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com to see why the countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight weekend. Now here is your host, te Joel. We have reached
the weekend of one of the highly anticipated fights of twenty twenty three, at
least on the schedule. Right now, it looks like arguably the best non
heavyweight fight, depending on what else happens the rest of this year in terms
of interest. Certainly in the United States, it's massive interested Gervante Davis,
it's Ryan Garcia. They're both undefeated, they're finding on pay per view,
and we are here to talk all about that and the rest of the goings
on in Vegas and elsewhere. As we head into the Weekend. Hello,
and welcome to the Big Fight Weekend preview. I'm the somewhat competent host.
He is our insider Dan Rayphael from Big Fight Weekend and his fight freaks unite
substack oel on location. As I like to say, MGM Grand Garden Arena,
No wait a minute, team Mobile Arena. But at MGM Grand Garden
Hotel. If I have that strait, he covers everything on the strip.
Are you part of the Oakland A's moving to Las Vegas? Are you part
of that ownership deal? You're covering all things Vegas this week. You've had
a busy week and it's not even fight time yet. How are you feeling
I'm feeling great. It's been a busy, busy couple of days since I
got here on Wednesday. But no, I'm not part of the Oakland A's.
I feel bad for my fellow baseball fans losing a team in Oakland.
I never lost my major league team growing a Yankees fan, but I remember
how crushed I was as a long time fan of growing up going to their
Double A minor league baseball games in Albany, New York, where I spent
countless summer nights at their minor league ball games, and when they left us
and went to Connecticut, I was devastated. But that's life. That is
life. You would like to confirm that you did not purchase seat deposits for
you and me to go watch Las Vegas A's games, even if they keep
it the Athletics or not. Anyway, there's a little baseball talk. He's
out in Vegas. You've been busy. We've got Fight week going on as
we speak it. We record this podcast Thursday evening to be out overnight Thursday
and too Friday. You are fresh off of being at the press conference for
Javonte Davis and Ryan Garcia. We are happy to report fairly non eventful as
these things go. You've been to a hundred or more of these, especially
in Vegas. In that building, there were not the potential fireworks that we
thought there could have been, right, but it was no. It was
a good press covers. It started off really sleepy and kind of slow,
and it was very kind of mundane and boring, and it was sort of
like, you know, paint by numbers and you know whatever. But then
Oscar Dala Joya from Golden Boy, the promoter for Ryan Garcia got up and
started to, you know, finally have some fighting words where he was basically
saying the Tank team doesn't believe it in because they went and protected him because
he had to get a REMA, they had to do the remash, they
had to do the catchwait, they had to get the rehydration clause. And
he really kind of went in on them. And then after he sat down
Leonard Ellerby, who was of course the head of Mayweather Promotions but is not
representing Tank. David threw Mayweather Promotions, but he's close to him. They
promoted him for a long time, so Tank wanted him as part of his
team for this to sort of speak for him at all. So Leonard is
here and as an aside, I had a nice chance to catch up with
my old friend Leonard Ellerby in the media center on Wednesday, and it's kind
of what boxing is about when some respect. Him and I both been around
for a long time, and we've had a lot of ups and downs,
and we have a lot of water under our bridge, but we've always been
cool with each other. And we were going over some of the old times
and we were standing right there in the media center and he was like,
man, we've been around and doing us a long time. He goes,
you know, I've seen all you guys, because so many of the people
that are not here anymore that that did it. During the course of AS,
Leonard was coming up as a as A, as a young promoter,
etc. And he started to say a couple things. I said, yet,
and we got into it about this, and I went off. We
had this whole thing back years ago about me and Leonard when he was doing
a thing with Marcus Madonna as Gloves before Floyd Mayweather fight, and we were
standing like five feet from where we were arguing, and I point, I
said, you mean, like right there, and we were just having a
great time. We were telling the war stories and that's what it's about.
You hear this big giant fight and we're telling the war stories of our days
gone passed, which was a great fun. But he was here to represent
Ryan Garcia at the press conment, so he came up after Oscar at his
words and whatever you thought about oscars somewhat fighting words towards the tank team,
Leonard got kind of personal and basically say, you've been asleep at the AS.
While you were sleeping at the wheel as a promoter. You know,
we we took all your fighters because I remember all those a lot of those
top notch PBC fighters were brought up and broken in and done all that,
you know, as early fighters in their early days of their career. They
were all promoted by Golden Boy before the big falling out with Ault Hyman and
uh, they really they went out at each other and then it kind of
spelled over. You had some some good fighting words from uh the trainer for
Jervante Davis. Um. You know, you had Joe Goosen who was the
trainer for Ryan was very calm and and uh somewhat political. Uh. And
then you had the two fighters and they started off good, but they started
going back and forth with each other about you know, breaking jaws and you
know, just some not terribly horrible stuff. But it I suddenly got like
really pumped up for the fight, like as I, as I tweeted t
J. There's always a time in a big fight week where I'm always excited
fair enough, I mean, otherwise I wouldn't be doing this what I do.
But then there's a point where you get to in the fight week where
something kind of clicks and you're like, Okay, now I'm I'm ready for
the fight to take away. It's not I'm fighting, but I'm ready.
And it's not usually at the press conference. Usually it's at the that's at
the way end, or maybe it's when you even get to the arena,
whatever the case may be. I had that feeling today when I heard them
going back and forth with each other at the press conference. So to me,
I'm for me, it's I'm not fighting like I said, but for
me, for it's it's goal time for writing. I'm ready to go.
So I can't wait for this fight. Man. Love it again. I
should make mention too, thank you for finding us however you did. So.
We're always here previewing heading into the weekend on Fridays. We are always
recapping coming off the weekend. It's available at some point Monday, usually overnight
Sunday into Monday with the Fight Freaks Unit recap. And you want to be
following or subscribing because two perfect examples. Earlier this week, we put up
your interview with Ryan Garcia as a standalone thing where you could hear Dan's one
on one conversation, his recent conversation before fight week with him where again Ryan
kind of led his figurative hair down a little bit and gave you some really
great answers on all the concessions he made, etc. Because it wasn't fight
week yet. And then, oh, by the way, my man Rayphield
has been hustling. I mean he's been hustling every which direction. And you
already interviewed the Showtime president of a Sports and Entertainment there at Showtime, Steven
Espanoza in the media center, and we got that Q and A up on
the podcast feed on the big week in podcast feed. You knocked that out.
When I sat down with him, I thought we were gonna do maybe
like ten fifteen minutes, but he was very inmenable. And then you know,
we have a long industry together and we were cool. So we did
like about thirty minutes, and it just seemed we were I mean to give
the people, pull the curtain back and use it in this podcast as part
of this one. But with so much great stuff from Steve about the Tank
and Ryan fight and then all the stuff and we'll get to this about the
Crawford and and Spence negotiations, and it was fresh and just seemed logical to
make it its own episode, which we did also, so that was cool.
And by the way, I was thinking back what I said before about
when I finally found that anute where I was like, Okay, now i
feel like I'm over that one more. Now I'm ready for the fight.
Uh. I've always sort of had that that notion whenever I'm covering these events.
I think as as much as that second part of the press cards kind
of did it for me. What what was the I think the trigger was
when Calvin Ford, who was the trainer for Tank Davis, got up there
and responded to some of the stuff about that that had been back and forth,
and he says, you know, we don't train for knockouts. We
trained for punishment. And all I could picture was like I could picture mister
t in the clubber laying in Rocky three, you know, when I asked,
how the fight? What do you expect the fiighttion pain? So I
was like that that triggered me when I when I you know, Calvin's like
a relative kind of guy, and he's you know, he's he's he's an
og kind of guy. And when when I heard him say that in the
manner in which he said it with that steely kind of way, but with
a smile. I was like, man, I'm ready these guys. Things
that are gonna get U gonna get violent and the other thing. I only
give one other moment that made me think along the same minds. You have
Tom Brown, who is the president. They are the lead promoter on all
the PBC events, and so he's involved very deeply. And you know,
he doesn't do a lot of public speaking. I have known Tom for home
with twenty five years and but Tom will speak briefly at these press converences.
Stens. It is this company that is putting on the event in many respects.
And when he got up there and he started to make the case,
he talked about great fights from the past, and you know, I think
he maybe a little bit over the top, but I understand his point.
He's obviously trying to hype it up. He said, this is going to
be like Haggler Hearns in the first Rounland and we've got we've got Haggler,
meaning they have they have they have Kank Davis who's the Haggler role, and
Tommy Hearns is supposedly the Ryan Garzia role. But I thought that was interesting.
The other thing that made me think because I hadn't really thought about this
beforehand, and it's not so much that got me pump up for the fight,
but I thought it was like an amazing thing about the fight that sort
of maybe even more intrigued by it. You don't really see a lot of
families go against each other in these out You don't see the clipsical brothers fighting
each other. You don't see father's training against her sons things like that.
It almost happened when Floyd Senior almost trained Oscar against his boy against you know,
against Floyd, you know, Oscar against Floyd Jr. Uh. But
Tom Brown is on the tank side as the president of TGB and handles all
these PBC events. Ryan Garcia's trainer is Joe Gooston. Joe Gooston and Tom
Brown are brothers in law. Tom Brown's brother the late great promoter in the
Hall of Fame, Dan Goosen, who is my dear friend. Uh,
that is Joe's brother, and so he's part of that family and h so
it's a family feud, a little family angle there. I like that exactly,
all right, So we should make mention to the audience here you and
I are gonna go over some things. We're gonna make fight predictions. Another
plug on the bet Us Boxing Show coming one Eastern ten Pacific for Dan out
in the Desert on Friday. So if you are able find us live on
Friday one eastern ten Pacific, find us later in the day on Friday.
Bet Us their platform's YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, etc. For the fight
predictions themselves, not just on this fight, but also the David Morrell undercard
fight and also the rock Them Off Cordina World title fight that is in England
as well. But we will go in this a little bit more. But
I'm curious. Yeah, we got we cannot piss off our friends in the
UK, Artiff Wales, hardy Wales, not in England. In Wales experience
different Wales, and so it's a it's a it's a homecoming of sort.
You do the UK people wrong, they'll call you bad names on social media.
I understand that it sounds like you're speaking from experience. They haven't called
me the bad names, but you're saying, oh, I get called the
C word by people on Twitter on a daily basis to come from the UK,
So we got to get their country right out least right Wales, Cardiff,
Wales is where the fight is not in England for Saturday. So we're
on all of that obviously with predictions, et cetera. But I love this
part because you are there. You have been there so many times for the
big events, and can I say this for the Tom Brown things settled down
on the haggler hearns thing. I mean, I know you're not saying this,
but settled down on that was mega mega with established world champions and highly
inst like that. I understand the terms of that. And maybe it will
and maybe it won't. But settled down, all right, I'm not saying
you said that. But what is the What has the build up been like
Wednesday to Thursday? Now we're headed into Friday. You've been at a bunch
of these. I am Beyonce around the MGM Grand and Beyonce around the strip.
Media coverage assess that part for us. I'm curious. Okay, Well,
first of all, I haven't once. I since I walked into the
hotel front door when I got here off my Wednesday morning, I have not
left the hotel and to be quite honest, I probably won't leave the hotel
until Friday. Uh, and then you know, and then Saturday, you
know, well, uh, you know, tonight I'll leave the hotel because
I'm meeting some people at a place that's not in the MGM. But okay,
fair enough, But so I don't have any idea what's going on in
the strip and whatever. That doesn't even make a difference because that's not usually
where you feel the event. But when you walk into the hotel, like
I have done a thousand times at the MGM, you feel the fight because
they always have the signage and they have the big And I did a piece
today on my sub stack, and I'll give it a plug. This is
for my paid subscribers. If you want to sign up and check it out,
I think you'll enjoy it. Where I did what I call behind the
scenes on a fight week Wednesday for Davis Garcia. And it was me as
I'm arriving in Vegas from the airport to the hotel to all the things I
saw, going to get my credential and the media center, all the stuff
I you know, did during the day, and ran like a thing with
a like a whole bunch of snow, like more than a dozen pictures of
what people most people don't get a chance. If they don't come to the
fight, they don't see and certainly, even if they come to the fight,
a lot of things that they wouldn't be able to see. Because of
the fact that I'm credential, I can go in certain places where they wouldn't
be allowed to go. So I kind of tracked my day of all the
things I did around the fight. But they're they're the hotel. If you're
here at the MGM, you can't miss the fact that the fight's happening because
the signs are all over, the big lightboxes, the banners that are hanging
up. It is impossible when you walk near the arena. Now, the
fight, as you mentioned, is taking place at Timo, not in the
MGM Grand Garden Arena, but the media and in the hotel served at the
host So the fighters are staying here, all the people involved, the support
staff, the promoters, the press. So the media center, big ballrooms
that are right near the front door of the MGM grant from the inside,
and you just can't miss. In front of the media center, they got
the Giants signage up if you walk into them. A different part of the
casino, like where we went at dinner last night near the sports book,
you know, on all the outer walls of the different establishments that got the
signs up welcome Fight fans with the official fight artwork. So you know they
did play it up. This is a huge event. They're the host,
and there's gonna be a ton of people. You already see a lot of
fans here. Even on my flight coming from Washington, d C. There
were people on my flight who recognized me who are from the DC area who
are there as big Tank fans. You know, Baltimore, where he was
from, is in that same region and they were making the trip out here.
I saw a couple of people in the airport when I got off on
Wednesday morning of the of the flight. Who who saw me? Uh?
And so that always tells me if there's fans that early in the week,
like you know, that's a big deal when they're traveling and the arena is
going to be packed. And let me tell you they're having the way in
on Friday, because they a lot of times they would have these ways inside
the Grand Garden Arena for the biggest fights, like they started to do like
Canello and Floyd Mayweather years ago. They actually for the first time open up
the whole arena, not just a small half arena, but for this week
because on Friday night, I think it's Friday night and the signs are up
in front of the arena, they're having I guess the Latin Grammy Awards,
so that is not available to do the Way in. Yeah, So the
Way in itself will take place in the what they call the Toshiba Plaza,
which is the outdoor area which is kind of wide open. They usually and
on fighting nights in front of the Team Mobile Arena. You know, they
have like food trucks and the merchandise stands, and there's different restaurants that are
along the walkway right near in New York New York Hotel and Casino if you're
familiar with it. But anyway, they'll set the stage up and they'll do
the Way and outside. It's the same place they did the show way in
for the Triple G Canello fight, so there'll be a lot of people that
gather forward that way in in a festive sort of outdoor atmosphere. I don't
think it's going to be supposedly not too too hot tomorrow. I don't personally
care for the outdoor way ins. It's not very convenient for what I have
to do, but they don't give them a shit about what I have to
do. They're trying to promote the event, so that's okay with me.
But so yeah, you'll the atmosphere is everybody you go, you people say
who do you got? I mean, that's always the name of the game
every fight, Who do you got? Who do you got? And uh,
you know, I have engaged in random boxing conversations with people, and
over the last whatever I've been here. You know, thirty something hours,
I was coming out of the h a little gift shop down by the elevator
bank. I just you know, walked in there to buy a bottle of
water, and a guy and a buddy of his were like, you know,
hey, hey, who do you got? Didn't even like they knew
who I was, but didn't say my name. They're like, we're gonna
ran over and like, who do you got? Who do you got?
On the fight? So you know, that's cool. I mean, it's
fun. It's everybody wants to talk about boxing. And this is the kind
of fight team. This is a big enough fight from the mainstream standpoint that
even all the people that you see are here on sports radio, on on
on sports television, who are busy talking baseball, football, NBA playoffs,
maybe hockey playoffs, whatever. Suddenly every casual sports commentator now they're a fucking
expert on boxing exactly, and they think they know what they're But that's okay.
It's our super Bowl. This is boxing super Bowl this year, and
every year there's one or two of them, and for two thousand and twenty
three until some other megafight gets made. If it does get made, Tank
Davis and Ryan Garcia is the twenty twenty three boxing super Bowl, if you
will, just because of the magnitude of the event. The conversation continues in
a moment, but first a word for our friends at tickets Smarter. Coming
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promo code fight twenty three. Yeah. More on that in a couple of
moments. And by the way, I should make mention you don't know this
because you've been busy doing your work duties. This is something that's not going
to be helped apparently by ESPN, because ESPN doesn't promote a top rank,
doesn't promote or doesn't televise either one of these fighters. So they have been
largely I know you're waving at me, I'm going to finish my point.
They have been largely ignoring this on their sports center programs, on their on
their ESPN dot com. They have largely been ignoring this at least through Thursday.
Now that may pick up on Friday or Saturday. But if this was
a top ranked fighter, a top ranked pay per view, they'd have been
talking about this since last weekend and been live with a SportsCenter out there,
etc. I'm just telling you what I have seen, at least on Thursday.
It's not being hyped the same by them. Now. Fox has basically
gotten out of the boxing part of it for right now from what we can
tell. So I wouldn't expect Fox Sports, One Cable or Fox to be
promoting it anyway. They don't really have a news program. But I'm just
saying that for Thursday. But go ahead. Not that they give a fuck
what my former employee does. My former employer does that really don't give a
fuck. I think they're doing a shitty job with boxing. And you know,
I'm on the record with that. That's you know, that's not sour
grapes. That's just the reality here from people all the time that said they
did have a major piece on the front page of their boxing page. I
do. I do still take a look at it sometimes, and they did
have a big piece about it this week, a couple pieces in some videos,
and I can report because I was at the press comference. I think
that they must have gotten here today. But ESPN has two reporters for this
fight on site, not just one. Two people from ESPN dot com here
to cover the fight. So take that for word. It's worth And again
they have they have a studio right there because they do the daily betting show
right across from Caesar's Palace, not far from where you are down this trip.
But again in terms of being their live, the ambiance, the build
up promoting this, it's not in their interest and it's it's you know,
it's not unusual. If it's not something they're involved with, they will But
I'll say so. I mean, for a Wednesday, there was quite a
bit of media of varying stripes in the media center when I was walking in
there, and I've seen some people I haven't seen for a while, and
you know, look, there's there's not a lot from newspapers anymore. And
that's just the world we live in. And that's not just because it's boxing.
That's the way it is, I think for a lot of major sports,
for major major events in those types of sports. But there was definitely
more like I'll give you an example. My last trip for Las Vegas was
in September for a Triple G Knello three, and that had a shocking lack
of media in attendance in the earlier part of the week, and it didn't
even it picked up obviously, but not to the level I thought it would.
Now. Granted, a lot of people thought that fight was kind of
overdone, given where Triple G had was in his career and all that,
but they're still two huge names, Triple G and Knelo, And for Ryan
Garcia and Jervata Davis. There was already on Wednesday quite a bit of media
and there was a lot of press at the news conference on Thursday, so
you know, people are going to know about this, and especially with the
social media that these two guys have and the way they've been touting it.
And it's not just the two athletes, it's all the other people involved,
whether it's that the promotion companies, the networks, Oscar Delajoya with is you
know whatever million Twitter followers or whatever's on Instagram. So don't worry for the
words getting out on this fight. I mean, and you know, again
I taking the point of viewhere. I like to see big events for sure,
but I never really I report the factual information as they know about how
it performs, whether it's the gate, where the pay per view or whatever
revenue or whatever kind of like, you know, report about what the ticket
haul is. I'm a movie or a concert tour, but I would only
give a shit because it's not like they're sharing the money with me. I
don't get a diamond. The fight doesn't million buys. The Fight does two
buys. The big man here gets the same. I'm making this well,
and we should say, and we'll kind of morphs into the ticket Smarter promo
and they are. They are sponsors here of the podcast and also on Big
Fight Weekends website for this weekend that this is a crazy secondary market ticket still
as we head into the weekend, that they get in price right now on
the secondary market through ticket Smarter, you may get a better price depending probably
not somewhere. For the upper level, the two hundred level of t Mobile
Arena they get in price for a non obstructive view seat is still over five
hundred dollars. And the lower level better seats not ringside are still over a
thousand dollars on average, and the ringside seats are in upwards of six thousand
and eight thousand dollars. And what that tells you is exactly what you've been
saying, big event with big demand inside the MGM grand from the fans,
Tiamobile Arena, get that right there, Timole Arena. Yes you're in the
mg but I'll give you a great handcote about that. So and people can
hear, they listen to the interview I did with Steven Espinoza. That's that's
on the episode of the podcast from that just came out before this one.
We were talking about the magnet through the event. He was sort of giving
me some anecdotal knowledge about the types of folks that have been seeking tickets,
not even freebies, like they want a good ticket, but they'll pay for
it. He was talking about like Patrick Mahomes wants tickets, and he was
mentioned various you know, top NFL players and the different draft picks that are
on the board, and members of the Ravens who are friendly with Tank because
of their Baltimore connections, who are coming out for the fight, and members
of the Raiders who are you know, maybe in town, whether they're working
out at the facility or whatever. But the going there's lots of the Hollywood
Yeah, professional athlete class, movie stars, musicians. It's drawing those types
of people. So when I hear that, I mean I covered pretty much
every single big Floyd fight in Vegas, that Canelo fights, the Pack Yale
fights, the Oscar fights, those are those types of events. I mean,
you'd walk in I remember this as clear as day, walking into my
seat at the MGM for whatever fight it was, and having like Mel Gibson
come over to me and say who do you like? You know, like
like I'm his boy, Like he just recognized me. Meeting like Meg Ryan
and seeing like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston and like all the top people you
could think of from like big movies. You know, Tom Cruise has been
at fights. You see Tiger Woods at fights, Michael Jordan at fights,
Zel Washington, tons of them. I mean the biggest Espinosa was making the
point that Lebron had asked to buy some tickets and had to cancel because the
Lakers like game. So sure, so I guess La will be at the
at the fight. Yeah, and I'm sure he's glad to be occupied with
the Lakers in the plaffs. But the point is, this is the caliber
event in the sport of boxing that draws not only the die hard fans who
have been wanting to see this fight for a long time, but also all
those movie stars and athletes and other famous types. And it's such a big
deal and I found this it's pretty remarkable. So I've mentioned to you that
I think it's the Friday night that the Latin and the Latin Grammys are taking
place in the Grand Gardener, So the fight, of course will be in
the Team Mobile arena, but on Saturday night that the Grand Garden Arena will
serve as the Clark County's main I don't know if it's the only one,
but certainly the biggest one. It's the location for the closed circuit, so
they're gonna have They wouldn't open the Grand Garden Arena, which holds, like,
you know, fifteen thousand for a fight. They're not opening that up
for close circuit location. If they're going to bring in a couple of thousand
people, they're gonna have probably I don't know if it's gonna be sold out,
but you know what, ten twelve, fifteen thousand people in the Grand
Garden Arena to watch it on the screen. Well there's another you know,
twenty thousand ish or so. You know, I'm less than a mile away
at the Team Mobile watching the five live. So that's a big deal.
It is a big deal, all right. So we're looking forward to that.
Again. You'll give us a little more insight on the steven Espanosa conversation
in a few moments where he's talking about Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford. We
plug again. They can hear the full conversation on the previous podcast just before
this one. On the feed you hear it in its entirety. But we'll
go over just the Spence Crawford part real quick in a moment or two.
But let's fill out the rest of the undercard here. Saturday Night, Team
Mobile Arena, David Morrell and the co feature w BA Secondary super Middleweight title
Yamaguchi foul cow. How did I do on the pronunciation? Pretty good on
that? He is, Yes, he's on the t J skelet pronunciation.
I'll give you look about on seven. Okay, maybe it should be about
an inter nine, but that's okay. You're a tough grader. He's a
he's a replacement though of the last week to ten days coming in. Those
guys will weigh in obviously on Friday. I know you were around them a
little bit at the news conference. Tell me a little more about that fighting
than what else intrigues you on this card. Don't roll your eyes at me
about Gabe Rosetto and Beck the Bully, But I mean, what else intrigues
you? Go ahead, Well, as far as Morrell and Yamagucci Falco go,
I actually happened to think that Falco is a tougher opponent for David Morrell
than the original opponent, which was Senate Agdecco. Senate Agecco was ruled out
by the NAVA a stand Athletic Commission. They didn't annuncey did not announced the
reason in media. Doing my due diligence, I am told that he was
ruled out because during his neurological exam they found what was termed as a very
very small dark spot that they went for a second opinion on and that the
second opinion doctor didn't understand why he was ruled out because he didn't think it
was anything. But suffice to say that the commission is they're very careful understandably,
I mean it is about health and safety the fighter and any Then he
was ruled out. They got Falco to step in. Now, Falco is
a tough own and he's not maybe a great great fighter, but he was
an Olympic medalist for Brazil, a bronze medal winner. People may recognize the
name. His younger brother is Esteva Falca, who was the IBF mandatory challenger
in the middleweight division. He is undefeated. He was the mandatory to fight
Gnati Glofkin, and he ended up vacating the title because that fight was pretty
much not let's use the word commercially viable for many different reasons than any event.
He comes from a boxing family, he's a talented boxer, and they
both have come from good amateur backgrounds. I'm a fan of David Merrell.
I mean, I know it's only eight noah as a professional, but he's
a decorated Cuban amateur fighter. He's a diligent worker. He one of my
favorite trainers that I've dealt with in my career in boxing is Ronnie Shields.
So I actually had a chance to spend a little time with earlier today when
I saw him this morning, I met David Morrell in person for the first
time, and when I two things. One, I didn't know that he
spoke English, so he was tremendous with his English. And number two,
he was a He's a lot taller than I thought he was. He goes
about six or four, but it's like the standing next to him and see's
a big guy. I mean, he definitely down the road is going to
be a light heavyweight. Uh. You know, while things considered, he's
still in his mid twenties. But he's a very talented fighter. And look,
the bottom line is if he Beatsamagiuchi Falco, whatever the way it goes,
there are some huge fights in in his future. I know a PBC
would love to match him up at some point with David Benavides. That's a
tremendous matchup, a very exciting fight. And you know, for the for
the fact that Morrell has been placed in the position of on this megafight,
the type of career trajectory that his brain trust thinks he has, the people
at PBC, Showtime, TGB, you know, his management, etc.
The kid has a chance to become a big deal. He's got a big,
broad smile, He's as friendly as can be. He's got a personality,
but he's respectful, he's humble, and he can find his ass off.
He's got a lot of those ingredients that can make him into something bigger.
He just needs to be seen by the public a little bit more.
This is an opportunity in front of a lot of people and the co feature
of a huge fight to meet people. Remember his name after they see this
particular event, so I expect him to win. But the idea is Kenny
looked really good against a good, solid opponent. I got two things for
you. He's been fighting in kind of his home away from home. His
new home is now Minneapolis, so it's kind of been comfort zone his people.
This is a large stage. This is a how will he handle the
large chase? It's the same for foul cow, but how will he handle
a large stage? And the second thing, and this is obvious you didn't
touch on it, but I'll touch on it here. His last fight,
he brutally stopped your Bossonnule out, your boss Anwy and your bosson NULLI was
in a coma life threatening situation. You just wonder does that affect the guy?
How does that affect a guy when that's the last time you were in
the ring? All right, give me, give me something on both of
those points, and then we move on. Well, I think in terms
of whether what happened in his last fight is going to effect I think the
answer is one percent no for a few different reasons. Is one, I'm
not saying that it doesn't affects on boxers, but every boxer understands the unwritten
role that you can die in the ring. I mean, it's that's just
the fact, and they both accept that as part of the covenant of the
professional boxer. But on the bright side, he didn't die. I don't
know how he's doing exactly, but he was well enough to go home to
Kazakhstand and go back to his family. And by my reporting was he was
talking and walking. And while he'll never fight again, based on what I
was told, it's not like, you know, he's going to be able
to have a life, and so that's a good thing. So maybe it
would be a different scenario when David Morrell's mind and if his opponent had succumbed
to the injuries or was left for a much worse situation. But because he
wasn't in that scenario. And remember David went to visit him at the hospital
when he was there in Minnesota, you know, because it was happened in
his hometown and he lives there, so he you know, and he's,
like I said, he's a nice guy and showed a lot of concern.
