The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, DJ Leaves. The calendar has flipped, and here
we are the first weekend. Dare I say of November as a world championship
fight coming in Monte Carlo, A couple of them, as a matter of
fact, has an interesting heavyweight showdown that will be in Lake Tahoe, Nevada,
and a lot more that will be taking place, including a cruiserweight title
fight in my We've got title fights. We got fights all over the globe,
and we're ready to preview all of it here as part of the Big
Fight Weekend Preview podcast. I am the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves.
He is our insider. Fight Freaks Unite is his substack Big Fight Weekend dot
Com. Hello Dan Rayfield, as we begin the second to last month of
twenty twenty three, how are we feeling as we head into the weekend.
I'm always feeling good heading into the weekend. I'm usually feeling good coming out
of the weekend. I'm always feeling good. Yeah, that's true. Halloween
has coming gone. We've survived Halloween. Yeah this year. We always have
Like kids, calm, it's not like huge turnout. Well, we live
on the culd the Sack, and there's kids on the street, and you
know it's easy to hit all the houses kind of in a row. Weasily
quickly to get all your candy. We had like one group of like four
kids maybe like around seven thirty. Didn't have another kid the rest of the
night. But what you're saying is you have excess, You have leftover candy
big time, which in my house, we have excess, and we have
the candy that the twins, my teenage twins, brought home, and we
got to get it out of the house because you're listening to who will eat
it if we do not get rid of it. So well, I think
some of it's going to pose. Some of it will go to my wife's
office, which is good, and so that's that's we'll get rid of it
that way. But yeah, I was surprised. This was the fewest trick
or treaders that we've ever had since we've lived in this neighborhood for you know,
fifteen years or whatever. It's been low key, low key for Halloween.
By the way, I should mention too, we've got Former World champion
and he's back in action out of retirement. Jamelle herring that we're gonna hear
from it a little bit as well, some news, some nostalgia and much
more. All right, are you ready to get into it? Here?
By the way, rate us and review us. Rayfield getting grouchy right now.
We need some rates, some reviews. Five star review takes sixty seconds
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Leave us a review if you enjoy the preview going into the weekend usually out
Friday morning, the recap coming off the weekend out on Mondays. If you
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October again, tens of thousands of you finding the Big Fight weekend preview,
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people to be able to find it. Ratings and reviews help that that disclaimer's
out of the way. Shall we begin with the Matchroom Dezone Championship doubleheader coming
up Saturday afternoon US time. In all your travels and Travail's you ever covering
thing in Monte Carlo Monte Carlo, excuse me for the championship doubleheader, as
I've heard home of like the eighteen dollars glass of orange juice for breakfast.
No, I have not. Now. Triple G fought there a couple of
times, and I wrote about those fights, but that did not go there
and travel to cover those fights have not been there. But that doesn't mean
that Mattroom's not there. And Joe Cordina is in action defending his IBF Junior
Lightweight title in the main event. There's also an IBF Junior flyweight title fight,
which could be very intriguing because Dan loves this not shinga from South Africa
as a brawling, punching champ in the almost smallest of weight classes. All
right, let's get into it. What appeals preview away about this championship double
header. Well, as far as Cordina goes, I mean, he's one
of the best fighters in the weight class. He is undefeated, he was
an Olympian. He's exciting. He should be making you know. This technically
speaking, will be the first defense of his second title, ran it should
be more than that because if you remember when he fought for the title in
the first place and won it spectacularly. Last year June of twenty twenty two,
he scored that spectacular second round knockout against knechi Ogawa, and he was
supposed to come back and make a defense, but was not able to because
he had an injured hand, and so because of the mandatory being overdue and
he had already previously gotten exception and you don't have to get into the arcane
IVF rules, But the bottom line was he got stripped of the title and
Rokamov ended up winning the vacant title, and then when Cordina was better and
ready to go, he had to fight him in the first you know,
he was the mandatory to fight him in the first in Rockamov's first defense.
That fight took place in April of this year. Spectacular fight, I mean,
like bona Fide Fight of the Year type action, tremendous battle. Cordina
scored a knockdown, won a split decision, and you know, worth a
worthy split decision. I didn't think it was all that controversial. He definitely
won, but it was close. It was a hell of a fight,
and he regained the title. And now this is his first defense of this
second reign. And so they're going on the road to Monte Carlo, which
has a very famous because you know the Monte Carlo Casino that the venue where
they will host the fight. It's not like going to Madison Square Garden or
even like a ballroom in a small casino or something like that. This is
a place that only holds in that room. I want to say maybe like
six to eight hundred people. It's maybe even not that many. It's very
very small. I remember one time when when Glofkin was supposed to fight there,
there was issues about whether it would even be televised because and it turned
out, I don't think on HBO because they had no they had trouble like
fitting their production that they wanted to the way they wanted to handle their production.
There wasn't like enough room, you know, for everybody to be there.
Wetman in the personnel right right. But you know it's a high class,
you know, fancy, super expensive casino. They bring in this event.
Obviously they put up a lot of money to bring in this type of
entertainment for their guests, who spend a lot of money to be there.
Like I mentioned, probably about eighteen bucks for a glass orange juice. I'm
somewhat only halfway joking about that. Anyway, it might be a little more
for something stronger than orange juice by the way, too, if that's the
case. Yes, yeah, So this fight's this is the main event of
that card, and you know Cordeina, he's a rough customer, and there's
some intrigue beyond just the matchup itself, which is not like the greatest matchup
in the world. But if you go back to last week when you had
that spectacular comeback victory by Oshaki Foster to retain his WBC version of the one
hundred and thirty pound title by a twelve round knockout. In the immediate aftermath
of that fight, and even before that fight, O'shaki Foster was saying he
wants Cordina to unify, and it's a very makeable fight because to my knowledge,
O'shaki Foster is a promotional free agent, but he boxed on a Mattrium
card in the defense he just had because that was a perspit that they won.
Cordeina is with Mattroom, so they've got that going for each other,
so they've worked together. Presumably if he could get that fight, you have
to sign with Mattrium, and that would not be the worst thing in the
world for his career, and that would be a very fascinating matchup the two
two very good, exciting, interesting fighters. Of course, Cordeina got to
take care of the business against Edward Vasquez. You say, Rayfael, who's
Edward Vasquez? Plait a minute, Raphael, Who's Edward Vasquez? Well,
I'm black gass TJ. He is a guy from for Worth, Texas who's
fifteen and one with three knockouts. He is promoted by De Belle Entertainment,
our good friend Loud Debella, and he is taking such a monumental step up
in competition. At least when Cordina was untested, you knew that he had
something there because he had been in the Olympics, and that's always obviously a
big building block of a professional career. But when I tell you that Edward
Vasquez has not really fought anybody, it's well, I should say hasn't been
anybody. It's like an insult to guys who haven't been anybody. His one
notable fight is actually a loss, but a respectable close split decision loss.
They'd had with the outstanding featherweight prospect. That's also with Matt from boxing that
took place in February of last year, a ten rounder against Raymond Ford,
who is an undefeated fighter who was on the Virgil fighting for a title also
in the featherweight division, a really good prospect, and that was Vasquez is
one defeat. Most people would look at him and say, you know,
he has some intangibles because he's a hard every describes him as a hard worker,
got kind of quick hands, kind of a rough guy. But the
resume severely lacks. And while I don't disrespect anybody that's going all the way
across the ocean and trying to get a world title in their biggest fight,
it's hard to overlook the pedigree of a Joe Cordina and he has that.
Although that rockham Off fight was a hard, hard, tough fight. But
I hope that Vasquez maybe competes better than what his record looks like, even
though he doesn't have, you know, a bad record. At fifteen to
one, the only time he ever stepped and fought like a guy that you
would say, that's a real legitimate, world class kind of fighter. You
know, he did lose, So we'll see how that goes. But if
Cordeina can win, or if Vazquez wins for that matter, you know,
and there could be a rematch, or not a rematch rather but a fight
with Foster, that would be something impressive. But I mean, I'd like
to see Cordeina against Foster. I'm assuming, by the way, that if
Cordina does lose this is not a mandatory fight, would assume that he has
the right to a rematch in this contract. Interesting our colleague David Paine,
I always referenced him, says the British. British media is also talking about
the possibility of Lee Wood and Cordina at City Ground, where Wood would move
up. Not that it's set in stone, but it's being kicked around,
it's being rumored and you would have to pay Cordina obviously a bunch to go
into Nottingham for that fight. With Wood moving up, who knows, but
it's say awful what we saw from Foster last weekend and what we've seen from
Cordina sign me up for unification if it comes to Fruition too. It does
seem to me. As far as the prospect of the Lee Wood fight,
I do think that fight can happen definitely at some point. I don't know
if it's going to be the next fight. And by the way, Cordeina
can draw a big crowd in Wales also, so he would have to really
be induced to come to nodding have to do the fight again. I don't
have inside knowledge on this at the moment, but it seems logical to me
anyway that the more likely fight, probably because it doesn't matter if there's a
title involved. They're stilling to draw a humongous crowd that that. I think
we're probably more likely to see a rematch between Lee Wood and Warrington next,
with Cordeina still there on the table if he wins, because that's a fight
that will be there for a little while. Lee will go up see how
he feels at one hundred thirty pounds, and then if he wins against Warrington,
then maybe go for that title shot. I doubt next, but listen,
if they pull a rabbit out of the hat and it is next,
I mean, you always say sign you up for that. I mean,
I'd be happy with the Foster fight, but I'd also be happy if it
was if Cordeina wins on Saturday, to see him, you know, take
on Lee Wood in a title defenseven especially if he was going to go to
the other guy's hometown. The point here, though, is this, within
that matchroom stable of fighters, there are definitely some intriguing fights and things that
you'd want to see that could be made in one hundred and thirty pound division,
whether it's with Warrington moving up, or with Wood or with Cordeena if
he wins, Vasquez perhaps if he wins, and obviously, as we mentioned,
Foster being I believe to be a free agent, but certainly would be
open to that since Cordeena is the guy he mentioned, one hundred and thirty
can produce some good fights in the next year or so. All right,
So tell me about the South African not Shinga, Adrian Curiel that is for
the IBF Junior Flyweight Championship as well on this card in Monte Carlow tell us
more, well, if you know anything as relates to non Shinga, I
think that a lot of people who may have seen in the twenty and twenty
two Fight of the Year, at least what I called the fight of the
Year. I mean not a lot of people didn't pick it, but I
think they just missed the boat because that was a spectacular fight. He defeated
by a split decision in a phenomenal all action, NonStop rousing battle a fighter
named Hector Flores that took place in Mexico on Flores's turf. This was again
back in September of last year. He won a split decision. He dropped
Flores in the second round. He won the IBF Junior Flyway title. That's
one hundred and eight pounds. Spectacular fight, I mean spectacular, tremendous.
Yeah. He has had one one defense since then, which took place this
past summer in July. That was in in his home country in South Africa,
and he won a pretty clear decision over his opponent, a Filipino fighter
Reggie A. Suganob. I believe this is how you pronounce it anyway.
So now he takes on this cat adrian carry out, not the most known
fighter in the world twenty three four and won a very pedestrian record. And
it's not a mandatory defense. It's optional defense. And to me, what
it is is the opportunity because it's hard to really handicap in terms of the
opponent because he's fought such limited opposition. You know that it's severely limited opposition.
The one notable loss he did have was against hose Alito of Alaskas,
who was a Mexican Olympian. That was back in twenty nineteen. Is the
opportunity to see on Chinga, to see if there can be some magic once
again, because when he fought Flores, neither one of those guys was all
that well known, and they produced a classic. And so that's my hope.
And they small weight classes. You put these little guys in with each
other who are of similar type of stature and accomplishment and skills and all that,
and sometimes it can make a little you know, take take a small
flame and make it into a bonfire. And that's what I'm kind of hoping
for. We see, because we've seen not Shinga do it before. We'll
see if Kuriyel's cooperative, they can do the same thing. So that's my
thought on that fight and not Shinga in that Flora's fight could have fought the
fight on a bathroom Matt. I mean there was no lateral movement from either
guy. It was just standing brawl. Uh. So we'll see if if
it's similar here, if if Curiel tries to move some or if he's just
gonna stand in front of him and they're gonna wail. That is in the
ko feature. Anything else there do you want to move On's just the curios
won a bunch of fights. He's got a no technical decision on like a
draw from earlier this year, and it must have been a headbutter or something
along those lines. But besides that, you know, the guy's won like
seven eight fights in a row, uh, you know, and he's the
guys he's been fighting are not necessarily a household names, let's say, but
most of them have pretty decent records, so we'll see. It's always a
crapshoot in these swell way classes where a lot of guys don't really have notoriety,
they don't really get notoriety sometimes so they actually win a title. So
we'll see what he can do. But I'm again, I'm hopeful that the
kind of action fights that were has made, combined with the kind of action
fight we have seen don Chinging in the title win that hopefully we get some
entertainment for our time. That's always the key. We always like that.
Moving along on the preview, the top rank ESPN card is in Reno,
Nevada, a long way away from Monte Carlo. As we like to say,
FAA Jagba Heavyweight Joe Goodall as well in Australian Heavyweight on the rise.
That's the main event. Tell me more about this card, including keep saying
to you a Jagbas seems logical. Is maybe an opponent for real Big Baby
Anderson Jered Real Big Baby Anderson hasn't happened yet, but it's not going to
hurt if he's impressive in this main event coming up. Yeah, I mean
that's the kind of matchup you can see in due time, not quite yet.
There's a couple of things that make this somewhat interesting. I mean,
I don't love this as a main event. I think, actually, if
you want to be honest, we don't try to bullshit the fans here as
a main event on one of these shows. This is kind of a lackluster
for a main event. I'd be perfectly satisfied that this was a co feature.
It feels like this is a This card's a little light on what it
needs. It is an ESPN Plus only card. It doesn't start till eleven
o'clock Eastern time. It's kind of like out of sight, out of mind
in some respects. But you got to pay attention to the big guys.
You know, you like to see heavyweights. So we just saw the heavyweight
extravaganza in Saudi Arabia last week with Fury and Nigano. At least these guys
are both actual professional boxers. The interesting thing, if you want to look
at is two things. Number One, in the amateur days back the number
of years ago, Joe Goodall, who was from Australia, he beat fa
Jaga in the amateurs and in the pre fight at the press conference on Thursday,
a Jaba was talking about like how it's important to him to like get
the revenge even though that was an amateur fight, you know, ten years
ago so or whatever. It has been been quite a while, so he
hasn't forgot that because it was in like a big spot. It was in
the I believe it was in the Commonwealth Games. It was, you know,
kind of a significant tournament. So he wants that. And a Jaga
has won three fights in a row. He's only lost a forgivable loss,
if you want to know the truth, it was against Frank Sanchez who was
a consummate technical boxer Cuban fighter. They fought on the undercard of one of
the Fury and Wilder fights and he just got out box that night, So
I mean, that's that happens now. Since that fight, he has defeated
Stephen Shaw. Stephenshaw was a guy he won a ten round decision against earlier
this year. That was in January, Joe Goodall, who was ten to
one and one from Australia. Like I mentioned, he also in his most
recent fight that was in July, he also beat Stephanshaw, but he knocked
him out in the sixth round. So they have the common opponent to compare
them against. Not to mention the fact as I said that Goodall has the
victory against a job but from the amateurank. So they're both big guys.
I mean, this guy goes six, you know, Goodall goes six five
and a half. A job was even bigger than that, maybe six six
or even a little taller. Both both strong. A Jogua was a not
just because he lost to the guy in the amateurs, he ended up becoming
an Olympian for his home country of Nigeria. Even now now he's based out
of Houston. So you know, look, it is what it is.
It's a two like guys that might have a future in the heavyweight division who
are putting on the line against each other. And if you know the thing
about the Goodall record, his only loss, again a forgivable loss, was
back in June of twenty two. He has a decision loss against Justice Hooney,
the excellent Australian up and comer who we just saw score a nice victory
on the undercard when O'shaki Foster had to win last weekend, you know,
in his title defense. So that's a forgivable lost. Hoon, he's another
younger heavyweight, twenty four years old, that's on the ross. He's younger
than a Jagua and Goodall, our good All's already thirty one years old.
So it's time to make a move, which I think is one of the
reasons, Like he's willing to fight a Jagua. He's like, I beat
him in the amateurs, let's see what we can do in the pros.
You know, if you get that kind of win coming off the knock out
of Stephen Shaw, like you know, he doesn't take a lot to get
a big opportunity in the heavyweight division. That would be enough probably to put
him in a pretty damn good position brow some big punches. Let's see what
happens on the undercard. Raymond Murrataya, I know, is a fighter that
you're very high on. He is in lightweight action as well in Reno tell
Us more well so Murtaia. He was supposed to fight a couple of months
ago. I guess he had an injury that kind of put this fight off
for a little while. He was again the same opponent, Diego Torres.
Yeah, he's an excellent prospect. He's undefeated. I think the feeling from
some who have watched him as well as some frankly even at top rank,
will tell you that he's the kind of guy that will fight to the level
of his opposition. So, you know, sometimes he can look great.
Sometimes he looks a little bit lesser, less than great, but it's because
of maybe the guys he's fighting. He's maybe not as pumped up to fight
the lesser guys. Torres at least presents the possibility of something interesting from the
mere fact that he is undefeated at eighteen and oh and the seventeen of those
wins are by knockout. Doesn't have like big names on his record, but
you know, he is fighting an undefeated guy, and Murtia is not exactly
the most tested guy in terms of his professional fights toill. He is traded
trained by the outstanding trainer Robert Garcia. He did have a very impressive knockout
in his last fight back in May against Jeremiah Nakatilla, who's you know,
got some name recognition even though he's moving up and wait, but he just
beat him. He really blew him out in the second round, So that
was pretty impressive the way he took him apart. So what you're looking at
here is to see if Maurtaia can just continue the development and put the name
of an opponent on his record where he takes his undefeated record. That's what
this is about. And obviously if Torres gets the win will be considered I
think a pretty bit of upset even though he's an undefeated guy. And so
those are the two main fights, you know, in terms of the main
card, even though they're all going to be televised. The whole show on
ESPN Plus again a big blur of college football late Saturday night and you're getting
ready for the NFL on Sunday, et cetera. But the boxing is on
ESPN Plus. As you mentioned, there still to come here. In just
a few moments, you'll hear from Jammel Herring on his return that is coming
actually next week, but it will be before we do another preview, so
we're in the preview mill. You'll hear from Jammel in a little bit.
There is an WBC cruiserweight vacant title fight in Miami, the Don King Fight
TV pay per view. Noel mchalean that I get it right, and Junior
Macabu Miccabu's the former champion who was beaten by Badu Jack, right, but
Jack vacated the title, So now Micabu's right back in a title fight,
right, Rayfield, Do I have that mostly correct? If that's correct?
So, and back in February on the undercard when Tommy Fury fought Jake Paul
in Saudi Arabia, Bad dude Jack, you know one kind of a barn
burner against against Macabu stopped him in round twelve. Good fight One won the
WBC title, gave Jack titles in three weight classes because Jack had been a
title holder in the super middleweight division like heavyweight division, and now had won
a title at cruiserweight. And because bad Dude Jack has been so closely affiliated
with the WBC, we've talked about this, I think briefly before he vacated
the title, the WBC made him the champion in recess at cruiserweight. His
goal is to go after their title, and they're they're the only organization that
has the bridgerweight division, which is the now a division in the WBC roster
of divisions between cruiserweight and heavyweight. It's a limit of two hundred and twenty
four pounds. So Jack's goal is to go win a title in that weight
class. So he's going to fight for that belt as the WBC has already
approved. He wants to win that. You know, if he does,
he'll say, you know, I'm a four division world champion. You can
talk about the merits of the Bridgerwaight division all you want, but it's the
same kind of thing I think that we talked about the merits of the cruiserweight
division, you know, twenty years ago in any event that left the WBC
belt vacant, and Makamu certainly is not a pushover. He's in this vacant
title fight against the Michellian who has been a top contender for quite a while,
has fought some solid competition, was a participant in the World Boxing Super
Series. You know, has has some good wins since his loss in that
tournament. In twenty eighteen, he lost to Myers Bradus, who became not
only a title holder in a sanctioning body, but the lineal champion, and
before he lost that title to Jai Opataia in their tremendous battle. So this
is for that vacant title. It's on. Like you mentioned Don King,
I'm not sure why he's even still doing this. It's not a fight that
has had a lot of publicity, but it is the main event in any
event on this fight pay per view that takes place on Saturday, and the
winner is going to have a title. I mean, I don't know where
that puts them. It's not like there's some big mega fight out there,
but hopefully the cruiser rates will deliver some action. Oftentimes a cruiserweight division does
deliver action. Player of five for me because I don't subscribe to fight,
so I need your assistance. You pay a monthly fee obviously for fight and
then you're paying what or no, it just with the one off. You
just buy this and there there's if you go on the fight app, I
should send them a bill for what I'm about to tell you, give you
the tutorial. The fight app has plenty of stuff in terms of combat sports.
I have right, yeah, and then they they have wrestling, They've
got boxing. I've got all cards. They've got some bigger cards. Sometimes
they're the digital a digital provider. For example, in the United States,
they were one of many that was a carrier of When Canelo fought his most
recent fight against Charlotte, you could have bought it on fight same as a
regular pay per view, just another platform to do so. They've got tons
of free stuff this particular fight. If you want to buy it, I
don't. I forget the price. I want to say it's maybe like nineteen
ninety nine or something. I was going to say, if we're talking forty
nine ninety five, or maybe it's in the twenties. But the point is
it's a it's a cheaper pay per view. You just buy it and watch
it like that, and you have opportunity to watch a replay. What I
subscribe to is I get what's called Fight Plus, and they have some cards
that are available. It's like seven dollars a month, and they get cards
that they have on there that are not pay per view. They're just part
of your subscription plan. And they've had cards from Boxer, they've had some
other like like they have like Jerry Forrest. He had a fight the heavyweight
on a card, like a club kind of card that was in Virginia.
They carried you a month or two ago. So if you're a degenerate like
I like to say, that's a good plan for you. But in terms
of the fight, it's just a regular pay per view for not as expensive
as what you'll see if you buy, you know, one of the bigger
pay per view events. Instead of seventy five dollars, I might cost you
twenty twenty five bucks. That's what I was curious about. Good on that,
So we gave you some good preview material. More preview material here out
of the mouth of Jamel Herring. The former world champion is back. The
card is coming in New York. It is the Heroes on the Hudson card
that will be taking place in New York as part of Broadway Boxing, and
Debella entertained. Jammel is going to tell you more here in the conversation I
had with him recently about why he's back and why this event is important to
him, and let's get to it now. As we do continue along.
It has been a little while since I've gotten a chance to talk with this
guy, and usually Dan Rayfield monopolizes all the interviews. So when I was
able to connect with Jamelle hearing again, I'm like, I'm going for this
myself. I got to talk to Simperfi myself here, So I hope you're
not too disappointed that the playful grizzly bear is not here to do the interview.
No no on Twitter, I understand, simper Pi. How are you
and I know you're getting back in the ring, you're in training. How
are things? Things are great? I'm fine, I'm fine. It's good
to speak to you again. Man. I'm in good spirits, I'm in
good shape, and I'm overhall just happy. I'm just happy to be back.
Did you miss this? Is that part of why at almost thirty nine
years of age your bad? Did you miss this? Having got fun a
year? Yeah, I definitely definitely missed it definitely missed it, especially with
being within the commentary the commentary world, you get to see the fights up
close and all the great fights out there, especially you know, commentating with
top rank that those guys are considered family over there, So it's an honor
to be commentating with Christina poncra But it was definitely one of those things where
being in the moment up close, definitely you know, has a way of
doing things to you, uh and you get the you get the itch.
I mean, I've always said broadcasting is the next best thing because you're there,
you're around it, the crowd's going crazy, you know this, there's
adrenaline going. But it's not the same thing as competing in it. Did
you miss the competition and the thrill of the potential competition? Is that part
of why you're back? Absolutely absolutely, It's it's always the thrill. You
missed the you missed the atmosphere from the crowd, you know, pushing youss.
You missed just the you know, the strategy and the chest matches within
inside the ring, So all that definitely plays a part, and it's just
like you know what, let's just give it. Let's just give it.
A last go love this for Jamel Hearing. He will be part of Broadway
Boxing from De Bella Entertainment in the Edison Ballroom in New York City that is
coming up on November seven, not too far away at the time that we're
taping a little bit in advance here, Jamel back in training to fight Nick
Molina in an eight round main event. What's special about this and this is
near and dear to your story, which we're going to talk more about here
in this conversation. Is there a bunch of amateur fights as I understand it,
involving police officers, military, etc. That are fighting as amateur fights.
They're building this as heroes on the Hudson. What does that mean to
have that on the card with you guys fighting as professionals jameel Man. The
title says all. They're all heroes from a police academy, force, a
military force with West Point Military Academy, you know, taking the lead on
things with So it's always great to you know, give spotlight to others as
well, other than yourself, and to give back, no doubt. Jamel
Hearing, the former WBO Junior Lightweight World champion, hangs with me made three
successful title defenses, and he hangs with me here on the Big Fight Weekend
podcast for a few more moments. Your story is so well known, two
tours of duty in Iraq. I loved what you said so many different times,
so many different ways when you faced what you faced over in the in
the Middle East. A boxing ring is not going to intimidate Jamel Hearing or
anybody else that's been up against that. Just to elaborate on that point about
how your military career prepared you for what is Let's be honest, it's a
brutal, dangerous sport, but in a lot of ways, the Marines prepared
you for that. Of course, on the Marine Corps is same as to
say with boxing. They always say boxing is eighty percent mental twenty percent physical,
and I believe the majority of my time as a marine is really mental.
It's all about getting those through stressful times and being placed in a situation
where you had to be quick and to think on your feet. I've lost
I've lost friends, I've seen friends injured, I've seen friends go through trauma
even outside of the battlefield. So when I look at things like that and
I have maybe a rough outing or a rough fight in the ring and I'm
sitting in that corner. I always take that moment I think to myself,
you know, you've been through worse. It could be worse, and but
overall you've succeeded and got yourself out of those dark places, whether whether it's
in a battlefield or things that I may be going through mentally. So I
always say, like, this is this is this is what you choose to
do. This is the fun part that you. I chose to be in
the ring. I chose to be I chose to be a boxer. I
mean I did ye. I chose to be a marine. But it's the
same time, you know, we anyone would rather be in their comfort zone
rather than a battlefield to any day. So again I always look at those
moments in my in my lifetime as as a United Marine, and I just
reflect just for that one minute or so in the corner. Ray Phil and
I love to get nostalgic. I'm about to get nostalgic with Jamel Herring.
Let's go back to May of twenty nineteen, May twenty fifth, to be
exact. You beat Masa Yuci if I say yuki, if I get it
out Itto for the world title. You became a world champ. I'm becoming
an old man. You're not an old man. You became a world champ
four years ago this past May. What do you remember finally, If not
everything, finally, but give me some things you remember about capturing a world
title and living out a dream for starters, that was the That was the
day. That was my birth my daughter's birthday. My daughter she would have
been she would have been ten years old that day, but she had passed
away from SIDS at two months. So that was basically my gift to her.
Because again, like we just pointed out, I always think about everything
that I've been through to the up until the up until now, and that
was one of the moments. Listen, I've been down and out. I've
been I've been at the lowest, I've been at my weakest. I've been
vulnerable, you know, and I've showed that. I'm expressed that. But
again, I always use my daughter as my guardian angel. If you look
at my trunks and every one of my fights, her name is always stitched
and attached to all my trunks. So even when I'm in again, sitting
down in that corner, I always looking down, I'm like, listen,
you know, she went, she went, she went and appreciate her fight,
her father, you know, giving up on herself for being a quitter.
So that was my gift to her. And that's one of my fondest
moments in that and I remember that whole entire day vividly, of course,
but you know that's when I you know, look when if after I got
the victory, I just looked up to the sky and you know, I
thought about my daughter and I said, I did it. I did it.
This is for you. Love it. What a story and that moment
every fighter dreams of the moment in a world title fight, especially in a
decision when they say and the new But what did it mean to hear and
the new w started? I had to fame Jimmy Lennon Jr. To be
the one so a part of that memory, you know, to be a
part of that journey me just in that slight moment. So again it's these
are guys that that I watched even as announcers growing up as a kid.
And to have somebody like Jimmy Lennon Jr. Be the one to announce me
being the new world champion was a special was a special moment. I still
gotta get Michael Buffer in one day, well, you know, for one
of my fights. But again it was just it was just a great feeling
and it was like everything was just the weight lifted off off my shoulders at
that at that moment. And again, no, I don't, I don't.
Nothing but nothing nothing the top that. Even if I went another well
when I do win another world title, nothing's going to top that. I
don't often do this, but I know you have much respect for a former
US Olympian just like you are. Shakur Stevenson defeated you. Shakur is a
tremendous fighter. You were in the ring with him a couple of years ago.
He's fought several times since then. What what's the potential? Sky is
the limit? It looks like to us for this guy. You've been in
the ring with him, you've been watched him, you've been around him.
Fellow US Olympian, what about cha? Cour Just real quick, it's funny.
I was actually I actually was a call to help your call out during
this training camp because he's also here in Las Vegas where I'm training at.
For me, I'm a sportsman. There's never any bad feelings. I don't
I don't take anything personal. He was a better man, He's a great
talent, and honestly, I take a lot of pride in that fight,
even though I didn't come on the winning end. But if you look at
it, as you see now, nobody wants to fight him, nobody wants
to fight him. But here for me, I didn't hesitate that once.
I didn't make any excuses. I didn't make any crazy demands. I just
wanted to be treated fairly when it came down to negotiations and making a fight.
But I never ran away from the fight. And you know what I
seen was this kid was just sharp, like he's just a brilliant fighter.
In that ring, I was physically bigger than him, I was stronger than
him. But again, he took away all my strengths from me and he
did what he did in that ring. So I can't fault him for that
and again, and he's only getting better. He's only getting better now.
I think, I think, and I think, and it's scary because I
believe we still didn't see the best of chakor Stephenson. So again I'm rooting
for him. I want to. I want to see him go out it.
I mean, because again, it makes it, It makes it better
for me knowing, Hey that, hey mel Herring fort this kid and a
younger version of Stevenson. And then you look at teenage from now and he's
still at the top. It's like, look what he's at now. So
again, I'm just happy to be at least a part of that journey with
him. And we're good friends now. So again I'm happy for him.
I think he's doing a great job and I think he'll he's gonna have plenty
of hardware going into the future with his career. Let's be honest. Well
said, there's gonna be a long list of people who are going to say
I fought and lost to Shaquar Stevenson. There's no yeah I say that than
lose to a total guy the had no business being there with me. So
I hear you on that. Hey, the broadcasting you mentioned getting to work
with top Rank, with Christina Poncher and with others at other events. Uh,
what is that? Like? You do a really good job with that.
I love your insight, I love your enthusiasm. Keep up the great
work with that. What is that like making that transition and doing analysts work
on fights. It's fun because I still even if I'm even if I continue
to say I don't want to fight tomorrow, I still get to be part
of something that I love with just boxing and just and just witness great moments,
you know, through through through my own eyes of close and Christina Pontra
is a great teacher. She's a great mentor and a great and a great
friend. So actually I give a lot of credit to her because there's times
when she helps me pick up the energy and it's like we feed up each
other's energy. It's like, you know, she'll give me an alley oop
and they'll take it from there and and so on. So again, it
is great. Todd Rink has been great to me. They they had not
only gave me an opportunity to become a world champion, but they put me
in a position because I always wanted to be a commentator as well, because
I grew up watching guys like you know and from the boxing side, like
you know, the big big George Foreman, the Roy Jones, Juniors of
the World, Paulmonaji and so on, the fighter in that seat, Sean
Porter and the list just goes on and on and on, and so I
always you know, admired, you know, the fighter giving their you know,
giving their vision and perspective on things from from that seat. All right,
one more time. It is boxing returning with Heroes on the Hudson from
Devella Entertainment and Broadway Boxing. It is November seventh in New York. Jamel
hearing headlines against Nick Molina. He's an He's an undefeated young fighter. Give
me a quick scouting report on the challenge against him, real quick in this
fight. Still obviously he still has a lot to learn, of course,
but again you can't he has the youth on this side. Let's be honest.
You can't take anything from him because this could be like his lottery ticket.
So of course you've got to expect the best of Nick Molina. Doesn't
matter if he hasn't fought the level of competition now for and again, I'm
not getting any younger, so I'm eager to like I know where I'm at
now. I feel great. I have the great Wayne mccullor. You know,
it was the former World Champions Zone right in my corner. And if
I'm always honest with myself, because you know, I'm a US Marine,
so we have integrity. The main thing I was missing for my game was
mainly just the defensive aspect I could fight. I can be that dog in
the ring because I have that, you know that that the military grid behind
me. But I lacked that defensive aspect at times. And you know,
being him and Wayne, He's gave me so much confidence because if let's be
honest, if you take less damage and still could be in the fire without
getting without being burnt, it goes a long way. So I'm actually really
eager because and I chose this fight because Nick. If I can't get past
Nick Molina, how can I get to the World champions the joke Rdinas and
the Mayor Reads and the Hector Garcias and so on and so on in this
division. So I didn't want to say I didn't take a fight where it
didn't really do nothing for me with Man, Okay, I put on a
good show for the people, what does it do for me as a fighter.
So we chose Nick Molina because he's younger, he's undefeated, I'm pretty
sure he's hungry, and you know, and I just want to I just
wanted to test myself and push myself and he will do that on November seventh.
We root for the story. We also root for people. Root for
this guy. Folks root for Jamel Hering Simper five, former world champ,
back in the ring in November as part of de Bella Entertainment's Broadway Boxing.
Thank you for spending a few minutes with us once again on the Big Fight
weekend. Pik is nothing but love for you continued success in the ring and
with the broadcasting. Thank you, Jamel, Thank you TJ. I appreciate
it. Brother, I appreciate it. Then please have me you on here
more often than I'm only one called away. I guarantee you in my heart
that this will be the last time I feel like I will have my hand
raised and it'll be a great Matt, It'll be a great performance. And
again, who knows we'll be talking next about going into a world title fight.
So I feel it in my heart. It's still much to come again,
Dan, it makes sense because this is a Tuesday fight and we're in
the preview mode to still preview here for Tuesday night the Edison Ballroom, New
York City. I assume you've been in the Edison ballroom at some point.
For this the heroes on the Hudson is the card. And again, as
we mentioned in the conversation, he intends to keep going. This is not
just a one off. He wants to continue to fight. So thoughts on
all of that, I mean, I'm not sure how long that's going to
be. Jameelis thirty eight years old. I've always viewed him and I think
he would agree. He's been an overachiever. You know, when he came
out of the Olympics, when he represented the United States in the twenty twelve
Games, which he was actually the captain of the United States Olympic team,
he had the respect from all of those teammates. And the reason why,
by the way I'm sure you talked about it, is that he is a
Marine Corps veteran and this is a card that's you being put on where there's
going to be some amateur bouts involving fighters in the military branches as well as
to help benefit some military related charities and such. So you know, he's
coming back after a layoff, after a retirement. He lost two fights in
a row. He got knocked out by Shakhor Stephenson and lost his world title
back in twenty one the WBO one hundred and thirty pound title, a very
lopsided fight and a knockout, and then he had I think at the time
people consider it to be a mild upset. Jamaine Ortiz defeated him in a
decision. Then Jamaine of course went on and had a tremendous battle against Lumachenko
where it was a very close fight, and then he decided to retire.
So he's coming back, what a year and a half later, and he's
taken a Nicholas Molina and listen, Jamel is a guy. If you ask
anybody in boxing, I don't care who is promoter, fighter, writer,
other personnel within the sport. He's a well liked guy through throughout the sport.
Everybody likes Jammel Herring. He's a very friendly individual. He goes to
a lot of fights. He does a good job when Top rank you know
who he was on their roster for a long time, won his world title
with and that he douzled some of the international when they do like the shows
from Japan and some of the other other cards. You know, he's one
of the broadcasters, does a lot of those events. So I just especially
good luck. He's a good dude in all the best to him. I
agree with you on that, and again Simper two tours of duty in Iraq,
what a great story. As we were talking to him about that as
well. Heroes on the Hudson fight card coming and it's on Tuesday night,
it's on his own, it's available. There you go, so you've got
the opportunity to see that coming on Tuesday. Okay, fight news, before
we get to some nostalgia. They have officially announced what you've already been talking
about the undercard for the upcoming David Benavidez Demetrius Andre pay per view at the
end of this month. Jamal Charlo will be back in a non title fight.
There's also a couple of other title fights on this pay per view.
I know you've made mention here. We're not over exaggerating. They're not paying
us to sell this. This is stacking up to be a really good pay
per view card. It looks like give us the details. Well, part
of that is because PBC has had this sort of backlog of fights that they're
trying to clear the deck of that they need to based on deadline from sanction
bodies fights that day have one at purse bids, and of course we know
Showtime is going out of the boxing business, so they need to get a
couple of these done before that occurs. So they've done what they're supposed to
do and they've made a pretty good card. The fights that they've put on
are not super expensive. When they won the purse fit so at least it
fits in the budget. This is of course the undercard of char not Charlo
of David Benavite's had taken on Dimitris Andre so Yes. Jamal Charlotte has been
out of the ring for two and a half years but still holds the WBC's
been Away title. He will have his first fight in a long time.
He will take on Jose Benavite's junior, who is the older brother of David
and both of them are trained by their father, Jose Senior. It's a
ten round fight. Some people are upset because if you've been out of the
ring for two and a half years and the WBC has allowed you to keep
your world title, you figure the least you could do when you come back
is to defend your title. But no, he is now taking a non
title fight. My understanding. How I have heard it is that it was
originally supposed to be a title fight, but for whatever reason, he's not
on weight or he is not going to be able to make the weight.
I'm not sure. You know, after all this time, if you're going
to be the champion, should be able to make your waiter give up the
title in any event. There you go. It is a ten rounder as
a non title fight. I am told that the weight limit is one hundred
and sixty three pounds. Perhaps it might be plus one, which is sometimes
the language use, So perhaps it's as heavy as one sixty four. I'm
not entirely clear on that just yet, but suffice it to say, it's
good to have Charlotte back. I don't love that it's not defending the title.
This is not nineteen fifty when guys would take non title fights all the
time, and the reason was fine because they were defending their title often.
But the guy isn't defended in two and a half years, and now if
he takes this non title fight, you and I know Dan well that even
if he wins and looks good, he ain't coming back into the ring for
another What about Okay, but what about it, And I just bring this
up because you cover this all the time, and the WBC and the other
organizations will do this. What about the WBC stepping in and saying, okay,
ten round fight here, but now we're gonna order you to fight Carlos
Adamis, who's the interim champion, who's waiting and who's not gonna risk that
slot. We're gonna order you to fight him in a certain amount of time,
whatever it is one hundred and eighty days or what or what it is.
What do you make of that they have done that in the sense that
when they allowed Adamis to take his last fight, the plan was, according
to the way the WBC described in their order, was that both the Damas
and Charlot would be permitted to take interim bouts and then they'd be ordered to
fight each other. A Damas had an interim bout, hopefully he gets another
one. We is going to keep waiting, and Charlot this I guess technically
would be his interim bout, and then I guess supposedly we'll see how it
works out. But I guess then the WBC, based on their previous ruling,
would say after Charlot takes this fight. If he wins, they will
then make the order that it will be Charlot versus Benavid's and who that knows.
If Charlote's even gonna want to stay at one hundred and sixty since he's
not making that wait for this fight, and maybe he moves up, who
the heck knows. But like I said, the main thing is it's good
to see Charlot healthy, back in the ring, got hopefully his life in
order. The reason for this long laugh is, you know, in the
beginning was partly because of injury, but that was a couple of months.
It's mainly been all the other issues that's been having outside the ring. As
far as the rest of the card goes, we've talked about the prospects of
these fights. You're talking about the IBFG welterweight title defense between the title holder
Sabril Mattias, the big puncher all knockouts and his wins from Puerto Rico,
against the mandatory Shoha John Ergyshev. Again, this is one of the fights
that TGB won at per SPID that shapes up like a very interesting fight,
very solid fight. Ergyshev is undefeated, Mattias has the one loss avenged,
huge puncher. That should be an interesting matchup for sure. And then you
have the other fight I mentioned. We've talked about in the past. It
is the WBA's Junior lightweight title defense between Hector Luis Garcia and his mandatory Lamont
Roach. Now Garcia when he won the title in a kind of an upset
over Gutierrez, he has not yet defended it because in his next fight he
went up to one hundred and thirty five and was the opponent that got knocked
out by Gervonti Davis in January. But he decided, Okay, now I'm
going back to one thirty to defend my title. So this is that mandatory
Lamont Roach. He has lost one fight in a title fight, that was
against Jamel Herring when he was Jammel's mandatory back a few years ago. Roach
A is a consummate technical boxer. Garcia is not as much of a technical
boxer as Roach. Honestly, when I look at the matchup like they're two
good fighters, hard to see this one being action packed. Hopefully I'll be
wrong. This one has science written all over it. As we'll see a
boxing match and we'll see whoever it can be the better boxer on that night.
All right, speaking of Showtime, you have been talking on these podcasts,
You've been running about it on your substack, and we've been putting it
out there on Big Fight Weekend dot com as well about whether or not they
would have one more pay per view. It does not look like it.
What does it look like they're going to do here in December before the end
of the run after thirty seven years for Showtime Championship Boxing and pay per views.
Yeah, it's kind of a sad situation, as we've talked about where
they're going to get out of the biz, but it had been unclear.
We all knew they were going to do this fight card that they're doing,
remember twenty fifth with the Benavids against andre and they rounded out the undercard with
the fights we just talked about. So now the question became, what are
they going to do besides that? And as it was said to me on
a multiple of occasions by various people who would be involved, where is the
possibility that there would be a December ninth pay per view? Which was termed
to me as like the stronger possibility along with the possibility of a non pay
per view regular network fight to close up shop on December sixteenth. As it
turns out, and now apparently this is what's going to take place. Nothing
is official yet, but this is where what I am told by people at
the network and others involved with the event. There will be no pay per
view. There will be no event on December ninth. They will they will
have a network show on December sixteenth. It will take place at the Armory
in Minneapolis, which has become a place where they've done a number of fights
over the last few years, and the headline fight on that show will be
the WBA Regular supermdaway title holder David Morrell, who is based in Minneapolis and
has a fan base there. Opponent still not yet set or signed that I
guess they're finalizing a deal. I'm not sure who that opponent is, so
he'll be on that card. It'll be a tripleheader most likely. One of
the fights that probably will land on that card also is the rematch between the
lightweight Chris Colbert and Jose Valenzuela. Colbert won a decision over Valenzuela in a
controversial kind of decision. There will be a rematch and so that's at least
another one of the fights. And then the other fights that were sort of
bandied about as for this possible pay per view fights like Arislani Lara against Danny
Garcia, Amantis Danionis in a regular welterweight title defense against Keith Thurman. Those
fights are not going to take place on this showtime card. They are too
expensive. It's not a kind of a card that needs them to help sell
tickets because it's in Minneapolis. TA can put on you against me and it
would already be sold out anyway. So if those two matchs pas, okay,
you're saying because of morel So is it the case if it happened,
they would be probably early next year or so? Cinsure on the subject.
Is it the case from your reporting that there just was not an appetite from
Paramount and whoever to pay for the expense of the pay per view and the
expense of the fighters, And that's why it's not happening. After it had
been rumored there would be one more pay per view. What what happened?
The network show costs them more than the pay per view because on the on
the pay per view, they're not taking any game they're not. It's not
their money. They're they're just they're helping out on fight night with the with
the cash flow. But the expenses are basically just a production and you know,
some other smaller expenses. So uh, I think what happened was they
just figured, you know, it's too many pay per views in a row.
It's not a strong paper view to really sell. There had been conversation
that maybe they would try to headline it with the Mayweather exhibition fight, which
I don't think anybody really had the appetite for. And they are going out
of the boxing business, so they weren't going to go like off the off.
Uh. You know, their their their plan, and I would assume
that behind the scenes there was some lobbying. I'm sure I didn't ask them
about this, but I am quite sure that Steve Espinoza, who's the the
outgoing president or of the of the soon to be the Funk Showtime Sports Department,
lobbied to say, look, guys, we've been in this business thirty
seven years. We have a beautiful, incredible history in boxing, and we
owe it to our subscribers, to the fans, to our partners, and
just to the history and to ourselves frankly, to go out the right way,
put on one more show. Let's close it up the right way.
Let's you know, not just bow out with a pay per view and then
a replay a week later. Let's just do this the right way. We'll
put on a solid card. It's not star studded, but you know,
if it comes off that, it's morel in the main event and they put
on that rematch, I mean those are I mean, they're not the biggest
fights in the world, but at least it's worthy of being on Showtime.
I wanted to vomit when I thought there might not be another Showtime Championship Boxing
card and that the last live Showtime champions of Boxing card that we would go
out on was that piece of shit card I went to in August that took
place at the National Harbor, that had the two blowout prospect fights that stunk
in the two fights first and then the main event was that bandonweight piece of
crap where nothing happened for eleven and three quarter rounds until Emmanuel Rodriguez dropped Melvin
Lopez three times in one one of the worst fights I've ever had the misfortune
to be ringside for So if that was gonna be my lasting memory as a
ringside spectator for Showtime, that would have made me said, now, I'm
not going to be going to Minneapolis, but at least that won't be the
last Showtime Championship boxing from August that I just mentioned. So hopefully they'll just
go out on the high note, put on a good card, Hopefully get
to get their producers, you know, into the film room and cut together
a wonderful highlight package the way HBO did when they ended their run, so
I can go back and look at it on YouTube and whenever and relived the
great memories of the awesome Showtime fights through the years. But I think that's
what happened. I think they just said, you know what, fuck the
pay per view, Let's just do a regular show, make it a good
show best we can, you know, spend the money we've got left in
the budget, and let's get on with things all right, and moving right
along. You have also been mentioning the return of Virgil Ortiz and then likely
it would be moving up to junior middleweight. Golden Boy has made an announcement
on Thursday as we tape the podcast. It is now official more details.
Yeah, not as surprise. I had reported this the day before, as
did our friends at Boxing Scene. They made it official the next day,
which is like you mentioned, Virgil Ortiz will be moving up to jingor middleweight.
As when we did the interview with Oscar de la Hoya that played on
the podcast a couple weeks ago, we talked about that as the likelihood and
that he would fight in the first part of January, which is exactly what's
going to happen. So he will be back to headline a his own card
January the sixth. He'll take on Frederick Lawson. Probably not the most known
guy to the most of the boxing public, but he is thirty and three
with twenty two knockouts. He is from Ghana, he lives in Chicago.
He's fought a couple of okay guys, not the biggest name for Virgil,
who's been out of the ring for now. It'll be I guess close to
a year anyway since his last fight. In all the medical issues and a
new way class, I guess, not the worst thing I've heard of.
I'm a little disappointed that just because the last Virgil fight was supposed to be
a big time fight that we're all looking forward to against Stanionis, So to
go from Stanionis to Frederick Lawson. That's like you see Stanionis on social media
when the news got out that this was the fight and it was not him,
and Stanionis quote tweeted or on x and said, make sure to loss
and make sure you get at least half purse and advance tremendous black listen right,
Yeah, for his canceled fights, and he doesn't even get the he
doesn't get the fight with Ortiz because it's going to be a junior middleweight fight
that's going to be coming up, all right, but the main thing is
good to see Virgil back whatever, and hopefully because this fight is going to
be in January and at the very beginning of January and January sixth, that
this can lead to the fact that hopefully he can have there. I mean
unless with that, unless there's some crazy reason, you know, like a
legitimate injury or something like that, what she hope doesn't happen. If you're
fighting January sixth, there should be absolutely no reason why you can't get three
fights next year. You fight in January, hopefully fighting like the late spring
or summer and then maybe fight again in the fall. Listen to you talking
like a crazy boxing guy from the eighties, nineties and early two thousands when
fighters fought three or more times in a year. Stop this crazy talk.
If you fight in January, fighting three times is not anything. Uh,
I don't disagree, not bad, you know, I don't disagree. All
right, Real quick news on Philip Hergovich. Does it complicate things that he's
apparently now a promotional free agent again? He had been what with Mattroom with
Eddie? So what's the latest with that? Well, first of all,
his contract was not with mattrom Boxing. He has been on Matroom Boxing cards
because Maxroom then made a deal with his actual on paper promoter, which is
Wasserman Boxing. The folks that used to be running Soroland event in Germany,
that's Cali and Nissi Sourland, but they had made a deal with Eddie and
Philip Pergovich was fighting on those cards, which is why you saw him,
for example in his most recent fight in the in the co feature against Denz
McKean, when Anthony Joshua at his last bout. But it is highly unusual
for a fighter like Philip Herkovich, who is an Olympic medalist, who was
an undefeated contender, who was sitting not only in the IBF mandatory position for
the heavyweight title, but he is he's up next, you know, in
the rotation system, when you've got three titles, all held by Alexander Usik,
you know, being a mandatory, it still might take it two and
a half years or whatever to get to fight. You're not gonna sit around.
You're gonna have to fight. But Hergovich because of the rulings by the
IBF to allow the fight between Fury and Naganu, he is next, So
he's either gonna fight. You know, I'm not sorry to to allow the
fight between Fury and Usik, which is upcoming for undisputed. The main factor
is this, they allowed use the Fury and USA camps to finalize that agreement
with the proviso that the winner, even though they have a rematch clause,
will not be defending the IBF title. So the bottom line is when Fury
fights Usik, presumably gonna be in February, not on December twenty third.
Because of what occurred in Saudi Arabia last week. The reality is that the
winner of that fight, when they fight for undisputed, is going to either
have to fight Herkovic in the next fight within and they forget what they stipulate
in terms of the number of days one hundred and eighty days or whatever it
is. If they don't fight him, he'll be stripped of that IBF belt,
which happens a lot. Unfortunately, it's what happened, you know,
when when there's been plenty times where IBF titles have become vacant because they didn't
make a manage or in the proper timeframe, and that will mean that Hergovic
will then fight the next available contender for the vacant title, which presently is
Auto Whalen, who just won an eliminator for the number two position against Mara
Gassia. So you're looking at the possibility of Hergovic against Auto Whalen, which
he will be the favorite to beat Otto in a vacant IBF title fight,
which maybe isn't a huge fight onto itself, but when you win a heavyweight
title belt, it means a lot of money and a lot of attention and
a lot of people after you. And now he's sitting here in the camp
purt seat because he can go and make a deal anywhere he wants. He
can go make a deal with matrom Boxing, he could resign with with Wasserman,
he could go and be wooed by Top Rank who's got heavyweight action.
They could go somewhere else. Frank Warren obviously is very involved in the heavyweight
division. They could go do a deil directly with the folks in Saudi Arabia,
for example. The point is it's you asked if it's if it's a
puts a or is it a bad spot to be in when you're an undefeated
heavyweight contender and your next fight is going to be for a vacant heavyweight world
title and you don't have a promoter, everybody's going to be after you.
And he's got his manager, Keith Connelly, who we had on the podcast
a few weeks ago. You know, Keith is an experienced manager. He's
worked with lots of quality fighters through the years. He knows the business,
he knows what he's doing when it comes to negotiating. He advocates for his
fighters as hard as I've ever seen a manager do. And what he's what
a managers are supposed to do. I don't think anybody can sit here in
their right mind and say he's in the pocket of promoter X or Y.
Sometimes managers they get maybe a little too cushy with the promoter and and sometimes
their loyalties aren't exactly where they should be, which is to get everything for
your fighter. Connley, if you know him, is not like that.
So you know his goal, and I'm sort of being sarcastic, is to
get his guys grossly overpaid. And he hopes I'm sure to do that with
Targovic also, not just get him paid a huge amount of money, but
have his guy win the heavyweight, you know, a heavyweight title, which
we'll put him in even a better position. So the other thing about Connley
is he has done business with all the big players. He has solid,
decent relationships with pretty much everybody. He's done business with al Amen, tons
of times. He's done business with Top Rank, He's done plenty of business
with Mattroum. He may not have done a ton of business with Golden Boy,
but he's talked to them about different things. They've got a very cordial,
friendly relationship, no issues there. My point is he is not a
guy that's like some managers where they have like ninety five percent of the other
fighters with one promoter. Keith will spread his guys around. I'll put them
where they make the most sense and the most dollars. All right, we'll
watch out for that with Hergovich nostalgia time before we are done. It was
ten years ago on Thursday as we taped this podcast November two, twenty thirteen,
Triple G defended his Middleway crowns. But also it was what happened on
the undercard that still sticks with you and sticks with anybody that's a boxing fan
with what happened after that fight. You were ringside for this card at the
MSG Theater. Tell us more on nostalgia. Well, first, in terms
of the main event, Galofkin was in the middle of the tremendous run where
he had come to America. He'd already had a belt, but he was
not really that well known outside of Germany and to the real true diehards.
He made a huge impression when he came to HBO and had that first bout
against Crocs up in the Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York. The bottom
line was he just just blasted onto the scene and now he's making a name
for himself, and now he gets a chance to go back for a second
fight at the Madison Square Garden Theater. He had already defeated Gabriel Rosato there
earlier, who remember if you remember that fight, he sliced him up,
bad cut him and they stopped the fight. Now he's taken on Curtis Stevens,
who was a big puncher and a lot of people thought he would give
Triple G a real tough fight that night, and it was anything but.
And there's the famous scene if you remember we talked about moments in boxing,
where in that fight Triple G landed a huge, huge punch and dropped him
and the look on his face Stevens when they showed the replay and Lampley,
Jim Lampley on h calling a Kazakh thunder because he put him on his ass
like that. And then from that moment on that was in I want to
say, and maybe like in the second round of the fight, U he
just absolutely delivered a huge beatdown on Curtis Stevens and they stopped the fight in
the in the corner, after the after the eighth after the eighth round,
and It was like another explosive Triple G performance as he continued to just rack
up, you know, one knockout after the other against all these you know,
good quality contenders. He ended up running that streak to like twenty three
knockouts in a row until he finally went the distance in a close win against
Daniel Jacobs a few years later. But he he was in the midst of
the record tying a streak of title defenses. It was his you know,
he ultimately tied the record with b hop Bernard Hopkins at twenty in a row.
But so that was his ninth title defense, fifteenth knockout in a row,
and at that moment, he's the most exciting fighter in boxing. Everybody
wants to watch Triple G. There's big fights that people want to see him
in and those were the great Those are great times to cover those fights.
Now, that was the main event. Now we didn't know it at the
time, but in the undercard, which was a heavyweight fight between that at
the time two up and coming guys Mike Perez and also magamat avd the Salamov
who was a top prospect. They had a tough fight, but I you
know, we know what happened in the fight. You know, Magamat ended
up having a brain injury. He ended up in a medically induced coma,
had surgery, and you know is it was a life altering injury. I
mean, he needs constant care. It's a terrible situation. I mean,
you're lingering there between life and death. And you know, some might say
it might have been better if he had passed for himself and his family not
to suffer, and just just as terrible, as bad as you can get
in boxing to have that happen. Having been ringside for that fight, though,
I have to be honest with you, that was not one of the
twenty toughest fight has ever seen. I mean, I didn't think that fight
should have been stopped. The reason why it turned out to be the situation
that it did was because, as it became found out later after lots of
investigation and lots of discussion and lawsuits in the WHO nine, is that the
New York State Athletic Commission was one hundred percent derelict and their mishandling of Magamed's
care after that fight to the extent where they basically told him to go to
the hospital and send him out of the garden with his team to basically handl
a cab and he's thrown up on the street corner and ends up in a
fucking coma. So they ended up. They didn't admit guilt, but at
the end of the day, the New York State Athletic Commission, after lawsuits
and a bunch of different things occurred, legally, they paid out a twenty
two million dollars to Magamad into his family. So if that doesn't tell you
what happened, I don't know what does. But they mishandled the care.
That's one of the reasons why there's been some rule changes in New York.
People complain now about how when the guy gets dropped, the referee, you
know, walk to me, walk this way, walk that way. They
go through a whole big thing. That's because of what happened in this Abda
Salama fight. So every time you see that and you get pissed off because
it's ruining the flow of a fight, remember that the reason it happened is
because this man almost died because of the New York Commission's ineptitude on that night
where they totally fucked up his care after the fight, had they given him
the immediate care that was necessary. There's a very strong likelihood and you can
read this in the legal documents that you know, sure he may have not
ever boxed again, but it would not have reached to the point where he
was, you know, incapacitated for the rest of his life. So that
was the undercard fight. So you know, I have memories of being there
that are good and bad. The good was this incredible performance from Triple G.
And by the way, the pres Abda salamaf I was a good fight
became much more disheartening when we found out much later of what happened to Abda
Salama. So I always think about him when when this comes up, you
know, because most times guys pass in those situations. But he's sort of
now trapped in this prison for the rest of his life, if you will,
because of what happened, because he'll never be the same, and it's
it's unfortunate, it is it's uh. I just kept thinking of the word
negligent when you kept saying that the fighter care. It's amazing that we would
be in twenty thirteen, ten years ago and there would be so little concern
from somebody that's been in a tremendous battle to check them out and to make
sure, if need be, put them in an ambulance to go to the
hospital to make sure that they're cared for, as opposed to, hey,
guys, you might want to go ahead and just go check yourself in and
get looked at too while you're at And that's what the legal system in the
lawsuit was all about for that. So awful on that one. All right,
one more bit of nostalgia and then we will scoot it. It's Canelo
and I saw you putting up on social media. The remember it is now
a four years ago when Canelo won a world title in a fourth weight division
moving up to light heavyweight. That was four years ago, actually tonight,
as we taped this podcast and release it on Friday morning, November two,
twenty nineteen, you were ringside for Canelo's booming ko eventually of Cola. The
thing I remember from that night waiting for it to get underway isone I'll use
the word idiotic. Dezone made the idiotic decision that we're gonna wait out the
UFC main event before we start the Canelo main event, and the indelible image
of Canelo on the sofa or the lazy boy or whatever, gloved up,
gloved up in his trunks, ready to go, and it's like you're holding
up one of the all time iconic fighters in the last ten plus years at
the championship level, who's lounging around like he's watching a ball game on TV.
It was just stupid. But anyway, you were ringside when the fight
actually took place. That was just terrible. What I remember about it was
because of the like you said, a perfect word, idiotic decision to wait
until the UFC event ended. They actually got permission to pipe in onto the
big screens in the arena. That mean of that. I don't remember what
fight it was, but the UFC main event, which I don't think most
boxing fans really gave us it about. That's why they were spending all that
money. And am I not correct that you almost went like two hours from
the final fight until the championship fight. It was beyond ridiculous how long they
waited. I don't think it was quite that long. I don't remember how
long it was. I just remember that it was a ridiculous amount of time
to wait between the end of the undercard and the main event. You know.
Look, I've always talked about when I was writing, when I would
write on deadline. The most stressful time for me in a fight night is
that fifteen to twenty minutes between the end of the undercard and the beginning of
the main event, because the goal, and especially when I was working at
ESPN, was to get your full undercard story done with quotes and get it
in for the main event starts. That's a hard I mean, you know,
try it one of these days, especially when there's a ton of people
yelling and screaming around you, and it's not any easy. I mean,
but I did it, I mean a thousand times. I mean, you
get to a point where you can just do it on muscleide, right,
And I'm proud of that, that skill and that ability to be able to
turn a story around like that in short order. On that night, I
could have written fucking war in peace. The way how much time there was,
you could have left the arena and gone to a restaurant nearby, had
a three course meal and come back all right. So the bottom line was
you right. That indelible memory was the pictures of the two fighters, like
basically napping in their dressing rooms always loved up around, particularly embarrassing because Canelo
was the number one fighter at the time and the pound for pound probably certainly
in terms of the marketability and star power. You know, big fight against
covid Lev and then never fucking with him by like making everybody way. It
was ridiculous. But anyway, you know, Canelo Alvarez, he was h
he had he had fought at in that you know, going up in that
fight he had his previous fight had been the Daniel Jacobs fight, which was
in the middleweight division, and now he's going up two weight classes to take
on covid Lev. Now he had been in the one fight against Rocky Fielding
prior to the Jacobs fight at super midweight, so he had fought at least
one fight against like a semi decent guy at one sixty eight. But he
had been back at one sixteen in a tough fight against Jacobs, and now
he's going up two weight classes the one seventy five essentially not essentially the same
thing when when Charlow came up to fight him, he went from junior middleweight
to supermanow eight, that was two weight classes. In this case, you
have Canelo going from uh middleweight to light heavyweight again, two weight classes.
So there were some people that thought that's a dangerous fight because even though covid
Lev, you know you want to you wanna Monday more and quarterback, so
be it. But there was a lot of people that gave Kviallev a good
chance because he was a tremendous puncher. He was a bigger fighter, no
question about it. He may not have been at his best anymore. He
had beaten Anthony Yard in a tough fight a few months earlier, where he
stopped him in the eleventh round, but before that he had regained the title
against a leader Alvarez to avenge a knockout loss. This he's not beaten bums,
you know what I'm saying. It was like it was not an unreasonable
thought to think that he might give a Canelo some trouble because of his punching
power and because of his billion noise, his experienced level, and of course
the fact that he was a much bigger guy. And by the way,
for the first like eleven rounds, it was looking like it might have been
a bad mistake for Canelo to take that fight because he was given him a
real tough fight. So through ten rounds of that fight, one judge had
that fight ninety six to ninety four in favor of Canelo. That's obviously close.
Another judge had it also ninety six to ninety four in favor of Canelo,
obviously close. And the third judge had the fight after ten rounds ninety
five to ninety five a draw. So even though he's up on two cards,
that fight is still on the table going to the championship rowns eleven.
And what did we see. We saw Canelo Alvarez turn in, for my
money, maybe the best knockout of his entire career because of the combination of
the of the how nice of a knockout, It was just esthetically pleasing and
exciting with a huge punch that just rocked Kovilev's world and dropped him, combined
with the fact that this fight was still up for grabs in those last two
rounds, and then you take into account what it meant because he stopped him,
you know, with what forty five or fifty seconds left in the round,
and it was a huge win because not only does he win spectacularly,
make sure he cemented what was a super close, possible decision route going fight.
He also won a world title in a fourth weight division. He had
won title at one hundred and fifty four pounds, He had been the middleweight
champion, he had won a belt at super middleweight, and now here he
is winning a title in the light heavyweight division. So that's a big,
big resume fight for Canelo Alvarez because for a long time, Covialev was the
scariest guy out there. You know, the two scary guys that the one
that with a boogeyman, so to speak, were Covialev in Triple G h.
They were knocking out everybody. And I mean, maybe Kvalev has not
finished his career in a blaze of glory, but for a period of time,
he was a bad motherfucker's the bottom line. And Canelo closed the show.
That's a phrase I'm thinking of and where I said on the last podcast,
don't leave it up to the judges, leave it up to that thunder
his right hand to settle things. And he did that night four years ago,
and when he knocked the guy out like at that moment, like I
was talking about, like the most energetic moment I ever have been in for
a fight. Single moment on a punch was when Julio Cesar Chabas Junior knocked
down Sergio Martinez in round twelve. I'm possibly about to pull an upset and
win the Middleway Championship. That the whole place for a time when he was
getting his ass kick, that was all there for, mostly for Chabas just
blew up like crazy when he scored the knockout. It's maybe not at at
that level, but when Covilev got drilled by Canelo, the pop of the
crowd, which was all Canelo obviously was unforgettable. What the crowd when they
blew up when he knocked him out, phenomenal memory. That's why we love
Dan for the insight on the nostalgia and being there at ringside. And by
the way, we should tease this on the Recap podcast with whatever happens this
weekend. There's plenty of more great nostalgia from this weekend, including a fan
Man My God thirty years ago is fan Man Holyfield Bow two. We're going
to talk about that Sunday. There's a tease, right Phil, We're gonna
talk about that Sunday in the nostalgia because it's closer to the actual day on
that. With that, we've got championship fights again in Monte Carlos Saturday afternoon
US time. Also, this cruiserweight vacant WBC title fight is Saturday night from
Miami. Saturday night. Later the Heavyweight Showdown Top Rank ESPN. A lot
of action we previewed. We heard from Jamel Herring again his fight card Tuesday
night. Don't be looking for that this weekend the Broadway Heroes on the Hunt
Udson Show Broadway Boxing. That will be Tuesday night from Debella Entertainment. By
the way you talked about your Jamel Harry interview, We've got some good interviews
coming as we lead up to the Andreid versus Benavidis fight. I have spoken
with both of the participants, David Benavitez as well as to meet you Andre.
Some excellent interviews with those two fellas, and we will play them on
upcoming shows. You hear my tees and you raise my teas with a couple
of more interviews that we're teasing here later on in the show. Again,
follow subscribe because we may put these interviews up separately from the preview or the
recap, and you need no other means of social media prompt or anything else.
You'll get them automatically if you're following and subscribing on all the podcast outlets
to the Big Fight Weekend Podcast feed. With that we have not made reverence
of this first time. At the end of the podcast, I will see
you, talk to you, and we will handicap the fights on the bet
US Boxing Show live at one Eastern time on the bet US platforms on YouTube,
Twitter, Twitch. We will be there on Friday afternoon at one Eastern
time. I will see you then and then whatever happens with this, let's
reconvene and recap it off the weekend out Monday morning. How does that sound?
That sounds good? All right, So again plenty on this program,
follow subscribe. It's the Big Fight Weekend Podcast feed. Dan and I again
talking to you on vet us TV Friday, one Eastern time, off the
weekend. The Fight Freak to Night recap is coming for now. We're good
for Dan Rayfield. I'm TJ. Reeves. Thanks for being with us.