Let's do this. Three two didn't countdown? Is on to fight time.
This is big. Well, we have reached last weekend of the calendar year
and the day of reckoning. It's about to be here. Heavyweight main event
doubleheader in Saudi Arabia. So much to talk about for that fight card,
all the undercard fights, including a couple of title fights that are on it,
and much more. In the preview mode, Hello there, and welcome
in. I am merely the somewhat capable host TJ. Reeves. He's our
insider Fight Freaks U Night is his substack Big fight Weekend dot Com as well.
Hello Dan Rayfield as we come in on the preview mode here. However,
they have found us. We are ready to preview, highly anticipate.
I know it's all the way over to Middle East. We're in the United
States and it's going to be on TV, on pay per view, et
cetera. But we're getting amped up about this. Just before the Christmas holiday.
We've had Hanukah, we've had Kwan, so we've had fest of Us
for the rest of us. We got Christmas coming up, and we got
a big fight card here, and I know you're excited about it. I'm
excited about it. We're ready to talk to some about it here on the
program. Yeah, listen, this is a big show, so we got
plenty to get through. We got a lot of news, we got a
lot of stuff. So let's do it. Yes, let's do a reminder
rate us in review us. Several of you have done that. It does
help us out in the ratings and the rankings with the algorithms, more people
will find it. Rate us review us. Take thirty seconds and tell us
that you've enjoyed this podcast in twenty twenty three. And if you're near to
the podcast, it doesn't matter if you've only recently recently been listening. You
can still help rate us in review us. Apple Podcasts, Preacher, Spotify,
Google Podcasts, wherever you get podcasts. We love it and thank you
for finding us again to the audience by the tens of thousands, you continue
to find us every week preview mode, going into the weekend, recap mode.
Off the weekend, I will explain to the audience, so we want
to let them in on this because of the Christmas holiday and Christmas Eve,
we're anticipating the recap podcast. Maybe out don't tell anybody it may be out
early, like Saturday night ish before Christmas, like a bonus in the stocking
for you peeps that you're gonna get the recap podcast earlier than the normal Sunday
night into Monday timeline. Because somebody's got to make room for Santa. Do
you realize we've never talked about this. Santa doesn't come down the chimney in
Florida. You know why because we don't have chimneys. So you know what
you have to do. You have to leave Santa the magic key, just
like we leave for Rayfaield. You have the magic key so Santa can come
in the house and do it because he can't come down the chimney. So
before Santa's down the chimney or the magic key for Christmas, the recap podcast
will be out. This is the preview podcast with all of that hullabaloo out
of the way. Have you been drinking? I have not, no,
and you know me, I don't drink alcohol. I'm just normally this whacked.
So let's get to it. We will get to the fights themselves.
But you have reported this now over the course of the last twenty four hours
plus. It's out there. Depending on when they're hearing the podcast through your
substack, through your reporting that Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder have agreed, and
there's intriguing details that should they both win, and they likely will, there's
intriguing details that it is not just one fight that they've agreed to. So
go ahead and articulate what you've been already writing about. So as opposed to
previous reporting elsewhere that there was a done deal for March ninth for this fight,
that was not entirely accurate. Now all terms are agreed to, not
just the money, everything in terms of what you need to do to make
a fight. Everything is agreed to the paperworkers with the teams. They are
expected to be signed for Joshua and Wilder to face each other on March ninth,
for those papers to be signed prior to their entrance to the ring at
some point between now and on Saturday, when they fight their bouts against Joshua
against Otto Baleen and Wilder against Joseph Parker. So that adds pressure, I
guess, and anticipation and just another layer of the story. But it's a
deal that's not just one fight. It's the first fight in March and look
at it. If they don't lose, but there's an injury obviously, you
know, like what happened with Tyson Fury, a fight can be moved in
terms of the date, but the anticipation would be March ninth is far enough
away from from now where that shouldn't be a problem. They would fight March
ninth, with a second fight to take place regardless of the outcome, by
the end of twenty twenty four. And one of the details I did report
was that unlike your typical rematch class scenario where there's you know, two top
names and both guys have the opportunity to have a rematch if they lose,
where the loser gets to exercise the right to have the rematch if they so
desire, I am told that this is not that same situation. This is
a case where both fighters and the Saudi's who are bankrolling this, everybody's on
board. It's automatic, two fights, period. Nobody has an option to
get out of it, you know, I mean, I guess a fighter
could retire, maybe, sure. The point is that whoever wins or loses
and the Saudi's, everybody's on the hook for whatever the terms of the they
agree to for these fights. And by the way, these guys are going
to make tens and tens of millions of dollars for these two fights and their
fights. That's a fight that Look, I know it's five years past when
it should have been, but we still want to see Anthony Joshua against Deontay
Wilder if they win their fights on Saturday, and that's the good news that
they are going to fight. Let me follow up on that point. Does
it surprise you that they would both be willing to lock into that money?
I understand because the theory would be that the winner of a Joshua Wilder fight
is now primed to possibly fight Fury Usic winner at some point. Now you're
locked into two fights that are the championship fights. That's all I'm saying.
So give me your thought on that. First of all, the fact that
it's not a championship fight is you know, I mean, it's meaningful,
but it's not the end of the world. I actually had this conversation with
somebody the other day when I was yesterday, when I was talking about this
with somebody about this deal between Joshua and Wilder, and not that they're heavyweights,
but think back. One of the great rivalries, you know, from
the last twenty five years, let's say, was Eric Morales and Manny Pakia.
Tremendous battles between the two of them, certainly their first two fights.
Two superstars, two Hall of famers. You know, Morales is already in
pack you of course will be as soon as he's eligible. What people don't
realize or remember or frankly give a shit about is that they fought three times,
and not one of those fights was a world title fight. They were
all like regional belts and this, and that there was never a real world
title. Let's take and so if Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua were two of
the biggest heavyweight stars of their time, I mean, it's really in my
mind as like a three headed monster in a sense of the of this year's
superstar heavyweights. It's Joshua, It's Wilder, and obviously it's Tyson and Fury.
And no disrespect to Alexander Usik, he's a great fighter, but I
don't consider him a star because he just hasn't resonated beyond his own smallish fan
base. But they're really the three big guys, even as great as Usik
is, so the fact that these matches would probably not be for a title
is not relevant. But also something to think about is because boxing is boxing,
and what crazy shit does happen by the time they get to a second
fight. In my mind, it's not out of the realm of possibility that
there could be some vacant title floating around, or maybe there is a belt
that stake. You just never know what's gonna be up with that. So
I'm not worried about the title or no title. I don't really care.
I've I've followed and covered the entire professional careers of both men, and I'm
anxious to see them finally fight each other. Obviously, we'll see what happens
on Saturday's fight card, but it's a big fight. And the folks in
Saudi Arabia that put these events together, that bank roll these events, uh
you know with a Turkey alashiki from the General Entertainment authority, you know bank
you know, putting up this money. I've made the point recently that any
fight in the world that is conceivable, they can make if they want,
because they have the money and they're willing to spend it. So when we
talk about Joshua Wilder. We're gonna get it twice. We wanted. We
wanted to see, you know, Fury versus Usik to fight sk scheduled for
February. We want to see you know, a lot of people are very
interesting Tyson Fury against Nangano, you know, the two big heavyweights from their
respective sports that happened in October. And by the way, there's a very
good likelihood that if Dimitri Bievil defends his title on this undercard and wins,
and Arthur better Viev defends his title in January and wins, that they'll becoming
a call in and making a big fight between those two guys to unify and
for light heavyweight supremacy at some point in twenty twenty four. My point is
only that if it's a big fight and they feel like they're interested, the
fights can be made. And it's very obvious when you take the way that
the fractured nature of the sport is and how promoters and networks and people don't
want to get along and deal with each other. A lot of times I
count it up from day of reckoning, they're working with literally fourteen different promotional
entities in terms of all these fights on the show, and the fights available
not only on his own pay per view in the United States, but also
on ESPN plus pay per view, and in the UK not only his own
pay per view, but also on now what's called TNT sports payper view,
the former BT Sports. My point is they pay so much money and they're
so involved in bringing these together that for that gigantic bite of the apple,
everybody will work together, and so it's worth it for everybody. It is
worth it. We'll get into those specific matchups in a couple of moments.
By the way, I did not mention at the top that Sadik Ahmed,
who is covering things for Big Fight Weekend dot Com, is in Saudi Arabia.
How about that he is there and has been part of the press proceedings,
etc. We'll hear from him later on on the build up to this.
He was at the Thursday press conferences. I thought it was quite interesting
that Jerrell Miller, even after the TV portion of it canceled, Jerrell Miller,
Big Baby Miller, was kind of the personality screaming, calling everybody out.
Anyway, Sadik will tell you more, give you a little taste of
what it's like there, and do they care as much in and around RIODD
and the Rio ODD season as much as we the fight fans do when we
want to see this. How much are they locally regionally caring about this?
Sadek will give us a taste as you mention, because a lot of people
have no idea about this. The pay per view is all eight fights and
it starts at eleven o'clock in the morning time. That means it's gonna be
like in the afternoon Britain time, and by the time the main event takes
place you're talking about, you know, two o'clock in the morning ish in
Saudi Arabia, it's gonna span a good seven to eight hours at least and
lunch pint pack of lunch is right, all right? So Sideki give us
more on that in a few moments. Okay, So you wrote this leading
up the day of reckoning? Can I you want me to say it to
IBF? What are we doing here with the ji Opataia title defense for the
Cruiserweight Championship. I read this and I don't understand what what is the issue
with having him defend their belt and ordering whether he wins or the opponent upsets
him. Bradus is the next fight. I don't get it. Help me.
So I've been covering sanctioning bodies shit for like my entire career, and
there's been a lot of goofy things that have happened. This is one of
the wackiest, most nonsensical things I can possibly think of. So you have
ji Opataia and how standing champion who very legitimately won their title in a great
battle against Myrus Braidess uh and then had a jaw injury, was out for
you know, a year or so, came back, had done a co
promotion deal between his people with Tasman fighters in natural boxing, defended the title.
Just I got a month or two ago and got a nice knockout,
and now they had ordered a rematch between him and Braidess. Fine, nobody's
nobody doesn't want to see that fight. If you follow the Cruiser weights,
that was a great first battle. Everybody was interested to do the fight.
Myris Braidis has got an injury and will not be available fight just oh oh,
because they by the way he's hurt her. They would have liked to
have the bredest rematch on the day of reckoning cart, of course, but
the key point is he's hurt on so the IBF had already ordered the fight.
So with him not available, both sides, the Opataia camp and the
Braidest camp told the IBF, you know, we're good, let him do
with them fight again, and he's gonna fight Elis Zorro, a British undefeated
fighter on this undercard. Uh and well, now will be a lineal title
defense even if the IBF is not available. But what they were telling the
IBF was, look, he let him do his interim fight. We promise
you we will do our fight by the end of February twenty twenty four,
which led me to believe that it probably would have been on the undercart of
Tyson Fury against Alexander Usig. But that's not gonna happen now because they're not
fighting and we'll go from there. And the IBF was like, no,
the rules are the rules, so they would have stripped him. But but
but Opataiah just vacated because it was sort of you know, you know,
are you fired or do you quit? I mean, what the hell's the
difference? But what's so fucking perplexing is this It's not like the IBF is
suddenly going to have Myra's greatest fight for the vacant title in the next by
February anyway. So they're like, he's he but if he wasn't, there's
no dates between now and February anyway, and any of the big platforms that
he would fight on. But Braid is told this is where it's baddening,
and you're right. Brad has told him, I'm fine with this. I'm
injured. I can't fight the guy. I'll fight the winner, and if
he's not the winner, I'll fight the other guy for the IBF belt this
or I fight for the vacant title. But even if he fights for the
vacant title, I won't be until early next year at the earliest anyway.
So what the problem I have here is whatever the letter of the rules are.
And believe me, I'm all for following the rules, and I have
said this numerous times. Many of the rules in the IBF, while they
follow them, are either antiquated or need to be clarified a little bit better,
or leave at least the ability to follow common sense. So when I
look at this situation, I see everybody involved is okay with the plan,
the challenger is not aggrieved. The champion gets to continue to do his job
and make money and have a career. The promoters have no problem with it.
Having the titles active is good for the IBF. They're still going to
get their sanction fee, Like now, they're not going to get a fee
on this fight, which you know is weird that there wouldn't the fight.
So it just makes it makes no sense on any level whatsoever. And so
I mean, look, the IBF can do what they want. I'm not
going to sit here and you know they're not like they're not being corrupt or
anything. It's you know, like which a lot of sanctioning bodies have been
in the past, and you can make accusations and find examples, but this
is just one that's like just makes absolutely zero sense. So you know,
Myer's Greatest will fight somebody for the vacant IBF title. It probably won't take
place till at least probably March at the earliest. And in the meantime,
they would have had Greatest versus Opataiah or Zoro sometime in February, but their
own reasons. It's just it's so fucking stupid. It's stupid. It's we're
in agreement, it's stupid. The is Opataia is the lineal champion. He's
defending the lineal title again Zorro. It's a twelve round fight. And by
the way, the reason that he vacated and didn't fall off this card and
do something else. And it's like, like Opatai and his team said in
their statement, I can't, I can't. I work my First of all,
I worked my ass off to get this IBF title. I went through
hell, I broke my jaw. It was like a massive battle, and
I was proud to have the title, which he should be. He earned
it. But how in the world could I follow what you're asking me to
do and not do this fight on this big card when I'm being paid my
career high payday and he's not made a ton of money. His purse for
this fight coming up, I want to tell you, is around four hundred
and fifty thousand dollars. He has a three fight deal with the Read Seasons,
folks. I believe it's three fights that's going to pay him all in
in excess of two million dollars for a man that's never made that kind of
money that is a life changing family securing money. And you can't take your
belt and pay your light bill. You can't take your belt and pay your
mortgage. You can't take your belt to the grocery store. Actually you can
take it to a part. You could take into a drawn shop and you
can maybe get some money. But I understand your metaphor or shading your premise.
Yes, that's your point. The point is the belt is nice to
have and it's important to the legacy, but it doesn't in the real world
that most people live in who are not wealthy and open time is not that
guy. The belt can't help to pay your bills and support your children and
pay for your family and this and that. So it was just a short
sighted decision from the IBF and it You know, I don't hate them or
anything like that. I mean, I rather think some of the folks.
I know what the IBA for a good pas, but still we don't hold
back. We don't hold back. If you're stupid, we're gonna say it's
stupid. And you make all kinds of exceptions all the time if everybody's cool
with it, and you even let people get bought off, you let people
get paid step aside money too to let these things happen. So the one
hundred and fifty four pounds mandatory bakra Mertazlov has stepped aside. I believe.
I had this conversation also. I said, I think he's taken three step
aside deals. The person said, I think it's actually been four. Point
is they've taken step aside after step aside after step aside, which was okay
with the challenger and with the champions. So again, nobody has agreeved,
but I think at some point that does agree because it agrees the guy that's
number two or number three that's waiting and waiting and waiting to become the mandatory.
In this case, you're talking about putting off a mandatory fight for like
a couple of months while a guy heals from injury and another guy makes a
career payday. And by the way, let's just play it out because we're
moving on. If Bradest was still injured, you could order Opataiah to then
fight the number two or number three guy. If he doesn't want to do
it stripping, then I'm making too much sense. I'm making too much sense.
On the big fight. We can preview A right, So what are
we doing here? What are we doing here? Thank you? All right?
Opataia is still fighting Zoro, by the way, on the card.
Even if the IBF says it's not a title fight, you and I and
most boxing people will consider it a title fight. How about that. It's
a deal. All right. Back to the main Let's just go chronologically the
main events. You've talked to Otto, Violeen. Most believe Joshua is favored,
but most believe that Voleen could maybe give him some trouble. We got
Wilder and Joseph Parker. That's a little wider odds. Most believe Wilder wins
at some point by knockout. Give me, give me your quick thoughts on
the two main events. Then we'll go over the other fights quickly on that
card and move on. All right. But with Joshua and Otto, Valley
and I do think it's a more dangerous fight for Joshua than than Parker is
for a Wilder, just because of the reasons you just said, Otto being
a south paw, being a good fighter, still fresh, whereas Parker is
a good fighter but has taken some punishment. As says Deontay, also But
in terms of that matchup between Joshua and Otto, it's a good fight.
