Well off of a weekend that has seen Jose Ramirez get back into at least
the consciousness at one hundred and forty pounds with a win my decision in the
Golden Boy main event in Fresno, California. It is seen. Hey,
it didn't last long again. Virgil Ortiz a first round knockout in the co
feature fight on the Golden Boys Show. Where does that leave him? It
leaves him in a great spot. Looks like Tim Zoo is up next for
him. We're ready to recap those We're ready to get into a little more
with Brandon Figaroa. You're gonna hear from him in a little bit. It's
all part of the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast off the weekend, and we're
looking ahead to the Canelo Alvarez fight week which Brandon Figaroa is part of.
You're gonna hear him with the Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ Reeve speaking of
Dan Rayfield. Here. He is our insider. Fight Freaks Unite is his
substack, Big Fight Weekend dot Com. How was the weekend? Everything good?
You're ready to figuratively and literally turn your attention to Canelo and head west
to Las Vegas later this week. How are things most definitely, I mean
it was a better than expected fight. We'll talk ab out on Saturday night,
a very expected result in the Virgil Ortiz fight, which we'll talk about,
and uh yeah, I'm getting ready to head to Vegas. It's always,
uh, you know, when when the when the biggest star in the
sport fights. And it doesn't matter if we're talking about in today's day where
it's Canelo Alvarez or a few years ago when it would be the days when
Manny Packet or Floyd Mayweather would be in the ring, or before that,
you know, it was when Oscar de la Hoya was fighting, or it
was when there was you know, Mike Tyson. You know, that's like
our super Bowl in our sport, and it's always a great, great fun
to go cover those fights and see the big events and see the people and
see your media colleagues you haven't seen in a while, and and just be
around everything that's very big and very exciting all week long. Yeah, no
doubt. You were out there for Canelo's win over Jamal or Jamel Charlo.
Jamel. I got to keep my Charlo straight. Jamel Charlo back in the
fall. So now you'll be back there for this bout with Jimi Munggee and
again Brandon Figarola on the car defending the WBC Interim featherweight title. You'll hear
from him in a few moments. Make make sure you rate us and review
us again. We are battling on here. We come your way with a
preview going into the weekend Thursday night into Friday, and this is the recap
pod, the Fight Freaks to Night recap coming off the weekend Sunday night into
Monday. Speaking of the recap mode, all right, Jose Ramirez does get
the win. There was a moment, oh you love the adjectives. There
was a moment of trepidation, wasn't there where he got shook by Rancis Bartholomey.
But by and large he controlled the fight after that and gets the decision
win. All right, your thoughts on the main event of the Golden Boys
show as we get into that card. Trepidation is a good word. That's
like, as my mom would say, that's like a fifty cent word right
there. We'll take that. I'll take that with my Memphis education, thank
you. Yeah, listen, I mean going into the fight. I didn't
have very high expectations for it, and it's always nice when expectations are exceeded.
Too often in boxing we have expectations that are not lived up to,
or low expectations are met. In this particular instance, Ramirez m Bartheloni put
on a fight that was a lot better than I thought it might be,
So that was good to see. It was definitely an entertaining fight, one
sided in terms of the scoring and and uh correctly one sided in terms of
the scoring, but a good fight. Like you said, Barthellamy, you
know, he's thirty eight years old, coming off a long way off and
just just didn't have that next gear. So once Ramirez kind of took took
him, got control of what was going on. You know, he was
always dangerous with the left hand, but as Jose himself said in the interview,
that's all he had. You know, he basically was there to see
if he could get him with the left hand. And Jose is a savvy
enough guy with a good enough chin where it's gonna probably take more than just
one good left hand to get him out of there. You're gonna have to
follow it up or you know, go with a combination or you know,
flo a flurry of punches. So first few rounds it was kind of slow
moving and things were kind of just getting in in the groove. Barthelli was
doing pretty well. They both are moving around, they were swapping some good
shots, and like you said, round three, Barthelli cracked him with a
good left hand. H You know the thing about Barthelmy also he's listed as
a right handed fighter. He fights a lot as a right hander, but
he does very easily switch to south paw, and he did that quite a
bit in the fight. When he switched the south pod, that's when the
straight left hand became a very difficult weapon for Ramirez to deal with, and
he was getting He just couldn't get away from it. If Barthelmy could have
kept that going and had a little bit more gas in the tank, I
guess to continue to throw the punch, maybe he would have done more damage.
But the one in the third round, it clipped Jose Ramirez very very
hard. He was shook. As you said, I thought he got knocked
down. Now. Jack Reese, the referee, who I've always had a
lot of respect for, a tremendous referee, going to be a Hall of
Fame referee someday. In my estimation, I thought he missed the call.
I mean, it looked like it was a good shot now when he knocked
him down or slipped to the canvas, however you want to call it.
The problem was that ramsis Barthell, and he did not give Jack really a
chance to actually even make the knockdown call because he started unloading punches that were
blating. It wasn't like one shot. He must have thrown like three or
four punches. When Jose was on the ground on I thought live it was
a punch and he was stumbling. But you're absolutely right. You have chaos
with the referees trying to get between him and you're still trying to hit him.
So it was confusing there at that moment. Yeah, in the end,
he did not call the knockdown, but he also did not call a
point deduction for the foul. Now, he did give Barthelemy appropriately a very
hard and stern warning. Had he called the knockdown and deducted the point,
then it would even out anyway, I guess. So it still winds up
whether you score ten to nine or nine to eight, or however you look
at the scoring of the round. In the end, it probably was a
wash in terms of scoring the round, but he is still like to see
the call made again, in my opinion, a knockdown and I thought it
was latant enough in terms of hitting him while he was down that it shouldn't
It shouldn't have warranted just a warning. It should have been a definite point
deduction because you know, one shot, okay, that's an accident. Maybe
two, three, four are the man's down. Come on, you're a
professional fighter at age thirty eight, who was one world titled in two weight
classes and was an Olympian. You know the rules of boxing. You can't
do that shit. So anyway, that was the third round was pretty wild,
and then from the fourth round on this was basically all Jose Ramirez.
He got shook a few more times by the left hand, but never in
the manner that happened in round three. He had a huge crowd there,
over thirteen thousand at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, which is in his
home region. He's from Avenel, just a few minutes away. Obviously,
they always turn out for him. He was fighting for the first time in
a year. Same thing pretty much with Barthelemy, So they were there to
sort of, as you said, quip themselves back in any kind of consciousness,
more so with Ramirez given his stature where he's at at the moment.
But it turned out to be a good fight. He ended up winning pretty
handily one nineteen to one oh nine on two score cards, which means they
only gave Barthelemy the third round those judges, and one judge gave it ten
rounds to two. Would you think it was that wide? You thought that
was yeah, I had ten rounds to two. I could have saw it
maybe nine rounds to three. But even though some of the rounds were competitive,
Rosier Miras is winning all the rounds. He you know again, we
talked about it every single week. Practically. The copy box does not defined
the fight specifically, but when you see numbers that are so overwhelming in one
direction, it usually is an indication of what the result was. In the
fact of the matter is pose Ramires threw way way more punches, landed way
way more punches, and the punch punches landed for Barthellomey just were not at
the same level as uh. I mean, he almost got doubled up in
the punch out and the punches landed. I mean, again, they're not
exact, but it's a reasonable enough guy where if you're doubling the guy up,
you know there's probably a halfway decent chance that that's realistic in terms of
what those stats were. And Ramirez took the fight to him along the ropes
and had him in trouble in the eleventh round. Now, you and I
on the bet Us Show differed. You thought decision, I thought knockout,
and I thought, here we go. He's got him trapped, he's got
him hurt. It's a one sided fight at this point. And Jack Reese
second mentioned to him, by the way, I believe it's his birthday today,
So happy birthday, Jack Reese. And I did not know this former
fire captain in southern California too. How about that? I didn't know that
either, but I saw that on social media and currently also a real estate
agent. About that? Okay, well we got his full bio here on
the pod. But anyway, I thought he may be on the verge of
stopping the fight. He did not, And then it was kind of strange.
He came over in the corner and took the corner man away from the
corner and started talking to him and had the doctor come look at him with
the swollen eye. I thought it could have been a real brief. Hey,
if you're on the ropes again not defending yourself, I'm stopping it and
then just leave the corner. But it was a little prolonged. I thought
I might get a TKO there, ray Phiel, but it lasted the distance
Bartholo made, to his credit, kept firing back. He would get cracked,
he was in trouble on the ropes and then he would fire back,
and that kept the fight from getting stopped. So you're number one, as
I looked it up while you were telling me that. And Jack's birthday is
in fact on April twenty seven, so it was on Saturday. So happy
birthday to Jack Breeze. How we go. And also in terms of going
to the corner, I mean Jack in the eleventh round, before they went
to the corner, he was very close to stopping the fight, and the
main reason was because barthellay, well, I just think was tired. You
know again, I know it was thirty eight year olds thirty eight year old
old legs allegedly thirty eight, right, you know, he was languishing on
the ropes and takes and he's taking shots. I mean he took three or
four shot yes the corner when he went to the corner after the round.
He's specifically, and they caught it on the audio. The specifically he specifically
said to Barthelmy and to the corner if you're if you lay on the ropes,
I'm going to stop the fight and take you know, taking punches land
on the rope. So you could tell very distinctly that that that definitely resonated
in his mind, because Barthelmy, even when he was taking some shots in
the twelfth round, he did not go to the ropes even you know,
I don't even think he went there for a second. He stayed in the
middle of the ring or tried to move around. But you know, it
didn't matter at that point because he was either going to get stopped or Ramirez
was going to just close it out with the with the final bell and win
the HANDI he deserved decision. But you mentioned about the bet us, this
would be the appropriate time to mention that Rayfiel was four and oh and the
picks on Saturday, you were you got that you already had the over had
the fight been stopped. I was looking at the ko anytime by way two
and one last week, So it's a nice little streak there. I don't
forget what was, but yeah, six and one. We're doing all right.
We're doing good, all right, so just wrap it on this,
Ramirez said after the fighting. Look, I always loved the honesty where he
said I was not at my best and maybe I was a little distracted by
this being back in Fresno ring. Rust good on him that he was bringing
that up, So I like honesty. He won, he won convincingly.
So now as we always say, what do we believe is next for him?
At one, well, I do think you might have been a little
bit hard on himself just because of the fact that you know, I mean,
you could say which one about Barthelwi but he's an experienced fighter. As
he's gotten older, you know, he he's been more of a stationary puncher,
which happens often when a guy doesn't have the legs they once had.
And I don't know why he'd be distracted in Fresno because that's where he's fought
so many fights for most of his career. But nonetheless, big crowd you
know, he admitted it, so I, like you said, good for
him being honest. As far as what's next, you know, I did
interview Oscar de la Hoya, his promoter at Golden Boy. This was his
first fight since signing with Golden Boy. After his career long relationship a top
rank came to an end. Oscar said, look, he's ready for a
world title, which he is. He said, maybe I'll have one more
fight, because you know, it's one thing to say you're ready for a
world title. The reality is, though, you can't just snap your fingers
and get the world title shot. You got to have the luck or the
the the ability to make a title fight because sometimes other guys are busy or
there's not something available. So if you take a look at what the title
picture is at one forty, you have Devin Haney, who just lost to
Ryan Garcia, but still because Ryan was over the limit of one for he
still is the owner of the WBC title. I mean, if he stays
at one forty again, I kind of don't see it, but I would
have no problem watching Devin Haney versus Josey Ramirez. That's a pretty interesting fight.
The WBO champion and The lineal champion is Tafimo Lopez, who's with Top
Rank, who Jose has already turned down that fight. Yeah, now that's
not to say it doesn't come back around, but I don't know what Top
ranks motivation for doing that when he just left them. The IBF champion is
Super al Matias, who was with Mattroom and just signed with them. He
has a defense coming up against Liam Paro in June in a Puerto Rico homecoming
fight, you know, And it seems to me that Eddie Hearn has enough
top guys in and around one forty that he can make other fights, whether
he continues to work with Devin Haney even if they don't have a long term
contract. Obviously he still got you know, Regis Program, who's going to
be making a comeback. I know he didn't look good obviously when he lost
any but there's no reason why he couldn't be in that kind of fight.
Point is, it doesn't seem like cozier Ma is gonna be top of mind
for that. And then the WBA champions Pip bol Cruz who's with PBC,
who is defending his title coming up on the on the August third card,
that's headlined by the Terrence Crawford fight against Israel Majimov, so that the title
opportunities do not seem obvious right now. So it seems like to me anyway,
he probably will have some other fight before our things maybe become more a
little bit more clear. You know who he fights in that in between fight,
It remains to be seen. It wouldn't totally shock me. Maybe if
you know, we saw Oscar de Wardte fight on the undercard at A at
a hundred thirty eight pounds, but he's kind of could easily be one forty.
Also would shock me if maybe they try to make that's an exciting fight
to warte against Ramirez. He looked good against Jojo Diaz while we touched,
and we'll get to that fight a minute. Maybe they are setting that up.
I don't know, so we'll see what they do. But the point
here is this, after a year laoff, Josiermeraz came back. They had
a fun fight, look solid, even if he was maybe not so great
early on, and you know, he's still another top name. He's look,
he's only got one loss and it was a decision against Josh Taylor for
the undisputed title where they were both bringing two belts to the ring, and
the difference in that fight was the fact that Josh scored two knockdowns and those
were the difference in terms of the two points because the judges all had at
one fourteen to one twelve. So if he doesn't get dropped two times,
the fights a draw. And if you're only lost in your cares a very
close fight to Josh Taylor. There's nothing wrong with that. But it was
good to see jose Beck. All right, So co feature fight was a
Virgil Ortiz win. Now, while you're so busy patting yourself on the back,
I do remember Dan Rayfield saying on the bet Us show, I just
don't think this is a first round knockout when people were bringing it up,
and yet it is a first round knockout. It's a body shot knockout.
In honor of Roy Jones, y'all must have forgot back Virgil Hill out with
a body shot. It was a body shot to Thomas Delormet and he didn't
get up. He didn't get up about two minutes into the first round.
So Ortiz gets another back to back first round KOs he's had the health problems.
Now he hasn't had much action in the ring because he's gotten two first
round wins, but not a lot to go over other than the body shot.
Right, Yeah, I mean yeah, he didn't have a lot of
rounds in the ring. But you know what, sometimes as important. First
of all, he goes through the whole pageantry, the whole thing, getting
your hands wrapped, going to the arena, walking up the steps, you
know, going through the instructions, having the actual fight obviously important to go
through a full and healthy training camp, which he's had his problems with because
of the blood disorder. We've discussed plenty of times because of his issues making
the weight. He seems now very comfortable at one hundred and fifty four pounds.
This was his second fight in that division. He did have the first
round knockout against Frederick Lawson in January, and now he has this first round
knockout against the Lormet uh two minutes and thirty nine seconds of the first round,
a perfect left hook. I loved Virgil's comment to our pal Chris Mannix
in the interview on his own after this knockout, which is, they think
I'm just a guy to just go there to you know, to knock you
out. But I'm a thinking fighter also, and it was a very calculated
punch. You know, they say I'm a truck, but this, this
truck was thinking over here. The point is like he set it up very
nicely. Not a whole lot had happened in those first two minutes and thirty
nine seconds, a couple of jazz, you know, a couple other punches,
but nothing that was indicative that this fight was about to end. But
when he had the opening, boy did he land just an absolutely perfect shot.
And it was almost like, uh, like I get it, like
a lightsaber just cut the lourmet in half. Because the way he went down
was just like, you know, there was no He just dropped like a
rock and he you know, rolled over and was just absolutely an agony and
writhing and you know, and there was just no way you could tell immediately
that there was no way, as often described and analysts talk about this,
and Sergio Bore was talking about, immediately you can't breathe, nothing works,
you can't breathe, you can't get up, and as you go, as
Ortiz said, he goes. When I when I landed, I said,
I knew that's a rap and it was a rap and listen, it was
a very good win. I mean, Delormee has seen way better days.
I feel bad for DeLorme because he's a nice guy. I've known him a
bit over the years, been a fun fighter. They were talking about how
he made his debut on HBO, like more than ten years ago. I
mean, he's he's been a workman, a workhorse type of fighter. I
mean, at one time he was one of the hottest prospects in the sport.
People thought he was gonna be a future world champion. It didn't work
out that way for him. But I don't know where he goes from here.
But the fact is, Virgil Ortiz, if you're going to get the
first round knockout, do it, because the more important fight is the one
on August thirty. Remember this fight between him and DeLorme was already me before
there was any notion that there's me a possibility of Virgil Ortiz fighting against him
zoo. So it was only during the week of this fight, or you
know, within a few days that the fight was fire. And so it
was incumbent though on him defeating Thomas Lorman and also making sure that he doesn't
have any kind of injuries that are going to keep it from a training camp
and out of the fight. That's August the third, So now we have
a spectacular fight. I mean, look, that's what we've discussed that last
week about how absolutely freaking loaded that August third card that that the Saudi's are
coming to do as part of a read season. And then here in the
United States, I'll take place in Los Angeles. As we discussed, if
Virgil Ortiz against Tim Zuo is your third fight down the card, you know
what a crazy card that is because you got Crawford and Magimov obviously is an
important fight in the main event, Crawford the number one fighter in boxing pound
for pound moving up to another weight class to try to go for a fourth
title. Then you got pit Bull Cruz, who is a very popular fighter
in the next fight, defending his title at won forty for the first time
against Jose Vealezuela. And then the third fight down the show is Virgil against
against This matchup, yeah, against Tim Zoo. He's just a tremendous battle.
I mean, and look they were they even were going back and forth
a little bit on social Mediazos closed post, right after the fight was me
and Virgil Ortiz is the real main Evan see you soon, buddy with an
exclamation point. Yeah, I mean there's the night. You know, kind
of kind of crazy to think that that there'll be those that might consider Pitbull
Cruise and the defense and uh and Terrence Crawford in the ring, you know
as the let's call them walk out paths, right, but spectacular fight and
Virgil is safely through. And I'm gonna tell you, man, we got
a lot of time to talk about that possibility of what we might see that
fight. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I just I could see
that fight just being an all out battle, you know, start to finish,
you know, one through twelve. I could see either guy, you
know, getting something done early. Just the sensational sense. I mean,
you dream about those types of matchups. If you're looking at rankings at one
hundred and fifty four pounds and you were like, you know, go ahead,
make any fight you want to make in the weight class, you very
well might pick Tim Tim Zuigin's Virgil Ortiz is your number one fight. I
don't care that Virgil just had the two rounds. I know he can fight.
I know he's now twenty one and oh with twenty one knockouts. And
in terms of Tim Zoo, yeah, okay, he lost the Sebastian Mendor
on a split decision in a fight that if anybody watched the fight, And
I'm not dissing from the door, because he's an exciting fighter and a and
a talented fighter and a good dude. But here's the reality. He was
having his ass handed into for a round and you know, and and and
uh seven eighths of the second round, and then Zoo ended up with a
gaping wound on the top of his head and it completely changed the fight for
him, and he still went twelve rounds with the guy he's still almost won
the fight and running down his face the entire fight. So let me add
this. Let me ask you a compromised to the whole yes to the whole
discussion, Tim Zoo, because I keep seeing Virgil's gonna easily beat Tim Zoo.
Virgil's gonna knock Tim Zoo. Tim Zu's the much more tested world championship
level fighter who beat a former world champion a Tony Harrison, who beat an
interim WBC one and fifty four pound champ in Brian Mendoza. Uh So that's
a fascinating, fascinating fight that's more more motile, more more notable, or
at least as notable as that he's been at junior middleway his entire career.
I mean, fel when I when I first fought you know, when I
think I when I when I picked Virgil as the prospect of the year.
However, many years ago that was he was, you know, looking for
a title shot at one hundred and forty pounds. Right now he's in the
one fifty four pound wake, len't he You know, he doesn't look like
he's gotten much. He still looks great in that you know, he can.
I don't know how he ever made one forty, right, but he
looks great at one fifty four. And by and by the way, another
part of this argument, he's had two fights at one fifty four that have
basically been nothing because one of them was prematurely stopped while he's trying to swarm
the guy in the first round, and the other one there's not really a
significant punched until Boom goes the dynamite with the body shot. So it's not
like he was tested in either fight by by shots coming at him or anything.
So I don't know really what we have yet at one fifty four.
Well know August third, I know, I know August fight. I know
that we have a fight on August third, with all respect to the other
outstanding matchups that are on that show. And I'll probably write write a column
about this or a peace about this at some point as the show gets closer,
and I'll like give like a little ranking I guess of this of the
s spights that are currently announced for the show, all of which are interesting
to me for different reasons, but I think I would probably pick Virgil against
Tim Zuez my number one fight on that card for many different rates. Like
it? All right, again, you'll hear from Brandon figure Rollo with Dan
coming up in a few moments. Let's finish out the card. As I
made mention, Oscar Duarte did get a stoppage of Jojo Diaz and then Gabriella
Alians ends up winning over Marlon Asparza in their rematch for the three flyweight championships.
All right, so wrap up the conversation on the Golden Boy card.
Well, Duarte, you know he was coming off the knockout loss against Ryan
Garcia in December. That was Ryan's fight coming back off his knockout loss against
Tank Davis that was last April. And even though Duarte lost against Ryan Garcia,
you know, he put up a good effort and you know, he
just you know, Ryan is just a prop better fighter, a more powerful
guy. And he was also not fighting in the in the most natural weight
class He's he's mostly been a lightweight Duarte. He was fighting Ryan up at
one hundred and forty three pounds, so you know that can make a difference.
But he took on Joseph Diaz in a fight that Joseph Diaz was in
desperate situations to win because his career is you know, pretty much done at
this point, you know, for after that loss, and d'warte looked really
good. I mean, Joseph Diaz showed a great chin like he always does
and is a warrior, but was outgunned, outclassed out everything. Uh.
You know, he was able to make the weight finally for a change that
that was contracted at one thirty eight. Uh. But the most notable aspect
of what occurred is that even though Joseph Diaz has now six losses. That
was the first time anybody not only the first time anybody ever stopped him,
but the first time I think anybody ever came close to stopping him. Because
the's other losses he went to distance in fights that maybe he lost, you
know, con points that were pretty clear, but no one was ever doing
the damage like d'warte was now. Jojo said afterwards, you know, he
never hurt me. I don't know why he stopped it. Well, I
know why he stopped it, because're getting your ass kicked for nine rounds.
I mean, he put a lot of a lot of punishment on Joseph Diz,
who's now at this point, maybe not chronologically but in his career as
an older fucking Yeah, he was close to stopping him earlier in the fight.
He hard him earlier in the fight and had him along the ropes previous
to that. So yes, so he stops some standing, but uh,
you know, and Jojo says, you know, I'll be back, And
I thought to myself, and I posted this on social media, You'll be
back to where you can't make one thirty five. You got destroyed at one
thirty eight. You got no prayer against the names at one forty, so
where are you going? And he's his You know, he's got a lot
of thinking to do because it's a it's a it's a thing about diminishing returns,
like even if he gets a fight. So he made sixty thousand dollars
for the fight against the Warte on Saturday, his persons are only going to
go down and they're going to just throw him in with anybody disappoint So,
I don't know where is reality? You gotta I mean, he's what did
you say, four fight losing streak something like that, and he's now lost.
He's he's lost two in a row, but he's lost five of his
last six, going all the way back to the Devin Haney fight in twenty
twenty one. All right, now, if you look on one and the
things, the fights he's lost Devin Hainey, Williams, the Paida and Duarte,
those are pretty solid guys. He lost the Mercedo Hesta, who's a
little bit of a lesser guy. He lost to Jesus Perez. That was
a fight he should have won. And the one win he got in there
is against Jerry Perez, who's just like a regular kind of guy. The
point is, I just don't see anything. Now as far as d Warte
goes, you know, he's exciting, he seems like he's got a good
idea what's going on. He had Robert Garcia in his corner for the first
time he made it. You know, he kept his corner, but he
brought in Robert to work with him also, who was willing to do so.
And if Robert Garcia takes you on, he sees something. Robert's not
the kind of guy that just goes to go with a guy just to go
with the guy. Now, maybe if it was a guy that brought a
huge amount of money, you do it. But Oscar Duarte is not the
kind of guy that the trainer signs up for because he's gonna get rich.
A guy like Robert Garcia brings in and is willing to work with the Duarte
because he thinks he's a chance he can be cal him something and you know,
win a big fight, become a world champion and obviously make some money
also. But the point here is that that was a a good looking version
of Oscar Duarte, and you know he he's got a chance to make some
noise at lightweight, maybe at Junior Walter certainly get himself a fight. I'll
tell you a fight that would be freaking amazing, And I don't know what
the Golden boy appetite to do. The match would be. Imagine him against
Williams of Payda. That would be entertaining. Yep, I mean no doubt
about it. I mean those you know, they can do that if they
want. I mean Zepaidas doesn't have a title shot coming. He's waiting as
patiently as he can for it something. But if they got to keep these
guys busy, that's a great matchup. And the women's fly weight uh split
this That was a little bit of a weird one because you know they they
fought a few months ago and it was Asparza who won the fight. Some
say controversial. I thought she clearly won that fight. The point in that
one, though, was she had her two titles she won. I believe
it was the WBO belt from Alanta's in that fight. It was rescheduled for
recently, but it got postponed because Alanta has had a problem with her visa.
So it took place on Saturday, and it was very similar to the
first fight, but they ended up giving the decision in favor of Atlantis.
I thought it was a close fight. I mean, to be quite honest,
Taj, I was not scoring it round by round on paper. I
was just kind of watching that one because I know I wasn't gonna be writing
a whole lot about it, so I can't give you the nuance of like
how I scored it, but my feeling and you know, and I always
say this, if you're gonna argue with me and tell me, you know
this guy won, that guy won, this woman won that one on you
better have your score on paper, like on your phone, or you know,
I need round by round because it's three minutes that you score and then
you go on to the next one. But I also have watched plenty of
fights where I may not score on paper, but you kind of have a
feeling how the fight's going. My feeling was that I could have seen either
way, that both of them had their times where they were doing good work.
But in the end that the thing that was weird about it wasn't just
that they gave one woman the decision over the other, is that the way
the scores were and it's always goofy like this, you had one of the
judges who scores the fight ninety eight to ninety two in favor of Esparza,
which is eight rounds to two. That's a one sided fight. Obviously,
the other two judges gave it to Atlanta's and they scored it in ninety six
to ninety four, ninety seven to ninety three, so that the variance between
the scoring was pretty wild. So we have again we said this last weekend
too with with with one of the judging of one of the fights, we
have one judge giving eight barbon fight baro right the Barbosoply we got one judge
giving eight rounds of the ten to one fighter and another judge giving seven rounds
to the to the other fighter. That yeah, that's way too wide.
So now obviously they're one and one. You know, our Sparsa said afterwards
she would like a third fight. Alana's basically told her to go fuck herself,
which is so she's not interested to do that. But here's the most
important aspect of it, Asparsa, you know again, I don't I don't
room against her or anything like that. Chinna got what she deserves to ask
me, because she didn't make the weight on Friday at the weigh in,
she was one hundred and fourteen pounds defending three titles that flyweight one hundred and
twelve pounds, so she got stripped of all three belts yep. And she
was not eligible to retain her titles or win the titles now that they were
vagant So Atlantas is eligible to win the belt. So she wins the three
unified titles, and she's the one that made the weight, so she did
her job Asparza. She pays the price by coming in unprofessionally and not making
the weight even coming close, and also losing the fight. Boxing gods,
we're watching on that one. Okay, good recap. That's what you call
karma, TJ. That's karma right there. It is karma, baby.
All right, good recap stuff. Let's get to a conversation. This is
later in the week. Brandon Figueroa is back in the ring, big time
action fighter. He is the interim WBC featherweight champ. He's fighting former junior
featherweight titleist Jesse Magdaleno. But you don't got to wait for later this week
to find out more about that fight. Find out about it right now.
Well, it's my pleasure to welcome to our podcast today. It is the
WBC Interim featherweight Champion, Brandon Figueroa. Brandon, you have an important title
defense against Jesse Magdaleno. It will take place on the Canelo Alvarez card against
Hima Magee at May fourth, on a pay per view at the T Mobile
Arena in Las Vegas. So I want to thank you very much for joining
the show and I look forward to talk to me about the fight. Yeah
sure, yea, and thank you for having me. Appreciate that. So
first off, I want to just get your take on this. This is
your first time that you're going to be fighting. I'm one of these big
single demio cards in Las Vegas, on Canelo's card, you know, one
of the big stars in the sport. I just want your feeling about as
a Mexican American getting the chance to fight on that type of a big show
where you know, the hoopla and the and the the passion for the Mexican
fight from the Mexican fight fans is at such as such a fever pitch.
I mean, yeah, it's amazing. It's a great opportunity. And family
grew watching you know, Marque. Yeah, all these great Mexican champions I
was reporting there. So now that I know that, you know, they're
going to be doing the name for me and for Carnelo, especially for Carnelo.
So mories are going to be on me and more exposure, and like
I said, I just can't wait to go out there and and take advantage
of this opportunity and go out there and give you know, like you said,
the Mexican fans are a great show. You know, they love exciting,
thrilling fights, and I felt like I was chosen perfectly. You know,
I am a come forward fighter. Everyone knows that is my fighters,
and they were boring their action pack. I always come forward. I'm always
looking for action. So that action is going to be the regardless all night.
So I know the Mexican father a little bit. Everyone that's going to
be is gonna love it. You don't necessarily have the Mexican, but you're
you're definitely gonna love it more. So yeah, like I said, it's
a big opportunity, and you know Jesse magnal Magnalano is a top opponent,
and you know, I just got to go out there and execute my game
plan. So the last time we saw you in the ring. It's been
a little while. That was when you had a decision win, you know,
pretty clear against the former WBC champion Mark Macsio. That was March of
twenty twenty three. That's when you won the interim title that you now hold.
Pretty good performance from you. I just wanted your quick take on what
you thought of your performance in that fight and and what kind of me meaning
to you doesn't have to have an interim title as opposed to a full world
title. I mean, yeah, that's the goal is to I always have
the you know, b A four champion. Uh. But yeah, like
I said, I was supposed to fight after Carlos Castro. Uh, that
fight didn't happen. I had to fight Maxio. I found him one.
So you know, like I said, I just been waiting for that opportunity
for for the you know, for the actual bell. Uh just seems to
you know, have the band in the way. I don't know if he's
stalling or what. You know, I've been ready, I've been I would
waiting for him last year when he actually Foster and then he just had to
fight mcball. You know, I'm his mandatory. You know, I even
fought Maxio just to prove that, you know, I belong. I deserved
that shot. So hopefully maybe by the end of this year we can get
a fight with him. If not, then you know, we're just gonna
fight someone else. Uh, you know, we're not gonna be waiting for
him bong and uh. Yeah, I mean the Maxiofi was just amazing.
I felt like I went out there and executed my game plan, overwhelmed them,
dominated, and just broke them down completely. So yeah, pretty much.
So this is gonna be your first fight since then. So it's gonna
have been fourteen months since that fight. And I just wondered if there was
a particular reason that you've been offered that long. You also only had the
one fight in twenty twenty two, so I wondered, you know, is
it that did you want to fight more often? Did you have some kind
of injury? Was there just a couldn't get the fight? No, couldn't
come to an agreement with your with your with your people that you deal with,
you know, whether it's PBC or whoever. What's the story with the
long layoff? Yeah, I mean it was just like I said, like
last year, I was training for six months. I was like, I
said, I was supposed to fight Ri Bargash. They're like, Okay,
you're gonna py September. They said, no, You're gonna Bay, November
they said no, October, they said no, December they said no.
So you know, they had me waiting and it wasn't until like hey,
man, like you knows, for almost half a year, like six months.
We never do that. So we were just waiting waiting for him,
I guess and his team, but I don't know if they're duck installing,
they're scared, or whatever the case is. But yeah, you know,
we were just waiting and no fight happens going on. Does that get frustrating
for you, because, like you said, you're in the gym, You're
not getting paid for training, You're getting paid for the fights. Yeah,
I mean it is. It isn't a way, but you know, you
always got to take the goods from the bed. You know. I just
thought as a you know, I stayed in shape, I was active,
I was ready. So all I can say is that I was happy that
I went ready and active sharp. Man, I was. I was probably
in the best shape of my life, you know, last year, in
those six months. You know, we're just training, getting ready, training
getting ready. So you know, now this fight is here, we're like
two a week away, a week and a half, so you know we're
just probably seeing the detos and I can't wait for fortnight. The conversation will
continue in a moment. First, a word for our friends at PPV dot
com. Coming up Saturday night, He's back the return of Canelo Alvarez in
the premiere Boxing champions pay per view as he fights Heimimongia for the undisputed super
middleweight Championship on Cinco de Mayo weekend, and we want you to watch it
through our friends at PPV dot com. Why because you're gonna get a tremendous,
high quality broadcast including interaction with the likes of Jim Lampley, Lance Pugmeyer,
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Caneloan Mungia again utilize PPV dot com for the technology for the interaction and the
fact that you don't need a long term subscription, high quality broadcast. One
of the premier fighters in the sport for the last fifteen years, a certain
first ballot Hall of Famer. He's back on Saturday night from Las Vegas,
and we want you to watch it with PPV dot Com. Again, no
subscription required. Make those purchases only when you want, do it through our
sponsor PPV dot Com. So in terms of Magdaleno, he's a former champion
in the one hundred and twenty two pound way class, where you also were
a champion. He's coming off of a decision loss against ray Ford, who
ended up going on after that fight to win the WBA featherweight title in a
very dramatic performance against Komotov. I wonder if you were able to did you
see Magdaleno's fight with ray Ford and what were your impressions of that performance.
I actually haven't watched that fight. How Bunny watches though. Okay, so
when you haven't watched a fight, did your team watch the fight that sort
of you know, scouted out for you because that he hadn't fought for a
while. I guess, so that would be the most recent example, because
he's also coming off of a similar layoff that you'll be coming off of.
Have they been telling you anything about it? You're just gonna sit down and
watch it fresh sometime before the match, Yeah maybe. I mean, I
know my team has has watched it a few times given me instructions about it,
but you know, probably just go over myself and uh you know,
just yeah, like you said, just watch it fresh and just have it
in my mind fresh. Uh. Are there any I mean, obviously you
know that he's a south bought Magdalena. I wonder when you get prepared for
the fight, any concerns about fighting a left hand or whatsoever. No,
No, I mean, maybe just a little bit. But I mean it's
just adjustments. Like I said, I can fight lefty righty, so uh
you know, I I just have a very unique style that confuses a lot.
I feel like my opponents because I know how to fight lefty righty.
I don't how to fight lefties from a lefty standpoint, so, uh you
know, I just bring different styles to the ring, and that's something for
him to have to have to decipher my styles. Whether I'm coming from a
riiety standpoint, coming from a lefty standpoint. So yeah, so when you
think about Magdalena, what's sort of like when you think about his game?
Is there a particular scattering report you have in your mind about him and and
the types of things that you think you need to sort of negate to be
the victor. I mean yeah, I mean just got to use my ability,
he's got to use my lane. My job. I felt like my
job is in be of every key uh you know factor in the fight.
And I feel lighted as something that that you know, me and my dama
have been working on. So yeah, I feel like it's going to be
on full display come report. So you're The most famous fight that you had
was in twenty twenty one when you had that tremendous battle, really outstanding fight
against Stephen Fulton to unify the belts at one hundred and twenty two pounds.
Uh, you know it was uh it was a close loss for you.
I mean I think a lot of people left that uh fight thinking that that
that Brandon Figuarreau one. A lot of people thought that maybe it was Stephen
Fulton that was the winner. How how disappointing and do you still think about
that? I mean He ended up losing after that, but his it the
type of thing where you still want and desire to maybe someday get a rematch
with Fulton. I mean, yeah, it'll happened. You know, it
is what it is, you know to go. I learn a lot from
that pie. You know, Stephen Fulton is a champion of course, all
respects Ran. But yeah, I mean I know, I know we'll get
that rematch soon. Like the controversial fight that we had is just making the
second PI more anticipating. So I feel like, yeah, I feel like
the second fight is going to happen. I feel like he's just a better
time and I can't wait. The guys you fight get the big money opportunities
against Noya in a way, right, I mean, here you got Fulton,
he gets his hand raised against you, he goes to Japan, has
a huge payday and a unification for undisputed. Uh doesn't win. You knocked
out Luis neary A in a pretty impressive performance. Also, now he's got
the opportunity against him for the title coming up on h On just a few
days after your fight on May sixth, do you ever think about the possibility
of you went in a way hooking up because he's going to be a feather.
Wait before too long, I would think, of course, you know,
I feel like I feel like that that fight is good and oh and
I feel like a lot of people are already talking about it. They're excited
about it actually, and yeah, I feel like stylistically it's a great fight.
And I know, like I said, whether later this year, and
you know, if everything goes well, then you know, that's a great
opportunity for Innuay to fight me. I went to the ser or maybe get
the rematch filming. The point is, I just want to have I just
want to fight the bird. I want to fight these exciting fighters. Innui
is probably at the top of my list. That fight is going to be
crazy, crazy crazy. But first, you know, I got to win
this though the championship, and I give him a reason to to want to
fight me a little bit more and make the fight a little bit bigger.
So yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait, uh for what's what's
in sort for me? But I don't take nothing from Justin Magdaala. Like
I said, he's one right now on the moment. Uh, he's he's
a fighter in my way, I don't take nothing from him, and we're
preparing one hundred percent for him. You know, we got to go out
there and do our daying and and win his pearctacular fashion. So that's who
that's our gameplan, so many of them. I'll wrap up with this then
when it comes to you talk about how you know you love to fight in
a way, but obviously you go to got to get through the Saturday,
you know, May fourth fight against your opponent Jesse Magdaleno. You're hoping to
get the full title against Ray Vargas. But he did have as you mentioned,
he fought to fight with Nick Ball that was just recent. You are
his mandatory challenger. That was a fight that was really really close. A
lot of people thought that nick Ball should have won that fight and ended up
as as a draw. I wonder if you saw that and what you thought
about that, because nick Ball showed a great performance in Vargas fought a really
good fight too that night. Yeah. Yeah, I did see like a
little bit of rounds. But you gotta understand that you have to be really
really active. You can't just you have to be really really really active because
would just box you and just move back and move and make the fight look
really decisive for him. So I feel like I felt like a lot of
the points that he's fought, like Maxio, uh, you know, my
taller ran out of gas, which I feel like Vargas took over. And
I feel like kind of same thing happening with nick Ball where he kind of
let off the gas a little bit and that was just enough for maybe to
just you know, even not to score. But you know, everyone knows
me to have phrazy conditioning, So I feel like my conditioning would be the
big difference maker if I were to fight, because I would be coming at
him the hotel rounds, and I feel like his team knows that out of
retired, you know, I have the record for throwing one hundred and fifty
five punches around. I'm really active, and that's the type of fighter you
got to be, especially to pet a champion like you gotta beyond him,
you gotta be on him. You got to be meticulous, and you can
then fight his fight. You gotta make him fight your fight. So I
feel like it would be a very interesting fight. And like I said,
we've been we've been keeping an eye on him for for quite a while,
so I don't know, if nothing past Jesse Magdaleno, Uh got to take
care of him first, and hopefully if God winning, everything was great,
I have my hand raised, and then then then I'll started touching my attention
towards you know, other potable points. So yeah, well, I figure
we're going to see a whole lot of punches being thrown by Brandon figure out
against Jess and Magdalena on May fourth. I wish you the best of luck
in that fight to look forward to seeing that matchup, and I wish you
good luck and that Thank you very much for your time today, sir.
Thank you again. We are anxious to see him back in the ring.
This is part of the upcoming premiere Boxing Champions Amazon pay per view, the
Canelo main event. Figarola at one time a tremendous fight with Steven Fulton,
but it seems so long ago. I can't even keep that straight. But
now at least he's back in the ring and trying to get himself kind of
like what we talked about earlier in the pod about Jose Ramirez, get back
in the ring, make yourself relevant again coming up. Yeah, I mean,
look, Figureo is one of the most exciting fighters in boxing. The
fight against Steven Fulton in November of twenty twenty one was a spectacular fight.
It was a unification fight could have gotten either way. Fulton got the win
with the majority decision. He ultimately lost the titles by a knockout to Noya
in a way, and if you listened to my interview with him, obviously
people heard him talking about his interest about having an inn AA fight at some
point in the featherweight division. But this is a is a good to have
him back because after the Fulton fight, you know, like a lot of
guys like he fought, he come off a big win against Luisnary back before
the Fulton fight by knocked out nearly. Is the next guy get a chance
to fight In a way, he then has the very close loss that could
have either you know, gone either way against Fulton. That was in twenty
one. He fought us one time in twenty twenty two, that was when
he moved up to featherweight. Fought just one time in twenty twenty three,
which is a nice win on showtime against Mark Magsie who was a former WBC
champion. And then whatever momentum you get by the cash Show win, and
relatively speaking, the mcs I win was less than a year after that,
so it wasn't like some crazy layoff. But now he hasn't fought for fourteen
months. When he gets in the ring on Saturday against Magdaleno, it's a
fourteen month layoff, and as a Josier Ramirez talked about in this post of
interview, that's not a good look and it's not good for a fighter to
fight so infrequently, if you, you know, as long as you're not
injured and everything. So I will welcome seeing Brandon figure out back in.
He's one of my most excited, you know, one of the most exciting
fighters around. And uh, we'll see and Magdaleno, I mean, he
may have seen a little better days, but Magdaleno, you know, usually
comes to fight off, So I think that's got a chance to be,
you know, a pretty darn good matchup on the pay per view undercard.
Good stuff, and again the Ray Fiel scene in Vegas, Clark County authorities
notified you're going to be their ringside for that fight coming up with figure Roll
on the undercart of Canelo and Mungia. All right, some news and then
some excellent nostalgia. When we put this podcast to bed, we did not
know about this item. Kudos to Jake Donovan. I know you may have
had something about this too, but Jake Donovan had in depth. I was
reading it like a gossip page, like page six of the New York Post.
Here for Errol Spence and Derreck James. Man it has gone south.
It has gone south over money, lawsuits flying. What's a few million dollars
among friends. Well, it's important if you are the trainer and the fighter
that you're training, you believe is supposed to give you ten percent of his
money. And we started arguing over what is actually ten percent of the money,
and I got and the ten percent of the money is worth millions in
the argument, So go ahead. They are fighting in court now, Derek
James, the trainer Erol Spencer. So it's so unfortunate, and you can
see shit like this coming a mile away. You know, they've been together
from day one. Remember Errol's dad basically brought Errol to the gym and he
was with Derek from you know, I think even back in his amateur career.
They've been a team forever, a good relationship for so long. But
money does this. It's not the first time trainers and fighters have had arguments
about money. Look, I'll let the courts figure that out. But here's
here's the gist of the problem Derek James has. You know. And by
the way, like fighters, trainers don't get paid til fight night, right,
So they go and they put a lot of time and effort into their
fighters. They work their asses off like the fighters do, and it's time
to when it's time to get paid. They obviously don't make what the fighters
make, but they're they're entitled to their share. So according to the way
the loss of reads, they have an agreement that he's supposed to get ten
percent of whatever Arrol's purse is. As you said, what constitutes the purse?
Now, in reality, in boxing, there's a lot of different revenue
comes from different places. Guys and gals put contract numbers on contracts, they're
not necessarily reflective of what their actual overall compensation for the event is. So
Errol paid him three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the Terrence Crawford fight,
but Spence's total compensation supposedly was like twenty five million dollars. So if you
do the math ten percent of twenty five million, and I'm no math expert,
that's two and a half million, not three to fifty. Uh huh.
So in the spirit of the law or the spirit of the agreement,
he should be getting two and a half million. In the technical aspect of
the agreement, I guess the one percent guaranteed exactly the guaranteed money. But
clearly Spence's playing games because he made way more money, and he should pay
the piper, is the point. Now. One of the things my all
on my experience in covering boxing is that there's two ways. As it goes
a lot of times, at least early on, the trainer gets ten percent
or whatever percent day grant, sometimes a little bit more, sometimes a little
less. But ten percent's like basically been a historic threshold for decades and decades
and decades. But when you get to a certain point where you're making that
kind of money, when you're making the twenty five twenty teny, then huge,
huge money. Like when many Packet was making gargantua and purses, Freddie
Roach was not getting ten percent. Freddie Roach had his is a lawyer or
his agent. They negotiated a price with the pack out management and that's what
he got. It wasn't you know, you think if Banni pacyall made two
hundred million dollars for the Floyd Mayweather fight, he certainly wasn't getting twenty million
dollars. The problem is you have to have that laid out so everybody is
on the same page. Now, it's one thing to make a deal and
it's oral, and you're not talking about that much money. I mean it's
probably still not great, but okay, whatever, when you get to that
level of money, you really need to put that shit on paper. So
there's just no dispute. What he wrote apart is what does the contracts say?
That's what you're boiling it down. There is no right and if there's
not a contract, and that's a world so too verbal agreement. It depends
on you know, what's there in writing or what's not there in writing.
So then now you look at the if you look at the example I have
I've read the lawsuit, is that you know there were some text exchanges about
the money. Yes, okay, so let me read from the complaint that's
out there that the James lawyer is putting in their filing the lawsuit that there
was a conversation, and there were text messages, and in the conversation,
I love this that mister Spence asserted someone named Al told him that paying mister
James three hundred and fifty thousand for the Crawford fight in exchange for his services
was generous, someone named Al. The complaint goes on to say, However,
no one named Al was present when mister James and mister Spence originally entered
their agreement, nor was anyone named Al present when mister James provided training services
to mister Spence for his previous fights. Thus, any alleged reliance by mister
Spence on advice from someone name Al regard conversation is misplaced. I wonder who
the awl is? Is it? Al broke a song? You can call
me al right, you can call me Paul Simon, Paul Simon, you
can call me out with Chevy Chase playing the mock trumpet in the video.
Very nice. It's not Alcan Murstein. It's not Al Gore, the former
vice president. I wonder who the Al is that he's that he's talking about.
But they they there's screen grabs of text messages where Errol Spancy is saying
you should get the full two million, five hundred thousand dollars. So he's
suing him for no less than five million because he asserts that besides money he's
owed on the Crawford fight, I guess he's also owed for money on other
fights as well. But listen here here's and again I don't have to be
a lawyer. I've been around boxing a long time. I've seen like this
happen. Obviously, getting ten percent of that kind of payday, probably he
shouldn't get that much, but certainly three fifty he is bullshit money for that
kind of work, for that level of a fight. And clearly Errol Spence
is kind of playing games with the with the technical language about what is quote
unquote pursis he owes him more money. That's the bottom line. And I
don't look he with the text messages and you should pay him more. So
I have no no you want me to say it, don't you want me
to say it? What are we doing here? Exactly? The reality is
like I like Erol Spence as a human being. I like Derek James as
a human being. They're good guys in my opinion, and it's unfortunate that
it comes to this, but there's no doubt in my mind. I'm not
sure what the fair number is, but absolutely Derek James is deserving of more
than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars off of a twenty five million dollar compensation,
and Erol Spence fucking knows that. And that's what's so disheartening. I'm
sure that if he went to them without putting this out in public like this,
if they were like men, they could have worked out like a real
You know what this comes back to fact. You know what this comes back
to. Because I've been involved with this with you and with the duration of
Premiere Boxing Champions, et cetera. You hear the fighters themselves over and over
again, whether it's the Charlos, whether it's Errol Spance, Deontay Wilder did
this before, Keith Thurman, on and on down the list. They constantly
make reference to someone name Al I'm just having fun. They constantly make reference
to Al being Al Hayman telling them when they're gonna fight and for how much
they're gonna fight, and when is what? You know, when is it,
who is it, where is it whatever? Uh So that's it's not
surprising that that that's it was fun. It's not necessarily out Hayman. It
was just someone named someone name ow Come. Who that is is a mystery,
someone name ol. But I mean, look, this is not the
first time. Go back and read up the history of the unfortunate breakup between
Sugar Ray Leonard and Angelo Dundee, and there's plenty of others that it's happened
with, uh, you know, but it's it's it's brutal that it comes
down to that, and obviously what happens it becomes even more problematic when it's
off of such a devastating loss. Well, here's what I would Here's what
I would love to know because he was in Ryan Garcia's corner so last week
is so, what was his arrangement with Ryan Garcia? Is at the same
ten percent arrangement? I would love to know what is the arrangement? And
I'm sure that Spence's lawyers are going to try to in discovery figure that out
and point that out. But every deal t way now, Ryan Garcia had
been calling out Errol Spence to meet him at a a and they might do
that fight. He was talking about moving up to one fifty four. You
want to talk about a storyline there of it would be Derek James training Ryan
Garcia Spence get me my money type of situation. Talk about a built in
soap opera for that fight. All right, So stay tuned. The lawyers
are involved, and we'll see if they're going to get paid, that's for
sure. Yeah, the lawyers always get paid, all right. Hey,
speaking of Ryan Garcia and speaking we did make mention of this. They've apparently
smooth things over at least for now. He and Oscar dal la Hoya.
What day is it? What week is it? Hey, it's a new
month. Later this week they could be fighting again, but at least for
right now as we release the recap pod, they have smooth things over and
the lawsuits are over at least for now. Right on the news, Yeah,
so exactly. Obviously, it was a big story when Golden Boy sued
Ryan Garcia and his advisor Guadeloupe Valencia in an effort to have the Nevada Court,
the district Court uphold their promotional agreement legal tortious interference that they were interfering
with the agreement with Golden Boy. That's what was being alleged interference being alleged,
but they were alleging a breach of contract, not because they were being
interfered with, because they were suing the people that they were in the contract
with. But what was happening, according to the lawsuit, was that Ryan
and his advisor were trying to make fights with other entities and other networks and
other fighters without involving Golden Boy Promotions, and they were the ones that had
the exclusive promotional rights, so they had gone through a series of mediation.
And even while all this stuff was going on, and they were, you
know, affing each other left and right, Uh, they still did the
fight between Ryan and Duarte, even while all this was happening. Uh.
And then they also, while it was still happening, they were able to
make the fight between Ryan and Devin Haney with having you know, still this
whole situation hanging everybody's everybody's head. As you watched the promotion of the Haini
fight unfold, it was very clear that there was a better situation between not
only Ryan and Oscar, but Ryan also and Bernard Hopkins, who was a
part of Golden Boy Promotions as well, to the extent where I remember seeing
at one point during like Ryan's workout that Oscar got into the ring and was
tying his shoes. I mean, you know, so clearly they were they
were able to be together on a on a at least, you know,
man to man, face to face, and not let this interfere with everything.
And then the the Devin Haney fight took place. Obviously at Ryan got
the big win despite all the chaos of the of the build up. As
it turned out, on the last Wednesday, uh, they had had the
case dismissed, which means, you know, the judge in the case issued
a one page document, very short, dismissing the case against Ryan, dismissing
the case against Valencia. And so now apparently everything is honky dory, I
mean until the next one. But you know what happen, which could be
by the weekend or by the middle of May. But right now here this
is this is this is the same thing you can say all the time,
the same way while the ugly heads rear themselves in the Arrow Spence loss,
it's the same way why shit gets moved over with the big Ryan Garcia win.
When you win, it makes problems go away. Hey, man,
food tastes better, you sleep better. Everybody likes each other winning cures.
All right, two more quick items and some nostalgia. You have found out
about this WBO featherweight title defense for Raffia Espinoza. You keep saying and have
said to us, it's not gonna be the immediate rematch with robes c Ramirez
coming up in June, so give me more. So, like you said
originally, when Robas and Espinosa had that fantastic fight of the year type fight
that was as dramatic as it gets, and Espinoza comes out of nowhere and
wins the WBO featherweight title in a garganane to an upset just out of nowhere,
in just a tremendous battle that took place at the end of last year.
The plan from Top Rank, who typically doesn't do immediate rematches if you
look at the history of rematches that Top Rank has put on in all the
decades that they have put on boxing events, they usually don't do the rematch
right away for whatever reason. In this particular case, they were gung ho
and game to do the rematch. Ramirez wanted the rematch right away, but
as it was explained to me, this is going back a few months ago
that it was Espinos and his team that were like, listen, we would
like to do one fight first. So Top Rank said, okay, that's
not a surprise. Ramirez is already being lined up for his intern fight on
June twenty ninth. If everything gets settled, he'll fight somebody. It'll be
on the undercard when tia Fimo Lopez fights Steve Klaggett in a Junior World up
or eight defense that's going to take place June twenty ninth in Miami. They
haven't announced that fight yet, but that's what's on the planning stages. But
the week before that, now you'll have Espinoza getting his intern fight. No
opponent just yet, but the plan is if he wins June twenty one at
the Fontaine Blue in Las Vegas and Robas Ramirez wins his fight June twenty ninth
in Miami, they will have their rematch sometime in the later part of this
year. And two, even though it doesn't mention the names, what sort
of backs up my reporting is that if you take a look at the Nevada
Commission agenda for the upcoming meeting that's going to take place this coming week,
where They're going to go through their normal monthly staff, including appointing the officials
that are going to work the title fights on the Canelo and Mongia kart.
One of the requests, you know, every promoter, if you want to
do a boxing match or any kind of combat event in the state of Nevada,
you have to request the date from the commission. They have to approve
it. So one of the date requests is June twenty first for Top Rank,
which is the day for this fight that supposedly will include Rafael Espino's in
the main event. And the other one that will that I'll mention also that
you alluded to, is that there's another another regenda request for July thirteenth.
Other top rank requests I am told for that event that is ticketed for the
Palms in Las Vegas and other one of the smaller casinos that they're looking to
do on that fight card. Again, no opponent, but the main event,
if they can line somebody up, will be the return of the unified
middleweight titlelder janebec Alum Cannolly to defend his belts against somebody. Now I don't
know who he's gonna fight, but one thing that's interesting, and I don't
know if it's related to this agenda item in the prospect of them trying to
line up a fight for Jenebec is that you've had the WBC's interim champion,
Carlos Damas, who has been mired in inactivity. One of the worst situations
I've ever seen. A fresh guy, a healthy guy, just coming off
some you know, good wins and some exciting fights, et cetera. He's
a PBC fighter, just cannot get in the ring right now. I don't
know why they have. I figured he'd be on one of these first couple
of cards, so him and Jennebeck were going back and forth on their social
about bringing on I mean, that's a hell of a middleweight fight, whatever
the title situation is. But I mean they're like too at least interesting fighters
and in otherwise I recently today today is we're taping the podcast. It's a
the twenty eighth of twenty twenty four, and Jamal Charlow is still not stripped
of the WBC middleweight championship that should have long ago been given to Carlos Adamis
to make a title defense as their world champion, and it still hasn't happened
yet, and he's been on He's been in moth ball since last June,
right, I can assure you yeah. And even when he fought in June,
it wasn't even a title defense. He fought it like once it was
the four. It was like, well, I thought it was the Hannim
title, but whatever, he has No, he was over the weight.
He hasn't fought since last June. So I assure you of this, and
I don't know what the response will be. I am sure that when I'm
in Las Vegas to be at the Canelo Mongia festivities, that my good friend
Mauricio Suliman will be there. Obviously, this is a big time undisputed fight
in Mauricio is the president of the WBC. Not only that, but they've
got other activities on that card, including the Brandon Figureoa fight that you know.
Politely and directly, I will ask Mauricio for an update. I said,
listen, Maricio, what is going on here? The Middleway title of
the WBC has not been defended in literally three years, that's correct, and
a Dominis. But again, even if they were to elevate a Damas and
make Charlotte either in recess or strip him or whatever they're caught. That still
does not that's that's a side problem that does not help Adamas get into the
boxing room. So him and Jann and at calling each other. I have
no idea if that's something that sounds like to me. He might have a
problem with someone named Al getting him a fight right now because he's been on
the plan apparent all the money the opponent or whatever hasn't worked for eight months
nine months now. One thing about PBC is because they have such a lack
of dates at the moment with the let's call it a slow start to the
Amazon deal. Uh, the two the fights that they've done so far are
all pay per views. Maybe they're thinking about adding a Domas to the to
the Tank Davis card in June. But I'll say this, they have been
getting some of their other fighters abouts on other fights, on other other cards.
They've had a couple of guys fight on to keep not championship top guys,
to keep them busier on some smaller cards where they find them out.
And by the way, Rancis Spartello me, that fought Josy Rimirez that didn't
just materialize, that a thin air that was PBC making a deal to have
Barthellmy fight on a Golden Boy part, which is even more of a surprise
given the terrible relationship that those companies have had for a very long time.
So maybe there's a chance that they could go get get a Damas to fight
Janebec. That's a great fight. I mean, the middleweight division kind of
suck you right now, but if you're going to make something interesting, that's
probably a bout as good of a fight as you can make right now.
I mean, besides the excellent five on five fight that's not a title fight,
but that's the Shiraz fight against Amma Williams. But on the top level,
you know, again, it could happened who that knows, but we'll
see. But the point is, whoever he fights Jannebec is at least penciled
in for that date in July, July thirteenth, it looks like is the
date at least they're talking about right now. All right, nostalgia and then
we are done. We've been here for a little bit. Twenty one years
ago, Friday April twenty six, this past Friday, two thousand and three,
what was the fight of the year, Lights out, Tony and Vasilli
you're off for the IBF cruiserweight title. You were ringsaw, it says on
my rundown. Maybe the best cruiserweight title fight ever. All right, add
to the hyperbole league. What else do you got a little bit of competition
there? Because I mean, you can't, you can't. There's other fights
that have been superb in that weight class. The one that comes to mind
first and foremost, of course, is one of the last great fifteen round
fights in boxing history on a live ABC in the afternoon. This is when
Evander Holyfield was just a young pup coming up and won his first world title
against a fellow Hall of Famer Dwight Mohammad Kawi, and it's fifteen round shootout,
just spectacular back and forth back in the days when it was referred to
as the WBA Junior Heavyweight title. But it is cruiser weights. They put
on a spectacular fight. There's been some others if you take a look at
like I think it was like ownel Bell against John Mark Mormeck one of their
two fights. But James Tony and Vacility Jiroff is a spectacular fight. I
mean, James, you know it was always a good boxer, but he
never had a problem to get into a slugging match. Jiroff when it was
Olympic gold medalist, was the val Barker winner in the Olympics, mean like
the MVP of the Olympic tournament when he won his gold medal, and was
you know, one of the best cruiserweights in the sport for quite a number
of years. Closed the distinction of that. Havin the first and this is
prior to the Tony fight. The first ever cruiserweight mad featured as a cruiserweight
title fight on HBO back years ago. So these were two accomplished and very
significant fighters of their time, and they put this fight together. And like
you said, the BWAA voted as the fight of the Air Force, was
a two thousand and three spectacular fight. I was very fortunate to be ringsided.
It actually happened on the weekend of the Boxing Writers Association of America Awards
dinner that took place in New York, and I can remember very distinctly getting
in the car after the dinner late that night on the Friday, driving with
my dear friend Bill Kaplan, the great publicist, from New York City to
Connecticut, getting the Connecticut, like three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning,
going to sleep, sleeping in, and then going to cover the fight
the next day, and they produce an all time classic. Jeeroff put put
a lot of punishment on Tony and Tony Tony Put did just the same.
Most of us at ringside, the HBO scores thought it was a super close
fight. Matter of fact, when it was over, the late great Harold
Letterman had a draw one thirteen to one thirteen. Everybody I was with that
ringside had it close, but it turned out to be a much wider decision
in favor of James Tony. But going into that last round, Freddie roach
his trainer and you can hear it on the audio, very stinkly, you
know, you got to put him on his ass, and James Tony obeyed
the order and went out there and put Jerov on his ass in the twelfth
round. FIP. Maybe that sows it up. And again, if you're
watching the broadcast, you hear one of the most finat you know, just
animated wild calls from the late great Emanuel Stewart, who was doing the commentary
on HBO that night with Jim Lampley, and this is a funny story as
great of a fight. It was taking place in the small fox Theater at
the fox Woods Restory, real small room only holes, like I don't know,
maybe like fifteen hundred people. It was pretty small, very very weak
crowd in terms of not the number of people, but just the They weren't
excited. There was not a lot of noise. So where we were sitting
behind the HBO announcers at ringside in our press seats, you could hear what
they were saying. So I could hear erl Letterman give his score when he
would tell Jim Lampley when he was asked what the score is. You could
hear Emmanuel losing his shit when James you know, knocked yourof down in the
twelfth round. So but it was a great, great fight, and it
launched Tony because he never defended the gurzerweight title that was at that point.
He went up to the heavyweight and had a whole series of significant fights in
that weight class, including the next fight when he defeated Vander Holyfield. He
ended up becoming the Fighter of the Year because of that. But that was
a great fight. I loved it. One of them was just an absolutely
spectacular fight. All right, So go back and relive that Peeps Savages on
YouTube. That is Tony and you're off from two thousand and fourty, you're
off with the JJ, you're off with the jed. Well sometimes sometimes they
do the He's not one of don't say the J type thing. All right,
twenty four years ago tomorrow Monday, as we released the podcast April twenty
nine of two thousand, you have made reference to this fight, even reference
recently Lenox Lewis destroyed Michael Grant in two rounds to retain the heavyweight title.
We talked a lot about Lenox Lewis recently with the anniversaries that always seemed to
be fighting in April in heavyweight title defenses, in and around high Seam Rock
Moant a couple of times, and now this anniversary. But this has significance
because you were at ringside for the first time full time for USA today as
the boxing rid Right, Yeah, this is one of the most significant fights
for me. I can't you know, it was not much of a fight.
Lenox, you know, went out there and destroyed him. It was
like, I forget who said this, but it was almost like Michael Grant
decided to just walk into the propeller of the airplane, you know, and
got just cut down, got dropped three times in the first round, and
then got destroyed with an uppercut in the second round. But for me,
it was an extraordinarily meaningful fight and weak because it was the I had started.
This was April twenty ninth, Like you said, I had started my
job at USA Today as the boxing writer in the later part, in like
middle of March, so a month six weeks before this. This was the
first time in that six weeks and I was in the office, I was
writing, I was you know, getting to know people in the business,
you know, talking to people on the telephone, et cetera. But this
was the first time since joining USA Today as their full time reporter that I
was sent on the road to go cover a fight week. So I went
to New York for the fight like you know, Tuesday or Wednesday. And
it was at that fight week where I met a lot of people for the
very first time in person, people, you know. Manuel Stewart, for
one, who I still always remember, had seen the boxing rankings that we
had created for USA Today that had run in the newspaper I think a few
days before I got to New York for this fight, and being introduced to
him at the workout and him giving me a big hug because he was throwing.
So thrilled that the national newspaper was paying attention to boxing once again.
I had spoken to Emanuel Presaly on the phone and done a story about something
to do with Tommy Hearns. But it's the first time I had met him
in person, saying, meeting Lennox, Lewis and all the other guys on
the cart. Vladimir Klitschko first time I met him, he was fighting on
this undercard against David Bosts. This is well before he was the heavyweight champion.
Obviously, I think even that far back, there was the Grain and
the Colonel. In people's minds, it's someday a big heavyweight fight. It
ultimately never happened would be Lenox against Vladimir Klitschko. The only place that happened
was on the screen of Ocean's eleven. Lenox ended up fighting his brother of
Italiana in a past fight. But you know, you also had a Junior
Jones against Paul Ingle in a featherweight world title fight on this car and Arturro
Gotti, you know, fought on this undercard. Also for time I ever
met ar Gotti, So I mean, it was that kind of show.
So I have so many just incredible memories of that fight week. I remember
going home and talking to my mother a few days after I had covered this
fight in New York, and she asked me, like how it was,
what happened, like, you know, she didn't like boxing, which was
sort of interested in like how it went for me. So she asked me,
like, well, what happened in the fight. So I explained to
her that Lennox Lewis, you know, knocked out Michael Grant in the second
round to retain the heavyweight title. She said, the second round. I
said, you went all the way to New York for like four or five
days and knocked them out in the second round. And it was at that
point I had to explain to mom that boxing it you can't You don't know
how long that's gonna go. Could go one, it could go twelve or
somewhere in the middle. It's how it goes. It's not about that,
it's about all the same. You're guaranteed nine innings, mom, Football four
quarters fifteen minutes each thing. It can be over in the first round.
You never know. Yeah, could think that that was twenty four years ago.
That was like I had I had started a little before that. But
for me, in my mind, that's one of the biggest things I ever
covered, because it wasn't like when I was going out on the road from
my first event that they gave me like some little drinking, dank fight in
a ballroom, you know, for a Featherway title. They were like,
no, hey, kid, go to Madison Square Garden cover that nWay Championship
of the World for the largest newspaper in the country. So it was like
a really it was a really big dal deal for me, huge deal,
all right. On the same April twenty ninth, Fast forward seventeen years April
twenty nine, twenty seventeen, you were ringside and you've talked about this seven
years ago, but seventeen years after that fight. Oh yeah, I didn't
say it correctly. So moving forward April twenty nine, twenty seventeen, seven
years ago, Anthony Joshua Vladimir Klitchkow and you were even talking about this back
on the Friday Pod in in Flitchkow's big reign about his last win being against
Brian Jennings. This turns out right now to be his last fight, as
it turns out one an atmosphere at Wimbley Stadium, Relive it one more time
for us in the Nostalgia Anthony Joshua Vladimir Clitcho ninety thousand right at Wimbley.
Wow. I mean, the only word that can describe it is incredible.
I've covered a lot of events in my life, boxing and otherwise. I've
been into the World Series as a fan. I've been to you know,
NFL games and college basketball games and you know, obviously huge amounts of boxing
matches. First off, I've never been in a crowd that big before.
I've never been to like, you know, a big one hundred thousand seater
in a college football game. The biggest crowd I've ever I had ever been
to for a boxing event prior to going to see Joshua versus Pisco was probably
I don't know, thirty something thousand in that bump in that range. Oscar
dal La Hoya fought at the Soccer Stadium in Los Angeles against Stevie Forbes had
like thirty something thousand, you know, Miguel Koto at Faddy Yankee Stadium against
Zeri Forman. There was probably about thirty thousand, so I post this.
Obviously I covered Canelo Alvarez at the Houston then it made stadium had some kind
of huge crowd. I had covered, you know, fifty thousand type cards
at Cowboys Stadium with Manny Pacaw ninety thousand. Is just like it was just
amazing. The entire fight we was spectacular. And actually it's funny because in
the after Vladimir retired, I actually we had a conversation one time to think
that the first time we had ever met, and I had become close and
friendly with Vladimir over the years, that the first time I had met him
was in that fight week twenty four years ago where he's a young prospect,
you know, gold medal winner, but you know who what was going to
become of his career to meet him as a young fighter on that fight week,
and then, like you said, fast forward all those years later and
here he is as the towering figure as the former heavyweight champ, one of
the all time greats Lock Hall of Famer, challenging Anthony Joshua for the IBF
title as well as the vacant WBA title and putting on a sensational fight that
was the twenty seventeen fight of the year. Besides the atmosphere in the Great
Fight Week, the fight fucking delivered. I mean its way better than anybody
thought it was gonna be. And and Clitchkow hurt Joshua early in the fight,
the conquering hero, and now we got Drauma. He didn't just hurt
him, he knocked him on his ass in the fifth round, and he
was probably within a bunch or two, like as they say, a whisker
away from stopping Anthony Joshua and becoming the champion once again. That fight at
everything you possibly want, the atmosphere, big stakes, big names, a
great fight, literally one of the greatest heavyweight fights I have ever covered.
I've said this plenty of times. Had that moment when that fight ended,
that was the best heavyweight fight I had ever covered, trumping the tally Clitch
Goo against lennyx Lewis as the best one previous and that was many many years
before that. Now, I must be honest, and we talked about this,
I would say if I was making my true all time heavyweight title fight,
with know where you're going now, Yeah, I have to put the
third fight between the Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder ahead of that, but that
does not change the fact that this was a tremendous battle in a great atmosphere.
And to see when you've seen ninety thousand people at Wembley stating for a
boxing match and you're sitting like four feet from the ring, I don't know
if I can ever go cover something bigger than that, right, you know
what I mean? Like, have I reached my Is that going to be
the apex of my entire boxing career in terms of that type of atmosphere,
that type of fight. Speaking of Canelo, because you'll be there later this
week. You were at his record breaking indoor attendance fight with Billy Joe Saunders,
which was three years ago at at and T Stayedium the head over seventy
thousand, So that's comparable. But it's not nice, and it's not the
fans outside not the same way. They're different in their own regard. In
all due respect to all the big Canelo fights and Pacyao and Floyd and this
and that, this was still the heavyweight titles and this was still the great,
you know, revered even though Agent Klitchko against the guy who at that
moment was undefeated and was, you know, the superstar of the President,
who was able to put all those asses in those seats, who was just
a massive, massive superstar. And I remember we've talked about this before,
is like on the Tuesday, I guess of the fight week of you know,
and I've explained how the Brits would have separate interview sessions with the American
media and the British media of being there with my buddy Lance Plugmyer, who
at the time was still running boxing for the La Times. There was actually
several American journalists that made the trip to cover this fight, but Lance and
I got there a bit earlier than the other guys, and they had done
the British media thing with Anthony in the dressing room before he did his workout,
and it lasted quite a while. We were worried we were gonna get
a stout and not get any time, but we both needed stuff from from
Joshua because we didn't have anything. But sure enough it ended and they were
running late on the workout and they were like, come on in, and
it was it was Rayfhael pug Meyer, Joshua, Eddie Hearn and like one
of Joshua's buddies, and they gave us like a half an hour with him,
and it was one of the greatest sit down interviews I ever had.
He was so cool, so chill, and he did throw that mock jab
at me that missed my chin by about half an inch and I almost died
because I thought I was about to get knocked up by Anthony Joshua. But
so there's so many moments of that fight week that were just amazing, and
then to have the fight be what it was, it was a great fight,
but I'm a fight of the ear. I don't want to accept that's
moving on to seven years ago now for Joshua, who's still knocking around,
and that's the last time we've seen Vladimir Klitchik go. All right, great
nostalgia. One more nostalgic item. I saw this on your social media.
You are beaming as we do the podcast because the poster is now part of
the Rayfield collection from the Super Fight Sugar Ray Leonard Tommy or A Sugar by
Leard Marvin Hagler. You were talking about this when we talked about the anniversary
early this month. You have the fight poster, and you started to give
me the details on straightening it out and how what you do, and I
said, wait, do this on the podcast. Tell me what you've been
doing, because you've you've acquired, you've major transaction, You've gotten the Leonard
Hagler Super Fight poster. Go. So you mentioned this, Well, the
reason why you're bringing this up is because you said, before we started taping
this, you saw on my social that I had posted a picture of it
that you finally got. I said, well, actually got it like about
a week ago, but I didn't post a picture because when I got it,
it was in beautiful, beautiful condition, but it was still a roll.
So even though it looked awesome in the corners and the and the edges,
everything was good, I got to flat it out because otherwise I can't
take a picture of it. So I have my like my routine, like
the way that I do things. If you get a poster that's not flat,
I clear off a portion of my dining room table and I lay it
down flat one side, and I put like plates and shit and boxes on
it to flatten it out, and then it when it's still cruled. When
I remove them, I turn it over and flat out the other way,
and then I roll it up the other direction very carefully obviously, and so
now it was finally flat enough for me to be able to put it down
on the floor. You're getting to warn missus Rayfhaeld and young Rayfield, do
not put a drink down on this poster on the dining room table. We
can well they know that ring no drink rings on the post. Drink exactly,
yes, because like many people like the dining room. We will dine
in the dining room on special occasions. Most of the time we're just in
the kitchen, so I have free rein of the table in there too.
It's the flattening poster area. And now it was flat enough for me to
take the photo and post on my social But the thing about it is that's
a hard fucking poster to find a nice shape. All those a lot of
those Caesars posters from the eighties. So that was for whatever reason, that
was one that's been on my list for a long time and I finally have
nailed it down. Uh. And as we've talked about, one of my
crazy lunatic collecting goals is this is not like the bug poster or the sponsor.
So I'm talking about the official site poster. So what I'm trying to
strive for is site posters ticket perhaps credential from all nine of the four Kings
fights. And so this was a poster that goes a long way to ticking
off that checklist. That so was a few things to go. But that's
been my long term collecting goal for a long time, and I look for
them in the top condition and now we finally have that post check check the
super fight off the list. Leonard Hackler, Yes, sir, congrats And
by the way, I've gone the entire podcast and did not bring it up.
You were texting me that you were at the science Fair. We did
talk about young Rayfield Science Fair. All went well with his project and the
science fair. Just real quick as we wrap it here, all good from
the science fairs. We come off the weekend. It's got to be part
of the recap. All good. Well, we did preview the science fair,
so I guess we got to recap the science fair. Science Fair was
a big success. The kids all did a great job. This was a
fifth grade science fair. He and his partner did their project, and they
did a great job. And all the kids there was a lot of I
actually spent some time besides just hanging out with his area and looking at his
and talking to the other parents that came to look at his product. I
went and looked at the other kids. A lot of things on on the
eclipse, a lot of things on global warming, a lot of things on
I saw stuff on water, lightning, volcanoes. It's all kinds of good
stuff. Love it from the Science Fair. So we've covered all bases.
And another friendly reminder, it is Canelo Fight week. You are headed out
to Vegas Clark County authorities. Beware, by the way, as we already
made mentioned when we were here, get in trouble TJ I know, I'm
I'm just saying that you you know, you know, you're you're somebody that
they should know that's in the area. Roll the red carpet out for the
man. We're all that's gonna happen with Canelo and Mongee. And by the
way, you heard from Brandon Figarola earlier on this podcast. Again, utilize
our friends at PPV dot com. Purchase the pay per view with no long
term subscription obligation six months much less a year obligation by whatever you like with
PPV dot com and we'll tell you more about that. This fight week goes
on. With that, we've recapped it all the Jose Ramirez win headlining the
Golden Boys show, all the fight news. Then Estyn, great stuff.
Are you ready to head to Vegas for Canelo Week? You good? I'm
good. Yeah, I'm ready to go. Baby, be good to get
back on the road. All right, there we go. He will be
there later this week. We'll check in with him on the preview pod for
Canelo and Mongie. It's Canello fight week for Cinco de Mayo weekend. With
that, Dan, have a good week, say it travels out to Vegas,
my friend you two, sir, I am merely TJ Reeves. Thank
you for being with us. We come off the weekend with the fight breaks
you Unite Recap podcast, follow and subscribe on this podcast feed to get all
of our content, and we thank you for being with us. For Dan
Raypael, I'm merely TJ Reeves. Thank you for finding us on the fight
Preach to Night Recap podcast