The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host? DJ Leaves? Well, well, well, we
get ready for a weekend and has a top ranked boxing Friday night card that
we're interested in with a world title fight in Las Vegas. But we've got
even bigger news of what's happened Thursday afternoon and Thursday night to get into.
You are locked in on the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast. I am the
somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves. He is our insider. My man has
had his track shoes on all Thursday afternoon and evening figuratively. Dan Rayfield from
his fight Freak to Night, Substack and Bigfight Weekend dot Com, Good to
be back with you. Anything going on? Hey? Is there anything happening
on Thursday? Are you just a couple two or three? Thanks? Been
a little bit of a busy day. Uh yeah. We're ready to get
into the whole situation with Ryan Garcia agreeing to a suspension and a fine that
avoids the big hearing with the New York Athletic Commission, and you're about to
exclusively hear from Devin Haney and his reaction. Now, Haney I should say
as the podcast gets released Thursday night into Friday, he may talk to other
people, but he talked first to Dan Rayfield, and it's about to be
right here on the pod. Here's reaction. That's why you are you my
friend? I bow to you, even though they can't see us. I
bow to you. Well, the well done on hustling all of this,
so you're about to get the latest intel on that. Thank you for finding
us. Why are you not subscribing? Follow and subscribe to this podcast feed
for tremendous content all the time. Here interviews, news inside Rayfield nostalgia.
There's Lennox Lewis nostalgia coming later on in the podcast, and other news.
So again, follow, subscribe on all the podcast outlets. All that out
of the way, Okay, let's lead right into it. Did it surprise
you that this all got worked out before there was a hearing? It's easy
to say in hindsight, Hey, I saw it coming. But did you
see some kind of broker deal coming in advance of the hearing? Will you
been a bit surprised? As the news began to come out here that Garcia
agreed to a one year suspension, agreed to what the one million dollar perse
being withheld the maximum fine helped me. If I'm wrong, is ten grand,
well just let me go through it. Find it. So go through
that. But did it surprise you first of all that we got to a
broker deal here this quickly. It did not, because I knew that this
was coming as of about two days ago. Okay, go ahead. I
didn't have the details of what the punishment would be, but I knew that
there was going to be a settlement agreement that was coming. I didn't know
if it was going to be on Tuesday. I knew that it wouldn't be
on Wednesday because that was Juneteenth, which is now a national holiday. So
the Commission was not working. So I figured, Okay, if it's not,
if it hasn't taken place Tuesday, it's either going to be put out
on Thursday, possibly on Friday the Commission. It came out this afternoon.
I knew about it before the Commission put out their statement which they sent to
me. But the end result is the following the result of the Devin Hainey
Ryan Garcia fight has been changed. It is now a no contest, so
the win comes off of Ryan Garcia's record the loss comes off of Devin Hainey's
record. They did not go to the extent that the Hainey attorney wrote a
letter to the Commission out asked him to utilize something that was in their purview,
which was to make it a disqualification loss. And when people here are
the interview that I conducted with Devin Haney, I asked him about that,
and they'll hear his response about whether he wanted to be a disqualification or a
no contest. There's the tease. So the other punishment that he takes is
a minimum one year suspension, but in the course of that year he has
to provide clean drug tests. Obviously he has another positive drug test. That
ban could extend for quite a lot longer. On top of that, the
maximum that the Commission can find him under their statues is ten thousand dollars.
So they've done that. They find him the ten grand. But what they
also did, and this people have to remember, this is a very very
important. This is not something that the Commission imposed on him, something that
the Commission and the Devin, rather the Ryan Garcia and his lawyers agree to.
It's a settlement agreement. So they had to sign off on this,
so therefore they can't complain that they're unhappy with this particular aspect. His official
contract purse was one point one million. Now he's making a lot more than
that for the fight because on the fights of this caliber, they make most
of their money on the points on the pay per view, So he's still
going to get that money, but the official contract number of one point one
million, he has to forfeit that it goes back to golden point. I
was led to believe at one point that maybe Devon Hainey would get a percentage
of that. I'll just say this upfront. Devin Heiney says an interview that
he's not getting into that. We'll see if they work anything up, but
the bottom line is Ryan Garcia, whoever is getting it, he has forfeited
one point one million dollars. Now keep in mind he also forfeited six hundred
thousand dollars for being overweight by three pounds. He claims he also paid what
he promised at the press conference. What was it a one and a half
million dollars? What a bottom line is he was he was saying he was
gonna give Hainey half a million dollars for every pound overweight. Again, I
went to public school. That's three pounds overweight. That would be one point
five million if he did it, But we don't know. At At the
very least, he gave up six hundred K on fight night because of that
situation. So he's got himself a giant deficit both in terms of his bank
account as well as his record because he loses a victory on the record.
So again, a few weeks ago, when this all came out and I
broke the story, I took a lot of incoming from a lot of people
telling me a liar, telling me that I was on Devin Hiney's payroll,
all this other bullshit. The reality is the truth predels. These are the
facts, and I'll stand by all of my reporting all day long. It
has been proven a one hundred percent accurate by the actions that the commission took.
So the bottom line is this fight goes down as an O contest,
and maybe down the road, you know, if circumstances are the right things,
maybe we'll see your remapp Hey two, you've been doing this for a
long time. This is as bizarre a situation for the different aspects of the
fact that Ryan Garcia whipped Devin Haney in the fight. That was the story
coming out of that night. And then this, as boxing sometimes does,
delves into crazy and bizarre, which is he's on a ped and let me
say this, and I'll take your reaction, and then we want to hear
from Devin Haney er in a minute or two. We're not gonna bury that.
But this, this whole statement. As soon as I read the statement
about the the billions of grams of positive osterine, but I see you shaking
your head and the same thing. Look, you didn't take a one years
suspension in this agreement because you thought you could beat this and it wasn't significant.
I've done, I've been around the block several times. You took this
agreement because you realize your phrase is jackpot. He jackpotted for a serious ped
and they realized we're not gonna beat this. Ah, this ahead. I
don't know this, but again I feel like I've got the institutional knowledge and
the experience to make this point. They took the year because I didn't take
the year. They were going to give him two. That's my opinion.
I don't know that for sure, but that's my educated guess they had no
choice on the money. Nobody gives up that money without a fight. They
knew they were dead. The rights on it, the ten K that's like,
you know, that's nothing, but that still goes as far as what
the rules can call for. So this is a this is a severe penalty.
I mean, you know, the the the the the suspension is backdated
to April twentieth, which is totally normal. That's what every commission does,
back dated. He's right, you know, so it's w'ere here. We
are already in in the in June, so it's already been you know,
a few months since the fight. But the point is he's going to have
to submit to drug testing along the way. If you know that includes recreational
drugs potentially or is this primarily what do we know, just Pedes, I
don't know about recreational does it's it's it's the normal stuff that the Commission would
test for, and they'll they'll and they won't just take the light way out
and send it to like the QUEST lab where they don't test for the hardship.
They'll send this to the WADA lab and they'll test for all the shit.
Uh So, there's no way of that. So the point is the
reason why the potentially his suspension could could uh go for more than a year,
is because if he has some other uh problem with the drug test.
And on top of that, by the way, not only does he have
to provide the clean sample, but again it's they can test him, I
guess whenever over the next period of time and uh. And that's the about
and he has to reapply for the license, and that's another big part on
this and others will honor that allegedly all over the time. You know,
it's not it's not allegedly. Let's make that one undercent clear. He is
banned from boxing the United States of America for the next until next April when
he reapplies, and that would go for even though not technically, but most
other places he would even conceive of boxing, the UK, Mexico, probably
Saudi Arabia by the way, where the where the boxing matches often are overseen
by the British Boxing Board of Control. They're not going to license him if
he's under the suspension. In the New York State Authletic Mission, and in
terms of the United States of America, the ABC one hundred percent, he's
on the bann he's on the suspended list. He can't get a license in
Las Vegas, he can't get a license in California, he can't get a
license in Florida, Texas, New Jersey, pick a boxing state. He
is gonna sit down and not fight anywhere from now to at least next April.
All Right, here comes Devin Hanny, and make sure that I lead
this in correctly because one of the things you're asking him about is there's also
the purse bid with Sander Martin, and Haney is saying I'm not gonna fight
for a year. He put that on social media Thursday night, but you're
gonna hear him in his own words here in the interview. So that's that's
kind of interesting. But go ahead, set that up and then we'll hear
from Devin Hanny. Okay, so this was not related to the suspension of
Ryan Garcia. But if you're following what's been going on in the news is
just this week, I believe it was on Tuesday, there was a purse
bid Ryan for a Devin Haney's mandatory fight against the number one WBC one hundred
and forty pound challenger Sander Martin because of course, when he lost the fight
against Ryan Garcia, the title was not at stake because was overweight by three
plus pounds, so therefore, you know, he kept the belt. There
was no way for him to lose that, so they had the purse bid.
There was only one bidder on the on the fight and it was won
by Top Right, which is the promoter now for Sandra Martin. So that
was only a million and a half dollars and it's like one point what was
a one point one and a half million? The point is he's he believes,
and I understand where he's coming from. If you win the fight against
Ryan Garcia and there's no ped use, you come out of that much bigger
than you were going in. And so now the mandatory is worth a lot
more. So he's potentially been severely financially injured because he thought that fight got
beat even if the record now shows a no contest, but there was obviously
a depreciation, let's call it, in terms of the value assigned by promoters
to his next fight, even in a mandatory, because only one company bid,
typically at the very least that there's two companies trying to bid companies will
pair multiple bids, so if they see they've got competition, they'll go for
the bigger envelope, so to speak. But when top ranks Saw at the
Perst bid, when they show up and there's no one else there to bid,
they give him the cheap envelope. So he has been in his mind
and understandably financially aggrieved by a little bit, so he says, and he
can hear it in the interview talking about suing Ryan Garcia, and this fight
against Sander Martin is now worth a lot less than it may have been had
he won the fight because there was no PD use. We'll never know what
the result would have been without the peds. But that's his point, and
I asked him about that. All right, time to hear from Devin Haney,
who talked one on one with Dan Thursday evening. We've got that for
you right now. Well, you can start off by just giving me your
your reaction to Saw. I guess you've seen the penalty that New York issue
to Ryan Garcia related to your fight. He gave him a one year suspension.
He's got to forfeit his official contract purse of one point one million dollars.
He's got to be randomly tested. He's gonna be find the maximum,
which is thousand by the state. Can you give me your thoughts when you
heard about that? First off, you know, I want to thank God
Allah, you know, because he's he's a he's a perfect planner. I
said this before, I said this, you know, before the fight.
I said it after the fight. You know, through this whole process,
you know, I just you know, kept praying, and you know,
you know, God has answered my answered my prayers. You know, I
want to New York State Atlantic Commission for for doing the right thing, making
the right decision. You know, we've seen you know, these type of
things happen where you know, the commissions haven't did the right thing, or
you know, politics and stuff have gotten away of the right decision. But
you know, the Commission, you know, did the did the right thing.
So I thank them for that. I think my my, my fans,
you know that that you know stood up for me, the people that
that stood up for me, the reporters that that stood up with me.
You know, because IVE seen a lot of people, you know, you
know, just standing up for for for what's wrong, and and and that
what's right. And you know, performance that has been drugs shouldn't be in
in in no sport, in generally especially boxing. You know, at the
end of the day, you know, every time we step in the ring,
we put our lives on the line. And you know, I just
want to I just want to be on an even playing field every single time
that I step in the ring. And you know, I'm this has made
me advocate even more for it, you know, and and pushing for it
because you know, it can it could have happened to anybody. You know,
I think I'm thankful that it happened to me because I'm strong enough for
it to to you know, to to be able to take, you know,
take what happened and and you know, be move forward and not break
me. But yeah, so one of one of the things about this,
Devin, that that strikes me. And I think this might be lost on
some people that follow this more casually or who are blinded by the reality.
This is not a punishment that the Commission just unilaterally imposed on Ryan Garcia.
Ryan Garcia and his legal team had to agree to this. They did a
settlement agreement, so he accepted the punishment of the one year, he accepted
to give up that much money. What do you what do you think that
says about his guilt or innocence that he accepted that he's gonna forfeit over a
billion dollars and take a one year suspension and random testing during the year,
et cetera, along with the other things that they've imposed, or you know
that they agreed to us. I mean, you know, at the end
of the day, I mean, it was it was it was. It
wasn't much he could do. It was much. It wasn't much fighting that
he could that he could do. You know, his he was you know,
he was guilty. It was proof and the proof was in the putting.
So you know, he said he he had no choice but to accept,
you know, his punishment. And I mean, what what what what
can I really say? Do I do? I think I you should have
been banned for even longer. I think you should be banned from boxing because
and I think he should have been fined anymore. I think that I should
have been receiving you know, some of the money that was was was forwarfeited
because I was the one taking the punches in there. I was the one
that you know, was affected. You know, I was the one that
I think actually that you may be getting a piece of that money. That's
what I've been told. But we'll see if that comes to the past as
of as of as of from my team, from what I've heard from my
team, you know, speaking directly from the Commission, my attorneys and stuff
like that. No, no, okay, let me ask you this though.
What is your perspective and your thought about the fact that they changed the
result of this fight to a no contest. They had the option and know
your lawyer in a letter to the commission press for it to be changed to
a disqualification, which they could have done, but in the in the end,
they elected to make it a no contest. What is your thought about
the no contest. I think I wouldn't have you know, wanted wanted to
to to have a you know, a victory that way. I'm a real
fighter, and you know I've gotten you know, thirty one wins, you
know, being stepping in the ring and winning the right way. I wouldn't
I wouldn't have felt right, you know, it being a victory on my
record when I didn't win the fight. But the loss does come off your
record. But the loss comes off my record because at the end of at
the end of the day, I wasn't on an even playing field. I
wouldn't. I stepped in the ring with a guy that was, you know,
that was taking performance and hensmen drugs, and at the end of the
day that it's not even it's not a fair fight. It was and it
wasn't a fair fight. So I think that it was it was the right
thing for it to be removed. And like I said, I can I
can only think a lot of that that that justice was served. So let
me ask you about this because you've been in the news last couple of days,
not related particularly to your fight with Ryan, but the WBC held the
purse spid this week for your mandatory defense of the WBC one hundred forty pound
title against sand Or Martin. There was only one bidder on the fight.
It was one point five million in change, which relatively speaking, perhaps some
people viewed it as maybe a little light on the numbers, and there was
no competition so they didn't have to come with the big envelope as they say.
My perspective is, if Devin Haney wins the fight against Ryan Garcia and
there is no perhaps you know, maybe you do win if there's no peds.
You know, we'll never know for sure. But suddenly now your mandatory
is worth the heck of a lot more that you seem to have been financially
injured based on the low perspit amount because of your loss in the last fight,
even though now it's a no contest. What is that that that has
a major impact that seems to me on your next fight situation. No,
it definitely has had a major impact. You know, haven't made a million
and a half since you know, my beginning days of signing with Max from
right, and I want to say that was you know, I meane one
point seven million to you know, I don't want to speak to that.
I don't want to speakuns of the exact numbers, but you know, I
haven't made a million and a half dollars since the beginning stages of of of
of my you know, contract with matters. So why would why would I
you know, it just it it affected me, I was gonna say.
So. It's so what I'm trying to make some people understand is that what
happened in the fight on April twentieth is not in a vacuum. It's not
just a situation that occurred on that day. It's impacting your career in your
next fight. Also, is that fair to say? Correct? Correct?
Correct? And you know, my my, my, my, My lawyers
and team will will you know, do what they got to do to you
know, and to prove that and in court and you know against Ryan Garcia
and you know we will take legal action, you know, to to you
know, because it has affected me not only not only you know, my
financially, but you know mentally everything. So uh do you do you think
you're gonna take the Sander Martin fight under the purspit or you're gonna try to
look to do something different. I'm going to you know, spend time with
my family. You know, this is everything is fresh. Everything you know
this this every probably news is fresh. So we're gonna wear our options and
we'll see what's next. We're in talks with WBC. Now we'll see Devin.
I wish you the best of luck and whatever comes down the road.
But I appreciate your time. Yes, sir, thank you well done with
being able to get him again. I prop you that's why you are who
you are, As I said in the in the build up, he put
on social media too that I'm I'm gonna sit out for a year. I
think you know. Uh, it's obvious from hearing his comments, from seeing
his comments in the days leading up to everything that was broken here on Thursday.
You used agreed. He feels damaged, he feels unfairly treated in a
lot of this, So wrap up with thoughts. After having talked to him
as you did, he was thankful that as he said that the Commission quote
unquote did the right thing, and the Commission did do the right thing as
they should have. They're supposed to follow the rules and go by what the
evidence shows, and that's exactly what they did. I mean. The bottom
line is how And now in the in the point of view of the Ryan
Garcia team, they issued their own statement in which they still claim that the
reason for his foul drug test was because it was tainted supplements. So you
can choose to believe that or not. My perspective is I don't think that's
relevant. I mean, I'm a I'm a strict liability guy. That ship
was in your system, end of story. You hate the punishment. So
based on the rules of the Commission, and the statute in New York State.
They followed what they're supposed to do. He suspended. He's guilty.
Again. How it got there is not relevant. It's that it was there.
That's the point. And he'll set out and he can rant and raise
and everybody can get up in arms. But as I said from day one
when this all started, TJ. Ryan Garcia may be a little bit more
famous than your average person that gets caught up in a drug testing situation in
boxing, But this is as basic as cookie cutter a case as there has
ever been. Is this simply a case of athlete sales test, athlete claims
innocence, athlete is punished, athlete is suspended in the story, that's what
this is. We'll see you next year, baby, and we'll see what
Hainy does next. Because he may elect to end up fighting Sander Martin,
maybe at a different price. I don't know. He may end up vacating.
It's weird, it's controversial. Next move is kind of his as to
what he wants to do in the aftermath of that. But again, great
job getting him on the pod, and you heard his comments right there.
As it relates to Ryan Garcia, Okay, so we've gone for a little
bit and it is a preview podcast. Oh by the way, speaking of
Top Rank, they have the most prominent card because it's got a world title
and it is Friday night. As we released the podcast overnight Thursday into Friday.
It is a Friday night show where Rafael Espinoza will defend the WBO featherweight
title in Las Vegas against a fellow countryman not really known. Sergio Chirino is
his name. So let's get into the preview mode because when last we saw
Ramirez, great upset, when last December, when last we saw Espinosa,
excuse me? He beat Roba C Ramirez last December, big upset, taking
his title. They don't end up having a rematch next. Espinoza takes this
fight next and it headlights headlines the Top Rank card Friday Night. Dan Rayphiel,
Yeah, I mean listen. When they fought in December, that was
one of the biggest upsets of the year. It was one of the it's
not the upset of the year. It was also one of the best fights
of the year. A very dramatic, very exciting fight. Both of the
guys got knocked down, but it was Ramirez who who got knocked down in
the fifth round. I mean, I'm sorry he was Espinoza who got knocked
down in around five, but it was it was you know, he stormed
back and dropped Ramirez in the twelfth round, and that was very dramatic because
he needed that. It turned out to be a majority, a majority decision.
He won on two score cards, but the other card was one thirteen
to one thirteen, and so with that he wins the title. Big,
huge upset. I mean, Ramirez was cruising along against his past opponents since
shaking off his pro debut pro debut loss. He had defended the title impressively
in Japan, and now they're moving on to bigger and better things. This
was not supposed to happen. This is a guy in Espinosa, had been
fighting for a buck's basically a decade, that had never fought anybody and was
hand picked. Yeah, he was big and tall, but by no means
was this supposed to be a problem. He was fighting in Miami, which
is where Robasi Ramirez is. You know, his people are as Cuban countrymen.
He lives in that south, in South Florida. Now, so this
was supposed to be him all the way, and he didn't just lose,
but he lost in very dramatic fashion. And so when the fight happened and
he lost, Top Rank initially was like, okay, we're in do an
immediate rematch. The Espinosa team was like, look, we'd like to do
another defense. They said, okay, fine. Top Rank signed Raphael Espinoza
to do a co promotion agreement in recent weeks. There now partners with Zanfer
Promotions, who they've done business with for you know, decades. And so
if he wins the fight on a Friday against against similarly unknown Charino, who's
sort of like the Rafaelspinosa was going into the res fight, he's just as
unknown as Espinosa was going to that fight. Even alluded to that in the
press conference that you know, I want to do what he did and come
out of nowhere basically win the title in paraphrasing. But if anyway, if
if Espinosa is the winner on Friday and next week on the Tea Female Lopez
undercard, you've got Robasi Ramirez in a fight. If he wins that fight,
Top Ranks plan is to do the rematch between Espinosa and Rimirez before the
end of this year. Probably you're looking at like October November in that ballpark
for the rematch. So there's a lot on the line for Espinosa. But
the thing I love about Espinosa, and this is why boxing is so great.
You're liking over after ten years toiling. You're like an overnight sensation.
And he made the point in the press Conferenceino talking through a Spanish language interpreter,
that he's enjoying this. He's lily, he's taken in every minute of
it. He's like, I've worked hard, you know, I'm enjoying this.
I just want to keep it going. I mean, it was very
endearing. It's a very he's a very likable, uh like a likable kind
of guy. The way that he was speaking about it, and in terms
of Tirino, you know, he's like, I'm here to tell the same
story that Espinosa told, which is, you know, pull the upset so
you know we're gonna win and uh and and do what he did and pull
the big upset. So and and by the way, based on the way
that Espinosa fought in the fight against Robas Ramirez and just the general usual way
that it goes down. When you got to you know, determined Mexican fighters
in there, one would anticipate this will be an exciting fight. Well and
again, uh, Espinoza lanky fighter, a little taller and very very tall,
but he got the better of Ramirez in the back half of that fight.
So uh, let's see what this looks like on on Friday night.
And Robas Ramirez is obviously very interesting. I mean I put this on the
Big Fight Weekend website. I mean we're not talking about mega money, but
the bigger money is in the Ramirez rematch. And if Charino somehow pulls the
upset, it screws that up, it screws up the rematch Espinoza and Ramirez.
And keep in mind down the line, for anybody, any of these
guys who are featherweight titles in the right circumstance over the next year or so,
there's a pretty decent chance they're going to get a chance. If I
know you in a way and that's where you're making huge money, your relative
toody. So that is the main event in the immediate co feature. Andres
Cortes, who's a Las Vegas native, unbeaten junior lightweight will fight your guy
Abraham super Nova. We just saw super Nova in February challenge Oshaki Foster and
lose on a decision in a fairly close fight. Now Nova right back as
the veteran fighting the unbeaten Cortes. That's the co feature. What about that
fight? And I know Troy Isley is on the under card as well.
What else for Friday Night? Top rank here? Well, the co feature,
like you mentioned, Cortes Noova is a nice matchup. You got Cortes
a few years younger, undefeated on the rise, and Nova a veteran with
you know, world championship experience. There's only losses have come against like you
mentioned by decision to a Shaki Foster. He did get knocked out a couple
of fights before that in an eliminator against Robesi Ramirez back before he moved up
to junior lightweight. So, uh, Cortes and Nova, they've been kind
of talking shit back and forth. Cortes has really wanted this fight, uh.
And it's the kind of fight where if Cortes can get to win,
you know, it should firmly establish himself as like a as a as a
solid contender in this weight class, So there's a lot on line for him
too, because he's looking to protect his undefeated record and take that next big
step up to put himself in world title contention, if you will, possibly
against o Shaki. Foster's also with Top Right. And for Nova, coming
off a loss to Foster in a world title fight, you don't ever want
to lose two in a row. That that would be a very big detriment
to him. So I think theyre both know that there's a lot at stake
for both these guys, and you mentioned him at the other fight. Now
those are the two. His entire card is only on ESPN Plus. It's
not an ESPN card, so everything is available on the on the on the
app. But the fight before the Cortes and uh and Nova co feature is
a very interesting prospect fight. Top Rank has had been working with Troy Eisley,
who was a middleweight twenty and twenty United States Olympian. It lives in
the town next to mine in Alexandria, Virginia. He's taken on Milwaukee's Haavier
Martinez, who's also been with Top Rank for his entire career. Both these
guys are undefeated and now it's time for them to fight in the pros.
I was a little surprised, frankly when Top Rank made the fight. But
they're of the opinion of, look, you know, let's see what happens.
We're gonna roll the dice and we're gonna put our guys in with each
other. And the thing that makes it somewhat intriguing is that if you go
back to their days as top amateurs, they fought four times. It was
two wins for each of them. Was it was Isley who won the first
two matchups in high level amateur tournaments, in the finals of the NEWS National
Championships, I believe, and then it was Martinez who gets the wins in
the next two fights in the US National Championships in twenty and eighteen, and
then as well as the twenty twenty Olympic trials, you know, the US
Olympic team trials. So they've got a lot of history with each other,
and they're both making the point that I'm gonna kick your ass in the pros
because this ain't amateurs anymore. So I'm very interested to see how these two
prospects do when they are in with each other in a professional fight. Where
they know each other well from the amateur ranks. And it's not that many
years ago, I mean twenty twenty, you know, in boxing years.
You know, it ain't it's not that long ago. It's you know,
it's relatively recent times, I guess. So, you know, not not
big, huge, sexy names on the under card, but those two fights
are intriguing for different reasons. Love it first mentioned that we will handicap the
main event, the Espinoza title defense on the bet Us Boxing Show one Eastern
time. That's coming on the bet Us platforms, as we always say on
YouTube, Twitter, et cetera. Check us out, we'll handicap that in
the weekend action on bet Us. Okay to the news you gave us the
big news obviously at the top on the the broker agreement with Ryan Garcia agreeing
to be suspended and forfeit a million dollars of his perse et cetera. The
one point one millions, a few hundred thousand among friends, I'm with you.
And also the most important thing is the loss comes off Devin Haney's record.
It's officially a no contest. So we covered all of that in the
news. There is other news since you and I talked on Sunday night.
Hey, how about this. I can't say that I'm that surprised that Jake
Paul is going to fight in the interim, And it's interesting that Paul is
going to be back and Amanda Serrano's going to be back, and the fight
card is back at a location where they both fought before, where brother Raphael
Tampa, Florida, Downtown Tampa, the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning,
the Amilie Arena. So Jake Paul will fight a bare knuckle fighter, a
former UFC fighter, a guy that's actually sparred with him in the past in
Mike Perry, and Amanda Serrano, while waiting for this mega rematch with Katie
Taylor, will also take a fight. And I've got to be honest,
and I asked a couple of people in Tampa boxing. I don't know anything
about Serrano's opponent, Stevie Morgan, who lives here, who lives and trains
in Tampa Bay. I've not heard no offense. Sorry, sorry, Stevie
the sledgehammer more Morgan, I've not heard of her. But she is Serrano's
opponent and this is gonna keep the date of July the twentieth, and it's
now a dizone pay per view. All right, give us more? And
are you surprised at all that that these two are still trying to stay active.
I was not surprised by this. I'll just say that I am surprised.
It's right back here in Tampa Bay. So I'm gonna look to try
to cover this in July, which we shall see. Yeah, I mean,
I was not surprised at that they're fighting leading up to the November rescheduling
date for the Tyson fight. That's along my off red. Jake Paul's a
young guy, doesn't need that's always gonna go in the ring and you know,
do what prize fighters do, which is fight for the prize, and
if he wins, you know, they'll move on. You know. I
don't know much about Perry in terms of his boxing ability, but if you
follow UFC and if you're interested in the bare knuckles fighting, that's what he
does. Apparently he's pretty good in those realms. We'll see how he does
this strictly a stand up boxer against Jake Paul. I mean, so there's
some intrigue there because I guess in terms of the you know among the u
because BKFC is growing that he's one of the most if not the most popular
fighter on their roster. So we'll see how he does again in a boxing
match. You know, they're making it out like, you know, it's
my toughest fight, Bob. I'm sick of that shit. It's not as
tough ast fight, but that's different matter. So yeah, he's gonna fight
to fight and wait for Tyson still to go in November on the they wanted
to preserve this July twentieth date. I'm a little disappointed it's on pay per
view, but it is what it is. As far as Serrano, she
is taking this fight. Amanda is gonna fight, but Katie Taylor is not
gonna fight. She's gonna wait for the November fight. But the plan for
sure is that as long as she comes out of this okay, there rear
match will still take place on that Jake Paul Tyson. Under and reminder,
Serrano was supposed to fight with Jake Paul on March the second in Puerto Rico
and then had the odd thing with the hair chemicals that got in her eyes.
Had her hair done literally about forty eight hours before she was supposed to
fight, hair chemicals got in her eyes and actually burned one of her hands
and could not fight. So she's been off for a little while. So
this is again, this is a stay busy situation for her. Well,
she's also going to take the opportunity to do this fight in the junior welterweight
division. She's not going to be defending her featherweight titles because she is fighting
Katie Taylor at one hundred and forty pounds, So she's gonna do this fight
in that weight class. She has fought in that weight class before, She's
been a champion in that weight class before. She has won world titles in
what seven different weight divisions, which is the record for women's boxing. You
talk about Stevie Morgan, she's got a good record at fourteen and one with
thirteen knockouts, but if you take a deep dive into a record, she
is probably one of the easiest opponents on paper that the man has had a
very long time. Again, take my word for it. I talked to
an in tune Tampa boxing person who said I don't know anything about her,
for whatever it's worth. So there you go, and it's not well the
reason I'm thinking a soft touch. You call it a soft touch. Usually
this should be a soft touch for Serrano. But you don't know. We'll
see, well, if you take a look at her record, she's knocked
out bums in Colombia. I mean no offense. That's what it is.
When you're fighting those the types of opponents that she's fighting in Colombia, and
you're now you're going in the ring with Amanda Serrano. On paper anyway,
it should be easy work. And by the way, you're not looking to
put a man of Serrano in a hugely tough fight when you've got millions and
millions of dollars riding on a rematch with Katie Taylor in a fight that people
actually want to see. No one gives a shit about Serrano fighting Stevie Morgan.
They're putting this on the show to keep her busy, see if she
can get a knockout and whatever. You know, obviously you know I'm not
denigrating her knock in Stevie Morgan. She's got a great opportunity to make a
name for herself against a real opponent if she can beat a Mandatano. Not
not the no Council's been knocking off in the first round in a series of
nothing six rounders in Colombia. And one other note about this is when they
had that December of twenty twenty one show, they packed the place. I
was there. I don't know that this will sell out, but I wouldn't
again, this is a big fight area, no pun intended on our Big
Fight Weekend podcast. This is a huge boxing historical heritage area of the last
forty or fifty years. And Jake Paul brings a different audience too along with
it. So let's see, let's see what that looks like for a month
from now for July twentieth, and again it will be a dizone pay per
view. I'm trying to recollect off the top of my head. The other
the other fight in March was supposed to be regular to Zone where Paul was
the co feature. Serrano was supposed to be the headliner. They're trying to
make as much as they can out of this and put something on. So
there's there's what it's worth added to the pay per view list? Any anything
else there on that? Or shall we move on? Are we moving on?
We can move on with the news Uh, Canelo Alvarez and William Skull.
I'm about over asking you about perse bid delayed, perse bid, perse
bid delayed perse bid. So I'll tell you what happened, all right,
give me the update because this smells this reek of step aside go ahead.
So they haven't actually said what the permeters of their so called deal is yet.
I'm not really sure what the big secret is. And I've reached out
to the IBF. The IBF says they're not even sure about it, and
I've reached out to the Canelo team and they don't want to talk about it
at the moment. But nonetheless, they were supposed to be the purst bit
for his mandatory against William Skull. Uh this past Tuesday. That was the
second time that had been postponed and Tuesday was the new date. So you
figure, okay, what's gonna happen. As it turns out, they made
some kind of agreement. Uh, the people that promote William Skull agon Sports
out of Germany. They made mention of a deal on their Facebook page and
announce that there really has been nothing publicly yet from the Canelo team. But
the bottom line is they made it. Am I not mistaken. Can Interrupted
Agon announced they're fighting. Agon said we're gonna fight in Canelo. I thought
they did. I thought they said they were intimating we have a fight.
No, no, not to my knowledge. And even if they did,
I don't think that's accurate. Even if they made even if they said it's
even if they said they're fighting him, I don't think that means it's next
as in like September or whenever Canelo laces them up the next time. What
it tells me is that they made a deal. He'll probably fight on Canelo's
next undercard in the fall. By the way, he fought on the Haimimongia
undercard that just took place in May. That didn't happen by accident. You
know TGB Promotions, which promoted that event on behalf of Canelo. You know
they worked with him. TGB, according to the folks at Agon Sports,
were the ones that worked out whatever they worked out, So they were dealing
Canellos still been dealing with them and PBC, even though he's not signed to
them or anything like that, but theyre have some type of working relationship there.
And so the upshot here is that most likely Canello is going to be
able to keep his undisputed title intact for whatever his fallfight is, and they'll
put a Skull off for a little while and at some point he'll either fight
him or by that time maybe I'll have lost or I'll have vacated or whatever.
But we will not be put in a position to decide if we really
care to buy Canelo Alvarez against I can already weigh in. I'm not in
any position to care. I do not care about that. They're not fighting.
They shouldn't be fighting. But all right, let's see, let's see
where it goes from here. One thing we know, William Skull's getting paid
for the step aside and probably going to end up on a fight where he
gets a decent payday. So what you gotta do is here, here's the
blueprint. Go back and look at the history of the fights of one Bakra
Mirtaziliv. He had become the mandatory when Jermel Charlotte was the IBF Junior middleweight
champion, and he went on the way to defend and ultimately unify and become
undisputed against Castanio. They had to go through two fights. After the draw,
he was supposed to fight Matazlov. After that, they did multiple step
aside deals. If you take a look at his record Matazlov, you'll see
he fought on not only Charlotte undercards, but other undercards at PBC and he
made seven figures in step aside money just going along with the program to fight
on those undercards. When it came time after Charlot lost to Canelo for Charlotte
to finally make the mandatory on the day of the purse bid, he vacated
and then it was a couple of months later where Matazlav fought Jack Colka in
Germany for the vacant IBF title. He won the fight and now he's the
IVF champion, so he got a lot of money, didn't after tango with
Charlo, fought a much easier fighting col Kay won the title and now has
the belt and we'll see what he does in this first defense. So my
point here is this, this is a blueprint that has been laid out.
It feels like what's going on with Skull is going to follow that same situation.
Take whatever he can get on these undercards and make a lot of money.
Let Canelo do his thing, and at some point Canelo will retire,
he'll lose, he'll vacate, whatever the case may be. And at that
point, William Skull can fight whoever the next available guy is for the vacant
title. Now, one thing I don't like about that. It's fine if
your skull and you're willing to do that. It's fine if Canelo is willing
to do that. In the IBF will play ball. What I don't like
about that is everybody else in the IBF rankings behind those guys. It backs
them up because it doesn't give number three or four or five a chance to
ultimately fight for the belt. Agreed, no kidding, But here are the
games that get played at the top. And you know, and I don't
want to go down a rabbit hole, but these are the games that David
Benabitez has been number one in the WBC and the interim champion for over a
year and he and he can't get a fight, and the WBC won't do
anything to make Canelo fight him. So in the IVF they ordered the fight.
The WS he'd never ordered the fight. That's true, there is definitely
a difference. One more news item, and that's Virgil Ortiz. We have
been wondering whether or not he would be on the August third card. Tim
Zuo not able to fight because the gash on his crown of his head from
the Sebastian Fundura fight from the elbow and the loss in that fight is not
healed well enough. The latest is now he's not gonna be on the stacked
August third card, but instead what is what's his next move? What's up
here with this? So the bottom line with this was the Saudi's Turkey al
Chic and the rest of the team over there that puts these events together.
They were obviously really interested in Virgil versus Tim Zoo what boxing fin would be.
That's a great matchup. But for whatever reason, when the other possibilities
that were approached about replacing Tim when Tim was not going to be available,
and they brought up names like Sir Hey Boachik, who looked really good winning
the interim WCC belt on the Fondora and Zoo undercard. He was a name
that was brought up. Ericson Lubin was another name that was brought up.
The Olympian and recently signed a Golden Boy fighter. Charles Conwell was brought up.
I mean I would have had no problem with any of those three fights.
They're all interesting for one reason or another. Maybe Lubin not as much
because I felt like he lost to Ramos when they fought their fight. But
be that as it may, they decided we're not going to put that fight
on. They were more interested to reschedule the Virgil Ortiz against Zoo, perhaps
in one of the big shows are doing in the fall in Saudi Arabia.
My sources told me that tim Zu was not interested in fighting in Saudi Arabia.
So the bottom line is Virgil Artis will have his own date in August
on one of Golden Boys shows that are that are on his own, and
I think they're trying to finalize the Boacheck fight, which is a good fight,
So we still may see Virgil versus Boicheck, it just will be in
its own main event on a Golden Boy de Zone card as opposed to on
what is still a stacked card on August IRV that's headlined by Crawford and Madromov.
All right, you will keep us up to date as you're always locked
in with the fight news nostalgia time. We were talking on the previous podcast
about Oscar de la Hooya and Shane Moseley Staple Centered Well twenty one years ago,
Friday June twenty one, two thousand and three, Lenox lewis final fight
with the Tally Clitchko for the heavyweight title. You were right there for that
one. Roughly what three years after dal la Hooya and most you had become
an La veteran at that point where the d La Joya Mosley was your first
you now had become a vet of getting in and out of Hollywood and all
of that. So what do you remember. Obviously it's the final time we
saw Lennox Lewis. I covered a lot of fights in Los Angeles, and
this is probably those two fights that you mentioned Mosley de la Hoya, the
first fight and this fight are maybe the two best fights I've covered in Los
Angeles, even though I've covered, you know, quite a few of them,
both in Carson and Staple Center and other venues in and around Los Angeles.
But look, this was one of those fights where if you go back
and you look at the history of how it came, that was a totally
like an accident that had happened in the first place. First of all,
number one for many, many many years from the moment this fight ended up
until just a few years ago. This was the best heavyweight fight I had
ever covered, a tremendous, tremendous battle. It was ultimately replaced by the
twenty seventeen fight of the year between the Tally Clitchco's brother Vladimir Klitchkow in his
great epic fight with Anthony Joshua for three of the heavyweight belts that took place
in Wembley Stadium that I was fortunate enough to be ringside for, and then
as great as Lennox Lewis and Clitchcow and Anthony Joshua and the other clitch Goo
where it was supplanted by what is today the greatest heavyweight fight I have ever
covered, and that was the heavyweight title fight, the third bout between Tyson
Fury and Deontay Wilder, which is just another legendary, epic, all time
great heavyweight title fight. But Lewis against Clitchkow was fantastic. But just to
explain what happened, they were supposed to do a double header. It was
going to be an HBO pay per view fight double header. Lennox Lewis was
in with one opponent and the tally Clitchco was in with another opponent, and
the plan was do this as a review and then when they both win their
fights, we will match them with each other in the fall in the mega
fight Vladimir Vitally versus Lennox for the heavyweight title. But what happened was in
a couple of weeks or so, maybe ten days or so, was very
very close to the fight you had Vitali Klitschkow's opponent Kirk Johnson. Take that
back, Lennox Lewis's original opponent, Kirk Johnson had an injury, and when
that happened, rather than completely take the card down, they basically said,
what about doing the fight on an accelerated basis and forget this double header nonsense.
And not only did both sides agree, So I guess they paid off
the opponent for Klitchkow, who was supposed to fight somebody else, Cedric Boswell,
if my memory serves and so Boswell, you know, I just say
to the audience, he's doing this off the top of his head and comes
up with Cedric Boswell, which is a name that I haven't heard in twenty
three five years. You're amazing. I don't remember if Cedric Boswell ended up
fighting some other opponent on the under party. Does anybody else the bottom line
remember it? Other than Boswell's family, nobody would remember it. Continue on.
We got Clitchco and Lewis is the bottom line. So what happened was,
instead of going on pay per view, HBO, the big daddy of
the time, went beyond their normal boxing budget. They went upstairs to the
top executives and got a special budget grant. You know, there's anybody that
runs a big company always has some money stashed in the in the emergency fund
and the rainy day fund, in the piggy bank, however you want to
call it. And they put up at the time an extraordinary amount of money
for a live network fight, not pay per view. HBO paid ten dollars
to put this on the network live from Staple Center. They made a big
show out of it, and Lenox Lewis fought Clitchko instead of waiting till the
fall, and they took it off of pay per view and put it live
on regular HBO. That is amazing. That'd be like if they took like
Alexander Usik and Tyson Fury and put it on regular de zone or you know,
took some other megafight and put it on non pay per view. It's
like unheard of. They made a huge beez is suddenly on regular absolute same
sort of situation because this was the heavyweight fight that everybody wanted at the time,
and so, uh, they fought the fight. Now, Lennox did
not come in great shape because he was training for a different opponent who I
think he felt was going to be a pretty easy opponent relatively speaking, in
Kirk Johnson. Uh, but they made the fight on short notice and they
went in there and they turned in one of the all time classic fights that
was an absolute slug fast. These are two very big men. One of
the rare times Lennox Lewis was in with a fighter that was bigger than him
because flitzch Go you know, Lynn Lennox about six foot six and Vitally is
about six seven six's eight, a big, big, big men,
both heavy heavy duty punchers, and they just went to town and they slugged
it out. And you know, at the time of the stoppage, it
is a fact that Lenox was behind in all three scorecards. But a lot
of people have said in a in a derisively towards Lenox. In my perspective
is okay. He was losing on the cards until he got the knockout.
What the hell is the difference? He stopped him. It was a brutal,
brutal, brutal, hideous cut that he in fled on clitch Go over
his eye. It wasn't from a head butt, it was from clean punching.
He had multiple cuts. And remember Clitchkow had had a lot of grief
against him because of the perception about how he quit against Chris Bird with a
very severe rotator cuff injury that you can't see. You can see a guy
when he's caught and bleeding, you see a rotator cuff. All you see
is the guy's shoulder. You have no idea what's going on. So he
got a really bad rap. They called him bitch Go, they called him
quitch Go. It was like a whole big to do when he quit that
fight. And so when this fight was about to be stopped and he's bleeding
like a stuck pig and one of the worst cuts I ever have seen in
my entire time as a boxing journalist or as just a fan watching on television.
He was just begging to go on, and you know, but at
the end of the day, they had to stop the fight. It was
such a severe cut. So he he won back a lot of the people
that he alienated or made boo him because of the balls and the heart that
he showed against Lenox to I'll back you up just for this reference. If
you remember just recently the tim Zoo bleeding all over the place, This is
gruesome with that eye and bleeding from that fight. When you go back and
relive it, and it's not a surprise that they halted it and you were
right there watching the blood and watching all of it. Yeah, it was.
It was a rough one. It was a hell of a fight.
And you know at that time, you know, there's been now many many
more major fights in Los Angeles in the years that have passed incon but there
really wasn't a lot for a number of years. There were not a lot
of big megafights in Los Angeles. He had dale Oy and Moseley the first
one that we talked about. That was one of them, and there hadn't
been a heavyweight world title fight in Los Angeles. You know, in a
few decades, got to go back a number of years before the right Fury
eventually fought Wilder in La in their first place, like twenty nineteen. Right,
it took sixteen more years, but you got to go back into like
I think the late sixties or early seventies before there had been another heavyweight world
title fight in Los Angeles, so that was another big sort of big deal.
There was a lot of conversation that they would have a rematch. There
was a lot of people chasing both guys around, throwing money around. In
the end, Lennox, you know, to retire, I think, and
I had this conversation with Lenox over the years. He liked the idea of
everybody chasing him for the rematch. He liked the idea of people throwing money
at him. But in the end, he just didn't like the idea of
going back to another training camp to be in solitude for eight weeks to train
his ass off to go in there and fight with Hell the Clitchkow. Lenox
had made huge amounts of money. He was not a young man anymore,
h and he retired on top. And I knew this at the time.
I said this to Lenox personally. You know, if you don't come back,
your legend is going to grow with every passing year because when I was
covering him as an active fighter, Lenox got a lot of grief from a
lot of people. He never got the respect that he deserved. I was
always viewed within the American boxing media as a Lenox guy, and I'm proud
of that. I was a Lenox guy, and he deserved the accolades that
he never got from a lot of my ringside colleagues who treated him like shit.
I always gave him the respect that he deserved, and he proved himself
because of the two shocker losses to call and Rockman on the one punch that
they would never give you the credit because despite that, he as you articulated,
and we've talked about it even recently. He beats Evander Holyfield. He
flattens Mike Tyson as well, and that was yeah. But even before that,
he beat a lot of He beat Tommy Morrison by knockout, he beat
Michael Grant by knockout. He'd beat Andrew Gillata by knockout. He knocked that
Razor utick in a brutal you know on a been a big time knockout I
mean he had he had beaten a lot of good fighters. I mean he
was not beating bums. Uh, he just did not get the credit because
you know, he wasn't. He didn't have a big personality. He didn't
particularly love talking to the media. I think they'd held that against him.
He uh, you know, he spoke with the British accent. He wasn't.
He didn't. He didn't sound like a tough guy. But he can
fight his ass off. And uh, you know it was it was proven
in this case because he stood up to clipch go. Yeah, okay,
fine, he was behind on the cards, but in the end, you
know, he he as I've talked to you many times, he brought his
own two judges because those two judges, the left and the right, ripped
open one of the grossest worst cuts he'll ever see and a heavyweight fighter any
fight for that matter. And uh, you know, I always respected Lennox
for the way he retired. Uh he stay too long. He walked away
on top. You know, I had an opportunity after his retirement to spend
a lot of time personally with Lenox because we worked together when when I was
doing the job on the Epics, Network as their analyst, and Lenox was
my broadcast partner, and we spent a lot of time together. And you
know, Lenox is a good man, and he was a great fighter,
and this was this was the last I mean talking about going out on a
high note. You fight one of the great heavyweight battles of all time,
you retain the heavyweight title, and then a few months later you have a
press conference and you announce your retirement and you know, I just did a
very fast week and you stay retired, which is what your point is.
When he was tempted to maybe come out otherwise, all right, Red a
great fight, that was though, right. So that's the by the way,
when I talk about on the show sometimes I'll say, I hope that's
like a good old fashioned heavyweight slobberknocker. That's what that was back now,
that was twenty one years ago. So interesting on the weekend June twenty second
is the twenty second anniversary. The year before same weekend, but the year
before Marco Antonio Brera Eric Morales two won by Barrera in Las Vegas. You
were ringside for that June twenty second, two thousand and two. What stands
out as those guys fought epic, epic fights. What stands out about the
second one? So this comes about two years after their first fight, which
I had just been hired as the boxing writer at USA Today but had not
yet started that job. So I remember watching the first fight, which is
the classic first doubt of this trilogy, watching that fight knowing if I had
started, like a few months earlier, I'd probably be at the fight.
So that always kind of ate me up that I wasn't able to be there.
But now you fast forward a couple of years later, and I'm now
entrenched at on the boxing beat at USA Today, and I go to Las
Vegas to the MGM Grand one of the many great fights. We talked a
lot about the MGM history last week with relation to their one hundredth championship event
with Tank Davis and Frank Martin, but Morales and Burra, this was a
very highly anticipated fight. Morales was the WBC's featherweight champion, Brera was the
clear number one guy besides him, and everybody had anticipated this rematch. They
ultimately fought three times, with about two years in between each fight, but
it was Berera that got the close win. I split decision in the first
fight. A lot of people thought that Eric rightfully should have gotten the win
in the second fight, I mean in the first fight. Rather, so
they fought the rematch, and this time it was it was a Morales victory.
In this fight, I mean, this was it was the more tactical
than the first fight, more tactle than the third fight. If you wanted
to grade the trilogy, you know, sometimes there's that trilogy where one of
them is the one that sort of maybe a little more forgettable, where the
other ones are the legendary fights. Because number one is a legendary fight.
In number three was the fight of the year that year, in a legendary
fight. But the second one, on its own was an excellent fight.
But when you compare it to the action that went down in the first two
fights, I mean, I mean, sorry, in the first and the
third fight, it doesn't really kind of hold the cam to it. This
fight had also been postponed at one point because of an injury, so the
anticipation was raised even more because it had been put off by a couple of
months. But another fantastic fight between two great Hall of famers, and you
know, all you can say is uh. It was just a It was
a great honor to cover, not only cover their their trilogy. I personally
was at the second and third fight, but their whole careers. But they
are defined by their fights against each other, not so much the second fight
in particular that we're talking about, but the scope of the three fights,
don't I remember this from when we were talking about it in recent times earlier
this year. They really hated each other, genuinely, do I remember this
right? And they come to smooth it over and have more respect for each
other, and that often happens after their careers. But truly there was big
time hatred between the two when this rematch was happening. Yes, more Yeah,
there was a big division among their class within Mexico. Morales was the
Indian quote unquote from Tijuana, from the poor neighborhood, and Brera was from
more of an affluent community from Mexico City. He had gone to college or
shoul. I don't know if Marco went to college, but his parents were
professionals. I think one of them was a college professor, right was a
lawyer, so he was much more educated than Morales. So it was like
a within within the for those of us who are us gringos. You just
see their two Mexicans. So within their within their Mexican culture, there was
a class distinction. It was he Brer was the upper class type of guy,
the the wealthier guy with the education and Morales was the guy that was
from the you know, from the street, from the ghetto, that didn't
have the education, that came from a much poorer, uh poorer background,
you know, growing up in a small apartment above a boxing gym in Tijuana.
And so they clashed over that. That was sort of the basis of
the rivalry. Uh, and they there was really serious bad blood. Now
years and years later, Uh, they were able to get to the point
where now I won't say they're friends, but they'll talk to each other.
They've had meals together, like I've seen them do public things together. I've
seen them in It was Valdez, wasn't it where they brought them together.
It was a it was a fight, top rank brought them together and they
were smiling, mugging of the cameras, sitting by each other without trying to
stab each other with plastic silverware at a lunch. I mean they got along.
As my point, they brought them in to help promote that fight because
the way it was positioned, and I understand this that a lot of people
thought that that was a fight that could be like one of the Bremralis fights
in terms of the action. And by the way, it was a very
very close fight. Yes, Marco Antonio Brera received the unanimous decision one thirteen
on two score cards, one sixteen to one twelve on the other. But
Harold Letterman, who I mean, if you're a boxing man, you definitely
respect Harold Leerman. He scored the fight one fifteen to one thirteen in favor
of Eric Morales, so seven to five on two cards one way, seven
to five on Harold's card the other way. It was a really close fight.
I actually before we started to tape this, I went to go look
up my scorecard and I couldn't find my I have it somewhere. I have
noted all of the big fights I have scored. But you've had a busy
Thursday. You've had a busy Thursday with the Devin Handy stuff. I can't
remember how I scored that fight. I mean, it sounds kind of crazy,
but I've been Fortunately you remembered Boswell off the top of your head,
will forgive you that you can't recollect twenty two years ago if you had Morales
or Barrera winning. I'll tell you this though, because I had the end.
This was not the end of their rivalries. The other point too,
which is you've been saying right, because I fought two years later and one
of the greatest fights I've ever been to. But the thing that's funny about
is I remember when having missed not been a ringside for their first fight,
even though I had already been hired as the boxing writer at the USA today,
like literally packing stuff while I'm watching the fight, you know, in
my living room of my old apartment. When the rematch was made, knowing
I had missed the first fight in those first few years of my time at
the newspaper and having been a you know, being a full time boxing writer
in the early days of my career, I was as excited to go to
Vegas to cover this fight as anything because I had missed the first one,
as I mentioned, so I was as pumped up as could be, and
I had covered some other fights that that Barrera had had in the interim before
he got the rematch, so I had interviewed him a few times, and
I was just so super excited to cover this fight. And and it was
a pleasure and a joy to cover every Morales and Brier fight that I covered,
you know, whoever they were fighting against, and to see these two
guys against each other at least two of their three fights, you know,
I would say that's one of the highlights of my time on boxing. In
the second fight, while not the classic of one or three, was still
a worthwhile thing to watch. They boxed beautifully and gave a lot of great
action. That was a super close fight. And again that anniversary is Saturday
the twenty second, twenty two years ago, June twenty second, two thousand
and two. Man a lot on the show, and again we head to
a weekend that has speaking of Vegas, a Vegas featherweight world title fight,
Waffi Lespanoza, speaking of Mexicans fighting his Mexican countrymen in Charino in the main
event, Sergio Toarino. And again, as you hear us as we released
the podcast, that is Friday Night not Saturday Night, Friday Night in the
top rank main event. Listen, busy show, great job, I prop
you again forgetting Devin Hainey on and I hope the fans enjoyed that. In
the aftermath of the agreement, that Ryan Garcia has taken a suspension and been
levied with the punishments and what's next for Hani, we'll find out. You
heard him in his own words on this podcast. That's why you need to
be following and subscribing on this podcast feed The Big Fight Weekend podcast feed.
Why don't we reconvene one Eastern time bet USTv boxing show on Friday, my
friend and handicap the top ranked main event. There's also a British middleweight compelling
main event fight that we will also handicap. Find us on bet USTv peeps
one Eastern time Friday, even find us after the fact if you don't find
us live on bet us TV, so you get more Rayfield this weekend preview
on this pod and then the live show on Friday, and then whatever happens.
We're off the weekend with the Fight Freaks United recap with the weekend action
and the news. Sound good? Everything good? We're ready for the weekend?
Sounds good? Baby. There is the one and only Dan Rayfield.
I'm merely TJ Reeves. Thank you for being with us as we preview the
fights every week on the Big Fight Weekend Preview pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss to do scho