Speaker 1: The countdown is on to Fight Time. This is Big
Fight Weekend now here is your host DJ leaves well
off of the Thanksgiving holiday and surviving consuming lots of food,
and then we have like the Black Friday Mayhem going
on in the middle of the night, etc. We're ready
for the weekend. We actually have some action in England
and in also another location. What else do we have
in Temecula, California this weekend that we're ready to preview?
It is the Big Fight Weekend preview podcast, the Turkey
Edition Gobble Gobble, Welcome in. I am merely the somewhat
capable host TJ Reeves. He is our insider Dan Raphael
Lamont Roach, by the way, coming up, who will challenge
Isaac Pittbull Cruise for a completely unnecessary WBC interim Junior
welterway title. They're calling it an interim title fight. It's
the main event on the PBC on Prime pay per view,
not this weekend, but December sixth, next weekend. You'll hear
from Lamont Roach right here on this very podcast. We
have a lot to get to and cover. Big Dan,
good to be with you again. You and I are
doing this full disclosure on Thursday night into Friday. Did
you good enough to eat for Thanksgiving? Are you all good?
My friend?
Speaker 2: We had a we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And what
we did last year we went and visited my family
up in Upstate New York and spent the holiday with
my mom and sister and my brother in law, and
my niece and nephew, and my brother in law's family
that lived nearby. So we had a whole bunch of people.
This year, we did what we typically do when we
don't go to visit the family. We went out to
Ruth Chris and had a beautiful Thanksgiving meal that's outstanding.
Speaker 1: I saw some other acquaintances in Tampa Bay that went
to Ruth Chris, so they had the good spread.
Speaker 2: We need to get them to sponsor the show with
a Thanksgiving Let me tell you should.
Speaker 1: Work on that. You were right there to night and say, hey,
fight freaks to night, big, let's do it. So did
you I was gonna say you did turkey? Did you
do any like stak uh bites or anything? That's what
they're known for.
Speaker 2: So you get the turkey meal. It came my son
and I got the turkey meal. My wife has something separate.
But she doesn't care for turkey. She doesn't. She had
like crab cakes and cream spinach and potato castle.
Speaker 1: Role they have the buffet.
Speaker 2: It's not about okay, they didn't have a buffet, right,
But if you get the Thanksgiving meal, it comes with
a very good portion of turkey, great gravy. Then you
got your choice aside. You get a salad or soup,
you get like you know, be the green beans with
with you know, garlic, or you get mashed potatoes or
the cream spinach or all kinds of stuff, and then
you get a dessert. It comes with.
Speaker 1: It for you and young raypaiel what did you go with?
Speaker 2: I went with the turkey and the green beans on
the salad. He went with the turkey and the mashed
potatoes and the Caesar style. But that when they bring
the sides out there done family style. So had some.
We had shared the beans and the potatoes.
Speaker 1: There was what did you go with for dessert?
Speaker 2: Though?
Speaker 1: What did you get? You go pumpkin pie? Do you
go apple pie?
Speaker 2: Well, it comes with the choice I think was either
like ice cream or pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cheese. We upgrade
it to the different cheesecake for like actually like five bucks,
and we each had a little bit of that and
we still have like three quarters of it left for
the fridge.
Speaker 1: Yes, so you're good for the leftovers, right. So we
did this and we'll move on to the boxing in
just a moment, and we even have a shout out
here at the beginning of the podcast.
Speaker 2: Stand By by the way, I.
Speaker 1: Know the trip to fan is affecting both of us
right now, but we're still somewhat awake, and we got
Lamont Roach coming up to help spice things up. We
did my parents, my sister, my brother in law at
their house. It was great to be around them. Did
the turkey, all the sides, the whole bit, desserts, and
guess what, Big Dan, We're gonna do the same thing
tomorrow with my in laws and my brother in law
who works for the same Pete Police department and he
was working on duty man on duty on Thanksgiving Day,
So we'll do the same thing tomorrow on Friday, with
the same sides, the same dessert in replay deja vu
all over again, like your man, Yo, Giberra once said,
we'll do that tomorrow on Black Friday. So there you
go on the food and the food consumption. I did
have some pecan pie earlier today. You're not a pecan pie,
die right? You don't like that?
Speaker 2: What are you talking about? It's my probably my all
time favorite.
Speaker 1: Oh it is all right. So I need to box
up a piece of my mother in law's homemade pecan pie,
put it in a little dried ice, and mail it
to you, is what you're saying. I mean would that
we're already bff's best friends forever, but then I would
turn out all right. So there's the Thanksgiving coverage. Now
I got to do a shout out, and you do
not You do not know what's coming. We did not
rehearse this, and I did not know what was coming.
So full disclosure, because you and I have not talked
since my Buccaneers got throttled on Sunday night football by
the Rams in Los Angeles. The Rams are really good.
The Bucks were not good last Sunday night. So we
flew all night back to Tampa Bay trying to regroup
Thanksgiving week. Buccaneers ready to play the Cardinals this weekend.
The Erazone Cardinals. So the Arizona Cardinals have a series
of podcasts they do every week. Everybody's going to the
podcasting and here comes the fun part. My guy Craig
contacted me, who I did not know, and said, hey,
we need a buccaneer perspective. We love your work. Can
you come on with us and talk buccaneers with us?
And we lined up a time to do this on
Wednesday with you and I taping this. So Craig and
Zach are the host talking buccaneer match up with the
Cardinals from the Cardinal perspective. I'm educating them on the bucks.
Are you ready for the punchline?
Speaker 2: Ready?
Speaker 1: Audience? And Dan Craig says to me before we hit
the record button, I just have to say I am
a massive fan of the Big Fight Weekend and Fight
Freaks your night.
Speaker 2: Proud baby go.
Speaker 1: He says. Every Thursday going into Friday in the preview
mode and every Sunday after Monday going into the recap mode.
I'm with you every week for the last few years,
Craig and Zach, and Zach says, I'm a huge Fight fan. Two,
I love your work. I've loved Dan Rayphiel for years.
I don't know if you paid these guys and set
that I did not know them either. So then Craig
busts off IBF doing IBF things. He busts off, what
are we doing here? I'm like, these guys are faithful listeners.
I love it through the program and I had no idea.
So we started talking off the air, Jake Paul and
Anthony Joshua. They wanted to know, do we think this
is gonna be legitimate? A lot of people think it's fixed,
and then somehow Jake Paul's gonna bribe Anthony Joshua would
have let the fight go for a long time. I said,
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know
about that. They wanted to talk boxing before we got
to the Cardinal Buccaneer portion, and we also talked to
Benavetez because he's based in Phoenix. He trains in Seattle.
So Craig and Zach shout out to them. And I
have said this for over thirty years of doing sports
radio and the media about you never know who's out there.
Am I correct reading you, watching you, listening to you?
You will have all kinds of people all the time
come up, as I have in my radio and TV
dealings and everything I've done, and you had no idea
they were watching. And how about that the Cardinal podcast
guys are fans of this pod and they're probably listening
and roaring right now because they said they would be
listening this weekend. So I'm shouting him out one more time.
There you go. I like it all right. On to
this weekend and what we do not a lot to preview,
but there is some, including Mackie Manny Pachil's son making
his debut. Let's talk about the two fights in England.
Give us a quick preview of Ben Whittaker, the light heavyweight,
the British light heavyweight who's changed trainers. He's in the
match room to his own main event Saturday afternoon US
time in Birmingham, England. And then also the boxer main
event in Derby, England is Fraser Clark in action for
the vacant British heavyweight title. Give me the preview on
both of those, if you would for Saturday afternoon US time.
Speaker 2: Sure, I think you just misspoke. Ben Whittaker changed promoters.
Speaker 1: Not promoters, not trainers.
Speaker 2: My bad, so he had been Ben Whittaker. If you
don't follow boxing, you should know if you do follow boxing,
I should say you should know who he is. He
is a light heavyweight. He was an Olympic medalist from
Great Britain. He won the silver medal in two thousand
and twenty and he signed with Boxer as to turn professional.
He's a little bit older because he kept as an
amateur for a long time and of course the twenty
twenty Olympics were delayed because of COVID, so he signed
with Boxer, but he was going to sign with Mattrum.
They had done a promo video, they were ready to
do the deal. Eddie Hearn and Frank Smith from Matchroom
had known Ben for a number of years and in
the end he opted to go with Boxer because the
exposure he could receive on their broadcaster, which was Sky Sports,
which is the behemoth in the UK, was just frankly
a bigger deal than his own at the time, and
so he opted to go that route. So he's had
ten fights. He's nine and zero with a draw. He
had that wacky technical jaw. If you recall a few
fights out two fights ago when they got ten, he
was having a real tough fight against a fighter in
at Leam Cameron. This is in like the end of
twenty twenty four, and they fell out of the ring
in a cass and he injured his He injured his
leg and he ended up ended, becoming a technical decision.
Then in April of this year, in the rematch, they
met again, and then Whitaker, after taking a tremendous amount
of criticism for such a poor performance in that first fight,
he knocked him out in the second round and you know,
looked really good. So his contract, which was tied to
the boxer Sky deal, came to an end because when
the boxer contract ended, Sky Sports did not renew their
deal with Boxer, so he became a free agent. Boxer
subsequently did a much smaller deal financially with BBC, which
is obviously a big broadcast platform in the UK, but
their fights are going to be on BBC two and
the BBC what they call the Eye Players, so it
won't be as great of exposure. But more notably, it's
not the kind of money that the Budge it allows
for if you're on his own. So when he became free,
Eddie you know, redoubled his efforts to try to sign
him and just just raves about his talent, loves the
fact that he's very marketable and he understands social media
like he's good both in the ring as well as
the marketability aspect. You know, he understands that people either
love him or hate them, but they're gonna watch them,
and so this is gonna be their first fight together
or they're going to his hometown area in Birmingham, England.
He's from just outside of Birmingham. He's taken on a
German fighter named Ben Gavasi who has got a very
glistening record. He's nineteen and one, and so from that perspective,
it looks, oh, he's nineteen and one, he's got thirteen knockouts.
He's thirty years old, so he's about the same age,
like a year older than Ben Whitaker is. And you know,
if you start to do a little examination of what's
under the hood, you see that he's fighting guys who
are eleven, sixteen and one, guys you never heard of
guys who were four and ten in recent times, Guys
who are thirty eight and fifty two. He had, you know,
hasn't been overly active, just so he fought.
Speaker 1: He fought a guy that's fought ninety times and lost
fifty two of them, Yes, sir fifty two times, good
Lord thirty eight.
Speaker 2: And this is now that was the fight that was
at the end of twenty twenty one. All right, fair enough,
and since then he hasn't fought that much. He fought
one guy six and three, one Guy four and ten,
one Guy eight and one, one Guy eleven.
Speaker 1: So he is the opponent. He is clearly the opponent
and his last.
Speaker 2: Component, and he did win in that time. He won
in that fight one of the regional WBC titles. So
in part this is to assist Ben Whittaker's ranking within
the WBC, but also we're going home, let's get to
know you on his owne because he's gonna be now
in front of a presumably a new boxing audience because
he's never fought on his own before. Now we'll also
be fighting his first fight under the match Room Boxing promotion,
and so they have big plans for him. This is
sort of like, let's get back in action and then,
as Eddie has said many times, step it up. Be
super busy, probably maybe four fights in twenty twenty five,
I mean rather twenty twenty six, and you know, I
get to the point where you're now in the in
the position to be in a title eliminator, perhaps some
type of title fight, whatever the case may be. So
that's the fight that this weekend. So this is you know,
hopefully Gavasi will put up a good fight. But the
idea here is it's showcase time for Ben Whitaker in
front of a new audience and to basically start what
I view as the next part of his careers nine
to one one, like I said, new promoter, new broadcaster
and big hopes. Probably probably if he wins, will end
up with a ranking in the WBC. So you're talking
about the next step in a career of a guy
that has a massive amount of talent but probably could
stand to cool off a little bit of the hot
dog aspect of things in the ring. So there's that.
So the the funny thing about it is he's actually
that fight, as I said, that's on Saturday on his
own in Birmingham, England. But the folks at Boxer have
a card the same night. They're competing against their old
guy who moved to the new to the other promoter.
This is going to be the first event of their
deal with BBC. Now was delayed by about a month
because of an injury. But nonetheless Fraser Clark against Jamie Tashiva,
who they call TKV is his nickname. They are fighting
in the main event in Derby, England, as you mentioned,
and this will be the main event of that boxer
card and it will be for the vacant British heavyweight title.
So it's a traditional title. All the greats in the
heavyweight division that have come through Britain, most of them
that's held the British title. It does have some allure
to the British fighters, to the public. They're aware of
its meaning and the good thing. Okay, so we know
that the Ben Whitaker fight here in the United States
is on his own as well as around the world,
and that the fight between between Fraser Clark and Shakiva
is on BBC two in the UK and their Eyeplayer.
But it's also, if you care, available in the United States.
It's part of the Triller TV Plus package which I
subscribe to. And I must say, and they're not paying
me for this. I don't even have like an affiliate
link with them. This is just free promotion for anybody
who gives a shit. So I was paying like seven
ninety nine a month for my subscription to Triller Plus,
and you get all kinds of stuff on there, you know,
boxing and otherwise I could have got a year would
have cost me seventy dollars for the year. I just
opted to the monthly. They have a Black Friday idea
which I changed over my subscription to a few days ago,
thirty five bucks for the year. Now again, I'm not
being paid for this. I'm not I'm not promoting with them,
but I'm just being real. You care about.
Speaker 1: Taking advantage of the Black Friday Special.
Speaker 2: I took advantage and they should have. They should have
paid me for it. But it's a million times worth
it for what they offer you. All right, I did that.
So that's that's that will be on.
Speaker 1: Triller Plus if you want to see it, and you
can take advantage of the Black Friday Special to see
a park.
Speaker 2: Just in terms of the fight itself, I mean that
should be like a fungal heavyweight.
Speaker 1: Clark had the wild fight with Wardley, that was the draw, right,
and then the rematch Wardley destroyed him in the one round.
So now we have is he recovered from that? Is
he different for good because of that? Well, like he
bounce back we don't know now.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four, he had the incredible draw against Wardley,
which was a Fight of the Year contender legit. In
the rematch, which is one one of the undercards in
Saudi Arabia, he got bulitzed in the first round in
very brutal fashion. He has come back from that. In
this past April, he beat Ebenezer Teta, who gave Dylan
White like a really solid fight. This is not a
great fighter, but he's a guy that's gonna test you.
If you're not prepared, he'll beat you. So he did
that win and so now he's coming back for this
second fight of twenty twenty five against Shakiva and Shakiva
he's coming off he fought for the vacant British title
in his last fight against David Adelay and he got
stopped in the sixth round. But Adelaie vacated and is
doing other things, so he's getting another shot at the
British title. So he's coming off of that knockout loss.
But he has had some other like decent performances. He
was on some of these other boxer undercards on the
British level. This is an attractive fight if you ask me,
and you know, I would imagine that you're gonna make
Fraser Clark the favor. But you know, it's a fun fight,
I think, all right, And so anyway, so those you
got Ben Whitaker in the light heavyweights in the main
event for his own on Mattroum. He got these heavyweights
in the main event on the Boxer card, which is
BBC in Britain but in here in the United States
Trailer TV plus.
Speaker 1: All right, again, we'll hear from Lamont Roach in a
couple of minutes. But let's also touch on the ESPN
Deporte's card in Temechila, California. The main event has Lorenzo
Para and Elijah Pierce as featherweights. You'll educate us on that.
But the bigger deal probably and the intrigue is it's
Manny Pacquiao's promotion that's putting the fight on and Manny
Junior is making his pro debut go ahead.
Speaker 2: Right, So that's the intriguing part. So like the main event,
Elijah Pierce against Lorenzopara, that's a pretty solid fight among
like hopeful featherweights. Let's say they're in the twelve rounder.
They're fighting for you know, a regional WBO title, hoping
to put themselves among the ratings. They have good records
Pierces twenty one and two and Lorenzo par Is twenty
three to one in one, so that seems to be
on paper anyway, and evenly match main event. We normally
wouldn't really discuss this. It is notable because it is
the first Mani Paquao Promotions card taking place in the
United States. They're doing this in Temecula, California at the
Pachanga Resort Casino, which is hosted a number of boxing
events through the years, and they're going to be doing
some regular activity in America, and Nanny will be there
and the bigger The reason why we decided to talk
about this on the show is because when you've got
one of the all time greatest fighters in history of
the sport, who's won titles in eight weight classes, who
was a legend among legends, who was a Mount Rushmore
caliber Hall of Famer, and just as big as it
gets in boxing, and his son, who's twenty four years old,
Manny Pacio Junior, who goes by the name Jimmy Well,
that's what everybody calls him. He's making his professional debut
and that's sort of like a big thing now. He's
a lightweight. He's in a four rounder. His opponent is
a guy named Brendan Lally who's also in his pro debut,
who is from Chicago, Illinois. I'm not sure how the
folks scouted him necessarily if he's never had a fight before,
but I think they probably feel good enough about what
they've seen from a Manny Junior who was trained by
Marvin's amodio, who of course has been a long time
assistant to Freddie Roach and has been in Manny Pacyow's
corner for many of his fights through the years. So
they're keeping that all in the family. He trains at
the wild Card where Freddie Roach has his gym and
his people, and so there's that he's turning pro. I mean,
how could you not be interested see that? And of consequence,
when the fight was first announced, they were talking about
how he comes in this fight. He's been training as
an amateur for about four years. Three or four years.
His girlfriend was pregnant with their first child. She actually
had the baby. I don't know if it was on
Thursday or Wednesday, but that is Mannipacia's first grandchild that
was born in Nanny and Jack Forster's pictures of them
with the baby on his social media. So Grandpa Manny
and his son Manny Junior are going to be together
at a boxing event with this when it's not Manny
Pacio fighting in the main event, it's Manny Pacio Junior
fighting in the co feature of this event. All right,
So you got a figure TJ with the son of
a legend. I mean we've seen before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this can happen in a pro debut alright again,
ESPN Deportis and ESPN Plus, So if you're an ESPN
Plus subscriber of which it's built into my Hulu. While
we plug live things, I will be able to see
this on coming up on Saturday night from California. We
have one more bit of business before we get to
Lamont Roach and that was the teak In Promotions card
earlier this week. It was Monday morning in the United
States Monday night in Japan, and the younger brother of
Naoia in a way, the Monster Takuma in a Way,
has won the vacant WBC Bantamweight Championship by decision, and
there were a couple of other intriguing fights on the
card as well. Give me give me your recap thoughts
there from Monday since that happened, since we did the
recap podcast.
Speaker 2: Right I was watching the beginning of this anyway in
the middle of the night because it came out of
like three point thirty in the morning on the top
ranked fash channels that we discussed about some of their
previous events as they're finding placeholders for some of these
events that they had rights to before they get whatever
they're going to do worked out. So because I did
not stay up for the whole thing, you'd be proud
of me. DJ there's no way to DVR, so I
stuck a DVD in and I recorded.
Speaker 1: The Wait, old school burning of the DVD. You have
a tvd Yeah, you have a DVD burner that you
can record off the TV.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a DVD.
Speaker 1: That is so two thousands of you. I am proud
of you that you still have that technology and that capability.
Speaker 2: I still record fights on DVD in my collection, but
this was one of the what normally what I do
when you.
Speaker 1: Have it, you have it connected through a USB or
through a HDMI cable to the TV to.
Speaker 2: The burner and boom.
Speaker 1: But it's not a rolled on it in the middle
of the night.
Speaker 2: Here here, let me explain what I'm talking about. First
of all, it's a regular old school it's a half
DVD recorder or play DVR records. No player, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: No, you're not you're not listening a DVD R. Excuse me,
a DVD R, I misspoke, which means it can record DVDs. Yeah,
just playing go it's.
Speaker 2: Half and half on one half. If I wanted to,
I could record a VHS, which I haven't done in years.
But if I wanted to, I could the other half.
You can record and or play a DVD. Now, when
I make my DVDs for my collection, typically I put
the event on the DVR and then I'm able to
know exactly how long it is, and I record it
that way. I don't do it how I want to
do it. This way, you just kind of got to
take a fire because I don't know how long it's
going to last. So I put the DVD in, I
set it for the four hour mode, and I led
a roll because I knew I was going to fall
asleep before I saw the full event. And so I
made it through some of the cart, and I woke
up in the morning and I watched the rest of
the cart and anyway, in the main event, it was
to kum In a Way who became a two time
Bandamway champion. Because he had previously briefly held the WBA title,
he now won the vacant WBC title, which incidentally liked
the WBA belt where belts at his brother he once
had when he was undisputed, and he ends up winning
the title that one of the two belts that Junto
Nakatani vacated to move up and wait. So the two
guys that were paired to make the match were to
kom in Away and Tension Nasakawa, who we have discussed.
He is the very popular, very famous former kickboxer in
Japan who is now pursuing a professional boxing career. He's
the one that a year a few years ago, as
a much smaller fighter, Floyd Maywether absolutely destroyed in one
round of an exhibition match. But as a boxer, hes
looked pretty good and so he gave it him. It
was a competitive fight, but in a way one he
was just more experienced a little trickier, you know, was
more under control. I felt like wins the fight one
seventeen to one eleven, one sixteen to one twelve on
two score cards, and he wins the vacant WBC vandam
waight Teto. That was the main event. And because they
were using open scoring in Japan, like the WBC likes
to do if they can do it in certain territories,
you could follow along. And you knew that after the
first four rounds it was even on all three score cards,
and then in a way started to open it up
because when they announced the cards after round eight, he
had opened a lead on two of the score cards,
or on all three of the score two of the
three score cards, one was even still, but he was
up by at least two points on the other two cards,
so that that led to some intrigue. And then the
other fights were also of interest. You had the Las
Vegas featherweight Arreys Aleem, who's been a pretty good contender
for a long time, but kind of below the radar
from a lot of people. He was the underdog and
he went He fought a top ranks sign fighter named
Mikito and Nikano, who was fourteen to oh with thirteen knockouts,
who looked absolutely sensational on a couple of recent teak
and shows, and he was the favorite to win this fight,
but it was reyse Alim with that veteran experience and
that that the the style that he had just he
he took it to him. He wins a decision. He
scored a knockdown in the last few seconds with a
nice right hand of the tenth round. He wins this
fight one eighteen to one oh nine, one sixteen to
one eleven, one fifteen to one to twelve. And why
it was significant is because it was an IBF final eliminator,
so he now becomes the mandatory challenger for the title
that is currently held by Angelo Leo, although Angelo Leo
has a fight coming up, so whoever wins that fight
will be obligated to fight Liam at some point and
then the third fight. And I found this to be
actually the most intriguing for different reasons. There's a fighter
in Japan who's an older fighter as a as a
junior fanwa. He's already twenty nine years old, but he's
a former world amateur champion. He just turned professional much
later than you would have expected. His name is Tamoya
Suboy and he was two and zero with a knockout
going into this fight. And they matched up with Carlos Quadras,
who is a former champion, a veteran who's fought everybody,
and he's he's certainly not, you know, at his best.
He's passed his best days at age thirty seven. But
to see him in the ring with a guy that's
two and oh was a little surprising. And if you
know Quadris, he was part of that great foursome in
and around the junior vandamweight division. It was Quadrius, it
was Sarungva said, it was Roman Gonzalez and Jan Francisco
a Strata and they all fought each other in the
round robin, you know, like this small weight fighter version,
if you will, of the great round robin of Hagler
and Leonard and Duran and hearns. But every everybody's day
comes and goes and Colors Quadras got annihilated in this fight.
And he had been you know, he'd been fighting pretty
well over the last few years. He'd been winning fights
for the most part, and he got he got hammered,
he got stopped in the eighth round and Zuboy goes
to three and oh and he looks like a real
player in the future in this weight class. And afterwards, Quadris,
who has had a tremendous career, he announced his retirement.
He was just getting battered. He announced that at the
press commence afterwards he was down seventy to sixty three.
He had all three squarecards. And you know, if that
is in fact the last receive of Carlos Quadra, shout
out to him, because he fought a lot of top
guys and you know, made a lot of fun fights
and again part of that great force of fighters, at
least two of which will be in the Hall of Fame.
He and rung beside may fall slightly short of that,
but certainly Roman Gonzalez and h and Juan Francisco Strado
are going to be in shrine someday. But they would
not have had the legacies that they have without Carlos
Quadris and Sarungisi being part of that.
Speaker 1: Sure, and Bam Rodriguez not came out too in the
last couple of years as well.
Speaker 2: Against Quadris, well he didn't knock him out.
Speaker 1: When knock him out, but he beat him beat Yeah,
when when.
Speaker 2: Bam won his first world title. That was the fight
he took on short notice, and he moved up a
couple of weight classes because Carlos Quadris's opponent had fallen out.
I think it was sarungis I actually and U and
he fought it for the for the vacant title of
the WBC in the one hundred and fifteen pound weight class,
and he won that fight, and that was that was
BAM's coming out party. But Quadris had won some fight
since then, so even though Quadris may have been passed
his best at the time he fought Bam, he was
still a very good fighter at that point.
Speaker 1: All right, good cappage. Let's get to Lamont Roach againy
fights Isaac Pittbull Cruise, PBC Prime Main event PBC on
Prime pay per View in San Antonio. Not this weekend,
but next weekend, December sixth, but before fight week ever
gets underway, Big Dan's been hustling before Thanksgiving. Here is
Lamont Roach right now on the pod.
Speaker 2: Well, it is my pleasure to be joined on our
podcast this week by Lamont Roach. Lamont Roach, you have
another challenging fight coming up December sixth. You'll be main
event of the PBC Prime Video pay per view CARDI
B challenging the WBC Interim Junior Welterweight title holder Isaac
Pittbull Cruise in the Great Fight City of San Antonio
at the Frost Bank Center. So welcome to the show.
The last time we spoke was before you had your
last fight against Tank Davis earlier this year, so you know,
I got it before we get into everything with Pitbull,
which I find would be a very intriguing fight, to
be honest, we got to get into a little bit
about what we've seen earlier this year. That fight was
back in February. You moved up in wait to lightweight
to challenge him for his WBA Lightweight championship, and you
were held to what most people considered a highly controversial
draw in that fight. A lot of people thought that
you won that fight, that the referee blew the knockdown
call in the ninth round, did not penalize him by
points or DQ for running to the corner getting wiped off.
There was all kinds of things that went haywire. They
screwed up the potential for a replay. So all these
months later where you made him take the knockdown in
front of the whole world. How do you reflect on
that fight and what the heck happened? Do you feel
like you were robbed?
Speaker 3: For sure, it's exactly how you you know, how you
described it though, that's exactly how I feel. I mean,
it was in plain sight. So it's sad. It's sad that,
you know, boxing comes to situations as such and it doesn't.
Speaker 4: Go the right way like it's supposed to.
Speaker 3: Is that wasn't the first time, and it probably won't
be the last I had to say, And you know,
it's it's just you know, spill milk that I really
can't cry over. But I do definitely feel like I
was robbed, I think, I mean, watching the fight, I
thought I won without the knockdown being counted as well.
Speaker 4: But you know, everything's subjective, right, That.
Speaker 2: Is very true. But one of the things that really
irritated me about it and I don't have I didn't
have a dog in the fight. I was, you know,
looking forward to seeing you guys put on a highly competitive,
good interesting fight. But what irritated me was that they
put replay in place for the Commission to examine these instances.
That was obviously the perfect example to view the replay
of what occurred when he went down on the knee.
After the fact, the commission in New York recognized that
it wasn't knockdown, but said because of their technical issues
that they were having supposedly with the production truck. Yeah,
exactly that they people will some people will see the
video of this. Others will hear the video. You are
given the supposedly the quote market Yeah, so that they
recognize it. But because it wasn't able to be viewed
by the replay official within the time frame during the fight,
they couldn't suddenly post fight award you the extra point,
give you the win because they didn't know how the
final three rounds would have played out, you know, if
everybody knew there had been a knockdown. What is your
thought about that aspect of it?
Speaker 3: My thought is just, you know, they definitely dropped the rock,
and I think, huh, it's I just I just think it's.
Speaker 4: A little shady, that's all.
Speaker 2: That's a great word. That's a great word for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I just I definitely just think it's
a little shady. I think a lot of things come
in the factor when you have a superstar and such
who brings Uh, how do you say it value to
a lot of people involved with the event and maybe
the potential next event. So it's it's just it's just
a little shaky, that's all. That's how I feel.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned about the next event. So it was
a good fight. Some controversy boxing never helped sell a rematch. Uh,
you know, he exercises right to a rematch, so we
all thought that would happen. First they talked, you know,
he said right away, you want to get right back
and during as quickly as possible. Obviously you did. Also,
they talked about doing it in June. Then it was
supposed to take place in August, and then a lot
of stuff went on. He ended up pulling out of
the fight to take what was going to be a
far more lucrative exhibition fight, not even a real fight
against Jake Paul. I guess somebody can allegedly nobody can
really argue if you're taking a huge payday, I suppose,
But how did you feel about basically getting strung along
post the first fight in February for him saying we'll
do it this way, you'll do it, then he'll take
you accept the rematch and then he bailed on you,
kind of left you high and dry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he definitely did.
Speaker 3: That's dirty business and that's what contracts and stuff I'll
put into play for.
Speaker 4: And uh, you know, if if I was a guy
who was super pressed.
Speaker 3: For you know, money or anything like that, you know,
you can easily go to the arbitration.
Speaker 4: That didn't take place.
Speaker 2: That you decided you didn't want to do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3: It's it's just coming to a point where you know
there's that's going to be strong along too. It's going
to be a lot of bs, and nobody wants to
go through more bs than he already. You know what
I'm saying that he already put me in or put
me through. We already knew that the fight was kind
of in limbo as we were in camp, so it
was just really pissing me off, honestly. But you know,
once we came to terms with they are pretty much
aren't going to fight, it was just like, all right,
where did we go from here? But we always been
working since to find the next to do so, so
we always knew that we.
Speaker 2: Were going to fight this year. When you when you
heard he was taking the Jake Paul fight, and they
went through their press tour, and then we all know
what happened about the lawsuit from a girl, an ex girlfriend,
that alleged yet another case of domestic violence committed by
Tank Davis. Obviously we'll go through the process with that.
But he ended up getting dropped from the fight, so
he doesn't get a what would have been still a
lucrative payday and a rematch against you. He now doesn't
get perhaps even more lucrative situation with Jake Paul and
isn't fighting at all. What is your thought about that?
It seems to me like karma maybe, I.
Speaker 4: Man, I don't have any thoughts.
Speaker 3: Whatever happened, happened doesn't have anything to do me anymore.
Speaker 4: So, you know, I wish the best to anybody who
is involved in that.
Speaker 3: You know, that situation with MVP, with you know, the
other side, whatever the case may be, however they move on.
Speaker 4: They better figure it out. But I don't have any
thoughts about it.
Speaker 3: I don't have anything to focus on but Pitbull Cruise
December six.
Speaker 2: Well down down the road, whatever happens, would you like
to maybe see Tank again just to settle that score.
I doubt it.
Speaker 3: I'm just off the simple fact that he wouldn't, you know,
rematch me.
Speaker 4: It's like the proof is in.
Speaker 2: The put in.
Speaker 4: If you look at everything at face value, it probably
doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: So now we get to Pitbull. So I have to
say I was a little surprised that Pitbull and this
team took this fight. Uh, you are not a big name.
You're certainly a bigger name than you were before you
fought Tank Davis. Uh and put on an excellent performance
in that fight. Were you surprised that they called your
name and decided then ask to fight you?
Speaker 5: Uh, surprise, No, because people kind of always been an option,
Like I'm pretty sure they were knowing of it.
Speaker 3: Like now surprise that they say, yes, Well, maybe a
little bit okay, but but you know, surprised that you know,
I'm saying that they that they were aware, and because
we were aware, we've been aware, so you know, he
was always on the list of what can happen next.
Speaker 2: But they pick they picked you out, and I sort
of anyway, my take was view you as as the
favorite and him as the underdog. Your five foot seventies,
five foot four, he's always a smaller guy, But you
obviously are going to be much bigger than him. You're
obviously a very consummate boxer. You have excellent defense, You're fast.
Uh you've we talked about it before the Tank fight,
how good of a chin you have, and you certainly
showed that against a big puncher like Tank Davis. How
do you approach him then?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What do you have to be warried from him? I
already know what he has to be warried from you.
Speaker 3: You know what you have to be worried of, you know,
just his powerful punching, uh, wide looping shots. There's not
a list of things that you have to look for.
There's things that he does well and that he makes
work for him. But that's that's his plan A, B,
and C. So, uh, if the if the shots, if
the big loop and shots don't work for him, where's
he going to go?
Speaker 4: Like? What is he going to do? If the relentless
pressure doesn't work for him, what is he going to do?
Speaker 3: So, you know, I have multiple avenues to win this fight,
and I'll explode them all night until you know, either
the bell rings or he falls.
Speaker 2: Well, the way you just put it, I was what
I was sort of thinking like he has one way
to win, which is a good way, but that Lamont
Roach had probably three or four ways to win for sure. Yeah, Okay,
one thing about this. You still are the WBA Junior
Lightweight World Champion. You defended that title once, but in
your next fight you moved up and took the challenge
to fight for the lightweight belt against Tank Davis. Now
in your next fight after that, you're moving up yet
again tow one hundred and forty pounds to take on
Pitbull Cruise for his interim belt. So I wonder does
this mean that you are done with one hundred and
thirty pounds or is it still in the back of
your mind that someday you might go back down and
defend it, or I don't know how much longer the
WBA would even allow you to hold it after all
this time without defending it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so, It's in the back of my
mind for sure. It's just look at to be realistic,
look at.
Speaker 3: The platform that I'm on, look at the caliber fighter
that I'm taking on. If there's anything similar or bigger
than a pit bull fight at one for the super
lightweight interim championship. At one point thirty, then there's a conversation.
Speaker 2: So it's not a matter if you can't make the
weight anymore. Some guys would say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no no, no, no no no, I can make the
weight for sure.
Speaker 2: So you and Pitbull should be a good fight. I mean,
like I said, pretty good matchup. It seemed to me
you're in a great fight city like San Antonio. Yeah,
I'm sure you've worked it out where you're making like
a pretty good purse for this and you are fighting
for the interim belt. But I always think about it.
Don't fighters want to fight for real belts like the
main titles?
Speaker 4: Oh for sure, definitely, And I think me securing this
one would. I'm because I'm different.
Speaker 3: I'm going to press the fact that I'm the Intern champ.
This puts me because even on the WBC ranking chart
there's champion, Intern Champion, then number one contender.
Speaker 4: If I'm over that number one contender, I'm.
Speaker 3: Pressing Sabril Matias or the winner of Delton Smith and
Subria Mattias to fight the next fight literally.
Speaker 2: So that brings him to my I guess my last
question is that if you are going to stay a
one hundred and forty pounds if you beat pitt Bull
Cruise or even if you don't beat pit Bull Cruise whatever.
But that's a really good division right now, you'll be there.
Pitbull is there. Tthym Lopez is the lineal champion, he's
the WBO champion. He's probably fighting Shaquor Stevenson, who is
an excellent lightweight champion who's coming up in wait probably
for that fight. You got Richardson Hitchins, a very talented fighter.
You mentioned of course Sybril Mattias, who you'd be on
course for in the WBC. You know, your Washington brother
Gary Antowan Russell has one of the as the WBA belt.
How do you feel about the weather than Mattias, because
that's the one you would be probably steered towards based
on the organization. How do you kind of feel about
the wealth of talent there? And in particular, you know
you didn't get to do the rematter Tank who's your
d MV guy? You know all from DC, him from Baltimore.
Russell is like a big time all DC championship showdown.
Speaker 4: Man. I love that fight.
Speaker 3: I actually if people don't know, Okay, So the options
that were presented to me by PBC were people Gary
Russell Jr. Gabriel floor Is, and somebody else. I told
I told them no to.
Speaker 4: Gabe. I told him no to Gary Russell Jr.
Speaker 3: Because what the hell has he done in the last
four years and why does he think he did? Why
would I gift him a title shot in his second
fight back in four.
Speaker 2: Years and have been at one third and it.
Speaker 4: Would have they said thirty five.
Speaker 2: That's weird, but you know that wouldn't have been a
title shot.
Speaker 4: I guess it wouldn't have been a title shot exactly.
Speaker 3: And he's like being disrespectful like woon wom It's not
gonna work like that. No, sorryoo, scooed over, and I
told him we obviously we said yes to people cruise,
but we countered and it's like, let us fight Gary
an Swine Russell. That was that was my first option
me personally, that was my first option. I was like
scratched those and and asked Gary Antwine Russell that he
want to fight yes or no?
Speaker 2: Straight up yes. The answer was no. And you guys
don't know each other from you know, being running in
the DC circles side soon. Yeah, so if you win,
maybe the unification you can will give him a reason
that maybe fight you.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm I mean, because he actually said that too,
and I am from a champion standpoint.
Speaker 4: I understand he said that if fort at.
Speaker 3: One thirty, I haven't done anything at one Okay, I
believe that.
Speaker 4: But after I make some noise here, I'm not trying
to hit it anymore.
Speaker 2: Well, you'll you'll be on roughly the same schedule. You're
fighting Pitbull in December on the sixth of you when
you'll have that interim belt. You know, he will have
a fight. I assume they're going to reschedule him on
the Jake Paul event that was postponed he was supposed
to defend and his mandatory against Harioka. Maybe we'll see it,
but in the meantime, it's pit Bull Cruise December sixth,
PBC on Prime Video pay per View in San Antonio. Laman,
I thank you very much for your time and I
wish you good luck in this fight.
Speaker 4: Thank you, my god. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All right again, Lamont roach what might have been could
have been a rematch obviously with Javonte Davis didn't happen.
Now it's this fight here with Pittbull Cruise give me
a little more as we get ready to head to
fight week next week in Texas.
Speaker 2: Look, Lamont, as you heard, was disappointed that Tank did
not accept the rematch. He accepted it and then dealed
on him, So he didn't show a lot of respect
for that. He was ticked off. But you know, Lamont's
a pretty mature guy. He was realistic about it. You know,
I kind of like the fact that he said, if
I wanted to really, you know, make it a pain
in the neck, I could have sued him and you know,
we could have gone to arbitration. That was my right.
But you know what, if he doesn't want to find me,
what am I going to do? You know, I got
a good offer for this fight. I'm taking my opportunity
against Pitbull, and I'm moving on with my career. And look,
as I said to Lamont, all respect to the Pitbull
Cruise team, and I know them for years. I'm still
shocked that they took this fight because they've had their
pick of the litter. They could have chosen anybody to fight,
and for them to pick Lamont roach I thought was big,
you know, a big statement. I'm not sure why they
did that. Now, I know Lamont is still a champion.
Speaker 1: And well, I would think one of the reasons is
you're going to make a lot more money to fight
Lamont Roach than maybe some of the other guys you
were looking at. I would think that's got to be
part of it.
Speaker 2: But I think that because of Pitbull as being the
A side and being the popular one and the one
that's got the bigger fan base and the one that's
going to be the one seOne the tickets probably in
San Antonio and drawing more of the pay per view
certainly than Lamont Roach, and the fact that they already
have a really good undercard that he really could have
gone in a lot of directions, so may the quality
main event, but they pick Roach. Now, Broach is a
champion at one thirty, he's probably you know, he said
he'll make go back down and fight for the right fight,
But I mean, his last fight was at thirty five
against Tank, and now he's going to be at one forty.
I think it'd be kind of hard to get back
to thirty if he really had to make that decision.
But the point I'm making is that even at one forty,
I just feel like that that it's a tough fight
for Pitbull because he just has far fewer ways to
win than Lamon Roach. But I have to say I'm
very interested in the main event, and I know you
you you know, and rightfully so ripping on the fact
that it's for the interim title. I totally get that,
But I would say that part of the allure for
Roach to take the fight was the fact that the
interim belt was at State because it can put him
in a better position for some bigger title fights. So
on the one hand, I'm totally with you, and anybody
that's ever listened to me talk or opine for my
entire career knows what I feel about interim belts. But
if there's a silver lining, it's that if you have
that carrot there and the fighter wants that that belt
because of what he could do for him, it helps
make certain fights without that interim belt. I don't believe
this match gets made so interesting for what you think.
And they got a heck of an undercard also Foster
against Steven Fulton.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, you know, we could go on
for fifteen more minutes were not they create these things
the under a belt they can, right around with a
belt that's not the real belt.
Speaker 2: I'm just but it's an intriguing providing another and now
another colonel of thought.
Speaker 1: And I often do this with you. And now we're
doing next week's show because this is the lead up
to the fight that's next week. But you heard from
Lamont roach.
Speaker 2: On this show, we got Jenna Beck in a unification
against a Damas on that party. Got Jesus Ramos against
Shane Mosey Junior on that card. Another good fight. Yes,
I'm pumped up for that show.
Speaker 1: All right. Two news items. Sadly, we have the death
of a former US Olympian and a former world title
challenger far too young to skin cancer. Vanis Marta Rojan
passed away. You covered his career, Uh, just follow up
on this. Very sad, very sad to find out about this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I had known that Vonas was sick,
and I just didn't know how serious I was. Obviously,
it's not like we were keeping in touch or anything
like that, So I was I was surprised. I was
saddened by that. I mean, Vonas was a cool guy,
United States olympian at age eighteen, you know, had come
with his family. They were He was born in Armenia.
His family immigrated to the United States. He became a
United States citizen. He represented the United States of America
in the Olympics. They lived in the in the very
Armenian rich neighborhoods in Glendale, California, where he had a
pretty good fan base. I remember, you know, years ago,
I was thinking about this. After I was I wrote
it obituary about his passing. We've talked about the cancellation
of the third fight between Jose Luis Castillo and Diego
Carrals that they canceled at the way in because Carrales
was once Castilla rather was once again like as you
like to say, four exits passed.
Speaker 1: The highway right way overweight.
Speaker 2: So they went through it the second fight even though
he's overweight, and Carrales wasn't going to get played the
third time, and you know, at the third fight, and
so they canceled the fight. He wouldn't take it, but
the cards still went on and they had Vic Darcinian,
who was also Armenian, defending. I believe it was a
flyway title the main event, and I still stayed. I
remember rearranging my flight to not stay till late the
next day. I went home on a red eye because
I wasn't gonna be writing heavy duty after the fight,
even though ID already been in Vegas for a few days.
But the thing I'm getting at here is that on
that undercard was a very young hones smart Erosian and
I still have in my mind sitting there now, Thomas
and Maxenter holds like, you know, twenty thousand people for
a boxing match, probably thereabouts, and it would have been
close to full for the rematch or for the third
fight between Corrals and Castillo. But when the fight got canceled,
pretty much everybody gave back their tickets and got their refunds,
but there still was like a diehard group about maybe,
like I don't know, three thousand people that turned up
for the show anyway just because they were there with
the hell, maybe they were there because they were rooting
for d'arcinian as Armenians. But the thing is because they
brought out a big Armenian community. When Vonas went on
in like a preliminary fight, there was a big time
cheering crowd for this kid, who at the time a
lot of people thought was a very elite prospect. He
was a decorated amateur that he was really going places.
He was very young and he was going to be eventually,
you know, a junior middleweight world world champion. It didn't
play out that way. He had, you know, he didn't
get a lot of favors even though he had a
you know, top rank had done a really good job
moving him. They had him from the beginning of his
pro career, you know, through most of his career. He
was with PBC for a little while towards the end,
at the very end, he was with Don King. But
he got three shots at the title, and he came
up short every time. Unfortunately for him. He lost to
Demetrius Andrede in a in a very close fight. That
was one of those deals where you know, it was
one of those things where like you could maybe see
away where he could have pulled it out, but it
just was not I guess what was the word, maybe
not meant to be. He ended up losing a split decision.
This is in twenty thirteen. He actually dropped Demetrius Andrade
in the first round. Demetrius had never you know, been
known having a good gin. He had never really been
I think that was the first time he was ever
down and anyway, Dimetrius pulled out the close decision. He
was undefeated at the time obviously, and that was his
first time opportunity. But you're like, okay, he just went,
you know, basically heads straight up with Demetris Andreid who's
the United States Olympian World Amateur champion, and he lost
his split decision. He put him on the floor. So okay,
it's a setback, but he'll be back. And so he
went about his business. He got a couple of wins,
including he had what was at the time he considered
a very big win against a contender named Willie Nelson.
That was a very good victory form that put him
into a non title fight before Jermeal Charlow had been
a champion. They fought an a ten rounder and he
took a unanimous decision loss. Again competitive, he lost like
six four on two cards, seven to three on the third.
But again he's competing with the very best out there.
Charlo was twenty five and zero at that time. Obviously
went on and won the undisputed title at won fifty four.
So if you're gonna say there's such things as good
losses and you're following Vas's career that those were good losses.
After that, he then had a win against the former
world champion E J. Smith, which at the time again
considered a very good victory. Form that gave him a
rematch with Arislandi Laara, and now Lara had beaten him previously,
and they went and they went and they did the fight.
This now was for the WBA Junior Middleway title. This
is twenty sixteen, and again in a competitive fight, he
lost a decision. So he lost the two title fights
plus the guys I mentioned like Jamal Charlotte, but he
also beat Willie Nelson.
Speaker 1: So in summation, he fought a lot of important fights
but never realized the potential. Could never get over the hump.
Right now, the bottom line.
Speaker 2: Is, if you go back, before he fought the Andre fight,
he had fought Aristonti Lara in a in a it
was an elimination fight. It wasn't a title fight. They
fought to a draw. It was a technical draw. So
he had the draw against Laara on the record. And
after he lost the rematch against Lara for the title,
he was off for like two years. He was in
a in a credit in a promotional dispute this and that,
and if you remember, remember when when Canelo Alvarez tested
positive for clem butterol a few weeks before he was
supposed to fight Triple G in the Remait this is
in late two thousand or in mid twenty eighteen. It
was the Sinko Demile Holliday of two thousan eighteen. He
tested positive and the fight was called off, but Triple
G wanted to still still fight, and so what ended
up happening was they moved the fight off pay per view,
They moved the fight from Las Vegas, they booked the
Tennis Stadium in Carson and you know, I guess still
at the time it was called stub Up Center, and
Vanas on short notice, agreed to fight Triple G as
a middleweight and challenge Gonadi for the At the time,
he was a unified middleweight champion. So he took the fight.
I'm like, I know, like a week or two notice,
whatever it was. And he and I was at this
fight also, and he ended up gett absolutely the only
time he ever got fucking destroyed was at middleweight on
short notice by Gnadi, who was in his best you
know who was at his best at that point and
he never fought again after that. There was a lot
of discussion he was gonna come back, and it never happened.
And you know, sadly, on Sunday he passed away after
you know, his two year or so battle with skin cancer.
Leaves behind his wife who had been with for like
twenty years. They had two kids, a son and a daughter.
Just a very sad thing. I mean, he he leaves
at a much too young age, yep, with a career
that was had so many possibilities of being outstanding, and he's,
like you said, he kind of couldn't get over the
hump against some of the best guys. Came as close
as you can get, the split decision against Andre, the
draw against Laura in the first fight, and the other
fights that were competitive even in losses, and then you know,
the only one that wasn't was that wipe out against Glufkin.
But again short notice, heavier weight, prime guy, hall of
fame caliber fighter with triple G and H and a
lot of issues, uh, you know, in terms of his management,
promotion and this and that. So it was a it
was a bummer to hear that. I mean, I can
I remember meeting him as a young fighter.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Again, he was on all these top ranked shows because
he was with them as an Olympic signee, and so
I covered a ton of those fights. I remember sitting
in the Fight Hotel in New York with him and
his dad and his uncle in the lobby, you know,
just shooting the ship, getting to know these guys a bit.
You know, fun guys like good sense of humor. Vanus
had in you know, as a real very sad and
here's our thing, by the way, you know, as an amateur,
like to make the Olympic team again, he's eighteen years old.
He beat Andre Berto, who went on to become a
two time world champion in the word to him and
when Berto lost, Berto ended up going to fight for
his home country of Haiti once he was not able
to represent the United States because his parents were from Haiti.
He got the spot for the hait Olympic team, but
the reason he didn't get the American spot was because
of Vonna Smarterroji.
Speaker 1: Rest in peace. Very sad and I'm just gonna say
again public service announcement for all of us. It's mostly
maleit listen and get yourself checked. Get yourself checked for
all kinds of things, because early detection is very important
for any kind of cancers, et cetera. So there you go.
All right, one other note and we're not going to
go on for fifteen more minutes. But wait a minute.
We have a drug test for the Suprio Mattias Dalton
Smith fight, a VADA test that has come for an
adverse finding. However, it's not gonna nullify the fight. So
give me the quick details. This is a January fight upcoming,
give me the latest.
Speaker 2: So Sabril Mattias was scheduled to defend the WBC one
hundred and forty pound title and a mandatory defense against
Dalton Smith from England. If you remember after one of
the shows in Saudi Arabia, they were faced on Saudi
Arabia when they did the card at the Tennis Center
in Queensland.
Speaker 1: Yes, when the night that back in July.
Speaker 2: That was when Shiraz knocked out Berlanga correct and of
course Stevenson defeated Williams of Peta. One of the other
fights on that card was when Mattias outpointed Alberto Pueo
to win the WBC title and then in the ring afterwards,
Dalton Smith, who was mandatory, was supposed to fight the winner,
was faced off with him in the ring and Turkey
al Sheikh said, we're going to do this fight. It
was supposed to be on the card that just took
place last week, the ring card that we just saw.
But in the end it didn't happen because the promoter
for Sabril, Mattias and everybody involved they could not make
a deal and the fight ended up going to a
purse bid and Mattias's people, Want from Fresh Productions, won
the purse bid against Eddie Hearn, who was the promoter
for Dalton Smith. They had done a press conference a
couple of weeks ago in New York to announce the fight.
It's going to be January tenth at the Barclay Center
on a pay per view basis, and so, okay, they're
going along and they're doing their promotion and they're doing
their training and everything like that. And then, as we've discussed,
Mattias comes back with an adverse finding in a year
in test from Vada, a positive drug test. He tested
positive for the substance ostering, which is familiar to I
think the boxing gangs.
Speaker 1: I believe we've heard of that ostar rain.
Speaker 2: The same substance that Ryan Garcia tested positive for in
relation to his what became a no contest against against
Devin Haney. And there's been others that have tested positive
for that substance as well. So you're saying to yourself, well,
why would this fight not be canceled? Well, here's the reason. Now.
People sometimes they don't understand the nuance of the way
drug testing works. If you are testing with VADA, their
job is one thing and VADA does not. And I
don't agree with this because I think that the different
agencies should have simil or same rules. The way VADA
operates is they have a band list period. They don't
do any do any between in competition or out of competition.
If you test positive for a substance six months before
a fight or six days or six hours whatever, it's
a positive test, even though if it was a WADA test,
you would probably be considered out of competition, not far
in advance of the fight.
Speaker 1: So Mattias and let us distinguish, because not everybody speaks
the same language we do. VATA is the Voluntary Anti
Doping Association. The WBC uses them other entities may or
may not. Worldwide in sports, WADA is the widely regarded
world Anti doping association used by the Olympics, et cetera.
So I'm just distinguishing WADA versus VADA as you go along,
real quick.
Speaker 2: Go now, if you, if you, if you enroll in
a VADA program.
Speaker 1: Which would be a VADA program.
Speaker 2: Yes, if you, if you enroll in a VADA with
a v program, which is what Mattias did and and
obviously also what his opponent, Dalton Spit had done. When
that when the samples of blood and or urine are collected,
they are tested at a WADA with a W A
credited laboratory in Utah. Generally, gotcha. They do have relations
in that sense, but their actual rules are slightly different.
WADA with a W distinguishes between in and out of competition,
So he comes back with a Again, they don't delineate
how much or body, so they sim and I have
the paperwork on this. I've seen the letter. It's the
same as every other letter I have seen. I've written
a thousand of these stories before, on a variety of
different positive drug tests. It doesn't tell you that it
was this month or that much. It tells you he
was in a urine sample. It was on such and
such a date and such as such a location, and
it came back adverse finding and at lists the substance ostering. Now,
as I come to find out, because I was wondering
what's going on and this was literally just random, I
was thinking, what's going on with this test? Because I
hadn't heard anything, So I reached out to Mattrum, who
are the promoters for Dalton Smith? And I was told
by somebody high up at Mattrum that they're still waiting
to hear from the Commission, and they're still waiting to
hear from the WBC. And the reason why both of
them are important is because, and I've said this before,
the WBC is controlling of the title. They're the ones
that can make him be stripped or let him keep
the title. And it's the Commission that is response for
a license come to fight. So if they don't allow
the fight, he still may keep the title, or he
still may keep the title, and then the commission may
not let him fight, or you know, they both let
him keep the title and let him fight. But each
one of those entities controls a different aspect of the fight.
The most significant one at the moment was is the
fucking fight gonna happen? Meeting his New York going to
regulate the fight, and they're going to approve him to license.
And so I talked to my friends at the New
York that Athletic Commission, and I asked them for an update,
and I was surprised when they send me a very
detailed update, and as it turned out, they they gave.
Speaker 1: Me the level.
Speaker 2: So if you look up in the New York State
Athletic Commission rules the substance osteen, if you test positive
for that, you are allowed to have a small amount
in your system in New York, in California, in Nevada,
those are the three big boxing states, and I'm sure
there are others also. You can have up to zero
point one nanograms per milli liter. I mean, whatever it's
You might as well say widgets. But the point is
you can have x amount in your system. The amount
that serbral Mattias tested positive for that produced the adverse
finding was below the threshold. So as far as New
York State is concerned, has same been the case that
the fight was taking place in Nevada or California. If
he's under point one for them, it's not flagged as
a positive test, but Vada flags everything.
Speaker 1: So two important points. When Ryan Garcia tested positive, it
was way beyond that.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm getting to go, So we're gonna.
Speaker 1: Get to that. And the second thing here on this
is these drug to interview drug testing people, you have
to I've listened to them talk. I've listened to these
suspensions before. And we're going to get out of here
in a minute orwo because we've been here for a while.
But they will tell you that sometimes things are normally
made by the body, or sometimes there's a normal, low
acceptable level where you can have an explanation of what
it is. It's when there's a high enough level beyond
a threshold, they know you're abusing something. What you're saying
is the New York Commission is saying, this is such
a low level, it can it can potentially be dismissed
as wasn't knowingly trying to cheat. Probaly, a little bit
of something in your system go ahead.
Speaker 2: Probably was contamination, but not necessarily.
Speaker 1: On a very low level helps them come.
Speaker 2: Wasn't contamination, it's below the threshold. Yeah, and also it's
out of competition because the fight wouldn't be till January. Right.
But again, VADA does not distinguish between in and out
of competition. I wish that VADA would either start distinguishing
between in and out of companies. I got you a
lot of would do away with it and out in
other words, and have them both agree on what it is.
But so here to put it in context because I
hear and I've seen people on social media after I
wrote my article about it talking about, well, you know,
he's a drug cheat, he had it in the system. Whatever.
And I'm very hard on these things. I always think
that people are doing stuff the cheap, But I've been
covering this shit long enough to understand that there hard
things about can be nuanced. So let's put this in perspective.
This is the punchline. Point point zero point one nanograms
per milli leader are what is allowable under New York code,
and Surbill Mattias was below the threshold. By comparison, when
Ryan Garcia was flagged for the adverse finding twice on Austrien,
his levels were sixty times allowable stix zero, stix zero
and Matisa is below the threshold.
Speaker 1: Which again indicates you were abusing that substance.
Speaker 2: Obviously, and there you go.
Speaker 1: All right, so probe is as it stands right now,
the fight can still move forward.
Speaker 2: We think in January, my impression from speaking to the Commission,
having previously having these discussions with Mauricio Suliman from the
WBC before we even knew about this particular situation is
that most likely is and they didn't just end their
testing program even though the positive test came back. According
to the Commission, Dalton Smith and Mattias are still being
tested regularly. They have all the tests that they took
prior to the positive test that Mattias produced were all negative.
They've had multiple tests since that positive test that have
come back negative, and in speaking with the Commission, if
they continue, and I'm not Dalton Smith has been cleaned.
So you know, obviously if he tests positive, that's a problem,
but in particular Mattias, if he tests negative throughout the
rest of the way, most likely, again it's not been
one hundred percent signed off of the fight will be
allowed to happen. And knowing the WBC and what I
think are actually somewhat looser rules than there should be,
but that's a different conversation for a different day. I'm
sure they're going to approve the fight as long as
the Commission licenses the fight, and so again January tenth,
we're probably going to see this happening. All right, that'll
be that.
Speaker 1: So for now, excellent explanation. For now, they are allowing
it to go forward for that WBC title fight in January.
All right, my friend, we've done well with Thanksgiving. Nice
work there to get Lamont roach on the pod and
we'll watch what happens with these fights this weekend. We
will come back one more time in November off the
weekend and recap Ben Whittaker's main event in England as
well as Fraser Clark's main event of the debut of
Manny Pacquiao Junior on the card in Temecula, California on
Saturday night. Other than that, don't go crazy trying to
go get a Black Friday deal, like in the middle
of the night or early Friday. And want to tell you,
at least the pod, you're not going to do that, right, I.
Speaker 2: Am going to sleep in on Friday, and for reasons
that I still don't understand, my wife has been convinced
by my twelve year old son to go to whatever
store they want to go through for some Black Friday morning.
Speaker 1: This is related to a video game, I bet or
some cont I think it was or something.
Speaker 2: No, I actually think it was related to some clothing.
Speaker 1: Actually, clothing good for young Rayphael. The twins are looking
at some clothing deals. I'm with you, I'm not out
in the middle of the night. Of course, they also
have Cyber Monday deals coming this weekend where you can
just online shop and they'll discount it that way too.
Speaker 2: Stay tuned, I'm gonna watch.
Speaker 1: I will say this. Can I just digress for one second.
We still have the TV in my living room that
is I'm proud to say this is a sixty inch
flat screen sharp television. That's the brand I plug away.
It was fourteen years ago on Black Friday that my father,
unbeknownst to me, and wanted to surprise me, my wife,
and the twins with a discounted TV because he had
gone into and Sears doesn't even exist anymore, you know,
I'm talking about Sears department store. He had gone into
Sears for Black Shop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm from the nineteen eighties, like you and.
Speaker 1: I both speak the language Sears, but a lot of
the peeps may not. The savages. Sears was a big
deal like jcpenny department store, go to the mall. None
of that really exists anymore. But in any event, he
had gone to Sears to buy a couple of other
Black Friday items, and all of a sudden, when he
came upstairs when the doors opened, they said these Sharp
TVs were on sale for like seventy five percent off
that morning, so the price was literally like six hundred
dollars instead of two thousand something. And he's like, I'm
getting my son, my daughter in law, and the twins
a new TV. I am here to testify that my
father was in my driveway at six point thirty in
the morning, calling me, going, hey, are you awake yet?
And I'm going, no, I'm not awake yet. What are
you doing. He's like, I'm in your driveway and I
have a Christmas surprise for you this morning. And I'm like,
you're literally in the driveway. I'm in as we like
to talk about my pj's, my skivvies. I'm like, I
gotta put clothes on. I got to come find you,
and we got to haul the TV out of the
back of the car because he has bought a TV
in the middle of the night at like four am
and waited until like six thirty to come over. And
we still have that TV. So shout out to Sharp.
Fourteen years later, their TV still works. This was a
Black Friday deal from Papa Reeves.
Speaker 2: Do you know that the big well, I mean we
have multiple big TVs, but the big TV I have
in my living room right family room is also a
Sharp TV that's probably also about similar twelve years old.
Speaker 1: So they made great products at one time. I keep
waiting for this thing to blow up because, by the way,
the flat screen TV market has really plummeted in price
easier to replace. But this was literally like a twenty
two hundred dollars TV that he got for six hundred
bucks because he was there with all the savages at
four o'clock in the morning on Black Friday, and his
son did not inherit that genetic trait. I will not
be doing that. Hell, I'll not be happy and either
we'll read.
Speaker 2: Now what I'm gonna do on Friday because it's you know,
it's kind of a what's really working. My wife and son,
they're going to go run around at the at the
at the stores in the morning. I have received my
brand new Kiss a Live fiftieth anniversary box set, and
I'm gonna continue to enjoy and listening.
Speaker 1: You're gonna listen. Is it is it a video or
just the audio? Just the audio on the box set
of the video too.
Speaker 2: You know it's it's uh, there's a couple of videos
on one of the discs, but it's probably it's like
ninety nine percent it's audio. But it's also got like
a big hardcover book.
Speaker 1: And the party every day. Uh, you and kiss have
a good Friday. I've got a bunch going on this
weekend with football, including my Buccaneers. Shout out again to
the guys from the Arizona Cardinals podcast that are fans
of this podcast as well that are fight fans. We
appreciate all of you. We're thankful for all of you
that are listening. Big Dan and me as we're gonna
close out the year strong. We still got some compelling
action going the rest of this month, next month, et cetera.
Big Dan, have a good rest of the weekend. We'll
talk coming off the weekend in the recap mode and
get ready for the fight week with Pitbull and Roach
and that whole PBC on PIME pay per view card.
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir, You've got dj I Am merely TJ Reeves.
Speaker 1: Follow, Subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, spread the words, spread the love.
Speaker 2: We do this.
Speaker 1: We do this and we're dedicated. Help us out, rate us, review, us,
et cetera. You've been listening to the Big Fight Weekend
Preview podcast