Speaker 1: Don't countdown.
Speaker 2: Is on to fight time. This is Big Fight weekend.
Now here is your host? TJ. Leaves?
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, dare I say that We're about to wrap
up February and we've got what has the capability of
being a very entertaining unified world title fight between a
couple of Mexican champions that can really punch. We're ready
to preview it. We've got a ton of fight news
and more. It is the big fight wee can preview.
I am the somewhat capable host. TJ Reeves, Hello to
our insider, Big Dan. Rayphiel fight Freaks Unit is the
substack that he has and the newsletter bey on that
because the news is flying left, right and every which
direction right now, the intel and Dan's all over it.
Good to be back with you. And again, I don't
want to oversell this. They don't pay us to oversell this,
but I'm intrigued. Maybe this is sneaky under the radar,
good action coming this weekend in the match Room de
Zone main event for Arizona with the Manuel Navarante Sugar Nuyez.
Speaker 2: Big Dan, how are you feeling?
Speaker 1: I felt good, but I wouldn't say it's sneaky. I
think everybody is expected from the moment this fight was announced,
it's going to be a fucking spectacular bar burner.
Speaker 3: But I mean, if you know, if we're just comparing,
there was hype around, big hype around Shakur Stevenson and
Taafimo Lopez totally right, rightfully, So with that, there's been
hype around a couple of other big fights.
Speaker 1: I'm not even speaking about hype.
Speaker 2: This has just kind of been a little under the radars.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm saying from that standpoint, yes, from immybe a
promotional standpoint, yes, But in terms of those of us
who follow closely and look at the schedule which is
on my newsletter and you can sign up and get
it in your inbox every Tuesday. Anyways, if you if
you looked at the upcoming calendar and you were circling
the fights that you're like, I must watch that. Not
a pay per view, not part of the Ultimate Plan,
part of your regular Zone subscription. This is one of
those fights where if you're a if you like you know,
the the idea of two guys who are very good
but will come and just go to bang it out
with each other for however, long it last it, but
also get hit. Yeah, of course this is this is
that fight. I mean there's there's not a lot of
there's nothing fancy about matchmaking with this one. I mean
you got two champions, he got two outstanding uh punchers
and guys who make offense whose defense is maybe slightly
not the best.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And they're gonna come to fight, and they and they
wanted to fight each other. Uh. If you go back
to September when Edward o' nunez had a homecoming fight
in Mexico, he had a very exciting victory against the
Puerto Rican Christopher Diaz and lo and behold who was
sitting a ring side, I mean, you will never aday
and when.
Speaker 2: The surprise, he was up in the ring after the fight.
Speaker 1: Saying, let's do this match room. You know, Eddie hern
is there, of course he's the promoter of Nunez, and
Navarrette was at the show. He's of course with top rank.
They were able to make a deal with each other,
which is good, and they called Navaretti into the ring
and in a very respectful way, they both said let's
do it. And Eddie was like, let's have this great
Mexican battle. And that's exactly what they're going to do.
I see literally no possible way that this cannot be
a very good fight.
Speaker 3: If not say way, wait, don't say that. I literally
see no possible way. Obviously there's always something quirky that
can happen, but we're.
Speaker 1: The caa. My cavea was in. If there's some kind
of wacky head butter injury, yes, but in general terms,
on paper, this is a fight of the year type
of fight, and in practice it's got a chance to
be that level of a fight that even though it's February,
we're talking about this, you know, down the road at
the end of the year.
Speaker 3: By the way, I didn't even get to promote before
Ray Fiel's going on about this, So thank you for
finding us on the pod feed.
Speaker 1: You got me so excited about this.
Speaker 3: I know, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. Make
sure you rateus in reviewers. Several of you have done
that in February. Keep doing that. It helps with the algorithms.
We're here previewing going into the weekend, we recap going
out of the weekend. Most of the time, March becomes
a crazy month for me with the college basketball and
for you because you're a duke guy. So but we'll
we'll do our best preview going into the weekend recap
coming off the weekend. Also find the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page as well for different content, nostalgia, et cetera.
So back into this, yes, for the unified one and
thirty pound title. One interesting thing we know Navarante lost
recently to Denny's Baranchick.
Speaker 1: Well, that's ago my point.
Speaker 3: I'm coming to a point. He did so moving up
to lightweight. He looked out of shape, he looked sloppy.
Then he came back down to one thirty and looked
much better to me. So I think that's a factor,
and that's a component that we're trying to get him
a fourth world title in a fourth different division. The
promotion in top rank, et cetera. WBO didn't happen. He
looked sloppy, he looked out of shape. So I'm much
more let's just say optimistic, we'll see a better Navarate
for that reason in this fight coming up.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good point. I think the fact
is he's fighting another champion and he's been wanting to
unify for a while. The fact that it's another Mexican
will bring out the best I think compared to a fight,
maybe that he's not as up for let's say. But
after that lost to Brent Check where like you said,
he did not look good. It was a split decision,
but he was the loser of the fight. He fought
Oscar Valdes in the rematch, he knocked him out in
the sixth round. Then he did not look sharp in
a very tough, close fight against Charlie Squarez. It ended
in a storm of controversy with the no contest with
the was it ahead but the cause of the cut
was it as to cause the cut in the In
the end, the California Commission overturned into a no contest
and the WBO ordered an immediate rematch, and that was
the fight that was post happened. And when they went
to him to try to make a step aside deal
and they couldn't work it out, the WBO sided with
him and said, you know what, We're gonna let the
Unification take precedent over. This ordered mandatory and basically told
Charlie Swarez to go pound sand And so instead of
doing that rematch, we get as fans I mean, I
feel bad for Charlie Suarez because he probably deserved the
better fate. But for my viewing pleasure on Saturday, I'd
much rather be watching Emmanuel Lavarette against Eduardo Sugar and
Nunez do it for a unification. It's gonna be a
tremendous crowd. They're doing this in Glendale, Arizona. There'll be
obviously a big Mexican crowd at an arena. I have
covered fights that multiple times in the past, the Desert
Diamond Arena that's gone through a thousand name changes. Couldn't
tell you what it was called before.
Speaker 3: This is the arena. This is not downtown Phoenix. It's
out in the suburb in the desert Glendale, Arizona. And
they've really built this up. Speaking of March and college basketball,
they had the Final Four there a couple of years
ago and I had not been there in several years
in that area. But they have really built this up.
And that is here we go underrated again. That is
an underrated boxing hotbed in the Phoenix and greater area.
Speaker 2: This should be a rocking environment. Here we go with
show you question.
Speaker 1: So I mean, look, I mean, Nunez is relatively new
with the title. He's got a numbleet. You know, he's
got a really good record. He's thirty and one with
twenty eight knockouts. He's a guy that has traveled. He
won an eliminator fight in Tajikistan, he went and won
the title. When he won the vacant IBF title, he
won it by going over to Japan to defeat Rishiki
and that was, you know, you had the homecoming defense.
Speaker 3: All I've always said, if you've gone to t Jikistan,
you said, and at Japan, you got to get a
homecoming of some kind after you exit those two places.
Speaker 1: So they brought him home to Mexico, to Los Moysis, Mexico.
That was back in September. That's when he had a
super exciting victory against Christy As where Navarette was there
and got in the ring afterwards and they were able
to make this fight. And in terms of Navarete, he's
a lot more experienced as far as at the top level.
This is a guy that's you know, you mentioned at
the Brenchick fight. He tried to win a title in
a fourth way class. That did not work out, but
he has won titles in three weight divisions. He's been
at one hundred and thirty pound division for quite a while.
Now he's making his fifth title defense. They both have
great records, as they mentioned that nun yea thirty and
one with twenty eight Naverette is thirty nine two and
one with twenty with thirty two knockouts. They and like
you know, based on their records and the types of
guys they fought, they both can crack. They're both very
They've shown good chins, they're very aggressive minded. Like I mean,
I don't I'm trying. I'm not trying to hype it
up too much, but when I see this kind of
fight in the weight class that they're in, and the
fact that they're both from Mexico, and having seen the
types of excitement that they have brought in previous fights,
I can't help myself but think of the names Barrera
and Morales. I know that's how it was hyped up
when never at they fought Valdez, and the first fight
didn't quite live up to that, but it was like
a decent replication, you know, if you will, at least
in the first fight. This is also I mean, when
Barrera Morales they fought their three awesome fights. The first
one was a one hundred and twenty two pound unification fight,
the second fight was for a featherweight title, they moved
up the next weight class, and then the third fight,
which was also a Fight of the Year, was in
one hundred and thirty pound way class. So I have
high hopes for this one. I think this is gonna
be a fantastic fight.
Speaker 2: There's a lot to like.
Speaker 3: Again, Navarat has been somebody I've been very entertained by
since the late twenty tens when he beat Isaac Dogbay,
and he comes from different angles with the southpaw stands
and the left uppercut, which you don't see all the time.
This is going to be intriguing. And Sugar Nunia has
had a long knockout streak. What was the knockout streak
going before the decision win of his Japanese fighter He's got.
I think he had won nineteen fights in a row
by knockout before that decision win to capture his version.
Speaker 1: Of the title. Twenty eight knockouts in thirty fights.
Speaker 3: So that tells you that we have expectation that this
could be a wild night and we look forward to
it with Navarante and Sugar Nunez for the main event.
Now before that, interesting on the card again, top rank
is part of this.
Speaker 2: They are not the full promotion.
Speaker 3: This is a match room show, but they have top
rank fighters involved with Navarata and on the undercard. Tell
me a little bit about the undercard. Some you're small,
not Iliano Vargas or on the under car go ahead.
Speaker 1: It ain't the greatest undercard. Let's be honest. Okay, I
mean that's just at least on paper anyway, that doesn't
mean that when the action happens, it can't turn out
to be, you know, very exciting. Tamir Smalls is a
is a mattroom fighter. He's sixteen to zher with eleven knockouts.
He's from Philadelphia, has been in those gyms with all
the top talent they have out there, trying to make
his way up the ladder. Twenty six years old, so
not an old fighter, not a super young fighter. And
he's fought a lot of club type circuit shows in Philly.
Hasn't really fought a name guy thus far. You won't
find a lot of his fights having have been televised
or even streamed for that matter. But now he's in
what I think if you follow boxing, you would look
at this. This is a legitimate test at least, So
we're gonna find out a lot about whether Tamir Smalls
is a prospect or a suspect because he's taken on
the very very experienced, gritty, very solid, legit professional and
that is albo Ramos, who we've seen plenty of times
in top quality fights. He is perhaps slightly better than
a gatekeeper, but he's the kind of guy where if
you think you're going to be a world champion in
the future, you got to beat this cat. So in
his last fight, uh Ramos, that was the fight that
took place. He hasn't fought in all in twenty twenty five,
but at the end of twenty twenty four, he fought
on the undercard when Jake Paul and Mike Tyson had
their their big blockbuster event, and that was a fight
in which he got a chance to fight Mario Barrios
for the WBC welterweight title, and he fought him to
a draw in a superb fight. I mean that card.
You know, we can rip on Jake Paul and Mike
Tyson for being a giant piece of floating shit. But
the two fights that came before that, which were the
rematch between Katie Taylor and Serrano, was an incredible fight,
and the fight before that was Barrios against Ramos, also
a spectacular fight.
Speaker 3: Yes, so Ramos, he had Barrios hurt Lady InterVA and
Barrios was fortunate to get out of there with a draw.
Speaker 1: Go ahead. Yeah, no, I was gonna say, but but
Ramos is a very experienced fighter. He's fought all kinds
of you know, you know, solid professionals. So he took
a loss against our Dennis Gugas that goes back to
two thousand. In twenty, he's got a win over the
one time lightwhit t hat older Omar Figueroa junior. He
lost to the upset minded who's scored a bunch of upsets,
Luke Santa Maria. But it's a pretty solid guy. Was
a very close fight to the at the time undefeated
contender Cody Crowley, who unfortunately is I think retired now
because of an eye injury, but he was still undefeated.
I mean, so Ramos is a super experienced guy. He
is the uncle of Jesus Ramos, the one hundred and
fifty four contender who's now fighting at one hundred and
sixty pounds. I mean, so, if you have any belief
in Tamir Smalls, he gotta have to go through a
very solid, a legit guy like Alba Ramos, who always
makes a pretty good fight. He's twenty eight six and three,
only been stopped one time in his career, and he's
been around for quite a while. He's been fighting since
twenty eleven. So this is the ultimate in terms of
like a test for Smalls, who's clearly the guy they're
looking to build up. And obviously he put him in
the ring with a guy like Ramos, who is an
Arizona fighter, comes from Casa Grande, you know, so he'll
be the crowd favorite for sure in this particular fight.
So we're gonna find out a lot about what tamer
Smiles is all about. Now. Besides that, top rank has
Emiliano Vargas, who was arguably the number one prospect in boxing.
I picked him as my twenty twenty five Fight Freaks
Unite Prospect of the Year. Proud to say, by the way,
going back when Ryan Garcia won the world title the
WBC welterweight world title in his big victory last weekend
in that fight against Brios. That's another former Dan Rayfield
Prospect of the Year who is now a world who
had won a world title. So of my twenty six
prospects of the year, you had another one that win
a world title.
Speaker 3: But I love it when you go a third person
patting yourself on the back, so you can do that one.
You got that one in Vargas. I learned that he
has promise, he has genetics, he has promise. Is this
guy going to give him a challenge?
Speaker 1: Though, I mean probably not. I'm not that familiar with
with the with the opponent. I mean they're building him
up still. He's twenty three to two in one this
August and Ezekiel at Quintana, who is the opponent. He's
from Argentina, So if that says anything, Typically the Argentine
fighters come and you know, they're pretty they they have
good fundamentals, and they're usually have sturdy chins. I mean,
you know, I'll take the opportunity to generalize a little bit.
I mean, we can think of a thousand guys that
have come over from Argentine that have you know, pretty solid.
He's got, like I said, a good record. He's twenty
nine years old, so I'm not an old used up guy.
Hasn't lost, you know, since twenty twenty two. He did
suffer a knockout in that fight against a opponent that
I'm not that familiar with, a guy that stopped him
in round number five. He's won four fights since. He
did have a layoff for a little while in there,
but nothing crazy. So look, it's a Emiliano is a
fighter that a lot of people think is a future
world champ. You know, he was part of the Bad
Bunny super Bowl halftime shows. He was, you know, doing
a mock barring session with Xander's Eyes, who also was
with Top Rank. His father, for those who may not
know or haven't realized, his father was Fernando Vargas, who
was a two time junior midaway champion, one of the
biggest superstars in boxing in the late nineties and early
two thousands, was in some spectacular fights. Makes me feel
old because I've covered a lot of Fernando's fights, including
against Tito Trinidad and Oscar de la Joya and others.
And so we'll see the continuing growth of Ameliatto. He's
only twenty one years old, but he's sixteen and oh
he's got thirteen knockouts. He's been taken, you know, you know,
reasonable steps up for his lack of experience. He has
movie star kind of looks. So if it turns out
he can fight the way that a lot of the
people that are around him do, particularly the matchmakers at
top rank, combine that with his charisma and his exciting
boxing style, he has the possibility to become a major
star and was just the next step in how far
he can go?
Speaker 2: Potential? Is there?
Speaker 3: Dezone match Room shows Saturday night? That's the most prominent
fight card.
Speaker 2: You like, when Dan Rayfield speaks to the third person,
I always do.
Speaker 1: I learned that from my boy Miguel Cota.
Speaker 2: You notice you just did it again right there.
Speaker 1: Of course I did it on purpose, San Rayfield, on purpose.
Speaker 3: Dan Rayfield did do that on purpose. Okay, So that's
the most prominent fight card. Now let's get into the
fight news. We're not going to be here until Monday,
but man, there is a lot that's happening. And the
lead item is what year is this? What decades twenty six?
My friend, what decade is this We got Floyd Mayweather
and Manny Pacqui how wanting to rematch, not in twenty sixteen,
but in twenty twenty six it's announced. It's happening September
the nineteenth at the Sphere in Las Vegas. You and
I were in communication earlier this week off the air
when this came about, and let's let's just say Rayfield
Dan Rayfield third person was none too pleased that what
are we doing here? It's not unexpected because you and
I we talked coming off the weekend that Mayweather's coming
back to fight an exhibition with Mike Tyson and was
looking to fight another fight. Pacquiao's fighting this exhibition as
well with Pravadnikoff. So it did not take Albert Einhying
to figure out that they're maybe gonna fight each other. Well,
now I realize it's seven months from now. Now it's
apparently going to be a reality.
Speaker 1: Pick it up, listen, it's gone. It's a done deal now,
I'd be I'd be more surprised if the rematch didn't
happen then I would, let's say, if one of these
exhibitions didn't happen, because there's already been people on the
Paco side chirping about how well, maybe the Pravadennikov one
won't happen. Who the heck knows. I mean, the exhibitions
are really not that relevant anyway, But if they do happen,
at least it keeps both Manny and Floyd on the
same schedule, roughly, because both of those are supposed to
be in April, and obviously if they fight each other,
it's in septem or so it's enough time for them
to have, you know, gotten in the ring and moved
around a little bit and then have the real fight.
But that's the thing about it, this is this is
not an exhibition. When they fight in the rematch, it's
Mayweather putting that beautiful fifteen to Ozero record at stake,
which he's very proud of, of course, but look at
the end of the day, he's putting that oh at
stake because he needs the money. He turned forty nine
years old, Sweet TJ. He turned forty nine years old
on Tuesday.
Speaker 3: REMARKA was also I saw the Dan Rayfaield photo, the
old school photo of you with Floyd when you were
commemorating his forty ninth birthday. He's forty nine, Paqui, how
is forty seven?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 3: Elaborate a little more? Do either do either one of them?
I guess put it this way, Do either one of
them have enough left? Do we have any weight to
know that this is?
Speaker 1: I mean, we saw Pacio in a real fight against Barrios,
not that long ago, six months ago, seven months ago
against uh, you know, in in Las Vegas, fighting for
the WBC welterweight title. They called it a draw, but
I and legions thought that Pacio was the rightful winner.
Speaker 2: You were there, you were there covering it.
Speaker 1: So so in that context, Paco, I mean, he didn't
look like the prime many who was, you know, destroying everybody.
But he hadn't looked like that in a long time.
But he looked pretty good if you asked me. I mean,
not not like a guy that was an old shot
guy again, not as fast, maybe not as powerful maybe,
but certainly not an elderly fighter. He looked fine. But
again you also have to take into account he's fighting
Mario Barrios. He was not fighting, you know, the top
level Floyd Mayweather. But then again, Floyd is forty nine.
And although Floyd has partaken in eight different exhibition bouts
since he retired after the Connor McGregor Fighter at twenty seventeen.
It's not like he's been taxing those exhibitions. He's fought nothing.
But you know a lot of guys you never heard of.
I mean, so, I don't know what you can prove
in those exhibitions whatsoever. They didn't look like anything. And again,
Floyd hasn't had a real fight, and I don't even
think people consider the McGregor fighter real fight, even though accountant,
So it's been a long time since he's been in
a legitimate fight. Say whatever you want about Pacyo, and
maybe you say whatever you want about the talent level
of Mario Barrios. Barrio Baris is a real professional fighter
who has been a good contender and won world titles.
And that's a real guy. You know. He may not
be on the pound for pound list, but he's a
real guy. And Paco fought him straight up and probably
beat him in most people's eyes, so he's got that
going for him. Pacou is the younger fighter. Pacio is
the fresher fighter from the standpoint of having fought most recently.
He's obviously taken way more punishment through the course of
his career than Floyd because Floyd's defense has been so
pristine and so beautiful for all those years. But look,
this is one of those deals where Netflix is doing
this fight, so it's not gonna cost one hundred dollars
on pay per view like they did when they fought
at Long Last than twenty fifteen, so they're gonna have
a huge audience because the thing about it is Manny
Pacao and Floyd may Whether are mainstream names and everybody
in the world knows who they are, whether you're a
boxing fan or not. I'm gonna tell you a little
story about that. Humor me for a minute, sure, I
try to figure out, like why are they doing this
because they want to draw in the casual viewer, so
diehards like you and me and others that are involved
in this shit on a daily basis, or you know,
people are followers boxing very closely, maybe don't really give
a shit about the fight, even though they'll probably watch anyway.
The person they're trying to attract is the casual person
who has Netflix, Like hundreds of millions of people around
the world do who know their names and be like, yeah,
Mayweather packing, I don't have to pay pay per view.
I'm gonna check that out. The reason why I'm saying
this is because it dawned on me, who are trying
to attract Because a few days before the announcement of
this fight was made, Netflix also announced in conjunction with MVP,
that they were going to do an MMA fight on
Netflix between Ronda Rowsey and Gina Kurana.
Speaker 2: That's correct.
Speaker 1: Now. I am not an MMA diehard fan by any
stretch of the imagination. I would consider myself an extremely
casual MMA fan. If there's some big megathing and I've
heard of them, I might look for the result. I
might have watched the clips on social media. I don't
buy the pay per views, obviously they don't exist anymore
because of Paramount Plus. But I would still might check
out a fight if it was a big enough name.
So if you told me it was brock Lesner, or
was Connor McGregor, or was you know, John Jones, I
know who those guys are, So it dawned. I mean,
I know who Ronda Rowsey and Corona are, and I'm like, oh,
that sounds interesting to me. I'm that casual person of
MMA that Netflix is trying to appeal to, and they're
trying to do the same thing with the head win
a pack you fight, Whereas the diehard MMA fan may
have seen that advertising for Krano against Rowsey and not
really cared. But that's the reason why.
Speaker 3: And it's the same premise behind the Anthony Joshua Jake
Paul and that if you were a hardcore boxing fan,
you know Joshua even though he's not an American, and
the social media interest in and around Jake Paul drew
people from both avenues, hardcore.
Speaker 2: Boxing, etc. And so you're right.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's no doubt there's method to the madness.
They're doing these tent pole events, these one off events,
so there's method to it. I get it, just don't
My only thing is just don't come crying to me.
The first fight was a dud, and part of that
was Pacquiao was injured with a bad shoulder that needed
surgery for part of it, and we remember that backdrop.
And this is now eleven years later and they're both
almost fifty years old.
Speaker 2: So I don't know what else it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: All I can say is anybody that tunes into this
by all means, watch it because it's not going to
cost you extra money if you're already a subscriber. But
just just go with the proper expectations about this.
Speaker 3: How about this, I mean, just pose it this way.
And we got plenty of time when we go around
to talk about this. And I'm still skeptical that we
get to September and both of them are healthy, both
of them can fight with I don't know, but when
we get there, it is a legitimate point. This may
be the best opportunity that any opponent has had to
actually hit and corner Floyd Mayweather because he's pushing fifty
years old. Yeah, and Pacquiao might be able to connect.
Speaker 1: Some and al is going to be coming off of
not the longest layoff in the world and did have
a quality performance in his recent fight against Barrios. All right,
So there's that, and that was many coming out of
before year retirement. Now, Mayweather, despite the various exhibitions which
he you can just watch him, you know, he didn't
train a day for He's coming out of, in essence,
a decade long retirement. His last fight was in two
thousand and seventeen, and now here we are in twenty
twenty six, and that's a long time without having a
real fight. Even if he's keep you know, he's taking
care of himself in his retirement. You know. The one
thing about Floyd, he doesn't, you know, fluctuate dramatically in
a way. He's not a known guy to be smoking
and drinking and that type of thing. He doesn't do drugs,
so he gives himself at least a reasonable chance. But
as I've said many many times, I do I'm not
that interested in the rematch. Because I am a boxing reporter.
I probably will make the trip and go to cover
this fight. I have covered something like twenty Floyd Mayweather
fights in person. I have covered like twenty four twenty
five flight Made Pacio fights in person. I will add
one more to that ledger.
Speaker 2: So that is for later this year.
Speaker 3: Now we move on to more news and now we're
back again with Netflix. We're back with Turkey Ala Chic,
and we're back with Connor Binn. Now it says on
my rundown Connor Bin's one fight, fifteen million dollar fight
with ZUFA will be against Regis Prograde. That's the opponent. However,
I love the pushback when they announced this Turkey alashk
and the ring. There was no mention of Zufa Boxing.
There's not a Zufa Boxing logo on the design, art,
the promo, et cetera. I submit again, I'm not just
going to go down the road for five to ten minutes. Again,
this is not a Zufa Boxing event. It's not I
mean Turkey Ala chic putting this on. Who's the financial benefactor?
And it's a separate thing from Zufa Boxing because it's
on the undercard of Tyson Perry and you would know
you put this on the rundown. This has got to
be the highest purse for any undercard fighter.
Speaker 1: No question, no question.
Speaker 2: Right for Conravan and Regis Prograde, tell me.
Speaker 1: More well, Number one, his contract is with Zufa Boxing,
But Zufa Boxing is backed by Sela and Turkey. Right.
So Mark Shapiro, who was the COO and president of
TKO Group Holdings for Holdings Group that's the parent company
of UFC, Zufa Boxing and WWE, he had on Wednesday
of this week in earnings call because they're a publicly
traded company, and with the reports of from me frankly
that it was a fifteen million dollars deal to do
the connor benfight. He was asked about the outlay and
how that impacted anything related to their bottom line, and
people can go on my sub stack. It's not behind
the paywall of this story. You can read all about it.
I quoted everything he said in there about it, and
he made the point, this is the president of the
company speaking. We signed connor Ben, meaning ZUFA. They signed him,
and they are being backed by Turkey. It's not coming
from They're not making the outlay of the money. Turkey
is the one that's that's making the fun.
Speaker 2: Of them, as we talked about back on side.
Speaker 1: So, yes, it's a ZUFA, he's a ZUFA fighter quote
unquote because of the contract. But they're all the same company,
So don't get caught up at it. Is that a
ZUFA fighter, Is that a ring magazine fighter, is that
a read season whatever. It's Turkey in conjunction with his people,
and they're putting this fight on Netflix. And ZUFA, by
the way, is going to do a series of these
fights on Netflix. They've got their monthly shows on Paramount Plus.
But they're gonna do from what Mark Shapiro was saying,
and what has been known pretty much since they created
this ZUFA Boxing thing is that they're going to probably
do what they're calling super fights, like two to four
per year that will probably be on Netflix, and so
this is one of them. They have Tyson Fury in
the unretirement fight against mahmadav And is at the Tottenham
Hotspur Arena Stadium in London. That is the same place
where Connor Ben had the two fights against Chris Hubank
Junior in twenty twenty five. And he is now going
to be honest undercard at one hundred and fifty pounds,
So he's on his way. You know, he fought the
two fights at one sixty. He had had two in
between fights when he was here in America during his
drug suspension at in the junior middleweight division. He wants
to go back to welterweight, so he's on his way
back down to forty seven. This fight's contract at one
point fifty from my sources tell me that was not announced.
It's a ten round fight, so he's getting fifteen million
bucks for ten rounds. That's a pretty good deal and
it'll be the the co feature. If you will of
Tyson Fury's return, and it's going to be in England,
of course, in Netflix trying to make a big play there.
And you can argue easily that the biggest boxing stars
in the UK are in whatever or do you put them,
Tyson Furry, Anthony Joshua One, Connor Ben and to have
two of them on the same show is a pretty
big deal. So so.
Speaker 3: It we know this Regis is at the end. Regis
was an entertaining fighter for a while, but he he struggled.
He certainly got whitewashed by Devin Haney and embarrassed in
that fight. He then lost to Jack Catterall after that
and now has won one other fight. He beat He
beat Jojo Diaz. Whatever's left of Jojo Diaz.
Speaker 1: There's nothing left of Jojo.
Speaker 3: I mean still, you gotta believe program's getting a decent
payday here. He's the opponent traveling to England. Anymore on
that part of it, I thought this was.
Speaker 1: One of the one of the interesting things when and
I had kind of forgotten this until Regis brought it up.
And when they put out their announcement of the fight,
there were some comments from the two fighters and Regis
made the point that for him he's fought this will
be his third time fighting in the UK. He did
have one fight in Manchester, but the first time he
fought in the UK was when he had what was
the spectacular fight in the title unification fight at one
hundred and forty pounds him against Josh Taylor. That was
during the World Boxing Super Series. A tremendous battle, great fight,
he lost, a really super close fight. And he made
the point in his comment that on the undercard that
he called this fight with Connor a full circle moment
for him because his first fight that he had in
the UK on that show where he was headlining against
Josh Taylor on the undercard that night was the prospect
Connor Ben. And I went, I looked it up and
sure enough, Connor Ben was fifteen and oh was just
fighting in like a random I think an eight rounder
or something like that on the undercard. He got to win.
And now here we are these years later, and now
Connor Ben is the A side and a major star
in the UK, and now he's a fighting Regis Progray
who was playing out the string and at the end
of his career, having come off a couple of bad
losses and frankly having not looked all that good even
in the losses, and now he's going to be fighting
at the second heaviest weight of his career. He's been
a career long one hundred and forty pounder. There's one
fight way back in the early days where he actually
weighed one fifty one, but hardly you could count that
because it was just, you know, an up and coming
prospect he type fight. But now he's in at one
hundred and fifty for this as a thirty seven year
old guy who's at the tail end of his career. Clearly,
they got an opponent with a good name. They got
an opponent like Regis who will be willing to partake
in the promotion. He's always been a good talker with
the rest, enjoys that part of the game and the
fans and the whole thing, and you know, a pretty
good guy and all that.
Speaker 3: And hey, good for him that he's getting the check
and getting the money here. And we'll see again when
we get to this. Now that the thing is, we
don't have to wait very long. We're looking at about
forty five days or less here before this happens.
Speaker 2: In April.
Speaker 3: We were wondering if this would be its own thing
in May, but it's actually on that undercard for April
the eleven.
Speaker 1: That was the one thing that did surprise me. I
mean I thought that they were going to do like
a back to back thing with Connor in the main
and on once show and Tyson Fury on the other.
So I was pleasantly surprised, actually because now you at
least get a little more name wreck name value for him.
Speaker 3: It say it one more time for the audience. Here
this lines up that they're trying to get Connor been
in a well toweight world title fight with either Devin
Haney or Ryan Garcia, or maybe the winner Hainey and Garcia,
if it comes to that. Am I making too much sense?
Speaker 1: No? I mean I think you're You're speaking exactly the
way that anybody with the brain would think. So this
is going to be April eleventh, which leaves though, if
he wins, plenty of time for him to do another fight,
you know, later in the year, where it could be
against the Ryan Garcia, it could be against them.
Speaker 3: He was making fun of Devon Haney after Devin Haney
won on the on the ring card against Brian Norman.
He was there and making fun of Devin Haney.
Speaker 2: That might work.
Speaker 1: We'll say what we say. What anybody says is not relevant.
The puppet master is Turkey if he decides he wants
to do the rematch between Haney and Ryan Garcia. Remember
they were supposed to do the remat then Ryan Garcia
lost the fight against Romero, and Devin Hainey on that
same night looked absolutely terrible in a win. However, now
that has a lot a lot more spice to it
than it did at that moment because Ryan looked great
against Barrios, he won a world title. Hainey has come
back from that horrible performance in the win against Ramire,
he fought in Saudi Arabia. He had a very good
victory against Brian Norman to become the WBO champion. And
now not only have both guys looked good in their
last fights, but it would be a title unification fight,
and I would dare say within American boxing, it's probably
the biggest fight you can make. I would say, even
bigger than Jeron Butennis against Verge l artis. Everybody's trying
to get done. So Turkey, Mago that route and maybe
they'll give the winner of that fight a chance to
fight Connor bed I don't think there's any urgency that
he has to fight for the title right away. I
know he's highly ranked in the WBC. We'll see what happens.
But the fact is any of those fights will be marketable,
and so that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2: Agreed.
Speaker 3: While we're here, we mentioned Jake Paul and Anthony Joshua
and Netflix, and you had the update, and Jake Paul
actually had the update on his social media that he's
had to have a second surgery on his job. But now,
by the way, you and I haven't talked about this.
His girlfriend arguably became equally, if not more famous athletically
because she just took home a silver medal in speed
skating at the Winter Olympics in Italy. But Jake Paul
has said, hey, he had to have another surgery, he's
had problems sleeping because of the jaw situation and the
whole bit. So elaborate a little more on he's revealing
there the after time.
Speaker 1: Up recently on his social media. Obviously, we know he
got knocked out in the six round by Joshua. Was
a brutal knockout. He posted some of the X rays
or whatever the pictures were of the jaw on his
social media. Afterwards, he had a broken jown two places.
He had surgery right after, you know, the day after
the fight. They had to take out some of his teeth.
Kind of a mess, and apparently as he put on
his social media. He didn't put up new pictures or
anything like that. He said, but the screws and the
plates were coming loose because I guess he said, he
didn't rest enough over the last couple of months, and
so they had to do another surgery to tighten things up,
I guess, and to do it better, which is unfortunate.
I mean, you know, I know a lot of people
hate Jake Paul, but I don't want to see the guy.
I mean, I don't hate the guy. I'm just saying
I don't think anybody want to see him. Have to
have a second uber when I come back to injury.
Speaker 2: I'm not going third person. TJ.
Speaker 3: Reeves is saying this. Dan Rayphiel said this for the
longest time. You don't play boxing, so you can say
whatever you want about him being a leveraging circus. He
got in the ring with the former unified heavyweight champion,
and he got his jaw broken in two places, taking
a big time right hand.
Speaker 1: In the vernacular of what the kids say these days
around and find out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, and so he got in there and got
paid a bunch, but he got the jaw broken too,
and he said they had him put.
Speaker 1: In the original surgery, they had put in two titanium
plates implanted as well as remove some of his teeth
and so, and then he had to have a second surgery.
So I'm sure that will be.
Speaker 3: It's basically when you're describing this, and I know people
that have had broken jaws, and I've seen other athletes
describe this, it is basically reconstructive surgery on your jaw
on your face, is what he's talking about. And it
didn't take. It didn't completely work, So that's not fun.
Speaker 1: The good thing, though, is if he's going to go
and continue with his boxing career.
Speaker 3: So I was just gonna ask you this, do you
think we see him fight in twenty twenty six, fight
in the next ten months? Do you think we will
see him in the ring or is he just counting
money at this point.
Speaker 1: I'll just say this I think absolutely he will fight again,
whether he does it this year or not. You know,
it's gonna better out how it heals. What I was
gonna say though, is these are the types of injuries
that absolutely can be overcome. And the one of the
classic recent examples of Jaio but Tia had a bat
against Bratus and he went on and healed nicely, and
he's you know, became the you know, the champ, and
he's doing his thing. He's fighting Sunday night, one week
from Sunday on the ZUFA boxing card, defending the title.
So it's not like a synergy that ends your career,
but it's still a very painful injury. I remember, talking
by the way to Oscar Valdez. It some of the
broken jaw in the fight which I was at against
Scot Quick, which was a classic kind of battle and
a big, big heart from from from Valdez to continue
through that fight with the bust of job, with the
bloods pouring out of his mouth, and when he was better,
I remember sitting with him in the one of the
salon rooms downstairs at the MGM where I was covering
another fight, maybe it was the Mandal like that forget
which it was, but anyway, and he was telling me
about what it was like having the broken jawed. How
we you know, for those first weeks he's like drinking
out of a straw and he's drinking yogurt and you
know they're puring his food. And even no matter what
you would say, no matter what happened when I would
go to sleep, I couldn't get comfortable, no matter how
I turned my head or it was just you know,
it's terrible. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
It's a horrible injury.
Speaker 3: Moving on from that, Katie Taylor one of the all
time female greats, certainly in the UK. It give me
argue she's the most prominent female fighter ever. She's gonna
have a farewell fight. What are the deats on the
farewell fight? Coming out here?
Speaker 2: Midweek?
Speaker 1: So she went and she did an interview with RTE,
which is one of the national broadcasters in Ireland, where
she's from and where she's a national hero. She of
course was the twenty twelve Olympic gold medal. She was
representing Ireland once again in twenty sixteen Olympics. She's a
two division on disputed women's champion, being a very long
time undisputed champion in the lightweight division. She then moved
up to junior welterweight. Had her first ever professional fight
that late in her career, just a couple of years ago,
when she fought against Chantel Cameron challenged her for the
undisputed title and she took her first loss in a
spectacular fight, and then they rematched once again, also in Dublin,
and she won. They were both majority decisions and each
woman won one of the fights, but they were both
sensational fight of the Year fights, and she became the
undisputed junior welterweight champion, which he's been defending in her
most recent fights. She ended up after she defeated Amanda
Serrano in the third fight, she was told the WBC,
who had a mandatory that was doing, which actually was
going to be against Cameron, which would have been a
trilogy fight who had become the interim title holder. Anyway,
she said, I'm taking some time off, so they made
her the champion a recess, and so it was not
clear what her schedule was going to be, but she'd
always sort of intimated that, yes, I'm going to fight again.
But now she's made the decision, as she said in
this interview with RT, that she's gonna have one more fight.
It's going to be a farewell fight. She's gonna do
it in Dublin where everything she wants to do it
at the big you know, uh, soccer stadium, you.
Speaker 2: Know football Crolk Park, right Park.
Speaker 1: Exactly, which is in Dublin, and they've you know, Matchroom Boxing,
which is her career long promoter has at various times
investigated the prospect of doing something at Croke Parton for
whatever the reason, whether it's the schedule of one of
votes that they had, or it's it's the logistics or
the costs, or.
Speaker 3: They were trying for example, to your point, they were
trying to have the Serrano rematch. Maybe it didn't work
park and it didn't come about, it didn't happen.
Speaker 1: So she'd like to fight there. If she can't fight there,
she mentioned a couple other places. There's another stadium that
she would be interested in called the Viva Stadium. There's
also less she as I mentioned the Three Arena, which
is where she fought the two fights against Chantel Cameron.
But she's determined to have her final fight in Dublin,
have a big celebration. She has had a great career,
be a great way for he just to walk out
on top. She still has multiple of the junior walterweight titles.
We'll see, you know what type of opponent they do.
But you know, very rarely are their storybooks send off
in boxing. But if they can get her the right
fight and she wins and she truly does walk away,
I mean she's gonna be a first ballot Hall of
Famer without question. She is probably the most popular female
boxer in the history of women's boxing, beloved beyond belief
by her people, and has made a tremendous amount of
money and been in a lot of big time events.
I mean, she'll have always the great trilogy with Amanda Serrano,
first two fights in which were all time classics, the
two great fights against Cameron, for all kinds of other
top women as well. And I will say this from
my own personal experience, you just can't meet a more
lovely human being than Katie Taylor. There's not you know,
in boxing. I don't care who you are, you gonna
find somebody to say to end f somebody you could
go talk to a thousand people that are involved in
some fashion or some way in boxing, and no one
will say a bad word about Katie Taylor. So good
luck to her. She gets to close her her career
the right way.
Speaker 2: We'll keep an eye on win it happens, and who
the opponent is, etc.
Speaker 3: While we're here, let's follow up because on the recap podcast,
we were doing the recap podcast on Sunday night, but
the Claressa Shield's main event had not completed. So since
we're talking women's boxing, Shields did win over franchon Cruz
desern on Sunday night in Detroit, raucus crowd. They're at
the Little Caesars Arena, the Downtown Arena. Again, these are
almost foregone conclusions where she dominates, she wins the decision.
Give me a follow up thought or two on Shields
in victory since we haven't talked about it.
Speaker 1: Well, she's still the number one fighter in a female
boxing pound for pound without question. She also, by the way,
whether you're a mailboxer or a female boxer, she has
shown herself as legitimately one of the biggest draws in
American boxing. She puts eighteen thousand people thereabouts in the
Little Caesars Arena for a Sunday night women's boxing main
event and an undercard that while may have some appeal
to the local market, but didn't have any significant meaning
as far as title and this and that she's a
superstar at least where she's from. She drew a big
crowd and she's a superb fighter. And she was fighting
France on Cruise Desern. They fought each other in their
professional debuts. It was a tremendous battle, but Claressa won
all four rounds forty to thirty six and all three
score cards. But Franchion Cruise got a lot better since then,
she ended up becoming the undisputed super midleweight champion and
has accomplishment of her own. And so they did this
remash and they have been good friends and there was
a lot of chippiness in the promotion, but outside the
ring for years and years, Franchion and Claressa been pals
with each other, even though it might have become negative
during the promotion. And again, similar to the first fight,
they put on a really exciting, entertaining, crowd pleasing fight
and Clarissa won every single round. So they've now boxed
fourteen rounds against each other, the four round pro debut
and the ten round fight that was for Claressa's undisputed
heavyweight title, keeping in mind that the women when they're
doing heavyweight fights are boxing around one hundred and seventy
five pounds light heavyweights for boxers. And she won all
ten rounds on all three scorecards, so she is now
on all three cards of both fights. She's won all
fourteen rounds, so what's fourteen times three? She's won every
scored round between them, and that would two. Okay, I'm
not that good at math anyway, but it was a
for a ten round to zero fight, which was legitimately
a ten round zero fight. It was a heck of
a fight, a lot of excitement, a lot of back
and forth, a lot of good action. You know, Claressa
has always been more of a boxer, but you know,
I don't know what it is about franchise cruise, but
she brings out the more aggressive minded person that will
come forward and throw a lot more punches. And so
it turned out to be a fun fight and she
won easily. And now the question is who the hell
does she fight? Because she's cleaned the slate of those
opponents that she's been beating. She's done it in the
lower way classes and now the only there's two fights
out there that seem like could draw some interest as well.
She could fight Shadaisa Green, who's got one of the
titles at one sixty eight. That's one of the women
who has one of the belts at that division, but
also is known to be a pretty good puncher. Nothing
against Green, I just don't see her hanging with Claressa
for ten rounds, I you know, be another you know,
one sided scoring grade. And then the other fight, which
would be a big deal, is Claressa would drop down
to into somewhere into the one sixties and fight uh MICHAELA. Mayor,
her Olympic teammate and friend, who would come up. She
is now has a title at one hundred and fifty four pounds,
although she won her first title at one hundred and
thirty pounds.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean to me, that's a that's a commercial fight,
and that's a commercial fight. But that's a big stretch
for Mayor to be fighting at middleweight.
Speaker 1: But Mayor's going to be quick and Mayor's got good skills.
Speaker 3: And shields obviously is a huge draw, but that would
be a concern too that she's got to knock off
a lot of weight in that instance to get back
down around one sixties. She talked openly about how much
trouble she had making one sixty previously, so whatever that's worth.
Speaker 1: But those if you're looking for the so called quote
unquote big fight for Claressa, it's gonna be either Green
or Mayor just based on their accomplishments and their name value,
and of course Mikaela is a much bigger name than
Chadeza Green. They have the story of having been friends
and Olympic teammates. Both have won titles in multiple divisions.
You know, if you are making your pound for pound
women's top fighter list, I think Claressa of course would
be number one, but Mikaela is gonna be somewhere in
that top five. I mean, so from that point of view,
you know, I'd like to see that because I don't
I think that the speed. Maybe Mikayla can do something
and win some rounds just based on her technique and
her her boxing belt, and she's shown a great chint.
She's not afraid to get in there and mix it
up if she asked. So we've seen that in a
multitude of her fight. So go watch the Mai Vahama
Douche fight. Go watch even the last fight that she
had when she won the title at one hundred and
fifty four pounds. She'll stand and fight you if she
has to.
Speaker 3: All right, So now let's get to the middle eights
and okay, First of all, what's going on with janebec
Alim Canooley. When last we heard about him, he had
failed for PEDS a pre fight drug test for his
December sixth title fight with there Is Landy Laura Raphael.
I'm looking at my calendar. It's the end of February,
and the WBO in particular has finally gotten around to
making their ruling right, and also the Federation has gotten involved.
So give me, give me the details, and what are
we doing here with it taking almost ninety days a
better part of seventy five days.
Speaker 1: First of all, the timing is not really that big
of it. It's actually exactly what I sort of expected.
He was supposed to fight Laura in the unification to
put the three bouts together. Lara's the WBO title WBA
titlelder Jenebec has a WBO in the IDF, and so
they were supposed to have the unification fight. If you
remember this was in San Antonio. It was supposed to
be the co feature of the night that we saw
Pitt Bull Cruise fight against La mont Roach Junior. And
during the fight week from a test that he had,
a sample he had provided to in mid November had
come back as positive for the band substance meldonium, and
so the fight was canceled. He was dropped. Lar ended
up fighting a guy that had been on standby and
winning like a shutout decision. And so now they go
through the process. So the fact that the tuk seventy
some days or whatever it's been is not a shock
because he had I guess, like ten or twelve days
or something like that to decide to have the B
sample testa which he did. That then takes a couple
of weeks to do, and then they have to make
their case to the organizations and to the Kazakhstan Professional
Boxing Federation of which he is a member, given that
he is from Kazakhstan. And by all the time the
paperwork and all the nonsense gets done, it took a
little bit of time. And then if you read the
WBO is very meticulous in that way they put their
shit together. It's like about a fourteen or thirteen page
ruling that goes through point by point, and in the
end the WBO suspect, now, this is where I have
a problem, and I suspect that you're gonna have a
problem also. So with all due respect to my buddy
Gustavo Olveri, who was the president of the WBO, who generally,
in my opinion, has been doing a fine job since
taking over that position when Pacoval Carslo retired, I have
a big problem with him having a foul drug test
for that type of banned substance, whatever the circumstances, and
not being immediately stripped of the title. So what they
have done is they have suspended him for one year,
backdated to the day of the fight that was supposed
to happen, so backdated until December the sixth, for one year. Now,
they can't prevent him from fighting, no saying body can
prevent a fighter from fighting. But what they can do
is if he somehow broke their rules and went and
had to fight a renegade fight, somewhere they would certainly
strip him of the title. He doesn't want that to
happen because the commissions are the one that can prevent
you from boxing by not issuing a license. But nonetheless,
the BO suspended him for the year and in the
meantime they'll order the interim title fight, and then when
he is eligible to return, he'll have to fight whoever
wins that fight in the first bout back. No intervening fights,
no nonsense. He'll have to undergo en hands testing and
all kinds of stuff related to that. So that's what
the WBO did, but he gets to keep the WBO
Middleway title now causes.
Speaker 3: By the way, for the record, because you mentioned me,
I disagree with that he should be stripped, but continue right,
so you and I agree for once, No, we agree
a lot. I'm just saying he should be stripped. And
are we getting to the punchline about where are the
three letters IBF?
Speaker 1: Well has yes, yeah, we'll get to that. So now,
the Kazakhstan Federation, they're the ones that can actually prevent
from having a license if you were going to box
in Kazakstan. I guess this is where he did fight
in one of his defenses that took place in his
in more recent times. Uh, they only suspended him for
six months, So that's sort of like a toothless thing
because that the infraction would be backdated to December. We're
already here almost in March. Certainly he wouldn't be fighting
for another three months anyway, there's nothing set up. So
that's sort of nonsense. Now they claim if you go
look in what they wrote, apparently, and because I'm a
believer in strict liability, it's not relevant how the substance
is in your system. It's just that it's there. But
he had some type of illness or something like that
that he had to see a doctor and it was
I guess some type of emergency. He was given some
type of medication that apparently had meldonium in it, and
that's why it became.
Speaker 2: That's their story.
Speaker 1: But listen, listen. Meldonium is the kind of substance as
opposed to certain things that are in and out of
your system in seventy two hours, Meldonium can stay in
your system for eight or nine months. And so this
incident that happened, how was a long time ago relative
to that. And so when he tested much much later
for the Laura fight.
Speaker 2: Apparently it was well, I don't have to go down
the road for ten minutes. But that's their story.
Speaker 1: Ability that's the way I look at.
Speaker 3: Yes, and that's their story. And we also know because
we brought it up at the time. Meldonium has been
well known in the in the Russian athletics system and
all of their satellite countries, in et cetera, as a
performance enhancing drug that they have regularly given to all
kinds of athletes. And when he popped for that, the
eyebrows go up everywhere. And I don't care about the dollgate,
my homework round, drank tea or ain't bad beef and
all these other excuses that we hear.
Speaker 1: So that when this ruling came out from the WBO,
of which they sent it to me, and I also
looked and read the ruling, which was like the day after,
I guess, or the day before. On the you can
translate the Kazakhstan website very easily, so I was able
to read what they had to say. So I send
an email off to my people at the IBF to
ask them if they could tell me what's going on,
because the WBO had made their ruling and the Kazakhstan
Federation had made their ruling, and so I got a
very quick response and was basically, listen, we have and
I'm going to give you the quote from the spokesperson
from the IBF. We have received all of the pertinent
documents and the Board of Directors will review it and
deliberate shortly. So I expect the IBF's ruling or whatever
to be in the next few days or sometime next
week sometime.
Speaker 3: Do you believe they're going to go ahead and make
the move and strip him of the IBF version of.
Speaker 1: That's a good question, you know what. I'm not going
to handicap that because I just don't know, because I'm
always wanted to say the IBF does IBF things. I
would be support.
Speaker 3: We have another example of that coming up in a
moment of the IBF.
Speaker 1: I would hope that the IBF would strip him of
the title because I'm a strong believer. Again for the
thousand times since we've been doing this podcast, it's not
just related to the Janet X case. I'm a believer
in the strict liability. You know, you're the happen of
your ship. No matter what the circumstances, are you responsible
for what is in your body and if it's not
supposed to be the then you must pay the punishment.
The WBO did not see it like that. I'm not
I can't tell you for sure if the IBF Willer
will not. Certainly the causes stand. They gave him a
slap on the rest.
Speaker 2: What a mess.
Speaker 3: And these organizations again do whatever's in their best interests.
Here's another example of it. Keep him as the champ?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 1: I don't even think that's in the best interest because
he doesn't bring a lot of money or any kind
of press.
Speaker 3: What would be What would be the other reason why
they would let him continue to have the title unless
it's in their interest that he's a prominent fighter and
they want.
Speaker 1: Knowing the WBO in the way they operate, I think
they're afraid of a lawsuit of some type and they
don't want to get mixed up in litigation for any reason.
Just done in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All right, But what I mean, what did the rules say?
Speaker 1: I mean the rules they're allowed to do what they've done.
Speaker 3: They did not bring right, that's right, and so if
they want to strip him, it's their belt.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: Uh so wait a minute, but wait, that's not all
the WBC middleweight title fight that was canceled when or
at least postpone and when Carlos Adamas passed out before
the fight with Austin Amo Williams recently here, it's now back.
Speaker 2: On, yes, sir, and we're gonna get it fairly quickly.
Speaker 3: Can we have good things? We get a middleweight title
fight relatively soon.
Speaker 1: Well, that's your boy, Carlos Adamas. So he was having
trouble making the weight. He was supposed to fight Amma
Williams on the undercard on January thirty first at Madison
Square Guard on the card that was headlined by Shaquor
Stevenson against Tiathimo Lopez. And when he passed out, the
people that were involved with that show, Mattchroom Boxing and
others that were helping them out, went on on a
mad hunt for a reasonable replacement to fight Amma Williams,
just so we didn't have to waste it. Not for
the title, of course, but you know, the guy had
put in eight weeks of training camp and you know,
was supposed to get paid X number of dollars and
you know, you never like to see a guy get
screwed out of a fight like that if it's not
his fault. They actually did come up with Wendy Tusson,
who was a pretty credible opponent. Granted they had to
adjust the weight because it was on literally one day notice.
Wendy Tusson had been in the gym preparing for another fight,
but he was still, you know, several weeks away, so
they did the fight at a super middleweight limit. Ami
Willings went in there, kept his emoti. You know, if
you saw the video, there's a video where they have
it where you can watch the way that Eddie Hearn,
who is Amo's promoter, broke him the news that the
fight was off, and he was very emotional at the
time would have happened and Eddie actually, I was very
impressed by the way that Eddie handled it. You know, listen,
stay professional, keep your shit together. You're we're going to
get you another opponent. You're going to go in there
and you're gonna get ten more good rounds or every
many rounds. You need to continue to improve yourself and
we're going to get this fight for the title rescheduled
as quickly as possible and you know, Amo got a
shit together and he went in there and he won
a lopsided decision, and not the greatest fight or greatest performance,
but he did what he had to do under very
very severe circumstances. And to Eddie Hearn's credit, I know
he gets dumped on a lot, but they did a
heck of a job. Thomas is okay to go now,
and they've rescheduled. They worked with their partners at his
own they WI hold on. They will have this fight
headlining in Orlando, Florida at the carib Riale Resort, will
be on March twenty first, And so from January thirty
first to Mark thirty, March twenty first, not that long
of a wait for both guys to get their fight,
because a domas I put in the training camp also.
Speaker 3: Now, not only is it less than sixty days later,
but I do remember this because I pay attention to you.
Speaker 2: I read the substack. We talked about it. At the time.
Speaker 3: He was apparently as much as one hundred and eighty
pounds like a week and a half to two weeks
before trying to make the weight the week of that fight.
Speaker 2: So isn't that a real concern? Again? Here or maybe
he's better. We don't know.
Speaker 3: We're speculating, but that was drastic to hear you report
that that he was that much overweight that close to
the fight and the trouble of the weight cut.
Speaker 2: We may not be out of the woods on that
for lean.
Speaker 1: You always look, everybody always holds their breadth of far away.
And I mean I've talked to like, you know, various matchmakers, true,
and there's one very prominent matchmaker that I've known for
twenty some years who always will tell you that their
fight's the weigh Like, once the weighne's over, they're good,
They're they're ready to you know, you know, go have
a drink basically because once the wayne is over, that
that's out of their hands. So you're just never gonna know.
But you have to assume that if the Damas knew
the kind of troubles he was having, uh and what
happened to him prior to January thirty. First that hopefully
they're they're doing their weight cut, you know, more more quickly.
Speaker 3: Or he's taking their training, he's taking his training much
more seriously to be able, apparently taking it in late
December and January.
Speaker 1: I mean the WBC is supposed to have like their
thirty day waight checks and their fifteen day waight checks
or whatever they do. They can't force the guy to
be on the way, but you can certainly monitor the fighter.
I would hope that given the fact that he is
a WBC middleway champion and he missed a weight and
or didn't miss the weight but couldn't even get to
the way in because of what happened, that that maybe
the WBC will pay a little bit closer attention on
this particular one. And at the end of the day,
hopefully a Damas is a professional, he gets down to
defend his world championship. Uh Amma, Williams is not going
to have that kind of problem. Obviously. He just fought
and uh you know, should be ready to go. And
the good thing is that the fight was rescheduled as
quickly as it was. Yep, they'll have the fight.
Speaker 2: Uh good on Eddie Hern and Matchroom Boxing from.
Speaker 1: Me also, I mean, yeah, he was going to be
in a big card with you know, with Shakor and Tiafima.
That was obviously a very high profile event. But in
Eddie and making the announcement says you know what, there's
also the super lining that we will get to be
the main event of this card, so that's cool. And
they've added two of their you know, the two other
fighters they announced will be on the show. Two other
you know of the prominent up and comers in the
Mattroums stable Omari Jones, who is the Jernim middleweight, who
is the twenty three year old kid that won the
twenty twenty four Olympic bronze medalist. He's the only American
that won a medal in boxing at the most recent Olympics.
He's from Orlando. He's a super prospect. I think he's
going to be a world champion. So he's going to
move into his first eight rounder, no opponent yet. And
then the Australian heavyweight who was also in the Olympics,
Taramona Tarmona, who is nine and zer with nine knockouts.
He will also have an opponent to be determined and
an eight rounder. So he's an exciting puncher and has
you know, probably will be involved in some contender type
fights down the road in the heavyweight division. And then
I'm sure the rest of the card as we go
on kit closer to the date.
Speaker 3: The only thing I'm disappointed by with all of my
college basketball mayhem in the end, see a tournament going
on that weekend. Even though Orlando's about seventy miles from
where I sit here in the northern suburbs of Tampa.
I can't get over there to be part of that, unfortunately.
But we'll see what happens with a Damis and his
fairly quick return.
Speaker 2: Kudos again that we'll get that fight coming up.
Speaker 3: One more note, did you say IBF doing IBF things?
Speaker 1: Oh boy, Rayfield?
Speaker 3: All right, now we're about we're about fifty to fifty
five minutes into the podcast, and this is about the
fourth What are we doing here?
Speaker 1: Richardson Hitchens speaking renamed the podcast what what are.
Speaker 2: We doing here?
Speaker 3: Richardson Hitchens Remember, could not have the fight with Oscar
Duarte because he became ill after the secondary way in
and Duarte missed out on a title opportunity, and now
he may miss completely out on the title opportunity.
Speaker 2: Filling the blanks.
Speaker 1: So, like you said, Richardson Hitchens was supposed to defend
the ib of Junior Walterway title. It was the co
feature on the pay per view where the main event
last week was Ryan Garcia challenging Mario Barros for the
WC welterweight title, and as we discussed, he made the
weight with not a lot of problems. He made the
second day weight check or the IBF requires on Saturday morning,
again was under the limit, no problem, you know, seemed
everything was good. He and his team went to have
breakfast after that, which is normal. He had breakfast like
a normal person, and then like an hour or so later,
he started throwing up and was vomiting multiple times, you know,
in the hours before he was supposed to go to
the arena for the fight. So obviously he couldn't fight,
so the fight got canceled. I mean, I know a
lot of people want to say it was he didn't
make the weight, and that's just a lie. He made
weight literally twice. It was under the weight both times,
so I'm not sure what the issue was. I mean,
he had a ten pound cushion on Saturday morning and
he was still within the limit. He was zero point
two pounds and near.
Speaker 3: In mind, the important point that we covered off the
podcast last week, if you did not hear it, seven
figure payday that he doesn't get for not fighting Saturday night.
Speaker 1: So there was a sums that were not correct made
by some people that okay, they would just reschedule the
Duarte fight at a later date, kind of like they
were able to do with the Damis against M. L. Williams,
although you know, different organizations and all that. But any event,
when they allowed the IBF Hitchens to take the fight
against d'Arte, they gave him an exception to the mandatory.
The mandatory is lindaalfhol Delgado, who was an undefeated Mexican
Olympian with top rank who fought in December on that
card they did with with was Xantra Promotions. Richard Torres
was on that card, Emeliano Vargus was on that card.
All that. It was one of those fights they did
on their on their top rank classics fact from Mexico.
So Delgado was, you know, got his interim fight while
he was waiting for the title fight. But part of
the resolution that the IBF issued when they allowed the
when they allowed the exception, was okay, Richardson Hitchins, Okay,
Oscar d'Arte were allowing this fight to happen. And here
is one of the stipulations of us allowing the fight
to happen no matter what the situation. If this fight
does not happen for any reason, it cannot be rescheduled.
And that means that Hitchins his next fight has to
be the mandatory. That was the that was the whole
part of where why will allow the exception, But this
is the other, This is the shoe other shoe dropping.
You got to have the mandatory afterwards. So the worst
case scenario unfolded, the fight got canceled, there's no no
wiggle room to reschedule it. His next fight has to
be the mandatory. So they ordered him to fight Lendelfhel Delgado.
They gave them the thirty days or whatever to make
the deal, and if it doesn't get done, they'll they'll
schedule the purse bid and they'll fight the fight between
Hitchins and Delgado. Now, the winner of that fight certainly
would have the opportunity to go and pursue a Duarte fight. Now,
it'd be a little tricky if it was Landolfoldgado that
becomes the champion, because they're both trained by Robert Garcia.
I don't see that. But if Richardson Hitchins defeats Landafol Delgado,
and retains the title and elects not to move up
to Alterwight at that point then and he could perhaps
they can remake the Duarte fight. So you gotta feel
terrible for d'Arte because he didn't do anything wrong. He
made the weight, he came in shape, he was ready
to fight. He was not the one that was not
able to get there, and now he doesn't even get
the chance to reschedule. So you feel terrible for him.
But it's one of those things where it's not anybody's fault.
It's just if the IBF doesn't honor its resolution, Delgado's
people will sue them anyway, and that they're going to
lose that because the resolution is basic fucking English. So
it's just unfortunate. But it's uh, one of those things terrible, Okay,
So this actually, I will say this though, this actually
is not one of those situations where it's the IVF
doing IBF things. They're actually literally following the letter of
what they wrote and why they allowed the exception in
the first place. It's just that the worst case scenario happened.
So as I posted a couple of days ago when
this resolution, when the order of the Mandatory was made.
I said, you may not like the facts, but that's
what they are. They may be unpopular facts, but they
really can't blame you.
Speaker 2: Don't get your alternative facts. We keep telling all that.
Speaker 1: He can't blame the IBF in this particular situation.
Speaker 3: As all saying, with all of that done, are we
ready to get into this weekend?
Speaker 2: And he Manuel Navorate and Sugar.
Speaker 1: Nan, I can't wait. Listen, I can't wait for that fight.
I think we are.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 3: Re Dan Substack for more on it. Also be with
us on the recap pod. By the way, there's another
reason to be with us on the recap pod. You
want to spill the tea here while.
Speaker 1: We have it, we will have we'll have on Sunday
night show. We will have my interview with the the
Cruiserweight world champion ji Opataia, who I thought was tremendous.
He was very, you know, very verbose. He had a
lot to say.
Speaker 2: You had not interviewed him before? Am I correct?
Speaker 1: Interview?
Speaker 2: Not a podcast for him? Now?
Speaker 1: No? No, I had not interviewed him all. My interaction
with Jiobatia was strictly the two of us having some
back and forth direct messages on our Twitter accounts just
about different things, but I had never actually had an
actual interview with him, so it was good to chat
with him about I don't know about fifteen sixteen minutes
worth of interview. Talked about things about his decisions to
join ZUFA Boxing, about the situation with the titles, because
there's been a lot of speculation about is the IDF
titleist stay because we all know there are positions about
the organizations. Talked about his opponent, Brandon Glanton, talked about
his aspirations of unifying in the future, about potentially at
some point going up to the heavyweight division. We talked
about a lot of shit.
Speaker 3: You'll get that coming up on Sunday, including the recap
of Navorate Nunez.
Speaker 2: Big Dan have a good weekend.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: That's a full podcast.
Speaker 3: We thank you for finding us on Apple, Spreaker, Spotify,
Dan Substack. However you found us social media, link, follow
and subscribe you won't be disappointed. Also find the Big
Fight Weekend YouTube page. See the moving pictures including the
nostalgia on the YouTube page Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.
For now, we are good on the Big Fight Weekend
Preview podcast