either man by a pretty good amount at an event. The fight between
Stevenson and de los Santos will take place for that Vegan title. It will
headline an ESPN Top rank card. It will take place on November sixteenth,
which is a Thursday night in Las Vegas. And the reason people say why
a Thursday night because that's a massive, massive week for the city of Las
Vegas. On the nineteenth they are hosting the Formula one Las Vegas Grand Prix
for the first time, so it's a huge deal and there's gonna be zillions
of people in town. I've heard, you know. I was talking to
one of the top ranked people about this just the other day and talking about
how crazy the room rates are in Vegas for you know, to get a
room there. It's like, well, it's insanity, It's absolutely nuts.
I mean, you know, on a slow Tuesday, you know, in
certain places in Veiggas you might be able to get a decent room for like
you know, fifty nine dollars or something like that. They have rooms that
are like, you know, hitting thousands for because of this this race week,
in any event, that fight between Shakur and del Santos surprisingly is going
to take place. They haven't announced the fight yet, but my sources told
me one hundred percent this fight is taking place at the T Mobile Arena,
And you say, wow, Tmole Arena. That's a big arena for big
fights. And I nothing wrong with Edwin de los Santos taken on Shakor for
this belt. It's a perfectly fine fight. But I don't think anybody with
a cursor and knowledge of the business or the sport would say that some kind
of megafight. So to have it in that kind of building was kind of
a shock. Now, I'm told the reason is because all the other then
use are filled up with other events because of this week, whether it's De
Mandalay Bay, the Park, MGM, the MGM Grand you know, those
types of locations. Because they are going to do something with the MGM,
one of their properties would be involved. So everything else was pretty much filled
and the big big arena was not filled. So they'll put it there.
They'll you know, section off the top part of the arena, they'll small
you know, they'll scal it down and put on this weeknight fight. I'm
not sure what they're gonna draw, but the motto of mind is sh course
Stevens on the way to win in another world that without you having elaborated about
all of that, the first thing I thought when you were saying this in
around the F one weekend is they'll have some built in sports fans F one
fans, and a title fight is a title fight, and Shakur's got enough
of a name where this will probably attract a few thousand. Will it attract
like you said, twenty thousand, They know that no than likely won't.
Will it attract ten thousand? It possibly could, just because of the magnitude
of that wee could maybe maybe not. You're poo poohing it and shaking your
head. But it's still got two weeks. I mean, if they want
to give them the build and well, maybe give them for a dollar.
I mean, I'll put at you like this again. I have nothing against
the fight at all, and I'm pretty sure that Top Ring is going to
add some other world title fight to the show, which will beat it up
a little bit more. But again, it's not a mega event from that
standpoint. So there are very few fights in boxing that can draw that kind
of crowd in this country, and I'm disappointed from the standpoint that it will
bring to an end my streak, which is I have covered every single fight
of boxing matt in terms of not UFC, but in terms of boxing,
I have covered every single fight that's taken place at the Team Obile Arena since
the building opened. I'll be there for the next one, which is the
Canelo Alvarez Charlot fight at the end of this month, and this one between
Shakur and day Los Santos will be the first Team Obile Arena boxing event that
I will not be there in person for. I'll be like everybody else and
I'll be sitting back and watching it on ESPN. But I look Rayfield I
don't want no part of that F one traffic because, again, I've talked
to some people in Vegas. I talked to somebody earlier today as we released
the podcast that's going out there that doesn't live in Vegas, and they are
prepared for traffic armageddon just because of what they have to physically block off around
the Strip and around the area. In terms and because keep in mind,
as as somebody that's a Vegas person pointed out to me, you have tens
of thousand the people that work in those facilities, and how are they going
to get into those facilities when they can't drive to get in there? And
we're talking about for a couple of weeks in and around the race, you
can't drive to work to go to work. And by the way, it's
not like New York City where you can get on a on a subway and
then walk a couple of blocks. Las Vegas, even without the F one
event, right, the traffic around the Strip is insane. I mean I've
been out there. I've been in Vegas, you know, a thousand times.
I mean, it's it's a little crazy out there in terms of just
I mean, they gotta figure, they gotta figure out like remote parking for
employees and shuttles, and how do we get the shuttles even into where they
have to go transportation. It's going to be a bit of a mess.
But look at the end of the day, they're gonna put the boxing match
on and shakur is Uh is going to be involved in this world title fight.
Not opportunity for the young man to win the title in a third weeight
division. He's already been a champion at featherweight, unified titles at junior lightweight
and for Dano Santos, and this is like a you know, it's a
gift because he got all these other guys ahead of him that turned it down.
But he's on a pretty good stretch. He's sixteen and one with fourteen
knockouts, but he's got uh. You know, he's won three in a
row since the one loss, which was a decision to another unbeaten fighter,
William Foster. But the thing is in those wins he's had since that defeats
he's beaten. Two of the three wins have been against undefeated guys. One
was a very good knockout against Jose Valenzuela who was undefeated and a pretty good
up and coming guy on the PBC roster. That was, I guess considered
by most people an upset. That was on the back when Andy Ruiz and
Luis Ortiz had their pay per view fight back in September of last year.
So he's been on a nice stretch. So hey, look he's a puncher
and he's got confidence, so it's it's a good matchup for for Shakor from
that standpoint. And you know, Frank Martin didn't want to smoke for the
career high paiday, you know, that's on him and I wish him good
luck in the future. We'll see what he ends up doing, all right,
So a good bit of news to start us off. Let's get into
the fight previews and again as we released the podcast, it is a Friday
night IBF featherweight title fight Luis Alberto Lopez, who when when last we saw
him very impressively pummeling Michael Conlin in Belfast in Northern Ireland for the easy knockout
win in defense of his championship. He will now fight veteran Joett Gonzalez.
There was a tinge Rayphael Thursday of concern because Gonzalez initially missed the featherweight limit
of one hundred and twenty six pounds, but only about four tents came back
and weighed in later. You've confirmed right before we started taping on Thursday afternoon.
Okay, we're all good because this scenario would have been correct, that
Gonzalez would have been allowed to fight, but not for the title because he
didn't make the weight. Luis Alberto Lopez would have still had a title defense.
But now it's all good. He made the weight. And this is
interesting because again intriguing. Just from this standpoint, Luis Alberto Lopez won two
important fights with Josh Warrington and Michael Colin in the UK. Now he's back
in the North American continent fighting in Corpus Christi, Texas in this title defense.
Pick it up from there. Yeah, I mean, he was the
ultimate road war. He went not only to the other country, but he
went to Leeds, England, which is Josh Warrington's hometown, and he won
a majority decision, which means, you know, he really won the fight.
I watched that fight on his own. That was a pretty good fight
and he you know, to me anyway, he clearly won and he kino
he overcame some adversity in that fight. He had a caught from the headbot
very early in the fight. So for his first events, you know,
a lot of guys would get the soft touch, get the fight at home,
you know, get get that kind of situation. And in this particular
situation, for his first events, he had no he had no easy route.
