Well off a weekend that has seen Joe Cordina retain his title, but has
seen a new WBC Cruiserweight champion via a knockout. It's seen fa A Jagba
get a knockout as a tries to ascend into heavyweight contention. We're here to
recap all of it on the Fight Freach Unite Recap podcast. I am the
somewhat competent host TJ Reeves. He's our insider. Fight Freach Unite is his
substack Big Fight Weekend dot Com as well. Hello Dan Rayfield, as I
am fresh, and I do mean fresh, you know what, I don't
know the freshness the right word. I'm immediately off of an airplane having been
in the home of George Foreman. We're going to talk about Big George later
on in the program Houston, Texas, where I don't want to talk about
it. Can I just say I don't want to talk about it? The
uh make deal? Make you a deal? Yeah, we don't have to
talk about the you know who's, And we don't have to talk about the
New York you know who's. Yeah, the the football not great on Sunday.
So anyway, I've been on a plane I've gotten back here. We're
here for you, peeps. All I'm saying to you is we're here for
you to give you the recap podcast off the weekend to talk the fights,
the fistic art, the sweet science. We are ready to do that.
Thank you for finding us, however you've done so off of Dan Substack his
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you're following or subscribing. We go into the weekend previewing. We come off
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Podcast, Spreaker, Spotify, wherever you can rate us some review us that
will help as well. Let's get into the recap mode and a nice call
by you. Joe Cordina does retain his IBF Junior lightweight title by decision.
We had a booming knockout of the champion in the co feature. So let's
talk to Dezonne. Matchroom show from Monte Carlos. Shall we your thoughts in
the recap mode please? Well it was number one. It was a pretty
good show. Two main fights were you know, I didn't really have much
of a use for the two other undercard fights. But in terms of the
world title fights, starting with Cordina, I mean Edward Vasquez, who was
the opponent, came in as the hand pick guy. No real resume to
speak of the one claim to fame if you want to talk about it,
claim to fame, as he had a somewhat disputed loss, split decision to
no I. It was a draw, I guess against ray Ford, who
was an ascending featherweight and he's going to fight for the vacant one of the
vacant titles coming up, and that was the only thing that he'd ever really
done. But he showed himself of taking on Cordina traveling, you know,
coming off of that situation. No on, he hasn't coming off that.
He'd won, you know, three fights in a row since he had the
loss, I should say, the very close split decision, ten round loss
to ray Ford. This is in twenty twenty two, and since then,
you know, he's been somewhat active. He's he had had won four fights
in a row and he got the call for the title fight. He's a
huge underdog. Cordina is in an optional title defense. He's coming off of
a very harsh, brutal, grueling, rugged fight against rock him off earlier
in the year. No one was looking to do any damage in they were
putting on this nice little show in Monaco, you know, put this on
in front of like five hundred high rollers. And he got the fight he
did not expect. I don't believe, and even Joe admitted afterwards it was
not his best night, but uh, he did get the win. It
was close, maybe a little too wide on the car for some to to
the to their liking. So in the end he wins one sixteen, one
twelve on two cards, one fourteen to one fourteen on the third card.
I had it one fifteen to one thirteen in his favor. And I've been
reading and seeing all this lunacy on social media that one sixteen, one twelve
is somehow scandalous and it's just not the case. I mean, there are
certain fights where that could be the case. Now he won, I felt
like legitimately. But if you tell me you have it six rounds to six,
and there was no point the duckster are knockdown, So that's just plain
old six to six in rounds. I can live with that eight to four
if you're okay with seven to five. And this was not the kind of
fight where it was definitely seven to five. This was like there was like
at least if you were keeping it on paper and you were making notations about
the rounds, there was at least, especially in the early part of the
fight, there were at least three or four rounds that were like real close
rounds. So you know, two of the judges had eight four. I
mean, I don't love it, but I can't quarrel whether he won the
fight. Interesting that the judge that scored it a draw scored the last four
rounds for Vasquez. I did note that, and I was putting our writer
that was running the recap, Ricky Carroll, onto that fact as well.
His colleagues gave at least two of the rounds to Cordina out of the final
four. One of them gave him three of the final four rounds ended up
with the drown. So again I must confess I've seen the highlights, I've
read the recaps. Interesting again, I love making reference to our people.
David Payne, who I lean on as a historian. He's in and around
the UK. He said Cordeina tactically, he thought fought the wrong fight.
That's just his quick, one sentence take. What is your take on why
this was not maybe more impressive than it should have been. What would you
say? I'm not sure what David means by fought the wrong fight. I
mean, Cordina clearly was not at his absolute best. Maybe that fight against
Rockmuff took a little something out of him. Maybe Vasquez is better than we
all had expected. And as I have said a thousand times, whether we're
talking about Edward Vasquez or any other fighter, you can take a look at
the record and you can measure the number of knockouts, you can see the
kind of punching power they have, you can see the speed that they have,
but you cannot measure what somebody has in terms of their will and desire.
And Edward Vasquez was there to try to win this fight. He was
not coming to lay down. He was a huge underdog and everybody knew it
except for him apparently, and he did a good job. And you know,
his his beef afterwards is he's got two losses in his career. He's
got a split decision to Ray fo It on the Matchroom card, and now
he's got a majority decision lost in a world toit of fight in a Mattroom
card. Now I'm not in any way saying Mattroom did anything wrong here,
just he's annoyed because of that situation. There was all neutral judges. There
was no British judge, there was no American judge. Uh was an American
referee did a fine job, no issues there. You know, it was
one of those fights. It was listen to the main thing. And I
say this every week if you if you took the time to watch them the
fight, it was a good, entertaining fight. At the very least.
Vasquez may not have gotten the victory, but he certainly raised his stock because
before this fight pretty much nobody ever really had heard of him, and now
he goes basically straight up with the world champion. Uh. And what I
thought was kind of interesting. You know, most of the time you see
these fights take place, and you know, they have a hard fought fight,
and maybe they talked a little shit leading up to the fight, and
when it's all said and done, like you know, they hug it out.
It's all good. There's a lot of respect even if they're not on
you know, you know, if the loser is unhappy with the decision.
Not the case between Joe Cordina and Edward Vaskis. They were shit talking to
each other in the ring after the fight, in the interview, you know,
calling each other, not names necessarily, but just going back and forth,
like having their point of view. And I thought Pardina was kind of
funny. At one point he says, I won the fight he started.
You know, he's holding the belt, like, hey, look what I've
got. They gave me the belt, so you know I won. Basically,
you know, called him sword loser, called him a cry baby,
called him a bitch. I mean, I didn't love the sportsmanship after the
fight, but you know what, you go twelve hard rounds like that,
and uh and there's a lot of people that are split on how how that
fight should have been scored. You know, I guess in that heat of
the moment, I can't blame it. It made for entertainment. And you
know, obviously Vasquez would like a rematch, but that's highly unlikely. There's
not a huge reason in terms of the mindset of Bardina or Matchroom Boxing Eddie
Hearn. They have other bigger fish to fry. I guess whether it's a
unification fight perhaps or possibly the We've talked about a Lee Wood fight down the
road, which would be a huge fight in the UK. Look, Cordeina,
he got away with one and to the many respects, I thought he
won the fight seven to five. But if they had raised the other guy's
hand, that wouldn't have been a total shock. And you know, court,
the thing that's interesting TJ is this, at one hundred and thirty pounds,
you got you got some good, interesting characters there that hold these belts,
and if they fight each other, you know, it will bring attention
to them and maybe raise someone's profile. Right now, you got four distinct
title holders, and I can't tell you any which way which one is number
one. We just don't know the answer to that. Some people might say
it was Cordeena. I don't think they're singing that tune after last night.
