Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ leaves.
Speaker 2: Ah, Yes, indeed, welcome in. We are ready to go
with Connamo condem It is Canelo Weekend in Las Vegas,
Canelo and Edgar Berlanga. It is the Big Fight Weekend
preview pod. I'm the somewhat competent host.
Speaker 1: TJ. Reeves. You know who you want to hear from?
Speaker 2: This guy, Dan Rayfiel, our insider Fight Freaks Unit is
his substack Bigfight Weekend dot Com.
Speaker 1: He is there.
Speaker 2: He is on scene in Vegas as Thursday afternoon turns
to Thursday night and it won't be long to Saturday.
Good to be back with you. You have arrived, You've
been around all of this. The final press conference. We're
gettingnapped up for Canelo and Berlango. Welcome listen.
Speaker 3: I flew out here on Wednesday, like I typically do
for these fights, and you know what I actually said,
some good energy on Wednesday. You know, sometimes it's not
that hyped on Wednesday for the really big fights, say
really big fights, maybe even a little earlier in the week.
But you know that I know most people have dumped
on this fight. And I kind of get it, but
and I understand that it's because of heel was not
fighting David Benavidez for example, even at David Morrel for example.
But if you accept the fact that both those fighters
have moved up to one hundred and twenty five pounds,
that from a injury and a health perspective, Benavidez wasn't
available for this moment anyway, based on what occurred in
his previous fight. Edgar Berlanga, to me, in the super
middleweight division is the next best available guy he could fight,
because I thought this was more interesting than had he fought, say,
the other guy that was being discussed prior to the
deal being made, which was Chris hu Bang Junior. So
I'm not hating on this fight. I mean, is it
the biggest Canelo fight ever? And I mean we'd be
less than honest we keep it real here that no,
the answer is no, it's not. But having been around
the guys, hearing them all through this promotion, having covered
in lots of Canelo fights and Berlin, I think this
is forever long. This thing goes, Berlin is gonna go
down swinging. If he goes down, it's gonna be a
fun fight, I believe for as long as it goes.
Speaker 2: I'm intrigued and we're going to talk about this throughout
our conversation about the fight and more. Let me set
the table a little better here. Thank you for finding us.
It's the preview pod going into the weekend. We're on
the podcast feed twice a weekend previewing going in on
Thursday night into Friday, recapping coming off the weekend Sunday
night into Monday. Make sure you follow, subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify,
Love Love the five star reviews. They help us out
rate us and review us. You're gonna hear from Canelo
Alvarez in a few moments. You were around him post
press conference getting some extra questions in with the rest
of the media in the media scrum.
Speaker 4: There.
Speaker 2: You'll hear from him in a couple of moments. Just
set the scene further though. I realize as we do
this Thursday evening into Friday, it's not as amped as
Friday the way in Friday night and Saturday. But set
the scene a little bit for us here for a
typical As you said, there seems to be a little
sizzle here on the Mexican independence Day weekend in Vegas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think that's part of it, is
the holiday. A lot of the Mexican fans have turned out, obviously,
that's the city is kind of consumed by combat sports
this weekend because besides this event at the Team Obile
Arena Saturday, MGM is the host, and so there's lots
of people around. But they also, of course, you know
what a mile and a half two miles away from
here a further downtown is the Sphere, which is hosting
a major UFC Hay perview event also on Saturday night.
So you know, it's a lot of CoNb in the air,
if you will. And I know there are some media
members that are kind of shuttling back and forth between
doing certain coverage things where they to both events. So
there's that aspect of it. But look, Canelo fights on
this weekend, whether you know he's fighting Edgar Berlanga, or
he's fighting a mega fight, or he's fighting this guy
or that guy. All I know is that the best
attraction in boxing, the most popular fighter in the sport,
the biggest star in the sport, the guy who's been
down here at We're near the top for the better
part of you know what, twelve, thirteen, fourteen years, whatever
it's been. He's an action and you know it's not
gonna last forever. So I'm gonna I enjoy it, you know,
I'm gonna I'm gonna take it in like I always do.
I know, these things, they have a life that doesn't
go forever. You know. I felt that way when you're
sort of coming near the end of the Mayweather time,
or when Manny was fighting, or when Oscar was fighting,
or when Tyson was fighting. And I've had a you know,
the privilege to cover all those guys, and I kind
of feel the same way about Canelo. And now he's
not old, he's starty four, He's got a lot of
mileage on those treads. And even though he's been still
been winning and he's you know, look pretty good. It's
you know, been a while since he's had a knockout
number one, it's been a while since he's fought a
truly top, top level opponent. But that all said, I'm
gonna enjoy the ride as long as it goes because
I know, when Canelo is in the ring, we have
an hour sport, you know, some super Bowl caliber event,
you know, at least a couple of times a year.
And that's not to take away from other big events,
whether you're talking about and Usick in a theory or
some other big show. But there's something to be said
for consistency. I know basically here, I'm coming to Vegas
for a huge fight.
Speaker 2: Sure, sure, and uh and again this has been going
on with the glovekin fights that you were ringside for
over and over and over again that he has had.
Speaker 1: I believe all three of those.
Speaker 5: I don't.
Speaker 2: The third one might not have been, but the first
two were in September on Independence Day weekend, and so
they've become events, and we can't convey enough. You are there,
the proximity obviously to Mexico, southern California, the Mexican population.
It's not everything, but it's.
Speaker 3: A big, big, big triple the Triple G. Third fight
was also on September number seventeenth, same thing. All three
run on the same weekend, and all three took place
at the T Mobile.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you do have a lineage of him fighting
there and a big name.
Speaker 1: All right, So I agree with you.
Speaker 2: We could do a lot worse put it this way
than an unbeaten rising Puerto Rican that can punch. There's
some questions about whether he can get Canelo's attention with
the punch. We're gonna find out. I'm intrigued. They're not
paying us to say this. I'm intrigued though, by what
this might look like, especially early on in the fight here,
Dan r.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what I think. I think this is
a better fight than the Charlotte fight, who I didn't
give a prayer to that fight. Now, I'm not gonna
hear and tell you I'm gonna pick Edgar Berlanga to win, right,
But I know one thing about Edgar Berlanga. He's not
gonna He's not gonna come into the ring and just
lay down for a paycheck and just run for twelve
rounds and not engage. That's just not in his nature.
But the way that Charlotte did, who just basically came
happy to be there, take my check and go home
and not give a damn and not give an effort,
I don't believe that will be the case with Edgar Berlanca.
That all said, you know, people can they've I've seen
people mocking the fact that Edgar, you know, he's not
a true Puerto Rican because he's not born on the island. Well,
he's Puerto Rican. His parents are from there, and he's
you know, he grew up in the in the Puerto
Rican areas in Brooklyn and he you know, Puerto Rican
is it's important to him that heritage and so you
know what he is Puerto Rican. I mean, it is
what it is. I mean, so this is this is
a fight that fault into that rivalry type of situation
that's meaningful to these two guys. Obviously, one thing, and
I haven't heard this from Canelo in a while. He's
predicting a knockout, which he hasn't really done. He says
he's going to get him. You know, I guess it
was the eighth round or you know, less it's been.
Berlanga also saying he's going to get a knockout. He's saying,
you know that he's gonna score the knockout too. I mean,
obviously both guys, you know, are are feeling I guess,
you know, like they're gonna they're gonna do some damage.
They're gonna they're gonna not be able to are They're
going to be able to find a way to land
the shots. You know, I mean, Canelo hasn't had a
knockout since twenty twenty one, so it's been a bit.
And and Berlanga went on that stretch where he had
the sixteen first round k was the starter career. Then
he went five fights in a row where he scored
decision wins, even though in some of those fights, you know,
damn Nicholson he dropped for could have got a stoppage
win eight. Jason Quigley a couple of fights ago, stored
four knockouts again him. I thought that fight should have
been stopped. He ended up going the distance. He did
get the knockout street going again when he scored the
knockout in the earlier fight he had this year when
he when he had that, that was the kind of
eliminator against Padrake McCrory.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: So they're both feeling like they wanted they want to
do some damage. I mean, you know, Halver is the
saying eight rounds or less, berlang is saying six rounds.
You know, I don't I don't necessarily think those are
you know, I'm not sure. I think it's probably more hype,
you know what I mean. And one thing about Canelo,
I mean all due respect to Berlink, I know it's
got excellent punching power. You know, I've watched hundreds of
rounds of Canelo Alvarez fights. Probably i've seen him hurt
one time. That was like way back when he first
came on the scene in the United States. It was
his first It had been a couple of fights here,
but it was his first appearance on an HBO pay
per view under cart he was fighting Miguel Coto's older brother,
Jose Miguel Coto, and he was a big hyped up prospect.
The Golden Boy has signed and getting a tremendous amount
of attention, and it's kind of a lot of people's
first chance to really get a close up look at
the guy. In the first round, you know, his legs
are like jelly and almost gets knocked out to survive
like the last minute or so of the round. And
I still remember, like looking around, we were all kind
of like looking at each other, the other media guys
like that's the hype and I and I say, since then,
I've never seen them so much as wobble. This guy's
been thirty six rounds with Triple G. Is one of
the greatest punchers of boxing history, and he's been you know,
in the ring with plenty of other guys that are
known for a big punching power, Alfredo Wing Gulo and
James Kirkland and you know, bigger fighters like Sergey Kovalev.
Speaker 2: I mean, even it's gonna get something earlier this year,
big knockout guy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, something. It's gonna take something very, very impressive to
really dent that chin. But Berlang has you know, he's
shown power and we'll see, uh all right, you know
who knows.
Speaker 2: We'll find out more obviously as this thing unfolds and
gets under way Saturday. But before it does that, Canelo
and Berlanga met with the media and Dan then after
the press conference portion up on the platform upon the
DAIS was around Canelo Alvarez and got a couple of
questions in let's listen to this from midweek here from
Canelo getting ready to defend again against Edgar Berlanga.
Speaker 4: This time, I have a legendary fight, no Quoto Orlopkin,
but they bring me something to the table, So they
bring me legacy to the table. So I mean, I'm
talking about that now, and I know you guys always
want to put if I beat Benaville's you want to
put other fighter there? And like I said, if the
money is right in that in that special fight, I
mean because you know, he don't bring me legacy, He
don't bring me anything. So if the money is right,
I mean, you know what points?
Speaker 2: What points do you think you bring your legacy outside
the blanga?
Speaker 3: What other fights bring you legacy?
Speaker 4: I don't know right now. There not much people left.
I fought everybody already, So is.
Speaker 3: There one eye that comes to mind? Is there one person? No?
Speaker 1: Just the rematch.
Speaker 4: B Ball is one of the guys. Uh, I have
my rematch now to to Like I said, if he
wins the one seventy five.
Speaker 3: Un dispute it, do you think it does? I think so?
Speaker 4: He has the ability to do it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: But the Beer is really strong fighter, so it's gonna
be hard, but he can do it.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: If you say there's nobody like of the big names
left to fight, good to see it. By the way,
what is your motivation? Is it money? Is it just
you enjoy it? Is it something else?
Speaker 4: I enjoy it? I enjoy I like my routine, being
in training time. I enjoy all of these. Yeah, put
more money in my in my account obviously too. But yeah,
I already did everything.
Speaker 3: Do you see the end cooming?
Speaker 4: No, I go five by five and I feel in
my bed right now. I like I say this Canelo
bits Canello twenty twenty six, twenty seven.
Speaker 3: So even fells at your age, with all of the fights,
over sixty fights, physically speaking and mentally, you still feel
like as fresh as you did back in the day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel great.
Speaker 3: What do you what do you attribute that to?
Speaker 4: I don't know my mental my training, come, I take
it myself, my body, and and I have more experience
than I'm doing better every every single time.
Speaker 2: Or like you know, you don't know what's gonna happen,
like you did with the Glofkin fight as you do
heading into this fight.
Speaker 4: No, you know it's boxing. But I always confident on myself.
I always confident on my skills, my experience, even in
development fight. I always confident in everything and every move I.
Speaker 3: Did.
Speaker 4: I always I always confident.
Speaker 3: When you go through all those fights, all these times,
these big fights, what's your favorite part of the whole
experience of the fight, way through the.
Speaker 4: Fight, everything, the feeling of having these kind of fights,
of the feeling of being from the feeling when I
walk into the ring in the fine night, that feeling
needs amazing.
Speaker 2: All right, you were right there for all of this,
and I like what you said just before we played
those comments. He doesn't usually come out and say I'm
looking at knockout here. I'm looking at knockout before the
eighth round or by the eighth round. That's interesting. That's
my take. Your take being closer.
Speaker 3: My take is that he went to distance with Mangia
in May. I believe very strongly. And he said it
to some people in not so many words, but it
was clear. Whether he's telling the truth or not, I
don't know, but I believe it because I saw it
with my own eyes him hold the Mongia up in
the eleventh round when he clipped him with a big punch.
I believe he carried Mongi in that fight because he
liked Mangia. He didn't want and he never wanted to
fight in Mexican. He said that many times, but he
did it. But he didn't want to embarrass Mangia, especially
because he liked him in front of the Mexican crowd.
So he went in there and as soon as he
had him under control. You know, he let him survive. Basically,
he's not feeling that way against Berlanga. Not that he's
got any animosity so much towards Berlanga. They've shown respect
to each other. But if you can get a knock
out against a Puerto Rican fighter, trust me, he's gonna
get a knock out if he can against a perto
Rican fighter. So I don't believe there's gonna be any
holding up of and Edgar burlingave he's hurt. So that
that was you know, I got that feeling. But you know,
Canelo has been down this, He's been he's been down Uh,
these types of promotions a million times. Uh. Confident as always. Uh,
you know, Berlanga seemed a little pretty confident also. I
mean he's got some swagger to him. He's he's been chirping.
You know. Listen, once you get into the media center
and you see the guys up close and you see
them go face, you can't help it get excited a
little bit. I mean maybe it's you know, you're in
the proximity, so you look forward a little bit more
to the fight than maybe you did before you got
that chance to be up close. But uh. You know
Canelo uh com is always in uh and always good
to talk to.
Speaker 2: All right, so we're excited to see that one. Let's
go over the rest of the car the co feature
fight eras Landy Laura and Danny gard for Laura's WBA
middleweight title. Again, you were around these guys. You've already
interviewed Danny Garcia previously here on the podcast feed. You've
been around these guys for the build up here of
the fight. Are you warming up to this a little bit?
I know you were rolling your eyes. You're out there
now not really not really warming up to it. No.
Speaker 3: I mean, as I said to you when we first
discuss this, it's not that I hate the fight. I'm okay.
The fight's fine, no problem. Two good names, two guys
have been you know, quality fighters for a long time
at the championship WELA for quite a while, you know,
or veterans. You got to respect them for their accomplishments.
My quarrel with the fight is that it's for the
middleweight belt. That to me is pathetic and it's not
a knock on Danny Garcia, and I understand where he's
coming from. As he said when I spoke to him.
You know, it's it's a chance for him to create
an element of history for himself by becoming a three
division world champion. You know, I don't, I don't. I
don't knock his desire to do that. I'm not upset
that he took the opportunity to when offered to him.
Same thing with Laura. They're both making good paydays. But
my quarrels with the WBA, which I've had a lot
of quarrels with for a long time, that they allowed
this fight to happen now because Danny Garcia and he
made his case about you know, I've been working hard
and I've got the you know, the accomplishments I've had,
and you know, I've seen other fighters skip a line,
so to speak, and go division and fight for a
title when they've never fought there before. He mentioned Terrence
Crawford in particular, who had done the same from walterweight
to dream miid away. I think it's a little different
because he was the reigning undisputed champion and considered pound
for pound by many people, but put that decide, so
it's really about the belt. But as a matchup, I mean, look,
La Lara has been was an excellent junior middleweight champ
for a long time. Now he's been fighting for his
last few fights in the middleweight division. My problem though, is,
even though Garcia is a good name, obviously, it doesn't
have any experience in the weight classes, A much smaller fighter,
the fighters that he has previously faced in the middleweight
division when he won the belt and his defense is
Lara has faced some of the worst opposition in the
entire sport of boxing in terms of title defenses. Absolutely. Now,
I get the factors, you're not ever everybody's King Kong.
I even get the fact that the middleweight division as
a whole generally sucks right now, but there's no excuse
for him to have fought There's an absolute direk that
he has fought in his title defenses. Danny Garcia actually
probably would beat some of those guys, even though he's
a smaller guy, because he's a very skilled fighter.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And in terms of Garcia, I've always liked Danny. He's
always been a guy that gave his best effort. I've
always viewed Danny as a guy that that got more
out of what that Uh. He was a guy that
got absolutely the most that he possibly could out of
his ability. I never viewed him as like the if,
to put it into parlance, like if you're a baseball scout.
He never would wow the scouts with like individuals, but
he could play the game right right, you know what
I mean, Like you can may a great five tool
show that you can hit for power and field and
and and run and all the different things, but you
might not be able to put it all together. And
then there's some guys who's not gonna who's not gonna
blow the doors off when they're running the forty yard
dash or they're you know, they're they're taking badding practice
or things that. But you look at him, and they
watched them go out and do their job, and they
can fucking play baseball.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: Danny Garcy is not going to wow any boxing scout.
But Danny Garcia, you can fight, and so you always
have to respect that. Now, Kenny handle one hundred and
sixty pounds, He's coming off the two year layoff. He's
never really had but one fight above one hundred and
forty seven pounds, and it wasn't really that good of
a performance against Jose Denavidez junior, who was not exactly
a superstar contender. You know, I do have my questions
about that. And even though Lara is into his forties now,
he's forty one years old, and even though he's been
fighting terrible opposition, he's been knocking them out. You know,
as we talk about, you know, if you're going to
be facing lesser opposition, at least do what you're supposed
to do. And that's Joven guy. And so Lara has
been doing that. And Lara is a very skilled fighter,
a very talented guy, you know, great amateur fighter, been,
like I said, a top professional for a long time.
And so that's that matchup.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: If Danny can win the fight, it is a big
deal for him because he will get that third belt.
And when I was writing my story about him and
had did the interview with him recently and I was
looking over as record, I mean, he really does have
a superb resume in terms of his accomplishments at junorman welterweight.
Slightly less so as a welterweight where he had his
ups and downs, but you know, as he said, even
in the fight he lost against Keith Thurman, for example,
he was really proud of that effort because it was
a really close fight. Keith was undefeated, he was jumping
in against one of the top guys, and you know,
and and some and sometimes you know, maybe he would
have got the decision that night. Now, that was a
hell of a fight. So you know, I'll respect the Garcia,
I respect Laura, I just I'm just disappointed of the
selection of the opposition that has been facing. And keep
in mind, it's not Laura that's making the pick, it's
his people that make the pick.
Speaker 2: But still though, I mean the whole the Shenanigans of
the WBA and who they let him fight to keep
the title, and Premiere Boxing Champions put him in there
with better people. TGB Promotions put him in there with
better people. At least this is a name, But I
totally agree with the argument. The guy's primarily been a
welterweight and has been off for a couple of years.
Now moving up to one sixty, what will that look like?
In the co feature you and I will actually handicap
not only the Canelo Berlanga fight, but also this Garcia
Lara fight on our bet Us show Friday at one
Eastern time. Dan from Vegas one Eastern ten Pacific live
on the bet US platforms will give you a little
more handicapping all right, round out the card, because I
would I would sum it up this way. We have
a we have several former champions who are in action,
and I think most people look at the competition and go,
who are the guys that they are fighting? Caleb Plant,
Roly Romero, Stephen Fulton, all former champions and and again
we're wondering about the opposition. You would know better than most.
All right, what about the rest of the undercard.
Speaker 3: Well, the next fight below, the next fight down the
card after the mine before we see the fight between
Laura and Varci, is the return of Caleb Plant and
he is to be fighting. He'll be fighting for or
He'll be fighting an undefeated fighter named Trevor McCombe. They
will be fighting for a title, if you want to
call it that. I mean, we're going to get back
to my nonsense with the WBA. They will be fighting
for the WBA Interim Superin Away title, which is driving
me crazy because they're not supposed to be doing intern
titles anymore. But the WBA does WBA things, as we say,
So for Plant, this is a chance to try to
shake off the loss that he had in March of
twenty twenty three. So he's coming off more than a
year layoff against you know, he lost that fight against
David Benavidez, which is the hello fight really took.
Speaker 2: He took a lot of punishment in that day. There's
some questions.
Speaker 3: So he is he is returning from that fight after
a long layoff. He's fighting mccomby. And this is the
wild thing about McCombe. McCombe is a fighter who is
twenty eight and oher with twenty one knockdowns, who has
been around I feel like for every term pro in
twenty ten, and I remember back around that time frame
he was managed for a long time by Cameron Nuncan,
the longtime manager who passed away not that long ago.
And Cameron and I would talk a lot and he
would always give me updates on his young fighters. He
was very big into the amateur scene and always would
sign you know, good amateur fighters by guys that were
sort of diamonds in the row, for guys that didn't
cost a ton of money, that weren't the Olympic medal
winners anyway. He had McCombe, and he's coming along and
he just sort of disappeared. He had some troubles at
the outside the ring, the NFL drug test. But the
bottom line is, in a career that began in twenty
ten and here right now in twenty twenty four, a
long career, he has never fought anybody of consequence. So
he's got a beautiful looking record, and he looks at
he's in excellent condition, and he's taken on kayleb planet,
and to me, it is such an unknown quantity of
how he's going to perform against a bigger name, a
top level guy, And you know, you still have to
call him the question with Plant because he has had
a long layoff he had. You know, he did take
some some punishment in that fight with Bena. Viteci obviously
got you know, a couple of years earlier to get
a big knockout loss against Canelo, which incidentally is the
last time Canelo scored a knockout in that twenty twenty
one fight. So in terms of that fight, I mean,
don't I don't know if I can be super excited
against a guy who's finally stepping up after a fourteen
year career. I have to believe there's a reason why
he hadn't before. So that's that fight, and then you
mentioned the other fights. You know, Roley Romero is also
coming off of a pretty rough loss. He got knocked
out in a you know, a terrible performance in my opinion. Uh,
you know, I've never really thought much of his game
to begin with. But Isaac who took him to school
and beat the ship out of him back in in
March of this year. So he's coming back, you know,
good for him. He's fighting a fighter named Manuel Jaimes
who is not particularly well known, not particularly accomplished. I'm
not knocking him. I just am not that familiar with him.
He has no real particular big wins of consequence on
his record at all. Uh, you know, we'll see. I
mean I think that roll these fights be quite are
boring for the most part. You know, people talk about
how great Raley. They like him because he talks shit
and he makes a lot of noise outside the rank,
but when the bell rings, he gives you very little.
He doesn't throw a lot of punches, he doesn't make
exciting fights. You know, he's pretty one dimensional.
Speaker 2: Recent past, he fought poorly against Boroso and was given
a gift stoppage right and then and then Gervonte Davis
you love my words, eradicated him with one inch in
a main event fight. I agree with you that there
hasn't been a lot of substance to rolling Romero besides
the hype and the great talking in the press conferences.
Speaker 3: Now Rowley to me is way more sizzle than stake
always has been. Now that those are the pay per
review fights, there are also three bouts on Prime Video
for free prior to the pay per view Stephen Fulton
will fight in the final bout of that. Like he's
the quote unquote main event of the preliminaries, if that
even makes sense. And Fulton is a really good fighter.
And Fulton, though unfortunately he's been caught up in lack
of PBC dates and you know that shit goes. So
he's been out of the ring now for fourteen months.
He has not fought since he got stopped when he
went to Japan to defend. At the time, he had
the two of the titles of WBO and the WBC
titles at one hundred and twenty two pounds and Noya
in a way knocked him out to win those belts.
He got dominated stopped in the eighth round and in
a way of course, went on to beat to Polis
to unify the way class and then move up and
wait or rather to continue to defending the title rather
and so Fulton has changed training teams. He's been a
little vocal about being off as long as he had.
He wanted to come back earlier. It's not like he
was looking to take this crazy long layoff. So he's back.
He's moving up to the featherweight division that's obviously significant,
and he's taken on a fighter and then Carlos Cashro,
who's got a great record at thirty and two and
has fought some pretty solid guys, even if not big names.
His one probably claim to fame it people know who
he is are the two fights he had against the
known commodities. He lost a split decision against Luis Neary
in twenty twenty two. He got stopped by Brandon Figueroa
in also later in twenty twenty two, and those are
obviously two guys who are among the better fighters you know.
Between one twenty two and one twenty six. To fight
with near he was one hundred and twenty two pounds.
The FIGUREA was at one hundred and twenty six pounds,
and he's won. He's won three fights since then, and
now he's taken on Fulton, So this seems like, actually
on paper, like a pretty decent fight. There's a lot
of questions about what Fulton's got at the new weight class,
with a new trainer, coming off a loss, coming off
a layoff, but Fulton's a classy fighter, a good boxer,
and you know, I hope he can find his way back.
Cashow was able to overcome those losses against the better
names and cash in against a good name like Fulton
than good for ends. So that's a free fight for
what that's worth than the other fights we talked about,
those of the pay perview fights.
Speaker 2: All right, speaking of pay per view, excellent segue right there.
As we get ready for Saturday night and what's gonna
happen with Canelo and Berlanga, let's find out more from
our sponsor, our friends at PPV dot com about this
Mexican Independence Day weekend main event for Canelo and much more.
Right now, again, we keep emphasizing that as we approach Canelo,
Berlanga and this entire card We want you to utilize
our friends at PPV dot com and Mark Polcardi is
right back with us here from PPV dot Com to
tell us more about why they want to utilibilize their
their outstanding product with the live chat et cetera. Good
to have you back aboard. I know as we're doing
this you're in Vegas.
Speaker 1: Full disclosure. You to make sure Rayfhael.
Speaker 2: Was behaving at dinner midweek or was Rayfield trying to
make sure that PPV dot Com was behaving. I don't
think that's the case, but I'm glad everybody survived and
now we're.
Speaker 5: Headed towards Saturday night and the fight's. Good to have
you back, Mark, Yeah, thanks for having me. I was
planning on coming in later in the week, but when
I heard that and going out, I have to fly
in early and make sure.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a tremendous line. I can't put up with
him all the time and be concerned for him all
the time. Somebody else we have to delegate on this.
We love Big Dan and look, he's out there for
Canelo and this is a big event. Yet again on
Mexican Independence Day, over and over again, he has fought
either Cinco de Mayo, Mexican Independence Day or both over
and over again.
Speaker 1: It's back again for this weekend. Just overall.
Speaker 2: I know we're building to Saturday, but this is a
big deal. It will be a big deal as Friday
becomes Friday night and into Saturday, that Canelo is back
in Vegas on Mexican Independence Day weekend.
Speaker 5: It is and putting aside right now the opponent, Canelo
has obviously slipped into that Mayweather role of taking over
the May and September dates and go to my own
Mexican Independence weekend. And you know, I can tell you
from having been to dozens and dozens of these, it's
still a big deal, certainly here in Vegas, right, It's
a big deal. Canelo kind of takes over the town
here and on pay per view, it remains a really
big event weekend for the industry whenever Canelo fights, and
this weekend I know will be no exception. Irrespective of
the odds and people's opinion of opponents and all that,
it's still an event.
Speaker 3: It's still a big pay per.
Speaker 2: View and he is a tremendous draw in that region
and has been really for going back ten years ago
since he fought Floyd Mayweather and building forward with the
triple G fights, et cetera. You mentioned Edgar Berlanga is
the opponent here and maybe, look, they don't pay me
to say this.
Speaker 1: I'm not in his camp, with his her or whatever.
Speaker 2: I believe young up and coming and this is intriguing
because he can punch young an up and coming fighter
that can punch here. I may be in a minority
camp here that this might be a little more compelling
than what some think it is. What's your thought on
that about Berlanga as the opponent?
Speaker 5: So I agree, I think that opinion that I have
I share with you. But my opinion lasts for the
first few rounds, and if Berlanga is not able to
do anything in those first few rounds, I think it's.
Speaker 3: Going to be a long night for him.
Speaker 5: Knowing his knockout artistry, knockout specialty, especially earlier in his career,
you know he's got it in him. But if he's
not able to do that in the first few rounds,
I don't see him being able to do that later
on in the fight.
Speaker 3: But we know he's a puncher.
Speaker 5: This is a sport where you've just got a puncher's chance, right,
and he's got that, so I think it'll be an
intriguing start to the show for sure.
Speaker 2: One other variable, he's not been on a stage anything
like this, and Canelo's been on it for a decade,
as I mentioned, for twenty fights. He's been on these
kind of stages. That is obviously an advantage. I mean,
no matter what I mean, we should talk to sport
like you can try to prepare all you want for
stepping out on an NFL football field, for example, to
cross over sports and get ready to play a game,
especially like a game in prime time on Sunday night
or Monday night football. If you're a rookie, until you
do it, Mark, you know this, it is not the
same thing.
Speaker 1: Is what you've been doing in.
Speaker 2: College, whatever level of college, et cetera. It's the same
kind of thing for Berlinga. And you wonder how he
handles the wow factor, the whole event when they strike
up the mariachi band and the whole bit. That's going
to be interesting and important for him to be able
to handle all that right.
Speaker 5: One more time, it is absolutely and listen to further
emphasize your point. When you look at you know, an
NFL player going on the field or a rookie baseball
player going on the field. This is boxing. This is
one on one mano amano. So those emotions you're talking about,
I think are magnified even more in the boxing ring,
which part of the beauty of the sport.
Speaker 3: It's truly one on one.
Speaker 5: So I think that's something too that we have to
watch with prolonger. Really early in the fight is how
is he handling that pressure? It's all on him. If
he makes a mistake, there's no teammate to pick him up.
Speaker 2: Great insight on that, and it's different when you're about
to get hit potentially, so we shall see on that
all right. So speaking of getting hit, we got a
lot of action on this pay per view, and as
we always like to say, we want them to use
PPV dot com because fundamentally they don't have to have
a long term subscription, not a six month subscription, much
less a year long subscription to any outlet. They just
have to purchase this fight through PPV dot com mark
pick it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5: You know, we loved touting the service because we think
it's the best service out there for watching a pay
per view, no subscription, buy what you want. When you
watch the event, you're gonna have a really fun experience.
We've got our chat, We've got a few other things
that we're gonna be doing, so it's not just by
the stream and watch it. You can do that if
you want, but there's also some other things that are
going to be fun to participate.
Speaker 2: And again you get this fighting Crystal Clear ten eighty
p And by the way, on the chat, Jim Lampley,
the Hall of Fame boxing voice of HBO Sports for
so many years, is in the chat, Lance Pugmeyer, who
does a tremendous job writing it as an insider of
the sport. And then your guys, Dan Canobio, Chris Aljurie.
I love them for the inside, all four of those
guys participating with all the content and in the live chat.
And we should mention there's potentially a really cool surprise.
And I can't say anything other than it's potentially a
really cool surprise, and they gotta find out. They got
to tune in if the surprise come. How did I
do on my vague teas?
Speaker 1: Good enough? On the vague teas, I like it.
Speaker 5: I like it you're hired for next time too.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: I love the vague surprises on this so once again,
the entire undercard and Canelo Berlanga on PPV dot Com
Saturday night from Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: It's simple.
Speaker 2: It's simple for them to sign up and do that
reinforce one more time time. How easy it is for
them to access the pay per view coming up Saturday night.
Speaker 3: It's so easy. A cape man could do it.
Speaker 5: DJ sign up, buy the event, watch the event, enjoy it,
and you're good to go. No ongoing subscriptions or any
other ties to the service.
Speaker 2: So I get to know what the potential surprise is
so I can confirm it's not the caveman from the
Geico commercials. I do know that it's not pre plug
for them. That's not the surprise. But the potential surprise
is interesting in the live chat. If it comes to
they gotta tune in. They got to tune in it,
all right, Canelo Berlanga coming up on Saturday night, Mark,
thank you again. We encourage everybody PPV dot com, no
long term subscription, Crystal Clear Picture, get in there in
the live chat throughout the night on Saturday night. Thank
you for hanging out, and we look forward to this.
It's always exciting when canelos there. We look forward to
this Satday night.
Speaker 1: One more time.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, love love this weekend, Love this week in Vegas.
Speaker 3: Love this weekend in Vegas.
Speaker 5: But I think everyone's gonna love it even more on
PPV dot com.
Speaker 1: We'll see you.
Speaker 2: There when am I gonna get to be in on
a dinner again? You and I are around each other
last July. But as Mark Bocarti was saying, you guys
were breaking bread out in Vegas.
Speaker 1: You're out there.
Speaker 2: The PPV dot com people are out there, Jim Lampley,
Lance Pugmeyer, Dan Canobio, Chris Algery and everybody.
Speaker 1: I missed out. I missed out on that.
Speaker 3: Being tell you TJ we Uh. We had dinner with
the PPV dot com folks on Wednesday night. Yeah, I
was with Lance with Lampley and Mark and a bunch
of people on his staff and a few others, and
we had a beautiful dinner at the Bolagio. And you
miss it, bro.
Speaker 2: I know, I gotta I gotta get back out there.
But again, we thank them for their sponsorship and we
encourage you utilize PPV dot com for the reasons we
keep talking about here that you do not have to
have a long term subscription, pick and choose what you
want the same with the Anthony Joshua fight.
Speaker 1: Next week.
Speaker 2: They have ae W wrestling, they have concert events, but
primarily it's boxing and if you're a fan, buy what
you want with PPV dot com. So we we love that.
All right, let's get into some news and then some
some tremendous nostalgia for September and in and around this time.
All right, Rayphaiel, we can't have good things. We got
Shakur Stevenson lined up to be on this ri odd
season card coming up in October that is headlined by
Archer Better biv Dmitri Beebel in the undisputed light heavyweight
title fight. Until we don't now he had an injury.
Tell me, tell me more, because this came to light
midweek here in Vegas.
Speaker 1: What's the latest?
Speaker 3: So on Wednesday, Shakur, who was preparing a fight against Cordina.
He's been training in Colorado Springs, where he often trains
in the Olympic Training Facilli. He was sparring and he
had a right he heard him a tore a tendon
in his right hand, like near his knuckle, and they
basically took him into like immediate surgery. So he posted
a photo on his Instagram with him in the hospital
after the surgery, and you know, his team put out
a statement Eddie Hearn, who's here in Las Vegas, who
I saw yesterday? Who's here because he's the promoter for
Edgar Berlanga was speaking to the media a little bit
about what was going on with Shakur and it's disappointing
because this was his first fight. He had signed with
Mattroum after he became a free agent in the summer
from top rank. Eddie had made the introduction between Shakur
and Turkey al Chic when they work together and all
together in Los Angeles at the Terrence Crawford card. You know, uh,
Shakur is very close friends with with Crawford. Crawford actually
been helping him train and prepare him for the fight. Anyway, listen,
boxing injuries happening. He's got got a bad right hand,
He's got to have the surgery had to take care of.
He's gonna be out of the you know, out of
out of training. Anyway. They're saying six to eight weeks
and that they expect him to be able to fight
again come February. Now, the question I have is are
they going to reschedule the Cordina fight. It I seem
to doubt that based on what's kind of been coming out.
It feels like he's gonna jump right to the to
the fight against the mandatory, which is William Zapeta, which
is no knock on Cordina, but that's a real exciting interest.
We would have absolutely, so, you know, the the original
plan was do Cordina and then Zapeta and then Zepaida's
gonna have an intern fight and then do Shakur Uh.
Zepeta will still but it looks like Chakor will be
off uh until February, and then they'll try to make
that match presumably, you know, I don't know we'll be
in February, but let's say, you know, in that timeframe
where we'll see that fight and Or. I guess it's
possible that that Chaquer will take another fight and then
do this a pain of mandatory, but that's you know,
then it will become a question with the organization, you know,
what what will the WBC's perspective be on that. I mean,
they want to get the mandatory, but they have the relation.
Speaker 2: Has been number one this calendar year. So now you're
theorizing we're in the next calendar year. Sooner or later,
will they will they order?
Speaker 3: And again how they they? They allowed they allowed them
to work a deal where both guys can take in
and fights. I mean the WBC, you know they're they'll,
they're open, they're more open minded for things like that.
Then let's say the IBM.
Speaker 2: Look, I have fun with this, and I know you're
around Mauricio Suliman out there even as we speak this weekend.
They let Jermal Charlow keep the WBC Middleway title for
three years without having to fight anybody, basically for the
last two years. Uh so we'll see what they do there.
I'm just concerned with the hand injury. In your experience
covering this, I mean, this seems significant tendon surgery on
the hand that's gonna lay him up for a while.
It's got to be a bit of a concern, right.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's anything significant. I mean six to
eight weeks, I mean hand injuries happened like every day practically.
Certainly not the first guy to have a tendon problem
or an injury on his hand, you know, he'll get
it taken care of him, do the proper rehab and
come back. And you know what, a lot of times
the guys get the hand injuries that it does cause
problems down the road. Are the guys who are big punchers.
You know, if there's a silver lining, Shaquor is not
a big puncher, So he's not a guy that relies
on that power from that hand, so he can sell
box even if the hand's not perfect. But I suspect
he'll be back back in gear and they'll be okay.
I mean, as long as Shaquor has been a pro
at least off the top of my head, anyway, I
can't maybe there's something I'm just forgeting. I don't remember
having any kind of major injury before that. Sun.
Speaker 2: I remember he in the Dello Santo's fight. He had
a shoulder problem or something. The claim in that yea.
Speaker 3: But he still he still had the fight and he
didn't need surgery. It was just you know, had a
heel up. But I'm talking about something that was more significant.
So look, you know, rest up and as as Eddie
Hearn said when he made his comments. You know, he'll
return in the early part of twenty twenty five and
uh hopefully he'll get uh you know, he'll be ready
to go and then it's uh, they'll still have the
opportunity to do the fight with Zepaita, which is a
pretty big fight. And like I said, like Eddy said,
back to work as soon as possible. And in terms
of what your court had to say about it, uh,
you know, he talked about how he was you know,
his publicist put out a statement from Chakor about it
that uh, you know, he's disappointed about it. He was
looking forward to going to Saudi Arabia doing the fight.
Obviously he's gona make a lot of money for that fight. Uh,
but he's got to listen to the doctor, get the
the situation fixed and uh, you know, life goes on.
Speaker 1: Injuries do happen. All right. I love this. Uh.
Speaker 2: The reports have been out there that Travante Davis was
going to be back in the first week of November,
November two.
Speaker 1: A man.
Speaker 2: Rayfield's like, ah no, no, no, wait a minute, wait
a minute, I've done some reporting on this.
Speaker 1: Not true, not correct.
Speaker 2: Tell me more about what you found out about when
we might see Tank Davis again.
Speaker 3: So, just for the record, I was not one of
the people that reported November second as the return date
for Tank Davis. It was rumored there were some people
that literally just wrote Tank Davis is fighting on November second,
And the reason why they wrote that was because it
is true that TGB Promotions had sought that date on
the agenda for a a Nevada State Athletic Commission meeting.
But what a lot of some of those reporters don't
understand is that promoters, not just TGB, but lots of promoters,
they seek dates because they're trying to get venues locked down,
and they don't necessarily go on that date or in
that location.
Speaker 2: That happened to always follow through on that specific date,
right Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean I'll give you a perfect example. I mean
Top Rank, like I just been with TGB, Top Rank
had put a request in for a date in uh
I think it was. I can remember with the Ambertimobo
some venue in Vegas for a fight card around Thanksgiving
this week this year. But that's not happening. I mean,
they do that on a regular basis, all the promoters do,
So that was in my opinion, it was inaccurate reporting
because it wasn't. They didn't flesh out and say you
know they All you got to do is say, you know,
it's possible. And here's why. Here's the reality. As I'm
here and I'm speaking to the PBC people and and
to TGB people and people around who are involved with uh,
with these broad things, it was said to me one,
Tank Davis is not fighting November second, and that PBC
is not doing an event, at least a pay per
view event anyway on November second. And the way that
that even was broached was because in my mind, if
you were gonna do that event, alright, I'm to say
my first rodeo, there would probably have been a press
conference schedule for Saturday right here, right, perfect example when
we came for the fight, uh that they when I
forget what fight it was, but maybe it was like
it was when it.
Speaker 2: Was it was Canelo and Mangia, right and the right exactly.
Speaker 3: So that's the normal course of business. When the companies
got another big event a month or two or whatever
down the road, and all the media is in one spot,
and they've got the pressroom set up and they've got
everybody there and they've got their cameras and all things
you do the press covers, but there's been nothing and
that ain't happening. So it was explained to me the
following way. If Tank decides he wants to fight again
this year, and there's some question whether he will fight
again this year, the dates that they're looking at, and
again nothing is set in stone. The locations are set
in stone. They do have buildings on hold for different dates,
but they're talking about November twenty third, the week before Thanksgiving,
or possibly December fourteenth, which is the December fourteenth, kind
of the last day they can do anything for that level,
because they're certainly not going to go on December twenty first,
which even though it would be later in the day,
they're not going on the same day that the Heavyweight
Championship rematch is happening between Fury and Usick, which has
already been on the counter for a while. So we'll
have to see.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 3: I do believe there'll be some other PBC events this year.