He went in a mandatory went over to Belfast and fought again in Michael
Collin's hometown, not just in the UK, but like in the guy's backyard
where he's a superstar and a very popular figure. And as you mentioned he
does, he bludgeoned him, he knocked him on the fifth round. It
was a spectacular performance for uh Louis Alberto Lopez. And so you know he
said after the fight that for his first for his next defense, which would
be a second defense, he wanted to be you know, not necessarily in
Mexico, but you know, in front of a friendly year of crowd.
Let's say, well, you're not going to get friendly for a Mexican fighter
in the United States, and by going to Corpus Christi, Texas, which
is obviously a heavily Mexican area, but he is fighting another Mexican American Mexican
American fighter and Joet Gonzalez great chin, good experience, good durability, great
stamina and a and just just a rough, tough, rugged guy. And
so you know it's it's a test, But I think you'd be less than
honest if you said on paper anyway. You know, you never know how
the fight's gonna play out. But on paper, is it a tougher test
in Warrington or Conlin? I think most people would say probably not. But
Joet Gonzalez is one of these guys who is always sturdy, always in the
fight. He's got the three losses, but check out who he's lost to.
His first World championship fight back in twenty nineteen, he fought for a
vacant title against of Corsti Vincent. He never had a chance to win that.
They had this big rivalry from something that happened between Shakore and Joett's sister,
and you know, they made a big thing about that. That was
like kind of a real kind of a grudge match, but also for the
title. And he got spanked in that fight. But you know, losing
a Shawar Stevenson by decision, no shame in that he bounced back. He
beat Mariaga, you know, who's become a stepping stone opponent, but also
a tough dude and had fought for titles several times. He got that win,
and then he had the misfortune in another world title fight coming up against
Emmanuel Nevarette, which is never easy, you know, and we know the
kind of power he has. He fought for that same WBO featherweight title once
again against Neverrette, and he lost a decision, but it was competitive.
He went to distance with a guy that was known as a very good puncher
in that weight class, you know, took a tough loss there, bounced
back with another win, and then came up against Isaac dog Bay in July
of last year and again very close fight, good fight, lost a split
decision in a ten rounder. So he's had some hard luck. He hasn't
anytime he's had a he's got a chance to fight for titles. You'd go
against guys like Shakur Stevens and Immanuel Navarette, which are the opposite kind of
styles to each other, but a hard way to go, and then you
get I won't say he got ripped off, but it was a fight that
probably could have gotten either way. He lost the decision to dog Bay and
again bounce back with a win earlier this year. And so now he's lined
up to fight Luis Alberto Lopez, and I'll say this will, I don't
think he necessarily beats Lopez. If you're looking at the guys he's fighting in
title fights. If you said Warrington, Colin or Lopez. Style wise,
you know Lopez because it's not on the other guys home turf. Is maybe
a more winnable fight, still a hard fight, but more winnable. But
I look, here's one thing I'll say about that fight on Friday Night.
Whoever you think is gonna win, haven't watched lots of Alberto Lopez fights.
Luis Alberto Lopez fights and also obviously several of the fights of Joey guns outs.
I don't see any other way that it can be other than a highly
entertaining fight. Looking forward to big punches again for Luis Alberto Lopez. In
and around the Warrington decision, he had three previous knockouts. He's got four
knockouts in his last five fights. Let's see what this looks like as the
main event of the Top Rank show again. Friday Night. We brought up
the Shaker Stevenson fight later in Novembers of Thursday night. They're having to be
creative with scheduling some of these in and around college football on Saturday and Saturday
night in particular for them to be on ESPN. So this will be an
entertaining Friday Night fight card. Four top rank and this Luis Alberto Lopez time
of fans at one hundred and twenty six pounds. Yes, sir, I
would say I'm looking forward to some of these undercard to see some of the
guys on the undercard. So Xander's eyas we all know, is one of
the better prospects out there, one hundred fifty four pounder, undefeated, taken
on the tough dude Roberto Valezuela. He's in the co feature. Always like
watching Xander's eyas. He's excited about that because you know, Xanders is Puerto
Rican by his background, and you know, and embraces that can't you know,
loves fighting in New York. Can't wait to become a main event type
of guy at Madison Square Garden. But he's very excited because he's taking on
an opponent who was Mexican. So he's like, I'm going to fight as
a Puerto Rican in a in a Mexican heavy area against the Mexican and so
that's got him pumped up for like one of his first like I won't call
it high profile, but it is televised, so it's higher profile than before
for his first one against the Mexican opponents. So he's kind of excited about
that. And you know, on the undercard, he got Emiliano Vargas,
the excellent prospect, the son of Fernando Vargas, Tiger Johnson, the Olympian
who's been making his way up the rankings. Ay, look good, you
got Reuben Villa, who you know, actually had a fight of you know,
he's a tremendous talented technician as a featherweight contender. Uh, he actually
has a win over Jose Over I'm sorry, against Louis Alberto Lopez back in
twenty nineteen that on that night. You look at that match and like he
can't imagine that Lopez was going to go on to become, you know,
arguably the number one featherweight in the sport right now. So Ruben Villa,
Uh, he's now with top ranking. You know he's he's gonna probably get
a title shot at some point too. I wouldn't count out the possiblity they
rematch down the road. So that's a guy to keep an eye on on
this undercard, so you know them, and then so I should. I
also mentioned Jamaine Ortiz, who's another top lightweight contender, gave gave Lomachenko like
super tough fight and really what was his kind of coming out party. He's
now co promoted by top Ranks. So you know, we always talk about
the main card the top fights, but you know, not to say that
these are all like huge matchups, but there's a lot of talented guys who
are going to be in other significant, more significant fights that are boxing on
this undercard that will eventually we'll see in these bigger fights, Like you will
see Ruben Villa in a bigger fight in the not Toudism future. You will
see Jermaine Ortiz in a bigger fight. You will see Zander's eyes at some
point headlining these types of shows. Good enough. By the way, I
was negligent earlier in the podcast because I did not mention We've got an interview
with Dan with Hazu's Ramos that is coming up here in a little bit.
Don't go anywhere. Ramos again against ericson Lubin on the undercard of Canelo and
Chero. I got so excited about you talking about Canello and Charlo and F
one in Vegas and sur Stevenson out there F one weekend in Vegas. I
forgot. We got Jesus Ramos coming up. Forgive me. You'll get with
him in a few minutes. On all of these F one mentions do not
count as F bumps. They do not. That's correct, because you often
like to say a word that starts with F and ends with K and it's
not firetruck, and you haven't said one yet, and I'm proud of you
for it to this. I'm pretty I can tell he's smiling. I can
tell on video. We're good. Let's see if I make him crotraty before
the end of the show. Let's move on, shall we. By the
way, we'll pick this fight the Lopez main event with Joet Gonzalez on the
bet Us Show. First mention of that Friday one Eastern time, when you
not have the bet Us Show a week ago, the live Handicapping show,
because again Rayfield and I are good. But if you don't have prominent fights
to handicap, we're not able to handicap. So well, we're gonna do
some of that. A Lopez is an eight and a half to one favorite.
