Well off of a weekend that has seen Edgar Borlanga return to being a knockout
guy in the main event for Matchroom, a triple header of championship fights in
Japan that did not disappoint. We've got fight news, We've got nostalgia involving
Muhammad Ali and others. It is the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast. I
am the somewhat competent host TJ Reeves. He is our insider. Fight Freaks
Unit is his substack. That's why we cleverly play off the name Fight Freaks
Unit Recap Podcast, Big Fight Weekend dot Com also insider. Hello Dan Rayfield,
Good to have you and a lot to talk about on the program.
How are things? Things are good? We do a lot to talk about.
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of fight fans do enjoy it. All. Right, enough of all of
that, let's get into the action. Let's get into what happened not far
from where I am, although I was not there or Orlando, Florida in
the middle of the state, about seventy miles from me. I was watching
and Edgar Berlanga gets the ko over Padrag McCrory in the WBA Super Middleweight elimination
fight. And speaking of eliminating, he eliminated all the talk about why can't
you get a knockout? He got the knockout with a booming right hand.
Dan began the conversation with your thoughts on his win to finish up as the
main event on the matchroom card. Well, the knockout for Berlanga was a
long time coming. I mean, the reason why he became sort of a
sensation was called prospected the year by a lot of people, had some viral
clips because of all those first round knockouts. Got a ton of hype on
ESPN when he was scoring those KOs in the first round where they put the
countdown clock on and decide it's not a matter of can he get the first
round KOs? In what minute of the first round is he going to get
the ko? I mean, that's what it came to. As his team
there was trying to match him, you know, hoping he would get extended,
scored sixteen first round knockouts in a row, and then suddenly, boom,
there was a power outage. And even though he was scoring knockdowns,
he wasn't getting stoppages. There was five fights in a row, and that
became like a burden. It became a big thing. It's like, where
in the heck did the Berlanga punching power go? And he was fighting,
you know, not great fighters, but he was fighting pretty solid opponents over
the last number of fights. Finally against Padrake McCrory on this dez own card.
He's now with Matchroom Boxing, Berlanga is and it's his first fight in
a while. And the conversation TJ going into the fight was a can he
get a knockout? And b Canelo Alvarez still doesn't have an opponent for May
fourth, and Berlanga is clearly one of the possibilities among a few different names
that are being bandied about. But before we'll get to that, we'll get
to it to that, But before you could even go there, he had
to take care of the business. And you know, I've said to you
many times like, okay, if you don't get a knockout. So what
as long as you win, and even if you you know, if you
look good and it's exciting and there's no knockout, I don't really hold that
against anything. I believe your phrase is they are not preordained, am I
right? Yeah? In this particular instance, as just as a rarity,
let's say it really was incumbent on Berlanga to get a knockout, given everything
that was at stake for him, possibly with that potential fight, the fact
that he hadn't had a knockout in quite some time, and that the opponent
was not going to be you know, not to say that Patrick McCrory is
not a good fighter, he just was not the kind of guy that you
were going to have a hard time finding. He was going to be in
front of Edgar Berlanga, and at some point, you know, if you
want to continue to you know, get coverage, get fights, get attention,
all the things, are going to becoming a name in the sport.
You know, you gotta score a knockout once a while, and you know
what, early on first three rounds, it didn't look like that was happening
because it was a dreadful fight for three rounds and neither guy was throwing or
land at anything. Finally, Edgar, you know, he was able to
get get get in geared, get things going a little bit and started to
put the punches together. And you know, he's still a good puncher.
He's got a heavy right hand, got a pretty stiff jab when it lands,
and McCrory had never been stopping before. He was undfeated going into this
fight eighteen and oh, but had a much lesser caliber opposition under you know,
on his resume than Edgar Berlanga had. And you know, when he
finally started to touch him, he started to breaking down. And Edgar explained
after the fight about how he's he's been concentrating more on defense when he trains
and knows that not everybody's just going to go in the first round. So
at his point was I need to get the timing of the guy down,
you know, make sure I'm under control with all that business. And when
I see him start to break down a little bit, then I start to
really let my hands go and put the punches together. And you know what,
those those those comments were backed up by his punch statistics, because after
a zero output practically and very few punches landed in the first three rounds.
He did crank it up and started to hurt him, started to do some
damage, just started you know, his nose was bloody, started to mark
up his face a little bit. And in round six he finally landed a
big gray right hand dropped him and you know, hurting him. And that
was all she wrote. I mean, it was a it was a good
esthetically pleasing knockout. I mean the second the first three rounds, you know,
were pretty dreadful. As I said, the second three rounds, you
know, around four, five and six, they were fun to wash,
they were entertaining, and you know McCrory didn't really throw a whole lot.
You know, he had taken some punishment in that round six and you know,
say what you want, but Edgar Berlanga, who's got a lot of
people that you know, either they either love him or they hate him.
He's not a guy that that uh that that brings in half and half like
you're either in or you're out, you know what I mean. He's got
those detractors and he's got the people that enjoyed the style. You know,
he he did fight a little dirty. I mean, remember this is the
guy that got suspended for trying to bite a guy. Uh. You know,
he did throw some low glow blow as he got worn. One was
clearly blatant. There looked like there might have been a purposeful head butt in
there. But in the end Berlanga got the knockout and it was a pretty
knocket. It was a nice knockout and he got to win exactly what he
did round six, over and out and uh and now they start to bang
the drums and try to make their case for Canelo, and let's the record
reflect that Reeves Cash is another knockout problem on the bet On the bet Us
show, I'm like kid knockout in twenty fourteen. I had Haimi Mongia,
I had Hams of Shiraz, I had your guy seven thine On Shinga and
I got the name right I had, I had Berlanga. So the knockouts
are paying out that you need to be watching the bet Us Boxing Show on
the bet Us platforms Friday at one. So he got his ko that wasn't
me, by the way, Yeah, go ahead. One thing I forgot
to mention, by the way, And this was like a last minute thing.
I mean this is it just shows you how how how fucked up boxing
is sometimes and how sketchy it is. Uh, at the last minute.
On Friday, I was texting with Chris Mannix from the zone after the fight,
and I asked it because they had talked about this on the broadcast,
and he obviously was doing the broadcast and Chris had been my buddy for many
years. They announced it as a WBA Super mid away title on the liminator
and I'm I'm on top of that kind of stuff. I get the bout
jeets. I read the press releases, I talked to the promoters, I
did the interviews whatever. I'm always on top of this. I'm in touched
on a regular basis with the same action bodies. I had no idea this
was a title eliminator. I said to Quesad do my ray Field impersonation watching
his own The twenty twenties phraseology is wait what wait what a what? And
so you contacted Jerman Mannix and what and what's up? So I said,
So we had texted back and forth and I was like, oh, by
the way, when the heck did this become a title eliminator? He said
Friday they put the sanction on Friday, So all along when the fight was
made, when they went through the promotion, all the stuff that led up
to this fight, it wasn't actually officially sanctioned as the WBA title eliminator until
the day before the fight. So the upshot of that is, whatever your
perspective was on whether it should be, how that came about, whatever I'm
saying, just in terms of factual at this moment, then it became an
eliminator, so he'll be the WBA mandatory for the Super Middleway title, which
of course is held by Canelo Alvarez, who was the underspeed. It just
occurred to me, what how does David Morrell then factor in with the WBA.
Well, that's the thing that's okay straighting out and everybody else. I
think actually, technically the w first of all, David Morrel is a WBA
regular champion, so I guess technically speaking, uh, And I will actually
when we're we're doing this podcast Sunday night tomorrow on Monday morning, when I'm
in business, I will, I will, I will send my my good
pal Gilberto Mendoza from the w b A a text message and I'll say and
I'll ask him the following question. Is he the mandatory for Canelo or is
he the mandatory for Merrell. I believe he'll be the mandatory for Morel and
Morell is the mandatory although it hasn't been ordered and in the WBA mandatory is
not due yet anyway, that that's sort of the way it will work.
But he's he's a step closer to being mandated, uh for a Canelo fight.
But Canelo it appears, well, there's no question he's not fighting David
Morrel next. But again, like I said, the fact that that he
would be mandatory or not is not relevant because the WBA mandatory is not yet
due right right, But he could still opt to have it. And obviously
Berlanga puts himself in a position, whether it's Canelo or Morell or somebody else
that has a title that were to beat either of those guys, he is
a step closer to getting his opportunity to fight for one of these major titles.
So there is that, But I just found it to be bizarre that
the fight was announced like two months ago, and it was the day before
they made it a title to the WBA. It's the WBA you've been over
there, but it happens. I've seen that shit happen in other organizations too.
It's just, you know, I love boxing. I've made my life
in boxing. It's been good to me. I've been good to it.
But it's fucking sketchy. Okay, So on the realism meter, because Berlanga's
calling for Canelo. You know, Eddie Hern and Mattroom have done business with
Canelo. I love the I love the Rayfield Realism meter and the antenna's up,
the BS Antanna's up. Is this ten being it absolutely happens? Is
this two? Is this one? Where is it on the Rayfield meter?
Berlanga, I think given the way that he looked on Saturday and got the
knockout, And I'm not saying I indorse the match, but I do believe
there is a very good chance that this fight will happen. What's my number?
What's my number? By six and a half? Really you really think?
You know? You said, I don't really think like one of the
like one of the two. One of the two dates May or September,
but probably not May. Could he realistically fight him in May? He really
realistic? He absolutely could fight him in May? Okay, that you can,
you can dislike that. I'm again, I'm not sitting here endorsing the
match. I'm telling you that when you look at the landscape of available opponents,
what they think it could do commercially, and you cannot underestimate Mexico Puerto
Rico. And I'm not saying going it deserves the opportunity. Don't please,
don't misunderstand me. I'm talking about there is a segment of fans out there
because of their heritage, will buy this fight because he's a Puerto Rican and
we already know that there's lots of fans out there Mexican and otherwise. Who
are fans of Canelos that will buy him against anybody? So put that all.
I mean, he did freaking hundreds of thousands of buys against the Haven
Yieldrum, I mean, who was completely unknown. So again I'm not saying
this is a blockbuster compared to some other fights he could have. But remember
this other thing also, Berlanga will command a large purse for the fight,
but he's gonna fit the budget a lot more than a Terrence Crawford or even
a David Benavitez or even you know other opponents. You could think of he's
gonna you know, take home probably less money and the offering a Charlotte.
And that's part of the whole strategy of doing these events, is what's the
budget relative to what we think it can generate. So you know, you
can laugh, you can you can mf it, you can dislike it.
I'm all with you on that. I'm just making you were gonna say like
two and a half or three and you know this is real, dude,
Okay, this is real. And even if it doesn't happen in May,
I still think it has a reasonable chance to happen in September. All right.
Again, I will say for a fourth time, I'm not endorsing it.
I'm just telling you what the deal is. Yep, there is absolutely
a chance that it could happen. I'm not saying. And at the end
of the day, it's gonna be Canello's decision and they're gonna have to work
out the particulars with Al Hayman about it. But when you look at the
landscape of who's the possibilities for May, it's been clearly established that it's not
gonna be David Denavide's unless there's a lightning striker some miracle. You know,
David is on his way to fighting for the interim title at light heavyweight against
Alexander Vodzik. Obviously, you know, if he changes his mind, they'll
go and do the Canelo fight. But that it definitely does not appear to
be the case. I don't think there's an appetite on PBCs. We have
to spend crazy money to try to make the Crawford fight for May. I'm
not saying they're not they're not interested to do it at some point. But
again, Canelo is not really showing huge interest in that fight. He said
it many times that it's not his interest. At some point, you got
to believe what the man's saying. So I don't think that's happening. He
may. I mean, I guess it's possible, but in my mind,
I eliminate David Benavite's and Terrence Crawford from the May fourth day. So after
that, you say, who's left, Well, there is Charlotte, which
we've discussed previously, and I don't know a single soul other than maybe Charlot
and his immediate family that Kerr are interested in that fight. So that that's
that's that's fucking sewage if you ask me. Uh. And so once you
get beyond that, who else is out there? Now? Howmy Mongy is
of the is the most attractive opponent of the ones that I believe are realistic
for May. He'll fit the budget to some degree. It's a great fight
in the ring. He certainly deserves it, more than than Berlanga does.
Certainly deserves it more than even a charlot does. Uh. And you know
it's going to be entertaining. I mean period, I mean that's just that's
that's almost because he blows and he gets hit. So you're exactly right,
Mangia, Yes, you can put Mongi in and he was going to be
entertaining against anybody. And even when he was in some of those squash matches,
they were at least entertaining while they lasted. So and that's a possibility.
And Golden Boy wants to do the fight. Mangia wants to do the
fight. And you know, Canelo would have to come around about you know,
because he's made a thing about it. Doesn't really want to fight Mexican
opponents, Okay, whatever. At the end of the day, he is
a businessman. And then once you get past that, who's left. He's
not fighting David Morrell, He's not fighting Christian macbilly, who hasn't He's a
hell, you know, a hell of an exciting fighter, but doesn't have
a profile Berlanga. He fits a lot of the if you go in and
making a checklist again, I'm going to read it. I'm not advocating this,
just telling you the deal. He is undefeated, he's a big puncher.
You know, first three rounds, notwithstanding after a period of time off,
you know, it wasn't entertaining fight. For the last three rounds he
did score a knockout. It is Mexico versus Puerto Rico. It is a
fight that Canelo. I guarantee you what he and his team will look at.
It is affordable. It's affordable. Yeah, he'll fit the HiFIT the
budget. And by the way, Canelo will be a hefty favorite to win
the fight. You go, so, I absolutely think that it's a possibility,
all right, and he it wouldn't be a possibility had Edgar Burlanka not
gone into the ring on Saturday and scored a pretty knockout against Padrake McCrory.
All Right, so we got a lot on that. Let's get to the
rest of his car. Then we got to move to the Japanese triple header
and championship fight. So Andy Kruz, who we talk talked a lot about
in the preview mode, the Cuban gold medalist at lightweight, goes the distance,
uh and does get the win. What did you think of his performance?
And then go ahead with the rest of the undercard. Uh, here
to put a rap on the matching show sawday night. So Andy fought a
Mexican boxer named brand Zama Rippa who had fought to a split decision loss against
Angel Fierro, who was a pretty good uh you know, let's call him
a secondary contender, but you know, not not not a you know,
he's a he's a good he's a good fighter and and and Zama Rippa gave
him, gave him good competition. I mean, I know he didn't Uh
he may not have come out on top, but that was the reason why
he gets this fight, because it was a he was a credible opponent from
the standpoint of who he had faced in the past and how he had performed
against him. So I felt like when they made this match, it was
not an unreasonable kind of fight. I mean it was a it was a
close fight. This is in September of last year when he lost that fight
against Angel Fierro a by split decision over ten rounds. So this was a
good step up for Andy Cruz after the first two opponents he had faced.
Remember this is a fighter that is now only three to o when he's fighting
already guys that you would consider sort of like Fringey type contenders. Because he
is twenty eight, it's not young in terms of as an up and comer.
And he also has you know, one hundred and fifty or so amateur
fights and is an Olympic gold medal winner, and also won all kinds of
other competitions in the tart in the amateur ranks, whether it's Pan American Games
or you know, pick pick your world amateur World Championships. I mean,
truly a fighter that does not need a humongous amount of seasoning as a professional.
So three fights in zamaripa very tough, solid opponent. He did go
the ten round distance, but he won every single round. It was ten
rounds zero on the score cards, not you know, one hundred to ninety
all the way through you know, all three scorecards. Zamaripa, you know,
who had now has now three losses, has never been stopped before.
Looked like Cruz might get the stoppage. At one point he was beaten up
on Zamaipa, you know, very very roughly in some of those rounds.
But sometimes you got to give credit TJ to the opponent. And Zamarripa was
in a state of mind where, look, you may beat me, and
you're gonna definitely be faster than me, and you're gonna definitely outbox me,
but I ain't going anywhere. You know, as Marvin Hagler once said on
the HBO Legendary Night series, You're gonna have to tick me with that ring
post or I ain't going anywhere. True. So that was sort of the
mentality I think that Zamaripa had in this fight. And so Andy krus did
what Andy Kruse did. He can't you know, he didn't make it boring.
He came forward, he was aggressive. He didn't fight the stinky style
where you're backing up and you're you're playing with your food, so to speak,
and you're you're just looking to touch the guy and move. You know.
He sat down on his punches and he was in there to try to
to get him out of there. He just couldn't do it. And that
doesn't mean he can't do it against other fighters. We've talked about how my
admiration for him to go and train with Bozie Ennis, you know, as
opposed to picking a trainer that was more identified with that defensive Cuban style.
Uh, you know you're fighting those If you're fighting under a trainer like Bozie
Ennis and you're training out of Philadelphia, you're not gonna be able to get
away with that in the gym, as they talked about on the broadcast,
and this is one hundred percent right. You know, they trained for knockouts
in those gyms in Philadelphia. They don't train for getting you know, close
decisions or or you know, get decisions where the crowd is booing you.
So for a ten round fight where he won every single round, I thought
it was entertaining. He was crowd pleasing. Look, the card itself was
a pretty fun card to watch if you take away the next fight that I'm
gonna mention because the second fight or the fight before the Cruise fight. So
anyway, Cruise gets to win and he'll move on. He's gonna you know,
he's gonna be close to fighting like top contenders you know this year.
I mean, I don't have any doubt about that. You know, he's
already gonna be ranked in so many organizations because this this fight as well as
this previous fight were for some of their regional belts. And there's no doubt
he's a talent. And I said this, I think on our preview,
I think you can match Andy Cruz with any number of top ten type lightweights
and he would beat them right now. Interesting, Yeah, he's got to
He's got a big future in front of him. On the rest of the
car, go ahead, all right. So the fight before that was the
welterweight w b A title eliminator, which was announced as eliminator when the fight
was made, not on Friday, and that was the uh the Uzbekistan twenty
sixteen Olympic silver medal winner Chakram Giosov, who was fighting Pablo caesar Cano,
who people know has been around for a long time, mainly known as a
fighter that was, you know, in competitive and somewhat of a contenders type
in the junior welterweight division. I have no idea why this was approved as
a welterweight eliminator because Pablo ses Arcano does not belong anywhere close to weight title
eliminator. And you know, Giasov went in there and he won an eleven
round technical decision and won every single round and that the scorecards were one oh
nine to ninety nine, and all three scorecards. He had dropped Pablo caes
Arcano at one point in the fight, but in that eleventh round there was
their feet got tangled up and Cano went down on the canvas and he broke
his ankle apparently, and so it was an accidental foul, wasn't a knockout,
and they stopped the fight scent to the scorecards. That's why it was
a technical decision. So Giosov wins the fight, but loses every fan he
may have ever had, because that was a fucking piece of garbage, horrible,
horrible, absolutely terrible fight to watch. And I blame geosoftware because Pablo
says, Arcno is a guy that will come forward, We'll try to fight
you and uh and you know, slug it out if necessary. But this
guy just didn't want any part of a real fight. He just it was
exactly the opposite of what I just said to you about Andy Cruz. It
was touch and move and stink you out. And you know what, if
I had what do they remember in the old days, and like the carnival
they have like the big stick with the hook on it, they yank you
off the stage right, yes, whatever they call it, or in the
cartoons like the Bugs Buddy cartoon, they would all exactly right. Yes,
So if I had that and I was there, I'd have fucking yanked that
motherfucker right out of the right. That was a horrible fight, So I
don't need to be giving it far too much time as it is. It's
over. It's a technical decision and whatever happens to those in the future.
Well, he's in now. He's in position to be the mandatory for Amanda
Stanioniss WBA Regular belt. So there's that, uh, hopefully hopefully paved,
Pablo says ar Cano. Is okay, I didn't know. I didn't really
see the official diagnosed, but it was pretty clear that his ankle was messed
up when he fell down when they got tangled up there in the eleventh round.
All right, So the fight before that was again a WBA bantamway title
eliminator which was announced at the time of the fight, not on Friday,
and that was the American Antonio Vargas, who was a twenty sixteen US Olympian
who is now eighteen and one, who was actually was one of the local
draws on the car, probably sold some ticket. He's from Kissimi, which
is right there in the Orlando areas. So he was in this eliminator against
a Puerto Rican fighter named Jonathan Rodriguez. And if you remember, Jonathan Rodriguez
did the job on Calia five, former champion sentiment to retirement of the knockout
in the first round. That was the you know, the biggest moment of
his career. That was in his I guess his previous fight was a very
good win for him. So this was the matchup for this eliminator. And
let me tell you something. For as bad as that Giasov against Cano fight
was, this fight between Vargas and Rodriguez was as the as the kids say,
TJ. It was a banger. Yes, I mean it was.
It was a really good, exciting fight, just both guys showing tremendous heart,
letting it all hang out. And I tell you Antonio Vargus really showed
me something in that fight, because he looked like he might be in some
trouble. He got dropped in the first round as they were battling out the
kids. Showed a lot of heart to keep going and to overtake Rodriguez,
who also showed a lot of heart. Uh. There was there was some
some rough stuff, some some fouling because when he got knocked when he dropped
Rodriguez in round two, he hit him while he was down, which is
one of the worst fouls you can commit in boxing. So the referee docked
him two points on that foul. Uh. But they kept going at it,
and finally Vargas broke through dropped him again in round seven, and he
was really messed up. And when the round ended up, big left hand
right, Yeah, big left hand on the chin. They should not let
this fight go on. And I was very pleased that, Uh, Rodriguez's
father in the corner elected to stop the fight after that round because his boy
was gonna get hurt in the next round. Uh. And you know,
we'll live to fight another day because he's got that great win over over calia
Fi. He's got this very entertaining, exciting, competitive fightinggainst Antonio Vargas,
and there's no reason why take a good little rest and then make your you
know, get yourself back in in regroup in the gym, and they get
back in another fight. So that was that was a really good fun fight.
Uh, those were the main Those are the three fights prior to the
main event. And you know, and there was another fight before that,
but those are the main fights that we're talking about. And like I said,
other than the GSOV piece of garbage, Uh, the rest of the
show was a fun fight, the fun show to watch. And again Vargas
winning a w BA bandamweight eliminator in the chronology coming later in the night factors
into what happened earlier in the day, and that is the Japanese tripleheader of
championship fights, where Takuma in a way retained the w BA bantamweight title with
a big body shot knockout of Filipino Jermin and Cajas. Also, Junto Nakatani
delivered as you and I both thought he would on the bet Us show with
a six round t KO. He knocked Alex Santiago down a couple of times
and retained the WBC vers. We also even had a WBO Bacon Junior bandamweight
title fight won by Kosai Tanaka by decision. You had all the Japanese A
championship interest you could have for a Saturday morning with the cornflakes and the Japanese
title fights. Well, I can't say I had corn flakes. I was
in bed watching on my phone. I actually I did not see some of
those fights live. I watched them after the fact. I did watch the
main event live. So I'll start with the main event. I gotta confess.
So I'm becoming an old man. I don't sleep a ton, but
I got about six and a half hour sleep Friday night. I literally wake
up at about seven am. I get to the dog, I get the
dog outside and I'm like, okay, let me see where they are in
the car. And I open up social media and they're talking about the Knakatani
knockout. And I thought, with the way we were talking, that was
the final fight, and I'm like, I've missed the entire card. At
seven am Eastern time, it's over. Well, it turns out that was
the co feature fight before the he knocked out that was scored by in a
way, but I'm with you. I mean it was early in these and
I know for those of the Central time Zone and beyond, it was way
early. So it's okay if you time displaced it and watched it a little
later, it's understandable. It was okay in the US, and it's still
on demand now. If he didn't see it all, ESPN Plus has it
in the on demand spot, no problem. So Takuma in away who is
the younger brother of no Yo in a way, when when his brother vacated
all the bandam wait titles and after having become undisputed and went to one hundred
and twenty two pounds where he now is the undisputed champion in that weight class.
Also his brother Takuma fought and won the vacant WBA bantam Waite title.
This was his first defense against gerwy and Casas a Caajas, who was a
long time title holder in the Junior VANDAM White division, had made nine defenses.
It was a star wart guy. Fought a lot of fights on ESPN.
When he's with top Rank, he's promoted by Manny Paco was with PBC,
fought you know, fights on Showtime lost his title on showtime to Fernando
Martinez, lost in the rematch, then moved up in wait, had one
fight, and then got this opportunity, you know, to a challenge for
this title. He listen and as I expected, he gave a heck of
account, a good account of himself. I mean I did pick him to
win on the beat Us Show, mainly because the number was so tasty,
and he did comp very well. This was not a blowout fight. But
in the end, you know, the slickness of in a way, the
youth, the freshness compared to him, you know, it was a little
bit too much for him. And in the end, uh, you know,
in a way, you know, he did the job and it was
really kind of one of those deals where you know, yeah, he got
the knockout, and it was it was a pretty nice knockout. The liver
shiver right in the right in the liver, I heard Chris Aljery said on
the broadcast. And you know, people, uh, they say this stuff,
uh, and they've never been in the ring. And I've got to
I've got to confess, I've never been in the ring and taken a liver
shot. But you hear fighters talk about it, and al Jury said it
on a Saturday morning, US time, early morning. He said, when
you get hit with that punch, everything goes out, everything goes numb.
And that's exactly what happened to Ankajas who had been standing toe to toe with
him and taking shots to the head without a problem, and then suddenly banged
the body. And the fights don't but it was so quick out of nowhere,
you didn't even like I had to see the replay, didn't even realized
the shot had landed. And I have talked to over my career many many
fighters who will tell you chapter and verse, they'd much rather take a head
shot than a body shot. That's a you know, a good headshot com
bear to a good body shot. They'll take a good headshot any day and
be able to overcome it. But sometimes you just cannot overcome the body shot.
And so what was a seemingly a fight that was probably headed the distance
where in a way he was winning the fight, but it was competitive,
Suddenly the fight was over because he got clipped and he went down and he
did not beat the count. And so that's a good that's not only a
good win for in a way it's a it's a impressive title defense for him.
You know, he wants to be undisputed at at VANDAM weight the way
his brother is. He got a belt, and now he's got the title,
uh defense under under that belt, and now is I guess they'll try
to work their way towards seeing if there's a possibility to fight for other belts
in the future. But you had to get that one out of the way.
And he did that against a very reputable, very opponent and uh,
you know, and now he's off to the races. I mean, and
let and let's say this because we've seen this dynamic all the time in sports,
all sports, et cetera. This is not an easy thing for Takuma
in a way to be the younger brother of Naoya in a way, a
monstrously popular prominent fighter in that country. And you're literally in his shadow when
he's in the corner with you, which he was with the dad. So
he delivered. But it's just it's an interesting dynamic when you see like sons
of fathers that are famous in American sports, or younger brothers that are trying
to live up to the older. Oh yeah, but I mean that pressure
is definitely there, and he got the knockout and you could almost see relief
after the fight that he was relieved. Had a swollen right lower eye there,
cheekbone, lower eye, but he got the win. Ye make no
mistake. A lot of times when guys make their first defense, it's an
easy patsy kind of hand pick, kind of easy you know, let's just
get the fans excited, let's pocket a big purse for not a lot of
risk. This was not the case. This was a real fight against a
real fighter, against a quality fighter. I mean, yes, he was
not a long time fighter in the bandamweight division. But you know, my
opinion has always been that among the easiest jumps to make in professional boxing if
you're changing weight classes is that three pounds differentiation between the junior bandamweight division and
the bandamweight division. And look, it was a good victory for him,
and so now how does he go towards the possibility of unifying the titles.
Well, that takes us to what's the second fight on the card. That
was the co feature. You had Alexandro Santiago, who you remember we were
there in Vegas and the summer on the undercart of Errol Spence against Terrence Crawford.
When Santiago defeated Nondo Donair and what was a pretty big upset to win
what at that time was the vacant WBC bantamway title, another one of the
belts that in a way that Nola in Away had vacated. So he gets
this opportunity for you know, nice payday to go and defend the title in
Japan against Junto Nakatani, who has been a very exciting fighter. He'd won
a title at flyweight, won a title at junior bantamweight. We remember that
phenomenal knockout of Jason Maloney knock out of the Year in twenty twenty three in
a junior bantamwaight title defense, which he actually had in Las Vegas on a
top rank undercard. I believe it was the Lomachenko and Devin Hainey undercard.
Anyway, he didn't stick around in that weight class very long, and Nakatani
went up to bantamwaight and it was challenging Santiago for this title. I said
to you at the time that San Diego won the title, he's you know,
it's a great story. Congratulations to him. It changed his life.
He'll always have the belt to remember. I'll be a part of the WBC
family. He can show his kids blah blah blah. But he was never
going to be a long term champion, and especially when you're fighting Sony the
caliber of a junto Nakatani, who is a tremendous, tremendous fighter, and
you know, he does a lot of his training in Los Angeles. He
works with Rudy Hernandez, who was an outstanding trainer, somebody I have known
for many, many years, who was the brother of the late great former
junior lightweight champion, Gennaro Hernandez. And they they really they've worked on so
many things there. He's such a technically good fighter, and he can punch
with both hands. He has a tremendous uppercut, he's got good size.
I don't have any doubt in my mind that at some point he'll go up
to junior featherweight. But in the meantime, here he goes in with Santiago
and he bossed him the whole fight. He beat him up. I mean
it was not really it was an easy pick in terms of picking a knockout.
I felt like he ends up winning the fight obviously by a six round
knockout. He wins the title now in his third different weight class. I
thought he looked spectacular. He was taller, he was quicker. He had
like a five inch height advantage or so over Santiago. He was definitely a
bigger puncher. He just took them apart. He controlled them with the jab
when they got on the inside, he banged them around to the head,
in the body. He had that uppercut working. You know, it was
just it was like a it was a really really impressed almost It's almost like
a no win situation. Santek I just felt there was no possible way unless
there was some kind of miracle or an injury to Nakatani, that that he
was going to leave that ring with his title intact. And sure enough come
round six, you know, over and out. You know, he gave
a good effort. But Nakatani is a star on the rise, you know,
we know in a way is the number one star in Japan and the
and the guy in the pound for pound list and all. But I don't
think Nakatani is that far away fromhim. And I think you can even make
the case right now that you could find a spot form in the lower part
of your top ten pound for poundies that good. It was a very very
impressive victory. And so it begs the question. Right. You had the
WBA title defended by in a way in the main event, he got his
countryman Nakatani winning the WBC title in the co feature. Are they going to
fight each other? I don't make it too much sense now on the you're
making too much sense. You're making too much sense again that those two would
fight. I would hope that it would happen eventually. I don't I'd be
really shocked if it was next And there's there's you know, they both can
carve out and make money doing other things, and it you know, and
again I don't like to the word marinate. There are some times where to
make it the biggest possible, you do have to gamble about a loss here
and there, and you do need to kind of juice up a little bit
a little. How about instead of marine build it up a little, each
guy makes another defense and there you go. I don't know if you need
to build it up for years, but you know, if they didn't,
they built it up for another couple of fights. It's not the worst thing
that I ever heard, So that would be my expectation if they do have
interest to fight one another, that it would get built up, you know,
at least for a couple of fights. My my fear, I don't
really mean I'm scared of it. I'm just saying I would hate to see
them both have the titles together, fighting on the same card, They're with
the same team, and have you know, one guy or the other decide,
you know what, I don't want that fight, and maybe they vacate
and go up and wait and say I can't make the weight anymore, you
know, I mean, because clearly both guys are going to fight in the
one hundred and twenty two pounds weight class at some point. You know,
maybe they'll wait until Loya in a way leaves the division and goes up to
fetherweight, which would probably be the next year. But look, Nakatani is
a super fun, exciting fighter to watch, So even if he's not fighting
in a way in the unification, you know, if he spends the next
couple of fights knocking out other guys who are quality in the meantime, you
know, Soviet but uh, he's it for me personally, Nakatani is appointment
viewing, even if I watch it a little bit after the live fact when
I woke up all right quickly to tan not gonna win because we got news
and we got some excellent nostalga. So go all right, So Tanaka,
oh I just mentioned that Nakatani. So he wins the world title in his
third way class. What Tanaka did by beating a fighter named Christian Bacha Sekwa,
which a very interesting fight to win the vacant WBO junior bantamweight title.
And I was a pretty dominating decision, one nineteen one awaight, maybe it
was a little bit wide, but understandable. The other two scores were one
seventeen to one ten and one sixteen to one eleven. So the belt that
he won was the belt that Nakatani had vacated when he left the junior band
and weight division to go up to bandam weight to challenge for the title that
he just won. And so what's the thing about Tanaka. He becomes the
first ever or are the third ever Japanese fighter to win world titles in four
weight classes. You know, I mean, it's not the most meaningful staff.
But it's somewhat impressive when you think that the company has joined there's now
three of them. He's done it in four weight classes. No Yah in
a way has done it in four weight classes, and your boy, Kazuto
Ioka has done it in four weight classes. So Tanaka has now won w
all WBO titles. The WBO made a thing on their social media that he's
the first I think it was the first ever fighter to win title WBO titles
in four weight classes. You know, he can look at that. There's
a lot of ways to look at that, but I'm stating the fact.
So he's been been a WBO champion at strawweight, junior flyweight, flyweight and
now junior band and weight. And you know, Bassa Segua came to fight
man. He gave him a tough go. You know, he was a
brawler from Mexico. He really took it to him. But Tanaka, you
know, it was a little too slick, a little too skillful. He
did bang it out when necessary and he won the decision. And it was,
you know, somewhat historic from the point of view of the statistical things
I just mentioned to you, but it's it is telling that when you're going
for a title on a fourth weight class, you're not the co feature,
and you're not even the main event or the co feature. So the other
names were a little bit higher on the depth chart, if you will,
when it comes to boxing talent in Japan when you're talking about in a way
in Nakatani. But look, as as I've said to you a thousand times
on this show, I'm a dork for these Japanese early morning US cards that
feature a variety of different title fights, I absolutely love them. This was
a very good card to watch. Had good names, had good action,
had competition. Everything you want to see. Has some nice knockouts. You
know, if you're if you're a fan of the smaller weight classes, you
got your your bandam weights days or months full of action. Plus you're throw
in the junior bandamweight title fight with Tanaka, and you know, when you
think about the guys who were the best fight in Japan between Tanaka and Nakatani
and Dakuma, anyway, you got three. Like if you were making your
list of like here are the top ten active Japanese fighters. Those are three
of the top ten active Japanese fighters all together on the same show, so
you know, I thoroughly enjoyed. I actually had the occasion over the weekend
to talk to Todd the buff from Top Rank, who is the you know,
the president of that company. And even though they're not the promoter of
the show, but they have an involvement with with Teak and Boxing that puts
those shows on and they have a very close relationship, and they've got the
deal which brings these shows to America on their part of their ESPN Plus contract.
You know that they're deal with ESPN. You know, I tell them
all the time that, you know, there's a lot of things I love
about boxing, but one of my favorite things in the whole sport is the
ability to watch these shows live or you know, plause me live on at
my own leisure from Japan when they happened, and I was thinking to myself
the agony that I used to go through to get the videos of these right,
creating VHS cassettes, going to a show and seeing my friend that would
go to Japan and bring me a DVD or bring me a tape or mailing
a VHS cassette. And there was no U two back in the day.
Or even if you could get the cassette, you'd still it'd be three weeks
after the fact before you can see these fights. Now, the fans of
today don't understand how easy they had it. You wake up, you're still
in bed like I was. You put your phone on, you watch the
fight. If you miss a couple of rounds, or you missed the first
fight, you just rewind it with your strokey, your finger back to the
beginning of the show. Yeah, I mean, we had a work to
watch our fights back in Absolutely, fans today got it so fucking easy.
I still remember being a fight fan in the eighties where you really had no
way to see some of these fights that were in Europe and Japan, and
the only thing you were doing was reading about them in boxing magazines like KO
Magazine. In the ring like a month or six weeks after the fact.
But I mean, I'm a kid growing up as a teenager, and I
had no way to know what happened in that fight. I didn't get to
see the fight in the UK, didn't get to see the fight in the
Far East that they're that you're reading about in Ring magazine, Free Plug,
Ko Magazine. Uh. Steve Farhood's late publication that was big in the eighties.
So yes, you're exactly right that now you have it instantaneously and we
are spoiled. How much is now they're available, by the way, not
just spoiled perfect quality on the stream, but an English announcing team. That's
right. I mean even when I would get by minor, hold on,
you just jogged me. My minor gripe is still the same because let me
help me with the name. It's current Bathia. Is that how you say
his name? He was on the play by play call with Chris al Jury
and he made mention during the In a Way fight that they really wish they
could understand what in Away's dad was saying to him and what do I say
to you, Ray Phiel. For these top rank ESPN Plus shows, if
they're doing them in Japan, spend a little bit and get me a Japanese
They're not going to sleep. They're a multi multi multimillion dollar company and their
own announcer is saying. What we're saying is fans, we'd love to know
what they're saying in the corner. If they're speaking Japanese. You don't have
to speak every language. It's not Filipino, Russian, whatever else. But
if it's a Japanese show, go go get the intern from ESPN that also
is bilingual and have him sit there and say in a ways Dad is telling
him stop moving to the left st Yes, So okay, that's what I
just think about. I think about that quibble about how it took me like
six weeks to get a tape to see the fight, and by the way,
which would be in Japanese right, it would be Japanese right, And
I finally watch it it was in Japanese. You know. I remember,
like I've talked about this, the incredible fight between Sam Sak and Mantreport for
the WBA one hundred and twenty two pounds title that took place in France,
that won the Fight of the Year award for the BWAA partly because of my
impassioned plea that hour meeting that even if you've never seen it, please trust
me, vote for it to be on the ballot and then go watch it,
and I promise you your life will be different. If you need to
see it, I'll send you the DVD out my own, which I did
to many of my boxing writing colleagues. But here's the point. I watched
that fight. It was in French. You don't need to have a degree
in French to understand when the boxing announcer on the Canal Polose broadcast and these
two are beating a living fucking shit at each other, and the broadcaster goes,
ooh, la, la la. You don't need a translator, bro,
big right hand kind of comes across in any language exactly. So I'm
not going to quibble with that, But I'm just I will impress again the
incredible awesomeness. There's so many things that we can bitch and moan about in
boxing, and lord knows you and I do it, as do others on
a regular basis. But I must say how much I love and appreciate that
the combination of the technology we have and the and the way that a top
rank in this instance and others have done to be able to bring it to
an American audience, whether it's at four in the morning or ten o'clock at
night or whenever it is, to be able to watch it anytime in crystal
clear with quality announcing and not have to worry about am I going to be
able to see my boy at a fight, you know in Las Vegas in
a month to be able to get a DVD from him and then and watch
it in Japanese. There you go. We gave you a ton on the
recaps. Let's get to some news and some nostalgia, all right. So
at the Edgar Berlanga way in for Matchroom on Friday, Suprio, Mattias was
there talking about doing his recent deal with match Room. All right, so
give me give me the latest on what if anything came of that. It
was obviously already known that he has signed a deal with match Room. He's
got an upcoming title of fans, but give me more. But yeah,
they had announced the signing, you know, a week or so ago.
Wasn't exactly a total shaker. He left PBC and his promoter from Puerto Rico
Fresh Productions won Orango. They did a deal with Mattroom Boxing to be his
co promoter, and so this was an opportunity right before the way in for
Mattias to talk to some of the press there and for Eddie Hearn to be
there and it was part of their livestream of the way in, so fans
could also see from him and his team about what their plans are and what
he wants to do. And look, Mattias, you know, is somewhat
of a boogeyman. There's not a lot of guys that call him out.
He does have the IBF title at one hundred and forty pounds. He is
a phenomenal puncher. He's twenty zero with twenty knockouts, or guys should say
twenty and one with twenty knockouts. All of his victories are by a knockout.
He does have the one loss by a decision, which he avenged in
a subsequent fight. And he's just a badass. He's super exciting, he's
got good punching power. He's got, you know, the great fans of
Puerto Rico who are anxious to see him fight at home, which he's going
to do this summer date to be announced. So a couple of things from
the press conference. So I just I just love the fact that he was
shit talking because nobody wants to mention this guy's name. So he spoke a
little bit of English, but mainly he was speaking in Spanish. But when
you say certain guy, when you say guys names, it doesn't you know,
you don't need a translator to hear him say, Devin Andy, keithy
Ma Lopez, you know, Roly Romero, et cetera. So he was
talking about, you know, they don't have the next fight lined up,
but he's like, you know, I want to fight all these guys.
Tive imo HAINI, you know, I want to fight those He goes and
this was really funny. I don't even want to mention Roly Romero because he's
a comedian, but you know, and Devin Haney will run, but I'm
going to knock ta femo out and I'm going to retire him. In other
words, in like the span of like three sentences, he got a lot
of shit talk out That was very good to hear. Hopefully some of those
fights can happen in terms of when the fight will take place in or who
will fight when the fight takes place in Puerto Rico. This summer, I
had reported and others had reported that they were close to a deal for him
to fight Liam Paro, who was the Australian undefeated fighter that is also with
matchrom Boxing. My understanding from people who are involved with that situation is that
that will not happen because they are not close on the money and Paro is
I guess, walking away from that fight and they'll find somebody else in the
end. That's really nice, Porrow not wont to fight for a world title
with all that's in the one division. I can't ask. I can't answer
that, But what I can say is what Paro if it is in fact
true that he's balking at whatever the money is. And I will say this,
I don't know what the money he was offered. I can't tell you
if, in my opinion, it was a fair offer or not. But
regardless, this is not about the challenger. This is about Sibril Mattias finally
going home to defend his world title in per Rico and being the A side
and the star of the show. But there's a lot of possible fights out
there for him, but he's gonna have this kind of I won't call it
a showcase fight because we don't know who the opponent's going to be. Hopefully
they'll find him a quality opponent. But Sabril Mattias is as exciting as entertaining
and it's fun to watch and as big of a puncher as anybody in the
spurt right now, and so it was very good to see him with the
team sitting up there and calling these guys out and you know, and basically
daring them fight me, Like I have no doubt in my mind that for
the right deal, Subril Matias will fight anybody. He's not been looking at
duck guy. So that was that was interesting in the you know, if
Paro comes back around or he doesn't, so be it, they'll find somebody
else. I'm more news the Professional Fighters League PFL. They are saying that
Francis and Ganu, who is fighting in a couple of weeks against Anthony Joshua,
we'll come back to MMA and fight for them next, all right,
So tell me more about this and ghan who's name is obviously a hot name
right now for boxing. And the first thing I thought when you put this
on the rundown is wouldn't this be contingent on him not beating Anthony Joshua,
Because if he beats Anthony Joshua, I don't know why I'm taking a risk
going and fighting in the Professional Fighters League. That's just me, but go
ahead, well, I don't know if it's a risk. I mean,
he's an MMA fighter at heart, not a boxer. And by the way,
after he left UFC when they finally were able to get released from the
contract because I had so many problems between him and the company. They I
think he was they were trying to make a John Jones fight. Whatever.
I don't really follow MMA that closely. He signed with PFL as part of
this pay per viewed division and he was going to be, like, you
know, to have some other aspects of the things going on with the company,
some equity and something or other, and then the boxing stuff came up,
so that was put off. So it's not a matter of why would
you go back to MMA. That's what is bread and butter, is whatever
happens in the Tyson Fury fight, whatever comes up happening in the Anthony Joshua
fight. But because PFL had this big show for them in Saudi Arabia over
the weekend where Claressa Shields was on the cart, she returned to MMA.
By the way, she did win her fight, a close fight, but
she did win. So she's now two to one in Nick's Martial Arts and
I believe she'll come back and have her next assignment will be as a boxer
or not as an MMA person. In any event, Francis Nagan who was
at this show, and I guess again, I don't follow it closely,
but apparently because PFL bought what was left of Bellator when because that was part
of showtime shutting down and that was up for sale and the boxing went away.
So PFL bought Bellotor, but they didn't absorb everybody together. They basically
kept the PFL that they have and they kept the Bellitor the day up,
but each of those organizations had champions. So their main event on this pay
per view that was on Saturday was the PFL champion Renan Ferrera against the Bellator
champion, Ryan Bader, and the idea was that they would unify or have
a super champion or whatever you want to call it. That the that the
champion of Delatour and PFL would fight each other and then Nigana would fight the
winner of that fight. As it turned out, it was ren and Ferrera
who scored a first round knockout. So now when Francis Nagano finishes the fight
with Joshua, he will leave boxing for whatever period of time. He will
go back to MMA and have his first fight in a pay per view against
now the guy that's I don't know what they call him a super champion or
the PFL slash Bottley, a unified champion. I'm not sure what the terminology
is. But the guy the the main guy of PFL slash Bellotor and he'll
fight him, and you know it sort of like Claressa, she's done what
she's done as a professional boxer and been one of the best in the business.
I consider the pound for pound number one women's boxer in the world.
And Niganu came from UFC and came into boxing and obviously did a tremendous job
against Tyson Fury, even though he didn't get to win. He's got a
big time fight coming up March eighth against Joshua and then he'll go back and
fight in MMA. And I thought that was interesting that it's you know,
I find that fascinating that these these athletes, you know, can be able
to do two things essentially at the same time and do it at the They're
not just dicking around. At least he's doing at the highest level. Caressa,
she's still fighting sort of novice ish fights in the MNA world and the
top fights in the boxing world. But Naghanu was fighting the top fights in
both sports, yep, and there's no doubt it's a mega payday for him
to fight Anthony Joshua obviously coming up one more connected dots and then I want
to move along, but Jake Paul obviously fighting this week. Jake Paul is
one of the founders and co owners of Professional Fighters League, and he's made
no a secret that he wants to fight in a in a PFL main event.
He wanted to fight Nate Diaz in a PFL main event and it didn't
happen. But it's just it's interesting. That's his organization too, that's behind
he's got equity in the and then go back right the thing he's interested in
too, Jake, but he doesn't he doesn't own PFL as an owner.
He owns part of I guess their PPV sort of offshoot that there's a separate
division of the fighters that fight in these pay per view type events. He's
not fighting the non pay per view events. So with you, I mean,
he's even knocking around that he would do a deal with Tommy Fury where
they would box in a rematch and then maybe fight a PFL mixed martial arts
fight. So I can see that happening. Clearly, Jake Paul wants to
go back and forth as well for financial reasons. So it's just interesting in
Ghana is older and let's see what happens with Anthony Joshua. We'll find out
before all this gets such. The thing about that is, even if he
loses the Joshua, which he's the underdog and is expected to do so,
right, even though you don't know what actually is going to happen till they
get in the ring, he's still whatever happens unless there's some kind of like
terrible injury and you know, knock on wood. There isn't that he will
go back to have his MMA fight against against Ferreira in the next fight we
know, and they didn't didnt announce a date yet, but that would be
the next planned event, all right. Another news item, Ryan Garcia is
on social media this weekend. Ryan Garcia on social media yet no shocking.
I know when we left the podcast, we had been talking about Barclay Center
in New York and that would be the location for Haini Garcia coming on April
twentieth and now second reference, much like my man Rayhaiel with the WBA eliminator
stuff. Apparently. Ryan Garcia's reaction to that is wait, what, We're
not fighting in Vegas, We're not fighting in California. Is there anything to
this really being a problem with him and not wanting to fight in New York?
What's up? Listen? All I can say I haven't spoken to Ryan
about it, but I can read his social media when I do get a
chance to talk to our interview and I will ask him. On Friday,
he put up two different posts back to back on his ex twitter feed.
He said, this is an MGM fight, doing everything we can to bring
this to Vegas and giving this fight what it deserves. And then his second
one was, this decision has nothing to do with New York City, but
everything to do with the business and what I believe is the best move for
my career. So it was almost like he didn't get the memo that Yeah,
I signed for the fight, but they didn't tell me the fight was
in putting the fight on, have done the deal with the Barclay Center.
Oh and by the way, they've got a press conference in Manhattan to promote
the fight on Tuesday, and then a follow up press conference in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, so they better get their shit together. So where I
think this is stems from. First of all, let's just cut that a
chase. Unless Ryan Garcia pulls out, which I don't think he's gonna do.
This fight has taking place on April twenty at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn,
New York period. End of the story. Uh. And by the
way, Barclay Center, I don't know if Ryan Garcia has ever been there,
but I can tell you having covered probably forty five events there, it
is a premier venue for boxing, certainly for concerts and professional basketball and professional
hockey and you know, the top level entertainment things you can ask for.
I mean, and I've done you know, numerous, numerous, numerous boxing
events there since it opened back in like what twenty twelve, twenty thirteen.
You've talked about that, right, right, yes, sure, So you
know it's a first class facility. This is not It's not like you know,
you think you're staying at the Ritz and they put you in a you
know, in a holiday and on the side of the road or a motel
six. That's not the case. This is a legit place in the media
capital of the world. One of the great cities in the history of humankind.
And I understand that Vegas is a boxing mecca, a hot out of
boxing, and where many of the biggest fights have taken place. Fine,
But New York City for a big time fight is, by the way,
has had historical major fights for decades and decades and decades and decades. New
York City was hosting big time fights between before Las Vegas ever hosted a fight
ever. So you know, I think that that this really comes down to
and I don't know this, but I'm conjecturing knowing sort of the way that
the economics work. When you fight in Las Vegas. There's no state tax
in Nevada. When you fight in New York City, you're paying like another
nine percent money on taxes, and it's going to be another to your pocketbook,
your your wallet, your banking hout. However you want to talk about
it. What the money that gets taken out for doing it? Now,
Sometimes prooters have found and fighters amount a reason that it's worth it because of
the exposure, because of the added uh exposure and the sort of the eyeballs
that you get not only from the fans are there, but from Madison avenue
and potential sponsorships and things like that, that being in New York City is
an important factor, uh, you know, to help boost you in the
future, and that you know, just because you might have to spend a
little bit more, it costs a little bit more on the on the on
the event. In the long run, it's worth it to have fought in
New York City. But maybe Ryan doesn't want to be paying that extra nine
percent. I can't speak to that. But if it's good enough for all
the other great fighters that have come through New York City over the last you
know, one hundred and something years in boxing, you know, it shouldn't
be that big of a deal. And you know, but you know,
I understand those concerns. I mean it always bothered me, uh that every
great fighter you could think of or a million years, you know that Manny
Pacil and Floyd Mayweather never boxed a single time in New York City. I
feel like as great a crueris as they had. You know, there's something
we said first saying, you know what, check in the box I fought.
I fought in New York City though, so that fight is happening,
but it just it just shows me, there's still a disconnect between Ryan and
Golden Boy at times that is unnecessary. That you just finally made this big
fight, why would you do anything to dampen the enthusiasm for it to fight
by basically saying, well, we're having this fight, but it's in a
second class kind of place where it's not a great place to have the fight,
and I'm bringing this fight to Vegas when you know, Dan, well,
you're not bringing this fight to Vegas. You're not bringing this fight to
Vegas, well, at least not on April twentieth. You're not bringing the
fight to Vegas. And I find it bizarre that Golden Boy and teen Haney
will go to the efforts that they've gone through to announce this fight for April
twentieth and then come back and announce Barclay Center and schedule two press conferences and
now suddenly after spending all and by the way, these press covers are not
cheap. They rent that locations. They they've got all kinds of five.
If you know, the one Tuesday is at the Barclay Center. No,
no, the one on Tuesday is not at Barclay Center. The one on
Tuesday is at a place the Palladium in Times Square, gotcha. I mean
it they probably even even if this, they booked the press cards before they
announced the venue. But I believe that even if they had the venue first,
they wouldn't have had the press conference at Barclays party. They have had
press conference there. I mean I've gone there. For example. The fight
itself wasn't there. But if you remember when Floyd Mayweather fought Connor McGregor,
they did like that four city tour where they were in different places and uh,
you know, to hype the thing up, they did a big event
where they opened Barclay Center for free and they filled the damn place with with
fans. And I was there for the press conference or the wasn't really a
press concher, it was a show. But anyway, so you know,
if you're that unhappy, why are you putting that on social media? Go
talk to your lawyer, Go talk to your advisor to we know the answer,
because they've been having problems for years publicly, privately. All of this,
the dysfunction has been there. Stay tuned, Stay tuned. Let's say
simply this, whatever he's saying about this fight, it's unless they change the
date, which seems unlikely given what's at stake in the Zone's involvement. They
have to change their schedule, right. They can't in New York City.
They can't go down that road because Canelo's a couple of weeks later, and
now the rescheduled Usik listen to me, sounding all coherent, The rescheduled Fury
Usick is right after that. So that's the reason why they settled on that
date. So come on, and they've got April basically to themselves. Want
me to say, don't you you want me to say it? Whatever we
do here, let's go thank you. Uh And one more thing you you
did make mention of this on the bet Us Show on Friday when somebody brought
something up about rematches. You've been hearing that Rafael Espinoza and Robas Ramirez a
big upset by Espinoza. It's in the works, not suprising, because Ramirez
wants another crack and there's obviously some money to be made for Espinosa now as
the champ for that WBO featherweight rematched featherweight title rematch. Enlighten me a little
more. How soon might we see this? Well, I'm sure you remember
how great their first fight was I mean absolutely spectacular, maybe the upset of
the year, certainly one of the fights of the year, just absolutely tremendous.
You know, Rafael Spinoza coming out of absolutely nowhere to win that title
on a and do so, by the way, on a majority decision where
he gets a knockdown in the twelfth round to pull out what would have otherwise
been a split draw had he not gotten a knockdown. Just a really outstanding
fight with a lot of drama and a great story in Espinosa, like I
said, coming out of nowhere, completely unknown and just you know, pulls
just a shocker of chokers. So and it was such a great fight,
I mean top rank which put the fight on in conjunction with Espinosa's promoter,
Zandford Promotions, which they have a very close relationship with and have had for
many many years. They're not usually a company that does immediate rematches. I
mean you can look down the long line of fights in their company where there
have been rematches, and very very rarely are they right back to back.
In this particular case, they felt like, you know what, it was
such a good fight. It's still a bigger fight than anything we can make
for any of these guys. Besides that, and the fans seem to want
it. Strike while the iron is hot, We're going to do our rematch.
So it's not done yet, but they are going to try to do
this rematch now. The first fight took place in December and was a rough
fight for everybody involved. They're looking at doing the rematch this summer. I
don't have an exact dator location, but the plans are from what I am
told that Top Rank is definitely going to put this rematch together, and they're
so heavily involved in the featherweight division that it will be remember coming up.
As we talked about the card that comes up this coming weekend, where you
have the doubleheader with the IBF champion Luis Alberta Lopez against Abe and his mandatory
in the co feature, and then the main event is Holmatov against ray Ford
for the vacant WBA title. This is for the WBO title. But the
point is they're going to have the winners. I mean, unless ray Ford
wins, who's with matrim But the other guys they'll be able to mix and
match, and you got to figure there'll be some unification at some point.
But this is a great rematch between Espinoza and Robasi Ramirez, a fight that
I think everybody would want to see after what we saw the first time,
with the combined thing of the action and then the big upset, shocking result
out of nowhere. While we love the sport. Speaking of out of nowhere,
how about me making a segue. Let's get to nostalgia. It was
sixty years ago Sunday night as we're releasing this podcast into Monday, February twenty
fifth, nineteen sixty four, in which Olympic champion Cassius Clay captured the heavyweight
title with a surprising, shocking, stunning upset of the seemingly invincible Sonny Liston
in Miami Beach, Florida, and boxing was changed forever. I think it's
fair to say in the heavyweight division, once cash is play, slash Muhammad
Ali became the champ. And that was sixty years ago. So we've talked
about this before a couple of times in the Nostalgia. You know, we
recently talked to Douglas Upset obviously on its anniversary with Mike Tyson. This was
that upset, you know, back twenty five years earlier, in nineteen twenty
six years earlier in nineteen sixty four. And you've also talked about the magnitude.
Where does it rate on the scale, et cetera. You can't you
can't emphasize enough that everybody thought in that timeframe, the writers, the public
Liston's gonna wipe him out, He's gonna shut this loudmouth guy up. It
didn't. Yeah, I mean, looks cash this clay. At the time,
he was an up and coming fighter, you know, he was nineteen
and zero at that time going into this fight with Sonny and listen, listen,
as you mentioned, he's the big bad man of boxing, knocking everybody
out, you know, growling and snarl and like, you know, the
bad guy as they would like, you know, pigeonhole him as and just
a destructive force. And Ali was brash, you know at the time,
and would always was talk and talk and talk and making predictions and this and
that, and but he was still the big underdog. And of course when
he won the fight, remember go you know, I actually win the anniversary.
You know, I watched back on YouTube some of the fight which I
hadn't watched him, you know, in a while and then I went and
looked up with the scores were at the time of the knockout, or you
know when when Listener retired on the stool claiming a shoulder injury. It was
it was at that moment it was a split draw. You add one score
card that had the fight fifty seven to fifty seven. You had one scorecard
that had cashus Clay ahead fifty nine to fifty six. You had another scorecard
that had Sonny Listen I had fifty eight to fifty six. So there this
is, this is a battle. This is a close fight at that time,
at least on the cards, scheduled for fifteen rounds. But he retired
on the stool, and who can forget the image of the valley realizing the
fights over and getting up and doing the shuffle in the corner and talking in
the interview afterwards, and he races across the ring, first of all,
sticking his right glove out over the ropes, looking at the writers and everybody
else going I told you, I told you. And then he's screaming,
I shook up the world. I shook up the world. Well he did
it, and he truly did. One other interesting part of this is Ali
apparently got ointment in his eyes that had been on Listen's shoulder, like during
a clinch, as the legends go, and Angelo Dundee verified this for years
after the fight that Ali was saying, I'm blind, I cannot see.
My eyes are burning, and as Angie Dundee relayed the story, he said,
I touched Ali's eyeball and when I touched the fluid and then put it
towards my eyeball, my eyes were burning. They later discovered that was ointment
that they had put on Liston's shoulder. More than likely that that's what it
was. There wasn't anything else nefarious going on trying to help his shoulder,
and his shoulder is a reason why he claimed he couldn't fight anymore. Now
that was all kinds of allegations. Was it fixed? Did he quit on
purpose, take the dive without being knocked down? What happened? Nonetheless,
I mean, I say again, the legend of Ali was born that night
sixty years ago. My friend well, and the other thing about it,
I mean, it wasn't in the fight itself, but it's part of the
story of the fight. He becomes the heavyweight champion of the world, which
was a you know, it's still an important role in sports, but at
that time, the heavyweight champ is like one of the most revered, most
famous people in the world. I mean, and it hurts me to say
this, but I just don't think that's the case. Tyson Fury is very
famous, fair enough, but I don't think he's one of the most famous
people on the entire planet. On the night that Sonny Liston lost to Casiu's
Play, Cashu's Play became one of the most famous people on Earth. But
what's important to recognize is that this is sort of the This is where a
part of his life went from fighter, olympian now champion. That changed in
a dramatic way because it was two days later where he changed his name to
Muhammad Ali and embraced the nation of Islam and converted and you know, disavowed
his name that he was given when he was born as Cash's Play and took
the name actually took the name at first, you know, Muhammad Ali became
what he was, what he was called, but originally he took the name
briefly Casshu's X like as a saying that I didn't this is not my choice,
these were my you know, this was my slave name, so to
speak, everyone describe it. But then he became Muhammad Ali, and you
know that did change up the word. And by the way, that was
not an insignificant thing. I mean, you're talking about a different time period
of racial segregation, of a lot of racial hatred. He's now the heavyweight
champ. He's now embracing Islam and being a Muslim. And it leads to
the whole thing with the Vietnam War and the draft status and that it was
a wild time outside the ring after this too, his victory against Sonny Listen.
You take everything that was involved, the changing of the guard in the
heavyweight division, the Olympic gold medal winner, you know, knocking off Sonny
Listen in a massive upset to win the title, all the stuff we just
talked about as related to like was it fixed the situation with the ointment in
the eye and him not being able to see the fact that it was two
days after this fact. And I don't believe if he had lost a fight
he would have necessarily done this publicly. But because now he had a certain
amount of stature to you know, have the soapbox if you will, to
announce to the world that he was embracing Islam and was changing his name.
All these things mixed together, and then to know what happened afterwards in terms
of the life he lived beyond that and what a famous person he became,
well beyond just whatever was going on in the boxing, ring Vietnam and all
that. I would say to you that what occurred on that night in nineteen
sixty four is in the top two or three, or four or five most
important fights that ever took place in a boxing rank period. You know,
you can quit, you can argue. I'm not just talking about action.
I'm not talking about a fight of the year or you know that type of
thing. I just mean in terms of significance, and I'm talking about fights
like when Jack Johnson becomes the first black heavyweight champion, when you have the
fight between Joe Lewis and Nax Smelling, which is essentially the straw man for
you know, the Allies against the Axis in the United States and the Allies
against Hitler and Germany. I mean important things that went beyond that's the athletic
competition and what went that fight because of all the stuff I just mentioned about
what became of Vallee after that, and everything is on that same kind of
level, highly highly significant, important in society, not just in sports.
And I would submit, and you know this, he elevated the heavyweight title
like three or four levels with his ability to talk on the mic and then
deliver in the ring. But he fought worldwide. He was fighting in Europe.
He eventually fought George Foreman, in Africa, he fought George Joe Frasier
in the Philippines. He was truly the world champion. And in and around
that, he even did a wrestling exhibition against your boy, Antonio Aoki where
Aoki laid on the mat and tried to kick him for the exhibition. He
fought in he fought in the UK, in the United States. He fought
in Canada. A matter of fact, in nineteen sixty six when he fought
George Schavallo in a heavyweight title defense at the Maple Leaf Guard in Toronto.
That's the first ever fight that Bob Aaron promoted. That's the birth of Bob
Aram's promotional career. That's now you know, what's sixty years old or so.
You know, he fought all over, as I mentioned, multiple fights
in Henry Cooper twice, fought in Germany. Sure he moved to heavyweight champion.
He fought, he fought, fought, He fought Jurgen Blynn in uh
in Zurich. You know when he was not fighting, you know when he
when he didn't fight in the United States and fought some fights in Europe.
He fought in Japan against mac Foster. He fought multiple times, as I
mentioned, in Canada, in the UK, he fought in, he fought
in in a Ireland. I mean, he fought all over the place.
He fought in Malaysia, I mean the definite. I mean, and again
I'm not knocking guys that don't fight out of the country. But look at
some other great fighters, not even necessarily heavyweights, like Oscar de Loye,
all time great, never fought outside the United States, Floyd Mayweather, all
time great, never fought outside of the United States. I mean, had
most of their fights, you know, in Las Vegas for that matter.
You know a Canelo Alvarez, he's in Mexican. He fought I think every
single one of his fights either been in Mexico or in the United States.
I mean, it's not a knock on them whatsoever, but Ali in particular,
fought everywhere. I mean he fought Indonesia, I mean all over the
place. And Zaire, like you mentioned, what an upset that's a true
world champion. What an upset that that was sixty years ago? All right,
quickly, this is a bit of a sad one. It's twenty nine
years ago. Also tonight, as we released the podcast February twenty fifth,
nineteen ninety five, that Nigel Ban scored a savage knockout of Gerald McClellan.
We've talked about this before, a wild fight, both fighters landing big punches.
Ben wins the WBC super Middleweight title and unfortunately McClellan suffers brain injury.
Well he retained, he retained the title. He didn't win the title.
Oh, he retained the title. Excuse me, McClellan retains the title.
A brutal fight, brain surgery from McClellan after amazingly survived the surgery. Because
I remember all of the talk around that it was touch and go as to
whether he's gonna live. And you have educated our podcast audience just follow up
here that you've been in touch with McClellan's sister, who remains the caretaker to
this day I have years later, you've you've talked to her in the past.
No, I haven't. I don't know where you get that from.
I have never spoken to her. I thought you did, Okay, No,
no, I have not. So I don't want to portray the fact
that my bad at all. I know. I know you have spoken about
her crusade to continue to raise funds take care of him, et cetera,
because we have talked about that part of the podcast, and you know that
about thirty years later that his care is still going on and costs a bunch
of money for Gerald McClellan. Sure, yeah, there's no doubt about that.
I mean, you know, and I think it's important that you don't
forget what happened in that because he's one of the people that Gerald is that
suffered such a severe injury. But he's still alive and still has, you
know, whatever the level of his life is, still lives. But his
sister Lisa is his caretaker. And there's actually if you go on you look
on the Boxing News, which is a fine publication, the oldest boxing publication
in the world out of the UK. They still produce a printed magazine every
week, but they have a great website and if you subscribe, And I
wish I could remember the writer's name because I'd like to give him credit because
he did a heck of a job with it, And I just don't remember
the author's name. But he had an interview with Lisa mcclun. He went
to visit Gerald and her in their home in Illinois, and he wrote a
really outstanding piece. I wish I coul remember the name about just what a
day in the life is like taking care of Jael mcloon, what he does
and what she does, and you know, so he does have some modicum
of a life, but it's you know, it's not great, and they
didn't they do need fun to help continue with this care. So they still
have a GoFundMe page set up that you could certainly find on the internet.
But the fight itself was a spectacular fight. I mean, it's just unfortunate
obviously that had the kind of ending that it did. But up until that
moment, this is an absolutely like just searing, violent, just NonStop action
fight that in retrospect, being honest, it doesn't surprise me that somebody suffered
this type of injury because that's just the type of fight that it was,
and Nigel Ben you know, was able to cause you know, it wasn't
like a massive knockout. It was kind of a shocking knockout because it wasn't
really a quote unquote knockout. It was a matter of Gerald taking a knee
because he was obviously having some problems with what was going on in his head
and was counted out. And it was very unfortunate that when that occurred,
this fight was shown in the United States on Showtime that you had Ferdy Pichekka,
who was the Showtime commentator, you know, ripping Gerald McClellan for quitting
and not realizing obviously that the man had a severe brain injury that required immediate
surgery and put him in a coma and and basically ended his life as he
knows it, on that night. So that was a really bad situation,
but it was it was a tremendous, tremendous back and forth battle. You
know, Nigel Ben had been in some great fights and you know, throughout
his career, whether you're talking about this fight or the U Bank fights,
McClellan was known as a just a devastating puncher and a very action packed fighter
and they came together. This was a co promotion between Frank Lauren who had
Nigel Ben and Gerald McLellan who was with Don King and Nigel, I mean,
Don King and Frank had done a bunch of fights together during that period
of time here in the in the mid nineties and this was in London,
and you know, it was just as memorable as it gets. And again,
I wish you could just push the stop button, you know in round
ten when he's counted out, and that would happened afterwards, never happened,
But you can't ignore it. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't talk about the
fighter, say what a great fight it was. Yes, the tragic and
you know, unfortunate way that it unfolded afterwards, but it doesn't take away
what these two guys did that night. And it's a very very famous and
a very very great and a very very sad fight all the same, very
very stark reminder. This is a brutal business and this is what happens from
time to time. And I said this before and I'll say it again.
This has gone on in so many different places, so many different situations.
There are thousands, if not millions who take care of their loved ones that
can't care for themselves. And she is a hero because here it is nearly
thirty years later and her brother has required all that time basically twenty four hour
care. It's sad. It's sad in that regard, and it goes on
everywhere. And she's a hero. She is a hero. And go check
out the GoFundMe if you'd like to help, et cetera. And there should
be some that are that are able, that are still willing and to give
back and be able to help them sustain because Gerald's still alive twenty nine,
twenty nine years later. All right, on a happier note, happy anniversary
to you before we get out of here. No it's not your wedding anniversary
with missus. By the way, let me just I wanted to say one
more thing before we get to this, in terms of Lisa McClellan. So
every year, one of the awards that gets voted on by the Boxing Writers
Association of America is we have an award that for many many years was called
the Bill Bill Bill Crawford Courage Award. It is now called the John McCain
Bill Crawford Courage Award. John McCain, the delayed senator from Arizona and former
presidential candidate, but a great American hero and more notably because of the Boxing
Writers Association. Why we did this. A noted and big time boxing fan,
an advocate who was the person to help write the Muhammad Ali boxing reformat.
You know, John McCain and I may not have agreed on our politics,
but we definitely agreed on our boxing. And I had the great opportunity
to interview him and meet him a couple of times in my career. Anyway,
So this award that we give out at the Boxing Writers every year,
this year, Lisa McClellan is getting that award. She won. She's actually
a tie with our good friend, the great photographer Ed mulholland, who takes
some of the best young side pictures you'll ever see. But they're going to
share this award. But she gets it, and she probably should have got
a years ago, and I'm glad that she was nominated. But she gets
this award for being the full time caregiver of her brother Gerald. Great stuff,
all right, And before we're gone, happy anniversary, because on Saturday
this past weekend, twenty four years ago, in February of two thousand.
February twenty fourth of two thousand, you began formally with USA Today as their
boxing national worldwide beat writer. And here you are, twenty four years later,
still doing a podcast with you. Yes, I know. Let me
ask it this way. Yes. If I go back to two thousand and
I tell Dan Rayfield, you are still going to be doing this twenty four
years later, seeing hundreds of Wars Old title fights in person all over the
United States, North America and the globe. Would Dan Rayfield of two thousand
have believed TJ if I said that to him, Never in a million years.
I mean, that's just the truth. I mean, as I've said
a thousand times to many people, two things. One, I've never one
day taken it for granted. And number two, it's been the fucking ride
of my life. And to be able to now start your twenty four doing
what I like doing. You know, I may not be writing for a
newspaper or now the website. I do my own thing, we do this
or whatever, but I'm still making a living. I can't complain about that.
I can still do my thing. And the fact that it's been that
long is mind, Bob. I mean what jumped to my mind is I
had the February twenty fourth date that you referenced, and I put this on
my Instagram and my Twitter Facebook because I still have it, because as you
know, I'm a collector. I never get rid of this type of thing.
It was on not February twenty fourth, but it was a few days
after that that I received in the mail, the old not email, like
an actual letter in the normal US Postal service mail, a type letter signed
by the editor, the sports editter at the time of USA Today, who
was my official. You're hired. Welcome to the pro you know, welcome
to the company. We hope you find your job enjoyable and fulfilling. Here's
what your salary is going to be. I was hired. I actually had
known I was being hired. It wasn't this letter to them of the secret.
It so happened that the letter was dated February twenty fourth. I had
actually been hired on the telephone about three weeks earlier. I had a conversation
with the sports editor, whose name was Monty Laurel. Now remember they knew
me because I had spent four months working at USA Today as part of a
program within the Gannet Company where I went from my newspaper in Bingham to New
York to work in the sports department to the USA Today with a group of
about another ten or twelve others that worked in various sections of the paper.
It was a year after that that I was called kind of out of the
blue and they started talk to me about boxing. I really didn't know what
they were doing, but it turned out that they wanted to hire me,
and so they had a new It was almost like a trade, like basically
they had to work out a deal with my bosses at the Binghamon newspaper to
let me leave to go to USA Today because it was technically going to be
a transfer, but my boss wanted me to stay for a certain period of
time to get through like I don't know, if it was like some important
tournament or basketball thing or whatever, which I was happy to do because it
gave me extra time to pack my stuff and find you know. It just
so happened. It was coming around the same time that my lease was expiring,
so I wasn't going to have to double up on the expenses anyway.
But it was the February twenty fourth where I got the official letter that you
will be making fifty two thousand dollars a year. I thought it was the
richest man in the world. I was basically doubling my salary what I was
making when I was working in Binghamton little. I mean, I was moving
to Virginia, which was the Washington DC area, which is a lot more
expensive to live, and then bingham to New York. But that was I've
said this before, that's the single most significant important moment in my professional life.
I was getting that letter, like formally in front of my face.
You're the boxing writer at USA today and one of the most important moments in
my life period professional Otherwise, I mean, and maybe doesn't you know,
go ahead of the birth of my son, let's say, or don't getting
married to my wife or anything like that. But it's certainly, you know,
a huge deal. And like you said, if you said to me
twenty four years later, I'm still going to be doing boxing on a daily
basis, I would never in a billion years would have even contemplated that,
where conceived that in any way, shape or form. Now that this is
interesting, This is interesting because you were such a fight fan for so long.
It's almost and I say this reverently because I was a fan of your
work long before you and I met you and I only met a couple of
years ago. Yeah, right, But I believed from the time that I
was very little, I was going to be a sports broadcaster. To me,
it just seemed as though Dan Rayfield, as the fight fan growing up,
had to believe you were all he's going to be a boxing writer,
and that was going to bed. But you've you've shared with us that it
kind of evolved and came into this, So it's just it's interesting. It
struck me in high school when I when and my mother encouraged me to do
this, to sign up as for an elective for the school newspaper, and
part of your grade was we produced like the school student ut. But at
that time I was not interested in writing about sports. I was doing like
the news stories for the school and you know, I helped collaborate with others
in the group on the editorials. We would write in things along those lines.
And there wasn't really until I got to college and a friend of mine
who was a year or so or maybe two years ahead of me, said,
you know, you should come to our general meeting for the school newspaper
as like a erect extracurricular activity. I wasn't going to join a fraternity that
became like my fraternity. And so I remember on this is vivid to me,
going, you know, taking up his h his thought via come to
the meeting. He told me when it was, and we went to the
to the meeting, and you basically when you were done, you'd said,
Okay, if you want to do something, you know, go sign up.
If you want to write, if you want to edit, if you
want to do this, if you want to do that. And there was
like a long line of people at the at the at the desk to sign
up to write news stories or be involved in the news side. And there
was like only like two or three people at the sports. Now we were
a Division three school at the time. Now we're Division one. But you
know, we didn't have very good teams in this and that. But I
love sports and like games and whatever. Loved basketball and baseball, and you
know, we didn't have a football team. So I went over to the
sports desk and I liked I signed up to write. I said, I'll
do I'll do sports I'll be happy to do it. We published twice a
week at the time. My first ever sports stuff I wrote for the school
paper. I was covering like club sports, no bullshit. I wrote stories
about our club team, men's and women's Ultimate Frisbee, which is basically like
play the game and they get drunk. Okay, so a lot of fun.
Yes, So I did that, and that evolved, and you know,
I started playing the basketball team, and I became the managing edit of
the paper. And one thing leads to another. I get the internship at
the newspaper and Bangington, which was owned by the folks that own you today.
When I graduated, I got another job at another paper in that same
company and Saratoga. They send me back or I get a job at Binghamton
later and transfer there to work for real, not just an intern. And
they had the USA Today loan program that I applied for got went and worked
there four months, and then a year later get called back. Would you
be our boxing writer? So just connecting all the dots the notion of becoming
a boxing writer. I want to be a baseball writer. I covered the
minor league baseball team, the Mets, when I was in Dingham and I
had covered the New York Yankees minor league team when I worked in Saratoga because
we had a team in Albany and some other minor league stuff around, and
boxing was just something I loved. And when I got to USA today,
before that, I had done a couple of I'd done a couple of fights,
one in Saratoga, one you know, in Binghamton, and then I
got to USA tid I'll never forget this. We had our introduction in the
loan program, and they basically told us, we will have you do all
kinds of stuff, but we want this to be good for you and for
us. If there are things that you want to do outside of the the
things your duties are, let us know. And if you're completing your tasks
and your assignments, will make every effort to let you do other things that
you want to do. So I was assigned to the Major League Baseball desk.
I spent my days and nights in that four months in nineteen ninety eight
non stop writing and stuff about the great home run chase between Mark maguire and
Sammy Sosa and Cal Ripkin ending his games playstreak. I remember my first ever
story on the front page of USA Today was the lead story when cal Ripkins
sat down and ended a streak. I wrote that for the paper, but
I said, I said, I'd like to do boxing. Also, what
do you think I pitched a couple of story ideas that they liked. I
was able to write them, and I remember thinking they must really like me
because I was on a day off on my loan and I got a phone
call from one of our editors and he asked me, said, you know,
I know what's your day off, but would you mind coming into the
office. Archie Moore has died. We would need we need somebody if they
could spend a little time just writing a short obituary on Archie Moore. And
I'm like, I'll be there in fifteen minutes. I mean, I was
living with the rest of my group in a long term hotel that was a
couple of block It was like a five minute walk to the office. I'll
set I'll be there right away. So I changed my clothes and I went
to the office and made some phone calls. I actually remember. I remember
I think my old colleague John Saracino, who was the boxing writer at the
time, gave me his number. I called Teddy Alice, who was doing
you know, he was the big name on Friday Night fights at the time,
and obviously a historian in his own right. And I remember talking to
Teddy Alice about Archie Moore's career and the unbelievable fights he had with Avon Durrell
up in Canada. If you don't know what, go YouTube, but there's
like forty seven knockdowns. And so when they called me in to do that,
I'm like, okay, they must like me. And then I pitched
the idea, can I go cover Prince Nasim Hahmed was going to be fighting
a featherweight defense in the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Halloween Night of nineteen ninety eight.
This is a couple of months after I had gotten They were like,
yeah, go for it, and I was like, okay. So I
went to Atlantic City and covered that event and met a lot of the people
that I still talk to today, met a lot of the HBO people,
met a lot of other writers, a lot of pr people and different fighters
and promoters, and you know, started to really get into it at that
point. And then when I left and came back after that program ended,
at the end of nineteen ninety. I was so fucking depressed. I still
I actually when the when the anniversary came up, I said this to my
wife. We recollected because we were working together at the same newspaper in Dington,
her and I and our friends at the at the paper that we used
to hang out with late night after our ships were over. We would go
to this little diner in Bingaton or Investment actually, which where we lived.
And it was a bitter fucking cold January night I gotten home from my loan
like January second or something like that. It's like a week or two later,
I'm as depressed as can be. I'm like, back in fucking Bingaton.
I want to be back at US today writing boxing, not in Dington
writing you know, auto racing in college's basketball Division three. And we're at
this little diner and it's snowing out and I'm just like lamenting the fact,
like how bitter I am. I want to be back, you know,
at USA today. And I remember that conversation and then I got the call
and it changed my fucking life. And then ESPN came calling. I spent
fifteen years at ESPN and and have been able to make a beautiful living and
have a whole fucking lot of fun. And I've been given the middle finger
by Bob Airm, I've been hugged by Mike Tyson. I mean, it's
been a beautiful thing. And by the way, I've gotten to spend the
last couple of years with you, and I keep joking with you in a
playful way. You and I have talked to each other more than I think
we talk to our spouses at times, between podcasts, text communications, conversation
off the off the air, and I'll even say it, here's to another
twenty four years. Dan, God bless you. Keep going, keep going?
Why not on this? All right? Great stuff, nostalgia recaps,
fight news, all of it. If you enjoyed this, make sure you're
following, make sure you're subscribing here to this podcast feed. It's a big
fight we can podcast feed. You've been listening here to the fight Preach Unit
recap. It's Jake Paul and Amanda Serrano. Week top ranks got the featherweight
world title fight as well at the press tours for Roy and Garcia, allegedly
fighting Devin Haney in New York at the Barkley center assigned. Supposedly somebody get
the memo to Ryan. Other than that, have a good week, my
friend. We've covered a bunch here and I appreciate it as always, and
we'll get after to gain in the preview mode later this week. By the
way, we'll get back at it in a new month. The month of
March is when the preview show will be happy. Coming upcoming this weekend,
Dan Raypiel, have a great week. Thank you, all right, you
bet, thank you. TJ there is the one and only. Go to
his Fight Preach to Night substack and make sure you're subscribed there as well.
For now, we are good. We've been recapping it all here on the
Fight Preach Unit Recap podcast