Well off a weekend that has seen Showtime say goodbye with a David Morell knockout,
and he has seen Bam Rodriguez become unified as a Flyway champion with an
impressive showing in the matchroom. Dezonn main event it is seeing Jake Paul deliver
a one punch knockout back on Friday night, and we are ready for the
day of reckoning and to hear from Deontay Wilder on this podcast. It is
the Fight Freaks Unit recap. Hello, I am merely the somewhat capable host
TJ Reeves, He's our insider. Is there still a tear in the eye
of Dan Rayphiel, I'm not sure. From Fight Freaks Unite his substack in
Bigfight Weekend dot Com. All right, we're ready to recap all of it.
It is done for Showtime Championship Boxing and we've got a lot to talk
about. First of all, how you feeling coming off the weekend. You
know, I'm a melancholy to use another one of the vocabulary words you love
when I pick one out, Yes, so, I mean I'll put it
like this. At least you know, maybe it wasn't the greatest cart on
paper, but at least Showtime ended with some fun action. Uh. And
in terms of the we'll talk about the band fight in a minute with Sonny
Edwards turned out to be, uh, you know, a very impressive performance
and a much better action fight than I think anybody had expected. And you
know that's why they fight the fights. You never know when you're gonna get
a good surprise. Correct me if I'm wrong, Jake foll Ko stop me,
Stop me if I'm wrong. Valezuela in the co feature on Showtime,
Ko Morell main event, ko Akmadalia co feature on his own Ko Bam Big
Ko. In the main event, we were five for five on knockouts kids
in the recap, Yeah, what it means we don't have to talk about
any controversial scoring and judging in this episode of the podcast. Guys, what
did you say? It's Lennox Lewis famously saying, here are my judges right
here, the right and the left, and that's what happened in a lot
of these fights. Okay, thank you for finding us, however you've done
so. Social media link Dan Substack, Dan's news letter, Big Fight Weekend
dot com website. Make sure you rate us in review us. Some of
you have done that recently. Keep doing it. Give us a five star
review. It helps us out. We appreciate it. Tell us how much
you enjoy the content. Preview mode, going into the weekend recap mode.
Coming off the weekend again, Deontay Wilder. You'll hear from him. Coming
up. Dan was part of a media group, a gaggle small. Well,
there weren't fifty seven of you, but there were a couple of No,
I think if I remember there, if I look back at there was
like four of us. Time to call all right? As well as Deonte.
You'll hear Dan asking the Bronze Bomber questions as he returns to fight Joseph
Parker Saudi Arabia this Saturday. You'll hear a couple of other questions and comments
from Wilder. That's later in the podcast, but first let's get to it.
Showtime says goodbye PBC Main event. David Burrell gets the knockout, not
unexpected. He did it quickly in Minneapolis, his adopted home. Give me
some thoughts on this again, Folks. Will cover the nostalgia of Showtime later,
but as for the fights in the ring, thoughts first on Morel.
Well, remember they were supposed to fight he and senateg Beco back earlier this
year, and that fight was called at the last minute because of a medical
uh this problem with one of his medical reports, which was later worked out
and he was cleared no problem, but he had to drop out of the
fight. And so Morell went in the ring and knocked out Yamaguchi Falco in
the first round. And now they finally reschedule this fight between him and Senate
eg Beco to close out the final show Time made event, and instead of
knocking out in one round, he knocked Hi out in the second round.
So David Morrell has a first round knockout this year and a second round knockout
this year. He is a bad boy. He's now ten and zero,
but he has the poise and the power and now you know, between his
amateur experience and you know, he's fought some pretty decent guys as a pro.
I mean, you know, he may only have the ten fights,
but don't make a mistake. This is a guy that you know, I
view was like a veteran at this point. He is a very serious threat
in that weight class. And I mean, I don't want to sound blasphemous.
And I'm not trying to get ahead of my skis and and I'm not
caught up in the moment of that knockout against ag Beco, because I know
it wasn't like the super top guy. It's like what al Bernstein said,
is eg Beco a top you know, five or six or seven type of
super middle eight. No, but he's a rugged, tough, solid,
experienced guy, you know. And and he just took him out like he
was taking out the laundry, you're taking out the trash whatever, and just
pummel him. And I'm gonna tell you right now, and again, I
don't want to sound blasphemous. He gives David Bennevievez a tough fight, might
win. He gives Canelo Alvarez a tough fight he might win. That's how
good this dude is. And he's young, he's like twenty five, twenty
six years old. He's not even in his prime yet. And he's dangerous.
He's in great condition, he's got good power with both hands, and
you know he can hurt you. I don't care you know what you are,
and it doesn't matter if you're you know, a veteran or you're an
up and comer, or you're an older guy, younger guy. He's gonna
be in the fight no matter who he's in the ring with. And it
was a very impressive performance. He he's such a good finisher. As soon
as he had ag Beca in any kind of trouble, he just let the
hands go, you know, And I think he I think he believes he's
got a good chin aucer because he was not in any way shape or for
him thinking or word. It didn't seem to me about what might come back.
He just was in a position where I got my man backed up in
the corner and I'm gonna let those shots go. And I thought Mark Nelson,
who was the referee, did a perfect job in terms of the way
he stopped that fight. And you know, another another win, uh,
one for the road for David Morrell. And as you pointed out, uh,
he just walked right at at Becco and Agbco could not do anything in
response once he got hurt, didn't grab on, didn't fire back. So
that was a good stoppage because he clearly was out on his feet and maybe
on the verge of getting seriously hurt. So again, that ran upper cut
is nasty too, let me tell you impressive and we will qualify again.
Here he's got to step in the ring with a bigger, you know,
named opponent, world class caliber fighter. But right now, every thing you're
seeing, he's improving, He's improving every time you see him. So morell
very exciting name, very exciting name. He was supposed to fight Benavid's and
their sides had a deal and ben AVIDI has decided to put the Kebash on
an event. He went for the Andred fight instead. Which I'm not faulting
him and blaming him or saying he's ducking or anything like that. I get
the fact that Andreid was a bigger name, probably a bigger payday, an
easier fight, to be quite honest, and uh, you know, I
don't have a problem with that. But but Morrell, he saw, you
know, he was ready to go one to the fight and after this fight
against Agbecco once again when they asked him. When Jim Gray in the final
interview on Showtime Championship Boxing asked David Morrell what he wanted to do in his
next fight, he said, absolutely, you know, and he spoke in
English, you know, he's learning. He's from Cuba and he's been living
in Minnesota where they pretty much don't speak Spanish for the most part, so
you know, it's broken English, but you can tell he's tried. Yes,
he tried, and I give him respect for that, but he was
The English was clear his day when he said the name Benavides multiple times.
So that's the guy he wants to fight. Uh, you know, I'd
like I'd like to hope that that fight could happen. I think that would
be a very interesting and intriguing fight and certainly, uh, in my mind,
kind of a pick sort of fight between these two guys that both young.
Uh you know, Denivid is only like a year older. I think
morell what Morrelse twenty five Dnavidas twenty six, I mean, both undefeated fighter,
so and what happened. He's a south pot with power and a good
IQ and good feet in good hands, and he's got good size. I
mean he's a freaking handful, That's all I can say. All right,
coch by the way, and also highly highly entertaining. Yes, he's that
rare, that rare Cuban fighter that really is a crowd pleaser. Yes,
and uh, and Big Time Power co feature fight also had a big knockout.
