Well off of a weekend that has seen William Zappeida looked impressive in the Golden
Boys main event in Las Vegas, a week that is now one week closer
to an upcoming Tim Zu Keith Thurman fight. You're gonna hear from Keith Thurman
on the podcast. We're ready to do that. Get a little fight news.
It's great nostalgia on Meldrick Taylor and Julio Cesar Chavez all on this show.
It's the Fight Freak two night recap podcast. I am the somewhat competent
host TJ Reeves. He is our insider Dan Rayfield. Good to be back
with you, and we've got a lot to go over, a lot to
cover again. Keith Thurman, one time the former world welterweight champ on the
show. Here little recap, little nostalgia. You and I are going to
go over maybe the most controversial stoppage in a big time championship fight ever in
the Nostalgia Chavez against Meldrick Taylor. First of all, how are you coming
off the weekend? How are things? My friend? I'm good? Wasn't
the most compelling set of boxing matches that we watched Denver our life, but
you know got the job done. We are here to recap the Golden Boys
show. And again, by the way, thank you for finding us.
Make sure you follow, subscribe, Apple Spreakers, Spotify, rate us,
and review as several of you have done that. We don't have a lot
in March as of yet. Where are you, peeps. Let's go get
some ratings and certain reviews. Tell us how much you enjoy the content.
If you do, we appreciate that as always, so put those in because
we certainly put the work in, especially if you love hearing these guests.
All right, So William Zapeida gets the victory over Maxi Hughes of England.
Zupaida obviously the Mexican rising lightweight star, the IBFWBA eliminator. Dan your thoughts
on Zapeida? How he looked and he gets his hand raised yet again an
active fighter and another impressive win. I mean this won't be a controversial statement.
He looked awesome. I mean he did what he does, which is
throw over one hundred punches around land, the whole shitload of them, beat
the living daylights out of his opponent and get another victory under his So now
he's thirty to Zho with twenty six knockouts. You've never heard anybody call him
out. But he's now going to be a problem because he's he's now because
of his victory over Hughes, who you know, his corner stopped it after
round four of just an absolute freaking beatdown. Williams of Paida is now mandatory
in two organizations. He's mandatory in the IBF, He's mandatory in the WBA,
So that means he's in the mandatory position for the winner of the May
eleventh fight between Lomachenko and Cambosas, who are fighting for the vacant title,
that take place in Australia. He's also now officially the mandatory for the WBA
title holder, which is Gervonte Davis. Now Gervante has got another fight coming
up, He's probably fighting Frank Martin come June, and the mandatory is not
yet due. But the point is at some point in the next couple of
fights, at least probably before the end of the year, he's going to
get some kind of title opportunity. Even though he's not the mandatory in the
WBC. He's going to call at cor Stevenson, Oscar de loy is promoter
you know, has made social media video saying, come on, Jakorla,
let's do it. After the fight, Oscar you know, looked into the
cameras that it sacure if you're watching, Let's get it on cha. Couru
supposedly got a fight coming up, you know, in the July fourth weekend.
No opponent that is set for that, so you never know. There's
no reason why after what amounted to just like a nice workout for the Paida,
he couldn't be ready for a fight in July, although I'd be a
little surprised if Chequurt and top rank did that, but you never know.
But anyway, to make a long story short, just an absolutely overwhelming performance.
Now, Maxi Hughes actually won the first round on two of the three
cards. I thought that Sepaida did enough because he was such a much heavier
hitter. But Max he threw like fifty plus punches. That's pretty active for
him, and he just couldn't keep it up because the Payda is just such
an overwhelming opponent. He's teeing off and the you know, he landed good
right hands to the head. It's the body attack that is absolutely punishing.
Stereotypical Mexican body puncher to a tee. Just blast, blast, blast to
the body, mark tip his face, and you know that fight could have
been stopped, you know, maybe a little earlier than it was. You
know, Robert Hoyle, who's was the referee, did a good job.
I don't think it was a you know, uh derel lickchtionnener or anything like
that. He was given, make Maxi a chance. You know who's uh,
you know, a tough, tough guy. A big moment for him.
And when the when the round was over, after some conversation in the
corner, uh that the Maxi used corner, threw in the towel and said,
you know, enough is enough. But it wasn't like Hughes fought a
bad fight. It said, Zepaia has fought that overwhelming of a of a
performance, and uh he's he's a tough out man. He is gonna give
anybody in the weight class. I don't care who it is, shakor tank
Loma ambosis. Pick a guy who's a lightweight. Uh, they're gonna they're
gonna have some trouble. And I'm not saying that is gonna beat everybody,
but then well, they're gonna know they were gonna fight if if he happens
to lose, fast hands, big punching power. He's been active, so
we'll see what's in store for him as you laid it out for us later
this summer, later this year. For William Zapeta, it's something good for
gold golden boy right now to have that guy on the rise of one for
sure, and also more than anything entertaining because when the time comes, if
he does news a fight, he's not the kind of guy that you're gonna
say, Okay, we don't want to see him again, which there are
plenty of guys like that. He's gonna be the kind of guy that,
Okay, he lost, well let's see him again, because he's going to
always give you an exciting fight, because, like his statistics prove out,
it's just non stop punching, withering body attack and good power and good attitude.
I love the fact that in the post fight interview, you know,
most of it he conducted through a translator to translate his Spanish words, but
he spoke a little bit in English and you could very for sure make out
hit his comments about wanting to fights. Of course, Stevensoner or Gervanta Davis
in his post fight remark. So he does have a little bit of that
swagger to him, even though he was a very humble type of guy.
I just I can't get enough watching the paid fight. I've been watching him
for a while. I had him on my prospect list before anybody was really
thinking about him, and I love watching them development too. A legitimate top
contender he was supposed to do now on the undercard, Floyd Schofield another guy
that you've also had as a as a prospect, and we've been talking a
lot about him on these podcasts over the last year plus. He gets the
win, but it's his opponent. As story swear if I have that pronunciation
correct, that was really the problem, including fouling Schofield going to that and
the rest of the undercard there for Golden Boy, if you wouldn't well Scofield,
you know, he looked pretty good. I mean he's a young fighter,
he's fast, he's got power, he's hungry, he's very energetic,
and he comes to fight. But you can only come to fight if your
opponent's gonna be there to fight with you, and Schofield was more than willing
to engage. He can also box, by the way, But Swearo thought
the most negative, dirty fighter I've seen in a long time, you know.
And the thing that pissed me off about it was they act like they
didn't know they're fouling, Like, you know, he's like shrugging his shoulders,
like what who me? You know, And in Ishmael Salas, who's
a trainer, his trainer, you know, a terrific trainer, also was
in on the bullshit because they were making it out like we didn't do anything.
Meanwhile, he's hitting him in the Nazi, lifting them off the canvas
and throwing him down. He's grabbing him, he's holding them. You know,
he's he's he's budding him. It just dirty, dirty, dirty.
There was a head butt early in the fight that ripped open a terrible cut
in the eyebrow over Schofield's eye. He's you know, been so the eye
was bloody and he said afterwards, you know, he's had a hard time
seeing this was in the in the second round that that occurred. No,
actually that was at the end of the first round where the gash was opened
up. In any event, but he kept fighting, and you know,
Schofield. You know, he seems to have that like warrior spirit to him.
But the other guy just don't want to fight because every time he got
touched and hurt, you know, he did was resort to fouling. I
mean, it's it's a very negative, very very hard to watch. And
frankly, he should have been disqualified. I felt like even before Raoul Cais
Junior, who was the referee, did disqualify now, but he had his
hands fell because the guy was doing every foul you could think of. Uh,
you know. But in the end, Schofield won every round and I
hope you never see Swirrow again. And by the way, this was not
something that was a total shock because he came in with a dirty reputation because
in his previous fight he had had two points deductive for biting his opponent.
So it's not his first bowel fest, if you will. But the schoolfield,
I guess we credit Schofield for being able to survive that. Understand that
this is part of learning, growing, getting experience. You're going to get
in there occasionally with somebody that's just a dirty fighter. How do you handle
it? And there you go. I thought that Schofield for being only a
twenty one year old fighter, showed a lot of maturity to not retaliate,
to not let it. Like in his interview, he was like, you
know, it's cool whatever, it's boxing. No, you know, nothing,
no bad feelings or anything like that. So that that will serve him
well as he as he continues to climb up the ladder. But that look,
he's seventeen to oh twelve knockouts also in the lightweight division. Maybe not
as ready for a title shots as Williams ofpata Is from the main event,
but Schofield, look, he's not that far away. I mean, you
know, he's he's already been calling out certain guys. He's been calling out
Keyshon Davis. I'm sure you would fight your cord rped He he's mentioned he's
a very good prospect, the bordering on contender at this point. It's going
to be hard to match him up with guys because it's at the moment,
at this moment in time, he doesn't bring a lot of money, but
he brings a lot of danger. Hopefully when they find somebody to fight him
next, it's somebody that's a little more of a positive kind of fighter than
Squerrow who just just was looking for a way out in the end, he
just he just didn't want to be there. And he didn't know how to
handle Schofield at all. He was outclassed in terms of the skill, the
skills, the speed, the power. Every time Scofield touched him and hurt
him, you could almost see like he react and like grab or you know,
try to twist his arm or just do something dirty. And he took
a bunch of warnings and you know, and Kyez had his handful, and
you know, he did the right thing eventually finally did. He had no
choice, but off, I mean, you couldn't he letting that shit go
on the way that it was. So in the end, it only you
know, five rounds and over and out. All right. So that's the
Golden Boys show in Las Vegas. I don't want to make mention anything else
off that car before we rolled. Yeah, I was just going to make
a mention of in the in the opening fight on the show was the professional
debut the welterweight Joel Erarte, who was a fighter that Golden Bay signed,
and it just announced a few days ago. Obviously they knew this was coming
up, even if they waited for the announcement. But he's a twenty year
old Mexican American from Bakersfield, California, a top top amateur, a seventeen
time national champion, a Team USA member, a lot of hype about the
kid. Made his pro debut against the south Paw. You know, it
was three six and two, but pad experience and was much older than him
at twenty eight years old. And actually, you know, it was hung
in there for a little bit. But this was what looks to be the
journey, the beginning of the journey that could result in, you know,
a very good career. So it was good to see him get his feet
wet in the pros. He got a knockout, and you know, good
for him. We'll see, hopefully we'll see a lot more of him.
It was a second round knockout and he barely broke a sweat. He's a
he's a big guy for that weight class, and he looked good. You
know, what can you say? Well? And also you want to make
mention off the weekend as we recap and do the best we can at the
former WBO and I'm heavyweight Joe Joyce. When last we saw him, he
was being dispatched. You love that word. On a second occasion by Zila
Jang. He was back this weekend. He wins by knockout on the Queensbury
card. Tell me more about this. So Queensberry Frank Warren had their their
the sequel to their quote unquote Magnificent Seven, which was a whole bunch of
various regional and British and Commonwealth TI title fights. Not a lot of big
names necessarily. The biggest name, if he will, was Joe Joyce,
who was like third down on the card, I guess, but it was
the most significant from the standpoint of his position as a heavyweight contender. As
you mentioned, he twice was stopped in twenty twenty three by Jilly Zang,
once because his eye got blown up and he got stopped in around six because
of that injury, even though he was losing the fight. But the second
fight that took place in September was a much more dominating victory for Zang,
who stopped him in the third round on a clean knockout. And this is
after a lot of build up. You know, Joe's been undefeated, he's
been beating everybody. He was before the Jang first fight. He was coming
off of a very very brutal knockout win against Joseph Parker, who, by
the way, then took the opportunity to win all those fights in a row,
including the upsets of Deontay Wilder, and then of course on the card,
just as past week, he did the same thing in terms of another
upset that he scored on that card. So you know, it's sort of
like the old it doesn't necessarily matter, like the future always is bright if
you can keep winning after that loss. And Joe did that because he beat
Wilder and then of course he beat Jang himself. But Joe made the comeback
on this card against a British fighter in cash Ali, you know, as
a good record, but had never really fought too many people. It was
only big name, I guess, you know, if you can consider him
a big name as David Price a few years ago. But Joe looked not
great. He was a lot heavier than usual, I believe it or not.
I looked even slower than usual, like you just maybe the ages getting
up there all those amateur fights. He's now thirty years old. He won
the fight, and he won basically every round, and he did get a
knockout in the tenth round, you know, as the round as there was
only a ten round fight, so he did, you know, stop him
with the right hand as the fight was you know, close to being over.
But the knockout is what he needed to maybe get the confidence back.
And obviously it looks good on the record, but if you actually sit there
and you observe the ten rounds like I had the misfortune of doing, not
an impressive performance. I don't know where Joe goes from here. I mean,
obviously he's still a name, and he's still got the power. You
know, we'll see, maybe get in the mixes one of these guys in
Saudi Arabia and throw him in with anybody, right and maybe he can build
the upset like Zangin, you know, you know, and come back and
score big win. But he's thirty eight and uh yeah, and there's not
enough you know, you don't get younger, and those two there were two
rough knockouts. Then with that there was a disappointed was it for a for
a victory? Was pretty disappointing win. It is a win, but not
much other than that. All right, So, as we mentioned, Dan
now goes into conversation mode. You've been rolling, if I do say so,
Ostro vob Dez on the previous podcast him Zoo Before that, Zoo's opponent
is Keith Thurman from my part of the world, the Tampa Saint Pete Clearwater
area. Keith Thurman, who's not been very active, but he is now
in this main event, the first premiere boxing Champion's Amazon pay per view at
the end of the month. Here he is the former world welterweight champ with
our guy Dan Rayfield. Well, it's my great pleasure to welcome to our
podcast this week, my man Keith one time Thurmon, the former unified welterweight
champion of the world. Keith, You've got a fight coming up, your
return to the ring after a bit of an activity. You're taking on the
undefeated Tim Zuo and it will be the kickoff event for PBC on Amazon Prime
Video March thirtieth, Team Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. I'll say welcome to
the show and also welcome back to the ring. How's everything going. Everything's
going good, man, long anticipation, you know. We had a simple,
very nice performance against Mario Barrios, and then we just ran into another
political hickup where things weren't happening the way the you expect them to happen.
Maybe it was something in the stars. But here we are, twenty twenty
four in a new year. There's a celestial ship, the stars are a
line, and we're back in Vegas. Amazon Prime pay per View got an
amazing fight lined up for you against this Australian named Timothy Zoo. Well,
you may have been out of the ring for a while, but you have
not lost your ability to talk on the mic and get people pumped up for
it. But you're the one that brought up Barrios. I was gonna ask
about that, but I'll start off with that since you just raised that.
You know, you look good against Mario Barrios. You beat him. That
fight was nearly two year or I guess two years ago. Actually, by
the time you fight against tim Zoo, it'll be twenty five months. So
you mentioned about a political hiccup. Could you just elaborate on that. You
don't have to go deep into it, but just briefly, like why was
it such a long layoff? Yeah? I mean, of course, right
after, right after the fight, Durwan was back in the walkaway division capable.
Ready, the world saw my performance. I could have fought against Terrence
Crawford. I could have fought against Aerl Spence. By the end of that
year, the WBC mandated Dispense fight. So at the beginning of last year
we were looking forward to getting in the ring with Aerol Spence Junior. He
had a hiccup, some another car accident that they didn't promote too much,
but a few people heard about it. They kind of try to shove it
under the rug. He did his recovery once he was ready to sign a
contract. He just got out of the mandate and made the big fight happen
with Crawford. Now, of course the fans weren't upset. Everybody understands what
he was doing. I believe that. You know, he got very lucky
to buy pass me for so many years. Anyways, because Thurman wasn't supposed
to lose to Pakyow Thurman Beach pak Yao Pakdew was supposed to fight Spence.
That would have been Thurman Versuspense. Oh wait, Spence had a rent.
The problem they never fought, so they never fought Ugas fights. Pak Yao
Ugos becomes a champion now you guys have to watch who Dennis Erga Hugas versus
Al Spence Junior out there in Dallas, Texas. That should have been Thurman
Spence right there. So I kind of I appreciate all what you're saying,
but there's still other guys you could have fought. No, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying on the timeline after I lost the pack yall, that
was never supposed to happen. We easily, we were supposed to get it.
It was supposed to be Thermanby's packed out then Thurman Spence. That was
the biggest next fight lined up for me in the walk Away Division period.
I fight Mario Barrios. I'm gonna get back on that timeline, I fight
Mario Barrios. I'm ready to fight Budd Crawford. Bud was saying my name
for a while, then he stopped. He thought I had I was.
I had no interest. I just wanted to get back in the ring.
I got back in the ring. I'm ready for Budd. I don't hear
no phone calls. They were they mandated Spence. You're acting like I'm supposed
to go after other guys. They mandated Spence I'm in a training camp in
December before his next car accident. I'm already training for L. Spence Junior.
I already signed my contract for L. S Fince Junior. Okay,
boom, New Year twenty twenty three is actually in in line. We hear
that Spence is gonna fight, but so we know I'm out of the picture
now, So I gotta wait for the for the next phone call. I
get a phone call. Okay, we can get you Ugas. Fine,
give me Ugas. I never fought Ugas. Sean thought Ugas. Bence fought
Ugas. German never fought We got Pa. Ugas beat pak Yau. German
lost to pak Yao. This could have been a relevant fight. This could
have been my fight last year. Damn doesn't happen. He fights Mario Barrios,
loses to Mario Barrios. German already beat Barrios. You know, so
I said, I send I s stan They have Stanley Onis ready for me,
right, they have Stanley Onis, which I was I wasn't willing to
fight, and I thought that was gonna be my fight when when the network
came out. So another thing was after I fought Mario Barrios, Shortly after
that Fox left PBC. Right, So you know, now showtime is out
right. So when I say political things there, it really is more.
There are more political variables and at play outside of just making matchups. When
I got the list of names of twenty twenty three, once I knew I
wasn't fighting Errol Spincher Junior, right, Okay, it was Ugas, Stanley
Ones and then a lot of fan favorites, Boots Ennis, I said,
fine, I'll fight. I'll fight these guys, you know, but you're
giving me three names. So how about you give me one of these two
and right after I'll give them the ring with Boots. I got no problem.
And if I really can't get this fight, why don't you just call
up Keith Thurman and say, KOs, all we have for you is Boots
edis right. Let me ask you, Let me ask you a question.
Normally I'm answering question. Let me ask you a question. Okay, I'll
Hangman calls Keith Tournament and he says, look, look, Champ, we're
just in a situation. Maybe you can move up if you want to,
but at one forty seven, we can get the only fight we can get
you. We can get you paid, but just go a number. Two
point seven done. Let's still have a number. It doesn't matter all we
can. We're not gonna be able to get your three point five. We
get you two point seven. I say, we get you two point seven?
You fight? Whoo's ennis your teeth tournament? What's the answer? I
mean, I would think the answer is yes. The answer is yes there,
So what do I do? Heal me a fight? Me took me
in the game. Are you saying you said yes to what's Thurman doing on
the bench? What's Thurman doing on the bench, Keith, Keith? You
said yes, and they couldn't deliver the fight, is what you're saying.
But well, what I'm saying is Boots was one of three names. I
said, give me one of these two and then give me Boots. You
know, do I not deserve one to get back in the ring. You
gotta keep playing with this timeline. Give me back in the ring. I'm
not one who's kepting a lot of easy fights in my career. Just give
me a fight, Okay, give me, give me, give me,
give me the hot guy. But the walkway divisions, it is what it
is. I so I couldn't get MUGAs I couldn't. I gotta get I
don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You don't have my time.
Don't worry about it. They won't shut this off. They won't shut
this off. So when you understand that I could be fighting Stanley onus right
now, to Keith Dunman want to become the regular champion of the world again,
I've already done what I've done at one. Let let Boots collect some
belts, let them do some things, and then I can always fight Boots.
I can make come up. Maybe Thurman can go back down. But
when I got the phone call, when I got the phone call to fight
tim Zo, It's just it did something. It really it just really felt
like an opportunity. You know, you know how Boston is a great opportunity.
Is it just it just felt like an opportunity. And that's what That's
what Keith Thurman is an opportunist. So I always have been and I always
will be. Before all that, why this fight, before all that,
I get the feeling there was a lot of frustration for you. And let
me ask just be to be clear that the layoff you're coming off of now
the roughly two years. That was not like previously where you had some injuries.
Was there an injury in this two year period or this was just you
were ready to go and we were, we were, we were, We
were seemingly as if certain fights were gonna happen. Spence, Oh got two
names that I really thought. I just want to know if there was injuries
involved. There was no injury happened. There's no injuries. We as far
as being inactive, we were more active than everybody gets me credit for because
we were in and out of them, out of the gym all twenty twenty
three, anticipating a fight date. So we didn't get the fight date.
We weren't sure if we were going to get on the showtime timeline. You
know about the rumors that were happening about the network ship. Everybody the rumors
got released. I forgive it was you or somebody else. You know,
some of you guys, you already write up stuff before other people are supposed
to know about it. And they put it out there that Al Hayman is
talking to Amazon Prime. Here we are on Amazon Prime. Who did they
call? Who gets to do the kickoff? Who's kicked off Prime who's kicked
off PBC opening fights in the past. Uh, correct, PBC on NBC,
PBC on CBS, PBC on Fox, PBC on ESPN. I'm gonna
kickoff, man, and we're gonna do it one more time against Tim Zuo.
And like I said, Tim Zuo, what you're gonna do. You're
coming over to my place. You're coming over to my land, the Red,
White and Blue. You're coming to Vegas. Baby, I know you're
already there training. It's gonna be different, it's gonna be difficult. What
I bring to the ring is, let me ask you about that any of
the fighters he's ever fought in that ring before, So you're I will give
him a challenge greater than mathematically speaking, Keith Thurman is not lesser than the
fighters he's been up against. So, keeping with my inactivity, Keith,
you're going up to one hundred and fifty four pounds. Unfortunately, for different
reasons related to the sanction body, it's not for y for Tim Zoo's world
title. And but you're still fighting him. Are you at all uh disappointed
or frustrated that it's not for the world title. I mean, let's be
honest, be honest, my man, Keith Thurman, dealing with one more
political line. You know, I'm running into more politics during my career.
All a surprise, Oh what a surprise, right? Who cares? You
know? I mean, I'm established, luckily for Keith Thurman, I'm a
world class, established fighter. And even though the belts out on the line,
Tim Zu's undefeated record is right and in my fine print it states,
you win this fight, we get to another championship fight. So what is
your How many champions are there? There's only one more champions So that means
that Keith Thurman, and he's talked about fighting Charlo as well, So that
means the winner of this fight has an opportunity to fight Charlo. There's only
one or more variable and that's the winner of this fight fights Terrence Crawford.
I've heard recently Crawford wants the winner of this fight. That's very intriguing as
now we're talking about at this current date. The winner has to win and
then new talks can get foot on the table. But there of what happens
a March thirtieth for Keith Thurman and Tim Zu. Doors will open at one
fifty four, a division I've never been in doors will just miraculously open and
big fights will be able to be made. Theoretically. What excited me the
most is knowing I can fight Tim Zu, I can fight Charlo, and
in two fights, I can beat all the world champions and be technically without
the WBO on me. Technically I'd be the undisputed champion at one fifty four,
making my dreams come true, which I never got the opportunity to be
in that scenario at one forty seven since Al Spence, who had three swiftly
got out of the out of our comedy. All right, So one is
where you're at now. You're not going back to Walterait. This is your
new weight class and you're taking on just keep Thurman belong here. We don't
know I'm the underdog. A lot of people got doubt in me. Well,
Keith, So I asked you about that. He's six years younger than
you, because he's been in this weight class for most of his career.
He's bigger than you and at least used to fighting bigger men. He's obviously
been much more active. He's had four fights since you had your last fight.
So why why do you think that people should look at this and say
Keith Thurman can win this fight. Well, you got no fighting, you
got no fight styles, right, He says he's gonna knock out Keith Dart.
That's very nice to say. Has anybody ever done that? I think
you've only been on the floor one time? Am I right about that?
Against pay? I was on the floor against Pat Alms. I was on
the floor in an untelevised fight. So I got up and won that fight.
I got up in loss decision to pack. Okay, you know,
so you got a great We all know you got a great chin. Got
a great chin. They say I can't take a body shot, but every
time I get hit and I get hurt to the body, I take it.
Listen, you you just judged my memory, Keith. I was there
in Tampa when Luis Colaso doubled you over with that body shot, and I
was actually really super impressed that you survived that and won that fight. So
you can take a shot. But what I can't take the shot, but
every time they hit me, I've never been down. Doesn't that mean I
can take the shot. So if you want to understand, you know,
Sean understands Keith Thumman. We were in the Amateurs together, me, him,
We Deontay Wilder, Daniel Jacobs, Danny Garcia, Ryan Garcia, we
were all in the Amateurs together, right, So they've seen Shawn's really seen
my progression. He knows that I'm a methodical fighter. They know that I
have the capacity to create a game plan. The game plan that I have
against Tim Zoo okay, and just defense defense knowing you know, Tim zu
is not He's just a solid guy. He's a move forward pressure fighter.
Is he gonna be a tough fight? He's fought four times in the past
four days. If everybody keeps saying this, he's fought four times in the
past four days. I think, Keith, I think I think it's fair
to say, hold on, if you fought four times since your last fight,
he's a movie. You've got tea fights in five years exactly. He's
a moving train. Right. But come on, baby, I'm like a'll
leand this I'm gonna show you how great I am. Legends are legends for
reasons, not a short season. And for you to think that Keith Nmant
was not and is not one of the legends of this generation months thirtieth,
Tim Zuo is trying to make a name months thirtieth teeth Dunmoant is just helping
you remember his that's that. I understand where you're coming from with that.
So I want to ask you about that's you then you you talked about his
style of fighting, and I look, you know, besides the activity level,
you know, he's beaten some very reputable opponents, done so against Brian
Mendoza, tough as nails, done so against a former champion, and Tony
Harrison had had a performance against He didn't knock out man gonna knock me out?
Well, I'm not saying he's an knock you out. I'm just asking
for your take on his on his No, I'm asking the question in the
general terms. You know what I'm saying, How's he gonna knock me out?
He didn't knock out Mendoza. Mendoza had some footwork, he didn't have
seat Thomas footwork. He didn't have to seat Thurman's hands speed. You don't
have seat Thurnaman's I Q. That's why I have confidence in what I do.
And you're not worried. You're not worried about the rest of the of
the layoff at all. Doesn't sound like it. I'm way more active than
inactive, that's what That's what you guys have not seen. The inactivity just
means Keith Thurman has not been on TV. I haven't. From a stectator's
side, they're saying, I haven't seen Keith Thurman. Keith Thurman, there's
no way he can be ready for this fight. So have you really you
really? I am Keith Thurman and I beg to differ, and that's why
I've signed this fight. Have you, then, in your time away from
the actual ring, not the jim, have you really missed the competition of
boxing, not being under the lights, not being in a big promotion.
Yeah, I mean it's actually somewhat annoying, but uh, at the end
of the day, you know, I've always been a man of faith,
and we've seen fighters have miraculous second legs of their career. And that's why
I'm moving up to fifty four. Is this Thurman versus Tim Zuo, the
Thurman versus Charlo in two fights, I can blow through this whole division and
re establish myself as a Hall of Famer when I'm already a Hall of Famer.
Okay, we're just gonna We're just gonna have more facts. We're just
gonna have more to say about it was all said and done many Patill defeated
me at the age of forty. For you guys to just say that it's
over, it's not your job to say is over. It's my job to
say is over. It's my job to put on a lack luster performance.
And let's be real, have I ever done that? No, listen,
I mean, Keith, even when you lost to Manny, it wasn't like
you fought badly or anything like that. It was a competitive fight obviously.
Well, I'll look back though, in the say, the twenty sixteen twenty
seventeen time frame, you know you had fought in back to back fights Danny
Garcia and Sean Porter. You unified the titles. Those are huge victories.
Big fights you had also had, Like I mentioned before, you had the
victory against Colaso you kicked off the PBC on NBC I think was the first
ever PBC card of any kind, beat Robert Guerrero and at that time and
all I covered all those fights. I'm like, you know, Keith Thurman,
he's on that Hall of Fame path, He's not there yet. Obviously,
but it's on the trajectory with the types of guys you were beating,
winning all the belts that you had won, and then without without a you
know, like I said, two fights in five years, it kind of
kind of goes off the rails a little bit. And so for those of
us who covered your career with thought, wow, this is a tremendous fighter
that maybe there's still time to make up for it because I can said,
you're only thirty five, not taking a huge amount of damage. But maybe
do you feel like, because of the long layoffs, that maybe you've underachieved
to this point a little bit? I mean, yeah, have my career
gone the way that I've wanted to go? No? Did I expect all
this to manifest? No? You know, has the sport of boxing humble
me? Yes? You know, if I keep telling the story is just
the one that you said. Do I feel like I've done enough? No?
You know, so I'm here. I'm here to continue. You know,
I had a lot of prime years were inactive, and you know,
but as a man of faith, I'm just hoping that there's something out here
in the world, in the universe that's still an unknown variable that God wants
me to see and He's given me an opportunity right now to show the world
that you know that you're great. You know, Derman, you're great,
and remind the world of your greatness. Yes, yes you've been out,
Yes I've challenged you. Yes I put you through trials and tribulations. But
what great human being on this planet has does not have their story? This
is just keep Therman's story. Don't worry. I'll write a book you can
read all about it one day. Okay, we won't, We won't keep
the politically correct. I'll put all the I'll put all the dirty secrets in
there. Okay, I'll write a book all about it for you one day.
Okay. Right now, the story still continues, to story still continues,
and they and I'm excited, I'm I'm happy. I'm joyful to get
that in the ring, to get that in the lime light, and to
show the world keep one time, Derman. You know the thing about boxing
is we both know this. You're only as good as your last fight.
Otherwise you want to be talking the way you're talking to people like now,
right, you're always good as your last fight. My last fight was too
long ago, right, so this moment, right here in March thirtieth,
I just have to remind you who Keith Thurmant is, what he brings to
the world, boxing why he was great that in twenty sixteen, and why
he still is great today. Not a mythical creature, but a living legend
in action, ready for the world at all times. The stars are in
the alignment twenty twenty four. I patiently waited, and the blessings are coming
upon me, and all I have to do is hit this man one time
for the one time, to remind you about one time Keith Thurnament and get
that excitement back. Let's let's let's look over it right now real quick.
March thirty third, Hell on to say, Keith Thurman not South ten Zoo
one fifty four? What are you gonna do? Who's next? Who's next?
You guy'sn't gonna see like Muhammad al RII I'm gonna show you how great
I am. Don't count me out. You can never count this man out.
Well, you made your case, I'll say that. And so I'll
just wrap up with this. If you need a ghostwriter for your book,
hit me up to help you out with the writing part of it and I
wish you nothing but the best of luck. On Mark thirtyth I'm looking forward
to your return. I've always been a fan of Keith Thurman to watch them
do his thing. We just haven't had the chance to see it enough,
I know. But it's it's just coming back, man. I'm gonna give
you guys the most that I can, whether that's the next two years,
three years, or if like Floyd and Manipac yao, I got five more.
If I could do this to thirty eight, thirty nine, forty years
old. We don't know. There's a lot of question marks. It's great,
it's great to not know in the life. The problem is we really
all don't know nothing. We just pretend like we do. We pretend like
we do. I don't know. Maybe I will get knocked out by Tim
Zeu. Tell me watch, tell me tune in. No matter what,
I promise you, it's gonna be a wonderful night of Boston like it always
has been when you see your man keep on top Thurman before well said Keith.
All I can say there is thank you very much for your time,
and like I said, I wish your best of luck in the fight.
Thank you man, you bet again. I have said to you I have
much love for my Tampa Bay Brethren, of which Keith Thurman is one.
But the truth is he's fought one time in about four and a half year.
Speaking of one time, he's fought one time. So you got to
see nickname, Yeah, I know it's his nickname. You got to see
him on the hookup one time. Can definitely talk. We heard that.
What everybody wants to know is does he have anything at all here in terms
of timing and the ability to fight. We don't know. All right,
wrap it up there on the conversation with Thurman. Listen, he makes you
a believer because he does talk. You know he has. If he was
in the WWE, the way he talks, he would do well there because
he can really bring it in. The matter is how much is it going
to make you believe? Because the inactivity is rough. He's fighting a guy
that's active. He's fighting a guy that's a good puncher. He's fighting guy
that's filled with confidence that's been beating some pretty decent guys, whether it's Tony
Harrison or Brian Mendoza. No, he's not beating like bums or anything like
that you know, and he's looked pretty good Terrell Gashet, I mean Olympian
and Keith is also moving up in wait. Keith talks a great game.
He's only got one loss in his career that was against a legend and many
patter which cost him his welterweight title a couple of years ago, a few
years ago. Uh. I mean, for obvious reasons, Zoo's the favorite.
But Keith when you when you when I heard him speak and saw him
speak, he does make you believe that he can do it, which is
part of selling an event like they've got to do because this is a seventy
five dollars pay per view. Uh. And we'll see what they can do
with it. But one thing about Keith Thurman, whatever you think about his
chances are in this fight, I'm pretty confident we'll be entertaining because I've watched
plenty of Keith Thurman's right, I've been watching Keith pretty much his whole career.
He makes fun fights and Tim Zoo was also in an entertaining, engaging
fighter also, So from that standpoint, I do think the main event will
be, you know, a good fight to watch. That to me is
always the first and foremost thing about it. And you know, whether Keith
can do it, we'll see. And again that's not this coming weekend,
but the following weekend as we released this recap podcast More marks thirty. Let's
use the date March third, that's correct for Zoo Thurman in Vegas. A
some news and then some nostalgia. Can't wait to get the nostalgia, Rayfield,
Jack Catterall, Josh Taylor delayed again. I'm over this. The cell
by gate was like two years ago and it's delayed again quickly. I don't
know if I could say two years ago. And I think though bite on
my count, I think this is the fourth time it's been postponed and or
canceled. Because when they were after the first fight, they tried to make
the rematch and for different reasons it was postponed. There was issues logistically with
their broadcaster in the UK. I think there was a COVID situation. Then
Taylor had the foot injury, which after multiple postponements, a WBO got tired
of it and said, you know, forget it, We're gonna order.
We're gonna order you to do the the the mandatory against Tafimo Lopez, which
is then the next fight. Then of course he lost Catterall. Meanwhile switches
promoters and puts in you know, gets two wins, but their stink bomb
fights. And so now you got these two guys who don't really have anywhere
to go except to finally put this fight back together, which they've done.
It was supposed to take place April twenty seventh, at long Last, and
like clockwork announced on Thursday, you had the revelation that Josh Taylor had had
a minor eye procedure, was not going to be ready in time. He
needed a little more time off. He can still train, but he couldn't
spar the way he wanted to, and so, you know, and he
posted that on his social media. You know, originally it was like a
big seeker, like what's the injury? And I actually posted that it was
an eye injury, and then like a couple hours later he put up on
social media that he had this procedure. The good news is, though it
doesn't seem like it's very serious, you know, good for Josh. Obviously,
we don't want to see him have a problem with his eye and be
injured. But because the fight was originally April twenty seventh when they postponed the
fight. They also at that time announced a new dates. So we'll move
for April twenty seventh to May twenty fifth. It will still be in the
same arena in Leeds, England, and nothing else changes. It's still ESPN
plus in the United States, it's still the zone around the rest of the
world, and you know, theoretically we'll see it. It's delayed again.
It is bit man. I tell you, it was a very entertaining undisputed
title defense, but again that was two years ago. By the way,
I take major disagreement with that. I didn't think he was very entertaining.
I thought the fight stunk out loud in the back of that he knocked Taylor
down in his home city of Glasgow. He hadn't even The only thing that
was dramatic was the scoring that drove everybody wild. It just tell me that
we're gonna do this before twenty twenty seven. Okay, we'll see Taylor Taylor
Catterall. All right, Canelo Alvarez Heimimongia official. Real quick. They're gonna
meet with the media Tuesday. You're gonna have more on your sub stack.
We're gonna talk more about this. We're gonna get to see him, hear
him talk, talk a good game, et cetera. Coming on Tuesday.
Right. Yeah, They're gonna have only one press conference. It's not a
multi city press conference, partly because the fight got made a little bit later
than I think maybe that everybody hoped for, so there won't be like typically
would do New York and Los Angeles like they did for you know, for
example with recently Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia. In this case, they're just
going to meet the media close to the to the public. Unfortunately, it's
always spicy and more fun when the when the fans get to be in there
and foot and holler and everything. In any event, they'll meet Tuesday in
Beverly Hills, California. They'll do a thousand interviews, they'll talk all the
things they want to talk about. What I did find interesting is when the
when the promotion put out, like the formal pres announcement, because remember when
the fight was announced, it was just the boxers and everybody putting it up
on their social media. There was no like official press release or ticket information
or anything like that. But the tickets have gone on sale and then their
a formal release. They put out quotes from the two fighters and from their
teams, and I found it interesting that in the comments that Canelo were,
you know, that were attributed to Canelo in the in the press announcement was
about how much he was proud and excited to be fighting you know, another
top Mexican opponent. That Mexico versus Mexico is such a huge deal. Meanwhile,
like a month earlier, he's telling everybody like he really didn't want to
fight mex He preferred not to, but now he is. But look,
in the end, these guys are gonna put on a fun, exciting fight,
no doubt in my mind it'll be a good fight however goes. You
know, I'm excited for it. And again, as we keep saying about
this, Mongia is there to not only throw big bombs, but he gets
hit. So yeah, there's not a lot of mystery on that, and
we're anxious to see how is he gonna do against the legend Canelos So presser
coming up, one more noteed, then we are ready to go with some
serious nostalgia. Stand by here with anniversaries for this weekend, and that is
Golden Boy has got a card. Like you've been mentioning about the date April
twenty seventh, coming at the end of April. They've got a card also
for April twenty seventh, and you've learned more Virgil Ortiz to be on the
card, but also Jose Ramirez on this card, and you've learned more about
the opponent real quick, right, So they're gonna, they're gonna. It's
not been announced yet. I'm assuming that we'll get done probably next week maybe
or soon after when they get everything squared away in terms of opponents for everybody.
But the plan is of his own card April twenty seventh. Of course,
Jose Ramirez. This will be his first fight since having become free agent
from Top Rank and signing with Golden Boy. They're going to do it to
the Save Marts Center, which is in Ramirez's backyard. He's not from Fresno,
He's from Avanel, which is like a suburb of that or you know,
just outside Save Mart Center. He has packed that place numerous times in
his career. You know, I've got a chance to cover one of his
fights there and it was a pretty big crowd. So they're going to do
that there and again the opponents are not set yet, but I am told
that the opponent for Ramirez will in fact be the former two division world title
holder Rancis Parthelomei, who's been fighting at Junior walter right now for the last
few years, since twenty seventeen, primarily, and that's that's going to be
the opponent for that fight. He's a PBC fighter still, he's not left
PBC, but they're they're obviously able to make a fight where they can,
you know, book one of their guys into an opposing promoters deal, you
know, one of their events, and so that's good to see them be
able to work together. I'm not sure I love the matchup, but it
is what it is. It's not you know, I've there's worst fights.
I know. Sergeate Lipinet's was one of the possible opponents, but that will
not be the opponent I'm told for this Ramire assignment. And he'll get back
in the ring and we'll see if he can win this fight and move on
to something, you know, bigger. What what drives me a little crazy
is that he's fighting a fight in savemart Center, probably against Ramsis Parthelomy,
when he could have had the opportunity to fight tiafim Lopis for the world title.
