Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen rising super
middleweight Diego Pacheco did a ko in the matchroom main event.
It is a weekend that is a holiday weekend in
the US, but hey, we have a championship fight with
one of the top pound four pound names coming on Tuesday,
so we get to talk about that a little bit,
some other news and nostalgien more. It is the Fight
Freaks U Night Recap podcast. Welcome back in. I am
merely the somewhat competent host TJ. Reeves in the throes
of the labor Day weekend mayhem in and around the
Reefs household. Hopefully all of you are doing well, staying safe, etcetera. Hello,
Dan Rayfield, our insider Fight Freaks unit is his substack.
Why are you not subscribing? Why do you not have
the newsletter? You're missing out, Brother Rayfield. Good to be
back with you, to recap, to look ahead to in
a way, some other news, etc. How are things my
friend off the weekend?
Speaker 2: Thanks are good? Look quiet, but that's okay. We're gonna
get cranking up in a couple of weeks to cano.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do. We have a bunch bigger stuff ahead.
You need to be following. You need to be subscribing.
By the way, if you have been following a subscribing,
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this feed, go back and listen to it here back
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I realize a lot of people are out of pocket
they're traveling, But you know what, that's good for us
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everybody be safe traveling this weekend. It is still part
of the holiday weekend with Labor Day.
Speaker 2: With that, I'm traveling. I am traveling absolutely nowhere this weekend.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. You're traveling.
Speaker 2: Radius of travel this weekend might be like going to
the to the store, or going to right, you know,
wherever in the town.
Speaker 1: Whatever it is, my radius and you will be in
this world. Coming up is we have the wife's birthday.
We've had a birthday brunch at the time we're doing this,
But I got one of the twins who's working, and
so she drove herself to work to the first day
of work, which is nerve wracking enough on missus Raves
more so than me. So we're dealing kind of with that.
But I'm with you. I'm not traveling this weekend from
anything other than college football on the couch, some boxing
to the fridge. That's the extent of my of my
commute right now besides this pod. So we get together
and we're here to talk to pot. All right, we've
waited long enough. Diego Pacheco did get the KO. One
of us thought KO on the US Boxing show, by
the way, and it was a body shot KO main
event matchroom Boxing. All right, dive right in. Tell me
what you saw, including the new phrase is the one
hitter quitter. He put the one hitter quitter on him
with the big left, first time Suleski's ever been KOed.
All right, your thoughts, Dan Ray feel in the recap
mode on the Pacheco win.
Speaker 2: My thoughts are pretty clear cut. I thought that he
looked really good. He's a dynamic kind of fighters. He's
smart the way he boxes, he doesn't force things. I
thought he was patient, you know. I thought he did
a good job of kind of feeling him out, taking
it to him. SELECTI might have won around maybe two
it the most, you know, in the middle of the fight,
where I think it was more because because Pacheco sort
of was sort of trying to figure things out a
little bit and he backed off a little bit. But
all in all, I thought Diego Pacheco in his biggest
fight against the best name opponent of his career, was spectacular. Now,
I can't make Celesti out to be, you know, some
superstar fighter, but what you want to see when you're
watching a twenty year old young guy make his way
up the ladder and he's doing it, you know, in
a little bit of a pressurized situation where he's the
main event. He's in front of the hometown fans. Remember
he's from East Los Angeles. This was taking place in
Carson in the in the Dignity Health Park, so it's
right now store. So it's a home game, and so
there's pressure on the guy. He's talking about getting a
knockout before the fight. He knows going into the fight
that Celeski has never been stopped before. Even though he's
got some losses, he's been dropped but never stopped. When
he fought the big names that he's faced, which were
in a world titled fight at middleweight against Dimitris Andre,
he lost a decision one sided, but he went the route.
He lost against a very good puncher at middleweight, Daniel Jacobs,
he also got knocked down, but went the route in
a competitive loss. So Pacheco knows that people are going
to be measuring him because now Celeski, he's you know,
he had moved up to super midt awight a few
fights ago, but still you know, he's perceived as the
smaller guy. So he wanted to make, as they say
in the game, make a statement and winning. Sometimes winning
is all you gotta worry about. Win the fight and
move on and this was one of those kinds of
situations where given his position as the number one contender
in the WBO Super middleweight rankings, as I mentioned about
the pressure, the hometown, the acknowledgment that it's a knockout
kind of or bust in one sense because of what
I just mentioned. So there's all that pressure, and he
went out there and he did the job, and he
scored the knockout, clean, knockout, beautiful left hand. You know,
what he says was he didn't even feel like it
was the best shot, like it wouldn't. It didn't even
land that hard. But you know, we got him right
on the liver. Uh. And when he went down, he's like,
I knew that he's not getting up, and he was right.
And the funny thing about it, DJ is while, but
Checko was a pretty decent body puncher. He hadn't really
landed a lot of body shots in the fight. Now
according to the copy box statistics, now, body punches can
be jabs or power shots, So in terms of power
shots to the body that were non jabs, he had
only landed in the completed rounds or maybe even at
the beginning of the round where he scored the knocket
in the in the up to that point, he'd only
scored landed four knock four body shots, so.
Speaker 1: It was no body shots the whole fight, correct.
Speaker 2: So it wasn't like he was going for it, going
for it, going for and he finally clipped him, you know,
in in round six when he got the knockcout. He
he finally landed, you know, a great shot on that
one particular punch and so let's he just never realized
it was coming or you know it. It just came
out of nowhere and he went down.
Speaker 1: On this point. Sergio Mora on the call, because I
was seeing this on the call and have now heard
it on the replay call. Right before the knockdown, the
Latin Snake says, I look for him to go more
to the body, I mean within seconds of and boom
the left hand of the body and he gets the win.
So I'm curious here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And by the way he was down, it wasn't
like he just like get him with the body shot
and he could you know, he tried to get up
and he couldn't earn this and it was he got
up two seconds after the count was over. No, he
got now with the shot. He went down. He was
like he rolled over in the fetal position. He looked
like he was in agony. He got to was you know,
he rolled over on his back and then Ray Corona
the ref is counting counted him out. And a lot
of times, you know, guys jump right up, but no,
so this was legit and not gut. He stayed down
for another bit after then. That was a rough body.
Speaker 1: Fighters. We've talked about this all the time. Fighters talk
about that when that, when those things have happened to them,
they're like, you can't breathe. Nothing works. As much as
you are are saying, get up, get up. You can't.
You can't get up, you can't, you can't function. He
was trying. He rolled at one point to try to
get up and uh and the one hit or quitter
got him either.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm not sure what there is to be
critical to end.
Speaker 1: Up well, you know, especially early in a fight. Some
would go, and I've said this before too, can you
not get up from that? But I've heard enough fighters
talk about if it hits you right, No, no, I'm
talking about you can't.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about being critical of Pacheco. To me, there's
well now there's saying split hairs like his trainer. I'm
sure we'll see certain things, you know, hose they had
been a Viata senior when he looks at the video,
and they'll see certain things in a couple of the
rounds that were kind of close, or maybe that you thought,
maybe Celestie got the job done, but somebody you got
to give credit to the opponent too. So Leskie's no bum.
He's a real guy. And uh, you can say what
you want that he's a little older, he was a
little heavier than he's been whatever. You know what all
I know is the guy's been a very good fighter
for a very long time. And even when he's lost,
he's never been done like that before. And the checko
with that pressure that I mentioned, took care of the job.
He maintained his record twenty two to oh eighteen knockouts.
He's a bona fide contender. He's a problem for anybody
in the super win aweight division of my opinion. You know,
they're talking about all kinds of names afterwards. Now, look,
he's because he's number one in the WBO. At some
point they're gonna make them. They're gonna order the mandatory.
Now that's not coming immediately, and obviously Canelo's got to
deal with Berlanga in a couple of weeks. And you know,
the winner of that fight is going to probably have
him as a mandatory, but that fighter will also have
other titles as well that they'll be mandatory spor But
the point is this, he's not gonna Pachecko sit around
and wait. Eddie Hern was talking about, He's probably gonna
have at least two more fights before they get a
world title fight, whether it's against Canelo, Berlanga or somebody
else if the title changes hands or becomes vacant or
what have you. And they're talking about men, Billy, they're
talking about Mangia, maybe baziniing if he beats Mangia. I mean,
they're they're willing to do any kind of those fights.
And let me tell you right now, like my mind
blows up when I think about the prospect of seeing
Pachecko against Mongia. I mean, that is a dynamite fight
if they can make it. That's what they were really
talking up. Now. You know, obviously Monkey is gonna have
a lot to say about that too, for sure, But
as a fan man, that's a hell of a fight
if they can make it.
Speaker 1: All right, And so now he waits, we will probably realistically,
this is us playing me playing amateur matchmaker. He will
probably be back in the ring, you would think by
the end of this year or first or the next year,
to keep him active and keep his name out there
because he's young and obviously got the ko and he'll
probably headline again coming out and looks against we don't know.
Speaker 2: He's had two fights this year. Okay, he fought in
April against Mcalman. That was a distance fight where he
won and didn't get the knockout, you know, after a
long streak of knockouts. Now he comes back in this
fight on Saturday and scores a rousing knockout against a
Leski in a pretty good fight even besides the knockout.
And so yeah, there's no reason for our twenty three
year old kid, who's not injured, who's only fought twice
this year, to sit around and do nothing for the
next several months. So I would suspect that come I
would I would probably hazard to say, like December, like
one of the final shows of the year for de
Zone and for Mattrim that he'll be on one of
those cards. Uh, And I think that's good. I mean,
in a perfect world, which we do not live in,
he would be fighting four times this year. But that's
not gonna happen. So let's get in three and move
on and uh and set up some bigger stuff in
two thousand and twenty five. Because this kid is a
really good fighter. He's got a very good demeanor. He's
very patient in the ring. I mean, there's really nothing
I don't like about him. His defense is solid. Is
you know, he's not the fastest guy in the world,
but he's not slow. He obviously has good punching power.
He's got great size, and he's like six foot three
six foot four for super middleweight divisions is good size,
you know. And as I observed after the fight, I
wrote about a little bit about this in my post
fight article. You know what's better than the be Diego?
But check it right now. You know, he just made
a decent purse. He's in the ring, he's got those
regional titles, he's holding his baby daughter. Everything's good at home.
He just won. The fight, comes through against his best opponent,
no injuries, and this guy is the limit for this kid.
That's why I picked him as the twenty twenty three
Prospect of the Year. Now I don't think we can
call him the prospect anymore. I think if you're going
to discuss Diego Pacheco, you have to refer to him
as a contender in the I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Good to be him, all right. Immediately before that, Eduardo
Nunez victorious Sugar Nunez in his one and thirty pound
bout with Miguel Mariaga, the veteran and scores a TKO.
Thoughts on this and what it means for Nunaz going forward, please.
Speaker 2: Well, let me just say, Eduardo Sugar Nuniaz is a
bad boy. Back in the day, let's go back. You
know when the HBO boxing franchise was in its heyday,
Well we'll call it like the you know, the early
two thousands, the late nineties, whatever, Sugar Nuniaz would have
been like a stalwart unboxing after dark. They would have
brought him along. He's exciting, he fights in a good
weight class. He's very powerful, he's got some swagger in
the ring. It seems to me this guy is a
pure puncher. He is now twenty eight and one with
twenty eight knockouts. I mean, you can't really say much
more than that aspect of it. And if you go
back and look at when he lost a fight, he
got to go all the way back to twenty eighteen
fighting in a sixth rounder when he was still a
young prospect, and he lost a very close sixth round decision.
So not exactly the kind of thing that you're going
to give up on a guy over. I give him
credit because before this fight, in this fight, by the way,
where he scored the knockout against Miguel Mariagat, this was
his first ever fight in the United States, but in
his previous fight back earlier this year, he had traveled
to d Jikistan and he had scored his biggest victory
where he knocked out shave At Rakamov, who was a
former titlelder, in a good fight in the eleventh round.
That put him in the mandatory position for the IBF title.
So we're sitting there mandatory for the belt that was
at that time Cordina, and then he lost in the
upset to Kasachi, and so now he's the mandatory challenge
for the winner of Kasachi's upcoming fight when he's fighting
against was a Josh Warrington that's going to take place
on one of the upcoming Riad Seasons cards, So he is,
you know, he risked that stature. According to the to
Eddie Hearn, they did a little step aside bill to
allow that fight to go through. So he's supposed to
get the title fight against the winner of that fight
by the end of this year, and that will be
a very interesting fight, particularly if it's you know, I
don't know if that would take place in Saudi Arabia,
they would do it some you know, somewhere else. But
the bottom line is that's going to be an interesting,
an interesting fight to see him get that opportunity, because
let me tell you, he is, Like I don't you know,
whether it's Kasachi or it's you know, Warrington or whoever,
that that's a dangerous fight for whoever that winner is,
because let me tell you he is it's a devastating puncher.
I mean, what's there not like about him anything?
Speaker 1: If you say so, and you have been watching up
and coming fighters for the better part of twenty plus years,
pay attention, kids, Ray feels high on Sugar Nunez.
Speaker 2: It's not even like it's just a matter of you
can just tell like that he's just.
Speaker 1: Got like that got the goods, he's got the got.
Speaker 2: The engine, you know. And by the way, that that
Casati fight where he fights against Warton, that's actually I
was thinking it was the Beevil Better Be Up undercard.
It's actually the September twenty first undercard. So it's in
the coming weeks, uh on September twenty one when on
the Joshua the washup. So we're gonna know, uh, you know,
as long as the winner of that fight is uninjured
and there's no issues that come the end of the year,
probably that that that winner against against Sugar Nunyas is
going to be you know, in that world title fight.
