Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time.
Speaker 2: This is Big Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves. Yes, indeed,
we get ready for a massive and it's appropriate to
say massive championship pay per view from Saudi Arabia. We've
been waiting for this for a little while now. The
Ring four Night of champions disowned pay per view card
coming Saturday afternoons, Saturday night, all day, all night in
the US, middle of the night in Saudi Arabia, headlined
by David Benavidez and Anthony Yard for Benavitez's WBC oh
and Rayfhael put it on the sheet WBA Regular Light
Heavyweight Championship that headlines four different championship fights on the
main card. We're ready to talk all about it. I
am merely the somewhat capable host. TJ. Reeves, Hello, Big
Dan Raphael. Ready to preview and ready to go over
all of this. How are things as we head to weekend?
Speaker 1: I'm pumped up for this card. I think for me,
this is the card I've looked forward to probably the
most this year. Frankly, as far as on the schedule,
it may not have the biggest of the superstar names
but I believe every single one of the four fights
we're going to talk about is competitive, is going to
be fun, you know, or some combination thereof. And I
think it's a dynamite show.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, certainly for the back half of the year. This
is the most loaded championship fight card, and you got
all kinds of subplots and storylines. We're ready to go
over it. We've got some fight news and much more.
Thank you for finding us on the podfeed. I'm gonna
do a lot of promoting here real quick. Thank you
for finding us on the pod feed. We preview going
into the weekend, we recap coming off the weekend. By
the way, on the pod feed, you can go back
immediately before us and hear from David Benavitez as we're
about to talk about his title fight with Anthony Yard.
Hear him in his own words with Dan. Also find
our YouTube page. You can see that interview on YouTube.
Will push you to that. And by the way, when
the fight card is o're with on Saturday night, We're
gonna do it live Dan Rayfield. We're gonna come on
and recap whatever happens live exclusively on the Big Fight
Weekend YouTube page. Go find it, be subscribed up, get
the notification. We will we will put it out on
social media, et cetera. But I'm saying to you, the
pod audience here, be ready to be with us Saturday night.
Dan's gonna explain the start time in a couple of moments,
but Saturday night, late night US time, be ready to
go on YouTube, will recap the fights. In the midst
of all of this, Big Dan, I gotta fly to
Los Angeles with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I don't know
how far is La from Saudi Arabia. It's one thing
you and Virginia, me and Florida. But now I'm gonna
be in the Pacific time zone. I don't know what
time and where it is in La, but we're gonna
come to you on the YouTube.
Speaker 1: You'll be uh, you'll be eleven hours behind.
Speaker 2: Wow, that is a difference.
Speaker 1: It's eight it's eight hours difference. They're they're eight hours
ahead of the East coast, eleven hours ahead of the
West coast.
Speaker 2: Interesting, all right, So again find the YouTube page for that.
And I'm not done promoting. Guess what.
Speaker 1: By the way, that just reminded me so for all
those years I used to do my chats at ESPN.
Even before that, when I did my chats the USA today,
we'd always have issues with time zone yes to the conversions,
and twenty five years later, I'm still trying to.
Speaker 2: We're still trying to figure it all out. The only
thing that it is what time does it say on
your watch where you are? And I love that's the
time we go with. All right, Now, I'm not done promoting.
Speaking of the watch, be ready at one Eastern time.
We're back. We're back on bet Us TV. You and
I handicapping this a massive Sauty pay per view four
championship fight card. Now there is a caveat Big Dan.
As always with something in the social media and internet world.
We are no longer on bet Us TV on YouTube.
So I'm saying to the pod audience, because a lot
of you listening on the pod audience, some of you
also participate in watch our stuff like the bet Us
Show or the YouTube page. You're not gonna find bet
Us TV anymore on YouTube. It's gone. It was YouTube's choice.
They got rid of it for their reasons, all right.
So now find kick dot com like kick a field goal,
kickballfindkick dot com. Bet USTv is streaming on kick dot com.
It's a new platform. A lot of people have found it.
You will also be able to see the show on
social media on Twitter x on bet ustv's Twitter handle
Dan social media, my social media. You'll be able to
see the show that way. Big Dan and I participate
with Facebook. Not everybody with the younger generation does. Bet
USTv has a Facebook chance Facebook, No, No Facebook. They'll
have it live on Facebook on bet USTv streaming there.
So there are a myriad of ways to see it
besides YouTube, but one Eastern time. And I do know this, Dan,
because this is like the third day that this has
been going on. Kick dot com does archive the show,
so you'll be able to see the show later in
the day under bet USTv. Watch it Friday, watch it
from night, watch it Saturday morning. We will handicap the
fights and make some predictions. Twitter also archives that I
don't know how long, but it should be fine before
the fights start for a day or a day and
a half to rewatch the show on Twitter. I don't
know how many times I can lead you to it,
other than to say go find us there. You're not
going to find us on YouTube. Don't be sending ray
Field messages, Dan, where is it on YouTube? We're telling
you it's not there.
Speaker 1: We're not back every week anymore. This is again.
Speaker 2: Correct, it's a one off for this one. Shall we
let the audience in on this. We may do something
around Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua. They're interested in that.
We might do that for December, but this is a
one off on bet Us TV Friday one Eastern time.
There you go. I think I'm all out of promos.
I can't promo any I can't promo anything else. Let's
get to it, bro, Let's get to the fights. Here
we are fight week. You and I have been watching
the press conferences on Thursday, as they had all the
there in Saudi Arabia. You talk to Benavitez. Here's the
matchup with the Englishman Yard that headlines the show. Let's
begin right there with your thoughts on Benavidez back in
in a big moment for him, because Dimitri Beevil is
hanging out there in a possible undisputed shot maybe down
the road.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a good matchup and as much
as I like the styles of Denavide's and Yard in
terms of entertainment value. You know, I don't think it's
the best fight on the show, even though it's the
main event. But that doesn't mean it's not interesting to watch. Now. Yard,
you know, we know what he's about. He is a
big puncher. He makes fun fights. He comes forward, and
when he has stopped up to the highest level in
previous world title fights, he has been knocked out. So
you know he has to get over the hap. Now.
You can't blame him because he was fighting the very
best guys ut at that time. So if you take
a look at the record that he has, he did
get stopped by Sergey Kovalev when Covelev was still pretty good.
This is pre Canelo. This is the fight beforekvilet Facanello
and he got stopped late. But Yard was in the fight.
It wasn't like he got blitzed. I mean he he
dealt out some punishment, He had some good moments and
his Yard has made the point he only had like
eighteen fights when that happened. And in Anthony Yard did
even start boxing until he was eighteen years old, did
not have his first actual amateur fight till he was
just before he turned twenty years old, so he's a
late bloomer. So for him to have eighteen pro fights
and not having really fought anybody, hung in there very
well against Sergey Kovalv in a world title fight, and
by the way, that fight took place in Sergey Kovalev's
hometown where he was born in Russia, so he went
on the road for that. You know, yeah, he lost,
but it wasn't like a disgrace at any way whatsoever.
And then he had the great misfortunate of being the
mandatory once again. This is in twenty twenty three. He
was a home in his hometown of London, and Arthur
better Biev in his you know, absolute best went there
as a three belt unified and lineal champion. They put
on a tremendous lug fest and again Yard got stopped,
this time in round number eight. But the thing he
can take away from both those experiences that he was
in both fights. You know, he was probably beating Kovlev
up until the point of the knockout, and you know,
he was maybe a whisker away from winning either one
of those fights with a big shot. So since then
he has won four fights in a row, including the
rubber match. Because he was one and one against his
countrymen Lyndon Arthur. He had lost a split decision against
him in the first fight, had knocked him out in
the fourth round in the second fight. They fought this
fight on one of the big card. This was when
Connor ben and Chris you Benk had their first fight
back in April. They fought in one of those undercard fights.
He got the revenge to win the series two to one.
And now he's mandatory, or I guess he's not mandatory,
but he's the optional defense for David Benavitez defending the
WBC title and as in your favorite belt, the WBA
regular title. But the big thing for me in this matchup,
I know you love that is that Avidias we know
is maybe entering his prime and has looked so good
and done a lot of good things this year. Has
a very impressed victory against David Morrell that took place
back in February. But if there's any questions, we know
what he's done at super midaway, two time champion of
the WBC, lots of knockouts, lots of exciting fights since
he's come up to light heavyweight. In the two fights
he's had against the former champion, Alexander Fodzik. He won
the fight. No one's debating that that was a decision
back when he was an intern. I was an interim
title fight. And then he had the big impressive victory
against David Morrell, who, like David, was a super midaweight
who had come up both of them, you know, being
unable to get a fight with Canelo Alvarez in the
super midweight division. But the thing is as a light heavyweight,
he's now gone the distance in both of those fights.
Anthony Yard is a natural light heavyweight. He's been in
the way classes entire career, and so it is not
unreasonable to discuss with, you know, whether or not David
Benavitez has brought his power from super midawaight to light heavyweight.
So maybe he's not going to be able to just
you know, walk through a guy like he did with
a lot of quality guys that's supermantle eight. And even
though Yard has been knocked out, it's been knocked out
by devastating punchers. I mean, Sergey Kovlev at his best
was a fucking knockout machine. Arthur better Biev at that
time was like eighteen and oho with eighteen knockouts, and
you know, the only time he's ever gone the route
has been in the fights against Amtribble. So to me,
that's one of the interesting factors of this fight. Does
Yard's chin stand up to what Benavidez has power wise
as a light heavyweight, and now the David is in
with a outstanding puncher in the light heavyweight division, because
David Morrell as a light heavyweight probably not that kind
of a puncher Vodzick, but not a big puncher in
that weight class. Yard probably a little better puncher. So
to me, that's the that's the interesting part of this
this matchup in and listen, if Benavitez wins, it sets
them up for a whole bunch of possibilities. And certainly
if Yard wins, you know, it's a it's another monstrous
win for British poxle.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a big upset if he wins. And Benavitez
again has been a guy kind of ducked. I'm saying
that in the past Beebel didn't want to fight him
right away. Main event moment though for him, Let's see it,
Let's see if he takes advantage of that. And again
we've made mention of this. These next two fights that
we're talking about could have very easily been the main event,
probably on this show we're on on maybe even their
own pay per view. I think we both agree. So
now let's talk about the cod feature, which.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I would saying I think and I'm not.
I mean, no one's paying me to I wish they were, frankly,
but no one's paying me to promote the fight. I
feel like there's no doubt that any of these four fights,
given today's boxing landscape, absolutely would be main event on
a show, but like a pay per view. But just
as if you were doing an event, if you're a
Matt Room or Golden Boys. Yeah, Top Rank or Queensberry
whoever PB Senior doing a big event any of these fights,
like give like Abdulla Mason and we're gonna talk about it.
He's fighting Sam Oaks for a lightweight title. You don't
think if Top Rank was still on ESPN, that would
have headline one of their shows first?
Speaker 2: Sure? All right, So the next one down the order,
speaking of Top Rank, a top ranked fighter and Brian
Norman fight against Devin Haney here for the WBO welterweight title,
very intriguing fight. Have they finally separated Norman Senior and
Bill Haney because they were going at it on the dais,
They were going at it before they walked in, and
then allegedly I'm seeing this on social media. Apparently there
was some more screaming after the press conference. So we
almost had a preview with Norman Senior and Haney the
father there with this. But in any event, very intriguing,
very intriguing fight. I just wonder about Devin Haney as
a welterweight moving up, jumping up here to welterweight, when
Brian Norman's been fighting at this at this division already.
All right, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, the thing about it is, as you mentioned,
I mean, he has not been a full welterweight. I
mean he was tremendous as a lightweight, Devin Hainey, he
was on disputed champion. He looked awesome at one forty
when he just ran, you know, circles around and easily
out box and dropped Regis Progra to win the title
of the WBC. But everything that we know about Ryan
in recent times is that you cannot erase the image
of him being planted on the canvas three times by
Ryan Garcia left hooks. This is in April of twenty four,
a fight that, yes, it doesn't count as they lost
on his record because it was changed on no contest
because Ryan Garcia was h you know, was tested positive
for a ped and was suspended for you not to
mention the fact that Ryan Garcia was literally like four
pounds overweight gave him an unfair advantage in that fight also,
so it became a no contest. But you don't you
don't know. It's like if you're if you're in a
if you're on a jury, and and and some witness
says something and the judge strikes it from the record.
The jurors aren't supposed to consider that. But it doesn't
mean you still don't remember heard like we saw Ryan
Garcia get dropped three times with those shots and by
the way, an otherwise competitive fight other than those rounds
in which he was on the deck seven ten and eleven.
So that was the fight that well, he was over
one forty. Haney was at one forty the next fight
that when Hainey came back. This was the Times Square
fight that was in May. He won the fight very
handily against Jose Ramirez, who was, you know, maybe past
his best days, also was moving up a few pounds.
They didn't do that the full fledged welterweight. That contract was.
I actually looked that up. It was one hundred and
forty four pounds was what they contract that. I'm both
guys were like one forty three or one forty three
and change. So now he is challenging Brian Norman for
the WBO welterweight title. It's a full fledged welterweight fight.
So in essence, it is his true debut in the
weight class. And what's Brian Norman's best punch, DJ.
Speaker 2: Would be the left hook, I believe.
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir. So he had a lot of problems
obviously against the Ryan Garcia left hook. I don't think
Brian Norman has the kind of hand speed that Ryan
Garcia has, but for pure power it may be better.
We'll find out. And the thing is he's also I mean,
first of all, you got to give Haney credit for
doing the fight, because his resume is just over the
last years, is as good as anybody's in terms of
who he's fighting that you can ask for. I mean
think about the run he's been on when he first
became the lightweight title holder. This is when Lomachenko declined
to fight him as a mandatory and went and took
the nonsense franchise title. He beat like good names. There
were veterans and guys like Gamboa and Lenares. He beat
Jojo Diaz when it actually still was a decent win.
Jojo only had one loss to that point, despite the
fact that he had along losing streak afterwards. Twice in
Australia against Cambosis, the first one to become undisputed. He
had a close but I think deserved, you know, a
very reasonable decision win against Lomachenko, big win for him.
Ran roughshot. Like I mentioned over, Regis Progra competed with
Garcia obviously we know what happened there, and then had
the easy win, although a shitty fight to watch against Ramirez.
Speaker 2: Now, I will say, can I interject a lot of
good guys. I understand that the concern was from the
fight back in May. Is he still gun shy? He
was on his bicycle, the whole fight did not have
a lot of punch output in That is still an
unanswered question going into this fight. Pick it up on
that point, please.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So Norman is is is the complete opposite of
like a of a Jose Ramirez who's not you know,
near the end of his career, who is not in
you know, uh, He's a guy that's a natural wealth way,
whereas Jose Ramirez wasn't, nor was Devinhandy obviously, even though
they're fighting a few pounds below the limit, and and
Norman is just coming into his own. Norman is only
twenty four years old. For a period of time, he
was the youngest reigning world title holder in boxing. Supplanted
a few months you know, whenever earlier this year by
xandersiis when Xandersyis won the title at U Junior middle Way.
And Brian Norman has looked tremendous. He's got an old
school kind of attitude, you know, have gloves, will travel.
You know. He won in a is a big upset.
In May of last year. He went to Giovanni Santition's
hometown of San Diego. He was not supposed to win
that fight. He stopped him in a bloody fight. You know,
it was really Santian that was blood not Brian Norman
stopped him in round number ten in Santion's hometown. That
was for the interim title. When Terrence Crawford was moving
up in waight ultimate to challenge Israel Majimov, Brian Norman
was elevated to the full titleder. He looked spectacular in
knockout wins and his next two fights and defenses not
against elite fighters. He beat Derek Wavis. That was a
very good performance. He then traveled to Japan to fight
Tim Sasaki, who was a pretty highly regarded Japanese contender.
This was back in June. He knocked him out on
five rounds, a devastating knockout. So on that evidence in
title fights or interim title fights from the Santion, He's
won three in a row in that sense, all by knockout,
all dominating fashion. He is still undefeated. He's twenty eight
to zero with twenty two knockouts. I mean, this is
a real guy that people view as somebody that could
maybe you know, dominate for the next few years. And
there are some people that will tell you right now,
in granted a lacklust or overall weight class at walter
wait and probably the number one in the division right now,
and Uh, you know, he's gonna be the bigger guy.
He's got that big left hook and he's and he's
not backing away from this. I've watched a lot of
their interactions. I mean they've been talking shit. You talked
about the fathers, which you're not, you know, Devin obviously
he's trained by his father, Brian is trained by his father.
Brian Norman Senior is a former professional fighter. This has
all the makings of a very interesting style matchup. If
Haney comes to fight, if Haney does the bullshit that
he did against Ramirez, and you know doesn't I don't
have a problem with a guy boxing or a guy
moving and a guy using his defense. What drives me
crazy is when it's constant for the entire fight. It's
always on the back foot. It's always, you know, try
to punch and hold. You can box beautifully and still
make it, you know, pleasing for those of us who
are watching. Yep. But it's a very interesting fight and
there's a lot of stake because if he loses, Haney,
a lot of people are just gonna and it's not fair.
They'll just say he's a total fucking fraud. And uh,
you know, if Norman.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, who with any brains would
say that he's a fraud.
Speaker 1: In boxing Twitter?
Speaker 2: Boxing Twitter is full of morons than savages that don't
know what they're talking about. We've known this for years.
What I'm saying is the guy was undisputed at one
thirty five. The guy won a world title at one forty.
You're not against quality fighters. You're not a fraud if
you do that. Maybe he's mistaken in trying to move
up to one forty seven. And that's what we're about
to find out. That's the intrigue on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Attitude is that you know that he thinks he'll be
better that he has for years struggled to make thirty five.
He was never easy for him to make one forty.
I'm not saying it's easy, but you know, maybe at
this point of his life and career, it's time to
be in a bigger weight class. And Norman, by all
accounts no issues making the weight. You know, he's right
there where he should be. He's going to be the
bigger man. And uh, the thing that that and we'll
talk about the other fights I was, but overall the
results of what happened in this fight and every every
boxing event, the results impact you know, people's thoughts about
where guys are, where they went up, future fights and
all that. But because of the the level of the
fights on this show, every single fight is going to
have I think, like dramatic impact on the on how
people look at certain weight classes. Keep in mind, on
these four fights that we're talking about, these guys are
a combined like one hundred and ninety three and three
and the three all belong to Anthony Art.
Speaker 2: I did not I did not realize that that's true.
Speaker 1: On Uh, yeah, no that is. I mean you have
one hundred ninety three wins by seven of the fighters
and three losses by Anthony Art. Wow, so all right,
loss are about to go all right?
Speaker 2: So again that's the co feature fight then, but wait,
there's more. We waved down. We moved down from that,
and this may be the most underrated, least talked about
fight of this card, I think. And that's Jesse Bam
Rodriguez and Fernando Puma Martinez for the three Junior banhamweight
world titles WBCWBO, w B. Yeah, you'll straighten me out
on who has which ones. BAM's got two of them.
So again, I am maybe as intrigue, if not the
most intrigued by this fight, the third fight on the
down on the list here that we're previewing.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, listen. It's a tremendous battle and it would
headline anybody else's show, no doubt about it. But Turkey
is spending the money and they're putting it on this show.
I kind of wish it was its own fight, on
its own car, because it would have got a lot
more attention. You know, some of these guys haven't been
the easiest to get a hold of in terms of
do interviews with It's been difficult. Bam is even there
even this week. Understandably hasn't been as available for folks
that are in Saudi Arabia as he would have been.
As they made the point when they were doing the
grand they were doing the open workout, what that was,
I guess like Wednesday, Yes, Bam is in Saudi Arabia.
His wife is in labor. He was watching on FaceTime
she was giving birth to their child.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah, I know, I knew she had had the baby,
but I thought it was before he had left realize
that it was. It was in the last day or two.
Speaker 1: It was it was literally yesterday that she came at
I guess. So, you know, he did what he had
to do. I mean, you never want to miss the
birth of your kid, but obviously for their their future
life to go and have this very significant fight and
earn you know, probably multimillions of dollars to do, so
you got to do what you got to do. Keep
in mind, by the way, he was also in training
camp in the latter stages of her pregnancy, so they
were not you know, he was not necessarily around on
a moment by moment basis while she was going through
the pregnancy. So you know, that's a sacrifice, but obviously
for reasons that are important to make sure you have
your family financially set up. Not to mention what he
can achieve if he wins the fight to become now
a three bell champion. If you go back to earlier
this year, you know, he had a tremendous performance against
Fumalaylei Cafu, who he defeated by a tenth round knockout.
That was back in July to unify two with the belts.
That was a WBC and a WBO unification fight. Now
he takes on the very difficult, very able, very solid
legit Fernando Martinez, who had two big wins against Ioka.
The first one was a unification fight, but then because
of mandatory reasons, he ended up giving up one of
the belts and only fought for the WBA and the
other one. But I dare say, if Jesse Bam Rodriguez
wins this fight and his schedule for twenty twenty five
means he won by knockout against Cafua unified two titles,
and if he were to beat Fernando Martinez, however, he
beats him and he unifies three titles. Presuming there's not
a huge controversy. I think you're looking at a guy
that's going to be in the top tier of candidates
for the Fighter of the Year, because if you look
down the list of other fighters, there's not a lot
of the elites that fought more than once unfortunately, like
USIG time against Jujua. For example, Terence Crawford will get
a lot of attention even though he only had the
one fight, but it was a huge, huge victory against
Canelo Alvarez. But if you go down the list of
other can the dates. Let's say there's not a lot.
This is one of the weakest years of to me
anyway to pick from, so he's got a chance to
do that. Also, I'm not I don't think he's thinking
about that. He wants to win the fight and obviously
get the other belt, but it's a tremendous matchup. I mean,
Bam Rodriguez is a is a pound for pound caliber guy.
Obviously he's been talking about he wants this fight. He
wants if he wins, to unify and become undisputed in
his next fight, and then he's going to move up
to junior Banham weight, which obviously I mean to junior
federally rather which puts him in the same weight class
within a way, and with the fight I would love
to see more than anything in life as him and
Na Katani.
Speaker 2: Right right, You've been talking about that is can't the
argument be made Bam Rodriguez is the best American smaller
weight fighter the last two or three years of the sport.
I don't know who else it would be if it's
not him, with all the accomplishments I'm talking about, like
twenty twenty two, twenty three, twenty four to twenty five.
This is the guy. This is the guy here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not even sure who the other Who are
the other candidates?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know that there is one.
Speaker 1: So you stay smaller, you mean like featherweight and below.
Speaker 2: Yes, the smaller weight fighters. He would be the guy
right now fighting around the range of one fifteen one,
eighteen one, twenty two whatever. And you know he's talented
and he can paunch.
Speaker 1: I would tell you that dam Radriez to me anyway.
And again it's not you know, his career is not over,
so you can't really know for sure just yet. But
he's on what I think is fair to say is
a Hall of fame trajectory. The guy has already won
titles in multiple weight classes. He's you know, he's already
unified in this weight class. He is, uh, you know,
there's nothing to not like. He's got lots of nice
wins in terms of names on his record. He you know,
granted they were slightly older, but he's beaten guys like
Sir Rungby Si and Carlos Quadras, very respected former champions. Uh.
He had he took the undefeated a record away in
devastating fashion. Uh, in a unification fight at flyweight against
Sonny Edwards. He then has a knockout victory in a
in an excellent battle against a future Hall of Famer
in one Francisco Estrada. That was a huge win that
took place last year. I mean, you know, spectacle and
even though like let's say he fights Pedro Guivara, who
was a mandatory because it was he had the interim
title on Bam had a full title. Okay, maybe not
a huge name, but a spectacular knockout and even Kafu undefeated,
a guy who had gone overseas and won his title,
had the bravery and the stones to come and fight
Bam in Texas where Bam is from, and put up
a good fight and got knocked out. Like Bam is
fashioning a superior resume, uh and doing in a variety
of weight classes, and he's not done yet. I mean,
this is not a guy who's close to the end
of his career, does tej. He is twenty five years old,
you know, and I granted the younger i mean smaller
weight fighters maybe age more quickly because of the strain
of making weight and that sort of thing, but he
should have He hasn't taken a ton of punishment. If
he's got the hunger and the desire, he should have
still at least another several you know, five years. You know,
in this time, yes, the top I would think yes.
So that's a this is a big moment and a
great opportunity. Now Martinez is undefeated. Also, he's eighteen and
zero with nine knockouts. He's coming off the back to
back victories against Kazuto Ioka. Their July twenty twenty four
fight was a legit fight of the year candidate was spectacular.
That was a unification fight. He won, and then, of course,
you know, we told him that what happened with having
to give up one of those titles because of the
mandatory situation, he opted to do a much more lucrative
rematch against Ioka and defend the WBA belt that he
had won, rather than, you know, take on a mandatory
that was going to be for a fraction of the money.
But he went out there and even though it wasn't
maybe as good of a fight, he still won the fight.
It wasn't it wasn't there was it was competitive, but
he won. And Ioka has been a hell of a
fighter for a long long time. He's a borderline in
my mind, a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. And now
he was going in to fight by Rodriguez. So and
by the way, before he fought Ioka, he had had
two victories, good victories against jerwy Akas in title fights,
though those were at least one of them was on showtime.
So this is a legit fight. This is like the sleeper.
I think this could be action packed. I think this
could be terrific. Like I'll make sure. I mean, I'm
gonna watch the whole card obviously, but I'm definitely focusing
it on that one. Like, I think this has a
chance to steal the show.
Speaker 2: Again, you haven't heard a lot of buzz about it. Again,
it's over in Saudi Arabia, etc. But I'm with you,
this may be the best fight on the card, and
they're not paying us to say that. This one could
be it Bam Rodriguez and Fernando Puma Martinez from Argentina.
Let's see what happens on that one and one more
four world title fights. You did talk recently to Abdullah
Mason again. The interview is on this podcast feed. The
video of the interview is also on the Big Fight
Weekend YouTube page. Huge moment for the Cleveland, Ohio native,
as he will now fight England Sam Noakes, who's also
undefeated and on the rise. This is an intriguing fight
that gets the four fights of this card really underway.
Four title fights of this card underway. Let's have some
more on that.
Speaker 1: Another good matchup. Now. It's unfortunate that it's happening, and
I don't mean because of anything negative about either Sam
Noakes or Abdulla Mason, but the reality is it's happening
because Keishaan Davis, who was the WBO lightweight champion, came
to a hometown fight against Edwin de los Santos and
as my good friend TJ. Reeves said, he missed weight
by like four exits on the highway.
Speaker 2: Yes he did.
Speaker 1: I mean he was like over four pounds overweight, and
the fight got canceled. He got shoot to the title.
It was a hold, and then there was all the
mess that happened afterwards, as far as like fighting in
the bowels of the arena, getting kicked out of the
arena and his hometown a very embarrassing situation. Really has
had his career in a complete shambles at the moment.
Because of that, that night, Abdullah Mason was the co feature,
he got bumped up to the main event. He won
his fight, he was already one of the top ranked
WBO contender. Sam Noaks was the same, and so when
the title became vacant, this was the master was ordered
and now it's happening for that vacant title. So Abdulla
Mason is nineteen and ohero with seventeen knockouts. A lot
of people have had him over the last couple of
years prospect of the year. He's only twenty one years old,
and if you listen to the interview or watch the
interview on our YouTube channel that I conducted with him,
you wouldn't think he's twenty one years old. He comes
across as a much much more or young man than that,
very poised, very well thoughtful with his responses, and and
he's got a really good, tight knit team around him
with his father and his brothers. There's not a lot
of entourage, like he's really focused on his career and
he doesn't have a lot of outside distractions, it doesn't
seem and so this is a big moment for him
in terms of Sam Oaks, who's a lot older at
age twenty eight, but started, you know, a little bit
later than than Abdulla Mason did seventeen and oher with
fifteen knockouts. And if you take a look at their records,
Abdulla Mason has beaten the types of guys that he
had to beat in terms of fighting here in America,
and if you look at the Sam Noaks resume, he's
kind of fought similar type of guys but in the UK.
So they're both going into this fight still kind of
not not finished. Products don't have a big win so
to speak, to hang their hat on, but on paper,
matches up like a good, good matchup. We shall see.
I feel like that for one punch that they both
carry power, but the speed advantage one hundred percent is
going to be in favor and obviously the youth advantage
in terms of seven year age difference for Abdullah Mason.
One tidbit is if Abdullah Mason wins this fight, he
will supplant Brian Norman at age twenty four. And because
Abdulla is or rather i'm sorry, Xander's Ace who was
twenty three, he was twenty two when he won the title,
but Mason would become the youngest reigning male world champion
in boxing today. That is, you know, pool to a plish,
and he has high hopes for that. This should be
another good fight. I mean, the matchups are good. I
can tell you one thing. There are definitely people that
I know who are on team Mason that were a
little they are a little nervous about this.
Speaker 2: Fight interesting and they should be because again there's some
unknown variables for both guys here on what happens when
you get in this level of competition. Who handles the
whole thing with this week, with the time difference and
the travel, etc.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about that for a minute.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it is definitely for the American fighters for sure,
trying to get acclimateed. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: So okay, so this is at the Zone pay per
view and the pay per view and then I want
everybody to listen to this, and I'm gonna get a
thousands of fucking questions I'm sure on social media over
the next couple of days about it. There there are
more fights on the show than just these four title fights.
There's like Vito mil Nikki is in a ten rounder,
and there's some other prospect the types in Muhammad Ala Khalal,
the Saudi Arabian fighter that's a favorite of Turkey Al
Sheikh's and so they have a bunch of fights on
the show. They're all on the pay per view. It
starts at three pm Eastern Time. Three pm Eastern time,
obviously it is much later in the evening comes Saudi
Arabia time, which is eight hours ahead of the East Coast,
as we already discussed in your travel plans, So the
main event of the show, Benavide's against Yard, is not
scheduled to start in Saudi Arabia. It'll be about five
o'clock in the morning, so and if you back it out,
the co feature will be around four o'clock in the morning,
and so on and so forth. So these guys who
are all American based other than Yard are going to
be fighting. And Puma is from UH Sergeant America but
similar at the time zones is what would be here
in America UH and Noaks of course being from the UK.
But they're all on wacky times that they're going to
be fighting at. So that's a big adjustment. So these guys,
like Benavidez told me an hour interview. You can see
it on the YouTube pages. As we discussed talking about
getting there. He trained for the last three weeks of
the camp, or to let you three of the last
three weeks at the camp in Dubai before he went
to Riad, which is roughly the same time zone, I think.
And so he's been adjusting all along and trying to,
you know, do his workouts and crazy times at night
just to keep his body, you know, on the same
time clock where he's going to be fighting for the
real fight. Why would you want to train at three
o'clock in the afternoon for weeks leading up to a fight,
just on fight night to fight at five o'clock exactly.
Speaker 2: And Canelo talked about this openly about and he get
it in the interview with you, about how weird it
was and how it did bother him that he was
fighting that early in the morning on Sunday morning in
Saudi Arabia when you had the awful fight with Skull
back earlier this year. So to say to just dismiss
this as not being a factor, it obviously can be
a fact that it will be.
Speaker 1: No I think that that the fighters who handle that aspect,
I mean, it's hard enough to get ready for a
fight with making weight and making sure you eat the
right things, and you're trained and you're mentally prepared in
all the different things. Now you've traveled to Saudi Arabia
and even that, okay, you get over the jet lag
and all that, and you're a much different atmosphere than
you're used to being in. And oh, by the way,
you're not going to fight at like eleven o'clock at
night like you're used to. You're gonna fight at five
o'clock or four o'clock or three o'clock or two o'clock
in the morning. So one hundred percent that has to
be factored in. So the guys who handle that and
whose teams prepare them the best to do that, are
are going to help themselves dramatically in my mind. So
you always remember that, you know, you or I are
here at America and I'm watching the fight at the
Benavidias fight supposed to be a walk into the ring
approximately nine pm Eastern time, or the Cole feature for
approximately eight o'clock Eastern time. Then, like we were talking
about West Coast even earlier, keep in mind that for
the guys in the ring, it's fucking the middle of.
Speaker 2: The night when normally right almost early morning whatever.
Speaker 1: Whether you want on the East coast or the west coast,
you know. So, uh, just to reiterate three o'clock for
the whole event it will start, and then the main
event approximately nine pm Eastern time, where it will be
five o'clock in the morning in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 2: Brought right, So we gave you a bunch obviously on that,
all right, some news we left off the weekend. And
one of the things that I said, kind of in passing,
are we going to get an official announcement? Here we
go on Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua, and we did
get the official announcement Monday morning, bright and early. Ray
Fields texting me, Hey, they gave you your announcement. You
were asking for a yes, all right, so now they're
gonna have it.
Speaker 1: You're making threats. You're making threats. I was saying, announce
the better announced it.
Speaker 2: I was saying, they better announced it, or it was
saying to me they're negotiating with somebody else and trying
to smoke them out on the price. So apparently this
is legit, I say, Apparently we'll get to it in
a moment. What my theories are. They're having a press
conference on Friday afternoon as we released this Thursday night
into Friday morning, Friday afternoon in Miami. Now, the one
thing I ask of you is do we know if
Anthony Joshua is in the United States? And is he
physically going to be there or is he virtually on
video going to be there for this press conference in Miami.
I don't know that answer. Go ahead, no, I'm told
he's going to be there. And as a matter of fact,
some of the matchroom people like Eddie Hearn and Frank Smith,
they are there in the States. They're going to the
They're going to be there, one hundred percent, will be there,
all right. So he crazy travel snaff so he will.
And I mean we've seen some of these where they
have the transcontinental video hookup, whether the fighters fighting in Australia.
And again I was there and went through the whole
charade with Tommy Fury, with Jake Paul Uh sitting in
Tampa for the fight, the rematch that they were supposed
to have and Uh, Tommy Fury was on video with
Tyson Fury and the video kept freezing up. So I've
I've been to these where it's been virtual. That's why
I was asking they both gonna be.
Speaker 1: The literal for the literal tens of millions of dollars
that he's gonna make in this fight. Yeah, he's gonna, Uh,
he's gonna he's gonna show up again, aguin lets. It's
going in a dramatics nephew of the travel, but but
putting that aside, so they'll do the press covers. It's
gonna be at the arena where the fight's taking place.
The fight is scheduled, uh for Uh, it's gonna well,
remember he was supposed to fight Tank Davis what November fourteenth,
we know what happened there where he Uh, Tank was
dropped from the fight because of yet another allegation of
domestic violence. So they they rescheduled uh and got a
new opponent for Jake Paul and uh, this is what
we're doing. We're doing We're doing this, We're doing this fight.
So it's gonna be its same location, by the way,
where the Tank fight was supposed to be, which is
the uh what is it the Kessia Center in.
Speaker 2: It's like Miami Heats Arena, the downtown arena. That's the
new sponsor name. Well, it has had two or three
different names. Uh, okay. So the only thing I'm saying is.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's taking place on December nineteenth.
Speaker 2: On Friday night. We still have a month to get there.
And forgive me if I'm not dubious that we've seen
some of these Jake Paul things go. Well, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, you're now you're now going to get the list.
The Tommy Fury fight never happened here.
Speaker 1: A, I don't understand what ago, but let's talk about
on schedule. No, it was.
Speaker 2: It was injury. Yes, so it got it got screwy
around that the Hassim Rockmand disaster where he couldn't figure
out would I had to call that off? Do not
act like when I haven't lived this with you. Don't
don't act like that I haven't lived this.
Speaker 1: But every single fight in the history that we cover,
anything can happen. There's no reason that just to single
this one out because you have some hang up about
Jake Paul. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Okay, again, there are four different instances since the end
of twenty twenty one where he tried to make a
fight and it didn't happen, even on short notice. All
I am saying is, don't be surprised if something screwy
happens to fight. We got plenty of time to talk
about it. We got plenty of times talking you. But
you and I both believe the same thing. If this
comes off, Anthony Joshua was gonna come across the ring
and look out because Jake Paul's not been in the
ring anything like that or anything that big.
Speaker 1: That's also clarify. It's an official, actual fight understandard normal boxing.
There's no tweaks that I'm aware of at all. This
is a eight round schedule fight, but three minute rounds.
It's going to be normal heavyweight ten ounce gloves, not
like in the Tyson fight where they used larger gloves
and a shorter you know, rounds were two minutes and
not three. It's not an exhibition. Anthony Joshua, you know,
was training for a fight and the thing that was
important and people should understand this. It's not like Anthony
just took this on a month's notice. He's been in
the gym after the elbow surgery, been rehabb't been getting
ready for a fight. That him and his team and
Eddie Hearn specifically have talked about ad nauseum that he
would probably fight before the end of this year. It's
just a matter of which card he was going to
fight it now. My reporting was that he before this
fight between he and Jake was finalized, they were preparing
to slide him in on the Quiet to fight on
the card in Saudi Arabia on Saturday against the journeyman
ish heavyweight cash Is Cheney from Connecticut. That was done
and he was going to appear on that show just
to get in the couple of rounds or whatever, shake
off the rust and see how the elbow was before
what Turkey went on his own during an interview on
a recent show and talked about this was during the
Connor ben U Bank event, and he has, as Turkey said,
we have big plans for Joshua a fight in my country,
meeting Saudi Arabia in February, followed by a big fight,
as he said, the biggest fight in boxing or the
biggest fight in boxing history or some you know declaration,
clearly talking about in September, but clearly talked about making
Joshua against Tyson Fury and so instead of doing a
a nothing fight against Kasha Cheney for obviously what would
be a much smaller amount of money, not the main event,
just kind of slide him on the show, kind of
like they we're gonna stack Arthur better be I'm gonna
stay busy fight on this card. Before that fell apart,
but he got, I guess, a manimal offer and able
to work things out for the Jake Paul to get
that done. So you know what, if you're Anthony Joshua,
I'd rather fight Jake Paul in a easy ish type
win obviously then fight cash As Cheney and by the way,
make literally tens of millions of dollars more to fight
Jake Paul.
Speaker 2: And the man fold less at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think I don't know the exact numbers,
but I dare say Joshua's probably gonna pocket around at
least thirty million dollars for this endeavor. So why wouldn't
you do that? And by the way, he is a
two hundred and fifty pound man. There's been rumors I
have not heard specifically that this is true, but there
are a lot of quote unquote reporting that that he
can't weigh more than two forty five. But that's like
given to an Eskimo. I mean his entire career, he's
only been above two forty five a few times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's been two fifty or more of the last
three fights, but he was like two fifty one when
he got knocked out by Dubois. So they'll clarify the
weight thing at the press conference when they're talking about it, I'm.
Speaker 1: Sure, necessarily. But the point is, even if it is
a two forty five weight, as somebody said to me,
so Anthony Joshua will be in a little better shape.
Five hardyweight that generally fights at two fifty is not
a big deal, So that would be the only thing
that'll be different. And then you know, Anthony Joshua by
all rights should get him out of there if he
presses on it. You're talking one or two rounds.
Speaker 2: To be honest, we got plenty of time to go
over the fight. But again, catch the press conference. What's
interesting in our timeline, you and I will be doing
the live bet Us TV boxing show while that press
conference is taking place if it comes off on time
at one Eastern time, so I will have to monitor
both just in case somebody does a Jerry Springer show
and picks up a chair or does whatever which you've
been going before too. Stay tuned, stay tuned for that.
All right, a couple of other news items because we've
been here for a few moments. All Right, Ryan Garcia,
you've told us previously that the talks and negotiations are
going on. Is he gonna fight Mario Barrios for the
WBC Welterweight Championship. Well, Garcia has spoken up. What is
the latest?
Speaker 1: So he went on his social media and he posted
a video of him signing a contract. You know, he
didn't show us what the contract exactly was, but he signed.
Apparently he signed about agreement or done what he's got
to do. But so okay, so yes, the Barrios fight
has been in the process of being made. He was
one of the fighters that was contacted by Jake Paul's
team about the prospect of taking this fight in December. Obviously,
they were far down the road on the Barrios fight.
So as people in Vassy, it's going to happen, but
it's not done yet because even though even though Ryan
may have signed something, there's still lots of other things
that need to get done before it's official official. So
number one, it's supposed to be February twenty first of
it happens, it'll take place in Las Vegas. Where specifically
in Vegas apparently not determined. And PBC and them Barrios people,
I am told they're all good to go, they're ready
to do it. They can't wait for this fight. Their
stuff is done. But you've got still issues between Golden
Boy and Ryan, which there's always issues between Golden Boy
and Ryan. Golden Boy contends that they still have multiple
fights remaining on their contract with Ryan. Ryan and his
team say no, this is our last fight, so they're
trying to memorialize specifically what we have left and getting
that all done. And they still have to do the
provision of services agreement and finalize that between Golden Boy
and Ryan Garcia because of you. Because Golden Boy, I
guess will be the so called lead promoter of the event,
and I guess it will be available though on pay
per view via de Zone and or Prime Video. But
the point I'm making is there's still things that have
to be not necessarily negotiated, at least in terms of
not the stuff related to Golden Boy and Ryan, but
between PBC.
Speaker 2: We need some clarity and there's not usually a lot
of clarity around Ryan Garcia, so we got to get
somebody else to help clarify it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Point is, as I say all the time boxing events,
you've got to sign. You got to make your deal
with your promoter, and the two promoters got to get
their deal. There's got to be the broadcast deals got
to get work that there's varying stages before it fight's done.
So here's the bottom line. If you saw Ryan Garcia's
video and you say, oh, the fight's done, No, not quite.
There's still lots of other people.
Speaker 2: I like how you put it. He signs something we
don't know what and it doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1: But that point is the fight is likely going to
take place. He will challenge Barrios for the WBC welterweight title.
And by the way, a critical factor in that was
what we discussed recently, that the WBC lifted the band
that they had of having Ryan in their ratings and
being eligible for their fights. That dated back from when
he went on that ridiculous hate filled speech on one
of his social media things, ranting against the black people
and against Muslims and saying a lot of terrible things
frankly that should not be forgotten by.
Speaker 2: Too heavy items. Okay, since you and I were here last,
Alexander Usik did vacate the WBO portion of the heavyweight championship,
and the WBO immediately elevated Fabio Wardley, who pulled the
upset of the interim champ Joseph Parker back a couple
of weeks ago. Now what four weeks ago? Now? All right,
so give me you've done some reporting on this as
well as the week has gone on. Does this necessarily
mean that Usik and Wardley aren't gonna fight next anyway?
Or what does it mean? What are you finding out?
Speaker 1: No, they're definitely not fighting next. If he wanted to
fin next, he would have vacated the title. So this
is now the second time that Usik has been an
undisputed heavyweight champion and given up that status. But the
difference between the first time and the second time is
it remember before the when he did it the first time,
it was because he was signed an obligated to do
the contractual rematch for wild amounts of money against Tyson Fury,
So of course he went through with that rather than
go and fight I believe it was Philip Ergovich at
that time, so they allowed Dubois and Argovich of for
the interim title, So he gave up the IDF title
and he lost that status as on disputed. We all
know he's the real champ, we all know he's the
lineal champ. But if you're into the undisputed aspect with
the belts, it is just a fact. Now in this
particular instance, he is not encumbered by any rematch clauses
or anything other than a mandatory to the WBO, which
is next up in the rotation system. And to my
way of thinking, as it turned out, the Worldly fight
seemed to be a good fight because I feel like
he could make a lot of money in that fight.
It'd be a big event. Worthley's a fresh face, a
good name on the scene, with a good record and
a growing fan base, and a fight where he'd still
probably favorite Lusk to win the fight, and if he
wants to continue to be undisputed, that would be the fight.
And on top of that, there wasn't like some other
fight in the division that I looked at and said, well,
that's a much bigger fight. That's the fight that the
fans are demanding that type of thing, Like, who are
they demanding Lusik to fight? He already beat Theory twice.
He already beat Joshua twice. He already beat Dubai twice
by knockout. You know. And if you go down the line,
like I mean, is it Deontay Wilder fight a big
fight comparatively?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: You know, he's basically near the end. If you go,
you know, is he if he were to fight a G. Cabiel,
is that a bigger fight? Absolutely not, even though he's
a worthy contender. My point is of what's there? It
felt like this was the fight that could happen, but
he obviously thought otherwise. His team says, we have a plan,
and they gave up the title. So Wardley gets elevated,
and so now it's a matter of, Okay, who does
Wordley fight next? If you look in the rankings, Moses
Tama is the number one contender that would be next up.
I don't think that fight will happen. They're both with
Frank Warren. Obviously, Frank is looking to keep as much
of the heavyweight title picture under Queensberry control, you know,
and he's got his tentacles and all the different organization
with his contenders, because Frank does have the best group
of heavyweights out there other than he doesn't have Usik.
But the problem with making a Toma against Wardley is
they're both trained by Ben Davis. He talked about that
would be a pretty signific think this.
Speaker 2: Let's just say this, and Toma is not ready for
Alexander Usik. A Toama needs another fight or two to
show something he's not ready to be in.
Speaker 1: Would be ready for Fabio Wardley.
Speaker 2: Yes, but as you just said, there's a roadblock there.
They're trained by the same guy who knows who knows? Uh.
Speaker 1: THEO good thing is Usik says he's continuing to fight,
as he made that statement a few weeks ago. I'm gonna.
I'm definitely fighting next year. I'm fighting till I'm forty
one years old. I mean, we'll see you. I don't
think things have changed in the last a month or so, so, uh,
we shall see. It's I'm a little disappointed. I thought
he was sick. Would honor the mandatory and uh and
make a big event with Wardley. It would be a
good fight.
Speaker 2: Not gonna happen. Stick with the heavyweights. I know you've
been busy Thursday afternoon before you and I started recording,
because the Daniel Dubois Frank Sanchez purse bid was supposed
to happen. And is Frank Sanchez gonna maybe be a
name come on for for Usik? Probably not, but the
Dublis Sanchez fight is now not happening.
Speaker 1: Explain more so, that was ordered to be the eliminator
for the IBF to become the Inventory Challenger. And it's
not the first time people say, well, how can do
bab be in that position? You just got knocked out
by Joshua I mean, not by Joshua, by Whosick. You're
right about that, But the way that that works, do
you go down the ratings? I mean just because he
got stopped in that fight didn't mean he was going
to drop out of the ratings. He was dropped down
to like number five. Maybe that wasn't low enough, but
the point was, as the IBF went through the ratings,
guys were turning down. So Tosa, we've discussed. He's sitting
there right now as the mandatory, but that's going to
expire and he's probably not going to get the fight
Frank Sanchez is number three, so they ordered Sanchez to
fight the guys that were behind him. They had ordered
him to fight different guys who pulled out. Frank Sanchez
was ordered to fight Fa Jagua. That didn't happen. They
actually went to a pers bit and the Jagua didn't
like the results, so he was out. So he's been
dropped out of the ratings for six months. Richard Torres
Junior turned down the fight you had Danie Dubad. They
accepted the position, and so now it was a matter
we negotiate, then we if we can't make a deal
with they'd order purspit. Perspit was supposed to take place
Thursday afternoon, and literally, as I was told, about an
hour before the purspit is supposed to happen, Queensberry informs
the IBF that they're withdrawing from their position. So that
now leaves once again Frank Sanchez, who is being treated
like he's a fucking Muhammad Ali reincarnated. Then nobody will
fight the guy in this fight, so now they'll go
down the ratings again. So if you're curious, I went
and looked at the ratings of the IBF then and
I actually think this fight might have a chance to
happen because the guy I'm about to mention has got
nothing really to lose and he's not really going anywhere.
This is a big opportunity if you were to get it.
Number six in the IBF rankings at heavyweight is Jared Anderson,
who's been kind of out of the picture for a
little while, but this would be one way to get
right back in the thick of things with one fight.
And if you go beyond Jared Anderson, the next guy
is Michael Hunter, who has been dropped from the WBA
regular mandatory position. He's looking for something that would be
an opportunity. And beyond that, you've got the Olympic super
heavyweight gold medalist back a Deer Jolla Love who just
want to fight, and it was Bekistan this past weekend.
So those are the guys that are going to get ordered.
Speaker 2: But does Baby still care about fighting? We don't know
that answer, and we haven't seen him since Whin he
fought earlier this year. That's the one fight since Martin
Boccoli destroyed him in August of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: So, and by the way, mosesy Toma was another guy
who had then ordered to fight to bought in the
eliminary he withdrew from the position. Also, they're both with Queensbury.
Obviously they got other plans from Moses. But the fact
is you got one heavyweight after another and then and
every time this happens, it pushes back Frank Sanchez because
they got to go through the process again. So now
it's next order X number of weeks to negotiate, then
a purse bid, you know, and and maybe there's an
extension and anyway, it just it's like a never ending thing.
I'm getting tired of right about how many people turned
down Frank Sanchez one minute.
Speaker 2: All right, quickly and then we're gone. Tim Zo, you
talk to us previously on the pod is going to
be back, and now we know when he's going to
be back and where go ahead.
Speaker 1: Well, after he got destroyed in the rematch against the
Bashi in Frondora back in July, that was on the
undercard when Manny Packet, when Mario Barrios had their fight
in Las Vegas. You know, he lost again. You know,
he was on a it's a rough spot for him.
I mean, at one point most people were looking at
him he's like, he's the number one guy in the
way class at one fifty four. And then suddenly he
takes that memorable bloody decision loss to Fandora. Uh he loses, uh,
you know. And then and after that he loses to Mortaza,
he gets a shot at the IDEF title. He just
losed that fight. And at least in the Fandora fight,
it was a split decision, and there was obvious circumstances
because of the crazy gash that he had. You can
understand that where taz Lee though absolutely annihilated him four knockdowns.
Speaker 2: I was there, I keep saying that I was there
in Orlando, Florida. I saw that firsthand.
Speaker 1: So and then he got to get well fight in Newcastle,
Australia against the man of the moment, Joey Spencer, who
he blew out in four rounds. That was to be expected.
And then he went and he got punished and retired
on the stool against Fondora after the seventh round in July.
And so now there's like a lot of questions like
what the Heck's cup with Tim Zoo's career and talk
about a fall from grace very precipitously I guess he
announced that he was going to return. He was not
retiring like a lot of folks maybe had suggested he do.
He announced that he was changing trainers. He had went
to work with Pedro Diaz, the well respected Cuban trainer
with him in Miami, and then just a couple of
days ago, No Limit Boxing, his promoter in Australia, announced
that he would have a ten round middleweight fight. It
will take place on December seventeenth. He'll be fighting back
in his hometown of Sydney, where he hasn't fought for
the last few years. He'll take on the American Anthony
Velasquez eighteen oh to one with fifteen knockouts out of Springfield, Massachusetts.
Certainly not a well known guy. He's really the way
that you could best describe him as a guy that
has fought most of her on the New England club circuit.
But he's got a huge opportunity to go to Australia
with a great record to see if he can finish
off what's left of Tim Zoo. We'll find out. He's
gonna be fighting off see a little bit heavier than
he has been for his career, and if there's a
chance for tim Zu to rebound and get him stuff
together and maybe make another run at the title. It's
gonna start with this fight. I mean, I don't And
again on the day, it's not like it's like the
Spencer fight, like it's a guy he should win, but
you just don't go after the losses he's taken.
Speaker 2: And on the date that's a mid week fight as
they do this a lot of the time in Australia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a normal thing in Australia.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, a mid week December seventeenth battle for tim Zu's
return and then coming in January, Golden boy Is announced
they will start their schedule up. Tell us about the
main event, the fighters and where.
Speaker 1: Well they're gonna do. We discussed the fact that they
were trying to get the rematch done between the Welterway contenders,
Alexis Rocha and ral Kurrio, the Mexican Olympian. They had
a tremendous battle in their first fight last December. They
fought to a draw and so they're doing the rematch now.
Roach has not fought since then, but Kuriell has had
one fight since He fought on the undercard when Jake
Paul fought Chabas junior that took in June in Los Angeles.
But they're doing the rematch, and I can't imagine this
is going to be anything other than another slam bang
kind of fight. So it will kick off Golden Boys
twenty twenty sixth calendar. They'll do this fight on January
sixteenth and will take place at the Afrashure Arena in
Palm Desert, California. And the interesting they have the co
feature is another rematch, So you got the top fighter
rematch between Roacha and Kyria, and the co feature is
also going to be a rematch and that's a ten
rounder at junior featherweight between the What was a draw
that took place this past July majority draw. He had
Gucci Manny Flores, who was a popular fighter from Coachala, California,
draws in a good crowd when he spot his fights
at the Fantasy Springs in Indio. He's taken on the
undefeated Jorge chab Is from Mexico. Their first fight was
a pretty good fight. Flores was a big favorite in
that fight, so it was kind of a big surprise
that they got that Flores got the draw so they're
doing it again. So that's your top two fights. I
mean that Chob has got the draw rather, so you
got two rematches to kick off Bulden. What was her?
Speaker 2: All right? We have given you a ton Let me
roll through this again. That we will be doing the
bet us TV Live Boxing show. Find us on social
media on kick dot com as well as bet US's
Facebook page, the Twitter handles, follow Dan social media and mine.
You'll see it live at one Eastern time. You can
watch it after the fact on kick dot com slash
bet USTv. So we will be there handicapping these four
fights the Ring four Night of champions card in Saudi
Arabia on Friday afternoon, and then I will make my
way to Los Angeles with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for
the Los Angeles Rams Sunday night football game. But before
we get to Sunday Saturday night, when the fights are over,
find our Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. You and I
will go live there after the Benavita's Yard main event
in the pay per view concludes. Obviously, we will go
live with a full recap of the entire show, So
find us exclusively on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.
That's the place to see it coming on Saturday night,
and in the meantime, the David Benavitas and Abdulah Mason
interviews are also on the YouTube page watch Dan with
both of them. Other than that, I think we've covered
everything else. They need to read your substack for the
very latest. You and I are going to be live again,
as a lot of people. Hear this on Friday morning
coming up at one Eastern time, so stay with us
by that big Dan Rayfield. Thank you. I am merely TJ. Reeves,
and we get ready for all that's going to happen
this weekend with all the action in Saudi Arabia, and
you've been listening to it on the Big Fight Weekend
Preview podcast