The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend now here
is your host. DJ leaves well off of the Thanksgiving holiday, but still
the holiday weekend. And by the way, it is also Black Friday as
we release the podcast and the mayhem that goes on with that. We are
here, Yes, we are here because we've got a very intriguing full fledged
pay per view card headline by David Benavitez and Demetrius Andre that will be going
over. Plus we've got Ryan Garcia one on one with one Dan Rayfield.
There is a lot here, a lot here, and we're glad that you're
with us again off the Thanksgiving holiday on the Big Fight Weekend preview on the
somewhat competent host TJ Reeves. He is our insider. Fight Freaks Unit is
his substack. Also Bigfight Weekend dot Com. Hello Dan Rayfield, And the
obligatory question that I ask so many as everything unfolds with Thursday to Friday into
Friday night, et cetera. Did you get enough to eat? Hello there,
my friend. Oh, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner plenty, But
as I said to you in our podcast last week, Turkey not him,
Turkey my son had plenty of cranberry sauce. I had stuffing, which she
doesn't care for. So it was all good. Nothing you ate And for
the record, you ate out as you were talking about, Yes, Reeves
conglomerate with my wife's family, the Franklin family. We did all of that,
so we consumed all the food. The trip to fan took effect about
the second half of the Cowboys game this afternoon for us. I don't know
if it's going to kick in for you as we're doing the podcast late Thursday
into Friday here, but we're all good. I think everybody by the millions
is gorged themselves. I'll be awake. I'll be awake in time for the
bet Us show on Friday. That'll be good. Yes, we will be
there. We will be handicapping and doing much more. We got a bunch
on this program. As I mentioned Ryan Garcia coming up. It better leave
some reviews to be in the holidays. They need to review us, please
if you like what you're hearing. And by the way, we're coming down
the home stretch of November and it's another massive month in terms of audience.
But still it helps us peeps when people say, how can you help the
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I'm putting this out there two ways. Number one, share it out.
Number two, rate us and review us, because again in the algorithms,
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ist boxing Nostalgia is. Do that, rate us, review us, Apple
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following or subscribing because you get all the great content. For example, this
happened this past week. If you're following or subscribing, you got the automatic
notification ding light Vibrate. We haven't done that in a while. That David
Benavitez one on one interview that you did with him was available on the podcast
feed. Here's a hint. After you hear Ryan Garcia here on this podcast,
you'll have a chance to hear it again without any other prompt or any
other notification if you're following or subscribing, So rate us, review us,
follow, subscribe, et cetera. And by the way, just one more
plug. You've got some other big time interviews coming as well. They just
need to be following and subscribing the podcast to hear who melse real quick.
Well, I'll tell you, I mean we have because they've all got important
fights coming up. As we have interviews coming with both Regis Progray and Devin
Hainey, who fight each other in a very significant fight on December ninth,
and on that same night on the Top Rank card. In one of the
bouts on the main broadcast is the excellent young, up and coming junior middle
eight prospect Xander Zyas. We have an interview with him. So we got
plenty and I'm not done yet. Yeah, I know, And we're still
rolling along here. You've heard from both David Benavitas and Demetrius Andred on this
podcast feed already. You've heard from and I keep rattling this off, Shakur
Stevenson recently, Tim Zu recently, Oscar de la Hoy, I'm gonna leave
some money out, Jim Lampley, all these different personalities. You gotta love
it. It's not just you and me bloviating. We've got We've got names,
although bloviating can be a good thing with you and me. We got
good names, newsmakers, famous famous people in the fight game. We love
all of that. All right, enough of the kissing up to you and
the kissing up for how good the podcast is, Let's get to it.
Saturday night, PBC pay per view, the interim, the WBC Interim super
Middleweight Championship on the line, David Benavitez, Demetrius Andred. We have reached
fight weekend. Interestingly, they did the press conference stuff because of the Thanksgiving
holiday Tuesday. They then did the fighter workouts on Wednesday. You got the
holiday on Thursday. They'll weigh in on Friday. Now we're getting namped up
and this we keep saying this. This is a solid card besides just the
main event. But let's begin. Where do you want to begin as it
gets underway? I guess we begin with the main event, right, absolutely
part of the show. Like like you said, it's a good pay per
view card overall. Again, I would love it if it wasn't on pay
per view, But as long as it is on pay per view, I
feel like, at least if you're buying the payper u as a fan,
you have four bona fide fights on the broadcast. There's there's not a I
don't put it like this of the four bouts that are part of this main
main card, I don't really view any of them as a mismatch. The
one you might look at on paper and say might be mismatchy, if that's
even a word, might be the Jamal Charlow Jose Benavidez Junior fight. But
the reason why maybe it's not is because you know, Charlot hasn't fought for
two and a half years and there's all kinds of problems. We'll get into
that when we previewed that fight. But anyway, it's a good show,
showtime pay per views, last show, PPV dot Com of course one of
our great sponsors here on the podcast. But in terms of that main event,
I'm looking forward to it. I mean, we all, I think
wanted to see or would have preferred to see Canelo fighting Benavite's in his September
fight that didn't happen. So if you're Benavidez, you're looking for something else.
Now we'll go back a few months ago and there was a deal that
was made between the Benavides team and the David Morrell team, which will been
a heck of a fight. Also, David, as he explained in our
interview that I asked him that, well, his promoter's never bothered to ask
him about it, and he preferred the Andreid fight because he felt like andre
if he beats him, brings more of a more acclaim if he will because
Demetris is a two division world champion, He's an undefeated fighter, he's been
around a lot longer, He's an Olympian, and although Morell is an undefeated
fighter also, Andred has a bigger reputation and is more highly regarded at the
present time given his longer track record in the sport, which is understandable.
But to me, it was like, if you want to fight Morell,
I'd be happy. If you want to fight andre I'm happy too. I'm
glad Demetris is finally getting the opportunity, fifteen years into his career to get
what I would consider a marquee fight. So this is at Mandalay Bay on
Saturday. And yes, it's for the Benavidi's interim WBC Superman Await title.
And that's all. Well, I'm good, but I believe and I think
you agree with me, and I think most boxing fans would agree with me
that this is this is for more than just an interim belt. To me,
this is like to determine the people's mandatory. The winner of this fight
is going to be the opponent that I believe the public will demand that the
unders sputter champion Canelo Alvarez fights next. Hopefully that comes to pass. Uh,
you know, I don't know what they have planned other than the fact
that he intends to be in the ring come May on the Sinko de Maya
weekend, and certainly, you know, barring some kind of you know,
tremendous injury, there's no reason why the winner of this fight can't have a
good long holiday rest and then go back and have a legit training camp and
be ready to fight Canelo for the for all the belts. And by the
way, I concur with you, I think it is and especially if it's
been a vetus because he's been in position and it's within the PBC family.
Andre just came to the PBC family. But Sir, I think you would
agree. I think we would all agree that whoever wins this is the most
logical guy and sellable guy. I agree with you, yeah, and I
I like my tag. I call the winner of this fight the people's mandatory
fair nothing. Now the winner will be an organizational mandatory too if the WBC
you know, says so uh, but his his uh mandatory is not due
Canelo. But the point is this is the most active fight, whoever is
the winner, and particularly if it's ben Avitez, because it just would probably
lend itself to a greater action. But in terms of the animosity, if
you will, they had a lot of shit talk between Canelo and dimitri Is
going back to win. Dimitrius present at his press conference following his knockout victory
over Billy Joe Sunders, where you know, he had some choice words to
say to Andre, not because Andre was rude, It was really his father,
as we've talked about. But anyway, this is a good main event.
I think there's a very significant style difference between these two guys. David
Denavitez, as anybody who spent three seconds watching him knows, he's a brawler.
He's a puncher, He's a guy that likes to just go after his
opponent. He's got a good chin. He's an undefeated fighter. You know,
he's twenty six, he's not even in the prime of his career.
Doesn't seem to me and then in Demetrius Andred. You know, he's older,
he's in the mid thirties, but he's undefeated. I think he's dramatically
underrated from the standpoint though, even though he hasn't had the big marquee names
on his record and he may not have humongous amounts of knockouts, he has
actually scored knockouts in three consecutive fights, and those were not against bumaps.
He also has in other fights, maybe not knocked outs, but he has
a tremendous amount of knockdowns if you take a look through the years on his
record. And this is the fight he's been wanting, this caliber of a
fight, and it's like both of the fighters said leading up to this matchup,
you know, we both needed a dance partner. I needed a guy
that had a reputation, that had, you know, a good name and
a good reputation, is what Benavitez was saying. And Andre, you know,
he said, I didn't have the choice and the you know, the
the ability to pick and choose. I want to fight. I needed to
fight a big, big name, and David was the guy willing to fight
me. So here we are. They both know what it means they've both
shown a lot of respect for each other. But I know that they're going
to fight their asses off when the bell rings. I expect nothing less than
that by all accounts. By the way, I've seen videos of Victor Conte
at his snack outfit in San Matteo, California. He's in the Andred camp,
and I've seen videos from Victor Demetrius. Andreid is in unbelievable condition.
I think you will see that at the weigh in on Friday, you know
which is. We're taping this on Thursday, so we haven't seen him this
yet, but he looks like he's having at just a tremendous training camp.
I have no doubt about the Benavidez is going to be prepared. You know,
these guys are coming to do a put on a good fight. I
mean, I know that that that Andrea sometimes has left people a little cold
in his style, but he doesn't run. That's the thing. He's a
great boxer. He'll stand in the pocket. He'll just make you miss and
and then land his own punches. And Benavidez is going to stalk after him.
