All right, off a weekend that has seen the Golden Boys show come and
go in Arlington, Texas and a big KO win for williams Zapeta. We
are ready to talk about that, some news, some nostalgia and Moore.
Hello, and welcome back to the Fight Freaks Unite Recap for another edition as
we slide into a new week. Hey, it's Canelo Alvarez week this week,
and hope you enjoyed on our most recent podcast on this feed, Dan's
conversation with Canelo. Some interesting stuff that was there. I am merely the
somewhat capable host. The Dan reference is in reference to this guy, our
insider from his Fight Freaks Unite substack and from Big Fight Weekend dot Com.
Hello again, Dan, Raphael off the weekend. How are we feeling as
we begin Canello week? Happy Sunday? Yes it is. It is a
happy Sunday for us, and we did at least it was an action packed,
knockout, early knockout field Golden Boy card that we're going to talk about
here in a little bit. Some fight news to go over, am I
correct? You have it here on the rundown that a Lennox Lewis world title
fight is the first one you ever covered ringside and official capacity with USA Today
or and or ESPN. And the nostalgia is that it's this it's now am
I close to correct on that? It was my first fight as the official
USA Today boxing writer. I had covered a previous fight for USA Today a
few years earlier when I was there on a temporary loan from my previous newspaper.
I had covered you know, other abouts prior to that. But as
like my job as a boxing writer, and that's all I did, was
right out of boxing and got hired like a couple of months before that fight,
And that was my first fight that the paper sent me out to go
travel to New York for. And as you mentioned, it was twenty three
years ago Saturday, and it was I don't remember what I did yesterday,
but I have vivid memories of that fight. There's a good tease that's coming
up here in a few moments. All right, again, thank you for
finding us to make sure you're following or subscribing on this podcast feed and more
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there will be a big fight weekend preview of Canelo and Writer and all the
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have taken that advice as well. So with that all done and good.
As I mentioned the Golden Boys show in Arlington, Texas that did go on
despite the second postponement of the Ortiz Stanionis fight that's now back on for a
third time, they kept the card together. William Zapeta, unbeaten lightweight was
the headlining fighter and he delivered. He delivered a huge knockout in this one,
and it was early in the second round in the main event. So
that's primarily what we have to recap. Dan your thoughts on the conclusion of
that Golden Boys show with the ko by Zapeta. I've been watching Zapeta now
for a little while and he's exciting. He's a great combination puncher. He's
a very heavy duty with his output of punches. He's a hard puncher.
You know, most of his wins are by knockout. Now after the knockout
against Arbelada on Saturday Night twenty eight with twenty four knockouts. He's a southpaw,
which is never easy for your normal orthodox fighter. You're going twenty six
years old, probably not even in his prime, yet in great condition.
Exciting to watch. I mean, he's a real He's a wild card if
you will, in the division. Because when you tell people a lightweights,
they think Jivanti Davis, Devin Haney the undisputed champ. They'll think Loma Chenko
obviously him in. Loma and Haney have a fight coming up in May for
the undisputed title. You know, you might think of George Cambosa's the former
champion. Some people might think of Ryan Garcia because he fought at one thirty
six and the last fight, even though he was going up to one forty
to go back there to have another fight in his when he whenever he decides
to return. You know, it's good. It's a good weight division.
Shu. Course, Stevenson is on the prowl. He just moved up to
the weight class. There's a lot of great names and interesting fights, and
Zapeta kind of doesn't get a lot of attention, doesn't get a lot of
love. But let me tell you something, he's gonna be right there in
the thick of things. He's gonna give any of these guys a tough fight.
I mean, he may win against some of those guys. He may
lose against some of those guys, but he's gonna be in there throwing heavy,
hard punches, and he's gonna be a dangerous opponent for anybody. I
know. Arblada wasn't like the superstar opponent, but he was a competent guy.
He was moving up from one hundred and thirty pounds, but he had
won three fights in a row. You know his he had previously been stopped
by Chris Colbert in an interim title fight back in twenty and twenty. But
he was a pretty solid guy in my estimation. I mean, not a
bum at all, but he just could not take the incredible body attack from
Zapeta. You know, he got in some head shots too, and he
took those, okay, but that body that body attack was just brutal.
I mean, second round three knockdowns, pretty much combinations, but that the
actual shots that put him on the mat, the where the body punches,
and you know, by the time the third one was in the liver area,
you know, he just wasn't getting up and it was over and out
two rounds. You know, if you get the opportunity to headline like that.
Remember, he was supposed to be on the Tank Davis Ryan Garcia under
card on pay per view, but as you mentioned, when the Stanionis fight
with Virgil Ortiz was postponed again Golden Boy in an effort to keep that card
on his own alive, they took Zepeta and they moved him into the main
event, and you know, he did his job. But the point is
when you get matched up. I'm not say he was mashed up soft,
but when you get mashed up with a guy that you're a heavy favorite to
beat, go out there and and make it so. You know, as
Captain Card would say, make it so. And he did just that.
You know, um, you know, he didn't slide in the Star Trek
next Generation reference there what you gotta do, But he didn't know. He
didn't he didn't mess around. He got the job done. He did what
he was supposed to do. He looked good doing it against a competent opponent,
and and I felt like that was, you know, a sort of
a statement like, hey, I got in the main event slot. I'm
gonna make everybody sit up and pay attention to me. I can punch,
I'm in great shape. I'm willing to fight anybody. He and his his
team said that afterwards. Golden Boy has said that they'll match him up with
any of these guys out there, and that's all you can ask for.
I mean, he's he's a guy that injects excitement and depth in a very
very good weight class. And he's a guy I mean we you know,
we we ebb and flow with the rankings, but he's ranked in the top
five by the w BA. He's ranked third by the w BA, or
he was going into this fight maybe ranked higher. Uh and then he's ranked
fifth by the WBC. So he's very relevant, big puncher, and we'll
see we'll see what the him. He also, he's putting together like a
decent group of victories. He beat the former title holder at one thirty Alvarado.
He had come off, you know, going into the fight that he
had Saturday, he had. He didn't just beat Joseph Diaz Junior. He
beat him easily in a completely one sided decision, was basically a shutout.
I think one judge might have given Joe Jojo Diaz like one round or something
like that. So he comes off of those two wins in a row and
now takes that Arboletta again. I know, a smaller guy. I'm not.
I don't want to get too carried away about it, but you know,
you keep racking up those wins, he keep doing it impressively. I
mean, if you watch that Jojo Dz fight, he threw like what,
I don't know, fourteen hundred punchers or something like that. I mean,
just wild amounts an output, and uh, you know, it gets the
job done. And I don't know about you, but if you said to
me you want to watch williams Epeta match him up with you know, any
number of lightweights, I'm like in because he's he's exciting to watch. That's
the thing. He's very exciting to watch. I mean, one of the
things that I was thinking about. In Sergio Mora, who was the commentator
on the ZN'T also mentioned this, and I'm right there with him because it
was in my mind even before the fight. You know, I don't think
it will happen for many reasons. But would I love to see is a
paid against Isaac pitpol Cruz. How great of a fight would that be?
Yeah? They would, They would obviously trade and look, well we'll see,
as we were saying before, obviously top ranked boxing and their fighters are
involved in high level stuff with Hany Lomachenko. What happens if if there's a
rematch in that fight Shakour Stevenson is looming. We get that. But in
the next wave, like you're talking about, you know, probably twenty twenty
four is a pay to maybe in that conversation all right, on the co
feature, this was a wild I saw some of this too. This was
a wild second round KO by Victor Morales over Diego de la Joya, the
cousin of Oscar dal la Joya. A bit of a surprise, I thought,
a bit of a surprise, but Morales scores the knock down and Diego
dal Lajoia was rocked, hurt and could not get up. So Dan,
give me your thoughts in the recap mode on that co feature fight in Texas
Saturday night. Well Morales number one, he stays undefeated. Now he's eighteen
o one with nine knockouts. Not known as a big puncher, but he
sure looked like a big puncher against Diego de la Hoya. It was I
guess you'd have to consider it an upset Diego del Laya, the cousin of
the Golden Boy president the Hall of Famer. I mean, but to me,
Diego de Lajoy, even though that's a second loss, he's always I
thought when he was coming up, he looked very good against you know,
uh, a middling level of opposition as he stepped up slightly, you know,
ever so slightly slowly but surely. And he had a lot of problems
with making first it was one hundred and twenty two pounds. He had fights
canceled and dropped out and people kind of down on him. Then he lost
a fight, still was having some issues with the weight making even featherweight,
and never really progressed in my opinion. I mean part of it. He
was getting the benefit of doubt because of the last name, obviously, and
I don't I don't blame him for that. But when you have that last
name, that helps you get in the door. But it's up to you
to take advantage of the opportunities. He has not done that. He has
not done that. But Victor Morales was calling him out and it seemed to
be the right call because he went in there. They had what I considered
like a firefight, you know, for a round and a half, and
he put him out of there. I mean, he really beat him up
that second round. It's a very good victory for him. Uh, Diego
de la Joya, you know, to me is a prospect that that became
a suspect you know over the last few fights. Um, hard to see
him rebounding. I mean, it's gonna be up to him. He's got
the physical and mental wherewithal to try to rebound from that. But that was
a rough, rough loss. And for victim Or Elis, I mean,
you know, he's only twenty five years old. Um, exciting win in
in a nice weight class, I mean, undefeated. You know, I
don't know if he's gonna be like a top level contender necessarily, but you
know, the jury's out. As long as he keeps doing what he's doing,
he's got it. He can't I I never interviewed him before. I
don't know him, but I listened to what he had to say in the
interview. He came off as a very likable guy in the post fight interview,
like a guy you'd want to root for and definitely would want to watch
again. So, you know, maybe Golden Boys got themselves another gem in
a in a a good featherweight division, but there's a lot of opportunities possibly
with four different title holders and all with different promoters, and you know,
some exciting matchups that that could be out out there. He could fit in
into that picture very nicely after a very impressive victory like that. So,
you know, the two fights in the top of the show, we're both
second round knockouts, but that doesn't make it a bad show. They were
enjoyable fights to watch, even if they were quick, and you've got something
to work with, whether it's the rising career of Zapeta in the main event,
or you know, a nice revelation of what we saw Victor Morales able
to accomplish against De la Joya in the co feature. So a good night
all around for those two guys. All right, good enough on that.
Okay, let's get to some news. Then we'll get to some nostalgia here,
and this includes Jake Paul's Most Valuable Promotions doing a deal as well with
a Prospects series four de Zone that's going to be coming up. So give
me more on this and how soon it's a Friday night series? How soon
is all of this going to begin? The most Valuable Prospects is what they're
gonna call the series. How soon are we looking at? Well, it's
gonna be four shows, twenty three from what they announced a few days ago.
The first show kicks off on Nate twenty sixth. It's headlined by the
lightweight that was a teenager still that Jake Paul's company signed, named Ashton Silk
from Long Beach, California's eight and Oh with eight Knockouts. He was supposed
to box on the undercard when Jake Paul had his fight with Tommy Fury.
I think he was. He got ill and he had to pull off the
show. So he hasn't fought since the last fall, but he'll headline that
card. It basically sounds like to me in the way that they positioned it
in many ways, like the Zones version of Showbox, but with one promoter,
Jake Paul. But they're gonna have to work with other promoters because Jake's
company doesn't have a whole ton of fighters signed. So, you know,
people want to talk about Jake Paul's a lot of people like to rip on
him, say he's bad for boxing. He fights MMA guys, he lost
to the boxer. That's the boxing part. You can have your opinion about
that. But in terms of the business side of things, I think this
is a good thing because when you get somebody of the name recognition and the
significance of Jake Paul in the business, and he won to not only make
money and do things for his own career in his own self, you know,
whether it's fighting Tommy Fury next up. He's supposed to have another fight
with an MMA fighter in Nadaz this summer, but he's looking to do other
events and help elevate the level of the younger fighters. And with his name
recognition, if you can get behind some young talent and help bring them to
the forefront. I believe that's a great thing. So this series, it's
four shows to start, so they're not going crazy. It's modest start.
All of the bouts, all four of the shows are supposed to take place
at the same location, which will give it some continuity. It's called the
carib Royal Resort in Orlando, Florida, TJ. You can be our beat
writer and head up. You're not too far away. And by the way,
that is a place where Showbox has held a couple of shows recently too,
and there definitely is a fan base there, especially a Puerto Rican fan
base there, as you well know. So it's interesting there that that's one
of the places they would go and look to hold the show. And they're
gonna they're gonna work with one of the promoters that it's done a number of
shows in that location called Box Lab Promotions, so they've got other experienced people
there. So again, I think it's a good thing. I mean,
we have to see what the level of the fights are. The sill fight
that's going to headline in the May twenty sixth event is I gotta be honest,
it's not the most earth shaking main event I've ever seen. It's he's
fighting a fighting him Angel Rebel R. Who was a very good amateur.
But he's six and two or three knockouts, so it's an eight rounder.
You know. Again, it's going to be growing pains, growing steps,
see how they do. And to tell you the truth, when I saw
the announcement a couple of days ago that they were doing the series for the
last like probably month or so, I kept hearing that Jake Paul was doing
some kind of deal for a series with the Zone. I wasn't sure what
level of the fights would be. Remember his fight that he's got on pay
per view with Nadas is also in conjunction with the Zone. One would have
to assume that this was sort of part of that overall deal to have them
have rights to his next bout. But whatever the business side is, to
me, it's a good thing for the sport of boxing. When the Zone
is making an investment, Jake Paul is spending his time and efforts to try
to raise up the level of these younger fighters. If they have any kind
of success the way a showbox has had then hopefully weren't for some good fights.
And speaking of the Diaz thing. I mean, we've gone over this
so many different ways with arrests and what they might do. Fans may be
aware that he has now turned himself in in New Orleans and the video has
been out there on social media of at least part of a brawl in New
Orleans that involves him. He says it was self defense. He was charged
with simple assault. Again, this is all fluid. He is supposed to
fight Jake Paul in a couple of months. We'll see if it's any factor
at all in their fight that is supposed to be and helped me off top
of my head. Their fights supposed to be in Dallas, right right next
Texas, right next to Louisiana. And one more thing I was thinking when
you were saying this. Jake Paul also announced that he's owning and establishing the
Professional Fighters League that he had as with a stable of fighters there doing MMA
fights. And he has openly said, I don't know that he said it
recently that this whole thing with Nate Diaz was to do two fights, the
first one as a boxing match, and then the next one will be some
kind of modified MMA fight. I don't know if it's in a cage or
what they're going to do. But it's part of the Professional Fighters League thing
that he established. But my point with that is he's an ownership of that
PFL. He admits that his business partners they're funding it. So you can
knock a lot of different things, but they're trying to get a lot of
other people paid. And that's what you're mentioning here, including with this Prospect
series, with developing things and get some fighters paid. That's the point he
did it. I mean, he's gotten paid himself now. He's he's always
been sort of open minded and outspoken about fighter pay. He's he's ragged on
the UFC and Dana White about the way that they handle their fighter pay.
He took some of the women's box like, you know, he promotes a
man to Serranto, who's one of the best women's boxers in the world.
She's going to be in all of fame someday. She's won world titles in
seven different weight classes, which is more than anybody ever in women's boxing,
but she had never gotten that giant level of payday. And when they were
able to put together the Katie Taylor fight, you know, his team helped
Katie get a seven figure pay day, and uh, you know, she's
made good money in her last few fights, and presumably when she fights again,
if she fights a man to Serranto, you know, in the rematch
against Katie Taylor, at some point there'll be another big payday. You know,
we'll see. I think she's gonna be on in a rematch against Heather
Hardy on the Nate Diaz undercard. I'm sure she'll be paid handsomely for that
fight. Also, so listen, people can bust on Jake Paul and say
he's not a real fighter and all the all the negativity that they that they
put on him. All I know is this, the guy goes in there
and he trains hard, he tries to win. You know, he did
finally step up and fight a boxer. He lost a fight, he didn't
make a lot of excuses about it. He's now fighting eight ds. People
want to see it. It's going to make a lot of money. And
on the business side, he's giving other fighters opportunities to go. I'm not
really sure why everybody gets so mad about that. I think it's a good
thing. There you go, another piece of news you are reporting because the
date has been out there for Jared real big Baby Anderson, the unbeaten heavyweight
in the top rank stable the date of what July first, has been out
there. But now you want to talk about the opponent that you've learned,
so go ahead more with that. Well sure, so, Jared of course
has been fighting on these top rank undercard and they're bringing him along extremely well.
I had him as my twenty twenty one Prospect of the year. He's
clearly the best American heavyweight prospect. You can argue he's maybe the best heavyweight
prospect in boxing that some might say it's Jola la of the gold medal winner
from the Olympics, and maybe a couple other guys, but certainly he's in
that elite level of up and comer. But now he's got his first main
event as a pro and Top Rank has taken him home to Toledo, Ohio
on July first, which I reported quite a while ago. But now they
have an opponent for him. He's fighting a fighter, a south Bot out
of Kazakhstan who's nineteen to oh with eighteen knockouts. His name is Zon Kosabutski.
You know, I can't say I know a ton about him, but
he looks formidable at least in terms of on paper. But knowing top rank,
they're bringing him, you know, they're not bringing a guy to Toledo
to get beat by, you know, to beat their future cash cow.
But you know it is it appears to be a step up, or at
least at least a lateral step. I mean, he did just fight Jerry
Forrest, who was a you know, let's call him a fringe contender who
has been in the ring with a lot of quality guys and handled himself pretty
well. But it's always exciting to me when you take a younger fighter and
you bring him home. There's something to be said about creating a fan base
in the person's hometown where no matter whether it's ups or downs, there's always
a place to go. They've been doing it with Shakoor Stevens New Work,
New Jersey. They did it years ago with four examples as one of many
examples. They did it with Terrence Crawford in Omaha, Nebraska. They did
it years before that with Kelly Pavlick in Youngstown, Ohio. They have done
it, you know, all through the course of their existence. This is
another example I fully expected in the in the in the future, probably before
the end of this year, even at the early you know, maybe beginning
of next year, we'll see them do a fight card in Norfolk, Virginia
for example, and bring key Shan Davis to fight in front of the hometown
having had a you know, sort of big fights in Norfolk, Virginia since
the early days of Parnell Whittaker. So they're bringing Jared Anderson home to fight
Kosa Botski. He's you know, his his biggest win. I guess as
a couple of fights ago. He did stop in the fifth round Johan Duhoppish
who for those who follow the heavyweight division, you know, whatever you want
to say, he did fight for the heavyweight title against Deontay Wilder, who
stopped them in round eleven in two thousand and fifteen. So there you can
measure it sort of against the kind of guys he's beaten her and been in
the ring with. But the main thing is they're going to create a buzz
for Jared Anderson at home in Toledo, uh, you know where. It's
not exactly like there's tons of big league sports, are huge things going on
in Toledo in the middle of the time. So I would be willing to
say to you that July first, one of the biggest things going on in
Toledo, Ohio. Toledo, Ohio is going to be the homecoming nationally televised
boxing match of their favorite heavyweights on Jared Anderson. So I think that's a
really cool thing when they can bring them all in and we'll see, if
you know, if you can keep on keep it on. He's fourteen oh
with fourteen knockouts. The money's probably on fifteen to oh with fifteen knockouts,
so we'll see what happens. The conversation continues in a moment. First,
a word for our friends at PPV dot com. Coming up on Saturday night,
it's the return of Canelo Alvarez defending his World super middleweight undisputed championship against
England's John Ryder. The return to Mexico for Canelo, and you need to
watch it through PPV dot com. Why because there's no obligation. There's no
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got great interactive features, obviously in English or in Spanish. The chat live
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Check it out, purchase the pay per view right through their service. It
is quick, it is easy, the stream is effective. It's in Crystal
Clear ten eighty and Greater HD. You don't have to worry about a subscription,
hassle or anything with PPV dot Com. Again, Canello returns on Saturday
against John Ryder of England. We want you to watch it with our friends
at PPV dot com. Okay, good news on that and again, yes,
that's I mean, I think it's fair to say he is the most
recognizable heavyweight name right now in the US because he's been active again. We
keep hearing things about when Deontay Wilder might fight again, But Deontay Wilder is
basically fought part of one round over the course of the last going on a
year and a half or more, and we don't know when he's fighting again.
So this guy's of interest, at least if you're a US fan in
the heavyweight division. Speaking of the heavyweights, why don't we get into the
nostalgia. You just wetted our appetite a little while ago that you covered Lennox
Lewis's knockout win over Michael Grant a ringside, and that is now twenty three
years ago, So give me more on the nostalgia. Twenty three years ago.
Saturday is the anniversary of you covering that, So give me some more
on the nostalgia and what you remember in the big event of of a world
heavyweight title fight. I mean, obviously, at this stage of my career,
I've covered, you know, huge amounts of fights over the years,
but there's something to be said for your first one. As you know,
the official boxing writer for USA today. That was I don't know if it
still is, but at the time it was the number one newspaper in the
United States. I had started my job there in I'd gotten hired in February
of two thousand. I started in mid March of two thousand, you know,
moved from where I was living in upstate New York at the paper i
worked there, and moved to Virginia to begin my work there, you know,
kind of get to lay of the land. There really wasn't big fights
going on at that moment in time. I think the biggest fight that occurred
prior to my covering Lewis Grant after I had gotten to USA today, there
was a fight between Fernando Vargas and I Quarte, which was a pretty big
deal. I didn't actually travel to Vegas for that fight. There was,
you know, still like handling things in the office and sort of you know,
getting used to the to the to the to the new surroundings, if
you will. But when it came time for the heavyweight championship between Lewis and
Michael Grant. Michael Grant was an undefeated number one contender. He had had
a tremendous build up by HBO, a tremendous athlete. A lot of people
gave him a good chance to win that fight. I got sent to New
York City to cover that fight, and you know, as I said earlier,
I couldn't tell you what I did like four or five days ago,
but I just have so many vivid memories that because I was so excited.
It's Madison Square Garden, It's my first you know, I didn't start off
with like you know, people joke with me at the time, like they
couldn't start you off with like, you know, you know, some super
featherweight title fight in Biloxi, Mississippi. You know, I started with the
heavyweight Championship of the World. That New York Madison Square Garden like hallowed ground
for boxing history. I can still remember going into the They had like the
workouts during the fight week. They held them inside the Madison Square Garden Theater,
which is the smaller arena that's on ground level at at you know where
the big arenas upstairs where the New York Knicks playing all that, but the
small arena where I've covered tons of fights now, they had a ring set
up and that's where they did the workouts. But I went in there and
I met a lot of people for the first time, including who became you
know, my dear friend Emmanuel Stewart, who was Lennox's trainer at the time,
and have those memories. And you know, Lennox looked awesome that night.
I mean he stopped Michael Grant in two rounds with the massive uppercut.
Lennox was just a dominating figure. Michael Grant looked absolutely patrified and was like
you just kind of ran into the the propeller of the helicopter to get it
over with, and uh, you know, he was never the same after
that. They mean, he never he never really recovered from that loss.
He you know, he fought some other significant fights stuff, you know,
over the next few years, but not even close to what he had been
going into that. I am curious. So this was HBO right in those
the fight was on though, this fight was actually an HBO pay per view.
F HBO pay per view. But that's Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant.
So this is the first time that you're around all this at the Garden.
How wide eyed was a young reporter, Dan Rayfield to just be standing there
goal on, Holy crap, that's HBO pay per view right there, this
was Garden. Here comes Lennox Lewis. You had to be a little bit.
I was super excited. I mean, it was it was back then.
It wasn't even called HBO pay per view. It was still called tv
KO. Now back up to October thirty, first Halloween Night of nineteen ninety
eight, I had been on this temporary assignment at USA Today for four months
through a program that had within the Gennette company, and I had worked for
another Genette paper, so I did get sent to USA today work to work
there for four months, which is how I ended up winding back there as
a full time person. So I had covered one fight while I was on
that loan, which was Prince Nasim Hamed versus Wayne McCullough. So on that
night in Atlantic City, I did briefly meet people like Jim Lampley and and
Larry Merchant and some of the other folks there, but to go back and
to cover Lewis Grant as now, it's like, I'm it's my full time
job. I'm not gonna have to leave after a few months and go back
to bring him to New York. Um, I was super excited. So
it wasn't so much about seeing or meeting those folks again because I hadn't met
them before. But yeah, I was wide eyed. I mean, I'm
sitting in the front row at Madison Square Garden for the Heavyweight Championship of the
World. It was a thrill of a I mean, I mean, I'm
I don't want to like get a sappy and emotional and all that, but
it was like the thrill of a lifetime. I mean, I've never I've
never once in the twenty three years that have taken place after that, ever
taken for granted the ability to go cover these fights and sit ringside and get
a chance to do what I do. But that was the first one.
And not only was it seeing uh you know that type of uh event,
you know, with with Lennox. I mean, it wasn't a memorable fight
for most people, but for me, it's like one of the most memorable
because you know, he he just blew the guy out in two rounds.
But you have to think about what else was on that card. You have
the Vladimir Klitchko fought on the underc hard who became one of the all time
great heavy h who I have now known for a very long time. We're
had to talk more about an anniversary with him in a minute too, but
keep going. Yes, a matter of fact, you know, Vladimir Klitchko
just this past weekend for Ukraine political reasons, spent some time in Washington,
DC, which is not too far from Marlett, and Vladimir and I were
texting back and forth with each other. The point is, even after all
these years, I still do keep we still do keep in touch. With
one another. So that week was the first time I ever met Vladimir Klitchko.
And also anybody that knows me, or follows me, or has ever
read me no is my all time favorite fighter. Ever as our Taro Gotti,
well, our Taro Gotti was on that pay per view also, so
I got a chance in my first This is coincidental that two of the fighters
that I grew to become huge fans of and respect and love our Taro Gotti
and Vladimir Klitchko and Lennox Lewis by the way, who my cat is named
after. Lennox the cat, I mean, all of them on the same
show, my first one. So I mean it was a huge deal in
my life, what can I say? And by the way, we keep
making jokes about this, the nostalgia and what we do here on the podcast
Speed. Yeah, they actually used to have pay per views with three two
three world title fights and huge names. That's how it was done back in
the day and even in this in this day in two thousand, Okay,
so move forward to twenty seventeen. You've told the story before, but just
reiterate a little bit of it here. You were there at Wembley Stadium for
Anthony Joshua and Vladimir Klitschko, which again the anniversary was Saturday, as we
released this podcast off the weekend the same twenty ninth go ahead. Yes,
yeah, well, I mean the Lewis Grant and Klitzko on that undercard April
twenty ninth, two thousand. Joshua versus Klichko haveavy weight championship fight at the
end of Ladimir's career April twenty ninth, twenty seventeen. Look, it was
the fight of the year, but that was a huge deal. Ninety thousand
people at Wembley Stadium at the time, the biggest crowd they had had for
a fight there. I mean, it was eclipsed a few years later when
Tyson Fury had the fight with Dylan White. That was because the promoters,
you know, got an ability, you know, they were given a variance,
if you will, to allow even more people into the stadium to watch
the fight. So they ended up having ninety four thousand. But I would
say to anybody ninety ninety four thousand, it's all the same because the atmosphere
is just incredible. I've covered a lot of fights over the years, and
I have to say that that fight, that that whole fight week, and
I give credit to Matchroom Boxing and to Eddie Hearn and the boxers. I
mean, it was just an absolutely incredible fight week. It turned out to
be the fight of the year in twenty seventeen. But I have a lot
of great memories. You know, there was actually, believe it or not,
there was a number of American boxing media that traveled to the UK for
that fight. There was probably i'd say about a half a dozen of us
that were there. But I got there, I want to say, like
on Tuesday morning of the fight week, I believe, and they had at
the Wembley Arena, which is across the street from the Wembley Stadium, which
there's been lots of fights there. Sort of like I just mentioned about how
they had to workout for Michael Grant and Lennox Lewis and the Madison Square Guard
Theater, whereas the full the full card in the fight took place in the
Big Arena upstairs. The fight week for Joshua versus Kletchko. Yeah, obviously
the fight was taking place at the Big Stadium, but across the street to
Wembley Arena. That's where they had things like the workout in the way in
and some of the other stuff. So I had gone to the workout in
my good buddy Lance Pugmier, who at the time was working for the Los
Angeles Times. We were the two American guys that had gotten there earlier.
And it's a weird thing the way the British fighters work with the media.
They'll do a media like a you know, an availability where they only let
the British press in and the Americans or anybody else not allowed. But then
they'll do a separate one for the other guys. The Yanks, as were
known, the Yanks not allowed and you don't mean New York Yankees, but
the Yanks were not allowed, Okay, yes, So they would do that
with Lennox, They did it with Ricky Hatton, they did it with Joe
Calzaggie, they did it with Prince Nasim. It was just like a thing.
And as I come to find out, and the reason why, because
the Americans would never put up with this shit is the Brits basically would decide
what we're gonna write on a given day, and all the newspaper was would
write the same sort of version of the story, whatever the topic was.
On this day we're writing about the trainer. On this day we're writing about
this, and this day were writing about that. You couldn't get two American
writers to agree, much less six or eight or ten to agrant that we
all do our own thing. But the point was they kept us out of
those sessions so we wouldn't use the quotes or whatever in our stories that would
go before a British writer might write the piece. That's the way they did
it. But the point was, so they're running late for the workouts,
which is not unusual, and Anthony is in the locker, you know,
in the back room they're doing his media availability with the British press and me
and Lance are waiting, and they told us, you know, the match
room pr folks, my man Anthony lever props then for taking care of this,
that we would definitely get our time with Joshua. But the time is
ticking and the workouts ring lane. We're sort of like we're the only two
Americans. There was nobody else there. He's gonna take all the time with
the Brits. He's gonna come and do the workout. We're gonna kind of
get screwed in at that point, really we had nothing, and you know,
our companies that spent a lot of money to send us to cover this
event, and you know we kind of need Joshua. All the Brits come
out and they sent me in Lance in just the two of us, So
it was Lance, Pugmyer, Raypheel, Joshua, Eddie Hearn and I want
to say it was like either maybe like Anthony's brother or a buddy or somebody
just sort of sitting in the back hanging out and h it was absolutely fantastic.
It was the two of us had Joshua for like he had to give
us a half an hour. It was phenomenal. He I never forget this.
He was mimicking punches and like kind of like shadow boxing as we're sitting
there, and he went to throw a punch and when I tell you,
we missed my chin by about a half an inch. He missed my chin
buy about half an inch. And you know, there are a lot of
people throughout your career that have hoped and had fantasies about the opportunity to connect
on that punch. But you're saying, Joshua, he wasn't. Yeah,
he wasn't hoping to connect. He was actually very good natured and really cool.
But so that was just a great memory of that particular event. And
then of course, you know, with Klitchko being on the card, I
mean I become you know, not with Clitchco, but I had known him
a long time, had written hundreds of thousands of words about him, had
covered his career for many many years in very great detail. And his brother
and Vitality was there also, who I had a chance to talk to.
It was just a fantastic The whole week was great. And then the fight
night, what can you say, the fight of the year, And I
mean, I don't think Anthony Joshua peeked quite honest. We've discussed this has
never been the same since that you had life that moment. We've covered this
before, but I've never asked you this part. When Joshua got knocked down,
which he did, did you, as you recollect, did you have
a moment where you thought Klitchko's gonna knock him out? Yeah, flash to
you, clich goes going to do this coming out of a lengthy two or
three years out of the ring, did you have that flash moment ringside Wimbley
six years ago. Well, he hadn't been out of there in quite that
long, but he had not fought since the loss the Tyson fury, which
was a loss, but it was such a horrible fight, and it was
a decision that it was like it almost I'm not saying he doesn't count.
It counts obviously, but it wasn't like either guy fought a brilliant fight that
night, and neither guy fought extremely well. So it came back for the
Joshua fight, which was such a big fight. By the way, remember
in the United States sky Box Office on pay per view in the UK,
but in the United States at that time, Showtime still had rights to Joshua
and Vladimir was still under it was under contract to HBO and so yes,
they had teamed up to do the joint pay per view between Tyson and Lewis
Day had teamed up years later to do the obviously the mega pay per view
between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacap, but because they both had rights to Joshua
and to Klitschko, this was not a pay per view in the United States.
They worked out where they had to work together on this one too.
They both had their broadcast teams at ringside, and my memory serves Showtime showed
the fight live on showtime, like around six o'clock the way, you know,
because it was British the local time, and HBO showed it in primetime
on a very brief replay at like nine o'clock at night. So both networks
showed that fight, which is highly unusual in any event. Remember Klitchko got
knocked down in the fifth round. Remember that fight. It became the fight
of the year in twenty seventeen. The first like four rounds were just sort
of average, but it was after that that it became like this epic classic.
And it started with Joshua putting Klitchko on the mat in round number five.
He came back and knocked down very hard Joshua and round number six,
and when he knocked him down in round six, and when he got up
in the round continued, I thought at the moment, and again I was
sitting six feet from the ring, right there in the middle, I thought,
this fight's over. I thought he's gonna go get him, because there's
not been in my mind. I mean, there's others maybe on par but
Vladimir Klitschko has you heard he's one of the great finishers of all time.
The two times he couldn't get the job done finishing in my mind, when
he had a guy in bad shape was this fight against Anthony Joshua and then
if he go way back to his first fight against Laymon Brewster when they were
fighting for the vacant w BO heavyweight title, also a fight that I was
at in Las Vegas. He had him battered around and he couldn't stop me
ended up getting sopped himself. And this was a similar situation in the center
that he ultimately got stopped. But it became this great back and forth battle
until Joshua the younger man, filled with confidence he had gotten off the deck
in round five. Vladimir was over forty years old. I mean, he's
still fighting well, but you know, it takes its toll when you get
that deep into a fight, and he stopped. You know, he dropped
the two times in round eleven and end of the fight, and it was
just an extraordinarily dramatic, superb fight in an incredibly memorable atmosphere. You know,
ninety thousand people outside a beautiful night in London, and you know it's
up there for me when I think about the great atmospheres at events I've covered,
I can't say it's necessarily number one, but it's on the level of
Lewis Tyson and Mayweather Hatton and Mayweather Canello and even Canello Billy Joe Soners with
seventy six thousand or whatever it was in the at and T Stadium, the
biggest of the biggest events I have covered in terms of the excitement and the
dry in the atmosphere, Joshua versus Plichko in that Fight of the year is
certainly at or near the very top of that list. Love the nostalgian.
You did make reference to Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor in a thrilling Madison Square
Garden main event. That's arguably it is the most attention getting women's world title
fight that we've ever had. It delivered on all the action. That was
a year ago on Sunday. It was April thirtieth of last year at the
Garden, So this is an interesting way to close out Sopril with all the
nostalogy. Yeah, that on that Katie Taylor Serranto, that was a great
fight. Of course. I actually that same night I was in Las Vegas
at the unification fight at junior lightweight between sa Cour Stevens and Oscar Valdez.
But I remember the way that that show was structured in terms of the timing
of the fights. I had my laptop at you know, in the press
area open and we had the zone on, and I was my you know,
there was a little break in the action, and so myself and you
know, four other four or five other of the folks that were there with
me, we watched on my laptop just as fans really super excited to watch
Toronto and Katie do their thing. And then we had Shakourse Stevenson with his
brilliant performance against Valdez to unify the titles, you know, on that night
in Las Vegas. And the reason I had done that was because I was
staying. I stayed the week. I went to cover the Valdez Shakur fight
on that Saturday, and then I just stayed the entire week because the following
Saturday was the Canelo I believe it was was a Canelo Alvarez versus Bevil Canelo
beevil last year, yes, last yeah, yeah, exactly after he had
beaten Plant at November, he fought Beevil for the light heavyweight title. Correct,
right, So I just I did the back to back and basically just
lived in the MGM for like nine I remember we kept bothering you us in
room service. I kept having you on on the podcast and and all the
stuff that we were doing. So yes, great nostalgia on that. Okay,
so perfect segue to end it. Now we're to Canelo week. Canello's
returned to Mexico to fight John Ryder undisputed one hundred and sixty eight pound title.
That's going to be a bulk of this week's discussion. We're looking forward
to previewing it obviously later in a week. Again, we encourage everybody go
back and listen to Canelo on the previous podcast just before this one. I
thought one interesting thing that came out of that that a lot of people are
writing and talking about, is he put it out there he wants to go
up to light heavyweight to fight Bivol. And I'm interested in Bivol's response to
that, because, like we have discussed, and you interviewed Dmitri recently too,
what's in it for him in a rematch other than more money? Yes,
except that can I move down? Maybe and beat Canello for all of
his belts at one sixty eight and prove that because if you stay, I
understand Bibo's mentality potentially is if I stay at one seventy five and beat him
again, that doesn't really prove anything in the ring that I didn't already prove
unless I knock him out. So that's an interesting back and forth that Keelo
said to you, I want to move up and find him at heavyweight for
his title. It's going to be interesting because Canello wants to fight for the
title at one seventy five, Beevo wants to fight for all the belts at
one sixty eight. He feels that's more of a motivating factor. And people
can listen not only to the Cannello interview on the previous podcast episode, but
they go back a couple of weeks ago. I had twenty five minutes with
Dmitri Bevo where we discussed, you know, his year, his career,
coming off Fighter of the Year, the prospect of what he's going to be
doing this summer or later, you know, his desires to fight better b
of and also Canello, etc. And he made the point and he said
this in the interview. His sort of way that he thinks they could maybe
split the baby if they have that sort of disagreement about which way class to
fight in, is they could fight at one hundred and sixty eight pounds and
put both of the titles at stake. Put Cannello's super middleweight titles and Beevo's
light heavyweight titles. Certainly not unprecedented. He can go back and see how
they handled Sugar Ray Leonard against Don Lalan. You can go back and take
a look from a couple of years ago how they handled Ervante Davis again Leo
Santa Cruz. It's not I mean, it's it's kind of a I won't
call it cheap, but it's it's sort of a way to overcome that aspect
of if you want to put both titles at stake. So theoretically they could
fight at one sixty eight and they could have both the light heavyweight title and
the super middleweight titles at stake. That might be a way to get that
part of it done. But look, you know, before any of that,
I mean, we all think that Cannello's gonna beat John Ryder fair enough,
but he's got to do it. He's got to go out there and
do the got to do the job before you can start getting too much thought
going on as far as how it's going to work for a rematch with Dmitri
Vibo. All right, good enough. So it is Canello week. We're
gonna get to that. There are some other fights too, coming, not
just this week, but in May that we're very interested in. Goodbye April
already, we're done. We're done with April as we head into a new
week. Great stuff here, Dan Raphael, anything else enclosing? Well,
I was gonna say next week, being that it's the single Demia weekend,
and when it comes time for us to discuss all on nostalgia there we got
about ten thousand fights to pick from, no doubt. And speaking by the
way, I was just thinking, by the way, because Canello's fights in
Guadalajara, and I am not traveling for that fight, and I don't think
most of the American press is traveling. I would have been nice to go
there. I gotta say, this is probably gonna be like the other than
during the height of the pandemic in the last twenty something years. This is
gonna be the first time I'm home on Singo Demyo weekend. Like in other
words, I can watch the Kentucky Derby in my house as opposed to in
some other locations somewhere else in the United States. Is a rare thing to
be home on Singo demoting. And don't forget the Gervante Davis sentencing is on
Sinco de Mayo on the fifth in Baltimore for the hit and run charges,
the felony hit and run plea agreement charge. So that sentencing, we believe
he is going to be to jail time may have just won his pay per
view. Stay tuned. I'm not making any prediction that I just don't know
the answer that you never know what's going on behind the scene. And again
you know there are no guarantees. But like we have talked about it,
like we have said, the previous judge rejected the previous plea deal because it
had no jail time. So now there is a new plea deal. That's
what leads everybody to believe. And this is a different judge the second goal
round. It's another female judge in Baltimore County. But the belief is she
accepted the plea agreement, she set the sentencing date and the belief is she's
going to sentence into jail time. So let's just thirtify one thing. To
the best of my nudge, there was no actual plea agreement. He agreed
to plead guilty, but not because he knew what the sentence was going to
be. Well, now the plea agreement is to the charges, but not
the sentence. You're right, there is no plea agreement on this is your
sentence. And what will happen just one more time touching on this is the
prosecution will make a recommendation. And the prosecution understands the previous judge told us
it's got to have jail time. So the prosecutor is more than likely going
to stand up and recommend jail time, and then the offense is going to
argue, no, it shouldn't be, and then it's up to the judge.
And all of that happens on Friday. And she'll also, by the
way, here from the victims in the case, they have a chance to
speak at sentencing. All of that literal courtroom drama, all the use SAPs
out there that watch all these Law and Order and all these other courtroom dramas,
this is real life courtroom drama coming in Baltimore on Friday for this to
happen. And the very real possibility is she bangs the gavel and Jervonte Davis
goes to the Baltimore County jail after this happens, So stand by. We'll
wait to see if that is the case. I mean, you want to
talk about a juxtaposition. One week ago, Javanti Davis is on top of
the world. He's knocked out Ryan Garcia in the biggest fight of the year,
and you know, the money's pouring into his bank account. And a
week later he's going to stand in front of a judge and has a good
chance to have his freedom taken away for a period of time. Welcome,
welcome to it all right, So there's plenty, there's plenty off the fight
Freaks Unite recap, my friend. Let's get ready for LLO week. I
appreciate you as always, and we look forward to everything that's going to be
happening in the month of May that starts right now as we release the podcast
into Monday. It's May. And if our people who are listening, if
they enjoy it, please leave a review for us, yes, because that
does help us as well, a five star review helps take thirty seconds to
do that. Under Apple Podcast, more and more people are finding the podcast.
Tell them how wonderful Raypeel is. If you look, if you're enjoying
hearing from the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Ryan Garcia, one on one,
etc. Say so, help us out because in the algorithms it helps the
podcast move up in the rankings, and we have moved up in the rankings.
So go leave us a rating and review like Dan is saying on Apple
Podcast as well. With that, my friend, have a good week Thank
you Dan, Raypeel. All right, Dan, you have a good rest
of your weekends. There we go. There is our insider Fight Freaks Unite
substack is where you finding Bigfight Weekend dot Com find this podcast again coming off
the weekends as the recap a big fight we can preview going into the weekend.
We'll be out on Friday. For now, we're good here The Fight
Breaks Unite Recap MHM