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The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now

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here is your host, Djwaves.
Well, here we go with another weekend,

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another preview, and a big time
unified light heavyweight title defense for Archer

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Better Babb a rescheduled fight against a
former super middleweight world champ, England's Callum

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Smith coming up Saturday. We're ready
to preview that. We've got a a

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former Ladies world champion and michaelam Mayer
that you're gonna hear from in a one

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on one conversation and news of the
week and a lot more. Hello and

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welcome in to our little preview show
that could. It is the Big Fight

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Weekend Preview. I am merely the
somewhat capable host. TJ Reeves. He

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is our insider Fight Freaks You Nite
is his substack Big Fight Weekend dot Com

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insider as well. Hello Dan Rayfield, as we get ready for what I

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think is a compelling light heavyweight title
fight. I think you're going to agree

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with that preview, that fight card, and much more. How we feeling

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good to be with you? Good? I'm good. I agree with you.

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I think it's a very compelling and
interesting fight and it's good to see

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both of these guys back in the
ring after layoffs. All right, so

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we're going to get into that fight
card in a little bit and again MICHAELA.

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Mayer conversation coming up. We got
news on Aerol Spence. Are we

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ever ever going to see a rematch
with Terrence Crawford after that beatdown last summer.

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Let's to get to reminder. Thank
you for finding us. However you

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did at Dan substack, his email
list, social media links all over the

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place, Big Fight Weekend dot com
we publicize as well. Thank you.

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Make sure you're following subscribing. We
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into the weekend Thursday night overnight into
Friday, and then in the recap mode

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typically overnight Sunday night into Monday.
So you get twice the ray Field,

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twice the fun right here on this
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Make sure you rate us and review
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rate us and review us in December. We need more of you to do

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that in January. Keep it going. If you like what we're doing that

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does help us out, including sharing
out the shows socially, etc. Let's

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get into it, my friend,
don't waste any time here. Archer better

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b of his back rescheduled fight.
He had what oral surgery right that went

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wrong with an infection in the jawbone
ouch Babe back a few months ago.

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So because of scheduling and trying to
get out of the college football mayhem,

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they moved this to January, to
this open Saturday night slot in January on

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ESPN and the top rank main event
Callum Smith again intriguing name. He has

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to move up here from super middleweight
to light heavyweight. All right, give

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me your your thoughts on this and
very interesting here better be of with all

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the knockouts and three of the light
heavyweight world title belt stan Well. First

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of all, Callum is not really
moving up for this fight. He moved

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up like a year plus ago.
This will be his third fight in the

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weight class. But it feels like
he's moving up because he's fought absolutely nobody

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in this weight class. I mean, he's fought just the most you know,

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lesser known, obscure, non threatening
type opponents in his previous two fights.

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So just to back up the intrigue, of course that I think most

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people would agree that better Beev is
the number one light heavyweight in the world.

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All due respect to Beebel, but
better Beev's got the belts, he's

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got the record, he's got the
knockouts, he's probably got a slightly better

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resume in terms of who he's defeated, including Canelo Alvarez, so he has

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that going. But they're the top
two guys and obviously overshadowing I won't say

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overshadowing, that's the wrong word.
But in the background, let's say are

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hovering. Let's say, is the
very real, strong possibility that with a

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better be a victory that comes sometime
later this year in Saudi Arabia, there's

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a better than likely chance that he'll
be meeting up And the Brits love to

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say, with the deep accent looking
that fight is a potential about with Beevil

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the go ahead. So it's not
it's not something that that was asked about

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or discussed at their press conference.
Uh, not to say that he would

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have gotten into it anyway, but
that is there. That is a distinct

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possibility, and obviously Calm Smith not
only is trying to win the three world

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light heavyweight belts, but try to
disrupt that situation and make a huge splash

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for himself. So it's a very
interesting matchup. Both the guys are coming

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off long laps better BF. Because
of the dental issue that you mentioned that

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the required surgery, he was limited
to the one fight last year and it's

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kind of unfortunately been a trend for
him. So he hasn't fought since last

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January. And if you remember back
all the way at the end of last

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January, he had that spectacular Fight
of the Year candidate that was against Anthony

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Art that was his WBO mandatory.
This fight against Calm Smith is his WBC

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mandatory. But that was a tremendous
battle with you already stopped him in the

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eighth round, but it was a
back and forth fight. You know,

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he did knock him down eventually and
do what he always does, which is

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if you follow them at all,
he's nineteen to zero with nineteen knockedouts,

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and of the act of world champions
in boxing today, he's the only one

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that is undefeated and having won all
of his fights by knockout, so he

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is one of the best punchers in
the sport, and he's got a resume

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too. It's not just like a
guy that's knocking bums out. He's knocked

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out Yard, He's knocked out Joe
Smith devastatingly easily. He knocked out Marcus

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Brown. He knocked out Alexander Wodzik
in a tremendous battle to unify two of

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the titles. He knocked out Adam
Danes in a mandatory fight, who was

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maybe not the most known, but
a pretty sturdy guy. He knocked out

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Callum Johnson in a shootout where he
got knocked down but got up to knock

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him out. He knocked out hot
Rod, he knocked out when I was

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there when he won the title against
Rico Coling, and he's like, he's

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into the twelfth round. You're like, is this guy going to extend the

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streak? And in round twelve he
got the knockout in Fresno, California,

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onto the ESPN card where jose A
Ramirez was the main event. So you

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know, everybody that stepped into the
ring with this man, he gets rid

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of him. He's got devastating puncher, he's it seems like he takes a

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good shot. The only knock I
think that people can find on him is

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that he is somewhat inactive. You
know, one fight last year, one

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fight in twenty twenty two. He
did have the two fights in twenty one,

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but it's been in activity, which
has sort of been a problem in

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my mind in terms of building your
brand in your name. And some would

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look at him and say, you
know what, TJ. He's thirty eight

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years old. He does get touched, he does get hit a little bit,

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and they think that he's starting to
show signs of age. I don't

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really see that. And I've been
seeing a lot of discussion during this week

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leading up to this fight where people
are going out on and saying, I'm

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gonna you know, either they're giving
cown Smith the huge chance or they're maybe

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outright picking him. And I have
respect for Calla Smith. He's a damn

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good fighter. I don't take anything
away from him from that standpoint. But

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if you can take a look at
the record, he also has been inactive.

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He hasn't fought since August of twenty
twenty two. He fought only once

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in twenty twenty two. He fought
only once in twenty twenty one. Those

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are the two light heavyweight fights he
blasted out, you know, a Porschnor

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in his first fight in two rounds
in the first fight. He then knocked

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out a butater Leak in the second
fight. And neither one of these guys

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that was the eliminator fight, Neither
one of those guys was a legitimate fighter

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in my opinion. In terms of
that, I'm not saying they weren't legitimate

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fighters. I mean they weren't legitimate
contenders, right that that really meant anything

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edible. I'll help you forgettable forgettable
names. Nobody knows, right, Okay,

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So that was one fight in twenty
two, as I mentioned, the

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one fight at seventy five in twenty
twenty one. He only fought one time

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in twenty twenty. That was a
shutout, not a shut up. But

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he lost what ten eleven rounds against
Canelo in fight for two of the super

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middleweight titles. So that was a
horrendous performance. He just didn't show up.

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Before that, he had a decision
win over John Ryder that some question

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the result of that fight. And
so you kind of gotta go back to

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twenty nineteen. I was actually at
this fight at Madison Square Garden when he

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knocked out Hassan the Dam in a
Super mid aweight title match, that Dom

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really is was a natural more of
a middleweight, and before that he had

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knocked out George Groves and what remains
his career best victory, which was to

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win the Super uh the World Boxing
Super Series Super mid Awaight Tournament and also

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win the w the WBA title and
the lineal title and all that point is

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all respect to him, but I
just don't quite grasp why everybody's given him

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such a great chance. Now,
I'll grant you that he probably I believe

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him when he says this, given
his height and and all that, that

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he's going to be stronger at one
seventy five, that he was struggling,

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you know, in the later days
of making one sixty eight. That's that's

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a fair uh. I think that's
a fair assessment. But I'm of the

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opinion until I see someone truly take
care of fuck their better BF, I'm

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not sure how you can pick against
him. And if I'm not mistaken on

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that point, were you not ringside
in the Madison Square Garden Theater in the

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summer of twenty twenty two for that
ball out with Joe Smith Junior, which

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I remember you and I previewing that
and handicapping that, and we thought competitive

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fight. You know, Joe Smith
might have a chance annihilation pick it up.

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On that point, I realized it
was nineteen months ago for Better be

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a but you were right there a
ringside and saw that. No, I

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mean that was a that was a
kind of I won't say nothing with Better

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VF in terms of a knockout is
shocking, but with Joe Smith again,

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it wasn't a shock that he got
the knockout. But I think given Joe's

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background and it was his hometown and
it was you know, he's already been

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known to have a good chance to
punch in his own right that you figure

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if there's going to be a knockout, you know that he's probably going to

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be able to take it a little
deeper into the fight. And you know,

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he just got clipped and that was
all she wrote. So that was

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that was almost over in the first
round. As I recall, he dropped

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him, had him in trouble and
he barely survived the first round. So

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so that was a unification. That
was that allowed Better BF to unify three

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the belts. The only one he
doesn't have is a b boll fight,

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which is why if they able to
make that match later in the year.

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If he wins this fight, that
makes it obviously a huge fight on Callum

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Smith. The one thing that Callum
has going for him, I mean more

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than one thing, but one of
the things that Callum Smith has going for

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him is I think most people look
at him and have watched him fight.

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He is a durable fighter. He
has never been obviously, he's only got

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the one loss to Canlo. He
did go the distance with Canelo at one

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sixty eight. I can't remember seeing
him like beat up or you know,

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knocked down a bunch of times or
heard or anything like that. I mean,

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you know, he does come from
the from the boxing family, along

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with you know, his brother Paul
Smith who's now retired, you know Liam

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Smith who's obviously still doing his thing. So you know, he's got that

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excellent background. He seems very confident. I watched their news conference, uh

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you know, from uh Quebec city
today, so he's traveling, remember,

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I mean better we have of course
is you know, born and grew up

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in Russia, but for his entire
professional career he's been based out of Montreal.

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He's a Canadian citizen. He's now
fighting Quebec Gok City, which I

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believe is probably by car, maybe
like what less than two hours from Montreal.

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He'll have a you know, they
expect to you know, ten ten

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eleven thousand there, which will be
close to a capacity that I guess from

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what they were saying, at least
for what they put on sale. You

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know it's going to be ninety nine
percent there rooting for better V obviously,

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so he's got all that going for
him. Tolm Smith throwing his team that

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he has a good, good team
behind him. Eddie Hearns made the trip.

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You know, he's obviously got top
notch coaches behind him. He's with

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Buddy mcgert now his trainer, my
old friend. His third fight with him,

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but he's one of the top trainers
in the sport. He's very confident

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if you listen to him. But
like I was saying to you, better

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Beev is a different animal. He's
got devastating power in both hands. He

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throws that nasty right hand. He
takes a pretty good punch. He can

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fight forward backward. You know,
people think just because he's a big banger

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and he's not got artists that he
doesn't have boxing seals, but that's bullshit

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because he's got good boxing seals.
This guy is a two time Olympian and

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if you ever watch him when he's
not scoring the big knockouts, he's pretty

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subtle with the moves. He can
slip some punches here and there. He's

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got pretty decent hand speed. He's
got a solid jab, So you know

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it's a It's a big fight for
him because of what it means on its

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own, retaining the title and also
what might come next afterwards. And it's

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at home. And again I've been
hearing all these people picking Callm Smith.

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I just I don't see it.
We can tell and better Beev's got the

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big punch, and we'll see if
Callum Smith could take that big punch he

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took it from Canelo. Interesting in
that Canelo fight, which was all the

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way back in twenty twenty, during
the pandemic craziness Alamodome right where it had

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like ten thousand capacity or whatever,
Canelo tactically did something very interesting that he

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tried to repeat against Beebole and others, where he was banging away at the

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left bicep and upper arm of Callum
Smith over and over and over again with

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punches to try to weaken his arm
so he wouldn't throw the left anymore.

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That was a tactic that worked,
and I remember Callum Smith's arm being purple

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black. Days later after the fight
he put pictures on social media. But

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Canelo didn't knock him out. Is
my point. Now you're fighting better,

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00:12:56,559 --> 00:13:00,679
BV. That's the intrigue. We'll
obviously handicap this first round French Rayphiel.

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We'll handicap this more on the bet
Us Show and make predictions one Eastern time

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on Friday, Be with Us live
on the bet Us platforms. But you

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gave us a really good preview of
what's at stake, what's gonna happen,

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and the fact that this is a
true road game for Callum Smith because he

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is even though the fight is in
Quebec and he's fighting a Russian and this

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guy's got a lot of backing in
that part of the world. And let's

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see, let's see what. I
don't think that Callum Smith was so worried

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about that. I mean, this
is a man that went to deep in

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the heart of Texas and fought the
Mexican superstar Canando Alvarez without reservation. So

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now he's going to Quebec City to
fight better be Of. But I guess

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my upshot is, you know,
I respect Callum Smith as a fighter and

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what he's done and what he's accomplished
in his whole boxing family. But until

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I see somebody do something to better
be Of, that's serious. You know,

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I'm not going to be sold on
it, you know, just because

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he got touched up a little bit, you know, because he got dropped

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by Callum Johnson, you know,
four years ago or whenever that was in

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twenty eighteen. Uh, you know, I need to be convinced more.

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All right. On the undercard,
the co feature fight is Christian Mobilion.

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I'm interested. I don't know a
lot about him, and he's obviously getting

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an opportunity. He is a fighter
that is primarily fought in France. He's

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fought in Canada some, but he's
obviously on this top rank ESPN portion of

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the show. So tell us more
about the co feature as we move along

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on the card real quick. In
the preview month, Well, he's fought

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most of his fights in Canada,
even though like you said, he is

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from you know, he's he's actually
born in Cameroon kind of like a like

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a Francis Naganu, like he was
born in Cameron But Mabilly though, has

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you know, immigrated to France.
He's now based in terms of his boxing

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in Canada, where he has fought, uh, you know, many of

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his fights over the course of his
career, and he's been brought up,

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you know, slowly but surely.
But the thing about him, and the

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first of all, the reason he's
been there's a world title fight on the

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card, which we'll get to in
a minute with Maloney, but this is

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the co feature position because he's the
Canadian based guy and he's also this is

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a co promotion between Top Rank and
I have the Tiger. I have the

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Tiger as the promoter of Mabilly.
And if you've been watching him what he's

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been doing over the last you know, say, like about two years or

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so, you know, he's he's
been fighting like good fighters, but not

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great fighters, but he's been really
dominating them. You know, he fought

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guys. I'm gonna mention if you
guys Ronald Ellis and you know the durable

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Von Alexander, the older brother of
Devin Alexander. He fought Carlos Gongoria,

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who was a lot of people at
high hoes for Demon Nicholson, who's been

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the distance with Edgar Berlanga. And
he's done very, very well against all

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of those guys I just mentioned,
either scoring knockouts or or getting decisions.

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He is built like an absolute tank. He's ripped, he's in shape.

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He's like I imagine if you walked
into him on the street, you'd feel

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hurt afterwards, like you walked into
a wall. I mean, I remember

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when I see the way he's built. It reminds me of one time years

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ago being in Las Vegas, and
I was It was before Lennox Lewis fought

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Hassim Rockman in the rematch, and
I was with Rockman and his brother and

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one of the other two guys on
his team, and we were getting the

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elevator at the Mandalay Bay. We
were going up to Rockman's suite because I

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was doing an interview with him for
a thing I was writing for USA Today.

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That tells you how long ago this
was for me. But that the

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reason I remember that is because like
Rockman bumped into me the elevator, and

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I swear to God, I think
my arm was like bruised for the rest

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of the week. When I see
him a billy and the strength that he

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has as a super middleweight, I
always think of like that, you'd be

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like walking into a wall. That's
the kind of build he has. So

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he's twenty five to oh with twenty
one knockouts, twenty eight years old,

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so he's just coming into his own
probably and he's on the precipice of being

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a serious contender in the super middleweight
division. He's tighty con Rohan Murdoch,

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who's got a good record. He's
twenty seven and two, you know,

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from Australia, but doesn't have like
a have a big resume or anything like

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that. You know, if you
heard of the guy he lost to Zach

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Parker, who's been in like eliminator
type fights. He got stopped by him.

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Late he defeated a well known Australian
fighter named Oars Isaac Hartman and his

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la fight. So he's coming at
candidate. I'm assuming to give the best

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effort against mcbilly. But mcbilly is
he's fighting so well right now. He's

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like a tank, so he's exciting
to watch and he's going places in my

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opinion, and Mabilly is a twenty
to one favorite by the way, on

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the bet Us line. So the
real debate you and I are going to

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have is does this fight in early
or not when we debated on the bet

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Us show. I'm talking about because
he's supposed to get the win and likely

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to get the knockout, so we'll
see if that is the case. The

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many thing though, if you're interested
to see new faces in the up the

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contender ranks, let's say, but
Billy's definitely got to watch because he's good

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and he's exciting, all right.
Also on this card, but not on

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the ESPN portion of the card.
Rayfield always got to keep me straight.

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This is going to be on the
ESPN Plus portion of the card. Jason

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Maloney defends his WBO bantamweight championship.
They get him a title fight in put

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back one of the Australian Maloney twins
that have been world champions. So this

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is Jason Maloney, So tell me
a little more about this fight that is

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also on the card. So he
and his brother, so you know there

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00:18:00,799 --> 00:18:04,559
his twin brother. They're celebrating their
birthday this week. So Andrew is the

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twin brother. Jason's defending the tesnil. Happy birthday to both Maloney's anyway,

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So in May of last year he
won the vacant Remember when in a way

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vacated when he moved up and you
know, in a way had become the

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undisputed champion, he vacated all four
titles, and so in May of last

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year it was Maloney defeating by majority
decision Vincent Australabio to win the vacant WBO

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belt. He has not foughts intent, so it's been a little bit of

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a layoff, not as much as
the guys in the main event obviously,

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but he's back in action to make
his first defense on the road, but

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neutral because he's from Australia fighting in
Canada. He's fighting an opponent amed sal

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Sawel Sanchez, who's a California fighter
twenty and two with twelve knockouts, not

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00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:51,720
a big resume. This is the
kind of fight in my mind where this

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was, let's go down the ratings, let's pick a guy that we can

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00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:57,599
get away with and give our guy
the best chance to win it. I

300
00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:02,720
won't call it's not like a a
celebratory homecoming kind of defense. But they

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00:19:02,759 --> 00:19:07,519
haven't exactly matched him with a known
top contender. That makes sense. I'm

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00:19:07,519 --> 00:19:11,559
not saying that Sanchez is no good, but clearly in an optional kind of

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00:19:11,559 --> 00:19:15,559
defense, they're not looking to get
the man beat first time out, so

304
00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,920
you know he's going to be the
big favorite. The opponent does not have

305
00:19:18,160 --> 00:19:21,519
interesting on the bet if I interject, is you on the bet us line?

306
00:19:21,519 --> 00:19:23,039
He's only a four to one favorite. It's not like he's a massive

307
00:19:23,079 --> 00:19:27,880
favorite Malone. But by the same
token, does Sanchez punch hard enough?

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00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,960
I mean, what's the intrigue here? Because you're right, clearly they want

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00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:36,039
Maloney to have a bigger fight later
in this year, top ranked US.

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00:19:36,319 --> 00:19:40,519
Yeah. I mean the one thing
about Sanchez, you know, who has

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00:19:40,599 --> 00:19:44,839
a list of opponents that is not
impressive at all. The one guy that

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00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,599
might stand out to you is because
of what he did recently is Jerico O'Quinn,

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00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,200
who was you know, was undefeated
when they fought back in twenty twenty

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00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,400
one. He remembered just a few
weeks ago, it was Jeriko O'Quinn with

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00:19:56,519 --> 00:20:03,039
the spectacular and shocking knockout of the
Matchroom prospect on one of those cards in

316
00:20:03,079 --> 00:20:07,319
a very big upset, and that
was like kind of out of nowhere that

317
00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,880
was from like a big stunner.
He knocked out Peter mcgrail, who was

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00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:15,240
like heavily touted, undefeated, so
he's got to win over him and he

319
00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:18,160
but just for the record, he
knocked out Quinn in round one. And

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so if you look at Sanchez's record, he's one of these guys that spent

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00:20:21,799 --> 00:20:25,799
a lot of time fighting on good
club cards, Like he fought a lot

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00:20:25,799 --> 00:20:29,880
of those cards that were at the
Double Tree in Ontario, California, when

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00:20:30,519 --> 00:20:33,759
you know Thompson Boxing was around and
those types of shows. He's fought on

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00:20:33,799 --> 00:20:37,680
some of the pro box cards that
take place in South Florida. So you

325
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:41,160
know he's he's he's of that circuit. And so he's now stepping up into

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00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:45,119
the world class level. And look, I don't think Maloney is a world

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00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:49,480
beater, so I can't tell you
it's an impossibility by no means. But

328
00:20:51,039 --> 00:20:53,000
I don't think anybody on the Maloney
team was looking to get this guy beat,

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00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:57,519
so it would seem like that would
be a path to victory. I

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00:20:57,559 --> 00:21:00,920
just hope it's a good fight.
I mean, Maloney are usually any in

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00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:04,119
pretty entertaining fights, and I haven't
really seen much of Sawol Sanchez, but

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00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:10,200
it tells me if he's a Mexican
fighter by heritage and he's fighting on the

333
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:15,039
club cards in South southern California,
they like to put in guys that come

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00:21:15,079 --> 00:21:18,279
to fight. It seems like we
might be in for at least an entertaining

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00:21:18,599 --> 00:21:22,680
matchup as long as it goes good
preview stuff. As we mentioned, there

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00:21:22,799 --> 00:21:29,519
is a women's world title fight that
will be taking place on January twentieth is

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00:21:29,599 --> 00:21:37,640
Natasha Jonas will defend her IBF Women's
Welterweight championship against Mikayla Mayer and Mikaela Mayra.

338
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:42,079
Obviously prominent former US Olympian, former
world champion, lost controversially to Alicia

339
00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:47,640
Baumgardner at a lower weight division,
now fighting at welterweight. Let's get into

340
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:51,599
all of that. Dan Rayfield had
the opportunity to speak with her earlier in

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00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:56,440
this week. Let's bring you that
conversation as she readies to travel to England

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00:21:56,519 --> 00:22:02,119
take on Natasha Jonas, who's a
very popular prominent Britain championship fighter. Let's

343
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:06,839
go to that conversation right now as
part of the preview. I'm very pleased

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00:22:06,880 --> 00:22:08,960
to Welcome into our podcast. This
week, it is the former junior lightweight

345
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,119
world champion, Mikayla Mayer. Mikael, it's a pleasure to have you on

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00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:15,960
here. We're going to talk about
your very significant fight coming up. But

347
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,079
first of all, how are you
doing and how is camp going? As

348
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:23,359
we get closer to your January twentieth
date with Natasha Jonas. I'm doing great,

349
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:29,359
great. I know every fighter says
that about this time. I genuinely

350
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:34,680
feel this fight because of myself to
sort of fill out and be more comfortable

351
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:41,200
weight, and so usually at this
point camp, I'm lying right now,

352
00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:45,400
I don't feel that great, but
no, I genuinely feel good and strong,

353
00:22:45,519 --> 00:22:48,519
still going good and is barring and
I'll be ready all right, So

354
00:22:48,559 --> 00:22:52,359
I'll tell the people you're gonna be
going over to Liverpool, England to challenge

355
00:22:52,799 --> 00:22:59,200
Natasha Jonas for the IBF Women's Welterweight
World Championship that will take place January twentieth.

356
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:00,519
Like I mentioned, it's going to
be on ESPN Plus here in the

357
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,240
United States, And as I was
looking over your record, I realized,

358
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,400
you know, you've been fighting regularly, it seems like in the UK.

359
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:08,440
And I realized yes, this will
be, in fact, your fourth consecutive

360
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:14,200
fight in England. I just wondered, is that is it something that you

361
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:18,759
enjoy doing and is it because that's
just where the bigger fights are and the

362
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:22,880
money is or is there some other
reason that you continue to continue to go

363
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:27,200
there? And how's your British accent
these days? It's getting better but still

364
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:33,039
a pretty shitty. No, it's
more of a strategic business thing. There's

365
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:40,039
most of my fights, most of
my next big bumps and big fights are

366
00:23:40,079 --> 00:23:47,240
against people out in the UK.
So it's especially this fight, this is

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00:23:47,279 --> 00:23:48,799
where I need to be to get
myself back in position. You know,

368
00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:53,079
I started by not in the UK
when we had that big women's card Close

369
00:23:53,079 --> 00:23:59,279
the Shields versus Svanna Marshall and me
versus Bomb Gardener, and that that just

370
00:23:59,319 --> 00:24:02,160
so happened because who's got to be
amazing to have a huge female card at

371
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:03,240
the O two Arena, and it
was we sold it out, it was

372
00:24:03,279 --> 00:24:07,599
awesome. And then from there I
just I guess the BRIT's like me,

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00:24:07,799 --> 00:24:11,400
so I continue to fight out there, and now if you look at all

374
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:15,519
my big future opponents and then my
big fights there against girls from that side,

375
00:24:15,519 --> 00:24:18,079
of the pond. So now it's
just sort of a business move.

376
00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:21,200
I'm glad I've done it, so
now I'm not so much of gunderdog.

377
00:24:21,799 --> 00:24:26,599
So I mentioned this fight will take
place in Natasha's hometown of Liverpool. The

378
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,559
other fights that you have fought in
the UK were against women that of course

379
00:24:30,599 --> 00:24:33,559
you were traveling from America to go
there. But you fought in the UK

380
00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:37,839
against another American in Bomb Gardner.
As you mentioned, you fought another one

381
00:24:37,839 --> 00:24:41,599
of your opponents was from Italy.
Another one was from Sweden. But this

382
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,359
is the first time you're fighting a
brit in Britain, not only in Britain,

383
00:24:45,359 --> 00:24:48,279
but in her hometown. Do you
have any pause about that aspect of

384
00:24:48,319 --> 00:24:52,240
this matchup? That's true, I
didn't realize. I guess this is my

385
00:24:52,319 --> 00:24:56,559
first brit For someone who fights over
there so often, this is my first

386
00:24:56,599 --> 00:24:59,119
brit and it isn't our hometown,
so that's new for me, you know.

387
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,519
I've I've always been on the A
side, I think, you know,

388
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:07,720
and now I'm kind of going into
enemy territory and I know that they

389
00:25:07,759 --> 00:25:11,680
go hard for their people over there. You know, Natasha Jonas is very

390
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,799
well respected, so I don't know
I don't know how the fans are going

391
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,359
to react to me. I also
know that I have a big fan base

392
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:21,079
there now too, because I've foughten
there so much in the last year.

393
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,640
But still, you know, I
think the crowd is going to favor Natasha,

394
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,359
and that's okay. I'm okay with
it. I've had all the experience

395
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,440
I need in the world. You
know, when I by the time I'm

396
00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:33,319
walking through that ring, I'm so
zoned in focus. Second Matt bellowings,

397
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,000
Alganoi is going to go out the
window. So if they boom me,

398
00:25:36,039 --> 00:25:38,079
they boom me. I mean,
I've been watching your entire career. I

399
00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:41,480
was at your pro debut, I've
been to many of your fights, I've

400
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:44,680
watched many of your interviews. We've
interviewed before. I get to feel you

401
00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:45,880
can if you want, you can
play the heel really well if you wanted

402
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:51,759
to. Yeah, I could,
But I don't know. It's hard to

403
00:25:52,799 --> 00:25:55,799
build that type of I mean,
you've seen me do it before with my

404
00:25:55,799 --> 00:25:59,559
opponents, but it's hard to build
that with someone like Natasha Jonas, who's

405
00:25:59,559 --> 00:26:03,400
just so nice, like she's she's
like a gem over there. Everyone loves

406
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:04,759
her, you know, she doesn't
do anything wrong. She doesn't really talking

407
00:26:04,759 --> 00:26:08,480
to smack about people, So you
know, it would be out of character

408
00:26:08,559 --> 00:26:11,960
for me, and I just wouldn't
them right if I started going at her

409
00:26:12,039 --> 00:26:17,359
heart in a certain way. So
this fight is more, I think,

410
00:26:18,039 --> 00:26:22,480
to two women. We're both olympians, we both have huge accomplishments, huge

411
00:26:22,519 --> 00:26:27,519
amateur pedigree, former world champions,
and so she is the world champion,

412
00:26:27,599 --> 00:26:32,559
me and former world champion, but
you know we we were pioneers in this

413
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:34,880
sport. So now this is this
is a strategic fight. This is a

414
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:42,720
you know who who's gonna I think, because a lot of people are thinking

415
00:26:42,759 --> 00:26:45,119
that one of us is at the
end of our career and it's not me.

416
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,440
Well, she's thirty nine years old, and she was the one that

417
00:26:49,519 --> 00:26:52,160
was in the Olympics, and I
believe twenty twelve. You are thirty three

418
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:56,720
years old. You were in the
Olympics in two thousand and sixteen. And

419
00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:00,000
even though you do actually have a
few more pro fights than she does,

420
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,319
you're going this is you have twenty
pro fights, She's got what sixteen or

421
00:27:03,359 --> 00:27:08,000
seventeen profights. So when you say
that that, some people think one of

422
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,039
you is at the end of your
career. I kind of take the viewpoint

423
00:27:11,079 --> 00:27:14,079
that it seems to me that neither
one of you are at the end of

424
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,279
your career, even though she may
be older. You've both been fighting really

425
00:27:17,319 --> 00:27:21,599
well. You know, yeah,
why would why would you say that?

426
00:27:21,599 --> 00:27:23,519
Though? I guess, I mean, I think there's a lot of agism

427
00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:26,200
and sexism in this sport. You
know, there really is. Like I

428
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:30,519
have thirty three and that I haven't
heard a handful of handful of people say

429
00:27:30,559 --> 00:27:33,960
that, oh, now I'm gona
the tail end of my career blah blah

430
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,480
blah and declining. Yet you know, Canelo is thirty three and he's in

431
00:27:37,559 --> 00:27:41,920
his prime. It's just so you
have you get two different storylines. You

432
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,839
have one loss by like a one
point split decision, and you're at the

433
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,680
end of your career. Thank you, thank you. I mean, I

434
00:27:47,799 --> 00:27:51,079
don't I feel better than I've ever
spelt, especially since I'm letting my body

435
00:27:51,079 --> 00:27:53,039
fill out. Now I'm fighting in
a more natural weight, I can put

436
00:27:53,079 --> 00:27:56,839
on that muscle that you think about
it. Most people, as they develop

437
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,279
into their career, by the time
the thirty three, they've moved into three

438
00:27:59,279 --> 00:28:03,559
different way divisi I've stayed at one
thirty fifteen years, so it's time.

439
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:07,480
It's time for me to fill out, and I feel great. So I

440
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,039
was going to ask you about that. Did you go? I mean,

441
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,200
you you were a champion and unified
champion at one hundred and thirty pounds.

442
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,200
In fact, the fight where you
unified the titles against Hammaduche was one of

443
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,680
the great women's fights I've ever seen, one of the I mean, I

444
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,960
was ringside for that fight, so
I don't know. Maybe I'm biased because

445
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:22,480
of that, but that was a
hell of a fight. But here's the

446
00:28:22,519 --> 00:28:27,680
thing, though, you were unified
champion at one thirty after you lost the

447
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,759
belts to Bomb Garner, your next
fight was at one thirty five. Then

448
00:28:30,799 --> 00:28:34,000
you fought at one forty not title
fights. Now you're fighting for a title

449
00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,319
at one forty seven. So my
question is were you moving up through those

450
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,440
weight classes so quickly because of as
you mentioned, you were just wanting to

451
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:44,680
put the weight on it. It
was making you feel better or stronger,

452
00:28:44,839 --> 00:28:47,839
or was it more because you had
the opportunity to go to welterweight to become

453
00:28:47,839 --> 00:28:51,359
a world champion again. So a
little bit of both. I immediately knew

454
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,119
I was moving to one thirty five. That next fight after bomb Gardner was

455
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:56,440
one thirty five, and my body's
just letting my body fill out the tiniest

456
00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:00,599
bit it wanted to keep going.
One thirty five was still no different than

457
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:03,240
one thirty to me, that's what
it felt like. So then I thought,

458
00:29:03,359 --> 00:29:08,039
okay, let's then My goal was
to stay to fight Katie Taylor,

459
00:29:08,039 --> 00:29:12,440
who was unified champion at one thirty
five, and I became mandatory for her

460
00:29:12,519 --> 00:29:18,160
in that fight. But she's busy, She's caught up with Serrano and Chonshill

461
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:22,119
camera and like had all these fights
vers. So I'm like, I can't

462
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:23,359
really stick around at one thirty if
I'm not going to get this fight with

463
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:27,240
Katie Taylor immediately. So I'm like, okay, where can I get this

464
00:29:27,319 --> 00:29:32,000
opportunity? Then Top Rank called and
said, what about jumping to one forty

465
00:29:32,039 --> 00:29:34,440
seven. There's an opportunity to fight
Tasha Jonas. I said, okay,

466
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,559
Like I eventually thought I'd end up
at one forty seven, so this I

467
00:29:37,599 --> 00:29:41,880
didn't think. I jumped there so
quickly, but tons Hial camera wasn't available

468
00:29:42,079 --> 00:29:45,319
at one Katie Taylor wasn't available at
one thirty five. It was just the

469
00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,960
most immediate fight for me, and
so the next fight I took at one

470
00:29:49,079 --> 00:29:52,640
forty two, just slowly continue to
sort of build that, you know,

471
00:29:52,839 --> 00:29:56,039
build that strength and build my body
out. So yeah, one thirty one

472
00:29:56,079 --> 00:30:00,759
thirty five, one forty two,
all to prepare for this. So a

473
00:30:00,759 --> 00:30:03,240
lot of people would look at it
and say, as you mentioned, you

474
00:30:03,319 --> 00:30:07,319
fought most of your career in the
one hundred and thirty pound weight class with

475
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:10,559
a smat you know, a few
fights since or really just two fights since,

476
00:30:10,839 --> 00:30:12,839
you know, in the heavier weights. But and then she's a champion

477
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:17,000
at one forty seven. She was
a unified champion at one fifty four.

478
00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:19,519
But the reality is, I was
I didn't realize this until I started to

479
00:30:19,519 --> 00:30:22,839
look at her record as I was
getting ready to talk to you today,

480
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:26,880
that most of her fights, even
though she's been a champion those heavierweight divisions,

481
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,960
really we're at one hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty five.

482
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:30,920
And I also see on the on
the listing, you're actually like about an

483
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,240
inch taller than she is. So
you know, who's really the She's the

484
00:30:34,319 --> 00:30:37,160
champion in the heavier weight class,
but who's good who's the bigger woman,

485
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,960
so to speak, in the fight, I think I definitely am gonna be

486
00:30:41,039 --> 00:30:45,400
She's had more time at that weight, so maybe she's a little bit more

487
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,000
comfortable there. You know, it
takes time to reverse all what I've done,

488
00:30:48,039 --> 00:30:49,680
what I've done to my body holding
it down the web thirty for so

489
00:30:49,799 --> 00:30:52,200
many years. It takes time to
reverse that. You can't just build that

490
00:30:52,319 --> 00:30:56,440
muscle overnight. So she has,
you know, the experience there. But

491
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,119
you're right, most of advice at
web thirty one thirty. She only went

492
00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,799
to one forty fifty four because that
is where the opportunity was. You know,

493
00:31:03,799 --> 00:31:07,400
the higher you go in the waits
a little bit less competition is maybe

494
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:11,160
a little easier. It is a
snag of belt. So you know,

495
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,960
that's what she did. It's a
strategic move, and she did that and

496
00:31:15,039 --> 00:31:17,359
now she's come down to one forty
seven and if you look at all the

497
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:21,440
women, that's where they're going.
One forty seven is the next big division

498
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:22,799
for us. Yeah, I think
you're right about that. I mean,

499
00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,039
especially you mentioned like some of the
other women you were talking about, Katie

500
00:31:26,039 --> 00:31:29,720
Taylor is vacated now some of the
belts at one thirty five. She's keeping

501
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,400
the belts at one forty. Got
to figure before it's all said one she

502
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:33,960
moves up, You're obviously going to
go up at some point, you know,

503
00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,839
for this fight and perhaps beyond,
you know, stay there for a

504
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:40,720
little bit. I just want to
touch on one of the other fights you

505
00:31:40,759 --> 00:31:42,759
had. We were talking about,
you know, you having a bunch of

506
00:31:42,759 --> 00:31:45,880
fights in the UK. The first
bout that you had in that run of

507
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,920
fights over there was the fight with
Bombgardner, which was, you know,

508
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,599
a unification fight was on that big
card you mentioned with Claressa was a pretty

509
00:31:52,599 --> 00:31:56,720
big deal. She barely barely beat
you by, like I said, one

510
00:31:56,759 --> 00:32:00,920
point on two of the score cards. You were well ahead on the third

511
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:02,839
score card since that fight and you, I mean, we all know the

512
00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:06,759
back and forth that you women had
going into that fight. Lot of you

513
00:32:06,799 --> 00:32:09,640
know, bad blood so to speak, between you two guys and gals.

514
00:32:10,079 --> 00:32:15,720
She tested positive in a subsequent fight
for a banned substance, which you know,

515
00:32:15,759 --> 00:32:19,519
anytime that happens, it's going to
make some people think that if you

516
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:22,359
tested positive for that fight, that
you maybe weren't clean for previous fights.

517
00:32:22,359 --> 00:32:24,640
In other words, you know,
when you get caught once, it's not

518
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,480
necessarily the first time you ever did
it. I wonder what your thoughts were

519
00:32:28,759 --> 00:32:32,559
when you saw that she had tested
positive for a banned substance. Yeah,

520
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:37,440
I thought, I think her whole
legacy is a question now, not in

521
00:32:37,119 --> 00:32:43,160
although her body was so ripped.
She claims to be a very hardcore Christian,

522
00:32:43,319 --> 00:32:46,279
So I literally never thought that she
would do something like that. But

523
00:32:46,359 --> 00:32:51,680
I believe it's true because if you
look at the levels that she tested for,

524
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:57,240
they weren't just minimal traces like something
you accidentally got makes it to your

525
00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:00,119
protein powder. I mean, those
are really really highlight levels of testosterone and

526
00:33:00,119 --> 00:33:06,039
another black market drugs that you really
can't even get in America. So you

527
00:33:06,079 --> 00:33:12,640
know, she's guilty, and I'm
disappointed because you know, there's no going

528
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,480
back in reversing like how that's affected
the division, the one hundred and thirty

529
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:20,680
pound division over the last two years
since she came out of nowhere, which

530
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:27,160
is another little hint probably that she
wasn't natural. But you know, you

531
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:30,160
can't. That's that's just you know, you can't go back. You can't.

532
00:33:30,319 --> 00:33:31,799
You never know. A whole legacy
is in question at this point,

533
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:37,240
and now it's up to the commissions
and the governing bodies to strip her,

534
00:33:37,319 --> 00:33:42,079
make an example of her, and
get lay some type of punishment down which

535
00:33:42,079 --> 00:33:46,279
they have. That's the pointing part. If she is eligible at some point,

536
00:33:46,359 --> 00:33:51,079
would you want to have a rematch
with her? You're not person to

537
00:33:51,119 --> 00:33:52,599
asking me that, and I honestly
have to consider whether I want would want

538
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:57,000
to give her another opportunity. Right
now, she's going around calling out someone

539
00:33:57,039 --> 00:34:00,400
like Clorisa's shields because she knows that
she's you know, needs to stay relevant

540
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:05,119
somehow. She should be stripped right
now. I don't think she deserves any

541
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,079
of us champion or top you know, pound and pound all these top girls

542
00:34:08,119 --> 00:34:12,320
right now in this generation. She
doesn't deserve any of our attention or any

543
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:14,639
of our respect until she clears her
name, which I don't think she's want

544
00:34:14,639 --> 00:34:17,760
to be able to do. She
should have already been stripped, So I

545
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,639
don't know, you know, we'll
see when it comes down to that.

546
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:22,880
Right now, I'm at one forty
seven, she's still at one thirty.

547
00:34:23,039 --> 00:34:27,840
She talks about coming up. But
I got Tasha Jonas right now in front

548
00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:30,639
of me and all the other girls
that are already at one forty seven,

549
00:34:30,679 --> 00:34:32,880
that I'm that I'm thinking about.
Well, we mentioned a bunch of the

550
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:37,000
top of you know, women fighters, yourself and Bombagarner at that time,

551
00:34:37,039 --> 00:34:40,840
Shields obviously, Natasha Jonas, Sorono, Katie Taylor, Cameron. You mentioned

552
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,159
all of these people I have mentioned. You're all fighting each other in the

553
00:34:46,199 --> 00:34:49,880
biggest fights that you can make in
your various weight classes. And when the

554
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,159
fights are made, they usually are
done so with not a lot of drama

555
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,159
as far as you know, the
fight comes up, it might take a

556
00:34:55,159 --> 00:34:58,559
couple of weeks, a couple of
months to hammer it out, and no

557
00:34:58,679 --> 00:35:00,320
must, no fuss, and you
get in the ring and take care of

558
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:04,239
your business and it's on to the
next And it seems like a regular occurrence,

559
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:07,000
at least in the female side of
boxing. I wonder why do you

560
00:35:07,039 --> 00:35:10,079
think it seems to me anyway that
it's so much easier for that to happen

561
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:14,159
with the female boxers, And it
is when it comes to making the biggest

562
00:35:14,159 --> 00:35:17,079
fights with many of the men's boxers, because us women have more to prove,

563
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:21,280
you know, we haven't had the
opportunity, we haven't had a platform,

564
00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,599
we haven't had like all the supports
and the networks just a handful of

565
00:35:24,679 --> 00:35:28,519
us are now getting that, and
if we want to continue to grow that

566
00:35:28,719 --> 00:35:31,679
and show that we belong and improve
the good decision, we have to make

567
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:35,639
the big fights happen we want that. Does it excites us? I don't

568
00:35:35,639 --> 00:35:37,719
know. I think the men maybe
have been a little bit spoiled in the

569
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:42,079
sense where they can kind of co
through take one big fight, pocket millions

570
00:35:42,119 --> 00:35:45,480
of dollars and kind of you know, take a few two nut fights in

571
00:35:45,519 --> 00:35:47,119
here and there. I just don't
think the women have had the privilege like

572
00:35:47,119 --> 00:35:52,719
we're here trying to prove that we
belong in the sport and in orders we

573
00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:54,920
have to put on the most exciting
fights possible, whether it's stated well or

574
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:58,800
not well enough or not. You
know, hopefully the next generation will,

575
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:00,159
but we're going to be doing a
lot lot of things that we're not really

576
00:36:00,159 --> 00:36:04,480
going to reap the benefits of.
So, you know, I was wondering

577
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,800
about this. You know, I've
always just adored Al Mitchell, your trainer.

578
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:09,039
I've known him for many many years, one of the best guys I

579
00:36:09,079 --> 00:36:13,440
know in the whole sport. I
wonder how excited does he get to see

580
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:15,639
you go on these types of big
fights and have opportunities to fight in for

581
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:20,880
titles and heavier weight classes and move
along. I mean, you know he's

582
00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:23,400
got to. He was, you
know, he's you know, he's trained

583
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:28,320
a lot of uh, a lot
of great boxers, a lot of guys,

584
00:36:28,360 --> 00:36:31,559
a lot of mostly guys, have
a lot of really bad Eastern boxers

585
00:36:31,559 --> 00:36:37,719
who were really accomplished and skilled.
And here I come one day and my

586
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:39,800
walking into this gym, my little
pink, juicy suit. And he never

587
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:44,360
thought that I'd be the one,
because if you look at the group of

588
00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:46,000
people he's had in the gym,
even the group he had in the gym

589
00:36:46,039 --> 00:36:51,039
when I walked in, he would
never expect the one to make it this

590
00:36:51,159 --> 00:36:53,480
far. And I'm the last one
standing, you know. So he tells

591
00:36:53,519 --> 00:36:55,960
me all the time, and I
always believe I'd be in this position.

592
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:00,840
And maybe don't exactly how because we've
been you know, plowing away and a

593
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,400
path, but I always believed i'd
be here, he says, never expect

594
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,760
it. You just never expected.
He just wanted me, you know,

595
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:10,000
maybe make a little money and then
never wanted me to turn pro. You

596
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:15,039
know, just makes some ninete sponsors
and blah blah blah, so he's definitely

597
00:37:15,079 --> 00:37:17,159
happy that I'm here, and he
just wants He's tells me all the time,

598
00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:21,719
just you know, a few more
years. You take these big fights,

599
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:22,760
you win them, you take money, so you're set for life and

600
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:27,599
just go on and commentate to fight
anymore. So yeah, exactly, you

601
00:37:27,639 --> 00:37:30,800
know he's bobbing me, but he
doesn't want me doing it forever. Well,

602
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:34,440
I remember distinctly being at your professional
debut in Los Angeles. I believe

603
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,280
it was the Loma Chenko under card
when he fought Mariaga, and where we

604
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,119
were seated in the media section was
right near your corner. And your fight

605
00:37:40,199 --> 00:37:45,840
lasted probably what ninety seconds in your
debut, and the entire ninety seconds,

606
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:49,079
Al was screaming at the top of
his lungs, use your jab, use

607
00:37:49,159 --> 00:37:52,039
your jeb. And now you're twenty
fights into your prokra I wonder how many

608
00:37:52,039 --> 00:37:55,519
times do you figure he's yelled at
you to use your jeb. You guys,

609
00:37:57,159 --> 00:38:01,000
it's so funny because to Chaw just
sort of letting me loose, but

610
00:38:01,159 --> 00:38:07,079
I mean letting me loose like for
you know, going into my last not

611
00:38:07,199 --> 00:38:10,000
this past year, but my last
few fights at one thirty and stuff,

612
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,719
and he collecting those belts. I'd
be in the gyms, borings Warren's barn.

613
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,199
I mean, for that first half
of camp, I wasn't even allowed

614
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:21,280
to throw my right hand. I
mean just really really hard discipline, really

615
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:23,400
hard on me, you know,
not letting me throw silly punches. Everything

616
00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,119
had to be behind my job.
Everything had to finish with the hook and

617
00:38:27,199 --> 00:38:30,000
so. But that's what got me
so technically sound now, you know.

618
00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:32,719
So, I'm grateful for it,
but still telling me this, I mean,

619
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:36,719
I can't I hear it in my
sleep. I'll hear for the rest

620
00:38:36,760 --> 00:38:39,920
of my life. Well, I
suspect that. Come come your fight against

621
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:44,639
Jonas on January twentieth and Liverpool,
England Live on ESPN Plus. You'll hear

622
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:46,800
al yell and use your job quite
a bit. Michela, thank you very

623
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,639
much for the interview time, and
I wish you good luck in the fight.

624
00:38:51,639 --> 00:38:53,039
Thanks so much, good talking to
you you too, Take care,

625
00:38:54,480 --> 00:39:00,159
good stuff with her and again she
would love to at some point obviously at

626
00:39:00,159 --> 00:39:02,760
her hands on bomb Gardner if she
can, But for right now that has

627
00:39:02,840 --> 00:39:07,039
not happened. Does not like it
look like it's gonna happen anytime in the

628
00:39:07,079 --> 00:39:08,840
short term. So now I give
her a lot of credit, by the

629
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:15,119
way, because she has obviously understood
it and it's more lucrative apparently as well,

630
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:17,159
go fight where the money is,
go fight the bigger names, go

631
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:22,760
fight in England, etc. And
she's willing to do this again. A

632
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:24,599
couple of wrap up thoughts from you. Yeah, it's like we talked about,

633
00:39:24,599 --> 00:39:27,400
it's gonna be her fourth fight in
a row in the UK, and

634
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,400
it's mainly because of the opportunity.
I mean, she says she likes it

635
00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:32,639
if you listen to her speak about
it. Bomb Gardner is not so much

636
00:39:32,679 --> 00:39:36,719
on the radar because she's jammed up
with her own problems with the drug testing

637
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,639
situation and Mikaela. As she talked
about, she's been fighting, had been

638
00:39:39,679 --> 00:39:43,639
fighting at one hundred and thirty pounds
for a very long time since she pretty

639
00:39:43,679 --> 00:39:46,840
much was starting out as amateur,
and she's now moved up two weight classes

640
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,920
in her last two fights and now
she's gonna be a full fledged walter weight.

641
00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:53,159
So she's gone from one thirty now
at one forty seven in the past

642
00:39:53,199 --> 00:39:55,519
two years or you know, year
and year and change, year and a

643
00:39:55,519 --> 00:40:00,360
half, I guess, and we'll
see. There's lots of big women fights

644
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,320
out there, and Natasha Jonas is
a is a very solid opponent. They're

645
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:07,800
both Olympians. She is fighting in
Natasha's hometown and we'll see how it goes.

646
00:40:07,840 --> 00:40:09,599
I think these are two of the
of the better. This is to

647
00:40:09,679 --> 00:40:15,039
me, this is like two of
the best lightweight women fighting as welterweights.

648
00:40:15,199 --> 00:40:17,639
That makes sense because that's where Jonas
spent most of her career. And then

649
00:40:17,679 --> 00:40:21,400
even though she's also won a title
up at one fifty four, but she

650
00:40:21,519 --> 00:40:24,599
dropped down to fight and she ended
up winning a title at welterweight. And

651
00:40:25,039 --> 00:40:29,519
we'll say it's the main event on
the boxer card. It'll be on ESPN

652
00:40:29,679 --> 00:40:32,239
Plus in the United States, Sky
Sports in the UK. And it's good

653
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:35,760
to see, you know, two
of the top women out there are going

654
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:37,039
to get some attention in this main
event, the same way some of the

655
00:40:37,079 --> 00:40:40,400
other best women we have seen in
recent times, whether it's Katie Taylor and

656
00:40:40,519 --> 00:40:45,199
Serrano and Chantel Cameron and Claressa Shields, and I don't want to leave anybody

657
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:47,559
out, but you know, those
all those excellent female boxers that we've talked

658
00:40:47,559 --> 00:40:51,639
about, and this is an opportunity
now for them to be also in a

659
00:40:51,679 --> 00:40:55,159
main event and once again reinforces we
bring you newsmakers, bring you fighters,

660
00:40:55,320 --> 00:41:00,280
bring you promoters, bring you personalities. We love that here as part of

661
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:04,480
our Big Fight weekend podcast, the
preview podcast, the Fight for each U

662
00:41:04,519 --> 00:41:07,639
night recap that comes off the weekend, and even special conversation. This is

663
00:41:07,679 --> 00:41:10,679
why you've got to be following and
subscribing as well, because when you suddenly

664
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:16,280
were able to wrangle the interview with
Virgil Ortiz in advance of that fight,

665
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:21,519
if they were following and subscribing on
the podcast feed, they needed no other

666
00:41:21,599 --> 00:41:23,360
prompt They immediately got that interview.
We went ahead and put it up on

667
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:28,360
the feed, and here again you
hear from Mikayla Mayer in advance of her

668
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:31,079
fight. Again, that fight is
not this weekend. It is next weekend,

669
00:41:31,199 --> 00:41:36,280
January twentieth in the UK, Saturday
afternoon US time. We'll have more

670
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:39,239
time to preview it obviously, as
we rock on in the next week.

671
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:43,360
All Right, some news and then
a little bit of nostalgia, including some

672
00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:46,400
birthday nostalgias. All Right, Eryl
Spence, I've been interested to talk about

673
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:52,840
this ever since I saw him putting
all over social media Instagram and Twitter about

674
00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:58,880
his injured right eye, his cataract
problem in his right eye. The Spence

675
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:01,199
said he had had a rack surgery, that this is something that had been

676
00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:06,639
coming on. He even made mention
that this was something that was apparently an

677
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:09,480
issue even in and around fight time
last summer with Terrence Crawford, not that

678
00:42:09,559 --> 00:42:13,320
he was going so far to make
it as an excuse. All right,

679
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:16,159
what do you make of all of
this? And does this basically rule out

680
00:42:16,199 --> 00:42:20,159
that Crawford and Spence is going to
be the next fighter? What do we

681
00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:22,400
make of this? Well, I
mean, it is going to keep Errol

682
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:25,000
Spence on the shelf a bit longer
than maybe people might have thought. But

683
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:31,199
if there's a silver lining for Errol
is that he had the surgery apparently this

684
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:36,960
week, and it's about a two
month recovery period, so maybe a little

685
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,880
bit shorter, maybe a little bit
longer. Obviously, every person's going to

686
00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:44,960
have a different exact recovery time.
That's going to be for his doctors to

687
00:42:45,039 --> 00:42:47,079
talk about. But if it,
let's say it's about two months and he

688
00:42:47,159 --> 00:42:52,039
had the surgery in early January,
that would put him back at least in

689
00:42:52,119 --> 00:42:54,880
the ability to train and everything in
early March, and I don't think anybody

690
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:59,119
was expecting if there's going to be
a rematch with him and Crawford, that

691
00:42:59,159 --> 00:43:02,360
it was going to take place in
March anyway. So I don't know if

692
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:08,719
it has any direct impact on that
match particularly, but obviously it's another setback

693
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:13,239
for Spence from the standpoint of going
back. You know, he had the

694
00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:16,400
terrible car accident a few years ago, right then had a fight scheduled against

695
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:20,280
Manny Pacao that got knocked out at
the last minute, like the week of

696
00:43:20,320 --> 00:43:22,519
the fire, like ten days before
the fight because in his in an eye

697
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,480
coincidentally, in an eye exam,
it was found the dead he detached redna

698
00:43:27,559 --> 00:43:29,360
in one of his eyes. He
had to have surgery and pull out of

699
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:31,400
that fight. And now so that
we're clear that was the left eye,

700
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:35,679
I believe I went back and look
and this is the right eye. It's

701
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:37,079
not the same eye. So we
just need to keep it as far as

702
00:43:37,159 --> 00:43:40,119
we're not optometrius. We're just playing
this on the Big Fight weekend in preview,

703
00:43:40,159 --> 00:43:44,119
but we believe this is the other
eye that's got the cataract problem.

704
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:46,360
Yeah, so that means He's had
the surgery on one eye for a retina,

705
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,800
and now he's gonna he just had
the surgery on the other eye for

706
00:43:49,880 --> 00:43:52,239
a cataract. So I mean that's
not a good thing obviously. You know,

707
00:43:53,119 --> 00:43:55,880
eyes are serious business, and if
you're a boxer getting hit in the

708
00:43:55,920 --> 00:44:00,760
face, it's maybe even more so. I would imagine it just feels like

709
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:05,400
again that arrow sort of just he's
just breaking down in different ways. I

710
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:07,480
mean, he's you know, and
he admitted in some of his social media

711
00:44:07,679 --> 00:44:12,280
posts, and this was not a
secret among people that know him and follow

712
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,960
him, he wasn't living the right
life in terms of what you need to

713
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:16,719
do to be at the top of
your game. You know, he would

714
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:20,119
like to party, he liked to
drink, he liked to you know,

715
00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:23,559
stay out late, do his thing, and that you know, maybe cost

716
00:44:23,639 --> 00:44:27,199
him a little bit of time on
his career. Not to take anything away

717
00:44:27,199 --> 00:44:30,800
from Crawford's performance, because Crawford was
ready to go. He did make mention

718
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:37,079
when he posted about the surgery in
one of his Twitter posts about you know,

719
00:44:37,119 --> 00:44:38,760
why do you think I got hit
with so many hooks and shots like

720
00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:42,800
that? And because he couldn't see
that great the right eye. So I

721
00:44:42,840 --> 00:44:45,119
don't want to say that was an
excuse, but he was making the point.

722
00:44:45,159 --> 00:44:46,039
You know, why do you think
I got hit with so many jabs

723
00:44:46,079 --> 00:44:49,639
and hooks? Well, yeah,
obviously he can't see them coming. It's

724
00:44:49,679 --> 00:44:53,760
going to cause you some problems.
So I mean, look, the spense

725
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:58,800
that was in the ring against Crawford
was not the pound for pound guy that

726
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:02,360
we'd been watching for all the his
previous years. He got obliterated by Crawford,

727
00:45:02,599 --> 00:45:06,599
who was a great fighter, fine, but that was not the guy

728
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:09,000
that we've been used to seeing.
He got knocked down three times after having

729
00:45:09,079 --> 00:45:12,960
been as thirty as could be for
most of his career. He didn't win

730
00:45:13,039 --> 00:45:15,039
more. Maybe maybe one, if
you were generous, Maybe maybe he won

731
00:45:15,119 --> 00:45:20,199
around against Terrence Crawford, you know, two if you really wanted to be

732
00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:22,239
super generous, I guess. But
no, it was an absolute one sided

733
00:45:22,280 --> 00:45:27,559
ass whooping and a knockout. And
you know, as we've talked about,

734
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:30,639
I know the rematch has been exercised, as we've discussed, but you and

735
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:35,679
I are both a little skeptical if
it will ever actually get in the ring

736
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:38,480
and take place. You know,
Crawford's been on social media the last on

737
00:45:38,559 --> 00:45:44,519
a rampage last couple of days yapping
about tia Fimo Lopez, who called him

738
00:45:44,519 --> 00:45:45,960
out, said he wants to fight, and which, by the way,

739
00:45:45,519 --> 00:45:50,679
is not an unusual thing for the
lineal real champion at one hundred and forty

740
00:45:51,079 --> 00:45:53,559
to call out and want to fight
the guy that's the same situation at one

741
00:45:53,639 --> 00:45:57,360
hundred and forty seven. It seems
like that would be a natural fight.

742
00:45:57,639 --> 00:46:00,880
You know, Crawford is the welterweight
world champion, tia Fimo is the was

743
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:04,960
the junior welterweight champion, and by
the way, they were both champions at

744
00:46:05,039 --> 00:46:07,960
lightweight, so it's not like there's
some humongous difference. Yes, Crawford's obviously

745
00:46:08,079 --> 00:46:12,199
more advanced in his career, is
older, he's got a lot, you

746
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:14,920
know, more fights and that sort
of thing, but that that would seem

747
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,920
to be a natural kind of progression
fight for them in terms of what could

748
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:22,400
be made about Crawford also was looking, I don't think he wants to stick

749
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:24,159
around at welterweight. If he's gonna
fight, I think he wants to go

750
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:29,400
and fight a big name in the
heavierweight division. You know, on Charlot

751
00:46:29,559 --> 00:46:31,320
Or he's called out. He's talking
about want to fight Canelo or whatever.

752
00:46:31,719 --> 00:46:35,559
You know, I don't know about
that happening, but he got this Spens

753
00:46:35,599 --> 00:46:37,800
thing that's kind of like there,
and there has been no clarity about it.

754
00:46:38,119 --> 00:46:42,880
You know, PBC everybody's on silent
mode. Or I joked around with

755
00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:45,159
somebody that everybody related the PBC is
an airplane mode right now, and you

756
00:46:45,199 --> 00:46:49,599
know they're they're just of the off
the grid, so to speak, because

757
00:46:50,159 --> 00:46:52,840
they're like shut down. I know
they're starting to work and with Amazon Prime

758
00:46:52,920 --> 00:46:57,480
Video to ramp up their schedule and
what their situation is gonna be, what

759
00:46:57,559 --> 00:46:59,920
the fights are going to be,
what the production is going to look like,

760
00:47:00,039 --> 00:47:01,320
and there's a lot of work to
be done. But we're not going

761
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:05,840
to see anything from them in terms
of in the ring at the earliest until

762
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:07,880
March. You know. There's been
rumors. I don't know if they're like

763
00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:13,639
how legit that that the whispers that
maybe they won't even commence until April.

764
00:47:13,679 --> 00:47:15,480
I suspect it will still be some
time in March. But the point is

765
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:22,360
right now PBC is like on a
break. Let's say, I mean they're

766
00:47:22,440 --> 00:47:24,639
they're they're out for the next couple
of months, So Crawford and Spence,

767
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:29,559
you know, is just one of
a number of different things that they need

768
00:47:29,639 --> 00:47:32,239
to address and when it happens,
hopefully by that time, whatever happens,

769
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:36,920
that Errol will be back in terms
of this health of his eye and he

770
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:38,880
can go back and get his thing. Whether he fights Crawford or not,

771
00:47:39,039 --> 00:47:42,440
I can't tell you for sure if
I'm sure he's you know, he's not

772
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,599
retiring. Even made the point in
one of his posts about that that if

773
00:47:45,599 --> 00:47:47,119
he doesn't fight Crawford again, you
know, get yourself a good, solid

774
00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:51,960
fight to get back in the ring, show us that you still have plenty

775
00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:55,039
of fight left in you and uh
and move on from there. I wish

776
00:47:55,039 --> 00:48:00,719
I'm a healthy, uh, healthy
healing and but then again, you know,

777
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:04,800
maybe this is one of those defining
fights where Terrence Crawford and I was

778
00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:07,079
there with you, Terrence Crawford beat
the daylights out of him, and maybe

779
00:48:07,159 --> 00:48:10,159
it's one of those that at this
stage he doesn't recover from. You hate

780
00:48:10,159 --> 00:48:14,800
to say that, but he doesn't
recover at the highest level from, especially

781
00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:17,480
when you've got more physical problems.
And we can't I'm not making excuses,

782
00:48:17,519 --> 00:48:22,039
we can't emphasize this enough, that
spectacular car crash where he had the concussion,

783
00:48:22,119 --> 00:48:25,679
the broken jaw. He's lucky he
was not killed het jaw. He

784
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:29,239
lost a bunch of teeth, though
I thought I thought he did have the

785
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:30,840
broken jaw as well. We'll have
to double check on that. I thought

786
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:36,480
I remember writing something about that.
But nonetheless he had to have, you

787
00:48:36,519 --> 00:48:39,960
know, basically a facial surgery in
that, and there was real concern as

788
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:44,280
the fight was going on, the
disfigurement of his face, et cetera.

789
00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:46,039
Getting beaten like he did by Crawford. He's got a left to overcome.

790
00:48:46,199 --> 00:48:52,199
And now you got another eye problem
there as well. So there you go

791
00:48:52,559 --> 00:48:55,639
on that front. With that,
all right, let's move on on the

792
00:48:55,760 --> 00:49:02,119
news. What else the two twenty
twenty three Boxing Writers Association of America Annual

793
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:07,480
Awards. The nominees are out,
so they haven't given the awards out yet,

794
00:49:07,519 --> 00:49:10,599
but they have the voting. I
know you've done all of your individual

795
00:49:10,679 --> 00:49:13,960
awards, but just touch on this
real quick, because we've gone over this

796
00:49:14,039 --> 00:49:15,960
a lot at the end of last
year in the beginning of this year,

797
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:19,639
about the awards that you gave out
for Fight of the Year, Fight of

798
00:49:19,679 --> 00:49:22,719
the Year, etc. But go
ahead. Okay. So the BWAA is

799
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:27,239
an organization that's been around for almost
one hundred years, and it's I think

800
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:30,079
most people when they see the awards
come out. I mean, listen,

801
00:49:30,119 --> 00:49:36,719
all the websites and all the bloggers
and reporters and columnists and everything, the

802
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:39,760
YouTubers and everything. We all give
out our awards, but I think you

803
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:43,639
know, the ones that carry a
certain element of prestige in terms of the

804
00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:47,280
history of the sport are the Boxing
Writers Association of America because it's collective vote

805
00:49:47,320 --> 00:49:52,960
by the Writers Association, and the
Ring Magazine has been putting out their awards

806
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:57,400
for like one hundred years. Also, so I'm a member of the BWAA,

807
00:49:57,519 --> 00:50:00,000
as I have been for the more
than twenty years. So on Saturday

808
00:50:00,199 --> 00:50:05,880
that just took place, myself and
others from our membership were on a zoom

809
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:08,920
call and we ran through all the
various awards and did the nominations and voted

810
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:12,800
and blah blah blah, and who
would make the ballot? Generally speaking,

811
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:16,159
it's five per category, doesn't always
have to be that, And so the

812
00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:20,559
nominees were done. They will be
voted on over the next couple of weeks

813
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,800
by the membership on our website,
and uh, there's no day yet,

814
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:29,920
but sometime come the spring, probably
situated around a major fight, as is

815
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:31,519
usually the case, you know,
whether it's New York or Vegas or wherever,

816
00:50:32,079 --> 00:50:36,079
we'll have the annual banquet a couple
of nights before that big fight,

817
00:50:36,159 --> 00:50:39,239
and everybody who wins will get there
get their awards. And that's been going

818
00:50:39,280 --> 00:50:42,360
on for years. I've been to
many many of those dinners. Some are

819
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:46,639
better than others. But nonetheless,
the candidates that we that we nominated and

820
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:50,760
then voted on from the membership to
go on the ballot then should not come

821
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:52,400
as a surprise. So I'll just
run. I mean, to me,

822
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:53,440
the big two we're obviously the Fight
of the year and the Fighter of the

823
00:50:53,519 --> 00:50:55,960
year. In terms of the Fighter
of the year, it's and this is

824
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:59,960
alphabet alphabetical, not a surprise to
see who the five guys that made it.

825
00:51:00,039 --> 00:51:01,480
They're the same, you know,
five guys among the guys that I

826
00:51:01,559 --> 00:51:05,840
put in my list, and I've
seen these people mentioned everywhere. And that

827
00:51:06,079 --> 00:51:08,880
was again alphabetically, David Benavidez,
Karen S Crawford, Travonte, Davis,

828
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:13,159
Devin Hainey and Noya in a way, I mean a very good group of

829
00:51:13,239 --> 00:51:16,280
fighters. You know. It seems
to me based on everything I've been reading

830
00:51:16,280 --> 00:51:21,519
and seeing from others, you know, in a way and Crawford are the

831
00:51:21,559 --> 00:51:23,119
two favorites, you know, from
most people who are picking such things.

832
00:51:23,159 --> 00:51:25,599
And Haney had a hell of a
year also, And in terms of the

833
00:51:25,639 --> 00:51:29,400
fight of the year, you have
better bv. Yard, which we discussed

834
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:31,599
a little bit. That was a
great matchup Joe Cordina in his great war

835
00:51:31,679 --> 00:51:36,599
against Rockamov, the huge upset,
but was also a great fight between Raphael

836
00:51:36,719 --> 00:51:42,280
Espinoza and Robasi Ramirez that was in
December where Espinoza won the WBO featherweight title

837
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:45,280
in a tremendous battle. He had
the Haimimongia Sergey devron Chenko fight, which

838
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:49,199
was a great battle, also came
down to a knockdown in the last round.

839
00:51:49,639 --> 00:51:52,639
And the fight that I picked as
the fight of the year a junior

840
00:51:52,679 --> 00:51:57,519
featherweight eliminator between Luis Neary and a
Zat Jovanissian and ultimately that was a TKO

841
00:51:57,559 --> 00:52:00,840
in the eleventh round. That's gonna
get Nearie in that position where it's not

842
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:05,199
done yet, but most likely in
the May fight he's going to challenge in

843
00:52:05,239 --> 00:52:08,360
a way for the undisputed junior featherweight
title. So those were the two big

844
00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:10,559
awards. And then in the terms
of the Trainer of the Year, we

845
00:52:10,639 --> 00:52:15,920
nominated Bill Haney, Shingo in a
Way, which is Nioia's father, Andy

846
00:52:15,039 --> 00:52:21,079
Lee, Shane mcgwigan and Brian McIntyre
all excellent trainers. I picked Brian McIntyre,

847
00:52:21,159 --> 00:52:24,199
but all those guys have a head
a hell of a year. Manager

848
00:52:24,239 --> 00:52:28,920
of the Year we nominated just three
people, Keith Connolly, Bill Haney and

849
00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:34,760
Igus Klemis. All three had accomplishments. I voted I picked in my awards,

850
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,639
I picked Keith Connolly, and the
reason for that is if the trainer

851
00:52:37,679 --> 00:52:40,320
of the Year and the fighter the
yere tj are based on what you do

852
00:52:40,400 --> 00:52:44,400
in the ring, what you win, on how you perform, the Manager

853
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:46,320
of the Year doesn't fight. The
manager of the year's job is to put

854
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:51,239
the fighter in the best financial position, make the best deals and also work

855
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:53,199
with the promoter to make sure they
get the right opponents. And if you

856
00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:55,920
took a look at the things that
Connolly did in terms of the money,

857
00:52:55,960 --> 00:53:00,159
he was able to secure the deals. He was able to secure promotion for

858
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:04,519
his fighters, for example, having
an amical parting of the ways between Berlanga

859
00:53:04,559 --> 00:53:07,880
and Top Rank and getting him way
way more money to go with Mattroom,

860
00:53:07,199 --> 00:53:14,400
getting him out of a very promoter
one sided contract with Philip Herkovic, doing

861
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:17,960
a direct deal with the Saudis for
eight figures, and making the IBF stipulate

862
00:53:19,000 --> 00:53:21,239
that he's next up. I mean, I can go on chapter and verse

863
00:53:21,280 --> 00:53:23,800
on the guys that he's done that
with over the last year. So that's

864
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:27,760
why I picked Then. We also
have some other awards, like the Good

865
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:32,199
Guy Award, Sam tab Broadcast Award. This is a very deep class of

866
00:53:32,320 --> 00:53:36,559
guys he got Tim brad This is
the TV award for the people involved with

867
00:53:36,559 --> 00:53:39,079
the television side of things. Timothy
Bradley, the announcer from ESPN. Obviously

868
00:53:39,159 --> 00:53:44,119
the Future are a present Hall of
Famer as a fighter. My good pal

869
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:47,639
Jim Gray, my good pal Dave
Harmon, the long time producer at HBO

870
00:53:49,039 --> 00:53:51,559
who probably should have won this award, you know, a decade ago.

871
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:57,599
Maro Ronaldo obviously the outstanding announcer and
everybody's good friend and podcaster and host and

872
00:53:58,000 --> 00:54:01,159
Jack of all trades, James Smithy
smidt Uh, you know, one of

873
00:54:01,199 --> 00:54:06,920
the guys that's very well liked in
this business, long and meritorious service.

874
00:54:06,960 --> 00:54:12,039
You've got guys like Gordon Hall from
Showtime, Pritchard, Henry Haskup who's a

875
00:54:12,119 --> 00:54:15,960
great historian from in the Jersey area
who has done so much over the course

876
00:54:15,039 --> 00:54:21,800
of his long career, the great
historian Don Majeski, John Shepherd who runs

877
00:54:21,840 --> 00:54:25,559
box Wreck, Bruce Silverglade, a
very beloved person that's run the fame,

878
00:54:25,679 --> 00:54:30,960
Gleason's Jim and helped out any number
of fighters for decades out of that New

879
00:54:30,039 --> 00:54:34,239
York Shrine. Just to run down
some of the guys nominated for the Good

880
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:37,480
Guy Ward got John DeSanto from you
know, a well liked guy that that's

881
00:54:37,559 --> 00:54:40,760
a record keeper and has helped any
number of fighters through the years, and

882
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:44,800
different people in the business. So
many people that I'm very fond of is

883
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:49,119
uh. They're they're they're nominated as
a duo like Peanut Butter and Jelly and

884
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:52,599
that's our pr friend Sam Jackson Andrew
Roberts who have done so much great work

885
00:54:52,639 --> 00:54:57,639
for Swansea Communications. Anybody that's in
the media knows them and I'm sure been

886
00:54:57,719 --> 00:55:00,840
befriended by them and helped by them. Our other good pow that works with

887
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:05,039
them from the PR company b z
A that does a lot of the pr

888
00:55:05,719 --> 00:55:08,800
for PBC did for Showtime for many
years and for credentials, and that Steve

889
00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:14,000
Pratt, We love Steve Pratt.
Shout out to the man Pratt. Jose

890
00:55:14,159 --> 00:55:16,239
Ramirez, the boxer who has been
so charitable with his people in the Central

891
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:21,159
Valley in California, has done incredible
work. A very well liked guy.

892
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:24,320
And the former light heavyweight contender John
Scully. You know he's gone into his

893
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:28,719
own pocket and many times to help
out other you know, fighters in need,

894
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:31,119
et cetera. You know, also
a trainer these days. So that's

895
00:55:31,159 --> 00:55:35,199
that award. And then you have
also the the award that we call the

896
00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:39,400
John McCain Bill Crawford Courage Award for
people overcoming adversity in this sport. It's

897
00:55:39,519 --> 00:55:43,079
it's a lot of great people get
nominated, but it's not the kind of

898
00:55:43,519 --> 00:55:45,360
uh, frankly, it's not the
kind of award you want to be nominated

899
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:50,599
for. And that was people the
Mexican boxer who's had her problems that she

900
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:54,880
tries to overcome. Alejandro Ayela Pritchard, Cologne and Family is the nominee.

901
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:59,400
Portchard of course, is though you
know, has suffered that terrible brain injury

902
00:55:59,440 --> 00:56:01,679
a few years ago. Amazing what
he's been able to do in the recovery

903
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:05,840
with the help of that family.
You know, my good pal Billy Dibb

904
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:10,079
overcoming his cancer diagnosis with a smile
on his face. Lisa McClellan, the

905
00:56:10,239 --> 00:56:15,039
sister of the injured fighter Jerald McClone
from years ago, who is his caretaker

906
00:56:15,119 --> 00:56:17,800
twenty four to seven. She should
have got this award decades, you know,

907
00:56:17,960 --> 00:56:22,320
decades ago. And again another guy
that I think everybody in the business

908
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:24,800
knows and likes a lot, who's
overcome his own battle with cancer. And

909
00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:29,920
the great photographer edmul Holland, who
you've seen his pictures from mat from boxing

910
00:56:30,159 --> 00:56:32,320
and other He's shot a lot of
fights in the day for HBO. Also

911
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:36,159
another great guy. And so those
are the nominees for the big awards.

912
00:56:36,159 --> 00:56:38,519
And then there's other awards like the
we give out a women's Christy Martin Female

913
00:56:38,559 --> 00:56:43,639
Fighter of the Award, the Nat
Fleischer Award for Career Excellence in Boxing Journalism,

914
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:46,559
which I was honored to win in
twenty thirteen, but those are awards

915
00:56:46,840 --> 00:56:50,400
that are voted on by separate committee, so that was not part of this

916
00:56:50,519 --> 00:56:53,760
nominating process. You gave us a
ton there on that and again that's coming

917
00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:57,800
what Mark aprils somewhere around there will
no, no, it'll probably it'll be

918
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:01,920
probably no earlier than they may.
Okay on uh on the twenty twenty three

919
00:57:01,920 --> 00:57:05,880
awards from they take their time,
they do it the right one. We're

920
00:57:05,880 --> 00:57:08,320
gonna vote on them in the banks
of the whole bit and then the reveal

921
00:57:08,480 --> 00:57:10,800
I got you, I got you
on what you guys are doing? A

922
00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:15,199
couple more notes than some nostalgia and
we're done on this preview podcast. Oh

923
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:23,440
dear God, mock moodchar good before
you introduce should should I? What are

924
00:57:23,519 --> 00:57:28,920
we doing here? Mock moochar is
on the rundown w B A what is

925
00:57:29,039 --> 00:57:35,199
this? Rayphaiel w b A regular
heavyweight title of fans Kubrat POOLB. Do

926
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:37,880
I need this in my life?
Do we we have this in our lives?

927
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:42,119
Apparently coming. Our job on the
pod is to bring people the news

928
00:57:42,440 --> 00:57:45,559
and thoughts, good or bad.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Mighty one

929
00:57:45,920 --> 00:57:51,119
wasn't the w b A doing away
with the secondary titles and all this other

930
00:57:51,199 --> 00:57:54,360
stuff? Why do we have to
have a w B a regular heavyweight time.

931
00:57:54,920 --> 00:57:58,199
I'm glad you asked. I've been
asked that question a little bit today

932
00:57:58,199 --> 00:58:00,440
because I when I when I tweeted
about what as a curt and I agree

933
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:05,159
with you, it's terrible. But
and and and the w BA, to

934
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,039
their credit, and you can look
at the at the statistics, they've done

935
00:58:08,039 --> 00:58:12,599
a very good job of reducing the
titles. They actually now have fewer interim

936
00:58:12,639 --> 00:58:15,880
titles in the WBT. Wait a
minute, it just hit me, there's

937
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:20,119
a there's a legal reason why they
have to do this. Thank you.

938
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:23,840
So never let it be said that
I don't listen to you on these podcasts

939
00:58:23,880 --> 00:58:28,280
and I don't read you on these
podcasts. I've had a lot going on.

940
00:58:29,000 --> 00:58:31,599
But it literally when you were setting
this up, he just now hit

941
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:37,480
me, there's a legal reason that
you're about to explain why this fight,

942
00:58:37,039 --> 00:58:42,760
what are we doing here actually has
to happen for the WBA continue, right,

943
00:58:42,880 --> 00:58:45,159
So, so if you go back
to the summer when Usik fought Dubois

944
00:58:45,599 --> 00:58:52,239
and Usik got the knockout, and
now he's still the unified heavyweight, you

945
00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:54,960
know, with the with the three
belts. Dubois entered that fight as the

946
00:58:55,239 --> 00:59:00,119
WBA regular champion, and when when
he was knocked out, regular title went

947
00:59:00,159 --> 00:59:04,960
away, and then suddenly, like
I forget the period of time, maybe

948
00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:07,639
it was two weeks later or whatever, it was really short period of time

949
00:59:07,000 --> 00:59:13,960
after that that man Macmodshar was re
instated as that title holder. He had

950
00:59:14,039 --> 00:59:19,599
previously had that belt and been stripped
for problems with making the deal visa not

951
00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:24,280
doing the mandatory et cetera. He
sued the WBA. Part of this settlement

952
00:59:24,559 --> 00:59:29,639
was to be reinstated as the title
holder. So even though the WBA spent

953
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:34,760
an ignortant amount of time over say
about the last two years, reducing the

954
00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:37,000
number of extraneous titles, which they've
done a good job. They got rid

955
00:59:37,039 --> 00:59:40,239
of all the interim titles. Now
they only have one interim thing and that

956
00:59:40,400 --> 00:59:44,800
was a legit reason due to injury. That was the interim title that just

957
00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:47,559
took place over this past weekend on
the on the fight that you know,

958
00:59:47,719 --> 00:59:52,480
because Roly Romero was injured. So
that was the Barroso O'Hara Davies fight.

959
00:59:52,559 --> 00:59:54,599
So they got rid of all those, and if you take a look at

960
00:59:54,639 --> 00:59:58,360
the lineup, they're down to just
a two you know, three or four

961
00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:01,360
of the secondary title belt that they're
dealing with, and as I mentioned,

962
01:00:01,519 --> 01:00:07,039
fewer secondary titles and interim titles in
the WBC. But in this particular case,

963
01:00:07,760 --> 01:00:09,199
for the legal reason, they had
no choice but to reinstate that.

964
01:00:09,320 --> 01:00:13,599
Now, when they did that,
the stipulation was that he had to fight

965
01:00:13,679 --> 01:00:15,960
a mandatory in a certain period of
time. It was supposed to be Jerald

966
01:00:16,000 --> 01:00:20,039
Big Baby Miller. That did not
come to pass, and then Miller ended

967
01:00:20,119 --> 01:00:23,320
up taking a different fight, getting
knocked out in Saudi Arabia then allegedly,

968
01:00:25,119 --> 01:00:29,079
you know, beating up a guy
in a car dealership and trying to steal

969
01:00:29,159 --> 01:00:32,880
his repossessed car. Anyway, but
when that happened, shar was then allowed

970
01:00:32,920 --> 01:00:37,440
to have a fight a defense against
a top you know, I guess ten

971
01:00:37,559 --> 01:00:39,960
or fifteen guy in their rankings who
brought Pulev, who has been a quality

972
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:44,719
heavyweight for a long time, gave
a pretty good go for a few rounds

973
01:00:44,719 --> 01:00:46,840
against Klitschko back in the day,
you know, went nine rounds or ten

974
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:51,920
rounds or so in a title shot
against Anthony Joshua just come off a win

975
01:00:52,000 --> 01:00:54,559
in California about a month or two
ago, so he was the guy they

976
01:00:54,599 --> 01:00:59,280
settled on. He brings a big
amount of money and a crowd in Bulgaria

977
01:00:59,320 --> 01:01:01,400
where he's from. So this fight
is being sorted out. The date is

978
01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:05,519
not set, but it's on target. It's it's penciled in. Let's say

979
01:01:05,679 --> 01:01:08,440
they're trying to do the match.
The contracts are signed. It's supposed to

980
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:12,960
be in the March timeframe in Bulgaria. Not that part of it's not one

981
01:01:13,039 --> 01:01:15,639
hundred percent done, but the fight
is signed, all the terms are agreed

982
01:01:15,639 --> 01:01:19,480
to, everything, and so look
for better or for worse. That's what's

983
01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:22,480
gonna happen. The winner of that
fight, well at least have a solid

984
01:01:22,559 --> 01:01:25,159
win on their record, right and
it will just be another name introduced into

985
01:01:25,199 --> 01:01:30,079
the heavyweight mixed And it wouldn't shock
me at all is if whoever emerges from

986
01:01:30,119 --> 01:01:34,639
that fight with the second tier belt
will wind up in some kind of fight,

987
01:01:34,800 --> 01:01:37,880
maybe on one of the big Saudi
heavyweight cards. In the meantime,

988
01:01:37,199 --> 01:01:40,719
Poulev's gonna have a big crowd,
you know. Routman in Bulgaria. Char

989
01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:45,079
is getting what he should have got
based on the rules from a few years

990
01:01:45,119 --> 01:01:49,559
ago, but got screwed out of
by the WBA and Don King. And

991
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:53,559
you know, look, not everything
we talk about on the podcast is is

992
01:01:53,760 --> 01:01:57,920
ice cream and soda and pizzas.
Right, Sometimes you got to you gotta

993
01:01:57,960 --> 01:02:01,079
take a by the way, he
was Manual char This is the same guy.

994
01:02:01,199 --> 01:02:06,360
He's now known as mock Moochart.
It's the same guy. And again

995
01:02:06,480 --> 01:02:08,880
we've given this way too much time. It will be sometimes we got to

996
01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:12,880
bring the people the news, of
course, and this and then and this

997
01:02:13,039 --> 01:02:19,119
again fulfills the legal obligation that the
wb A has because of the shenanigans that

998
01:02:19,159 --> 01:02:22,840
were going on. He but I
just I laugh in thinking of this phrase.

999
01:02:22,960 --> 01:02:24,800
You and I are nostalgic. We
are of the same age. We

1000
01:02:24,880 --> 01:02:28,679
remember the people's court. And remember
the court reporter. You don't remember the

1001
01:02:28,760 --> 01:02:32,679
name the court TV reporter h Rusty
was the bailiff. The court TV reporter

1002
01:02:32,880 --> 01:02:37,199
was Doug Lewellen, remember that same
and was Doug Lewellen's line, don't take

1003
01:02:37,239 --> 01:02:40,280
the law into your own hands.
You take him to court. That's what

1004
01:02:40,679 --> 01:02:45,880
Mockmoodchart did. He won some kind
of settlement, some kind of ruling.

1005
01:02:46,119 --> 01:02:50,719
This is the fight he gets,
and then we'll see if there's any relevance

1006
01:02:50,760 --> 01:02:53,639
again. Poolev knocked out by Anthony
Joshua a couple of years ago, previously

1007
01:02:53,719 --> 01:02:59,440
knocked out by Clitchko older. Those
are only losses, but he's older.

1008
01:03:00,039 --> 01:03:02,320
We'll see whatever this is in March, and when March comes around, we

1009
01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:05,280
may or may not. It's definitely, you know. And one of the

1010
01:03:05,280 --> 01:03:07,320
reasons I put this on the rundown, other than that it's a little bit

1011
01:03:07,320 --> 01:03:10,559
of slowly because you wanted me to
say exactly, I like the week doing

1012
01:03:10,760 --> 01:03:14,440
here, by the way, and
the the other loss that that pool that

1013
01:03:14,599 --> 01:03:17,400
has was in twenty twenty two,
which was a very close call, a

1014
01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:22,800
split decision against Derek Tasor in a
pretty good fight. Okay, one more

1015
01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:28,679
thing, Bachrum and cole Ca Jack
Colekay for now the vacant IBF Junior middleweight

1016
01:03:28,760 --> 01:03:31,559
title. They did have a purse
bid for this fight. This is Jamel

1017
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:37,119
Charlow being told, Okay, now
you don't have the IBF belt any longer.

1018
01:03:37,440 --> 01:03:39,280
Tim Zuo has the WBO belt.
Helped keep me straight. He has

1019
01:03:39,280 --> 01:03:44,559
a WBO belt. So at the
moment, Charlo still has the WBA and

1020
01:03:44,599 --> 01:03:50,199
the WBC belt. So the vacant
IBF middle Junior middleweight title will be up

1021
01:03:50,239 --> 01:03:53,000
for grabs with Bachrum and cole Ca. Date to be determined, but they

1022
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:55,960
were having a purse bid so just
to elaborate on this and then we'll move

1023
01:03:57,000 --> 01:03:59,679
on to the nostalgia and be done. Yeah. So if you remember,

1024
01:03:59,719 --> 01:04:03,679
it isn't that long ago where there
was supposed to be a per spid between

1025
01:04:04,000 --> 01:04:08,280
you know, for the fight between
Charlot and Bachrams. Bachram had was an

1026
01:04:08,320 --> 01:04:11,159
undefeated Russian fighter. He hasn't really
been seen a lot, but he's been

1027
01:04:11,480 --> 01:04:15,079
His last few fights have been on
PBC undercards as part of the step aside

1028
01:04:15,119 --> 01:04:17,079
deals that they made, you know, with him and his team. Who's

1029
01:04:17,079 --> 01:04:20,960
you know, he's promoted by main
events, but obviously PBC has an interest

1030
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:24,960
in and because of all the money
they paid him and the step aside fights,

1031
01:04:25,159 --> 01:04:27,639
which is why they were the other
bidder in the purse bit scenario,

1032
01:04:27,760 --> 01:04:30,079
not main events, even though they'd
be working with main events. I guess

1033
01:04:30,159 --> 01:04:33,159
on the fight when it happens,
But the point here is that on the

1034
01:04:33,239 --> 01:04:39,159
day that that perspid was supposed to
take place, that's when Charlot finally said

1035
01:04:39,239 --> 01:04:41,840
no, can do, and he
ended up vacating the title. So he

1036
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:45,039
waited up until, like you know, the morning I guess of that per

1037
01:04:45,119 --> 01:04:48,880
spid to basically bail out on the
fight. And so when that happened,

1038
01:04:49,119 --> 01:04:53,119
Bachram, who actually I said was
twenty zho's actually twenty one to oh.

1039
01:04:53,679 --> 01:04:56,599
He was then ordered to fight the
next leading available contender in the ivy of

1040
01:04:56,679 --> 01:05:00,400
rankings, which is Jack Kolke who's
from Germany thirty three and four or he's

1041
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:04,239
fought some decent guys. He fought
Dmitris Andred years ago and lost. Anyway,

1042
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:09,000
there was the purse bid. His
promoter, Agon Sports won it with

1043
01:05:09,119 --> 01:05:13,679
six hundred and sixty six three hundred
dollars. They beat the only other person

1044
01:05:14,000 --> 01:05:16,800
offer, which was from TGB Promotions
for a half a million dollars. The

1045
01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:19,920
split on the on the on the
purse bid, because it's for the vacant

1046
01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:24,480
title, is fifty to fifty,
so each fighter based on the PERSPID number

1047
01:05:24,519 --> 01:05:27,679
gets three hundred and thirty three thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars. The

1048
01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:31,559
fight has to have contracts back to
the IBFUH within two weeks or so,

1049
01:05:32,119 --> 01:05:36,039
and then they do the match no
later, you know, then I believe

1050
01:05:36,079 --> 01:05:41,480
sometime in like late March. I
believe it's like ninety days ninety days from

1051
01:05:41,519 --> 01:05:45,559
the date of the of the fight
roh of the purse bid so has to

1052
01:05:45,559 --> 01:05:48,960
take place by April tenth. Anyway, contracts have to be back by January

1053
01:05:48,960 --> 01:05:53,760
twenty sixth. So we're gonna see
this fight most likely in March, probably

1054
01:05:53,840 --> 01:05:58,440
in Germany on an Agon Sports card, and the winner will become one of

1055
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:02,199
the Junior Medawake title holders. And
and especially if it's Backrum still be undefeated,

1056
01:06:02,239 --> 01:06:04,880
set himself up from some bigger business. He's gonna have to fight,

1057
01:06:04,920 --> 01:06:09,760
to fight on cole K's home territory, but so be. It not the

1058
01:06:09,800 --> 01:06:12,719
biggest fight in the world, but
it's a chip because the winner is going

1059
01:06:12,800 --> 01:06:15,840
to be in a very good position. Does Jamel Charlo lurking still with a

1060
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:19,519
couple of belts if he stays he's
not fighting Ja Charlo's not fighting, don't

1061
01:06:19,519 --> 01:06:23,320
even do it, I understand.
But Tim Zoom has one of the titles.

1062
01:06:23,360 --> 01:06:26,960
There's others that have names at one
fifty four, so I see what

1063
01:06:27,079 --> 01:06:33,440
you mean. Nostalgia. George Foreman, Big George seventy five years old,

1064
01:06:33,639 --> 01:06:40,079
God bless him. And also Felix
Tito Trinidad, both of those on the

1065
01:06:40,159 --> 01:06:46,480
same day, both of those on
January tenth, So all right, two

1066
01:06:46,559 --> 01:06:51,400
Hall of famers. Obviously, Foreman
had a second career after a long retirement

1067
01:06:51,519 --> 01:06:55,880
as well. All right, so
thoughts on both of these. First Big

1068
01:06:55,920 --> 01:07:00,159
George here in the nostalgia get nostalgic
with me for just a second. But

1069
01:07:00,239 --> 01:07:03,039
who doesn't love Big George, especially
the second coming of Big George, because

1070
01:07:03,079 --> 01:07:06,280
in the early days when he was
you know, he didn't really endear himself

1071
01:07:06,280 --> 01:07:09,960
to the fans. He wasn't so
great with the with the fans or with

1072
01:07:10,039 --> 01:07:12,800
the press. He always had the
scowl right and kind of looked like he

1073
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:15,559
was in a bad mood and was
very stoic, and you know, and

1074
01:07:15,639 --> 01:07:17,360
all that. And then of course
that was when he was knocking everybody out,

1075
01:07:17,400 --> 01:07:20,679
became heavyweight champion, got humbled by
Muhammad. Ali was involved in some

1076
01:07:20,719 --> 01:07:24,039
of the biggest fights in history of
the sport, whether it was Ali or

1077
01:07:24,079 --> 01:07:27,440
Fraser. You know, the Rummel
in the Jungle, I would submit to

1078
01:07:27,480 --> 01:07:30,480
you is maybe the most famous fight
in the history of boxing U and that

1079
01:07:30,599 --> 01:07:34,559
was the fight that certainly in the
top two or three, probably absolutely,

1080
01:07:34,639 --> 01:07:39,519
and so still holds fifty years later
exactly. And eventually he retired for like

1081
01:07:39,639 --> 01:07:44,280
ten years, and so his comeback
is one of the greatest comeback stories in

1082
01:07:44,760 --> 01:07:47,599
life, probably much less boxing sports
or otherwise. For him to he had

1083
01:07:47,639 --> 01:07:51,159
been out that long, he was
taken. I mean, I don't obviously

1084
01:07:51,199 --> 01:07:55,639
I was a young kid when he
was still active before the retirement. But

1085
01:07:55,719 --> 01:07:58,960
when he made the comeback after like
ten years, and they put him in

1086
01:07:59,000 --> 01:08:02,519
these like against leet heards basically,
and he was fighting and knocking guys out.

1087
01:08:02,599 --> 01:08:05,280
He was you know, obviously he
wasn't in the great cut shape he

1088
01:08:05,360 --> 01:08:09,000
had been in the years past.
You know, he'd put on some weight.

1089
01:08:09,079 --> 01:08:12,880
He was, you know, he
whatever he was, he was forties

1090
01:08:13,960 --> 01:08:16,520
taken. It was taken as a
joke when he when he when he embarked

1091
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:18,680
on the comeback, he was,
I believe in his late thirties. But

1092
01:08:18,760 --> 01:08:21,319
when he when he started that,
he was taken as a joke. And

1093
01:08:21,439 --> 01:08:25,079
he started to knock guys out,
and he started to do his thing,

1094
01:08:25,600 --> 01:08:28,399
and you know, he got some
TV time. This is back when USA

1095
01:08:28,560 --> 01:08:30,680
Network was going strong, and they
featured George quite a bit on some of

1096
01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:33,600
those shows. And as a matter
of fact, the fight that put him

1097
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:39,359
on the map where I think really
made believers that that maybe he actually could

1098
01:08:39,399 --> 01:08:43,000
do something in this second career because
it was written like a farce. If

1099
01:08:43,039 --> 01:08:45,399
you go back and read some of
the clips from the newspaper columns and the

1100
01:08:45,520 --> 01:08:49,119
and the news reports of the day. But in nineteen ninety this week,

1101
01:08:49,319 --> 01:08:54,640
on January fifteenth, nineteen ninety,
he was matched up with Jerry Cooney who

1102
01:08:54,760 --> 01:08:58,159
was granted in his waiting days in
his career. But Jerry was still a

1103
01:08:58,279 --> 01:09:01,560
formidable guy. He still could pun
still had a big name, and you

1104
01:09:01,640 --> 01:09:05,079
know, they kind of took their
gamble he had he had not fought for

1105
01:09:05,279 --> 01:09:09,159
you know, two and a half
years. He had lost by a knockout

1106
01:09:09,199 --> 01:09:13,239
to Michael Sphinx. But that was
you know, that was what happened.

1107
01:09:13,279 --> 01:09:15,119
But he's still People thought, Okay, he's a big puncher, he's much

1108
01:09:15,199 --> 01:09:17,239
younger, you know, maybe he
can do something. Well, let me

1109
01:09:17,279 --> 01:09:18,680
tell you, ma, if you
go back and watch the clip, and

1110
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:21,840
again we're talking about Georgia because it's
the seventy fifth birthday of one of the

1111
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:27,399
all time greats. But that fight
happened also be you know in nineteen ninety

1112
01:09:27,439 --> 01:09:30,439
this week it's one of the most
devastating second und knockouts you'll ever say.

1113
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:35,399
And the clip is so incredible.
When he knocked out Michael Moore to regain

1114
01:09:35,439 --> 01:09:39,239
the title, it was like the
shortest right hand he ever saw. It

1115
01:09:39,319 --> 01:09:41,520
was almost like a throwaway punch.
He barely saw and he was on the

1116
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:45,119
canvas knocked out. The way that
he knocked out Jerry Cooney, he liked,

1117
01:09:45,199 --> 01:09:47,880
nonchalantly like he was going for a
walk, you know, in the

1118
01:09:48,000 --> 01:09:51,880
plaza or to go get a coffee, and walks across the ring and throws

1119
01:09:51,960 --> 01:09:56,600
like he had knocked he had knocked
Cooney down. And now do you know,

1120
01:09:56,840 --> 01:10:00,239
mister nostalgia. Do you know,
mister nostalgia, where he got the

1121
01:10:00,359 --> 01:10:02,039
move from that he put on Cooney? Or Am I gonna teach you some

1122
01:10:02,359 --> 01:10:06,000
oh oh oh, oh wait a
minute, I'm gonna teach you something on

1123
01:10:06,079 --> 01:10:11,800
the podcast, but finish your thought
on what on what foreman did and then

1124
01:10:11,840 --> 01:10:15,000
I'll tell you where he got it. Okay, So he nonchalantly, like

1125
01:10:15,039 --> 01:10:16,079
I said, he's out for a
walk in the park. Literally, It's

1126
01:10:16,119 --> 01:10:21,479
the funniest thing in the world,
and he just walks Cooney into a monstrosity

1127
01:10:21,600 --> 01:10:27,720
of a right uppercut and then turns
around and throws another overhand to finish him

1128
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:30,880
off. And it was a spectacular
knockout. So the final punch the right

1129
01:10:30,960 --> 01:10:35,800
hand was a big shot, but
the uppercut was just like, all right,

1130
01:10:35,840 --> 01:10:39,039
where did that come from? So
I'll tell you where it came from.

1131
01:10:39,199 --> 01:10:42,359
He was a historian of the sport. He had studied fights, He

1132
01:10:42,439 --> 01:10:46,119
had studied fighters as he got older, and that was a Jersey Joe Walcott

1133
01:10:46,920 --> 01:10:50,199
a couple of times, and Walcott
used it, I believe in the heavyweight

1134
01:10:50,279 --> 01:10:56,239
title win over Ezra Charles where he
faked to the right, much like Rayfiel

1135
01:10:56,359 --> 01:11:00,000
on the playground with the crossover dribble
in basketball. He faked with a jab

1136
01:11:00,119 --> 01:11:05,159
step to the right like I'm going
right, and then just ignited with the

1137
01:11:05,279 --> 01:11:11,159
left uppercut that you mentioned, and
Jerry Cooney was out timber on his feet

1138
01:11:11,399 --> 01:11:14,960
when he hit him with the right
hand. So I I don't know how

1139
01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:17,840
many times this has happened on the
podcast. I just gave Dan Rayfield some

1140
01:11:17,960 --> 01:11:24,920
nostalgia that he got that knockout move
from Jersey Joe War. You're allowed to

1141
01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:28,199
everything. Once in a while,
I contribute on this. So that was

1142
01:11:28,279 --> 01:11:31,439
that and that and that anniversary is
this week nineteen ninety thirty three years ago.

1143
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:35,319
And that set into motion the holy
Field fight at Oh, I'm gonna

1144
01:11:35,319 --> 01:11:39,279
get to that there so where he
definitely was credible in that fight. I

1145
01:11:39,399 --> 01:11:43,039
remember that night and it wasn't a
joke anymore. So after that victory against

1146
01:11:43,079 --> 01:11:46,520
Cooney, he then fought four more
times and like a year and four months

1147
01:11:46,600 --> 01:11:50,079
later or so, in April of
nineteen ninety one, he got the shot

1148
01:11:50,119 --> 01:11:55,600
against Holyfield, who was the undisputed
champion, the Battle of the Ages they

1149
01:11:55,640 --> 01:11:59,079
called it because Georgia was obviously much
older and Evander was much younger. This

1150
01:11:59,319 --> 01:12:01,640
was the first ever fight of the
modern pay per view of the of what

1151
01:12:01,800 --> 01:12:06,760
became HBO pay per view, which
was TVKO, and it was this new

1152
01:12:08,119 --> 01:12:12,319
product basically because homes were more easily
wired with the ability to get a pay

1153
01:12:12,359 --> 01:12:14,680
per view signal, you still a
lot of people got to still go to

1154
01:12:14,720 --> 01:12:17,279
the Camembery. People would go to
the cable company to get the box to

1155
01:12:17,359 --> 01:12:19,720
plug it in, and they had
to bring the box back after the fight

1156
01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:26,079
was over. In any event,
the HBO executives and and Main Events and

1157
01:12:26,159 --> 01:12:29,359
Top Rank, which did this fight
together because Top Rank worked with George and

1158
01:12:29,479 --> 01:12:31,840
Main Events had Evander, and of
course the people at HBO, my goodpal

1159
01:12:31,960 --> 01:12:38,800
Mark Taffett, Lou Debella and all
those crew. They thought they found the

1160
01:12:38,880 --> 01:12:42,319
license to print money. Because this
is in a day and age where at

1161
01:12:42,359 --> 01:12:45,119
the time, I want to tell
you, there might have been you know,

1162
01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,199
twelve million addressable homes or fifteen million
addressable homes or something like that.

1163
01:12:48,279 --> 01:12:53,199
With the boxes, the thing did
one point four million buys, and people

1164
01:12:53,279 --> 01:12:56,960
would astonished, like I can't believe
this, like we found the recipe,

1165
01:12:57,279 --> 01:13:00,159
but to find on pay we print
money. Now. They were humble when

1166
01:13:00,199 --> 01:13:01,119
they did their next fight, he
did like thirty thousand. They took a

1167
01:13:01,199 --> 01:13:08,319
bath, but George Foreman gave,
as you mentioned, an extraordinarily credible performance

1168
01:13:08,359 --> 01:13:11,640
in the fight against Evander. Evander
was the winner, rightfully so, but

1169
01:13:11,760 --> 01:13:15,800
it was it's a very underrated,
exciting action fight, and you know,

1170
01:13:15,840 --> 01:13:19,119
okay, so George lost, but
then he went on and eventually again this

1171
01:13:19,319 --> 01:13:23,880
was at a time when the WBO
was not really considered like a true title,

1172
01:13:24,239 --> 01:13:27,920
but he did win it. Against
Tommy Morrison in what was a big

1173
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:30,720
win for him. This is like
three four fights after he fought Evander,

1174
01:13:30,319 --> 01:13:34,199
and then after he got the win
over Michael. After the win over Tommy

1175
01:13:34,199 --> 01:13:39,800
Morrison, like a year and a
half later, he directly lobbied the then

1176
01:13:40,520 --> 01:13:44,960
president of HBO Sports Seth Abraham,
who was also his boss, because George,

1177
01:13:45,039 --> 01:13:49,239
remember was also doing commentary as an
HBO broadcaster, to fight Michael Moore,

1178
01:13:49,319 --> 01:13:53,800
who was the real champion at that
time, who had beaten Evander Holyfield

1179
01:13:54,039 --> 01:13:56,720
for the titles. He was down
to only two belts, but that he

1180
01:13:56,800 --> 01:13:59,720
was the lineal champion, he was
the recognized champion, and they made the

1181
01:13:59,800 --> 01:14:02,399
match and they did the fight on
live HBO, not pay per view at

1182
01:14:02,439 --> 01:14:06,720
the MGM Grand And of course if
you no boxing, George Forrman was getting

1183
01:14:06,760 --> 01:14:11,439
his ass handed to him for every
single round. And in the tenth round

1184
01:14:11,560 --> 01:14:14,319
he landed again one of the shortest
right hands in the history of the world,

1185
01:14:14,640 --> 01:14:16,720
and he knocked Michael Moore out and
he knelt in one corner and our

1186
01:14:16,800 --> 01:14:21,039
dear friend Jim Lampley, it happened. It happened. It had almost twenty

1187
01:14:21,199 --> 01:14:27,279
years to the day practically when he
lost the title in Zay to Muhammad Ali,

1188
01:14:27,520 --> 01:14:30,680
so he loses the title. This
is such a remarkable person for his

1189
01:14:30,720 --> 01:14:32,720
achievements, and that's not even including
the things he's done outside the right.

1190
01:14:33,359 --> 01:14:38,880
October thirtieth, nineteen seventy four,
he gets knocked out by Ali in round

1191
01:14:38,960 --> 01:14:43,760
eight, loses the heavyweight championship,
takes off ten years, comes back,

1192
01:14:45,159 --> 01:14:47,399
gets to the top, gets a
shot against holy Field and loses, gets

1193
01:14:47,439 --> 01:14:53,560
a big win over Michael over Tommy
Morrison, and finally gets another opportunity against

1194
01:14:53,600 --> 01:14:57,560
Michael Moore and wins. And I
mentioned that was October thirtieth, nineteen seventy

1195
01:14:57,600 --> 01:15:01,439
four. November fifth, eighteen ninety
four, twenty years and a few days

1196
01:15:01,479 --> 01:15:05,159
later, he's now heavyweight champion of
the world again, and it was one

1197
01:15:05,199 --> 01:15:09,000
of the most remarkable achievements in the
history of sports. Now he fought several

1198
01:15:09,079 --> 01:15:14,920
more times, four more times after
that, and ended up retiring and has

1199
01:15:15,000 --> 01:15:18,479
gone on to make crazy money in
his non boxing life as far as as

1200
01:15:18,520 --> 01:15:23,800
a pitchman, mainly for the grill. I'm coming there all right, point

1201
01:15:23,880 --> 01:15:29,840
blank. You ever owned a forman
grill on my communist of course, we've

1202
01:15:29,880 --> 01:15:32,199
only actually had two of them.
I think I've had three, or no,

1203
01:15:32,319 --> 01:15:34,800
I take it back, I've had
two. Or I've had one and

1204
01:15:34,880 --> 01:15:38,159
my wife had two. So I
think between us, what we still have,

1205
01:15:38,279 --> 01:15:41,119
we still have like two left.
So do you have because there's two,

1206
01:15:41,199 --> 01:15:45,640
there's two or three different versions?
Did you have like the countertop smaller

1207
01:15:45,800 --> 01:15:48,560
version. Yes, I actually had
the bigger version that you could actually grill

1208
01:15:48,640 --> 01:15:54,000
on outside, the electric grill,
the under one. So when I was

1209
01:15:54,079 --> 01:15:57,199
still single and a bachelor and I
was doing some of my own cooking,

1210
01:15:57,399 --> 01:16:00,399
like when I was living by myself
and doing my thing, I used the

1211
01:16:00,479 --> 01:16:03,600
girl I don't know, three or
four times a week, three four times

1212
01:16:03,640 --> 01:16:11,119
a week probably you know, it
made him tens of millions, hundreds of

1213
01:16:11,319 --> 01:16:15,279
dollars individually. Maybe he made hundreds
of millions off of it. But when

1214
01:16:15,319 --> 01:16:16,960
he sold the naming rights, it
was a nine figure deal. Lucrative.

1215
01:16:17,399 --> 01:16:19,960
And by the way, besides what
he's done as a boxer and he's a

1216
01:16:20,000 --> 01:16:25,520
business person, George Foreman is one
of the most charitable people you will ever

1217
01:16:25,680 --> 01:16:29,520
meet. He has given tens of
millions of dollars to foundations and to support

1218
01:16:29,640 --> 01:16:32,359
charitable causes. And I listen,
I know, not everything in his life

1219
01:16:32,359 --> 01:16:36,079
has been you know, peche keen, but my interactions with him and those

1220
01:16:36,840 --> 01:16:42,159
many who I know just absolutely adore
George. Uh. You know, I

1221
01:16:42,239 --> 01:16:45,359
didn't get a chance to cover his
career as an active fighter, but I

1222
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:47,520
definitely spent a little bit of time
with him. There was one time where

1223
01:16:48,199 --> 01:16:53,279
there was a tribute boxing event being
put on in the honor of Angelo Dundee,

1224
01:16:53,279 --> 01:16:56,359
who was George's trainer. Uh in
the later part of his career.

1225
01:16:56,439 --> 01:17:01,159
He had and I've told the story. He kept hearing Angelo's screaming at Ali

1226
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:05,239
about stuff going on in the fight
against Foreman, and when it came time

1227
01:17:05,319 --> 01:17:09,159
and the comeback to shore up his
own quarter, He's like, I don't

1228
01:17:09,199 --> 01:17:11,880
want that guy ever against me ever
again. Plus he's great. I want

1229
01:17:11,920 --> 01:17:15,079
him a my corner. And he
hired Angelo Dundee to work as trainer.

1230
01:17:15,119 --> 01:17:17,119
Anyway, he was doing a charity. They were doing a card to honor

1231
01:17:17,159 --> 01:17:24,039
Angelo's boxing training career, and I
wrote for the program that they put together.

1232
01:17:24,039 --> 01:17:26,680
And I remember meeting George in Atlantic
City. We were there for I

1233
01:17:26,760 --> 01:17:28,960
was there covering at whatever HBO fight
it was, and of course he was

1234
01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:30,800
part of the broadcast group. And
when they were done with their fighter meeting.

1235
01:17:30,880 --> 01:17:33,680
Like on the Friday before the fight. You know, I spent like

1236
01:17:33,720 --> 01:17:38,520
an hour with George. It was
like it was this story was George Forman

1237
01:17:38,600 --> 01:17:42,199
has told to Rayfield because he told
me and I wrote it, and that

1238
01:17:42,359 --> 01:17:45,439
was just one of the coolest things
you can do is just basically hang out

1239
01:17:45,720 --> 01:17:47,800
Me and George together alone in a
conference room in Atlantic City's shooting the shit,

1240
01:17:48,119 --> 01:17:50,960
having some jokes and telling stories about
his time with Angelo Dundee. Was

1241
01:17:51,000 --> 01:17:54,920
one of the most fun things I've
ever gotten to do. But again,

1242
01:17:55,199 --> 01:17:57,840
Happy birthday, Big George. One
of the greats of all time. Just

1243
01:17:58,159 --> 01:18:02,359
just occupy such a special in boxing
history for his accomplishments in the first part

1244
01:18:02,399 --> 01:18:04,479
of his career, as well as
what he was able to do when he

1245
01:18:04,600 --> 01:18:08,720
came back and all the great things
he's done for so many people after his

1246
01:18:08,840 --> 01:18:12,439
boxing career. You know, I
just love the guy. And you know

1247
01:18:12,520 --> 01:18:15,000
he's by the way, he's a
great follow on Twitter when he decides to

1248
01:18:15,000 --> 01:18:16,560
be active on there, he's great. And you know the other one we

1249
01:18:16,600 --> 01:18:20,439
should talk just a minute, Like
you mentioned Felix Trinidad fifteen, Joe Trinidad,

1250
01:18:20,560 --> 01:18:24,600
you've talked a lot about some of
his biggest moments and biggest fights,

1251
01:18:24,640 --> 01:18:30,319
and we cannot overstate what a hero, what a tremendous power puncher he was

1252
01:18:30,479 --> 01:18:33,399
for a lot of the newer fight
fans. Again, I often liked to

1253
01:18:33,479 --> 01:18:35,319
joke, there are a lot of
fight fans that listen to us that think

1254
01:18:35,319 --> 01:18:40,680
that boxing started in two thousand and
eight. Go back and watch Felix Trinidad

1255
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:44,319
in the in the mid to late
nineties, the early two thousands. It's

1256
01:18:44,319 --> 01:18:45,760
funny some more on him. It's
funny to pick two thousand and eight because

1257
01:18:45,800 --> 01:18:48,359
that was when Tito had his last
fight of his career, which by the

1258
01:18:48,399 --> 01:18:53,000
way, was two thousand and eight
January nineteenth, so that anniversary is coming

1259
01:18:53,079 --> 01:18:58,119
up. When he was beaten pretty
decisively by Roy Jones in the in the

1260
01:18:58,279 --> 01:19:00,399
final in the Summit Medium between the
two great superstars. That should have happened

1261
01:19:00,399 --> 01:19:05,760
many years earlier. Anyway. Felix
Trinidad a very very long rating welterweight champion,

1262
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:10,880
devastating punching power, unified titles at
welterweight. When he had the controversial

1263
01:19:10,960 --> 01:19:14,960
victory over Oscar de la Hoya,
went on an absolute rampage in three fights

1264
01:19:14,960 --> 01:19:19,399
at junior middleweight, won a title
by destroying David Reid, destroyed the mandatory

1265
01:19:19,479 --> 01:19:24,359
Mamadou TM in the Mandatory in his
next fight, then had the classic battle

1266
01:19:24,760 --> 01:19:28,680
against Fernando Vargas. I was very
privileged to be both at that them fight

1267
01:19:28,760 --> 01:19:31,039
and at the and that the Vargas
fight covered the rest of his career.

1268
01:19:31,720 --> 01:19:38,680
Felix Trinand is one of my absolute
favorite fighters ever, as humble and as

1269
01:19:40,079 --> 01:19:45,680
excited to be around boxing fans,
and happy and smiling and a terror like

1270
01:19:45,800 --> 01:19:49,359
I've never seen a boxer so happy
to come to the ring. You can

1271
01:19:49,439 --> 01:19:54,640
watch any Felix Trinidad fight you could
possibly think of, and the man had

1272
01:19:54,680 --> 01:19:56,800
a big smile on his face walking
into the ring. I don't know of

1273
01:19:56,880 --> 01:20:00,479
any other boxer that took as much
joy as getting his butt in the ring

1274
01:20:00,600 --> 01:20:03,079
to go to war with his opponent. And that's what he did with the

1275
01:20:03,119 --> 01:20:08,760
great left hook, and had some
humongous wins and some exciting wins. Was

1276
01:20:08,800 --> 01:20:13,199
part of some big mega events like
the obviously the Oscar fight, which it's

1277
01:20:13,239 --> 01:20:15,760
funny we're talked about George Forman now
they did one point four million buys in

1278
01:20:15,800 --> 01:20:20,039
the very first you know, a
real HBO pay per view fight. The

1279
01:20:20,159 --> 01:20:25,000
fight that ended up tying that number
was the Felix Trinidad Dale Away fight,

1280
01:20:25,039 --> 01:20:29,159
which took its place as the highest
selling non heavyweight fight, did one point

1281
01:20:29,199 --> 01:20:31,239
four million buys in nineteen ninety nine, and then, like I said,

1282
01:20:31,279 --> 01:20:35,079
Trinidad went on just a great run
with the run I mentioned at junior middleweight.

1283
01:20:35,640 --> 01:20:41,079
I'll say to this day, arguably
the greatest boxing atmosphere I have ever

1284
01:20:41,199 --> 01:20:44,720
been in for a fight, and
I have covered tons and tons and tons

1285
01:20:44,720 --> 01:20:46,920
of big fights, was the night
of May twelfth, two thousand and one

1286
01:20:47,319 --> 01:20:53,800
Madison Square Garden when Tito Trinidad went
up to middleweight and absolutely destroyed William Joppy

1287
01:20:53,840 --> 01:20:57,960
to win the WBA title. Absolutely
spectacular. He's part of one of the

1288
01:20:58,039 --> 01:21:00,560
most famous knights ever in boxing,
which one of the saddest nights was the

1289
01:21:00,640 --> 01:21:04,279
first boxing event or first sports event
in New York City post nine to eleven

1290
01:21:04,680 --> 01:21:08,560
that had been postponed because of the
terrorist attacks. It took place two weeks

1291
01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:11,880
later at the Guarden, where he
finally was defeated by Bernard Hopkins in an

1292
01:21:11,960 --> 01:21:15,119
upset and only fought you know a
few more times in his career, but

1293
01:21:15,840 --> 01:21:18,079
just again one of the one of
the all time great Puerto Rican fighters in

1294
01:21:18,159 --> 01:21:21,560
history. He's on that short list
of Puerto Rican boxers for my money,

1295
01:21:23,520 --> 01:21:26,239
top ten most exciting fighters you could
think of, probably at least in my

1296
01:21:26,399 --> 01:21:30,600
time. I just look like I
said, I'm a huge fan of George

1297
01:21:30,640 --> 01:21:32,199
and a huge fan of Trinidad.
And the fact that I got to cover,

1298
01:21:32,560 --> 01:21:34,960
you know, a bunch of Tito
fights, you know, down the

1299
01:21:35,000 --> 01:21:38,159
stretch of his career. I think
I covered maybe like eight of his fights

1300
01:21:38,239 --> 01:21:41,840
or something like that. Just you
know, I'll never forget it. He's

1301
01:21:41,840 --> 01:21:45,760
a great guy and I love him
both. Love all the nostalgia here.

1302
01:21:45,760 --> 01:21:50,119
And you did tell us about that
Joppy anniversary last May and how electric it

1303
01:21:50,399 --> 01:21:53,239
was. They can relive that,
and I'm sure we'll bring it up again.

1304
01:21:53,359 --> 01:21:57,960
I covered I was. I got
the opportunity to be ringside for seven

1305
01:21:58,119 --> 01:22:00,720
of Trinidad's final eight fights. The
one I did not cover was the post

1306
01:22:01,279 --> 01:22:04,560
Hopkins fight where he fought back in
Puerto Rico and beat up on Hassin Sharifi,

1307
01:22:04,600 --> 01:22:08,840
the former title holder. But I'm
gonna tell you another one, by

1308
01:22:08,880 --> 01:22:11,680
the way, when I talk about
that atmosphere for the Joppy fight. It

1309
01:22:11,760 --> 01:22:14,720
ain't that far back in the list, and that's the night that he came

1310
01:22:14,800 --> 01:22:17,880
back after the sharif If I came
out of retirement and had the knockout victory

1311
01:22:17,880 --> 01:22:23,319
in a very exciting fight at the
Guard against Ricardo my Orga. He towed

1312
01:22:23,399 --> 01:22:28,000
Trinidad fifty one. Happy birthday to
him as well. Man busy show again,

1313
01:22:28,279 --> 01:22:30,399
we will come your way depending on
when you're hearing us here. As

1314
01:22:30,439 --> 01:22:36,159
we released the preview podcast on bet
Us one Eastern time every Friday, we're

1315
01:22:36,239 --> 01:22:43,000
talking better BF Callum Smith handicapping that
really the top three fight cards with that,

1316
01:22:44,000 --> 01:22:46,960
and then we look forward to handicapping
those fights. We'll watch what happens

1317
01:22:47,000 --> 01:22:50,119
with those and whatever happens this weekend, my friend, we come off the

1318
01:22:50,199 --> 01:22:55,760
weekend and we recap it with the
Fight Freaks U Night Recap podcast off the

1319
01:22:55,800 --> 01:22:59,279
weekend, sir. So I'm looking
forward to all of that here, Dan

1320
01:22:59,399 --> 01:23:02,840
ray Fiel unfold. Whatever happens in
Quebec City, Canada, with those fights,

1321
01:23:03,239 --> 01:23:05,960
we'll be talking about it, and
we look forward to everything off the

1322
01:23:06,000 --> 01:23:10,199
weekend as well. Anything else.
I think we're good. I'm looking forward

1323
01:23:10,239 --> 01:23:12,840
to the fight also. I actually
think that should be a fun card,

1324
01:23:13,199 --> 01:23:15,640
Yes, no doubt about that.
Again, the bet Us show comes your

1325
01:23:15,680 --> 01:23:16,960
way at one Eastern time. We're
in the preview mode Thursday night, in

1326
01:23:17,039 --> 01:23:20,399
a Friday on the Big Fight Weekend
preview, the fight for each night recap

1327
01:23:20,560 --> 01:23:26,560
usually out Sunday night late into Monday. You get us twice each and every

1328
01:23:26,560 --> 01:23:30,840
weekend, and we're thrilled to have
everybody continuing to join us following subscribing in

1329
01:23:30,920 --> 01:23:33,199
twenty twenty four. For now,
we are good. Enjoy the action this

1330
01:23:33,359 --> 01:23:38,039
weekend For Dan Rayfield. I'm TJ. Reeves. You've been listening to the

1331
01:23:38,079 --> 01:23:39,039
Big Fight Weekend Preview