1 00:00:02,240 --> 00:00:05,240 Speaker 1: All right off a weekend that has seen Raymond Murra 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,279 Taia Retainius IVF lightweight title in a bit of a 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:11,439 surprise get the win over Andy Fruz in the main 4 00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:15,279 event for Matchroom and Desonne in Las Vegas. For ready 5 00:00:15,279 --> 00:00:18,280 to talk about that debut of ZUFA Boxing with their 6 00:00:18,359 --> 00:00:20,879 fight series that was also in Las Vegas. Why were 7 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:22,839 we not in Las Vegas for all the warm weather? 8 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:25,760 I know Dan Rayfield's wondering that. Welcome in. It is 9 00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:31,320 the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast. I'm the somewhat capable host, TJ. Reeves. 10 00:00:31,519 --> 00:00:33,520 He is our insider, Big Dan Rayfield, you would like 11 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:37,119 to report, despite your like the Post Office, neither sleet 12 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:41,600 nor snow nor sub zero temperatures you have posted on 13 00:00:41,679 --> 00:00:46,240 the pod on Sunday. I love the meteorological terms that 14 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:50,079 they love to flaunt. What's the accumulation? What's the accumulation 15 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:52,359 right now in Northern Virginia for you, my friend? 16 00:00:53,359 --> 00:00:55,439 Speaker 2: Well, I can't speak for all of Northern Virginia, but 17 00:00:55,479 --> 00:00:58,840 I can speak for my specific like street, my neighborhood. 18 00:00:59,079 --> 00:01:01,600 We probably have not eight inches and it's continuing to 19 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:02,799 heavily sleep. 20 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,799 Speaker 1: It started now you and I are doing this Sunday afternoon, Florida. 21 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:09,719 Full disclosure. When did the accumulation start? Mid midday Saturday 22 00:01:09,719 --> 00:01:10,239 Saturday night? 23 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 2: It started like late last night. And I went to 24 00:01:12,359 --> 00:01:14,959 go to bed after the Maritayah, and after I was 25 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,879 done writing my story about that fight on Subseac, and 26 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:20,840 I'm mosying up to my room, probably about three o'clock 27 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:23,079 in the morning, and I looked out the window with 28 00:01:23,159 --> 00:01:24,760 the street light. It was coming down and there was 29 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:26,799 already probably about an inch on the ground all through 30 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,519 the night, and then probably sometime in mid morning its 31 00:01:29,519 --> 00:01:31,680 switched over. Now it's a sleepy mess. And of course 32 00:01:31,719 --> 00:01:34,400 we got the notification for the least surprising thing of 33 00:01:34,439 --> 00:01:37,400 all time that the schools closed on. 34 00:01:37,719 --> 00:01:40,159 Speaker 1: Here is something vital that we never have to worry 35 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:42,239 about in Florida and most states in the South. More 36 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,120 than a second. Do you have to dig the car 37 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:48,159 out because of eight inches? Is it that packed in 38 00:01:48,319 --> 00:01:49,959 around the tires and around the car? 39 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 2: And we're not we're not dummies. We put the cars 40 00:01:53,159 --> 00:01:54,480 in the drive in the garage. 41 00:01:54,519 --> 00:01:56,920 Speaker 1: But still if you got eight inches outside the garage 42 00:01:56,959 --> 00:01:58,480 door and you got to go somewhere in the car, 43 00:01:58,599 --> 00:01:59,879 not suggesting that you would not. 44 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:01,599 Speaker 2: We're not going to go anywhere in the car number 45 00:02:01,599 --> 00:02:03,599 one for the night because there's no We got plenty 46 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:05,599 of work, right right. We did our We did our 47 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:06,760 good things we're supposed to do. 48 00:02:06,879 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: You know what I'm working towards. Are we going to 49 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:12,120 get some social media video of Rayfield with the shovel? 50 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,439 Is there no shovel in the future? 51 00:02:14,479 --> 00:02:16,639 Speaker 2: Now, let me tell you something. Yeah, I've reached the 52 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,599 stage of my life. Yeah, where we hire the kids 53 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:20,280 to come plow that. 54 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:22,360 Speaker 1: I was about to say, you've reached the stage of 55 00:02:22,439 --> 00:02:25,199 parenthood where young Rayfield you can spiff that's a great 56 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:29,400 old word, spiff him ten bucks, fifteen bucks and say, Junior, 57 00:02:29,599 --> 00:02:30,680 clean the driveway out of. 58 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:33,039 Speaker 2: Or I can say, go do it for free, because 59 00:02:33,039 --> 00:02:34,759 I gave you life, and I give you shelter and 60 00:02:34,759 --> 00:02:35,479 food and clothes. 61 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,199 Speaker 1: You want to eat some of this stuff and not 62 00:02:38,319 --> 00:02:40,400 have four layers of clothes on in the freezing cold, 63 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:42,199 Go shovel the driveway. 64 00:02:42,159 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 2: Yeah? 65 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: I love this. Okay? Should I mention right about now 66 00:02:45,759 --> 00:02:49,280 eighty two degrees this afternoon in Tampa Bay it is 67 00:02:49,319 --> 00:02:52,960 definitely different. Again, I'm not making light of this. This 68 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,400 is a mess all over the South, we're not ready 69 00:02:56,439 --> 00:03:00,879 for this rayfield freezing conditions, with the frozen sleet, the 70 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:05,319 frozen rain, iced over roads. Again, this is not the north, 71 00:03:05,439 --> 00:03:09,240 the northeast New England, even you with northern Virginia. An 72 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,439 inch or two of ice and sleet and it's over 73 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:14,520 baby in the South for several days. 74 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:17,759 Speaker 2: In upstate New York and we were used to that 75 00:03:17,759 --> 00:03:20,000 eight inches was like a dusting. But here in Virginia, 76 00:03:20,039 --> 00:03:22,319 having lived here for you know, over twenty years at 77 00:03:22,319 --> 00:03:26,039 this point was twenty something, twenty plus years, right, Uh, 78 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:29,319 they just have no clue how to clean things up 79 00:03:29,319 --> 00:03:32,159 because we're not exactly so the eight inches turns into 80 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:36,240 like you know, school closures and work closures and road closures. 81 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:37,240 It's a complete but. 82 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:40,840 Speaker 1: And again they're gonna be tons, millions, millions and millions 83 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:42,840 and millions all over the South in particular when we're 84 00:03:43,039 --> 00:03:44,520 power without stuff. 85 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:46,919 Speaker 2: But we're hunkered down. We got our we got our 86 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:48,960 milk and our eggs and our bread and our groceries 87 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,400 and we're good to go and all right, well hang out. 88 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:53,319 Speaker 1: This is this is good, all right, So thank you 89 00:03:53,520 --> 00:03:55,639 for hanging out here with us as we're as we're 90 00:03:55,639 --> 00:03:57,439 ready to rock on on the pod feed. 91 00:03:57,719 --> 00:03:59,599 Speaker 2: By the way, I'm going to say a thing. I'm 92 00:03:59,599 --> 00:04:02,120 a little concerned just because of the mass amount of 93 00:04:02,199 --> 00:04:06,520 airline delays and cancelations that a lot of people who 94 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:09,000 are involved with the big fight between Shaquar Stevenson and 95 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,159 Tiafimo Lobez which is coming up on Saturday, many many 96 00:04:12,159 --> 00:04:15,159 people involved with that event are traveling are supposed to 97 00:04:15,159 --> 00:04:17,759 be traveling on Sunday and Monday to get to New York. 98 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,600 So for luck, people like Eddie Hurd and his team 99 00:04:20,639 --> 00:04:23,519 who are promoting the Maratia card, as well as Shakor 100 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:26,079 who was training in Vegas and Keishan Davis who was 101 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:28,439 training in Vegas, who were at the show, all of 102 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:31,000 them are supposed to go to New York presumably either 103 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:33,759 on Sunday or Monday for a fight week. And Tiafimo, 104 00:04:33,759 --> 00:04:35,759 who's been training in South Florida, is supposed to go 105 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:38,560 to New York, you know, probably today or tomorrow also, 106 00:04:38,639 --> 00:04:39,920 so it's gonna be a mess. 107 00:04:40,639 --> 00:04:43,759 Speaker 1: I saw the New York airports on Sunday morning that 108 00:04:43,879 --> 00:04:47,360 LaGuardia announced were closed for like three hours while they're 109 00:04:47,399 --> 00:04:50,199 having to try to plow the runways you know the 110 00:04:50,240 --> 00:04:52,120 minor detail of we got to clear the area where 111 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,399 the planes can take off and land by the way 112 00:04:54,879 --> 00:04:58,279 that they had already canceled over fifteen one hundred flights 113 00:04:58,319 --> 00:05:01,519 per Sunday and Monday. Just to look Wardia. I know 114 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:05,480 two people that are trying to get back from Florida 115 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:07,959 or in the South to New York and they were 116 00:05:07,959 --> 00:05:13,079 told Rayfael Wednesday or Thursday before the attempt is going 117 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:15,959 to be made for them. All right, good luck with 118 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:17,360 all the air travel and all the stuff. And you 119 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:19,560 bring up a great point, but you've got several days 120 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:21,639 for them to get there and be able to be 121 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,120 there for Fight week, for that fight at Madison Square Garden. Right, 122 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:26,199 So more on that land in a week. Nice interview 123 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:29,399 with Dan with Teya Fimo Lopez. We'll put that up 124 00:05:29,399 --> 00:05:31,079 here on the podcast feed. We'll also put it on 125 00:05:31,079 --> 00:05:34,000 the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. You and Tia Fimo 126 00:05:34,079 --> 00:05:36,839 Lopez talking about this fight with Shakur Stevenson. You had 127 00:05:36,879 --> 00:05:40,920 him one on one. You'll see that. All right, let's 128 00:05:40,959 --> 00:05:43,240 get to it. Let's get to this Raymond Muratia win 129 00:05:43,319 --> 00:05:46,519 that headlines Saturday Nights match Room de Zone show in Vegas. 130 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,160 Where Murratia defeats Andy Cruz. I will say this action 131 00:05:50,319 --> 00:05:53,839 pack fight, and I thought Murratyle was justifiably the winner 132 00:05:53,839 --> 00:05:55,879 because most importantly, I thought he was the better fighter 133 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,720 in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth round to finish off 134 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,439 the fight. Cruise again, the former Cuban Olympic gold medalist 135 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,000 had fast tracked his title shot. What are your thoughts 136 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,480 now now that Muratia has won and clearly made himself 137 00:06:09,519 --> 00:06:10,480 a player at lightweight. 138 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:13,399 Speaker 2: Well, he was already a player just by the mere 139 00:06:13,439 --> 00:06:15,879 fact that he had had the title. But that was 140 00:06:15,879 --> 00:06:17,800 the trip first of all, and I say this all 141 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:22,000 the time, really really outstanding fight, I mean really good, exciting, 142 00:06:22,959 --> 00:06:24,160 not going to be the fight of the year, but 143 00:06:24,199 --> 00:06:28,199 a high class, you know, just a really really entertaining fight. 144 00:06:28,319 --> 00:06:31,240 Lots of back and forth, both guys, you know, with 145 00:06:31,319 --> 00:06:35,319 really good skills. Both guys were making adjustments throughout the fight. 146 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:36,759 I mean you could really it was almost like a 147 00:06:37,319 --> 00:06:40,959 chess match, but that was a fight as opposed to 148 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,800 just a boxing match. It was really outstanding, totally enjoyable 149 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,079 to watch, and I thought the scores were justified in 150 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:49,959 terms of having Murtia as the winner. He did enter 151 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,079 the fight as a little bit of the underdog, which 152 00:06:52,079 --> 00:06:55,120 I understood because of the fact that Maurtia has never 153 00:06:55,399 --> 00:06:58,040 fought that way before. He fought by far and away, 154 00:06:58,079 --> 00:07:00,600 the best fight of his career. I think it's a 155 00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:03,199 testament to the to the hard work he put in 156 00:07:03,240 --> 00:07:04,480 that he knew that he was in with a real 157 00:07:04,519 --> 00:07:08,120 opponent for the work that is outstanding trainer Robert Garcia did. 158 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,680 He had him prepared as best as he possibly could be. 159 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,800 Scorers One fourteen to one fourteen from Max de Luca 160 00:07:16,079 --> 00:07:19,399 totally justified. I could see it. Steve Weisfeld, who I've 161 00:07:19,439 --> 00:07:22,800 long considered the best judge in boxing, one sixteen, one twelve, 162 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:26,680 as we discussed, often within the range of acceptable scores. 163 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:29,639 My scorecard was one fifteen to one thirteen in favor 164 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:32,920 of Maretaya, and then Tim Cheatham, who's been a good 165 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:34,920 judge for a long time. I just feel like he 166 00:07:34,959 --> 00:07:36,959 had an off night, scoring it one eighteen to one 167 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:37,680 ten in favorite. 168 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,079 Speaker 1: More atish, why do we always keep them one eighteen, 169 00:07:40,160 --> 00:07:42,439 one ten, ten to two in a competitive front of 170 00:07:42,439 --> 00:07:44,439 the day. It doesn't matter who it is or what 171 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,000 it is. If we get this over and over again. 172 00:07:46,759 --> 00:07:49,199 Speaker 2: But the most important thing, you know, all due respect 173 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:51,879 to Tim, uh, the right guy won the fight. You know, 174 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:53,360 if he had it won eighteen one ten, that's I 175 00:07:53,399 --> 00:07:55,800 don't think that's a great card, but uh, at least 176 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:57,040 he had it for the right winner. It wasn't some 177 00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:59,560 wacky outlier where the other guy who you know, ended 178 00:07:59,639 --> 00:08:02,759 up getting the call. So Martia wins. But here's the 179 00:08:02,759 --> 00:08:04,439 thing about it, TJ. It was such a good fight 180 00:08:04,879 --> 00:08:06,720 that certainly Murti is gonna go on and have bigger 181 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:09,920 fights and either defend this title he talked about afterwards 182 00:08:09,959 --> 00:08:11,920 he liked to move up to one forty. He called 183 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,360 out for the winner of Tia Fimo in Jakur, which 184 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:16,279 would really be a good fight. If he could fight 185 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,000 that way against either of those guys. You absolutely can 186 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:21,120 give him a good chance to win against either of 187 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:24,040 those guys. But the beautiful thing about this fight from 188 00:08:24,079 --> 00:08:27,199 my perspective also is that although Andy Cruz comes up 189 00:08:27,199 --> 00:08:29,399 short and is the loser of the fight, in no way, 190 00:08:29,439 --> 00:08:31,199 shape or for him does his stock go down. He 191 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:34,000 fought a really really outstanding fight. I thought he thought 192 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:36,879 brilliantly at times. So he falls to six and one. 193 00:08:36,919 --> 00:08:39,799 Obviously he wanted to win the world title, great Olympic 194 00:08:40,159 --> 00:08:43,879 champion and all time amateur, and you live and learn. 195 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:46,799 I look at it similar, not the same, but like 196 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:50,440 take for example, Lomachenko, brilliant amateur. Some people think he's 197 00:08:50,440 --> 00:08:53,000 the greatest amateur of all time. He got a title 198 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:56,279 shot in his second professional fight. He lost a competitive 199 00:08:56,279 --> 00:08:59,519 and close decision to Orlandos Toledo, and in no way 200 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,720 did that take away, you know, his upward trajectory in 201 00:09:02,799 --> 00:09:05,240 the sport. He came right back and remember in that fight, 202 00:09:05,279 --> 00:09:07,159 Solito did not make the weight. He came back in 203 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:09,840 his next fight, uh, and still got the opportunity for 204 00:09:09,879 --> 00:09:12,480 the vacant title. And we you know, we can uh, 205 00:09:12,879 --> 00:09:14,720 we know what happened with Lomachenka went on to become 206 00:09:14,799 --> 00:09:16,080 a great fighter and he's going to be Hall of 207 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,600 famer in multiple weight classes, set all kinds of records 208 00:09:18,600 --> 00:09:20,679 in terms of the quickness to get to certain titles 209 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:23,639 and unified titles, et cetera. And uh and and kind 210 00:09:23,639 --> 00:09:28,159 of ironically, if you will, or coincidentally, whatever word you choose, uh, 211 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,799 the Maritaya title, the IBF lightweight belt was the belt 212 00:09:30,799 --> 00:09:35,639 that that that Lomachenko had won and then vacated and retired, 213 00:09:35,919 --> 00:09:39,120 and therefore Maurtaia was upgraded to the full title. Or 214 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,039 so it's sort of like just sort of the way 215 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:44,000 things go, uh, the evolution of h from one career 216 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:45,679 to the next. But Andy Cruz fought a really, really 217 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:50,720 outstanding fight. He's not the prototypical Cuban boxer that has 218 00:09:50,879 --> 00:09:54,759 crazy skills but doesn't necessarily entertain. We talked about this 219 00:09:54,840 --> 00:09:57,840 before his decision to go to Philadelphia and to be 220 00:09:57,879 --> 00:10:02,200 trained by Bosey Ennis, the father Jeron boot Tennis, showed 221 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:05,759 he was serious about turning his great skills also into 222 00:10:05,759 --> 00:10:08,480 a pro style. So while he possesses great speed and 223 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:11,120 lateral movement and a good job and you know, every 224 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:13,519 bit of IQ you could ask for, uh, he is 225 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:16,200 absolutely not afraid to stand and nix it up at times. 226 00:10:16,399 --> 00:10:19,320 It just made for a sensational fight and uh, you know, 227 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:21,240 a great job from ur A tie in his team. 228 00:10:21,639 --> 00:10:23,639 Speaker 1: One thing that I did notice and he did this 229 00:10:23,759 --> 00:10:26,320 about four or five times, and crews did this in 230 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,679 the amateur ranks. And it's a Cuban teaching tool and 231 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:32,200 tactic that if you score a punch, stick your arm 232 00:10:32,279 --> 00:10:34,720 up like to the judges like, I just landed that, 233 00:10:34,879 --> 00:10:37,559 and he was still doing that, uh, even though this 234 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:40,240 is now his seventh professional fight. He did it several 235 00:10:40,279 --> 00:10:42,440 times in the fight, and that and that kind of 236 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:44,279 said to me, Okay, that reeks a little bit of 237 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:46,720 muscle memory, inexperience or whatever. 238 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:48,519 Speaker 2: Diehard, you know what I mean. 239 00:10:48,519 --> 00:10:51,000 Speaker 1: Probably the pro judges, they don't care about that crap 240 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,039 about you sticking your arm up and waving at him, 241 00:10:53,039 --> 00:10:56,399 that you landed a punch and he got hit more. 242 00:10:56,799 --> 00:10:58,279 And some of it again is in your You're in 243 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:00,519 with much better competition and it's a longer fight. He 244 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,000 got hit more than I think, Uh, he was maybe 245 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,600 accustomed to or used to in any other setting. But 246 00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,039 it was also again credit Maritia. 247 00:11:07,879 --> 00:11:09,639 Speaker 2: He it was the first time, you know, he's had 248 00:11:09,799 --> 00:11:14,200 previously scheduled twelve round fights like in the eliminator, for example, 249 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,320 but it's the first time he ever went into the 250 00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:19,480 eleventh round of a fight. Uh. And I didn't think he. 251 00:11:19,559 --> 00:11:21,200 I thought he was in great shape. It didn't seem 252 00:11:21,240 --> 00:11:23,480 like stamina was an issue. That wasn't like he didn't 253 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:26,440 see he he he didn't finish as strong as Maurtia, 254 00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:28,919 but he certainly wasn't kind of you know, dying at 255 00:11:28,919 --> 00:11:30,159 the end of the fight, if you know what I mean. 256 00:11:30,399 --> 00:11:32,919 But for me and I saw some other people sort 257 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,840 of echo the same, uh situation, is that I had 258 00:11:36,879 --> 00:11:40,440 that fight five rounds to five going into the eleventh round, 259 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:42,879 and I gave the eleventh and the twelfth round both 260 00:11:42,879 --> 00:11:45,240 to Mauritia, and that's what gave him the edge on 261 00:11:45,279 --> 00:11:48,559 my square card. It was just, like I said, a 262 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,720 really really good fight. And if you didn't see it, man, yeah, 263 00:11:51,919 --> 00:11:55,600 absolutely worth the rewatch. I's just from start to finish, 264 00:11:55,759 --> 00:11:57,759 really know, I just like it. You could just see 265 00:11:57,799 --> 00:12:00,759 their minds going through what the needed to do, like 266 00:12:00,799 --> 00:12:04,159 what adjustment can I make? And it was really crowd 267 00:12:04,159 --> 00:12:05,879 pleasing from that standpoint, and they both fun at a 268 00:12:05,919 --> 00:12:06,440 high level. 269 00:12:06,519 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 1: On the copy box stats. I know you wrote this 270 00:12:08,159 --> 00:12:10,000 in your substack, and I saw it in the recap too. 271 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:13,759 In the twelve rounds, each fighter out landed the other 272 00:12:14,039 --> 00:12:18,679 six times, almost even as far as nut almost even. 273 00:12:18,759 --> 00:12:19,840 Speaker 2: It was either I mean. 274 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:24,120 Speaker 1: Again, some of those punches maybe more cumulatively over those 275 00:12:24,159 --> 00:12:27,320 six individual rounds, but to have that happen tells you 276 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:28,360 it was a competitive at the. 277 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:31,399 Speaker 2: End of at the end of six rounds. Murthaia landed 278 00:12:31,559 --> 00:12:34,039 more in those six rounds, and in the other six rounds, 279 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:36,799 CRUs had the advantage. Here's the other again, I know, 280 00:12:36,919 --> 00:12:40,519 copy box, it's not official. It's a guide. Obviously they 281 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:42,919 missed punches here and there, but it's over the course 282 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,799 of their forty years. It is a pretty good estimation 283 00:12:45,879 --> 00:12:48,600 of at least the quantity of punches, if not definitely 284 00:12:48,639 --> 00:12:50,360 not the quality of punches. But this is a great 285 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,000 stat by the way, based on this from this Murtia 286 00:12:53,039 --> 00:12:59,120 and Cruise fight, they were only separated by in only 287 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:01,799 four rounds of the fight where they separated more than 288 00:13:01,799 --> 00:13:04,960 four punches landed. So even like if Cruz landed more 289 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,320 in a particular round, most of the time it was 290 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:10,519 not by more than four punches, which essentially is even 291 00:13:10,639 --> 00:13:13,039 I mean, you know, because again they can't catch every 292 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:17,159 single shot. So it was a very very competitive fight. 293 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:20,720 Their styles mets beautifully. They both came in good shape. 294 00:13:20,759 --> 00:13:24,120 They both really wanted it, and I think Marthia showed 295 00:13:24,159 --> 00:13:26,639 a lot. I mean, he's kind of under I mean, 296 00:13:26,679 --> 00:13:28,399 I've always thought high of him when I had him 297 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:30,399 on a prospect list, you know, however, many years ago. 298 00:13:30,919 --> 00:13:33,399 But he's kind of sometimes been underwhelming in the fights, 299 00:13:33,399 --> 00:13:35,919 even though he's been winning. He was not underwhelming in 300 00:13:35,919 --> 00:13:37,759 this fight. He did a great job in this fight, 301 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:39,919 and so did Cruz. All Right, I'm just gonna win 302 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:40,799 and somebody's gonna lose. 303 00:13:40,879 --> 00:13:43,759 Speaker 1: Marethia said in the ring, I would want Shakour or 304 00:13:43,759 --> 00:13:48,480 Tya Fimo Lopez coming up. How realistic is that for 305 00:13:48,519 --> 00:13:49,559 a unification fight? 306 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,240 Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, it wouldn't be unification. Well, 307 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:54,840 let me rip backtrack the fight between ten Team, which 308 00:13:54,840 --> 00:14:00,000 occurs at one forty. So if Shaquor win or lose, 309 00:14:00,159 --> 00:14:02,279 was back down to thirty five where he still has 310 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,960 the WBC title, right, I guess not out of the 311 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,639 realm of possibility. And if whoever is the winner is 312 00:14:08,679 --> 00:14:11,200 going to stay at one forty, perhaps also not out 313 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,720 of the realm of possibility. One thing about a top 314 00:14:13,799 --> 00:14:16,559 rank is more willing now to match guys on other 315 00:14:16,759 --> 00:14:19,440 promoters cards as they struggled along without a right steal. 316 00:14:20,399 --> 00:14:22,360 While Mura Tai would get paid a lot of money 317 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,759 to fight either Shakur or Tiafimo, he probably would fit 318 00:14:25,799 --> 00:14:27,559 the budget for that kind of fight because those guys 319 00:14:27,559 --> 00:14:30,480 are gonna want to make the lions share, So from 320 00:14:30,519 --> 00:14:32,919 the financial standpoint, it seems like it would be doable, 321 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,639 but they'll also have other options whoever wins that fight. 322 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,440 But it's good to know that you have a good, 323 00:14:37,559 --> 00:14:41,879 undefeated champion that you could look to as one possibility. 324 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:44,919 And part of the reason for I think his request 325 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:46,360 for that type of fight is because if you take 326 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:48,679 a look at the rest of the lightweight division, least 327 00:14:48,679 --> 00:14:52,200 in terms of the possibility for unification fights. So Shakor's 328 00:14:52,240 --> 00:14:53,559 title is kind of up in there because we don't 329 00:14:53,559 --> 00:14:56,039 know what's going to happen win or lose against tia Fimo. 330 00:14:56,799 --> 00:14:59,320 Abdulla Mason is the WBO champion who was also with 331 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:01,759 top ranks, so theoretically they can make that fight probably 332 00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:04,919 quite easily. But I don't think anybody thinks that fight's 333 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:07,120 ready to be made yet. No offense to Abdula Macy 334 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:09,399 just won the title. They're clearly going to go home 335 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,360 and have a hometown fight at some point, you know, 336 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:13,799 and that I don't I don't look at that as 337 00:15:13,799 --> 00:15:16,080 like you're marinating. There's not a lot of public demand 338 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:18,240 for that fight yet. Neither guy is a big star yet, 339 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:20,320 so you know, while it would certainly be a fun fight. 340 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:21,960 I would be happy to watch it. I just don't 341 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:25,360 think that's realistic. Raymond Murtaia has the IBF title and 342 00:15:25,399 --> 00:15:28,480 the WBA belt currently is vacant, So in terms of 343 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,919 title unification, you know, there's not a lot to deal 344 00:15:30,919 --> 00:15:33,480 with at the moment. So h but he just scored 345 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:35,120 a great win and I'm sure he's not gonna lack 346 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:37,600 for possible you know, interesting matchups. 347 00:15:37,799 --> 00:15:41,679 Speaker 1: All right, give me the rest. On the undercard, Khalil 348 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:47,000 Cole did not please. Okay, he won one big, big, 349 00:15:47,039 --> 00:15:50,000 big quote marks. Yeah, it wasn't much of a fight there. 350 00:15:50,039 --> 00:15:52,159 But also we had Israel Madram Off, we had Amari 351 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:54,080 Jones on this card. Give me, give me the recap 352 00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:54,679 of the undercard. 353 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:57,120 Speaker 2: Let's go through the co fight co fight against Jesse Art. 354 00:15:57,120 --> 00:15:59,600 First of all, straight up, I feel like Jesse Yart 355 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:03,240 got fucking robbed in that fight, Okay, and not like dramatic. 356 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,600 It's not like Jesse won the fight ten to nothing 357 00:16:05,679 --> 00:16:08,120 or anything like that. But when you go and watch 358 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:11,320 all ten rounds, he was out hustling Khalil Co. He 359 00:16:11,399 --> 00:16:13,240 was out landing Khalil Co most of the time. 360 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:16,360 Speaker 1: There were multiple rounds. I saw this too, because I 361 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:17,639 saw a little of the fight, but I saw the 362 00:16:17,639 --> 00:16:20,840 recaps of the fight were cod through through fewer than 363 00:16:20,919 --> 00:16:24,000 ten punches in a round, like over and over and 364 00:16:24,039 --> 00:16:25,480 over again, more than two or three. 365 00:16:25,559 --> 00:16:28,840 Speaker 2: He was absolutely fucking terrible in that fight. Jesse Yard 366 00:16:28,919 --> 00:16:30,919 is thirty six years old. He started out as a 367 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,320 super middleweight. He put up two extremely good performances and 368 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:38,480 losses against Zerdo Ramirez back in the day. He deserved 369 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:40,840 this fight. Khalil Co is an absolute mutt. If you 370 00:16:40,879 --> 00:16:42,799 ask me, you know, and anybody out there you want 371 00:16:42,799 --> 00:16:46,039 to tell him, I said that, go right ahead. Khalil 372 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:49,120 Co is one of the most disappointing fighters I can 373 00:16:49,159 --> 00:16:51,600 think of in recent times. He came into the pros 374 00:16:51,679 --> 00:16:54,720 with a very strong reputation from his amateur days. He 375 00:16:54,799 --> 00:16:58,399 makes fun fights. He's got skills, he's got power, he's 376 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:02,120 got good size. He's now eleven one and one after 377 00:17:02,159 --> 00:17:04,720 this fight. That is a total of a of a 378 00:17:04,759 --> 00:17:08,519 pro career. Of what thirteen professional fights, he has missed 379 00:17:08,559 --> 00:17:13,279 weight in about six of them. It's absolutely ridiculous. 380 00:17:13,319 --> 00:17:16,200 Speaker 1: So he's wasting the potential and wasting our time because 381 00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:18,440 he doesn't appear to care enough for train enough. 382 00:17:18,519 --> 00:17:21,079 Speaker 2: So what's terrible about this one, in particular is the 383 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:23,079 fight's contract at one hundred and seventy five pounds the 384 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:26,359 light heavyweight limit. He doesn't tell his management, he doesn't 385 00:17:26,359 --> 00:17:28,920 tell his promoter, he doesn't tell anybody that it's there's 386 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:31,200 going to be a problem. And the last thing anybody 387 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:32,519 wants to see on the day of the way. And 388 00:17:32,559 --> 00:17:35,119 whether you're the promoter or you're the manager, or you're 389 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:37,720 the other side, you don't like surprises, at least if 390 00:17:37,759 --> 00:17:39,559 you know what's coming you can get your hands with. 391 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:42,599 Speaker 1: How don't they don't they weigh a couple of days before, 392 00:17:42,839 --> 00:17:46,440 just so everybody knows. Usually typically where I'm talking about 393 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:51,599 the team, the team knows, hey, he's not closed, but. 394 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,240 Speaker 2: The promoter and the manager are. What's going on? So 395 00:17:54,319 --> 00:17:56,480 Eddie Hearn and you know his manager is Keth Conley. 396 00:17:56,559 --> 00:17:59,319 They're not standing there when when he's standing on the scale. 397 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,079 So the contract weight one seventy five. He comes in 398 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,359 as my good friend TJ. Reeves likes to say, he 399 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:07,279 missed the highway. He missed the exit of the highway 400 00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:09,480 by about ten exits. He was one hundred and eighty 401 00:18:09,519 --> 00:18:13,799 two point eight pas pound over he well pounds over, dude, 402 00:18:13,799 --> 00:18:15,119 he was almost eight pounds over. 403 00:18:15,119 --> 00:18:17,680 Speaker 1: The liv didn't train, You didn't train to make the way. 404 00:18:17,799 --> 00:18:18,920 That's what that comes back to. 405 00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:22,440 Speaker 2: So in the end, because they're bigger guys, this is 406 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:24,079 not like a guy at one hundred and you know, 407 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,359 twelve pounds fly weight missing by eight pounds. There was 408 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:29,559 no issue with the commission. It wasn't a championship fight, 409 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:32,359 so they weren't going to cancel the fight. So they 410 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:35,640 did make a financial deal and jesse Art picks up 411 00:18:36,200 --> 00:18:38,720 you know, another you know, several tens of thousands of 412 00:18:38,759 --> 00:18:41,160 dollars to continue with the with the assignment. 413 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:42,079 Speaker 1: Uh. 414 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:44,519 Speaker 2: And then Cohen out there and fought terribly. I thought 415 00:18:44,559 --> 00:18:46,920 jesse Art won the first four rounds of the fight. Yes, 416 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:48,319 he started to run out of gas a little bit 417 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,240 later on and certainly had his problems in the last 418 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:52,200 couple of rounds. He got knocked around a little bit, 419 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:54,640 but you know, so he probably lost cleanly, maybe like 420 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:56,680 three of those rounds, but he won the other rounds. 421 00:18:57,079 --> 00:18:59,519 It was close, but the one guy was making the fight. 422 00:18:59,559 --> 00:19:02,079 One guy was better shots. He rocked Khalil Coe a 423 00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:04,519 couple of times. I just thought this was a terrible 424 00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:08,400 decision ninety five to ninety three. Uh, in favor of 425 00:19:08,759 --> 00:19:10,720 a ninety five, ninety three, ninety six, ninety two for 426 00:19:10,759 --> 00:19:13,279 CO One. Judge had it ninety four to ninety four. 427 00:19:13,279 --> 00:19:15,960 I had it ninety five, ninety six to ninety two 428 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:18,640 for Heart is the Zone Broadcasting team. Uh. You know, 429 00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:21,119 mainly Chris Mannix Uh. I thought he had a good 430 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:24,480 scorecard ninety five to ninety three. You know, this was 431 00:19:24,559 --> 00:19:26,759 this was the the A side getting the benefit of 432 00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:28,759 out in my opinion, just a shitty card. And by 433 00:19:28,799 --> 00:19:31,359 the way, here's the thing. Jesse Hart will get calls 434 00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:34,559 for other fights, you know, and Khalil Co wouldn't be 435 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:36,559 surprised to se him get released. That's how fucking bad 436 00:19:36,559 --> 00:19:36,799 he was. 437 00:19:36,960 --> 00:19:37,359 Speaker 1: M hmm. 438 00:19:38,599 --> 00:19:40,279 Speaker 2: Here's what I think got CO and this this is, 439 00:19:40,319 --> 00:19:41,759 this is this is just the way I fell for 440 00:19:41,799 --> 00:19:44,759 a long time with all those weight misses. You know 441 00:19:44,839 --> 00:19:47,480 the movie Bull Durham yep, one of my all try 442 00:19:47,519 --> 00:19:50,079 and favorite movies. Yes, the character of Nukle loose the 443 00:19:50,119 --> 00:19:53,200 minor league. Yes, Crash Davis is supposed to mentor and 444 00:19:53,279 --> 00:19:56,119 turn into a real professional and then take this stuff down. 445 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:58,519 Speaker 1: Meet You're gonna need it later with the exacta. 446 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:00,880 Speaker 2: So here's the thing about khalil Oh. He is in 447 00:20:01,279 --> 00:20:04,720 for the parlance of bull Durham. He's got a million 448 00:20:04,759 --> 00:20:06,279 dollar arm and a ten cent head. 449 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:13,880 Speaker 1: That's right exactly in strikeouts, new league record eighteen walks, 450 00:20:14,079 --> 00:20:15,359 also a two league record. 451 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:16,240 Speaker 2: All right, all right, so. 452 00:20:16,279 --> 00:20:18,319 Speaker 1: Enough about him in that, give me more on madrm 453 00:20:18,319 --> 00:20:22,240 Off and then also Amari Jones were interested in go 454 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:22,759 all right. 455 00:20:22,799 --> 00:20:26,559 Speaker 2: So Magie Moov of course had the WBA title at 456 00:20:26,599 --> 00:20:29,559 junior middleweight and had looked good despite just a very 457 00:20:29,559 --> 00:20:33,400 few professional fights, was a top amateur. He lost that 458 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:36,680 title in a super close fight to Terrence Crawford in 459 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,440 August of twenty four. I think now that Terrence Crawford 460 00:20:39,480 --> 00:20:41,640 is retired. If you go down and you look at 461 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:46,359 the entire resume of Terrence Crawford's great career, I think 462 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:48,240 it's very fair to say that the toughest fight he 463 00:20:48,279 --> 00:20:50,960 ever got in his entire professional career was on the 464 00:20:51,039 --> 00:20:53,119 night he met Israel Majimov in Los Angeles. It was 465 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:55,440 a super close fight. It's probably the only fight you 466 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:57,839 could ever even think that maybe Terrence Crawford didn't win 467 00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:59,440 the fight. There was quite a few people I was 468 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:01,640 at that fight, a few people that thought Magemov had 469 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:04,359 done enough to eke it out. And then in his 470 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:07,680 next fight he fought another very competitive and outstanding fight 471 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:10,000 against Virgil Ortiz and he lost the decision there. That 472 00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:12,960 was for the WBC's interim title. So he was coming 473 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:16,160 off of the eleven month layoff, the back to back losses. 474 00:21:16,279 --> 00:21:18,319 As they detailed on the broadcast, he had a couple 475 00:21:18,319 --> 00:21:21,480 of surgeries for some smaller injuries. He also had about 476 00:21:21,519 --> 00:21:24,240 of pneumonia which apparently had not fully recovered from. He's 477 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:26,920 still dealing with the after effects of that, and frankly 478 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:29,880 it showed. So while he did go out there against 479 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:33,519 an unknown fighter from the Dominican Republic, Luis David Salazar, 480 00:21:33,519 --> 00:21:36,440 who had no reputation and a resume filled with absolute 481 00:21:36,519 --> 00:21:40,359 Nobodi's magie mov, while he won the fight going away 482 00:21:40,759 --> 00:21:43,000 ninety nine to ninety one and all three score cards, 483 00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:45,440 this was not a very top level performance from Madro. 484 00:21:45,559 --> 00:21:47,960 We've certainly seen him fight a lot better. He didn't 485 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,039 look and he was in the best condition, and I 486 00:21:52,039 --> 00:21:53,440 think there was a lot to be said that the 487 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:55,200 after effects of the pneumonia, like you don't fight for 488 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:57,720 eleven months, you've got two losses they just come off of, 489 00:21:58,079 --> 00:21:59,960 and you've had this illness and you've dealt with some injury. 490 00:22:00,039 --> 00:22:01,839 He's like, I'm going to cut the guy some slack. 491 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:04,079 I mean, he's you know, he's been always a hard 492 00:22:04,079 --> 00:22:06,079 worker and he's been a pretty damn good fighter. So 493 00:22:06,759 --> 00:22:08,240 I'll look at this as like a bump in the road. 494 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:09,920 Whether he can get back to the love he was 495 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:12,400 on the ninety foul Crawford, you know, that remains to 496 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:15,640 be seen. But he gets to win, but it was 497 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,160 not impressive. And as they were talking about on the broadcast, 498 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:23,200 should the the negotiations ultimately and totally fail to make 499 00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:25,880 the fight between Virgil Ortiz and Boutennis, And we've discussed 500 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,079 that at nauseum, and that fight is teetering on the 501 00:22:28,079 --> 00:22:32,359 brink of not happening. Boutennis is gonna fight and blso 502 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,400 with match from boxing, as is Israel Magema. And so 503 00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,960 when they constructed the short list of who could Boutennis 504 00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:40,440 fight other than Virginal Ortiz if they have to go 505 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:43,079 a different direction, Israel Majmav was on the top of 506 00:22:43,079 --> 00:22:46,160 that list. Whether it's going to translate into actually getting 507 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,920 a fight based on a very lackluster performance in this 508 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,640 fight against Salazar that remains to be seen. I think 509 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:55,079 if you watch the fight Saturday and you're familiar with Boutennis, 510 00:22:55,079 --> 00:22:56,839 I don't think there's anyone we give Israel Magema of 511 00:22:56,839 --> 00:22:59,000 a chance at hell to beat Boutsennis. And those are 512 00:22:59,039 --> 00:23:01,640 not the kinds of fights, four main event fights that 513 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,359 that the Zowen and Matcham are looking for. So you know, 514 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,519 we'll see what they go to do after this and 515 00:23:07,559 --> 00:23:10,119 who else is on that list. But you know, I 516 00:23:10,559 --> 00:23:12,839 wish that Maginem of good luck and getting better from 517 00:23:12,839 --> 00:23:15,759 whatever his elements are and his injuries and the in 518 00:23:15,759 --> 00:23:18,680 the pneumonia situation. But to get the bigger fights, he 519 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:20,279 probably gonna have to look better than they did against 520 00:23:20,279 --> 00:23:22,599 a guy that nobody ever heard of, and it wasn't 521 00:23:22,599 --> 00:23:25,519 a very particular entertaining fight on top of that. As 522 00:23:25,519 --> 00:23:28,079 far as Amari Jones goes, one of my very favorite 523 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:31,000 prospects in boxing. He's now five and zero with four knockouts. 524 00:23:31,039 --> 00:23:34,599 He did go the distance with an extremely tough, very resilient, 525 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,720 very big hearted guy named Jerome Baxter from Pittsburgh who 526 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,160 suffered his first loss. But Jerome Baxter may never be 527 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:43,640 a world champion, may never you know, be a top 528 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:47,119 top fighter. But Jerome Baxter earned himself a lot of 529 00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:49,640 phone calls off this performance. People are gonna want to 530 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,240 put him in with their other prospects to test them. Also, 531 00:23:53,279 --> 00:23:56,319 he showed an amazing chin. He did survive a knockdown 532 00:23:56,599 --> 00:23:59,279 in this fight on a very very very pinpoint jab 533 00:23:59,759 --> 00:24:02,400 early in the fight. He showed a lot of balls, 534 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:03,960 a lot of heart, and he tried That's all you 535 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:05,839 can ask for. He came back. Just doesn't have the 536 00:24:05,839 --> 00:24:08,279 same skill level as a as a great amateur like 537 00:24:08,319 --> 00:24:11,480 Omar Jones and now a fledgling, you know, top level 538 00:24:11,519 --> 00:24:14,279 prospect in the in the professional ranks. But this was 539 00:24:14,319 --> 00:24:16,400 a good thing for Amari Jones. He went the distance 540 00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:18,680 for the first time in a sixth rounder. He won 541 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:20,839 sixty to fifty three and all three score cards. It 542 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:25,079 was crowd pleasing, Like if you are Amari Jones supporter, 543 00:24:25,279 --> 00:24:28,839 if you are his management, if you are match Room Boxing, 544 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,400 you looked at this fight and you got exactly what 545 00:24:31,480 --> 00:24:35,039 you hoped for. A very good performance. Got in rounds. 546 00:24:35,039 --> 00:24:38,240 He had never been past the third round before, got 547 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,960 a knockdown, showed offense, showed defense, and a crowd pleasing 548 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:45,880 style with an opponent who was there to actually try 549 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:49,799 to win, even though he was obviously outclassed. So as 550 00:24:49,799 --> 00:24:52,799 an opening, you know that type of fight. Lower on 551 00:24:52,839 --> 00:24:56,240 the main card, it was. It was a good performance 552 00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,319 from Jones. I think he's going very far in this game. 553 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:00,000 I think he's going to be a future world champion. 554 00:25:00,079 --> 00:25:02,240 Speaker 1: And let's see him more frequently because again we keep 555 00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:04,640 talking us, if you are active, if you are in 556 00:25:04,759 --> 00:25:06,880 the consciousness of the fight, fans are going to be 557 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:10,119 more interested in you and get the reps, get the fights. 558 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,359 Speaker 2: He's at the stage of his career right now where 559 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,720 he is fighting regular I mean, Natrimis is keeping him 560 00:25:14,759 --> 00:25:16,559 on a good schedule. He's fighting every few months, and 561 00:25:16,559 --> 00:25:19,200 that's exactly how it should be, all right. 562 00:25:19,599 --> 00:25:22,119 Speaker 1: ZUFA Boxing had its debut. We talked about it at 563 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,920 length in the preview mode, and again, none of these 564 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:28,319 fights are ever going to be mistaken for stellar Hall 565 00:25:28,359 --> 00:25:31,400 of Fame memorable fights, but they did get underway. It 566 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:35,440 was streamed on Paramount Plus. What was your overall thought 567 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:37,640 here as Callum Walsh won the main event. I was 568 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:41,480 a bit surprised he didn't stop Carlos Ocampo, a guy 569 00:25:41,519 --> 00:25:44,359 that had been drilled in one round by Errol Spence 570 00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,039 and Tim Zuo. As we well documented before this fight, 571 00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:52,200 Walsh the up and comer undefeated. It was a decision fight. 572 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:54,799 What did you think of the main event and overall 573 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:56,759 on the show, as ZUFA debuted. 574 00:25:56,519 --> 00:26:00,000 Speaker 2: A lot unpack. I guess as far as the product 575 00:26:00,079 --> 00:26:04,200 it goes, I think it was successful. I mean they 576 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:06,519 got to and look, I mean, I'll echo the words. 577 00:26:06,559 --> 00:26:09,559 I watched the post fight news conference where Dana White addressed, 578 00:26:09,559 --> 00:26:11,480 you know the entirety of the show and you know 579 00:26:11,519 --> 00:26:14,359 everything in it. As he said, there's a lot of 580 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:15,920 kinks to work out, there's a lot of things that 581 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,920 they want to do as and his quote was, the 582 00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:20,519 fights were great, but we've got a lot of work 583 00:26:20,519 --> 00:26:23,160 to do, and that's I think affairs. I mean, perhaps 584 00:26:23,279 --> 00:26:25,160 overstating the fights are great, because the main event was 585 00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:26,640 a big stinker, but the rest of the show was 586 00:26:26,720 --> 00:26:29,799 fairly entertaining. You know, we'll catch our stride to the 587 00:26:29,839 --> 00:26:32,200 next three, four or five fights and by the end 588 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,559 of the year we'll be where he wants to be. 589 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:36,279 He said, he's got it out. He said, I got 590 00:26:36,279 --> 00:26:38,000 a whole list of stuff that we're going to go 591 00:26:38,039 --> 00:26:40,640 through on Monday. Obviously, it was very busy on Saturday 592 00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,599 night because they had their big UFC three twenty four 593 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,759 at team and I thought this was the way, just. 594 00:26:45,759 --> 00:26:47,279 Speaker 1: A quick aside and we're going to keep it real 595 00:26:47,279 --> 00:26:48,839 and keep it fair. You wouldn't expect him to say 596 00:26:48,839 --> 00:26:50,680 anything other than those things that they got to get better, 597 00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:52,279 they got to get it right, you will get it right. 598 00:26:52,279 --> 00:26:53,880 Those are the things you would expect. So what did 599 00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,359 you think? But on present the production, how it was? 600 00:26:57,519 --> 00:26:59,880 Speaker 2: This is the comment that I liked from Data as 601 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,519 he said, it took twenty five years to get UFC 602 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,319 to become the well oiled machine that it is, and 603 00:27:05,359 --> 00:27:07,000 we're going to do that in a lot less time 604 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:10,160 in terms of the boxing side of our company. So uh, 605 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:14,640 the production I thought was pretty solid. They got once 606 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:16,480 once the pre fight shit was over with, They did 607 00:27:16,559 --> 00:27:18,640 get to the fights pretty quickly. They didn't spend a 608 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,799 million years between each of the bouts on the main card, 609 00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,359 so that was good. Uh. They obviously have a very 610 00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,799 professional announced team in terms of people like Joe Tessitoor 611 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:29,839 has been calling fights for a long time. Max Kellerman 612 00:27:30,079 --> 00:27:33,920 and andre Ward top notch professionals. I could frankly do. Uh. 613 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,319 They did a good job, like they always do. I 614 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:40,279 could do with a little less on the on the 615 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,039 zoofa cheerleading. Put it like that, and I get it's 616 00:27:43,039 --> 00:27:45,400 the first show. I get it's it's their bosses and 617 00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,359 call the fights. Most people, once the we all like 618 00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:51,759 to discuss the promotions and the business and all the bullshit. 619 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:55,839 But once the fights are going, the promoter talk about 620 00:27:55,839 --> 00:27:57,599 the fighters in the fights. I don't need to hear 621 00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:00,680 about zoof I don't hear about Dana and TKO and 622 00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:02,799 all this. Let's just stick to what we got, which is, 623 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,400 you know, the matchups that were there to watch. As 624 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:08,000 far as the fights go, I mean, we all knew 625 00:28:08,039 --> 00:28:10,680 going into the show these were not world class fights, 626 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,039 and they didn't and to their credit, they didn't try 627 00:28:13,079 --> 00:28:15,880 to tell the public these were big championship all the fights. 628 00:28:16,079 --> 00:28:19,440 The level of difference between seeing Callum Walsh against Carlos 629 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:26,279 o'campo and Raymond Maratai against Andy Cruz is extraordinarily obvious. Look, oh, 630 00:28:26,319 --> 00:28:29,200 Campo is just a guy. He should not be in 631 00:28:29,240 --> 00:28:31,359 the main event on a televised show. In my opinion, 632 00:28:31,799 --> 00:28:34,200 he's never gonna beat the elite fighters or the top guys. 633 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,920 Klum wash beat him, you know, very easily. It was 634 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,240 unfortunately a boring fight. I don't I don't fault. That's 635 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,559 not zufa's fault. I feel like when they made the match, 636 00:28:41,599 --> 00:28:44,240 they felt there could be entertaining I feel like the matchmakers, 637 00:28:44,279 --> 00:28:46,200 as we spoke about in the pre fight, did a 638 00:28:46,279 --> 00:28:49,079 very good job in terms of at least making matches that, 639 00:28:49,119 --> 00:28:53,759 while maybe not meaningful, would at least produce some entertainment value. Unfortunately, 640 00:28:54,559 --> 00:28:55,599 this one was not the case. 641 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,720 Speaker 1: I agree with my assessment that Walls should have gotten 642 00:28:58,759 --> 00:29:00,880 him out of there. And what I mean, he's a 643 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,880 rising fighter that's had some knockouts. O Campo has been 644 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,680 knocked out I know by world class yeah Colver fighters before. 645 00:29:06,839 --> 00:29:08,200 Should he have gotten him out of there. 646 00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 2: It's not a matter of should he or All I 647 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,119 know is he didn't. And the fact of the matter 648 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:14,920 is when I see the way he performed, and it's 649 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,119 not just this fight, it's other fights in the last 650 00:29:17,279 --> 00:29:21,079 you know, few fights he has had. The onus now 651 00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:23,079 is on him to show that he's a serious prospect. 652 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,200 I'm beginning to believe that probably he isn't. I don't 653 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,319 say that because I'm rooting against him ornything, right. He 654 00:29:28,359 --> 00:29:30,559 seems like a lovely guy, a hard worker, you know, 655 00:29:30,599 --> 00:29:33,240 got a very appealing personality. But I just haven't seen 656 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:34,960 it in the skills and in the ability to get 657 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,680 guys out of there. And O Campo, you know, had 658 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,039 no prayer in this fight. I mean he survived the 659 00:29:40,039 --> 00:29:41,720 first round. I mean he took a couple of solid 660 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:43,920 shots in the end. The scores were ninety eight to 661 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:46,960 ninety on two score guards ninety seven to ninety one 662 00:29:47,039 --> 00:29:51,160 on the third. It was an extraordinarily uninspiring fight from 663 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:53,960 by all accounts, you know. But again, I'm not going 664 00:29:54,039 --> 00:29:56,720 to judge the overall zoof of product very harshly because 665 00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:00,119 to me, everybody should be fair. Let them have a 666 00:30:00,119 --> 00:30:02,680 few fights before you make us true assessment. You can't 667 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,640 just judge it on the first event. So a lot 668 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:07,400 of things they did really well. Like I said, the 669 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:11,480 production was pretty solid. I'd love to see the fighters 670 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:15,079 they were wearing essentially ZOOFA uniforms as opposed to having 671 00:30:15,079 --> 00:30:17,519 their own kind of trunks and you know, walk out stuff. 672 00:30:17,519 --> 00:30:20,079 But they're basically copying what they've done in UFC. I 673 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:21,519 like the boxer to be able to have a little 674 00:30:21,519 --> 00:30:23,960 bit of the personality and put the kind of robot 675 00:30:24,039 --> 00:30:25,400 and the kind of trunks on that they want to work, 676 00:30:26,079 --> 00:30:27,519 but not bowling. 677 00:30:27,720 --> 00:30:29,400 Speaker 1: This is not team sports right to. 678 00:30:29,359 --> 00:30:31,599 Speaker 2: Me, that though, that's small stuff. One thing about it though, 679 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:35,039 the Apex where they held the fight, it didn't it 680 00:30:35,079 --> 00:30:37,160 just didn't look very good on television, to be quite honest. 681 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:39,000 The crowd was not really into it. It didn't seem like 682 00:30:39,039 --> 00:30:41,920 that there. It's obviously a small place. They have expanded it. 683 00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:44,279 It held about seven hundred, I guess for the show 684 00:30:44,519 --> 00:30:47,400 on Friday night. I heard some interviews with Dana. They're 685 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:51,119 expanding and changing around some configurations eventually to hold about 686 00:30:51,119 --> 00:30:54,440 eleven hundred. So I think they can improve that a 687 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,599 little bit. And I'm not being hypercritical. These are just 688 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:01,079 like smaller type things. I would saying this all in all, 689 00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:03,799 for the first event of something that has come together 690 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,359 rather quickly, they did a pretty good job. And it's 691 00:31:07,519 --> 00:31:09,559 you know again, just because the main event was stunk 692 00:31:09,559 --> 00:31:12,079 out loud, Uh, that's not an indictment on the product. 693 00:31:12,119 --> 00:31:14,319 Because there's gonna be plenty of main events, and you 694 00:31:14,359 --> 00:31:16,519 know this one will be long forgotten. It'll just live 695 00:31:16,559 --> 00:31:18,759 on as a as a trivia question down the road 696 00:31:18,759 --> 00:31:20,039 of what their first main event was. 697 00:31:20,079 --> 00:31:22,839 Speaker 1: And the other couple of fights. Real quick before we 698 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:23,720 meet one of the news. 699 00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:27,559 Speaker 2: So Missiel Rodriguez was in the co feature against Austin Dinana. 700 00:31:28,799 --> 00:31:31,079 That that you know, he had a good performance, Rodriguez 701 00:31:31,079 --> 00:31:33,920 and getting the stoppage. He's a Robert Garcia fighter. Robert 702 00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,400 obviously had MURRATAII outside Garcia, so he was busy in Vegas. 703 00:31:37,839 --> 00:31:39,519 You know, he won the third round, won the first 704 00:31:39,519 --> 00:31:41,079 three rounds and all the scorecards, and then got the 705 00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:44,480 stoppage in the fourth when uh, there had been some 706 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,160 punishment taken by by the fighter and in the cornery 707 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:50,839 city had double vision, and obviously that's an immediate thing 708 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:52,440 to stop the fight. So you can There's really not 709 00:31:52,519 --> 00:31:54,640 much of talk about on that fight other than that 710 00:31:54,759 --> 00:31:59,079 Rodriguez kept his his undefeated record and is now sixteen 711 00:31:59,119 --> 00:32:01,960 to o and the is now seventeen and one. He 712 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,839 looked more like a club fighter than a real true professional, 713 00:32:05,279 --> 00:32:06,440 and we're going to see some of that in the 714 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:09,240 beginning the fight of the night, and this was you know, 715 00:32:09,279 --> 00:32:11,160 they give out sort of like the UFC does they 716 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:13,519 give out the performance bonuses, where they give out fight 717 00:32:13,559 --> 00:32:15,240 of the night, performance of the night, that type of thing. 718 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:17,599 This was the best fight on the show, even including 719 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,359 the preliminary fights. This was and I think I said 720 00:32:20,359 --> 00:32:21,839 this in our pre fight when we were breaking it 721 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:25,279 down on the last episode. This was a welterweight fight 722 00:32:25,319 --> 00:32:28,880 between Julian Hammer Hans Rodriguez, who people have seen. He 723 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:30,640 was with Top Rank for a long time, had some injuries, 724 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:32,799 had some layoffs. He was in the main event, I 725 00:32:32,839 --> 00:32:35,880 mean in the opening fight against Cane Sandibal, who's been 726 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:37,880 a California fighter that's been on a lot of Tom 727 00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,039 Loffers three sixty Promotions cards. Now Tom was working with ZUFA. Anyway, 728 00:32:42,359 --> 00:32:44,960 they put on a really good, outstanding battle, really fun fight. 729 00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:47,640 In the end, it was one sided on the score cards, 730 00:32:48,559 --> 00:32:51,720 with Rodriguez winning pretty handling ninety nine to ninety one 731 00:32:51,759 --> 00:32:53,839 on two cards ninety eight ninety two. But those two 732 00:32:53,839 --> 00:32:56,160 guys let it all hang out, put on a really 733 00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,920 good show. Rodriguez showed a lot of personality in his 734 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:02,799 interview afterwards, dull He's got a chance maybe maybe not necessarily. 735 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,839 Uh gonna make the pound for poundless. And we can't 736 00:33:05,839 --> 00:33:08,000 even talk about him now being like a champion of 737 00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,680 one of the organizations because they're gonna be fighting eventually 738 00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:12,160 for a ZUFA belt. He did say he wants to 739 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:16,000 zoof a welterweight title, but he's gonna be a guy. 740 00:33:16,039 --> 00:33:18,200 I think they can at least early on, if you 741 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:20,359 want to see guys stay busy and make good fights. 742 00:33:20,359 --> 00:33:23,000 They can build a little bit around Julian Rodriguez. It 743 00:33:23,039 --> 00:33:24,640 was a good fight that was a very enjoyable and 744 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,559 Standibal Uh, you know, fought pretty good also even though 745 00:33:27,559 --> 00:33:29,799 he lost, and they'll probably bring him back. That's one 746 00:33:29,839 --> 00:33:31,839 of the things they've talked about is you know, just 747 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:34,319 because you lose, you're under contract. We're gonna we're gonna 748 00:33:34,359 --> 00:33:36,359 make another fight for you and hopefully you'll be entertaining 749 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:38,519 the next time, so you know. And there was plenty 750 00:33:38,519 --> 00:33:40,680 of good action on the preliminary fights. There was, you know, 751 00:33:41,319 --> 00:33:45,160 some guys better than others. Robert Merriweather the third, a 752 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:48,720 young kid looked really good in his uh in his showing. 753 00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:52,640 So again, as Dana White said, and I completely agree, 754 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:56,079 it is one hundred percent will be a work in progress, 755 00:33:56,079 --> 00:33:57,359 if you know what I mean. This is not gonna 756 00:33:57,359 --> 00:34:01,160 happen overnight. We're have to let it go, let it, 757 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,160 let it develop. There's another card coming up on this 758 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:06,160 coming Friday, and then they got another one in early 759 00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:08,960 February or February fourteenth, so we'll see. We're going to 760 00:34:09,039 --> 00:34:10,800 get three fights in the bank, three shows in the 761 00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,039 bank right from mid February by on which we can 762 00:34:13,079 --> 00:34:14,639 tell a bigger conclusion. 763 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,440 Speaker 1: So that is a segue now to more news about 764 00:34:17,519 --> 00:34:22,280 ji Opataiah joining Zoofa boxing and the date will now 765 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,119 be March the eighth, by the way, which wish me 766 00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:28,119 happy birthday. That is my birthday coming up on March 767 00:34:28,159 --> 00:34:31,000 the eighth, So Opataiah will fight opponent to be. 768 00:34:31,599 --> 00:34:33,440 Speaker 2: Isn't that the anniversary of Ali and. 769 00:34:33,679 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: Friday Fraser one was my first birthday? 770 00:34:36,599 --> 00:34:37,000 Speaker 2: There you go. 771 00:34:37,039 --> 00:34:38,599 Speaker 1: I've joked with you before on the pod and you 772 00:34:38,639 --> 00:34:42,079 don't remember this that there is old eight millimeter movie 773 00:34:42,079 --> 00:34:44,760 film of my first birthday in a little tiny apartment 774 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:47,840 in Mississippi and South Haven, Mississippi, where my family lived, 775 00:34:48,199 --> 00:34:52,320 and they had written on my birthday cake, happy one Birthday. 776 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:55,039 I don't want to say that they're illiterate in that 777 00:34:55,079 --> 00:34:57,519 part of the world in the early seventies, that's pretty 778 00:34:57,559 --> 00:35:01,360 much illiteracy. But that was my oneth birthday was Ali 779 00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,840 Fraser one, nineteen seventy one. There you go anyway, March 780 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,880 the eighth, ji Opataia will fight. Now you've been digging around, 781 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,159 We've had a couple of days. What are you Are 782 00:35:10,199 --> 00:35:12,480 you hearing anything about who the opponent might be or 783 00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:14,880 what do we know for the ZUFA main event with 784 00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:19,639 the IBF Cruise Awey Champion, is it gonna be an IBF. 785 00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:21,519 Speaker 2: Defense and the Ring Magazine Champion the Ring? 786 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:23,599 Speaker 1: But is it gonna be an IBF defense? What are 787 00:35:23,639 --> 00:35:25,159 you hearing? Go? No? 788 00:35:25,199 --> 00:35:27,679 Speaker 2: I mean, but I listen. He's still co promoted by 789 00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:31,119 Tasman Fighters, and when I spoke to them when the 790 00:35:31,119 --> 00:35:34,400 announcement was made that he had also joined ZUFA, they 791 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:35,920 made it very clear to me that part of the 792 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:37,639 deal that they made was yes, he's going to be 793 00:35:37,639 --> 00:35:41,199 allowed to defend his sanctioning body title, and Dana White 794 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,440 said as much when asked about it in the press 795 00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:48,960 conference that was prior to this first kickoff cart Because 796 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,960 there has been a lot of ambiguity there, because how 797 00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:56,480 can you sign a sanctioning body champion when all you 798 00:35:56,559 --> 00:35:59,400 have done since this has become creation. We talk about 799 00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:03,159 how we're not going to so they're gonna, apparently, as 800 00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,239 Danas spoke about, when you can go back and listen 801 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:07,039 to what we talked about it in the last episode, they're 802 00:36:07,039 --> 00:36:10,800 gonna let these top champions that they do sign fight 803 00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:13,480 in their organizational belts. Now. Of course, Turkey al shehk 804 00:36:13,599 --> 00:36:16,280 owns the Ring magazine and therefore owns the ring title, 805 00:36:16,599 --> 00:36:19,639 so he has that ring belt also, but he still 806 00:36:19,679 --> 00:36:22,719 wants to be undisputed, which means unifying the sanctioning body belts. 807 00:36:23,039 --> 00:36:25,159 And while they did so, Jai was there. He had 808 00:36:25,159 --> 00:36:27,480 come to Vegas to do the signing and he attended 809 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:30,880 the ZUFA show. On their post fight show on Paramount Plus, 810 00:36:31,199 --> 00:36:32,800 they had him on the stage there to do an 811 00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,719 interview with their with their team and talked about his 812 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,039 excitement to be here and how thrilled he was for 813 00:36:38,159 --> 00:36:40,599 a young kid from you know, to have big dreams 814 00:36:40,599 --> 00:36:43,280 as a kid in Australia, you know, to now coming 815 00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:45,440 to Las Vegas to defend the world title be his 816 00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,159 first fight in the United states he was like over 817 00:36:47,159 --> 00:36:50,000 the moon, as they say, and is very excited about it. 818 00:36:50,039 --> 00:36:52,840 And he did not though mention a specific opponent. However, 819 00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:56,599 there were photos that were put up on the various 820 00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,119 I think it was on Zufa social media and on 821 00:36:59,199 --> 00:37:02,360 ji social media. I believe it was where backstage he 822 00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:05,639 did a face off and Rick Reno, who was the 823 00:37:05,679 --> 00:37:07,719 CEO of the Ring magazine, who's the one that's in 824 00:37:08,039 --> 00:37:10,280 all the photos that you see at the weigh ends 825 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:14,880 these days wearing his hat and his sunglasses. They did 826 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:19,079 a face off between JII and Noel Mcallian, the recently 827 00:37:19,119 --> 00:37:22,639 crowned WBC champion by virtue of his victory in December 828 00:37:22,679 --> 00:37:25,880 against both the Due Jack. Now, if he wants a unification, 829 00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:29,639 that's the only unification he because Rairez. 830 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:33,119 Speaker 1: That seems like the logical fight, right. The only question 831 00:37:33,199 --> 00:37:36,480 becomes can they put that together in under sixty days? 832 00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:38,599 Speaker 2: I would you think so? I think it's I mean, 833 00:37:38,639 --> 00:37:40,920 it's certainly possible. There's no reason why they can't. I 834 00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:44,480 mean McAllan fought in December. Uh, he didn't come out, 835 00:37:44,559 --> 00:37:45,960 by the best of my knowledge, with any kind of 836 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:48,480 particular injuries or anything like that. He was there present 837 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:50,800 to face off with the guy. Clearly he knows that 838 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:54,039 that represents for him one hundred percent the biggest paid 839 00:37:54,039 --> 00:37:56,039 that he could have, and I'm sure he has aspirations 840 00:37:56,519 --> 00:37:59,360 to also be a unified champion. And as I mentioned, 841 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,199 he can't fight for the other unified title because Zerdo 842 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:03,920 has the other two belts and he's got to fight 843 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,079 that's on the docket for a second against Benavidez. So 844 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,320 if he wants to fulfill his dreams of unifying, uh, 845 00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:13,039 you gotta fight Noel McCallion right now. Both guys are 846 00:38:13,079 --> 00:38:17,159 unencumbered by a mandatory defense in the next fight, so 847 00:38:17,239 --> 00:38:19,280 there should be no reason they can't do that fight. 848 00:38:19,400 --> 00:38:22,679 ZUFA clearly has the financial backing where if they want 849 00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:24,920 to buy the you know, make the match, they now 850 00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:30,119 have a gi under contract. I mean that. I'm not 851 00:38:30,159 --> 00:38:32,239 saying it's a great fight, but at least it's gives 852 00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:32,880 the opportunity. 853 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:34,960 Speaker 1: Oh, it's compelling a cruiser weight, and it's for two 854 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,079 of the belts. And again, Turkey al Chic has a 855 00:38:37,119 --> 00:38:39,599 relationship with Giopatia, paying him a bunch of money for 856 00:38:39,639 --> 00:38:42,079 the Red Season cards that he fought on, So a 857 00:38:42,079 --> 00:38:43,960 lot of this adds up. Then again it's boxing. 858 00:38:44,199 --> 00:38:45,760 Speaker 2: So I mean, I would hope that if they went 859 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,039 to the efforts to have their people make a face 860 00:38:48,039 --> 00:38:49,639 off with them and pose and put it on their 861 00:38:49,679 --> 00:38:52,519 social that they're serious about making the actual fight. Don't 862 00:38:52,559 --> 00:38:55,559 don't tease me that you're gonna make a unification between 863 00:38:55,599 --> 00:38:58,760 Opataia and mccalliy some regular. 864 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:02,079 Speaker 1: Guys if you're Noel mcaley and what other significant fight 865 00:39:02,159 --> 00:39:04,599 can you get on your own and where? And there's 866 00:39:04,599 --> 00:39:07,119 your answer, So all right, stay tuned. 867 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,480 Speaker 2: I think logically this is probably the fight, and I 868 00:39:10,519 --> 00:39:12,840 sure hope this. I hope they don't do something that 869 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,639 what I would consider bad way to do it is 870 00:39:15,679 --> 00:39:19,800 to put him in Opatai against you know whoever, and 871 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:22,679 put mckellian against whoever, like in the co feature for example, 872 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:24,840 and then you know, have the fighting unification later in 873 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,840 the year. Let's let's not fuck around if they're going 874 00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,679 to follow the UFC model. The UFC model is you 875 00:39:29,760 --> 00:39:31,400 make the fight when it makes sense, and it makes 876 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,039 sense now to do it, especially early in your paramount 877 00:39:34,039 --> 00:39:37,840 plus days where you're trying to stoke interest in maybe 878 00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:41,000 more meaningful fights than you know, Callum Walsh against you 879 00:39:41,039 --> 00:39:42,119 know Carlos o Campo. 880 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:46,079 Speaker 1: All right, something else off the weekend that Matt Room 881 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,119 is apparently back in play because ZUFO was talking with 882 00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:53,280 Jesse Bam Rodriguez. There's another name, and this is something 883 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:54,559 that you and I have talked about. This is going 884 00:39:54,599 --> 00:39:56,559 to help the leverage for the fighters on negotiating on 885 00:39:56,599 --> 00:39:58,639 where do I go, what do I do? Give me 886 00:39:58,679 --> 00:40:01,760 the latest because Bam, as we discussed previously, you wrote 887 00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,639 about this on the substack, was essentially a promotional free agent, 888 00:40:05,239 --> 00:40:07,840 but it looks like Mattroom is going to retain him. 889 00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:09,519 Give me the latest here. 890 00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:11,280 Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't. He was essentially a free agent. He 891 00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:12,760 was a free agent. He was allowed to go talk 892 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,920 to anybody. The contract expired. They have had a good 893 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:19,960 relationship of course, between Mattroom and Bam. Has flourished under 894 00:40:19,960 --> 00:40:23,320 the direction of Matchroom Boxing. Now they've gone about putting 895 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:25,480 together his events. He's one of the best fighters in 896 00:40:25,519 --> 00:40:28,760 boxing period, a unified three bel champion in the Junior 897 00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:31,920 vandamweight division, a rising American star. Has a great team. 898 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:34,159 His manager and his trainer, Robert Garcia, that done a 899 00:40:34,159 --> 00:40:36,920 phenomenal job with him from the day one. Robert has 900 00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,079 had him. But when they became free agents, of course 901 00:40:39,079 --> 00:40:41,880 they're going to go talk to people, and ZUFA was 902 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,039 making a play to sign him. You know, clearly if 903 00:40:45,079 --> 00:40:47,199 they're signing Opataia and they've been talking to ou sick 904 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,239 and if a guy like Bam Rodriez you know, a 905 00:40:49,320 --> 00:40:51,079 twenty five years older he just turned I guess a 906 00:40:51,079 --> 00:40:53,679 couple days ago, twenty six years old comes on the market. 907 00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:55,639 Why in the world wins you go talk with Your 908 00:40:55,639 --> 00:40:58,000 idea is to try to surround yourself and your company 909 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,320 with the best fighters in the world. So they made 910 00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:02,519 an offer to zuof for boxing that is confirmed by 911 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,000 both I've confirmed that with Mattrium and with Robert they 912 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,760 were offered a contract, but in the Matchroom agreement that 913 00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:11,719 they that had expired, and this is not uncommon, This 914 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,440 happens in a lot of promotional deals. Matchroom Boxing retained 915 00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:17,119 the right to match any offer, So once he received 916 00:41:17,159 --> 00:41:20,039 an offer from ZUFA or perhaps any other offers he 917 00:41:20,079 --> 00:41:22,400 may have received, they're obligated to bring that offer to 918 00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:26,239 Matchrim and Mattrium, i was told, has matched the offer 919 00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,800 and while he hasn't re signed on the contract in 920 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,639 terms of pen to paper, he will now be obligated 921 00:41:31,679 --> 00:41:34,840 to re sign based on matching the offer, and so 922 00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:37,599 they're going to move forward with their relationship. And look, 923 00:41:37,679 --> 00:41:39,360 at the end of the day, Bam is going to 924 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,199 probably make a lot of money thanks to having a 925 00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:44,920 competing offer, and they've made a great team together. 926 00:41:45,679 --> 00:41:48,880 Speaker 1: How soon, realistically, do you think we see Bam Rodriguez 927 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:50,840 again now that they've uped this, could we see him 928 00:41:50,840 --> 00:41:53,440 in March or April? I would like activity. He's been 929 00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:54,559 an entertaining fighter. 930 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,480 Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's going to depend on if 931 00:41:56,480 --> 00:41:58,320 they can land the unification fight for him. That's going 932 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,079 to depend on what the IBF says. Remember the IBF 933 00:42:01,119 --> 00:42:05,440 title fight between will Lebaldo Garcia and the and subsume 934 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,239 me from Japan had been postpone or i'd been by 935 00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:09,880 I don't know if you call it a cancelation or 936 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,480 a postponeman or whatever it was because of injury. And 937 00:42:13,559 --> 00:42:15,599 he also has a mandatory that's supposed to be doing. 938 00:42:15,639 --> 00:42:19,639 So we'll see maybe they can get the optional uh, 939 00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,039 because they can say it's a unification fight where the 940 00:42:22,039 --> 00:42:25,039 IBF would sign off. But you got Maloney that's there 941 00:42:25,079 --> 00:42:28,000 that wants the shot. He's supposed to get right March 942 00:42:28,079 --> 00:42:30,480 or April seems a little aggressive. Bam just fought in 943 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:36,079 UH in November. You know, I'm not into the To me, 944 00:42:36,159 --> 00:42:37,679 I don't care as long as he's not off for 945 00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:40,119 like a year. But I would think probably more deeper 946 00:42:40,119 --> 00:42:43,280 into the year, maybe maybe mayish, but at some point, 947 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:45,480 you know, sooner than later, we'll see him back. At 948 00:42:45,519 --> 00:42:46,920 the end of the day. He's probably gonna be like 949 00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:49,360 most guys, he's gonna probably fight twice in the year. 950 00:42:49,519 --> 00:42:51,360 It will be a beautiful thing. He could fight three times, 951 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:53,519 but most likely it's gonna be twice, So there's no 952 00:42:53,639 --> 00:42:55,480 urgency to ring in the next couple of months. 953 00:42:55,559 --> 00:42:57,400 Speaker 1: But this guy's electric. I mean, we keep saying this, 954 00:42:57,440 --> 00:42:59,480 he's the best American smaller white fighter out there. You 955 00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:03,599 could argue other than than UH in a way, the monster, 956 00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:07,199 he's the second most compelling smaller weight fighter that's out there. 957 00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:08,280 Let's keeping macis. 958 00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:10,079 Speaker 2: I think you can make the argument that Bam Erdergs 959 00:43:10,159 --> 00:43:12,119 is the best American fighter in boxing period. Now the 960 00:43:12,159 --> 00:43:14,199 Terrence Crawford is retired. But if you take a look 961 00:43:14,199 --> 00:43:16,719 at people's pound for poundless and if you remove Crawford, 962 00:43:17,119 --> 00:43:18,760 the top guys on the Pound for pund list other 963 00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:20,440 than them were for a long time and still are. 964 00:43:20,679 --> 00:43:23,960 Iszusik Ukrainian in a way Japanese and most people have 965 00:43:24,039 --> 00:43:26,840 now bumped up Bam up to that next group of guys, 966 00:43:27,119 --> 00:43:28,719 and he's American and the other guys I might be 967 00:43:28,719 --> 00:43:32,119 in contention whether it's a Bivol who's Russian or it's 968 00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:34,960 better Biev who's originally from Russia. But you know, now, 969 00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:37,920 Canadian citizen, you go down the list there, you know 970 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:41,440 that those top guys are from other countries. I think Bam, 971 00:43:41,519 --> 00:43:43,079 you know he's the guy, and you also have other 972 00:43:43,159 --> 00:43:46,280 top Americans Chikor and tia Fimo for example. We're fighting 973 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,960 each other, but at this moment in time, most people 974 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:52,639 still have damn rated ahead of them. Look, he's he's 975 00:43:52,679 --> 00:43:56,519 a great young fighter, and uh uh. I don't root 976 00:43:56,559 --> 00:43:58,760 for promoters to sign this guy or that guy or whatever. 977 00:43:59,639 --> 00:44:02,159 And I'm certainly rooting against Soup for the signed top guys. 978 00:44:02,639 --> 00:44:06,280 But it feels like the match room, the match in 979 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:09,880 match room that they've had has worked great for both sides. 980 00:44:10,039 --> 00:44:12,679 Matchroom has put on some great events with BIM, They've 981 00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:15,880 gotten great opportunities and he has performed so uh. The 982 00:44:15,920 --> 00:44:17,679 fact that they may stay together, I don't think is 983 00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:18,199 a bad thing. 984 00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:21,639 Speaker 1: All right, Two more items real quick, No surprise, Tyson 985 00:44:21,679 --> 00:44:25,039 Fury is fighting. We keep hearing April and the name 986 00:44:25,119 --> 00:44:27,920 the gates keep that keeps getting kicked around or one 987 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:31,159 of them is Mattmadov. Give me, give me some more. 988 00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:32,599 Speaker 2: Is that the name? 989 00:44:32,679 --> 00:44:35,880 Speaker 1: What are you hearing? Kings return. 990 00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:40,039 Speaker 2: Spencer Brown, who was Tyson's manager, has did some interviews 991 00:44:40,119 --> 00:44:43,360 with Sky Sports, which is the big sports uh, you know, 992 00:44:43,559 --> 00:44:46,679 one of the big sports outlets in the UK and uh, 993 00:44:47,039 --> 00:44:48,920 you know, talking about him having come out of retire 994 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:51,599 and announced he's coming out of retirement to uh to 995 00:44:51,679 --> 00:44:53,159 the fact that he would be back in the ring 996 00:44:53,360 --> 00:44:55,800 and that they are targeting April, which makes sense. And 997 00:44:56,039 --> 00:44:57,440 you know he did say they got about three or 998 00:44:57,440 --> 00:44:59,679 four opponents that they've been talking to and they've sent 999 00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:02,119 I guess sent out contracts or half contracts are done, 1000 00:45:02,559 --> 00:45:04,480 but they need to determine, you know, who's actually to 1001 00:45:04,559 --> 00:45:06,199 get the fight. And he did bring up Arsenal Deck 1002 00:45:06,440 --> 00:45:10,079 Mack Manduff, who did you know, gain some notoriety in 1003 00:45:10,119 --> 00:45:12,800 the UK in his last fight because of his victory 1004 00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,119 against the cult hero David Allen, and he seems like 1005 00:45:16,159 --> 00:45:19,320 they're like a certainly a reasonable comeback opponent for Fury 1006 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:22,800 coming off the two losses and the layoff. A guy 1007 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,840 with a great, great amount of power, but no chin 1008 00:45:26,679 --> 00:45:28,880 not you know, very slow, not a lot of skills. 1009 00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:31,000 It's one thing to be to David Allen. It's a 1010 00:45:31,039 --> 00:45:33,320 whole different ballgame to be the Tyson Fury. No one 1011 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:35,239 is expecting Feary to be back in the ring against 1012 00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:39,039 an elite opponent, but at least maccadool looks the part. 1013 00:45:39,039 --> 00:45:41,440 He's a big man and carries a big punch, and 1014 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:43,119 if he lands, and we all know Tyson Fury's been 1015 00:45:43,159 --> 00:45:46,159 on the deck a thousand times, we'll see if that happens. Obviously, 1016 00:45:46,199 --> 00:45:48,800 the whole point here was if he's going to extra retirement, 1017 00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:53,360 set him up for a fight against Anthony Joshua. So 1018 00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,039 he's still coming back, and you know, everybody's just you know, 1019 00:45:57,119 --> 00:45:59,880 lying low on the whole Anthony Joshua situation because of 1020 00:46:00,039 --> 00:46:02,639 the terrible tragedy yep, with his friends being killed and 1021 00:46:02,679 --> 00:46:05,239 his own injuries. He's been dealing with. Eddie Hearn did 1022 00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:07,599 speak a little bit about that in an interview with 1023 00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:10,880 Mannix on his own broadcast, and he said, look, I've 1024 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:13,039 been talking to Anthony Joshua right now. Everybody's just giving 1025 00:46:13,119 --> 00:46:17,360 him space, uh, to to heal physically from his injuries, mentally, 1026 00:46:18,639 --> 00:46:20,639 and at some point you know, he'll come to us 1027 00:46:20,639 --> 00:46:23,679 when he wants to come back. I think everybody believes 1028 00:46:23,679 --> 00:46:26,159 and recognizes that Joshua is going to fight again. It's 1029 00:46:26,199 --> 00:46:29,559 just a matter of when he's comfortable enough emotionally and 1030 00:46:29,599 --> 00:46:32,400 mentally and physically to say, okay, guys, let's let's go 1031 00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:35,199 plan something so no one's pressuring him. But of course, 1032 00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:37,280 if here he goes and wins a fight in April, 1033 00:46:38,400 --> 00:46:40,679 the object here is to at some point do the 1034 00:46:40,679 --> 00:46:42,239 fight with Joshua when he does return. 1035 00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:45,760 Speaker 1: Understood, all right, one more quick note and then we're 1036 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,719 out of here. The boxer fight lesser in this in 1037 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,320 this country because we got the Ta Femo Lopez of 1038 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:55,920 course Stevenson UH this weekend UH, as well as the 1039 00:46:56,079 --> 00:46:59,519 Xander Zaiez title fight in Puerto Rico. But in England 1040 00:46:59,559 --> 00:47:01,559 they were to have had a main event in London 1041 00:47:01,599 --> 00:47:06,199 with Adam Azim and Gustavo Limo's a junior welterweight main event. 1042 00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:09,480 That's not happening, and it's rare that we talk about this. 1043 00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,920 It's because both guys yeah exactly Oranger go ahead. 1044 00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:15,679 Speaker 2: So yeah, as actually you mentioned it's like the third 1045 00:47:15,679 --> 00:47:17,880 fight down is actually maybe the fourth fight down because 1046 00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:21,679 also in the UK they have the junior middleweight title 1047 00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:25,000 fight between Baker and Martazzoliev and Josh Kelly. But this 1048 00:47:25,159 --> 00:47:27,639 was the main event for a boxer on their BBC 1049 00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:30,559 deal and a Zim was one of the better young 1050 00:47:30,559 --> 00:47:32,599 fighters in the sport one hundred and forty pounder. He 1051 00:47:32,679 --> 00:47:36,159 was supposed to meet Lemos. This was an IBF Junior 1052 00:47:36,199 --> 00:47:38,840 walter eliminator for the number two position in their ratings, 1053 00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:42,000 so did carry some significance and more than that was also, 1054 00:47:42,039 --> 00:47:44,840 in my opinion, a definite step up in class for 1055 00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:46,960 a Zem you know, who have people have a lot 1056 00:47:46,960 --> 00:47:49,679 of expectations for. But like you said, the fight was 1057 00:47:49,719 --> 00:47:51,519 going to be in London on January thirty first, and 1058 00:47:51,639 --> 00:47:55,679 so Lemos gets injured and according to the announcement that 1059 00:47:55,679 --> 00:47:58,440 boxer made, they had secured a replacement to fight a 1060 00:47:58,519 --> 00:48:00,960 Zem instead. I don't know who that was. They didn't say, 1061 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:02,519 so I'm not sure if it still would have been 1062 00:48:02,519 --> 00:48:05,000 an IBF eliminator, but the reality was they were going 1063 00:48:05,039 --> 00:48:07,239 to still move forward with the fight. And then when 1064 00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:10,199 Azeem was having his final sparring session in the last 1065 00:48:10,199 --> 00:48:12,679 couple of days, he suffered his own injury. Not dispose 1066 00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,000 what it was, but they said something to the effect 1067 00:48:15,039 --> 00:48:17,480 of that he had a scan and they determined that, 1068 00:48:18,159 --> 00:48:19,719 you know, that he was not gonna be able to fight, 1069 00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,960 So they said the fight between he and Lemos will 1070 00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:25,159 be rescheduled for later in the year, and they've left 1071 00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:26,679 up in the air the status of the rest of 1072 00:48:26,719 --> 00:48:29,320 the card, which would be frankly a little surprising that 1073 00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,239 they went through with it, because it is somewhat weak 1074 00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:35,360 in my opinion, with you know, Francesca Hennessy, a good 1075 00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:38,519 up and coming female boxer on the card, but not 1076 00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:41,400 at the level where she's a main event caliber fighter 1077 00:48:41,480 --> 00:48:43,719 yet or has the fan base to draw in. But 1078 00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:45,920 you know, we'll let them sort that out. But you know, 1079 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:48,039 I'm just bummed out because Adam Azeem has been, as 1080 00:48:48,039 --> 00:48:50,800 we've discussed, of my favorite young prospects in the sport, 1081 00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:53,840 and he's bummed out fighting. 1082 00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:55,880 Speaker 1: But he's hurt. He's hurt so we'll go to see 1083 00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:56,239 how hurts. 1084 00:48:56,280 --> 00:48:58,039 Speaker 2: And by the way, a lot of those boxer cards 1085 00:48:58,280 --> 00:48:59,920 the way you you know, for a while they had them. 1086 00:49:00,039 --> 00:49:03,639 I'mocast on Peacock when they had that arrangement, but when 1087 00:49:03,679 --> 00:49:06,440 they haven't had that, both before the Peacock deal and 1088 00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:09,679 since the Peacock deal, those fights almost always wind up 1089 00:49:09,679 --> 00:49:12,960 on the Triller plus Triller TV plus app, So I 1090 00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:14,880 subscribe to that for this seven or eight bucks a month, 1091 00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:17,840 and I'm always happy to watch those boxer events out there. 1092 00:49:18,639 --> 00:49:21,440 Speaker 1: All right, all good. We gave you plenty here on 1093 00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:25,480 the Recap Pod, including Raymond Murtaia's big IBF lightweight title win. 1094 00:49:26,039 --> 00:49:29,000 They're in Vegas. A lot of news, my friend. We 1095 00:49:29,079 --> 00:49:32,559 get ready for Tia Fimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson. Stay warm, 1096 00:49:32,599 --> 00:49:35,760 hopefully the power stays on again for tens of millions 1097 00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:39,039 in the southwest, Southeast and the eastern part of the country, 1098 00:49:39,599 --> 00:49:43,360 New York and New England getting pounded on Sunday afternoon, 1099 00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:49,159 Sunday night, frigid temperatures, everybody hanging there through all of this. 1100 00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:52,159 I always love chopping it up with you. I know 1101 00:49:52,199 --> 00:49:55,440 you're hunkered down again. I'll mention, it's eighty degrees in Florida. 1102 00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:57,440 It will get colder later in a week. But come 1103 00:49:57,519 --> 00:49:58,599 come south, come to Florida. 1104 00:49:58,599 --> 00:50:00,000 Speaker 2: The week you say colder, does that mean like. 1105 00:50:00,519 --> 00:50:02,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, fifty instead of eighty. And we're weak. We got 1106 00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:04,360 to bring the plants in the PETSI the way. 1107 00:50:04,400 --> 00:50:06,920 Speaker 2: One good thing about living where I live is power 1108 00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:09,320 outages knock on wood are a few and far between, 1109 00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:11,719 because where I grew up in upstate New York, that 1110 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,079 we had the regular power lines. Here where I live 1111 00:50:14,079 --> 00:50:16,400 in northern Virginia, everything is under underground. 1112 00:50:16,039 --> 00:50:16,519 Speaker 1: That's true. 1113 00:50:16,679 --> 00:50:19,039 Speaker 2: The chances of having so even when we lose power, 1114 00:50:19,039 --> 00:50:21,360 which is a very occasional, it lasts for you know, 1115 00:50:21,519 --> 00:50:23,760 a few minutes, not not days or hours or anything. 1116 00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:24,599 Speaker 1: Let's hope they get it. 1117 00:50:24,639 --> 00:50:25,519 Speaker 2: So let's keep it up. 1118 00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:27,440 Speaker 1: Hopefully they get it solved. 1119 00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:29,360 Speaker 2: With all of that, and I'm gonna go out some 1120 00:50:29,360 --> 00:50:30,199 hot coco. How about that? 1121 00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:32,239 Speaker 1: Have some hot coco. What I enjoy about living in 1122 00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,480 Florida is we go play golf in short sleeves back 1123 00:50:35,559 --> 00:50:39,559 in you know, December, January, February, it happens. Listen, have 1124 00:50:39,679 --> 00:50:43,239 a great week. We're talking Tia Fimo and Shakur as 1125 00:50:43,280 --> 00:50:45,920 this week unfolds. Read him in the Substack, the Bite 1126 00:50:45,920 --> 00:50:48,559 Preaching Night's substack and newsletter that's still cranking out. Make 1127 00:50:48,599 --> 00:50:51,760 sure you're subscribed up there, follow subscribe on this podcast. 1128 00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:53,800 Go find the Big Fight Weekends YouTube page as well. 1129 00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:54,880 Big Dan, have a good week. 1130 00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:55,239 Speaker 2: Thank you. 1131 00:50:55,679 --> 00:50:59,159 Speaker 1: You bet there is Dan Rayphael. I am merely TJ Reeves. 1132 00:50:59,199 --> 00:51:00,960 You've been with us on a light Preach Tonight retap 1133 00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:01,480 podcasts