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is on till fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is
your host, TJ. Reeves. We get ready for a world title weekend
that includes a showtime pb SE showdown involving Roy Leno. You're gonna hear from
him in a little bit on the pod, two championship fights on the ESPN
Top Rank show that is also coming for this weekend in Stockton, California.
We're ready to break all of it down, news and much more, including
the cheery personality in the inside of one. Dan Raphael, our insider from
Big Fight Weekend and his Fight Freaks Unite substack. I am merely the somewhat
competent host Dan Rayphael back aboard for another weekend, and we've got some intriguing
title fights to go over here on the program. How are things as we
get into the preview mound, Things are good. We got a nice weekend
coming up. That's it's been a little been a little sparse last couple of
weeks. We did of Canello, but there wasn't a much else that pretty
much went the way we thought it would go. So we got some interesting
fights this weekend. We do some fifty fifty fights potentially. By the way,
I should mention that as part of this weekend, it is my anniversary
and those that had the under on the Reeves marriage not lasting twenty seven and
counting for missus Raeves, God love her and missus Rayphael, you're approaching like
number twenty, am I correct? What have we done right to have women
that have put up with this for this long? Rayphael, we just had
our nineteenth wedding anniversary, but we've been together for twenty seven years, so
we're closing and on the big two oh next year. And congratulations my friend,
yes, and congratulations to missus Reeves who's put up with all of my
antics, including all sports and boxing even and she's somewhat of a Fight fan.
By the way, is whatever we met missus reeves I like you have
not, but you would like her because she swats me on a regular basis
and you and she would get along great in that regard. All right,
so thank you for finding us. However you've done so. Again the audience
continues to grow. We say thank you for that. Raphael wants to remind
you again rate us and review us here on the podcast. If you like
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Fight Weekend podcast feed, and leave us a five star review because it helps
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email list or on his substack itself. If you rate us and review us,
it will help us. Please continue to do that and continue to follow
or subscribe, because you're going to get special content whenever it's out. Sometimes
it's timely and not around the preview podcast like this one, or the recap
podcast coming off the weekend, like when you got Joe Goosen recently in a
one on one conversation about the Splitsville with he and Ryan Garcia. You heard
from Joe if you were with us on the podcast feed without any other prompt.
It's great stuff. So make sure you're following or subscribing. We are
glad that you are here with us now and let's get into it. Showtime
PBC card that we're interested in, which will be for the vacant WBA Junior
Welterweight title in the main event from Las Vegas, Role Romero, Rolando Role
Romero and Ishmael but Rosso Venezuela originally now fighting out of Miami from everything I
can tell, all right, so they will be the twelve round main event.
This is the fight that obviously had to be readjusted because of the positive
drug test of Alberto Pio, who is now out of the way. So
Dan, give us more on this one and we're gonna hear from Rolly Romero
coming up. Folks stand by Dan's conversation with him. But Dan first the
insight on this one and the card, well, Rolly Romero was always the
A side, if you will, on this event, even when he was
going to challenge Playo for the title. You know, he's the bigger name,
He's got a bigger fan base, he's the more outspoken guy. You
know, he's they're fighting in his hometown, which is Las Vegas. So
when Alberto Po failed the drug test for a PEG, the same fertility drug
that we've discussed many times, that was the same substance at Connor Ben tested
positive for, he was disqualified from the bout. Now, the process that
the WBA is going through along with the Nevada Commission, you know, it
doesn't happen overnight, so it takes a few weeks, maybe a month or
longer for them to get to the bottom line and to determine what they're going
to do. My understanding is that, and I've talked to some people in
the Playo camp, is that they don't even deny that he took the substance.
They claim he was doing it actually because him and his wife are trying
to get pregnant, and I guess it did work. I guess because they're
having a baby, or maybe they just had a baby. But in any
event, even if he did it for the right reasons, there's a couple
of issues he had was one he didn't disclose it be even if he did,
he didn't ask for an exemption. And three, even if it was
for all the right reasons, he theoretically could still have received a benefit from
using that substance. So anyway, they're dealing with that. So what the
WBA did, And you know, anybody that's known me or listening to me
or read me for any length of time know, as I'm sure had my
issues over the years with the WBA. I mean, I don't need to
rehash that. I believe in this case they actually did the right thing amazingly.
And the reason I say that is because they didn't want to rush to
a judgment, as they shouldn't. They got to go through the process as
well as then the vat a commission. So what they did was because they're
out against doing interim titles. And I've had numerous numerous private conversations and texts,
exchanges, etc. With Gilberto Mondoza Jr. Who was the president of
the WBA over the last you know, two years about it. I respect
that they don't want to use the interim title tag for this fighter for any
other fight. Okay, that's good. I don't even have a problem using
interim title if it's for a bonified reason like this or an injury, but
okay, be that as it may. So what they have done is they
have utilized their in recess title, which means they basically stripped the full world
title from Puyo. They paid him an in recess champion as they go through
the process, which left the title vacant. So they already had a fight
set up for for Roli Romero. So the next guy in line in the
w BA was Ishmael Barroso, who already was scheduled to box on this undercard
to keep him busy and to keep him on the same sort of schedule as
they thought he would theoretically fight for the title after this, so that was
not a heavy lift to just move him up the card and do that.
And PBC and TGB Promotions they actually have done a tremendous job since the beginning
of the pandemic to make sure that if these incidents happened, whether it was
back then it was really related to COVID, but now it's pretty much whatever's
going on is to have a reasonable backup plan in case something happens to your
main event, so you don't have to cancel the card, and you know,
and everybody pays the price for that. So the main event for Better
for Worse now was Rolling Ramero versus Barroso for this vacant title, and the
winner in the WBA ruling that they put out is going to have to fight
O'Hara Davis, who was the next guy that was supposed to fight for the
title. They had outlined their their mandatories back you know, when they went
through this whole process, back when the title vacancy was filled in the first
place. So this fight will take place, and it's actually, in my
opinion, not a bad fight. You know, we all know about Roller
Rameo. He's a gun slinger, but he's you know, he can box.
Also, Barroso is maybe not the most well known guy. He's an
older fighter forty years old, but he's got great punching power and he'll be
in there to swing it and see what happens. So from an action standpoint,
well, I don't necessarily expect that we're going to see twelve rounds out
of this thing. I think we could see some definite entertainment value, let's
put it like that. So you know, you can argue, by the
way TJ the merit of whether Romero should be involved in a world title fight.
At this moment, he has not fought as a junior welterweight. He
is coming off of a one year laoffs about fifty weeks layoff, just short
of one year since his last bout, which was in fact a knockout loss
in the sixth round against Servante Davis in a w B A lightweight title bout.
That's an argument for a different day, but from an entertainment value.
As a boxing gan, I am happy to see Roly Romero back in the
ring. He's fighting Alberto Play over the vagant title, I mean for his
titles. That would be fine. If he's fighting Barroso for this Veaguan title,
as long as they follow the rules and give the next mandatory his opportunity.
You know, I have no problem with I think it's going to be
And this is what I always believe to be the most important thing when we
discuss these matters. Is it going to be an entertaining fight. My answer
to that is it probably will be. Barroso, as I mentioned, he's
got twenty four wins and twenty two knockouts, He's also been knocked out two
of his three losses, so it's sort of like, uh, you know,
knocked the guy out or get knocked out yourself. He's won four fights
in a row, you know. And all I can say is not every
fight is going to be one verses two in a super fight, but you
know, I'll take this and it tops a pretty decent tripleheader, so we're
all good. I'm all good with it. And again we'll hear more from
Role in just a few moments here on the podcast. Again, back to
Barosso, though he has not been active recently, he only has a couple
of fights in the last three years. One of them was almost two was
over two years ago in January of twenty twenty one, and it was a
one round fight. And there are some questions. I've read a couple of
things about whether he is older than forty years of age. He is listed
at forty give or take. Then again, forty is the new thirty.
But he's actually fought more recently than Role did. Role didn't. And again,
like again, like you said, how you fall then into being a
division up, the number one guy, or at least in a title shot
when you haven't fought since then. Welcome, Welcome to the organization. So
anyway, this is what we have. You've mentioned that we're going to have
some fireworks we think here on this card. Um certainly, Uh, it
will be interesting as as the main event we'll have. We'll have some intrigue
there as part of that. Do we want to hear from the man?
Now you talk to him earlier in the week. Do you want to hear
a little bit from Roli Romero? Well, I you know what he said,
so we can let the audience here from him. But why I found
to be interesting about what? First of all, Raleigh's a real when you
when I've interviewed him a few times, He's a sort of like a happy,
go lucky kind of guy. I'll give the uh the rating if you're
listening with your small children. Uh, Raleigh is I mean? I know,
I I'll be the first woman. I do drop a couple of bombs
on the podcast once in a while, I know, but Raleigh makes me
look like I have a very clean mouth on me. So Raleigh likes the
F word, So get used to it for the next ten or twelve or
fifteen minutes, however long the interview ended up going and uh he does take
uh liberties with his language. But in any event, he shredded Albert Oquayo
for the drug usage he got into. He got into, uh, you
know, thoughts about the Javante fight that he's coming off of, how he
would like to have a rematch. So we'll let the audience here and be
aware of the f bombs. I like what you said that you already know
what he's gonna say. The rest of us would like to know what Roly
Romero is gonna say. So let's listen in now as he gets ready to
headline for showtime in PBC Saturday. I'm gonna welcome to the podcast. This
week we have Roley Romero a role. You've got a big fight coming up
Saturday night on showtime in the main event at the Cosmopolitan, your hometown of
Las Vegas. You're taking on Ishmael Barroso. I am told it will be
for the vacant WBA title at one hundred and forty pounds. You were supposed
to fight Alberto Pueo for his title in this fight. He had a positive
drug test and got stripped of the title, or is about to get stripped
or put into recess. The WB, I guess is still going through their
process, but very quickly. Then, what were your thoughts when you found
out that your opponent had a positive drug test? Well, I mean first
thought sent me and anyone at tests positive in combat sport or any sport,
right, it is fucking sad and there. But like in combat sports where
like people's actual health is involved, you know, like like I mean,
you know, you go play basketball, right, I mean, what's the
worse it's going to happen now your knees are gonna hurt, or soccer you
know you'll turn acl or something, right, But in boxing people die?
Are you gonna go test positive? People at test positive? Should never box
again? I don't give a fuck. I'm like and I'm like, obviously,
like there there's there should be let limits on on on certain things,
you know, like it's for instance, you know, but like for like
for like you know, performance enhancers. Oh no, you should never box
again. Fuck that shit. Listen, I understand what you're no, no,
no, no, that that's that's our health, that's people's health.
So when when you found out about the change of opponents, you think your
your your views on what happened with Playo very clear when you got the word
that you were going to now be fighting Ishmael Barroso, who I guess was
originally supposed to be on your undercard. What were your thoughts about making the
opponent change just a few weeks ago. I mean I've had opponent's changed like
like literally day of fight, you know. So it's like, you know,
at this point, you know, it's like whatever is boxing? Boxing?
You know? Sure? So what do you know about Barosso? I
mean, I've seen him fight a few times. He's forty years old,
he's got four wins in a row. He's record is twenty four to three
and two. He does have twenty two knockouts, so he's viewed too many
as a good puncher. Crack he can crack. Is that the biggest thing
for you then? Is the power? Do you have to be wary of?
He tricky? He does like these short little like out nor he'll like
go wide and out nerd like you. He some like zone people fight.
He to stand there right for a second. He to throw a short little
left handing. Yeah, we like that. So I know he can crack.
I don't he can crack? Have you watched much of them before,
or are you just going on what your coach may have said to you.
No, no, no, no, I that's from what I see when
he fought Okay, and so I again, I guess they haven't made it
official in terms of announcement as we record this a few days before your fight.
But what is it? I guess you're gonna be fighting for a world
title. Well, I mean, you used to have a WBA interim title.
I remember we spoke after the WBA stripped all of their interim champions,
and I was interested in the viewpoint of those guys that had been stripped and
what you were one of the guys I spoke to when you were sort of
like not a big deal because your point of view was getting that interim belt
was merely a means to put yourself in position to fight for a real title.
It appears now that you're in that position to fight for a real title
on Saturday, And so what are your thoughts about getting a chance, maybe
not against the reigning champion in playo, but at least for a real title.
What are your thoughts about that? Finally, after this length of time,
I mean, I don't know no boxer dream isn't to be world champion.
So I mean I fed his boored. I wanted to be world champion,
and you know the world champion. Does it make a difference to you
that it's not against the reigning champion that it may be for a vacant title.
A guy is just a guy, Okay, it's just a guy is
just a guy. It's gonna be your first fight in a couple of weeks,
less than one year since you had your pretty significant fight against Travann to
Tank Davis uh an intriguing fight, a fight that was highly competitive until he
did get the knockout victory. I wonder what was the biggest lessons that you
took away from that defeat. I should not have been at thirty five?
No one, okay? Is that right? That was a problem making one
thirty five? I mean I just shouldn't not have been there more. It's
two and I try, I try to get the fight out forty, but
that didn't happen, and you felt what pressure to take it anyway because it
was a great opportunity. Well, look, I'm gonna tell you like this,
how am I gonna call it? Dude out call it dude out right,
and I finally get him right him complaint like, no, I'm gonna
fight, you know, I'm and I put everything that I had into you
know, doing that. You know, so you're at You're at forty to
stay now for the time at least for the time being, right, this
is your new home. I'm going to forty seven, nine forties just uh,
you know, just time for me. And it's chilling, and just
go to forty seven after now, when you go back and think about your
fight with Tank, as I mentioned, you were highly competitive in that fight.
I mean, yeah, you lost a fight, but it was by
no means did he walk over you at all? It was a real no
no. I'm gonna tell you like this, like I want every single round,
and then I gave Tank the fight. Tank did him when I win
the fight, at it for free. That's true constructive. So what I
was gonna say to you is that because of the way that you competed against
him, however you thought it was scored. I mean, you know,
I'm not sure a lot of people would say you won every round, but
certainly you won some rounds in the fight without question. But the point I
was going to make you roly is this and a couple of weeks ago he
had his huge fight with Ryan Garcia and he's had a much more dominant performance
against Ryan and then got the knockout than he did against you. Before he
got the knockout, it kind of makes your loss to him age better look
better. Do you look at it like that at all? That it's like
you know, you you you gave him his best fight. Oh by far?
I mean I by far going the best fight. But I mean and
and like I said that, that does me not being so I mean,
I don't want to like it really compare like you know, obviously styles when
you fights and stuff like that. You know, but Ain't did a tremendous
drop against Ryan, and he had a good game time for Ryan, and
it showed you know, yeah, no doubt about it. Uh when you
say you weren't one hundred percent for the fight, is it was there more
to it than just the fact that you were struggling to make one hundred and
thirty five pound weight limit or was there something else that was giving you issues
going into the fight with Tank. It's a few things, but like it
was, I feel like it was just more of the way because like I
just could not be at that weight class. Okay, that's fair enough,
trans I've got offers at that weight class. I'm just like, fuck dash
shit. But like I said, like as far as like the Tank was
Tank, i'man I was planning. I'm moving up. Anyways, after after
I fought, after I fought Sparrow, and then it was like, you
know, I was like, okay, you know, I was like I
got this opportunity. I was like, okay, I'm gonna fight ye right,
all stuff right, and I and then like all the bus got taken
away, right, So I was like, you know, I was I
after after a fight, ye I knew all the bus are gonna get taken
with. So I was like, I'm gonna mandatory for Tank, right,
So I was like boom, so if I fight, you know, yegget
all stuff. But I knew even after yeat right after you like during the
fight with jigging out, it's just like and you get the one waiting at
a one hundred and forty point one hundred forty point some shit, right,
and I'm just like I'm like I'm like I'm like in the back of just
like man, fun I feel like shit with the fight. I was like,
man, I was like, I was like, there's no I watched
the fight where I beat the shit out. One was like, why do
I feel like? I was like, right it because my body felt like
that. Right, And then they took away the introbus, so I became
mandatory for for for forderante. I was like, why don't contacute out?
Am I really gonna am? I really gonna say like, I'm not gonna
fight them. Hell no, I'm gonna fight this motherfucker. Right. I
was like, you know, because like if I say I'm gonna do something,
I do it. Well, I was gonna saying you didn't. I
mean, you may not have felt great going to the Egot fight, but
it sure didn't look that way in terms of watching the fight because you were
way high on you know, or winning easily on the cards and then stopped
him. Yeah, but that's the same thing with Take Right a Benish album.
But it doesn't mean I felt great. I feel horrible. I feel
horrible that whole fight, Like that whole fight, I felt horrible, and
I'm just like, so it right, I mean so And then on top
of that, right, the fight got delayed, So I didn't fight for
a damn near a year. Was like eleven months or something like that,
and you know what I mean, And a lot of that, A lot
of that time was honestly just me sitting on my ass doing absolutely nothing because
of it was ten months, by the way, ten months between the you
Get fight in the Davis fight. Yeah, a little a little bit,
a little bit more in ten months, a little bit more in ten months,
and you know, I sat down right and I just didn't do anything
for a few months because, like I you know, because I mean the
obvious reasons. So you know, I mean I was depressed why the fight
had got delayed, you know, because it was just I just felt like
it was you know, it was it was fucked up what had happened to
me? You know. So so and then I got I got bigger,
and when I came back to the camp brow, I'm like forty pounds over
one thirty five, and I'm just like what the I'm like, I mean,
it was just like I was like, you knew I should have I
knew I should have moved up to forty you know. Well, you mentioned
about the layoff between the yggin fight and the Givanta fight. Now you're coming
off of a year lay off, it'll be about fifty weeks or so since
your last fight against Tank. What was the reason for this layoff? That?
Why why didn't you have another fight maybe at the end of last year
or a little earlier this year. Well, I mean I did get offered
other fight opportunities, you know, but like it was just like I just
want with the best one, Okay, that's fair. And then like you
know, on top of that, right, the first I really like five
months after you know, I had Bidermanta, I just spent all the time
in my life, right, just fixing things in my life, and they
fixed. Now, yeah, yeah, I fixed a lot. I'm glad
to hear that. I don't know, King, I mean, I don't
want to pry too much, but could you man, you mentioned one or
two things that you were trying to deal with just uh more from a more
from like a mature maturity standpoint, you know, okay, um, and
just you know, just being just being an actual man, you know,
growing becoming more of a man, you know. Okay, good, I'm
glad to hear that. And the maturity you never hurt anybody. I'm gonna
wrap it up with this the rollie, and I appreciate your time very much
today. How much would it mean to you? I mean, look you,
I know you think you're gonna beat Barosso, you're gonna win a world
title. But how much would it mean to you in the future. How
much would you desire to have a rematch with Tank Davis? Because, as
I said, you probably gave him his best fight before the sudden ending.
Man that fights, it's not over it, It's still gonna's gonna happen again.
It's gonna have to happen again because I'm you you really think me,
I'm gonna just let him get away with that. Well, for the folks
that may just be hearing this, I'm looking at you on a zoom call.
They'll see that you have a big smile on your face when you talk
about the prospect of the Tank rematch. So I know you want that.
I know you want that exactly all right, Roley, I'll leave it at
that, and I want to say thank you so much for the time.
I wish a great luck on Saturday in your fight on Showtime against Ismael and
Barroso and the best of luck to you, Thank you, are you bet?
There you go? The unofficial count was twenty nine or six hundred and
three on the f words they're on that you were warned. Okay, we'll
see if he can back it up. And again he's got power and has
got knockouts, and as you mentioned, Barroso has got some power too.
We'll see what we have in in that main event and what the future is
for the winner. Anything else of note, I know you kind of rolled
your eyes a little bit looking at this undercard, but again in fairness,
they had to adjust it because of Puyo's failed drug test. But anyway,
anything else on a card, I mean, the undercard wasn't adjusted because of
Puayo. The undercard was adjusted. Actually Gary Antoine Russell was supposed to be
on this undercard, but he is no longer. He was going to fight,
but any event, they just slipped him into another opponent, but the
co feature, which was the opening fight, they moved up to the co
feature because of what happened with Gary Antoine. So in any event, it's
Rancis Barthelomy who has won titles and two weight classes. He's trying to win
a title on a third way class. At some point he will be in
a junior welterway fight against Omar Warrez Barthelomy. He's a talented boxer, but
honestly, I have found him to be one of the more boring fighters that
you can never find. He lives up to the cliche of the Cuban boxer
unfortunately. I mean again, he's talented, just not my cup of tea
at all. I mean, I don't think he's anybody's cup of tea.
In his last fight, he got knocked up by Gary Anton Russell in the
sixth round. He's now coming back. He's taking on Omar Warres. But
Rancis is an older fighter at this point a ton of amateur fights. Thirty
seven officially and as a Cuban defector. Maybe he's a little older. You
never can tell. Omar Warres is more of the younger fighter that could still
be on the upswing. He's only twenty three years old, so it's twenty
three verses thirty seven. He is fourteen and one with five knockouts. He
has won three fights in a row. He did lose. I guess you
could call it an upset at the time. In twenty twenty one against al
Rivera. He will lost a majority ten rounder. He's looked pretty decent since
he's being some decent guys and guys like Ryan Carr in Austin Delay. So
this is sort of like that crossroads ish kind of fight where you use that
sort of terminology. If warez It wants to get to the next level,
he needs to take care of Barthelomy. Barthelomy is the old war horse trying
to preserve his carayer, trying to get another chance. You know, he's
gonna have to beat this young guy who doesn't have nearly the level experience that
he does if he's gonna want to move on. So from that standpoint,
that storyline is intriguing. My question is how's the action going to be in
the ring, because, like I've said, Barthelomy could uh, you know,
put somebody that you know, he makes watching paint dry look like an
exciting activity at times. So but I'll give it a chance. We'll see
what happens with that. The opening fight as a eliminator in the lightweight division,
this would be a I don't know if they're gonna they're not gonna get
the next shot, but it's in the lightweight division, which is stacked up
with a lot of you know, mandatories and undisputed with Devin against Lomachenko next
week at an event that's Beatier Akmadov against Kenneth Simons Jr. Solid matchup,
I mean not. The biggest name is Kenneth sims is a guy that if
you've watched Showbox for example, you've seen him before. He was a really
top notch prospect. His record is nineteen two and one. He's fought some
good guys. He's certainly sparred with everybody. Got that kind of good amateur
background. I thought he was a superb prospect when I first saw him few
years ago. He hit a couple of a couple of bumps in the road,
had to draw with Montana Love a few years ago on Showbox. In
any event, you know, he's won a bunch of fights in a row
since previous upsets against Samuel Tay. He's now back in business here against Akmadov
on this card. Akmadov was one of these guys that had a huge amateur
background, and so when you look at his record he's nine and two with
eight You're like, how was he this advanced in these types of fights?
It's because of that amateur background. He did have a loss against Mario Barrios
back for a secondary title in twenty nineteen, a fight that I was at
which I and most people at ringside thought he got absolutely hose in that fight.
So in my opinion, he should have a win against Mario Barrios.
He lost a split decision to Alberto Playo back in August. That was the
fight to decide the vacant title at that moment, so he lost a very
close fight to playoffs. So he's also a pretty good boxer. So him
and Sims, again we've said this before, not the sexiest names, but
this actually is like a more intriguing fight to me than that co feature we
just mentioned between Barthello, Me and Oars, because at least Sim's and Akmedoff
sort of like they really still have a chance to do something. And it's
really one of those kind of fights where who the heck knows? I mean,
you know, who flip a coin? In my mind, I mean,
is that the smooth boxing of Sims is the more aggression of Akmedov.
I just have no idea, and so I am interested. I just hope
I'm still interested after like three or four rounds, let's hope. So okay,
So there's the showtime PBC card. Now, speaking to being interested,
I think there's more interest in the ESPN Top Rank show that will be going
on in Stockton, California, and that features Jannebec Alim Canoeley. Give me
five bonus points. I got it right this time and they have to correct
me against Stephen Butler for Alim Canoley's WBO middleweight title. There's also a co
feature world title fight Jason Maloney, one of the fighting Maloney twins is fighting
for the WBO's vacant bannomweight title, and so we'll go to that fight in
a moment. But back to Jannebec. When last we saw him, you
and I really thought and most thought he was going to dispose of Denzel Bentley
of England, but did not do so, did not knock him out.
As it turns out, that fight ends up going the route back in November.
So Jannebec is back. This is the headlining fight ken Stephen Butler.
Hang in, I guess is the real question. So thoughts on that one
in Northern California for Saturday night, Dan, Well, we didn't necessarily think
that Denzel Bentley would hang in. He did show a lot of heart and
he had won some rounds. He lost, but he you know, he
if there's such a thing as a good loss, Denzel Bentley certainly had that
against Jannebec. So the point is whatever that you thought about the the knockout
run of Jannebec and the guy he was just you know, the way he
was just you know, smashing guys up over his last few fights, even
though he hadn't necessarily fought like the big names like he had you know,
smoked Danny dignam in one round for the interim title, then was elevated,
had battered and you know, knocked out Hassan d Dam who as was a
former title there beat him up over eight rounds. Had done the same thing
to Rob Brand who also was a secondary title weather point as he was just
running through everybody and some decent names goes twelve with Bentley, So a lot
of people were sort of down on him at the very least. He made
the point in that fight against Bentley that where some people at top rank and
his people that supported him were sort of saying, you know, he's the
boogeyman. Everyone's gonna duck him. Well, I don't think after the Denzel
Bentley fight anybody who was necessarily looking to duck him. The problem is,
and it's not Jennebec's fault, is that the middleweight division is garbage right now.
It's just a terrible waste land. It's barren. It used to be
hot as hell because you had Kenelo Alvarez and you had an Act of Charlot,
and you had a Triple G. I mean, there was good fighters
patrolling one hundred and sixty pounds. Demetris Andre was there with a lot of
talent, Danny Jake was there with a lot of talent and winning fights.
He had Sergey Devernchenko that was staying busy and been sort of significant fights.
At this point, though, you know Jacobs has moved up, the Serge
Devernchenco is moving up for the fight coming up against Mungi Amonggia moved up.
That's another guy that was in the weight class. You know, Triple G
as semi retired, Charlo has been out for two years on an on a
goost. Canelos left the division long ago. So you're left with a barren
wasteline of a weight class where Charlot has a belt but hasn't fought. Jennebec
has a title but no real big name opposition. Triple G, you know,
vacated his due belts and his you know, over forty and you know,
we don't know if we've seen the last of them. You know,
they've got ARISONI Lara kicking around. He's got a fight coming up, but
he's fighting Danny Garcia, who's really a junior middleweight welter weight. Anyway,
the point is you have Jane Beck defending the title. He may be the
best name of the act of guys. And I say that with respect to
Charlot, who hasn't fought because of his own issues not related to his boxing
career. So he they basically a top ranked mandate. Here was okay,
let's just find somebody that's like a credible opponent that he can know, we
gotta have the guy fight. You know, we have contractual obligations. He
can't just sit on the sideline. So they matched him. What was Stephen
Butler and and you know Jennebec, you know, he was a tremendous amateur.
He's Olympian from Kazakhstan thirteen and O he's got eight knockouts. But he's
again one of these guys a little bit older with that big amateur career.
So they match over with Butler. Butler is a Canadian fighter who you know,
is like I would consider like like a let's call him in the middle
of there's let's him like a B minus fighter, maybe a C plus type
fighter. Not terrible, but not pound for pound type of guy. Won
some fights in a row, but also every time he stepped up against the
best guys, he's lost. He got smoked by Royal Royal to Marada in
Japan in five rounds when he challenged for the WBA belt back in what was
the two end of twenty nineteen. Then in his next fight he also suffered
a knockout lost. This was you know, in Mexico against you know,
an unknown type of guy, and he's just, uh, he's one of
these guys that he can hang in probably for some rounds and you get over
the hump and beat the bigger names. I have serious questions about that.
So to me, it seems like Butler is he's there. I'm sure he's
going to give an effort. He knows it's a big opportunity. Is a
second chance to fight for a world title. I have very, very big
questions of whether you can stand up to the firepower of Jane Beck. But
I had the same thoughts about Denzel Bentley. We'll see if he can hang
in there for a bit fair enough and again top rank propping up Jane.
By the way, he has been stopped in all three of his losses,
so that's something to file away. By the way, we'll make betting predictions.
We always plug away on the preview podcast. If you are hearing us
on Friday, find us on the bet US Live Boxing show one Eastern time
on the bet us platforms including YouTube and Twitter. Even if you miss that
show live to interact with us, you can obviously watch it later in the
day on their social media platforms. We'll make predictions on this fight in Jannebec
is a significant favorite to win, and win by ko we shall see.
Butler was very active by the way in twenty two and fought I think four
times in twenty twenty two, so let's hear something. Hey, let's hear
it for a fighter at least being active before he gets a shot here in
May of twenty twenty three and the co feature fight as I mentioned Jason Maloney
will fight against an opponent for the WBO's vacant bannomweight title that I don't know
a lot about. This is why we rely on you for Vincent Astrolabbio,
tell me more about this one. The Maloneys again have been entertaining. They're
Australian, so now here's another title shot for one of the Maloneys. Yeah,
listen, the Maloneys are very likable fighters. They they they're usually in
good fights. Andrews the other one. Of course, he had the three
fights that will probably post. If people know Andrew it's those three fights he
had against Joshua Franco. In any event. In the case of Jason Maloney,
who's the twin brother, he's his only two losses were in world title
fights. He got knocked out on ESPN with just a crunching body shot by
probably the best body puncher in boxing, which is no Yea. In a
Way was the former undisputed champion in the bannom weight division. The reason why
this title is is because when in a Way became the undisputed champion at the
end of last year, he then vacated all of the titles to move up
to one hundred twenty two pounds where he will challenge Stephen Fulton for his unified
belts this summer. So Maloney is getting this opportunity which he had fought for
two of those belts against in a way back in twenty twenty and like I
said, he got knocked down in the seventh round brutal body shot. His
only other defeat came in the World Boxing Super Serious. Remember they did a
Bandamway tournament. This is back in twenty eighteen. He suffered a very flow.
He could have been champion that night. He suffered a split decision loss
to Emmanuel Rodriguez in your Neck of the Woods in Orlando, Florida. That
was in twenty eighteen. So this is gonna be his third shot. It's
a vacant title, like I said, because of the fact that in a
way vacated the belts. Now Astrolabio, he's a Filipino fighter. He's eighteen
and three with thirteen knockouts. He's really I mean, his record is really
devoid of any notable opposition, with one exception two fights ago in February of
twenty twenty two. He won legitimately. They were in Dubai. He beat
by decision A Germo Riggindo now Gerrimo Riggindo, obviously people know, was a
former bandumweight champion, was the junior featherweight champion lineal beating Nonito Donaire. Was
a two time gold medal winner. You know, obviously not my You know,
anybody knows me. There has never been my cup of tea. But
I can't deny that he's a talented fighter, obviously, but Astrolabio out of
nowhere. We went there and uh, you know, it was close,
but he dropped Riggindo and that provided the I believe the difference in terms of
the scoring. If he doesn't get the knocked down and winds, I leave
as I'm looking it up here. The scores of that fight with him and
Riggindo were ninety four across the board, so his so would have been a
draw, except he dropped Riggindo in the eighth round, so that gave him
the margin to score the biggest win of his career. He's won one fight
since, but that put him very high up in the different organization rankings,
and so now he he challenges Maloney for the vacant title, and that is
the other fight on showtime. This could be, uh, you know,
an interesting fight, I guess. I mean, they're both guys that come
to fight, it seems to me, and hopefully we get some fire works
and that one in the winner, you know, and again in tej in
the bandomweight division, which is wide open because of the relinquishing of all the
titles. You're looking to see Kenna. You know, first of all,
who's going to take the belts. But more importantly, when the winner takes
one of these belts, can they make a statement in doing so? Can
they give you something that's going to make a boxing fan remember them be interested
to see them in the future. This is a great opportunity for Malonea and
Astralabio to not only get a title, but to put their stamp on and
say watch me. I'm here for real. I can make a good fight.
I want you to be my fan. I want you to tune in.
So that's what they have in front of them. It's first and foremost,
you know, complete their dreams of becoming a world champion. It would
also try to make a statement to the public that you should watch me if
you want to see a top bandom. We fight and as far as Jason
Maloney, he had that loss to Naolia and Away, no shame in that
to the monster. Everybody else seems to get knocked out by that guy.
He did upset Joshua Greer and then that was in Tulsa Open, Lahoma in
August of twenty twenty one. And he's won three fights since then, so
that including the last two in Melbourne, Australia. So that has set him
into motion for this world title shot. And we'll see what that said.
I didn't. I didn't personally consider that victory over josh Ogre to be a
big upset, to be quite honest, I mean Greer was, but I
mean night Night Greer was being groomed right. Night Night's the correct nickname,
right, I'm trying to at that moment in time, he already had had
suffered a couple of losses, Like it was. It was not the caliber
of upset had it been, had it been a couple of few fights earlier,
is all I'm saying. Um, But that that was a good win
for h mean, by the way, that was his rebound win coming off
of the in away knockout loss. So since that knockout lost in a way.
Uh Maloney has won what four fights in a row to set himself up
for this fight, so um, you know he put himself in a good
position. He fought at home in Australia. He always love to spot me.
I appreciate your I love I love the fact you repeated exactly what I
just said right after I said it. He's won four fights in a row,
and this makes it interesting. Can't he continue the momentum since I mean
he he gains momentum because he had a good performance on one of the I
believe it was the first time that Devin Hainey and Lomachenko fought in Asia.
He balks on that card and got a nice win against the former title title
challenger Aston Policte. So you know he's in position. But Australabio's got the
bigger win, I guess against even an older Rigando. You know, all
right, that's why they fight the fights right line him up and it's probably
a fifty fifty fight as well. We've got while they might not be the
most massive names, we've got competitive fights. It looks like anything else from
the top rank show that stands out. I know, Gabriel Flores Junior is
on the undercard, and he is at a real cross roads because he suffered
some losses. He's in northern California, he's stacked in right, this is
hometown. He's gonna something though, I mean, he's got to show something,
right he does he does. I mean, you know, to me,
he's he's on this card not because there's a belief that he's going to
become a big name anymore, but because he is a local fighter that can
help move some tickets. Uh myam, I mean it's a top ranked card,
but I mayam was told anyway that he's no longer promoted by top rank.
They just put him on the show because they know he can help sell
tickets and all that. The if there's that, I mean, they always
put on some of their their prospects. I mean, that's top rank.
They always build up their guys, so you know, for example, Amado
Vargas, who was one of the fighting sons of Fernando Vargus, the former
junior middleweight champion. He's on the card. They have to me. Actually,
it's the most interesting name on the undercard is Ruben Villa, who is
a good featherweight contender who fought for a world title against believe it was against
Navarette, lost, but was off for a while. He recently signed with
Top Rank. This is the first fight of that contract, Douse. They
look to rebuild him a little bit, bring him back. Featherweights obviously a
very good division right now. Top Rank is heavily involved in it. He
is managed by Rick Mridgian who does a lot of business with Top Rank.
You know, he manages Josie Ramirez and Arnold Barboza, and we've discussed some
of the different fighters that he works with, so you know, the bigger
fights. Obviously, the main fights on Televian were the two world title fights.
All right, good enough on those. Let's get to some news of
the week and some nostalgia. But we're done here. On the preview,
we should make mention we are teasing that when you are with us for the
recap show, when we recap the whole weekend, you will hear a Dan
one on one interview with Regis pro Gray, who is obviously in the news
has now signed with match Room Boxing, and you are actually reporting something that
is of intrigue and pro Gray. It kind of ties in to why he
wanted to do a multi fight deal with someone. Pick up what you've learned,
and it kind of dove tails into your conversation with Regis that we're gonna
play coming off the weekend. So one of the things TJ, that I
had been hearing even before I had my interview with Regis, which as we
tape this today is on what a Thursday. I spoke to Regis on Wednesday
of this week, will play the interview on Sunday night Monday Morning podcast.
But before I had even spoken to Regis, I had been told and hearing
that the IBF one forty champion, Sabrillo Matias was in the process of making
a deal to sign with Matrium. He had been with PBC, who was
not under contract. Apparently he was talking to others and Natrium was about to
sign him. And Matrium obviously is getting involved in one hundred forty poundweight class.
I mean they did sign Progress, They have Hitchens, they have Jack
Catterall who they recently signed. So they're making a move in that very good
division where the other fighters that are of note Ramirez, Tiafimo Lopez, Josh
Taylor, et Cetera, Barboza those guys are with top rank anyway. So
when I was doing the interview with Regis and people, I'll just tease this
a little bit. I won't give away all the cont you know, the
exact quotes, but you can smart man, smart man, keep rolling.
But Regis talked about how one of the things that he was talking to Eddie
hearn about when he was making his deal to sign with him. Well,
obviously you talk about not only you know, what's the length of the contract,
what's the money. All that stuff is you know who am I going
to fight? What what can you make available to me? What opportunities do
I have? So while again it's not one hundred percent and you know who
knows it will ultimately come to pass. But he was told that says this
on the interview, that he was told that they're close assigning Sabrial Mattias and
that because his contract with Matchroom Boxing, obviously the first fight has already been
announced and set. That's the Liam Parow fight that takes place in June in
his hometown of New Orleans. He'll have a second fight against you know whoever,
could be Catterell could be the winner of a Hitchens Montana Love fight or
something else. But he was very hopeful that Eddie would get the deal done,
Sabrial Matthias would get his fighter too, and then when it comes a
little bit later, you know, two fights down the road or so,
they will meet each other to unify the titles. And I have to say
to you TJ. Reeves on your anniversary, that's the kind of fight where
I might have to skip out on the anniversary dinner to watch that fight because
Sabrial Mattias against Regis program, that's about as good of an exciting a fight
as you can make in boxing. I'm not talking about in terms of mega
millions or huge pay per views, but if you just want to see two
really good fighters go at each other, Yeah, that is a great,
great fight. And I hope that Regis gets that fight. I hope but
Tis gets that fight. We'll see if Eddie can close up the deal.
I'll say this about Eddie. Hearn uh. You know, he's usually pretty
good when it comes time to get as he like, as the Brits like
to say, getting it over the line. I think he's got a you
know, he's got a good track record when it comes to making these kinds
of deals. But if he can get that one done and we end up
seeing it down the road a couple of fights from now a Regius Progray against
Surbrilli Mattias that's a hell of a fight and Progray again, you can maybe
question the decision. He split from lou Debella, right, who you have
a long relationship with, and he's meandered to like Thriller and that whole debacle
that only had a couple of shows that was that was a one off,
that it was a one off. That's my point. He fought for PBC
as a one off. He's just kind of meandered. And now he has
decided, and probably smartly, so get with somebody on a multi fight deal,
especially if the third fight can be a massive by his standards payday.
So he had, he had the one off with Thriller, He did the
one off with PBC, wh they were offering him in an additional contract for
three fights. He ended up not doing that. He ended up signing with
Probellum. That turned out to be about his uh, you know, unfortunate
decision as any of the fighters that sign what Probellum was because they were out
of business rather quickly. And then they were taken over by Disrupt, which
then, as he explains, he ended up parting with. But now,
as he said, I feel comfortable. I have my world title, I'm
a two time champion, I'm one of the better names in the weight class.
Everything is on track, and he feels settled. He's happy with the
decision we And again I'll tease a little bit. I questioned him kind of
hard about the decision making process, not that I thought he made the wrong
decision, but why he made that decision because he was also being offered a
very good contract by Top Rank, PBC was interested, so I wanted to
drill down and sort of what was the reason specific for to go with Matcham.
My first thought in my mind was, you know, we didn't necessarily
have the level of opponents available to him that Top Rank did, being that
they have Taylor and Tiefemo and Ramirez and Barbosa and other good fighters at one
forty, the potential of u Shkoor Stevenson moving up someday, et cetera,
et cetera. But he listened, you know, all you can do as
a journalist, as a reporter, as an Interviewers asked the questions and your
subject gets to answer the question how they choose to answer it, and you
can push back and follow up. But Regis explained himself in detail, and
I hope people listen to that interview. Coming up a thunder it on the
Recap podcast overnight Sunday into Monday, and we've teased that one to the max.
We look forward to that. All right, what else do you have?
You have more reporting about another match Room show and this involves Alicia baumb
Gardner. What have you found out here about the next fight? Okay?
So this also will have a peripheral involvement with Regis program and the potential of
Sabrill Mattia. So I have confirmed with multiple sources who are involved in this
that they are planning matchrom a July fifteenth card in Detroit, which is the
hometown of Alicia bamb Garner, to defend the undisputed women's junior lightweight title,
which she had of course, last two fights ago had defeated Mikayla Mayer to
unify three belts. In her most recent fight, she won the vacant fourth
belt to become undisputed. So they're taking her home again. No opponents set
it. Fight's not been formally announced, at least not as of yet.
The undercard co future fight that they're trying to close up. They're just haggling,
i think right now, over some details on that, but it appears
as though it's a good bet to happen. Is they signed Matchroom. Did
the undefeated up and coming one hundred forty pounder Richardson Hitchens, who was an
Olympian who had been with Mayweather Promotions now is with Matchroom to fight Montana Love
who was another Matchroom fighter, you know who. He's coming off a loss,
but it was that crazy disqualification against Steve Spark when he tossed him out
of the ring. In any event, that's the fight they're looking at for
the undercard, and the reason that's sort of significant. Number one, it's
a good matchup, and number two, the winner of that fight is going
to probably put themselves in a pretty good position to get a chance to fight
Regis program theoretically in the second fight of Regis's deal if he defeats Liam Paro
in June, which then would theoretically lead to the Mattist. The point is
they're putting all the blocks in place for their involvement in one hundred and forty
pounds, So you got Alicia in the main event. You know, obviously
she's one of the best women's fighters out there, undisputed defending at home.
And then if this nat Room card also features that undercard fight between Hitchins and
Love, that sets up some big missiness for the winner. So that is
what's going on with that. And also, let me add I'm very happy
to see that match Room is going to have a little bit more activity in
the United States because for a little while there it was looking like not that
they had completely abandoned the market, but so many of their events were either
taking place in the UK or other places overseas. But the United States is
still the biggest boxing market in the world and they need to be here and
this is an example of that, and I'm happy they're doing it. Start
willing and dealing and making some fights. They are doing that. Speaking of
making fights, all right, this is interesting. Announced midweek in Australia,
Tim Zoo not waiting around for whatever is going on now with Jamel Charlo,
and we'll get into that in a second. Zoo is gonna fight. Zoo
is gonna fight soon He's gonna fight next month against Carlos Ocampo, interim WBO
one hundred and fifty four pound title fight. All right, so I watched
the press conference for this. He had some interesting things to say. Your
thoughts here on this, because we were wanting, hoping for this to be
this summer Charlo and Zoo. For now, it's not Charlo and Zoo.
Listen, I mean it's not Charlo and Zoo, But I mean Tim Zoo
is not going to be held captive by Jamel Charlo's medical issues. You know,
it is a little disappointing because when Tim Zoo, you know, first
of all, he was supposed to fight Charlo in January. Charlo injured the
hand fractured in two places. Was gonna be out, they said till June.
So he took an interim fight that was the one where he won the
interim title. One of the rare examples of an interim title usage that I
feel is okay when the champion is legitimately sidelined with an injury. So he
went into Australia and had the him coming fight, won that fight by knockout
against Tony Harrison and on Just Show Times broadcast of that telecast. They did
it from the studio in New York City. They had Charlo there in the
studio with them and he said he was fine, everything was on track and
had no cast, brace, had no nothing, said he was fine.
It's three it's it's two months later. What's up? Apparently it's apparently it's
not fine, or maybe there's some other thing that they just haven't closed.
The bottom line is Charlot is not fighting in June and tim Zoo. It's
his career, it's his life life. He wants to defend that interim delta.
He wants to make money. He has a big fan base that will
turn out for him. So his promoters, No Limit Promotions, George Rose,
have done the appropriate thing. They have scheduled him to fight Carlos Ocampo.
It's maybe not the most threatening fight when you still have the prospect of
the Charlot undisputed fight sitting there, but it is a credible fight. Ocampo
has just the two losses. He got smoked in one round several years ago,
a fight I was at that lasted probably like less time than when I
went to take a piss before the fight. When he fought Errol Spence in
Frisco text he had smoked and going around, but in his last fight he
gave a credible performance in a loss, granted, but a credible performance in
a decision against Sebastian Fondora on Showtime. So Showtime is going to have this
fight under the same circumstances as the last one. They'll do it as a
Showtime International, presumably once again in the studio in New York City, and
the fight will take place live in Australia. It'll be Sunday afternoon Australia time,
it'll be Saturday night prime time in the United States, and he'll fight
Ocampo, and hopefully after that he'll fight Charlot because eventually, look, I'm
not I have no problem giving an injured fighter or some time to take care
of his injury. But at some point, especially when you're undisputed, the
organizations are gonna come calling and you're not going to be able to keep those
belts together forever. So Zoo is next up. But again, he should
be allowed to continue with his career, particularly when he has He's ready,
willing and able, no injuries. He's got a big fan base, can
make money, there's an interested network like Showtime in the United States. It's
a pay per view in his home country of Australia, So you know,
all things considered, you know it is it a tuna fight? I mean,
I guess you could look at it like that, but you know what,
it's not really because if he doesn't win the fight, there is no
Charlo fight anyway. So he's got to keep doing what he's doing. I
suspect he'll beat O Campell. Hopefully it's a good fight to that getting to
that point. In the meantime, Charlot, good luck to him getting redder.
Well, we'll see. Is it truly the injury? I mean,
there is some belief, and you do the master job of reporting on this,
but there is some belief because you're you're going on two years that Jemal
Charlo has not fought, Jemel Charlo has not fought in a year. Connect
the dots on all of this. Deontay Wilder has fought one time for one
round in October and not since. Errol Spence hasn't fought in a long time.
And there's all the kicking around over a year, all the kicking around
of the undisputed fight. Keith Thurman. One of my guys with the Tamba
Bay area hasn't fought in over a year, and there is some belief that
the guaranteed money is dried up at least in recent times, and these guys
can't get the money they've been used to in the short term, so they're
just sitting back and until disproven otherwise. That that's quite a roll call that
I just listed of inactive guys that aren't fighting, and how long does it
take the hand to heal that's incumbent on Jamil Charlo now to come forward and
say what's the timeline on when you're ready to fight somebody or somebody go ahead.
I do like your embracing of the conspiracy theory. I guess I don't
know how much of a conspiracy theory is that when you got that many guys
not fighting that are all under the same umber, and they admitted missions.
I mean, Deontay Wilder admitted on the record the money is not there for
me to come back. He said for some of those guys, that is
correct, and because they expect a certain amount. Now if they were willing
to fight for say, you know, two to two and a half million
instead of ten million, then yeah, they could fight. Okay, So
it's not that the money dried up, it's at the money at the level
that they expect. The pay per view market has not done as well as
maybe they would have hoped. The point is, though, if you examine
each of those and I'm not making excuses of them, I'm just saying Wilder,
it's clearly a financial thing. He won, and he's also coming near
the end of his career, so they want to make the maximum and he
wants to get the biggest fight, and maybe they're going to do this rumored
event in Saudi Arabia in the fall, you know, with disposed turning and
I'll believe it when I see it. In the case of Charlow in the
junior middleweight Charlo Jamil Charlo, he did have the broken hand. There's I'm
not that that I believe one hundred percent. Could there have been a setback,
That's very possible. His brother had the back injury. It has recently
come out in his own stuff that he was in a custody battle for his
children that took a long time. That's never a positive situation. He did
make the announcement that he now has custody of his five children. I'm sure
that was a big part of his non boxing life that goes on. That
is obviously, you know, we're not in his home or his backyard or
whatever. There's a lot of issues there. He certainly has some legal problems.
Point is, um, I don't think the WBC or Charlot's team have
been as transparent as maybe they could have been. Why that he didn't fight,
not to say that I need every detail of his private custody battle,
and believe me, that's never an easy situation. But the WBC probably should
have done something, I guess so you can understand it right now. The
WBC, with Jamal Charlo we're talking about, should do something. They should
say, get in the ring or we're stripping you. It's been two years.
They should their guys a year or less. And I know you're not
saying that, but the WBC should do something. Coming out he didn't have
a damis fight for the interim title. Who's going to defend it on showtime
coming up later in the summer. So all I'm saying, though, is
the names of the guys you listed that were extremely inactive, there are reasons
per guy for the reason Keith Thurman. I don't even think Heith really wants
to fight anymore, to be honest, or at least not often. There's
a certain price right there. He didn't get the price. He doesn't want
to fight. I have zeroed out in my mind that Errol wants to fight,
and he just passed the year marker. He's been trying to do this
deal with Terrence Crawford. Hopefully his patience and the lack of activity will mean
that that fight will come to pass, and you just have to hope that
when the fight does happen, if it happens, that the inactivity doesn't show
itself or manifest itself in the fight and become a reason why you say that
I have still a little bit of hope that Spence and Crawford might fight before
the year's over, and I might have a little bit of hope at Zoo
and Jamel Charlo, who were supposed to have fought in January, can fight
before the end of my calendar twenty twenty three. Are you saying I have
a little hope. I think you have some hope. I mean I don't
don't. I don't have big emotion about it either. Way, I'm long
past the emotional point about Crawford and Spence. I mean, I've said it
a million times. If the fight happens, I'm thrilled. I can't wait
to see it. But I'm not freaking out about every little activity, every
little conversation, every little detail or negotiation, or every little fraudulent date that
the ring magazine puts out to name a name on that. All right,
couple more real quick, then some nostalgia on another Tampa Bay guy, my
man Winkie. Right in a minute, Joe Joyce has exercised the rematch clause
to fight Jalai Zang of China, who beat him and beat him decisively.
Jang had been rumored in the conversation to maybe fight Tyson Fury. Here we
go again with false reporting, fake news. No. Well, but I
mean, okay, so clear it up for us. What does this mean
with Joyce invoking it specifically because Frank Warren is the promoter of Joyce. Frank
Warren is the promoter, the co promoter along with Bob Aram and top rank
of Tyson Fury. Does this mean we're getting Joyceon's and Jang? Or is
this a little chess and maybe Joe Joe Joyce is going to get a step
aside so that Fury could fight Jang. What do we make of that?
Real quick? That is certainly a possibility. But the point here is this,
Joe Joyce got stopped by him in April. Joe Joyce had a rematch
language in the contract. Any contract that has rematch language, you either have
to exercise it, say no, or just let it expire. But at
some point there is a deadline. So Joe Joyce obviously had a looming deadline.
Certainly he heard the rumors of a possible of Zang versus Fury fight,
and so he had to make the decision. He said, I'm invoking my
rematch right now. Could he go back and go to the table and say
I will step aside for X y Z. I mean, that would be
the smart business thing to do, if you'd rather than just bypass it,
you know, why not get what you can get? So I would say,
there's a couple. And I actually been in communication with Terry Lane,
who is the promoter of Zang, about this situation that they want to do
the Fury fight, and that was obviously a Fury didn't do the Usk fight.
And the word is that he wanted to fight in July. You know,
who could he fight obviously if he's fighting Zang. And we talked about
this last week. By the way, we talked about who can a guy
fight? We talked about this with Canello. Fights have a way of making
fights. We would never would have said Fury versus Zang. You know,
April fourteenth become April fifteenth, it's a different potball park. He now puts
himself in that position because of a big victory and an impressive victory against Joe
Joyce. So he emerged as a possible opponent, and that was something that
was interesting. Remember Frank Warren, now who, like you said, he
is the promoter of Fury, He's the promoter of Joe Joyce. He also
now has three options on the next three fights of Zang based on the Joe
Joyce contract, which was a optional fight. That's just the making of the
sausage and boxing. You know, you give up those futures to get the
shot. So it is possible that Joe's looking for a step aside deal.
It's also very possible that Joe is a proud athlete says, you know what,
I'm gonna go back in there. I'm gonna beat the zass in the
rematch. We'll see what happens. I suspect whatever happens, you'll see Joyce
versus Zang, you know, probably end of the summertime if it happens,
or you may see him step aside and maybe we will get the fight between
Fury and Zang. I know that the Zang people from talking to Terry,
they want the Fury fight much more than the Joyce fight because they feel like,
hey, we're gonna beat Joyce again, but we'd much rather have a
chance to fight for the real heavyweight championship and make way way more money.
Of course, against Tyson Fury, we have a chance to win that fight
also than to take the rematch for a fraction of the cash whether you win
or lose. And you know, and you gotta fight him again, so
you know it. Chess moves our a plenty in boxing, particularly when it
comes to navigating the complicated landscape of the heavyweight division. All right, and
a little nostalgia to wrap it up, and that is twenty two years ago
that Felix Trinidad Tito Trinidad moved up from one fifty four and wiped out William
Joppy at Madison Square Garden. All right, give me more on it.
You were ringside for this this bad Boy, and it was quite the atmosphere.
Give me some nostalgia, please. Well, I have to say that
one of the questions I get asked most by boxing fans through my time when
I talk to them, whether it's in person, that fights, social media,
what have you. What's the best atmosphere you've ever been in for a
fight. And I've been to a fortunately, you know, I don't ever
take it for grinn. I've been to tremendous amount of megafights and there's a
few that automatically jumped to mind. Wimbley Stadium ninety thousand for Klichko Joshua,
the big fight set Floyd Mayweather had in Las Vegas against Canelo, against Oscar
de la Joya, against Manny Pakia, even against Connor McGregor, plenty of
Pachyo fights, Mike Tyson fights him and Lennox Lewis. You know, I'm
just saying I've been to a lot of big fights, not bragging, just
making the point, but I have to say among the very best, I
would put it in my Top three probably was when William Joppy and Felix Trinidad
fought at Madison Square Garden. This was, as you mentioned, Trinidad going
from one fifty four to one sixty a challenge for the WBA title. It
was the second semi final of the four man middleweight tournament that Don King and
HBO put together to crown an undisputed champion. It was designed to make Trinidad
a superstar, even bigger than he already had been, but it included William
Joppy, was a WBA champion on one side of the bracket to fight Trinidad.
A fight that had taken place a month earlier, which was to unify
the IBF title and the WBC title, took place at the Madison Square Garden
Theater between Bernard Hopkins and William and Keith Holmes, a fight that Bernard Hopkins
has expected one to put him himself in the final and so now it's up
to Trinidad and William Joppy did determine who was gonna face Bernard Hopkins for the
undisputed championship. Most people figured that was going to be the matchup and Trinidad
was going to be the huge favorite. And the plan was he's gonna beat
Choppy, he's gonna beat Bernard, and he's gonna go up into one seventy
five as he gonna have the megafight of megafight with Roy Jones Jr. Didn't
quite work out that way, but it looked like it was going to work
out day way and this night because Madison Square Garden was absolutely un fucking fire
that night, unbelievable atmosphere. And one thing I'll never forget about that is
this. I went to go to the arena for the early undercard fights,
and I walked I was saying, you know the same hotel I always stay
up, which actually is now closed, believed after twenty something years, across
the street from Madison Square Garden. I was going to the early undercard,
but as will know, I collect a memorabilia, so I actually went over
a little earlier to get some programs and some posters, and then it walked
back across the street to put them back up in my hotel room, starting
to have to have him there at ringside all night, and then was going
to walk back over to the arena to take my seat and cover the undercard.
And this is something that you may see in your neck of the woods
you go to a big football game, or you go to Middle America to
a big college ball game or something that you know, you see people tailgating,
right. They have the charcoal girls out, they're playing the songs,
they got their hats on, they drinking a beer, they're hanging out.
They're having a nice time in the parking lot before the big game. You
don't see that in Manhattan on Seventh Avenue. Not usually. No. But
I have to tell you one of my lasting memories and images of my entire
involvement in covering professional boxing was going to Madison Square Garden to watch that fight
and seeing cars parked in front of Madison Square Garden and the cops were cool
with it. Maybe maybe they were Puerto Ricans also and also on the on
the bandwagon the Fieldix Trinidad. But they let them do it, and they
were playing the Puerto Rican know the I don't know, is it salt some
music with some kind of Puerto Rican kind of us. The Puerto Rican hip
hop was starting to come in then too, in the two thousands. Yeah,
absolutely were. They were outside their cars right there in front of Penn
Station and Madison Square garden like you know, with the back of the car
opens, waving flags, waving having drinks in like their paper bags, and
and I never forget that. So now the fight is now. I mean,
that was just mind blowing to me. I mean, fucking tailgating on
seventh Abbu in Manhattan at like four o'clock in the afternoon, like as the
early undercard is gonna about to start, just wild. So on the night
of the fight, that was a Trinidad house that William Joppy, you know,
he's from Washington, DC, had fans in the DC area, had
a few people in the garden rooting for him. And I have to say,
you know, we've talked about what's my best pick I've ever made?
Which was I always will tell you was when I picked Tossing Rockman by knockout
over Lennox Lewis in the first fight. I got to come clean and be
honest because we keep it real here. What was my worst pick I've ever
made? My worst pick ever made was probably William Joppy by Trinidad by knocking
out Trinidad didn't quite work out that way. I got the knock you got
the knockout part right, right, Yeah, So the electricity that night was
unparalleled. I mean, and I've been to pretty much every single fight at
Madison Square Gardens me and Arena with a few exceptions, and certainly haven't missed
anything big for almost twenty five years. And you talk to people that were
there that also and this was not a fight I covered. They talked about
it being similar to when Roberto Duran fought Davy Boy Moore and won the Junior
middle White title at Madison Square Garden as just a transformative a moment in their
life. As far as the crowd, well, for me, it was
like a transformative moment to crowd the night of William Joppy against against Fieli Trinidad,
and I swear to God, I can still hear in my ears the
air horns that were going off when Trinidad was beating a living shit out of
William Joppy that night. It was a spectacular night. It was a spectacular
fight in terms of the performer. Not a competitive fight, but in terms
of the performance that Trinidad was like an absolute killer that night, brutalized and
just banged around William job He showed a big heart by the way and did
everything he could to stay in that fight. And when William was always was
a cool guy to deal with and and I was like joppy um. But
he got absolutely pummeled that night. He was on the train tracks, brother,
and the Porto Rican Express was coming through and you were there. As
I like to say, sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.
And on that night, William Job, he was definitely the bug. And
it was a glorious night. And when Felix Trinidad knocked him out and climbed
the ring ropes in a victory and pounded his chest like he always did,
and was he near you? Just give me the visual. Was he near
you in that corner? Was it across from you when he went up there
was actually, I find memory serves it was on the side. You're sort
of in the middle. He's sort of like off to the to the left
looking out at the crowd, and you're right there. But it was a
spectacular moment and it was an unforgettable night, and it was uh that that
was a glorious night for Puerto Rican boxing, for Felix Trinidad's career. It's
one of the biggest wins of his career. To move up like that he
had done to win that title. Obviously, lay Ye that year came his
waterloo if you will, in the you know, he got knocked out and
battered and dominated by Bernard Hopkins in an upset in a fight we've talked about
because of the emotion. That night was two weeks after nine to eleven at
Madison Square Garden in New York after the attacks, first big sports event in
the city, I think, one of the biggest, one of the bigger
sports events in the country really since the attacks had happened, but a few
months earlier when he fought, and don't forget this was like a big deal
for Don King and HBO to be able to make this tournament and to get
all the belts involved. And then also and back then it was you were
it was a three belt situation, not a four belt situation to be undisputed.
They made the Sugar Ray Robinson Trophy like it was a really huge deal,
and they got all the belts in and then Trinidad was the guy without
the belt, but was the star on the rise, and it was a
spectacular night. And even all these years later, I still say one of
the top two or three atmospheres I have ever been in, challenged only by
maybe Clitch Go and Joshua, maybe Mayweather Anhattan, those types of fights,
maybe even Canello versus Billy Joe Saunders at at and T Stadium with seventy four
thousand all time American indoor record. But William Joppy getting his getting his just
destroyed by Philis Trinidad with a largely Puerto Rican crowd was phenomenal. I mean,
and by the way, as far as Madison Square Garden fights go,
it's probably just a notch ahead of being present. Therefore, when Miguel Coto
exacted the revenge against Antonio Margharito in their rematch, also at the Garden,
also with a big time Puerto Rican crowd. Love the Nostalgia. I'll love
your insight on it. I just will tease that a couple of days later,
a few years later, a man Winky Wright got Felix Trinidad, and
we'll we'll actually talk about that in the Nostalgia as another tease off the weekend
here, because that anniversary is a couple of days from now. I was
at that fight as we released the podcast. We'll tell some stories about that
as well. Listen. Great job. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're
the bug. Tito was the was the windshield on that night against Winky.
He was the bug. Yeah, he was the bug and Winky put the
shutout on him and we'll talk more about that, all right. Great job
with Rolle Romero again. He's in the showtime PBC main event WBA vacant one
hundred and forty pound title fight again. Janna beck Alim Connooley defends his WBO
middleweight title. Jason Muloney fighting for the WBO Bannom Weight vacant belt on the
undercard ESPN Top Ranked show. We will predict all of those fights, Brother
Raypheel all three of those on the bet Us Boxing Show Live one Eastern Time
Friday, bet Us platforms including YouTube, Twitter, etc. Find us there
even if you find us after the fact on the bet Us platforms were live
at one find us later on Friday or on Saturday. There you go,
and whatever happens, we will come back on this podcast feed with the Fight
Freaks Unit recap off the weekend Sunday night into Monday with whatever happens in all
of these different title fights. For now, it is my plus the Regions
Interview and Regis Regius Program. You'll hear from him on the show on Sunday.
For now, though it's my anniversary weekend, it is Mother's Day weekend.
Please tell me you took care of missus Raphael on Mother's Day weekend,
the mother of your child. You did, you did take care of this,
You scored work. You're good, okay, And I don't tell anybody,
but I got I got a nice like uh and my wife loves this
kind of shit. It's like a basket of like bath supplies, like some
nice soaps and yeah, because they're gonna end up going and buying it for
themselves. So you look like you care because you're taking care of them with
that uses. Now wait a minute, confess you've made that purchase or you
intend to make that purchase before Mother's Day, that purchase is made it yes,
it's good, all right, good. I'm just looking out for you
on scoring this and that the postage doesn't get screwed up, the mail doesn't
get screwed up. You're taking care of on that. Listen, have a
great weekend, Dan Raphael. We appreciate it. As always. Let's talk
to you off the Weekend on the Fight Freak You Night Recap. Sir all
right man, Happy anniversary. There is our insider Big Fight Weekend dot com
is Fight Freak You Fight Freaks Unite substack. I am merely TJ. Reeves
Again, Followers, subscribe to this podcast speed. We'll come off the weekend
as we always do, heading into Monday with the Fight Freach Unite Recap.
We preview it on the Big Fight Weekend Preview. Watch the bet Us show
coming Friday, one Eastern time bet Us platforms. For now, we're good
with all these title fights. You've been hearing it on the Big Fight Weekend Preview