The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, DJ Leaves. It is a brand new year,
happy twenty twenty four, and we are ready to go with the first fight
card of the year, a Golden Boys show featuring Virgil Ortiz fingers cost as.
I say, Virgil Ortiz, and we welcome you into the big Fight.
We can preview only because Virgil's had all the issues he's had, but
now he's ready to headline. I'm merely the somewhat capable host TJ Reeves.
He is our insider, Dan Rayfield. Fight Freaks Unit is a substack.
We should make mention to the audience. Hopefully on this podcast feed you got
to hear Dan with Virgil Ortiz earlier this week. This is not the first
time on the podcast feed that they have heard from you in twenty twenty four,
because you did talk to Virgil back a couple of days ago. We
put the podcast up even before the preview. So welcome Dan Rayfield. Good
to have you, and we're back for another year. Again, I say
again, they said it wouldn't last. We're into another year. Here,
we are here, we are ready to go. We fight talk we got
all kinds of stuff going on. We're like a few days into the year
and there's already shit happening. Yes, like a guy on the day of
reckoning card being paid significant money, who has his truck in suburban Miami repossessed
by a dealership and then goes all wwe on an employee at the dealership.
We're going to get into that coming up. There's other fight news, fight
announcements, et cetera. Thank you for finding us. Make sure you're following
and subscribing. A lot of you have been doing that tremendous month of December
where thousands and thousands and thousands of you listen to us every week, every
weekend as we preview going into the weekend, recap coming off the weekend.
Again, thank you. Make sure you're following subscribing on all the podcast outlets,
Apple Podcasts, Breaker, Spotify, Google Podcasts by the way, going
away in a couple of months, but for right now on Google podcast as
well anywhere else on the podcast outlets, the Big Fellow wants to remind you
it helps us if we're going the whole. No Google podcast is going away.
It's ceasing by the millions of podcasts that are on Google Podcasts. They're
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you to rate us and review us. It does help with the algorithms,
in particular on Apple podcasts and anywhere else that you're reading us and reviewers.
Make it your New Year's resolution. Yes, among all the other things,
like to watch less TV, spend more time with your significant other, get
in better shape, you know, watch more boxing in Dan's world, bet
on less football in some other's world. But football is about to be over.
Rate and review the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. If you enjoy what
we're doing, because it does help us out. All right. So Virgil
Ortiz, who again I heard, I enjoyed listening to you with him.
Obviously he's frustrated, he's had health problems. He's excited to be back in
the ring. I again say for the second time in the first five minutes
of the podcast, fingers cross that we get to Ortiz and Frederick Lawson because
we got to the eve of the fight week right of the Stanionas fight last
time and he had health problems again, So hopefully we get to the finish
line and get him in the ring in Vegas coming on Saturday night, Dan,
Right, Phil, here we go. Yeah, I mean I think
this time we should be okay, knock on what I guess? I mean.
Remember that was a situation where it was a a weight issue in terms
of dehydrating and trying to get down to one hundred and forty seven pounds.
This is going to be his junior middleweight debut. So if you listen to
him speak on our podcast the last episode, he talked about, you know
that extra seven pounds is a big deal. He talked about how we you
know, in his non boxing days, when he's just a normal person going
to the store or you know, hanging out with the family or going to
a movie or whatever it is, he's like one hundred and seventy pounds,
So he's cutting down to one forty seven to a fighting weight. Now he's
only got to get down to one fifty four, which sounds daunting no matter
what, but it's hell of a lot easier than one forty seven. So
he felt like he was, you know, on pace for that and was
you as look every fighter says, they feel good, but you know,
hopefully for his sake, he's ready to go. He is going up to
the new way class. I suspect he's going to be just fine. Frederick
Laws and his opponent is going also up to that weight class. But the
frustration level that you hear in Virgil's voice tells you it's been a long haul
for him just mentally getting through all this because he hasn't had a fight since
twenty twenty two. And you know, I've known Virgil pretty much his whole
career and he's a you know, laid back, you know, friendly kind
of guy. But not that he was unfriendly or anything. You know,
he was he was fine. I'd get on very well with him. But
you could just sense the frustration and the voice about this has just been a
long time coming. He wants, you know, maybe four fights this year.
I mean, that's that's that'd be a wonderful thing. You know,
at least three fights when you're fighting literally the first weekend of the new year
in January. As long as you're not injured, there should be no reason
why you can't get in those types of you know, he's not the kind
of guy that's gonna be in a scenario where you know, the money he
commands is going to be way off the off the reservation, and he's not
going to be able to fight because you know, he can't come to an
agreement with his promoter, Golden Boys. So look, hopefully if everything goes
well for him on Saturday, we'll see him back. He wants a title
fight asap. But first things first, you got to get back in the
ring. You got to show people you're healthy. You have to show people
that remember what you were when you were killing everybody, knocking everybody out at
one forty and then doing it again at one forty seven. Had a pretty
good run there. I mean, let's just refresh people's memory DJ for a
quick minute. He went in order, He went from one hundred. He
had his first full fledged welterweight fight. This isn't like mid twenty nineteen,
and he destroyed Mauricio Herrera, who granted was maybe a little long in the
tooth, but it had never been stopped and he pummeled him. Then he
took on the Antonio Arosco fight that was later in twenty nineteen. Morosco had
one loss at that time and that was a world championship fight against Jose Ramirez
and Arosco was a good contender with a good chin, a tough, tough
guy, very solid opponent, shredded him in six rounds. Dan took on
Brad Solomon, who at that time had one loss, who was a kind
of a Cagy kind of guy, had not been stopped before. He was
the first man to stop him in the fifth round, pummeled him. Samuel
Vargas, again not a super elite contender, but had been in the ring
with a lot of guys, took him apart very easily in seven rounds.
Maurice Hooker, former one hundred and forty pound champion, was a very good
fighter who only had the one loss at that time, which was again to
Jose Ramirez on a unification fight. Took him out in seven rounds. I
mean, he was just crushing these guys. These were not really competitive fights.
Kavalawskis, who gave Terrence Crawford maybe the toughest fight of his career in
my opinion, scored a knockout against Crawford that was not called a knocked out.
He knocked him out in eight rounds. That was a great run right
there. There's a reason why people had him rated highly in the welterweight division,
why he was in line to fight Stanionis. Then came to a grinding
halt. That was in August of twenty twenty one. He didn't fight again
for one year because of the Rabdobe blood disorder. Finally got back in the
ring with Michael mckinson, rescheduled, stopped him in nine had never been stopped
before mckinson was undefeated. And then all the stuff that went on after that,
with the three different times he was apposed to fight against uh Stanionis,
and it just it's been a hugely frustrating and the blood disorder is the most
it's the most concerning thing because it re emerged again and I used the phrase
career threatening. And now he's he's about to get back in the ring.
It is still it is still out there, I mean hopefully, but he
will see that was not the issue when he came to the Stanionis fight getting
bombed up the last time it got canceled. So we'll see hw and we
wish the best for him. But you make a good point. He's had
one fight in two and a half years, and you also touched on this
follow up on it. How will the punching power translate at one p fifty
four. We will know until we see him fight Saturday night, but speculate.
Do you think that punch that we've seen and what you were just laying
out will translate coming up in this fight Saturday. I do, because he
was a devastating puncher at one forty He won all his fights at one forty
seven by knockout. And Frederick Lawson is a welterweight who is also moving up
to one fifty four, who's been stopped in all three of his losses.
So I suspect that this is a knockout waiting to happen. To me,
it's not about knockout, it just when it's going to happen. You know,
obviously lost, and it's an opportunity of a lifetime for him, so
he's going to be given it everything he's got. But you know, in
the end, the talent's going to win out. And Virgil Artiz, if
he's in the kind of condition that he claims to be in, I think
that that power would just be just find at one fifty four against a fighter
that's not an elite opponent. Now when he when he if he comes true
it and he starts to get into fights against the better caliber of opponents in
that weight class, you know, then we'll have to see. I mean,
but he's a natural puncher. And what's the old saying, you know,
punchers, you know, you don't develop them. Their punchers are born,
you know. And so he is a puncher. And that's just the
way it's been his whole career. And uh so, no one's gonna be
surprised if you get a he gets a knockout, even an easy knockout.
It's a matter of welcome back, Virgil Ortiz. It's time to start anew
and and get things going. I mean, listen, as I mentioned the
frustration in his voice, I kind of feel sorry for for uh lawson because
I feel like Virgil I asked this in the in the in the interview,
you know, take that frustration out on on on on losson, and you
know he kind of laughed. But I suspect that when that bell goes,
you know, he'll keep it under control because he's a pro. But he's
gonna want to get that knockout big time. He's got He's got a lot
of things pent up because he hasn't fought in a year and a half and
wants to make a statement in it's and by the way, yeah, Wilson,
he hasn't made any money in a year and a half. And here's
another thing about that. He was due his biggest payday because Golden Boy did
a very healthy number to win the purse bit on the Stanionis fight. The
other element of this fight that's important in terms of Virgil's career is prior to
the mckinson fight, Uh, he had been for a long time with the
trainer, the great trainer, Robert Garcia. They split up for not really
like great reasons. I guess he just kind of maybe want a little more
time with him. He was going to go to Eddie Renoso. It didn't
happen. He ended up going with Manny Robolos, also a good trainer.
His father was still in the corner, but for this camp he reunited with
Robert, where he said he was at his best. You have great sparring
in the Robert Garcia gym because he worked with so many great pros and then
up and coming fighters, so there's always a competition in the gym. There's
always good sparring available, and he's back in a comfort zone they were able
to, you know, whatever their issues were, series or not serious whatever,
put them aside and he's back with the trainer that helped build him up
to where he got. So that's another positive element of what's happening for Virgil
this coming weekend. All right, so let's see what he looks like in
the Golden Boy des Own show's main event. Just before that, in the
co feature, Ohara Davies of England and Ishmael Barroso. We remember that name
from early in twenty twenty three and a fight with Roi Romero that he appeared
to be winning and it was questionable at best that it should have been stopped,
really should not have been stopped. So now Barroso and Davies will fight
for the interim a WBA Junior Welterweight Championship in the undercard. Neither one of
these guys has been very active. Davies is not a well known commodity obviously
the US because he hasn't really fought here. So give me a little more
on the co feature as well. In the preview, Moude, well,
originally, if you go back to the fight that you mentioned about Roly Romero
and Barroso that was supposed to be role Romero against Alberto Pueo. Payo got
busted with a positive drug test and was tripped of the WBA title, and
so in came Barroso to be the opponent to fight him for the vacant title.
You discussed about how it was a terrible, terrible stoppage in a fight
that the old man Barroso who looks about seventy five but was clearly winning the
officially listed at forty. But we are suspect of the Venezuelan and Barroso that
he may be a tad older. Yes, but he was big time winning
that fight without without question. And when he got stopped in quote marks and
uh, they stopped the fight and and Roly won the fight by roll stop
while he was firing a punch at Roal Maryland almost hit tony Weeks the referee,
Yeah, was being stopped. So that took place in May of last
year. Uh. Roly was had has been had a a disc problem in
his lower back and was not going to be able to make the mandatory fight.
Uh. And that was supposed to be against O'Hara, Davies, plus
there was a lot of uhuh thought that maybe the w BA would order a
rematch with Barroso given what had happened, but neither of those occurred because he
was unavailable. And after they went through the medical reports and determined that it
was legit and he was going to be out probably to at least like April
of you know, this year meeting a few months from now, the w
BA and I and I had a conversation with Gilberto Mendoz, who was the
president of the w b A because he knows how much massive criticism they have
taken over the years because of their use of interim titles, and I was
obviously a leader in that, in that massive criticism, uh. And so
he asked my opinion. I say, you know, this is the time
you're ever going to use an interim title. This is when it should be
utilized. The interim title creation, if you will, has always been something
that's been available, but it's meant to be used when you're a champion.
It has a bona fide injury, is going to be out for an extended
period of time, and you've got contenders stacked up and you're trying to keep
action in the weight class, so you order the interim title and when the
champion is healthy, comes back and then fights the interim champion and the mandatory
fight. So that's what they did. They had eliminated all the interim titles
the back a couple of years ago, with all the nonsense that was going
on, but this was a case where it made sense. So they've ordered
this fight to be to the interim title, and the winner of this fight
is then theoretically going to be mandated to fight Romero when Romero is healthy to
return. So that's the situation. That's why it's a interim title as opposed
to a vacant title or a you know whatever, a secondary title, however
you want to describe it. So that's the reason why these two guys are
fighting with each other. Golden Boy had signed O'Hara Davies. They wrote to
make a deal with a PBC, which is the folks that have worked with
for the last couple of years with Barroso, and so this is the fight.
So you mentioned about Davies, Now he has not fought for a while,
as you said, he only had the one fight last year. But
he's got a good record. He's twenty five and two. He had a
good win over Lewis Ritzon by knockout, who was a you know, a
top British contender, and that was like the eliminator that got in this opportunity.
But he doesn't have like a huge resume. But there's some guys on
there that you might recognize. He had a win over like the former lightweight
title holder Miguel Vasquez up at one hundred and forty pounds, he'd be Tyrone
McKenna, which was a solid win for him. That was a close call
in a majority of decision. So he's not, you know, a guy
that's fought absolute nobody's and by the way, he's probably his most known fight
he did get stopped in round seven. You got to go all the way
back to twenty seventeen this when he fought the pre world champion Josh Taylor.
This, I guess that was sort of like a Biggish deal in the UK
back at that time when they were both on the rise and barroso you know,
people saw him. He's not a guy that lights on fire with a
ton of punches. He's got good power, but he's not not a world
beater, but he's experienced. He's fought, you know, several good fighters.
