The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
Here is your host, DJ leaves Well, it is here. The month
of March is here, and we are ready for world championship fights coming up
on a top rank ESPN show out of New York. We're ready for the
return of Jack Paul and Amanda Serrano by the way in Puerto Rico. We've
got fight news including wait a minute, Canelos already divorced from Premiere Boxing Champions.
Yes, we're ready to talk about that. We've got nostalgia and much
more. It is the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast. I am the somewhat
competent host TJ Reeves. He is insider extraordinary. These are times when we
love Dan Rayfield. We love him all the time, but especially times like
these. Fight Freaks Unit is his substack Big Fightweekend dot Com as well.
Hello, my friend, much to talk about and much to discuss. You
got your track shoes on? You're ready? I mean good, gracious,
We've got a lot going on. How you been Everything good? I'm ready
to roll, baby, I'm good. News and nostalgia including Roy Jones becoming
heavyweight champion to be talked about on an anniversary. For this week, it
is the month of March. Rayphiel and I love college basketball. We're going
to be mostly focused on boxing, but we will have eyeballs on the hoops,
including his Duke Blue Devils, including my Memphis Tigers, including all the
basketball in between for the month of March. So anyway, thank you for
finding us. Make sure that you're following, make sure you're subscribing on all
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a new outlet. Go to Apple, go to Spreaker, go to Spotify,
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on this feed. We come your way with a preview show going into the
weekend, a recap show coming off the weekend, and we got tons of
it. Are we gonna let them in on what we got, bruin?
I mean, we already got tim Zoo that they're gonna hear from coming up.
Give me who else are they gonna hear? From in coming days and
weeks that you've already gotten in the fold. Give me a couple of names
and then a couple of other possibilities too. Go ahead. So we have
interviews coming up with the young junior middleweight prospect. Excellent young Irish fighter,
was going to headline a Madison Square Garden Theater card. Callum Walsh, very
good interview there, trains with Freddi Roach, very interesting young kid. We
have Oscar Valdez lined up, who's got his fight against Liam Wilson coming up
on March twenty ninth. And we have both combatants in the main event on
the Amazon PBC card between Tim Zoo and Keith Thurmon, both of them already
squared away. They obviously boxed the main event in March thirtieth, and we're
endeavoring to get some more big names. I'm not gonna say yet because we're
not confirmed, but it'll be good. He doesn't want to jinx it,
but let me just say this, if what you're working on comes through,
they gotta be with us early next week on the podcast. You gotta see
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Here as part of the program, are you made mentioned On March thirtieth,
they will kick off the relationship Premiere Boxing Champions with their new outlet, Amazon
Prime. They were building towards with that pay per view, the Canelo Alvarez
Sinco de Mayo weekend pay per view that was supposed to be part of Premiere
Boxing Champions and presumably Amazon Prime pay perview. So before before we ever get
to the preview mode of the fights this weekend, the country music song is
dvo rce divorce. You gotta promise me one thing. Yeah, you're never
ever, ever gonna sing on the podcast. Again, there's sometimes humor involved
in these shows. Just to keep it light. I'm just saying that's the
country song. Look it up, YouTube it. As the kids would say
they they are divorced after one fight of a three fight deal. You reported
on this a bunch, you wrote about it on your sub stack. All
right, So the first thing that I'm going to say is how did this
unravel? Maybe more to the point, why did it unravel so quickly?
Well, I think it comes down to when you make a deal at a
certain time, it may look good and all positive going forward on both sides,
and sometimes as things move along, circumstances change, which leads one party
or the other to want to change the the change the terms, and that
has to be mutually agreed upon, and if one party doesn't agree, then
therefore you probably have a breach, or you have a break or you're going
to have a divorce, as you say, and it's not going to work
out, and you go your separate ways. And that is apparently what has
occurred here because you have a scenario where he did sign for three fights or
you know, not the particular bout agreements, but in the contract for three
bouts, and in the in that contract were three specific names with dollar figures
assigned to those names. And they weren't uh gonna be able to deliver the
way that they or they said they wanted to. So you had the first
fight of that agreement, which was the Jamel Charlow fight that took place in
September. By all accounts, it was a money loser, so or they
were not happy with the results. So and then Showtime goes away, and
you have Amazon Prime, which is not paying rights fees for fights, or
at least not at a high high level like Showtime. Maybe there's some money
for the lesser fights, but certainly on a pay per view basis, they're
not making huge guarantees. So now the second fight, because Jamel Charlot had
performed so poorly and Jamal Charlot was contemplated as the next opponent, I think
the people at PBC, Al Hayman and the people that are around him that
he relies on for uh, you know, their opinions and then their you
know, their views, people like Tom Brown, people like Luis de Koubis
Junior, you know those those folks. You know, these are smart boxing
people who've been in this business for decades. And you don't even have to
be a super intelligent boxing person who's been in the business for decades to understand
that if you're trying to sell a pay per view putting Jamal Charlotte in a
few months after his brother didn't show up, combined with the fact that Jamal
himself has been very very inactive. He's had now one fight in three years,
and in that one fight, that was the recent fight in the end
of lacture in November, he didn't look particularly good. He was fighting David
Benavitez's older brother, really a welterweight you know, in his best days,
really one hundred and forty pounder, frankly in his best days, and just
would look very pedestrian, has his own issues outside the ring, and they
realize that you can't put that on the public for eighty dollars. Nobody's going
to buy it. It's that was just a bad, bad fight. You
want to do it for free on you know, showtime or you know in
the old days when they had Fox or whatever. Okay, that's you know,
I don't love the fight, but I watch it if I don't have
to pay act sort of get people, particularly when you're on a new platform.
It was just da as they say, dead on arrival. So at
that point they had to look around. And now the third fight that was
contemplated was for Aerol Spence Junior, which would have been a huge fight,
but obviously that is not salable in any way, shape or form, because
Errol Spence got outright pummeled and destroyed by Terrence Crawford, and so there's zero
value in a Canelo versus errool Spence fight. That would be an absurd fight.
I mean, I don't think the sanctioning bodies would sanction that for the
title. The guy's never fought above for of course nothing, no chance.
So PBC obviously you know they have some you know, desire not to lose
all their money and get absolutely creamed on these events. So the way it
was explained to me by various soreses who were involved in some capacity with this
situation, we're sort of like this. He and I wrote about this extensively
and people can go to the sub stack and read the particulars. But the
bottom line was he could get the thirty five million ish he would have been
due to fight Charlo in the second fight in May, but they wanted him
to agree and sign for a fight in September against David Benavide's. Which would
they say? They claim, and this was on the record from Samson Lukowitz,
who was the promoter of record for David Benavide's and others set it off
the record that they had offered Canelo Alberts fifty five million dollars for that fight
now. Eddie Reinoso, who was the trainer and the manager of Canelo,
I saw some of his messaging on social media or some quotes and some articles
that that was not true. So I don't know who to believe there,
But the bottom line was PBC wanted him to agree to fight David, and
Canello's perspective was, I don't have to agree to this. This is not
in our contract. Our contract says you pay me thirty five million for Charlo
and then we figure out the third fight after that. Now, just because
the three names were listed doesn't mean they can't mutually agree on some other opponents.
So my understanding is Hayman would have taken Mongia, you know, they
would have been able to do that. But the bottom line was he wasn't
going to budge and be forced to sign for David without you know, knowing
he's got the thirty five for the Charlotte fight. So okay, again,
my understanding hold one second, was that they would have accepted a loss if
you signed for David or right he could, right, he could have signed
the fight for Charlot, but as long as he agreed to take less money,
and he wasn't going to go for that either. So it's a deal
break in your reporting because this is out there and I've talked to a couple
of TV industry people over the last couple of months and so that we are
clear on this. The dynamic is different in that Premiere Boxing Champions is now
responsible for the production for that, for that part of the cost, as
well as coming up with the money of the fighters and help me if any
of this is wrong. So obviously last year Showtime Paramount was involved in paying
Canelo. Now it is up to Premiere And so exactly what you were saying,
you would be willing to go along with losing some money in May if
you knew the September fight was going to make it all back because it's a
much better fight. There is a lot of talk they didn't really have a
whole lot of money to put up here and do this if it was a
standalone and that it was Premieer Boxing Champions who basically said to Canelo, we're
done. I talked to a TV person that basically was saying that was saying,
we can't put up thirty five forty million dollars for something that is going
to obviously lose us money, and like you said, where you won't commit
to the better fight for later on in September. So in a lot of
ways in there while I'm talking through this, in a lot of ways,
it's kind of like Dezonne with Canelo back three or four years ago, which
is, we have certain opponents that are going to definitely make money, and
if you're not going to cooperate and fight whoever it is, then what are
we doing here? People with an eleven fight deal on that one? The
problem was they're the ones that signed the agreement. I mean, nobody forced
anybody to sign that and I can't. I mean, I think one thing
that people have to understand here is there's two things that play. One there's
what does the deal say? What is the agreement? And true there's the
emotional response that we as fans, we as media people in the business,
we are disappointed that he's not fighting benavides That's a separate issue. We all
want to see him fight David Benavidez and I don't even believe that he's unwilling
to fight David Benavid's but he's not going to have a gun held to his
head in the month of March and may to be signed for the fight in
Februar in September or you know, when he doesn't have any obligation to do
so under the paperwork that he agreed to, and so, uh, you
know, PBC, I actually I don't blame them here there. Their perspective
was, look, we'll we'll lose money on the first fight, which we
did in September last year. We'll even lose some money on the second fight
coming up in May. But if we're going to have the payoff fight,
we got to get the real big name, and the best name they can
make would have been in terms of financial obviously Benavidie's, and then maybe they
could have made the Crawford fight, but that didn't work out either for various
reasons. So they're out of situation where, you know what, we can't
we cannot go forward. So I don't think it was them that said get
out or leave. It was sort of like, hey, you know,
if you're not going to pay me on that here, and they're like,
well, we're not going to pay you, so you know that's what I
mean. They weren't going to put up thirty five or forty million dollars for
him, to pick Jamoral Charlow. At this point they saw it lose money.
My impression was this was not done in a like you know, nobody
nft each other on the way out the door. I think it was like
they understood, like this was not going to work for either side. And
uh, you know that was that. Two more things on this then we
got to move on to the previews, the other news, et cetera.
But this is this is important. The first thing is do you believe from
your reporting that right because there's talk right now that de Zone and whomever else
isn't going to put up this kind of money either. And Canelo now may
I mean we're now within about eight weeks of May the fourth. Uh,
you know, this may be a struggle to do a deal with somebody to
get that kind of money. He may have to take less money. Respond
to that, real quick, go ahead. I'll respond to that by saying
the following the Zone will put up the money. The issue that as at
HND and I reported this. I know a lot of people have been talking
about this. One of the things I reported in that in that piece is
that the Zone's preference is to do the the the HEIMI Mongia fight in May.
That's a fight that Golden Boy wants. That's a fight that Monkey wants.
My understanding is that they have already an agreement in place for Mongia if
that fight moves forward, so that part of it is kind of buttoned up,
even if it's not signed. But they have come to some sort of
resolution on the Mongia side. But that they so they want. They want
Mongia from May fourth, and they be willing to do Berlanga in September.
Canelo's perspective is that his preference is a due the Berlanga fight in May and
do uh the other fight with Monkey in September. Now, I don't know
why that is, or I've not spoken to Canelo about that. I have
reached out to Eddie Renols, so I have not her pack. So they're
at a little bit of a logger heads in that sense. And the one
thing is I think that perspective from the Zone is well, if he's no
longer with PBC, where else is he going. Well, I'm gonna tell
you right now, there's another suitor out there that's a very strong possibility for
Canilo. I know they're talking about besides his own I mean at the moment,
I can't talk about it for a lot of different reasons. Trust I
think my track record speaks for itself. When I tell you there's another possible
player, I'm not joking. I would never think that you're joking on this,
all right. So one more point while we wait for whatever the fight
is for May fourth and whatever outlet it's on for pay perview, is what
do we make of this for Premiere Boxing Champions Because this was supposed to be,
as they ramped up, really the big kickoff. This is kind of
a softer open, if you will, a softer pay per view with zoo
and and Thermon that everybody's poking holes in and making fun of. But as
you explained previously, and this is why you got to listen to these podcasts,
and it's a valid point. They are using that one as a test
run on making sure everything works for Amazon pay per view and building this out
and who's the broadcast crew and what does it look like and what does it
sound like as the test run. But now without that fight coming roughly six
weeks later, there is great debate as to whether or not the Amazon deal
and or the relationship with Premiere Boxing Champions is eighty six is dead on arrival
and won't last much longer anyway. All right, what do you say to
that? What are you hearing? What do you say to that? I
mean, I think the rumors of the demise are a little premature. And
I say that because number one, Amazon is a top notch company, obviously,
and number two not from day one that I first met Al Hayman over
twenty years ago when he was the manager for Vernon Forrest, and got to
know him quite well at one point. Even though we don't really talk to
anymore, I've never, in a million years whatever underestimate him. So anybody
that does that does so at their own peril. You said that, you've
said that before. But okay, that's great, So let's get back to
reality. But about finish my thought about that. Hold on, but hold
on, Let's get back to the reality of do they have another outlet if
this pay per view thing is fizzling out before it ever gets going. That's
the real question. I can't answer that. But they do have a deal
in place where you know, I know, they don't have any non pay
per view fights at the moment. Now, For whatever it's worth, I
am told that the plan, and it's not from Premier Boxing Champions side,
they would prefer to do some of the non pay per view fights more quickly
then for whatever reason, Amazon's perspective is no non pay per view fights till
at least June. But there are plans to do non pay per view fights
at what level in terms of the costs and the magnitude That I cannot answer
because we haven't seen it. But one thing is quite telling is that you
don't took a couple of things. Number One, you don't hear a lot
of rumors about fights. Normally when people are ramping up to do fights.
You know, I hear from TV people, other fighters, managers, promoters,
you know, get you hear stuff about what's being worked on, you
know, from sanctioning bodies, all that kind of business. There hasn't really
been any peep about that. The second thing, and this is this is
more like drip, drip drip. They're not losing like the huge stars.
I mean, well, Canelo, yes, but beyond that, you have
a Ray Vargas who has been with them, going over to fight in Saudi
Arabia against Nick Ball. He was supposed to fight a mandatory against brand and
then figure out not happening. He's no longer at least his next fight not
with PBC. You take a look at other fighters that have been with them.
You know what's his name. There's the rumored I mean, this is
not happening, but one of the guys that was rumored to be the opponent
for Sabrilla Mattias, who was one of the guys that did leave. That's
another example. There was also the example of the fighter in that same way
class named Elvis Rodriguez, who's been with them for the last couple of years.
