The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, DJ Leaves. Well, we are ready. We've
been waiting. We've been waiting a while, and now we're going to get
an undisputed heavyweight title fight for Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik. Of this part
of the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast, I am the somewhat competent host TJ.
Reeves. He is our insider Fight Freaks U Nitis his substack Bigfight Weekend
dot Com. Hello, Dan Rayfiel. Always good to be with you.
I know you are still a bit under the weather. People will hear that
because this is an audio pod. I hear on this, but you weren't.
Hey, look you were gonna post because it's not often. In fact,
it's been what practically twenty five years since we get a heavyweight title fight
for all the belts. I mean, there have been a lot of significant
heavyweight title fights since this is it the first and the four belt Somebody's going
to walk out four belt undisputed. Forever long that lasts, we'll see.
But in any event, good to be with you. You weren't gonna miss
this, and we're ready to go to preview the weekend and including some news,
some nostalgia, all that we're gonna do. You know, you talk
about four belt undisputed champion is going to walk out of the ring for however
long. Well, that's the that's the thing about it. I mean,
yeah, we've taken twenty five years to get here since Lennox Lewis defeated a
Vander Holyfield in their rematch. And by the way, I Vander Holyfield and
Lenox Lewis are both present in Ria to be there for this fight, and
you'll be part of the event, which is which is a cool thing.
But the reality is that four belt champion is going to be the four belt
champion for not to reign on anybody's parade. It doesn't diminish the fighter,
my interest in it, or shouldn't diminish the fans interest in it. For
sure that within a few days after this fight takes place, assuming there's a
winner, not a draw or a no contest, they're not going to be
the undisputed champion anymore in terms of holding the belts. They'll be the lineal
champion, and they'll obviously be the undefeated number one fighter in the weight class
that's not going to be in dispute, but in terms of holding the belts
by contract, the winner of this fight will in short order vacate the IBF
title, which is going to wind up being at stake on the June first
cart in Riad when we see the matchup between Philip Perkovic and Daniel Dubat and
so enjoy the undisputed thing for you know, for the next week or two,
because it's going to be going by the wayside pretty quick. We would
say this, I mean, certainly in Europe they would say the Joshua Usk
unified title fights massive, probably more so than we would care about that in
the United States because it's not an American and it wasn't here. We would
say Wilder Fury because Wilder is an American and their two fights in February of
twenty twenty in October twenty twenty one were here, so it's fair to say
this fight is all three of their fights were here, that's correct, true,
the other one in Los Angeles. This fight's bigger than all of those
fights for the for the what we just set the stage on, and it's
history. It's history for whoever comes out on top. And we more than
likely get a rematch for whoever comes out on top and whoever doesn't. But
we're ready, We're ready to prove this. That's the other thing about it,
TJ, is that the winner of the fight on Saturday and the loser
of the fight on Saturday know that they have an automatic rematch that Turkey al
Hikhu runs the show in Saudi Arabia, has already said is gonna take place
in October. You know, I mean obviously that barring you know, injuries
or things along those lines, but that's the general plan is you're gonna see
June. Well, you're gonna see this fight on Saturday June. First,
you're gonna see Herkovic Duwah for the vacant IBF title, which will be called
vacant soon after this fight. Then you'll see in September, a very good
likelihood that Joshua fights the winner of duwa versus Herkovic come October, and that
fight will be in Wembley, you know, in London. Come October.
You'll see Fury Usik two again. This is what Turkey has laid out.
And then the winner of the rematch between Fury and Usic good possibility, strong
possibility will be against the winner of Hergevic and Joshua, obviously Joshua, because
everybody wins, right, it could be the Fury versus Joshua. Theoretically,
it could be a third fight between Usik and Joshua, which wouldn't be the
worst thing in the world based on what they'll have done since their previous fights
against each other. But the main thing I guess the upshot is while we're
getting a massive fight on Saturday, in a historical fight for a variety of
reasons, it's just it's just a continuation of a resurgence, if you will,
in the heavyweight division, because the biggest fights with the best fighters,
and the best fighters are good. It's they're not just like retread Nobody's uh
there they they they stack up historically as a good heavyweight division and they're all
fighting each other. I mean, it may not be a perfect situation because
they're taking place in the Dead of Knights Saudi time and time zones are an
issue. Obviously, they're not here in America. They're not in the UK,
which is where they would probably generate more interest in terms of fan and
public and media interest. But look at the end of the day, the
fights are happening, and if you're a diehard, all that other shit doesn't
matter. I'm with you. By the way, I did not mention this
at the very top. Thank you for finding us, however you've done so
as we come your way on the preview, make sure you're following subscribing to
this feed on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify as part of the Big Fight Weekend
preview Thursday night into Friday typically and again we come off the weekend typically Sunday
and a Monday. You get two for the price of one. Fight Freaks
Unit Recap no matter what happens coming off the weekend. So we're ready to
go over this card. The Ring of Fire, not knockout Chaos, not
Day of Reckoning. It's the Ring of Fire. And no I'm not going
to sing Johnny Cash by the way, for those that get that. By
the way, what I think ring of fire, I think of Argueyo prior
one, which is what that fight was called. And really you're educating me.
So they're ripping off. Yeah, Arguayo and prior or prior Arguayo,
whatever you prefer. Let's first fight, their first fight, their first fight.
One of the greatest fights in the history of boxing between two legendary fighters.
Yes, with fling a fire. Absolutely, so let's just rip off
city here on this. Okay, you're educating me on that, but in
any event, thank you for finding us. Give us a five star review
that helps with the algorithms, et cetera. Tell them how much you love
rayfeel who again's playing a little herd here. I should I should make mention
you and I are fresh off a little while ago of watching the press conference,
and I just I've got to share with you it's been more exciting this
week for me in the vehicle at fifty plus miles an hour with a twin
learning to drive than watching that press conference. I mean, there have been
a couple of times when it's almost been like qualifying for the Indianapolis five hundred,
which is later this month, and I'm like, will you slow down
and move over into the lane more before you drive off the road. That
was harrowing at times, but they're both learning to drive. They can both
get their license coming up. You will be here, Dan Rayfield, before
you know it. It will be you will be Yeah, not yet,
but I'm just going to share that out there that. You know, if
I should wind up twisted and wrapped around a tree at the hands of a
student driver, I hope not. But anyway, that seemed to be more
exciting. So anyway, we're gonna go over the fights on this card.
By the way, we also have a World A lightweight title fight with e
Manuel Navarante and San Diego, California on Saturday Night, the top rank ESPN
main event that we're also going over. We're in the preview mode. But
obviously Few Fury Usk is the biggest one and it's arguably the biggest fight to
this point of this year. Say what you want about Canelo being in the
ring a couple of weeks ago, Hainey Garcia before that, certainly Jake Paul
and Mike Tyson, if it all comes to fruition and they fight, it's
gonna have the most attention. But from a boxing significance, this is probably
the fight of the year. It's not probable this is to this point.
It definitely is, and you're gonna say get rid of probably it is the
most significant. I mean it's more it's the biggest. I mean, look,
everything's the biggest, the best, the beddest of course, but in
terms of significance, put aside, what the gate is, what the pay
per view numbers are, how many people are in attendance, blah blah blah.
Historically speaking, this is the most significant fight in boxing in a long
time. I'd say, off the top of my head, it's the most
significant fight in boxing from a historical perspective since many pak Yea fought uh Floyd
Mayweather that wasn't even heavy right, and that wasn't even heavyweight, So it
as a matter if it's heavyweights. That was the two generational fighters for the
for the round for pound number one and for unified. That's twenty was we've
gone over that's twenty fifteen. That's nine years ago, and there's been Don't
get me wrong, there's been a lot of big fights since then, of
course, but this is probably the most significant fight since then, because of
the weight class, because the fact that both the combats are undefeated, the
fact that we haven't added undisputed heavyweight champion in twenty five years. It's the
first time ever in the four belt era, et cetera, et cetera.
I don't mean if you're if you if you're a person who listens to our
podcast. You fucking know that already. Of course, breach into the converted,
all right, So let's get into a little bit of a breakdown with
the reminder. First one will handicap this fight on the bet US Live Boxing
show a Friday at one eastern, not Sunday Sunday. You'll miss the fight
Friday one eastern. We're live on the bet Us platforms, YouTube, etc.
With some handicapping. The first thing, and you said this earlier in
the week maybe you said it going into last weekend that the photos and the
video of Tyson Fury, he looks like he's in fantastic shape. The first
thing you notice is he shaved the beard. So whenever, and I don't
know about this in the ray Field world because I've never had beards and full
beards, but whenever you shave the beard, you look younger, you look
thinner, I think whenever I see anybody, no matter what the case is.
So he doesn't have the beard anymore. But you made that observation who's
sick. We always know is cut and ready and is a lighter fighter as
it is as a heavyweight. But what did you make of that? Seeing
these guys walk around. I know we'll have the weigh in later Friday after
we release the pod here, But what did you make of that seeing them
in and around this week in the press conference. I just think that Fury's
in great shape. I mean, he took this fight very serious, on
a very different approach, let's say, than he did when he prepared for
the October fight against Naganu, where he clearly was not at his best mentally
or physically, and he paid the price for it because he almost freaking lost
the fight. A lot of people thought he did lose the fight. He
got knocked down, he got cut, and he had to actually postpone this
fight because of that. You know, remember that fight was supposed to take
place in December and they had to put it off, and then obviously this
fight was also supposed to take place. I'm well aware the Tysons. Again,
I'm well aware the Tyson Fury has been wasting our time for a year
for a fight that should have happened last spring. Yes, remind me here
though, Remind me again it is here finally. But he's he's in great
shape and I would not be surprised. That's been the talk of the week.
From a lot of the folks in Riette and just look at that fury
in any any of the you know, the press conferences, the interviews,
to all the things they've shown. He's going to come in the lightest he's
come in in years. I mean, if you go back to twenty nineteen,
he was pretty light relatively speaking, when he fought Otto Wallying in Vegas.
I was at that fight. He was two hundred and fifty four and
a half pounds. And before that, you know, he light as a
two and fifty four pounder, can be yes, continue, I like that.
I mean, you know he he's gonna come in lighter because ever since
the Auto fight when he fought against Wilder, the two fights, the first
two fights he was in the two seventies. He was two sixties against Dillion
White and also against Tesa and then he was a robust to seventy seven and
chained against the Gun. So the people over there are speculating, and it
seems to be legit that he's going to be in the two fifties for this.
I don't know if he's going to be as light as two fifty four
and a half as he was for Auto, but he's going to be light,
and that means that he trained great and he's ready to go. Now
you may have a thought about the fact, like, for example, when
he came in in the rematch against deontae An, he weighed two hundred and
seventy pounds. That was kind of by design. He wanted to have been
a little bulkier. I mean, he wasn't flabby, but he wanted to
be a little bit heavier to be able to because he kept saying, I'm
going to go after the guy, and that's exactly what he did and knocked
Deontay Wilder out. So you know, maybe he thinks he needs to be
a little quicker against somebody like Alexander Usik, who's a quick fighter to begin
with in terms of relative to the heavyweight division, and he's a south pad
until he's gonna need to have that lateral movement a little bit more than maybe
he would if he was in the two sixties. So all I know is
this based on what he's looked like, it's very clear to me that he's
taken this fight much more seriously that he's taken some of the previous fights.
Uh And and it's gonna show he you know, for all the bullshit talk
he did about you know, he's a sausage and he's a little you know,
he's a middleweight and all this other stuff he's had negative things. You'll
run exactly, you rabbit. So for all that stuff, Fury's a smart
boxing man. He knows that this is a real fight. He knows that
he's gonna have to be at his best. And I think Busik's the same
way. He's he's not underestimating Tyson Fury. He's a top fighter himself and
as good as of a fighter as Usig is. And you remember Usik.
This is not a Johnny comme Leately, this is a massive amateur all kinds
of accolades as an amateur Olympic gold medal winner on the disputed cruiserweight champion,
fought all kinds of top opponents, always on the road for the most part,
and has beat everybody. And as a heavyweight, which he's only been
at, uh, you know, since twenty nineteen. He doesn't have that
many fights as a heavyweight because of the schedule. Has been a little bit
lackluster in terms of the activity level, but the wins are solid. Other
than they get to know, you win against Witherspoon, you know, he
beats you sore who was still a rough, tough dude, got the two
clear wins over Joshua, knocked out Daniel Dubois and now he's going in for
the undisputed against Fury. And remember he's the guy with the three belts.
Tyson Perris got the other belt and he's the lineal champion. But still this
is like, you know, it's a look if you look at the odds,
and I know we're gonna get into it more particular about that on the
bet Us show. But they're going back and forth. And both guys I
saw were minus like one, what I forget which was which? But like
one was minus one, ten one was minus one. Essentially a fifty to
fifty fight, exactly what the odds believe, which is which is? Which
means that the odds makers and I think the public look at this fight as
super close, which uh, I think makes for a very interesting And you
know, I know they didn't do a lot of talking. We like you
said, we watched the press conference, uh you know just before we started
to record this. There was not a lot of talk there. But I'm
actually not surprised when you're at this level. I've been to a lot of
press conferences that were for huge, huge stakes a lot of times. You
know, you get to a point where they've done a lot of talking.
This fight's been uh, you know, remever, it was made back in
the fall of last year. It's been delayed for different reasons because of the
the the Ganu situation and then the cut that Fury suffered. Like so,
there's been a lot coming into this. Now you're a couple of days away
from the fight. There's not a lot more to be said, and they're
not. You know, Usik's never been a big talker to be in with,
and I think they finally realized, Look, there's nothing more to be
said. We're the two best heavyweights in the world. We're both undefeated,
we hold all the belts, we got this huge event. We're gonna get
in the ring and do the business. And uh that's that and so let's
let let let's uh, we don't there's nothing more to hype. I mean,
if you if you're not already interested in the fight, then you're just
not interested in the fight. I mean, why wouldn't you be interested if
you're a box. If you're gonna we need them to go punching each other
at a press conference or or swinging there or pushing each other. They're gonna
fight, and we're gonna find out who's the number one heavyweight on the planet
the end of the story. I mean, again, as I keep saying,
unless there's a draw or some kind of who is as you often like
to say, who is the guy? Who is the guy right now in
the sport at the at the top, at the top division and the division
that makes the rest of the sport. And by the way, based on
the odds, no one really seems to know. I's been big fights where
the fights have been big events, but we all sort of figured, you
know, we kind of knew who was gonna win. I'll give you an
example, not that long ago, six months ago, whenever. It was
when Terrence Crawford and Arrow Spence five. Everybody thought that was a great fight
we all wanted to see for such a long time supremacy in the wealthyweight division.
Both guys were undefeated, both guys were pound for pound, both guys
had done a lot in their careers. But going into the fight, it
was a pretty general consensus that that Crawford was gonna win the fight. There
was I couldn't. I mean, I believed if we were out there together,
I believed Spence was gonna win. And boy did he. I mean,
did Crawford make a fool out of anybody that believe that. But you're
one of the very few people, most people, most like the vast majority
of the fans that I interacted with, the other media people that I've talked
to and saw the pick sut the picks were running like you know, probably
ninety five to five in terms of picking Crawford. My only point is there
was everybody was pumped up for the fight. We all sort of felt like
we knew what the we didn't know how it was gonna get there. I
didn't necessarily think that Crawford's gonna beat him down, like he didn't drop him
multiple plants and knock him out, But that when these when the announcer announced
the result that it was gonna be uh, Terrence Crawford, that was the
un disputed champ in this fight with Fury and Usik. It's anybody's guests.
I mean, you ask ten people you know, you know you might get
it five and five people picking Fury, people picking Usick, so that makes
it even more intriguing. Good stuff. Again, We're gonna go over wait
for the fight. I know we're ready. We're gonna go over more than
card in a moment. A reminder I haven't mentioned this yet, that our
friends at PPV dot com are sponsoring us and we want you to watch the
fight through their service. No subscription necessary, no long term commitment to any
streaming service, just utilize them for the one off on your computer, on
your device, you can stream it to your TV, etc. Through PPV
dot Com. We're going to have more on that. They've got the outstanding
interaction as well with Jim Lampley, Lance Pugmeyer, our buddy Dan Canobio,
Chris Aljury and others that are going to be weighing in with the fans back
and forth, the live chat, the interaction in between the fights, etc.
PPV dot Com and you're going to learn more about that coming up.
So lots on Fury and USIK so far. But wait, that's not all
on this car. We have a very intriguing cruiserweight title fight with ji Opataia
and Maris Bridis that will take place a long awaited rematch in this one where
Opataya upset him but suffered a badly broken jaw, and then for various reasons,
they haven't fought each other even though they've had other fights. That's the
co feature fight here on this card, and I'm intrigued by that one as
well, coming up Saturday afternoon in US time. Well, first of all,
Braidis has not fought since the Opa Tia fight. Opataia has had two
fights since then. He had the fight against Jordan Thompson which he scored a
fourth round knockout. That was last September, and then in the Day of
Reckoning card he scored a first round knockout against Elizorro. And Braidis has had
his injuries and other issues. But when they fought the first time in July
of twenty twenty two, this was in Australia and it was Opataia that won
the decision in that fight, it was a phenomenal fight, really outstanding,
at standing fight, really hard hitting, a lot of heart, a lot
of grit from both guys. As you mentioned, Opatia suffered the broken jaw.
The rematch was supposed to happen. You know, we don't have to
get into all the craziness with the IBF and everything. But at the end
of the day, this fight is happening. Now it's for the vacant IBF
title. It should be for Opataia is vacant of you know, IBF title.
But because of the things I just mentioned with the IBF's crazy rules and
the him being stripped and all at uh, it didn't it didn't end up
happening. That was he was strippy because he defended or he was going to
defend against Zorro, but they had already ordered the British rematch. It was
just stupid the way the IVF handled it. In any event, that belt
is a stake, but more significantly, it's the lineal title. That's the
man who beat the man. And look, Marius braidis. You know,
he may be an underdog in this fight, but he's a hell of a
fighter. Marius Braidest for those who are uninitiated, the hardest fight that Alexander
Usik ever got his career period was when he fought a unification fight in twenty
eighteen in the in the Super in the in the World boxing, you know,
the Turner series got the Super Series where he won a majority decision.
Usik did against Braidis that was on Braidis's home turf in Latvia, But that
was a super super close fight one fifteen one thirteen on two cards, and
one card was one fourteen one fourteen. Go watch that, and that will
tell you that if Braidest can go straight up basically with Alexander Ussik, who's
now you know, at worst the number two heavyweight in the world, that
shows you the type of fighter he is. And Opataia is a rugged,
solid, tough, hard puncher. You know, a lot of people think
that, you know, in a few years, when this sort of heavyweight
year is done playing out over the next you know, a few fights next
year or so, Opataia at some point is going to move in to the
heavyweight division and try to do what Usik did, which is go from being
a cruiserweight champion to being heavyweight champion, what Evander Holyfield did from the cruiserweight
to heavyweight. So this is a first class fight. It's easily a kind
of fight that could be the main event on the show of its own tremendous
matchup. I'm super pumped up for this fight. You know, Unfortunately,
because of the magnitude of the main event, and frankly, the lack of
the way that they've handled some of this promotion. The undercart has really kind
of gotten short shrift over the last couple of weeks as they've build up to
Fiory versus USIK. It's still a qualitifight. And by the way, let
me just let everybody know because I get assets like every thirty seconds on my
social media, So if you're listening, pass it on, retweet, tell
people whatever the record. I am not where the record. This I knew
on my own. But for the record, Okay, if I were to
say, Dan, when does the pay per view begin? I'm glad you
askedj number one. The pay per view is available on a variety of platforms.
We want you to watch it on PPV dot com grow subscription required.
We love them, they're our sponsor. But you will see the same broadcast.
It's all one production being done by the Zone. It will be carried
on PPV dot com. If you subscribe to ESPN Plus and you subscribe to
the Zone, you can also buy the pay per view on those platforms.
In the United Kingdom, it's also available again same broadcast on TNT Sports I
believe, which is the Tyson Fury. Now maybe a slightly different production over
there. I'm not sure about that. But the point is TNT Sports is
going to carry it on their pay per view. It's going to be on
Skybox Office on their pay per view. The point is all the big channels
and platforms that are involved in boxing have this fight available. So that's a
good thing. Second thing, pay per view starts twelve pm Eastern Time,
United States Eastern Time, So do the math wherever you are in the world.
Nine o'clock in California, jump ahead five hours in the UK, and
on seven hours in Saudi Arabia. And that's that's what you're talking about.
For the start time, twelve pm Eastern. Now a long day of boxing
main event. This is a quarded now, and it's not one hundred percent
because shit changes and shit happens, and sometimes they're delays. How long do
the undercard fights go? Yes, But according to the official timing sheet from
Saudi Arabia that I was sent, the main event is supposed to start somewhere
in the time frame between six pm Eastern and six forty five pm Eastern.
That little window is because you don't know what's gonna happen in some of those
undercard fights. So it's a long day because if they're starting at twelve o'clock
and the main events not until you know six at the earliest. And also
you should know, while we're used to on at least in the United States
anyway, for the most part, four fights on the pay per view,
there's certainly been pay per views with three fights, occasionally five fights. This
fight has eight fights on the pay per view. There are ten fights total
on the card. The earliest two fights I believe are on the zone,
as as three preliminaries I think. But the bottom line is on the for
you there are eight fights and the last one obviously is for all the marble.
So there is your outline. Twelve pm Eastern times, Star eight fights
on the cart of Veilbo on all the various platforms. Buy it on PPV
dot com if you're in the United States, and uh and there you go.
Pass it on you down know the timing. I'm gonna see a thousand
questions on my but you just answered it. People pen attention to our podcast,
I understand, but pay attention those that are what else do you want
to know about, I just guess you. Okay, So what else on
this undercard? We got Joe Contina, who who I I really like?
Uh? In the IBF Junior lightweight title, we got Sergei covi Lev Does
he have anything left? You always like to say? My boy a Jitkaba
Yell and Frank Sanchez and a heavyweight eliminator. So we got some other fights
of interest in this marathon day of the pay per view that's gonna probably go
seven or eight hours. What else stands out on the unco and then there's
also, I mean, besides the what you mentioned, the lightweight undefeated from
England, Mark Chamberlain is on this cart uh. And the reason for that
mention is because for whatever reason, he's a personal favorite of Turkey al Chic
and so he's been on these cards. So he's getting this great opportunity on
the pay per view also, So we'll take them one at a time.
You mentioned your boy at g Cabell against Frank Sanchez. They are both undefeated,
they are both twenty four to zero. They have the same number of
knockouts, different by one. I guess one guy's got sixteen. One guys
at seventeen. They are fighting in a WBC final eliminator. So the winner
of this fight is the next up mandatory challenger in the WBC. Now,
obviously that's not gonna happen right away because it's going to be a unified champion.
But it's a high stakes fight. And they both fought on under cards
in Saudi Arabia, so they're kind of done their business on these other events
and now they're fighting each other. It's a really fascinating fight. Tabiall looked
absolutely spectacular and absolutely destroying Mac mcdeuv back in December on one of the Saudi
cards by knocking him out in the fourth round, and he's, you know,
he's done his job. Since then, they remain undefeated. Frank Sanchez,
the former Cuban standout, you know, amateur standout. He has looked
good, even though it's not as dominating necessarily because a little bit of a
slow start in his last fight against Junior Fa, but he ultimately scored a
big knockout against him in the seventh round and and really kind of beat him
up, and you know, and he's he's been brought along and hasn't fought
the top level guys but one of the problems with with with Frank Sanchez getting
fights that are meaningful is because a lot of guys don't want to fight him
because he's a consumate boxer. It's just a good matchup and it's for high
stakes, So I'm interested in that. It's a good, solid undercard fight
for this. You mentioned Cordina. He's been in some exciting fights. He's
got some more in the future if he wins this fight. You know,
we've seen him in the tremendous battles against the fight against Rock, him off
a very good fight against Edward Vasquez Kasachi. You know Cordeen is going to
be the favorite. But I think this is a legitimate fight. There's no
guarantee. And where is Anthony? I know nothing about Anthony Kassachi and you
are the guy to go to. Who is this guy? Where is he?
What kind of threat is he? I mean, I think he's a
bit of a threat. He's not a big puntry. He's only got the
seven KOs and the twenty one wins. He's a thirty five year old fighter
from Ireland. He's a south ba which which you know always adds a wrinkle
to things. He doesn't have like the biggest resume in the world, but
I've seen him fight on some under cards a couple of times, and he's
pretty solid. I mean it seems to me. I mean again, I
don't I don't think that. I think Cordina probably wins this fight, but
I don't necessarily think he's in super easy even if you never heard the name.
And for Cordeina, there's also a lot of possibilities, you know,
of other bigger fights down the road. One thirty is a pretty robuster.
He's working at maybe Lee Wood. That's been kicked around and talked about as
well as others, so who knows. But yes, he's a mattrom fighter,
So yeah, that definitely makes it a as some intury to it.
So you know, Cordeina as again, we're talking about an undercard fight in
a BONAFID title fight, because Cordeena has you know, proven himself over the
last couple of years. And uh, you know, and you mentioned Covi.
Now Sergey coval is on this card largely because the leverage that Usik had,
and Usik and and Covilev are both managed by Eggus Clemas, so I'm
sure Egus you know used a little bit of that leverage to make sure his
guy got an opportunity. He's a fighting at cruiser weight now he's been someone
in act him after a tremendous run as light heavyweight unified champion. He fought
a lot of top guys, but ever since he got knocked out by Canelo
Alvarez and lost his heavyweight title. This is back in twenty nineteen. It's
only had two fights fought in twenty twenty two as a cruiserweight. I take
them back. This will only be his second fight since said so he lost
in twenty nineteen. He fought you know in May of twenty twenty two and
then scored a ten round decision against turved Ol Pulev, the brother of Kubrat
Pulov, the heavyweight contender. And now he's fighting an undefeated fighter, but
a guy with not a lot of experience against top names in Robin so far.
And I would say if if covid Lev wins, and because of the
association with the Saudi's, he's probably gonna be in a position to fight in
a cruiserweight title fight. You know, could be potentially against say the Opataia
greatest winner, potentially who you know, that certainly would be a possibility.
I would think down the road. So cove Lev, you know, he's
still hanging around, not what he once was. Obviously he's had outside the
ring issues about a bunch of different things. But it's a look when the
main events he underspend a heavyweight championship, and besides that, you're getting like
the Lin title at cruiserweight again, Cordein in a bonafid title fight at one
thirty. Then you throw in a solid fight like Cabiella and Sanchez for high
stakes. And then by the way, you got Kvilev further down the card
and he got you know, the exciting and uh you know Turkey al Sheik's
favorite guy, Mark Chamberlain. You know, it makes for a good a
good show. And by the way, the heavyweight up and cover, who's
maybe the next generation of top heavyweight's, Moses Atama is on this card fighting
in a you know, a regional title fight. So I mean, honestly,
and I'm not gonna have to I'm not getting paid extra. If you're
a boxing fan, how you not buying the fight? And by the way,
it ain't ninety dollars like the Canelo pay per view. It's seventy dollars,
so it's a cheaper price for a deeper Cards said, that's an excellent
sales job, and that leads us to what is next. Yes, indeed,
we do want you to watch The Ring of firepayper view through PPV dot
com. And Mark Bolcardi is back with us as he has been recent.
Man, we've been rolling with these big time fights, Mark with p and
we keep saying to the fans here, I want your opinion as we bring
you in. First of all, welcome, this is a massive, massive
fight. Rayfield just said a little while ago, it's probably the most significant
fight since Mayweather Pakiallen. That wasn't a heavyweight title fight, but he's saying
in terms of magnitude, the historical perspective, et cetera. You can't overstate
it. So welcome and what is your thought to that as we get ready
for Fury and you be Usik? Yeah, thanks for having me. It's
good that we are rolling with these after the slow ish start to the year
with boxing, so I'm happy to keep coming on and do this means we
have big fights. Yeah, I mean, listen, I agree with Dan,
this is a huge fight in the sport. It's a huge fight for
the business of boxing. It's a huge fight for the business of pay per
view. So I do think Dan's right. It's a it's a massive event.
It's going to have global appeal, and it will be very significant.
I think people will look back on this fight years from now and look at
it with more magnificance then a lot of people might think of it right now
here in the US. It's an afternoon fight on a Saturday, right is
springtime. Kind of hard for that to feel like a big boxing event.
But I do think it's going to have huge implications in the sport going forward.
And I did, I said to him, and this is rather obvious
that Fury was involved in probably the most significant, certainly heavyweight title fight of
the last four or five years, and those were the two fights with Deontay
Wilder. That we're here in the United States, maybe we're biased, provincial,
whatever you want to call it. But if there's an American fighting and
it's in America, obviously more of America is going to pay attention. This
is in Saudi Arabia, this is a Ukrainian against an Englishman, but it's
not any less significant as Rayphiel and I are going to talk about a little
later on. This is the first time that all the undisputed belts have been
on the line in the heavyweight division in the same ring since Lenox Lewis and
Evander Holyfield nineteen ninety nine and Mark Bulcardi on Thursday afternoon, Lennox Lewis Thursday
night, Saudi Arabia time, and the Vander Holyfield we're sitting right there in
the press conference. So this is some serious weight in the figurative sin in
a little sense, and the figurative sense of this fight definitely carries furi anusk
to have those guys sitting right in the front row of the press conference,
and that's the last time it happened. This is one of those rare fights
where sort of everything comes together and it feels like the sport is coming full
circle. That's really when I feel right, and you've got this historical event
twenty five years ago, it's back again. They're bringing them together. They're
doing the promoters, the organizers, they're doing the right thing, but pulling
everything together, and I agree, I think in the US it's a little
hard, primarily because of the time the event takes place. This event had
been in Vegas, this would be a mammoth pay per view in Obviously there's
reasons why it's in Riad, but you know, the loss of potential eyeballs
in the US is a little disheartening because of the huge impact the fight will
have on the sport. Still, the heavyweights drive it all, right,
let's talk about why they want to. Obviously, get this broadcast on PPB
dot com. We've already been preaching this, as we have over and over
again, no long term subscription. You do not have to have a six
month, much less a year subscription. Pay for this, buy what you
want through PPV dot com and great interaction. Our guys Dan Kenobio, Chris
Aljuri, and Kevin Ioli are back and board to interact with the fans while
this pay per view is unfolding Saturday. Yeah. No, absolutely, you
hit on all the right points. I think with the interaction with some of
the chat hosts that we have, the last few events have really been the
best events that we've ever done with chat hosts interacting with fans. We're getting
a lot of great feedback from fans, more questions than ever before. The
number of chat messages is increasing with each event. It's becoming a real communal
type of experience that I think we're onto something TJ with this PPV dot com
thing, and I'm glad that we can add this fight to the roster as
well. We think you are as well, and we love being associated with
either they're going to get a four K viewing experience or whatever level for your
streaming device, et cetera. Your your laptop, your phone, your tablet.
However you're streaming the fight, You're gonna get an outstanding picture. You're
gonna get the interaction. And again we need to emphasize, as Dan was
just doing, they have announced and re emphasized if you will noon Eastern time,
adjust your time zone accordingly. The pay per view begins and no less
than eight fights eight scheduled on the pay per view, with Fury and Usik
being the eighth fight. So you're gonna, i mean again, just one
more time. You're gonna get a ton of boxing action throughout the day and
the evening US time Eastern and Central Time, with Fury and Usik as the
main event. One more time. Mark. Yeah, No, it's gonna
be a long day of boxing but it's gonna be a great day of boxing
culminating with this massive event as the main event. So yeah, you know,
a lot of time for you to watch and absorb all of it,
but like I said, it's going to be a really exciting event. PPV
dot Com, we know is the best place to watch it. You know,
TJ you hit it all the time for us, no scription required.
We have three great guys, Dan Chris Kevin Ioli managing the chat. Come
on and watch with us, and I promise you're gonna have a great,
great time. We recommend it a lot. PPV dot Com, Mark Bocody.
Do I sneak a prediction out of you? Is this Usik remaining undefeated
and becoming undisputed at heavyweight after being undisputed at cruiserweight? Or is this Tyson
Fury who's also undefeated and he becomes the four belt heavyweight champion and the king
and whoever walks out of that rings the king of the sport? Do I
sneak a pick? How do you hear? Are you're just looking for a
great fight? What's the deal? Well, I'm looking for a great fight,
but I'll give you a pick. My heart tells me, Usik,
my brain tells me Fury, So I'm gonna go with my brain on this
one, and I'm gonna I'm gonna say it's going to be a Fury ving
and I'm very profound a lot of times when I make my picks. If
you're if you're looking for distinctions, the bigger guy almost always has some kind
of an advantage, and Fury clearly is the bigger guy. Usik is the
more technical guy. But you know what, that's why you got to tune
in on peep com and see what happens. Mark BOCARTI, thank you.
We're looking forward to the fights. We appreciate their relationship. Thank you for
the time here as we get ready for the Ring of Fire for Fury and
Usik. Thank you. My friend can't wait. TJ. Thank you.
So we've given you plenty obviously on the Ring of Fire and PPV dot Com
will televise it in our part of the world. Actually anywhere in the world
that you're hearing us. You can get it through that service if you want,
with no subscription necessary. Bud wait, Raphael. That's not all.
We have another world title main event that's a very much interest, especially back
here in North America, San Diego, California. I've always said, if
you can't be in Riad, Saudi Arabia, you gotta be in San Diego,
baby a Manuel Navoranate Dennis Baranchik. This is the WBO lightweight title,
the vacant belt. Navorat moving up again looking for another world title in another
weight class. ESPN Top Rank main event. I am the first one to
admit I have been intrigued by navarat for years, with the punching power in
both in particular kind of the oddity of that left uppercut. You don't see
it all the time. All right, So let's get into this here because
he's moving up in waite and there's a lot of intrigue because he had a
draw his last time out, and there could be even bigger fights for Navaraatee
obviously in victory and again this will headline the ESPN Top Rank show late night
Saturday night, US time. Yeah, I mean after a long day of
boxing from New if you're gonna watch the full pay per view with usikin Fury,
you're talking about starting at noontime main event around six forty five, supposedly
could be later. It's gonna be you know, then you're gonna then go
into this card. I mean this card, Let's be honest, it's kind
of gotten lost in the shuffle big time. I mean, on its own,
it would get a lot more attention. Uh, it's kind of like
the afterthought frankly, but it's a good matchup, like you said, you
never had. Day is an exciting guy moving up in wait going for the
title in the fourth waight class. He's been a champion at one, twenty
two, one twenty six, one thirty and now looking for the WBO at
one thirty five. All it'll be is if he wins, he'll be his
fourth WBO title for what that's worth. But he's not exactly fighting a bump.
Barrentchick may not have a big name, but Dennis Brentchick is an accomplished
fighter. He was an Olympic silver medal winner in the twenty twelve Olympics.
You know, he deserves respect for what he's done now. He doesn't have
a deep career as a professional. He's eighteen and oh with nine knockouts.
He's been a professional, you know for quite a while, since two That
was ten years as a pro and only has eighteen fights, so take that
for what it's worth. But you know, this is a this is the
fight for the title that that was vacated when Devin Ainy vacated all the belts
at lightweight and decided to go up tow one hundred and forty pounds. And
that's the main event of this card. And so for Navaratte, he's gonna
have the comb crowd there, not that he's from San Diego, but obviously
he's gonna be largely Mexican, which is where he's from. You know,
Brent Chick is from Ukraine. I don't know if San Diego is a Ukrainian
hotbed compared to the Mexican we're safe to assume there'll be more backing for navarate
Well, absolutely, But the question I have about it is is Brette is
very loose on defense, let's be honest. And Brenschick is a very disciplined
fighter. I have watched him fight. Not the most exciting guy in the
world, but he can definitely box. He's got a lot of technical skills.
And when that happens, and you've got a guy that's loose on defense,
a little wild with the punches, and maybe he's pulled back or throws
you know, crazy wide uppercuts for no apparent reason, Like guys who have
that kind of skill level might be able to counter that and do some damage.
So there's that element of it number one. And the other thing,
you know, we don't know the answer. We'll probably find out. I
guess in this match is when you've been a champion at one hundred and twenty
two pounds and now you're suddenly going to be not suddenly, but now you're
fighting in the lightweight division, you always got a question is your power going
to continue to carry out the skin? Yes, it carried up to one
twenty six. Yes, it carried up pretty well to one hundred and thirty.
Uh, the question is how is it going to carry up to one
hundred and thirty five. I suspect, based on Neverette's build and the way
he's the way he throws his punches, it probably will. I mean,
you mentioned he had the draw in the last fight in November that was against
Kantosaw. He got the draw, but he did score two knockdowns against Kansas
out in that in that situation, but then again, he did go twelve
rounds with Oscar Valdez in a tough, rough fight back in August of last
year when they met for that title in a very highly anticipated fight. But
he's also susceptible, So we're going to see now, Like you said,
if he wins the fight and he's now a title holder at lightweight, he's
obviously going to vacate the title at one hundred and thirty and that opens up
a whole new group of different fights for him. You know. Again,
of course, Stevenson's the WBC champ. He's going to be defending in July.
The questions are whether he's going to remain with top rank. If he
does, that seems like a natural fight. He unified the titles. But
Emanuel never at day, if he has this belt, is not going to
lack for significant fights. So you love this. You love the stats.
He had not had a non winning fight, let's put it that way,
because this was a draw going back to twenty twelve when he lost his sixth
pro fights. So by my map, he had won thirty three fights in
a row before the draw, So that's the last non win is back twelve
years ago for Navarate. So he's in the main event and again big things
ahead. And you're right that Liam Wilson fight about a year ago. At
this time he was down, he was in trouble. Yeah, and so
came back and pulled through as a champion. So let's see what the cowboy
Va Carol has here in this in this main event, and then what do
we have in the co feature. Giovanni Santian right, is in the co
feature against Brian Norman. Tell me more about that. Walter Waite beout.
Yeah, this is a this is a notable fight. Uh, they're both
undefeated. Number one. Santition, of course, is coming off of what
was viewed by many as an upset when he went to the home area of
Alexis roach On back in October and scored a dominating a knockout drop roach On
multiple times and just looked spectacular and getting that victory. I mean, I
gotta be honest, I wasn't shocked that Santione was the winner of the fight,
but I didn't think he was gonna say stop Roach and do it in
an utterly one sided fashion. That that was a shock. It was a
whipping how about he beat him? That was like a party. That was
a really important fight for Santion's career because despite the fact he was undefeated,
nobody really knew him. He didn't really have a lot of like buzz around
him. He didn't have a big, big resume necessarily in terms of other
guys he had defeated, but that was a very significant win form. And
now he's taken on Brian Norman Junor wh's twenty five and Ohero was the top
amateur who frankly has not looked that great in my opinion, even though he
stayed winning in his fights. So it's a it's a good test for Norman
and and more notably, I mean it was an interesting matchup just when the
fight was announced a month or so ago when they put this show together.
But just on Thursday, the WBO announced that they had sanctioned this fight for
the vacant interim title. Obviously that's significant because the winner is most likely going
to have the title because we all know that in the welterweight division it's going
through a period of change, and that the unified champion Terrence Terrence Crawford,
who has already been relieved of the IBF title, still holds the other three.
But he signed the fight Madromov at one fifty four on August third,
and most likely win or lose, he's done at welterweight, So they're filling
the vacancy essentially before the title becomes vacant. So the winner of Brian Norman
against Santion is gonna become most likely the WBO champion, you know, in
the next month or two after that August fight takes place, because Crawford is
not coming back to one forty seven. There's not a huge fight for him
in that division, and the organizations are going about their business filling these belts.
So what was already a good matchup on paper and interesting from the undefeated
aspect of things, is that now it has added stakes because the winner's gonna
end up being the WBO welterweight champion. All Right, some news and some
nostalgia before things are finished up here on the preview pod. All Right,
haven't we been talking about Canelo Alvarez and what would happen if the WBC were
to say, fight David Benavidez. Well that that's not happening, but the
IBF is saying to Canelo, you gotta fight our mandatory guy, and we
don't even really know who this mandatory guy is. What's going on here?
Dan Rayfield to lead the news. Well, not a huge surprise that soon
after Canelo defeated Hoimumong Geye within a few days. This goes back two days
ago this week, where the IBF sent out their order for Canelo Alvarez their
next up. I guess in the rotation system which is used to determine the
order of mandatory challenges when you have unified champions, and in the case of
Canelo, he's got four belts, So the IBF, as far as they're
concerned, he's they're up next in terms of that rotation, and so they
ordered their mandatory fight, which is not necessarily a bad thing if the mandatory
fight is something that anybody might have remote interesting. The problem is the mandatory
challenger in the IBF for the Super Middleway title is a fighter, a Cuban
born fighter who fights out of Germany, who's fought his entire career. You
know it'll lasts. You know, he's fought his entire career either in Argentina
or Germany. Totally unknown fighter named William Skull. Now what's interesting about that?
I mean, yes, he's undefeated in twenty two and with nine knockouts.
This is not an accident. An ELO's team knew that this was going
to happen. It's not a surprise that so if you take a look deep
buried, way way down before the stream started on the Mongia and the fight
the d with Mangia, William Skull came to Las Vegas and boxing an eight
rounder and won against a fighter named Sean Himpall, an eight round decision by
you know, are you leading where I think you're leading? No, you
don't know where you keep going. But the point is they know this was
coming, so they put him on the undercard. I don't know what he
got paid. Put it like this. I was tied up. I normally
would be there for those early fights, but because of that Saturday when I
was in Vegas, instead of being in the arena for the earliest earliest of
fights when William Skull was on the card, I was still at the MGM
Grand because I was in attendance for the press conference to announce the fight between
Gervanta Davis and Frank Martin and David Benavitez and Alexander Vodzig, So I didn't
see William skull box that night, but that didn't happen. My accidentis on
the card, So I have a feeling that even though the fight was ordered,
and of course, like normal, they've got thirty days to make a
dealer or the order a purse. Bit. You know, Canelo hasn't set
up who he's fighting yet in September. There's obviously been a lot of conversation
about that. It's not going to be ben a Vida's most likely, you
know, there's been a conversations. Ye tell me this, No, I'm
not telling you that. We had the interview on last week's show with Edgar
Berlanga, who's his WBO manatory, although that fight is not necessarily due in
any event. If you take a look at previous IBF mandatory challenges that come
with no name and no financial muscle, a lot of them been happy to
take step aside deals to fight and stay active and perhaps be there someday for
Canelo, or fight for the vacant title when he is no longer the champion,
or whoever beats him to become the champion. And then we just saw
that play out over the course of like I mean, like a year and
a half or two years when you had Murtazlov take multiple step aside deals whin
Jamel Charlotte was the champion of the IBF in the German aweight division, allowing
him to go through the process to become undisputed and then of course to have
the rematch doing this on let me finish become undisputed against uh, you know,
he interrupt me. I lose my train of thought, t J.
Mim I'm talking about with Arlow. Yeah, So he fought many times on
Charlot's undercards, or even not on undercards as PBC and main events, made
deals to keep him busy. He made a lot of money fighting on those
undercards, biding his time. When he finally when when so it allowed Charloie
become undisputed in the rematch, and when it finally got to the point where
Charlow had been defeated by Canelo and now he's supposedly coming back to one fifty
four just hours before the purse bit for that mandatory, what happened He vacated
and Murtaz Love went and fought Jack Colka over in Germany and won the vacant
title. So we're in a situation where William Skull could wind up similar to
that, or I don't think it's gonna happen, but you never know.
Either a Canelo just vacates, which is possible he's done it before. The
IBF could strip him, which they've done it before, or he could do
a step aside deal. Uh. But the bottom line is William Skull is
going to be like an annoyance to everybody because he's not known by anybody,
and even though he's undefeated, he's got no resume. Yeah, sometimes mandatory
is they get there because they've truly earned it. This guy's fought a bunch
of nobody, this whole, this whole thing. And I was mentioning Stanionis
took the step aside money so that the aforementioned Spence Crawford fight could happen as
undisputed as well. Stanionis was the WBA, which is a ton that's correct,
And by the way, we should mention there's previous problem in history with
the IBF stripping Canelo Alvarez of the middleweight title because they wouldn't fight their guy.
So and William Skull's name, especially a Cuban born fighting in Germany.
This is tremendous. Williams skull sounds like a character in like Pirates of the
Caribbean with Johnny Depp Captain Jack. But in any event, that they're aware
of this because he thought, it's like you get on that undercard by accident,
all right, So we'll keep our eyes on that. Jake Paul and
Mike Tyson meeting the media this week. They were in New York Monday.
They were having another press conference on Thursday, and they've got more undercard fights,
including a very intriguing lightweight undercard fight. Tell me more in our news
here. Well, I watched the press conference on Monday when they met in
New York, and I wrote a piece about that, and it struck me
that that it's like Tyson still has that magnetism that draws you to him.
Now, obviously he's gonna be fifty eight years old when the fight happens.
I'm not saying you're saying has unders that. I'm not making an assessment of
the bout. I'm just saying he wasn't the normal like when I was covering
Tyson, and certainly before I was covering Tyson when he was in his heyday,
and even when he was like off the rails and losing his mind.
I mean, I was there in New York City when they tried to announce
the Lenox Lewis fight and he had the meltdown. I've seen Mike at his
worst, and he's profane and nasty and belligerent and all those things. Not
so much anymore. I mean, you know, he was still funny,
and he still had some pointed things to say, but it was much more
endearing. Now what that transit tends to mellow you out. I've been told
I don't use, but he definitely does when he gets in the ring.
We'll see. But it was a good press conference. I mean, whatever
your thoughts about if I put that aside, but from an entertainment point of
view and sort of making the point, you know, it was a fun
press conference to watch what I watched from the New York. They did it
at the Apollo Theater. They allowed, obviously, the media was there,
what they had, obviously, fans were allowed, and they filled the place
up and they made it like a you know, a big show. I've
seen those plenty of times when they do these tours, and uh, it
also struck me that when Mike Tyson was in the fight, for example,
and this was the closest one I could find in terms of on the what
I'm about to say. When he bit a Vander Holyfield's ear off of the
year in nineteen ninety seven, Jake Paul was six months old. And now
that's incredible, I know. So to think that he's going to be back
of the ring in nineteen years later, like, I just had this bizarre
feeling because most people, I guess, obviously the younger generation, they don't
know Tyson from as an active fighter, right. They just know him as
Tyson with the tattoo and being in the Hangover movies and doing the odd exhibition
and you know, and and then doing his weed dispensary and all that.
But I grew up watching Mike Tyson like you did. As champion. I
was a fan of Mike Tyson. I got a chance to cover Mike Tyson.
I got to know Mike Tyson, and so to think that he's back,
and I remember having that I've said this on the show before, sitting
there in the in the moments after his press conference when he lost his final
fight and retired, sitting there with one of my USA today colleagues or my
former USA Today collegue. I was working at ESPN at that point, John
Sarasino, the great boxing writer anyway, and Tyson basically said, you know,
he never wanted to put on gloves again, and it was I just
have that burned in my memory. And so to think he's coming back nine
years later and watch him do an actual press conference for an actual fight,
it just sort of like was the most surreal thing I ever saw. I
never thought of a million years I would see Mike Tyson sitting on a day
promoting what's supposed to be an official boxing match of exhibitions, maybe but not
I will, I will tell you this joke, and then we'll get to
the undercard fights. I have a couple of acquaintances that were going back and
forth on social media because they were shooting a promo with him in the trunks
and they had the lights and the whole thing. They were shooting a promo
video, and somebody made the point and it's so true. We were big
fans of the cartoons when we were little forty fifty years ago that what is
this the Bugs Bunny cartoon boxing gloves. If you remember when Bugs Bunny would
have his fights in the ring. The boxing gloves were as big as he
was, and that kind of looked like what Tyson had on with the fourteen
ounce gloves that you've told us about that they're going to fight with. So
let's see if we get there for the end of July. We still have
a month and a half to get the We're going to get there teaching all
right, but get there. I believe this fight is going to break thet
I know we've been talking about that. And it's at the same place at
and T Stadium, and will they have eighty ninety thousand or more there with
the standing room only, et cetera. Now, this Ashton Silva fight that
is on the undercard here, this is intriguing that with Floyd Schofield they announced
this. This undercard is with Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor. I mean,
tell me more about what they're lining up here? Yeah, I mean,
so of course, when they announced the fight, I mean they put you
know, Jake against Tyson. That's obviously, you know, it is what
it is. We don't have to get into that we already know. But
then they added obviously an a level fight between the rematch being Serrano and Taylor,
and you know, I'll give MVP props. I mean, they went
out and they made a real fight for this show. That's again, this
is gonna be on Netflix. This show is part of the fights I'm about
to mention are part of the stream. So you'll see this for free if
you have a subscription, not a of pay per view, which is a
great thing. You got Ashton Silva, lightweight from Long Beach, California's Undefeated
that they've been hyping up that that that MVP signed out of the amateurs.
I have to be honest, I've been largely unimpressed by him in the fights
of his I have seen, particularly in his last fight when he was fighting
for the supposedly I believe was the WBC's youth lightweight title and came in instead
of being a youth lightweight, came in as a youth with junior welterweight and
was one hundred and forty pounds five pounds over the limit, which was not
a good situation. But nonetheless, he is fighting Floyd Scoldfield, why I'm
very high on I think he's one of the best prospects of boxing. He's
with Golden Boys. So it's a good thing that the folks at MVP and
Golden Boy can make a deal on a fight like this and match them up.
The two of the younger lightweights in the in the sport. They're both
in their early early twenties. Silva was only twenty years old. You know,
Schofield's only twenty one years old. He'll probably have the whole folks on
his side. He's from Austin, Texas, so it'll be a bit of
a you know, quasi home game for him in that sense, being in
Dallas. But look, classy fight. I mean, you don't see undefeated
prospects who promoters have money into matching each other up when they don't have both
guys, and then especially if you're going to do it against another promoter's company.
So it's a highly unusual fight. And you know, I spoke with
Nikisa Mendarian uh the uh the co founder of MVP, Jake Paul's business partner
about this fight, and I asked him about that and he says, you
know, look, we wanted to make a real fight and whatever happens happens.
I mean, so good for them. They're you know, Scofield I
think is a huge favorite. I frankly was shocked that they made this fight.
At first, I thought, well, did did did MVP sign him?
And I didn't know about it right there, I just saw I was
really shocked by that. I come to fend there's no there's no options.
It's it's like, if Scofield wins, he gets to go back to Golden
Boy and be on his own. If Silver wins, good for him.
He stays with m v P and probably still would be UH on wherever Jake
does their events, because they've worked with his own plenty in the past.
Obviously this is with Netflix, but it's a very interesting matchup for that card.
And then the other fight UH is a little bit of a are you
going to mention the name? I tried not to mention the name? Are
you going to mention the name? Yeah? So this this goes back to
some of the more non like major legit boxing matches that that that Jake has
done. Like they the MVP folks have done some of these whack he kind
of fights, and they've also done a lot of like legit fights. This
goes more on on the whacker side. They're bringing out Julio Sasar Chavez Junior
right on boxing three years there's because of a ton of problems that he's had
outside the ring. It's going to be a six round cruiserweight fight. Actually
the contract is one ninety. He'll fight the former UFC contender Darren Till,
who's going to make his boxing debut. So another one of these crossover type
fights. He got his release from UFC a couple of years ago. Apparently
my understanding is part of the reason for that was because he wanted to pursue
a boxing career. And I don't know if he has been training in boxing
over the last couple of years and now he's picked the time to make the
debut in the sport or there was other reasons. But he's making his pro
debut as a boxer against Chavez Junior. So Chavis Junor has actually fought one
previous MMA fighter and lost. Actually it's the one time where a UFC guy
won against a boxer, but that was against the great Anderson Silva. Yeah,
Anderson Silva smoked him right before he fought Jake Paul I recall exactly.
So, uh, you know, I don't know if we if you smoked
them, but you know at the point is came up to a second MBAG.
So anyway, they've added those two undercard fights to what's already like a
spectacle kind of show to begin with. You know, you got the spectacle
of the of the of the of the famous names in the main event,
you got an A plus A level fight in the co feature with the women.
You add a really interesting prospect fight between Silvan Scholfield, and then a
little wackedness for your crossover fans of boxing versus MMA between Chavez and Darren Tels.
Great, I guess, I guess you could say a little bit for
everybody teaching. And you're great with the segues on this pod because you speak
of wackiness. Hey, let's go back to Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia one
more time, because there's an update now. And you mentioned this back more
than a week ago, probably ten days ago or more, that there could
be the the possibility that the Haney camp would ask not only for the win
to be vacated no contest, but to have it overturned and have it be
a disqualification. Tell us more about what you found out on that point.
So Devin Haney is now being represented by the attorney Pat English. And if
you're not familiar with boxing, Pat English is one of the more renowned boxing
attorneys. For decades, the guy has been involved in numerous cases. One
of the top boxing lawyers in the entire sport. Has mostly been identified with
having worked with main events, so he's been involved with all kinds of various
cases related to Lennox, Lewis and others from main events. But Pat has
been involved for a long time. He's worked with the ABC over the years.
I mean a very very knowledgeable, deep, deep resume and doesn't just
take cases to take cases. I don't think I've know Pat my entire career.
So Pat is now representing Devin Haney in this situation and they wrote a
letter Pat did outlining their position to the New York State Athletic Commission. Where
As I mentioned before, most of the time in drug cases, if a
fight has overturned, it becomes a no contest in the rules of regulations of
the New York State Athletic Commission as well as some other commissions around the country.
They also have the option that's not nearly used as much, if at
all, that they could make it. As you mentioned, a DQ loss.
So in the letter very sternly worded, which I have read and received
a copy of, that they're asking the New York Commission when Garcia comes to
do the hearing at some point later this summer and they go through their adjudication
process, they want to change to a DQ loss that would restore the undefeated
record to Devin Haney. And they make the point this is not just about
he failed two ped tests for Austria. Now Devin has to wait until the
d samples are tested on the Garcia samples. That will take place later in
May, and it'll take a few days before we know. Now chances are
they're going to come back positive. Also, obviously this is going to have
a whole different situation. If they come back negative, that's a whole different
ballgame. But assuming that the b's come back the same as the a's and
it's also positive, then they'll be a hearing. They'll schedule hearing that the
Commission is going to. Normally, the commissions would do a provisional suspension beforehand.
And I guess it's not that important because he's gonna fight between now and
then. Anybody. If it was a four rounder, you might do that
because the guy might try to line up another fight. In any event,
they're not going to schedule any kind of hearing for Ryan Garcia Tel after the
bsemle comes back at the end. You know, I think it's May May
twenty second is when they cracked those in next week, right. So the
point here is that they make is that besides the foul PD test, they're
saying it rises to a level to make it a DQ because not only is
he gonna have two foul drug tests, he also purposely misweight, they claim,
And there's some conversation that Rian has had where he said that it was
on purpose. And on top of that, they have evidence from videos that
were used in his own documentary leading up to the fight that he also used.
Ryan did an IV bag, which is illegal, And the reason why
ivs are illegal is because it can be used as a masking agent because if
you had to rehydrate using an IV it dilutes the urine and so if then
you urinate for the testers, you may not have the same levels because that
has been diluted in terms of when you give them the sample. So they're
basically saying ped usage on two foul tests that's a problem, illegal IV bag,
that's a problem. And oh, by the way, it's one thing
to missweight, but you did it on purpose, and so that's three major
things. For If you say then it's two drug tests, they're asking for
it to be overturned. So we're going to see it play. I think,
based on my experience, and this is not my opinion, it's my
opinion, but it's based on my experience, I think that if the hearing
goes forward, they have a good chance of winning this because there has been
other examples where an osteren test has been done to a change a fight to
a DQ loss without all that other baggage, right, which is which exacerbates
it even more. That was the case in twenty sixteen also in a WBC
title fight, which was a super middleweight fight between Bad Dude Jack and Lucha
Bute, which has ruled a draw and Bute had two had a positive test
afterwards for ostering, and they did, in fact in Washington change it to
a disqualification loss. So we'll see what case. What's the what's the timeline
do we think on when the hearing might be once the samples are open?
Would that be June? Could they be meeting in June that quickly where they
would have the hearing. I can't tell you the date. I just believe
that they're not going to schedule the date until after the B sample result comes
back. Most likely it will be sometime this summer. Could it be June?
I mean it's possible. I would say, if you put a good
bad I'd probably say in the July ish situation. And you never know if
the you know, and this happens on a regular basis when these things come
up, it could be a matter of that the Garcia side asks for more
time, and maybe they'll give them that and it'll be delayed by a couple
of weeks or a month. The point is all this, everything about the
career of Ryan Garcia as a boxer, is going to grind to a halt
and till this has been taken care of, and that should play out over
the next few months this summer, all right? Speaking of drug tests,
speaking of Oh my god, this has this been going on for five years?
For nine years or thirteen years? I lost track? So the UK
Anti Doping and the British Boxing Board of Control have now won an appeal.
Please tell me, is this the last of the appeals to the appeal to
the appeal with Connor ban or where do we stand because he's now suspended?
What does all of this mean? What happened? Explain it real quick,
so everybody knows that Connor he fouled the drug test that caused the cancelation of
the Chris Eubanks was that in twenty ten or nineteen ninety seven that he failed
that test? I can't keep track anymore, keep going, I'm being sure
it was actually it was actually in the October of twenty twenty two where one
of the drug tests results came to light the week of the fight and it
caused a fight to be canceled. After that happened, it was discovered that
he also had failed a fight a drug test that was done under the auspices
of the WBC's Clean Boxing program months earlier for the same substance, which was
colomaphine, which we've discussed. That wasn't anyway, So in the UK he
was suspended, but the national they have a national Anti doping panel, which
technically speaking cleared him. But he still wasn't licensed in the hometown in the
home country of the UK because the Yukond people and the British Board. They
appealed that, and so while the appeal was going on, they weren't going
to give him a license. So while that was all playing out on a
technicality, he was removed from the suspension lists in the ABC in the United
States, which is what allowed conter Band to come here after that long layoff
and fight not once but twice, once in Florida and then again more recently
in the Nevada. But now the appeal is over and he lost the appeal.
The British Board and the Yukon folks won the appeal, so he's now
back on provisional suspension and the case is still going on. Now what that
means in terms of his ability to box in America, my understanding is that
the ABC is not going to just put him back on the suspension list.
They're going to leave it up to each individual state. I don't agree with
that, but I don't think there's necessarily a movement for Connor to come back
and fight in America anyway, because if you did, that may impact his
ability to get the license in Britain. My understanding is from my sources,
behind the scenes, all this is playing out. They're basically negotiating what's the
punishment Connor would like, is willing to accept punish me. I'll sit out
until some time in the fall, maybe till like the end of September something
along those lines, whereas the British Board and you Cottter pushing for a longer
suspension. Yeah, taken into probably the end of the first quarter of Okay
here, so let's go over a couple of things. The first that was
pretty clear. Let's go over let's go over a couple of important parts of
this. The first thing is there's supposed to be some kind of punishment with
this, all right, so you can argue about what was the punishment or
what was not the punishment. But the first thing, and this should be
clear, is that Eddie Hearn and Connor Bannon, this is not my opinion,
they they immediately renounced their license his license to box to try to avoid
this process. And there is no dispute that they were trying to game the
system by coming to fight in the United States and slipping me in on a
card. And when was that in Florida. It was earlier in twenty twenty
three that they did that. So my Lord We're now like almost a year
after all of that's been happening. When are they going to lower the boom
and say it's a year suspension or a two year suspension? My god,
how long we've been waiting. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what
the ultimate result is going to be. I think they're willing to work with
each other, and it's just a matter of what's the length of the suspension.
If you're the British Boxing Border Control, what is the work with Connor
Benn who's been trying to manipulate this thing all along. Lower the boom,
Lower the boom with your punishment. And that's that I don't necessarily disagree.
I don't definarily disagree. Once again, we're making too much sense, Raphael,
and it's not how you were making too much So what the reality is.
He did fight the fights in America in September and February, which to
me that should insult the British Boxing Border Control if I them. But the
reason why it didn't, and I'll take issue on that, and I know
it's kind of there's some uh some nuance here is that the American ABC try
to get information from the British Boxing Board of Control about what their timeline was
for this, or they, you know, to make sure right it was
it was gonna take place in a reasonable amount of time. The British Boxing
Board of Control did not really get back to the ABC. They did not
help them out, They did not give them guidance. And so the opinion
of the ABC, whether you agree or disagree, it's their decision to make.
They decided, well, we cannot get any clarity from his Home Commission
and we're not gonna just put this guy on indefinite suspension when we can't get
an answer from his people. So we're gonna we're gonna take them off the
ABC suspension list and now it'll be up to each individual state to decide what
they want to do. So Florida license him. This was all sort of
they knew this ahead of time. So it's not really the British Board should
be upset. It's that they're The British Board has not done everything perfect in
this either. I'm not saying that codd Or has as well, but in
terms of him being licensed by the American Commission, the reason I was off
the suspension was because the British Board dragged their feet and was unhelpful when the
American Commission was seeking their guidance on what to do, and if they weren't
going to provide anybody, they were like, okay, fine, we'll just
let it go to our individual commissions and they license him. So at this
point and we're wrapping on this and then moving on at this point, do
we know when they might or might not finally rule or do we not even
have clarity on that as we sit here in late May, I think,
a year and a half after all this happened. Listen, my sources tell
me that behind the scenes that the two sides are negotiating the penalty. Is
it going to be the end sometime near the end of this year or is
it going to be sometime in the first quarter of next year. Now the
difference in what it would be is just a few months. But you know,
I guess it's meaningful to either side. I don't think he's going to
get some kind of two year ban. You know, this is a really
rough case. This has been you know, Connor has handled it very badly.
I've said that from the beginning, if you just would have come forward
and dealt with it right away, this is. Whatever his his uh,
his punishment was would be probably close to over by now anyway, so we'll
see. I mean, uh, but the Yukad people and the British Board,
they're they're not heroes here either. They've got a lot of issues with
them. And they handle their drug testing. You know, it's not perfect
in America either, but you know, you can paint by numbers the way
the Nevada Commission, for example, handles the drug is a drug case.
Same thing with California. We'll see what happens with New York, but it's
much more complicated for reasons that seem unknown to me. In Britain, he
fought in February. For what it's worth, So to me, again we're
making too much sense. Say, hey, you're sitting out till February and
then you're reinstated. You can be reinstated in February, so maybe that's what
they want that way, maybe that's what they'll do. But again we're making
too much sense. And remember before he got the fight postpone or canceled against
you Bank, you know, between the time he fought and then he had
the cubback fight that took place in September, who was seventeen months and he
didn't fight. Now, that wasn't because of a suspension necessarily, that's right.
A good part of it was it was related to his legal fight,
not being able to get license where he wanted, and then obviously he found
the loophole. But the first number of months were because they hadn't even made
the U Bank fight yet, so he has been off for quite a while.
But again we'll let them figure that out. We'll comment on it when
they make a decision. All right, One more note, and we did
make fun of Lieutenant Dan. Lieutenant Dan Hennessy, the ring announcer who botched
the Women's World bandamweight title fight winning fighter announcing the wrong name in Australia this
past weekend on the Lomachenko Cambosis undercard. You have an update here on this
situation. Go ahead. Well it's not really my update, it's not a
Lieutenant Dan's update. He hosted to his Facebook page afterwards, a very heartfelt
apology basically for fucking up the situation. And uh and uh, you know
I can respect that. I mean again, it doesn't I don't like his
style in the ring of how he announced his fights, but I respect him
for realizing that he had a very bad errand basically threw himself on the mercy
of the court and said, I'm sorry, I fucked up my you know,
he said, I own it, my bad. I mean what,
he can't punish the guy forever for that, I mean, my apology accepted
the way I look at it. And then and then it was soon after
that, so that post was posted, and I forget how long went in
between. It might have been the next day or whatever. But he basically
was like, look, you know, once again, I'm really sorry about
what happened. But uh, he's you know, I've created such a shit
storm. That was his word ship storm. Uh, and he's been getting
you know, some people supportive, but a lot of terrible comments also on
social media, and that he's been made aware of et cetera that has impacted
his mental health, and that he had one more ring announcing gig that was
lined up to guess a friend of his or a promoter friend of his that
he was going to follow through with just because he wasn't going to leave the
guy hanging. But after that he was done and he was retiring and quitting
reing announcing so how about that all right? Well, and the phrase he
said, as he said at the end of his post, I'm no longer
the world's punching bag. I'm out. I'm out. Okay, deuces,
I'm out. As we like to say in the South. They ain't a
hole big enough to crawl in after that announcement. So we wish him well
in retirement after owning that botched ring announcement. Okay, nostalgia time, and
then we're done. We've got a busy show. It was twenty years ago
earlier this week one of the most remarkable moments in a title fight in the
modern era of boxing, where Antonio Tarvar not only bombed Roy Jones with a
one punch knockout, but he did it after a great moment in the pre
fight instructions when he looked right at Roy Jones and said, you got any
excuses tonight, Roy, before he did it. It's a remarkable anniversary twenty
years later that the magic Man tarbar time got knockout over one of the all
time greats. I know you've gone on and on, and you did most
recently about Roy Jones as we were talking about, but that was twenty years
ago. May fifteen, of two thousand and fours. The twentieth anniversary was
earlier this week as we taped this and release it. All right, So
what else? What else comes to mind about that moment where Tarvor the indelible
image of him starching Roy Jones with the one punch, big, big,
massive overhead left. I mean he had lost the first round in all three
scorecards Tarvor, and you thought, okay, maybe Roy's gonna take care of
business. Remember they had fought the first fight. Well, let's back a
couple of bit. Roy had won the heavyweight title against John Ruiz, had
bulked up and had done that business. And then when he couldn't do a
fight, they were trying to make an Evander Holyfield fight. It didn't happen.
It got messed up in the end and they were not able to put
the deal together. So he ended up coming back down to the light heavyweight
division to fight Tarvor, and it was as tough a fight as Jo's had
ever had. He won both, but he had never been pushed like that.
He had the DQ loss years earlier against Montel Griffin, but this was
easily the the one time that Roy looked like he might lose a fight,
and many people believe he lost the fight to Tarboro. Yeah, I don't.
I don't personally subscribe to that. But the point was he got a
really tough fight that night. It was a good fight, and on his
worst night, he still showed he had the balls in the heart and he
got through it. He got his hand raised, and uh, but obviously
the way that it went, there was a lot of call for a rematch,
which he ultimately he didn't probably have to give it to him, but
he gave Tarvor. He gave Tarvar the fight, and they met again,
as you mentioned twenty years ago, was at the Mandola a day and after
that first round of Roy, you know al boxing Tarbor pretty handily, Antonio
Tarbar landed. You know. It was they had known each other from the
amateur days. They were rivals. They were both from the you know,
uh, the Tampa area, h Saint you know, Roy from Pensacola,
but they had that Florida, Orlando and Tampa. He's now got his home
here in Tampa Bay. But they had boxed in a similar time coming up
as amateurs and those tournaments together and knew each other well. And uh,
you know in Tarvor was always been a dangerous puncher, especially with the left
hand as a southbaw just landed the most incredible shot you'll ever see and Doc
Roy down, very very very hard, completely knocked him into another dimension.
Somewhow Roy actually got off and made it beat the count, but he was
wabbling all over the place and the ref was a double impact. His head
slammed on the map, and that's why he was cuckoo trying to get to
his feet and even be there in the fight's over. But I don't think
people today can understand how shocking this was, because whatever you think about what
happened in the Tarboro first fight, Roy was untouchable. He didn't lose rounds
for like the years, he'd been the pound for pound king of the world
for literally a decade. He had risen from middleweight to heavyweight and won titles.
He had beaten Bernard Hopkins easily. He had been James Tody easily,
who was number one on some people's minds pound for amount at that time.
He had gone up and dominated in the light heavyweight division, become the undisputed
champion, and being a lot of top guys, some crappy guys also,
but he had beaten guys like Virgil Hill and other credible fighters, you know,
Reggie Johnson, you know Lou del Val pick a guy, and he
had then taken up because there was no competition for him. He finally went
up to heavyweight and fought John Ruiz, who maybe wasn't like the champion,
but he was a WBA champion and he was like at worse, like a
top four heavyweight at that time. And he didn't just beat him, he
routed him. He went easily. He was a masterpiece. And so to
see Tarvar forget about win, but to knock him out, it wasn't like
he got stopped on his feet, got stopped by a cut, essentially went
to sleep even though his feet. So that was as stunning as a guess.
My my thing about that fight in which I remember is because I was
not present in the building then. Now I had gone to Las Vegas the
previous week to cover the first fight between Manny Packet and Juan Manuel Marquez and
was supposed to just stay for the full extra week and then cover Jones and
tarr Uh on this. You know that next Saturday after you know, back
to back saturdays in Vegas for two fights. I built that over over the
period of time, you know, a few different occasions. Unfortunately, right
before the main, before the pak Yao and Marquees fight, my grandmother had
passed away, so I went to her funeral in Florida. I came home
from that funeral, I packed my ship and I went to Vegas to cover
Marquez and pack Yaw. And by the time that had occurred, Uh,
it was just too much. There was stuff and with my family, I
just I had a gleave. I just could not stay. I was dealing
with too much grief with my grandma hadn't passed, and so I left Vegas
and did not stay for that fight. And it's the only time I ever
did that. But you know, you have to do what you gotta do
sometimes, So uh, I did that. I left and I did not
stay for that fight. Obviously I watched the fight on paper, but I
was rather shocked. Like everybody else, I certainly did not have that expectation.
But so whenever I think about that fight, I think that it was
around the time that my grandmother had passed and why I was not there.
Uh. But it was a very historical victory for Antonio Tarbor and then to
make it uh even more clear that he was the better man. They ultimately
had a third fight and he defeated Roy Jones once again pretty handily, and
Roy had Downtown Tampa Downtown. I was not there that night. I remember
you were there, You were there. I was not there in downtown Tampa
when he beat Roy in the twelve round decision. But I'm just remember remember
between the knockout and the second fight that we're talking about and the one sided
decision he took in the third fight, Roy had followed up the Tarvor knockout
by getting absolutely pummeled and destroyed and knocked out even worse by Glenn Johnson when
they met later in two thousand and four, and basically Tarvar finished Roy his
career as a top fighter, and Glenn Johnson kicked dirt on it. And
even though Roy and then Tarvor whatever, he finished him completely in the third
fight. And amazingly, from two thousand and five after the third Tarbor fight,
when Roy was basically left for dead following two losses to Antonio Tarvor and
the destruction against Glenn Johnson, he actually fought for another you know, up
until another ten years, more than ten years. You know, he never,
he never, you know, he beat like an aging Felix Trenet would
come out of retirement and fought him that light heavyweight and he beaten like a
couple other guys. He had lost lopsidedly to Kalzaggi, but he continued to
fight. You know, he beat like a Lacey and a Omar Sheika.
But he never was at the top level. He was getting knocked out by
guys. He got drilled by Danny Green in Australia in a in a fight
that people forget about because it was so far away and wasn't really known here.
He did show up and had absolutely nothing. I actually went to this
fight when he thought Bernard Hopkins in the rematch and he got you know,
just toyed with, which was sad to see a fight that nobody really cared
about. Anyway. He played out the string, but his career basically ended
as a meaningful fighter. In retrospect on the night that Tarver knocked him out
in the second round and Roy Jones prior to that, he was one of
the greatest fighters I've ever seen. I say it all the time, best
fighter I ever recovered in terms of his overall talent, first ballot Hall of
Famer, you know, just phenomenally conveying this again for the newbies, the
gen z and whatever the think again boxing began in two thousand and nine.
The guy was virtually untouchable. And that's what made this so shocking that Tarvor
touched him up after that epic moment where they don't they don't really allow that
anymore trash talk on the PA, but Tarbar cracked off the line you got
because the referee whoever it was, said I'll tell you you have any who
was it, Well, I'll tell you so. It was Jane eighty.
All right, So Jane Eady says, do you have any questions? Says
you got the excuses tonight by well no, he first head fan first,
he said yeah I got a question, Yeah he got any. But then
the follow up that made it even more so fucking classic was Jane eighty answered
him going, no, we're not going to ask questions like that, and
then and then he ended it with the with the big punch. Tarbor time
still knocking around still on the golf courses in North Tampa. By the way,
I run in him, I run into him here and there, all
right, so one more bit of nostalgia. And we did make mention a
couple of times that Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis are, They're in Saudi Arabia.
They were in the front row of the press conference Thursday night for Fury
and Usik, And you just want to make mention on the significance of this
fight one more time that going back to Lenox Lewis and Evander Holyfield, that's
the last time that all the prominent belts were up for grabs when Lewis and
Holyfield fought their rematch in ninety nine. Right, that was at a time
when it was three belts required to be the undisputed champion. Obviously that the
WBO didn't exist at that time, but there was nobody, I don't deal
with revisionist history at that time, nobody thought that you needed a WBO title
belt to be an undisputed champion. So Vander and Lenox and a very hard
deal to make, had boxed each other in March of nineteen ninety nine for
the three main titles IBFWBCWBA, and fought to a split draw. A highly
controversial, massively controversial decision. Most everybody other than two of those judges thought
that Lennox Lewis was the clear winner, and it was you know, a
you know, not to use the cliche, but among the black guys that
have been inflicted on boxing, that was one of the worst because that took
a fight that was such a mainstream, huge event Madison Square Guard in New
York City, the eyes of the sports world on that fight, and boxing
fucked it up because of just two terrible, terrible scorecards. Obviously, they
did a rematch that took place later in nineteen ninety nine. That was in
November. They took it out to Las Vegas at the Thomason Max Center and
they fought again, and it was a much more competitive fight this time around.
Some people actually thought Lennox won the second fight, even though Lenox Lewis
got his hand raised and became the undisputed champion. But he was a lot
more competitive against Lenox in the rematch than he was in the first fight.
But in any event, Lenox ended up winning a unanimous decision of one to
seventeen one, sixteen one twelve won fifteen one thirteen. It was a more
entertaining fight frankly than the first fight, and Lennox Lewis became the undisputed champion,
which there hasn't been one, and we'll see what hopefully crown barring a
draw or some no contest on Saturday between Fury and Usick. And I do
find it u pretty cool actually that Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis as the as
the last man to compete in an undisputed title fight, who are obviously all
time greats and Hall of famers. They're there in Riot present for this fight.
I was somewhat nostalgic, if you will, maybe moved a little bit
ilmost got a little bit choked up about it when I was watching the press
conference, and uh, and you see, here's the big teddy bear you're
getting. I appreciate the historical elements of this, and I don't I think
it's important when Lennox Lewis became the undisputed champion. H my dear departed friend,
the great Emmanuel Stewart was his trainer. Manuel was not with us anymore
he died a number of years ago, but he was the trainer of the
last undisputed heavyweight champion, and sitting next to Tyson Fury on the day it
says they prepare for this undisputed championship fight is sugar Hill Stewart, which is
Emmanuel Stewart's nephew. So if Tyson Fury is the winner, you'll have the
last two undisputed heavyweight champions one trained by Emmanuel and one trained by his nephew,
who was obviously the integral part of teaching sugar Hill his you know,
his uh way to train and to be part of that legacy, to have
the you know, have it stay in the family. But even if he
doesn't win, the fact of the matter is the last two undisputed heavyweight championship
fights, you'll have a Steward in the quarter of one of these top heavyweights.
So I thought that was pretty interesting. Twenty five years later now,
when they fought the second fight, the big HBO pay per view fight at
the time, it's set the all time gate record in the Thompson accident,
around twenty million dollars for that fight, and it was it was a specter
loss, so it was a big, big event. And my understanding is
Lennox Lewis is going to be part of the broadcast on his Zone I don't
know that it's on everybody, because I think there's a different broadcast, as
you mentioned in the UK. We were stall there and it's not clear whether
he's on the call, but he on he's on part of the broadcast,
one of the fund It's just to be clear once again, yep. And
I can't speak for what's happening in the UK. If you watch this fight
on PPV dot comm H, you watch this fight on ESPN plus pay per
view, or if you watch this fight on his own pay per view,
those three broadcasts are going to be identical. It is pretty deduced by the
zone it's being carried on the various platforms. What they're doing in the UK,
I'm not entirely sure about. But Lennox Lewis. If you take a
look at the at the photo that the Zone put up on their social media
where they put up who their broadcast team is, it's a little crazy.
They got ten different people that are involved in this event in sub fashion,
and Lenox is one of them. It is a long card for you know,
eight fights, but that seems a bit excessive. But Lennox Lewis rightly
should be part of these very experience as a broadcaster, and like we've talked
that he's the last love dispute of heavyweight champ of the world. Listen,
it has been a busy show. Why don't we reconvene you and I on
the bet Us Boxing Show one Eastern Time. Cannot wait to handicap puri Usik
as well as the Opataiah bradst Co feature fight for the Cruiserweight IBF vacant title,
as well as the Ammanuel Navarat fight. We're gonna have to cap all
those fights Friday, one Eastern Time. Bet Us platforms, YouTube, Twitter,
Twitch, et cetera, and whatever happens, my friend, we will
come back up board with a Fight Freaks U Night recap podcast on this very
podcast feed off the weekend Sunday night into Monday. In the meantime, be
well, we'll talk to you on the bet US show and we'll read you
on your substack as well anything else. Dan Rayfield ready to go if you're
are you sick ready? I'm ready, but I'm not fighting, That's true.
We're just watching and commenting and doing more again reading him more on the
Fight Freaking Unit substack. Get more of the previews from Big Fight Weekend dot
Com and we will talk to you again on the Fight Freaks Unit recap with
whatever happens for Dan Rayfield on TJ Reeves. Enjoy the undisputed heavyweight title fight looming