Ah, Yes, welcome back in. We are ready to go over and
talk about knockout chaos Man. There was some knockout chaos in the main event
for Anthony Joshua in the pay per view knockout win for him over Francis and
Ganu. We are here on the Big Fight Weekend a podcast feed. This
is the Fight Freaks U Night recap podcast coming off the weekend. I am
the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves. He is our insider. Hello Dan
Rayfaeld Big Fight Weekend dot Com and of course he Fight Freaks You Night substack
where he's been writing and recapping everything from Saudi Arabia left, right and down
the middle, including a news in and around and surrounding the fights like what
other fights might go on or not? Hello, Dan Rayfield. Off the
weekend. How are thy ratings? Greetings? Things are good? Have they
scooped up Francis and Ganu yet? Off the mat in Riod after that ko
We're ready to talk about that and the entire court, including Joseph Parker with
the upset win. You and I did not see that coming against July Jang
for the WBO Interim Heavyweight title. A draw I thought controversial draw that we're
gonna talk about in the WBC featherweight title fight Ray Vargus pretending his title.
We're ready to recap all of those. By the way, speaking of the
WBO, the WBO's junior middleweight champion, Tim Zoo set to headline on the
premiere Boxing Champions Amazon pay per view coming at the end of this month.
You don't gotta wait for the end of the month because Dan Rayfields already talked
with Tim Zoo recently. You'll hear that conversation coming up on this here recap
podcast in a little bit. As always find us rate us, review us
on all the podcast outlets Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, et cetera. Five
star reviews do help us. We appreciate that time to get to recapping.
Boom Goes the Dynamite. The word I'll use is eradication. That was an
eradicating knockout by Anthony Joshua of Francis Nganu in the main event Friday night in
the US, middle of the night in Saudi Arabia. Dan, your thoughts
again, you and I believed it was gonna go while be a Joshua decision.
Uh ah, he made sure of it. You can't say anything other
than there was an absolutely spectacular knockout. It'll be certainly a top candidate for
the knockout of the year. You know, I'm not sure, you know,
we may see some other big knockouts. I'm sure we'll see some other
big knockouts, but in that way, it's that's a hard one to beat.
I mean, if you listen to some of the folks that were there
on the broadcast talking about that, a veteran boxing people have been around for
many, many years talking about how maybe it's the greatest knockout they've seen live
in their entire time of being around boxing, you know, and even watching
on the screen, it was obviously very impressive. You know, the big
knockouts that you think of that come to mind, a Manu pac Yo knocking
out Ricky Hatten, a Manu pac Yo getting knocked out by one Manuel Marquez.
You know, I'm always thoughtful of the fight the rematch between Sergio Martinez
and Paul Williams, like that kind of like splatter type knockout where you're like,
for a moment, you're kind of concerned about the health of the of
the fallen fallen. I was glad to see that Francis was able to,
you know, collect himself. And I saw his post fight news commerce and
he made the comment which I've heard other boxers talk about, where he didn't
feel any pain. It's when you don't feel it and you're out, you
know, then you know you're knocked out. He just went to sleep.
I mean, it didn't. It wasn't like, you know, you get
it with a body shot and you're you're in crippling pain. You get with
a big headshot like this. Fighters will tell you obviously it's not good for
your health, but they don't feel the pain. It's it's when you feel
the pain you know you're still in the game. As Evander Holigield would say,
when you don't feel it, you're out. So Niganu was out now.
He was down earlier, you know, in in round one. He
had been knocked down in the second round, and let me tell you,
when he got up, he was He made it to his feet, he
beat the count, but he looked a little shaky. And the fact of
the matter is it was literally the ref resumes the fight, and it was
the first and next punch that Josh will land that the right hand that landed
right on like the cheek area under the eye like. I mean, that's
as rough a knockout. And he just fell like he had been cut down
with a lightsaber. I mean, that's that's the way he went. He
folded off on left, folded up on his left, on his on his
knee. That looked like he might have injured that. I mean, it
was just, you know, there was no need. Joshua clearly had him
hurt and lined him up. I mean, when you watch the replay,
he comes in, does the little fane, lines him up, and then
right down the middle with the fastball boom. He's been a tremendous knockout finisher
in his career, Joshua. We have to acknowledge and credit that, and
there it was. But the thing about it is it showed you that France
has been guying to. While he's obviously a talented fighter, whether boxing or
MMA, he's a rookie in boxing at the professional level, at that at
that height when you're fighting at Joshua, a guy who was an Olympic gold
medalist, guy that's got thirty professional fights or so, a guy that's been
a two time heavyweight champion, a guy that's been in the ring with all
kinds of different top guys, a guy that's been involved in the highest pressure
situations in front of the biggest crowds in stadiums, and that sort of thing
that francis rookie mistakes. I was watching replays and he fell for every feint,
which you shouldn't do as a professional. When he got nailed with the
knockout punch, he has his left hand extended, and it's what I call
in no man's land. He's not protecting himself, right, He's not using
it to attack. It just sort of there, and he easily was able
to Joshua punch over it, and he couldn't get it back in time,
and he couldn't use it to put together his own offense. It was just
I called it on social media. I called it a rookie mistake. I
know he was heard from the knockdown, but you've got to have practiced that
so many times that it's not a matter of hurd or not heard. It's
automatic. It should be just muscle memory. You put the hand up,
or you make sure you're attacking with it. Now, one thing that we
talked about leading up to this, including on the US preview show. There's
ten rounds of tape that were now out there on him as a boxer.
That obviously Joshua and his team went over. How big of a factor do
you mean It's easy to say in hindsight, but how big of a factor
do you think that was? Is that they went into this fight knowing,
Hey, a feint here, a fane of this or whatever is going to
set up the booming right hand. There's there's no question when first of all,
that's that's analytics one oh one. You know, fighters themselves often don't
like to watch too much tap of the opponent because they know that it's possible
they're going to fight in a different manner. A lot of fighters will watch,
you know, a round or two or you know, a few clips.
Uh. They leave it to the trainer really to go through the process
of breaking down the tape and then telling them what they see and what they
want them to do. And I don't think this is like a controversial statement.
I think if you talk to people in the business, Ben Davison is
one of the best out there in terms of breaking down the tape. And
so when you've got that guy in your corner, uh, and you're watching
the ten rounds of them against Fury, a fighter that Ben knows obviously very
very well, having been his trainer for a long time. Ben was,
I'm sure able to break that down and they were able to pick some of
those things up. And also it's just even without that, it's just the
rank inexperience as a professional boxer that Francis Nagano brought to this fight. I
don't take anything away from what he did against Fury. What he did against
Fury is not negated by getting wiped out by Joshua. I don't negate what
he's done in the cage as a as a top MMA you know, UFC
heavyweight champion, But he was facing a fighter who was motivated, who was
in shape. I don't think that Fury was that motivated in shape, and
I think it's a fair question to ask what we saw out of Francis Negando
against Fury. You have to give France's Nagano credit for that. But two
things can be true at the same time, because at the same time that
he looked very good, you had an unmotivated, out of shape heavyweight champion
Entyson Fury across the ring, and it made Fury look that bad and made
Nagano look that good. Now you go into the fight against Anthony Joshua and
maybe Francis. You know, he's still in great shape and he's still there
to fight and do his job. But you've got an opponent now that is
highly motivated, in an incredible condition, has been able to study your first
ten rounds of professional boxing. And when you're at this level, you know,
it's very small between being the winner and being the guy that's laying on
the deck. You know, as I say, TJ, sometimes you're the
windshield and sometimes you're at the bug. And in this case France and thing
On, it was the bug big time. And so I'll say a couple
of things here on this. It does make it more embarrassing for Tyson Fury
that he boss for ten rounds and couldn't come anywhere close to landing anything like
that. And in fairness, Fury has never been a big bombing, one
punch puncher to lay people out. Joshua has shown that throughout his career,
So you know, Fury was maybe going to wear him down, batter him
that kind of thing, and that didn't really happen in the first fight.
And I will say this, and I had this interaction with a lot of
people off not so much on social media. I did put it on social
media, but off off Mike off social media, that the MMA guy now
goes back to being the MMA guy again. He was. He was at
the world class level with Fury as the WBC champ. Now he's there with
the former two times unified champ and just eradicated. Got eradicated. And like
you've often said on these podcasts in our conversations, there are levels to this
and he was several levels above there the other night with that. I even
said this to somebody else said to me, all he just got caught.
I said, honestly. I said, honestly, if you replayed this same
scenario now that we saw what we saw, and you replayed the fight five
times from originality, from what I saw the other night, you were going
to see a knockout probably four of the five times, if not all five.
That was what I saw. I know that's easy to say Dan after
the fact, but from what I saw on how ready Joshua was using the
feints, using the fakes, using the jab setting up the right hand,
that right that boom goes to dynamite was gonna happen at some point. That
was anything, That was anything, But he just got caught. That was
set up perfectly. That was against a novice professional boxer who, like I
said, fell for everything. It was not he just got caught. There
are times, yeah, guys get caught. That was not I just got
caught. That was you got smoked by an intelligent boxer that put the fight
together and had a plan and exploited your obvious weakness in certain areas. And
what I thought was really cool actually about Joshua and it did. It wasn't
exactly the same. I remember when Mike Tyson knocked out Michael Spinks. That
was the biggest fight in boxing history at that time, in times of money,
big, big, mega fight. Tyson's the undisputed undefeated champion. Spinx
is the undefeated lineal champion. They were coming together, you know, it
was as big as it gets, and and Tyson knocked him out in ninety
one seconds and he didn't celebrate. He just looked at Kevin Rooney, his
trainer and his team in the corner and he just put his arms out like
hey, what do you expect? And and you know, and and didn't
didn't go crazy. I mean, and he had just won the biggest fight
there was. Now this is not that same kind of fight. But when
Anthony Joshua put him away, he just kind of paced around them, didn't
smile, didn't celebrate, you know, pounded, you know, fist bump
with his guys, like just another day at the office, like he was
in He like he won a decision in like an eight rounder, I mean,
or like or like I expected this. I expected to Yeah, he
expected that, and he he asked tunnel vision. His goal was not to
beat Francis de ganu uh in the long term. It was obviously the goal
on Friday night, but the goal was to get this fight taken care of.
And now let's move on to the you know, for lack of a
better word, to the real fight, which is potentially Tyson Fury, maybe
a third fight with it was sick, maybe an IBF vacant title fight against
Hergovic or whatever. I was going there, all right, I love the
realism meter. We know what the truth is. The truth is Anthony Joshua
was not going to get a shot at the winner of Fury and Usik the
rest of this calendar year. All right, that's just I don't think so,
I mean, not entirely. I'm gonna get You can say you can
leave open the door, you can crack the door. I'm go ahead.
The reason why is this? So Tyson Fury and Usick they are fighting on
May eighteenth, and they have a two fight deal. However, if his
excellency mister Turkey Alschik, who runs the show over there with the money and
is the one that makes those decisions, if he decides whatever happens in Fury
against usaid, Let's say, just for the sake of argument, Tyson Ferry
wins the fight, and he wins pretty handily. Let's say he may say
to Frank Warren and to Eddie Hearn and to Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury and
Usick and his people, you know what, it's time to do this fight.
And if that's that, and they put the money up, that fight
will happen next. They'll take care of Usik the same way they'll take care
of Fury if it's the other way around. But the big fight. Nothing
against seeing Joshua Usik three. But the fight obviously is Fury against Joshua.
And I'm gonna give you a little explanation. I remember covering Lennox Lewis against
Mike Tyson. We were at the culmination. We were basically at the end
of the great nineties era of heavyweight boxing. Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield,
Mike Tyson, the second coming of George Foreman, Michael Moore, or you
know, Ridick bow razor Roddick, I mean, Tommy Morrison. I can
go on there. There was a great heavyweight era. I say it all
the time. We are getting to the end of the current era. Tyson
Fury, Alexander Usik, Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, Andy Ruiz, King,
Kong Ortees, gone down the line of the other quality headweights that did
are around. We're getting to the end of that. The big fight that
will culminate that that era, if you will, let's call it the twenty
tens heavyweights, you know, but into the early twenty twenties, is going
to be Fury Joshua because it's the biggest fight out there for a long time.
It should have been the Wilder fight, but that ain't happening. So
that's going to be the big one, and that's the one that's gonna kind
of bring a closure to this particular era. Now. When Lewis and Tyson
fought, it culminated the nineteen nineties era, even though it took place in
like two thousand and one. I believe, if my memory is correct,
that's going to be the case with Joshua against Fury when they fight, and
I'm convinced they will fight. It's not a matter of if, it's just
when. And so if Fury defeats Usik, I'm not saying they won't do
the rematch. It's gonna depend on how the fight goes. But if it's
a clear win or there's nothing that makes a rematch interesting to the public or
to Turkey, I can see them going to the camps and saying, fuck
this rematch, We're doing Fury versus Joshua. That's the fight. That's the
one that's gonna be the big business. That's the one that every wants to
see. Nothing against Fury Usk or you know, Joshua versus Rusk three or
whatever. That's that's why I got your hypothet of the year. Now,
let me hit the tennis ball back at you. Here's this hypothetical. Let's
say that Alexander Usik wins. I do not believe for one second, one
nano second, that Tyson Fury and Frank Warren Company will lay down for a
reason, for anything other than a rematch for another megapay day with Usik to
try to get the titles back, to get the undisputed titles back, and
that that would happen. Also, well, since just so you know,
it won't be for the undisputed title period, no matter what. Well,
because the IBF title is going to be vacant, end of the story.
Well, so we're getting to that. We'll get to that in a second.
But on my hypothetical here, if Usik has won that fight, there's
not any sizzle for an Anthony Joshuall fight right now. He beat him twice,
he beat him decisively. So now back to what you alluded to a
couple of minutes ago, what's the next If Usak wins the fight, what's
the next best thing there? And you said Hergovic Joshua IBF vacant belt.
I don't know if the two guys will ever get together and we can work
it out. Then again, if Turkey. Ali Sheik's got the money and
the Sadi's wanted to happen later this year. I'd rather see that than to
see Anthony Joshuall fight somebody else besides Herkovic, or sit and wait for six
months or eight months right now to see what shakes out. That's all I'm
saying a couple of things about that. Number One, I don't get the
impression, if at all, that that Joshua is gonna sit and wait.
Number two, u Hergovic has got a deal with the Saudis. The IDEF
has already ended. He he is next the next post May eighteenth, the
next IBF heavyweight title bout will include Herkovic on one side of the fight.
Anthony Joshua, by virtue of his victory against Otto Valley and that took place
in December, has ascended to the point where he's the next available guy in
the rankings, and they have contracts that state that by I forget what the
date is, by a certain date post May eighteenth, the winner of that
fight must vacate the title or they're going to be stripped, and they will
order the next available fight. Now. If Joshua has some other possibility that
somehow somewhere is bigger. You know, I'm making this up. Let's say,
for whatever reason, suddenly the Wilder fight becomes interesting again. Maybe that
happens, But basically you're looking at Hergovich versus Joshua for the vacant title,
probably sometime you know, in the in the summerish time, you know,
and that's probably what's gonna happen. No problem, that's a good fight.
With that, it'll give Joshua a chance to become a you know, to
hold the title yet again. If he wins, obviously, and it still
keeps in play him against the winner whoever emerges from the second fight between Fury
and Who's like, assuming that takes place, maybe he even takes a fight
at the end of the year, if he wants to continue to stay active.
I mean, you know, I want to talk about the activity level,
and we're gonna we get to the recap of the Joshua, I mean,
to the to the Joseph Parker. We'll get to the jan But this
is a critical thing. It's not a coincidence that Anthony Joshuall look as sharp
as he did. He granted, he's in with a novice boxer. Fair
enough, but he looked awesome. He's fought now four times and eleven months.
That is not an accident that he's sharp like that's that's a matter of
the muscle memory, of staying in boxing condition. That's a matter of being
in the frame of mind if you're in training camp, all the things that
go into that, just being you know, having it constantly doing boxing in
a in a gym, setting and preparing and likewise, when it comes to
Joseph Parker, this was his I believe, fifth fight in fourteen months.
Again, he got dropped twice against JAYG. But it's no accident that he
was able to fit the deal and win non controversially, even getting the two
knockdowns against him. Activity is a important thing. We talk about it a
lot. The guys that don't fight, that just sit waiting for the bag.
As the kids say, we'll go fourteen months without a fight, will
fight maybe once, maybe twice in the year at most. They're just ruining
their own careers. When they're done, it's not going to affect you or
me or anybody. Will find some other fights to watch. The only ones
that hurts themselves. Anthony Joshua gets it. Joseph Parker after losing the Joe
Joyce, he gets it. He went on a stretch where he fought.
It wasn't fighting the biggest names of the best guys, but it's the whole
repetition. You're in the gym, you're preparing the fight, you're walking down
to the ring, you're getting your hands wrapped. You're going through the process
physically and mentally, and it keeps you sharp. I think that that is
the most critical thing in boxing today is for the best guys to stay active,
to hone their skills and to stay at the top of their game.
And as I have said many times before, this is not rocket science.
It's obvious. Look at the Look at the PBC guys who who took wipeout
losses in recent times. Errol Spence one fight and who knows how long,
Stephen Fulton one fight and whoever knows long. You know, Errol got pummeled
by Crawford, Uh, Fulton got pumbled by uh in a way you can
look at Charlot got pumbled by Canelo. After a long laugh, I mean,
we can go on down to Deontay Wilder by Joseph Parker wild round basically
in two years. So I mean it's and I don't mean to be picking
on PBC. I'm just saying, those are the guys, the facts of
the facts of the Yes, so activity is a big, big fucking deal.
Yep. Anyway, that's all right, soapbox on that one. But
that segues into Joseph Parker and the job he did despite going down twice in
the Jang fight. Jang appeared as that fight were on to get more tired.
You were wondering, Okay, how do those knockdowns factor in? And
a possible decision that's coming up? All right, so let's go right at
it. Did you agree with Parker and the decision win there? And what
did you make of Jang not being able to finish him when you and I?
You and I were both looking at knockout pop and it did not happen
for short term investment purposes. Credit Parker. I thought that after Jang got
the first knockdown he was going to finish him. Then he didn't. And
look, it's a credit to Joseph Parker. He you know, he's been
knocked down a bunch of times, but you know he's he's got a good
heart and he's able to keep himself together. You know, he's days calm.
Part of that's his experience, part of that's his corner with Andy Lee
as his trainer. But I had no far with the decision. It was
one thirteen, one thirteen. On one scorecard it was one fifteen to one
eleven and one fourteen to one to twelve, and the other two cards that
gave it in favor of Joseph Parker, who did overcome those knockdowns, because
the problem with Jang is he has as devastating a left hand and there is
there isn't a sport, but he has no stamina at all. You get
passed a six er, you know, into the second half of the fight
and he it's all he can do to throw a handful of punches. And
I actually heard Andy Lee in the corner. I forget what round it was,
but they picked up the audio know before he sent Joe out for whatever
round it was, Yeah, and he basically reminded him he's dangerous the first
thirty seconds of the round, so be careful first thirty seconds and then he's
got nothing left because he's got no stamina, and so I think to myself,
what would a fight like be like between Jang and Deontay Wilder. Two
guys who would just look for what Deontay looking for a right hand, Jang
looking for a left hand. You know, Deontay's got better stamina than Jang
does. I'm just saying, it's like it's one trick pony against one trick
pony with the other hand, and who who would stand up to the big
shot? I thought Jang. You know, he came in at a career
heavy two hundred and ninety plus pounds. He didn't look out of shape or
bad in that weight, but he was still like fifteen pounds heavier than when
he thought Joe Joyce, which I don't think is necessarily a good thing.
It's not like he was fighting a humongous opponent. And Joseph Parker was not
a small guy, but he's not Nobody would look at him in the context
of modern heavyweight boxing and say he's some behemoth. He's like two forty seven,
probably about six foot four. But Jang is, uh, you know,
is six six two ninety one and a half. It seemed a bit
heavy in my mind. Look, he looked almost exhausted in the last three
four rounds of that fight, especially the back half of the round. He
looked very tired. Parker took advantage. You agreed, You agreed with the
decision. Yeah, yeah, you believe Parker had done enough in the back
half of the fight to overcome the nash. I thought the one thirteen one
thirteen was they being a little generous to Jang if you ask me, so
Parker gets his abbase. So, I mean, so quickly recap anything else
you want, And how does he fit into the puzzle? Now with these
two wins over Wilder and over Jang, Well, it's it's a career making
not I shouldn't say career making, it's a it's a big win because now
you take a look at what Joe has done, uh, you know,
fourteen months ago, he's not I would say written off, but he's not
at the forefront of the heavyweight pack. He's not in the minds of the
fans. He's been absolutely hummeled, you know, in a bad knockout in
a great fight, by the way, but the ending was so brutal against
Joe Joyce. You're like, well, you know, maybe Joe seen better
days. He's you know, he's not old, he's only thirty two,
but he's had a lot of hard fights. He's got you know, almost
forty fights in his career, so you're thinking maybe he's beginning that downward slide.
But like I mentioned, he put his shit together. He won the
bunch of fights in a row. He got this opportunity because he defeated Deontay
Wilder in December, which was a big win. I know it wasn't a
world title victory, but I think that was probably the biggest win of his
career, even though he had beaten Andy Ruiz back in the day to win
the WBO title. And now you tell me, TJ. If you take
a look at today's boxing lineup of heavyweights, tell me who has better back
to back victories right now than Joseph Parker having defeated Deontay Wilder and then in
very short order just a few months after, three months later or so,
four months later or so, beats Jang, who is the one of the
hottest heavyweights in the division for the last year. So because of those two
big knockout wins over over over Joe Joyce, So you know, these are
huge wins for Joseph Parker, so he fits in with everybody, there's no
question. And he's going to call some shots because he wins the WBO's interim
title, which makes him the guy that's going to be the mandatory I know
it's going to be a little while so that happens obviously, but he's in
position to fight for the world title. So I think it's a huge win
for him. And by the way he is going to he's he can fit
in anywhere. Has a He has a loss back several years ago twenty eighteen
in a unification fight against Anthony Joshua. How much better does that win?
Now look for Anthony Joshua, what he's what Joe's been doing later. I
mean, that's a big big on realistic is is Joshua Parker a rematch for
later this year? I mean, I don't know about I can't put the
timing on it, but you know, depending on what happens with Fury and
who's sick in all that business, I don't think that's out of the realm
of possibility. I think it definitely picked up some some steam, if you
will, based on the results of the two fights that happened on the same
card on Friday. You know, I don't think it's necessarily something that the
fans are clamoring for. But if they made it because other fights were not
available, I wouldn't. I don't think anybody be super upset by that big
weekend for Joseph Parker. Again, we're hearing from Tim Zoo in just a
few moments, but we're still going over the knockout chaos card. All right,
So the Vargas nick Ball fight did not have a knockout. In fact,
it ends in a draw. Ball did get a knockdown, he did
have Vargas hurt as the fight wore on. Certainly the back half of the
fight Ball appeared to control, but the argument to be made Vargas may have
won all six of the first six rounds of the fight. All right,
what about your scorecard as Vargas retains on the split draw for the WBC featherweight
title against England's Nick Ball. I thought, it's like you said, the
first half of the fight was pretty much all Ray Vargas, not because he
was dominating, but because he was just able to do enough. He was
you know, he used his length, he uses height. Weird talked about
in the preview how there was about a five or so inch difference he towered
over nick Ball, so between him using his jab in his reach and just
sort of kind of picking Nickball apart, nick could not find a way inside.
He wasn't very busy in some of those early rounds that he kind of
lost most of them. Maybe you could have it five to one after six
rounds, you know, maybe even if you were super generous to Vargus,
maybe even it was six to nothing. But something happened in round seven where
nick Ball finally got on the inside and landed a big, nice overhand right
and it definitely got the attention from Ray Vargas, who everything sort of changed
at that point and nick Ball he did score the two knockdowns. I thought
one of the knockdowns. The first knockdown was awfully questionable. It was a
kind of a he did throw a punch, but their feet kind of got
messed up, so it was it wasn't a push, was it a tangle,
But there was a punch, So you know, you can't get too
upset about the referee picking that. That was in the eighth round, and
Vargas was very animated in his disapproval of the referee making that call. The
knockdown that took place in the eleventh round was much more legit. It seemed
to me that was clean as a whistle, you know, just got clipped
with a nice shot. I think it was the right hand if my memory
serves, and down he went. He was just he was getting, you
know, beat to the punch the whole second half of the fight, and
I just feel like if nick Ball could have started a little bit quicker and
put a least, you know, just one more round basically in the bank,
you know, he would have probably won the fight. I did thought
he eaked it out, but I can't be too upset by because he just
gave away so much of the rounds early. And what happens is you fall
in if you're scoring all the rounds form Vargas, you kind of fall into
the lull as a judge that if there's a close round, you still might
give it to him, even though maybe some other people might think that nick
Ball should have had the round. I will say this about Vargas. While
he got the draw, he kept the title. I know he had a
hard time coming down. He hadn't fought at one twenty six in a while.
He'd made one thirty for the last fight. Been off thirteen months,
No disrespect, Ray's been a good fighter for a long time. I do
still believe he's on his last legs. He's not gonna last a lot longer,
especially at one hundred and twenty six pounds. Nick Ball he has a
future. He's not going to be a shame that he's got the draw.
He's still young, and you know, Frank Warren, his promoter, was
talking about how they can hope to get a rematch, then maybe the WBC
would order that. I'm not so sure they'll order a rematch, but they're
both viable. Nick Ball still undefeated, he's still exciting and fun to watch,
and uh and Vargas still has the belt. I thought it was funny
when they asked, you know, talking through the interpreter that was there with
him, you know, would you give nick Ball a rematch? And Vargas
was like, yeah, I'll give him a rematch, no problem. We
can do it in his backyard, or you can do it wherever you want.
I just have to get paid three or four times more than I got
paid to the fight, saying the dollars. That's that's the other way of
saying, I'm moving up to one thirty. I'm not fighting you. I'd
love too. Was a good It was a good fight, especially the back
half of the fight, because you weren't sure if Vargas was gonna make it
on stamina, et cetera. Again, especially when the knockdown happened again in
the eleventh round, and again all the points mattered. Those two scored knockdowns
mattered. Otherwise, Vargas wins the fight on the car just to draw.
As I like to say, round one counts the same as round twelve.
That's your emotion. It's about the math. True. But still, if
you're watching the back half of that fight, nick Ball deserve better than just
you lost, because you lost all the rounds at the beginning. But he
got a draw. It wasn't a lost and get a draw. He doesn't
get the Also, before we get to the Zoo interview, Israel Madromov does
get the WBA's vacant junior middleweight title, which they had just recently put jamal
or Jamel Charlow on ice. So Madromov gets the TKO win. Tell me
more about that fight that was a knockout in Knockout Chaos as well. Yeah,
that was a good performance from Madromov. I mean, Kurbanov didn't have
the biggest resume in the role, but he had some nice wins. He
had to win over Liam Smith. He had a nice record twenty five and
Oho Magromov a lot less experienced as a professional. He was, you know,
had the you know, just this is what his eleventh fight is a
professional and he didn't have he'd had a good amateur curve, but it wasn't
a like a monster you know, three hundred amateur type amateur career, you
know, Olympic Gold Metal or anything like that. So look, that was
a good performance from him. He's been had a career that's been so much
promise. In the beginning, looked so good and then hit some roadblocks.
Not because so he had any kind of like crazy injuries or problems with a
manager or a promoter. He got just kind of it just was hard to
get fights. A lot of guys didn't want to fight him. He got
tied up. So his twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two was messed up.
For this back and forth with Michelle Soro, which was. I I
can't remember if it was an eliminator or an interim title whatever it was,
but it was. He ended up having to do it twice. Then the
second fight was a technical draw. They ended up not doing a third time,
thank god, and so it was just hard to get the position,
and then they had to go through the whole process with his brain scan and
whether Charlotte was going to be stripped and put in recess, so all that
stuff that was going on. You know, he came out like a true
pro. He did his job. You know, it wasn't a particularly good
fight, but he did the damage. And in the fifth round he put
together a whole bunch of right hands that were he was bouncing off the side
of Kurbanov's head, and eventually the rest just had no choice, put the
jump in there and stopped the fight. He's a good puncher, he's a
good guy. He's a fun guy to watch. For the most part.
