Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ leaves Well,
we get.
Speaker 2: Ready for another weekend of action, this time north of
the border from where we are Quebec in Canada and
a super middleweight showdown that has some intrigue. We're ready
to preview Christian Mobili's return against a veteran that expects,
at least we expect to give him a real challenge
in Serge de' Revyonchinko. Looking forward to talking about that fight.
We've got a former two division world champ one on
one with Dan Rayfield. News and nostalgia. It is the
Big Fight Weekend preview. I'm merely he's somewhat capable. Host
TJ Reeves here, he is insider. Dan Rayfield a little
frazzled right now as we headhim to the weekend. You
got everything settled. You got schools starting in northern Virginia.
We're already veterans. We're four days in at the time.
You and I are doing the podcast in Florida. You
Virginia people got to keep up. You're starting next week.
But I got you, you got you got parental duties
going on you're juggling all of this. We got fights,
you did an interview with Danny Garcia. We're going, We're good,
We're good for the.
Speaker 3: Podcast is well starting, and and and and the miss
is is out of town, gonna be an for like
four days for our work conference. So so, uh, mister
mom is dealing with all the school stuff, all all
their ship got to take him to the birthday party Saturday.
I have no idea where the heck I'm going to
get there and have the wife programmed into the GPS.
It's a disaster.
Speaker 2: As we often say, the wives are the m vps
right now. You'd bet rather be in the runk in
the ring ten rounds with Canelo than dealing with all
of this.
Speaker 1: But there we go.
Speaker 2: Uh Okay, So lots to get to thank you for
finding us. We preview going into the weekend twice, the
ray field twice, the fun. We recap coming off the
weekend Sunday and the Monday. Uh radist review us, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify.
We need some five star reviews, rat us and review us.
If you enjoyed the podcast, it helps us with the algorithms,
et cetera. Let's get some going here in August. That
helped the show out, all right, so lots to get
to and cover. I know you left us on the
recap podcast saying I am really looking forward to Christian Mobilly,
hard hitting a fighter fighting out of Canada and D'revonchinko,
who's been in with some really big names and some
tremendous fights.
Speaker 1: Ten round, non title fight.
Speaker 2: It's the main event of the top rank ESPN card
coming for Saturday night. Here we go, let's get right
into it, let's get into the preview mode. I know
we're excited to talk about this one.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I mean, I know a lot of
people wanted to declare that the Fight of the Year
race was over last week after the excellent fight between
Virgil Ortiz and Saray Bochuk, and that was a great fight,
and it's a very good candidate and as a leader,
maybe in the clubhouse among a couple of other top
notch fights we have seen this year. But I'm not
closing the book yet. Besides the fact that we're just
here in early August, mid August, the fact is that
this fight between Mabilly and Devin Chank, since it was
made in my mind Anyway, it was circled as like, hey,
this could be a just a really superb action pack
kind of fight. And Mobilly is a hard hitter, seems
to have a good chin, always in great condition, you know,
on the rise big time. And in terms of Turgeate
devn Schenko, I mean he's verrely is he in a
bad fight at all. I mean he's coming off of
a situation in his well two fights ago. Anyway, he
did fight in April and a sort of a get
back fight, and you know, as a Devin Chanko goes
an easy win over Von Alexander in a shutout. But
prior to that, in June of last year, he had
that lazious battle with Haimi Mungia that was picked by
many people as the fight of the year for twenty
twenty three, and that certainly wasn't his first time being
in a tremendous fight. May I remind everybody about the
fight he gave against Kennedy Glofkin in twenty nineteen for
the middle whit title, a fight that I was ringside
for that I scored in favor of Sergei devren Schenko
that night. And I'm a huge triple g fan and
by the way, I was certainly not the only one
that gave that fight to Devin Chanku on a close clone.
He's been in there with a lot of good fighters.
He gave Danny Jacobs a heck of a fight in
a middleweight world title fight in a split decision loss.
He gave Carlos Damas an excellent fight in a non
title fight, and that was a majority decision. The only
time he's ever really kind of been you know, I
wouldn't even say outclass, but it was a clear loss
even though he competed was when he when he fought
in a WBC midleweight title doubt in twenty twenty, he
lost a decision to Jamal Charlot. But the other good
names he's been in with, and that includes Mongi at
Triple G Adamas, Jack Colek, Danny Jacobs, et cetera. I mean,
Terriano Johnson, I mean guys who are good contenders or
in championship level fights. He either won or was competitive
in every single one of those fights. Scored some knockdowns.
I mean, so this is a step up from a billy.
We've seen him Billy shine in his fights that have
been coming up on either we've seen on ESPN plus
because he's been on these eye the Tiger Cars. Who's
now is coch Voter along with Top Break. But he's
not really fought He's not fought bad opposition, okay, but
he's not fought anybody that's in my mind the level
of toughness and combined with experience of a different check well.
Speaker 2: But the last fight, we didn't see any of him
because he landed one body shot like a minute into
the fight, and the guys down.
Speaker 1: Hefron is down on all fours and is counted out.
Speaker 2: So yes, give him credit for the knockout, but we
barely even got our popcorn to see what the guy
could do in the last fight.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying, I'm looking at his record and I'm
gonna I'm running down some of the guys in reverse order.
You mentioned the Hefron fight which was in May that
like was over before it ever even started, the last
literally forty seconds, and he scored a knockout with the
body shot. Rowan Murdoch knocked him in the sixth round.
Decent opponent Demon Nicholson, you know pretty good. Chin actually
went to distance. Was the first guy that took the
distance with Edgar Berlanga, right, he stopped him in four rounds.
That was an okay, solid win. Carlos Gongor, that was
a good win. That was a ten round decision. Carlos
Gongre was a good contender, had only one loss. He
also has a decision win against Vaughan Alexander by a
similar shutout type of scores. Who you know, Vaughn pretty
much goes to distance with everybody. You know. He fought
Najib Hamedi, who was a guy that challenged at one
point Sergey kobo Lev several years ago for a light
heavyweight till he stopped him in five. So he's fought
like those types of like fringy contender slash guys that
were like okay, you know, but he's not fought anybody
of the level like I said, the combination of the experience,
toughness and resume win or lose as devin Chenko. And so,
you know, is devin Chenko maybe getting a little bit
long in the tooth. He's been some very harsh battles
over the years. He's thirty eight years old now, but
Billy is you know, almost ten years younger. He's twenty nine.
Clearly this is a fight that's taking place on the
billy home turf. He's a fighter that fights out of
Canada these days at a Quebec you know, Montreal, andre
Quebec city, and Devin Chenko is on the road as usual.
But this, this is gonna be a tough fight, I think.
I mean, I just don't see, unless something freakish happens
either way, I don't see this is like a one
or two run fight. I think this is a it's
only a ten round fight, not a twelve. And these guys,
you know, I certainly know Devin Chenkos can go twelve
rounds and it's you know, probably in a sleep hones
it that it should be a pretty tough ruling fight
for these guys. I mean, I expected to be good action,
not not a lot of dancing, A fight that's gonna
be fun at close quarters, as we talked about many times.
You know, put him in a phone booth, so to speak.
You're not gonna need a twenty by twenty ring for
this kind of fight. You know, they can fight in
a much smaller ring. They're gonna be right there looking
for each other. Not a lot of you know, not
a lot of style points. I don't think are gonna
be scoring this fight. This is going to be a
man's man trying to fight stan and let me see
who can take it and who can give it the best.
Speaker 1: And the mobility.
Speaker 2: Again, as you mentioned as a fierce body puncher. What
is it for fights since last December? This is the
fourth fight since last December, so let's hear it for activity.
He's a contender on his way up. And obviously we
will talk more about this after whatever happens. We suspect
that Mobilly will win. But he is a guy that
is potentially I'm saying this a fight or two away
for maybe.
Speaker 1: Being on the radar for you know who.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Canelo Lavarez keeps going here, that's not unrealistic, right, So.
Speaker 3: He's gonna he's got a First of all, it is
going to be his fourth fight in thirteen months. He
fought in September of well, no, in eleven months actually
September of last year, in January of this year, May
of this year, and now this fight in in August.
And I would assume if he is the winner, he'll
be back in the ring before the end of this year.
Once again, so it'll be a nice run of activity.
But the reason why he may end up in a
mandatory position is because he's highly ranked in multiple organizations
and you know, the combination of the activity. If he
keeps winning and then you beat you know, solid opponents
like at devron Chenko, it's going to push you up
the ranking. So he's closing in on a mandatory situation,
you know. But I think top ranks plans are and
I the Tiger because it's hard to come by a
title fight right now in that weight class because of
the fact that Canelo has three belts and whoever he's fighting,
he can only fight one guy at a time, gon
to fight twice a year at the most, and the
other belt is going to be contested, you know, by
something that he's not involved with. That that's the fight
that's going to be your boy, Willilliams Skull in the
in the in the title fight. So what the what
the real possibility here is Again, it's not necessarily about
winning titles, but it's about you know, getting fans excited,
putting asses in seats, making a good fight, proving yourself
to a higher degree. And there's a lot of discussion
that if he is successful, meaning the Billy, and of
course everybody knows the Top Rank is going to be
doing the honeymong Gy is next fight in September. That
there's a very good, strong possibility based on what Top
Rank is said to me that if all goes well,
it's not out of the realm that they would do
the next fight against the Billy versus Bungee if he
defeats Eric Bazinion. And by the way, I'm not sure
if there's a rematch clause in the fight from ability,
I'm not sure about that at all. But the reality is,
let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Devyn
Takle pulls off the upset. Do you think anybody out
there would be upset up they did Devon Schenko in
a rematch against mong Gia. I mean, it's the fight
of the year to many people. So this is the
thing you got to do in the super middleweight division.
While you're sitting around waiting to get the Canel Olado ticket,
you got to, you know, give a reason for people
to tune in and people it'll be interested. And if
you can make these kind of matchups, belt or no Belt,
Canelo or no Canelo. You know, they're worth our time
and our our attention. I mean, so I think that
Saturday's fight is gonna be you know, a ding dong
as they say.
Speaker 2: All right, as you say, I like it. That is
the headlining fight. We'll handicap that fight first mentioned on
the live Friday bet Us Boxing show at one Eastern time,
where Mobili is a decent favorite there.
Speaker 1: But will it be a knockout?
Speaker 2: I mean, we got to go over all of that
on bet Us and their platforms, their YouTube, their social media,
et cetera. Another fight that we're also interested in heavyweights,
and this is Arslan Beck Machmadov and Guido Vianello ten
round heavyweight battle. All right on paper, this is the
co feature. This looks intriguing. Are how intrigued are you
by this one? For Saturday night in Quebec.
Speaker 3: The heavyweight division is very hot right now. There's a
lot of activity in the division. And while I don't
look at these two guys as in that a group,
they're not on that you know Fury Wild. There are
Fury Joshua Oo Sick that caliber or even that second
level like the you know the guys who are on
the on the rise. Let's say, you know, like are
the coming back like at Joseph Parker Ngela or you know,
we saw what Martin mcculey did a couple of weeks ago.
They're that next group of guys. But they're evenly matched.
I mean, it's a good it's a good competitive fight.
Record wise, they're not that far off. They both had
their ups and downs, they both had a loss. Uh,
they're both good punchers. Uh, they're not guys so again,
who are gonna be having to run around looking for
the other guy in the ring? They're they're fighters that
that that are absolutely you know, the stand and trade
kind of fighters. So from an entertainment perspective, you know,
which we always talk about being the first and foremost
thing in terms of importance. I think, you know, however
long this lasts, it will be a fun sort of
punch out.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: They're both kind of need to win. If you talk
about mac Maduf, you know, he is a Russian fighter,
but he's based in Montreal, in Quebec. This is like
his home arena, so to speak. Top rank is the cope,
is the promoter of the NLO. He's the Italian Olympian.
Although he's been fighting primarily in the United States. UH.
In terms of UH, Macmadov though, he went U and
he was a guy that was a heavy duty puncher,
like a really powerful puncher, but hadn't really you know,
been in the ring with lots of good opponents. But
on the times where he did fight halfway decent guys
like for example, everybody knows Carlos Kakam at this point,
former world title challenger but known as a very durable fighter,
got a bunch of losses. But this was a guy
that stopped him, uh in the actually I take the
back he went to distance room. That was the one
time that macmadub went to distance, was against talking, but
he still won the fight. The other fighters he fought,
UH that were known were on a lower level, like
and like a kind of faded used up. Marius Walk
for example, stopped him in six rounds. The Michael Wallach
stopped him, you know, in the first round when he
fought another guy that seemed like it would be an
evenly matched TG. You know what I'm gonna say, it
was your boy, It was my boy. You're a g Cabell.
And that was a great win for Kabiel because Macmaduke
came in undefeated, with a ton of hype. I think
he was the betting favorite. And this is one of
the fights that took place in Saudi Arabia. This was
the day of reckoning card reckoning. Yes, last December, Cabiel
looked absolutely sensational and mowed down Macmaduf in devastating fashion,
knocked him down three times and stopped him in the
fourth round. And so at that point a lot of
people were sort of like, well, you know, this guy
was quote unquote exposed. He did come back in May,
he scored a win against you know, a journeyman type
of opponent, stopped him in the second round, and so
now they're putting him back in, you know, with a
similarly a record type, experienced type guy in Vannello. But
Vnello's at his own issues also. I mean, you know,
he's got the amateur career as an olympian, He's twelve
to and one with ten knockouts. He's coming off a loss,
but kind of a forgivable loss. It was a split
decision that took place in April against Faa Jagua, another olympian.
He had that freaky loss to Jonathan Rice that was
really because of a cut and that cause a doctor
stop it in the seventh round of a fight that
Vanella was winning pretty handily at that time. It was
so I don't like hold that loss against them so much,
but it did show some you know chink so to speak,
in what he could bring to the table in a jagula.
You know, they took they took the gamble and they
lost that one. So it's a really important fight for
both of these heavyweights if they want to get back
in to even being considered in the mix. Like the
guy that loses is going to be like opponent status. Basically,
the guy that wins is going to have some semblance
of a career back. I mean that sounds unfair, unfortunately,
sometimes that's the way it rolls in the heavyweight division.
But you're only you're also only one punch away from
glory in the heavyweight division. So I think this is
a good matchup. I mean again, do I I don't
want to, you know, pontificate and say this is, like,
you know, the the ultimate heavyweight matchup. But at least
the promoters have gone and in my viewpoint done two
things they've made on paper a fight that's somewhat competitive
in my mind. And two, whatever happens when bell rings,
it should be interesting to watch and the outcome the
winner will definitely take a good step forward for sure.
So combined with I'll put it like this as as
a card that does not you know, most of the
top ranked fights usually have at least one world title
fight on them, but for a card like this, it
doesn't have the world title fight. Both fights seem to
be on paper, fights that should produce action and should
be interesting to watch. And you know, at the end
of the day, that's what we're here for as entertainment.
Speaker 2: I understand. And so again heavyweights, as you said, anything
can happen. One punch can change everything, and we look
for the drama we look for. Is there gonna be
some drama in this one again? Danny Garcia interview with
Dan coming up again. He's on the Canelo undercard fighting
eras Landy Laura. You'll hear from him in a few minutes.
Two other fighters to mention that are also part of
this top ranked card, but they're not on the ESPN broadcast.
Do I have that correct or earlier in the card
in Abdullah Mason and Jehi Tuck, tell me Moore please.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, I mean all the top ranked fights that
are not on the main card, as in this case,
it's the two top fights we mentioned super middleweight with
Mobility different Chenko in the heavyweights with mac Madouven vn L.
Everything else is on ESPN Plus and Top. You know,
this is mainly a card that is that is made
up of the eye of the Tiger. Young fighter is
mostly Canadian. But Abdullah Mason, the lightweight who was fourteen
and oh is one of the very best prospects in
the entire sport. I mean, like a bonafid guy that
could be the prospect of the year when the year
is over. Fourteen and oh, twelve knockouts, only twenty years old,
and you know, he is a spectacular talent, and he's
you know, keeping the chain move and he's in there
again with a solid opponent Mike Ohan Junior who's nineteen
and two, who's got a pretty decent level of experience.
It's an eight rounder. But the point here is that
Abdullah Mason, whoever he's fighting, whether it's a top opponent
or a nobody opponent, at this stage of his career,
one hundred percent worth keeping an eye on. Really, we're
going to be talking about him in the future in
main event type world title fights, I believe, you know,
in the next few years. And Johy Tucker's another top
rank prospect in ny Round on this card, maybe not
as top level as Mason. He's already suffered a loss
in a draw. Top rank did have high hopes for me.
He's only twenty one years old, though he's kind of
been inconsistent showing sometimes where you're like, wow, he looked
really good and other times like, man, what's going on
with that? He? You know, he did go through a
little bit of a rough patch where he lost the
decision majority to Nicholas Flaws and then had a draw.
He got back on the wagon and got to win.
But this is one of those fights where he can't
really slip up. If he takes another loss or draw,
I'd be willing to bet the house the top rank
issues the old Pink slips. So this is a very
critical fight for Tucker, who's not at the same level
of prospect, but if you will, as Mason, but still
a guy that at least to see what happens down
the road. Because this is an important important fight for him.
Ce D can turn the corner. Look, but again, he's
only twenty one years old, so there's no you know,
he's in that spot where you can't declare another loss.
You can't say it's over, but it would be hugely detrimental.
Speaker 2: We joke around, it's like Missouri the show me to
show me, Yeah, show me if he's gonna hang around
with top rank, show me something in this opportunity that
they're obviously giving him. All right, So that is the
top rank ESPN card for Saturday Night. It is the biggest,
most prominent card that's going to be taking place for
this weekend in North America, obviously, so we look forward
to those fights. We've got some new so nostalgia but
without further delay. We've got the former junior welterweight multi
division world champion, former junior welterweight unified champ, former one
belt welterweight champ as well in Danny Garcia. He's fighting
Eras Landy Laura. It's on the undercart of the Canelo
Berlanga pay per view in September. You don't have to
wait for September. You get him right now here with
us on the previewpot.
Speaker 3: I want to welcome into the podcast this week none
other than Danny Swift Garcia, the two division world champion
going for a third world title. Danny, You'll be fighting
Arislandi Laura for his WBA middleweight title. That fight takes
place in the co feature when Canelo Alvarez takes on
Edgar Berlanga on the PBC on Prime pay per View
September fourteenth at the Team Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
I want to welcome you at you. It's our first
interview since I've been doing this podcast. I'm very happy
to have you on. How have you been. It's been
a while since I've talked to you.
Speaker 5: I've been great, you know, enjoying my life. I had
two kids in my last fight.
Speaker 3: Another top now now we know you need the money.
I guess you're having more kids, right I know in
doing what you love, that is true.
Speaker 5: You know I'm chasing greatness right now, and that's that's
on I'm fighting.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: I was going to ask you about that because the
reality is you haven't fought in two years or it
will be able to be just about two years since
you get in the ring. It's only been it only
be your fourth fight, where you've had four fights since
twenty nineteen, and so I know you say you're chasing
greatness and you have other things you want to do,
like you mentioned, But was there a particular reason that
you decided to take the layoff?
Speaker 4: Was there?
Speaker 3: I don't know if there was an injury or just
got a little bored or just couldn't get a fight.
What was the long layoff for.
Speaker 5: Over the layout was the fight was supposed to take
place last year in August, so I was supposed to
come back right away, but I guess Showtime's hoped doing boxing,
so I got caught up in that small political change
and I just waited it out. And that's pretty much
the reason why any fight it's because the Showtop thing,
not really because I just didn't want to fight.
Speaker 4: It was just time and bad timing on that on
that on that end.
Speaker 3: So I asked that because there's some people that thought
when when this fight was announced, ' like boy man,
I thought Danny Garcia retired, but that's obviously not the case.
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, I never I never retired. I never announced
my retirement. But I guess people can assume or come
to their own conclusions or assumptions when you know you
haven't been acted. But I wasn't active because I didn't
want to. Just the way the game is now, you
gotta gets you gotta wait your turn.
Speaker 3: Well, I think the other thing also is you were
in the news, not so much for this fight being made,
But if you go back a couple of months ago,
there was a lot of discussion about Danny Garcia was
getting involved in promotion. You and your partner created Swift Promotions.
You put on a card in Atlantic City with the
plans to do some events in Atlantic City in your
hometown of Philadelphia, And so when you hear that, you're like, well,
you know, maybe he's he's staying involved in boxing, but
maybe getting away from the part where he's the guy
in the ring and now he's doing the business outside
of the ring.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I always want to.
Speaker 5: Be a promoter, and you know, I just didn't want
to stand around and do nothing. So I'm always a
person liked to chase new goals and new dreams, and
like even during the pandemic when I wasn't fighting, when
I want to the buyer real estate and build real estate.
So I'm always thinking about what can I do when
I'm not in the ring, And I thought about, you know,
giving back, giv it back to a young kid.
Speaker 4: The started the motion and see if I could do
something big.
Speaker 3: And how did that first show go for you?
Speaker 5: The first show went good, the second the second show
went great. You know, sold out getting them in Philly
twenty three hundred arena. The venue was about a thousand
people and a thousand people showed up.
Speaker 4: So it was a great turnout. You know.
Speaker 5: I was happy, great atmosphere and people seem to love it.
Speaker 4: So I can't wait for the next one.
Speaker 3: All right. Well, so now you'll take a little break
from that aspect of your your career and go involved.
Now be involved in an actual fight where you're that
got you in the boxing ring. And so the part
of this fight that I look at, I see, you know,
Danny Garcia have been super successful as a champion in
the junior welterweight division with a lot of big wins,
had success in the welterweight division, won another world title. Uh,
you've just had the one fight in the junior middleweight division.
That was your last fight. That's like I said about
two years ago. And I think even Danny Garcia wiul
admit maybe not your greatest performance, even though you won
the fight against Jose Benevidez Junior. Uh And now you
step up into the middleweight division to challenge Arislandi Laara
for his world title. He's a veteran, he's experienced, he's
been a champ at one hundred and fifty four and been,
you know, one of the top guys for quite a while,
and so I just wonder your your perspective on the
move up and weight and taking on this challenge where
you have never really fought above welterweight.
Speaker 5: The first fight of market four, you know, I feel
like I will box a mazy for like on my
every ground. So I feel like I dominated that fight.
And I feel like the Laura fight, that's the fight
that was the easiest fight me. You know, he he's
with PVC, I'm with PVC. So I felt like it
wasn't no political non political getting away of that fight,
and that's why I really want to fight him. And
plus he has a belt and that that's the opportunity
for me to be a three division world champion. And yeah, definitely,
so I feel like it's just made sense and not
you can pretty stop that fight.
Speaker 3: Now, do you feel like, you know, because you were
even when you were fighting Danny as a junior welterweights
as terrific as you were being champ and everything, you
were never looked at as a guy that was like
a big junior welterweight. You know, you always fit that
weight class really well. And I think there were some
people that saw your fights at welterweight and say, you know,
Danny Garcia is still really good, but he's not really
that big of a guy at welterweight. Now you're stepping up,
you know, another two divisions from there, and I wonder
in your mind, like, how do you think you fit
in now as one hundred and sixty pounder.
Speaker 4: I'm still a.
Speaker 5: Great to be honest, I always walked around my weight.
I always walked around instead of the sixty five pounds.
So I feel like at my age, you know my age,
I'm thirty six now, I feel like it's very impoorant
for me to fight it a weight that I'm comfortable
with and not really killing myself.
Speaker 4: You know, when you're in your twenties, you could kill
yourself to be weight.
Speaker 5: Rehydrate ten pounds and feel really strong, but it's a
lot different now. So I feel like I got to
be morphrategic when it comes to my fights and everything
just has to make sense, and I feel like this
is going to help me for the better now.
Speaker 3: I think that when you mentioned that this was a
fight that's sort of been in the in the in
the works for while I know showtime was there was
talks about it being last summer. As you mentioned, it
didn't happen for obvious reasons. Now it's taking place. There was.
There would be some that will look at this and say,
you know, Garcia Lara, two excellent names, guys who have
been a credit and fought a lot of big fights.
But and I have to be honest, I kind of
fall into this category. While I'm not unhappy to see
Danny Swift Garcia back in the ring, I do question
the merit of you challenging for a middleweight title, having
never fought in the way class, having come off a
very long layoff, and haven't had that fight with Benevitez
at one fifty four in your last fight. So tell
me and tell the listeners what makes you say that
it should be Danny Swift Garcia now that deserves the
opportunity to challenge for a middleway title.
Speaker 4: You know, at the end of the.
Speaker 5: Day, if you look at the last twelve years of
box and got fall for both title twenty twelve and
I'll fall now.
Speaker 4: But the best fighters my whole entire career, you.
Speaker 5: Know, So when it comes to I know a lot
of people saying, how do you get that opportunity?
Speaker 4: How do you skip the line?
Speaker 5: But I'll put in a lot of work, you know,
And I've seen a lot of other fighters get opportunities,
you know, their first time we went up a weight,
like Terrorist Crawford, he just fought for a WBA title.
He never caught that one with before. So I feel
like it makes no difference to me. You know, when
you're chasing greatness and you want to be great, you know,
I want to do what Colvid did. I want to
do when Duran did. I want to start at the
smarter weight class. They go all the way up and
win titles in the heavy weight class. So to me,
this's just a chance to being the This is is
for my legacy, and I feel like when his legacy fights,
you know, you can't be bad at it.
Speaker 3: In terms of Laura. He's forty one years old, as
I mentioned, been a guy that's had an excellent career,
been a real serious world champion at one hundred and
fifty four pounds, was a top amateur just like you were.
But he's he's fought infrequently, and I wonder when you
look at him and you see yourself matching up with him,
where do you view him at in his career? He
has not yet faced, in my opinion anyway of all
of his middleway fights, certainly a big name or a
or a top top guy. Uh, surely nobody with a
name like Danny Garcia, you know, whatever way class you're
fighting in. So how do you view Laura at this
point in his career as you go into this fight?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I still view Laura.
Speaker 5: You know, he's a great CHAMPI and he's been knocked
I know he has at fault into big names at
one sixty, but he's still been knocking guys out even at.
Speaker 4: Forty years old, so he's definitely still a threat.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm looking at Laura like Laura, you know,
so I'm taking them serious. You know, I'm training hard
and I expect the best lar that, Like I know,
he's expected the best, Danny Garcia, so I'm gonna come
in there and.
Speaker 3: Ready in big history, Danny, you have had a ton
of high profile TV fights, main event fights against a
lot of good names, a lot of big wins. I
wonder when you think back on your career, I know
it's not over yet, but is there one of your
of all those fights you have, I think of Matisse, Uh,
that spectacular knockout against Eric Morales in your rematch, a
big win against Lama Peterson, the great knockout against American
in your unification fight. You got so many top fights.
When you think back, what's your favorite fight of yours
that you've had in why?
Speaker 5: My favorite fight? Number one plan? I have to be
Americ Khan because no one thought I was I was
an eighth to one underdog. You know, I just beat
Morale as they say he was old, and then I
just jumped up in front of my title. I gainst
a superstar and Americ Khan one of the most talented
boxers and Olympic silver medolists at seventeen years old. I
feel like Americ Khan was one of my greatest victories.
And then, uh, even the Matissa fight because I was
I was already I already made five defenses and then
I was still the underdog.
Speaker 4: So I felt like I proved myself a.
Speaker 5: Lot, you know, even even the Thermo fight. To me,
it's a great fight, even though it was a close fight.
You know, some people that I want, some people thought
I lost. It depends fight, you know, like I thought,
I help, But that was only my second ef. That
was asking my first defense. I'm sorry, that was my
first defense. And I try to unify the division. So
that's that's an historic question me too, cause I showed that,
you know, I was trying to be great and unified
two divisions.
Speaker 4: Back to back.
Speaker 3: So with this fight with Laara, are you back in
boxing for the long haul? Are we gonna have to
go another two years? Uh to see you fight again
after this?
Speaker 5: That's a good question. Right now, I'm just taking it
one fight at a time. I'm taking one fight at
a time. You know, you can't fight forever, and so
he to win this world.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna wrap up with this. I'll just take
a point of privilege here and I'll say, Danny, I've
been covering boxing almost twenty five years, and I was
looking up your record. Before we got on the interview,
when I was getting ready for some of these questions,
I was looking back at your at your roster of fights.
Do you know that I've I think when I I'm
gonna be at this fight card between Canelo and Berlin
and your fight with Laura, I believe this is gonna
be my twenty fifth Danny guar see a fight at ringside.
I think you're of all the fighters I've ever covered,
that might be number one or number two of everybody
I've ever covered. I want to know because I was
there when you won the title against uh against Morales,
against Morales, I was there when you won against Maatista.
I was at your professional debut. I want to know
being at that many Danny Garcia fights so I get
a prize. Oh, let me know what you need, all right,
Just joke, just joking.
Speaker 4: I remember do you remember the art of Me? After
I got off the scale and I ate the cheesecake?
Do you remember that?
Speaker 3: Which fight was that? I kind of do vaguely remember
that it was.
Speaker 5: Uh, well, Steve Forbes, it was after the Wayne and
you were saying at the table and the first thing
I ate with the cheesecake. You finally remember you was like,
why the cheese Kate?
Speaker 3: I guess I don't remember that. Tell me now, you
tell me the story, because I usually am the guy
telling the other fighter of the story of what I remember.
Speaker 5: I remember I got off the scale and the first
thing I ate with the cheese cake? Do you say
it right next to me? And you said you're he
never got their wind and you say you're gonna write
an article on it. I don't know you ever wrote
the article, but I remember that that was a pretty
funny moment.
Speaker 3: I gotta go back and check that out. I do,
I do remember. I do remember the pro debut at
the Borgata on a on an HBO under card. You
weren't on television, but you were off TV. But the
thing about it was, you know, you had a lot
of hype from the amateurs and and at the time
your manager was Shelley Finkel, and Shelley was telling me,
you got to watch my kid, Danny Garcia's turn and pro.
Make sure you get there early. I got there early,
like I always do. When I saw you you score
your first win against Mike Denby, if I recall correctly, Yeah,
that's a long time ago. Well, so I can't either,
but I'm going to remember, I think what happens on
September fourteenth. I'm looking forward to seeing you fight, looking
forward to seeing Canelo, and I wish you good luck
in the match. Danny.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Okay, I got to joke around with you a little bit.
You've now interviewed him. Are you warming up to this
one a little bit? You said you got to get
warmed up to be interesting, and you warm it up
a little bit, Big Dan on this one.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, I've always enjoyed watching Danny fight. I
joke around with him. I mean, I've covered as many
Danny Garcia fights in person as literally any other fighter
in my entire career. He was the perfect storm of
a fighter in the sense that he was a golden
boy prospect, so he fought in all the big shows,
and then he fought a ton of his fights on
the East Coast, which is where I live, and then
he headlined his own major shows. He fought a lot
in New York, and he fought a lot of big
fights in main event fights. So it was the perfect
storm of being able to be in front of him
at these fights. Tons of times. I think I have
to go back and do like the official count, but
I want to say I've been ringside for twenty six
or twenty seven of Danny Garcia's professional fights. I mean,
it's crazy as the South, and this will be another
one because I am going to be traveling for the
Canelo Berlanga event. So I mean, I was at Danny's
professional debut. I was there when he won the title
for the first time against Eric Morales, I was there
for the rematch. I was there, you know, for you know,
all of his major fights, the Sean Porter fight and
the Keith Thurman fight. And just so, I've known Danny
and his dad for my entire time that they've been
around professional boxing. So I like Danny. The fathers are crazy,
but I like the dad also, and so anytime I
get a chance to talk to Danny, it's always good.
I enjoy it. It's not that i'm and I've made
this point, it's it's a little nuanced. Sometimes boxing fans
have a tough time dealing with nuance. It's not that
I hate the matchup. It's not that I don't think
Danny Garcia and Aristoni Laura can't fight each other, and
it's not like at least maybe like a halfway decent fight.
My thing. And you heard in the interview Danny and
I talked about he made his case about why a
lot of people are upset because Danny's sort of cutting
the line a fight for a middleweight title when he
has only had one fight above one hundred and forty
seven pounds, So he didn't look particularly great in that
fight against Jose Benevitez Junior in a majority decision victory.
And he's only had you know what four fights or
something like that, and like four years, five years, it
has been very very inactive. This is only going to be,
you know, his first fight since that fight that he
had against Benavide's which was back in July of twenty
twenty two, so it's been it'll be a two years
plus since he had a fight. So that's the reason
for the irritation. Let's say, in terms of the title
as a matchup, that's fine. They both got good names
and Danny always gives a great effort. You know, he
wants to enhance his legacy, which obviously he can do
if he wins a middleway title. My irritation for the
fight is probably more related to Larer than it is
to Garcia.
Speaker 2: Put it to you like that, and the fact that
you're sticking in on a pay per view. And as
you mentioned before and you said it again here, Garcia
hasn't really established himself as a middleweight, but he's getting
a middleweight.
Speaker 3: It's not even so much about it being on the
pay per view, it's they make it the co feature.
Speaker 1: And the other thing. Garcia has been open about this.
Speaker 2: He's battled mental health issues as well, and that's been
part of why he has not been in the ring,
and he has openly said that part of it. That
was part of the inactivity too, that.
Speaker 3: Was really not mostly an activity. Part of it was
because they were trying to get this fight going in
twenty twenty three, and for a variety of different reasons
that did it happen. So it's sort of PBC's always
got list of like a handful of fights that are
sort on the drawing board that they want to do,
and it's all about fighting the slot forum the spot
they try to do this fight on Showtime Before Showtime
ended its involvement in the end of twenty twenty three,
it just didn't work out for a variety of reasons.
And as Danny Jokio in the time off he's had
the two years he's had, him and his wife have
had two kids, so he's been busy.
Speaker 1: No doubt.
Speaker 2: Okay, So good stuff there and again that is coming
obviously September fourteenth, but a good preview there with Danny
Garcia to fight eras Landy Laurel.
Speaker 1: Let's get to some news.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you on the front end that I
was intrigued when I saw the blurb about tim Zo
fighting for a title fighting in the United States, and
I kept reading and then suddenly fighting in Florida and
fighting near West Central Florida where I am, because this
is a guy that I've been watching from a distance
in Australia, you know, obviously continents away. And now it
looks like you tell me more that in October I
be f junior middleweight title fight with Bachrum maturz al
Iev Uh and Tim Zuo will be happening.
Speaker 1: What what else have you heard here? As Wednesday has
become Thursday.
Speaker 3: No, this isn't this final week. This is a so
if you back up for a quick minute, people recall
that in March him lost the WBO title and a
chance for the vacant WBC title in the Bloodbath with Fendora.
He got the cut on the scalp and you know,
he you know, he was dominating until the cut happened,
and then you know, he ended up losing a super
close decision, uh a big you know, and that was
sort of an upset. So he's going to go back,
and they were making plans from the he was gonna
fight exclusively in the United States, but once he took
the loss, they were gonna do like a comeback fight
in Australia. They were trying to line him up for
an IBF eliminator where he was highly ranked, to do
the fight with Ericson Lubin in September. Lubin was ruled
out because of a hand injury. He wouldn't be ready
within the time frame that they were planning the fight.
So his promoter, No Limit Boxing, and Tim also works
with PBC, but No Limits to promoter certainly they do
was events in Australia. They were looking for another opponent.
At that time. You have Bakram Ortazliev, who won the
vacant title when Charlow didn't show for the purse bit
and vacated, and he ended up fighting in April against
Jack Coulka and winning the vacant title and by the way,
a very good fight. I watched it on YouTube after
it happened, and just a couple of weeks ago popped
up on like one of my regional sports channels, so
it's definitely worth to find it for those who never
saw it. It's a very entertaining fight, a very good
performance from Bachram winning the belt. Anyway, so the elimination
fight that Zee was supposed to do. Oh so then
Zee was supposed to ask people know was going to
fight on August third on the Terrence Crawford Magimov card.
He was set to fight Virgil Ortiz, but the doctor
ruled him out of the fight because the scalp cut
had not healed enough from to go into the full training.
So he was out of that fight because.
Speaker 2: He literally had to have plastic surgery and the warning
was this has not been enough time for you to train, etc.
Speaker 1: And maybe it could open up again.
Speaker 3: Gotta be careful, right, So with him out, they the
folks involved with that show offered Virgil Artis with Boatschuk
as a replacement. The Saudi's were like, no, thank you,
So they ended up doing the boat Chuk fight against
Arties on the Golden Boys show that was last week.
And meanwhile, Tim Zou is not getting that Lubin fight
because it wasn't it was gonna be ready. So while
that was all going on, the IBF operates a little
bit differently than some of the other sanctioning bodies. They
have a time frame in which they call a mandatory fight,
but if the time frame expires before the eliminator has
been fought, they just go to the next available guy
in the rankings and give him the title fight. So
that's what happened with Zoo. He was gonna do the
eliminator in September, but once that that opponent was no
longer able to get that deal done and he was
out the time on the Baker mandatory came to the
point where I guess he was up and they said, okay, fine,
you're gonna be ordered to fight the next avaiable guy,
which was Tim Zu. So they ordered that fight back
about I don't know, literally like ten days ago, a
week ago in early August, and they said, if you
don't have a deal by September fifteenth, I want to
say it was or September twenty something like that, that
they would then have a purspit. But he didn't need
that because PBC, which has worked with Main Events, which
is the promo for Bakram, and had Bachram on a
bunch of undercards when he was taking step aside to
not do the Charlot fight. They were able to make
a deal with PBC no limit in main Events to
do the fight in America on October nineteenth at the
carib Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida, which, if you follow
boxing these days, has become kind of a hot deed.
They've done a bunch of different shows down there. You know,
Mattrium has done cards there. Jake Paul's fought there, They've
done some of the DI Zone, MVP Prospect cards.
Speaker 2: They fought there for top rank even a couple of
years ago.
Speaker 3: Yes, no, no, not not Berlanga for top rank. That
was the Matrum card. Oh okay, that was Mattrium. So anyway,
but the point is that's a boxing hot deed kind
of plays these days, and they were able to make
that deal very quickly. So they informed the IBF to
cancel the Purspit because they have a deal and the
fight will be October nineteenth. Now, the good news is
this will now be of you know, we have talked
about numerous times about the prospect of non pay per
view PBC fights. We talked about them trying to do
this August event with Caleb Plant where there was an
injury to the opponent, so that got called off and
they put that on the Canelo pay per view instead.
So now we get into the month of October and
this will be unless something. I don't think anything's changing.
There's not going to be a fight before this for PBC.
This will be the first non pay per view fight
on prime video. Uh Tim Zoo against Schemer Tazi, keep.
Speaker 2: Pushing it from August. Now it's October, so that's.
Speaker 3: The But it's a good listen. I know a lot
of people never saw Bakram. They don't know anything about
him to the you know, he's just a glossy record.
They know nothing else. Trust me when I tell you,
as somebody that has watched backroom fight on more than
one occasion, he's a solid, sturdy guy with pretty good power.
Not the kind of speed that Tim Zoo has But
to me, this will be uh an entertaining, kind of
hard hitting kind of fight. I think it be a good,
solid matchup and a worthy a worthy fight for for
a prime video.
Speaker 2: And it's a belt, and it's a belt in a
division that has Terrence Crawford, who we're going to talk
about in a second. The interesting thing here is we
got the Australian Zoo, we got Bachrum, and we got Orlando, Florida, Babe,
I might as well.
Speaker 1: It's like, go have to fight it out.
Speaker 3: You got you. You're slapping knee, but I'm slapping you back.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm with you, and I'm gonna go. I'm
gonna go try to cover this.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying maybe they should fight it at Epcot
at Disney for the international flavor of Australian versus Bachrum here.
Speaker 1: But I'm intrigued by this, all right.
Speaker 2: So that morphs into the next bit of news, which
is not a surprise that Terrence Crawford says I'm not
coming back to Welter Wade. He vacates the WBO title,
So that's not unexpected. And that also means here that
whoever wins this in October just like Virgil Ortiz could
tell me more, be on the radar for Crawford down
Row Well.
Speaker 3: When Crawford fought Magamov for the title the w the
WBA title at one fifty four, it also was for
the interim title at one four of the WBO. Their
reasoning or whatever you want to make of it, was
because Fandora was going to be sidelined because of the
injuries suffered against him Zoo. They both got injured, and
that Fandora was suspended by the Nevada Commission until sometime
in November, but with a decent likelihood that they won't
even fight again until sometime early in twenty twenty five.
So they made that available. And so when when they
sanctioned that fight for the wo interim title the WBO,
like any organization does, they lay out certain parameters of
what's going to occur where, you know, depending on the outcome.
And so if Crawford was the winner, he would have
to have I think it was ten days, maybe it
was two weeks to let the organization know what his
intentions were. Am I going to retain the title at
one fifty four? Am I going to come back and
opt to defend the title at one forty seven. To
nobody's surprise, Karence Crawford said, I'm fighting at one fifty
four and he informed the WBO of that decision. So
in a corollary move, when he vacated and it was
determined that he's going to remain at one fifty four,
they the WBO elevated Brian Orman Junior, the undefeated top
rank fighter who had won the interim title back a
couple of months ago, where everybody sort of figured, when
the winner of that fight has the interim belt in
the not too distant future, they're going to be elevated. Beau.
Everybody knew that Crawford was fighting Magma up and the
perception was and it turned out to be accurate that
whatever happened in that fight, Crawford was never seen one
hundred and forty seven pounds again, that is exactly what happened.
So you have Brian Norman. He gets the belt. Unfortunately,
and this is one thing that you know that drives
me crazy. People want to call him the email champion
whatever you want to say that you don't get declared
the champ in the ring like a normal fight where
you win against a guy by a knockout or decision,
they raise her in and say the new champ. They
say the new interim champ. But then you know, a
month later he gets elevated to the full world champion.
So now Brian Norman has the full title. And I
talked to his manager, Joline Mazzone, a very experienced boxing person.
She told me that they've been in a conversation with
Top Rank and that he's going to make his first
defense sometime in November. There had been conversation believing that
this exact situation was going to unfold, that it would
become the full title about possibly Norman making his first
defense against tia Fimo Lopez, who was discussing moving off
from junior welterweight to welterweight. But Tiafimo later informed his
people and Top Ranked that he is unfortunately not going
to fight for the rest of this year, so they
will look around and find a fight for Brian Norman
to make a defense against, and you know, and try
to get him busy and make a name for himself
in a welterweight division that is now basically completed its
transition because Spence is not coming back to that weight
class whenever, if he ever fights again, Crawford has now
made it very clear he's not fighting at welterweight anymore.
The other big names of the times, you know, Danny
Garcia is now fighting in the middleweight division. They got
Sean Porter retired, Calbrook retired, Amer Con retired, Keith Thurman
unfortunately sidelined with terrible injury that's going to keep him
out and he was going to fight at one fifty
four in his last fight anyway. So that era of
a lot of top notch welterweights that really ruled the
roost of boxing for quite a number of years. That
year is now over and now it's a whole new
group of guys. He got Mario Barrios with the WBC beilt,
he got Jaron Ennis with the IBF title. Now Brian
has this title with WBO. Amanta Stanionis is the WBA champion.
Now Crawford still technically has the supertitle of the WBA.
At some point in the not too distant future that
will also end up being vacated. I am sure there's
been conversation. Eddie Hearn has been out doing YouTube interviews
saying that they have made a very handsome offer to
get Mario Barrios to fight Jaron Ennis in his next
fight to unify the titles, which will which would be
an interesting fight obviously for a lot of different reasons.
We'll see if they take them up on that and
what the details of that were. But the point here
is that that move that Crawford made not unexpected, but
it creates a little bit of a domino effect within
the division and also sets up a lot of shit
that will go on at one point fifty four or
whoever he's gonna fight, whether it will be perhaps against
Virtual Ortiz, which seems to be the odds on favorite
because he's not fighting Canelo. Based on Canelo's comments to Turkey,
Kurky has sort of disavowed Tim Zoo, I mean a
lot up said because he said he didn't want to
not fight for this title, he didn't want to wait
around for Crawford's next move in February. So Turkey didn't
like that apparently, which is certainly his prerogative. So they're
they're looking at Virgil Ortiz. But the main thing is
one p fifty four is a deep weight class and
one forty seven is trying to go through its transition process.
Speaker 2: And Jeron Ennis obviously has great opportunity here against some
other guys to collect some belts. We'll see, we'll see
what happens there. All Right, a couple of other items,
then we'll get to our nostalgia here before we're done.
You mentioned Chako Latito and Nonito donn Air could be
possible future Hall of famers, maybe fighting each other. You
mentioned that the last time we were chatting that now
is apparently not going to.
Speaker 3: Happen, right, That apparently is not gonna happen. So that
that was something that was reported by my good buddy
Lance Pugmeyer from Boxing Scene, who spoke to He was
at the fight in Las Vegas when Virgil Artis and
Boachuk fought last weekend, and he talked to Nonino Donair,
who lives in Vegas in the tens a lot of
the fights, and said to him, and he quoted him,
that they were having conversations about trying to make that
fight for later this year. And I've said this before,
having nothing to do with that story that Lance wrote.
I've written this in my columns like my old man
fight dreams were Donair against Chocolatito two future Hall of Famers.
Both guys are in the twilight of their career. They're
only a few years apart in age. They're both four
division champions. They both have been involved in very significant
fights in the smaller weight divisions. Chocolatito, like I said,
four division champion, former pound for pounking, don't Air, four
division champion, been in a fight of the year, you know,
scored the knock out of the year, been a fighter
of the year. I mean, these guys are just covered
in the glory. They're both going to be in the
Hall of Fame. And since they're both near the end
and still want to fight, what better way than to
see them against each other in the same weight class,
because Donair has been fighting at bantamweight and Chocolatito when
he got his return fight after some time out of
the ring, he came back in June and he was
fighting as a bandon weight. He scored a nice knockout
and looked good against Robert Barrera, and so they started.
Apparently there was some conversation, but in the end, after
those comments came out from Donair, the next day or
two days later on social media, it was Gonzales posting
that they're not going to do the fight, and the
quote was something like on behalf of team Chocolatito, we
want to inform our fans that we have and this
was all on capitals no interest at all in fighting
Donito donaire, nor are we in talks with his team,
and he made the point that he's got no title
and he didn't feel like that he had anything that
interested him, so we wish him. Then he kind of
stuck like the knife and little he says therefore he
wished him luck in retirement. But obviously dona Air has
made the point he's not retiring, so Chat still wants
to fight for a title.
Speaker 1: They all caps for a bottle.
Speaker 3: I got it, So Chuck Tito wants to fight for
a belt so he can possibly get a fight for
one of the Bandon White titles. He might be able
to land the shot at one of the Banda White titles.
He's already been a champ at Junior Banda White. I
know he'd liked to make some history by getting it
on a fifth way class. So it was crushing to
my old man. Fight dreams is the point, because I
love both of those. I love Gonzalez and I love
don Air. I would have loved the fight, but it
ain't happening.
Speaker 2: That one is not gonna happen, all right, real quick?
Nick Ball does have an opponent. Queensberry has announced that opponent.
After Ball got the win on what the five versus
five card to become the WBA Featherweight champion.
Speaker 1: What's up here and win?
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you mentioned, he won on the five on five.
He had a very exciting victory against against Raymond Ford,
tremendous battle. This was back in June, and so now
he's had some tough fights in early he had the
close draw, you know, the where a lot of people
thought he won, where he didn't get the WBC belt.
That was on the five on five card, and he
gets the title shot in June. Like I mentioned, his
scores a very close but outstanding action pack win against Ford.
And so his promoter, Frank Warren is taking him home
to Liverpool to make the first title defense, and they've
matched him up with Ronnie Rios, who was a former
title challenger twice and the junior featherweight division. He was
the name that had been first and foremost was supposed
to fight Stephen Fulton when they were doing the non
pay per view PBC card in August that was going
to have Caleb Plant in the main event. It was
supposed to be Fulton against Rios and the co feature.
I guess he got this offer or this possibility, and
so therefore Fulton is fighting a different opponent on the
preliminaries of the Canelo Berlanga card, where Plant is also
on the pay per view. In any event, look, Ronnie
Rio's as a first defense, It's not like an A
plus opponent. But Ronnie's a good, solid pro. You know,
he's lost, you know, a couple of title fights in
the junior featherweight division against Ray Vargas years ago. He
had a twelve round knockout loss against m j Acmadalia
back in twenty twenty two. He then took quite a
while off, but he did come back a few months
ago and score a victory. And so now he's going
to Liverpool to the challenge nick Ball and nick Ball
if anybody deserves I'm not going to call Ronnie Rios
a soft touch, because I don't believe he is a
soft touch, but he's certainly an underdog. But if anybody
in that time, top tier deserves a hometown fight against
a repidod opponent, but not you know, a guy that's
the favorite or anything like that. You know, because of
everything that Nick has done in the last few fights,
I see no problem with this and you know, go there,
do your job and hopefully we'll see you in a
unification fight, you know after that.
Speaker 2: He's a short, squat featherweight, very popular. So now he
gets a shot there to fight in front of the
home fans in October.
Speaker 3: We like that. And speaking by the way, he hasn't
fought in Liverpool since he was back, you know, a
six round prospect, so it's a really big deal for him.
Speaker 1: That is a big deal.
Speaker 2: So speaking to the Brits, two British heavyweights, Fabio Wardley
and Fraser Clark who threw down very evenly matched and
had a split draw back in March.
Speaker 1: They're gonna do this again. What's the update?
Speaker 3: First of all, first fight was absolutely sensational, both guys undefeated.
Wardley was defending the British and the Commonwealth heavyweight title.
Fraser Clark doesn't have as much experience professionally, but he
was a bronze medalist in the Olympics in Tokyo, twenty
twenty really really turned out to be a spectacue fight.
I mean again, we talked about people wanting to just
say it's Ortiz and Boachuk has the fight of the year,
but that I think was because of it was immediate,
like they just saw it, and so they're not really
thinking through the other excellent fights that have taken place.
I'm not saying that Virgil Ortis and Bowchuk wasn't a
bona fide candidate, but Wordley and Clark is a candidate also,
as there are other fights that were up there, Comatov
and Ford and Tyson Fury against Alexander Usik, and obviously
Boachuk and Artis. Maybe we'll see something like that this
weekend with the Mobility against Devon Jake. But Wardley and Clark,
as soon as they had that first fight end in Mars,
especially because it turned out to be a draw, there
was immediate discussion of a rematch. I had reported back
a while ago that there was a decent possibility. I
want to say that they were talking about doing it
on September twenty first on the Anthony Joshua Dubois card. Now,
remember these guys drew like fifteen thousand people to the
O two Arena as the main event. So they could
have definitely done their own show, probably would have put
it on a pay per view in Britain if they
did the rematch on its own card as a main event.
But it's not going to be the main event, and
it's not going to be in Britain most likely. According
to what the people I've talked to, is this is
going to be another fight that loads up these read
season cards. They're gonna probably do the fight. It's not official,
it's not done, they haven't announced it, but the plans are.
What they're targeting anyway, is to put this on the
undercard in October when we see the fight between Arthur
Better BAV and Dmitri Biebl for the undisputed light heavyweight title.
So if this is one of those one of the
fights on that card, the main event is already like
one of the best fights that you can make in
the entire sport. Certainly, we've been waiting a long time
for it. It got delayed because of the injury to the
Better BF. But you throw on Fabio Wardley and Fraser
Clark in part two of a tremendous heavyweight battle that
definitely makes that card and without even knowing the other
fights that the Saudi's are looking to do, if that
does in fact land there, like I'm told, it's probably
going to be the case, that's a tremendous fight for
that show.
Speaker 2: Okay, good stuff for Wardley and Clark. Stay tuned for
our British fight fans.
Speaker 3: Oh that's listen. That's a hell of a fight. I
can't wait for that.
Speaker 2: We love the heavyweights. Heavyweights, it means something different. It
just seems like spectacular years so far with that Usik
Fury fight at the.
Speaker 1: Top of it.
Speaker 2: But we've seen knockouts from Anthony Joshua Jang, dispatching of
Deontay Wilder, and Martin Bocoli's upset demolishing Jared Anderson, which
we both thought, I mean the heavyweight division compelling.
Speaker 3: You forgot about the other fight of your candidate in
the heavyweight division that was a couple of weeks ago
between Derrek Chessaur and Joe Joyce.
Speaker 2: Yes, Chasaur and Joyce. Nostalgia time. Speaking of nostalgia, unfortunately
earlier this week is the is the anniversary, and we
did talk recently about this, but forty two years ago,
this past Monday, on August the twelfth, Salvador Sanchez, one
of the great fighters, Mexican fighters, at only twenty three
years of age, had accomplished so much and only tw
three years old, killed in a car crash. We did
talk for those that were not with us on this
pot about the Azuma Nelson fight at Madison Square Garden
and that anniversary forty two years ago, back in July,
was just three weeks before this car accident, back in
nineteen eighty two, earlier this week. We can't convey enough
how meteoric the rise was for this guy, Hall of fame,
credentials even in his early twenties, and then bam, gone
horribly in his own accident. He was at the wheel,
it's his own car crash and dead and gone. Dan
it just twenty three years of age.
Speaker 3: Yeah, driving a Porsche. Was it involved in a car
accident with a truck or two trucks? I guess he
left behind a wife and two small children. Like you said,
only twenty three years old, but at twenty three, had
accomplished more than most fighters accomplished in an entire career.
So the credentials that he had, the reason we spoke
about the Nelson fight because that was the anniversary. A,
that was a fantastic fight, and b it turned out
to be his last fight, and at the time was
Zuma Nelson was totally unknown and he went on to
become one of the all time greats himself, winning championships
at featherweight and junior lightweight, become a Hall of Famer,
just like Sanchez. So when he died, Sanchez was forty
four to one and one with thirty two knockouts, and
he was he had made nine defenses. The ninth defense
was against against a Zumin Nelson, and even though that
fight had just happened three before his death, he was
already scheduled have a rematch with with Juan Laporte back
at Madison's Pare Guard in September of eighty two. When
he died obviously in August of eighty two. So you know,
this was a time in boxing where the top fighters
fought frequently. Savador Sanchez became known to the Americans more
than just his Mexican viewers and fans because he fought
a number of fights on ABC on the network, and
he fought he was one of the main fighters in
the early eighties late seventies that formed the foundation of HBO.
He along with Larry Holmes and Marvin Hagler, were three
fighters that HBO featured a lot in its in its
early days when they got more heavily involved in boxing,
they couldn't get enough of these guys. And Sanchez also,
you know, like I said, he fought on the networks,
also I saw I remember seeing him as a kid
like in some of the early fights I watched on TV.
Spectacular fighter, had power, had technique, had skills, could defend,
had angles through lots of punches, exciting, but also had,
like I said, the skill set. You know, it was
like the combination of a great boxer but also a
great brawler, like the real good. But they call him
a boxer puncher, but he fought everybody.
Speaker 2: The coming out was really the network TV fights with
Danny Little Red Lopez, and you can YouTube those up
and go back and look at him. One of them
was what ABC wide well to sports. I think the
other one may have been even on CBS. But they
were both brawls, and Sanchez took everything that Lopez had
to offer and then brutalized him and so just yeah.
Speaker 3: He was. He was always active. He fought on a
regular regular basis, but just in terms of the elite
guys that he fought. He defeated Danny Little Red Lopez
for the title Danny Lope in the Hall of Fame.
He defeated him in a rematch. He defeated Juan Laporte,
was an excellent contender at that time. They were going
to have a rematch, but he obviously passed before they
could do it. He had the win that we spoke
about against zum and Nelson. That was one of the
great fights you'll ever see, and it still blows my
mind that Nelson was so unknown at that time to
see what he went on to do after that fight,
he became like one of the great fighters in history himself.
Like you can, I think there's a very strong argument
that you can make a lot of people make that
the greatest ever professional boxer from Africa is a Zuma.
Nelson and Sanchez fought him when he was an unknown guy.
But it shows you how good he was because it
took him fifteen rounds but he finally stopped Nelson, and
like I said, unfortunately he passed a few weeks later.
But the biggest fight that Sanchez ever had, the fight
that I have been obsessed with TJ for years been.
I've located memorabilia from that fight for my collection, different
posters and other credentials and stickers and credent you know,
the whole nine program, the legendary one of the great
monster fights in the history of the great Mexico Puerto
Rico rivalry at the Caesars Palace Pavilion, a don King
close circuit pay per view main event uh the world
WBC Featherweight title defense against Wilfredo Gomez. Gomez was the
long time junior featherweight champion from Puerto Rico. Massive puncher
along Tyle Raine comes up. That was like they called
it the Battle of the Little Giants, and that's exactly
what it was. This was an epic fight and Sanchez
and Gomez went at it like their lives depended on it.
And in the end it was Savador Sanchez with two
knockdowns and a big knockout, stopped Gomez in the eighth round.
Sensational fight.
Speaker 1: I haven't watched it go back in YouTube that went up.
Speaker 3: I'm so geeked up right now talking about this, and
I mean it's sad that we're doing it because it's
because Sanchez passed. But I'm so thinking about this Gomez fight.
I probably watched that Gomez Sanchez fight every other month.
I'm gonna go I'm gonna watch it when.
Speaker 2: We watch it again, and we can't. I mean, I
said this back in July. I'll say it again for
this audience. We can't convey enough what a national hero,
but also in his home area, his home region goods.
The images from that funeral when you go back in YouTube,
in national television, I mean, it's on national TV and
there are thousands of people in the streets and they
are carrying the coffin. The people are carrying the coffin
and passing it from people to people to take it
into the church. You taught you talk about what an icon,
and he easily we talked about this before. He easily
had five years of high level career and maybe ten
years of high level career still left at only twenty
three years old. You don't know for sure, but I
would say easily five years of high level career that
are gone.
Speaker 3: Geologically, as tough as he was and as many fights said,
you know, he was in some hard, tough fights, but
he was not even at twenty three, with forty six
fights in his career and having made nine defenses. He
did not take overwhelming punishment either, got a lot of
his guys out of there. There were certain fights that
maybe weren't the most exciting where he was able to
outbox guys. I mean, he could really do a lot.
He was a very versatile fighter when he when he
had a bite down and fight though, like he did
against Gomez, I mean he sures heck did that. I mean, well,
Franil Gomez the Hall of Fame r also. I mean
he may have lost that fight against Sanchez coming up
to the next weight class, but he was a spectacular
fighter in his own right, one of the greatest punchers
boxing he's ever seen. And Sanchez shredded him, you know,
as in the later going to that fight. I mean,
you know, it's just a nostalgia.
Speaker 2: You gotta go, you gotta go see this. Go check
out the ray Field collection. Whenever he puts up anything
on Salvador Sanchez.
Speaker 1: This guy was that big.
Speaker 3: This year, I put up some of the cars I
have from a because you know, you're boxing. You know,
people know baseball cards, football cards. There's boxing cards. There's
always been, like in back in the tobacco era, like
the right, the late you know, the early nineteen hundreds.
A lot of the cards that were more modern were
on stickers that came in foreign issues, like in Italy
and Panini. Sanchez has some cards, but they're in like
these obscure sets. You gotta find like his nineteen eighty
two sticker from the Italian Panini set. You gotta find
the sticker and the card on a sheet that you
got to cut out. That was in the famous combat
magazine that comes from Japan called Gong, And they've got
one issue that had a sticker, one issue that's got
the card. Rayfiel's got the uncut sheets. Oh, I mean,
I'm an animal with this shit, of course you do.
Speaker 2: I expect nothing less of the Rayfield collection on Salvador
Sanchez than you've got the cutout sheets of boxing cards
of him from a Japanese fight magazine.
Speaker 1: But he was that big of a deal. That's for sure.
Speaker 2: One more piece of nostalgia, and that goes back twenty
three years ago. Now, coming Sunday, August eighteenth is the
anniversary from two thousand and one. That's Chris Bird and
David Tua in a heavyweight battle. All right, why does
this stand out? Why does this make the nostalgia rundown
for these two ahead?
Speaker 3: The main reason is because you get to, like late August,
mid to late August is not a lot of stuff
going on right in terms of anniversaries. It's typically a
slow time of the year. However, Chris Bird, who was
a heavyweight title holder, David Tua, who I've maintained over
the last say twenty five or thirty years, is probably
the best heavyweight not to win a world title, a
tremendous puncher, totally opposite styles, but there were two of
the best and the biggest names of their time. And
when you look back that period of time in the
early two thousands, I'm not going to sider and tell
you it's as good of a heavyweight ear as say,
like the nineteen seventies or the nineteen nineties, or even
frankly the ear that we're in now, with what we've
seen with Fury and Ou Sick and Joshua Wilder and
all the guys that have been around now. But David
two and Chris Bird were two of the best and
the best names of their time. Bird was very polarizing
because he made terrible fights. Was a super skilled fighter,
though kind of boring, but was always at a gigantic
disadvantage in terms of usually his height and weight. But
he was a brilliant boxer of Southpaw. Was an Olympian
for the United States. Started his career like in the
one fifties, but became a bona fide heavyweight, you know,
handed Vitali Klitschko his first loss, you know, on an injury,
and Tua had a tremendous resume. He beat a lot
of top guys who went on to become world title
you know, world champions, but they weren't in world title fights.
I mean, he's got two wins over by knockout against
Hasim Rockman. He's got you know, he knocked out John
Ruiz in nineteen seconds and he has a draw i
should say against Rockman in the rematch, but a knockout
in the first fight. He had a nineteen second knockout
against Jean Ruiz, who went on to become a heavyweight champion.
He beat Michael Moore after he was in a world
champion and a fight I was ringside four in thirty seconds.
He knocked him out. Was a devastating knockout. You know.
He beat my friend of me Freso Kendo by knockout.
He beat Donnel Nicholson. He got a title shot against
the prime Lennox Lewis and lost in a one sided decision,
the first heavyweight championship fight I ever covered. But he
has wins over guys who were good contenders at that time,
Obed Sullivan and you can go on David ais On,
you know, just good quality guys that were populated that
upper restaurant. Olag Maskio by knockout in a fight that
was on CBS when they used to still show you know,
good heavyweight fights on the networks. Ike I Deabuci had
one of the great heavyweight fights of ever in a
very very razor close loss on HBO. I always thought
he'd eat that fight out, but he was fighting at
that level, tons of top names, and so when he
got in the fight against Chris Bird, this was like
for big stakes. It was on showtime. They were fighting
in an IBF elimination fight. The winner was going to
fight Evander Holyfield for the vacant title, and that was
also a big deal. Holy Field was maybe not at
his best at that point, but was still one of
the great names in the division. And in this particular
fight that took place in Las Vegas, Chris Bird Does
did what Chris Bird does. He outpointed two in a close,
competitive fight, you know, eight four eight four seven five
on the scorecards, but he definitely was the rightful winner.
And he went on then and fought Evander Holyfield for
the vacant IBF title, a fight that I was ringside for,
and he won that title. And unfortunately for David Two,
as I have said many times, he had the great
misfortune of being a really outstanding heavyweight in that era
and only got one title shot, and it happened to
come against the dead prime Lenox Lewis and the mandatory
and he got absolutely played with in that fight, and
he never got another opportunity. And this was the chance
to get that chance, right had he beaten Chris Burt,
because I believe he would have absolutely defeated that that
version of the Vander Holyfield, but it didn't happen. In
the you know, this is the anniversary of that fight.
So this was a fight that was worthy of being
for a title unto itself. But it turned out that
it was an elimination.
Speaker 2: And for Tua what might have been because Birds you,
as you just described, bird beat him that night. I
still remember the Ruiz, the John Ruiz and the Morror
fights because again blink of and I they're over. This
guy was, you know, samoan fighter, kind of menacing the
whole thing, and you would have gotten me on the
trivia pat He only got one title shot, one one
track at Lennox Lewis.
Speaker 3: And that's and the thing about you mentioned about the
two quickies between Ruiz and Moore. The Ruiz fight was
before my time of covering boxing, although I remember watching it,
and as I'm sure you would understand, I have the
poster from that fight, of course. But the David Tua
fight I was at in Atlantic City. But the thing
about the David Tua fight, which was after David was,
you know, well beyond his prime. This is in two
thousand and two. I remember having a conversation with my
good pal Carry Davis, who used to run the boxing
department at HBO Sports. He was the senior vice president
and you know, we would always talk on a regular basis,
and not that I was making the decisions, but he
would always run fights by me, like what do you
think of this? What do you think of that? He
was like looking for like my visceral reaction when he
would come up with a fight that he was interested
to work on. And when when he I remember we
were having lunch in like Indianapolis at a fight we
were at, and before that fight was going on, he
told me they were going to make David two against
Michael Moore. What do I think? And I looked at him, like,
what are you doing? I said, that is a one
round fight. I said, David two was going to absolutely
fucking annihilate Michael Moore. No, no, no, you don't understand this.
That the other Okay. Now fast forward a couple of
months whenever the fight has and I'd never forget this.
I know this is not about the bird, but where
I ran sitting ringside in Atlantic City. I'm in the
front row of the media section on the where the
TV cameras are shooting over us, and Carrie Davis is
in the front row where the HBO executives always sat
directly across the ring for me, like I could make
eye contact with him, and we were you know, you
could get the facial knowledge from each other if you
were nodding or whatever was going on. So the fight
starts ding ding. Thirty seconds later, Michael Moore is out
fucking called splatte yep on the canvas, a devastating, destructive
massive David to a knockout and I catch carry Davis's
eye across the ring and he looked directly at me
when that knockout happened, and he just put his head down.
He is basically like, yeah, yeah, you do.
Speaker 2: You remember lunch in Indianapolis, my friend, where I told
you what was gonna happen. But Chris Bird got Tua
on that night back twenty three years ago, August eighteen
of two thousand and one. They're in that heavyweight battle. Listen,
we've done plenty of damage here on the preview pod.
Christian Mobili and Sergei de' revyon Chinkowa, They're gonna do
plenty of damage. We're looking forward to that main event.
Whatever happens, we're going to recap it. Coming off the weekend.
You heard from Danny Garcia as well, in advance of
Hymn Fighting on the Canelo undercard one on one with
Dan here on this pod again, likeas Radus review Us
on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, why don't we reconvene on the
bet Us Boxing Show. We'll handicap a little bit at
one Eastern time Friday, depending.
Speaker 1: On when they're hearing the pod, join us live.
Speaker 2: We'll talk more about the Mobility fight, the heavyweight co feature,
handicap those more fun and frivolity. Raphael will tell more
stories about getting boxing cards perforated from third world countries
and wherever else because I expect nothing less.
Speaker 3: Just for the record, by the way, they're not perfect.
If you wanted to take them out, you got to
cut them with the scissors night tem.
Speaker 1: To City, okay, so you could not.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they weren't perfect, okay, but nonetheless you got the
Salvador sang and chess cars. I'm a Japanese boxing magazine,
of course, that's how that works. Listen, great stuff here.
Let's reconvene on the beat Us Show and then whatever
happens a fight, preach Unite, recap awaits us off the weekend.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Dan, Raphael, Yes, sir friend.
Speaker 2: All right, and we thank you for listening. You've been
with us on the Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast,