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Let's do this. Three two didn't
countdown? Is on to fight time.

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This is big. Well, we
have reached last weekend of the calendar year

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and the day of reckoning. It's
about to be here. Heavyweight main event

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doubleheader in Saudi Arabia. So much
to talk about for that fight card,

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all the undercard fights, including a
couple of title fights that are on it,

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and much more. In the preview
mode, Hello there, and welcome

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in. I am merely the somewhat
capable host TJ. Reeves. He's our

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insider Fight Freaks U Night is his
substack Big fight Weekend dot Com as well.

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Hello Dan Rayfield as we come in
on the preview mode here. However,

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they have found us. We are
ready to preview, highly anticipate.

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I know it's all the way over
to Middle East. We're in the United

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States and it's going to be on
TV, on pay per view, et

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cetera. But we're getting amped up
about this. Just before the Christmas holiday.

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We've had Hanukah, we've had Kwan, so we've had fest of Us

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for the rest of us. We
got Christmas coming up, and we got

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a big fight card here, and
I know you're excited about it. I'm

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excited about it. We're ready to
talk to some about it here on the

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program. Yeah, listen, this
is a big show, so we got

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plenty to get through. We got
a lot of news, we got a

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lot of stuff. So let's do
it. Yes, let's do a reminder

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rate us in review us. Several
of you have done that. It does

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help us out in the ratings and
the rankings with the algorithms, more people

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will find it. Rate us review
us. Take thirty seconds and tell us

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that you've enjoyed this podcast in twenty
twenty three. And if you're near to

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the podcast, it doesn't matter if
you've only recently recently been listening. You

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can still help rate us in review
us. Apple Podcasts, Preacher, Spotify,

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Google Podcasts, wherever you get podcasts. We love it and thank you

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for finding us again to the audience
by the tens of thousands, you continue

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to find us every week preview mode, going into the weekend, recap mode.

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Off the weekend, I will explain
to the audience, so we want

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to let them in on this because
of the Christmas holiday and Christmas Eve,

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we're anticipating the recap podcast. Maybe
out don't tell anybody it may be out

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early, like Saturday night ish before
Christmas, like a bonus in the stocking

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for you peeps that you're gonna get
the recap podcast earlier than the normal Sunday

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night into Monday timeline. Because somebody's
got to make room for Santa. Do

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you realize we've never talked about this. Santa doesn't come down the chimney in

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Florida. You know why because we
don't have chimneys. So you know what

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you have to do. You have
to leave Santa the magic key, just

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like we leave for Rayfaield. You
have the magic key so Santa can come

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in the house and do it because
he can't come down the chimney. So

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before Santa's down the chimney or the
magic key for Christmas, the recap podcast

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will be out. This is the
preview podcast with all of that hullabaloo out

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of the way. Have you been
drinking? I have not, no,

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and you know me, I don't
drink alcohol. I'm just normally this whacked.

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So let's get to it. We
will get to the fights themselves.

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But you have reported this now over
the course of the last twenty four hours

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plus. It's out there. Depending
on when they're hearing the podcast through your

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substack, through your reporting that Anthony
Joshua and Deontay Wilder have agreed, and

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there's intriguing details that should they both
win, and they likely will, there's

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intriguing details that it is not just
one fight that they've agreed to. So

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go ahead and articulate what you've been
already writing about. So as opposed to

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previous reporting elsewhere that there was a
done deal for March ninth for this fight,

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that was not entirely accurate. Now
all terms are agreed to, not

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just the money, everything in terms
of what you need to do to make

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a fight. Everything is agreed to
the paperworkers with the teams. They are

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expected to be signed for Joshua and
Wilder to face each other on March ninth,

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for those papers to be signed prior
to their entrance to the ring at

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some point between now and on Saturday, when they fight their bouts against Joshua

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against Otto Baleen and Wilder against Joseph
Parker. So that adds pressure, I

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guess, and anticipation and just another
layer of the story. But it's a

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deal that's not just one fight.
It's the first fight in March and look

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at it. If they don't lose, but there's an injury obviously, you

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know, like what happened with Tyson
Fury, a fight can be moved in

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terms of the date, but the
anticipation would be March ninth is far enough

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away from from now where that shouldn't
be a problem. They would fight March

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ninth, with a second fight to
take place regardless of the outcome, by

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the end of twenty twenty four.
And one of the details I did report

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was that unlike your typical rematch class
scenario where there's you know, two top

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names and both guys have the opportunity
to have a rematch if they lose,

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where the loser gets to exercise the
right to have the rematch if they so

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desire, I am told that this
is not that same situation. This is

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a case where both fighters and the
Saudi's who are bankrolling this, everybody's on

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board. It's automatic, two fights, period. Nobody has an option to

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get out of it, you know, I mean, I guess a fighter

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could retire, maybe, sure.
The point is that whoever wins or loses

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and the Saudi's, everybody's on the
hook for whatever the terms of the they

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agree to for these fights. And
by the way, these guys are going

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to make tens and tens of millions
of dollars for these two fights and their

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fights. That's a fight that Look, I know it's five years past when

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it should have been, but we
still want to see Anthony Joshua against Deontay

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Wilder if they win their fights on
Saturday, and that's the good news that

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they are going to fight. Let
me follow up on that point. Does

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it surprise you that they would both
be willing to lock into that money?

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I understand because the theory would be
that the winner of a Joshua Wilder fight

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is now primed to possibly fight Fury
Usic winner at some point. Now you're

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locked into two fights that are the
championship fights. That's all I'm saying.

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So give me your thought on that. First of all, the fact that

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it's not a championship fight is you
know, I mean, it's meaningful,

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but it's not the end of the
world. I actually had this conversation with

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somebody the other day when I was
yesterday, when I was talking about this

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with somebody about this deal between Joshua
and Wilder, and not that they're heavyweights,

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but think back. One of the
great rivalries, you know, from

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the last twenty five years, let's
say, was Eric Morales and Manny Pakia.

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Tremendous battles between the two of them, certainly their first two fights.

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Two superstars, two Hall of famers. You know, Morales is already in

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pack you of course will be as
soon as he's eligible. What people don't

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realize or remember or frankly give a
shit about is that they fought three times,

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and not one of those fights was
a world title fight. They were

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all like regional belts and this,
and that there was never a real world

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title. Let's take and so if
Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua were two of

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the biggest heavyweight stars of their time, I mean, it's really in my

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mind as like a three headed monster
in a sense of the of this year's

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superstar heavyweights. It's Joshua, It's
Wilder, and obviously it's Tyson and Fury.

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And no disrespect to Alexander Usik,
he's a great fighter, but I

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don't consider him a star because he
just hasn't resonated beyond his own smallish fan

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base. But they're really the three
big guys, even as great as Usik

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is, so the fact that these
matches would probably not be for a title

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is not relevant. But also something
to think about is because boxing is boxing,

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and what crazy shit does happen by
the time they get to a second

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fight. In my mind, it's
not out of the realm of possibility that

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there could be some vacant title floating
around, or maybe there is a belt

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that stake. You just never know
what's gonna be up with that. So

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I'm not worried about the title or
no title. I don't really care.

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I've I've followed and covered the entire
professional careers of both men, and I'm

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anxious to see them finally fight each
other. Obviously, we'll see what happens

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on Saturday's fight card, but it's
a big fight. And the folks in

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Saudi Arabia that put these events together, that bank roll these events, uh

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you know with a Turkey alashiki from
the General Entertainment authority, you know bank

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you know, putting up this money. I've made the point recently that any

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fight in the world that is conceivable, they can make if they want,

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because they have the money and they're
willing to spend it. So when we

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talk about Joshua Wilder. We're gonna
get it twice. We wanted. We

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wanted to see, you know,
Fury versus Usik to fight sk scheduled for

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February. We want to see you
know, a lot of people are very

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interesting Tyson Fury against Nangano, you
know, the two big heavyweights from their

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respective sports that happened in October.
And by the way, there's a very

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good likelihood that if Dimitri Bievil defends
his title on this undercard and wins,

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and Arthur better Viev defends his title
in January and wins, that they'll becoming

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a call in and making a big
fight between those two guys to unify and

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for light heavyweight supremacy at some point
in twenty twenty four. My point is

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only that if it's a big fight
and they feel like they're interested, the

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fights can be made. And it's
very obvious when you take the way that

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the fractured nature of the sport is
and how promoters and networks and people don't

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want to get along and deal with
each other. A lot of times I

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count it up from day of reckoning, they're working with literally fourteen different promotional

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entities in terms of all these fights
on the show, and the fights available

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not only on his own pay per
view in the United States, but also

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on ESPN plus pay per view,
and in the UK not only his own

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pay per view, but also on
now what's called TNT sports payper view,

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the former BT Sports. My point
is they pay so much money and they're

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so involved in bringing these together that
for that gigantic bite of the apple,

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everybody will work together, and so
it's worth it for everybody. It is

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worth it. We'll get into those
specific matchups in a couple of moments.

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By the way, I did not
mention at the top that Sadik Ahmed,

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who is covering things for Big Fight
Weekend dot Com, is in Saudi Arabia.

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How about that he is there and
has been part of the press proceedings,

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etc. We'll hear from him later
on on the build up to this.

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He was at the Thursday press conferences. I thought it was quite interesting

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that Jerrell Miller, even after the
TV portion of it canceled, Jerrell Miller,

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Big Baby Miller, was kind of
the personality screaming, calling everybody out.

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Anyway, Sadik will tell you more, give you a little taste of

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what it's like there, and do
they care as much in and around RIODD

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and the Rio ODD season as much
as we the fight fans do when we

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want to see this. How much
are they locally regionally caring about this?

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Sadek will give us a taste as
you mention, because a lot of people

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have no idea about this. The
pay per view is all eight fights and

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it starts at eleven o'clock in the
morning time. That means it's gonna be

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like in the afternoon Britain time,
and by the time the main event takes

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place you're talking about, you know, two o'clock in the morning ish in

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Saudi Arabia, it's gonna span a
good seven to eight hours at least and

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lunch pint pack of lunch is right, all right? So Sideki give us

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more on that in a few moments. Okay, So you wrote this leading

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up the day of reckoning? Can
I you want me to say it to

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IBF? What are we doing here
with the ji Opataia title defense for the

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Cruiserweight Championship. I read this and
I don't understand what what is the issue

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with having him defend their belt and
ordering whether he wins or the opponent upsets

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him. Bradus is the next fight. I don't get it. Help me.

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So I've been covering sanctioning bodies shit
for like my entire career, and

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there's been a lot of goofy things
that have happened. This is one of

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the wackiest, most nonsensical things I
can possibly think of. So you have

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ji Opataia and how standing champion who
very legitimately won their title in a great

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battle against Myrus Braidess uh and then
had a jaw injury, was out for

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you know, a year or so, came back, had done a co

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promotion deal between his people with Tasman
fighters in natural boxing, defended the title.

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Just I got a month or two
ago and got a nice knockout,

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and now they had ordered a rematch
between him and Braidess. Fine, nobody's

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nobody doesn't want to see that fight. If you follow the Cruiser weights,

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that was a great first battle.
Everybody was interested to do the fight.

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Myris Braidis has got an injury and
will not be available fight just oh oh,

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because they by the way he's hurt
her. They would have liked to

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have the bredest rematch on the day
of reckoning cart, of course, but

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the key point is he's hurt on
so the IBF had already ordered the fight.

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So with him not available, both
sides, the Opataia camp and the

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Braidest camp told the IBF, you
know, we're good, let him do

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with them fight again, and he's
gonna fight Elis Zorro, a British undefeated

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fighter on this undercard. Uh and
well, now will be a lineal title

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defense even if the IBF is not
available. But what they were telling the

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IBF was, look, he let
him do his interim fight. We promise

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you we will do our fight by
the end of February twenty twenty four,

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which led me to believe that it
probably would have been on the undercart of

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Tyson Fury against Alexander Usig. But
that's not gonna happen now because they're not

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fighting and we'll go from there.
And the IBF was like, no,

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the rules are the rules, so
they would have stripped him. But but

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but Opataiah just vacated because it was
sort of you know, you know,

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are you fired or do you quit? I mean, what the hell's the

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difference? But what's so fucking perplexing
is this It's not like the IBF is

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suddenly going to have Myra's greatest fight
for the vacant title in the next by

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February anyway. So they're like,
he's he but if he wasn't, there's

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no dates between now and February anyway, and any of the big platforms that

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he would fight on. But Braid
is told this is where it's baddening,

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and you're right. Brad has told
him, I'm fine with this. I'm

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injured. I can't fight the guy. I'll fight the winner, and if

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he's not the winner, I'll fight
the other guy for the IBF belt this

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or I fight for the vacant title. But even if he fights for the

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vacant title, I won't be until
early next year at the earliest anyway.

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So what the problem I have here
is whatever the letter of the rules are.

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And believe me, I'm all for
following the rules, and I have

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said this numerous times. Many of
the rules in the IBF, while they

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follow them, are either antiquated or
need to be clarified a little bit better,

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or leave at least the ability to
follow common sense. So when I

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look at this situation, I see
everybody involved is okay with the plan,

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the challenger is not aggrieved. The
champion gets to continue to do his job

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and make money and have a career. The promoters have no problem with it.

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Having the titles active is good for
the IBF. They're still going to

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get their sanction fee, Like now, they're not going to get a fee

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on this fight, which you know
is weird that there wouldn't the fight.

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So it just makes it makes no
sense on any level whatsoever. And so

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I mean, look, the IBF
can do what they want. I'm not

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going to sit here and you know
they're not like they're not being corrupt or

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anything. It's you know, like
which a lot of sanctioning bodies have been

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in the past, and you can
make accusations and find examples, but this

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is just one that's like just makes
absolutely zero sense. So you know,

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Myer's Greatest will fight somebody for the
vacant IBF title. It probably won't take

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place till at least probably March at
the earliest. And in the meantime,

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they would have had Greatest versus Opataiah
or Zoro sometime in February, but their

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own reasons. It's just it's so
fucking stupid. It's stupid. It's we're

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in agreement, it's stupid. The
is Opataia is the lineal champion. He's

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defending the lineal title again Zorro.
It's a twelve round fight. And by

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the way, the reason that he
vacated and didn't fall off this card and

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do something else. And it's like, like Opatai and his team said in

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their statement, I can't, I
can't. I work my First of all,

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I worked my ass off to get
this IBF title. I went through

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hell, I broke my jaw.
It was like a massive battle, and

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I was proud to have the title, which he should be. He earned

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it. But how in the world
could I follow what you're asking me to

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do and not do this fight on
this big card when I'm being paid my

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career high payday and he's not made
a ton of money. His purse for

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this fight coming up, I want
to tell you, is around four hundred

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and fifty thousand dollars. He has
a three fight deal with the Read Seasons,

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folks. I believe it's three fights
that's going to pay him all in

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in excess of two million dollars for
a man that's never made that kind of

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money that is a life changing family
securing money. And you can't take your

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belt and pay your light bill.
You can't take your belt and pay your

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mortgage. You can't take your belt
to the grocery store. Actually you can

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take it to a part. You
could take into a drawn shop and you

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can maybe get some money. But
I understand your metaphor or shading your premise.

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Yes, that's your point. The
point is the belt is nice to

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have and it's important to the legacy, but it doesn't in the real world

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that most people live in who are
not wealthy and open time is not that

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guy. The belt can't help to
pay your bills and support your children and

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pay for your family and this and
that. So it was just a short

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sighted decision from the IBF and it
You know, I don't hate them or

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anything like that. I mean,
I rather think some of the folks.

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I know what the IBA for a
good pas, but still we don't hold

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back. We don't hold back.
If you're stupid, we're gonna say it's

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stupid. And you make all kinds
of exceptions all the time if everybody's cool

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with it, and you even let
people get bought off, you let people

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get paid step aside money too to
let these things happen. So the one

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hundred and fifty four pounds mandatory bakra
Mertazlov has stepped aside. I believe.

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I had this conversation also. I
said, I think he's taken three step

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aside deals. The person said,
I think it's actually been four. Point

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is they've taken step aside after step
aside after step aside, which was okay

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with the challenger and with the champions. So again, nobody has agreeved,

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but I think at some point that
does agree because it agrees the guy that's

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number two or number three that's waiting
and waiting and waiting to become the mandatory.

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In this case, you're talking about
putting off a mandatory fight for like

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a couple of months while a guy
heals from injury and another guy makes a

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career payday. And by the way, let's just play it out because we're

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moving on. If Bradest was still
injured, you could order Opataiah to then

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fight the number two or number three
guy. If he doesn't want to do

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it stripping, then I'm making too
much sense. I'm making too much sense.

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On the big fight. We can
preview A right, So what are

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we doing here? What are we
doing here? Thank you? All right?

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Opataia is still fighting Zoro, by
the way, on the card.

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Even if the IBF says it's not
a title fight, you and I and

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most boxing people will consider it a
title fight. How about that. It's

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a deal. All right. Back
to the main Let's just go chronologically the

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main events. You've talked to Otto, Violeen. Most believe Joshua is favored,

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but most believe that Voleen could maybe
give him some trouble. We got

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Wilder and Joseph Parker. That's a
little wider odds. Most believe Wilder wins

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at some point by knockout. Give
me, give me your quick thoughts on

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the two main events. Then we'll
go over the other fights quickly on that

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card and move on. All right. But with Joshua and Otto, Valley

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and I do think it's a more
dangerous fight for Joshua than than Parker is

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for a Wilder, just because of
the reasons you just said, Otto being

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a south paw, being a good
fighter, still fresh, whereas Parker is

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a good fighter but has taken some
punishment. As says Deontay, also But

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in terms of that matchup between Joshua
and Otto, it's a good fight.

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I mean, I know we wanted
to see Joshua Wilder in this spot,

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but you know what, the fact
that if they win, were getting it

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in March. I'm fine with it. And I've been fine with this show

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all long, particularly because they're only
charging thirty nine to ninety nine for the

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pay per view instead of you know, the lunacy of eighty five dollars like

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a lot of these other bigger pay
per views have been priced at, like

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00:18:37,039 --> 00:18:41,720
it was with Tyson Fury against Francis
Nagano. In any event, Joshua's sort

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of been interesting this week. We
I before he left and went from London

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to Saudi Arabia, he was made
available to myself and a few others on

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a zoom call. I actually had
to missed that zoom call, but I

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have watched it back and you know, used it for some quotes and stuff.

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But you know, he has,
you know, like Anthony usually does,

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good demeanor, friendly smiling, he
seems a little bit more uptight now

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that I've seen some of the footage
and the comments and the interviews from while

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he's in Saudi Arabia. He's changed
trainers again, you know, the the

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Wilder stuff. I know he's getting
tired of hearing about and talking about.

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I feel like he might be slightly
distracted. I don't know, and Otto

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is like, what was the cucover. He's a true pro, He's got

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nothing to lose. He's the underdog. But he's just coming off a big

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00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:26,920
win himself and an eliminator that took
place just a couple of months ago in

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Turkey against Marac Gosiede, and so
he's feeling good. I mean, Joshua

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00:19:30,799 --> 00:19:33,240
should feel good about himself. You
know, he does have two wins this

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00:19:33,319 --> 00:19:36,960
year, so he should be fresh
and good to go. He has a

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00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,079
win over Jermaine Franklin, He's got
the knockout against Robert Alaneus. So I

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don't know what to expect. I
mean, look, I have nothing against

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Otto, and I'm not anti Otto. I'd be less than honest myself.

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I hope that Joshua Wilder win.
I'm just being real because I want to

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00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:55,519
see them fight each other. But
if the other guys win, I mean,

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00:19:55,559 --> 00:19:57,240
so be it. I mean,
I've got nothing against anybody in those

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00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,720
two fights. I rather like Otto
Valley and jos Parker, all four guys

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00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:03,400
of which I have met, known
and interviewed over the years. What do

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00:20:03,519 --> 00:20:07,359
you make of Valeen even said this
to you, that he saw what Usik

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was able to do off the right
jab and the movement, He's obviously going

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00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:15,240
to try to emulate or copy some
of that. Do you believe that that

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00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:22,039
still lingers here until Joshua can put
it to rest by big punch or whatever

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00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:26,200
tactical change that what Valen intends to
do. And maybe he's not able to

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00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:30,400
do what Usak did with movement with
handspeed, that that could be a problem

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00:20:30,519 --> 00:20:36,079
for Joshua South Paul Rus trade him. He looks ugly in the fight,

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but still wins, et cetera,
et cetera. Anything on that. Well,

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00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:41,039
the thing about it is, I
mean, Otto is not the caliber

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00:20:41,079 --> 00:20:45,799
boxer of Alexander Usik, That's for
sure. Nobody in the heavyweight division is,

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00:20:45,799 --> 00:20:49,039
frankly given his skills and usk.
Yes, he did out box Anthony

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00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:52,240
Joshua and it was very frustrating,
I think to Joshua dealing with the South

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00:20:52,279 --> 00:20:56,119
bust style in those fights of that, but there were moments in that fight

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00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:59,720
where Usik not known as his devastating
puncher was doing damage on Joshua because he

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00:20:59,759 --> 00:21:03,160
kept because he was having a hard
time dealing with that style. Otto,

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00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,319
I'm sure he's a very cerebral kind
of fighter. I guarantee you that they've

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00:21:07,319 --> 00:21:10,400
gone to school on those videos in
terms of how he fights against lefties,

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and they're definitely taking some stuff out
of that. But by the same token,

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you got to figure after going twenty
four rounds with Alexander Rusik and having

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00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:22,119
whatever issues he had, he would
hope that Joshua would have looked and seen

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00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:25,599
what he did and also been able
to make improvements and learn certain things about

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how he operated in those fights to
make sure he doesn't do those things.

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So, you know, it's sort
of like a two edge sword, I

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suppose. But in the end,
it's two heavyweights with a lot of goals

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00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:36,720
and dreams and they're gonna be going
at it. I think it's going to

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00:21:36,759 --> 00:21:38,039
be a pretty good fight. One
thing about Otto Valley and is I think,

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based on his career in his track
record, that he's got a good

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00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:45,079
shin. He took some heavy shots
from Tyson Ferry, never went you know,

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00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:47,559
not knocked out or anything like that. In the fight. That's his

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00:21:47,599 --> 00:21:49,200
only loss. You know, he's
been in with some other solid punchers.

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Gas he was a good puncher.
You know, Travis Coffin was a good

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00:21:52,319 --> 00:21:56,160
puncher at heavyweight. He beat him. So I think that's a good,

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00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:00,039
solid, tough fight. Well,
I'd ask for Wilder and Parker, and

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00:22:00,039 --> 00:22:03,240
again we're going to handicap these fights
one Eastern time bet Us show coming Friday

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00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:07,440
afternoon. Bet Us platforms their YouTube
for Wilder and Parker. The way that

355
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,480
I set it up and just pick
it up from here, most believe this

356
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,119
is a Wilder win, if not
a knockout, and maybe even a quick

357
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:18,839
knockout. Here, you don't have
to reveal everything on what you're going to

358
00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:22,640
predict, but you've been watching the
press conferences. You spoke to Deontay recently

359
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:26,960
in that media gathering, and we
played part of that interview recently on the

360
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:32,319
podcast feed. What is your overall
thought? Could this will? This?

361
00:22:32,599 --> 00:22:37,720
Will this be Wilder's return from being
out of the ring about fourteen months to

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00:22:37,839 --> 00:22:41,920
win, to win impressively. That's
what we think. But what do you

363
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:45,440
think? I know? I don't
know. I think nobody somebody that says

364
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,400
they know, right, dying.
And the reason I say is because if

365
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:52,680
you look at what Deontay has done
in his recent past fights going you know,

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00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:56,160
he had the one punch. Now, let's go back to twenty nineteen.

367
00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:02,880
He had the one punch knockout against
Dominic Brazil that was a spectacular knock

368
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:04,279
out of the year kind of fight
in the first round. He followed that

369
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,400
up with a second fight that year
where he lost every single round against Louis

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00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,640
King knork he's in their rematch,
and then he raced him with one punch,

371
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:17,119
and that one punch erasure maybe makes
you overlook the fact that he couldn't

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00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:21,720
win around before he lands the big
punch. Okay, at that point he's

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an undefeated champion. Then he has
the second fight against Tyson Fury and the

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00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:29,160
third fight against Tyson Fury that were
separated by you know, quite a you

375
00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:30,920
know, a year almost, you
know, a year plus. In those

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00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,759
two fights and a half year and
a half, he got badly dominated and

377
00:23:34,839 --> 00:23:38,599
blitzed and stopped and knocked down multiple
times in the second fight and got knocked

378
00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:42,759
out. He then had an all
time plastic where he had Fury on the

379
00:23:42,799 --> 00:23:45,400
deck a couple of times in the
in the third fight, one of the

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00:23:45,519 --> 00:23:49,519
it's the greatest heavyweight fight I've ever
recovered. That was in October of twenty

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00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:55,519
twenty one. And in the end, Tyson Fury scored a very brutal knockout

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00:23:55,559 --> 00:24:00,440
against tight against Deontay Wilder, a
very very harsh, very violent, a

383
00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:03,799
very very bad knockout against Selder.
I mean, there's different levels of knockouts,

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00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:08,440
and this was about it. This
was a fight where Deontay absorbed massive

385
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,440
amounts of punishment and then got knocked
out. So it was bad all the

386
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,319
way around. There's no way to
sugarcoat it. He was off for a

387
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,880
year, he came back, he
had less than one round against Robert Lenius,

388
00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,680
who went down on the first shot, and now he's coming back in

389
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,160
the ring against Parker after, like
you said, fourteen months. So is

390
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:30,319
it the Joshua? I mean,
is it the Wilder that showed up and

391
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:32,799
clipped Elnius in the first round and
got him out of there. And you

392
00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:34,119
really couldn'tell because nothing really happened for
two and a half minutes. So they

393
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,319
nailed the shot. You nailed them
with the punch at the end of the

394
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:41,319
round. Or is there still after
effects after two brutal, grueling, hard,

395
00:24:41,559 --> 00:24:44,960
physical, difficult fights against Tyson Perior
and by the way, Anthony I

396
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,599
mean, I keep saying, Anthony
Joshua Deontay wild Theer's no youngster. He's

397
00:24:47,599 --> 00:24:49,799
thirty eight years older. That's right, Parker, like six seven years younger

398
00:24:49,839 --> 00:24:55,039
than him. Now, Parker,
he's a lot smaller, not as obviously,

399
00:24:55,039 --> 00:24:57,000
not as big of a puncher,
but he's and he's won three fights

400
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:02,240
in a row, but against certainly
a less than less than top quality opponents

401
00:25:02,319 --> 00:25:06,160
in his recent fights, including on
the on the October card when Fury fought,

402
00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:08,160
so he should be, you know, fresh, he just fought you

403
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:12,960
know, barely what two months ago. But when he lost in twenty twenty

404
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:17,880
two, a little over a year
ago against Joe Joyce, that was a

405
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,839
brutal, rugged, hard, exciting
but bad, bad knockout loss for Joe

406
00:25:22,839 --> 00:25:29,160
Parker on that fight. So they've
both taken damage. The odds would say,

407
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:30,559
or you're in you know, if
you look at both of their careers

408
00:25:30,559 --> 00:25:33,319
and you see the way they take
punches and the way that they land punches,

409
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,920
et cetera, I guess you gotta
like Wilder. But you know what

410
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:40,599
if Joseph Parker can do anything against
him. It wouldn't shock me if he

411
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:45,880
scored the upset. I'm not saying
I'm picking the upset. Joseph Parker is

412
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,079
a very solid quality, top level
heavyweight in today's era. He's a top

413
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:52,960
ten heavyweight, top seven heavyweight right
now, no doubt about it. And

414
00:25:53,079 --> 00:25:56,920
Wilder there's just too many question marks
about where he's been and where he's at

415
00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,079
to say definitively what's gonna happen.
And that's one of the reasons why this

416
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,240
card, in my mind, is
very interesting. I know they're not maybe

417
00:26:03,279 --> 00:26:07,400
the two main fights between Otto and
Joshua and Wilder and Parker. Maybe they're

418
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,799
not the sexiest heavyweight matchups, but
in today's heavyweight division, those are two

419
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,039
very interesting, solid fights in my
mind, and I'm anxious to see both

420
00:26:17,079 --> 00:26:21,640
of them. Uh, if there's
one upset in this card, you know,

421
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,400
on the two heavyweight fights, and
it messes up the plans for that

422
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:27,279
March card, March card between Joshua
and Wilder, I wouldn't be shocked,

423
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:30,480
and to be quite honest, if
there was two upsets, it would,

424
00:26:30,519 --> 00:26:33,599
I mean, it should be surprising. But if there's two upsets. That's

425
00:26:33,599 --> 00:26:36,759
crazy. I mean, it's crazy, even for boxing. If it happens,

426
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,160
shit happens, man, it does, it happens. I just saw

427
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,400
a clip earlier today, just like
acidentally saw a clip on on YouTube of

428
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:48,880
Rathael Espinosa's upset of Robos Ramirez.
He was like a bazillion to one.

429
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,279
I don't know what the act.
He was twenty he was twenty one,

430
00:26:52,319 --> 00:26:56,119
he was twenty two to one.
Underdog. I mean, when the when

431
00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:00,839
the leather starts flying, especially when
you're heavyweights, especially when a vulnerable,

432
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,799
susceptible heavyweights like Joshua and wild Bar, which is one of the reasons we

433
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,440
like watching them because they're exciting,
because there's the chance that they get they

434
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:11,359
get whacked, but there's also the
tints that they whacked the other guy.

435
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,759
You just never fucking know. So
anybody that says they know what's happening on

436
00:27:15,759 --> 00:27:18,960
Saturday, they're lying and they don't
know. All right, We've already touched

437
00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,640
on Opataiah on the undercard with Zorro. We've got Daniel Dubois returning off of

438
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,279
the loss to Usik Jarrell. Big
Baby Miller gets on a bigger stage here

439
00:27:27,279 --> 00:27:32,519
on this pay per view. Miller
obviously is talking that he wants to be

440
00:27:32,559 --> 00:27:34,720
in the mix down the road.
He's still got to win. Dmitri Beevol

441
00:27:34,839 --> 00:27:41,599
is back after a thirteen month layoff
for him defending his WBA light heavyweight title.

442
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:47,480
We also, I mean, good
lord, there's mak Frank Sanchez.

443
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:49,759
We got so much going on here. We could go for two more hours

444
00:27:49,799 --> 00:27:52,559
on all that we have here,
but what else stands out here? All

445
00:27:52,599 --> 00:27:56,119
great's I'm gonna talk a little bit
about that next fight down the card,

446
00:27:56,119 --> 00:27:59,839
which is the Miller and Dubi fight. You mentioned about Jerrel Miller. He's

447
00:27:59,839 --> 00:28:02,920
been mouthing off about everybody because Jerall
Miller is a fucking clown. Okay,

448
00:28:03,079 --> 00:28:06,720
he's a He's a guy that got
busted numerous times for bad for pbds,

449
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:10,680
still an undefeated fighter. I saw
the workouts, you know, he said

450
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:11,880
he's like three hundred and twenty eight
pounds. He obviously didn't look like he

451
00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,759
was in the greatest shape in the
world. But we'll see what he can

452
00:28:15,759 --> 00:28:17,759
do. One thing about him,
I think he's got a really good chance

453
00:28:17,799 --> 00:28:21,160
to win the fight because with everything
about Jerrem Miller, he has shown good

454
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,680
punching power, whether it was natural
or otherwise, I guess we don't know

455
00:28:23,759 --> 00:28:26,359
for sure. But the main thing
is he's always shown a good chin,

456
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:30,720
and then Daniel Dubi, we've seen
him be, you know, not live

457
00:28:30,799 --> 00:28:33,519
up to the hype and the potential
a lot of people thought he had where

458
00:28:33,519 --> 00:28:37,160
he maybe he doesn't have the greatest
chin in the world, and maybe doesn't

459
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:40,519
have the biggest heart in the world. He basically quit against Tyson, against

460
00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:45,599
Alexander Usik on a jab that was
you know, that was I said this

461
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,640
to you at the time it happened. I think he got cracked on that

462
00:28:47,759 --> 00:28:51,519
eye that got damaged against Joe Joyce, and I think that was the end

463
00:28:51,559 --> 00:28:55,079
of things. And I don't know
what's changed. If Miller can crack him

464
00:28:55,079 --> 00:28:57,119
on that eye again five months later, I don't know what's changed. So

465
00:28:57,119 --> 00:29:00,680
I guess we'll see. I mean, I don't even give Duois a lot

466
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,920
of grief for not continue against Joe
Joyce, because he did have a serious

467
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,480
injury. But the way that he
quit against Usik was sort of one of

468
00:29:07,519 --> 00:29:11,160
those things where it's sort of you
know, you you get a view into

469
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:12,599
what his mentality is. He just
didn't want to go after getting hit with

470
00:29:12,599 --> 00:29:17,480
a jab and being on his knee. But we'll see. I mean,

471
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:19,559
Jerald Miller has not had a lot
of action in recent years. I mean

472
00:29:19,599 --> 00:29:23,759
he got suspended for a long time
and didn't fight from twenty eighteen until two

473
00:29:25,359 --> 00:29:29,640
and twenty two. He came back
with you know, two set up nobody

474
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,720
type fights. He did have a
win against Lucas Brown, you know,

475
00:29:32,799 --> 00:29:37,240
the archaic, ancient, old shot
Australian fighter who he knocked out in the

476
00:29:37,279 --> 00:29:40,000
sixth round, which was a tussle
and a tough fight up to that point.

477
00:29:40,319 --> 00:29:42,839
And now he's in with Duba and
it's a to me, this is

478
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:47,559
like the ultimate sort of crossroads,
you know, either Dua if he loses

479
00:29:47,599 --> 00:29:49,200
that, you know, that's kind
of all she wrote for him as a

480
00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,680
serious contender. And if Miller loses, like you know, he's not getting

481
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,640
a Joshua fight, which he blew
in the first place for the drug failures,

482
00:29:56,759 --> 00:29:59,000
He's not getting one of these other
big names for a while, he'll

483
00:29:59,039 --> 00:30:02,519
be considered like a step stone.
So it's a very critical fight for their

484
00:30:02,559 --> 00:30:06,000
careers. In terms of Dmitri Bivol, who is defending his title also in

485
00:30:06,039 --> 00:30:10,400
this card, he is defending his
title against Lyndon Arthur, who is a

486
00:30:10,400 --> 00:30:14,960
credible opponent. His only loss was
a stoppage against Anthony Yard, who's an

487
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,440
outstanding puncher. They actually have split
two fights because they fought the first time

488
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:22,000
in twenty twenty and Lyndon Arthur defeated
him of via split decision, and then

489
00:30:22,039 --> 00:30:26,720
a couple of fights later in twenty
twenty one. Around this time two years

490
00:30:26,759 --> 00:30:29,519
ago, he did get stopped in
the fourth round. But he has won

491
00:30:29,799 --> 00:30:33,640
four fights in a row against like, you know, okay type opponents,

492
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:37,480
and now he's getting a title shot
and Bivoll, it's coming off the long

493
00:30:37,559 --> 00:30:41,480
layoff. You know, this is
you know, I know, I'm glad

494
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:42,319
to se him back and the arning, but it's so unfortunate. Here's a

495
00:30:42,319 --> 00:30:47,039
guy in Bieboll that was the fighter
of the year by everybody's viewpoint. For

496
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:48,359
you know, I call him the
consensus fighter of the year because all the

497
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:52,640
outlets and everybody, all the media
guys were picking him as fighter of theyear.

498
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:56,039
He had defeated Canelo in a big
upset. He had then completely shut

499
00:30:56,079 --> 00:31:00,599
down and you know, kind of
embarrassed Gilberto Ramirez and that man take away

500
00:31:00,599 --> 00:31:03,440
his undefeated record, and he never
built off that momentum. However, if

501
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:07,160
he comes back and he looks good
and does the job against Lyndon Arthur,

502
00:31:07,319 --> 00:31:10,839
you know he should nothing against Arthur. But one guy's a good contender.

503
00:31:10,839 --> 00:31:15,400
The other guys at pound for pound
guy, there's a as I wrote in

504
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,799
my sub stack on Thursday, there's
a really good chance that a victory by

505
00:31:18,799 --> 00:31:25,440
bevol in this fight and a victory
in January from Arthur better BF who has

506
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:29,839
a WBC mandatory defense against Callum Smith. If they both win their fights,

507
00:31:30,279 --> 00:31:33,160
the Saudis probably will put up the
money and make that fight for some time

508
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:37,160
next year, so that will be
again like they've done with these other fights.

509
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:38,559
That's the biggest fight in the way
class. It's the best fight in

510
00:31:38,599 --> 00:31:42,640
the way class. It's for supremacy. It should be for the undisputed title.

511
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,640
There's some question whether the WBC would
approve that because of their stance on

512
00:31:47,079 --> 00:31:52,720
Russian fighters defending titles and winning titles
and all that, but that's another story

513
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:55,240
for another day. The point is
this would be the two best light heavyweights

514
00:31:55,279 --> 00:31:56,880
and easily the best fight in the
waight class. They've both been champions for

515
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:00,480
a number of years and it's about
time we see who's number one. And

516
00:32:00,559 --> 00:32:05,480
so, like what's going on in
the main event fights between you know,

517
00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:09,319
Joseph Parker and Wilder and Otto and
Joshua, the two A sides got to

518
00:32:09,359 --> 00:32:13,039
win to get their fight together.
The same way, there might be some

519
00:32:13,039 --> 00:32:15,640
pressure and be able to do his
job on his end of things, even

520
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:17,960
though the fight between him and better
be of is not official or signed or

521
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,960
whatever. But before that can happen, they're gonna have to do you know,

522
00:32:22,279 --> 00:32:25,279
their fights and take care business.
So I'm interested. I mean,

523
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,720
there's there's a lot to like on
this card. There's you know, some

524
00:32:29,759 --> 00:32:31,720
fights where you have fight cards,
you have just one great fight. It's

525
00:32:31,799 --> 00:32:36,519
huge quality and mega fight. This
one. It means, you know,

526
00:32:36,559 --> 00:32:38,440
I've seen people kind of brate the
card and say it's a bunch of like

527
00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:42,279
you know, mismatches and it's just
a bunch of guys and it's blah blah

528
00:32:42,319 --> 00:32:45,680
blah. I disagree with that assessment. This is a lot of quality fighters

529
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:50,480
in a lot of good matchups.
They're not maybe the A matchups, but

530
00:32:50,559 --> 00:32:52,240
there's a lot to like, a
lot of interesting fights in this card.

531
00:32:52,559 --> 00:32:57,880
And if you're a boxing fan,
and you're not buying this only for forty

532
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,759
bucks, then you don't. Why
do you you don't pay per views?

533
00:33:00,799 --> 00:33:02,480
Like, why wouldn't you buy this
pay per view? U? Unless you

534
00:33:02,519 --> 00:33:07,400
just can't, that's fine, But
this is a where this is what we

535
00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:10,559
want as fans for that price point, for this depth and this quality.

536
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,000
You know. And and by the
way, no one's paying me to say

537
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,319
this. I'm not making extra money
because I think I'm just telling you what

538
00:33:16,359 --> 00:33:20,759
I think that this is a no
fucking brainer to buy the pay per view.

539
00:33:21,160 --> 00:33:23,640
And you've got eight of them,
there's a really good chance that at

540
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,920
least half of them, if not
more, are going to be very intriguing,

541
00:33:28,279 --> 00:33:31,160
if not dramatic. Yes, a
couple of them will probably be duds

542
00:33:31,319 --> 00:33:35,039
or so, but it's not gonna
be all of them. So let's say,

543
00:33:35,039 --> 00:33:37,920
and you might, you're probably gonna
get some knockouts here on the last

544
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:42,559
three fights, and just a for
a brief moment, Arklem back Mackmandou again,

545
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:46,200
your boy Ajkabiel. Just two good
solid heavyweights who are trying to make

546
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:49,920
their way up the ladder. You
know, the winners moving on. The

547
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,039
loser, you know, can take
a step back, but this is a

548
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:54,039
I mean, it's kind of random, but it's not a bad matchup at

549
00:33:54,039 --> 00:33:58,680
all. Mackmandou has never fought anybody, even though he's got a great,

550
00:33:59,039 --> 00:34:01,640
you know record in knockout. Kabiels
fought a little bit better caliber opponents,

551
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:06,440
but I don't think he's ever fought
a puncher like Mackmandoude is so to me,

552
00:34:06,559 --> 00:34:08,719
this is like, I mean,
it's kind of a fifty to fifty

553
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:10,760
fight. I guess, I guess
I would lean towards the big puncher,

554
00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,719
but who the heck knows, So
there's intrigue there. Like if this was

555
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,719
I put it like this, if
this was like the old like HBO boxing

556
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:22,280
after dark days makum would you know, and they were doing a heavyweight type

557
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:23,280
show, this would be like this, you know, like one of the

558
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:27,239
fights on that triple header, without
question, like a second or third fight

559
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:30,239
on the card, and then you
got the other heavyweight fight. The two

560
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:31,960
other heavyweight fights are a little more
mismatch. I mean, I have to

561
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:36,119
be honest. Philip Herkovitch against Mark
Morey, in my opinion, is a

562
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:40,719
absolute mismatch. And this is a
matter of Philip Perkovic making a three fight

563
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,840
deal with the Saudi's. He's gonna
fight for the IBF title in his next

564
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:46,880
fight, whether it's against the winner
of fury Usik or for the vacant title.

565
00:34:47,039 --> 00:34:51,599
Probably the vacant title. He's protecting
that position. He's staying active.

566
00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:53,920
This should be a wipeout for Philip
Pergovic. If it's not, then he's

567
00:34:53,920 --> 00:35:00,000
got some problems. Frank Sanchez against
Junior Fa. Frank is a very skillful

568
00:35:00,159 --> 00:35:04,760
fighter who was a great boxer.
Junior Fi, you know, has has

569
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,039
never really developed into the caliber of
a contender that some people thought he might.

570
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:12,039
He's big and he's got power,
but he's kind of lumbering, doesn't

571
00:35:12,079 --> 00:35:14,880
have very good defense. I just
see no, and he doesn't have any

572
00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:19,119
speed that unless he lands a big
bomb, which you know, it seems

573
00:35:19,119 --> 00:35:23,159
awfully unlikely given that Frank is the
way he fights. This should be Frank

574
00:35:23,199 --> 00:35:27,920
Sanchez sort of boxing, circles around
and maybe even stopping him because he's got

575
00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:30,719
such good hand speed. So those
are those two fights. Even again,

576
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:35,960
they're not the worst fights in the
world. They're a little mismatching Hergevic and

577
00:35:36,039 --> 00:35:38,920
Demore in particular, But out of
eight fights, most pay per views are

578
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:43,239
four fights. Maybe at the most
that's some one. They might be five

579
00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:46,079
fights. Sometimes there are even three
fights back in the day anyway, so

580
00:35:46,679 --> 00:35:50,800
I'm actually not unhappy. There's a
couple of mismatching type fights, and there

581
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:52,320
I'm hoping there's a couple of early
knockouts, so the thing doesn't last for

582
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:57,760
seven hours, all right, So
there is the fight card rundown. It's

583
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:01,199
a day of reckoning, teach,
it is the day of we will now

584
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:06,719
hear more about that from Sadik Ahmed, one of our writers on Big Fight

585
00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:10,400
Weekend dot Com. Sadiq was already
over in the Middle East back about three

586
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:15,440
weeks ago and is credentialed through us
to be there. He's been there this

587
00:36:15,519 --> 00:36:19,559
week for the arrivals the press conferences. On Thursday, he'll be there covering

588
00:36:19,559 --> 00:36:22,639
it for the site as well.
Let's go to a conversation that he and

589
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:25,920
I had earlier on Thursday with the
time difference, right after the press conferences.

590
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:30,159
Let's do that right now in the
preview mode. As mentioned earlier,

591
00:36:30,199 --> 00:36:35,519
he is on the scene in full
disclosure with the time difference. He's doing

592
00:36:35,559 --> 00:36:40,639
this late at night his time in
Saudi Arabia. Hello, Sadik Ahmed,

593
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:45,360
who's helping us out from Big Fight
Weekend dot com and now he's on the

594
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:52,719
Big Fight Weekend preview podcast as well. Great to have you there as kind

595
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:54,960
of eyes and you know, boots
on the ground and eyes and ears for

596
00:36:55,039 --> 00:36:59,360
us. So, first of all, thank you. And what has this

597
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:01,679
been like as the event is building
this week? You've been there now for

598
00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:05,119
a couple of days, leaning towards
the weekend. What's it been like,

599
00:37:05,159 --> 00:37:09,679
TOADI, Well, thank you for
having me. It's it's definitely been Again,

600
00:37:09,719 --> 00:37:13,719
I haven't done too many events on
my own, but this has been

601
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:19,800
by far the busiest I've ever seen. There's dozens of media folks, a

602
00:37:21,039 --> 00:37:23,800
lot of security. You know,
these events aren't opening up for fans at

603
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:30,119
all, so like literally everyone present
is just staff at the athletes, security,

604
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:34,800
media, and there's just dozens and
dozens of people any given time,

605
00:37:36,119 --> 00:37:38,920
you know, in the venues.
So it's definitely been hectic. A lot

606
00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:45,840
going on. Just a few and
aco though, and yeah, tell me

607
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:52,079
a little bit about how you have
found the fighters and the build up because

608
00:37:52,119 --> 00:37:55,800
now that earlier in the week,
middle of the week gets to Thursday and

609
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,320
the press conferences is, as we
like to say, it starts to get

610
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,480
more real. It is getting closer, it's getting more real. Did you

611
00:38:01,559 --> 00:38:06,639
sense that, especially on a press
conference Thursday? Yeah, the day I

612
00:38:06,679 --> 00:38:12,079
got here, that was Tuesday when
the Grand arrivals happened, and you know,

613
00:38:12,119 --> 00:38:15,400
on that day, people noticed that
Joshua wasn't really wasn't speaking too much

614
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:19,639
with the media. Apparently that was
different to the way he was on Monday.

615
00:38:20,599 --> 00:38:22,960
I wouldn't know. I wasn't there
on Monday, but apparently josh was

616
00:38:23,119 --> 00:38:29,840
really zoned in, really focused even
on the during the media workout, instead

617
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:35,840
of actually doing the workout himself.
He chose to showcase but four young boxers

618
00:38:36,119 --> 00:38:39,079
from a Saudi Arabian boxing club.
So there was that. But then in

619
00:38:39,119 --> 00:38:44,320
today's press conference he was a lot
more you know, he opened the floor

620
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:46,400
up to the media. Unfortunately,
none of us really got to ask any

621
00:38:46,519 --> 00:38:52,519
questions. We were cut off,
unfortunately. So yeah, there was Joshua.

622
00:38:53,119 --> 00:38:58,760
You know General Miller, he's always
animated, you know what he's like.

623
00:38:59,599 --> 00:39:04,639
He's the one that's causing the most
about a noise around here. And

624
00:39:04,719 --> 00:39:08,239
there was talk of Otto Wallen,
you know, being a lot more talkative

625
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:10,519
than usual, which I find kind
of weird. I thought he was just

626
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,280
doing what he normally does, that's, you know, answering questions, and

627
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:19,159
given how much media is here,
it's kind of natural for him to me

628
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,639
and asked a lot of questions.
I think a lot of people, and

629
00:39:22,679 --> 00:39:27,519
we heard from otto with Dan Rayfield, a lot of people believe he can

630
00:39:27,599 --> 00:39:31,280
really give Anthony Joshua a challenge,
and he has not been bashful about saying

631
00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:36,920
that that he he believes he's got
a great chance to win this, So

632
00:39:37,039 --> 00:39:40,679
that one is intriguing. I just
what do what do you sense here being

633
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:46,760
around this because it's almost like it's
a foregone conclusion that Joshua and Wilder win

634
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:51,960
come out of this unscathed. They're
fighting each other. I know that's out

635
00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:54,760
there everywhere, that they're fighting each
other. Next, do you sense that

636
00:39:54,840 --> 00:40:00,239
there could be an upset to the
plans, that that that one of either

637
00:40:00,679 --> 00:40:07,159
Auto Violin or Joseph Parker could screw
this up? And if so, who

638
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:12,519
might be the likely one that could
mess the plans up? With regards to

639
00:40:12,599 --> 00:40:15,880
Wilder Parker, I feel like it's
just a matter of time before Wilder finds

640
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:19,440
the right hand, and it's all
over for Parker, whether it comes in

641
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:23,760
the early, middle or or late
rounds. I do see that happening Autowallan

642
00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:27,960
and Anthony Joshuay. Do you think
it's a lot closer? I also think

643
00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,559
it's the closest fight on this card. Again, I mean, there's a

644
00:40:31,599 --> 00:40:35,599
lot of the fights aren't necessarily close, But do you believe that all out

645
00:40:35,639 --> 00:40:38,559
of all of them, that one's
pretty close. I do think one has

646
00:40:38,639 --> 00:40:45,360
a shot. It just really depends
on ye know, I think it all

647
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:52,800
depends on what Joshua was it's gonna
bring on Saturday Night. Joshua has had

648
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:58,199
two previous experiences, one good reclaiming
his titles against Andy Ruiz in December of

649
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:02,199
twenty twenty one, one not so
good, which was August a year ago,

650
00:41:02,599 --> 00:41:08,039
where Alexander Usik defeated him again in
their rematch. Do you think there's

651
00:41:08,159 --> 00:41:13,719
any advantage or to what extent is
there an advantage that Joshua has been in

652
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:20,320
this environment in Saudi Arabia in the
Middle East twice before. I mean,

653
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:23,360
in general, Joshua's used to you
know, you know, massive events with

654
00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,079
a lot of media, you know, a lot of fans in the crowd.

655
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,719
This isn't anything new for him.
Also, he's done this twice before

656
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:35,559
in Saudi Arabia for all in I
feel like, you know the fact that

657
00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:38,719
this is going to be the largest
crowd he's ever you know, fun in

658
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:43,480
front of. Uh, you know, this is the most amount of media

659
00:41:43,519 --> 00:41:47,039
he's ever had to talk to.
I think that could have some impact on

660
00:41:47,079 --> 00:41:52,639
Wan's performance, but uh, that's
for Joshua. I mean, he's done

661
00:41:52,639 --> 00:41:55,719
this before. Uh, you know, if he doesn't come out, come

662
00:41:55,760 --> 00:42:00,519
out on top, I think that's
just down into his skill set personally speaking.

663
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:04,360
Interesting again, Sadika ed with us
for a few more moments. He's

664
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:09,840
on scene. Day of Reckoning is
coming on Saturday. It is part of

665
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:15,920
the riad season. This pay per
view that's happening global event because of all

666
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:20,519
of the fighters, especially in Europe, but also Deontay Wilder from the United

667
00:42:20,519 --> 00:42:24,159
States. You mentioned jerell A big
Baby Miller from the United States among others

668
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:30,360
that there's some interest obviously here in
this as well. Give me a scene

669
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:34,519
setter, what has it been like
in and around Saudi Arabia as much as

670
00:42:34,519 --> 00:42:37,719
you've gotten to see is their interest
in the publications on the TV in this

671
00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:43,760
is it an afterthought there, and
unless you're a hardcore boxing fan that's living

672
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:45,519
in Saudi Arabia, you're not paying
that much attention to it. I just

673
00:42:45,599 --> 00:42:52,960
wonder what is it like? So
a lot of the promotional activities are being

674
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:55,719
carried out, you know a lot
of the press. There's quite a bit

675
00:42:55,760 --> 00:43:04,920
of Saudi press on scene. I
do I do tend to like loss over

676
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:07,360
what the Saturday newspapers are saying.
You know, Sawy gets it our news.

677
00:43:08,079 --> 00:43:12,039
They're definitely talking about it, even
on social media. I see the

678
00:43:12,079 --> 00:43:15,400
ads. You know, they've bought
out. They've clearly bought out ads.

679
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:17,199
They've clearly put in a lot of
money into this, and they're going to

680
00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:23,400
advertise the heck out of it.
Again. As for fans, you know,

681
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:27,360
they haven't been allowed in as of
yet. This is all all these

682
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:30,840
events have been media only. You
know, we'll see on Saturday night.

683
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:34,679
But I do believe it's going to
be a fairly large turnout, just because

684
00:43:35,519 --> 00:43:42,239
the venue itself is pretty massive.
I do think they'll a lot of folks

685
00:43:42,239 --> 00:43:45,480
will turn out for this, and
probably a lot of and probably a lot

686
00:43:45,519 --> 00:43:49,239
of British fans, especially a lot
of Joshua fans. He does have immense

687
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,239
popularity and it's not that far or
hard to get to it. I know

688
00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:55,719
it's right before the Christmas holiday,
but I would I would be surprised if

689
00:43:55,719 --> 00:43:59,719
there's not several thousand Brits that are
there. And I know Dubois on the

690
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,719
car as well. We'll see,
we'll see what that atmosphere is like.

691
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:06,519
Okay, one more function, Yeah, go ahead, follow up on that

692
00:44:06,519 --> 00:44:09,639
place. I've also looked at the
ticket prices for this event, and the

693
00:44:09,679 --> 00:44:15,400
cheapest tickets are about one hundred SADI
reels, which I believe convert into like

694
00:44:15,199 --> 00:44:21,119
US dollars. I think you're three
to forty US dollars. So again,

695
00:44:21,159 --> 00:44:25,679
even the tickets themselves, aren't they
that's relatively inexpensive. A big time championship

696
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:30,679
fight, much less a big time
heavyweight championship fight would be three times five

697
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:35,519
times that just to get in,
maybe more depending on what it is and

698
00:44:35,559 --> 00:44:38,239
if you're sitting in the top,
etc. That seems very affordable. We're

699
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:40,559
trying to market it that way,
and they obviously are trying to sell much

700
00:44:40,599 --> 00:44:44,119
more off the pay per view.
You know this. They want people in

701
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:49,119
England, people in the United States
primarily to watch this and to see this.

702
00:44:49,519 --> 00:44:52,599
I am curious from you before you
have to scoot and we do as

703
00:44:52,639 --> 00:44:58,400
well. Is there another fight or
another fighter besides the heavyweight co main event?

704
00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:00,719
We know about that fight, another
fighter that has struck you the last

705
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:05,800
couple of days. Hey, I'm
really interested in him or in this fight?

706
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:08,760
What would you say? Yeah?
For me, I'm Canadian and I

707
00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:13,800
know this card is dominated by the
you know, Americans and Brits, but

708
00:45:13,800 --> 00:45:16,039
I'm Canadian, you know, and
ARSL mc macmudob is also based out of

709
00:45:16,079 --> 00:45:21,360
Canada. So for me as a
Canadian, it's just there's intrigue for me

710
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:28,639
in that. But also I do
believe that does is a chaot artist.

711
00:45:29,119 --> 00:45:35,320
I do think he's gonna truly stop
kabayel Uh. It's interesting to see how

712
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:38,719
far he's come. I do look
forward to seeing what he does on Saturday

713
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,760
night. I'm curious, just while
we're throwing this out there, what does

714
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:45,599
Dimitri Beebol look like? I mean, Beevol looked so masterful against Canelo,

715
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:51,719
but he had the he had the
fight with Zerto Ramirez a one sided He

716
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:54,039
turned it into a boring fight over
a year ago. I don't know what

717
00:45:54,079 --> 00:45:57,519
we're gonna I mean, how sharp
is he? How good is he?

718
00:45:57,559 --> 00:45:59,920
If he is sharp and he's good
off a year layoff, that says a

719
00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:04,880
lot for him. I'm curious as
to what he looks like as this unfolds

720
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,800
as well, So I'll throw that
out there for two cents, just one

721
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,840
more time. I know you are
amped to cover all this. We promote

722
00:46:12,119 --> 00:46:15,880
read it on Big Fight Weekend dot
com. Sadiq is there, you're excited

723
00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:20,079
to be part of. I know
it's not heavyweight titles on the line,

724
00:46:20,559 --> 00:46:23,079
but it's as big. It's as
big an event you can have without heavyweight

725
00:46:23,079 --> 00:46:27,360
titles on the line, because these
are the two former recent heavyweight champs fighting

726
00:46:27,360 --> 00:46:30,679
in separate comin events with the belief
they're about to fight each other, and

727
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:32,639
that's going to be pretty intriguing Saturday. All right, Sadi, great stuff,

728
00:46:32,679 --> 00:46:37,880
Thank you. I know you've been
working hard. Continued success with covering

729
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:42,079
all of this with the Day of
Reckoning and the pay per view coming Saturday.

730
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,679
We appreciate the time on the podcast. All right, thank you so

731
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:50,159
much, thank you for having me. Good stuff again from Sadiq and he'll

732
00:46:50,199 --> 00:46:52,599
be writing obviously this weekend as well
for Big Fight Weekend dot Com right there

733
00:46:52,679 --> 00:46:55,519
on scene. As he was saying
in the interview, Dan that it is

734
00:46:55,559 --> 00:47:00,400
in the publications locally, it is
on the TV. He's curious and I

735
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:01,679
think there will be a lot of
Brits that will be there. We'll see

736
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:06,639
with Christmas weekend, they'll be fired
up to see Joshua in particular and are

737
00:47:06,719 --> 00:47:10,000
regionally close to be able to get
there. We will find out some news,

738
00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:14,559
some nostalgia, and then we're done
on the preview. Okay, Ryan

739
00:47:14,639 --> 00:47:16,960
Garcia put on social media earlier this
week, don't they all put it on

740
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:22,079
social media that he is fully authorizing
Oscar de la Hoya and Golden Boy make

741
00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:25,239
make a Devin Hainy fight happen.
If you can make that happen next,

742
00:47:25,239 --> 00:47:29,360
that's what he wants. Of course, fighters put that out there to their

743
00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:31,960
people, Hey make it happen if
you can. Now what's intriguing and this

744
00:47:32,039 --> 00:47:36,119
is why you got to be locked
in here for our content and our coverage

745
00:47:36,480 --> 00:47:40,880
on the Big Fight Weekend podcast.
Feed got you got right before we started

746
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:45,199
talking, you got a very interesting
text and then in an interesting few minutes

747
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:50,599
with Oscar de la Hooya about this
very subject and I got the feeling from

748
00:47:50,599 --> 00:47:53,440
what you told me it's not beyond
the realm they're talking here. No,

749
00:47:53,519 --> 00:47:57,119
I think this fight's gonna wind up
actually happening. So I have seen the

750
00:47:57,159 --> 00:48:01,480
same things that you mentioned about the
post that everybody that the two sides have

751
00:48:01,559 --> 00:48:07,719
been saying on their social platforms,
Haney and and Ryan as well as Bill

752
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,039
Haney has you know, Devin's dad. I saw some quotes and I think

753
00:48:10,079 --> 00:48:15,360
it was a boxing scene article from
Ryan's father, you know, who doesn't

754
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:16,960
train him but and is always in
his camp, but it you know,

755
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:21,400
it usually keeps kind of a lower
profile. But anyway, everybody's been talking

756
00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:22,159
about they want to do this fight
and try to make the fight him.

757
00:48:22,159 --> 00:48:25,679
We'll see what happens. And I
was curiously like if there was if that

758
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:30,559
was just a typical nonsense, or
if there was actually something more to it

759
00:48:30,559 --> 00:48:34,639
than that. So I texted Oscar
and he's like, you know, let's

760
00:48:34,679 --> 00:48:37,760
talk. So I called Oscar.
We had about about a ten to twelve

761
00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:42,280
minute conversation about it, and I
literally talked to him five minutes where we

762
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:45,920
started taping the podcast. They're very
serious about this, both sides. He

763
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:49,760
met, you know, like they
have they have the okay from Team Garci

764
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:52,039
to try to go make the fight. He said to me that he has

765
00:48:52,039 --> 00:48:55,119
spoken to Eddie Hearn. Obviously,
Eddie is busy tied up with Anthony Joshua

766
00:48:55,119 --> 00:48:59,079
when some of the fights he has
that are involved in their Day of Reckoning

767
00:48:59,119 --> 00:49:00,360
show, So you know, been
a little busy. Oscar understands. So

768
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:04,800
we joked on the podcast. It
was on social media that Eddie and a

769
00:49:04,840 --> 00:49:07,039
couple of other people from match Room
were in Oscar's headquarters, and I joked

770
00:49:07,039 --> 00:49:10,480
with you they were not there sampling
the eggnog and judging the decoration, so

771
00:49:10,559 --> 00:49:15,079
obviously they were having some kind of
discussion. You would think, exactly,

772
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:17,679
that's not actually true because I asked
Oscar at that Oscar was not in town

773
00:49:19,039 --> 00:49:21,440
when they were there, so that
did not occur. He said, they

774
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,039
were in They were in town and
they just came by to just pay a

775
00:49:24,079 --> 00:49:28,360
cordial visit and there was no like
real business to discuss at that meeting.

776
00:49:28,639 --> 00:49:31,199
But that subsequent to that, Oscar
and Eddie have spoken on the telephone and

777
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:35,880
have agreed that you know, right
after the holidays that they will reconvene and

778
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:39,760
and really get serious what's what's involved
here? Did Oscar kind of indicate to

779
00:49:39,880 --> 00:49:44,960
you that it's at least moved over
enough with Ryan Garcia that that's not going

780
00:49:45,039 --> 00:49:46,920
to be a problem. Does it
seem that way to you? And talking

781
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:50,320
to him, he didn't get into
that. But at the end of the

782
00:49:50,400 --> 00:49:53,559
day, until their legal process plays
out, they're stuck with each other for

783
00:49:53,599 --> 00:49:57,480
now, whether they like it.
And you know, and as I said,

784
00:49:57,559 --> 00:50:00,079
when he docked out Oscar Duarte,
you know a couple of weeks ago.

785
00:50:00,559 --> 00:50:06,440
Winning has a tendency to make things
easier to deal with. So everybody's

786
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:08,280
in a happier place now. When
you get knocked out by Gervonta Davis,

787
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,400
you're not as happy as when you
are the guy that knocks the other guy

788
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:15,400
out, and that can definitely cover
up a lot of problems. So he's

789
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:19,519
won. It's a big fight.
I'm interested in the fight. You know,

790
00:50:19,519 --> 00:50:21,679
they were they were trying to at
one point to make him against tia

791
00:50:21,719 --> 00:50:25,239
Fimo Lopez. He had a conversation
with Bob Aaron about that. Tifemo was

792
00:50:25,280 --> 00:50:29,039
not going to do that fight at
that time frame whatever, so he moved

793
00:50:29,039 --> 00:50:31,639
on. He's going to fight Jermaine
Ortiz in February. In the meantime,

794
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:36,639
Ryan Garcia against Devin Hindy is a
good fight. They both fighters that are

795
00:50:36,639 --> 00:50:38,639
on his own and obviously will be
a pay per view. You know,

796
00:50:38,679 --> 00:50:40,880
they're going to try to make the
match. There's not gonna be any funny

797
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:44,440
business with the weight. This is
a straight one forty fight. That's what

798
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:46,760
I was told, is what's being
discussed. Devan just won the WBC title

799
00:50:46,800 --> 00:50:49,840
in that weight division. Ryan is
now, you know, in the one

800
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,280
hundred and forty pound waight class.
Just a good old fashioned world title fight

801
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:58,400
between two excellent fighters won a good
top champion, another that's a good fighter

802
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:00,320
himself and a top star. And
the interest thing about it that Oscar and

803
00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:05,440
I talked about is I have to
like investigate this to make sure exactly what

804
00:51:05,519 --> 00:51:09,400
the deal is. But what I
know that Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia faced

805
00:51:09,400 --> 00:51:13,559
each other multiple times in the amateurs. What Oscar was saying, and again

806
00:51:13,559 --> 00:51:16,119
I'll double I gotta double check this
is that they have fought six times as

807
00:51:16,159 --> 00:51:20,599
amateurs and that they are three and
three against each other, and that will

808
00:51:20,639 --> 00:51:24,639
definitely be a major, major shocking
and promotional aspect of this fight I've covered

809
00:51:24,639 --> 00:51:30,320
many fights where there's an amateur background
between fighters and whether that will have any

810
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:34,760
impact on what happens in the pros, but not six times, so that's

811
00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:37,599
like a big deal. So look, you never say for sure, but

812
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:42,679
all things considered, if you want
a big fight, and Haini wants one,

813
00:51:43,559 --> 00:51:47,159
Ryan wants one, there's a I
think a very outstanding fight or a

814
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:51,559
chance this fight takes place. If
it does, some people will depend on

815
00:51:51,599 --> 00:51:57,239
the Dizonne calendar with what goes down
with Wilder and Joshua that's ticketed for March

816
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:00,320
ninth. If that fight does not
happen, there's the chance that maybe,

817
00:52:00,320 --> 00:52:04,079
if they can negotiate, Haney and
Garcia would take place in March. If

818
00:52:04,119 --> 00:52:07,079
not, it would probably bump and
be the big pay per view fight for

819
00:52:07,159 --> 00:52:10,960
de Own for April. Interesting on
that. A couple more quick news items.

820
00:52:12,039 --> 00:52:14,840
Jamel Charlow back in the news,
and not for what you want to.

821
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:22,000
Hear arrested for a misdemeanor assault as
it's described on a family member taken

822
00:52:22,039 --> 00:52:28,719
into custody earlier this week in suburban
Houston. And you know he had the

823
00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:32,880
time off because of the hand injury
he fought Canelo Alvarez in a lucrative opportunity

824
00:52:32,880 --> 00:52:36,400
for him, didn't do much in
that fight, took a lot of shots

825
00:52:36,400 --> 00:52:42,559
from Canello and then lost a decision. Now you have this news so once

826
00:52:42,599 --> 00:52:45,840
again, and this also goes in
conjunction with his brother having problems out of

827
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:50,880
the ring and having been arrested a
couple of different times. No one's been

828
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:53,199
convicted and gone to jail in any
of this, but there's there's been trouble

829
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:58,480
with the Charlo's. There's been trouble. First of all, the family member

830
00:52:58,519 --> 00:53:00,800
thing is what they have to put
in in the in the police report because

831
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:04,880
they didn't want to identify the person
who's the victim who apparently didn't want to

832
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:07,440
be identified. It's his wife,
that's the bottom line. And there's a

833
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:12,239
audio circulating on social media of him
bragging about how he popped her in the

834
00:53:12,280 --> 00:53:15,559
eye and how it blew up all
purple and was all messed up and was

835
00:53:15,599 --> 00:53:21,079
talking about in a very disgusting manner. Uh And and so what you're telling

836
00:53:21,079 --> 00:53:22,840
me, because I'm not aware of
that, is this is exactly how to

837
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:28,639
get yourself committed convicted of domestic violence. This is the how to get if

838
00:53:28,639 --> 00:53:31,920
you are if you are in a
situation where you're in some kind of trouble

839
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:37,000
and a jury or a prosecution can
use your own words. They don't have

840
00:53:37,079 --> 00:53:40,639
to go witness to come and say
that they saw this happen or heard this

841
00:53:40,679 --> 00:53:45,639
happen or whatever, and they can
play a tape of you bragging about punching

842
00:53:45,679 --> 00:53:49,559
your wife. You're fucked, so, you know, not good. But

843
00:53:49,679 --> 00:53:52,039
the way may I add, this
is not the first time that he's had

844
00:53:52,119 --> 00:53:57,039
this kind of problem. Uh,
you know, he he had a apparently

845
00:53:57,079 --> 00:54:02,280
had an incident where he supposedly then
girlfriend where he allegedly choked her, and

846
00:54:02,360 --> 00:54:08,079
he was acquitted uh by that in
that situation. But there's a history here,

847
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:12,800
and uh, you know, in
boxing, people can get away with

848
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:15,480
a lot of stuff. I mean, and I'm not like trying to bring

849
00:54:15,559 --> 00:54:19,559
up every I mean, there's a
lot of fighters that have had these types

850
00:54:19,599 --> 00:54:22,920
of issues. But Showtime took a
lot of heat when they allowed Tank Davis

851
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:27,400
to fight the fight in January while
he was still you know, waiting for

852
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:30,400
his hit and run situation to be
unicated, which he ended up you know,

853
00:54:30,559 --> 00:54:35,239
pleaing to and was guilty and ended
up you know, doing some time

854
00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:39,800
in jail for there's this situation with
Charlote, and uh, there's no you

855
00:54:39,800 --> 00:54:44,480
know, if this was the NFL
or this was Major League Baseball, there

856
00:54:44,559 --> 00:54:47,519
is a Now most of these leagues
have these types of domestic violence policies or

857
00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:51,840
you know, if there's a violent
crime you know, uh incident or they're

858
00:54:51,920 --> 00:54:54,960
arrested or or or convicted or whatever. There are things that can go through

859
00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:59,239
a process where you're going to be
punished by the league. In boxing,

860
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:01,760
that doesn't happen. So, you
know, I hope that if this turns

861
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:07,039
out that he is convicted based on
his own words, that he is held

862
00:55:07,079 --> 00:55:09,440
accountable and he shouldn't just be welcomed
back, and he shouldn't be you know,

863
00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:13,679
he still holds two he still holds
multiple world titles in the one hundred

864
00:55:13,679 --> 00:55:16,440
thirty four pound way class, and
if you're going to go around beating up

865
00:55:16,480 --> 00:55:21,559
women, you know, you shouldn't
have a world title because and by the

866
00:55:21,559 --> 00:55:24,400
way, there are other instances where
Floyd Mayweather was in trouble for domestic violence

867
00:55:24,400 --> 00:55:28,280
and actually did some jail time.
Mike Tyson was in trouble for this.

868
00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:31,639
It's not just singularly putting it on
Jamel Charlow. In this instance, it's

869
00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:36,719
whoever does this, it's cowardly,
it's awful. I mean, even Dmitri

870
00:55:36,800 --> 00:55:39,000
Beevo has an incident that has occurred
with his wife, not that long ago.

871
00:55:39,239 --> 00:55:42,880
I mean, I don't have as
many details on that situation, but

872
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,480
there was certainly a problem there at
one point. And obviously he's defending his

873
00:55:45,519 --> 00:55:49,599
title this week and that nobody's really
talking about it. So you know,

874
00:55:50,000 --> 00:55:53,119
again, each individual case is different, but the end result is if you

875
00:55:53,159 --> 00:55:57,639
put your hands on somebody else that's
not in the ring, particularly if it's

876
00:55:57,679 --> 00:56:00,199
a woman, that is a problem. I would have rather seen Charlot be

877
00:56:00,199 --> 00:56:02,559
able to lay his hands on Canelo, but he decided he wanted to take

878
00:56:02,599 --> 00:56:06,280
the money, not try to fight
in that fight, and now instead he's

879
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:09,480
supposedly, you know, hitting his
wife. Not appropriate. Real quick.

880
00:56:09,519 --> 00:56:15,119
One other item too, it was
announced Jake Paul said that he wanted to

881
00:56:15,159 --> 00:56:16,920
be back in the ring quickly,
and he is going to be back in

882
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:22,079
the ring quickly off that one punch
knockout last weekend. He is going to

883
00:56:22,079 --> 00:56:24,840
be back on March the second.
And what's interesting, Amanda Serrano is going

884
00:56:24,880 --> 00:56:29,760
to defend her title in her home
country, Puerto Rico. So they're on

885
00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:35,880
the same card together here, and
Jake said in the release from Most Valuable

886
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:38,239
Promotions, he is sticking to what
he's telling everybody. I want to be

887
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:40,119
back in the ring. I want
to be active, I want to be

888
00:56:40,119 --> 00:56:45,320
fighting boxers. So just follow up
on that. We don't know the opponent

889
00:56:45,480 --> 00:56:49,559
yet, but he is going to
be back. I think this is actually

890
00:56:49,599 --> 00:56:52,880
brilliant from Jake Paul, to be
quite honest with you, because he's following

891
00:56:52,880 --> 00:56:54,960
through what he says and he's taking
the old fashion route. He's going to

892
00:56:55,000 --> 00:57:00,199
fight another probably Andre august Ish type
opponent, maybe a little bit her,

893
00:57:00,639 --> 00:57:02,960
and not make it the main event, which takes a lot of the attention

894
00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:06,440
away from him, but he doesn't
seem to care about that. It will

895
00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:08,559
put a lot more attention on Amanda
to say that she's the main event on

896
00:57:08,639 --> 00:57:12,000
Jake's card, So she's the one
that's going to have a lot of the

897
00:57:12,039 --> 00:57:15,920
shine and he can develop quote unquote
in the undercard with a little less attention

898
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:21,199
in a non pay per view fight. Meantime, in the main event,

899
00:57:21,199 --> 00:57:23,079
you got Serrano, who's one of
the best women's boxers in the world.

900
00:57:23,159 --> 00:57:28,280
She's defending her now unified titles because
she gave up the WBC belt for the

901
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:32,239
reasons that she explained about how they
would not her to defend in twelve round

902
00:57:32,239 --> 00:57:37,039
fights where the rounds are three minutes, but this fight against her IBF mandatory

903
00:57:37,119 --> 00:57:40,719
Nina Menke is going to be approved
for twelve rounds and three minutes, so

904
00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:45,559
there's that aspect of it. She's
defending once again, and Jake will fight

905
00:57:45,599 --> 00:57:50,239
whoever on the undercard. And it's
interesting because I have to give it props

906
00:57:50,239 --> 00:57:53,239
because he is I don't know a
lot of fighters that would be willing at

907
00:57:53,239 --> 00:57:58,159
the level of fame and fortune of
a Jake Paul to step into the secondary

908
00:57:58,199 --> 00:58:01,039
position on a card like that.
But he is trying to build up his

909
00:58:01,119 --> 00:58:06,119
stable of fighters and make them into
the stars that he's already become, and

910
00:58:06,159 --> 00:58:08,679
he's doing that with Amanda. She
deserves it as as the caliber fighter she

911
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:12,039
is. And Jake, of course
is not going to be fighting obviously a

912
00:58:12,119 --> 00:58:15,199
big big name. He's not fighting, you know, even an MMA fighter

913
00:58:15,239 --> 00:58:16,679
with a big name. So I
like it. I respect it, I

914
00:58:16,719 --> 00:58:20,679
respect it a lot, and it's
they realize it's going to sell a lot

915
00:58:20,719 --> 00:58:22,719
of tickets and it's a big moment
for her. She's never had a title

916
00:58:22,719 --> 00:58:25,119
fight in Puerto Rico. She fought
earlier in her career in Puerto Rico,

917
00:58:25,159 --> 00:58:28,440
which has never had a title fight
in Puerto Rico. This will be a

918
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:31,079
big deal. And I agree with
you. It's a class move to say,

919
00:58:31,360 --> 00:58:35,239
let her have the biggest stage.
You'll have his stage. Let her

920
00:58:35,280 --> 00:58:38,000
have the biggest stage. Opponent to
be determined. And I'm with you.

921
00:58:38,199 --> 00:58:42,920
I have said this consistently. I'm
back in if he's fighting boxers, I'm

922
00:58:42,960 --> 00:58:46,000
back in on that when we go
back to fighting. You know what,

923
00:58:46,079 --> 00:58:51,079
I had somebody who's very plugged in
with the whole thing about Professional Fighters League

924
00:58:51,159 --> 00:58:53,320
MMA. He's very plugged in with
what's going on. And what he said

925
00:58:53,360 --> 00:58:59,880
to me is there were talks about
him rematching Nate Diaz in a cage or

926
00:59:00,079 --> 00:59:05,199
some modified MMA fight, but Nate
Diaz wants twenty million dollars guaranteed to do

927
00:59:05,239 --> 00:59:07,599
it. Listen, we talked about
the interview I had with Jake where he

928
00:59:07,679 --> 00:59:10,719
said that he wanted to run it
back in the cage and he offered them

929
00:59:10,719 --> 00:59:14,559
ten million, and he wants twenty
minute, and I said, what are

930
00:59:14,599 --> 00:59:16,480
we doing here, Nate Diaz?
Is it going to get twenty million guaranteed

931
00:59:16,519 --> 00:59:21,039
from anybody to do that? Jake
Paul's not going to get twenty million to

932
00:59:21,079 --> 00:59:22,679
fight him in the cage. Ja. The oldest saying in the book is

933
00:59:22,679 --> 00:59:24,960
there's the way you One of the
ways you can turn on a fight is

934
00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:29,519
by pricing yourself out. You can
say no, or you can say yeah,

935
00:59:29,519 --> 00:59:30,760
I'll do the fight, but it's
worth ten million, and you say

936
00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:35,320
give me one hundred million. It
doesn't work. So that's impressing himself out.

937
00:59:35,360 --> 00:59:37,840
So Jake has taken the old fashioned
round, the boxing round. I'm

938
00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:42,280
back here. I have to say
this. Say whatever you want about the

939
00:59:42,559 --> 00:59:45,480
other things that have gone on in
Jake's career, in life of non boxing,

940
00:59:45,760 --> 00:59:49,079
within the confines of boxing. To
me, he's yet to do anything

941
00:59:49,440 --> 00:59:52,679
that would not be considered the right
way to do it. He's fighting the

942
00:59:52,679 --> 00:59:55,199
fights, he's training his rear end
off, he's getting better, he's putting

943
00:59:55,199 --> 01:00:00,320
together solid events. You know when
he's on the show. The underc have

944
01:00:00,360 --> 01:00:05,840
been good enough. He's given a
lot of credit and brought along people like

945
01:00:06,039 --> 01:00:09,199
Amanda Serrano. He's building up some
younger fighters on the Prospect shows like I've

946
01:00:09,239 --> 01:00:13,800
yet to see anything that I'm against
at all. And he does a good

947
01:00:13,880 --> 01:00:15,559
job with his own fights and his
own events. So and now him and

948
01:00:15,599 --> 01:00:17,840
his partner in Nikisa Medarian, I
give him a lot of credit. They're

949
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:22,360
doing doing things their way. They
got a good partner in his own and

950
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:24,639
I wish them to good luck.
I'm interested to see how things work out

951
01:00:24,679 --> 01:00:28,119
for him, I really am.
And to have Amanda in a man event

952
01:00:28,159 --> 01:00:30,280
a in Puerto Rico where I know
how badly she's wanted to fight for a

953
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:34,519
long time, Really thrilled for her. All right, two pieces of nostalgia

954
01:00:34,559 --> 01:00:37,719
and then we are done. They
are both from earlier this week, twenty

955
01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:44,840
five years ago on Tuesday, Floyd
Mayweather winning over angel Man Freddie And then

956
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:50,039
also twenty six years ago on Tuesday, December nineteenth, nineteen ninety seven,

957
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:55,559
the year before phenomenal Prince Nasim Hahmed
Kevin Kelly fight at Madison Square Garden on

958
01:00:55,679 --> 01:01:00,199
HBO. Give me a little piece
on both of those. Please, This

959
01:01:00,280 --> 01:01:02,760
is like quintessential, Like late nineties
HBO. These were the types of fights

960
01:01:02,760 --> 01:01:07,760
that they brought you regularly on the
network, not pay per view with good

961
01:01:07,840 --> 01:01:10,960
undercards. Also, frankly so in
terms of Floyd Floyd. We all know

962
01:01:12,000 --> 01:01:15,480
what Floyd became, you know,
and you know the later days, the

963
01:01:15,760 --> 01:01:17,840
money, you know, money Mayweather
and the mega pay per view events and

964
01:01:19,679 --> 01:01:22,639
all that. And he kept his
hunger, and he still always trained hard

965
01:01:22,679 --> 01:01:25,079
and still put on big time performances
and won all of his sights. But

966
01:01:25,199 --> 01:01:30,639
this was like the young hungry I
want to take the world by storm Floyd

967
01:01:30,679 --> 01:01:35,320
Mayweather. He had won the WBC
one hundred and thirty pound title against a

968
01:01:35,480 --> 01:01:37,719
fighter who I believe is I voted
for him for the Hall of Fame at

969
01:01:37,760 --> 01:01:40,800
times when he's when I could find
spot on my ballot, and that is

970
01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:45,280
the late great Gennaro Hernandez, who
had never lost a fight at one hundred

971
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:49,440
and thirty pounds until he lost the
final doubt of his career against Floyd Mayweather.

972
01:01:49,719 --> 01:01:52,719
He had been knocked out by Floyd
in or retired on the stool with

973
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:55,679
just had had enough of taking a
beating. This is October of nineteen ninety

974
01:01:55,679 --> 01:01:58,920
eight. Like I said, that
was his last fight. He had never

975
01:01:59,000 --> 01:02:01,800
lost previous in one hundred and thirty
five pounds. He had lost to Oscar

976
01:02:01,880 --> 01:02:05,400
del Lo Hoye, but that was
at a light in a lightweight fight.

977
01:02:06,119 --> 01:02:10,119
So now Floyd thum his back barely
six weeks later. You know, we

978
01:02:10,119 --> 01:02:14,519
talk about activity all the time.
I mean six weeks. I mean Tyson

979
01:02:14,559 --> 01:02:17,079
Fury. He probably hasn't seen the
gym in six weeks since the fight between

980
01:02:17,119 --> 01:02:22,159
him and Naganu and angel Man Freddy. He wasn't coming back six weeks later

981
01:02:22,199 --> 01:02:24,320
to fight just a stumble bumber,
just a regular guy. Angel Man Freddy

982
01:02:24,360 --> 01:02:29,679
at that time was pretty much the
number one Contenderly, I don't know what

983
01:02:29,719 --> 01:02:31,840
he was in the sangsting bodies,
but he was pretty much like the people's

984
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:35,320
number one contender. Like he was
a guy that was getting a lot of

985
01:02:35,360 --> 01:02:39,960
attention. He was fighting on HBO. He had beaten a sad fight for

986
01:02:40,039 --> 01:02:44,360
me earlier in nineteen ninety eight.
He had knocked out on a cut Arturo

987
01:02:44,440 --> 01:02:47,199
Gotti, which was a huge win
for him. He had beaten John Brown,

988
01:02:47,239 --> 01:02:50,480
which was like a decent win for
him, and he gets the opportunity

989
01:02:50,519 --> 01:02:52,559
to fight Floyd. A lot of
people thought he might have a chance because

990
01:02:52,559 --> 01:02:54,360
he was a good puncher, and
you know, he seemed to have a

991
01:02:54,360 --> 01:02:59,559
good chin, and Floyd put it
on him and stopped him on his feet

992
01:02:59,559 --> 01:03:00,960
in the second round with just an
onslaught of shots. Some people thought it

993
01:03:00,960 --> 01:03:05,280
was a quick stoppage. Actually went
back and watched that fight in its entirety

994
01:03:05,320 --> 01:03:08,480
on YouTube just the other day when
it was the anniversary. Absolutely not a

995
01:03:08,519 --> 01:03:13,039
quick stoppage. He was taking one
massive shot after another. He was still

996
01:03:13,039 --> 01:03:15,519
on his feet. But how at
some point the refs got to jump in

997
01:03:15,519 --> 01:03:17,039
there and stop it because he was
just his head was rocking back and forth.

998
01:03:17,320 --> 01:03:22,239
That was a very, very big
win Floyd's first ever title defense and

999
01:03:22,280 --> 01:03:24,960
a career that was filled with pretty
much title defenses every single fight the rest

1000
01:03:25,000 --> 01:03:28,519
of the way for him from ninety
eight to the time he retired. And

1001
01:03:29,280 --> 01:03:31,599
that to me, maybe it's not
the number one victory of his career,

1002
01:03:31,639 --> 01:03:37,239
but that's if you were ranking like
to Floyd's like best wins. Certainly had

1003
01:03:37,239 --> 01:03:39,039
one hundred and thirty pounds where he
reigned for quite a while. That was

1004
01:03:39,079 --> 01:03:43,199
one of his best coats. He's
as scending. He's ascending at that point

1005
01:03:43,239 --> 01:03:46,679
in December of nineteen ninety eight,
and he was like, you're seeing the

1006
01:03:46,679 --> 01:03:50,800
future right there. And he was
a bad boy back then. I mean

1007
01:03:50,960 --> 01:03:53,000
because at one thirty he had not
got power, you know it. Maybe

1008
01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:54,800
he didn't carry it all the way
up to when he fought a lot of

1009
01:03:54,800 --> 01:03:59,000
the fights at you know, welterweight. But at one hundred and thirty,

1010
01:03:59,280 --> 01:04:02,760
Floyd could not get out the year
before again, and I still remember watching

1011
01:04:02,760 --> 01:04:06,639
this one live and I've relived it
several times, and I saw the clip

1012
01:04:08,000 --> 01:04:11,159
that was out there on social media
for the anniversary this week. The Prince

1013
01:04:11,679 --> 01:04:14,960
Nasim Hahmed and Kevin Kelly. We've
talked about this on the press conference before

1014
01:04:14,960 --> 01:04:17,280
because that was his US debut.
He showed up in New York. Remember

1015
01:04:17,320 --> 01:04:20,239
you love my line. He's,
well, we're Sindy Crawford. Where Cindy

1016
01:04:20,280 --> 01:04:24,400
Crawford. He was looking for Cindy
Crawford, the supermodel, the hot Cindy

1017
01:04:24,400 --> 01:04:29,000
Crawford. And then this delivered.
This delivered on big punches from both guys

1018
01:04:29,000 --> 01:04:33,239
and eventually a Haamed win. This
to me is one of my all time

1019
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:36,119
top ten favorite fights. Like if
I was on a desert island and they

1020
01:04:36,119 --> 01:04:40,119
say you can take you know,
a video of your ten favorite fights,

1021
01:04:40,119 --> 01:04:42,599
this would be in that list of
ten favorite fights that would take with me.

1022
01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:45,599
I adore this fight, and actually
I've told the story before to my

1023
01:04:45,719 --> 01:04:48,599
friends who work at Madison Square Garden, who I've gotten to know over the

1024
01:04:48,679 --> 01:04:53,039
years because I've covered, you know, dozens and dozens of events at Madison

1025
01:04:53,079 --> 01:04:56,280
Square Garden through the years, pretty
much every big fight that's taking place.

1026
01:04:56,280 --> 01:04:59,159
I had the garden for the last
twenty plus years. Back at the time

1027
01:04:59,199 --> 01:05:01,199
that Kevin Kelly Fough Prince Nasimi I
met, I was a reporter at the

1028
01:05:01,199 --> 01:05:03,639
newspaper in Binghamton, New York,
which is like, you know, a

1029
01:05:03,679 --> 01:05:06,239
two hour drive from New York City, which you know, I had gone

1030
01:05:06,239 --> 01:05:11,920
there for different reasons during the course
of my employment there, and this was

1031
01:05:11,960 --> 01:05:14,679
like a big deal fight. I
actually somehow convinced my boss. I don't

1032
01:05:14,679 --> 01:05:15,719
even know how that worked. I
was like, I'd like to cover that

1033
01:05:15,760 --> 01:05:18,280
fight. He's like, you know
what, Okay, go ahead. So

1034
01:05:18,440 --> 01:05:21,800
I sent in a creditial request for
that fight, and I was rejected.

1035
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:26,840
It's the only time I've ever been
rejected for a pretential match in my life,

1036
01:05:26,880 --> 01:05:30,039
because my other fights I was covering
were either local where I was working

1037
01:05:30,320 --> 01:05:32,679
or and then I'm working as like
the writer for USA Today, entity for

1038
01:05:33,000 --> 01:05:35,000
ESPN. And then of course,
you know, with twenty five years,

1039
01:05:35,199 --> 01:05:40,000
as I like to joke all the
time, you handled rejection well because since

1040
01:05:40,039 --> 01:05:42,960
then you've had a tremendous career continuing
on. You were rejected here, but

1041
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,840
it's still a great fight. So
the funny thing about that fight is so

1042
01:05:45,880 --> 01:05:48,280
I had a like like any any
person that's ever worked as a sportswriter at

1043
01:05:48,280 --> 01:05:51,519
like a local newspaper, particularly at
that time of the year. You know,

1044
01:05:51,559 --> 01:05:55,280
you're working on Friday nights, you're
working on Saturday nights or high school

1045
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:58,760
games and basketball and football and this
and that. So I had to work

1046
01:05:58,800 --> 01:06:02,079
that night, you know, at
the newspaper, and so it was very

1047
01:06:02,119 --> 01:06:05,519
difficult, but I was somehow I
managed to avoid the result because we were

1048
01:06:05,559 --> 01:06:08,920
getting you know, we had a
thing about it in the newspaper. I

1049
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:11,639
didn't look at the result on the
what's called the wire back in the old

1050
01:06:11,679 --> 01:06:15,320
days, this is pre internet,
where the stories would come into your computer's

1051
01:06:15,920 --> 01:06:20,000
file. I got home, I
had I had set the the VCR to

1052
01:06:20,079 --> 01:06:24,400
tape the HBO broadcast. I you
know, it was done. I rewound

1053
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:30,159
it and I like plausibly lie without
knowing the result. Watched the cart fucking

1054
01:06:30,159 --> 01:06:33,079
great fight by the way, very
underrated because everybody just talks about the main

1055
01:06:33,119 --> 01:06:38,559
event between Kevin Kelly and the Cinea
met Is the co feature the other televised

1056
01:06:38,559 --> 01:06:42,519
fight that it was a tremendous battle. This was for the WBO one and

1057
01:06:42,559 --> 01:06:45,280
twenty two pound title, and a
lot of people thought that the winner of

1058
01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:47,519
that fight eventually might become an opponent
for the winner of the main event.

1059
01:06:47,719 --> 01:06:51,679
It ultimately didn't happen with Hamed,
But that was a fight between Kennedy McKinney

1060
01:06:53,119 --> 01:06:57,519
and Junior Jones, two very outstanding
fighters in and around Wait for several years.

1061
01:06:57,719 --> 01:07:00,320
And McKinney scored the fourth round knockout
in a big upset over Julis Joys.

1062
01:07:00,519 --> 01:07:03,440
Stop you and make you say Memphis, Tennessee. Is Kennedy mcknny because

1063
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:08,280
I'm from there? And he knocked
out Poison Jones that night, And Junior

1064
01:07:08,360 --> 01:07:12,800
Jones was coming off of two back
to back wins against Marco Antonio Brera where

1065
01:07:12,800 --> 01:07:15,559
he won this belt in big upset. So that was a real good,

1066
01:07:15,639 --> 01:07:18,360
exciting shootout in the first fight.
Then you get to the main event and

1067
01:07:18,440 --> 01:07:24,119
Hamed has had all this publicity,
massive, massive publicity. He's fighting Kevin

1068
01:07:24,280 --> 01:07:27,840
who's from New York, who's a
jabbermouth himself, who talked it up.

1069
01:07:28,039 --> 01:07:30,440
That was a tremendous promotion. And
there was all this stuff about if Hamed

1070
01:07:30,519 --> 01:07:34,079
takes too long with his ring entrance, that Kevin Kelly's gonna leave the ring.

1071
01:07:34,400 --> 01:07:39,960
And what happens. You got Ahmed
behind the current on the ramp high

1072
01:07:40,000 --> 01:07:43,840
above the garden, takes him like
literally like ten twelve minutes to walk to

1073
01:07:43,880 --> 01:07:46,320
the ring. Kelly's in there with
the army fatigues on warming up. It's

1074
01:07:46,679 --> 01:07:51,000
and you got George and George Foreman
and Jim Lampley are doing the HBO broadcast

1075
01:07:51,079 --> 01:07:55,480
with Jim Lampley and Foreman's like,
I love this. It's like the circus

1076
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:58,840
blah blah, and merchants like I
think this is the end of civilization as

1077
01:07:58,880 --> 01:08:01,239
we know it. It was just
the greatest setup. And then they get

1078
01:08:01,280 --> 01:08:05,000
in the ring and Hamid is his
favorite. He's the post to explode and

1079
01:08:05,239 --> 01:08:09,119
show everybody what he can do,
and like a minute into the fight,

1080
01:08:09,159 --> 01:08:12,159
he's on his ass with a shot
from Kevin Kelly and the war is on.

1081
01:08:12,440 --> 01:08:15,760
They end up combining for like six
knockdowns yep, in the absolute epic

1082
01:08:15,800 --> 01:08:19,239
shootout, one of the great you
know it's Larry again. I'm gonna I

1083
01:08:19,319 --> 01:08:23,239
quote Larry Merchant on this show a
lot because he's so great at what he

1084
01:08:23,279 --> 01:08:25,880
did. But he and this is
him coming up with this in real time

1085
01:08:26,279 --> 01:08:30,720
when the fight's finally over after the
six knockdowns and it ends and Kevin Kelly

1086
01:08:30,760 --> 01:08:34,640
gets knocked out in round four and
Larry Merchant says, this is the haggler

1087
01:08:34,720 --> 01:08:39,600
hearns of featherweight fighting, and he
was right, and in some ways it's

1088
01:08:39,640 --> 01:08:44,239
better than Hagler. It's more knockdowns, lasted one round longer, a lot

1089
01:08:44,279 --> 01:08:48,239
more punch is thrown, and just
a spectacular war. Hahmed ended up in

1090
01:08:48,279 --> 01:08:51,199
the Hall of Fame as he deserved. He ended up unifying or should have

1091
01:08:51,199 --> 01:08:55,960
been the undisputed four bell champion,
but for politics that prevented him from doing

1092
01:08:55,960 --> 01:09:00,199
that. A classic, classic,
classic fight. If you've never seen it,

1093
01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:05,880
go see it, go relive it
because it's worth fifteen twenty minutes.

1094
01:09:06,159 --> 01:09:11,399
The ring walk and then the fight, but the hubri of Ahmid, like

1095
01:09:11,920 --> 01:09:14,640
that, all the shit that he
talked and then like right in the first

1096
01:09:15,119 --> 01:09:17,279
knocked on his ass, and I
have heard the HBO exegu's talking about how

1097
01:09:17,279 --> 01:09:20,399
embarrassed to work because they spent like
zillions of dollars and like this is the

1098
01:09:20,439 --> 01:09:24,479
investment of guys on his rear end
in the first round, but he came

1099
01:09:24,520 --> 01:09:27,039
back and made it an absolute sens
We talk about this all the time.

1100
01:09:27,079 --> 01:09:30,359
That's the true measure of do you
have some greatness in you? Is you

1101
01:09:30,439 --> 01:09:32,239
face adversity, you go down like
that and you get up and you put

1102
01:09:32,239 --> 01:09:36,359
the performance on that he did because
he lost the fight, Bostom leveled Kevin

1103
01:09:36,439 --> 01:09:40,399
Kelly in the end to get the
win. So yes, go relive that

1104
01:09:40,479 --> 01:09:43,960
man. Thinking about that. This
was the first time a lot of boxing

1105
01:09:44,000 --> 01:09:46,439
fans were seeing I'm med now.
He had appeared on ABC's Wide World of

1106
01:09:46,479 --> 01:09:50,479
Sports. He had made a couple
of appearances on Showtime, but this was

1107
01:09:50,520 --> 01:09:54,560
the first time he was ever in
the United States for a fight and promoted

1108
01:09:54,760 --> 01:09:58,720
to the United States audience. There
was billboards up in Manhattan. It was

1109
01:09:58,760 --> 01:10:01,520
like a big, big media campaign
and this was like a big to do

1110
01:10:02,039 --> 01:10:08,039
and they delivered a big time and
Kevin Kelly was a great you know spoiler

1111
01:10:08,079 --> 01:10:11,039
for him also because he could promote. Also, I just I absolutely love

1112
01:10:11,079 --> 01:10:13,960
this fight. Love it, love
it, love it tremendous, great nostalgia,

1113
01:10:14,039 --> 01:10:16,800
busy show lots On the day of
reckoning fight card, a reminder that

1114
01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:20,880
we will be on the bet Us
Boxing Show one Eastern time Friday. Look

1115
01:10:21,000 --> 01:10:26,760
forward to handicapping on the bet Us
platforms. What's going to go on with

1116
01:10:26,800 --> 01:10:30,760
the Anthony Joshua Auto Bileen fight as
well as Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker.

1117
01:10:30,800 --> 01:10:33,920
Will probably handacap a couple of other
fights there as well. So join us

1118
01:10:33,920 --> 01:10:40,000
at one Eastern time on Friday with
that, my friend, whatever happens here

1119
01:10:40,119 --> 01:10:44,199
again, we're back to recap it
on this podcast feed and it will be

1120
01:10:44,279 --> 01:10:48,399
out early earlier for the Christmas weekend. We'll be back with a recap with

1121
01:10:48,439 --> 01:10:51,399
whatever goes on here, Dan Rayphiel, I know we're looking forward to it

1122
01:10:51,399 --> 01:10:56,079
one more time. We are looking
forward to it. It's gonna be a

1123
01:10:56,079 --> 01:10:58,960
lot of fun. We thank you, We thank you for listening. However

1124
01:10:59,039 --> 01:11:03,239
you found us on a social media
link Dan substack following Subscribe, Apple Podcasts,

1125
01:11:03,239 --> 01:11:06,880
Breaker, Spotify, Google podcast It
is the Big Fight Weekend preview we'll

1126
01:11:06,880 --> 01:11:10,239
have a fight preach to Unite recap
coming off the weekend. For now,

1127
01:11:10,239 --> 01:11:15,399
we're good. Enjoy all the fights
by