I mean, I know we wanted to see Joshua Wilder in this spot,
but you know what, the fact that if they win, were getting it
in March. I'm fine with it. And I've been fine with this show
all long, particularly because they're only charging thirty nine to ninety nine for the
pay per view instead of you know, the lunacy of eighty five dollars like
a lot of these other bigger pay per views have been priced at, like
it was with Tyson Fury against Francis Nagano. In any event, Joshua's sort
of been interesting this week. We I before he left and went from London
to Saudi Arabia, he was made available to myself and a few others on
a zoom call. I actually had to missed that zoom call, but I
have watched it back and you know, used it for some quotes and stuff.
But you know, he has, you know, like Anthony usually does,
good demeanor, friendly smiling, he seems a little bit more uptight now
that I've seen some of the footage and the comments and the interviews from while
he's in Saudi Arabia. He's changed trainers again, you know, the the
Wilder stuff. I know he's getting tired of hearing about and talking about.
I feel like he might be slightly distracted. I don't know, and Otto
is like, what was the cucover. He's a true pro, He's got
nothing to lose. He's the underdog. But he's just coming off a big
win himself and an eliminator that took place just a couple of months ago in
Turkey against Marac Gosiede, and so he's feeling good. I mean, Joshua
should feel good about himself. You know, he does have two wins this
year, so he should be fresh and good to go. He has a
win over Jermaine Franklin, He's got the knockout against Robert Alaneus. So I
don't know what to expect. I mean, look, I have nothing against
Otto, and I'm not anti Otto. I'd be less than honest myself.
I hope that Joshua Wilder win. I'm just being real because I want to
see them fight each other. But if the other guys win, I mean,
so be it. I mean, I've got nothing against anybody in those
two fights. I rather like Otto Valley and jos Parker, all four guys
of which I have met, known and interviewed over the years. What do
you make of Valeen even said this to you, that he saw what Usik
was able to do off the right jab and the movement, He's obviously going
to try to emulate or copy some of that. Do you believe that that
still lingers here until Joshua can put it to rest by big punch or whatever
tactical change that what Valen intends to do. And maybe he's not able to
do what Usak did with movement with handspeed, that that could be a problem
for Joshua South Paul Rus trade him. He looks ugly in the fight,
but still wins, et cetera, et cetera. Anything on that. Well,
the thing about it is, I mean, Otto is not the caliber
boxer of Alexander Usik, That's for sure. Nobody in the heavyweight division is,
frankly given his skills and usk. Yes, he did out box Anthony
Joshua and it was very frustrating, I think to Joshua dealing with the South
bust style in those fights of that, but there were moments in that fight
where Usik not known as his devastating puncher was doing damage on Joshua because he
kept because he was having a hard time dealing with that style. Otto,
I'm sure he's a very cerebral kind of fighter. I guarantee you that they've
gone to school on those videos in terms of how he fights against lefties,
and they're definitely taking some stuff out of that. But by the same token,
you got to figure after going twenty four rounds with Alexander Rusik and having
whatever issues he had, he would hope that Joshua would have looked and seen
what he did and also been able to make improvements and learn certain things about
how he operated in those fights to make sure he doesn't do those things.
So, you know, it's sort of like a two edge sword, I
suppose. But in the end, it's two heavyweights with a lot of goals
and dreams and they're gonna be going at it. I think it's going to
be a pretty good fight. One thing about Otto Valley and is I think,
based on his career in his track record, that he's got a good
shin. He took some heavy shots from Tyson Ferry, never went you know,
not knocked out or anything like that. In the fight. That's his
only loss. You know, he's been in with some other solid punchers.
Gas he was a good puncher. You know, Travis Coffin was a good
puncher at heavyweight. He beat him. So I think that's a good,
solid, tough fight. Well, I'd ask for Wilder and Parker, and
again we're going to handicap these fights one Eastern time bet Us show coming Friday
afternoon. Bet Us platforms their YouTube for Wilder and Parker. The way that
I set it up and just pick it up from here, most believe this
is a Wilder win, if not a knockout, and maybe even a quick
knockout. Here, you don't have to reveal everything on what you're going to
predict, but you've been watching the press conferences. You spoke to Deontay recently
in that media gathering, and we played part of that interview recently on the
podcast feed. What is your overall thought? Could this will? This?
Will this be Wilder's return from being out of the ring about fourteen months to
win, to win impressively. That's what we think. But what do you
think? I know? I don't know. I think nobody somebody that says
they know, right, dying. And the reason I say is because if
you look at what Deontay has done in his recent past fights going you know,
he had the one punch. Now, let's go back to twenty nineteen.
He had the one punch knockout against Dominic Brazil that was a spectacular knock
out of the year kind of fight in the first round. He followed that
up with a second fight that year where he lost every single round against Louis
King knork he's in their rematch, and then he raced him with one punch,
and that one punch erasure maybe makes you overlook the fact that he couldn't
win around before he lands the big punch. Okay, at that point he's
an undefeated champion. Then he has the second fight against Tyson Fury and the
third fight against Tyson Fury that were separated by you know, quite a you
know, a year almost, you know, a year plus. In those
two fights and a half year and a half, he got badly dominated and
blitzed and stopped and knocked down multiple times in the second fight and got knocked
out. He then had an all time plastic where he had Fury on the
deck a couple of times in the in the third fight, one of the
it's the greatest heavyweight fight I've ever recovered. That was in October of twenty
twenty one. And in the end, Tyson Fury scored a very brutal knockout
against tight against Deontay Wilder, a very very harsh, very violent, a
very very bad knockout against Selder. I mean, there's different levels of knockouts,
and this was about it. This was a fight where Deontay absorbed massive
amounts of punishment and then got knocked out. So it was bad all the
way around. There's no way to sugarcoat it. He was off for a
year, he came back, he had less than one round against Robert Lenius,
who went down on the first shot, and now he's coming back in
the ring against Parker after, like you said, fourteen months. So is
it the Joshua? I mean, is it the Wilder that showed up and
clipped Elnius in the first round and got him out of there. And you
really couldn'tell because nothing really happened for two and a half minutes. So they
nailed the shot. You nailed them with the punch at the end of the
round. Or is there still after effects after two brutal, grueling, hard,
physical, difficult fights against Tyson Perior and by the way, Anthony I
mean, I keep saying, Anthony Joshua Deontay wild Theer's no youngster. He's
thirty eight years older. That's right, Parker, like six seven years younger
than him. Now, Parker, he's a lot smaller, not as obviously,
not as big of a puncher, but he's and he's won three fights
in a row, but against certainly a less than less than top quality opponents
in his recent fights, including on the on the October card when Fury fought,
so he should be, you know, fresh, he just fought you
know, barely what two months ago. But when he lost in twenty twenty
two, a little over a year ago against Joe Joyce, that was a
brutal, rugged, hard, exciting but bad, bad knockout loss for Joe
Parker on that fight. So they've both taken damage. The odds would say,
or you're in you know, if you look at both of their careers
and you see the way they take punches and the way that they land punches,
et cetera, I guess you gotta like Wilder. But you know what
if Joseph Parker can do anything against him. It wouldn't shock me if he
scored the upset. I'm not saying I'm picking the upset. Joseph Parker is
a very solid quality, top level heavyweight in today's era. He's a top
ten heavyweight, top seven heavyweight right now, no doubt about it. And
Wilder there's just too many question marks about where he's been and where he's at
to say definitively what's gonna happen. And that's one of the reasons why this
card, in my mind, is very interesting. I know they're not maybe
the two main fights between Otto and Joshua and Wilder and Parker. Maybe they're
not the sexiest heavyweight matchups, but in today's heavyweight division, those are two
very interesting, solid fights in my mind, and I'm anxious to see both
of them. Uh, if there's one upset in this card, you know,
on the two heavyweight fights, and it messes up the plans for that
March card, March card between Joshua and Wilder, I wouldn't be shocked,
and to be quite honest, if there was two upsets, it would,
I mean, it should be surprising. But if there's two upsets. That's
crazy. I mean, it's crazy, even for boxing. If it happens,
shit happens, man, it does, it happens. I just saw
a clip earlier today, just like acidentally saw a clip on on YouTube of
Rathael Espinosa's upset of Robos Ramirez. He was like a bazillion to one.
I don't know what the act. He was twenty he was twenty one,
he was twenty two to one. Underdog. I mean, when the when
the leather starts flying, especially when you're heavyweights, especially when a vulnerable,
susceptible heavyweights like Joshua and wild Bar, which is one of the reasons we
like watching them because they're exciting, because there's the chance that they get they
get whacked, but there's also the tints that they whacked the other guy.
You just never fucking know. So anybody that says they know what's happening on
Saturday, they're lying and they don't know. All right, We've already touched
on Opataiah on the undercard with Zorro. We've got Daniel Dubois returning off of
the loss to Usik Jarrell. Big Baby Miller gets on a bigger stage here
on this pay per view. Miller obviously is talking that he wants to be
in the mix down the road. He's still got to win. Dmitri Beevol
is back after a thirteen month layoff for him defending his WBA light heavyweight title.
We also, I mean, good lord, there's mak Frank Sanchez.
We got so much going on here. We could go for two more hours
on all that we have here, but what else stands out here? All
great's I'm gonna talk a little bit about that next fight down the card,
which is the Miller and Dubi fight. You mentioned about Jerrel Miller. He's
been mouthing off about everybody because Jerall Miller is a fucking clown. Okay,
he's a He's a guy that got busted numerous times for bad for pbds,
still an undefeated fighter. I saw the workouts, you know, he said
he's like three hundred and twenty eight pounds. He obviously didn't look like he
was in the greatest shape in the world. But we'll see what he can
do. One thing about him, I think he's got a really good chance
to win the fight because with everything about Jerrem Miller, he has shown good
punching power, whether it was natural or otherwise, I guess we don't know
for sure. But the main thing is he's always shown a good chin,
and then Daniel Dubi, we've seen him be, you know, not live
up to the hype and the potential a lot of people thought he had where
he maybe he doesn't have the greatest chin in the world, and maybe doesn't
have the biggest heart in the world. He basically quit against Tyson, against
Alexander Usik on a jab that was you know, that was I said this
to you at the time it happened. I think he got cracked on that
eye that got damaged against Joe Joyce, and I think that was the end
of things. And I don't know what's changed. If Miller can crack him
on that eye again five months later, I don't know what's changed. So
I guess we'll see. I mean, I don't even give Duois a lot
of grief for not continue against Joe Joyce, because he did have a serious
injury. But the way that he quit against Usik was sort of one of
those things where it's sort of you know, you you get a view into
what his mentality is. He just didn't want to go after getting hit with
a jab and being on his knee. But we'll see. I mean,
Jerald Miller has not had a lot of action in recent years. I mean
he got suspended for a long time and didn't fight from twenty eighteen until two
and twenty two. He came back with you know, two set up nobody
type fights. He did have a win against Lucas Brown, you know,
the archaic, ancient, old shot Australian fighter who he knocked out in the
sixth round, which was a tussle and a tough fight up to that point.
And now he's in with Duba and it's a to me, this is
like the ultimate sort of crossroads, you know, either Dua if he loses
that, you know, that's kind of all she wrote for him as a
serious contender. And if Miller loses, like you know, he's not getting
a Joshua fight, which he blew in the first place for the drug failures,
He's not getting one of these other big names for a while, he'll
be considered like a step stone. So it's a very critical fight for their
careers. In terms of Dmitri Bivol, who is defending his title also in
this card, he is defending his title against Lyndon Arthur, who is a
credible opponent. His only loss was a stoppage against Anthony Yard, who's an
outstanding puncher. They actually have split two fights because they fought the first time
in twenty twenty and Lyndon Arthur defeated him of via split decision, and then
a couple of fights later in twenty twenty one. Around this time two years
ago, he did get stopped in the fourth round. But he has won
four fights in a row against like, you know, okay type opponents,
and now he's getting a title shot and Bivoll, it's coming off the long
layoff. You know, this is you know, I know, I'm glad
to se him back and the arning, but it's so unfortunate. Here's a
guy in Bieboll that was the fighter of the year by everybody's viewpoint. For
you know, I call him the consensus fighter of the year because all the
outlets and everybody, all the media guys were picking him as fighter of theyear.
He had defeated Canelo in a big upset. He had then completely shut
down and you know, kind of embarrassed Gilberto Ramirez and that man take away
his undefeated record, and he never built off that momentum. However, if
he comes back and he looks good and does the job against Lyndon Arthur,
you know he should nothing against Arthur. But one guy's a good contender.
The other guys at pound for pound guy, there's a as I wrote in
my sub stack on Thursday, there's a really good chance that a victory by
bevol in this fight and a victory in January from Arthur better BF who has
a WBC mandatory defense against Callum Smith. If they both win their fights,
the Saudis probably will put up the money and make that fight for some time
next year, so that will be again like they've done with these other fights.
That's the biggest fight in the way class. It's the best fight in
the way class. It's for supremacy. It should be for the undisputed title.
There's some question whether the WBC would approve that because of their stance on
Russian fighters defending titles and winning titles and all that, but that's another story
for another day. The point is this would be the two best light heavyweights
and easily the best fight in the waight class. They've both been champions for
a number of years and it's about time we see who's number one. And
so, like what's going on in the main event fights between you know,
Joseph Parker and Wilder and Otto and Joshua, the two A sides got to
win to get their fight together. The same way, there might be some
pressure and be able to do his job on his end of things, even
though the fight between him and better be of is not official or signed or
whatever. But before that can happen, they're gonna have to do you know,
their fights and take care business. So I'm interested. I mean,
there's there's a lot to like on this card. There's you know, some
fights where you have fight cards, you have just one great fight. It's
huge quality and mega fight. This one. It means, you know,
I've seen people kind of brate the card and say it's a bunch of like
you know, mismatches and it's just a bunch of guys and it's blah blah
blah. I disagree with that assessment. This is a lot of quality fighters
in a lot of good matchups. They're not maybe the A matchups, but
there's a lot to like, a lot of interesting fights in this card.
And if you're a boxing fan, and you're not buying this only for forty
bucks, then you don't. Why do you you don't pay per views?
Like, why wouldn't you buy this pay per view? U? Unless you
just can't, that's fine, But this is a where this is what we
want as fans for that price point, for this depth and this quality.
You know. And and by the way, no one's paying me to say
this. I'm not making extra money because I think I'm just telling you what
I think that this is a no fucking brainer to buy the pay per view.
And you've got eight of them, there's a really good chance that at
least half of them, if not more, are going to be very intriguing,
if not dramatic. Yes, a couple of them will probably be duds
or so, but it's not gonna be all of them. So let's say,
and you might, you're probably gonna get some knockouts here on the last
three fights, and just a for a brief moment, Arklem back Mackmandou again,
your boy Ajkabiel. Just two good solid heavyweights who are trying to make
their way up the ladder. You know, the winners moving on. The
loser, you know, can take a step back, but this is a
I mean, it's kind of random, but it's not a bad matchup at
all. Mackmandou has never fought anybody, even though he's got a great,
you know record in knockout. Kabiels fought a little bit better caliber opponents,
but I don't think he's ever fought a puncher like Mackmandoude is so to me,
this is like, I mean, it's kind of a fifty to fifty
fight. I guess, I guess I would lean towards the big puncher,
but who the heck knows, So there's intrigue there. Like if this was
I put it like this, if this was like the old like HBO boxing
after dark days makum would you know, and they were doing a heavyweight type
show, this would be like this, you know, like one of the
fights on that triple header, without question, like a second or third fight
on the card, and then you got the other heavyweight fight. The two
other heavyweight fights are a little more mismatch. I mean, I have to
be honest. Philip Herkovitch against Mark Morey, in my opinion, is a
absolute mismatch. And this is a matter of Philip Perkovic making a three fight
deal with the Saudi's. He's gonna fight for the IBF title in his next
fight, whether it's against the winner of fury Usik or for the vacant title.
Probably the vacant title. He's protecting that position. He's staying active.
This should be a wipeout for Philip Pergovic. If it's not, then he's
got some problems. Frank Sanchez against Junior Fa. Frank is a very skillful
fighter who was a great boxer. Junior Fi, you know, has has
never really developed into the caliber of a contender that some people thought he might.
He's big and he's got power, but he's kind of lumbering, doesn't
have very good defense. I just see no, and he doesn't have any
speed that unless he lands a big bomb, which you know, it seems
awfully unlikely given that Frank is the way he fights. This should be Frank
Sanchez sort of boxing, circles around and maybe even stopping him because he's got
such good hand speed. So those are those two fights. Even again,
they're not the worst fights in the world. They're a little mismatching Hergevic and
Demore in particular, But out of eight fights, most pay per views are
four fights. Maybe at the most that's some one. They might be five
fights. Sometimes there are even three fights back in the day anyway, so
I'm actually not unhappy. There's a couple of mismatching type fights, and there
I'm hoping there's a couple of early knockouts, so the thing doesn't last for
seven hours, all right, So there is the fight card rundown. It's
a day of reckoning, teach, it is the day of we will now
hear more about that from Sadik Ahmed, one of our writers on Big Fight
Weekend dot Com. Sadiq was already over in the Middle East back about three
weeks ago and is credentialed through us to be there. He's been there this
week for the arrivals the press conferences. On Thursday, he'll be there covering
it for the site as well. Let's go to a conversation that he and
I had earlier on Thursday with the time difference, right after the press conferences.
Let's do that right now in the preview mode. As mentioned earlier,
he is on the scene in full disclosure with the time difference. He's doing
this late at night his time in Saudi Arabia. Hello, Sadik Ahmed,
who's helping us out from Big Fight Weekend dot com and now he's on the
Big Fight Weekend preview podcast as well. Great to have you there as kind
of eyes and you know, boots on the ground and eyes and ears for
us. So, first of all, thank you. And what has this
been like as the event is building this week? You've been there now for
a couple of days, leaning towards the weekend. What's it been like,
TOADI, Well, thank you for having me. It's it's definitely been Again,
I haven't done too many events on my own, but this has been
by far the busiest I've ever seen. There's dozens of media folks, a
lot of security. You know, these events aren't opening up for fans at
all, so like literally everyone present is just staff at the athletes, security,
media, and there's just dozens and dozens of people any given time,
you know, in the venues. So it's definitely been hectic. A lot
going on. Just a few and aco though, and yeah, tell me
a little bit about how you have found the fighters and the build up because
now that earlier in the week, middle of the week gets to Thursday and
the press conferences is, as we like to say, it starts to get
more real. It is getting closer, it's getting more real. Did you
sense that, especially on a press conference Thursday? Yeah, the day I
got here, that was Tuesday when the Grand arrivals happened, and you know,
on that day, people noticed that Joshua wasn't really wasn't speaking too much
with the media. Apparently that was different to the way he was on Monday.
I wouldn't know. I wasn't there on Monday, but apparently josh was
really zoned in, really focused even on the during the media workout, instead
of actually doing the workout himself. He chose to showcase but four young boxers
from a Saudi Arabian boxing club. So there was that. But then in
today's press conference he was a lot more you know, he opened the floor
up to the media. Unfortunately, none of us really got to ask any
questions. We were cut off, unfortunately. So yeah, there was Joshua.
You know General Miller, he's always animated, you know what he's like.
He's the one that's causing the most about a noise around here. And
there was talk of Otto Wallen, you know, being a lot more talkative
than usual, which I find kind of weird. I thought he was just
doing what he normally does, that's, you know, answering questions, and
given how much media is here, it's kind of natural for him to me
and asked a lot of questions. I think a lot of people, and
we heard from otto with Dan Rayfield, a lot of people believe he can
really give Anthony Joshua a challenge, and he has not been bashful about saying
that that he he believes he's got a great chance to win this, So
that one is intriguing. I just what do what do you sense here being
around this because it's almost like it's a foregone conclusion that Joshua and Wilder win
come out of this unscathed. They're fighting each other. I know that's out
there everywhere, that they're fighting each other. Next, do you sense that
there could be an upset to the plans, that that that one of either
Auto Violin or Joseph Parker could screw this up? And if so, who
might be the likely one that could mess the plans up? With regards to
Wilder Parker, I feel like it's just a matter of time before Wilder finds
the right hand, and it's all over for Parker, whether it comes in
the early, middle or or late rounds. I do see that happening Autowallan
and Anthony Joshuay. Do you think it's a lot closer? I also think
it's the closest fight on this card. Again, I mean, there's a
lot of the fights aren't necessarily close, But do you believe that all out
of all of them, that one's pretty close. I do think one has
a shot. It just really depends on ye know, I think it all
depends on what Joshua was it's gonna bring on Saturday Night. Joshua has had
two previous experiences, one good reclaiming his titles against Andy Ruiz in December of
twenty twenty one, one not so good, which was August a year ago,
where Alexander Usik defeated him again in their rematch. Do you think there's
any advantage or to what extent is there an advantage that Joshua has been in
this environment in Saudi Arabia in the Middle East twice before. I mean,
in general, Joshua's used to you know, you know, massive events with
a lot of media, you know, a lot of fans in the crowd.
This isn't anything new for him. Also, he's done this twice before
in Saudi Arabia for all in I feel like, you know the fact that
this is going to be the largest crowd he's ever you know, fun in
front of. Uh, you know, this is the most amount of media
he's ever had to talk to. I think that could have some impact on
Wan's performance, but uh, that's for Joshua. I mean, he's done
this before. Uh, you know, if he doesn't come out, come
out on top, I think that's just down into his skill set personally speaking.
Interesting again, Sadika ed with us for a few more moments. He's
on scene. Day of Reckoning is coming on Saturday. It is part of
the riad season. This pay per view that's happening global event because of all
of the fighters, especially in Europe, but also Deontay Wilder from the United
States. You mentioned jerell A big Baby Miller from the United States among others
that there's some interest obviously here in this as well. Give me a scene
setter, what has it been like in and around Saudi Arabia as much as
you've gotten to see is their interest in the publications on the TV in this
is it an afterthought there, and unless you're a hardcore boxing fan that's living
in Saudi Arabia, you're not paying that much attention to it. I just
wonder what is it like? So a lot of the promotional activities are being
carried out, you know a lot of the press. There's quite a bit
of Saudi press on scene. I do I do tend to like loss over
what the Saturday newspapers are saying. You know, Sawy gets it our news.
They're definitely talking about it, even on social media. I see the
ads. You know, they've bought out. They've clearly bought out ads.
They've clearly put in a lot of money into this, and they're going to
advertise the heck out of it. Again. As for fans, you know,
they haven't been allowed in as of yet. This is all all these
events have been media only. You know, we'll see on Saturday night.
But I do believe it's going to be a fairly large turnout, just because
the venue itself is pretty massive. I do think they'll a lot of folks
will turn out for this, and probably a lot of and probably a lot
of British fans, especially a lot of Joshua fans. He does have immense
popularity and it's not that far or hard to get to it. I know
it's right before the Christmas holiday, but I would I would be surprised if
there's not several thousand Brits that are there. And I know Dubois on the
car as well. We'll see, we'll see what that atmosphere is like.
Okay, one more function, Yeah, go ahead, follow up on that
place. I've also looked at the ticket prices for this event, and the
cheapest tickets are about one hundred SADI reels, which I believe convert into like
US dollars. I think you're three to forty US dollars. So again,
even the tickets themselves, aren't they that's relatively inexpensive. A big time championship
fight, much less a big time heavyweight championship fight would be three times five
times that just to get in, maybe more depending on what it is and
if you're sitting in the top, etc. That seems very affordable. We're
trying to market it that way, and they obviously are trying to sell much
more off the pay per view. You know this. They want people in
England, people in the United States primarily to watch this and to see this.
I am curious from you before you have to scoot and we do as
well. Is there another fight or another fighter besides the heavyweight co main event?
We know about that fight, another fighter that has struck you the last
couple of days. Hey, I'm really interested in him or in this fight?
What would you say? Yeah? For me, I'm Canadian and I
know this card is dominated by the you know, Americans and Brits, but
I'm Canadian, you know, and ARSL mc macmudob is also based out of
Canada. So for me as a Canadian, it's just there's intrigue for me
in that. But also I do believe that does is a chaot artist.
I do think he's gonna truly stop kabayel Uh. It's interesting to see how
far he's come. I do look forward to seeing what he does on Saturday
night. I'm curious, just while we're throwing this out there, what does
Dimitri Beebol look like? I mean, Beevol looked so masterful against Canelo,
but he had the he had the fight with Zerto Ramirez a one sided He
turned it into a boring fight over a year ago. I don't know what
we're gonna I mean, how sharp is he? How good is he?
If he is sharp and he's good off a year layoff, that says a
lot for him. I'm curious as to what he looks like as this unfolds
as well, So I'll throw that out there for two cents, just one
more time. I know you are amped to cover all this. We promote
read it on Big Fight Weekend dot com. Sadiq is there, you're excited
to be part of. I know it's not heavyweight titles on the line,
but it's as big. It's as big an event you can have without heavyweight
titles on the line, because these are the two former recent heavyweight champs fighting
in separate comin events with the belief they're about to fight each other, and
that's going to be pretty intriguing Saturday. All right, Sadi, great stuff,
Thank you. I know you've been working hard. Continued success with covering
all of this with the Day of Reckoning and the pay per view coming Saturday.
We appreciate the time on the podcast. All right, thank you so
much, thank you for having me. Good stuff again from Sadiq and he'll
be writing obviously this weekend as well for Big Fight Weekend dot Com right there
on scene. As he was saying in the interview, Dan that it is
in the publications locally, it is on the TV. He's curious and I
think there will be a lot of Brits that will be there. We'll see
with Christmas weekend, they'll be fired up to see Joshua in particular and are
regionally close to be able to get there. We will find out some news,
some nostalgia, and then we're done on the preview. Okay, Ryan
Garcia put on social media earlier this week, don't they all put it on
social media that he is fully authorizing Oscar de la Hoya and Golden Boy make
make a Devin Hainy fight happen. If you can make that happen next,
that's what he wants. Of course, fighters put that out there to their
people, Hey make it happen if you can. Now what's intriguing and this
is why you got to be locked in here for our content and our coverage
on the Big Fight Weekend podcast. Feed got you got right before we started
talking, you got a very interesting text and then in an interesting few minutes
with Oscar de la Hooya about this very subject and I got the feeling from
what you told me it's not beyond the realm they're talking here. No,
I think this fight's gonna wind up actually happening. So I have seen the
same things that you mentioned about the post that everybody that the two sides have
been saying on their social platforms, Haney and and Ryan as well as Bill
Haney has you know, Devin's dad. I saw some quotes and I think
it was a boxing scene article from Ryan's father, you know, who doesn't
train him but and is always in his camp, but it you know,
it usually keeps kind of a lower profile. But anyway, everybody's been talking
about they want to do this fight and try to make the fight him.
We'll see what happens. And I was curiously like if there was if that
was just a typical nonsense, or if there was actually something more to it
than that. So I texted Oscar and he's like, you know, let's
talk. So I called Oscar. We had about about a ten to twelve
minute conversation about it, and I literally talked to him five minutes where we
started taping the podcast. They're very serious about this, both sides. He
met, you know, like they have they have the okay from Team Garci
to try to go make the fight. He said to me that he has
spoken to Eddie Hearn. Obviously, Eddie is busy tied up with Anthony Joshua
when some of the fights he has that are involved in their Day of Reckoning
show, So you know, been a little busy. Oscar understands. So
we joked on the podcast. It was on social media that Eddie and a
couple of other people from match Room were in Oscar's headquarters, and I joked
with you they were not there sampling the eggnog and judging the decoration, so
obviously they were having some kind of discussion. You would think, exactly,
that's not actually true because I asked Oscar at that Oscar was not in town
when they were there, so that did not occur. He said, they
were in They were in town and they just came by to just pay a
cordial visit and there was no like real business to discuss at that meeting.
But that subsequent to that, Oscar and Eddie have spoken on the telephone and
have agreed that you know, right after the holidays that they will reconvene and
and really get serious what's what's involved here? Did Oscar kind of indicate to
you that it's at least moved over enough with Ryan Garcia that that's not going
to be a problem. Does it seem that way to you? And talking
to him, he didn't get into that. But at the end of the
day, until their legal process plays out, they're stuck with each other for
now, whether they like it. And you know, and as I said,
when he docked out Oscar Duarte, you know a couple of weeks ago.
Winning has a tendency to make things easier to deal with. So everybody's
in a happier place now. When you get knocked out by Gervonta Davis,
you're not as happy as when you are the guy that knocks the other guy
out, and that can definitely cover up a lot of problems. So he's
won. It's a big fight. I'm interested in the fight. You know,
they were they were trying to at one point to make him against tia
Fimo Lopez. He had a conversation with Bob Aaron about that. Tifemo was
not going to do that fight at that time frame whatever, so he moved
on. He's going to fight Jermaine Ortiz in February. In the meantime,
Ryan Garcia against Devin Hindy is a good fight. They both fighters that are
on his own and obviously will be a pay per view. You know,
they're going to try to make the match. There's not gonna be any funny
business with the weight. This is a straight one forty fight. That's what
I was told, is what's being discussed. Devan just won the WBC title
in that weight division. Ryan is now, you know, in the one
hundred and forty pound waight class. Just a good old fashioned world title fight
between two excellent fighters won a good top champion, another that's a good fighter
himself and a top star. And the interest thing about it that Oscar and
I talked about is I have to like investigate this to make sure exactly what
the deal is. But what I know that Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia faced
each other multiple times in the amateurs. What Oscar was saying, and again
I'll double I gotta double check this is that they have fought six times as
amateurs and that they are three and three against each other, and that will
definitely be a major, major shocking and promotional aspect of this fight I've covered
many fights where there's an amateur background between fighters and whether that will have any
impact on what happens in the pros, but not six times, so that's
like a big deal. So look, you never say for sure, but
all things considered, if you want a big fight, and Haini wants one,
Ryan wants one, there's a I think a very outstanding fight or a
chance this fight takes place. If it does, some people will depend on
the Dizonne calendar with what goes down with Wilder and Joshua that's ticketed for March
ninth. If that fight does not happen, there's the chance that maybe,
if they can negotiate, Haney and Garcia would take place in March. If
not, it would probably bump and be the big pay per view fight for
de Own for April. Interesting on that. A couple more quick news items.
Jamel Charlow back in the news, and not for what you want to.
Hear arrested for a misdemeanor assault as it's described on a family member taken
into custody earlier this week in suburban Houston. And you know he had the
time off because of the hand injury he fought Canelo Alvarez in a lucrative opportunity
for him, didn't do much in that fight, took a lot of shots
from Canello and then lost a decision. Now you have this news so once
again, and this also goes in conjunction with his brother having problems out of
the ring and having been arrested a couple of different times. No one's been
convicted and gone to jail in any of this, but there's there's been trouble
with the Charlo's. There's been trouble. First of all, the family member
thing is what they have to put in in the in the police report because
they didn't want to identify the person who's the victim who apparently didn't want to
be identified. It's his wife, that's the bottom line. And there's a
audio circulating on social media of him bragging about how he popped her in the
eye and how it blew up all purple and was all messed up and was
talking about in a very disgusting manner. Uh And and so what you're telling
me, because I'm not aware of that, is this is exactly how to
get yourself committed convicted of domestic violence. This is the how to get if
you are if you are in a situation where you're in some kind of trouble
and a jury or a prosecution can use your own words. They don't have
to go witness to come and say that they saw this happen or heard this
happen or whatever, and they can play a tape of you bragging about punching
your wife. You're fucked, so, you know, not good. But
the way may I add, this is not the first time that he's had
this kind of problem. Uh, you know, he he had a apparently
had an incident where he supposedly then girlfriend where he allegedly choked her, and
he was acquitted uh by that in that situation. But there's a history here,
and uh, you know, in boxing, people can get away with
a lot of stuff. I mean, and I'm not like trying to bring
up every I mean, there's a lot of fighters that have had these types
of issues. But Showtime took a lot of heat when they allowed Tank Davis
to fight the fight in January while he was still you know, waiting for
his hit and run situation to be unicated, which he ended up you know,
pleaing to and was guilty and ended up you know, doing some time
in jail for there's this situation with Charlote, and uh, there's no you
know, if this was the NFL or this was Major League Baseball, there
is a Now most of these leagues have these types of domestic violence policies or
you know, if there's a violent crime you know, uh incident or they're
arrested or or or convicted or whatever. There are things that can go through
a process where you're going to be punished by the league. In boxing,
that doesn't happen. So, you know, I hope that if this turns
out that he is convicted based on his own words, that he is held
accountable and he shouldn't just be welcomed back, and he shouldn't be you know,
he still holds two he still holds multiple world titles in the one hundred
thirty four pound way class, and if you're going to go around beating up
women, you know, you shouldn't have a world title because and by the
way, there are other instances where Floyd Mayweather was in trouble for domestic violence
and actually did some jail time. Mike Tyson was in trouble for this.
It's not just singularly putting it on Jamel Charlow. In this instance, it's
whoever does this, it's cowardly, it's awful. I mean, even Dmitri
Beevo has an incident that has occurred with his wife, not that long ago.
I mean, I don't have as many details on that situation, but
there was certainly a problem there at one point. And obviously he's defending his
title this week and that nobody's really talking about it. So you know,
again, each individual case is different, but the end result is if you
put your hands on somebody else that's not in the ring, particularly if it's
a woman, that is a problem. I would have rather seen Charlot be
able to lay his hands on Canelo, but he decided he wanted to take
the money, not try to fight in that fight, and now instead he's
supposedly, you know, hitting his wife. Not appropriate. Real quick.
One other item too, it was announced Jake Paul said that he wanted to
be back in the ring quickly, and he is going to be back in
the ring quickly off that one punch knockout last weekend. He is going to
be back on March the second. And what's interesting, Amanda Serrano is going
to defend her title in her home country, Puerto Rico. So they're on
the same card together here, and Jake said in the release from Most Valuable
Promotions, he is sticking to what he's telling everybody. I want to be
back in the ring. I want to be active, I want to be
fighting boxers. So just follow up on that. We don't know the opponent
yet, but he is going to be back. I think this is actually
brilliant from Jake Paul, to be quite honest with you, because he's following
through what he says and he's taking the old fashion route. He's going to
fight another probably Andre august Ish type opponent, maybe a little bit her,
and not make it the main event, which takes a lot of the attention
away from him, but he doesn't seem to care about that. It will
put a lot more attention on Amanda to say that she's the main event on
Jake's card, So she's the one that's going to have a lot of the
shine and he can develop quote unquote in the undercard with a little less attention
in a non pay per view fight. Meantime, in the main event,
you got Serrano, who's one of the best women's boxers in the world.
She's defending her now unified titles because she gave up the WBC belt for the
reasons that she explained about how they would not her to defend in twelve round
fights where the rounds are three minutes, but this fight against her IBF mandatory
Nina Menke is going to be approved for twelve rounds and three minutes, so
there's that aspect of it. She's defending once again, and Jake will fight
whoever on the undercard. And it's interesting because I have to give it props
because he is I don't know a lot of fighters that would be willing at
the level of fame and fortune of a Jake Paul to step into the secondary
position on a card like that. But he is trying to build up his
stable of fighters and make them into the stars that he's already become, and
he's doing that with Amanda. She deserves it as as the caliber fighter she
is. And Jake, of course is not going to be fighting obviously a
big big name. He's not fighting, you know, even an MMA fighter
with a big name. So I like it. I respect it, I
respect it a lot, and it's they realize it's going to sell a lot
of tickets and it's a big moment for her. She's never had a title
fight in Puerto Rico. She fought earlier in her career in Puerto Rico,
which has never had a title fight in Puerto Rico. This will be a
big deal. And I agree with you. It's a class move to say,
let her have the biggest stage. You'll have his stage. Let her
have the biggest stage. Opponent to be determined. And I'm with you.
I have said this consistently. I'm back in if he's fighting boxers, I'm
back in on that when we go back to fighting. You know what,
I had somebody who's very plugged in with the whole thing about Professional Fighters League
MMA. He's very plugged in with what's going on. And what he said
to me is there were talks about him rematching Nate Diaz in a cage or
some modified MMA fight, but Nate Diaz wants twenty million dollars guaranteed to do
it. Listen, we talked about the interview I had with Jake where he
said that he wanted to run it back in the cage and he offered them
ten million, and he wants twenty minute, and I said, what are
we doing here, Nate Diaz? Is it going to get twenty million guaranteed
from anybody to do that? Jake Paul's not going to get twenty million to
fight him in the cage. Ja. The oldest saying in the book is
there's the way you One of the ways you can turn on a fight is
by pricing yourself out. You can say no, or you can say yeah,
I'll do the fight, but it's worth ten million, and you say
give me one hundred million. It doesn't work. So that's impressing himself out.
So Jake has taken the old fashioned round, the boxing round. I'm
back here. I have to say this. Say whatever you want about the
other things that have gone on in Jake's career, in life of non boxing,
within the confines of boxing. To me, he's yet to do anything
that would not be considered the right way to do it. He's fighting the
fights, he's training his rear end off, he's getting better, he's putting
together solid events. You know when he's on the show. The underc have
been good enough. He's given a lot of credit and brought along people like
Amanda Serrano. He's building up some younger fighters on the Prospect shows like I've
yet to see anything that I'm against at all. And he does a good
job with his own fights and his own events. So and now him and
his partner in Nikisa Medarian, I give him a lot of credit. They're
doing doing things their way. They got a good partner in his own and
I wish them to good luck. I'm interested to see how things work out
for him, I really am. And to have Amanda in a man event
a in Puerto Rico where I know how badly she's wanted to fight for a
long time, Really thrilled for her. All right, two pieces of nostalgia
and then we are done. They are both from earlier this week, twenty
five years ago on Tuesday, Floyd Mayweather winning over angel Man Freddie And then
also twenty six years ago on Tuesday, December nineteenth, nineteen ninety seven,
the year before phenomenal Prince Nasim Hahmed Kevin Kelly fight at Madison Square Garden on
HBO. Give me a little piece on both of those. Please, This
is like quintessential, Like late nineties HBO. These were the types of fights
that they brought you regularly on the network, not pay per view with good
undercards. Also, frankly so in terms of Floyd Floyd. We all know
what Floyd became, you know, and you know the later days, the
money, you know, money Mayweather and the mega pay per view events and
all that. And he kept his hunger, and he still always trained hard
and still put on big time performances and won all of his sights. But
this was like the young hungry I want to take the world by storm Floyd
Mayweather. He had won the WBC one hundred and thirty pound title against a
fighter who I believe is I voted for him for the Hall of Fame at
times when he's when I could find spot on my ballot, and that is
the late great Gennaro Hernandez, who had never lost a fight at one hundred
and thirty pounds until he lost the final doubt of his career against Floyd Mayweather.
He had been knocked out by Floyd in or retired on the stool with
just had had enough of taking a beating. This is October of nineteen ninety
eight. Like I said, that was his last fight. He had never
lost previous in one hundred and thirty five pounds. He had lost to Oscar
del Lo Hoye, but that was at a light in a lightweight fight.
So now Floyd thum his back barely six weeks later. You know, we
talk about activity all the time. I mean six weeks. I mean Tyson
Fury. He probably hasn't seen the gym in six weeks since the fight between
him and Naganu and angel Man Freddy. He wasn't coming back six weeks later
to fight just a stumble bumber, just a regular guy. Angel Man Freddy
at that time was pretty much the number one Contenderly, I don't know what
he was in the sangsting bodies, but he was pretty much like the people's
number one contender. Like he was a guy that was getting a lot of
attention. He was fighting on HBO. He had beaten a sad fight for
me earlier in nineteen ninety eight. He had knocked out on a cut Arturo
Gotti, which was a huge win for him. He had beaten John Brown,
which was like a decent win for him, and he gets the opportunity
to fight Floyd. A lot of people thought he might have a chance because
he was a good puncher, and you know, he seemed to have a
good chin, and Floyd put it on him and stopped him on his feet
in the second round with just an onslaught of shots. Some people thought it
was a quick stoppage. Actually went back and watched that fight in its entirety
on YouTube just the other day when it was the anniversary. Absolutely not a
quick stoppage. He was taking one massive shot after another. He was still
on his feet. But how at some point the refs got to jump in
there and stop it because he was just his head was rocking back and forth.
That was a very, very big win Floyd's first ever title defense and
a career that was filled with pretty much title defenses every single fight the rest
of the way for him from ninety eight to the time he retired. And
that to me, maybe it's not the number one victory of his career,
but that's if you were ranking like to Floyd's like best wins. Certainly had
one hundred and thirty pounds where he reigned for quite a while. That was
one of his best coats. He's as scending. He's ascending at that point
in December of nineteen ninety eight, and he was like, you're seeing the
future right there. And he was a bad boy back then. I mean
because at one thirty he had not got power, you know it. Maybe
he didn't carry it all the way up to when he fought a lot of
the fights at you know, welterweight. But at one hundred and thirty,
Floyd could not get out the year before again, and I still remember watching
this one live and I've relived it several times, and I saw the clip
that was out there on social media for the anniversary this week. The Prince
Nasim Hahmed and Kevin Kelly. We've talked about this on the press conference before
because that was his US debut. He showed up in New York. Remember
you love my line. He's, well, we're Sindy Crawford. Where Cindy
Crawford. He was looking for Cindy Crawford, the supermodel, the hot Cindy
Crawford. And then this delivered. This delivered on big punches from both guys
and eventually a Haamed win. This to me is one of my all time
top ten favorite fights. Like if I was on a desert island and they
say you can take you know, a video of your ten favorite fights,
this would be in that list of ten favorite fights that would take with me.
I adore this fight, and actually I've told the story before to my
friends who work at Madison Square Garden, who I've gotten to know over the
years because I've covered, you know, dozens and dozens of events at Madison
Square Garden through the years, pretty much every big fight that's taking place.
I had the garden for the last twenty plus years. Back at the time
that Kevin Kelly Fough Prince Nasimi I met, I was a reporter at the
newspaper in Binghamton, New York, which is like, you know, a
two hour drive from New York City, which you know, I had gone
there for different reasons during the course of my employment there, and this was
like a big deal fight. I actually somehow convinced my boss. I don't
even know how that worked. I was like, I'd like to cover that
fight. He's like, you know what, Okay, go ahead. So
I sent in a creditial request for that fight, and I was rejected.
It's the only time I've ever been rejected for a pretential match in my life,
because my other fights I was covering were either local where I was working
or and then I'm working as like the writer for USA Today, entity for
ESPN. And then of course, you know, with twenty five years,
as I like to joke all the time, you handled rejection well because since
then you've had a tremendous career continuing on. You were rejected here, but
it's still a great fight. So the funny thing about that fight is so
I had a like like any any person that's ever worked as a sportswriter at
like a local newspaper, particularly at that time of the year. You know,
you're working on Friday nights, you're working on Saturday nights or high school
games and basketball and football and this and that. So I had to work
that night, you know, at the newspaper, and so it was very
difficult, but I was somehow I managed to avoid the result because we were
getting you know, we had a thing about it in the newspaper. I
didn't look at the result on the what's called the wire back in the old
days, this is pre internet, where the stories would come into your computer's
file. I got home, I had I had set the the VCR to
tape the HBO broadcast. I you know, it was done. I rewound
it and I like plausibly lie without knowing the result. Watched the cart fucking
great fight by the way, very underrated because everybody just talks about the main
event between Kevin Kelly and the Cinea met Is the co feature the other televised
fight that it was a tremendous battle. This was for the WBO one and
twenty two pound title, and a lot of people thought that the winner of
that fight eventually might become an opponent for the winner of the main event.
It ultimately didn't happen with Hamed, But that was a fight between Kennedy McKinney
and Junior Jones, two very outstanding fighters in and around Wait for several years.
And McKinney scored the fourth round knockout in a big upset over Julis Joys.
Stop you and make you say Memphis, Tennessee. Is Kennedy mcknny because
I'm from there? And he knocked out Poison Jones that night, And Junior
Jones was coming off of two back to back wins against Marco Antonio Brera where
he won this belt in big upset. So that was a real good,
exciting shootout in the first fight. Then you get to the main event and
Hamed has had all this publicity, massive, massive publicity. He's fighting Kevin
who's from New York, who's a jabbermouth himself, who talked it up.
That was a tremendous promotion. And there was all this stuff about if Hamed
takes too long with his ring entrance, that Kevin Kelly's gonna leave the ring.
And what happens. You got Ahmed behind the current on the ramp high
above the garden, takes him like literally like ten twelve minutes to walk to
the ring. Kelly's in there with the army fatigues on warming up. It's
and you got George and George Foreman and Jim Lampley are doing the HBO broadcast
with Jim Lampley and Foreman's like, I love this. It's like the circus
blah blah, and merchants like I think this is the end of civilization as
we know it. It was just the greatest setup. And then they get
in the ring and Hamid is his favorite. He's the post to explode and
show everybody what he can do, and like a minute into the fight,
he's on his ass with a shot from Kevin Kelly and the war is on.
They end up combining for like six knockdowns yep, in the absolute epic
shootout, one of the great you know it's Larry again. I'm gonna I
quote Larry Merchant on this show a lot because he's so great at what he
did. But he and this is him coming up with this in real time
when the fight's finally over after the six knockdowns and it ends and Kevin Kelly
gets knocked out in round four and Larry Merchant says, this is the haggler
hearns of featherweight fighting, and he was right, and in some ways it's
better than Hagler. It's more knockdowns, lasted one round longer, a lot
more punch is thrown, and just a spectacular war. Hahmed ended up in
the Hall of Fame as he deserved. He ended up unifying or should have
been the undisputed four bell champion, but for politics that prevented him from doing
that. A classic, classic, classic fight. If you've never seen it,
go see it, go relive it because it's worth fifteen twenty minutes.
The ring walk and then the fight, but the hubri of Ahmid, like
that, all the shit that he talked and then like right in the first
knocked on his ass, and I have heard the HBO exegu's talking about how
embarrassed to work because they spent like zillions of dollars and like this is the
investment of guys on his rear end in the first round, but he came
back and made it an absolute sens We talk about this all the time.
That's the true measure of do you have some greatness in you? Is you
face adversity, you go down like that and you get up and you put
the performance on that he did because he lost the fight, Bostom leveled Kevin
Kelly in the end to get the win. So yes, go relive that
man. Thinking about that. This was the first time a lot of boxing
fans were seeing I'm med now. He had appeared on ABC's Wide World of
Sports. He had made a couple of appearances on Showtime, but this was
the first time he was ever in the United States for a fight and promoted
to the United States audience. There was billboards up in Manhattan. It was
like a big, big media campaign and this was like a big to do
and they delivered a big time and Kevin Kelly was a great you know spoiler
for him also because he could promote. Also, I just I absolutely love
this fight. Love it, love it, love it tremendous, great nostalgia,
busy show lots On the day of reckoning fight card, a reminder that
we will be on the bet Us Boxing Show one Eastern time Friday. Look
forward to handicapping on the bet Us platforms. What's going to go on with
the Anthony Joshua Auto Bileen fight as well as Deontay Wilder and Joseph Parker.
Will probably handacap a couple of other fights there as well. So join us
at one Eastern time on Friday with that, my friend, whatever happens here
again, we're back to recap it on this podcast feed and it will be
out early earlier for the Christmas weekend. We'll be back with a recap with
whatever goes on here, Dan Rayphiel, I know we're looking forward to it
one more time. We are looking forward to it. It's gonna be a
lot of fun. We thank you, We thank you for listening. However
you found us on a social media link Dan substack following Subscribe, Apple Podcasts,
Breaker, Spotify, Google podcast It is the Big Fight Weekend preview we'll
have a fight preach to Unite recap coming off the weekend. For now,
we're good. Enjoy all the fights by