He fought Romero it was a ripoff stoppage, but again not a guy
that's been in the ring with a complete bunch of nobody's. I mean,
he scored you know, some solid wins. He did lose probably the most
famous loss. He fought for a world title against Anthony Kohler back in twenty
sixteen. That was in the UK and got stopped in the seventh round.
So, but this is like these guys are sort of on the same level,
but Davies as much younger. And we'll see I don't being honest,
tej, I don't have like huge high hopes for like, you know,
we're gonna be talking on the recap about, oh my god, it was
like the early contender for fighting a year, right, But it's happening.
And look, the winner is putting himself in a great position about good and
good that Barroso gets another chance on a decent stage with a decent payday after
what happened to him all the way back ten months ago. Now, by
the way, we'll handicap these fights on the bet Us Boxing show that comes
your way Fridays live at one Eastern time. Davies, for whatever it's worth,
his favorite five to one or teased, by the way, he is
much more significantly fifty to one favorite Virgil Ortiz, He's five to oh to
one. What's the over on that you over or tease is five and a
half but the knockout and that is a that's a twelve round fights. That's
interesting. Uh, And the Davies Barosso over under is eight and a half.
That will be handicapping, but interesting. Barosso plus three point fifty on
the money line, what does he have? I don't know. I mean
he's again listed a forty years of age. We'll see and again Davy's first
appearance in the US. He's fought a couple of other places outside the UK,
but has not fought in the United States before. So we'll see what
we get on. Anything else there on that card that's coming Saturday, that's
the most prominent fight card that we're obviously talking about in the preview mode.
Anything else or shall we move on? No? I mean that's that's that.
Those I mean, there's other fights that will be televised on the show,
but those are the two to the main shows. That one of the
disappointing things I guess about it is that originally the one of the undercard fights
supposed to be involving a surgeate Deverychenko, who was coming off that awesome fight
against Haiman Mongia last year. They had both moved up to super middleweight.
Of course, devin Chenko had fought three times in middleweight title fights, most
famously against Triple G in a very close called A lot of people thought he
deserved to win. So he's supposed to come back from that fight, but
he got his original opponent suffered at injury, they replaced him with a different
opponent, and then deviren Chenko himself suffered an injury, so he's off the
show, and so that's kind of a bummer. But that was probably the
most notable name beyond the two main fights that we were just talking about.
All Right, good enough on those, Let's get to some news. Top
Rank did make it official on Thursday, Tea Fimo Lopez Jermaine Ortiz will be
Super Bowl weekend in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay headlining the ESPN Top Rank
show. So we had talked about that previously. It is happening on the
Thursday night, a Thursday night before Super Bowl Sunday. Keishawn Davis, Jose
Pedraza also on the card. So give us more on that official announcement there
that we now know it's coming. Well, it's good that t Fimo is
back in action. I mean, if you remember back last summer, he
had that brilliant performance and big win against Josh Taylor to win the WBO and
the lineal title at one hundred and forty pounds and then announced his retirement.
That lasted about thirty seconds, and it was the hope of top rank and
I think a lot of boxing fans frankly, that he would fight. The
plan was to have him fight in December on the Heisman Trophy Saturday night at
Madison Square Garden. For his own reasons, he elected not to go through
with that. He so he just had you know, that title. So
he hasn't fought since he won that title, and he decided he's not going
to retire and he's coming out of retirement or whatever. He's going to fight
this fight against Jermaine Ortiz. Now that's not a bad matchup. Ortiz,
you know, made his name. If you will off of a loss that
was a really well. First of all, he got a win, you
know, that kind of came out of nowhere against Jammel Herring in the middle
of twenty twenty two, and that put him in a position. He had
done a co promotion deal with Jimmy Birschill, his promoter promoter, along with
Top Rank, and they got him an opportunity to fight Lomachenko and he he
lost to Lomachenko in a in a twelve round decision, but it was a
really competitive, close fight. He pushed Loma, you know, hard all
the way. He put on a good performance and it just goes to show
you that in this sport that if you even if you lose a lot of
fighters, I don't think kind of grass this just because you don't win.
If you put up a good performance and you make people want to see you
and you show something that your career is not over, you're gonna get other
opportunities. So he came back in September, you know, he went and
got a decision to win by by a wide margin over a you know,
a secondary type of fighter, a B level contender in Antonio Moran, and
that put him in this position because, uh, Jose Ramirez, who is
a former unified champion in this way class, turned down the fight for you
know, two million plus dollars from what I am told reporting wise, to
fight Ti Fimo on this February date. That's his decision. He's gonna stop
for a second. You've talked about him before. Is he doing because Jose
Ramirez, we can't, we can't make decisions for these fighters. But he
turned down a seven figure payday correct to fight Regis Progra or in that neighborhood,
because that was part of your reporting on this seven way over seven seconds.
What is he doing? Why would you know he turned Why would you
turn down Femo in a high profile fight for a couple of million? That
just that's boggling the mind. On what is Jose Ramirez doing? I don't
know. Rose could have fought He could have fud Zapeida, who would have
been a rematch of a tough fight, but he could have fought him for
the vacant title. He could have fought Regius progra turned that down. Also
turned down this teeth Femo Dopez fight for north of two million dollars. Again,
I'm not I'm not. I don't dislike Jose Ramirez. He's a great
person. He's a wonderful guy. I mean all respect to him. He's
been a hell of a fighter. You know, I have nothing but love
for Jose Arameres. But if you are a professional, top level prize fighter,
besides me, there's two things you want right. You want to make
a lot of money. Check. You want to be a champion. You
got the opportunity check in a big event. Check. I mean super Bowl
Thursday in Las Vegas. Where do the Super Bowl happen in a city filled
with sports fans, at a at a one of the best boxing venues in
the world, at the Mandalay Bay Resort. And you turn that down?
You want me to say it? Don't make people question your desire to still
be great? You still fight? You want me to say it, don't
you? What are we doing here? If you're going to cont I mean,
if you're going to continue at the highest level and turn down these fights,
I don't understand. That just doesn't make it. So I'll explain a
little bit about this contract with Top Rank was coming due. This is a
very similar scenario to what occurred with Arnold Barbosa, who's also in that way
class and they happened to have the same manager. So his contract was coming
due, and Top Rank knew that they hadn't you know, they weren't an
agreement on the kind of fight or the schedule, so they're The position that
both sides took was okay, fine, we're going to go shop for a
deal. We're free agent. They were okay. He was allowed to then
go and talk to other promoters whoever. But with the stipulation is if somebody
gives you an offer, we have the right to match it or not match
it. So he went out with his team and they shopped around and they
made they got an offer for a promotional contract from Golden Boy, and they
then obviously, you know, fulfilled their obligation to bring that offer to Top
Rank, who then had the option to match it or not match it.
