The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, DJ Leaves. Well, we get ready for the
final weekend in October, and that already be the case. We have Tyson
Fury making a twenty twenty three appearance with whatever this is about to be in
Saudi Arabia. We have another world title fight that's going to be going on
in Cancun, Mexico that we're ready to talk about. It is all part
of the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast. I am merely the somewhat capable host.
He is our insider. Fight Freaks Unit is a substack Big Fight Weekend
dot Com as well. Hello Dan Raphael as I come to you from Buffalo,
New York. We do this and the full disclosure, we're doing this
in the afternoon from Buffalo because later tonight as we're taping this and releasing this
on Friday, later tonight Thursday night. I am part of the Tampa Bay
Boneers radio broadcast Buccaneers playing the Buffalo Bills. So I'm in Western New York,
your old stomping ground upstate New York, in this whole region. I'm
here. We're getting this done. It doesn't matter where we are. I
can be in New York, you can be in Vegas, we can be
on Pluto. We're gonna get the podcast done. How are you feeling and
are you ready to preview the weekend and go over some news and more.
I am as always. Why do you even ask? I know, It's
why we have you here. I have been at Niagara Falls a little while
ago, and I did not contemplate leaping. It is some sight to see
for those that have not seen it. We don't get those kind of views
in Florida as well. So it's been a morning here and now we're into
the afternoon, and now we're ready to get into the preview mode. First
of all, thank you for finding us. Make sure that you're following subscribing
to the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. Tremendous content on here all the time,
preview mode, going into the weekend, recap mode coming off the weekend
usually Sunday night into Monday, as will be the case this week. You
also get different content maybe during the week. For example, I put your
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are following or subscribing, you got that interview as a standalone interview this week
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can already see our numbers are tremendous with the tens of thousands of you that
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us and say so more we'll find it that way. All right. With
that being said, I do have to say in Buffalo last night at dinner,
the people we were with, there's some Buffalo people, there's some Tampa
Bay buccaneer travel people. We were all together. We were all together,
and two or three of them knew I do boxing stuff, and they brought
up Tyson Fury and France and Ganu so Dan whatever this is going to be,
it's about to take place Saturday afternoon in US time, Saturday night in
Saudi Arabia, where Fury is not defending the WBC heavyweight O. We gott
to clear some stuff up. This is not a heavyweight title defense, Dan
preaching on it? What is? What is this? Go ahead? We
don't know what the hell this is? Is a trick or is it treat?
You are first? Are you gonna say it first? Five minutes into
the podcast? Say it? Say it with emphasis? What are we doing
here? What are we doing here? All right? So we've discussed this
fight a little bit because of course it is Tyson Fury. They made the
match, and you know, there are people that like it, and I'm
I'm less annoyed by it because I know that everything goes well for Fury.
There's no injuries and all that. The deal is sign He's gonna next fight
Alexander Usik for the undisputed heavyweight title, which is what we've wanted to see.
So if he wants to slip this in, I can't get too upset.
If he was doing this in lua a Nusik fight, that's a different
story. But because Busik is already signed, then at least it makes this
more palatable. And for this event that's taking place on Saturday, they have
put together. In my opinion, a pretty good undercard. I don't love
that it's eighty dollars. It seems a bit overpriced to me, particularly because,
and this is where we're gonna get into a little bit. I can't
get a straight answer, and no one else seems to be asking the question.
Maybe some people don't care. Call me old school. I like to
know what I'm getting. Just be transparent, say the truth. Is this
an official boxing match that will go on their records if Fury wins, If
he loses, he'll add a win or get his first loss, and same
with Nagan who would win his pro debut? Or is this not a official
fight? And no one seems to want to answer that question. I actually
have asked several people that are involved with the event, and either they don't
respond or they say stuff like what's the matter? I saw an interview with
my boy Frank Warren, you know, trying to deflect the question when it
was asked why this match and this event? Not even the undercard is listed
yet on box and Frank, of course, like he always does, has
a smart ass answer that doesn't actually answer the question. I asked the person
who I have a lot of trust in in this business, and half for
many years asked that question who was involved with this event? And the response
to me was, and I quote, it is a boxing contest that is
regulated and fought under the rules of the British Boxing Board of Control. How's
that for a non answer? In other words, yes, there is a
regulatory agency that's going to oversee the event of they have an undercard and all
that, but won't say if the main event is an official fight. So
do we know if there are judges, If there are judges that are going
to score the fight at the end of the fight, that seems to me
that's a legitimate fight. Call me too simplistic. That seems to me it's
a fight. Then that they're going to judge the fight, maybe there's a
knockout, or maybe there's a decision. That's a good question because there's This
is not like if you're in like a fight in Nevada where they have a
commission meeting, you know, a week or two before the event and they
and they appoint the judges and the referee for the for the for the main
fights. I have not seen actually any judges mentioned for this fight. So
I actually I wish I could answer the question. Uh that, yes,
there are judges. I don't know the answer. I know there'll be a
referee obviously. Uh So to me, it's it's just it's typical of boxing
that you can't get the most basic answer. Is this an actual official fight
or is an exhibition? And by the way, no problem either way.
You want to make this an exhibition, Okay, fine, We've seen Mike
Tyson and do it with Roy Jones. We've seen plenty of those types of
fightscently and whether it's done a bunch of them. But at least you know,
when Floyd came out of retirement and had the crossover fight with Connor McGregor,
whether you said it was good that he was making it an official fight
or was farcical because Connor McGregor was in his pro pro debut against the best
fighter of his generation. Uh that's a story that's our discussion for another day.
But that was an official fight. Pero. No one wants to say
what the real answer is on this, and it's a little bit more difficult
to get the answers because it's taken place in Saudi Arabia, so we're not
near there and they have a different way of doing things. And by the
way, as another reference point, I thought of this while you were bringing
it up. When Floyd fought Logan Paul in the summer of twenty twenty one
in Miami, they made it a point to say, this is an exhibition
and there's not going to be official scoring and it's not going on Floyd's official
record as an official fight they or Logan Paul or Logan Paul. This is
in the United States, this is in the state of Florida with the Florida
Commission. But they said we're not gonna have actual judging on this either.
It's not and that was one of those fights, so they at least I'm
going to escaped that one because Mayweather and Logan Paul had a wait difference of
like thirty thirty five pounds. Logan Paul, it walks around probably like one
hundred ninety hundred and eighty pounds Mayweather, you know, soaking wet, it's
like one hundred and fifty five pounds, So that was an obvious thing.
But yes, so again I'm not I've said this one thousand times. I'm
not mad about the event. And if it was an exhibition, fine,
If it was a real fight. I guess, fine, but don't we
as consumers, So you're asking us to spend eighty dollars to know if it's
an actual event, and also not that it's necessarily the concern of the promoters,
but just for the sake of transparency and for doing a solid by their
customers. For those of us who want to wager around the event once,
you want to know if it's an actual fight or not an actual fight if
you want to bet money. So that's the only negative I see about the
whole situation. You know, I've watched some of the videos and seen some
of the stuff that's been put out by the promotion in Saudi Arabia and Riad,
and it's obviously a huge deal there. The folks in Saudi Arabia who
are overseeing this event, you know, who have paid to bring the fight
to Saudi Arabia read season, the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia. They're
bringing in all the top, you know, huge names. Mike Tyson is
already there, as Nagan, who's supposed a trainer. They paid for that.
But I just saw stuff on social media that that Ricky hadn't and Joe
Kalzaggi, two of the great British fighters of all time. They're they're going
together traveling to read. They're obviously they're being brought in, you know.
I I think Eric Morales and and uh and some of the greats uh Roy
Jones. I think there was like a whole slew of greats that are going
to be there on hand at the invitation and the expense account of the Saudist
who are making this into a very big event. So uh, you know,
it's it's a it's a cool thing, I guess, but I just
it's just like it sticks like a little like a splintering. So here's a
real Here's a couple of things points of emphasis. We do have a bet
Us boxing show, which God Willing. After the NFL game that I'm involved
in tonight with Buffalo, I'm flying back to Florida to my home in West
Central Florida in the middle of the night, God willing you and I are
going to knock it out of the park at one o'clock tomorrow. Bet Us
platforms live there. There is a line. The bet Us line has Fury
favored fifteen to one. It has France. I just looked right before we
started taping this. It has it's that low. Actually fifteen to one.
Francis and Ganu is plus eight hundred eight to one. As the underdog,
they have an over under a five and a half rounds. Again, it's
a ten round fight, and again I continue to talk to some UFC people
that have said, look, there's no disputing in Ghanu was the heavyweight champion
in UFC. He's got a lot of knockouts on his UFC resume. He's
got twelve of them. Number one, this is not a UFC fight,
So that's the first thing. The second thing is he basically hasn't fought for
a couple of years, has had a serious knee injury. He's thirty seven
years old. There are more question marks next to in Ghanu than the Riddler
right now about what we're gonna see in Saudi Arabia. Dan Rayfield. When
this was first made, I sort of thought to myself that we're looking at
a scenario similar to what happened when Floyd fought McGregor, which is that there's
no chance that the MMA fighter is gonna win, but that Floyd will try
to make it look good, and he did to his credit like he knew
that from the first minute of the fight that he couldn't that mcgree wouldn't be
able to do anything with him, and so Floyd I believe, I think
many many people believe in the business fans, et cetera, that Floyd Mayweather
did indeed carry Connor McGregor for several rounds, made a good show of it,
and then knocked them the fuck out. Now, when this match was
made between Fury and Nigan, who I kind of suspected we might see something
similar because I've always felt like Tyson Fury is the best heavyweight in boxing,
and France and Nigan who has never been a boxer, even though he's maybe
been a tremendous uh you know, a mixed martial arts fighter fair enough in
different sports. So maybe he would care for a lit while put on a
little bit of a show, if you know. Fury's got that sort of
uh, you know, he likes to put on a show and and and
show off to the crowd and and and do his systeronics and all his nonsense
and you know, make it kind of fun and all that. Uh.
But then when they signed the Yusic bite, my thought was absolutely not You're
not risking you know, a nine figure payday. Uh, get and not
forget about lose, I mean losing. Yes, I guess that's a possibility,
uh, you know, in a in a you know, even if
it's a small percent, but the risk of a cut, of any kind
of hand injury, of any kind of any injury. So in my mind,
if I'm Tyson Fury fuck putting on a show, the money's already in
my pocket. I got the other fight signed. I'm gonna go out there
and just get rid of this dude as quickly as possible. So I've always
had, you know, ever since that fight was made. Uh, and
now more particular that the USAK fight has signed. You know, I joke
around it's Tyson by w E whenever. You know, he's gonna get rid
of him as quickly as possible. Now. You know, look, I'm
not I'm not totally discounting the the desire, the bulk, the power,
uh and and all that about Naganu. I mean you have to give him
respect as an athlete and for the effort he's gonna make. It's not like
he's just you know, gonna be standing there and you know this is not
Mike Tyson versus Peter McNeely. Okay, Francis de Ganho is a superior athlete.
He's a very good athlete. Uh So, I don't I don't know
if it's like one round, but I kind of think as soon as Tyson
Fury figures out even you know, in a in a in a however quickly
he can do so, figures out the distance and and and uh and sets
the pace a little bit and and maybe feels a little bit of what what
nigandhu has got coming to him. He's gonna set him up, and he's
he gonna get rid of him. Okay, and again, guy that walked
to Deontay Wilder in the second fight and and absolutely destroyed him. And and
you can say what joining about Tiantay Wilder, that's a real professional boxer,
Olympic medalist, had defended the heavyweight belt like you know, ten times,
I mean, and he just destroyed him. Fransannan Ganu, it doesn't have
you know, one percent of what Deontay Wilder's done as a boxer. So
I got a hard time seeing anything other than Tyson than Tyson Fury by easy,
easy victory, all right, that's why we're gonna tune in. If
you're tuning in to see and again on the on the NIGANU knockout point.
I don't know this I've had I've not gone back and analyzed his fights.
Neither of you, and neither do either one of his desire to Some of
those could have been kicks, elbows, knees. They all count in UFC
if you put the guy down and he can't get up, and the fight
stop or the county mout or whatever. So we don't know all of that.
You have it, you jump on top of me, you're beating the
shit out of him in the But I mean, what I'm saying to you
is there will be no knees, kicks or elbows. As you know,
he's got to box by the U, as we always like to say,
Marcus of Queensberry rules upright with the gloves up and throw legitimate punches. And
uh, most believe there's no hope in that. By the way, I
must say, and I'm not saying that that France and the gun who was
like showing everything he might have. But I've watched some of the videos.
They've shown a bunch of videos of him hitting pads, hitting mints, both
before he went to Read, since he's been in Read. They had the
workout, and again I'm not saying he's gonna show everything he's got, but
what I have seen, other than the fact that he looks like he's a
tremendous athlete because the way he's built, I mean, he's obviously he's built
like a you know, like a you know, a house, like a
brick brick house. Uh, he just doesn't look like he's comfortable the way
he throws the punches. I mean, you can throw a punch with a
boxing glove on or an m M a glove, but it's a different it's
a different way to do it, bigger gloves of course in a box match
also, And so he just doesn't look really comfortable in the way he's doing
it. And all right, that you would can be concerned about if you
were making your pro debut against just a regular pro debut type opponent, not
the heavyweight champ of the world, you know, who is considered the number
one fighter out there, and and still looks like he's going strong. So
that is Saturday afternoon in the United States, Saturday night, and say,
pretty good undercard. I want to talk about that. I mean, give
me a quick thought or two on the under card, then we'll move on
to the other title fight. Let's go what else is on that? Say
whatever you want about the main event, I mean, whatever, whatever it
is. What are we doing here with the main event in terms of the
in terms of the undercard, like at least they have put together like a
pretty solid pay per view for the undercard, so they have, you know,
in Britain, this is kind of like a grudge match, kind of
a big deal kind of fight and fighting for the British title in the vacant
Fabia Wardley's British title in the vacant Commonwealth title Fabio Wardley against David Adelia.
If you remember back when the press commerce took place in London where they announced
Fury in Naganu, those guys were at the press conference and oh before they
even got into the room, they and their teams got into a brawl on
the red carpet. So that brings a little bit of heat to that.
Theves and ray Field teams show up on the red carpet together. We've got
to keep them all separated, keep the people away from each other. So
these are like, you know, British fighters that are on the rise,
both undefeated, fighting for traditional titles in Britain, and so for them it's
it's kind of a big deal. And it's two of the you know,
better younger guys in in the division. So it does it will take the
winner and put him into a better spot and obviously the loser is going to
have to reassess. And then besides that, you know, you got Joseph
Parker for the former WO title holder. He's in the fight with the with
the Canadian Simon Keane. So he's a good buddy of Tyson Furies but still
looking to make uh you know, his return after having a you know,
a couple of losses of a brutal knockout against Joe Joyce. They got the
Canadian based heavyweight that works with top rank and I the Tiger uh arslnd Beck
mak Mudoff who was fighting junior Anthony Wright. Solid match. You got the
Frank Larren prospect Moses Atama. That's the pay per view. And then even
not even on the pay per view, at least not in our country,
you got Carlos tack Them against Martin McCauley, which you know, seems like
a pretty good fight on paper. So it's all heavyweights, is what they
did for the pay per view. You got the main event and then the
rest of the fight. The rest of the fights on the show or pay
per view, the best of the pay per view fights are heavyweight bouts.
So you know, if you like heavyweights, this is probably your jam.
There. You go on whatever this is gonna be, and we'll recap it
in the recap mode as well. Let's move on for the WBC Junior lightweight
title or what super featherweight, whichever you prefer. WBC prefers to juniors Junior
lightweight championship. Oh Shaky Foster, Eduardo, Rocky Hernandez. All right,
I have to confess I don't know a lot about Rocky Hernandez. So this
is why we go to you World title fight Mexico for Saturday on Dezonne.
Give me some more on this in the preview mode, please. Well,
first of all, the WBC prefers that their weight classes go by the super
I've always used by the junior. It's not any knock on the WBC.
It's sort of like just the habit. But in an event. One hundred
and thirty pounds is what it is. And if you remember Oshaki Foster who
kind of came out of nowhere in February of this year and one a very
impressive, very wide decision over Ray Vargas to win the vacant WBC title.
Remember, Ray Vargas was still is the WBC's featherweight champion. He had moved
up in a wait to fight for this vacant title he lost. He's now
decided he's going to return and continue his reign in the featherweight division. But
what O'shaki Foster, who had been in you know, had been incarcerated and
was kind of going nowhere, talked about how, you know, he saw
a Terrence Crawford fight while he was in jail and it inspired him. You
know, he obviously had been a good amateur before he went away, came
out rededicated himself, and you know what, a few years later he ends
up winning a world title. It's just a great story and one of the
few kind of story. It's only in boxing that you see stories like that.
So O'shaki Foster is an excellent technician, good boxer. Seems like he's
on the straight and narrow these days, good attitude, good record, only
two losses, twenty wins, two losses, eleven knockouts. Anyway, so
this will be his first title defense and he's going to Mexico, so he's
not taking the easy way out in terms of like I'm getting a hometown defense
against a soft touch. Now he's going to fight Eduardo Rocky Hernandez, you
know in Mexico where Rocky Hernandez is front. Now, Rocky Hernandez is an
interesting kind of cat. When he was coming up, everybody thought this guy
was going to be something special, and a lot of promoters wanted to sign
him. He had been briefly with Golden Boy, and when he was with
Golden Boy, in a big shocker in twenty nineteen, he got knocked out
in the first round by Roger Gutierrez, who was a guy that had won,
you know, became a world title holder. But that was a big
shock. He's won all this fights since then, four fights in a row,
all by knockout, and he's a knockout artist. I mean everything is
you know, he's thirty four and one thirty one knockouts. So most of
his guys go to sleep He's never been passed like six rounds to my recollection.
So you've got a clear fight here between the puncher aggressive brawler. You
know, I guess you could say prototypical Mexican fighter against Oshaki Foster, more
of a technician, more of a guy that relies on boxing skills, and
we'll see which one of them can inflict their style on the other. Honestly,
unless Rocky can catch Foster, it's sort of hard to pick against Foster
in this particular spot, but it could be a pretty good fight. We'll
see. What if I told you on the bet us line will handicap this
fight one Eastern time Friday. It's a fifty to fifty fight. They have
they want equal wagering. They have Oshaki Foster minus one fifty going into Friday.
They have Eduardo Hernandez at plus one point thirty and an over under of
ten and a half rounds. They believe this is a fifty to fifty fight.
Very interesting. I mean, I'm sure part of that. Part of
that is the fact that it's in Mexico, and in looking at his record,
which I was doing while you were talking about that. In twenty fourteen,
Rocky Hernandez won a six round decision against an two to one fighter and
has never been into this past six rounds since most of them much earlier than
that. So to me, it seems like the question would be if Foster
can get him deeper into the fight. You know, we'll have to see
what kind of stamena Rocky has since he's never been that deep. That's not
to say he can't do that, we just have never seen it, but
it does it makes you ask the question. So from a style point of
view, they definitely seem like they have contrasting styles. And you know,
that'll be on after the Fury fight, so because that's the the Zone show
later on in the evening, so that's the main event. And I'm actually
interested by the way, you know, besides seeing Foster in his second fight
since when you know, after the you know, winning the title, then
this first defense since then, I'm kind of intrigued by not intrigued, because
I think it's like some kind of great matchup. But the co features it's
a seven to zero Australian fighter named Justice Honey, who was supposed to be
like the best young fighter out of Australia in terms of heavyweights. He's only
twenty four years old, so he's taking a show on the road and he's
fighting Andrew Tabeti, who is by no means would be considered a great fighter.
He's twenty and one. He's one loss came when he got devastated by
Janiel Dordikos back in a cruiserweight world title fight. This was in the World
Boxing Super Series in twenty nineteen. Now he's been pretty inactive since then.
He didn't fight in twenty twenty, only had three fights since losing that fight.
But he's a real guy, and you know, he's been fighting as
a heavyweight since twenty twenty two. He's had the one fight that was,
you know, at two hundred and sixteen pounds. So I'm kind of interested.
You've got the seven to oh guy that's supposed to be the truth that
we'll see if he can live up to the hype that he's gotten from the
Australian boxing fans and media and taken on like a very reputable American even if
it's a little bit smaller, and we'll see what he can do. So
from my perspective, I'm sort of very interested to see Honey and what he
can do against a known commodity in Ta Bedi. And I did look at
my trustee, Dan Rayfield's schedule that's always out on the sub stack on the
Facebook page. And Honey is not like honey that we like to eat or
I call my wife honey all the time. It's Huni pronounced honey the Australian
and only Rayfield is going in the weeds on the opponent and the opponent's opponent
in the preview mode. This is why we love you, This is why
we love I love that Tabidi was in the world boxing super serious. He
did fight for the world title, uh the vacant IBF title against Dordikos,
who was a great puncher and scored a sensational knockout. I think a lot
of people in that fight was overthought, you know. With Dabdia ever even
fight again. He took a long playoff and he's come back with three wins,
including one at heavyweight, and so we'll see what he can do.
But it certainly seems like a reasonable test for Honey, who's only seven to
zero. So you know, see, we get some value for our time
when we watch these Dezone shows or any show for that man, we like
it. I like to think that this podcast is decent value for our time.
You question that sometimes, All right, let's move on. By the
way, we have played it up a bunch. Amanda Serrano's title fight is
Friday Night Fight Fans in Orlando against Danilia Ramos for her featherweight championships. We've
been over the intrigue of the twelve scheduled rounds three minute rounds, which there's
not been a women's title fight. What did you say, since seven is
the only record that we can think, We think that's the last that it
was scheduled for that scheduled for twelve with three minute rounds. And I like
what she said to you on the podcast. We had her on the podcast.
You previewed it with her. You went over one on one. That
doesn't mean I have to go twelve rounds and it may go less. It
may it may go a lot less Friday Night. She's an overwhelming favorite,
obviously Dan on the bet Us line. So I don't know how much time
when you to spend on this, on this podcast or on the show.
She's twenty to one to win. The only question would be, are you
looking at knockout here? Which she has some knockouts that would be kind of
juicy, as we like to say, if you're looking to wager. But
there you go. Any quick final thought before that happens Friday night? Is
we I mean the one thing on Friday? I mean Ramos is not?
Does I mean she's not got the experience level of Amanda cerel a few women's
boxers do? I mean? Toronto has you know, a long track record.
She's been to pro fourteen years, forty five wins, two losses and
draw thirty knockouts. Are pretty good puncher by women's standards, world champion and
seven different weight classes. And her opponent, although an interim title holder of
the WBO and a mandatory, hasn't had the type of experience level only twelve
and two, only has one knockout, so it doesn't seem like she carries
much power. Thirty eight years old, older than Amanda Serrano by three years,
and Toronto, of course, has proven herself over the years to be
not just a quality fighter, but a bona fide future Hall of Famer and
just a tremendous fighter period. So you got to look at it and think,
Okay, Sorono's gonna take our business. To me, it's all about
can she win impressively? And what's after this? I mean, obviously she's
got to focus on the fight at hand. Are we going to get a
Daty Taylor rematch, We're going to get some other fight against one of the
other bigger names in women's boxing. We'll see. I mean, but I
think Alanda's got the right attitude. She's she's her. Her attitude is I've
done everything I ever dreamed about doing in boxing. I mean, she's been
high on the pound for pound list, she's been in the seven division champs,
She's been in the biggest women's money fight that there has ever been in
This which was the great matchup she had with Katie Taylor, turned out to
be one of the if not the greatest women's fight we've ever seen in terms
of the action, putting the commercial aspect aside. So she gets to a
point You're like, Okay, what else am I doing? You know,
you want to be motivated, you want to have something else she So Amanda's
big thing is she wants to set the standard. She wants to have other
rising fighters, you know, on the female side of the sport look up
to her. To sort of try to set the groundwork of where they should
be, and she believes that one of the ways to do that is to
do the same distance as men, to show yes, we're women fighters,
but we can do the same as the men. So we can go twelve
rounds, we can go three minute rounds. I thought she made a great
point to me in the podcast which taken here in the last episode, which
was about the fact that when she goes to train at the gym, the
bell the in any boxing gym is standardized and set to three minutes, you
know, when they do a sparring. She's like, I'm not going to
go out there and say, hey, I'm a woman king, you reset
at the two minutes. So she's always sparred three minute rounds and as used
to that, so she wanted to put that into into effect. They were
able to between her manager and trainer, Jordan Maldonado and Nikisa Badarian did Jake
Paul's partner at MBB Promotions, along with the cooperation of the Florida Commission,
we're able to get this women's fight done for that format and following the footsteps
says the same as if it's were men's championship fight, and so it'll be
interesting to see if it does what the desired effect is, which is a
make it more exciting, because she believes that having a longer round gives the
combatants a better chance for a knockout. Obviously, you get to the last
minute of a three minute round, you're a little more tired. Obviously,
you maybe a little more ragged with your punches. Leaves yourselves a little more
open in terms of your defense and might lead to some more chaos. So
we'll see what happens in terms of if that. I'll be interested to see
if she, if either of the women, Ramo score, Serrano score a
knockout, I'll be interested to see does the knockout occur in the third minute
of the march as opposed to in the first, you know, thirty seconds
of the round, a first minute of the round. That's been a long
standing argument the last three or four years for having the longer rounds and more
drama on a past. A fighter's hurt and you can't put them away because
it's a two minute round, because they're wobbled like I've never heard. So
we'll see we're gonna I've never really had like a strong opinion one of the
other. My viewpoint has always been if they want to do it two minutes
and the commissions want to do it that way, that's fine. If if
the if they if there's a real movement to make it three minutes and twelve
rounds for title fights, Okay, I guess that's fine too. I never
really I didn't really care one way or the other, so I'm I'm cool
either way. Like if the if they want to, I could see a
scenario where there are some places in this country where the default is two minutes
for a women's match, but if both sides agree to three, they'll go
three. Can't say the same about the term of the number of rounds,
uh, ten or twelve. I think most of them are still women are
all are all ten rounders, except they're making this exception. Uh. The
other thing about it is, you know, she is the undisputed champion,
but as as we talked about, it is not for the WBC belt.
The WBC is an organization and as respectfully said, look, we're not going
to sanction women's fights for twelve round fights or three minut rounds. They claim
they have medical documentation or research or however you want to describe it, to
say that it because men and women, obviously we are built differently, that
they don't believe that that is conducive to having the best health for a fighter,
and so they're not looking to do that. And Amanda was she was
cool. She's like, look, I respect their decision. I hope that
I can prove that someday they'll change their mind and do the same. But
so the main thing here is for the technical point of view, it's for
the three belts, not for the four belts. Clarification on that and again
Friday night, folks, as we released the podcast, is the Serrano Ramos
fight coming on dizone and so there you go on that as part of the
Championship weekend, some news and some nostalgia before we get out of here.
So they've made it official. The Monster Naola in a way, Marlon Topoulos
will fight for the undisputed junior featherweight titles, all four of them in Tokyo
the day after Christmas. You had been talking about that, It's been out
there, it's now been made official. Quick thoughts. I know we got
a couple of months before it happens. But quick thoughts on them making an
official What can you say other than Naya in a way just wants to go
big game Hunting's whoever's got belts is who he wants to fight. He's not
ducking anybody. So happens at the place scored the upset over Akmadalia have won
two of the belts last spring, and so when in a way finished polishing
off Stephen Fulton to win the other two belts, you know, because Fulton
was unified, he said, okay, next up, I want to go
for undisputed. So if he wins the fight, he'll have become a two
division undisputed champion in the four belt ear in two weight classes in the span
of one year, which is quite impressive. I mean. The only other
mailboxer, as we've talked about before, who's ever been undisputed in two way
classes that was, of course Bud Crawford, who did it as a junior
welterweight in twenty seventeen and did the same as a welterweight when he knocked out
Arrol Spence in the summer back in July. So that's pretty you mean in
the four belt era, in the four said yeah, four belt here,
one hundred. Yeah, this is everybody needs to remember. It's four belts,
not three to two one. In a matter of fact, in terms
of the junior featherweight division, which has existed in it's uh since like the
nineteen seventies, roughly, this will be the first time there'll be an undisputed
champion period, whether it's in the multi let's call it the multi belt here,
not a one beltier but two, three or four to win this fight
will be the first one to ever achieve undisputed status in any of the multi
belt eras. So that's another feather in the cap for the guy that wins,
and certainly in a way, he's going to walk into the ring as
a not to use the pun but a monster uh favorite in this fight for
obvious reasons. I mean Tapolis is a good fighter, but I mean,
let's be honest, the levels are different. He is, he's a good
fighter in a way, is a great fighter, and uh, I'm glad
the Paulis took the fight. I mean, I'm not sure why he win.
It's the biggest money by by gazillions compared to what he would make in
a normal defense of his two belts. And for in a way, Look,
it's just another another fight on the way to what I think when it's
all said and done, is going to be the legacies. Maybe the greatest
Japanese fighter of all time, maybe one of the greatest small weight fighters of
all time, a first ballot Hall of Famer, just a truly special fighter,
no doubt about all of that. Okay, So again, as we
mentioned, you had Oscar de la Joya on previous podcasts and we put that
up as a standalone this week, and on that podcast you were talking to
him about Virgil Ortiz. You now have a little further update on Ortiz's timeline
and return. Tell us more. Well, it's not really an update,
it's what Oscar and I talked about, and I thought it was worth talking
about the fact that there is a plan in place now for the return of
Virgil Artis because anybody that's followed this knows that the trials and tribulations that Virgil
has had that blood disorder, he's had problems making weight and so therefore he
has been forced out of various fights. He's only had four fights in four
years. He will not have fought at all in twenty twenty three. Many
people were very excited and interested in his mandatory fight against the WBA Regular title
Holders titleholder Inmantisanionis that was postponed three different times and then finally canceled. One
of the reasons was because of a Stanionis issue. He had had to have
an epidecmy. But Virgil, you know, two times for different reasons.
So it's been you know, kind of left his career in a little bit
of tatters, I guess. But when I was talking to Oscar, I
was very excited about the fact. He said, look, Virgil is good,
he's been in the gym, he's healthy. They've made the decision.
They're going to go up and wait, he said, one to fifty four,
perhaps even one sixty. But the bottom line is the plan, and
again nothing is set in stone. But the plan you know, in pencil
right now is for Virgil to be back in the ring in January, probably
the second week or third week of January, in a dezonned fight. And
they're working on the opponent. But it's hopefully if he is able to go
through the camp and be healthy not have to pull out, and he can
get it a weight that's comfortable where he can actually make it without crazy,
crazy struggles for even one fifty five or one fifty six. It's not a
title fight, so there's nothing that says he can't fight over one fifty four
to get on a little bit of a on a streak. You know,
if he can fight in January, I would think there'd be no reason why
he couldn't fight three times next year. And I wish him good luck.
He's still only twenty five years old. He's nineteen and ohero with nineteen knockouts
he has, you know, the kind of potential and the exciting style.
You want to see him be successful. And I hope that he can put
this rough spot behind him and get back in the get back in gear,
all right. And by the way, you also talked to Oscar about the
return of Ryan Garcia and midweek on Wednesday. As a matter of fact,
they had the kickoff press conference for his return against Oscar Duarte December second in
Houston. Oscar was there with Ryan and with Duarte for the press conference.
And just my thought on this, and we wrote about it on the Big
Fight Weekend dot com website on the conversation about taking a fight again. It's
a guy that's twenty six and one and is one eleven fights in a row.
Ryan put it out there and said I can't take easy fights, and
I think I like that mentality your thoughts here. Again, we got some
time before they get in the rating, but they started the hype for this
look. I thought from them as soon as I heard about when they were
trying to set up his fight and they mentioned Duarte and they mentioned Pedro camp
as the other possible opponent. I thought both those guys were perfectly reasonable for
this type of fight, coming off with the knockout loss. They picked Duarte.
It's a solid fight in my opinion. I like Ryan's attitude about you
know, he's back in the gym training with Derrick James. He's talked about
how like they didn't try to put this fight on pay per view, even
though he did huge numbers with Tank Davis. He understands that that it's got
to go both ways. That you can go on non pay per view and
then if you want to do a bigger fight that's really something the fans want,
you go on pay per view. The other thing I liked about Ryan's
attitude is this and I had I had a conversation with him in the past
about this. Ryan. You know, most fighters, when you talk to
them, especially when they're young and coming up, Yeah, of course they
will to make money, let's not kid our sauce. But they also have
a burning desire to be a champion. They want someone to give them a
world title with a big win. They want to wrap that belt around their
waist. They want to show it off to their family, friends and fans.
They want to be able to put it up on the mantle or put
it in a nice glass case in their in their office of their house,
or their their game room or whatever. Ryan was never about that. I
talked to him many times and I would ask him that. He said,
you know, he didn't really care about titles. You know, it just
never seemed like it was important to me. You know, he had an
interim lightweight title for you know, a minute there after his Louke Campbell victory.
But now he's talking about Look, he's it's kind of dawned on him
that if you want to really truly create a legacy in boxing, part of
that's being a champion. And so he he has come around and I guess
now is much more outspoken about you know what, Yeah, I do want
to be a champion because that's what validates the career. You can make all
the money in the world. Of course, to be validated as one of
the best in your sport, you have to be a champion, and I'm
glad to see that Ryan's taking that attitude. Now, it's not going to
happen with the victor of our tepe, but it's going to put him on,
you know, the comeback path. I'll have shaken off the loss to
Tank Davis and he'll be in position to fight for a title in the one
hundred and forty pounds way class because, as Oscar said and we talked about
on the podcast, whatever you think about the loss to Tank Davis at one
hundred and forty pounds, Ryan Garcie is the rain maker title or no title.
He's the biggest name who generates the most money, more than t Fimo
Lopez, more than Josh Taylor, you know, more than Regis Progra,
more than than than Jose Ramirez, more than a man than any of these
guys, more than you know, anybody you can think of out there.
So he's going to be able to, you know, get that opportunity.
I would think maybe, you know, his undercard is supposed to include the
WBA's interim title fight because Roly Romero is sidelined, so Ishmael Barroso and O'Hara
Davies are supposed to fight for that interim belt. Depending on ren Roly comes
back, it wouldn't be out of the realm to see Ryan maybe fight that
winner set himself up possibly for the fight against Rolely Romeiro, which is what
he's wanted. As as Oscar talked about, there's been a lot of conversation
between him and Bob Aaron about seeing if they can find a way forward in
twenty twenty four to do a match between t Theemo Lopez, who's the actual
lineal champion and the WBO title holder to fight against Ryan Garcia. How big
of a deal would that be? I mean, Tank Davis and Ryan was
a big, huge, million plus selling pay per viewfight. I don't think
that Ta Themo Lopez and Ryan Garcia is on that level necessarily, but that's
still at one hundred and forty pounds Tiathmo Lopez defending the title against Ryan Garcia
is as big as it gets, and I think that would be a huge
event. I would love to see that happen, So we'll see to win.
It's got to win come December though, before any of that can be
that's really further discussed priority number one on that one one more news item and
then let's get to our nostalgia. Chris Billum Smith is going to make the
first defense of his WBO cruiserweight title and this is also coming up in December.
Tell us more about that, including it's going to be televised in the
US as well on a new deal with with that, So tell us more.
Well, Billin Smith is one of these guys. When he was coming
up, You're like, you weren't really sure can he Can he really get
to that next level in the cruiserweight division. I mean, he had a
good style and he seemed like an awfully nice guy when you see him interviews
and that everything. And then he went out there and he beat Lawrence o'coley
and he scored several knockdowns, three knockdowns in total, and he won the
WBO title. Remember him and o'coley where good Buddy's going in and o'coley fought
as negative as you could fight, But Bill and Smith overcame that and won
the fight. Further, let us remember, let us remind ourselves who had
Bill Smith on the money line that night at plus three fifty for the win.
I will take credit for that one. I don't get them all right,
but I got that one right now. You have said, not in
a mean way, but in an analytical way. He is a limited fighter
from what you've seen, But give him credit for guts, give him credit
for scoring big punches. He got the title, and now you're going to
reap the benefit and make a title defense and presily make a little more money.
I don't when I say limited, I don't use that as a as
an insult. There's plenty of guys who are kind of limited who I'd rather
watch way more than my guys with super amounts of skills. So it's not
a knock on them. You know. I'd rather watch billan Smith any day
of the week than Lawrence o'coley. You might have more technical ability, but
puts everybody to sleep. And I don't mean with his big punch, which
he does have punch. He just puts them asleep because he doesn't really come
to fight. So billan Smith is going to defend. This is gonna be
his first defense since he defeated O'koley is gonna be fighting a coss solid,
very solid Polish fighter, Mettias Masterneck, who's you know, fought some good
opponents. They've shared an opponent together that they both knocked out. As you
mentioned, it will be on in the United States, which I like it's
part of because it's a Boxer event. As we've talked about, they recently
made a deal where their events are going to be a shown here in the
United States on the Peacock streaming service. They'll have certain events on NBC,
but this one will be on Peacock, so that's to me, that's a
great thing. And this is a pretty solid matchup. And in addition to
announcing this particular title defense for Chris Billin Smith is that he extended his contract
with Boxer and that means his so he's gonna have this fight coming up on
December tenth. It's actually a Sunday, by the way, which is kind
of unusual. Usually these fights are on Saturdays. But apparently, according to
the way Boxer said it when they made the announcement, he won because it's
taking place in his hometown of Bournemouth, England. They have I guess,
their locals, their football club, their soccer club has an important match on
the Saturday. He wanted his people to be able to come to the fight,
so instead of having it on the same day as the soccer match,
they're having it the next day. So that's cool, I guess. But
his year is going to end with that fight, and then his twenty and
twenty four with having signed this new agreement with Boxer, he's looking at very
likely his two fights, a mandatory against Richard Riocopore, who is also a
very solid contender also with Boxer, and then unfortunately he's got a mandated rematch
in the contract to do against Lawrence o'cauley. So maybe that's not the greatest
fight we've ever heard of, but at least Bill and Smith's got his ducks
in a row. He's got some good fights to look forward to, at
least in terms of the Master Neeck fight and then Rickapore. We'll see if
the if the Okolei rematch comes off, but they're making some moves and in
Britain, cruiserway is a much hotter weight class than it is most anyplace else.
In the world and a feel good story for Bill and Smith. As
I remember, and I honestly don't know the update. His mother has been
very sick with breast cancer. She lived to see him get a world title.
He also has like a one year old, like a toddler, and
he said, this is the neatest thing as a dad, and I'm going
to get to share a world title belt with my son. So tug at
the heartstrings a little bit there. We'll see what that guy can do.
Let's wrap some with some nostalgia. It's unfortunate that this is an anniversary about
the passing of a legendary Hall of famer as a trainer, Emmanuel Stewart.
You can't think about boxing trainers at least I say this without thinking about this
guy in the eighties, the nineties, the Kronk Gym, and I know
you were very close to him covering the sport, and this is the anniversary
of his passing this week, eleven years ago. I don't know if I'd
ever met anybody in boxing my entire time around it, whether it was another
media person, a fighter, a manager, a TV person, a promoter,
a fan who did not have anything but respect and admiration for Emmanuel Stewart.
To many people he was boxing because they loved him from his HBO commentating
days. Just an absolutely brilliant broadcaster, tremendous on the mic and you could
just feel the enthusiasm he had for the sport through the television screen and listening
to him talk. I mean, I watched somebody had posted, you know,
because it was the anniversary of his passing this week, and there was
a lot of remembrances on social media, and I saw somebody on put up
a video. It was like a compilation of some of his great calls on
HBO, and you just you get so excited. I can just remember him
when he was calling the Mickey Ward Arturo Gaddi fight, and in particular the
way he called round twelve when James Tony knocked down Vasilly Jerov in the all
time great Cruiserway title fight. And what I remember about that specifically is,
yeah, it was a great call. I was ringside for that fight,
so I wasn't watching it on television until later, but I heard the call
because I was sitting right behind him Manuel on the HBO broadcasters and the arena.
For whatever reason, that night at the fox Woods, because you know,
was so dead and so like non enthusiastic despite this great fight. I
could clearly hear them calling the fight. We're in my press seat, so
I heard the call like sitting, you know, a few feet behind him.
Anyway, Emanuel was a wonderful guy, a great trainer, a great
motivator, a great psychologist, a great manager, a great commentator, beloved
by everybody, and he's got the body of work as a trainer to back
it up. I mean, here's a guy that was able to take guys
from day one and build them into champions. The Tommy Hearns and others in
the Cronk Gym. He was a guy that could come on as a hired
gun. You know, he's in the corner with Oliver McCall when he knocked
out Lennox Lewis, and then what happens He's now in the corner with Lennox
Lewis when they have the rematch. I mean, you know, just to
swim which switch spots like that. Uh. He was able to be the
guy that was took on Vladimir Klutschko as a reclamation project and brought him back
from the brink of basically being finished to having that long championship brain where he
was champion for ten years. Now, the end of that was after Emmanuel
passed, but the bulk of that, most of that was with Emmanuel in
the corner. He has a bit of a coach. You know. We
talked about in the NFL. You know, because you're an NFL guy,
the coaching tree they do it in college basketball, the NBA, NFL.
Well, he's got a training tree from the Kronk. You know guys that
that are today. You know sugar Hill Stewart who was Tyson Fury's turner,
that's his nephew. You look at Jonathan Banks, that was his heavyweight.
I mean, there's there's others that that followed that Kronk path that where they
learned the craft from was those days in the gym with Emmanuel Stewart. Uh.
I got a lot of stories about Emmanuel in our time that I spent
with him over the years. I mean, and what I miss about him
is that just that random phone call, what's up, brother, What what
you got going on this week? You know? And me, you just
want to talk boxing? He was like, I'm telling you, swear to
God, this is to me, he's like the boxing pied piper. Like
you would go to an event and you might I would like run into him,
you know, in the hotel or you know, at a way in
or whatever, coming out of a press conference, and you know, we
would stop and we would talk and and and inevitably, within a few minutes
there'd be ten people, twenty people, fifty people, and he would just
stand there forever, talk to everybody, take the picture with everybody, sign
the autograph for everybody, always with a smile on his face. This man
could talk boxing. You could. You could wake him up out of a
dead sleep at four o'clock in the morning and he asked him a boxing question,
he would give you his opinions. I remember being in Montreal, Canada
for I think it was for a Bernard Hopkins fight. I think it was
when he defeated Pascal to become the oldest champion, and we were it was
myself and Emmanuel and three or four other people, and we were sitting at
a place hotel and h It's like a Thursday afternoon. He's having a beer,
having a lunch, and we could have sat there for fucking five hours
and talked about boxing. Because he was so into it. Those are those
are the things I remember about about Emmanuel. Just just a beautiful person and
on this him every day. And it is well known, well documented that
he was a father figure and took a lot of these fighters in in Detroit
to live with him, cook for him. They didn't have a place to
stay. He was training them out of his house before they got the gym
back in the early eighties. So he grew the sport. He grew the
sport with world champion after world champion, not just Tommy Hitman. Hearn is
the legend, but others out of that. So he trained a tribute over
He trained, like you know, over over two dozen world champions at one
term or another. You know, he was responsible. I mean, we
all know about Lennox and Hearn's and Klitschko. Those are like the three I
think most people identify with him, but tons of other fighters. I mean
Michael Moore, uh for exus sample, He's one example. You mentioned my
guys would live with him. He took Michael in and Michael lived with him
in Detroit in his house. He did it. I've talked you know Andy
Lee, who's the former middleweight WBO champion was another guy that he had when
when when Andy began his pro career and he came from Ireland and relocated to
the United States, he lived with Emmanual. I mean they were like father
and son. I mean I've talked to Andy about that. I mean,
and no, those are just two examples. I think there's probably fifty examples
of that. I mean, all those type of guys, you know,
whether he worked with Mike McCallum as a manager, worked with you know,
just so many great fighters over the years. It's I feel bad because I'm
forgetting some of them, but there's just so many of them. It's just
there are few few guys like that. And like I said, guys that
can do it from either bring a guy from O and O into the championship
level, come on as a hired gun light in the guy's career for like,
you know, one fight to try to get them, you know,
back on course, you know, to take that big paycheck and but but
do something significant with the fighter. Or bring on a guy as a reclamation
project like I mentioned about Klitchkow and basically turn his entire career around. There
was nothing he couldn't do. What can I say, love it. Great
tribute there to Emmanuel Stewart, and we should keep those memories alive, great
great figure in boxing. By the way, just real quick before we get
out of here, there are a lot of birthdays in and around here for
Friday. What do I see, Orgey Pie is how about this? Zab
Judah Sean Porter all share the same birthday on Friday, obviously different years.
Some are older. Shawn's the youngest one of that group. Happy birthday to
all of them. We love being nostalgic here to wrap it up on the
Big Fight weekend preview? Anything else in closing before I get on my way
again. As we tape this, I have the NFL Football duty Saturday on
a Friday night, my days where I messed up on Thursday night for the
Buffalo Bills. We fly back in the middle of the night. You and
I do the bet Us Live show at one Eastern time, and then obviously
whatever is happening with Fury and and Ghana and the O'shaki Foster title fight will
recap all of it off the weekend Sunday night into Monday. Anything else before
we're good here, I think we're good. I just I'd like if somebody
out there is listening and they could tell me if the fury and a gun
it was an actual official fighter dot Please let me know. You've got my
email, my text, you can hit me up on Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook. I'm here for you. Somebody let me know. Baby. Well,
we'll find out, hopefully by the bet US Show one Eastern time on
their platforms Friday, one Eastern time, live on the bet us YouTube,
Twitter, Twitch, all of it. With that, Dan Rayfield, have
a good Thursday into Friday. We'll talk to you on that bet US show.
We'll come off the weekend with a Fight Preaching Night recap. What do
you say about that? Thank you, my friend? I say that sounds
good to me. There you go. There is the insider Dan Rayfield reading
more on his Fight Preaching Night substack at Big Fight Weekend dot com. I'm
merely Tjreeves. You've been listening to the Big Fight Weekend preview