By the way, my friend in the fight. Maybe that surprises you
that it's not more, but he's an eight and a half to one favorite
over the veteran Joet Gonzalez will handicap and predict that fight coming on Friday.
Moving we're just Saturday in the preview mode before we get to Jesus Ramo's coming
up in a few minutes. The Golden Boy to Zone show commerce California.
Unbeaten lightweight contender williams Zapeta, not to be confused with Jose Zapeta who's fighting
next week, is williams Apeta, the lightweight headlining against Marcito Hesta. This
will be a non title lightweight fight, but Zapeta the lightweight on the rise
and he's got a lot of knockouts as well. Give me more in the
preview mode for this Saturday night to Zone show, Well, William Zapeta,
in my mind, is one of the more entertaining fighters to watch He's a
Mexican fighter that comes forward, that throws a ton of punches. He's got
a lot of knockouts. Excuse me, like you mentioned twenty four knockouts out
of his twenty eight wins. He's undefeated and Golden Boy's bringing him along.
And you know, we talk about the lightweight division a lot, and everybody
brings up you know Tiney who now was on his way up in weight,
but you talk about Shakor who has just gone to the weight You talk about
whether it's a Frank Martin or Vessel Lomachenko. You know, there's there's a
lot of quality guys in the weight class and for a long time, you
know, Travata Davis is there. We talked about Ryan Garcia even though he's
really now one forty. But in and around that weight class there's been a
lot of big names. A lot of people don't really mention Williams, a
Beata who's kind of like the dark horse around. He doesn't get a lot
of attention, but he's a very good fighter and he probably could hang with
a lot of those guys to certainly make exciting fights with those guys. So
he's being featured in this main event on the The Zone card. Now in
the WBC rankings, he was also highly rated when they were making them making
the vacant title fight with the Shakor Is involved. Then he already had this
fight scheduled and I guess technically speaking, was unavailable and they weren't going to
cancel this event to take on a fight with Shakor on you know, somewhat
short notice. So that's why he was not involved in the possibility of that
fight. But he is, with a win against Mercito Hesta on Saturday,
is going to be right there near the top of those WBC lightweight rankings as
they continue to line him up for an eventual title fight. So I mean,
he's the big favorite against Hesta. Hesta is one of these like veteran
guys who when he has stepped up to fight the best guys, he's lost.
He's got three losses, three draws. Filipino fighter. Back earlier in
his career, a lot of people thought he was going to be the next
Filipino world champion. Didn't quite work out that way. I've never really been
that high on the guy, but you know, he can fight a bit.
I'm not like knocking him. But he's never really made like a huge
impression on me. You know. He did fight for a title against Miguel
Vasquez back like ten eleven years ago and loss of decision when Vasquez had one
of the lightweight titles. He fought Joy Lenares. That was another one of
his of the bigger names. They fought, loss of decision to him.
Gave him a solid fight, but was not really that close on the cards.
He's just one of those guys that you know, he I guess his
biggest win was he has a victory, and probably what helped him get this
fight was he did have an upset in his last fight, which is earlier
this year against Joe Joe Diaz, and they fought and again another fight where
Jojo Diaz once again did not make the weight. They you know, Hessa
has never really had that issue. He he came in, you know,
they'd put a few pounds on him just to make sure that the fight would
go forward. And he beat Joe beat u Jojo Diz and he preat him
pretty handily, so that put him into the position for this fight. But
he's an old veteran, knows all the tricks, you know, to me,
the only question it's not it's not whether Zepeta will win necessarily. To
me, what I'm looking for is can the pay to get a knockout against
a Mercido Hesta who's got the three losses but only been stopped one time and
you gotta go, you know, through his record and even though it was
you know, back in twenty nineteen, those other losses were decisions against quality
guys and he didn't get knocked out. He was on the rope standing up.
So to me, the question is, can the big cuncher, Williams
Zepeda get a knockout, you know, against Hesta and h and not only
keep himself in position to fight for a lightweight title, but to make fans
want to see him fight for a lightweight title. That's the key. Can
you can you get some of that buzz going where you're like now people talk
about you also when they mentioned the other top lightweights out there, Zapeta is
a sixteen and a half to one favorite, by the way, on the
bet Us line. To your point, the over under his six and a
half rounds, which means the odds makers think there's a good chance of a
knockout. Obviously here and when might that knockout come? We'll see. So
that again is the Golden boy de Zone card serday. Is there anything else
of note that you want to go on that card or shall we move on?
Well, as far as that goes, I can't say that it's got
as much name talent, let's say, as what we talked about on the
top right card. But they do have uh the women's uh the women's champion,
unified champion in the strawweight division, h Yo Costa Vayer. She is
defending her title, so that that may be something to pay attention to if
if the you know, women's boxing matches are your thing, especially in those
little small weight classes. So she again she's on that card. She is
one of the better women boxers out there, so that that's something to pay
attention to. The I'm the Also on the end of card, they have
this young fighter that that Golden Boys signed not that long ago, has been
an exciting fighter. He's only ten to know. He's a middleway named Eric
Priest. He's somebody to pay attention. He's got a fight on this show.
Uh, you know, parismatic, good puncher, exciting, So a
guy that's another name, maybe to pay attention he's on the I think he's
the opening fight of the main card. But mainly what you're looking for us
to see what can go on between Zebeta and Hesta. Fair enough, Okay,
we move on and again we're gonna be able to talk a little more
about this on Sunday as we release the podcast. We might as well touch
on it a little bit here. We'll touch it on the vet US show
because the fight is not until the fights, the dueling title fights are not
until Monday night in Japan Monday morning US time, a championship doubleheader. Kenshiro
Taraji is in a unified junior flyweight title fight, and then also Junto Nakatani
is in a junior bandomweight title fight. Again, these are in Japan for
Monday night. We'll touch on them a little bit here. ESPN Plus will
show it early Monday morning in the United States depending on your time zone.
Just touch on it here. We can touch on it again on the recap
because the fights will not have happened yet, but ch on a year as
well. Well. I'll start with the co feature, which is Na Katani.
He is the Japanese Both champions are Japanese fighters. Nakatani, if you
remember back in May fighting for the vacant heat. You know, he had
been a champion in the flyweight division. He vacated that title. He moved
up to the junior banomweight division and he scored a titanic massive knockout against Andrew
Maloney. That was, in my mind, that's probably the leader in the
clubhouse for knockout of there right now. That was back in May. That
was the Remember when ESPN did the Devin Hainey Lomachenko pay per view, they
put that fight on ESPN the network prior to the pay per view to sort
of give people a taste that easily could have been on the pay per view,
but they put it. They gave Nakatani the exposure on the main network,
and as I recall, he was dominating, He was dominating Maloney.
They let the fight go on. They let the fight go on, and
then it was a brutal one punch knockout. And we're fortunate, they're fortunate,
the commission, the doctors, everybody involved that Maloney wasn't more seriously hurt
because you're right, we stared him. He started him coming in and it
was scaredy for a couple of seconds, no exaggeration. You know. He
dropped Maloney in the round in round two, we dropped him again in round
eleven, which is probably when it should have been stopped. And then he
knocked him out badly in the twelfth round. And Maloney, by the way,
if you ever met that net ever met him or his brother Jason,
just very nice, humble, very likable, just guys you want to root
for. And so to see him go down like that, that was rough.