If if they don't match it, then he would obviously would be free and
clear to go sign the deal with Golden Boy. Now when they brought him,
when when the Ramirez people brought Top Ranked the contract, they didn't immediately
say yay or nay. What they did was they made a counter offer for
something else that you know, which is still an option for him to take
it or leading right. So that deal that was presented to them was a
fact that they felt was good for their company, was good for tia Fima,
was good for Ramirez, good money for everybody, profile event, you
know, checked all the boxes, good for the broadcaster, ESPN, et
cetera. And that was a really good payday to fight tia Fimo for the
title shot you say you want. And on top of that, because you
know, we know that it's a you know it's a big fight that we're
gonna do a two fight deal with you, and so whatever happens, you'll
be with us for one more fight at a good number, and you're gonna
make money, win or lose. You're gonna be back. But then you
can go your separate ways. And they turned that down again from what I
am told, and so therefore they then declined to match the offer from Golden
Boy. And so now he will sign with Golden Why it hasn't been announced
yet, but that's coming in the very near future. And what that means
is he'll probably fight in like early spring, probably go back to the Fresno
area, you know, fight you know, a decent name, probably make
good money, but it will be a much lesser event and it won't be
as much money. And that's Jose's decision for himself and his career, it
seems to me. And and he can say if he if I'm wrong,
that he is content with making a bit less money but still good money for
a smaller event, but a much more winnable fight than Tia Femo. He
would, let's be honest, he would be the probably at least he'd be
a little bit of an underdog against Tia Femo at this stage, but certainly
not an unwinnable fight. But that's his decision. You know, he's he's
playing uh, he's playing it safe. I mean, I can't, I
can't argue that's his call. But you you you're not going to be in
the Hall of Fame. You're not going to get adulation from fans and media
if you turn down these types of fights. But I wish him good luck.
And Jamaine Ortiz is the winner because when that happened, he got the
opportunity of a lifetime and he didn't turn it down, all right, And
Kyshawn Davis will fight Jose Pedraza as the co feature that's announced as well for
February the eighth coming up at the mandal A Bay, and there will be
some heightened excitement with Super Bowl weekend that's in Las Vegas. Yeah. Yeah.
Kishan is an interesting situation because, I mean, if you remember back
going to October a few months ago, he had a decision went over not
here albright, and then shortly thereafter that fight victory was turned into a no
contest because Kishan tested positive for marijuana, which is not obviously does not have
the stigma it once did. It's not considered performance enhancing, but it's still
on the books in most jurisdictions as a banned substance. So even if you
disagree with that, and it's legal in a lot of places, like to
use recreationally and things like that, you still have to follow the rules of
the commission that you're in. So when that came back positive, the Texas
regulators had absolutely no choice but to suspend him and to change the fight.
So he got suspended ninety days, got the fight change from a victory to
a no contest, and the ninety days typically in boxing wouldn't mean anything because
three months off that's not a big deal. But he was supposed to that
fight was in October. He was supposed to be back in December a couple
of months later, fighting on the undercart of when Robasi Ramirez had that in
this battle with Raphael Espinoza, the big upset, so he lost that that
spot, but they just rescheduled the exact same fight against Padraza to do it
in this card in February. So Padraza has been fighting. I mean,
he was a champion at one hundred and thirty and one thirty five, and
he's a little long in the tooth down, but he's still a very solid
guy. He can still you know, beat some good fighters, and he's
still sturdy, and he's still pretty good. I'm a little concerned that he's
got to come down to one thirty five, where he's been fighting for the
last quite a bit at one forty, so that that extra five pounds might
make the difference. We talked about that with Virgil Ortiz, so that he
could be playing into Kishan's hands if he's a little bit weaken trying to make
the weight for this fight. But if you take a look at the opponents
that Kishan has fought, by far, his best opponent no question about it.
And so that means to me that Kishan is now in this new year
coming off of, you know, having been the Olympic silver medal winner,
you know, prospect of the year from a lot of people in twenty twenty
two off to a great start, that that twenty twenty four is the year
he starts to you know, make a serious move and step up into the
bigger fights. Because this is clearly you're going from a certain level of fighters.
You've been fighting the al Brights and Anthony Yaggots and Peteras, et cetera.
Now you're stepping into the category of you know, still pretty good uh
contender slash former champions, other rank other ranked guys and as you make your
way towards a title fight, and clearly that's got to be the next steps
and it's time to do that. He's got potential, He's got dynamite in
both fists. Let's see what Keyshawn Davis looks like in net CO feature fight.
Though he's okay puncher, but I don't look at him as a big
next sitting shot. He I think from what I've seen, he can hurt
you with either hand. And let's see if that translates now when you step
up to bigger competition. We'll see if that is. If that's the case,
all right. On a down note, and that is the death of
long time manager Cameron Duncan somebody near and dear to you, because when you
first began you you were around him a bunch and spent the better part of
twenty plus years being around him. He passed away at the age of sixty
seven on Tuesday. So tell me some more about him, because a lot
of the fans, including me, don't know an awful lot about him.
But please feel free. The floor is yours. Well if you go and
you watch the old videos of a lot of those HBO fights where his fighters
are winning world championships or defending world championship jeal steal seaman in the ring,
you may not know who it is, but I can point him out to
you. No I listen. I mean, I can't say he was near
and dear to me. I certainly don't want to to mischaracterize relationship, but
we had a long standing relationship. I knew camera for a very long time.
We got along very well for most of my career. You know,
I hadn't talked to much the last couple of years, partly because he had
been ill and hadn't really been doing a whole lot in the business, although
there was no kind of you know, issue or falling out or anything along
those lines. When I first started at USA Today in early two thousand,
he was one of the first managers I actually started to deal with. He
was introduced to him from my dear friend Lee Samuel, who was the retired
former publicist for Top Rank. Top Rank did tons and tons of business with
Cameron, and he introduced us like in a phone call, and you know,
I would talk to Cameron, you know, multiple times a week for
years and years and years, you know, and I'm just gonna so anyway,
he was a tremendous manager in the sense of the guys he was able
to assemble and the way he was able to do it. Now, a
lot of managers, the way they've been able to get to the top is
they're they're well oiled in terms of the money. So it's not hard,
relatively speaking, to go pick out like the superstar talent from the Olympics that
wins the gold medal or even the silver medal or the bronze medal, you
know, if you know what you're looking at, because you have the big,
deep pockets. So what Cameron excelled at was because he didn't have that
kind of bank roll to his disposal, even though he was making pretty good
money as a boxing manager. He is the guy that found the diamond in
the rough and polished them from oh and oh and brought them to world championships
and to start them. You know, some guys he picked up mid career
or you know, later in their care earlier in the career, but plenty
of the guys that I'm about to talk to you about that he had from
the from day one, and they became significant fighters and so and I'm not
alone of this this assessment. I've heard this from a lot of people in
the business whose opinions I respect. The probably the single best person that understood
watching an amateur fighter in terms of talent evaluation and projecting them into the professional
ranks. He was the number one guy. There's other guys that are talented
to do that. Shelley Finkler is like that, Samson Lukewitz is like that.
I mean, we could go down the list of different people in the
business. But to me, and again, not alone. He was the
best talent evaluator in the sport over the period of time I have been covering
boxing. So he worked with at least four Hall of Famers two more that
are in waiting. That's six Hall of Famers and a career that lasted you
know, from like say, like the late eighties and through, you know,
till he passed thirty plus world champions. Not to mention other contenders and
and that sort of thing. But here's a few guys Hall of Famers.
Johnny Tapia Hall of Famer, Mark two Sharp Johnson Hall of Famer, Chico
Corrales, He's going to be inducted in the Hall of Fame this coming June.
Timothy Bradley Junior, who was inducted in the Hall of Fame last year.
He also was the longtime manager of somebody may have heard of a Nonito
Donair perhaps another man you may have heard of who's also going to be in
the Hall of Fame someday along with Nonedo Dunair. And I don't know the
number one pound for pound fighter in boxing today, Terrence Bud Crawford. Cameron
was his manager for most of his career. Other champions Probably the one that's
the most current is Jeron Boots Ennis, who he developed you know from the
beginning. The former unified middleweight world champion, Kelly Pavlick, lightweight champion Brandon
Rios. Another guy who's won titles in a bunch of divisions. You may
have heard of Mikey Garcia, Jesse Vargas, multi division world champion, Steven
the Webino. Classic example of a diamond in the rough, a guy with
a good amateur career, but not like a mass of amateur career are huge
credentials or huge reputation. Not a big puncher brought in from O and O
to a featherweight world title. The lightweight champion Stevie Johnston, who was a
top top guy for several years and the best lightweight in the world for a
period of time. A matter of fact, the first time I ever met
Cameron Duggant in person was on the day that Stevie Johnston lost the WBC light
White title. J Jose Luis Castillo in Los Angeles on the afternoon of the
first fight between Oscar de la Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley. He managed Danny
Romero, which I find kind of crazy. Because he managed at one time
or another Happy and Rameier, who were the huge rivals with each other,
and also a former featherweight champion, Freddie Norwood. And these are guys that
he managed from the beginning of their careers, even though he wasn't with them
when they won world titles. That's Leo Santa Cruz who he found, Victor
Ortiz, who he found. I mean, what a legacy, What a
legacy. That's a I mean, that's a who's who of the last fifteen
years of boxing to find those guys kind of at the beginning and help get
them into world title fights and into big time, start them and attention from
pipe fans. Yes, so I mean he you know, like I said,
he dealt with a lot of promoters. He dealt a lot tons with
top rank. A lot of the guys I mentioned were with top rank.
Now he had his detractors. He found himself in a lot of lawsuits.
There was issues. I can't sit here and tell you everything was beautiful and
flowers and were holding hands and singing and everything. But for what his job
was, which was to find talent, develop talent, get the talent paid.
He did that in spades. Wow, and again some of the fighters
have been putting on social media, saw Terence Crawford and a couple of others
about him being involved with their careers and this is what you as a resource
and this is what we love to do, where you can illuminate situation and
his passing. Yeah, so I mentioned too how he one of the fighters
he met. By the way, two thousand and seven Manager of the Year
from the Boxing Writers Association of America has been on the Hall of Fame ballot
for several of those although has not been elected. I mentioned to you that
one of the fighters he managed was Mikey Garcia. Where he also was a
very big deal for this person's career was Mikey's older brother, Robert Garcia,
who was a former world champion and now one of the most renowned trainers in
the sport of boxing. And Robert Garcia credits Cameron Duncan for really giving him
his start in terms of being a high profile trainer, because, for whatever
the reasons were, Cameron liked what he saw and started to talk to Robert
and start to guide some of his fighters to go train with Robert, and
that got him the start with some of the top names, and you know,
then you get the reputation, you start packing on some big wins,
and other fighters come to you. And so Robert, this is not my
opinion. This is Roberts opinion and it's his career. He's the one that
said without Cameron duncan you know I'm not in the position I am and the
irony there and he made mention this on his social media. On the night
that Diego Corrals, who Cameron managed, knocked out Robert Garcia to win the
IBF Junior lightweight title, he was in his corner and it was that was
the loss that sort of spurred Garcia towards the end of you know, it
was near the end of his career, and it turned out that his that
Cameron's fighter knocked him out. And it was then the manager Cameron that helped
him become the trainer that he was, which ultimately made his his career because
he's made much more of a name for himself and much more money as a
elite trainer than he ever did as a as a as a boxing professional.
All right, good tribute from you on that. Let's move on to a
couple of other news items. We're getting to the Durell Miller stuff in just
a second. But Tyson Fury, who's actually won world heavyweight title fights and
deserves billing above Durell Miller. He's on the rundown here because he's begun his
training, but not only that, he's in Saudi Arabia. We've seen this
on social media and has begun to ramp up for the Usik undisputed fight that
will be coming towards the end of February. So there are a lot of
There are a lot of questions right now after what we saw on the Francis
and Ganu fight of what kind of fury are we going to see for this
Usik fight? But he appeared appears being the key word to be taking it
seriously here as we began the new year in twenty twenty four with the trade
are peers, Yeah, I mean, but if you're in the camp of
Tyson Fury, like he's your guy, you're rooting for him, you want
to see him win, I think you have to be absolutely thrilled that.
You know, he celebrated the Christmas holiday with the family, didn't even stick
around through New Years, packed up and took the show on the road and
went to rhadd to prepare for the fight. So out of the distractions of
the home, there's obviously for a guy like Fury going to be far less
distractions if he's in Saudi Arabia for six weeks ahead of the fight than if
he's back home in England. That's for one hundred percent. And so that
tells me that Tyson Fury knows how shitty he looked against Nigan, who probably
didn't take it as seriously as he should have. Got knocked down, got
embarrassed. A lot of people thought he lost. I mean, that's like
unhurt. It's crazy to even think about against a great MNA athlete, but
a man making his boxing debut. And so Fury knows he's got some work
to do. And so for all the derisive things he has said about Usik,
because that's just the theory sticking to what he does, you know,
running talking about he's a rabbit and he's a middleweight and blah blah blah.
Listen, Tyson Fury is a smart boxing person, putting putting the showman stuff
and and and the and the Diary of the Mouth aside. Uh, he
knows that that Usik is a real guy, and he knows that it's a
tough fight, and he knows that he better being prepared both mentally and physically,
UH, or he's going to be in some trouble that night. So
the fact that he left home and went to Saudi six weeks before the fight
tells me that this man is taking Usik as seriously as he deserves to be
taken. And Uh, I think we're going to see a much more in
shape, in form Tyson Fury when he steps in the ring for the undisputed
Championship of the World than he did in what was a side show kind of
fight with his belt not on the line, although the lineal title on the
line in UH the fight against Uh, there's no doubt. We'll just end
it on this. There's no doubt he was embarrassed. He was embarrassed because
he was not good. He got knocked down by a guy making his pro
boxing debut. So he he's got to get focused and be ready or else
Usik's gonna lift his title off of him and be the undisputed champs. So
I agree with you. It appears one thing. I love the word derisive
by the way, well done with that. I'm not worried about Usik,
because as long as I've been watching him fight, this is a man that's
never out of shape, and it's always prepared for his fights. He is
as consummate a professional and takes it as seriously as any fighter that I have
ever covered written about met no one watched you name it. Uh So,
no one's got to be concerned that Usik's coming to this fight not prepared.
I mean, this is what he's dreamed about. I mean, I've said
the story before talking to Usik, you know, early in his career about
his boxing goals become undisputed cruiserweight champion and do what my hero Vander Holyfield did
and then following those same footsteps and do what he did and become the undisputed
heavyweight champion. Well, he checked the one box at cruiserweight in the four
belt there rather than three, and now he's one went away from doing it
in the heavyweight division also, So this is this is the goal he's had
from day one. All Right, we move on to the news and a
guy that was on the day of reckoning card in Saudi Arabia and Durrell real
big Baby Miller, hold On, hold On, he goes by Big Baby
Miller and let's just call him Big Dummy Miller instead. Well, in no
uncertain terms, he's once again in the news for the wrong reasons, and
I will put this out there while we're making the plays and the metaphors.
He apparently engaged in more activity and aggressiveness in trying to get back he's repossessed
truck in Florida on Tuesday that he did in the ring with Daniel Dubois third.
Well, that's fair. I'm just saying apparently he was aggressive, he
made a good fight, he just didn't win. Well, okay, so
let's get into what has happened and then we'll move on off of this,
because I don't know if this guy's ever going to be back in a legitimate,
serious, important fight, especially with actions like this. So what happened
on Tuesday is he he went to a car dealership with a female accomplice,
and she's an accomplice because she was in on their little plot to try to
get his truck back his truck and miss let's not get sued, please,
I'm saying this is what's in the police report. She's an accomplice because of
what she did which I'm about to explain. So they went to the car
dealership where he knew his car had been repossessed. Generally speaking, your car
is repossessed when you're several months behind making the payments on it. So the
dealership in Hollywood, Florida took his car back. The female accomplice that was
there with him went to the dealership people and said that her phone was inside
the truck and could they please bring the keys out and let her into the
truck to get her phone. And so out walks an employee with the keys.
He's being nice, and suddenly Jirell Miller, according to the person that
was involved and witness statements, appears assaults. The guy, puts him in
a chokehold, slams him on the ground, takes the keys, and takes
off in the truck. It's not clear whether the woman went with him or
not, but they take off and leave in the truck. The authorities are
called the Broward County Sheriff's Office. We're not making this up. Immediately finds
out from the dealership they have a tracking device on the truck. They find
the truck within a matter of like fifteen or twenty minutes and they find him
and they arrest him. So the big baby is in the Pokey and Broward
County jail has not bonded out at the time. We're taping this on Thursday
afternoon into Thursday evening on two charges carjacking without a weapon and assault during burglary.
And the assault during burglary charge has no bond on it right now.
So he sits in the Broward County jail. And the only thing I said
to you before we hit the record button. He had to have made at
least six figures, right, Danny had to have made at least that,
if not more than that. He made a slight card. He made way
over a million dollars for the fight. So how do you not go settle
up and just get your truck back? That's the thing that I'm puzzled by.
You are thinking like like a rational, normal, rational person that I
have known, and I would think like that. I don't know about you.
I get like, I go and I get my mail, or I
get my email maybe sometimes in the hard mail. Sometimes you know, you
know your your your water bill is due. I usually go on like that
day and just pay it out of my bank out or write the check if
necessary. Whatever. If I owed money on the car, if you can
make the payment, you make the payment. If you can make the payment,
you talk to them and you work it out. Whatever. But you
don't like steal the car. I mean, I don't know. Daryl Miller
has never been known as one to use proper good judgment. You just look
at his boxing trajectory as his career has gone. Forget about what's gone on
that's of his personal multiple drug test failures. And now you have this incident.
Well, let me hear what TJ. What are you supposed to say
right now? What are we doing here? People? Why? I mean,
how does somebody that's that's involved with him not say you, so some
of the money you got from the pay per view and go settle up and
get the truck back and so and again, I don't know the situation,
but it could not. Let's let's say the truck is a one hundred thousand
dollars automobile. All right, Let's say it's one hundred thousand dollars automobile.
Let's say he's missed three or four payments, and that's why your truck would
get repossessed by the dealership because again the bank is saying to the dealership,
hey, we haven't been paid, so therefore you got to go. You're
not you know, you're going to default here, and we're gonna ask the
dealership for the money back. If this guy doesn't keep paying us, we're
gonna ask you, the dealership, to give us the money. That's how
it works. So they go and repossess the vehicle on one hundred thousand dollars
vehicle. He couldn't vote if he missed like three or four months. He
couldn't vote more than probably ten thousand dollars for three months or four months of
payments that would not even that probably probably like eight grand. Go pay it.
This is again we're thinking too rationally. But these are serious charges.
These are felonies. He could be looking at significant jail time here to depending
on what's going on. And from the reporting I saw from a couple of
the Miami outlets, the employee that was involved was injured when he slammed him
down, and the employee is pressing charges on you know, and the dealership
is as well on behalf of him coming on their property and doing this and
taking off in the truck. Jarrell Miller. So there you go. We
gave it. We gave it the attention that it has gotten in the last
day or so, and I just don't know that we I don't at this
point. I don't think he deserves any more coverage. So shall we just
move on? You want to do that, Let's move on? What else?
Anything else in the news items that we have? The IBF does have
the purse bid up for the cruiserweight title fight. You have this on the
rundown. You want me to say it for like the fourth time of the
podcast, what are we doing here with why ji Opataiah had to be stripped
in the first place or vacate in the first place? Why are they why
did they have to do that a week and a half ago? And why
is he not fighting brit Us next best? We all want to say it
makes too much sense when he vacated for We're not going to go back and
do that whole thing. And they can listen to that or read about it.
But he was essentially forced to vacate because he wasn't going to fight Bradest
under their schedule, which was okay with Bradest who was injured. That's the
whole point. So all the sides were in agreement let him have the the
the the interim defense against Zoro on the day of reckoning card, and they
had stipulated to the IBF that that when Bradis's injury is healed, which is
not deemed to be serious, that he'd be available, probably to fight February
March, that they were going to do the fight on another Saudi Arabia card
at that time, and that would be that. So the title defense will
be delayed by a couple of, you know, three months. He'd have
an interim fight and everybody would be happy that IBF gets its sanctioned fee,
he gets the title defense, the other man, the mandatory, gets his
fight. Everybody's happy. They said, no, he vacated the title.
So once that title was vacated, the next day, the IBF did what
the IBF does, which is they sent out the letter to the teams from
the next available guys. One was Bradest who is the mandatory who I just
said is injured. The next available guy, leading available contender who had won
an eliminator in his previous fight against Joe Smith making his cruiserweight debut, was
the former super midleweight title holder Gilberto Zerto Ramirez. So on paper, Bradest
against Zerdo Ameras is an interesting fight, and so what happened in that scenario
was when the fight was originally mandated to happen. In the IBF rules,
you don't have to wait a period of time then have a purspit. If
there's one side or the other that doesn't want to negotiate, they can immediately
or within a few days or whenever they decide during that timeframe, notify the
IBF, Hey we would like an immediate perspit. We don't want to negotiate.
And that's what the team did, and therefore the Greatest team requested the
immediate perspit and so it's going to a perspit on January sixteenth. Typically this
is not an always statement, but typically when one side says they want the
immediate per they typically don't make a deal. It's possible, but they'll have
they'll be a purse bid January sixteenth. It's it's a non refundable of the
promoters that want to participate and did on the fight, five thousand dollars non
refundable, and they'll do the purse. But and then once that's happens,
they have X number of days. I think it's probably ninety days to put
the fight on, and so the vacant IBF title theoretically will be filled by
the winner of a fourth coming bout between Zerto Ramirez and Amiras Braidas, and
Opataia is going to go on and make a lot of money whoever he fights
for his next fight in Saudi Arabia. Again, call me crazy, but
wouldn't Opataia and Braidest have been the natural fight for the IBF and the rematch
and the whole thing. And I don't even want to go down the rang
with with Greatest against Ramirez. The only thing I'm saying with that is is
Ramirez is fault one fight as a cruiser weight and now he's involved in a
title fight. So I would rather have seen Opataia fight Braadus again. But
I can't disagree with that. Not getting that, we're not getting that,
but I mean, at least at least it's not a complete nobel. Ramirez
did look very good in that fight at Crusualy against Joe Smith, which was
an official eliminator anyway, So there's that and the whole thing with the IBF
in this scenario is just bizarre. It still is bizarre. And if you
know the result is going to be Ramirez against Braidus, it's not out of
the realm of possibility, particularly if Braidest as the winner, that they still
end up doing a fight with Opatya down the road, all right. And
again, in terms of nostalgia, we don't have a lot because usually around
this time frame there aren't a lot of big time title fights in the history
books at the end of December and in early January, et cetera, et
cetera. So we're kind of putting a bow on twenty twenty three one more
time. You've been putting on your sub stack, your knockout of the year,
you're Fighter of the Year, you already talked about on the previous podcast,
Prospect of the Year, Fight of the Year, et cetera. They
can read up more on those. We kind of talked last time too about
what we're looking at looking forward to in twenty twenty four, including that undisputed
with Usik and Fury that'll come fairly quickly, whether we get a rematch with
spenc and Crawford or not, whether we get Canelo and Benavitez or not.
Those are things to kind of look forward to. I got one interesting thing
for you, because you put this on social media earlier in the day.
I'm gonna hit you off the cuff. Somebody asked you because the late Parnell
Whittaker would have turned sixty years old this week, sweet Pee Whitaker, the
Hall of Famer. Somebody asked you, Pernell versus Floyd? Who you got?
You didn't hesitate. You put one word on social media Floyd in the
nostalgia. You just think, matter of fact, Mayweather on any given night
is just better in your mind than sweet pe Medaker Whittaker. And I love
Whitaker. I was a fan of Whittakers. I got to know him a
little bit. I mean all respect. He's one of the all time greats,
I mean best of his time pound for pound king for many years.
You know, I fought everybody, never ducked anybody. So this is not
a negative towards Pearnel Whittaker. But Floyd Mayweather could do everything that Parnell could
do, and had better offense, and was bigger as just a person,
like he's a bigger guy. On top of that, the weight wouldn't be
an issue because they both were champions at one hundred and thirty five pounds,
they both were champions at one hundred and forty pounds, they both were champions
at one hundred and forty seve pounds. In other words, this is not
a matter of like you're making a fantasy fight and one guy, you know,
spend his whole career as a lightweight and the other guys spent his whole
career as a wealth waier. Even if he did go to the other weight
class, it was a small period of time. These are guys that competed
in the same weight class, same weight for many years. So in my
mind, it's like, you know, size wise, it's even I just
would prefer Floyd in the fight. I think that his defense was maybe you
know, just as good as Pronel Whitaker's defense, and offensively, he could
do a lot more things, particularly if they're fighting the fight in the lightweight
division, you know, or even at the one hundred and thirty pound division.
You know, if that could if that would have been the case,
because back in those weight classes, you know, he had much more punching
power. But even you know, even at one forty and here and there
at one forty seventy. Still stop, guys to me. Parnel Whittaker.
You know, he had some knockout but they were few and far between,
at least in terms of spectacular against top ten names. And he was an
amazing talent defensively as well, So that would be a great component to a
Mayweather fight. Could Mayweather have hit him as much et cetera hit him?
I mean that's true. All right, So these are great, So I'm
gonna I'm just gonna go. We don't have to spend fifteen minutes on each
one. Chavez Floyd, who you got, because that's around the same weight
class, Julio says er, Chavez, the Hall of Famer Chavez Floyd,
Well, I made you, Paul Floyd, I mean well, because I
love Chavez. Mexicans would be after you, man Chavez, I just in
the kitchen and just pound him. He very well might you know, maybe
it would be Meldrick Taylor Ish who you know, out box Javas and beat
him up frankly for a lot of that fight, and then you know he
came back and got the stoppage. But Floyd Mayweather defensively would probably not be
able to get pounded on byvis Chavas would land some punches. Interesting, you
know that's a listen, that's one of those. The good thing is there's
no right answer. There's no right I understand, But I love your answers.
I love your answers to the nostalgia. Now the given is you and
I are absolutely in the bag for Sugar Ray Leonard. We would take Sugar
Ray Leonard like against Godzilla and against Andre the Giant and whoever else. So
we're in the bag for Sugar record. Let's go Roberto Duran lightweight undisputed champion,
welterweight junior middleweight champion. Yes, he lost in the four kings in
those fights, Duran or Floyd, And well, wait, pick away Duran
Floyd. Let's say one thirty five. At one thirty five, that might
be a guy that could hand off from Floyd. Who you would take Roberto
Duran but not Chavez? Interesting, okay, all right? But at one
forty seven, you know, I mean, yes, Roberto Durant at one
forty seven had one of the greatest wins in the history of boxing when he
beat Ray Leonard in the first fight. Right, But the rest of his
time, that one forty seven is really not that distinguished. Uh. You
know, Floyd Mayweather had you know, tremendous amount of wins at one forty
seven, they may not have been and then against the opponents at the exact
moment you wanted to see them happen. But if you take a look at
the names on the resume, you know that's where he beat you know,
Ricky had and where he beat Nanny Pack. Yeah, and where he beat
uh, you know, Shane Moseley and you know again I know those were
not you know, where he beat Miguel Coto. And so he's got a
really great track record at one hundred and forty seven. But a lot of
people view Duran uh as the greatest lightweight of all time. Now, the
thing about Duran is that when people go back and watch the old fights,
they watch a lot of the Four Kings fights obviously, which you know he
lost all of them except for you make he fought against Hearns at one fifty
four and got Bob he had to fight at one sixty when he fought Hagler
for the middleweight Crown one hundred and sixty pound limit. Those were not at
well to weigh much less. Yeah, junior, well to weight or lightweight
to your point. And by the way, and and and Duran, you
know, even as an older fighter, showed the greatness when he upset everybody
in one in middleweight title by beating Iran Barkley in a spectacular fight. So
listen, I mean, as much as I'm in the bag for Leonard,
I'm similarly in the bag for Durant because not only just as a fan,
but just as somebody that got and Noah has gotten to know him a little
bit over the years. I've covered boxing and hung out with him and spend
some time with him and just been around him. He's just such a beautiful
guy that like I have like warm fuzzies when I think about him. It's
the thing about it's so crazy about Duran is when you saw him back in
those days, he scowled, He looked mean, menace. He's gonna break
you. He's a menacing you know, He's like a you know, a
Panamanian version of Drago, but like a lot less weight. I mean,
just a nasty, scowling, snorting guy. I'm gonna break your fucking face.
Now you see him at fights, you give him a hug. He's
like he's laughing, he's joking. I mean, he's you know, he's
got a little bit of a pot belly. He's just a great guy to
hang with. And you know, one of my again I've said this on
the show I think before, one of my most fun times I ever had
in the in the twenty plus years I've been doing this is spending time with
Roberto Durant sitting at a bar in New York City, myself and my good
pal Lance Pugmyer during the week of I think it was a triple G versus
David Lemieux and UH and one of the one of the folks that worked for
Golden Boy, Uh, who was bilingual, basically did like the un translation
for us, like in real time, and we spent like, i mean
hours just shooting the ship with dur was the occasion that Duran was there.
Was he there as part of the promotion or he just happened to be there.
Yeah, they had they had brought in Duran to sort of help promote
the fight. You know, it was a big middleweight unification fight and they
wanted to appeal to some of the h Latino audience and and you know,
Duran was, you know, always happy to help promote and take a paycheck
and have a you know, a fun week at the fights and all uh.
And that was a great experience. So when it comes to picking the
historical fights, we're talking about the greats of all time, and like your
all time list of great fighters, Duran and Leonard and Floyd, they're all
on it. I mean, had sweet pe Whittaker deserves to be there,
and Chavez deserves to be Yeah. Well, I'll put you like this.
He asked me about Floyd and and Chavez, if Whittaker could handle Chavez the
way he did in their fight and get robbed, and I think that that
Floyd would beat Whittaker, and by connection, yeah, connected out that I
would. I would seem to think that Floyd had the skill. And still
I keep thinking of this. From the Four Kings documentary, the greatest metaphor
for what boxing can bring you, Duran was a homeless his family was basically
homeless, kid of the streets with no money, and boxing brought him such
fame that there was a point in time that after that Leonard Win that the
President of Panama let Duran have his private plane and Duran had it going everywhere
all over Central America the United States. This is in the documentary, to
the point that the President had to call twice, can I have my plane
back, Roberto Duran. That tells you about a I mean talk about rags
to riches metaphor. What amazing thing is that where you see some older fighters
who and Duran was in a lot of hard fights, and he had over
a hundred fights. I mean, there's not a guy that we always talk
about activity. He's like one of the last of the millions in terms of
like superstar legends that are gonna have over one hundred fights. Yes, you
know, granted he had you know, petered out at the end and lost
a bunch of times. He had over seventy fights before the Leonard wins,
seventy wins before those win. When you look at the number of fights he
had, the number of rounds that he boxed forget about like, you know,
however many rounds of you know, because that's just the official record,
not you know, how many rounds of hundreds of rounds or a thousands of
rounds you've had as a spin then sparring he had in his professional cry.
I just looked this up on box Wreck. One hundred and three wins,
sixteen losses, seventy wins by knockout, only four stoppage losses, one of
which was in you know, no Moss against Duran wasn't like I mean against
Leonard wasn't like he was knocked out. Eight hundred and twenty one rounds.
That is mind boggling a lot of rounds. What I'm getting at here is
when you see Duran at a fight and you hang like I said, I
hung out with him. I've seen him, you know, at fights plenty
of times and talk to him and stuff. You would not know this man
at eight hundred and twenty professional rounds. A lot of times you see guys
with you know, a fraction of that, and they're they're a little bit
uh, you know, punchy because of their careers. Sure of course,
Yeah, I'm not saying Duran has not suffered some some kind of damage,
but outwardly you would never know it the way he is. Great nostalgia,
So you didn't think we had nostalgia, and we just did nostalgia right there.
I thought we're going to talk about like some of the you know,
the best of the year and what we're looking forward. We've done a lot
of that. We've we've talked the last business bits about what we're looking forward.
I can talk about the Four Kings and even the Mayweathers and that year
for for hours. But we did well right here with that. All right,
let's do this. Let's reconvene on the bet Us Boxing Show one Eastern
time Friday, as you're hearing this, and you may catch that show after
it's live, but if you catch us live, you get live Q and
A with Dan, including the Q and A that I just got to have
here about Floyd versus Pernell, Whittaker versus Chavez versus Duran. How about that,
peep? You got all that here on the program at the end.
But again, bet Us Boxing Show, one Eastern Time. We'll handicap the
Virgil Ortiz Golden Boy main event from Las Vegas and much more and whatever happens
brother Rayphiel, We're off the way with a Fight Freaks Unit recap to discuss
it and go over everything that goes on this weekend. With that, I
think we are good, my friend, for another edition, for another episode.
Look forward to being with you on the bet Us Boxing Show. Look
forward to seeing Virgil Ortiz back in the rain coming Saturday night. Yes,
sir, see you on the bet Us Show and the recap. And don't
get me wrong, I'm still I'm in the proces of winding up some good
interviews for the show over the next few weeks. And again, you want
to follow or subscribe peeps to the podcast feeds because the Virgil Ortiz interview with
Dan popped up on the podcast feed. You need no other prompt, no
other social media nudge. Dan's newsletter on the Fight Freak to Night substack.
You would have gotten it automatically with an alert if you were following and subscribing
on Apples, Spreaker, Spotify, Google, wherever you get it. Dan,
thank you. We'll check you on the Fight Freak to Night recap on
this podcast feed. Yes, sir, this is the big Fight weekend preview.
I'm merely TJ Reeves for Dan Raphael enjoy the fights.