I thought Urbon was the one that was being a little more negative in the
fight, and uh, you know, he brings some life to the party.
Let's say at one hundred and fifty four pounds, I think the weight
class is you know, it's it's not what it once was. So we're
getting some new blood in there, it seems to me, you know,
because we you know, Crawford I think will be there soon, but he's
not fighting Magium of anyway. So you're looking at one fifty four. You
got Tim Zoo there. Keith Thurman apparently is there now, and we'll see
what happens with him on March thirtieth. You know, Madgemov's got the title,
and just because Kurbanov loss doesn't mean he should be thrown away. I
mean, he's only got the one loss against a good opponent. You see
what he can do if you can, you know, bring him back.
We'll see what happens with Charlow in terms of what he's ever going to do
again. But Mage, Moov and Zoo make it for interesting guys in the
division more so than there's been, uh, you know, in the last
little bit all right. And one other thing, by the way, the
pay per view which got under weigh at ten am Eastern time for US in
the United States, marched on Dan Rayphiel and marched on and then I don't
even know if it was marching anymore. It was kind of like almost soft
stepping in place. That good God for the people that were in Europe,
not just in Saudi Arabia. As this became and I realized, we do
this in the United States, but ten pm becomes eleven pm local time if
you're in the Eastern time zone watching these pay per views becomes midnight becomes twelve
thirty. But certainly, once the ballfight was over, it still took a
while to get Jang and Parker into the ring, and that with the full
distance, and then it took a little while for the Joshua fight, which
was over with in the middle of the second round. That was actually a
break. But good lord, the main event did not come off to well
after midnight in most of Europe there with a fight card that was starting in
the afternoon. For you, by the way, in the United States,
the timing was not designed for us, right, and it wasn't designed for
the timing in Saudi Arabia. The timing of the show was designed for our
Great Britain and the United Kingdom because of Anthony Joshua's presence in the main event,
so they wanted the main event. I have the timing sheet. It
called for the main event to begin at approximately six twenty Eastern United States time
count ahead five hours. That's you know, the normal start time for that
type of fight in Great Britain, and obviously you know later in Saudi Arabia.
I'll put it to you like this, the card lasted for almost ten
hours. When they went off the air, it was about ten minutes to
four in the morning in Saudi Arabia. I mean, it was absolutely nuts.
I mean, I obviously watched most of the show, but I have
to confess I did not watch every single punch of that show. I sent
parts of the preliminaries and that sort of stuff, and I did watch the
main card. The problem was when they ended the first fight of the main
card, you know, Justice Hooney in the heavyweight fight, which was a
pretty good fight, actually did get to win. You're talking about in the
first ninety minutes or so of that pay per view of them, Forget the
preliminaries for a second. The main card, they had like a thirty minute
break unnecessary after the next fight in the ring in like ten or fifteen minutes,
agreed, I mean, and we don't need to hear fourteen talking heads.
I have no problem with them showing a feature or an interview whatever,
having you know, Ario Hawani in the back talking to somebody in the locker
room, or having you know, the pundits given a minute or two of
their thoughts. That's that's normal. I got I like that. I've got
no problem with that. The issue is, though, when you're talking about
a fight that a card that's already gonna have six fights on the main card,
which is fine. I'm not complaining about having quality fights or anything like
that. But to get from the Hoony fight to the Mark Chamberlain fight,
it felt like about a month. And then they get from the Chamberlain fight
to the next fight, which was I believe Madrumov That took another like thirty
minutes or whatever. It was just preparing god for the Madromov Ko and then
Joshua making quick work of Benghanu or we'd have been there until Tuesday with the
uh knockout Chaos, but we did get it done. You would talk about
leisurely pacing, I mean, give me a break. Maybe, so all
right, so there you go with the Knockout Chaos card. Speaking of big
time fight cards, Tim Zoo comes to the United States to headline for the
first time in a pay perview world championship fight he has been in the United
States in a headline. If it's not a championship fight show, well it's
not. Yeah, he's the WBO champions not for the WBO title, that's
true. But he's headlining on pay per view against Keith Thurman. You don't
have to wait for fight week and for March the thirtieth in Las Vegas.
You got Tim Zoo right now on this podcast right here. Well, I
would like to welcome back to our podcast this week. It is Tim Zoo,
the WBO Junior Middleweight Champion of the World. And Tim, I'm excited
to talk to you about your your your next big fight in the United States.
You'll be headlining the very first Amazon Prime Video event with PBC taking place
at the Team Obil Arena in Las Vegas. That'll take place March thirtieth,
and you're taking on a well known name, former welterweight champion, Keith Thurman.
And I think a lot of people look forward to this fight to see
how Tim Zoo is going to do, you know, in the main event
of a big show in the United States against a well known opponent. Tell
me just your thoughts right off the bat, just about the magnitude of the
event for you in terms of headlining the first ever PBC Amazon event as they
entered this new agreement with this new platform and then also headlining on pay per
view, being in Las Vegas. I mean, you fought in America but
not there before and just sort of like the whole the whole thing, it's
got to be exciting for you. Yeah, this it doesn't get any bigger.
You know, it's like pinch yourself talk moments. This is as big
as it gets. You know, you dream as a kid to be fighting
in everything that you just said, you know, platform, new platform,
pypeer view, tam My Ball or rain on. You know it's it's or
dreams of man off. Now. When you had your last fight that took
place in October, you had a decision victory against Brian Mendoza. You retain
the title in your first full defense, you know, because you had been
the interim champion before being elevated and that was sort of position in Australia as
this is sort of like your farewell fight to a degree that you were not
ever, never ever going to fight in Australia again. But for the time
being, as you are in you know, getting into your prime and now
a champion, you're going to be fighting here in the United States and uh
and trying to make a big name for yourself here the way you have back
home in Australia. And I was wondering when when you did that, what
was the reason for that decision? Because you are you are very beloved in
Australia. Obviously your father is beloved in Australia. I mean, you have
a popularity. I've watched your fights there, you know, big, huge
crowds. Uh. So what was why was it a need for you to
You still could have come here, but to say, we're not going to
be here for the next period of time, so enjoy me now and I'll
be back maybe in a few years. But now you're here in the States,
what was the reason for you? Yeah? I think the reason for
that I was a new chapter where I was. When I fall in Australia,
it was like, all right, doing the same motions, it's the
same cameras, it's it's everything is same, and it's like I needed a
change and needed to get out and go to that next level. And you
know, if you want to grow as a fighter, as a human being,
as a person, you've got to accept new challenges and something to wake
up to every every day. So this for me is a new little wake
up, something that I can challenge myself to and something I can keep aspiring
and keep inspiring other people to keep chasing their dreams. Is it fair to
say, though, that it's not that you're never going to fight at home
again. It's just that now for a little bit of time, however many
fights it is, or a couple of years or whatever, that you're going
to be here. But at some point your your folks back home will see
Tim Zu back in the ring, right, Yeah, for sure. It's
Look, I'm an active fighter and I want to keep staying active. So
I understand at this very very top level it's hard to get four three four
fights a year. I understand that. But logistically if we can and that's
a different story. Now you're fighting Thurman. But I know how much you
wanted last year to have the fight that when you were the mandatory against Jamel
Charlot. Uh. You know it was never rescheduled. When he got injured.
He obviously got the big opportunity to fight Canelo Alvarez and then allowed himself
in essence to be stripped of that title when the fight started and you were
then elevated. H How disappointed were you that that you didn't get that chance
to fight Charlotte to become the quote unquote real champion of the division because he
held all the belts and was the acknowledged number one. Uh And and that
just didn't come to pass for you. And obviously he's not You're fighting somebody
else for this fight. Yeah. Man, I've all been chasing him for
for yeasing. It's been a long time, you know, It's it didn't
just start overnight. It was years and years have been chasing the block.
So you know, I say that as the past thing. It is what
it is. We move on. Uh. You saw chasing on onto biggest
things. And now the opportunities endless. And we're not just talking about Charlotte
as we're talking about other fighters in the meets. All right, So you
fighting Thurman, that's obviously the guy you're getting ready for that you have in
front of you. He's got a really good name. He was an outstanding
welterweight champion, unified champion, was you know near the top of that weight
class for a long time. He is now moving up in wait. But
besides that, he know, he's had one fight and I'm sure you've been
reminded of this route this promotion. First fight for him in twenty five months,
only his second fight since he lost a welterweight title to Manny Pacyao.
That was in twenty nineteen. So he's been extremely inactive, whereas tim Zuo
has been fighting, Uh, you know, as regularly as as any of
the top champions in the sport right now, how much of an edge do
you think that gives you? That you are younger, you are fresher,
you've been active, and he's none of those things. No, it's not
just that you put a furman in his prime or furman in his whatever whatever
they say, in his active stages. Tims is still beats in every day
of the week. So it doesn't matter. You beat him more decisively than
because of its sorry I said, you beat him then more decisively because of
that situation. Oh look, he could be fresher, now, you know,
he could be fresher. He's I think he's going to be tough for
first It's not going to be a walk in the park. There's no such
thing as walk in the parks at this level anymore. You know that everyone's
the top top in the top top tier now. So I respect him as
as an opponent, but yeah, I see holes even in his in his
in his heydays. Can you can you uh tell me what those holes are
that you see. I'm not going to expose. I'm gonna I'm gonna show
him on ftnite. Well, I had to ask. I had to ask
one thing about about Keith that he's always been known for, just besides just
his overall accomplishments and his ability, one thing he's always shown a really good
chin. I mean, he might have been down maybe one time in his
career or something like that, but I've never I've covered him for a long
time, never really seen him hurt, never really seen him in big trouble.
Obviously, he's never been stopped. The one loss was a decision to
Manny. You know you've got a lot of knockouts. Is it a goal
of yours to become the first person to stop Keith Thurman. I'll look victory
by any means, But if the stoppage comes and it's presented then then of
course, you know, I'm not here to tip and tab I'm here to
do damage and hurt my pennant. So this is a fight that is contracted
at one hundred and fifty five pounds. It's not for your title. Unfortunately,
I understand where the WBO was coming from because of his inactivity, because
he's not been in this weight class, because he was unranked by the WBO.
Are you at all disappointed that? I know you worked hard to get
that title, and you went through a lot to get elevated and to dig
it into the first place, by the whole situation with Charlotte, And here
you are coming back for this biggest, big fight in the United States and
you're not defending your title. Is it? Is it disappointing at or it's
like whatever? No, I honestly, I couldn't camp us, you know,
like really couldn't kill us for me fighting his moments. You know,
life is all about moments. For me living in this moment T Mobile Arena,
first time of prime this is as big as he gets. Man who
cares? And I guess, uh, you know you're obviously if you everything
it goes as well, you'll be defending your title in the future anyway.
So that's I guess a good thing. But it's I always wondering, like
if a guy loses a little bit because the title is not at stake.
Nah, it doesn't matter, man, I've been a world champion in my
head since since day once. Okay, what do you think a win does
for you? And I say this respectfully that you're sort of damned if you
do and damned if you don't. If you know what I mean, because
you are taking on, as we've discussed, a smaller, older fighter moving
up and wait and so yeah, Tim Zooey is the big favorite. He's
supposed to win, and you plan to do that, and if you lost,
it's like, oh my god, he lost to a guy that was
smaller, you know, older, inactive guy that you kind of you can't
really win. You're like, you're not going to get a lot of credit
if you win, and it's going to be like an outright disaster if you
lose. I ain't losing, That's the thing. I ain't losing, And
damn if you do, dam if you don't. Becase Creeks is always going
to be Criticus the Metal long That is true now beyond a fight with Keith
Thurman. You you fight in a weight class that does still have a number
of good fighters, and there's obviously talented white welterweights that may move up.
The one match that I've heard from boxing insiders as well as from boxing fans
that is of interest to them, you know, after this Keith Thurman situation,
that that that I find to be sort of a popular fight that they
mentioned your name in is that we kind of figured that there's not going to
be a rematch at least not now anyway, between Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford,
and that the best fight for Terrence Crawford if he's not fighting the mandated
rematch unt actually with Spence and and a fight with Canelo doesn't materialize, which
doesn't seem that Canelo is awfully interested at this point. That Tim Zoo against
Terrence Crawford is what heck of a fight the welterweight champ, you know,
coming up to take on one of the Gera Middway champs. That that that
sounds like a pretty enticing, interesting, exciting event. Do you have any
thoughts about the procect of that down the road? Yeah, Look, that's
that's something you dream, you know, something you wake up to. You
know he's number one pound for pound faro and yeah, that's like to be
great, you know, to be to be a great in this sport.
This is the top of challenges that you have to take on. So look
like welcoming with both hands, as I said, as I said, I
don't fear no man. No one willking this up. I fear no one.
So you would you would definitely be amenable then to making that match right
away as soon as possible. Basically once Mark thirtieth is taken care of.
Easy man easy, I'm very easy. Like these other guys. It take
months to negotiate men, I'm done. Give me the pen, give me
the pen to sign the contract. I'll be I'll be ready, you know,
even with Keith Thurman. When they mentioned Keith Thurman to me, I
was like, yeah, no worries, not even one second straight away.
I said, yes Keith. On the other other hand, they needed a
couple of days to study me. Apparently. I'll tell the listeners we're seeing
each other on a zoom call. The folks that hear this interview will be
listening to it. But the whole time you were saying all that stuff about
give me the pen, I'll sign. You had a big smile on your
face, so tells me that you have a lot of enthusiasm well out of
curiosity. Other than Keith Thurman, was anybody mentioned to you as a possibility
for this particular fight, or was Keith like, hey, what about him?
And you just said yes right away? Or they gave you a menu
of you know, a few different guys than you selected. Yeah, sir,
look, I was prepping for March second against Ericson Leuvin. That's that's
that was my intention sted sparring. I had a camp for eight weeks against
South Paws. I was I was a sparring South Paws and getting used to
that. And then basically afterwards we found out we don't have an opponent anymore,
but we got a date. So before we didn't have a date,
we had an opponent, and then and then it all changed. We hadn't
that we hadn't no opponent, but we had a date which was March thirtieth,
and I was frustrated. I was like, for the hell, you
know, I've been prepping for Lubin for two months. What happened? What
happened Toluvin that he was in your March thirtieth opponent. I don't know,
man, honestly, I don't know. I mean, probably because he's just
not as big of a name as Thurman in terms of PBC wants to put
on a pay per view of that, it seems to me, but who
knows. It makes sense, Yeah, it makes makes absolute sense. Yeah,
I understand that. So when they mentioned Urman, I said, no
worries, sweet, you know, I was. I was. I remember
when I got the reaction I was. I was just so excited. I
was like, of course, you know, it's a no brainer. Well,
I'm looking forward to the fight. You know, it should be very
interesting to see you in the United States, Like you said, excited to
be on pay per view on the first ever PBC Amazon March thirtieth Keith Thurman,
Tim, thank you very much for doing this. I appreciate I wish
you the best of luck in your fight. Sure you bet, there you
go, are ready? That's Tim zoo w bo dream Midlewaight champ of the
world again. I'm anxious to see what he looks like. I don't know
what to expect. I will say this there. There was a local media
feature also on Keith Thurman here in the Tampa Bay area training out of clear
Water for this fight coming up. And I know you have spoken recently with
Keith Thurman. Future podcast Peepee Future podcast Alert you'll hear from Keith Thurman,
the former world welterweight champion. But impressions, you've done this before, You've
talked with Tim Zoo before, You've seen him on the video hookup. Impressions
seeing him we're now a couple of weeks out before the fight. Impressions,
Tim is a very poised guy, a very chill guy, you know,
good to talk to, just just anxious for the fight, but excited for
the fight, you know, really excited about the prospect of headlining in Vegas.
You know, his father, Acassa Zuo, the Hall of Famer,
headlined in Vegas. You know, he's kind of following in his footsteps in
that respect. He he loves the fact that he's on the first of the
Amazon events, fighting a good name. Even if you know, he didn't
say this, but I kind of got that impression, like I know he's
taken Key. I feel like he's taking Keith Thurman seriously. But he's also
aware that he's older, he's inactive, he's moving up in weight, and
and he feels like he's gonna shine him. You could hear it, and
you could just sort of hear it in his voice, and you know he
was, uh. You know, he's a good interview because I feel like
in the in the in the few times I have interviewed Tim that he just
tells you his honest opinion when you ask him a question. And I like
that a lot of no nonsense. And again they'll ratchet up the rhetoric,
especially Thurman coming up. Uh, Zoo has gotten off some good blasts when
Thurman's been going on and on about it. I'm so hungry. I'm the
hungriest guy. I'm hungry, hungry, And Zoo said hungry. You've been
on a five year vacation. May they said back to him, So yes,
we'll get ready for all the rhetoric. And again Keith Thurman on a
future conversation in a little bit. But good to hear from Tim Zoo.
Big things ahead from him ahead for him, especially if he is impressive,
if not spectacular, against Thurman in this pay per view in Las Vegas coming
on March thirtieth at the end of the month with all of the mayhem.
All right, a couple of news items. You were talking about this,
you were ahead of the curve, and it's now official. Canelo Alvarez does
the deal with Premiere Boxing Champions but as you said, not only on Amazon
Prime pay per view, but also will be distributed by the owne and one
of our sponsors, PPV dot Com as well. And again for clarification,
idiot is a one fight deal. This is not to continue along with PBC,
so they had to renegotiate a new deal. You reported that we talked
about on the podcast the other day that all the parties have now made it
official and announced it. So when they could not agree to the second fight
of the three fight deal, which caused them to break apart because he contractually
Canelo did have the right to go shop elsewhere when they could not come to
an agreement and Hayman and PBC were trying to from what the sources tell me,
change the terms of the agreement, whether the money or the who he
should fight in the following fight in September, because remember the three names that
were in the agreement, from what I am told, are both Charlotte brothers,
one of whom he dispatched easily in September, Jamal and also Errol Spence.
But Jamal and Errol Spence, since the contract was done in July or
June or whatever of last year, they were no longer viable as pay per
view opponents. You got to figure something out different than that. So that
was a crux of the issue. So he went out on his own his
team. They negotiated with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom about a possible reunion for them.
They have a good relationship to do a couple of fights this year.
There was definitely one thousand percent a third party that was involved, and that
was having conversations with the Canelo team that did not come to pass. And
at some point in that you know, a week and a half or so
that they were away from each other. I am told that PBC made another
call and extended a different offer, and they went obviously, like any negotiation,
go back and forth, and they wound up coming to an agreement on
a one fight deal for what I'm told is north of thirty five million dollars
for Canelo's guarantee, and so it'll just be one more fight instead of the
two more fights that PBC originally had. Now, just because the one fight
will take place in May does not mean that when that's done and there's the
next fight to start to talk about in September, he couldn't stay with them
and do another one fight deal or again go to back to match Room,
or you know, go to the third party if they're still interested or whatever.
But he's he's rolling the dice on himself and he's controlling his own career
as the star. And it also tells me that in the end, PBC
understood that they needed Canelo more than he needed them, because for them to
shorten the deal from two fights to one fight left you know, a new
deal, and for them to not get into a pissing contest about the Zone,
which they really have time to do that because the May fourth is coming
so quickly in terms of a pay per view, it was going to become
bogged down in legalities because you know, maybe they thought that they were not
obligated to just give it to the Zone for whatever the reasons, because that's
the Golden Boy partner. Golden Boy is involved with Mangia as the core promoter,
was zan for promotions. They basically threw their hands up and said,
fuck it, let's just do it. That's my impression from what the sources
were telling me, that they didn't want to bother with the with with getting
into a you know, a back and forth with lawyers and everything. So
they will you know, PBC's producing the event. It'll be their production,
as opposed to when it was a Showtime pay per view, Showtime would do
the production. PBC will do the production. So if you buy the pay
per view on Amazon, or you buy the pay per view on PPV dot
com, or you buy the pay per view on the Zone, you're going
to see the same set of you know, graphics and announcers and doubts and
the whole thing. But that's that's the way they're going to work this out.
Mangia. I don't know exactly, but I'm told he's getting a guarantee,
you know, in the ten million dollar plus what you said, right,
right, So so it's like they got like forty million dollars hanging on
you or thereabout forty five millions. I said this to you the other night.
I'm repeating again. Everybody got what they wanted. Canello obviously, wanted
his guarantee, which they met. PBC then wanted this fight because they needed
this for credibility for what they're doing. Mongia gets what he wants, which
is a massive payday in the biggest fight of his career, probably will be
his biggest fight ever. So even and even his owne makes out that they
get to show the fight, So everybody got something that they wanted out of
it, and PBC got of the fights that were available. If you again,
we can get into a whole separate discussion about whether he should be fighting
David Benavide's but he's not. That's a different story. I believe he should
be, But put that aside as long as you accept the fact that Canelo
was not going to be fighting David on May fourth. They got the PBC
for their purposes of business, got a fighter that's not in their stable,
for their platform, and they got the best possible fight that they could have
made. You know, I think that's not a controversial statement. Now,
maybe some people might say, Crawford, that's a whole different animal situation if
they did that fight, that's a different level. But in terms of like
just a normal super middleweight fight, the next best guy. Besides the fight
with ben Vitez, of course, was this fight against two things about Mangia.
He's gonna throw big and he's gonna get hit, So there's not a
lot of mystery there and here we go. Here we go with that being
the opponent, and that will all ramp up in the coming week. So
I've heard from a lot of people since this was, since Canelo and mcgea
and folks involve, they've put this out on their social media on Friday night,
they haven't sent out like an official press release or a ticket thing or
anything about a media tour. And that'll come, I'm sure in due time.
But I got a lot of people that were asking about the reporting that
had been that Canelo didn't want to fight or wouldn't fight a Mexican opponent.
And again I don't speak Spanish. My understanding is it's not that he told
TVs Tech in that recent interview that I won't fight a Mexican. It was
that my preference is not to fight a Mexican. But when that became basically
the guy that everybody could agree on that was a a fight big enough that
would do the kind of business that they need to do a fight the fans
would certainly be interested in. It's obviously on a Mexican you know, on
the single Demio holiday, so it's sure going to be a big Mexican celebration.
It made the most sense to do the fight and Canelo again, you
know, again, it's maybe not his preference, but in the end,
there's thirty five million plus reasons he's doing it. And thank god because we're
not having to try to sit here talk about much less promote Jamal Charlow being
in and around that not needed. I'm gonna tell you something about that real
quick on that. Yes, you know, I've covered pretty much every Canelo
fight there's been since he became like a top name. I mean, I
didn't cover the pandemic fights whatever, but I've covered a lot of Canelo fights
in my day. And I was thinking to myself, for a Team Mobile
fight in May, I'm just not gonna go cover the Charlotte fight because I
think that fight sucked and I'm just not gonna waste I mean, I would
write about it just because that's what I do as a botuator, but I
don't need to go and spend four days in Las Vegas running around and doing
the nonsense for a fight that I think is garbage. And I'm thrilled that
they and I'm not even knocking Jermal Jamal needs to go get his career back
together. I wish him nothing but the best of success in that endeavor.
And if you can do something to maybe earn the fight, fine, But
when you had the options of and Charlotte was the guy sitting there, and
you're telling me you're not fighting Benavide's, Oh you're not gonna fight Magia,
You're not even gonna fight Crawford, and blah blah blah, give me a
fucking break. So I'm happy that they made this fight, even if I'm
further defeat us fight. All right, Two other things, real quick,
here you did mention Terrence Crawford, and you have here on the rundown that
Chris you Bank has been talking right now. In fact, he put it
on social media that hey, uh, he'd be interested in fighting Terence Crawford.
As you often joke, the fighters are always seemingly the last to know,
and they often want to stir this stuff up that everybody wants to fight
everybody. How realistic is this? Their workers is what do you have it
on the on the ray Field zero to ten ten it absolutely happens. Well,
I don't know if it actually happens. What I can tell you is
that I am told by somebody that would know one hundred that this is why
it is being discussed. It's being talked about. They're trying to work out
the terps. They're trying to work it all out and see what they can
do. I'm not sure who would be the actual promoter if maybe if Hayman
would be involved and UH and PBC and TGB. Chris Ubank's promoter is uh
Wasserman Boxing. That's the Saralyn Brothers. They're based out of the UK.
Uh. They've never done a big American show. Uh, but you know,
so who knows. I guess they would be involved. From the standpoint
of of Chris Eubank. But again I've said this for a while now.
If he wasn't going to get to the Canelo fight Crawford, he was in
a very tough spot because there's no big name for him to fight in his
own way class. There's guys that you might be interested to see, Like
would you tell me if you want to have him fight against Sharron Ennis.
I'll definitely be in yes, but that makes there's no commercial, real commercial
value to that fight. There's not any other real welterweight. You know,
you have Tafimo Lopez, who's the junior welterweight champion calling him out. I
mean, I'd be okay with that fight, but that's a bridge. That's
a bridge too far in my mind of making the match for business reasons and
also just because I don't know offense to tia Fimo. You know, he
didn't really look that good in the last fight. I don't Thinknyboe would give
him a chance and hell to win the fight, so he'd have to come
up and wait. Crawford, his bursting at one forty seven, wants to
go to fifty four. They were going to do the rematch with Spence,
would have been at one fifty four had it come off. That obviously is
not happening. The point is he's a great fighter, he's the pound for
pound number one, he's a future Hall of Famer. He's got massive accomplishment,
but he does he doesn't have a huge amount of options for you know,
even if you look to one fifty four, Charlow is really kind of
off the reservation for the time being. He's got his legal issues. They
just made him champion in recess. Blah blah blah. Tim Zoo would be
an interesting fight. I'd love to see that. He's got the fight coming
up there. That's a compelling fight. If Zero's impressive here, Zoo's been
active, that's a compelling fight. And that's that's a fight where the entire
continent of Australian sports fans will pay attention to that fight. So that's so,
I mean, maybe listen, So if Zoo was the winner against Thurman
in March and and Crawford comes back and fights you know in the like July
ish or whatever in the summer, uh, and he wins, maybe they
can make a Zoo versus Crawford at the end of the year. That'd be
great. But in the meantime, you look around, you like, who
can he fight? So they're talking about you Bek, who's a you know,
good fighter. He's coming off a big revenge knockout against William Smith in
September of last year after being knocked out earlier in the fight in the beginning
of twenty twenty three, and it would also be interesting from the standpoint that
Terrence Crawford, who's the welterweight champion, would have to go up and fight
him at one sixty. I mean, you Bank has fought his heavy is
like in the in the super middleweight division where he fought a lot of top
guys. Uh, but now he's been the last few fights he's in the
one sixty weight class. Crawford would have to go up and wait, we'll
see if it actually gets made. The one interesting thing about that, besides
you know, however you want to break down the matchup, is the training
situation, because you know, I think they've sparred together. Brian McIntyre is
obviously the career long trainer of Terrence Crawford, but he take he just took
over the training duties for to uh to train U Bank Junior when they had
the rematch against Liam Smith. Remember he was trained by somebody else for the
first fight, right Brian. Brian and Brian put together the plan and he
get the revenge knockout. So obviously that was a big factor and why Brian
McIntyre won by pretty much everybody the trainer of the Year for two thousands.
I remember it because unfortunately for Bowmack as he's known. He got to spend
an extra month or five weeks in Manchester because he had a gun with him.
I remember the whole thing, but it could come together for that connection
the trainer McIntyre. But the reason he won the Trainer of the Year was
not just because of the fact that Crawford defeated Arrow the way he did,
but also because he was able to reverse what happened with you Bank in the
Lillams Smith fight. So he had two huge wins with two different guys,
and that's usually a way to get the Trainer of the Year. So I'm
assuming. I mean, I don't know this for a fact, but I
couldn't possibly imagine that he would stay with you Bank for the fight. He
would probably of course be with Crawford, his guy. But we'll see if
they actually get it done. I mean, I don't want to spend too
much time until it's signed. But that's sort of what's going on. They
are talking. You Bank maybe got a little ahead of himself by putting up
that you know, fake Pete, you know, not fake in terms of
that it's not making but the unofficial artwork for the fight. I guess all
things consider of who's out there, and you don't want to see Crawford sit
out and not fight. So if that's the fight, so be it.
I just you know, unfortunately you get a figure its fit's another seventy dollars
pay per view, which is disappointing. All right, So this fight had
been looming and being discussed. That's a third fight with Katie Taylor and Chantell
Cameron. Potentially Taylor avenged her defeat and won against Cameron in their second fight.
All right, So what's the latest, real quick before we get to
a little fun nostalgia and get out of here. Is this gonna happen or
not anytime soon? What do we know? What do we think? Well,
it seemed like after the rematch which Katie won, you know, she
had lost a very close fight challenging Cameron for the undisputed women's title at junior
walter wait, and of course Katie was the lightweight undisputed champion and when she
won, when she lost the fight, she exercised her rematch, right,
they had the second fight. Both of the fights were absolute barn burners,
tremendous battles, you know, women's fight of the year type stuff. When
they had the the second fight that took place, Katie won and another very
close fight. I mean both of them were extremely close, but she won
the fight, got the titles, and she ended up vacating her belts in
the lightweight division. And the conversation right after was we're going to do a
third fight. They were trying to maybe get it done to having the big
in the soccer stadium in Dublin Croke Park. They kept talking about and everybody
seemed on board. I know Matt whom boxing wanted to do it. The
two fighters said they were interested to do it. Everybody looked like it was
gonna happen. Obviously the zone would be happy to do the third fight.
It was such a such a two fight. I mean they were great,
man, I mean they were really truly spectacular fights. I mean every bit
as good as even when Katie fought Serrano. And so then just in the
last few days, it was Chantell Cameron going on her social media saying that
she's agreed to take a big purse reduction to make the fight happen financially,
because that's what she was told was to hold up in making the match,
and the reason, you know, that she she agreed to do that,
but then she also stated that it looked like that Katie was going to take
a key busy fight, you know, to quote unquote avoid me because she,
you know, maybe is not wanting to have the third fight. So
they're sort of at that sort of situation where I guess Katie's looking to do
some other bout. I've not heard any names, but Cameron is, you
know, willing to take a financial cut to get the third fight on for
him, the opportunity to have this other this third fighting for a chance winner
titles back. So it's based on Chantel Cameron's perspective. The ball is in
Katie Taylor's court. Now Katie, to my knowledge, has not come out
and said anything publicly one way or the other about it. But at the
end of the day, Katie is the star, bigger so than Chandelle.
Katie is the champion, and Katie is the one that's gonna call the shots.
I mean, we'll see what happens. I hope they do the fight.
I mean, it was so it was so spectacular, and it's not
like there's some other obvious opponent out there. You know, the name is
Serrano and obviously she had the mess with her pay per view and that's not
realistic to be happening anytime soon either, right, So we've got the eye
problem that that fight seems further away than it has been because now she's still
the champion at featherweight, Katie is now the champion a junior welterweight. I
mean, yes, they can find that weight in between. Again, I'm
not saying that won't happen again, but it seems further away now than it
has been for a little bit, So we'll see what happens. What's good
though, is that we have these types of fights within women's boxing that you
can get excited. But I always would say this, like when women's boxing
was first starting to come to the forefront and kind of be a big deal.
The problem with with the women's side of boxing was he had some really
good names, Laila Ali and Christy Martin some of the other women that were
in that category, but there was not any sort of like rivalries. People
would say, I want to see a Layla fight, but they couldn't really
say other than the end Wolf fight, which never happened unfortunately, but they
didn't really have like I want to see her fight Disney Woman, or I
want to fight see this match. It was all about the individuals. We're
in a time now in the talent level of women has increased so dramatically.
Then now we get times where it's like, I want to see Taylor versus
Cameron, I want to see Taylor in a Remtress Toronto. I want to
see you know, pick a name, whether it was Savannah Marshall against Laressa
Shields or any of the matchups that we've seen at the top level. That's
where women's boxing is right now. So that we can have an excited discussion
about being upset that we might not see the trilogy fight between Cameron and Katie
Taylor. That's how far women's boxing has come in recent years. All right,
So good stuff nostalgia and we don't really have anything greater earth shattering anniversary
wise. We did kind of cover it going into the on the on the
Preview podcast, going into the weekend on some of the big moments, but
this actually got posed and I kind of I like this, this is different
and we can go, you know, as far back as you want to
go, recent or not. It got closed when Top Ranked Boxing put a
tweet out saying, tell us your biggest what if in boxing? You know,
I know you've got several. You're like, you're like at the buffet
and you want everything on your plate on the buffet. I'm gonna have to
narrow you from fifteen. I got to narrow you from fifteen what ifs to
like maybe five. But I have four or four on my list, three
or four? All right, I've got a couple. Give me one what
if? In by what if this had happened? How might the history have
been different? How might trajectories have changed for both fighters or not? Or
this fighter or not? Give me a what if? All right? So
just so people understand, this is not meant to be an all encompassing list.
If I'd ever decide to write a piece, maybe it would go a
little more in depth. This was the sort of thing nice all encompassing list.
Or did I just say give me a one? If I thought I
said give me a one? If I'm just saying. When I saw the
top rank tweet and I was doing the rundown, I was sort of like,
you know what, there was a couple of nostalgia things. I'm like,
let's let's switch it. Up a little bit to one. I always
think about when it comes to the what if. To me, and I'm
not saying it's the only one, but in my mind, it's like,
one of the biggest things that changed the trajectory of boxing in a million different
ways, is that what if? After Roy Jones had defeated John Ruiz for
the WBA heavyweight title March first, two thousand and three in a huge victory,
big pay per view. I was there covering that fight, and he
became the first former middleweight champion to also win a heavyweight title in one hundred
plus years since Bob Fitzsimmons. I mean, right, that's big shit.
After that fight was over, there was a lot of discussion about what's Roy
Jones going to do? Is see, and it got to a point where
they were engaged in very serious negotiations to do Roy Jones against Evander Holyfield,
who was still a viable heavyweight at that time. He was with Don King.
They would have been a big, mega HBO pay per view card.
They were going to do it at Madison Square Guarden in New York. They'd
already had I don't know if they had made a deal, but they certainly
had the Garden, you know, involved, and we're looking to close that
down. And at the end they could not finalize the fight because of the
differences of opinions between If my murray serves it was Roy Jones having issues with
King and Holyfield having issues with King, and obviously it always comes down to
the money. That would have been a huge fight and Evander was just enough
passed his best where I think most people would have looked at the way that
Roy performed against Ruiz that he would have been able to do the same against
Holyfield, who had you know, had fights himself against John Ruiz, and
it just did not come to pass. And that's such a shame because it
would have been a mega fight. Roy Jones, I think would have won
the fight. This is we're talking about some time in the County of two
two thousand and three, uh and and had that happened and they fought,
I think if Roy wins, He's now still got the heavyweight title at the
WBA, he's still the pound for bow number one, He's still considered one
of the great. He would have gone down and was one of the great
fighters of all time. And eventually if he had lost at heavyweight, he
still would have been like revered for what he had accomplished, because it's one
thing to beat John Ruiz. It's a different ballgame if you're beating John Ruiz,
Andy Dart then and whoever else you may fight after that. So if
you're thinking about what was going on in two thousand and three, holy Field,
you know, again, like I said, he was still like a
pretty good fighter at that point. I mean, he's not as absolute peak
by any stretch of the imagination, of course, but you know, he
gave competitive fights to guys like Chris Bird, and he had been you know,
he had fought James Tony that was a loss. But that fight happened
after he took that fight. Because the Roy Joe's I'm siding with you that
Roy would have probably had a legitimate chance to be yah we chance to beating
but chose not to do it, chose to move back. If he if
he wins against holy Field, and it's a huge event, it's like Roy's
in a different level of his mount rushmore niss of boxing. Let's say instead
the fight didn't happen and he ended up taking the fight at light heavyweight against
Antonio Tarver in the first fight they had of their trilogy. He had to
cut all that weight. He ended up winning the fight, but it was
a huge struggle. It was the worst he ever fought, you know.
You know, he had the DQ loss against Montel Griffin, but he struggled.
He didn't struggle in that fight. He really struggled against Tarvor. He
was all messed up because he took all that weight off, you know,
twenty five you know, twenty pounds of muscle. And I think the way
he was remembered in boxing history is dradically different because he decided to go back
to light heavyweight and they couldn't close up the deal for the holy Field fight.
To me, that was such a big moment that changed the path for
both him and for and for the history of the sport. That was the
number one. I got a couple others, but I got one that just
came to mind right away when I saw that tweet, right away, when
you put this on the rundown, it is the all time of my lifetime.
What if? As far as I'm concerned, because we keep talking about
this. Mike Tyson was seemingly indestructible in the late nineteen eighties, and you
know where I'm going. The biggest what if was Don King getting involved and
driving the wedge right between all the people that helped make Tyson what he was,
in specific Kevin Rooney being his trainer. Now, others did help train
him. Costamato obviously was his biggest mentor. Teddy Atlas helped train him.
But when that wedge happened, you started to see signs even then, and
you go back and relive all of it, documentaries and whatever, signs that
a destruction was coming, and eventually it did come in Tokyo. And the
what if I have is what if Don King's not involved? And what if
there's not a wedge between Tyson Rooney and the laser focus that you were talking
about earlier in this podcast. Does Mike Tyson go on to win five,
six, seven more heavyweight championship fights and undisputed defenses there? We will never
know. All we know is what did happen? And his career completely unraveled
and he went to prison. And you could argue he was maybe on a
self destructive path where something like that was gonna happen anyway, But from the
boxing standpoint, the biggest what if as far as I'm concerned is what if
the wedge wasn't driven in between and all of that got screwed up. And
still I still love going back and watching the nostalgia where Kevin Rooney at the
time is going on on I won't do my Rooney impression because you hate it
where he's going on and on about don you know Don King ruined Greg Page,
he ruined Tim Witherspoon, He he ruined Michael Donks, how many fighters?
Tony Tubbs, how many fighters? And he goes and now he's gonna
ruin Mike. He said it, he said it before. That was the
Buster Douglas fight, and he ended up being right right. So there's my
one. If I gave you another one, if give me another one,
f go ahead, all right, here's another one. I was there May
eighth, two thousand and four at the MGM Grand where the first fight took
place between Juan Manuel Marquez and Manny pakiav spectacular fight, the first of a
four fight series. Where oftentimes we talk about trilogies where one fights maybe not
so good, but the other two are great. This was a four fight
series where all four fights are spectacular. Tremendous battles. The fourth fight is
the probably the fight of the decade, knockout of the decade, whatever,
the spectacular fight, the one that Marquez won at the end. All three
close, all three with some controversy obviously other than the fourth fight. But
in the first fight they went in where this was for the recognition as the
champion at one hundred and twenty six pounds. Marquez had belts, Pacio had
the lineage because he had defeated Marco Antonio Brera. Awesome first class matchup.
I was a privilege to be ringside not only for that fight but all four
of their fights together. But in the first round of the first fight of
what became this legendary four fight series, Manny Pachel put Marquees on the deck
three times, and a lot of referees, most referees after the third knockdown,
which was not a like a flash knockdown by any stretch of the imagination,
waved the fight right then and there. This fight's over. You've been
down three times, you've been handed your ass, and it's over and we'll
live to fight another day. Joe Cortes was the referee. Joe Cortes one
of the greatest referees in boxing history, a Hall of famer obviously, and
he had the he saw something. He's the guy closest. He made a
decision that he was going to let that fight go, and uh, that
fight went on, and Marquez not only got himself back in the fight,
but in my opinion and the opinion of many that were there, he won
the fight. He you know, three knockdowns is hard to come back from.
And in the end it was ruled a split draw because one judge did
have it a one thirteen to one thirteen draw. One judge had it one
fifteen to one ten in favor of Manny one one fifteen, one ten in
favor of Marquez. The reason why it's the biggest what if is because if
Joe Cortes stops the fight number one, it's another incredible victory for Manny Paco,
and number two, who knows what type of debilitation that would have had
in one Manuel Marquez's career, who is now in the Hall of Fame.
But more notably, you can be damn sure if Manny Paco gets a KO
one with three knockdowns, there's no chance. Not only is there not a
four fight series. There's not a three fight series and their sures heck,
isn't even a two fight series. And that became one of the great rivalries
of the of the two thousands. Uh, and it would have changed a
lot of things for both of those fighters. Talk about the epitome in sports
of it was almost over before it ever started. What a classic example that
that four fight series would have been over in the first round of the first
fight before it started. That's a great one, and it was, and
it was so a lot of people were shocked that they let that that Joe
let the fight go, but he's He's proven in retrospect it was the right
decision because look what happened. Marquez came back and arguably won the fight and
it turned out to be a draw and led to the second fight a few
years, you know, a couple of years later. Whatever. It was
the huge moment. We've been here a while. I'll give you one more
what if, and then I'll let you have one more what if. Okay,
how about let's go back to the nineteen eighty one eighty two time frame.
You know where I'm going with the four Kings. What if? What
if? Thomas Hearns somehow can stay on his feet, doesn't get stopped,
and beats Sugar Ray Leonard. I have always wondered what does that do to
the Four Kings trilogy. You know, Leonard would have woned the immediate rematch,
just like he got the immediate rematch to avenge the Duran loss. But
Hearns couldn't get the immediate rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard. Leonard ends up retiring.
Hagler never got the fight when Leonard in and around that time thought he
was going to, So they end up fighting each other in the epic,
epic, shortest classic fight ever, Hearns and Hagler. You talk about the
what if game, and then Haggler's waiting on eventually Sugar Ray Leonard for the
big payday. What if Thomas Hearns, who was winning the fight, I
believe on two of the cards, if he survives and wins that fight,
what a classic? What if? On what becomes of the Four Kings Hagler
being in the mix. We probably don't get the Hagler Hearns fight. Maybe
we certainly don't get it in the timeframe we got it. Dan Rayfield in
nineteen eighty five, maybe not. There's a what if. That's a good
one. I mean, that's just what if. That's a great one,
because like you said, you don't know, you know, if there would
have been a rematch obviously, but her, you know, he couldn't hold
on. He was badly hurt there in the in the end of the fight.
And just so you know, you were saying you thought the Tommy was
winning as we're doing us, I'm looking this up on box Wreck going into
the fourteenth round of their fifteen round classic in the first fight in nineteen eighty
one fight of the year. By the way, you had Sugar Ray Leonard
actually trailing on all three cards. It was a fifteen rounder. So Tommy
was ahead one twenty five. I'm sorry, yeah, yeah, Ray,
Tommy Hearns was ahead one twenty five, one twenty two, one twenty five,
one one and one twenty four, one twenty two on the three cards
going to that last round. So Ray got the knockout when he needed it,
basically, And so you're right, that's a great one. Give me
one more, give me one more what if? For nostalgia purposes. So
I've been doing the what if ones I've done were things I covered because they've
been in my mind. You've been doing ones that I remember but are not
from my time as a boxing journalist. So another one that I have,
which is from the timeframe that I was had been writing about the sport again.
I was there at Staples Center, UH, December one, twenty eighteen.
This was Deontay Wilder as the WBC heavyweight champion. You have the comebacking
Tyson Fury, still the lineal champion, but having only had a couple of
like lesser fights after a sabbatical because of his mental health problems and his drug
and alcohol problems, and uh, they came together to do this fight on
Showtime pay per view. UH was a big fight, and again, like
the like with Marquez and Pakia, was a real thrill to be and get
a chance to not all four of their fights, but to cover all three
of what became a great trilogy between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, culminating with
the third fight, which is one of the was not one of it's to
me anyway, the greatest heavyweight championship fight I've ever covered in every one I've
done in my career, and it's definitely on the list all time. But
anyway, in that fight, you have a scenario where you got Deontay Wilder,
the big counchert Tyson Fury is out boxing him as I've described a Fury,
you know, out boxing for long stretches. A lot of people thought
that he deserved to be the winner of that fight. It turned out to
be a split draw because one judge gave it to Theory, one good judge
gave it to Deontay. One judge had it even. But Deontay Wilder scored
two knockdowns. One was in the ninth round, and obviously he wins that
round ten to eight. But the second knockdown came in the twelfth round.
Was a gargantua one knockdown where he's out and he ends up getting up like
he's the undertaker as the joke. He gets up like when it's about to
be out. Jack Reese is the referee, one of the best referees in
boxing, uh and even still is today. But a lot of people would
have stopped that fight. He was out, He was on his back,
you know, eyes closed, who knows what's going on? Uh? But
Jack, again, similar to what happened in that Joe Cortez example, I
gave you with the Marquez getting knocked down in the twelfth in the first round,
rather for three times against Manny Pacyah, Jack Reese let the fight continue
until you know, he gave him the count, and Fury amazingly, shockingly,
ridiculously ends up beating the count and does a little dance, puts his
arms on him, did everything he could have keep himself together, but gave
Jack enough that he was ready to let him go. And not only did
he let him go, but Tyson Fury was still boxing very well and probably
other than the knockdown, you know, won the rest of the twelfth round
amazingly and he was able to finish the fight almost two minutes left. Right
there, he did exactly. The crowd was roaring at Staples Center at him,
firing back, boxing, moving and firing back at Wilder, and Wilder
just could not. It's not skilled enough thing, not enough stamina to put
him away. So what if is what if? Like ninety nine percent of
the referees in boxing wave that fight off in round twelve, Fury's undefeated record
is gone. Wilder becomes the lineal champion and is still the WBC champion.
After that kind of knockout, maybe there would have been a rematch eventually,
but it wouldn't have been the demanded rematch like if he came but so I'm
not gonna sit here and tell you it definitely would have been a rematch.
It certainly changes the trajectory of Furious career because I believe if he gets knocked
out in that fight, remember his next fight, he had signed the co
promotion with Top Rank. They brought him to the United States, he fought
on ESPN plus two times before they did the rematch. They built him up
big. He was still undefeated. If he's got a knockout loss and is
no longer the champion, Top Rank's probably not signing him, and Wilder's off
doing some other stuff. And so I use that one, and it's sort
of a corollary of what if you go jump ahead to this second fight that
he did with Top Rank, which was the auto whaling fight that took place
September twenty nineteen. What if Tony Weeks stops that fight because his face is
hanging off from the cut that he's suffered, that wounded up needing like forty
something stitches after the fight a thousand doctors in boxing stopped that fight. The
blood was ridiculous, right right, and they ended up letting the fight go
and Fury won the decision, but certainly in a lot of places, that
fight stopped right there, and once again he's no longer lineal champion. He
loses his oh and out of whaling he is the lineal champion of the world.
I mean, what if they stopped the fight? Because here what if?
Begot another what if and probably several more what ifs. So I just
love this shit, I can tell uh. Listen, We've had a full
show, a lot of great what ifs. What if we leave it right
there and we reconvene later in a week. You like my segue, We
will reconvene later in a week. I'm looking forward to that again. A
nice job with Tim Zoo people by Keith Thurman and the Amazon premiere Boxing Champions
pay per view that is coming at the end of this month. We gave
a great recap of knockout Chaos and what's next for those guys. Other than
that, Dan Rayfield have a great week. We appreciate the time as always,
and we've courage everybody to stay locked in on your social media and with
your substack, et cetera. For anything else that's going on other than that.
I think we're good. We are good. Have you said a good
week? There's Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeves. You have been locked
in with us on the latest edition of the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast