Off of a weekend that has seen David Benavidez look fantastic in his main event
pay per view win over Dimitrios Andre, plus an entertaining card really on the
pay per view, We're ready to recap that. We're ready to recap the
revenge win for Katie Taylor in Ireland to now become a two division four belt
undisputed women's champion. We got that to talk about, and on the program,
we also have the WBC's junior welterweight champion, Reagis Progray coming up here
on the show Man It's jampacked. I'm TJ Reeves. It's the Fight Freaking
Night Recap podcast. You are here to hear more from this man. The
Insider Fight Freaks Unit is his substack after all, Bigfight Weekend dot Com as
well. Hello Dan Rayfield. Plenty to discuss as we come off the weekend.
How we feeling as we head into what's about to be the first week
in December Later on this week, how are you feeling well? You know,
I'm feeling good, but normally when we get to this time of year,
you know, there's like one or two shows left and by the second
week of December, at least in my most of my time of writing about
boxing that was sort of like the unofficial offseason was post second week of December
usually through like the second or third week, third week of January. It
was pretty much nothing going on other than a couple of title fights that would
typically be on the traditional New Year's weekend in Japan. This year not the
case. We got fights every week because you mentioned we got Ryan Garcia coming
up, we got the Regis program Haini fight coming up. There's the obviously
the the you know, the the flyweight unification between Bam Rodriguez and Sonny Edwards.
We got the big Mega show in Saudi Arabia the twenty third, plus
some other fights that are going on, so plus the Japanese fights. But
got in a way going for Undisputed at the end of the year. It's
as busy December as I can remember. We're about to get right into it.
Yeah, there's no doubt about that. Again, thank you for finding
us. How are You've done so through a social media link, through Dan
Substack his newsletter, et cetera. We do our best to promote you can
help us, rate us, review us, get those going here because it
does help us with the algorithms. If you rate and review us, take
ten seconds and do that, especially on Apple podcasts, et cetera. If
you like what you're hearing, including the newsmakers, et cetera. As we
keep saying and again, Regi's prograde coming up one on one with Dan prior
to that showdown upcoming with Devin Handy December ninth in San Francisco. All right,
let's get into it. Full disclosure. I was in Indianapolis, Indiana
this weekend and on Saturday night, I've returned with my Buccaneers and no Ray
Phiel. I do not want to talk about it. After another loss against
the Indianapolis Colts. You said to me your Giants one on Sunday. I've
not seen the game, but you're conflicted because you like one a better draft
pick right now with your New York team, so because they still stay one,
but they're so. The brighter side is the boxing and the pay per
view Saturday night in Las Vegas. I did get to see because of having
dinner. We traveled there having dinner. College football's on. I did get
to see that Jamal Charlow fight beginning to end. I did see the Benavitas
fight to the end emphatically at the end of six rounds. So we've got
a lot to go over here from that pay per view. Why don't you
begin here on the discussion with some thoughts. First of all, on the
main event, I'll just say briefly, Benevitez looked fantastic to me. Tell
me what you saw. I saw the same thing. I saw a guy
that has If you're not familiar with David, now this is like the this
is the blueprint of the way he does his fights. Starts slow, takes
a couple of rounds to figure the guy out, and then let the beatdown
begin. Freak figures out what's going on, start coming forward, throwing right
hands, using his uppercut, keeping control of the guy, solid jab when
necessary, great chin, and just marching forward, marching forward, marching forward.
And you know it doesn't hurt that in the case of Andred was a
fighter that had been a superb technician and had been a champion in two different
weight divisions. But now you're you know, he's getting into the super midiweight
division, where you know, in certain cases guys can overcome size differences.
But there's the old adage that there's a reason why they created a weight classes,
and this, in my opinion, was one of those reasons because it
just looked like a really big guy against a really small guy. And when
the really big guy is also a talented boxer and also got a good chin
in good power, that's a very hard kind of mountain to climb. If
you have a great, great, great small guy Mayweather, Roy Jones,
those types of fighters, and they're going up and weight in fighting just good
but not great fighters like I'll use the example of Roy Jones going to fight
John Ruiz. Those are the types of fights where the size is not so
much of a bothersome situation. If Andreid was fighting maybe some other superman aweight
Damon Nicholson for example, who he debuted in the weight class against, it's
a different ballgame because he's a technician that can box with anybody and he's gonna
shut them out like he did against Nicholson in January. David Benavitez is probably,
or in arguably I would say, at this moment in time, the
second best Supermit Awight in boxing behind the just street a champ Canello Avas and
saw him after seeing that performance. We'll get into that in a minute.
Might like David's chances awfully well against Canelo avas So I saw David take two
and a half rounds to sort of work things out, and Andre, you
know, was spirited and wanted to win, came to fight, you know,
didn't run or anything like that. And all the people that said he's
a boring fighter, you know, could eat their words because I thought that
was a very entertaining performance. Despite the loss from Andre, he gave us
our money's worth, in my opinion, showed great heart like I knew he
would. And Benavidez, though he's like that truck going downhill. Man,
it's he starts to beat on you and it takes a toll. And the
thing about it is tj when you can take a shot and deliver a shot,
your opponents fucked. I mean, maybe that's gonna go on a bumper
stick or too. I didn't know what a punchline would be, but and
I will go a step beyond what you're saying here. I think he's a
legit threat against Canelo Alvarez to do something similar to Canelo Alvarez. Now I
know Alvarez, this could be considered blasphemy. Is a future Hall of Famer,
a tremendous fighter, but he's aged and there can be some question marks
about some of the competition he's fought in the last couple of years. This
guy ain't that he's a lot younger, he's big, he's physical. Yes,
Canelo's gonna have the advantage of having big on the biggest stages and in
with some of the greats previously. But that guy I saw Saturday night is
a legit threat to Canelo Alvarez. All right, Well, you never ask
me that before I could agree or disaree. I agree with you. He's
a legitimate threat, no question about it. And that's what we want to
see from the biggest boxing stars is dem in fights where they are tested.
And I don't think anybody's going to hold it against David or Canelo if one
of them, if they fight each other in one of them loses the ideas
to see the best against the best. And right now it is inarguable period
that there is another match out there that is a better fight from the point
of view of the public, for Canelo Alvarez and for David Denavidez than if
they were to fight each other. Now, I understand that it's a business.
Believe me, I've done this long enough to know that in and out
for sure. So if you tell me that they decide to make a match,
for example, between Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford, I get it from
the financial perspective because even though it's a three way class move for Crawford,
Crawford's still a bigger name than David is uh. You know, it will
have a lot of people that will have an interest in it because to see
how how Crawford can do against a much bigger guy like Canelo Alvarez. So
that would might be the only fight that I could understand if they match that
match instead of a David Bennett Asrawford fight. On the realism meter though,
on the realism meter, where would you put that one to ten on a
Crawford moving up right now? From what you know, how long you've been
doing this, where is that on the realism meter? Well? I think
that if Canelo Alvarez watched with David Benavitez, then he'd probably say there's a
good chance because he's going to maybe tell us people to go try to make
the fight, because you know, and I'm not knocking Canelo for this,
but if you're sitting there and you're looking at the prospect of a Terrence Crawford
fight for a shiitload of money, and you're looking at the prospect of a
David Benavitez for a little bit less of a shitload of money, and I
think there's nobody that could possibly dispute that a Crawford fight, if you're Canelo,
is a much more winnable, easier fight. And I get it,
you take the Crawford fight, but that doesn't mean we have to like it
or agree with it. All I know is this, I've been saying this
even since the play the kalb Plan fight. I said this before the kala
Plan fight. The biggest and the best fight for me as a fan and
and frankly as a journalist because there's plenty to write about also and talk about,
is him against David Benabtez. That's a huge fight. It's it's the
biggest fight you can get in that way class. I think you know,
the win over Plant burnished his credentials for it. The victory not just the
it's not the victory over over Andre, it's the manner in which he obtained
the victory in just a freaking beat down with a knockdown. And you know,
and I thought, let me tell you, I thought that Thomas Taylor,
who was the referee in that fight, did a spectacular job. Yes,
and I'm going to talk about that on two different One was the way
he handled Andred getting his mouthpiece knocked out. Now, I don't believe that
Andreid split it on purpose. He got it knocked out of his mouth by
punches. It seemed to me both times. The first time he waited till
there was a legitimate lull, which you're supposed to do and then call it
a quick time out and had it put back in. The second time,
he picked it up off the canvas, waited for there to be the appropriate
law. It didn't bother with the corner, just stuffed it back in his
mouth. I mean the break was like three seconds. It really wasn't any
kind of actual rest period for Andreid after that came out. So that was
handled absolutely perfectly. That should they should take that those two video clips and
when they go to the different organization conventions where the ABC conventions they do workshops
for referees, they should show the video of Thomas Taylor handling Demitrius Andreid's mouthpiece
coming out to how to the first how to video, how to do it
correctly? It administered correctly. I agree with you. The second thing a
that Thomas Taylor, who I thought has been a tremendous right for you for
a long time when he was working, you know, under cards in California
before he got the call from that uh which was expanding their referee roles and
brought him in. And as you can tell, he along with a couple
other guys, have been getting some of the bigger fights. And there's a
reason I thought that he handled the stoppage in that fight beautifully. Also because
he told U he called the doctor in before the last round, you know,
uh uh you know, after after round six, to have him check
him out real quick. Uh. And then he told him, He's like,
and I'm not gonna let you. I'm not gonna you know, you
got to show me something. You could hear him stop. You can hear
him say you got to show me something. He let him go, and
then when they went back to the corner, he was very real affirm He's
like, I'm not gonna see another round like that, and and they were
not I don't think they were thinking about stopping that at at the moment.
But when Thomas said that a second time, Demetri's I'm not gonna I can't
see another round like that. His cornerman said that's it, and they waved
it off. So they saved Andre the embarrassment of being stopped in the middle
of the round. They saved him from having to quit, which I don't
think he would have. They saved their guy from the punishment, and it
was done in a manner that I thought the referee was very respectful to Demetrius
but made his point very clear. Hurt Let's let's call it a day,
you know, because he truthfully was doing that at the end of the fifth
round. You got to show me something. And at least to his credit,
Andre was firing back a couple of times. He was brave, he
wasn't just turtling holding listen, Mary iron Mack. But it was obvious at
that point. I say this to you all the time when we talk about
fighter safety and we talk about somebody's gonna get seriously hurt. He was on
the verge of getting seriously hurt if you put him back out there again,
that fight was done. Look at the glassy eyes, especially from the fifth
round and then after the sixth round especially that. I mean, that was
set up to be dangerous. Demetrius neverbally, but but he's never had that
kind of uh, he's never taken those kind of punches ever. No,
either the force of the punches or the or the number of punches. But
the thing about the Tailor way is when he did shout at him, you
know, you got to show me something during the round. Demetri He's actually
found a little bit of a rally there at the end of one of those
rounds and put a couple of punches on David. The problem for Demitrius is
that he's got such a good chin against a guy that was smaller coming up
that they just had no impact. He was like swatting him away, like
if you were at a you know, out at a summer picnic and there's
NAT's flying around your head. So I thought it was a great performance.
And then of course, you know in the post fight, we'll get into
it right now about let's bring on Canelo Alvaruz. Yeah, absolutely, I
don't know what Canelo's gonna do, but you could do worse, and we've
had to endure a little bit. I mean the fight with John Ryder.
I understand why they did it in Guadalajara back last May, but I mean,
this is intriguing. Benavitez has been active, He's scored some knockouts here.
The public would want this fight and there, and there would be a
lot of demand. And so now let's see if it gets made. Let's
see what one thing about it that was critical is that last week or I
guess the week four whatever it was like, you know, eight nine days
ago, at the end of the WBC convention, they formally mandated that Denavide's
if he won, the fight, was going to be the mandatory end of
the story and they would order the fight. One thing I don't think some
people don't understand about the WBC is just because of the interim champion, which
he is, does not automatically make you the mandatory. They have to tell
you you are the mandatory. So this was a case and I actually had
a back and forth from the research just to clarify things prior to the fight
on Saturday, and that was if David was the winner, he is the
mandatory. That's the next fight that will order. If Andreid were to have
won, he wouldn't necessarily be the mandatory, but that doesn't matter now because
Benevite was the winner, and that is the fight that the WBC will order.
I don't know when they'll order that, but I think will be somewhat
soon. And look, at the end of the day, Canello's fighting in
May. David will be perfectly fine to fight in May. If they don't
make that fight, it's a huge disappointment. Now, Canelo's always fought,
you know, he's fought great fighters. I mean, and anybody that thinks
it's an easy fight for Benavidez, I know, let me remind you that
he was in the ring for thirty six rounds with Gnati Glufkin, one of
the great punchers of all time, also with a great chin uh and uh
and and he you know, he had his issues in some of those fights,
but he still came out without taking a lot of damage, never got
knocked off his feet, and you know, got the win in two of
those fights. So you know, while I think David is more in his
prime than Canelo, you know is presently and certainly maybe even more than Ganati
was when they fought each other. Uh, it's not an easy fight for
anybody, I mean, but it's a wouldn't you want to see that?
That's all I know? Yeah, take my money, my hands up,
let's do it. Otherwise, what are we doing? I'm gonna tell you
right now, Benavide's that's a twenty plus million dollar gate at the Temobile Arena.
That's Rayfiel on site for four days. That's uh, that's that's a
pay per view. That is, you know, in the seven to you
know, over seven hundred thousand buys, you know, seven to fifty eight
hundred. It's at the same level as a cat's got a chance to be
a million buy pay per view, just because Benavetez has been active enough and
created enough buzz that if it's him in the matchup, it could get there.
Could it could? Well, I'm not so sure it gets to the
million mark. And I'm gonna tell you why. When he fought Caleb,
Planet was about eight hundred and fifty thousand ish, maybe a little less than
that, and Kaylea Plant had a little bit of a lesser prof Truthfully,
he didn't have the bus, but the point is David and Canelo draw from
the same basic fan base, which is Mexican Americans and Mexicans, so you're
fishing in the same pond twice. I always learned from the gurus of pay
per view, people like Don King, people like Bob Aram, people like
Mark Taffet. When you want to have the biggest possible pay per view,
you either make the fight between you know, two blacks, two Mexicans,
two guys from whatever same area of the country, whatever it is, and
they mind super deep within their community Barara Morales. But there's a limit to
what it can do, So Canelo and Benavide's have the limit. When you
get the biggest fights is when you match the virgin fan bases. So that's
why Ryan Garcia and Tank Davis did a million plus. That's why Oscar de
la Hoya and Tita Trinidad did the million plus. So why Floyd Mayweather and
pack Ya did the record of all time four million plus because they drew from
wildly divergent groups of people. Plus you add the added factor of there being
just normal everyday sports fans who aren't boxing fans. Canelo Benavitez is a great
matchup, but I don't think it hits the numbers that you think it does
because it's still you're still fishing with your same community, and it's not a
mainstream fight. From the standpoint that Benavite's as tremendous of a fighter as he
is still could walk down the street in ninety eight percent of the United States
or more and not be seen or known by anybody. That's a fair point.
But this doesn't change the fact that if for the people who follow boxing,
it's a great fucking fight and we want to see it next period.
End of story. I like that. All right, let's move on to
the other parts of the card and again regis Progray coming up one on one
with you. So Jamal Charlow did return action fight with Jose Benavitez Junior.
Give ben Avidaz Junior, the older brother of David Benavetz's credit. He took
some serious shots. He was firing back. I thought it was an entertaining
ten round fight. I mean, it's not something that goes in the time
capsule forever. But for Jamal Charlow's return, there was quality action. He
got the deserved decision. There's my thoughts. What are your thoughts on the
co feature non title fight with Charloe's return. I thought, for a guy
out of the ring twenty nine months, with all the problems that he had,
with the issues over the weight, and all the business that's gone on,
and the and the drama that surrounded, you know, his career in
his life, that was a great performance for him. That was a sharp
performance. You know, I have to give credit to Benavidez who came to
fight. But again, I'll talk about what I talked about in the main
event. There's there's a reason for weight classes. Josey Benavitez Junior was at
his best really at one hundred and forty pounds and now he's fighting over one
hundred and sixty pounds, having not really done much in the last few years
of any real merit. You know, anytime he stepped up, he pretty
much lost. You know, he got knocked out by Crawford, He lost
at Danny Garcia. You know, he got a draw with a just a
sub you know, just a normal kind of fighter. But all that said,
he showed great heart, he showed a good chin, was there to
fight, you know, to do his best. So I respect him for
that for sure, and for Charlotte. Look, you know, it may
not have been a WBC midleweight title defense. He may not have made the
weight, he may have been over the contract weight. You know, he
might still be surly and have some issues and all that. But at the
end of the day, he fought a good fight and I'm glad to see
him back, and hopefully this is the building block for you know, a
bigger and better twenty twenty four where you can be a little more active and
you know, and fight a fight that we actually want to see as opposed
to just taken on a guy like a benevide this which was a good matchup
in action, but not a thing that sort of got people revved up to
be excited to see it before that actually happened. Let me pay this compliment
to Brian Campbell in his interview after the final. He did a good job
with all the interviews on the pay per view on the showtime PBC card,
because he asked the right questions at the beginning of Jamal Trolo, and you
saw a peek into he's having problems. We understand this. We've documented this
because he had trouble answering a couple of questions at the beginning. He had
tears in his eyes at the beginning because it was probably all coming back around
and coming out of him, and Brian asked very aptly, well done about
Hey, was this kind of the safe haven to get back in the ring
and put everything else aside? That was that was an excellent question, and
so we saw some of that raw emotion. Now by the same token,
there are people go through all kinds of things and we well documented and he
has been out for a long time. So here we I'm going to be
consistent with this. Here we are back to it again. The WBC needs
to step in and say to Jamal Charlow, what are you doing? Are
you defending against Carlos Adamis or not. We're going to set a deadline and
if you're vacating, vacating and will elevate him as the champ. I'm saying
that your thoughts on what's next here and what's going to happen. I mean,
based on the way that Jamal spoke after the fight, it feels like
he's not going to fight at sixty again. He's going to be a supermedal
weight, and which is fine if you're going to do that make your decision.
Let's get on with it. I mean, yep, you know the
listen. I think we as human beings, we can all understand the issues
that anybody might have. We all have them, you know, even if
we're just not on display in the public the way as Charlotte is, if
you're a you know, a public figure if you will, as as a
professional athlete. But just because he's having certain issues in his life does not
give him carte blanche to hold up the entire WBC middleweight rankings. You know,
that's not fair to the other guys behind him, and that sort of
thing, like a dumbis for example. So I just hope he figures it
out and go do your thing. I mean, whether he's got the belt
or not, he's still a quality fighter. You know. The reason why
he can't win it again or fight for it again, I'm sure they would
be if if he really wanted to continue in middleweight and he was unable to
defend, they would make him the champion in recess and give him the shot
when he comes back. But based on his missing of the weight of them
setting the weight over the one sixty limit in the first place, you know,
it feels like he's more likely to just stay at super middleweight, which
would be fine, and then there's a whole different group of fighters he can
take on, and they can let the WBC title go back into play for
a Dumas. But you know, I'm want to give him a couple of
you know, let's let him unwined from the fight a couple of weeks and
then we'll reconvene after the new year and see what the plane is. All
right. The two other title fights Subreal Matteas looked fantastic, and then we
had whatever I need you to clarify because I've only seen the highlights and the
recaps here whatever happened with ergushev and also Lamont Roach gets a split decision win
over Hector Luis Garcia where he scored a knockdown in the final round that proved
vital on the scorecards. So give me your thoughts in the recap mode on
those two fights real quick. To wrap up the showtime PPC card, Dan
Rayfield, well, Fermatias, I mean that was a very good performance.
I mean, he's a bad boy, is the bottom line. We talked
about it before the fight. There's a lot of great names in the junior
welterweight division, and nobody ever really mentions I want to They all say I
want to fight I want to fight Ryan, I want to fight Tafimo Lopez,
and I want to fight this guy. I want to fight Roly Romero.
I want to fight that guy. Maybe Tank will come up and fight
me. I want to fight Regis. You know, maybe Haney will win.
I'll fight Hany. Like that's all cool and everything and they're good and
no disrespect whatsoever. But I've literally never heard any other top guy in the
way class ever call out or mention Mattias. I did see on Twitter or
ex Regis Progra say you know he quote tweeted something from Mattias saying, you
know, have about twenty twenty four, So Regis is the one guy I
know. We'll fight anybody, basically is the way I looked at. But
Mitias did a great job. I mean, I remember back when Vasilio Lomachenko
when he was pound for pound number one, and he was doing his business
in a different manner than Mattias. Because Matias is just a straight assassin,
knockout, you know, devastating kind of guy, and you know Lomachenko was
more of the skill, even though he could hurt you here and there.
There was a period where he scored four consecutive with victories where he made his
opponent quit well. Now by making Ergyshev retire on the stool after a round
six to retain his title for the first time, he has extended his corner
stoppage streak of his opponents to five consecutive fight so ever. Since he lost
his decision in the upset to a Nanion, he has won five consecutive fights
by stoppage in the quarter including avenging the rematch against an Onion, including when
he won the belt against jeremiahs Ponce and now the fight obviously that happened on
night Ergushevu. I guess it was some kind of leg injury. They didn't
specified exactly, but end of the fight they stopped on the stool and Mattias
did a great job. Now you know he didn't. He actually looked pretty
bad in the first round. But it was kind of like it's similar to
Benavide's. You know, he's a guy that's a slow starter. It takes
him a round or two to get into the groove. He made the point
afterwards, you know, he usually takes me three or four rounds when I'm
fighting the South Pod to get my bearings, and it didn't even take him
that long against ergashev uh and he is very much a force to be reckoned
with in the in the junior welterweight division. You know, Puerto Rico has
a new star or potential start. He's not a star yet because he's not
at that level in terms of popularity, but he fights in a very crowd
pleasing manner that you know, the folks in Puerto Rico who've had a lot
of great champions would certainly gravitate towards if you spent any time watching some of
their great fighters like Felix Trinidad or Miguel Coto or you know some of those
fighters. So yeah, listen, I'd love to see Mattias and any of
the big matchups. And you know, he said afterwards, you know,
bringon Lopez Davis Hany you know, if you want this, any pointed,
you know has had the belt over his shoulder. He pointed, if you
want this, come and get it, and they can make some great fights.
And in terms of the other fight you mentioned, Lamont Roach against Garcia.
Lamont Roach has always been a guy to me. I've watched this kid
since he first turned pro. I covered tons of his fights. He was
on a lot of the big undercarts that Golden Boy did. I flew on
many airplanes with him and his father because we both live in the Washington,
DC area, and inevitably we found ourselves on the same flights on the way
to the fight and on the way back, so I would hang out.
I spent many many of those flights, like in the airport, like in
the game, you're hanging in the Yeah. So Lamont and his dad,
they're they're good people. Lamont's a very technical and very skilled boxer. Maybe
not the most exciting guy, not the most outspoken guy, doesn't have like
a big fan base. But this is a guy that's put in his time,
in his effort. You know. He got the first shot against Herring
in twenty nineteen. He lost a decision, but it was a competitive,
solid fight. Won several fights in a row a Golden Boy who he's not
with anymore, but they got him in position to be the mandatory again,
and he waited on this fight because Garcia went up to fight right after the
instead of the before the Ryan Garcia fight, instead of defending the title,
he went Hector Luis Garcia before to tune up I guess for the Ryan Garcia
fight, Tank fought Hector Louis Garcia. So he took. He took a
fight at one hundred and thirty five PU way class and didn't defend. He
got the you know, the special exception from the WBA, So this was
finally the mandatory and it was. It was not a very good fight,
to be quite honest. I mean, the last two rounds were exciting and
interesting, but a lot of it was a lot of a cat and mouse
game. Not a lot of punches row and not a lot of punches landed.
Both guys trying to sort of like you know, outslick each other.
Bo when it came, pushed the shove and they started to let the leather
go. Lamont Roach showed some toughness. Eleventh round was very exciting and then
the two you know here you go into this fight. It's a super close
fight. He gets the knockdown with a left hook, and the referee scores
at a knockdown. It turned out that if he doesn't get the knockdown and
it's a ten to nine round instead of a ten eight round, the fight
winds up a split draw. Instead, it winds up with him winning winning
the fight on a split decision. And I was very happy for Lamont,
not that I have anything against Carci. I just was happy for him because
I know I know him and his team, you know, for many,
many years. The only problem was it was not a legal punch, and
the referee, Tony Weeks, I mean, who has been a great ref
for a long time, he just flat out missed the call and they didn't
use the replay. If you watch the replay, he didn't do it on
purpose, but one hundred percent it's clear as fucking day. The punch was
not just like on the borderline. It was way behind his head. That
is not a legal punch in boxing. You're not allowed to hit somebody in
that area. Again, he didn't do it on purpose, but it should
have been not It should not have been ruled a knockdown. So if he
doesn't rule in a knockdown and fight just goes to its conclusion, it winds
up to be a split draw or yah split draw, and Garcia would have
retained the title. So on the one hand, you know he won the
title, good for him, happy for him and all that, but the
manner which it occurred was just sort of disappointing because it wasn't clean. It
was messy. That's as mess as a guess when you win a world championship
change his hands in that because of a bogus knockdown in the twelfth round,
that's a problem again. Uh, Hector Luis Garcia was up significantly on the
one card, so the ten eight round did not matter on that one.
He was up by one point. On the other card, wins by three
and then, as you mentioned, down by a point and the ten eight
round makes it one fourteen, one thirteen. Because the only thing, the
other other thing that I will interject here and then we're going to move along
real quick to Katie Taylor and your conversation with Regi's program in just a few
moments here on the podcast. Is that a situation where instant replay can potentially
help? I know the WBC has instant not every world organization has instituted it
where they can come back in after the fact. Nevada has had it in
the past too and say that's not a legal punch. Do not score that
a knockdown after the fact, and in this case, it would have been
after the bell, after the fight's over with, after the final round.
What is your insight. I don't believe that that kind of punch falls into
the category of a reviewable thing in Nevada because it is a judgment call from
the referee, and it was also so close to the end of the fight.
I'm not sure they actually even looked at it in terms of the folks
that are the replay officials. So I know if it had been a matter
of is it a knockdown or a slip? Is it a punch caused by
a punch or an accident? Is a cut caused by a punch or an
accidental butt? Those are reviewable things. A judgment call of whether a punch
was you know, behind the head and therefore a foul or not. I
do not believe falls under that under that category that they can actually of you
the play. But suffice is to say, all the people who are watching
on their television, the commentators, you know, anybody with a YouTube clip
or access to Instagram or Twitter or social media right social media, you know
it was behind the head. I mean again again, I'll say this another
time. He didn't do it on purpose. It happened, and he went
down on the shot, but it was not a legal punch. So he's
the champion of the WBA now, but on what merit? I guess there's
a question. Give him credit. He gets the win, as it turns
out, all right, So Katie Taylor does avenge her defeat to Chantel Cameron
earlier this year, I must confess again, I was flying with the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers to Indianapolis. I've seen a highlighter two. I've seen the recaps.
I saw my man Rayfield tweeting about the fact that this was a fantastic
fight. And Taylor gets the narrow decision win to avenge her loss and become
undisputed at junior welterweight, the second female to be four bell undisputed in two
different divisions. All right, So give me the quick synopsis here. So
she joins Claressa Shields in that little bit of history right there, which is
pretty impressive. And you know, Katie Taylor, we already knew she was
an all time great female boxer between her exploits and the Olympics what she's done
as a professional, all the defenses of the title as the undisputed champion and
the lightweight division. She previously won a belt at the junior walterweight division,
went up, won it and came back down. But now she's un disputed
in two way classes. In a very very significant fight for members, her
first loss, which was the May fight against Cameron, was the homecoming that
was spoilt her first fight in Ireland and she lost a very close majority decision
in a fantastic fight. She exercised the right to her immediate rematch as the
A side and the one that offered her the fight, not a mandatory for
Chantel or for Katie. They went back to the same arena in Dublin and
as Katie and they did it again and this time it was Taylor who rightfully
won the majority decision. And it's like Katie said to the crowd in her
interview after the fight, this was my real homecoming because she got the job
done in a spot where you know, you lose two in a row,
that's a problem. But she got so electric was it because again you took
it all in. Yeah, that was great, appeared that it was great.
Atmosphere like we anticipated. Yeah, no doubt. And one of the
things that I think Katie did for the preparation for this fight is if you
remember when she was going into the first fight, I mean, all fighters
will do media and appearances and different you know things leading into their fight.
Go show up at a school, you know, go do the charity thing,
do a bunch of interviews, and so so Katie did a whole ton
of that stuff. We did. We had her on the podcast heading up
to the to the first fight as a guest of ours. She dramatically curtailed
her promotional activities going into the rematch because she just wanted to you know,
do do She did some things, but she wanted to just make sure she
was ready for the fight. I can't blame her for that, you know,
I sent I sent a note to her people trying to get her on
the podcast out of this time, and you know, they declined they were
not interested. And that's I didn't take it personal because I don't really other
than a couple of things she did with his own, I don't really see
her do much of anything for this fight. So that was the right decision
for her. And you know, like I've never met Chantel Cameron. She
comes off as a nice woman also, But I've met Katie, I've interviewed
her the one time I've been to some of her fights. You could meet
a more lovely person, polite, nice. As Eddie Hearn said in an
interview, you never hear anybody say a bad word about Katie Taylor. So
how do you not be happy for what she accomplished. She has given so
much to the sport and she gave her and Chantel Cameron a incredibly exciting,
dramatic, uh just electrifying kind of fight on Saturday. It seems likely,
based on what Eddie Hearn and what Katie were saying afterwards, they will offer
Chantel Cameron a third fight to do a trilogy bout. They want to do
it at the big you know, soccer stadium and football stadium in Dublin,
the Croke Park, and it'll be a historical event there. But Katie,
you know, look, she's a first Ball Hall of Famer before she won
the undisputed title on Saturday. Now, I mean you can you can argue,
and I know women's boxing in terms of its history is still being you
know written and not even close to where the men are because they had like
one hundred year head start on the women. But in the in the history
of significant women's boxing, which really started in a meaningful way in like the
nineteen nineties with Christy Martin in that group, Lucia Riker, later Laila Ali,
you know, and now what we have today with Claressa and Katie and
Chantelle and Serrano and others. You can make a Cojing argument to Katie Taylor
based on her accomplishments, the caliber opponent she has defeated, the entertainment value
she has brought, the fan base that she has brought, that she is
the number one female boxer of all time with that of those accomplishments she had.
Look, I'm a huge Claressa. I think she's a phenomenal athlete and
she's you know, she doesn't lose rounds uh, But she doesn't move people
in the emotional manner that Katie Taylor does because of the drama that she has
in her fights, the action that she has in her fights. And quite
frankly, and this has nothing to do with Claressa, it's not her fault.
Claressa doesn't have the caliber of opponents because the population of the top women
that fight in the say, junior middleweight to super middleweight division is far far
less than the caliber of fighters of women that fight, say from the featherweight
to the welterweight division, unerstood, so she's less to have a much deeper
group of excellent opponents to face. And I just I just love the fight,
uh is, I've I've rewatched it, you know, and it goes
by so quick, you know, with the with the with the two men
around. One thing I did think that was tremendous was, you know,
even though they're talking about maybe doing a third fight between her and Cameron,
which would obviously be a mega event, there's still the interest from a lot
of people to see her do a third a second fight rather with Serrano,
the you know, set the bar last year. So I saw that Katie
was asked about that at her postfight presco conference. Because Amanda is on this,
you know, I won't call it a crusade, but it's like her
desire for her future fights to continue what she did in her most recent fight,
which is to have women's championship fights be twelve round fights and have each
of the rounds be three minutes, and Katie was asked about that, and
Katie was like, you know what, I'm down for it, you know,
with you know, she'd be willing to do three minute rounds over twelve.
Now the WBC won't go for that, but you know, fights can
be done without the WBC, you know, with no disrespect to either side.
So if there is going to be a third fight between Cameron and Katie
or a second fight between Serrano and Katie, and there's both sides are interested
to do that, you know, why not do three rounds, three minute
rounds and twelve rounds. But I'll tell you one thing, the amount of
damage that they do to each other, they're probably better off sticking with the
two minute rounds because Katie and a Chantell took a lot of Yeah, Mark,
that terrible, terrible cut from a head butt led the whole fight.
They both got touched up pretty well. But you know, my hats off
to them, end this fight, love the fight, Happy for Katie.
Uh and uh, you know that was that was a real serious fight.
And let me just suggests one our thing. There was the controversy of the
of the knockdown non knockdown in round one the referee did not call it.
She got hit with a jab, Katie. She got hit with a jab
from Cameron, and she went back and she went down to her rear end
on the on the punch. But when I watched the replay, to me,
it was clear as day that she stepped on her foot, and the
referee, Roberto Ramirez immediately called it a slip, so he he must have
seen that, but it was maybe not that hundred percent clear to some people
when they showed the replay on the show, like on the broadcast, I
couldn't really tell. When I watched it after the fact, I guess I
saw a different angle. She looked like she stepped on her foot, and
that's why it wasn't called a knockdown. And the reason why that's important is
because if they called it a knockdown, it changes the result of the fight,
similar to what we just talked about with the Lamont roach situation. But
it did and she ends up winning ninety eight ninety two, which is very
wide. It didn't seem fair to me. She won ninety six to ninety
four, and in another scorecard and the third judge called it a draw.
In ninety five ninety five. Now, if that judge doesn't you know,
if it's if it's not a if it's real day knockdown, not a slip.
You know, Cameron's gonna be a ninety five to ninety five on one
card, and she's gonna win on the other card. So she's gonna she's
gonna, you know, win a uh win. You know, she's gonna
win the decision. So that's unfortunate, but it was it was I thought
it was the right call from the referee and it was a fantastic fight.
If they do a third fight, tell me and I'm watching, I can't.
Katie Taylor moves the needle. You and I are in the United States,
but it moves the needle in the UK and in Ireland as we saw
with that. Speaking of moving the needle, we are moving forward into December
and there is a pay per view with Regis Prograe and Devin Haney upcoming for
San Francisco on December the ninth. You don't have to wait until December the
ninth to hear about this fight and much more. In fact, you can
hear about it right now. In a conversation with Dad, I'm very pleased
to bring into the podcast today. One of my favorite guys to interview.
I've interviewed lots of boxers for a long time Regis program. The WBC Junior
Welterweight champion. Always fun to talk to. Regis. Thank you for doing
this. I appreciate you being here. Oh dang Man, glad to be
a baby ye screen. All right, well, we're here to talk about
a pretty significant fight, certainly a big fight for you, one of the
better fights I think that we've seen on the calendar for the calendar year of
twenty twenty three. You're defending your title for the second time against the lightweight
champion, Devin Hainey, who's going to move up and wait, he's going
to challenge you. It'll be December the ninth that Chase Center in San Francisco
live on his own pay per view in the United States. All the lucky
folks that don't live out in the United States, they get it on the
Zone as part of their regular subscription package. We'll talk about that in just
a minute, but my first question for you is when you signed with Matchroom
Boxing and Eddie Hearn and there was a lot of possibilities of different fights that
you could have look towards if you had signed with a different promoter. At
that time, Mattrim did not have Devin Haney. He was still going through
his process with his previous promoter. Uh, now you have this fight,
So what was it about it that made you so confident that that you'd be
able to get this matchup? Man? Look Eddie. First off, Eddie
came to me, you know, he came to Houston and talked to me.
That was one of the differences between you know, Todd Rank and Mattrum.
You know, Matt Todd Rank flew me out to Vegas and they didn't.
They flew me on Southwest. And people know with me, I'm I
am kind of boogie, you know. I you know, I fly first
class everywhere I go. You don't have to give me a private jet,
but I do fly first class. So they flew me and my potet.
They flew us on Southwest. I didn't really like that. But then Eddie
flew to me in Houston, and you know, Eddie pitched me. He
said, look, this is gonna be the plan. You know, we're
gonna get your It's a it's a brief fight deal. He said, We're
gonna we're gonna you're gonna get a defense in New Orleans. First, he
already had a date plan lined up and stuff like that. Then he said,
Devin Haney's nah. I don't know if he was, you know,
bullshit. I don't know if he was full of shit or not. But
he said Devin. He literally said Devin Haney would be second. He said,
Devin Haney or Ryan gonna see all something like that, it'll be a
big fight in the second fight. And you know, it actually happened,
and he wasn't yet, Devin wasn't with he was with Todd Rank at the
time, you know, and it all just it just kind of came true,
just like he said it would, and it is happening right now.
So what was it then about Devin compared to any of the other talented fighters
that were already at one hundred and forty pounds that that made you want to
go in that direction with him coming up away? Because I mean, look,
if you there was Tiafimo Lopez was there with top rank Josh Taylor,
we would have loved them sure to have a rematch against him. Hand to
you, your only loss a super close fight. Uh, you know,
Josey Ramirez is with top ranks. Still, that's a fight I'd still love
to see. At some point, you mentioned Ryan's already see it. So
what was it that made you so sort of like, ah, yeah,
Devin Haney, that's that's gonna be a great competitive Well, it was just
you know, Devin is a Devon is a big name, you know,
but it just wasn't just the whole Devin. It was just a whole just
the contract in general, just the whole thing. Because the top rank deal
was a long deal with the Eddie Hearn did. It was a shorter deal,
and he promised me, you know, he did promise me a Devin
Haney. He promised me, like a Ryan go see all Devonhaney for the
second fight. And with the top rank deal, you know, I think
it was I think it was the second fight would have been maybe like a
Ramirez or something like that. You know. So if you if you compare
a Devin Haney or Ryan, go see it to a Ramirez. You know,
it is big on that side. And you know, for me,
I'm still glad that I feel I definitely feel like I made the right decision.
Well, and I watched the news conference that you guys had with each
other that was out in San Francisco a few weeks ago, maybe a month
ago. Uh, I found it striking. Uh. You know Devin Haney,
you know, he likes to talk some smack and that's cool. You
do also, I think that's you know, it's good but not too severe.
But he actually said, and I quote, I'm going to beat the
living shit out of him, meaning he's gonna beat the living shit out of
you. When I heard that, I was a little surprised, because as
excellent of a fighter as Devin Haney is, everybody out of nobody he can't
beat. He can't, he can't he talking about is Devin Devin never beat
the ship out of anybody. Yeah, he's a good boxer and stuff like
that. But I feel like I, honestly, I know I'm a better
boxer him, but I have power, so you know, I can box,
but I can I can hear people really hard. Devin never beat the
ship out of anybody's whole career. You know who did he beat the ship
out of nobody? You know, I can't wait to y'all see that we
had a face off with me and him. I said, Devin, who
who did you even knock out? You never knocked out anybody? Like he
just sat there and smile. He didn't know what to saye. You know
he had you know, he he fall on the tenko, He fought camp
Bow says he fa Leonora's and he fought Jojo Diaz. For me, all
those fights was you know, he never beat the shit out of any of
those guys, you know, like he he didn't hurt none of those guys
or anything like that. Yeah, he won, but he boxed for twelve
rounds, so he didn't beat the shit out nobody. So he's definitely not
gonna beat the shit out. I'm gonna I'm gonna hurt Demon. I know
I'm gonna hurt Devin, like how Camp is going right now, what I've
been doing just even to sparing partners and stuff like that. I know I'm
gonna I'm gonna hurt Devin. You know, if it goes to a round,
goes to our round. But I'm definitely gonna hurt. Well, you
finish my sentence for me, because I was gonna ask you, like he
doesn't he's a great boxer, but hasn't really beaten you know, his quote
the shit out of anybody. But you've answered that question. Uh, and
what you thought of that comment? The other thing, as I've noticed,
you know, you guys have gone back and forth on your social media.
You went back and forth out of good back and forth at the press conference
brought a little life to things. Uh, you've been talking a lot of
smack. And that's all good, like I said, But I wonder,
you know, and I don't know the I think I kind of know the
answer to this. But is there like legit animosity between you two guys or
is it like, look, you have a lot of steak both you in
this fight. You both have a real desire to win this fight, so
you know, the machismo comes out and you get your hear you know,
get your dander up a little bit. Or is there real animosity? I
mean it's kind of both. You know, right now, I can't respect
him right now. We enemies right now, you know, maybe after the
final before. You know, I've been around him before, I've been around
b I've been around Devin. You know, we never been friends or nothing
like that, but I've been around him, you know, say hey and
stuff like that. Tom. But you know, that's all. But I
don't, you know, I don't really know him like that. That's not
like a friend of mine really hung out with him before. I just been
around him before at some you know, some events and stuff, but not
like right now. It's no respect that it's really no respect at all.
Like we're going to wall and I want to hurt this man. That's that's
what I want to do. So I don't respect him. I don't respect
the team. I don't respect nobody. That's just, you know, it
is. We do have to fight. That's that's how it has to be.
So I know that this fight's taking place, like I mentioned, in
San Francisco, a city that has not had big time championship boxing for a
very long time. I think you got to go all the way back to
the I guess the early two thousands for a Floyd Mayweather fight there that took
place in San Francisco, and certainly not in a big arena. But and
he's from San Francisco, even though he grew up in Las Vegas. I
wonder what are your thoughts about fighting in his hometown. It's not even his
hometown. That's the thing. You know, he's he's just because he was
boring somewhere, that doesn't mean it's your hometown. You know, he was
he was raised in Henderson the Bad or something like that, you know,
So that I mean that's not as you know, hometown, I'm not.
I'm cool with it. I don't feel like it's no hometown favorite stuff going
on, you know. Like me, I'm comfortable in I trained here.
I used to live in California. I won my I became a two time
world champion in California when I fought the pata Is from La and I fought
him in La in course, and it's the same thing. So I'm comfortable.
I'm comfortable here, and you know, it's it's for me. It's
a better place to be here than anywhere else. I like California. Like
I said, I live, I used to live here. I try I
train him, you know, so I'm here for a long time anyway,
So I'm cool with it. So, as I mentioned, of course,
he is the lightweight champion. He's going up to challenge you for your title
at one hundred and forty pounds. So I actually wondered what was your reaction
to having the fight being billed as Hani program like they put you in the
B side, like some guys really care about that. If it was me,
I wouldn't really give a shit because I always say, what's important is
who's hand they raised at the end of the fight. But what are your
thoughts about having, you know, taking the B spot, you know,
being it's called called the Haini program. Yeah, same thing. I don't
care. Man. Look listen, I know he's a you know, he
is a bigger anatomy, but I don't care. You know, like they
can like they can do it it really well. My back is against the
wall and I have more pressure on me like that, I actually performed better.
So this training, like I said, man, this training camp has
been crazy, Like I it's been long and it's been hard, and I've
been doing like super good and sparing and stuff like that. So I don't
man to answer your question, I don't care about none of that stuff,
you know, B side, A side, none of that stuff, you
know, And at the end of the day, it's only like the results
from the fight that count, and that's the only thing that matters to me.
So I don't care. You can say any bro, you can say
whatever you want, but listen, I'm a bus handy ass. Well,
you mentioned it's been a tough training camp, and uh, people who are
gonna hear our interview are going to hear it on an audio, but we're
doing a zoom call so I can see you. And I was like,
look at you. It looks like you had a little bit some bruising around
the left either and left. It's crazy, man, this is I went
toward rounds the day. It was like literally the last round and it was
like just scratches and stuff like that. But y'all got a little bruising on
my face right now, no problem. But yeah, but camp been,
Yeah, camp been like super smooth. Man, Like just told rounds to
day. I did it really easy. You know, it wasn't hard.
So it's far with guys out here in Keller. I went, you know,
I did like a three puck I was. I started a long time
ago. I was in Houston training. Then I came to California for like
five weeks and I went back home. I went back to Texas for about
three weeks and I'm here until the rest of the time. So yeah,
man, it's just everything has been going real smooth. Can I ask you
who put that shiner on you. What's what's his name? We we've been
what's his name? I spoiled with to day? Elijah? What's elijah less
name? Flora, Elijah Flores. I think he is forty seven or fifty
four pounder. Yeah, well, I can respect that you're giving that guy
a little shine. I'm gonna give everybody that shine, no matter what,
I'm gonna give them. They shine. I've been. I'm for me.
I'm just thankful that I get to like these dudes get to help me,
you know, because the West Coast fighters they are different from where I come
from the South fighters that the West Coast fighters are different day they have you
know, these dudes are fast, a lot of skill even with a lot
of power also, So you know, I'm just glad to you know,
I get to work with these guys and you know, they helped me out
tremendously. Like I felt a lot in your when you won the title,
the vacant title that had been vacated by Jose Ramirez. You look really sharp.
That was last November. You scored an eleventh round knockout against Jose'spaida.
As you mentioned, just a really good fight and you know, you look
really sharp. Like I said, your first defense in June was kind of
like the opposite you fought Danilittoziia, not the original opponent that you were supposed
to fight, and Regis you know you don't bullshit when you talk about stuff.
I'm not gonna bullshit you. You look kind of rough in that fight,
eking out the decision. Not not your best showing. I know you
said that after the fight. What the heck happened in that fight? I
just I think it's just a lot of things piled up, you know,
just having a hometown nervousness, just going back to the walls. I mean,
when you have a hometown, stuff that you got deal with so much
stuff, just doing things I once supposed to do. Before the fight.
Do you have fought in New Orleans before? It wasn't your first rodeo?
I thought when I I guess what when I thought that, it was the
same kind of thing that I thought I fought in July twenty eighteen, I
fought the last so yeah, I mean I stopped in the eighth round or
something like that, But it was it was kind of like the same thing
I had. My face looked like this I took too many punches. It
just wasn't a good performance at all, you know. I mean I stopped
them, that's cool. People look at that, but it just, you
know, it wasn't me. So you know, I don't know the New
Orleans curse whatever it is, but yeah, I was just and yeah,
it just wasn't a good performance. And then you know, a couple with
you know, he was a last man to replacement, you know, so
we was training for Leam Powell for the whole time and then he came in
three weeks later and literally he just came just to run around. Yeah,
you know, and of course I'm supposed to do my job and cut them
off and do stuff, but just a lot of stuff going on. Yeah
I didn't you know, I know, I didn't look good. Well to
say, the folks that would be backing Devin in this fight might say to
themselves, if a Regis program couldn't cut off the ring against Daria, how
the heck are you going to do it against a boxer like Devin Hainey.
Right, I want them to say that. I want them to say that,
you know, I want everybody to say that. You know, I'm
this number two time champion. Of course I know how to cut off the
ring. You know, like I said, it just just that night.
It was just off night. You know. The thing is in boxing,
you know, in every other sport you might have an off night, like
you know, a basketball player might have off night, but they get to
come back. In boxing, you have an off night that people think that's
your identity. No, it's not my identity. I just had an off
night, that's all, you know. So people look at us all he's
done, and he's this and that. But I mean for me, I
embraced it. I like that. It's cool. I hope that. You
know, if they looking at any fight, look at that fight, you
know, and try to study that, and you know, think I'm gonna
be like that now. Hainey said before that fight occurred that he was already
looking your way, thinking he might want to fight you when he moved up
and went from lightweight to junior walterway before you fought Zaia. But his father,
Bill Haney, who was also his manager or trainer, was ringside for
that fight. Do you feel like the bad performance or the shaky performance,
however you want to describe it, was it silver lining because that's you know,
whether he said he wanted to fight or not. What maybe if pushed
them to really pursue the fight, was thinking, you know what, we
just saw the way he performed against Syria, let's go for it. Do
you think it was the silver lining to get through this matchup? Yeah,
I definitely, for sure, for sure, for sure. You know,
if I would have went out there and not one or two rounds, they
would have never came to close to me. I know that. You know,
Devin Haney says people say things like that all the time, but that
really, you know, that really put the candle on the cake. When
at that performance, Bill was there, he was like, all right,
you know, I see it. You know he was coming a scout.
So yeah, I mean, that's exactly why he was there. That's exactly
why he fighted me. If I would knocked him out quick, this wouldn't
even I would have been fighting my managory. Do either of you guys have
a rematch clause in that fighting No, No, for either one of you
guys. I don't know that one. I don't. I don't I don't
I don't have I don't need one. I don't know what he has but
I don't have one. I feel like I don't need one. So,
as I said earlier on, there's this is like a A it's a good
matchup. I think every boxing ben is like, yo, that's a good
fight. Uh. There's been a lot of debate among the diehards that while
it's on a regular The Zone subscription around the world, in the United States,
it's a pay per view, and uh, I just wanted your point
of view, do you. I mean, because a lot of people are
like, you know, I subscribe to the Zone four classy fights like this,
and now they're putting every like real big time fight on pay per view.
I wondered, what's your perspective on it. Obviously, you know,
you may be able to make more money potentially if it hits, but maybe
a lot less people might see it. I just wonder where you come down
on that sort of back and forth about this should be a pay per view
or it shouldn't be a pay per view. Well, I mean, I
think it is a big fight. I definitely think it's a big fight as
far as pay per view. You know, I don't run that stuff.
You know, that's that's the business side of people, you know, a
print on pay per view. For me, the only thing I just hope
it does good. You know, hopefully a lot of people see that.
I just hope it does good. Is it is a you know, it
is a big fight for boxing, so you know, I just hope a
lot of people don't tune into it. And I want to just wrap up
with this. I mean, I don't want to look too far ahead.
Obviously, you got a tough fight in front of you. Everybody's looking forward
to it. Of course, if you win the fight, I wonder what
other big things do you want to do? You mentioned you don't think there's
a rematch clause? Is there some other opponent that you look towards some of
the guys that we just talked about earlier. Is it the possibility of moving
up to the welterweight division? Is it just just putting on a long rain
as a junior welterweight champion? What is? What do you think is?
Uh? It is for you down the road? Well, really, I
feel like I'm gonna say one forty my rest of my career. You know,
somebody look up to his like I always looked up to his marble Hagler
say that one sixty his whole career. You know, I have the discipline
to do that. I've been you know, I've been feeling good. I've
been on my diet. I you know, I trained year round. So
I definitely feel like I'm gonna stay at one forty. And you know,
I want all the big fights. That's that's the only thing I want.
I want all the big fights, if it's big money fights, if it's
for the belts, whatever it is, I just want the big fights.
You know, I'm at the stage in my career. You know, I
don't want no you know, tune up type of fights. I don't want
no homecoming type of fights, none of that stuff. I want all for
me, all big fights. So whatever that means, that's that's just what
I want. If it's you know, and and right now, luckily i'm
at the I'm at the weight right now. Well, it's it is a
lot of big fights. You know, I'm around that one thirty five want
forty one forty range, one forty seven range. And you know, for
me, I'm gonna stay at one one forty my rest of my crib.
But you know, you do have a lot of big names out there,
you know, Roally has a belt. Ta Fema has a belt. Ryan
gonna see it. What's his name, the other IVF champion, Yeah,
he has a belt. So for me, it's it's just you know,
all the big fights, even like a Javonte Davis or something like that.
Like just for me, all all the big fights, that's the only thing
that I want, you know, big big, big money fights, big
name fights, and you know, just yeah, that's all. And I
still want to see the Romeros fight five years ago and Rameriors. Yeah,
if it's a for me, yeah, if it's a big fight, then
Romeiro mirror is also. You know, even if for like a Josh hillorymatch,
you know, I don't I don't know how likely it is because I
don't know if he's gonna stay at one forty with one forty seven. But
for me, I told you what I'm doing. I'm gonna stay at one
forty you know, the rest of my purr. And so I plan on
keeping my belt and just defending my belt the rest of my purr and maybe
hopefully, you know, become an undisputed champion if the politics allowed. Well,
you have a big fight coming up. Like I said at the beginning,
of his interview. That's going to be December of the ninth. You're
taking on Devin Haney, Regis. I wish are the best of luck in
that matchup. I appreciate you doing this and thank you so much. Thanks
man. That was going, thank you you bet good stuff there from Regis,
and I know he's looking forward to this pay per view and there's some
chuckling and rolling of the eyes that it is a pay per view offering with
Devin Haney, but it is coming up December ninth in San Francisco. And
look, he's a guy that's kind of bounced around in different promotions. Now
he's back here under the match room umbrella for this fight with Haney, looking
forward to it. Good conversation right there in the build up. We still
got a couple of weekends to go, Dan. Yeah, this is the
second fight of a three fight contract with Mattriman. Regis is a great talker.
He's very good at building up his fights. He's a pleasure to talk
to. He's an interesting person. You can talk about subjects other than boxing.
Our interview obviously was mainly about boxing, for sure, for obvious reasons.
But I've had conversations with him just you know, and it's private conversation.
Whe I've seen him at fights and stuff. You can talk to them
about a lot of different subjects. He likes to travel, he's you know,
interested in history and just he's more more than just boxing, even though
that's what he does and what's his uh, what he's known for. But
look, he's he's uh, he's convinced he's gonna gonna knock out Devin Haney.
He believes he's uh, he's the better puncher, the bigger man.
He feels like he can hang with him in terms of the boxing ability,
and uh believes he's gonna show a lot of people, uh what he's made
of. And I actually thought the one thing that I asked him about that
I was very receptive to his answer and just loved it, was when I
asked him about the perceived disrespect that some have taken it that he is the
guy that's the title holder in this fight, and instead of calling it Prograe
versus Hani, he is the B side. You know, it's Hany versus
program, even though it's Hainy challenging for his title. And you know,
his thing was like, I don't care you know, and I love that
because too many guys make too much about that, who walks in the ring
first, who gets introduced first, what they call the fight, who's on
what side of the poster? And as I've always said, the only thing
I would care about if I was a boxer is whose name do they announce
last over? And that's mine when they raise my fucking hand. And that's
the same attitude that Redis has, and I absolutely love it. And make
sure I get paid is the secondary thing. I love that, and again
that fight coming up December ninth, are some news you are happy about?
This? Speaking of his own pay per views? What is this? I
see a reasonably priced it looks like if this is to be believed, December
twenty third Heavyweights pay per view with the two heavyweight co main events with Anthony
Joshua and Deontay Wilder fighting separate people other title fights on the card. What
reasonably priced pay per view that doesn't normally go in the same sentence I listen.
I was very surprised. So a couple of days ago, the read
seasons folks in Dizonne announced that this fight card on pay per view will be
carried by design. It was assumed by most that the Zone would be involved
in some fashion, but it wasn't for sure. So they announced that they
will be the worldwide broadcaster of this fight, and they made the point in
the press announcement that there will be other outlets, depending on where you live,
that will also have the ability to carry it. And so that tells
me that yes, you can buy it on his own pay per view and
they'll probably be the ones that produce it and that sort of thing. But
it also means to me that at some point, as the fight gets closer,
it'll probably wind up being available on other platforms in other countries. So
in the United States, for example, it would not surprise me whatsoever if
it does wind up being available the same broadcast for the same price, but
you'll be able to buy it on ESPN plus, maybe you'll be able to
buy it on Fight TV, you know. In the UK it'll be on
his own, But it will not surprise me whatsoever because Frank larn is so
deeply involved as the main promoter of the event in Saudi Arabia that goes on
his broadcaster in Britain, which is TNT Sports box Office, the pay per
view arm of TNT Sports. So but so it'll be wildly available. But
the best part about it it was after they charged, was it eighty five
dollars or whatever? Eighty dollars a Tan Fury Naganu fight card, right,
and what they charged typically not when I say they just pretty much everybody like
PBC, you know, den't see fights less than seventy The fight that we
just saw with Benavide's and and you know the fight Andre that was a seventy
five dollars pay per view. You know, even when top rank I think
when Loma fought Haini early in there, I think they charged sixty five for
that pay per review. That was still you know, it was a little
bit cheaper. This fight with eight fights, and I don't know if they're
going to show all eight fights on the pay per view or some will be
on the pay per view, some will be like on a you know,
a freeview or whatever. I mean, I mean, they're they're all good
enough fights where I can't imagine they would put these fights on and not show
all of them, especially on his own where you don't have to, you
know, you just it's a stream that they show hours and hours and hours
and stuff thirty nine to ninety nine. I mean, I'm like a reasonably
priced reasonably priced I gotta be honest, that's a hell of a price like
that should entice people to say, you know what, fuck it. I'm
not going to go try to steal the signal for forty bucks. I'm buying
the fight. I'm gonna get a perfect stream, and I'm gonna have my
pizza and beer or whatever. But I mean, you know, when you
charge eighty and eighty five, some people take the attitude of that's crazy.
Fuck them. I'm gonna just go find this, you know, find the
signal or I'm gonna watch it on YouTube afterwards or whatever. Had forty dollars.
It's almost like, yeah, at forty bucks, I gotta buy it.
So, you know, I don't know if they make it up in
volume or whatever, but that's a if you're a FANI, that's a good
price for that pay per view. You got Joshua in a legit fight,
Deontae's in a legit fight, Kergovic not so much of a legit fight,
Bvoll in a somewhat legit fight, Alpatie in a pretty solid fight, Dubois
and Jerl Miller definitely a toss up kind of fight. Mac mndouve against your
boy Kabiel that's a solid fight. And then Frank Stanchiez Junior five that's not
much of a fight, but it's the old that's like the first fight of
eight. So for forty dollars, you know, take my money, thank
you, all right. Also, Showtime did confirm during the pay per view
brun cast the December sixteenth show in Minneapolis, which will be their final show.
We're all still trying to figure out why it's not a better car or
a pay per view to go out with a bang, but whatever, they
did confirm the opponent for David Morell. You've been reporting this, go ahead,
Well back up for a second. I don't think you want to go
out on a pay per view. Number one, They went out there their
last pay per view with Dnavides and and Andre. You want to have a
real show on your network and close it out the right way with a nice
tribute video and a highlight package. And you know this card is kind of
part for the course of what they've been doing on their non pay per views
this year. Anyway, that said, it blows away that trap that HBO
served up on their last show, which one of the worst shows they ever
had in their history. This is at least some good solid names. And
you know in the opener is Chris Klobert versus Jose Valenzuela in their lightweight rematch.
That's a very solid, evenly matched kind of fight. They had a
close fight the first time around, so no problem with that. The fight
that was that had not yet been reported. I had reported that Julio Caesar
Martinez would be in the co feature defending the WBCs weight title, but and
I had posted a thing on social media earlier and they confirmed this on their
broadcast. His opponent will be a fighter and an undefeated fighter named Angelino or
Dova eighteen oh to one with twelve knockouts. He is from Venezuela, twenty
eight years old and he's got a string. You know, he's undefeated,
but he's got some solid wins over the last few fights. Angel A Costa,
who was a former titlelder at one aweight axel Aragon Vega, who that's
a very solid win. You know, he's been beating the guys you should
be so I think that's actually a pretty good matchup. If you're a fan
of flyweight boxing, and Julio Caesar Martinez has rarely left anybody wanting more action.
He's always a guy that delivers, So I think that could be definitely
a fireworks kind of fight for this card. And then, as we've talked
about, the main event was confirmed, which I've reported in a few weeks
ago, David Morrell defending his WBA Regular Supermitawait title against Senna Egbeco. This
was a fight that was previously scheduled but was but was called off because of
a problem with them that Deco had taken in his pre fight medical exam.
I am told that that whatever that issue has been resolved and he is now
clear to fight. So that's your show. So we will close out showtimes
thirty seven year history with that triple header. And you know what I got
to tell you, TJ. I'm watching the paper VI the other night,
and numerous times during the course of the broadcast they kept referring to it as
our final Showtime pay per view, and it's finally starting to sink in.
I wanted to cry about ten times well, and they were very you know,
they were sentimental even on this pay per view too. And talking about
that's going to be the last show in the end of thirty seven years of
the run, etc. So there's some time to build that up now.
In many ways, by the way, that was In many ways that was
the end because a lot of the people who showed up for the fight in
Las Vegas over the weekend, that's the last time allot of thse people a
going to see each other, at least in the context of a Showtime event,
because not many people are making a trip to Minnesota to Minneapolis in the
middle of December for this level of a show where it's going to be zero
degrees outside most likely. So yes, they'll still do the show and hopefully
they'll give us a proper tribute reel. But it feels like this is like
the coda, if you will, to the history. And by the way,
they will show for those who didn't get a chance to see the Benavidas
fight and haven't like try to find it on the internet anywhere. Showtime will
replay the main event in its entirety on this coming Saturday night. All Right,
nostalgia time, you have in previous conversations brought this fight up. Tyson
Fury on November twenty eight, twenty fifteen, eight years ago, Tuesday did
become the IBFWBAWBO heavyweight champion and win the lineal title, but not exactly an
all timer in that win. So it does make the rundown, but we
don't have to prolong that it was not a tremendous fight. You were not
their ringside, and then Fury went off the deep end. Let's be honest,
let's be truthful with his problems with alcohol, with drugs, with humongous
weight gain and disappeared after this. But he did win on that night eight
years ago. Listen, that means he's been the lineal champion for eight years
now. You can disagree with some of the opponents he has facing that timeframe.
You can be disappointed that he was off for so long because of his
issues. You could perhaps think to your yourself, he shouldn't be considered a
lineal champion because he did have, you know, almost a three year break
in between. And I always maintain had Wilder and Joshua fought at that time
during that span when Fury was out of action, out of the ring,
and they were both holding the ouph of that titles, and they were both
undisputed part of what makes a fighter the lineal champion, besides, of course
the man who beat the man, is that when there is a break in
the lineage in terms of man who beat the man, it's who does the
world coalesce around. Had Wilder and Joshua fought during the sabbatical of Tyson Fury,
I'm fairly sure that the fans in the media would have coalesced around the
winner of that fight, But they're the ones that didn't fight, and they
were trying to make the fight, and their teams didn't make that fight,
and they didn't make that fight, so they never got a chance to have
the world coalesce around the winner. So therefore, when Fury came back,
it was pretty much still status quo in the rest of the division, and
so therefore he had never been beaten, and so he's still the lineal champion.
So you can agree with that or disagree them, but that's my perspective
on it, and I think that's very logical. And then he went,
of course, had a couple of tune ups, had the Great Trilogy with
Deontay Wilder, with you know, a couple of fights in there between him
and Tom Schwartz and him and out of Whaling and those fights, and then
of course he's had the Dylan White, Shasora Nagana whatever. But this is
not about the merit of those matches. It's about that he's the lineal champion.
And the way he became the lineal champion was by bumping off Vladimir Klitico
eight years ago, at a time when Vladimir had become a historical figure.
He had rained for over ten years or close to it, he had made
you know, eighteen defenses. He had gotten to the point where he was
in the same conversation in terms of the statistics with people like Joe Lewis and
Larry Holmes and terms of the length of reign, number of defenses. As
a matter of fact, Vladimir Klitschko has appeared in more heavyweight world title fights
than anybody who ever lived in terms of overall in his multiple reigns as champion,
and Tyson Fury won that horrible, horrible, horrible fight to become the
lineal champion. So again we're not talking about about if it was good,
if it was bad, and I'm talking shifty on the facts. He won
the fight, no doubt, as I've always said, it was one guy
looked terrible and one guy looked worse. Fury, I thought looked terrible,
and I thought Ladimir looked worse. That was Vladimir on probably, you know,
other than when he lost by knockout, was like his worst performance,
because he showed he was not done. He had a lot left after that,
the way he fought against against Anthony Joshua, even though he lost.
And it's unfortunate because I would have been interested what Fury could have done if
he had rained in that talent and not been on drugs and not had the
mental health issues he had, and not been drinking and not been using cocaine,
and not being stripped of titles and not not making mandatories and all that
kind of basins. And one of the things about that fight people forget about.
You know, there's a lot of discussion right now because of the fact
that Terrence Crawford was stripped by the IBF of the weld Away title, you
know, pretty short order after he fought in the summer against Aerol Spence.
Tyson Fury within i want to say, ten days, two weeks whatever it
was, was ordered to fight the mandatory in the IBF and that was not
going to happen because he had a rematch clause with Clitchcow which he never honored
and fucked Clitchko in that respect. He got stripped to the IBF title even
before he failed all the drug tests. So it's just bringing back a lot
of bad memories about that time. But it is the anniversary, and that's
what we do here in this podcast. We talked about anniversaries a good,
bad, or ugly. That was ugly, but it made him the millennial
champion. All right, you're going to brighten up a little more real quick.
Nineteen years ago Monday is Marco Antonio Berrera and now now you're talking their
trilogy fight WBC Junior Lightweight Title two thousand and fours. Fight of the year.
By the way, did this fight also have the Round of the year.
I'm looking at this rundown. This rundown was for like five sentences about
this fight, including you being there. Give me the synopsis please, yeah,
listen, it was the fight. Look, everybody remembers and loves and
holds a high esteem and romanticizes about the great first fight between Barrera and Morales.
It took place in two thousand on HBO as a standalone one fight Boxing
after Dark sort of. It was at the anniversary of the creation of the
show, and they put on one of the all time classics. It was
a one hundred and twenty two pound junior featherweight unification fight that will stand the
test of time forever and ever and ever. Then they had the rematch,
which was another excellent fight, but maybe not the same level as the first
fight. But they were now one and one, so that the trilogy was
inevitable. So the way that they worked it out with they didn't go back
to back to back the way say Gaddi and war did, or Vasquez and
Marquez did. Uh. They spaced these out by it by with a couple
of years between each fights. But when they finally got to four and both
guys were still you know, high fighting at a high level. Uh,
they they did it again this time. Uh this you know, the second
fight, third fight, we're on HBO pay per view, whereas the first
one was a regular network fight. Uh. This time it's for the junie
you know, the WBC junior lightweight title that Morales held, and there was
one in one. Uh. They still hated each other's guts, you know,
they had that one of the bitterest rivalries. Ever. They're cool now,
I guess with each other. But back at that time, and like
I said, I covered uh the second and third fights in person. Uh
that did the The level of disdain that these two men for had for each
other and their teams, frankly, was as off the charts as anything I've
ever seen in all the bad quote unquote bad blood fights I have covered.
And they put on an absolutely spectacular fight. So the point I'm making here
is this, while the first fight gets most of the attention and the love,
the third fight is just as good, is just as classic. In
some ways, just is even more important because it was the time breaker,
and it was for history. They were fighting not only for the Morales,
you know, sanctioning body title in essence, as we've talked about with other
fights, this has been said as I've heard it then describe Ali and Fraser.
They were not only fighting for the heavyweight championship in Manila. They were
fighting for the championship of each other. And that's a Barer and Morales were
doing. After twenty four hillacious rounds with each other, now going another twelve
to make it thirty six rounds. An absolutely classic fight. It was the
twenty oh four pretty much consensus fight of the year. Round eleven is as
breathtaking as anything you'll ever see. Round five of the first fight was considered
by many the round of the year in two thousand. Round eleven of the
third fight is way up there, also an extraordinary fight. It was a
privilege to be ringside at the MGM for that matchup. And while it doesn't
necessarily go on my list as the greatest fight I've ever covered, because I
was there for Corrals Castillo and other great fights, also, yep, this
is high high on that list of just where you as a journalist are taught
to, you know, keep your emotions in check. But it was the
kind of fight where when the fight's over, you, even as a reporter,
not because you're favoring one guy or the other, you just want to
stand up and applaud and and and give your props and your your appreciation for
what these two guys did. And it was an incredible, incredible fight.
All right, good stuff there with all the nostalgia. Also, by the
way, twenty five years ago on Tuesday, Costa Zoo had a title defense
that was an entertaining fight defense. Oh it was uh what was it?
It was to win the interim title. And so this this makes the rundown
because we talk a lot on this show about famous fights. Morales Breer three,
I would think that's a pretty famous fight. It was the fight of
the year. Klitchko Fury might have sucked the route, but it was still
the heavyweight championship of the world and all that. But sometimes, you know,
I like to I like to bring attention to fights that maybe a lot
of people haven't watched or they're not all that familiar with, right, you
know, that was a great fight that they might want to like investigate a
little bit. That's one of those sort of I consider it like a lost
classic, if you will. So you go back to nineteen to nineteen ninety
eight, so twenty five years ago, coming up in a couple of days.
This was just a regular boxing after dark cart on HBO. This was
typical of the kinds of shows that they did in that time frame. They
did a tremendous doubleheader where you had in the main event, you had who
at the time was the WBC featherweight champion, Luisito Espinosa, who had made
like six or seven defenses, a top notch Filipino fighter that was in the
middle of an excellent title reign. He fought the outstanding Kennedy McKinney, who
had been a champion at bandonmwaight and junior featherweight, was now trying to win
a title in a third way class. Say that correctly. Memphis native Kennedy
McKinney as well had had the barn burner with Barrera in the very first ever
main event on Boxing after Dark. He was one of the guys that,
you know, when Boxing after Dark was created, it was made mostly for
the smaller fighters, you know, featherweights and junior featherweights and you know,
in a little bit further up the scale. So that was the main event
and McKinney got blown out by Espinoza in the second round and just not a
memorable fight, but the opening fight on that card. Remember Casazu had he
had he made his biggest fights on Showtime and became a Hall of Famer on
Showtime and had a contract with the network and fought you know, many of
his biggest fights there. But before that he was with HBO and he had
gotten knocked out by Vince Phillips and lost the IBF title and a huge upset
in a very very good fight that just shocked everybody with the result of that
match. So he was making his way back and he met up with Dio
Bellis Hurtado, who was a Cuban defector who had given as a completely unknown
guy. Like you want to talk about guys who were obscure, you know,
Hurtato was not known at all. He had defected, didn't speak English,
hadn't really been on TV much. He got an opportunity absolutely out of
nowhere to fight Pernel Whittaker on HBO uh and gave him the hardest fight of
his life. As they're trying to set of the Dala Hoi fight. This
is in ninety seven, and you know, Whittaker not a big puncher,
as everybody knows. He had knocked him down, and Whittaker amazingly with Oscar
de la Hoya sitting ringside thinking and his gigantic fight is going down the toilet.
Pearnel. Whittaker scored an eleventh round knockout over Hurtado, but that would
go down I think as a very acceptable, acceptable win. He went on
a long winning streak after that fighterur title. He got very, very busy,
and he got in a position to fight Kasazu for the then interim title
of the WBC T one hundred and forty pounds, where the winner would then
fight for the vacant title against Miguel Angel Gonzalez, who was an excellent Mexican
fighter at that time, who had fought Oscar de la Hoya. So they
meet for this interim title in the opening fight on HBO, and it is
like I said to you, I consider it like a lost classic. This
is a fight that if you want to see it just a great shootout between
two good fighters. Kasazu at the time, no one was thinking he's a
Hall of Famer because he hadn't established himself at that level yet. Hurtado was
only lost going into that fight was against Pearnel Whitaker, who was, you
know, one of the all time greats and was just about to fight Oscar
de la Hoya in a welterweight title defense, and out of nowhere, Kasazu
w and deb Beels Tourtato put on this fucking war where Coasazuo is down in
the first round, her Toado is arms taking back. Cosazu is down twice
in the first round. Her tato was he was knocked down first, was
badly hurt, and Zoo comes back, walks right into a punch, gets
dropped, gets dropped again. They battle it out, they go back and
forth. It's a great fight. Round five, Cossazu knocks down her title
two more times and gets a knockout. But this is like a wild shootout
and nobody ever brings it up or talks about it. So while I love
to talk nostalage on this podcast and we bring up the big mega fight anniversaries,
I saw this one on the calendar and I'm like, you know what,
I want to talk about Cosazoo and Diabell's artato because it's a lost fucking
classic. So find that on YouTube. Watch this fight. It's a lot
of fun five rounds, and it was like an early building block of Cossazou's
resume because that turned out to be a really good win for him. It
put him in position to fight Miguel Angel Gonzalez for the title, which he
ended up winning in parlaying into other unifications to become the undisputed champion and h
I just absolutely loved that card because I loved Espen McKinney as a matchup,
even though it turned out to be a little bit one sided. And then
Kasazu and Hurtitos told the show as the opener, just a great fucking file
fight. They did this outside at the Fantasy Springs in Indio, California,
where Golden Bay has so many of its events. But if my memory serves,
this was an outdoor fight at that time, they didn't have their arenas
just yet. Anyway, definitely worth your your twenty minutes to go find it
on YouTube and watch the show, because I watched. If we watch the
whole fight, Paul Card, I think the two fights will together only lastly
forty five minutes. Anyway, kasas Zu debusser titled twenty five years ago,
go watch it. Your public service nostalgia announcement from one Dan Rayfield to close
things out, Busy Busy off the weekend again, a highly entertaining fight card
that we recapped in Las Vegas. The showtime PBC card Katie Taylor gets your
revenge. You heard from Regis program, you got some news, you got
some nostalgia. I think we're about done here. That's a show that the
shows. That is a show, and we'll put this one to bed.
We'll get ready for Ryan Garcia, who you heard immediately previously on the preview
podcast and his fight with Oscar Juwarte this week, along with the other boxing
action in the preview later in a week. It'll be December when you and
I do this again, going into the preview mode with that, Dan Rayfield,
have a good week this week. We appreciate it as always. By
the way, you failed to mention that I was six and one on our
bet Us show. You were six and one on the bet Us show,
and I ended up what five and two because Benavidez got andred out of there
like you said that he would. I think that makes meek ten and two
over the last two weeks. All right, we like that you're making money.
Bet Us Show one Eastern time on Fridays on their platform. We did
well. Listen, have a great week. All good here, Thank you,
my friend you bet there's Dan Rayfield on Merely TJ Reeves. We appreciate
you being with us, follow subscribe, rate us, and review us as
well on Apple Podcasts, Freaker, Spotify. It is the fight Freaks You
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