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

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here is your host, DJ Leaves. I heard you missed me, so

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I am back here as part of
the Big Fight Weekend preview. Let's just

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say that there have been times in
which Dan Rayfield has basically said what do

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I need TJ for? And so
now we put that to the test this

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past week, but not out of
some planned, coherent plan or design.

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It was because of technical nightmares for
you. But in any event, I

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am back. It's good to be
back on the preview with the insider,

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the man that we love to hear
from from his fight Freaks Unite, Substack,

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Big Fight Weekend dot Com. Hello
Dan Rayfield. You did a very

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nice job under trying circumstances, which
we'll explain more in a moment. How

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are things as we head into a
weekend that has a Devin Hainey Regis Prograde

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wty pound title fight, It has
a world title fight for Robes Ramirez defending

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his title on a top rank show. It even has a British title fight

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on a Sunday for the WBO Cruiserweight
title as Chris billim Smith. Is an

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action we got championship fights all over
the place to talk about. And we

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got Jake Paul on the show.
Jake Paul, who's fighting December fifteenth,

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not this weekend, but next weekend. He's back. He's fighting a boxer.

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We have a lot on the show, including news in nostalgia. What

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are you feeling all right? Are
you raring to go for another week?

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Listen? It's been it's been a
it's been very, very busy, and

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as always we make mention to everybody. However, you found his social media

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link on Dan Substack his newsletter,
the Big Fight Weekend website. Make sure

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you're following. Subscribing, rating and
reviewing US does help keep it up.

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Five star review takes like thirty seconds
for you to do that. Review US

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Apple Podcasts. I did all that
by myself last week. I know you

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did, so let's explain this quickly. I was not kidnapped. I was

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not being held hostage. My Buccaneers
did win a game late Sunday, and

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I had a first world computer problem. I thought you were on a bender

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after they won the game. Yeah, what right? I had a first

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world computer problem of epic proportions,
as in, I get home last Sunday

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night and my computer won't turn on. And now that has happened, and

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it's about a six year old computer
that's been replaced refurbished once that's happened maybe

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on like one other occasion in the
last six years. So I'm in touch

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with my man Rayfield going listen,
I'm trying to get it to come on.

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I'm in contact with my Mac that's
the brand of computer I have guru

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on how do I get it to
turn on? But I think we have

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an issue. The biggest part of
the issue is that everything that I use

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technically to produce this show is not
available to me because the computer is down.

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Not only I mean you and I
could have recorded, but I'm I'm

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not able to do what I normally
do, even your software. No,

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And you were very patient with me, as like ten eastern became ten thirty

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eastern, and I'm like, big
Dan, I'm good, but I got

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no computer. She ain't coming on, Captain she should. The patient is

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not doing well here And so as
it turns out, the computer dead,

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died, gone, And so now
I'm in scramble mode Monday morning with other

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work duties and other work stuff on
the computer a great lesson peeps to have

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everything backed up, and if you
can have a second computer, have a

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second computer. I just don't have
a second computer that does all of this.

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So in the meantime, Ray Fiel's
chomping at the bit. He wants

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to talk about Ryan Garcia. He
has e Xander Zaia's interview. He has

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all He's like the masses, the
peeps, the savages need to be fed,

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they need to be serviced, and
you're correct. You're correct on that.

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So I suggested to you, why
don't you do your best, like

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a like a stand up at you? And I went and saw Jerry Seinfeld

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together from our friends at PEPA this
summer. You were like Jerry on the

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mic. I don't know about the
jokes, but you did very well,

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which I had some good TJ jokes
in there, Yes, and you should

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have been taking shots at me.
It's not that I didn't want to be

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there. I wanted to be there, but as I said to you,

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I physically could not make it work. As Sunday became Monday, and I'm

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trying to deal with the nightmare of
getting another computer, which I was able

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to twenty four hours. It was
like that one time ever in their fifty

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year career that kiss played as a
trio and Paul Stanley was sick. That

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only happened once. And I know
you did spend part of the podcast talking

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about Kisses finale. The one question
that I keep hearing in the media,

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and you'd be a good one to
ask, do you really believe that was

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it? Do you believe that was
the last concert? Goodbye on the pay

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per view or do you think they
will come back in some special occasion,

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some other tour even a year from
now or a couple of years from now.

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Do you believe that was it?
Mister kiss was that it? I

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believe it is the last tour,
whether they may play another show together,

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even if it was like a one
off on like an award show or like

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an American idol or a special charity
thing, or maybe like an unplugged thing,

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like just a one off. I
definitely could see that where there's not

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a lot of strain, a lot
a lot of travel, But in terms

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of they just finished the three and
a half year, two hundred and fifty

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city tour, they didn't happen.
Paul Stanley is in his seventies. Genus

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in the seventies. You know,
they've made hundreds of millions of dollars,

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So I believe that this is that
is it, and they're not like a

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lot of rock bands. They had
one tour they called the Farewell Tour,

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and that was really just when they
ended their their original group with Asan with

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Peter, and then they continued on
for the next twenty years after that.

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So they haven't not pulled that card. It's a farewell. They did at

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one time, and it was because
it was the end of the original lineup.

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But I think this time, you
know, all things coming to an

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end. Kiss came to an end. Showtime's coming to an end. Yeah,

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you know next week. I mean
it just things go, Life moves

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on. And you did a good
job. You did a solid job.

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Although I will say absence sometimes does
make the heart grow fonder. So maybe

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maybe you are a little more appreciative
here of TJ and the skills and the

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back and forth. I don't know
if the audience back and forth, the

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back and forth is good. It
is good, all right, So real

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quick, I'm gonna give you micro
takes. Ryan Garcia impressive needs to be

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better. Somewhere down the road.
We agree on that, himI Mungia,

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can I say it? You want
me to say, what are we doing

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here? I said, I said, I know you said it, but

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I need to say it. He
is the most mismanaged fighter at the world

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class level of the last three or
four years. I don't think of another

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one that's even comparable. He has
wasted the last two or three years of

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his career. And I don't think
that's an overstatement. It's all just to

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hear one quick second. There's still
hope. He's only twenty seven. He's

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now going to be trained by Freddie
Roach. Right, they are still rider

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for the guys he's been fighting recently. Is actually a step up, it

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seems to me, or at least
on you know, a quality guy on

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the on the devren Schenko level.
It's not a complete nobody like you thought

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prior to devren Chenko. So it's
not a bad fight. When the bell

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rings, I think that will be
a good match to watch in terms of

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entertainment value. And they're still trying
to perhaps in the spring do a Berlanga

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fight. There is conversation that he
may get the call to fight Canelou So

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we'll see, you know, the
story is not yet written. I agree,

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it's been a really brutal last couple
of years for what they've done in

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terms of his matchmaking. But he
just had arguably the fight of the year

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in his last fight against Deviren Chenko. The Rider fight shapes up to be

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another great battle, So I'll cut
him a little bit of slack, you

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know, the last upcoming fight.
Oh it's okay. You you gave your

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takes on that, all right,
So now let's get into this again.

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We got a little bit of news
before we get into the previews, and

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Haini and Pro Gray are obviously the
most prominent fight the Zone pay per view

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coming up from San Francisco. So
the the rumored move of Premiere Boxing Champions

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too and Amazon Prime ends up being
correct. It ends up being the case.

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They made the announcement on Thursday,
So let's get into that from the

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news standpoint. And you've done some
digging as well, as we taped this

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podcast Thursday night and release it overnight
Thursday into Friday. Your reaction now to

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this, because it does not come
out of the blue. This had been

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talked about and now here it is
announced. Yeah, not a surprise at

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all, expected, you know it
was just a matter of that wasn't to

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me anyway. It wasn't if they're
going to get a deal, it's simply

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going to be at what point do
they announce it. I was told yesterday

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that they're i mean not an official
channel, but I was told that expect

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an announcement around eleven o'clock Eastern time
on Thursday morning. And at eleven o'clock

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Eastern time there was the announcement.
So it didn't shock me in any way,

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shape or form. The one thing
that kind of disappointed me in the

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way that was announced was Number one, it did say multi fight or i'm

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sorry, multi year agreement between PBC
and Prime Video. It always gives me

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pause me they won't say the number
of years. You know, when when

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the Yankee signed Garrett Cole, they
tell you how many years they signed them

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for it. That's just seemed weird
to me. You know, in previous

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boxing deals they will announce typically the
number of years. When Showtime did its

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deal with PBC, they announced the
years. Uh to my recollection, When

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when Top Rank and ESPN did their
deal with the years renown that's not that's

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not a that shouldn't be a trade
secret. That's not a heavy lift.

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You don't want to tell me the
money and the other minutiah. I get

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it, but the years that seemed
a little bit weird to me. So

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that was the first thing. The
other thing that gave me pause when I

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when I read the press release or
I was like disappointed that it was so

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pay per view centric. That's really
what this is about for Prime Video.

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I don't blame them. They're a
business and they believe that pay per view

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is a means to goosing the revenue
on the on the on the streaming,

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uh you know, broadcast sports side. But while that may be what they

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want to do, I don't think
that's the best way to go out expressing

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yourself to the media and to the
fans, the people that you want to

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buy, where that's front and center, Like, hey, we're all about

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asking you for another eighty bus every
couple of months to do these events.

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So they're all gonna they're also going
to have a non pay per view uh

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series, the way that they did
on show Time and HBO, and they

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have on other platforms. Uh,
you know, there are non pay per

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view fights on ESPN, the Zone, et cetera. So I want to

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play that up and say we're going
to be doing you know, great boxing

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for you on a monthly basis,
and we're also going to have our biggest

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stars on big pay per view fights
like you've seen in the past. So

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I thought that was like a weird
way to write the press release. Now

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the question is is this good or
is it bad? We just don't know

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because they don't have all the details. I mean, they're not gonna start

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until March, so there's gonna be
a couple of months lag without PBC fights

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UH And if anybody pays attention to
my schedule that I update obsessively on a

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daily basis, you will notice on
some of the smaller cards that are taking

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place before the end of this year
that some PBC fighters are being put onto

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non uh TV cards or not big
shows, like just as an example,

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they have Mark Megscio, the former
featherweight title holder. He's fighting this weekend

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in California. They have Jared Hurd
on a card in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania coming

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up. They have Vieto Milnike is
on a card in Newark coming up at

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the end of the month. These
are all shows that are not PBC cards.

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And there's others also, and you'll
see more of that if you pay

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attention to the club type cards that
you'll see. I'm sure several, not

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the star guys, not the champions, not the big names, but the

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guys that haven't fought in a while, or are you know, maybe are

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younger fighters or you know, contenders
that are just trying to keep busy a

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little bit. You'll see those fighters
pop up on these non PBC cards or

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even non televised cards. So they'll
be back in March. Hopefully they'll still

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continue to make solid fights that are
not on the pay per view platform.

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The good news and this was not
part of the release, but this is

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what I was told. What they
say in the business on background from people

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involved is that and I asked I
asked them this specifically because I get a

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lot of questions and comments from on
social media from the boxing fans that are

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in the UK, and it was
expressed to me that this deal will allow

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if you are a Prime member,
you know you have Prime in the UK

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and Ireland, you'll be able to
watch the show's overseas too. And the

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reason I say this specifically is because
it's been so hit or miss for there

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to be an outlet in the UK
for the PBC shows. Sometimes they're not

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on at all. Sometimes they might
get picked up here and there. Other

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times they might wind up as a
small pay per view on the Fight app

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and they wouldn't know about it till
like sort of the last minute. So

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that's a good thing. The other, you know, the good thing in

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looking from above is that there's a
new deal. Showtime goes out and one

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week before they're about to broadcast their
final show there will be more PBC and

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it won't all be pay per view, So that's a positive. That's a

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great thing. You know. Prime
Prime is in because it's based on if

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you have an Amazon Prime membership.
You know, when you you know,

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like just because you order a box
of cheerios and you get it to come

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the next day in your house,
doesn't mean you're logging on to watch boxing.

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That's right. They are making hey
with a lot of sports. They've

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got the Yankees, they've got some
soccer. Obviously, they've got the NFL

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starts at the game that they pay
like one hundred million dollars for. So

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they have building sports portfolio. Boxing
will be part of it and so they're

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the accessibility is going to be monstrous
compared to what's in Showtime now. The

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difference though, is that the people
who subscribe to Showtime, which has a

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much smaller base than what Prime does, they are a lot of those people

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are conditioned and have done so because
they want boxing. The boxing on Prime

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is going to go by the way, you know, going to whistle past

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the graveyard for millions and millions of
people have no idea that they have and

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don't care. That's right. It
still gives you the opportunity to bring in

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some new people. All right,
let's go at this from a couple of

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other ways. They previously had broadcast
deals. Now originally and we don't want

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to go too deep into the weeds, but these these facts and details are

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important. So originally Al Hayman and
PBC were given a bunch of investment capital

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money and they went all over the
place, and you live this where they

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were buying time in a lot of
places to educate people on here are fighters,

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here on championship fights. So fights
were on network TV, for example,

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not having to pay for it.
They were on ESPN networks. Yes,

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they were on ESPN. As you
know when you were working there.

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They went that route. They then
ended up doing a deal with Fox.

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A second, I want to interrupt
for a second. It wasn't it wasn't

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just to like say to the people, here's our guys. This was let's

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try to like blanket the broadcast industry
with our with our product and hopefully,

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uh, at least one or two
of them will see that it's a great

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investment and they'll then turn the And
that was coming there, and so it

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ended up being that way with Fox, as it turns out. And there

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were fights over the air as well
as pay perview, all right, So

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the Fox deal and again the pandemic
year had something to do with this as

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well. I understand all of that. The Fox deal eventually faded extinguished and

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then they basically became solely with showtime
for the shows and then for the pay

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perviews. So they really haven't had
a network TV comp for a couple of

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years. And even in that final
year, correct me, because you've talked

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about this before. In twenty twenty
two, the only time they had fights

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on the network was right before the
broadcast of the pay per view that night.

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They would show a couple of fights
on Fox and then here's the pay

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per view. So I just wonder, was there not a dance partner somewhere,

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even with cable air quotes or something
besides Prime Video? I just wonder,

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and will it affect things that it's
now prime video or else you're not

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seeing it? Well, you you're
in exactly where I wanted to go,

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right in the wheelhouse. There,
we're back. We're back synergy like Paul

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and Jane. I was gone on
Monday, but we're back together, and

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it's like synergy people. He was
going there, I was going there,

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get there, go all right.
So in the press release that they announced,

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they did not specify any particular Not
only did they not specify the number

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of years, they did not talk
about how many events. And when I

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say that, it's in contrast to
when again, I'll use the example when

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Top announced and ESPN announced their agreement
together, they announced, we're gonna have

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X number of dates. Approximately when
PBC did their deal with Fox or whatever,

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they did the same thing. So
there was some numbers. Now did

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they did they somewhat deviate occasionally here
or there. Yeah, I mean that's

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just the way things go. But
there is no number. But again on

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background, from people who are involved
spoke to me and said, in the

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first year it will be twelve to
fourteen events annually, or you know,

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for the over each year, however
long it last, that'll be twelve to

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fourteen events annually. So a couple
things about that that's good, but that

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that's a good thing. But on
the on the negative side, if there

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is is that those twelve to fourteen
events are a combination of non pay per

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views and pay per views. So
if you do the math, that means

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that on this Prime deal there are
fewer dates, i e. Fewer fights

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than there were under the Showtime deal, which offered up generally about you know,

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a dozen shows per year plus the
pay per views. So in two

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twenty three Showtime did I want to
say seven pay perviews? Two six pay

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per views, two David Benavidez fights, two Tank Davis fights, one Canelo

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Alvarez fight, and the Aero Spence
Terrence Crawford fight. That's six pay perviews

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plus the monthly shows on Showtime,
which maybe they skipped a month here or

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there because of other things. But
then there were certainly months in the spring

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and early summer where they had two
shows in a month but so it averaged

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out. They probably did the show
Box series, and the Showbox series was

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also on top of that, Am
I right right? Which was like another

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probably five shows this show which was
the least that they had ever done,

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or four or five shows. But
so the quantity is less on this Amazon

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Prime deal than there was on Showtime. However, let me say this now,

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this is not in my story because
I don't have it one hundred percent

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noil down, but I'm very,
very confident and quite sure that this is

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the case based on the conversations I've
had with people in this business. This

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is not the end. This is
not like a one time deal one thing.

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If you read again, and as
a reporter you learn to do this,

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these press will be are written by
communications experts and specialists. They are

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careful with their words, like I'm
careful with my words when I write things.

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The word exclusivity never appeared. This
is not that PBC is somehow now

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exclusive to Prime Video. So I'm
telling you that they are out there hunting

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for another deal. Now, again, this is a rumor, I think

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a good rumor. Maybe not.
It won't necessarily come to pass. But

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I am told without question that Hayman
is shopping for another deal to bring in

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another partner, to have other dates
because he's got a ton of fighters,

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got like two hundred fighters are thereabouts, you know, maybe a little less,

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but you know, got to keep
guys active to some degree. And

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that there's conversations about perhaps a smaller
scope deal with the outlet called Stars that

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might get involved in do some fights. Whether that comes to pass or not,

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I don't know. Now he does
have money coming in besides just from

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this prime deal. I am told
on good authority that the final year of

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Showtimes agreement, which was supposed to
go through the year twenty twenty four,

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obviously that's not happening because Showtime Sports
will see this to exist in a couple

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of weeks, and that as part
of that situation, he's receiving a very

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large, you know, north of
ten million dollars payout interesting to buy out

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the rest of the deal. I
think it's you know, I've heard as

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much as over twenty million dollars,
but I'm pretty pretty confidence over ten million

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dollars. But the point is they're
starting with another big brand Amazon. If

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you're good enough to show the NFL, and you're good enough to show the

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New York Yankees. You know you're
good enough to do Premier Boxing Champions fights

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and pay per views. So I
think I'm gonna do what I do every

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time these things happen. I've been
through lots of changes and where broadcasts come

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from, platforms, promoters, et
cetera. You go in with high hopes,

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You go in wanting everything to be
a wonderful situation. You give everybody

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bit the benefit of the doubt,
You pay attention, You give everybody a

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chance to get settled in, and
after a couple of their shows or a

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couple of months, you make an
assessment. So you know, I want

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to see how this plays out in
March, in April, and you know,

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come sometime like late next spring,
we'll have a much better handle on

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it. One thing I am also
told is that it will be the responsibility

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of Premiere Boxing Champions to handle the
production. So they will have to.

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You know, it is gonna be
interesting. Do they bring along some of

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00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,359
the folks that have done the shows
from Showtime? Who are but it would

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00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,440
make sense right now, it would
make sense. Yeah, Do you bring

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00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,519
Mara Ronalo with you? Do you
bring the great Al Bernstein? With you.

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Do you bring the crew, you
know, I'm sure they'll bring along

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00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:30,640
Jimmy Lennon. You know, do
they bring along Brian Custer to host the

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00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,400
shows? You know, whatever you
want to talk about, so you know,

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00:20:33,559 --> 00:20:36,039
we'll it have a similar kind of
look to it, a sound to

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00:20:36,079 --> 00:20:38,839
it. Well. So so perfect
example is on the Thursday Night NFL that

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you're mentioning, and then we're gonna
move on it. Jake Paul's coming up

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00:20:41,039 --> 00:20:42,920
and we're gonna get to the fight
previews in a second. But this is

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00:20:44,039 --> 00:20:48,319
this is important what we're going over
to your point, the NFL production and

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00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:55,839
right down to Al Michael's calling,
it is just almost identical to NBC's production.

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So much so it's many of the
same people that left NBC because Amazon

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00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:06,000
is paying them a chunk to come
produce the NFL. To wit mister Rayphield,

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00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:11,119
I was at the Buffalo Bills Tampa
Bay Buccaneers Thursday night game in Buffalo

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earlier this football season that Amazon was
televising, obviously, and it looked like

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00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:21,920
a super Bowl of production, of
production trucks everywhere. You talk about going

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all out to produce this and make
it look like Sunday night football or Monday

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00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,319
night football. And again, fight
fans, don't get overly crazy here.

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00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:36,319
This is not the NFL. I
get that it's boxing, but to think

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that the forethought isn't there, have
it look like what we've seen on Showtime.

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00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:47,720
Have it look like what Top rank
boxing or de Zones championship production and

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00:21:48,319 --> 00:21:52,559
fight cards look like, and maybe
utilize most or all of the same people.

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00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:55,799
You'd be crazy not to think that
they're looking at that. Not sure,

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00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:57,039
I don't think they're looking to reinvent
the wheel here, and right,

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I mean on the positive side.
Also, I mean as much I love

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and respect everybody that involved with Showtime, you know, they're in about thirty

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00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:08,440
million homes in the United States.
They'reabouts Amazon Prime is you know again,

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00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:11,799
granted it's because people have the Prime
membership so they get their cheerios and their

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00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:15,880
rice crispies and their you know whatever
else they were over I think keep saying

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00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:22,160
Cereal versus like makeup, clothes,
sneakers, shoes, whatever, this records

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00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:25,160
whatever it is. Uh, but
the point is it's available, not thirty

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00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:27,319
million homes or thereabouts like Showtime.
I was. I was just looking up

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00:22:27,319 --> 00:22:32,640
the numbers people with access to Amazon
Prime just because they already have this.

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The Prime membership is about one hundred
and sixty million people in the United States.

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Now, obviously they're not all going
to be watching boxing matches, but

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00:22:40,519 --> 00:22:44,079
the chances of somebody stumbling on it
are much greater now than if they don't

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even have showtime. So and listen, if they did, like a little

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00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:51,640
advertisement during the course of one of
the NFL games, which do very course,

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00:22:52,079 --> 00:22:53,559
that's going to help drive some viewership. So I have hope. I

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00:22:53,599 --> 00:22:56,559
mean, I always go into these
things with the positive attitude. I understand

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00:22:56,920 --> 00:23:00,640
one more quick thing, because you
were kind of going down this road.

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00:23:02,079 --> 00:23:07,279
Do you believe I've just wondered and
I've I'm plugged in some I've not heard

358
00:23:07,319 --> 00:23:11,200
this. Could they go back to
Fox, who they were with before.

359
00:23:11,319 --> 00:23:15,279
Anything's possible, but let's let's phrase
it as how probable is it to go

360
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:21,960
back to Fox? For this reason, Fox is losing the WWE Pro Wrestling.

361
00:23:22,599 --> 00:23:26,279
Fox is no longer involved with the
UFC Ultimate Fighting. ESPN got that

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00:23:26,319 --> 00:23:30,920
an exclusive deal seven years ago,
and Fox may be interested, at least

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00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:36,799
in the summertime in putting it back
on network TV. Non pay per views.

364
00:23:37,519 --> 00:23:41,160
Could that. What's the probability to
go to a network partner like that

365
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:45,960
to help grow and help promote and
Fox, who they dealt business, dealt

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00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:49,920
with with business before, when Fox
now has a little because again Fox has

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00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,759
done pretty well, you fur,
let me just get the answer. The

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00:23:53,799 --> 00:23:56,920
answer is no, I don't think
they're going back to fix. You don't

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00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:00,759
think they'll do it because like in
Fox's terms, the WWE on Friday Night

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00:24:00,759 --> 00:24:03,839
has been doing two and a half
or three million people. It's ingrained as

371
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,799
much as we met laugh at pro
Wrestling. That's a good number for Friday

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00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:11,880
night TV. Why could that not
be old school Friday night fights somewhere down

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00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:15,880
the road against gone. I'll never
say never, but I doubt it very

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00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:19,440
much, all right, but maybe
another outlet is where they go, and

375
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:23,119
we'll stay tuned and you'll keep I
do believe there'll be another outlet when where

376
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,960
exactly? But you know, I
think that will happen. Right, He's

377
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:33,400
got too many fighters and too many
top guys to real estate for to have

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00:24:33,519 --> 00:24:37,599
them fight, period, understood,
all right? Saturday night, San Francisco.

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00:24:37,640 --> 00:24:42,039
They held the press conferences Thursday afternoon
Pacific time for Regi's Prograe, the

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00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:47,240
WBC Junior welterweight champion, and Devin
Haney, the former undisputed lightweight champ.

381
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,599
They meet in the match room de
Zonne main event. All right, let's

382
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:56,119
get into it again on this podcast
feed. You heard from both of those

383
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,119
guys. In fact, we put
both of their interviews together with Dan earlier

384
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:02,039
this week on the podcas. That's
why you got to be following and subscribing.

385
00:25:02,039 --> 00:25:03,799
You heard from them in their own
words, a little bit of fireworks

386
00:25:03,799 --> 00:25:07,200
at the press conference. We expected
that they're playing it up. And here

387
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:11,039
we go as we head to the
weekend. This is the marquee fight here

388
00:25:11,519 --> 00:25:15,759
with unbeaten former undisputed lightweight champion Devin
Haney moving up Progray, a very talented

389
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,519
fighter who has the belt. All
right, Dan, let's go, let's

390
00:25:19,519 --> 00:25:23,440
preview it. Listen. It's a
terrific matchup. It's a very intriguing fight.

391
00:25:23,839 --> 00:25:26,759
They have different styles. As you
mentioned, I know that they've tried

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00:25:26,799 --> 00:25:30,680
to you know that Regis can say
I'm going to I can outbox him,

393
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:32,880
and Haney's saying, you know I
can fight with him. You know,

394
00:25:33,039 --> 00:25:34,640
fine, But I'm telling you the
styles are different. Regis is a power

395
00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:40,920
puncher who's you know, a taller, longer, bigger guy, good punching

396
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:45,279
power, and Devin Haney is a
tremendous defensive fighter. He does have okay

397
00:25:45,319 --> 00:25:48,000
offense, but he's not a big
knockout puncher. His ratio of knockouts is

398
00:25:48,039 --> 00:25:52,640
exactly fifty percent. He's stopped fifteen
of his opponents in thirty wins, you

399
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,079
know, but he's a tremendous technical
boxer, very gifted. The one thing

400
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:57,319
that is interesting to me is that
if you take a look at the way

401
00:25:57,319 --> 00:26:02,119
that Devin Haney when he's had some
trouble in fights, it's been against south

402
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,799
plus. He had trouble against the
BESTSELLI Lomachenko, who was a south pot

403
00:26:04,799 --> 00:26:08,200
and different kind of southpaw than Progray
is, but a southbound. Nonetheless,

404
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,559
a lot of people thought Lomachenko should
have gotten his hand raised that night to

405
00:26:11,599 --> 00:26:15,680
win. He had some trouble a
little bit with Jojo Diaz, who is

406
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:21,400
a south paw also, so again, if you're looking for some reason to

407
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,640
give Progray a better chance, although
he's a pretty big underdog, I'm not

408
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:27,079
really quite sure why it's that big
of an underdog. What I had saw

409
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:32,440
uh that that could be one factor, that that he has some issues occasionally

410
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:34,640
with left handers. But I suspect
that Devin will come in and having gone

411
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:38,279
to school on lefties in his training
camp and knowing the issues he had in

412
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,000
fighting Loman, which is not that
long ago, so he's coming off of

413
00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:45,119
a fight against a south paw,
that maybe it won't be as troublesome with

414
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:49,319
program and pro Gray has any read
everybody who's followed knows in his most recent

415
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,319
fight that took place over the summer, he looked like ass He looked terrible.

416
00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:56,400
I mean, he struggled badly.
He was lucky to get out of

417
00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:59,720
there with a win over Zaria.
So if that Regis program shows up,

418
00:26:59,759 --> 00:27:00,559
I mean, I asked him in
the interview at one point, when we

419
00:27:00,559 --> 00:27:03,799
tell what I talked to them,
they can hear it. They said that

420
00:27:03,839 --> 00:27:08,200
the the the reality is that people
look at that fight and say, you

421
00:27:08,279 --> 00:27:12,039
cann cut the ring off against den
Alito Zuria at all. Why in the

422
00:27:12,079 --> 00:27:15,400
world would I think you could possibly
do that against a fighter who is far,

423
00:27:15,759 --> 00:27:19,400
far, far superior to Zuria and
Devon Ainty and Regis has a good

424
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:22,119
attitude about he wasn't offended by the
question or the comment. He was like,

425
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:25,519
look, I hope people think that. I want people to think that.

426
00:27:25,599 --> 00:27:26,480
So when I go out there and
I beat his ass and I knock

427
00:27:26,519 --> 00:27:30,160
him out, I'm going to get
my props. And so with that same

428
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,200
kind of attitude, you know,
don't show you know, don't tell me,

429
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,839
show me. That's what I think
Regis wants to do. And it's

430
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,680
it's a really good matchup. I
mean, I'll say once again, I'm

431
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:42,000
glad for the rest of the world
where they get it as part of their

432
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:45,119
regular Zone package. Here in the
United States, it's a you know,

433
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:48,880
if you buy it if you're already
a Zone subscriber and you purchase the pay

434
00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,160
per view with sixty dollars, if
you're if you don't want to, if

435
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:52,240
you don't sub to the Zone and
you just want to buy it as a

436
00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:56,240
one off, which you can do
on a variety of platforms, including our

437
00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,240
friends at PBV dot com, or
you're linear your television or satellite service or

438
00:27:59,279 --> 00:28:03,359
whatever, and then it's seventy five
dollars. So you know, you save

439
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:04,400
some money on the one off,
but by the same token, you can

440
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,279
spend the money and get it for
cheaper, you know, and have also

441
00:28:07,319 --> 00:28:10,599
the rest of the offerings from the
Zone, which has put on some good

442
00:28:10,599 --> 00:28:12,240
fights, whether it was you know, just last weekend, the big fights

443
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,279
were all of that, you know, whether it was the Ryan Garcia fight

444
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,680
or the Michael Comlin card or whatever. You had two good shows on the

445
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,960
same day. So everybody's got to
make that decision. But I'm disappointed it's

446
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:23,319
a pay per view, but I
do expect it to be a good fight.

447
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:26,640
I do look forward to watching it. The undercard is terrible. We

448
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,359
don't even have to talk about it. Well. Liam Paro is on it,

449
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:33,759
Andy Cruz is on it, Ebony
Bridges, who would gain an entertaining

450
00:28:33,799 --> 00:28:36,720
female I understand. I'm just making
mentioned. They're all on the undercard,

451
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,079
and if something spectacular happens, we'll
probably bring it up on the recap when

452
00:28:41,079 --> 00:28:42,000
it's over with. But there you
go, all right, So there's the

453
00:28:42,039 --> 00:28:45,440
preview of that. And again hear
more from them and their own words with

454
00:28:45,599 --> 00:28:49,559
Dan on the podcast immediately previous to
this one, where he talked at length

455
00:28:49,599 --> 00:28:55,039
to both Regis Progray and David Haney
in separate conversations. You can hear that

456
00:28:55,319 --> 00:28:57,039
okay again, Jake Paul coming up
in a few minutes. And by the

457
00:28:57,039 --> 00:29:00,160
way, you're also going to hear
more about the International Boxing Hall of Fame

458
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:04,039
electees in our news segment in a
little bit, and Dan's ballot and who

459
00:29:04,039 --> 00:29:07,920
he voted for. Standby for that
all part of this podcast, All right.

460
00:29:08,279 --> 00:29:14,599
ESPN Top Rank Show also coming on
Satday night Pimbrooke Pines, Florida,

461
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:21,799
northern suburb of Fort Lauderdale. Robes
C. Ramirez will defend his WBO featherweight

462
00:29:21,839 --> 00:29:26,319
title in the main event. Xander
Zaiez, who you also spoke to recently

463
00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:30,559
for our podcasts, is in the
co feature of this Richard Torres also on

464
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:36,039
the card. Bruce Shoeshoe Carrington also
on the card. So this is Saturday

465
00:29:36,119 --> 00:29:40,440
night in Florida. This is the
traditional slot right after the awarding of the

466
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:44,519
college football Heisman Trophy on ESPN,
but the fight not in New York like

467
00:29:44,559 --> 00:29:47,160
it has been in years gone by. It is in Florida, all right,

468
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:52,000
So Dan some thoughts here, including
Ramirez a very talented, decorated amateur

469
00:29:52,079 --> 00:29:55,359
now world champion at featherweight. We're
interested to see what he can do in

470
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:57,079
the rest of that card. Real
quick in the preview mode. Please Yeah.

471
00:29:57,119 --> 00:30:00,079
So he's a two time gold medal
winner from but he's fighting now in

472
00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:04,359
South Florida, so they anticipate there
to be a large Cuban contingent in the

473
00:30:04,359 --> 00:30:07,920
crowd. I am told that the
show is sold out. I mean they're

474
00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:10,839
they're having it at a not a
big arena. It's only maybe like three

475
00:30:11,039 --> 00:30:15,759
thirty five hundred seed type place in
pember appliants. But the combination of Robas

476
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,759
Ramirez being a Cuban and the fact
that Xander's ayas from he is a you

477
00:30:19,759 --> 00:30:23,079
know, pie is a Puerto Rican
fighter, but he lives and has grown

478
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,599
up in Sunrise, Farta, he
said on the podcast. The arena where

479
00:30:26,599 --> 00:30:30,640
they're fighting AT's like fifteen minutes from
where he lives, so he's gonna have

480
00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,119
a lot of family, friends and
supporters on Obviously Puerto Ricans who live in

481
00:30:33,119 --> 00:30:37,319
that area also, so it should
be a good crowd. Number one as

482
00:30:37,319 --> 00:30:40,480
far as the car goes. Look, Robasi Rimirez is you know, he's

483
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:42,000
a tremendous fighter. I think he's
probably the best featherweight in the world right

484
00:30:42,039 --> 00:30:45,599
now, no knocking to anybody else. I mean, I know we've got

485
00:30:45,599 --> 00:30:48,599
other good champions like you know,
Luis Suberto Lopez and whatnot. He fights

486
00:30:48,599 --> 00:30:52,000
for top rank also undefeated, but
skill for skill, you know, you

487
00:30:52,079 --> 00:30:56,079
have to look at at at Robasi
is the number one guy in my mind,

488
00:30:56,119 --> 00:30:57,519
even though he hasn't maybe fought like
all the top fighters. But you

489
00:30:57,559 --> 00:31:00,279
can just tell a guy that won
the Goldens the way he did and the

490
00:31:00,279 --> 00:31:03,039
way he can, you know,
switch up and you know, come forward,

491
00:31:03,119 --> 00:31:04,960
go backward. I mean, I
know he lost his pro debut,

492
00:31:06,519 --> 00:31:10,319
uh, but you know it wasn't
like he didn't avenge that loss, and

493
00:31:10,359 --> 00:31:12,279
there was a lot of extenuating circumstances. So he's a really outstanding fighter.

494
00:31:12,319 --> 00:31:17,240
He's coming off of a very solid
victory, uh in his first title defense

495
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:22,599
where he you know, he went
to Japan and absolutely just obliterated his opponent

496
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:26,119
on one of the under cards there
in a in Tokyo. And you know,

497
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:30,000
he looked really good when he won
the title against Isaac Dogday. So

498
00:31:30,039 --> 00:31:32,160
he's he's on a good role right
now. Now. Raphaels Spinoza, who's

499
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:33,799
his opponent. Uh, he is
an undefeated fighter. He's twenty one,

500
00:31:33,799 --> 00:31:36,960
to know, with eighteen knockouts.
You know this, though, is taken

501
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,480
a humongous humongous, humongous, shall
I say humongous step up in common three

502
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:44,880
times? Yes, I mean his
twenty one wins have come against you know,

503
00:31:45,799 --> 00:31:48,839
honestly, I'd be hard pressed to
know like one or two of his

504
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,519
opponents. So he's he's he has
fought in Mexico. Doesn't mean he's bad,

505
00:31:52,559 --> 00:31:56,920
but it means that this is a
non mandatory And you know, it

506
00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:00,920
seems to me this is like,
let's stay busy, let's make sure we're

507
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:02,839
still there when in a way comes
to featherweight for the big money. So

508
00:32:02,839 --> 00:32:06,319
they've got a guy with a great
record. I don't know if he has

509
00:32:06,359 --> 00:32:08,720
a great shot to actually win.
Robas has got good power, robosy,

510
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,200
he's got good feet, he's got
good hands, he's got good skills,

511
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,039
he's got good IQ. You know, it's it's a I think. I

512
00:32:16,039 --> 00:32:20,440
mean, I know he's undefeated,
but it's what's behind that undefeated record.

513
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:22,440
I mean, if he does land
the bomb, who knows. But it

514
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,079
seems to me that this is the
may to order kind of fight for Robas

515
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:30,319
to show his abilities and keep the
chains moving and notch another title defense and

516
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:34,039
hopefully put on a good show.
And as relates to Xander's eyes on the

517
00:32:34,119 --> 00:32:36,599
undercard, you know, it's like
we talked about on the on on our

518
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:40,000
podcast interview, He's he's going to
end another you know, end this calendar

519
00:32:40,079 --> 00:32:44,319
year where he had a very good
year. He's seventeen and zero now going

520
00:32:44,359 --> 00:32:46,359
into this fight, and he's only
twenty one years old. I mean,

521
00:32:46,359 --> 00:32:50,079
people think he's been around forever,
but he turned pro at seventeen, So

522
00:32:50,119 --> 00:32:52,680
he's gonna finish this year. He
missed one fight this year because of I

523
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:54,640
think an illness or something that kept
him from a fourth fight this year.

524
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,039
But it'll be his third fight.
You know, He's fought in June,

525
00:32:58,039 --> 00:33:02,079
fought in September, fighting now again
here in December, and similar kind of

526
00:33:02,119 --> 00:33:07,599
solid opponent in Forte or Hey,
forteos been around, got a good record,

527
00:33:07,960 --> 00:33:09,759
but he's coming to what I can
consider for the end of his time

528
00:33:09,759 --> 00:33:14,480
as a prospect, Like he's making
that step up to young contender, and

529
00:33:14,519 --> 00:33:16,839
I think we'll see bigger things from
him in twenty twenty four. Obviously,

530
00:33:16,839 --> 00:33:20,119
he's got to get through this fight. If he does win and there are

531
00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:22,279
no injuries or anything like that,
I am told that I wrote this on

532
00:33:22,279 --> 00:33:28,279
one of my Fight Freaks Unite newsletter
notebooks last week. I guess if he

533
00:33:28,359 --> 00:33:32,240
is successful, there's the likely he
probably will be back. And I forget

534
00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:36,000
the exact date I wrote it,
but in February, Top Rank is planning

535
00:33:36,039 --> 00:33:38,559
a card at the Madison Square Guard
Theater on which the main event will be

536
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:44,480
the first title defense of Oshaki Foster
xanders Ayas likely will be in the co

537
00:33:44,599 --> 00:33:47,279
feature. Obviously, they want to
keep showcasing him in New York City where

538
00:33:47,319 --> 00:33:52,319
they can bring in Puerto Rican fans
from that large, very loyal boxing community

539
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,680
and put him on that show.
So I think that will kick off what

540
00:33:55,799 --> 00:34:00,359
hopefully will be for him if he
wins a pretty big twenty twenty four got

541
00:34:00,359 --> 00:34:02,599
to get through the Saturday night fight. But again, like Robessi Ramirez,

542
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:06,279
I mean, his opponent is solid
enough, but you know, he should

543
00:34:06,319 --> 00:34:08,360
definitely have enough to take care of
business, all right, So that's the

544
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:14,320
Top ranked show, and again Torres
the heavyweight. He scored some spectacular knockouts

545
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:16,880
against the inferior competition, so far
shoes shoot carry. He's actually by the

546
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:22,199
way, with regard to Torres,
I know he's fought a bunch of smears

547
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:23,800
in the last you know, since
he turned pro, and that's expected because

548
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:28,119
he and all that we've been doing
this. I don't think I've ever heard

549
00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:34,039
you use schmears. But he's fighting
Curtis Harper. Now, Curtis Harper's ajourneyman

550
00:34:34,079 --> 00:34:38,320
opponent. He's unfortunately he's best remembered
for having against Faa Jaga and stepping out

551
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,800
of the ring and getting disqualified,
and you know that was a whole big

552
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:45,280
mess. However, he's a gargantuin
step up for Richard Torres because he has

553
00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:49,639
been in the ring with some better
guys. He has gone around with some

554
00:34:49,639 --> 00:34:52,960
of these guys. I'll actually be
pretty impressed of Richard Torres. I mean

555
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:55,159
we talked about certain Richard Torres fights. People ask like on the bet Us

556
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,559
show, you know the over under
is one and a half rounds. You

557
00:34:58,559 --> 00:35:00,519
know, I'm like, oh my
god, that's right, and he knocks

558
00:35:00,519 --> 00:35:00,960
the guy out on like, you
know, a minute and a half.

559
00:35:01,559 --> 00:35:06,800
I'm very confident that that that Curtis
Harper. He may get stopped, but

560
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:08,480
he's definitely gonna last more than a
round in the fight. I mean,

561
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:13,880
he may last several rounds. I
think they purposely matched him with Curtis Harper,

562
00:35:14,119 --> 00:35:16,440
knowing that Richard can outbox him easily
and maybe bang him around a little

563
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:22,440
bit, but that he should give
the give Torres some experience and also some

564
00:35:22,159 --> 00:35:28,039
some rounds. And again that will
be after the Heisman Trophy presentation on ESPN

565
00:35:28,119 --> 00:35:31,559
the Top Rank show from Florida.
The Dodge Arena, about a thirty five

566
00:35:31,599 --> 00:35:36,119
hundred seat arena, as you were
saying, appears to already be sold out

567
00:35:36,119 --> 00:35:37,039
when you look when you look for
the tickets, there's not a lot of

568
00:35:37,039 --> 00:35:40,000
tickets on the secondary market that are
available. It's interesting. They have a

569
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,920
lot of arenas down in South Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, etcetera.

570
00:35:45,079 --> 00:35:47,760
This is just interesting where this one
is. And let's see how that plays

571
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:52,920
out again, Jake Paul conversation coming
in just a moment. There is one

572
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:58,239
more title fight we mentioned. Chris
Billum Smith in England in Bournemouth, England,

573
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:04,159
the coastal town where he's from,
will defend the w BO Cruiserweight Championship.

574
00:36:04,199 --> 00:36:07,000
Help me, I'm gonna do my
best. Uh this don't even let

575
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:15,400
me. It's much Masternock, right, Mettias Masternach Masternach. He's he's been

576
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,360
around a long time. Pretty solid
guy, you know. I think this

577
00:36:17,360 --> 00:36:20,840
can be a good fight. Actually, I mean it is this. It

578
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,639
is Chris billim Smith's first offense.
He had uh the decision victory over Lawrence

579
00:36:24,639 --> 00:36:29,800
o'coley back in May, who was
actually a good friend of his, not

580
00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:30,880
a bat. That was actually a
pretty fun fight. And by the way,

581
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:35,400
I actually called that on the bet
Us show and cashed like plus three

582
00:36:35,519 --> 00:36:38,840
hundred on the money line for bill
Smith that night. So he now goes

583
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,599
to the home crowd and people have
asked, well, why is this on

584
00:36:42,639 --> 00:36:45,960
a Sunday instead of the normal Saturday
time frame? Hey, wait a minute,

585
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,800
for Dan, why is this on
a Sunday as opposed to the normal

586
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,440
time frame. So the reason that
they gave when they announced the show is

587
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:55,480
because Chris is from uh Bornemouth,
the coastal town in England. And I

588
00:36:55,480 --> 00:37:00,519
guess they're like local soccer you know, football team if you will, has

589
00:37:00,559 --> 00:37:05,239
a big match and tons of people
in the city are going away to travel

590
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:07,039
for the game, and they draw
from a lot of the same fans,

591
00:37:07,039 --> 00:37:10,480
and they wanted his people to have
the opportunity to come and see his fight

592
00:37:10,519 --> 00:37:15,119
too. So they decided Boxer the
promoter and Bill and Smith said, you

593
00:37:15,159 --> 00:37:17,920
know, can we move it so
I can have my people, you know,

594
00:37:19,039 --> 00:37:21,480
robustly at my event. And so
they said okay, And I guess

595
00:37:21,519 --> 00:37:24,039
they worked it out with their their
primary broadcaster, Sky Sports in the UK,

596
00:37:24,159 --> 00:37:27,880
and the fight well, instead of
being on Saturday night, will be

597
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,119
on Sunday night. Now that's good
for us here in America because, like

598
00:37:30,159 --> 00:37:32,880
any of these boxer cards, you
may be watching football, but if you're

599
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,920
a diehard boxing fan like me,
I'll be watching the fights. We have

600
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:38,480
the two shows that we just talked
about on Saturday, with the pay per

601
00:37:38,599 --> 00:37:43,840
view and with the Robasi Ramiers card, I don't have to worry about having

602
00:37:44,119 --> 00:37:46,079
to spend you know, the hours
in the late afternoon watching, but I

603
00:37:46,119 --> 00:37:51,559
will be happy to do so on
Sunday because like all boxer cards going forward

604
00:37:51,599 --> 00:37:53,039
and the last two, we can
see them here in the United States.

605
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:59,559
Read the the same broadcast we see
on Sky. It's just the same feed,

606
00:37:59,599 --> 00:38:01,360
the same commentators. You know,
they just showed the same thing on

607
00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:05,760
the Peacock streaming service. So we
get Peacock so you can watch the watch

608
00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:07,880
the fights on there, so you
know boxing is now a streaming sport in

609
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:13,159
this country. The only linear channel
left is ESPN, and even some of

610
00:38:13,199 --> 00:38:16,599
their fights with top rank are on
Plus only ESPN Plus only. So BILLM.

611
00:38:16,639 --> 00:38:20,920
Smith on Sunday and look, he's
got some big time fights coming up

612
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:24,559
because they're looking to match him with
the other boxer, Richard Rico Pore,

613
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:30,559
who has an important fight comeic in
February on Peacock and Sky against Joshua Batzi

614
00:38:30,599 --> 00:38:34,400
in a WBA eliminator. But they
may end up making a fight with Dyllan

615
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:38,199
Smith instead, could be more lucrative. We's shall see. But Chris billams

616
00:38:38,199 --> 00:38:40,559
an appealing guy. I mean,
he fights fun fights, He's got an

617
00:38:40,599 --> 00:38:45,639
interesting story, good personality. I
was just going there enjoy him, which

618
00:38:45,639 --> 00:38:47,840
again and the okolely win. In
the aftermath of that win, he was

619
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:52,280
in tears in the ring doing this
in front of his home fans newborn son,

620
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,119
where he was saying, I now
get to share with my son,

621
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:59,159
or at least like a one year
old son, that I have won a

622
00:38:59,199 --> 00:39:01,360
world title when a lot of people
didn't think I could do this, and

623
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,920
his mother this is not an exaggeration, has been near death on and off

624
00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:08,280
for the last year or so with
breast cancer, and he said, my

625
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:12,679
mom, my mom has gotten to
see me win a world title. So

626
00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:15,719
you feel for this guy, you
kind of root for the story. Let's

627
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:21,440
let's see how he does with the
veteran in Master Nek, and we'll see

628
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:24,079
what happens Sunday and again the Sunday
afternoon. If he does do a rematch

629
00:39:24,079 --> 00:39:28,760
with Rikapore, it's gonna there's be
a great story there too, because the

630
00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:31,480
first time they fought back in twenty
nineteen, he lost his split decision in

631
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,119
that fight and then went on to
become a world champion. So he's gonna

632
00:39:35,119 --> 00:39:38,119
have a lot of options because the
cruiserweight division is, you know, somewhat

633
00:39:38,199 --> 00:39:43,760
rich. In the uk ji Opataiah
also there who's fought over there as well,

634
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:45,639
will be fighting. That's different promoter, that's different promoter. But yeah,

635
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:50,719
the cruiser the cruiserweight business is picking
up a bit a little bit,

636
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:52,119
and we'll see what billim Smith looks
like. And you can't see it in

637
00:39:52,119 --> 00:39:55,159
the United States Sunday afternoon. Now, I realize the NFL is a godzilla

638
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,119
that you're going up against, but
you could see it on Peacock and I

639
00:39:59,159 --> 00:40:01,920
would assume they have it housed there
after it's over and watch it later if

640
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:07,639
you can, and watch the last
couple of shows. The all good on

641
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:12,800
those for the championship fights without further
delay. It's not this weekend, it's

642
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:15,719
next weekend on December fifteenth, that
Jake Paul returns. But you don't have

643
00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:20,760
to wait for next week. You
got Jake Paul right now on the pod.

644
00:40:21,599 --> 00:40:25,960
Let's hear the conversation with Dan Well. It's my honor to bring in

645
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,760
for our second appearance on this podcast
together none other than Jake Paul. Jake,

646
00:40:30,800 --> 00:40:35,119
I know you're getting ready for a
fight coming up December the fifteenth,

647
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,920
live on de own at the carib
Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida, against

648
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:42,159
Andre August. Thank you so much
for doing this, welcome to the show,

649
00:40:42,679 --> 00:40:45,360
how things go and getting ready for
your fight. Thank you for having

650
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:49,760
me man. It's always great to
speak and feeling good. You know.

651
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:54,360
Locked In have had an amazing camp, which every fighter says in every interview,

652
00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:59,880
but it is true. I'm ready
to fight and just falling more and

653
00:41:00,119 --> 00:41:06,440
more in love with this sport and
the training and the details and bettering myself

654
00:41:06,679 --> 00:41:12,360
as an athlete and increasing the sparring
and just man, it's just been an

655
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:16,679
amazing time and I'm excited to show
my new new skill set from this camp

656
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:22,000
on December fifteenth. What is it
that you like the best about boxing?

657
00:41:22,039 --> 00:41:25,199
Because you've come to the sport without
a big amateur career, not something you

658
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:28,920
did as a small child, like
a lot of the great pros do.

659
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:32,960
What is it about it that you
like the best? Wow? That's tough.

660
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:39,079
Wow. You know that there's so
much, But I would say the

661
00:41:39,119 --> 00:41:46,280
fight night first and foremost, Like
just the anticipation, all the hard work

662
00:41:46,320 --> 00:41:53,920
that goes into that one moment,
you know, showcasing the sacrifice and you

663
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:58,239
know, hopefully most of the time
coming out with the with the win,

664
00:41:58,760 --> 00:42:05,280
and that feeling of the satisfaction afterwards, knowing what you accomplished, I think

665
00:42:06,119 --> 00:42:10,119
is something that I've never experienced before. I don't think there's a greater form

666
00:42:10,199 --> 00:42:17,320
of satisfaction or a greater feeling in
the world than ultimate sacrifice for a long

667
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:22,320
period of time and then it picking
off on a global state. So you

668
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:27,119
had your fight with Tommy Fiery earlier
this year in February. You know you

669
00:42:27,159 --> 00:42:29,719
took your first loss. It was
a very close fight, did good business

670
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:31,920
for everybody, I guess and from
what I understand, but it was the

671
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:36,639
first time you fought against a guy
that was mainly a boxer, not an

672
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:40,719
NNA fighter or some non combat specialist. I wonder coming out of that situation,

673
00:42:42,079 --> 00:42:45,960
what did you learn the most about
in that because you seem to brush

674
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:49,880
it off fine when you had your
fight after that. Yeah, I learned

675
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:54,559
so much. You know, hindsight
is twenty twenty, and I think mostly

676
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:04,000
learning that you're not in vincent will
like a certain you were all human and

677
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:09,719
I was going through so much during
that time. I don't even want to

678
00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:15,440
get into it because people, oh, it's excuses whatever. But and I

679
00:43:15,599 --> 00:43:19,880
just powered through because I would never
want to like reschedule a fight or pull

680
00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:23,880
out of something whatever. And so
that was a big learning lesson in realizing

681
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:30,559
how important it is to have the
right people around me to prepare for these

682
00:43:30,599 --> 00:43:35,119
big moments. And you certainly,
yeah, I mean, you certainly bounce

683
00:43:35,199 --> 00:43:37,840
back. Well, I mean you
fought your next fight against Nate Diaz in

684
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:42,559
August. Obviously he's an MMA fighter, but a big star in that sport

685
00:43:42,639 --> 00:43:45,079
kind of a grudge match. I
guess it was a big pay per view.

686
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:47,360
You guys did a huge gate at
the American Airline Center in Dallas,

687
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:51,039
big crowd. You guys talked about
doing a rematch. I think I heard

688
00:43:51,079 --> 00:43:52,719
you say you maybe you'll do a
rematch in a cage with him. Uh,

689
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:57,400
And nothing really seemed to come of
that. Uh. Is that still

690
00:43:57,440 --> 00:44:00,760
something in your mind about a possible
rematch either in we're Nick Martial Arts.

691
00:44:01,079 --> 00:44:05,440
Yeah, I wanted to run it. In MMA, we had, you

692
00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:08,360
know, the ten million dollar offer
to him, and there's still silence on

693
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:16,199
his end other than some you know
tweets that right, Ray's clearly high and

694
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:22,360
say like random things. But you
know, I think he got the paycheck

695
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,119
from from our fight. It was
like, Wow, that's big, that's

696
00:44:25,119 --> 00:44:29,159
massive, and then wants to do
it again. But it's just not willing

697
00:44:29,199 --> 00:44:34,280
to risk it in MMA. I
think he knows what would happen there and

698
00:44:35,079 --> 00:44:37,320
I believe I would clearly dominate him
and ruin his legacy. So I don't

699
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:40,559
think he's willing to risk it for
the money. So now you go into

700
00:44:40,639 --> 00:44:44,840
this fight a different, different kind
of animal altogether as far as the kind

701
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:46,559
of event. That is the kind
of opponent you're facing. You're taking on

702
00:44:46,639 --> 00:44:51,679
a fighter named Andre August, staying
true to your word that you would fight

703
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:55,400
an actual boxer again, not not
an MMA fighter or non combat person.

704
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:59,320
He's ten and one with a draw
as a boxer, he has I'm looking

705
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:01,079
at his record, five in a
row, he has a win. He

706
00:45:01,079 --> 00:45:04,400
had a long layoff, but he
came back. He had a fight victory

707
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,159
over the summer in August. Can
you just talk me through your decision to

708
00:45:07,199 --> 00:45:12,440
go this route as in terms of
an actual boxer, not a big name

709
00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,880
with you know, but a guy
with similar professional experience to you. It's

710
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:17,320
not a pay per view like most
of your fights have been. It's not

711
00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:21,559
in a huge arena. We know
where you've done big business. It's it's

712
00:45:21,599 --> 00:45:25,239
what most prospects in boxing do,
is take on an opponent of a similar

713
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:30,719
sort of level number of fights and
try to continue to build up their experience

714
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:36,000
and their skills. But talk me
through a little bit your decision to go

715
00:45:36,079 --> 00:45:39,440
this route instead of you could have
easily done some other Diaz ish kind of

716
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:44,480
event. Yeah, this is just
my road to world champion, and I've

717
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:47,480
said it since day one. That
I'm gonna be a world champion and fighting

718
00:45:47,519 --> 00:45:51,559
the biggest fights in the world,
and everyone's gonna see that I'm gonna beat

719
00:45:51,559 --> 00:45:54,039
Canelo and all of these things.
And now it's just me putting that into

720
00:45:54,079 --> 00:45:59,760
action, gaining the experience, and
it not being about the business side or

721
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,360
the entertainment side of things anymore.
This is about me, my team,

722
00:46:02,679 --> 00:46:08,159
my skill set, and getting better
and staying sharp in camp as a young

723
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:15,760
boxing prospect like you alluded to,
and just taking the more traditional boxing route,

724
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:17,559
which is what I'm here to do
because I believe, you know,

725
00:46:17,559 --> 00:46:24,679
it's gonna be one of the greatest
sports stories ever world a world champion.

726
00:46:25,079 --> 00:46:30,000
So you would acknowledge then that for
doing this fight. And I'm not saying

727
00:46:30,039 --> 00:46:32,639
that Jake Paul's not making money on
a fight like this. Obviously you wouldn't

728
00:46:32,639 --> 00:46:36,760
be doing it if you weren't.
I don't believe. But by not doing

729
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:42,360
a pay per view against a more
known name, be it boxer or MMA

730
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:45,880
person, that you are leaving money
on the table by doing a non pay

731
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:49,880
per view, by not doing the
fight in a big arena, Yeah,

732
00:46:49,920 --> 00:46:52,599
for sure. You know, I
don't even know how much money I'm making

733
00:46:52,679 --> 00:46:58,119
for this fight, to tell you
the truth, and could care less.

734
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:02,639
And I've grossed you know, two
hundred and fifty million dollars in interview in

735
00:47:04,039 --> 00:47:07,639
three years. And it's just not
about the business I have, you know,

736
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:14,519
money coming in so many other ways, like and and so many businesses

737
00:47:14,559 --> 00:47:16,320
that it's just like, yo,
we don't need to do that. It's

738
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:22,880
sure, it's great, but I'm
truly focused on the sport of boxing and

739
00:47:22,119 --> 00:47:34,199
my skill set. And yeah,
I think it's just like the entertainment and

740
00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:38,320
the pay per views and all of
that's fun, but I'm I'm serious about

741
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:42,280
becoming a world champion and this is
the route to that. I kind of

742
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:46,199
look at your career as backwards from
what most would do, Whereas most fighters

743
00:47:46,400 --> 00:47:52,039
would start out doing what you're doing
now, which is taking on an unknown

744
00:47:52,039 --> 00:47:54,559
opponent but with a certain level of
experience, trying to build up your your

745
00:47:54,599 --> 00:47:59,480
career, your skills, your popularity, et cetera. But you're kind of

746
00:47:59,480 --> 00:48:02,159
doing it in the in the reverse, where you started off in huge fights,

747
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:05,840
you know, second or third fight
on pay per view, fighting big

748
00:48:05,920 --> 00:48:08,920
names, making huge money, selling
huge arenas pay per views, and now

749
00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:14,079
it's going the other direction. What
are your thoughts about doing in that order

750
00:48:14,119 --> 00:48:15,880
as opposed to the more traditional order, because you could have done this at

751
00:48:15,880 --> 00:48:21,119
the beginning. Yeah, it's very
interesting. It's weird, dude. I

752
00:48:21,199 --> 00:48:22,960
mean, I gotta be honest with
you. Yeah, no, I don't

753
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:28,800
think this has ever happened in the
sport of boxing. But it's just how

754
00:48:28,880 --> 00:48:34,239
things played out, Right. This
all started with you know, YouTubers talking

755
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:37,679
shit to each other, right,
and then you know, decided to fight,

756
00:48:37,119 --> 00:48:40,360
and then one thing led to another. I'm fighting more YouTubers, then

757
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:45,039
all of a sudden, I'm fighting
Nate Robinson. Then I'm fighting UFC you

758
00:48:45,079 --> 00:48:50,280
know, undefeated guy Ben Askering.
And this is just how the cookie crumbled.

759
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,800
And I didn't know I was going
to fall in love with the sport.

760
00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:57,320
I didn't know this is going to
become my love, my passion,

761
00:48:57,480 --> 00:49:04,159
my destiny. And there's something beautiful
about that. And I hope to set

762
00:49:04,159 --> 00:49:07,960
the precedent, you know, moving
forward. So do you think after this,

763
00:49:07,039 --> 00:49:10,280
though, then you'll go back on
pay per view against another like bigger

764
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:14,840
name or are you ready to do
like a few of these types of fights

765
00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:16,760
in a row to do what you
want to do, which is to put

766
00:49:16,800 --> 00:49:21,400
yourself in the best possible position to
get a big time you know, a

767
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:24,039
little legit world title fight at some
point. Yeah, I think it'll be

768
00:49:24,239 --> 00:49:30,000
a balance as things come through the
door, But for now it's focusing on

769
00:49:30,079 --> 00:49:36,519
fighting prospects and gaining experience. But
yeah, let's say one of these idiots

770
00:49:36,639 --> 00:49:42,920
who calls me out wants to get
smoked up in a blunt for ten million

771
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:49,440
dollars, Like, of course I'm
gonna go and do that. But my

772
00:49:49,559 --> 00:49:52,440
main focus, you know, that's
I call those the side quest. This

773
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:57,840
this is the main quest, and
the main destination is being a world champion,

774
00:49:57,880 --> 00:50:01,639
And for now it's fighting real boxers
with real skill and challenging myself.

775
00:50:02,519 --> 00:50:07,199
This isn't the key. Just to
add, he's still making a seven figure

776
00:50:07,239 --> 00:50:10,920
payday on this fight. Oh I'm
sure he's still gonna be either the first

777
00:50:12,199 --> 00:50:15,760
or potentially second, but most likely
the biggest gate in Orlando history for a

778
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:20,239
boxing event. Right, Like,
the business is still great for someone with

779
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:23,159
his experience, and a big part
of that is the profile he's built through

780
00:50:23,159 --> 00:50:27,559
his first eight fights to then be
able to do this. At the same

781
00:50:27,639 --> 00:50:30,760
time, he never wanted to charge
his fans for a pay per view to

782
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:32,679
fight a guy that no one's ever
heard of, and no one is saying

783
00:50:32,719 --> 00:50:37,199
this is, you know, a
true gatekeeper to a championship. Oh for

784
00:50:37,239 --> 00:50:42,000
sure. Personal decision to do right
by his fan base, I understand,

785
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:45,119
and I'm glad to hear that that's
actually a good thing. I actually have.

786
00:50:45,159 --> 00:50:47,280
I have two more questions for Jake. One of the things, and

787
00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:51,639
it's not about your career so much, Jake, but you have a women's

788
00:50:51,639 --> 00:50:54,280
World championship fight on the undercard between
Shade's a Green and Franchion Cruise deserned.

789
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:59,280
They're fighting for the vacant WBC Women's
Super mid Await title. Franchion Cruise.

790
00:50:59,320 --> 00:51:01,800
Of course, she's the former un
disputed champion that weight class. You've been

791
00:51:01,800 --> 00:51:06,920
a huge supporter at you and Nikisa
then big supporters of women's boxing. You

792
00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:08,840
guys have helped make Amanda Serrano into
a big star, into a big draw.

793
00:51:09,119 --> 00:51:12,280
I'm wondering, Jake, from your
point of view, what was it

794
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,519
about it that made you decide to
throw your name and your weight, so

795
00:51:15,599 --> 00:51:20,360
to speak, behind the women's side
of the sport. Yeah. Look,

796
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:24,039
I think it started with Amanda Serrano
and just becoming friends with her and how

797
00:51:24,039 --> 00:51:29,960
amazing she is as a person,
and her coach and other manager, Jordan,

798
00:51:30,519 --> 00:51:35,199
and our relationship with them growing,
and then seeing how needed it was

799
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:37,599
to help the women in this sport, and I started to speak about it.

800
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:40,800
I started to get them big paydays, and then all of a sudden,

801
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:45,679
it's like, Jake Paul is the
spokesperson for women's boxing, and so

802
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:50,920
it's like this responsibility almost that was
taken on my shoulders and there wasn't equality.

803
00:51:51,000 --> 00:51:52,920
There was you know, they were
being taken advantage of. They weren't

804
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:57,880
getting the same opportunities. Blah blah
blah. And we have the ability,

805
00:51:58,079 --> 00:52:04,280
because of our unique positioning and marketing
and skill set to help and change this

806
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:07,159
forward. And that's exactly what we've
done, and that's what we love to

807
00:52:07,199 --> 00:52:10,639
do, both Nakeesa and I.
When we have conversations, it's how do

808
00:52:10,679 --> 00:52:15,239
we make history first, and then
the business side of it comes second.

809
00:52:15,519 --> 00:52:19,079
Jake, thank you very much for
taking time to talk to me today about

810
00:52:19,119 --> 00:52:21,559
your fight. I wish you the
best of luck and I'm interested to see

811
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:27,159
how you perform against and an a
guy, a guy that's a boxer like

812
00:52:27,199 --> 00:52:30,320
yourself that's done the things in the
gym and is trying to also better himself.

813
00:52:30,599 --> 00:52:35,840
Awesome man, No, appreciate it, Appreciate the time today and yeah,

814
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:37,119
look forward to it. All right, Thank you very much, Jake,

815
00:52:37,159 --> 00:52:42,440
Paul. Good stuff. And as
you discussed with him in this interview,

816
00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:45,039
he's now back fighting a cruiserweight boxer, I said to you, and

817
00:52:45,079 --> 00:52:51,320
I'm gonna be consistent. I am
more intrigued if he's fighting boxers moving forward.

818
00:52:51,400 --> 00:52:54,400
So I am intrigued next weekend in
my part of the world, in

819
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:59,159
Central Florida, because this is the
next step towards. Is he gonna be

820
00:52:59,199 --> 00:53:01,679
a cruiserweight tender. We don't know, but I don't have to see any

821
00:53:01,679 --> 00:53:05,599
more, Amma. Guys, I
know he can beat MMA. Guys,

822
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:07,679
I get well, he's he said
as much. He's Yeah. He made

823
00:53:07,719 --> 00:53:10,360
the point that it's not only the
money, it's I want the experience.

824
00:53:10,400 --> 00:53:13,800
I want to get better, I
want to try for a title, and

825
00:53:13,880 --> 00:53:15,119
I think to do it and he
basically, you know, he's doing his

826
00:53:15,159 --> 00:53:19,119
career in reverse. As I pointed
out on the on the interview, most

827
00:53:19,119 --> 00:53:21,960
guys start out with this kind of
fight Andre August ten and one with a

828
00:53:22,039 --> 00:53:23,880
draw. You know, in this
six or seventh fight, but he had

829
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:27,400
all of those fights on pay per
view and made a shitload of money.

830
00:53:27,639 --> 00:53:30,639
But now he's sort of going backwards
and not going on pay per view and

831
00:53:30,679 --> 00:53:32,880
now not fighting a big name.
But there's a lot of people like you

832
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,599
or me that find it even a
little more intriguing because he's fighting an actual

833
00:53:36,639 --> 00:53:38,559
boxer. Now, not to say
that Andre August is some you know,

834
00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:43,000
boogeyman, king of the world pound
for pound champion, but he's got eleven

835
00:53:43,039 --> 00:53:45,679
pro fights, he's coming off a
win. Uh, you know, he's

836
00:53:45,679 --> 00:53:49,159
not an old, used up guy
in his mid thirties, and he's getting

837
00:53:49,159 --> 00:53:50,960
the opportunity the way Jake is and
we'll see. I mean, that's the

838
00:53:51,039 --> 00:53:52,960
kind of fight that would be on
an undercard on a streaming, on a

839
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:55,920
on a you know, if it
wasn't a big name guy like Jake Paul

840
00:53:55,960 --> 00:54:00,360
because of his popularity outside of boxing. But I don't blame for that.

841
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:01,960
He's taken an opportunity, and by
the way he's giving the opportunity. So

842
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:06,239
all the the fighters on the undercard, whether even like the they got the

843
00:54:06,239 --> 00:54:09,480
women's super middleweight vacant title fight on
that show between franchion, Cruise Desern and

844
00:54:09,679 --> 00:54:13,840
Shadasi Agreen. So, you know, good for good for Jake and his

845
00:54:13,920 --> 00:54:17,280
team at MVP for bringing shine to
the other young fighters, and for Jake

846
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:22,199
for for you know, is skewing
the huge money and the pay per view

847
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:24,559
and the giant arena and just going
in there and working on his craft against

848
00:54:24,599 --> 00:54:28,559
a guy that he's similarly matched with. Just did it again. I think

849
00:54:28,559 --> 00:54:31,400
you used the shmear for the first
time, and you just used a skewing

850
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:34,840
for the first time. And all
these months and the year and a half

851
00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:37,679
plus we've been doing these podcasts.
Yeah, I love a skewing. That's

852
00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:39,719
that's brilliant. I love that.
I'm a I'm a writer. I got

853
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:43,679
a pretty good volheads. I mean
I can drop the fucks and the ships

854
00:54:43,679 --> 00:54:45,519
also, you know, but I
got a good hote. And there's the

855
00:54:45,559 --> 00:54:49,800
first two of those on the pod
tonight. Uh as we record this Thursday

856
00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:52,239
night into Friday. All right,
let's cheer it up even more. I

857
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:57,360
know you have been chomping at the
bit to talk about the International Boxing Hall

858
00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:00,960
of Fame. Tell me is now
out? You had ballot out? It

859
00:55:00,000 --> 00:55:05,840
is now official? On who is
going in let's spend a few moments on

860
00:55:05,920 --> 00:55:08,280
this as we move along on the
podcast, Tell me more go All right,

861
00:55:08,320 --> 00:55:13,199
So they announced the class of twenty
twenty four on Thursday morning, as

862
00:55:13,239 --> 00:55:15,920
everybody expected. They will be inducted
at the you know, into the museum

863
00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:20,039
in Canastota, New York. That
will take place on the in the final

864
00:55:20,079 --> 00:55:23,199
event of the Hall of Fame weekend
that will conclude on June ninth, and

865
00:55:23,239 --> 00:55:25,719
it's you know, as always,
there's a lot of great stories, a

866
00:55:25,760 --> 00:55:30,719
lot of great boxing people going into
this hallowed shrine that is very, very

867
00:55:30,719 --> 00:55:32,800
near and dear to my heart.
I grew up not that far from there.

868
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:36,800
I visited and as a fan when
I was in high school and in

869
00:55:36,880 --> 00:55:38,800
college, and you know, spend
time around the museum, and I've been

870
00:55:38,840 --> 00:55:43,599
back there for official things like the
induction ceremonies, and I've covered fights at

871
00:55:43,599 --> 00:55:46,559
Turningstone, So have gone to the
Hall of Fame just to go, you

872
00:55:46,559 --> 00:55:49,000
know, on the day of the
fight, that sort of thing. So

873
00:55:49,079 --> 00:55:51,800
it's it's a wonderful place. I've
said this a thousand times. If you're

874
00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:54,639
a boxing fan, put it on
your bucket list to go on Hall of

875
00:55:54,639 --> 00:55:59,119
Fame Weekend and take part in all
the festivities, whether it's the memorabilia show

876
00:55:59,199 --> 00:56:01,840
or the parade, or the champions
dinner, or the night before or the

877
00:56:02,119 --> 00:56:06,440
fist casting ceremonies, or the the
talks they do, you know, the

878
00:56:06,599 --> 00:56:10,320
uh with the different people over different
subjects. They'll talk about uh, you

879
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:13,320
know, on the grounds of the
museum and just look around the museum.

880
00:56:13,360 --> 00:56:15,239
It's just it's just a you know, if you're it's like heaven if you're

881
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:17,840
a boxing fan. I mean,
it's just a great thing. So the

882
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:22,719
new class that's been elected, Uh, I'm happy for all these people.

883
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:24,400
So in the and they divide it
up into a variety of the categories.

884
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:30,360
In this particular uh cycle of of
inductions, you have the modern men's category,

885
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:35,039
the modern women's category, the non
participants observers, which is journalists and

886
00:56:35,119 --> 00:56:37,000
other people that you know watch,
you know, historians, things like that.

887
00:56:38,199 --> 00:56:42,119
You have the Then they have different
categories, uh, old timers,

888
00:56:42,199 --> 00:56:45,159
trailblazers, you know that that alternate
differ years. But the big you know

889
00:56:45,199 --> 00:56:50,360
that the marquee category, of course
is the modern men. Those are the

890
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:52,400
famous boxers that we all know and
in this is a tremendous class. You

891
00:56:52,440 --> 00:56:58,079
have the finally, the induction or
the election of Ricky the hit Manhattan,

892
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:00,400
Uh, you know, one of
the great at his time. Took him

893
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:04,679
a few years to get in because
of a jam the ballot with people that

894
00:57:04,719 --> 00:57:07,719
were clearly ahead of him in terms
of the hierarchy who should go. And

895
00:57:07,719 --> 00:57:09,679
you're not going to like I voted
for Ricky Hatton, but I could never

896
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:14,519
vote for him over like, say, you know Floyd Mayweather, and you

897
00:57:14,519 --> 00:57:17,960
know Vladimir Klitschko and Andre Ward and
you know many other greats you know that

898
00:57:19,039 --> 00:57:21,719
went ahead of him into the into
the Hall of Famer, Roy Jones being

899
00:57:21,719 --> 00:57:23,320
one of them. Last year Bernard
Hopkins won, Manuel Markz, etcetera.

900
00:57:23,519 --> 00:57:27,679
So he's kind of been stuck in, you know, in that too many

901
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:30,280
guys. But now it's stand out
of it. So I was really thrilled

902
00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:31,960
that he's being inducted. He was
a pleasure to cover. I got to

903
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,719
know Ricky a while, you know, over the years pretty well, just

904
00:57:36,719 --> 00:57:38,679
just as fun a guy to hang
with. The jail you've shared. We

905
00:57:38,760 --> 00:57:45,639
can't overstate immensely massively popular prominent fighter
in the UK. We're in the United

906
00:57:45,679 --> 00:57:49,719
States, but this is a worldwide
sport it's the International Boxing Hall of Fame,

907
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:52,880
and so obviously in the UK they
are roaring for this one. And

908
00:57:52,920 --> 00:57:57,039
he also he looks at he he
may not have the resume of a Muhammad

909
00:57:57,039 --> 00:57:59,199
Ali, but it's not like Ricky
is the you know, resume is the

910
00:57:59,239 --> 00:58:00,920
void of signific get a win.
But the thing I was thinking about,

911
00:58:00,960 --> 00:58:04,639
because you know, he's been kind
of a borderline case in my mind for

912
00:58:04,679 --> 00:58:07,320
a while, what kind of put
me over the top to vote for him?

913
00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:09,719
Besides comparing who else to vote for
on that ballot, I thought to

914
00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:14,440
myself, if you're going to write
the history of the early twentieth first century

915
00:58:14,440 --> 00:58:19,280
of professional boxing, you cannot do
it without prominently including Ricky had he was

916
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:21,400
that big of a deal. I
mean, he was in two of the

917
00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:24,079
biggest fights I ever covered. The
fight between him and Mayweather is one of

918
00:58:24,119 --> 00:58:29,000
the biggest events I've ever covered,
and it was a tremendous build up.

919
00:58:29,199 --> 00:58:31,079
And even though he got knocked out
and you know, somewhat of one sided

920
00:58:31,079 --> 00:58:35,159
fight going into that fight, you
have to remember what it was like going

921
00:58:35,199 --> 00:58:38,800
in. They were considered like the
two Floyd number one maybe pound for pound,

922
00:58:39,079 --> 00:58:43,400
Ricky was certainly high and everybody's pound
for pound was undefeated, you know,

923
00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:45,679
the champion at the one hundred and
forty pound wait less he went up

924
00:58:45,719 --> 00:58:49,639
and wait to challenge me whether and
then he was involved in another humongous fights.

925
00:58:49,679 --> 00:58:51,840
After he got beat by Floyd,
you know, he put together some

926
00:58:51,920 --> 00:58:54,840
wins and he ended up having another
mega fight against Manny Pakia. So his

927
00:58:54,920 --> 00:58:59,639
only three losses in his career are
to Floyd. To Manny, no shame

928
00:58:59,679 --> 00:59:01,679
in that they're the two best fighters
of their generation. And then in his

929
00:59:01,760 --> 00:59:05,360
last fight that took place three and
a half years after the pack y off

930
00:59:05,360 --> 00:59:07,559
fight, he got stopped, you
know by a solid guy Sanchenko. So

931
00:59:07,760 --> 00:59:10,159
those are his three losses. But
other than that, he ran the table

932
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:13,800
and he beat some good guys along
the way, and putting that magical victory

933
00:59:13,840 --> 00:59:16,800
over Costazu, who he made quit
so happy for Ricky uh. And this

934
00:59:16,920 --> 00:59:20,599
was another guy I voted for.
I took a couple of years again because

935
00:59:20,599 --> 00:59:24,119
of the pack nature of the ballots. But Diego Chico Kraus restless soul,

936
00:59:25,199 --> 00:59:30,960
as as exciting a fighter as there
was, devastating puncher, probably as great

937
00:59:30,960 --> 00:59:34,039
of a warrior mentality as anybody I
can think of in boxing. To me,

938
00:59:34,119 --> 00:59:36,760
he's on the of the guys I
covered. I can't speak for the

939
00:59:36,760 --> 00:59:39,079
old timers, but of the fighters
that I knew and covered, the guys

940
00:59:39,079 --> 00:59:43,000
with the greatest heart I've ever seen, who just that never say die,

941
00:59:43,320 --> 00:59:46,960
ultimate warrior attitude in the ring like
I will. I will literally walk through

942
00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:52,039
a wall to get this win.
It's in no particular order. It's Diego

943
00:59:52,079 --> 00:59:54,760
Corrals, Evander Holyfield, and Artiro
Gaddy. You know, no no shock

944
00:59:54,800 --> 00:59:59,199
at all. Three of them were
home fighters. So uh, it's kind

945
00:59:59,199 --> 01:00:02,360
of hard to have a Hall of
f with the guy that was the lightweight

946
01:00:02,440 --> 01:00:07,119
champion who unified the titles, a
guy who was a junior lightweight champion who

947
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:10,519
had as good of a run at
one point as you could have had in

948
01:00:10,559 --> 01:00:15,199
that era, where in back to
back to back fights he avenged a loss

949
01:00:15,199 --> 01:00:19,360
to Joel Kassamayor, he knocked out
and took away the undefeated record and a

950
01:00:19,440 --> 01:00:22,679
lightweight title from my man Popo Freitas, and then he had the War of

951
01:00:22,719 --> 01:00:28,119
the Ages and was the knockout winner
in one of the most dramatic comebacks in

952
01:00:28,159 --> 01:00:30,519
the history of sports and probably the
greatest boxing match that ever took place in

953
01:00:30,559 --> 01:00:35,239
the sport where I was ringside for
on May seven, two thousand and five

954
01:00:35,239 --> 01:00:38,119
at the Mandala a Bay against Jose
Luis Castillo in their first fight. So

955
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:42,599
to me, Chico Carrales, you
know, is a worthy candidate. You

956
01:00:42,599 --> 01:00:45,760
know he did fight Floyd Mayweather and
get spanked. But again, like with

957
01:00:45,840 --> 01:00:50,199
Hatten, you know nothing to be
ashamed of him to get beaten up and

958
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,519
knocked out by Floyd Mayweather. So
he's going into the Hall of Fame.

959
01:00:52,639 --> 01:00:57,639
You have the first ever left handed
heavyweight champion of the world, the heavyweight

960
01:00:57,679 --> 01:00:59,840
champion, not just the guy that
had a belt, and that is Michael

961
01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:01,159
Moore. I did not vote for
Michael. I did, you know,

962
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:04,800
consider him, but I didn't vote
for him. But I understand why people

963
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:07,760
did. The guy. If you
take a look at the guys in the

964
01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:12,159
Hall of Fame, if you were
the heavyweight champion, generally speaking, you

965
01:01:12,199 --> 01:01:15,559
get in. There's exceptions. Buster
Douglas is not in the Hall of Fame

966
01:01:15,679 --> 01:01:19,159
or anything like that. But Michael
had enough wins. He also did enough

967
01:01:19,239 --> 01:01:22,320
damage as a monster punching white heavyweight
and also in his early days at a

968
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:24,559
heavyweight. I mean he won his
first twenty six fights of his career by

969
01:01:24,639 --> 01:01:28,320
knockout, you know, when he
was being trained by Emanuel Stewart out of

970
01:01:28,320 --> 01:01:30,480
the Cronk Gym. It's not like
Michael came to you know. It wasn't

971
01:01:30,480 --> 01:01:35,440
an accident that he won the heavyweight
title against Vander Holyfield, and then he

972
01:01:35,519 --> 01:01:37,480
regained a portion of the title later
on a couple of fights there. So

973
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:40,000
he's going in. And then you
also have one of my favorite guys.

974
01:01:40,199 --> 01:01:45,320
You know, a little guy,
five foot nothing, southpaw, couldn't couldn't

975
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:47,800
crack an egg, but as consumm
and a boxer and as cool as guy

976
01:01:47,800 --> 01:01:51,719
as you could ever deal with.
And that is my man, Ivan iron

977
01:01:51,719 --> 01:01:55,039
Boy Calderon, two thousand, Puerto
Rican Olympian, teammate of the great Miguel

978
01:01:55,079 --> 01:01:59,840
Coto. And this was a guy, and I've said this before, there

979
01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:02,119
were was a long period of time
in my early days of covering this sport

980
01:02:02,119 --> 01:02:07,679
when he turned pro where it was
death taxes and Iron Boy Calderon by lopsided

981
01:02:07,760 --> 01:02:13,719
shutout decision because he just boxed everybody's
ears off. He was he had no

982
01:02:13,840 --> 01:02:16,199
power. Everybody was bigger than bigger
than him, even in the strawweight division,

983
01:02:16,440 --> 01:02:19,960
and he just was like a metronome. He won every single fight,

984
01:02:20,000 --> 01:02:22,639
and it's not like he didn't fight
any solid guys. You go down the

985
01:02:22,639 --> 01:02:24,519
wrist of his opponents. I know
that strawweights are not like the most famous

986
01:02:24,599 --> 01:02:29,000
or deepest weight class, but he
beat a whole shitload of guys that were

987
01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:31,800
either guys who were the top contenders, who had won titles, who would

988
01:02:31,840 --> 01:02:35,599
go on to win titles. He
eventually moved up in weight and won a

989
01:02:35,599 --> 01:02:38,719
title at junior flyweight, and only
at the end of his career when he

990
01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:42,599
was kind of has slowed down a
little bit and didn't have that those great

991
01:02:42,639 --> 01:02:45,440
reflexes in that speed that he got
beaten. He got knocked out by Giovanni

992
01:02:45,480 --> 01:02:49,719
Segura, who was one of the
biggest punching junior flyweight you'll ever see,

993
01:02:49,760 --> 01:02:52,400
a big, big dude for that
weight class, lost him twice, and

994
01:02:52,440 --> 01:02:54,280
then you know, lost in his
final fight. But other than that,

995
01:02:54,280 --> 01:02:58,800
he was he was like in many
ways, not in terms of their power,

996
01:02:58,800 --> 01:03:00,960
but like klitch Goo Klitchko. When
Vladimir Klinsko was in his prime,

997
01:03:01,719 --> 01:03:06,159
he won fights and didn't you know, he would knock guys out, but

998
01:03:06,239 --> 01:03:09,760
he barely ever lost rounds. In
his day, Ivan Caldron would win like

999
01:03:09,880 --> 01:03:14,320
one nineteen one, eighteen one,
twenty. He didn't barely lose rounds in

1000
01:03:14,360 --> 01:03:16,119
these fights. And I'm glad he's
in. I have voted for him in

1001
01:03:16,159 --> 01:03:19,719
the past. I voted for him
again he got caught up in the numbers

1002
01:03:19,760 --> 01:03:22,280
game a few years. I think
I was thrilled when I saw the new

1003
01:03:22,320 --> 01:03:23,519
fighters that they put on the ballot
this year, who I didn't think would

1004
01:03:23,519 --> 01:03:27,280
make it, and On Caldron got
enough support. Now, the interesting thing,

1005
01:03:27,280 --> 01:03:30,199
by the way, about this year's
inductions, I just mentioned four fighters,

1006
01:03:30,239 --> 01:03:32,119
Hatton Corrals and Michael Moore and Ivan
Caldron. If you take a look

1007
01:03:32,119 --> 01:03:37,159
at the ballot, and if you
subscribe my newsletter and you are of my

1008
01:03:37,280 --> 01:03:39,679
one of my paid subscribers, you
will see a photograph of the actual ballot

1009
01:03:40,199 --> 01:03:43,920
and how I checked it off.
But you if you read the chatter the

1010
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:46,440
instructions, it will tell you that
of the forty two men that were on

1011
01:03:46,480 --> 01:03:50,119
the ballot, that you may vote
for up to five, but three will

1012
01:03:50,119 --> 01:03:52,039
be elected. So when I saw
the fourth guy elected, I also knew

1013
01:03:52,079 --> 01:03:54,719
they didn't say this on the ballot, but I know that it's it's three

1014
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:59,559
elected or anybody over eighty percent.
So if a fourth guy gets elected,

1015
01:03:59,679 --> 01:04:01,199
that means you'd have to have four
fighters get over eighty percent. Well,

1016
01:04:01,199 --> 01:04:03,599
in a year like this with no
automatics, I knew there was no way

1017
01:04:03,599 --> 01:04:08,000
that four guys got eighty percent.
So I texted my good pal Ed Grophy,

1018
01:04:08,280 --> 01:04:11,559
who is the executive director of the
Hall of Fame, and I asked

1019
01:04:11,639 --> 01:04:13,559
him, Hey, what's up with
the four instead of the three leg it

1020
01:04:13,559 --> 01:04:15,000
says in the ballot. He would
not tell me who it was, but

1021
01:04:15,039 --> 01:04:18,119
he said, the reason for the
four is because two of the candidates tied

1022
01:04:18,159 --> 01:04:20,760
in their vote total, so they
weren't going to just do two. They

1023
01:04:20,880 --> 01:04:24,480
put the two guys in the tide. So that's fair. So you have

1024
01:04:24,559 --> 01:04:27,400
four guys in the new you know, who were newcomers this year, which

1025
01:04:27,400 --> 01:04:30,239
means they'll also be a fourth fighter
added to the ballot next year, not

1026
01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:33,239
just three. So that's like the
sexy thing in terms of like who I

1027
01:04:33,360 --> 01:04:36,679
voted for, Just to make it
clear the guys that I voted for.

1028
01:04:36,760 --> 01:04:40,679
Besides I mentioned to you, I
voted for Calderon, I voted for Ricky

1029
01:04:40,719 --> 01:04:45,039
Hatton, and I also voted for
Chigo corrals. But of the of the

1030
01:04:45,119 --> 01:04:46,480
other fighters I voted for because you're, like I said, you're allowed to

1031
01:04:46,559 --> 01:04:51,039
vote for five. So the other
ones I voted for were Darius Mikolchewsky,

1032
01:04:51,320 --> 01:04:54,760
who did not make it in.
He was a long time eight long time

1033
01:04:54,840 --> 01:04:58,800
light heavyweight champion. Unfortunately, he's
probably most remembered for never having an opportunity

1034
01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:00,000
or never making a fight with Roy
Joe, who was the number one guy

1035
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:02,840
at the time. But this was
a dude who retired forty and two and

1036
01:05:03,119 --> 01:05:08,719
had a very very long title reigned
twenty three defenses of his WBO light heavyweight

1037
01:05:08,719 --> 01:05:11,159
title. I also voted and have
voted in the past. I voted for

1038
01:05:11,199 --> 01:05:14,000
Mikkelchesky in the past two at times. But the other guy I voted for

1039
01:05:14,159 --> 01:05:17,639
on some on a somewhat regular basis
for quite a while is another great Puerto

1040
01:05:17,719 --> 01:05:21,880
Rican fighter who just gets no love. Three division world champion Wilfredo Vasquez Senior,

1041
01:05:23,199 --> 01:05:26,199
who was involved in some tremendous fights, who was a could punch with

1042
01:05:26,239 --> 01:05:29,039
both hands and like I said,
one a bunch of titles. You know,

1043
01:05:29,119 --> 01:05:32,199
he may not be Trinidad or Codo
or Wilford Benitez or you know,

1044
01:05:32,239 --> 01:05:35,519
picked a picked the you know,
the the top fighters you can think of

1045
01:05:35,559 --> 01:05:40,960
for Puerto Rico. But he,
yeah, Camacho, you know, Carlos

1046
01:05:41,079 --> 01:05:45,360
Ortiz. You know, there's a
lot of great fighters that have come out

1047
01:05:45,360 --> 01:05:49,719
of Puerto Rico. But he while
not the top say four or five or

1048
01:05:49,760 --> 01:05:54,639
six, he's probably in that top
ten. He's a tremendous fighter, and

1049
01:05:54,639 --> 01:05:57,719
I believe he belongs in the Hall
of Fame. He deserves it, you

1050
01:05:57,760 --> 01:06:00,960
know, just just a tremendous fighter. You know, his son was a

1051
01:06:00,960 --> 01:06:03,440
world champion. Wasn't not as good
as he was Scott that that also in

1052
01:06:03,480 --> 01:06:06,599
terms of people that might know his
name because his son was a world champion

1053
01:06:06,679 --> 01:06:10,159
not that many years ago. But
you know, will fred O Vaskaz,

1054
01:06:10,159 --> 01:06:12,519
I think is unfortunately kind of destined
to be forgotten about by a lot of

1055
01:06:12,519 --> 01:06:14,800
people, and it's really a shame. But I will continue to vote for

1056
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:16,960
him as long as there's no other
big names that head them up, you

1057
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:19,280
know, ahead of them on that
ruster. Now, in terms of the

1058
01:06:19,280 --> 01:06:24,559
other categories I turned in, I
turned in an empty women's ballot because I

1059
01:06:24,639 --> 01:06:28,039
just think that it's they just the
depth isn't there but they still elect to

1060
01:06:28,199 --> 01:06:30,440
and so that's what happens and what
they did in terms of this year,

1061
01:06:30,480 --> 01:06:33,360
they elected Jane Couch from England.
Now she's there because of what she did

1062
01:06:33,360 --> 01:06:36,480
in terms of being a trailblazer,
even though she's on the trailblazer category.

1063
01:06:36,679 --> 01:06:41,639
Basically she's the one that won the
court case low way Kurt Flood did for

1064
01:06:41,679 --> 01:06:45,079
baseball for agency or you know,
he didn't win a court case, but

1065
01:06:45,079 --> 01:06:47,559
the way Jackie Robinson broke the color
barry in Major League Baseball. She basically

1066
01:06:47,599 --> 01:06:50,880
forced, because of a lawsuit,
the British Boxing Board of Control to start

1067
01:06:51,199 --> 01:06:56,199
licensing women boxers because women boxing was
illegal for many years in the UK.

1068
01:06:56,440 --> 01:06:59,360
And so she won that landmark court
case, ended up winning a couple of

1069
01:06:59,360 --> 01:07:01,239
world titles. Uh at a time
when the women's kind of world titles were

1070
01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:04,719
you know, not it wasn't the
main organizations like there are now. There

1071
01:07:04,760 --> 01:07:09,960
was a lot less clarity. But
so she's getting in and the Mexican former

1072
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:16,320
two time junior bantam junior flyweight women's
champion uh Anna Maria tour off the top

1073
01:07:16,320 --> 01:07:18,559
of head. Anna Maria Torres,
I want to say help me out.

1074
01:07:18,639 --> 01:07:23,599
DJ I think it's yeah, yeah, it's ah. Let me take a

1075
01:07:23,639 --> 01:07:26,440
look here. I'm just gonna do
just layout what at this one? You

1076
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:30,159
find it? Yeah? Yeah?
So the other the other, the second

1077
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:34,599
lady that's being gonna be inducted is
the Mexican boxer Anna Maria Torres, who

1078
01:07:34,639 --> 01:07:39,360
was a two time world champion,
popular figure in Mexico. But I just

1079
01:07:39,400 --> 01:07:42,320
felt like, you know, the
it's already being watered down after just a

1080
01:07:42,320 --> 01:07:45,000
few years. So I did,
I set my ballot back blank, I

1081
01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:47,000
signed it. I'm happy for the
women who are getting in. I just

1082
01:07:47,159 --> 01:07:51,320
uh, I feel like if they
would, if they would lessen the number

1083
01:07:51,400 --> 01:07:56,199
of people, maybe make it one
inductee, Maybe do the category every other

1084
01:07:56,280 --> 01:07:59,400
year. You know, it will
catch up when the women of today's year

1085
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:01,480
that are going to the Hall of
Famers, for sure, the Claressa Shields,

1086
01:08:01,519 --> 01:08:05,719
the Katie Taylors, you know,
and others. You know, you

1087
01:08:05,760 --> 01:08:09,559
know we'll see some of them,
uh, you know, Cecilia Breck who's

1088
01:08:10,440 --> 01:08:12,599
but right now it's a little too
much. And then you know there's always

1089
01:08:12,599 --> 01:08:15,159
the people that are in the other
categories that don't do their business inside the

1090
01:08:15,159 --> 01:08:17,279
boxing ring. But who I know, most of them, have had you

1091
01:08:17,279 --> 01:08:19,920
know, friendly relations with them.
My dear friend Fred Sternberg, the great

1092
01:08:19,920 --> 01:08:23,840
all time publicist he's getting in his
first year on the ballot. Was thrilled

1093
01:08:23,840 --> 01:08:26,800
for him. You have the manager
Jackie Callen, who is famous for her

1094
01:08:26,840 --> 01:08:30,720
management of James Tony and others and
working with the Cronk team in the eighties.

1095
01:08:30,520 --> 01:08:34,279
She is the first female manager to
be to be elected into the Boxing

1096
01:08:34,319 --> 01:08:43,159
Hall of Fame Trail Meg Ryan the
movie Yeah. And then in terms of

1097
01:08:43,199 --> 01:08:45,920
the observer category, you have,
you know, somebody that was a beloved

1098
01:08:45,920 --> 01:08:48,399
figure who I was friendly with,
who was just a wonderful human being,

1099
01:08:48,680 --> 01:08:53,159
and that is the great sportscaster Nick
Charles, the original blow by blow voice

1100
01:08:53,159 --> 01:08:56,640
of the show Box, but before
that he spent many years as a sports

1101
01:08:56,640 --> 01:08:59,800
anchor at CNN. But he always
covered the big fights. You'd go and

1102
01:09:00,039 --> 01:09:01,479
watch like the pay per view of
an Evander Holyfield fight, and then you

1103
01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:05,159
flip on you know, either ESPN
and and see their postfight coverage. And

1104
01:09:05,159 --> 01:09:10,640
if you flipped on CNN, you'd
see Nick Charles doing his business. Uh.

1105
01:09:10,960 --> 01:09:14,079
When I was writing about his induction
or his election rather, and I

1106
01:09:14,159 --> 01:09:16,000
was writing some of the background material
and shock. I couldn't believe he's been

1107
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:20,800
gone since twenty eleven. Been a
long time. He was prominently intertwined with

1108
01:09:20,960 --> 01:09:26,600
Showtime as well as a host for
a lot of years. And another fun

1109
01:09:27,199 --> 01:09:30,359
nugget gown of HBO pay per view
fights back in the day. Yes,

1110
01:09:30,399 --> 01:09:33,199
and indeed go back as a nugget
and watch the Knight of the Douglas Tyson

1111
01:09:33,279 --> 01:09:38,239
upset. Nick Charles is there at
the Tokyo Dome for CNN doing the interviews

1112
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:42,680
and the coverage, just like ESPN
was there doing it with Eric Plemons.

1113
01:09:42,720 --> 01:09:45,359
I'll give him a shout out,
yeah that they're they're they're there broadcasting at

1114
01:09:45,399 --> 01:09:48,199
that night. So good good for
the family and that those that know and

1115
01:09:48,239 --> 01:09:54,960
the CNN family that know Nick Charles
cool. The other observer is the the

1116
01:09:55,239 --> 01:09:59,239
columnists and journalist mainly known for his
uh his writing in the New York newspapers

1117
01:09:59,239 --> 01:10:00,880
that he worked for. Very his
publications mainly like news Day. I think

1118
01:10:00,880 --> 01:10:03,960
of the New York the New York
was it the New York Post? The

1119
01:10:04,039 --> 01:10:05,760
Day? I forget it was the
He might have word at the Daily News

1120
01:10:05,800 --> 01:10:09,000
in the Post end news Day.
I think he had the triple but Anyway,

1121
01:10:09,000 --> 01:10:12,560
Wally Matthews, who I first met
when I first got on this boxing

1122
01:10:12,560 --> 01:10:16,000
beat back in two thousand, so
he's being uh inducted. I worked with

1123
01:10:16,079 --> 01:10:18,880
Wally for a good period of time
at ESPN. He wasn't doing boxing.

1124
01:10:19,319 --> 01:10:21,479
Once in a while he would help
out, but he was mainly covering the

1125
01:10:21,520 --> 01:10:25,439
Yankees at that time. But he's
written sports on a lot of different topics,

1126
01:10:25,439 --> 01:10:27,600
but boxing has always been his favorite
thing. So, uh, you

1127
01:10:27,640 --> 01:10:30,359
know, Wally was uh, you
know, the the quintessential New York tabloid

1128
01:10:30,359 --> 01:10:33,039
columnist. I mean, he always
had his strong opinions. And you know,

1129
01:10:33,199 --> 01:10:35,479
I'll give you a quick Wally Matthews
story. Not so much about Wally,

1130
01:10:35,520 --> 01:10:39,239
but the first time I ever met
Mike Tyson when I interviewed him,

1131
01:10:39,399 --> 01:10:42,000
and I've told the story in the
basement of the gym in Detroit a couple

1132
01:10:42,000 --> 01:10:45,880
of like three days or so before
he fought Andrew Willatta and uh and Mike

1133
01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:48,079
and I went south real quick,
uh, and he went on an absolute

1134
01:10:48,119 --> 01:10:50,920
tirade. Uh he did you know, he was talking about how much he

1135
01:10:50,960 --> 01:10:54,039
hated the media, and he didn't
know me. I was this is my

1136
01:10:54,039 --> 01:10:56,920
first time ever meeting Mike. You
know we had met and everything seemed fine,

1137
01:10:57,840 --> 01:11:01,039
but he did refer to Wally Matthews
specifically. He was the only reporter

1138
01:11:01,119 --> 01:11:04,840
that he named checked and he basically
said, Wally Matthews is a reptilian piece

1139
01:11:04,840 --> 01:11:08,760
of shit. So Wally Matthews is
going to the Boxing Hall of Fame now

1140
01:11:08,760 --> 01:11:12,239
with Mike Tyson, and I'm sure
they have a better relationship and they just

1141
01:11:12,279 --> 01:11:15,319
moved it over. Yeah, I
will. I will say this again.

1142
01:11:15,439 --> 01:11:19,119
Go back down the rabbit hole and
watch the recap on HBO of the Tyson

1143
01:11:19,199 --> 01:11:24,239
upset loss, and Wally Matthews has
to own up well, I'm not even

1144
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:29,239
no, it's the wrong one.
It is the Michael Spinks fight prior to

1145
01:11:29,439 --> 01:11:32,680
that, where Wally Matthews has to
has to basically admit he picked Spinks to

1146
01:11:32,720 --> 01:11:35,279
win the fight of the fight lasted
ninety one seconds. Listen, you know

1147
01:11:35,319 --> 01:11:40,520
what I remember my memory, I
covered uh Lewis Tyson with Wale Matthews,

1148
01:11:40,560 --> 01:11:44,359
and Wally picked Lennox Lewis. I
mean I picked Mike Tyson KO one in

1149
01:11:44,399 --> 01:11:46,359
that fight because I was working I
remember I was. I was working for

1150
01:11:46,479 --> 01:11:50,119
USA today and we would do like
the box of the media picks that would

1151
01:11:50,159 --> 01:11:54,039
run in the newspaper on the Friday
before the fight, along with like whatever

1152
01:11:54,119 --> 01:11:56,199
article I might write. And so
I went, you know, I was

1153
01:11:56,199 --> 01:11:59,319
in Memphis for the whole week,
and I was polling like the top boxing

1154
01:11:59,319 --> 01:12:01,960
writers myself and Associated Press and New
York Daily News and New York Times.

1155
01:12:02,000 --> 01:12:08,239
Anyway, so Wally's picked. I'm
almost positive, he says. One.

1156
01:12:09,720 --> 01:12:11,720
Yeah. That was the only chance
Mike had to win was the land in

1157
01:12:11,760 --> 01:12:15,520
early bomb and get Lennox out of
there. It didn't work out, But

1158
01:12:15,560 --> 01:12:17,680
he's anyways in the Hall of Fame. He's in the Hall of Fame.

1159
01:12:17,720 --> 01:12:19,920
And can I get you on the
ballot? How do we do that?

1160
01:12:19,960 --> 01:12:23,680
Can we get the savages behind you? Can we give the ray Field push

1161
01:12:23,920 --> 01:12:28,119
like the Eagles have their push push, they have the brotherly shove. Can

1162
01:12:28,159 --> 01:12:30,800
we push you onto the ballot?
How do we get that to happen.

1163
01:12:30,840 --> 01:12:32,039
Let's talk about how that happens.
But I mean, if it happens,

1164
01:12:32,039 --> 01:12:35,520
someday, it'll be a big honor. And let's figure that out somewhere down

1165
01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:39,279
the road. All right, So
plenty on the Hall of Fame, A

1166
01:12:39,319 --> 01:12:41,520
couple of I just love the Hall
of Fame. I love it. I

1167
01:12:41,560 --> 01:12:45,159
know you do when you're passionate about
it. A couple more items, including

1168
01:12:45,199 --> 01:12:49,680
nostalgia. Amanda Serrano has given up
her WBC version of the featherweight title because

1169
01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:55,119
she says, hey, if you
don't want to let me fight twelve rounds

1170
01:12:55,159 --> 01:12:59,000
three minute rounds, then, you
know, just like the guys, then

1171
01:12:59,039 --> 01:13:01,479
I'm going to take a stand here
and say if you can have your belt.

1172
01:13:01,920 --> 01:13:05,079
Interesting. I mean, look,
Amanda has spent her entire career,

1173
01:13:06,159 --> 01:13:12,039
you know, trying to get to
a point of respect and money and fame

1174
01:13:12,560 --> 01:13:15,520
and main events and having people know
who she is. And she's finally there.

1175
01:13:15,560 --> 01:13:20,439
She's a wily respected fighter. She's
beaten everybody other than Katie Taylor,

1176
01:13:20,439 --> 01:13:24,920
you know, way up in the
bigger weight. She's now a star in

1177
01:13:25,000 --> 01:13:28,920
women's boxing and she's earning money and
she's the undisputed featherweight champion. It was

1178
01:13:28,960 --> 01:13:31,239
anyway, and she wants to fight
the way the men do, and she

1179
01:13:31,640 --> 01:13:35,119
did that in her most recent fight
against Daniel Loroamos that took place, you

1180
01:13:35,159 --> 01:13:39,359
know, a month or so ago, and they did a twelve round fight

1181
01:13:39,399 --> 01:13:43,359
of three minute rounds with the blessing
of the Florida Commission and she has stated

1182
01:13:43,920 --> 01:13:47,319
after that fight that going forward,
if you want to fight me, you're

1183
01:13:47,319 --> 01:13:51,439
gonna have to go twelve three and
the WBC, which I respect their decision,

1184
01:13:51,479 --> 01:13:55,680
that's their call. I've had many
conversations with Mauricio Suliman about that,

1185
01:13:56,159 --> 01:14:00,439
and they're adamant at the WBC because
of whatever they have been told by their

1186
01:14:00,479 --> 01:14:03,840
medical advisors. They say is that
they believe that it is more dangerous for

1187
01:14:03,880 --> 01:14:06,000
the women to go twelve and three
than it is for the men for their

1188
01:14:06,039 --> 01:14:10,920
reasons, and so they're not going
to bend to her wishes, and so

1189
01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:14,199
she gave up their title. She
didn't make a big stink about it.

1190
01:14:14,239 --> 01:14:16,600
She said, she had her say
about equality. She's made the point many

1191
01:14:16,640 --> 01:14:19,840
times that when she trains her fight, she trains like men three minutes in

1192
01:14:19,880 --> 01:14:23,920
the gym in terms of her sparring
and hitting the pads and all that.

1193
01:14:24,399 --> 01:14:29,640
She made the point that because Amanda
also participates in MMA, that when MMA

1194
01:14:29,720 --> 01:14:32,640
matches take place, the women fight
the same length of rounds as the men,

1195
01:14:32,920 --> 01:14:36,039
same number of rounds as the men, generally a five minute round by

1196
01:14:36,079 --> 01:14:41,079
the way, in UFC or in
MMA. Yeah, they don't make a

1197
01:14:41,119 --> 01:14:43,840
distinction when they do theirs, and
she feels like it's a big deal.

1198
01:14:44,119 --> 01:14:47,960
And so when Daniel Ramos fought her, she enthusiastically accepted the twelve to three

1199
01:14:48,640 --> 01:14:53,039
requests from their team and there you
go. So she's like, I'm not

1200
01:14:53,039 --> 01:14:55,159
going to fight for a sanctioned body
that won't approve it. Now, I

1201
01:14:55,159 --> 01:14:58,720
don't think there'll be a problem going
forward because when she fought Ramos, even

1202
01:14:58,760 --> 01:15:01,600
though the WBC did not sanctioned that
fight, the IBF, the WBO,

1203
01:15:01,640 --> 01:15:04,000
and the WBA all did, so
I don't see why they'd have a problem

1204
01:15:04,039 --> 01:15:08,079
going forward. So she'll hang on
to those three adults, I guess,

1205
01:15:08,079 --> 01:15:12,159
and move forward with her career.
But you know, it's disappointing though that

1206
01:15:12,199 --> 01:15:16,159
you'd have to give up your title
for that particular reason. But again,

1207
01:15:16,319 --> 01:15:20,199
she's in a position where she can
call some shots now, and I don't

1208
01:15:20,239 --> 01:15:23,840
think she did it in a disrespectful
manner. She just said, this is

1209
01:15:23,840 --> 01:15:25,319
what I want to do. If
you don't want to do it, then

1210
01:15:25,359 --> 01:15:28,359
fine, here's your title. That's
your prerogative. The same way, by

1211
01:15:28,359 --> 01:15:30,560
the way, it's the prerogative of
the sanctioning body. At times two ship

1212
01:15:30,600 --> 01:15:33,479
fighters of titles. This was like
being stripped with the other way around.

1213
01:15:33,560 --> 01:15:39,680
Take your title back, all right? Nostalgia time and a birthday, my

1214
01:15:39,840 --> 01:15:44,319
goodness. On Friday, December the
eighth, as we released this podcast,

1215
01:15:44,880 --> 01:15:47,840
Bob Aram is ninety two years young. Incredible. Are you going to sing?

1216
01:15:48,239 --> 01:15:54,439
I am not singing neither are you? Bob Aram. Birthday to you?

1217
01:15:54,680 --> 01:16:00,520
Oh my, you are singing.
Bob Aram ninety two. He has

1218
01:16:00,640 --> 01:16:06,399
been involved with the sport what going
back to the mid nineteen sixties, longer

1219
01:16:06,439 --> 01:16:11,439
than probably I believe the first fight
he ever promoted. I know the first

1220
01:16:11,479 --> 01:16:14,279
fight. I just you'd have to
look the europe you can look under Muhammad

1221
01:16:14,279 --> 01:16:19,239
Ali. I believe it was his
nineteen sixty six title defense against George Shavallo

1222
01:16:19,760 --> 01:16:26,760
in Toronto, Canada, and solate. Most of our audience wasn't born.

1223
01:16:27,680 --> 01:16:30,800
Most not all, but most of
our audience is born. It's incredible how

1224
01:16:30,800 --> 01:16:35,800
long he's been. Arab is an
absolute fucking legend. You know, you

1225
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:40,680
can love him, you can hate
him. I don't think anybody's indifferent to

1226
01:16:40,720 --> 01:16:45,199
him. And I've known Bob for
almost twenty five years. We've had our

1227
01:16:45,319 --> 01:16:47,039
ups and we've had our downs,
But I said before, most of it

1228
01:16:47,079 --> 01:16:50,159
has been ups. I have a
lot of respect for Bob. He's a

1229
01:16:50,159 --> 01:16:56,119
hard working guy. He pays attention
to the details, and uh, there's

1230
01:16:56,159 --> 01:16:58,920
a reason why he's still at the
top of the food chain after you know,

1231
01:16:59,760 --> 01:17:04,920
half century as a boxing promoter,
because you know, he's not easy.

1232
01:17:05,199 --> 01:17:08,399
One thing about Bob, though,
is when he does shake your hand

1233
01:17:08,399 --> 01:17:11,119
and make a deal, uh,
you know, he honors the deal.

1234
01:17:11,159 --> 01:17:13,560
And that's not to be said for
some people in this business. I mean,

1235
01:17:13,600 --> 01:17:15,560
you have to tide up the contracts, but uh, and there's been

1236
01:17:15,600 --> 01:17:19,479
issues getting those deals signed. And
you know, he'll exploit a loophole if

1237
01:17:19,520 --> 01:17:24,640
it's there, if you weren't careful
enough to have it closed up. But

1238
01:17:24,960 --> 01:17:29,479
you know what, Bob is one
of the most interesting people that I have

1239
01:17:29,600 --> 01:17:32,279
ever met in my life. And
I say that about people whether I've met

1240
01:17:32,279 --> 01:17:36,960
them because of boxing or in my
life outside of boxing. I have had,

1241
01:17:38,079 --> 01:17:40,479
like I said, some some issues
over the years, but most of

1242
01:17:40,520 --> 01:17:44,680
the time, my relationship with Bob
Aaron has been excellent. I enjoy his

1243
01:17:44,720 --> 01:17:48,079
company. I've enjoyed talking to him, learning from him, hearing his stories,

1244
01:17:48,159 --> 01:17:53,119
hearing his jokes, you know,
having having a couple of of you

1245
01:17:53,159 --> 01:17:55,880
know, having many laughs with him, covered many of his fights, and

1246
01:17:55,920 --> 01:17:59,560
it's amazing he is still very with
it, I mean very much with it,

1247
01:18:00,359 --> 01:18:03,319
quick witted and comebacks and all of
this. I just want to be

1248
01:18:03,399 --> 01:18:10,520
on the planet at like sixty two, seventy two, eighty two seems like

1249
01:18:10,560 --> 01:18:15,159
it's on Pluto, Rayphiel for you
and me and traveling, and he was

1250
01:18:15,199 --> 01:18:18,239
being ninety two years old and still
involved and still traveling and flying all over

1251
01:18:18,279 --> 01:18:21,439
the world. He was at the
Tyson Fury fight in Saudi Arabia, for

1252
01:18:21,479 --> 01:18:25,119
God's sake, and he was at
the press conference not that long ago for

1253
01:18:25,199 --> 01:18:27,880
some other stuff over there. I
mean now now he doesn't travel to every

1254
01:18:27,920 --> 01:18:30,720
single event anymore. I'm My understanding
is, uh, he's having his birthday,

1255
01:18:31,119 --> 01:18:33,239
you know, he is on Friday, so they're having I think a

1256
01:18:33,279 --> 01:18:36,159
little get together for him at his
home in Beverly Hills. So I do

1257
01:18:36,239 --> 01:18:40,439
not believe he's going to be attending
the top rank fight that's on Saturday in

1258
01:18:41,079 --> 01:18:44,600
Florida with Robas Ramires. But that's
a rare thing. Normally he's at the

1259
01:18:44,600 --> 01:18:46,239
fights, and not only does Bob
go to the fights, but Bob would

1260
01:18:46,239 --> 01:18:48,920
be the guy that's sitting in the
front row watching the four rounder that opens

1261
01:18:48,920 --> 01:18:51,399
the show. That's for real.
I mean he goes and watches the young

1262
01:18:51,439 --> 01:18:55,640
fighters and uh, you know,
props to him, and I always compare

1263
01:18:55,640 --> 01:18:57,520
it, you know, you have
to compare Don King and Bob Aram.

1264
01:18:57,560 --> 01:18:59,960
Now. Don King is still out
there doing fights. He did a show

1265
01:19:00,199 --> 01:19:02,640
last week, but the level of
event that he does is just off the

1266
01:19:03,479 --> 01:19:08,199
close. What Bob does is Bob's
Company is still putting on some of the

1267
01:19:08,199 --> 01:19:10,960
biggest fights in the world. And
I think one of the reasons is because

1268
01:19:11,000 --> 01:19:15,880
Bob has surrounded himself with a great
staff, younger people that have innovative ideas.

1269
01:19:15,119 --> 01:19:18,840
Bob's never like Unlike Don King,
Bob is not a micromanager. You

1270
01:19:18,840 --> 01:19:23,199
know. He lets his matchmaker's match
make, he lets his pr people pr

1271
01:19:23,439 --> 01:19:27,399
he lets his logistics people logistic.
He has people to handle certain things and

1272
01:19:27,600 --> 01:19:30,720
obviously he has to say so.
But he's got a tremendous team around him

1273
01:19:30,279 --> 01:19:33,399
and they're all allowed to do their
job without him sticking his nose in every

1274
01:19:33,399 --> 01:19:36,840
little detail. Well, trust me, when Bob wants something done and he

1275
01:19:36,880 --> 01:19:40,279
wants to stick his nose in,
You're gonna know it. Bob and scream

1276
01:19:40,279 --> 01:19:43,640
and holler and curse you out and
give you the finger and all that kind

1277
01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:45,479
of business. But you know,
I just say one thing, Happy birthday

1278
01:19:45,520 --> 01:19:47,680
to my man Bob Air. I'm
ninety two years old. God bless him.

1279
01:19:47,960 --> 01:19:51,279
Love that all right, two pieces
of nostalgia. They're both on Thursday,

1280
01:19:51,279 --> 01:19:56,920
as we released the podcast. Twenty
one years ago. HBO doubleheader Vladimir

1281
01:19:56,960 --> 01:20:03,880
Klitchko, Jamelle mcclin and Floyd Mayweather
winning over Jose Luis Castillo this in Las

1282
01:20:04,000 --> 01:20:10,159
Vegas. Give me a little bit
on this. So interesting the fact that

1283
01:20:10,199 --> 01:20:14,119
you had think about the type of
fights that they give us now and cards

1284
01:20:14,159 --> 01:20:17,079
they put up together. This was
a live HBO card, not pay per

1285
01:20:17,119 --> 01:20:23,520
view. This was Vladimir Klitschkow defending
the WBO heavyweight title in the main event

1286
01:20:23,640 --> 01:20:27,479
against Jamie mclein, who at that
time was on a really good run and

1287
01:20:27,760 --> 01:20:30,000
you know, was a legitimate contender
at that time. Vladimir only had at

1288
01:20:30,000 --> 01:20:33,199
that time the one loss against Ross
Pearty. He was thirty nine and one

1289
01:20:33,239 --> 01:20:36,119
going into the fight. This was
like a first class kind of significant fight

1290
01:20:36,159 --> 01:20:41,760
at the time, you know,
a serious heavyweight title fight. Jamil had

1291
01:20:41,760 --> 01:20:46,119
come off of in consecutive fights.
He had beaten Michael Grant, he had

1292
01:20:46,159 --> 01:20:49,520
beaten Mount Whittaker, who was a
good contender, and he had beaten Shannon

1293
01:20:49,520 --> 01:20:54,000
Briggs. So those three fights in
a row alone, and he had some

1294
01:20:54,039 --> 01:20:56,359
other OK wins prior to that,
But that put him in position to fight

1295
01:20:56,359 --> 01:21:00,239
against Clitchkow who dominated the fight,
who stopped me in the tenth round with

1296
01:21:00,279 --> 01:21:02,720
an onslaught, including a beautiful left
hook. I actually, because I knew

1297
01:21:02,720 --> 01:21:05,279
we were going to talk about this
fight, I hadn't seen the knockout in

1298
01:21:05,359 --> 01:21:08,239
quite a number of years. I
actually went back and I watched. It

1299
01:21:08,359 --> 01:21:10,720
was a heck of a knockout,
you know, he dropped him with just

1300
01:21:10,760 --> 01:21:14,720
a tremendous the prime Vladimer had such
quick hands for a guy that big,

1301
01:21:14,760 --> 01:21:17,359
it was scary. And Jamille just
never saw the shot coming anyway. So

1302
01:21:17,399 --> 01:21:20,760
that was the main event, and
this was the last time I double checked

1303
01:21:20,800 --> 01:21:25,039
this. Also, this was the
last time that Floyd Mayweather ever appeared on

1304
01:21:25,079 --> 01:21:29,760
an undercard. It was the co
feature my recollection. Maybe a little sketcher,

1305
01:21:29,760 --> 01:21:33,960
but I believe that it was a
Clitch Goo date and and part of

1306
01:21:34,000 --> 01:21:38,119
the deal to do it was to
get Mayweather on, but the top rank

1307
01:21:38,199 --> 01:21:40,359
ended up promoting the event, but
Clitchko was in the main event, and

1308
01:21:40,359 --> 01:21:44,199
they put Floyd on in his rematch
against Castile for the lightweight title. Remember,

1309
01:21:44,239 --> 01:21:47,640
in the previous fight in a main
event, Floyd had narrowly defeated Castillo.

1310
01:21:47,680 --> 01:21:49,760
A lot of people will look at
that fight and say, if there

1311
01:21:49,800 --> 01:21:53,880
ever was a time that Floyd shouldn't
have won the fight, it was that

1312
01:21:53,920 --> 01:21:57,359
first fight against Jose and Luis Castillo. I scored the first fight a draw

1313
01:21:58,199 --> 01:22:00,439
watching on television, he ended up
getting the victory. So now they met

1314
01:22:00,479 --> 01:22:02,960
in an immediate rematch. And this
was back when Floyd, you know,

1315
01:22:03,239 --> 01:22:06,359
couldn't be accused of cherry picking anybody. He was stepping up to the plate.

1316
01:22:06,520 --> 01:22:10,119
He had moved up to lightweight from
one hundred and thirty where he was

1317
01:22:10,119 --> 01:22:13,279
a dominating champion. He took on
Jose Luis Castillo when his first fight in

1318
01:22:13,279 --> 01:22:15,880
the division, who was considered at
that moment number one in the way class.

1319
01:22:16,039 --> 01:22:18,520
He got a close win, and
he ran it back and he beat

1320
01:22:18,560 --> 01:22:23,039
him again another close fight, but
he you know, he definitely won the

1321
01:22:23,039 --> 01:22:25,680
second fight, and that was your
undercard fight. And after that he never

1322
01:22:25,680 --> 01:22:28,600
fought on an undercard again, but
the fact that you could have two bona

1323
01:22:28,680 --> 01:22:32,760
fide superstars, two first ballot lock
Hall of famers, two of the greatest

1324
01:22:32,800 --> 01:22:36,119
who ever fought in the in the
sport, certainly of that era, in

1325
01:22:36,159 --> 01:22:41,159
a dominating heavyweight champion in Vladimir Klitschkow
this was still during his first title reign,

1326
01:22:41,399 --> 01:22:44,760
and then Floyd maywere on the same
card, taken on like these were

1327
01:22:44,800 --> 01:22:47,720
not like BS opponents. Castillo was, you know, just giving Floyd the

1328
01:22:47,760 --> 01:22:50,920
toughest fight of his life and arguably
won and was the number one lightweight other

1329
01:22:50,920 --> 01:22:56,239
than Floyd at that time. And
you got clitchco taking on one of the

1330
01:22:56,239 --> 01:22:59,680
top ten definitely guys in the heavyweight
division. And mcclein, by the way,

1331
01:23:00,079 --> 01:23:01,600
was one of those rare heavyweights that
can look clitchgo in the eye that

1332
01:23:01,600 --> 01:23:03,800
weighed about the same amount of them. I mean, they were both big,

1333
01:23:03,880 --> 01:23:06,479
big guys. In fact, Clitchgow
was outwighed by like over twenty pounds

1334
01:23:06,520 --> 01:23:10,279
of that fight. If I recal, you got Jamal mclein weighing like two

1335
01:23:10,399 --> 01:23:13,479
sixty something and clitch goes you know
where he always was around two forty,

1336
01:23:13,600 --> 01:23:17,439
So he was fighting a heavier dude, and I think that's again. I

1337
01:23:17,520 --> 01:23:20,359
bring this up not because it was
the greatest card of all time, but

1338
01:23:20,399 --> 01:23:26,079
you had two highly significant fights with
two big time names in two big time

1339
01:23:26,119 --> 01:23:29,720
fights, not pay per view,
on the same card. And now they

1340
01:23:29,720 --> 01:23:31,520
try to give me Liam Paro in
the co feature of a pay per view.

1341
01:23:31,800 --> 01:23:36,159
Give me a fucking break. One
final piece of nostalgia. It was

1342
01:23:36,239 --> 01:23:42,319
thirty four years ago on December seventh, nineteen eighty nine, that Sugar Ray

1343
01:23:42,359 --> 01:23:45,720
Leonard and Roberto Durand sort of fought
for the third and final time. Not

1344
01:23:45,760 --> 01:23:50,279
a not a memorable fight. I
do remember having this pay per view in

1345
01:23:50,359 --> 01:23:55,439
Memphis, Tennessee in November. He'll
be proud of me of my sophomore years

1346
01:23:55,439 --> 01:23:59,359
of college. December December, December
bh bla bad December if I said it

1347
01:23:59,399 --> 01:24:02,039
wrong, Pearl Barbor Day, December
seventh of nineteen eighty nine. I do

1348
01:24:02,159 --> 01:24:05,880
remember this my sophomore year of college
watching it. It was not a memorable

1349
01:24:05,880 --> 01:24:09,640
fight. I remember them having the
blankets on them because it was so cold

1350
01:24:09,640 --> 01:24:14,760
in the Nevada Desert. Duran Duran
just didn't offer much. Leonard had enough

1351
01:24:15,199 --> 01:24:18,119
to out box him, out maneuver
in a super middleweight title fight. The

1352
01:24:18,439 --> 01:24:21,720
most important piece of the nostalgia is
this is the final fight of the Four

1353
01:24:21,800 --> 01:24:24,840
King series, Dan, I know
that's what you want to follow up on

1354
01:24:24,880 --> 01:24:28,560
as well. Yeah, I mean, look Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard

1355
01:24:28,600 --> 01:24:32,880
in their first memorable welterweight championship fight, where Duran upset Leonard and won the

1356
01:24:32,920 --> 01:24:38,600
welterweight title in a very famous fight
in Montreal in a tremendous battle. That

1357
01:24:38,880 --> 01:24:44,640
was the first fight of what became
a nine fight series of legendary fights between

1358
01:24:45,039 --> 01:24:48,319
Leonard, Duran, Marvin Hagler,
and Thomas Hearns. They all fought each

1359
01:24:48,359 --> 01:24:51,720
other. Most of the fights were
great, and they carried the eighties,

1360
01:24:51,720 --> 01:24:58,399
and I always found it interesting and
sort of perfect the cosmically that you have

1361
01:24:58,520 --> 01:25:02,000
Leonard and Duran open the series in
nineteen eighty and then go through the whole

1362
01:25:02,039 --> 01:25:05,680
decade with all these series of incredible
fights, and then they closed a decade

1363
01:25:05,720 --> 01:25:11,039
in December, like a month before
the end of the decade against each other

1364
01:25:11,039 --> 01:25:14,800
in their third fight. And unfortunately
it was if you were if you were

1365
01:25:14,880 --> 01:25:20,720
ranking the nine fights between the Four
Kings by Miles and Miles and Miles Leonard

1366
01:25:20,800 --> 01:25:24,560
Durant three is the worst of the
fights. I mean, it just provided

1367
01:25:24,600 --> 01:25:29,079
no entertainment value or no action,
perhaps some nostalgia for some people that were

1368
01:25:29,079 --> 01:25:31,680
there thinking we might get the clock
turned back to what happened in the first

1369
01:25:31,680 --> 01:25:35,880
fight, even the second fight that
had such a chaotic ending with Roberto Durant

1370
01:25:35,920 --> 01:25:40,880
quitting on the No Mos fight,
but Ray Leonard ran away to a lopsided

1371
01:25:40,920 --> 01:25:44,359
decision shot out on one scorecard.
What also found interesting was they were boxing

1372
01:25:44,399 --> 01:25:48,720
for Sugar Ray Leonard's super middleweight title, but the weights for the fight were

1373
01:25:48,800 --> 01:25:53,279
were under like he fought for a
super middleweight in a super midow title fight,

1374
01:25:53,560 --> 01:25:56,760
but Ray weighed one hundred and sixty
pounds in the bout and Duran weighed

1375
01:25:56,800 --> 01:25:59,560
one fifty eight. So you know, if you look on first mention like,

1376
01:25:59,560 --> 01:26:00,159
well, that must have in the
middleway title fight. No, No,

1377
01:26:00,159 --> 01:26:03,760
it was actually for the WBC's super
middleweight title. And you know what.

1378
01:26:03,880 --> 01:26:08,439
The other thing that's significant about it
is that in the great legendary career

1379
01:26:09,239 --> 01:26:12,279
Sugar Ray Leonard, this was the
final victory of his career because after this

1380
01:26:12,399 --> 01:26:14,960
fight, in the end of nineteen
eighty nine, he did not fight it

1381
01:26:14,960 --> 01:26:17,600
all in nineteen ninety he came back, unfortunately, and he's told the story

1382
01:26:17,600 --> 01:26:21,159
to me about you know why he
came back and he shouldn't have. And

1383
01:26:21,199 --> 01:26:26,159
in early nineteen ninety one he fought
Terry Norris and lost a lopsided decision.

1384
01:26:26,399 --> 01:26:29,159
Yeah, and then was done for
another six years before he came back for

1385
01:26:29,239 --> 01:26:32,840
five years and had the very misguided
opportunity to fight against Hector Camacho and was

1386
01:26:32,880 --> 01:26:40,039
stopped after he injured his leg.
And this very forgettable victory over the great

1387
01:26:40,079 --> 01:26:45,399
Roberto Duran will go down as the
final victory of Ray's career and the final

1388
01:26:45,399 --> 01:26:48,079
fight in the Great Four Kings era. It's fair to say you and I

1389
01:26:48,119 --> 01:26:51,399
both, but I was as big
or the big as Sugar Ray Lanard fan

1390
01:26:51,439 --> 01:26:55,439
that there could have ever been.
But his career clearly went out with a

1391
01:26:55,439 --> 01:27:00,359
whimper with these with these last three
fights that you mentioned, and went his

1392
01:27:00,880 --> 01:27:03,399
fight before the Duran fight that we're
talking about, I would say he was

1393
01:27:03,399 --> 01:27:05,680
a whiper because it was a hell
of a fight. Kind of underrated.

1394
01:27:05,720 --> 01:27:10,319
Actually was the rematch that he had
against Tom Iarns, which was officially a

1395
01:27:10,399 --> 01:27:14,039
draw, but everybody knows Ray Long
lost, so if you go by what

1396
01:27:14,079 --> 01:27:17,720
should have been the case, he
would have finished his career one and three.

1397
01:27:18,640 --> 01:27:23,279
You know, the loss if you
will against Hearns, the win over

1398
01:27:23,359 --> 01:27:25,640
Duran, and the terrible third fight, and then as I mentioned, the

1399
01:27:25,680 --> 01:27:29,439
losses to Terry Norris and Hector Camacho. So this was, you know,

1400
01:27:29,479 --> 01:27:30,560
this was the end. Like the
last great performance he had, I guess

1401
01:27:30,560 --> 01:27:33,920
you could say was the previous fight
to the Herns rematch was when he stopped

1402
01:27:33,960 --> 01:27:39,960
Donnie l Lan. But again,
I'm always stuck on the fact that they

1403
01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:43,520
opened the eighties, they had the
great, incredible series that carried the entire

1404
01:27:43,640 --> 01:27:46,199
decade, and that the final fight
of those nine took place, you know,

1405
01:27:46,239 --> 01:27:49,279
in the waning days of the year
of the decade. And again Duran

1406
01:27:49,479 --> 01:27:53,720
won the first fight of the four
Kings, and he didn't win another one

1407
01:27:53,760 --> 01:27:57,159
of those fights. So that's interesting. And Sugar Ray Leard won four of

1408
01:27:57,199 --> 01:28:01,279
them, beating Duran, eventually beating
her Hens in their first meeting, beating

1409
01:28:01,960 --> 01:28:05,960
Marvin Hagler, and then winning the
final one of the series and the draw.

1410
01:28:08,039 --> 01:28:10,479
I said, whin Yeah, no, I know, but but that's

1411
01:28:10,520 --> 01:28:14,479
the thing in the event, Yeah, Ray was the rain maker because he

1412
01:28:14,520 --> 01:28:15,760
was the guy that brought the big
money, so there's a reason why he

1413
01:28:15,800 --> 01:28:19,680
had the most fights in the series. And the other part of it is

1414
01:28:19,800 --> 01:28:23,960
that when Ray and this was by
design. When Ray won the rematch with

1415
01:28:24,039 --> 01:28:28,119
Duran, Duran wasn't getting a third
fight anytime soon. It took nine years

1416
01:28:28,359 --> 01:28:30,920
for him to get him again,
by the way, and when he beat

1417
01:28:30,000 --> 01:28:33,720
Hearns, it took eight years for
Hearns to get another chance to get him.

1418
01:28:33,800 --> 01:28:38,640
And and they offered an opportunity for
Hagler, but Hagler declined to do

1419
01:28:38,680 --> 01:28:41,800
her remain the call of the day
and go to Italy and make movies.

1420
01:28:41,880 --> 01:28:45,439
So see the Four Kings documentaries.
They're out there. They're available through Showtime

1421
01:28:45,479 --> 01:28:51,359
and other outs. And read the
book called The Four Kings by the by

1422
01:28:51,399 --> 01:28:55,960
the late great George Kimball, who
I covered many fights with that ring side.

1423
01:28:56,079 --> 01:28:59,079
George covered all nine of their fights. The book is the best,

1424
01:28:59,159 --> 01:29:01,399
one of the best boxing books I've
ever read. I actually have it.

1425
01:29:01,479 --> 01:29:05,920
I literally keep it in my nightstand
in the drawer, and just for the

1426
01:29:06,000 --> 01:29:09,239
hell of it, I just will
randomly pull it out on a given night

1427
01:29:09,479 --> 01:29:12,960
and just decide I feel like reading
about Hagler hearns and I read the chapter,

1428
01:29:13,039 --> 01:29:15,760
or I feel like reading about Duran
and Leonard, I read the chapter.

1429
01:29:15,800 --> 01:29:19,079
Anyway, there you go, there's
your nostalgia. What a show we

1430
01:29:19,119 --> 01:29:24,600
have. We've given you a ton, including the preview of Haini Progray coming

1431
01:29:24,680 --> 01:29:28,680
Saturday night pay per view San Francisco, the ESPN Top Rank card that we

1432
01:29:28,760 --> 01:29:33,680
previewed, even the British WBO Cruiserweight
title fight that will take place Sunday.

1433
01:29:33,720 --> 01:29:40,199
You heard from Jake Paul who's fighting
next weekend, December fifteenth, and then

1434
01:29:40,399 --> 01:29:43,600
we gave you some news and some
nostalgia as well, boxing Hall of Fame

1435
01:29:43,640 --> 01:29:47,319
nostalgia. We've had it all.
You know. Whatever happens, we're going

1436
01:29:47,399 --> 01:29:50,079
to be back. I'm back.
We're going to recap it on the Fight

1437
01:29:50,119 --> 01:29:54,359
Freak two night recap off the weekend. But if they're hearing us now on

1438
01:29:54,399 --> 01:29:58,239
Friday, join us one Eastern time, bet us TV, their platforms,

1439
01:29:58,279 --> 01:30:01,239
their YouTube, their Twitter, their
Twitch, Find us on bet us TV

1440
01:30:01,359 --> 01:30:06,920
because we'll be making handicapping prognostication on
these title fights and who knows what it

1441
01:30:08,000 --> 01:30:12,520
devolves into with the live chat.
We love that about that show. Live

1442
01:30:12,680 --> 01:30:15,439
one Eastern Time, watch it later
but we be with us live for the

1443
01:30:15,720 --> 01:30:17,960
questions of comments, etc. With
that, my friend, that's a full

1444
01:30:18,039 --> 01:30:21,920
show. Great stuff here as always
enjoy the weekend. We'll talk on the

1445
01:30:21,920 --> 01:30:26,479
bet US show. We'll recap all
of this when the weekend is done.

1446
01:30:26,560 --> 01:30:30,479
Dan Rayfield, Yes, sir,
always love being with you. I'm merely

1447
01:30:30,520 --> 01:30:32,920
TJ. Reeves again. Follow,
subscribe, rate us, review us.

1448
01:30:32,960 --> 01:30:36,239
It is the Big Fight Weekend podcast
feed. You've been listening to the Big

1449
01:30:36,279 --> 01:30:38,680
Fight Weekend preview. Bye.