I don't think anybody's saying Attector Luis Garcia. Although he quitted himself fairly well
when he went up and fought against Ravonta Davis earlier in the year, Oshaqi
Foster is a newcomer in terms of having the title. He just made his
first defense very impressively. Although he was losing the fight. He certainly came
back and made it impressive in the last round by knocking him out coming from
behind to tape that victory. And yet got Emmanuel Neverette, who has the
big win over Oscar Valdez. But it is still rather new to the weight
class. And one thing I know is if you match those guys with each
other, maybe a star can emerge, but it doesn't appear at least in
the immediate future unless they can make Cordeina against Foster, which seems doable.
We just might not know for a while. So Cordina can say he's got
a title and some people will look at him as the top guy. Others
will not. But they can make some very exciting fights. And frankly,
you know, Edward Vasquez lost or not, he put himself back in the
picture. Now maybe he'll opt to go back down to featherweight where maybe he
can make some Not too clear on what his plans are, but you know,
at the end of the day, that was a good fight in the
main event. I'm glad that I took the time to watch it. All
right, In the co feature, Boom goes the Dynamite, but not for
not Shinga, the South African IBF Junior Flyway champion, instead Courriel Adrian Curiel
with a big right hand out of nowhere, and the fight is over all,
right, I set it up. Your your thoughts on this, and
then I've I've got a quick take on what I saw and I want some
more insight from you. But your thoughts. You know, it was over
quick. Yeah, it was second round knock. I knew was that's a
big surprise. I mean, Don Shinka had some heat behind him. He
had won the vacant title at one hundred eight pounds and what I picked is
a twenty twenty two fight of the year, a phenomenal fight. He came
back. He had a good win at home in South Africa earlier this year,
first first out of defense. And now he goes to Monte Carlo against
a Mexican fighter, Adrian Curriel, who had zero, you know, nothing
on his record that would end the he was anything spectacular whatsoever? Uh,
you know, four losses, nobody, nobody really of a note on his
record. He had one of you know, once some fights in a row.
Other than a technical draw. He hadn't lost a fight, you know,
he had like about seven wins in a row or something along those uns
with with a technical draw in there, and even when he lost the guy,
it's not you know, it's one thing. We talked about losing it
to guys, but if you're losing to like the top guys, that's one
thing. He's not losing to the top guys. He's losing to like regular
guys. The one loss against the Olympian Joselito Velasquez, you know, that's
like a half way reasonable loss, I suppose. But the other guys,
he's losing to our guys. You never really you know, you don't really
know a whole lot about So when he come and and then you look at
the record, by the way, and he comes into the fight with with
coming in twenty three victories, four losses and only four knockouts. Now,
he made the point after the fight, and it's I guess there's some you
could put some stock in it is he won this fight at one hundred eight
pounds, where he scored a spectacular knockout. He made the point that for
a long time, for the most part, he's been fighting mainly as a
flyweight, and then he felt like he's in the wrong division, and so
he's not getting knockedouts. Now. I understand that in the small weight classes
the weight does make a difference, but I am not convinced that if you
are not a puncher at one hundred eight pounds, I'm sorry, at one
hundred twelve pound, you're suddenly gonna be a puncher at one hundred eight pounds.
I just don't I just don't buy that. Uh, you know,
that's just my opinion. But I whatever think he did when he landed that
right hand, the referee immediately within a second or two without counting stop the
fight. I'm just saying this, you would be better to speak to this.
Uh clearly non Shinga is down in the prone position and under the ropes,
but you're gonna go there. Well, I'm just saying he sat up,
He sat up, and then and then almost was able to get up
within probably what would have been account of like eight or nine I thought,
did you did you think on the on the immediate wave off that that was
warranted. I don't know what Twitter is saying, et cetera, but he's
the champ. It's one punch and he sat up while she had waved at
the bottom. So what do you think that. I don't think he knew
where he was when he got knocked down with the right hand. The back
of his head hit the bottom rope and then he slid her down to the
mat, and so half his body or his neck to his head is on
the ring apron, the rest of his body inside the ring. He eventually
did sit up, but it took him a little while to get to his
feet. Number one, I thought the referee made the perfect call, you
know that that there was no going on from that fight. And if he
does go on, honestly, I think he's gonna get hurt and he may
have gotten counted out. He may counted out anyway. If if she's counting,
I mean that there's gonna be a lot of people that might look at
that. As you know, I don't know if it's going to be number
one, but certainly when people are compiling their their lists per year end type
of material, you know, in a few weeks come December, that will
be on a lot of lists. In terms of the knock out of the
ear, that was absolutely spectacular, made more surprising because of the fact,
as I mentioned, this is a now a new title holder who had no
resume to speak of, had no power to speaking. Four knockouts, you
know what, let me let's all I mean, can we count the number
of times you know, I'm not trying to rub salt in Eddie Hearn's wound
or anything because he lost one of his champions. How many times does Eddie
bring in a Mexican fighter that you never heard of get upsets the Apple card?
Curry Out did it against Anhinga. They did it with Mauricio Lara.
They did it. You know, they've done it on more than one occasion.
There have been others also. You bring in these like unknown guys and
they take out your champions, maybe you learn your lesson after a little while.
But uh, I mean, it wasn't really a good fight, but
it was. It made it exciting because it was one hell of an ending,
and it was certainly it was kind of the end of it was almost
like a little bizarre because she's waving the fight off and Curriel is crying in
the middle of the ring on his knees, and then there's David Diamante,
the the PA announcer. He's like walking around, He's walking around Curiel while
he's crying. Then incomes. It's like the ring doctor who appears to be
a very large human being who's now standing next to Nat Shinga, who's not
very big at all at one hundred and eight pounds. It was just a
weird ending to a booming knockout that won a world title. It just took
a second or two to man, there's a lot going on here because like
Curiel's cornerman comes over to like lift him up a little bit while he's crying
and on his knees. It was wow, and give him credit. He
got the knockout, he got a world title out of this. He did.
I mean, I don't. I mean, I'm not trying to reign
on the man's prey, and I wish nothing but success in the future,
But it feels like he's not going to be what I would play a long
term champion. So people at one hundred eight pounds who are among the top
contenders will be licking their chops to get a hold of this guy. I
hope for his sake that he gets every dollar he can in his the first
title defense, because I don't think there's gonna be a lot of title defenses
like that. All right, fair enough, he can never take away that
career making moment. Tremendously very true. Okay, in Miami, me the
WBC vacant cruiserweight title was on the line the Don King promoted show. Noel
McLean did get the win. I must confess I've only seen the end of
the fight. I did not see the intend It's only a three round fight.
Give me your inside here as mcaleen gets the knockout and becomes the new
WBC Cruiserweight champion in that main event Saturday Night. McKellan fight a heck of
a fight. I mean, there was a lot of people back in twenty
eighteen. I guess it was when he was involved in the World Boxing Super
Series and he lost a fight. It wasn't a world title fight, but
it was still a significant fight in terms of that weight class at cruiserweight,
where he lost a very close decision to Myras Greatest. A lot of people
thought that McKellan was the winner of the fight. Now Greatest went on,
you know he's now been I guess he's won belts twice. He was lineal
champion, considered for the last bit number one in the weight class. Although
you know he lost the title to Opataia, but he had a nice run
there and given guys tough fights. He gave Alexander Usik probably the toughest fight
of his career when they had a unification fight also in the World Boxing Super
Series. So you know, there's no uh. You know, McCallan is
a good fighter. I mean, I'll give him credit. I mean he
it took a while to get this matchup Macabu, you know, okay set
it up. First of all, the reason they're fighting for the vacant title
is because bad Due Jack, who knocked out Makabou to win the cruiserweight title
earlier this year, he's vacated and his moving up and weight, so that
cleared the way for the title to be vacant. The two leading guys in
the WBC ratings war mckallian and Machabu. So Macaboo gets a chance to regain
the title that he lost by twelfth round knockout in a pretty rough go against
bad Du Jack earlier in the year. Makabu beat him up easier because he
knocked him down in a guinst the second round and then knocked him down again
in the third round. Now, the stoppage of the fight was not great.
I mean, it was really kind of a weird stoppage because he was
he got up and he got dropped with a beautiful right hand, and he
got He got up immediately from the knockdown. Legs were maybe a little shaky,
but the ref didn't even assess him at all and just literally waved it.
Totally different than what happened with Nonshinga, who was basically, you know,
at least for a couple of seconds, probably out and it hit the
head on the on the ring mat I mean on the on the ring rope.
But that said, Macabou never looks steady the whole fight. Macabu,
I think, is a shot fighter at this point. Unfortunately for him,
he is older. He's now been stopped in all four of his fights.
He's thirty five years old and does not have the kind of chin that you
need to survive against these kind of guys in the cruiserweight division. Mccollion was
bigger. Mckellian was faster, he's fresher, he's younger, obviously had the
punch and power. I thought this fight was going to go the distance because
I never viewed mccallian as that kind of puncher before. But I should have
maybe taken into better account than lack of a chin that Maciboo has had,
because this is not the first time that that has happened to him, So
it did not surprise me. And you know, he's he's he's a fighter
born in Armenia, spent most of his career fighting out of Germany, but
now was based in Miami, so the fight was in Miami, so he
was thrilled to do it in front of you know, a smattering of hometown
you know, supporters, and we'll see I mean again, sort of like
we just mentioned with the with the junior lightweight division, where if you match
the guys together, they can make some noise and maybe make some interesting fights.
In the cruiserweight division, you have a sort of a similar situation.
He got, you know, three of the title holders now who are very
interesting and one who's maybe not the most interesting. And the jingior lightweight division,
the one that's made not the most interesting is the Hector Luis Garcia belt
the WBA, and it's the same case in the cruiserweight division in Arson Gulmarian.
But if you look at the other three guys, they make interesting fights
Noel McCallion, as we saw against Makabu on Saturday. You have Chris Bill
and Smith who's a popular figure and makes good fights from the UK. He
got Opataia, who I mentioned from Australia, who is you know, probably
the best of the bunch, but certainly you know he loves a good scrap.
He looked good in his title defense a few weeks ago. We just
want to hopefully see these guys fight each other. I don't necessarily see it
happening immediately. But mckellian look, he did himself, He did himself proud.
He's only got two losses and unlike the losses that Adrian Kuril had where
he's losing the guys that are nobody's and then you don't really have a lot
of respect for that resume that he's had. At least when the previous fights
that mckellion lost, one was to Bradest, which was a close call.
He could argue he won the fight and Braidest obviously proved himself to be number
one for a period of time in the weight class. And the other fight
he lost was to a former champion from Poland, well Darzac, so that
was a I was a split decision that was in twenty seventeen. So the
guy's got two losses, agains two championship level opponents, and now he's got
a title belt of his own. And you know, it makes things interesting
because he's a little bit younger than Macabou and he's in good shape, he's
quick with his hands. It's a good fighter. I'll be interested to see
what he does. I mean, I know it's not the hottest weight class
in the world, and it's not sexy liked walter weights and heavyweights, and
you know, then some of the smaller divisions that get a lot of hype,
like the lightweights and the featherweights and all. But you know what,
if you like guys who are bigger, who aren't lumbering like heavyweights, but
still can crack a little bit, then you know, cruiserweight has always been
the division that's provided to entertainment, all right, top rank ESPN card I
did check some of this out as well while in Houston, and FAA Jaga
does get the TKO in the main event over Joe Goodall, so that avenges
the amateur loss. Raymond Mretaya also looked very good a TKO win in the
co feature your thoughts in the recap mode, Dan Rayfield, with what you
saw in Lake Tahoe, I wasn't surprised. I thought a Jagua would knock
him out the amateur A loss in this particular instance really didn't mean a whole
lot to me. A Jagua is bigger, he's better schooled, he's got
better technique, he's had a better not that these fought likes killers in the
pros, but he's got a little bit of a better group of guys he
has faced, although they do have the common opponent in Stephen Shaw, where
Goodall knocked him out and a Jagua went the distance with him and looked terrible.
But you know, as Kay Kroma, who was one of the trainers
for FAA Jagua said in the post fight interview, and it's true, and
you know, you know, there's a differcy in making excuses and bringing facts.
So the act of the matter is one of the reasons why maybe a
Jaga has not looked that good in recent fights, even though he has been
winning, other than the loss by decision of Frank Sanchez, because the man
had elbow issues, he had surgery around his elbow and hasn't been right for
a while. He now, I guess now has is right. And so
if you have your elbow and you and you're rely on your job, particularly
which is gonna extend it every time you throw it, you know that is
now healthy. And so he's showing the fruits of the rehab and staying fit
and doing the things he's been doing to prepare for these fights. I thought
that was probably considering the stakes, considering the main event, the status of
the fight, considering the amateur loss that he had taken to a Jaga was
a big deal, considering what could potentially be next, I thought this was
the best that a Jaga has looked in his entire career. I've been following
him since the Olympics, back when Richard Schaeffer signed him right off the bat.
So I have followed a Jaga from day one, and uh, you
know, there's been times where I wasn't sure if he would make it to
the top. I mean, because if you look at the guy, I
mean, oh my god, the guy looks like he should be heavyweight champions
right head. A tremendous physique. He's muscular, but not too muscular.
You know, he's got good punching power. He's just a tremendous athlete.
He's got to seems like a pretty good disposition, got a good team behind
him. And but you know, again, I'm not making Joe Goodall to
be out like he's like, you know, the top ranked heavyweight now a
job should be you know, considered at the elite level of the weight class
at the moment. But that was a very good win for him. He
shined in a main event, and there's gonna be opportunities for him. Like
Bob Aram, his promoter, said in one of the comments after the fight
that that's the best he ever looked. I agree with Bob. It was
a good victory. I mean, he didn't knock good All down, but
he basically beat the living crap at him, at least in the final rounds
of the fight, rounds two and or sorry, rounds three and four,
he was teeing off on him. I mean, some people were also complaining
about that stoppage. I thought that was a perfectly fine stop. He was
just cracking him with everything he was. He was pummeling him as bad as
you can pummel a guy without scoring knocked and it's a big win for a
jogua because now he has his I mean he said it in the pre fight.
He didn't really go there when he was asked about it in the post
fight, but Zang Zalai was there in the crowd watching the fight. Uh,
he would like to fight Zhang Juli. And because Zang is gonna be
the WBO mandatory for the winner of Usik versus Tyson Fury. But you know
they've got a rematch clauses, you never know. You know that's gonna take
forever to play out. So it's not like they're gonna just have have Zang
Juli just sit around and do nothing. Top rank, which promotes a jagua.
