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The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now

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here is your host, DJ leaves
Ah. Yes, we get ready.

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Can I believe it? I'm saying
this the final weekend of January. We

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get ready to close out January with
a very intriguing Golden Boy Maine event Haimi

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Mondia, John Ryder. We're ready
to talk about that. We got fight

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news. We even got a recap
from what was a wild dare we say

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Fight of the Year candidate already TAJI
title defense this past Tuesday, Japan.

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We are chalked full on the latest
edition of the Big Fight Weekend preview pod.

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I am merely the somewhat capable host
TJ Reeves. He is our insider.

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Fight Freaks Unite is his substack Bigfight
Weekend dot Com. He's particularly pleased

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with his enchiladas tonight for dinner.
I am less pleased as we record the

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podcast with my Greek food because I'm
still tasting onions. Rayphael, welcome in,

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Dan, Rayfel, good to have
you. We're ready for the weekend.

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How you doing. I'm good.
I'm ready for the weekend too.

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Before we get a good fight Saturday. Yeah, let's hope. So again,

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for all of the peeps you're a
part of this podcast feed, you

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need to be following, subscribing RTIs
and review us. By the way,

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before Rayfield gets s grouchy Ratus and
review us five star review takes thirty seconds.

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It helps us out with the algorithms. But you need to be following

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and subscribing because, for example,
you got to hear from John Ryder as

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a standalone podcast earlier in this week, the bread Who Gets Ready to Fight

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to fight Haimimongia on Saturday night in
Phoenix. You heard from him already here

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on the pod feed, So we
want you to follow and subscribe for that

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reason. We preview going into the
weekend, usually out overnight Thursday into Friday

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morning, and then recap coming off
the weekend Sunday into Monday with whatever happens

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on the weekend. All right,
before we get into the true preview of

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the Mangia fight, we got to
go back to Tuesday night in Japan Tuesday

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morning early in the US time.
I have to say that was more than

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worth it, highly entertaining and controversial
as to the decision. At the end,

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Taraji retains against Cannazales in the Unified
Junior flyweight title defense two of the

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belts on the line. But I
think it's safe to say he retained controversially,

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Dan Rayfield, they're are my thoughts
wild fight, both fighters down early

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in the fight. Your thoughts to
recap that before we begin the preview process?

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What do I always say, first
and foremost, if you got up

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early like I did, you got
your time's worth. If you bought a

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ticket and you were in Japan and
Osaka, you got your money's worth.

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Because that was the hell of a
fight. That was just a great battle

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between two guys that came to win
in a big way who just went for

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it. And when you talk about
it being controversial, I don't think that

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the result is controversial in the fact
that it was Taraji that retained not only

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the two one hundred eight pounds belts, the WBA and the WBC, also

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the lineal title, ring magazine title. It wasn't that he retained the titles

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on a majority decision, because definitely
he could win the fight. I don't

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have a problem with that. To
me. What was a little bit questionable

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was the fact that of the six
scored rounds, you know, by the

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three judges for rounds eleven and twelve
that on five of those cards, Taji

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was given the round ten to nine. And when I watched the end of

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that fight, I even I think
I even tweeted it at the time he's

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given around he's it reminded me of
the end of De la Joya Trinidad.

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Yeah, he was just giving away
the last two rounds. He was not

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fighting back at all. He was
running literally, you know, he was

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throwing some jabs, but there was
no desire to have content. Can I

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go next level? And I just
don't feel like you can win, especially

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round twelve in that way. Now, if you want to have him ahead

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and he gets your score by and
wins the fight, even if you don't

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give him the last two rounds,
I can live with that. But it's

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sometimes it's not the scoring of the
fight, it's the manner in which you

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achieved the score that to me is
problematic. So giving him round twelve and

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two of the judges giving him around
eleven, I was like, what are

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we doing here? Thank you?
Can I go next level? Because I

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went back and rewatched. I have
not looked at the CompuBox, but I

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swear on the Tjiyeball Taraji did not
land two significant punches in the final round.

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He may be landed one significant punch. How do you give him that

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final round which two of the judges
did, And here's the curious hold on

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all three judges gave him round twelve. Okay, but two of the judges

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that gave it to him, that
made Taraji the winner on their card.

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Where if they give Canazalees on two
of the judges cards the twelfth we got

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the rarest of rare, which is
a unanimous draw. One thirteen won thirteen

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on all three cards. But that
was in reality that that's still a win

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in essence for Taraji because he again
I got no problem with either fighter winning

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by the close margin or if it
was a draw, all that's fine.

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It was a great fight. Both
guys fought battle. You mentioned they both

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got knocked down early, not not
big knock. I mean, well,

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Taraji when he got dropped, I
thought it was hurt. I thought he

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was hurt as the first and as
Alice was cannas Alice was a bit was

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a bit of messed up when he
got knocked out. But the point is

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they they they fought their hearts out
except for the final two rounds for Taraji.

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So I don't know if it was
that he was just super tired,

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or he was getting advice or just
thought that he had to fight in the

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bag, which you just cannot do. Uh So, other than the way

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that the scoring went in those last
two rounds, I have no problem with

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the outcome. But it was a
great battle. And I said this before

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the fight. I feel like Taraji
based on his level of victories and in

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the last couple of years and the
way he's come back from his one loss.

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I'm not saying he's number one tound
for pound, but you can make

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the argument that you can find a
spot for him, perhaps at the lower

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and lower part of the top ten. Uh You know, he's got tremendous

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heart and a super will and just
great exciting style, good power, and

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look, it was if you if
you love back, you know, I'm

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all for getting up at seven in
the morning to watch if I get that

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kind of fight. It was definitely
dramatic and let's see it again. And

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Taraji basically said after the fight that
he would be willing to do it again.

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You feel for Canazales to go all
that way, and we did talk

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in the preview mode that he's traveled
all over the place throughout his career to

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go all that way, fight that
hard, have it be that close and

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you don't win. So yes,
that that was worth it. And we

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even had we had a title change
hands in the co feature where the Japanese

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fighter Akui ends up winning the WBA
Flyway title from Delachian in the co feature

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fight Dan, I have to confess
I've only seen a couple of clips of

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that and read the recap, but
at I mean, he won fairly decisively

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on the cards to take the title. Well, I'm very pleased I didn't

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wake up and live to see that
one. I woke up in time to

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see the ringwalks for the main event
because in true de Lachey inform, it

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was a not a very entertaining fight. Now, I went back and I

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did watch the fight after the fact
when I was more awake. And you

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know, there was some debate I
saw on social media, especially with some

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people whose the pin as I respect, that had different sub opinions where you

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know, some people were like Delachian
did a beautiful job without boxing. Others

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were like a Koui was the guy
that was making the fight, coming for

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and landing the bigger punches, even
if his aggression wasn't always effective, and

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so there was some There was definitely
some h differentiation in the way the fights

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were scored up In the fight remotely
for top Rank and Sinissia as Strata,

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who was her cohort on the broadcast, they were both a little surprised.

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I think the one the one that
was really surprising. And there's always this

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wacky outlier on these kind of fights
that feels like one of the judges had

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at won nineteen one oh nine for
de Loachey, which meant they just gave

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a Kooi no credit for anything.
So I understand if the scores were kind

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of all over the place, but
I felt like I felt like a Kooi

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did enough to win the fight,
because the Lachian just does so little and

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when he does land and not with
big authority, it's it's a lot of

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like small punches without without great effect, not a lot of punch and power,

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a lot of movement without really doing
much with it. You know,

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there's some guys you know that can
move and box and just you know,

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Lomachenko, you know Mayweather, you
know, guys like that that can make

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you mismake you pay. You know, Devin Haney can do that. There's

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there's some guys which of course Stevenson
can do that when he's on his game,

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that that don't fight in the way
Delachean does. Words just about the

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box and move, but they can
also make it pay for it at times

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and clearly land shots even though they're
not big shots. But de Lacheyan,

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I don't think did enough of that. So I didn't have a problem with

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the coolie winning the fight. But
yeah, they were a little bit wide

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on the cards, but it was
you know, unfortunately, it was not

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a very good fight. And uh, you know, we don't need to

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believer the point, but de Lachey
understood his long and indistinguished run comes to

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it like that line, very nice
on the adjective on that. So there's

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a little bit of a recap mode
and that's we do that because again it

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kind of fell in the twilight zone
between our recap show and the preview shows

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some of these twos, and it
was Japanese cards. Yeah, and it

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was a tremendous main event that we
would love to see a second time around,

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and by the way, props to
Christina Poncher and Snisia Strada because they

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were talking about how they had stayed
up all night. They were doing this

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remotely from the Los Angeles studio to
do that fight. If I have one

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slight criticism, and we've seen this
time and again from ESPN with their production

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of it, have a Japanese translator
if we especially if it's an in a

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way fight, if we know that
it's a Japanese card, because I would

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have loved to have known, what
are they telling to Roger Obviously you would

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anybody else. What are they telling
him in the eleventh and the twelfth round

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A. Get a translator that can
help it. We know it's a Japanese

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card. Is it too much to
ask? I'm just saying the way.

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One thing I should mention is that
because it was a WBC title fight in

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the main event, they did use
open scoring, yes, so that the

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corners were made aware of what was
going on as the fight progressed. You

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know, they announced the scores after
the fourth and the eighth rounds, so

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you know it was not a surprise
that they were swapping it back and forth.

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Because after round four it was what
do you call it? It was?

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Uh? It was Cannazalis was ahead
after it was like I believe that

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the draw on one card? What
Knazalis was ahead two and after the eighth

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round it was Traji that was in, you know, control, but but

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not by a big margin, like
a couple of points. So you ever

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understanding, can you ever recollect a
unanimous draw in a big time fight like

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ever in your career? Yeah?
I don't. I can't think what,

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man, But I'm sure that it's
happened. I know that it's happened.

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Well I don't. I can't.
I mean, again, I refer to

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you, but I can't think of
one in recent history giving I'm saying,

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I mean, that would be the
rarest of the rare to have three draw

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scorecards, and we were close to
maybe getting it. Uh okay, So

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good stuff on that. Now let's
get to Mongia and Rider again. You

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talk to John Ryder in the build
up to this fight Phoenix Arizona Golden Boy,

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his own main event for Saturday.
Obviously, I keep saying this.

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Mongi has been completely mismanaged. He
hasn't been involved in a title fight for

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the better part of four years.
This is notable competition, still not a

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title fight. What do we make
of this? In the preview mode?

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Here go ahead. I will disagree
with your assessment being quote unquote mismanaged because

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the manager's job is to get the
most money for the least risk, and

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they've put him in the least risk
and monkey has been making mill Sorry is

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that a qualification for the Hall of
Fame? He made the most money while

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taking the least risk. I don't
know your question. Your assertion was mismanaged.

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The job of the manager, will
repeat, is to get the most

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money for the least risk. And
if you are managing him, I gia

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and you can feed him the level
of stiff ruse that he's fought for the

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last several years and get him paid
millions and millions of dollars when you know

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he's very vulnerable. He's super exciting, but against certain kind of guys he

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can easily be beaten. You've done
your job. So I'd like to see

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him step up because I think with
his punching power and with his chin and

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with his heart, he can gut
out and win some fights against bigger names.

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Plus he's the kind of guy where
if he does suffer a loss is

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not going to ruin his career because
he's so fan friendly that he can come

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right back and not going to have
any big impact on his earning power or

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his drawing power. So you know, why not take the shot that said,

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at least he's stepping up some over
the last couple of fights. He

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did take on devn Chenko, who
is a very good veteran contender who's been

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in the ring with lots of good
guys, and even when he's lost,

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it's been highly competitive. I mean, he gave a great account of himself

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against Daniel Jacobson, a title fight. He gave a great account of himself

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on a night where he really I
thought he won the fight I was ringside

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against Triple G. I mean,
so he's a he's a very quality opponent,

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uh, coming on many many people's
Fight of the Year, right,

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yes, against against against Mangia deviren
Chenko. Did you know he got a

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close win against him, all right, So, so those are the kind

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of guys that Mangia fought. You
know, he fought him in the last

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fight, and like I said,
that Fight of the Year contender was named

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The Ring Magazine Fight of the Year
was picked by the Boxing Writers Association as

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the fight of the Year I picked
at number two. Uh so that was

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that was a step up fight in
some regard in terms of him post the

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junior middleweight division. And now he's
taken on John Ryder, who's probably about

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the same level of opponent as Deviren
Schanko. You know, good solid contenders,

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not champions or have not yet been
champions. And John Ryder is a

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fan friendly fighter. Also. You
know, when we spoke in the interview

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that I did with him, we
talked about how even though you're coming off

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of a loss, a one sided
you know, pretty much a drubbing where

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he lost basically every single round.
It was twelve nothing on one square card,

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ten to two on the other two
plus he got knocked down against Canelo

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last May. But despite the fact
that he took such a one sided loss,

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because he showed so much heart,
he made such a hell of a

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fight that he keeps himself in play
for this type of matchup. So that's

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why Mongia is fighting him, because
he counted himself well against Canelo even though

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he didn't win. And on top
of that, most people would imagine that

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if you take a look at the
way Jimi fights, he takes a look

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at the way the Ryder has acquitted
himself, and you know it's gonna be

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I think are really interesting in terms
of the excitement level in the action worth

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watching. So that's that fight.
Now, This rider of a chance to

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beat Mangia absolutely because you know he's
a decent puncher himself, and they're both

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coming off hard fights. You know, who knows what one took out?

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You know which fight took the most
out of the other guy. They both

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seem awfully confident. I mean,
Jimi's got, you know, the youth

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on him. He's a little bit
a little less mileage, even though he's

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been in some hard fights. Well, you brought up the point he's there

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to be hit. Now. The
real question, the crux of this fight,

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and here's the first mention, will
handicap it on the bet Us Boxing

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Show one Eastern Time Get the handicapping
predictions Friday on the bet Us platforms is

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does Ryder have enough punch to take
advantage of it and make it interesting?

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What is your take on? Can
it be interesting with a big punch?

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What do you think? I mean
it can be, but Ryder he well,

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Mangia gets hit with everything number one, and Ryder is able to you

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know, he throws a lot of
punches. He's thirty two wins, he's

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got eighteen knockouts, and a lot
of those eighteen knockouts, which is,

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you know, not a great percentage
in terms of his overall fights have come

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against somewhat lesser type of guys.
Probably. I mean, when he fought

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Zach Parker in twenty twenty two,
which is a pretty big win for him,

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that was in an interim super middleweight
title fight which put him in position

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to challenge Canelo as the mandatory.
He got a stoppage in that fight,

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but when you think about the stoppage, it wasn't knockout. He ended up

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getting a TKO because Zach Ryder suffered
a broken hand and that was by the

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fight ended. So, you know, even even when you look at the

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knockouts he's had, it's not exactly
like he's knocking guys. Are you saying

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him beating Joseph Jerko in September of
twenty twenty one by TKO is not exactly

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a household name. I think that's
exactly what you're saying. And other than

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that is even a household. We
see split decision with Daniel Jacobs, we

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see the retirement by Zach Parker,
we see loss by decision to Canelo Alvarez,

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and I go back three fights before
that, this decision decision, and

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then before that a TKO with Bill
al when he fought when he fought Bill

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o Akway. I was at that
fight at the table in Las Vegas.

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He looked great in that fight.
I mean, he really took it to

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him. He knocked Hi down a
bunch of and did a real number on

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him. So so you're saying to
me, there's a chance at him having

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a punch that could take advantage of
Mangia's lack of defense one hundred because Magia

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gets hit with everything, and it's
not out of the realm of possibility when

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you're swinging that kind of leather,
and that goes for both guys, for

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Rider and for Mangia. It's not
out of the realm of possibility. Now,

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Mangia has a very good chin that
he's showing throughout his career, but

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you know, he was in a
tremendous war. You don't know, again

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what I said before, what it's
taken out of good But John Ryder takes

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a great shot too. I mean, yes, Canelo knocked him down,

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but Canelo couldn't finish him. You
know, John's got six losses. He's

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only been stopped the one time,
and obviously that's not you know, that

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shows you the type of ability to
take the shot. So the the reason

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why the fight is interesting, besides
the fact that I think we're gonna see

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a great action fight, number one, also, we don't know yet one

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hundred percent who Canelo Alvarez is going
to fight when he returns on May fourth,

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so to me, and maybe it's
wishful thinking, maybe there's some thing

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more to it. I think you
and I and most people would agree.

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We'd like to see him fight David
Benavidez. Of course, in that fight.

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It is my opinion that if that
fight does happen, and I hope

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that it does, it won't be
until September, which means now he's got

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an opportunity to see what does he
want to do. In May. There's

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been the rumors that he's gonna fight
the middleweight Jamal Charlotte would move up.

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I think that fight's terrible. I
have no real desire to see that.

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I agree with you in place of
in place of other things. I agree

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with you. Bad fight. So
another guy that could be available in that

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spot again, hard to make because
it's HEBC, It's Golden Boy, you

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know, not the best of friends
obviously. Could it be Heimi Mungia.

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Great matchup in terms of excitement,
Mexico versus Mexico. Both guys make good

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fights. Canelo is a big counterpuncher. Mongy is gonna walk straight to him.

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The question is if he beats Ryder, and especially if he does it

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in a manner better than the way
that Canelo does, it might start a

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little bit more chatter about that fight. So you're really watching to see how

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Mangia performs against Ryder with the idea
of how he performed in the Canelo fight

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in the back of your mind,
to see if they if he can one

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up them. If he goes out
there and he looks awesome against John Ryder,

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that'll make people say, well,
Canelo Alvarez, who was, you

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know, one of the great fighters
of all time. You know he couldn't

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he dropped him once, he couldn't
stop him, at him bloodied. It

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was in his hometown in front of
fifty thousand, big homecoming fight, he

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couldn't get the knockout. Here comes
Mangia, you know, in the next

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fight, and an he blasts him
out. So there will be an element

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of comparison, and perhaps it could
spark some consideration where especially if Mangia wins

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and comes out with no injuries,
that maybe they could somehow. I see

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you work. I like the thought
process, but I really believe is going

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00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:40,759
to happen. Just I think the
only way it does happen is if Canelo

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00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:44,720
says that's who I want to fight
and overhuls everybody. That's the only way

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it happens. And I don't know. And by the way, Canelo Alvarez

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is one of the few guys in
the business who one hundred percent can overrull

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00:18:51,319 --> 00:18:56,000
anybody if he wants to overrule Al
Hayman or he wants to overrule you know,

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00:18:56,079 --> 00:18:57,000
his management or whoever. I mean, he can do it. I

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00:18:57,039 --> 00:18:59,960
mean he when he was with Golden
Boy. I'll give you a great example.

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I mean, this is before Canelo
was a megastar. You know,

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00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:04,839
Golden Boy was real reticent to put
him in the ring with Austin Trout,

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and he insisted and he went out
there and he you know, won a

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00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,920
competitive fight, but he won the
fight, knocked him down, and then

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not that long after and I can
still remember this, there was a fight

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in Las Vegas. I believe it
was when he fought against Alfredo Angulo off

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00:19:17,279 --> 00:19:18,079
the top of my head, maybe
I'm wrong, but you could check his

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record. At the postfight press conference, Aristoni Lara, who was also with

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00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,400
Golden Boys, showed up and was
chirping and chirping and chirping and calling him

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00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:26,640
out and you know, almost trying
to embarrass him in a sense. It

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00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:30,119
was kind of like what Antonio Tartar
did to Roy Jones with another you know,

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00:19:30,279 --> 00:19:34,559
classic call out that I was out
of the press commerce and Canelo went

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00:19:34,599 --> 00:19:37,200
for it and he's like, you
know, fuck that guy, and he

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00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:38,160
you know, he said, let
me fight it. And Golden Boy,

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00:19:38,279 --> 00:19:41,359
the last guy they wanted to put
him in the ring with was the south

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00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:44,240
paw slick like that when he was
you know, still really good, uh

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00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:47,559
Lara, and you know, he
insisted on it, and again he went

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out. There was a super close
fight, a really competitive fight. I

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was, I was there. I
had Canelo winning as a most at ringside

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00:19:52,200 --> 00:19:56,799
because uh Lara just gave away so
many those middle rounds by again running and

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00:19:56,839 --> 00:20:00,039
fleeing in that typical amateurs kind of
Cuban style that he had. That he

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00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:03,359
gave it away. But there was
a reason why the matchmakers didn't want him

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00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,920
to do the fight because even though
Canelo won, he didn't look very good.

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00:20:07,200 --> 00:20:08,200
But you know, he's like,
basically, like I said at the

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00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,359
press conference, when he started to
get in his face and chirp at him,

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00:20:11,400 --> 00:20:12,599
kind of like Demetris Andre did,
he didn'tive him that fight. But

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00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:15,119
can I was like, you know, fuck that guy, and he went

333
00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:17,880
out there and he fund him.
So I'm only making the point that Canell

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00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:22,119
Alvarez is gonna fight who Canelo Alvarez
wants to fight, understood, Gia,

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00:20:22,519 --> 00:20:25,240
So be it, you know,
and let's see how a mongilla looks.

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00:20:25,279 --> 00:20:29,480
That's Saturday night in Phoenix, de
Own Golden Boy main event. All Right,

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00:20:29,559 --> 00:20:33,319
some news, and this has been
something that you have talked about,

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00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,720
you've reported, we've kicked it around
on the podcast. It is now official.

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00:20:36,759 --> 00:20:41,079
Made official. Thursday afternoon, March
thirtieth is the return of Premiere Boxing

340
00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:45,079
Champions on the new outlet Amazon.
It will be a pay per view although

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00:20:45,119 --> 00:20:48,440
not all of it will be on
a pay per view. Daniell explain that

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00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:52,079
in a few moments, the headlining
fight is as had been rumored for a

343
00:20:52,079 --> 00:20:56,880
couple of days, Tim Zoo fighting
Keith Thurman. And I'm going to be

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00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:00,000
the first one to say it.
I have much love for my Tampa Bay

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00:21:00,039 --> 00:21:03,799
brother from another mother, Keith Thurman, Clearwater, Florida. But I'm looking

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00:21:03,839 --> 00:21:06,400
at this fight when I saw it
on paper, and I think a lot

347
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,119
of people have the same. Do
you want me to say it, even

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00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,039
though it's my Tampa Bay brother,
what are we doing here? That this

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00:21:11,079 --> 00:21:15,160
is who Zoo is fighting? You're
going to get into that that's the headlining

350
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,119
fight. And we have other championship
fights on this card as well, including

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00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:22,319
Roly Romero and Isaac Pittbull Cruise.
So it will not be pitt Bull Cruise

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00:21:22,359 --> 00:21:26,559
at least for right now fighting Gervonte
Davis like we had thought, It's Romero

353
00:21:27,039 --> 00:21:32,599
Cruise for Romero's WBA Junior welterweight title. And speaking of ares Landi Laura,

354
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:37,960
he's still around. He's defending the
WBA middleweight title as well. All right,

355
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:41,960
so tell me about the official announcement
the fights etc. Including Zoo Thurman

356
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,400
in the main event. All right, let's start with the main event and

357
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,720
we'll work our way down the cart. So that was the rumored fight for

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00:21:48,799 --> 00:21:51,599
quite some time, and so it
did not come as a surprise. Now,

359
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,759
Originally, if you go back maybe
like a month ago, six weeks

360
00:21:53,759 --> 00:21:56,519
ago, there was a lot of
conversation that it was going to be Zoo,

361
00:21:56,920 --> 00:22:00,559
and everybody knew by the way that
he was leaving Australia to come fight

362
00:22:00,559 --> 00:22:03,480
in America for the foreseeable future.
So the fact that he's on this card

363
00:22:03,519 --> 00:22:07,599
is like literally a zero surprise whatsoever. But the original thought was he's gonna

364
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:12,079
fight Ericson Lubin, good contender coming
off to win over Ramos in a sort

365
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:15,799
of a controversial kind of fight,
but nonetheless was looking to maybe get that

366
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:22,039
opportunity. And I believe that the
people at PBC, in talking with their

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00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:26,039
partners at Amazon and within their own
company, Al Hayman, and talking with

368
00:22:26,079 --> 00:22:30,640
his people the matchmakers and EGb Promotions, et cetera, they just felt like

369
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:33,039
that's not you know, no knock
on on Lubin. But he just didn't

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00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:37,440
have the name of a Thurman who, granted is not that big of a

371
00:22:37,519 --> 00:22:40,119
name because he hasn't fought for a
long time. But then if you're gonna

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00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:41,640
do a zoo fight and you're gonna
make this a pay per view, you

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00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,599
got to have a little bit of
a sexier name up top. And so

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00:22:45,319 --> 00:22:48,160
Keith Thurman, who has never fought
as a German at awight, He's always

375
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:52,279
been a wealtherweight, so you know, he's never fought above one hundred and

376
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:55,960
forty seven pounds or maybe a half
a pound early in his career or something

377
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:57,119
like that. I mean, but
largely you know the couple. If you

378
00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,279
look at his early fights, he
did have some fights that were like one

379
00:23:00,279 --> 00:23:03,200
p fifty. We're talking about two
thousand and seven, two thousand and eight.

380
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,480
So he's been a career long walter. Wait, it's where he became

381
00:23:06,759 --> 00:23:10,000
a world champion and was one of
the best in the division for a long

382
00:23:10,039 --> 00:23:15,039
time. But the other problem with
Keith Thurman is that he has had no

383
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,920
fights in twenty twenty three, one
fight in Mario Barrios in twenty twenty two,

384
00:23:19,559 --> 00:23:23,799
no fights in twenty twenty one,
no fights in twenty twenty and is

385
00:23:25,279 --> 00:23:30,799
uh he had a two fight schedule
in twenty nineteen, a very close majority

386
00:23:30,839 --> 00:23:34,880
decision over Joses Seedo Lopez and then
a you know, a very clear decision

387
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:38,559
loss to Manny Packa. So now
he's getting Tim Zuo. Now. The

388
00:23:38,599 --> 00:23:41,440
interesting thing about the fight is,
yes, yes it's a name, but

389
00:23:41,519 --> 00:23:45,000
what's surprising and they just couldn't get
it done. And I don't blame the

390
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,920
WBO for not allowing it. This
is not going to be a world title

391
00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:52,440
fight, because I spoke to the
WBO today and I asked him about that,

392
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:56,920
because I saw the announcement from PBC
and that's had said it was a

393
00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,519
twelve round non title main event,
even though Tim Zuo was the WA champion

394
00:24:00,559 --> 00:24:03,519
in one hundred and fifty four pounds. I wonder what was up, So

395
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,480
I talked to Tim Zoo's people.
They said it was in fact contracted at

396
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:08,519
a one hundred and fifty five pounds, one pound over the limit, and

397
00:24:08,519 --> 00:24:12,880
in talking to the WBO, the
reason is because even though the Zoo people

398
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:18,279
petitioned the WBO to make it a
title defense and get the sanction, the

399
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:22,000
WBO followed its rules and it was
explained to me, look nothing against them

400
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:25,880
against Keith Thurman. He hasn't fought
for two years, he's never fought at

401
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,039
one hundred and fifty four pounds,
and he's not in our rankings, so

402
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:32,079
we're not going to break our rules. End of story. Now, what

403
00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:36,160
they have done since then is in
the WBO rules, if you're going to

404
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,400
fight a non title fight and you're
the champion, you are allowed to take

405
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,720
a non title fight as long as
you're not in a position where you owe

406
00:24:41,759 --> 00:24:45,319
a mandatory. So Tim is up
to date on his mandatory. He does

407
00:24:45,319 --> 00:24:48,079
not owe a mandatory at the moment, so he's in an optional stage.

408
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:51,039
So they have to petition and go
to their committee to get them to approve

409
00:24:51,079 --> 00:24:56,440
this as a quote unquote special fight
where his title is not at stake.

410
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:59,799
But what's interesting about is, and
that hasn't been done yet, the committee

411
00:24:59,799 --> 00:25:02,559
will probably meet and discuss this over
the next few days or a week or

412
00:25:02,599 --> 00:25:04,079
whatever. And in talking to WBO, they basically were like, you know,

413
00:25:04,119 --> 00:25:07,319
it's probably going to be given to
him because there's no reason not to.

414
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,279
He's asking, he's meeting all the
criteria as not having a mandatory do

415
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,759
as well as the fact that they
understand that if Kim Zoo loses the fight,

416
00:25:15,279 --> 00:25:18,359
even though it's a non title fight. If he loses, he forfeits

417
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:22,039
the title. So that's part I
know that. This is where it gets

418
00:25:22,079 --> 00:25:26,720
so convoluted in the rules. I
don't care if it's in their rules or

419
00:25:26,759 --> 00:25:30,200
not. It's a non title fight. So what difference does it make?

420
00:25:30,319 --> 00:25:33,559
Even when you were suggesting that,
why why does he have to have their

421
00:25:33,559 --> 00:25:37,559
committee's permission to go fight a non
title fight. He's not defending the title,

422
00:25:37,599 --> 00:25:41,319
he's not doing mandatory You go fight
if he wants to fight a grizzly

423
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:45,359
bear at the circus, let him
go to being sarcastic. But the committee

424
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,039
for some reason did not allow the
fight to be a special attraction non title.

425
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:51,839
He would still do the fight and
probably vacate anyway, So that's not

426
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,480
going to be a problem again.
But the rules common sense, common sense.

427
00:25:55,599 --> 00:25:57,839
It's a non title fight. He's
not due to have a mandatory Why

428
00:25:57,839 --> 00:26:00,279
does he need to have this because
to keep his belt? I mean,

429
00:26:00,279 --> 00:26:04,079
it's just that's what the rules say. If you're gonna be the WBO champ,

430
00:26:04,319 --> 00:26:07,079
you got to play by the rules. You know, if you work

431
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:08,799
for, you know, a company, you follow their dress code, you

432
00:26:08,839 --> 00:26:12,359
follow their of course, when it's
in their interest to change their rules or

433
00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:15,039
if they want to let somebody else
get paid. Yes, they changed.

434
00:26:15,079 --> 00:26:18,559
I'm gonna tell you one thing.
They change their rules all the time,

435
00:26:18,599 --> 00:26:22,079
they amend them. I'm not gonna
have this argument with you. I've got

436
00:26:22,079 --> 00:26:26,200
twenty five fucking years doing this and
i can tell you, as God is

437
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:32,599
my witness on these particular matters,
the WBO does a tremendous job of following

438
00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,000
the rules. They do not fuck
around. I will defer to you on

439
00:26:36,039 --> 00:26:38,319
that. I will hear you.
So the same thing when you're the WBO

440
00:26:38,519 --> 00:26:42,119
champion in a weight class and you
go up and wait, you have the

441
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,559
ability to ask to be the mandatory
in the next way class up. That's

442
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:48,720
just one of the things that goes
along with being a champion. So there's

443
00:26:48,759 --> 00:26:52,160
that's the theory behind, by the
way, Terrence Crawford being able to move

444
00:26:52,319 --> 00:26:59,880
up and maybe fight who Tim Zu. Because when Crawford was the champion of

445
00:27:00,039 --> 00:27:03,079
their lightweight division and he went to
one hundred or I take it back,

446
00:27:03,079 --> 00:27:07,039
when he was the champion of their
junior welterweight division, he got the immediate

447
00:27:07,079 --> 00:27:10,680
title shot at welterweight against Jeff Horn
because he was installed as the mandatory.

448
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:14,160
So my point is on the larger
picture. For all of the rules you

449
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,359
may dislike about why should he lose
his title, there are positive things that

450
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:19,119
are helpful to those fighters too,
such as what I just mentioned. So

451
00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:22,640
it's gonna be a non title fight. It doesn't detract from the if you

452
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:26,559
are a fan of the fight,
it is what it is. Keith Thurman

453
00:27:26,599 --> 00:27:29,119
cannot win the belt if he wins
the fight because it's gonna be over the

454
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,039
weight, So he can't be a
champion of one hundred and fifty four pounds

455
00:27:32,039 --> 00:27:36,000
if the fight's contracted at one hundred
and fifty five pounds. I got you.

456
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:37,440
So that is the main event.
Now, let me just say one

457
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,200
other thing. They have not announced, as I've gotten this question from people

458
00:27:41,279 --> 00:27:45,160
on social media and also frankly from
other people in the business, they have

459
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:48,079
not announced what the broadcast team is. So we're still not aware of whether

460
00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:49,920
they're gonna, you know, get
the band back together from showtime, or

461
00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:52,759
they're gonna go a different direction or
whatever that will come and do time.

462
00:27:53,359 --> 00:27:56,839
That's the first thing. The second
thing is they did not announce the pay

463
00:27:56,839 --> 00:28:00,359
per view price. I am told
that most likely, and they're still having

464
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:03,400
this discussion with their people internally as
well as with Amazon and the you know

465
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:08,720
others in the industry that it probably
will be either sixty four ninety nine or

466
00:28:08,759 --> 00:28:11,640
sixty nine ninety nine. We'll see
which they choose. You know, me

467
00:28:11,759 --> 00:28:14,680
being the cynic, I'm going to
say they're going to go for the sixty

468
00:28:14,759 --> 00:28:17,480
nine ninety nine. I would be
shocked if it's not at least the sixty

469
00:28:17,519 --> 00:28:21,079
four ninety nine or sixty nine ninetynine
because everything the PBC was doing before was

470
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:26,160
seventy five or eighty dollars. It's
going to be It's not, it's going

471
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:27,039
to be one of those two.
It's the question they're going to kind of

472
00:28:27,039 --> 00:28:30,160
get the extra five bucks off people
who knows. So that's the second thing.

473
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:36,920
And another thing about it is this
is available on Amazon uh Prime Video

474
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:40,519
as a pay per view. But
if you first of all, if you

475
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,759
have you don't have a Prime membership, you can still buy at number one.

476
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,319
If you don't want to watch it
on Amazon Prime Videos platform, you

477
00:28:48,359 --> 00:28:52,000
can still purchase it as a regular
pay perview on your linear television through you

478
00:28:52,039 --> 00:28:56,799
know, in demand on your satellite
or on your television like you've always bought

479
00:28:56,839 --> 00:29:00,480
pay per views. And furthermore,
our friends have PPV dot Com will be

480
00:29:00,519 --> 00:29:03,079
the other digital distributor of the fight. So yes, you can buy it

481
00:29:03,119 --> 00:29:07,559
on Prime as a pay per view, or you can buy the exact same

482
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:11,359
broadcast on PPV dot Com, same
announcer, same thing, everything. So

483
00:29:11,359 --> 00:29:14,400
I'm just letting people know. I'm
not chilling for anybody. I'm just giving

484
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:15,720
the facts. So because people ask
me all the time, how can I

485
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:18,279
buy it? Where can I buy
it? How much does it cost?

486
00:29:18,319 --> 00:29:19,839
Is it the same card, same
show, same announce as, blah blah

487
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:25,240
blah. So it's Prime Video branded
and all that, and that's where I'm

488
00:29:25,279 --> 00:29:26,880
sure the bulk of the people probably
will purchase it if they buy the fight,

489
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,240
but it will be available on those
other platforms and it will be a

490
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,599
similar price structure across the platforms.
It will be the same broadcast. We

491
00:29:33,599 --> 00:29:37,640
don't know who the broadcast team is
and that is what is going on with

492
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:41,440
that. So that is the main
event. Now as we go down the

493
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,640
card, this is where it gets
kind of wacky. The co feature,

494
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,480
as you mentioned, is Roly Romero
against Pitbull Cruz for they said in the

495
00:29:48,519 --> 00:29:52,920
announcement for the WBA Junior walterweight title
that Roly Romero holds now if we don't

496
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,319
have to go back that far to
know that he had been the champion,

497
00:29:56,359 --> 00:29:59,920
but because he was supposedly injured and
out for a few months, they allow

498
00:30:00,039 --> 00:30:06,200
our good friend, the old man
Ishmael Barroso to fight for against O'Hara Davies,

499
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:10,559
who was the mandatory for the interim
title, with the stipulation on paper

500
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:12,799
that the winner of that fight would
be the interim champion and that on Raally

501
00:30:12,839 --> 00:30:17,119
Romero's return, he would be obligated
in his first fight back to fight the

502
00:30:17,119 --> 00:30:22,599
winner of that fight to clear up
the interim situation. So even though PBC

503
00:30:22,119 --> 00:30:27,000
announced the fight as the junior welterweight
title fight, I spoke personally with Gilberta

504
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,400
Mendoza Sior or a junior rather,
who was the president of the WBA,

505
00:30:30,799 --> 00:30:33,359
and asked him about that. He
says, look, we haven't got a

506
00:30:33,359 --> 00:30:38,880
sanctuary quest from them yet and we
have our order, our mandate about the

507
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:44,079
Baroso fight, so we're not approving
anything until we know that Baroso is taken

508
00:30:44,079 --> 00:30:47,279
care of. So the likely outcome
of this is it will in fact be

509
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:51,039
wind up being for the wo A
WBA Junior Walterway title, but they haven't

510
00:30:51,119 --> 00:30:53,480
yet gone through the process that needs
to happen, which is to make sure

511
00:30:53,759 --> 00:30:57,079
that Ishmael Baroso is taken care of, which problem means he'll take some kind

512
00:30:57,079 --> 00:31:02,480
of financial step aside. And if
you're a foty year old guy who just

513
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,640
won a world title, you know, why not take you know, a

514
00:31:04,759 --> 00:31:07,839
nice paycheck to sit out and just
chill and and fight for you know,

515
00:31:07,839 --> 00:31:11,359
wait for the winner. So that's
probably what canna happen. But again it

516
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:15,720
hasn't happened yet, so that part
of the announcement was a bit in premature,

517
00:31:15,759 --> 00:31:18,240
but it's gonna wind up being the
case. And the other thing that

518
00:31:18,279 --> 00:31:19,799
was sort of whacky about that,
and this was what dominated my day,

519
00:31:19,799 --> 00:31:27,240
frankly, was on Wednesday you had
a lot of conversation from uh Ryan Garcia

520
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,519
and from his people and Golden Boy
and his team that and and others in

521
00:31:32,559 --> 00:31:36,200
the business also that they were in
the process of trying to get a fight

522
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:41,000
finalized between Ryan Garcia and Roly Romeiro
for April twenty. Now I tweeted about

523
00:31:41,039 --> 00:31:42,960
that and said, if the fight
is made this is when the fight's gonna

524
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,000
happen. And then they were talking. As it turned out, they didn't

525
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:49,680
finalize the fight. There's a lot
of conflicting information, and they ended up

526
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:53,880
doing Roly against pitt Bull Cruise and
that'spot instead, and let kind of left

527
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:57,119
Ryan I kind of hung out to
dry, kind of looking like a fool

528
00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:00,599
because he posted a poster and said
he was fighting the fight and made the

529
00:32:00,599 --> 00:32:05,400
announcement on Wednesday night, and they
kind of pulled the rug out from under

530
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:07,000
him, and it kind of made
everybody in their side kind of look,

531
00:32:07,319 --> 00:32:09,680
you know, he said, I
don't know he was speaking about particular,

532
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:14,039
but if you look at this social
making point, he said, somebody's lying

533
00:32:14,079 --> 00:32:16,079
to me. I don't know if
he was talking about this advisor. I

534
00:32:16,119 --> 00:32:20,359
don't be talking about Oscar talking about
how Hayman. I have no idea what

535
00:32:20,359 --> 00:32:22,960
he's talking about. But the point
is what was he thought was going to

536
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:27,440
be his pay per view fight April
twentieth against Roly, a fight that they

537
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,920
both said that they wanted. Now
it's going to be Roly against Pitbull Curis.

538
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:32,480
Now. I don't know what they're
paying Roly to fight. The pit

539
00:32:32,519 --> 00:32:37,519
Bull fight but I'd be shocked,
and I just can't see it being the

540
00:32:37,559 --> 00:32:42,039
case that Roly's taking a lot less
money. I would believe to fight Pitbull

541
00:32:42,079 --> 00:32:44,960
than he would to get against Tank. I mean, I rather against Ryan,

542
00:32:45,039 --> 00:32:49,720
unless you know, Hayman just was
so desperate to keep the fight on

543
00:32:49,839 --> 00:32:53,000
his platform and make a name fight
because Pitbull and Roly is actually a fight

544
00:32:53,039 --> 00:32:57,359
that fans will get up for even
though it's not the main event, and

545
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,720
just to make sure that he kept, you know, a good quality fight

546
00:32:59,759 --> 00:33:01,240
like that on his show to kick
things off. And maybe they're just going

547
00:33:01,319 --> 00:33:05,039
to overpay Raley to be in the
match, so you know, who knows

548
00:33:05,039 --> 00:33:07,440
what's happening there. But the bottom
line is he's fighting Pitbull in the co

549
00:33:07,519 --> 00:33:12,160
feature instead of Ryan Garcia in the
main event. And now Ryan Garcia and

550
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,799
his team are out there kind of
with egg on their face looking for a

551
00:33:14,839 --> 00:33:16,759
new opponent, and you know,
it doesn't seem to me like they'll go

552
00:33:16,839 --> 00:33:20,880
back to Devin Hainey. You never
know, but it's kind of a mess

553
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:22,160
in that respect. We'll see if
he can keep his April twenty a date,

554
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:23,920
and if he can, who in
the world they're going to get the

555
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:28,480
fight the guns. What was Ryan
Garcia's tweet? Now, I'm not fighting

556
00:33:28,559 --> 00:33:31,440
Ramirez, let's be clear. So
he's put that out there too well,

557
00:33:31,559 --> 00:33:36,880
and he goes who knows, all
right, that's also on. And then

558
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,519
we have another as you mentioned earlier, Aris Landi Laura, and he is

559
00:33:39,599 --> 00:33:45,799
on this card defending against another Australian
who's actually also fought Tim Zuo, Michael

560
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:51,039
Zarafa. All right, so tell
me more that and and the distinction too,

561
00:33:51,119 --> 00:33:53,160
please, because some of these fights
are not going to be on the

562
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:57,279
pay per view. But is it
your understanding that a Laura fight is also

563
00:33:57,359 --> 00:34:00,279
on the pay per view? I
already said that the four fights I'm mentioned

564
00:34:00,279 --> 00:34:05,920
her all on the pay per view, gotcha? Now go ahead? Yes,

565
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:08,239
Lara's Zarafa that is a mandatory fight
is long overdue. Remember there was

566
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:12,559
a lot of conversation that Lara was
going to fight Danny Garcia. That was

567
00:34:12,559 --> 00:34:15,280
a fight that was discussed at the
end of last year. Then there were

568
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:19,119
some possibility, some talk maybe it
would be on one of these early Amazon

569
00:34:19,159 --> 00:34:22,559
fights. In the end, Zarafa, who's been waiting for a long time,

570
00:34:22,199 --> 00:34:25,119
made a big stink like he should
after the WBA, and they finally

571
00:34:25,239 --> 00:34:29,599
ordered the fight and they ordered to
schedule. They perspid, they ended up

572
00:34:29,639 --> 00:34:31,960
making a deal and so now Lara
is forced to either vacate or fight the

573
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,320
mandatory. So he's fighting the mandatory
now. Arisoni Lara, who was a

574
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:40,800
great amateur fighter out of Cuba,
a world amateur champion, has had a

575
00:34:42,559 --> 00:34:45,960
very strong professional career, excellent fighter
as a JERAM MIDDLEWA champion back you know,

576
00:34:46,119 --> 00:34:50,679
several years ago, you know,
had some big time fights, had

577
00:34:51,119 --> 00:34:53,000
a Fight of the Year against Jared
Hurt, even though he lost very close

578
00:34:53,039 --> 00:34:57,760
in a unification fight. So he's
had a good career and he's also had

579
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,119
a lot of stinkeroo. Also,
he's got a lot of terrible fights on

580
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,679
his resume in terms of just utter
lack of entertainment value. He's also taken

581
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,079
the softway for the most part.
And since he fought the Jared Hurd fight

582
00:35:07,519 --> 00:35:10,679
and then he had a draw against
Brian Kastania, who went on to distinguish

583
00:35:10,800 --> 00:35:15,719
himself in the two fights with Charlote, his schedule has been absolutely fucking wretched.

584
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:21,519
He's fought one lesser, lesser guy
after another. He fought Canelo's brother,

585
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:27,679
Owayne exactly Canelo he fought the ever
famous Greg Vandetti. He fought that

586
00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:34,639
the honest but club level fighter,
Thomas Lamana. He fought Gary Spike O'Sullivan

587
00:35:34,639 --> 00:35:37,199
who was a journeyman, and now
he's fighting Zarafa. So since the latter

588
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:44,519
part of twenty nineteen, he's fought
a total of four times against nobody's basically

589
00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:46,079
no quality opponents at all. I
mean, if you take a soft touch

590
00:35:46,079 --> 00:35:50,199
in there, okay, but if
you're only fighting soft touches and you're only

591
00:35:50,280 --> 00:35:52,960
fighting once a year, it's a
waste of time. And by the way,

592
00:35:52,159 --> 00:35:57,079
Laura didn't fight it all in twenty
twenty three, So this is like,

593
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,840
I mean, what as my good
friend TJ would say, what are

594
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:02,960
we doing? What are we doing
here? And I misspoke. Zarafa has

595
00:36:04,039 --> 00:36:06,880
fought some contenders in Australia, but
he did not fight Tim Zoo. I

596
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,559
got that confused. But again,
in terms of sexiness in this matchup,

597
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:15,440
I don't know what the appears thinking
of. He is a loss to Jeff

598
00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:17,800
Horn, that's former wealth, but
they split a pair. He won the

599
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:22,679
first fight by knocking out and then
he lost by a majority in the second

600
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:25,480
fight against Horn. But the thing
about Laura is that he had been the

601
00:36:25,639 --> 00:36:32,440
long time or secondary middleweight wa WBA
champion. He became the only title holder

602
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:37,440
in that weight class for the WBA
winner when a Triple G called it a

603
00:36:37,559 --> 00:36:39,400
day and gave up the title rather
than do the mandatory and went into what

604
00:36:39,519 --> 00:36:45,039
is apparent retirement. So as the
only title holder, he has fought nobody.

605
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,480
And so now not to say Rafa
is nobody, but he's not exactly.

606
00:36:47,519 --> 00:36:50,679
He's better than the guys that he's
been fighting on grant in that,

607
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:52,920
but he's not exactly, you know, a big superstar name. So this

608
00:36:53,159 --> 00:36:57,400
is just you know, he's playing
out the string. He's getting his yearly

609
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,920
annuity. He's like forty one years
old, and it's just a waste of

610
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:05,840
time in my opinion. All Right, And the Towering Inferno Sebastian Fondora is

611
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:07,880
also on this card, and this
is the correct me if I'm wrong,

612
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,639
because it's getting laid et cetera.
This's the first fight since he took the

613
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:15,920
loss to Mendoza on the surprise knockout. This is his return and that loss

614
00:37:15,079 --> 00:37:19,119
was like last summer like that,
it's gonna basically be like nine or ten

615
00:37:19,199 --> 00:37:23,199
months ago. But this guy's a
highly entertaining, you know, very tall

616
00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:28,360
junior middleweight middleweight, et cetera.
But Fondora is also back on this card,

617
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:30,079
real Quay, so he opens the
show in as you mentioned, they

618
00:37:30,079 --> 00:37:34,760
will fight for Remember when he got
knocked out by Mendoza, it was April

619
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,239
of last year, so it'll be
it'll be ten months or eleven months rather

620
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:42,760
than right. In that Mendoza fight, he was winning every single round and

621
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,679
he got knocked out and he lost
the interim one hundred and fifty four pound

622
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:51,440
WBC title. Mendoza then went and
got beat by Tim Zoo in Australia,

623
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:53,760
and so that interim title no longer
was there, So now the WBC.

624
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:58,079
Because I asked Maury's show Suliman about
that, why is he fighting for the

625
00:37:58,159 --> 00:38:00,920
vacant title? He said, well, he was winning every round and Doz

626
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,320
is no longer the interim champion.
You know, we don't know what's going

627
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:07,039
on with Charlot blah blah blah.
So they're allowing Boachek, who's a good

628
00:38:07,039 --> 00:38:08,440
contender himself. I mean, he's
a very worthy opponent. He's a good

629
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:13,760
fighter that wouldn't be shocked if he
won the fight. They are allowing Fendora

630
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:15,360
and Bolichik to fight for the interim
title because of those reasons. I mean,

631
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:19,920
you can agree or disagree, but
that's what they say. So Mendoza,

632
00:38:20,679 --> 00:38:22,159
you know, cleaned his clock with
the one shot basically, and now

633
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:25,079
Fandor is trying to get back on
the horse and see if he can get

634
00:38:25,119 --> 00:38:28,480
a win against a quality guy.
And the interesting thing, by the way,

635
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,000
Sir hey Boachik, who is the
opponent, who's a Ukrainian fighter that

636
00:38:31,079 --> 00:38:35,920
fights out of Los Angeles, has
had twenty four professional fights. He has

637
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:37,960
never heard the final bell for any
of them because he's won twenty three of

638
00:38:38,079 --> 00:38:42,440
his twenty three wins are all by
knockout, and his one loss is by

639
00:38:42,440 --> 00:38:45,679
a knockout. So in twenty four
fights, you know, he's either the

640
00:38:45,719 --> 00:38:47,920
one that got stopped or he stopped
his opponent. Interesting, and he's been

641
00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:52,199
off for a bit. He did
have two fights last year though, so

642
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:54,400
he you know, by today's standards, he's busy. Fought most recently in

643
00:38:54,519 --> 00:38:59,760
July. That shapes up as actually
like a potential like sneaky fight of the

644
00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:02,760
night kind of fight. So that's
a very solid matchup. You know,

645
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:06,199
have your say about whether it should
be for a interim title or not,

646
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:08,000
that's a different matter. But in
terms of the matchup itself, it's a

647
00:39:08,079 --> 00:39:12,280
quality fight. And what I was
gonna also mention to you is those are

648
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,159
the four pay per view fights that
were announced. There will be a portion

649
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,360
of this undercard, similar to like
when we would watch a Showtime card and

650
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:22,800
they would put some preliminaries on their
YouTube and their Facebook and that sort of

651
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:24,760
stuff, where if you were watching
like a Fox pay per view and they

652
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:29,679
would show some early fights on the
network or on FS one. This is

653
00:39:29,679 --> 00:39:32,119
gonna be the same situation. So
the pay perview will be on at eight

654
00:39:32,159 --> 00:39:37,440
o'clock Eastern time start, but in
the in the however long prior to that,

655
00:39:37,559 --> 00:39:40,760
there'll be a block of free fights
available on Prime And although this was

656
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:45,880
not announced, I am told that
one of those fights will be the WBC's

657
00:39:45,199 --> 00:39:50,880
Flyway champion Julio Caesar Martinez in the
fight against Angel Cordova, which, if

658
00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:53,440
you remember, that was originally scheduled
for what was supposed to be the final

659
00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:58,320
Showtime card that took place, but
was knocked off the card because of an

660
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,800
injury and so it didn't take place, but they're gonna put that back together

661
00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:04,960
and have it as one of those
freeview fights, if you will, prior

662
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,039
to the pay per view. So
we'll see Amazon Prime, PBC kicking things

663
00:40:08,079 --> 00:40:13,079
off. We'll see if people like
the card, if they are accepting of

664
00:40:13,159 --> 00:40:15,800
whatever the price point is. We'll
see what they decide in terms of who

665
00:40:15,840 --> 00:40:20,400
the announcers are. But it was
a big day in the terms of all

666
00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:22,280
that news coming out. A lot
of these fights a sort of dribbled out

667
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:24,239
here and there. You kind of
heard rumors of this, but today they

668
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:29,440
put it all together and made the
formal announcement. Good on that. All

669
00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:31,119
right, let's move on a little
more news, and there's some excellent nostalgia

670
00:40:31,199 --> 00:40:36,440
before we wrap up. Okay,
you have been reporting on your substack and

671
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:37,679
we're going to talk about it.
Here. You have the date. The

672
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:42,960
date is June first, now as
it stands for Archer better BV and Dmitri

673
00:40:43,039 --> 00:40:47,280
Bivol to fight for the undisputed light
heavyweight title. All right, so elaborate

674
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:52,960
including we have been talking about whether
the Ramadan holiday would delay this to July

675
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,559
or August. That apparently is not
the case. So elaborate on what else

676
00:40:57,559 --> 00:41:00,480
you found out. Well, first
of all, June one is the date.

677
00:41:00,119 --> 00:41:04,840
That is the date that apparently is
important to the folks in Saudi Arabia

678
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,119
for whatever the reasons are. Don't
know if it's because they have other events,

679
00:41:07,519 --> 00:41:09,519
but June one was when they wanted
to fight, and they're the ones

680
00:41:09,599 --> 00:41:14,440
paying a shitload of money for the
fight. Now, remember, prior to

681
00:41:14,559 --> 00:41:17,960
the day of Reckoning, card Dmitri
Biebel had already signed to fight as long

682
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,559
as he came through the fight that
he had on that show, so his

683
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:25,320
side was all done better. B
IV had a daycare of Callum Smith and

684
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,800
then they would get to try to
make the deal. Obviously, he won

685
00:41:29,119 --> 00:41:31,760
the fight against Calm Smith by knocked
out dominating fashion, no injuries, and

686
00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:37,840
so within a few days after that, that's when Top Rank and Turkey al

687
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:42,000
Chic and his people in Saudi Arabia
started to discuss the parameters and the deal

688
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:45,679
making you know of this fight.
In the post fight of the Callum Smith

689
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:50,320
fight, it was Bob Aaron that
said, because better bev as a devout

690
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:52,639
Muslim, he was going to observe
Ramadan and Ramadan this year runs until the

691
00:41:52,679 --> 00:41:57,039
middle of April, and he said
that he would need three months to train

692
00:41:57,559 --> 00:42:00,559
because you know, over you know, gets strong after you do all the

693
00:42:00,639 --> 00:42:04,800
fasting. You know, son,
what is its sun rise to sun down?

694
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,559
You fast before you canna eat.
So obviously that takes a toll if

695
00:42:07,599 --> 00:42:10,599
you're if you're a professional athlete and
trying to prepare for a boxing match.

696
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,079
Uh, and so it would put
him in a position where he probably wouldn't

697
00:42:15,079 --> 00:42:16,199
be able to do the fight toll. You know, the July, you

698
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:21,400
know, early July. In the
end, you know, he's gonna have

699
00:42:21,440 --> 00:42:23,679
to suck it up and then because
that's when the Saudis want to fight.

700
00:42:24,079 --> 00:42:25,960
It's the fight that he wants.
And oh, by the way, you're

701
00:42:25,960 --> 00:42:30,679
getting paid. I don't know the
exact amount of money, but multiples of

702
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:34,519
the biggest payday you've ever made to
basically set yourself up and your family up

703
00:42:34,559 --> 00:42:37,719
and next generation up for the rest
of everybody's life. So he'll observe Ramadan.

704
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:40,360
You know, we'll see what kind
of how he's gonna be able to

705
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,840
handle that with the fasting in the
and the and the training and all.

706
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:45,760
But the bottom line is he's doing
the fight and it's gonna be June one,

707
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:47,880
and it's gonna be in Saudi Arabian
and they're still trying to get everything

708
00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:52,280
papered and you know official. But
I don't think that's gonna wind up being

709
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:54,719
any kind of problem, particularly because
people already signed and everybody that I spoke

710
00:42:54,760 --> 00:42:59,320
to involved in this match wants to
fight and once and is happy to do

711
00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:02,480
it then. And then Active bevol
I spoke to Beebe's manager that Dean Cornell

712
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,360
obvious says, look, we're fine
with you, and we wanted to fight.

713
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:07,360
We would have been happy to do
the fight in April. So they're

714
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:09,760
ready to go. So this is
again like a lot of these fights that

715
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,400
have been taking place and that are
scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia.

716
00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:16,199
They're putting up the money and so
in short order, we're getting, you

717
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:20,639
know, the two Nigan who fights
against Joshua and Theory. We're getting the

718
00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:22,760
undisputed fight with Theory. We've got
the Day of Reckoning, which is a

719
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,639
hell of a deep card. We're
getting bevol We're gonna get the five on

720
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:30,440
five between the you know whatever matches
they come up with with the Frank Warren

721
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:32,159
fighters against the Eddie Hern fighters,
and by the way you know there'll be

722
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:37,480
more after that, it seems.
So this is a as I've said,

723
00:43:37,719 --> 00:43:40,280
it may not be a perfect scenario
if you're an American boxing man to have

724
00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:44,440
all the big fights taking place in
Saudi Arabia, where the atmosphere in the

725
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,360
arena is nothing spectacular, and it's
on unusual times for us to watch.

726
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:51,199
But the way I look at it
is, you know, I'm happy that

727
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:52,719
the Saudi's are putting the money in
because if they weren't, then the fights

728
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:59,159
wouldn't happen all. So it's rather
happened under circumstances that we as Americans may

729
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:01,960
not find to be deal or to
not happen at all. Obviously, I'd

730
00:44:02,039 --> 00:44:06,320
rather have the fights happen. So
that's good. And this is a big

731
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:08,320
time fight. And what's interesting is
they always talk about because it's like the

732
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:13,639
political season right now. Politics make
strange bedfellows. Everybody's a strange bedfellow.

733
00:44:13,679 --> 00:44:15,880
But they're getting along as long as
somebody's paying, and the Saudi's are paying,

734
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:20,599
and so this is gonna happen.
So and I say bravo because I

735
00:44:20,719 --> 00:44:25,280
was critical a couple of podcasts ago
about the longer you wait more can happen

736
00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:29,800
to not have this fight happen later
in the summer. So the fact that

737
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,960
it's happening June first, as it
stands, looks good on that. One

738
00:44:34,039 --> 00:44:37,079
more note, and you had been
reporting about this. It was supposed to

739
00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:39,320
happen a couple of years ago,
about a year and a half ago,

740
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:44,519
would George Cambosis and Vasili Lomachenko.
You've been reporting this, elaborate on it

741
00:44:44,639 --> 00:44:47,800
now here on the pod that this
fight is apparently going to happen now with

742
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,480
Devin Haney moving up and vacating belts
go ahead. So you mentioned that it

743
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:57,239
was supposed to happen a while back, and that was when Cambosis had the

744
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,800
three belts that he had taken off
of tia Fimo Lopez, and he was

745
00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:04,119
going to fight Lomachenko, who was
one of his mandatories at that time,

746
00:45:04,119 --> 00:45:06,760
who was going to go to Australia. And that was right around the time

747
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:08,559
that the war with Ukraine and Russia
started and he begged out of the fight,

748
00:45:08,639 --> 00:45:12,519
and you know, he wanted to
stay back in Ukraine and he served

749
00:45:12,559 --> 00:45:15,599
in the one of the local militias
and did what he had to do for

750
00:45:15,679 --> 00:45:17,480
a period of time, and so
that was when Hani stepped in and took

751
00:45:17,559 --> 00:45:21,280
that fight instead, and he ended
up winning the titles. And now that

752
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:25,920
Haini is moving up in wait and
has vacated the titles and they're vacant,

753
00:45:27,039 --> 00:45:30,000
and so now the IBF has Lomachenko
and Kimbos is rated very highly. So

754
00:45:30,119 --> 00:45:31,239
this is not a surprise that they
were who already ordered to fight, that

755
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:36,320
they're going to do this match,
but now they have worked out the deal.

756
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:38,639
I don't it's not one hundred percent
like signed on the dotted line yet,

757
00:45:38,679 --> 00:45:42,320
but all the terms are agreed to. And because top Rank is the

758
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:45,559
promoter of one guy and the co
promoter of the other guy, that getting

759
00:45:45,599 --> 00:45:47,559
it all wrapped up is really not
that complicated. The complicated part, from

760
00:45:47,599 --> 00:45:51,320
what I understand, was really more
about the site, which is going to

761
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,639
be Perth, Australia, which is
the western you know, in Western Australia

762
00:45:54,639 --> 00:45:59,480
on the other coast, as opposed
to you know, you're Australian geography Brough.

763
00:45:59,519 --> 00:46:01,119
I've learned. I've learned. So
one of the things that's different about

764
00:46:01,159 --> 00:46:04,679
what goes on in those types of
fights, this happens in Australia a lot

765
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:07,360
of times. It happens in some
of the bigger fights that have taken place

766
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:12,239
in Mexico and other places, is
the local government becomes involved and they fund

767
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:15,079
a lot of the elements of it, not because they're looking to make money

768
00:46:15,159 --> 00:46:17,559
on tickets, but they use it
as a vehicle to promote tourism. And

769
00:46:17,679 --> 00:46:20,719
so this is one of the reasons
why this fight is there. They had

770
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:23,480
to work out the particulars with the
folks in the Perth in the Western Australian

771
00:46:23,519 --> 00:46:28,679
government to do the fight. Western
Australia is like one of the states in

772
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:31,000
the country of Australia, so it'll
take place in Perth, which hasn't had

773
00:46:31,039 --> 00:46:35,320
a big fight in a long long
time. Most of the bigger fights that

774
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:37,320
have taken place in Australia are typically
in the East Coast, which is that's

775
00:46:37,320 --> 00:46:42,280
correct, the Melbourne, Sydney,
Brisbane. So like for example, if

776
00:46:42,320 --> 00:46:45,519
you're into tennis and you're watching the
tennis, Melbourne is a big touristy area.

777
00:46:45,599 --> 00:46:49,400
Obviously they've had title fights there,
they have other sports there, they

778
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:52,039
have different so member they had the
Olympics there and all that. A lot

779
00:46:52,119 --> 00:46:54,960
of that was on the Eastern coast, like you're mentioning, this is the

780
00:46:55,039 --> 00:46:58,719
other side of the continent, and
I'm just laughing. You've seen me laughing

781
00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:00,760
for the last thirty seconds. You're
taking me back to my honeymoon. Rayphiel

782
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:05,199
I will be married twenty eight years
coming in May. We're on the honeymoon

783
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:07,400
in Honolulu and we're sitting with another
couple that we don't know at a luau,

784
00:47:07,840 --> 00:47:10,960
and so we strike up the conversation
and it's obviously have an accent,

785
00:47:12,239 --> 00:47:14,480
and my wife says, well,
where are you from? And the people

786
00:47:14,599 --> 00:47:19,920
go pith and she goes what he
goes Pith and I'm like, she's like,

787
00:47:20,159 --> 00:47:21,719
look at me, going what is
he saying. I'm like, they're

788
00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:24,320
from Australia. He's from austral So
I don't know that they all called it

789
00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:28,800
pith. But that's that's where the
fight will be. And you're just making

790
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:30,880
me laugh. Maybe I'm punchy right
now, but that's what it looks like.

791
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:36,000
And how soon, how soon the
fight's going to take place. It'll

792
00:47:36,039 --> 00:47:38,920
be May twelfth in Perth, will
be heah, yeah, okay, I

793
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:42,760
don't ever need to hear that again. Thank you. I'm doing all of

794
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,599
our listeners a favor. We're gonna
lose listeners if you do that again.

795
00:47:45,679 --> 00:47:47,960
Yeah, okay, So May twelfth, Perth in the even the evening,

796
00:47:49,039 --> 00:47:52,079
like day after my anniversary, by
the way, that's okay, go ahead,

797
00:47:52,159 --> 00:47:54,840
Yeah, and the night of May
eleventh on ESPN on an ESPN you

798
00:47:54,880 --> 00:47:58,599
know, on ESPN platforms here in
the United States. So you know,

799
00:47:58,639 --> 00:48:02,039
they're fighting for the vacant ibf idol
and Cambosis is obviously going to be home

800
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,000
relatively speaking, he doesn't. He's
not from that city, but he's from

801
00:48:06,039 --> 00:48:07,480
the opposite side of the country.
But obviously they're going to be room for

802
00:48:07,519 --> 00:48:12,880
him because he's the Australian fighter and
Lomachenko has got no problem traveling. And

803
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:15,880
so I think most people look at
this and say, you know, Cambosis

804
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:19,360
is still living on the one big
win against Lopez, and you know,

805
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,199
Lomachenko put up a great fight against
Haney, was super close and he probably

806
00:48:22,199 --> 00:48:28,719
would win the fight. But you
never know one thing fundamentally in your experience

807
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:32,119
and from what you've seen, what
do we think Lomachenko has left, Because

808
00:48:32,119 --> 00:48:35,719
that's a question. I think he's
got. I think he's I don't say

809
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:37,440
he's got a lot left, but
he definitely has got something left. You

810
00:48:37,519 --> 00:48:42,079
don't do that kind of number with
Devin Haney, a fighter in his prime

811
00:48:42,199 --> 00:48:44,920
like that where a lot of people
walk away thinking you won the fight clearly,

812
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:47,960
and you know he's still a Lomachenko
is still a really good fighter.

813
00:48:49,199 --> 00:48:53,519
But he was so supernatural, so
matrix like when he was at his best

814
00:48:54,159 --> 00:48:59,440
that if that was when he was
at one hundred percent, the Lomachenko at

815
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:01,840
you know, eighty percent is still
one of the best fighters in boxing.

816
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:06,519
So he may not be where he
was when he was, you know,

817
00:49:06,679 --> 00:49:09,920
making everybody quit and doing shit I
never saw before, but he's still really

818
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:15,760
outstanding just on muscle memory and on
just the experience that he has and all

819
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:17,280
those things. He's still a really, really good fighter. You know,

820
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:22,079
he's had injuries that have cost him
some problems over the years with his shoulder

821
00:49:22,119 --> 00:49:24,880
and such. But if he's healthy
and I know he's motivated to win another

822
00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:29,679
belt, that you know he's going
to be going to win another title.

823
00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:34,639
I mean, one thing about about
Lomachenko, he's never been a fighter driven

824
00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,519
by the money. The money comes, of course when you get to that

825
00:49:37,599 --> 00:49:39,320
level and He's made a lot of
it, but that's never been the driving

826
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:44,159
force behind his career. He has
said from day one, I want to

827
00:49:44,199 --> 00:49:46,440
win as many titles and as many
divisions as I can, and this is

828
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:50,760
a chance for him to get another
belt in the IBF lightweight title. And

829
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:52,400
so that's that's the fight that will
happen. And you know, again,

830
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:57,599
you know in that way class,
they're two of the better guys out there.

831
00:49:57,639 --> 00:49:59,400
I mean, like I said,
kim Bosa is living a little bit

832
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:01,400
on the one big that's where Homa
Tanko was a future Hall of Famer and

833
00:50:02,039 --> 00:50:06,159
he's you know, God gloves will
travel to his opponent's home country, so

834
00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:09,320
good for him. Nostalgia time.
All right, So we're going a little

835
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:14,880
bit back during last week as we
released this weekend twenty years ago Wednesday,

836
00:50:15,199 --> 00:50:20,800
twenty years ago, two thousand and
four. Arturrol Gotti, gian Luca Bronco,

837
00:50:21,960 --> 00:50:25,119
you describe it as a very underrated
fight. You were there for this

838
00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:30,079
one. Okay, give me more
because this is your favorite fighter. Give

839
00:50:30,119 --> 00:50:31,599
me more about this fight from twenty
years ago. Yeah, I mean,

840
00:50:31,639 --> 00:50:35,400
like you know, everybody knows who
listens watches or you know, has read

841
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:37,840
me knows Daddy's my all time favorite
fighter, and this was a special fight

842
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:43,639
for him because this is his first
fight post the Mickey War trilogy. So

843
00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:46,199
he had seen Mickey three consecutive fights. They did thirty brutal rounds together.

844
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:50,960
Mickey lost won the first fight,
Daddy won the second. Two fights,

845
00:50:51,320 --> 00:50:54,440
Fight number one fight number three were
considered the fight of the year by most

846
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:57,719
people in two thousand and two,
and then in two thousand and three.

847
00:50:58,079 --> 00:51:00,239
Second fight at the end of Tonio
and two also a very good fight,

848
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:04,840
not a fight of the year type
candidate, but they had they had made

849
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,719
legends of themselves based on that trilogy
and when that was over with and he

850
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:10,679
had emerged as the as the winner
of the second and the third fights.

851
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:15,519
You know, his marching orders to
his team that made events and his management

852
00:51:15,599 --> 00:51:17,119
Pat Lynch, can you guys get
me a title fight. I want to

853
00:51:17,159 --> 00:51:20,400
be a champion again. He had
already been a champion at one hundred and

854
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:22,880
thirty pounds and was a matter of
can he get another one. He was

855
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:25,159
highly ranked by the WBC and was
in position. Bronco was the next guy,

856
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,639
you know, an undefeated fighter at
that time from Italy. You know

857
00:51:29,679 --> 00:51:31,679
who'd made also a series of entertaining
fights, although not on that top,

858
00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:35,280
top level, and they were able
to make the fight. They brought it

859
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:37,840
to Atlantic City, which is where
Gaddy was the most popular and had all

860
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:39,400
of his fans, and you know, they put on a hell of a

861
00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:43,199
fight. Now, was it a
fight that was on the level of of

862
00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:45,840
the Mickey Ward fights or of some
of the other all time great fights that

863
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:52,000
Artaro had against the likes of Ivan
Robinson and Gabriel Ruellis and those types of

864
00:51:52,039 --> 00:51:53,360
fights. No, but it was
a really good fight. As a matter

865
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:57,360
of fact. You know, a
couple of years ago, the Ring magazine,

866
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:00,719
when they were still publishing their their
print copies, they did an a

867
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:05,840
magazine issue about the about Gaddy and
Ward, and I wrote a story for

868
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:08,280
that piece, or for the piece
for that issue, and my my assignment

869
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:14,119
for the for the issue was write
a piece about the five best Gaddy fights

870
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:17,639
that were not against Mickey Ward.
And my number five on that list was

871
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:21,880
the Bronco fight. So that tells
you that he had a lot of great

872
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:23,960
fights besides the Mickey fights, and
Bronco was one of them. It was

873
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:29,000
a really good, uh entertaining fight, he won a decision, he got

874
00:52:29,079 --> 00:52:31,199
the second world title. It was
like a celebration there in Boardwalk Hall.

875
00:52:31,239 --> 00:52:34,639
And what I always remember about it
more even I want to say, more

876
00:52:34,679 --> 00:52:39,519
than the fight itself, but the
the the crowd went absolutely fucking crazy because

877
00:52:39,519 --> 00:52:43,159
when when he came to the ring, remember he had just come off the

878
00:52:43,199 --> 00:52:47,199
trilogy with Mickey, and Mickey Ward
walked him to the ring. How about

879
00:52:47,199 --> 00:52:51,280
that? And he was side by
side, So you got Gotti being walked

880
00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:53,480
to the ring by his great rival
and now best friend Mickey Ward. And

881
00:52:53,559 --> 00:52:58,440
who else was there with them?
Walking in the ever popular, super famous

882
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:04,519
beloved nast car driver Dale earn Hard
Junior, who was a ar tur Gotti

883
00:53:04,559 --> 00:53:07,400
fan. I do remember watch he
would watch ar Turio Gott he fights to

884
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:13,159
get himself pumped up for race day. About did you have as best you

885
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:15,159
recollect did you have any idea that
was going to happen in advance? Or

886
00:53:15,159 --> 00:53:19,239
were you shocked along with everybody else
when that that's who came out for the

887
00:53:19,320 --> 00:53:21,440
ring walk? Well, I knew
that that was I knew that that was

888
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:23,119
what was happening. I knew he
was walking ring and I knew that Dell

889
00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:25,880
was there with him. Wow.
But the crowd, I mean, the

890
00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:30,159
crowd obviously didn't know that top as
it's known. The pop from the crowd

891
00:53:30,280 --> 00:53:35,480
was something else. It was pretty
remarkable, uh to to to uh you

892
00:53:35,559 --> 00:53:37,360
know, to see the way that
they reacted when they walked into the ring

893
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:42,320
together. That was pretty special.
But it was a great night. And

894
00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:43,920
uh, you know, as a
Gotty fan, you know, I don't

895
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:45,519
root for fights. Even when Gotty
was fighting Mayweather, like I knew he

896
00:53:45,599 --> 00:53:49,039
was gonna lose, and I mean
I wasn't like, you know, crying

897
00:53:49,159 --> 00:53:51,840
or you know, you know,
you're a professional about it. But when

898
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:52,679
it was over with, you know, I was really happy that Gotty won.

899
00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:54,599
I knew how important it was to
him to get another title, and

900
00:53:54,639 --> 00:53:58,320
it was important to his team,
and you know, he deserved it.

901
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:01,599
He won the fight clean against a
good opponent, and then went on and

902
00:54:01,639 --> 00:54:06,760
made some title defenses. Made two
title defenses, had a Spiccacua knock out

903
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:10,199
against Leonard Dereen, who was an
undefeated former lightweight champion. Had another knockout

904
00:54:10,199 --> 00:54:14,159
against the old veteran James Laahu.
You know, had given a lot of

905
00:54:14,199 --> 00:54:15,280
guys a lot of good fights over
the years, and that was you know,

906
00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:19,320
then came to Mayweather fighting. That
was pretty much all she wrote,

907
00:54:20,159 --> 00:54:22,880
all right, Also on that same
day, now five years later in the

908
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:28,000
chronology back on Wednesday, January twenty
fourth, two thousand and nine, Sugar

909
00:54:28,119 --> 00:54:35,639
Shane Mosley Antonio Margarito not just a
Moseley win, but massive controversy as well

910
00:54:36,159 --> 00:54:38,360
from that night. And you were
right there this having to do with Margarito,

911
00:54:39,039 --> 00:54:45,800
and as best I recall, it
was like the tape and a plaster

912
00:54:45,079 --> 00:54:49,840
like substance or what was it that
it was almost like tape fists within the

913
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:52,840
gloves. And you were there for
all this, and that was fifteen I

914
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:54,679
don't want to accept that was fifteen
years ago. That was fifteen years ago,

915
00:54:55,079 --> 00:54:58,719
two thousand and nine. Tell me
more about that night. The way

916
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:02,079
that it was portray was that Margarito
had hand wraps that were coated with a

917
00:55:02,199 --> 00:55:06,679
plaster like substance, which as the
fight would go on and as you would

918
00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:10,639
sweat, it would get wetter and
ultimately become hardened as the fight went on.

919
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:16,639
Now I was ringside with all the
other media guys and the undercards happening,

920
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:22,119
and this is so vivid to me. I can still remember everything about

921
00:55:22,119 --> 00:55:23,559
it because it was so shocking.
I mean, I had covered a ton

922
00:55:23,599 --> 00:55:28,239
of fights, but this was,
you know, it's, as I've quoted

923
00:55:28,280 --> 00:55:30,760
many times my dear friend Larry Merchant, boxing is the theater of the unexpected,

924
00:55:31,159 --> 00:55:34,320
and so never in a million years
would you think this was going to

925
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:37,239
happen. So we're sitting there waiting
for them to, you know, begin

926
00:55:37,320 --> 00:55:38,559
the ring walks, and it's you
know, that ten minutes between the end

927
00:55:38,559 --> 00:55:43,159
of the undercard and the beginning of
the main event, and we get a

928
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:47,039
word at ringside from we were told
by one of the I don't remember it

929
00:55:47,119 --> 00:55:51,639
was an HBO public relations person or
somebody there that was in the know,

930
00:55:51,920 --> 00:55:54,119
was like, hey, we're having
a little bit of a delay because they

931
00:55:54,239 --> 00:55:58,880
have to rewrap Margarito's hands. And
we're like, okay, well, what's

932
00:55:58,920 --> 00:56:00,760
that all about that? I mean, that's happened before. It's not totally

933
00:56:00,840 --> 00:56:06,079
out of the realm. I've seen
that happen before. But then, because

934
00:56:06,159 --> 00:56:08,360
Guy and Early, speaking for those
that may not be completely familiar, explain

935
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:13,960
what typically goes on in the hand
wrap process with member of the other camp

936
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:17,440
commission, explain that. So,
yeah, so there's always another person to

937
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:23,440
be on behalf of the opposing corner
or the opposing fighter to watch and make

938
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:28,039
sure they do the wraps in an
appropriate manner. They're obviously being also watched

939
00:56:28,079 --> 00:56:32,119
by a by a inspector and the
commission members are there, but you know,

940
00:56:32,239 --> 00:56:36,480
as the opposing team, you're allowed
to watch also it's only fair.

941
00:56:36,519 --> 00:56:39,400
And so there was somebody from the
Margarito team watching Shane's hands get wrapped.

942
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:45,239
In Nazene Richardson, who was the
late trainer at that time for Sugar Shane

943
00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:46,960
Moseley, was in the dressing room
watching Margarito have his hands wrapped and he

944
00:56:47,039 --> 00:56:51,480
did not like something that he saw, and he asked the commission to check,

945
00:56:51,519 --> 00:56:53,960
and they did and they found this
like coded pad in the hand wrap

946
00:56:54,199 --> 00:56:58,199
and they made Margarito cut the wrap
off, and then they cut the other

947
00:56:58,239 --> 00:57:00,760
one off and they found these illegal
pads in both of the gloves or in

948
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:06,159
the hand wraps, and they made
them rewrap and unknown to us at the

949
00:57:06,159 --> 00:57:07,039
time, we didn't know what was
going we knew they're being a rewrapped.

950
00:57:07,079 --> 00:57:12,480
Now while that process was playing out, we had we uh not I shouldn't

951
00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:15,599
even say we, I spoke,
I knew somebody that was in the dressing

952
00:57:15,639 --> 00:57:20,639
room and was getting word from the
person in the dressing room what was happening

953
00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:24,079
that they were found this substance in
the gloves. Now that then then it

954
00:57:24,159 --> 00:57:27,280
trickled out to other people also,
so we were all sort of like,

955
00:57:27,360 --> 00:57:30,960
Okay, this is crazy. So
I can remember sitting there writing like as

956
00:57:31,119 --> 00:57:35,280
best as I could of what I
knew at the time, a short news

957
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:39,079
story for ESPN dot com and trying
to gather as much information as possible of

958
00:57:39,119 --> 00:57:43,159
what was happening, because it was
highly unusual, not that hand wraps would

959
00:57:43,159 --> 00:57:45,880
be hand wraps would be cut off, in the hand would be rewrapped,

960
00:57:45,000 --> 00:57:49,079
but the reason why, you know, with an illegal substance in the in

961
00:57:49,159 --> 00:57:52,199
the glove or in the pad.
And so I remember filing that, getting

962
00:57:52,239 --> 00:57:54,920
that, and this is all while
the while the ring walks are happening and

963
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:59,639
the introductions are happening, and I'm
pounding my story and literally hit the send

964
00:57:59,719 --> 00:58:02,480
button and like within ten seconds they
ring the first bell to start to fight,

965
00:58:04,159 --> 00:58:07,280
and I'm like, you know,
you're kind of was there just interjet

966
00:58:07,320 --> 00:58:08,639
and I don't remember this. Was
there ever some question as to whether the

967
00:58:08,679 --> 00:58:13,679
fight wasn't gonna happen because of what
they found and the fact there was suspicion

968
00:58:13,719 --> 00:58:15,480
that it was illegal. What do
you remember, to my recollection, there

969
00:58:15,559 --> 00:58:19,239
was never the thought the fight's going
to be canceled. The fight was was

970
00:58:19,239 --> 00:58:22,559
gonna go on and they were gonna
rewrap the hands and move on with everything.

971
00:58:22,599 --> 00:58:24,599
There was too much at stake,
too much money. The fans are

972
00:58:24,639 --> 00:58:28,719
there, the TV's on, everybody's
there. You'd had the undercard. As

973
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:30,679
long as he's clean and it's not
illegal, there's no reason why it shouldn't

974
00:58:30,679 --> 00:58:35,199
happen. So the fight ultimately went
on, and you know, I'm glad

975
00:58:35,239 --> 00:58:37,239
that Nazine Richardson, who was a
great boxing person and a great trainer and

976
00:58:37,280 --> 00:58:40,119
a great man, was there to
make sure that it was done the right

977
00:58:40,159 --> 00:58:44,079
way, because I'm a little disappointed
that the commission didn't catch that. Now.

978
00:58:44,519 --> 00:58:47,159
Because that happened, it led to
the belief by many, myself included

979
00:58:47,199 --> 00:58:50,840
that, as I've said before,
if you get caught doing something, it's

980
00:58:50,880 --> 00:58:52,960
probably not the first time he did
it, and so a lot of people

981
00:58:52,039 --> 00:58:55,760
thought, myself included that he was
dirty for the Codo fight, which was

982
00:58:55,800 --> 00:58:59,719
his previous fight when he won that
title and knock Miguel out. If you

983
00:58:59,719 --> 00:59:02,840
saw the way Miguel's face got disfigured
over the course of that fight, that

984
00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:07,679
he had some a little extra help
in his gloves on that night. And

985
00:59:07,719 --> 00:59:10,239
I will go to my grave believing
that he cheated in that fight and that

986
00:59:10,280 --> 00:59:15,039
the NATA commission officials and the inspectors
missed that in Vegas, because they almost

987
00:59:15,079 --> 00:59:17,559
missed it in California had it not
been for the keen eyes of the Great

988
00:59:17,639 --> 00:59:23,000
Nauseine Richardson. However, once the
fight started, it was as satisfying as

989
00:59:23,079 --> 00:59:27,920
a fight as you could watch.
You know, when you hear that the

990
00:59:28,239 --> 00:59:30,639
guy tried to go into the ring
and cheat, I mean, I know

991
00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:34,280
that people say, well, steroids
is cheating and peds are cheating and things

992
00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:37,280
like that, and that's true,
and there's no doubt about it. There's

993
00:59:37,320 --> 00:59:43,519
something a little more caveman like,
a little more barbaric if you put it

994
00:59:43,599 --> 00:59:46,440
in your gloves. I'm not excusing
the other stuff, but that's just real

995
00:59:46,559 --> 00:59:51,800
base. If you put something in
your gloves to intentionally try to have a

996
00:59:52,719 --> 00:59:55,039
you know, an advantage over your
opponent. Again, I'm not excusing peds.

997
00:59:55,079 --> 01:00:00,440
There's something criminal about it. By
the way, Yeah, so to

998
01:00:00,599 --> 01:00:07,480
watch Shane, who was considered past
his prime and was a big underdog to

999
01:00:07,599 --> 01:00:09,360
go in there. And by the
way, let me say this was that

1000
01:00:09,440 --> 01:00:14,960
Staples Center. They drew a crowd
that night of over twenty thousand fans to

1001
01:00:15,079 --> 01:00:17,599
that arena. It was not just
the biggest boxing event that they'd ever held

1002
01:00:17,639 --> 01:00:21,840
there in terms of the number of
people, it was the biggest event period

1003
01:00:22,119 --> 01:00:23,599
that they And I don't know if
the record was ever broken, but at

1004
01:00:23,639 --> 01:00:27,719
the time that this fight happened in
two thousand and nine, it was.

1005
01:00:27,880 --> 01:00:31,119
And Staple Center opened I believe in
two thousand or maybe nineteen ninety nine right

1006
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:35,039
around there. So in about ten
years at the building had opened home to

1007
01:00:35,119 --> 01:00:38,119
the Lakers and you know, the
NHL and any number of major concerts and

1008
01:00:38,199 --> 01:00:43,039
other boxing events, et cetera.
This was the largest crowd they ever had

1009
01:00:43,079 --> 01:00:45,760
in the building period for boxing or
anything else. That's how big of a

1010
01:00:45,840 --> 01:00:49,039
deal this was. Shane was a
local fighter from the La area. Margarito

1011
01:00:49,119 --> 01:00:52,199
was a very popular Mexican fighter,
and the two you know, communities came

1012
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:55,760
together for a big time, big
time event live on HBO, not on

1013
01:00:55,880 --> 01:01:00,000
pay per view. And it was, as you know, star studed kind

1014
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:06,960
of crowd there and Hollywood and everything, and Shane Mosley laid an absolute beating

1015
01:01:07,039 --> 01:01:10,039
on Antonio Margarito. I mean,
a down home ass weapon, as they

1016
01:01:10,119 --> 01:01:15,280
might say. You know, I
always remember the line from The Great Trainer

1017
01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:20,159
Tommy Brooks and the HBO Legendary Night
Series when he was talking about the Mike

1018
01:01:20,239 --> 01:01:23,599
Tyson against Lennox Lewis fight. I
think it was that fight. Maybe it

1019
01:01:23,679 --> 01:01:27,599
was Buster Douglas against Mike Tyson,
whatever it was, He goes, it

1020
01:01:27,719 --> 01:01:30,639
was such a bad beating, it
was Grandma's leesol. Couldn't clean that one

1021
01:01:30,719 --> 01:01:32,800
up. Yeah, there you go. So Moley just absolutely beat the living

1022
01:01:32,840 --> 01:01:36,280
shit out of him, knocked him
out in the ninth round. Uh.

1023
01:01:36,679 --> 01:01:39,280
And it was very satisfying to know
that he cheated and watch him take an

1024
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:44,000
episoute ass kicking. And I have
referred to him purposely since an as Antonio

1025
01:01:44,079 --> 01:01:49,840
Margachito ever since that occurred. And
ultimately, what was the suspension wasn't it

1026
01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:52,400
a year or well? How long
was the suspension when they discovered what they

1027
01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:53,920
did? What do you recalling?
What did you report? He became a

1028
01:01:54,000 --> 01:02:00,360
pariah. He and his trainer Javier
Capatillo. Now Margarito claimed he didn't know

1029
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:04,000
anything about it and that it was
captain if I'm just saying that was his

1030
01:02:04,079 --> 01:02:08,480
flame and the Commission, and this
is my quarrel with the WBC when it

1031
01:02:08,519 --> 01:02:14,840
comes to their drug testing situation.
They don't play by the rules of strict

1032
01:02:14,920 --> 01:02:19,559
liability. And I learned about this
concept from this case. I reported extensively

1033
01:02:19,599 --> 01:02:23,719
on Margarito and the hand wrapping scandal. The principle of strict liability. And

1034
01:02:23,800 --> 01:02:27,440
this is how the Commission. Remember
listening to the Commission meeting and hearing this

1035
01:02:27,559 --> 01:02:31,280
and talking to the executives at the
Commission when this was all happening. You

1036
01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:37,320
are the captain of your ship.
How that stuff got in your gloves is

1037
01:02:37,400 --> 01:02:39,760
not relevant. It's that it was
there and you're responsible. And the same

1038
01:02:40,199 --> 01:02:45,599
concept would be if you find a
ped in or system, how it got

1039
01:02:45,679 --> 01:02:49,079
there on purpose, by accident,
somebody gave it to you, somebody ran

1040
01:02:49,119 --> 01:02:51,239
into your room in the middle of
the line and jam that syringed down your

1041
01:02:51,280 --> 01:02:53,239
throat, doesn't matter. It's that
it was in your system and you are

1042
01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:58,239
responsible. So the fact that the
gloves had the shit in them, it

1043
01:02:58,400 --> 01:03:02,079
was the responsibility of Antonio margot and
ultimately what the commission did was the suspension

1044
01:03:02,159 --> 01:03:07,400
is one thing. They revoked the
license of both Capitillo the cornerman and Margerito

1045
01:03:07,440 --> 01:03:10,320
the fighter. He ended up not
fighting for I believe it was about sixteen

1046
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:14,599
eighteen months something like that. He
ultimately came back and won a few fights,

1047
01:03:14,639 --> 01:03:16,880
but you know, was never thought
of the way he was previously.

1048
01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:22,639
He did get one more big fight
against Miguel Coto, who exacted revenge by

1049
01:03:22,760 --> 01:03:23,840
beating up his eye, and he
also got the pac Yo fight, so

1050
01:03:23,920 --> 01:03:27,920
he did get some bigger fights,
but you know, he kind of petered

1051
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:31,440
out after that whole situation. And
you know, I'm glad that that happened,

1052
01:03:31,480 --> 01:03:36,119
because you know, I was always
a fan of Margareta to watch him.

1053
01:03:36,119 --> 01:03:39,039
He made tremendous fights. But to
purposely do that, which I don't

1054
01:03:39,079 --> 01:03:42,760
believe for a moment that it was
an accident, you're a piece of shit.

1055
01:03:43,199 --> 01:03:45,400
Kermit's intron thinks he did it against
him, Miguel Coto thinks he did

1056
01:03:45,440 --> 01:03:50,079
it against him. I agree.
There's probably others that suffered his knockout wrath

1057
01:03:50,719 --> 01:03:52,719
that he probably cheated against because these
were not like, you know, this

1058
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:54,679
is not something you would just do
on a lark. I mean, you

1059
01:03:54,679 --> 01:03:57,719
would be doing that over the course
of time, it seems to me.

1060
01:03:58,159 --> 01:04:00,840
And Capitilla has never been you know, as far as I can recall,

1061
01:04:01,079 --> 01:04:04,440
in a big time corner since then. And you know, good he's a

1062
01:04:04,480 --> 01:04:09,440
piece of shit also for doing that, because again you're talking about and I

1063
01:04:09,599 --> 01:04:12,960
love the point that you can talk
about cheating in a game with a ped

1064
01:04:13,159 --> 01:04:16,719
to hit a home run, or
cheating in a game somehow, you know,

1065
01:04:17,199 --> 01:04:19,880
paying off an official to look the
other way on a foul call.

1066
01:04:19,960 --> 01:04:26,119
In basketball, This is somebody smashing
somebody's face, So I know, you

1067
01:04:26,280 --> 01:04:30,480
know, that's that's a different level. That's a whole different level on that

1068
01:04:30,599 --> 01:04:33,199
one. More nostalgia. And it's
interesting it was right around the same date,

1069
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:36,119
but not on the same date.
So as we released the podcast twenty

1070
01:04:36,159 --> 01:04:43,480
two years ago, January twenty sixth
Friday, Vernon Forrest defeats Shane Moseley,

1071
01:04:44,800 --> 01:04:47,480
and that was twenty two years ago, and you were there, and that

1072
01:04:47,599 --> 01:04:49,920
was very early in your career.
You were there for that upset, one

1073
01:04:49,920 --> 01:04:56,039
of the signature moments for Vernon Forrest's
career, right one of the signists and

1074
01:04:56,079 --> 01:04:58,519
not in one of the signaure moments
of his career, was we signature would

1075
01:04:58,519 --> 01:05:01,480
be the question at it? I
mean that was a big time fight.

1076
01:05:01,519 --> 01:05:03,880
Now it should have been a unification
fight by all rights. I mean,

1077
01:05:04,519 --> 01:05:09,599
Vernon Forrest was the IBF champion,
Shane Mosey was the WBC champion. But

1078
01:05:09,760 --> 01:05:13,000
what happens a lot of times in
boxing is the IBF does IBF things,

1079
01:05:13,599 --> 01:05:15,320
and they were not going to allow
him to have an exception and they were

1080
01:05:15,360 --> 01:05:18,400
going to force a mandatory. I
don't remember who was against it was uh

1081
01:05:18,679 --> 01:05:24,079
to n. I want to say, was it like Michelle Picarillo or something

1082
01:05:24,159 --> 01:05:26,960
like that, maybe from Italy?
I forget, I've heard you. If

1083
01:05:27,000 --> 01:05:29,320
you say so, I'm going with
you, Okay, I can keep wrong

1084
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:30,480
on that. It was something somebody
like that. That was going to be

1085
01:05:30,960 --> 01:05:33,920
a fight that would bring him,
you know, five cents on the dollar

1086
01:05:34,000 --> 01:05:38,360
if that compared to what he could
make for fighting against Sugar Shane Mosey,

1087
01:05:38,360 --> 01:05:41,320
who was the golden you know child
at that time. He was the pound

1088
01:05:41,360 --> 01:05:44,239
for pound number one. He had
a big HBO contract. It was a

1089
01:05:44,719 --> 01:05:47,079
it was a rematch of a famed
rivalry in the amateurs. It was Vernon

1090
01:05:47,159 --> 01:05:51,760
Forrest that upset Shane in the amateurs
at the Olympics trials to keep him from

1091
01:05:51,840 --> 01:05:57,000
going to to the Olympics in nineteen
ninety two, and so there was a

1092
01:05:57,039 --> 01:06:00,039
lot of heat in that fight.
That was a very anticipated fight. So

1093
01:06:00,079 --> 01:06:02,639
instead of a unification fight, it
just turned out to be for Shane's WBC

1094
01:06:02,760 --> 01:06:04,519
title. But you know, in
the end, it was a huge fight

1095
01:06:04,599 --> 01:06:08,559
for Vernon. It was the signature
moment. Now he did beat Shane in

1096
01:06:08,599 --> 01:06:12,559
an India rematch, but the first
fight, Shane is thirty three and oh

1097
01:06:13,079 --> 01:06:15,599
Vernon was undefeated. Also, he
was the pound for pound king. Remember

1098
01:06:15,639 --> 01:06:19,519
he's two fights three fights removed from
his win over Oscar de la Hoya.

1099
01:06:19,639 --> 01:06:23,719
That was what put him at that
lofty position. He had been, you

1100
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:27,000
know, knocking guys out, not
great fighters. But he had blitzed Antonio

1101
01:06:27,119 --> 01:06:30,320
Diaz, he had blitzed Shannon Taylor, was undefeated Australian contender, he had

1102
01:06:30,400 --> 01:06:34,039
knocked out Adrian Stone in a devastating
fashion, and now he set up to

1103
01:06:34,039 --> 01:06:38,519
fight Vernon, big big rematch of
the amateur rival. He's pound for pound

1104
01:06:38,559 --> 01:06:42,800
number one and Vernon I can never
forget this now. Vernon, you know,

1105
01:06:43,039 --> 01:06:45,800
was tall and was long and was
a pretty good punch at a great

1106
01:06:45,840 --> 01:06:49,880
jab but not nearly as fast as
sugar Shane Mosey. And he said repeatedly,

1107
01:06:49,960 --> 01:06:54,599
I can still hear it in my
in my mind doing interviews with him,

1108
01:06:54,639 --> 01:06:58,440
and hear in his comments jab beat
speed, you know, jab beat

1109
01:06:58,519 --> 01:07:00,519
speed, jab beat speed, and
you know what, the jet beat the

1110
01:07:00,519 --> 01:07:02,559
speed. That night, he believe
he laid a beating on Shane Mosey.

1111
01:07:02,639 --> 01:07:05,280
That was the You know, Shane
was an untouchable guy. He had never

1112
01:07:05,360 --> 01:07:08,719
been in a tough fight at that
point, even though he other than the

1113
01:07:08,760 --> 01:07:12,239
delawaya one fight that he had won. And here you have him fighting in

1114
01:07:12,599 --> 01:07:15,719
front of a sold out crowd at
the Madison Square Garden Theater. And in

1115
01:07:16,760 --> 01:07:21,480
that fight when he knocked Shane down
in like round four, maybe I forget

1116
01:07:21,559 --> 01:07:26,960
the exact round, It was the
whole entire crowd at the exact same time.

1117
01:07:27,039 --> 01:07:30,440
You could just hear them gasp at
the exact moment, like all in

1118
01:07:30,599 --> 01:07:33,679
Unison, you know, five thousand
people. It was round two and the

1119
01:07:33,719 --> 01:07:36,920
whole crowd was like at the exact
same time, and he ended up dropping

1120
01:07:36,960 --> 01:07:40,760
him twice in that round, and
somehow, some way, Shane, who

1121
01:07:40,800 --> 01:07:43,320
always had, you know, a
huge heart, was able to muster,

1122
01:07:44,199 --> 01:07:45,440
you know, the ability to carry
on. And I still remember this.

1123
01:07:45,519 --> 01:07:48,639
Also, you don't see it on
the broadcast, but from my vantage point

1124
01:07:48,639 --> 01:07:53,840
where I was seated in the media
section, we were sort of closer to

1125
01:07:54,119 --> 01:07:57,440
Shane's corner. And again it doesn't
show up on the broadcast, but when

1126
01:07:57,519 --> 01:08:00,599
he got dropped the second time,
Back Moseley, who was Shane's trainer,

1127
01:08:00,719 --> 01:08:03,840
came up to the top step with
the towel was going to throw in the

1128
01:08:03,920 --> 01:08:06,639
towel to stop that fight. I
don't remember it was after the knockdowns,

1129
01:08:06,639 --> 01:08:10,280
it was later in the fight when
he was taking punishment. But the bottom

1130
01:08:10,320 --> 01:08:13,440
line, at some point in that
fight, Jack Mosey got up on the

1131
01:08:13,960 --> 01:08:16,520
ring step with the towel and was
about to throw in the towel, and

1132
01:08:17,079 --> 01:08:21,199
cash Is Green, who was Sugar
Shane's cut man. Literally he yanked him

1133
01:08:21,319 --> 01:08:25,399
by the back of his jacket and
pulled him off the steps to keep him

1134
01:08:25,479 --> 01:08:27,800
throwing in the towel. And the
fight carried on and Shane you know,

1135
01:08:27,920 --> 01:08:31,079
made it to the final bell and
lost the unanimous decision and then ended up

1136
01:08:31,119 --> 01:08:34,720
losing again in the rematch, but
that was such a at that time.

1137
01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:40,560
Again, you mentioned this is two
thousand and you know what was it years?

1138
01:08:40,640 --> 01:08:43,760
Yeah, it's you know, it's
sixteen months or so into my tenure

1139
01:08:43,800 --> 01:08:46,560
as the USA today box Ridder,
I'm still you know, rookie ish if

1140
01:08:46,600 --> 01:08:49,560
you will. That was like the
big upset that I saw at that time.

1141
01:08:49,600 --> 01:08:53,520
That was like a shocker, Like
everybody thought, Sugar Shane is going

1142
01:08:53,600 --> 01:08:56,960
to get the revenge for the amateur
loss, and Vernon he thought the fight

1143
01:08:57,039 --> 01:08:59,520
of his life that night the late
Vernon Forest. And that's why we love

1144
01:08:59,560 --> 01:09:02,199
boxing. It is really expected.
And when you thing about that, big

1145
01:09:02,239 --> 01:09:08,199
time fights and big time upsets and
results. One other thing about that particular

1146
01:09:08,680 --> 01:09:13,760
about that card was on the undercard
was the return of Artaro Gaddy, who

1147
01:09:13,800 --> 01:09:15,640
had been beaten by Oscar de la
Hoya and a lot of people thought his

1148
01:09:15,720 --> 01:09:19,079
career was over after the Delie fight
that was supposed to be his golden parachute

1149
01:09:19,399 --> 01:09:23,479
kind of fight, but he decided
to go on and they matched him up

1150
01:09:23,479 --> 01:09:27,840
with the former junior walterweight champion Tron
Mallett on the undercart and Gaddy came back

1151
01:09:27,880 --> 01:09:30,079
and got a fourth round knockout to
resuscitate his career, which led to the

1152
01:09:30,159 --> 01:09:33,880
Mickey Ward fight. My memory.
We talked about this with my situation with

1153
01:09:33,960 --> 01:09:38,560
Buddy McGirt about telling you the story
about the blood. So this was the

1154
01:09:38,600 --> 01:09:41,039
fight where I met him in the
lobby of the hotel the week of the

1155
01:09:41,079 --> 01:09:45,520
fight against Mallett to tell him the
story about why I cover boxing, And

1156
01:09:45,560 --> 01:09:48,840
they can listen to that on the
previous podcast, the notebook from a McGirt

1157
01:09:48,960 --> 01:09:53,520
fight. But that meeting between me
and Buddy where I told him indulge me

1158
01:09:53,560 --> 01:09:57,199
and let me tell you this story
happened about two or three days before this

1159
01:09:57,319 --> 01:10:00,600
fight with Arturo and Toronto Lett on
the under part of that Sugar Shane fight

1160
01:10:00,640 --> 01:10:03,840
that we're talking about against Vernon Forest. I looked out and you just connected

1161
01:10:04,000 --> 01:10:09,479
like a web, everything Gotti to
Moseley, to the Margarito controversy, to

1162
01:10:09,560 --> 01:10:13,520
Vernon Forest to Mosley and back to
Gotti being on the undercard. I mean,

1163
01:10:14,039 --> 01:10:15,439
I mean, I know I've been. I've been. I've been covering

1164
01:10:15,479 --> 01:10:18,439
fights for a long time, and
obviously I have a good knowledge of the

1165
01:10:18,479 --> 01:10:23,039
fights that before I covered boxing because
I watched off you know whatever, you

1166
01:10:23,079 --> 01:10:25,640
know from the way back days,
all the way to the time I covered

1167
01:10:25,640 --> 01:10:29,760
it. For me personally, the
most special time in boxing for me was

1168
01:10:29,880 --> 01:10:32,640
those early two thousands of fights where
we talk a lot about in the nostalgia

1169
01:10:32,680 --> 01:10:36,000
that are now around, you know, fifteen to twenty years old, maybe

1170
01:10:36,039 --> 01:10:40,640
a little bit more, because that
was in the infancy of my career as

1171
01:10:40,640 --> 01:10:43,159
a boxing writer. So so much
of it is so vivid to my mind

1172
01:10:43,199 --> 01:10:45,399
where I have a hard time maybe
telling you details from a fight I covered,

1173
01:10:45,680 --> 01:10:47,840
you know, six or eight months
ago, but I could tell you

1174
01:10:47,960 --> 01:10:50,520
chapter in reverse about shit that I
did in two thousand and one. Hey,

1175
01:10:50,560 --> 01:10:56,560
but there's one more byproduct from that
era that it is just lost now.

1176
01:10:56,720 --> 01:10:59,880
The fighters more active, they were
more known, and therefore their match

1177
01:11:00,079 --> 01:11:03,600
jops were more notable, and that's
where the bigger money was. And it

1178
01:11:03,720 --> 01:11:08,720
all went together. It all went
together, with no disrespect to any other

1179
01:11:08,800 --> 01:11:15,279
broadcaster, that was HBO, the
golden that was, That was the golden

1180
01:11:15,399 --> 01:11:19,920
age of that level of boxing.
They were the the you know, whatever

1181
01:11:19,920 --> 01:11:23,520
you want to call us, steel
you know, the New York Yankees,

1182
01:11:23,520 --> 01:11:25,640
however you want to describe it.
They were the top of the food chain

1183
01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:28,640
and there's plenty of other broadcasters that
have done a great job in covering the

1184
01:11:28,680 --> 01:11:31,359
sport, but when HBO did those
types of fights, it just felt like

1185
01:11:31,439 --> 01:11:35,119
a big event. Whether it was
because you heard the voice of Jim Lampley

1186
01:11:35,159 --> 01:11:39,880
and Larry Merchant and you know whoever
the analyst was, whether it was George

1187
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:44,880
Foreman or Emmanuel Stewart or you know, Bernard Hopkins, Jes whatever, Roy

1188
01:11:44,960 --> 01:11:48,239
Jones. Of course, uh,
the graphics, the music, the production

1189
01:11:48,479 --> 01:11:53,119
values, I mean everything about it
just fit perfectly. And they did so

1190
01:11:53,319 --> 01:11:56,279
many good fights at that time.
Now, not all of them. I

1191
01:11:56,319 --> 01:11:59,119
don't want to have rose colored glasses. They did a lot of ship fights

1192
01:11:59,159 --> 01:12:03,000
also, but they still made a
very strong, determined effort to give the

1193
01:12:03,119 --> 01:12:08,880
fans non pay per views of super
high level fights. Shane Mosey vernon Forrest

1194
01:12:08,920 --> 01:12:12,760
one and two are among those types
of fights, you know. Moseley versus

1195
01:12:12,840 --> 01:12:15,079
Margarito was one of those types of
fights. You know, we could talk

1196
01:12:15,119 --> 01:12:18,359
about those kinds of fights all day
long, and those were very special fights.

1197
01:12:19,159 --> 01:12:21,319
Well said, good way to wrap
it up. Okay, so we've

1198
01:12:21,359 --> 01:12:25,439
given you a ton, including all
the way back at the beginning of the

1199
01:12:25,479 --> 01:12:29,960
podcast, Himimongia John Ryder again,
we will make mention that will handicap that

1200
01:12:30,039 --> 01:12:33,720
fight some more. Come find us
on the bet Us Boxing Show some handicapping

1201
01:12:34,079 --> 01:12:38,600
of that one Eastern time Friday,
bet Us platforms, YouTube, Twitter,

1202
01:12:38,720 --> 01:12:42,239
Twitch, all the bet Us platforms. We will be there Friday, one

1203
01:12:42,279 --> 01:12:45,039
Eastern time. And as I always
like to say, whatever happens with that

1204
01:12:45,159 --> 01:12:48,520
fight card, we are back to
recap it off the weekend. And do

1205
01:12:48,640 --> 01:12:51,560
you want to share with them?
Do you want to tease them on who's

1206
01:12:51,560 --> 01:12:55,359
also going to be on the recap
podcast? Who you just spoke to?

1207
01:12:55,800 --> 01:12:57,880
Do we want to let the cat
out of the bag or no? Did

1208
01:12:57,920 --> 01:13:00,800
they just know we can talk about
find out? I guess. You know.

1209
01:13:00,239 --> 01:13:02,439
We'll talk about it between you and
me off the air, I guess,

1210
01:13:02,479 --> 01:13:05,079
but I'm not sure what order or
when exactly will run these. There's

1211
01:13:05,079 --> 01:13:10,079
some interesting names. Let's just tease
it this way. There's an interesting there's

1212
01:13:10,079 --> 01:13:13,560
an interesting world champion name. You
just talked to you, and we're gonna

1213
01:13:13,560 --> 01:13:15,119
play it for the audience for the
peeps, So I'll tell them. We've

1214
01:13:15,119 --> 01:13:18,479
got two interviews coming up that are
that are set to go. One which

1215
01:13:18,520 --> 01:13:23,399
I found to be very interesting.
Is the the promoter from the UK who

1216
01:13:23,560 --> 01:13:28,319
is head of the Boxer company that
has the broadcast contract with Sky and now

1217
01:13:28,439 --> 01:13:31,600
with Peacock in the United States.
That's Ben Shalom, and they've got some

1218
01:13:31,720 --> 01:13:35,680
good fights coming up. They were
just a promoter of the Natasha Jonas against

1219
01:13:36,000 --> 01:13:41,239
Mikaela Meyer fight that was an ESPN
fight because of Mayor's association with Top Rank.

1220
01:13:41,279 --> 01:13:45,760
But they've got a tremendous fight coming
up on Peacock and Sky in the

1221
01:13:45,880 --> 01:13:50,800
UK with the WBA light heavyweight eliminator
between Joshua Bowatzi and Dan Aziz, which

1222
01:13:50,840 --> 01:13:56,800
is a really good matchup, and
the future fights on those broadcast platforms,

1223
01:13:56,880 --> 01:14:00,960
Chris Bill and Smith coming in a
cruiserweight title events and other Anyways, had

1224
01:14:00,000 --> 01:14:04,319
a really interesting conversation with Ben about
his start in boxing. He's a young

1225
01:14:04,319 --> 01:14:06,560
guy, is only thirty years old, and he's, you know, among

1226
01:14:06,600 --> 01:14:11,000
the top three guys in the UK. It's really a three headed monster,

1227
01:14:11,119 --> 01:14:14,359
so to speak. You got mat
Room Boxing with their disowned deal, You've

1228
01:14:14,399 --> 01:14:20,920
got Frank Warren from Queensberry Promotions with
the TNT Sports and Ben with Boxer and

1229
01:14:21,079 --> 01:14:25,439
Sky is a bigger platform than both
of those other platforms, even though he's

1230
01:14:25,439 --> 01:14:28,600
not as experience as those other guys
and their company is still in its infancy.

1231
01:14:28,640 --> 01:14:30,039
So that was a really good kind
of fun interview to talk about.

1232
01:14:30,039 --> 01:14:33,640
And then we also have and this
was a fun interview also. I spoke

1233
01:14:34,119 --> 01:14:38,159
just in the last couple of days
with Tia Fima Lopez, the Junior Worlterweight

1234
01:14:38,159 --> 01:14:42,520
world champion, and we'll play that
interview ahead of his upcoming title defense against

1235
01:14:42,560 --> 01:14:45,840
Jermaine Ortiz that will take place on
February eighth. This is why you got

1236
01:14:45,960 --> 01:14:47,800
to listen, You gotta follow,
you gotta subscribe to the Big Fight Weekend

1237
01:14:48,399 --> 01:14:53,239
podcast feed. So again, off
the beat Us Show and off the weekend,

1238
01:14:53,319 --> 01:14:55,880
we'll come back and recap. You
get us twice twice, the ray

1239
01:14:55,960 --> 01:14:58,119
Field twice, the fun you get
us, the preview mode going into the

1240
01:14:58,119 --> 01:15:00,359
weekend, recap mode. Off the
weekend and Sunday night into Monday. My

1241
01:15:00,479 --> 01:15:03,439
friend, I'll see you on the
bet US show. Have a great weekend.

1242
01:15:03,520 --> 01:15:08,520
Let's see what happens with Mongia and
Ryder coming this weekend, Dan Raphael,

1243
01:15:08,560 --> 01:15:11,359
thank you sounds good. I'll see
in the bet US show. There

1244
01:15:11,600 --> 01:15:15,840
is our Insider Fight Preaks you night
is his substack. I am merely TJ

1245
01:15:15,000 --> 01:15:17,239
Reeves. Thank you for finding us
on the Big Fight Weekend preview