Well, we are still in the midst of Labor Day weekend here in the
US, which means a Monday national holiday, but off the pseudo sort of
weekend, the usual weekend that has seen Chris you Bank Junior get his revenge
against Liam Smith in Manchester, England. We were to recap that fight,
that fight card, and much more as part of the Fight Freaks Unite Recap
podcast. I am merely the somewhat capable host t J. Reeves. You
hear the throat clearing of one Dan Rayfield of Big Fight Weekend dot Com and
his Fight Freaks Unite substack. My friend. Good to reunite with you and
I have been busy traveling. You've been hanging at the ray Fuel estate this
weekend for Labor Day. I have traveled since we talked last on the podcast
on the bet US Show from West Central Florida after the Hurricane post Adalia the
hurricane to State College, Pennsylvania. First time ever I broadcast of the college
football game from Penn State. Penn State won their opening game with West Virginia.
At the time we're chaping, I have scrambled back to the Tampa Bay
area with flights et cetera. And we've gotten this workout. We're here for
the peeps, even on a Labor Day weekend to recap the fights, go
over some fight news and some nostalgia. Uh, you've kind of taken it
easy this weekend. How are things? Well, I'd take it easy every
weekend if I'm not doing a fight. So, yeah, it's all good.
You're chilling out, grilling out, maybe no grill. But while we're
doing the podcast, my wife and son are at the pool. There we
go, all right, So they're taking care of some quiet going on.
Yeah, I got some quiet in the house as well. But we're gonna
we're gonna be barbecuing tomorrow. It's my wife's birthday. Tomorrow's we got all
that going on. As we released the podcast on Monday, that's her birthday.
So we'll take care of all that. First. Let's take care of
this business you need to read. We got to get to one more important
fact first, which is a couple weeks ago you mentioned that your wife's birthday
was coming up, and I told you, you know, you better not
sucked it up. Did you get a present? So we are in the
process of getting a new mattress. This is very sexy, This is very
romantic, but we need a new mattress. Labor Day sales being what they
are, that's the birthday present because that it's not a gift card, that's
not a meal out, that's like a significant purchase. So we're in the
process of getting that taken care of. So the answer is yes, my
friend, we're on the case with that. So thank you and again thank
you for finding us. Make sure you rate us, make sure you review
us as part of the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. Again, thousands,
thousands, thousands of you finding us listening to us, Thank you for that.
Keep it up. We'll be here through the fall leaven with the football
craziness of college and the NFL going the boxing will still be here on this
podcast feed. So again, rate us, review us, that helps us
with the algorithm, etc. So let's get right into the Sky Sports card,
the U Bank win and everything that happened. On a full disclosure again,
I'm in full preparation to do the college football broadcast Saturday night. I
will tell you that LaVar Arrington, the former Penn State great linebacker, the
former Washington Redskin now commander linebacker in the NFL he briefly played for your New
York Giants as well. He's a huge boxing fan. LaVar was doing the
game with me. LaVar was at spin Crawford and he's like talking my ear
off about Terrence. Crawford didn't look me up. I understand that we were
out there. I said, you got a roll with Rayphael here like me.
But anyway, LaVar was out there for that. We were watching a
couple of the middle rounds. I dialed it up on ESPN Plus of you
Bank Smith. I believe it was the fifth round. Dan, You're gonna
pick it up in a second where you Bank had him in trouble, and
LaVar said, this could be over right here, this could be a stoppage.
He's not. I'm saying, he's not firing back. So we've then
had to break away because we're getting ready for the broadcast. I then became
aware that you Bank did eventually overwhelm him and stop him. I have seen
a little bit of the recaps of the highlights. I now defer to the
mighty one give us the takes on what happened as you Bank got the revenge
and the rest of the card. What can you do other than give Chris
you Bank credit for a tremendous performance, flawless in many respects. It didn't
start out quite like that because he spent the entire first round more or less
like hanging on, grabbing holding. I'm like, is this what this fight's
gonna be like? Because maybe he's gun shy because he got knocked out last
time, so he doesn't want to, you know, deal with that again
and you know, smother those punches and he's just gonna stink it out and
it's gonna be a terrible fight. So I was kind of ticked off at
the end of the first round because he just basically helped I gave that first
round to Liam Smith. There wasn't a lot to separate them in that round,
so you know, I took it out on you Bang for holding as
much as he did, and you know, figure things being somewhat equal.
Other than that, gave the round to Liam Smith. Then it totally changed
and from round two on he just beat the living shit out of Liam Smith.
Now Liam Smith and he rolled his ankle early in the fight second round,
I think on one of them rolled his other ankle at another point in
the fight spoke about how afterwards that you know, he had to lose three
stone going into camp. If you're not familiar with stone, one stone equals
fourteen pounds. So if you're losing three stone, you're losing over forty pounds.
But that's nobody's smokes. That's Liam's, you know. So if you're
fighting at one sixty, that means you were over two hundred. What what
is that? That's Liam? That's on Liam Smith. I mean you roll
your ankle. I mean, shit happens in a fight, you know that
that that's what. Unfortunately, those things happen injuries. But I understand he
had the back situation and niggle as we called it, that prevented this fight
from taking place as scheduled in you know, back in July, and so
we said, you know, wait a minute. Helped me just one more
time on this. He was in training in July, and he's saying he
ballooned at some point in the summer until we got to the first week in
September two, around one ninety five is two hundred, he said, said
his post fight interview with Andy Clark, who was one of the commentators on
Sky which they played on ESPN Plus. Had he had to take off three
stone. So if you do the math, three stone is forty two pounds
or thereabouts. Uh. And so if you're, you know, granted,
when he's in training for July, you're you're still you know, going to
be several pounds away from the actual contract. Way, but still that's a
lot of weight between the last couple of months sold. But again that's that's
that's the athlete. I mean, that's his fault in a sense. But
either either way, I mean, you know, I'm not big on excuses.
Chris, you bank that the folks should be on him because it was
a brilliant plan. Look, he had a ton of pressure on him.
He got stopped in the first fight. Clean it was you know, that's
embarrassing, especially when you talk as much shit as Chris Eubank talked, and
the fact that he was the favorite and everything and he got he got knocked
out. Now he comes back to the exact same ring, same arena in
Manchester for the rematch. This time he's actually a slight underdog, and he
looks horrible in the first round and then it's like the clouds parted and the
sun came out and he just went to work and just damage damage, damage,
pressure, pressure, pressure, and and William Smith. And you know,
look, we talked about all the time TJ about compybox. Not ever
the end all be all of boxing match, but definitely a good guide.
You know, if you take a look at them and you use them in
that way, they should be used over a period of time. The compybox
statistics in this fight are so ridiculous overwhelming in favor of you Bank. I'll
read off a couple of those stats in a little bit. But he's towed
a knockdown in round five, and I thought the fight would be I'm sorry,
he scored a knockdown in round four. I thought the fight might be
over then. So that's where when we were watching, I think it was
the fifth round. Did you believe when he had the barrage along the ropes
for like thirty seconds and Smith wasn't firing back that that might have been a
stoppage when you were watching live like we thought in the Penn State press box
watching. So he had the big fourth round with the knockdown on a beautiful
upper cut, and then in the fifth round, as you mentioned, he
had him in big trouble. The referee who I thought did a good job.
N Kevin Parker was looking, you know, in very closely. It
felt like he was thinking about a stoppage. He knows Liam is a veteran.
He didn't seem hurt hurt, so I understand why he let the fight
go. He was he slipped some of those punches, and he caught a
few on the gloves, and this and that, and there was no like
massive, like head rocking kind of shot that would have, you know,
have had the referee give him cause to immediately jump in. And it was
still relatively early in the fight, so okay, he I thought he was
fine to let that fight go at that point. In the fifth round was
just a rough one for him. But Liam was was never really in the
fight. That's the thing. Even even if you gave him round one like
I did, it wasn't like I gave it to him because he dominated or
who was a clear, clear kind of win. It was more because of
the holding and and all that that that you Bank had done, which is
why I scored it that way. I have not seen the official scorecards.
Sometimes it's difficult with the British fights to get those if it's not a world
championship fight, which this was not uh and so you bank though scarp jab,
tremendous defense, good body attack, right hand was working very well,
left hook was working very well obviously. And you have to give credit to
Brian McIntyre, who was his new trainer. He's in you know, he
took over, so he certainly he had his man prepared. He felt like
it felt like a much more coherent game plan where there there was clearly a
specific thing. We're gonna rely on the jab big time. His jab was
tremendous and we're going to the body like I feel like though, And I
haven't talked to Brian about this, but if I ever get a chance to,
I'll ask him, like, was that like the game plan to focus
on the jab and go for the body? Because those are the comparing I'm
hearing Mickey from Rocky the body. That's what he went hit him with a
ton of body shots, now, h and and Liam Smith, even when
he did land the very few shots that he did, never really seemed to
have a lot of scheme on those punches. Not a big puncher to begin
with, even though he did score the knockout in their first fight back in
January, and uh, this is I think it's not. I'm not going
on on a limb here. So Chris Jubank now improves his record to thirty
three wins and three losses with twenty four knockouts. The only time he ever
was stopped was the loss to Smith back in January. And he's been a
professional since twenty eleven, so it's been a long career for him at this
point to me. And he's got some other okay wins. You know,
he's got a win over like Liam Williams and he beat Corebov for example,
back in twenty nineteen to fight I was out at the Barclay Center. He's
got a win over James de Gale, who was you know, became a
world champion, was an Olympic gold medalist. He's got the two previous losses
to George Groves and also to Billy Joe Saunders. But he beat like an
older Arthur Abraham. He beat by knockout Abney Yeldrum, who fought Canello for
a title. So he has experienced and he's fought some solid opponents and beating
them. But I think that because of what was at stake for his career,
going forward, the pressure, the anticipation, the hype on the fight.
I believe that this fight against Liam Smith, particularly when you look back
on and see how he did it, this is the biggest win of his
career, even though he's had other, you know, pretty good wins through
the course of that long career. So he's not a young fighter at this
stage. I mean, not an old fighter, but he's thirty three.
He's been around for more than a decade professionally, and this was a huge
victory for him. And as we talked about before, the middleweight division is
so lesser, you know, it's it's one of the historically you know,
you know, glory divisions in boxing history. It's at one of its lowest
points in at least in my time covering boxing twenty plus years. So I
can think of where it's so disinteresting. We've gone over at Charlot has a
title, been an active eight hundred plus days, Ganati Golofkin gave up titles.
Uh feels like semi retirement or retirement. You know. Arislandi Lara has
a belt massively uh, you know, inactive and near the end of his
career. Anyway, got gifted that title when triple G vacated. You have
Jannebec, you know, probably the best guy around, has that, you
know, two three defenses under his belt. He's done to be in a
unification with the Gultieri, who is as unknown as anybody, and it's just
not a great division. And now you have you Bank and Smith who fight
each other in a non title fight, and you Bank looks great and even
now without a belt, but coming off that kind of win and with his
notoriety, he automatically vaults himself to like the top of the vision, not
necessarily in terms of like his ability or his talent or they as a title.
Just because he's got the name, he can bring money to these guys.
So I expect that, you know, he'll get some kind of big
money fight. Now, I don't know if that means. He mentioned two
fights first in his interview. We'll talk about that. He mentioned h Connor
Dan of course, who was there, which we know the history of what's
going on with that. He mentioned kel brook who was there. Kel Brooks
said in an interview earlier on the broadcast that if he came out of retirement,
he would want to fight the winner of the main event, which turned
out to be obviously, Chris Eubank Jr. So, I mean I think
Kelly should probably stay in retirement. Who cares should stay retired? I agree,
But in England that would probably get some hype obviously. But then when
pressed again, who would you want to fight next? This was hilarious.
He said, I want to fight Gnadi Glofkin. He's been holding the belts
too long. I'm coming for the belts. And I was like in my
tweet or my ex forever relent, I appreciate the the exuberance, but by
the way Gnatti gave up the titles like several months ago. And also,
as I wrote in my story, and a lot of people, because there's
so many people in this who are fans of boxing, we don't remember what
happened yesterday, much less what happened, you know, four or five six
years ago. Back in twenty sixteen, there were two fights that were on
the table. Kell Brooke was supposed to fight Jesse Vargas and Gnati Glufkin was
supposed to fight Chris you Bank and Chris Eubank bailed and because of I guess
partly his father and would and did not finalize the deal with match Room,
even though Matchroom and the Triple G team had a deal, and as far
as you can remember, was the fight going to be in the US or
was the fight going to be in the UK? And was that sticking point
TRIPLEG was going to the UK they were very excited about. So they were
obviously concerned about what Triple G had been doing to the middleweight division and not
to say we want to wait and now they may not ever get a chance
at Tripleg. Okay, So what happened there was, and I don't remember
the exact reason, but the Brook Vargas fight was not finalized. I don't
remember the particulars on that. I'm if there was a contract issue or an
injury the Vargas. I just don't remember what happened in that scenario, but
I do remember that you bank just ultimately, whether it was pressure from his
father or whatever, the bottom line it was, he just he didn't take
the fight, even though everybody thought the fight was done and it was agreed
to. So with both a sides falling out of their fights, meaning kel
Brook wasn't getting the Vargas fight and Jesse was going to go over there,
I guess also to fight against kel Brook, and with Ganati not getting the
fight against you Bank, they took the two A sides and nashed them together
in a really kind of surprising manner and would turn out to be kel Brook
unable to get a top welterweight at the time. Remember he had a welterweight
title. This is prior to the Errolspence fight, and Ganati was having all
kinds of trouble finding a good quality middleweight to fight him, who was ducked
by everybody. They made the fight and so he had the welterweight title holder
kel Brook who was moving up to fight Ganati in the in the middleweight division,
and they made that match. Now, I went to London to cover
that fight, and I can remember very specifically seeing Ganatti and kell Brook at
the way in and then afterwards sitting with Ganadi and having like an interview for
a bit. If you didn't know that kell Brook was the welterweight and that
Ghanatti was the middleweight. In terms of where they held their belts, kell
Brook was bigger than Ganati. Golofkin now obviously the knight of the fight.
He got his face broken in an orbit bone, but he gave Ganati a
good goal for four or five rounds, but he's not a middleweight. So
him fighting Chris Eubank now many million years later, even coming off the win
over Con probably not the best idea. But he wants to fight Ganati,
and I'm like, okay, you Bank could have fought him in twenty sixteen
when it really would have meant something. Now not so much. I mean
Ganatti, you know, unless they offer him some kind of crazy amount of
money is probably unlikely because you know, it feels like he's in retirement.
But still, that does not take away the tremendous performance that Liam Smith had,
I mean that he had against Leean Smith in this rematch. Got to
give a lot of credit to Brian McIntyre their first fight together in terms of
training. Obviously, Brian coming off just a month ago humongous win for his
number one guy, Terrence Crawford over Arrol Spence. So you know, I've
had these conversations at times. You know, Brian, he's not scared to
say like he'd liked to be Trainer of the Year. He wants to credit,
he wants the accoltes. I can't blame him for that. Who wouldn't,
and I would say, you know, in a nice way. I'm
like, well, I'm one man, one vote when it comes to like
say, the Boxing Writers Association of America, And he's been on the ballot
of my recollection in the past. But what the mark of a guy that's
the trainer of the year, unless there's something truly overwhelming, is usually can
you do it with more than one guy? So Brian is now in that
in that level. He's taken Terrence Crawford from the beginning into a pound for
pound number one and just won the most important fight of the year impressively against
Arrol Spence. And a month later he's now the trainer coming in as like
essentially a hired gun with Chris you Bank and flips the script on a guy
who got knocked out, whose career everybody thinks is hanging by a thread,
and he just doesn't just win the rematch. He beats the living shit out
of Lean Smith and pummels them and wins. And you have to give the
trainer some of that credit. So I tip my hat to Brian a mac
and tire for Bollmack for doing a great job with By the way, they
can't see you. They can't see you because it's an audio podcast. But
Rayfield literally did tip the hat when he said tip at I'm the one that
saw that, Brian. If Brian's listening to our podcast, props to you,
my brother, he got a hat. Okay, just one more on
this and we'll move on to the rest of the car. I just I
wanted to go through the copybox for a quick secon. Yeah, do the
copy backs, and then I want to ask you about what makes way too
much sense so therefore it won't happen for you, Bank, But copybox bears
out what you were saying. He was dominant, and normally I don't go
through the stats, but these are so overwhelming. I like, I was
thinking to myself, In all the years I've been looking at copy box stats
after pretty much every televised fight that there is for years and years and years,
I can't remember there being something that's just so absurdly one sided. Check
these stats out, you, Bank lands one hundred and ninety three to five
hundred and eighty total punches, thirty three percent good percentage, and output.
Fifty one of those were body shots. So like, that's a lot for
that a few in terms of overall punches landed. The ratio fifty one body
shots of one hundred and ninety three total landed. Big. Meanwhile, Smith
in ten was a ten rounds nine plus rounds. He landed a total of
thirty three punches out of one hundred and thirty two, very very few.
I mean, we've seen guys land thirty two punches and fifty output of banks
well, no output and no landing. So you bank lands more jabs,
just jabs than total punches. That's Smith through sixty eight to fifty. He
landed almost as this U bank lands almost as many power punches, one twenty
five to the total number of punches that Smith threw one hundred and thirty two.
He outlanded Smith. And every single round. Smith never landed double digits,
never landed more than seven punches in any round. And you want to
talk about closing the show the way you're supposed to do. When you got
your in trouble in the tenth round, Chris Jubank Junior outlanded Liam Smith twenty
five to zero. That is as dominant a performance as you can possibly have.
Big for him well stated on that, And you wonder if this is
the end for Liam Smith. We were talking about that in the ramp up,
that if he didn't get the win here Andrey looked bad and you just
mentioned all the weight problems and he's thirty five, who knows? Who knows
if he keeps going it does it make way too much since so therefore it
won't happen that with his Jana Beck fight against Goltieri, right, the Italian,
the obscure of Talian that just won the w baer, the German that
won the vacant belt. They're gonna fight a unification fight. Call me crazy,
but the winner of that fighting you bank in England is a lucrative pay
day, probably for the winner, particularly Janna Beck, and you sell that
out and you have it as a pay per view in England for two of
the titles Call Me Crazy, Call me Early twenty twenty four. I can
absolutely see that happening. You're giving me a little credit for matchmaking, which
means now it won't happen. There's no complicated because those two guys are obscure
for the most part. But they would bring something to the table, which
is something I assume that Chris would want, which is a chance not only
to fight for one title, but to get too. It would provide a
big payday for the winner of the unification fight. It would provide obviously a
great opportunity and obviously a big pay day for you Bank, you know,
And it's very rare where a unified champion would come as the B side but
still be able to make, you know, a pretty good pay day.
So I mean again, I can't tell you it will happen, but it's
not out of the Roman possibly at all, I think, because it's not
like the winner between Janebec and Galti Area are suddenly going to have huge options
and Chris you Bank, now great that I think, what's and on that
point, what's the lucrative fight for either one of them? If it's not
you Bank, to your point of what you've been saying for weeks about the
middleweight division, there's not. It's Gadi Glufkin's not coming out of retirement or
you know, his sabbatic goal to fight either guy. He doesn't want to
fight Janebec, I think partly because they're both from Kazakhstan, not that he
would duck a guy he had the opportunity to defend the ib of title and
a vague hated it. You know, he was obligant to fight Falkau,
who then lost in the vacant title fight to Goutieri. So there's no it's
Charlot fights not happening. I would very much doubt that for a lot of
different reasons. So yeah, I mean that would be probably the most highest
profile fight you can make in the division. What's the old saying, fights
make fights, and so you bank wins. And let me tell you another
thing, by the way, beating Liam Smith is one thing. Beating him
by a knockout is impressive because even though Liam has suffered a few losses over
his career, the guy only got stopped one time ever in his career,
and that was in a world title fight which I was at actually, when
he got knocked out by Kennel albert As when he lost his WBO title in
the junior middleweight division. And so for a guy with four losses, you
know, only getting stopped by Kenello when you bank that, look, you
know, that's pretty impressive. I mean, Smith was known to have a
good chin. Full credit to Chris Eubank Junior. He is again very popular
and prominent, and he got his revenge, all right. Rest of the
undercard, you and I were debating, and last we talked on the bet
Us show. Would Adam a Ziem, the junior welterweight prospect, get the
knockout over the Ukrainian Fanyan? It turns out, and again I've not seen
this, I'd defer to you. I read a little bit. I saw
a couple of highlights. Apparently Fanyon would opposed an awkward threat and the fight
ends up being a distance fight. So go over that and the rest of
the undercard on the saw on the show. Fanyan was not a guy with
the big punching power and a zim was in a second schedule ten rounder.
He went the distance for the second time in a row. You know,
maybe the powers and not would have looked like in the first handful of fights,
which is not totally a shocker, because when you're fighting those early fights,
you're fighting guys that are typically you know, easier matchups. But this
was a good learning fight for him. This was exactly what he needs.
I mean, Fanyan came in very experienced twenty four professional fights, had only
lost one time previously. And while it wasn't maybe the most exciting fight in
the world. The good thing that I did like about Azim, who clearly
won the fight. It wasn't like there was a controversy. One of the
scorecards was a shutout. One judge gave Fang in one round, one gave
him two rounds. That seemed perfectly reasonable. Is that in the later part
of the fight, like rounds eight, nine, ten, Azim was starting
to really pick it up and go after and he was hurt him and he
was doing damage, and there was a couple of moments where he thought maybe
he might get a stoppage or get him on the deck. Didn't quite happen,
but he closed well. So for him to still have the stamina and
the desire and the capability to go after his man in those last few rounds,
I thought that showed me something positive. So you might say, well,
you know, he was supposed to get the knocked out, and I
don't buy that. I mean, he's a young fighter. He's twenty one
years fold with now only nine professional fights. You know, I know he
was in a big spot in the co feature. And this actually was a
fight that originally before it was postponed because of his knuckle injury is he had
an infection on his knuckle. This was supposed to headline. He's just a
normal Sky Sports card, so for him to get into this position on a
big undercard like that, I thought he quitted himself. Well. He speaks
well, he's got a good personality. He seems like thoughtful when he gives
his answers to his questions, and you know, he can fight definitely,
and it's just a work in progress. I mean, it's going to take
him a little time. I think they might. They don't. They shouldn't
rush him. There's too much potential there to rush him. So I think
this was the perfect kind of matchup. Hopefully they can put him in a
little bit of a step up again next time around, and we'll see if
he can get back to knocking guys out. But there was nothing really negative
to say about this because he did win basically every single round, and he
was hurting the guy late in the fight. And you know what, as
I talked about when we went over that, remember when Jared Ennis fought the
Ukrainian fighter back in January, Jakatzien, who I really didn't know much about.
I made the point that fair or unfair my experience, and you know,
in almost twenty five years of covering boxing, I never seen a Ukrainian
fighter that wasn't tough. While Fanian was tough also, and they can take
the shots, it seems like, and he was able to go the distance
was Zazim and it was a good win. So that was the co feature.
Below that, you add the heavyweight British heavyweight who was a bronze medal
winner in twenty twenty Olympic Games, Frasier Clark, who's got a you know,
a kind of a jovial personality. Uh. I kind of liked I
liked the guy. He's you know, he's he's older as terms of a
quote unquote prospect because he's already thirty two, because he waited a very long
time to term pro kind of like a page out of the Joe Joyce book.
But they've been stepping him up. Look, he beat in his last
fight Marius Walk, an older fighter but who had fought for a world title,
went the distance with him. Dave Allen, you know, kind of
a popular British level heavyweight who's fought a lot of top guys. Uh,
he went out there and he beat him up. I mean, he did
get the duct to two points for blows our belt line shots, but below
the Bobova navel. We've discussed that plenty over the last couple of weeks.
H and at the end after round six Alan retired. They said it was
from a perforated perforated ear drum, but he was still taking a beating at
that stage of the game. So that's a good solid win for Dave Allen.
I mean for for for Fraser Clark to beat Dave Allen, We'll see
what he can. I'm assuming that at some point in the next couple of
fights we'll see them try to maneuver Frasier Clark, you know, into either
like the British title, of the Commonwealth title, perhaps the European title,
that level of a fight, and just keep doing what he's been doing.
But they don't have They don't want to waste the time. He started two
like I said, so it's a quick uh, He's gonna move along quick.
And then another fight of some interest was Michael La Mayer in her third
consecutive fight in in England. Remember she was the former junior lightweight unified titler.
She lost in England the title in a very close fight against Alicia baumb
Garner. She came back in her next fight, moved up to the one
hundred and thirty five pound weight class, also in England. That took place
in April, and she won, you know, more or less a shutout
against Lucy Wildheart. And now she moved up to one hundred and forty pounds.
She actually came in this fight a little over that, like one forty
one and a quarter, and she totally dominated and won a lopsided shutout decision
against a fighter named Sylvia Borto. Now remember in England, when it's not
a championship fight, certain fights they have only the referee scoring the fight,
not a panel of three judges. So in this particular instance, it was
the referee, Steve Gray, who was the one that rendered the one score,
which was one hundred to ninety. But when here's where we remind the
jin ziers, the under thirty year olds, this used to be the norm
back in the fifties and the sixties. It generally was, especially in American
boxing, only the referee when people are going lait a minute. So they
still uphold that. That's amazing that that still goes on. Yeah, right,
So but the okay, so the matchup itself was nothing to write home
about. But the talking point, if you will, is she's fighting once
again in front of the British audience. They're going to try to make this
fight and and Natasha Jonas, who has in an Olympian, has titles in
one hundred forty fifty four pound weight last but came down and waiting one one
hundred forty seven pound title recently. She was there. She's with boxer.
They're going to try to make that fight and I'm assuming that if they're able
to get that done. They spoke about it after the fight. That's the
fight that michaelists focus on, whether it's the next fighter and two fights.
The main thing is is she will probably go back to the UK once again
and fighting Natasha Jonas for her welterweight title. So that's like in women's boxing,
that's a pretty kind of big ish fight relatively speaking, because they're two
Olympians, they've both been champions. Jonas is a very popular figure in the
UK, particularly you know, among the other female boxers that populate the sport
in that country, so that that's that's the reason why she's on this kind
of card. Let's see how she looks. She did win handily and now
we can try to make the bigger one. So she'll move up a few
more pounds and uh, and she's got the frame to do it because she's
a tall she's tall for for one hundred and thirty five. So that was
that was that and then if you want to get even further onto the undercard,
this was a pretty impressive knockout. You had a Jack Cullen, uh,
you know, kind of British level fighter, but whatever. He scored
a really impressive knockout against Mark Cafron in the third round to become the British
and Commonwealth champion, take his titles in one of the main in one of
the cards on the main one of the fights on the main card. So
you know, a little bit for everybody, yes, and that is it
basically, because that was the most prominent fight card. They're none really in
North America again, college football starting here, the NFL about the crank up.
So it's a little slower to begin September here as we work our way
at the end of the month, and Ray Phels already got his bag packed,
I think for Canello and Charlo for the end of the month. We
got a little while before we get there on that, so good recap of
that action. Let's get into some news, which some of it is what
we've already talked about. Dan and when we released the podcast on Friday,
becoming official something that we did not talk about because it hadn't happened. But
apparently on Friday, Errol Spins made it known to speaking of Bryan McIntyre Terrence
Crawford at his camp, he made it known to them he does want the
rematch. He invoked the rematch clause. Not much else is really known,
although you've done some digging the last couple of days. We don't know if
that fight's going to be a junior middleweight fight. We don't know when.
What else have you found out since that news has come out, now that
it's been a couple of days. Well, so, first of all,
when they did the deal for the fighting the first place, one of the
terms was the winner we'll have to sit tight, and the loser wants the
rematch, they have thirty days to invoke their rematch right. So obviously thirty
days has now been up because that fight was on July twenty ninth. Here
we are now a couple of days, you know, August twenty nine would
have been a month, but that the winner would be so the loser can
invoke the rematch. It would be the winner that would would be able to
determine which weight class would be in, meaning either junior middleweight or welterweight.
So the first half of that was Spence had to, I guess, notify
team Crawford in an official capacity, you know, I guess contractually or through
a letter or from his lawyer or whatever, that yes, we're invoking our
rematch. Right, so that apparently has happened, what has not happened to
my knowledge, and I'm assuming that will be in then in days we'll be
for Crawford to say, yes I will do it at welterweight, or yes
I will do it at junor middleweight. Now, after the fight took place
in July, you know, obviously Spence was like, I hope it's at
jerry middleweight. And when Terrence was asked about it at the press convert and
I've seen him in subsequent interviews he's done since he's been on his little victory
tour, he said, you know, he's never really pushed back, and
he doesn't really seem to have a problem doing the rematch at one fifty four,
because whatever problems Errol had making weight, you know, it's not like
Crawford makes it easily. So I could definitely see that happening at one fifty
four. My understanding from the sources I spoke to leading up to the fight
was that if the rematch were to happen, and because the loser invoked it,
it would be it would have to take place by the end of this
year. Well one of the so when I confirm with one of the sources
that wasn't involved that knows what was going on, that in fact, he
had invoked his rematch, right, it was told to me the weight is
not determined yet, and that the when and the way is not determined yet.
And I was reminded by that person that they had to do it in
the calendar year of twenty twenty three. But that's what it is said in
the original contract. There's nothing at all that would prevent Terrence Crawford and Errol
Spence amending that term and saying, you know, okay, we're gonna do
this, but now it's got to take place by I'm making this up,
you know, April or whatever. In other words, you can change the
term as long as both sides signed. Often all right, but you just
said a big time. You just said a big qualifier if both sides agree.
So here's two points on this so that we're clear, because I don't
think you mentioned this. It is Crawford's choice because he won the fight.
Whoever won the fight, so it's ultimately up to him. And the one
thing that I think it's up to him on the weight, correct, but
it's his choice on the weight, on whether it's junior middleweight or wealth weight.
Now the second thing is, I'm thinking this as soon as you brought
that up, the whole Tyson Fury Deonte Wilder third fight and how it got
all intertwined with the pandemic craziness and the deadline of when the deal had to
be done, and then Fury decided basically, okay, it wasn't done by
the term of the contract, so now I can leave. As soon as
you said that, I'm now flashing in my head it's in writing and they've
got to go back over everything again if it's not done by the end of
the year. So enlightening a little more on whether that's way off. I
think you're conflating things that don't work with each other. That was very much
pandemic related. This is a merely a situation where if they talk to PBC,
to TGB, to showtime, and there's other things that they're trying to
do, maybe Crawford doesn't want to come back that quickly, Maybe Errol could
use a little bit more time off whatever they would just simply they could probably
do literally a single page document just amending that term. Could they could?
But let me make my point. Let me make my point a little better
again. These are fighters. These are two guys that spent the better part
of three years not being able to agree and not being able to get it
done. And I, for one, am sitting here just having fun with
you on the Labor Day recap saying, if they don't adhere to this contract,
I can totally see all of it getting screwed up, and there's not
a rematch because the term expired on the deal and Crawford goes and fights somebody
else, or don't. I don't, And I don't think you're skeptical.
You're not thinking it through. If Crawford has, I mean, Spence has
apparently exercised the rematch right, Crawford will have to tell him to wait by
a certain deadline, and that would mean the fight has to be by the
end of the year. Both sides are bound to that. Now. If
one or the other, or or a go between like Hayman, like Showtime,
whoever says hey, guys, what would you think about going on this
date, both sides would be like okay, because I don't think there's a
giant desire for either guy to get back in camp right away. I mean,
it was a long build up and it was a you know, it
was emotional and from a from a point of view from Spence physical. Crawford's
been out celebrating for you know, since the fight for the past month.
I don't think he's necessarily looking to get back in camp tomorrow or anything.
So I think it's possible they might just do the fight in December. Certainly
the rest of this year's calendar is not set yet. But I also think
it's entirely possible that they'll agree to do the rematch, which I don't think
there's a huge public demand for Frankly, and they may just go and do
it. And you know, it could be January, could be February whatever.
So it's not gonna be like the term is gonna expire. They're either
gonna settle it for the end of this year or they're going to agree to
go in some you know, first quarter. Let's say again, I'm skeptical.
I'm on the record skeptical last fall, over and over again. They're
close to agreeing, they're talking, they're back and forth last fall, blah
blah blah. Meanwhile, Terrence Crawford was making his own side deal unbeknownst to
everybody until he's sprung in on everybody, and so then it became well,
now they're not going to fight in late last year, they're not going to
fight at the beginning of twenty twenty three. Just recapping and going over the
facts, you kept you kept saying, I'm hearing Errol Spence is gonna fight
Keith Thurman in a non title fight, and I looked at you cross side
on these video hookups, going what are we doing? We got all the
way to hold on, We got all the way to this summer before they
fought. To to sit here and say that if they don't adhere to the
contract that the squabbling won't resume about what weight where when it's not contractually there.
I'm skeptical that this could screw it up and it could be next summer
again, or is in place neither side. You and I are familiar with
contracts, and if it has a date deadline on one side could decide that's
it. I agree with you on the premise that it should get done.
It's the most lucrative fight, but you have to concede to me. These
two tap danced, avoided each other and didn't fight for three plus years when
everybody wanted to see it. Lived it. I get it all. I
lived it. Lived about this other than the fact is the default is the
fight is happening. Prowford's got to tell us what the weight is and we
got to get the date set up. That's right by December. There we
go. Otherwise Otherwise it's big trouble, and I'm just on the ref it's
big trouble because they would have if they approach one another about the prospect of
going early in next year and one side or the other says no, they'll
just do it this year. End the story. Spence is not going to
let that. You have much more confidence. You have much more confidence about
what you just said right there than I do on that one. Again,
facts, Terrence Crawford was negotiating another fight in the middle. Dude, dude,
I understand that, but this is what we're dealing with. He's still
mad at them. He's still mad forever in language even you'll understand. Yeah,
if it happens, fine, If it doesn't happen, who cares if
it doesn't happen. Reeves will remind Raphael that I was talking Labor Day weekend
that it's not just so simple that they're going to fight again. Never did
you hear the words from my mouth say it's simple. All right? They
have a contract, though, let's see if they addhere to it. All
right, let's let's move on on that and hopefully we will find out when
all right, Alexis Rocha is going to be back. You talked about this
before the data set. Give me more on that real quick. In the
news. This is a good matchup. This is two undefeated walter weights.
Alexis Rocha, who was actually Crawford's WBO mandatory. He actually stepped aside to
allow the Crawford fight to be for all four belts. He is going to
fight on October twenty feet with this has all been announced now at the Key
of Form, which is in Inglewood, California, right out you know,
in the LA area, against the undefeated Giovanni Santion. It makes my heart
filled with joy that top rank who promotes Santion and a golden boy that promotes
Rocha were able to very easily make this deal to put their two guys in.
Rocha is twenty three. They're not both Hidefeata Roach has got the one
loss to Rashidi Elisei's twenty three and one with fifteen knockouts, but he's won
a bunch of fights in row. He's looked really good, he's getting better,
he's drawing a crowd, he's exciting. And Santion has stayed undefeated.
He's thirty one and oh with sixteen knockouts, and uh, you know,
he's got a couple of solid wins. He beat Antonio with the Mark always
coming off a nice win over Eric Bonet this summer in July. And so
again, this is in a welterweight division that is all generously described it as
in transition given what's happened with Spence and Crawford and with both of them probably
going on to the next weight class, that this is the kind of fight
that, again, depending on what happens, I think at this moment,
it may not be for any kind of world title or eliminator, as roach
is already the mandatory, but I could see definitely a possibility depending on how
quickly things get ironed out with the Crawford Spence particulars, that it's not out
of the realm, that could wind up being for like the WBO interim title,
which would then mean that the winner would probably ultimately be elevated because Spence
will be fighting Crawford and the Dream midweight division, so Crawfords titles at some
point will splinter. So there's definitely some stakes there. And it's a good
matchup because Roacha, like I said, one of the better welterweights in the
in the division and Santone also maybe not quite as highly regarded as Roacha,
but you know, good solid matchup for this Golden Boyd de Zone card October
twenty feet again, and the Forum has had so many legendary fights and they've
remodeled it. It's now more of a concert venue. It's still on the
property. There was stadium, the football stadium, but they still will have
fights. That's interesting that it's at that venue. I have covered several fights
there. I covered Ganadi Glofkin fight there. I've covered one Danuel Marquez against
Mike Alverado. There, I've covered I mean, I can't think of every
one of them off top of my head, but I've covered a number of
boxing events there. I love that building. I would much rather cover fight
at the Forum than this may be blasphemy to some UH, than the than
the Tennis Center down in Carson. I know the yes right exactly by the
way on that undercard that they so the roaches Santon was announced. The undercard
was not announced, but I was told by Eric Gomez, the president of
Golden Boy, that their top prospect, the lightweight Floyd Schofield, will appear
in the co feature announced and there's another fight card, a women's championship fight
confirmed by Eric Gomez as well as by Samson Lukewitz, who was the promoter
for the UH. The female boxer Gabriela Fendra, who was the younger sister
of Sebashim, and she will challenge the IBF Women's flyweight champion Arlie Musino.
Musino for her title also on that show. So they're building that card out
and Rocha again along with Jeron boots In is kind of the next level of
are they going to get title shots and that kind of thing, etcetera,
etcetera. All right, a couple more news items in some nostalgia and we're
gonna get out of here. I promise it's on the rundown. What is
this about the WBA and mak muchar and and please tell me, please tell
me. We're not going to spend more than a couple of minutes. We're
not this go and I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. I can't promise
you, TJ, can't promise you audience. I'm gonna try not to curse.
So right now, the F bomb count is zero by my recollection in
this podcast, So if you need to let one loose in your frustration,
that would be your first go. So. I don't think anybody that's ever
read anything I've written or listened to any of my commentary over the last however
many years, knows that I've always had a beef with the WBA about their
use of the extraneous titles in the same weight class. A couple of years
ago, they finally found some religion because they were about to be shut down
and determined, we're not going to do this anymore. They eliminated all the
interim champions on the same day and they put forth a policy where they were
going to try to have the interim or the regular champions in the super champions
fight to consolidate. And I've had a thousand conversations and text messages, etc.
With Gilberto Mendoza, who is the president of the WBA. Gilberto and
I may not see eye to eye on tight on a lot of things,
but we get along very well. I actually liked Gilberto. I think he
likes me. We respect each other from that standpoint, and we have a
very cordial working relationship from the standpoint of, you know, organization president and
journalists, even if we don't agree on everything. And I will say this
and again, I've been as critical as anybody whoever walked the face of the
earth about the w BA. They've actually done a good job in eradicating the
secondary titles. At one point they had in seventeen weight classes. Like I
don't know what it was, like forty champions or something like that, you
know, between interims and regulars and supers and this, and that was ridiculous.
They're now down to their normal compliment of seventeen champions. I'm not I
can't remember if thought mad if any of them are vacant, but they only
have four. They only had four titles that were secondary once. What happened
on last week when Usek defeated dub Duba was a secondary heavyweight title older so
that went away. They had four divisions left that still had a super champion,
and I'm like, okay, that's good. One was welterweight, which
is in the process of being dealt with because of what's happening. One was
super middleweight. Who knows what's going to be with that with David Morrell and
Canelo Alvarez. One was straw weight, which was a fight that actually is
now scheduled to consolidate those belts. So was they were making the progress.
And I had said numerous times, half joking, half kidding, like one
of the happiest days of my life will be when we can look at a
list of champions and see there's only one WBA Champion per division. So we
were making progress with Dubois being eliminated with that with that belt when he got
knocked out by Alexandrush the other you know, last week or two weeks ago,
and so four or five days after that, the vacant or the not
the vacant, the secondary heavyweight title is now back. And the reason is
because mak Muchar, who was like a like a middling kind of heavyweight,
you know, once fought the Tally Klitschko for the WBC title, got stopped
on a horrendous cut and what turned out to be the Tally's final professional fight.
He ended up winning the secondary title against Alexander oustin off years ago,
never defended it at all, kinds of issues, ultimately was put in recess
and was then supposed to fight Trevor Bryant in the United States. Now there's
so many convoluted things I'm not even getting into it. But the end,
the end result was that fight never happened. He was stripped of that situation.
Brian ended up fighting and ultimately getting that title, then getting knocked out
by Dubo. He blamed char did the visa issue that was he claims was
because of the machinations of the WBA and Don King, who was Trevor Bryant's
promoter, and a lot of issues that were going on, and he sued.
He sued everybody. He sued the w BA, he sued Don King,
he sued Gilberto Mendoza up personally, everybody but the easter body. We
get it exactly. So this thing has been in litigation and and the WBA
knew that they were on really shaky ground and probably if it went to court,
they were going to lose, and so they did what they had to
do to preserve the organization from a massive judgment in my opinion, and I've
read the lawsuit and it was it was damaging, believe me. So the
settlement that they made to not go to court. Part of that settlement was
that char now that Duboi. I'm sure this was in the works prior to
the USIG fight, and it didn't then just amazingly happened four days later.
They have reinstated shar to the regular title. So we have an addition,
no regular champion now of the WBA, And I can almost live with that
from the standpoint if i'm if I'm with the WBA, and it's the only
way to preserve ourselves to go back to this situation. You know it's temporary.
I get it. What And I still haven't gotten an answer for this,
and I've asked Gilberto several times via messages. One of the things that
they said was, yes, you are now reinstated as the WBA Regular Champion,
but you haven't till October. I forget the exact date. You must
defend the title by October fourteenth is a date against a Gerald Big Baby Miller,
who was like number five in the WBA ratings. And I must blew
my fucking brains out. There's the I'm sorry about that. I couldn't help
myself. So roughly, roughly about forty five days, you've got to fight
Jarrell big Baby Miller. We're going to strip you of this title that we're
trying to delete, it said. They didn't say that. I assume that
would be the case, but he asked if I Jerald Miller, and can
I can I just bring it? Hold on, I need to finish this.
I under understand that I'm not gonna stop. I'm I'm gonna fell buster
finished. But wait, that's that's two Hold on because you lost me,
you lost something, You lost me on something, and I think you might
have lost the audience on this too. They're gonna have this fight with Jarell
Miller, who's the fifth rank contender? I'm getting there, So what are
they? What are they designating Char right now? If du Bois was the
one and where is three or four? That's what I don't understand. So
why is out? Why I lost? That? Be correct? We know
that, yes, So the point I'm making is they gave the position to
fight for the challenge of Char's regular title. Who in the number five guy?
And my question repeatedly in text messages to Gilberto, who has not responded,
is what the heck happened to the guys who are in front of uh
Jerald Miller, including people like Deante Wilder for example, And that to me
is a bizarre thing. And Jerald Miller is the worst guy you could pick
the challenge for that Time's a guy that tested positive for every drug under the
sun, even though he's paid some element of a debt because he was off
for all those years? Why are you giving him the opportunity? And the
other thing they said in the ruling was the winner of this proposed fight between
Shar and Miller is that they would have to then have a mandatory against a
designated challenger by the WBA. It's a fucked up situation existing. I'm tired
of talking about it, Amen. And the bottom line is char Is thirty
eight years old, going nowhere and never gonna fight Alexander Usak, who just
fought the WBA number one guy. So what are we doing? Let's move
on. We did talk a lot as we released the podcast Friday of Labor
Day weekend about the Jena Beck Gulatieri fight, and now the official date has
been made. You were talking about that. Keyshawn Davis is the co feature.
Do we have a site on that along with the date or is that
still to be determined? You know, they just made it official. So
this is the story with that. It's going to be that unification between the
Jena gutierres October fourteenth, which that I had reported previously and that it was
going to be in Texas officially now will be in a place called Rosenberg,
Texas, which is a half hourish outside of Houston. It's a Houston suburb
and it's a brand new building that opened last week, like a ten thousand
seat arena. That's not what they're going to necessarily scale it for. But
it's called the Ford Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas. So this is a
new building. I'm familiar with a lot of Texas and I've never heard of
Rosenberg, Texas. And You've covered a lot of fights in Texas, and
I've been to Texas a bunch. I'll be in Houston with the Buccaneers later
this year. You have educated me in my fifty third year on Rosenberg,
Texas. We'll have to go to see where how where it was in its
because Texts obviously is a huge state. Is a is a let's call it
an ex surb of Houston. And Uh, again, this is a brand
new building that's gonna look to get some national television exposure for their for their
for their arena. When I read the little chatter on the on the top
rank press release, I loved that how they talked about how it you know,
it's perfect for sports events and and and different you know, uh,
different other functions. One of the things that they mentioned was a livestock Uh
shows, Yes, Texas and those are big deals to show and Raphael,
you gotta go cover one at some point, just so I can all we
can all law They show, they show the show cattle, show cows,
show pigs. This is a big deal in Texas. This is this is
money. Big money exchanges hands on this stuff too. And just follow up
from my report from the last pot where I did say Keishan would be the
co feature, he has been announced He'll be in the co feature, Keishan
Davis in a ten round lightweight fight against the Philadelphia fighter. Now he'll albright
uh you know, for where he is in his career. Not not a
terrible matchup at all. All Right, nostalgia And we're stretching a little bit
on nostalgia. And we're at the end of the podcast, but you've got
two pieces. One of them is coming midweek for September six. Let's talk
about that first. That's the nineteen ninety seven title win by Eric Morales on
that date twenty six years ago, when he falls Daniel Zaragoza. Tell me
more about the nostalgia for that for Morales. Well, we all know Eric
Rales went on to become one of the all time greats, but his very
first World championship fight was he fought the grizzled veteran Daniel Zaragosa was also a
Hall of Famer, was one of the greats. They met, like you
mentioned, September sixth, nineteen ninety seven, which is the anniversary, is
on Wednesday in El Paso, Texas, big Mexican crowd for two Mexican fighters,
and this was a very young Eric Morales winning his first world championship on
HBO. In the main event, he won the WBCs on hundred twenty two
pound title. He stopped Zaragosa in the eleventh round in a great performance and
it was like a passing of the torch kind of night because here you have
the old that Zaragoza, uh, you know, giving him a good go
and but losing in what was a close fight up till the knockout where I
think, if I remember correctly, he kind of hit him in the pit
of the gut and Zaragos was pretty much done and kind of waved the glove
and you know, basically was like I would say he quit, but he
it was it was like he was handing off the mantle, if you will,
to the young, exciting newcomer in moraleson So you know, It's like
when the title changes hands, it's one thing, But when it's a hall
of famer in waiting, who is the one that passes it and the guy
that beats him goes on have a career even deader than Zara Gos's career and
become a Hall of Famer in his own right. That's important in boxing,
and it was. It was. It was a very very good fight,
a great performance from a young Morales who was filled with spirit and energy and
you know, had the best days of his career ahead of him and went
on to have a glorious career. And that was the beginning of this championship
run that extended, you know, as a junior featherweight champion, as a
featherweight champion, moved up in one delts, you know, in the one
hundred thirty one hundred forty poundweight classes, and uh, you know, one
of the one of the great Mexicans of all time. And that was That's
been that long ago there you go. And speaking of that long ago,
we don't have a whole lot of other nostalgia. So my man Rayphael goes
back to nineteen o six, one hundred and seventeen years ago, Sunday as
we released the podcast on September three of nineteen oh six. You are confirmed.
I mean you were not ring side? Was what happened with Battling Merchant
was not ring side either, right? Battling Nelson and Joe Gans. Why
did this make the rundown on nostalgia from nineteen oh six real quick? Well,
because, like I've said to you, when we talk our nostalgia,
I feel like it's ours now. Grant, I wasn't there as as you
know. You know, I don't care. Our parents weren't around. No
people are grand parents largely weren't around one hundred and seventeen. Does anybody still
alive that's from nineteen oh six? Probably not, probably not at seventeen years
ago. But I like to talk history. I can ser myself a historian
to a degree in boxing. And it's great to like think about things because
not everybody has been a boxing fan for fifty years or twenty years or three
years. A lot of people have just started. And I always encourage people
to go on YouTube and you know, go do some reading and check out
what's going on. And in this particular instance, you have Battling Nelson.
He won the lightweight title over Joe Gans. Now, Joe Gans was the
first ever African American world champion in boxing history. That's kind of a big
deal. And Battling Nelson, you know, he be defeated him by a
disqualification on a low blow. Here we are talking about low blows from one
hundred seventen years ago. But this is what we'll blow people's minds. Now,
keep in mind, by the way, Dattling Nelson may have won the
title by a DQ over Joe Gains. It was the first of their three
fights, Dattling Nelson one, the second and the third fights on knockouts.
But the thing that's crazy about their first fight, it was a DQ on
a low blow. It took place in round number forty two. I'm sorry,
did you say round number four or two? Round forty two? Round?
They fought forty two rounds and then it ended in a DQ on a
low blow. Correct. How Now, interestingly, what was and I don't
know this, A lot of times they would have scheduled how many rounds,
but a lot of times it was your fighting until someone wins. Do we
have any idea if this was one of those title fights that was you You're
fighting until someone wins. If we sit here until Thursday, you're gonna fight
an eightieth round or one hundredth round if we have to. I don't know.
I think I made a mistake when I spoke. By the way it
was, it was Joe Ganz who won the fight, and it was Battling
Nelson that won their second and third fights. Okay, so my bad if
I spoke misspoke about that. But so Joe gans wins on a thirty third
I'm sorry, A forty second round knockout in this fight not go on a
DQ on a DQ. But the thing that's fascinating to me is it was
a as you said, a lot of those old time fights that were scheduled
for crazy numbers of rounds forty five and fifty rounds and whatever. By my
understanding and everything I've read and looked up and researched on it, this fight
was a fight that did not have a maximum number round schedule. This was
literally and I think there's actually a minute I'm gonna do my professional wrestling until
I finish, no time limit, no disqualification. There must be a renner.
There wasn't. Well, there was a disqualification in this one wrestling there
it was a fight that was a fight to the finish without a scheduled I
mean, because they would have heavyweight title fights peeps in the early nineteen hundreds
Jack Johnson, et cetera, that did not have a scheduled amount of ending
on that where they might fight thirty forty fifty rounds. There's no doubt on
that. So that's amazing. And then they fought two more times brother ray
Field, and both of those fights we don't know if with a scheduled certain
amount of rounds, but both of those fights between games in Battling Nelson went
over forty rounds. Also in the second fight, it was battling Nelson who
gained revenge by a seventeenth round knockout in their round seventeenth round, But it
was scheduled for forty five, our main event, ladies and gentlemen, scheduled
for forty five. It just doesn't Yeah, it's not so in the third
fight, so I remember. So now, Joe Gans wins the first fight
by a forty second round disqualification. Nelson rebounds and wins the rematch in a
seventeenth round knockout out of forty five scheduled rounds and now they're one and one,
so you got to have a rubber match, right. So in the
third fight, it was battling Nelson, who also wins by a twenty first
round knockout in another schedule five rounder. My god finished stuff fight to the
by the way. The other thing about this fight, it took place in
a place called Goldfield, Nevada. It was the first fight where the famous
promoter of you know, one of the top names of back in those days,
Tex Rickard dubbed it the fight of the Century and which was used a
few times but disapparently was the first time that was sentury in nineteen h six.
Yeah, so the early part of the century. Yes. But the
thing is because it took place in Goldfield, Nevada, it was actually one
of the fights that was kind of tagged with the of making the Vada a
place where fights. Now, obviously it's before the gambling Vegas, but it
helped sort of pave the way to make that a place when they did some
major professional fights. And again, this was a big deal. Back in
those days, there was not seventeen weight classes. You know, it was
hard to win a world title. This was like the recognized title. They
fought three times for lightweight titles. Amazingly, it wasn't one hundred thirty five
pound fight. It was one hundred thirty three pound fight. So they did
They did fight a little bit under what's now the limit of one hundred and
thirty five. But the history of these types of things is amazing to me.
Forty five rounds fights fight to the finish, first ever champion who was
not you know who was a black fighter to win. Both guys are in
the Hall of Fame, you know, a long time ago. So I
love reading and looking up with that stuff. It's great, that's great nostalgia.
And again we've been doing this for a year and a half. That's
the first time that battling Nelson and Joe Ganz have made nostalgia for good reasons.
And it was a forty what did you say, forty five the forty
fifth round It ends on a DQ no forty second round DQ. And these
were all three minute rounds, peeps, is we're not shorten rounds, you
were three minute rounds is what they would do. So check this out.
Also, by the way, let's talk about, just for a quick second,
the money involved in a fight like this. Remember this is nineteen oh
six, it's a long long time ago. Yep, Gogan's got eleven thousand
dollars. Eleven thousand dollars nineteen oh six. Do the math was an extraordinary
amount of money and battlingly probably easily ten times more these days, easily tenfold
maybe more battling Nelson got thirty four thousand dollars. Wow, I mean,
this was a huge deal, by the way, And keep and keep in
mind again, mainstream society cared about professional boxing massively in the early nineteen hundreds,
the nineteen tens, the nineteen twenties. That's why that money was there
for this. And I'm just thinking because Nevada basically was not established as a
state, etc. So you're talking about you might have had to have a
week to ten days to get to Nevada by train by stage coach. I'm
not exaggerating. The automobile was basically not invented in nineteen o six. They
were doing the cairplanes. No, I mean it's crazy. They were doing
the contracts for this fight through telegraph. Amazing, and that's some serious nostalgia,
by the way. Daddling Nelson as the story goes Dad. The injured
his hand in round thirty three, yet still made it to the forty second
round. That's tremendous. All right, we've come to the end of another
podcast. We somehow once again have made our way through off Labor Day weekend.
Here with the one main fight card. I would love to tell you
there's a prominent fight card really this week. For the preview show, there's
not so much. So we may we'll get a little creative, We'll have
some fight news, may have a guest later in a week on the big
fight weekend preview. We'll do our best with that podcast. In the meantime,
everybody be safe as part of the Labor Day holiday this weekend. And
Dan Raphael thank you as always for everything from fight recaps to sorting out the
WBA to nostalgia from nineteen oh six. You got it all here as part
of this podcast. We try, we do, We drink a little bit,
a little bit, a little bit for everybody. Have a great week.
Dan ray Field, thank you as always to myself. All right,
I am merely T J. Reeves. Make sure you follow We're subscribe on
the podcast feed, rate us and review us. Find us on Apple podcasts
Freaker, Google Podcast, Spotify. We love that we come off the weekend
with the Fight Freach You Night recap. We go into the weekend with the
Big Fight Weekend preview for Dan ray Field on t J Reeves. Thank you
for being with us here as we come off the weekend with the Fight Freaking Night recap