I mean, Nakatani is the truth, you know what I'm saying.
He may be right now, all due respect to Taraji, he might be
the best fighter in Japan. And as a as my good buddy Cliff rolled
from boxing scene said to me, we were at the Showtime card not that
long ago, in at the National Harbor watching a band Amway title fight.
He was making the point that the best band Away in the world might be
Nakatani, even though he's fighting at junior Bandamwait, so he's a bad boy
and he's in this this fight. This is going to be his first title
defense. He's fighting a Mexican fighter, Argue Cortez. Now argue Cortez is
like, that's a pretty solid type of guy. For the first defense,
Cortez, if you remember, it wasn't that long ago in September of last
year, where in a fight where he had no expectations and even though he
lost a decision and got knocked down one time, he gave Juan Francisco Astrada
the fight of his life. I mean it was a really really tough fight
Astrada gave him. You know, he gave a Strata pretty much life and
death if he asked me so. And now you know, and the Strada
was the lineal champion in the way class at that time. Went on to
have the third victory, the third fight against not the third victory, but
the third fight against Chocolate Tieo Gonzalez, which he ended up winning on a
close call. But so argue Cortez, you know, is a is a
pretty solid contender with a good chin. And to me, we'll see if
Knockatani can score another big knockout. But he's he's a very very exciting fighter
for my money, probably the best in Japan other than Taraji. Perhaps you
could even say he's editor Agi. Now the main event with Taraji, this
is the real legit one hundred and eight pound champion. Now in his fight
that took place November of last year, was for the number one status they've
got the Ring Back Zazine Championship gout if you pay attention to that. It
was a unification fight for the WB and the WBC. And what was interesting
is, you know, you don't see in the history of boxing a lot
of times when there are unification fights where it pits a Japanese fighter against another
Japanese fighter, So this was sort of an unusual fight where he met up
with Hiroto Kayagucci, who was also a very exciting smaller weight fighter that had
been on a good run. And I think most people, if you were
diehards like I am, thought, wow, this is a really great matchup,
going to be really competitive, should be a hell of a fight.
Well it turned out that it was completely one sided and Taragi kicked his ass
and as then since defended the title in April of this year. Now he's
taking on Hecky Butler, who's a very accomplished fighter from South Africa, been
a champion in the smaller weights, also very good reputation, and so it's
not they're not matching him up with a nobody. Heck, he's got four
losses, he's only got one knockout loss. Maybe a little bit older,
but he's he's fought. He also lost the fight by the one stoppage was
against Kayagucci. But he's won like three fights in a row. You know,
I'm like a dork for thus some of these small weight fighters I'll fight.
So for me, this is like heaven because it's it's the smaller weights,
and it's one of those cards in Japan which I love because they always
have, you know, great theatrics and and good crowds and generally speaking,
their action fights. Absolutely, their action fights and we see big punches and
knockouts a lot of the time. So yeah, and Bubber's a real guy.
I mean he's not This is not a this is not like a no
pount kind of fight. I mean, Butler has been in with a lot
of good guys. I mean, he's you know, he's been a unified
champion in one hundred eight pound weight class not that long ago, and so
this is a great opportunity for him. But Taragi, you know, I
think if you were making a pound for poundless now, I personally don't know
if I have him in my top ten, maybe right outside the top ten,
but if you told me you had him in your top ten, you
know, in the lower portion, I would like, you know, I
can respect that. That is not a ridiculous thing. This guy's only got
one loss to a good fighter who we avenged, uh, you know,
to get that win back, and he did it by a knockout. And
he's been just going along. He's like old man River and he's he's been
winning fights and he's been you know, defending the title regularly, staying active,
fighting, you know, for those weight classes, the better fighters around.
I mean, he's got you know, if you if you follow those
weight divisions, you heard of his opponents. So this is a good test,
you know, and he's the real champ in that division. So I'm
all geeked up for that card again. That will be Monday morning, US
time, Monday night in Japan for that championship doubleheader on ESPN Plus. And
we'll touch on that again when we come off the weekend with the Fight Freaks
Unit recap. Just before they will have that, you know a few hours
later after we do our recap, they'll have that fight card all right,
without further delay. He's part of the Canello Jemel Charlo upcoming undisputed super middleweight
title pay per view. He is a fascinating, young talented fighter. He
is Jesu's Ramos and here he is now one on one with the mighty one.
I'd like to welcome to the podcast. This week, it's the young
jew your middleweight contender prospect. We'll discuss what he thinks he is. It's
Hazewis Ramos, Hazus Ramos, welcome to the show. Thank you very much
for doing this now, thank you guys. I appreciate you for having it.
My pleasure. So we're here to talk about your big opportunity. You're
in a big spot Canelo Alvarez and Jamel Charlot. They'll fight for the undisputed
super middleweight championship on September thirtieth at the Team Mobile Arena on Showtime pay per
view. You are in the plumb spot of the co feature in what I
think most boxing fans thinks, the tremendous matchup between yourself and Ericson Lubin.
Ericson's been around a bitty spot for world title. You're are still on the
rise at age twenty two, twenty and zero with sixteen knockouts, And my
first question for you is what is it? How does it make you feel
when you have the folks at PBC and everybody involved. Canello of course has
a say so over his events that they put you in this plumb spot of
the co feature of one of the biggest fights of the year. It's truly
an under man, you know, I feel a two honored and as well
as it's a huge responsibility. You know, it's something that I had to
take really seriously, and that's why I've been no working, working really hard
for this. You know, I've I've taken this but really seriously, you
know, as I do with all my fights. Like I said, it's
a it's a big responsibility and I have to go in there one hundred percent
and perform I'm at very best, So I cannot, you know, keep
keep earning these type of uh stages in these events. Well, you were
supposed to be in this exact same situation in the co feature back on July
twenty ninth, when Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford had their big, huge fight.
You were supposed to fight against Sergio Garcia, you suffered a hand injury
about two weeks before the fighting, had to withdraw from the fight. Obviously
you couldn't fight that at night. So the question is number one, how
is your hand now? Everything is good and healthy going into this fight.
Yeah, yeah, everything is good. Training camp has been smooth, you
know, no no problems with the hand anymore. And so then what does
it say because in addition to this spot, the one you were supposed to
be on in July Crawford Spence, if you go back to earlier this year
in March once again on a big Showtime pay per view card when David Benavidi's
and Kayla Plant had their significant fight, you were also in the co feature
and gotta I gotta win on that card against Joey Spencer by knockout. So
what does it say to you that they keep putting you in these wonderful positions,
you know, whereas a tremendous amount of exposure on these gigantic cards that
they're doing. Yeah, you know, just it's just thanks to me,
how much, how much they believe in me. You know, I have
a great team behind me. They believe in me, and they're getting I
feel like They're getting me ready for the biggest stages. Hopefully one day I'm
headlining the main events in pay per view cards and I'll be more than ready.