There may even be another pay per view in November
on that date, even if it's not a Tank, it's like,
because Benavitez is still coming back, you know, there may
be a fight with David Morrell in Minnesota that's not
a pay per view, But in terms of Tank himself
totally up in the air. You know, they also have
problems with opponent, like they don't know who he's going
to fight. I think it was pretty clear that had
Pittbull Cruz won against Valenzuela, they would have done the rematch.
So valan Zuela certainly would be a possible opponent if
Tank is willing to go up to one hundred and
forty pounds, and that's like a pretty good fight. I
don't know how big of a deal that is commercially.
And the only other name I've even heard mentioned whispered
broached at all for Tank would be for him to
fight Lamont Roach, who was the WBA's one hundred and
thirty pound champion. Who would you know, have to come
up and wait and fight in Tank's wake. Lass Now
that is again, I don't think that's that big of
a fight. It's you know, it's also at least if
you're fighting Valenzuela, you're fighting a Mexican American, so there's
that audience. You have an East Coast fighter like Tank,
a West Coast fighter like Valenzuela. If you're fighting Lamont Roach,
you know you're fighting another African American is from the
East Coast. You're you're fighting. It's within the same you
know category in terms of the group of people that
are gonna be most interested. I mean from my perspective
because I live in the Washington, DCA area. You got
Baltimore against Washington. That's like my home area. So it's
Tank from Baltimore against Roach from DC, and there'd be
probably a lot of local interests in that fight. He
probably do. Really, they could do another five million dollar gate,
probably at a place like the UH where you the
Capital One Arena where he fought Hector LEAs Garsia. I'm
just not sure that translates to a national audience. I
actually where the real money is on paper use. So
you know, those seem to be the logical fights that
Tank would have if and when he does decide to fight.
But it ain't gonna be November second, as the bottom line.
Speaker 1: That was just going right there. You don't have that, Okay.
Speaker 2: What we do have, though, is an announcement a couple
of weeks later for November sixteenth, officially that it is
Zerdo Ramirez Chris Billum Smith for the unified WBA, WBO
cruiserweight belts and some other solid fights that are with
this on the undercard. So tell me more about that
coming about as part of the read season card in November.
Speaker 3: So we had spoken about this as this was in
the works. I had written about it, A couple of
people had written about it. This is last week, but
the deal's now done. They're really great thing about this
besides the fact that Billan Smith against Ramirez, that's a
good fight. I mean, if you if you look at
the cruiserweight division, it's very clear at this moment in
time that it's Opataia who's the IBF champion and also
the lineal champion. He's number one, and he's got a
fight coming up on a on a READ card also
against Jack Massey. But that the next two guys are
Zerdo Ramirez probably and Billan Smith. I mean, two guys
who are uh, you know, more known. Zerdo looked good
when he won the title earlier in the year. He
got Dylan Smith, who's now made a couple of defenses.
He's coming up that win to avenge his loss against
ri Ka pore So anyway, they're going to meet to
unify the titles. And the great thing about it, besides
the fact we're going to I'm gonna go over some
of the other fights that they announced for the card. Turkey,
al Chic and Oscar de Lay doing this card together.
It's a Golden Boy. They're calling it like Read Season
Latin Night. It's gonna take place in Arabia, but not
pay per view. As Turkey said, this is going to
be free. They didn't announce a broadcast platform. I have
to assume, you know, it's gonna be on his own
as a regular subscription card. But that Turkey is gonna said,
he put in his own social media posts that will
make it developed to any broadcaster that wants to pick
it up. Have your people contact my re ed Season
office and we'll work it out so it wouldn't shock me.
Besides his own. Maybe he gets picked up by Prime Video.
Maybe he gets picked up by ESPN Plus if they're
not charging money for it. Maybe he gets picked up
by you know, some other entity. You know, maybe winds
up on Peacock through their deal with Boxer Boxer, the
promoter for Chris Billum Smith probably winds up on Sky Sports,
where Boxer has their deal in the UK. My point
is this isn't going to be a cost anybody any
extra money for this event. And now go through the
rest of the cards. You got a level main event
in the in the unification with Zerto and BILLM. Smith,
and then the other fights. This one is already I
reported this also. This fight's been done since and they
were just looking to figure out where to do it.
Posey Ramirez against Arnold Barbosa a good quality junior welterweight fight.
It's now going to be a WBO, as it was announced,
a WBOLE eliminator. There had spent their careers with top Rank,
but they've both been with Golden Boye last couple of
fights shared the same man, and that's a solid fight
on that card. Then you got what was supposed to
be the so called tune up fight for Williams to
paid a prior to the Court fight which we just
talked about. But the paid is fighting his next fight
on this cart whatever will happen with the score, and
he's taking on in a ten rounder the former junior
light with tat older Tevin Farmer, who is coming off
of a loss against Marataia, but he gave more A
Tia a good, solid fight. And uh, you know, Tevin
Farmer is a good, a good, a good veteran. And
you know, no one's expecting to pay to to take
on King Kong before the title fight.
Speaker 2: So as a name formal world champion, so there's credibility there.
Speaker 3: Yes, And it's three fights down the card on a
card it don't cost any extra money, so you know,
I got no problem with that. Then you have the
w BO strawweight champion, Oscar Colazo defending the title against
Edwin Hernandez. As we talked about in the last show.
We were talking strawweights when we went over the earboy ne.
Speaker 1: T CP fresh Mark, Yes exactly.
Speaker 3: We were talking to like we were amusing about what
might could he fight a fight in North America to
you know, being in sort of soup up some interest
in the weight class, and we talked about, you know,
so if he could fight at Claso. But Colaso is
probably the most exciting fighter in that weight class. He's
going to be defending the title on this card. Further down.
He's co promoted by Oscar and also by Miguel Coto
and then the opening fight. This is actually a very
to me. This is like I like this fight a
lot Oscar Duarte. This is one hundred and this a
WBA junior walter wad eliminator Oscar Duarte, who had gained
some mat variety because he did put up a good
fight but ultimately get knocked out by Ryan Garcia. He
has won a fight since then against a fighter who
was a good, solid contender in that weight class, who
had been already a w BA top rated fighter, and
that's Kenny Simms Junior, who recently signed with Golden Way
after a layoff and having parted ways with PVC. This
is a good quality fight. Sims against Duarte is a
very solid fight, and that's your card. That's a good
card for free unification. I mean, don't you know I'm
in on that one.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: And and like you're saying, give something back to the
fans here when you're UH and obviously Turkey Ala Chic
and UH and Riad season are being very mindful of
this that if you keep soaking them for the big
pay per views, give something back.
Speaker 1: And it's not a pay.
Speaker 2: Per view here, it's if you got your dessowned subscription
or whatever other broadcaster. You gotta like that, and they're not.
And again they're not paying us to say that. We're
just in favor of this give back to the fans.
Speaker 3: I do think that that Turkey al Chic has heard
a lot of comments from boxing fans and press that
all of their cards are pay per views and they're
not inexpensive pay per views. So now I'm not saying
they're not going to do pay per use. Obviously Fury
and Usik too and you know, and other events that
they do our pay per views. I have no problem
with that. But this isn't a card that doesn't cost
any money. That John Aoshuwao do WAC card that's coming up.
Yes it's a pay per view, but it's twenty bucks.
You can't really bitch about that.
Speaker 2: So hopefully roughly a quarter of what the other pay
per views are costing.
Speaker 3: Agree teaching my point of view is very simple, and
do a big pay per view and have a cost
the money it costs. That's okay, but it has to
be worth it in terms of is this a legitimately
big fight And if you want to do a pay
per view on some other fights either do it like
at the cut ray price, or do it like you're
doing this read card with the unification and find a
broadcaster and not do it as a pay per view,
you know, because remember at the end of the day,
what the Saudi's are doing. They're not boxing promoters. They're
not looking to like, you know, be only a boxing program.
They've got other things going on with their entertainment stuff
that they're trying to do. Their goal is to wrench
in a positive light to Saudi Arabia and to build
up and let people around the world know about their
reance season, festival and do and bring people to their country.
If you charge eighty dollars for every pay per view,
you're very very much limiting the audience of people that
are going to see that message. If you're putting it
on multiple broadcasters and you're not charging money, or you're
charging money at a very low rate price like twenty bucks,
your chances of getting that message out and creating more
goodwill is going to definitely increase.
Speaker 2: All Right, good stuff on the news. Let's wrap it
with some nostalgia, some excellent nostalgia. You're in Vegas now
and we're coming up on a couple of anniversaries of
you being in Vegas for some big time fights on
Saturday as we released the podcast Thursday night into Friday,
September fourteenth, twenty two years ago. September fourteen, two thousand
and two. Oscar Dala Hooia, Fernando Vargas. I remember this
one with Dala Hooia with the late round TKO he
unified the WBCWBA Junior Middleway Championships. You were right there
for that showdown almost a quarter of a century ago,
but I remember, I remember old. I know we're trying
not to be so old, but it's been a little bit.
But this was a highly entertaining fight. You were right there.
What are the remembrances?
Speaker 3: Mighty one took place right up the street from where
I'm sitting right now at the Mandalay. Big fantastic fight,
awesome build up, big, big, huge grudge match. There was
so much bitterness between Oscar and Fernando. You know, there
was the story about how Fernando felt disrespected at some point.
I believe that, if my memory is correct, that Oscar
was running in the mountains and Big Bear at a
training camp and Vargas was there doing a training camp.
For one of his fights and he fell down in
the snow and Oscar wouldn't help him up. And then
there was other discussions on other things.
Speaker 1: I've never heard that before.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I know. There was all kinds of shit,
and Oscar would go on and on, you know, he
would say, I'm never giving him the payday, you know,
And as I have quoted Tyson, Mike Tyson before, who
had said to me at one point, the most disrespectful
thing a fighter can do it to another fighters not
give the other guy the payday. And Oscar would not
give him the pay day. And then of course when
the money became big enough for Oscar, he gave him
the pay day because he needed a big name opponent
to sell a big pay per view, and Vargas was
the guy to do that with. There was a this
was a huge fight. Both had great fan bases and
it was a highly anticipated fight. Fernando was a very
top guy. Yes, he'd already had the defeat against Felix
Trinidad before he had this fight, but you know, he
had won some fights, you know, after that had occurred,
and this was just I mean, this was at the time,
what's happening. Remember, The fight also at one point was
postponed because of an injury. My memory serves it was
Oscar that had some kind of injury that required the
fight to be delayed by a couple of months. And
so there's a lot of like a lot of a
lot of fan demand for this bout. Fernando had won
two fights in a row since the lost to Tito Trinidad,
he had regained one of the world titles, and this
was a fantastic build up, and the fight itself really
lived up to it. I mean, it was a tremendous fight,
and I remember very specifically, and I was certainly not alone.
When they got in the ring, Fernando looked like he
was so much bigger than Oscar, and then he he
had him hurt in the first round, and you're like,
oh my god, Fernando mar is going to mow Oscar
de la Hoya down tonight. And Oscar showed as much
toughness and balls in that fight as any fight you
could look at on Oscar's resume, and he showed heart
and balls and a lot of fights. And he came
back and he boxed him a little bit, and then
he started to break him down. And break him down,
and then he had the fantastic finish. I mean, he
just took it to him. It was a devastating ending.
You know, Jim Lampley was wild on the call, you know,
timing it perfectly with the referee stepped in to stop
the bout, and it was. If you take a look
at the entire glorious history of Oscar de la Hoya's career,
I don't think there's a bigger win emotionally for him,
including the Chavez fight, which was such a big deal,
then this Fernando Vargas fight because Oscar, you know, there
was such he didn't have a bitter hatred with Chavis.
Chod was like his idol, and that was a big deal.
But with with Vargas there was such a bitter kind
of grudge match.
Speaker 1: And it was genuine. It was genuineness at.
Speaker 3: That point for sure. I mean, and you know, look
at Oscar, you know, yeah, bloody nos in that fight.
I mean, Oscar took his licks in that fight. About
what he did do was, you know, if you're gonna
go down, you know, make sure you don't leave anything
in the chamber, so to speak. And if you're gonna
do that use your best weapon, and Oscar Delaway's best
weapon from day one was the left hook, and he
absolutely called uh, Fernando Argus with the left hook, uh,
you know, in the tenth round, and that's ultimately what
put him away. He then knocked him down in the
eleventh round and stopped him when he was just getting pounded.
And you know, you know I've said this before when
talking about this fight. If you watch the video of
the of the knockdown, you see Fernando go down, and
you see like maybe on the left hand side of
the screen, you see Oscar's feet like they're like shuffling
a little bit. But what I remember being ringside was
what Oscar de la Hoye did when he knocked Vargas
down for the second time was break out into like
the all out Ali shuffle, like just what And it
was a very very exciting moment. And then you know,
he ultimately stopped for Nano Vargus. But that was the
type of thing you never You've never seen the full
video of what he was doing, uh in his body
language after that. But this was a big deal. This
was you know, for the unification, as I mentioned, it
was also for the lineal title in the division. He
won the magazine title. At the time, you know, it
was one of Oscar's biggest paydays. They think he made
like fifteen million dollars guaranteed for this fight. Fernanda was
making millions and millions of dollars too. Now post fight,
it came out that Fernando Vargus had tested positives tested
for a PD for steroid, and even with the steroids,
Oscar still knocked him out. Fernando got fined and suspended.
But the reason I say this is because the other
lasting image of this fight to me was at the
way In, and it was held in the Mandalay Bay,
you know, in the in the arena, and they were
separated on the stage, and when they had done their
face off and had done the way in, I remember,
and this you can find the video. He got Fernando
on the one side of the day as out of
the stage, you know, making muscles and and flexing and
the whole thing, and Oscar del l Hoya is simply
pointing at his chin with his finger as in, you
can come with great abs and great muscles and look
like you're in great shape, but you can't train that.
And Oscar cracked that chin and it was a listen.
I'm gona tell another thing about that way in there
were women at that watch where never forget this either,
who were you know, the crowd. There wasn't the whole
arena it was they used to do like the half
arena configuration for the weigh ins, and so it was
pretty full. I mean, I don't know how many people
were there, maybe five thousand and six thousand for the
weigh in. And there were young women who were you know,
big giant Oscar deloyauh, you know, who had the signs up,
you know, marry me the whole thing, who literally like
we're throwing lingerie bras and panties, you know, from the
upper decks down to the floor, you know. So and
then it is an image because and again another thing
I can very vividly remember, and as we like to
say what happens in Vegas stays and dagas, I'll just
say this. I had the great plantanning Oscar Deloy's post
fight party at the pool at the and Andala at
Bay after this was over, where he had his private cabana.
I was given an audience in the private cabana after this,
after this fight was over. I'll just say this, TJ.
I've been to into my share over twenty five years
or so of post fight parties in Vegas and other places.
That was the best damn postfight party I ever been to.
I'm gonna leave it at that.
Speaker 1: And what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
Speaker 3: And if I ever write a book, that might be
in my books.
Speaker 2: Some Rayfield seals the vault on twenty two years ago,
Dale Jya Vargas post fight party, September fourteen, two thousand
and two. All right, moved forward ten years and it's
twelve years ago. Sunday, September fifteen, twenty twelve. Sergio Martinez
Julio saysars Chavez Junior's significant world middleway title fight, dramatic
final round of the fighting. You were right there for
this as well, So tell me more about that nostalgia
on Sergio Martinez and Junior.
Speaker 1: Julio saysars Chavez Junior.
Speaker 3: So I'll set the stage a little bit. This week
that this was taking place in Las Vegas. You had
again it's Mexico Independence Day weekend. You got Shavez, the
Mexican at that time, star fighter undefeated. He had the
WBC Middleway title that had basically been gifted them because
the WBC plled it. It's shenanigans with Martinez and stripped him.
But Martinez was still the lineal champion, so he went
in defending the lineal title. Chavis goes in defending the
WBC belt and taking place down the road because this
fight was at the Thomas and Mack Center, but at
the MGM was Canelo, a younger starfighter on the rise,
defending one of his titles against hose c to Lopez
at the MGM, and so there was a big controversy
in boxing. That whole build up is like, you know,
do you have these two is you know, somewhat significant
Mexican fights, Although nobody debated, I don't think among the
public or the media that the Chavz and the Martinez
was more significant, even Canelo had a huge fan base. Also,
Golden putting on that the Canelo fight, Top Rank and
lou de Bella were doing the Sergio Martinez and Chavis fight.
There was a lot of back and forth. Richard Schaeffer,
who was running Golden Boy, who I still to this
day have a great relationship with, but he was on
everybody ship list week because all he did was, you know,
complain that we weren't covering his fight, and he was gonna,
you know, take attendance and if you weren't at our fight,
you know, we're not going to credential you. You know, he
was trying. It was you know, it was. It was
a lot of acrimony leading up to that, and uh,
you know, in the end, most of the top media
we covered the fight at the Thomas and Act for
the Middleway Championship. It wasn't a knock against Canelo. But
you make the decisions about where you go based on
what's the more important fight to go to. So anyway,
what I did was I I had uh I had
come to Las Vegas on Sunday because the prior week
I had been in Oakland covering a andre Ward fight
against Dad Dawson, which we discussed, So I had a
full week. I stayed like eight nights at the Win
Hotel in Las Vega. By the way, way too many
had the Win beautiful tub, but a little, a lot
of a little Las Vegas goes a long way. Anyway,
what I did was I did my due diligence and
took care of covering and writing and doing stuff on
the on the Canelo fight in the first few days
of that week, and then I turned my attention to
what I felt like and my boss'sa and ESPN felt
like was the bigger fight, which was a chob Az
against Martinez. So I did both, even though I attended
the Martinez Chobz fight. Now, when the chob As Martinez
fight occurred, it was a fucking complete wipeout. Martinez won
every single round of the fight easily, except for the
one moment that everybody remembers. There was a huge Mexican crowd,
and by the way, they were awfully quiet because their
guy was getting his ass kicked, and there was a
There was a smaller but very vocal and boisterous crowd
of folks that had been there to support Surgeon Martinez,
either who had come from Argentina or there were Argentinian
Americans or what have you, who are there definitely cheering
their guy on great atmosphere. And in the twelfth round,
job has scored a knockdown and hurt Martinez real bad,
and you know, its shades of his father, Julio SR.
What happened against Meldreck Taylor. There was not that much
time left in the round, and it was all about
Ken Martinez survived the rest of the round or as
job is, you know, gonna score the miracle knockout and
you know, and snatched this title in a humongous comeback. Now,
Chavez Melgic at least was a little more competitive than
even though Chavaz was losing, he was doing the damage.
Chavez Junior wasn't really doing any damage until that last round.
But Martinez got off the deck, thought back finished, finished
the fight. But that moment, and I've said this before, TJ.
I've been ringside for i mean thousands of boxing rounds
and hundreds of major fights in my career, and it
is very easy for me to pinpoint this single most
electrifying moment of any fight I've ever been to. And
that's including things like being there when Nanny Pacyeo got
knocked out by one Daniel Marquez and and other major
you know, being there when Tyson got knocked out by
LENNYX Lewis, or when Bernard Hopkins knocked out Tito Trinidad
or any you know Dale Hoy of Vargus that we
were just talking about. So I've got a lot of things.
I can compare it to where the crowd goes crazy.
Ricky hadn't getting smoked by you know, by Pakia or
Floyd Mayweather. I mean big moments in boxing. There is
nothing to this day that comes close to the magnitude
of the electricity that just shot through the thomasin Max
Center at the moment when Chab has put Martinez on
the mat, because remember he's lost every single moment of
the fight. Basically, I think the judges might have given
gave him a couple of rounds out of mercy, I believe,
and suddenly like that, there guy's got a chance to win.
I have described it as like imagine if you were
standing next to a jet that was not on no
motor going and in two seconds that's at mock ten.
I mean that there was like they could have blown
the roof off the dump. I've gone back and I've
watched the video.
Speaker 1: I gotta go.
Speaker 2: I gotta go back and see this twelfth round just
to remember. Was it fairly early where there was some
doubt as to whether there were some Martina could last
That was significant time left.
Speaker 3: I got you, I would about significant but there was
probably over a minute, you know what I mean for
him to get through the restaurant long enough. Yeah, no,
for sure. But the thing about is when you watch
the video, the the jolt of electricity that I have
to describe didn't really come across that well on the
broadcast the way it did in person. Because that was
as elactrifying a moment in boxing as I have ever
experienced in my entire career. I will never forget it.
The rest of the fight was shit because Martinez absolutely
took him to the woodshed, but for about twenty seconds,
thirty seconds, it was as exhilarating as anything you'll ever
see in the sport.
Speaker 1: Was some doubt.
Speaker 2: This is why we love boxing. One punch changes everything.
There was some doubt in that moment. And by the way,
Tinaz because he could finish out the fight and eventually
get the decision.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when Sergio got knocked down, he messed up his
knee and he was never the same after that fight.
I mean, he did go on and have other fights
and continued to defend the title, but he was never
the same that fight. I think that that injury took
a lot out of him. Chavez never really did much
after that either. You know, he had continued to have
the weight problems. You know, looked terrible against Brian Vera,
and you know, we all know how his fight, how
his career sort of went down, went down the drain
after that. But that was a very very big fight
at that time, major pay per view and Penn State Weekend.
I don't know if it's been broken since then, but
when it happened, they broke the record for the highest
gate and attendance I guess at Thomas and Maxenter. It
broke the record that had been set by chob As
his father when he fought Hector Camancho and that Sandol
thing back years ago. Phenomenal event.
Speaker 2: Nostalgia on top of nostalgia, and perhaps we're about to
set some new nostalgia to with Saturday Night with Canelo
Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga. But great stuff, great stuff all
the way through. I know you're looking forward to everything
building up as Thursday goes into Friday. On this podcast,
by the way, we'll do the live bet US Boxing
show one Eastern time, ten Pacific time with Dan from Vegas.
Will handicap the fights on the bet Us platforms. Their YouTube,
et cetera. I think we're good in the preview mode
and the build up for Saturday night's pay per view.
Speaker 1: Anything else we left anything out? We good.
Speaker 3: I think we got it all in. We'll look forward
to the recap, see what'll be. Yeah, we don't know.
Speaker 1: We'll recap whatever happens off of this.
Speaker 2: All right, Dan, get some have some fun, get some rest,
Go go find Oscar delah Is Cabana to night before
we do. Bet us coming ten Pacific time for you.
Speaker 3: Let me make a statement about the Oscar if you've
been listening to what he has had to say, because
we mentioned earlier they're having the UFC event here at
the Sphere, Oscar has been on his social media just
doing nothing but ripping this fight, talking about how he's
going to the UFC fight. So I didn't think that was.
Speaker 2: And it's fascinating if you've been paying attention all along.
He and he and Dana White hate each other. Dana
White has repeatedly made fun of Oscar de la Jolla
and rehab and cocaine use and whatever, and now they're bedfellows. Figuratively,
He's gonna come to the UFC event at the Sphere
did say.
Speaker 3: He did say, I don't know where he got the
tickets from, but he didn't get him for me. So,
but Oscar knows a lot of people in Vegas.
Speaker 2: To be able to come to the event at the Sphere.
But you know, we're talking about Canelo, and I know
we're partial. I'm sorry. Whatever they're doing at the Sphere
is wonderful. I guess for the UFC fans, it's not
as big as a Canelo fight in Vegas. Uh, even
if it is against maybe a little lesser known fighter.
Speaker 1: He's the draw.
Speaker 2: He is the guy that we care about the most
in combat sports, and he's fighting this weekend, and that's
why we want to talk about.
Speaker 3: I've said this many times. There's room for both to exist,
right because I don't think that crossover between boxing and
MMA fans is so great that it's gonna have any
negative impact on either event. They're gonna be. There's there's
a small overlap some of them, even with medium members.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: I agree with you though, because most of the most
of the boxing fans are not into UFC and vice versa.
With the growth and the development and rest assured, unlike
the Canelo COVIALV fight. They won't be waiting in the
dressing room for the main event of the UFC to
be over with. Remember Canelo and the Barca lounger in
his role laying back like, my god, what are we
doing taking next?
Speaker 3: That's not gonna happen, that would know. And keep in
mind that was not a promoter thing or a fighter
thing that was at the zone.
Speaker 1: That was really this day is embarrassed. It's a stupid thing.
Speaker 2: On that note, we will end it, my friend. Great job,
We'll see you on the bet US show. Have a
great weekend in Vegas.
Speaker 1: Bet US Show.
Speaker 2: Coming up, and then we'll recap on the Fight Freaks
to Night recap off the weekend on this podcast feed.
Thank you Dan, Rayphiel, you bet and I am merely TJ.
Reeves as we get ready for Canelo and Berlanga. You've
been listening to the Big Fight Weekend Preview podcast