But in terms of the performance itself that he had
in this particular about Mariaga, tough dude, I mean, veteran,
I mean nobody. I don't really think anybody anybody that
was really knew the business or knew the sport or
knew these guys expected that Mary was going to win
the fight. But the fact that he put up you
know that they I think the expectation was he'd put
up a good effort for a period of time. But
you know, given his ai and the wear and tear
and that sort of thing, you know, eventually you know
he's gonna not gonna make it. But he didn't just
lose the fight. He got absolutely dominated. He got dropped
two times, one on a beautiful right hand that just
I thought he almost was knocked out on that shot,
and then finally again later in the fight, and then
after that knockdown in the sixth round, they stopped it
in the corner appropriately so. But remember even though Mariago
now has seven defeats in his career, he's only got
two stoppage losses, once in this fight against Nunyez. And
you got to go back to what twenty eighteen when
he lost in a world title fight, when he retired
on the stool in that fight as well, against you know,
being totally dominated by literally the prime facility Lomachenko. I
mean that that's you can't really argue with that loss.
So he may have lost other guys, but never been
stopped like this. And even Lomachenka then beat him up
like that, didn't didn't knock him down the way he
got knocked down. So you know, this was a good
if you're a matchroom boxing guy. This is a good
night for their two guys. I mean, they were in
with veteran guys who have some accomplishment, who gave great efforts,
who maybe won a couple of rounds or or had
a few moments if you don't necessarily thing Marigo won rounds.
But they performed, they made it exciting, and they scored
their wins, and they moving on to big things. But
check goes number one in the WBO title shot you
know sometime in the near future. Uh, and UNA's you know,
and title shot in his next fight. I mean, so
it was a it was a really good medding.
Speaker 1: But check and check for both of those guys to
do what they were.
Speaker 2: Supposed to SOUNA. I'm very I'm interested in because he's exciting, right,
He's he's a puncher. I love punchers, and he's a
puncher that seems to also have an idea of how
to box too. But that right hand, that right hand
is something spectacular.
Speaker 1: Like it all all right, So we're in an interesting
time frame here, uh, kind of like Bill and ted
z excellent adventure to go back in the eighties, But
we're not going back in time in a phone booth
right feeling me that love that the entry I love,
I love all about it. Strange things are a foot
at the circle, k uh.
Speaker 2: So something something is a miss at the circle day.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, man, but you know when the Mongrels ruled China. No,
I just work here. It's the parking lot attendant for
the okay, So in any event.
Speaker 2: In the Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden.
Speaker 1: Excellent, stop it. The clock in San Dimas is always ticking,
and it's ticking right now because usually we're in the
recap mode. But we've got a preview of the Naoia
in a way the Monster undisputed one hundred and twenty
two pound title defense, because that fight is not until
Tuesday morning, US time, off the holiday off of Labor Day.
A great many of you are probably hearing us on
Labor Day. This fight is Tuesday morning, US time. So
you and I have already sparred verbally and prediction wise
on the bet Us Boxing Show about this fight, because
that was our duty on Friday. We have not talked
about it on this podcast. So for the pod audience,
let's get into this defense. TJ. Dohaney is the opponent
from Ireland by way of Australia. You're keeping me straight
on the geography trains out of us earlier. But he's Irish,
all right. The Monster is supposed to win, defend the belt,
supposed to win by knockout. I'm gonna go out it
the same way as we did previously for the audience here.
If Dohan he's gonna hang in and make this interesting,
give me a couple of elements that we're looking for.
Or is this the monster coming right after him in
Tokyo here on Tuesday for another ko win? What do
you think? Real quick?
Speaker 2: I think that he might have to rely on prayer
if he's a god fearing man. I mean, listen, I
all due respect to TJ. Dohane. He's been a good
fighter for a very long time. He was a world champion.
He's got a solid record. He's twenty six and four.
Most notably in those four defeats, he has never been stopped.
He's always given a good effort. He is, though thirty
seven years old. Maybe maybe the fact that he's a
southpaw could be some advantage to him. I doubt it.
This is this is I mean, in a way is
fought a ton of champions a ton of times in
his divisions that he's fought in. You don't become undisputed
in two different way classes if you're not fighting the
best guys, because to put all the titles together, you
got to fight the other champions, who by definition are
usually the best guys in that division. And he's on
one level and Dohaney is on a much lower not
a much lower level, but certainly a lower level. And
so by if you take a look at the kind
of resume that in a way has fashioned in recent years,
this is his gimme fight. Not every single fight is
going to be I'm fighting King Kong, or I'm fighting
the number one contender or in fighting another champion. You know,
guys are in this to make their legacy and their money,
and guys also are going to every now and again
take a softer touch. That's just the reality. I'm gonna
have a problem with that, because if you take a
look at the gauntlet that in a way has ran
through over the last several fights, this isn't even that
big of a step down, but it is. It is
a showcase fight. This is not a fight that anybody
has expectation to be competitive. Now that's where upsets happen.
Nobody expected Buster Douglas to be competitive against Mike and
we're part of the greatest upset in boxing. So there's
always that element. But here's the reality. He's won four
fights in a row. He lost the fight in two thousand.
Take that back, He's won three fights in a row.
He lost a fight by decision against ironically in one sense,
Sam Goodman from Australia back in March of twenty twenty three.
Goodman is the IBF's mandatory challenger and is supposed to
be in line for a mandatory against in a way
as is the WBA mandatory which is mj Acmandaliev who
basically they let in a a run rough shot over
that one which was already due to take this fight
with Dohaney, So they know what they're doing. You know
this this again. If he wins the fight Dohaney, I
would consider this the upset of the year.
Speaker 1: Monumental many reasons, monumental for all the circumstances. Monumental upset.
So the same question I asked you on Friday, I
put to you here, does he have a big enough
punch to make this interesting? That's the real rub here,
because if he doesn't, then it's probably a matter of
time right before in Away gets him.
Speaker 2: So Dohane's got twenty knockouts in twenty six fights, which
are like, oh, that's a pretty good knockout record obviously
in terms of your wins. But if you take a
look at the guys he's knocking out, they're not the
big names or the best names. Let's that he's fought.
So when he's fought the better names. Sam Goodman lost
the decision, Michael Kahman lost the decision. You know, an
a level journeyman if you will. In in Innoette Balluta
lost the decision. Danny Romont in their world title fight,
lost a close decision. So he's not in The guys
he's that are good that he's beating are not the
top names either, So he's getting the knockouts against the
lesser guys. So I'm not a big believer in that
Doeny has some miracle punch in a way. However, we
know you gotta be unless you're you know, don't have
vision to know that this is a guy who's a
devastating puncher. He's twenty seven to Oho twenty four knockouts.
He can hit that ahead. He's probably the best body
puncher in box and he can fire with both hands.
You know he is as I said this when we've
talked about his previous fights. When you watch in a
way fight these days, and I mean, we don't know
when it's going to end, but understand what you're looking at.
You are literally in the prime of one of the
all time greats doing his thing at the highest level
against the best guys in his division, winning undisputed, becoming undisputed,
defending titles, drawing big crowds. I mean, it doesn't last forever,
but we're in it right now. This is this is
as good as it gets for Noya in a way,
when you're running through the guys.
Speaker 1: How many other fighters have won twenty two championship fights
in a row in the modern era of boxing, and Canelo,
by the way, lost recently in the last couple of
years to be bols So it's not him who else
has got And I know there's you know, unbeaten Usick,
but Usik hasn't won twenty two world title fights.
Speaker 2: This guy's doesn't have twenty two fights as a prom so.
Speaker 1: He's got twenty two world title fights in and when
and we can't, you know, look at the At the
risk of over hyping it, he is. He's an amazing,
exciting fighter who's been unbeatable for like five six years
at the championship level.
Speaker 2: In a way, Usik has twenty two professional fights, but
he also turned professional much later than in a way,
he was limp the gold medal of state amateur ever
a long time. I'm not trying to compare them. The
only comparison is if you're discussing your pound for pound lists,
and I'll say this once again, in my mind, there's
only three candidates that you can even contemplate as being
number one. You take, you make your choice. I can't
argue anyway. If you want to tell me you picked
in a way, I'm okay with that. You tell me
it's Alexander Usik, Fine, you tell me it's Terrence Crawford. Fine.
But besides those three, there's nobody else. Even in the
conversation in a way is.
Speaker 1: This Canello fans would fight you. The Canelo fans, I'm
just saying them they would fight you and say he
should be in the conversation.
Speaker 2: I mean, I have nothing but love for Canel and
everybody knows that. So I have mad respect for Canelo obbers,
but at this moment in time, pound for pound is
a snapshot in time. He's not number one pound for
pound right now. You know, if you're pound for pound
number one, you know, even though he's winning his fights,
like when he beat Charlotte was one sided. You know,
he beat Mangi a pretty one sided, but he hasn't
had a knockout in a while after a ton of knockouts.
And again it's not even a knockout what Canelo been doing,
but you can see certain elements of him slowing down
and frankly, in those other fighters, you just don't see it.
I mean, husick is the living, breathing definition of doing
it because of the way he's doing it in the
different weight classes and in a way in many respects
of the same way, and same with Crawford, because of
what he's been doing, even if he didn't look spectacular
against magimonk.
Speaker 1: So run through it. This is this is Tuesday morning
in the US, and run through what they're doing here
for Tuesday night in Tokyo when everybody's coming off, they're
stupor off the long weekend. Just pay attention. This is
happening Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Yes, that's your alarm, that's the ES in
the United States, it's ESPN Plus. The broadcat or the
stream starts at five forty five Eastern time, so wake
up early on the East. It starts, you know, that's
three hours earlier two forty five in the Pacific time zone,
so that might mean you stay up late. But the
thing about is when they originally announced the car Top Rank,
who are bringing this in for ESPN Plus there of
course the co promoters of In a way, there's a
bunch of other fights on the car. They originally announced
a much longer show for reasons I'm not clear about.
I actually asked, but have not received any kind of
a definitive answer. This now will only be a two
fight stream. They'll stream the in a Way fight in
the main event, but the opening fight on that stream
will be the other world title fight, which is the
WBO flyweight title match team Yoshiki tayk who won the
title over the title from Jason Maloney back in May.
And this is a young Japanese fighters eight nine and
zero with eight knockouts who look very impressive. He is
twenty eight years old. He's a little bit older in
terms of being a flyweight and only having single digit fights,
but he was very impressive in that victory. He's taken
on a former title holder named Daego Higa, another Japanese
fighter that's got a good record twenty one two and one.
So that will be the co feature of that flyweight title,
or rather for them, I'm sorry for the bantamweight WBO title,
and then they'll move on to the main event. So
if you're gonna get up early, you're not going to
be up that long because it's only two fights. A
lot of these Japanese cards in the top rank brings
in they show you know, three four, five fights. Sometimes
I'm only disappointed that at least in America, and maybe
I can find it later on on the old YouTube.
But I need my Ishmael old Man Barroso. He's on
this car too, in a in a junior welterweight fighting
against the Chimneys undefeated fighter Andy Herioka.
Speaker 1: You can get your fix, you can get your Barroso
fix coming up. And again let's just one more time
point out here and plus with the ESPN streaming. If
you stay away from social media and the Internet and
et cetera, you can wake up a little later and
just stort up the stream and scan ahead and find
it wherever. Because again we're in the Eastern time zone.
I realize for a lot of people that are in
the Central time zone and the Mountain time zone, this
is way early on a workday off a holiday weekend
to find this. But this guy's worth it. That's the
whole that's the whole point. You're just giving him the
time breakfast, you know, like we say, cornflakes, raisin bran, whatever,
and some Japanese boxing on Tuesday morning.
Speaker 2: And let's see, I was a little more excited about
the opponent. I mean, I love in a way. So
when he was fighting like Neary, who I knew was
a good, interesting fighter, you know, in an undisputed fight
against the Polos for example, or even the unification against
even Fulton.
Speaker 1: Now you're like, well, we don't have to go five minutes,
but we can go down the list of Mike Tyson
didn't fight a challenging opponent every time, but you still
wanted to tune in to see if Tyson was going
to destroy whoever it was, but it was attive. That's true.
That's a good point. We weren't getting up at five o'clock.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm a guy, listen, my the way that I
handle my business is I'm a night owl. But I
don't get it. I don't like getting up early. My
wife is the opposite. She'll go to bed at like,
you know, nine o'clock, and she's up at five thirty.
Speaker 1: I mean exactly.
Speaker 2: It's sort of a weird thing, right. So for me,
the thought of getting up unless I've got a flight
to catch, like when I go to Vegas for the
Kennila fight coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm
not big into waken up really, but for in a way,
I make the exception. I'll set the alarm. I'll get
up around six three.
Speaker 1: We always see it at some point Tuesday morning, Tuesday night,
Tokyo time. And again we'll have more later in the week.
We'll have our thoughts on it. But we've given you
plenty of it here and plenty on the bet Us show.
Go check it out on their platforms. We handicap that
fight as well. There's a video out there right now.
If you and I talking in a Way and Dohaney
from bet Us some news and some nostalgia. All right,
we've gone on and on about the situation with Jern Ennis,
Brian Norman, the fight not happening, and so now give
us the further update that you were sharing on Friday
on the on the bet Us TV show with the
opponent that Norman is gonna fight and what's the timeline
for that is he will make his first defense of
the it's the WBO right that he has at one
forty seven. So tell me more about Brian Norman and
what you've learned and when.
Speaker 2: Well, we know first and foremost that the fight between
him that was being discussed in a unification against John
Ennis is not happening. Ennis is being now ordered to
do the chakaziin rematch. Eddie Hearn has discussed in a
video he did with Mattroom Boxing's YouTube channel his own company,
making comments that you know they may consider vacating the title.
I believe that when I see it, I believe that
jn Ennis is still a fighter that needs a belt.
But I wouldn't be upset if you had vacated and
either fought another name guy. He can find out. Walter D.
Or frankly moved up and challenge himself in the junior
middleweight division. But the bottom line is, while he goes
off and does that business, presumably on November ninth in Philadelphia,
which was the plan, you're now going to see Brian
Norman not fighting You're on NS on November ninth, But
instead he will fight on November eighth in Norfolk, Virginia
on ESPN, on the undercard of Kishan Davis's homecoming fight
against Gustava Wemos. I've seen a lot of social media
discussion about, oh my god, he's a world champion, He's
fighting on some prospects under card. Well, duh, A, it's
a late add to the card relatively speaking, which hasn't
even been officially announced yet. And b you're not going
to put the world title fight on when the whole
point of the show from top ranks perspective is to
go bring Keishaan Davis to his hometown for the first
time as a professional in his first professional main event.
So that's the reason for that. The people that are
going to.
Speaker 1: They swat these people because how many of them even
knew who Brian Norman was before he upset who was
a Santia in that fight, and I gotta confess I
didn't really know about him, so to think, oh, well,
he should be the headliner in Keishawn's hometown on Keishawn's
big fight card instead of him because it's got WBO
title next to it. Please.
Speaker 2: The other thing about it is this, I mean, Brian
Norman is a good young fighter. He's only like twenty
three years old. I think he's got a lot of
years left in front of him. It seems to me.
The reality is he is an unknown fighter. Now. It's
about trying to build him up. Now. I see people
who are trying to like be his be his accountant
and make their comments about what he turned down, and
He'll never do this. I'll never do that. You know,
everything every decision you make is a manager and or
a promoter and fighter when it comes to the business
side of things, is a gamble if you decide to
do one thing over the other. So, yes, he's going
to defend the title. And by the way, the thing
I reported was his opponent will be Derek Wavis, who
is a Puerto Rican fighter who is twenty nine years old,
who if you watch the All Star Boxing cards, the
promoter Tuto Zabala, who has a close relationship with Top
Rank though cards he's been doing, such as the one
that was recently in Nicaragua that had a Roman Gonzalez
in the main event. He's done other shows from Central America.
They have been on ESPN Plus through that relationship. Quavis
is a guy who's won several fights on those cards
over the last a couple of years. So he's twenty
seven to one and one with nineteen knotcats in my opinion,
as a first defense, if you forget about the prospect
that there was a Geron Ennis fight on the table,
this is not a bad first defense. It's not like
he's fighting a bump wave. This is pretty solid. He's
been in the ring with some okay guys and he's
got a great record, and he's not an old man
or anything like that. And you know what he's gonna
make Brian Norman in this fight, he'll still make the
most money he's ever made. It won't be what he
was gonna make for the Nis fight, but the Nis fight.
The number that they were talking about based on what
Eddie Hearn was saying and what the top rank in
Norman's management they were looking probably what the the last
offer for match and was a package that was probably
in the neighborhood of a million seven point fifty. Now
that sounds like a really good number. It's life changing money,
even at what he would take out of that. But
remember there's lots of things that get deducted, so it's
a great number, but there's taxes top ranks get. It's
twenty percent, and by the way, they deserve every penny
of it because they've already put like twenty fights into
Brian Norman and spend a lot of money. His management's
going to get their cut, the sanctioning body is going
to get their cut, et cetera. So the point is,
when it's all said and done, yeah, Brian Norman's still
going to make a nice high six figure payday, but
at what costs. Because he is the underdog, there's a
probability he will lose the fight. He's got to go
fight in the other team's platform, he's got to go
fight in the other guy's hometown. And at the end
of the day, at his age and with the bright
future in front of him, you know, they can take
the longer view. If he was thirty nine years old,
and this was on the table. You know what, go
go grab what you can grab.
Speaker 1: And we said this before. If he wins in November
and Boots is won and wants to stay at one
forty seven, there's nothing that says they can't fight each
other early next year, you know, spring next year, whatever,
and have a unification fight. Maybe he doesn't make as
much in that fight. Maybe he may as much in
that fight as what was offered.
Speaker 2: So I teach you, I will see it like this.
This is one of those scenarios where in terms of
the amount of money that was on the table and
the offer that was there, and then what the alternatives
could be. I actually see this from both sides. I
totally get the frustration on the side of Matron, who
I believe that number is a fair offer. It may
not be perfect, maybe it could be a little bit bigger,
but it was not like they were insulting him. It's
not like they said, here's five.
Speaker 1: Well, here's cut to the chase on this. What did
he get for the Santion fight, which is a fraction
of what he was being offered, And what is he
getting with for this fight, which is probably again a
you know, a quarter a fifth maybe of what the
NS offer was to have this fight on the under
part of the Kishon Davis fight. So I understand that,
but they're looking at it with what you said. He's
twenty three, he's got a good chance to beat this
guy Quavs and now have the same kind of offer,
the same kind of leverage in a unification fight. I
get it, it's business. I get why they did it,
but there's there's no doubt that that Norman was a
virtual unknown and now take that word virtual out. He was,
and now he's got a piece of the puzzle at
one seven. And why not take a fight where you
make some decent money and then still see what your
options are. That's what'spentally gonna happen.
Speaker 2: Listen. And so from like I said, I understand the
matchrooms side where they're frustrated because I don't even think
it's about Norman. They're just pissed off into the IBF
because they've jammed Charon Karen Chikazian down their throat, which
is absurd. I kind I get it from the point
of view of the Norman camp, where if you want
to really overpay us and then really make it it's
worth our while, then do it. And I mean, look,
I'll give you the quote from Carl Moretti. Carl Maretty
is the vice president of boxing, you know, for Top Rank.
They're the promoters of Brian Norman, and they acknowledged that
they had gotten this offer. His comment to me about
whether they were going to take the offer over as
fares that in terms of matrim they've made millions and
millions in Saudi Arabia, we were five hundred thousand dollars apart.
If you really want to invest in Boots, like you say,
because he's the second coming of sugar A. Robinson that
was said with sarcasm, right, and you want Norman's title
and unification and us to fight him in Philly. Add
a little bit to that bucket load of money. That
was what Eddie Hearn's term was when he said, how
much they offered him, and we'll be on the first
plane there show him some real brotherly love meaning for
so you know they're being a little sarcastic with that.
I get it, and you know, Carl, I totally get
where he's coming from. So I look at it like this,
This is one of those deals where it kind of
I get it from both sides. You know, Mattroom, they
had a certain amount they were willing to put up.
I feel like it was a good faith offer when
they raised the price a couple of different times. And
I also feel like from the standpoint if you're the
Brian Norman camp, that it probably just wasn't enough to
make it worth your while. No harm, no foul, let them.
Speaker 1: Go, and all we all can relate in negotiating for
a car, for a house, for a raise, for a job, whatever.
You have to make decisions in real time, and usually
what does it come down to, is this your final offer.
If that's your final offer, then I will now decide
whether to take the final offer or not anything, buying
the house, buying the car, whatever. You got to make
that decision. Okay, we get that. A couple more news items,
then we get to nostalgia that involves Triple G and
Eric Morales standby speaking of vacating of titles. Terrence Crawford
has officially done that with his WBA welterweight title, and
also David Morrell says I'm not coming back to super
middleweight and he's vacated. For whatever it's worth. The regular title.
None of either one of those things are a surprise.
They just both have officially happened. Give me a little
more on that real quick and we'll move.
Speaker 2: On, right. I mean, so Crawford, what's notable in terms
of what happened with Terrence Crawford is that he had
become the undisputed champion last July when he defeated Eryl Spence.
And it just shows you that in the span of
literally one year from what was that mid July when
he fought him, now here we are in late August,
so what thirteen months or so that from you know,
the the element of a finally having an undisputed champion
in this glorious weight class that has so many big names,
or had so many big names at that time, It's
like what usually happens. We spend so much time, Let's
get to the big fight, Let's get the big fight,
let's get to the ultimate unification. We got there, and
then very quickly it dissipates because now suddenly all four
of the titles are fractural. He vacates the WBA super title.
That means Amanta Stanionis, who has been the regular champion,
has now left as the remaining WBA champion. So from
the one standpoint, it's good because it's one less regular
title in this crazy WBA situation. But the other thing is,
now you look around in a once a once unified
division where Terrence Crawford held all four titles and had
a claim to pound for pound from any people. Now
we're back to a scenario where you have four world
title holders, none of whom have a huge name, who
still are, you know, on the younger end of their careers.
And you're talking about Mario Barrios with the WBC belt,
Brian Norman as we've been discussing with now the WBO belt,
Jaron Ennis with the IBF belt, who knows how long
he'll keep that if he does, in fact vacate because
of this situation. And stanionis though with the WBA belt.
So you know, seeing any of those guys fight each other,
I'd be perfectly down for it. There's a that's actually
they may not be superstar names, but that's that's a
pretty good group of guys in terms of their abilities.
The Barrios has just the one loss to Tank Davis.
Brian Norman is undefeated, Jron Ennis is undefeated, Stanionis is undefeated. Yeah,
and they all have you know, good, good entertaining, fan
friendly kind of styles. But this is not what it
was a few years ago when you get get these
guys busy and get them known. Now, even if they
have two fights a year, they're hidden away behind a
paywall or they're on a streaming service that not everybody
has access to. You know, these are not the days
of even like HBO or Showtime for that matter, or
you know, god forbid network television or even based at cable.
So you know it's gonna be hard for them to
get that kind of name recognition. So you know, I
don't see us getting an undispeted champion out of that
group before guys, I'll put a deal like that way.
Crawford now is officially one hundred percent no longer any
of the titles that Walter wad. He's now doing his
thing at jerom middleweight. And in terms of David Morrell,
he fought on Terrence Crawford and Madrov was undercart in
August where he had been the WBA Regular champion at
super middleweight, and he was kind of in a similar
boat with David Benavidez where even though he was the
mandatory for Canalo Alvarez, who was the super champion, he
was never going to get that fight, so he took
the opportunity to move up. The WBA threw him a bone,
if you will. They let him fight for the regular title,
which pissed me off because they created another regular title
at a time where they're supposed to be getting rid
of those titles exactly because they were doing the unification
for the undisputed between better b than Bevol because there
was Dimitri Bevil who has the WBA, you know, the
real full title. Nonetheless, Morrell fought his debut at light
heavyweight on that August Star cart He had a decision
win against hot Rod Collegiate. It was a, you know,
I would say, an inconsistent performance. He didn't look bad,
but he had a few struggles here and there, but
he still won clearly in terms of a decision. And
so now he's vacated that belt and now he's got
one of these belts that seventy five and we'll see
what happens when the undisputed fight happens. How the winner
of that fight is handled by the WBA. Are they
going to actually make the winner of Better b In
Beople fight David Morrell, because remember that winner is going
to also have other mandatories they're gonna have to deal with,
so you know it's going to be slow going, I'll say,
to get to those quests. But in the meantime, you know,
just look, Moral's a talented guy, undefeated, exciting to watch.
Hopefully he can fight another good line heavyweight, even if
he's not going to get the actual title shot against
the super champion if you will, or the undisputed champ.
Speaker 1: All right, more news quickly here before we get to
the good stuff and the nostalgia as well. Tom Loeffler,
the promoter, has an update on sir hey Bullachuk. When
last we saw him he was battling with Virgil Ortiz.
He's going to be back. Tell us more about what
the announcement was.
Speaker 2: Well, Tom, he promoted a part on the UFC Fight
Pass on Saturday Night, as he does regularly, and it
was during that show where they now or he announced
that Boatchuk, who, as you mentioned in earlier in August August,
tends to be exact, he lost that majority decision to
Virgil Or He's in a really outstanding fight. Of your candidate,
and there's been a lot of conversations what's gonna happen next.
There's been some discussion with Turkey Ashik. Maybe he'll be
on a Saudi Rabia card and lo and behold DJ
low and behold. He will be on a reat season
card they made it.
Speaker 1: Or not go ahead?
Speaker 2: Yes, no opponent yet, but the bottom line is he'll
be in one of the featured fights on December twenty first.
That'll be on the undercart of the rematch between Usik
and Fury in their heavyweight championship fight. And again, I
don't know he's gonna fight. There's been a little kind
of conjecture maybe some some I don't know if it's
how legit it is, but there's been the mention from
I think from Eddie Herd actually that maybe Butani's goes
up to one fifty four me they would try to
fight a fight like boatchuck, which would be interesting.
Speaker 1: You.
Speaker 2: If it's not for a title, that fine, fine with me.
But nonetheless, whatever whatever the opponent is, we're gonna see
Boichick back in action. I'm glad because you know what,
you know, he lost the fight to Virgil and I
feel like He legitimately lost that fight to Virgil, but
it was a hell of a fight, and just because
he lost, why not bring him back, you know when
you can. There's no there. He didn't disgrace himself by
any means. I'm excited. I feel like he raised his
stock in that in that defeat, as close as that was.
And I'm glad that everybody involved in that card on
December twenty first understands that saw that and say, you
know what, exciting guy, let's do it now the fight
I wouldn't mind. Again, I don't know who he's gonna fight,
But and I've mentioned this before, it makes like, as
you say, TJ, we play amateur matchmaker here, makes too
much fucking sense. He's coming off the very close loss
to Virgil of Artis Thatt one fifty four, and Israel
Majimov was coming off the very close loss in Terrence
Crawford at won fifty four. Yeah, they both lost, but
they both certainly put out great efforts and showed a
lot in those fights. Make the match between those two guys,
you know, but the winner make a bigger name, all right.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be in December for Bulletshok one more
news item speaking of December, Fernando Martinez kaz Iolca now
speaking of Japan again, Uh, tell me more about this plan.
I know we got a while before it happens, but
tell me more about this fight.
Speaker 2: Well, mainly they're gonna have a rematch on December thirty. First,
you know New Year's Eve, which is obviously the very
traditional UH day and uh and timeframe for a major
championship boxing events in the country of Japan. That's a
you know, it's kind of like their version, if you will,
like when we see big fights on the single Demaya
weekend or in the Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend, or
the Mexican Independence Day weekend, what have you. You know,
top ranks made a big thing about the Heisman weekend
and you know events like that. F one. Now they're
trying to do matching up. Anyway, New Year's even Japan
is a big deal. And if you go back to
earlier this year, you know, had Ioka and Martinez put
on an absolute spectacular fight to unify their titles at
Junior Banham Way that took place on July seven. Absolutely
spectacular battle, another legit Fight of the Year candidate. It
was Martinez that won the decision in that fight, but
certainly worthy of a rematch, and that's what they're going
to do. And it's you know, if you watch that
first fight, absolutely calcular. Uh you know, I don't know
if they can actually match that again. That'd be hard
to do, giving the amount of punches that they threw
and land in that first fight. But it was a
terrific fight. It was just you know, Martinez, a little
bit younger, a little bit fresser, massive pressure for the
entire fight, got out to a little bit of a
lead and just kept up. And even though Ioka had
fought a hell of a fight. I think Ioka, and
I've watched tons of Ioka fights through his career, probably
fought one of his best fights ever. He just could
not hang, uh you know, and win in terms of
because of the constant pressure and actually win a lot
of the rounds. But just a just a great, great
fight to watch. And so they'll do it again, and uh,
that'll be you know, if you if you have I
don't know if it's gonna be uh anywhere on in
America in terms of a stream, you know, maybe maybe
ESPN plus might pick it up. Maybe the zone might
pick it up, but uh, I would not mind spending
my New Year's Eve watching that kind of fight, or
though I guess it would be in the morning because.
Speaker 1: Of the morning countdown for those that have the little
kids that could do the countdown to noon.
Speaker 2: But this, yeah, you know what to hear it, here's
a great step by the way I just mentioned. Now,
New Year's Eve is like the traditional time in Japan
boxing where they do you know, every year there's some
kind of championship action and sometimes there's multiple cards during
the course of that week, even New Year's Eve day
before New Year's Eve, et cetera. How about Ioka, He's
had a fifteen year career. He's going to be fighting
this coming December thirty first, it'll be his fifteenth you know,
December thirty first available in terms of when he's been
a professional, he will have fought. It will be his
thirteenth time fighting on that date. He'steen years.
Speaker 1: It's like Jick Clark was synonymous for New Year's Eves
for so many years with the ball drop for decades.
It's kas Ioka in Japan fighting who knew.
Speaker 2: And it will be his seventh in a row. And
most of those fights were like world title type fights.
It wasn't like interesting, they were just like six rounders
on undercards. I mean, he's made a living fighting on
New Year's Eve in championship fights, and he's you know,
he's won titles and four divisions. I have said on
this show before that kaz Ioka, you know, is a
borderline Hall of Famer at this moment in my mind,
and maybe ultimately will be a Hall of Famer. He's
been a terrific fighters, not getting hunger. He's thirty five
years old. But if he can win this rematch and
regain his title and pick up the other one, that's
a really big feather in his cap for sure.
Speaker 1: All Right, nostalgia time, Let's go back in time. We're
doing this podcast on the first day of September twenty twelve,
twelve years ago. September first again, Natty gahlove Can Triple
G made his American debut Turning Stone Resort. HBO broadcast
a destruction of someone named how do you say that?
First named Gregor Gores Greg greg his friends call him
g and Triple G wiped him out. Now, interesting, I
prompted you. I said you were not ringside for this
on that September in twenty twelve, but it was Triple
G's debut and would go on to a litany of
big time fights and big time knockouts throughout the middleway division.
Go ahead here with twelve years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't remember why I didn't go
to this particular fight. It wasn't maybe that big. It
was a boxing after dark.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Remember I was working at ESPN. There were still budgets
that were that were involved in making those decisions. I'm
sure there was other things I was getting ready to
go to. But he made his American debut. Tribleg defended
his WBA Middleway title, and he was I knew about him.
I had put him on my prospect list a couple
of years earlier. He had won a silver medal in
the Olympics, but to the American public at large, he
was totally unknown. Tom Loeffler, who was his promoter at
the time, had spent a lot of time trying to
convince HBO to put him on, and they finally did,
and they put this doubleheader on. They went up to
turning Stone Casino and Verona, New York, which has been
a place that's done plenty of fights through the years,
and this was the main event that night. Now, originally
he was supposed to fight a fighter named Dmitri Piro,
and if my memory serves, at that time, Dmitiriapeiro, who
was undefeated, he was a WBO champion. It was supposed
to be a unification fight. Pirogue, who had scored a
spectacular knockout against Daniel Jacobs in an upset to win
that title, had a very severe back injury at some
point and he actually I don't think he ever fought again.
Maybe one time, maybe he never fought again. But the
point was krub was out of that fight and never
never came back, unfortunately. But Proxo was a hell of
a good content at that time. He was twenty eight
and one. He was a Bontifi guy who had been
European champion, and they matched him up with Triple G
and you're like, all right, let's see what this guy's
all about. And when I tell you that he he
p more than lived up to the hype. This was
as if you take any and maybe I'm just in
my own time frame. So the last twenty five years
or so of covering boxing a guy that's had an
American debut or an HBO type debut or network debut,
whatever you want to call it, that had a lot
of hype behind it. I don't think there's ever been
one more impressive than what Triple G did that night.
Maybe I'm missing one on Maybe we could come from.
Speaker 1: The same Hamed maybe on a US debut, but it
doesn't come to mind more than Triple G.
Speaker 2: I got you, no, because when princes Seem's triple American
debut was on, was on ABC on Wide World of Sports,
and you know, he got a knockout. But I wasn't
like so overwhelming. This was a heavily hyped up American debut,
HBO debut, and he was fucking spectacular. He scored not
against and remember against a good quality guy at that time,
who had you know, shown durability, who had not known
for being knocked out, who had never you know, that
was the first time he ever got stopped, was against Gannati.
You know, it was a tremendous performance. He knocked them
down in the first round, he knocked them down in
the fourth round, he knocked them down in the fifth round,
and he ended up stopping him in the fifth round,
and it was spectacular, and he had dominated up to
that point. He was winning forty to thirty four and
all three scorecards against a good, credible guy. You know,
if you take a look at any of the middleweight rankings,
you can look maybe at my rankings. You could probably
look at the Ring magazine rankings picked you know, the
whatever was on box Wreck at the time. You know,
go pick your your poison there. He got proxate in
those rankings, maybe at the lower part of the top ten,
but still a bona fide guy. And it's not like
Gluff can just beat him. He beat the living shit
at him. It was so impressive. And I actually, because
I knew we were going to talk about this, I
went and I called up the column that I wrote
about this on ESPN, even though I wasn't present in
the arena that night. And I have covered every single
one of Triple G's fights that have taken place in
the United States other than this fight. And I missed
one fight when he was fighting in a closed door
situation during the pandemic and Zara Meta where there was
no media at the fight at all. I even went
to England to cover a triple G. So I've seen
a lot of trouble g up close and personal. This
one I watched on TV, and I'm gonna read you
one short paragraph of what I wrote in that column
that I went and looked up. This is post having
destroyed Greg Proxon, Klofkin asks charisma, a boyish grint and
enough command of English that he can help market himself
in a big way, along with a fighting style that
you can fall in love with. Trust me, there are
going to be a lot of smiles in the Monday
morning HBO Sports staff meeting after Saturday's performance.
Speaker 1: It's a little prophetic there from brother Rayphael, and you
turned out to be one thousand percent right on the
trust me part.
Speaker 2: Because he went on to have such a tremendous run.
He continued that knockout streat, you know, with the massive
knockout percentage, And after that he came to New York.
He thought our boy gave Rizato and scored a bloody
victory against him. He went into Monte Carlo and scored
an early knockout. He came back and he had another
spectacular body show knockout against Matthew Macklin. He's developing a
lot of hype with the knockouts, a lot of attention,
like becoming like a cult hero to American boxing. Mans
had that devastating knockout against Curtis Stevens where you have
Jim Lampley cosack power, you know, and the look on
Curtis stevens In's face when he felt the punching power.
I mean, it was just that, but this proxified that
was the beginning of what was in my opinion at
these for me personally, having covered all these fights as
fun and exciting, a ride for one fighter through a
litany of world championship fights and top events and excitement
that that and fan interest that you know, I mean
to me, it's him and Pakyo covering the the the
the long run of these great fighters where they brought
nothing but excitement to me. For me in my career,
it's all about that that time of covering Triple G
and Manny Pacyo. I mean, as good as it gets.
Speaker 1: You should know that I trust you on all fronts. Basically,
I trust you, and especially when Triple G you were
propping that up twelve years ago. All right, Also on
this Sunday, it is the birthday of the Hall of
Famer Eric Morales. By the way, public shout out it's
Missus Reeves's birthday later this week. We're not going to
discuss how old she is. She's just vintage. She's vintage,
Missus Reeves.
Speaker 2: You don't call her el to reblay though, No, I
do not call.
Speaker 1: Her el to reblay. I call her el Hefe. You
know what elfe is, theos the ball c c CEC
just like exactly, So happy birthday, Missus Reeves. But happy
birthday also el to reblay. Eric Morales on Sunday on
September first, a four division world champ. And by the way,
you did count it up. It's what an even dozen
that you were at ringside for you counted it up.
I mean his big time fights for Morales.
Speaker 2: I wrote about many more of his fights than that,
but I was present ringside for twelve of them, including
some of the best ones of his career. You know,
I unfortunately I didn't start my boxing writing job in
terms of time at USA today until a few weeks later.
But I remember watching his first fight against Marco Antonio Brera,
which was the one fight of their trilogy that he
won while I was sitting in my living room in
my old place in Upstate, and you York packing stuff
to get ready for the impending move to begin My
job at USA today is the box shrink. But Eric Morales,
I mean, if you like boxing and you don't like
watching Eric Morales fights, then you can't really call yourself
a boxing day. There was very few guys in this sport,
at least in the modern times. Let's call it like
I said, you know, the last twenty five years or
even longer, however many years you want to go back,
that just gave everything of himself. Every time he came
to the ring. He had one thing on his mind,
knock you out and win the fight, and he was.
He lived up to it. It became an all time
great you know, you want to talk about the greatest
Mexican fighters in history. Maybe he doesn't sit there at
the top of the list like the Chavez or you know,
Savador Sanchez or Canelo Alvarez and fighters along those lines,
but he had with him and his fellow guys in
that same era. It was him, it was it was
Marco and Tony Brere, and it was it was one
Nanuel Marquez they were the three greats of that time.
It still pisses me off to this day that Marquez
and Morales never fought each other, but Eric Morales fought everybody,
won a bunch of titles, gave thrills to everybody, and
just made some spectacular fights. I mean, all I can
say is he's probably got If you think about like
a good win, a great win in the modern time,
is there a more big time win in a big
spot than his win over Manny Pacio in their first fight.
I mean, that's about as good of a win as
there is. I mean, that was the prime Manny Pacio
on his way to bigger and better things, right before
he left one hundred and thirty pound way class, on
his way to beating you know, the the Oscar de
la Hoyas and Ricky Hatton's and moving up and you know,
destroying everybody. But Eric Morels straight up beat him that
night in their first fight in two thousand. It was
a two thousand and five in a spectacular fight, by
the way, one of one of the best fights you
could ever want to wat. He just went on that
tremendous run. So he's got two big wins in that
sense between the Brier one and the packcat fight, but
tons more of great wins, also lots of action fights,
always in a fight of the year type contender, you know,
and never really you know, badly badly beaten until like
really when he was sort of near to the end,
which was really I guess the third fight against many
Packet where he sort of just had enough and kind
of called it a day. They're sitting on the canvas.
But Eric Rouse spectacular fighter, warrior of all time and
just just a thrill to cover. And I can't say
enough about the man.
Speaker 1: Happy Birthday to the Hall of Famer on Sunday the first.
So we've embarked on a new month, Canelo Month again,
Canelo and Berlanga coming in a couple of weekends. We
got all kinds of action still to come before this
calendar year is over with. Cannot wait again. You need
to be locked in, you need to be following, you
need to be subscribing. You get this podcast in the
preview mode going into the weekend, the recap mode. Most weekends,
this is going to be the case, even with the
football season cranking up. All the college football happened. Now
we got the NFL. I got my broadcast duties with
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but that's not going to detur
us from being here almost all of the time. We
are here on a preview and a recap every weekend.
Follow and subscribe here on the pod great stuff on
this edition. Let's see what happens with the Monster or not?
Is it a quick knockout or not of TJ Dohaney
on Tuesday? And you and I will reconvene later this
week on the pod need here with much more.
Speaker 2: Yes, and I will just say for our we'll give
a little tease for our next episode that will come
out Thursday night. In the Friday, we have an interview,
my interview with the one and only Canelo Elvaris.
Speaker 1: There's a teaes, there's a tease to start the new month.
You'll hear from Canelo later on in the week. Follow, subscribe,
rate us, and review us. If you enjoyed, give us
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and Spotify and Sprinker and elsewhere. For now, we are good.
We have done the recap thing in a way. Fight
Tuesday be locked in on Dan substack and social media,
Big Fight Weekend, dot Com, Fight Preach Nite substack. You'll
have more on the Naway fight and whatever happens again
Massive Star in Japan. Is he gotta get a spectacular
knockout more than likely. Let's see what happens with that,
and we'll be talking about it more later on in
the week. For now, Big Dan, have a good week,
Be safe on Labor Day week and Labor Day weekend.
Thank you, my friend, you too, Sir. There is Dan Rayfield.
I'm merely TJ Reeves. We thank you for being with
us on the Fight Preaching Night recap pod.