So I think he'll be okay. I think there's no issue there. I
mean, he understands that happens. It wasn't like he did it on purpose.
I mean, that's just the nature of boxing. Unfortunately it's rare,
but guys can get seriously injured. So he's embracing this big stage. I
mean, he loves fighting at home in Minnesota. He's become a big draw
there at the Armory and they've done good crowds. But if you want to
become a superstar, you got to step onto the big stage. And there's
no bigger stage in boxing than a big pay per view fight in Las Vegas
in the co feature of the biggest fight of the year. I mean,
this is as big of a fight as this is for Ryan Garcia and Jervian
to Davis to show the world what they can do against their best opponent.
For David Morrell and to a lesser degree, Falcon because he's not that you
know, he's the obvious b side, he's not the one with the superstar
potential. David Morrell is time for him to show out, as they say,
as the kids say, to let everybody know that there's somebody else on
this show that's got a chance to become a big star also. And that's
why PBC and his team put him in this spot, and he's fighting in
a hot division where you've got a guy like Canelo Alvarez. He is a
mandatory for Canelo Alvarez. Let's not forget that, because of the fact that
he's the secondary type holder. And they also promote David Benavides. They also
are involved with Demetrius Andreidy have this, you know, Charlow at one sixty
Obviously he's gonna move up at some point to one sixty eight. Point I'm
making is David Merrell is gonna be around for a while and he's gonna have
some nice opposition to pick from over the next few years. All right,
anything else? We mentioned Rosotto and beck the Bully. Of course, that's
a rematch of a fight that Risotto won with a stunning one punch knockout,
and Rosotto hasn't won much else since then. And you're you're at best lukewarm
on this. You've made your feelings known on previous podcasts about this, So
this is on the card. They're being good to Golden Boy Promotions because Rosotto's
fight with Zerdo Ramirez was canceled as a light heavyweight fight back three weeks ago
or so, because Zerdo missed weight, so they're being good to them.
What about that fight and anything? I know, a couple of paces on
this card? What else? What else? Real? Quick? Well,
school Field's off TV, he's on one of the streaming parts of the show.
But it's in terms of nobody's being good to Golden Boy. This was
a negotiation and they are owed hot spots on the undercard, so that's just
part of the deal. No one's being nice to each other. They fucking
hate each other. So that's that. I'm just being real. I mean,
no one's being nice to each other. That the negotiation, and you
you know, you make a deal and you live by it. But in
terms of the Beck fight against Risotto, I found it interesting that Beck was
saying has been saying that even more than a world championship fight, he wanted
a fight with gab ristto in a rematch more because the people were watched back
what happened. They were in the third round of a fight that Beck was
probably winning, and he got his clock clean, he got knocked out cold.
It was a knockout of the year caliber type fight type knockout. And
Rosatto, who I believe is one in four in his last five fights.
That is the only you said he hasn't done much winning since and he's done
no winning since then. That's the one win that he has, so he
was up for the fight. Gabe's never turned on a tough fight. And
I know I've I've shit all over this, uh this fight a lot,
but it's never been the ship on gab Risotto because I like it. And
I actually saw him earlier today when I was walking into the press conference and
he came over and he like kind of you know, put his arms on
me and like try to scare me and like have a little laugh with me.
And now did. Gabe is a good dude, and I have nothing
but the but the most respect for what he has done and the warrior that
he is and the truth be told. I mean I don't have anything against
Back. I don't really know Back, but uh, you know, in
my heart, I'd be very happy if Rosano was able to get to win
a second time around. I mean it would mean he would probably continue to
fight, but he's a grown man and that's his life, in his selection
and his desire to do. But uh, you know, I don't I
don't think it belongs in this kind of pay per view, But that's me.
I wish him the best of luck. And the other fight, who
was another fighter I'm very excited about. If you watched him on his last
fight on showtime. Is this kid Elijah Garcy was fourteen and oh, he's
taken on Kevin Salgado. He's in the opening fight, and this kid is
a really electrifying kind of prospect. Strong only nineteen years old, fourteen oh,
at twelve knockouts, but he made a very big impression back in March.
He knocked out hamilcar View Dow who was another undefeated fighter. He scored
a spectacular sort of performance in a fourth round. Now was a good close
fight, but he scored a big KO. And they have a lot of
high hopes at eighteen years old for doing what he's been doing as a middleweight.
They can move him quickly. I would I would right now say that
if he does well in this particular fight. Also, you're looking at a
guy that you have to consider as the year goes on as one of those
guys that has the potential to maybe at the end of the year be a
prospect of the year type of In that type of situation, all right,
good enough on the fight card. Let's just finish up with what's going on
in Las Vegas. Then I want to move on to rock him off in
Cordina. Then we've had a little fight. News, little nostalgian will be
done here. On the preview, you did speak at length with Steven Espinoza
of Showtime, and again they can hear the full conversation, hear him in
his own words, but just from being right there with him, you sounded
at the end of that interview optimistic, and you even said to him,
you and I are both really pessimists, or really people that are skeptics,
a cynical cynics about these things happening. But Esponosa said to you, I
really think there's a seventy five percent chance this is going to happen, because
there's a major there's been at least a major concession that he didn't think was
going to happen. And what I took that to mean follow up on it,
is that from the Crawford camp in particular, they're willing to forego maybe
some of the guaranteed money they think they want because they realize it's not there
for either guy. That's just reading between the lines on what came out before.
Even though Steven Esponosa didn't say that, he basically said without saying that,
hey, there's a major concession that I didn't think would happen. I
think that's Crawford saying, I understand I'm not going to get six eight ten
million guaranteed. It's not there to make this all right? So what is
your read? You were right there. My read is not exactly what you
said. What he said was in the last couple of weeks and you didn't
want to say who it was or how much it was, but that one
of the sides made up what he termed I believe was a major concession on
what the split was. That's not when you say split, that's not a
guaranteed split is the percentage of what your take would be of the revenue from
your side of the equation. And so I didn't read into it one way
or the other. I do suspect if you stuck a gun demand that that
would be Crawford, because I believe, for different reasons that the Spence side
has been good to go for a while, and this is not a matter
of Arrol can't come to an agreement on this that or the other. It's
really about getting Crawford to come around and and and match up the philosophy of
how to run the event and how they're gonna do the revenues and the whole
nine yards that they got to get Crawford to come around completely. And Crawford
is a stubborn individual. That's not a knock on him. That's just his
personality trait. It's one of the things that has made him a great fighter.
And he said seventy five percent he felt confident. And but again,
you could tell me you're one percent confident or you're ninety nine percent confident,
and nothing fucking matters until they got a done deal. As we joked around
point one left to do, you still got to do the point one left
to do. So until it's signed, nothing's there. But the point was
also there has been so much terrible reporting from some of my boxing reporting colleagues.
And I'm not gonna throw anybody under a bus, but there they did
a shit job in reporting what they reported. He said very specifically, and
I believe Steve when he says this, The fight never was ever contemplated,
nor will it be. On June seventeenth. That was a date that was
going around. There was never a plan to do a press conference on Saturday.
He did make the point that, yes, could that change if suddenly
there's some NEGA breakthrough in the next forty eight hours and they decide to sign
papers and get it done. Because I can tell you one thing, they
ain't gonna do a press comments tell there's a signed contract because they're not going
to play games were signed. But I mean that that's happened. There's been
ship that gets done where you might not have a document, you know,
officially signed and contracted, and they and everybody is comfortable enough with each other
to go through it while they tidy up the paper. But on this type
of event, they ain't gonna do ship like that. You're going to see
signatures or there's not going to be any promotion whatsoever. So again, if
they everybody goes to bed Thursday night thinking okay, there's nothing done, in
some they work through the night and they get something done on Friday, it's
not out of the realm. They could still announce something, but it won't
be June seventeenth. From what Steve said, and uh, you know,
he said, if it does happen. He thinks it will be later in
the summer. I jokingly said, so it's not June seventeen, I mean
June twenty fourth, and he laughed and said, no, no, no.
And that's what that means to me is if they can get the fucking
fight done, it'll probably be like July or August, right before football.
But we and we should say a couple of more things about this and then
and then we'll move on. He was making mention. You reported this too.
Errol Spence was already going to be at this fight. So that's leading
to the speculation, Oh, there must be an announcement. Nobody knows for
sure, but Terence Crawford maybe at this fight. To coc Davis and Garcia.
Big fights like this draw the big personalities up, so that that in
himself doesn't mean anything that those guys were going to be there. So that's
where people were trying to connect dots on that. And one more point,
because we know this because Errol Spence admitted this, that part of the negotiating
breaking down was that neither fighter and Crawford didn't want this was going to get
guaranteed money for the previous talks, and that's what and then what, as
you said, what we did know as Crawford was already down the road with
BLK Prime to give him guaranteed money to have a pay per view fight in
his hometown, and he took door number two in that time period in the
interim, so we do know that that was part of the concern before.
We'll see if and when it gets worked out. Let's just hope, let's
hope it does. Let's hope it does for later this summer. We've waited,
We've waited far too long, when, as you have said, they're
not impediments here from a broadcaster standpoint or a promoter standpoint. Figure it out.
Figure it out. This is the only thing about it. I said
this to Steve as well. There's no other fight of any kind that Errol
Spence could have that anybody would really give a shit about right now, And
the same ghost for Terence Crawford. They've cleaned. I mean, Crawford didn't
get as many of the guys, but the division has been cleaned. They're
the last men's standing. I went through the late amir Con and Kelly Brooker
retired, Sean Porters retired, Andre Purdo was retired. Keith Thurman is playing
out the string. Uh, you know, that's a good fight, but
it doesn't really mean a whole lot. Danny Garcia is playing out the string
at one fifty four, Lamon Peterson is retired. In other words, all
of the guys in and around their group. I mean, Ugas is there,
but that doesn't really mean a lot at the moment, he's coming off
of an injury. Manny Pacou is retired thinking about coming out of retirement.
But again, those are not big megafights relative to Crawford. There's no other
fight that anybody cares about. Amen, and and and there shouldn't be any
And by the way, it's fucking undisputed. That's like when you go in
the Hall of Fame and that's like in the first line of your bio.
Well, you know Terrence Crawford or Errol Spencer, who was the undisputed walterweight
champion, blah blah blah blah. So that's the deal. And so I
do think that unless you know they're just I can't want to insult people,
but I see no way that this shouldn't get done. But again, I'm
not gonna get crazy about it, because I We've said this a thousand times.
I've seen these types of things more times than I care to count.
That fall apart. We just saw what happened with Tyson Fury and Alexander Russik
just a you know what, a month ago. So but this one feels
as skeptical as you may be. I see at the tunnel, I guess,
but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. But the thing that
that Steve said, as I joke with him, of all the different people
in this business I know and talk to on a regular basis, I jokingly
and it's true, like he's probably one of the most cynical that there is,
and I am of the same sort of belief. So when I hear
him have positive vibes, it does sort of move me a little bit.
But hopefully they'll get it done and we'll see a big fight this summer.
We will continue with more on Javonte Davis and Ryan Garcia coming up Saturday night
on pay per view in a few moments with Dan Raphael. But hey,
if you're looking to watch the fight, do it with our friends at pp
V dot com. Why because there's no subscription necessary for you to see this
fantastic showdown from two of boxing's major stars in the smaller weight classes in Javante
Davis and Ryan Garcia PPV dot com. And they've got great interaction with a
live ongoing chat, different dialogue from different boxing personalities as the fight unfolds.
It's a great viewing experience with no obligation other than just getting the pay per
view. PPV dot com is where you will find that on the web,
on your device and again crystal clear high definition. You can watch the fight,
the entire fight card in its entirety, and then Davis Garcia late night
Saturday night on pay per view Primetime in the West from the T Mobile Arena.
It is all part of PPV dot COM's coverage of one of the biggest
fights of this year. So again you don't have any obligation, you don't
have any subscription. If you're thinking of getting the pay per view for Davis
and Garcia, think about one place to do it. We recommend it PPV
dot Com. We do know there is an IBF world title fight coming and
we're interested in this for rock'em Off and Joe Cordina that are going to
do battle for the IBF super Featherweight world title Cardiff Wales. As you said
to me earlier, that is coming Saturday afternoon US time, Saturday night Primetime
match Room Boxing main event. Cordina coming off of a hand injury. All
right, So give me more on this because this will kind of be the
entree at least in the United States to leading up to the pay per view
with Davis and Garcia. Gave me a little bit on this please real quick.
So it's the main event on the Zone show. And uh, you
know Cordina was was a top amateur, an Olympian, and he ends up
winning the world title, the IBF one hundred thirty pound title spectacular knockout out
a knockout of the ear type of knockout in June of twenty twenty two against
kenchi Ogawa, an excellent fighter from Japan, and just added nowhere flatandum and
his mandatory was due against Rockemoff schab At Rockemoff who might people might know from
his draw with Joe Joseph Diez Junior and a couple other fights he has had
on American broadcasters. In any event, that fight ended up not happening because
Cordina injured the hand that had have surgery here he already had used a medical
exemption with the IBF, and because the mandatory was due, they stripped him
of the title. And the only silver lining was that match Room, his
promoter, and you know the IBF, they were like, okay, you're
going to get the shot at the winner of the VACAN title. So Rockhemov
got its opportunity to fight Zelpha Barrett for the vacant title and Rock Him Up
won that fight. And now Cordinez had the hand that he'll had surgery,
and now he's getting back in the ring, And so from his perspective,
I wrote some of his comments on one of my pieces this week. He
feels like he's going in as a defending champion because he won the title on
a great knockout. He never lost the title, and now he's fighting the
guy he was supported to fight anyway. But for rock Him Off, he'll
be making his first title events and it's somewhat of an intriguing fight. I
mean, they're both undefeated. Rockimov just has the one blemish on his record
as a draw against Joseph diez Wich was a pretty good fight with the jar
Drop that was back in twenty twenty one. But it's I think that it
lends itself to the possibility of being a good, exciting fight. Rockamob is
trained by Freddie Roach, the great Hall of Famer. He does his training
camp in the in the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood, California. It's got a
good team behind him. He's met the same with Eggis Cleanis who was the
manager for Alexander Ussek, who will manage for you know, throughout his entire
career, Sergey Kovalev. So you know they're not they believe in this guy,
So we'll see. I mean, it should be a pretty good matchup,
all right. So again that is the Zone match room show earlier on
Saturday. A couple more things, a couple of news items and then a
little nostalgia and then we're gonna be done here. All right. We've got
a positive drug test that is nixing the scheduled main event showtime PBC for Albert
Poyo and Roley Romero schedule for May thirteenth. Give us a little more of
the details, and there's going to be a replacement fight that would have been
the main event fight. So go ahead damn with the latest. Yeah,
so as I was traveling here to last because on Wednesday, our buddy Keith
Ide from boxing scene and broke the story that Alberta Pueo, who was the
WBAS Junior welterweight champion, who had won that vacant title on Show of Time,
one of the belts that Josh Taylor had given up or was tripped up
when he decided to pursue the Catterrell rematch. It is now not happening.
In an event, Queo won that belt and he was making his first defense
against Roley Romero in the main event Oncho Time e thirteenth at the Cosmopaltan here
in Las Vegas, and he had a VODA test return that said he was
positive for a chlomaphine, which is the same substance we have talked about because
it's been very pot in the news because it's the same band substance that that
Connor Ben that tested positive for twice that has caused all of that drama.
In any event, that that fight is now off, he's out of the
out of the fight, and they are working diligently to make a replacement fight
because Showtime is not going to lose the card, and you know, they
all admit that Roly Romero was the A side of that event anyway, So
the likelihood is that he will now face Ishmael Barroso, a Venezuelan fighter who
was already edle to be on the undercard, who is the mandatory challenger for
that belt. But I agreed to step aside to let the Romero fight happen.
And so now it looks like you'll see Romeo against Alberto against Romero against
Barosso, either for the interim title or perhaps for the full title if it
is depending on what the WBA doesn't what the outcome of their investigation or whatever
they go through their due diligence. Remember, the fight's not for a few
more weeks, so there's some time for them to get their stuff together.
But the main thing is that the card will still happen. They'll still be
that show and us, you know, as they say, he's got some
explaining to them and we'll see what he has to say again or maybe the
problem here though it is this TJ. You know we talked about, like
colomaphine does have reasons that people would use it, but the problem is it
is a banned substance at all times, a lot of coding if you even
if you use it for a legitimate reason. The problem is, it's not
if it was the WBC's Queen Boxing program, you could scare because they would
make an assessment of whether you did it on purpose cheat as it just But
in the world that I live in here in American boxing jurisprudence and the VATA
State Athletic Commission rules, it's about strict liability, which I've explained in many
times. It's not why it's in your system, it's that it is in
your system. And if it isn't your system, you're in troubable period.
Now, if he's got a good reason, maybe they'll give him a little
bit of a lesser punishment, but he's got to take as unless and this
is extremely rare, so but you have to make it. That is a
past, you know, as they say in the movie. So there's a
chance that the b Samplefie likes to have it tested, it could come back
different, which would then throw that into a question, But the chances are
minuscule that it would be anything other than another positive test for that particular substance,
and so we'll see as they go through the process. But the main
thing is there's a reasonably good chance that Alberto Puyo is well, he's not
going to fight make their death, and that that title may be stripped,
and we'll see Roy Romero fight against Ishmael Barroso, who was doing the title
shot anyway, just against the other guy. All right, so good enough
on that. And again, I'm somebody we talked about this with the Connor
Ben stuff. I'm somebody that took chlomaphine or chlomid while my wife and I
were going through fertility treatment. Your body does not, the male body does
not normally make this. So again to you to your point about strict liability
or you're responsible for whatever's in your system. There it is for POS A
little plug by the way, if you if anybody out there, if if
you're not, first of all, you're not signed up and reading my newsletter,
what's wrong with you? If you're a boxing can listening to our podcast.
But what you should do is go take a look at the notebook that
I published, like Thursday, what is it late Wednesday night, early Thursday?
Right? I in my reporting, I got a copy of the official
letter from Vada that was sent to everybody involved with detailing when he tested positive,
what he tests a positive for it into particulars, and you can read
the full letter as Vada sent it on in my recent notebooks, I keep
saying, that's why you're you, That's why you're out there on in Las
Vegas getting all of this done. All right, good news, just real
quick. Virgil Ortiz seems to be much better from this blood disorder. Again,
you say, cynic, I'm skeptic. I'm skeptical that this is not
career threatening for him. Let's hope he can get back on track to fight
Stanionis, a fight that's now been twice delayed. Stanionis' is a WBA eliminator,
top contender, whatever you want to call regular, extra value meal,
whatever you want to call it. For Spence's World Championship is WBA version of
the wel toweight world title. But Stanionis had the appendix, had the appendicitis.
Now we've got the blood disorder that Ortiz has had two times trying to
come back from. But they at least now have a target date. Tell
us more on your reporting on when this may be back in the ring real
quick. Yeah, So I was talking a few days ago with Eric Gomez,
who was the president of Golden Waite Promotions, who was the promoter for
Virgil Ortis as well as obviously the promoter for Ryan Garcia. Well actually saw
earlier today. I talked to Eric all the time, but I hadn't seen
him in person in a couple of years for various reasons, pandemic part of
it. In any event, he tells me that Virgil is doing much better.
He's ready to go back in the gym, getting ready to train and
and be prepared for this fight. Hopefully they can wrap everybody in bubble wrap
and no more medical problems or injuries or anything like that, and they will
do this fight. The date that it's supposed to take place now still as
the main event on the Zone, will be July eighth. Originally, it
was supposed to take place in Arlington, Texas, at an arena there which
is right outside of Grand Prairie, which is where Virgil is from, so
it's going to be a home home. It was supposed to be a home
game for Virgil, but that building, apparently from what Eric tells me,
is not available on July eighth, So they're still looking for any venue to
hold that. I know they would still like to have it somewhere in that
part of Texas. But in an event, the more important than where the
fight's going to take place is that the fight's supposed to take place July eighth.
It's it's a terrific fight. I mean, they're both undefeated, they're
both on the younger side, they both make good fights. It is for
stanionss regular title in the welterweight WBA, and the winner obviously will be there
for the Spence or a vacant title where elevated, whatever if Spence decides not
to continue in the division, whatever happens with Crawford, if it ever gets
done. In an event, the bottom line is instead of having a tremendous
matchup that we hope that've had in the earlier part of the year and then
in March or whenever it was supposed to be, now, we'll just see
it at some time in the summer, and as long as they get it
on, I can't. That's a really good fighting Love that, all right,
and one piece of nostalgia before we're done. You were telling me this
just before we hit the record button that Floyd Mayweather has so many different anniversaries
in and around April, May, June and summers and twenty one years ago,
correct, on Thursday, Thursday night, as we're taping April the twentieth
of O two, he had the first of his fights with Castile. Right,
I was a Luis Castillo so anniversary and you have a little memorabilia from
that as well. You're feeling a little nostalgic while you're in Vegas for this.
Yeah, like I said to you earlier, I'd met up with Leonard
Ellerbee in the media center and Leonard, of course has been working with Floyd
for most of Floyd's career. Back then, you know, he wasn't a
promoter or CEO of the company. I think that he was part of Floyd's
team as a strength and conditioning coach and was with him in the gym,
you know, working with his with his with this team with a Roger Mayweather
who was the trainer his uncle, and and that fight took place twenty one
years ago here in the MGM Grand So you know, it's it's all these
big anniversaries. So many of those big fights, especially Floyd fights, were
here. But That was a very interesting fight. Remember Floyd, he had
been the long reigning champion of the WBC in the one hundred thirty pound way
class, had been looking spectacular, had knocked out angel Man freddie had totally
dominated and destroyed to win the title. Janaro Hernandez, the late grade fighter.
He had defeated in a dominating fashion and a tremendous performance probably I still
consider maybe the best of his whole career. You know, in the first
fight that I ever covered here in this building in the MGM grand in person
as domination of and stoppage of Diego Cheego corrals. But when he was done
in one hundred and thirty pounds, he didn't waste time. He went right
for the number one guy at one hundred and thirty five, and at that
time was jo Luis Guestio, who had kind of come out of nowhere.
He had been known as the top sparring partner for Julio Caesar Chavez Senior,
and he then got an opportunity to fight Stevie Johnston for the WBC title.
A matter of fact, when he beats Stevie Johnson to win that title,
I was at that fight in a parking lot of a casino in Los Angeles
on a like a monstrously hot day. It was the day of Dale Lajoia
Mosley won, which was the first boxing match I ever covered in person in
Los Angeles. And I went to that fight thinking it was indoors, not
rolling it was outdoors, and got badly sunburned. But I saw Jose Luis
Guestillo take that title from Stevie Johnson, who was a consummate boxer, and
he ended up later defending that title when Floyd moved up. They were both
with top rank at the time, and they put on a heck of a
fight on HBO here at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and a lot of
people, well to this day say that's the time that Floyd maybel whether lost
a professional fight. He ended up getting the decision one sixteen one to eleven
one fifteen one eleven twice, But there's a lot of people out there that
thought that he got beat that night. Harold Letterman, the late great fish
unofficial scorer for HBO for many years, who always called these things down the
middle, he had Castillo winning that, not that it's the end all be
all, as we say. Many things. But the kybox, the compy
box statistics favored Kisti, who in that fight in most of the categories.
I didn't I was covering boxing at that time. I did not attend the
fight in person. I was watching on HBO. But I scored that fight
on paper. I had that at draw one fourteen to one fourteen, so
still not a Floyd and they whether victory ASO by that score, you would
think if it was a draw, obviously Kistio would have retained the title.
But that was the closest that Floyd ever came to a loss in my mind
and most people's minds. And I always have looked at like there's moments that
may have changed the course of boxing history. I've I've alluded to if Roy
Jones hadn't come back to light heavyweight and they were able to finalize the deal
from this state heavyweight and fight he Vander Holyfield, There'd have been a whole
different thing that would have happened on that line. If Floyd Mayweather had gotten
lost that night and that oh guy went by by, I think a lot
of things might have been different about the rest of his career. Not that
he wouldn't have continued to win. Sure, there might have been other fights
he would have been willing to take now that the perfect record was gone.
He did fight win an immediate rematch in that fight he did win, and
another close decision that was the one that he probably that he did deserve to
win, as close as it was. But to think that that was all
these years ago here in this building, and I was talking about with Leonard
Ellerby, and I actually showed him because as you know what people read the
newsletter, I put up my memorabilia and the show and tell section. I
have one of those big giant light box posters from that fight in my collection.
And I sent him the text message of the of the of the photo
of that poster for a little nostalgia to make him feel just as old as
I felt when I saw that you are something else. And I keep saying
that when it's all said and done, I want to be curator of the
ray Field Collection, the ray Field Museum, with all your memorabilia, So
that Floyd Castile fight, if they want to look it up YouTube, et
cetera, twenty one years ago of that one. Let's see if we get
a barn burner with your Vante Davis and Ryan Garcia again. You and I
will make fight predictions on the bet US Show as you're hearing us as this
podcast release. Bet US Live Show one Eastern time, Dana's in Vegas ten
Pacific time coming. Will make some predictions on that, including the Rock Them
Off Cordina world title fighting Cardiff Wales. Thank you earlier in the day US
time that'll be taking place when my predictions on all of those. Look forward
to that and no matter what happens, including Raphael trying to get in on
the ownership group of the Las Vegas Athletics, no matter what happens, will
recap it all on the Fight Freaks Unite recap off the weekend. You and
I got to work that out because you're probably traveling on Sunday. We've got
to figure that out. But the peeps know it will be there Monday.
We're not guaranteeing a time, but it will be there Monday on the Fight
Freaks Unite Recap when it's all done. I know you're anxious to cover all
this. We're anxious to see what happens with Garcia and Davis. We can't
oversell that. Both guys are undefeated. They are in the primes of their
careers. Let's see, it's a big stage for Ryan Garcia on pay per
view that he's not really been on. Davis has been on the paper.
Use let's see how everybody handles it. Why don't we do this? Why
don't you and I reconvene live on bet us coming up at one Eastern time
on Friday. How do you feel about that? You're good? That sounds
good. I'm so wished you wash you on might pick for this fight,
though I still haven't come up with what I'm doing. Just don't blame me
with whatever you pick if it doesn't turn out to be right, because you
couldn't decide it is. It's a fairly even fight on the odds too,
so a lot of intrigue will make the predictions on the show. Great work
with the interviews and all the stuff. Keep hustling and again we'll talk to
you not only on the bet Us show, but recap it all when the
pay per view is done. We'll come off the weekend with a recap right
here. Make sure you're following or subscribing. Thank you, Dan, Raphael,
have a blast. Thank you sir. There is our insider from Big
Fight Weekend dot Com and his Fight preach Unite Substack. I'm merely t.
J. Reeves. Follow or subscribe on this podcast feed, the Big Fight
Weekend podcast Feed. We'll come your way with that recap when we're done on
Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, Spotify. For now, we're good. Let's
see what happened Davis and Garcia bet us live show Friday at one. As
you're hearing us in the preview mode, go check that out on their platforms.
You'll get more on these fights, but for now we're good. On
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