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The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now

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here is your host. DJ leaves
well off of a fight in Las Vegas.

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They call it a fight that left
a whole lot to be desired.

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We are in to recap what happened
with Taya Fimo Lopez. It is the

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Big Fight Weekend preview. We don't
really have a whole lot to preview,

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and we don't really have a whole
lot to recap from Taya Femo's defense of

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his WBO Junior Welterweight championship. I
am the somewhat capable host TJ. Reeves.

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He is Dan Rayphiel, and we
are here. Thank you for finding

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us however you've done so. Dan
Substack, social media link through all the

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podcast outlets, Apple, Spreaker,
Spotify. We've got a lot to get

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to with what happened in Vegas or
didn't happen in Vegas, and it stayed

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in Vegas and those that went there
wish that they probably did not go in

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Vegas. But that's okay. We're
going to talk about that. We've got

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some fight news, we've got some
nostalgia, all right. You know,

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we speak the truth on this podcast. We can't really sugarcoat this or spin

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it any other way. We don't
work for top rank, We don't work

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for the WBO or ESPN. Boring, boring title fight with Tayo Fimo Lopez,

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I have put it on a platter
for you, my friend, blast

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Away. Maybe the nicest thing I
can say about it was, at least

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it was better than the Shakhor Stevenson
Edwin de los Santos fight, which is

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not saying much, but it was
better than that. It was a bad

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fight. The styles didn't mesh,
but Ortiz fought the way he had to

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fight to do what he came to
do, which was try to win the

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title. And it was apparent from
the first bell because he is a right

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handed fighter, typically he came out
in a south bust style. He to

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my recollection, never switched to the
orthodox style. T Femo Lopez had absolutely

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no idea what to do with it, which was rather shocking. And Timothy

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Bradley matched this, and it was
pretty obvious because when he he had one

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of his, if not his greatest
singular performance of his career in his previous

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fight in June, when he won
the junior welterweight title, the lineal and

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the WBO title. He did so
against a south and Josh Taylor. Now

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they're not the same kind of fighter
specifically, but they still fight out of

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the same stance. And he just
had no idea what to do with Ortiz,

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who I thought won the fight,
and to give Tiafimo Lopez you know,

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one fifteen one thirteen. I mean, I don't agree with it.

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I could get it, I guess, you know, the one seventeen one

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to eleven scorecard from Steve Weisfeld,
who I have massive respect for, who

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I do consider the best judge in
boxing. Presently, I may have to

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give my good man Steve a call
just to hear his viewpoint because I strongly

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disagree with that that particular, that
particular scorecard. You know, Tifimo,

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I don't think there was not a
single round in that fight that I thought

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he clearly won. Now, I
gave him some rounds, but I didn't

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think he won any of them clearly. And Ortiz, while his offense was

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not to be desired, as was
Tiafimo Lopezz, neither one of them or

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anything spectacular at all, if anything. But the point is, and this

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is important about boxing, when all
else is equal, and neither guy is

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doing anything offensively to speak of walking
forward is not does not get the job

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done when the other guy, clearly
by the way that he boxed, controlled

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where the fight took place, the
pace to fight took place at when he

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moved, when he threw punches,
made the other guy miss. Not just

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miss, but there were wild swinging
misses that Tiafimo Lopez made, So you

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know it was it pretty absolutely not, but you know it was effective from

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the standpoint that he was controlling everything
about the fight and barring any particular offense

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from Lopez. I didn't think you
couldn't give Ortiz the rounds. I didn't

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love giving them to him because it
was a shitty fight, but I thought

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he's certainly based on the technical aspect
of what it was, hit, don't

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get hit whatever that he did enough. I mean the punch that's you know,

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we were kind of close to each
other. I mean they're terrible.

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Terrible landed seventy eight punches and Orties
landed eighty. They both landed about the

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same percentage either, I mean one
one round, uh, t Fimo Lopez

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landed double figure punches. Other than
that, in the other eleven rounds he

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did not, and Ortiz didn't land
or two rounds I guess officially, and

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the other and the other fighter didn't
land double figure punches in any of the

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rounds. If one round, let
me tell you what they want, and

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they have it right in front of
TMO. Lopez landed double digits in two

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rounds, round number seven and round
number twelve, and Ortiz landed double digits

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in round number twelve. But the
thing that galls me about the score is

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that the three judges all gave Tia
Fimo Lopez the final three rounds. I

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gave Ortiz two of the last three
rounds, so I definitely disagree with that.

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I will just add I don't think
either fighter deserved to win. I'd

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have been perfectly fine with a draw. Neither one of them did enough to

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win. And again the criticisms are
back of Tea Fimo Lopez. I thought

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this immediately. I almost texted it
to you as you and I are doing

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this late night Thursday, when the
orchestrated ring entrance with the circus performers and

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him in the Greatest Showman outfit,
which, by the way, I don't

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know how familiar you are with that
film, but it resonates in my head

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because it's on in my house.
Even two years or three years after it's

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come out, they keep watching it. My wife and my twins. We

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have the soundtrack on CD. They
keep singing all the songs. As soon

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as I heard the music, I'm
like, he's coming out as the greatest

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showman is Hugh Jackman from the movie. It looked to me like he cared

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more about that and had worked on
that more. And obviously as the fight

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went on, he worked on that
more than tactics and how to cut the

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ring off. So I had a
bad feeling as soon as I snucking it.

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I'm not gonna give an agree for
that. I mean, I appreciate

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the fact that tia Fimo wants to
entertain the crowd, and you can feel

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his frustration at times in the fight, because Ortiz was out boxing him in

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my opinion, and there were times
where Lopez just stopped and motioned him to

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come to him, And there was
one point where Ortiz said fine, and

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he went right to him, and
he actually smacked Hi around a little bit

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when he when he did that.
So I don't a little bit, right,

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Yeah, I don't have a problem
with with Lopez, uh, you

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know, showing to be a showman, but you kind of got to back

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it up a little bit. And
you know, they made the point repeatedly

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in the broadcast, which was one
hundred percent correct, and I agreed with

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it. And I was thinking that
to myself also, that he just can't

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cut the ring off. He's going
the wrong direction, he's circling the wrong

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way. It looked like it looked
like the Sander Martin fight to an extent.

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Uh, it looked like a guy
that again I don't know, and

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I know Timothy Bradley said this during
the fight that they they could not get

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it out of Ortiz as to what
any of his strategy would be and what

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he would do. So maybe Lopez
was surprised by him fighting South Paul,

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but still you got to be ready
for that big because he fell out after

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the third round. For the fourth
round, you got to have some clue

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as to how to do something different. He didn't jabb enough. What I

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know, he didn't. It was
twelve rounds that was exactly the same,

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exactly didn't enough, didn't have any
urgency, didn't do anything. And so

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the other thing if you're if you're
trying to figure out who won the fight,

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who imposed their style, it was
very clear. I just did not

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have a game plan, and Ortiz
had a very specific plan that he implemented

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to a tee and he did it
for the entire fight. That alone is

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worth uh, you know credit when
you're when you're scoring those rounds. So

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you know, I didn't agree with
that. I tell you one thing,

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there ain't gonna be a Crawford fight. That ain't happen. And that's a

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joke at this point, after you
see that mess, Uh, you know,

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there's other fights and listen, I
mean, let's we We do have

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to be acknowledged that styles do make
fights and that Sandra Martin and Ortiz their

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tough, technical styles the way that
they box, and they would probably give

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a lot of guys trouble. Ortiz
gave Lomachenko problems in their fight, so

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that's not the first time that's ever
happened. But tia Fimo, I think

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they might have to do a better
job of scouting the opponent in terms of

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who are we going to fight.
You want to fight a guy that you

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know, you want an even kind
of fight, but you want somebody that

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can you know, it is entertainment. He wants to be the showman.

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Let's have a fight, not a
not a technical mess like that. Well,

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we'll see what happens next. We'll
see what happens next for him.

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And again just as the backdrop,
obviously the super Bowl is being played in

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three days in that city and in
fact in the stadium that's right by the

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Mandalay Bay. So you had everything
in place for this to be a big

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stage for him relative and a just
an absolute non event. And by the

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way, exact with the fans booing
lustily from the fourth round on over and

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over and over again at the lack
of action. So I don't know where

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he goes from here to get the
stink off of him. But he's got

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to fight somebody later this year and
get the stink off of him. I

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don't know what that is. You
talk about that like there's all these hundreds

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of thousands of people that come to
town to Las Vegas to participate. Not

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necessari they're all going to be at
the football game. Obviously it only holds

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a certain amount of peace, well
at the stadium, but there's lots of

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people that are there you know,
to h to partake in the festivities of

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the entire Super Bowl week, and
the reality is they barely drew six thousand

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people to the fight, and Mandelaida
holds about you know, eleven inch eleven

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five the jam it in, so
you know, not not a great crowd

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and an even worse fight. And
actually the most amusing part of the whole

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night actually was at the end when
you if you go and take a look

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on the social media of Terrence Crawford, you know he was taking his good

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shots asz. You know, because
if you noticed after the fight a result

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was announced before Bernardo Osuna did the
interview or or whatever. I mean,

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Bernardo did his job at TIFIMO was
a ruin in that thing. I don't

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know what he was talking about,
but tid Terrence Crawford, I mean,

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rather Tifa me Lopez burst into tears
when they announced the scores after he got

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to win, and because I think
he genuinely thought I could I could be

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the loser here. I think that
was relief. Did you perceive it that

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way? My perception, watching from
a distance was that's relief. He he

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might have lost it again. Well, I'll just say what Terrence Crawford posted

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on his Twitter slash x he got
a gift and he know it. That's

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why he's crying. Yeah, I
would agree with that analysis. I mean

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right, And Terrence Crawford said he
talked all that shit about me and lost.

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Like I told, the focus on
how you got fight who you're fighting,

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not me. Back to the drawing
board. You go chump m all

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right. So again we've given that
the due attention. And again this is

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a preview podcast. We will on
the bet Us Show have a preview of

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the Frank Warren Queensberry card that Hamza
Shiraz is the headlining fighter in. We'll

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do that at one Eastern time on
Friday. One other fight of note,

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obviously is Keyshawn Davis in the co
feature. He does score a TKO over

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veteran Jose Padraza, former world champion. This was really a one sided fight.

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What was your perception because I thought
sitting and watching it, Padraza looked

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like he did not have much.
He had come down and wait, he's

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older and Davis just gradually overwhelmed him
and eventually stopped him. That's my thoughts.

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What were your thoughts of that co
feature fight? That was a much

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more entertaining fight, like tenfold than
the Lotez main event. Go ahead.

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I mean, I thought that Padrazza
might test him a bit. I was

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concerned ahead of the fight that he
hadn't fought at lightweight since twenty nineteen and

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that shedding the extra five pounds might
be difficult for him. He said it

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was, and he went to junior
welterweight because he wanted to win a title

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in the third weight class, and
I kind of thought that might maybe there

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was something to it, but maybe
it was more bravado. It seems like

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it was more bravado that I believe
that the and padraz has been an honest

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fighter, not a complainer, you
know, good solid guy, been around

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for a long time, has you
know, put the work in and got

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the most out of himself. But
I do think any didn't complain about it

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after the fight or anything that I'm
aware of. But I do feel like

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the extra losing the extra weight definitely
had an impact on his legs. They

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look shaky from the beginning. And
you combine that with a motivated Kishan Davis

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who spoke about how he's no longer
smoking marijuana and it's now made him better.

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You know, he put his hands
or put his you know, his

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career in God's hands, and you
know he helped him overcome that his you

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know, smoking marijuana regularly and he's
healthier and it makes him better in camp,

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better with his lungs. Blah blah
blah. All good things from Kishan.

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He said all the right stuff,
but he executed it because it showed,

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because the last two fights he won
were you know, wins, and

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you know, one that became a
no contest because of the marijuana positive drug

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test. But he didn't look very
good. He didn't look like the guy

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that I and many others picked as
the twenty twenty two prospect of the year.

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He didn't look like the guy that
you thought, maybe in the future,

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was going to be a pound for
pound kind of stalwart, a guy

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that would win world titles in multiple
weight classes. And then you watch him

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annihilate Adraza, who only had been
stopped one previous time, and that was

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against the very young Gravanta Davis.
When Gervante Davis won the first world title

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of his career at one hundred and
thirty pounds, and guy thought Kishan stole

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the show. I thought he looked
spectacular. I thought he came in the

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ring with a pep and his step, with an attitude, with a desire

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to really to do what Ti Fimo
couldn't do, which just put on a

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sho He did a really good job, and I thought the stoppage was good.

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He was beating him up. I
mean, he was landing everything he

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could could throw at him, you
know, hooks and and the jab was

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strong. He landed just just a
lot of hard punches, combinations. I

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mean, he really took a part
a quality veteran fighter who I think pop.

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Probably Padraza will still continue to fight
and probably go back to one forty.

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Don't know if he's going to be
a world champion again, but at

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one forty he probably can still compete
with the best guys. But at lightweight,

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you know, Keishon Davis is the
you know, one of the future

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stars of that weight class. There's
no doubt if he keeps his head on

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straight and he trains his rear end
off and he comes into condition that he

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came in in that fight and has
that kind of game plan and listens to

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his team. He's got Brian McIntyre
in the corner with him, he's obviously,

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you know, being mentored by people
like Bud Crawford and Shakr Stevenson,

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which are obviously very talented fighters in
their own rights. So you know,

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things are after a couple of you
know, wins but didn't look so great,

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he's back on the right path now. And look, he's only,

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you know, still young fighter,
barely has what ten fights or so,

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but it's not too long before you
can fight for a major title or fight

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anybody in the weight class. Who's
calling out to you Fima Lopez after the

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fight, Yeah, that's interesting,
and Lopez in his ranting basically said,

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go get a title and then you
can fight me. And obviously Keishaan Davis

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is not a junior welterweight. He's
a lightweight at the moment, so that's

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a further complication. But maybe that's
a fight for somewhere down the road.

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All right, One final, is
there anything else off the undercard there from

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Thursday that stood out before we move
on to news and nostalgia, My friend,

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I'll just mention the one fighter who
I most wanted to watch among the

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preliminary fights, who I thought,
look the best of the preliminary fights,

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who deserves a mention. Who is
a future I think a top fighter in

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the you know, in the sport. I mean, he's one of the

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best young fighters out there. But
he's such a young fighter. And I'm

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talking about Abdulla Mason. I mean
he's a very very talented fighter, really

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good place. He's now twelve to
zero with ten knockouts. Got to win.

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He's a lightweight, looked absolutely sensational
and a secon round knockout against an

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undefeated fighter named Benjamin German who was
eight zero to three going in. Not

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that he was, you know,
some spectacular fighter. But I've watched Abdulla

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Mason since day one. I attended
his professional debut. I've seen every single

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one of his professional fights. He
is immensely talented. Funds comes from a

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boxing family. He's brothers box.
I mean the whole, the whole family's

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involved. But the thing about him, he's so advanced. He's only nineteen

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years old. It's amazing to think
about where he can be just in a

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few years. I mean, he
is mature in the ring beyond his years.

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Physically, he really knows what's going
on in there. He's got power,

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he's got speed, throws, from
different angles, and I just thought,

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you know, this was a really
outstanding performance and he is definitely a

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young fighter to keep an eye on. Top rank is so loaded with prospects.

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You know, we're gonna see Shoe
Shoe Carrington the featherweight next week on

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their card. He's another one of
their young guys. But this kid is

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only nineteen. Carrington's already about twenty
six. He just got a little bit

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of a later start. But remember
the name Abdulla Mason from Cleveland, Ohio.

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All right, on to the news, and there is more news out

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of Saudi Arabia. It seems like
every time that we are on one of

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these podcasts we're talking about Turkey,
Alasic and the Saudia Entertainment Authority. All

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right, so we did talk on
the previous podcast about Better BV and B

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Bowl and that June first is the
date you've been reporting that date. There

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is something interesting though, and you
are always a stickler for this that apparently

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Archer Better BEV has not signed the
deal as of yet. Should we be

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concerned? Are we still good?
What do we know? It's February,

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It's February. We got time.
What do we think? Yeah, I

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mean, there's no reason for concern
at all. I just you made you

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said in your just previous comment that
I'm a stickler, and it drives me

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a little crazy when anybody says a
fight is done and it's not done.

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Now it's going to get done.
Yes, we're very confident in that.

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I think everybody is. And the
reason that I brought this up is because

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when his excellency was on ari Al
Hawani's MMA Hour and they were he was

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with Tyson Fury and they had a
guess Klemus and Alexander Usik coming from Spain

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from his training camp, and they
announced the rescheduled date for Fury against Usick.

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He also, as a smaller part
of that overall interview, talked about

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some of the other activities that they
have going on, and he made specific

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mention that in fact, Better bv
and Bevault for the undisputed light heavyweight title

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would take place on June first,
and that was a date that I reported

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a couple of weeks ago that that
was when it was going to happen again.

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There was no issues. People had
signed off on things, you know,

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ages ago before he fought in December, and they were still working things

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out with Top Rank and getting the
Better BF side situated, and once again

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he said June first, But I
just want to reiterate, while there's no

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issues, the main terms, all
the important stuff is agreed to. The

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fight is not paper yet, it
is not signed yet. They're waiting to

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go through that process. But I
am told by the Better BF camp one

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percent that is the intention. They're
happy with the deal, but it's not

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done yet. So sometimes people get
and I understand the excitement that people would

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have, but sometimes people get a
little bit ahead of their skis at times

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and it's not quite done out.
The good news, by the way,

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that when this fight does get completed
again this is not one hundred percent,

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but it's very very likely that this
fight will not be a pay per view,

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that this will be a regular at
least in the United States of America

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anyway, will be available on an
ESPN Plus platform at no additional cost.

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So Top Ranks Bob Aram, who
you know obviously has been was promoting this

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week the Lopez and a Jermaine Ortiz
event, had done some interviews and mentioned

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some people that it would not be
on pay per view, which was good

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to hear. I'm told that that
is the likely situation. But again,

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like the signing of the contract,
not one hundred percent, but most likely,

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and they're very happy about that because
they want to do a pay per

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view for this type of fight,
you know in other countries. It'll probably

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be worldwide on his own, I
believe. Also as a non day point

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out the obvious middle of the afternoon
US time, I have two non American

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fighters, not heavyweight champions, not
Canelo Alvarez. Disaster. If you're trying

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to score on pay per view,
especially for an expensive price, come on,

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be smart, be smart about that, and I think they are.

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I think they are being smart about
that. No, and I agree.

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I mean, look, when they
did put the Day of Reckoning card on

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pay per view, we lauded them
for doing it for a very affordable thirty

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nine to ninety nine for a very
stack card, legitimately stacked card. Obviously,

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when this comes to theory, it
was take the prices not has not

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been announced yet or maybe it was. Was it a sixty nine ninety nine

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whatever it was, But that's another
thing. That's the middle of the day

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American time. But it's the heavyweight
champions distuted heavyweight championship. So in due

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respect to these guys, it's undisputed, But if one of them was an

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America because again Wilder was involved in
the day of reckoning, so that you

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00:20:00,079 --> 00:20:03,319
know the American audience. If you're
a hardcore fight fan, you're in on

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00:20:03,319 --> 00:20:06,640
this and you might be buying a
pay per view. But if you're not

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00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:11,079
a hardcore fight fan, how much
are you enticed for? Even if it

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00:20:11,119 --> 00:20:12,920
was thirty nine, ninety nine or
thirty The bottom line I'm saying here is

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that for a fight of that magnitude
in this day and age where no offense,

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00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:22,720
but you know, Tim Zu against
Keith Thurman as a sixty to sixty

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00:20:22,759 --> 00:20:27,000
five dollars or seventy dollars pay per
view, granted with other fights on the

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00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,359
card that are worthwhile, but and
I'm not don't get me wrong, I'm

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not knocking PBC for doing that fight. I get it. You know it's

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00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,240
a nice show. I'm just making
the point that if you were forced to

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pick, would I rather have this
undisputed light heavyweight title fight between two of

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the best pound for pound and undefeated
champions who are both tremendous fighters, and

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you know, on the Hall of
Fame trajectory for zero up charge or you

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00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:56,480
know, upwards of sixty to seventy
dollars to do the four fight card they're

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offering with the main event that is
a you know, barely passing as a

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main event in my opinion in terms
of Thurman's inactivity. Nothing to do with

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00:21:03,759 --> 00:21:07,240
you. I love Zoo. If
you had to make the choice, you

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definitely would think any boxing I would
take the one that doesn't cause extra for

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00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,039
a much higher lover fight. So
that's all I'm saying. Again, I'm

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00:21:14,039 --> 00:21:17,000
not knocking them. I'm just saying
when you have to compare them and you

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00:21:17,039 --> 00:21:19,039
see what things are being offered on
pay per view non paper, he was

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00:21:19,039 --> 00:21:23,039
always a beautiful thing. So I'm
very excited for that light heavyweight fight.

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00:21:23,319 --> 00:21:26,200
I'm sure that it will get papered
and done wrapped up in the near future,

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00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:30,000
and it's going to be a big
fight, all right. You mentioned

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00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,720
the name Tyson Fury back back in
the news, obviously because the fight is

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00:21:33,759 --> 00:21:38,880
rescheduled by the way. He went
on social media to say he's not retiring

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00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:44,440
anytime soon, that he expects to
fight multiple more times, including the Usik

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00:21:44,519 --> 00:21:48,839
rematch, maybe fight Anthony Joshua maybe
a Naganu rematch. I mean, this

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00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,680
is there's massive money in this,
and he is he has agreed to a

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00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:57,279
rematch clause with Usik. Now some
have pointed out You'll be one to point

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00:21:57,279 --> 00:22:00,240
it out right here. He had
a rematch clause with Vladimir Klitchkow that he

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00:22:00,319 --> 00:22:06,440
never honored, and he was trying
not to honor the rematch clause with Deontay

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00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:07,640
Wilder and they had to go to
court to figure all of that out.

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So I understand all of that,
but I'm not shocked that he's not retiring.

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00:22:11,279 --> 00:22:12,559
There's too much money and he's still
in the prime of his career.

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00:22:14,079 --> 00:22:17,000
Yeah, And in terms of the
not honoring the Deontay Wilder rematch clause,

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00:22:17,039 --> 00:22:19,359
they ended up going to the arbitration, not quite a legal thing, but

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00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,960
yeah, that was the problem.
The Clitchko thing. He was on drugs

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00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:26,519
and alcohol and all messed up and
really really caused Clitchko a lot of problems,

351
00:22:26,519 --> 00:22:30,519
and unfortunately his career ended in an
unsatisfying manner because he was so inactive

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00:22:30,559 --> 00:22:33,759
going to the Joshua fight, And
that's partly because of Tyson Fury's fault.

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00:22:33,759 --> 00:22:37,079
Because Cklitchko was waiting for the rematch, but nonetheless, Yeah, But the

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00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:41,839
point about the thing I wanted to
mention about this Instagram video that Fury made

355
00:22:41,839 --> 00:22:44,759
about not retiring, and like he
mentioned, he's like five more fights,

356
00:22:44,759 --> 00:22:45,480
he's got the two fights w the
was six. He said, I'm gonna

357
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,319
fight Joshua maybe twice, and then
I got to get a rematch with my

358
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:52,839
man Naganu. But here's the thing. You know, how many times did

359
00:22:52,839 --> 00:22:56,039
Tyson Fury over the last couple of
years go on his social media make a

360
00:22:56,119 --> 00:23:00,000
video talk about how he was retired
and nobody believed him. And now he's

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00:23:00,079 --> 00:23:02,440
saying I'm not retired. I mean, I guess more people will believe that

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00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:04,079
he's not retired because he likes that
money. You know, he's making somewhere

363
00:23:04,079 --> 00:23:07,440
in the neighborhood of probably around seventy
million dollars for this Zusik fight, and

364
00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:12,039
they'll be tens of millions of more
in those other matches that follow And even

365
00:23:12,039 --> 00:23:15,200
if he lost till on Alexander Usik
and he wanted to fight on, then

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00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:17,720
the Ganu fight's still going to be
there. There would still be a lot

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00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:18,880
of people that want to see the
Joshua fight. I mean, you know,

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00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:22,680
part of Tyson Fury's appeal is the
fact that he's undefeated, but it's

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00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:25,519
not the only reason if he loses. You know, all the great heavyweights

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00:23:25,519 --> 00:23:29,279
of our time have lost. The
only undefeated heavyweight of any merit was Rocky

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00:23:29,319 --> 00:23:33,680
Marciano. And so if the greats
like Lennox and Tyson and Holyfield and George

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00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,240
Foreman and you know, go on
down the line, you know, Clitchko

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00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,440
and you know, pick pick your
guy, they've all taken losses. So

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I don't think even if Tyson Fury
suffers at defeat in one of these upcoming

375
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,799
fights, it doesn't ruin the prospect
of these other fights. Maybe a dense

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00:23:47,799 --> 00:23:48,920
to purse a little bit, but
he's still gonna make a lot of money

377
00:23:49,079 --> 00:23:52,240
and still going to attract a lot
of fans. So I was glad that

378
00:23:52,279 --> 00:23:55,440
he said that because I like watching
Tyson Fury fight. I just like hearing

379
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:57,440
him talk less, and let's get
him in the ring a little more actively

380
00:23:57,480 --> 00:24:00,960
than once every You know Hayley's comment. You said something and I wanted to

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00:24:02,039 --> 00:24:04,279
follow up on it. You said
seventy million for the Usik fight. You

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00:24:04,279 --> 00:24:08,240
think when it's all said and done, seventy million or is he being guaranteed

383
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:14,519
in that neighborhood something like that?
What is the I believe, my belief

384
00:24:14,519 --> 00:24:17,519
in understanding is that for the for
the fight in May, he's being guaranteed

385
00:24:17,559 --> 00:24:22,559
seventy million dollars. That is amazing, that this amazing money to lay that

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00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:26,039
out there, we'll see and don't
and don't think that this kind of number

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00:24:26,039 --> 00:24:29,079
being thrown around. I'm just going
to cross over sports by the by the

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00:24:29,079 --> 00:24:33,559
Saudi's to put on different events when
they are laying out two hundred and three

389
00:24:33,599 --> 00:24:38,079
hundred million dollars dollars to professional golfers
through the Live Golf Tour and that PIF

390
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:44,720
investment fund. That's golf, that's
not even boxing. So I can understand

391
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:47,279
on a certain prize fight. It
just shocks me that it would be that

392
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,559
high, that the guarantee wouldn't be
something like thirty forty million, and then

393
00:24:49,599 --> 00:24:55,960
the pay per view is obviously going
to cash in. But lord, I

394
00:24:56,039 --> 00:24:57,319
mean, here's the thing. Also, so I was reading the what is

395
00:24:57,359 --> 00:25:02,599
your belief of what do you know
about us? A similar half that on

396
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,319
the guarantee because Fury is probably the
bigger draw in speaker worldwide. What do

397
00:25:06,319 --> 00:25:10,799
you think around thirty thirty five million
for Fears. That's oh so that's still

398
00:25:10,799 --> 00:25:14,000
a massive guarantee for him. One
hundred million dollar fight is the bottom line.

399
00:25:15,039 --> 00:25:17,519
Now if you want to look at
the overall picture in terms of the

400
00:25:17,519 --> 00:25:21,640
finances. So, uh, there's
a publication online called Sportico. I don't

401
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:23,359
know if you've read it or heard
it to do. They cover the business

402
00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,000
of sports in general, media deals
and this and that. So they just

403
00:25:27,279 --> 00:25:32,119
a few days ago put out their
list for twenty twenty three of the highest

404
00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:36,680
paid athletes. Tyson Fury flocked in
at number sixty four. Now he only

405
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:38,839
fought, remember he thought just a
one time. We then gone two thousand

406
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:42,160
and that was the uh, the
Noganu fight. They estimated that. So

407
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:45,839
he comes in sixty four worldwide on
the list for one at you know,

408
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:51,720
one event. He they say he
earned forty million dollars last year, and

409
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,400
that was thirty two million for the
fight against Naganu. Another eight million in

410
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:57,720
terms of non you know, non
on the field of play earnings in terms

411
00:25:57,759 --> 00:26:03,400
of sponsorships or marketing or endorsements,
that sort of thing. And that was

412
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,319
the you know he was, I
guess he was the second highest boxer on

413
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:11,119
the on the list, the number
one was Canelo Alvarez, who they estimated

414
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:15,640
made sixty six million dollars sixty million
from his two fights and another six million

415
00:26:17,319 --> 00:26:19,319
outside the field of play. And
there was other boxes on the lest also

416
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:22,480
Ryan Garcia and Tank you know,
and Tank Davis, I guess, and

417
00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:26,839
some of the other guys. But
point I'm making ari is Tyson Fury at

418
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,039
that number, he's going to be
way higher than that with the seventy million

419
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,160
just on that one fight, because
he got a figure. Fury if he

420
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:37,960
fights me in twenty twenty four,
it's the seventy or so for the fight,

421
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,680
plus whatever he's due on the rematch, which is probably a similar kind

422
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,359
of number. Plus he'll still make
whatever he's making outside the field to play,

423
00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:49,000
so he could have he was making
seventy times too. One hundred and

424
00:26:49,039 --> 00:26:53,160
forty is still make the same around
ten million and non boxing stuff. You're

425
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,079
talking about one hundred and fifty million
dollars potentially in twenty twenty four. That

426
00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:00,880
would it wouldn't make him number one, number one, as Ronaldo was making

427
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,720
two seventy five million and by the
way, who's paying him that? Who's

428
00:27:03,759 --> 00:27:07,119
paying them that? The sad audio
for their salt for their soccer league.

429
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:11,880
So if Tyson Fury made in the
one to fifty range for twenty twenty four

430
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:17,319
based on those persons for it USICK
twice plus whatever is obviously much smaller amount

431
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:22,359
off the field of play. Based
on the numbers that Sporticle reported for twenty

432
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,640
twenty three, it would make Tyson
Fury the number three highest paid athlete in

433
00:27:26,680 --> 00:27:30,839
the world, behind uh two soccer
players or no, I don't even know

434
00:27:30,839 --> 00:27:34,960
what's Christian Ronaldo was number one,
uh MESSI was number number two, number

435
00:27:36,039 --> 00:27:38,599
making who's making a boatload of money
out of he's number three? He's coming

436
00:27:38,599 --> 00:27:42,400
over to John who is John Rahm. John Rahm is the golfer for the

437
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:47,559
PGA Tour. But now Rom's deal. Rom's deal is a three hundred million

438
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,119
dollar deal to play on the liv
Golf Tour. But it's not I don't

439
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,119
think it's all up front. I
think it's staggered over several years. So

440
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,839
that's kind of interesting. But one
more thing, just keep this in perspective

441
00:27:56,839 --> 00:28:00,000
because the Super Bowl is coming this
weekend. Patrick Mahome one of the highest

442
00:28:00,039 --> 00:28:03,599
played players, if not the highest
paid player in football's making forty million to

443
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,519
play an entire NFL season, not
just one game, not just the Super

444
00:28:07,519 --> 00:28:11,599
Bowl. Now, yes he has
outside income. You can't turn the TV

445
00:28:11,759 --> 00:28:14,319
on or the Internet on and not
see a commercial. Well, I'll tell

446
00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:15,640
you the number these easily. What
do they have you at? What do

447
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:18,839
they have mahomes So, Patrick mahomes
on this sporticle this for twenty twenty three

448
00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:23,359
is number ten. It says he
had fifty nine point three million in salary

449
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:27,599
slash winnings, twenty five million dollars
in endorsements, putting him at a total

450
00:28:27,640 --> 00:28:32,839
of a little over eighty four million
dollars one to five million off the field.

451
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:34,960
That's uh me so, but rom
so again, in terms of the

452
00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:40,079
Tyson Fury potential, you got Ronaldo
at two seventy five for twenty twenty three,

453
00:28:40,519 --> 00:28:42,680
rom at two hundred and three,
which is one eighty one from the

454
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:48,960
earnings and then another twenty two from
endorsements. Messi obviously Lebron James number four,

455
00:28:48,039 --> 00:28:51,839
and then you know again based on
those numbers, Fury would slot in

456
00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:56,759
ahead of Messi potentially. That's the
point is whatever you think about boxing's place

457
00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,440
in the world, call it a
niche sport, so be it. These

458
00:29:00,519 --> 00:29:07,000
lists always have two or three or
four boxers in the absolute upper echelon of

459
00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:08,279
earnings. Now again, I don't
know if that doesn't help you or me,

460
00:29:08,599 --> 00:29:11,160
but it shows that there's still a
tremendous amount of money made in the

461
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:15,079
sport, and it shows that there's
interest in the public buying pay per views,

462
00:29:15,119 --> 00:29:18,799
and that's the reason why promoters and
people that are backing these things are

463
00:29:18,799 --> 00:29:22,160
willing to put that money out.
That's I mean a plus. He's very

464
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,759
slightly different in terms of their reasonings. But yes, you're correct. Yeah,

465
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:29,079
whatever the market will bear right,
my friend, welcome to supply and

466
00:29:29,119 --> 00:29:30,839
demand. Go get the money if
you can get the money, Okay.

467
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:37,039
Moving along on the news, John
Ryder announced his retirement. We know him

468
00:29:37,279 --> 00:29:41,640
from having recently fought Heimimongia. He
obviously battled Canelo Avaez. We know him

469
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:47,400
previously having fought for a world title
with Canelo. I'm sorry, Callum Smith.

470
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,079
We know him mostly from the Canelo
fight a year ago in Mexico.

471
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:56,839
Again, this is a guy that
you had on the podcast recently. He

472
00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,920
took up pretty good licking against Timi
Mungia. So I can't say this is

473
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,079
totally shocking that he says, hey, I've I've made some good money,

474
00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:07,480
so I'm really here we go back
to the money again, and maybe I

475
00:30:07,519 --> 00:30:10,559
don't want to get my brand's brain
scrambled anymore for a living and want to

476
00:30:10,559 --> 00:30:14,720
do something else. I've always thought
John Ryder was the kind of guy and

477
00:30:14,759 --> 00:30:18,279
there's others in boxing that have that
would fall into this kind of category.

478
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,880
Is a guy that didn't have the
A level talent, probably the B B

479
00:30:22,039 --> 00:30:25,640
minus kind of talent, maybe even
C plus talent. But what he had

480
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,359
was a great work ethic, a
hardhead, a lot of will, a

481
00:30:29,359 --> 00:30:32,680
lot of balls, a lot of
heart, a lot of desire and uh

482
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,119
just just did it the right way
and didn't duck guys. You know,

483
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:40,359
thought tough fights because he fought in
a certain kind of style that even when

484
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:41,920
he lost, that didn't end the
career. He was always willing to put

485
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:45,519
up a good fight. And you
know, he was liked by pretty much

486
00:30:45,519 --> 00:30:48,839
everybody. The media liked them,
the fans liked him, the promoters liked

487
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:51,200
him. You know, he didn't
drive a crazy hard bargain. You know

488
00:30:51,240 --> 00:30:52,720
he got paid well, I'm sure, but he didn't make it impossible to

489
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,359
do a deal with him. Just
a very likable guy. I met John

490
00:30:56,519 --> 00:31:00,000
several times over my career, covered
some of the you know, covered lie

491
00:31:00,119 --> 00:31:02,440
of his career in terms of writing
about him, have interviewed him and stuff.

492
00:31:02,799 --> 00:31:03,839
Just a just a nice guy,
like the kind of guy you would

493
00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:07,039
for. Again, he's not he
didn't have that elite talent. But I've

494
00:31:07,079 --> 00:31:11,279
always said about boxers, and I
would say the same if I was covering

495
00:31:11,319 --> 00:31:15,720
basketball or football or baseball or whatever. I would rather have the guy with

496
00:31:15,839 --> 00:31:18,960
the B talent but the A work
ethic than the guy with the A talent

497
00:31:19,039 --> 00:31:22,680
and the B work ethic, because
the guy that's going to try to get

498
00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:25,119
the most out of him is going
to do it every single day. And

499
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:26,759
John Rayder was that kind of guy. Got everything out of what he could

500
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:30,279
get. You know. Now,
he never got to be a world champion.

501
00:31:30,359 --> 00:31:33,839
He did know, fight for the
title and loss, but he did,

502
00:31:33,839 --> 00:31:36,960
you know, for what it's worth, he got a parent interim titles.

503
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:40,200
Say what you want about that,
but he never didn't give an effort.

504
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:41,000
I mean, he's and he's got
a couple of nice wins. He

505
00:31:41,039 --> 00:31:47,039
did beat Zach Parker, he did
have a close call and got the close

506
00:31:47,079 --> 00:31:49,759
decision against Daniel Jacobs. Those are
solid victories for him. And he put

507
00:31:49,799 --> 00:31:52,160
up, like you said, a
great effort against Mangia despite the loss,

508
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,480
put up a very brave performance against
getting up, kept getting pummeled and got

509
00:31:56,559 --> 00:32:00,079
up a couple of different times.
Yep. So so he announced your retirement,

510
00:32:00,079 --> 00:32:01,920
I say, good for him.
Let him get his bouquets, let

511
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:05,559
him get the flowers. He finishes
his career. He's thirty five years old.

512
00:32:05,599 --> 00:32:07,680
He's got a lot him hopefully,
thirty two wins, seven losses,

513
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:12,119
eighteen knockouts. Got ripped off against
Calvin Smith in a world title fight.

514
00:32:12,519 --> 00:32:14,759
That was the other time he fought
for one of the belts. That was

515
00:32:14,759 --> 00:32:17,759
a WBA title fight in twenty nineteen. Obviously, the other championship opportunity was

516
00:32:17,799 --> 00:32:23,400
getting dropped and knocked that knocked around
and bust busted nose against Canelo and the

517
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:27,759
you know, in that challenge that
took place last year. But you know,

518
00:32:27,839 --> 00:32:29,319
one of the good guys, and
you know, he said in his

519
00:32:29,359 --> 00:32:31,400
statement he thanked everybody like they do
and and wouldn't change a thing and all

520
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:36,640
that, and now he plans to
work with his longtime trainer Tony Simms,

521
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:38,480
who obviously did a great job with
him, is to work with Tony as

522
00:32:38,519 --> 00:32:42,920
an assistant in the gym and you
know, try to hone his skills and

523
00:32:43,279 --> 00:32:45,279
reach the top level as a boxing
trainer. And maybe he gets in I

524
00:32:45,279 --> 00:32:47,880
don't know this, Maybe he gets
into broadcasting in the media, you know,

525
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:52,039
studio show, getting interviewed. I
don't know. Maybe that's something else

526
00:32:52,039 --> 00:32:54,240
he wants to do. Who knows, But there we go on on his

527
00:32:54,279 --> 00:32:59,759
announcement, all right, moving on
on the news. The IBF one hundred

528
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:05,319
and forty pound champs Suprial Mattias,
who we've seen, you know, scarcely

529
00:33:05,839 --> 00:33:09,799
he has a title. He is
now apparently a promotional free agent. So

530
00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:13,400
tell me, tell me more about
what's going on here in what his next

531
00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:16,000
fight might be. Dan Rayfield,
well, he's been with PBC, but

532
00:33:16,039 --> 00:33:21,480
he's always had a promoter at a
Puerto Rican called Fresh Promotions. But apparently

533
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,480
he's parting ways with PBC. And
I don't know what the reasons for that

534
00:33:23,559 --> 00:33:27,440
are. I don't think it's necessary
acrimony. It's just that you know,

535
00:33:27,559 --> 00:33:30,160
he wasn't necessary contractually down to them. They've obviously had a hard time delivering

536
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:34,200
fights because of their lack of schedule, at least in the first quarter of

537
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:37,599
twenty twenty four. They weren't so
super active over the last few months either,

538
00:33:37,599 --> 00:33:40,559
and unfortunately for Mattias, who,
for my money, is one of

539
00:33:40,599 --> 00:33:44,480
the most exciting fighters at PBC has
period, no matter what weight class you're

540
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,200
looking at. And this is a
guy who's got twenty wins all by knockout

541
00:33:46,359 --> 00:33:50,680
and has won just a one loss. You know, a very exciting,

542
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,960
tremendous fighter to watch in terms of
the entertainment value. He's guy world title

543
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:59,359
he's made, you know, one
defense so far, the title fight where

544
00:33:59,359 --> 00:34:01,880
he won the belt, super exciting
against Jerrymias punts. But you know,

545
00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:05,440
he did have two fights last year, but it didn't feel like two fights

546
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:07,920
because he just they were spread out
by ten months and you just you just

547
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:13,159
don't really hear a lot about him. And so anyway, they apparently have

548
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:15,840
parted ways and again there's no deal
here yet, but he's been in definitely

549
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,280
talking to This was a story that
was actually in the one of the El

550
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,199
New Wave Ada, one of the
Puerto rican the top newspapers, but it

551
00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:30,559
has been confirmed to me by people
involved that he is definitely having conversations with

552
00:34:30,679 --> 00:34:34,440
Mattroom Boxing about trying to do something
well. Whether they would require him to

553
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,840
do some kind of co promotion with
Fresh Emotions would seem to be a likely

554
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,480
possibility because you know, they're usually
not going to just give up a title

555
00:34:40,519 --> 00:34:45,239
shot or give up a card for
a guy they don't have a future with.

556
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:47,960
But if it gets done, he
would fight in a title defense in

557
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:51,320
Puerto Rico, where he's from,
which I know is something mattisas said he

558
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,880
wanted to do sometime in the early
summer against the undefeated Australian contender Liam Paro,

559
00:34:55,920 --> 00:35:00,440
who is twenty and oho. And
you know what in the junior welterweight

560
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:02,400
division, where there's a lot of
names, a lot of talent, Yeah,

561
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:07,800
it's very top heavy when you're talking
about Tia Fimo and and Ryan Garcia,

562
00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,760
and you know, if Tank Davis
comes up and weigh Devin Haney's certainly

563
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:15,079
there with a title, regis Progray
who's just lost, but it's still in

564
00:35:15,119 --> 00:35:19,480
the weight class. There's a lot
of good quality fighters there. But Mattias

565
00:35:19,679 --> 00:35:22,079
is talent wise and exciting wise.
Is probably on that kind of level,

566
00:35:22,119 --> 00:35:25,000
even if he doesn't get a lot
of attention. And while Paro is not

567
00:35:25,039 --> 00:35:28,639
going to make you forget about you
know, the all time greats of one

568
00:35:28,679 --> 00:35:31,199
hundred and forty pounds, you know, he's got some nice wins and he's

569
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:35,440
interesting, and that's a that's a
good matchup, and that's a fight that

570
00:35:35,559 --> 00:35:37,840
Natrim can deliver because they are his
promoters. So if you're able to do

571
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:44,760
Mattias against him in against Parroo in
Puerto Rico, that's a nice fight.

572
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:46,880
I'd definitely be into that. So
it's not done yet, but hopefully they'll

573
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:50,239
get it wrapped up and we'll hopefully
get a chance to see him back.

574
00:35:50,239 --> 00:35:52,199
And the main thing is if Mittias
is back, you know, let's say,

575
00:35:52,559 --> 00:35:55,679
you know in June ish, there
should be no reason why he shouldn't

576
00:35:55,679 --> 00:35:59,199
be able to get in two fights
in a perfect world to be three fights

577
00:35:59,199 --> 00:36:00,760
this year, but you know,
I'm not going to hold my breath on

578
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:05,920
that, all right. Speaking of
top rank and Spain, we did talk

579
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,400
about a Manuel Navarate and him moving
up for the vacant WBO lightweight title.

580
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:13,679
What date are they looking at right
now, What are you hearing? What

581
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:16,639
are you reporting? Well, it
was not that long ago, in the

582
00:36:16,679 --> 00:36:21,239
last couple of weeks, I guess
probably even less than that that the you

583
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:24,719
know, the WBO ordered him.
You know, he he was their champion

584
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:29,039
in the junior lightweight division. He
is vacating that title and moving up to

585
00:36:29,119 --> 00:36:31,840
the lightweight division where he is now
eligible to fight for their title. That's

586
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:36,800
part of the WBO rules. But
they ordered him because he wanted that position

587
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,320
and the title was vacant because Haini
when he vacated all the titles as the

588
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:43,559
undisputed champion and moved up, that
was a vacant title. So anyway,

589
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:45,760
Navarette was in position. They ordered
this fight not that long ago, for

590
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:51,199
Navarette to fight Dennis Barncik or the
vacant title, and you know, it

591
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:52,800
could have gone to a purse BD
but apparently that won't happen. That they've

592
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:57,320
been able to work out a deal
between Top Rank and K two Promotions,

593
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:00,760
which handles Barentchik to do this fight, and they're talking about again. It's

594
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:01,840
not done yet, but they're working
on it and I think it'll probably get

595
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:05,760
done. I don't see a reason
why it wouldn't is to go on May

596
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,719
eighteenth at the Pachanga Arena in San
Diego, which is a place where a

597
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:14,960
naverette has fought before and obviously has
a large Mexican Mexican American community. That

598
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:19,880
would be the target of the ticket, you know, selling tickets, and

599
00:37:20,119 --> 00:37:22,920
there's a good possibility that that'll be
May eighteenth on ESPN or you know,

600
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:24,960
one of the ESPN platforms, And
that's you know, again a pretty solid

601
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:28,519
fight, you know, in a
way class that's excellent. I know Branchik

602
00:37:28,599 --> 00:37:30,639
is not the most known guy,
but he's a silver medal winner in the

603
00:37:30,639 --> 00:37:32,480
Olympic Games, and he's obviously got
a great amateur background. And we all

604
00:37:32,519 --> 00:37:37,079
know about Navarette, so bring it
up. And Navaratatee has been involved in

605
00:37:37,119 --> 00:37:39,480
some wild fights. Again, the
draw with Consasao was recent, but that

606
00:37:39,559 --> 00:37:43,039
was a great fight. What was
it, Liam Wilson, Do I have

607
00:37:43,039 --> 00:37:45,639
that right the Australian Off the top
of my head. That was one of

608
00:37:45,679 --> 00:37:47,400
your fights and my fights too.
That should have been in the consideration for

609
00:37:47,480 --> 00:37:51,440
Fight of the Year last year.
Anytime that guy's in the ring, I'm

610
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,159
interested. So even if we have
to wait a little while longer on that.

611
00:37:54,159 --> 00:38:00,559
All right, some nostalgia and then
we are good here. It was

612
00:38:00,639 --> 00:38:05,480
twenty seven years ago February eighth,
nineteen ninety seven, as we released this

613
00:38:05,559 --> 00:38:08,719
podcast Thursday night and a Friday,
twenty seven years ago Thursday, that Prince

614
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:15,079
Nasim Hahmed knocked out Tom Boom Boom
Johnson and unified the WBO and IBF featherweight

615
00:38:15,559 --> 00:38:21,760
titles. Whenever we can work the
Prince in here, Hahmed, we love

616
00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:24,639
talking about him. So little nostalgia
again on the on the Prince. I'm

617
00:38:24,639 --> 00:38:29,519
an on a bashed Prince fan.
Everybody knows that. But this was this

618
00:38:29,679 --> 00:38:32,920
was a big fight for the Prince
because he had been on. He had

619
00:38:32,960 --> 00:38:37,320
been selling out and doing big numbers
in the UK where he was extremely popular.

620
00:38:37,639 --> 00:38:42,960
He had won the WBO featherweight title. But again you have to remember

621
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:45,280
the times we're talking about, late
nineties. It was it was a world

622
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:50,239
title, yes, but it was
not considered like the title, a big

623
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:52,960
title. But it was guys like
Hahmed that actually gave it some legitimacy.

624
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:57,840
And so guys like Joe Kylzagi also
you know from the UK, from Wales

625
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,599
and some of the British fighters,
that gave even that credibility. So but

626
00:39:01,639 --> 00:39:04,559
again, like I said, he
had he had won that belt, he

627
00:39:04,559 --> 00:39:07,159
had defended US several times. He'd
been getting some experience, I mean,

628
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:13,280
rather some exposure on the United States
broadcast because he had fought on you know,

629
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:16,320
some he had been shown on Showtime
and uh later on he ended up

630
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:19,920
on ABC. But when he fought
Boom Boom of Johnson, who was a

631
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,400
very reputable fighter out of Detroit,
good fighter, you know, maybe not

632
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:25,639
a Hall of Famer, but you
know, but but at that period of

633
00:39:25,679 --> 00:39:29,119
time, in that era in the
nineties, he was he was a badass.

634
00:39:29,119 --> 00:39:31,679
He was a really good, exciting, tough, you know, just

635
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:35,760
talented guy, and he was the
IBF champion and so they made the match.

636
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,599
He went to the UK to fight
him, and it was a big

637
00:39:37,639 --> 00:39:43,320
deal on Showtime. This is in
February of nineteen ninety seven, and it

638
00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:45,119
was a unification. But in the
Prince, you know, as he typically

639
00:39:45,119 --> 00:39:49,039
did, put him away in the
in the eighth round, got the knockout

640
00:39:49,039 --> 00:39:52,119
and unified the titles, and then
he continued to pile up the wins and

641
00:39:52,159 --> 00:39:53,840
it was you know, probably what
four fights later where he you know less.

642
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:55,639
It was Actually this is, by
the way, we always talk about

643
00:39:55,639 --> 00:39:59,159
activity, by the way, and
I'm looking I just looked his record up.

644
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:00,360
I was just going there. You
start to think like me, and

645
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,559
you scared it, right, I
was just going there on the activity.

646
00:40:02,599 --> 00:40:07,599
But in nineteen ninety seven he fought
the Boom Boom fight in February. That's

647
00:40:07,639 --> 00:40:10,199
what he fought one, two,
three, four times in nineteen ninety seven,

648
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:15,119
culminating with the HBO debut, the
legendary epic fight that we have talked

649
00:40:15,119 --> 00:40:17,880
about. That's one of my all
time favorite fights. When he knocked out

650
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:22,599
Kevin Kelly now had not he didn't
he no longer had the IBF title.

651
00:40:22,599 --> 00:40:23,880
I forget he was stripped away from
him or he gave it up or whatever.

652
00:40:24,559 --> 00:40:29,039
He only made a couple of defenses
that But the Tom Johnson fight gave

653
00:40:29,119 --> 00:40:32,760
Hamed a lot more legitimacy in the
eyes of the more traditional folks, let's

654
00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:37,360
say, because it was the IBF
title, but not just the WBO title,

655
00:40:37,559 --> 00:40:39,840
and that was a really good win
for the Prince. And later on

656
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:43,840
in the air we saw him,
you know, defend it and then you

657
00:40:44,079 --> 00:40:45,519
get stripped or for vacant, I
forget which it was, and then come

658
00:40:45,559 --> 00:40:49,800
to the United States for the Kevin
Kelly fight. And remember this is the

659
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:52,880
infancy of the internet the mid nineties, and you did not see a lot

660
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:57,239
of fights live in England and less
for whatever reason, they had been on

661
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:01,199
network TV in the United States on
ABE CBS during the day they would show

662
00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:05,719
fights from over in Europe, so
showtime exposing him in that way. But

663
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,440
I just look, he fought four
times in ninety six and four times in

664
00:41:08,519 --> 00:41:12,960
ninety seven. Do you hear me, people that you had to actually have

665
00:41:13,039 --> 00:41:16,280
activity to market yourself, to make
more money, to be to be a

666
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:22,000
bigger name. He stay in shape
eight, yes, eight times in those

667
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:28,559
two years to eventually launch himself with
that Kevin Kelly fight into much bigger fights,

668
00:41:28,599 --> 00:41:31,360
all title fights. Yeah. By
the way, I don't want to

669
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:36,559
undersell Tom Johnson, Tom Boom Boom
Johnson again. I said he's not a

670
00:41:36,559 --> 00:41:40,519
Hall of Famer necessarily, but the
guy was defending his title against Hamid for

671
00:41:40,599 --> 00:41:44,280
like the twelfth time when they fought
each other. Ammed had, you know,

672
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:46,000
had a handful of defenses of the
w BO, but necessarily not in

673
00:41:46,039 --> 00:41:50,800
your twelve defenses and you know,
Boom Boom was a you know, you

674
00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,079
don't hear about him today like every
day or anything, but a very very

675
00:41:53,119 --> 00:41:58,599
well respected fighter at that time and
U and that was a very very big,

676
00:41:58,679 --> 00:42:01,400
great win for Hmed at that time. And that was the anniversary where

677
00:42:01,519 --> 00:42:07,639
the prince we always love whenever we
can bring him up, all right.

678
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:10,960
And then thirty three years ago,
as we released the podcast Friday February ninth,

679
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,960
nineteen ninety one, is the end
of Sugar Ray Leonard. Terry Norris's

680
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:22,360
decision over Ray Leonard sends him into
another well sends him into retirement at that

681
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:24,920
time before we would see him again
the fight that he should have never come

682
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,880
out for with it, which is
the Hector Camacho fight, but he went

683
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:31,840
away. Now you talk about retirements, as you were talking about with Tyson

684
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:37,599
Fury earlier, what number retirement was
this when the Norris retirement happened after this

685
00:42:37,639 --> 00:42:40,280
decision, Because you and I are
humongous Sugar Ray Leonard fans, but this

686
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:44,840
had to be the third or fourth
right retirement around, I mean something.

687
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,719
Obviously he had the retirement in the
early eighties with the eye right, the

688
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:52,079
other one after the I forget was
it after the Kevin Howard fight. Maybe

689
00:42:52,079 --> 00:42:55,719
afgot Yes, he retired on a
regular basis. He came out of retirement

690
00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:00,159
for this fight against Terry Norris,
who was an up and coming fighter at

691
00:43:00,199 --> 00:43:02,599
that time. It would you know, he was the champion of the WBC

692
00:43:02,639 --> 00:43:06,679
at one hundred and fifty four pounds. His big win up to that point

693
00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:09,159
was against John mcgabby, who was
a little older at that point. And

694
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:13,199
you know, and let me tell
you about that. That was the Sundome

695
00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:15,920
in Tampa, that was ABC Network
TV, and that was a first round

696
00:43:16,119 --> 00:43:22,880
knockout. He blitzed him in one
round. And so Leonard, this is

697
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,920
Leonard coming off the draw with Thomas
Hearns. This is Leonard having beaten Roberto

698
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:30,039
Duran in the third fight and then
around this time, so that kind of

699
00:43:30,039 --> 00:43:32,159
set the stage for him to take
on the younger gun here in this instance.

700
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,119
Yeah, I mean, he had
the draw, like you mentioned,

701
00:43:35,119 --> 00:43:37,639
against Hearns, and a lot of
most people thought that he lost. He

702
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:40,920
had the win, although an abysmal
fight against Duran that was at the very

703
00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:44,320
end of eighty nine. He did
not fight at all, Sugar. Right

704
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:45,639
in nineteen ninety, most people figured
he was done and he was going to

705
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:50,760
retire and just continue to do as
HBO commentary. And then lo and behold,

706
00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:52,079
February of ninety one, he's when
he fought the Terry Norris by So

707
00:43:52,079 --> 00:43:54,920
he'd gone what fourteen months or so
without a fight. But the thing about

708
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,679
it was, you know, Terry
Norris was a badass, coming up,

709
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,119
big puncher. You know he had
lost before. But still it was a

710
00:44:02,119 --> 00:44:05,519
bad fight for Ray to take.
And as it turns out, as great

711
00:44:05,519 --> 00:44:07,920
as Ray Leonard was and all the
greats have fought in Madison Square Guard,

712
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,280
it turns out that that's the only
time that Sugar Ray Leonard ever boxed in

713
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:15,360
that hallowed venue. Now that's a
trivia nugget, that's the only one.

714
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:19,159
How about that. I don't know
if I remember correctly. He hurt himself.

715
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,119
He hurt himself in this fight.
He heard his calf I think in

716
00:44:22,159 --> 00:44:27,559
this fight that okay, yeah,
because because it was definitely an aging Ray

717
00:44:27,599 --> 00:44:30,079
Leonard at that point, not the
same anymore. And I don't know.

718
00:44:30,079 --> 00:44:35,920
And then did him give the interview
that that he really his body began to

719
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:37,559
betray him and he didn't listen to
his body, and the and the Norris

720
00:44:37,599 --> 00:44:40,320
fight was the beginning of that.
That one in the Norris was a big

721
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:44,440
puncher. He dropped Sugar Ray Leonard
twice. Now, if you go back

722
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:51,079
about ten or twelve years ago,
when the cable channel Epics did boxing matches,

723
00:44:51,159 --> 00:44:53,800
I was the analyst on those boxing
matches, and I worked with several

724
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:58,440
people over the two years or so. It was myself and Bruce Beck where

725
00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:01,000
the constants. But we we were
work with a bunch of different uh you

726
00:45:01,000 --> 00:45:05,360
know X you know, the the
expert analysts, like the former fighters and

727
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:07,320
trainers and sort of things like that. So of the people I worked with,

728
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:09,840
I worked with Lennox Lewis, I
worked with Freddie Roach, but I

729
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:13,599
also worked several fights with Sugar Ray
Leonard, so I got to know him,

730
00:45:13,639 --> 00:45:15,159
hang out with him, and just
you know, i'd met him before

731
00:45:15,159 --> 00:45:17,519
and interviewed him just in my role
as a reporter, but I never had

732
00:45:17,559 --> 00:45:21,960
worked with him. So one day
I remember we're sitting, uh you know,

733
00:45:22,039 --> 00:45:23,639
in our in our backstage room before
we're getting ready to go on the

734
00:45:23,639 --> 00:45:25,920
air, and I forget how the
topic giving came up. We're just shooting

735
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,679
the ship and for some reason,
the Terry Norris fight came up. I

736
00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:31,880
might have told this story before.
Remember he was working at HBO as a

737
00:45:31,920 --> 00:45:36,079
commentator, and you know that was
a really cushy gig. He had obviously

738
00:45:36,119 --> 00:45:38,519
fought fights on HBO, liked the
Duran, which you know they replayed in

739
00:45:38,559 --> 00:45:42,599
the Tommy Hearns rematch in Lalan and
you go all the way back years all

740
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:45,440
is you know most of those big
fights ron HBO or you know on a

741
00:45:45,519 --> 00:45:50,440
close circuit that were replayed on HBO. Terry Norris fight was the one time

742
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:53,519
that Sugar Ray Leonard ever appeared on
showtime. And as the story, the

743
00:45:53,519 --> 00:45:57,320
way that Ray had said the story
to me is that you know he number

744
00:45:57,320 --> 00:45:59,480
one, he regrets to fight.
You know, he says, I shouldn't

745
00:45:59,480 --> 00:46:01,119
have taken the no I shouldn't have
taken the Camacho fight, but I did.

746
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:05,199
If you take away those two loss
By the way, Surrey, Sugar

747
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,360
Ray Leonard only has one loss in
his entire career officially, and that was

748
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:10,360
in the first fight all the way
back in nineteen eighty when he fought the

749
00:46:10,400 --> 00:46:15,280
first matchup with Roberto Durant. But
the Terry Norris fight really cost him his

750
00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:21,280
gig at HBO. Because he wanted
the HBO people to buy that fight and

751
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:23,079
they weren't going to do it.
And I guess to make you know,

752
00:46:23,199 --> 00:46:28,599
my members slightly foggy, but basically, they made a deal behind HBO's back

753
00:46:28,639 --> 00:46:30,960
to fight on showtime. And when
the people at HBO found out about that,

754
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:36,079
they went absolutely bonkers and they fired
Ray from his position as the commentator.

755
00:46:36,119 --> 00:46:38,400
So not only does Ray lose you
know, probably a seven figure gig

756
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:43,039
as a commentator, which is,
you know, to be the analyst on

757
00:46:43,159 --> 00:46:45,280
HBO. In terms of that role
was like the cushiest gig in the sport.

758
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:49,480
So he loses that role and then
he gets his ass kicked by Terry

759
00:46:49,519 --> 00:46:52,760
Norris and goes into retirement for six
more years before he makes the terrible decision

760
00:46:52,800 --> 00:46:57,719
to come out and fight the last
match against Hector Camacho. So that Terry

761
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:01,800
Norris fight. Really, you know, it was one loss in the ring,

762
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:05,159
but it was another big loss outside
there, and because it costs him

763
00:47:05,159 --> 00:47:07,039
the gig, all right, I
was looking at a couple of things here

764
00:47:07,039 --> 00:47:10,559
and yeah, and Sugar, Ray
was phenomenal even much earlier in his career

765
00:47:10,639 --> 00:47:15,280
as an analyst for HBO and CBS. While in the prime of his career

766
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:20,760
being a fight analyst. All right, so Leonard said that night, I'm

767
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:23,639
looking at and rest in peace Sports
Illustrated. I mean, it's going the

768
00:47:23,639 --> 00:47:28,559
way of the dinosaur of the Dodo. But I'm looking at the SI recap

769
00:47:28,679 --> 00:47:30,480
article where they had the quotes.
He said, I knew I did not

770
00:47:30,599 --> 00:47:34,679
have it when I entered the ring. And then Norris knocked Leonard down in

771
00:47:34,719 --> 00:47:36,679
the second round. He said,
I didn't have legs. I didn't have

772
00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:39,599
legs anymore after the second round knockdown. Now he survived through the twelve rounds.

773
00:47:39,719 --> 00:47:45,000
Sports Illustrated documents that it's Leonard's fourth
retirement. In the recap when he

774
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:47,280
says I'm done, I'm not fighting
anymore, he says, all the things

775
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:52,760
I tried worked against the older fellows
later lately, but they didn't work tonight.

776
00:47:52,079 --> 00:47:55,480
They said four retirements, the first
in seventy six, after he won

777
00:47:55,519 --> 00:47:59,440
the gold medal in Montreal where he
announced he would not turn professional, that

778
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:01,400
he was retired from boxing. So
does that really count as a retirement,

779
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:04,079
Ray Phiel, I don't know,
I don't think. But Thenny, but

780
00:48:04,119 --> 00:48:07,400
then he fought as a professional,
uh and uh, and then after losing

781
00:48:07,440 --> 00:48:14,079
to Roberto Duran, he won the
he won the belt back and then uh

782
00:48:14,119 --> 00:48:19,880
and then later announced the retirement.
Uh right, the eye injury. Uh.

783
00:48:19,920 --> 00:48:22,559
He returned for the single bout to
defeat Kevin Howard. Howard knocked him

784
00:48:22,559 --> 00:48:25,719
down in the fight. He retired
again and said I'm done for good after

785
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:30,760
that fight. So Sports Illustrated documented
that the Norris retirement would be the fourth

786
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:34,079
if you count the one after the
amateurs and then of course the last one

787
00:48:34,119 --> 00:48:37,400
after the come out week, but
the official retirement. Most of the time,

788
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:39,039
when we talk about Sugar Ray Leonard
on this show or any show,

789
00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:43,800
you're talking about a glorious victors,
talking about all the great fighters that he

790
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:45,760
beat, all the championships, he
won the gold medal, just you know,

791
00:48:46,039 --> 00:48:50,800
the biggest star of his time out
of the heavyweight division for sure,

792
00:48:51,079 --> 00:48:52,440
one of the biggest stars in the
history of boxing. You know, if

793
00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:57,719
you want to know the truth,
this was like a sad scene to see,

794
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:00,519
like, but it just goes to
show you father is undefeated, right,

795
00:49:00,559 --> 00:49:04,159
And I mean, look, Terry
Norris became a Hall of Famer.

796
00:49:05,119 --> 00:49:07,800
Terry Norris was a very exciting fighter
to watch, and you know, he

797
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:09,239
got. You know, it was
sort of like he'll get you where you'll

798
00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:13,639
get him, because he got knocked
out several times. But if you want

799
00:49:13,639 --> 00:49:16,280
to know the truth, nothing whatsoever
against Terry Norris. You know, just

800
00:49:16,320 --> 00:49:21,039
a very good, outstanding, you
know, superb fighter for a long time,

801
00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:25,199
the Ray Leonard of his day,
the Ray Leonard that won the WBA

802
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:30,360
Junior middleweight title against Ayub Kloule.
For example, when he went up a

803
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:34,920
few months before fighting Tommy Hearns in
their massive first summit meeting. You know

804
00:49:35,119 --> 00:49:37,360
he you know, like three months
before he takes a so called tune up

805
00:49:37,400 --> 00:49:43,360
fight against this undefeated a rug and
African guy with the WBA world title as

806
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:45,880
a tune up, and he stops
him in the ninth round. That Ray

807
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:50,280
Leonard at one hundred and fifty four
pounds no offense to Terry Norris, would

808
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:52,199
have put Terry Norris in the hospital
in my opinion, over and out ski

809
00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:57,360
to watch him take a beating from
Norris and get dropped twice in the waiting

810
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:00,480
days of his career. The guy
that I idolized as kid and me both

811
00:50:01,119 --> 00:50:06,679
I meant me both now interesting he
was thirty four. He was thirty four

812
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:08,519
when he stepped in. That's not
you, and I want to confess that's

813
00:50:08,519 --> 00:50:13,079
not old. Thirty four is not
old, even in boxing terms anymore.

814
00:50:13,079 --> 00:50:16,039
It's not old. But he was
thirty four when he fought Terry Norris.

815
00:50:16,679 --> 00:50:21,000
Yeah, and then yet he would
still come back, uh six years later.

816
00:50:21,079 --> 00:50:23,760
I'm looking to see if there's anything
in there on how much Ray made

817
00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:29,360
for the fight just out of curiosity. For his final fight, I would

818
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:31,079
have to guess he was always fighting
for a few million dollars. I would

819
00:50:31,119 --> 00:50:36,880
have to guess like mid probably mid
seven figures something like that for that fight,

820
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:39,000
depending on what. But it wasn't
like he was making the crazy huge

821
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:43,119
money he made when he fought like
Agler or when he fought But even the

822
00:50:43,159 --> 00:50:46,079
crazy, but even the crazy huge
money for those was not like you were

823
00:50:46,079 --> 00:50:50,760
describing earlier, not like fifty sixty
seventy million, even adjusted for inflation.

824
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:53,400
Thirty or forty years later, the
crazy money was like ten or fifteen million

825
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:57,480
dollars that they were. There was
no Saudi Arabia involved in those, that's

826
00:50:57,519 --> 00:51:01,079
true, but uh, yeah,
it's still you and I Ray, Charles

827
00:51:01,159 --> 00:51:06,119
Leonard, Sugar Ray Leonard. But
that night he didn't have it, didn't

828
00:51:06,119 --> 00:51:07,280
have it against Terry Norris, so
he would only fight one more time.

829
00:51:07,320 --> 00:51:12,920
Norris was twenty three years old,
eleven year age difference. I always wish.

830
00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,039
I know that you can't go back
in time, but it was always

831
00:51:15,079 --> 00:51:21,239
my I would have loved if Ray
had just stopped after durand closed the eighties

832
00:51:21,639 --> 00:51:24,280
with the victory over Durant, as
terrible as that third fight was, and

833
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,800
you walked away, it would have
been a perfect bookend of the eighties.

834
00:51:28,119 --> 00:51:30,719
You retire with just a one loss
to an all time great in Duran which

835
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:34,719
you avenged, you know, and
the No Mos fight regained the title,

836
00:51:35,119 --> 00:51:37,639
and then you went and you ran
the table. We talked about this all

837
00:51:37,639 --> 00:51:39,239
the time. Most of these guys
can't stay away. They can't stay away,

838
00:51:39,280 --> 00:51:45,199
can't walk away. And Leonard had
even told Sports Illustrated. I'm still

839
00:51:45,199 --> 00:51:46,880
looking at their recap article. Leading
up to the fight, I knew I

840
00:51:46,920 --> 00:51:51,119
had to do this. I had
to fight again. I had to know

841
00:51:51,239 --> 00:51:53,000
if I could take my talent as
far as it could go, and I

842
00:51:53,039 --> 00:51:57,719
want to test it against a guy
like this. What did he have left

843
00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:00,639
to prove? But that's spider Man
Tabity. There is the point I'll tell

844
00:52:00,639 --> 00:52:04,119
you. In the long run,
Yeah, he suffered the loss to Terry

845
00:52:04,199 --> 00:52:06,760
Norris and the which is why we're
talking about because the anniversary, and then

846
00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:10,760
he suffered the stoppage against Camacho.
But the thing is they actually in the

847
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:14,800
long in the large picture. Yes, we're kind of dissecting it right now

848
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:17,119
because it's the anniversary of the loss, but there's nobody in the world that

849
00:52:17,199 --> 00:52:21,599
ever holds it against Ray Leonard that, oh, ye got knocked out by

850
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:24,679
Hector Camacho and your last fighter.
You lost the decision and got dropped a

851
00:52:24,679 --> 00:52:28,039
couple of times by an up and
coming Terry Norris, who, by the

852
00:52:28,039 --> 00:52:30,199
way, if you really want to
get technical, Ray Leonard's got three losses

853
00:52:30,199 --> 00:52:34,119
all the guys who were in the
Hall of Fame Camacho, Norris and and

854
00:52:34,440 --> 00:52:38,679
Roberto Durant. So it didn't hurt
his overall, uh you know, the

855
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:43,480
the legendary status of his name.
But still I wish it. I would

856
00:52:43,519 --> 00:52:45,719
have wished it didn't happen. And
and and for what it's worth, on

857
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:49,599
that afternoon when I was sitting in
our green room before our broadcast, hanging

858
00:52:49,639 --> 00:52:52,079
out with my man Ray Leonard,
you know, he was basically saying the

859
00:52:52,079 --> 00:52:54,360
same thing. I wish I hadn't
done those two fights. You know,

860
00:52:54,480 --> 00:53:00,320
you actually cheered me up with the
nostalgia here at the end of this podcast,

861
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:04,079
even if part of it is Sugar
Ray Leonard losing, but we did

862
00:53:04,079 --> 00:53:07,400
have some good nostalgia to end it
up, because once more, the Lopez

863
00:53:07,599 --> 00:53:14,079
Ortiz fight, there's disappointments and then
there was whatever that was. That's,

864
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:15,639
as you like to say, and
I have often said to that's an hour

865
00:53:15,639 --> 00:53:20,559
of my life. I'm not getting
back with that. And we'll see what

866
00:53:20,599 --> 00:53:22,719
happens with Tea Fimo and where he
goes from here or not off of that

867
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:25,679
performance. Hey, we do have
the Super Bowl in Las Vegas and hopefully

868
00:53:25,679 --> 00:53:30,119
it's a better football game than what
that fight is with the Chiefs and the

869
00:53:30,159 --> 00:53:32,639
forty nine ers. Why don't we
do this. We do have a handicapping

870
00:53:32,679 --> 00:53:38,039
show bet us. We're going to
talk about the Hamza Shiraz main event middleweight

871
00:53:38,119 --> 00:53:45,239
Commonwealth Middleweight title fight in Britain.
Also former light heavyweight world title challenger Anthony

872
00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:50,239
Yard is on the undercart of that. We'll handicap both of those fights one

873
00:53:50,280 --> 00:53:53,079
Eastern time. We'll also touch I'm
sure for that audience a little bit on

874
00:53:53,119 --> 00:53:58,719
the Lopez non event and non win
Thursday. But why don't we reconvene a

875
00:53:58,719 --> 00:54:01,679
little later on on Friday, one
Eastern time. Good enough sounds good to

876
00:54:01,719 --> 00:54:05,639
me. All right, let's do
that for Dan Rayphiel, I'm merely TJ

877
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,199
Reeves. We will also come off
the weekend with a recap podcast of something

878
00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:14,360
stand by for that. We're here
twice every weekend previewing and recapping. There

879
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:19,280
you go with the very latest with
the Lopez decision win questionable, as Dan

880
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:22,840
believes that it was some news you
have. I thought neither guy deserved to

881
00:54:22,880 --> 00:54:27,119
win. I thought a draw.
I thought one four team was fine.

882
00:54:27,159 --> 00:54:30,360
One more time, neither guy deserved
to have their hand raised after that fight.

883
00:54:30,599 --> 00:54:32,800
And one more time, Lopez thoughty
loss. That's why he was prime.

884
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:37,880
That tells you all you need to
know in that one. All right,

885
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:40,559
there we go. We're all good
here for this edition of the pod.

886
00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:45,239
We'll catch you on the bet Us
Show one Eastern time on Friday.

887
00:54:45,559 --> 00:54:47,000
We have been with you here as
part of the Big Fight. We can

888
00:54:47,119 --> 00:54:52,199
preview and at a female Lopez recap
as well. Thank you for being with us.