There's been a lot of rumors that he will be the next opponent for
Serbralla. Mattias. I am told that's not happening, but be that as
a may he's another fighter that is apparently leaving PBC. In other words,
it's a drip drip drip of a lot of their talent, whether it's a
championship level guy like a Vargas or Mattias, or it's a contender like a
Rodriguez, that they don't have the activity. If you're a professional box or
your career is only so long, and if you know if you're not going
to get in a fight till June at the earliest, because you're not on
the card on March thirtieth, then what are you doing? And a lot
of these guys haven't fought since the late part of last fall, so by
the time they get back in the ring, if they hadn't fought at the
like, say they fought in September, you know, you're looking at quite
a long layoff for you know, and these guys got family. These are
not necessarily all fighters that are making me right. You don't get paid if
you don't fight right. And everybody's Canelo, everybody's Tyson fury Right, got
bills to pay, so you know, it's not easy. Now. The
one guy that there's been the conversation, we know because we've it's been out
there publicly. I wrote about it, They've been quoted about it, is
the prospect of this David Benavide's fight against Alexander Vodzick for June. That might
be the pay per view, Although to be quite honest, how they could
sell that as a pay per view I find to be bizarre. You know,
I'm just gonna say it would not surprise me. It would not surprise
me. In the least if it's one and done on Amazon pay per view,
that they now go to try to find another deal and do something else
with somebody paying them something and or fights on I don't know. I'm just
saying this. I don't know why they don't go back to somebody like Fox
who they had a relationship with before, that has a sports channel FS one
that needs summertime content and go do a here here I am playing amateur network
executive, go do a once a month fight series with FS one. It's
a lot easier said, because they were on Fox and they got kicked to
the curb, and part of that was because the fights weren't very good,
weren't drawing audience, et cetera, et cetera. So this has kind of
been a problem where it's the one thing unwinding and unraveling the one thing about
their Fox did when they were live on Fox on Saturday nights on primetime,
as well as the some of the lesser standalone shows with the younger fighters on.
At this one, at least in terms of the bigger names, the
primetime Saturday night cards virtually all featured a good name in the main event,
A Sean porter A, Caleb plant I mean that quality guys that were fighting
in those shows. The problem was it was like cowboys and Indians fights.
It was not competitive. They were there was one guy against a nobody,
and you can't you know, you can do that every now and again,
and sometimes that's just part of the nature of this sport and matchmaking and everything,
but you cannot do that time and again. So the number of events
they did on Fox, if you let's say they did twenty events, you
know there was probably you know, fifteen or sixteen of them that were the
kind of matchups reasons that results going in, and there were some good ones.
I can't I can't knock every one of them. I'm not a hater
by any means. So it's not just as easy as going back and saying,
hey, would you do more of our fights and pay us a number
of dollars. So I would say at the moment, why I said before,
I'm not counting out Hayman in any way, shape or for him.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to look at it and see they've
got some issues because they're losing talent, they don't have any non pay per
view fights, coming up. The pay per view that is coming up.
It's not a bad show in terms of the matchups, but as a pay
per view it's a little bit sketchy. And they just lost the number one
superstar in the sport because they couldn't deliver on the promise of what they signed.
And you know, again I'm not trying to dump on them, but
if you make the list, you know the as you know, I like
to say, the preponderance of the evidence does not make it look good.
Yes, your honor, I agree with you, because bear in mind,
like in the late twenty tens, when you had Deontay Wilder with the WBC
heavyweight title, you had the charlos, both unbeaten who by the way,
were fighting on Fox on over the year Fox in title defenses and title fights.
You had Keith, you had Aerol Spinch, you had the welterweight division.
You don't have really the charlos don't fight anymore. Deontay Wilder's basically at
the end, it looks like you don't have that anymore. Abner Marris and
Leo Santa Cruz and that you know, other other other top top guys,
I mean, don't they don't really have that stable of it, and so
it would not I'm saying it on the record, I don't. I don't
wish ill we liked some of the you know, the people that we deal
with with premier boxing champions. I get it, but I said to you,
I was skeptical last fall about all of this, and so now it
looks like it's unraveling, and it's incumbent on them to demonstrate that it's not
unraveling with the Amazon pay per view idea and go find something somewhere else.
And I think I think a very valid point that a lot of people that
are slinging arrows at them are saying they are responsible for having inactive fighters that
lost value, that lost interest for the public, for the buying public,
and the chickens have come to roost now on that too. So Wilson argue
with that. I mean, that's that's but the most telling thing is this.
It's one thing to lose a Ray Vargas, a Sabrial Mattias. It's
another thing to lose that Elvis Rodriguez, you know, who's not at the
top level, or or you know you haven't scheduled an on pay per view
fight even though they claim when they made their announcement there was going to be
a bunch of them and that the first one won't be told June's what I
was told, or at least not till June. The most telling thing is
when you have signed a three fight deal with the number one attraction in the
entire sport and he walks after one fight because you can't deliver. That's where
it becomes a big time problem. And they do have Jervonte Davis. We
should say that, and that could be looming as the June pay per view.
We don't know. We're waiting. We're waiting well the June though the
June, the June event is probably been Avidius. Tank Davis would most likely
not be till July, potentially even August, summertime in the summer. Do
you think that the world is going to be a gog and all excited and
pumped up to spend eighty bucks on Tank Davis against Frank Martin. No,
the answer is no, no. All right, So if you hold on,
let me just say this, Yeah, if Tank Davis even post Ryan
Garcia, which did obviously humongous numbers before he fought against Ryan Garcia, your
normal and Tank had been on pay per view several times against varying degrees of
opponents. He was on with Pitbull and Santa Cruz and UH and UH,
Hector, Luis Garcia and others. Those fights were doing generally in the two
fifties reigns, maybe a high of two seventy five or maybe even touched close
to three. And some that were maybe started with a one, you know,
in that two hundred somewhere range. Now you're and that was with Showtime
behind you and then emotionally right yeah, and everybody knew if you were a
boxing fan, you know, so heritage, heritage, you knew to go
there, right right? They like they what's they say? They over indexed
on boxing because people understood that's where you saw the big fights. So here's
the point. Now you come off the win over Tank, but you're fighting
a Ryan I mean a Frank Martin who's a good boxer but has literally zero
profile. He's never been in a big fight, was on Showtime a couple
of times, has been inactive because he turned down the Sharp Court fight last
fall. Is that gonna do more than Hector least Garcia with Showtime? I
don't think so, I mean so, I don't think you know, if
if you're talking about suddenly Amazon Prime is gonna do a block quote unquote blockbuster,
I'm still thinking. You know, Tank off the Ryan Garcia fight.
Maybe he does get a little bit of a bump because he grew his audience
a bit on that kind of great Nah, you know, victory for him
in a nice knockout. Does it do two fifty? I don't think so.
And that's not some mega, mega blockbuster that makes everybody huge amounts of
money. Tank will make good money on the fight, but that's not the
kind of thing you can use to make your company, you know, go
for the year. In the old days, you know, Don King or
Top Rank or whoever would put on some big, mega fight and it would
do a huge number a million, one, a million, this, nine
hundred thousand, and they would make huge money. And the money they reaped
on that one event was enough to keep them in business for the whole freaking
year. Right, put on other events, right, Yeah, you do
two fifty on a Tank fight, You're gonna make some money, obviously,
but it is not going to keep your own business for the rest of the
year. So, like you said, they got some problems. They got
to figure him out, and I hope they do figure him out. We
will find out. We spent a lot of time on that. Let's get
into the previews now. Yes, and this is obviously a large story in
particular if and we're we're living through it in real time, if it is
going to unravel and we don't know if it's gonna unravel here in the next
few weeks, a couple of months, then there's then there's a real concern
for the fighters that are still aligned with premier boxing champions. We'll find out.
We don't know that answer right now. All right, ESPN Top Rank
Show, Verona, New York, you interviewed Raymond Ford. Ray Ford,
Camden, New Jersey. He is challenging the the fighter Colmatov for the vacant
WBA featherweight title. That is the main event. The IBF featherweight title defense
of Luis Alberto Lopez against the Japanese opponent is the co feature fight. We
got championship doubleheader coming Saturday night on the ESPN Top Rank Show. So tell
me a little bit more about these two fights, because for one and twenty
six pounds, this is a big deal. With two title fights in the
same night in the same building. Yeah, listen, I really really like
this card. I mean, I mean, I know it's not Canelo Alvarez
and in the top top you know, mainstream level, but if you are
a boxing fan, this is a damn good card. Now, this is
this is as you mentioned, it's it's two of the titles in the featherweight
division, and it's like a big deal because they're top for top rank anyway,
you have the fact that they're so involved in that division. I mean,
not only that, but obviously they're going to be doing the fight between
the rematch between Rafael Espinoza and Robasi Ramirez. That's definitely something that is going
to also have an impact on this weight class. But a lot of things
are going to change based on what's going to occur on Saturday. Now keep
in mihind Also, this is an ESPN Plus only card, not on the
network, so you have to go on your trustee app to watch this particular
show. The two main fights are very intriguing. Kolmatov ode Beck Kolmatov,
you know, is a is a not a young fighter. I mean,
it's not like he's just starting out at twenty one years old. He's had
a big time amateur background, one of the top amateurs. So he's already
twenty five not old, but you know, this is his first really notable
fight. He's only twelve and zero. He's coming off a win that was
just a sort of a stay busy fight that took place in December. It
was really the Thomas Patrick Ward fight before that in March of last year,
when he scored a very impressive destruction in five rounds and just destroyed the guy
who at the time was thirty three zero to one. And I watched that
fight TJ, and let me tell you, I had images of when I
saw a Triple G come to the United States. He was I'll use this
and I'm not saying he's going to be Triple G. Let's not get carried
away. He was Triple G ish, you know what I mean. So
he had that ferocity, just go get you gunslinger, good punching power.
You know, he is twelve and zero with eleven knockouts. And it's an
interesting style matchup because in Raymond Ford, you know, a guy who's about
the same age also had a good backround that you know, he's twenty four,
the other guy's twenty five, so they have a lot of the metrics
are the same in terms of their pro experience level because ray is fourteen and
oh with a draw, and like I said, Komotov has only got you
know, twelve fights, so it's very similar in that respect. But ray
Ford it's like Ode Beck. Kolmotov is a great puncher brawler, but he
can box, and ray Ford is a guy that prefers to box but can
also stand and fight. So it's actually a pretty interesting style fight for me.
This is a fight that's on this card because Top Rank is the promoter
of Kolmotov and they want to pur spit over Eddie Hearn, who is the
promoter for Raymond Ford. So style wise it's an interesting fight. It's an
even match up in terms of their experience level as professionals. They also were
good amateurs. Like I said, so do you like the banger and the
puncher and the guy that's gonna come get you like a Komotov, or do
you want to go with the guy who's probably the bitter, a little bit
of a better technical boxer, perhaps a bit quicker with his hands and his
feet. You know, with good technical skills, but also is is capable
of standing in there you know that you have to make that decision. But
one thing about ray Ford is when I saw him, I've I've literally like,
I've only seen a couple of came up povs fights, even though I
was very impressed. I think I've seen basically every single ray Ford fight of
his entire career because he turned pro with Mattro and every single fight he's ever
had has either been on the main card or been on the before the belt.
And because I'm a degenerate, I watch all that stuff. So I've
seen all the fights, and I watched almost often, like to use the
other adjectives. Besides, just so he was one of these guys when I
watched, and him and I talked about it in an interview. You reference
it's on the last podcast where he would look great one fight and then be
like, you know, leave you kind of thinking there's a little more there
in the next fight. And then he had a draw in one fight that
he didn't really perform that well. Then he scored a you know, a
tremendously dominating win over Reese Bilatte, who was a solid British fighter and fought
you know, Edward Vasquez, who was an undefeated guy, but not at
that same level in my opinion, he has to you know, struggle for
a split decision in that fight, so there was like some inconsistency. Finally,
in his last fight that took place in April last year, he's coming
off an eleven month layoff. He goes in there with Jesse Magdaleno, who
was a former title holder at one hundred and twenty two pounds and looked really
really good, really sharp, and winning the decision against you know, a
very experienced, solid professional fighter, only came into that fight with just the
one defeat. He scored knockdowns against Magdaleno, uh, two knockdowns in that
fight and look really good. So, you know, my thing about about
ray Ford is which guy is going to show up? So if the guy
that beat up on Jesse Magdaleno shows up, he's got a very good chance
to win this fight. If it's a guy that showed up against Edward Dasquezer
the fight where he got the draw, you know, then you might want
to look at Comotov as the guy that you think is going to win.
And maybe you think Komotov is gonna win anyway because he's got the good power
and and uh and and that that fierce kind of fighting style. That that
did give me a little bit of a of a little tingling sensation about the
early days of Triple G in America. So that's a good interesting matchup.
And in terms of that feature, yeah, you know, it's I'm very
interested in this fight. In terms of the co feature. Uh In Luis
Alberta Lopez, you know, he's another guy that's looked pretty good. He's
been a road warrior, he's not he's not feared anybody. He's gone overseas.
When he won his title, uh, you know, in Josh Warrington's
hometown. He then fought Michael Conlin in a title defense that was on the
road. You know. You know, this guy didn't get a chance to
go home and celebrate instaid. No, what did he do? Hej he
went to freaking Belfast for his first defense. I mean that take a lot
of guys would just stay, would just win, dude. So he comes
into this fight against Abe uh, you know, and it's not like it's
his hometown, it's in upstate New York. But at least it's uh uh
you know, neutral territory if you will, and certainly it's somewhere it's uh.
You know, he's not gonna be worried about where the fight is.
Abe, you know, gim him Credi's coming over from Japan. If you're
not familiar with with Raya Abbe, if you're if you're again a degenerate like
I, I mean, you're watching the top rank UH boxing events that they
bring in from Germany, I mean from Japan rather uh. He beat and
and retired Kiko Martinez in the eliminator on one of the undercards of a card
that featured uh taraj and uh Niakuma in a way, and he fought in
that fight, and he won against Eco and now he's here to get his
title shot, and so you know it's a big moment for him also,
but he's you know, it's hard to think he's going to travel that well.
He's not. Look, he defeated Keiko Martinez, who was, you
know, an older fighter, a little bit worn down at that point,
and that's the only win even remote consequence on his record that you'd recognize as
a name. Lopez has been fighting extremely well and doing damage in guys out.
I mean, yeah, he took he went the distance against Joek Gonzalez
in the last fight. He did win the clear decision. It was a
little competitive, but the sensational knockout against Colon was before that. He got
the win deservedly so in Josh Warrington's hometown, even though it was a majority
decision. I mean, this is a mandatory that is kind of being forced
down his throat to some degree. I think if he's in any kind of
conditioner shape, it should be a pretty routine victory for him. I mean,
obviously you never know for sure, but that's one of the reasons,
frankly why even though he's the more establish champion, that top rank made the
decision to make this the co feature because they felt like the matchup in the
main event was a little more sexy, a little more appealing to undefeated guys.
Two guys with like the styles that are similar, like I mentioned and
so. But look, in a perfect world, especially if it's the top
rank guys that win, which is Lopez and uh and and Kolmatov, maybe
they'd make a unification fight us. But even if it's Ford, they're on
the same card here. I mean call me crazy, but it's says that
could be, but that would be up to match them because they're the ones
that are the promoter for Ford, make the fight. I'm not saying that
you're I'm not saying that you're saying, don't make the fight. I'm just
saying, generally speaking for the on behalf of the fight fans, is it
too much common sense to say if if we got two impressive winners, let's
say Coolmatov and Luis Alberto Lopez, or let's say for it is spectacular and
upsets Kolmotov and it's it's basically a fifty to fifty fight. All I'm saying
is it's easier if it's the two top rank guys that win. That's it,
and they'll also be in the picture for the winner if it comes to
pass. The rematch that they're talking about doing in the summer between Bramirez and
Espinoza. All right, now, first mentioned on the bet Us Boxing show
that we'll do Friday live one Eastern time. Check us out. The Kolmotov
Ford fight is basically a fifty to fifty fight. Coolmotov is like a minus
one twenty five and Ford is like a plus one fifty, so we'll handicap
that fight, the Luis Alberto Lopez fight, et cetera. So that's the
ESPN Top rank card. Anything else from that quarter? Do you want to
move on to the Zone Show? All right, the de Zone Show in
Puerto Rico. And it's interesting. Jake Paul obviously attached to it. But
again we've talked about this numerous times, him reaching back and pulling Amanda Serrano
publicity wise and dollars wise up with him fighting is like the co feature on
several of his pay per views previously. Well, now she's the headliner returning
to Puerto Rico to defend her three women's featherweight titles. He's gonna fight on
the undercard in the co feature as a cruiserweight fight. So very interesting here.
This is in Puerto Rico, live on his own Saturday night. But
Jake Paul isn't the main main event. It's probably much of the interest,
but it's just fascinating. So go ahead, give me some preview. Well,
I'm gonna give Amanda Surroundo the respect that she deserves since she's the main
event. That's who I'm going to talk about first. She's the unified featherweight
champion. She should have been still the undisputed featherweight champion, but because of
her issues with the WBC's decision that they won't sanction a women's championship fight to
be for ten I mean for more than ten rounds and for more than two
minutes, and she insists now to do her fights at twelve rounds and three
minutes. She no longer has a WBC title, but she's defending the other
titles this fight against Nina Menke, who is one of her mandatories in the
other organizations. This is a twelve round fight scheduled rounds for three minutes,
so she's getting her way. Obviously, her opponent was okay to do that,
and so she's going to have a homecoming fight. She has not fought
in Puerto Rico for several years, and she's thrilled to go do that.
I mean it's been since twenty I think seventeen or so since she fought in
Puerto Rico. You know, she's been based from take that back. She
did fight there in twenty twenty one, but it's been few and far between.
It's been a few fights, you know, several fights ago. Because
she's been active, so it's been a number of fights, even though twenty
twenty one is not that long ago. But the main thing is that she's
excited to be home. And you know what, I give Jake Paul credit
because he is a star. Because of his name recognition and his popularity,
he can be the main event anywhere. But you know what he's looking at
like this, I'm gonna put my fighter who I promote to make her as
big as possible in the main event. It's her island, it's her night.
And I'm the guy that's not taken on a big name or fighting in
the title fighter, not even in the ten rounder. And I'm still trying
to build and develop my career the right way, to try to get to
the point where I can, you know, fight for and become a world
champion. So I'll step back from the spotlight to some degree, and Amanda's
rood can get her shine. And I think that's uh, it's cool that
Jake did that. He didn't have to do it, and it's great for
Serrano because she is, you know, one of the best women's fighters of
all time. She's certainly one of the best women's fighters in the game today.
She's a bona fide champion and uh, you know, good for her.
Now, whether or not she defeats Menky, we'll see what happens.
I mean, you know, Menky is eighteen and three. It's not like
she's unbeatable. You know, she's been beaten before. It's gonna be hard
to overcome that sort of atmosphere that they'll see there. So and it's a
twelve round fight, and Amanda is used to that at this point because of
the fact that she's done it as a pro and she trains that way.
I'm sure Menki trained that way, but she's never had a twelve round fight
to my knowledge, in her professional career. And I'm thrilled that the fact
that this is not pay per view, because a lot of the Jake Paul
fights are pay per views, but this one, and like the last one,
it's not because again, he's not fighting some big name. I mean,
he's fighting, right, you know, when he's fighting Tommy Fury,
or he's fighting a you know, a MMA fighter with a major name like
an Anderson Silva or Nate diz E is exactly then you can, you know,
you can do that. But this fight is a against somebody that most
people have never heard of. And it's smart strategy again because it's just on
regular Dezgone here, it's not a pay per view. It showcases her.
They're going to have a rabbit atmosphere because of her being there. And it's
a great fight country as it is anyway in Puerto Rico. So I'm all
for all of that. The real question and here we go again. Another
reference to the bet Us Boxing show is the bet Us ads makers have instilled
the over under mister Raphael at a round and a half on whether this Borland
guy, Ryan Borland can stay upright through the middle of the second round or
not. And this is in particular when Jake Paul dispatched Andre August in the
Cruiserweight fight back in December with one booming uppercut to the shin. He's got
numerous other first round knockouts. So the real intrigue, I guess, is
this thing going past the middle of the second round. So I said to
you before, I can't pick a fight with one and a half and take
the under. After seeing the way that he handled his business against August and
knowing that Borland is a guy that's come off a layoff, that is older,
that is fighting at a heavier weight than he's you know, generally fought
at and who does have two losses, and that one of those losses that
took place in twenty fifteen. Granted it's a long time ago. Was in
the first round. Now I got a round and a half to play with
him and might have to go there, bro, I might have to go
there. It's tasty. It's tasty to go under. If that's again and
again, Jake Paul's fights have basically gone one of two ways. It's it's
either thunderbolt in the first round with the big right or it basically goes the
distance. The one exception is the Tyron Woodley fight that I was at in
Tampa the Showtime pay per view for the rematch, where again the thunderbolt didn't
come in the first round. It came in like the sixth round. But
other than that, these have been distance fights with Anderson Silva and Nate Diaz
and Tommy Fury and then again Boom goes the dynamite with August. It's like
one extreme or the other. If it's not over in the first round with
a big punch, it's probably going the round. So he's but he's fighting
a guy with experience, right, No one's expecting or needing him to fight
the top name. This is the development of the career. He's just done
it backwards because he's fat big names from MMA previously. So I'm just like,
let him do his thing, let him develop, let him get some
rounds and whatever. And you know what, we got Serrano, a bona
fide champion. In the main event. They also have another world title fight
in this card. You have Jonathan Gonzalez defending his title against the interim titlelder
Renee Santiago. He's been out because he had an illness and an injury,
so he had a fight canceled. But he is defending his his WBO title
in one hundred and eight pounds, you know, the junior flyweight division.
He's also a Puerto Rican, so they'll be a lot of fans there cheering
him on also, so you know, to me, it's not a pay
per view. I how do you I don't missing a man the Serrano fight.
He got the intrigue of j Paulkin and get a k O one,
you know, plus he got another solid world title fight on the undercard.
Santiago looked good in this fight the last fight when he won the interim title,
so you know, it should be a fun night and I love the
top ranked. You know, those two fights should be very interesting. All
right. So again we'll be all over those handicapping him on the bet Us
Boxing show as well. We'll have the full recap obviously on the recap pod
of whatever happens with those. Al right, some news and then some nostalgia.
Quickly with the news, you got clarification from Gilberto Mendoza, the head
of the WBA, about the situation with Edgar Berlanga as it relates to David
Burrell. We were talking about this on the previous podcast. Go ahead,
clarify, all right, So a lot of people thought we joked around him,
how they just made this the eliminator fight on the Friday, and I
was all confused. I had to ask my boy Chris Mannix, what the
heck happened? He told me was Friday. A lot of people made the
assumption because Berlanga spoke about it, I believe, and Eddie Herm was talking
about it. Well, now he's the mandatory for Canelo blah blah blah and
I'm like, that isn't right because Canelo is the super champion and David Morell
is the mandatory for Canelo as the regular champion. So my thought was,
because I've seen this before with these crazy WOWBA extraneous titles, is that when
you win an eliminator fight, you're the mandatory. If there is a regular
champion, you're the mandatory for the regular champion. Now, if there's only
one champion in the weight class, then you're the mandatory for that one champion.
So I got in touch with Gilberto. We had a very lengthy text
exchange about it, and he clarified, No, the victory by Berlanga made
him the mandatory for it. David Morrell, who is That's what I thought.
He's the regular champion and Morell is the mandatory for Canelo. Now,
neither one of those fights has been ordered yet, so there's that. So
Berlanga was on Twitter or ex or whatever on Thursday's talking about how you know
it was he was given some grief back to somebody. I guess he's been
taking a lot of incoming about the negativity towards the prospect of a Canelo Alvarez
fight, and he's like, look, you know, it's a big fight
in Mexico, Puerto Rico. It's going to be huge. I'm the mandatory
blah blah blah. And I had to like very politely correct him and say,
well, actually, I spoke to Gilberta Mendoz and you're the mandatory for
David Morrell. So there's that and just the bottom line just saying exactly,
I mean nothing against David Morrell, nothing against Canelo, nothing against Berlanga.
As I wrote in my response about that, I'm the guy that reads the
box top for the board game, knows the rules. That's right. Figure
this stuff out. News on Arnold Barbosa and where he will be fighting next,
where is he going to end up? So I had reported this a
couple of days ago and then they announced it today as we taped this on
Thursday, when they did the second press commence for Ryan Garcia and Devin Hainey,
they did the LA leg, they had done the New York leg on
Tuesday, and at that press conference it was announced and it was exactly what
I had reported, that Arnold world perform in the co feature of that fight.
This will be a second fight since he parted with Top rank and signed
with Golden Boy. He's twenty nine to zero with eleven knockouts, a very
good contender in the junior welterweight division. And by the way it's going to
be, it is no accident they play some on this card because on the
chance that somebody falls out of the fight, maybe he gets pressed into the
service in the main event, so they have another junior welter rate. And
watching the news conference on Thursday of the second show, like Ryan Garcia just
did not look good, did not sound good. He talked about you know,
they were making accusations on the tank on the rather on the Hainey side,
that he's using cocaine in this net and he didn't say, no,
I don't use cocaine. I just drink and smoke weed. Well that's not
that good either for a professional athlete. And he's saying that, right.
He looked a little ragged, And I know from talking to people that were
around him in New York that after the press conference on Tuesday, you know,
he didn't just go back to hotel and go to bed and get ready
to five back to LA for this press carvers. You know, he partied
hard Tuesday after the press converts, and he put on social media that he
was jogging through the streets of New York. I guess on Wednesday morning,
maybe before he fog to La whatever. But I mean, okay, so
it looks like the possibility Barbosa could be there as a backup fight. Oh
my god, am I even uttering that for April Detroy if if need be.
And by the way, you know in Barbosa, I mean, it's
not the level of Hany versus Ryan Garcia obviously, but he's a good contender.
I mean, he's a guy that can absolutely be in a position to
challenge for junior welterweight tel And it's not a joke. I mean, he's
a bona fide contend He just signed with Golden Boys, So not only do
they want to feature him on one of their big events. Can we not
get I'm just in my own head? Can we not have good things?
I mean, if Ryan Garcia doesn't have his head screwed on straight here,
this has the chance to arguably be the best fight maybe of the first half
of this year, excluding maybe whatever happens with Fury and Usik the Hani.
Would you not agree the haini Garcia on paper has the potential to be the
best fight maybe the first half of the year. So I fights in the
first half of the year, but I mean true, but there's a better
Boble is gonna be June first? Is that still count of the first that
would count in the first half of the year. But I mean, this
has a chance to be a really good fight. Hopefully his head is screwed
on straight. And then Barboza's fighting somebody. But he came away in the
concerns Chris Commerce. He needs to be seeing a you know, a therapist
or seeing a you know, somebody to talk about and look, we're not
gonna make light of it, but he's had problems before, and he's talked
about suicidal thoughts and whatever, and this is what's going on again If he's
coming unglued again atween having a mental health issue and having a substance abuse issue,
all the above, all the above, all right, So Barboza is
there on the undercard. What else? We don't have it fully in the
nostalgia part. But Ganadi Glovekin is taking a new role. It may mean
that his boxing days are done. You've kind of and I've kind of and
everybody else have been kind of going along with it. Doesn't look like he's
fighting anymore. So now you're gonna get nostalgic about Triple G, I know.
So tell me more about the new role and get a little nostalgic.
Go ahead, Well, it's not about nostalgia. It's about I've said all
along that it felt like he's not going to fight again. He's just you
know, not doing anything with the boxing. There's been no contact with the
team about a fight or anything like that. He gave up his world titles
and has been doing his own thing, and so, uh, when the
news came and this was something that Ganati posted to his social media, which
he does not post a lot of things to social media, whether he did
it himself or one of the people that he works with did it for him.
Nonetheless, you know, he he represented Kazakhstan in the Lands in two
thousand and four. He got a silver medal. He had a phenomenal amateur
career was three hundred and forty five wins and five losses. A revered amateur.
So he knows the Kazakh program very well and he is a former Olympian
for his country. He has been appointed as the president of their Olympic committee,
the kask Olympic, the National Kazak Olympic Committee, which is going to
obviously take up a lot of time as they developed their you know, their
their athletes and and things along that go involved with the Olympic movement and different
Olympics that come up. So that's going to take time, and he's going
to do that. So when you take on that kind of role, it
would seem to indicate that perhaps he's not going to be boxed anymore, which
I didn't think he would anyway, but this if you think he's retiring,
this might just add another reason to your list of why you think he's definitely
done at age forty two and having made huge amounts of money and had a
great legacy of a tremendous knockout run and a lot of good names on the
record and tied the record into which it will set, tied the Bernard Harpkins
record for the most middleweight defenses because he had two reigns, actually broke the
record for the most middleweight defenses overall. So if he's going to go do
this now and work for that Olympic committee, and it just seemed to me
that this was another indication that we're not seeing Triple G lay him up anymore.
And again, as you said, you got to start thinking about what's
next for some of these guys and as it marches on, and this appears
to be what's next for him. All Right. One more news item,
and that is something that was you've reported this we talked about on the podcast.
It appears to be a formality to pave the way for the upcoming opponent
for the Monster May the sixth Deoya in a way, and that is Luis
Nary and his Japanese license essentially tell me the latest on that. Well,
it's that the pathway has been paved now. I mean, the deal between
Neeri and in a way has been agreed to for quite a while and they
it was basically a formality that this would come to the past, but they
still had to actually go through the process and the Japanese Boxing Commission had a
lift the indefinite suspense that nearly has in Japan, which they did finally lift,
and the Japanese Boxing Commission announced that on Monday of this week, so
that is now the last hurdle this fight will now be finalized officially signed,
they'll start promoting it whatever as it gets a little bit closer. But he
has a checkered history. Nearly does in Japan. He had one fight where
he scored a big win over Shinsuki Yamanaka to win a title. He's had
a positive drug test that came back after the fight. So because he claimed
contamination and apparently was able to show evidence whatever, whatever, the WBC didn't
strip him, but they ordered a rematch. He went to do the rematch
and he came in significantly overweight one hundred and twenty two pound fight. I'm
sorry, one hundred and eighteen pound fight. He weighed one hundred and twenty
one pounds. And in Japan a lot different than what happens in the United
States of America. They take missing weight, especially for a title fighter,
really really, really seriously. You know, you've offended the nation if you
come in and missing Professoxer, so they to spend time against Japanese humanity has
occurred because he was three rounds overweight. So the fight took place and he
knocked out Yamanaka once again, and he was suspended indefinitely. That was back,
you know, twenty eighteen. I wanted to say, so, he's
been banned from Japan for quite a while, not that he was gonna necessarily
fight there, but now the suspension is lifted, and I'm gonna tell you
right now, when he goes in the ring and they do the promotion for
in a way, you know, Japanese boxing matches, everybody's very respectful towards
each other. That's the culture. If you go to the fight starre,
you watch them on television, the people it's almost like they're at the opera.
They clapped nice and polite. There's not a lot of crazy rara,
like if you were the British crowd or an Irish crowd or the Mexican crowd.
You know, I have a feeling if there's ever gonna be a rowdy
kind of Japanese crowd, it's going to be anti Louis Neari because of his
notorious past in that country. So I'm a little intrigued by that. And
then of course, anyway we'll go out there and knock him the hell out.
There's that. There is that part of it too, all right,
So good news. We had a lot of news and the previews. Now
nostalgia time. Let's get nostalgic on fifteen years ago, Wednesday, February twenty
eighth, from this past week two thousand and nine, Juan Manuel Marquez and
his knockout of Juan Diaz the two thousand and nine fight of the year,
and ray Field was right there Houston, Texas. Tell me more about this
one that's now fifteen years old. Well, I did go to the Toyota
Center with Bernard Hopkins and Shane Moseley and a bunch of other people are associated
with the fight the night before the fight, and I sat in one of
those beautiful suites at this arena and saw my first ever Lebron James game in
person against Yao Ming. So that was how yes, I would pretty love
it. That would be memorable. And I was hanging with Shane Moseley.
I was hanging with Shane Mosey Bernard Hopkins talking basketball. But anyway, the
next night, wait, wait, you can't just leave it right there in
the I know you can hold your own. But in the debate, did
you get the better of Moseley in the NBA debate or Bernard Hopkins? Does
Bernard know more than Shane Mosley about the NBA? In your opinion. You
can't leave it there. I've certainly had my debates with both of those men
at times about boxing related material. I don't recall that it was a debate.
We were just having a good time watching the ball game, so there's
that. But the next so they were the host, they so they gave
it. And by the way, this is Lebron uh in the chronology with
the Cavaliers, still all along before the Miami Heat and they're back with the
Cavaliers and now with the Lakers. So this is lebron first tour of duty
with the Calves. Interesting and yao ming. People don't understand how massively,
massively popular he was. And that was that's that's plite a memory. Right
now, on to the fight the next night, What about it Fight of
the Year? Well, the thing was because the Toyota Center was hosting their
event, they had given them the use of the suite, and you know,
Rayfiel was fortunate enough to be invited and get a chance to hang out
and watch the ball game. Had a good time. But anyway, the
next night, Wan Diaz and one Manuel Marquez produced to the fucking classic.
It was one of the best fights you could ask for it was the definitely
the fight of the year in two thousand and nine. I think pretty much
everybody picked it as the fight of the year. Remember, at this time,
you have one Daniel Marquez is the he is the lineal champion, but
two of the belts are at stake, is the WBA title that owned by
Jan Diaz as well as the vacant WBA title. So it was for supremacy
in that in that weight class. I mean, it wasn't There was no
doubt about it that the winner of this fight is the number one lightweight in
the world, end of story. Because here you have, you know,
two I take that back. You have you have two vacant titles, the
WBO and the WBA, and the lineal title at state that that Marque has
had. So he won those belts and retained the lineage. So it was
there's no dispute, like I mean, he didn't maybe have all the sanctioning
body health, but if you ask anybody that knows anything about boxing at that
time, the winner that fight is going to be the consider the number one
lightweight period. And it was a spectacular fight. It was in wan Diez,
his hometown of Houston, so he had tremendous fan support, but he
also had a lot of people there that were rooting for Marquez who were Mexican
that were that were more for him, so it was a good split.
It was Mexican nexan American crowd, but the hometown guy was not the only
guy getting support in that crowd. It was a very electric night. You
also had the Houston fighter Rocky Warrez on the undercard in a featherweight title fight,
so he had a lot of fans are also. It's made for a
really exciting and fun night. Fought Chris John who was a longtime featherweight champion.
The bottom line was they put on as good of a fight as you
will see now. The remaps they did after this was kind of a dut
It wasn't nearly as good. But this first fight was spectacular competitive and then
Juan Manuel Marquez, you know, definitely a better puncher than Jan Diaz who
was a tremendous action fighter but never had a big punch and always was going
to distance. But Marquez was able to take him out very spectacular in the
in the ninth round with a devastating kind of knockout, and it just put
through sort of the you know, the final stamp in exclamation point, if
you will, on what had been a sensational fight. You know, you
watch a fight like that and you just think, yourself, I have no
idea how there could be something else this year that's going to beat that.
Sometimes you just kind of know. And like when two thousand and nine ended,
my recollection was like, it wasn't really that complicated to make the best.
I'm going there first, even though it's in February. I'm going there
first, right, Yeah, I mean, but there are times, you
know, I saw I was ringside for Kralis Castillo one in May, and
you see that fight, You're like, there ain't no there's I mean,
there's nothing that could possibly cope this. You know, I saw Sam second
mantreport that great WBA one twenty two pound tind of. I forget the month
that it took place, and I off the top of my head, I
want to see maybe it was in March or whatever it was. But you
see a fight like that, You're like, no fucking ways anything beating that.
And this was the one that the one that we all default to is
Hearns and Hagler. Yeah, and obviously when that happened. It wouldn't have
mattered if it was January, if it was May, if it was lead
to day like it is today. So that you know what I was just
thinking. You know what I was just thinking when you were saying that too.
Just one more time back to the Douglas Tyson nostalgia. That fight was
the fight of the decade, the fight of the decade in nineteen ninety in
the second month of the decade out of one hundred and twenty months. Yeah,
the decade was Javes versus Taylor. That was a few weeks later.
Well, that was the next month. I thought, I thought that the
Douglas Tyson was the fight of the decade. No, that's if I had
a vote, I would have said, Douglas Tyson's the fight of the decade.
You need to go back and watch Javez and Melder. I know both
fights. I'm just saying. But amazingly, there were still ray Fael one
hundred and seventeen more months in the decade. But the point is the same
one that you're making. When you saw that, you said, that's something's
going to have to go for a while. To see that as the fight
of the year. And nothing did in two thousand and nine. For that
one, I picked it as the ESPN Fight of the Year that year.
Obviously I was in the middle of my tenure at ESPN. It was the
BWAA Fight of the Year, which the membership votes on. It was the
Ring magazine fight of the year, which is you know, they're small editorial
people. That picket. I mean there was. It was not a complicated
pick. And you know what, markz if you go back and you look
at his career and Marquez obviously is a Hall of Famer, and you look
at at the great fights that he's had. Obviously, if you if you
take the Paquaw rivalry out of the situation, obviously he fought him four times.
They were all classic kind of fights. I dare say the most entertaining
fight, the most memorable fight that Juan Manuel Marquez had in his career other
than against Manny Paco, would have been the first fight he had with Wandiaz.
It's kind of like if you were looking at Arturo Gaddi's career and you
took away the Mickey Ward fights for a minute, you know you could you'd
find, you know, what's the next best fight? I actually did a
piece about that for the Ring magazine a few years ago where we did they
were doing an honor or an issue towards the Gaddian Ward relation to the trilogy,
and the piece I wrote was like one of the best Gaddy fights not
against Mickey Ward. It's like if you were doing the best fights of Juan
Man, you will that were not against many Paco. I would dare say
that the first matchup with Juan Diaz as the fight of the air would certainly
take that that that mantle. So that was a tremendous battle, a great
night, and I was it was great to be ringside for just a superb
fight and to see your boy y being against Lebron the night before. Yow,
what about Yogi Bera and Yao being in that commercial my father's idol Yogi
Berra Yoo Yo Yo Yoo Yogi. Check it out on the moving on to
the other nostalgia, it is now been twenty one years ago as a Friday
Friday and March first, as we released the podcast into Friday March first.
Two thousand and three, Roy Jones captured the WBA heavyweight title. Now you
wrote the word masterpiece on the on the rundown here. I you know,
I have to swat at you every now and then, John Ruiz. I
mean, yes, Roy Jones won the fight, but the word masterpiece.
I know Roy won a portion of the heavyweight title that night, but that's
not one of the things that would come to mind for me on boxing masterpiece.
But you were right inside if you were the most give me the nostalgia.
You were close. Here's the bottom line. You can say what you
want. Lennox Lewis was the heavyweight champion at the time, the real champion.
John Ruiz had the WBA belt, but Roy Jones, you know,
no one ever would say he was the real heavyweight champ. But it was
still a huge accomplishment because it had been over one hundred years since anybody that
had been a middleweight had actually gone and won. He coursed on the heavyweight
title. He had to go literally back one hundred years. Think about that.
People say that again, Think about that he was a middleweight and it
had been how long, over one hundred years, you know remark, I
mean that's just what it was. So and John Ruiz may not have been
Lennox Lewis, but by everybody's rankings and opinions. Generally speaking, John Ruiz
was like a top four heavyweight at that time, so that's still a good
accomplishment. He was also, by the way, Roy Jones outweighted by over
thirty pounds, and there had been a long, long period of time where
he had been so dominant as a light heavyweight, and obviously before that super
middleweight and then away before that. He was the acknowledged universal, without a
doubt about it, number one pound for pound at that time. But everybody
kept saying, you know what, there's nobody for you to fight a light
heavyweight. He didn't you know, a cruiserweight there was. You know,
it would have been interesting, I guess for some people, but there wasn't
a big name or you know, as the kids say, a big bag
to go fight that fight. So it was all about Kenroy Jones become a
heavyweight champion and they were able to make the deal. Now, it was
a huge deal at that time. It did big business on pay per view.
Uh you know, I filled up that the the Thomas and knac Center
in Las Vegas. Uh, it was it was a huge, huge event.
Caesar's Palace was the host hotel and it was buzzing' the whole week.
I was there, you know, for several days leading up to that fight.
It was a little craziness at the at the fight week activities because you
had the very stoic and very chill trainer Alton Mrkerson that worked with Roy Jones,
you know, a form but a guy that came from a military background.
And you had the absolute lunatic Norman Stone that worked with as a manager
and was in the corner for John Rouiz even though he wasn't the head trainer,
just an absolute loose cannon. And at the wigh in you have finally
All Murkerson and had just heard enough from Stoney. He'd been chirping the whole
week and all through the promotion, and he got in his face and Alt
Murkison just let loose and hit him with with a big punch and dropped him
like a sack of shit. Where are you in that real? How close
ringside on that a few feet away? I was standing probably four feet from
them when he felt, oh my god, like they had to go get
He got taken out on a stretcher. I mean he turned red. We
thought he fucking died away and then part of you for a half seconds going
is there going to be a fight tomorrow night or not? Yeah, there's
going to be a fight, because it was de with the trainers and there
and then their managers. They weren't going to be the fighters. But anyway,
so Roy Jones went in there against John Ruiz and it was a masterpiece.
I don't care what you say. It may not have been against Lennox
Lewis, but he fought a man way, way, way bigger and he
didn't just go there to to run around and touch him and move. He
stood there and he boxed them beautifully. He won going away. It was
like, you know, nine to nine to three on one card. I
want to say, uh, a little closer on one other card, maybe
six four, you know eight to four. Rather point is Roy just boxed
you brilliantly. He won that heavyweight title in the biggest thing that Roy did
after that was the decision to go back down to light heavyweight, which really
ruined his career because his body was so fucked up by losing you know,
twenty five pounds of basically muscle to go down and fight Tarvar. He barely
won the first fight with Tarvor and then was never the same because he got
knocked out in the next fight and got knocked out by Glenn Johnson, and
it was just a wreck. So if Roy Jones had fought Ruiz and retired,
we'd be talking about him as one of the top three or four or
five boxers in history of the sport. But then it was a long decline,
And obviously it doesn't change what he did before that, but you have
to also include all the fights he had post that John Ruize performance. Now,
if he had stayed at a heavy he had stayed at heavyweight, and
we've talked about this and we were able to complete the deal for him to
fight Evander Holyfield at heavyweight, which would have been another huge fight that was
almost a done deal. It never got quite done. You know, Tarvar
had came to the press conference after he beat Ruiz and was calling Roy out.
They had been amateur rivals. They're both from the same area in Florida
thereabouts, and you know, he ended up taking that fight and it was
probably the worst decision he ever made. But on the night that he beat
Roy Jones, he's the greatest fighter that ever walked the planet. To a
lot of people, to what he had accomplished to jump up two weight classes,
win a heavyweight title against ninety beat Ruiz. You mean Mela Jones,
the ninety beat Ruiz, right, Ruiz. To accomplish that, that was
a big accomplishment. There is something, There is something to be said for
that. There is no doubt, all right. By saying it wasn't a
masterpiece, I'm just saying to you he won the fight, but it's John
Ruiz. It was a time in which the heavyweight division was kind of there,
you know, Lennox Lewis then eventually the Clitch Goes had the titles.
So but he did move up to heavyweight and beat a heavyweight and outfall the
heavyweight in that, and there's something to be said for that for sure.
All Right, good nostalgia. The only other fighter that ever did that,
I said to you, was like over one hundred fucking years, give me,
give me the name. Well, first of all, it started with
a freaking eighteen in the eighteen hundreds. You made Entons, Bob fitz Simmons.
Yes, so go there you go. You know you're trying to downplay
it, That's all I'm saying. I'm not trying to downplay it. Just
the word masterpiece doesn't come to mind when I think of that. It's an
accomplishment. It was a masterpiece and Rayphael was there, all right, my
friend. Good stuff on all fronts news previews, A game will have more
on the featherweight title fights. And also Jake Paul, is it going to
be over early or not by the way I fought at Puerto Rico on the
bet Us Boxing Show tomorrow. Yes, anything else, I'm just thinking about
this. In the whole history of boxing, there's still has never been other
than Roy Jones and Bob Fitzsimmons, a former middleweight champion that also won a
heavyweight belt. Right, So I'm going to be saying for that's crazy,
you know. So I know it's kind of like lost maybe some luster,
I don't know. I mean kind of like nobody really talks about what Michael
Sphinx did against Larry Holmes. But it's a big freaking deal what Roy Jones
did and I'm never going let anybody forget that you just did. It's good
stuff, all right, bet Us Boxing Show coming tomorrow one Eastern time.
We'll make some predictions on Friday, depending on when you're hearing this podcast Friday
one Eastern time. Bet Us platforms, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, go
check us out there tomorrow and then whatever happens this weekend with the ESPN Top
Rank Show, the de Zone Show with Amanda Serranos, Title Defense, Jake
Paul and the co Feature. We're recapping it on the Fight Preaks U Night
recap on this podcast feed. Brother Rayphael, I'll talk to you on the
bet US show and let's enjoy the fights. Sounds like good plan. My
front there is Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeves. Follow our subscribe,
Apple Podcasts, Freaker, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. For now,
we are good on the Big Fight Weekend Preview