Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now Here is your host, TJ. Leaves. Yes,
indeed we roll on in the month of February. We
get ready. It's a lighter weekend. The biggest main event
that exists is the ZUFA Boxing main event in Las
Vegas featuring heavyweight fa A Jagua. We'll talk more about
that a few moments, but we do have a convo
Big Dan and Mario Barrios on the program. Barrios defending
is WBC welterweight title next weekend, February twenty first in
Las Vegas with Ryan Garcia. You'll hear from him on
this pod. Hello, and welcome back in on the feed.
Here to the Big Fight Weekend preview. I am the
somewhat competent host, TJ. Reeves, Big Dan, rayphel You romantic.
You you proposed to your wife on Valentine's Day weekend.
You've told us in the past. We have a great
love boxing. We have a great love of the significant
others in our lives as well. Good to be with you.
How are things?
Speaker 2: That was random? But as everything is good?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean it's true because like saying right,
because for example, Missus Reeves has come home from fifth
grade today and they did the Valentines exchange. And this
is about the age fourth and fifth grade. You remember
this with young Rayfield and me with my daughters, where
we start paying attention to who gave us a Valentine
or not? And did we get any little key candy
any of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did not get to a Valentine TJ.
Speaker 1: I would not have expected that. Instead, did you take
care of missus Rayfield?
Speaker 2: You better?
Speaker 1: They're the MVPs.
Speaker 2: I got, I got it all. I got off there weekend.
Speaker 1: Thank you for finding us Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, et cetera
to follow, subscribe. By the way, a lot of you
have been participating with comments, rate us and review us.
That will help. By the way, I am becoming once
again target number one. I saw some of the Spotify
commenters taking full two headed swings that are usually reserved
for you at me. Look, it's fine as long as
you like give us the five star review of the
four star review, give us a five star review while
you're doing that. So I just thought I would share
that here that I was aware that some of the
peeps and savage it's interesting because you'll see two or
three comments. You know, TJ's an idiot, he talks too much.
Let Dan talk more, And then four or five people
in a row are saying, oh, the back and forth
is great. These two are phenomenal. They argue all the time,
so it's like the buffet to each their own on
what they like.
Speaker 2: We love all these savages.
Speaker 1: As long as you're listening. As I said, kind of
a lighter weekend, we'll hear from Mario Barrios. You just
talked with him. We're gonna play that interview in advance
a fight week here in a few minutes. The JAGBA
Charles Martin main event is the most prominent main event.
It is the ZUFA Boxing main event for Sunday night.
So this is the first time I will mention because
those fights are going on all throughout Sunday night, late
night Eastern time. We're not gonna have a recap podcast.
Plus it is also Valentine's weekend, so I'm looking to
score some points with Missus Reeves. But this is the
main This is the primary main event that we have
this weekend, a heavyweight main event early stages of ZUFA.
That's a recognizable name if you follow heavyweight boxing in
the US. He's been in some different main events are
co features on US TV, So go ahead, Dan, pick
it up from there. You know.
Speaker 2: It's First of all, it's gonna take me some getting
used to the Sunday night stuff. I mean, as a kid,
grown up, I watched a lot of boxing on Sunday
afternoons on the networks. Sunday night is a little bit offbeat.
I gotta get used to that. And they're gonna be
doing some of their cards on Sunday nights. They're gonna
do some on Saturday nights. There'll be some on Friday nights.
So I'm glad to see a promoter not be married
every single weekend just to a Saturday night. But I
don't think a little getting used to. But not a
lot else going on this Sunday in terms of sports,
so that's cool. Other I guess we'll have the NBA
All Star Game. If that's your cup of tea, I'll
be checking that out also. But in terms of this fight,
first of all, heavyweights, you know, always good to get
a couple of heavyweight fights going on. Obviously, I don't
know if I viewed this as main event caliber, but
it's the early days of zupa boxing and they don't
have a lot of guys that they can put in
a bona fid main event, so I'm hopeful that it
can produce a little bit of action. Obviously, this is
a jaga who was still considered, you know, a good contender,
not maybe an elite contender, but he does have a
good background as an olympian. He only has the one defeat,
which was a decision where Frank Sanchez pretty much toyed
with him on a one on the undercart of one
of the Deontay Wilder Tyson Fury fights back a few
years ago, twenty twenty one. You know, fa just looked
terrible in that fight. He got absolutely not only did
he get knocked down in the seventh round of that fight,
but he got completely out boxed by a much slicker
and quicker fighter in Frank Sanchez. Now that's the bad
news because he took the loss. But the good news
is he's won a bunch of fights since then, not
against top opponents. The best one was probably he got
a split decision in April twenty four against Guido Vannello,
an Olympian as well. But in his last fight, and
this was a very close fight. It kind of could
have gone either way, as post he hadn't fought since
May of twenty twenty five. He scored or he didn't score.
He ended up with a majority draw against Martin McCauley.
This is before Bacoley obviously got you know, scorched by
Joseph Parker. So he has been off since late May
have last year, so nearly you know what, nine ten
months he's been out of the ring coming back to
fight against Charles Martin. And look, Charles Martin, you know
he is what he is. He's a big, strong guy.
He had no real discernible amateur background. For about five
seconds held the IBF heavyweight title on a belt that
he won. I was at the fight where his opponent
Zar Glaskov didn even get touched with a punch. He
fell down because he suffered a knee injury. And by
the way, the jeographight I take that back for Becoley
was after Joseph Parker knocked him out. That was his
comeback right at the draw. In any event, Uh so
Martin can always go through the rest of his life.
Uh you know, the former IBF Heavyweight World Champion. But
as heavyweight title reigns go and I'm not I'm not
I'm not knocking Charles Martin. It's not like he's a
bad guy anything. I'm just saying, if you want to
be real, it's literally maybe the worst heavyweight title reign
in the history of multi belt boxing era because he
won it quote unquote won it because his opponent fell
down with a bad knee and couldn't continue, so they
scoreded a TKO. And then four months later or so,
he went to the UK and got blitzed by Anthony Joshua.
Was the first heavyweight title so he'll always have the
claim that he is the former heavyweight title holder. But
you know, in my mind, he's uh, he's really more
of a journeyman. He's thirty four and one. He has
been stopped twice in his and his four losses. You know,
what can you say? He's coming off of a long
laugh he didn't you know, his last fight was a
knockover fight in uh, you know against you know, in
a club card in California, where he got an easy
first round knockout against you know, an eighteen and eight
opponent and he has not fought since November of twenty four,
so this will be his first fighting well over a
year he didn't fight.
Speaker 1: It's a legitimate question. We don't know the answer to
what kind of shape is he in?
Speaker 2: What is it? That's always as we.
Speaker 1: As we head into the weekend, we don't know. That
journeyman kind of heavyweight that hadn't fought over a year,
we don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know. And before that, before that one round knockout,
which you know, it's hard to you know, he's probably
had tougher sparring than that fight that took place in
November of twenty twenty four. That was his first fight
since July of twenty twenty three, So it's been that
long since he's had any real like.
Speaker 1: Roughly one one round fight in two years.
Speaker 2: Put it like this, if you look at his record,
he had one fight in twenty twenty, He had no
fights in twenty twenty one. He had two fights in
twenty twenty two, one of which was a knockout loss
against Luis King kong Ortiz. The other was a knockout
win against the journeyman former Olympian Devin Vargas. That was
twenty twenty two where he got those two fights in
in twenty twenty three, he was off about ten months
when he came back in twenty three and he took
a lopsided decision loss and got knocked down by Jared
Anderson and what at the time was a step up
fight for Anderson, and then he was off for another
year plus before he fought the knockover fight I mentioned
in November of twenty four. And now he's coming off
yet another long lay aft to fight a jagua. So
it's really a mixed bag in terms of what he's
been doing, and at least a jagua, relatively speaking, has
been much more active. He's got a draw with Makoli.
You know, he only fought the one time in twenty
four against Viannello. He did fight three times in twenty
twenty three, but not against top level opponents. So you know, look,
the bottom line here is this. This is a fight
that a jaga is supposed to win and if he does,
you know, now we're going to come into this discussion
all the time when it comes to ZUFA events. Normally
we'd say, okay, if he wins the fight, he puts
himself in a good position to land some other type
contender fight or something like that, a Contreurmont fair. ZUFA
Boxing is not playing in the sandbox with every other promoter,
so his opponents are limited to whatever heavyweights ZUFA has
on its roster, and right now, to my knowledge, there's
really not a whole heck of a lot of them.
Even if he does get a nice win, even if
he scores a big knockout looks good, it's not like, oh,
it's gonna lead to a fight with Kabiel, or it's
gonna lead to a fight with you know, x y Z. Now,
maybe in the future we'll see what they're obviously gonna
be doing with Jai Obataya, where they'll let their guys
fight within the ZUFA universe. But because of their association
with Turkey Ashk and Sella and Riad Season and Ring
Magazine and all that business, that maybe some of those
guys wind up on Ring magazine cards, and so obviously
those Ring magazine cards that feature plenty of heavyweights, but
they've not articulated that. I'm just maybe making the like
reading the tea leaves, so it could lead to that
for a jograph, he wins.
Speaker 1: One more variable, we'll say the same thing here. Usually
he comes in chiseled, Oh looks like you know, prototype
of chiseled heavyweight. We don't know that answer. What kind
of shape is he in to of a little bit
less of a layoff, you know, going back to last year,
you would think he would be ready to go, and
then we'll see what kind of options there are. Again,
we say to the audience, that is Sunday night, as
you referenced, and we've referenced a couple of times now
in Las Vegas through Paramount Plus that you will see
that on the main event.
Speaker 2: And you could go anyway which way. By the way,
as far as the action, I mean, I'm very convinced
of job but probably wins the fight. But TJ, if
you told me this wound up being like an early
knockout for somebody, or it goes the distance, and maybe
it's a really good fight, maybe it's a stinky fight,
Like I think, this could go in a number of
different things.
Speaker 1: For Zoofa's sake, they need it to be a decent fight,
if not an exciting fight, because the knives are already
out everywhere about the quality of this and it's early,
and it's early, but I mean, let's see, let's see
if this is interesting or exciting.
Speaker 2: This is not like this so far. This is what
their third event, I believe m hm. And again I'm
not being critical because I'm willing to let it ride
for a little while before we really get into making
the true assessment. So after the first show, Dana White
at his Prescot talked about give us a year before
you judge us. My perspective is, you know what, Dana,
I'm not giving you a year, but I'm gonna give
you a few months. You know, I'm not heartless.
Speaker 1: That's I don't even think it. I don't even think
it takes a few months. I think it takes two
or three months here to figure out. Do they have
fighters regularly that we care about watching. It's a little
ambitious to be fighting more than once a month when
you don't have the big stable. If you're trying to
fight twice a month, you've got to have a lot
of guys.
Speaker 2: So who knows. Well, they're supposed to be doing about
a card a month. So that's what they said when
they announced this, this whole project. They've they've obviously done
a little more than This.
Speaker 1: Would be the third one in about five weeks.
Speaker 2: Right, so they're trying to get it get it rolling,
I guess. But what the point I was going to say, though,
is when you look on paper of what the matchups
were from top to bottom on the first show, it
was okay, nothing spectacular, even though the in practice the
preliminaris turned it to be excellent on the first show.
The second show, all around, was a much better card
on paper and turn out to be pretty fun show. Also,
for me, this is the weakest of the three show
so far. Now we'll see what happens on Saturday, and
if the heavyweight main event can be explosive, that would
obviously change a lot of views. But the way I
always look at boxing events, there's how do you view
it going into the fight and then what actually takes place,
So in terms of the going into the fight, for me,
this is the weakest of the show so far. I'm
hopeful that the heavyweight main event can be maybe slightly
surprising and give us a really good action. How about that.
Speaker 1: I've always self deprecatingly said aim Low and overachieve that
may be the case on Sunday that leads us now
to something that is much more interesting, and that is
a conversation you had with Mario Barrios. He will fight
Ryan Garcia for the WBC Welterweight Championship. This is the
Ring Magazine The Zone pay per view coming up next
Saturday night, February twenty first, in Las Vegas, before fight week.
Barrios is right here on the pod. Let's hear from
him now.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to our podcast, the WBC Welterweight World Champion,
Mario Barrios and Mario. Before we get cracking, I'm gonna
tell our listeners what you have coming up. It's a
big time fight. You're gonna headline the The Zone pay
per view card, defend your title for the third time.
You'll be taken on Ryan Garcia.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Like I said, The Zone pay per View. It's at
the Team Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a place who
I have fought before. So welcome to the show. Thank
you very much for doing this. I know you're already
in Vegas getting ready for the fight. Just tell me
right off the bat, how how do you feel going
into this fight. You're coming off the July fight with
Manny Pacio and now you've got another big one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I'm just as always, I'm just excited,
you know, to you know, be a part of you know,
a big card. Excited, you know, to be you know,
seven out there against a dangerous and unpredictable opponent, you.
Speaker 2: Know, big name.
Speaker 3: But uh, yeah, you know, I was been having a
great camp with Joe Goosen. Uh was out there in
LA since the beginning of December.
Speaker 1: And we were, uh, you know, we got.
Speaker 3: Plenty of work out there, and yeah, we recently this
past weekend we moved to camps of Vegas to close out.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Now we're I think like ten days away from the fight,
and yeah, I'm just just ready to excite it being patient.
Speaker 2: But yeah, well you use the word unpredictable to describe Ryan,
and we'll get to that in a minute. But I
want to just go back real quick to the July fight.
You fought a living legend in Many Pacio. He came
out of a four year retirement to challenge you for
your title. Who was a good fight. It was a draw.
A lot of people thought that he won. There were
some people that thought you won. How good is Manny Pacio?
Still people curious about what he's still left at his
age and after the long layf And how did you
feel about getting a draw? On the one hand, yeah,
it's great you get to keep your title. But on
the other end, it's not a victory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh no, yeah, you know, very very happy. You know,
it's still with the performance I was able to, you know,
to show you know, Podyas still has a lot left,
you know, in the tank. I don't know how much
longer you know that is gonna last. But you know,
he definitely, you know, went into that fight ready. You know,
I don't think I've seen many forty five year olds
looking at you know that in shape or you know,
able to to to still throw hands like that. And
he was still still very strong and had a lot
of you know, cracking both of his hands. But yeah,
you know, I felt I edged out the fight. But
of course, you know, that's why, you know, I think
it was. I think that's why you know, the judge,
you know, counted drawn. I think, especially being in that
arena or being at the MGM Live, that like the
crowd definitely plays I feel like a big factor in
the way that the fight is like it moves in
because it didn't matter what what pack yall did. He
could shove with his feet, he could I could like,
he can land some punches on my arms and the
crowd was going crazy like, oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was there for that. I know exactly what
you're talking about fights and felt that energy plenty of times.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he definitely, you know, it's an electric environment.
But you know, for for Manny and uh so, I
mean I feel like, you know, that played a big part,
but it is what it is. You know, boxing, boxing
is weird like that sometimes. Uh, but yeah, you know
it's still it's to kept the title. Uh and that's
kind of know what just led you know to so
now you know this this big opportunity, you know, to
defend against Garcia. But yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker 2: You have a style that lends itself. Do you think
to close fights? I say that because it is highly
unusual for a world champion who has made two successful defenses,
but both of them have been draws. Your draw against
pak Yao in July and your previous defense that was
in the fall of last year against set another great
fight by the way, against alb Ramos, and both of
them came out one was a split draw one was
a majority draw. He kept the tedle old times. But
again you don't come away with the win. But is
there something that you do that lends itself to just
being in these tight fights?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but maybe.
Speaker 3: But you know that was one of the reasons why
I was looking, you know, to just you know, change things,
you know, with with with my camp, you know, just
because I want to continue to just grow as a fighter.
Of course, you know, like I don't want to nobody
wants to, you know, retain the title, you know from
from a draw. You know, you want to have a
very successful, very dominant performance. And so yeah, you know
that was one of the reasons why you know, I
went with Joe Goosen, just to get back to some
of the things that they got me this far in
the first place. It's just I was always in and
aggressive fighter, very busy fighter. So yeah, I just wanted
to get back to some of those old ways. And
you know, we're very familiar with Joe's style and we knew,
you know, he has brought that out of you know
a lot of fighters, so our styles, you know, they
they messed up, you know it very well, and you
know it has to be very excited for this fight.
Speaker 2: So you're taking on Ryan Garcia. You mentioned earlier unpredictable.
That's a very nice way of saying it. I suppose
he has a lot of people They look at Ryan Garcia.
They see a guy with a tremendous amount of talent,
quick hands, good power, electrifying left hook that can knock
a lot of guys out. But others might say unfulfilled potential,
that he quit when he fought Gravanta Tank Davis when
it got tough, that he's a drug cheat because of
what happened in the fight getting busted for peds against
Devin Heaney. What is your perspective? I know you got
to fight him. You're gonna know a lot more about
him after this fight's over on February twenty first, But
going into the fight, h what do you when you
when you hear all the things I just mentioned about
the good and the bad about Ryan Garcia? What is
your take on his career where he's at?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Really is just I just know I have, you know,
a dangerous opponent in front of me. You know, I
know he's been clawing that you know, an opportunity, you
know for a world title. You know for a while. Now,
I know, you know, when he looks I guess when
he looks good. You know, he looks good. But it's
a little inconsistent, you know, like very unpredictable. Like I said,
you I mean, everybody's saying, you know, even he said
to himself, you never know what Ryan, you're gonna get. Uh,
He's saying for this fight. You know, he's focused. His
team is saying he's ready, he's.
Speaker 2: Sharp, and something else saying that. Mario, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: So you know, me as as somebody fighting him, I
can only hope you know, all that is true, you
know so because I know if it is, you know,
then you know, we have a very exciting fight in
front of us. But I know if not, it's not
gonna change. You know what I bring, you know, into
into the ring come fight night. You know, I'm gonna
go in there with bad intention. I'm gonna go in
there with h trying to you know, to test you
know how much he really wants to, you know, be
in the ringcome fine name and how bad you know
he really wants, you know, like to win that fight.
Speaker 2: So he did take the year's suspension because of the
positive drug test. After what happened with Devin Hane, he
got to win turned into a no contest because of
that suspension, he gave up his entire purse, didn't fight
it against the commission, and then when he came back
after serving the suspension, he fought the fight against Roly
Romeiro for what was I guess the w what became
the WBA title after it became vacant and Roly had
beat him and he got elevated. But be that as
it may, he lost that fight. He got knocked down,
he didn't look particularly sharp, and he was coming off
the drug suspension. And now here he is in his
next fight, getting opportunity to fight you for the WBC
world title. And so I know you're gonna fight him,
and obviously you're gonna get, uh, you know, your work
in and get your payday and all that. But how
much do you think he deserves to have a chance
to fight for the world title after what happened in
the last two fights? Yeah, you understand why I'm asked now,
Like it's you understand why people might say, well, Brios
is a good champion, but Ryan is Ryan Garcia getting
that shot? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I mean, I definitely see it. I just think,
you know, the boxing is in a very interesting place,
you know, where I think you're if you're definitely know
if your name has still carries a lot of weight,
you know, whether it's following, whether it's like your just
your presence, you know, you're still able to get you know,
those opportunities and everything. But yeah, you know, I can't
think too much into that because I just know, you know,
I have an opponent in front of me. You know
that's gonna you know, he is dangerous, you know when
when he's you know, on his A game. And but yeah,
you know, I don't I haven't really been, you know,
thinking too much about about that anymore, you know, especially
this close to the fight.
Speaker 2: Sure, one thing I was interesting because of the positive
drug test. Obviously, I know you guys are doing VODA
testing as you've done before, but I feel like this fight,
the testing started maybe a little sooner than it normally
would for a regular fight. You mentioned that you started
training for this fight in December. Is my understanding that
even before the deal was signed and official and announced
that you were already testing as was he, And so
I'm wondering from your perspective, How important was it to
get the VOTA testing going as quickly as possible compared
to maybe the usual length of time that the two
guys would would test before a fight.
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, you know, as soon as the fight was
being uh spoken on or the spoken avolve between our teams,
me and my team were like pushing that, Okay, this
fight is gonna happen, like we're gonna you know, jump
like jump on beta, you know, immediately. So that was
definitely you know, uh the yeah, something that we were
emphasizing right away.
Speaker 2: Of things when you guys had your press conference to
announce this fight, that that he made a big deal
about that that Joe Goosen had decided to train you
when you asked him to do so, uh, after he
had previously trained Ryan and Ryan then of course fired him,
and he somehow thought that even though he fired Joe Goosen,
that by him taking the job with you, that he
was somehow being disloyal. That sort of become a you know,
a storyline. If you will love this matchup, what what
is your perspective because it's a fight between you and Ryan,
not a fight between U Joe and Ryan.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And I've heard Joe's interviews and things he said. He's
saying all the right things, but it did strike me
as unusual that he'd be so bent out of shape
about I got going to get a really to get
a job after the other guy fired him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that's so, I mean, that's the best
way I could put it. You know, uh, you know,
it's it's not personal. You know, I think it's a
business and it just happened, you know, to work that way.
You know, I was gonna go with Joe goosen whether
me and Ryan or we're gonna whether that fight was
gonna happen or not.
Speaker 2: In other words, if you were gonna find a different opponent,
you still want it sawn out Joe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I was still that was that was still
like our our plan regardless was it was to go
out there with Joe, and then just happened. Like a
week or two after that was when the talks about
the fight was I started getting brought up. So yeah,
it was just like, yeah, just just something something that happened.
Speaker 2: So the question is this then it is still the
fact that he did train Ryan at one period of
time as a professional. He also knew him back in
the day and worked with him as an amateur. So
even though you were gonna go with Joe regardless of
who your opponent was going to be for your next fight,
it does happen to be Joe Goosen's former pupil in
Ryan Garcia. So has he giving you information that he
knows from having worked so closely with him over those
over those fights in those years? Has it? Is it
something that you can get from him in terms of
like tips or secrets or whatever you want to call it,
and in terms of what to expect from Garcia? Yeah,
Like is he giving it blueprint all of his secret knowledge?
Speaker 3: I think that's that's the thing. I don't think it's
like it takes me working with Joe Goosen to really
see where where Ryan is beatable.
Speaker 2: But he does add insight into that.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah absolutely. But but yeah, you know, so like
Joe does know him a little bit more personally, and
but yeah, you know, it's just like our focus is
just on, you know, what what Ryan brings stylistically.
Speaker 2: So then how do you think the fight goes? Because
when I look at it, I see the Mario Barrios
I've seen fight many times. Big heart will go forward
you know, willing to take a couple of shots to
make sure you get your best win in Ryan is
more of a guy that relies on the speed and
then the and the sort of the footwork when he's
on his game. Uh and can really, uh you know,
be a lot quicker than most of his opponents. And
so maybe it's up to you to try to make
sure you slow him down and catch him. How do
you think that the fight plays out in that sense,
like if you tag him and you know, does he
maybe go into a shell, does he maybe find a
way out the way he did against Tank Davis? Or
how do you think about the bloop the blueprint of
how the fight will go.
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of that is, you know, it's hard
to really say how it's going to happen. Like I said,
a big part of that just depends on what Ryan
shows up. But definitely, you know, just like I said,
and I'm looking to just go out there and make
him uncomfortable just with I I know the type of
styles or the or what he doesn't do well with.
And I know it's one of those things, is adversity.
He doesn't like to be uncomfortable in there. And uh
so yeah, just you know, using what I know about
him as a fighter, using what Joe knows about him
as a fighter, and then just like going in into
the fight and using all of those things.
Speaker 2: Is that the big Mario Barrio's body attack.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh for sure, that's that's that's every fight.
Speaker 2: Well, that's what worked against him when he fought against
Tank Davis, your old foe as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, we know. And oh yeah,
you know that's always a part of part of the plan.
You chop the tree down, you know, break the body,
you know, the the head will fall. So yeah, you know,
just gonna go out there and make it uncomfortable. Uh,
you know, try to get the bodywork early, early in
and just you know, just try to break him down
round by round.
Speaker 2: So you're you're defending your welterweight title, and it's a
welterweight division that is kind of wide open. He got
four different champions. H A lot of the guys are
are newish in terms of having the title. You are
the longest tenured champion in the way class. Presently. You
have the WBC champion as you You've got Devin Haney
has got the WBO title, which he recently won. Lewis
Crocker is the IBF champion, and Roly Romero got the
WBA title last year.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And there's also Connor ben out there who's been talking
specifically about his desire coming off his big victory in
the rematch against Chris hu Bank Jr. That his dream
is to be the WBC champion, not because he's chasing
after you specifically, but because he's talked about how it
means a lot to his family because his father was
a former WBC champion back in the day. So if
you are victorious, like I know you expect to be,
what's your path, what's your dream fight? I mean, whether
it's another champion or it's a bend fighter moving up
or somebody else. Like when you look at that landscape,
you're gonna you get a big win here, You're gonna be,
you know, still a wanting end by everybody.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, you know that's what makes you know this
fight is so important, you know, Uh why you know
I'm looking like I want to have you know, a
sensational you know, uh sensation sensational title defense because yeah,
you know, of course ideally, you know, like I want
to have a title unification with one of the other champions.
But if not, you know, like still you know, bringing
like those big you know, those big names, you know,
like like a A Connor Band. So that's why you
know what victory is is so important, you know, come
next week, a.
Speaker 2: Victory, not a draw, right, absolutely, Mario, thank you very
much for your time in the interview. I appreciate it
very much and I wish you nothing but the best
of luck against Ryan Garcia.
Speaker 3: I was gonna talk on to Dan.
Speaker 2: Thank you you bet. Mario appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All right. So it is interesting there are question marks
around both of these guys, including Barrios with the draw
not only with Paquiao, but the draw with Abel Ramos
on the undercart of the Jake Paul Mike Tyson fight,
where he he admitted he was concussed or at least
loopy late in that fight, hurt late in that fight.
So he's he's fortunate to have come away with a
draw in the last couple of fights. And now Ryan Garcia.
Here we go back to something I said earlier in
the pod. What are we getting, what are we expecting
from him? What kind of shape he's had issues before,
even with the ring card last May. All right, so
give me a little more after talking with Barrios as
you did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, Barrios, he's a trooper professional. I've always liked Mario.
Good guy, hard worker, you know, maybe not the elite talent.
I find it funny though that, you know, everybody kind
of has viewed him as the weakest link in terms
of the guys with the titles that wealthweight. So everybody
wants to fight him. And it's not just a weltered
he can look through his career, he's got an opportunities
against other top names, that Jabonta Davis. You know, he
fought Keith Thurman, He's he fought Manny Paco, and now
he's fighting against Ryan Garcia. Uh and you know he's
lost some fights, but he's got some you know, some
other good performances. He probably gave Tank the best fight
of his career. He also had obviously the the draw
against Manny Pacow. A lot of people, myself included, thought
that many deserved that decision. But the bottom line is
he's out there taking fights against top names. He's not
looking to duck anybody. He always comes to fight, you know,
and if he doesn't win. You know, you know you're
gonna get a good you know, a good effort, I
should say. So he's excited about this and he you know,
as you mentioned, you just have no idea, Like I
feel like I know what I'm gonna get from Mario
Barrios because we've seen him many times. Can he get
probably a fun fight Ryan Garcia? Who the hell knows?
I mean, he's all over the place, and you know,
and as people heard, like I did, ask him about
the fact that he's taken on an opponent Ryan Garcia,
who by any normal metric, if this was like people,
if it was a true meritocracy in boxing, of getting
a chance to fight for a world championship, Ryan Garcia
would be like fucking ten thousandth in the line forgive
fighting for a world title. I mean, the guy's coming
off having been suspended for a year for positive drug
tests and missing wait for the fight against Devin Hainey,
and he filed it up after serving a suspension where
he looked like death, wormed over and got knocked down
and lost one of the most uninspiring performances of all
time against Roly Romero in May, in a fight that
he was opposed to win and set up the rematch
with Haney, so a no contest and a loss, and
now he's getting a world championship fight. That is boxing
for you. So that is true. But you know, I
thought the reason I'm saying this, I like the way
Mario's attitude was ask him does he really deserved the shot,
which is like, listen, I just got a fight. The fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, by the way, there's dollars because it's the name
Ryan Garcia. So so a.
Speaker 2: Fight between those two guys. I hope Brian is in
a better frame of mind mentally and physically compared to
the way he has been in his last two fights.
And I feel like Barrios, you know, is going to
show up uh and do the best that he can.
And you know, of course, the whole situation with Joe
Goosen as the trainer is become a storyline because of
him having formerly trained Ryan Uh and taking it personal
that he supposedly was disloyaled by going with Barrios, even
though Ryan, of course.
Speaker 1: Fire got rid of whatever. Right.
Speaker 2: It's like the soap opera aspect of boxing.
Speaker 1: More more drama for fight week next week, but good
get there to have Barrios. Let's go now to some news.
I read my Dan Rayfield substat.
Speaker 2: As you should in all of our listeners.
Speaker 1: Shows, you should be subscribed up to that the newsletter
that the name Eryl Spence popped up in my inbox
to potentially fight Tim Zoo. I remember, don't I remember?
Erol Spence. He fought like three years ago against Terrence Crawford,
and you and I were there, Yes, were, and he
hasn't fought since wiped him out.
Speaker 2: We do the show twice a week. We spent all
that time doing the US show. When next each other out,
it's the only time we've ever met each other.
Speaker 1: And we've only been in person one time. And you
live in northern Virginia and I live in west central Florida,
and we had to go to Las Vegas to be
able to meet up. But yeah, that's the one time
we've been together. Because again, when the Titans, you know,
come rolling around, it doesn't happen that often. And so
we were there, and my god, it was almost three
years ago that we were there, and I've heard four
different times that Erl Spence is potentially going to be
back to fight this guy or that guy. So let
me phrase it this way. What leads us to believe
that this is the time that he's back when he
hasn't been back for two and a half years to
potentially fight Tim Zoo And as you reported in the substack,
this would be in Australia, So go ahead.
Speaker 2: That's correct. Yeah, I mean, listen, there was a lot
of discussion after the loss against Crawford because there was
rematch language in there that the rematch might happen, and
it became a whole big thing. And obviously, even if
the fighters wanted to do the rematch, there was a
question would it be as a welterweight, would they go
to the junior middleweight? Then obviously, you know, you have
to look at the business. It was such a one
sided ass kicking by Karen Crawford and beating him that
the PBC people felt like it was a disaster financially
if they did the rematch, because you know, I'm sure
some people would have certainly still bought the pay per view,
but it would not have been close to the level
of magnitude or interest as the first fight because the
first fight was such a one sided thrashing. You know,
after we had waited several years for the fights, so
an event, the fight never never took place. Aryl had
another injury involved in there. He got into a lawsuit
with Derek James, the trainer, so there was litigation going
on with that. And you know, honestly, he took such
a beating and he had he made so much money.
If you follow Errol on his social he was spending
time with the kids and with the family and you know,
bringing his kids to their sports practic and to their
school and you know, being a dad and just hanging out,
which is cool. I'm glad to see ta gate the rest.
But he always maintained that he would be back. There
was discussions maybe you would fight Fundorra at one point,
but at the end of the day, he.
Speaker 1: Got in the ring with Fundora a year ago. Yeah right, No,
actually two years ago when Fundora won the first fight
with Zoo, right, he got in the ring. He got
in the ring with and he still hasn't had a
fight since then.
Speaker 2: So now you ask why and the reason, You know,
how do we know this is happening now? Well, first
of all, number one, it's not signed, it's not one
hundred percent done. But I've talked to people on both
sides of the coin, and everybody is acknowledged that this
is something they're working towards, and it's you know again,
you can't stay for one hundred percent until the ink
is dry on whatever contracts I gotta sign. But by
all accounts, his fights, you know, in the process of
being made, and it will take place in Australia. It'll
be in June. Erow will go officially to Junior middle eight.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: It's sort of like a must win, I guess for
both guys, because if Arrow comes off of three or
layoff having been pummeled by Crawford and loses to tim Zu,
you know, probably that's you know, I won't see you
have to retire, but certainly at the upper echelon your
your days are probably over. And tim Zo has had
his own issues. Who's looked like, you know, he's got
a lot of uh, you know, he's he's been degraded
quite a bit since the you know, he sit on
top of the world. A lot of people are viewing
him as the number one junior middleweight in the world.
He's got a world title. He goes in the ring
with Fandora. I remember he was supposed to fight Keith
Thurman on that night, and Thurman had the biceps injury.
It didn't happen. They took Fandora, who was on the undercard,
they moved them up. They fought for Tim's WBO belt,
also the vacant WBC belt, and as you remember, I'm
sure they had an absolutely tremendous battle, blood soaked battle
with the massive cut from from the elbow on the
on the top of Tim's head and the busted nose
for Fondora and bloodshed everywhere. That took a lot out
of Tim, and then he got drilled by Bakram Ortazalev
and then fight shot.
Speaker 1: I definitely remember that because I was there for that
in Orlando.
Speaker 2: So then he goes home to Australia. Tim does. He
gets a gimme knockout win against Joey Spencer, who you
know was much less of a lower level fighter compared
to Tim, and that was supposed has now set up
the rematch, not the rematch, but rescheduled to fight with
Thurmant because Durman also went to Australia, got himself a
win after a long layoff himself, and then Tim didn't
end up doing that fight. Because he ended up doing
the rematch with Fondoro, beat the shit out of him,
knocked him down and made him quit after seven rounds.
So now you're like, okay, what's the story was Zoo?
He's you know, he's looking terrible the last few fights.
He did come back and have another home town fight
that took place in December, a very pedestrian sort of win.
He beat an undefeated New England club fighter over ten rounds.
I got the win. It was slightly above the fifty
four pound limit. And now they're working on this Arl
Spencer fight. Now. The one sort of flying the ointment
if you will, is there's been a lot of discussion
that he will take another interim fight before now Arrow's
not taking an interim fight, but Zoo, they say, wants
to have another fight that could wind up potentially in
March on the undercard when his promoter, No Limit Boxing
puts on the Lewis Crocker IBF welterweight title defense against
Liam Paro. They won the per spin, so that fight's
going to be in Australia, so Tim could take maybe
like a lesser fight on the undercard.
Speaker 1: Help sell some tickets.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Crocker and Paro will sell, probably because
of Paro being in the main event. But any event,
I don't know if that that interim fight will actually happen.
I frankly think it's one of the stupidest ideas in
the world. I mean, Tim did just.
Speaker 1: And we've seen it backfire. Go to your point where
the guys losing. Caleb Plant lost the interim fight before
the Charlo right, Deontay Wilder lost before Anthony Joshua. How
many examples do you need?
Speaker 2: I mean, it would just be ridiculous in my opinion
for him to do it, not not even because he
might lose. There's injury issues. You just never know what's
gonna happen. But anyway, Arrow Spence and Tim Zoo, that
looks like it's going to be the fight. And you
know what, Errol's never fought uh you know, I mean,
he's fought out of the country, won his world title
in the UK, he fought one of his early fights
in Canada, but obviously going to Australia is a kind
of a different animal altogether.
Speaker 1: Can I just tell you I will believe I will
believe this when when I see it. I know what
you're reporting. I know who you're talking to, but we were,
we were talking about Errolspence fighting two other people before
it didn't happen. I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2: One thing I have learned in my twenty five plus
years of covering boxing is I report the news as
best as I can at the moment when it's being reported.
And everything in boxing is a fucking fluid situation. So
at this exact moment in time, the plans are to
make Zoo and Errolspence. Now, if I wake up tomorrow
or maybe go to bed tonight and something happens and
it's not happening, then you report that. I mean, but
it's like life, it's a fluid situation. But that's that's
the plans at the moment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean, this sport is definitely known for swerves,
and I'm gonna fight this guy and then we don't
have this and we put that on and get hurt.
Speaker 2: And one more associated with like Arrol's with PBC, Tim
is with PBC. They have a relationship with no limit.
The fight probably would be a prime video pay per
view in America where they would do the fight in
prime time here in the you know for our timing,
which is normal from them, the fight on a Sunday
afternoon in Australia, so that diamond works out well in
terms of the time difference.
Speaker 1: We show what kind of pay per view appetite there
is for that. There might be a little, but I.
Speaker 2: Don't know if that's a whole different conversation.
Speaker 1: I understand that, but I'm just saying just as a
blanket comment, because again, Aerol Spence hasn't fought anybody for
three years, and there's a lot of belief that PBC
was doing the best they could to protect him after
the serious car crash, which we haven't talked about in
this conversation, that that broke his jaw. He had to
have multiple surgeries for disfigurement of his face, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And he did not have your absolutely lunatic. He did
not have multiple surgeries.
Speaker 1: He did not had he had more than one.
Speaker 2: He had dental surgery.
Speaker 1: He had more than one on the fractured jaw and
on the dental procedures that were done. I'm not a lunatic.
And Terrence Quaw blitzed him and it was very concerning
even early in that fight because we were there that
they were gonna stop the fight because of what he
was doing to Errol Spence's face. So there's some there's
some question marks around this, and most importantly, the guy
hasn't fought anybody in two and a half years.
Speaker 2: I know that, but I mean PDC did not protect him.
I mean he was gonna fight pak yaw. He ended
up fighting against or Dennis Ugas, who was a world champion.
He thought wasn't anywhere, wasn't anywhere. That was actually the
quarter fight was right before the accident.
Speaker 1: There's also some belief. There's also some belief that there's
still the eye problems here.
Speaker 2: Is after the car accident, he thought twice before Crawford
he wasn't protected. He didn't take soft touch two ups.
He thought Danny Garcia was still a very rapid old guy.
Speaker 1: It was not really a welter wait at that time.
Then he thought to Gos, those were the two.
Speaker 2: Guys who go by the way. Was originally gonna be
nanny pack yao. But when the whole situation happened with
the problem Apence.
Speaker 1: In his eye right, he was out of that fight anyway,
So we litigated the whole thing. I don't think it's
unfair to question whether Aerol Spence ever fights again, whether
he signs on the dotted line.
Speaker 2: With all of that, for what it's worth, if he
watched his socialis back in the gym with a new trainer,
I forget the guys.
Speaker 1: Whatever happened with the lawsuit with Derek James for eight figures,
by the way.
Speaker 2: That is apparently still in the process of being living.
Speaker 1: So now he would have a new trainer, So stay tuned.
Lots of drama, lots of soap opera there, and by
the way, if and when it all comes there's a
whole other argument that Tim Zoo has been propped up
by fighting in Australia, fighting big fights in Australia, and
I know this would be in Australia, but once he
came to the United States it was not the same,
and he was not the same and has been wiped
out on multiple occasions. So stay tuned on this. We'll
see a couple of other things. They made it official
on Thursday. It is Tyson Fury, it is arsl and
Beck Mackmodov Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium, April eleventh, Right. I saw
Turkey Alachick tweeting about that date. We had talked about
this before, so it's now official.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Yeah, I mean the date's been set when
they announced the fight back you know, sometime last week,
I suppose. But that the thing that was not for
sure is where would they have the fight? Although it
was you know, we all knew it was going to
be in the UK, it was just a matter of
where they're gonna do it. I was kind of thinking
because Macmandov is not like a huge name or anything
like that that you know, maybe they wouldn't go to
the stadium route that they would find like the big
arena in Manchester, or maybe go to the O two
or someplace and pack that out. But apparently they're being
aggressive and they're putting Tyson Fury in a big stadium,
old sixty five thousand people. This is one of the
This is where they had Connor Ben against Chris you Bank,
and they've had you know other.
Speaker 1: B Usk was there.
Speaker 2: Well, it's as where. It's also where Tyson Fury in
twenty twenty two when he had the third fight against
Tasor when he was still champion. He fought the fight
in December of twenty twenty two at this stadium and
they did a big crowd. But there's a big difference
when it's Britt versus Britt for the heavyweight championship, where
it's a non title fight between Britt coming off two
losses against you know, a Russian with no chin I
guess you know, so, you know, good luck to them.
We'll see I mean, I guess the Brits will turn
out no matter.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see how for this and we'll see what
else is on the undercar because that might good enough.
Speaker 2: The fact that it's going to be on Netflix, uh
tells me based on the way that they've constructed these cards,
they'll they'll put something solid, I believe on that show.
You know, we'll give give the fans who are either
going to tune in are going to actually go buy
a ticket, uh, something that's a little more meaty for
their for their time in addition to the main event.
And hopefully that'll be the case.
Speaker 1: Okay, moving on, IBF says they have the the fight here.
The agreement has been reached with the mandatory fighter os
Leus Iglesias, the Cuban South Paul. He will fight a
Russian that we don't know a lot about Pavel Silvagan.
Is that how you say? It's silly? Still Yagin? So
they're going to fight coming up and give us the
details on where and when.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this fight is now done. It was, I
mean I wrote about it a couple of days ago.
Uh I talked to kimil La Stefan, who is the
promoter from I Have the Tiger. They promote Iglesias, who's
sensational if you ask me. Anyway, they made it official
on Thursday. They put out the official announcement. It will
be April ninth at the at the Casino of Montreal.
It will be on de Zonne in the United States. Remember,
most of the Eye of the Tiger cards for a
period of time, we're all appearing on ESPN Plus through
their agreement with Top Rank. Obviously that does not exist anymore.
So this I the Tiger has a two fight deal
apparently with the Zone. What they announced they will show
this fight outside of Canada on his own as well
as they have another card that's taking place in March,
not as high profile of a fight that will also
be part of that. In any event, Look, still Yagin
is the guy that they got to in the ratings.
Iglacias was sitting there as the mandatory in the next
up for the for the mandatory to fight for the title.
And so what the IBF does is they go down
the rankings, and so Canelo Alvarez was the next guy.
He turned it down. Obviously, he's not fighting until September
and he wasn't gonna, you know, wait for that long
and he doesn't need to be fighting Glaciers anyway. He's
gonna do something bigger in Saudi Arabia. And then they
went to the next guy available, which was Himimon. Yeah,
he also turned it down. I'm not really sure the
reason why why is it? Which is interesting. Maybe the
money wasn't right, I don't know. But well, it didn't
even get to the money. They just they said no.
I mean, they didn't even get to a point where
they're going to negotiate it in any event, So Yagin
was the next guy on the on the on the ratings,
so he accepted it. They made a deal. Didn't need
a purse bid for those who care. So Yagin is
sixteen oh to one with seven knockouts. He's a Russian fighter,
he's thirty two years old. He is only fought once
in twenty twenty five. He has not yet fought outside
of Russia, so obviously this will be his first time
fighting outside of his home country. But I'll tell you
right now, I don't care who you are in the
super middleweight division, Canel Alvarez, you know, Christian, Manbilly, you
name it. Anybody in that weight class is going to
get a tough night from Muglesias. He's a big puncher.
He is not a typical you know Cuban that likes
to box and move and maybe rely solely on defense.
He can do that, but he's also got heavy hands.
And if you've watched any of his fights that have
been on those high the Tiger cards that were available
here in America as he has been coming up the
ladder on ESPN plus, he's a superb fighter. And it's
funny because The Tiger also was the promoter of Christian
and Billy, very very physically strong, good punching, you know,
good engine type guys in the super middle eight division.
And although it's not a commercial blockbuster, if they were
to match Iglesias with n Billy from an excitement and
a fun standpoint boy, that would be a canvas fight.
But the ability division.
Speaker 1: Mobilly has now been elevated to the full WBC champion
correct as well. So the belief we talked about this before,
belief is he's going to fight somebody else, said Lester Martinez.
I mean rematch him. He could fight somebody.
Speaker 2: Else, But I don't think he's going to do in
the rematch, at least not.
Speaker 1: Far fetched that if he Glacias keeps winning short term
and Mobilly wins, another fight possible.
Speaker 2: But the thing about he's a very fan friendly fighter.
He's got fourteen fights, no losses, thirteen knockouts. And if
you weren't a believer when I watched he find the
title eliminator against Vladimir Shishkin, who's been in the ring
with some good fighters and had a good record, he
just beat the crap at him and stopped him in
the eighth round. I mean, there were some people going
into that fight. They thought Shishkin might be able out
boxing to some degree and perhaps you know, get out
of dodge with a victory. But Iglesias was not le
put the hammer down, put it like that. So that's
your's your that's your vacant IBF title fight. As the
organizations filled the Belts in the wake of Terrence Crawford
having been undisputed retiring and giving up all the titles.
Speaker 1: So look for that one April ninth, Montreal as it stands.
Moving on a couple of more things. Okay, the latest
with Javonte Davis, who's making news for all the wrong reasons,
is that the judge in Baltimore in his hit and
run case and his probation rescinded the arrest warrant for
Davis after his latest legal trouble, his latest arrest for
domestic violence in Miami, which would be a probation violation
by the way. So apparently, according to Davis's lawyer, he
now has a date a summons to appear before the judge.
Stay tuned on what all this means, so fill in
any other blank.
Speaker 2: I don't think they've given it an actual date, but
the way that I read it, and I'll give props
to the folks that have covered Davis's legal issues at
a publication called the Baltimore Banner. They've been doing a
great job for years, and you know, let them do
it because nobody else wants to. In any event, Apparently
it's more serious if you have an arrest woirant issued
than if they judge or the courts issues as summons,
you know, because obviously now he's not going to just
be pulled over and can get handcuffed and get you know,
thrown in jail and brought up to Baltimore to appear
in court. The judge went there and asked, listen, give
us a summons. We'll show up. They're going to give
him a g said, we'll take a GPS monitor. You know,
they'll put like an ankle bracelet on him. I guess
because remember he was on the lamb basically for two
weeks when the cops were looking for him in Miami Gardens, Florida,
in relation to the domestic violence case that he's now
in the jackpot for. So you and I when we
were talking about the fact that the judge in Baltimore
was probably gonna get involved because if you get arrested
for domestic violence in Florida, obviously that's a probation violation.
But he's still on probation from that hit and run conviction,
so he's not out of the woods. It's just right
now his situation in Baltimore is maybe a slightly less
dramatic if you will, because.
Speaker 1: You're gonna I'm gonna tip it. I'm gonna give it away.
You know what the initials in court FTA are failure
to appear. What are the odds right now on Javonte
Davis ft A in the Baltimore court. I mean put
that at right now because he's I think he's gonna
be in a knuckle ahead all along the way with all.
Speaker 2: Of this, but not showing up. That was kind of
a first form I guess, as far as a summons
or a war or whatever. So if you if you
listen to the lawyer, you know this is the guy
that's defending him, that's hired to work the case. His
comment to the Baltimo was, we're thankful that the court
recalled the warrant. Mister Davis remains compliant and will continue
it to appear, continue to appear as required. So we'll see,
uh huh. I wouldn't bet on anything with.
Speaker 1: That either, all right, so stay tuned on whenever that is.
We'll keep track of it with with Gervonte Davis, who's
legal troubles continue to mount, including in South Florida and
the latest charges and what's going to happen with that?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Anything else here real quick? H the Bad Bunny halftime show?
You know, I haven't heard much about that. I don't
know on the Internet, on social media, on certain cable
news outlets. If it's if it's really been talked about
the Bad Bunny.
Speaker 2: House, you think it was a little bit polarizing.
Speaker 1: I will yes, I will say this. For my seventeen
year olds, my lily white American seventeen year olds, the
only thing they cared about Sunday was not the game
of the commercials, was the Bad Bunny halftime show. So
we watched, along with over one hundred and twenty million
other Americans. About I know young ray Field was traveling back.
Did he get back in time for the halftime show?
Was he going with here's for Bad Bunny.
Speaker 2: Or now there? So my wife and son were traveling home.
They had visited friends in Minnesota for a few days,
and they came home on Sunday and the flight was late,
was delayed, and so by the time they got in
the house the game, I can't remember if the game
was over or coming to the conclusion. First thing my
son did when he came in the house, can I
you know, because he had to go to he had
school the next day. You know, he got home much
living was supposed to. So this is Sunday night, he
got school. First thing Monday morning. He begged, begg, beg, begged,
and pleaded because I had the game on the DVR.
Can I watch the Bad Bunny halftime show before I
go to bed? So I was like, all right or whatever,
So for fifteen minutes I let him watch the show
that was He didn't give a shit game right, he
wanted to watch Bad Bunny.
Speaker 1: So which again, there are millions and millions that tuned
in of the teenage variety, everybody that wanted wanted to watch,
only that that weren't watching the game and only tuned
in for the half time.
Speaker 2: I mean listen, not to get into like a political discord.
I didn't understand why there was so much negativity in
the first place. I watch it, I mean, is not
my cup of teas in terms of the music.
Speaker 1: Was our purposes. There was a quick little cameo there,
and I saw it when it happened, And obviously I'm
watching it at my sister and brother in law's with
my wife with the trains at that super Bowl party
and they don't know who these fighters are.
Speaker 2: But I got to go on a tangent before we
get that. What ended up happening with the food.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is true. As you said, I had to
make a boss move and take charge. We had to
get the sandwiches. We had to get the pizza because
we were not going to do rabbit food and crackers
at this Super Bowl party we went to. We ended
up having pizza and sandwiches along with the charcouterie and
the other stuff.
Speaker 2: All right, so the reason why we brought up the
Super Bowl half.
Speaker 1: But I saw when I when he did it. It was
a quick shot of him with two fighters, and I'm like,
there's Xander Zaiyaz.
Speaker 2: I saw it.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't recognize immediately Emiliano Vargas, but they
were there.
Speaker 2: That was really cool. So they had you know, if
you watch the show, there was the whole thing about
Puerto Rican culture and they did different things. Obviously, boxing
is very is very uh important in the Puerto Rican
sporting culture. And there was a moment where he's walking
through the I guess it was a field or wherever
he was, and there was.
Speaker 1: A bunch of people dressed up as the trees. He's
walking through the trees and the plants and the whole thing.
Speaker 2: And he comes up to a point where you have
two fighters who are you know, they weren't actually sparring,
but they were throwing punches, dressed in gloves and trunks,
trunk gloves, and it was Xanderses who is Puerto Rican
like Bad Buddy Uh, the unified junior middleweight champion from
his victory over Boss Baru to pick up the other belt.
A couple of weeks ago, you had Emiliano Vargas my
twenty twenty five Prospect of the Year to find junior
welterweight up and comer with top rank as isanders eyas undefeated,
the son of the former junior midaway champion Fernando Vargas
UH and that was a huge thing. Now apparently xanders
Iis had known Bad Bunny before. He has some involvement
in terms of like some they they helped do some
promotions with him, and I think some endorsement type stuff
with the same management company. So we had met in before.
But I think that's look when you can get two
young stars like that, two exciting young guys who are
still on the upward of their career. Now granted, I
mean not everybody's gonna know who they are, but no,
they got a lot of attention after the fact of
who were those boxers? I saw a thing about it
on TMZ that's absolutely there. So anything the hell wasn't
a bad thing for them, Yeah, absolutely so. And it
was you know, what a great opportunity for for boxers
to be featured, even for just a little bit in
a halftime of a super Bowl where, like you said,
one hundred and twenty million people in the United States
are watching at that time. I thought it was really
cool and it was. It seemed like they both had
a good time. And I'd rather have it be young
boxers getting the attention than in some other sport.
Speaker 1: Put it like that, fair enough, We gave you a
lot here again, good stuff. It's Valentine's weekend.
Speaker 2: Oh I got to give the shout out also, by
the way, yes, and I remember this every year because
we just had on February eleven. It was the anniversary
of the massive upset, the thirty sixth anniversary of Busting
Bass not out like Tyson. But besides that anniversary, it
happens to coincide with the birthday of my main man,
Larry Merchant, so before we started taping this show today
on today is Thursday. On Wednesday, Larry turned ninety five
years old.
Speaker 1: That's incredible.
Speaker 2: I didn't get a chance to speak to him on
his birthday, but I did call him on Thursday afternoon
a little before we started tape today's show. Had a nice,
like probably good, thirty thirty five minute chat with Larry
doing great, still excited for the fights, still watching everything.
He was telling me about I had gotten invited by
his son in law to his birthday party. Obviously he
was not able to make it to California for the party,
but he was telling me that, you know, his old
boss at HBO said Abraham came to the party. Who
flew out to see him. Sugar Ray Leonard, his longtime
friend and compatriot from HBO who lives in the area,
came to the party. So Ito had been cool to
be there, but he had he had a very good
good time with the friends and family. And you know what,
at ninety five, still watching that fight, still has a
pinions on all the fights, and it was just a
wonderful to talk to him for a.
Speaker 1: Bit shout out Larry Merchant from those HBO days for
so many years with Barry Tompkins, Jim Lampley and Sugar
Ray Leonard and the broadcast cruise and love It, Love
It as he's intertwined with some of the great historical moments,
including that Douglas win over Tyson, among others. Listen busy
program here Valentine's weekend. So we will not have a
recap podcast because there's not really much to recap because
the fights on Sunday Night will be going on. Stay tuned,
though there might be a little bonus on Sunday night.
Coming off the weekend. You and I will obviously reconvene
next week for the Barrios Garcia fighting. You just heard
from Mario Barrios on this podcast in advance a fight
week in Las Vegas. Other than that, you like to say,
call your mother. Other than that, find the sweetheart in
your life, your mother, your sister, your wife, your girlfriend,
hopefully not your wife and your girlfriend. Take care of business.
Peeps and savages for Valentine's this weekend because they put
up with our crap the other fifty one weekends out
of the year. Spend a little time with the luck one,
the significant other, flowers, card, chocolate, dinner, phone call, all
of it. We recommend all of it. Anything else, Dan
Rayfield or are we good?
Speaker 2: GJ. I think we're good.
Speaker 1: All the damage that we could do here leading into
this weekend. Thank you for finding us Apple Spreaker, Spotify
on the pod feed you have been listening to The
Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast