Well off of a weekend that did not have a tremendous amount of action,
that did have a tremendous knockout in the Queensbury main event in London on Saturday
night. We've got some fight recap, We've got some news, and we've
got some Hall of Fame nostalgia because this is the weekend, this is the
weekend of the upset and you talk about boxing and Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson,
all of that to be covered. Glad you're with us. It's the
Fight Freaks U Night Recap pod. I am merely the somewhat capable host,
TJ Reeves. The man that you're here for is our insider. He's in
a pretty good mood. By the way, as we do this program and
launch off the weekend. Dan Rayfield Fight Freaks U Night is his substack,
hence the name of the recap podcast. Also Big Fight Weekend dot Com insider.
Good to be back with you, all right, So we have some
fights to go over. We have some different stuff. Again. We want
the peeps to rate us and review us. Some of you have done that,
some more of you need to do that. A five star review helps
take thirty seconds and tell us how much you love us. Do that on
all the podcast platforms where you can at spreakers, Spotify, etc. Do
that again. We do our best to come your way every weekend with the
preview pod going into the weekend Thursday night into Friday, and then a recap
pod Sunday night into Monday. We've been diligent about that. If you enjoy
that, make sure to rate us and review us. So with that being
said, again, the action was mainly in the UK. The prominent action
was in the UK. A little bit later weekend we covered at link the
tay a female Lopez debacle on the show going into the weekend, because that
was Thursday night, Dan, So people are wondering right here, Well,
wait a minute, I want to know about the Lopez fight. We went
our non fight. We went on and on about that in the last pot.
Anyway, how are you? How are things as we get rolling here
with another week off the weekend. I'm good. I don't think I could
stand another show to discuss that fight, to be quite honestly, so we're
good. If they want to hear about the Lopez fight and our thoughts,
listen to the previous episode non the non fight in that give them a hints
on what they're going to hear that it was terrible piece of shit. Short
version, bumper sticker version of that. For the analysis, Okay, what
was not terrible? Segue in the Queensbury main event? This hams of Sharaz,
and I gotta admit I had not watched him live before. And by
the way, if you didn't tune in very quickly, you didn't see him
live in this fight with Liam Williams. You and I did handicap it on
the bet Us show Friday at one Eastern time. I thought knockout, but
I was not thinking first round destruction. That's exactly what this turned out to
be. In the main event. What to make of this? What do
you make of this? Because Williams is a veteran, a former world title
challenger, and it was over quickly. There's a lot of ways I think
you can look at it. First and foremost, Sharraz looks like he's a
legit prospect. The one thing that stands out about him, and I have
seen him a couple of times before this. He's now nineteen and zero and
being brought along the media members in Britain had voted him as the Britain's Young
Boxer, which is like a big, you know, sort of important award
for up and coming fighters that he got. That I think was last year.
So he has some some expectations, some credentials, I guess, But
having watched some of his recent fights, he looks like he's a pretty good
puncher. The one thing that definitely stands out about him, he's very tall
as a middleweight. I mean, he's you know, he's like he's listed
at six foot three and he towered over Liam Williams, and he's going to
be a big h That's gonna be a big advantage for him if he if
he uses that to his advantage in terms of the reach and you know,
keeping guys on the outside. I mean, I wasn't shocked that he got
a knockout. I thought it would go the route. I mean, I
picked that because the number was so enticing on the US line. I thought
Liam Williams, being the veteran, would only been briefly stopped one time against
a top notch opponent when he when he lost by a knockout against Liam Smith,
a former champion. Granted it was in the lighter weight division. That
was at one hundred and fifty four pounds, but even still, I thought
he might be able to make it a fight. His other fights had come
again decisions of decision loss to Liam Williams in their match, decisions to guys
like Dimitris andre in a you know, in a world title fight also at
middleweight, and Chris Hubang Junior. He went the route with those guys.
He showed absolutely no punch resistance at all. And again I'm not looking to
rip on William Wi Liam Williams, but he looked like a completely spent bullet
at age thirty one. In this fight he could not handle just a basic
jab. He got knocked down multiple times. It was really the jab that
did it. I mean on the two knockdowns, and even before the knockdowns,
TJ he was he was reacting very badly to the punches where his legs
look very shaky. And so when you say, well, what do you
make of it? I think it's probably a combination of two things. Charraz
is good, but maybe not as great as he looked and doing what he
did, and Williams is a lot more gone than I think maybe many of
us thought he was. So it's hard to gauge that, because, yes,
the result is a result. You have a good young up and come
fighter, twenty four years old, undefeated, big size, big lawn reach,
good jab, good power, gets a first round knockout. But to
do it against a guy that you thought would be able to hang in there
for a bit, because his past shows you that. It was very disappointing
to see him go out the way he did because the corner through the towel
and he I can't say he took quote unquote punishment. Yes, he got
knocked down two times and was being hurt a bit, but again you're talking
about you know, two and a half minutes had gone by, and you
know that's not usually it's very rare, frankly, that you see a corner
call it a day in the first round. All right, So the second
knockdown actually was an upper cut that he called, and then he heard him
again with the jab right after that, and Williams was kind of coming forward,
staggering towards his own corner, and Shiraz clipped him again with kind of
a left through the gloves and the corner man standing right there waving the town.
Now, they did point out on the Queensbury TNT broadcast, which was
also on ESPN Plus in the US, that that was a new that was
a new trainer. Correct, this is a I don't know if it's an
old trainer that he went back to, but it's a new camp with a
new trainer. They were saying at the beginning, would it make a difference,
So maybe this guy sinds, Hey, you know you weren't looking good
in camp. I'm now worried for you you're taking to I don't know,
I'm just I'm just filling in that blank that it. I guess that I
understand that whether it's a new trainer l trainer, that the quarter has to
look out for the best interest of the fighter. I have a hard time
with a towel being thrown in round one philosophy purposes. Only the referee knows
what they're doing. He hadn't. I mean, he didn't get pummeled.
He got dropped with like a jab that was solid. You mentioned I made
a mistake. It was a different shot with the other knockdown. I just
felt like, first round, yeah, he's going to lose the fight probably,
but this is professional boxing, it's not that's not appropriate. In my
opinion, unless there's some devastating reason to do so. So again we're kind
of picking airs. But the main that the real storyline is not about,
you know, the end of Lee and Williams' career as any meaningful kind of
fighter, unfortunately for him, but that Sharaz is the guy you want to
see again, whether you think it's because he's really that good or because you
know, maybe it's because Williams was what what he's supposed to be in that
matchup. I want to see uh hamsas Charaz again. He's a very interesting
prospect. He comes along in a weight class that we've discussed numerous times on
this show when there's been other fights. It is very very uh uh the
bereft of the top quality guys. Uh. You know, you do have
a unified champion in uh you know, in the weight class uh In Jenebek
al Mcanoolly so, but it's it's not a very big time weight class at
the moment, you know, and it's such a traditional weight class with so
many greats over the years, you know, Charlotte, we talked about being
inactive Arizonati Lara Holds one of the belts hasn't fought in a while and has
generally terrible opposition. He does have a fight coming up with his mandatory in
March. Adamis who's been inactive, who has one of the interim titles.
The point is at the top of the weight class is not much. You
know, Triple G's often a seemingly retirement, and so if you're looking around,
there's a couple of younger guys that stand out that are interesting. Queensberry
has Sharaz who's definitely somebody to keep an eye on. Just the previous week
you had Austin M. L Williams, who's also that when that weight class
was unbeaten, similar record, similar age. He's with Matchroom Boxing. Matter
of fact, I made the comment, Yeah, they're gonna do this card
that's gonna match up the five Eddie Hearn boxers against the five Frank Warren boxers
on one of the under you know, the preliminary fights for one of the
Saudi Arabia cards that's gonna be coming up. They haven't made the determination of
who they're gonna pick or what weight classes and all that, but I thought,
you know what, that would be a great matchup. I mean,
if they're really willing to roll the dice and put their top young guys in.
How about Sharaz against against Amma Williams both, that's a tremendous matchup.
In your assessment, Sharra's probably still a couple of fights away from being a
legitimate title challenger. I mean, I don't know why he couldn't be backing
like ninety to one hundred two days or less off of that off of one
round. But it's not realistic to think, is it that he would have
a title shot like this fall this winter? Realistically? Is it a couple
more fights for him? I would think so. I mean, it's impossible
to say. But as they just mentioned, you, the champions in the
division are not popular figures, or not big money making figures, or not
big active figures. You're talking about Charlot, that's a PBC thing. Forget
about that. I mean, who the heck knows when he's coming back and
he's sure his heck isn't going to be worried about. You know, a
guy that tall, that long, that's not his own promoter or whatever.
I see zero chance of that occurring. But you know, Jannabeck, you
know, maybe listen, they need opponents top rankas and they do good business
with Frank Warre. Maybe they'll say, listen, we're looking for a guy.
What do you think? I mean, who knows. I don't know.
It's not like I'm saying they're gonna do that, but it wouldn't be
like theloniest thing ever. But he doesn't really come with a big roundswell of
of popularity or whatever. You know, he's a work in progress. I
mean, I don't know if William Williams first round knockouts enough to get you
the championship fight, right But listen, I'm not I'm not going to handicap
if he's gonna get a shot run. I'll just say this, TJ.
He's a good looking young fighter. He's twenty four years old, he's coming
into his own. He's got good punching power, he's got great size.
I want to see more of them, yep, and let's just enjoy the
ride. But right now, it was fun to watch him do that,
even though you know, Williams clearly was not what he was when he was
at his best. All right. On the undercard, we did also handicap
the Anthony Yard light heavyweight fight with nikolch the Serbian. We joked on that
show that I don't think you and I have ever on the record handicapped in
the almost two years we've been doing the bet US Show. A two and
a half round over under two point five, and I'm getting texts on Saturday
afternoon US time from my man ray Field. He's made it out of the
second round. I'm honestly doing something else. I wasn't in front of ESPN
Plus at the moment. Okay, I get another text, he's made it
the third round. O F he's down again. And then as the end
result, Yard got his knockout and we did not get home. You and
I both thought past the middle of the third it did not make it.
It's not a shock that Yard won. He was minus eleven hundred by ko
fifteen seconds though we got rob Baby. So in Nicolch's case, did he
take I have only seen one clip. Did he take serious shots throughout the
two and a half rounds and it's surprising that he even made it to the
third round. Listen, he gave a great effort. You can't knock him
for the for trying. He was Outgune. You could see from the opening
bell that was how it was supposed to be. I just saw a guy
with his level of fights and and and all the business that he's done before
that he could survive two and a half rounds much longer than that. I
didn't expect. But I, as I said to you when we were doing
the show, I can't bring myself to take the under on a two and
a half round fight. I mean, if it was if it was Mike
Tyson versus Peter McNeely kind of taken the under, you know what I mean.
But I figure on this kind of fight, I just couldn't bring myself
to do it. And look, Yard got the job done. You know,
he's he was in with an opponent that was supposed to get knocked out.
It was only a matter of how long it would take, which is
you know why the over under was such a such a low number. He's
now one two in a row against just you know, stepping stone like c
D level kind of opposition since the great matchup and superb Action fight. He
lost by knockout in January of last year in the title fight against Better BF.
But he's exciting, he's powerful, He's got obviously a good team behind
him with Frank Warren that knows what they're doing, so he's in the mix.
I mean, look, we're gonna see hopefully that I'll get announced in
the in the very near future that it's one hundred official with better BF against
b will for the undisputed title. Once that fight takes place come June.
You know, like his typical I figure, at least something will vacate,
something will be relinquished, something will split apart, or even if it doesn't,
I mean, the winner is going to be, you know, defending
the title. And even though he's lost two world title fights against Better BF
by a knockout, and that you go back to two thousand and nineteen,
a late knockout where he did a very good job up until that point.
He gave Sergey Kobol have a good, solid test and a title challenge for
the WBO belt in Coviev's hometown in Russia. This was the fight right before
covid Lev took on Canelo Alvarez and got knocked out. But yard was his
mandatory that they got done. He got stopped in round eleven, but he
gave a great account of himself in that fight. It was competitive and uh,
you know, when he's lost to the best guys, but he's got
good such power, he's exciting. You want to see him again. So
whether it's a title fight or some other contender fight. I mean, I
was thinking to myself and what happened, but I'd love to see him fight
like a Biwatzi for example. Now it's interesting you bring that name up.
Biazzi was right there post fight interviews. I said fight, But I mean
again, Biozzi fought on the Boxer Show. This is the Queensberry Show that
they were fighting on. What's the what's the thought on the promoters getting together?
Because and would Bowatzi risk it with Anthony Yard when Bilozzi's kind of in
position right that I'm when I say that I'd like to see that fight,
that's just the wishful thinking of a fan. I understand how the business operates.
Also here, Joshua Watsie, you spent your entire kurk getting yourself to
the position where you now are the mandatory for a world title. He is
the mandatory now for the b BOL belt. So when the fight takes place
to him, better be than b BOL. At some point he's going to
get the shot against that guy. They're not going to risk that against a
Yard with that kind of punching power. He took a big risk and it
was a tremendous fight and he, you know, got the just rewards for
the victory against Dan a Z's. Maybe they bring his ease back and they
make a match between him and the Yard something like that. But I mean
there, those are within the context of British boxing. Those are attractive fights.
You know, you also had you also had you know, Craig Richards
in action that was on the matchup cards, which we'll talk about. He's
a contender in that weight class where he has a loss against people in a
very spirited effort that he looked at. And my point is there are fights
out there for these guys to fight each other, even if they're not title
fights and make interesting matchups. And Yard is one of the more entertaining fighters
in the light heavyweight division and it's it's good to see him back in the
back in action. You know. Again, I'd like to see him not
fight this lowest level of opposition, But I get it. You fought the
title fight, you come back soft, there's no big fight there. You
want to keep active, get the fans interested again. He did what he's
supposed to do. He's now got a second round knockout in the comeback from
the better BF fight. This fight, what's the third round knockout and off
we go. We'll see what's next. But there's he's going to get some
other opportunity. You have to figure, all right. So speaking of match
Room, their Prospects show Saturday night in London saw Reese Bellotti win over Liam
Dillon. That's Banham weights. I have to confess I've read the recaps.
Uh there, junior lightweights, junior lightweights. Excuse me, I'm just reading
off the list here. British junior lightweight champer. Let me get that straight.
So Bellatti gets the victory. I've read the recaps. I did not
see this fight. Ballotti has five losses, so that's interesting. This was
Dylan's first loss. So tell me more about what you saw off the Mattroom
show. I saw a tremendous fight. I mean, it won't be like
the international fight of the Year, but I think when the folks in Britain
talk about their British Fight of the Year, which is a category a lot
of the media and folks discuss I know we're only in the beginning of February,
but that might be one of the fights that finds its way onto those
types of lists. It was a good, exciting, high contact, you
know, spirited fight from the opening bell. Both guys gave it a tremendous
effort. Ballotti retained the Commonwealth title. He won the British Junior lightweight title.
You know, if you're a British fighter, the dream of a lot
of British fighters, of course they want to be world champions, but that
starts with I want to be the British champion. It's the beautiful Lonsdale Belt
is one of the most attractive, awesome looking belts ever made in boxing,
and it's like a big deal to get the British title. And I thought
that, you know, after this fight was over, with the way the
Ballotti spoke about how important it was to him. You know, something he
said he dreamed about since he's a kid. I mean, maybe even more
than being a world champion, which you know he hasn't done that obviously,
and he talked about and the commentators mentioned this. You know, look,
he's in the later stages of his career. He's thirty three years old,
he's got five losses, been stopped a couple of times. You know,
he's at a certain level within Britain. It's not gonna necessarily be challenging for
world titles. He's an interesting character though, you know, he comes off
well, he's exciting, and he went through a period of time in twenty
nineteen, a couple of years he lost three fights in a row and everybody
figured his career is over with. He's done for at least at this level.
He's never going to get to the British level again. And he then
won won some fights and he beat an undefeated guy in his last fight,
Fiaz. That was sort of an unexpected situation. He gets the shot here
and after the fight he scored such a great win in this fight with Dylan
was such a tremendous battle, you know, I mean, anybody that didn't
watch it, it's definitely worth watching the replayer on demand on his own.
