Well, hello there, and welcome in everybody, and welcome to the latest
addition of the Fight Freaks Unit recap, as we come your way from Las
Vegas in the aftermath of Terrence Crawford Charence Crawford just wiping out Harold Spence on
a Saturday night at the Team Mobile Arena. I am merely be somewhat competent,
Host T J. Reeves. He is our insider from a Fight Freaks
Unite substack and from Big Fight Weekend dot Com. Hello Dan Raphael As we
were just in the arena about ninety minutes ago at the time that we're taping
this and cannot say enough One what an atmosphere and two what a butt whipping.
I'll use that phrase. Welcome, Good to have you. What are
your thoughts for what we just saw with a ninth round TKO by blud Crawford.
What can you say? It was as impressive as a performance as I
have seen in my time writing about boxing. It's not just my time writing
about boxing, just watching box of my whole life and reading about boxing in
the history books from way before I ever start watching boxing. When you talk
about a big time fight with high stakes and the world watching and everything on
the line. The title of the champion. You know, in this case
undisputed. I mean back in the old days there was one belt. Whatever
this is for undisputed, undefeated, pound for pound, worldwide audience fight.
There he's been talking about for for five years against a guy that you know
as your natural rival. You've cleaned out the way class both of you,
two guys with each other, and then you finally fight, and you don't
just win that's big enough, but you lay waste to the guy. So
as we're walking out of the arena, we were talking to friends of ours
that we were walking with, and one of the people that hasn't been around
the sport as long as I have was asking me, you know, of
all the fights that you've covered, can you think of a fight that was,
you know, at a high stakes fight. And I'm not talking about
something just regular fights, just a big, big fight that was perceived as
like a really close fight going in or perhaps Eden, where the winner scored
the upset and did so in absolutely devastating fashion. I came up with a
few that go in the same level as but this was probably bigger than the
ones I'm about to mention because the title the fights I'm gonna mention to you
weren't necessarily for a pound for pounds supremacy, which this was all due respect.
In a way, those fights weren't for all the four belts. Those
fights weren't where both combatants were undefeated. So I'll name a couple or on
name three or four in my time. I'm sure if we went back in
history week and come up with more. One of them I think about is
Manny pack Out laying waste to Oscar Dealoya and a completely one sided destruction in
a fight in which Banni pacy Out was the underdog, he was moving up
two weight divisions and beat the living shit out of Oscar de Laoya. Now
people want to take revisionist history and say Oscar was coming down and Wade he
was past his prime. He wasn't as bad as as good as he was.
That's fine. I was there. Everybody was shocked when that fight was
made. It was a deathmatch and it wasn't gonna be It wasn't gonna be
Oscar that was the one that got killed. It was gonna be Pacio.
So that's one. There's Bernard Hopkins toward to force against Tito Trinidad and two
thousand and one to become the undispeed the middleweight champion in Madison Square Garden.
Two weeks after nine to eleven, there was Bernard Hopkins doing a similar devastation,
although went the route instead of a knockout against Kelly Pablick at light at
one hundred and seventy pound catchweight my recollection, where he was a lineal champion
at one seventy five, but Pablick was moving up from one sixty, was
favored in the fight, and he completely annihilated him and won every single round
of the fight. And there's of course the one we have talked about in
the past, our boy Winky Wright stepping in with Tito Trinidad and completely wiping
out and making his head look like a bobblehead, uh for for twelve rounds.
And then there's a fight like this, where is the two best guys
in boxing or two of the three best guys in boxing, or you know,
I certainly at that upper echelon level. And it wasn't like he just
won Crawford. He kind of like won the first round on two judges scorecards.
Uh Spence did one judge had at first for Crawford. I gave Spence
the first round, but you could you could easily given Crawford the first nothing
happened. I actually looked at the punch stats afterwards, just as as just
a get an idea. They had Crawford landing two punches in the round and
Spence landing five punches in the round, and you know, when nothing happened,
you could have Mayben made that a ten ten round. Point is that's
the only thing you could even like logically probably give to Cross Spence. I
think one judge gave Spence one other round. The judge that didn't give him
round one gave him like round three or something like that. But the point
was he won basically every second of the fight. He knocked him down for
the first time of his career, he knocked him down for the second time
in his career. He knocked him down for the third time in his career.
His legs were messed up from like around maybe like fourth or fifth round
on. He just couldn't stay steady. I mean, it was a historic
performance, all right, So you gave us a lot there. Again,
let me say at the outset here, we're doing this after the Crawford win.
Hell, I'm where we're doing it from this set the scene. We
are setting the scene that we're doing this from the Media hotel and we're right
next to the T Mobile arena. Let's I'm gonna tell them. We're in
my room. TJ's on my couch. I'm wearing my underwear. This is
m I. We got to get people to real deal. We got the
big plasma TV on or whatever it is. I got Empire Strikes back on.
They just Luke just got his hand cut off, and we're doing the
pod. We are doing the pod because we're here for you. By the
way, I'm looking at my good friend from Japan who was at the fight,
who brought me some programs. I'm I'm you're suited with in away programs
and you're sitting IOCA programs and and so this is a good point in time
where I can mention the audience that, after this is over with here,
keep rating us and reviewing us on Apple, Podcast, Google, Spotify,
because we're gonna give away a Spance Crawford program or a fight poster one or
both to anybody that's rated us and reviewed us and contacts us on social media.
With a screenshot of it so we can find you later on by the
end of this month, but yes, but by Monday. By Monday,
you've got to rate us and review us and send us the screenshot for the
end of July, and we're gonna give that away. Having been here.
What a one sided uh coronation, if you will, for Terence Crawford.
So that's what we're here to talk about. Most we'll get to a little
bit of the undercard and what happened earlier, and then a little news and
a little nostalgia, and then we're gone. Dan and I may get punchy
before this is over. I'm ready to go. We may go after each
other with plastic silverware before it's done. Because it is late night on Saturday
night, after the fight before. He and I are traveling all day on
Sunday. So we're making it work. We pull the veil back, we
tell you how we're doing it all. So let's set the scene first.
Compare the atmosphere. They announced the crowd at over nineteen thousand. I would
say that's fair. There were some empty seats, but it was probably ninety
eight percent or ninety nine percent. They call it a sellout nineteen nine hundred,
and it was very electric. But compare it and then compare the ring
walk, including the surprise from Terence Crawford as he walks second, which we'll
get into go ahead. So atmosphere wise, I thought it was fantastic because
and what makes a crowd, in my mind kind of electrifying is when it's
not just totally one sided for one fighter or the other. I felt like
this was a Crawford crowd, but there was a ton of Spence people there
also, so maybe like sixty forty in favor of Crawford, but it was
really good. I mean the energy was obviously like a lot of times it
wasn't really not much in the undercard, but as soon as they turned their
attention to the main event, and you know, Jimmy Lennon steps to the
mic and starts to go through the pageantry where they're gonna bring him to the
ring, then it really perked up. And it was a hot crowd and
that was that made it a lot of fun. And uh about the ring
walks, so I even tweeted this Terrence Crawford won the ring walk, that
was like doubt. It was like a ten to seven ring and you and
I agree because, uh, the famous Eminem song from the movie eight Mile,
You're you're feeling me here that's now a twenty year old Are you gonna
sing for us? I'm not gonna wrap it. I'm not gonna sing it.
He's singing use yourself, lose yourself, lose yourself, as the name
of the song from the movie eight Mile, and he's doing it live right
in front of Terrence kwah. And here's the best thing. Crawford revealed after
the beatdown of Errol Spence that he took a shot at just contacting Eminem Marshall
Mathers about would you do it live? They apparently how did he get him
to do like it? I don't I don't need to make some message social
media something they did not have a prior relation. And he said, and
Terence said, he recounted to us that that Eminem respond and say, yeah
doing I'm it's so how crazy, it's awesome. So Eminem brings him to
the ring and that was quite a moment in the arena. I mean,
I'm up. I'm up high rayphel As, rayphel He's down with the established
longtime media down low I'm up high and the whole arena is on their feet
for Crawford coming to the ring with Eminem in front of him. So that
was quite the moment. And then as we crescendo to the first bell,
how do you think that lived up to what we speculated about when the fight
began, because we've been waiting for this fight for several years. Yeah,
I mean it was fantastic. I mean I did what I've been doing.
I talked about it on one of the other shows we do about taking the
picture. I think we talked about on the Karen mulvany and Eric's podcast,
The Showtime. I think that's where we talked about it, where I made
sure to take my picture and and uh, taking the moment. Like I
tell you what, whenever I do any fight, particularly a big fight like
this, and actually today it was a little bit of a different order because,
for whatever reason, they would typically do the national anthem at the fights,
in this case would have just been one anthem because they're both from America.
Obviously, there's been plenty fights where they'll do if it's too foreign fighters
will do their countries plus in America, et cetera. But for tonight's fight,
they didn't do either anthem. I mean rather no anthem, no anthem
at all. But usually when the anthem is going, that's when I take
minute to like sort of drink in the atmosphere, look around and try to
remember to my mind forever that you know, I'm in a great spot and
this is a beautiful thing that I get to be in this you know arenas
and do what I do. Um. But even without the anthems, I
still took time, uh during the ring walks for both Spence and for Crawford
to do that to take a look around, check out behind me up on
top, you know, to my side and just you know, it's a
fleeting moment, but you wanted in your in your memory bank, and uh
it was you know this, I have to go back and double check.
I want to say that tonight's event, Saturday Night's event, was the either
the thirteenth or the fourteenth boxing event to take place at Team Obian since I
opened the building. I have covered every single one of those fights. Uh,
some great fights to the third fight between Ice and Fury and Deanti Wild
they're one of them, you know, not it was a great fight,
but the final fight of Manny Pacio's career, we think, and you know,
plenty of other fights, the Mellow Triple G. Yeah, of course,
both Cannello Triple G fights anyway, So you know, this atmosphere I
don't think is gonna be like the Canelo Triple G atmosphere. That was something
else. I mean as far as their first fight in particular, but this
was as good as a guest. This was you know, if I could
bottle that and like send it out as gifts to boxing fans who've never had
the opportunity to be in that kind of atmosphere, you know, I would
do that just to for being a nice guy, and I will share with
you, and I shared this before in advance. This is the first time
that I've done this at Vegas. I have been at other championship fights,
so that was something. The atmosphere definitely lived up to it. I'll give
that a ten. And then, as you made mention at the beginning in
the conversation, the start to the fight kind of a slow first round and
then bam, there's a quick knockdown. It's a right from from Crawford,
kind of behind the ear and the side of the head. He caught Spence
flash knockdown, and the building is now jumping after that knockdown. Just pick
it up from from that moment, because that was a bit stunning that quickly.
He didn't come close to knocking him out at that point, but it's
still it got everybody's attention. Yeah, I think at that point you sort
of figured, you know, Errol is gonna be arrow and he's gonna bounce
back and he's gonna get back in the fight, even if Crawford is gonna
maybe you know, look like he's winning or putting rounds to the bank.
But at some point, at least my thought was, okay, you know,
it happens, knockdowns. You got two two great fighters, and and
then that happens. But at some point Spence is gonna shake it off and
he's gonna be able to come back and have a little bit of a moment.
His own offense is spurt. Maybe you know, land a good solid
shot, send him to the rope, something that's gonna make this a little
bit of an ebb and flow, a little bit of a back and forth.
And it just never happened. You know, he never could get out
of like second gear. Maybe even first gear. Meanwhile, you know,
Crawford's you know, humming on, you know, all cylinders pretty much from
the moment of that knockdown. Uh. You know, a lot of the
conversation prefight was that Terence is a slow starter. Well, I guess tonight,
slow starter me. You know, you know, a halfway decent first
round and then it was off to the races because after that, you know,
he's putting the rounds in the bank. And it wasn't like he sat
on his lead or anything as the fights going on. I mean, but
it's one round after another and you're just like Errol is getting himself in a
big, big hole. And then you know, with a knockdown, that's
obviously a point there. I thought this, I thought this was key where
Crawford was scoring again in the fourth round. In the fifth round, he
bloodied Spence his nose. Spence started to get a little glassy eyed Dan from
what we were seeing, and Spence finally caught Crawford. I believe it was
in like the fourth or the fifth round, with a good left coming in
and Crawford didn't move, he didn't buckle, he didn't go backwards. I
don't think that was everything, mister Rayphiel, I'd defer to you, but
I think at that moment Crawford realized he can't hurt me. He cannot hurt
me tonight. So now it's a matter of how much punishment can Errol take.
And he lasted until the ninth round, but he took a ton of
punishment. And the thing that bat it was the punishment. I mean,
yeah, he got hit with those clean shots that put him down that you
know, the right hook was was on point. But Terence Crawford, and
he talked about this in his post fight comments, delivered a monster jab all
through the fight. Yes, so now Errol Spence one of his best attributes
his his jab. So two things. One, Crawford completely negated Errol Spence's
jab. It was not a weapon at all, whatsoever he may have landed
him. I didn't look closely at the stats in terms of that, but
he didn't. His jab was not part of the fight at all. So
he took away one of his opponent's best weapons. On top of that,
he took a weapon of a jab, which you know, Terence has never
been known. It's sound like anybody thought he doesn't have a good jab.
But I don't remember being in seeing fights of terrences or covering them. Where
the headline, if you will, as the jab. Well, the headline
from this fight in terms of what was best for him was the jab because
it set those other shots up, the ones that knocked him down. It
was a very stiff, firm powered jab. And he talked about how in
camp they practiced I guess what he calls like a flick jab. But they
know that Errol has a really good job and that he was very tough and
very durable, and they wanted to really put some more power behind it,
and so they altered I guess a little bit of the way they were practicing
it in there, sparring and on the bags and all the things they do
to get ready for the fight. And his job came out. You know,
I think I'm watching like Larry Holmes a job because he was hitting him
with the shot and it wasn't like just to find his range. It was
like knocking his head back. And Spence was like, you know, it
wasn't quite on the level as we mentioned earlier, I was a winky getting
his head knocked. Knock him back, Tito Trinidad said, But he was
the job was like a power shot in many respects, so he was getting
hit with the power of the real power shots and the jab was not helping
that or whatsoever. So that said everything else up. And then of course
came round seven. He got a knockdown early in the round that I think
was a lot more of a harder knockdown in terms of him feeling the effects
of it compared to what occurred in the second round. And you know,
he was being beaten up in the seventh round, and then right before the
end of the round, for good measure, he gets a second knockdown,
makes it a ten seven round. Now, at that point you're through seven
round rounds, you've been down three times, maybe one run round, You've
been getting your ass kicked, and now at that point you're like there Now.
To me, at that moment, after round seven, my thought is
one thing, can can he get to the end of the fight or is
he gonna get stopped like it is gonna get to stop it. At that
point, you're no longer thinking there's a rally and no, there's no,
he's not. At that point, he's not winning the fight. This was
at that at once the seventh round was over because even before that happened,
you know, when you're dealing with top fighters, like they can come back.
I've seen lots of fights where guys maybe give away a first half of
fight, they come back, they do well, they get a late knocked
down and in a lot of drama happens and things change. But once that
seventh round was over, my question was not about my question. My thought
was that the result is decided. Crawford's winning going to be the champion on
disputed. He's gonna win this fight, no question in my mind at all.
The only question I had was is he gonna get the knockout or is
it gonna go twelve rounds and arrows gonna take a fucking ass kick and the
rest of the fight. And it lasted two more rounds, and even Derek
James said afterwards it was rather obvious in between rounds seven and eight, eight
and nine that this is not going well. Listen, there was much left.
There was a point I think it was after round four going into five
where the doctor they called a time out before the round got going and the
doctor checked him over. I don't know what was said in that spot,
obviously, I wasn't watching the paper. You don't have the audio, but
uh, and they didn't mention it in the in the press conference anything about
it, and nobody asked about it. But I think they thought there might
be an issue even at early in the fight, because he was, you
know, he was getting hit with a lot of punches and as we talked
about building this up, Terrence Crawford is a tremendous puncher. Like, yes,
it's taken me a few years to come to the realization that he's in
a devastating puncher. He's now what forty and zero with like what thirty two
knockouts, just thirty one knockouts, eight straight in the welterweight division, every
welterweight. Yeah. By the way, he's also now won nineteen consecutive world
title fights covering his three weight classes, from lightweight to welterweight. I mean,
and you know, I have to give I have to give Errol Spence
credit because number one, he didn't quit. They made the referee to stop
the fight. He's got heart, big balls, much respect to him.
And on top of that, and this earns my ample respect for life.
There wasn't even the hint the backhanded maybe nothing whatsoever in a singular remark that
he made either in the ring with Jim Gray or during his fifteen minutes or
so that he spoke with us when he came out to do his press conference
after the fight, in any way made one excuse, and a lot of
guys ask questions, did you have trouble with the weight cut? You know
your eye was swelling early? Could you not see out of it? Where
you're not feeling well coming into the ring? Like were there's something off for
you? Like he was given that escape patch a bunch of times where he
could have said, you know, well, I did have trouble with the
waiter. You know what, My eye was a little bit screwed up,
and I was having trouble seeing that. No better man one tonight. Props
to Terence Proffitt. He's a great fighter. And and then he said,
of course he's going to exercise his rematch clause he hopes to fight him be
a one hundred fifty four pounds. But you know what, I remember when
this takes me back several years when I covered a fight between Marco Antonio Berrera
and Nasimhammed. I was a huge featherweight championship fight back in the early two
thousands at the MGM Grand And Ahmed was undefeated and was the biggest, you
know, talker and trash talker and and uh in your face kind of guy.
You know so much just glitz and glamour and bravado, the whole thing
exactly. And I thought, you know what, I want to see how
a man that's done all that talking and finally gets his ass handed to him.
What's he going to react like at the post fight. Is he gonna
come to the postfight, Is he gonna bitch about it? Is he gonna
give the guy credit? And I was very pleasantly surprised that Nasim Ahmed didn't
make any excuses and he gave all the credit to Barrera. And when it
came to Arrow Spence, you learned a lot about the character of a man
when he's in the lowest moment of his professional life. Without question, he
just got destroyed and literally and they actually, you know, I've spent time
in these post fights where you wait thirty forty and sometimes forty five fifty an
hour sometimes for the guys to come out to do their press carts, you
know, for different reason, maybe they're getting stitched up. Maybe they have
trouble making a yearine sample. Maybe they're just you know, stewing a little
bit, whatever it is. But Errol was out there and I don't know
what was it, fifteen minutes. He probably gave it, you know,
gave a sample real quick to the commission for his drug testing. And uh,
and they got on with it. So he didn't say anything negative.
I mean, I I again respect for a lot. He was class was
class and what could he say? And uh and again we bring this back
just one more time to this fight, and we're gonna look a little bit
as to what might the future be with the rematch, and then we're gonna
move on. But Crawford got to be and I told you so after this
one. And I'm the first one to admit I thought Spence would win the
fight and Crawford just destroyed him. When I put it, I pick you
did you did pick Terrence Crawford. Good for you. Uh you did not.
You did not get the decision, but you but math lot of performance
by Bud Crawford. So in a fight that he could not get for several
years for whatever reason, it finally happened and he delivered. Man, did
he deliver. So let's say, before you go further, I want to
just go through a couple of things from the historical perspectives. You know,
I love the history of all that. Yes, so I think, And
we'll get to this in a second. We'll tag this at the back.
He's number one pound per pound and we'll get to the We'll get to that
in a minute. There's no doubt in my mind. He is the number
one fighter in boxing right now period. So he becomes the first ever undisputed
welterweight champion of the four belt era. He is the first undisputed welterweight champion
since two thousand and three, twenty years since Corey Spinks, the son of
the former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks and the nephew of the Hall of Famer light
heavyweight and heavyweight champion Michael Spinks, when he outpointed Ricardo Mayorga in two thousand
and three in Atlantic City to become undisputed. That was the three belt era,
So that's twenty years between undisputed champions. He's the first to do it
with the four belts. He's also a three division champion, which that didn
change He's still the three division champion of lightweight, junior, welterweight, and
welterweight now. Also very historical in terms of men's boxing, he is the
first boxer to win a four belt undisputed championship in two way classes. He
did it in twenty seventeen in the junior welterweight division with a massive body shot
against Julius and Dongo in the Pinnacle Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. I was
fortunate to be there. That was as electrifying atmosphere as it was tonight because
his whole hometown was there. And those are impressive stats. And I mentioned
he's now eighteen or nineteen and o in world championship fights over three way classes,
nineteen victories in a row. And by the way, none of those
victories were close. There's not a controversial decision in there. First of all,
I knocked most of the dudes out and there was there's not a single
fight that you can think of. Now, granted, we're not gonna bs
to people. He fought a lot of lesser guys. I mean where he
you know, because he couldn't get the top opponents. I'm not gonna turn
around out suddenly give him all kind of ample credit because he beat you know,
an old Amir Connor, you know, the shell of kell Brook,
or you know some of the directs that he fought at junior welterweight. But
that's still you know, he's proved his point. I mean, that's the
way I look at it. And by the way, the fact that he
came into the ring with the fishnet, because Errol calls himself the big fish,
like he's gonna go catch the fish and half the fish fry as he
talked about, and he gave the credit to his stablemate, the light heavyweight
who was on the undercard, Steve Nelson, who comes in with the crazy
outfits, for coming up with that. That was pretty ingenious. That's that's
like low and eminem. That was pretty awesome. He won the ring walk,
there's no doubt. And yes, eight straight knockouts as a welterweight champion.
You don't need the judges. You don't need the judges. Your fists
are your own judges. Okay. So this leads to the question here we'll
get to the pound to pound in a second. What are we going to
see different in a rematch? I mean, I know Errol Spenn said he's
gonna think about it even if the rematches at one fifty four, because this
is what I fundamentally come back to. And full disclosure here, peeps,
you love this, the savages love this. On the podcast, I saw
Raoul Marquez, the former world champion who did the Spanish broadcast call for the
showtime pay per view. I saw him downstairs here at the hotel right before
we began talking here, just after midnight local time, and he and I
and he said, man, I did not expect that, he goes,
did you expect that? I said no. I said, what were you
saying on the air? He said, I kept saying, I'm shocked,
I'm shocked at how how he's dominating. And I said to Raoul, and
now I want your take as well, what would be different even at one
fifty forty? He said, I gotta be honest, I don't think anythings
different. I don't think anything different. I don't think, he said,
I don't think Crawfords any less of a puncher at one fifty four, and
I don't think Spence hits him hard enough at one fifty four. I now
pose the same thing to you mightey one. I think I think that Crawford
is he said at the post fight that he also didn't you know, he
made the wait, but he has said he had some trouble, so I
think he's gonna be happy to go up. Also, it's not like it's
suddenly going to become an advantage for for for Errol to have to fight it,
to have to fight at one fifty four because Terrence Crawford was draining himself
to make forty seven. Also, maybe not quite as much, but they're
both gonna have that that extra uh, you know, extra ability to have
an extra you know, meal or not to have to suffer as much to
make those last couple of pounds. So it's hard to see what they can
do different as the jab gonna change. I don't know about that. I
mean, it's really hard to see. And that's one of the reasons why
the way I hate rematch clauses because if it was a great fight like we
all hoped it would be, and it wasn't a great fight, it was
a great performance, um, then people would have demanded the rematch. They
can make it. Now we're stuck with it. So it's it's Almo similar,
it's it's not quite the same. But it's like when when Devin Haney,
you know, routed George Cambosis in number one and then they had to
go back and do it again and nothing changed. I mean he won out
of twenty four rounds. He won like twenty twenty one rounds, and it
would be perceived as almost the same kind of thing. So we think if
they fight again in a few months, but let me ask you, like,
okay, Spence was like, you know, he asked somebody asked about
the presser or maybe I don remember if they asked Crawford Spence about our people
are gonna still want to buy the rematch and and whoever I forget which one
it was, but were like, yeah, of course they would, But
I don't know about that. You're telling me you're gonna fight one hundred fifty
four, which if you do, there ain't no titles at stake, correct,
which is you know you can say titles don't matter, but not charging
less for the paper. It's still going to be expensive. You already saw
what you saw, which is a one side of round. You can't even
promote the fight on some kind of great moment for Errol in the fight it's
just I mean, it's what you. It's like, it's the it's what
you. It's we we we we want to fight so bad and now we
gotta take you know, the rematch on the other end. Well, right,
but the result is the result, and so we'll see on that part.
Just real quick to your paper, to your pound for pound list,
and then we're gonna move. I don't know if it's gonna be real quick,
but the pound for pound list is Crawford going fun of the monster.
Okay, okay, here we go after in a way one against Fulton on
Tuesday, and he looks spectacular doing I take nothing away in a way,
is a generational Hall of Fame caliber fighter gonna be there high on the pound
for pound list. I would have him number two probably at this point.
But the people that were saying in the immediate aftermath, like that morning on
Tuesday, once he did what he did against Fulton, ah, he's a
pound for pound. It doesn't matter what happens in Crawford and Spence. That's
not right. It's Fulton, it's not Errol Spence. The level is so
dramatically different in what the two have achieved, the type of opponents they have
faced, their backgrounds as amateurs, what they've done in the pros, the
number of big fights they've had, So you know, I'm not not convulting,
but he was not the level of opponent that in a way destroyed the
way that Crawford took down Errol Spence, you know, even though in a
way yet stills actual points because he was moving up and wait, but listen,
I'm here to tell you. If you're going to still argue in a
way number one, then I think you're just doing that out of stubbornness than
reality, because right now, to me, it's not even up for debate.
You know, there's there are times when you're sort of between ears.
Let's say, like when Cannello was beaten by Beevill. Cannello was the by
acclamation. I think most people had him number one in the in the sport,
and that was pretty obvious. Once he was defeated by Beevill, now
it sort of opens it up, you know, was it Spence, was
it Crawford? Was it Bivill? Was it in a way was it oo
sick? I mean, there was guys who could make the case, and
now a year or so has passed, and other big fights have happened and
things have emerged. And I've been telling you right now, Errol Spence is
is a much much better opponent that was beaten tonight than was Stephen Fulton blown
away, blown away, just destroyed. Yes, And so to me,
it's a no brainer. Terence Scrawfords, you number one fighter in the world
pound for pound, and like I said, if you're not taking them,
yeah, monsters too, and h Cannello was three. No, I don't
know if Kenelo is three undisputed at one sixty eight, it's okay, but
writers since the loss to Bevil, Okay, I get that, but Beavo
beat him and also beat so defeated Zerto Ramirez and I'm always fascinated by this
too. And we don't have to go down the rabbit hole for fifteen minutes.
But wasn't pound for pound created for below heavyweight? You include heavyweights?
So where does Ousick fall? He's definitely five. I am not going to
give you my top ten off my head because I need to think about it.
You're saying I might need to subscribe with the substack to fight would the
upcoming pound there will be coming? Yeah, it's upcoming. But I mean,
here you go. It is obviously Crawford in a way, I don't.
I'm not. I'm not gonna suddenly drop Arrol out of the top ten
because he got pack tonight. But Cannello is there, Beeville is there,
Usik is there obviously in a way is there Devin Haney. Devin Haney is
on that top ten list without question. I think Shakoor Stevenson isn't that top
ten list without you know, and not everything is the same because sometimes you
have to rely a little bit more on the eye test, as they say,
because they haven't had the opportunity to have the big fights. But the
skills are obvious. The amateur background is obvious. The way they go about
their business. They're conditioning their movement, their skills. You know, it's
just you're in fucking idiot if you don't put a certain guy on the list,
because you can just if you unless you're blind. So but those are
the guys. But right right now, you know, it's it's a Terrence
Crawford's world done then we're living in it. It's sure world, and I'm
living in it. All right. We need to talk about the undercard that
saw Esock pit Bull Cruise when the WBC eliminator fight Man, that seems like
it was last Tuesday. No, that was earlier tonight. He won the
co feature, So let's get to that. We can talk about that.
We can also talk about the upset. It was an upset with Alex Santiago
beating No Nito Donair for the vacant WBC bandom Way title. All part of
the undercar. Your thoughts start first with Pitbull, move your way to the
Santiago win over No Nito. Go ahead, sir, well, I thought
Pitbull Cruise against Giovanni Carbrera was a really disappointing fight. I thought it was
gonna be a lot better than what it was. I thought it was a
shit fight, fucking garbage, terrible fight. Well, Cruise at least landed
some No, it was just give and I give Cabrera credit because he wasn't
taken a backward Cruise was hitting him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not
I'm not saying that the two guys didn't act like pros and didn't try their
best, but their style I should have let me rephrase that their styles met
made for a bad stylistic fight. Cruise is like a little short, very
small lightweight. Cabrera is like a giant tree and frankly not that coordinated.
Tough, don't get me wrong, tough as nails. Nice kid. I
met him while we were here this week. I had a chance to talk
to him and his trainer, my good friend Freddie Roach. Uh, you
know, great personality, so I'm nothing against him, but the style that
he fought him with his hands down and and the and the and the very
poor um like pushing his punches like it just it made for a really sloppy
fight. So it was a bad fight to watch. I don't I don't
say they're not trying to do their best, but you're watching it was like
Mutton, Jeff. You got one guy that's like, you know what,
maybe five foot stand, then on a phone book, and you got the
other guy, you know, that's like a giant tree, and it just
it just made for a terrible I will say my perception was I thought Cruise
decisively one and then here we go with Vegas and decisions. When I heard
split decision and then I heard the first cards one fourteen, one thirteen.
Because Cruise had had a point taken away for a butt earlier in the in
the fight, then the second cards one, fourteen, one thirteen, I'm
going, wow. But luckily pit Bull, Cruise does get the way.
I did think. I did think that, you know, as much as
I disliked the fight, I did think that Cruise was the clear winner.
I don't I wasn't like he won like ten to two or anything. It
was probably you know, the real the rightful score was probably eight to four,
you know. And on one thing about Cabreras, he showed a lot
of toughness because he got cracked. You know, there were some times there
where I actually turned to the guy who's an excellent and that we were,
you know, my buddy David Avelo, who I've covered fights with for a
long long time, and uh, you know, thinking like, okay,
he might get stopped here, and we were both kind of his credit.
He took him and did not take a step back nor marveling about how good
Cabrera. You know, I said to him that one if I said,
either Cabrera got a great, great chin or Cruise his power has been overrated.
But look, at the end of the day, Cruise gets to win,
which he deserved. It puts him in a great position because now he's
going to be high up in the you know, well, the mandatory is
gonna unfold at the at the lightweight division, depending on what goes on with
Haney, specifically if he keeps the belts of vacase whatever. But he won
in both the BC and the w BA, so he's gonna probably be at
least in a vacant title fight at some point. Uh. And if and
if not LB probably because he'd get the opportunity, which is what he spoke
about after the fight and before the fight. What he wants is a rematch
with Travant to Tank David, I will say once again, I think is
extraordinarily possible. Um. There was a mention about Ryan Garcia was interested to
fight pit Bull Cruise, which would be a fun fight. Um. Obviously
complicated given his issues with Golden Boy and the different networks and promoters and all
that, but uh, you know, moves on. He's a fun light
way to watch, even if the style didn't work so well tonight with Camara
okay, and then for Santiago's upset of No Nito donnair I put this on
the recap story on Bigfight Weekend dot Com. And I don't think it's just
being overly cruel, It's just just sometimes sports life. Father time, I
think is caught up with him. Just in watching that fight in the arena,
he couldn't get off. Santiago was getting off first, landing the more
punches, the more significant punches, better combinations. As the fight went on
again, don Air is forty. He's amazing that he can still make Bannham
weight. But I think off the knockout loss to the monster, no shame
in that that. Now at forty, Santiago decent fighter, fought a good
fight, but it was more about Dunnair and those are there's gonna be a
lot of guys licking their chops to get a shot at at Alexander. He's
not gonna be I mean looks and no nothing he can't take it away from.
He's got the title. It's gonna have a belt to hold up in
his trophy case and give his kids and all that further rest of his life
and you know he'll be forever part of the WBC family. And it's a
beautiful accomplishment for you know, a guy who'd beat a future Hall of fame
absolutely, so you can't you can't take it away from him. But he's
not a guy that's gonna hold that title for a long time. That's just
clear his day to me anyway. And you mentioned about, you know,
father time catches up to everybody. You know, Nonito was talking about prior
to the fightlight you know, he wanted to make break his own record as
the oldest band amweight champion, and then he talked about, uh, he
wanted to become the oldest fighter ever to be a champion, which is Bernard
Hopkins at age forty eight. And he was kind of like, that's saying
that's what motivates him, but he's not gonna be around another eight years.
He probably you know, should call today. He's a he's a wonderful person
and he's been a great fighter. He's gonna be a Hall of famer,
like you mentioned. But this is the key you talk about him not being
able to, uh to get off his shots. He had one of his
post fight quotes was there were times where I didn't pull the trigger. That
was my biggest problem. And the key of identifying a fighter who was a
so called shot fighter is when they see the opening and they can't let the
punch go. The Nondo don't at age twenty five or thirty or thirty five,
he pulls the trigger and he probably lays that guy out with those hooks
because he wasn't he even though he couldn't pull the trigger on some punch,
he landed, you know, some good shots, and I thought there was
a couple of times were actually kind of wobbled Santiago a couple of times.
Um. What was interesting about this fight is that Santiago, who was a
Mexican fighter, it says that Nonito Donare was his idol. So for him
to go in there and beat his idol was very emotional for him, not
only because he got the title, which is obviously a lifelong dream, but
he did it against a guy that he's you know, idolized and looked up
to and and uh and watched for a long time. And he's also going
through a lot of emotions in his own mind because he was talking about how
just a few days ago before this fight, which he wasn't there, I
guess because he was in the process of getting ready for this bout, that
his son was born. So that there's a lot of stuff going on in.
Uh, you know team Santiago right now, so it's a big weekend
for that guy, so you gotta give him credit. But that was a
pretty good fight. I thought, you know, I thought Donair started off
well. I actually thought he was probably, uh you know, maybe a
round ahead or tied or whatever after maybe like four or five rounds and then
it was pretty much all Santiago. I thought it was a little bit closer,
Like I didn't think it was a blowout like one somebody I was talking
to and said they had to like ten to two. I'm like, no,
it wasn't that. Why, yes, Ski Farhood of Showtime, he
was a little gave gave like eight straight rounds to Santiago. I thought the
fight, uh was nine three nine three something like that, and so I
can understand eight four. Yeah, that's what I found. I don't think
don't Air won more than four rounds in that fighting, especially in the back
half of the fight. So we'll see what he allects to do, and
again we give you a good I mean I hoped. I hope don't Air
when he when he really thinks about it, I do hope he retires.
I understand him coming back after the loss in the previous fight against in a
way because he just got clipped in the second round by like literally an all
time great type of fighter. I mean, who's in his prime. That
happens. There's there's a big difference in my mind of losing Tonoia in a
way compared to losing to Alex and Santiago. I agree that that's a totally
different ball game. Okay, so good stuff on what happened here? Um,
and did I give anything anything else you want to say about the atmosphere,
the whole set up and whatever before we moved, I was gonna give
up this. I was gonna a little shout out to the junior junior middleweight
uh from the opening TV fight, which is Joannis Teez, who I didn't
really know a lot about going with the fight. Cuban fighter. He's like,
what is he? Four and o going into this fight took kind of
tough dude, Sergio Garcia, you know who granted how he's lost like three
or four butt dirt, you know, Uh, usually a durable guy,
fought some good opponents, fought Tony Harrison. Thoughts of Basham Hondora, you
know, didn't disgrace himself in those types of fights, and this kid,
you know, made himself something tonight because he didn't just win, he did
it with some gusto. We scored a big knockout and it was pretty spectacular.
Uh So, you know, I say, bring me more uns ts
at some point down the road. I mean, I thought it was.
It was sort of like an eye opening kind of performance. I thought he
did a heck of a job the way that he went about his business in
that fight. And again we should say the stars were also out there six
and O and out with five knockouts, yeah till us uh. And the
stars were out, whether it be NBA stars like Draymond Green of the Golden
State Warriors, Damian Lillard who's a huge fight fan of the Portland Trailblazers.
You had NFL stars like Micah Parsons who just came from Dallas Cowboys, came
Chris Brown, that Chris Brown singer, and then Taylor Sheridan who's the executive
producer and the actor of Yellowstone, the immensely popular show, actors, entertainers,
etc. The stars were definitely out. Crawford's the biggest star though of
all of that. When I was talking to songs guys. They were asking
me where's TJ. Doubtful they were might have been asking you where Crawford is?
And before they asked you about me, they were asking you where's the
restroom? I think I would rank below that. Probably I'm self deprecating on
the show. Some news and some nostalgia before we get out of here in
Vegas, the Regions Progray Devin Haney fight. Tell me more because it looks
like that one is going to happen from what we get. I think it's
gonna happen. I mean, if you go back, I guess like a
week or so ago, you had the WBC asking Devin Hanny to give them
a decision about what he wanted to stay at lightweight or in fight demandatory against
your course, Steven or go to one hundred and forty and become the mandatory
for a Regis program. Match Room Boxing which represents program and has worked with
Devin Haney over a series of fights before he was with Top Rank briefly which
now he was a free agent. They had asked the WBC to give them
a little bit of of a delay because they were trying to finalize the fight
between Haney and Program, and so I don't think it's not I know it's
not signed an official and done and all that, but Haney and Program are
have reached an agreement to do the fight. I've spoken to match Room Boxing
about that that is the case. They are planning that fight. I don't
think it's been formalized and signed. And I spoke to Mauricio Suleiman from the
WBC, who there and this is something they do. I asked him,
like, okay, so if he's taking this fight against regis what is going
to become the status of the WBC's lightweight title. And they're in the process
of doing their voting for their board of governors to decide because Haney has made
a request to be able to keep the title until after the fight. And
then here we go back to pit Bull Cruz who won on Saturday Night,
right, who's now in that spot. So I don't think the fight tonight
was not for the mandatory. Understand, Shakur is the mandatory. So what
it would mean, hold on. What it would mean is if the title
becomes vacant, the likely scenario to fill that vacancy would be Shakur order to
fight is it your belief based on your reporting, what you know, what
you've seen at these situations that we've seen the last of him at lightweight,
Devin Hanny will just be one forty, whether it's rarely rarely, especially a
guy that has had so much uh public but discussion of his issues making the
weight, I can't imagine. There's not even there's not even what what if
he comes back? What's the mega is the only one? But that's not
it's it's a great fight, but it's not like a ten million dollar fight.
The Loma Chango rematch is a big fight, but it's not that level
who well, you know, I mean Gervante Davis, I guess, but
fought at one forty that you know what's he gonna go back? And I
mean it's just and that's such a hard fight to make anyway, So you
know, you'd never say never, I guess, but it would seem logical
if he's gonna go and become potentially the wc's hundred forty pound champ. Yes,
there are times where guys jump Papa come down Pernol. Whittaker went from
forty seven and went back down to forty went well, I mean went up
one fight for fifty four, came back. Um, you know, he's
not the only one. There's been others that have done that, but it's
not like totally common. I mean even more recent times. Take for example,
on the women's side of boxing, you have Amanda not Amanda, you
have Katie Taylor, who was undisputed lightweight women's champion. She went up and
she won a title at one forty, quickly vacated it and dropped back down
and continued to defend the lightweight title. H went up recently to fight Chantel
Cameron came now she's you know, still lightweight. She's never rematch anyway.
It's it's it's not so went up to fight her and is now coming.
So it happened, I mean, it does happen. But but but hany,
I don't think he's coming back to lightweight. So uh. There was
some reporting out there that the fight was set for October twenty eighth in Las
Vegas, and I'm here to tell you, once again without mention names inaccurate
reporting, Matchroom Boxing says told me, yes, October twenty eighth is the
target date that we would like. We would like to do it in Las
Vegas. But it's nothing done on the date. It could definitely move to
a different date. And when is it done, Well, when it's done
exactly, it ain't done. So it probably will be, you know,
in that October November time frame. Good chance it's in Vegas. But for
anybody to write or sweet or say or X we call it X now uh
that it's one hundred, I'm gonna fuck that. I'm still calling a Twitter
tweets, you know, fuck Elon Musk. So I'm I'm I'm convinced that
that will happen. But you'd be wrong if you wrote definitely that the fight's
October twenty eighth and it's in Las Vegas. That's a likelihood, but it's
certainly not a done deal. But that's log and that that's a I'd like
to see him fight, you cor But I get it. I mean,
he's gonna go for another title. He's got trouble making the weight. It's
a fight that the Zone is gonna pay a lot of money for. Remember,
the Zone is not paying tens of millions to Canel anymore. They got
a few dollars kicking on of their piggy bank to use to make some bigger
fights right now. What I am told um, you know, pick and
shoes here and there, not every single fight, but they can make something
like that happen anyway. That's a good matchup, and that'd be very Still
the line from program who looks so bad against Zuria in his decision when where
he said, Hey, maybe because I looked so bad, it's going to
make it easier to make it Devi. It is as much as he was
half joking, it is. But that's the way boxing is. When you
are like that, suddenly everybody wants to fight you, and you know,
sometimes it's uh, it's like a like a mirage and you're able to bounce
out of it. And you know, if Progra comes with his best,
he can beat Haney. But if he comes the way he did against Zuria,
it's gonna be a tough fight. But Hany is such a brilliant boxer
it's gonna be hard anyway. Look for that later in the year. Anything
else on the new news front, you're reporting one other thing. I have
copy of a letter from the w BA, which I don't think this has
been reported anywhere. So if I if it has been my forgiveness for not
given any credit. But uh, match Room Boxing had requested a special permit
from the w BA to bypass a Leewood's mandatory to make a fight between Leewood
and Josh Warrington, which of course in Britain would be a pretty big fight.
And so they sent the letter back saying, yes, they have consulted
with the mandatory, which is odebec uh Kolmatov, who is not well knows
but he is a sensational fighter. Okay, sensational fighter. I have watched
this kid. He can really fucking fight, So I don't care if you
never heard him. Uh check him out on YouTube or something. He's he's
a really good fighter. But anyway, he is the mandatory. They they
his team was asked their opinion and they were like, we don't want to
wait, we want to fight. But the WBA ruled in favor of the
special permit. And so the w BA says that Matchroom Boxing has told the
WBA that you'll see Lee Wood versus Josh Warrington on October seventh, presumably will
happen somewhere in England, and the winner and you know, when they do
these special permits to bypass a mandat or they have certain conditions that have to
take place that everybody has to agree on. So in the terms of this
Wood Warrington winner or in the case if it's a draw, would must face
the winner, or would if it's a draw, must face Kolmatov in a
mandatory defense with one hundred within one hundred and twenty days of the about between
Warrington and Wood. And while that is going to take a little while to
take place, the WB has authorized Komatov and to engage in a non title
fight that's been approved, so he doesn't have to just sit on the shelf
and not be active. So that look, Warrington against Leewood, Sign me
up for that. I'll take that. I mean, I don't think that's
some you know, pound for pound fight, but that's a nice little fight.
Lee Wood's been in some exciting fights. Warrington's in a big fight in
the UK as we like, as we like to talk about on that.
And one other piece of news, because we wrote about this a bunch two
years ago when it happened. The guilty convictions of Felix Verdejo happened Friday night
in Puerto Rico while we're here in Las Vegas. This is for the kidnapping
and shooting death of his mistress horribly back in late April of twenty twenty one,
so it took over two years for the trial. The trial took almost
four weeks over the course of June and July, and he was convicted on
two of the serious charges, facing a life sentence for both. Will be
sentenced in November. Bottom line is Felix Verdejo's never getting out of prison in
Puerto Rico on these on these two convictions. So I wrote about it on
Big Fight Weekend dot com. I don't know if you have anything else to
add to that, but the the likely conclusion did happen. Finally justice for
the family and the friends of Keisha La Rodriguez. That's that's her name,
murdered two years ago by a former lightweight top ten contender. Yeah, she
was pregnant with his child, so that's why it counts as two murders,
and he does. By the way, he may go away for the rest
of his life in terms of being in prison, but that the case is
still eligible from what I was reading, it's still eligible for the death penalty,
so that has not yet been decided if he'll face the death penalty or
it will be life in prison. But you know, it's just in every
possible way, one of the saddest things is gonna happen because she was pregnant
and he didn't want the baby. So now you got to kill them.
What's the point, Like, they can't just go lived. You don't want
to be a father, you know, you can just not do your responsibility,
but you don't need to take their life. And it's and the way
it was done, I mean not that I would I would not endorse killing
somebody under any circumstances, but the way that he did it in particular,
it was even more heinous than let's say, your average murder. It was
just terrible. They injected her with drugs, They wrapped her up in like
like with a concrete block tight around her. Apparently she was still alive.
They threw off a bridge and she was still alive. When she hits the
water and then suffocates and drowns, I mean, horrific. That's just.
And the thing about is I like, I can't claim that I like knew
Felix for djo Well or anything like that, but I met Felix for Do
on several occasions. I interviewed him on a few occasions I had covered fights.
He would come over to you and had a beautiful, big smile,
like he looked like a glamour kid, you know, like he would be
like a hard throp to some of the you know, the female fans out
there. He was a good looking kid, had a fun, exciting style,
had Olympic pedigree. People thought, you know, he might be the
next one from Puerto Rico. I mean, no one's ever gonna be,
literally, you know, another Trinadaud or even another Koda or something like that.
But he was sort of like the closest approximation coming out of those Olympics.
He had fought lots of good fighters in the amateurs, he was making
his way in the pros. I had picked him a couple you know,
however, many years ago it was as the prospect of the year. I
was certainly not alone in that assessment, and he'd never lived up to that
in the ring. And then, for reasons, I guess, no one
just threw his life away and the life away of this young woman. And
I'm glad you said an unborn child. And I'm glad you said that because
it's heartbreaking to watch the family on the video that I saw outside the courtroom.
They are still mourning, they are still devastated two years later that why
why did this have to happen to her? And so that is now all
but resolved again sentencing in November. Suffice to say, from everything that I
read and I put this in the article, the judge is going to give
him two concurrent ninety nine years sentences. He's never getting out. So there
you go with the end result on Verde Hill. Let's brighten it up,
please before we leave Las Vegas. Wasn't that a movie? We think Las
Vegas? But you have to be really super drunken weird. That's wasn't like
the guys And he won an Academy Award. I believe Nicolas Cage right,
but for that fantastic nostalgia nostalgia, please to end. And this involves a
double header with Roy Jones and Eric Morales. Correct going back twenty plus years
this weekend as we get ready to leave July twenty eighth, two thousand and
one. So what twenty two year years ago on Friday that just passed one
of I think my second ever trip to Los Angeles to cover a boxing match.
My first one was the Oscar Delaoya Shane Mosley one, which was in
two thousand. I believe this was number two, And again, if I'm
not mistaken, it was my second Roy Jones fighting person. This is Roy
Jones and his like best. He's the dominating light heavyweight champion. He was
just, you know, beating everybody very easily. He was undisputed at that
time. He had the three belts that mattered, the IBF, the WB
and the WBC at that time, and he was just as brilliant as it
gets. And he took on Julio Gonzalez, the late Julio Gonzalez, who
had made a name for himself in a crazy wild slug fest on ESPN against
Julian Lederlow and had been been in some good fights, but was a local
guy from southern California, and uh, you know, sturdy and strong and
a good puncher, and you know, some credentials from having won a couple
of solid fights. He got this opportunity and they put this on at the
Stable Center, and this was a top ranked fight they did with HBO pay
per view, and uh, and it was it was a terrific card because
I mean Yeah, the main event was pretty one sided because Roy at that
time, you could have put him in with King Kong. He was gonna
win. It didn't matter. So nobody was getting out of there without getting
beat down by Roy Jones. I mean, just an absolutely brilliant fighter.
One a landslide decision like you know eleven one, ten two. Roy at
ringside. By the way, that Jones was at ringside Saturday night, he
was Pakiow who's the promoter of Cruise, and Floyd Mayweather and uh, you
know a great fighter I think of Vander Holyfield was there correct. Um,
you know, just the big fights bring out the big fighters. I wish
they would. I mean, we're getting a little tans here back and when
I was growing up and you were growing up, or and before us,
you'd put on like one of the weekend fights are on some of the bigger
closed circuit fights or pay privy fights, and they would have like the great
former champions, they'd bring him into the ring to do some almost like a
like an old timer's day in a baseball stadium or something like that. But
they don't they don't really do that. They may shout him out, but
they don't do like that. So while we're on the tangent and we'll get
back to your nostalgia. Thomas Hearns was in the arring, but I think
he's not well enough to walk around wave. I'm just speaking for this.
There might have been a concern about him trying to get in the ring and
all of that. But where was Sugar Ray Leonard? We hurt for the
last two or three days that he might be here. I would have loved
a pop from the crowd with Leonard waving or Sugar Ray Leonard coming in the
ring to wave like what you're talking about. I mean, I don't mean
to mynlogy. Wasn't here, Sugar. Look, I've I've been friendly with
the Ray for years, but he doesn't clear his social calendar when they understand.
But I mean, it would have been neat with this would have been
great all the stuff. Anyway, back to Roy Jones, he was tremendous
that night, and then Morales was also that that was so that was the
kofey to Morales at that time was the WBC's featherweight champion and he was fighting
mandatory fight against a good, uh tough, tough contender from Korea. South
Korea named engine She and let me tell you that in my mind is one
of like the loss. If you've never seen engine She battling out with Eric
Morales, go on YouTube and find that fight, because it doesn't get like
a lot of love. It's not like on people memories like a Gaddy Ward
or Brera Morales or some of the other you know, but I mean it
is a just just a battle royal for twelve rounds and just as rock'em
sock'em. You know, Morales was in some great fights and she,
you know, he went on and later and became a I think he won
a world won the WBC title later in his career, and was in some
other good fights. He had sensational fight with the British fighter Michael Brody,
but the Morales fight was was exceptional matchup made the night and uh, you
know, like I said, I covered the card, so I sort of
remember, like seeing these guys for the first time in person. So to
see Morales, she liked that and a fantastic fight. To get to see
Roy Jones in his prime was a real privilege. And even further down than
that, he had an unknown ricard on my orga at that time, who
was challenging as a mandatory Andrew sixth head Lewis, who was the WBA welterweight
champion, who had come into the scene like with a big burst, ultimately
became sort of like the flavor of the week because he could not sustain his
success. They had no contest because of a head butt. They ended up
having a rematch, which I also attended in reading Pennsylvania, and that was
when Mayorga got to win. But I'm gonna tell you something funny about that.
So I didn't know. I had seen my organ on tape once or
twice before that, but this he was relatively new to myself and most of
the other writers that were there. Remember sitting with him about two days before
the fight, a small media scrum and there was a translator, and Mayorga
had the biggest hands, like I don't know how he fit in, like
the eight ounce gloves, they're the big I he had hands bigger than like
George Foreman. I think, the biggest hands I ever seen on a welterweight.
Just ridiculous. And I remember him in Spanish talking about how he's from
Nicaragua and how tough he and his people are and he said, and this
is being trades. The women give birth in the street. I was that
always stuck in my mind. I don't know why, but anyway, so
the next night he went out and he got the you know, it looked
like he was gonna knock Angel Lewis out, but it became a no contest.
And also on that card, uh, in the infancy of his career,
in like his fifth pro fight or a fourth pro fight, was uh
Miguel Codo, you know, in a sixth pro fight out of the Olympics,
had signed with Top Rank that we're building you are you saying? There
were nights and times when four, five, six more key names were on
the same card. Ye take me back. They had listen if it was
your thing, they had h you know, Top Rank at that time was
doing a lot of like uh, Mia Saint John and Butterbean type fights,
and Mia Saint John was on that card also as a Wow was a women's
A Young Kodo was that night too, twenty one. But Morales, I
mean, Roy Jones all respected what he did. But if you want to
be entertained, hunt out Eric Morales versus Indian Gy and I'll tell you one
other quick aside from that, you know how much of a big giant poster
collection that, because we've talked about it all the time, I have a
lot of people always tell me, what's your favorite poster that got like five
thousand plus posters. It's kind of like you know, which is your favorite
child if you have like more than one kid. But one of my dearest
posters, and I have said at times it's my favorite poster is I have
this crazy poster from Roy Jones versus Julio Gonzalez that's advertising the event. It's
not the pay per view and it's like a site poster, but it's not
in English. They produced a small amount of posters that are like eleven by
fourteen. I guess that they're like thin cardboard. And they went to Koreatown,
which is a very large community in southern California where obviously lots of Koreans
live, and they put up in then the groceries, and then the laundrymat,
and then the store, and then the grocery, and then the car
wash or whatever your local business was, the bank, whatever it was.
They hung up these posters advertising the fight. But what they did was they
put the Morales and the chief fight because he was from Korea. They put
them in the champions position on the top of the car like they're the main
event, and they put she on the left hand side, even though Morales
was the champion whould normally be on the left hand side. And the whole
posters in Korean, except for the words half said post you have that in
the very Field collection. I do have that in the Rafiel collection, trum
So it's one of the not only is it a cool fucking poster, I
know, it's super rare and and uh, I had to give shout up
my my, my dear friend who we saw this weekend, who was a
long time publicist with top rankin that has done it with everybody, the legendary
Bill Kaplan, my uncle Bill Kaplan. He is the one that was responsible
for helping produce that and get it out to the Korea town. And he
saved one for his Danny boy. And by the way, he saw us
the other night and he loves hearing us, and he loves your nostalgia.
And you just delivered again, my friend. So I hope that. I
mean, I'm not gonna tell him, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask him in
a day or two, did you listen to the recap? And if he
says, you know, I'm gonna say, Uncle Bill, you gotta go.
You gotta go listen because we shouted you out. And and by the
way, we're almost right now, just pulling the curtain back at one thirty
in the morning Pacific time, late night after the fight, and Rayphiel is
rattling off nostalgia like a machine off the top of his head, folks,
because I'm in the room with him and he's not looking at very much.
Notes when you're talking about rematch here in this city, Korea town. This
with the poster with the Korean fighter on the left, he's not looking at
stuff. The poster is really cool. I gotta say, I love I
love the visual. Put it out. Put it out if you haven't done
so on social media. I want to see it with the with the Korean
fighter. I call it up on my phone or light with that, do
we have anything else? We're saying goodbye to Las Vegas. My first time
here for a championship fight. I've been here before. It was everything that
I thought it would be in that arena, even though the fight was not
a great competitive fight. It's a one sided beat down by Terrence Crawford.
Just one more time, we wonder going in, will we remember this fight
ten years from now, fifteen years from now. I will not taint your
take with my take first? Your take first? Will we be talking Crawford's
ko of Spence ten years from now, fifteen years from now? What do
you think? Yes? And not because it was a great fight like we
remember certain fights. We'll remember it the way that we bring up Winky Wright
battle you battling and Babbo heading Tito turning out for twelve rounds. Not because
of the fight, because of a performance for my future Hall of famer who
stamped his um, not his arrival because he's been around in a champion,
in a great fighter for a long time. But made it a matter of
fact now that and left no doubt who's the best fighter in the world is
and that's Terrence Bud Crawford, and did so in a in a toward to
force let's call it again man, performance. I mean, this was everything
that that. Uh, if you're a Terrence Crawford fan, you will want
to say you don't want to see a good fight like that. You want
to see your guy, you know, get to win and do so in
dominating fashion. This I think about when I was in college. I remember
watching like the the San Francisco forty nine ers with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice
and Ronnie Latton and all those great Hall of famers just beat the living shit
out of the broncosifty five to ten in the Super Bowl. That was what
this fight was. This was Denver getting their ass kick. We'll make the
point too again, Leonard Hearn's iconic the first fight forty two years ago.
Of course we're still talking about it forty two years later. But when you're
talking about a knockout making an impression. This is the thirty fifth anniversary year,
and the anniversary was just month ago of Tyson destroying Spinks in one round.
We're still talking about it because of the magnitude of the fight and the
fact it was a devastating first round knockout. And I think I agree with
you. Ten years from now, we will talk about July of twenty twenty
three that Terrence Crawford became undisputed four belt era for the second time, demolishing
Errol Spance. No matter what happens after this, We're still doing the podcast
in ten years, and it's a Sunday in a Sunday light in July,
and we're taping the pod the Nostalgia again. We just replay this show.
We don't have to even it. Yes, I say to you, you
presume we're still gonna be talking to each other in October, and now you're
planning on ten years. I wasn't planning. I was saying, if if,
if, if listen, tremendous job. I had a blast being around
you and a lot of the media people and being around the scene in the
atmosphere. I mean, I don't know if every realized this was the first
time we met in person. In person, even though we've been on eighteen
months, we have been talking to each other more than our spouses, planning,
plotting, doing podcasts, doing the bet Us gambling show, communication by
text message. Now you're in my hotel room, I'm wearing my underwear.
Oh my god, tm TMI again. But listen, you this is second
nature to you. You've done this so many times. This is the first
time I've done it in Vegas. I think I might have to do it
again. My issue is now in the football world with my buccaneer duties and
my other duties. I don't get the chance to do this very much except
in the summer, and summer's kind of ending with the NFL. But I
had a blast. You're not coming back for canell Over. I will not
be here for I think that'll be my next vacause you believe that you Okay,
I'll be here for that. Note a note on that. I think
my next fight will be August twelfth, because Showtime has an event at the
National Harbor and Oxen Hill, Maryland. You know, a lower budget fight
with the band and Waite title fight, another filming of a vacancy of in
a Ways between Emmanuel Rigus and Lopez. But I live like thirty minutes from
that casino, so I'll go to that fight and then I'll be back here
in September for the Big one. Love it. We had a blast in
Vegas one final time. Thank you, Dan, Rayphael. Appreciate it as
always here on the Fight Freaks Unite recap. Great stuff, you got it,
and we thank our friends at Showtime by the way that we're tremendously accommodating
in premier boxing Champions with everything including helping us get guests and all this stuff
in the arena. A lot of times we don't say thank you. And
now and our palsopp dot com and keypv dot com sponsoring us as well,
Tickets Marter sponsoring us as well. We had a blast in Vegas and it's
Jake Paul Nate Diaz Week this week, among other things. We'll get into
that later on in the week on the preview pod again. Follow subscribe on
the podcast platforms. One final time, you've got a day or so left
through Monday to rate us and review us, take a screenshot of it and
get it to us. We're gonna draw somebody of random and getting goodie from
Spence Crawford or Crawford's Demolition to Spence, whether that be a program or a
fight poster. We're gonna give something away to somebody that's rated us and reviewed
us and giving us the screenshot. In July, we'll draw somebody at random
with that. My friend, thank you, Dan Rachfield, you bet,
I'm merely gj Reeves. We thank you for being with us. Crawford's The
King at one forty seven, A big time performance from Kim you've been hearing
us talk about it on the Fight Freaks You Unite Recap podcast