Turn up the heat this summer with delivery from a settling collection of restaurants in
your area. Save big with bundles, meal deals and offers on faves like
Big Juicy Burgers, Cheesy Beazza's, Crunchy salads and more. Lots more Open
the delivery app in order now Summer Never Tasted So Good offer applicable to existing
customers as a twenty fifth of May twenty three, but each order over twenty
five pound due restriction season. See service and delivery fees applies. He foteas
and sees a delivery dot cook slash terms. Hyundai has made history with high
Undi Ionic six winning World Car Design of the Year, World Electric Car of
the Year and overall World Car of the Year twenty twenty three, becoming the
first brand ever to achieve all three prestigious accolades two years in a row after
Ionic five's triple win in twenty twenty two. The multi award winning high Undai
two three two range is available to order now, including Ireland's best selling car,
the twosome high Undie a class apart. Visit Dublin's newest high und Ideal
aer Bright high Undy air Side see Bryce Mosa Group, dot Hie Forward Slash
High UNDI. The countdown is on to Fight time. This is Big Fight
weekend. No, here is your host? T J leaves Well, I
am somewhat back in the saddle off of vacation. Yet it is still the
twins birthday week, wrapping up like the twins birthday month, So I'm trying
to keep it all straight and to help me do that and to help me
preview the weekend in the ring and go over some news and some nostalgia is
one Dan Raphael. It's good to be back with you, my friend.
We made it work while I was on vacation. Now it's kind of the
normal way that we record things. It sounds like it normally sounds, but
we may do last week it plus the peeps. We're tuning in to hear
you with Gil Ortiz as well on the recap podcast. Anyway, how are
you feeling. We're ready to wrap up June. We're halfway through the year.
We're ready to wrap up June this weekend. How are things? Things
are good? I'm ready to go. And and by the way, I
have been at the DMV earlier today at the time that we're doing this it
was not a harrowing experience. But both twins are now learners. They're driving
learners, permit holders. They are not street legal yet. That is a
year from now, so look out on the Florida roadways that's upcoming. You
will be here in a few years, my friend, you will be here
with your son and a few were doing this same thing. Just remember this,
you'll be here, so just stand by there. I only have one
son. You've got that writers and by the way, both of them under
the delusion that's the word that we're going to use on a Friday podcast,
delusion that they are each going to have their own automobile. Think again,
because dad doesn't make Kenelo Alvarez money. Let's just say or Tyson fury or
Dan Rafael money, or Dan Rayfield money for that matter. Podcast isn't generating
that moment. No, we're not able to buy two vehicles for them for
sweet sixteen. But in any event, reeves household driving aside. It is
good to have you with us. Thank you for finding us. Make sure
you rate and review The Big Fight Weekend podcast feed wherever you get podcasts,
Apple podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify. It helps us if you review US
review, US five star review. It takes ten seconds. Go do that
now before the month of June ends, because it helps us with the algorithms.
It moves the podcast up and again. Thousands and thousands and thousands and
thousands of you have been finding us through the first half of this year.
Keep it up, keep rating, US, reviewing US, keep following,
keep subscribing. It's all good with a preview going into the weekend and a
recap coming off of the weekend. I want to tell you upfront you will
hear from one of the top fighters I believe in all of boxing. I
keep saying this. He is the best welterweight that doesn't have a world title.
He is one of the best fighters in the world in any division.
Will work for him. I don't I don't get paid to say this,
but I think Geron boots In is as talented as anybody that doesn't have a
world title belt. You will hear from him with the Dan Raphael In just
a little bit. You obviously don't count his interim title belt. The interim
is not it. No, it's not the one, not as of yet.
But I mean this guy again, what do I know? He looks
as good as anybody that doesn't have one. You'll hear from him in a
little bit on the podcast from Boots and a headlining July eighth in Atlantic City
against Via In. That headlining fight for showtime in PBC. We'll look forward
to Dan's conversation with him before we get there. We have a heavyweight battle
with an up and coming contender in a main event is hometown. We have
a women's undisputed title fight in Manchester, England, so we're ready to roll
the sleeves up and talk all about this. Let's begin with Jared Real Big
Baby Anderson and a newer replacement fighter not at the very last second, but
Charles Martin, the American heavyweight is the opponent. Anderson is head lining for
the first time for a top rank boxing in his hometown of Toledo, coming
up Saturday night ESPN. Dan Ray feels some thoughts because the guy has a
lot of potential and a lot of knockouts, and I think a lot of
people are expecting this will be a fairly quick one. Maybe you don't think
so, but some thoughts on Real Big Baby back in the ring. Well,
I mean, given the punching power that these two guys have Charles Martin
and Jared Anderson, and the fact that they've knocked most of their guys out
and Charles Martin and his losses has been knocked out, you gotta figure this
is not going to see the final bell. Now, as you mentioned,
this is a this is a late replacement. This was a fight that came
up. This was a replacement that wasn't that long ago. I mean as
of what to fight is on Saturday, like June twenty third, twenty seconds
something like that. They made the switch because the original opponent that Jared Anderson,
was supposed to fight a much less known fighter than Charles Martin, at
least here in the United States anyway. He was supposed to fight the undefeated
fighter from Kazistan, another South named Zon Sabootski, and he had problems with
his visa and so when that happened, Top rank, you know, they
didn't want to lose the date and mest things up, so at some point
you got to make the decision. They pull the plug. So maybe he'll
fight that guy at some later date. In any event, Charles Martin,
the former IBF title holder, which was a fight that Top Rank has been
interested to make for Jared Anderson for a while. They were able to actually
get him to take this fight on somewhat short notice. And you know,
he didn't have to change training from our firm a right hander to a left
hander, because he was already training for a lefty, which Charles Martin is,
and Charles Martin comes in, at least from my perspective anyway, is
a much more interesting fight. And I say that because at least he's known,
we've seen him now. He may not be pound for pound, he
may not be, you know, a serious threat to be the heavyweight champion,
but he did have a title for a quick minute. And he has
fought quality fighters over the years. And he's big, and he's strong,
and he's got great punching power. He's got twenty six knockouts in his twenty
nine the victories. He has been stopped twice in his losses. I mean,
of course, famously against Anthony Joshua when he lost the idea of belt
that he altar like about thirty seconds. And he is coming off to win
over Devin Vargas, who is you know, everybody's favorite punching back when they're
trying to come back from a win. Um. He had got stopped by
Louis King Congo Ortiz in a in a pretty good shootout kind of fight that
was on one of the PBC pay per view cards. The headliner backup uh
in January two, keeps saying this, he had Ortiz down in that fight,
down twice. I believe in that fight before Ortiz came back and stopped
Charles Martin. And its only other th loss. You'd have to go back
to the twenty eighteen which is a good fight. He loss, uh,
you know, a highly competitive decision to Adam Kunaki who at that time was
undefeated and was still on the rise and you know, marching towards you know,
being a top contender. So I mean, you know, he's a
guy that's a great athlete. He came to boxing very late in terms of
your normal boxer, in terms of Charles Martin. Um. You know,
he also has a win against, for example, a knockout against Gerald Washington,
another tremendous athlete who was a football player came to boxing, who also
fought for the title against the aunt Day Wilder. Point here is this Toledo,
Ohio is Jared Anderson's hometown. He has never fought there as a professional.
Uh, the top rank has always done a good job of bringing their
younger fighters to make them have a home base where they can bring them for
fight cell tickets, get the locals excited. And that's exactly what's happening here.
Jared Anderson is like a big deal. What else is going on in
Toledo, Ohio in the middle of June and July, you know, maybe
a minor league baseball game. I mean, you know, there's no other
there's still the mud Hands. They were the Toledo mud Hands. Give me
five bonus points. I don't know if they're still the mud Hands, but
they were at one point. Again, that's that's middle of the summer,
a baseball game they play out, you know, eighty something home game.
So in Toledo, Ohio, this is like a big deal. And they're
having it at like the local arena, and you know it'll you know,
I'm sure it'll be covered by the local press and on the TV, radio,
etc. And so you gotta you gotta bring them home and turn a
loose And that's what they're doing. And he's on his way, Jared.
Interesting, if he wins this fight in particular, will be probably, Uh,
I don't know if I could say it's I guess it would be his
best when he does have the win over Jerry Forrest, who was like a
Fringish contenter. Yeah, I guess. I guess I would say this would
be his biggest win just in Thames in terms of the name recognition and the
fact that he was however, briefly a Helida world title for for a minute,
and he's in with a guy they can definitely crack. So it's to
me anyway, this is this main event, is a more interesting matchup than
when he was fighting the fighter from Kazakhstan. I'm more intrigued by it.
I expect him to go there, let it all hang out. But listen,
in the end, hard to pick against shared Anderson the way he's been
fighting. He's a much younger guy. You're talking about a twenty three year
old fighter, you know, who's not even you know, in remotely in
his prime yet, but certainly approaching it anyway, against the guy that's thirty
seven and has been stopped a bunch of you know, a few a couple
of times anyway, way, and Uh doesn't have that kind of durability.
But I want to tell you one thing. It's heavy boxing, and I'm
not sitting here telling you it's gonna be an upset. I'm not. I'm
not, you know, overly dryntizing this. Charles Martin can punch and in
heavyweight boxing more than any other way class. It takes one shot. And
Jerry Forrest, who was like a second tier contender, pretty decent fighter,
but nothing spectacular. He fought Jared Anderson in December at Madison's Word Guard and
what most people remember is that Jared Anderson destroyed him in the second round.
But they might not remember is that he buzzed Jared Anderson with a big shot
in the first round. If Charles Martin lands that kind of punch, he
might knock Jared Anderson out because he's a much bigger puncher in my opinion anyway,
than Jerry Forrest. So all I'm saying is, I don't blink,
but you expect Anderson to win. But crazier shit's happened. Man. When
a big pleasure in the heavyweight division lands a shot, you never know,
So there is intrigue as soon as that bell rings because you just don't know.
So I'm interested in if Anderson wins, he moves on, and we're
seeing the evolution of a fighter that, at least now many people believe not
only the best young American heavyweight, but the best up and coming heavyweight in
boxing and a future heavyweight champion. But we a lot of us said that
about a lot of fighters over the years. You know, maybe I'm dating
myself, but when I first started, the big guy was supposed to be
the next heavyweight champ, the next American star was supposed to be Michael Grant,
first heavyweight, first fight I ever covered when I got the full time
job as the boxer writer at USA Today, the challenge Lennox lewis, you
got knocked the fuck out in the second round, and there went Michael Grant,
and there went Michael Grant. Yeah. So there's a long litany of
other ones too that we're supposed to be and could not. We'll see again.
Anderson is a fourteen to one favorite, by the way, on the
bet Us line. Will make the bet Us Boxing Show predictions at one Eastern
time on Friday on the bet Us platforms their YouTube, their Twitter, their
twitch, etc. Four and a half brother Rayphael is the over under on
rounds very intriguing that will make some handicap predictions on this, And again,
it's a ten round fight, not a twelve round fight. Correct, I'm
just double checking. So four and a half in a ten round fight is
interesting. On how you might step on the accelerator a little quicker because you
don't have as many rounds to play with. I don't know, so that's
that's interesting. On that one. Again, Anderson is supposed to splat Charles
Martin, but that's why they lay some up. I was just thinking Andy
Ruise when you said that. And Ruise has kind of been in the news
and he and Deontay Wilder back and forth insulting each other on who doesn't want
to give who the right money. But I mean, what Ruise did four
years ago this month to Anthony Joshua wasn't one singular punch, but it was
a big right hand that rocked Joshua and eventually he dropped, and he dropped
three more times and got stopped after that. So you don't know, you
don't know in heavyweight boxing, and that's one of the intrigues about that.
For the ESPN Top Ranked show on Saturday Night, continuing on on the preview,
we have a women's a super middle eight undisputed world title fight. Franshawn
Cruz Dessern and Savannah Marshall will fight in Manchester, England, ten two minute
rounds for the WBC, w BO, IBF and WBA Women's Super Middleweight Championships.
A right, they've been building this one up in England. Obviously.
We have numerous undisputed champions, including Claressa Shields who defeated Savannah Marshall recently,
along with others. Katie Taylor lost her undisputed titles to Chantel Cameron. No
no, no, no, no, She's still she still has the light
winds. She lost camera. She lost to Cameron, who has the undisputed
titles right at the other weight class. So Taylor is still undisputed. And
then there's someone else that's undisputed as well, I think in the in the
women's boxing. But this is not uncommon, It's not uncommon. Point yeah,
and one hundred and thirty pounds. You have a Laicia Chabaum Garners the
undisputed champion and one hundred thirty five pounds. Katie Taylor's undisputed at one hundred
and forty pounds it's Chantel Cameron who feated Katie Taylor, but it was for
the one forty title, not for the one thirty five title. Claressa shields
it is the undisputed champion at middleweight, and Franshawn Cruise dessern is the undisputed
champion at super middleweight. So if I counted correctly, and again public school
education, that's five undisputed champions in the span of six weight classes in women's
boxing. And again you can criticize depth of divisions and blah blah blah.
By the way, all belts are on the line, all four of them
are on the line for this fight Saturday, So I mean and Jessica McCaskill,
she was the undisputed welterweight champion, and the only reason that she's no
longer the undisputed welterweight champion is because in her in her last fight, she
went down and fought at one hundred forty against Cameron for Cameron's two belts and
two vacant belts, and she lost. And by losing in the lower weight
class, she ended up getting stripped of two of the titles by the other
organizations. Even though she never lost in her weight division, so she has
a claim I don't. I guess although, and we will get too much
in this, but we don't have a date yet at our location. What
she schools to fight Sandy Ryan to unified three of the belts now at Walter
Wait. The point is in women's boxing, the best consistently fight the best,
and in terms of Francion Cruise taken on Savannah Marshall, they're two of
the better women. If you were making pound for poundless for women's boxing,
they'd probably be in that top ten or twelve. Francia on Cruise as a
tremendous talented fighter. She fought Claressa Shields and her pro debut, and it
was also Claressa Shieldsa's pro debut. It was a war for four rounds.
Shields won the fight. I was ringside. It was on the undercard of
one of the Andre Word Sergey Coba Left fights. I suspected down the road
that we will see Francion Cruise, Dessern and Claressa Shields fight a rematch at
some point. That would be obviously a big fight for women's boxing. But
well, Claressa one belts at one sixty eight and then dropped down and as
now one she was undisputed at one fifty four, currently undisputed up one sixty.
She has been in those three weight classes, but after Claressa left one
sixty eight, it sort of became Franchi on Cruise's division to clean up,
and she unified it all the belts. She's been a little bit inactive Savannah.
As you mentioned, she lost her her middleweight belt to Claressa in the
last fight, and so now she has moved up in wait and she's gonna
challenge Uh we'll call it. Let's say what's called the Claressa Shields loser's bracket.
You know they're both that the two they're only losses. Claressa beat both
them in their only defeat. Savannah's only a loss, of course to Shields
and Franch and cruise Is only loss was in the pro deview against Shields.
But this is a good matchup. I mean, I'm actually listen. I
think if people have been listening to us long enough, I've been to read
me long enough. I'm in no way shape or from my anti women's boxing,
But I I don't have the affinity for it as I do obviously for
the men's side of the sporting but when the best women fight each other,
I am interested. So when Katie Taylor is fighting Chantel Cameron, or when
she was fighting a Manda Toranto. Well, by the way, Manda Toranto
is also undisputed that featherweight. That's another one in the women's side of boxing.
But when they when when the when the best uh fight the best,
account me as interested. And when I when I see the Franchi on Cruise
is going to fight Savannah Marshall, I am interested. I'm very happy.
Now this is a main event in the UK because it's a Boxer card that's
on Sky Sports. Here in the United States, they made it a deal
with Top Rank to provide it for ESPN Plus. So here in the US
you got you can sing your day watching you know, the card from Boxer
on ESPM plus in the afternoon, and then they got the night in time
card with Jared Anderson on the regular network and ESPM plus later in the night.
But this is a good matchup, this is a this is an interesting
fight. I mean, if you like women's boxing, I could argue it's
the best against the best. One thing I noticed by the way t J
saw them do some media and when I saw them face soft, I did
not realize this. I mean, Savannah is moving up and wait, she
is much taller than a franch on Cruising. To me, when they went
nose to nose, it was really like nose to chin. I don't know
what that means, but that sort of made it more interesting to me anyway.
And again, Savannah Marshall is tremendously popular in its fought before in Manchester.
In fact, I think two or three times again, Cruise dessern is
a three and a half to one favorite on the bet Us line. Will
handicap this more on the show on Friday at one Eastern time. Very interesting
And I keep joking, I keep thinking the same thing when you keep saying
the best fight the best in women's boxing. I go back to the famous
bank robber that kept robbing banks and getting arrested, Willie Sutton, And they
kept saying, Willie, why do you keep robbing banks? Because that's where
the money is. They kept they kept talking because the best fight the best,
because that's where the money is in women's boxing. And so good on
them that they're willing to do this and and have the better fighters fight,
and move up and down in weight divisions to have the better fighters fighting.
Just one command of Serrano moved up to fight Katie Taylor and what was a
tremendous fight. So the one negative, the only one negative about that is
in terms of franch on Cruise Dessert. She has just been so inactive.
I don't I'm not in blaming her. I think part of it was promotional
things. You know, she was with Golden Boy, then she switched promoters.
But and there was the pandemic of course, which slowed a lot of
people. That she fought one time in two thousand and twenty, she fought
one time in two thousand and twenty one, she fought one time in two
thousand and twenty two. And now she's coming back for this fight that's on
Saturday, and it will mean that she's been She hasn't fought since April last
year, so she's coming off of a lengthy layoff and that that's just unfortunate
because she's you know, it's time to make your name, make your money,
make your legacy. And Savannah Marshall not that she's been the busiest fighter
of all time, but certainly much more so than Savannah, who also only
fought one time in twenty twenty, but she had two fights in twenty one.
She fought twice in twenty twenty two, including the loss against Clarescen,
and so she's been relatively speaking, a more active fighter. She's not,
you know, coming off less than a year layoff in terms of this fight,
because when she fought Shields it was back in October. So that's that's
the only negative. You'd like to see these top both in men's boxing and
one's boxing, and just be a little bit more in the ring. Turn
up the heat his summer with deliver u from a sizzling collection of restaurants in
your area. Save big with bundles, meal deals and offers on faves like
big juicy burgers, cheesy Beazza's, crunchy salads and more lots more, Open
the delivery app and order now Summer Never tasted So good. Offer applicable to
existing customers as a twenty fifth of a twenty three, but each order over
twenty five pounds do you restriction? Steas and C service and delivery fees apply
See fourtees and sees. A delivery got cork slash terms. See the whole
picture with Ultra wide on iPhone eleven. Join three today and get iPhone eleven
for just nine ninety nine with three bill pay. Enjoy top class beads in
Ireland's fastest fiveteen network offer and soon visit in store or three dot E three
for a better connected life. Forty euro per month price plan subject to twenty
four month minimum term an annual price increase. Terms and conditions apply based on
analysis bio Club Speed Test Intelligence Stata Q three to Q four twenty twenty two.
All right, good enough, and by the way, Marshall, a
big puncher for what it's worth at middleway will translate at super middleway. You
don't see a lot of knockouts in women's boxing. She's got ten of them
though in twelve wins. Yes, there's questions about competition, but before the
Shield's loss, she had third round knockout, second round knockout, third round
knockout in the previous three fights. So will the big punch be a factor?
We keep talking about one punch being a big deal. Ken Savannah Marshall
land that big punch. We'll see that Saturday afternoon in the US Saturday night
primetime Manchester, England, in that Boxers Sky Sports and now on ESPN Plus
as well in the US program. Okay, so there are the two primary
fight cards that we are the most interested in, and we have covered those
in the preview mode. So why don't we move on to someone that is
headlining in July July eighth, The Showtime main event against Romaine Villa is Jeron
Boots Ennis. Let's hear more from him, including positioning himself potentially for a
title shot. Right now, Well, I'd like to welcome to the podcast
this week. It is the IBF Interim welterweight champ. It is Jern Boots
Ennis, Boots, you got a good, interesting fight coming up July eighth.
You're the headliner on Showtime at Boardwalk Hall, taken on the contender Roman
Villa. First of all, thank you very much for doing this. How's
everything going for you? Thank you? Dare everything going great? You know?
Good? Almost time is right? I know you got a big smile
in your face when you say that. I know you like the fight.
So you're you're you're taking on a remaind via in this main event on Showtime,
and what I what I find interesting is uh, he's a totally different
kind of style than your last fight when you fought Hikadzi And so just to
back up to that fight, you fought Hikadzien Karen Shakadzien on January seventh.
That was so people remember that was the undercard of when Jervanta Tank Davis defeated
Hector Louis Garcia. And you know, you won every single round of the
fight, twelfth to nothing on all three official scorecards. I don't know if
anybody could in their right mind have given your opponent a single round in the
fight. But I think a lot of people were surprised. People predicted,
you know this. They thought, you know, boots And is going to
blow the guy in a couple of round It's going to be an easy night
at the office. And uh again, even though you won every single round,
I think it left a lot of people sort of like, wow,
that wasn't a very good fight. And you know Boots, Uh, yeah,
he won every round, but it wasn't maybe his greatest performance that we've
ever seen before. Do me a favor and assess you were performance in that
fight, because it's hard to be critical when a guy wins every round.
But you understand, boxing fans, they look at it. They didn't see
a knockout, and they saw you, uh you know, kind of have
him. You know, you had to chase them around for a while.
Yeah, I mean I said lead channel with pod be thinking and it was
it was it was good that I went to a round though, you know,
um it was good. You know, I learned a lot of things
from that fight. You know, I could have done a lot of things
better, but um it was a it was an okay performance. But me,
yeah, I could have done a lot of things, but it could
have been sharp, you know, jab and more one of the body the
lord earlier, you know. But you know, it's boxing, you know,
it's that's how you get better, that's how you learn, you know.
And I can't wait to July because like you didn't see energy, Well,
you did mention that you went twelve rounds, So I was gonna say,
maybe that was the silver lining because in looking over your record, you
had never been passed a sixth round before in a fight. And now do
you have at least in the back of your mind that you know what,
I can go ten rounds, I can go twelve rounds and it didn't even
seem like you were breathing. Have you when the fight was over? No,
I couldn't did tell more. I wasn't ship, you know, And
I went for this fight too, and I got to see a legendary performance,
you know, on July. You know, I'm ready to you know,
beat him up, prot him up, you know, and send him
home, you know. And I made a big steament. You know,
you did not go out. So when you fought against Shakadzian on January seventh,
the fight another fight that was at an undercard was your opponent, Villa,
who scored his biggest win I guess against Rashitty Ellis. It was a
dramatic kind of win. It was. He won a majority decision, but
he had to score two knockdowns in the twelfth round to secure that victory.
And I wondered, I mean, I guess you were preparing for your own
fight that night, but I have to assume that at some point you maybe
snuck a peek at it, or you went back after the fact and watched
the fight. Did you ever watch that performance on the same card that you
were on, and what do you think of it? I watched a little
bit of it, you know, when I was in a bank moment up
and things like that. I feel like it was a good fight. You
know. Um, I feel like RUSSI even done Russia. He was running,
you know, you got tired, and when he got tired, Uh,
he just he let Villa keep pushing the bank and and things like that,
and you got quirt. But it was a good fight, you know.
Yeah, I'm just a good fight. Is there anything that you can
take away from that when you try to make your own game plan and formulate
how you're gonna approach him. When you watch the way that he did his
work against Elis, I see I see a lot of things, you know,
And I'm not Russia the others. You know. I'm a whole different
animal, you know, and i got a whole dot of twols. Yeah,
I'm gonna use July. And I feel like from my Villa like he's
a good fight. But he just comes forward, no defense through big hooks,
no jobs. You know. It's just a lot of things that we've
seen in Uh, We're gonna be ready to life. Well, when you
mentioned about the kind of style that he has where he basically comes forward,
made me think to myself, whatever the fight, however, went, when
you had your last fight that wasn't maybe the most crowd pleasing to me,
that the way that Va fight's gonna play into, uh, combined with your
style to make it certainly a much more entertaining fight for the fans that are
either you know, they're in boardwalk call are watching on showtime. Do you
feel like because of that style, it's gonna it's gonna make for just a
better fight to watch. I feel like, hey, that feel like style.
It's pretty frue for me. You know, it's it's gonna be,
it's gonna be, it's gonna be a good show. I just can't wait.
You know, Hey, like I said, he comes forward, pressure,
don't move his here, he's he's gonna have a long night. You
know, when you two were on the same show January seventh, did you
sort of figure that, you know, if you win your fight and whoever
won the other fight, that you're probably gonna wind hip fighting that guy in
the future. And it just so happens now it's the next match. I
definitely thought I was gonna fight the winner, you know, in the future,
but I ain't think it was gonna be this this soon, you know.
I think I was trying to um it was aiming for keep Doling,
But I don't know what keep Doling doing. Don't think he's fighting no time
soon. So and I don't want to. I ain't wanna be sitting around.
I wanted to stay egg, you know, stuy busy and at least
three fights out this year, only for one time last year, So watt
stay egg. Steve didn't. I was like, why not you know,
fight you know, and put on a show. You know, No,
I listen, I totally understand if you can get a fight with Keith Thurman
down the road. I mean that would certainly be a you know, a
real cross where it's fight interesting fight for a lot of people who guys to
you know who guys the winner stand on this and we're jorg Tee, you
know, the winner bus Man. It's a lot of great fights that we
can meet, you know, and hopefully we make these fights having because I'm
I'm tired of waiting around for you guys. Well, that actually leads me
to the other one of the other questions I wanted to ask you about.
But you you are twenty six years old, so you're no longer like the
twenty one year old kid that was coming up that needed the seasoning. You
fought some, you know, some solid names at this point, even if
not big star names. You have an interim title, You've got thirty professional
fights, but you still haven't gotten the fight with like a really well known
fighter. I mean, yeah, you got the fight with like a lipping
it for example. Is there is there any sense of frustration that that a
lot of guys just aren't interested to fight you for whatever the reasons are,
either you're too good, there's not enough money, you don't have a world
title, whatever it is, How do you how do you deal with that?
I mean, I deal with about just staying in a gym, and
and it's kind of you know, better than myself, you know, it
is you know, it's it doesn't bother me, but it's just it's it's
like weird, like everybody else getting these fights, and and you know,
I'm I'm not, I'm the layers resort. You know, you got it
to fight, So I mean, it's it's fine though, you know,
it's like a sign to respect a little bit to me, you know.
But and then the day they got to see me, and we're gonna we're
gonna meet soon all of you guys. Three seven. Well, one of
the things you mentioned earlier about you know, maybe one of the bigger fights
will be you fighting the winner of Errol Spence and Crawford. So three weeks
after your fight, you have that big fight coming up. That's the probably
the biggest fight of the year for the undisputed welterweight title. UM, and
I'm interested in your view of that fight. Had I mean, you're gonna
I'm assuming pay close attention. You're gonna be where you already are, the
mandatory challenger in the IBF for the winner, given the fact that you're their
interim champion. So what is your take? Everybody has an opinion on Errol
Spence and Terence Crawford. H that's a that's a great fight. You know,
that's a fifty fifty fight to me. And I feel like, um
is gonna come down to in the best set who had the most dog,
the most meanness, you know, whoever, who ready you know to take
take you know, take the boat, take them boats from each other,
Like whoever gonna whoever locked in the most like is it? I feel like
and we're not gonna do it until fighting night, And I feel like,
I don't know made the best man win, but I don't know. I
feel like it's gonna be a great fight. You know, well we agree
about that. One thing about it though, is uh, okay, somebody
knows they have a rematch clause, there's a good chance that they'll fight a
second time. A lot of other people in the division will be waiting or
in position, such as yourself with the IBF the winner of the Ortiz and
stanionis fight that comes up also, uh in early July. Um, do
you think that that that you'll ever get a chance to fight? I mean,
you're gonna if you If they don't fight you, you'll become the IBF
champion because they'll have left the division are vacated. But do you feel like
that there's a chance at one of those guys who are really from a different
era than you, they're the era you know before you. I guess given
their age and their experience level in the pros. Uh, do you think
any one of them will ever fight you? Or do you feel like your
bigger fights you're gonna come with that The group of guys that are of your
time, your age. I mean hopefully you know, uh are you just
saying you know, they got rematch closed and things like that, but hopefully
you know, uh, you on insight one time and I'll be able to,
you know, fight one of those guys, you know, and I'll
fight the winner and and then you know, uh go ahead and collect out
the belts and then go ahead and move to fitting for it. You know,
we'll defend it, you know, defend defend, understood it in a
couple of times against you know, a couple of top guys you're you know,
the one out of routines as then you know this, you know you
still got you guys. You know, I'm probably missing a few people,
but um, yeah, that's the gou you know, um, the fight
all the top guys. I guess the question really it's not that you're unwillingness
to fight top guys. The thing I've always wondered for the last few years,
since you've been really making your name is are they going to be willing
to fight you? How do you how do you get them? You know,
and you know, not knowing in particular whether it's Ugus, whether it's
Thurman, whether it's a younger guy like you know, say, uh,
Sabrill Matthias, who's the IBF Junior welterweight champion if he moves up or or
want to you know, uh or Spence Crawford winner. How do you lure
them in? How do you or corral them to make them get in the
ring with the boot? Tennis? Um, I don't know honest that I'm
just keep being me and keep winning and keep knocking these guys out. And
I feel like the fan is gonna keep answering for it, you know,
And that's that's the best way because I don't really talk, you know,
too much. I do I do on my talking in the ring. So
I feel like that's the best way. You just keep winning, keep starting
stopping you guys, knocking these guys out. Um, any well, I'll
wrap up with this then the boots you mentioned at the beginning, that's that
your plans were for your fight coming up. I believe you said it was
going to be a legendary performance when you fight via What what explained to me?
What would what would a legendary performance look like to those of us who
are watching. I can't screw to be how I just legendary performances me being
sharp, you know, uh being on point, you know, do everything
I'm supposed to be doing, you know, uh being in control, you
know the whole fight everywhere to way inside outside, no matter where is it
being the ripping up, breaking down, you know, Uh, I really
want My goal is to you know, to to get a stop, to
get a knock go. But I want I want his team like through the
tiler and that's that's my goal. Let the rest stop or has his team
through the tiland. I want to put on one of those performances. You
know. Well, I'm sure that when you whatever the goes on in that
fight, you're gonna have a lot of fans there because it's in the Atlantic
City, right outside of Philadelphia, only about a half an hour away.
So I'm sure you'll be looking to put on a good show for them and
those of us watching on showtime. I'll just say this, good luck in
the fight. I appreciate you doing this, definitely, I appreciate it.
Thank you, Thank you for having you, bet Boots, take care and
good luck to you. So there you go, Boots and Us again headlining
in Atlantic City, and I've got this on the brain because I rewatched the
Tyson Spinks destruction, which was in the big Atlantic City Convention Center what they
now called Boardwalk Hall. I actually broadcast at college basketball back in Marge remember
Rayphael in that Boardwalk Hall. But his main event is what you like to
call in the room, in the room upstairs, elaborate on that. It's
still a good venue. It's a it's an excellent venue in Atlantic City.
But that's where innis will be July eight. Oh yeah, No, it's
a tremendous venue. I mean the Boardwalk Hall is a is a dwelling,
it's a building. In the main part of that building is the main arena.
It's sort of like a Madison Square Guard. You've got the main arena
where the Knicks play and the Rangers play in the big concerts playing that and
the big boxing matches are and then you have the small room, as they
call it's the theater at Madison Square Guard, which is on Florida. It's
on the ground level and it holds five thousand. That's where Josh Taylor just
fought Tifimo Lopez. And I've covered many, many, many fights in both
the big Room and the Small Room in Atlantic City at Boardwalk call. The
main arena is on the ground level, and then if you take the escalator
up or the elevator up or the steps up, you're in what's called the
Adrian Phillips ball Room holds probably about three thousand, maybe four thousand. I've
covered many fights there too, you know, just off the top of my
head. I mean I've seen I covered like one then Nio Lopez fights there.
Your York has gamboa there, Mike key Garcia. That's where I covered
Carl Froch against Glenn Johnson. Always upstairs in that room, that's where I've
had many fights. I didn't cover these fights, but that's you know,
Colonel Whittaker fought in that arena. For example. I did cover the first
fight there between Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams, who put on such a great
fight in that room. When they had the rematch, it filled up the
big room. Uh. And so it's it's a great venue in terms of
that. But the good thing for Boots Tennis fighting that fight there, as
I mentioned at the end of the interview, he lives and is from Philadelphia.
It's like a thirty five and then to drive down the Highway for his
folks to get from Philly to Atlantic City to go spend the night or a
weekend or whatever on the boardwalk, and I'm sure he'll have a big crowd
there for him against the Okay, I have to swat it at ray Field.
I've made that drive to and from and you got to be going really
really fast to get from Philly to Atlantic Sea in thirty five minutes. I
did it in about fifty fifty, you know, and I was going for
ray Field. You gotta be in like Sunny Crockett's Ferrari from from the Miami
Fights to get their thirty five minutes. I can just say this. Living
here in the Washington DC metropolitan area northern Virginia, people will always say,
well, how long does it take to get here? How long does it
take there? Everything's like a half hour unless you're going to the store down,
you know, to the to the closest shopping plaza, tell my son
the school, or to like the CBS. Other than that, everything's half
hour. So from Philly to Atlantic City, you know, anything inside an
hour is not even like a big deal. But yeah, it's probably longer
than thirty minutes. Point is on a weekend. They can get It's not
a heavy lift at all. Yeah, they can get there and have it,
and they have a big following. Again, I am stoked to see
what this guy can do, because depending on what happens with Spence and Crawford,
the winner more than likely doesn't hang around. So then Boots, as
you've been discussing, probably gets elevated out of the interim title status. So
let's see. Let's see what happens. The main thing. The main thing
is, as him and I spoke about, it has to be a better
style matchup than that fight he had in January against Jakazi, and when Shagazian
just was acute, he wanted to survive and run and didn't really make him
much of a fighting Boots had a hard time cutting the ring off, and
he knows he didn't have his best snipe that night. Via is a guy
that's gonna be there in front of him, is gonna try to punch them,
gonna try to fight him, and it's gonna be in my opinion,
maybe it'll be not a distance fight necessarily, but at least a more crowd
pleasing fight because the way that he boxes and the way that en his boxes.
That can't help, but be I'm not gonna tell you it's fighting the
heere, but I would be willing to guarantee you it's better than the fight
he had with Chakazi in in January. So from that point of view,
I'm happy to see. And it's not a shock they're fighting each other.
I mean, as I mentioned to him, they both fought on the same
card in January, Via got the win over as Rushhitty Ellis John and won
that interim belt against Hikazi. So it doesn't shock me that PBC match at
two welter weights up with each other while they're everybody's waiting for Errol Spence and
Terrence Crawford to settle their business at the top of the division. Good stuff.
Let's move on to some news. A rematch in the offing. We've
been talking about this on the podcast, We've been running about it on Big
Fight Weekend dot com and you have as well on your substack. So Zuli
Jang and Joe Joyce official now Queensberry Promotions officially announcing it for September twenty third,
Obo Arena Wimbley Ian London. As Joyce exercised his one way automatic rematch
clause that I want Jang again. After Jang stopped him a hideous blow to
the right eye, I swelled that I shut and Joyce just simply could not
continue in that first fight. And it was a lot more than one punch.
It was like several ass battering of the right eye the way tko t
ko, and now we get a rematch, go ahead. I say.
The reason for that is because Joe Joyce, who was a very experienced fighter
as fought good fighters in the pros, was an Olympic seller middle winner,
as Jang was also in the amateurs. They both are decorated amateurs. But
it's like Joyce just never realized or or didn't know or forgot how to fight
a South bob. It was unbelievable. He just had absolutely no ability to
get away from the left hand. That is the reason why his face got
all busted up the way he did it, because he hit with it repeatedly.
I mean, you kind of figure at some point you figure out some
way to defend yourself against that punch. He just could never do it,
and the eye was so messed up that there was no option but for the
referee to stop that fight, he better have gone to school on fighting a
left hand or otherwise the same thing is going to happen again because Zang is
still big, he's still strong, he's still can punch. And by the
way, he's still left handed. I don't think he's gonna be switching to
right handed for this fight. So joe Joyce better have done a crash course
in dealing with south ball boxers or he's going to be in big trouble because
if he gets this time, uh, there's not a it's not like he
has you know, you get the rematch clause in your back pocket, all
well and good. There's no rematch clause after this one, and then everybody
can go their own separate way. And uh, you know, Jennie will
move on and Joey Joyce has left out in the colt for a bit.
Um. But whatever you thought about the way that that his uh, his
inabilities were to fight against the lefty when they fought each other in the first
fight back in April, it was a highly entertaining fight, that's for sure.
I mean, and and you know, this has been such a terrible
year for heavyweights so far. I mean, we'll see what what materializes as
it relates to the big guys, the big names at the end of the
year, with all the conversation about the fights in Saudi Arabia with Fury and
Usick and and Uh and Deontay Wilder, and you know there's also Twinity ruises
around there and Anthony josh We will see what happens, but those guys do.
Woa is gonna fight Usick and in August. But as of now,
U the only heavyweight action that's really meant anything is you've got the Dejang fight
with Joe in the first fight, and now we've got this rematch scheduled for
September. Obviously US will have fought in late August. You know, Joshua
had the one fight against Germaine Franklin, which was you know, his chance
to sort of shake off the losses to US. But that wasn't like you
know, some negative then or even that that good of a fight. So
you know, these are the two guys at least are active, at least
they're they're fighting another top guy, and and there's always some intrigue for a
rematch. I'm interested to see if Joe Joyce can make any kind of adjustment
against the left hand. We'll see. Okay, more news. You did
report earlier in the week to Chaco la Tito, one of the more exciting
fighters of the twenty tens, in particular, now thirty six years of age,
there had been some thought he might hang them up. You have learned
that he's interested in still fighting and still interested in fighting Juan Francisco Astrata yet
again. It would be a fourth matchup. Tell us more about that as
well, please, Well, it's not so much about one Francisco Astrata.
I mean, that's his right. Well, they fought three times, he's
one and two with you know, one of them he got, in my
opinion, he got robbed. The other one was super close. He wants
to fight for another title. So he hasn't fought since their third fight that
took place at the end of last year, and for that matter, Astrada
has not fought either. So look, I was just like I was thinking
about I saw like a clip of one of his fights. I was like,
you know, let me check in and see what's going on with Chocolateito.
I have known Carlos Blando, who was a Roman's attorney and advisor for
many many years. Ever since Romans started fighting in the United States, I've
covered many of his fights, and uh have a you know, a relationship
with those guys, and so I sent him an email. I'll said,
hey, you know, how's it going. I hope you're having a good
summer. What's going on without Chocolatito? And he wrote back, you know,
he wants to come back. He he wants to take a couple more
and have a couple more fights before he thinks about retirement. He would like
to fight for another title. We're gonna fight this year. We don't have
a definite day yet, but he's very eager and excited to get back in
the ring. And I was like, wow, this is this is all
new to me, because if you remember post fight, after the third fight
with Astrada at the end of last year, there was a lot of conversation
that he was talking about maybe I'll retire. He did say he would like
a fourth fight potentially, but that the money had to be right. But
he seemed to be leaning towards retirement. He's got a long career, you
know, fifty plus fights. Truly a truly great fighter. Roman Gonzalez is
the kind of fighter I don't care if you want to match him up in
the in the early nineteen hundreds with Jimmy Wild at flyweight, or you want
to put him with Michael Carba Hall. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just making
the point that any of the top little guys from the years, decade,
centuries past, whatever, all the way through the modern times, I don't
care who it is, he would compete and be one of the best out
there. That's the type of ability es a really remarkable fighter. Four division
champion. Uh. I know this may sound blasphemous to some. Probably the
best fighter in the history of Nicaragua, including one of my all time favorite
fighters, a great man, Alexis Arguyo, who incidentally discovered Roman Gonzalez.
He was his amateur coach. He trained him for a while in the pros.
The promotional company that Argueo was involved in, called Protests of Promotions,
was the company that did most of those early fights that Roman Gonzalez had,
so they are related in that way. Roman would never you know, he's
a very fumble guy. He would never say that. But for guys like
me that watch on the outside, that have examined and watched and studied the
careers of both guys. I think it's a it's not I'm not saying that
I think that's the case, but it's not unreasonable for somebody to take that
viewpoint anyway. He's in the twilight of his career, nonetheless, but you
know he's looking for one more shot. Remember everyready gave up. I thought
he was done when he got knocked out in the rematch against uh Sarandi said,
right, he didn't just come back and you know, have a couple
of wins. He won another world title. He by all right should have
had to win in the second fight against Estrada. He you know, he
beat Califi, who was an undefeated Olympian at the time, and won a
world at all. You know, he's just been a total credit to the
sport. And uh you know, if he's up for it and he wants
to come back and he's healthy, by all means, I welcome another Roman
Gonzalez fight to an arena near you or in a TV or a stream being
service near you. So I'm thrilled that he wants to fight again, and
good for him. He's one of the all time greats and the only thing
that will hold him back from being in the Hall of Fame is having to
wait the three years when he retires. Crocol La Tito was a ton of
fun. But I will knock. I will knock one thing here and bring
this back up to you because I sent you the clip one time. Chocolate
Tito was never a villain on Miami Vice second reference to Don Johnson, Philip
Michael Thomas and Miami bys Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubs. Arguao, on the
other hand, was a villain, and Crockett and Tubs blew him away.
And I sent you the clip of that Arguos the as the villain, so
good stuff. On Nostalgian. We'll see if still Arguyo was that big of
a deal though in the eighties, especially on that fight with Aaron Aaron Pryor
the first one. I know he didn't win it, but in my Lord,
what a battle. And Barry Tompkins still says to this day, forty
years after doing that fight, that is probably the biggest event and the greatest
fight, even above Hagler and Hearns in terms of all the drama, the
atmosphere, death threats on Arguio, all kinds of things that were going on
and it was an amazing fourteen round fight. Haggler, hearns an amazing three
round fight epic. But yes, Alexis Arguo chucol Tito, Nicaragua, they're
on. I mean, not to get off the fun of Tangent for me,
top five fights I've ever seen, Yes, and for the personal favorites,
I mean, I just love. It had everything and we'll get into
the nostalgia at some point, but it had it all, including controversy about
whether and he was Aaron Pryor, being given stimulants and being doped up to
help him fight as the fight went on, and uh wow, I mean
there's so much from that, but that was Alexis Orguio involved. And then
the second fight, the rematch prior just dominated him and stopped him again in
the rematch back in the day. Let's move on and then we'll get to
some other nostalgia you have figured out here and have hurt. Well. Actually,
the IBF has ordered right Subrio Matthias will be having to fight against a
mandatory fighter. I'm gonna try the name Shobahan Ergaschev that I come close.
Is the mandatory for Mattias at one forty for the IBF title correct, correct,
So on Tuesday, the IBF made the order. Matthias is a tremendous
puncher from Puerto Rico nineteen and one with all of his victories all by knockout.
They gave them. You know, Ergashev is a fighter that is promoted
by Salida Promotions. He's from whose Bakistan. He fights out of Detroit,
undefeated twenty three oh with twenty knockouts. I've been looking for a bigger fight
for a while. He's now in that position with the IBF, and so
they gave him thirty days to make a deal or they'll call a purspit.
Matthias earlier this year had the fight for the Remember Josh Taylor vacated her with
stripped of all the belts other than the WBO after became undisputed. The beneficiary
of not being the IBF champion anymore was Mattias, who had been his mandatory
or I take that back, JEREMIAHS. Ponse was his mandatory. Once the
title was vacant, Ponse was ordered to fight Mattias, who was the next
available guy, and they had a tremendous battle, I mean, just a
blazing shootout. And ultimately Matias stopped him in the fifth round. And so
this is going to be his first title defense. And what's interesting about it
is that he has been the linked to the possibility of a fight against the
former title or Segrey Lippints that was being maybe discussed a bid for a showtime
fight later this summer. But I corresponded with the IB have to find out
if he had the ability to still get it, you know, still do
that, or the mandatory had to be next. I was told that the
mandatory is next. He could go to them and ask for an exception.
It would seemingly be unlikely he would get one if he asked for It's not
out of the realm of possibility, but the very least he'd have to ask
and have to go through the process they have to put up like it's like
twenty or twenty five thousand dollars nonrefundable to ask for that. So we'll see
if they actually try to get the exception, or they'll just go through and
do the fight with Ergushev, which is you know, there's no magic to
the lipping. It's fight. I mean, he's just uh, you know,
he's a decent name, but he's he's been blitzed by Geron and as
for example, Um, but Mattias is very exciting and Ergoshev makes pretty good
fights off, so hopefully that fight will happen. They got thirty days.
Either side can ask for the perst bit immediately if they don't want to negotiate,
and uh, and we'll see. But the thing about it is,
TJ. We have talked many times on this podcast how deep and how exciting
one hundred forty account weight class is. And when you put the prospect of
Mattias against Ergushev, who's an exciting fighter in his own right, it just
yet another matchup that's interesting in the weight class that also includes Josh Taylor or
Tiefimo Lopez. Uh, possibly Devin Haney moving up and wait, uh you
know and others, Um, you know, yes, Uh, so you
know it's a it's a it's got a lot of different interesting fights there gonna
be made and this is just one of them and we'll see if what it
happens. And another one of those names and you've learned this is unfortunately suffered
an injury. Montana Love will not be able to participate in a couple of
weeks in his scheduled fight with Richardson Hitchens. What is up with this?
Can I find another opponent for Hitchens in the next couple of weeks or what
are we hearing? Or what do we know? No, they're not going
to do that. Naturum announced that it wasn't like my in depth reporting that
found this out. They announced that Montana had suffered an injury. So that
fight was supposed to take place July fifteenth. It was the co feature of
Alicia bamb Garner's undisputed Junior lightweight women's title defense against Christina Lendartu, which was
interesting because Lendartu was the only woman to ever defeat Alicia earlier in his in
her career, so this was not only a title defense but a home coming
for as well as the opportunity to get revenge. And that was the co
feature. That was a solid co feature, and there was a lot of
conversation on Naturum side to his own and others involved in these in these fights
that the winner of Hitchens and Love would be one of the top candidates to
be the next opponent for Regis Program, who was also with match Room Boxing,
So the fight would Love and Hitchens. Who Hitchens would be the big
favorite in my mind. He's the undefeated guy, he's the Olympian, he's
more of the rising guy. In any event, they planned to reschedule the
fight when Hitchens is better, so Natural announced to the fights postpone. I
have found out for my sources that the reason for his U for Love with
drawing from the fight was because he's suffered a read injury. So it didn't
sound like it was super serious. So that might take a few weeks,
leabe, a month or whatever it is to make sure that that's back in
order, and hopefully they'll be able to reschedule this fight in a later,
you know, later time frame. But that's what happened. That fight is
off. I'm not sure what they're gonna do as far as Natchurum replacing that
fight on the card to give you a different co feature, or they're just
gonna go, you know, roll with what they've got. I hope they
put something else in there, but we'll see. Okay, there's the news.
Now. Some nostalgia. Interesting as we get for the weekend, there's
all kinds of Mike Tyson nostalgia. We had Tyson and Spink's anniversary, the
thirty fifth anniversary of that was earlier this week. Also earlier this week,
on Wednesday, twenty six years ago, was Bitte Night in the rematch of
Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. So Holyfield had beaten Tyson in November of nineteen
ninety six. This was the rematch I still remember November of ninety six ray
Field. I had a big pay per view party at the Reeves household.
I had gotten married a few months earlier. We had all kinds of media
people over, friends of ours over to watch that dramatic upset. Okay,
so fast forward to the following summer. I had taken a radio job in
Dallas with Prime Sports. I'm the five day a week sports radio host in
Prime Sports, and I still remember that night. We had the pay per
view up at the radio network with a bunch of us up there watching it.
And I vividly remember this because I not only did five days a week,
but they also had me come in and do two hours on Sunday.
They were using us to also because a lot of the time on Saturday and
Sunday, stations all over the country would run the network programming the syndicated program,
so they wanted the host to be heard on the weekend. So I
was a Sunday guy from like noon to two. So I'm watching by night
as it turns out, knowing I'm gonna be talking about it on the national
airwaves the next day at noon Eastern time. What a bizarre, bizarre ending
obviously to that fight for a myriad of reasons, and that was just over
a quarter of century ago. I can't believe it in June of nineteen ninety
seven. Give me some more on that nostalgia. Well, I don't think
it's unreasonable to say that in the entire history of professional boxing, which goes
back well over one hundred of years at this point, with lots of huge
fights, lots of controversies, lots of crazy things that have happened, you
know, a guy parachuting into the ring, for example, between Evander Holyfield
and Riddick bo. I mean, we can go on down the line.
Lots of wack shit has happened in boxing. That's the single most infamous moment
in the history of the support in my mind, it's not even close that
in what at the time and when when Tyson and Holyfield met the second time.
At that moment, it was the biggest fight in the history of boxing
in terms of the money and the and the and the viewers and all.
Did the pay per view record, it's at the gate record, it's at
the revenue record. It was as hyped and as huge as any fight you
could possibly imagine. The first fight was a hugely hype fight and then Holyfield
pulled off the upset. When they did the rematch, you know, they
were printing money. It was a massive, massive event. So when you
got the entire world watching and the single most fame, one of the single
most famous athletes on the planet, Mike Tyson bites off a chunk of Avander
Holyfield's gear in the ring in the third round, and well did it in
the in the second round, Y Knowles linking the referee, the light referee
almost stopped the fight. Was really talked out of it, you know by
the executive director of the Data Commission at the time, the great Mark Rattner.
U, you know, are you sure you want to do that?
That was his way of saying, you know, don't do that, and
no's thought about it for a second and let the fight go. When he
did it, again in the in the next round, uh, and there
was a chunk missing from a anders hear he'd had no choice but the but
the call, you know, he took a two point deduction if for the
first one set a call in the fight after the second one he had had
a disqualified Mike Tyson. But that was as shocking, not just in boxing.
Again, I don't think I'm overstating things. Do you tell me if
you can think of something else? Is it the most shocking moment in the
history of sports? It's certainly one of the craziest, most bizarre ones.
I mean, we had a full on power outage in a Super Bowl,
remember in New Orleans for the Baltimore Ravens San Francisco forty nine ers. Right
now what you've been anybody, But it was still crazy because everything was in
the dark and they had to start stop the Super Bowl, the biggest event
in American sports. So there there have been weird things. But in terms
of boxing one on one mano Amano, So let's pick up watching that also
true. But let's pick up on a couple of points. The first one
is holy Field really took it to Mike Tyson in the second half of the
first fight and the first round of this rematch was almost like holy Field picked
up where he left off in November of nineteen ninety six, and so many
people believe I am in this camp. That's where Mike Tyson the ultimate what
happens when you bully a bully, When you bully a bully, he's gonna
panic. He doesn't know what to do, doesn't know how to handle it.
And this was just a continuation of what happened in November when he got
stopped once he was being bullied in that first round. I think Tyson freaked
out and I think he realized and he was also upset because they kept clashing
heads. Part of that, and I'm just defending Evander Holyfield. Part of
that is Mike Tyson would frequently throughout his career leap in at guys exposed with
his head, and holy Field continually in the first fight and even at the
beginning of the second fight, would duck with Tyson leaping at him with his
head. So Tyson they they are they are clinching holy Field. He had
won the first round, and I think Tyson flipped out. I think tipped
out, decided to bite him. He shouldn't ever have did him, but
he certainly was right that there was They weren't accidental headbuts in my opinion,
and Evander Holyfield there is no chore boy in the ring. He fought on
the edge of the rules constantly. And you know what's the old saying,
it ain't cheating if you're not get well. But I mean, Holy holy
Field wasn't doing the pro wrestling Hulk Hogan or Harley Race or whomever Headbut he
was lowering his head while Tyson jumped in at him. He was lowering his
head to get out of the way of a punch. And I covered a
Vander long enough to know that he's he found a way to make things uh
against the green of the rules at times and get away with it because he
did it just not not so I mean, not brazenly. But he was
a wily old event. No doubt in my mind that he was doing that
to some degree purposefully. And he had a hard hit. But the point
is, even if that's the case, you don't bite the man's ear acceptable.
And Tyson did that and he got disqualified, and he got suspended,
and he got fined a record amount, and he was vilified, and the
fact that he was able to come back from that not only have a career
after that in terms of boxing, even though he was never quite the same
although he he uh you know, he did have some pretty big fights.
He fought for titles again, etc. H. And then became like everybody's
favorite, you know, in movies, The Hangover, you know, doing
his podcasts, getting his tattoos, taking a picture with my mom and dad
at the Boxer Writer's dinner when I got into words, I mean, I
think my mom, who doesn't like boxing and doesn't still can't understand how I
chose this to do as my profession. Uh, seeing her and my father
standing there together, you know Mike Tyson went her arms around my parents is
like one of the wildest scenes ever. So but on that night, he
was the most vilified person in the world. And uh, you know,
if I mean anybody who never saw it, I mean, I know,
we gotta lot crazy. Listen find that on YouTube. That's we talked a
lot about it a year ago. At this time, I'm just jogging your
memory. And that audio, the Showtime replay of it, and that audio
of Mills Lane trying to figure out what to do fantastic referee of do I
disqualify him right now? And the first thing he thought was I'm gonna disqualify
and then he said, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna deduct two points.
So then they have the bell that ends a second round. Everybody's trying to
regroup. Do you think the fight's maybe gonna settle in? And Tyson does
it again to the other ear, not the same hear, but the other
ear, and that's when the DQ happens. And the hilarious part, absolutely
comical part, is they're going over and telling Tyson's hinchman, yes man,
cornerman, the fight is over. He's DQ. They're starting to celebrate.
They think that the fight is stopped. No, no, the fight is
a DQ. Your guy bid him again. You're done. And then there's
a rumble in the ring. Raphael, you can't even make this up.
Where Tyson's trying to get at Holy Field and they have a wall of security
diagonally separating the fighters. You couldn't make up the craziness and the drop.
I think the upshot of it is this. I mean a lot of people
thought that, you know, Tyson was the big favorite to win the rematch
as well as he wasn't the first fight. Once the rematch was over and
he got suspended and all that stuff happening. He had been undressed by holy
Field twice now, once by legit knockout in a great performance from a vander
in the first fight. Once the opinion of most people was that Tyson got
himself disqualified, you know, because he didn't want to fight, he was
scared, or he was you know, I knew he couldn't win whatever,
and they purposely got himself run out of that fight, that rematch. Even
though Mike fought like seven more times after holy Field too. That was basically
the end of his career as a guy that everybody thought could be like then
still be the big time heavyweight champion. He did fight several more times.
He you know, he had you know, the time off after the suspension
and he came back. I'm looking at his record. He had the both
a fight he fought Orland Norris. Then he went on like the to Europe
and he had the two knockover wins over Julius Francis and Lou Savarese, which
that anniversary was just a couple of days ago. That was where he talked
about how he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis's non existing children at the time and
rip his heart out on all that. Then the first fight I ever covered
of Mike, which was the glott Of fight where he stopped him in two
but got um, you know, became a no decision because he failed the
drug test, you know, to Copenhagen to fight Brian Nielsen and we knocked
out. Then he got the title shot, so finally the end of the
era, he got both destroyed by a Lennox had had had a couple more
fights after that, with the last victory against Aten, two losses to Williams
and McBride. But the point years after that rematch against Vander everybody, I
think knew he was never going to be the serious heavyweight champion again, and
he was just playing out the string and in fighting for money at that point.
So the in my mind, the true end of Tyson's career as a
serious fighter of any kind was really the Holy Field rematch that was twenty six
years ago this week. And we also keep going back to the Nostalgian I
did this since she and I talked and I came off vacation. I went
back and watched the Frank Bruno fight, which was the first fight after the
Tyson Spinks destruction of ninety one seconds, and that's when all the turmoil was
going on in his life. In early nineteen eighty nine, the Robin Givens
made him divorce where they were barely married eight months and she's trying to take
his money. Don King is trying to drive a wedge, which he did
between Tyson and Bill Kayton and also Kevin Rooney. They interview on the HBO
broadcast. They interviewed Kevin Rooney, Who's going, I got a cat tracked.
I'm doing my runey in person. I got a contract. I don't
understand I got a contract because he did. He had a three year contract
for That's a horrible impression, but I just I'm just saying that that was
him. So they interviewed him on the live broadcast. And the Bruno fight
was actually a decent fight because Bruno, after he went down early in the
first round and it looked like it was going to be over with quickly,
Bruno actually rocked Tyson with a left late in the first round, and it
was a decent fight. So I went back in the Nostalgian. I watched
some of that this week. By the way, brother Raypheel Mike Tyson is
fifty seven years old on Friday as we released this podcast. June thirtieth is
his birthday, nineteen sixty six, So Iron Mike is fifty seven years old.
There's a little nostalgia on Tyson Holyfield. Go back and watch all of
the all of the stuff there from that one. And there's one more piece
of nostalgia. And you were ringside for this June twenty eighth, two thousand
and eight, and involves the pac Man, Manny Packey. I'll give me
a little more before we're done. Yeah, Well this was this was the
This was an important fight for man. He fought David Diaz for for one
of the lightweight titles, for the WBC lightweight title. Nanny had come,
you know, he had been a flyweight champion. He had come to the
United States and made a splash when he won the junior featherweight belt on an
Oscar Delaway undercard against Ledwaba by a devastating performance. Moved up and wait,
you know, shocked a lot of people when he beat Marco Antonio Barrera for
the lineal championship at featherweight, had had a battle with je Manuel Marquez,
became now a three division champion because he had won a title, now had
one hundred and thirty pounds, and at that point you're like, wow,
this guy is something special. But there were so many questions when he decided
he wanted to move up and wait, you know, it's not common at
all in boxing for a fighter who particularly not that he would won a championship,
but started his professional prayer literally his first fight he was one hundred and
six pounds and now he's won a title at one hundred and thirty pounds,
been pretty dominating, and now when he was going to decide to go to
thirty to five, now you're going into like the next batch away classes up,
it seems like to most people. And even though David Diaz is never
going to be a mistaken for a Hall of Famer or a pound for pound
guy, he was an Olympian, he was a pretty solid guy. He
had defeated Eric Morales. It was like a lot of people were thinking,
I mean, I mean, I know it's at the time and now you
look back, you're like laughing, like well, how could that have been
a big deal? But you know, look what Pakio ended up doing in
his career. But at that time, there was a lot of people that
thought this was a bridge too far from Minnipakyo, that there's no way that
he's going to be able to do that, you know, you know,
win a title in that way classes against the guy wrong. Wrong is right
because not only did Manny Pack yet win the fight, but he went in
there and I mean, I don't know if there was I mean many had
a lot of big wins that was really you know, the fight with Marquez,
the split decision when he had in O eight, that was at one
thirty. The next phase of his career became when he fought DZ because then
he went I mean, he was already in the midst of this great run
because he had beat Marquez and Barrera and uh and Ladwaba and all that.
But the next batch of wins, that's now we moved up to the different
level. Guys. When he's beating up David in the lower you know,
one hundred and thirty five pound division, then he goes and he fights Oscar
hadn't Koto Cloudy Margharito, Shane Moseley Marquez again before he got the rip off
decision against Bradley. We beat even though we didn't get the call. Point
is the DS fight was what really, in most people's mind started that run
because it was him moving up yet again. In Wait, he absolutely destroyed
David DZ and then flattened him with a face first knockout. And I'll never
forget the interview he did with Lampley, Jim Lampley on the HBO pay per
view broadcast after the fight. I don't remember why Larry Murchison wasn't doing the
interview or somebody else, but but he did the interview with Jim Lampley and
he basically was like, you know, it wasn't that Manny was such a
hard puncher. He just couldn't see the punches coming because he hit, you
know, he was so fast. And he made the joke. I mean,
this is the kind of David was a real cool guy and a real
down Earth's kind of funny guy. He was all caught up. He's bleeding
and he's talking, he's making jokes. He's like, you know, he
was so fast. I thought, Freddie meaning Freddie I thought he was fucking
hitting me too on the interview, and Lampley started laughing in the middle the
interview. That was Mannie pack yow as we started to realize he's he's now
approaching that prime like the destructive force, and the DS fight was only the
beginning, because the next fight was when he retired Oscar Deloy and even a
completely savage performance, and then you were seeing, obviously at that point,
the makings of a Hall of Fame fighter, and it only validated after that
with Dale la Joya win and the other fights that you saw after that.
Obviously he looked at he was drawing that fight. There wasn't so much in
that fight that this happened, but it was the combination of that fight moving
up and then the few fights after where people were making historical comparisons between Manny
Paco, who was destroying everybody and good guys, not just bums, literally
the cream of the crop. They were comparing him to the great legend Henry
Armstrong, who at one time in the late nineteen thirties simultaneously held the lightweight,
featherweight, and welterweight titles at the time when there was only eight way
classes and even though many even do them all at the same time, he
was doing what Armstrong was doing because he had fought at lightweight. He fought
Oscar at welterweight. He then went down back to one forty and beat Hatton,
and he went up to walter weight and he beat Miguel Koto, and
then he went a couple of fights later and he was now even though he
didn't weigh one fifty four, he fought in the you know, for the
Jummer middleweight title against Margarito. All within the space and of like two years.
It was I mean that to me, I mean of all of my
years of covering boxing to cover the trajectory of a fighter from that David ds
fight through the next several years, but the two years in particular I think
was one of the most amazing stretches I've ever seen in my time of writing
about boxing. Manny pack Out in his absolute prime, destroying pight. Now,
I know people want to slam and they say, well, Manny,
they they make the the comments, they say, well, he must have
been using performance enhancing drugs. You know who knows. That's never been proven
and he's never failed the test. Not that that means anything, But we
don't know for sure, but I know what I saw, and I saw
a guy just destroying a lot of great fighters. Yeah, and it and
it was part of that. And I just I have fun with the nostalgia
and you do too. So I was indisposed that night on June twenty eighth
of two thousand and eight, because I was in Saint Joe's Him's hospital with
Missus Reeves because she had just had identical twins, Riley and Abby Reeves.
Birthday was that night Rayfield ring side at Mandalaid Bay, Reeves ring side in
the hospital room with the twins side bedside, ring side, And I'm not
sure if I fared any better than David Diaz that night, try to take
on two twins who were screaming, crying, one in their bottle, and
Van Evander did get his ear bitten off. And by the way, we
keep we keep bringing this up whenever we bring up the nostalgis somebody did recover
the piece of ear and put it in ice because they thought maybe it could
be reattached. It was not with plastic surgery that actually did happen. Somebody
did scoop it up. Rumor I do not own that piece of ear in
my boxing and the right Field collection does not have the ear whatever half of
the ear, you do not have it. But June twenty eighth, very
special day, that Tyson Holyfield by night, that Pachil fight. Reeves twins
born as well on that very night June twenty eighth, two thousand and eight.
How about that put them in the ring to fight each other. Well,
yeah, sometimes I have to referee almost like it's that. But my
and large they behave they do well, all right. This has been a
full show, plenty of preview of the Jared Anderson main event for Top Ranky
ESPN the Heavyweight Battle Saturday night. Again earlier in the day Franshawn Cruise,
Dessern and Savannah Marshall boxers Sky Sports shows Saturday afternoon US time. ESPN Plus
has it in the US, sky Sports in the in the UK has it,
but the women's super middleweight undisputed crowns. We will handicap those shows.
Dan Raphael handicap those fights, those main event fights on our bet US show
one Eastern time on Friday. As we released this podcast, great stuff with
Boots in US. He's in the rain coming July eight. Other than that,
that's a full preview for this weekend. I believe my friend, we're
all good. Anything else, I think that's what we're supposed to do when
we do our previews. Yeah we did. We did give him a bunch
again. Rate us and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, Spotify.
We'll talk to you on the bet Us Show Priday at one Eastern time.
Will come off the weekend with a recap The Fight, Preach Unit recap,
whatever happens this weekend from aman Dan Raphael. I'm merely TJ Reeves.
Thank you for being with us. Here is part of the Big Fight.
We can preview pod. Pick your perk at Cork's quintessential hotel, the fourth
star Metropole Hotel in the heart of the city. Enjoy a two night's day
with breakfast on each morning, dinner on an evening of your choice, and
tickets to one of Cork's top tourist attractions. Prices from just two hundred and
nineteen year oper person sharing. See the Metropole Hotel dotae to book