He made the point he has a young son, said, you know,
my son thought I was a loser because he knew I lost three fights in
a row. Now I can tell him on the British champions. I mean,
that doesn't make you think about what's important to these guys, you know,
how can you do that? And by the way, the one fight
that a lot of people did see and talk about in the third loss of
those three fights in a row. You know, he got knocked out in
the third round by ray Ford, who was one of the top young fighters
coming up, who's now coming up in a couple of weeks going to challenge
for the vacant WBA world title in the featherweight division. So it's a does
a big win for Ballati. I mean, it's not the kind of fight
we would necessarily spend a huge amount of time on if there was a lot
of other stuff going on, But it was the main event on what Mattchroom
Boxing calls their next generation cards next Gen. You know, it's sort of
like, I'll give it the comparison to like the Matchroom Boxing sort of quasi
showbox type of series where it's younger fighters or you know not it's neither not
big, big big purses or big crowds. This was held you know,
it was at the O two arena, but not in the main arena.
They held it in a night club essentially called the Indigo, which I've been
to when they did the weigh in for kel Brook against Triple G for example.
It's kind of like and it's even smaller than this, sort of like
you were going to go to Madison Square Garden. There's the big main arena
and then there's the The theater holds about five thousand people. The main arena
holds like twenty thousand. The O two arena is like a Madison Square Guarden
size arena. The Indigo, you know, maybe it holds a couple of
thousand for fight cards. It's a very small, intimate sort of atmosphere.
Nice venue. I mean, it was cool for the weigh in, and
so that's where they had this particular, uh, particular fight. So it
was it was a tremendous battle, and you know it was two uh,
you know, two guys that were going at it. Liam Dillon is a
was an undefeated fighter, was a little bit younger, gave a great effort
and, as Eddie Hern said in his interview after the fight, because you're
gonna fight like that, you're not gonna be We're not gonna get rid of
you, We're not throwing you away or anything like that. You fight that
kind of fight you got, you might have got a loss, but we'll
be happy to have you back and put you on, you know, some
other show. You bring that kind of entertainment value, you give that kind
of effort, You deserve to have another shot. So you know, it
sucks to lose for any of these guys. But when you have said this
a million times, you go in the ring and you put on a good
fight. Yeah, you might not make as much money the next time out,
but you're gonna get other opportunities and you can build up you know yourself
again and still have a career. And that's exactly what happened Ballot. He's
got a new lease on life and Dylan's got a loss. But it was
a tremendous battle. And you know what, I didn't know a lot about
these guys, to be quite honest, going into it. I mean,
I've seen Bilotti fight a few times. I knew who he was. I
saw the fight against ray Ford Liam Dillon. You know, I knew the
name, I know the record. I've seen him with you know, some
clips and maybe one fight, but I'm definitely watching them next time he's fighting.
After what I saw between him and Bla, it was just a really,
really good, exciting fight, entertaining scrap about all right, and there
are some other good prospects on that all else anything else well, So Craig
Richards as I mentioned to him and we were talking about the last fight.
So he's like one of the better British light heavyweight contenders. You know,
he's eighteen and three now. He came back after a lengthy layoff. He
hadn't fought since he lost a decision to Bowatsei in the middle of twenty twenty
two. A couple of fights before that. He gave a great effort and
he didn't win the fight, but he made it very, very competitive when
he challenged Dmitri Bibo for the WBA title, and so he fits in the
picture for some of these fights. He came back against a fighter named Boris
Brighton, a journeyman opponent. This was, you know, the kind of
fight where he was supposed to get back in the groove and win, and
it took him a few rounds to get to get going, but in the
end he scored a nice knockout in the seventh round, dropped him in the
round and puts himself in a great position to fight some of the top light
heavilys. We're talking about whether it's maybe you know, again, I don't
know, depending on the promotional situation. But you want to make him against
a rematch with Boazzi, You want to do a fight between him and Yard,
you know there, there's there's guys, and he fits in the mix
with any of the top British guys out there. You know, him and
his zs would be a tremendous fight. Again, there's promotional issues there.
I'm only making a point that he is definitely coming back after the layoff,
back in the picture for those types of fights and the and the younger fighter
that was on the card. You know, Rich is a little bit older
contender. There's a young fighter now four and oh that that match Room Boxing
sign named Cameron Vian who they've been featuring. He's been very active in his
first four fights over the last few months. Turned pro in October, having
his fourth fight was in February. Already scheduled again for a fight coming up
that'll take place in April. This kid looks from what I saw I seen
each one of his fights so far, exciting and has a real chance.
He's a lightweight maybe to go a long way again the jury is out because
it's so infancy of his career, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
They put him in the co feature position. Seems like he's got a growing
fan base already. You know, good personality, speaks well and can fight.
So Cameron Young remember the name? I guess remember that name at least
early here some news and then a whole bunch of nostalgia around the Buster Douglass
upset of Mike Tyson, and a little more on Oscar de la Jolla having
an anniversary coming up as well. Okay, so when we talked on our
preview podcast Thursday night into Friday morning, we did talk about Ryan Garcia and
Devin Haney heating up, and now the deal is done. We have the
date, do we have the location or what's the hit? Do we think
it's Las Vegas? What's the latest on Hany and Ryan Garcia that is now
going to happen? And I'm interested in this. I think a lot of
people are interested. This is one of the better fights right now on paper
in twenty twenty four. Oh, no doubt about it. I mean if
you go back a month and a half ago or so two months ago,
I Remember they were saying they wanted to fight each other, and they were
talking about doing the deal, and it felt like it was going to probably
get worked out at some point. They're both on the same broadcaster and and
things seem to be going fine. They wanted to fight each other. As
we've talked about, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney have fought six times in the
amateur ranks, splitting those fights going three and three against each other. But
both guys were very vocal about wanting to fight each other. Okay, and
as we've talked about many many times TJ, most of the time, when
two fighters really want to fight each other, all the other bullshit gets taken
care of. Whatever it is a promotional thing, a network thing. You
know, they figure it out. You know, if the will is there
on the behalf of their team of the fighter, you know they can.
You know, like we talked about with the when Ryan fought Tank Davis,
he just wasn't going to take no for an answer. He gave up everything
to fight that fight. You know, it didn't work out for him,
but I appreciate the fact that he wanted to do it. In this case,
you had him saying the same thing about Haney, and Haney was amendable
to it without question. And then suddenly, out of nowhere, he pulls
a one to eighty after a little jogging session with Floyd Mayweather, who was
Rollly Romero's promoter at Mayweather Promotions, and suddenly he's saying, well, you
know what, never mind Oscar meaning de la Hoya, how about go try
to make me a fight with Rolla Romero. And they got far down the
road, and then, you know whatever was going on behind the scenes with
PBC. Instead of taking the big time money fight in a pay per view
against Ryan Garcia, Rolli Romero takes undercard fight on the Amazon Prime Video kickoff
with PBC in March that will be between you know, the main event bing
Keith Thurman and Tim Zu and he's gonna fight Isaac Cruz on that undercard,
So okay, he put himself out of that position. So now once again
Garcia has no obvious opponent Devin Hainey, who has just had a great victory
in a one sided route against Regis Progra to win the WBC title. He
doesn't have a partic kular opponent lined up. You know, he would have
loved to fight, Tank Davis, they weren't even returning calls or being interested
in that, you know, Ti fiam Lopez was doing his business with the
fight that took place a few days ago with Jamaine Ortiz or or non fight
exactly. So the bottom line was the biggest opponent was let's go back to
the any fight. So both guys were looking for a big name opponent to
make a big event and a lot of money. So they were able to
go back to the to the to the table and relative to your average big
time fight. Davis, uh, you know when he fought against Ryan Garcia,
that was like a give him birth. The fight that was made between
Ryan and Haney. Once they got back to the table, TJ took him,
like I don't know, a week, ten days to get it ironed
out. I mean again, all things considered, and you compare it against
other, you know, big time matchups, that was really easy fight to
make. I mean they're on the same broadcaster. The two boxers wanted to
fight each other. Hany you know, wants that big name, which Ryan
Garcia is. Ryan Garcia wants the title, which was never really that important
to him, but once he became big and famous, and made a shitload
of money. You know, he had said to me and others that now
winning a title became the focus of what he wanted to do, and so
they were let me object. For your legacy, you gotta win world championships,
and you gotta beat world champions It's great that you have one point three
social media followers, but that don't get whatever ten million, That doesn't get
you in Hall of Fame. My man, Rayfael's not voting on social media
clicks. You're voting on a fight. Last I checked. Last I checked.
You've got to test yourself and beat the bigger names at least some of
the time, if not most of the time, to be that. And
I this is so many levels above even a Teya Femo Lopez fight. This
is a tremendous This is me saying this. They're not paying us to say
this. This is a tremendous fight on paper. Now, we saw a
little preamble to the Constitution at Super Bowl Radio Row. You saw this video
where they were both giving interviews hyping up the fact that it looks like it's
gonna happen right in the same city, Las Vegas. Not confirmed, but
likely, Yes, And then the entourages are around each other, and suddenly
Ryan and Devin Haney are around each other and there's pushing and shoving. Where
Hani shoved much like Lomachenko on the on the bus, it was really hold
on. It was actually Garcia that did the first of the shove. I
thought that the one. There were fifty seven different angles. There's a really
first class shove by Devin Haney. I saw that the kid was kind of
retaliation reminiscent here, but anyway, but go ahead. That was design.
That was so it was honestly, that was kind of cringey because it was
so unnecessary. It was so stupid. There wasn't even like a lot of
media there. It was what I mean, that's why I don't buy that
it was designed. There weren't TV cameras or just guys holding their phones that
put it up away from Radio Row been doing Radio Row the other day.
Was that if they had had some cameras around, was those the fight had
been signed and they wanted to do something. It's like the soft launch of
the promotion, right. They kind of missed the boat because if they had
done it a few days earlier, they could have really played it up on
the radio row stuff. Uh so, but the deal was done when they
went there. They did some of those interviews, each of them separately,
and then they were purposely they knew they were going to see each other.
They were brought together to do a photo op to get some pictures to disseminate
them, and some video and all that, and then of course what happened
happened to me. That doesn't change to me. The nonsensical shoving and and
bullshit to me does absolutely zero to either raise my level of interest or diminish
my level of interest, because it was what it was before that. I
don't you know, maybe I'm an old man yelling at a cloud, but
I've seen that shit too many times. It doesn't impact me one way or
the other. My interest in the fight is going to be what it's going
to be. And that was so contrived, I felt like, But again,
it's a it's a it's a big time matchup. It's you know,
it's well, while a lot of other guys out there, all they do
is go on social media and call out fights. At least when you look
at Devin Haney and you look at Ryan Garcia, they do the same thing
on social media. But then they actually signed contracts for fights, so they
do both of them. They get their people riled up and called this guy
out, call that guy out. But in the end of the day,
they actually signed contracts and both guys have to be commended because here you have
Garcia has the big, mega fight against Tank Davis, loses in a huge
fight, comes back, looks really solid and good and gets a knock it
against the warte and doesn't mess around. Goes right into the biggest fight possible
against Hane that could be made. He's taken a big gamble. He's gonna
be the underdog and for Haine, Jesus the guy goes raises his hand when
Loma pulls out against Cambos's. Not only does he go to Australia for Undisputed,
he goes there twice, wins handily both times on enemy turf, and
makes a lot of money. Fights the last fight of his contract to get
the Cambos's fight, he out a three fight deal with top rank in Debella
fights Lomachenko. Now, yeah, some people thought he didn't win the fight.
I thought it was a draw. But you know, you can certainly
argue Devin one. He put in a great, a good performance and that
a very excellent fight, gets that big win. And what does he do
after that? Signs for program? Consider the number one or number two guy
in the way class doesn't just beat him, puts a masterclass on wins twelve
to nothing, shut him out. And now looking around what I want to
do, He's not mate wasting his time. He goes right into the next
biggest possible fight. So he's gonna have cambosis twice. Lomachenko program and now
Garcia. I mean that's about fights in less than twenty four months. Yes,
staying active guys, and you help your own marketability, you help your
own dollars, you help your own legacy by doing that. And listen,
his team mainly his father Bill, who's as trainer also, so first and
foremost, he's obviously got him to the to the level where he is as
a champion. But in terms of doing the management, they've done a good
job because they've done these short deals, they've been able to kind of pick
and choose what they want to do. They did the three fights over the
you know, with the Cambosa situation, got the Loma fight, then they
did the deal with Eddie Hearn, who he's worked with before, and it
gets along with everybody does good business together. But he did not have a
long term contract from my understanding and determined and making the deal for the Ryan
Garcia fight. The only thing that that naturally had was they had the right
to match, and I guess whatever it was the offer of Mad to Devin,
he just couldn't do that. And so he'll be involved as like the
inassociation with and I'm sure we'll be there to speak on Devon's behalf and those
sorts of things, and obviously he'll make you know, a certain amount of
money that that Devin would owe him. But Golden Boy really made this fight
mostly with the father and but you know that's a good thing because I don't
know what Devn's deal is with Golden Boy going forward, but I am told
there is no rematch clause on either end. Neither guy is obligated to anything
that they'll you know, if there's gonna be a rematch, they'll be because
the people want it and it makes sense and it's you know, good faith
to negotiate it. But there's nothing automatic like there is in some of these
other cockamami deals that drive me crazy. So made the best man win.
But you know, we're we're getting another quality fight added when you added to
the schedule. When you examine that schedule, when you see, okay,
granted it was delayed with Theory and u Sick, we're gonna get better Beev
against Bevil. You know, Anthony Joshua and Agan who may not be everybody's
cup of team, but that's still a big fight, particularly after Niaganuo did
what he did with Theory. We got this fight, and we've got you
know, a number of good quality fights. You know, even even Limachenko
going to Aushelia. If I Cambosis, I know he's gonna be the big
favorite, but that's there's nothing wrong with That's an interesting fight also for a
lot of different reasons. You go on right down the divisions and fighting.
I would say that other I mean, you got the the undisputed is now
rescheduled for May with Fury and Usick. We got undisputed with better BV and
b Boll, so those should rank higher. I would put this one next
just from the interest standpoint and the fact that Hani was undisputed at one thirty
five now has a belt at one forty. The popularity of Ryan Garcia and
the intrigue. I know in England they're gonna put the Joshua in Ghanu fight
higher up probably than this fight in the UK. And he's a good fight
also, I mean yeah, because of the way the Naganu, I would
rank this third. I know Canelo's fighting in May, but if Canelo's fighting
Jamal Charlow, like we keep hearing, I don't care. I care abouposedly.
I care about this fight, supposedly, and I'll believe at all when
I see it that there's now been apparently some conversation about maybe Canelo versus Mangia.
We'll see what happens. But uh, okay, that's much. But
yeah, anytime, even if Canelo is fighting Charlotte, which I mean we've
discussed that already, neither one of us care for that matchup. But you
still have your number one star in the sport, at least in this side
of the world, getting back in the ring. But again, it depends
on the opponent. And you know, we're waiting on to see what Tank
Davis is going to do for his next fight. There's nothing squared away there
at least nothing that's been announced. We'll get to some stuff on that a
minute. There's there's that in spite of itself, good fights are being scheduled
and at the end of the day, that's all we really should care about.
I mean, yes, it's fun to talk about all the bullshit and
the back and forth and this and that, but the end, it's really
about what's the matchup and how pumped are you for it? And you know
what, Devin Hainey against Ryan Garcia. Is it the biggest fight of all
time? I'm sure isn't. But it's a very interesting matchup. And what
I like about it is that the very very popular figure in Garcia wants to
take on the toughest challenge. Look, this is a guy. Whatever happens,
Tank Davis and Devin Haney are two of the most formidable opponents you could
possibly pick, you know, either in the lightweight or the junior wealthy right
division. And he's doing him two out of three fights in the span of
a year, and in April to April asked, and we're not getting this
fight in June. We're getting this fight now in about sixty days, which
it didn't take fucking a year and a half to birth it. We like
it. They talked about it for a couple of weeks. We all got
hyped up. They made the fucking fight. Yeah, No, there's a
little intricacy that it took a while for us to get Fury and husick.
That's exactly what you're implying. Well, think about how long forget about that,
think about how long it took to make Garcia and Spence and Tank Davis
against Garcia. No, I mean forever? All right, speaking of Tank
Davis, we've references two or three times. This is on the rundown.
Do you want me to say it while we're talking about it before we start?
What are we doing? What I mean? Eddie Hearn says he's prepared
to make an eight figure offer to Jervonte Davis to fight Connor Benn. That's
great. He doesn't have anything to do with Javonte Davis. All right,
what are we doing Ben? He's kind of Ben's promoter. I understand that,
But when is the I'm asking I'm not just being sarcastic. When is
the last time that Eddie Hearn was in on any big deal with a PBC
fighter in a huge pay per view or a huge main event. I can't
think of one. So why are they going to do business with him?
I don't. I don't know, but all right, enlighten me. He
says he's making an eight figure offer. Okay, great, I'm not sitting
here endorsing it. I mean, we're covering this on What's happening in news,
so it is. It's happening, so we're talking about it. He
has said in his various interviews that he's gonna make that offer. They want
to have Connor Ben in a big fight. You know, if they can
get their license in the UK. Fine, if it means coming back and
fighting in America for a third consecutive fight, they'll do that. Also.
I guess, uh. I kind of found it more sizzle than steak.
I guess, and I don't. I'm not. I don't have anything in
any way to up out all sizzle. You're being kind. I find it
all sizzle. Keep going. I don't have any problem with Eddie Hearn making
that kind of offer and talking about that. He that's what promoters are supposed
to do, even if the fight does not come to fruition. You have
now linked in the minds of some fans your boxer Connor Ben to Jervontay Davis,
which is not a bad thing when Gervontay Davis is one of the biggest
names in the sport and has a tremendous amount of popularity and has done tremendous
business in his fights at the gate, on pay per view, et cetera.
You know, do I first of all, let's cut to the chase.
Do I think the fight's happening? Probably not. Am I interested in
the fight? Not really? I mean to deserve that right, I agree
with what would the hypothetical weight be? Because Ben's been fighting around junior middleway?
What would the what would the hypothetical weight be? I mean it would
it would be welterweight, It'd be one forty seven. But again, I
don't think it's going to happen. And the other thing I would say,
is this eight figure offer to me or you or ninety nine percent of the
world. That's like a shitload of money. Obviously, if you're Tank Davis,
you just made like forty mili against Ryan Garcia. So and apparently the
offer he's thinking about making is something in the order of like ten to fifteen
million dollars and that's very big money, of course, but Tank Davis is
in a position where he doesn't need to take fifteen million because he can make
at least that or around there or more perhaps fighting other fighters that his team
would control on his promotion. So it's again we're doing kind of Probably what
Eddie would like people to do is to talk about it. You know,
Connor benn went to see if you can get his license in the UK.
They've got the hearing that's supposed to be taking place later in the month.
We'll see how that goes. But Connor Bennet is a popular figure in the
UK to some degree. He would sell out pretty much probably wherever they put
him. But Tank Davis, whoever he's fighting here in the United States,
can do a big crowd. You know. I've made the point that if
you can fight Hector Luis Garcia, a very unknown and not popular title holder
from a smaller weight division who didn't really bring anything to the table in terms
of the promotion or financially, and you put him in the Capital One Arena
in Washington, d C. Granted only about an hour from tanks hometown in
Baltimore, and you can set the all time record for an arena that's about
twenty years old and do the biggest gate they've ever done for any event in
the history of that you were the boxing matches concerts. I believe it broke
a Rolling Stones record or something like some big rock concrat act. They did
a gate over five million dollars. My point here is this, he doesn't
need connor Ben right at all. I mean, if anyone had to offer
him like some crazy money, that's a different story. But you know,
ten million dollars or whatever ain't getting that done. They're they're trolling for a
fight for Connor Ben. They want to get him a big fight. I'm
not sure why he deserves that. He still doesn't have his ped situation squared
away. You know, Ottam wish bad on the guy, but I'd like
to see him get a shit together in terms of being able at least fight
in your own country before you start thinking about some big, mega fight.
And let's also keep in mind another thing. In his two fights since the
seventeen month layoff that came after the positive drug test when he failed and the
fight would with him and you Bank was canceled, He's fought two times in
the United States, a ten rounder where he looked extraordinarily pedestrian against an unknown,
obscure, you know, nobody Mexican opponent. And then he came back
and he had a twelve rounder that took place just last week against Peter Dobson,
an undefeated fighter that had zero accomplishment against any level of opposition, who
had already been a professional for ten years, who had only had previously one
ten round fight. All the rest of US fights where eight rounds or less,
and he couldn't put a dent in him either in a win, but
by no means impressive. Why in the world would anybody care to see you
fight Tank Davis or any other big superstar name unless you're fighting you Bank.
I get that because of the history there, or even another brit like that
would be William Smith or an unretiring Kelbrook, which I don't have an interest
in that either, to be honest, but you know the Brits would probably
find interest in that. So that's been in the news with Matt Troom and
Eddie talking about making that offer. But you know, I believe that one
I see it not to offer the fight. Yeah again, if there was
a Hall of Fame category on talking of fights that are fighters that you don't
control and don't have any say so over Eddie Hern would be in the running
for a Hall of Fame ballot. He listening does a great job with that.
I understand, but I tremendous you know this. I got long arms.
You met me. I got a list as long as my as long
as my arm about fights he loves to talk about making with fighters he doesn't
promote. So this is the same thing again, and we've now gone for
five minutes about a fighter he doesn't Just because you don't promote a guy doesn't
mean you can't make the attempt to work with their team. But again,
the list is as long as my arm of it never happens, and so
we're just sitting and talking. Timeout. Timeout. It may not have happened
where Mattrium has been able to make and I'm going to defend Eddie a little
bit here. It may have turned out where there's not been any kind of
crossover between Mattroom and PBC fights at any time in the past, but there
have been collaborations either with a Mattrium guy going on a top rank Carter Vice
versa. There's been collaborate rations with Golden Boy where they've gone back and forth.
So he has definitely made fights with other promoters likewise, those promoters with
him. It's not common. I mean, just as one off example off
the top of my head, I covered this fight in Texas which Junior Well
to wait unification fight. He promoted Murice Hooker. Top Rank promoted Jose Ramirez.
They were able to make a deal. Jose Ramirez went from Top Rank
to go on his own to fight that unification fight, and there was no
futures. Winner just takes his business and goes back. It turned out that
Jose Ramrez won the fight and he went back to ESPN and Murray's Hooker,
you know, was no longer the title holder. And that was a fight
that was done, you know, without a lot of drama between Top Rank
and mat Troom. And there's also been times where they've done it the other
way around, So it does happen. That was a high snakes fight on
a lower scale, though not on a mega mega pay per view, maybe
not mega, but you know what they paid Jose Ramirez, the deal that
they got, you know, the the package if you will, was somewhere
like four to five million dollars to left. Jose Ramirez come fight on his
own. Now, granted that was at a time when the the spigots run
and Dezono spend them like drunken sailors. But even still, I'm only making
the point that PBC, aside and the PBC, you know, has not
done a tremendous amount of business with third part. You know, with other
promoters anyway. Right, but Mattroom, top Rank, Golden Boy, Frank
Warren, you know, others, they'll for the right situation, they definitely
will do some business with the other guys. All right, nostalgia time,
and then we are done. It is the thirty fourth anniversary. Now,
this is interesting. In the back and forth. It was Sunday afternoon,
February the eleventh in Japan. It was Saturday night, February tenth in the
United States. So you have February eleventh on the rundown. The upset of
upsets. It is regarded, and it is. It's the greatest upset in
the history of boxing, modern old school whatever you want to say, Buster
Douglas out of nowhere putting it on Mike Tyson. You and I, in
full disclosure, have done this a couple of times we have gone over this.
You wrote extensively on your SUBSTACKT and I love it. The people I'll
push them to it. Go read where you're once again relaying that you didn't
see the fight live for the reasons they gave. How am I doing on
my teas for the reasons you gave you didn't see the fight live? And
then how you saw the fight. It's humorous. The week later when they
had the replay on HBO is also humorous. Go read it for that.
Also, you have great nostalgia, the Rayfield collection, Bravo, on programs,
posters, autograph cards, You have a ton around this event. So
I'm going to come out of a different way for just a second. When
you reflect now on this thirty four years later, why do you think it
is that we're still so interested in this? Just the magnitude of the upset,
the fact that it was in a foreign country in Japan, the fact
that Donald Trump would later become the President of the United States. He was
bankrolling this with Donka. I mean, there's so many different aspects of this
that are almost not real life, and all of it was real life.
So I wonder what do you reflect on that says to you, this is
why we're still talking about it almost thirty five years later. Well, there's
nothing to do with Trump, who didn't bankroll this fight. He bank wrote
a lot of other fights that Tyson was in that took place in Atlantic City.
This was a Japanese situation. He put it up. He put up
significant money to help the fight get made for the purses, because he also
had the DIBs on the rematch that was supposed to start back in Atlantic City.
Right, Yeah, Because Tyson was an indestructible fighter. He was as
close as there was to just and I can't emphasize this enough. If you
were not around watching baking at this time, the notion that Tyson would lose
to Bushard Douglas never even entered the thought process of anybody. That's right.
This was such a perfunctory type of fight. This was on the way to
fighting Evander Holyfield. This was like I went to Japan in a previous fight
and I demolished Tony Tubbs in like a couple of rounds, who was a
good fighter in his day. But Tyson just destroyed it him. He'd been
knocking everybody out. He's now making his tenth defense buster. Douglas's reputation is
as just that one a quitter, frankly to be. To be honest,
he had he had quit against Tony Tucker. There was no conceivable way that
this dude was gonna dethrone Iron. Mike Tyson the most scary fighter that people
had seen in their lifetimes for a lot of people. I know. I'm
I'm a college student at this time. I'd watched Tyson come up as a
high school student. I knew about him probably before, not not just me,
but many of the people where I lived. We knew about Mike way
before the national public did, because he was fighting in the area where I
grew up. I'm from upstate New York. I lived. You know,
he fought a lot of fights in Troy and Schenectady and Glenn Spalls and Albany
and and and you know cat Skills places like that. You know where he
was where Catscory was growing up. Those are all in our area. It's
all like it was covered by the local media, in the newspapers and on
the local televi And so Tyson was already like a household name for us.
And he was the biggest thing in the world. It's like Larry Merchant said
on the broadcast, something to the effect of the fans came to see Godzilla
stomp out Buster Douglas and the wrong guy was Godzilla. That that's right,
Buster Douglas was putting him on and putting it on him. Now he had
his own story that was very uh, you know, became very well known
afterwards. He had the the death of his mother, the medical issues that
were affecting the mother of his child. He had a lot of shit going
on in his mind. And you know, sometimes when you're in that position,
you need to let that eat you up in it and it kills your
performance and that you're sidetracked and you're you're not focused, or you can use
those difficulties to harness that and to be totally focused at the task of ay.
And he did that. And by the way, the other reason why
it's a big deal too, not only did he score the humongous upset,
it's a truly great fight to fight itself. Forget about the upset element of
it. If you're just like a great heavyweight fight. It was a tremendous
battle. I mean, for example, at the end of twenty eighteen,
when HBO ended its boxing coverage after forty five years, I did a piece
for ESPN where I ranked the because it was forty five years of HBO coverage,
and I did similar thing with Showtime after thirty seven years. I ranked
the top forty five HBO fights in terms of and it's not like one size
fits all. It was the magnitude of the event to fight itself. It
was a lot of different criteria, but in the end of the nearly eleven
hundred or twelve hundred boxing matches that appeared on HBO in their forty five years
of covering the sport, I picked as the number one fight buster Douglas's upset
of Mike Tyson because of the magnitude of the historical nature of what occurred,
the action that was there, the fact that it still resonates, you know
thirty thirty well at that time, you know almost thirty years later. I
mean, it's the kind of fight where if you pick some great historical thing
that happened, whether it's a sporting event or anything else, if you were
around at that time, you remember where you were and what you were doing
when you found out the results. If you were not watching the fight.
It's sort of like if you ask certain generation, they know where they were
when the Space Shuttle exploded. They know where they were when they heard the
president John Kennedy had been assassinated. Just things that were just earth shaking historical
news events. And don't get here wrong. I'm not trying to put a
boxing match right right and the same category, but keep it to sports.
When the US hockey team, because we're older, when the US hockey team
won the gold medal, you remember where you were living, what you were
doing, not the gold medal. It wasn't the gold medal, teaj.
It was the semi from I'm talking about when they won against the Russians and
then they won the gold medal. You remember where you were living, You
remember, you know who you were around when those when those two or three
days were happening, you can remember it like it was yesterday. And it's
the same thing with this. Now. I will share what I've shared before,
and I'll just do it briefly. I'm in Memphis, Tennessee. I'm
a college student like you are, and where I was living, I was
living with my grandmother, my father's mother. She did not have HBO and
we need to relate again to the people like you did in your sub stack.
You have to understand this was not available anywhere other than HBO. The
Internet peeps didn't exist. You couldn't find it on a wild stream like you
find fights now if you didn't have HBO. Oh, I got to interject.
Sure, the only stream that existed was the kind that was like in
the woods, like the water the river when you have to go to the
bathroom in the woods. In any event, I didn't know where you were
going there. But in any in any event, if you didn't have HBO,
you couldn't see it. So my one of my good friends in college
still is one of my good friends of this day. He and I joke
around this anniversary every time. He is working at the ABC affiliate television station
in Memphis, Tennessee, and I call him that evening and I said,
Hey, I can't see the Tyson fight, but I want to see the
Tyson fight. Tape the Tyson fight. Why do I want to tape the
Tyson fight. I've told you this before, I said, tape the Tyson
fight. So he sets the recorder on the VCR and goes to work at
the TV station to work the local newscast. I am watching that local newscast
because again, think about this, folks, there's no Internet. You can't
get everything instantaneously on your phone, and on that local newscast, not the
cell phones. Didn't even know some cell phones did not exist. That's right,
car phone. Yes, usually it had the big bag with the battery
that was the size of like the luggage you take on an airplane. Now
that's the only phone you had outside of a house phone. But in any
event, I'm watching the newscast that he's helping work on, and they not
the sports. They come on in the middle of the newscast before the sports,
and the sportscaster says, we have breaking news from Tokyo, Japan.
And I know they can't see us, but I'm holding my hand up.
He is holding up the wire copy on the air. He goes, Mike
Tyson has just been knocked out in Tokyo, Japan in a heavyweight title fight.
We'll have more details in a few minutes on the sportscast. And I'm
going, what, wait a minute, I'm watching this live like everybody else,
going what I don't have HBO. So the end result is that if
you did not see it or tape it that night, as you related in
the substag, you had to wait a week but hold on to show it
again on the replay on HBO. Now, this is what's in what people
also don't understand. Even before the internet became the thing, it did become
a position on HBO's programming schedule where they always replayed the boxing events. They
had multiple channels on cable, HBO two, HBO, this HBO that even
the regular HBO main channel. Back at the time that busterer Douglas knocked out
Mike Tyson, they never show replays the fight's exactly if you missed the fight
live or you didn't VCR tape it. There was no DVRs. You just
didn't see the fight. So I remember having missed the fight, and you
can read the details in it. But I'll just say this part about it
is I happened. I was. I was an avid reader of USA Today
in those days it was the still was a great paper for sports back then.
I remember reading, So the fight occurs, Tyson loses by massive gargantua
upset, and you have to understand also, this is front page news everywhere
in the world. This is not the part of this is the lead off
of the newscast. It was, and then the controversy with the supposed long
count. It stayed for days and days that you couldn't get enough of this.
It was on every newscast, every show, every magazine, every paper
that there was all around the world. You know, two weeks in a
row, it was on the front cover of Sports Illustrated to win that matter,
the loss of Tyson with him looking for his mouthpiece. And then a
week later or two weeks later or whatever, you know, Rocky lives with
he lives with Douglas on the front of it. Right. So, in
terms of the replay, I read like in the Monday USA Today or maybe
the Tuesday USA Today, following this Saturday night fight in Rudy Martski's very famous
TV column, there was a little section that HBO because it was such a
monumental situation, they were going to replay the fight and they were going to
hope to have interviews with Tyson and Buster Douglas, you know, and do
like a studio wrap around the fight. So here I am like a sophomore
in college. We don't have HBO in our dorms. In our rooms,
we got four channels. In the student lounge, we got cable, but
no one's buying cable, buying HBO for the dorm. So I'd got in
my car and drove home for three hours to my mom's house where we had
HBO to watch the replay and actually and brought some laundry. Here you did
the laundry. You said that in the substite. Here's what we need to
share. Though. They built that up so amazingly for the for the fact
that they were going to replay this to get people to subscribe as part of
their business to watch it. And then they had Mike Tyson and Buster Douglass
sitting there in the studio where they had taped that with Larry Merchant, and
you're gonna talk more about Arry Merchant in just a second. So that was
the replay. But just to go back one step, I now go to
the friend's house and we watched the VHS of that upset, knowing the outcome,
and it was just incredible. It's incredible to watch the ten round fight,
the fact that Douglas gets knocked down and at the time he gets knocked
down you're thinking, Okay, you know when you're watching this, this Thish
was his opportunity. This is where Tyson, even with the swollen eye almost
shut, is still gonna win the fight here and it doesn't happen. So
it's incredible. And then that VHS tape Rayfield got passed all around the people
in the media in Memphis friends of mine. I don't know how I got
it back, but it got watched like ten times within two days because he
had a tape of that fight. When I went home to watch the fight
at my mother's house, because I didn't see it live. Because then the
story is, I was sick that night and I fell asleep and didn't believe
my roommate. When I woke up, he told me Tyson I knocked out.
I thought he was full of shit. And again I couldn't just turn
on the TV to see what happened because there was no ESPN in my dorm
room. There was no CNN of my dorm room. There was no cable
nothing, no no smartphone. And I'm like laid out with one hundred and
two fever. I like literally said, I badgered my roommate so much I
made him go I said, you got to prove this to me. I
thought he was completely full of it. He went to the student union on
our campus and he bought the daily paper, which had it on the front
cover or on the sports section front cover, a paper that I later worked
for, you know, when I graduated from college. But he talked about
going home. I went home to watch the replay I put have. I
made a VHS recording of the replay and brought it back to me, brought
it back with me to college because we had a VCR in our dorm room,
and and again we watched that over again, over and over again.
We had a lot of guys that call. I wentn't loan it out because
I was too possessive of it. But people came to the room. They
had like appointments, like the guys on my floor, and we had people
come in like we had a showing at seven pm. Then I come on
in. No shit, I mean, we had the thing running almost like
on a loop for like a fucking week. I mean it was hilarious.
Uh, and it was. It was absolutely massive and anybody. I had
somebody on Twitter when I when I posted some stuff about the fight that I
said it's the biggest upset in boxing history. Blah blah blah. Somebody had
I don't know if they were fucking me or they were just like they actually
think they're smart. Uh Ay Ruiz against against Anthony josh was a bigger I'm
gonna get the fuck out of here, not even close close. I even
wrote, I even wrote the words about the upset. It is a tremendous
upset. But Anthony Joshua will will never ever be confused with Mike Tyson.
And you just don't understand how indestructible Tyson looked when this happened. All right,
So two or three other interesting aspects. This is fascinating for the peeps.
Go down the rabbit hole if you want, put this in YouTube,
put ESPN SportsCenter, Tyson Douglass, and go back and relive the people that
have put it on YouTube. A couple people put it there where they're just
rolling on the aftermath of ESPN covering this in the middle of the night Saturday
night, February tenth, C and N two Saturday night February tenth into Sunday
morning, because it became a wild story overnight that Don King was trying to
get the situation overturned on a long count, and the WBC and Jose Suleiman
were going along with it, and eventually the WBA was going along with it
in the middle of the night that we're gonna talk about this, We're gonna
maybe review it, We're maybe gonna vacate the win. So now by the
time you got to Sunday midday, a bigger part of the story was they're
filing a protest, They're trying to invalidate the victory. All I'm saying is
we don't you and I don't have to rehash that over and over again.
Just go back and rewatch all the immoral it's amazing, which was completely nonsense.
The first knockedout totally obliterates the second knockout, which was not true.
And what's also fascinating in the nostalgia is Octavio Meron and that's the referee.
He's the referee in the Nomas Sugar Ray Leonard Roberto Durand fight. He's the
referee in this fight in Japan. It's further fascinating that Meran Tyson, Douglas,
Don King, Donald Trump, and even Larry Merchant Happy Birthday, Larry
Merchant this weekend. They're all still alive. They're all still alive and around
thirty four years later. It's incredible. And I know you spoke with Larry
Merchant here this weekend as well for his birthday and about out what I mean,
what I mean very Larry Merchant's birthday is February eleventh. He turned ninety
three, my dear friend, and he has told me the story in the
past, and we've talked, you know, many times over the years that
he had his birthday. He turned fifty nine years old on the day that
he called the Tyson Douglas Fight, and he talked about how in the morning
he had gone down to the fish market and he talks about that on the
broadcast and what he saw. So I always know that when it's Tyson Douglas
anniversary day, that it's also Larry Merchant's birthday. So on Sunday, before
we taped the show a couple hours ago, I called Larry on his birthday
to wish mappy birthday and say Elosi I he was doing. He was getting
ready to have a small little birthday gathering with some of with his wife and
his son in law and his daughter and grandkids. The whole thing and enjoy
a little bit of you know, of a little family time and celebrates a
big birthday ninety three. But he has vivid memories about that fight. I
mean, obviously it is I mean tremendous. He also, by the way,
I will say this on an unrelated matter. You know, we did
talk a little bit, a little bit about the other fights that been going
on besides the birthday wishes and how he's been doing. He did make mention
to me that, you know, Larry definitely still keeps up with the fights,
watching all the stuff he can watch his own ESPN whatever. He made
a specific mention that he had watched the fight from a few weeks ago with
Cha Course Stevenson against Edwin de los Santos. He also had, as he
said, the misfortune of watching the T the Lopez Jamaine Ortiz fight, And
as he said, you know that he's watched a lot of fights in his
life. By the way, and by the way, those were two of
the worst fights I've ever seen. He was really really disappointed in those fights
because he likes Sha Koran and the T THEMO and they just did not perform.
And by the way, you did interview Jim Lampley last fall, and
I still remember this. Go back and search our podcast feed and you can
hear Dan with Jim Lampley. Put Jim Lampley's name in on the podcast feed.
Apple Podcasts spreakers spotify that conversation. I'll just say this, he had
a great remembrance with you of throughout the upset going on, he kept reminding
himself what one of his mentors in the business said, which is, don't
overstate. Don't overstate. And his knockout call for all time is not yelling
and screaming. It is just simply Mike Tyson has been knocked out, and
it stands the test of time. Right before that, in that moment,
you know, oh what an uppercut, down goes Tyson. But the thing
also about that, about the about the way that that unfolded in the story
that I wrote, I have I've interviewed people over the years about this fight
for different things. I've written pieces for ESPN and have interviewed Tyson about it.
And so I've got some quotes in there from Mike about his thoughts on
the match and he's rewatching and why there was never a rematch spoke to people
like the great boxing writer now a Hall of Famer, Ron Borgis, who
I've covered zillions of fights with that ringside, who is one of the handful
of American media that actually made the trip from the United States to Japan to
fight to cover the fight, Rick Bernstein, who is the longtime executive producer
for HBO Sports, who on that night was the assistant director in the production
truck. So in that piece has memories of from those two guys about what
it was like to be there for the fight, and the stuff from Tyson
who he told me it's it is one of those fights that they've made documentaries
about and they'll talk about forever, like we're doing here even though it's not
like the its just the anniversary, but it's You cannot again, it cannot
overestimate under whatever it is, cannot overstate how big of a deal this was.
This was not just a normal sports story. This is a worldwide Internatolois,
this was the biggest story in sports for days, bigger than anything else
Inja. Was the biggest story in the world. It didn't matter that it
was sports for a couple of days, this was the biggest story on the
planet. That big a deal, and I don't want to accept that it
was thirty four years ago, but it was again Buster Douglas still living.
They never fought again. Douglas lost the title immediately to Evander Holyfield. Mike
Tyson went to prison two years to the day, almost to the hour.
He got convicted of rape in Indiana two years later in nineteen ninety two,
and the world was different forever in his world and in Buster Douglas's world,
they were never going to fight again, all right, So great nostalgia on
that. One more piece of nostalgia, and we are done on this episode,
and it has to do with Oscar de la Hoya. You did make
mention of this fight with i Quarte twenty five years ago now February thirteenth,
coming on Tuesday, nineteen ninety nine, as he retained his welterweight championship again.
You went down the long list for Oscar de la Hoya's birthday of tremendous
fights, tremendous fighters, and this was a wild fight where Dale Hooya had
to rally late in it. So more nostalgia, please on the twenty fifth
anniversary of that one real quick, Well, I'm struggling with the fact that
it's twenty five years. That's like a you know, that's a pretty milestone
kind of number. That makes me feel awfully old. But when Oscar del
Hoya got to welterweight, they turned him loose. I mean they protect I
mean everybody. You know, the people that were matching his career, they'll
be the first to admit there were some protection going on. You know,
when he was a junior lightweight, a lightweight, even junior welterweight, you
know, he didn't fight like the best guys necessarily at that moment. He
thought a lot of good fighters. I'm not taking anything away from him.
But when he got to welter and he defeated Prenol Whittaker, a'llbeit a close
call. At that point, they figured, you know, he's at a
stage of the game where, in terms of the combination of his marketability as
well as his ability in the ring, we don't have to worry about anything.
We can match him with whoever. And ike Quarte was a tough sob.
I mean, this guy could fight with anybody. He had a monstrous
jab, I mean, one of the heaviest jabs in the business. They
called him Bazouka Quarte because the jab was so devastating. It was really a
power punch. So you know, Oscar had made several defenses after the Whitaker
fight. He had beaten guys like Camacho and Camal be solid guys, Wlfredo
Rivera in a good, solid fight, had the ship mandatory against Patrick Sharpentier.
We destroyed. Thought the rematch against Chavez made him quit in that fight.
Oscar's on top of the world. He's like the number one attraction.
A lot of people had him pound for pound. Don't forget how underrated or
how great Oscar was at that time, and he kind of is underrated this
stage of the game, and they were looking for another big fight for him
at the time, like Quarte was the WBA welterweight champion, he had been
brought along by HBO. He was being co promoted by Main Events, who
had taken him on from the French promoters the Aacare's Brothers, where he had
made some noise in France, even though he's from Africa, but he had
been fighting out of France. He was on HBO a few times. He
was clearly being built up to be a potential opponent you know, whoever was
going to emerge, whether it was De la Hoya, if Trinidad would come
to HBO, it was on showtime at the time, it would be against
Oscar, and they made the fight. Now, Quarte ended up vacating the
title because they just there was lots of politics thing. So by all rights,
Quarte versus Oscar should have been a unification fight. This is February of
nineteen ninety nine at the Thomas and Maxenter in Las Vegas, and it was
a big time pay per view fight, and there was genuine concern that Oscar
was taken on way too much at this stage, that he was in over
his head, that this was not a good match room, that he was
finally going to be he found out and those who were you know, calling
him a fake and a pretender and you know, cherry picking his opponents and
blah blah blah. They were supposed to get their come up and and and
uh, you know, and uh and Ike was gonna win this fight.
Well that's why they fight the fights. First of all, it was a
heck of a fight. Maybe not the classic all time fight of the year,
but it was a really you know, dramatic kind of fight at times.
Oscar got knocked down in round six. Yes, Orta got knocked down
in round six. H the fight was that kind of fight, and well,
I thought Oscar, you know, had the fight in hand and was
going to win. You know, you're not quite sure because it's close.
You know, it's it's a close fight. And if you had any doubt
about who the winner was, I think Oscar clearly put that to bed in
round twelve because he knocked Quarte down again and he had the classic moment where
you know, you can listen to the great call. We talked about Jim
Lanthley's great calls before. This was another one where he's got Quarte on the
ropes. Mitch Halpern, the late Great Mitch Halpern, was the referee that
night. Was like literally maybe a split second away from stopping the fight,
and Lampley's going crazy. It's like Leonard Hearns all over again. If you
remember from their first fight, Tom, He's laying on the ropes in the
fourteenth round and Ray is teen off on him. This was the same thing
where Oscar has got him laying on the ropes in a round twelve, he's
teen off on him, he's maybe one shot away. Ref let it go,
and I thought he made the right decision, and Oscar was not able
to put him out obviously, you know, he had punched himself out a
little bit and the rest of the round maybe I forget how much time was
up. There might have been a minute left to go or so in the
fight. But Oscar, you know, after exchanging knockdowns and showing the greatest
grit and toughness he had shown yet in a professional fight against his most dangerous,
strongest, physically stronger opponent, a champion in his own right, even
though he'd been stripped who was undefeated, he showed the medal in round twelve.
You know, we all we all remember that Oscar kind of let it
go when he didn't fight their twelfth round against Felix Trinidad, that's right,
and really went on his bike. Now eleventh or the twelfth round he cost
himself, yeah, one hundred percent, But in this fight it was the
opposite. He bit down and he went after it in in this particular matchup,
and it was, uh, you know, made for a classic ending
for that battle. And you know, this was Oscar when he was in
his peak, because he's fighting all the top guys. You know, he's
he's now on top in terms, like I said, commercially, he's on
top. You know, he's undefeated at this time and he's fighting all the
top guys. I mean when you take a look and people always want to
say, well, you know Oscar he lost his biggest fights. Well,
no, he lost some big fights. Yeah, we lost to Floyd and
he got beat up by Packet on his last he got stopped by Hopkins at
middleweight and all that. But you can't take away the fact that he beat
guys like Coaronel Whittaker. Yeah, it was close, but he beat him
twice, beat Quarte and in a classic kind of confrontation. Look, I
courtey was pretty four oho to one at that time and was destroying guys.
Uh So, yeah, Oscar's got some rough losses, but he also beat
him and he beat Fernando Vargas. But the Court fight in my mind anyway,
maybe others might disagree. He has big wins against Chavez and obviously beat
Whittaker, but that was kind of like a dance as a post war real
fight. The fight with Porte Oscar for the first time, I feel like
in his career, even though he had scored some quality wins, particularly at
lightweight, but in terms of moving up and fighting a very formidable, bona
fide killer who really had a great chance to win the fight, that was
a dangerous, dangerous fight. This was like when Pnelo decided he would say
fine and he fought guys like that. His team didn't really wanted to fight
the Austin Trouts and the Laras and people like that. This was Oscar who
his mentality was the following they would meet with the polks at top rank who
was this promoter, and they'd sit around the table and they would talk about
what his next fight was going to be. And Oscar was like a businessman
from that standpoint. He's like, which fight's gonna pay me the most money?
Right? And they said at this point Forte might be the guy.
He's like, let's do the fight. There was no cherry picking, there
was no bullshit. There was like, this's a big fight, let's do
it. And Oscar fought him and he showed great toughness and he had a
great victory that night. And it was twenty five years ago. Big thank
you, and as you shared and as we talked about fifty one years old.
Just had his fifty first birthday, So happy birthday Oscar this month and
what a great anniversary. On that listen. We've given you a lot here
on this podcast in the recap mode, as well as some news and as
well as some nostalgia. We're gonna circle back later this week to a shaky
Foster defending his title with one of your guys, Abraham super Nova. That'll
be on the preview pod later in the week. For now, though,
I think we've got it all covered again. They need to read you on
your substack for everything that's going on social media as well, and stay engaged
with this podcast for you for all of it anything else here mister Ray and
they were good. I'm I'm good. I'm all talked out today, I
know, but we had a ton there and again there's so much. Go
read dan substack for everything about the Tyson Douglas and the memorabilia, and go
check it out on YouTube as well. As I joked with you, CNN
are standing there talking to Buster Douglas in the tunnel after everybody's out of the
ring and after HBO is off the air, and suddenly Joe thisman, the
legendary Washington Redskins quarterback, is standing there in one of the post fight interviews
on ESPN Live to Tape. It's just tremendous down the rabbit hole. They're
standing there talking to Evander Holyfield, who just lost arguably a ten million dollar
pay day, and he has a look like somebody just stole Christmas morning right
out from under me. It is great to go in the nostalgia and go
look at that. We cannot talk about it enough, can't cover it all
here, but go watch it on YouTube. It's amazing to go relift that.
Dan Rayfield, have a great week. Thank you for the time here.
My friend, Hi, my man, I'll talk to you. Have
a good week. There is the one and only follow his Fight Preach Unite.
Substack, follow this podcast, subscribe, Apple, Google, Spotify,
etc. He is the Fight Preach Unit recap. Everybody have it. Eight week