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Well off of a weekend and has
seen a very spirited and I think we'll

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see what Big Dan thinks. Controversial
decision win for Natasha Jonas to defend her

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title against MICHAELA. Mayer in the
Boxer Promotions showdown for the IBF wealtheweight women's

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title. We've got that. We've
also got fight news. You've also actually

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got a Japanese championship fight doubleheader coming
off of this weekend for Tuesday to bring

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up some nostalgia as well. Hello
and welcome. It's the Fight Freaks Unite

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recap podcast. I am merely the
somewhat confident host TJ. Reeves. He

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is our insider. Fight Freaks Unite
is his substack Bigfight Weekend dot Com as

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well. Hello Dan Raphael. We
are ready to go with a lot a

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lot here on this program. I
know you're ready to go, especially because

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that was a tremendous battle between Mayor
and Jonas for this weekend. How are

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you feeling as we come off the
weekend. I'm good. I mean,

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listen, we had a heck of
a fight last week with the bandamweight fight

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with Jason Maloney with victory and a
tremendous You know, very very exciting fight

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that you know, you couldn't ask
for a better way to kick off a

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year. And then we had this
great White fight in terms of kicking off

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the first significant fight in women's boxing
for the year, and they kicked it

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off with the hell of a start, so great fight and a competitive fight,

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you know, as good as it
gets. Yeah, we're gonna talk

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a lot about that again. Thank
you for finding us. Make sure you're

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following. Make sure you're subscribing,
whether you found us through Dan Substack,

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00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:30,400
his email newsletter, social media,
Big Fight Weekend dot com. Make sure

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you're following were and or subscribing Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, et cetera.

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And rate us and review us.
We love those, the five star reviews.

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It takes you thirty seconds to do
that. People often ask what can

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we do to help spread the word? Rate us and review us. Those

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things help with the algorithms, et
cetera. And you get special different podcasts

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sometimes that we haven't even promoted.
If you're following or subscribing to the feed,

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like you heard from MICHAELA. Mayer
last week, I think later this

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week John Writers fighting Haimima Gia will
put that up as a standalone podcast.

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You don't need any other reminder.
If you're already following or subscribing, you

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get it and then rate us and
review us if you like us, and

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I think you do. If you
are here, all right, let's get

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into it. You and I were
on opposite sides of the aisle on the

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bet US show. I believe,
even in the hostile environment of Natasha Jonas's

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hometown, that MICHAELA. Mayer would
win. We both picked decision, we

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both got the over. I have
my feelings on this. I thought Mayor

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won the fight, but you go
first. What were your thoughts in the

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recap mode as she got the split
decision Natasha Jonas to retain her IBF Welterway

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title. Well, as we talked
about often, the most important thing was

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a great fight, really exciting,
entertaining, crowd pleasing fight. If you

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spend your time, you bought a
ticket, Let's say you didn't waste it

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because they let it all hang out
and they'd put on a tremendous battle.

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It's everything you want to very experienced, to technically sound to two fighters who

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are good boxers but have no fear
of actually mixing it up and fighting I

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want to see and both you know, with a big desire to win.

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They came with credentials both former you
know Botwall, Natasha as a current champion,

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mayor as a former champion, both
with great Olympic and amateur pedigree,

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and they put on a great fight
and that's what you want to see.

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Now. As far as how the
scoring goes, you know it was close.

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I mean I think if you think
it was ninety seven ninety three in

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favor of Mikaela, I dare say
that you achieved that score because there was

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a few rounds in your mind that
were sort of close. You're like,

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all, I'm gonna give it to
the mayor. And likewise, if you

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were like me and had the fight
ninety six to ninety four or four Natasha

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Jonas, I know there was a
couple of rounds in there that I was

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like, Okay, that's a close
round. I'm going to give it to

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Jonas. So the scorers are the
scores, but I think everybody, however

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you had it, has to believe
that those rounds, each individual two minute

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segment were competitive and close. And
when I added up the scorers at the

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end, I had Jonas winning by
one round. You know, if you

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look at the official cards, you
had one judge scoring it ninety six to

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ninety four for Jonas, one having
it ninety six ninety five for Jonas,

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which means that judge, which was
the UK judge, I might add,

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had it a one even round in
the fight. It was the American judge

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also not the German judge. The
American judge, who would we would think

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based on the pre fight you know, discussions, that would be the person

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that would be maybe predisposed to giving
it to Mayor. But that judge gave

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the fight to Jonas. So you
got the American and the brit given it

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to Jonas, and then the German
judge is the one that had it ninety

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seven to ninety three in favor of
Mayor. It was a close fight.

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I understand whoever lost that match was
going to be disappointed. You know,

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being at home, you know you're
gonna get a little bit of an edge.

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Perhaps it didn't seem like it came
that way in the way that the

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terms of the nationalities, that of
the of the judges that were from the

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foreign countries. Just a competitive fight. And you know what, instead of

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cursing everybody out on social media and
people calling you this or that because you

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scored it one way or the other. You just give it up that people

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are allowed to have a difference opinion
in a fight that was clearly a close

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fight. If you thought that Jonas
won, it was probably because she got

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off to the better start and banked
a few of the earlier rounds and Michaela,

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although did a great job in the
last couple of rounds, she was

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sort of, at least from my
point of view, was always kind of

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playing catchup and was never able to
score a knockdown or do any kind of

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significant damage to make it an eight
round or something like that. So you

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know, they didn't have a rematch
clause on Mayor's end. They did on

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if Jonas had lost, she would
have had it. But it's like Michaela

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said in her post fight interview,
you know or rematch, it happened when

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at warrants, and that was the
kind of fight in terms of competition,

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in terms of excitement, in terms
of stakes, entertainment value, all that

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go into it. That's a fight
that warrant's a rematch great and I would

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think that Natasha Jonas is never backed
down from anybody that there's a pretty good

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chance to you know, we'll see
them talk about a rematch. It would

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be another great fight. Okay,
So a couple of my feelings on this,

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because again I had Mayor winning the
fight. I agree with you.

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I thought Jonas won the first couple
of rounds and I was able to get

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the chance to see this one in
its entirety. And then I thought MICHAELA.

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Mayer was the more aggressive fighter.
So I looked for two or three

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things. When we always talk about
this, who's the more aggressive fighter,

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who's coming forward? That matters.
The second thing is who's landing the more

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significant punches. One thing I just
want to interrupt real quick. It's also

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effective aggresiveness. I'm with you on
both, but the aggressive fighters should get

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the edge, and effective effective it's
ineffective. Okay. A fighter backing up

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that's not effective is the same difference. So at least, at least in

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terms of aggressive, I'm going to
favor that person. And here we go

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with effective. Who landed the more
important punches as the fight went on?

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How many times I'm not putting you
on as the fight went on is not

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relevant because you're scoring ten rounds,
so if they scored effective under so let

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me help you individually. From round
four on. I gave Natasha Jonas one

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round. Individual disagree that rown was
the ninth round that was her most effective

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round with landing more punches. You're
fine to disagree with that. What I'm

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saying to you is one fighter,
Mikayla Mayer was aggressive and landing the harder

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shots repeatedly in every round. You
talk often about CompuBox and the volume of

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punches that they come up with and
the what is the word I'm looking for,

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the amount? The amount doesn't necessarily
tell who landed the harder shots,

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the more important shots, and in
this case, Mikayla Mayor walked her down,

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hopped her with the right hand.
You love it when I say this,

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like Lionel Ritchie all night long,
Natasha Jonas ate fifty right hands in

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the last seven rounds of that fight, over and over and over again.

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I didn't think it was particularly hard
to score. I thought it was.

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I thought I it was ninety seven
ninety three. I thought it was ninety

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seven to ninety three Jonas I gave
the ninth round. I don't have the

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scores in front of me, and
maybe you do. Did all three judges

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that. I don't know if all
three judges gave Mayor the last round in

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particular, but I thought it was
interesting from her corner, they knew this

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is close, go win the last
round. I thought she won the last

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round to seal it. And I'm
just Mayor. Mayor's best round was the

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tenth round. But I gave Jonas
the ninth round. But the thing about

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it is, again you mentioned CompuBox, you know, and I don't get

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too caught up in that, but
I do, I do believe strongly that

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it provides a reasonable guide. And
the reason why this fight can be viewed

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in different manner is because while you
have Jonas landing a few fewer punches and

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throwing a fewer punches by quite a
bit. Actually it was Jonas who landed

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a much higher percentage, so she
wasn't she was more economical, but they

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were landing and Mayor wasted a lot
of punches that didn't do anything. But

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I think Mayor landed many more significant
punches. I mean Jonas would hit her,

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would hit her occasionally with the left, but Mayor, I mean again

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over and over and over again,
all right, so we have neither Neither

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of these women were in any danger
in my opinion of being dropped. They

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are badly hurt. So you know, the the the power behind those punches

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seem like somewhat equal. They both
at times, you know, were stopped

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in their tracks. There is you
know, Mayor definitely landed some good shots

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also, uh, but Jonas landed
a lot of body punches that sometimes are

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overlooked. She landed way more body
punches and that we're doing some damage.

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Look, it was a fight where
I think reasonable people without calling each other

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names, can and two of the
things I want to see the rematch.

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I'm with you and Mikayla Mayor has
done enough. Now fight in the United

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States, fight in the United States
on your home turf, and maybe there's

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a rematch. It's not won't come
fighterr here. But she has now gone

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twice and I know the other fight
was against another American, Alicia Bomgunner.

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But she's gone repeatedly to England and
fought. Didn't get this decision. She's

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got marketability in this country and the
reason is very simple. Why she fights

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in Britain and she even supoke about
it, and I know she doesn't generate

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any money here. The money isn't
in the Britain. Fight Jonas in Britain

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is big money. Jonas against MICHAELA
Mayor in the United States doesn't show.

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I don't disagree, Yeah, I
don't disagree with that. If she's gonna

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fight Jonas again, she fights there. But I you know, it's up

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to her and her part of what
she wants to do with her management team.

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But I think you and I agree
that we would want to see that

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one again. All right? Anything
else strike you from that boxer card?

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That is a note or shall we
move along? Off? We shall move

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along because it was not a very
good undercard, and you're being kind and

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that's not always the case. I'm
on the ripping like that. You're always

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blunt, all right. We did
spend some good time on the bet Us

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Boxing Show because of the way the
schedule fell. We did the live show

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on bet Us and their platforms on
Friday, talking about Keinshiro Taraji defending his

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unified junior flyweight titles. Two championship
fights also total that are going to be

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on this Japanese card on Saturday,
so we handicapped it. We talked about

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it a bunch, but for the
purposes, for the purposes or Tuesday,

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what did I say, Saturday?
Saturday? Those fights are coming on Tuesday

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as we come off the weekend here. So but that doesn't mean that we

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are precluded from talking about it here. We're both looking forward to this.

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It is early morning on Tuesday in
the US, Tuesday night in Japan.

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So just say a couple of things, because Taraji is an action fighter that

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has the unified one hundred and eight
pound titles for the WBC and the WBA,

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a lot of knockouts to his credit, including four straight knockouts in title

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fights. So say a few words
about this card because we're looking forward to

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it on Tuesday as it falls.
Yeah, most definitely, Taraji is not

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only is it a unified champion of
the WBA, in the WBC, he

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is the ring magazine champion, He's
the lineal champion. He's the man,

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as they say, at one hundred
eight pounds. Sever you want to cut

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it up. You mentioned he's got
the four knockout victors in a row.

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That was coming off of a knockout
loss to Masamichi Yabuki where he lost this

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title. All right, at least
he lost the WBC title. He met

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him in an immediate rematch that was
in March of twenty twenty two. He

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knocked him out in the third round
in the rematch to let's take revenge and

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to regain the bet. And then
in the next fight that came at the

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end of twenty twenty two, in
a fight where he was the underdog against

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his fellow Japanese champion, hero To
Kayaguchi, who was on a great run,

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he knocked him out in round seven
to unify the titles. That was

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his big, big win, and
he's then won two more fights against solid

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opponents, including Hecki Budler, a
former world champion. That was a fight

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that took place in September. He's
been on a great run. He's a

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two time title holder, as I
mentioned, because of the fact that he

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had that one fight interruption with the
loss that came by a bit of an

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upset. But I think if you
take a look at the opponents that he

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has been facing, the manner in
which he has been dispatching them, and

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the activity level that he has had, because you know, he's not a

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guy that only fights once a year. He does fight usually at least twice

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a year. He's a guy that
you can, arguably, without I don't

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think too much pushback, find a
spot for in the lower part of the

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top ten pound per pound. He
you know, in a way, is

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the number one guy in Japan.
Obviously, he's the number one fighter out

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of that country for sure. Some
people think he's number one pound for pound,

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he's probably number two at worst,
beyond Crawford. But the bottom line

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is once you get beyond in a
way, I think it's fair to say

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that at this moment, it is
Taraji that is the number one fighter coming

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out of Japan at this moment in
time. And he's taken on Canazalas,

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who is a good puncher and has
been a regular title holder in that way

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class, and it shapes up like
a like a kind of a shootout kind

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of fight. I think Taraji is
the more he's, the more versatile fighter,

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he's got the better experience against the
better fighters. He's a you know,

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been on a really good run,
as I mentioned, and the one

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loss that Canna Zalas had was by
a knockout also the way that that uh

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Taraji had, but that was a
that was a rough one. He get

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you know that was against Esteban Bermudez. Maybe not as top of a fighter

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as the guy that Taraji lost to, but he's also won uh some fights,

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you know, four fights in a
row since, including three of them

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or two of them rather by a
knockout, but just not against the same

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caliber of opponents. But they both
harry, you know, good punching power

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in the small way class. It's
a it's an interesting fight, and I'll

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probably wake up early to watch at
four o'clock in the morning for the card

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in the United States Eastern time,
but the main event probably not till about

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seven o'clock Eastern time, so even
if I do get up for that main

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event, I'll wake up. We
were joking on the bet Us show that

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the over under is set for Dan
Rayfield at six thirty five am, and

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there were several people in the live
chat going back and forth. I think

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I have the over. I think
I have the over, you know,

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give or take when the undercard ends, and we do have a co feature

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title fight that we'll briefly mention in
a second. But look, that's a

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lot better than it being four am
Eastern time, and I realize if you're

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in the Central time zone or beyond. In the US, it's way early

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to get up and watch. But
you know a lot of people, a

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lot of people are up anyway,
getting ready to go to work, at

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the kids to school, et cetera. That's where I'm gonna be. That's

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the mode I'm gonna be on Tuesday
morning. I'm getting my two ready to

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get out the door, and I'll
have the fight on and Taraji usually does

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deliver. One other interesting thing about
Canazales, he won't be probably intimidated about

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being on road. We made mention
of this also on the bet Us Show.

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He is Venezuelan, but he has
fought in Mexico, He's fought most

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recently in Argentina, and he fought
even early in his career in Japan.

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A couple of times. He fought
in He's fought in Malaysia, he fought

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in Mexico, He's fought in the
in like you mentioned, in Argentina,

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in his most recent fight against an
Argentine that was in the eliminator that got

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in this opportunity. So yeah,
I mean, he's a road warrior.

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There's no doubt about that. He's
fought all over the place. Listen at

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the end of the day, these
may not be the biggest names in boxing,

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but if you follow it closely like
you and I do, this is

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a very worthy, solid quality fight
if especially if you like the smaller way

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class. And as you say,
this is the guy at one Yeah,

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yeah, for sure. So now
let's see what he looks like in this

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title offense. All right, So
the co feature fight has a Ukrainian fighter

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that is older, that has been
fighting sparingly as of late, and that

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as Ardem Delakian. Dalakian is fighting
a Japanese opponent. I have to admit

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I don't know a whole lot about
either guy. You've been ringside before for

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a Delachian fight. He's got his
WBA flyweight title on the line. Give

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me a little bit real quick on
that one as well. In the preview

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mode off the weekend, well,
the opponent which is segu Yuriaki, I

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don't even to say this last time. I believe it's a kui AKUI.

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He's eighteen two and one. I
mean, he doesn't come with a tremendous

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amount of notoriety or big wins or
anything like that. The one thing that

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he does have is I looked at
his record. I mentioned too that the

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guy that knocked out Taraji, who
then Taraji knocked out to regain THEO it

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was a boxing named Masamichi Yabuki in
twenty eighteen, disapponent that's going to take

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on Delakian at one hundred and twelve
pounds. Now, remember this fight against

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Delachian is at that same weight,
not at one o eight. But he

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knocked out Yabuki in the first round
in a just a eight round or non

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title fight in twenty eighteen, so
he's got that on his record. The

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other name you might recognize on his
record was the fight before that, that

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was in twenty seventeen. I think
we're all fans of Unto Nakatani, the

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great Japanese young puncher who's you know
now won some titles in different weight classes.

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Knakatani knocked him out in round six. So those are like the two

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00:17:10,279 --> 00:17:12,960
big names quote unquote on his record
he's won and one against him. But

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d'lachian has been around a long time. You know you mentioned I was ringside.

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It was for one of his fights. It feels like it was a

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lifetime ago. It's when he won
the vacant the title that he holds today,

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which is the WBA Flyway title was
vacant at the time, and he

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fought Brian Valoria, the United States
Olympian and multi division champion. This was

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back in February of twenty fourteen,
and I was there at the uh It's

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it's before Rayfield went gray, and
it's when Reeves actually had hair back in

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twenty fourteen. That's twenty eighteen,
twenty eight eighteen. I'm sorry. So

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that was on the undercard of one
of the superfly cards that are our good

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pal Tom Whfer promoted on HBO,
that had in a main event won Francisco

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Lestrada against Risk at Star Rungbi side. This was one of those undercard fights

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and Dalaki won the title by decision, and he's been the champion of the

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WBA ever since. But the problem
he's been very inactive after that busy year

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of twenty eighteen when he won the
title. One fight in twenty nineteen,

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one fight in twenty twenty, one
fight in twenty twenty one, no fights

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00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:18,759
in twenty twenty two, and one
fight in twenty twenty three. Now granted,

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00:18:18,799 --> 00:18:22,200
part of that, obviously was due
to COVID like affected a lot of

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fighters in twenty twenty and even into
twenty twenty one, and part of it,

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of course, is because of being
from Ukraine, where he actually had

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been fighting regularly. Obviously, the
boxing business is non existent at the moment

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because of their involvement in being invaded
in a war with Russia, so it's

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impossible for him to have fight started, which is why he's been on the

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road. The last couple of fights. He fought in January of twenty twenty

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00:18:45,839 --> 00:18:49,799
three in England on Frank Warren Carr. Now he's going to have this match

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up in Japan, and while I
can't say that I know this for sure,

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it strikes me as a reasonable possibility
or something to at least entertain as

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a possibility, is that they have
a flyweight champion on the undercard of the

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junior flyweight champion Taraji, which might
be a method in which to give the

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00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,839
Japanese audience a look at a flyweight
champion, and at some point you'll see

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00:19:11,839 --> 00:19:15,960
Taraji, if he is successful,
move up to the flyweight division to challenge

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for this belt in another weight class. So I think that's the reason he's

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on the card. Unfortunately, Galakian
as good of a technical boxer as he

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has always been. There's a reason
why I won't be waking up early in

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00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:29,599
the morning to watch him fight,
because if I did, you'll probably be

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back asleep pretty short order. It's
like an ambient He's thirty six, a

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00:19:33,759 --> 00:19:36,279
Koui is twenty eight. We'll see
what happens in that. And again we

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00:19:36,319 --> 00:19:42,559
gave you some good preview mode there
for those two title fights from Japan Tuesday

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00:19:42,599 --> 00:19:45,599
morning, US time Tuesday night.
But TJ, what do I always say

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00:19:45,599 --> 00:19:49,480
about the Japanese cards? You said
you're a sicko for these you love I'm

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00:19:49,519 --> 00:19:53,519
at the dinner, I'm at the
Jenner Nitor And this one again Taraji in

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00:19:53,599 --> 00:19:56,640
the main event. I know we're
selling it, they're not paying us to

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00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:00,880
sell it. This should be,
you know, an action with him landing

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00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,720
big punches we would think against Canazalees. So look out, let's see what

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00:20:03,799 --> 00:20:07,400
happens for those on Tuesday morning.
All right, some news. When we

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00:20:07,079 --> 00:20:12,119
put the podcast, the preview podcast
for Mayor Jonas and the John Ryder interview,

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00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:17,160
etc. To bed, you were
still doing some phishing, you were

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00:20:17,279 --> 00:20:19,960
doing some phone calling, you were
working your sources, and so now you've

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00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,519
put it out on your substack.
Since last you and I talked on the

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00:20:22,559 --> 00:20:29,359
podcast that Premiere Boxing Champions and Amazon
have zeroed in on a date to start

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00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:33,799
their new deal. Elaborate on what
you have found out. Sure, well,

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00:20:33,839 --> 00:20:37,839
I mean everybody who follows such matters
knows that with Showtime exiting Boxing,

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00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:41,759
PBC was in dire need of a
new broadcast partner. They found that in

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00:20:41,839 --> 00:20:47,000
a deal that was announced not that
long ago, announced in early December that

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00:20:47,079 --> 00:20:51,720
they will take their events to Amazon
Prime Video. I think they're still looking

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00:20:51,759 --> 00:20:55,279
for another partner. This is not
an exclusive deal, but they are going

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00:20:55,319 --> 00:20:59,240
to be doing their events regularly with
Amazon Prime, including their pay per view

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events. And at the beginning they
said we will launch in March. That

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00:21:03,839 --> 00:21:07,319
was not like in the press release, but that was what their people were

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00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:11,640
telling a lot of media members.
So as they say on background, you

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00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:14,400
know this is what's happening, and
that they were going to do between twelve

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00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:18,640
and fourteen shows annually. So my
sources tell me, and I had multiple

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00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:22,279
sources when I wrote it, and
ever since I wrote it, I have

336
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,799
even more than have confirmed it from
within that tell me the same thing.

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00:21:25,839 --> 00:21:29,039
You always know you nail something right
too, when you put it out and

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00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:30,400
no one calls you to bitch and
moan and complain that it's wrong. So

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00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,480
I knew I had it dead to
rights. And since then I've collected,

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00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,680
you know, at least a couple
more sources that said the same thing.

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00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,240
Anyway, their first event's going to
be on March thirtieth. That is the

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00:21:40,319 --> 00:21:44,319
plan. Now. The interesting thing
is that the idea is they would like

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00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,359
to have it as a pay per
view. Now, I personally think that

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if you're going to kick off a
new broadcast deal, to have your very

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00:21:49,599 --> 00:21:52,960
first event as a pay per view
is a terrible idea. I agree,

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at the very least put a fight
on regular non pay per view and at

347
00:21:56,319 --> 00:21:59,319
least promote your pay per view to
that new audience. But that's just me.

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They're going to do the March thirtieth
event. They'd like to do it

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on a pay per view. However, there is still a small possibility that

350
00:22:06,519 --> 00:22:10,599
would not be a pay per view
because the people at Amazon are still building

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00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,279
out the platform on which you will
purchase the pay per view. Because if

352
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you can't buy it, you know, or it hasn't problems or bugs.

353
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They got some issues. What they
want to do is give this a test

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run for a paper that won't be
a mega pay per view, but it'll

355
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be, as it does described to
me, fights you'd want to see,

356
00:22:27,319 --> 00:22:30,799
even if they're not necessarily the big, big fights, because what the real

357
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:36,160
goal is here is to make sure
everything works flawlessly for May fourth, which

358
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:38,799
is when they're going to do a
big pay per view with Canelo Alvarez in

359
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,200
his first fight of twenty twenty four. Remember he has two more bouts left

360
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:47,279
with PBC. Who he fights still
not determined. But the point is that's

361
00:22:47,319 --> 00:22:48,880
going to be a paper that they're
going to really promote and get behind,

362
00:22:49,079 --> 00:22:55,880
and they don't want to go into
that without having under experience what's going to

363
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:59,920
exactly right. So whatever happens on
March thirtieth, I think we're going to

364
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:04,160
a good card in terms of the
makeup of the show. I'm not sure

365
00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,519
what the price point is supposed to
be if it's a pay per view,

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yet I'm sure it will be less
expensive then we'll see for a Canelo fight.

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But put this in mind again,
the fights themselves have not been one

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hundred percent set to my knowledge.
However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist

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00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:22,599
to take a look at what they
were trying to do at the end of

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00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,240
last year, that they kind of
ran out of dates for guys who have

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00:23:26,319 --> 00:23:30,039
been massively inactive and are desperately needing
of a fight. I think that on

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that first show there's a very good
strong chance you're going to see somebody like

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00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:41,119
a Montastanionis back in the ring defending
his WBA Regular welterweight title. There's probably

374
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a decent chance we'll see Carlos Adamis, who was the inactive WBC's interim title

375
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:51,720
holder. There has been noise coming
out of Australia that Tim Zou may may

376
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:53,440
be fighting in March. It's not
going to be the early part of March.

377
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Now, maybe it gets shifted to
the end of March and we see

378
00:23:56,960 --> 00:24:00,079
him on this card. There's been
a lot of conversation and chatter about him

379
00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:04,880
defending his WBO one fifty four title
against Ericson Lubin was coming off of a

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00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,559
victory controversial as that may have been
on one of the recent pay per views.

381
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So those types of fights. Now, if you told me that it's

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00:24:12,039 --> 00:24:15,279
a pay per view and it was
going to be like a Zoo against a

383
00:24:15,359 --> 00:24:19,799
Lubin and Adamus and a decent fight, and stanionis in a decent fight.

384
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,960
Like I can get down with that
as a paper got all love it,

385
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:26,799
but I understand it's more sellable.
It's more sellable. Now, what about

386
00:24:26,799 --> 00:24:30,839
the speculation, What about the speculation
that that's another sixty days from now and

387
00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:34,759
it's maybe Jervonte Davis? Do you
what do you? What do you make

388
00:24:34,839 --> 00:24:38,960
of that? I am told it
is not going to be a Tank Davis

389
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:45,680
fight period. Now, that's Al
Hayman r. Al Hayman changes his mind

390
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,119
about things on a regular basis,
like it could change twelve times between now

391
00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:55,119
and even the time this podcast is
posted. Twelve But yes, I can

392
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:56,680
understand, yes, it could be
fifteen. I'm just making the point that

393
00:24:56,839 --> 00:25:00,920
at this moment in time, that
is just not in the plans to be

394
00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,680
a Tank Davis fight. He'll be
back, I'm sure, you know,

395
00:25:03,839 --> 00:25:07,960
in the first half of the year, but I just don't think it's going

396
00:25:07,039 --> 00:25:11,799
to happen on March thirtieth. One
of the problems Tank may have is that

397
00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:15,640
his trainer, Calvin Ford, is
in a legal problem and has been in

398
00:25:15,799 --> 00:25:21,599
jail for a allegation of some kind
of assaulved problem that took place in Las

399
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:25,920
Vegas that had him picked up by
the police in Baltimore and jailed and awaiting.

400
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,640
I don't know if he's already been
sent there or he's awaiting to send

401
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,799
him out to the DATA. So, you know, not to say the

402
00:25:32,880 --> 00:25:34,720
Tank would be incapable of having a
fight with a different trainer. He has

403
00:25:34,759 --> 00:25:40,279
other people on his team, but
that would seem to be possibly an impediment

404
00:25:40,319 --> 00:25:42,119
to him fighting in the month of
March. I mean, that's just my

405
00:25:45,079 --> 00:25:47,920
thought about that. I'm not saying
it's impossible, but by all accounts,

406
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:52,279
Tank, even forgetting about what the
problems are with Calvin, my understanding Tank

407
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:56,319
is not in the line to be
on that first pay per view card.

408
00:25:56,799 --> 00:25:59,519
ZU would make a lot of sense, you know where I stand on Carlos

409
00:25:59,559 --> 00:26:02,480
Adama. I mean, I'm gonna
go ahead and say this, Uh,

410
00:26:02,559 --> 00:26:07,720
the WBC has done a total disservice
to him. They should have already stripped

411
00:26:07,759 --> 00:26:11,079
Jamal Charlo, certainly with Charlo talking
about in the ring after the fight,

412
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:14,960
I want to stay at super middleweight, and all the talk that he's gonna

413
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,839
be the next guy for Canelo Alvarez, just follow through elevate adamis strip Charlo

414
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,720
with a title that he hasn't defended
in going on almost three years. I

415
00:26:22,759 --> 00:26:25,200
gotta say one thing about that.
I mean, the rumors are rampant that

416
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:30,200
it's gonna be Canelo versus jam Charlow
so and I have I mean, listen,

417
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:33,839
they're gonna do what they want to
do. But I just think that

418
00:26:33,079 --> 00:26:37,920
is a very very hard cell fight. I just don't give a shit about

419
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,480
that fight, to be quite actually, it's a hard fight to sell.

420
00:26:40,799 --> 00:26:44,119
You know, if the brother Jermel
had put up even like a halfway decent

421
00:26:44,200 --> 00:26:47,359
fight, maybe you know, you
could promote it like they did with the

422
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:51,119
Klitchko fights of years past, when
it was Revenge of the Brother after Corey

423
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:55,200
Sanders you know, fought him,
or you know, Revenge of the Brother,

424
00:26:55,319 --> 00:26:57,400
or when Chris Bird you know,
beat Battalion, then they promoted Vladimir

425
00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,720
Revenge of the Brother. Okay,
whatever, But one Charlo shit the bed

426
00:27:02,799 --> 00:27:04,559
and the other Charlo hasn't fought about
one time in two years and didn't look

427
00:27:04,559 --> 00:27:07,160
particularly great in that Let Me Do, Let Me Do by Rayfhael. That's

428
00:27:07,200 --> 00:27:11,599
a separate argument. That's a separate
thing the WB what are we doing here?

429
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:12,519
What are we doing here? What
are we doing here? That the

430
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:18,680
WBC should have already stepped in because
Charlo's fight was back in November on the

431
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,039
Benavitas Andre undercard, and they should
have already said, you're not you haven't

432
00:27:22,079 --> 00:27:26,359
defended, you're not gonna defend.
Make a Domis the full champ and let

433
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:30,960
him defend on this hypothetical at the
very least March thirtieth. I can appreciate

434
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:36,200
the words from Mauricio Suliman from the
WBC about wanting to support Charlotte because of

435
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,039
all the things that were going on
as personal life with the mental health,

436
00:27:38,279 --> 00:27:41,000
and I can respect that, which
is fine. But what they probably should

437
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:45,200
have done, which would have made
me feel better about it, probably would

438
00:27:45,279 --> 00:27:48,920
make you feel better about it,
would make a Domis feel better about it,

439
00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:52,480
regular boxing fans feel better about it, and would also be fine with

440
00:27:52,559 --> 00:27:55,319
the WBC, and I think Charlott
would be accepting of it as well.

441
00:27:55,799 --> 00:27:57,799
Is They could have easily been like, listen, deal with your problems.

442
00:27:59,079 --> 00:28:02,319
We're gonna make you there in recess
champion. When you're good to go and

443
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:06,240
you want to come back, you
get the first shot and that's that and

444
00:28:06,319 --> 00:28:08,839
you're still but that's not tripping you. I understand that ship sailed last year

445
00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,880
though too. I mean late last
year. He didn't even defend his title.

446
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,720
We went over this. We're going
over the same ground. We went

447
00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:17,559
over this already. He didn't even
defend his title on the November thirtieth card.

448
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:21,559
Listen, here's my hope. But
a Damas. I'm interested in a

449
00:28:21,599 --> 00:28:23,480
Damas who I like maybe being on
the March thirtieth card. That's why I'm

450
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,160
bringing this point up. Yeah,
I mean again, I don't know that

451
00:28:26,279 --> 00:28:30,319
for sure. I'm just speculating about
the guys who have titles. Thought in

452
00:28:30,599 --> 00:28:36,079
June he's been waiting for Charlo.
He hasn't. As it relates to May

453
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:38,400
fourth, which is the Canelo date. That's the date that's on the agenda

454
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:42,640
for the Tuesday meeting of the Nevada
State Athletic Commission, where it's TGB requesting

455
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:47,119
May four for a pay per view
at either t Mobile or MGM. That's

456
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:48,880
the Canelo date. But I just
satainly say one more thing about that.

457
00:28:49,839 --> 00:28:53,640
Uh, if it's Charlo, I'm
going to be super disappointed. In a

458
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,119
perfect world, would see Benavide's I
believe that will be September. So if

459
00:28:57,119 --> 00:29:02,720
it's not going to be that fight
between can when Benavide's in May, you

460
00:29:02,799 --> 00:29:04,640
know what would be a good fight
if Mongia beats Ryder next week and then

461
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,039
could somehow make it deal with Golden
Boy, which I know is hard to

462
00:29:07,079 --> 00:29:11,680
do with Amen and Golden Boy dealing
with one another, but that would be

463
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:15,400
a great matchup between Canelo Alvarez and
Himimongia. Can't miss action, exciting fight,

464
00:29:17,319 --> 00:29:19,359
you know, Mexico versus Mexico.
You know that would be a lot

465
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,319
to a lot to like on a
promotion like that. Stay tuned, be

466
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,039
locked in on Dan Substack, be
subscribing to the newsletter, et cetera.

467
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:30,519
Locked in on this podcast. You'll
have more reporting on whatever's going on March

468
00:29:30,599 --> 00:29:34,359
thirtieth and with Canelo and fighting somebody
sinko de myo weekend. All right,

469
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,440
let's continue with some news and then
we've got some nostalgia and we're done.

470
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:45,079
The Boxing Writers Association they have their
awards that you were telling us about before

471
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,960
and they have now come out with
their award winners. So go down it

472
00:29:48,039 --> 00:29:52,400
really quick, because we've gone back
and forth some on Fight of the Year,

473
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:56,079
Fighter of the Year, those kind
of things. So go ahead and

474
00:29:56,079 --> 00:30:03,400
give us the twenty twenty three BWAA
awards if you Yeah. So no surprises

475
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,799
here, and I, frankly you
know most of these people are ones that

476
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,240
I did, in fact vote for
the fact that Naya in a way won

477
00:30:10,319 --> 00:30:12,960
the Fighter of the Year not a
surprise. Probably the stiffest competition was Terrence

478
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,839
Cruffin. I don't know what the
order of the voting was, but in

479
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,000
a way I picked him. I
saw the Ring Magazine picked him. I've

480
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,079
seen other people have picked them in
different columns in the stories. So a

481
00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:25,279
worthy winner. The interesting thing though
about it, when you think about this,

482
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:27,160
this is how big of a deal
this is. The Ring Magazine has

483
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,079
been given out a Fighter of Theye
award for eighty five years. He's the

484
00:30:30,119 --> 00:30:33,559
first Japanese fighter to ever win the
Fighter of the Year. That's a big

485
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,279
deal, yep. And they produced
a lot of great fighters in Japan over

486
00:30:36,359 --> 00:30:40,519
the decades. So my understanding is, in a way is so honored and

487
00:30:40,599 --> 00:30:42,200
so excited and so happy to get
that award, even though his fights were

488
00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:45,319
in Japan, that an effort will
be made for him to travel from Japan

489
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:48,880
for this spring to attend the banquet. When to get the award in person?

490
00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:52,680
Which would be which would be a
great thing. In terms of the

491
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,799
fight of the year I picked for
my awards that I put out on my

492
00:30:56,920 --> 00:31:02,839
newsletter, I picked the great matchup
between Luis Neri and a Zadahoevenissian that was

493
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:07,359
one of the nominees. My number
two was Haimi Mungia is very dramatic decision

494
00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,599
over Sergei Devrenchenko. In terms of
the Boxing writers vote, which by the

495
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:12,720
way, so people understand, it's
voted on by the membership. It's not

496
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,720
like one person or just a small
group of people. You know, there's

497
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,200
you know, dozens and dozens of
people that get a chance to vote.

498
00:31:18,559 --> 00:31:22,880
And in that case, it was
Mongia versus deviren Chenko that won. So

499
00:31:23,079 --> 00:31:26,680
Golden Boy Promotions, you know,
I think, to the view of many

500
00:31:26,759 --> 00:31:29,640
put on the two best fights of
the year, which was Mongia devren Chenko

501
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:36,240
and that Jovinisian dramatic fight against Ney. But it was Mongi and Devin Chenkoh.

502
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:37,680
You know, I can't argue with
that. I had a number two.

503
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:38,759
I mean, it was a hell
of a fight Trainer of the Year

504
00:31:38,799 --> 00:31:41,839
I think is pretty obvious. I
voted for him. I know it didn't

505
00:31:41,839 --> 00:31:45,680
come as a surprise that he won. On the Boxing Writers it's Brian McIntyre

506
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:48,200
had the great victory with Terrence Crawford
over Errol Spence. But more so,

507
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:52,200
I think even more impressive than that
was the fact that he was able to

508
00:31:52,279 --> 00:31:56,359
take Chris Yubank Junior. He had
gotten knocked out by Liam Smith and then

509
00:31:56,680 --> 00:32:00,839
he took over as the trainer for
Chris Hubank and led him to a knockout

510
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,400
victory in the return match. So
when you do that, people notice,

511
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:07,240
and it's kind of a big deal. And the Manager of the Year was

512
00:32:07,319 --> 00:32:12,160
Bill Haney, who's done an expert
job of guiding his son Devin, maneuvering

513
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:15,279
him with two big pay per view
fights in twenty twenty three. The win

514
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,319
over Lomachenko, which coincided with free
agency, got himself a great deal to

515
00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:21,960
do the fight with regious program and
now can call a lot of shots,

516
00:32:22,279 --> 00:32:25,240
so he gets that. And those
were the main awards that were voted on

517
00:32:25,319 --> 00:32:28,839
by the full membership, and then
there was other awards that were voted on

518
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,200
by committees, including the women's Boxer
of the Year, which was won by

519
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:37,000
Amanda Surround, who I also picked
on my newsletter and what I wrote that

520
00:32:37,119 --> 00:32:40,079
she had a hell of a year, not only retaining her titles and winning

521
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:45,039
three fights, but one was a
Fight of the Year candidate against Erica Cruz.

522
00:32:45,319 --> 00:32:50,519
She also made a lot of news
about her fight about equality for women

523
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:54,720
versus men in terms of the sport
by insisting on doing fights that were championship

524
00:32:54,839 --> 00:33:00,200
fights that were twelve rounds three minutes
in terms of the duration. So she

525
00:33:00,319 --> 00:33:05,279
is a worthy winner and a future
Hall of Famer. Good stuff. Love

526
00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:08,720
wrapping up the year, It was
an exciting into the years. I didn't

527
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:13,839
go through every single award, but
we just shout out Gordon Hall from the

528
00:33:14,079 --> 00:33:16,720
you know, Showtime Sports no longer
exists, but if you knew Showtime Sports,

529
00:33:16,759 --> 00:33:22,279
Gordon Hall, who was a longtime
senior vice president of their department,

530
00:33:22,319 --> 00:33:25,079
of the Sports department, he was
the executive producer of Showbox the New Generation,

531
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:29,480
that is the Prospect show that he
nurtured from day one for more than

532
00:33:29,799 --> 00:33:35,680
twenty years. And he is a
very very rightful and appropriate winner for the

533
00:33:36,079 --> 00:33:38,759
long and parritorious Service to Boxing awards. So I know it sucks for him

534
00:33:38,799 --> 00:33:43,319
and for the rest of the Showtime
colleagues that Showtime Sports no longer exists.

535
00:33:43,759 --> 00:33:46,440
But I'm glad to see that a
guy like Gordon won this award. It's

536
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,880
well deserved. And further, it's
a shame they didn't get to have a

537
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,440
goodbye show in the last ninety days. You and I agree on that,

538
00:33:52,039 --> 00:33:55,279
But good recognition for Gordon on that
one. A I two other items and

539
00:33:55,319 --> 00:34:00,640
then we'll get to some nostalgia.
Chris Billum Smith, the WBO Cruiseway title

540
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:06,039
holder from England from Bournemouth, England, has had now one title defense.

541
00:34:06,039 --> 00:34:08,000
He's going to make his second title
defense coming up. Tell me a little

542
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,599
more real quick. Yeah, this
is going to be a really good fight.

543
00:34:10,679 --> 00:34:15,760
So his mandatory challenger is another top
British contender, undefeated big puncher Richard

544
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:21,519
Ria Kapore. They're both with the
Boxer promotion and so Ben Shalom, who

545
00:34:21,639 --> 00:34:23,840
runs Boxer, had said to me
in an interview that we're going to play

546
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:29,960
on a podcast upcoming that the next
fight for Billim Smith will be the Ria

547
00:34:30,039 --> 00:34:32,519
Kaport fight. The one thing the
caveat was they were hoping to do it

548
00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:37,159
for the spring. But because Bill
Smith that's such a hard, tough fight.

549
00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:40,320
In December when he defended the title
for the first time against Masternek that

550
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:45,639
he's dealing with a nothing major,
Ben said, but some small little injuries

551
00:34:45,679 --> 00:34:46,960
that he just need a little extra
time on. So rather than have the

552
00:34:47,039 --> 00:34:52,360
fight take place maybe April ish,
it's probably going to get pushed back till

553
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,159
around June. But these guys are
going to go at it. And in

554
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:59,719
terms of the cruiserweight division, this
is a very very good fight and it

555
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:02,920
also who has a good storyline because
if you go back to twenty nineteen,

556
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:07,840
before Billan Smith was a world champion, these guys met in a regional title

557
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:14,400
bout on the undercard when Dylan White
fought Oscar Reeves, and it was it

558
00:35:14,599 --> 00:35:16,480
was a regional title fight, not
for a world title. And in that

559
00:35:16,639 --> 00:35:21,559
fight, Rickapore he dropped Billin Smith
in the seventh round. He won a

560
00:35:21,639 --> 00:35:24,000
ten round split decision. So these
guys have a history. They had a

561
00:35:24,159 --> 00:35:28,360
very competitive, close fight, and
Bill Smith went on to win a world

562
00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:31,079
title, and now Richard has worked
his way into be the mandatory. It

563
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,840
just shapes up as a really good, exciting, fun fight and they're going

564
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,920
to do a big crowd wherever they
put this fight in England and Bill and

565
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:40,800
Smith again a great story. Not
the most talented fighter, but works hard,

566
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:45,199
fights tough, kind of blue collar
mother, very ill with cancer.

567
00:35:46,039 --> 00:35:49,960
It's a heartwarming story that he was
able to win a world title while she's

568
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:53,360
still living and hanging in there.
So there's a lot of good heartstrings being

569
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,320
tugged at too with Chris Billin Smith. One more note speaking of the Bridge

570
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:01,800
and Joe Joyce the heavyweight and twice
by July Jang he is going to be

571
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:06,840
back. Give us details on that
real quick. Yeah. So in twenty

572
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:10,480
twenty three he had the two knockout
losses you know that we're we're pretty rough

573
00:36:10,519 --> 00:36:14,320
against is Angely one. He got
his eye all busted up and lost in

574
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:17,320
April, which was for the you
know, he lost the vacant or what

575
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:22,519
lost the interim WBO heavyweight title.
They had an immediate rematch and instead of

576
00:36:22,599 --> 00:36:25,079
just having his eye get busted up
and getting stopped on his feet, he

577
00:36:25,119 --> 00:36:30,440
got knocked out and got dominated in
an even easier fight for Jang in the

578
00:36:30,559 --> 00:36:34,519
in the rematch. So now he
had back to back losses to to Jang,

579
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:37,079
So he's gonna make his return.
He's not in the main event,

580
00:36:37,159 --> 00:36:39,360
but he's the probably the biggest name
on this card, which looks like a

581
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:44,039
real good, evenly matched kind of
show top to bottom that Frank Warren is

582
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:49,119
doing on They called they did a
show with like seven title fights, not

583
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:52,519
world title fights, but the regional
titles and the British titles and the Commonwealth

584
00:36:52,519 --> 00:36:54,960
titles, and they called it the
Magnificent Seven. It was a popular show

585
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:59,239
that took place in November, and
you know, it was well received.

586
00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:00,960
They put on some great fights on
the show. So now they're doing the

587
00:37:01,159 --> 00:37:06,880
sequel, they're gonna call it the
Magnificent Seven Ride again and instead of you

588
00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:08,559
know, they're gonna do another you
know, batch of like seven types of

589
00:37:08,599 --> 00:37:13,599
fights like that. So this one's
gonna be March sixteenth in Birmingham, England,

590
00:37:13,639 --> 00:37:16,840
and one of the undercard fights we'll
see Joe Joyce back in action against

591
00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:21,599
a fighter named Cash Ali who's twenty
one and two, to try to help

592
00:37:21,679 --> 00:37:24,119
him bounce back from you know,
those two very tough loss. Their real

593
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:28,719
concerns as to whether he has anything
left and his age, yes, of

594
00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,280
course, thirty six, thirty seven
and Jang beat him decisively badly brutalized him

595
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:35,880
in the second knockout. And the
main event of the card is is the

596
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:39,679
British middleway title. That's Nathan Haney, who had a big upset against Denzel

597
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:45,320
Bentley on the on the November Magnificent
seven. So he's going to headline this

598
00:37:45,519 --> 00:37:49,360
in a title defense of the British
title against a fighter named Brad Paulus.

599
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:52,480
But the biggest name in terms of
non the non only British scene of like

600
00:37:52,519 --> 00:37:55,960
the world level. Let's say it's
the return of the heavyweight contender Joe Joyce

601
00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,119
to see what he's got left some
nostalgia to wrap it up, my friend,

602
00:38:00,159 --> 00:38:06,719
And it was twenty three years ago
on Saturday, January twentieth, two

603
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:13,239
thousand and one, Floyd Mayweather wiping
out Chico Corrals to retain his junior lightweight

604
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:16,400
title. Right, you were ringside, and you really believe you've said this,

605
00:38:16,519 --> 00:38:22,559
you've mentioned this before in Floyd's fights, that you really believe this is

606
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:25,519
the performance for Floyd. Tell me
more about that nostalgia and being there.

607
00:38:27,679 --> 00:38:30,519
Well, I think it's the greatest
performance that Mayweather ever had. And he's

608
00:38:30,559 --> 00:38:35,480
obviously you know, retired undefeated as
a guy that won titles from one hundred

609
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,360
and thirty pounds all the way to
one hundred and fifty four pounds. Obviously

610
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:40,679
one of the all time greats in
the history of the sport, some of

611
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:44,480
the biggest events, the biggest events
in the history of the sport. But

612
00:38:44,559 --> 00:38:46,320
in terms of the performance in the
ring, and he fought a lot of

613
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:52,119
great fighters. Mayweather, this was
a guy in corrals that was just destroying

614
00:38:52,159 --> 00:38:55,440
everybody and had had held a title. Also, It should, by all

615
00:38:55,519 --> 00:39:00,760
rights have been a unification fight for
Floyd's WBC title and what should have been

616
00:39:00,159 --> 00:39:04,679
Chico Carrals's IBF title. But to
make the match, Chico gave up that

617
00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:08,559
IBF title because the IBF does IVF
things and they were not going to allow

618
00:39:08,599 --> 00:39:12,679
that. They wanted him to fight
the mandatory Steve Forbes, which would have

619
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,519
been worth about ten dollars instead of
millions he made to fight against Mayweather.

620
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:20,039
The other thing about this matchup when
they went into the fight, remember they

621
00:39:20,079 --> 00:39:22,719
were both on the rise. They
had been on a double header together.

622
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:25,639
HBO liked both of them. This
is before Mayweather became the big, big

623
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:30,119
superstar. They were fighting for the
HBO contract. The belt was important,

624
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:32,079
and the money that was on the
line in the contract was just as big,

625
00:39:32,159 --> 00:39:35,360
if not bigger, that the winner
of the fight was going to get

626
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:39,280
a very lucrative HBO contract. And
Mayweather fought the best fighter you ever had.

627
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:43,679
I mean, people sometimes want to
say, well, Chico was compromised,

628
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,960
he was having weight problems, he
was facing a prison sentence after the

629
00:39:47,079 --> 00:39:52,559
fight because of a domestic violence situation
he had been convicted of or pled to,

630
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:54,199
so he was going to go away
for a period of time afterwards.

631
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:58,519
But nonetheless that's not Floyd's problem.
Floyd went in there and put on a

632
00:39:58,599 --> 00:40:00,719
masterclass. Now Floyd was not known. You know, he'd knocked a lot

633
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,960
of guys out when he was fighting
in the in the in the lesser weight

634
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,559
class in terms of the weight,
but still nobody I think expected him to

635
00:40:08,599 --> 00:40:13,119
turn in this kind of performance,
which was a devastating performance where he knocked

636
00:40:13,159 --> 00:40:16,960
Corrals down three times in around seven
like if I could have maybe been over

637
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,079
there two more times in around ten, and so five times total. Finally,

638
00:40:22,199 --> 00:40:25,280
it was Diego Kralis's trainer and stepfather
who threw in the towel and you

639
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:29,039
know what Tachico's credit, We all
know what it were he was. He

640
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,400
was complaining about the stoppage and you
know, kind of gave us his stepfather

641
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:35,280
a shove. Was really pissed off
that the referee stopped to fight, but

642
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:37,559
it was the right thing to do, and I think again Floyd Mayweather's finest

643
00:40:37,639 --> 00:40:40,360
performance. He would of course go
on and win titles in a bunch more

644
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:44,039
weight class and have huge, huge
fights, but this was a big fight.

645
00:40:44,119 --> 00:40:46,239
They were both undefeated, they were
both young. I'm not even sure

646
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,880
you could say they were in their
prime just yet. You know, you

647
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,559
had the boxer in Mayweather, you
had the tremendous one punch, knockout puncher,

648
00:40:52,599 --> 00:40:55,559
and Corrals. It turned out that
Mayweather turned into the puncher on that

649
00:40:55,760 --> 00:41:00,000
night with the five knockdowns and absolutely
brilliant fight. It was the second ever

650
00:41:00,079 --> 00:41:02,480
fight of Floyd's I covered, of
all the fights of his I covered had

651
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:07,039
been at his previous fight a few
months earlier in Detroit, when he fought

652
00:41:07,079 --> 00:41:10,159
the very tough journeyman Emmanuel Augustus,
who gave him everything could handle. People

653
00:41:10,159 --> 00:41:14,280
would know he later changed his name
to Burton uh And, but Corrals that

654
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:16,320
was the That was a big deal
and I have a lot of memories of

655
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,760
that fight. There were so much
bad blood going into that fight. You

656
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:23,280
know, you had the manager for
Floyd Mayweather, James Prince at the time,

657
00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:29,599
and Floyd they were they were really
uh getting very personal with Corrals and

658
00:41:30,039 --> 00:41:34,639
talking about his domestic abuse situation.
I remember them saying it the press conference,

659
00:41:34,639 --> 00:41:37,599
you know, Floyd saying, I'm
gonna beat you for every battered woman

660
00:41:37,679 --> 00:41:39,599
in America. That was a commented
done out of age. Well because I

661
00:41:39,639 --> 00:41:43,679
didn't remember that, but yeah,
what a hypocrite as a turn, because

662
00:41:44,119 --> 00:41:50,000
himself went to domestic violence later on. But it was, it was It

663
00:41:50,119 --> 00:41:53,679
was just a brilliant you know in
terms of put the not the domestic stuff

664
00:41:53,679 --> 00:41:57,159
in the outside of the ring and
the legal issues, uh you know,

665
00:41:57,199 --> 00:41:59,920
they're not saints obviously, but in
terms of the boxing. You know,

666
00:42:00,079 --> 00:42:01,159
I don't know if Floyd ever had
a more brilliant night then. And I

667
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,960
like to say, you know,
I joke around with Leonard Ellerby of course,

668
00:42:05,079 --> 00:42:07,599
was you know, one of Floyd's
you know, main guys for you

669
00:42:07,639 --> 00:42:09,320
know, for twenty plus years.
You know, it's the only time I

670
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:14,079
ever picked against Mayweather. I picked
Carrals to win that fight, and Leonard

671
00:42:14,119 --> 00:42:16,559
hasn't let me forget it in the
twenty something year since then. And also

672
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:20,559
one on on a personal note,
which was, you know, I didn't

673
00:42:20,559 --> 00:42:22,800
know it at the time, what
a big deal it would become in my

674
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:27,440
own life is I have covered probably
one hundred events literally at the MGM Grant.

675
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,280
That was the first time I ever
covered a fight at the MGM Grand.

676
00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:32,159
I had covered a couple of other
events in Las Vegas prior to that,

677
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:36,239
but they were both at Mandalay Bay
at the end of two thousand.

678
00:42:36,599 --> 00:42:39,480
So my first time ever at the
at the MGM Grand was for this event

679
00:42:39,559 --> 00:42:43,679
in two thousand and one in January, and I remember, and I've been

680
00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:45,280
there many, many, dozens and
dozens of times since, but I was

681
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:49,599
like a big deal. It was
amazing and it was a great, great

682
00:42:49,639 --> 00:42:52,760
performance from Floyd, a great performance. Still an amazing place, and ye,

683
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,239
it's got so much history in and
around boxing. And so that was

684
00:42:55,360 --> 00:43:00,280
twenty three years ago, two thousand
and one. On Saturday, eight teen

685
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:07,519
years ago on Sunday, that's Manny
Pacquiow beating Eric Morales in a rematch with

686
00:43:07,679 --> 00:43:10,519
a tenth round stoppage, the second
of their three fights. You were there

687
00:43:10,639 --> 00:43:15,199
for that one. More nostalgia,
please, brother Rayphiel. Well, this

688
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:17,559
one wasn't at the MGM. This
one was at the Thomas and Mack Center,

689
00:43:17,599 --> 00:43:22,159
which they should knock down with a
crane and get rid of that building.

690
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,280
Not my favorite place to cover a
fight, but a fantastic battle.

691
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:30,199
Remember Morales and Pacyao had fought in
two thousand and five in the first of

692
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:35,360
their three fights in their Memorable trilogy, and that was a fight where Morales

693
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,960
scored the decision win. I guess
kind of an upset beat, you know,

694
00:43:39,039 --> 00:43:44,519
beat Pacio on that night back,
you know, was was, you

695
00:43:44,599 --> 00:43:45,639
know, just coming into his own
but I think a lot of people thought

696
00:43:45,639 --> 00:43:49,360
he would win that fight, and
I remember they were talking about doing a

697
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,719
rematch, and Aram Bob Aram,
who was the promoter, said, look,

698
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:55,199
we're gonna They did a card in
between where they put them on in

699
00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:59,360
separate fights, and the whole talking
point was if they both win, were

700
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:02,039
doing the remat So they won.
So Morales beat him in the first fight.

701
00:44:04,679 --> 00:44:07,960
They they I'm sorry, Pacyao and
Morales. They had the first fight

702
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:13,480
and it was Pacyao who lost in
the first fight. They set up a

703
00:44:13,559 --> 00:44:16,920
card in between to set up the
rematch, and it turned out that Morales

704
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:20,920
ended up losing on that card.
In Bob God bless him, was like,

705
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:22,000
fuck it, We're still going to
do the rematch, and so that's

706
00:44:22,039 --> 00:44:25,320
what they did, which is the
fight we're talking about from January of twenty

707
00:44:25,599 --> 00:44:30,440
twenty one, our January twenty first, two thousand and six, rather at

708
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,519
the Thomason Max Center. And as
the first fight that I mentioned, that

709
00:44:34,599 --> 00:44:37,360
was a fantastic all time classic.
The second fight maybe not quite as good,

710
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:42,519
but pretty fucking good, pretty spectacular, all time great action, and

711
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,719
it was Pacio that got the revenge. Them even up the series one to

712
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:50,599
one. He stopped He stopped Morales
in round ten, dropped them two times.

713
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:52,760
And I can tell you I have
covered a number of events at the

714
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:57,679
Thomas and Max Center. The crowd
that night was so excited and so hot.

715
00:44:58,199 --> 00:45:00,920
You know, even though Morales was
Mexican, had a lot of fans

716
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:05,599
there, there was a lot of
Hako fans. He had made such an

717
00:45:05,639 --> 00:45:09,280
impression on just the general boxing public, you know, leading into that fight.

718
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:13,840
You know what happened in the first
fight against Morales, there was a

719
00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:17,360
ton of Filipinos there, phenomenal atmosphere, a great fight. I kind of

720
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,239
an underrated fight, if you ask
me, because when people talk about Pacyao,

721
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:23,280
you know, I think the first
thing they think of is the Marquez

722
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:27,599
series of fights. They might think
about Mayweather, which was not a great

723
00:45:27,639 --> 00:45:30,079
fight but such a mega event.
They might think about the first Morales fight.

724
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:34,079
They might think about his performance against
de la Hoya, you know,

725
00:45:34,119 --> 00:45:37,199
which was one side, but a
brilliant performance that Ricky hadn't not got.

726
00:45:37,440 --> 00:45:39,079
Like, there's so many fights of
Manny's to think about, and if you

727
00:45:39,159 --> 00:45:43,960
think about Morales, your first thought
is you think about the Morera trilogy,

728
00:45:44,639 --> 00:45:47,960
you know. So there's other fights
you're thinking about, and sometimes Morales Pacyo

729
00:45:49,119 --> 00:45:52,800
two kind of gets lost in the
shuffle, but it shouldn't because it is

730
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,199
every bit as worthy of any of
the great fights that these two guys have

731
00:45:55,280 --> 00:46:00,199
had against each other and others.
Great fight. And let me also go

732
00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:02,840
what you just said. One of
the things that made all of this so

733
00:46:04,119 --> 00:46:07,400
intriguing, so fun is they all
fought each other, and they were willing

734
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:09,960
to fight each other, in some
cases multiple times and have rematches. What

735
00:46:10,119 --> 00:46:15,599
a novel concept now that we're twenty
years later, to be active and to

736
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:19,559
have the desire. I want to
test myself against the best, the other

737
00:46:19,679 --> 00:46:22,239
best that are in and around my
era, maybe a weight class above or

738
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:27,000
a weight class below. I want
to test myself And that is something in

739
00:46:27,079 --> 00:46:30,599
the nostalgia. Professor Rayphiel here is
holding class that I think we need to

740
00:46:30,639 --> 00:46:35,320
have as part of the curriculum.
The best fighters back in the day and

741
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:38,480
even as recently as fifteen or twenty
years ago understood fight the other best fighters

742
00:46:38,519 --> 00:46:42,239
and maybe fight them a couple of
times, and that was the coming and

743
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,119
Morales. Of course, they fought
a third time with again a fight in

744
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:47,639
between. But then Paco you know, took a tum Morales and stopped them

745
00:46:47,679 --> 00:46:52,920
early. But remember when the Morale
Paco trilogy was occurring, no one in

746
00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,360
their right mind was thinking, Okay, many Pack is going to become an

747
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:59,840
all time legend and beat Oscar and
beat Hadden and go up and win titles

748
00:47:00,079 --> 00:47:02,960
the way up to you know,
to the junior middleweight division. This was

749
00:47:04,039 --> 00:47:06,320
really the start of his memorable kind
of fights. So yes, he had

750
00:47:06,360 --> 00:47:09,679
had the first fight with Marquez,
he had already beaten Barrera in their first

751
00:47:09,719 --> 00:47:13,320
fight. He had the draw of
course with Marquees, but it was after

752
00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:17,239
Morales and then when he finally fought
Barrera the second time Marquez, it wasn't

753
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:21,760
really until a couple of years later
he went to lightweight and knocked out David

754
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:24,559
Diaz. That then the trajectory went
wild and he went up the weights and

755
00:47:24,639 --> 00:47:28,960
started beating you know, dal La
Hoya, Hattan, Miguel Coto, et

756
00:47:29,039 --> 00:47:35,360
cetera. But the Morales trilogy has
its very important place in the great history

757
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:39,159
of Manny Pacou, and that second
fight of him avenging his loss to Morales

758
00:47:39,599 --> 00:47:45,440
was the start of this phenomenal winning
streak. I mean, he had won

759
00:47:45,519 --> 00:47:46,800
the fights before that, because he
had lost the first fight. He won

760
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:52,400
obviously the fight in between, but
that second fight really is what like launched

761
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:57,559
him into this crazy long winning streak
against so many of the greatest fighters in

762
00:47:57,599 --> 00:48:00,519
the sport. And for Morales,
you know, he actually came back after

763
00:48:00,599 --> 00:48:05,719
having lost that fight and had some
other big fights himself. So when I

764
00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,400
think about all the great fights that
pakiam Raus both had, I always think

765
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:13,519
about their first couple of fights,
But the second fight because I was there.

766
00:48:13,559 --> 00:48:15,440
I missed the first fight. I
was ill and was not able to

767
00:48:15,519 --> 00:48:19,920
go. But the second fight,
very special fight, tremendous battle. Love

768
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,840
that and that was January twenty first, two thousand and six. As we

769
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:27,000
come off the weekend, listen,
we've had a busy show again, the

770
00:48:27,079 --> 00:48:32,239
controversial decision Natasha Jonas retains her title. We've discussed that again. Tuesday is

771
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:37,639
the Japanese Championship doubleheader. Taraji is
the feature fight to Raji fighting Carlos Canizales

772
00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:43,079
in Japan, WBCWBA Junior Flyway titles
on the line. I know you'll be

773
00:48:43,159 --> 00:48:45,679
running about that on your substack.
We'll be running about it on Big Fight

774
00:48:45,719 --> 00:48:50,360
Weekend as well. A lot of
good news, some nostalgia. I'm looking

775
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:52,719
forward to this week, my friend. I'm looking forward to Jimimongia, John

776
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:57,480
Ryder, and again we'll put the
John Ryder interview that you did with him

777
00:48:57,559 --> 00:49:00,000
on the podcast. We'll put it
up as its own standalone thing midweek this

778
00:49:00,119 --> 00:49:04,559
week, as well, as we
look forward to that Fighting Phoenix coming later

779
00:49:04,679 --> 00:49:07,440
this upcoming weekend. On the twenty
seventh listen, great stuff, great stuff

780
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:10,719
off the weekend. A lot here
for the fight fans, let's keep blocking

781
00:49:10,760 --> 00:49:15,119
along. In January, Dan Rayfield
sounds good to me. I am looking

782
00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:16,840
forward to see Monkey and Rider.
I'm sure we're gonna have sumission things to

783
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:21,239
talk about post fighting and pre fight
for that, no doubt, no doubt

784
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:22,599
leading up to that one. For
now, we are good. Make sure

785
00:49:22,639 --> 00:49:27,559
you're following subscribing here to this podcast
p the Big Fight Weekend Podcast Weed.

786
00:49:27,599 --> 00:49:30,000
We come on to the weekend with
the Big Fight Weekend Review. We come

787
00:49:30,039 --> 00:49:32,639
off the weekend with the Fight three
two night weeknap. We're here for you,

788
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:36,920
pets for Dan Rayphield. I'm TJ. Reeves. Have a great week