You know, fighting fighting on these type of events is is. It's
not easy, you know, I had to learn. You know, my
first couple of times, I was nervous. It was a lot going on.
But I'm getting the hang of it, and I'm getting better at everything,
you know. So, like I said, thank you, thank you
to everybody in the p is He family, you know, devolved, I
feel like my career has been has been taken care of the right weight.
Well, one thing about it is, uh, you have already fought some
good quality opponents and you keep kind of moving up the ladder. You're twenty
two, I mentioned, I said, you're a young contender, a prospect.
Do you consider yourself at this moment a contender or do you still feel
like, you know, you haven't got that type of win just yet.
Although I win against Luban, I think most people would then say, you
know what, this kid's not just a prospect. He just beat a really
quality guy and he is a contender. But how do you view yourself going
into the fight yeah, I feel like I'm a contender. You know,
I feel like I'm past the prospect stage. But you know, with the
win over Lubin, I think it would solidify that. So do you got
to keep winning and keep moving up up that ladder. Well, Luban has,
uh, you know, he's got a couple of losses. He lost
to Charlot in one hundred fifty four pound world title fight. He was very
young and just got caught in round one. He had a tremendous fight of
the Year candidate back and forth against Fandora. Uh, that was, you
know, just a great battle. That was his only other loss. But
he's also beating some good fighters. So for him, this is obviously he's
taken on a young, younger guy on the rise. You know, he's
trying to maintain his position. What does it Luban bring to the table for
you, Like, what does a win against him mean? In your mind?
It means, you know, I'm solidifying my spot in the top.
But no, the rest of the guys, there's there's not a lot of
names after Lupin. You know, there's Tim Zoo, Bay, Mendoza,
Charlo, But like I said, after after Lubin, you know, there's
not a lot of guys, so what are your I'd be positioning myself at
the top of these guys, and uh, that's that's how that that one.
You know, keep keep keep burning my spot at the top until they
get that world title shot. So then what what are your thoughts about Luban?
You know, because I think people watch you, you make very entertaining
fights. Luban has done the same. How do you think the fight goes?
And just what are your thoughts about what Erickson brings to the to the
table that will help you get better. He's just trying to fight it.
He's, like you said, he's got a lot of experience. He's been
there, So I feel like all that's gonna you know, it's gonna bring
something out of me. I'm gonna have two and he's got his strong worlds
as well. You know, he's not gonna la laid back and lay down,
you know, with with one shot. He's gonna keep coming. So
I'm not to take you round by round trying to break his will round by
round, try to get him out of there. And like I said,
that's all gonna give me experience. He's gonna help me you know, in
the future and that and he's a different style than what I faced before.
So all that helps, you know, all the helps become a complete fighter,
more experienced fighter, and more mature fighter as well. So let me
just ask you one more question than about that you mentioned before, about the
other fighters in the way class. You mentioned Brian Mendoza, who's got one
of the interim titles. Now in twenty twenty one, you beat him,
and you know you did it pretty handily. He went on to beat Fondora.
Now he's the one getting a title shot against Tim Zoo. They'll fight
later, you know, in the next month or two. So you already
beat a guy like that. If you get a win against Lubin. You
just knocked out Joey Spencer earlier of the year, who was an undefeated fighter
that people, some people consider like a really good prospect. Do you feel
like a victory over Lubin should put you right there? I know you said
you feel like you're a contender, but you know, does that put you
on the doorstep all fighting for a title, whether it's Charlotte coming back to
the weight class, or it's Tim Zoo after that, or somebody else that
may pick up a title that Charlot may eventually vacate. Yeah, definitely.
I feel like all that, all these fights have I've been earning my spot,
you know, Like I said, that's the main thing. I just
want to earn that that title show when time comes, you know, I
don't want anything given. I want to earn it by beating these guys,
you know, having having the having a great resume with great names, and
that's what That's the path that I'm on right now. I got just one
more question for it and then we'll wrap it up. How big has it
been for your development that you come from a boxing family. Your your uncle
Abbo has been an excellent welterweight contender for several years, spot for a title
against Ugas who's also on this card, and so you've been around it pretty
much your whole life is it's just sort of like what the family does.
Like, has that been a big part of your development coming from that type
of background. Yeah, most definitely. Man coming from from background like that
able being you know in the gym with me all the time, having that
experience, you know, it just it just helps out so much more.
You know, my father in my corner and you know it just it helps
a lot. Like you said, in in my family, I feel like
we're all very calm, we're all very humble, and that that helped me
stay humble. That helped me keep my feet on the ground and just keep
working hard man, just by biting down and working hard every day. Well,
I appreciate that, Jesus. And I'll tell you when people heard,
they were excited about Charlo and Canello, and I got a lot of reactions
when they heard that the co feature was going to be Hayess Ramos taken on
Erson Luban. So I think a lot of people are excited for this fight.
I wish you the best of luck in the fight, and I thank
you very much for doing this with me today. Thank you. I appreciate
your time, so good luck. Looking forward to that young man. And
I don't think I mentioned this yet, but you also talk with ericson Lubin
here just recently, and you will we will play that interview on the Fight
Freaks United recap. You're gonna get both sides of that fight of Ramos and
Luban here from ericson Lubin coming up on Sunday. And also you have spoken
recently with Canelo Alvarez. Will have that for you next week on the on
the Big Fight weekend preview in advance of that September thirtieth card. You're all
over that card with the interviews. And just one more time about Ramos.
I know this is this is a big moment for him on a on a
big stage. There is you interviewed, Oh no doubt. I mean,
first of all, the matchup itself is fantastic. I mean it may not
be for a big world title, but when you talk about giving a pay
per view depth, and anybody that has followed my opinions or read my stories
or columns for years knows that there are times, many times where I can
be extremely critical of pay per view undercards not delivering any value for your money.
And I will say this as people w are not watching, but I
will give my hat tip to the folks PBC and TGB Promotions in this case
showtime. They've done a hell of a job on their recent pay per view
fights of putting together undercards that are worth your time and give you value for
your money. And that was the case when we saw and this is just
a recent example earlier this year with Benavides against Caleb Plant this past summer with
the fight between Errol Spence and Terren Scruffer, where you're getting quality main events,
but you know the undercards are giving you value, which they should,
so they're doing their job in this particular card also because we obviously have the
big time fight with Canello and Charlotte in the main event, but putting Jesus
Ramos, a tremendous young fighter prospects slash contender. You know, if you
listen to the podcast, him and I talked about how he classifies himself.
But he's an undefeated fighter who has got some good wins on his record,
and he's in this plumb position. Been in other undercard co features PBC thinks
a lot of them, but he's in with a real solid contender and Ericson
Lubin, who's only you know when he's lost. They've either been a great
fighter to the best guys, also a contender in his own right anyway,
so delivering a good value in my mind in a very interesting fight. Not
to mention, by the way, the other fights on the card between Ugas
and Barrios, which is a nice fight, and the young fighters Elijah Garcia
and Jose Armando Riscindez, which is another really good matchup. So this pay
per view of my mind, all four fights are worth it. But Ramos
and Luban is very interesting. But Ramos is the guy on the undercards a
lot of people have peg for stardom, where if he keeps doing what he's
been doing and Luban and Ain't, I'll walk over. It's a tough fight,
so this is a big moment for him. But if he keeps doing
what he's supposed to do, when he wins this fight, you know it's
probably not going to be too long before he starts seeing hazers Ramos in main
event fights. And again you'll hear from the Hammer ericson Luban with Dan if
you're with a Sunday night as we plug again Sunday night into Monday, the
Fight Freaks Unit recap comes off the weekend, no matter what happens with all
the action, but you'll hear from ericson Luban on that pod. It's another
reason why you need to be following and something I'll tell you the great convos.
Yes, when it comes to guys like ram Lubin Canello, I mean
I've interviewed everybody there is the interview over my career. Okay, in dealing
with these three guys, each one of them is such a pleasure to deal
with. I'm just I mean, I'm not trying to kiss anybody's ass because
I'm just saying. And by the way, most of them are fine.
I mean, there's really very thing that I would that I would say.
Are you know guys I don't like. But Ramos is as nice and as
respectful and humble. Lubin is a has got a great sense of humor and
nice guy. I've been writing about Erickson Lubin since he was eighteen years old
when he first turned professional. Uh, you know, just good guys.
Canello a true true professional guys who are on time for their interviews, Guys
who understand what their response. Let's say this Canello when it comes to dealing
with media, sure, but let's say this with Canello. He is ascended
to megastar status and I know you say this, and I hear other people
talking about it. He still treats people tremendously. When a lot of others
get that megastar status and suddenly they don't have use for anybody they stepped on
everybody coming on the way up, and they don't have any use for anybody
anymore, don't want to be on time bag the interview, and you're saying
not the case. I can't speak for how Canello deals with other media people
and others. I can only tell you from my own experience. I've been
covering Knello Alvarez since he first arrived on the scene. I have been a
ringside for twenty plus of his fights or something like that, including his first,
you know, a pay per view undercard fight against Miguel Coldo's brother back
in the day. I've interviewed Canelo Alvarez like I mean, I didn't even
know, dozens and dozens of times. He is just always been as nice
and respected to me. He gets you pass for it. I mean,
I mean, I like the guy. What can I say, you know?
I mean, I'm That doesn't mean I'm not afraid to call a guy
out if he does something, or I disagree with the decision or there's some
another issue. I mean. I wrote critically about Canello when he had his
drug testing problems, but I also wrote fairly when it was became to the
light that it wasn't as serious as some people made it out to be for
a variety reason. You can google that in two seconds. Anyway, Ramos,
Lubin, Canello, all class acts, all professional. Enjoyed interview,
all three of those guys, and they'll listen to Ramos, hopefully they've listened
to it today here Lubin coming up on the next pot and next week we'll
play the interview I had with Canelo, and it's some of those love those
conversations. My man, Ray Fiel's hustling, He's hustling. Okay, you
have been uncovering some stuff about Ryan Garcia getting back to the ring. This
is interesting. Garcia, when last we saw him beaten by Jervonte Davis in
a huge pay per view back earlier this year in May. All right,
so April or in late April, yes, late April. So what is
the latest here, because when last we saw news Oscar Dave la Joya was
suing Ryan Garcia and I read what you put on your substack, and you
always gotta be subscribing to dan substack. That apparently they've worked their way through
this, at least to the point where they're gonna have a fight later.
This year that day La Joya is going to be involved with unless well,
some thing else is going on. In lightness, I can't say that they've
worked through it, but I think both sides understand that while the legal process
plays out, Golden Boy still has an obligation to promote Ryan Garcia. They
still want to make money on his events. And Ryan Garcia, while he's
got obviously some issues with things that are gone on with the promotion, and
which is why they have filed a counter claim to have the suit dismissed,
you know, they have no choice but to sort of hold their nose and
work together. So Ryan doesn't want to sit on the sidelines. He wants
to get back in the ring. He's got a new trainer and Derek James.
You know, he wants to put that loss to Tank Davis behind him.
And there's really no legitimate way that he can do that without having Golden
Boy promote the event, because whatever happens in terms of the court, it's
not going to be done by the time he's gonna want to have to have
the fight. So they're trying to get through it and hopefully they can work
out their business. But for the time being, you know, it's business.
You don't have to hold hands and sing songs. You know, he's
got to be able to be professional. And let's just clarify because we're talking
as if everybody might know specifically what the crux is the best of my understanding,
correct me if it's wrong. Is a dale Joy is alleging in the
lawsuit that it's Valencia, right, Lupe Valencia, that's the advisor. They're
wanting him to cease and desist, essentially shopping Ryan Garcia around or trying to
promote a fight, and dale Joy is going, no, no, no,
no, we have a contract. We still get to promote him.
And that's what I meant by working their way through whatever the legal process is.
At least they're trying to have a fight while that's going on, because
other than that, Garcia sits on ice, and that's not good for him
if he's trying to get back into contition. Essentially, yes, listen,
Ryan Garcia is sitting on ice. Is bad for Ryan, it's bad for
Golden Boy, it's bad for boxing fans, it's bad for the business,
it's bad for the zone. You know, his broadcaster at this moment.
So they have a lot of there's everybody sort of has even if they don't
get along so great, they all have reasons to make sure it works.
So Ryan had put a stop on his social media that he was going to
be fighting at the end of the year, and they're working on the fight.
So my reporting tells me that he's going to fight in the main event.
It's going to be either November or December, and that they've got a
few different possible opponents that they're talking to about. One of the leading of
candidates to be as opponent for this upcoming fight back in the one hundred forty
pound weight class with Derek James as his new trainer for the first time after
parting ways with Joe Goosen, that one of those names is Pedro Campa,
who was a experienced fighter who when you consider all the factors, like I
said, going back to one forty having a fight with his new trainer coming
off of a knockout loss, Pedro Campa is not a joke of an opponent.
He gave Tiafimo Lopez a very solid, tough fight, although he got
stopped when Tiafimo had his first fight moving up to one hundred forty pounds,
that was, like, you know, roughly a little bit over a year
ago. In his next fight, it was on one of the pay per
view undercards. He fought Brandon Lee, who was undefeated, and even though
Brandon Lee got the decision victory, it's a lot of people that thought that,
oh, baby, Brandon didn't do enough that night to get to win,
and camp I gave him a super tough fight and a very credible performance.
And that's a good kind of test for for a guy in Garcia that
might be suffering from a little bit of confidence problems after a knockout loss,
like I mentioned, going to work with a new trainer. So again,
you expect Ryan would win that fight if, in fact, camp it turns
out to be the opponent. But it's, uh, you know, it's
not. I've seen way worse. Let's put it like that. So I'm
glad that Ryan is going to get back in the ring. I hope that
he and his team and Golden Boy and his zone can get other issues at
least for this event, you know, put them to the side and just
do a good, good event and we'll take it from there. But that's
that's what's going on. So it's good that Ryan's going to be getting back
in the ring, and it seems like probably back in the ring sooner than
Tank Davis, who was the guy that won, although there are still a
lot of rumblings that Tank will be back in December, also on a pay
per view, whoever it may be against, whether it's Pitbull, Cruise or
somebody else. Nostalgia time, and then we are done here for the preview
weekend. It was twenty one years ago as we released the podcast. We're
taping on Thursday, September fourteenth of O two, speaking of Oscar de la
Joya Dal La Joya in the ring got a TKO win over Fernando Vargas that
unified the junior middleweight championships for the WBC and the WBA. You were there
for that one, reminisce please, well, back in those days of the
early two thousands, this was the grudge mesh. They called it bad blood.
It was legit. These guys did not like each other at all.
There was a lot of discussion about the supposed disrespect that that Oscar had perhaps
shown to Fernando. They used to both train and Big Bear. There was
a story about how they're out running the Mountain trail in the snow, and
they were near each other, and Vargas fell down in the snow and Oscar
wouldn't help them up, and you know, it made for a good story.
And there was all that back and forth, and for a while,
Oscar would take the opinion about, you know, fucked up. There you
go. Fuck there's that bomb. There's two of them. If that guy,
I'm not going to fight him because I don't want to give him the
pay day, which is always the most disrespectful thing a fighter can do.
It's another fighter. I remember Mike Tyson telling me that one time years ago
that if you really want to disrespect, you know, at a fellow boxer,
you know, don't give him the payday when he needs it. But
it got to a point where the payday was going to be so big for
Oscar also, and that was the fight that the fans were calling for,
That was the fight that HBO wanted to see. That was a unification fight.
They were the two biggest names in the weight class. Oscar was the
lineal champion, he was looking for another title, and they finally made the
fight ended up getting postponed for a few months because Oscar had suffered a risk
injury or a hand injury that put it off for a little while. But
when they met at Mandalay Bay, that was as electric an atmosphere as you
want to get. That was a big fight. That was a big freaking
deal, and Oscar and Vargas put on a tremendous battle. And Oscar looked
like he would be in trouble earl. And Fernando was a much stronger physically
stronger and just a bigger guy than Oscar Dale Lajoya and I remember in the
first second round, Fernando was pushing him around and had him in the ropes
and you were like, wow, maybe Oscar did bite off more than again
choo. You know, Fernando was a little younger than Oscar, even though
he had you know, you know, a couple of rough losses. Well,
let me tell you something. Oscar came storming back in that fight with
between his speed, his skills, his desire, and that awesome left hook
that he always had. He did a number on Fernando Vargas late in that
fight. He hurt him real bad at the end of round ten. He
put up beating on him in round eleven, and you know, if you
go back and watch the broadcast on the of the HBO call Jim Lampley timing
his words exactly for when the stoppage occurred. You know, if he could
knock him out, and he does, I mean, spectActor, what I
remember, They'll be in ringside and you can't really see it on the video.
I've I've watched it, and I've never seen this angle replayed, but
I remembered in my mind you can see the bottom of Oscar's feet when he
lands the mass of shook the shot that knocks Vargas down. But what you
didn't see was what I saw and the others that were there ringside that could
see the full picture was Oscar broke out into the Ali shuffle like he knew
he had won the fight basically, and it was a very memorable moment when
he did that. You unfortunately couldn't catch it on the full effect of it
on the replay, But that was I would say, And having talked,
I think maybe I remember Oscar saying this on a multiple of occasions that for
all of the big wins that Oscar had in his career, that that was
the most satisfying. Because he did not like Vargas. It was a big
fight. It was nearly, you know, closer to the end in the
beginning for Oscar, he unified the titles. And I'll just say this,
and we always talked about what happens in Vegas days in Vegas. As great
as that fight was, I was at Oscar's Mandela Bay pool party after the
fight. The pool party was better than the fight. I liked that.
On the nostalgia good stuff from twenty one years ago. All right, let's
move backwards ten years ago. You referenced Canello a couple of times earlier,
and Canello's fight with Floyd Mayweather also the anniversary on Thursday ten years ago September
fourteen, saw Floyd win by decision over a young Canello who really stepped up
in terms of quality, opponent, a future Hall of Famer, etc.
You were ringside for this one as well. Remembrances of Mayweather Canello please.
That was at the MGM Grand and Canello had already established himself to a degree.
He had won a title, he had beaten like an older, more
fated Shane Moseley. He had had what was considered a big win at that
time in a unification against Austin Trout was a very solid customer, undefeated at
that time. I unfortunate. That's one of the few bigger Canelo fights I
missed. And the reason I missed that fight in twenty thirteen was because it
was the date that that fight was scheduled was supposed to be the date that
my son was due to be born. So I obviously did not go.
But his next fight after that, Canello was only twenty three years old.
He fought Floyd Mayweather. This was early in Floyd's big contract with Showtime,
after he had left HBO in a WBA WBC unification fight. Also, same
delts that were at stake in the Oscar and Fernando Vargas fight, this was
these were the belts that were on the line in this Mayweather Canello fight.
That was a huge fight. I mean that was you know, maybe not
Mayweather pack Yo big, but it was a big, big fight. I
Mean that was the first time, to my recollection, where you would go
to the way in for these major MGM grand fights. They would have fans
in the arena, but they didn't open up the whole arena. They had
it cordoned off because they were building the lighting and the ring and all the
stuff behind the scenes. They opened up the entire arena for this way in
and it was packed, like every seat that you could put somebody in,
they had it. It was just absolutely nuts. I was working the Sports
Center. We had a whole desk out there, that's how big this fight
was. For the fight week, so I was working with my colleagues at
ESPN doing all the you know, the stuff from the way in, from
the pre fight stuff, from the press conference on the night of the fight.
What I remember so vividly about that fight week because the fight itself did
not turn out to be a great fight. It was a brilliant and masterful
performance from Mayweather. Other than the asinine, ridiculous card from c. J.
Ross, who scored that fight a draw and was run out of boxing
because of it, and just terrible that she had some mother bad cards too.
Uh, you know, the other ones were a little wider, but
even kind of generous at one seventeen, one eleven, one sixteen, one
twelve. You know, Canello got whitewashed that night. It made him a
better fighter. He became a big star. He made like a ten million
dollar pay day in that fight. It didn't hurt his marketability. I use
that example all the time. I'll use it with Frank Martin. Why would
you turn down shakor Stevens from a career pay day? If you lose to
a guy like Shakoor, it doesn't hurt you in the long run. You
get back on the horse and you do it. Canelo didn't go on and
become, you know, a Hall of Famer in any event, When when
they do these big fight weeks in Las Vegas and they have what they call
the Grand Arrival, and they usually have it in the main open lobby area
of the MGM Grand where they have the big ring in the Lion that's their
symbol, uh, and fans are everywhere. That was one of the craziest
things I ever saw in my life as far as the amount of people like
that lobby is not I mean, it's big, you know, but it
can't comminate thousands of people they had. They had a like like fire marshals
stuff going on because it was just so jammed. That was as big a
star power kind of fight as you'll see, just as big as it gets.
And by the way, at the time, and remember this is in
twenty thirteen, so ten years ago. That fight set the all time boxing
record for gross It did the biggest gate in Las Vegas history at that time.
I mean, those records have since been broken by other Floyd fights,
but at the time this fight it broke. The only record it didn't break
was the total number of pay per view sales oscars fight against Mayweather did bigger
sales, but because the price was a little bit more for the Canelo Mayweather
fight, it did break the all time revenue record. The other thing I
remember is they had this thing set up in the lobby. Now, normally
you go to these fights if you want to buy a T shirt, you
want to buy a program, you want to buy a baseball hat, whatever,
any of the chats keys and need the merchandise, you know, you
just walk into the gift shop and you know, you buy what you want
to buy. For this fight, there were so many people wanting to buy
stuff. They had a set up like separate, like a Kiosk slash tent
area where you would rope wind around like you're waiting online at Disney World to
buy your stuff. That's how big this thing was. They were like they
were selling programs and teachers, and we haven't mentioned it, but it was
also part of Sinco de Mayo I'm sorry, Mexican Independence weekend, and that
would become a common weekend where Canelo would fight later in his career over and
over again. And you would start to see this because you covered the fights
where the Mexican fans would pour into Las Vegas. This was really one of
the first times. Obviously, that's no that was part of it, though
it's part of it in his lore and the years after it that he would
fight there was. It was that big of a deal in and around Mexican
Independence Day weekend, so I get a Mexican. Mexican Independence Day weekend was
an event weekend for a boxing match period. So the dal La Joya Vargas
fight, they were Mexican Americans. That was a big deal. You know.
Again, and we're not talking about it specifically on our nostalgist section,
but you know when Julio Seesar Chavez Junior fought Sergio Martinez, that was the
same weekend when Canello fought one of his first main event showtime fights as a
younger fighter. He did it agains jos Cito Lopez on the same Day as
the Surgeon Martinez fight. Uh, there's been plenty of fights on on a
Mexican Independence Day weekend, Chavez Peran a Whittaker, going back years ago.
It wasn't in Vegas, but also on that second, tons of fights on
that on that weekend. Mayweather was not Mexican, but he fought Mexican opponents
a lot of times, and he fought many times on that big weekend.
But they were printing money selling T shirts and programs. I was just gonna
say, one more time, what did you score? What did you score
from that? Did you get the shirt, the program? What's in the
right field collection in the You have to remember because my my, my buddy
Jay produces most of the programs for these major fights. So I do I
write for the programs. I've been doing it for twenty years. So part
of my deal with Jay as I get my merch, So I get and
i'd pretty much get what I need to get. So you're solid. I
got plenty ten years ago. Absolutely, and he'll be showing it off on
the subject. So but hold on, great, great event, incredible event,
huge fight, and literally one of the single worst work cards rendered in
the history of boxing. Because even Canelo Alvarez, in an honest moment,
will tell you I didn't win that fight. I didn't get a draw in
that fight. He knows he lost, and he went to school and tried
to get better, and he did get better. But to think that that
fight somehow was seven rounds to seven is an affront to anybody that's ever watched
the boxing match. I'll help you six to six. You always help me
help six to six, and then six to six. They did not have
a fourteen round fight that night you mentioned it. We did not because of
the Fight Freaks Unit recap being your interview with Keith Conley. We did not
mention off the weekend the anniversary of thirty years ago Sweet Pee Riittaker, Whittaker
being robbed using that word of a decision win over Julio Saysar Chavez that night
in the Alamo Dome as part of in and around Mexican Independence Day, would
have been Chavez his first loss. It was not. I still vividly remember
doing five day a week sports radio in the Tampa Bay area, and we
had we had done an event in and around the paper for fans to come
watch the pay per view at a location because again back in the early nineties,
pay per view in the home was not as prevalent. It was starting
to get there, but this was a pay per view at a location.
There were so many angry people with the decision. So I still remember doing
Topic Sports Radio even during the NFL season on how bad was this decision thirty
years ago where sweet Peas should have gotten credit. Frankie Randall eventually got the
decision, beating Chavez for the first time officially, but sweet Pee Whittaker,
the late Hall of Famer, should have gotten that win that night. And
the only question is what's the worst draw in boxing US? Or is it
Chavez getting a draw against Purnell Or is it Evander getting to give draw against
Lenix Lewis for the Sugar Ray Leonard getting the draw on the rematch with Thomas
Hearns. That's not knocked down twice. I knocked down twice and Hearns doesn't
get the decision. But but again, terrible, but not as bad if
you have to make a decision about which is the worst between Chavez and in
the holytil fight. But Chavez, you know that was fought at a at
a catch weight because he was challenging for Whittaker's titles, so the saving grace
was at least Whittaker retained the title. In the case of what happened with
the Holy Field and Lennox, Lennox was robbed becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion.
The crazy thing about the Javas Whittaker fight two judges without knockdowns, by the
way, had the fight one fifteen to one fifteen. Like, I'm not
even sure how many How do you get to that because you're scoring around ten
ten. I guess it's like that doesn't that's not what professional I mean,
not to say that you can't score a ten ten. I just I remember,
and this was this was huge in and around that time frame. There
was always concerned about fights being fixed, Don King being involved, and there
was so much outcry that he had bought off the judges to make sure Chavez
didn't lose. There were allegations about that. So that's thirty years ago,
My gosh, thirty years ago, September of nineteen NY time. How big
that? How big that? That decision was Sports Illustrated, which is really
not unfortunately not a really irrelevant publication anymore. Right, but back then it
was. It was the biggest, It was the biggest deal in terms of
sports magazines. We can't convey that enough. Absolutely. So the front cover
and I actually have that issue somewhere in my collection of all my boxing stuff.
It was simply a picture of Perno Whittaker like jabbing Chavez and it was
in giant orange letters. Robbed. That was the front cover of the magazine.
Uh huh. And that says it all. That says it all without
like great nostalgia here on the program. Okay, so a bunch that we
have given you. Again, we remind you that we'll come off the weekend
with a Fight Freaks unit recap whatever happens with the Friday night again the podcast
being released on Friday. Title Fight ESPN top ranked show is Friday night.
Luis Alberto Lopez Joet Gonzalez, The Zone Golden Boys show is Saturday night.
We'll recap all of that. Bet Us Boxing Show will do some handicapping live
one Eastern time Friday, as we released this, find us at one Eastern
time Live find us later on on the bet Us platforms, the YouTube channel,
et cetera, and again ericson lubin will be the guest Sunday Night,
the other half of that matchup with Hazer's Ramos, who you heard on this
podcast. Here with that, my friend, have a have a great weekend.
We'll see what happens with the fights. We'll recap all of it offul
weekend on the Fight Freach Unit recap, Dan, Rayphael and I will see
you at our one o'clock on our bet Us show. We'll got that coming
up as well. Again. Follow subscribe wherever you get podcasts, Apple Podcasts,
Freaker, Spotify, Google podcast to the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed.
Fight Freaching Night recap comes off the weekend as well. For now, We're
good for Dan, Rayphiel, I'm TJ Reeves. Enjoy the fights.