Well off of a weekend that saw a very impressive performance by Joshua Bouazi winning
his light heavyweight eliminator fight with fellow countrymen and friend Dan a Z's in England,
a weekend that saw Connor Benn take a lot longer than all of us
thought to get his victory in Las Vegas. And what's next for Kim after
that? We are ready to recap those fights. We are ready to hear
from a guy defending his title later this week. It is super Bowl week
in Las Vegas. But not only that, it is Tayo Femal Lopez.
You will hear from the WBO And Rayfield wants me to also point out the
lineal one hundred and forty pounds champ Taya Femal Lopez in a little bit with
Dan and we'll preview his fight which is Thursday. So you get a combo
here, not only a recap, but a preview of that fight and that
fight card from top rank in Las Vegas this weekend. Some news, some
nostalgia, Dan Rayfield, always good to be with you. Now we have
to say to the audience, we do our best to be current with the
circumstances, etc. And the podcast world. You and I work very hard.
We have a rundown, we have plans, we have all of that.
We did our podcast, we put it to bed, and then it's
out overnight Thursday and a Friday, and lo and behold, the biggest news
that there could possibly be comes out after that. Now, I will say
for the audience that on our bet Us show we were able to talk a
bunch about it at the beginning of the bet US Live show at one Eastern
time. Tyson Fury, Alexander Uzik off. But you and I, I
mean, we do our best for the peeps. Again, keep following,
keep subscribing, rating and reviewing us. I'm sorry that there was a podcast
all day Friday that wasn't talking about Tyson Fury and Alexander Usik and the fight
being off. It's the best way to do. Come back in and talk
about it retroactively. Now, yeah, they will lift. And you have
also reported a bunch of stuff been out there on social media, been out
there on the bet US Show, et cetera, et cetera. But stay
engaged with us because you're going to get a lot more insight, like right
now into what's going on. Okay, well, that's going to begin things
before we get into the fight recaps. So Friday, did we ever confirm
did this happen on Friday? As best we can tell, the cut?
Did it happen on Thursday for Tyson Fury? Nasty nasty cut that's postponed the
undisputed fight now for what three months? But go ahead? All right?
So yes, it happened by all accounts on a sparring session on our time
Friday morning, obviously was later in the day in react now. Tyson Fury
relocated to read right before New Year's after Christmas, before New Year's he put
his training camp in reacd to get ready for the fight, which told me
that he's taken extremely seriously because he left his family and went to Saudi Arabia
to spend the next couple of months. Happened on Friday, and the fight
was then postponed, and there was a lot of questions. You know,
there was a lot of you know, it's boxing, there's conspiracies, is
it real? Is he actually cut? Is he trying to get out of
the fight. I never bought any of that, and the expectation was the
fight would be rescheduled Turkey al Chik from Saudi Arabia, who obviously is the
person that's the point man on all this business over there. It runs the
ga that hands out all that money to put these events on. Then said,
because remember there was the possibility at one point where maybe they would keep
the show on and maybe Usik would fight against Philip Hurgovic anyway, who is
the IBF mandatory who was involved with the Saudi's as well, So that was
a possibility for a period of time. They had reached out to Hurgovic.
They had never made an offer, but they were just gauging the interest and
they were going to talk about it. In the end, the powers that
be decided, you know what, we want the big fight. We're not
doing any event on February seventeenth, So the entire event was postponed and they
were trying to figure out when it's going to be rescheduled. So Fury and
Turkey along in a separate location but on a like a box together. Edgis
Clean is the manager for Usik and Usk went on the MMA Hour, which
is the YouTube show that is hosted and run my former colleague in pal Ariol
Hawani, and it was like breaking news. Type of vine here. So
I got to give my boy Halwani credit for getting those guys all together,
because to corral a single one of them is not easy. To get all
four of them on your show at the same time, I know the effort
that that must have taken, so prompts to Ariel for that. But in
any event, on that show, Turkey announced and said that the fight would
be rescheduled for May eighteenth. So that is obviously, you know, like
you mentioned, it's not February seventeenth, it's now going to be in May.
You know. For in my opinion, seeing the nature of the wound,
you know, it seemed like that might be a little longer. First
of all, let's just digress for another couple of seconds. Is that ji
Opataia sparring with him? What do we know? There's no circulation? Okay,
so doesn't look like it was in that video. I can tell you
if you really want to know who the opponent is from what I am told
by the folks that are involved, is a Croatian professional boxer named Agron sam
Eci Smack Easy, who is twenty. He wins two losses, eighteen knockouts,
and I guess he's a guy that he and I looked up his record.
He's got some experience against some notable guys and you know, you know,
he's like thirty three years old, not a big name in terms of
what he's done in terms of wins in apro crew, but that's a good
record. And I guess that was one of the guys that they brought in
to be mister furious Farring partner. Okay, I am confused though about where
the wound is. And now I'm fair enough, I know my fucking right
for my left, I know fair enough a couple more points on this,
and then we're going to move along because they have his I just wonder,
and I did not see the conversation, and of course I would not expect,
with all the money that's being thrown about, for this to go on
the record, and you know, to have Usik and have plemus upset on
this point. I wonder how much Usik wanted to go ahead and fight on
February seventeenth, and maybe you know this answer just for the concern, and
I think it's legitimate that we come around to May and something else happens and
he doesn't have a fire because he was training, obviously preparing, and Hergovic
made comments on the record that he was willing to try from what you know,
how much were they saying, can we not go ahead just just because
there's concern he might not fight in May? And there was a lot of
reasons why they probably didn't go ahead. Number one, you're this close.
You know, Hrgovic's a live dog in that fight. He could win the
fight. I mean, but I mean he's a top professional. He's undefeated,
Olympic medalist, massive amateur background, big strong guy, got some solid
wins anyway, So I don't they never really got to the like actual down
to the dirty, like are we gonna do this? It was something they
thought about. I guess they assessed the cut. They made a decision,
for good or for worse, that they're gonna be able to go forward in
May. And you know, noaen Usik's you know, sort of like his
the way he's carried himself. He does he wants the big fight. I
mean, he was talking about doing undisputed back when he was a cruiserweight,
when he was an amateur turning pro. We wanted to be undisputed heavyweight and
cruiserweight champion and you're one step way. All all it can do is cause
problems. We saw what happened with the Naganu near disaster. There was zero
reason to fuck with this. I mean, these are not young fighters.
If they have another three months except I won't go along with the zero.
I won't go along with zero. The one thing is is he's had to
wait and wait and wait. He had to fight Duoa last summer, he
had to wait this fall. He's having to wait again. And if we
all I'm saying on the record as we sit here on February the fourth,
if we get around to May and Tyson Fury pulls something else, I'm gonna
be the biggest I told you so on all of this stuff about you were
within the two week period to maybe make a fight that with the guy that
was going to be ready, a guy that you might eventually have to fight
anyway, Well, hold on, there's nobody said that he was going to
be ready. Remember this guy hasn't been in the gym for a while.
He fought in December. It was not so when I read a comment where
he said I want to I want to do it, which would imply he
wanted to because he was going to get paid lovely for doing h but this
is not I mean, all due respect to my may and Philip Pergovitch,
just ain't the Philip Pergovitch show. This is the Tyson Curry Alexander Us show.
I agree. So I'm glad they didn't schedule an interim fight. I'm
glad they've decided to move forward with the fight that is what matters, and
hopefully that will take place. I mean, listen, I know people want
to get all over Fury, and I've got my own Fury for reasons that
are worthy also, but I don't believe this was something that was pre planned,
ordained or anything. As a matter of fact, Agus Kleimus came out
and made some really unprofessional and quite disgusting remarks about Fury and his wife and
trying to do this get out of it on purpose, and Fury confronted him
on this interview with Holwani and then really went after him. And you know,
Aggus really was wrong in what he said. So you can you know,
two things can be read at the same time. You can you can
hate on Fury and you could say a lot of negative things about him,
but I don't believe that this was somehow on purpose that he decided two weeks
before the biggest fight of his life, for the massive amount of money he
was about to make, that he suddenly, you know, decided to do
like a wwe in slice is you know, his face open, you know,
and in the comments that eggis made, we're on call for I totally
understand the frustration on his behalf and on his client's behalf, but it was
still a low class from Egus to do that. And you know again,
when the fight comes a round, it'll just add another layer to the build
up and too the story of we go into the fight. Okay, so
there is everything on that all of it is postponed, by the way,
what our thing? Yeah, according to Fury, he needed eleven stitches to
close the wound. But if you listen to others that were around and Bob
with Frank Warren and the thirty six, it read six, no eleven stitches,
they claim. Some others say it needed about fifteen or sixteen stitches in
places where it says I mean if it's fifteen, that I mean. And
we saw what looked like that cut when we were doing the bet Us show
in that picture. That looks like a nasty cut that would require twelve fifteen,
so I'm not a plastic surgeon. It's bad. It's got to be
a concern from the Valleen fight because it was horrific in the Valen fight.
With that, now that we've covered all of that, let's get into the
recap mode. Pretty entertaining, especially the final few rounds of the fight on
Saturday on Sky Sports Fine Time in England, Saturday afternoon in the US on
Peacock the Boxer Promotion's main event. Joshua Buazzi deserves a lot of credit.
Fight was probably gonna go either way from about the seventh round on, and
he just out fought Dan a Z's. I thought Azi's got tired some,
but I mean Buwazzi outfought him jab right hand, behind it combinations. He
was better. He gets the decision some craziness in the eleventh round with two
sort of knockdown slips that were both scored knockdowns by the referee. I want
you to get into all of that recap it as Buwazzi gets a large win
for him in the light heavyweight picture. Yeah, most definitely very big win
for him because it puts him now in the mandatory position for the WBA title.
So he's sitting there in position to fight whoever is the holder of the
WBA title, be it Dimitri Biebel or possibly Arthur Better be of you know,
given what will occur, hopefully in their unification fight. He also,
for good measure, won the British and Commonwealth titles that dan Azi's had.
They sparred a million rounds together. They have really when the fight ended,
I mean, and by the way, they didn't it didn't show up in
the fight because they were fighting their rear ends off, trying to get the
other guy out of there. H And as soon as the fight was over,
you know, they did win. Fighters often do. They hugged Boatza
game a little kiss on the forehead. They did the joint interview together,
you know, when he tried when the Peacock or the sky channel, they
tried to do the interview just with uh with Botzi. Later on, you
know, he pulled Diz's back into the into the picture. They just showed
a tremendous amount of class and he actually said BOATSI, you know, the
only I didn't really, you know, I kind of feel bad about taking
his titles, meaning the British and the Commonwealth. He goes. The only
thing I wanted was the number one spot you know in the WBA, which
is what he got, which is what puts him in the position for a
world title, which is obviously a bigger deal probably to him than becoming the
British and the Commonwealth champion. But yeah, they fought it. That was
a terrific fight. I mean, I always say this every time we talk
about this, First and foremost, if you spent your time, where you
spent your money, if you went to the Wembley Arena, you got your
times worth, you got your money's because it was a very good fight.
It won't be the fight of the year anything like that, but a highly
entertaining, high skill level, good action, you know, some back and
forth. You know, it always felt to me like Batzi was in control
and was always winning the fight, but you could kind of never really count
Assease out. He was always right there, maybe just a slip behind.
But you know, even if you were scoring most of the rounds in favor
of Buazzi, which he deserved, each of those rounds were competitive within those
three minutes. But it was it was a really good matchup. You know,
that's the first loss for his ease, and Biatzi moves on to a
much bigger situation in terms of that craziness you mentioned Maut round eleven. First
of all, even without the knockdowns, Biwatzi still was going to win the
fight. That was not a surprise. You know. It was like an
eight to four, nine to three kind of fight where maybe there was another
round or so that could have been, you know, gone the other way.
But the knockdowns obviously sealed the deal. But like you said, they
were messy. I mean, there were punches thrown and perhaps landed, and
that's always the main thing when you call a knockdown, but there's also common
sense because the punches that landed didn't seem on either occasion that would have been
knockdown punches considering the type of punches that he'd already taken into fight. And
he slipped on the wet canvas in the middle of the and I thought,
I thought, on the first knockdown it was immediate with punch and slip,
but on the second one, I don't even know that a punch really landed,
and he slipped with both feet like yeah, like he was on the
logo and slipped with both feet, and it was right at the bell at
the end of the eleventh. My view was this. My view is that
that on looking look, first of all, the referees got to do it
in real time. It's hard. I grant that. To me, I
felt like watching the replays, they were both slips. If he had called
the first one a knockdown, okay, because it was simultaneous to like a
combination sort of landing, but not a devastating combination, but nonetheless punches being
thrown and landed. The second one was a little bit more, you know,
clear in my mind that it wasn't an actual punch. So at the
best case scenario, it's called the slip twice. The worst case there is
what happened, which is the referee called both knockdowns. Maybe it would have
been fair if one was called the knockdown and one was called something. In
the end, whether there was two knockdowns or zero knockdowns, Watsie still is
the winner of the fight. So the good thing is it did not impact
the result of the match. And the other thing is he knew I'm losing
the eleventh. He knew it had been called the first one a knockdown.
Now you basically know you've got to have a knockout in the twelve no matter
what. And he went for it. He went, and he tried,
and I thought he was tired. I thought he was tired from the tenth
round on. And Biwatzi deserves again the most credit for that, so he
gets the win. By the way, it's the kind of loss for disease
that's not going to really damage his career. I mean, it was a
tremendous fight. He battled, you know, competitively with Buazzi, and this
is the exact kind of thing in boxing that should happen more often, which
is you look at that fight, you see that he took that kind of
loss. It literally should not impact him other than the fact that he's not
getting the world title opportunity with the WBA in his next fight. But it
should have no bearing on any fan or promoter or television or broadcast outlet to
impact whether they would want to see him, would be willing to put him
back on stilling to pay him a good amount of money. There's no reason
I should have a negative impact on his career because he's still one of the
top light heavyweights out there. He's still going to make an entertaining fight.
There's still good opponents out there for him to match up with, and so
you know, you just you take the loss and you take a little rest
and then you get back in there. I don't think it's going to have
any long term impact on and the negativity towards his career. And for Josh
Guazzi, he goes on and move to the next level. Good for him,
all right, And then we'll recap a whole feature fight here and again
Taya Fimo Lopez coming up with Dan here in a bid here on the podcast.
One more thing on that main event. There, good trainer matchup because
he had two of the best guys in the business. He had Buddy mcgert
my man in the corner with Dan a Z's he had the great Virgil Hunter
in the corner with Batzi. And so when you'd see those that caliber of
great trainers matching up, that always makes sort of adds another layer of entrigue
either way. Watching live on Peacock and on on Sky Sports, Buddy McGirt
was like the running play by play commentary of what he wanted Azaz to do
you could hear everything. You gotta get inside, Dan, you gotta step
it up, you gotta move inside. You gotta throw the left. You
were hearing all of it. You were hearing the soundtrack. Well that's only
because Buddy's got much He's a much more loud person in general that Virgil is
much more mild mattered. So you were hearing a lot of that, all
right. So let's get to the co feature, which is a win for
Adam a Zem. I keep joking with you not to be confused with Dan
a Z's on the same way. You're the only one that confuses that.
Nobody else does a Zeem and Asease, Yeah, it can be. There's
an az involved in both of them, all right, a really big black
man. The other is a much smaller I understand stature wise, and looks
I'm talking about on paper? What does the name look like? And can
you screw both of those up and come up with a Dan Azeem or an
Adam a Ease You can't, but I did not. All right, So
Adam a Zeem victorious. But there's also an injury to the opponent. That's
part of how he got the ko. I guess his shoulder dislocated as part
of the knockdown as well. Explain a little more here as we wrapped that
part up, Well, you said exactly the shoulder dislocated. I mean it
was up until that moment. This is a fight that was maybe a little
more tactical than Azem typically is involved in. I don't think that was because
of him. I think that was because of the you know, the the
defensive minded nature of Pulson, Enoch Pulsen, who was the opponent. But
that's good for a younger fighter like that to have to see a different kind
of style. So he had to kind of pick his way through the fight
and jab a little bit and box a little bit more, which he is
definitely capable of doing. You know, normally when an adam azine fight ends
by a knockout, it's usually a big knockdown or a big punch. That
wasn't the case here. He was in control of the fight. He had
won all the rounds on the scorecard. He was pitching a shutout up until
the time when the stoppage occurred. And basically what happened was he got Enoch
Pulsen, who throws a punch with his right hand and at Land sort of
grazed off of Adam Azine's arm and he immediately spun around and sank down to
his knees with a dislocated shoulder, and he took the count from the referee.
So it goes as a knockout. And as it turns out, it
was the same situation that had occurred when Pulsen was any previous European title fight,
where the shoulder was dislocated three times, but it was put back in
he was able to continue and actually win the fight in this particular, since
that was not gonna happen, he had a he had a you know,
it was too bad for him to continue and so you know, as he
was on his way to the win obviously based at least on the first five
rounds uh, and he gets it with the knockout and now he'll move on.
Ben Shaloon from Boxer says they'll probably have him back in the ring sometime
in May. Uh. I'm assuming he'll make probably another defense, but they'll
look for like a bigger, bigger, bigger fish for him to fry.
But he's a he's a bright young fighter, and you know, in a
sport that craves stars and people that bring crowds and that make entertainment. You
know, Adam Azeem is checking all those boxes right now in in the very
early infancy of his career, because now he's eleven to zero and uh that
was a great uh uh test for him and in a very solid performance from
him on that undercard. I know, you know, as he said,
he didn't get the big knockout that he hoped to get. But in the
end you get the stoppage win and you retain the European title for the first
time and you move on. And I was if you're if you're, if
you're a boxer officionado of their shows, this was a good show. The
main event was terrific. Azeem looked good in that card. Some of the
other other undercards, you know, we're perfectly fine, but you know,
a nice show at the at the Wembley Arena. Okay. So simultaneous to
that card going on again eight time zones away in Las Vegas, the match
Rooms show where Connor Ben was headlining, was also taking place in the afternoon
US time, so it would be in primetime in the UK. And I
know you were more locked in on the ban fight. I saw you tweeting
it keeping up with it live. I was keeping up more with the Biwazi
fight. I can tell you I've read the recap. I've seen a couple
of the highlights. Connor band gets the win in the main event, but
he didn't get the knockout that you and I thought on the US show.
So give me your thoughts there on Ben's victory and what it means in the
context of him getting it done well. Just first and foremost. The reason
I was more locked in on that particular fight card is because I have to
approach it from I have to. I'm gonna write articles on these fights,
so I didn't want to skip back and forth. I want to lock in
on one so I can do my job, and because to me I wanted
to, I was gonna go with which everyone was first, and the Azine
fight was first to the ring, and so I focused on that and followed
by the main event. I'm sorry, the the Amma Williams fight on the
de Zonne card and then the then the Connor Ben fight. So I while
I was keeping what was sort of happening on the others, got the browsers
open for both on my computer, so I knew the results, but I
wasn't paying close attention to the boxer card told going back and watching after the
fact. Anyway, That's the reason I liked the Buwatzi and a Z's fight
and card better. But uh, you know, you have to make those
decisions because I know I've got work ahead of me, So that's why I
was locked in on that. But in terms of Connor Ben's performance, you
know, listen, people may not want to talk about it, but it's
not unreasonable for anybody out there to think that the incredible punching power that this
man showed in devastating knockouts against Chris Algery and Chris van Heerden and a couple
others earlier, and that power is not showing itself anymore. This is not
a coincidence. If you have been deemed to have used performance enhancing drugs,
however they got in your system, so that would be a logical conclusion for
one to make. I'm not making accusations. I don't want to get soothed.
But if somebody were to look at a Connor Ben spectacular knockout and then
not that long after the fact, see him land a bazillion punches on Peter
Dobson and before that in September against Ridolfo Arosco. Now, granted, those
are fights that were taking place at least at a little bit of a heavier
weight. The matchups I'm talking about were in the one to forty sevenund weight
class the previous two fights. Last fight against Rosco was one hundred and fifty
four pounds. This fight was contracted, so it's a little bit of a
difference. But you're fighting such a lower level of opposition, you know,
it stands to reason that maybe there's a problem there. Keep in mind,
Chris Algery got obliterated with one shot. This is a man in Chris Algery
who went the distance despite getting knocked down numerous times by Manny Pacia. And
no matter what the scenario is, I don't view Connor Ben as a better
puncher than any And clarify for me, was he wearing him down, hurting
him really at all? As the fight war on Dobson. Was he wearing
Dobson down or was Dobson there to survive and did survive? What would you
say? I mean, Dobson at times was in survival mode where he was
sort of covering up or grabbing on. To me, the biggest issue that
Peter Dobson had, well two things really won. He doesn't. He just
didn't throw enough and land enough punches. And too, he was extremely extremely
slow, which meant for anybody at a certain level, you're gonna be able
to tattoo him with the shots. Now, to Peter Dobson's credit, he
took a good shot. I mean, whatever you want to say about Connor
Ben's power or lack thereof, he took a lot of shots that landed precisely.
Now, whether those punches would have knocked out another opponent, you know
who the heck knows. But Dobson was not a top level opponent, very
clearly. Now, not a I wouldn't look at Peter Dopson. He's a
tomato can or anything like that. The guy, you know. He went
twelve rounds with Connor Ben, who landed a lot of punches, and Dobson
had a few moments, landed a couple of nice right hands, but just
not nearly enough or not nearly as often. And so it was a one
sided decision. The judges had it won eighteen to one ten on two score
cards. The third judge had a one nineteen to one nine, which is
how I scored the fight, which is eleven rounds to one, and there
really wasn't more than you know, you know, we talked about the range
of acceptable scores, like I don't know if you could like realistically give him
three rounds, two rounds. I get that one round that seemed perfectly fine,
a shutout. Maybe he had a good round in the fifth round,
but it was it was a one one sided fight, and it was a
placeholder fight because Ben and his team are looking for a big fight in the
UK. So he's now had the two sort of let's get back in the
ring fights while the you know, while we're licensed in the United States,
and the situation with the hearing plays out, which is supposed to be at
the end of the month where the British Board and the u COD folks bring
their appeal, and that's going to have the outcome of that hearing will have
a big bearing on whether he'll be able to fight in his home country.
Eddie Hearn spoke about it in the post fight that that that's what they want
to do and they have identified fighters such as whether they can make Gills or
not who that knows maybe try to put the U Bank fight back together,
Kel Brooke coming out of retirement, William Smith. Those are big names on
the British scene that would certainly sell out wherever they would put that fight would
be on pay per view obviously, And from Connor Ben's perspective, again,
whatever you think about him, you know, he made the point in the
pre fight and during in the post fight that the situation that's kind of hanging
over him with this this sort of weares on him. I mean mentally it's
challenging. I'm not saying you should feel sorry for him. I'm just stating
a fact that if it was you or me in that situation, it's going
to impact you. So maybe he wasn't one hundred percent focused on the fight
despite him saying he was, and an impacted his performance. That's also a
possibility. In the end, he did what he had to do. He
got to win. He's got twenty two rounds in the bank now since September,
which is a good thing if you're on his you know, if you're
in his camp, because he hadn't had a fight in seventeen months, that
can only help. And by the way, maybe because he didn't look so
great against either guy. It might actually convince one of the bigger names say
you know what, Yeah, I'll fight this guy he's not much and help
lure one of the bigger names into the into the fight. All I know
is this TJ. Whatever big name steps up to the plate to fight Connor
Ben, whether it's a UK fighter elsewhere, they're going to make a show
a little money because Connor Ben lovemore Hateham is going to bring a crowd and
audience, a lot of attention from the fans, a lot of attention from
the media, and it's going to make a big event. Now, I
don't agree with Eddie Hearn, who you know, is a promoter, so
he's doing his job. But he says that Ben versus u Bank is the
British fight in British boxing history. I mean that obviously is a bit of
a what fight he said. It's what he said, would be the biggest
fight in British boxing history if they get the match made. I'm sorry,
wasn't he saying that about Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury before that? Well,
that's the point. I mean, what about I mean, I don't I
don't view, I don't view controversus. You bank Junior as bigger than the
rematch between their dads, you know what I mean. But anyway, right,
it's so there's a little you know, there's exaggeration. I don't,
I don't. I don't knock any promoter for for doing that. I just
I just like to poke holes and laugh at it there. But it's still
a big fight though, so you know, Ben gets to win and uh,
not a particularly scintillating fight, not a particularly great performance, but he
did what he had to do and the questions are still out there and deservedly
so I repeat what we said more than a year ago. Uh. Because
I took clomid clomaphine as part of fertility. It is not something the male
body naturally makes. He still to this second, has not come up with
how did it get in your system? It doesn't accidentally get in your system.
You got to explain what were you doing? And so he's going to
have to do that coming up or I don't know. I don't know,
uh, I mean, and the only other thing just real quick and we'll
get to the rest of the card. Eddie Hearn implied before that they might
fight somewhere else that he and you Bank might fight somewhere else. Do you
see that as unrealistic to avoid the British Boxing Board of Control. Do you
see that as unrealistic? Just a quick answer, Well, whether he fights
you Bank or anybody else, it's certainly not unrealistic because he is licensed in
the United States and they could make it. You know, Eddie has involvement
with these events in Saudi Arabia, and it's a great, big world out
there. There's other places that might want to bring a sexy kind of fight
in and you know, so absolutely it's possible. I mean, you know,
one thing about it is when you think about big fights over the course
of history, like we all love to fan, you know, to you
know, build up and make the legend and talk about all the big things
like the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thriller in the mind and romanticize about
those exotic locations for these big time fights. Well, they only happen in
those places because of the money. The same reason why these fights today are
happening in Saudi Arabia are why a big fight would happen in some other sort
of non traditional fight location. That's the reason why Top rank did a series
of fights in Macau in China because there's money, and so if there's money
to be put up and they want to bring in a big fight like a
ben versus you make of course that could happen. All right, rest of
that card, and we'll get to Taya Femo Lopez and the conversation you had
with him, and then preview that fight a little bit here as the pod
goes along. Rest of the match Room show, including you mentioned Ammo Williams.
It was knockouts throughout that card. Give me, give me the quick
recaps. Yeah, I mean, Austin Williams is a good look in up
and coming middleweight. He's now sixteen and oh who has been with Mattroom from
the beginning That was he was one of the young prospects they signed out of
the amateur ranks. Kind of in the same timeframe they signed Williams, they
signed Diego Piccheco. They signed a few others, but so far the ones
that seemed to be panning out the best are Williams and Pacheco. But Williams,
I thought he looked really good. I mean he's now, like I
said, sixteen and oh with eleven knockouts. He's twenty seven, He's a
southpaw from Houston, Texas. He's ready to take on a bigger step up
in my opinion. He took on a fighter named Armel and Buba Yasa.
Now he was a late replacement for the injured Connor Coil, so he took
the fight on about a week or so notice. But he came in and
he looked like he was in great shape and had some you know, seemed
like he could fight a little bit. I mean, has some punching power.
Also a southbop and but but Williams looked good. He boxed, he
was aggressive, he really checked all the box I thought he looked great and
then looking great and then finishing it off the way he did just brought it
to a different level. He scored a sensational knockout on a straight left hand,
just knocked him out clean on the chin, dropped him, landed flat
on his back. His body was sort of like, you know, half
under the ring rope where his you know, his head and part of his
torso were sort of outside on the ring apron and the rest of the body
in. Referee didn't even bother to count. Harvey Dock just waved it off
without the count. So I thought it was a really impressive and explosive knockout.
And I think this guy's ready to to take a step up against you
know, not necessarily fighting for a title in the next fight, or maybe
even not even an eliminator, but some type of top ten type of opponent,
like a real fight where, you know, not not just a building
block fight. So look credit to him because you know he's been doing the
job. He looked good, like I said, and then that was That
was the co feature, and then just a word on the two. There
was a four fight card, so Ben with the way Ama Williams with that
knockout. I mentioned. There was two other fighters that were on the main
cart. There's the heavyweight Johnny Fisher from England who scored another knockout, a
sensational first round knockout against a ten and one opponent. Johnny Fisher is a
guy when he turned pro that was really with Mattrim because he was just a
very popular fighter in his home area and he sold the shitload of tickets.
He's getting to the point now, and Eddie Hern made this point on the
broadcast, and I tend to agree with him. Yeah, he's still a
great ticket seller, and he's still a great attraction for those people sold to
bring money and fans and put what they say and put bums and seats.
But he's developing now at his he's only twenty four years old. He's now
eleven and zero with ten knockouts, and so I think you have to at
this point, with the way he's winning against copt and if not not great
fighters, but like actual you know, professionals, you got to consider him
a prospect. May not be like the top fifteen of Rayfield's end of the
year list, but a prospect worth watching. A big, strong guy with
good power and a good personality and a big fan base. You want to
see more of them. So that was the opening fight in this or That
was the second of the of the two early fights on the main card.
The first one was an American light heavyweight who is still undefeated. Also he's
now eight oh to one. His name is Khalil Co, who was an
outstanding amateur. He ran into some problems in his life. He did some
time in jail, like a lot of fighters end up doing, unfortunately,
but he's had to turn the corner in the last few fights. He's got
four knockouts in a row now, but this was a fight on this card
where the true degenerates and people that really look at the at those types of
matchups saw him being matched very aggressively fighting a fighter named jan Harada Osuna from
Mexico at twenty three year old, who was coming into this fight. It
was twenty h and with eighteen knockouts, only twenty three years old, and
that was sort of like, wow, you're really putting him in there.
And to his credit, co was managed by Keith Conley, and when I
was talking to Keith Conley on another matter, I asked him about this fight
and he's like, look, my guy really wanted this fight, so you
know, we gave him the fight, and he went in there and he
just didn't win. He made you we're talking put it like this. If
he had just won a just a regular old stoppage, or he had just
won a decision, we would not be speaking about him on this podcast,
I promise you that right. But because of the way he did, he's
now creating some excitement. He'll get some word of mouth. We're talking about
it. I'm sure there's others that will mention here talking about he looked absolutely
sensational. I have watched every one of his professional fights on before the double
cards and that kind of stuff. This was his first time being on the
main card on his own, and I guarantee you he is going to be
back on the main card because Eddie Hearn, who loves knockouts, is going
to want to put the kid back on. He looks sensational. He scored
three knockdowns, all with body shots. Was absolutely a beast against against this
opponent and just battered him to the body and just destroyed him in two rounds.
Really really outstanding performance. And you know, again a light heavyweight to
keep an eye on. We talked about that division. There's so much big
news going on at the top of the division with Bibel and better BV and
you know, we saw what happened with Biwatsi and ass well, this is
a guy that is not at that level just yet, but at his age
twenty seven, he ain't that far away if he can keep busy and stay
out of trouble and continue to do with the work. All good stuff there
at the recap mode and now we're looking ahead in the preview mode. Tea
Femo Lopez fighting this Thursday in Las Vegas defending his LINEAL and WBO Junior welterweight
belts, and Dan Rayfield spoke with him in advance a fight week. Let's
get to that conversation right now. Well, it's my honor to welcome back
to the podcast for another appearance. It's got a big fight coming up.
It is none other than the junior welterweight Champion of the World LINEAL and WBO
T Femo Lopez. T Femo, thank you very much for doing this.
Appreciate it. Thank you, Dan. It's always a pleasure man, and
I appreciate the interview and taking time out today. You bet anytime. So
we'll tell the people you have your first title defense of the title you've won
in a second way class. He'll take on a Jermaine Ortiz February eighth,
live on ESPN at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, one of my personal
favorite venues to see a fight at. And I'm interested in one of the
things about this fight that somewhat intriguing. I had the same sort of conversation
back when Shaquor Stevenson was fighting on a Thursday night before a big event in
Las Vegas. He fought for a lightweight title on the on the couple of
days before the big Formula One race in Las Vegas. You're now in a
similar scenario where you're on the Thursday night in Vegas at a great arena,
just a few days before the biggest event in the sports world, the super
Bowl. Give me your thoughts about being in that position be a lot of
like casual sports fans were casual boxing fans who were there for the Super Bowl
in town looking for things to do, maybe turn out and come and see
you fight on the Thursday night. Tell me your thoughts on fighting on that
date in that city with that event. Well, Dan, I know right,
tell me about it. Well, super fight. I can also,
like I said, you know, I want to thank Vegas. I want
to thank Las Vegas, Nevada for giving me the opportunity. I want to
thank top Rank and Bob Aaram and Todd to buff I also want to thank,
you know, ESPN for the beautiful platform. It's all about the kids
at the end of it all, and just giving the fans what they want.
The best sportings platform in my eyes, you know, that's ESPN.
So when it comes to it, Manley Bay, I really want to thank
them for having to be hosted there at the michelob Ultra Arena, which so
much history behind it. So many great fights have happened in that arena,
and so many things have happened just along the Mandela Bay alone, you know,
from champions to champions, I mean upsets, people losing their lineal world
title from winning their lineal world title. I mean, so much history behind
it. And then what better way on Super Bowl Week, you know,
I mean where it's the the whole world is going to be there. I
mean they already just announced it just right now. I think there's three hundred
and thirty eight thousand football fans and to be in Las Vegas going to be
big. It's gonna be huge. And what better way than to have the
greatest show man right here at Tea f malopas entertainer. The tank over and
it's great to be back, you know, I think I graduated from Heisman
Night and now when the NFL league from college to the pro. So before
we get into your fight with Ortiz, because I haven't talked to you since
before this fight, you look so great when you won the title against Josh
Taylor in June. It was a real outstanding performance. You won the title
in the same ring at the theater in Madison Square Garden where you suffered your
first and only lost when you lost a lightweight title. So I was thinking
about that aspect of that fight, besides just the performance. And you know,
I wonder do you. I mean, I know you have the big,
huge win against Lomachenko where you unified all the titles in the lightweight division,
but it seems to me that that was your best performance and one of
you and probably your second biggest win, if not biggest, because so many
people doubted you going into Taylor. Do you think that that Taylor fight was
your biggest win? And if so, why and or why not? I
believe every kind of fight that I go to, it only gets bigger,
you know, so absolutely, especially this fight alone where Jamaine Artis is going
to be a big fight for me. But going back to your question about
Josh Taylor, Yeah, absolutely, I believe that was my best performance that
I've seen myself in my whole career, you know, despite the beating Limatanko
for undisputed you know, at that time, So you know, just for
those things, you know, especially in twenty twenty when me and Loma Fa
it was so quiet, there was no audience, you know, and me,
I'm someone that and I'm sure himself. You know, it's like,
what would have happened if there was an audience there that night, you know,
who would have started off their gears faster and or whatnot. So that
that's in the past now. But when we think about Josh Taylor, Yeah,
so many people rip me off. I mean, it was pretty much
a unanimous decision that I was going to lose that night, and I'm just
thankful for the way I planted the seeds to have it that way. You
know, I pretty much I should be an actor, man, because I
pretended like I was going out going off the rails again, and that's the
way I do it now, you know. I just you never know what
you're gonna get from me, especially on fight week, so I go off
with the media. Well, I mean, listen, I've I've dealt with
a lot of fighters that have used the media as a way to motivate themselves,
perhaps or perhaps as a chip if they were being picked against. But
in the aftermath of that, you know, really outstanding victory and performance that
you had that we just talked about the best of your career, you thought,
and I thought, then you know, asked the retirement. So I
know that obviously that didn't stick and I don't think anybody believed it at all
for even two seconds. But was what was in your mind? I saw
some of your comments that say you were just sort of like pretending and trying
to, you know, get some attention and fake people out and everything.
It sure didn't seem that way. But can you just just run through exactly
what your thoughts were about that. I know you were going through some stuff
in your personal life at that time. What was the deal with the five
second retirement? No, my whole thing with the whole retirement situation. I
think there was also a loophole. I know that the Top Ring wanted me
to come back in December, and you know, I already have fought three
times in the nick of ten months, and I didn't really get to spend
time with my son, you know, I mean as part of sacrifices that
we make as champions and as fighters. However, you know I missed his
first steps, I miss his him crawling, I missed his a lot of
moments that I that I really wanted to be there for him, so personally
I did it for my own, my own, my own think of being
a father. Well, I'll interrupt you for a quick sec because you could
have done all that, and that's beautiful stuff, because I mean as a
father myself, No, you could have just taken the time off, couln't
you. I know I couldn't have. I'm at a point now in the
pinnacle of my career where I have to think strategically through my career, whether
I retire after or tease. So be it. You know, it's just
just like stuff that I have to do to maneuver from loopholes so that I
don't have these fighters or you know, I wouldn't say Poco would do it.
However, I just can't trust nobody when it comes to business because they
say it's business, not arsenal. So they can say I have a mandatory
and I have to succeed that mandatory within these months and then I have to
fight in December. If I say no to that, then maybe they'll take
my belt away, Brunal, They'll take my belt away and stuff like that,
and then there goes my my reign of champions. So you mentioned though,
yeah, you mentioned how you top rank was talking about maybe doing a
fight in December on why I guess what would have been the Heisman night back
in New York against Jose Ranires was the opponent that was being discussed, who
was a former champion himself, So that didn't happen, and then he was
offered to you as your opponent for this date in February. You're fighting Ortiz,
but Ramirez was the guy gets the top rank made a handsome offer to
I'm told more than two million dollars to fight to plus yep, I'll comeback
fight for good money if he lost the fight. He turned that down.
Do you feel like that he was just sort of ducking you? I want
to say, Doug, he just said that he wasn't ready in time for
the fight. You know, that's not my fault. You know, a
true champion stays ready, you know, doesn't get ready on when they get
the call, you know. And I actually been training since August, so
I took about six weeks out after Taylor and I celebrated my win with him
and everything, and then after that I just started saying I said let me
get back in the gym. You know. I started off slowly in August
and ever since then. I mean we're in January now, mid January,
almost at the end of January. I've basically be in camp for like almost
six months already, you know. So it's been a long time and it's
a long time coming. I knew that I wasn't done with the sport.
I just needed some time off mentally, physically, spiritually from just the sport
itself, and also to let my wife, which is boxing, you know,
let her feel all these other fighters out and let her choose who she
wants back. You know, if I'm always in the mix, she may
not know who she needs back in the game. And it showed, you
know, And also it showed, you know, I thought of a bigger
picture. You know. I love Madison Square Garden. It's always my home.
You know. I fought there nine times. I like you said,
I've won my titles, lost my titles, and won them back again,
you know. So I have a lot of great history in New York.
However, you know, I'm thinking about a bigger, greater scale for me,
you know, and that's Super Bowl stuff, Like this is the biggest,
huge. This is like the most This is the biggest, the biggest.
It's like ginormous event in sporting events in Las Vegas and it's hosted here
for Super Bowl. I mean, this is bigger than Formula one. Formula
one. Yeah, Formula one was more europe than it was American. This
is everybody knows. Everybody knows NFL football is America's number one sport. Yeah,
no doubt about it. And uh, I know that one of the
other fights, when when it was being discussed of what your schedule would be,
like, who you would fight in your first fight back in this year.
I know that Bob, you know, from Top Rank, he had
meetings with Oscar de la Hoya from Golden Boy. They were discussing the prospect
of maybe you and Ryan Garcia, which is a huge fight. No offense
to Jamaine Ortiz or even to Jose Rimers, but obviously that's a much bigger
fight given the names involved. But between yourself and Garcia U and then sort
of nothing really ever came of that. Was that a fight that you were
interested in? I mean, you've got Ortiz now, but what happened there
in your mind? I think that it was just miscommunication. I think managers,
I think people like Middleman just trying to come involved in trying to get
their hands in something that that they shouldn't get themselves involved in, you know,
whether it was on one side, my side, or their side.
I think that this is just something that needs to be handled through the promoter
themselves and the fighter, not the not the managers. I think the managers
need to step aside and let the let the fighters and promoters deal with that
stuff. Well. However, however, you know, it doesn't work that
way sometimes, and it happened the way it did for those reasons. You
know, maybe it wasn't the right time. And you know, whether that
comes back around later later down this year or next year, whatever it comes
next, you know, then that's something that we could talk about again.
But in the meanstimes, my main focus is Jermaine Ortiz. Now, Jermaine
Ortiz, he had, I mean, you have the win over Lomachenko,
which was obviously a very big victory and a big fight for the sport.
He didn't beat Lomachenko, but he certainly gave him one of the toughest test
he's ever had, which is probably one of the main reasons why he's getting
the opportunity to fight you. He didn't win a fight since then. What
do you think about him? His performance against Loma and now he's moving up
to fight you for your title? Well, no, you know this is
great. I'm always about fighting the best and competitive fighters and challengers. I
mean, me and Jermaine Ortiz have history between each other from nine years ago
in twenty fifteen and the National Golden Gloves in the finals. Everybody knows the
National Golden Gloves is not something that's light. It's very hard to compete in.
You're fighting five days straight, so you're fighting one time every day for
five days straight. So you know, for him to even make it to
the finals that year in twenty fifteen, I know, I'm up against somebody
that's definitely competitive, has the skill sets to handle himself. And then look,
he faced the City Limitchanko. But you know, I heard some reports
and it's a true report that he had prior to that, has sparted with
Loma for months prior to that, So I think that Jermaine already knew what
kind of style Loma was to give him when they face each other, and
he performed the way he did, maybe with just because of confidence. But
see, the thing is different now. You know I faced Loma when he
was in his prime. You know, number one pounds for pound, even
in your eyes, you have number one pounds pound one of the best fighters,
untouchable over Canelo, over Prawford. So when it came to it,
you know, these guys are facing somebody that I took. I took the
heart out of it, you know. So I'm not really overlooking him at
all. I don't ever overlook any fighter, you know. I think a
lot of people are thinking that I'm taking or tease lightly. But it's okay,
I don't think that at all. I don't think that at all.
No, No, I'm not saying you. I'm just saying the other ones
of casuals that maybe not understand the depths of boxing like you understand the study
of boxing. I mean, this is what you've done. You covered boxing
for longer than my life. Sold twenty six, you know, it's not
that far off. I'm going into your twenty four, so it's close,
okay, So imagine that though, So imagine that though you've seen a lot
those twenty four years, you know, and it's like You've seen and covered
a lot of great champions, real champions. You know, this day and
the era, this modern day era of boxing is a bit different. You
know, it's a bit more. You know, it's a it's a slap
to the boxing world. But going back to it, you know, I
just great guy, great fighter. We try to fight everybody else. We
try to get everybody. When I didn't have a contract in front of me,
we try to put Sabrill Matias in the mix. He said he had
a hand injury, whatever the case would be. We try to give these
guys opportunities to face us. You know, don't call me out if you're
not ready. It's pretty much what I say. And because I'm that type
of person, will step and have my team send you a contract. And
no one stepped up to the plate. But the moment that we signed our
deal with Shamyn Ortiz, how many people called me out. Well, let
me ask you about the the Jermaine Ortiz part of it. Though you mentioned
about that twenty fifteen National goal gloves final. First of all, do you
remember the I know you know you fought him, obviously, do you remember
the actual bout? And I've seen the these types of matchups in the past,
where you've got fighters that have amateur experience against each other, you know,
and maybe even a big spot, and you know, it's not necessarily
the same thing happens in the pro meeting, but it always lends itself to
a storyline going into the fight. So what do you remember about that matchup?
And do you think there's anything at all whatsoever that can be gleaned from
you or from him as you go into a professional match that has any bearing
whatsoever? What will happen on February eighth. To be honest, like,
I'm not gonna say much, but all I can say is that his style
hasn't changed. It's been the same since twenty fifteen. My style has definitely
changed because I look to challenge myself, challenge my skills, challenge my IQ,
and challenge my when I train. I'm gonna be honest, Dan,
When I train for these fighters, I train on how to beat myself because
I know that's their main focus. The main focus is trying to throw over
and rights. Their main focus is trying to pressure or box try it a
wait for me to come in. I mean, I know their game plans,
not much that you can do. At that moment when I think about
all those things and I focus on it, I have my trainer, Trainer
of the Year that Eddie Fletcherward in twenty twenty two, if you will open
Senior. So you know, we study these things and we've been watching film.
I you know, the only reason why you've seen that type of performance
with Josh Taylor is because that was the first guy I actually started watching film
and studying. So I'm only going to get better from this point oh forward,
because we're watching NonStop every night after midnight, We're watching and sitting down.
Sometimes I even fall asleep watching Jamina T's just just because of the fact
that I'm studying him that much. It's not falling because he's not exciting,
right, No, No, I'm just not exciting, Yeah, for sure,
you know, and I'm not you know, so all those things,
you know, comes to play. I know this kid has a lot to
gain rather than lose. But that amateur fight, that amateur fight than you
think, has had nothing to do with anything going on on the eighth.
It's a lot different, man, I'm a lot different, you know.
When we face each other, I was seventeen. I mean I'm twenty six.
Now I'm starting to get my man strength, you know what I'm saying,
And same as him. You know, he's just coming up to the
one forty division. He had a rough, rugged fight against Moran, but
he still prevailed and came on top. So obviously he has a he has
a bit of flame in his heart, and it's all about that night.
Who has more about champion's heart? Now, I know obviously that this is
the fight in front of you, but I've also seen your comments about Terrence
Crawford, and certainly it is not out of the realm for the guy who's
the junior welterweight world champion to meet the guy who is the welterweight champion.
It has happened a million times in boxing, and obviously, well, I
mean it's obvious. It's not like you're calling out the guy that's the light
heavyweight champion or you know, a guy that's the featherweight champion. It's one
division. They're trying to make it that, they trying to make it seem
that way. Well, let me see that guy this straight. You were
lightweight champion, he was lightweight champion. You are the junior welterweight champion.
He was the junior welterweight champion and now he's the welterweight champion. So it's
it seems to make sense to me. But I wonder what put that germ
in your mind? Do you think it's possible? I mean, I saw
you know that back and forth. Guy is I'll be honest, is the
only guy that gets me going yeah, yeah, like not not? Why
he they have their own agenda with him. It's not Ryan Garcia, it's
not Devin Haney, It's Terrace Crawford. Because that's the macdaddy of all these
other fighters, you know, it's that that's the macdaddy. You know if
these guys chaquor all these guys look up to him like that's their macdaddy.
And I always like that, you know. I always like facing the guy
that everybody looks up to the most. And that's just who I've always been.
You know, you think he's the best, Okay, great, I
know I'm the best. He thinks he's the best. You know, But
Bob called me yesterday told me, just you know, focus on this fight
we'll get with Jamina Tis. There's no point in expressing more about Crawford until
this fight, you know. And and I totally understand, and I take
his advice, and and I told Bob, you know, hey, I'm
only coming back just so that so that you can have you can have a
bit of say so coming back into this, you know, with with with
just his fighter. So we're gonna get to see more of you this year
then, I mean, you got this coming up, I mean the Crawford
fight. Who knows, there's other champions in the weight class. If you
decided you want to pursue a unifier you mentioned about Garcia. Are we gonna
get to see you more than just a one time this year? You think?
Oh yeah, most definitely. I mean, listen, you gotta think
about it. I mean, I thought three times in ten months I needed
some time to relax and rest my body. At the same time, now
that I have all this recovery, recovery and all this time to within myself,
to know myself and thyself, I've come to realization, you know,
three to four times it is only gonna make me better, you know,
So I look forward at least minimum is three times you'll see me four times
if I even even if I got to do a one off outside of top
rank just to do like an exhibition or something. I'll take that chance,
you know, and give top rank percentage from that. You know. I'm
just I'm at that point now where I'm in a great position. All I
can say, I really am Dan. It takes a lot of It took
a lot of time. However, with all these other stablemates of top rank
losing and looking the way they do, it only makes me greater. And
what I do on February eighth is only gonna make it best. So you
got I'm gonna wrap up with this te female. You have the fight on
the super Bowl week, and you sound very excited and am thup for that.
Look, the people are gonna hear the video or hear the audio,
but I see you smiling and flexing those muscles of yours. I saw the
recent video the Top Rank did that they did with you. They put on
their social media about uh uh, you know, I'm a boxer and I
do this, and I'm a boxer I do It was absolutely hilarious and I
would encourage our listeners to go and search that out. But it was really
well done. But the point I'm making yours. You were very up Be.
You came across incredibly well. In that video, you seem like you're
very happy and in a good place right now. I know you've had other
stuff going on in your personal life and everything. Are you in a happy
place right now? To be honest, I am. You know, That's
what I needed. I think spending time quality time with my son. I
mean it's my first kid. You know, he owes my name Dan to
your female open is the fifth And for me it was more about like,
I want to reconnect with my childhood and that was my son and having that
moment just those six month month whether it was yeah, it was six months
of just spending time with him, getting to see him grow every day.
He brought light into my heart and that's really what made me happy. And
that piece, you know, outside of all the darkness that comes around and
in our sports and stuff that doesn't even matter, you know. So when
it came to it, yeah, you know, I'm in the very happiest.
I'm at my happiest place now because of that. You know, I'm
at my happiest because I know my son is okay, he's happy, We've
seeing his dad. He he loves me. He sees me as a as
his hero, and all I could do is and another thing, you know,
he knocked me out. You know, my son is he just turned
too. He knocked me out for the belts, so I got to defend
his championship belts. You know, come February eighth. You know, if
not, I got to go talk to the champ over there, he's gonna
have to talk to Daddy again. I hear that. Well. I can
just say that a happy Lopez who's active in bringing big fights and excitement is
a good thing for the sport, and I guess good for you also,
So I wish you good luck or Teaz, and I appreciate the time.
Likewise, Dan, thank you and to everyone listening. Yes, you guys
do not want to miss this fight February eighth at the middle of Ultra Arena
and Mandela Bay. It'll be live on ESPN and you can also see it
on ESPN Plus App and Sky Sports for everyone in the UK. You got
the promotion down, Pad, so good luck. And I don't even have
to say because you just let everybody know take over promotions, Yes, sir,
thank you very much. To Femo, you got it dead, good
stuff. With him, and again he comes off of one of the best
performances of his career, certainly the best performance since he beat Lomachenko to Femo
Lopez beating Josh Taylor. And now here we go with his title defense.
Super Bowl Mayhem coming this weekend, and this is right in Las Vegas,
this is right in the throes of it on Thursday night. Look forward to
that. We'll see what Jamaine Ortiz brings. We previewed it on the bet
Us Show. Just a couple of thoughts, a couple more thoughts and wrapping
it up well, I mean, anytime Tim Lopez gets in the ring,
you have to be interested and excited at anticipating it because he brings drama,
he brings charisma, he brings you know, a lot of conversation. He's
one of the best fighters in boxing. And then the reality is that he's
had his ups and downs. But when it's come to you know, I
mean, he's got the upset loss to Cambosa's that's never going to go away,
but he's got two humongous wins also to go along with that that you
know, are as good, if not better than anything that you know.
Cambos is beating him was, which is, like you said, the victory
over Lomachenko to unify titles in the lightweight division. And then you know,
as he said in the in the interview, which because I asked him about
this, I mean some people might view the Lomachenko victory as the best win.
I view that tailor fighter is the best. When he agreed with me,
because Taylor was undefeated, he was the underdog. You know, we
had known the kind of issues he had had prior to that, with with
with his own issues with the injury, and with all the stuff that happened
with cambosis, with his caught on camera self doubt after his very close and
and uh and uh, you know, I won't say disputed, but you
know, a much closer fight than anticipated against sand Or Martin. Uh and
for him to come in there and just shred Josh Taylor shows you what the
guy has made of. And uh, look, Jamaine Ortiz is no joke.
I mean he's a good fighter. Also, he gave Wimachenko a really
tough fight. Uh. They have, as we talked about, very much,
uh know each other from their experience of fighting each other at a high
level final in an amateur tournament for the Golden Gloves Championship, you know,
nine years ago, and uh, I think Jermaine Ortiz is gonna come to
fight. He knows what's that stake here. And for look, t Fimo,
it's not like he chose Ortiz. He was they were looking at doing
a Ryan Garcia five potentially, they were looking at doing a more and more
seriously a Jose Ramirez fight that was turned down. And so here you go,
Ti Fimo back in the back in the ring, uh, taking Las
Vegas by storm. And if he wins his fight, I mean, there's
so many other big possibilities out there for him. Uh it would be uh,
you know, just another another in a series of fights that just get
his hat. And if Dortiz wins, great upset, you know, against
the top fighter. I mean, I'm really looking forward to this one,
no doubt. All Right. Kishan Davis is the co feature fight against the
veteran Jose the Sniper Padraza. This will be a lightweight co feature fight there
from the Mandalay Bay, A quick foughd er two. We're looking for Keishawn
Davis to take big steps in twenty twenty four and leading to twenty twenty five.
Here we go with a step up in competition real quick. This is
the line of demarcation in Keishaw's career so far. He's done what you're supposed
to do as a young prospect, coming off you know, being a silver
medalist in the Olympics and being featured, you know, taking on you know,
good opponents for where you are in your career as a young fighter,
and guys with good records and you know, guys who've had experience. He's
fought guys that have fought for world titles that type of thing, or ben
highly ranked. But this is a different level because so he's done what he's
had to do in the first nine fights. Now you step up and you
fight. Well, actually it's actually ten fights because the last fight was a
no contest because he failed the drug test for a positive for marijuana, which
is still a band substance even if it's not you know, illegal in terms
of you know, private people using it for recreation in most places. So
he's got this will be his eleventh fight, and he's got the one no
contest that took place back in October. Anyway, Padraza, first of all,
Padraza has won world titles at one hundred and thirty one hundred and thirty
five pounds. He is a former Olympian, He's a veteran fighter. He
may not be what he was when he was at his best. I mean
that's you know, granted, but he's no joke either. He still can
handle himself. He still only loses to the very top guys when he has
lost. And the reality is this, He's also a bigger, a big
guy who's been used to fighting at one hundred and forty pounds for the last
few years. He's even had, you know, a fight that was over
one hundred and forty pounds. He's coming down to lightweight. We'll see how
that works out for him. That all said, I mean, the defensive
prowess, the speed, the youth, the energy, all the things that
you look for in a young fighter. Keishan Davis has that in spades compared
to where Padras in his career. You know, Padras I like to call
like he's the grizzle veteran. You know, he'll win some, he'll lose
some. He'll make sure you're in a fight. He's not going to go
out cheap. But you know, this should be a kind of fight that
Davis will win when you look back, you know, if someday he reaches
the promise that so many haffrom as being a world champion, of being a
pound for pound caliber talent. You'll let back at his records, you know
what, that was a good early career win where he beat a former champion.
You know, you can pick any young fighter. Go look at like
the careers of pick a guy Dale Hooyat Mayweather, any of the great amateurs
that came through. You'll see, you know, andre Ward had it.
I mean we can go through out chapter and verse of guys that had this
type of fight, you know, in that pre championship part of their career.
This is that type of fight for Keishan Davis. Right now, good
stuff on all of that. Let's quickly get to some news and some nostalgia
before we are done. So you were talking about the Saudi Entertainment Authority and
Turkey alask He confirm what you had been reporting. The light heavyweight undisputed world
title fight will be June first, and the undercard is gonna mix. What
else they were talking about with Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn right coming up.
Well, that's what Turkey said on that interview where they had Tyson Ferry with
the cut over his left eye, not his right eye, and he did
mention about that better bv and Bevall would be fighting on June first, which
I reported that like two weeks ago. I don't I don't think it's one
hundred percent signed yet. I don't think there's a problem. I had written
about the fact that the Bevoll has done that fight. Part of the their
sign on their end, it was that they were still working out some of
the particulars, you know, with the with the legal stuff and the paperwork
with top rank. There's no issue. I don't think there's any conflicts,
But it just that the Saudis are new to this and they have shown a
propensity in their brief period of time in boxing the highest level to sometimes get
a little bit fast and loose with their announcements. Now, I don't think
it's anything that they're doing on purposer in any kind of nefarious way. It
just maybe a little bit of a lack of experience within the sports legal parameters,
so they'll sometimes announce things before they're actually done, which they may learn
in the future is not the best way to approaching because they can sometimes cost
you more money or come back to bite you. Doesn't seem like they care
about the money necessarily, so whatever. In the end, Turkey announced the
fight was June one. I don't think it's one hundred percent paper yet,
but it will be and it probably will still be June one. The interesting
aspect that he brought up is though, when that fight is one hundred percent
sign sealed and delivered that When they were at the press conference to talk about
the Anthony Joshua Andeganu fight that was gonna take that's taking place in March,
one of the things that came up there besides that fight was the conversations that
took place between Turkey and Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren, you know, the
two British rival promoters, to do a card that features five of the Frank
Warren fighters taking on five of the Matchroom fighters in the same way. Class
it was. It was it sounded like at the time they would be separate
events. You'd have the Joshuan one, you'd have better be another card.
You'd have this so called five on five on another card. As it turns
out again. According to what he said during this interview with Ariel Hawani,
that it will actually be the five on five will be the undercard of better
be against People, which is, you know, going to add some interest
to that card also, So that was his announcement. We'll see it actually
comes to fast. But that's a pretty cool idea. They did shake hands
and say done, and so now let's see if it all does get done
for June the first. Okay, we bring this back up while we go
through the news. They're talking for whatever it's worth again after Ryan Garcia basically
walked away from the discussions with Devin Haney, and Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia
both confirmed that that Heny was like, he doesn't want to he doesn't want
that. Well, now they're talking again for April to twentieth. So on
the Rayfield met meter, how much should we pay attention to these discussions?
Is this a two? Is it a six? Is it an eight?
That this could actually happen and the discussions are back on, I'm gonna say
it's about I'll say it's like a seven point five, okay, And I
say that because of a couple of reasons. Number One, you have both
the promoters oscar And and Eddie both on the records saying we're talking and we're
trying to do the fight and when they want, when they're backing it,
then usually that can happen. They're also both on the same broadcaster with his
design, so there's no you know, funny business. You got to deal
with what you're dealing with, you know, another broadcaster, so you had
to bring a whole other group of executives into the conversation, so that's a
good thing. You also have the fact that Ryan Garcia had said they wanted
to fight Heiny went had a couple of jogging lessons I guess, or sessions
I should say, with Floyd Mayweather, and suddenly he then wants to fight
Floyd's fighter, Roly Ramiro for the WBA title. And in fairness to Floyd,
it would have made more of business sense to go get a title against
Roly and then have a unification against Devin to make it even bigger in terms
of your money, as opposed to just challenging in the first place for the
WBC tennel. But put that deside. That didn't happen because whatever the conversations
were about Roly versus Ryan Roy ended up taking an offer and doing this fight
that he's gonna have against Pitt pull Cruz. That's going to be the co
feature March thirtieth, when PBC and Amazon kickoff their agreement with their pay per
view headlined by the Tim Zoo fight. You know again, you know in
that that particular card against Keith thurmant So that meant Ryan Garcia now needs another
opponent and Devin he doesn't have a like logical opponent either right there, because
other guys are you know, Gervonta Davis has certainly not been calling his way
or anything like that, or the other guy either. You know. Golden
Boy had mentioned the possibility of Josey Ramirez against Ryan Garcia. I mean,
that'd be an okay fight, but it's certainly not as big of a deal
as a Devin Hainey fight, And it just seems like the stars aligned.
T Fimo Lopez is not available to fight either one of those guys in April
because he's fighting, you know, this coming week. Anyway, The point
is, if you want a big fight, there's only a small universe of
guys that qualify as a quote unquote big fight. Ryan Garcia challenging Devin Hainey
for his world title. That qualifies as a big fight, So it makes
logical sense. Now, it's one thing for Dezonne to want to do the
fight, it would obviously be pay per view. It's another thing for Golden
Boy and Natroom to be on the same page. The two fighters have definitely
said numerous times they want to fight each other. It's got that great history
as amateurs where they're three and three against each other. Well, what it
comes down to is what's the money. That's exactly what a good question.
That's like ninety nine point nine percent. And I said to you, just
knowing enough about sports and knowing enough about business. When Garcia walked away before,
it's got to be because the money's nowhere close to what he wants,
and maybe he's totally unrealistic for that fight, And maybe now he's being a
little more realistic because the options are limited that whatever it is they're offering is
now in the ballpark. I don't even think that that last negotiation got to
the point where they got down and dirty on the money. But now,
look, when you do a fight like this, you you work with your
own promoter and he doesn't have to worry about Eddie. Hearn just the same
way Devin, and he doesn't have to worry about Oscar. You work with
your promoter for whatever your guarantee is going to be that everybody can live with,
and then you go out there and you work your ass off to sell
pay per view and you make the best deal possible to get the most money
on the upside for the least amount of buys in terms of the threshold.
I mean, I don't know if people understand that. When people talk about
upside, that means, you know, let's just make up a deal.
I agree that we're going to pay you a million dollar guarantee, but you
can make you know, five dollars a buy above one hundred thousand buys.
That's how you make your real money. I mean, that's that's the way
it happens. I mean, so you know, if Oscar was fighting,
he would make a deal with his promoter, Bob Aram, and Bob would
guarantee him. I'm making it up ten million dollars, but you get eight
dollars a home over three hundred thousand. The fight goes out there and does
six hundred thousand, Well, if you do the math. What's six dollars?
What's eight dollars time six hundred thous you know, another three hundred thousand
buys or whatever the math was. You're making millions and millions of dollars more
on top of what your big guarante can lose me. But it's a lot
of money. It's a lot of money. So that's the point. They
got to figure out whatever the whatever the formula is to do that, and
that's that's what they're now going to be faced with in terms of agreeing with
that. But I do think on the Rayfield scale, I think this has
a pretty decent chance appen. Having spoken to both sides, it feels like
that's what they want to do. They got time to do it, and
let's get it on. It's a big fight and I'd love to see it.
I don't disagree. Two more quick items. One of them is a
current heavyweight. This was announced during the Boxer show. Fabia Wardley is going
to be back. Tell me more about about that. Go ahead, Well,
this is a good matchup that they announced during the boxer card. It's
a boxer promoted fight. It's the Fabia Wardley who people may remember. He
won to impressively on the day of Reckoning undercard and he's going to defend the
British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles against Fraser Clark, who's the bronze medalist from Team
Gray Britain, who has got a late start on his career because he turned
pro at a much later age. So even though he doesn't have a ton
of professional experience, it's kind of like Joe Joyce, you know, turn
pro, you know, already into his thirties or thereabouts late twenties. He's
only eight, No, but this is the fight that a lot of the
British fans have talked about. There was a movement to try to get it
done before, but they didn't. They walked away, you know, they
walked away from the deal. There was some nonsense going on between Wardley,
which promoter he was going to be with, which broadcaster. But now boxers
made this fight and that's going to be the main event on March thirty first.
It's a Sunday actually because I guess they got a banker holiday in England
that weekend, so they're people over there don't have to work on Monday,
they can come out to the show. It's going to be at the O
two Arena. It'll be on Peacock here in the United States. So that's
cool, little Sunday afternoon boxing action like it was when we were kids.
And you know, it's just a good heavyweight fight. And the heavyweights are
in the news and we got all these big heavyweight matchups that are taking place,
and this is like that next group coming behind them that will eventually fight
for titles as guys that come through fights like this. So you know,
it's a good matchup, you know, if you're into that all British heavyweight
stuff. They're both talented. Clark's got that great amateur background Wardley made.
You know, he's also got a good record seventeen you with sixteen knockouts.
He he had a very impressive knockout against David ad La again that was not
the Day of Reckoning card. Actually was on the Tyson Fury and Gondo undercard
in October. He knocked him out in the seventh round. That was one
of the main fights on that undercart and so good matchup and if you like
heavyweights, you know, you definitely want to check it out, all right,
And sadly after you and I put the podcast a bit because we're such
big fans of the Run one series. Yeah, go ahead, said the
other. I want to just mention one other heavyweight fight. As long as
we're talking heavyweights. The WBC ordered an eliminator fight for guys who a little
more advanced. That's another fight that fits in the bill of like not the
title fight, but guys who are coming along, and that's a good matchup.
Also, Frank Sanchez, undefeated Cuban who can sometimes be hit or miss
in terms of entertainment dialey, but he can definitely box and he can definitely
crack taken on in an eliminator fight. Your boy a g. Cabell.
It looks so impressive on the day of reckoning cart. Yeah. So you
know, Fraser Clark Favia Wordy, good heavyweight fight. Frank Sanchez versus a
Jeep Cavil, your boy if they can make that deal or I'll go to
a first bit. But that's a solid fight. So there you. Germany
Taba Yelp. I kept waiting for Tyson Fury to defend against Kaby Yell and
it didn't happen over the last two or three years. But we'll see what
happens in the in the Eliminator. Okay, so some more news that kind
of leads into nostalgia. After we put the podcast to Ben, and actually
even after we did the bet Us Live show, we learned of the death
of Carl Weathers, the actor that obviously it brought Apollo Creed to life in
the Rocky movies, passed away at the age of seventy six. Had been
ill, I guess for some time here. In the beginning of twenty twenty
four, Sylvester Stallone put out the video tribute Very Moving on Friday in front
of the painting the painting Dan at the end of Rocky three, that painting
from leroy Neieman hanging wherever it is in his home, et cetera. And
he did the video and again, I know you're as big a fan as
I am. I realize it's fictionalized. It's on the big screen, but
tens of millions, millions and millions, tens of millions of people gravitated to
those movies because of Stallone and Carl Weathers and the ying and yang of Rocky
and Apollo. I mean, he's one of the great actors of his time.
That sort of underrated, isn't we didn't win Academy Awards. I don't
even think he was nominated. But the guy appeared in some very big commercial
franchises, always made believable characters, did a great job Apollo to me as
of course, you know the quintessential character he played. But for others maybe
it's his character from was he in the Predator movies with Arnold? Was Dylan
as Dylan in the with the Cia That's Coming with Schwarzenegger's Dutch down to the
jungle of some foreign country to rescue some diplomats. He wasn't happy. Gilmour
my son knows him from being in The Mandalorian, that's right. I mean
he was in some big time you know popular. By the way, he
was a much better football player before he was an actor with the Oakland Raiders
back in the nineteen seventies playing for John Madden, and a lot of people
didn't know that or realize that. As his career marched on and he was
a musician, could play the piano, etc. I mean, a very
broad career, a very broad life for Carl Weathers. In your might.
He had been working as recently as last year on the Mandalorian episodes as part
of Disney Plus and playing one of the characters in that. But he was
the perfect foil for Rocky. So I think if you were excited about the
Rocky films, like you know, my favorite Rocky film is Rocky three,
where the enemy, if you will, the opponent, the bad guy so
to speak, was the clubb Lang, the mister t character Apollo, though
we got to know through the first two movies where he started out as like
the bad guy but became a guy you loved also as a character. And
part of that was a great acting from Carl Weathers. I mean, and
I've recited the scene a million times when it comes to Canelo when he was
talking about doing the b Ball Fighter any other rematch that you might think is
a bad idea for a guy, and Carl Weathers made that seem so real
when he's there with his trainer getting a low down on the opinions of his
team about should I pursue the rematch with Rocky and the and the trainer tells
him, you know, du yeah, Duke here, he's all wrong for
us. We don't need him in our life, baby, And and but
Apollo in that scene, you know, Carl Weather's acting. You know,
it has a tremendous uh screen presence. You know, you don't believe in
me, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, just just tremendous.
And by the way, you know, the writers of the film also made
it that way because of what they did by making him become the trainer for
Rocky. And you know, you owe me something, you know, you
got to give me a favor. I mean, the training scenes, there
is no tomorrow. There is no tomorrow rock He didn't call him Rocky,
he called him rock I mean, he just I don't know. I was
very sad to see that. He's just you know, I want to rewatch
the the first three movies now and for the first one right And as Stallone
said in his video tribute from the first time that he met Carl Weathers when
he walked in the he said, the room came alive with his life,
with his soul, with with what he had in him. And that's what
you saw come across on the big screen as Apollo creed so very neat the
relationship there. And we've now lived long enough Rayfield that those movies are going
on almost fifty years old. And again we now that have you got the
movies about about his characters, So that's right, and Michael B. Jordan
playing his son in the Creed series of movies. But it's amazing that when
we contemplate the Rocky movies were going on fifty years ago and forty five years
ago, we do have that to fall back on. But man, man,
it has been it has been a while. And of course Bert Young
had passed away as Paully last year, and you know, it's it's amazing.
It's amazing the history that still goes with those films, all right,
So that kind of segues to the nostalgia and then we've got to get out
of here. We've been going for a while. I know you have this
on the Rundown. Happy Birthday Oscar Dala hoolya fifty one years of age on
Sunday, the day that we're recording the podcast and releasing it Sunday night into
Monday. The Golden Boy is fifty one. Thoughts real quick on the iconic
career and he's still obviously heavily involved. We've been talking about him on this
podcast in the sport. Yeah, I mean Oscar has been retired now for
a long time, and though I don't think a lot of people really remember
his boxing career, they know him more from some of the stuff that goes
on in terms of his promotional career, which you know, sometimes Oscar a
little bit off the beaten trail with some of the things he says and does,
and I know he creates some controversy and all that. But you know,
I covered Oscar's career as an active top champion. I've known Oscar for
When I saw that he was fifty one, I realized I've known him for
almost half of his life. And you know, and it's not I mean,
I can't tell you I'm like Oscar's best friend, but I've been dealing
with Oscar on a regular basis on the phone and text messages in person when
he was doing when he was a boxer, as a promoter, you know,
just to talk to him on a personal level many many, many times.
So you know, you feel like you know a person to some degree.
Again, I'm not in his home or his family, but I know
him about as good as anybody in the boxing business. And I've always liked
Oscar. You know, We've had a couple of scrapes, like anything but
I think at Hardy's a good guy. He was a hell of a fighter.
I think he's dramatically underrated this stage of the game because a lot of
people they only think about what he's been doing and some of the moves they
may disagree with in terms of the way he's handled things in terms of being
a promoter. But as a boxer, Oscar got it. Oscar understood that,
as we talk about, activity was important, and he also understood that
to be active, you can't go for every dollar for every fight because you
have to if you're fighting certain fights, yes you can get huge money,
but if you're not fighting the huge fight, that money doesn't exist. So
you can't break your promoter's balls or the network's balls to get a fight for
an unreasonable amount of money. So he would go and he would have a
fight that was a worthwhile, big, mega fight, like he would fight
for example, I'll give you this is gonna Pearnel Whitaker was a huge fight
they had nineteen ninety seven, won that fight, won the welterweight title,
big pay per view fight, probably made around ten million dollars for that fight.
A lot of guys would be like, I'm on pay per view for
the rest of my career. Well, guess what Oscar del Lway did in
his next fight. He came back and fought on regular HBO on a top
rank card that HBO put on against David Camau and just a regular title defense.
Camao was a good contender, only had lost one fight in his career
to Chavez, and he fought come out on HBO and Oscar didn't get that
kind of money, but he still made millions of dollars and he still kept
his name out there and he still stayed active. And that was er.
He fought five times and when he was done with Camau, then he went
back on pay per view and he had a big, big fight with Hector
Camacho, made a ton of money in that fight, won easily, and
then came back again on pay per view, and then when that was over
with six months later, he was back on This is now with to nineteen
ninety. He's back on HBO in in a crappy mandatory where he still made
a ton of money but they didn't put it on paper, and he's fighting
Patrick sharp Entta. So he would shuffle back and forth at that time between
pay per view and HBO. He fights ike Quarte in a mega fight,
huge fight against ike Quarte. Next fight he's back on HBO against Obakar.
He's a solid quality contender, and then he fought the Trinidad fight. I'm
only making a point that a lot of boxers should follow that that instead of
the mentality that is so misguided. The thing just because I performed on a
big pay per view event, now I have to be a pay per view
every time. And Ryan Garcia as much conflict as there has been between Ryan
and Oscar. Ryan gets it because he would go and fight Tank Davis on
pay per view and do a huge amount of money and a huge amount of
business. And knew that when you come back and you fight Oscar Duarte,
you can't ask the fans to buy that on pay per view. It's a
solid fight, there's nothing wrong with it, but you're not gonna get a
massive amount of pay per view. So he still made millions of dollars for
that fight, and it was available on a non pay per view. Now,
if he goes back in the ring come April and it's against Devin Haney,
he's back on pay per view, because why that's a big time fight.
So Oscar understood it from the boxing perspective. In the ring where he
was a great champion, fought a lot of great fighters, won titles,
and what at the time was a record six weight divisions, has an Olympic
gold medal, one of the great amateur fighters in the United States history,
first ballot Hall of Famer, and fought one thing. And this is what
Oscar, He's been asked us. I've asked this whom I've heard others in
interview ask him, you know, what's the one thing about your career the
most proud of. It's not that they won the gold medal. It's not
that they won all these world titles. It's not that they made you know,
crazy nine figures amount of money. It's that nobody can ever look back
on my career and say he ducked this guy. He ducks that Oscar de
la Hoya win or lose, and he had some harsh losses and he had
some phenomenal wins. He fought everybody that mattered of his time. I mean,
and I will end that segment of this by just giving you a few
names the amount of champions they fought. Gennara Hernandez Julio Sesar Chavez twice and
Miguel Angel Gonzalez, Pernel Whittaker, Hector Camacho, Hi Corte, Obakar,
Felix Trinidad, Shane will twice, ar Turo Gotti Lineal Championship against Javier Castello
at one fifty four. Not a big name, but important. Fernando Vargas
unification fight. Felix Sterm to win a middle white belt, controversial as it
may be. Bass to step up and fight Bernard Hopkins, Ricardo Mayorga,
Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacio, Are you fucking kidding me? I know you've
detailed that before. You've detailed that before, and it's as impressive a list
in modern boxing of He was willing to fight everybody and understood that's where that's
where your lineage, that's where your legend is made by winning. By the
way, let me say one other thing about that. There's a lot of
fighters that have fought great fighters, but what separates Oscar from some of them
is that many of the great names and champions and fighters at Oscar fought.
He didn't fight them way way past their prime or at a time in which
it didn't make sense in terms of the competition. Yes, he fought some
older guys. Camacho was not at his best when they fought, for example,
but he fought Shane Mosley when he was in his prime. He fought
ike K at the top, He fought Felix Trinidad at the top, he
fought Vargas, you know, when he was still at near the top.
He fought a ton of guys that were still at their best. He fought
Manny Pacou, you know, when Pacio was an you know, just in
the in the absolute dead prime of what be what he became. H Floyd
Mayweather was still a great fighter when he fought Floyd. I mean, Bernard
Hopkins was ridiculously great at that time. I Mean the point is, you
know, for every every older fighter Oscar may have made a name against or
a smaller guy moving up, Oscar fought a ton of guys when they were
at their best, no doubt. One more nostalgia. Idem So hold on
happy birthday, Oscar Dela get the get the candles out fifty one for him.
One more bit of nostalgia. And that is February fifth of two thousand
and five, So that's nineteen years ago on Monday, zab Judah Cory Spinks
in Saint Louis speaks his hometown, and this is the rematch that they had
and zab Judah able to become undisputed. Tell me more about the nostalgia now
from nearly twenty years ago. Yeah, I mean, this was sort of
this is a fight that I think gets kind of forgotten about by some people.
And you know, Judah unfortunately has remembered more for some of his losses
than first than his wins. But this was a huge win for Remember if
you go back before this particular fight that he had against Spinx that he won,
they had had as you mentioned, this was the rematch of their first
fight, and in that first fight, Corey Spinks scored a competitive decision against
zab Juda in two thousand and four in a defense of the undisputed title.
Remember he had become the undisputed champion by a decision over Ricardo Mayorga. His
first defense of all of the belts came four months later against Judah. That
was at Mandelay Bay in Las Vegas. I was actually at their first fight,
and you know, Spinx won the fight. Two fights later they fought
in a rematch. This now was a main event on Showtime. Zab went
to Corey Spinks's hometown in Saint Louis and he put on a show and I
you know, the memory I have of that specifically was the the rapper bringing
Corey Spinks into the ring. That was so from now such a long ring
walk. Wasn't quite Prince nasimish, but it was up there. And then
Zab Judah knocked him out, and you know, and it was sort of
like you have the if you're gonna put on that kind of show coming to
the ring, you kind of want to back it up. But Zab Judah,
he just had a great night. Then now, you know, he
stopped him in the ninth round. I think if you look back at Zab's
career, I don't think there's any dispute that that's his biggest win, you
know, because he had some very very harsh losses. But look, Judah
looked great in that fight. He dropped Corey Spinks. Uh, you know
in the ninth round, Corey got up, but you know, Judah just
went right after him, kept hounding away, and you know, he won
and became the undisputed champion. And that was you know, again this is
during the time where you're talking about the three belt era that you needed to
become, at least in the minds of the media and the fans in the
public, to be the undisputed you only needed the three Yes, the w
you title existed, but nobody and I mean nobody considered it necessary to be
considered undisputed. Uh. And so after that win, Zabwanani made one defense
of all the belts and then suffered the humongous upset against Carlos Baldemir. But
that victory over Corey Spinks was a huge win, a big event at the
time. It drew like over twenty thousand. It was the biggest crowd ever
in that arena in what was called the Sabbath Center at the time in Saint
Louis. I mean, it's just a big deal and it's hard to believe
that it was that long ago. But that's an underrated win and actually the
kind of fight where if you're if you're newish to the sport and you followed,
like what's gone on in the welterweight division in the last you know,
a handful of years, or you watch some of the recent undisputed fights go
down It's definitely worth to go check that out. If you can find it
on your trust to YouTube channel, go look it up. We always love
the nostalgia. Boy, this has been a busy show, lots lots lots
of news. The recap mode Ta Fimo Lopez and again Ta Fimo and Jamaine
Ortiz will be Thursday night before you and I I are back here as part
of the preview pod for next weekend, so we'll see what happens with that
busy show. My friend, have a good week. I always love the
insight and everything that goes along with this was like a compo, the recap
and the preview podcast. Thank you, Dan rayfeel as always, Yes,
sir, we always thank you for listening. Make sure you're following subscribing as
part of the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. This is the Fight Preach You
Night recap podcast. Everybody, have a great week. We'll see what happens
with Taya Fimo Lopez's title fight. Reminder again, it's Thursday night of super
Bowl week and then we're back later in the week to talk about that and
preview the weekend and much more right here on this feed for Dan Rayfield,
I'm TJ. Reechs have a great week.