They have a very strong working relationship with Frank Warren, who is the
promoter, the co promoter. Anyway, now for a few fights because of
the options from the Dubois fight, I mean from the from the when Zang
won the fight against Jo Joyce, are they not Dubwa that they work together
with top Rank, They get along very well. They could easily make that
fight. And you know what if you're not gonna get Fury, Usik Wilder
Joshua tangling with each other for a little while other than the undisputed fight.
You know, if you take those guys and sit them to the side,
there's still plenty of guys who were solid and interesting below them, and if
they can match up, and a Jagua is now one of those guys.
Obviously, Zang Jelai is one of them. Based on what he did against
Joe Joyce, I say, bring that on. That's a very solid,
interesting heavyweight fight to me. Don't disagree? All right, Murataia, real
quick before we move on to some news in nostalgia, what did you see
well with Maretaia? I mean, I've been highing the guy since I first
saw hi when he turned pro. I mean before, you know, I
would talk to like like, I've been friends with Brad Goodman, the Matchmaker,
a top rank for almost thirty years. And when they first had him,
and you know, he didn't get a lot of publicity, they were
sort of seeing what he had. He was winning some fights, and I
remember watching him. I'm like an ESPN Plus Undercarter. Maybe I was there
in the arena and I saw him box early, you know, when he's
like two or three zero, And I said to Brad, I was like
Hey, I said, what do you guys thinking of this guy? I
think this guy to me, you know, he looks like he's a real
prospect, and I know he was trained by Robert Garcia, which made an
impression on me. And Brad has liked him also. I think it's taken
the other folks at top rank a little bit more time to come around to
him, but obviously now they they are. You know, he got this
position. In the co feature. He fought a fellow undefeated fighter in Diego
Torres. They were both eighteen and o going into this fight, and I
have been watching, like I said, Murtai from day one. This was
definitely his best performance. He looked absolutely spectacular. He was in great shape.
He just did a perfect job of breaking this man down and getting him
out of there. He won every single round. I mean, I thought
he would win the fight, but I did not think he was gonna win
all seven rounds that were completed then stop him. It was a very very
strong performance from Maurtai. Now I'm not sure he's ready to be fighting the
Devin Haines and the Lomachenkos and guys like that that they was calling out after
the fight, But he ain't that far away. I'm gonna tell you that
right now. I mean, maybe they take a gamble and put him in
if they could. I'll tell you one thing though, one of the fights
that theoretically could be made if the other side is up for it, is
George Cambosis, who was with Todd Rank. Also, that's obviously a huge
test of the former unified champion. And I'll tell you right now, I'll
due respect to Cambosa, is why I like, I think that Muratai just
beats him down in that kind of matchup. I don't know if that will
happen, but that would be a very good, interesting fight for both sides.
But Murthaya has put the division on notice. I mean, I don't
think he's quite there yet. He needs probably another maybe another fight, maybe
even two. But this guy is going to be in the conversation in the
lightweight division for the next bit. It does look like stardom in his future.
So there's a bunch there on the recaps. Okay to the news,
let's lead. Everybody wants to know what's next for Premiere Boxing Champions PBC.
A report in the Wall Street Journal out on Friday says Netflix possibly could be
the outlet. Netflix also apparently talking with Jake Paul and MVP Promotions Most Valuable
Promotions about possibly a Jake Paul fight. All Right, what do you make
of this? What are you hearing? What do you make of this?
Because everybody's curious what's going to end up happening with premiere boxing champions on the
outlet. Well, in terms of let's start with the Jake Call part of
that equation. First, Jake Paul has his next fight on his Zonne on
December fifteenth, so that's just a little over a month from now. They
haven't announce an oppony yet, but that event is going to be on his
zone. It's going to be against a boxer, not a MMA fighter or
some non boxer, so that even if they do a deal with the Netflix
for something, certainly it's not going to be his next event. He does
have a business relationship with his Zonne beyond just his own upcoming fight, because
they have a deal with his own MVP does for this Prospect series that they
have been showing. They just announced an extension for next year. I want
to tell you it's I think eight shows next year. They did four in
twenty twenty three. I think next year it's supposed to be eight. Don't
quote me, I can't remember exactly, but the bottom line is they do
have that relationship. Amanda Serrano, who was with Jake and his company,
was on the most recent show they just did last week. So I think
the Netflix thing, the genesis of that is because my understanding is they are
working on some kind of documentary with Jake Paul and if you're going to be
doing a documentary related to him, then maybe his boxing is part of that.
And Netflix has been for I don't know how long it's been, TJ
how many years they've constantly been thought about, talked about, made allusions to
maybe they would get involved with streaming sports. Of course they're, you know,
the eight hundred pound gorilla in streaming, but they've never been involved in
sports. It's documentaries, it's movies, it's original shows, and obviously they
have a huge, huge amount of subscribers, and they have shied away from
live sports so far because the right the rights to acquire premiere events in sports
are very very expensive. Obviously, I mean, you know, certainly hundreds
of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars at the very top level
when you're talking about the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, college
top football and basketball, the tournaments and all that, you know, huge
amounts of money, and then it's still tens of millions of dollars once you
get into like the less like boxing, for example, or you know,
big gun golfer, auto racing, or you know, pick a sport.
So they keep saying there's been so much conjecture that they're going to enter that
particular space. If they did it in some kind of form or fashion of
test out the waters with boxing, it wouldn't be, I guess, a
total shock because if you take a look at the history of the mediums into
which we have seen, whether it's radio, the early days of regular television,
cable television, satellite, television, streaming stuff, boxing has always been
one of the things that was on those platforms in its infancy. When ESPN
launched in like nineteen seventy nine, one of the first shows because they couldn't
they didn't have rights to Major League Baseball. It took years for them to
get that. And saying for the NFL, one of the things they started
off was top rank boxing and it ran for a very long time, you
know, back when it was black and white television in the nineteen fifties,
but were of what's one of the earliest shows on television was you know,
Friday Night Fights or the calc at that. So, I mean boxing has
been like that. When when premium cable came around, how did HBO build
itself and show time? They did it through boxing. They you know,
that was a huge part of them and their growth. When ESPN Plus started
boxing was one of the first things that they put on in terms of live
sports that they expanded what they already had. They almost immediately redid their deal
with Top Rank to bring a ton more boxing to that platform. And so
it doesn't surprise me that that's the case. I mean, the Zone was
created basically in the United States based on boxing, you know, in terms
of streaming, So if Netflix is going to get involved, it wouldn't totally
shock me. Now wood or would shock me is if they actually make a
deal with PBC, because again, it's one thing for the Journal to report
what they reported, and obviously the Journal is a very respected publication when it
comes to dealing with business transactions and that sort of thing, but they're not
really sports people over there, even though they've got some outstanding reporters and writers.
My sources tell me that they have had a conversation that Netflix is not
so much interested in putting up money to fun like say, a regular outlet
for fights. They are intrigued by the possibility of pay per view, although
Netflix has never done that. They are a subscription based service, so I'm
not sure why they would suddenly want to change that for boxing. But I
am told and I quote one of the sources when I when I talk to
them about this, who has knowledge of what's going on there, And it
was termed to me that anything related to PBC doing events on Netflix was quote
unlikely. And the Journal in their report quoted or they didn't quote, but
they wrote in their story that these conversations were in the very early stages.
So I understand we all want to know where PVC is going to wind up.
One showtime who shuts the door at the end of the year. Personally
speaking, I will be surprised, although not unhappy, if they wind up
in Netflix. I think it's the type of thing where Al Hayman and and
looking around the landscape had to at least reach out or or or at least
have the conversation. You know, you'd be crazy not to at least approach
them, because they're flushed with money and obviously they had there, and you
know everybody has Netflix. I think it seems to me. I kept thinking
to myself, TJ, what's the old thing? What the kids say?
Netflix and Chill? I was thinking PBC and Chill, But I don't think
that's happening, all right, and we'll see where Premiere Boxing Champions ends up
and what outlet. All right, a couple of other news items I say.
One thing about that, by the way, Yeah, back with PBC
real quick. One thing is and again I don't know where they're going to
line up, and there's been a lot of conjecture that they maybe you're talking
to Netflix, that they've had conversations with with Apple, but obviously it's not
going to be on Showtime. The people that work in and around PBC whose
livelihood depends on PBC bringing in money and making events, well, I've talked
to several of them over the last few weeks since the Showtime announcement became official,
and even before that, when they were already knew it was going to
happen, and there were people that were looking for jobs knowing they were going
to be out of gigs. You know, some of the showtime people,
the people that work for PBC or are very closely associated with it, that
make their living doing that, don't really seem concerned, like it's not and
it's that's like in separate conversations. It's not like, you know, we're
on a conference cause and you said that before, and I have the same
response that I said to you, then that's all well and good because if
all of them have been told the same thing and it's not really going to
come to fruition, we don't we don't know that right now. Well,
you know, even if you're told that, you're still in the back of
your mind, you're like, you know what, there's certainly a level of
uncertainty. And these are normal working people that have mortgages to pay, and
knows to pay, and college is to pay for and and all kinds of
different things. And you can't help but worry where's my paycheck coming from?
So when there's calmness all around again, I don't know what, but I'm
telling you right now, I believe to my bones Hayman's got something. It's
we just don't know about it yet. I think he is doing the right
thing in terms of, you know, let's show time have its sun,
they in the sun and close up shop in a respectful and professional manner,
and you know you're not going to go piss on them while you're still doing
business with them. But in due time, I would think, certainly by
the end of this year, soon after the last paper view anyway, we'll
hear news about where PBC is gonna wind up. By him not in any
way concerned that come twenty twenty four that they won't have a robust broadcast partner.
Interesting that Oscar de la Hoya is soliciting the PVC fighters. What else
is new Oscar fooling around on social media then to come signed with him for
whatever. Well, he makes the point though that if you don't One thing
that people need to understand is a lot of the boxers that box under that
PBC banner don't have promotional contracts. Some of them do with TGB, which
is the promoter that does all the PBC events, but there are a lot
of boxers that are affiliated with al Hayman and PBC who are promotional technically speaking,
are promotional for agents and would have every right to talk to a promoter
now. And if they're under contract to TGB, you know, they can't
be interfering with those agreements, and that's fair. But there's a number of
those spiders that are not under a promotional contract and they would have every right
to talk to a promoter about their future. So we shall see what happens
there. Let's close the loop on Felix Verdejo, the ones promising lightweight former
Puerto Rican olympian, probably well known by most of our audience, that he
had been found guilty on the murder charge of his mistress and unborn child,
had an accomplice in this. The accomplice turned on him, testified against him,
cooperated with the authorities. So we've been waiting for sentencing for Verdejo.
Wrap it up here because this is not unexpected. He's essentially never getting out
of a Puerto Rican prison. Yeah, I mean, it's a heartbreaking kind
of story. You know. We should have mentioned the victim because she deserves
it. Kishila Rodriguez, who was somebody that he had been on and off
in a relationship with for a very long time, but he also was married
and had I guess a family besides is involvement with this woman. He got
her pregnant, she wanted to have the baby. He wanted her to have
an abortion apparently, and she wouldn't do that, and so he killed her,
which is disgusting and heinous and as bad as it gets. And like
you said, he had an accomplice who flipped on him, and he was
found guilty of killing both the woman and the unborn child. Then he's going
to pay the price because as he's the only you know, like thirty years
old, he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison because on
Friday he was sentenced to two life sentences. And you know that that that's
making the point. Obviously he's only got one life to live, but he's
got too He's never going to see the light of day again, and he
doesn't deserve it. You know, he can sit in the jail cell and
rot and think about what he did for the rest of his life. It's
just uh. And the thing that's so this thing that's so that's so crazy
to me is this, like I can't tell you that I knew Felix for
Dajo very well or anything like that, But I met him a number of
times. I covered several of his fights. I picked him as the prospect
of the year at one point. He was very engaging, very friendly,
very outgoing, nice smile, very humble. It felt like, you know,
just you know, beat his chest had the support of Felix Trinidad,
who a lot of people compared him to. You know, he didn't turn
out that way because he took a couple of losses and all. But to
think that the kid like that in his early twenties, I met and covered
and wrote about a lot who was as nice as you could ask for.
And then you find out that he did this, It just did. I
can't. I still have a hard time like And again, for those that
are not completely familiar, these are heinous crimes where they kidnapped the woman.
They're trying to drug the woman, and apparently, as the testimony went,
she may very well have still been alive when they threw her in a lagoon.
He's shooting off the body off the bridge. He's taking a gun and
shooting at the body in the water. Heinous off the deep end mentally type
things and he's going to spend the rest of his life in a Puerto Rican
prison because of it. It's over and closure for the family. That again,
as you made mentioned in Bravo to you, the family has been grieving
this for a couple of years. This is closure for them. He's going
away forever. Yes, So just so people chapter on it. This happened.
He was found guilty this past August, but the murder itself happened in
April twenty one, so it's been over two years that this has been going
on, since she lost her life and the baby's life, and the family's
been dealing with this, and it's been a long time. And now I
mean, maybe I have closure because he's in jail for the rest of his
life, but I mean, it doesn't change what happened, unfortunately. That's
correct. And I will interject one thing, because we covered this thoroughly on
the website before you and I began to hook up with all the writings and
all of the stuff. In twenty twenty two. We covered this a bunch.
In twenty twenty one. The family was adamant for the Puerto Rican prosecutors,
the US prosecutors, the Puerto Rican prosecutors, because again it's a lot
of times US federal prosecutors that prosecute kind of capital cases like this. They
were adamant they did not want the death penalty. They wanted him in prison
for the rest of his life. That's interesting is that they wanted him to
and that's exactly what's going to happen. Now. He'll spend whatever his remaining
days are in prison. So there you go. Closed chapter on that very
horrific situation. Okay, you mentioned Kolmatov and you mentioned Raymond Ford. Just
follow up one more time before we get to the nostalgia for a featherweight situation.
Go ahead, Yeah, So, I mean earlier in the month or
I guess it was in the after he after after lee Wood won his last
fight, and this is an early early October. He has expected lee Wood
vacated the title. Remember he had gotten and he had gotten an exception to
fight the Warrington fight. His mandatory was Kolmotov. You know, Kolmotov was
nothappy about that. He wanted the title shot. In any event, we
all knew that when he vacated, the next guy up was Kolmotov as the
mandatory either if Leewood stayed in the weight class or it was gonna be a
vacant title, and in fact it's a vacant title. So Kolmatoav is fighting
for the vacant title. He has been ordered to fight the next available contender,
which happens to be Raymond Ford in the featherweight division. That's actually a
very interesting match up. Komatov is a I mean, I know a lot
of people know who this guy is. They're like, who's this guy.
He's eleven and zero with ten knockouts from Uzbekistan, twenty five years old.
I've seen him fight a couple of times and let me say, in my
h he's a fucking beast, is the bottom line. He's very, very
impressive fight. Don't be so technical with your analysis. I love it though,
I love it. This guy, this guy is. This guy can
fight and ray Ford. You know, so this guy is like a stalker,
a killer. I mean, he's got a little I'm not saying he's
him, but there's hints of triple G in the way he fights. But
Ford is a consummant boxer, a boxer, puncher, a good technique.
You know, it does shape up if they actually can make the match as
a fascinating kind of fight. So if they don't make a deal, they
got thirty days until December third to make the deal. It'll go to a
purse s bid fifty to fifty split on the money. And you know what,
as a degenerate, that to me is an absolutely fascinating fight for that
belt. I hope that it happens. I think that's a very very interesting
matchup. We'll see. I suspect it will happen, it will go to
a purse bid, or if it doesn't, they maybe can make some kind
of deal. Maybe it's you know, Eddie hearn is the promoter for fort
He's got an outlet in terms of the zone that makes for a very interesting
fight. And as at the same time that they ordered that fight for the
vacant title that took place this past Friday. In addition to ordering the vacant
title fight, the WBA also ordered the title eliminator that would match two fighters
that would produce the mandatory forever wins the title fight, and that was between
Victor Morales who's with Golden Boy, who was impressive on his most recent fight
on one of their shows. A couple of weeks ago against the Samson Lukawitz
fighter named Louis Ronaldo Nunez. They are both undefeated. They are also both
like legitimate ascending type of guys in the weight class. So if they can
hook up, they also have the thirty day timeframe to make a deal or
it'll go to a purse bid. Also as elimination fights go, that's a
pretty interesting fight to me. You know, I'm hopeful that will happen.
I mean, Samson Lukawitz and Golden Boy have worked together a million times.
They've made a lot of fights together. That doesn't seem like a too complicated
one to make. I can certainly see them making a deal in that winding
up on one of the forthcoming Dezone undercards at some point in the next few
months. But so that's what's happened in the featherweight division. There's it's a
little bit of a changing of the guard with Wood moving up. You know,
Navarrete has left the division, and you know, so guys have been
moving on, but there's there's a new crop coming behind them, and these
are two of those bouts that are going to fill that void that has been
left by some of the boxers who've left the way class. There we go
nostalgia and as we come off the weekend. Interesting that in separate years,
two anniversaries of two of the Evander Holyfield Riddick bow fights. The second fight
after after tremendous first title fight that Bo upset holy Field and took the title
from him in nineteen ninety two. The second fight anniversary is actually Monday,
and that is thirty years ago Monday for November the sixth of nineteen ninety three,
holy Field regained the title. And this is more known obviously for at
the outdoor arena with Caesar's Palace, right the outdoor arena at Caesars or whichever
outdoor arena it was, you'll correct me. Fan Fan Man on a motorized
glider is gliding around and ends up landing on the light structure with the with
the canopy parachute and landing on the ring apron, causing mayhem in and around
the ring. And imagine, imagine if Twitter existed when that happened. Yeah,
well, here's here's what I know about that. He is I think
I've talked to you about this before we had done. I'm doing local Tampa
Bay five day a week Sports Radio. We had done a series of pay
per view watch parties. We are at the watch party. I vividly remember
this thirty years ago, and I'm telling the people around me, this is
the craziest. This is almost shades of like Vince McMahon and the WWF.
What is going on? And Dan there was a twenty minute delay to try
to figure out, all right, what do we do now, and then
we got to resume the fight, etc. So pick it up from there
with the whole fan man for all time. That's what this second fight is
known for. I mean, the thing is, the first fight was a
fantastic fight that took place inside no chance for a fan man, because it
was at the Thomas and Neck Center that had taken place in November of ninety
two. Bo actually had a couple of fights in between where he defended the
titles against pretty easy opponents in the long shot Michael Doaks and Jesse Ferguson,
who was just a journeyman. Now they meet for the rematch and it's outdoors.
So now this accurse, and I have to say I can remember watching
that twenty one minute delay during the middle of round seven. Cold outside too
by the way, Caesars Pals, I remember the vivid image of the fighters
in their corners when the delay while they're dealing with the fan man being taken
away and arrested who you know. While they're waiting for this to resume,
they're like in their corners, like covered up in blankets and obviously completely disrupted
the momentum of the fight. And I have to tell you, and I
don't know about justin boxing, I think maybe in all of sports history,
correct me if I'm wrong, or if you can think of a better example.
The craziest most wild thing, crazy, nutsy shit thing you ever happened
is a fucking guy flies into the middle of a boxing heavyweight championship fight that
lands up the ring apron that that's being viewed by millions of people on pay
per view. I mean, is there anything more crazy about that? I
can't. I mean, you obviously had had an earthquake disrupt the World Series
a few years before between the Giants. That's a natural disaster. That's a
natural disaster there. If there have been crazy thing, remember the power outage
in the Super Bowl the forty nine ers and the Ravens. That was bizarre,
right, after the halftime shooting. You know, you just jogged me
on something. I got the opportunity on that very same five day a week
sports radio show to interview Michael Buffer a couple of weeks later, the legendary
Michael Buffer. By the way, happy birthday on the Nostalgia for Michael Buffer.
Yes, all right. I remember asking him, what was your reaction,
what was your vantage point? What was your reaction? And he said,
I'm I'm obviously done with my pre fight duties. I'm sitting close by
ringside, and he said, I'm watching the fight and what was happening was
in front of me to the right, and he goes, the first thing
is, you're just stunned because you don't know what to think. He goes,
the second thing is, you're scared for I'm paraphrasing, you're scared for
a half second because you don't know who this guy is and he's on the
ring apron. And then the next thing is mayhem because people are everywhere in
the ring, bose security people, and it's the same guy, Dan Rayfield.
We're a Waukee talkie braining fan man who would re enact it three years
later and come across the ring as the first guy with the walkie talkie braining
Andrew Gollatta for hitting Riddick Bow low. So this guy was obviously the expert
lead walkee talkie by the time. I think by the time he fought both,
they had like the early versions of cell phones which have in both cases,
it's the same guy and he's over just braining fan man on the ring
apron and down at ringside was about it now, but at the time it
was serious. By the way, the guy's name that was Faman was a
man named James Miller who ended up dying, you know, several years ago.
Uh, but it was serious because you're tell me he died in a
paragliding accident. They don't finish that. But the uh, if I remember
correctly, Riddick Bo's wife at the time, you know now his ex wife,
but his wife, Judy was pregnant one of their children, and she
kind of fainted that RINGSI, I guess, and they had to take her
to the hospital for observationist to make sure everything was okay. And obviously you
know, both in the middle of this fight, and you know, look,
Ridick bow ended up losing that fight on a majority decision. There's a
lot of people that believe that that twenty one minute interruption that reset the the
tenor of the fight and the flow of the fight. That's what enabled the
Vander holydild to come act in the late going and actually win the fight on
a very close call. He got a little bit of a reprieve, got
himself together and you know, the momentum that Ridick bou had going into that
second half of the fight was definitely stunted by the delay, and Holyfield put
it to his advantage. And so I think there's there's always those moments where
you think, like would boxing history have been different if something happened, Like
I always think about had Roy Jones decided not to return to light heavyweight and
they were able to finalize the long deal they were trying to make between him
and Evander Holyfield that the time after he fought John Roweiz. That's one another
one of those types of things I spend my time thinking about, is what
would have happened if the fan man didn't disrupt this fight and it was allowed
to go to its normal conclusion without having this massive Megga disruption and Evander did
not have twenty minutes to rest and to gather himself, and Bo didn't have
his concentration momentum broken. Would Riddick Bow have retained the timeline and you know,
who knows what would have happened in the rest of his career were or
with the Vander for that matter. So it was one of the wildest,
craziest things you'll ever see in sports. It was a tremendous fight, perhaps
not on the level of the first fight, which was the fight of the
year, but it was pretty damn close, and that just set the stage
for the third fight. You know, we talked about many times trilogies,
but the Riddick Bow Evander Holyfield trilogy is one of the few trilogies at the
highest level of the sport where all three fights are fucking classic battles, great
all time fights. You know, the other great trilogies you can think about,
at least the ones that come off the top of my head are you
know, obviously, Fraser and Ali first fight, third fight are awesome.
Second fight is very good, but not at the same level. Gaddy Ward
first fight, third fight, Fight of the year. Second fight obviously very
good also, but not and even close to that level. Barra Morales first
fight, third fight, Fight of the Year, second fight, not even
close. Really more of a boxing match. So when you think about those
trilogies, you know, usually there's one in there that's maybe not the best.
Usually the first one is awesome, because that's why they make a rematch
in the first place. But in terms of Bow and Holyfield, ninety three
first two fights for the heavyweight title were both classics and just tremendous battles.
And then when they finally met again in ninety five, it wasn't for the
belt officially, but at the time it happened, and that's the fight we're
talking about now because that's the one that's the anniversary from nineteen ninety five that
happened on November fourth, that was still a doubt between again without the belts
being at stake. At the time, most people still regarded Bow and Holyfield
as the number one and number two heavyweights in boxing, so it was for
let's you know, they tried to promote it as like the people's championship.
It wasn't a lineal title, that wasn't an official belt or anything, but
it was the two biggest names you know, battling it out in a fight
that was very interesting to a lot of people. Again, they did it
at Caesar's Palace outside once again, and this was like whatever the skills and
the balls that they showed in the first two fights and for big stakes with
the title on the line, this was more of like a caveman fight.
Like they were both degraded to a degree at that point, but they still
had the heart in the will and obviously they know each other very well from
two battles before, and they just went in there and tried to beat the
living shit out of each other, even more so than in the first couple
of fights, and ultimately Riddig Bow. They were both got knocked down,
but ultimately it was Riddg Bow that prevailed by a eighth round knockout that a
lot of people thought was pretty much the end of holy Field because he didn't
look that great in the fight. But it was just I mean, it
was just a fantastic fight. I mean, I don't think the fight gets
as it gets as much credit as that deserves because so many people talk about
fight one and fight two, and the third fight is kind of unfortunately not
talked about at that same level. But that was a badass fight. And
by the way, at the time of that stoppage, I'm looking it up
as we're talking here. It was a close fight, and I didn't know
I couldn't remember what the scores were, but I knew it was close going
into that knockout round. The judges had it sixty six to sixty five on
all three scorecards, So it was a very close fight going into the you
know the round where that where Bo finally was able to get the knockout,
but he was losing by one point on all three cards. So I just
love that fight. I mean, I could watch that. I can watch
that trilogy, uh, you know, all day long. An interesting November
nostalgia for holy Field ninety three is fan Man, not ninety five. November
fourth of ninety five is the knockout lost to Bow, but the following November
of ninety six is when he upsets Mike Tyson. So and by the way,
in that time, in that time frame November over and over and over
again, involving one thing about I mean, one thing about Bow in Holyfield
is if you follow their careers, both of them are regarded in terms of
heavyweight fighters having two of the greatest chins you'll ever see. Riddick Bow the
first time he ever got knocked down in his career was in that third fight
against Evander, and Evander always was known for a great chin. You got
knocked out a couple of times here and there, but he was also dropped
in that fight. I mean, it was, you know, it was.
It was a very violent fight and is as much damna. And it's
unfortunate because both of them obviously have taken a lot of damage through their careers,
you know, because Goalada had a lot of damage on Bow in their
two fights, and Anders been a ton of wars over the years. But
those three fights took a lot out of them, but as much as much
as they took in the first two fights. In my opinion, I said
it was a caveman fight. The third fight, to me most definitely the
roughest, most violent, most brutal of the three fights in some ways reminiscent
of what happened in Manila with Ali and Fraser, where they were just a
little bit older, couldn't quite move as well, kind of had a stand
in front of each other, still had the heart and the balls to go
to it and so therefore Thriller in Manila was the most violent and brutal of
the three Ali Fraser fights. And it's one hundred percent the same thing with
what happened between Bow and Holyfield. I mean, just an absolutely remarkable series.
And you know, the funny thing about it is, you know where
Ali and Fraser, you know, they never became best friends, even though
they respected each other. They had a long history of back and forth of
issues with one another over the years, particularly Fraser against Ali A. Riddg
Boat and Evander Holyfield did this day are very close friends right right and now
for many many years. And it's because of the respect they have from what
they did with each other, and frankly all the money they were able to
make with each other over the course of those three fights. And isn't it
an interesting that also November fifth, which is Sunday as we released the podcast
into Monday, is the anniversary in nineteen ninety four, twenty nine years ago
of George Foreman's historic knockout of Michael Moore. And it's like six degrees of
separation from Kevin Bacon, It's six degrees of separation from Evander Holyfield because holy
Field had beaten George Foreman in a title to fans in ninety one, but
had lost to Michael Moore. And we didn't even throw this in there fans
that are new fans that are thinking that boxing began in two thousand and six,
Like I like to say, you got to realize there was concern that
Evander Holyfield had a heart condition and was never going to fight again when he
lost to Michael Moore. He eventually continued to get checked out by cardiologists and
was eventually deemed as not really having a series. Obviously, heart conditioning could
keep fighting. But anyway, Moore's beaten holy Field. As the build up
Foreman's forty five years old, Michael Moore is dominating this fight, Dan ray
Field, and then this is why we love boxing. It turned, did
it not boom? Well, in the immortal words of my good friend Jim
Lampley, it happened. It happened. I mean, that's the same it's
called HBO, which, as dramatic as that moment, was just on itself
of what George Forruman accomplished. Obviously, he'd be crazy if he didn't think
that the way that Jim Lampley and the HBO people called that fight did not
help it become the kind of folklore that it has become over the years.
I mean, it was a remarkable achievement from what George Foreman did that night.
He got to keep in mind a couple things about that, Like you
said, Number one, he's a forty five year old guy. So he
sets the record for becoming the oldest fighter in history of boxing to win a
world title, a record that was broken many years later by Bernard Hopkins when
he did it as well. But George to win the heavyweight championship at age
forty five was like a huge deal. Nobody thought he could do what he
was I remember watching the broadcast, remember Larry Merchant giving the odds and him
saying, you know, whatever the odds were, let's skate. It was
like, you know, ten to one or whatever it was. You know
that George thought it was a gazillion, that Larry thought it was a gazillion,
the one that George could actually regain the title, and it just goes
to show you that he was able to do it. And the thing about
it also in this you know, I don't know if if it's a karma
coincidence, whatever, whatever, some higher being, whatever you want to call
it. He won that title back, the heavyweight championship. This was like
you know, I know it was belts and all, but it was the
lineal championship. He beat the man who had beaten Holyfield, who was the
man. He did it almost twenty years to the day that he had lost
the heavyweight title the first time to Muhammad Ali by a knocked out his ear,
like within a couple of days, twenty years later. And on top
of that, when you watch the fight back, the boxing trunks that Big
George wore in the ring against Michael Moore to regain the title were the same
trunks that he wore that night in the Hubble and the I mean that is
fucking crazy. Well, I mean, but that's what adds to the lore.
And he also maybe had the Carmo working for him as well to put
those trunks on and to get it done. I will add to your nostalgia
that we had Joe Cortes, the legendary Hall of Fame referee, on this
podcast. He was the ref and I said, take me back to what
you remember on that moment, and he said, I remember forever counting over
Michael Moore eight nine, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm about to say
ten. You say ten, you turn and you point to George and say
winner, which is what he does. He turns on a knee to George
Foreman in the neutral corner and says winner. And George turned around and knelt
down immediately in prayer like looking skyward. What a scene you never know about.
And there it was. There was a lot of people that felt like
George, most people that he shouldn't even have the fight. That George had
to make a personal appeal to seth Abraham recently inducted into the International Boxing Hall
of Fame and well deserved, who was at that time running EAHBO Sports and
George of course was an HBO commentator, so they were, you know,
close and had a business relationship and all that, and HBO had shown many
of George's fights besides the Michael morrifight. Had to basically beg him to allow
them to put this match on because remember that fight took place as we're talking
about that Michael morrifight took place November of ninety four. In June of ninety
three, so like a year and a half before this, George Foreman had
a loss to Tommy Morrison. So he's not only easy coming off of a
long layoff, he's coming off of a loss to Morrison, and now he's
fighting the real champion and Michael Moore and making his first title defense and he's
forty five years old. And people thought it was a fucking joke at the
time. I mean, you know, we've seen fights like that that are
made today where you just like, why are they making that match? And
it just so happened. They made him everybody look good because after taking a
shellacking for ten rounds, George Foreman got the big shot that he wanted,
the big right hand right on the on the short, very short punch.
And I've heard Jim Lapley talk about it. You know, when Lampley was
hired by our friends at PPV dot com to uh do his work with them
as they were promoting the Errol Spence or the or the Canut, the Errol
Spence fight Charlot fight, and we've got I got a chance to spend some
time with him in Las Vegas back at that fight. He did a lot
of interviews and besides just talking about the Canelo and the Charlotte fight that he
was there helping to market and promote. He obviously was asked a lot of
things about his career, and he told stories about the Foreman fight in particular
because he had considers it his number one best call of all time. And
he tells the story about how that happened and no pun intended there talking about
how he you know, he was friends with George. They worked together at
HBO. They would have meals together, breaks together, rehearsals together, and
he talks about how, like over a couple of months leading up to the
fight, he would he would in a quiet moment, he would ask George,
George, how are you gonna beat Michael Moore? He's younger than you.
He's a southbaw you know, he just beat a Vander Holyfield. He's
a good puncher. You know. We just go through the list of things,
and and he recounts George Forman telling him, you watch, at some
point late in the fight, He's going to come stand in front of me
and let me knock him out. And that is exactly what happened. And
so Lampley says in the interviews I've seen and has said it to me.
Also when I've talked about this topic, whether it's an interview or just privately,
he said, I, you know, I didn't sit to my sit
there. I wasn't. I never gave it a notion that he could win
the fight. So I never even contemplated what my call might be. I
mean, I know broadcasters they want to have some kind of you know,
an organic call when some big moment happens. But I the best broadcasters at
least have a germ of the type of thing they might want to say in
a big moment. Well, I thought, let me interrupt you. I
thought it was great when you interviewed him on our podcast when the Tyson upset
loss to Douglas was happening. He said to you, Jim Lampley, that
I kept saying in my own head what my mentor had drilled into me,
which is, don't overstated, don't overstated. So his call forever is Mike
Tyson has been knocked out, not yelling and screaming. It his call forever
on the Foreman fight is it happened? And well, I think it.
I think it works. It was worked screaming or anything else. But that
was interesting what he told you about telling himself thanks. But so the point
I was making though, was that because he had not thought of something that
he might think about saying in the in the unlikely event in most people's minds,
that George would win the title, he kept he says this on this
is this is what Jim has said to me and others that in his mind.
As Michael is laying on the canvas and Joe Cortes is counting him and
the blood is welling up inside his mouth and his lips, and George is
standing in the corner watching what happened, he kept thinking to himself in those
few seconds, George telling him how it was going to take place, that
Michael Moore was gonna come at some point stand in front of him and let
him and and and let himself be knocked out. And so and that's what
happened. And so when he when he thought that, he says, it
happened. It happened, and it made for the the great call of one
of the most incredible uh achievements in the history of boxing for George Foreman as
that type of at that age against a fresh young champion who was faster than
him in a southpaw and mobile and could move and could punch, and you
know, had a great, great career. Came and stood in front of
h in a round ten and let himself get knocked out. And I can't
believe that was how many years ago? Is that? That's twenty nine years
ago on that one. So I'm gonna tell you one other quick thing about
this is virtually thirty years ago when you and I are like fresh out of
college and trying to figure out what we're doing in the working world. So
bring me my way back fight. So here's my own personal memory of that
fight. Obviously, long before I'm covering boxing. I am. I'm a
sports writer at a newspaper in upstate New York, and I was still I
was twenty at that point. I was I would just turned twenty four.
I was still living at home with my mother, hadn't yet moved out.
I was actually a few weeks away from moving out on my own. And
I'm living with my mom and my sister, and I'm when I'm watching they're
asleep on a Saturday night. It's like, you know, probably close to
midnight or whatever, and I'm in my bedroom and I'm watching HBO I'm watching
the fight. I actually probably had come in purposely to watch the fight as
opposed to being out with my friends and stuff. So I'm watching the fight,
and when George knocked Michael Moore out, I freak out. I started
jumping around my room and screaming and holler and going crazy. I cannot believe
what just happened. And I woke my mother and my sister up, and
I remember them coming in banging on the door, like, what the hell.
Something's wrong? Right? They got to call the paramedics or something.
And I have to explain to my mom, now, sorry I woke you
up, but George Truman just won the heavyweight championship twenty years after he lost
to Mom and Ali. My mom gave me the stink. I went back
to bed. Uh. Well, the nostalgia, we love the nostalgia on
all fronts. Also Larry Holmes's birthday this weekend, Michael as we mentioned Michael
Buffer's birthday this weekend, that's in November, first week in November. Nostalgia
in and around the heavyweights, Vegas, famous stuff. Love it all right,
I think we're good. On a recap. One reminder, go back
to the previous podcast and hear from Jamel Herring because Dan rayphield his fight the
Heroes on the Hudson card at the Edison Ballroom in New York. Jamel,
former world champion, is back in the main event of that. He talked
to us on the Big Fight Weekend preview the previous podcast that fight Tuesday Night
is main event. Fight is coming Tuesday night, and Jamil had a lot
of great stuff to say about his career, what it must do, etc.
So again, we're kind of even though we're recapping, we're a little
bit in the preview mode for Tuesday. So that's on Tuesday night. That's
a little it'll be reminiscent of Tuesday Night fights because like I said, it
is on his own so you can watch it there you go on that.
I think we're good, my friend, good recap stuff, news and nostalgia.
Let's have a good week and we'll see what happens with Jammel's fight.
We'll be writing about it on the site and on your substack, and then
we'll get into the preview mode coming this weekend. Everything else good sounds good
to me. There is the one and only Dan Refiel. I'm merely TJ
Reeves. Thank you for finding us. Make sure you're following subscribing to the
Fight Freaks Unit recap podcast and the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. You get
all the great podcasts content with us here. For now, we are good
off the weekend again. You've been listening to the Fight Preach to Night recap podcast