We went over it, we went over it, and again, we
can't run these guys careers. But why would you turn down a title fight,
you know, squabbling over whatever he was squabbling over. And by the
way, not just a title fight, but a title fight for two billion
dollars plus, and the you end up with this in a non title fight
that's worth nothing close to that. It can't be all right, I'm excited
to see Virgil Ortis back in the ring. Also, you know, he
just had to live earlier this year, so he's going to be active,
thankfully. Let's keep him healthy, let's keep him acting. Great stuff here
on the news, all right, So some nostalgia and then let's wrap it
up. My goodness, what a start to the decade of the nineties where
we had the Buster Douglas Mike Tyson upset in February of nineteen ninety and then
on March seventeen, nineteen ninety. To this day, thirty four years later,
the controversy still goes on on should Richard Steel have stopped the Julio Cesar
Chavez dramatic TKO win over Meldrick Taylor with just a scant two or three seconds
left in the fight. Oh, hold on, what do you mean a
scant two or three? You don't know how many seconds were left? Was
it two and a half? Was it two? It was special time two
seconds two fifty eight of the twelve. He's waving his hands when Meldrick Taylor
has gotten up off the canvas and the fight is stopped. And a fight
that Chavez is gonna lose, even if it's a ten eight round, He's
gonna lose. The decision dramatics with the nostalgia Dan Rayfield, and here we
are thirty four years later and it's still disputed what went on that night in
Las Vegas. If you say to a boxing fan two seconds, they should
know what you're talking about. Period. And by the way, he was
going to win that fight Meldrick if the fight goes and this gets kind of
lost in the in the debate about the fight and the controversy of the stoppage
or whatever, is that two judges had Meldic way ahead in the fight,
but Chuck Jiampa actually had Chavas up one oh five, one oh four,
which is wow, one of the most grotesque scorecards. You could ever imagine.
I've watched this fight a million times. Don't give a fuck. You
can't have job As winning the fight at that point. Now, he was
definitely coming on in the in the last few rounds, because he was starting
to beat up on Melgic, but he certainly had been, in my opinion,
way way behind. It wasn't really even close. But again, not
only was it, I would say, well, I don't even think this
is a controversial statement. It's the most controversial stoppage in the history of boxing.
Number one, period, number two. The fight, as you mentioned,
took place in March of nineteen ninety. He still got the rest of
the decade. Most people picked it as the nineteen nineties fight of the decade,
so they were able to go through another. You know, we joked
about that most ten full years and seven teen more months. We talked about
it one hundred and seventeen more months in the decade, and this one stood
the test. It was an awesome fight. It was you know, not
that this is a shaker. You know, Ring Magazine picked it as the
fight of the year in nineteen ninety and then everything you want. I mean,
first of all, I would say to anybody, if you've never watched
a fight, go find it on YouTube or whatever. But also do yourself
a favor and go on your trust to YouTube and look up the wonderful thirty
minute documentary that HBO did about it during their legendary night Stares, because they
televised this fight live. Obviously, if this fight like this took place today
an eighty dollars pay per view. Meldich Taylor was the was the IBF world
champion one hundred and forty pounds. They called the fight thunder and Lightning because
of his incredible speed and quickness and you know, blazing half fast hands and
Thunder of course was the Chavez part of the equation because he was just this
big puncher, you know, march you down, tear you up, and
just bang you around. They just just just a phenomenal match of everything you
would want in that kind of, you know, pairing of the totally opposite
styles. He's the Mexican hero. Meldric's the gold medal winner from the nineteen
eighty four Olympics, the youngest member of the team. He was seventeen years
old when he won the gold medal. Had you know made a lot of
entertaining TV fights. Chavez, by the way, going into the fight sixty
eight in Oh, I mean for real, I mean obviously that's big time
and he's defending his title. They're doing the fight in Las Vegas. You
have Melgic Taylor, who was twenty four oh to one. He did have
a draw, but this was as big as a guess in the sport and
HBO put it on. It was a one fight card. They didn't have
an undercard fight. It was just a one fight at the Las Vegas Hilton
and Melgic Taylor was taken Chavez to the woodshed. He was out boxing him,
he was outspeeding him. He was beating him to the punch the all
fight, but Chavis was extracting his punishment, beating him to the body,
ripping him up, you know, card clean shots and bang bang bang,
and even though Meldric was landing probably more punches, you know, Chavez was
doing a lot of damage. And you know it started to take a sol
and he finally dropped him and of course the famous scene where he knocks him
down in round twelve. He gets up, he's a little discombilate. He
looks to the corner where he sees one of his cornermen, Lou Duva,
and Richard Steele does not get the response that he wants and he waves the
fight off, even though in those days in Las Vegas they had the red
light behind the corner post. Though the red light was going off, Richard
Steele, a very experienced championship level referee, knows that there's less than ten
seconds left. Chavez is on the other side of the ring in the neutral
corner, so you know, by the time Richard's going to administer the mandatory
eight count, he's gonna maybe wipe off the gloves or do whatever he's gotta
do. He's gonna wave them back together. It's gonna take a couple of
seconds to get across the ring. The fight's gonna probably end. I think
it's however, you whatever you think the results should have been. I think
that if you just do it without emotion, there was very, very very
likely chance that, no matter under any circumstances, was another punch going to
be thrown in that fight. Sily highly unlikely that he's gonna land one,
because there's less than ten secs and he's going through the process of the eight
count and having to bring them back together. I go back and forth about
the stoppage. I think I can't I can't argue with with Richard Steele because
on the on his point of view is this, I don't actually know exactly
how many seconds are left. Yes, I probably no, intellectually there's less
than ten. But as he said in the documentary that I referenced that HBO
produced, when I see a man that's taken enough bang and bang and bang,
I'm stopping the fight because no boxing match is worth the man's health.
So from that standpoint, clearly we should we should elaborate on this. Clearly,
Meldrick Taylor in the last two or three rounds face very swollen, bloody.
Nos Now here's the knockdown, and he's looking at Steel for a second
with a glassy eyed look, and then he clearly on the video does look
to the side away from Steel, and that's because lou Duva, for whatever
reasons, we're trying to get up on the ring apron like he thought the
fight was over, and that's where Meldrick is either distracted, doesn't he or
Steel doesn't respond, and it helped with the stoppage of the fight. And
I do remember I brought this up to you before. There had been some
talk. It never went anywhere, but there had been some talk that there
would maybe be a new policy or a new rule put into place that if
a fighter went down in the final ten seconds of a round and was taking
the mandatory eight count and got up, that the referee was not allowed to
stop the fight because he had essentially gotten to the end of the twelfth round.
It never went anywhere, it never got passed, but I remember it
was it was being debated. This was so hotly debated for weeks, for
weeks, about years it was. I mean it was around that time.
I mean, you have to again convey to people. Boxing was so much
more mainstream on network TV. These guys were very well known. Meldrick Taylor
fought on national TV, regular free TV frequently before the Chavez had fight,
had fought on network TV several times. So they became much more what a
novel concept, They became more mainstream where the basketball fans and the football fans
know who these guys are. Not only had Meldriic fought as professional as professional
fights on network TV and world title fights, he was known because ABC back
in those days, they didn't just they showed the Olympics, and they also
showed trials and international tournaments. So Melgic had been on in his amateur days
on the networks as well. And so again you have the most glory,
I mean from the point of view of the Chavez people, who are largely
the crowd in a big Mexican crowd there at the health and this is one
of the greatest comebacks snatching you know, uh, you know, the victory
when everybody thoughts you got no shot, and it's a glorious, glorious comeback
win. And it really whatever the popularity level that chav has had going into
that fight, this sent him to the moon, to send him to like
became the biggest star in Mexican boxing, you know, it was he was
a lot of people had him pound for pound and he just kept ripping off
defense after defense. But this was the first really big win of his career.
And for Meldrick it was the opposite. It was like, you know,
the most debilitating kind of loss. A lot of people will tell you
that Meldrick was never the same after that. He did end up winning another
world title after this situation, but he was pretty much done. He got
beat up by Chavez Eventually when they did the rematch, when you know,
Don King was now promoting Meldrick he had parted with with UH with main Events,
and uh, you know, they figured, you know what, we
can put chab Is in an easy fight people want to see, and he's
gonna beat him up again, and it's pretty much what he did. And
uh and there was that. But this first fight, though, you know,
there's so many things to talk about on the fight now. Just as
one example, a couple of years ago, UH the Ring magazine, when
they were still doing their print magazine, they did a Chavez special edition.
You know, it was all about Chavez his career and uh I was asked
to do a piece for that magazine. It was added several aspects of his
career, but one of the stories in the in the in the mag was
a piece about the Meldrick Taylor first fight. Obviously, how do you do
a piece, how do you do a magazine about chav Is his career and
not include a separate article about this incredibly famous fight. So I wrote that
piece. But in researching that and talking to some of the people involved and
hearing sort of a fresh take and things I'd never heard before. I talked
to Shelley Finkel, who was the manager for Meldrick Taylor. I talked to
Ronnie Shields, one of the great trainers in boxing, who was an assistant
in a long time part of the Meldrick camp. He worked with Lou Duva
and Georgie Benton, the guys who he learned from who were Meldricks the lead
trainers going into that fight for many of his big fights. And one of
the things I learned in that which I had never heard, was that Ronnie
blamed Lou Duva for the loss because he said he because he climbed up on
the ropes on the ring apron and inserted himself at the worst possible time.
Justice Steele is trying to at the most important moment of the fight to ascertain
whether this guy is okay to go on. He's looking over at Duva because
Lou climbed up on the on the ring apron, and he basically called out
Lou Duva and said he cost us to fight. I'd never heard that before,
And if you watch it, you'll see you don't see Lou there,
but you see Meldrik Glance's eye look over he Steel's right and obviously he's looking
at at Douva who's on the ring apron on the other side of the other
side of the ring. But I mean, there's a million stories and with
this matchup, but the most important thing is incredible fight, massively controversial.
I mean, just as memory was against and later. The amazing thing to
keep relaying is HBO broadcasted the Douglas upset of Tyson February ten, nineteen ninety
and this was their next edition of World Championship Boxing right after that. And
I dare say that I don't know that you could have scripted two more iconic,
crazy, well known historical fights than that. And this was back to
back, back to back in those consecutive months. If you were subscribing to
HBO, you those fights. I still remember Larry Merchant's famous quip was if
he gets up, he probably wins, and Meldreg Taylor did get up,
and then Jim Lampley just losing his mind saying Richard Steal has stopped this fight
with less than five seconds remaining. It was that crazy, that crazy that
night, no doubt. In March of nineteen ninety, all right, one
more bit of nostalgia before we're out of here on the weekend, and this
is coming on Tuesday, March nineteenth, and this is very nearly twenty years
ago now, two thousand and five Manny Pacquiao and Eric Morales and anniversary of
their first fight as well, Dan Rayphield, This is just an awesome fight.
Underrated actually if you think about it, because Morales and Pacio are identified
with other great fights. Pacio in his Great Fights, a four fight series
against Marquez. Eric Morales closely associated of course with his great trilogy against Marco
Antonio Barrera, and I think kind of his rivalry with Pakyo, between Morales
and Pacio kind of gets undersold, a little bit, under remembered, underappreciated.
But the first fight, the first two fights of their trilogy were freaking
awesome. Third fight, Pachyo basically ran him over like a truck. But
the second fight was terrific, but not as good as the first fight,
which was the best of the trilogy, and it was you got to look
at it. As for Morales, I mean, knowing what Pakyo would wind
up doing, he beat Pako when pak Yo before he went on this unbelievable
run where he went up the weight classes to thirty thirty five, you know,
forty forty seven, even fifty four where he beat Margarito. Tremendous action
fight. It gives me pain to talk about it because I had just been
hired from USA today to go work at ESPN. I had started, you
know, a couple of weeks earlier, I guess, but the first fight
that I was supposed to travel for and to go cover at ringside when I
started working at ESPN was was Morales versus Pacyo number one one. I was
really excited about the fight. Everybody was thrilled that this fight was made as
an HBO pay per view at MGM Grand Garden Arena. I got sick and
had to cancel my trip and was not able to travel for that, so
I missed. I missed like two fights in my life that I was supposed
to cover for being sick and just my luck, one of them was Morales
Pakia one and one of them was Gaddy Ward one. Could you believe that
two of the great fights? So until I said, I wind up with
my first fight for ESPNB and James Tony against John Ruiz, which was not
that that's slightly less on the Richter scale than Pakia Morales won Daniel, But
Morales Patio was a great fight. A fight one of the things I always
found kind of surprising. Most people probably don'tn't realize this. The three fights
that Morales and Patio had, believe it or not, all were in one
hundred and thirty pounds way class, all junior lightweight fights. None of the
three were world title fights. They were either regional titles or elimination fights.
Nobody cares because they put on such a great show. But for Eric Morales
this was I think it's arguably, even though he had the victory against Brera,
this is the biggest win of his Hall of Fame career. Was beating
many Packett in the manner he did. And of course, if you remember
the fight, he turned south paw in the twelfth round, and as they
were talking on the broadcast, he's going into the jaws of the line,
like most people kind of think he's if he doesn't have the fight one,
he's certainly putting himself in a chance to get knocked out. But he put
on a great battle. He wasn't going to take a step back and the
classic scene there in the postfight interview with Larry Merchant asking Hi about making that
move and Eric saying, you know, being translated, did you like it?
And Larry telling Eric I loved it, and Eric with a big smile
on his face, I mean there are a few fighters I can think of.
It just had the ultimate zest for combat. Then Eric Morales and Manny
Paco and they let it all hang out in this fight in particular. Love
it great nostalgia. Man. Another busy show again, Keith Thurman on the
recap pod here getting ready to fight Tim Zu. What a weekend listen.
I always love your insight on all things here, including everything that's happened this
weekend, and again we look forward to everything else in March. That Thurman
Zoo fight again, not this coming weekend, but the following weekend for March
thirtieth on the first ever premiere Boxing Champions Amazon pay per view. With that,
that's a full show. Dan Rayfield coming off the weekend, thank you
as always, we appreciate it. Have a good week my friend, you
too, My man, there is Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeves.
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