Then is Valenzuela and Colbert. It looked like it might be over in
the first round. Now, remember Colbert weathered a first round barrage from val
Valenzuela in their first fight earlier this year and got a narrow decision. When
that Valenzuela was still upset about this is the rematch. He had him hurt
again Dan, and nearly had him out in the first round, maybe had
him down. He went down in a corner, kind of in a crouch
position on the bottom rope. Referee called it a knock down. Then there's
big punches landing after that. To Colbert's credit, he was firing back,
but man Valenzuela kept pounding him, landing power shot after power shot, and
finally here we go again with boom, a booming right hand. Culbert out
face first Dan on the first rand of ropes. Wow. Well, I
thought that that dollon z Wella won the first fight, and if he had
gotten the decision that he deserve, I don't think there would have been a
rematch. But be that as a may you know, props to Colbert for
agreeing to give him a rematch for vallenswell, obviously he wanted the rematch,
so he did it again. You know, two young guys, both with
futures, and they put it on the line, and you know what,
Valon Zuela did not forget what happened the first time around. He came out
as you know, he came out like you, like Hagler, hearns,
came out against each other like he was going for and immediately in the first
opening seconds and he landed. It was a legitimate call by the raft to
call that a knockedown. It was the ropes that held him up clearly,
and he you know, he had a humongous first round. You know,
for the first you know, two minutes, he was just beating the living
you know what out of him. And you know, to Colbert was able
to weather that storm. But you know, at the end of the day
he could not take the heat for that long. And as the fight went
on, he had a couple of moments, but it was more like one
punched at a time where a burst of two or three and then a long
period where he wasn't able to do a whole lot, and Valezuela just kept
going and let me tell you that right hook that put him away, that
should be I know we're here near the end of the year, so it's
more in your mind about now than what might have happened back in you know,
January, February or March or whatever. But that should definitely be on
the on your short list of knock out of the Year candidates. Right on
the button and he fell into the ropes, twisted and then like you said,
came to rest like on his belly slash head face down like Teeter tottering
on the bottom moving. Yeah. No, that was a rough Mars knockout.
They actually said on the in the end of the broadcast that they had
taken h Colbert to the hospital just as a precaution. Hopefully the young hopefully
he's okay. Uh, you know, I appreciate that Chris Clobert swagger.
I'm not sure what that swagger is gonna be like after taking that kind of
ruthless kind of knockout. And for Venezuela, I mean, this kid,
uh, you know, he got kind of sidetracked with that loss, but
he's right back there. I mean, he's he was one of the best
prospects in boxing before that fight. Uh, you know, he should have
won the fight. I don't really look at the loss as something that's damaged
his reputation or his ability or his future whatsoever. You know, this kid
is is something to look out for. He's he's a he's a very solid
guy. And what I also like, you know, in the lightweight division,
which is loaded. You know, he he he wants to fight Tank
Davis. He's willing to fight anybody. So you know, obviously, you
know, when you call out Tank Davis and if he get the fight,
you obviously make a huge amount of money. But I also think that you
know, he really believes he can win the fight and he can do some
damage in there. So uh, you know, I don't know if he's
quite ready for that, but I appreciate the the uh the desire to to
fight top guys. And he looked great. You know, I was a
big fan of Vealezuela prior to the fight with Colbert. I didn't get down
on him because he lost a fight he should have got to win in and
he certainly looked looked really really good tonight. Great way for him to close
out the year, Colbert. You know, I think he might be better
suited going back to one hundred and thirty pounds. You know, he seemed,
you know, undersized against Valezuela. And there's a lot of other lightweights
that are just as you know, rough and tough as he is, and
you know who they are in this way class, so you know, he
might be better off going back down. But balan Zuela, he's gonna be
a problem at lightweight for a lot of guys for for a long time.
He's still very young, all right, no doubt. So we've gain you
a lot there on the showtime card again, more on the nostalgia coming up
in a little bit. Let's go to the guys. Go ahead, we
got it. We got to bring up the old guys for a minute.
All that's right. Robert Guerrero, Roberto Robert Guerrero and Andre Bertow the old
man fight. Yes. Can I just tell you that I really I lost
interest after about the second or third round because it was a bit in slow
motion for me. It got better though, Teach got the okay, all
right, give me give me a quick thought. Look, I'm not saying
it was a classic, okay, but they went out doing the best that
they could. It's like I said to in the preview, at least they
put the forty year old guys against each other. It would have been a
lot worse if they had put either of these guys in with a you know,
a young, hungry, up and coming guy. But at least they
were evenly matched. You know, Berto had lost him eleven years ago.
He lost to him much wider on on the fight tonight. Back then it
was a you know, like one sixteen to one eleven type scores, plus
he got knocked down two times. But other than that, it was a
very entertaining, highly competitive fight. Tonight a little sloppier, they're obviously a
little slower, a little older, not as much action. You know.
Guerrero wins ninety nine to ninety one, ninety eight, ninety two on two
cards. I thought Berto actually kind of squeaked out another round maybe two when
there. But you know, certainly a clear Guerrero victory. And you know,
I hope Berto calls it a day. I know he had the itch
to get back in there. I think he might have realized that he shouldn't
be fighting anymore. Guerrero, though, was gung ho afterwards. He's like,
you know, maybe I can get another world title shot. You know,
we'll see. You know, let's not get too carried away. Was
you know ancient a guy in Berto we had and fought since twenty eighteen.
Listen, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for both these guys.
I've known both them since they were like very very young fighters, covered
all their big fights, known them for many many years. Good guys.
You know, when Robert Guerre won the Boxing Writers Association Award for Courage and
Overcoming Adversity, when he gave up a world title fight and basically his title
to care for his wife who was fighting cancer, and I had a good
relationship with him and his team. You know, he asked me to present
him the award of the Box Orders Association. I have a relationship with Robert.
He's a great guy. And I've known Berto forever also, and I
love those guys. I don't like seeing them fight again, but you know,
I understand where Robert's coming from. If he goes and he tries to
get another fight, you know, I can't really blame him for Berto.
I hope he does call it today, you know, blast from the past,
as they say, you know, and like they gave the good they
gave the best effort. Like, I can't fault him for I might have
not been the fight of the year. I'm kind of glad it wasn't the
fight of the year because I don't want to see these guys take too much
damage, you know, And if that was gonna be like a little retro,
like a little kind of fight on the last show time card, I
can live with that. You know. We saw the old guys, we
saw there were young guys, and we saw a guy in Morell who's just
you know, gonna be a star all right, his own match room show.
Oh I got I gotta jump in one secon though. Yeah, they
actually said Now, somebody else mentioned this to me on the social media.
I forget who it was, but I also heard it on the broadcast.
Remember, we're trying to figure out what was the longest tight between rematches,
so we had this one to eleven years. I thought of Roy Jones and
Bernard Hopkins. Then later we came up with Larry Holmes against bone Crusher against
bone Crusher Smith. That turns out, I guess this is the record.
I mean, I don't think it's official, but they came up with yet
another one. It was Larry Holmes against Mike Weaver, which is Larry's second
to last fight of his career. They went nineteen years between their first and
second fight. Crazy. I thought, I thought it might have been twenty.
Maybe it was twenty, but it was ninety nine or did he say,
I think something like that. But what the bottom line is it was
a little bit longer than what happened between Bone Crusher and UH and Larry more
nostalgia later on the on the finish showtime again there was nostalgia everywhere all right,
matchroom de zone and speaking of knockouts, what a performance by Jesse Bam
Rodriguez. And by and by the way, I don't get to gloat at
you very often, but I you know, I question. I questioned myself
that I didn't take Bam on the money line, which I should have.
I didn't have a feel for knockout or decision as well. I went decision.
Bam got the win and man I credit Sonny Edwards that he took punishment
in this fight. But Bam Rodriguez, what a performance to capture now the
unified flyweight championship in Arizona. In that main event, tell me what you
saw, including another timber knockout. Really at the end of this, well,
I got that one wrong because I said all along that you know,
to me nothing against BAM, but I felt like Sonny Edwards was the much
better technical boxer and we're you able to do what he's done against lots of
other guys, and just how box a guy you know, have a little
bit better skills, all the better speed. You know, he uses his
angles, you know, stay away from the bigger punches. And I was
wrong because Bam took it to him and knocked him out. But that said,
I'm again, I'm not I'm not faulting or I'm not I'm not saying
anything bad about BAM's performance or or even like Edwards because he did so much,
he did show so much heart in that fight. But I just felt
like he fought the wrong fight, like he didn't. Now, BAM was
partially responsible for making him fight that way. He dragged him into a war,
which is not to Sonny Edwards way to win fight. Sonny Edwards doesn't
get in war. Sonny Edwards boxes and jabs and moves and and hits and
doesn't get hit. But for whatever reason, he was not able to do
that against Rodriguez, and he paid the price in a big, big way
because if he boxes a little bit more, you know. But in the
first round he was dragged into it. I want I wanted to tee you
up with that. That Sergio Mora, and it was Barry mcgwigan, right,
we're both on the call, Barry Jones, Barry Jones. Forgive me
Barry mcgwiggins on the brain as the promoter, but I thought they were both
on it that it seems tactically that Sonny Edwards, even early in the fight
first and second round, is content to CounterPunch and stand in front of him,
and Barry Jones kept saying, I don't understand where's the where's the lateral
movement? Like in the second round of the fight. He's saying that,
and we didn't see it in the third round or the fourth round, so
you're right, right, for whatever reason, tactically, he was not electing
to move. So Sonny the CounterPunch, Sony probably won the first round.
I have to go and take a look at the official scorecard. Sonny,
Sonny, you know, for the first I guess maybe like three or four
rounds issue. It was like a coloh is a close fight. Bam lost
the first round on two scorecards. I'm looking at the scorecard now, and
so that put Edwards ahead. But then you know, pretty much Bam took
over. You know, when he scored the knockout, he was certainly ahead
on all three scorecards. He was up eighty seven to eighty two, eighty
nine to eighty one, and eighty seven to eighty three or eighty two.
I can't really read that, but the point was he was ahead on the
cards. And I feel like it was because Sonny fought the wrong fight,
but Bam lured him into the brawl that he never wanted to be in.
All credit to Bam for making him do that, for taking it to him,
and also uh to Sonny Edwards for showing such a tremendous heart because look,
as I thought, after round nine, which is before they you know,
this is right before they stopped the fight in the corner, was it
was his trainer or his team that that told the rep to stop it.
It wasn't like Sonny was like you no, no, Moss. I think
he would have continued just because that's the kind of balls the guy has.
But his face looked like he was in a knife fight. I mean he
was. His his left eye was all fucked up and swollen from early on
in the fight, I think from a punch. It was swelling right away,
and you knew that was going to give him problems. And by the
time the fight was in the later rounds before it ended, he's got blood
streaming down. A cut on the on the corner of his brother eye and
it was just a and you know cut over the eye. It was.
His face was like a ruin and bam. You know, looked like he
was ready to go out, you know, put his Sunday clothes on and
go for dinner and a dance. I mean, uh, you know it
was. And then the knockout, Oh my goodness, just a left hand
right on the chin knocked him down face first to his knees. Basically,
he did beat the count. I give him credit because I thought he was
done. He would not know where he was, but he got his corner,
did the right thing, and the ref recognized that wave of the fight.
I mean, listen, the bottom line is, you know, we
talked about this. I think a little bit before that. I was disappointed
that the ring magazine did not allow this fight to be for the Ring Magazine
title, and part of that I think was because, uh, you know,
Bam was a little bit lower in their ratings, even though he's coming
down in wait as being a champion in the higher weight and certain as Julio
Caesar Martinez was the guy that was sort of standing in between the two of
them, and certain he is an excellent fighter, but he constantly is postponing
or kanceling fights. He's probably not going to fight till next you know,
who knows, in the beginning of next year. And to me, these
were the two best guys in the division. That was my I test my
knowledge of their careers, and I felt like absolutely this was a worthy fight
for that title. And he prove that he is the best guy, because
yes, we beat Edwards. He beat him, he beat him up.
And I'm gonna interject this too. Let's just say it. This is the
best guy that Sonny Edwards had been in there with, most talented, young
hard punching and you see what happened when you can't keep the guy off of
you. And he was trying, he was throwing big punches and was trying,
but Bam Rodriguez walked right through him. Here's the thing about this,
right emotion, great emotion from Bam two after that fight, on his knees,
almost in tears, celebrating what a great win. This is the biggest
win for him because as great of as the names were when he beat Quadras
to win his first title and then he defeated sar Ungbi side, you know,
those are two, you know, superb guys that dominated in those in
the one hundred and fifteen pounds weight class in and around for a long time.
Part of that forsome along with Jan Francisco Estrada and also the great Chocolatito
Gonzalez. But they were older when he fought them and were not what they
were at their best. They'd been in a lot of worse. He's fighting
Sonny Edwards, who was undefeated in his prime, ever been really touched up
like this in a fight before. I consider this by far and away the
best win of BAM's career. It's the kind of win where if he continues
to do what he's doing, and years now he winds up in the Hall
of Fame, you'll look back and you'll say that was a win. That
was a significant one that's on that record. When you go and you figure
out why you're voting for a guy for the Hall of Fame, that's the
type of win. I believe he should be on the pound for pound less
find the spot there in that top ten somewhere. And and now what I
love about it is that you know he wants as they say, what is
it, TJ as the kids say, he wants all the smoke. Yeah,
you know, so they're talking about possibly fighting one Francisco Estrada. You
know, he would love to have that fight. Whether they can make it
happen, They're gonna have to pay One Francisco Astrada a lot of money.
You know, he was supposed to fight Ioka in a unification at the end
of this year, like the New Year's Eve time period. They were not
able to get that deal done. So Wan Francisco Astrada is currently without a
fight. I think dam Rodriguez and him. If Estrada is willing, that
sounds like an awful, tasty fight for the say the first quarter of next
year. And Eddie Hearn said, and he promotes Choco Latito as well at
times said maybe it's that fight he's got a lot of options. The reason
why probably not is because they both are Damn is co promoted by mister Hanna
from Teaking Boxing, who's also the co promoter of the promoter I guess of
Chalk Latito, and mister Honda does not want his guys fighting each other.
In that sense, Chocolatito is like a sun to him. It's not gonna
let that happen. Mister Honda is a probably the single most respected person in
the entire industry of boxing, and if he says he doesn't want that fight
to happen, that fight's not gonna happen. All right, But is a
different story. All right, this is why we have you here for the
Insight again. We're gonna recap the Jake Paul fight here. In just a
moment or two, you're gonna hear from Deontay Wilder. We rock along on
the recap. Just one more off the Dezone card. Akmadolajev did win by
knockout and was impressive in doing so. When the co feature fight say something
about that real quick, well, I mean he he was coming off of
losing his title in a in a pretty big upset that as we talked about
on the preview cost him most likely the opportunity to be the challenger in a
or you know, to be the co fighter let's say, in a undisputed
fight against Noya in a way. You know, he had the two titles.
He was upset by the Polas earlier in the year, and so this
was like the get back. He faced Kevin Gonzalez, an undefeated fighter.
It seemed like on paper a pretty reasonable matchup. And Akmadaliev, you know,
still only with like now thirteen fights even though he's been around for a
while at age twenty nine, but was a top latch amateur, and he
went in there and he showed the class difference between him and Gonzalz, who
I still think is a pretty good fighter. But he did the job,
and he scored an eighth round knockout, and it was a pretty impressive performance,
and he kind of at the end of the fight was beating him up.
I mean, you know, the the broadcasters, Chris Mannis in particular,
was like was saying, what are we doing here? Like as my
boy TJ would say, what are we doing here? Stop the fight?
You know, he's taking a lot of unnecessary already knocking down a couple of
times he was hammering him at times, yes, and so they waved it
off that and you know, as as Mannix made the point in the interview
when he was talking to Acmadaliav afterwards, you know, he said, you
know, do you think this was the best performance of your current I think
you know, he'd be hard pressed to say it wasn't, because even though
he's got some other, you know, solid wins, like he beat Dan
Roman, for example, when he won the unified titles, it was a
split decision. Who was very close? You could argue the other way.
When he defended the title, it was not against the top notch guys,
and he maybe didn't look the most impressive. You know, he did stop
Ronnie Rios, that was a nice win, but again it's Ronnie Rios,
not a not an undefeated guy, a guy that we kind of knew his
limitations. And then he lost at the Ballus and so now he goes in
with like a fresher, younger guy and Gonzalez who's undefeated and you know,
a guy with whose game you know, good aggression, and he pummeled him
basically good knockout. So how's a good win for him? And by the
way, it was an eliminator, so it makes him now in the WBA,
he would become the WBA's mandatory for the winner of in a way to
Polus. Now, whether they stay in that way class or they get an
exception or do other things, you know, who knows we'll actually get the
shot. But the point is he's going to have a title shot in his
future, whoever it's against. You know, as long as you know he
he's won this eliminator fight, and doesn't you know, take maybe a tune
up and lose or something like that, but you know he's in a great
position. As the bottom line Friday night and boom from Jake Paul not unexpectedly.
It is a first round KO of Andre August. All right, So
we did talk about this on the bet Us show. You were very much
bully bully on the under I don't even think you thought though two minutes and
change, but that is what it was. First legitimate, big punch.
It's over all right, So Dan Rayphield, what do we make of it?
Because Paul wanted to fight a legit cruiserweight. I don't know how legit
this guy will ultimately be considered, but he dispatched him with one punch.
Your thoughts, well, I guess I was. I was slightly surprised it
was the first round, but not entirely surprised it was the first round.
I said, and I quote on our bet Us show. I love the
under This was an eight round fight. The under was what six and a
half. I'm like, yeah, no way, yep, the way,
this dude's going six and a half. Then I think it was gonna be
two and a half minutes. Now I thought maybe he might get out of
the first round. But as we spoke about, even though he's been a
professional boxer, it's the only combat sport he's done. He's done for much
of his life as a professional. He has compiled a record going into the
fight of ten and one with one draw. Now, of course he's ten
and two with one draw, and that that's on paper. That's a nice
looking record, obviously, but you have to look at all the things and
the factors going into it. He is coming, he was coming off of
a victory. He gets an undefeated fighter, you know, just a few
months ago. But before that he had had a long layoff. You know,
I don't know the exact reason, but I'm very very confident that a
good portion of that was because of the pandemic. And then if you examined
the opponents that he thought they were the very very low level, many sub
five hundred fighters, pro debut fighters, that sort of thing. And what
I said also, and I truly believe this, is that if you don't
pick Jake Cau to win the fight, how would you pick if it was
August against Anderson Silva or a Tyron Woodley or some of the other as they
probably would have beaten this guy also even though they're not boxers by trade.
So I sort of thought about that, And look, this is about Jake's
development to get reps and you he's going the route that normal fighters that are
more anonymous go, which is match with different styles of guys, certain levels
of experience, certain kind of records. I think also after going the distance
with Diez, after going the distance at a loss against Fury, you know,
his people were like, it's time to get some of the mojo back,
Let's create some more excitement. Let's get a guy that we can think
you know that he can absolutely drill and and get the get the people talking
again. And that's what he did, because whenever you think about Andre August,
you know, we don't really know much about him. It was a
sweet shot. I mean, it was a beautiful right uppercr on the button
and he put him out that There's no doubt the guy has got power in
that right hand. I don't care if it's against a former NBA player,
a former MMA star, and we now saw it here again. He can
knock people out with that right hand, and so take that for what it's
worth. Alsoj I thought his technique and his just the way he went about
it was pretty good. He focused on some body shots. I know,
we only got like two minutes and thirty two seconds to work with, but
in that span of time, he landed several shots to the body. So
he tried to work downstairs. He jabbed his way in. He used a
double jab, which was pretty effective. I mean, are those are the
types of things that I'm sure that he was working on in the training camp.
Now you get to the fight and you try to implement them and do
them the way you did in the gym. It's all about repetition and repeating
it and repeating and repeating it, and he was able to do that and
then he finally let the bomb go, and you know, he just had
no chance. When he got caught, he was over and out. I
mean, remember one thing, by the way, the one loss that August
had previously suffered was a ko. It was early, not the first round,
but it was early. And it was also a fight that took place
in the light heavyweight division. And clearly he was there as the opponent to
more than likely get beat, if not knocked out quickly. And that's exactly
what happened here. So this now begs the question, this was no real
challenge, no sweat figuratively for him. Jake Paul said after the fight on
the de Own broadcast he would have an announcement next week about the next fight.
From my standpoint, you could see him back easily in like sixty to
ninety days if he wanted to non pay per view against a huge name,
pick somebody else and like February March, get in the ring again, because
this was nothing tonight in terms of stress. I don't know what their plans
are, but speculate with me, what do you think? Well, I
think if you know, he made the point, like you know, certainly,
if that some kind of crazy big money fight comes along, he said
he would entertain it the same way he said that to me in our interview.
I mean, I who can blame if some guy claus you out and
you can make ten million dollars, I mean, you know, why wouldn't
you do that? But if that, you know, if his laser focus,
as he said, is on the continued development, staying in the gym,
honing his skills and keeping things going and staying active, then it wouldn't
surprise me if he had another fight against you know, maybe a little bit
of a better opponent than Andre August, but that caliber of opponent in the
sense of a guy who's a boxer by trade, who's got a similar kind
of record, who's got some experience, maybe a little bit of a better
caliber of opponents he has face and like you said, come back a couple
of months and be back in the ring on his own, put on that
type of card, and just you know, keep doing your thing. Because
he's made the point money is not the most important thing, right, I
believe him, based on the actions he's taking, he's made the money.
Now what about this, and again we're just speculating. You got this whole
I don't even know if it's a triangle. I gotta remember, I gotta
go ask my twins about algebra two here in a few minutes. Is it
a quadrangle? I'm not even sure what it is. Because he lost to
Tommy fear, ks I beat his brother, Logan Paul a couple of times.
KSI has now also lost to Tommy Fury. Might this be Jake Paul
trying to fight KSI. I don't know that a Tommy Fury fight would be
next or anytime soon, but I'm sure it's gonna get brought up. Would
Jake Paul maybe fight KSI? Or does Logan Paul say no, no,
wait a minute. I fought this guy twice, KSI. I didn't beat
him either time. I want to be the guy to fight him. I
don't know how that any of that's gonna work, but I'm sure that name
is gonna get kicked around. I don't know how realistic it is. MY
brain is numb after that. Whatever, you're a quadrangle, I don't know.
I just know that sure what that was, having seen KSI in other
bouts. Mm hm, no, nothing against him. I know he's got
a popularity and he does this with the fits and all that. I mean,
I think Jake Paul smokes ks I tell you the truth. I mean,
and I look, if he wants if that was a fight that came
up, who could blame him. I mean there's be a huge amount of
money in there, that's right, no doubt about it. But that's that
that would not be following the sort of vision that Jake has stated, which
is to continue to develop with actual boxing matches and maybe we'll see him right
back there in Orlando, uh and and doing another fight h at that at
that venue against another boxer. Like I said, it just kind of keep
doing this thing. I mean, young fighters who are on the way up.
You know, it's not unusual from the fight you know, every couple
of months, every three months. You know, back in the days when
Tyson was coming up, he was fighting every couple of weeks. I mean,
so it's all a matter of what his appetite is for the activity and
how much they can you know, I mean, he's gonna make money.
Obviously, they got to work out, you know, the deal. I
assume if he stays with his own which is the broadcaster for his Prospects series
and has done the last you know, Amanda Serrano fight. So it seems
like they've got something good going there, and we'll see, all right,
we will find I'm enjoying the ride though, I'm enjoying watching them and that
was an exciting knockout, whatever you think about it. And as I said
to you, if he's back fighting boxer, I'm back in on this.
It's intriguing enough because of the big punch and ultimately, just one more time
here if he wins another fight against someone, the lucrative fight is the rematch
with Tommy Fury, if they can make that happen, let's say later in
twenty twenty four. I don't think that would be next, but that would
be a pay per view that they would look to make. So let's see.
Let's see if he listen. I don't think that, at least in
the United States. I don't think there's too much magic to a Fury rematch.
I'm not saying it's well, you know what, I'm going to disagree
with you. I think if they could convince Fury with money to come here
to the US and it's a rematch Jake Paul lost to this guy, there's
genuine interest in that. I just I think there would be more if it
was in America. Whether Tommy Fury can actually come to America. We don't
have to get into all that, but that could be a problem. That's
a good point on that, A good way to leave it on that.
As we've been promising, we'll now get into this conversation. And Dan just
set it up a little bit because there were several media members you were prominent
among them talking to Deontay Wilder leading up to his fight his return after a
couple of years away here as he has been, or actually, you know,
a full year away as he has been. He gets ready to fight
Joseph Parker in Saudi Arabia, and you were on this, you were able
to see him. You were on this media call here. Yeah. Yeah,
So Deontay was in his car parked and we were on a zoom call.
It was I believe four of us, myself, my boy Keith Ide
from boxing scene, a couple other guys, and we had about twenty minutes
to talk to him, ask him some questions randomly. The moderator from the
Zone, you know, it was one of their pr people, Fred Miller
said, Rafael, why don't you get us started. So I asked the
first, you know, two or three questions, and then they went around
into the other guys. And the thing I was interested to talk to Deontay
about what you'll hear is he's fighting Joseph Parker, obviously a former champion,
a good matchup. You know, we'd like to be see fight Joshua instead,
but that maybe in the future. At none the event, I recollected
to Deontay that there was a time back, you know, several years ago
when I went to cover a fight in Alabama that he was defending the WBC
title and Joseph Parker, who at that time was the WBO champion, was
in town. One of his guys was on the show, and he was
there to kind of check things out, and there's a lot of discussion about
that fight being a unification. So I talked to Deontay about why it didn't
happen, and now we're finally here. So Deontay was in great spirits,
had a lot to say, and I'm looking forward to seeing him back in
action on the day of reckoning. So again, let's hear from the former
WBC champion. He's in action coming this Saturday, as Dan just mentioned you're
gonna hear Dan's questions. You're gonna hear a couple of other questions in comments
too with the Bronze Bomber. When I heard that you're gonna fight Joseph Parker
and then they set this this little session of it made me think to myself,
I remember back being at one of your fights in Birmingham, Alabama,
in like twenty sixteen or two thousand and seventeen. You weread either fight Ariola
or Gerald Washington, and Joseph at that time was the WBO champion. He
was there at your fight, and there was a lot of conversation back then
that one of the fights that would be coming up if you were successful in
your fight, which you were, would be a unification fight between Deontay Wilder
and Joseph Parker, fight that a lot of people thought would be a really
big time fight at that time. You know, it didn't happen. I
don't really know. Why do you have a recollection of that? And what
the heck took so long? Well, you know, I definitely remember that,
and and Joseph Barker ran from me because he's seen what I did to
uh. I think who else I was fighting. It was either Gerald Washington
or Chris Ariola Washington. Deal Gerald Washington. I was Gerald Washington, and
you know he came to talk a good game and talk about you know,
fighting me or whatever, just like all the other ones. And they see
what I hes seen what I what I you know, the performers I had
by knocking Joel Washington out and he fleed, he ran, you know,
just like the all of them. And I always say many time, I
supposed to unify the division many many years ago, if I had the opportunity,
But unfortunately, no one has ever given me the opportunity like I'm getting
given other fighters the opportunity to fight, you know. And uh, it's
just sad because I have a blessing and a curse. But you know,
but God is good. Here we are again. You know, a lot
of great things is happening. A lot of doors has opened, and a
lot of opportunities is looming around. And I'm I'm just I'm honored to be
able to uh be able to perform in Saudi Arabia and start and kick the
thing off. And I'm looking forward to the to the day of the reckoning.
You know, me and Parker. Yeah, Like I said, we're
supposed to have been fault while back, but he ran so since you know
now is I don't know how he built the courage up now, you know
or whatever. But I'm glad he's here, you know, because I'm gonna
punish him, you know, And and I'm looking forward to fight him,
you know. All in all, just looking forward to fight him, and
I can't wait for it to happen. It won't be long now, all
right. My second question, and as much I think as a lot of
people are looking forward to this very loaded card with a lot of top heavyweights
and some other world title fights on the show, you know, you and
Anthony Joshua are in the headline fights, and everybody knows and everybody want to
see you guys fight each other for a long time. I know you've been
asked this a million times, but let's just get it on the record here
on this session. If you guys both win your fights and you are both
the favorites, what kind of assurances do you have from anybody, either the
Saudist who are bankrolling this thing, or from the Joshua side, that that
that's the next fight for you guys? I know how much you want it.
Yeah, yeah, you know. I can't put a percentage on it,
but know that it is high. You know. I can't talk for
others, so I can go off for only what I feel and what I've
been hearing. And it looked great. It looked great, you know.
So right now, at this moment in time, we both have a job
to do. Come Decembar to twenty third. He is with Otto Walland and
our minds is with Joseph, and we must handle that business and get it
out the way. You know, I'm seriously focused on Joseph, as I
know he's, you know, seriously focused on Otto Wiland. And once that's
over with, then great things is gone. Nothing but great things is happening
from this point on, nothing but great things. So you know, I
can tell the fans to be looking forward to two great and wonderful things,
you know, from from this point on and up up as the years unfolds.
Thank you very much, Jada, that's a lot to you. Blessings,
thank you, Happy all todays. Hey Deontay, you fought less than
one round in the last two years. How has that helped you? Maybe
helped you in some way in terms of letting your body recover and all that
kind of stuff. No, it's been great for me, you know.
I just I've been I've been in my happy place, you know, as
I'm as I'm always is just happy center, you know, been around beautiful,
loving people that love me the most, and you know, it's been
great. So I really don't worry about how long I've been out a none
of those things because although although although although my body is not there, my
mind has never left. So with that being said, I'm always My mind
is always you know, training, my mind is always working on different things.
And and Decemblar twenty thirty is going to show what I'm talking about alive
and in person. De'anty. What do you think of Joshua's fight against Waleen.
It's not an easy fight and he has lost to the last two times
he fought the South. While he lost, I mean, what do you
think the probability is that he wins? How do you look at that fight?
I mean, I don't I don't know that really that's gonna be up
to him, you know, to figure out his own game plan and how
he's he's gonna be able to bounce back, you know, Otter fighting South
Paul's and come back. You know, I mean, this is his fourth
trainer he then switched up with. So hopefully they have the answers to that,
because I definitely don't. All I have to do is wish him the
best and nothing less. Say whatever you want, but that is a lightning
bolt right hand. We've been talking about knockouts on this whole recap podcast.
Let us not forget this guy has had one savage knockout after another, and
now we'll see what he will do with Joseph Parker. We'll preview it more
later in the week, but I know you got to see the bronze bomber
he's about to be back. Final wrap up thought, please, I just
know that when Deontay Wilder is in the boxing ring, it's great for boxing
because he's exciting with that one punch capability against anybody, and he's got a
big personality and I'm happy to have him back. I mean, it's a
a good card, a big card, it's reasonably priced and hopefully then will
you know, if you know, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. But
if Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua are victorious. As we've discussed, they are
trying to negotiate the final little details or big details, if you will,
other than the money, to make sure that these two men are in the
ring on March ninth, pending victories on Saturday and no injuries. And so
we'll see if Deontay can do his part, and we'll see if Joshua can
do his part. All right, we're progressing along. We're gonna get to
the showtime montage and the nostalgia in a couple of moments. A couple of
news items coming off the weekend, some fight announcements including Taya Fimo Lopez and
more give it to me please here. What you got so all along top
ranks hope was that they would have had Tia Fimo Lopez back in the ring
a couple of weeks ago in the Heisman Trophy Night in New York City.
They couldn't come with a fighter, work out the deal or whatever have you,
and so they went with what we saw that great upset and great fight
between I Feel Espinosa and Robessey Ramirez. But they apparently now have Lopez,
you know, in the fold and willing and ready to come back where he
hasn't fought since he won the WBO and Millennial title against Josh Taylor in a
really super performance back in the summer. You know, he claimed he was
retired for like thirty minute, you know, thirty seconds. We know he's
been going through some tough times in his personal life with the divorce and the
and the custody battle, but it seems like now he's finally in a place
where he's ready to get back in the ring, you know, at least
mentally, and ready to ready to to to you know, to to do
what he should be doing, which just take advantage of the fact that he
had this great victory and build off of it, you know, against Josh
Taylor. So they wanted to have him against Jose Ramirez, which would have
been a very good fight. Jose is an excellent fighter, former Unified champion,
just a very close loss against Josh Taylor when they met Unify, and
that would have been a very interesting matchup. That's a big time fight.
They offered Jose Ramirez. This is Coprank telling me this. They offered Jose,
you know, quite a bit of money. I don't know the exact
number, but it was, you know, probably close to was one of
his biggest paydays, you know, seven figures for sure to do this fight.
The date is February eighth, will take place in Las Vegas. Why
you say the eighth, which is a Thursday, The reason is because that
is the Thursday before the Super Bowl. They're going to be played at Allegiance
Stadium. So similar to what they did when they had Cha Cour Stevenson fight
on a Thursday during the week that the Formula one Las Vegas Grand pre was
taking place. They would like to have another boxing event, you know,
in a city where there's the biggest sporting event in the world, which is
a Super Bowl. So that's the reason for that. The date of the
location is not set. Probably will be Mandala Bay, which is a great
boxing venue, probably my personal favorite of any venue I've ever covered a fight
at. But instead of fighting Jose Ramirez, who for whatever reason is unwilling
to fight this guy. And I don't know what Jose's doing because he's only
had like one fight a year for the last few years, and you know,
it's not like his prime is going to get any longer. He's already
thirty one years old, he's only got the one loss, so I don't
know what the deal is there, But anyway, he's gonna fight Jermaine Ortiz,
who has been fighting as a lightweight content he'll be moving up to the
junior walterweight to take on this to take on this fight for the title.
And if you know Jamaine Ortiz, you know he's claimed to fame. You
know he's a good fighter. Seventeen one and one. But he's kind of
in a revelation because back in the May of last year, you know,
he was the underdog when he went in there as a lightweight against Jammel Herring,
who was a one hundred and thirty pound champion that was you know,
had been moving up to another weight class, and you know, he beat
him pretty soundly. You know, it was not a complicated fight to score.
He one hand lay on the cards and that he parlayed into a fight
against Vesseli Lomachenko that place. That fight took place last October, and he
gave a great performance in that fight. Now he lost the decision, but
he gave Wilmachenko everything you could handle. He was like a gazillion to one
in that fight, and he looked very good. In that fight despite the
loss, and he come back. Since then, he had one fight,
you know, ran through Antonio Moriana, you know, like a fringe,
you know, a journeyman, let's say, a gatekeeper if you will,
a guy that Devin Haney Ice with one punched, you know a few years
ago, but he went ten rounds with him, one comprehensive decision. And
you know, if Ramirez turns it down, next man up. Top Rank
and uh, you know, and uh, Jimmy Birchfield are the co promoters
of Jimmine Ortiz and he's getting this. He's gonna get a great opportunity.
So I am told by Top Rank that although the fight is not one hundred
percent locked down, as they say in the business, the paperwork is out.
In other words, they've agreed to all the terms and now both sides
have their paper have their contracts for their team to look over and and you
know, deal with that. But it seems like that is going to happen,
and that'll be a big event for super Bowl week. There you go,
Keishawn Davis. By the way, Jose Pedraza looks like that's the co
feature. Yeah, that was supposed to happen on that December card where Robasi
and Rafielspinoza fought. But because Keishaan Davis unfortunately tested positive from marijuana, he
was suspended for six months, and so his suspension will be over and he'll
be able to get back in the ring hopefully. You know, uh,
you know, if you want to smoke marijuana, that's his own business.
I suppose it is legal in many places in this country, but the bottom
line is it's still against the rules and most commissions I think all trash.
And if you want to be a professional boxer, you got to follow the
rules. So I don't advocate smoking marijuana, but if you're gonna do it,
just make sure you don't fucking get tested before your fight because they're gonna
suspend you again. Match Room. By the way, during the Bam Rodriguez
Sonny Edwards card on Sorry Night, made some announcements real quick, What are
the fight announcements because all of these are also coming in February. Go ahead,
Yeah, they announced events for February tenth, sixteenth, and twenty fourth.
They have a prospect kind of card. I believe it's probably their next
gen card. This won't mean a lot to the United States audience. But
ConA Walker and Cyrus Pattinson are going to have a rematch and a really outstanding
battle this past August, so they'll fight on February tenth in Newcastle. The
next fight is a rematch for the IBF one hundred and eight pound title,
where it was a big upset when they met the first time, when Adrian
Kiriell defeated my boys Savanti and Nansinga, who was the winner of the fight
of the Year that I picked in twenty twenty two, but he lost the
title in their first fight. They're gonna have a rematch. As they say,
as the kids say, you're gonna run it back, They're gonna run
it back. It was a timber knockout for Curiel, a shocker, a
one punch bomb good night, So they'll have they'll have that in. That'll
be one of their Mexican cards that'll take place in February sixteenth. And then
this is the one that's This is the big I mean, these announces are
not huge fights, I mean, but this is the biggest one in terms
of the name and I think the attention that will receive this will be on
February twenty fourth. It will take place in Orlando, Florida, and it'll
be Edgar Berlanga in the in the fight that we've expected against Petrog McCrory,
the Irish fighter, and hopefully this will set up the prospect if he's the
winner of him eventually fighting Hemimungia. Should Mangia defeat John Ryder coming up,
so they're gonna do this matchup. It'll be at the Carib Royal, which
has become a hot location for boxing. It's where Jake Paul fought the fights
recently. It's where the WBA just had its recent convention, and you know,
those folks that run that place, they view boxing as an important part
of their program. I love it. And and also I think for Edgar
it'll be good because in Orlando, it has a very, very large quarter
community. It's the biggest Puerto Rican community there is in the United States.
Well, I mean, other than Puerto Rico and New York City is the
is the greater Orlando areas. So I'm sure he'll bring a lot of Puerto
Rican fans. I don't know how big the Irish community is in Orlando,
but anyway, it is closer to Saint Patrick's Day, February twenty four.
Not quite there, but you're right. Yeah. Now, I've seen McCrory
fight a few times. You know, he fought on some of the Michael
Common company cards at top rank put on ESPN plus. He's eighteen, No,
not a big puncher, but he's not at all. It's not a
scrub. I think he's you know, he may be the underdog in the
fight, but this is not like a walkover. Just if you never heard
of him, trust me when I tell you like's not he's not bad at
all. I'm not saying he's gonna win, but it's not a ridiculous fight,
particularly if the idea is for if Berlanga wins and Mongia wins, to
match them together in a in a you know, a very interesting matchup.
So those are the three shows that they announced. Great stuff on that and
great stuff from Showtime are nostalgia devoted to them. Tremendous job right off the
bat with the three and a half minutes that they came on the air with
recapping everything in their amazing thirty seven year run that they had. I thought
it was very well done. Professionals. They've been professionals the entire time,
tremendous broadcasters, tremendous technical and production people behind the scenes. Very well done,
is what I will say. With all of the nostalgia, What did
you think of all? I saw my Man Rayfield tweet on Sorry night.
You had a tear in your eye when they opened the show with that,
because it was almost like a funeral and almost like saying goodbye for these guys,
even though we're more than likely going to see all, most or all
of them in another broadcast outlet. This is it not necessarily we thought.
We thought we'd see Roy Jones and Jim Lampley and right and Max Kellerman still
doing boxing matches when HBO left Bause. Jim has not called the fight since.
You know, Max has been around, but even when he was still
at the ESPN, he wasn't doing fights. He had his other programs he
worked on. And Roy hasn't really done fights either. He's continued to do
some exhibitions and train some guys, but you know, they haven't ever gotten
that team back together, and so, you know, you like to think
that some of these guys will carry on, but that was a group that
have been together a long time. You know, I take it kind of
rough because I know a lot of those people. I consider you know a
lot of those people that are at show time our friends of mine. I've
known them for many, many years. There's so many great people there.
Now. The one thing I was disappointed that the montage you reference was outstanding,
but I was super disappointed when the card ended and they didn't show the
real full MONTI montage of like, this is our thirty seven year history.
Now. I don't know if it's a rights issue with certain highlights. Who
the heck knows, But all I know is they closed out with a montage
of still photographs of their production crew. Now, all due respect them,
they're important, they make the truck go, and they're all losing their jobs
and it's a it's a very unfortunate situation. But the people who are watching
at home don't know a single person on that on those photos, and so,
okay, fine to do that, But then where was the big montage
with now they did I don't know if you saw this. They did tease
they're going to release something else on their YouTube page, and maybe that's the
long fight. I think that is what it's like. I don't, I
don't, I don't understand why you wouldn't have shown that also tonight too.
Maybe you're saving it for the big reveal on the YouTube page. I don't
It doesn't matter. You can still put it on YouTube on house. I
felt like that was a big giant strikeout. Uh, you know, so
that was disappointing big time. But that's that's what they did in terms of
of their broadcast. But in terms of the overall picture of the end of
Showtime, we don't have to rely on just what they put on the air.
We have our own memories. We watched Showtime for many years. I've
been watching Showtime, you know, for most of the existence of that channel.
Uh. You know, I can still remember one of the first things
I did when I because we always had in that when I when I lived
with my mother and my sister, we had HBO in our house. We
never had Showtime, So I never really got a chance to watch a lot
of the Showtime fights unless I was like over a friend's house. I might
have had it, or somebody like snuck me a video tape of it,
or you know, when I was in college and I and I subscribe to
it, that sort of thing. When I lived in an apartment off campus.
I didn't really get Showtime full time in my own dwelling until I moved
out of my mother's house and went and lived in my first non college apartment,
you know, on my own. This is in like the early nineties,
so I didn't have Showtime for a long time until that period of time.
So I've been a subscriber ever since. One of the first things I
did when I got my own apartment as an adult and had my first you
know, real post college job at a newspaper in Saratoga Springs, New York,
was when I got my cable, made sure I was you know,
fitted for not only HBO but also for Showtime. And so this one,
you know, it kind of hurts, like we've talked about, but I
spent a lot. I spent some time in the last several days of putting
together piece for my sub stack yep, and I hope people will go check
it out it you know where I rank and the reason I picked the numbers
because it's thirty seven years of Showtime boxing. So similar to what I did
when HBO and then and I was still working at ESPN, I did a
piece where I picked the top forty five HBO fights, and when I say
top, I had described it as not like the best fight. Necessarily it
was the best, biggest, most memorable, most important fights that they did.
So it's sort of a conglomeration. And so I did that again for
Showtime, and I did the ranking of the top thirty seven since his thirty
seven years. Now number one is not a hard pick to make. It's
Diego Corrals number one again. You know, the first fight against Jose Luis
Castillo as I, as I wrote in the piece, you know it stands
alone period, end of story. And frankly the next few I think stand
alone also in terms of where they rank. I mean, you're talking about
the two matches between holy Field and Mike Tyson, which are legendary for their
own reasons. Obviously the not the fourth fight, but the first three fights
of the great Raphael Marquez and Israel Vazquez trilogy. But Showtime's had so many
great fights. I had thirty seven spots I could have done like I felt
like I would. I wish they lasted like another few years because I felt
like I needed like about another four or five spots to really take care.
But you gotta do what you gotta do when there's so many seven won't do.
It's not enough exactly. But I mean I was when I was running
through the lists and I was like reliving some of these fights. I watched
a couple of highlights. I went back and read some of my own stories,
and I was preparing this piece. I really put my heart and soul
into it. I mean it's like, you know, as I said to
one of the people at Showtime that read it, I said, it's it's
you know, I do it because it's my job and how I make a
living when people, you know, buy a subscription to the site and everything.
But it was really a laborer love. I don't I mean, I
didn't need to do it, but I mean they had a lot of great
fights. I mean somebody like just just ones that I've been to. For
example that I think about Jared Hurd with that last round knockdown against Aristoni Laura
that gave him the victory, you know, to become the unified champion at
Junior midwaight. The phenomenal experience of being in Wembley Stadium for a fight that
was live on Showtime but tape delayed later that day, on HBO when Anthony
Joshua stopped Klitchko to unify through the hevyweight titles. You know Deontay Wilder's first
fight against Tyson Fury with the iconic moment of that twelve round knockdown, and
and Fury, you know, rising like the Undertaker. H And these are
just fights I was at, you know, the first fight between Wilder and
Luis King Conor Keys, which was spectacular. And I'm not even talking about
fights I wasn't. Like Nigel Ben against Gerald McClellan, which was a great,
great fight, although a tragic ending, a fight that maybe wasn't a
great fight to watch, but certainly was a historical nature. You know,
Whittaker and Chavez with the with the concert on draw. Yes, hey,
I joked with you. I still have the the Hagler Magabi on VHS.
Yeah exactly. I don't have a working VCR to watch it anymore, but
I have the VHS. And that's the first ever Tate Delay Showtime Championship broadcast.
And that was a tremendous fight, and it's Marvin Hagler's last win of
it's on my list career. I mean, it clearly made the top thirty
seven. I mean I have there's fights like and you know there's more than
the one I use, but there's others. In the tournament, they had
that very uh popular tournament that the super uh the what was it called the
Super six World Boxing Classic, when they took six of the top super middleweights
and they put him in a round robin tournament. It took about three years
to go through. It should have taken little less, but there were some
delays. But in the end that was what really put andre Ward on the
map. In the final, he unified against Carlo Frotch. Speaking of Froch,
you know, being their ringside when he was getting his ass kicked by
Jermaine Taylor, who had knocked him down early in that fight, first time
he'd ever been knocked down, and he was on his way to a win,
and Carl Froch stopped him with fourteen seconds left, shades of Meldrick,
Taylor, and Chavez won probably one of the most underrated heavyweight fights of our
you know, the last twenty five years. If you've never seen it,
check it out, find it on YouTube. It's well worth your time and
effort. And this was when Sergei Layakovich won the twelve round decision against Leman
Brewster to win the WBO heavyweight title. This was a tremendous, action packed
heavyweight title fight, and you have some of the biggest names that were there
that had their biggest wins, whether it's Joe kal Zagi in a huge unification
against Jeff Lacy in a fight where Lacy was the favorite going to Kalsaggy's home
country and kyl Zaggie tearing him apart for twelve rounds and basically ending Jeff Lacy's
career in the best performance of Joe's career. That is one of the main
reasons he's in the Hall of Fame. Popo fred Us unifying the titles against
Joel Casimayer in a one hundred and thirty pound title fight courtesy a knockdout in
a point deduction in a tremendously close fight. How about this on Showtime,
the Evander Holyfield became the undisputed Cruiserweight Champion when he unified the three belts.
Now that fight didn't make the list, but they The second guy to ever
become the undisputed Crewe champion was one O Bell in a brutal tenth round knockout
against John Mark Mormack in a phenomenally incredibly exciting, blazing undercard fight to become
the undisputed champion. That was on Showtime. And I was there when when
Carl Frampton fought Leo Santa Cruz and their featherweight fight that was the first of
their two battles. The first one was a fight of the year kin,
it was a great, great fight. And then we have other fights,
of course that are not necessarily of the great blazing action variety, but huge
fucking events Mayweather packet which they shared with HBO Mayweather Canelo, all those huge
Mayweather fights. You had a Vander Holyfield becoming the undisputed champion on Showtime when
he knocked out Buster Douglas. You had Felix Trinidad with becoming at like age
nineteen or twenty the welterweight IBF champion with a huge knockout against Murray's blocker.
When he won the title at junior middleweight in a very rousing, exciting fight
against David Reid. He had the biggest crowd in the history of boxing on
the night that Julio says Ar Chavas in the Estadio s Techas Stadium in Mexico
City against Greg Hougan, where they drew almost one hundred and thirty three thousand
fans for the fight. I mean, I could go on for fucking years.
We didn't get like, you know, just this year alone, he
got Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia and Canello and Charlow and Errol Spence and Terrence
Crawford and Terrence Crawford with what I consider and I actually put that on my
list. I referred to it as one of the best big time fight wins
in recent history in terms of a guy standing out in a big time fight
that's about as big and good as it gets. I mean, there are
so many memory ball fights that the great rivalry fights between Johnny Tapia and Pauli
a Ala one of them, the first one being named the fight of the
year, the very underrated war, you know. I know, Vander Holyfeld
has so many great fights, but this one gets lost in the shuffle for
some reason. Holy Field's great first real test at heavyweight when he moved up
in a battle with Michael Doaks, who was still a serviceable quality you know,
former champion. We talked about it briefly Tommy Hearns becoming the four division
champion on showtime when he knocked out je Domingo roll Dan in a very exciting
fight. I mean, on and on and on and on. Well,
it was tremendous to reflect, and you did a great job encapsulating. There's
a big word on our recap podcast, all of it. I will say
a couple of other things. And again they did an amazing job. The
tribute that Jim Gray did at the end he'd been working on that he held
it together, he didn't get emotional to bust it up. They did a
great job of interviewing Marl Ronalo with his thoughts, al Bern's team, his
thoughts live Brian Custer. Those guys have all been together for over a decade
doing this together. The one disappointment I had is you did not see or
hear from Steve Albert, who as far as I know, still living,
still capable, still. I don't know why they didn't have him at least
say I think I don't know this. I think they may have an interview
with him that will run in that. Let's hope so and Barry Tompkins the
same way I would have loved to have had something from both of them on
the final broadcast because they've called so many fights on show to I know Tompkins
was with HBO first, but he had to have called fifty sixty, seventy
or more significant fights on Showtime. So and Steve Albert certainly did in the
in the nineties and in the two thousands, all the big fights. I
just would have loved to have heard a little from them in their perspective.
And as you say, maybe we will. And the one name that I
hope finds its way if they're doing whatever that feature is. Obviously they can't
do an interview. Maybe there'll be a dedication or something. But his name
was mentioned once and I found that to be unfortunate. And that's the late
great Jay Larkin. Jay Larkin is the first ever president of Showtime Sports.
He ran that department, you know, for from day one, for many
many years. He was unceremoniously let go, like what happens with a lot
of executives when there are changes at the top. You know. He passed
away a number of years ago from brain cancer. He was he was inducted
into the Boxing Hall of Fame, not this summer but the previous summer his
family, his wife and his children were there to accept his induction. I
was very close to Jay, and you know, he coined the phrase at
a period of time when they were not doing business where they were just with
one promoter, because they had been for a ment number of years with Don
King only. But he coined the phrase great fights, no rights, in
other words, at a time when HBO was doing deals with promoters and output
deals. You know, Jay wanted to be able to say, bring us
this great fight, will bid a very good number on it, and you
can go your merry way. We don't We're not looking to tie you up.
We just want to give the best fight to our our reviewer. Now,
that's easy to do it from the standpoint when you're in second place.
You know, when you're when you're chasing HBO, which was always sort of
the eight hundred pound grill of Bud. Jay No navigated through that very well,
and I thought he did a great job for the most part once he
was free of the output deal from Don King. Okay, we gave you
a lot, We gave you a lot on the nostalgia of that, and
again a little more to come, probably and it's now done. It's past
tense, Rayphael, It's now done for Showtime Championship Boxing. And we'll see
what PBC does, not only with their deal with Amazon, but if they
have another deal, and how many of these announcers and people are still involved.
We don't know. You bring up a great point that it's not a
guarantee. We'll see. We'll see what they do from here on out.
We do know this busy, busy show, the Showtime close out for the
end of this year and for good is the Morell Knockout, the Matchroom main
event that saw the great knockout for Bam Rodriguez and his stardom rising up Jake
Paul that we talked about, he wins. You heard from Deontay Wilder,
you got news, you got nostalgia. That's a full show, that's a
people. What else can we give the people unless we gave them free money?
I don't know. I don't know what we've done well for the recap
here. All I know is it's saudy day of reckoning Fight week as we
go into later this week, preview Mode, bet Us Show, etc.
The Heavyweight co main events with Anthony Joshua's fight, Deontay Wilders fight championship fights
on the undercard, other heavyweights on the undercard. We look forward to talking
about that later on in the week. For now, though, I think
we're good, my friend. I appreciate it as always a full recap,
and we'll get ready for one of the last two weeks of twenty twenty three.
How about that coming up this week? All right, my friend,
good stuff? All right, my man, appreciate that there's Dan Rayfield.
I'm herely TJ Reeves again. Make sure you're following, subscribing rates and reviewers.
It is the Fight Freaks United Recap off the weekend, and we are
good for now. Enjoy the rest of your week. We're back to talk
day of reckoning in the preview mode with all the heavyweights and stuff later in
the week right here on the Big Fight Weekend podcast. For now, you've
been listening to the Fight Freaks U Nite recap by