The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host, DJ Leaves. Well, we get ready for a
weekend that does have one fight card of interest primarily and that's going to be
in England. We're ready to preview Dalton Smith's main event on the Mattrium Desone
show. But we've got much bigger news involving the pay per view coming next
weekend from March thirtieth, Premiere Boxing Champions at Amazon Prime. We're ready to
talk about the new opponent for Tim Zoo and you'll hear Tim Zoo talking about
Sebastian Fondorra and how this all came about. Plus, Sansia Strada is also
on this podcast with Dan as she gets ready for an undisputed women's drawweight title
fight coming up not this coming weekend, but next weekend as well. Lots
to get to, including news and nostalgia. It is the Big Fight weekend
preview. I am the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves, he is our
insider. Hello, Dan Rayfield back for another whole home week. Nothing going
on including Canelo and Hami Mongia meeting the media and Canelo and Oscar having a
contest of who's not going to make eye contact with whom first? From that
press conference on Tuesday. How are you? I'm good besides boxing, I'm
ready to watch a little basketball baby college. Amen. March Madness already well
underway as we release this podcast. By the way, in the United States,
it's all these should be national holidays. I've said that for years.
I've said that to you on these podcasts. These Thursday and Friday, thirty
two games in two days, they should be holidays every year. But anyway,
we're into the hoops, We're into the boxing. Thank you for finding
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We preview going into the weekend Thursday nine into Friday, recap coming off the
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All right, A funny thing happened out of the way to Keith Thurman's first
fight in about two years and only his second fight in the last five years.
He's injured and so he's unable to fight with a bicep injury. As
it turns out, in training scramble mode for Premiere Boxing Champions And can I
say this to you as the lead in We're gonna hear from Tim Zoo about
it in a few moments. This is a better fight. This is a
better fight with Sebastiev Ondra. That's me saying that. All right, your
thoughts on everything that went down and now Fondora is the opponent. No,
I agree with you about that. I do find it to be a more
intriguing fight and it's nothing against Keith Thurman. I actually didn't think that was
like that. There were so many people that were so negative about them the
fight. I think the negativity was not about the matchup. I think the
negativity was more that it was on a seventy five dollars pay per view.
As I said all along, we can have our conversations about, you know,
being a pay per view. That's a different conversation in terms of the
matchup. I didn't have a problem with the Tim Zu matchup against Keith Thurman,
but I am more intrigued by the matchup against Fondora. And I know
there are those who are like, wow, he got knocked out in his
last fight, which is a while ago, when he got stopped, you
know, very shockingly against Brian Mendoza, a fight by the way, that
Vandora had won basically every single second, and he got caught. It happens.
But if we're going to be in the type of people that often say,
well, you shouldn't really just destroy a guy over one loss, this
is that exact the Zach moment to not do that. Yeah, he got
knocked out, Okay, he lived to fight another day. Not an entertaining
fighter. Is it something that an intriguing matchup. He's a natural one hundred
and fifty four pounder. He's not moving up away class like Thurman. He's
a younger guy, twenty six, not thirty five. He has been far
more active Keith Thurman. As we talked about massive inactivity. This would have
been his third fight in like, you know, seven years or something like
that. So I find it to be more intriguing. I find tim Zeus,
you know, the stones he has to take this kind of match on
twelve days notice, where not only it's hard enough as a boxer to change
the style of your opponent completely on short notice. So not only is he
switching from a five eight five nine tall Keith Thurman to a six foot six
Sebastian Fundora, the Towering Inferno, he's also switching to a left handed fighter
from a right handed fighter. Most boxers would have pause to make one of
those changes. He's doing both of them. And for those who say,
well, it's short notice for Ferndora also, I would say, yeah,
of course it is. But Fandora is in training. He's been on this
card all along. Remember he was originally supposed to fight Boachek for the vacant
WBC fifty four pound title. So he's been in camp. It's not like
he's suddenly brought in off the couch and he's going to be in the ring.
He's been in a full training camp also, and in my opinion,
besides the fact that it's a better fight in the ring, more interesting to
me for the reasons we just discussed, the stakes are higher. When he
was going to fight against Tim Zuo against Thurman, it was one hundred and
fifty five pound non title fight because and I agreed with this assessment, the
WBO had declined to sanction it as a world title fight. Zoo of course
has the WBO title, but because of Thurman's inactivity, because of the fact
that he was moving up and weight, because he wasn't a ranked by the
WBA, all those factors, they're like, we'll give you the permission to
take the non title fight. Obviously, if he lost, he would lose
the title, but it wasn't going to count as a title defense. Now
he's fighting an actual one hundred and fifty four pounder that's been active and is
you know, in the rankings, and is young and all that. So
now not only is a WBO title defense for Tim Zoo. They bring along
the vacant title that Vendora was supposed to fight for in the first place,
so it's for a unification fight. Yeah, So he goes from a non
title to a unification in you know, twenty four hours. And for those
concerned about Boachek, he stays on the card. He'll fight Brian Mendoza,
who is the guy that Tim Zu beat in his last fight, who knocked
out Fondor, but he's gonna come back from that, and they'll fight for
the WBC interim title at one hundred and fifty four pounds. That'll be on
the free part of the of the prime video before the pay per view,
along with the previously announced fight between Elijah Garci and Cayron Davis. And they
took the Julio Cesar Martinez fight, his Flyway title defense against Cordova, which
if you remember, was postponed from December when it was supposed to be on
the final showtime card, but there was a visa problem and so it got
delayed. So they've taken that fight from the freeview and they've moved it onto
the pay per view. The bottom line is the fights are intact. Boachek
is not being a grief. He's still fighting for a belt. I'm sure
he's still getting his purse. Fondora is gonna make a lot more money.
It's a unification fight. Now we think it's a better matchup. Blah blah
blah blah blah. So again, you can inquire all you want about the
pay per view aspect of the fight, fine, But in terms of an
event, as something I'm interested in as a fan, we got a bunch
of good fights. Zoo Fondora is a good fight, Roly Romero Pittbull Cruise
is an interesting fight, Lara Zarafa blah blah blah. Forget about that.
Martinez Cordova nice fight. And the free fights between Garcia Davis and Boachick Mendoza.
They're free and those are good matchups also, So I'm in all right.
And again this is making lemonade out of a lemon here, which twel
days to go, and we got a pretty good batch of lemonade. It's
sweet, it's got some sugar. So I want to add to the discussion.
But why wait, Because when all of this went down earlier this week,
you were on a media call with Tim Zoo hastily called media call.
I'll explain that a little bit. How that happens. So, I mean
you suddenly got notification, Hey we're going to make Tim available, right and
we're about to hear from him, But go ahead explain it. So when
the change happened on when he found out Sunday night that that that there was
the possibility or the probability that Keith was going to be out because it wasn't
one hundred percent. He was going to see the doctor on Monday, which
is apparently what happened. He had an MRI and he was ruled out of
the fight. At that point, they brought in Fundorra and you know worked
everything out. It was, you know, complicated, but not that complicated
when you think about it, but it takes time. I mean it's a
fluid situation, got a lot of people you got to do with. So
he was ready, willing and able to go. And when they finally made
that announcement official later in the day on Monday, that that was in fact
what was happening. His promoter from Australia, No Limit Boxing, I got
a notification that Tim was going to be available on a zoom call for a
little bit and it was at ten o'clock at night Eastern time. I would
getting I was getting my time zones all mixed up. He's training in Las
Vegas, so it was seven o'clock Pacific time, but it was really geared
towards the Australian media, where obviously he's got a a big following in a
lot of fans, and where they're talking about like noon the next day in
Australia exactly. So when I saw that, so I jumped. I got
on the call a couple of minutes late, but I had the opportunity on
that Zoom call, and I've now interviewed him, you know a few times,
so I had a chance to ask him a few questions. So we're
going to now play for our listeners the segment of that The Zoom calling lasted
maybe about I don't even think it lasted. It's probably like fifteen eighteen minutes,
but I have about a two or three minutes where I got a chance
to ask him some questions. So we're going to play that part where I
asked him to about the specifics of the switch. Just i'd like to hear
your just your general reaction to when and when you were told that Thurman was
going to be out and what your reaction was to that in making this change
like it was. Of course, it's a shock at first, but it's
happened a couple of times. From me said, it's not something that I
wouldn't say. I'm used to it. It's happened a couple of times.
Obviously disappointed a first because your hole preparation, You're focusing on this one block,
one stall and it's just to switch sets. Must shift has fuck?
My shift has changed? Sms cout over the pic show I'm onto fundor Now
when did you find out about his situation last night? So that would have
been Sunday night in Vegas. Yeah, And the other the other question is
this. You know, I looked at this and I'm like, wow,
you know, got to give Zoo a lot of credit because not only is
he switching opponents on twelve days notice in a very important fight, but he's
switching from a guy that's like five nine to a guy that's six' six.
And he's switching from a as you were just talking about, switching south
you know, from a right handed fighter to a SOUTHBA, which do you
think is more complicated switching to a guy that's that much taller, or switching
to a guy that is now a left instead of the right you were prepping
for. And why probably the high Yeah, because you come up against Southwest
before, but to come up against the South without tool, it's not very
known, especially in the one fifty four count division, you know. So
I think that's the biggest challenge that that have been in front of me,
just the talls. And did you have any hesitation whatsoever when the replacements were
offered? No, I'm not furman and only two three days to be able
to analyze it was done like that, they told me, Fandora. Since
yes, done, all right. I thank you, Tim, I wish
you good luck, appreciate it. I love the fact that he is saying
this and he said it to the media, and here it is that he
wanted this to continue on and he even said I think this is fascinating.
Two that in working with Brian Mendoza, he was even working against a Southpaw
fighter previously, and he has worked against Southpaw fighters that it doesn't bother him.
It does not. He was not going to let that stand in the
way of postpone. This. He understands there's a lot riding on not just
this fight, but if he wins this fight. And we'll get to that
in a second, but I think he should be credited again because there are
guys that would have said I'm not fighting a six foot six, dangerous left
handed guy on twelve days notice. No, thank you, Tim zu didn't
say that. Listen. Tim Zuo is quickly becoming one of my favorite fighters
for that reason. One he'll he literally by his actions is showing you'll fight
anybody. Remember he signed to fight Charlot, He's taken Fondora on twelve days
notice and switching to a bigger guy who's left handed. He's fought whoever they've
asked him to fight. He's been ready, willing and able. He's excited
about the possibility to fight if he wins. They've made Terrence Crawford the WBO
mandatory challenger or maybe the WBC which organization, so there's a possibility that that
might happen next. That's a great matchup, I mean, probably the best
fight that that Crawford could have within one hundred and fifty four. That's a
huge, huge interest fight, especially in Australia. To have Crawford be the
opponent for Tim Zu Yeah, I mean he's got to be first obviously,
But anyway, as far as the actions that Tim Zoo was taking the combination
of a very crowd pleasing, entertaining style and that sort of audacious attitude where
he's like, I'm fighting anybody and he's going to make the most and he's
been We've talked about a million times. He's active. You know, he's
fought. Uh he fought in a twelve month period between April of last year
and April of this year. I take the back, between April of twenty
twenty two and April of twenty twenty three, he fought three times. Now,
he has been off for a little while, but not too long because
he he's just going through the you know, through the guys that they're playing.
Take that back. He fought three times in twenty twenty three and he's
coming back in quick order. What I meant to say, he fought in
October was his last fight with men yep. So he's staying active. So
this will actually be you know, his fourth fight in the span of twelve
months, which is a glorious thing because he has been able to fight in
Australia obviously now he's fighting basing himself in America. So, like I said,
the style of boxing is exciting and entertaining. The attitude is he got
he got bit by a dog and had surgery and stuff fun. How do
you not love the guy? It was gnarly. It was gnarley for sure
on that. All right, So a lot of stuff there on that.
A lot of things got settled over the last couple of days. And here
you are cutting edge on the big Fight Weekend preview. You heard from Tim
Zoo himself about that that Fight Week next week main event coming Saturday night,
the thirtieth. We look forward and out of that fight card, which is
Zoo and Fundora again, we'll get to Sanissa Estrada and her undisputed women's trawweight
unification fight. She talked with Dan about that, her career, et cetera.
We'll get to that conversation in a few moments. First, the most
prominent fight card for the weekend is the match Room Desne show with junior welterweight
contender Dalton Smith on the rise against veteran Jose Zepeida. How many times have
we talked about Zappeieda in this role. He's been passed around in this role,
like the offering played at church, my friend. That's the main event
for Saturday in Sheffield, England, on a card that also has a women's
world welterweight title fight and Campbell Hatton, the son of Ricky Hatton. So
give me a little more in the preview mode because it is a preview podcast
about that coming Saturday. Well, he asked about Zappeida, you know,
kind of being around and fighting this guy and fighting that guy. But this
is this is like, by one hundredfold, the most significant fight that Dulta
Smith will have taken on because it's the first, Like I don't mean this
as a negative towards his past opponents, but the first like quote unquote real
guy, if that makes sense if you're in boxing, Parlan's a real guy,
like an experienced world class level guy, to coin a phrase from the
Brits, a solid operator, if you will, fought for world titles.
You know, even when he's lost, he's generally been competitive. Dalton Smith
is an interesting character because he's twenty seven, so he's not like a young
young guy. But he's only got fifteen pro fights, but he's been considered
one of the best younger fighters, are up and coming fighters in England for
quite some time. Fight in front of the hometown in Sheffield, and this
is an opportunity against you know, like I said, a good name,
a guy that's been in world title fights, to really you know, stamp
himself not only on the British stage of the European stage, but to make
a point that I can hang with good guys who were at a world class
stage also. So this is this is his opportunity against that against that kind
of opponent. So he's fifteen to ohero with eleven knockouts. A couple of
years ago, I did have him on my top Prospects list at the end
of the year that I like to talk about. I've been watching him for
quite a while. He's looked good. He's been beating the guys they put
in front of him, not like the superstars. But he's done what he's
supposed to do. He's won the British title, you know, he's won
the Commonwealth title and now he's going into a bigger level fight. So this
is for one of the regional titles of the WBC and in Zappeida, you
know, he's a little long in the tooth. Maybe he's a South bost
so that's a different look for him. He's coming off of an absolutely wipeout,
shutout decision that took place in September against the excellent up and comer,
also undefeated Richardson Hitchins, the New Yorker. That was a complete and complete
wipeout. But that's a totally The style that Hitchins fights in is one hundred
and eighty degrees from the kind of style that Dalton Smith fights, and he's
a pure boxer. Hitchins very fast, different kind of situation. So while
I don't expect Dalton Smith to you know, win the fight one hundred and
twenty tw one hundred and eight, you know, it's it should be a
little bit more of a test. But that the style matchup for Supada and
Hitchins was just brutal. And remember we know jose Sepeta from that WBC vacant
title fight with Reachi's Progray back in November of twenty twenty two, where he
landed some shots on Progray, but Progray eventually wore him down and stopped him.
So we know this name, and you're right, it's the biggest name
by far for Dalton Smith. Yeah, no, that was it. Look
the performance against Pro Gray, that was it was a worthy fight. It
was a good you know, the scoring was you know, Regis was winning
the fight and he did end up getting the knockout. But it was not
like a bad it was a good fight. It was competitive round a round
and he got the win. And after that fight, Zepeta did come back
in Mexico and score a victory. But you know, he's been around for
a while, He's fought, you know, he's scored the upset against Joswae
Vargas, went to his hometown to knocked him on in the first round.
You know, he's beaten. You know, Ivan baranchik as a former world
title holder. You know he's been in the ring with a victory against Jose
Padraza, who's only lost to pretty much the best guys. He lost a
majority decision. By the way, that was for a world title. That
was very very close, and you know, some people would thought that he
won the fight when he challenged Josey Ramirez back in twenty nineteen. I mean,
this is a guy that's been in with everybody and so it's a great
test for Dalton Smith, who was a good looking up and coming fighter.
All right, on that undercard again, Sandy Ryan and Terry Harper battle for
Ryan's WBO welterweight championship. Tell me a little more about this one. I
mean, we look forward to handicapping in on the US Boxing show as well
the Dalton Smith main event in this women's world title fight. Give me a
little more on this one. Match Rooms Saturday afternoon in England. Yeah,
Terry Harper is she's a woman that has jumped around from different weight classes.
I mean, when you go back and take a look at her record,
she won her first world title when she was the only person to have or
I take that back, she won a title at one hundred thirty pounds.
Her one loss came against Alisha Bombgardner, who went on to become the undisputed
champion. But then when she was done at one hundred and thirty, she
didn't just jump up from thirty to lightweight to junior welterway, she went right
to junior middleweight and ended up winning a world title in that weight class.
And then she had in her last fight a draw against the great Cecilia Brekhu's
who was going to be a first BOTT Hall of Famer, who was the
forever reigning welterweight undisputed women's champion that took place back in October. But now
instead of staying in one hundred and fifty four pound weight class, she's dropping
down and wait to challenge Sandy Ryan in this women's welterweight title fight. And
it's you know, it's an all British kind of fight. Sandy does not
have as many professional fights. He's only got seven fights going into the or
eight fights going into this. She's six wins, one lost, one draw.
Women's boxing they move much quicker because there's not there's not a huge universe
of other women to fight. But on paper anyway, it does shape up
like a pretty good fight. Sandy Ryan's coming off. So you got Harper
coming off the draw against the City of brec who's which is nothing to be
shamed about in that kind of result, and you have Sandy Ryan. She's
coming off of a somewhat disputed draw against Jessica mcasko that was in September when
they were in the fight for the welterweight belts that were at stake in that
fight, and so you know, it shapes up as a co feature on
this card if you like, if you follow these two women. They one
thing about Terry Harper, she usually makes a very good fight. That's the
one thing. She's an action kind of fighter. And so you know,
I'm not like, I'm not like overwhelmed by it. It's like I'm like,
oh my god, I must see this. But you know, it's
not a bad fight. I mean, if you like those weight classes,
if you like women's boxing, it's definitely the two of the better women out
there, you know, doing their thing, and it's kind of a rivalry
fight, so it should be it should be pretty solid. And I was
just thinking this when you were saying this. We talk about these women's championship
fights over and over and over again. We cover the sport every which direction
men women. Very rarely is there a dull or bad women's fight. Almost
all of them have some action to some degree, and some more than others.
Who knows what we're gonna get out of this one. But you don't
see stink bombs. We've seen plenty of stink bombs already in the start of
twenty twenty four on the men's side. You rarely see a women's title fight
be a stink one. And the story of Terry Harper's is like it can
only happen in boxing. She was like a waitress, you know, serving
beers and fishing chips or whatever, and then she started the box and she
ends up, you know, winning a world championship kind of out of nowhere.
I mean, she did have the one knockout loss to Bomb Gardner,
but she's rebounded well from that. She's won three in a row. She
got the dry in the last fight, and she's making money, and she's
putting on good fights, and she's bringing in fans. And you know,
Sandy Ryan doesn't have that the number of fights that she has, but she's
kind of, you know, doing her thing. Also, she's been fighting
you know, good quality opponents. And this is just another example we talked
about all the time. In women's boxing, getting the best women to fight
the other best women is way easier than it is in men's boxing for various
reasons, and this is that kind of fight. One of the biggest reasons.
That's where the money is. Campbell Hatton also, as I made mention
on the Rise, also a junior Welter Waite has the name. Is this
James Flint gonna even be a test here or are we too early in the
test phase for Campbell Hatton here? I think this is actually a step up
for the types of opponents that Campbell has been fighting when he turned professional.
He's, of course the son of the great Ricky Hatten Hall of Famer,
and when he turned pro, Like a lot of sons of fighters, or
in the case of like a Leay Lally, the daughter of a fighter,
they start out and it's the attention they receive is strictly based on the name
value of their parent, whether it's Juliossar, Chad As Junior, Shane Mosley,
you know Junior. Obviously Campbell hadn't. I mean, we can go
there's a there's a ton of them over the years. So when I first
saw Campbell had I'm like, this kid is terrible. He literally can't fight
at all, Like, I don't know what is up with this. He
couldn't throw a punch the right way. Not trained by Ricky, trained by
his uncle Matthew, who was a longtime professional. But again they turned pro
at a young age. You got to give him time to develop. So
I didn't like, you know, rip him or write you know, bad
things about him, like okay, let's see what he can do. And
he's he's winning, but it's like, dude, what is you just?
You're not good? I mean, what are we going to turn the corner?
I have to be honest. He's starting to turn the corner and I'm
glad to see it. So he's looked pretty decent. He still doesn't have
a ton of knockouts, not a lot of punching power. Five knockouts and
fourteen wins, but he's got no losses and I think this is now it's
his first time he's going to be fighting for any kind of title, and
in Britain it's like a big deal when you fight for the lesser, like
before you even get to the British title, you might fight for like the
Southern Area title. He's fighting for the Central Area title in the one hundred
and forty pound way class. And James Flint, who is his opponent,
who's thirteen one and two. I can't tell you he's a world class level
fighter because he's probably not. But again, this is the level that he's
at where it is considered a step up for him as well as probably for
James Flint, and they're gonna see, you know, if Math, if
not Matthew, if Campbell can win his first belt, because you know,
James Flint goes into this fight as the guy that has that Central Area title
and again a work in progress, and see if he can continue to develop,
and if he can, obviously because of his last name and the passion
that the fans have had for his father for all those years, you know,
maybe he can do something. One thing I always try to remember,
Campbell haddn't had basically very very little, if any, amateur background, and
he's only twenty three years old. He's being molded from scratch, so he's
basically in the early professional fights. It is his amateur career. So I
give him the benefit of the doubt, and I'm actually interested because I do
think that this matchup is a step up for him. Okay, again,
that's the match room. Deszone shows Saturday afternoon US time will handicap those fights
as we release this podcast coming up on Friday at one Eastern time on the
bet US TV platforms, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, everywhere. We look
forward to those without further delay. As we progress on our preview. She
is in the top rank ESPN main event on the undercard of Oscar Valdez and
Liam Wilson that is coming next Friday night, the twenty ninth of March,
Snissa Strada and Jocasta Vallet for the women's strawweight Unified World Championships. You don't
have to wait till next week to hear from Sinnisastrata. You can hear from
her right now. It's my pleasure to be joined on the podcast this week
by none other than the Unified Women's strawweight Champion, minimum weight champion, however
you want to call it, Sonise estradas you have a very big fight coming
up and were heard to talk all about it. First of all, welcome
to the show. Thank you so much for joining me, Thank you for
having me. It's my pleasure. So we'll tell the folks. You are
gonna defend your two titles and go after the other two titles to try to
become the undisputed champion in your way class against Jocasta Vaye. She's the IBF
and WBO champion. You are the WBC and the WBA champion. You're going
to take each other on ESPN Plus at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendell,
Arizona, March twenty ninth. Heck of a fight, heck of a card.
Actually, we're gonna get to that. But first of all, just
I know that anytime a champion is wins a title and then they get to
unify, I've heard a million times in my career it's always I want to
be undisputed. So now you're on the doorstep, just just give me your
general thoughts about just being so close to what the ultimate goal is for every
boxer. Yeah, a disputers is something I've been wanting for a long time
now, and I feel like it's long overdue. You know, I'm on
the top five pound for poundless and I and everyone who's ahead of me is
undisputed. So I just feel like it's it's been long overdue for me to
become undisputed. So I'm excited that it's finally happening, happening. It's a
fight that I've been wanting to make for a couple of years now, so
I'm happy that it's happening now it didn't happen before because now it's such a
better time. The women's boxing as far as exposure and people being more interested
in women's boxing. So when you started your professional career in twenty eleven,
could you have imagined that a you'd be a pro for thirteen years, that
you'd be the unified champion and you'd be about to fight for the undisputed title.
I mean, that was not the sort of thing in women's boxing back
then. It has evolved so much over the last decade or so, So
am I crazy to think that that couldn't have possibly been in your mind back
in those days? You know, it was in my mind, but it
was very discouraging because at times it felt like it was never going to happen,
Like Jesus, like, wow, I've been a professional for so long
now, and yeah, I felt like it was never gonna happen. And
women's boxing it felt like at times it wasn't going to go anywhere. And
I mean I wasn't even a fan of women's boxing honestly, because there was
no entertaining or skilled fighters. So I kind of I felt like, man,
like, if I'm not even a fan of women's boxing, how the
hell do we expect men to become a fan of women's boxing. So there
was a moments that were very, very difficult and very discouraging, but I
kept going. I don't know how about how I kept going, but I
did, and I'm glad. I'm glad I kept going in and didn't stop.
So it has been a remarkable evolution. As I said in that side
of boxing, women compared to men. You know, as I have read,
you started boxing as an amateur, you know, when you're eight years
old, when you first picked up your gloves. At that time, like
you said, women's boxing was not it was a thing, I guess,
but there was no big rivalries, no you know, super fights. There
were some great women boxers, but they weren't having the kind of competition that
uh the top fighters enjoy today. So I wonder when you were growing up
with with the boxers that you looked up to. I mean, maybe there
was men's boxes that you admired, but were there any women that you were
fans over, that you a fan over, that you looked up to?
You know, I didn't growing up when I first started boxing, and all
three they all through the amateurs, there wasn't really any women to look up
to who were in the professionals. You know, my dad told me about
Christy Martin, so we would watch her fights and I thought she was awesome,
and Leila Ali as well. But besides, besides that, there just
there wasn't many, nothing that was consistent. When I first started boxing,
women's boxing was kind of dead for a whole more than a decade. Yeah,
So I looked up to fighters like sugar At Leonard for Berto Durant because
that was my dad's favorite fighter, Roy Jones Junior. So I kind of
I kind of grew up just watching watching men's boxing. And I remember,
uh, sitting on the couch with my dad when I was seven years old,
right before I started boxing, and I said, Dad, do girls
box? And he said, oh, yeah, they do, but there's
just not that many. So I had no clue that there was even a
such thing as women's boxing. All I knew was that I wanted to do
it even if there wasn't. Seems to be a pretty good choice. Now
you're going to do this big fight with VA, and it's it's obvious from
hearing you women speak and and and the way things have gone in the build
up and even before the fight was officially made, you two women just do
not care for each other. Obviously, I don't think that's any big breaking
news, but I wonder what's the basis for the bad feelings, because it's
not like like I don't know that you had any kind of like scuffle or
there's been a beef before. I don't even know other than a press conference,
even do you even know each other or met each other? No,
you know, the I think it all started and it became personal for me
with her was because the whole lead up to this fight, she was always
in every interview, also tweeting that I was scared and then I'm ducking and
that she's trying to make the fight happen, which was always completely false because
there was only effort from my side to make the fight happen leading up to
this fight. So that's that, And of course you know, it's no
secret I'm Goldenberg Promotions is my expomoter, and they signed her because of me.
But it was bad timing that I we parted ways and now you know
they still signed her. But it's just a yeah, it's just a build
up to a lot of things, you know. And March twenty ninth,
I'm just excited to go in there and just show that show who really deserves
to be the underspitted champion. So you just mentioned about how you had parted
with Golden Boy. You ended up sitting out most of twenty twenty two after
you split with them, and you signed with Top Rank, But you're off
for about a year, and I just wonder what was the you know,
and this will be your fourth fight since you've been with Top Rank. I
just wonder what was it that happened with the way. It seemed like it
ended on a pretty bad way. Uh. Yeah, So I wanted more
money, and that's something that they were not willing to do. They didn't
even want to budge budget, not even a dollar more, right, And
you know, my trainer always told me, he's like, yeah, when
I first signed Golden Way, He's like, great, you know, we're
I'm happy that we signed with Golden More Promotions and you have a promoter and
you're going to be able to fight consistently, But the problems aren't going to
stop here. You know. He warned me about it because he's been in
he's been in the boxing game for it well now almost thirty years. So
he warned me about it. And he said even even times where I was
unhappy with what I was being paid. He said, you know, one
day you're going to have to say no. He's like, I'm not going
to tell you when, but whenever you feel like saying no, then I'm
with you. So yeah, that that that that time, that point came
where I said, no, you know, I can't. I can't do
it. It's it's just it's not worth it. I'm not going to be
fighting for an amount of money that I'm not happy with. Because of course,
that's that that just takes away my whole motivation of going into the gym
and fighting and stepping into the ring and fighting. So yeah, it was
the money was the issue. So I stood out. I called my trainer
and I said, you know, I can't do it. I'm not going
to fight. And they offered me about three fights in a row and I
kept saying no, and I said no, and I think there was surprise
that I was sitting out for that long, but I felt like I had
to do it. I had to do it or else there there would never
be a change for me or change for any other woman in the sport.
So when you were making the match between yourself and Vai obviously she was still
with Golden Boy and you're obviously with top rank, you know, and there
was the back and forth as you mentioned, with her saying you were ducking
or in this and that, but in there, in reality, compared to
your average significant fight, especially for an undisputed championship, this did not take
that long to make. It seems to me. Haven't watched it unfold,
And I find that to be a trend in women's boxing that when the best
women are out there and they say let's fight. Yeah, you know,
there's some back and forth, and there's any like anything. It's all might
take a few weeks, maybe it takes a couple of months, but a
chrs heck doesn't take, you know, multiple years, like we've seen a
take for some of the biggest fights in men's boxing. So I just wonder
what's your perspective and why is it so I'm not gonna say it's easy,
but it's certainly not easier in terms of making the major women's fights than it
is in terms of men's fights. What is it about the women that makes
it so much easier? I mean, you're making the women are making maybe
not the same kind of big, big money as the men. But you're
still being paid these days, you know, pretty good persons compared to what
it was was. For sure. Yeah, it's definitely so much better than
what it was, and it's continuing to improve. But I think the reason
why it's easier for us to make these fights and the reason why we want
to make them is because we're not making five million dollars even two million dollars
of fights where we can just sit back and say, eh, you know,
I'm good, let me chill for a little bit, and you know
I'll say no to this opponent, say no to that one, but then
I'll pick this opponent. You know, we don't we don't have that.
We don't we don't have the opportunity to do that. So I think for
us, we want to we want the biggest fights because we want to make
the most money possible. So you've also been a champion, yours champion now
in the minimum weight division, but you've also previously been a champion in the
junior flyweight division. You've gotten down in weight to try to clean up this
division, unify the titles, and I wonder, you know, whatever happens
in the fight on March twenty ninth. Are your plans to stay at one
hundred and five and I'm not sure who else is out there for you to
fight that would make a big fight, or do you want to go back
to one hundred eight pounds or maybe even there's a bigger fight for you at
one hundred and twelve pounds. You know, maybe you have a little unfinished
business with Marlin Asparza from that messy technical draw from a few years are not
technical decision that you want back in twenty nineteen, So I just wonder what
your thoughts are as far as plotting things out beyond what happens March twenty ninth.
Yeah, I definitely don't want to stay at minimum weight. I'll move
up to either light flyweight or flyweight, and I would love to have a
rematch with marlinus Barza, So if we can make that happen, that'll be
great. I'm not sure what her plans are, but I would like to
find out and see what she's thinking about doing next. Well. She unfortunately
just had a what was supposed to be a unification fight for the undisputed and
flyweight postponed because of her opponent's visa issues. But from a Golden Boy says
they're going to reschedule that when it gets figured out. So my thought was
the undisputed champion, if you win at one hundred five pounds and the one
hundred and twelve pound undisputed champion, makes for a pretty big women's fight.
That's what I was thinking about. Yeah, same here. Yeah, that's
definitely that'll be huge and I'm definitely up to do it, So hopefully we
can make that happen. Well, I just want to wrap up with this
and you and you and your opponent via I mean, neither one of you're
both obviously excellent box Neither one of you is known as a big knockout puncher.
You're twenty five and oh you have nine knockouts. She's got a couple
losses. Thirty and two also has nine knockouts. So looking at it on
paper, you might would suggest that this fight is going to go the distance,
is going to go a long way, and that the winner is going
to be the person that's gonna just do a better job boxing and you know,
using the technique and speed and making the other woman miss and all that.
I wonder what is what in your mind is the fight come down to
and do you think I'm right in my assessment that this is probably a ten
round fight? Yeah? Possibly. I mean it's hard with having only two
minute rounds. I wish we were doing three, but of course me being
the WBC champion, WBC still won't allow that for the same reasons that Suliman
believes, and it seems like nothing's gonna change his mind on that. But
yeah, I think I'm just gonna my plan. My game plan is to
just go in there and completely take away, completely exposed her weaknesses. And
I think and all the opponents that she's faced, they fight the same way.
You know, there's a lot of clashing, there's a lot of they
fall into the trap of how she likes to fight because they fight the same
way. So I think with my footwork and defense and timing and everything is
just it's gonna come together and show I'm gonna be able to separate myself from
what all her other opponents have done against her. So yeah, I'm going
to show had Garada two different skill levels. I just wanted to follow up
on one thing you mentioned about with the WBC and you wanting three minute rounds,
but of course their rules are not going to allow that at this point,
you know. I think about Amanda Serrano, she was undisputed. She
gave up her WBC title because she was insistent upon not only having three minute
rounds, but also to have her fights be scheduled for twelve rounds in length.
The other organizations went along with that, and she has gone forward and
made other featherweight title defenses that did not include the WBC. I mean,
I know, you want to be unisputed, so you're gonna play by the
rules at this point of the WBC. But in the future, do you
see a point where you'd be sort of what Manda did, would say,
listen, I'll respect to you guys, but you know I want to do
with twelve rounds for a championship fight. I want to fight three minute rounds,
and you would just go in the direction of the organizations that would allow
that. Yes, definitely. I think that's really cool that Amanda is in
the position and has that power to say not fighting for your belt, you
know, and it's that that takes, of course, her still making the
kind of money she wants while I'm saying that she's not fighting for that belt,
And of course, like you said I have to play abound the rules
in this fight because it wouldn't be considered undisputed fight if I were to complain
about the WBC not allowing us to do three minute rounds. But I would
love to be in that position at a magazine, to be able to say
no and to be able to say I don't want to fight for unless you
let us do twelve, twelve rounds or minutes. And I know top rank
supports that, so I'm glad that I have their support with whatever I decide
to do when it comes to that at the right time. Well, the
right time right now is for undisputed against your cost of Value on March twenty
nine. So Sonise, I wish you the best of luck. I thank
you very much for your time, and maybe we'll talk again when you're going
for championships and other weight classes. Thanks Dan, appreciate it. Appreciate that,
all right, So again we look forward to that fight you'll cost a
vae. By the ways, you were talking to Sonissa about in that upcoming
strawweight unification fight, and you know I may mention of it a little earlier
when we were talking about Sandy Ryan and Terry Harper. This is an action
fighter in astrata. I can't confess I didn't even know how to pronounce a
name. I know a lot about Vaye. We'll learn more. Obviously.
It's the fight gets close, really good. I mean, this is expected
to be an action fight. They're both going to have volume of punches.
We're looking forward to that one more time. Look, these are two pound
for pound level women in boxing, whatever their weight class. They're the two
chain image of the divisions. It's to unify all four titles to produce the
undisputed champion. Sinissa goes in with the WBA and the WBC titles. Her
opponent Vy goes in there with the IBF and the WBO titles. There is,
as you heard in the interview, there's definitely a rivalry there bad blood
between them. Not only does she want to beat up on Vaya, but
she has She didn't leave her parting of the ways with the Golden Boy in
a dispute over the amount of money she was being paid, as she talked
about, was not good and she would love to stick it in her former
promoter spaces. Of course, now with top rank and you know, to
the credit of Golden boy at the top rank and to the two women involved,
they were able to you know, deal with each other and make a
deal to produce this fight. And as women's fights go, this is this
is about one of the best fights you can make in women's boxing in my
opinion. And you know, it probably would have been its main event in
its own right, but for different reasons of the timing of when they were
able to finally get the deal done and the availability and a lot of different
reasons, they ended up making this as the co feature. It's not an
indictment of the fight. It easily could have been the main event. Just
makes that card on March twenty ninth. That topic as is something that I
consider like a musty kind of show because who doesn't love Valdez against Wilson and
these two women are gonna lay it out. Also, I can't wait for
this one. And she's very well spoken, as we heard there on the
pot. I enjoyed her on the commentary on a recent top ranked fight card
early morning with Christina Poncher doing commentary as well. But she can fight,
She can fight, and so she's a job on that. She's a very
very fun fighter to watch for the most part if her opponent comes to fight,
which I think will. She's well spoken, she's a very nice woman,
and she's just got a good personality. You know, you can I've
interviewed a million fighters in my career, and not every interview is good.
You know. Sometimes it's like col and teeth. Sometimes they're in a bad
mood. Sometimes they have nothing much to say, where they have an attitude.
But interviewing her was like, you know, it was a pleasure because
she was she was interested to talk, she had good answers, she was
thoughtful. So I enjoyed it. Good stuff, I news and nostalgia before
we are done. So Canelo and Jimi Mungia met with the media for the
first time this week, officially kicking off the promotion for the May fourth fight.
We're headed, We're headed that way. We're finally on track and headed
that way. You and I are intrigued by this. What are your thoughts
on the press conference that got everything underway back on Tuesday. I have no
doubt that the fight itself will be way better than the press conference, and
that look, Heimi Mongie is a nice guy and he doesn't never start up
with his opponents I've never heard him talk shit ever in his entire career.
I've watched him since he's been at any kind of you know, televised level.
You know, he just is a is a cool cat and respectful and
humble and just goes in the ring and lets it all hang out. And
Canelo has had no problem smack talking his opponents. But if you've watched his
career or followed a lug, he's not the guy that ever really starts it.
The other guy starts with him, he'll give it back big time.
We saw what happened with you know in different fights. Obviously Caleb comes to
mind, but if Mungia wasn't going to start with him, you know,
Canelo was was his normal, respectful self. So the press comverence itself,
you know, being honest, it was a little boring. A lot of
talk about, you know, how wonderful this is for Mexican boxing. We're
going to put Mexican boxing a big stage and give the fans a great fight,
which I think they will. There's nothing wrong with all that. The
more interesting part of the press conference was what wasn't said or what you didn't
see, which was any kind of acknowledgment whatsoever. Sitting a few feet away
from each other, was between Canelo Alvarez, you know, the A side,
the champion whatever, and his former promoter and now I guess adversary if
you will, Oscar de la Hoya, where clearly they don't like each other.
I mean, I can't speak for Oscar, but Canelo has said out
outwardly he doesn't like Oscar, and so you know, he made the point
in some of his interviews that Oscar wasn't really part of the negotiation. Obviously
Oscar has signed off on stuff and all that, but really the deal itself
that in the room, if you will, on the phone or in the
text message or whatever, really was on behalf of Mangia. Uh, based
on what every everybody's talking about, it really was Fernando Beltron, who is
from Zanferd Promotions, who's the partner with Mangia with Golden Boy, but he
was the one, you know, dealing with Canelo and his team on on
the behalf of that. I love, I love all the tweets that were
flying about, oh canelos not even making eye contact with Oscar ta la hooy,
And I'm going, how is that any different than the last two promotions.
When Canelo was trying to get out of his deal and he was being
promoted, he didn't want to make eye contact. Then with Oscar sitting right
outside him, I think what it comes down to is that at that point
he was still promoted by Golden Boy. Now he's not with Golden Boy,
but Oscar even then he definitely doesn't have use for him after the divorce,
but they're on the stage together because he's the co promoter of Mangia, not
the promoter of the show. The show is being promoted by, you know,
by Canelo Promotions, is what they're saying. And then of course he
got the in association. There's involvement obviously from Zandfer, from Golden Boy,
from TGB that does you know the PBC fights during the time, So that
was an interesting aspect of the promotion. But the fight itself is going to
be I think a really good fight. I know we've talked about it before.
It's not maybe everybody's number one choice. We wanted to see the David
Benavite's fight, But as I've said, you can sell, you can sell
have a good fight if it's your number two choice. This is still a
good fight. We'll get to the Benavitaz thing in a second. But there's
there's one other aspect to this part of it. We know Mongia does two
things, like we keep saying, he punches and he's there to be hit.
So there's a lot of there's a lot of intrigue in this and this
is a much better fight. Here we go again than fooling around with Jamal
Charlow if that was what it was going to be. So we'll take this.
I know what you're saying. We'll take this right now. Two more
interesting aspects with all of this one I've found this in I guess maybe this
one. We'll spend a couple of minutes on this. When it was over,
there were interviews with Canelo after the press conference about David Benavitez and about
the offer and he and he said, no offer ever really came to me.
And he goes in and I guess he was hinting that Samson Lukawitz and
their side didn't have that money to offer. Whatever he meant by the David
Benavide's side would not have made the offer. The offer would have come from
PBC, which works with both of them. So Oscar is saying that finish
to say that that the Benavid's camp didn't make the offer, I personally find
that to be disingenuous because there never would have been an offer from them anyway.
That's the questions that were being asked. Canelo was the first one to
say they didn't have it to offer. It's not their offer. He was
saying. Problem with a boxing so called boxing media is they don't know how
to ask a goddamn question exactly because if they asked it in a manner that
doesn't make any sense because if they had a fucking brain, they know that
it wouldn't be uh Samson Boxing or the benavide side making any offer. It
would be PBC or DGB on behalf of BBC. The other thing that came
with that answer that he gave after the press conference, and this is where
I'm going to disagree. He kept saying Canelo in English, he doesn't bring
anything to the table. He doesn't bring anything to the table, and sorry,
he brings a lot to the table in Benavidez from where I sit and
I think most people sit because he's an unbeaten fighter, young, big puncher,
former world champ who has on his own also brought attention and sold out
Arenas. So this whole notion that he doesn't bring anything to the table.
He brings more than a lot would bring to the table, and even some
of the guys that Canelo gave opportunities to previously. So I don't go along
with that. And I think there is a school of thought that Canelo absolutely
knows how dangerous Benavidas would be to fight, So fight Haimimongia instead right now
in the short term while you figure the rest out. I just I didn't
I disagree completely with he doesn't bring anything to the table. He's been the
number one contender for like two years. He is able to if the WBC
would order the fight, we might have a fighting chance of getting it.
So look, I've been I've been a Canelo defender a long time, but
I got to call call. I gotta be real, And for him to
say that David Benavides doesn't bring anything to the table is just not accurate.
By the way he made other comments to uh this, you know, scrums
and of the other media, you know, saying if they want to pay
me, you know, one hundred and fifty or two hundred million dollars,
I'll fight Benavide as well. You'd probably fight your mother for two hundred million,
exactly. You'd try a grizzly bear at the circus exactly. Yes,
So okay, if you if you just pulled a thorn of the non Benavides
fight out of your skin for a minute. The the Mangia fight's still a
good fight. Yes, I said that. I'm excited for it. I'm
going to travel for it, I'm going to go to it. I'm looking
forward to it. But it's not the Benavides fight. That's the fight that
should happen. But you know, what are you gonna do? You can't.
I'm not gonna spend the next three months bitching and moaning because we're not
getting Benavides. It is what it is. He's not fighting him right now.
He's he's got that right to decide who he wants to fight, and
he's taken on Magia. It's not exactly like he's going from fighting uh,
you know David to fighting you know a shmir. I mean, Mungi is
a solid guy and he's proven himself in the super middleweight division in the way
he's handled his business. In the last two fights, with the fight of
the year type fight against devyrn Chenko and then doing what Canelo couldn't do,
and that's knocking out John Ryder in an excellent fight, a good performance also.
So this is what we've got and I'm now going to focus on this
and when this fight's over with, if Canelo is the winner, then we
can get back to betching and moaning about the Benevtas fight. All right.
Next up on the news, Top Rank has made it official for the vacant
lightweight title. Imanuel Navaratte just moving up in weight classes, fighting Dennis Branchitch
May eighteenth. They made that official. Also an undercard fight of note will
be on this Dan give us more details real quick on it. So never
at against Brentchik for the vacant title of the wo lightweight title. Not exactly
a secret. I've reported about that, you know, for a while.
That's been in the in the plans May eighteenth at the Pachanga Arena in San
Diego, where Nevrette's actually fought before. He made two different title defenses when
he was featherweight title holder in that same arena. So, as you mentioned,
he's going up in wait to be to try to become a four division
title holder. It doesn't really have the cachet it once had when you see
the types of things are happening, because especially we love Navarette because he's so
exciting. But they're all WBI, all WBO belts. It's yet another vacant
title that he's fighting for. So it kind of it is what it is.
But you know, if you want to get just to the brass tacks
of the numbers, he will be able. If with a victory, he'll
become the sixth Mexican boxer to win titles in four weight classes. I remember
when nobody had ever done it. He would join now Eric Morales, Forge
Rsa, Juan Manuel Marquez, Leo Santa Cruz, and of course the great
Canelo Alvarez. So that was an official announcement, so that fights on that
it's still a pretty solid fight. Brent Chick is no joke. He's a
good fighter, he was an Olympian, he's undefeated. But they also added
the San Diego welterweight Giovanni Santion who's with Top right now, who's from San
Diego and didn't really get a lot of love, was not really that you
know, in the in the in the in the higher level thought process of
people thinking about the top wealth rates. But he really proved his metal because
as the underdog, he went to the hometown area of Alexis Roacha when Top
Rank was going to make a deal with Golden Boy this past October, and
he went in there and he just you know, beat the stuffing out of
roach and knocked him out in a tremendous performance and by far the biggest win
of his career. So they're bringing him back and the co feature. His
opponent is not set yet, but they're keeping him active, and you know
he's going to get an opportunity because Roacha when he beat him, roach had
been the number one WBO contender and now Santon is very high up there also.
I would think that in the next year, within the next year,
so he will get some kind of title opportunity, particularly because Terence Crawford,
who is you know, probably going to be moving up to one hundred and
fifty four pound way class and the belts that he still has are going to
eventually become a splinter. All right, good stuff on the Top Rank show
coming in May, we have an injury speaking of May and the Lomachenko Cambosa's
undercard that was to have had veteran Carlo's quadras in his WBC Interim Junior bannamweight
title defense quadras now injured, he was to have fought Andrew Maloney the Australian
and ouch babe torn achilles and those those can be career threatening, not good,
not good, that's a that's a rough injury. So the crazy thing
about it is I had been reporting about this fight then Top Rank went ahead
and announced it with the Bello Entertainment a week ago or so, and as
it turned so that we didn't, this sort of actually stayed kind of quiet
for a while. He had suffered the injury. Literally a couple of hours
or a few hours after the announcement of the fight went out that he suffered
his injury. It wasn't until this past Monday where he had the surgery on
the achilles. And if you could look on Carlos Squadras's instagram and everything,
there's some pictures of him in the hospital bed with the thumbs up with the
doctor. So good for Carlos. He's on the men. He's been a
very good fighter for a very long time in that weight class. But he's
obviously he with a with a torn achilles and us having had surgery, he
clearly is not going to be prepared to fight in May. So they're going
to keep Andrew Maloney on the card and they're gonna they're gonna strip the interim
title from Quadras because he's not gonna be able to fight for quite a while,
I would imagine, and they're gonna make that available. Uh. The
reason the title was available in the first place is because the long inactivity of
one francisquaes Strata, who's gonna be coming back anyway, probably against Bam Rodriguez,
but that's a different story. We talked about that in a couple of
shows ago. Uh, not not official yet, but anyway, So with
Quadras out, you'll see Maloney take on the former Junior Flyway title, theer
Pedro Guivara for the interim title, and that seems like a pretty reasonable fight,
particularly because Guavara, at the end of last year was the guy that
Quadras defeated for the interim delt around the WBC Convention card that took place in
news Bekistan and in Quadras you know, eked out the split decision in that
fight. So it was a very competitive fight, even though he dropped Guavara
two times. So that's the new fight to go along, you know,
with the card that they've already announced, all right, and again those are
six months nine months minimum on Achilles and Quadrus. Being a veteran, you
don't know, you don't know how well or not he can come back from
that. And a positive update here because there was some concern for Hands of
Stone, the legend Roberto Duran, who had gone to the hospital with heart
problems. You have the update here on on Roberto Duran, one of the
four Kings that we always talk about. What's the latest. The latest is
that thank God that Roberto Duran is good. I saw some of the videos
he put on his Instagram, you know, thanking people for their support and
for their good wishes, and and you know he had gone as family,
had taken to the hospital last week with some kind of heart ailment. He
had some kind of some kind of blockage. It was corrected. The way
it was corrected was he received a pacemaker and so he's got that to take
care of the I guess is you know, he had a little bit of
a heartbeat that was not going and when it was supposed to go. What
do they call that irregular heart? How about my father has a pacemaker.
It means your heart is not staying in rhythm, and the pacemaker obviously helps
you with your heart stay in rhythm. We love that. Okay. So
now Duran, Duran is now out of the hospital, and and like I
said, I saw the videos. He sounded good, look good. You
know he's seventy two. He's like he's a treasure for boxing. I mean,
I think you can make the argument that, besides maybe Sugar Ray Leonard,
that Duran is the greatest living fighter in boxing currently and we hope he
stays. Interesting debate when you think about it, interesting debate, Yeah,
well, I mean, you know it's it is debatable. I mean,
I would say Ray just because he the way that he beat Duran in the
in the second fight, in the other accoplishments. But Duran, look,
Duran is a marvel. Duran was. I think if you asked your your
average boxing historian would tell you he's the greatest lightweight of all time. He
ended up having you know, big comebacks when people didn't expect him to by
winning the Jernam middleweight title in an absolute beat down against Davey Moore in nineteen
eighty three to win the WBA one to fifty four title, and then obviously
you know he finished up the four Kings era. But the fact that he
was able to rise up to the super middleweight division. I take them back
to the middleweight division and haven't no, it was superman a weight, just
an awesome Supermanwight, WBC Superman Awight title, incredible fight with Iran Barkley.
Scored the upset in one of the great action fights. I was really like
the last you know, big win for him because it was after that that
he've eventually lost the third fight against Ray Leonard and then he still fought for
a number of years after that but never was at that level again. But
the fact is he fought from nineteen seventy in two thousand and one. That's
about as long a prayer as you'll see. You've talked about that. You
know, he fought one hundred and twenty times roughly, I mean, seventy
knockouts. I mean, just one of the all time greats, any one
of my favorite fighters of all time, I mean, and just as a
person. He's so so likable these days. I mean, he doesn't have
that scowl. When he was an active fighter, he was scary, you
know, he's you know, mean and nasty and knocking everybody out. And
now he's like a big teddy bear. I've seen him at fights many times.
I've had the chance to hang out with him. When I ran an
item about his recovery from this situation in my Substack newsletter, I used a
photo to go with that section of myself with Duran when I have a few
photos of myself with Duran. But when I was at the Errol Spence fight
against Mikey Garcia back in twenty nineteen, I believe it was you know,
I got a chance to see he was there part of the promotion, and
we hung out a little bit and we gotta have a great picture of him,
and we were waiting at the Cowboys Stadium to kind of get in for
the press cover. So you know, we were outside just sort of you
know, joking around, myself and a few of the other guys in the
media, taking some pictures and so just a wonderful, wonderful guy. And
I'm world that he's on the mend in filming better. I still love the
great job that Matt Whitecross did with that documentary with the Four Kings, the
Showtime four part series and the story, and I believe it's around the Leonard
fight. I got to go back and rewatch when he won the first Leonard
fight. He was hailed as such a hero in Panama that he got the
use of the president's private plane. You remember we've been talking about this,
and he was gone with the president's private plane for literally like eight or nine
days, and the president had to call him twice, the President of Panama,
can I have my plane back? Because Duran was going everywhere all over
North America and wherever else you wanted to go. Fighters are builth different he
had the plane. That reminds me of a funny story that I will tell
briefly. Remember, I remember covering the Oscar de la Joya Arturo Gaddy fight
and got he got beat up and it was a good fight, but and
he kind of did better than I think a lot of people thought he would.
But he got knocked out and it was a rough knockout, and they
took him to the hospital and get checked out to make sure everything was okay.
But the fight was at the MGM Grand and the MGM Grand, like
you know, he rode in the limo and when he got checked out,
he asked, can I keep the limo for the rest of the night because
he got knocked out, but he wanted to go out and party. And
it just reminded me he said the same thing, like he didn't have the
plane, but he had. He had the limo and Duran had the plane.
I'm just saying, the president's plane in Panama back in the early eighties
a little more than a limo, just a little more than the limo.
No, it's not the cost, it's the mentality. I understand the mentality,
but it's a bigger ask when the president is calling a second time to
try to get his private plane back. All Right, a little more nostalgia
and then we're good here on this. It was twenty seven years ago as
we taped this podcast on Thursday, release it into Friday on March twenty first,
nineteen ninety seven. Roy Jones and Montel Griffin and I remember this vividly
and all the debates after this because Roy Jones was decued for hitting Montel Griffin
after he had knocked him down. He was down, like on one knee.
He caught him again while he was down and it was deemed to have
been a punch wild Griffin was already down a foul. Griffin laid on the
mat and was counted out and was awarded a victory on a disqualification. Rayfield
controversy for Roy Jones's first loss of his career back now twenty seven years ago.
Lord's I remember watching that on HBO at live when it happened. He
was thirty four, and oh Roy Jones, he was the number one pound
per pound, not touchable, just the dominating force in boxing, certainly in
the light heavyweight division, defending the WBC light heavyweight title, and the fact
that he got disqualified like that was about as shocking as you could ever possibly
imagine that Roy Jones would suffer a loss like it. Never even I never
contemplated that. It was like, I'm not going to tell you it's like
Bus or Douglass beating Mike Tyson. Obviously, there was a little weird circumstances
in terms of what happened. He did hit him when he was down,
and by the way, you know, Montel Griffin was a real tricky cut
lefty. He did give Roy some trouble, but Roy was still winning the
fight. Even though it was competitive. It was actually probably up to the
point of the knockout, was as competitive as a professional boxing match as Roy
Jones had had to that point in his career. But he did hit him
after, you know, he had knocked him down. I wish he wouldn't
have done that. From my I've rewatched it. He didn't blast him,
No, he hit him while Maul Griffin was on a knee. And I
distinctly remember debating this point, and you can go back and see it on
the video. There's a half second there where Montel Griffin realizes this is my
opportunity and just lays there. And I, to this day, twenty seven
years later, am still dubious that he could have gotten up. The fight
could have continued, but that was his opportunity to win by DQ. And
there you go. I don't I don't punch people for a living. I
don't take punches, so it's easy for me to say that. But I'm
just telling you with what I saw. So follow up on that, well,
Roy had knocked him down earlier in the fight seventh round. I think
at that point Montel, whatever success he had had earlier on, realized,
like I'm in, it's not gonna like I've done what I can do,
and it's gonna get worse as the fight goes on, because clearly Roy at
that point had sort of figured him out whatever issues he had in those first
you know, six or seven rounds. Now, like you said, he
gets to the ninth round, he scores another knockdown, and there's definitely you
know, a beat before he goes to the mat. And so what I
would say to you, this will tell you what my opinion is is not
only did Montel Griffin walk out of the ring that night with the WBC light
heavyweight title, he should have also walked out with an Oscar Award and an
Emmy Award that night, because that was as my opinion is, like you,
absolutely he could have got up and continued. I thought it was a
sham, but the referee had no real real choice to do anything other than
that based on what it occurred. He did hit him after he was down.
Whatever you think about that result, I think Roy proved the point because
they had an automatic rematch a few months later, and Roy Jones didn't fuck
around. He knocked him on in the first fucking round and absolutely annihilated him.
Yes, and just made like you don't poke the sleeping bear, and
Montell poked the sleeping bear and he paid the price because it was an annihilation.
That's I still think if you look at the great history and the great
career that Roy Jones had, there are a few transcendent wins in that career,
and one of them is the Montel Griffin rematch where he just absolutely pulvarized
him. He did that leasing shot in the first round, an absolutely brilliant
and brilliant knockout. But again for the fans, if you're not familiar,
to go back and watch it on YouTube or wherever you can find it from
March of ninety seven and judge for yourself. Rayphiel and I have our opinions,
and again we should say this, we don't get hit, We cover
this, we talk about it, we don't get hit. But that to
me look like this is my opportunity to win the fight. I'm gonna now
just lay it. But you know what, when you watch it, as
long as we watched it, certainly, in my opinion, as far as
long as I've covered it. When you make the assessment, you're not just
coming at it out of the blue. You're using your past experiences and comparing
it to things you've seen through the years. So when you've seen other guys
disqualified or other guys get hit when they're down, you know, you look
at that and you compare it to what occurred in this fight. And I
don't think it's the reasonable. I think that on that night that Monteal Griffin
didn't give his best effort to continue. Put it like that, that's putting
it kindly. He laid there and took the DQ, is what I will
say. All Right, one more piece of nostalgia real quick, and that
is twenty five years ago, earlier this week, on March twentieth, on
Wednesday, ike Ibya Bucci wiped out Chris Bird in a huge HBO win.
It was Bird's first loss who went on a Bird went on to hold a
portion of the heavyweight title after that. But it's more about ike Obeyabucci and
what what didn't happen for him after that after that night, So uh,
nostalgia please on twenty five years ago. First of all, I can't even
get over that. It's not long ago. But this was like a great
matchup on paper because you had Ibyabuchi was like this dominating, massively big puncher,
kind of a loose cannon, undefeated, being built up by HBO and
by his promoter Sedria Kushner. He got Chris Bird, who was also a
cedric, who was, you know, the Olympian, but had thought in
a much much later at the Olympian in like the middleweight division, was always
the smaller guy, but a tremendous box or a southpawk cut. A lot
of people couldn't stand to watch him, you know, because he would stand
in front of a guy and just make a miss and and but didn't really
have much punching power. But these guys are both undefeated. I mean Ikei
Bucci was nineteen and oh going into the fight. Chris Bird was twenty six
and oh, and I Beeyabuci had made a huge impression on a huge amount
of boxing people because in nineteen ninety seven he had one of the greatest heavyweight
fights you'll ever see. I dare say it might be the most entertaining and
exciting heavyweight fight of the nineteen nineties that you could think of, except maybe
the first fight between a Vander Holyfield and Mike Tyson. But they put on
on the heass Tyson fight was in the nineties, barely February of ninety.
You're saying besides that, You're saying besides oh yeah, no, besides my
bad between besides Douglas Tyson and and Tyson Holyfield number one, Right, it's
on that level of the sidetrack. You Beyabuci and who in that fight.
David Tua, who was the undefeated at that point, was being you know,
marching towards the title shot when he fought Ibeya Bucci. Ike was not
really a well known fighter. Was his first time really being in front of
the general public on HBO. Uh, But they put on an absolute fucking
twelve round war that is just an absolute phenomenal barn Burner type heavyweight fight.
So now he had had Abuci after that win, he had had a couple
of like lesser type fights, but then he got another opportunity on HBO in
this fight against Chris Bird. And Chris Bird had been sort of kind of
untouchable, you know, because of the skills yet and I just just pummeled
him with one of the It was like probably the biggest punch I've ever seen
land that didn't actually knock a guy cold when he knocked him down, uh,
you know, in the in the uh in the round which ultimately ended
it in the fifth round. But no, there was like snotting spit coming
out of his face. I mean, it was an absolutely fucking brutal knockout.
But the thing about it is so Ikybui Iyabuci gets this victory over Chris
burd a huge, huge win in a in a just a monstrous knockout,
and he never fought again. People thought he was going to be the next
heavyweight champion of the world. He will go down in history along with people
like Tony Ayala and others where the great question is what if what might have
been? You asked what might have been had TiO Philo Stevenson from Cuba turn
professional? What might have been if Tony Ayla hadn't gone to prison for rape
and spent all those years behind bars, And then even when he came out,
you know, fighting as an old man but never going to be able
to come close to getting you know, back the mojo, if you will.
When he was a young fighter on the way up, well, Ibabuchi's
in that same category because here's a guy that had destroyed Chris Bird, that
had scored a close, outstanding victory against Tua, who was the undefeated,
you know, top contender, a big, big, big puncher, and
Ibbe Buci gets this victory. This is again nineteen ninety nine. There was
a lot of possibilities for him. There was a great heavyweight, a bunch
of top guys that were that he could have ended up fighting. But because
he had he had serious mental problems, He got himself in serious legal problems,
ended up going to jail because of a of a of attempted sexual assault.
Uh and he never fought again, And I always think to myself,
what might have been matter. There was a period of time when he got
out of jail where there was a lot of talk that he was going to
make a comeback and he was going to maybe do something with top rank,
and they were trying to get him license in Nevada and all this, and
it was at that point he ended up going back, you know, getting
in trouble again and never fought again. I wish I don't even know what
happened to the guy, but he if you talk to anybody in boxing.
Talk to people that dealt with him. Talk to like the people that work
with Cedria Kushner. Cedric has passed on. Talked to Lou de Bella,
who did fights of his with hbo Ibabe. Butcher was a nut job,
I mean certifiable. But the dude could fucking punch and had a great chin
and looked like a heavyweight champion. And we'll never know, We'll never see
that if that prophecy could be, I'm just looking. He did fifteen years
in prison in Nevada for the sexual misconduct plea agreement that he did. He
was then I'm looking to see. He was released in November twenty fifteen and
was sent back they pourted back to Nigeria and then re arrested again in trouble
again with the law for violating conditions of his probation in Arizona, and and
so uh it went back to went back to prison for a short time,
and then was released again in September of twenty twenty after violating those conditions.
Uh you talk about the what if on on your nostalgia. He never fought
again and has been in and out of prison ever since then. For a
large part of his adult that he scored those two big wins. I mean,
Tua and Bird were two of the best heavyweights of that era, unquestionable
and totally different styles. Bird won titles twice, has the win over you
know, beat a Beata vander Holi for a title obviously the you know the
famous uh the injury that that a vitality Clitchko suffered that forced him to retire
on the stool, and Chris Bird won the title for the first time the
WBO belt. Uh And and Tua had been maybe never won a title.
I only got a chance to fight for the title once against the prime Monny
Lewis, but he was he had a great resume to it knocked a lot
of good guys out, a lot of guys that went on to be champions,
you know, like Hassim Rockman, like Old Leg mask I, I,
like John Ruiz, et cetera. Uh. And for Ibabe with you
to have those two wins and never fight again after the Bird fight, it's
just a shame that we never will see what could have occurred with this heavyweight.
We have given you a ton folks. You have heard from Tim Zoo
about his new opponent. You've heard from Sonisia Strada about her undisputed Women's Strawway
title fight. We've previewed the match Room to his own show, You and
I, we'll talk about it further in handicap the Dalton Smith main event and
the Sandy Ryan Terry Harper co feature fight on the bet Us Boxing Show coming
up one pm Eastern Time on Friday. Some news, some nostalgia. That's
a full show. That's a full show, my friend. Now you and
I are back to the basketball. Lots of college basketball coming as well,
and then whatever happens in the match Room show, etc. We'll cap it,
and then we'll get ready for tim Zu and the fight week with Fondora
and all of the fights on that undercard. And actually it's a busy week
besides that with other fights that are coming. We mentioned the Oscar Valdez Liam
Wilson card his Friday Night. Zerto Ramirez is in action also in a Golden
Boy card next weekend, so we'll we'll not only recap, but we'll be
getting ready for those fight weeks next week. The next time you and I
talk on the podcast beat Yeah, no, it's definitely. I mean,
this is a little bit of a low this week, but like you said,
next week's going to be busy because we got the pay per view.
He got zero going for the cruiser weight belt against Glmarian, you got the
you got the Valdezan and Liam Wilson card with the with the with the women
in the undistcuted fight. So it's when it when it rains the poors,
I guess, right like that for one of them to be this week,
you know, give us a little more action. This a little more action
this week, but it gives us more time to watch the basketball game as
well. All good stuff, Dan Rayfield. We encourage them to find your
sub stacked your newsletter to stay engaged on all the news and obviously stay engaged
here follow in subscribe on the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed. As we preview
you're going into the weekend, we recap coming off the weekend. All right,
my friend, I'll see you on the bet Us Boxing show coming up
Friday one Eastern time. That sounds good. There is Dan Rayphiel. I'm
merely TJ Reeve. Thank you for finding us on the Big Fight Weekend preview