I think the styles will mesh nicely, and I'm hopeful that that will
translate. I don't expect to fight at the year, but I expect a
very solid and competitive fight for as long as it ghost. High stakes for
sure, and fair to say. It's the highest profile fight that Andre has
had. He's had world title fights, but I mean he's bend also by
the way, yes, and he's but he's been headlining it previously andred on
his own that has fewer people seeing it. I believe they won't ever confirm
that, but this this is a higher profile situation. And by the way,
you did prompt we are sponsored by our friends at PPV dot com.
Don't let me be negligent here that. In addition to hearing from Ryan Garcia,
Mark Bocarti is back on the podcast to tell you more about PPV dot
com and the great interactive part of this. Again, I won't ruin the
surprise. He's got something for you on the interactive part. You'll hear that
conversation as well later on here in the podcasts. They're sponsoring us and leading
up to this. Okay, so that's the main event you mentioned. Jamal
Charlo is in the co feature fight, a fight that is a non title
fight despite Jamal Charlo still having the WBC's middleweight crown and the fight's not even
a middleweight fight for this with Jose Benavidez Junior, the older brother of David
Benavitez, and Jose Benavidez Juniors only had one fight at middleweight himself. So
all right, what do you make of this? Give me a couple of
thoughts because Charlo back in the ring for the first time in what some what
is it twenty nine months since we last saw him two and a half years,
So thoughts on this. I have a few thoughts on it. One,
I'm happy that Jamal is back. I'm glad that he seems to be
doing better in his personal life because he obviously had a lot of issues.
He's talked about his mental well, his mental health problems he's had, and
you know, he may not go deep into it, but you know,
there's no question he was had, you know, an alcohol problem also that
contributed to his layoff. The layoff originally started. If you remember, he
was supposed to fight mass Hill so Celeski, an opponent actually that Demetris Andre
defeated a few years ago in a one sided fight where he also scored a
knockdown and that fight was called off because Charlie had a back injury. It
was termed to me at the time, you know, it's not anything significant.
He should be you know, ready to go, you know, maybe
a month and it would be rescheduled. That obviously never happened, and he
went into you know, and he was already to do that fight. It
was already coming off of the year layoff since his fight against one the Seas.
This was supposed to be. He had fought one to see Us Montielle
in June of twenty twenty one, his last fight, on one sided decision,
but looked pretty bad in the fight. He was supposed to come back
against Celeski the following June, also in Houston. This is June twenty twenty
two. They were doing They were doing the mo On Tiel fight and the
Celeski if I was supposed to be on June tenth in Houston, his hometown.
He didn't fight in the June twenty twenty two date, and now he
didn't fight the June twenty twenty three and here we are all the way into
November. Remember he passed on the opportunity to be Canelo's opponent in September,
because this was the opponent that was supposed to be the opponent, not his
brother Jermal, So it was sort of unexpected because again he was not prepared
either mentally or physically to do that fight. Now he's been back in the
gym and he's I guess, in good shape. So if this was the
Jamal Charlotte that we have known, the guy that had a win over Devyn
Schenko, the guy that had a nice win over Brandon Adams by almost a
shutout, the guy that defeated a very solid opponent in Matt Kruba for example,
those types of guys. Thing you would think to yourself, this is
a Charlotte win, no problem, because Benavides Junior is a pretty good fighter,
but not even close to being a middle eight. Now, just for
the record, this fight his contract at one hundred and sixty three pounds,
so it's not all the way at one six state, but it's certainly above
the middleweight limit by three pounds. Why he's not defending his title. It
kind of annoys me. If you're off two years plus and you're back in
the ring, you should be a total defense. But that's the gad there
agreed. So, but the charlot at his best or even close to his
best, or middling at his best, you'd figure Benavidez is an easy win
for him, just based on a lot of factors, size being only one
of them. Partly because if you look at Jose Benavitez's track record in his
history, there's really I mean, I'm not knocking the guy, and he's
a great amateur fighter, and he had some good moments when he was a
junior welterweight, but ever since he went up to the welterweight division, you
know, it's been very average. You Know, this big moment was against
Terrence Crawford. He got dominated and knocked out in the twelfth round. He
came back off that fight, that was a twenty eighteen loss to Terrence Crawford.
He didn't fight again for almost three years, a little over three years,
a matter of fact, and he fought to a draw against just a
regular opponent. Then he went up to junior middleweight. That that fight that
he came back from the Crawford fight, that was the middleweight fight or a
middleweight fight. He fought Danny Garcia in a Mitwaight fight, lost a close
decision, but a clear loss in my opinion. And then this was a
fight that I was actually at, which was in August of this year,
on the undercard of a fight that was at the National Harbor when they had
the bantamweight They Can title fight. This was a non televised about and he
stopped a guy just like a guy with a record of thirty six wins and
fifteen losses. They stopped you know, he stopped him in the fifth round.
I believe they were probably getting him ready for this fight, even though
we didn't know for sure at the time that he was going to be Charlote's
come back opponent. In any event, he's just done absolutely nothing, you
know, for years. So if it was a normal version of Charlotte,
you'd think, Okay, he's going to be the oppose Benavidez pretty endily.
But between his problems and a layoff, and and and the fact that at
least ben Avida is whatever you want to say, even if it was not
a great opponent, he's been in the ring just a few months ago.
Maybe he's a little sharp. He's been there training with his brother. Obviously,
you know, they're they're doing good work in that camp, so I
like his chances a little bit better, I guess. But you know,
with Charlot, I'm very interested to see what he has coming off of such
a long way off and in a pretty lackluster showing, even in a win
in the last fight. All right, So I got a couple of things
on this, and I wrote this for the Big Fight week in website.
In both cases, I don't know that we know what to expect, and
I don't know that either fighter knows what to expect, including Jamal Charlo.
How can you after being out of the ring for two and a half years,
and Ben Avitez here has again only he's been very inactive, only had
one fight like in the last almost two years. So I don't know what
we can expect. I will say this, and I will remain consistent that
the WBC should order Jamal Charlo to fight Carlos Odamis in short order after this
fight, especially when Jamal Charlo is talking again this week that I'm moving up
to super middleweight. All right, hold his feet to the fire. If
that's what you're gonna do, then, for what it's worth, order comment
and let's go. The WBC had their convention last week in in news bekastand
and one of the things they said was after this fight, Charlotte will be
ordered to fight a Damas. And remember their original order was Adamis and Charlotte
were both permitted. One intern about Adamas had his but it was quite a
while ago, and so now he'll be ordered to do this. Whether he
moves up after that or not remains to be seen. I hope they don't
try to shove Jamal against Canelo down our throats in May, even if he
looked spectacular against Benavide's, because that would really, to me be kind of
ridiculous. But that's a complaint and a bitch and moan session for another day.
I'm happy to see Charlot back. We'll see if Benavide's I'm sure he's
going to be pumped up, you know, fight on the same big show
with his brother. One of the things that intrigues me about this, and
I asked David Benavitez about this in the interview that I did, was the
fact that his brother's fight is preceding his fight, so his father, who
is the trainer for both of the guys, is going to be in the
ring dealing with brother, while David is preparing in the back, you know,
in the dress room, warming up risk fight. Now, of course
they've got other guys on their team, but to me, you'd think you
not only you'd want your main guy there with you at the most important moment
of your career, combined with the fact that David maybe thinking you're worrying a
little about how his brother is doing, because as David has pointed, I
worry much more about my brother than I do about myself. Understandably, I'm
sure jose would respond in the similar fashion. So there is that dynamic there
where there you know, there's a little bit of things that are out of
the norm because her dad is going to be with the brother, and you
know, men, let's say maybe the brother gets knocked out. Okay,
that's maybe gonna throw the dad off a little bit. Uh, and that's
gonna upset everybody, and it's going to just make things You're just you're giving
what I think would be a good possibility, an advantage Andre that you don't
need to be giving him, so they should. Yeah, no, no,
I mean Andre, I mean Andre, Andre in the big in the
in the big fight. I'm sorry, and I understand they're trying to show
Jamal respect by having him in the co feature, but I feel like the
way this should have gone is that Charlo and Benevidia should have been the second
fight on the pay per view. Then you put in the Mattias in the
co feature and then the main event, and the reason is obviously because of
that, and you can still promote it in the same fashion. Obviously given
much more of a promotion, especially when it's not a title fight like what
we're laying out. But again, but so much sense? Are we being
too logical? Again? Wet like this if something goes wrong because of whatever
happens in Jose's fight and somehow it trickles over to whatever happens in the main
event. I don't want to hear anybody on Team Benavide's brother or main event
complain about that because I think it's a poorly constructed timing in my mind.
But they're they're adults, will see what happens. But anyway, it's a
I'm looking forward to seeing Charlotte back in the ring of what Jose can show
him. Let's wrap this card too. Other world title fights, Mattias and
Hector Luis Garcia are both defending their titles and are both favored. Well,
we'll handicap it more on the bet Us Show. Quick thoughts here on this
before we move along, and we're eventually getting to Ryan Garcia and your conversation
with him. Well, I do think that the Mattias against uh ergyshev Is
is probably the most interesting fight other than the main event of the of the
main four of the other three television fights. First of all, Mattias is
a punching He is nineteen and one with nineteen knockouts. The one loss he
had was a decision that was not that long after he was involved in a
fight where his opponent died. He did exact revenge on that opponent who we
lost the decision to a fighter named Petros and Nanian, who he knocked out
in the ninth round of the rematch. He had an absolute war, a
great shootout with JEREMIAHS. Ponce earlier this year in February on Showtime to win
the vacant IBF title. That was a tremendous battle. And he's just an
all out puncher. He just when you think about the big names at one
hundred and forty pounds, whether it's Ryan Garcia, or it's tf Mo Lopez
who's the champion with the WBO title and the lineal title, or you think
about you know, Regius pro Gray or Devin Haintey moving up to that weight
class, or you know, you can go on right down the line.
You know there's plenty of good talent in that division, Josey Ramirez and Arnold
Barbos and blah blah blah. We can go out and on. Certainly if
Tank Davis decides to fight there again, the one guy no one ever mentions
Suberal Mattias, but he might be the baddest ass of all of them,
just because of that fierce punching power. So he's taken on his mandatory challenger,
Ergashev, who's twenty three to oh with twenty knockouts. Obviously he can
crack a bit too. He's also a southpaw. He's from Muzbekistan. You
know, their fighters have shown themselves be awfully tough in the pro ranks generally
speaking. His one bugaboo here because he's been waiting for this fight. He
has had not had the opportunity to fight since August the last year, so
it's a little bit over a year since his last fight, But this does
shape up like you know, you know, whoever can land the big punch
first is probably gonna do the damage. I think this has a chance to
be a real good shootout, similar to the Ponse fight. So I'm really
pumped up for this one. And and if Mattias wins, you know,
he's just another great name in a very deep weight class where there's you can
basically take about six or eight names and put them in a hat, pull
it out, and you can make a nice matchup with any of those guys.
You know. The biggest fight in that weight class is the one that
that Golden Point and Topprink are talking about about potentially between Ryan Garcia and Tiatimo
Lopez. But uh, for just moment by moment action in a fight,
if you give me subrial matias against a lot of these different guys, I
think you're gonna get yoursel hell of a fight. So that that's the Uh,
that's one of the title fights on the card. And when the other
one you talk about the other one too. That's the hector Luis Garcia.
He is defending the WBA's title at one hundred thirty pounds. Now, remember
when he won that title in August of last year and by beating Roger Gutierrez.
He has not yet defended that title because in his next fight, he
went up to one hundred and thirty five pounds and he fought for Gervonte Davis's
regular title in that weight class. This was the pay per view that tanked
it in January that he needed to win to set up his big fight in
April with Ryan Garcia and Hector Leis Garcia. You know, he gave a
pretty good account of himself. Wasn't a very particularly like a memorable type of
fight, but he did what he had to do to survive and get along
as long as he did. And you know, he won a couple He
wont some rounds in that fight. It wasn't like he was you know,
he probably won too two rounds in the fight. But in any event,
he did get stopped in the in the ninth round, so it was obviously
a clear loss. And now he because it was a lightweight fight, he
retains he's still the title holder at one hundred and thirty. So now he's
back in that weight class and he is defending the belt in his mandatory against
Lamont Roach, who is a very classy boxer, twenty three to one in
one. Most people, if they've seen him, they saw because he was
with Golden Boys whole career and fought on those shows on the way up the
ranks. When he did get a world title fight back in twenty nineteen,
he was also the mandatory at that time for the WBO belt and he gave
a very solid effort and a pretty good fight against Jamael Herring. He did
lose a decision, but he's won four fights in a row since then,
and he's back in this position and I think, you know, he's still
not an old fighter, you know, in his late twenties, so for
him, it's a chance to win the title that has eluded him. But
it's time to sink or swim. I mean, you know, this is
a big opportunity for me and Hector. Luis Garcia to me is a good
fighter, but there is a winnable fight for both guys. All Right.
That concludes all the discussion about the showtime PBC card, just real quick earlier
in the day, and we'll be handicapping this one as well on the Friday.
Bet Us one Eastern Time Show on their platforms. The women undisputed junior
welterweight title held by Shantel Cameron in England. They will fight in Dublin,
Ireland. Katie Taylor gets the rematch. Cameron beat her earlier in the year.
This is the rematch. Give me something real quick on that one as
well. I mean, obviously I just set it up here. The rematch
is the industrigue here because Cameron beat her the first time around, well when
she beat her back in May. I mean, if you remember, this
was Katie's homecoming fight. She had never had a professional fight in Ireland.
The reasons were because of I know, I have to go out to the
details, but that was mom a mob related shooting involving the Daniel Kinahan crew
that took place at Away in Ireland basically banned professional boxing for a while.
So when Katie was turning pro, she fought all of her fights either in
America or in England and places like that, but she never had the opportunity
to fight in Ireland, where she is a national hero after her Olympic medal
and having become the undisputed women's lightweight champion, and also had previously won a
title at one hundred and forty. Now she had stepped up in May to
fight Chantel Cameron for the undisputed a Tunnel. Remember, this was supposed to
be the rematch between Katie and Amanda Serrano. Serrano got injured and was and
dropped out of the rematch for Katie's lightweight title, and Katie basically went on
social media and like very as because Katie, if you ever met the woman
is as nice and as polite and humble as any any athletes you'll ever meet.
And it was like the nicest call out I've ever seen one boxer to
another. There was no cursing and no foul language and no threats or whatever.
You know, it was pretty pleased. You know, it would be
a great deal if we could make this fight. I mean, she was
so nice about it, but they're both promoted by match Room Boxing and she
wanted to save her date in May of earlier this year, and so it
was like, within I felt like a few days of that post on her
social media that Matroom was able to make a deal with Chantel Cameron, who
agreed to put her undisputed title up and go to Ireland for Katie's homecoming fight.
It was a fantastic promotion, It was a huge event, It was
a sellout crowd. It was a fucking great fight. I mean, we
all know, we give the plot as to how great the fight was between
Katie and Serrano for women's boxing with just a fantastic action fight. Now,
maybe when Katie fought Chantel Cameron, it wasn't at that fever pitch level of
action, but a sures heck wasn't that far behind. It was a tremendous
battle. Katie Taylor lost a majority decision by one point in the ring.
She said, you know, I'll see you for the rematch. She had
obviously as the as the big superstar, she had the right to a rematch
in that fight, which she invoked immediately. And we're doing it again,
same arena in Dublin. And you know, anytime you're in a fight where
you're the possibility of you losing two in a row in boxing at the highest
level, you know, it's never a good thing. And particularly you know
it's not like you know, Katie has has a lot of wear and tear
on her at this age. Now, Chantell is thirty two years old and
only has eighteen fights in her career. Katie's got twenty three fights, but
she's much older. She's thirty seven, but she had way more amateur fights.
I mean, she's an older fighter and being honest, I mean as
great as she is, and she'll be in the Hall of Fame someday.
It's pretty clear if you watch her last handful of fights that she's slowing down
the little bit. I mean, that's obvious. But she's got a great
chance to write another huge chapter in her history if she can win this second
homecoming fight, if you will, and become she would be only the second
female boxer in the four beltier anyway, and really that's encompasses most of the
most of women's boxing history because it hasn't really been around in a meaningful way
since pretty much like the nineties, I guess. But there's only been one
other female to become undisputed in two way class, and that is CLARESSA.
Shields, who has been a two time undisputed at middleweight and also undisputed at
junior middleweight. So this is a huge moment for Katie. Cameron has a
great attitude about this, you know, she admitted this week in some of
her comments about you know, she won the fight fair enough, but she
talked about being in awe of Katie Teller going to Ireland and kind of getting
caught up in the hoopla of the whole thing. And she's still won.
And now she's like, look, I went through it already. Nothing's going
to phase me at all this time. I know what to expect, and
I'm at whatever my situation was of being in awe or being kind of unnerved
by my surroundings, no problem this week, because I've already done, been
there, done that same arena. She'll probably have the same dressing room,
so it's not gonna be an issue. So I expect another action packed fight,
and you know, I think either of these women can win the fight.
We'll see if Katie can dig down deep in and make history in front
of her hometown people and win on dispute of championship. And we know who
Amanda Serrano is rooting for, because a second Katie Taylor loss here takes a
lot of the steam out of their rematch. She wants Katie, obviously to
to you know, to get this opportunity, take advantage of this opportunity in
the rematch. We'll see what happens in that one. And again that's Saturday
afternoon US time, the match Room de Zone Show from Dublin. I'm looking
forward to that one. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again. We
got a we got a full day of fights coming for sure. All right,
full podcast that includes Ryan Garcia. We gave you a lot there,
Ryan, back in action coming up next weekend, not this weekend, but
next weekend. Well save the date because people are gonna talk about this next
week December second, December second, Yes, the Toyota Center downtown Houston,
Ryan and Oscar Duarte, which you're gonna talk to himbout out the caliber of
that opponent. Plus you're going to talk to him about the future. You've
been laying out some other possibilities earlier in this podcast. What about the relationship
with oh, by the way, Oscar de la Joy. Yeah, that
always seems to be hot cold, hot cold. What's the latest. Let's
get to that conversation right now. Well, I'm really happy to bring into
the podcast today the excellent junior Welter rate star Ryan Garcia. Ryan, we're
here to talk about your very important fight with Oscar Duarte. Coming up December
two, live on his own from the Toyota Center in Houston. I wondered
about your comeback. We'll talk about that. How are you doing. Thank
you so much for being on today. Yeah, thank you for having me
doing great Chinese gondwel and everything is running smoothly. So let's get into it.
Let's get into it. So we'll start off. We'll just backtrack a
little bit before we get into the fight you got coming up. I want
to go back to April. Maybe not your greatest memory, but you did
have a huge pay per view fight with Tank Davis did big business one point
two million pay per view buys eight in Novata of almost twenty three million dollars.
But that was the good news. The bad news, of course,
you know, he did get the seventh round knockout. I just wondered if
you could talk to me about what it was like to sort of get over
your first loss and being involved in such a massive event for the sport.
You know, it wasn't uh, it was a devastating for me. You
know, I just didn't feel that was me at my best. It wasn't
me at my best. It wasn't something that even hurt my ego a little
bit. It was just something that I went through because at that point,
I didn't have this type of focus. I didn't have this type of dedication
or commitment to the game. You know, Ever since twenty twenty, what
happened, COVID happened, had to take some time off and after Cambo,
I took a year and a half off, and then I'm fighting. Then
I'm not fighting. There was just so much chaos and just things that through
my game, off my game, and I lost the love and I lost
the commitment and the focus for boxing, and I started doing stupid stuff,
and then I started losing. I was how I fight? What kind of
stupid stuff were you doing? What do you mean by that? Man?
Like drinking and doing whatever I wanted. I was a younger. I could
do whatever I want, you know, I would. I would go parties,
you know, Jake Paul parties and just doing whatever I want. I
was having fun. But it got up to me because you know, after
I took those long layoffs, you know, how can I stay in the
gym? How can I wasn't doing anything but just having fun. So you
know, those things backtracked me a lot. And really caused me to you
know, not be the best fighter. But this fight, when I lost,
it woke up something else. It woke up you know, me to
think. I had to start thinking like, okay, what is what is
missing here? Because I know I'm good. I know I'm a great fighter.
I know that wasn't how I fight, Like what's going on? I
went to the thinking box and uh, it was just my commitment. So
when I got to Dallas, got out of Vala al A, got a
lot of distractions. I got to Dallas and just committed to committed, like
like, I just trusted that if I commit and just stay in, locked
in, that myself will come out something like I'll figure it out. And
that's what happened, man, And that loss. I'm not even worried about
it at all. I feel great right now. One is definitely my weight
class, more forty at more forty seven, I'm pretty confident that I'm going
to start taking over a little by little. Well, you mentioned about you
knowing your weight class. Of course, when you fought Tank, the weight
was one hundred and thirty six. You know do you had to drop down
a few pounds at a catchweight and on top of that, you had to
deal with the rehydration clause that you agreed to the weigh in on the morning
of the fight, so you were limited how much you could go up after
the weigh in. Uh. In looking back, you regret signing that part
of the agreement and insisting on better weight for you. No, I don't
regret it at all. Because boxing was born, nobody wanted to box,
nobody wanted to fight. You know, look at me, me, not
even at my best. I was ready to give the fans what they want.
You know. That kind of started a whole thing where, you know,
finally Crawl from the Spence figured it out and they threw down and people
started, you know, caring about boxing the game. Uh. But then
when fighters stopped fighting each other again, then they look to these weird fights
like Dean the Great and these random dues that that that suck at boxing.
And look at at least I brought some excitement in it, you know what
I mean, at least energy to the city. Wasn't my best performance and
actually wasn't need to be, but still that that was the purpose of that.
I'm tired of boxing was born. Now now it's popp now I'm ready
now because now everybody wants to got a little bit of balls now to fight.
Uh finally, because they seem it's a new blueprint. I showed them
give the fans what they want to make some good money. This is how
you do pay per views. Every fight got to be on pay per view,
only the ones that matten. That's that's the whole concept people got to
see. I mean, you were successful before the Tank Davis. You were
making good persons and you were very popular selling tickets. But I just wonder
when you have your first really big pay per view fight like that, is
a y'all overwhelmed by the money that gets made. I mean I heard Oscar
talk about how you may have made as much as thirty million dollars for the
fight with Tank Davis. Obviously it did a huge amount of business, and
if you made it even close to that, I got to believe that that
is a record purse for a fighter that never won a world title. Yeah,
was it overwhelming to make that kind of money. I mean, I
know it's the goal here besides the glory, but that's a big deal.
No, it was insane. I think I did make history on making the
most money without a world title efference. And I did make that. I
mean to make it very clear, and they made that, and I was
I was very astonished. I was like, whoa like, I was overwhelmed.
I couldn't believe it was in my bank account. And by the way,
the money is still going to be coming in because the pay per views
takes some time to count up. It's still rolling in. We're still receiving
checks too. But that's just a blessing and it's just to me in points
of the direction world. I'm selling everybody. You know, there's a new
blueprint, and I I figured it out. I just didn't have a chance
to fight on pay per view, you know, I uh, the old
model just doesn't work. You can't put on every final pay per view.
It doesn't work like that, you know. And on top of it,
you know, Tank Davis is only doing two hundred k boys, one hundred
and fifty k boys. That's the true and then we fight one point too.
It's not wronge signs, you know, it's not hard to tell.
But yeah, it was a little overwhelming. A lot of money, a
lot of things that you face with that. You know, people you don't
know what their intentions are anymore. Then you just like oh shoo, like
like I'm like guarded up, but I'm also like such an open book,
so it's like kind of weird. Like everybody, I'm not one to give
a live advice to fighters, but my one piece of advice after all the
years I've done this is learn the word no. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
for sure, That's what I've been learning. I can't make no more
compromises. Man, I'm just saying no, can't do it. I'm sorry.
It's value better, all right. So back on boxing. The business
is interesting. But in terms of the boxing, of course, after the
fight, you split up with Joe Goosen, who is the trainer uh for
for that fight as well as some of your fights prior to that, you
went uh and worked with Derek James h got the blessing of Errold Spence and
now part of that gym down there working with Derek. If you can just
tell me how was that going? And I wonder what is what has Derek
showed you or brought to you That's maybe something different or better than what Joe
had with you. Honestly, me and Derek, Uh, you know,
Derek's been been really working with me about technique and just kind of polishing what
I do up, uh, and footwork and a lot of the that's what
you really wanted to focus on foot for work, technique technique. So he
was drilling in the beginning of the camp. That's all I was doing.
If you see the videos, I wasn't going fast, I wasn't thought hard.
It was just technique, technique, technique. And then on top of
it, you know, he's he's always reminded me of not let up,
Like if I have a good day, he just called me right now,
that's what I ignore, uh, But he's always called me to say stop
let and don't let us just because he had a good day. I don't
care if you had a good day. I don't care how good you look.
Tomorrow is a new day. You got to get right back to.
And I'm like, okay, like because sometimes you get over that happy you
know, you start you start being so sharp as far and you say,
oh I got it now, So you know my personality, i'd be laughing.
He always loved make sure that I get right back too. And it's
just a good vibe in the Jim good energy being in Dallas also me myself.
You know, just being more there, conscious and committed, it all
helps out, you know, the training can. So now you're taking on
Duarte. He's twenty six and one with one draw. He has twenty one
knockouts, so that's indicative that he does have some power. He's twenty seven,
not an old guy. His only loss was a split decision in twenty
nineteen. Other than that, you know, he hasn't had any He lost
to a fighter named Adrian Estrella in a ten round split decision in twenty nineteen.
Not a big resume, but he has a good reputation. So I
wondered if what is your view of him and what have you glean if you've
watched him, or what Derek told you the type of fight you expect him
to give you. You know, I know he's a tough fighter. I
know he's a bestive fighter. But it but it is a style that I've
seen many times before in Southern California, growing up in the gyms, Indio,
California, Coachella. Uh, you know, al Agent, I've seen
it. Also, I think my experience and just where I'm at right now
is just gonna be way too much from I don't see him whinning around.
Uh, anything can happen about it. But I know that I just don't
see him be to me in any way. But I know he hits hard.
He got some people out. But this is for me. It's not
even about doing thing. It's about making an example of showing people this is
who's coming forward. Now, this is this is this is divine you're gonna
get and he's never gonna leave again. The one that was on the Prospect
of the Year Ryan, he's back. Yeah, there you go. Okay,
my prospect of here a few years ago got to make me look good.
I'm gonna make you leg and yeah, I got you did. Hey,
that's gonna be the best decision you've made. Wait, wait back in
five years. Well, I don't have the best decision because I did have
guys like Miguel Coto in the Hall of Fame, Canela Alvarez Vaselli. Give
me some time, give me some you got it, hey, first fight
to make thirty million time. Yeah, that's very good. So now this
may be a little bit delicate, but I have to ask you. You
go into this fight, you're in a lawsuit with your promoter. They sued
you to uphold and enforce your contract that they claim is valid. So I
and that's gotta be uh make everybody involved maybe a little uncomfortable. So I
wonder from your perspective, how is it to work with Golden Boy Oscar and
the team despite the fact that they obviously have some issues, maybe not specifically
with you, more maybe with your advisor in Guadalupe, Valencia, but still
with that as the backdrop, how has that been to deal with all that?
You know, Dan, I can't talk about that. I wish Oscar
said just business. All is good. It's just business, no comment,
no company, Okay, fair enough, I told you just saying no before,
no problem. All right. So another thing I want to ask about
in terms of not that stuff, but in terms of the boxing, is
that back a long time ago when I interviewed you as a younger fighter on
the Rise, I remember asking you one time about, you know, your
desire to be a world champion, and I was actually kind of taken aback
when you told me, like it really wasn't a big deal to you.
I think this is around the time you might be fighting, maybe before you
fought Lou Campbell, which was an interim title fight, but not not a
real major title. And I was a little surprised when you said, you
know, I don't really really care so much about that. I wonder and
my thought was, you know, that's how fighters validate themselves, even to
just win a world title, when they talk about like if they can get
in the Hall of Fame and stuff along those lines. Have you changed your
mind as a winning a world title as you get a little deeper into your
career more important to you know, Oh yeah, that's where That's where I'm
at. You know, I want to become a world champion to validate myself
and uh, you know at that end of my belt. When I first
got into the game, my whole goal was to you know, gain traction
and you know, let people know who I am and you know, become
a huge known name. That was my goal. That was what it was.
And I figured out a way and I was like, oh, he'd
be good at the sport. Boom. I did it. Then I was
like, okay, now we can make a huge fight. And that was
my next goal. I made a huge fight, made a ton of money.
Now my goal is okay, now I know I could be the best
fighter. Let me be the best fighter I could be and become a champion
and show people I could do that. So I kind of had like a
whole thing in my head. But from the loss, you know, that
woke that competitive spirit in me again. It was like me back in the
afterh Okay, you got one on me. All Right, I'm gonna come
back and string these wins in again and and and become a champion. And
then I'm gonna run that right back and beat them because I know I'm a
better fighter. I don't better if when I show and I will be you
mean in a rematch. Oh, I'm gonna get that rematch. Okay,
Well before before the rematch, I want to just wrap up with this.
Uh. There's been a lot of discussion from Bob Aaron from Top Rank,
and from Oscar from Golden Boy. Actually I spoke to about this, saying
that when him and Bob met recently, because they do have some business to
talk to with different fights and fighters, that one of the things that was
predominant in that conversation that took place not that long ago is the prospect of
what would be an I, in my mind, a really huge fight between
you and the WBO lineal champion of the Junior waltheweight division TF Malopez. You
guys are two big names, big personalities, exciting styles, both young.
How does that sound to you? And do you think it's realistic to happen?
They're talking about doing it like in the first fight in the next year
after if you as long as everything goes well for you to come up against
the warte. Yeah, we've been talking about that. Like I said,
I'm ready for him. I'm ready for everybody. I want to become a
champion at one for Uh, my coach is gonna just making these decisions,
Derek. You know, I asked Derek, who does he want me to
fight coming back? Showed him who I want, who I could fight,
and he picked offs the door to So same thing is gonna go here.
Whatever Derek wants is gonna happen. I don't care. Wherever they want is
gonna happen. What is it? Does your heart say, give me to
your female because he's a big name and he's the real champion. Yeah,
I mean that's who I want. I've been calling him out for a minute
because I know I could beat him, so I'll run it with him.
Uh, we gotta figure that that out. I asked Oscar. He said
he wants to do the msg spear uh and I was like, okay,
whatever. I even messaged to a female little bits on Instagram. I said
I had told him do you want to fight? Because he was complaining about
only made a million dollars blah blah blah, and I said, hey,
man, like do you want to make some real money? And then he
said something about like oh Ryan messages me and blah blah blah, Like didn't
you just say you wanted to make more? But he's hoting this is a
fight that you would make money. So yeah, I would love to fight
him, honestly. Well, hopefully that will happen. Obviously got du war
Teddy get through first December second in Houston on his own, Ryan, I
wish you the best of luck in that matchup. I appreciate your time as
always in good luck to you. Hey, God bless you, Dan besive
good stuff as always, and again that that fight week is about to be
here and that battle is about to be here with Duarte. Oscar dal la
Hoya said to you that he was a bit surprised. This is a high
caliber opponent. That Ryan is jumping right back in there with all right,
your your thoughts recapping the interview with Ryan. I think Ryan has a great
attitude going into this fight. You know, he's coming off the loss to
Tank Davis. You know, if you listen, you heard him talk.
I asked him about the money he made thirty million dollars reportedly from what Oscar
said. He said, absolutely that is what I made thereabouts, and the
money is still coming in. And I think he's got the right attitude.
You know, whatever his hot and cold situation with Oscar, he gets it
the way Oscar got it. When Oscar was in his heyday as the money
maker, as the rain maker, as the guy that every wanted to fight,
who could you know, bring in big crowds and big pay per view
audiences no matter what, he still would fight his biggest fights on pay per
view. So when he's fighting Pernol Whittaker or I Quarte or Hector Camacho,
those types of fights. But then when he was fighting the guys that were
where he could have put them on pay per view and maybe still done decent
numbers, but nothing great he wanted to. Still he still can make a
good payday, but when he was fighting the Oba cars and Patrick Sharpentier's and
you know fighters along those lines. He was back on HBO, taking a
lesser purse but still making a lot of money. And I think he under
Oscar understood that I can create my brand and make it bigger by putting these
fights in front of my fans that doesn't cost a lot of extra money,
and we'll save the big ones for pay per view when it makes sense and
we can make even more money. And Ryan has been talking about the same
thing. I don't want to put every fight on pay per view. I
want to put the big fights on pay per view, and for the regular
fights, I want to bring it to the fans. I'm still going to
be a paid but we'll do this on non pay per view. And that's
how you can make yourself a brand name and game loyalty from your followers and
all that. So he gets it, and I'm happy to hear that.
You know, he's not just reaching for every single dollar on the table,
because there's no question that even coming off of a knockout loss to Tank Davis,
they could have put a fight together for him on pay per view and
he probably still would have done you know, somewhere in that one point fifty
range no matter who he was fighting. But you know what, I'm happy
that he didn't do that. They're going to put this on regular dezone.
He looks great. They can make a big fight next. Maybe it'll be
against t Themo Lopez as Oscar and Aaron have been talking about doing for the
next fight, perhaps as soon as February. That's a huge fight. I
don't know if it does one point two million pay per views like the Davis
fight did, but I assure you that that will be a huge money making
fight for both sides. So we'll say, I thought Ryan he's in the
right frame of mind going into his first fight coming off of a loss,
good enough, And we'll obviously talk a bunch more about that fight next week
off the Thanksgiving weekend into December. Man, did I just say out loud
that it's December? Nice and holy cow? All right? Fight news Jermale
Charlow making news off of this uh off of this weekend with the vacating of
another one of his belts. So the undisputed champ that already no longer had
the WBO belt once he stepped in the ring with Canelo Aubarez is now not
the IBF champion any longer as well, So go ahead on that. We
talked about it all the time when it's it's not that it's easy to unify
and become a disputed but it's inevitable that when you do, except in rare
circumstance like what's going on with Canelo, who's been able to keep the doubts
together for a good bit of time, that the mandatories and things other obligations
sneak up on you. And you know, he knew he was being stripped
of the WBO title when he fought their Canelo fight. That was, you
know, just part of the way things worked out because Zoo had been waiting.
He had canceled the fight with Zoo early in the year because of the
hand injury, and everybody knew that when this fight with Canelo was over,
next up was his mandatory against Murtaza Love in the IBF. He has taken
multiple step asideals. He has fought on under cards, he has been on
other PBC shows, but at some point, you know, you kind of
got a shit or get off the pot. So at this point that was
the fight that was next and I don't even blame Charlotte. I mean,
once you give up one and you're not in dispittot, what the hell is
there? And say you two, all you're doing is saving yourself three percent
off your next fight on a sanction fee. So bachram Mura Toazlov doesn't bring
a lot to the table. He's not that, he's not a bad fighter's
twenty one to Oh, he's just not known. So it's not a big
money fight for Charlot. And he was not prepared after that September fight to
suddenly be, you know, working out another deal. And you know,
so he waited till just a couple of hours prior to the PERSPID that was
supposed to establish the promotional promotional situation for the mandatory because they didn't make a
deal, and and he notified the IBF a couple of hours before that per
SPID and basically does what did what most fighters do when they have such a
situation. He thanked them for the opportunity and he vacated the title. And
so now that the title is vacant, like a couple hours after that happened,
the IBF pretty much I'm sure knew this was coming day wasted no time.
They are ordered murtaz Leev to fight the next leading available contender in their
rankings, which is Jack Colka, who is a fighter out of Germany who
has fought for the world title before. And they have thirty days to make
a deal, and if they don't, it'll go to a purspit and so
most likely scenarios you'll see those two guys link up and the winner will become
the new you know, IVF titlelder when they fight. Give me a quick
answer, is Jamel Charlo inclined? What are you hearing to finally fight Tim
Zoo or are they both gonna fight somebody else? And the best we can
hope for is late next year on Zoo and Charlow thought, I don't think
decision has been made. I don't I don't think that. I don't think
Charloe's gonna fight Tim Zoo. I mean Tim zu Is. George Rose,
who is Tim's promoter from No Limit Boxing, was talking just a couple of
days ago because Tim's brother, Uh, his younger brother, had a boxing
match exactly yes, another one of the fighting Zoo brothers had a fight,
and around that fight was talking about the next step for tim which is going
to be some time, I think in the early spring, like March ish
February maybe at the earliest, and they were talking about I think one of
the names they brought up was the possibility of fighting Eric s Lubin, who
was coming off the controversial victory he had in the last fight a couple of
months ago. So there was really no mention of the Charlotte fan. I'd
be a litle surprised if that happens. I'd love to see it because I
think at this point in time, you know, it's pretty clear that the
two top guys at one hundred and fifty four pounds are Charlot and Zoo,
and it's a that's a sexy fight, it's a big names and we were
by the broken hand injury and that was the last January. Do you believe,
quick answer, is he going to vacate the other belts and just move
up to middleweight or do you think he defends against somebody eventually? Jamel Charlo
educated guests. I kind of suspect he'll still fight at one fifty four even
if he maybe he does vacate another belt and he just down to one belt.
But I do think he stays around. And the reason I say that
is because I don't know what his plans are when he wants to be back
in the ring. He was pretty clear his post fight press Carrents after the
Canelo loss that he was coming back to one fifty four, the thing about
going to one sixty, which I guess he could do. But the problem,
and the same problem that his brother faces. Who's got a title even
if this next fight's not a title fight, is the middleweight division. I'll
use your favorite word is beref of top names? There it is, well,
thanks doing night late there there you go. It just vo devoid of
names. There's just I mean, if you okay, let's see, he
wants to go to middleweight. Who are you fighting? Triple G is half
in retirement, probably not fighting anymore. You know Jannen Beck, you know,
has got two of the belts. But that's that's not a fight that
brings a huge amount of money's with top rank. There's a whole lot of
problems making that matchup with but it's not a really big fight, and so
a right, you know, who else is he fighting? So I kind
of suspect he's staying at fifty four at least for another fight and hopefully can
take on the you know whoever the best guy available. I can zoo,
that would be fantastic. I'm not gonna hold my breath. A couple of
other news items, and then another guest here before The nostalgia Women's Undisputed Flyweight
Championship fight is now on the tell me more about that real quick. So
not signed, sealed and delivered just yet, but I am told by those
involved that you have Marlin Asparza, who is the United States Olympians. She
is currently the holder of the WBCWBA and WBO Women's Flyway titles. And Gabriella
Fondora, who is the younger sister of the one hundred and fifty four pound
contender Sebastian Fundora. She won the IBF title last month on October twenty first,
and to pick up that belt that but she's very young. She's you
know, you know s Marlin's you know on she's been around while she's thirty
four years old. But Fondora, she's only twenty one. But they're making
this match for them to fight for the women's undisputed championship among the women's flyway
and the fight will be on January sixth, that will take place on his
own in Las Vegas. It'll be the one of the undercard fights on the
night that Virgil Ortiz makes his return in the junior middleweight division to take on
Frederick Lawson. But if you're a fan of women's boxing, you know you've
got the veteran Marlin Asparsa with three titles against the young, heavier handed,
more exciting fighter in Gabriella Fondora. Put it on the line for the undisputed
title. And you know, I don't care if you're talking about you know,
women flyweights or men's heavyweights. If you can have a unisputed champion,
that's always a good thing for the sport. So that is what is in
the in the in the I guess you could call it being finalized. It's
not done yet one hundred percent, but by all accounts from both sides,
they tell me that's the fight that's happening, definitely being talked about, all
right. And there's also news just real quick to former unified junior middleweight champion
Jared Hurt will be back, but it's it's not necessarily high profile or the
highest profile situation, but he is coming back. Give me the update on
that as well. Sure. I mean when Jared was in his best days,
I mean he was the most one of the most exciting fighters in boxing.
Remember he won the Fight of the Year a few years ago in a
fantastic battle against Arisceloni Laara to unified titles at junior middleweight. He's fallen on
some hard times. He's lost three fights and all he got stopped in an
upset in a in the tenth round in a tremendous battle that took place earlier
this year against Jose ar Mendo Rizendez. And after that fight, you know,
Jared talked about retirement and you know, sort of thinking what he's going
to do. Obviously he's decided he's not retiring, so he's you know,
that fight was at middleweight. He's staying at middleweight, and he's going to
be back on a on a smaller show December, not not even televiy show.
There'll be some kind of stream for it, I guess somewhere, but
December eighth and Bethland, Pennsylvania on a King's Promotion cards. King's Promotions,
which is Marshall Kaufman's company, they've worked closely over the years with a PBC,
and so Jared will be on that show against just a regular opponent,
ty Edmunds of fourteen and five, not a big name or anything. It's
an eight rounder. But the fact of the matter is Jared at one time
was the number one junior middleweight in the world. It wasn't that long ago,
and like I said, he's had a couple of tough losses and he's
keeping on keeping on it. Incidentally, that card, also on under card,
you also have the former two time super middleweight world title challenger who was
in some terrific battles with Zerto Ramirez, Jesse Hart. He's going to be
on that card also, he's a You know, this card's taking place pretty
much outside of Philadelphia, and that's where Jesse is from. So I'm glad
to see these guys who even if though they've been you know, either world
champions or can or fought for titles, they're not sitting around just waiting to
have somebody tap them on the shoulder and say let's go on a big show.
You know, if they want to make a living and stay in shape
and stay in fighting condition, you got to get your ass in the ring
and that's what these guys are doing. Love all of that. As we
mentioned, we're sponsored by our friends at PPV dot com for this upcoming David
Benavitez Demetrius Andre pay perview. We've got another guest right now to tell you
more about that, including very intriguing the interactive part of what they have here.
You go. As mentioned, our friends at PPV dot com are your
outlet to take a look at what's going to go on in Las Vegas with
this David Benavidez Demetrius Andre pay perview card coming up on Saturday night. Why
because you don't have to have a subscription commitment. If you just want to
watch the pay per view on Saturday night with this showdown in the world title
fights on the undercard that we're talking about, just do it with PPV dot
com. And who better to help us. He's back here on the podcast.
Mark Bocarti is back with us here from PPVD, the head honcho of
events and entertainment and all that's there. Good to have you. I have
to ask this this is vital Did we get enough to eat? Did we
consume enough for Thanksgiving? As we head to the weekend in the pay per
view, how are you? I'm great, Thank you, I'm great,
and I'm full. I don't think I need to eat again until next Thursday.
But we're feeling good and we're excited for what we have on Saturday night.
No doubt I have fulfilled my role yet again for about the thirtieth year
in a row of marriage and being with the in laws and whatever of consumption,
consumption as the primary role off the weekend, and let me publicly shout
out PPB dot com. You guys didn't have to do this, but you
sent out desserts. I mean, the way to win over the media at
holiday time is go right to the stomach, right to the appetite. You
sent out. I have never in my life had a sour cream walnut apple
pie, but you guys sent me up with this the company Little Pies.
You set me up with a pie. And I want to just say publicly,
i am in my fifties and I've now had a sour cream apple pot.
So I'm glad. You're welcome, and I'm glad we could be part
of that. You know, you know the old saying the way to media
members hard to see their stomach directly, right. I think we checked that
box on this one and a forty five degree angle. Take care of the
media by bribing them and feeding them. All Right, enough goofing around about
the eats. This fight, this main event, and this fight card very
intriguing. Two of the premier super middleweights that are not world champions. Benavetez
is a former WBC world champion. Andreid is a former middleweight world title holder
WA middleweight title. Both unbeaten, both looking at bigger, bigger fight maybe
with Canelo Alvarez, whoever wins. All right, tell me more about this
main event on PPV dot Com Saturday night from Vegas. Yeah, well,
you mentioned, you know, one of the big attractions of this fight is
the dangling carrot for both of these guys. Is Canelo possibly Canelo and may
So. I think this is a bit of an audition to get there now
on their own. Could each of them fight Canelo, Sure, but I
think having them fight each other really sets the clear path for who's going to
get that fight next year. So that's one really intriguing aspect of this.
The other is you mentioned, you know, the undefeated probably you've had a
lot of undefeated versus undefeated. But it's kind of you know, this one's
unique too. It's a little bit of opposing styles, right. I mean,
Benavitez has that start a little bit slower and grind you know, someone
down and you know, late round knockout. You know that that seems to
be his path and a lot of his fights, and Andrea it is more
explosive from the start, right and and so you know, you get these
two different styles competing, and that's what makes for a really exciting fight.
So it's going to be a good one. And here's the other thing.
Andred is highly motivated. You know this, and for the audience, they
mostly know this. It's listening to us. He's highly motivated because he hasn't
had one of these big stages maybe ever like this. Yes, he's had
world title fights, but this is a big enough stage in Las Vegas right
now where you can make that argument. And so he's been looking forward to
this, not just for a little bit, for years. And let's see
how motivated he is in this case for the main event. And you've got
world title fights on the undercard. First of all, Jamal Charlow and we
were joking around about this, Like Haley's comment has come back around and he
is now back in the ring for the first time in over two and a
half years. Right at two and a half years. He is in the
co feature fight in a non title fight, and you've got two other world
title fights as well on the undercard. A pretty stat card on PPV dot
Com coming Saturday. Yeah, it is, you know, And it's one
of those rare events where I've had several media members and just general industry followers
call me, text me, email me and say, hey, this is
this is a really good card. You know. Well, we're not used
to this, right so, so I think that that that's a really attractive
part to make this card happen. And at the end of the day,
a lot of the economics of these big boxing events make it hard to put
together a one hundred percent stacked card from art to finish. Promoters do their
best to try and do it. This is one I think that really does
live up to the pre fight hype with a couple title fights as you mentioned,
big names, and then all leading up to Benevidez Andreid. We love
that Mark Boccardi with me for a couple more minutes PPV dot Com again.
The showtime premiere Boxing Champions pay per view is Saurday Night in Vegas. We
want you to utilize PPV dot Com for a couple of different reasons. As
I mentioned, you don't need a subscription, it's a one off purchase,
and also you've got great interactive stuff that's always going on, including with arguably
the voice of boxing the last forty years, Jim Lampley. I know you
had Jim as part of the coverage of Canelo and Jamel Charlo back in late
September. He's back with Lance Pugmeyer and they're going to be interacting with the
fans on PPV dot com commentary, going on, answering questions, answering comments,
going back and forth. Tell us more about that aspect as well,
Mark, Yeah, absolutely so. One of the things that's happened since the
Canelo Charlo fight is we have announced that we've assigned Jim, so we're gonna
have Jim work with us through twenty twenty four. That's really exciting. As
you said, the voice of boxing, the face of boxing, you know,
certainly from a broadcasting and media perspective for decades. So he's going to
be working with us, and you're right, he will be part of the
chat on fight nights, which is great an exciting fan. You know,
the Canelo Charlo chat was you know, just outstanding in terms of the number
of people who wanted to chat with him and the types of conversations. That
was great. But also we wanted to make sure people heard Jim, literally
heard his voice, which you can't do in chat. So during these fight
weeks this past week concluded, what we do is we have Jim on site.
So Jim is in Vegas, he's covering the events, We have him
doing some reports for us on our socials. We post them on PPV dot
com as well. So it's a truly integrated experience with Lampley and with Land.
So we're excited to have them back and it's it's going to be a
fun night again with them at the Helm. And let's emphasize it one more
time because they're going to get a great interactive part of this. But they
get this in ten ADP and four K whatever they need to stream it.
And best of all, it is a one off purchase with PPV dot Com.
Elaborate again. Yeah, no, absolutely, that is a key differentiator
for us, and we've had a lot of really good positive feedback from our
fans. Some people come to our site and say, hey, wait,
where's the subscription. We literally remind people on social when they email us,
No, no, no subscription required, just buy what you want and off
you go. And I'll drop in a little tease as well. So the
following weekend, on Saturday, December second, we are going to carry as
a pay per view, live pay per view the final Kiss concert ever.
Oh Hello our garden, Oh hello. As the band has decided that this
is it. They swear this is it, because yes they have said this
before, but considering they're in their mid seventies and they just want to hang
it up, We're going to do the live pay per view on PPV dot
com. That is fantastic. And you know, my man Rayfield, my
colleague, my wingman, the big fella, the insider. He may be
the biggest Kiss fan on the planet. So I don't know how much he
knows about this, but he is down down with a capital D on Kiss
and the final concert being on PPV dot com. What a tease on that
he not only does he know about it, I think he's already bought his
face paint and I told him we need him in the chat. We need
his yes, you know, in the fan react videos, so we got
to see him. But yeah, no, he's he's pumped for it.
And he again he collects everything Boxing memorabilia unbelievably, could open a museum.
But he's got Kiss memorabilia and Kiss stuff, so that's tremendous too. Again,
find out more at ppv dot com and again publicly, Mark, thank
you. We enjoy the relationship. We're happy to help promote this and we
want fans to understand moving forward that they can utilize your service. If you
do not want a long term six month or one year come with a streaming
service, etc. But you want to see the biggest events, you're gonna
do it through PPV dot com anything else, or rather, I'll just add
one, Yeah, I'll add one other quick thing. This is Showtime's last
pay per view event, so in many ways, this is the end of
an era, another era after the HBO shuttering of Boxing a few years ago,
so it's a little bit of a bittersweet event for us. They've been
fantastic partners. They put on some of the biggest events. They helped resurrects
boxing, certainly in the latter part of you know, since Steven Espinoza came
on and they brought back Floyd Mayweather. So they've had an incredible run.
They've been great, great partners, and it's gonna be sad to see them
go. But having said that, PPV dot Com will still be here for
fans going forward, So regardless of how PBC shakes out with respect to pay
per view, we will be your pay per view option in twenty twenty four.
So we're excited to be here for all the We look forward to it.
Well said to thirty seven years of high end, tremendous production, tremendous
championship fight night after championship fight night from showtime. Well said on that with
the job that they've done and they get to do it one more time here
in Vegas, we're looking forward to Benavitas Andre, PPV dot Com is where
it's at. Mark, Thank you so much. We look forward to much
more being with you in the coming months and in twenty twenty four. We
appreciate it here on the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast. Thank you, TJ.
Happy holidays to you and all your listeners. So pretty cool stuff.
And again we thank our friends at PPV dot com for being part of what
we do on this podcast. And as he mentioned, Jim Lampley will be
there interacting with the fans this entire weekend, doing a bunch of social media
stuff, but interacting on fight night in the chat with Lance Pugmeyer, your
colleague, just like they did for the Canelo Alvarez Jamel Charlow fight. So
again I just emphasize one more time if you are looking for the one off
purchase PPV dot com, that that is the way to go. And we
appreciate Mark and their sponsorship and all of that. All right, nostalgia time
before we are done. Oh are these nostalgia items any good? When they
involved Canelo Alvarez, Mike Tyson becoming heavyweight champion and gotty Ward. I think
they are. We could sit here for another hour, but Rayfield wants to
go have another turkey leg, all right, So hold on, hold on.
I do not like dark meat turkey, please, Okay, but you
don't want a turkey leg, but maybe maybe a side or something you gotta
go get, gotta go snack on something, all right. So eight years
ago Earlier this week, Canelo won the lineal and vacant WBC Middleway title over
Miguel Coto. What do you remember you were there for that November twenty first,
twenty fifteen. Give me a couple of things you remember about that?
Well, what I remember mostly in the lead up was it was a big,
big freaking deal fight. I mean, you know, Mexico versus Puerto
Rico is probably the most storied rivalry in boxing today. And that's, you
know, among many great rivalries among different nationalities, but Mexico Puerto Rico has
been a big time boxing rivalry for decades and decades and decades. And when
you have two guys who are future Hall of famers in a big time championship
fight against each other, both stars in their own right. This was not
like a you know, one guy that's a star and the other guy that's
like not known. You know, Canelo was the big time star, but
Miguel, I mean, Canelo was the big star I think, is what
I said. And Codo had his own huge fan base also. He may
may have been the B side, but he carried his own promotions for a
long time, had a huge fan base, particularly in New York and when
they met each other, I was super excited Canelo, uh you know,
was you know, was going for uh well, Codo had the WBC title,
but because he got into a beef with the organization about the purse,
about the sanction fee for you know, based on his purse, they stripped
him of the title during the week of the fight, but it was still
available for Canelo Alvarez to win. He already was Codo the linear middleweight champion
from has the victory over Sergio Martinez, and so it was a very big
fight. What was sort of interesting about it was it was I think because
of different things that were booked already in the city, T Mobile Arena was
not yet open, and so instead of the typical MGM Grand Garden arena where
you figured this fight would take place, they actually had this at the Mandala
Bay, which is considerably smaller than the MGM Grand. MGM Grand for a
boxing match probably can hold you know, anywhere. It's like I think,
Matt It's usually the official capacity I want to say, is like sixteen to
five, but it can get up into like the eighteens for a boxing event,
maybe even slightly more. Mandalay Bay you know, if you're really stuff
it full to the rim, you're talking maybe eleven thousand, So it's a
very significant difference. But it was a huge event. A lot of people
were excited. I think you can make the argument that it's the most significant
Mexico Puerto Rico fight in the history of the rivalry. And no, I
didn't say the best fight in the history of the rivalry. That is not
we would not say that. But in terms of the significance, two superstars,
the bona fide superstars to bonaf hall of famers. Koto's now in the
Hall of Fame. Obviously Canelo will be in the Hall of Fame for a
middleweight title. Most of the traditional great Mexican Puerto Rican rivalry fights took place
in smaller weight classes. Now these guys were up in the middleweight division and
it was just a terrific, terrific matchup. And you know what, while
it may not have been the fight of the year or lived up to some
of the hype that was heaped on it as going to be an all time
classic, I actually went back and I rewatched it on YouTube the other night
because I had written some stuff about in my in my substack newsletter, my
Show and Tell where I put up some of my you know, posters and
that kind of business. It's a pretty damn good fight. Again, maybe
not the fight of the year, but as a highly entertaining fight, and
Coto lost by a majority decision Canelo. But I thought Canelo definitely was the
winner of that fight. Uh, it was. It was a it was
a good battle. I take that back, my mistake. Canello won a
unanimous decision, but there were some that thought it was much close. Sure
where some people had Koda where it could have perhaps been a majority decision.
I thought Canelo was the clear winner, and I remember that Miguel was so
I think it was more pissed off, not that he didn't get the win.
He was so disgusted with the scores because they were one nineteen, one
oh nine, one eighteen to one ten, and one seventeen to one eleven.
He just felt like he didn't get any credit, and you know,
he really did kind of not d He was kind of a cry baby after
the fight. He didn't come to the postfight press conference. I remember that,
you know, he sent Freddie Roach out, his trainer to speak to
the media afterwards. He was so dejected by Again, I don't think it
was so much the loss. It was just in the in the in the
you know, you pour your heart and soul into your training camp and you
don't get the credit that you need to get in the fight. So for
you know, for whatever it's worth. I'm not an official judge. I
scored that fight seven rounds to five in favor of Canelo. A lot of
guys did at ringside, but it was a great atmosphere, it was a
great promotion. Uh, and it was if you look at the record that
Canelo Alvarez has put together, it's definitely one of his best wins. A
clear win for a huge title on a big rivalry opponent in a fight that
everybody looked forward to. That's a huge win form and it was another example
of Codo would just been willing to take on everybody as he's always done,
always did. Motoring along, We're almost done. Thirty seven years ago,
Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion ever twenty years of age. Thirty seven
years ago, Wednesday, November twenty second, he iced Trevor Berbick. And
we've talked about this before on the podcast in the Nostalgia you and I were
both teenagers, the HBO iconic Barry Tompkins, Larry Merchant, Sugar Ray Leonard
calling it with Barry Tompkins famous line, and we have a new era in
boxing. Certainly it was bizarre because the punch that landed on Burbick didn't look
that violent, but my lord, he flopped around like a fish out of
water. And who had the line you may know it. Whoever had the
line said, that's the first time I've ever been to a world heavyweight title
fight where the guy got knocked down three times from the same punch. Trevor
Burwick went down, got up, stumbling around, went down again, got
up while mills Lane's counting, and stumbled down again, and mills Lane finally
said, that's it, You're done. A couple of things about that number
One. I don't think it was that it was that devastating of a punch
in terms of the power behind it, even though obviously Tyson was a humongous
puncher. But it got him on the temple, that's right. And when
you get knocked on the temple, even if it's not a full power shot,
it ruins your equilibrium. So he clearly still had his wits about him
because he was able to make the effort to get up, but his legs
were so messed up from the shot. Yeah, he just kept falling down.
And I think one thing, you know, Trevor Burbick got a lot
of you know, negative publicity, let's say, or you know, he'd
be you know, imagine if social media existed, then he'd be a meme
for all time, like more than the crying Jordan. But I always felt
like Trevor Burbick, even though it was obviously a glorious win for Mike.
He was twenty years old, the youngest heavyweight champion ever, you know,
Barry Tompkins with that call a new era and heavy in boxing, which he
didn't know that, but it certainly proved to be prophetic because it was the
case basically was the passing of the guard between the Ray Leonard and Four Kings
era into the Tyson era. But I always kind of felt like Burbick kind
of got a raw deal because he got made fun of so bad for getting
knocked out the way he did. But I always looked at it to the
point where, you know what, the dude had so much heart that he
kept getting up. He fell, he tried to get up, he got
up, and at the very end, even after Mills Lane the referee waved
it off, he was standing on his feet. He had gotten now.
He didn't beat the count necessarily, and obviously the fight had to be stopped,
but Trevor Berbick showed the heart of a champion to get up as best
as he could and finally eventually did make it to his feet. He didn't
just fall down the third time from the same shot and lay there on the
mat, And I always found it very fascinating to it. It's not really
related specifically to him getting knocked up by Tyson, but the fact that he
fought Tyson. He is the bridge in some ways between the end of Ali
in the beginning of Tyson, because the man that retired Ali finally and sent
him into retirement in his last fight was a young Trevor Berbick winning a decision
against Muhammad Ali, who was a long faded guy at the time, in
their fight called the Drama in the Bahama. By the way, very pleased
that not that long ago, I was able to add the program from that
fight, a very scarce program to my boxing collection. But so a young
Berbick loses to Ali, and then years later he's WBC Heavyweight Champion and he
gets knocked out by Mike Tyson. So the two iconic heavyweights of their time,
Trevor Burbrick fought both beats Ali loses to Mike Tyson. So I always
felt like that sort of bridge there. He's well known for two things,
beating the great Ali and getting drilled by the great Tyson and the Mike Tyson
era. Again, we cannot emphasize enough for the newer, younger fans,
he was seemingly invincible from that time period of eighty six to nineteen ninety when
Buster Douglas got his hands on him in Tokyo, was seemingly invincible. I
one more nostalgia them, then we're done. It was twenty one years ago
as we released a podcast on Thursday, Gotti Ward Fight number two of the
trilogy. You were there. You've talked about these so much. Just give
us a little more about the second of the trilogy here. You were there,
all right, So the second of the trilogy, the first fight took
place in the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. I missed that fight because I was
sick with the flu and to not travel see. I then covered the second
fight and the third fight. They all took place within thirteen months May of
two thousand and two the June of two thousand and three. This was the
second fight Thanksgiving weekend of two thousand and two. I spent it on the
Chili Boardwalk in Atlantic City. And of the trilogy, We've talked about this
before many many trilogies in boxing. They become trilogies because they have a great
first fight that leads to usually a second fight that maybe the other guy gets
revenge in it. Therefore it leads to a third fight. But there's oftentimes
a stinker in there, or one that's not even I wouldn't say a stinker
but not doesn't live up to maybe the other ones in the in the trilogy.
So there are some examples where that's not the case. Because if you
take a look at Bowen Holyfield, all three are awesome fights. If you
look at the four fights between Marquez and Pakia, all four of them are
fantastic. Uh But in Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier, first one and third
one are obviously classic. Second one is good but not great in the Mickey
word Arturo Gotti fight. The first one is obviously a classic. The third
one was the fight of the year. Also second fight, really good fight,
but not living up to that level of action. That was the easiest
fight of all of them because ar Turo listening to Buddy McGarty, his trainer
at the time, and he boxed and he won a pretty clear decision.
It was I mean, it was good action also, but this was Gaddy,
you know, being a little bit more judicious, let's say, with
his with his offense and defense. You know, he was better on defense,
and you know Mickey was always going after him. But I thought Arturo
fought a really good fight and that that particular bout to come away without a
lot of injuries or crazy cuts and you know, getting knocked down and you
know, just didn't have to go to the hospital, I don't think after
that fight, and uh, you know, and scored a very clear win.
But now, of course, after those two fights, Mickey won the
first classic by a close decision, he lost the second fight by a much
wider decision. Ward did and so that made it possible for them to do
the third fight. But the thing I remember most about the second fight wasn't
so much the action in the fight itself, the crowd that night at Boardwalk
Hall, and I've covered I mean, I don't remember the exact number,
but if there was a fight in the Boardwalk Hall, Maine arena from two
thousand till the present time, I believe I've covered every single one of them,
except I missed the Mayweather fight in there. Maybe I missed one other
one. I've covered probably two dozen or more fights at the Boardwalk Call and
also fights at that building upstairs in the smaller arena. Never in all of
my time of going to Boardwalk Hall was there more of an electric crowd than
for the Gaddy Ward Remax, even though it wasn't as good as the third
fight. And the reason for that was because, first of all, got
he was a fucking hero and a legend, and the franchise of the Boardwalk
you know, New Jersey adopted him, and Nicky was also I had become
a beloved figure also because of the first fight. But the crowd went absolutely
crazy, and when they into the ring, they were basically the crowd was
sold out. They were basically thanking them for the brilliance and the incredible fight
they had put on a few months earlier, and for them to walk out
and hear that, I mean, I still get the chills thinking about that
night when they dropped the spotlight and hear the music kit for Gaddy with his
you know comes into the thunderstructure from ac DC. I mean, if you
said to me, what are the happiest times in your life as a boxing
writer, I would tell you the happiest times in my life as a boxing
writer are the moments when Arturo Gatti was coming to the ring at Boardwalk Hall,
And on that night, of all the Gaddy fights I had the privilege
to cover at ringside a Boardwalk call, that was the best one because the
hair on your neck stood up. It was so fucking awesome. And same
with Mickey Word. It was just an absolutely phenomenal night. And the fight
itself, maybe it didn't live up to the hype of the first fight,
but it was still hell of a fight, I believe. And I'd have
to go back and look at the story, but I somehow recall writing my
article was still working at USA today at that time that if you didn't watch
the first but you only watch a second fight, Edith thought that was a
hell of a fight. But when you watched the second fight through the prism
of knowing what had happened in the first fight, you might have been a
little bit disappointed. But on its own if you never saw fight one,
he came away very satisfied. And of course Fight three you know, to
me can challenge Fight one for action also, and it was the fight of
the year by many people on twenty oh three. But the second fight not
a great fight, but the atmosphere second to none in Boardwalk call in mind
experience. It's remarkable, as you share with us, they fought three times
in thirteen months. Hey, let's hear it for activity, and they understood
this is how you get paid and you keep stoking the interest. Man,
We've given you a lot on this podcast, not just that we had a
lot to eat for Thanksgiving, but we gave you a lot on this podcast
with breaking down the David Benavitaz pay per view card with Demetrius Andrei, also
Ryan Garcia with us lots of news in nostalgia and again our friends at PPV
dot com sponsoring us as well. Use them for the one off purchase of
the fight coming this weekend, Why don't you and out I reconvene on the
bet US Show coming at one Eastern time. We'll do some more handicapping on
that show, answer some questions from the fans. I'm looking forward to that
on Friday, before the weekend and before we close out November coming up here,
why don't we do that? And whatever happens here, We'll be back
with a recap podcast off the weekend for all this action, including Chantel,
Cameron and Katie Taylor. Let us not forget fighting in the afternoon from Ireland
on Saturday. We got a bunch, we got leftover Thanksgiving, we got
football on the TV, but then we got boxing taking over on Saturday.
We're all about it. Are we good? Are we good? Everything?
Good? God? What a show here today, thanks to that man,
Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeves again. The bet US Show is one
Eastern time Friday, depending on when you're hearing us. We're back with a
recap podcast off the weekend. But you've been listening to the Big Fight Weekend preview by