The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. No.
Here is your host, TJ. Leaves Ah. We get ready for
another weekend. I should say up front of weekend that was supposed to have
Tyson Furiy and Alexander Usik fighting. We were supposed to be previewing that,
but the funny thing happened along the way to the undisputed heavyweight title bout.
It is now delayed because the cud over Furi's eye. Nonetheless, we do
have a couple of championship fights, we have news, we have nostalgia.
Dare I say he was Buster Douglas before Buster Douglas? Is that a tease
for the nostalgia? We will be talking about it right here on the Big
Fight Weekend preview. I'm the somewhat capable host TJ Reeves. He is our
insider. Fight Freaks Unite is his substack Big Fight Weekend dot Com. It's
always busy in and around Dan Rayfield. I'm gonna cryptically say the inside joke
that you and I know sometimes the pre show is better than the first segment
of the show. You get a lot to live up to you right now
because we were making each other laugh before I hit the record button, and
most of what we talked about, well, you know, a little of
it could have maybe made the air, but you got a lot to live
up to. Good to be back with you. You ready to go?
I am. I think it's for our sakes better off that what we said
prior to the recording is not going to go public. Yes, now,
we were not being obscene. We were not being demeaning towards any ethnicity,
religious group, race, creed, color, postman, aliens, any of
that. We were, however, commiserating over parent teacher conferences when you have
kids in elementary school, so just different things. But anyway, we're here
to talk the fights. We're glad you found us. Make sure you rate
us and review us five star reviews. Do help send it out. Takes
thirty seconds to do that. If you enjoy what we do, previewing going
into the weekend, recapping coming off the weekend. Thank you for finding us.
Follow, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts.
That's where we are and a lot of you have been finding us once
again in February. By the ends of thousands, you have been gathered in
here for the big Fight Weekend preview in the Fight Preaching Night recap and Dan
ray Feel because we didn't promote this and we didn't know what happened, know
that it would happen for sure. But after we put the recap podcast to
bed the other night one Oscar de la Hoya got back to you and you
did a good twenty plus minutes with him about how the Devin Haney, Ryan
Garcia on off, back on, got back on. And my point is,
again when we always mentioned this at the beginning, if you did not
follow or subscribe, you didn't get the notification, the light that ding the
bell. You might have had some other prompt through social media. If you
were subscribing, you automatically knew new Ray feel with Oscar de la Hoy.
This is what I got to subscribe. Yeah, Oscar was good too.
I had touch base with him about the Hany and the Garcia fight and texted
him and he hadn't gotten back to me, which was fine. I figured
he's doing his thing. And on Sunday afternoon he texted me back. He's
like, you know, I can I can talk if you got some time,
you know, are you for? I think you said like three o'clock
his time, which is Pacific. So we spoke for about twenty twenty five
minutes, like literally right before the beginning of the Super Bowl. I had
my my my wife, and my son and my in laws were in the
in our in our family room getting ready to watch the premium of the pregame
and the food was out, and I was like, I'll be right there,
and I'll be right there. My father in law Oscar Oscar de la
Hoy, Yeah, I like how that goes good. My father in law
was like, what do you who are you? Who are you talking to?
I said, Oscar delay is like, oh, that's pretty cool.
He was. I got some brownie points with my father in law that so,
but Oscar is good. Not only do we talk about that, if
they listened to it. It happened that the day that we were speaking was,
you know, just just around the time of the twenty fifth anniversary of
his big time win against Ike Barte, which is also a fight that I've
always been interested in enjoyed. I thought it was just a tremendous uh you
know, uh he Oscar really made a point in that fight. You know,
everybody said he is not gonna fight that guy. He's gonna be scared
of him. He's gonna he's gonna lose the fight. And you know he's
been cherry picking, so to speak. I mean, he had beaten Pearl
Whitaker. But nonetheless, that was like a really big moment in our well.
We talked about it on the recap podcast on the dramatic finish, and
then I liked what he was saying to you. Now. The only thing
I'm gonna take issue with he says it was like my Rocky moment. I
felt like Rocky and rallying at the end. Oscar was star studded from beginning
of his career as a gold That's not what he meant. What he meant
was he they have been losing the fight going into that moment. He understand,
But I mean, Rocky's such an out of nowhere story. The Golden
Boy was the Golden Boy all the way through the nineties and into the two
thousands. We know that about him with all of his great wins. So
that's that's tremendous stuff. So go back on the podcast feed and listen to
that if you didn't know that was there. My point is, if you're
following and subscribing. You did know that was there, all right? So,
as I mentioned, we're on a hold for fury Usik, so that
is later in the spring, coming in May, as a matter of fact.
So we were supposed to have that for Saturday, and everybody kind of
stayed out of the way because of that date for Saturday. So instead we've
got two world title five that were always scheduled for Friday. They're still on
for Friday, the first one of which I'm intrigued to see what happens here
between. I think you are too. O'shaki Foster Abraham Supernova your guy for
the WBC Junior Lightweight title again Friday night, ESPN Top Rank Show. The
Madison Square Garden Theater is where this one will be, all right, So
let's talk about this and the matchup. When last we saw Foster wild title
defense with rock Speed and Rocky Rocky Hernandez where he had to rally late stop
Hernandez retain his belt and now has this title defense. All right, so
let's get in the preview mode. Tell me more about this defense with Abraham
Nova. Well, you're right, that Rocky Hernandez fight that took place in
October was just a tremendous battle finished with a flourish, just a great ending.
Rocky Hernandez was winning the fight and O'shaki had to come back and rally,
as you said, score the knockout in round twelve. But the bigger
thing was round eleven, which was just a crazy round around of the year,
I think to most people, just just an incredibly action packed and dramatic
kind of battle and as it so happened, and I'm not a fan of
this, but in this particular case, maybe it meant something. They were
using open scoring in Mexico, So when O'shaki Fosser, at least after the
eighth round, when they announced the scores after round scour round eight, and
then obviously if it goes distance after round twelve. So after round eight he
knows he's down on the cards, and so he was pressing the action and
had to make a big comeback to get to win or no, poor Hernandez,
who had fought a hell of a fight got knocked out. So now
after that fight was over with O'shaki Fosser, he was doing that fight under
the terms of a purse spid. I remember it was a purse bid or
they just made a one fight deal with Mattrium. I think it was a
pursepit. Actually, the point is that O'shaki Foss was a free agent and
when he was done with that defense, he wuend up signing with Top Rank,
which has a wealth of talent, you know, in that weight class
at one hundred and twenty six pounds, guys who may move up obviously,
guys that lightweight that so Oshaki Foster moves up. He really fit in extremely
well with the Top Frank stable, you know, because of all the fighters
that are really good between one twenty six and one thirty five and actually even
up to one forty. So Abraham Noah is one of their guys, and
you know he's just got the one loss. Uh, And it's a it's
a good matchup, I mean, this is is it a superstar matchup,
But it's a good matchup. But Nova has won two fights in a row
since he was stopped. You know, also at the Madison Square Guard Theater
frankly in pretty devastating fashion against Robes Ramirez back in the summer of twenty twenty
two. I was at that fight and it was a rough, a rough
knockout, but he's well. Like I said, he he moved up and
weigh after that. He's won the two fights in a row in the one
hundred and thirty pound division against good opponents and Adam Lopez and Jonathan Romero.
He gets this shot against Foster, who's making his second title defense, and
it's a it's a quality matchup. You know, I can see reasons why
both guys can win. I think you probably got to like Foster as the
favorite, understandable. I hadn't looked at the odds. We'll get into that
on the US show on Friday. But the winner of this fight is gonna
have plenty of action because there's all kinds of quality opposition that they can face.
But it's a great opportunity for them to take the headline role. Do
it in a great venue like the MSGA Theater top rank of course, like
they always do. Was loaded up the undercard with lots of you know,
ticket sellers and local fighters and you know New Yorkers and some other you know
fan favorites of that area. So they'll be there, should be a good
crowd on hand, and I've become an Oshaki Foster fan. I'll tell you
what TJ years ago. When I first saw him, I think the way
most people, if they're familiar with him, the way that they were first
introduced to who this fighter was was by seeing him fight on a few different
occasions on Showbox. And he never really impressed me. He was like,
Okay, he's okay, I don't really see what all the hype is about.
You know, he's got pretty good size for the weight class, good
skills, but you know, just didn't didn't do anything that really stood out
to me. Let's you know, being honest. And then when he was
with Probellum Promotions, I watched the fight of his that took place in Dubai
in twenty twenty two. It was an elimination fight that got him the title
shot at one thirty against Yakobov, and he looked real good in that fight,
and I was very impressed. I watched that they had like a stream
on the It wasn't on television or even like in the US broadcaster, but
they put it on their YouTube channel I guess pro Bellum did, and I
was like, this guy actually is shown, in my opinion, improvements and
made it much more interesting. In his post show Box days, he won
that fight went on to box on Showtime in the early part of last year,
and he got a big win against Ray Vargas for the vacant title.
Remember, Ray was the featherweight WBC champions was moving up in weight. The
challenge for that title against Foster was to had become the mandatory in that other
fight I just referenced, and he put on a clinic and he looked really
good against Vargas and won the title. And then came the Rocky heron Ands
fight, which was as dramatic as it gets. And and then you read
about about the story of Oshaki Foster, about how he had been a really
good amateur, but like a lot of the young young fighters, he found
himself in trouble legally. You know, he was kind of committing some petty
crimes, nothing like super you know, horrific, but an to put him
in jail for a while. And he's told the story about being locked up
and they're in the the common area, you know, with the other inmates,
and they're watching I guess they were allowed to watch boxing, and they
and he watched a Terrence Crawford fight on television and now to himself after watching
what Crawford had done that. When I get out of this place, I'm
going to really focus on my boxing career and I'm going to make something of
myself. And like I don't know what it was, six years later or
something like that, or five years later or whatever it was, he's a
world champion and he's now a main event at Madison Square Garden Theater, you
know, defending his world title on a you know, for the number one
of the top couple of promoters in the history of boxing. So it's it's
a great story and uh and Nova has got a real chance to take that
away from him. And I know Nova is somebody near and dear to you.
I laughed with you and we've talked about it a couple of times.
That we were leaving the Terrence Clawford demolition of Errol Spence for the World welterweight
title late night on that Saturday night in July, and suddenly there was Abraham
Nora unmistakable with that it was orange colored at that time. I think it's
blonde, is what I saw in the beard right the way and the beard
and he was there talking with you because he's in Albany, New York.
Guy. Yeah, originally born in Puerto Rico, but time in Albany,
New York. So you're going, that's my guy, super Nova, that's
my guy. And to talk to us, he you know, kind of
gave me a hug. But I've known Abraham for a long time, and
you know, because I'm born in Albany, New York, and grew up
in the suburbs of Albany, New York, and that's still where my where
I have family in that area. Anytime there's a notable professional that comes out
of the Albany region, you know, I check him out. I follow
him because it's it's my home. It's always home, and that's where Nova's
from. So he knew that. And so I've always sort of followed Abraham
nowhere ever since he's been a professional, and uh, we've joked about that.
You know, we've sort of like, you know, we we've gone
to the same malls and like the same restaurants and the same stores, and
you know, kind of know the area. So he's a cool guy,
and uh, you know, I look, I have no particular rooting interest
in the fight. I mean, if o Shagi Foster wins, you know,
great for him. It's a big another big win for him, and
if Nova went, I'll be super happy for him. Also hopefully it's just
a good fight. But uh, you know I would say that, you
know I do, Uh you know I would. I wouldn't. I wouldn't
be unhappy if Abraham Nova became a world champion. I mean being honest.
And again he's got to show something because Robas Ramirez put it on him in
that title off, Jason I has got another opportunity here that again, this
is Friday Night, peeps. Again, as we released this overnight Thursday into
Friday, this is Friday night because ESPN has the onslaught of college basketball,
so they're keeping this off the raid on Saturdays. They're keeping this off the
radar for Saturday. And by the way, they had it scheduled this way
anyway, again because of the Fury fight taking precedent with USIK on Saturday.
So there you go on that you mentioned undercard, give a couple of the
names on the under card, and then we'll move along here in the preview
mode with the other world title fight for Friday. Yeah. So the co
feature on this on this card not not a big name co feature, but
also you know, a junior lightweight fight, so same weight class. As
the main event, You've got the undefeated Andre's Cortes, who's you know,
who's with top rank. He's a Las Vegas he's out of Las Vegas,
but he's obviously fighting his fight in New York. He's taken on the one
loss Brian Chevalier in a fight that should go to prove a lot about where
Cortes is. I think some of the folks that I know for some of
the folks at top rank, have very high hopes for him, and this
is a chance for him to uh, you know, to get some his
first time being on the main card, I believe getting some of that type
of exposure. It's actually a triple header. They also have the Bruce Shoeshoe
Carrington fight. He's a very hyped up and but excellent New York prospect who's
undefeated, a featherweight who's been making a big name for himself as a as
a good fun style, has a tremendous personality. You know, it's from
Brownsville, which obviously, if any know anything about New York boxing in Brooklyn
has produced mostly you know, some of the main ones that you know a
at the heavyweight's Ridding bow And and Mike Tyson and you know, and others
are Shannon Briggs. But Carrington is from that same area and he's in with
a one loss uh Bernard Torres, and they're moving him along quickly, I
mean, because he's even though he's only got the ten fights, he is
already twenty six years old. As a prospect in the featherweight division, twenty
six is usually you know, you're already fighting for titles. So they think
that if he can continue doing what he's doing, that maybe by the end
of this year, certainly by the early part of next year, you know,
he's in a world title fight, and certainly Top Rank has a lot
to say about who fights for featherweight world titles because they promote I believe three
of the featherweight world champions, I mean are the two at least, and
one that's going to be a vacant title that's about to be filled, you
know, on a show that they have coming up. So they figure at
Bruce Carrington in this particular spot, can make that name for himself. Because,
like I said, they promote Luis Alberta Lopez. They are involved with
Raphael Espinoza who obviously had that huge victory, and the WBA title will be
filled on a card they have coming up where they have Kolmotov against ray Ford,
and Kolomotov is a guy that they have ray Ford of courses with matrim
But the point is they they got guys for him to fight. Should Carrington
continue to make strides and improve and show that he's worthy of being at that
level. So this is also going to be Carrington's first time being on the
main cards. Great opportunity for all of them involved. So it's a you
know, it's a good little show. I'll put it like that again.
Friday night ESPN Top Rank show. Also Friday night Matchroom card in Mexico on
Dez Own, and this is a rematch of what was a shocker one punch
ko by Adrian Curiel beating seven Thigh not Shinga the South African. These are
little guys IBF Junior Flyway title one punch Boom in the previous matchup. Now
Curiol gets the fight in Mexico here, so tell me more about this.
And also former world champ Mauricio Laura is on this card as well. Coming
on Friday Night let's get in the preview mode a little bit with this.
Well, their first fight that they had that you mentioned when Kurriyoll knocked out
a non Shinga to win the title. This is the IBP one and eight
pound title. This was a huge shocker. Number one. Kuriol was completely
unknown, never you know, never fought anybody. The real consequence, never
in a big time fight. Had four losses. And the thing about it
also was he had twenty four He was twenty twenty going into the fight.
He was twenty three wins, four losses, a draw in only four knockouts.
So a distinct lack of competition. That's a one way to put it.
Not the resume of a big time, booming knockout artist, to say,
the least four KOs and all those fives. So that that's when you
look at it and you said, okay, even if you thought maybe Kiriell's
got a chance to win, you know, this seems kind of unlikely it's
going to be by a knockout. And in terms of Don Shinga, who
was from South Africa, in twenty twenty two, he won the vacant title
against Hector Flores. He traveled to Mexico and fought him in Mexico, which
is Flora's home country. I picked it as a twenty twenty two Fight of
the Year, an absolutely fucking spectacular fight, and I felt like it got
did dirty by a lot of the people that picked. I feel like a
lot of people that picked the twenty twenty two fight of the Year just literally
never saw the fight, didn't watch it. But that's my view of it.
I mean, because it was absolutely sensational. I mean Frank Smith,
who was the number two in charge of mattrom Boxing, who was on site
for this fight taking place in Mexico this weekend, and Frank has been around
matchroll for a number of years and has obviously been ringside for a lot of
great fights. You know, He's talked about how that particular fight might be
the best fight he's ever seen in person at ringside and that, and I
don't think that's just promotional hype for the rematch. Well, because both guys
were hurt, yeah, and there were points and times where you thought it
might be stopped, and they just kept bombing and kept going back and forth.
And the Mexican fighter, Lopez right helped me. Had the crowd roaring
for him, and then not Shingo would come right back and silence the crowd.
It was great trauma. That's what made this so shocking last November when
he got caught with the big punch and it's over. After he won the
title, he then went home and had a defense in South Africa and he
didn't get the knockoutn Chingo, but he looked good. He won pretty much
every round and you're like, okay, you just got to win for the
title in a great fight. He'd put on a good boxing clinic in the
in the in the first defense. Now he's going to fight on this card.
The matchroom did. They tried to do this about once a year.
It had been a little bit what a time since COVID, but they were
back doing an event in the famous casino, one of the famous casinos in
Monte Carlo. And this fight between Non Shinga and and Uh and Kyrio was
on that card and and it was a hand pick guy. They just they
were like they weren't trying to get the guy beat. They were like,
let's find some dude in the ratings that we can get away with, and
we're gonna make our boy Nanschinga look great, and uh and we'll put the
fight on. And the first round happens and not much going on there,
and you know it's you know, competitive, but nothing huge happening. And
in the second round Curio again and as I mentioned, with only the four
knockouts going into the fight, not known as a puncher with zero resume to
speak of, hand pick coming all the way from Mexico lands like an absolutely
devastating overhand right that Nanschingen ever saw and absolutely fucking flatten him. And it
was over and out and he wins the title, and uh, this is
the rematch, so see, you know, is it a repeat or revenge?
Is that was he was that legit? Or was this a bad night?
Did he just get caught? You know, because I felt like Sanchinga
was. I'm not telling you he's gonna become Michael Carbahall and go to the
Hall of Fame, but I'm like this guy definitely, you know, he
can fight a bit and uh, you know, maybe he can put together
a nice a nice title reign and potentially move up and and see what he
can do in the flyweight division. So now now is the moment of truth.
For him, you know, is it gonna be uh him fulfilling that
and getting the title back. Is seeing gowfully confident when he spoke at the
news conference. Curio though, Uh, you know, it's got to be
bullied by the fact that you know, I got the title. I already
drilled this, dude. I'm fighting at home now. I'm not traveling to
Monte Carlo. You know. It's uh, I got a big chance to
to do it again, you know. And I again, I haven't looked
at the odds. I'm sure we'll get into it for our show on Friday,
but uh, I don't think the odd should be awfully wide on this
fight either way, whoever that turns out to be the favorite, because I
can certainly see Kurio maybe doing that again. But I can see non Chinga
doing what he did, you know, and showing the toughness and just you
know, it's got such an engine on him. You know, he can
go like it seems like the stamina is unstoppable for a non Chinga. So
it could be drama. I mean, it should be a good fight.
I mean I know that these are not the biggest names, but those a
little wait lesses sometimes produced the highest amount of drama and electricity, and and
I'm I'm interested to watch this. I mean, uh, neither of the
main event fights that we're talking about this weekend, whether it's this fight with
Kurio defending against don Chinga or Oshaki Foster defending in his fight coming up against
Abraham Nova, are not exactly uh going to be the kinds of fights that
are on the on on everybody's minds going you gotta kind of be a diehard
or like even really kind of know about these kind of shows. But these
are interesting fights for somebody like myself who is just an absolute diehard, these
are both very interesting. Especially let me just follow it up with what we've
been talking about that no Chinga's already been in this setting in Mexico and fought
a wild fight and now is coming off a knockout loss just ninety days ago,
one punch ko loss. You wonder what's the psyche? Are we gonna
see him go all out again toe to toe? Is he a little apprehensive?
There is some intrigue and if you're a fight fan, you're gonna want
to pay attention here to this result along with the Foster result against uh Nova
but I'll be interested in seeing that. Obviously, can he rebound and it's
a real risk for him. I mean, I know he's only got he's
only twenty five, but if he if Curiel beats him, beats him decisively
and knocks him out again, then we're at a point of where does he
go from there? So he's you mentionally, get it back. Yeah.
You also mentioned how Mauricio Laura is on the undercard. He yes, so
he was the WBA's featherweight champion. He's now moved up in wait. This
will take place in a ten rounder at junior lightweight. I think the contract
waits one hundred and twenty eight, so sort of right between one twenty six
and one thirty. He's taken on another Mexican fighter named Daniel Lugo, who's
got a nice record of twenty seven and two with eighteen knockout. But the
thing about Laura is he came out of nowhere, surprise everybody one of these
again match Room with their hand picked Mexicans to bring in the challenge for a
title, and that kind of bites them in the rear end because he knocked
out Lee would in a very big surprise in the second round or knocked him
down and then won the decision, and it was, you know, a
big shocker. They had the rematch and Lee would regain the title, so
this is this is a And then he didn't make the weight, I should
say for the ring, he flew past the weight like it was well,
well yes, when it was some debate as to whether the fight was even
going to go on, and then Laura's head was just obviously not even in
the fight and would dominated him as I remember, yeah, I mean that's
the thing, so I mean I misspoke though in the first fight he knocked
him out in the seventh round. That was the one where he got dropped
and the trainer threw in the towel, right, but he had the rematch
clause in his back pocket. They picked it up and they did the rematch,
and that was a fight. We didn't make the weight. But Lee
Wood came out in looked again, look good in that fight, didn't get
caught with anything dommy drop uh Lara, and he ended up leave would winning
the decision to regain what was I guess at that time became the vacant belt
because Laura had not made the weight, so now Lara's moved up and see
if he can get back on track. And if he can, you know,
maybe that will just look like a little bit of a hiccup because there
is good talent in the one hundred and thirty pounds weight class. We talked
about it with Foster and some of the other fighters in the weight class.
So and he also brings the action. I mean, that's hereo thing we
always talk about, like the first and foremost thing is we're gonna get a
good fight. And you know, Daniel Lugo is another one of his countrymen
who's got a good record. Also, you know, when's the last time
he saw two Mexicans go in the ring and make a bad, bad fight.
So I do have high hopes for this to be, you know,
somewhat fun to watch, and especially with the with the main event, so
you know, I know the cards are going to overlap to some degree hopefully.
Well I don't think the main events will necessarily be at the same time,
but you never know. Well shall see. But anyway, like I
said, good good Friday night of fun fights, even if they're not like
the big name fights, very true. So you laid those out for us
now, we get to some news and then we've got some nostalgia before we're
gone. All right, So Josh Taylor and Jack Caterall the sequel now is
official for April twenty seventh in Leeds, England. That has now been signed,
officially announced, with date and with location. All Right, I'm going
to get off the first opinion on this. Sure, Can I tell you
that I'm like luke warm at best on this. It's passed its sell by
date as far as I'm concerned, because I was very interested in the controversial
decision and the rematch. When the first fight happened back in twenty twenty two.
You were hoping for like the fall of that year that you were going
to get the rematch. You never did. You didn't get it in twenty
twenty three, and then Josh Taylor loses to tay A Femo Lopez. So
I realize in the UK, we have a lot of people that listen to
us, the engage with you, they engage with me, engage with the
website that are in the UK. This is a bigger deal in the UK.
But to me, I'm kind of like this is past the cell by
date. Raphael, your thoughts I don't think it's past the cell by date.
Is it a little bit less intensity, Maybe it's not for the title
as you mentioned, but it's still a good old fashioned grudge match, there's
no doubt about that. And they did try to. I mean, it's
not like they were avoiding each other and they couldn't come to terms and they
were a ducking each other and they were looking to do other things. The
reality is they made this fight on multiple occasions and for different reasons. I
think one time was COVID related. There was another time where the fight was
set and it was supposed to be on Sky in the UK, and there
was some sort of scheduling issue that forced it to be moved. And then
there was an injury where Taylor had the injured ankle foot injury, and so
when that got postponed again, the WBO, which I sort of stood down,
was like forget about it, and they ordered the mandatory which tia Fimo
Lopez had won an eliminator, so that became the next fight. You know,
Cadall had moved to switch promoters. Uh and so yeah, I mean,
so it wasn't like they were looking to avoid each other. It wasn't
a time. It wasn't a situation where you know, they're just doing the
rematch because they're out of options. Let's say, and this this was all
that was left they tried to do this fight. Matter of fact, to
Josh Taylor's credit, he has he had won all four belts against Hose.
You know, he retained his two belts, won the other two belts in
his big win against Jose Ramirez. That's in mid twenty twenty one, and
now he's the undisputed champion. He makes the title defense against Jack Catterall controversial
split decision win in Glasgow, Scotland, which is obviously his turf. He's
from Scotland, jackets from England. Very controversial, but there was you know,
it was a close fight. I mean, I'm not I don't think
it was that horrible. I actually thought that Taylor won the won the fight
close, but you know, I'm obviously in the minority. It also was
kind of a shitty fight, let's be honest. I mean, there was
a lot of holding, a lot of grabbing, a lot not a lot
of thought won, as I recall, and they also each had a point
taken away by the way degree which made it even crazier for the decision.
Well, the one thing about the Taylor point deduction, the referee was absolutely
the referee was Marcus McDonald. In the fight. The point deduction from Jack
that was from Jack Catterall was for holding in the tenth round. I have
no problem for a guy getting at point deducted when the holding is excessive,
and it appeared that it was excessive. And if you're gonna warn a guy
not take a point, why warn him. So I didn't really have a
problem with that point deduction. You don't like to see a guy lose a
point of holding, but at some point you gotta put your foot down and
a guy can't hold. In terms of the point that was deducted from Josh
Taylor, if you remember after the eleventh round, it was sort of like
he tapped him in the stomach, like hey man, good round, like
respect, and the referee took it as like a punch and took a point
away, which to me was like ludicrous because clearly he wasn't trying to punch
him in the gut. After the bell, I thought it was a total
sportsman type of thing, where you have pound gloves or you have fists bump
or whatever, slap him on the back. It was sort of like,
hey, tap him in the abs, like, you know, nice round
and you know, let's get it. But the referee thought different, so
he took the point away. Now, because both fighters had points of duct
that I guess it all even out in the wash, but it was still
kind of a weird. Often times for our worldwide audience, we call it
in the United States makeup calls by the officials, the umpires, whomever.
That one smelled a lot like a makeup call because it was a very close
fight and he was controversially late in the fight taking a point from Catall that
could have cost him the fight. But I disagree it up on a makeup
call. I thought the holding one was okay because I I pointed out,
you explained that. I'm just explaining that makeup calls do happen where suddenly the
seventy five thousand people that are booing because the call was an awful call on
whatever it is, and then mysteriously now you get a pass interference in favor
of the giants, and Rayfield's going, that's the right call. But in
sase, I know exactly what you're saying, and that does happen in this
particular fight. The tenth round point deduction seemed perfectly legitimate. It wasn't.
He wasn't making up for anything. He called it legit. And then the
tap on the gut was the one that was or a weird. But nonetheless,
I didn't think it was a very good fight, and I don't think
the rematch is gonna be all that good because these guys are gonna box how
they box. I don't know how you're coming over to my side of the
aisle here. I know, I know in the UK they care about this.
I'm just not as big because it's if it had been a twenty twenty
two rematch for all the belts. Okay, but we're we're way past that
year. I was never going to be for all the belts because of the
man first. So back to the point I was making, by the way,
the reason why I give Taylor the credit. Even though they you know,
the fight under up getting canceled a bunch of times before finally now it's
rescheduled and they're doing the deal. He allowed himself to be stripped or vacated
three of his four belts to pursue this rematch for two reasons. First and
foremost, I think is because he was so pissed off about all the negativity
about the scoring, in about how people were ragging on him for getting a
quote unquote gift against Catall even though he's not the guys. And I've said
this about the Tim Bradley pack that rematch, or rather the first fight.
Remember Tim taking so much green about the scoring. It's not the boxer,
that's the judge, So why are you dumping on the fighter because it's a
bad decision. The boxer was in the ring doing his job, trying to
fight to fight. He's not the one that's putting the scores on the piece
of paper and turning them in. So but Caterall was obviously impacted by the
negativity about the scoring, and I mean obviously taking the rematch at that time
was going to be a much more lucrative fight for him than taking on one
of his mandatory fights that was in the offing. So now the fight is
back on, and so people understand because it's a little bit of a weird
situation. It's a matchroom card, so it'll be the zone around the world.
Except because Josh is a top rank fighter. They made the deal.
It will be an ESPN Plus event in the United States and in Canada it
will most likely be TSN, which is their sort of version of the ESPN,
their sports channel. So you know, you'll see a lot of stuff
on social media if you look at top Rank, it's ESPN plus, ESPN
Plus, ESPN Plus and on the matchroom stuff. They just tout about how
it's on his own, but the reality is if you live in the United
States, it's a regular ESPN Plus fight, the same way We've seen plenty
of other fights. And I know there was some speculation TJ from some that
maybe this would be a pay per view uh in terms of the UK for
diz own, but de Zone did not want this as a pay per view
in a regular subscription fight, and look, the winner of the fight is
going to put himself back in a great position, uh to do something against
one of the top fighters. I remember also, there was a lot of
conversation after Tiafim Lopez defeated Caterrell, I mean, I mean Josh Taylor to
win the title back last Yune, that that Taylor was talking about maybe he's
moving up to one er and forty seven. I was gonna say. I
was just going there, what happened to that? And is this maybe a
catch weight or this is so my initial thought was, Okay, they're doing
this fight again, and there's no title at stake, you know what it
what's the weight? I mean, because it'd be one forty one, forty
three, forty four there was you know, there's no reason, there's no
nothing at stake in terms of adults. So when I reported about this fight,
the fight was announced on Thursday. I had reported about it a couple
of days ago that it was about to be done, and uh they were
to announce it. I was told and it turned out to be accurate,
that it will be a fight at one hundred and forty pound contract weight.
So they're doing it at the at the one forty limits. So Catterall and
and Taylor will make that weight again. And you know, Caterall just has
the one loss, and that was the loss to Taylor, you know,
in the controversy. And Caterall, you know, did a good job boxing,
even though I don't find him to be very exciting. And Josh Taylor,
you know, has been a top notch guy for a while other than
the one loss that he took against Ti Tim Lopez. So from that standpoint,
there are two of the best guys in the in the business in terms
of the the the ratings of the one hundred and forty pound division and the
winners going places. And it's also it's a good old fashioned and grudge match.
Don't need no title to worry about in this fight because the fans are
going to go crazy. And also another interesting aspect of the matchup I've heard
from a lot of people whinding the heck is this fight in Leeds, England.
Caterall is from scott from from the Manchester area, and Josh Taylor is
from Scotland. Part of the negotiation was we're not going to Scotland because Catterall
wasn't going to do that, and from the tailor point of they're like,
okay, well you don't have to come to Sculum, but I'm not fighting
them in Manchester, which is the closest big city in England to where Caterall
is from. He's from a smaller town that's about maybe like twenty minutes outside
of Manchester. So the decision was made, let's find another you know,
arena's that we can do it in that's not going to be a problem for
either side. And so they're doing it in Leeds, England. When I
heard Leeds, I'm like, why are they doing it in Leeds? This
is not a Josh Warrington fight. But that's the reason because both sides had
to accept it as a so called neutral site. Yes it's in Jack Catterall's
home country of England, but it's I guess far enough away from Manchester to
appease you know, the Josh Taylor camp. So there you go. That's
the deal. There all part of the negotiations and some good insight on that,
aren't We move along on the news. We do have nostalgia involving Leon
Spinks upsetting Muhammad Ali in a few moments, oh maybe more than a few
moments. But stand by up next Jamal Charlow. Hmm. That name keeps
coming up for stuff that doesn't have anything to do with him defending his WBC
Middleway title, which, by the way, I should make mention of you
because you like swatted at me and lectured me. You know every week you're
bringing up Jamal Charlow hasn't been stripped. That was like last fall, Rayphael,
It's February fifteenth. Why is the WBC not stripped Jamal Charlow of his
title for failure to By the way, I've never disagreed with you about that
ever once, But why have they not done it? I will tell you
for right or for wrong, and I'm not going to argue with it.
I'm just going to tell you the factual information. Take it up in Mauricio
Suliman, and leave me the fuck out of it. Jamal Charlow's sabbatical from
boxing for those twitter f years was largely because of what he said was mental
health issues, and Mauritio has taken a lot of arrows for it, but
he has said I've talked to him about it personally. I sat there in
Las Vegas with him at whatever fight we're at and talked to about it.
He just basically was like, look, he's going through a lot of shit.
We're not gonna fuck around with him and take away his title with all
the issues he's having, So take it up with the WBC. I'm not
I'm not. I don't agree with it. I think they could have easily
made him the champion in recess and said We're on your side, Dramilt.
Anything we can do to help you, We're here for you. You're part
of the WBC family. We're going to make you the intro or the the
in recess champion. When you're comfortable and you're ready to come back, let
us know, and you get the first crack at the title to win it
back. Period. And that's been done time and again for a little plenty
of lesser regarded fighters. You know that are then Jamal shall Or are more
highly regarded fighters than Jamal Charlotte. They didn't do that. He did come
back and had to fight his in his you know, last fall wasn't a
title defense was one hundred and actually he didn't even make the wait. I
believe the fight was contracted at what one's sixty two or three or whatever it
was, but he weighed in like one sixty six, I want to say,
So we didn't defend. He rolled past Jose Benavidez Junior. Wasn't a
particularly enthralling performance, and ever since then, the rumors were that he's going
to get the Canelo fight. So if you want to pick it up from
there, about what happened this week. So yes, that's what you've been
writing about for this week. I'm just going to finish up on one more
point here. Again. They have stripped fighters repeatedly and quickly for all kinds
of reasons, and they've done nothing about this, and it's unfair to everybody
else in their rantings that they've done nothing. The guy stated in the ring
after the non title fight that he had on the undercard. What was that?
Benavidez andre right when he came back in late November that he wants to
fight at super middleweight? How much more do we need? Move on?
Move on on that all right now? Now my man Ray feels like tooling
around on Instagram and suddenly there's Jamal Charlow on Valentine's Day, on vacation,
you know, holding up a tasty beverage and basically saying, basically what was
it? Did it have an umbrella in it? Basically saying, who me
to fight Canello? I don't know what anybody's talking about here, nobody's talked
to me, So what do we make of this? Was he playing games?
Or do you legitimately do you legitimately believe they're not far along? And
maybe it's not Jamal Charlow what the heck knows. All I can say is
that he's on vacation in Turks and Caicos, nice spot with his family.
I believe he was on a boat. They were showing him jumping off into
the water. It was like he was like, you know, kissing his
son. He was toasting the rum punch with his wife. One of the
point he showed on the video. I think he said it was his mother.
So he's on like a family vacation. There was a bunch of people
there, and you know, he basically said, and this was the quote
in the video. He looks into the camera. I haven't even talked to
al Hayman since I last fought, which is in November. So everyone that
keeps talking like, oh you about to fight Canelo and this and that ain't
no confirmation. I'm in an island somewhere, stupid ass, chill out.
So he's answering people. He's answering people on Instagram lot that are sending him,
you know, messages. So he says that there's been no deal or
official thing about him fighting Canelo Alvarez, which has never been confirmed. The
reason why there's been so much conjecture and speculation is because before Canelo Alvarez made
the fight and announced the fight and fought the fight against his twin brother Jermel
Charlo, it was all along supposed to be Jamal Charlow. He's the heavier
guy at one sixty would move up the one way class as opposed to his
brother Jamel, who was moving up two way classes. He was the guy
that was supposed to be fighting Canelo Alvarez last ball, but because Jamal was
still going through whatever issues he was going through and wasn't going to be able
to prepare himself properly in time for that fight that took place last September,
instead of him being in the ring, the fight went to the brother,
and so he was sort of like the like the I won't tell him a
late fill in, but they switched up. Canello was I don't give a
shit to me. They're the same guy. So he fought Jermel and won,
And so once it happened, there was a lot of speculation that the
next fight would be another Charlot and I kept thinking to myself, how in
the world, I know there are different people, but how could you possibly
sell that fight to the public, Because the brother Jermel put on such a
terrible performance. He just basically showed up for his paycheck, didn't really engage,
didn't really fight hard, kind of mailed it in. In my opinion,
was there to just sort of make the twelve rounds and say I went
into the ring with the great Canelo Alvarez and got a big payday and all
that. So now you're dealing with I got to try to sell an opponent
who's got basically the same name, looks the same as the other guy,
has been in an excessive layoff. When he finally did come back after two
and a half years and fought in a ten rounder in November, looked pretty
pedestrian, even though he won against a welterweight in Jose Benavidez Junior. How
are we going to sell this to the public. And oh, by the
way, not only is it a matchup that you would question based on those
factors I just mentioned, you also have the fact that there's not a single
boxing fan I have yet to encounter period who has in any way, shape
or form shown a demand for this matchup. Of course, and conversely,
there's at least three other fights that can Hel could have that are very makeable,
very doable, that people are interested in, and that is David Benavidez,
who is the mandatory, who I've said is the people's number one contender,
undefeated, that should go to point blank, say it again, that
should be the fight. Four, that should be the fight. Okay.
So now you have him as one possibility, which is clearly the best fight
they can make in terms of action, and a guy who deserves the fight.
There's Haimi Mungia who is in that mix. Undefeated, former title holder
at one fifty four, had a good, solid fight just a few weeks
ago where he beat John Ryder. What made that stand out was because he
stopped John Ryder knocked him down like four times, and in the previous fight,
Ryder went the distance in a loss but only got knocked down once,
and it didn't get stopped by Canelo. So people can now compare how Canelo
performed against John Ryder to how Mongiat performed against him, And obviously, if
you know anything about either fighter, I think the prospect of a Mongkey against
Canelo is a very action back kind of fight. And then on top of
that, you have sort of like the fantasy fight that could happen. Is
him against Terrence Crawford, who was number one pound for pound, who absolutely
pummeled and knocked out Errol Spence in a in an awesome performance, you know,
number one, Like I said, pound for pound, and and that's
a fight that he has said he's interested in. And even though it's a
little bit unusual because of the weight disparity, there would definitely be an audience
for that. Certainly a little bit unusual. It's twenty one pounds difference in
the weight limits from one sixty. I can do math pretty well. I
understand I have no interest in watching a blown question Terrence Crawford. Yeah,
do you are you more interested in seeing the possibility of Canelo versus Crawford or
if you had to take a binary choice all Rannello Crawford or Canelo Jamal Charlotte,
which one do you pick that would be Crawford. Yes, thank you.
That's almost asking me like, do I want to root Canal or do
I want somebody to hit me in the face one of them? I'm in
pain. I'm in pain for both of these. Okay, So let's get
let's get let's get to the brass tacks. If Jamal Charlow is to be
believed that he hasn't been in contact with al Hayman and it's not him.
Canello Alvarez earlier this week, Well, I didn't say it's not him.
He didn't say it's not him. He said, I haven't talked to Al
Hayman, and so all of you were asking me about this, Bob.
But the fight's not till May. It's only the early fight. But but
Canello earlier this week gave an interview announced that he's gonna still be on Azteca
TV. I read my dan Rayphael Substack, and he said, I'm gonna
fight an American, all right. So now now there are bread crumbs.
Does that mean Crawford doesn't Ben a Venas qualify as an American? Sure?
Who is it? Who is it? Then? I may have there may
have been something lost in translation, because as it was more specifically translated,
he I guess he didn't say I'm not fighting a Mexican. I think it
was more along the lines paraphrasing. As it was explained to me that if
it made sense and it was the right business, he would fight in Mexican.
But his preference is not to fight a mex to fight an Americans.
So listen, I feel like I know the way Canelo operates. I've covered
his entire career basically, for the right deal, for the right money,
he'll fight anybody. So if if the right deal was there to have a
fight against Mongia, I don't see a reason why he wouldn't do it.
Maybe the preference would be to stick with Ann What do you mean by right
deal? The more money he can make off the pay per view part of
it, because he's got a guarantee, he's got whatever it is, whatever,
whatever whatever aspect of the of the contract there is. There's plenty of
things in an agreement that are beyond just what's the actual dollar figure in the
money. And so right now he's supposed to be returning to fight on May
fourth in Las Vegas. It will be a PBC pay per view with Amazon
Prime Video, and we don't have an opponent, and the speculation that it
was going to be Charlotte obviously is a lessened because of what Charlot said in
his video. But again, boxing is always filled with the red herrings and
misdirection and lies and whatever, so it keeps us all on our toes.
We spend ten minutes talking about on the pod. All right, speaking of
that, a couple more quick news items than we are getting to the nostalgia,
I promise. All right. So you've been writing about Jared real big
baby Anderson, the heavyweight, the top rank heavyweight. You have learned of
the date when he's going to return, but we got to find an opponent
for him. It seems like everybody's looking for an opponent right now. Tell
me more about this real quick. So what I'm told by top rank officials,
even though it has not been announced, is that he is returning to
fight April thirteenth. It'll be the main event of an ESPN card, and
it will take place at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas,
which has been a venue that's hosted a number of boxing events over the years.
And they're looking for an opponent. And so two of the names that
were part of the conversation that I was told is there was a conversation about
the possibility of a fight with King Kong Ortiz. Cong Ortiz, who was,
you know, an older fighter at this point in his career, supposed
to be forty four, could be as much as like sixty four who knows,
but more notably, you know, tremendous puncher, a good amateur,
had you know, two fights with Deontay Wilder for world titles. Had the
first fight spectacular, was a whisker away from winning that fight against Wilder.
In the second fight, won every single second at every single round until he
got knocked out with one punch by Deontay. So that was a fight that
they were interested to make for Jared Anderson. And my information, my reporting
says that the Ortiz can't ask for a purse of two million dollars, which
was a non starter, and that was you know, that kind of money
for that kind of fight, forget about it. So that was not happening.
The other opponent that came up who will not be the opponent was the
German fighter Tom Schwartz, who is known to American fans as being an opponent
that fought Tyson Fury a few years ago and got knocked out in the second
round. However, he's not going to be the opponent either because as top
rank came to fight out over this past weekend because he's had his own legal
issues for domestic violent situation in Germany. He can't get into the United States,
so they're back to square one. You've got a King cong Worte Will
Sam out for Corpus Christie, Texas April thirteenth. Very nice. So you
got you got King cong Orti's looking for a pot of gold that doesn't exist
for that kind of fight. And you got another fighter that would probably take
the country but can't get in the country. So what's the educated Rayfield?
Guess what's the educate any idea? No, could be anybody. I mean
he's had a couple of he's had a couple of name fighters. H he
thought Charles Martin. That's a guy that was a pretty good name. It
was still a very solid, serviceable champ, you know, former title holder.
Uh. I mean I think at this point, I don't know if
there's like a target, they're like, who can we get? You know,
you we gotta find somebody. Uh, you know, we know it
won't be you know, it's not We know that all the guys that are
involved in the Saudi Rabia cards that are coming up, it's not any of
those guys. So you gotta you know, go on your on your trustee.
Box Wreck rankings and take a look down the heavyways and see what you
come up with. And remember he fought Rudinko Andre Rudinko in his last fight
back in August UH for a fifth round KO. But I was also looking
and he fought. He fought Carlos to com at one point, did he
not real? Big Baby So and Jerry Forest. He's fought some of those
guys. Let's see who they end up with. And he needs to be
more active. Obviously, he had some legal issues with UH arrest, so
you know he was He's been fairly active for relatively speaking. So you know,
he got a little bit of time off, and I mean they had
him going. They had him in April, they had him in July,
and had him right back in August. And now, yes, he's had
the legal issues, but let's get him going with a couple of fights,
because this is a guy that there's there's no doubt you're looking at a heavyweight
title prospect here. Now I'm not saying twenty twenty four, but maybe for
twenty twenty five. So get him back going. I think he has fought
by the way, but he did it my bad yet he has not fought
him. But tacam is not really at this point, is I don't think
he can really consider him a at that one. Well, am I thinking
of that he dispatched in the in the bubble, I'm trying to remember of
who he dispatched of a couple of different guys. He was very active at
that point. I mean nobody that was a big name. Yeah, I
mean Teslanko, Rove Canning, probably Jerry Forrest was a big win for him
at that time. And again he's had he's had a lot of activity.
In twenty twenty two, he had a hand injury. Remember two fights of
twenty twenty two had three and twenty twenty three. We need more of the
other thing that Jared Anderson and that he's very well positioned in the IBF that
at some point when that title becomes vacant in the post of the Fury and
Usik fight, it's not I mean, things have to break the right way,
but depending on how it goes, it's not out of the realm of
possibility that he could be a guy that would be tapped to fight for the
vacant title because you have the number one contender is Philip Perkovic, who's going
to get that shot, and Anthony Joshua is going to move up into the
spot that was previously occupied by Otto Valan who had after he beat Otto.
So the top two ranked guys are going to be Kergovic and Anthony Joshua.
But there's no guarantee that Joshua is going to go that route after he does
the fight with the guy who if that didn't happen. I believe the next
guy in the IBF rankings is in fact Jared Anderson, so he could be
well positioned, all right, but he's going to be back in April.
More importantly, April thirteenth, opponent TBD. We've covered that and the fight
hasn't been official announced yet, so look for that coming soon. By the
way, we have been talking about match Room Boxing. It's been out there
about them signing Subrio Mattias the one and forty pound champion. Keep me straight,
that's IBF which one to CEF IBF one hundred and forty pound champ,
and it is going to be They didn't announce this, but it's I mean,
it's believe it's going to be Liam Paro, right, And do we
have the timeframe of when that's going to be, they did announce the official
signing. So when they announced the signing, in the comments that were being
made by the various people involved, they were talking about coming into his next
fight this summer and the plan is, and they said this very specifically,
he will fight his next fight in Puerto Rico, which is where he's from.
Most could have been in the summer, probably June. And the name
that's been bandied about, that's the likely opponent given his record, given that
he's also with matchrom Boxing, is in fact the Australian fighter Liam Paro,
who is twenty and one with twenty knockouts. So it's two big punchers.
I mean, I think the back Parro is actually twenty four and oh with
fifteen knockouts. It's Mattias who's twenty and one with twenty knockouts. But both
guys with punching power, and you know Paro is gonna go and take him
on in his hometown. And you know, Mattias is a guy that is
very exciting, very hard hitting, very good based on the guys he's defeated,
but he's never a guy that anybody really mentions his name. And he's
right up there with a lot of the other in terms of his ability with
the other top guys in a very talent rich weight class. Whether it's to
talk about you know, we just talked about Caterarell and Taylor in that weight
class. Ti Fimo was a champion, Devin Hainey is a champion. He
got Ryan Garcia. Who's gonna be fighting Devin Haney. There's a lot of
great names in the division, but Mattias is not a guy that anybody's like
jumping up and down to fight. But he definitely is one of the more
exciting fighters in the weight division. All Right, Now we get to the
good stuff. He was Buster Douglas, Was he not before Buster Douglas?
Leon Spinks twelve years earlier? The anniversary coming on the night that we're releasing
this February fifteenth, nineteen seventy eight upset Muhammad Ali fewest fights ever to win
the heavyweight championship, winning the undisputed title with a massive upset win. The
former Golden medalist. He had won the gold medalist in the gold medal in
the Montreal Olympics along with his brother Michael, along with Sugar Ray Leonard and
now here he was in the ring less than two years later winning the heavyweight
title off Muhammad Ali. It definitely ranks as one of the all time boxing
upsets, along with Cashius Clay of Sonny Liston and then more recent obviously Andy
Ruiz defeating undefeated Anthony Joshua. What about Spain Allie won some forty six years
ago. I know we've talked about it before, but what else do you
want to think about and reflect on here with this upset? Well, just
I mean, like you said, it's one of the biggest upsets, and
if you think about boxing history, most of the biggest upsets that immediately come
to the minds of boxing fans are heavyweight fights Tyson Douglas as you mentioned,
You mentioned obviously Holly and Spinx, Andy Ruiz and Anthony Joshua talked about has
sim Rockman against Lennix Lewis. I mean, those are you know, if
you want to go back to the to the old Don days in a black
and white black and white days in terms of the footage you're talking about,
you know, the Cinderella Man, when James Braddock won the heavyweight title over
Max Bayar. Yes, very nighly, so there's a lot of Max schmelling
over Joe Lewis by the way, although that was a non title fight,
right, and then Lewis got him back with a one round knockout. But
but I don't know, I don't know. I don't really agree with you
that Spinx was bustered before Buster. And I say that not because it wasn't
a huge upset. But Leon Spinks had a high known national profile. Buster
was a pretty decent content. You trust me. I want to tell you
this. That was the great nineteen seventy six Olympic. Ye. I understand,
Chulgar Ray Leonard had the high profile in nineteen seventy I don't know that
Leon Spinks really had high profile. It was the heavyweight gold medalist. Of
course he had a high profile. I'll understand, but it wasn't the same.
I'm not saying you're saying it's the same, and nobody thought this was
going to be an Ali loss. I'm not saying to you it's not an
upset. I'm saying to you that Leon Spinks had a national profile because of
a gold medal in the Olympics on a team that also included his brothers.
I will give you that for that. I will give you okay, and
Buster Douglas was basically obscure. Baan Stinks was not obscure. His fights had
been televised, he had been Ernie Shavers. Now, granted, you know
if Twitter or social media existed when this fight took place. I can only
imagine what the lunatics would say that Leon Spinks, who went into the fight
with a record of six wins, zero losses and one draw, by the
way, is now taking on the legendary Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight championship.
People would have fucking strokes left and right about that, masheh. And he
was a big underdog obviously, and in the end he got a well deserved
fifteen round split decision at the Las Vegas Hilton, I believe, televised live
on what CBS CBS. Yes, so they won. They won the blind
bidding process for a few million dollars and they had over forty five million people
watching. This is how what Yes, you're you're thinking of the wrong fight.
No for the first fight, for the first for the second fight was
the one that drew the forty five million viewers. No, no, no,
now I get to swatch you. The second fight had ninety million people
watch the rematch because it was the rematch. So now I get to swatch
you look up your TV figures because I wrote the story on both of these.
Okay, Big Fight Weekend dot Com. So the first one CBS had
blind bid, had got it. They showed it on like a Tuesday night,
because again, fight nights were different. They weren't always Friday or Saturday
night. Brent Musburger, by the way, you are looking live on the
call, and a shocker, a shocker with Spinks beating him. As that
fight went on, it was obvious that Ali was not the same Ali.
And we have to remember this is post thriller in Manila, which had been
a year and a half earlier. In seventy five, he had also fought
Ken Norton again at Yankee Stadium, and Ali was clearly not the same Ali
anymore, but still not just so for the record, as I looked it
up while you were saying that on CBS, that drew an audience of about
seventy million viewers and it was pretty match. So I sold it, and
there was the rematch that was in the New Orleans Superdome, where Ali regained
the title. In the next fight, that drew about ninety million people.
In other words, think about this, The super Bowl that we just had
between the Tech Rights and the forty nine ers set the all time broadcast record
for viewership. At least based on their early reports. I don't know what
the final numbers were. They said it drew an audience on average of about
one hundred and twenty three million in change for the for the Super Bowl,
Muhammad Ali against Leon Spinks in the rematch did ninety million in the first fight,
seventy million. That I mean, people cannot felly how big boxing was.
It was obviously aality was a huge part of that. And here's the
thing about it, though, TJ. The first fight between Spinx and Ally
was actually a pretty darn good fight. The second fight was kind of a
stinker when Ali regained the title, but Spinx really came to fight that night,
and uh, you know, he's the ultimate, even more so maybe
than Buster Douglas. With some disrespects. Well, I can tell you this,
but what hit wonder. I can tell you this. There was a
lot of talk Ali wanted not taking it seriously, into a lot of concern
that is, he washed up. That was the big thing when because again,
when you go back and watch, and I've gone back and rewatched this
previously, Leon Spinks took it to him and took it to him as the
fight went on, and Ali looked tired even in the middle of the fight,
and so there was a lot of discussion about is he done? Is
he finished? And that's what the drama and the build up was. And
ABC out bit everybody on the second goal around to have how would co Sell
call the rematch that would come later that year. But you talk about cover
of Sports Illustrated, and when it meant something, it was huge. It
was enormous. The toothless front, toothless Leon Spinks with just the one word
his name, Leon and an exclamation point on the cover of Sports Illustrated is
iconic for all time. What an upset. It truly belongs in the conversation
of great boxing upsets, great heavyweight upsets. There was no doubt about that.
Absolutely. Now, one thing I did I misspoke. I said that
Spinks had defeated Ernie Shavers. That is not the case. The big name
that he had fought, well, he hadn't fought really big names before he
fought the Ali fight, which is why It was kind of a surprise that
he got to fight in the first place, because even though we had such
a small record, he didn't have like a big win. He had defeated
the undefeated fighter a Ferio Riggetti. Before that, he had a draw with
the longtime contender Scotland. Due scot he did not have a big reputation in
terms of the guys he had fought, you know, because the fight before
that, he fought a guy that was like ten and thirty five or something
like that, you know, just a sort of like staying busy kind of
fight. So he got the fight without a lot of accomplishment. It was
Ali, though, who was in the midst of that title reign, who
had defeated Ernie Shavers prior to the fight, who was a big hitter.
Evangelista had the fight that a lot of people thought he lost in terms of
the rubber match against Kenny Norton, and he took on Span Stadium by the
way. So and as a matter of fact, when the fight happened and
Leon Spinks won the title and then they did the rematch, the WBA title
was vacated. You know, he got stripped to the because the winner was
supposed to give Kenny Norton h then you know, in the next fight,
And obviously they weren't going to do Leon Spinks against Ken Norton when he can
have a humongous money remax against Alis. And even if Ali had won,
I don't know if he was gonna fight Kenny Norton for a fourth time.
Right, We've talked about that before too, but great nostalgia, go back
and relive it. It's on YouTube there as well. And you mentioned the
television audience again, You've got to understand in this era there's no cable TV.
There's not very many channel You had a knob ray feel on the television
that had four channels, ABC, NBC, CBS and public broadcasting. Those
were choices. This was such a massive thing that Spinx had beaten Ali worldwide
story because again Ali had fought all over the globe even in the seventies,
had fought in Africa against George Foreman, had fought in Manila, Philippines and
the Far East against Joe Frazier. They cared about this everywhere in Malaysia,
yes, but in the UK yes, when the word got out that Spinx
had done this everywhere because keep in mind, for a lot of those places,
they were asleep in the middle of the night while this was going on
in primetime in the United States on a week night in Las Vegas. What
an upset for Leon Spinks back now forty six years ago. One more piece
of nostalgia and then we're done. And that is on this same day,
February fifteenth of twenty three, which is twenty one years ago, Hall of
Famer Rafael Marquez defeats Tim Austin and becomes the IBF bantamweight world champ. So
a Hall of Famer gets a victory, but the night was also special for
Dan Rayfield as well. On the nostalgia elaborate well, talk about the fight
for a minute. So, first of all, people may not know Tim
Austin. He was undefeated going into this fight. He was the classic example
of a guy that was an outstanding amateur. He'd been the United States Olympian.
He had come up with Don King. He was undefeated, he had
won the IBF title, he'd made several defenses of that title. But he
was typical of some of the guys in the King stable at that time.
We're talking about the late nineties, early two thousands, where he was just
sort of left to kind of twist in a win. To some degree,
you know, don didn't keep him active. He got on showtime a few
times, but was never making the big money. He couldn't get the big
fights. Finally, he's fighting Rafael Marquez, the younger brother of the great
Juan Manuel Marquez. Now there are two of the brothers who are enshrining both
in the international Boxing Hall of Fame. Rafael Marquez was known at the time,
and I guess it's an adequate description. I guess he was the bigger
punching brother with the worst chin put it like that, Like everybody thought Rafael
was a little chinny, but he had really dynamic punching power, and they
brought him up. He had scored two very big wins against another Hall of
Famer who was winding down in Mark Johnson, and then he got the title
shot against Tim Austin and they fought this fight in Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas,
you know, indoors, not like a big outdoor stadium fight or anything
like this. HBO I was really pumped up for this fight when happened.
That's why I mentioned it for one of the reasons. You'll know when then
in a minute, why the other reason, So it was kind of an
upset because Tim Austin was moving along. You know, he was a good
boxer at good power, and you know, in the end, they put
on a good fight. It was very competitive fight and and Marquez clipped him
and stopped him in the eighth round, and it was a very big win.
And you know, Marquez is known in his career for the at least
the first three fights of the four fight series, the fantastic battles with Israel
Vasquez, and that's one of the big reasons why he's in the Hall of
Fame. You know, he ended up, you know, winning that title
and they produced just electrifying action. Those you know, one of the great
series in the history of boxing, just phenomenal fights. But he had a
really good run at dantam White also didn't get the big mega fights, but
beat a lot of good, solid guys, starting with winning against Tim Austin
to get the title. So the other reason for the big fight is so
I was all geared up for the fight. I watched the fight late night
on HBO, and it had been on my mind all day long about this
is what's gonna go down. What's gonna happen after we're done watching the fight.
Is after the fight was over and I'm all geared up about having just
watched his fight, That's when I knelt down on one kne and proposed to
my And the reason I did that, by the way, is because it
happened to also be the And that's that's today as we take this the anniversary
of our first date. Was I was gonna say so in the chronology here
that was a Saturday night. The Friday night would have been Valentine's Day.
Why did you not get romantic on Valentine's Day? But you chose the next
night because that's the night that you first dated or the time you first met.
Okay, and just coincidental that our first time, of our first date
was on the day after Valentine's Day. Now you got to do me a
little more than just hey, a matter of factually, got on one knee
and proposed. Were you nervous? Were you sweaty? Palms? Were yours?
In the in the in our old townhouse where we used to live together
before we bought our house. Uh. I lived at the fact that we
had to get Marquez and Tim Austin out of the way before. At this
point, Missus Rayphield basically understood the sickness she was dealing with when you're composing,
God Almighty. So I had this all planned out, though, I
mean, I feel like I'm George Foreman talking about he had it all planned
out, and the Michael Morriff. I I had it all planned out a
few months earlier when my when my mother had come to visit. I knew
that that I was going to use the ring that my my late grandmother had,
who had been married to my grandfather for you know, sixty years or
whatever it was to and that my grandmother had left the ring and said,
when you know, to give to me when I'm ready to get married.
Wow. So when I knew my mom was coming to visit, I called
my mom up. I said, when you come to visit, bring the
ring. You know she knew, Oh she knew my my my girlfriend at
that time. So now my mom is thinking, Okay, I'm going to
give him the ring and like in a few days he's going to propose.
But it wasn't that I was going to I specifically was waiting to do it
on the anniversary. So my mom had visited us maybe like in the summer,
but I wasn't going to see my mom after that for a few months.
So I waited all the way till February and then proposed gave her the
ring, but I had to watch I had to watch the Marquez Austin fight
first, planning do I do this for the HBO card and what happens if
it's a great fight and I don't, okay, So then you chose to
previously waited until after the fight was over to take care of the business.
By the way, the short version on me with Missus reeves it was Christmas
Eve. I did it on Christmas Eve at about eleven PM and blindsided the
daylights at her. She couldn't speak that I pulled out the ring. I
don't think my wife was surprised. I don't think she was surprised. But
all I can say though, tobably wanted to go to bed while you were
watching the fight, and it's a good thing she stayed up. I'm just
saying because you were still watching HBO World Championship Boxing before the proposal. And
here's the other end. If you fast forward the you know slightly about a
year later when we actually got married. It took place on the night of
an HBO fight. That was like the first time I hadn't watched an HBO
fight live, either on television or in person, you know, in the
arena from going to cover the fight in ye years and years and years.
I didn't see the fight till a few days later. The situation it was
fairly important. Why you were missing your first HBO world title fight. And
I will tell you this. There was a handful of boxing people that were
at my wedding, and a good friend of mine says to me, He
goes, do you mind if I go up to the hotel room and check
out what's going on in the fights. I said, go ahead and make
sure you come back to my table here and let me know what happened.
It was at Jermaine Taylor fight that night. O missus, Ray Pheel,
you knew what you were getting into, the night of the proposal, you
knew what you were getting into. All right, great nostalgia on all of
this. We are going to reconvene you and I on the bet Us Boxing
Show one Eastern time on the bet Us platforms, YouTube, Twitter, all
their platforms. We look forward to talking more about Oshaki Foster and Abraham Nov,
but again we remind the audience at the end of the podcast, these
are Friday night title fights as well as the championship fight for Cooree and not
Shinga in Mexico. There Friday night title fights. Will be handicapping those Friday
one Eastern time, and then whatever happens here in those title fights, etc.
Will come off the weekend with a fight for you to United recap.
Other than that, I think we're good, my friend, We're ready for
the weekend. I will talk to you again on the US boxing show coming
up, Dan Ravel. That sounds good. All things covered from fight previews
to news, to nostalgia and wedding proposals. It is the big fight weekend
preview podcast. We thank you for being with us.