The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. No.
Here is your host, TJ. Leaves. Yes, we are ready
to go for another weekend that has a couple of compelling fights, one in
the US, one in Australia that we're ready to preview. That's some fight
news, some nostalgia. Is always hello and welcome back in It is the
Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast. I am the somewhat competent host t J Reeves.
He is our insider, Fight Freaks Unite, Substack, Big Fight Weekend
dot Com and Lo Dan Raphael for another weekend. My goodness, Tay a
female Lopez. You know he may have had the shortest reign, like going
back to the fourteen hundreds when some of those heads of state would be poisoned
if you go back in the old time history book. What is going on
anyway? Good to be with you. Strange times, but you've seen a
bunch, you've seen it all in boxing. But what a five day reign
before he vacates the title. That's highly unusual. How you feeling, I'm
good. We got plenty to discuss and that you know that came out later
in the day on Thursday, so it wasn't on our original rundown. But
here we are after the show. Let's get right to it. Let's do
it. By the way, rate us and review us, Apple podcast,
Google podcasts, Spotify, the Big Fight. We can podcast feed those ratings
and reviews help us. We thank you. The audience growth continues. We
got fight season going on right now. We talked a bunch about Taya Females
win over Josh Taylor. All right, point blank to you, how shocked
were you that he has followed through and vacated a belt that he won last
Saturday night in New York Man. That is surprising because there was no reason
for him to vacate the title, even if he believes he's retired. To
me, he just fought for the title. He won it, He paid
for it, you know, a lot of money for the sanction fee.
He's under no mandatory obligation presently. That was Taylor's fight was the mandatory,
so tia Fima wouldn't have a mandatory due for while my point here is very
simple. He could easily just chill think about things, you know, don't
rush. I mean, okay, fine, you believe you're retired, but
there's no obligation to give it up. You're not a grieving anybody. No
one expects you to fight for the next at least six or seven months anyway,
So hang on to it, and if you truly truly believe you're done,
you know, in a four or five months or now by all means
vacate the title, but to give it up five days afterwards, when you're
still in the what I consider sort of like the emotional vortex, if you
will, of having just come out of a long training camp and a big
promotion and the fight and all the things that are scrolling in your personal life,
with the divorce and the fustity battle. You didn't need to give up
the title. So you know, he may come to regret that someday.
I'm still not convinced he's retired for good. I just don't believe that.
I don't believe it either. I don't believe that he's retired. So that
just begs, is this some kind of tactical move because he doesn't we don't
know, but speculate with me, because he doesn't want to be dictated to
why. It doesn't make anything to why you would do this. There's nothing
being dictated to him, the organization is not demanding a mandatory fight. He's
free and clear of a mandatory fight. And let me tell you something now,
it's one thing for him to say, you're that they're retired, you
know, Tyson Fury said he's retired. He didn't give up the belt.
There have been other fighters that have said they're retired. Didn't necessarily give up
the belt, at least not right away. He said he's retired. But
as long as you have the belt, you still have the leverage of that
belt that it's still yours to you know, help you make the bigger fights.
His his vacating of the title hundred thousand percent caught the top executives at
top rank off guard. Bob Aaron was caught off guard, Todd the Buff
was caught off guard. Carl Moretti was caught off guard. These are people
that involved themselves on the boxing end of things, and they were surprised by
it. And I'm gonna tell you right now, Bob Aaron this week,
after having a talk with Ti Fimo, I guess on either Sunday or Monday,
after the fight, I guess thought it went well enough. Where he
had engaged with Oscar dal Leoy in a conversation about the prospect of making a
fight between Tiafimo Lopez and Ryan Garcia for the end of this year. Where
Okay, it's not like they weren't negotiating. Obviously, they got to go
to their fighters and gauge their interests and they're not talking money. But it's
sort of like, you know, hey, what do you think And you
know, Bob and an Oscar, you know, we're of the belief that
if the athletes were interested and that they would, you know, they could
work it out, and that arem could deliver a TIFIMO title fight and vice
versa with Ryan Garcia and listen, at one hundred forty pounds, that's about
as big as it gets in the sport right now. So this, this
did not This took those folks by surprise that he decided to not said he
retired like he said he was doing on Monday on Max Kellerman Show, but
that he actually took the next step, which in my mind raises it to
another level of seriousness, which is he vacated the title. So clarify for
me, I asked, you understand it. Lopez kept claiming he doesn't have
a deal with Top rank any longer obviously, and you said this before on
the podcast. Fighters oftentimes misrepresent or don't even know what they're talking about when
it comes to that, is it you're understanding they still have at least an
option for a fight or maybe more. And that's why I called off.
He is one hundred percent still under contract the top So is he doing this
out of anger at top Rank'll try to say I'm retired, I'm just following
me. I'm retired, I'm not the WBO champion. I'm angry at you?
Or are we trying to just make sense out of madness and out of
It's not stupiding, it's not us. You are trying to make something out
of it. To my knowledge, I mean, look, there's been certainly
bumps in the road with him in top rank over the last few years,
no doubt about it. But by all accounts, everything's cool with them.
There was no to my knowledge, no real animosity, no problems. That
promotion for the Josh Taylor fight went well. Obviously Tiefemo won, he was
happy with the way things were done. They gave it a good promotional push,
etc. So I don't think there's anything whatsoever a matter of fact,
when Tifemo posted, the way that this was disseminated was that Paco var Carcel,
who was the president of the WBO, went on his Twitter account and
wrote that he was getting text mess got a text message from Tifimo saying he
had vacated the title, and he then said, and you know, we
wish him locker how he phrased it, and if he returns, you know,
the w BO door will always be open to him. And then Paco
tagged myself and a few of the other boxing journalists in that tweet, and
so, I mean a half an hour later or something along those lines,
Tifimo quote tweeted Paco's statement and wrote his statement, and in his statement he
thanked Top Rank and the w BO and ESPN, and so I didn't get
any sense of animosity whatsoever, either towards the organization or to the network or
to the promotion company, which have all worked in concert over these last several
years to help Tifimo Lopez become the big as big of a name as he
has become. They've all done their art, certainly a top Rank in ESPN,
even by having him fight for their belts, the WBO as well.
So I don't think this is I think honestly, here's the thing. This
is a young man going through a lot of shit in his life. There
it is there. I think he made a rash decision that he may someday
regret, but at this moment in time, this is what he wanted to
do. And so that's the that's the youthful exuberance, I guess, or
maybe exuberances there isn't the right word. But sometimes when you're that I mean,
think back to when you're twenty five, we did things that we may
have regretted. You know, the type of person you are in the mindset
you have, and how you conduct yourself, how you act, how you
react to situations. It's I can say this with me, it's a lot
different at age fifty two than it was when I was twenty five. Switched
the numbers around and you and I are the same age. All right,
one more on this and then we're gonna move on, and I promise we're
getting to reach his Progray's defense of his one hundred and forty pound title.
So Tim Zoo is in action in Australia Interim WBO one hundred and fifty four
pound Champs were preview in both of those fights coming up in a few moments,
but one more on this. I thought this was interesting and I stuck
this in the item we did Thursday night on Big Fight Weekend dot Com.
Is if you were watching the ESPN pre fight as you were Dan, but
for some of the fans that maybe he didn't see it, ESPN did something
interesting to just kind of illuminate the behind the scenes aggravation and the relationship of
Taya Femo and his dad, Taya Femoe Senior, where they showed almost an
outtake from a pre fight interview. It's not clear how far back they had
done the interview, but they're doing the interview. I don't think it was
fight week, for example, but I don't know when it was. But
they're doing the interview, and Taya Femo Senior came into the room standing in
the in the kind of like the shadows, and he didn't like one of
the answers. This was as it was described. He didn't like one of
the answers, and he was trying to stop the interview and telling Taya Femoe
stop talking about that. And Taya Femo gets up out of his chair and
ESPN showed this whole thing. A lot of times. They don't do that.
They don't want to burn the relationship or that's something that maybe shouldn't air,
But they were trying to make the point he has a ying and yang
relationship with his dad right now, And Tea Femo said, and I'm paraphrasing
in that interview, stop telling me what to do. I'll talk about this
if I want. I'll continue the interview if I want. So we got
kind of a window into what you were just alluding to. He's got a
lot going on psychologically, a divorce, custody with his kid, relationship with
his dad. So this is this is a byproduct of that. What he's
doing. Thing that was going great was the boxing career inside the ring.
Yes, I don't think I don't think it's wrong to describe he just had
a career rebirth last Saturday night by winning that title and gaining leverage. Right,
that's actually an understatement because he's the one that leaned up against the ropes
in Madison Square Garden in December after a very shaky performance and a very shaky
victory in which he got knocked down and looked terrible and He'll be the first
to admit he looked terrible, even though he did win the fight against sand
Or Martin and said, do I still got it well from that moment where
he was so fucked up in his mind that they didn't even let him come
to the news conference afterwards because the body would say something that he would come
to regret. So to go from that moment where you know everything other than
the victory is a train wreck. Six months later, you put on one
of your most if not your most brilliant performance against Josh Taylor. You win,
no doubt about it. You do it in the same ring where you
took your first loss, and maybe you know, erase some of those demons,
so to speak, and you win the w BO Junior walter Weight world
title, you win the lineal title. You look tremendous in that performance.
Where things are going great for him is in the ring. So why rock
that boat? I mean again, if you want to say you're retired,
fine, but take the time, think it through, wait a little bit
of time, get a little distance from the event, and if you still
want to decide to give up the title, you can't. It's the same
perspective I have when referees on a on a knockdown, immediately stop a fight,
unless unless it's like a cataclysmic knockout. But if you but they immediately
stop fighting, don't take two seconds to at least assess it, maybe give
account. You can always stop in midcount like that and they just immediately waive
it. Tifimo is doing the same thing in terms of vacating the title.
Think about it before you actually move on it. His prerogative. Though I'm
I'm not an ad at him. I mean, I'm I'm I'm kind of
happy for him if this is what he feels is right, you know,
good for him. But all I know is, I'm gonna stick to my
guns. When you're twenty five years old and you're in your you're fighting great,
and you're not injured, and you've not made you know, the eight
figure money or nine figure money in your cur overall, I mean not like
Tifimo has made nothing, but you know, by his own account, he
was pretty broke not that long ago. So it makes like two and a
two point three million ish the other night, certainly nothing to sneeze at,
but it's not the kind of money you're going to retire on, especially with
a kid on the way, or you know, with a kid already here,
I should say, and an impending divorce, and he's got the chance
over the next few years to make huge amounts of money, could do something
that he likes to do. It's not like anybody's forced him to be a
boxer. This is what he's done as a kid. He has a certain
love for it. So again, I'm happy that he's happy. But you
know, I believe we'll see him back in the ring. That's my opinion.
I do too. I believe that he may be back in the ring
as soon as like this fall, this winter or something. I don't know
what's going on. I don't think anybody knows what's going on, you know
what. You know what I do know is going on. We got fights
in the ring. You're ready to get to this, Let's get to regions.
Progray Dana leto Zoria. This is for Progray's one hundred and forty pound
WBC version of the Championship. It is Saturday night, New Orleans, Smoothie
King Arena, downtown, right next to the Superdome, right by the French
Quarter. All right here we go. It is the match room to Zone
main event. Thoughts on this one is Progray begins a new relationship in a
multi fight deal with match Room in his hometown. Thoughts on this in the
preview mode place. My thoughts on this is that dan Alto Zuria is like,
um, how shall I say a sheep being led to slaughter? Maybe?
Oh? I mean Zuria is a tough guy. He's one loss was
a decision to Arnold Barboza, who's also an undefeated contender, who actually was
somebody that they approached to try to make this match before Zuria got the fight,
who actually was a replacement for the injured Liam Paro, when when the
fight was first here that program had signed with match Room that he was going
to fight on this date, he was going to do so in New Orleans
before they signed anybody, Barboza was approached to do the fight. Yeah,
he turned it down and didn't like the money. Whatever, they went with
Liam Paro. Paro got injured a few days later, he was out of
the fight and they got Zuria to replace him. Now two fights ago in
July. Last July, Zuria lost a pretty clear decision against Bosa on an
ESPN card, but that is his only loss he's a Puerto Rican fighter that's
promoted by Miguel Koto's company and they took the fight when offered. And you
know it's not like he's a bad fight or anything like that. He's got
to win over Pabo Pablos caesar Cano buy knockout, which was his win before
Barbosa. That's you know, he's a very tough guy. Uh, he's
been in with everybody can know. But here's the thing, Regis program has
got so much confidence right now. He looks so good against the Peta.
He's always been at the upper echelon since he's gotten into the level of championship
level fights. When Josh Taylor was at his absolute best, he gave him,
you know, the best fight of his life in a fight that a
lot of people thought that Regis won when they met to unify titles at the
at the finale of the World Boxing Super Series a few years ago. And
U Regis right now, you know, he's he's He's come and do some
damage, I believe, And I think Zuri is going a whole heap of
shit. Well and again, this is kind of a homecoming here for him,
kind of home it is. Yeah, and he's getting a chance to
show what he can do. He's entertaining in and out of the ring,
and you're right, But then again, Zaria may be tough enough to give
him a little bit of a challenge. Again. We'll make predictions on this
fighting the next one that we're about to talk about with Tim Zoo on the
bet Us Boxing Show at one Eastern time Friday, depending on when you're hearing
this, as we released the podcast overnight Thursday into Friday one Eastern time.
Will make the predictions on the bet Us program on their platforms. But I
get the sense from Brother Raphael that he's he's smelling he's smelling pro Gray big
and maybe big early. Maybe maybe you're trying to throw me off here if
we're going ahead to Hills. But I just I sense you don't think this
is going to take very long for Reges. I don't know, if I've
minutes say it's going to be early. Because Regis is obviously an excellent he's
you know, he's a really good fighter number one, and he's got most
of his wins by knockout. He's twenty eight and one, he's got twenty
four knockouts, So it's not like he can't knock guys out, but he's
never been the kind of guy, at least since he's gotten to the level
where he's fighting like serious opponents. He doesn't just put you out with one
punch. He's not Deontay Wilder in that respect or anything like that. He
breaks you down, he beats you up, and then he stops you.
Now, there's been a couple of early knockouts, but even those are not
like a one punch side a sort of situation. And I think Zury is
tough enough to maybe hang with hanging not necessarily hang with him in terms of
being highly competitive, but to take a beating for a while until it's finally
enough is enough. So I can see it's going that. Now. I
don't know what the over under is just yet. We'll get to that.
We make our picks on the beat Us show. So I'm sitting here saying
that Reges are going to go in there and you know, get him out
in like, you know, two or three rounds. But I think Reges
has coming to do some damage. He's going to serve notice, he wants
to make a statement. He's in front of his home fans. He's extremely
motivated for that. He's excited by being under his new contract with match Room
and having a hometown fight, knowing that there's some bigger business down the road.
I mean, this is fight one of three. The whole process has
been this fight, We're gonna step up in a bigger fight next time,
and then hopefully at the end of the contract have the biggest fight week in
May, and we'll see how that plays out. But right now, you
know, and he got a little chippy. I saw the interviews he did
today, meaning on Thursday. He's just you know, obviously, because there
was such a sea change at the top of his weight class with Tifimo winning
the title against Taylor. Even before Tifimo's announcement of his vacating of that belt
had been put out there publicly, He's been asked a thousand times about Taylor,
about Tiffimo, about this guy, about that guy, and he just
basically started like cursing, and everybody saying, you know enough, I'm looking
at Dani Alito Zaria and that's what I got to take care of. Asked
me afterwards, and we can talk about any fight you want, but right
now I'm coming to take care of just a one guy in front of me.
He can't fight Tifimo Lopez on Saturday Night, or Josh Taylor or Ryan
Garcia or Tank Davis or Devin Haney or you know, pick up Jose Ramirez
or any of the top guys at one hundred forty pounds. The only guy
that he can fight is dan Aldo Zaria, and that's what he plans to
do. I can't blame him. I actually like when fighters get close to
a fight and they start getting prickly like that, because you know, they
starting to get their game face on and they're starting to hunker down. And
that's why, you know, one of the things I learned a long time
ago cover professional boxing. When you go to cover a big event, you
should once you get to fight week, you should already have whatever interviews that
you need with those fighters pretty much done. Now. Some things will come
up at a way in at a press conference, you know, at a
workout, and you right on the things that are occurring at that moment.
If you're looking to do more in depth pieces that are more reflective, more
context more perspective, you don't get anything in fight week. And a lot
of times it's because guys are quickly like that they don't want to sit for
those sort of more intelligent, more longer answered, more nuanced questions. So
you get them a couple of weeks beforehand. To your point, you got
Regis a couple of weeks ago on this podcast feed and it was great stuff
and say exactly what you're talking about inside into his mindset on signing with match
Room, getting this opportunity here for a good payday in front of the home
fans, unification fight probably on the horizon. Yeah, you have great insight.
I would have talked to Regis about it yesterday or today. Yeah,
he would have been because Regis, you know, I know him a bit
over the years, and he's a nice guy in all. But I still
don't think it wouldn't have been as good because he is feeling a little bit
more short with people. He is, by the way, trying to make
weight, which is never comfortable for these guys in the last couple of days.
So I always have maintained from when I first, you know, within
a few months after going to cover fights, I realized, if you're you
know, I was written for USA today at the time, you don't leave
it to fight week to get what you need you know me, if you
need something from a trainer or promoter or manager, you can get them anytime,
fight week or otherwise. But if you're dealing with the boxer, you
better take care of that shit ahead of time. There's a there's a saying
that that many of us have come up with over the years of that.
I have imparted on younger boxer writers who asked my advice, and one of
the things I will tell them is, if you go in to fight week
without your fucking interviews, you got nothing. Don't wait to put that on
a bumper sticker. Put that as a mantra. I like that from Raphael.
Here's some good advice on that. So Progray and Zaia is the Matchroom
main event on his own Saturday night, Okay, Sunday afternoon in Australia,
Saturday night in the US is t Zoo's latest fight dog Bite. Notwithstanding,
we have gotten to fight weekend and it looks like we're good to go.
I know at the time that you and I are releasing the podcast, it
is Friday in Australia and they will be having the way in soon for this
matchup. Zoo and Carlos Ocampo again This fight will be Saturday night in the
US. Showtime will show it here, Main event pay per View will show
it in Australia. And it's intriguing for a couple of reasons, not the
least of which is a dog bite that required twenty stitches on his power punching
right forearm has happened in the last couple of weeks. Zoo continues to maintain
he's fine, he's fully recovered from it. And the next thing is are
we going to get a Zoo Jemel Charlo undisputed title fight. Zoo has to
take care of this one and then what happens next after that. So there's
a lot of intrigue here and Zoo a very popular. I think it's safe
to say he's the most prominent fighter in Australia. Again, we got to
keep it in perspective. We're Americans. The rugby stars, the cricket stars.
Don't laugh at me, rayphel. They are massive stars in Australia.
I don't know that Zoo ranks up there with their top rugby players, their
top cricket stars, their top Australian rules football stars. But Zoo is definitely
popular, prominent fighter and here we go with his latest fight. Your thoughts
on the head of the weekend. As far as Australian boxing goes, at
this moment, the doo big His names in Australian boxing are Tim Zoo and
George Cambosas at this moment, there's no doubt about that, and they've got
some good younger talent coming up. But look, you talk about the dog
bite. So we all heard about that, and I heard Tim Zoo speak
about it at one of his media scrums that his promoter sent out the video
of the other reporters questioning in during a media availability that was like a couple
of days after the injury occurred. So earlier Thursday, they sent me a
photo photos of the dog bite. And let me tell you, it'll look
bad. Yes, not a veterinarian, I'm not a doctor, but that
should looked bad. I mean it was bad. Man, Like, oh
my god, how are you gonna fight with that? So I'm very interested
to see how he's going to perform on Saturday. But still, you know,
not to not to insult Carlos Ocampo, but he is the kind of
opponent where, if you're truly an elite fighter, that you should be able
to fight him with one hand. Frankly, he's tough. He's only got
a couple of losses. I maybe slightly jaded by the fact that I was
there ringside in Frisco, Texas when Errol Spenschinger in a what was then an
IBF mandatory fight in the welterweight division, knocked out in the first round back
in twenty eighteen. Now he's won a whole bunch of fights in a row
since then, but not really ever fought anybody. Maybe Michael Zouski might be
the best guy he fought, who was like a decent opponent. And then
of course he had a go with Sebastian Fondora. He gave him a pretty
good fight. I mean he lost pretty much every round, like you know,
ten two eleven one type scores on the on the official cards, but
he gave him a pretty solid fight. He hung in there and that was
all the way up a one hundred fifty four pounds. But Fondora, while
a very good fighter himself, Tim Zoo, I believe he is on the
next level, and so I have a hard time seeing Tim Zoo in front
of the hometown, having coming off a very dominating performance against Tony Harrison,
who I think would beat Ocampo, you know, pretty easily. Frankly,
it's the kind of fight where they didn't want to put him in too much
of a harm's way with the Charlot fight on the table, But they also
didn't want to insult people's intelligence by matching with somebody that couldn't fight. So
when Carlos Ocampo, they have a good, solid game veteran, a guy
they can handle himself. Was ko one to Spence notwithstanding, seems to have
a pretty good chin, but is very basic. He's not fast, He's
not the most powerful guy in the world. This is like a Zoo It's
like a Zoo pizza party, like a tune up. What will be interesting?
And I've not seen this anywhere. I don't know if Showtime on their
coverage intends to talk to Jamaal Charlo Now the March fight against Tony Harrison,
they had him in the studio live with them in New York while they were
broadcasting the fight remotely. But as the WBO has said, they have Zoo
as the interim champion and they have ordered Charlo to fight him. Am I
correct right? If I'm wrong by September thirtieth, or they want the fight
made by September thirty. They wanted to fight him, So that's a dan.
That's that's one hundred days or so from now. So I wonder is
Charlo gonna be available for showtime to at least say hey, are you healthy
enough? Or you get in the ring with Tim Zoo. What's going on?
We don't know it right now. I don't know. We'll see now.
Look the WBO there, their business people, they're not stupid. If
the folks involved come to them and say, listen, we're good to go.
We want to have this fight on October fourteenth. I'm pretty sure that
WBO is not going to get a pushback, but they do want it.
They want that fight done this fall. Understandably, it's a long time coming.
They've given him a lot of rope and they've let him he'll I mean,
remember when the injury first happened and caused this fight to be a postpone
from January. The talking point at that moment was it's a couple of weeks
on the ole rehab. He should be back June. Well, June is
long come. You know, we're in June he's well. I mean when
I spoke to Garret Games, uh maybe a month ago, he still wasn't
He was in the gym, you know, staying in shape and all the
things he could do not using the hand, but he admitted he hadn't been
able to use it in any meaningful manner just yet. So he's still aways
away from that now. There's still quite a bit of time between now and
the end of September for him to get to the position where he can,
you know, use it to go all out. So we'll see. I
mean, I hope the fight happens. That's the way I looked at it.
That it's it's very attractive fight. It's one of the better fights that
could be made in the one fifty four way. Less of all the different
contenders out there, Tim Zoo is certainly a worthy contender for that. You
know, he just knocked out the one guy that beat Charlot, even though
Charlotte later then got lost to Harrison. So look, he's got to come
through with Ocampo. I think he handles him pretty handily. Uh, despite
whatever his injury was with the with the dog bite. Uh, it's sort
of a good Uh, it's it's a good story to tell as you're building
up to the fight. And look, I'm sure Ocampo is not even fly
you know, all those thousands of miles just to lay down. He'll give
a good effort. I suspect, I don't know, you know a solid
Mexican fighter like that that doesn't go to give a good effort. I just
think it's a different level of skill that Tim Zoo is on a different level
then Carlos Ocampo. And we'll see just how vast that chasm is on Saturday,
assuming that Tim Zoo's arm is okay the way that they claim it is.
And again, Zoo has fought all over He's based in Sydney, which
is if you look at if you look at a clock like bottom of the
clock at about five o'clock. But he's fought all over the coast of Australia
and up the northeast coast of Australia at different locations in front of sold out
crowds, arena stadiums, etc. It's expected in broad Beach, which is
a couple of hours away from Sydney up the coast, that it's going to
be electric in that building, and we'll find out it is Sunday afternoon in
Australia Saturday night in the US. Will make predictions again on the bet Us
Show one Eastern time Friday on how Quickly? Thank You? And I both
agree Zoo wins? How quickly does he win? The how the win?
Will debate that on that show. So there are a couple of prominent fights
and now some fight news including since we now have talked last on the Recap
podcast, Errol Spence and Terrence Crawford have criss crossed the country in LA and
in New York talking about their late July undisputed world walterweight title fight. Your
thoughts as the hype has begun a little early, but the hype has at
least gotten It's not too early, It's exactly when it's supposed to be.
We've been talking about this damn fight for five years and so now we're a
month and a half out of the fight, and they went on a media
tour and we got to see finally the first official faceoff, see them against
it, you know, sized up with each other. Hear them speak about
it here from their teams, and I loved it. I thought the press
tour was terrific. The guys handled it beautifully. I thought they spoke well,
They spoke with confidence. They said what they're gonna do, what they
want to do. They talked about the historical implications of the fight, how
significant the fight is compared it against other great welterweight championship fights, which it
deserves to be mentioned with. It's not just hype. So when you tell
me, for our time now this is like it was for say Leonard Hearns
back then, I mean, nothing is ever going to be that big,
but understandably of our era, you know, Deloya Trinidad, pac Yale Floyd
obviously was a much bigger fight. But it's that kind of fight, historical
implications. Two guys were probably going to be in the Hall of Fame.
They're both undefeated, which those other fights don't necessarily have in common. They're
fighting for four belts, undisputed. It has everything you want, and they
made the point of that in their In their press conferences, you got to
see them stare each other in the eyes. I certainly got the impression,
which is what I believe they'd before seeing this news conference on Wednesday in la
and then the Thursday one in New York City. They may not be best
friends, but they have a lot of respect for each other. I think
they like each other. I think they want to kick each other's ass also.
And the other thing about it is their teams, namely Brian McIntyre the
trainer for Terrence Crawford and Derek James, the trainer for Aerospence. They have
a lot of respect for each other also, and they understand the caliber of
the other guy in the other corner, both the fighter and the trainer,
and they're just going to come out and give a world a great fight.
I truly believe this is going to be a special fight, and I think
the two fighters understand. I mean, there's the pressure you want to win,
but I think they understand the pressure of of this is our moment in
the history of this great sport and we need to elevate our sport. And
we can do that together by giving the public the fight that they expect.
And I think that we're in for a real treat July twenty ninth, and
it's not too early to talk about it. I hope we talk about it
in some former fashion on every single podcast we do between now and Fight Night,
and seeing them speak about it and their body language and the way they
faced off with each other and the back and forth, which was I thought
it was perfect because maybe it's just because I'm old, get the fuck off
my lawn. But it sometimes annoys me when these guys going. All they
do is curse and and try to punch each other and do all the bullshit
before the fight, you know, and they and they just curse, the
curse and just get vulgar for no reason. They acted like champions, and
they had some class, and you like that, I can tell. I
mean, they puff their chests out in the whole thing with the big Fish,
I'm gonna fry the fish and all that stuff, with Errol calling himself
the big fish and been said in the New York when we're gonna roll him
up and smoke him. Whoa, whoa. Maybe settle down on the drug
part. But the whole point is that's sort of like amusing and funny and
inventive, and but it's it doesn't cross the line of making extusively personal.
You're not calling his MoMA any bad names. But it's amusing and you get
some decent quotes out of it. If you're in our job as reporters.
I thought they hit. I thought the tone of the way the press comments
was was enough tension and enough like beat your chest, but also with enough
like reverence for you know, we have to be adults here. This is
business. I thought they did a good job of selling the fight, which
at the end of the day is the purpose of the media tour, because
they're not trying to sell it to you and me and the other diehards.
They're trying to get others who may not really they might have Hey, I
hear like there's this big fight. Maybe I need to know a little bit
more about it. So you somehow tuned into it, or you caught wind
of it, or you read a quote forward or saw a clip on social
media, or maybe read a newspaper article about it. They definitely gave you
what you needed to be given. And you know what, because of the
fact that the fight was in the big media markets, there was reporters from
the New York Times, there, from I believe, the Wall Street Journal,
from the New York Daily News, from the New York Post, from
the important publications in those markets that are running about the fight, which is
great for the sport because by the way, the fight's not taking place in
New York City, it's taking place in Vegas. But those media outlets,
and trust me, I know when it comes to mainstream media market, a
mainstream, big, big, big publications, having spent you know, twenty
years working for ESPN in USA today, it's a big deal when those papers
come out to cover your press covers these day. So I was happy to
see that those those sports editors and sports sections, they recognize the significance of
the event, and that was a good thing. By the way, same
thing in Los Angeles, they had their presscouts when I believe was it the
US Open or what was it? What tournament was going on? Yeah,
the US Open golf tournament's going on this week. Correct, yes, and
that was a lot of a lot of US Open stuff was going on in
LA. But yet the uh, you know, the LA Times and some
of the other big outlets were out there to cover their prescotts in Los Angeles.
So I think it bodes well, it's going to be a great event.
I can't wait my and uh, for the record, my flight is
booked and so yeah, I know you're excited for that reason, and I'm
looking into being out there without you. We got to alert the authorities.
Raphael and Reeves in Vegas. Of course. Hey, by the way,
they have had a Stanley Cup win in Vegas and the parade upcoming for that.
So it's big time in Vegas right now with the Raiders getting a baseball
team also, they get a baseball team coming, and now they got this
fight at a time. As we keep emphasizing, and we're about to move
on July late July, there's nothing else going on. The NBA's long gone,
the NHL's long gone, the football as it started. We got baseball.
But that, I mean, that is a prime opportunity for this that
weekend to cross over to the casual sports fans on that's your point. So
let's see if that momentum continues. All right, some some fight announcements in
news quickly and then some nostalgia. Zalajang and Joe Joyce. It apparently it
has a date. Tell me more, September. They're gonna rematch after Jang
busted his eye up, stopped them and derail Joyce's hopes of a world title
shot at least for now. Give me more. Okay, So it's not
one hundred percent done, but it's likely going this direction, it's probably going
to be done. They have a few details, I guess to iron out,
not not ironed out, but they just got to get everything one hundred
percent paper. But this fight rematch is going to take place on September second.
It'll be at the Ovo Arena, Wemley, which is the as we've
talked about before, it's the normal arena across the street from the largest national
soccer stadium where Vladimir Klitschko and Anthony Joshua fob where Tyson Ferry fought against Dillian
White, etc. And they're gonna do that fight. It's a rematch that
that the Joyce when he lost. Suddenly, you know, Zang is now
in a position where they're getting calls about maybe fighting Tyson Fury. But that
was quickly put the rest because he didn't have a choice because Joe Joyce held
the right to an immediate rematch if he wanted it, and he exercised that
right. And so even though he got his eye pretty badly busted up and
stopped in that fight, you know, lost the interim WBO title, He's
doing the immedia rematch, and you know it's kind of like a big deal
for him. It's I wouldn't be totally dramatic and say his entire careers on
the line, but another loss is going to be awfully develicating at his age
of thirty seven. And for Zilae, it's like he probably would have rather
fought for the title against Tyson Fury, the real big boy title, but
he doesn't have a choice. So they got to be any chanced, one
bit of intrigue, any chance because Joyce is promoted by Frank Warren, who
promotes Tyson Fury, that they go to Joyce and say, listen, we
know you have your rematch with Zijlage, what if we of you. I'm
just throwing a number out three million dollars to step aside because Tyson Fury wants
to fight him in September instead of you fighting him in September. Any chance
at that because it's the same promoter. I mean, it's possible, but
it just seems at this moment that that window may have closed. They are
making plans for the fight in September. Again, it's not one official,
but it will be on ESPN Plus in the United States, the same way
their first fight was. So you know, look in boxing, dude,
anything can happen. Sure, So you know, but Tyson Fury, I
think they're looking for some other things. There's still the prosper of that big
fight in the end of the year in Saudi Arabia. Fury's talking about fighting
MMA guys. He's he's talking about fighting everybody but hul Covid or clause.
At this point, you can't listen to him. You know that, well,
I say, you never can say for sure. I think it's pretty
well as close as you can get to unless it's sufficiently signed. Zang and
Joyce are going to rematch September. Second end of story. All right,
we move on notes. It'll be interesting to see how Joyce adjusts. I
don't think you overstay that his career is basically on the line because he's almost
thirty seven. I think he's about Trent and thirty seven. Thirty seven,
and so if you lose again to Jang here, I don't know where your
leverage is to ever get back in a heavyweight title picture. At least anytime
you can, you can still fight. It's just a matter of what counter
of money and yport and you get. It's a little bit of a longer
road back and by the way, it's not again Zang's got one lost kind
of a disputed decision against Philipergovich. But he's forty years old. So these
are not the guys that are on the way up. This is not Ryan
Garcia Tank Davis in their twenties. This is you know, guys that are
closer to Social Security numbers than uh than not. All right, you did
mention on the recap podcast about no Nito don are fighting for the vacant WBC
Banumway title after the monster Naolia in a way vacated those belts. It now
has a date, it has a location, more details on this real quick.
Yeah, well, I mean Donaire is an all time great. He's
going to be in the Hall of Fame someday. No doubt that. He's
a past winner of the Fight of the Year. He has been a guy
that's been a winner of a Knockout of the Year. He has been a
champion in a variety of weight classes. He's been a champion at flyweight,
at bannomwaight, at junior featherweight, at featherweight. He won an interim delt
even at junior Banomwait if you count that. So his his his legacy is
secure. I mean what he has done. He's being a whole bunch of
good quality fighters through the years. You know, he did get knocked out
in his last fight in the second round against in a Way in their rematch,
and their rematch was of a closer decision. What was the twenty and
nineteen fight of the year. Just an awesome fight. But Donaire is not
done yet. Even though he's post forty, which if you're fighting at any
weight class in your forties year kind of an old man or a woman for
that matter. He's at forty and he's gonna be fighting all the way down
at bantomwaight, which is almost not heard of for guys to still be able
to handle themselves at that advanced age in the smaller weight class. But at
the end of the day, he's highly ranked. And when when in a
Way vacated all four of the belts, it created a free for all at
the Bannumway division because now all the belts are available, and so the different
organizations look at their ratings and Donais maintain a high rating in the WBC.
So he and this was a fight. This is the fact that they're making
this match is not a total surprise. It was back in February, uh
like within a couple of weeks after in a way vacated that the WBC ordered
this fight. Now they just have made the deal. So he's fighting Alexandro
Santiago. That fight will take place July fifteenth, that is on showtime on
the undercard of of the Frank Martin fight. That's a WBC a wominar that's
gonna be at the Palms in vague Um is that the Palms or the Cosmos,
which you know in Donas you know, he's lived in Vegas for many
years, so it's he doesn't have to drive ten minutes to the uh you
know, to the arena from where he is at unless he's staying at the
hotel anyway. But it's a great opportunity for him and frankly because alex Alexandro
Santiago is not the most known guy. He's got you know, a decent
rectord twenty seven three and five with fourteen knockouts. He is much younger by
thirteen years. He's twenty seven from Mexico. He's won you know, I
think two or three fights throw He's probably most known for a loss to Gary
Antonio Russell, the younger brother of Gary Russell, the older brother of Gary
Antoine Russell, one of the three fighting Russell brothers. I rely on you
to keep me straight on all those guys. Very nicely done. It's a
It's a great opportunity for Donare. He'll be the favorite even at forty and
and if he can win, it's his legacy, is what it is.
He's going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. He's a beloved figure
within the sport. But if he can win another world championship at age forty,
it's just sort of like, you know, gravy and one sends icing
on top of the cake, so to speed. All right, One more
news item than some nostalgia. That is Golden Boy announcing on Thursday the undercard
for the upcoming stanionis Virgil Ortiz main event July eighth and San Antonio Floyd's Schofield
We're very interested in as part of this card. What else about the undercard
here? Well, Schofield is one of my favorite prospects in boxing. I
mean he was on my top list, you know, top fifteen lists at
the end of the year. A good fighter, obviously, I'm still kind
of annoyed because when he fought his most recent fight on the undercard, when
Ryan Garcia five Tank Davis, he fought what he fought. The original schedule
of fights had him fighting a little bit later on the card. I think
at the last minute, you know, there was always gamesmanship between Golden Boy
and PBC. He ended up fighting in a slough or two earlier, and
I was still like having my bag checked and getting into the arena, and
I missed his fight, which only lasted like one round, less than one
round. And the funny thing was when when it was over and I had
then seen some of the other that was the one fight that I missed.
I think he was the first fight of the night, had seen some other
fights. I went, you know, back underneath to like, you know,
get something to drink and take a leak and just get some air during
a break in the thing, and I ran into Floyd and his advisor Michael
Miller and spoke to them for a few minutes and sort of joked around them.
I said, you know, you gotta make your fights last a little
bit longer so I don't miss your whole damn fight. He laughed. But
anyway, he's no longer in the first fighting to night. This is the
point I'm trying to make. He's now on the undercard of Standionis against Virgil.
He is in a co feature and it's gonna be the first time on
a bigger show that people are going to actually see because even on the Tank
and Ryan Carter, he wasn't even on the on the stream prelimbs. But
he's taking on a veteran fighter named Haskell Rhodes, who's you know, been
in the ring with some good fighters over the year. He's got like four
losses, but he's a solid veteran and it's a ten round fighting, you
know the idea. Here's you know, Ken Floyd's Scholfield, who this is
definitely a step up for him in terms of competition. He's only fourteen,
No Floyd. We'll see if he can you know, turn some heads,
open some eyes and make people say, boy, I got to see that
kid again. He's still very young and that's a good opportunity for him.
So that's the co feature on the card, and then they've got two other
fights. One is a women's unification fight for three of the belts, in
the women's flyweight division between mar Esparza, who has two of the titles she's
taking on. She's the WBC and the w BA A champion and the women's
flightweight division. She's fighting a woman from Argentina who was also an undefeated fighter.
Marlin's got the one lost thirteen and one, but the woman, Gabriella
Alanez, is fourteen and oz, so they're fighting to unify three of the
titles. Marlin's goal is to become undisputed. I'm assuming that Alantis would like
the same situation. So the winner of this fight has three titles, then
the'll only be one more to go after And the other fight that that's going
to be on the main card is the return of Joseph Diaz Junior, the
former one hundred thirty pound title holder who has lost three fights in a row,
so he's in dire need of a victory. He does not have an
opponent officially yet, but also it's the first fight since Golden Boy announced within
recent weeks that he had signed a contract extension with the company and they're going
to try to clean him up and get him into a bigger fight, and
he needs to start with the victory he come July eighth, and good on
Jojo Diaz, by the way, because he's being very public with fights with
alcohol and addiction and trying to keep his life straight and get his life back
on track. And that's part of what you're referring to as he gets back
in the ring on this card coming up in San Antonio. All right,
to wrap it here on the preview some nostalgia June of nineteen ninety. June
sixteenth of nineteen nineties, so as we release this, it's Friday now.
Some thirty three years ago, Mike Tyson returned after his knockout loss against James
Buster Douglas and foughtay fighter that had beaten him in the amateurs in the Olympic
Trials, and Henry Tillman and Henry Tilman went on to win the gold medal
in the eighty four Summer Games in boxing, and that was part of a
double head. This is why you are who you are. I didn't realize
this was part of a double header involving George Foreman. So give me some
more on the nostalgia June sixteenth, nineteen ninety, because they were trying to
have Tyson fight big George eventually, Well, that was the whole thing.
I mean, I don't think people are younger listeners can understand the main and
I can remember it vividly. I mean it was front page news and mainstream
publications and all that kind of stuff. That a fight between Mike Tyson,
who, even though he had already been dethroned by Buster Douglas but certainly wasn't
retiring. He was still a younger fighter at that time. And now we're
in the second career of George Foreman, who at this point hadn't yet regained
the title against Michael Moore, but you know, was still somewhat of a
force and was now being taken more seriously than just as a as a sideshow.
He had lost a challenge to Evander Holyfield for then the Spirited Tunnel,
but that lost I think opened a lot of everybody's eyes that he was a
real serious guy at this point, not just a side show coming back after
ten years in retirement. So the notion of two of the most mainstream stars,
not just in boxing but in sports, Mike Tyson and George Foreman is
like, I mean, for lack of a bitter phrase, that's like a
wet dream for people back then to see these two guys that they could get
in the ring and fight each other. And the whole idea here was Tyson
is now postbuster and match him up with Tillman to get the revenge on the
amateur loss. And Mike in the main event of that show did what he
supposed to. He puts him out in one round. He got big George
in the in the co feature, takes out Addison Rodriguez, you know,
with a devastating knockout and a big performance. And remember this was a card
which was highly unusual at the time. They were a bitter, bitter bitter
at that time. This was a co promotion between Don King and Bob Aaron.
Don King, of course was still with Mike and Bob Aaron was the
promoter of George Foreman, and all through the build up and even after the
fight, it was all about, we're getting ready to make a big megafight
between Foreman and Tyson and let's see them performed together. It certainly didn't go
that way because even though the two guys came out with their ws, it's
soon well, you know, as they what the shit hit the fan?
I guess because Don King was in a beef with HBO because he was upset
and Mike Tyson was upset. We've discussed this for about how they were covering
Tyson on HBO, particularly the way Larry Merchant spoke about Tyson on HBO,
and uh, that was Mike's last fight with HBO before he left and went
over to Showtime. Had had the fights with the Razor Ruddick ended up going
to prison obviously, and so that sort of ended that situation, and George
Foreman, uh, you know, would go on and you know, ultimately
he fought Tommy Morrison in a WBO fight, which he lost. He then
ended up obviously regaining a title against the Michael Moore you know a few years
later. But the Foreman and Tyson fight never came off. And I don't
know about you, but I get asked a lot of times by people through
when I used to do my chats at USA Today later at ESPN on social
media, when I see people that come up to me to talk boxing if
I'm at an event, you know, what's like the biggest fight that never
happened? You know that you wanted to see George Foreman against Mike Tyson at
that point in the early nineties, would have been as big a bega fight
as you can make. It would have dwarfed, you know, Anthony Joshua,
Deontay Wilder or in fury Anthony Joshua was a huge worldwide event, and
it's a shame that never happened. But on one night on June sixteenth,
nineteen ninety, thirty three years ago, on Friday, everybody in the world
thought that fight was coming next when these two giant punchers blew out their opponents.
It's interesting on the timeline too, because Buster Douglas was in the process
of suing and eventually winning to get out of the rematch contract with Tyson and
would eventually fight Evander Holyfield and lose, and a Douglas Tyson rematch never happened.
As well, in any of this, Buster flamed out on the big
stage almost as quickly as that shocking upset in February of nineteen ninety. So
there you go, great nostalgia on that. And if you back up six
years earlier, as we released the podcast on Thursday, June the fifteenth of
nineteen eighty four, that is the arguably one of the signature moments not only
of the Four King series, but of Thomas Hearns's career. His demolition of
Reb Duran is now nearly forty years old. The second round knockout, devastating
Tim Burr face first knockout of Duran happened thirty nine years ago. My friend
had set into motion Hearns to take on Marvin Hagler the following year. Eventually,
well, Tommy Harns is known for his devastating right hand, and I
don't know if it was ever more devastating than it was in planting Roberto Durant
face first on the canvas. I mean Duran. One of his calling cards
was having an iron chin. I mean, he had lost by stoppage against
Sugar Ray Leonard in their rematch, but that was from quitting. That wasn't
because he got knocked down or knocked out. This was, you know,
Tommy, one of the great punchers of all time, who had roughed them
up in the first round and then lands the devastating right hand on the button.
I mean it was like splat. I mean, there's no other way
to describe it. It's one of the quintessential knockouts in boxing history. Just
because of the level of the names. You know, Hearns was defending the
junior WBC title that that was his, so there were stakes besides just the
great names that were involved, and it was just a crushing, crushing knock
at. In fact, did you take a look at the entirety of the
Four Kings series, it's the most one sided fight of all them, because
you could say, well, maybe it was the last of those nine fights,
which was Leonard versus Duran number three, which was a horrible fight,
but it went twelve rounds and Duran hung in the twelve rounds. He lost
every round, but he went to distance with Ray when they were both pretty
faded at that point, so that Durand was more faded than Ray was.
But in the fight between Hearns and Duran, they were still considered quality fighters.
Tommy was the champion at that time, and it was a one punch
knock at. It was the most one sided in that sense of any of
the fights of the Night of the Four Kings, because the other fights,
you know, even even Haggler Hearns, which ended in the third round,
was certainly competitive, you know, in the first couple of rounds, and
all the other fights, you know, there was back and forth and all
that, but this was one of those. It was the earliest ending of
any of the fights in the nine fight series. But it goes down as
maybe the most notable impressive victory of Tommy's entire career. I think, you
know, the one punch knockout he had in this fight, and then I
guess, uh, maybe maybe when he won the title at Walter Wait in
the first place, which was a devastating knockout also, but this was like
a big one. And uh, you know, I'm gonna make you happy.
That knockout fights. Yeah, we love talking about these fights. That
knockout you're talking about. That was on CBS shown nationally was Peppino Quavas where
he starts Kim the same way with the bomb right hand, face first.
But now this is Roberto Duran and again Durand was trying to stand up to
him and be and be a tough guy. I thought it was fascinating in
the whole dynamic that you know that deal the documentary. Durand claimed this that
deal got done because he was supposedly partying and whomever came around with the contract.
Uh. Duran said, if you can get me a mill million dollars.
I'll sign to fight Tommy Hearns if you get me a million dollars right
now by tomorrow. And they said, we can't get you a million,
we can get you a half million. So they got him a half million
dollars to agree by the next day for the Herns fight in the store.
But the real number was he was actually they actually fought for parody. Both
both fighters were guaranteed one point eight five million, right, but he but
he wanted like a million right then. He said, I'll sign it if
you can get it right then. And the answer was, well, we
can't get you a million, but we can get you a half million by
tomorrow morning. And he agreed. Could you could see the knockout coming because
Hearns had dropped the ice in round one. And this is one of those
classic eighties of those fights that took place at the outdoor arena at Caesar's Palace
had like fifteen thousand people, you know, so with those same kind of
big megafights and not just the four Kings fights, but you know, like
when Larry Holmes fought Jerry Cooney, who was that type of big Vegas atmosphere,
and I'm gonna tell you in anyway that you we've discussed. As you
know, I'm a big memorabilia collector. So I posted on my Twitter and
my Instagram and Facebook pages today my poster from the fight, the on site
poster and the program, and I'm going to tell you right now, the
poster is a little bit tough to find, but it's find the bole the
program for that fight, because my understanding of the way the story goes is
when the fight was over, whatever didn't sell, they just threw them away
in the garbage. Literally. Wow. The program for that fight is of
all the four King fights, by far and away the toughest to find.
And what makes even more difficult is if you do find it, the cover
is black, so the edges are extremely conditioned sensitive to show any kind of
white markings or fraying. And thank god, like five six years ago,
I found a beautiful, beautiful example. I paid good money for it,
but it's now in the ray Field collection and at going anywhere. I just
want to keep saying this all the time. I want to be the curator
of the ray Field Museum. And that was a straight purchase because you've talked
to us before about trades you didn't trade. There's a straight purchase on this
one. It's a straight purchase. And I mean and I and I paid.
The reason I'm talking like this because I know how much I paid for
it, but it was a question would be for right now? If you
went to resale, would it be worth twenty percent more? Fifty percent more?
A few years later? I can probably get I probably could get my
money back on it, all right, But I can tell I part with
it. It's I love it too much. It's it's it's a really beautiful
program. I have to say. I mean, I love all that shit,
but you would you know? This was again nine fights. One of
my collecting goals is a ticket, a program, and a post from all
nine fights. And I'm working my way down nless. I've got a few
more things to check off the list, but that program, Thank god I
found the years ago, because I still, even though I have one in
beautiful shape, I still look around at dealers on eBay and other places and
have people that know I look for that kind of stuff, and even even
having already found it, very rarely do you see them, and if you
do, they're all messed up, interesting all right, nostalgia, memorabilia,
all of it. Again, we look forward to what's going to happen this
weekend Saturday in New Orleans and also Sunday in Australia Saturday night in the United
States for Tim Zoo and Carlos o'campbell reads program and action in New Orleans.
Another reminder, we will pick these fights on the bet Us Live Boxing Show
on their platform's YouTube, Twitter, Twitch coming Friday one Eastern time, and
off the weekend we'll do a Fight Freaks You Night recap on this podcast feed.
Again, make sure you're following subscribing because you're gonna get that recap podcast
feed with whatever happens this weekend. With that, Dan rayphel another busy show.
He's in the books, have a tremendous weekend, enjoy all the action.
We look forward to reading you on your substack and Big Fight Weekend dot
Com, and we look forward to recapping all of this once the weekend is
over. My friend, I'll see you on the show tomorrow and make sure
we get some good picks on. Let's get the picks going on the bet
Us show. There he is, Dan rayphel Our insider. I'm merely TJ
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