Well off of the weekend, in fact, the first weekend of July July
fourth extended weekend. I mean, I know people that are on like a
five day holiday right now, but we are not. We are here with
the Fight Freaks Unite Recap podcast, coming off of a weekend that has seen
Jared Real Big Baby Anderson forced to a ten round fight and tested and hit.
We're gonna talk about that. He did get the win, but there
was some eye there were some eye opening moments more than one from his fight
in Toledo, Ohio. We have seen the women's undisputed super middleweight crowns change
hands. Savannah Marshall is the new champion. We're gonna recap that. We
got big time fight news, we got some nostalgia and much more. I
am merely the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves. He is our insider from
Fight Preaks United, Substack and Big Fight Weekend dot Com. Hello Dan,
Rayphael good today with you. Are we ready to consume plenty of I know
you don't do hot dogs, hamburgers, prize bake beans, whatever for the
July fourth holiday. None of that, none of that appeals to you.
Maybe a little barbecue. But nothing big, nothing big for you. We
are we are scrambling in the reefs household. By the way, it's my
mother's birthday, July second. Twins were almost born, by the way,
on my mother's birthday. They were born June twenty eighth. My mother's birthday
July second. The country's birthday is July fourth. Interesting for the history majors
that are out there. We declared our independence as a country as the colonist
on July second, the date that we're releasing this podcast. But it took
them two days for Thomas Jefferson to write and edit, and they approved the
declaration of independence on July fourth, Brother Raypheel, So there's actually the declaration
was made on the second, on the day that we're doing this, written
though, and signed on the fourth. Just while we're being technical about our
Americans, usually we talked about boxing history thing. Normally we do. Yes,
now we go and that's that that makes my heart feel good because I
was, in fact when I went to college a history major. There you
go, there is a little bit of history there. And the first person
to sign it was John Hancock in the biggest, boldest cursive print he could
make because he was mad at the British above everybody else. So there you
go, little history, little nostalgia. Later on in this show about July
fourth and July fourth week and stuff in and around Nat we're gonna get into
the fights in a moment. First of all, rate us and review us
Big Fight Weekend podcast feed wherever you get your podcast. If you can rate
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So before the fight recaps, we had put the preview podcast to bed.
We put the bet US handicapping show to bed, and lo and behold,
we find out from social media photos that it is Canelo Alvarez fighting a Charlo.
It is on September thirtieth. But brother Raypiel, it ain't the Charlo
that we thought it was. It's Jeremel Charlo, the undisputed one hundred and
fifty four pound amp, not his twin brother Jermal. This is Jermel the
again the junior middleweight champion. All right, so let's lead off the discussion
with that this was a swerm, a plot twist. Here your thoughts.
It's interesting, I mean, it's it wasn't what anybody expected. And what
people should remember is when Tanello first said or post it anyway on his social
media Instagram, primarily back on I believe it was January twenty I'm sorry,
June twenty second, that I'll see you in September or done deal or something
like that, I'm back September twenty twenty three. Didn't say the date specific,
didn't say the location, didn't say the opponent. Okay, So once
he does that, though, then myself and obviously others of us who cover
boxing and talk to the people involved, make our phone calls, make our
text make our emails, etc. You know, our discussions with those different
people, and everybody reported the same thing coming from those groups of people,
and it was accurate that the fight was going to be against as you mentioned,
the middleweight Charlot, that is Jermal Charlot, who had not fought for
two years. A lot of people I think there was some negativity related that
because not because he's not an excellent fighter, but because of the long layoff
and the fact that even when he last fought hadn't looked particularly sharp. In
any event, it still was a pretty big fight, first fight of what
we also reported as a three fight agreement with PBC. Now, one thing
that I wrote about and had reported about was the fact that while most people
assumed that this fight would take place on September sixteenth, because that was actually
the Saturday, That Saturday is September sixteenth is Mexican Independence Day weekend. Typically
he likes to fight on that weekend, so it could be the fourteenth to
fifteenth to sixteenth, but whatever the closest date was on a Saturday to the
Mexican Independence Day. This is one of the rare occasions where the Mexican Independence
actually falls on the sixteenth. So a lot of people made the assumption he
would fight on that date and do so in Las Vegas at the team Obile
Arena, But as it turns out, the Teamobile Arena is occupied on that
night by a UFC. That so there's two things, Tej I want to
discuss because there's been a lot of I believe misinformation that has been presented,
largely due to social media and others who've written about it without I don't think
really knowing the facts. Let's talk about the date situation first. How's that
sound certainly fire away. So from my understanding, they wanted to go September
sixteenth. Obviously, that's the Mexican Independence Day weekend originally, and this is
before Canello left or shouldn't say left, but decided not to have his next
fight with Eddie Hearn, because my understanding is there was not like he left
him on any kind of animosity or negativity. It just that he didn't have
the fighters that he could fight, and maybe the money with his own was
not as great as it would have been with PBC. So he goes to
PBC and he signed this deal without Human But before that occurred, my understanding
is that Natch Room had put a hold on the Team Mobile arena for that
date of September sixteenth. And when you and people should understand, you can't
just say I'm going to do an event on whatever date and go and do
the event. Every event in combat, whether it's MMA or boxing or you
know, a taekwondo event or whatever it is, then the Vata State of
Letic Commission you go to them and you put in what your requests are,
and you know, usually it's a rubber stamp, but it has to be
approved by the Commission, and they go through their process and they have a
meeting every single month, and at that meeting they approved the dates. I
can say this in my twenty plus years of following what the Commission does and
reading their agendas every single month, because I received them that never. It's
very rare, almost. I can't even think of an example where they didn't
approve a date, you know, as long as it was done under the
normal procedures. So the date was approved. Now what happens is other people
and challenge that date. UFC apparently challenged the sixteenth, and because Canello is
now off doing his own thing, there was no response from the other side,
so it was sort of like they they gave them the UFC the date
because there was no nothing specific for the September sixteenth. And by the time,
as if I'm correct, on the Nevada Commission, they're also regulating MMA,
they're regulating mixed martial arts on the date, they oversee both go ahead.
Yes, So the UFC got the date, so they are doing the
show on the sixteenth. Okay, so that's why he's not on the sixteenth,
but he still wants to fight. He still wants to fight. But
the point here was the choice came down to we can go, Well,
they can go on the sixteenth in another location, go to California, go
to Arizona, go to Texas wherever. Or they can go to a because
they wanted to be at the Team Oble, or they can go to Vegas
and go on a different date. So Team Obile arena is available on the
thirtieth. So the decision was made and I don't know who you know how
exactly it went down, but the bottom line was, and I'm sure Showtime
was involved in all the different people that are involved with this event, they
made the decision that it was better to go and be a Team mobile where
they can get a much larger gait on the thirtieth, than to go some
other place in the United States on the sixteenth. Well, I can add
I can add this part to this because a couple of people brought up brought
up, well what about the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Why couldn't you fight
there? And you and I are not familiar with this guy, but this
guy is a huge Mexican music star. And on the night of Mexican Independence
Dayandro Fernandez is profing his concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and that
apparently been reserved months ago, maybe even a year ago, so that it
is not available. Yes, MGM Grand, if they're not having a boxing
event on the Mexican Independence Day weekend, they always have a big Mexican artist.
And I know I've heard of Andre's Fernandez because it's not the first time
he's played Aljandro Fernandez before we gets my best. All I'm saying is that
there's been plenty of times where I've stayed at the MGM because that's the fighting
hotel for the Canelo fight, even though the fight itself is at T Mobile,
And when you walk around the MGM, you see the signage and other
people that are there to see the concert, etc. So not a surprise
at all. So that was not available. And also, and I don't
know this to be the case, but it wouldn't be unprecedented. It's also
the commission who has the right to not regulate two big events on the same
night. Now, they have done it in the past. I mean,
there's a very famous example when Canelo Alvarez was still not a pay per view
star or you know, the biggest superstar in the sport, but was still
a main event, big deal on Showtime when he fought Jozacito Lopez in a
title defense at junior middleweight. That was at the MGM Grand Garden Arena,
and on the same night, myself and most of the other, uh you
know, writers from the larger outlets and bigger media, we were at the
Thomas and Mack Center down the street covering another big Mexican An Independence Day weekend
fight, which was the middleweight championship fight between Julio says Our Chavez Junior and
Sergio Martinez. So the commission did regulate those two major events on the same
night, both of which were essentially sold out. So that that's the situation
from the day. So he's going on the thirtieth on at Team Mobile arena.
So he announced the thirtieth in his Bros. Recent announcement with the Charlot
brother in the picture. Didn't say specifically the venue, but it will be
that venue, Team Mobile. It will be Showtime pay per view. Now
the question is how does he wind up going from Jermaal to Jermel, and
here's the deal with that. The junior middleweight Charlo Hui is going to fight,
which is Jamel. Charlot has been in this situation with a hand injury
that forced him to postpone his January title defense in the mandatory against him Zoo,
a fight a lot of us were looking forward to, was set for
late January, was going to be on showtime in Las Vegas. He postpones
the fight. He takes an interim fight, thinking that you know, Charlot
is supposed to be ready around June, that's what everybody's said. He fought
and he beat and won the interim tunnel against Tony Harrison. So now it's
under it's come to everybody's attention that Charlot will not be ready to go in
June. So he takes another interim fight and that was the knockout in the
first round. That was a couple of weeks ago against against Carlos Ocampo.
So since that fight took place, that was with the dog bite in the
whole thing. So since that fight happened, everybody on both sides has been
operating under the scenario that Tim Zoo and Charlo are going to fight this fall
in the United States. Zoo's team has been making preparations for it. I've
talked to the people that showed him. They were believing that that was happening.
I didn't hear from Charlo specific, but everybody around it was saying,
this is what we're doing, this is the plan now all along. When
Kennello has now signed with Hayman, he didn't sign with Hayman and say I'm
fighting Charlo and then they're gonna have to go do another thing later on for
the next opponent, and then for the third opponent. The contract that he
has with PBC specifically has different fighters listed of who they might fight. Whether
the terms are there or not, I can't say that, but they have
a basic list, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know
who you're talking about. It's the Charlot brothers. It's David Benavetti's Yeah,
it's it's David Morrell. It's probably Demitrius Andre. Maybe it's Caleb Plant again,
if there's a reason and he rebounds and then comes back in any kind
of meaningful manner, etc. The point is we understand who these guys,
and Errol Spence was by the way, a guy I've been told that's listed
in that paperwork, which is going to be a big fight if it happens
down the road. Obviously, Errol has his business to deal with over the
next several months, whether it's the first fight with Crawford, potentially a second
fight with Crawford, whatever, but that's the deal. So everybody has known
that those were the sort of the universe of fighters that they would pick from.
Going back a couple of weeks ago when he first signed, it was
supposed to be the middleweight Charlot that was going to be the opponent, but
it was not one hundred percent. There was the possibility that maybe he wouldn't
be one hundred percent ready to go for reasons that I have outlined and stories.
So he had been injured, but the injury is not the issue.
He is going through a very If you think what Tifimo Lopez is going through
in terms of a bitter divorce and custody fight, that's like child's play compared
to what Charlo's involved with. Unfortunately, so I feel bad for the guy.
He's dealing with a very, very terrible personal situation with his family falling
apart and his wife and his kids, so you know, and I believe
there are four children involved with her whatever, it's at least four. And
it's look, I get it, and so you understand if he's not available
to fight, he's not available to fight. But that's where the swerve comes
in and now I'll pull it off. So that the thing was, it's
supposed to be the middleweight Charlo, but they always had and this was known
at the time that in the back pocket it could be the other Charlo,
and when it became apparent in I don't know if it was the last five
days, eight days, ten days, like the both charlot As, we're
in the mix. Even though it was always supposed to be the middleweight.
Even because Showtime and Tim Zoo and everybody PBC was operating like they were doing
the mandatory junior middleweight undisputed fight, it got to a point where they have
to make a decision and the middleweight Charlo was not going to be available and
ready for different reasons related to what's happening with his divorce and his custody battle.
And so Jamel Charlo gets the call, takes it, is happy to
do. It will make a big pay day he is moving up two way
classes, not just one like his brother would be. But they're basically the
same size guy. I mean, Jamel is a little bit shorter, but
you know, he's been off about It'll be fifteen months by a time he
gets back in the ring, because he hasn't fought since he won the Undisputed
Crown in the unification of the rematch of the draw with Brian Castagno in in
a tremendous battle where he stopped Castagno. So that's the situation now. Obviously
it would have been made a lot easier for everybody if Cannella would have just
manned up a faughbed Benavides. But you know, you know, what can
I say? But uh, you know, I'm not hating on this fight.
I understand where some people come from that, you know, he's supposedly
so much smaller. But I have to say my again, my opinion,
I'm actually more interested to see Canello with Jamel Charlo coming up two way classes
because to me, Jamel has been fighting better in his recent fights, not
that he's been hugely active, but at least a little bit more active.
He's coming off a great win in a great knockout performance against Castagna and what
was a fight of the year type fight. And people who want to say,
well, he's so much smaller, I mean, I get that,
and believe me, we've discussed that a million times. But remember Cannello also
spent a huge amount of his career as a junior middleweight as well, and
he's not a huge super middleweight either. I mean, and you can tell
he struggled that light heavyweight when he fought Evil. So I'm still interested in
the fight. Like I said, I'd rather see him fight Benavides, but
I'm okay with the Charlot fight. And again from the historical point of view,
and I don't want to make too much of this because you know,
it's the times we live in. For the sake of a footnote of history,
it is the first time in men's boxing, at least that there will
be a reigning undisputed champion in the four belt era moving to a different weight
class to fight this the four belt champion from that year. So we've seen
it in the women's boxing side of things, because just recently we had the
four belt lightweight champion Katie Taylor move up and challenge the four belt junior welterweight
champion Chantel Cameron. But in men's boxing, it's never happened. And it
again, I'm not saying it's the reason you buy the fight, but it's
just an interesting sort of sidelight and it's you know, it's Canello back in
action against a very reputable fighter. Okay, So I've got two or three
things that I'm going to put out there because you gave us. I hope
I put that right. No, you got all of that right. You
got all of that right, and great insight on all of that. All
right. So the first thing is, obviously, and you didn't say this,
Charlo's belts are not on the line because he's fighting it one sixty eighth.
They're not finding it one fifty four. So it's great, it's a
big Let me have one thing. By the way, Yeah, I am
told by those involved that there is no catch weight for this fight, not
that there should be, but that because that's always an issue sometimes that it's
a straight one sixty eight, no rehydration clause, nonsen. It's not that
that would be the case because Nnell will be in the as side is not
going to want to like you know, penalize himself. So at the point
is it's a straight und sixty eight fight. My understand there was a Mexican
reporter and I don't have the name in front of me, who writes for
ESPN's Mexico website, and he had actually tweeted about ten days ago that he
was hearing Jemel Charlo and he had it in the tweet and he was hearing
catch weight one sixty five. So that's kind of where the internet and Twitter
have focused on that in the last day or so. Would it be a
catchweight clarify? I said all along, Jemel was a backup plan right right.
It was never going to be the main guy. But when it to
the point where push comes to shove, when the rubber had throwed whatever cliche
you want to use, when they finally had another cliche, pull the trigger
and have it aside, who was going to be the one standing across the
ring? Jamal was not going to be available. And as I joke with
somebody involved that what's the big deal You just change one letter in the agreement
from an A, because there's no change my understanding, there's no change in
the terms in terms of like what the money is going to be for Canelo
and all that. There's no change in terms for what the other charlot would
have gotten compared to what this charlot will get. So you know, as
I also I joked around, I mean, you know, who would even
know? Just say it's Jamal and just let Jamal do the fight because they
look the same because they're twins. But anyway, all right, all right,
So I've got two or three things about that. So the first clarification,
again, none of Jamal Charlo's belts are on the line because it's not
a one fifty four limit fight. So the next couple of things. Number
One, they've screwed Tim Zoo in this and that sucks for Tim Zoo.
Welcome to boxing. I never begrudge anybody trying to make more money however they
can make money. But the Charlo's and Hayman and PBC should be called out
for screwing Tim Zoo during this whole thing because they had a contract which I'm
sure they were trying to hold Tim Zoo two for a big payday, and
they strung enough. Let me finish, they strung all of this along that
he was rehabilitating and gonna fight Tim Zoo, and they've screwed Tim Zoo out
of a big payday and out of a big opportunity. So what the WBO
this is me saying this should do? On Monday as we released the podcast,
is Tripp Jamel Charlo and say, you were supposed to be fighting this
guy. You now have no intention of fighting this guy. He's our new
super champion. Maybe you guys will fight an undisputed fight later on at some
point, maybe they won't. I don't know, But for right now,
Zoo's getting screwed out of all of this. Just so you know, there
is no more super champion bullshit in the WBA because they've eliminated that position.
In the case of what happened with Tim Zoo, he was rehabilitating, he
is rebilitating. The plan was for that fight to happen. And also,
let me just say this, I believe that the contract that they had for
the fight in January, at some point it's expired. You can't have a
guy have two consecutive interim fights while the other guys set on the shelf and
Stokes hold him to the other agreement. So I think they would have had
her come back and redo some element of the paperwork, even if maybe maybe
they would have instinct. But I think you're the one, by the way,
You're the one that suggested on a past podcast that no way would that
be enforced because he would want more money after winning two said that, I
said, agree in those fights, yeah, we agreed on that. We
agreed on that. But my thing is, I see this similar going on
in other situations with them too, where the PBC fighters aren't fighting anybody,
and it floats along, and it floats along. And I am even more
dubious now that this was injury with Jamel Charlo as much as hang on,
wait you may be fighting Canelo, hang on, hang on. I know
you talk to them and they told you it's still the hand, it's still
whatever. But I think it's the same reason why Deonte Wilder hasn't fought anybody.
That's a story, that's money. It's under the same umbrella, is
all I'm saying while we go back and forth, because no, you're not,
You're just not right about that. Wilder is flexing his independence and his
other manager, Shelley Finkl, is working on a deal for a major fight
in Saudi Arabia. It's not like they're screwing anybody or stringing him along that
one or blowing off another fight, but it's also float along and wait and
don't fight anybody. And that happened. The reason why I believe that the
injury was still a factor, and it's not because some promoter or some television
executive or this or that said so, because I believe that Derek James is
an honest individual who says what he thinks. And when I've had multiple conversations
with Derek James and he has told me, and this is going back,
you know, three weeks ago maybe something like that, that Charlot was in
the gym and this was around the time when Ryan Garcia had had announced that
Derek was going to train him. Uh, and I had spoke to Derek
in relation to that, and he was talking about what we were, you
know, we got on other topics, how loaded his gym was, so
Ryan was there working out, he had Errol training. This is right before
the Crawford fight was made and everybody was excited that that fight might get done.
And you know, they didn't know the opponent, but he was in
the gym anyway. Obviously had Frank Martin getting ready. He had Anthony Joshu,
who he had told me was supposed to be in the gym the next
day, and he did turn up to do a mini camp and then start
to prepare for whatever it might be next for him. And I asked about
Charlotte and he said, Charlotte is here, but his hand is still not
right. He's still trying to rehabilitate, and he's doing other things besides using
the hand. I don't think that Derek Jings would have just led about that
because it just it was so natural as part of our conversation as he was
taking off things related to his different fighters. So the hand was an issue.
This came down to Jamaal not being ready from a perspective of scheduling hearings
in a custody battle or in a divorce proceeding during the time he's going to
be in training camp. Plus he hadn't fought for two years. So when
you add that all together, they made him I believe, a mature vision
to have him not fight and go with the other guy that was more prepared
mentally and physically. Now that he's back in the gym training, that's the
way I look at it. I don't think it was let's string him along
and try to fucked him a Zoo or do this or do that. It's
just what's the old saying, TJ Shit happens. I think they were up
to something for at least a month. I think he declared himself for the
record, healthy whatever you want to call it, back in March. Now,
whether or not he has been training or not, that's what Derek James
told you. I don't doubt you as a reporter, but you've been lied
to a bunch in the past and found out you've been lied to. I
don't know. I think I think this was as much let's wait, let's
see, especially when it became June here and this deal was getting done again.
I'm just I'm just putting this out there. I'm not on Tim Zoo's
payroll. They've totally screwed him over in this, and the w BOH should
do the right thing and should strip him, and should strip him on Monday
and say you screwed around with all of this. He's the interim champ.
He's now going to be elevated as their guy, and maybe there'll be an
undisputed fight down a run. Alright, so we do agree with this,
timso was getting getting kind of the bad end of the stick. Yes,
there was a big going to more than likely fight a title defense in Australia
for probably one third to money, maybe even one quarter of the money finding
Jamal Charlo in the United States, and I don't know who else is really
out there that would be that big of a name for him to fight in
the United States besides Jamal Charlo. So he's fighting probably a title defense this
fall for not as nearly as much money. So yeah, he's getting the
role into this, we would both agree on Adam. We got plenty of
time to talk Canello and Jamal Charlo coming up in the in the coming weeks,
so that's what's now set up. They will presumably announce that officially this
week. We would think we got the holiday looming Tuesday, but we'll see
the official announcement and Timobile arena and all the things that you are reporting on
in a little bit, all right, so let's move on. Just say,
I'll say this one thing that I would think would I would imagine would
be sort of likely I guess, is that when everybody's gathered in Vegas in
a couple of weeks for the Spence and Crawford fight, maybe the Saturday of
the fight. Like this is not an uncommon thing where you're there for one
fight and they've got another big fight coming up, that they might do some
kind of press conference or something along those lines on the morning of the Arrow
Spence Terence Crawford fight. Okay, stand by, we'll we'll see if that's
when the announcement comes there. So I don't make the announcement before that,
but you know, there maybe to do something. I suppose. I mean,
I'm not saying it's definite, but that's that's what's happened many times in
the past. If you follow the timeline. We will now get into the
recap mode and let's get right into the top rank ESPN Main Event. Jared
Real, big Baby Anderson. I don't mind admitting you and I both thought
this would be a knockout. We both thought that it would be early.
It was not. Charles Martin did stand up to him. I do bow
to you, mighty one. You said a couple of times, this may
be a better matchup. You thought it was a better matchup and this guy
could test Jared Anderson's chin. He's got a big punch, and we saw
that in this fight. In the fifth round of this fight. So after
Martin had gone down briefly, Flash knocked down at the end of the round,
I think the third round got back up. I thought maybe we were
cooking for an under four and a half on the betyard. It did not.
It did not happen. And then Martin landed numerous numerous big shots through
the ten rounds. He did not win the fight. Jared Anderson won the
fight. He was more decisive in more rounds. He won the fight.
All Right, my take your take on this, and how concerned should we
be that real big baby got hit as much as he did over those ten
rounds. Go ahead, Dan, I see both sides of the coin.
I really do. On the one hand, Wow, you didn't like what
he saw. He got rocked. I mean put it like this, He's
fought two good fighters so far in his first fifteen fights, like sort of
second dish tier kind of guys, but reputable guys who've been in the ring
with other quality opponents, etc. And that was Jerry Forrest in December and
now Charles Martin on Saturday. So lost in the in the hoopla of the
great knockout he had against Jerry Forrest back in December, which he obliterated him
in the second round, is the fact that in the first round he got
nailed and rocked, but he overcame it and he came back and he stopped
him another round later. So in the back of my mind when Charles Martin
is landing all those left hands on him in round five on Saturday, I'm
thinking, look, you know about what Jerry Forrest had done to him also,
And then of course Charles Martin goes in there and pounds him round in
round five. And it was actually the very first round in the entire professional
career of Gerald Jared Anderson that he has lost on the scorecards, after never
being tested in any really really serious manner in this first fourteen fights. So
that is not a good thing when you see him knocked round like that.
And he showed a lot of vulnerability, not only in that fifth round when
he got hit and was rocked and his legs kind of betrayed him for a
quick minute, but as you mentioned, he also got hit with a lot
of left hands. Later on he was fighting a South paw, but he
had been training for the South pap even when Charles Martin came in as a
late replacement on eleven twelve days notice, and then at the very end of
the fight, when he certainly got the fight in hand. I mean,
and in the end the scorecards were completely lopsided in Jared Anderson's favor. He
won nine one on two of the scorecards and and eight to two on the
other one. In the tenth round, literally in the last like five eight
seconds of the fight, he got creamed with another left hand in his legs
did the gumby I mean his legs were fucked up. I mean, if
you don't, people maybe not thinking are talking about it. But because the
fight just then ended, he's lucky that punch doesn't land, you know,
in the first a few seconds of the round instead of the last few seconds,
because his legs were in bad shape. He was on the ropes and
he was I thought he was badly staggered, and it was lucky for him
that the bell was coming up. So that always gives you pause. But
by the same token, and now I'm going to go to the flip side.
He showed he's got heart. He showed he can take enough to not
actually get knocked onto the canvas. I mean, he was maybe rattled and
hurt, but he had enough resolved and resilience to keep himself together and to
recover. And that's important too, even if you don't take the greatest shot
to be able to have the fortitude in your heart and in your mind to
be able to somehow get through that. A lot of guys crumble under that
kind of pressure. I mean, I'll go back to the one of the
last great American heavyweight hopes. You know, twenty years ago when I first
started the big American hype that was supposed to be the next big thing was
Michael Grant, phenomenal athlete now different than Jared Anderson. Jared was a top
amateur for years. Michael had come with very little amateur background. Was really
had been a you know, a good athlete in other sports that he pursued,
but became you know, came to boxing and when the when, the
when the you know, when the going got tough, you know, he
didn't keep going. Uh and you know, he was lucky that he didn't
lose to Andrew Galata, who quit on him even though he was beating up
onto Michael Grant and then he like walked into the the propeller of the plane,
if you will, against Lennox Lewis and got smoked in the second round
of their heavyweight title fight, which was my first official assignment as the boxing
writer for USA Today April of two thousand. In any event, he could
not deal with that. Jared Anderson showed me something in terms of what he's
got inside of him that if he's in a firefight, you know he's got
the heart and the balls to get through it, but you also would not
like to see him get hit by that level because if you think about what
guys like Charles Martin and Jerry Forests were able to do, what's it going
to be like if he's in with the truly top heavyweights, if he's in
there with a Tyson Fury, if he's in there with a Alexander Ruska Deontay
Wilder. You know, that's the that is the point that matters going forward,
because if he steps up to championship level and he has sparred in the
past, for what it's worth with Tyson Fury and presumably tasted some of that
power, but it's sparring, you got a head gear on as far as
we know, etc. But that that to me says he needs more seasoning.
You're right, he got a lot of good rounds in got tested.
But I mean, I mean, if Charles Martin is hitting him and he's
buckling, what's Tyson Fury, who's huge good to do? What would what
would Wilder? Even even though Wilder's damage from the Fury fights, what would
Wilder do with that Adam bomb right hand if he thinks Charles Martin handing hard.
So, I mean, there's a couple of things about that. Number
One, he's he's not ready for those guys. Even if he blows away
Charles Martin, everybody understands it's a it's a work of progression. He's got
only fifteen professional fights. Now, that's the first time he ever went past
six rounds and was never tested even in a remote fashion other than about ten
seconds in the first round of the Forest fight, which you know he shok
off pretty well. So there's still room to grow, you know, top
rank. You know. They reported after the show on their post fight show
that Bob Aaron had said that he will be back on another ESPM card in
Tulsa, Oklahoma in August to twenty six. He their their their object has
to have him fight against the original opponent that he was supposed to fight before
they called on Charles Martin. Remember he was supposed to fight the fighter from
Kazakhstan who's who had a problem get his visa done. Now they believe that
with the extra couple of months they'll be able to get the visa, so
he'll be ready and be able to be in the United States to fight him
in August, so that'll be his next assignment. Another Saltba. Again,
it's a work, a work of progression. So I always think I saw
people like they were like jumping off the buildings and burning their hair like that.
It's the end of the world because Jared Anderson got rocked in a fight,
and I mean, I can only imagine what would have been if Twitter
existed. And I'm thinking of like when Lennox Lewis got knocked out in the
first fight he had against Oliver McCall. For when Vladimir Klitchko, who was
a rising star Olympic gold medals, when he got knocked out a stoppage mainly
due to exhaustion, but a stoppage is nonetheless against the journeyman Ross Purity before
he went on to win his first heavyweight title. You know, boxing is
like many things in life. It's what have you done for me lately?
And maybe Jared didn't look the best on Saturday. But I'm not writing a
guy off because he had a rough go. I'm realistic. It's I mean,
I don't think I'm talking like a lunatic here to say. It's very
clear that he might not take the best shot in the world, but you
can sometimes overcome that with the resolve, perhaps tiding up your defense a little
bit. But anybody that's writing Jared Anderson off because of what happened in round
five should maybe take a look at the other rounds of the fight and see
that he dominated, that he landed good shots, he was busy with his
punches. If you look at the comfy box, he literally almost doubled the
number of punches that Charles Martin landed on him. So those are all good
things. So I think everybody should I always say this. I don't get
too caught up in what's happening in the immediate vortex of the immediacy of what
happened last night, I looked at the larger picture, and in the larger
picture, I see a work in progress where maybe he will become a heavyweight
champion and maybe you'll flame out terribly, but we just don't know the answer.
The evidence suggests that he might have problems with the bigger punchers and the
better fighters, but the other evidence would suggest that the way he got through
the crisis is a posit it for him. He knows he can do it,
and he's still twenty three years old and still has only fifteen pro fights
and very few rounds relatively speaking. And so let me give you a couple
of other recent examples that you know, but for the audience as well.
We saw Daniel Dubois, unbeaten British heavyweight, get in there in a scrap
with another unbeaten older heavyweight and Joe Joyce. He got his eye orbital fractured
and he got stopped. Now, Dubois has gone on to win several fights
since then, two or three fights since then, but it's not the end
of your career, and in that case, he got stopped. In the
case of Tony Yoka, the gold medalist from the Olympics, the Paris heavyweight.
Same thing got in there with Martin Buccoli, a veteran who beat him
and you love my phrase, pillared a post and bade him and handed him
his first loss. So this is not unheard of that you get tested.
And in those two guys cases, they didn't come through and didn't win the
fight. At least Jared Anderson for the most part, was in control of
the fight and won the fight. And it's I'll give you another examp what
happens next. How about the great Joe Lewis who got who got starched by
Max Schmelling in their first fight. Yes, and if everybody, I mean
I wasn't around and we did not cover that, we were not forty or
whatever. But I think that worked out pretty well for Joe Lewis because not
only did he come back and become the heavyweight champion, he annihilated Smelling in
the rematch in the first round and went on to have a record setting heavyweight
championship career, the most heavyweight title defenses of all time, the longest rain
in terms of the calendar of all time. I mean, he's got the
most the title defenses in boxing history of any weight class, not just a
heavyweight. So again, I'm not saying Jared Anderson's going to be Joe Lewis.
What I'm saying is, on the night that he got knocked out by
Smelling, it had been easy for a lot of people to write him off.
He came back and became one of the great heavyweights of all time.
And I'm going to use another example, and which is more of my ear
at my time of being around boxing, is Vladimir Klitchko. I mentioned he
got he gotten stopped by Ross Purity. On the night that he lost in
the first for the vacant WBO title against Layman Brewster. Everybody wrote him off,
including his own brother, Vitali Klitschko, And as I've detailed on this
podcast before, how we used that as motivation and from that day forward for
the next ten years he barely lost around and had an amazing heavyweight championship run
and became one of the all time greats and is now safe and secure in
terms of his legacy as a first ballot Hall of Famer. And uh,
and that's that. So I'm not gonna I don't think everybody should be losing
their mind about what happened with Jared Anderson. It's a work in progress.
That's why we watch. It's the saga, it's the soap operas, it's
the story. And Jared Anderson's story is closer to the beginning, it seems
to me, than the end. And let's see if he's active, get
back in there for this fall. They have been fighting him when he's healthy
every three or four months. Let's see he's gonna be back in August.
Let's see. Let's see if they have him back in there in August.
Let's see if he's back. All right, Good enough on that, some
more recap mode. Savannah Marshall does win in Manchester, England, the four
super middleweight title the women's one hundred and sixty eight pound belts in an undisputed
fight with Franshawn Cruise dessern sloppy fight. I watched this and it was hard
to score rounds. I can tell you this. My antenna went up and
I put this on social media and I texted you immediately. That is the
first time I can ever recollect a fighter singing the national anthem before a world
title fight. We have seen athletes singing the anthem before a baseball game or
before a basketball game, But you're talking about the brutality of boxing and Franshawn
Cruise. Dessern nailed acapella the US national anthem. Tremendous job by her,
So I want some nostalgia from you if you ever recollected that in a setting.
But number two, one could argue that was the high point of the
night for her. She didn't do a whole lot other than that. Rayfield.
You'll love my humor, all right, your thoughts in a recap mode.
I mean, I've seen lots of people seeing national anthems that fights because
I've been ringside for so many and watched them on how vision the same goals
for you know, watching all the baseball games and football games. I've been
basketball. Like you said, I've never seen the athlete involved in the event
actually seeing the anthem. So, you know, creditor, she got a
nice voice. What can I say as far as the fight goes, It
was a little sloppy, It was a little messy. He was a little
ragged. It was a little a little a little of of a not the
cleanest fight I've ever seen, but I thought overall, actually was a pretty
good fight. I mean, it wasn't like they stunk it out or anything.
I'd rather watch those two women do what they did to each other over
the course of ten rounds than many other fights I've seen where it's guys and
gals just looking at each other for ten rounds are less or longer and not
doing anything. So from that same point, I had no car with the
matchup. Savannah Marcel congratulations whore she was moving up and wait, she was
coming off the loss for the undisputed middleweight title. In their unification chat with
Claressa Shields, who was ringside actually looking possibly to set up a fight with
the winner a rematch, and she was rooting hard for a franchise cruise disarner.
They had become friendly when each other ever since their first I think they
knew each other in the amateurs for many years, but they had their first
tremendous battle in the pro debut, well each of them, back in what
twenty and sixteen I believe it was. In any event, look, Savannah
did a good job. She she she won the fight, not because she
dominated. She won the fight because she was a little crisper with her shots.
She was a little more accurate. It seemed like with her punches.
She landed them at the better times and was able to get those punches in
more cleanly. And the scores were kind of all over the place. One
judge had a ninety five ninety five, which I thought was kind of I
didn't think it was a draw. I gotta go through the scores. Ninety
nine ninety two, which was way off, and the ninety seven ninety three
that's the way, okay. So I have to interject that I was in
constant communication with our buddy, the boxing writer David Payne, off the obviously
off the year. He and I are going back and forth, and as
the fight is winding down, he said, I smell one card a route
for Savannah Marshall and one card to draw. He goes and he called it.
He's exactly right because the first card they read ninety five ninety five.
I'm like, franchise did not win five rounds. I'm sorry. She looked
in fairness, She tried, but she looked exhausted, like in the third
and fourth round of the fight. She looked out of shape. I'm sorry,
she looked very tired very early in the fight. She did not win
five rounds. In that she probably she probably won bread. She probably won
two of the first three and then maybe one, maybe two the rest of
the fight. I mean, if you wanted to be generous, maybe you
have a six four in favor of Savannah, meaning you give franc on four
rounds. But like you said, it was this this ninety three. That's
sort of what felt like the right kind of score. But again, you
know she she lost, No, she didn't really you know, you didn't
hear any complaints her or or you know, I got robbed type of conversation
after the fight. So it was just it was a pretty good fight between
two of the top women in and around those way classes. I guess you
know, it does set up. I can't say it, we'll be next,
she'll have mandatories, etc. But you got to think though that given
the competition that was in the first fight they had that can petitive spirit of
both of the women, and the fact that it will be a big draw
spirit, certainly in the UK, you know, if they put it on
that them having a rematch would be a big deal. Now is Claressa's point
of view is I will fight her again, no problem, we can do
it at one sixty. If she wants to fight for my belts. I'll
be happy to go fight her at one sixty eight for her belts work.
Claressa was once a unified champion before she gave up the belts and moved down
and wait, but the one thing that Claressa is saying is I fought her
in the UK in the first fight. I want to fight her here in
the United States. And she can't even use Savannah the excuse that, well,
you're not a draw now. Savannah has been a decent draw in the
UK, but Claressa flexed her draw muscle in her class fight where she drew
a nice crowd for her fight that took place against Cornejo a few weeks ago
in Detroit. So it seems to me that the fair thing to do would
be to do the rematch in the United States, given that the first fight
took place, you know, in England. So we'll see if they get
to that point. But I mean, I think that's a long way from
being done. But in any way, it was. It was a good
day for women's boxing, and frankly for not a lot of major fights.
Even the Martin and Anderson fight was entertaining. And there was some tension and
there was interest in it. Now, it was a pretty good fight.
The rest of the card that was on the undercard of Anderson and Martin was
extraordinarily forgettable. I would like to shout out though, the young lightweight prospect
Abdullah Mason was only nineteen years old, who looked absolutely spectacular in his second
round knockout against a journeyman, you know, a guy that lost a few
fights, and Row an older fighter thirty seven years old and Alex da olivera.
But Abdullah Mason is a guy that you're going to be hearing a lot
about in the coming years because this kid can really fight. He's a very
talented, skilled fighter. I forget who it was. Was it Bernardo oh
Souona on ESPN? I forget who was Maybe it was Timothy Bradley, one
of the commentators, So forgive me if I if I can't remember which one
it was made the point that the way that Abdullah Mason boxed reminded them of
the young pretty boy version of Floyd Mayweather when he was a fighter in his
first handful of fights. Mason is now nine and oh with eight knockouts.
I actually was at his professional debut in Las Vegas. He fought on the
night before a Canello fight when MICHAELA. Mayer had her phenomenal fight against Hamma
Douche at the Virgin Hotels and Abdullah Mason was one of the early undercard fights.
And I watched that I and actually inquired with some of the top ring
people about him because he was interesting to me, and they were like,
you know, we think a lot of this kid. He comes from a
boxing family and he's he's a great looking prospect. I'm laughing and smiling.
So that night. The vernacular of the kids today. I don't know if
your son says this or the twins say this, but it's all over the
memes the internet. You did the who diss? Who dis? You want
to know? Whoever heard that was? Yeah? Who? Yeah? Yes,
I don't say it. I'm just saying the kids today, I say
it so or who Dad? That's the Saints, that's the that's the Cajun
vision of it. But in any event, Mason looked good and I know
you want to say one more thing in the recap mode. Besides Marshall's win
over in Britain and Sheffield, England, Dalton Smith with the KAO of Sam
Mitchell one hundred and forty pound. I said, Maxwell, excuse me,
not Sam Mitchell, the basketball power Sam Maxwell, British Commonwealth one hundred and
forty pound title. And this was a bit of a wild fight because Dalton
Smith was also badly cut over the wet eye and then a booming knockout,
and then for whatever reason, Dalton Smith came over to make sure that Maxwell
was okay. But Maxwell's corner was like chirping and erupting at Dalton Smith's corner,
like we were gonna have a corner rubble while their fighter is prone on
the mats splatted, So it was a wild ending. Your your thoughts real
quick in the recap. Yeah, I wasn't really sure what the deal was
between the camps, but I thought that actually Dalton Smith showed a lot of
class in the way he handled stuff. Obviously was very excited about the knockout,
and then when he realized that his guy was still down on the canvas,
you know, they he quelled the celebration right away. He had been
cut because of headbuts over both of his eyes earlier in the fight. And
the thing the reason I'm interested in This is because you know, Dalton Smith
is now fifteen to oh with eleven knockouts. I think he's one of the
best prospects that in boxing. I had him on my Top Pros backlist at
the end of twenty twenty two. You know, he's an exciting and a
talented guy and this was still a little bit of a step up for him,
it seemed to me. And he didn't just take out Sam Maxwell,
as you said, he took him out with one shot. It was a
tremendous right hand. I mean it was like knock out of the Year type
of on that list of great knockouts you'll see this year. Just a tremendous
fight. This was the so people understand where it was. This was the
main event of the Matchum card on the Zone. Besides the major title fight
cards that Natchum puts on. They do fights in the UK often that I
guess would be sort of like their version of like maybe a little bit of
a bigger deal than like say a showbox, and that's what this was because
Adalton spent this an up and coming fighter, but he looked good and it
was a big knockout. He overcame and dealt with the cuts. And what
I think is interesting also is that Natchum has another fighter in one hundred forty
pound way class who fought last week and one on the Edgar Berlanga undercard,
and that is a fighter from New York City, Namer shot Maddy, who
was undefeated, who's dealt with some injuries, but when he's healthy, he
on point. He's a tremendous boxer. So he is managed by Keith Connelly
who also manages Edgar Berlanga, and Keith Connolly had interest in watching the Dalton
Smith fight because he wants to have his guy Rashat Madi fight Dalton Smith.
And he's like, we'll fight him, no problem. Uh. And so
he said to me over this weekend that he watched that fight. He has
message with Eddie Hearn and is interested to make that match. And if they
can actually make that match. Now, I'm not saying it's a big world
championship fight, but his terms of prospect against prospect, that's a meaningful two
guys that you really can see going places. They both have, you know,
championship potential, and they're both very good fighters. Rushot more of a
consummate boxer, you know, Smith has the thunder Also, Uh, that's
a fascinating fight. And I think Conley is serious when he says he would
match his guy up with him and we'll have to see. And apparently what
Keith communicated to me was Eddie was like, yeah, we can do that
fight. Now, Let's see if he he sticks to it and they make
that match, because that's a as a as you want to get down into
the you know, to the to the real diehard, you know, degenerate
boxing fans. That's a really fascinating matchup. If they can make that fight
the loaded one hundred and forty pound division, that is for sure. These
are the next guys bubbling up, by the way. You know, we
can talk all you want about Tiefemo and uh and and all the other guys
that are in that weight class whoever you want to mention. But these two
young guys, a guy like Maddy and a guy like Dalton Spith there that
that there, they even give the division that's already outstanding even more depth.
Some news and then some nostalgia. Interesting that this happened late Saturday night early
Sunday morning, after the ESPN top ranked boxing broadcast was off the air,
that Jared Anderson win in the main event, that andre Ward, the Hall
of Fame former two division world champ who's been an ESPN analyst since twenty seventeen,
announced on social media his contract has not been renewed and that was his
final broadcast. Didn't say anything on the broadcast before, during, or after
the fight, as I wrote about it on the Big Fight Weekend dot com
website, and again, this was part of a mass layoff and firing by
ESPN. Some of it was layoff, some of it was contracts not being
renewed some huge names. And Dan, I know you went through this with
ESPN, and I'm just saying to the audience, I've been through this too,
even at the national level on radio and the local level on radio,
and it ain't fun. We don't want anybody to lose their job, but
it's it's fascinating that ESPN got rid of Jeff Van Gundi, the Premier lead
basketball analyst for their coverage, and he had time left on his deal and
they said goodbye. They got rid of Suzie Kolber, the host on the
Monday night Countdown show, with time left on her deal, and said goodbye.
There were several other of these personalities that it wasn't just we're not renewing
your contract. ESPN under the umbrella of Disney had to cut cost and andre
Ward is part of that. So again, I know you've been through these
things. I've been through these things, but that was a bit of a
shock to wake up Sunday and to read that that Andrea had announced that that
he was part of that. So what is your thought as that comes to
an end here for him as part of the coverage. Yeah, I mean
that does hit at bit home a little bit close to home, because I've
been through the exact same thing. I mean when my contract at ESPN was
not renewed. Remember they were going through a lot of problems. This was
like you know, early pandemic times, etc. It's not fun. I'm
not going to bullshit you, but I have to be honest. I wasn't
totally shocked that Andrea was among those people. Not because he's not an excellent
boxing commentator, But listen, this is the truth. I don't think that
the company, knowing Disney, having worked there for fifteen years, I don't
think. I mean, first of all, there's the cost cutting aspect of
it, when you're going through the roster and you're seeing who's expendable or who
we don't want to have back, or how long they've got left on their
deal, or how much money they're making. I'm pretty sure that Andre did
not endear himself to the executives when he declined to get a vaccine. And
that's the reason why he did so many of the boxing broadcast from his home
during the COVID situation. And then that just keeping it real. But he
doesn't take away from his ability as a boxing brock Catherine, by the way,
to me, it didn't, so I didn't. It did not come
as a total shock to me. Number one. Number two, if you
can get rid of Jeff Van Gundi, who is probably the greatest play by
play guy in the history or I mean boxing u the greatest NBA analyst in
history, who's done what seventeen consecutive NBA finals, or I have a spot
for as the former head coach of the New York Knicks, my team that
I never wanted them on Emmy Awards, and has time left on his deal.
This is not right. This is not contract up in his case.
So if he can be let go anybody can be let go, and you
mentioned another person, and a lot of the people that were laid off are
people that I have known through the years from my association with ESPN. Susie
Colber has been with ESPN for twenty seven years. She was the host when
ESPN two started as a network. It's like the first day. So I
have been friendly for many years with Jalen Rose, who was a huge boxing
fan and who for many years we shared the same representative. And so Jalen
was another one of the people and again one of my personal friends for over
twenty years, Max Kellerman, who was a great boxing person also and knowing
at ESPN because he's done so many other things, but I know him as
the boxing person. That's how we struck up our relationship. I actually had
texted Max, uh, you know, before we started to take the podcast,
just to you know, show my support and tell him, you know,
it's all going to be good, enjoy your summer basically. So again,
I'm not rooting for anybody to lose their jobs. Like I said,
I've been there and it's just unfortunate. So I guess now, in terms
of the boxing broadcast, they didn't announce their plans, but you have still
you know, Joe Testator on Blow by Blow, Mark Regel doing the reporter
role. You have Bernardosun who does a reporter role but also is very capable
and does a great job when he fills down on Blow by Blow like he
did the other night for Testator on the Jared Anderson card. You certainly have
Timothy Bradley, who does a tremendous job also, So they're in good hands
and terms of what they're boxing and commentating team is. But it definitely takes
a hit with the with the with with andre Ward not being there because he
brings uh. I always found when I listened to andre and I listened to
Bradley, they both come at it from the perspective of great Hall of Fame
fighters who've done a lot of things. But they fought in totally different styles
and they have vastly different personalities, and they played of each other pretty well.
You know, andre is a more like I like, thoughtful, serious,
reasoned kind of person when he does his commentary and talks about different elements
of the sport, and Bradley is more emotional, more off the cuff,
uh, funnier. Frankly Uh and so. But the point is they meshed
well when they when you have them both doing the show. So you know,
I think they lose a little bit with with the absence of Ward,
but I don't have a doubt that Uh. You know, Andre uh will
find something else in his in his career. You know, he came to
ESPN as a commentator after HBO ended its run in boxing, where he had
been a commentator along with Max for many years. So you know, I
hope both those guys laying on their feet, and I'm sure they will.
We'll see what happens to. Showtime just did a full length documentary on him.
Showtime obviously in the boxing business, might they want him? And there's
other outlets too, whether it's The Zone and other ones that are out there
that may utilize Andrea Ward. We'll see. It was just very interesting,
like you mentioned, I mean, I've been through these in local radio.
They fired us all dan on a Friday. We knew it was coming,
but we didn't know when they fired us on a Friday, and I had
actually gone home and they made us all come back to pick up a manila
envelope that we had to sign for. We didn't even have a human being
standing there to say, here's your stuff, thank you for working for the
company. You had that afternoon to come find it at the front desk,
signed for it, or you weren't eligible for your benefits and your severance welcome.
I will see through those. I've been through those, my friends.
As it relates to the people at ESPN whose contracts we were expiring, and
I don't know which one of the people that were go that fell into this
category, but every contract ed ESPN has terminology in it where if they're not
going to renew your contract, they have to tell you a certain amount of
days before him. Right. So, speaking in my own situation, I
knew the end date of my contract. It's not like my contract ended and
they called me up and say we're not renewing you. They called me up
within a few days of that window opening and said we're not renewing your contract.
So I knew, you know, before my last day that it was
going to be my last day. I worked to the last day, and
you know that was the way that went. So what I'm saying too,
if Andre's contract was coming up within I don't know if you know, again,
I'm not eating used are. But anybody whose contract was coming up.
If your contract is coming up and you're a month away from the expiration date
and they don't at least engage you in a conversation about a renewal or tell
you they're not going to renew, you know that it's ending. So if
his contract was up in a few weeks, he knew before the show,
which is I'm just making the point that for some of the people who were
not brought back or where let go, it wasn't a total shock on the
day that they announced these layoffs. That's correct what I'm saying. And again,
the key date was July first, because they're trying in a new fiscal
year to get all that off the books, and it's just it's amazing.
I mean, there's another one just to bring this up, and then I
promise we're moving on to boxing news. There's a female SportsCenter anchor out in
Los Angeles on ESPN named Ashley Brewer. Ashley Brewer had been in local TV
on KBC in Los Angeles. She got hired by ESPN. She's been doing
ESPN Sports Center Dan rayphel She has time left on her deal. She's caught
up in this she's getting married next weekend. Let me say again, ESPN
knew she's getting married next weekend and it doesn't matter. So here's something that
somebody told me this once a long time ago in the business, and it's
one hundred percent true. Nobody, and I mean nobody, not the president
of ESPN, Jim Harrow, not Steven ad Smith, not Scott Van Pelt,
not Max Kellerman, not Dan Raphael, not Andrew Word or I should
say, everybody is fungible. Period. Kind of story means you are there
and the next day you might not be there. If Chris Berman, who
helped launch them into the stratosphere, can be walked out of the building,
which he was a few years ago, that it can happen anybody on the
as That is just the cold hard reality of corporate business. I learned about
it, yes, others learning about it. And you know what, those
folks who have contracts that are ongoing, they will be paid out. When
my contract had ended, I had certain money coming to me after that contract
for different reasons. I got paid every dime of my money, So you
know that was that. But the point is, no matter how much you
make, what level you are at that company. If you're working in the
in the in the in the janitor's office, or you're the number one anchor,
or you're in the executive suite, it doesn't matter. We're talking about
this now because a lot of the people are most of the people that were
part of that layoff for non renewals, they were the famous people. They
were the ones that we see on TV all the time. But not that
long ago they did a similar thing where it was the folks that you don't
know who were the people behind the scenes, editors at the website, people
that are in the production exactly behind you. Also from my days there,
but they just didn't get the amount of attention because they weren't the famous ones.
This is the one that was the famous part of it, and it's
a it's a shitty part of the business. But you know, while they're
there, the folks got a chance to do something they love doing, make
a lot of money doing it, I mean, And that's the way life
goes. I spent fifteen years at the ESPN and I was in London covering
a Klitchko Joshua when they went through a whole bunch of layoffs and I had
friends of mine that were laid off, that were at the website and on
television. And I was sitting at a restaurant with some other people in London
having dinner and I got a call from my wife. Did you get laid
off? I said, no, no, no, door, I'm here
and I didn't get laid off. So you know it is It is a
crazy business. And again, look, I mean if the ESPN thing doesn't
happen and you don't start on your travails, you and I would have never
met. Of course, if we might have met, but we wouldn't be
doing what we were doing together. Is that a good thing? Or that
maybe regretting that right about now? I should say here after about a year.
But we came together in part because we both have been searching and found
each other. It's like match dot com or he Harmony. All right,
some news please and then a quick nostalgia and we're done. Anthony Joshua looks
like we have an opponent. Well, no, we don't have an opponents.
Do we have an opponent? Do we do we have initials? Do
we get to play twenty questions on who this is? What do we think?
No, here's the bottom mind. You know, if you if you
listen to Eddie Hearn, he is supposedly Anthony Joshua is supposed to have his
next fight August twelfth. Remember after he defeated Jermaine Franklin, it was I'm
coming back in August and I'm coming back at the end of the year.
And then it was like no. A couple of days later, he made
a post on his social medias that I'm not fighting in August. I'll be
back in December. You know, that's a whole separate conversation. But what's
going on from the end of the year with the whole Saudi Arabia business.
But apparently it seems like he's going to fight in August, and so now
the question is who's it going to be. And so Eddie has been doing
interviews and talking to different people and I wrote about this in my sub stack.
Recently, they were trying to make their rematch with Dillian White. They
had had a very exciting fight. This is in the match right before Anthony
Joshua knocked out Charles Martin to win the IBF title back. You know,
however many years ago that was twenty sixteen. I want to say in any
event with Dylan White went on to become a top contender. Obviously, Anthon
Joshua went on to win the title twice and become one of the biggest names
of boxing, and he's been looking for an opponent and that was a rematch
they were trying to make. But Dylan White, is what I wrote about,
was saying, you know, I got an offer, but I was
doing it for a short money, for the opportunity, but I did wanted
me to sign a rematch clause and I don't want a rematch clause, so
I'm not doing the fight. So now Eddie and subsequent days has said,
well, you know what, we took the rematch clause out and maybe they'll
end up doing the fight. So I guess it seems like the smart money,
I guess would be on Dyllian White to get the rematch, but other
things could happen, I suppose. I mean, one of the things I
thought about was, remember last week on Eddie card, when Edgar Berlanga had
the main event, they had the fight on the undercard between the heavyweights Adam
Konaki and Joe Kusamano and Drew Kosamano has got a very good record and is
built like a truck and scored the win by knockout against Konaki in a tremendous
battle. I thought to myself, maybe if they'll get Kusamano to go over
to the UK. I mean again, they're not looking to put Anthony Joshua
in some mega fight now. Obviously, if he's fighting Dylan White, they
probably put that on pay per view in the UK. You know, if
he was going to fight a Kusamano level opponent, let's say, it probably
can't be a pay per view, I suppose, but we'll have to wait
and see. But I mean, I guess the news if you're going to
fight in August, that you're gonna have to make an opponent announcement, you
know, in the next few days. And that's what Eddie claims is going
to be the case, and we'll see what happens with that. But on
the one hand, I'm glad that Anthony Joshua was going to be more active.
If he indeed gets back in the ring and fights in August, that's
good for him. And I'm interested to see who the opponent's going to be.
If it's Dylan White, it's interesting to me. And speaking of heavyweights.
There's also news that top rank announced with a heavyweight signing the Olympic gold
medalist. Back to your jol Off, tell me more about that, because
now he enters the picture, the prospect picture. Well, he's been in
the prospect picture. I mean I had him, you know, on my
Prospect Lake alsso you know at the end of last year among the very high
high up on that list. He's he's a tremendous prospect. He's he's not
only is he six foot seven and a tremendous puncher, he is twelve and
oh with twelve knockouts. He's also a south spot and he's not a young
prospect. He's twenty eight years old with vast amateur experience, he says the
twenty twenty you know, in the delayed Tokyo Olympics in twenty twenty one,
the super heavyweight gold medal winner. When you win the super heavyweight gold medal
at the Olympics, by definition, basically you're supposed to become the heavyweight champion.
Anthony Joshua did it, Lennox Lewis did it, Vladimir Klitschko did it.
There's plenty of fighters that have gone from that level of amateur stardom in
the heavyweights to become the top fighters, you know, in the division as
professionals, and so you know he is supposed to be that guy. Now.
In the gold medal match in the Olympic Games, he defeated Richard Torres
Junior, who was the silver medal winner, who was now with top rank
in an undefeated prospect, you know that was they had fought once before.
Jaalolov had knocked out a very young Torres like out Cole. Now Torres quitted
himself much much better in the gold medal final. He actually was very competitive
but still lost the fight. But Jaalov also was a guy that when he
came to the Olympic Games and won the gold medal, he already had had
a handful of professional fights. You remember of the twenty twenty Olympics, you
were allowed to have had professional fights and be a pro and still fight for
the Olympic uh, you know, medal. So he did that and now
his last fight we saw he hasn't been in the ring in terms of a
professional fight since November. He had to win over at Curtis Harper that was
on the undercard of the pay per viuit that was headlined by that tremendous fight
between Regis Program and Jose Zapeta. I asked, you know, some of
his people like, why hasn't he been in the ring since November? For
a prospect, you know, it's unusual to be off for that long.
But because he is from Uzbekistan, where they've had a growing mature program,
he competed in in amateur fights since then, or tournaments anyway where the government
pays him a tremendous amount of money, so they may not be reflected on
his official professional record, but it's not like he hasn't been in the ring,
you know, making pay days to you know, to represent his country.
But now that he's with Top Ranks, supposedly he's going to be back
in action and he'll be supposed again from what Top Ranks said when they made
the announcement on the broadcast with Jared Anderson, he's also supposed to fight on
the un on the card on August twenty six, which will be the same
card with Jared Anderson. Hello, he got the two undefeated top prospects in
the entire sport probably who are going to be on the same card professionally now,
just so you know, he has been in the ring, maybe not
professionally since November, as I mentioned, but he's had a whole slew of
the amateur fight since then, because, as I said, he competed for
his country in the World Championships that took place this past spring. So now
he's getting ready to resume his professional career and that will take place in August,
will his first fight with top rank. And like I said, TJ,
this guy is got a Howardzer of a punch, a tremendous puncher,
big, big, big guy, tremendous size, good agility, I mean,
too many. He may be the better prospect frankly than Jared Anderson in
the heavyweight division. And maybe we see those two fight down the road.
Maybe we see a title shot out of one of them before they fight,
and then then maybe they fight in a title fight. I don't know.
Okay, nostalgia, speaking of heavyweights, we got a little nostalgia here to
wrap things up. Okay, just so people know, I was not ringside
for the fight we're about to talk about. We're about to talk about a
fight on July second, of not twenty twenty one, nineteen twenty one,
when I'm an ass, I'm all our Jack Dempsey knocked out George's Carpontier,
you like my French ninety thousand in Jersey City, New Jersey, and uh
mega money for those days and even in eight dollars as well. I just
I, you know what, when when we were thinking about what are we
gonna do for our nostalgia, and I was thinking about it and looking up
other dates and are things that may have occurred in and around this weekend.
You know, it's not a weekend where there's like I can't go back and
find you like a Showtime fight from July fourth weekend or an HBO fight from
July fourth weekend. So I figure, you know what, let's teach our
younger or any our listeners a little about it, the boxing things that went
on before the modern era. Let's say, go back a long time ago
to a what was at the time a huge I mean I've read a lot.
I mean, because I consider myself a bit of a historian, I've
read a lot of things about old time boxing. I do too, and
I go back even to this era. Yes, ye didn't. What I
do. What I do is I actually will go back in like the New
York Times, and you can go and read the actual articles from when they
occurred. So you can go back and read the reporting from nineteen twenty one
on this fight. And I have done things like that for that fight and
other fights over the years, and besides just what the historians say, and
watch the things that you can find on YouTube or documentaries or whatever. So
anyway, today, in twenty twenty three, to mention act Dempsey, George's
Carpentier made a register with most boxing fans. And that's understandable because it was
one hundred and two years ago. They weren't alive. It wasn't like some
you know whatever, not a big deal to them. But I'll put it
in perspective. It was called the fight of the century, which you know,
promoters like the hype things up, but rarely do they do that unless
it's an authentic, big time fight that they don't have the balls to be
that outlandish. But Dempsey and Carpenti really was a huge fight. Dempsey was
the heavyweight champion at the time, had one hundred and eighty eight pounds.
This is before the cruiserweight division existed. Carpentier was the light heavyweight world champion,
a hugely popular star from France, popular throughout Europe, who had fought
all the way from flyweight up to heavyweight. You know, just one of
these fascinating I mean a multitude of weight classes that he had competed in.
Obviously, at that time, there was only eight weight divisions in the sport.
And they built a temporary stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. They
put ninety thousand people there to have this big megafight. Uh and it well
mean people also, and I've mentioned this in the past before, the biggest
athletes in terms of popularity and stardom in the United States at this time in
the nineteen twenties was Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey. I mean, that was
it. That was like you know, being you know, uh who were
the like that's like being uh Tom Brady and Uh, you know who's the
biggest star in uh in basketball, Tom Brady James. Right, So Dempsey
and and UH and Babe Ruth were like the equivalent of that era as Brady
and UH and Lebron Anyway, So this was a huge fight. It was
the first ever million dollars plus a gate in the history of boxing. It
was almost two million, it's like one point almost one point eight million.
I actually went when we were getting ready to do this, I went into
Google and I found like an inflation adjuster, and that one point eight million
roughly in nineteen twenty one is now about thirty million dollars adjusted for inflation.
So if you look at thirty million dollars gates and boxing history, at least
of the modern ones anyway, there's like two Mayweather versus pack Yow, which
was seventy five million, which is a huge anomaly, and Mayweather against Connor
McGregor. You know, even other fights that you might think approach that.
Take for example, Ganadi Glovkin against Canelo Alvarez. One the gate at the
Team Mobile Arena from a fight that was in what two thousand and seventeen or
twenty eighteen, twenty seventeen was twenty seven million dollars. The rematch a year
later twenty four million dollars in change, So that shows you how big of
a deal this was, so first ever million dollars gate, but adjusted for
inflation, the thirty million dollar fight. Also of consequence, we now watch
our boxing on television or streaming. Back then, if you listened or watched
big fights. It was on the radio. So this was the very first
boxing match. I should go back even from heavyweight title or big time fight.
Right. Well, what happened in the old days is the fight would
take place and then within a few weeks you if you wanted to watch it,
you'd have to go to the movie theater and watch the movie. And
a lot of the boxers the way they made their money. You know,
today a fighter goes on pay per view and they make their purse and then
they get what they call the upside of what the pay per view is.
But back then, the fighter would get their purse and then it would know
a few months later they would get what they called the film rights. They
would make money off when whatever the box office. Because this is hard for
the gin's ears and for the under thirty year olds to comprehend. There was
no television back in the nineteen nineteen nineteen twenty nineteen twenty one calendar years.
You had the radio, you had newspapers, or you had the movie theater,
like you're talking about. Even a lot of the movies didn't have sound,
by the way, in that time frame, where you would watch and
you would have a commentator over the top of it going. Now take a
look at Jack Kempsey as they lands a big right hand here about he's doing
it after the fact, and you can, by the way, you can
find some of those videos on YouTube. And you know, and as people
know who follow me at all know I'm a big collector. One of the
things that school, besides having posters of these old time fights that are quite
valuable, is getting the movie poster because a couple of months later or on
weeks later they would go into the movie theaters and those posters are pretty cool
also. So but the point here on Jack Dempsey defending the heavyweight title against
Carpetti, who, by the way, he knocked out in the fourth round.
It was the very first boxing match ever broadcast on the radio, So
the first fight on radio, the first million dollar gate, ninety thousand in
attendants, which is a massive crowd. Obviously, the light heavyweight champion,
big star from Europe coming to America to fight the heavyweight champion. It was,
as they say, a big fucking deal. And it was one hundred
and two years ago on July second, no doubt, and again Jack Dempsey
had won the title on July fourth, Tuesday, two years earlier against Jess
Willard in Toledo, Ohio where they just fought the Jared Anderson Charles Martin.
And by the way, on that broadcast, they made a big deal about
how the bell that they use for that fight that Dempsey won the title and
against Willard was the same bell that they used for the Jared Anderson mark I
didn't say that part. That's amazing one hundred years later that the bell still
works and it's still not rusted out and can be used. But yeah,
it looked like you know, it looked, it looked ats age. Let's
put it like that, but it's don't work. It's great nostalgia though in
and around the Manassa Maller, I need the people to understand that there's more
to boxing than what's on the Zone and ESPN and exactly let's give them a
little more because July fourth does have a little bit of nostalgia for the for
the holiday you mentioned Joe Lewis earlier on the show. Joe Lewis's debut came
in Chicago on July fourth, nineteen thirty four. He knacked he knocked out
somebody that Dan did not cover. Jack Kracken won a name. He knocked
out Jack Kracken in the first round July fourth, nineteen thirty four. And
I turned you onto this. You're trying to swat me, but h July
fourth, nineteen eighty two, now forty one years ago, the late Aaron
Prior, the Hawk. We were talking about Aaron Pryor last week on the
podcast. He fought a Japanese fighter a Kio Kameda on NBC Network TV Saturday
afternoon, July fourth, Cincinnati, Ohio, with Marv Albert and the fight
doctor Ferdie Pacheco. They were live and Prior went down in the first round
on a flash knockdown, got up and knocked out comedo the Japanese fighter on
July fourth, nineteen eighty two. But it's very rare that you get any
kind of a fight card July third, July fourth, in and around the
holiday. You know, by the way, I wasn't swatting you down about
the fight because I'm very familiar with the fight. Because again, besides my
ridiculous obsession with my posters and programs, I have borderline sickness, as we
like to say. But I have a boxing video archive that is at this
point bordering on ridiculous. And I have thousands and thousands of DVDs and vhs,
and I do have a beautiful copy of the original NBC broadcast of Prior
versus Commada in my collection, so I'm very familiar with that July fourth,
nineteen eighty two and Cincinnati. By the way, what I should mentioned,
by the way, the reason that Cameda fight was sort of a big deal
at the time was because that was the fight he had Prior. No pun
intended to the first match. That's the all time great fight with Arguao.
So wow, when he got knocked down against Kamada and now was going in
to fight Argueo a few I mean, this is back when guys fought all
the time. You know, Prior had fought in March of eighty two,
he had the Camado fight in July of eighty two, and then in November
of eighty two is when he had the first all time great fight with Arguao.
But seeing the way he got dropped in that fight, even though he
was the bigger fighter, ar Aguyo was coming up from the smaller weight class
looking to become a champion in another weight class and become the first ever champion
in four weight weight divisions that had never happened. He had won titles,
Arguao had done it, and the featherweight division, the junior lightweight division,
and the lightweight division. Obviously he failed in his attempt to do so in
the you know, in the in the junior weeth weight division. But a
lot of people thought he had a great chance to win because number one,
he was a great fighter, and number two, people were maybe kind of
a little bit down on our prior because of the way he performed in that
fight against committed that you just mentioned. And just also as sad as it
is, you know, our GUYO. We're not we're talking about anniversaries of
fights, but the unfortunately the anniversary of his death in two thousand and nine
took place on July first, So that was a very sad day. I
had met Ourguio several times, just a beautiful human being and took his own
life horribly, took it, had ran out and run into financial problems,
personal problems for one of the great champions. Yes, so you know he
had a lot of a lot of things that went on within outside the ring.
I mean, you can certainly do any reading on that, but is
involvement with the you know, uh fighting against the Sandinista government in you know,
when his country was very big political nests over there um. But putting
politics aside, it's just numbers it as a boxer, like literally one of
the greatest fighters of all time and exciting and you know, even when we
lost the fight with prior, both that fight and the remat's just one of
the greatest fighters ever. Exciting as heck, and just a very very decent
human being. And I'm I'm grateful that one of the things I could do
in the course of my career as a boxing porter was have a chance to
sit and hang out one on one and meet and talk to the great Alexas
are Away. It's one of the most and I mean I had a chance
to meet him on more than one occasion, but there was one time in
particular where I did spend you know a good amount of time with him,
and you know, just an unforgettable experience for me. I absolutely I was
in Los Angeles, I was covering the Oscar dal Ljoya Stevie Forbes fight,
had a chance to meet him in and around that fight and spend some time
with him and just a very memorable, great guy, great a right,
tremendous nostalgia across the board, fight recaps, fight news. You get all
of it here as part of the Fight Preach Unite recap, and on the
Big Fight Weekend podcast. Foret again, Follow and subscribe. Hey, be
safe on fourth of July, not only for Dan, but everybody out there
that's listening to us the amateur fireworks. Be careful with those we see injuries
all the time, dangerous stuff all the time. Be careful with all that
madness. And we're ready to crank back up later this week more in the
preview mode, Virgil Ortiz returns. By the way, you can hear from
Virgil Ortiz if you go back on this podcast feed one on one with Dan
in long form on that so we look forward to seeing him back in action
and much more. My friend, have a great holiday week. We'll look
forward to talking to you later in the week. On the Big Fight Weekend
preview, Dan Ray Peel, All right, that sounds good. Everybody,
have a good weekend. There you go, and I am merely T.
J. Reeves. Follow or subscribe on Apple podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify
to the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. That's where you find fight freaks.
You unite off the weekend. Happy July fourth, everybody