The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend No.
Here is your host, t J. Leaves. We have flipped the calendar
and we are ready for the month of September. Glad to have you with
us as we go into a weekend that features a very intriguing rematch in the
UK. The the most prominent fight card is in the UK. We're gonna
talk about that in the preview card. We've got fight news, We've got
nostalgia and much more. Hope you're doing well here on the latest edition of
the Big Fight Weekend Preview. I am the somewhat competent host, t J
Reeves. He is our insider from fight Freaks Unite his substack. A lot
of juicy stuff on the substack this week. Hope you've been reading and seeing
it, and also our insider from Big Fight Weekend dot Com. Hello Dan
Raypheel as we begin a new month here, how are things? Things are
good? You know it? Actually it felt like fault today. I was
outside a little earlier and it felt like fall calendar changes. We're not even
to the calendar change yet, because we're taping this on August thirty first,
right, it felt like it was where we're in a little bit of fall
weather, all right, okay, so I felt that way for you.
It felt like the end of the world in Florida. For earlier in the
week with Hurricane at Dalia that made it. Let me let the readers know.
Since you're in Tampa, we'll let them know. Yes, TJ survived.
I am here. I'm president, accounted for nor rain, nor sleep,
nor snow, nor hurricanes, whatever it is. So we did survive.
And again, as hurricanes go, this one could have been nasty,
but it stayed largely away from most of the populated areas in Florida, amazingly,
came all the way up the Gulf Coast and swung into the north central
part of the state that's not as populated, then into South Georgia and out
to the Atlantic Ocean. And we just we always have to be vigilant in
August and September, especially in and around the time of hurricanes and activities.
So we're good here and ready to get rolling for another edition of the program.
Thank you for finding us. However, you've done so again by the
thousands and thousands and thousands of you. You keep finding us. Make sure
you rate us in review us on the podcast platforms Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts,
Spotify, Spreaker as well. Here for the Big Fight weekend preview.
We preview going into the weekend, usually out Friday morning, come off the
weekend with the recap, give or take Sunday night Monday morning, Rayfield.
That make it a little crazy with the football season in my travel schedule with
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but we do our best for the peeps to have
this out Fridays and Mondays. It's like bookends. Uh, you know,
set your watch by it here with us on the program. So with all
of that being said, we're ready to get into the fight cards for this
week. By the way, did I see Frank Warren taking a shot at
Dan Rayfield this week on social media? I'm glad you brought that up because
I can't. I can't begin our talking fights without I mean, put up
your dukes on, Frank Warren, What is that all about against my man
ray Feel? Well? Because ray Feel gave an opinion about the fight,
which we all do about boxing. If we're fans are involved in terms of
if you're involved in terms of a promoter or a manager or a journalist,
or a fan. We all have our opinions about the fights. In my
opinion, as we've discussed at length on the last show, in the post
fight show, that the punch that Dubois landed that put Usk on the deck
in the fifth round, it is my opinion, and by the way,
that of many others I have seen fighters and other boxing industry people, that
it was absolutely a low blow, perhaps slightly borderline, and maybe not in
the Jimmy, not in the in the in the Dingleberries, not in the
in the Manhood, but it was a low blow. And I voiced my
opinion on that, and I did as well, Yeah, of course,
and I posted some photos on it. And what Frank has made the erroneous
conclusion is that one of the photos, which is a blatant low blow that
I posted a photo of, I never said that that was the actual lobo
that was in question. It was just another of the many low blows that
Daniel Dui landed in the fight that the referee did not call. In any
event, He was on an interview with the folks from if L TV,
who I'm friendly with and have been doing interviews with them for years on their
YouTube channel. They do a good job. And Frank brought me up.
And it's one thing for him to say that he didn't agree with my opinion
or that, you know, he could have said, you know that Raphael
is a fucking idiot, doesn't know what he's talking about. That's fine.
But Frank, because he's a low class, always has been and always will
be, has no class at all. And that's not just my opinion,
that's the opinion of a lot of people that deal with him in business,
and I don't deal with him in business. Took a very personal shot because
because I'm a fat guy, made fun of my way. You know what,
I've been dealing with that ship my entire fucking life, and at this
stage of my existence, you know, if that's all you got, you
got nothing. So I took it like that, and my response was,
you know, I may be a fat guy, but I've got my honesty
and my integrity, which is more I can say for him. Boo,
And I liked that retaliation, that combo, that CounterPunch back to it.
So are you guys going to be on the undercard of an upcoming situation here?
I'd pay to see it, and I would take you I'm not gonna
fight the guy. I just I just I just thought it was low class.
If you want to swap me because I was factually inaccurate, or I
misquoted you, or you disagreed with my opinion, have at it. By
the way, can I just can I just share this? And you watch
these two, and a lot of fans watch these two. It is frequent,
frequent that one Frank Warren does these interviews and does these shows while drinking,
and so might I just say this is me saying this, not Dan
saying this. If you are having a few and doing a show, you're
probably going to get yourself in jeopardy with things that you're saying. Because again,
I've watched a couple of these where he's been in a restaurant or something
and they're drinking while they're doing this, and he starts to not make sense
on his show. So when you're talking about low class or whatever, is
that kind of like what Rudy Giuliani was doing getting Trump advice? I don't
know. I don't know if I know you, did I know you?
And by and by the way, it is now into Friday, and it's
still a low blow and let's put it to bed. It's over, it's
done with. There is no there is no appeal. There is not going
to be a rematch. USA gets the knockout. And one more thing because
I did go back and watch, because it's there and it's available. In
November of twenty twenty, when Joe Joyce scored the knockout, scored the t
KO because Dubois got hit in the eye orbital. It is the same eye,
and Dubois almost mimicked exactly what happened in the empty ball room where they
were fighting during the COVID crazy conditions in November twenty twenty. He gets whacked.
He takes like a step to the right and goes down on a knee,
is looking at his corner and doesn't get up. It was the same
thing the other night when we when we reviewed the fight. I don't have
a quarrel with his actions in ending the Joyce fight because he suffered a serious
injury. Now, some guys, you know, can fight through that.
Annoya in a way fought through it against no Needo, don't air. I've
seen other fighters fight through it. But you know, I'm not going to
tell you that his was less serious or more serious he had a fractured orbit
bone. I'm not I'm not going to give why any grief over that retirement.
This one was a little bit different. This one was not, you
know, he hadn't taken like it was a in terms of knockout punches,
right hand was not if you were grading knockout punches on like a one to
ten scale, ten being like, you know, a big mammoth clean right
hand from Ernie Shavers, you know, or a gigantic punch from William Jackson
or somebody like that. This was look, at least from my vantage point
watching it, comparing it to watching other ones, it was like a four.
I mean, it wasn't a knockout kind of blow. But by point
my only point on bringing it up is I think he caught him on the
orbit bone. Again, this is my conjecture, and he may have.
I don't know if he broke it, but I think he hurt him on
the eye, on the eye, and it was the same eye whatever.
But he went down the same way that's not in dispute, and he knelt
on one knee and it was over. I'll say this, So if he
did hit him in the eye and it did have a negative impact the way
it did in the Joe Joyce fight, even if it wasn't broken. Again,
I'll give Daniel du bat credit for not saying it afterwards because I've never
been big on making excuses. You know, you got hit, you went
down at the end of the story, so he didn't make any excuses that
it was from the eye. But again, Mike Quarrel has never been about
Daniel Duboa the person. You know, you know, he did what he
did in the fight. That's that. And uh, if Frank wants to
act like a four year old or an eight year older like he's in grade
school and you know, call me names, you know, God bless me
or raise another glass, let's move on. Okay. So the main fight
card that we're going to discuss and preview is in the UK. It is
in Manchester. It is a rematch Liam Smith and Chris Euback. I'm gonna
make you smile and laugh, a rematch that was supposed to happen earlier this
summer, but Liam Smith had back problems. He had a what he claimed
it was a what in the British terminology for the back don't remember he called
it a niggle, right, not a wiggle, not a giggle, not
a jiggle, but a niggle in the back. We call it in the
US a tweak. We call it a twinge. We call it different things.
So he he tried to resume training to keep the fight intact for this
summer that I think they originally postponed it like two weeks, right, but
then he said, I can't train because of the niggle wiggle, tweak,
twinge, And so now they put it off to this weekend, which is
Labor Day weekend in the United States. It doesn't mean anything over We wouldn't
have a card to discuss this. Yeah, we really didn't. We really
didn't have a problem in one, Okay, so this is a rematch.
Fair to say it was an upset. It was a surprise. Liam Smith
put it on you Bank and really knocked him down and could have gotten the
TKO right away. The referee let the fight go on and Liam Smith hit
him a couple of times, with you Bank Junior stumbling all over the ring.
TKO stoppage. You Bank Junior didn't even realize the fight was stopped.
It was Liam Smith's corner that ran to him and said, my friend,
it's over. They're having to hold him up while Liam Smith's celebrating. Okay,
rematch time. It is building for this weekend in Manchester. Your thoughts
now as they go at it again. So the first fight that took place
back in January totally unexpected that result. They fourth row knockout for Liam Smith.
Now, it's not to say that a lot of people didn't think Liam
Smith would win the fight. I think that most people when they had that
opinion, if they thought that Liam was going to win the fight, probably
would be the guy that would maybe win by outboxing you Bank and maybe win
a decision. You know, Liam is is a very good fighter. He's
been a champion in one hundred fifty four pound weight class, never been known
as a big puncher. Got about a fifty percent little over fifty percent knockout
ratio, thirty three wins, twenty knockouts. Now that's including the knockout he
just had in the last fight against you Bank Junior. And you Bank was
the larger guy. He was coming down and wait, they met at a
catchweight. The only reason the fight was even happening in the first place because
the U Bank team was looking for a name opponent for Chris because his fight
with Connor Ben had been canceled because of connor Ben's positive drug test. So
Liam Smith's a pretty well respected name and a quality guy also in the UK,
and they were able to make the match, and it got a little
personal towards the end, and it turned out to be a surprisingly a short
you know, quick ko frankly for Liam Smith. So that was a big
win for him. And if you really go back and examine the record of
Liam Smith, even though he's had a lot of nice wins and fought a
lot of good opponents, I think you can argue pretty clearly that's maybe the
biggest win he's ever had. You Bank did have the right to an immediate
rematch. He ultimately exercised that. Now there was conversation between it being rescheduled
and even made in the first place, that they were going to maybe go
around the rules and he was gonna fight connor Ben maybe in the Middle East
or some other situation. But in the end the rematch was made. The
one big difference for you Bank going into this fight compared to what he had
going into the last fight. He has changed trainers he had been for the
last few years, or at least the last several fights with Roy Jones Jr.
Who was sort of his idol other than his own father in terms of
a boxer. You know, Chris you Bank Senior, and you know,
Roy had a very unorthodox style that worked for him because he was so gifted
in terms of his reflexes and his speed and just the crazy virtuos with things
he could do. And while you Banks obviously a talented guy, nobody's like
Roy Jones, so kind of tried to imitate that maybe a little bit too
much. It cost him hands down, maybe not the tightest defense in the
world, pulled straight back on a lot of shots, and it ultimately had
cost him. So now for this camp he's gone with Brian McIntyre. Brian
McIntyre obviously is the most known, of course for being a longtime career,
long trainer of Terrence Crawford, coming off that huge victory back in July against
Arrol Spence. So that's a big chain for a u Bank going and in
all to see it'll be your main to be seen until we find out what
happens in the fight, if he can do something different in terms of the
preparation for Chris Eubank to approach Liam Smith perhaps a little bit differently, and
for Liam Smith, you know, for him it's like, yeah, it
worked the first time, but can you do it a second time? Do
you have to put a couple of wrinkles in? Do you want to try
to do something different? You don't want to just fight the exact same fight.
So it is an intriguing matchup. I'm happy that we have it here.
You know, in the UK it's a sky Box office on pay per
view like it was the first time around. Here in the United States,
the first fight was brought to us on his own. This rematch as being
streamed on ESPN Plus, so we can definitely watch it at without the pay
per view searcharge on top of it. So you know what, that's I'm
down for that on a Saturday afternoon in September. And keep in mind here,
Liam Smith even admitted this in the aftermath of the upset. He had
been contemplating retirement and now career fair to say, rejuvenated by the knockout back
on a bigger stage. This is a big deal again. You Bank Senior
an amazingly popular fighter in the nineties. This is his son trying to live
up to it, and so there's a lot of hype around this. It'll
be a live arena for sure in Manchester for the main event, because I
think it's fair to say if Liam Smith beats him again, you Bank Junior
is greatly damaged. Not to say that his career is over, but he's
greatly damaged moving forward on what's next. So he's trying to get the rematch
to get some of that reputation back. There's no doubt about that. And
again we'll handicap this fight on the bet US Boxing Show Friday one Eastern Time
on the bet Us platforms on what we think will happen. But I agree
with you, I think there's some intrigue here in this week. A loss
would of course, anytime a fighter loses, particular, if you're gonna lose
two in a row, it give me damaging. But I will say a
couple of things, but that number one, it depends on how he loses.
If he loses, that's always an important aspect of it. And number
two, there's a lot of times where these types of rematches happen and the
guy who on the first fight wins a second fight also and it's chalked up
oftentimes to like whatever the reason for the style or whatever, that that guy
just kind of had the guy's number, you know. I remember that was
all the talk, you know, and this is going back a number of
years ago, having covered the fights between Shane Moseley and Winki Right and Shane
Mosley and Vernon Force. You know, those guys just had Chane's number because
other than that, he was obviously one of the best confert pound fighters in
the world. He won a bunch of titles, beat some good equality opponents.
He's in the Hall of Fame. Those guys just had his number,
so to speak, and we can you know, maybe maybe Tyson Fury has
Deontay Wilder's number, that type of thing. I mean, there's more recent
examples of that, and so you know, it'll be it'll be interesting to
see how it goes. Because if Liam Smith the wins again, you know,
in the middleweight division, especially, which is a very barren weight class
at the moment. I got a figure he's going to be in line to
get some kind of title opportunity because hey, he'll have score two very solid
wins against a name opponent in the middleweight division. And he's a big,
bigger name at least in the UK than most anybody in a middleweight division.
Bereft of a top name guy. It's just like four podcast and I know
that you've gotten bereft in. I love the middleweight division. Usually it's around
the middleweight division. You keep saying bereft Yes, well that's that's the thing.
So the great tradition of the middleweight division is kind of the lacking at
the moment. You know, again to review, you have Jamal Charlot who
is the WBC champion who hasn't fought. Now we just pardiculous eight hundred days
of enacting. It's ridiculous, and he apparently has no intention of fighting anytime
soon. And why the WBC won't just elevate Carlos Adams they're unified. I
mean, I'm sorry they're interim champion and say you're the guy because at least
I'm wrong. You're in these circles, you're hearing things. He is Jamal
Charlos slated to fight before the end of this year, because it doesn't look
specific that I've heard of. I mean, but what I would like to
see the WBC do if at the at the at the best case scenario,
just just do what they did to Devin Haney for different reasons. Make them
the in recess champion. And when he's ready to come back, if he's
healthy and he's got his mind right and everything's okay and he wants to fight,
he can have the next title shot. And Latadomas, you know,
be the actual champion who's been fighting and winning and looking pretty good. So
but to review again, this is for the winner of this fight. Even
if it's you Bank who wins, he'll have avenged his loss. He'll have
beaten another good name. You Bank has a big name himself, and so
he would they either one of these guys would be automatically one of the bigger
names in the already are one of the bigger names in the weight class.
So Charlot as I mentioned eight hundred days of an activity with the WBC title,
you have carl Sadomas with the interim title, who's been fighting on showtime
but hasn't scored like a big name public kind of victory. You know,
if everybody knows about You have Janebeck, who's the WBO champion. He got
the new the new IBF guy who's as obscure as it gets in any champion
in the entire sport. Vincenzo Gaultieri, Jannebec and Gutierre are going to fight
each other in October and a unification fight on a top rank Espan card,
where you know, usually it's a lot of a lot of problems and difficulties
making these unifications. They're like, let's do it. They made a reasonable
deal with everybody because there was nothing else for Jannon Back to do. Gutieri
had. Gutier is so unknown that even in his home country in Germany,
when he won the vacant title that triple g vacated, he fought Asteva Falco,
who was also a top rank fighter at the time, since released after
the loss. But that fight wasn't even televised in Germany to my knowledge.
They the Agon Sports, which was the promoter, had to put it on
their YouTube channel. So now at least the idea here is if they unify,
you know, the winner at least can can get some kind of profile,
and the other title holder in the way classes Arislandi Lara, who is
you know, slightly listening, slightly less inactive than Charlois. So in the
end, the guy that wins on Saturday is going to be a middleweight with
a big name, even bigger have come off a big win and should fit
into the tunnel picture because let me tysonthing, this is a non fight.
This is the biggest middleweight fight in the division, in including title fights.
From a commercial standpoint, this is a bigger fight than Jennebeck against Bookcare in
their unifying world titles. I agree with you, and again it's a rabid
situation. We know this. We've got a lot of fans in the UK
that listen to us and read us on Big Fight Weekend dot com, that
read your substack. They're into this and it's a big deal for Saturday.
So immediately preceding that very intriguing junior welterweight fight. From this standpoint, Adam
Azeem Adam a Zeem, I'll get it out straight, is a prospect on
the rise. He's only had what nine pro fights. He's fighting a veteran
in the junior welterweight that's a Ukrainian fighter that's had like thirty pro fights.
So this is the classic youth versus the experience. But a Zeem has got
a lot of buzz around him and I watched some of the press conference on
Thursday. He talks a good game that got a little cockiness in him.
This is the co feature fight. Give me more on this fight please.
Well he's eight to oh with six knockouts and you know he's only tw one
years old and he's been a fast rising fighter. I mean, he This
is how much some people in the UK think of him, and this is
highly unusual. So Sky Sports, which has been involved with boxing for many,
many years, they are now the home of They have an exclusive agreement
with a boxer which is the promoter of this card. They also are the
UK home of all the top rank events. For many years, they did
Frank Lawrence fights. For many years, they did natural fights. But anyway,
they're like the biggest broadcaster for boxing in the UK. They actually took
a kid that was at the time, I want to say at the time
they did this, he was seven though, and they signed Adam Zem to
a contract. That's how much they think of this kid in terms of his
future star potential. Like you mentioned, he speaks well, he's got the
swagger from a personality standpoint, he's got a little nuss team homed in him.
Even if he's not that cockey. But I've been watching him since pretty
much his pro His pro debut was actually on an ESPN Plus undercard from a
British card that they brought in to the United States, so I remember seeing
that even that was the one time early on that he went to distance.
It was a six rounder. But you know, he's a very intriguing,
exciting, entertaining prospect with a lot of punching power, already has a fan
base, already has headline h granted not a big arenas but in some smaller
places, but even at that level, to be the main event on those
types of shows as a pretty good feather in the guy's cap. So this
fight between himself and Aaron Fanian, which was the opponent that you mentioned,
was twenty three and one. They were originally supposed to fight back earlier in
the year, but the fight because it was was postponed because uh Azeem suffered
a hand injury, but not the normal kind of hand injury. He ended
up having an infection that was caused because he had cuts on his knuckle and
so he got some kind of infection in there. Uh Due to that situation,
they had a postpone this fight for you know a little bit. So
that's the co feature. So that was originally going to be a main event,
so now it's the co feature on this card. And uh, you
know, I I'm all in on the on the Azee bandwagon at this moment.
And then also, you know, you got Frasier Clark was a heavyweight
that was a medal winner in the twenty twenty Olympic Games. A little bit
older. He's taken on the popular sort of every man in Britain, Dave
Allen. That's like, should be a fun fight, I hope. And
the other fight that may be of interest to some of the Americans over here
is that you have MICHAELA. Mayer who is now moving from She remember she
was a unified title holder in the junior lightweight division. She lost her titles
to Alicia bomb Garner, which I'm sure a lot of people will call into
question now given bomb Garner's positive drug test not that long ago. That fight
was in October of last year. She moved up and had one fight so
far in the lightweight division, and now she's moving up yet again to fight
a fighter named Sylvia bort Bortote, and that is a junior welterweight fight,
and she is intimated that she will also at some point in the near future
go up even heavier beyond that, and you know, she has a kind
of frame that probably can handle that. And it's not uncommon at all if
you follow women's boxing, for these ladies to go up to go down,
you know, in several different weight classes. So this is sort of it's
like a new chapter career. She goes to another weight class. What do
you make of the fact, because I think people are curious. She was
fighting several times, even headlined for top rank in the United States, and
now she's primarily been fighting her more prominent fights. And we understand for the
titles. But Bomb Gardner's an American and they fought as part of what was
the Claressa shields helped me in Savannah Marshall. They were the co feature.
But she's fighting again in the UK. Is that because the money is better
or what? What do you read into this? This will be Michaelis third
fight in a row in the UK. She fought the Bomb Gardner unification,
the last fight against Lucy Wildheart that was also on one of the bigger undercards,
and now this fight that's on the EU bank and Liam Smith undercard.
Top Rank has a working relationship if you will, with Sky I mean with
boxer, and the reason is because they're both on the same network over in
the UK. And the bottom line is Top Rank does not have I mean,
they're they're involved in women's boxing moment at the moment. They promote Michaela
Mayor, they promote her for her entire career coming out of the Olympics,
and they also have Uh, they promote than the unified straw weight champion help
me out, I'm the name of. So those are the and they're both
you know, Sinisa and and Uh Sanisa and Uh and Mayor. They're both
excellent boxers on that on that women's if you're looking on pound for poundless,
but they just don't have the opponents, and there's not a big commercial appetite
for Michaela against just a nobody kind of opponent. You know, at least
when they're putting in Sanisa, they're able to get her in unification fights and
and make bigger fights for her, but there's just not that level of an
opponent. And so women's boxing as a certain level of populator in the UK.
Uh, there's the possibility that maybe in down the road Michaela will fight
like Jonas in the UK, which would be a bigger fight. So she's
going to be seen by more the British fans, and like you said,
there's more money to be made over there. So she seems to like her
experience fighting in the UK. And uh, that's where she can. You
know, you gotta fish where the fish are, you know what I mean.
And there's just not not space at the end at the moment for her
to be the main event on an ESPN card. There's the lack of opponents,
not a lot of overwhelming interest. I mean, she was fighting if
she was fighting like a Bomb Garnner rematch, let's say, of course she's
fighting some other bigger name opponent, that'd be one thing. But you couldn't
get away with her fighting Sylvia Borto here in the United States on an ESPN
card probably, And keeping that's where I was going, is that she is
she is looking to get a good pay day and then another good pay day,
because it's not great pay days at the moment for most of women's boxing.
It's not Donkey Day. I don't know what what Mikhaela is earning for
this fight, but I guarantee you it's low six figures. Yeah, it
can't, it can't. You know, we're just speculating here, but it
can't be huge money to be fighting three or four fights down in a non
title fight. So go get the good pay days. Stay active. Go
get a good pay day and then another good pay day and up up your
value. Hey, what a novel concept. Stay active and up your value.
We were talking about this before with Tim Zoo a couple of weeks ago.
Stay active, up your up your value, up your profile, up
your dollars. I mean it's not that absolutely active. I mean, this
will be her second fight this year. She fought two fights in twenty twenty
two. I doubt she's going to fight a third time in twenty twenty three.
I mean, I guess you never know because of what might happen come
December. But I've not heard any rumblings of a third fight. So,
you know, two fights a year. I mean that's unfortunately, that's sort
of the norm these days. And uh, you know, good luck to
work. We'll see. I mean, she gets a bigger fight after this
as she wins. Let's move on to other news. The Canelo Alvarez Jemel
Charlo undercard press conference was earlier this week. What are your impressions. I
know you're Dennis Ugas is in one of those bouts. What else stood out,
if anything from the pressers that they had as they kicked off that for
late this month, Well, they did have that news conference, and it
was kind of I was glad to see that that PBC and TGB and Showtime
that they actually did a separate, actual press conference for this undercard as opposed
to, you know, they'll just do maybe like a zoom where they do
they call it a virtual press conference. They bring guys on. But it
was good to like gather everybody it's given this undercard sort of the gravitas that
it deserves because it is a very quality undercard. There's a lot of material
and a lot of interesting guys to think about and write about, and they're
good match up. So I definitely give this undercard a lot of props.
And I'm anybody that knows me, I can be awfully hard on undercards.
You know, I expect value from my money if I'm buying a pay per
view, and I do that on behalf of the fans. We should all
get our money's worth on these pay per view events. I don't have that
fancy espan expensia anymore. I pay for my own pay per views now.
But the point here on this fight is that it wasn't so much something specific
that stood out at the news conference. It was that it's such a good
undercard in general. So just to review real quickly, you have a co
feature which to me is, you know, should be a very exciting,
you know, very interesting, you know, just a quality matchup. You
got ericson Lubin, who's been a good contender in the germ middleweight division and
you know, fights everybody and won some loss on but he's always in a
good fight. He's taken on Hazel's Romos Junior, who's a very highly touted
young up and comer, a twenty zero. That should be a hell of
a fight in my opinion. And then the rest of the card you mentioned,
you got or Dennis Lugas is fighting Mario Barrios. They're meeting for the
interim WBC welterweight title. Mainly because everybody believes that Darryl Spence and Terrence Crawford
are both moving up and waiting that Crawford won't defend the undisputed he'll go to
that weight glass. So this is again in my viewpoint, in essence,
this is going to be for retroactively. This will be for the what will
eventually become the vacant WBC title, which the winner of this will be elevated.
So but that's the nice match. Ugus has been out for a while
because of the eye injury he suffered against Spence. You know, Barrios,
I don't necessarily think he belongs in this fight based on his track record of
wins and losses, but he's always in a good fights. He's a personable
guy, makes good fights. Again, for the third fight down the card,
that's solid and then you get the opening fight that they had and you
saw the guy's face off with each other. You got the undefeated Elijah Garcia,
who's like, you know, just a young guy twenty I think twenty
or twenty one years old. If that undefeated, a big knockout artist.
He's taken on Armando Zendez. There's only got one loss. Uh. He's
coming off a big win against Jared Hurd, who he stopped in an upset
and what was the fight of the year type fight. Just they're an excellent
undercard. So I did write a piece about some of the press cards.
I focused this one particular story mainly on you know, Ugas and and Barrios
and what's at stake for those guys. But there's a lot of stuff to
think about, right about and and and talk about as relates his undercard,
just a just a very good, solid undercard. It deserves it's it's props
because when the undercards that some promoters put on stink out loud, we ripped
the shit out of them. So you got to give him a tip of
the hat when they put on something that's worthwhile. I do I do know,
because you brought it up a couple of times. This one is so
much better than what the undercard looked like and turned out to be for the
Crawford spins that we were out there together. This one on paper at least
looks a lot better than that. You're encouraged by that for later in the
month in Las Vegas, And I didn't think the Spence Crawford wasn't wasn't a
bad fight on paper. I mean especially don't forget they had some stuff they
to move around because of injuries. So if you can get Nonido Donair against
Santiago on as an undercard fight, that was good. I mean, so
I'm not this one is better. But I didn't think that that was a
bad one either, all right, fair enough, and that again is coming
at the end of the month at the team And by the way, the
main event on paper first Spence Crawford. Again, I liked Charlo and Knello,
not knocking the fight at all, but if you made me pick that
was a better main event, of course. And you kept saying, and
this is true a lot of times when you're buying those pay per views,
you're buying it for the main event. Anyway, you're just saying, hey,
this is a much better undercard on this one. I was just excited
that they brought all the six guys together, Yes, got them all talk
it up. They had the nice photo ops, gave us a lot of
material to write about, to think about as fans and as writers, and
I just I just really like the undercard and I'm excited to be going out
to Vegas once again in late September to cover this event. And it's it's
just gonna be a lot of fun and it's a good show. Good stuff.
More news you are reporting this? Uh, the Joe Cordina next title
fight is coming in November. Tell me what you have learned here for that
match Room show? When last we saw Cordina a Fight of the Year tied
candidate with Rock them off a tremendous fight. So what have you learned about
November here? Well, there is a card, you know, and they
haven't done it in a couple of years, but match Room has done some
cards in Monte Carlo, in Monaco and in a very small room they have
there, but they pay to bring in like you know, to have a
professional event at one of the you know, many casinos that are in Monte
Carlo. And so Cordinia is supposed to headline against a fighter named Edward Vasquez
that will take place on November fourth in Monte Carlo. It has not been
announced yet, but that is uh, there's no doubt that that's Remember originally
Cordinia was going to fight in September and it ended up you know, Eddie
Herne had gone on some YouTube interview and had talked about September thirtieth as a
date for Cordina's next to his first defense of his second title reign, and
that suddenly disappeared, and so this is going to take its place, and
it's just gonna move to this new date, and so you know, it'll
be good to see Joe get back in action. Like you mentioned that tremendously
exciting fight against rock him Up when he when he regained the title that he
don't even stripped of because he had a hand injury. So, like I
said, he's fighting Edward Vaska, is not a top name opponent, but
nonetheless that step fight. And then my man, the little guy who I
love the ib of junior flyweight champion uh City Non Shinga, who was in
that phenomenal fight and I picked as the fight of the year last year that
he had in Mexico when he won this title. He's gonna take on a
fighter named Adrian Curio, and then they've got some other fights on the Cardolso,
but those are the two title fights that are on there, and you
know what, that's that's a nice show. That's a nice doublehead. Or
they may not be fighting the big name opponents, but both Cordina and Non
Shinga make exciting entertaining fights, and that's what I'm all about. So bring
me something that's good, whether even if it's a knockout, so be it,
you know, against a guy you may not have ever heard of.
But that is I guess that natural has not yet annound that I would anticipate
that, you know, in the coming weeks that will formally be announced.
But that's what we're looking at. Coordina the big right hand and that Rock
them Off fight. Rock'em Off, was valiant, was hurt, hurt
Cordina later in the fight. I'd love to see a rematch down the road
with that. I mean, I understand you explained it before. For financial
reasons, Cordina is going to fight other people and maybe comes back around to
Rock them Off if if they make that fight for twenty twenty four, etc.
More news you reported on your substack. This again is another reason why
you need to be a subscriber to Dan's substack. In his material the Jake
Paul Nate Diaz pay per view numbers that was all the way back at the
beginning of August in Dallas, and this, I think it's fair to say
this was a good pay per view from a revenue standpoint, and you understand
why the crossover of a big time UFC star can help make sense. So
tell me more about what you found out about the numbers and the revenue.
Yeah, listen, Jake Paul has become like a money machine. I mean,
now he's not doing the pay per view numbers and revenue and gates that
they do for a Canelo fight, or they did for Spence against Terrence Crawford.
You know, six hundred and fifty pay per view, thousand pay per
views, a twenty one million dollars gate, or you know one point two
million pay per views that Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia did to the tune of
I forget the gate, but it was like the one of the biggest gates
in Nevada. It was like twenty play. It was it beat the It
beat the Spence and the Crawford one. But it was again well over twenty
million dollars. So but just from his sheer numbers in terms of actual buys,
Murmoso, the fight was a lot cheaper. Those are like eighty five
dollars showtime pay per views. This was like a sixty dollars. That's a
big difference twenty bucks. But Anyway, here's the point though, for a
guy that's a novice taken on Nate DS who's obviously got theme and of popularity
and fan base of his own because he performed and you know, some of
the biggest UFC pay per views that the company has ever had, but coming
into boxing for his pro debut, for them to do four hundred and fifty
thousand pay per view buys, that's very impressive. I mean, that's the
third biggest of this year. That was more than Canello did against John Ryder
for example. Now granted that was not considered a mega fight. It was
in next Go, didn't have a lot of promotion in the United States,
and you know, so I'm not I'm not calling Canello out. I'm just
making the point that just from the number standpoint, you know, there's a
difference. Not to mention by the way that on the night of the fight
when NATEDS and Jake Paul fought, uh, you know, Nikisabadarian, who
is his business partner and MVB Promotions, you know, went to the press
conference and announced that they had done like a three point one million dollar gate
at the American Airline Center in Dallas. That's a lot of money, you
know, for that kind of fight. That wasn't a title, no pound
for pount implications, just two guys with fan bases who are fighting a crossover
kind of fight. So I've always said on this podcast from day one,
and you can go back and check the tapes DJ, I've always given my
respect to what Jake Paulo's doing. I know he's not everybody's cup of tea
and it's not world championship boxing pound for pound stuff, but I respect what
he's doing. He brings fans in. His fights are entertaining in my opinion.
He works hard, and to me, there's room and under the big
tent of boxing for all these types of events, and it shows you they're
not going anywhere if he can keep doing numbers like that, because that was
a bigger number than he did with Tommy Furydac in Februar. I granted that
was in the afternoon American time. And by the way, let me clarify
something because I've seen some stuff on Twitter. The four fifty is the United
States pay per view, not the worldwide because it was available on the Zone
in other countries. It was also an America. It was available on the
Zone ESPN plus PPV dot com. You know your linear television, your satellite
services. Four fifty is just the platforms available in the United States. That's
got nothing to do with if there was available on a pay per view basis
in some other country. We do apples to apples, and it's we go
on the American domestic number. And you've done a great job explaining that over
and over again in these podcasts that we do here as part of the Big
Fight we Can podcasts and UH and the Fight Freaks Unite recaps. Look,
I was I was there for the rematch with Tyron Woodley and the arena was
full in December of twenty twenty one for that showdown again he fought Anderson Silva
in the Glendale, Arizona Arena whatever that is now Desert Diamond Arena, and
it was full. I don't know in the configuration how many seats they had,
but it was easily ten thousand plus at the American Airline Center, it
may have been fourteen or fifteen. He set my point, he's selling tickets,
he's selling pay per views. I don't know how long it's gonna hold
up if it's not boxers. But now no one can argue he's selling tickets
and there is buzz, and that's what's your point is, this is what's
important about this is why the reason why this was a bigger deal for the
long term than maybe other fights he had were. This was him coming off
of a loss the Fury. A lot of people suggested or thought, oh,
you know, once Jake Paul loses, the jig is up and it's
over and out, he'll be on. It won't be undefeated anymore, and
no one's going to give a shit. And there's a lot if I interject,
there's a lot of belief he's going to go to the WWE with his
brother and be a professional wrestler, and that's out there. There's a lot
of wrestling reporting whatever, for whatever it's worth that that's what he will eventually
do. But continue with your thought about what the revenue points that in terms
of boxing, he was able to absorb the loss, a close loss,
but a loss nonetheless against Fury, who was the first time he ever faced
an actual, you know, a guy that was only a boxer, not
an mm a fighter, not a you know, a fellow social media person
or a basketball player, like Nate Robinson just you know, or MMA guy.
He went back to the MMA guy with the Nads fight. But the
point was people still wanted to watch him even though he had lost the fury.
And then, of course you mentioned there's the prospect of him going to
WWE to perform with his brother, Logan Paul, who again, if you
watch those clips, his brother has just done some amazing things. And if
you like w tow that dude's made some crazy moves. And in terms of
this forformance in the ring, for WW and Logan and Logan Paul has signed
a multi year, multimillion dollar deal with WWE. Nobody's laughing at that anymore.
So the other thing is, and you know, I don't know if
this has happened, but I talked to Nikisa and they're serious about doing this.
Maybe not in the next fight, but at some point, and both
Nate and Jake spoke about it after the fight in the ring. I think
that Jake is he would seriously entertain this. He's not worried about taking a
loss. He's wants to make big events about doing a fight with natedeas in
the cage under MMA rules. And as I said in a column that I
wrote after that. I mean, I don't have anything against I mean maybe,
but it's usually not something I pay a lot of attention to. I
mean, I watched the highlights, and you know, occasionally watch some of
the events if they're on free TV. I've never bought a and then they
pay per view of any kind. But I'm telling you right here, right
now, if Jake Paul's fighting as in the cage, big Man's buying the
pay per view, and there is some belief that will be a bigger deal
because of the UFC fans that will gravitate that fight. Now, can they
make that happen? Jake Paul keeps maintaining he wants ten million dollars to make
that happen, don't we all? But that's there, No, that's when
Nadiaz wants. But you know what, it based on the numbers that could
do. That's not that's not even like out of the realm of doing it.
I don't think. All right, we'll see what Jake Paul does next.
But that's interesting reporting on what you cobbled together. You were getting that
from Dan and his substack. First, let's continue with a couple more news
items than some nostalgia before we are done, including good Rocky Marciano nostalgia coming
up speaking of a heavyweight like the rock was your boy? Zen Kotsabutski is
back, boy, my boy? I thought it was your boy, Flashy
Sebastian. Wasn't that his name that Sugar Ray Robinson knocked out? Anyway?
Is it my boy? Kosabutski? He says, I am sorry for Is
he sorry for all the low blows or just some of them because there were
about two hundred and seven of them against Fayett Jogba last Saturday night. He's
apologizing. Do you believe it's sincere? What's going on here? What's up?
I don't believe it's sincere. But let's backtrack. So on Saturday of
last week he had that undercart when when Anderson fought in the main event on
the ESPN card against Rodenko, the co feature was Kosa Bootski against Faa Jagba,
and Kosa Bootski kept hitting him in the ball. I mean, forget
about the controversy about what happened with us against Danga Duwa. These were dick
shots, okay, these were really low below the belt. I mean it
down in the south of the border, big time down in the man Paus.
Yeah, so he and he did it multiple times. Now, the
referee in that fight multiple you know, took two points away from him for
the various infractions. Chris Forez, I thought the rep did a good job.
And even when he did it again, he actually was like, look,
he gave him one more hard warning and was like, I'm you know,
at some point he's gonna have to d Q him, but he didn't
want a DQ him there. Okay, I was okay with that. A
jog bad. Give him enough shot back, even though I didn't think that
one was on purpose. The Kosabouski shots were clearly blatant. And then so
when he did it again twice in round four while the referee was staring right
at him and he didn't just hit him like on the belt line, he
had him like way way way below dirty, really bad not low blows,
he disqualified him. So then his promoter universe him. Remember he had signed
a co promotion with Top Break, which I don't think is going to be
interested to use him anytime soon. They put out a statement where he apologized.
So I was down with the apology till I got to this part.
I'm gonna just read it off my computer screen. Here, he was.
If you're going to apologize, just apologize. Don't try to reason and rationalize.
Just say I'm sorry, I was wrong, I didn't mean it,
or I didn't mean it, but I got out of control, whatever it
is. But don't make excuses. So generally speaking, let's just give a
little advice. Whether you're talking about I'm not saying this ever happened to me,
dealing with your wife, for example, and you've screwed up. The
more you start to explain, which is what you're talking about. You're not
apologizing anymore, you're explaining. And the more you talked, the bigger the
hole you're getting. That's what you're talking about. And he's trying to explain
in the statement, go ahead in pr lingo. The rule of thumb is
when you're in a hole, stop digging. That's right. So he started
off very well, I would you know they were fighting? Just so do
you understand why he mentions the WBC This fight between the Jagua and Kosabitski was
for one of their regional titles, the WBC. They sanctioned the title.
He's in the WBC rankings. I would like to state to the highly respected
WBC family and all fans of boxing that I realized that they made wrong actions
and therefore I want to apologize to the WBC, A, THEA JAGBA and
all fans from my non sporting behavior. I'm like, you know what,
that's a good Now, it's a little stilt to cut right there, but
that was that was suffice as an apology. That will suffice, Yes,
and then he kind of lost me in the next line after receivering numerous low
blow shots by my opponent, and I got out of control, lost my
professionalism and tried to do a vigil antheism. So he didn't receive numerous low
blow He got like one that was a legit low blow that he kind of
leaned into. There wasn't a lot of like what I would term a lot
of low blows, so I kind of didn't buy that. That's sort of
like you know, Tyson complaining that holy Field kept headbutting him. Yes,
there was a couple of headbuts, but it wasn't like there was ten of
them. So and by the way, in theology, we should say this
in the chronology a Jogbub began to pay him back. He hit him once
low, like to pay him back after he'd been hit low two or three
times himself. And that's kind of the fighter's creed of Okay, you're gonna
keep fouling me, then I'm gonna foul you back, just to let you
know stop doing that. So that doesn't I mean, you should have stopped
digging. And then he stopped digging. He finished by saying, I know
it had nothing to do with professional boxing. I will assure you that such
behavior will not be seen for me in the future. And I kept thinking
to myself, it won't be seen from you in the future, because I
hope I don't see you in the future. Okay, he's not he's not
in jeopardy of being suspended for his behavior. He's just disqualified as far as
we know the Oklahoma. Yeah, I don't think there's I mean there's no
but in terms of ruining your chance to be featured by Top rank or in
this country, pretty well fluid for the time being. I mean no doubt.
I'll put it like this. I spoke to somebody at Top Rank about
it and asked about that. And while they wouldn't go out and say yes,
we're going to release him. The perspective was, you know, before
we bring him back, we need to see something significant in the in Europe.
Uh, you know, where he behaves himself and looks solid in the
fight. So you know, you never say never. I mean, look,
at the end of the day, if Mike Tyson can come back,
you know, from biting off a chunk of at the ender Holly Field's ear,
or Andrew Golotic to come back from being disqualified twice against Riddick Bow and
get another multiple world title shots, you can't write off coast of Bootski.
So you know, let him stew for that a bit. Let's see anything
get back on track, keep it clean, and you know, everybody deserves
a second chance, but I don't need to see that second chance for a
while. One more news item here, and you were already talking about the
Jannabec unification title fight coming in October. You've got something about the undercard for
that as well that you've learned. So yes, my reporting says that on
October fourteenth, when Jannebec and Gaultieri meet to unify their middleweight titles, and
that fight hasn't been officially announced it either, although everybody you know a top
rank acknowledges that's happening. They just are waiting, I guess, to do
an official announcement. But my sources tell me that the lightweight up and comer,
the silver medal winner from the twenty twenty Olympic Games, the excellent prospect
the nine and OHO six knockouts, Keishan Davis, will fight in the co
feature of that event against an opponent that has not yet been determined. As
he moves along in his fast track career, be good to see him back
in action. I'm waiting for top rank at some point, and I think
they'll do this in the future like they did with Jared Big Baby Anderson when
they brought him out to Toledo for the hometown fight. I'm waiting for the
time when we see Keishan Davis get a main event in Norfolk, Virginia.
Maybe I'll make that drive down down the interstate to attend that fight. But
yeah, so you have the middleweight unification in the main event, and then
it looks like Keishan will perform in the co feature, and you know he's
on the fast track. He's only not nine fights into his career. This
is already going to be his third schedule ten rounder, which he started this
year. And as you said, it's staying busy. It'll be his third
fight of the year, and so that's good. And he's got a type
talent. What do I know? So get keep him busy and get him
towards a world title shot as soon as you can, because it's worth that
guy. You can mark up. I mean for what it's worth. I
had him as my twenty twenty two fight for each Unite Prospect of the Year.
And I've been picking prospects for over twenty years, you know, from
my days at USA today through my time at ESPN, and I've continued it
forward in my newsletter. H Nostalgia time. Let's get into it. So
this was earlier in the week on August the twenty ninth of twenty fifteen,
So it was nine years ago this past week on Tuesday, that Leo Santa
Cruz and Abner Marez fought an absolute brawl, tremendous fight, and you were
ringside for it. So tell me more on the nostalgia. Yeah, they
were fighting for the vacant WBA featherweight title. When when the fight was made,
by the way, it was just a fight you know that everybody wanted
to see. They were both among the top in their weight class. It
was a fight everybody expect it would be fireworks, exciting. Two guys that
kind of been in and around their weight classes of against each other, you
know, fighting on PBC cards before that Golden Boy card. So, I
mean it made sense to make the match. It was a very popular fight.
It was sort of like they're both originally from Mexico, but they've made
Southern California their home there, you know, most of their lives. And
so not only was it for the featherweight belt that was added to this like
a few days before the fight happened, but it was really when it was
first announced that everybody were excited about. It was the bragging rights of LA.
It was like who's the king of Los Angeles? You know, like
a back backyard brawl type of thing, and uh, Staples Center was you
know, over thirteen thousand, very very excited, lraucous crowd, obviously mostly
Mexican Mexican American fans, but just to tremend as battle they put on,
you know, and at the time that this fight occurred, in twenty fifteen,
PBC was in the midst of having done like a bunch of these time
by deals with a variety of different networks. They were doing fights on CBS,
NBC, ESPN, Spike, I'm probably the Fox. I mean,
they had just had bounced TV. I can't remember even all of them.
The ESPN run that they had, and obviously I was working at the ESPN
at time was extraordinarily disappointing and it petered out after a very short period of
time. There was threats of litigation to the extent where myself and dozens of
other ESPN employees were you know, sent uh, you know from our legal
department, you know, to preserve any and all PBC related emails and text
message enners. Don't destroy anything because we're headed to litigation with Hayman. Blah
blah blah. I didn't. I didn't destroy anything anyway. But the one
So the most of the PBC events that that Hayman put on ESPN where he
bought the time, were terrible. They were ship This was the one fight
of the handful of fights that he ultimately did on ESPN that was an a
level, top level tremendous fight on paper, and it turned out that way
in the ring, and those two guys, Leo Santa Cruz and Adirm Marris,
who I've always liked as guys and also as fighters in terms of the
excitement, they put on a hell of a fight, super close. Santa
Cruz definitely deserved the win that he got. It was the majority decision.
I mean, I felt he deserved the unanimous but they put on a great
fight. It was a twenty fifteen Fight of the Year candidate. They ended
up fighting again three years later and he rematched. That was a bit more
one sided in favor of Leo Santa Cruz, but that that first fight was
a great battle of Santa Cruz on the belt. It was a title for
him in a third weight class, and just a really fun fight. Let
me tell you what I remember. You were ringside. I often joke with
you here in these times. In August, I worked Tampa Bay Buccaneers preseason
games, and I still vividly remember this. So this is now eight years
ago, at the time that we're doing this, that we were standing in
the Raymond James Stadium press box. I'm done with all my radio duties the
meaningless preseason game is over, and that fight was on because it was on
one of the TVs was on ESPN, and there was a group of about
seven or eight of us. I'm ready to leave and go get in my
car because it's literally eleven fifteen, eleven thirty, eleven forty five whatever it
was Eastern time to go, get in my car and drive home. I
worked for the night is over. I've been there since five o'clock in the
afternoon. In the preseason. We stood there Raphael for easily the final three
rounds, all of us, and there was yelling and whoa, and we
watched the end of that fight. I vividly remember that. So yes,
good stuff. And I may have said ninety eight years ago of twenty fifteen,
August of twenty fifteen, when really it's a really good fight. I
know a lot of times we do the nostalgia. It's things that are maybe
years even before that, and it's from the different era. But there was,
you know, in that like two ten to twenty twenty decade, which
is the most recent year, let's say, there was a lot of good
fights that are going to start to get there a claim when we do these
you're saying we're getting old. No, I'm just saying you just turned you
turned fifty three. I'm fifty three. We're starting to get old. But
yes, you're right. I mean it's been about I'm just making the point
that that there are lots of other exciting fights that may not be as famous,
but maybe as we get further away from them, people will reflect on
them look back more with more of excitement or or appreciation than maybe they do.
But that was a great fight. I loved it, and one more
piece of nostalgia involving Triple G because he made his United States and HBO debut
eleven years ago Friday, as we released the podcast September one of twenty twelve.
Tell me more about that. You could not have asked for a more
spectacular American debut on HBO also than Triple G made in a middleweight title defense
against the fighter Greg Proso, who was a very quality UH contender at that
time. He was originally supposed to have a fight, I believe, a
unification find I guess it was going to be against Dmitri Pierro, who hurt
his back and was pretty much never heard from again. But Proxi was a
good replacement opponent, and Triple G and his team, Tom Loffler and that
group had worked so hard to get him on HBO. They finally gave him
the opportunity and they went to Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York,
and they met. They made this match on Boxing after Dark, and Tripleg
lived up to every every bit of the hype. Just a I mean and
proxi, you know, was there as a willing combatant, but he just
looked absolutely spectacular. And I wrote a column after that was like, this
is this guy is going to be the real deal for years to come.
He looked absolutely incredible that night. The excitement that boxing fans had in the
immediate aftermath of that fight sustained Tripleg. It was really the start of the
legend. It really is what helped make him become a star, which he
ultimately became. Maybe he didn't become as big a star as like a Canelo
Alvarez who turned out to be a great rival, but he became a very
big deal. Was doing very big ratings on HBO, was drawing big time
crowds wherever he fought, and he sold out places in London and Los Angeles
and New York, you know, all over the place, had fought in
a lot of different locations, spot in Monte Carlo, you know, just
fought all over. Anyway, that that introduction to the United States audience in
a big way was absolutely sensational. Is you could not have drawn it up
any more perfect. And the crazy thing in my mind not this is not
this is just from my own point of view. I ended up covering sixteen
triple G fights at ringside all over the United States. I traveled to the
UK when he fought Kelbrook, for example. You know, I covered every
single one of his American fights except for the one that he fought against zere
Metta in the bubble because of COVID, so I didn't go to that,
and this fight was the first one, so I didn't. This was the
one I didn't go too, but I watched it. I would have loved
to have been there. But you couldn't draw it up any better than what
he did that night September one. Well, fair to say he was one
of those guys in the twenty tens in his in his run here that was
a pound for pound top two or three guy every year. And you can
watch these fights, and you see and you see why I get so sick
and tired of seeing the people that that that say that Triple G w Hoody
ever beat he doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame someday, which he will
be on the first ballot when he gets on the ballot, that they just
disrespect him so much. They don't pay any attention to the number of defenses
he made so that you know, he may not have fought you know,
the superstars, because there really wasn't other than Canello at that time. You
know, Sergio Martinez wanted no part of him. Lou Debella, my good
friend, came to ringside one night, you know, and was like,
I'm not gonna put Sergio in with that beast. I mean, they didn't
even make a secret they were dunking the guy. You know. I always
gave David Lemue credit because when he was the IBF champion, he was the
one guy that was willing to fight him in a unification fight. And even
Cannello, who was gone on to become one of the all time greats,
you know, even took him, you know, and they made to fight
when it was still not spoiled, not not beyond its sell by date.
But they waited him out a little bit, Let's be honest about it.
It wasn't like ridiculous, but they waited like about a year or so to
get Canelo in the ring with TRIPLEG. When they thought it was when he
was maybe a little bit you know, aged out to a certain degree.
So TRIPLEG did great things. He was in the mid when he fought Procid
this he was in the middle of this twenty three consecutive knockout streak. He
made more defenses in the middleweight division than anybody in the history of boxing overall,
including twenty consecutive, which tied Bernard Hopkins for the all time record.
People want to say, well, that includes his title defenses as a WBA
regular champion. Well, you're damn right, I include that because the real
the super champion was Felix Sturm, who was the most grotesque ducker of all
time. Of Tripleg, they were with the same promotion company and Sturm and
and Universe at the time. They did not want to put him anywhere near
him because TRIPLEG was from Kazakhstan and Felix Sturm was selling out arenas as a
German national, you know who represented Germany and the Olympics and lived there,
and you know, for I don't think if he was born there, But
the point was he was adopted and beloved by the German fans. Triple G
mail fought in Germany, but he never had that level of respect from the
German fans. There was never a million and a million years was universe.
I'm gonna put Triple G in with their cash cow Felix Sturm and Felix Stterm
wanted no part of that either, So your damn right I include those because
he was mandatory and the WBA never ordered. The fucking fight about that rant
over ran over good nostalgia on Triple G. One more item. As I've
been teasing this, the Brockton Blockbuster, the Rock Rocky Marciano unfortunately died fifty
four years ago Thursday as we taped the podcasts. Interject just so I remember,
Yeah, I just looked it up while we're talking. Felix Sturm is
a German national, So that means even if they were never wanted no part
of TRIPLEG. Good enough. So the Brockton Blockbuster back to the Rock,
Rocky Marciano died fifty four years ago Thursday, as we were least the podcast,
in a plane crash on the day before what would have been his forty
sixth birthday. He was actually unknowingly headed to an event in Des Moines,
Iowa, where they were also going to have a surprise birthday party for him,
but he never made it there. Plane crash killed him the night before
his birthday. And so now here we are fifty four years later, and
September first Friday would have been Rocky Marciano's one hundredth birthday had he lived that
long, all right, So Raphael on the nostalgia, where does Marciano fit
in in the pantheon of heavyweight champions? Because for almost anybody listening to us,
this includes you and me, we didn't see the guy fight live.
If you were not alive in the nineteen fifties, you didn't see the guy
fight live. So I realized is a long long time ago. But where
does Rocky Marciano fit in? Real quick? And then he's one of the
great heavyweights of all time? I mean, there's no question about that.
And he was an undersized heavyweight relative today. If you take a look at
the weights he fought. Most of those fights he fought in the one eighties,
he'd be like the bridgerweight champion today or the cruiserweight champion. Perhaps maybe
he would maybe if he was in today's era because of uh, you know,
the technology or or or or nutrition. You know, maybe it would
have bulked up and been uh, you know, over two hundred pounds.
But the point was, back then, it was not unusual for the heavyweight
champion'd be well less than two hundred pounds, which he was. Uh,
you know, he didn't. I don't think he ever had to fight in
his entire career that was above uh you know, in the mostly maybe he
had one or two that were in the one nineties, but they're all like
in the one eighties and a couple of fights if you go back in the
early days of his career, even fought a few fights, you know,
in the in the high one seventies. But you know, but Rocky Marskin,
it was an all time great everyway. You know, people review that
record forty nine and oero. You know what I tell people, it's not
a record the way, you know, whoever has the most uh you know,
Pete Rose has the most hits in baseball. That's the record, forty
nine. I know, it has been surpassed on a number of occasions.
You know, Julio Cesar Chabbins example, you know, started his career like
you know, with eighty plus wins. There's been longer streaks. I mean,
Sugary Robinson, you know, went on a streak where he won,
you know, I don't like over one hundred fights in a row or something
like that. It just because he retired or and then you know, then
i'll you know, sadly died. He was forty nine, No, when
he when he retired and never came back, partly because he had passed that.
People revere that record and it's not been approached or surpassed anyway. I
mean Larry Holmes got right on the cost of it back years ago. Yeah,
but on the doorstep. So Marciano. Marciano last fought in nineteen fifty
five. He beat Archie Moore. He was thirty two years old, and
then there was talk that he might come back. He had been helping Ingomar
Johansson we go way back, fighting a rematch with Floyd Patterson. There was
talked that Marciano might fight in the late nineteen fifties, but never did,
retired at thirty two, walked away on top, could never be lured back.
So that's just do you have him. Does he belong in the top
five, because one would say he does not belong in the top five,
would I would agree, because the list of heavyweight title fights or Jersey Joe
Walcott twice, someone named Roland Lostarza Ezer, Charles twice, Don Cockroll,
and Archie Moore, that's the heavyweight title fights. So Jersey Joe Walcott is
a legend in the Hall of Famer. Charles was the heavyweight champion, but
a lot of people tell you he's the greatest light heavyweight of all time.
He was an all time great fighter. Absolutely. Archie Moore, you might
people, some people might rank him as high as three or four or five
on the all time pound for poundless. I mean, Archie Moore was a
legendary fighter. And also I mean, granted he was much older when they
fought. You know, he has the legendary knockout of the aging Joe Lewis.
So if you can look at a guy's record and say he'd beat Joe
Lewis, he beat Joe Walcott twice. He beat Ezra Charles twice, including
by a knockout in the second fight, and he stopped Archie Moore. I
mean, those are kings of all time in boxing his I mean, so
you know, he gets credit for those victories, but it's hard to put
him in the top five because you have to put him ahead of Muhammad Ali
and Joe Lewis, who, yes, he beat Joe Lewis, but not
the Joe Lewis when he Joe Lewis was at his top version. He'd beat
Joe Lewis ten years after he was Joel Lewis. There's still so you're talking
about again, not in order, but Ali, U, Joe Lewis.
You can you can look at George Foreman, you can look at Joe Frazier,
you can look at you know, I would say homes of Latin Mason.
No, no, no, I don't put Tyson in my top ten.
I definitely say that. You always say that, and I'm not going
to go for another ten minutes on this, but I think Tyson has to
be in a top ten. We'll debate that at a later time, but
we can talk about that. We'll have to debate that at another time.
But back to Marciano just for one more thing. A lot of people you'll
get people on this trivia question. He fought Joe Lewis earlier in his career.
Lewis at the end of his career in nineteen fifty one, and that
was not a title fight. It was a non title fight. It was
a pay day. He later fought Walcott and I'm gonna make my man David
Payne, who I love the boxing rider over in the UK, because David
always talks to me via video with a painting that his wife got a got
for him of that right hand. Marciano against Walcott in the first fight,
the one thunderous right hand knockout punch in like the thirteenth round where he knocked
him out Rayphael sitting up. Walcott went down and was knocked out sitting up
from the thunderous right hand on one knee and then eventually after like three seconds,
slumped over face first, knocked out. That was That is as iconic
a heavyweight one punch knockout as there ever has been. Even he'sig of a
legend, you know, as there could be. He was a very very
very popular in the nineteen fifties, and you know, he was as well
known as Mickey Mantle. I mean, you know, back in those days.
But I still I can't put him in the top five because now you
gotta put him ahead of guys like Jack Johnson. You know, you gotta
put him at Jim See Jack Dempsey belonged there in the top five. Can't
put everybody in the top five. I get it. Can't put it.
I mean, Luis, I mean, I like thinking about the top ten,
not so much the top five. Top ten's hard enough. I mean,
especially with all the guys we've been naming, But I just would not
have him. I'd probably haven't in the top ten. I haven't. I've
got to take a look. I've done my top ten heavyweights at one point
or another. To redo your list and see what's there you're doing it.
I gotta just check what the heck I did, because he fought me off
guard. On this side, I'm thinking of no problem. So again Marciano
what would have been his one hundredth birthday, and again when he died,
and I've gone back and read about this, I mean, it was the
heavyweight champion of the world mattered big time in mainstream society in the US,
not just in sports. And when he died unexpectedly in that plane crash,
it was a humongous front page deal New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Nightly
News in its infancy in the in the nineteen sixties. This was a massive
deal that he had died unexpectedly in a plane crash the day before his birthday
back now fifty four years ago, and what sixty nine amazing. What I
did earlier on Thursday, as I often do, is because of the anniversary
of his passing, I busted out my Rocky Marciano rookie card from the nineteen
fifty one Iconic nineteen fifty one Tops ring side set, posted a photo as
well as a really beautiful nineteen sixty seven Panini sticker from their their multi sport
set. I posted on Twitter because I love that shit. I know you
love the nostalgia. And by the way, one more birthday while we're talking,
birthday, September second, Saturday is Lennox Lewis's birthday. Happy birthday,
Lenox Lewis, fifty eight years of age. Man, Raphael, We're vinted
still, that's amazing. Lex Lenx is a listen, Lennox is a is
a. He came off as very aloof and standoffish to a lot of fans
and media during his fighting days, but one and he was the heavyweight champion
when I first started to cover boxing. My first fight that I covered as
the boxing writer for USA Today April twenty nine, two thousand, was his
title defense against Michael Grant. I got to know Lennox, you know,
over the years prior to his retirement, and while I never had any any
piece of them whatsoever, NET ever had a problem with him. He you
know, he definitely was standoff as too a degree and aloof at times.
I got to know him much better on a personal level when he was my
broadcast partner when we both did the commentary when the network Epics did boxing broadcast
for you know, two too and a half years. So I got to
know him a lot better, and we used to bust his balls about that
about you know, why he was, you know, his his how much
more popular it would have been if he was a little bit more friendly towards
the press and the fans and Lennox, you know, he kind of understood
it, but he made the point to me one time, He's like,
you know, when I was champion, that was the sort of the barrier
I had to put up to maintain my focus and my and and and by
tunnel vision on my objectives as a professional boxer. So he gets it.
And Lennox is a great guy and so much so that one of the it's
the only one right now, right, but one of the Rayphiel cats named
Lennox current, my current living cat, my wonderful Persian is named Lennox after
the great Lennox goes Happy Birthday, Lennox Lewis. Okay, the reasons tell
you why. So I always named my fights after my cats, after fighters
and fighter sway admire and respect and the methano. But Lennox back in the
day when he was champ, not like today where he carries ball, you
know, or he's shaved his head or we used to have a close crop.
When he was champ, he had the dreadlocks. So our cat is
a Persian with the crazy long hair. So that's why he got the name
Lenox. There go the things you find out as we pull the veil back
on the big fight, we can preview again, Liam Smith, Chris Eubank,
junior rematch Manchester, England. We will be dissecting that and handicapping it
on the bet US Boxing Show one Eastern Time Friday. Look forward to seeing
everybody there on the bet US platforms, whether it's live or later on.
And no matter what happens, Dan raypheel, we are back to recap these
fights from England this weekend, including Adam Zine in the co feature. Let's
reconvene on Labor Day weekend. Here the US off the weekend with a recap.
Other than that, we're good. I have a great weekend. My
friend you two I'll see on the US show one pm Easter Time on Fronday.
There we go, there's Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeves. Followers
subscribe Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, Spotify, Spreaker, wherever you get podcast.
We go into the weekend previewing. We come off the weekend with a
recap. It's all part of the Big Fight weekend podcast feed for Dan Rayfield.
I'm TJ Reeves. Enjoy the fights.