Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend.
Speaker 2: Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves. All right, we
are ready to go with yet another weekend. Gotta tell
you upfront, this is not a huge weekend of action,
although we do have something to preview on the preview pod.
We have fight news and a lot of undercards being
announced and other news about fight cards in Japan, etc.
That we're gonna get to, some great nostalgia and much more.
Plenty of reason to be here, if for nothing else,
A charming personality of one Dan Rayfield. I'm merely TJ. Reeves.
Thank you for finding us. It is the Big Fight
Weekend Preview follow Subscribe, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. We come your
way twice a week, previewing going into the weekend. Recap
off the weekend. All right, the good news before we
get into Floyd Mayweather and John Gotti. The third because
I know you're winning with Beta breath, the proof of life.
Rayfield is alive. After five days of mister mom with
Little rayfeel missus. Rayfield has returned. When last week left,
the fire department had been contacted but had not shown
up on a false fire alarm. I did get a
couple of people that reached out to say, we need
an update on whether Rayfield has survived. This is proof
of life on the pod that you did survive, being
mister mom, congratulations.
Speaker 1: I did survive, thank thankfully, and yes, the fire alarm
did happen, and thankfully nothing actually was burning down.
Speaker 2: False alarm.
Speaker 1: Well, it wasn't a false alarm. There was something that
burned up in my microwave or something that my son
set on fire by accident, and it's made the thing
go off, but and it's attached to the alarm, so they.
Speaker 2: And the best part is missus Rayfield is out of town,
out of state at a work event, and she's being
alerted on the phone because you have connected to all
your phones that the Far department in the South we
offer and say far the Far Department. The Far Department
has been called and she's probably looking at the phone
going not the fire truck but another F word that
ends with a K, what w TF. I can't leave
for a day in the house exactly.
Speaker 1: So even though it was my son that's said maybe
setting the house on fire, Dad's the one that's in
trouble with the wife and I didn't do anything, you know,
I understand, mind my business.
Speaker 2: We make it to the first day of school and back.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we're good. We were he you survive.
Speaker 2: He bathed at least once in the five days or showered,
so that's good.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we're good. All right.
Speaker 2: And by the way, my sixteen year olds did pass
the driving test. And as we speak, as we tape
the podcast Thursday night into Friday, they have driven by
themselves to and from an errand that they had to run.
Let the mayhem begin. What you phil, You're going to
be here in a few years, You're going to be here.
Get ready. This is going on times two in my house.
Speaker 1: And I let's take our minds off that and discuss.
Speaker 2: Can we talk boxing, Let's do that. Let's get into it,
all right. I qualify this by saying, if the name
was not Floyd Mayweather, I don't even know if this
would be making the show under the celebrity boxing category
or whatever. But we don't have a lot going on.
It leads the pod in the preview mode, go.
Speaker 1: PJ in this weekend. There's literally nothing else on of
any consequence on Saturday or even Friday for that matter,
so little that we don't even have a US boxing
show on Friday, correct, because of the fact there's nothing
to handicap.
Speaker 2: Because you and I are good. But if we don't
have a fight to handicap, we can't have a handicapping show.
As good as we are, as charming as you are,
as delightful as I am. So you're right.
Speaker 1: But because this is happening, we'll talk about it for
a couple of minutes.
Speaker 2: And Floyd Mayweather is a noteworthy name, of course, But
what's I don't even know what is the genesis of
why this is happening? With John Gotti the third who
in so who wrestling style? That why is why is
this even happening?
Speaker 1: I wish I had an answer for that. I mean
John Gotti the Third he is for those who don't know,
this is the only reason why he's even a you
know in the conversation to have an event like this.
He is the grandson of the mobster John.
Speaker 2: Gotti, the late teflon Don Correct.
Speaker 1: Exactly, so that's his grandson. He's actually two to zero
as a professional boxer in a you know, against extremely
low level opposition. He is five and one in MMA
bouts at age thirty one years old. You know, in
June he bought Mayweather, and Mayweather dominated this thing. I
watch it after the fact. I didn't buy the pay
per view or anything like that. And the referee of
the fight was Kenny Bayliss, obviously well known Vegas referee
is done tons of big fights and in many ways
has become like Floyd's personal referee because pretty much whenever
he's done exhibitions post his boxing career, Kenny has been
the referee I think for I don't know about every
single one, but certainly most of them. And the one
that's coming up this weekend is going to be Floyd's
eighth exhibition since he retired. So there was a lot
of rough stuff going on in the fight, and they
were they were yelling at each other and cursing at
each other, and it was sort of like weird, and
Kenny Bayliss is like telling them to knock it off,
right and if you know, because and if he if
he didn't, he was going to stop the fight. Now
was a scheduled eight round fight, and in the sixth round,
I guess it was gott Gotti that wouldn't stop doing that,
and and it got to the point where Bayless stopped
the fight. Now it didn't matter because it's not like
affecting anybody's record. There's no scores being rendered because it's
an exhibition and everything. So it wasn't really the end
of the world there. And so after he stopped the fight,
you got Gotti charging at me, whether in the ring
after the fight has ended. I wish you would have
been that aggressive when the fight was actually happening. But
so anyway, because that happened, now you got their camp
storm in the ring. You got the Floyd campstorm in
the ring. You know, chaos and riots and sue fights
are breaking out among the team members, fights are breaking
out in the crowd. It's absolutely fucking chaos. Then they
announced they were going to reschedule again. So now some
time goes by, they say this is last last year
and by the way, not not like twenty twenty three. Anyway,
So they came towards the end of last year and
Floyd had posted to his social media that they were
doing the rematch and it was going to be in
Las Vegas, and they didn't announce an exact location or
even the exact date. They just said it was going
to be around Super Bowl weekend, which Super Bowl the
most recent Super Bowl took place in Las Vegas, but
then it didn't happen and they never announced the cancelation.
But it's been rebooked and now instead of taking place,
you know, in Las Vegas around the Super Bowl, this
fight is now taking place on Saturday. It's a de
zone pay per view for those who want to waste
your money. It's taking place in Mexico City. They found
some soccer at a bankroll this thing. They put some
other fights on the card that are actual bouts for
some reason or other. Victor Ortiz, who was a former
Floyd Mayweather victim in an actual professional World Championship welterweight
title fight. He's in an exhibition match and the co feature,
and then you know, real fights under the card besides that.
Speaker 2: I we'll get to that in a second. And you
even put this on the rundown because I was curious,
what are the weights here for this? And you got
like WWE style, no weight limit, So I mean, what
what are we doing with do we know?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they're around the same size.
Speaker 2: Floyd's been fighting though, like it around middleweight, right or
super middleweight so it would presumably be something like that
for Floyd, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, Floyd walks around probably like one hundred and
fifty to sixty pounds at most. Okay, his obviously his
boxing career, he was championed in. His most recent championship
was at junior middleweight. You know, he's fought fights, you know,
around that I you know, you take a look at
his body when he's fought these exhibitions. I mean, he's
looked in good shape, not in the kind of chisel
shape that we saw him for so many years. But
again he's not I don't think training super strengulously these fights.
And obviously he's now you know, getting up there a
little bit in terms of his age. So okay, so
he put a couple of pounds on. But there's no
weight limit. I mean, I actually I asked the promoters,
you know, the pr folks about it, and they're like, no,
there's I mean for some of the fights, there is
weight limits for the actual fights, but for this fight
there isn't. But again, I think that Gotti and Floyd
are in the ballpark around the same weight limits. So
they're doing this.
Speaker 2: What is the likelihood that this is a total farce
on the ray Field meter. Oh, I mean, it's a
ten that it's going to be a farce.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing. Here's the thing about it though. Okay,
Floyd Mayweather's exhibition fights since his retirement have been absolutely
boring as shit. They're worthless to watch. They don't. This
is my opinion. Now somebody else I love them and
think they're the greatest things in sliced bread. But to me,
they're boring. They don't. There's no entertainment value. And it's
one thing if you're fighting like somebody that you know
that's like a notable opponent. Okay, like he thought Logan
Paul for example, in a exhibition.
Speaker 2: At least three years ago. Three years ago.
Speaker 1: But I'm just making the point about the name value.
And Logan was much larger in terms of as a
person size wise, and there was no weight limit on
that fight. So now gott he is like, you know,
it's just it's like he might as well drag some
dude off the street.
Speaker 2: So this begs the question, why, in your mind or
from what you've heard, is he still hanging on to
these exhibitions. Does he miss the limelight that much? Is
it financial? Problems. Is it a combination. What was the
motivation behind continuing.
Speaker 1: The financial problems. I'd say he misses the limelight and
he's getting fit's free money. I mean it's he's going
to go in the ring against a guy that you
know couldn't lick his boots in his best day and
even now you know probably can't do anything with him.
He'll move around the ring for you know, I think
his eight rounds and he'll get paid, you know, seven
figures and he'll go home. I mean that's I don't
I got the way that all of my my my
irritation by it's not really shouldn't even say it's ritation.
I just I'm a against it. I just don't care
about it. So if anybody wants to watch it, by
all means all right. I'm making the point here, though, TJ.
Is this, If Floyd Mayweather can get some socker to
pay him seven figures to go move around the ring
against a shmir then good for Floyd. I respect that.
I respect the hustle, all right.
Speaker 2: So the rest of this card, as you mentioned, Victor Ortiz,
it's also an exhibition fight. And what else is on
this card that might be of note, and then we'll
move on.
Speaker 1: So the other things of note, I guess the one
fight that actually is sort of interesting is that's a
junior featherweight fight, and that is between Alan David Picasso,
who was a good looking up and coming fighter from
Mexico's twenty eight to zero to one with sixteen knockouts.
He's only twenty four years old. He's a very good
up and coming fighter. He's taken on a fighter that
has been a contender and is always in good fights
named Azatahovi Nissian. He had a fight, if you recall
in twenty twenty three that was the title eliminator against
Luis Near. Nearly won that fight which got him the
shot against in a way that you know, he got
knocked out in. But that fight that Nearly won by
eleventh three knockout was it was an outstanding fight. And
so that's like a real like that's a decent test
for a young fighter like Picasso to see what he
can do against a real sturdy, solid uh you know,
one time contender fought for world title. So that's that's
an okay fight. And then Mayweather Promotions, which is Floyd's company,
which you know at one time had a number of
fighters under contract. They really I don't even know how
many they have overall, but it's not many, but they
One of them is the young lightweight from Las Vegas,
eighteen years old, nam kermel Moutan, who has fought on,
He fought on, he turned pro on a Canelo undercard.
Most recently he was in the ring. Remember we talked
about the fight that was the boxing match between Jorge
Masvidal and they Diez Box on that undercard. But he's
a really outstanding young prospect, I mean, one of the
best in the sport. Four and oh with three knockouts.
So he's going to be on his promoters undercard, you know,
the the you know, Floyd's promoter, so he's taken him
and you know he's going to be on that show.
Also fighting a Mexican opponent that Victor Vasquez I think
is the guy's name unless it's changed and I'm aware
of that. So anyway, that's the deal. I mean, you know, we,
like you said, we wouldn't be spending a lot of
time if there was real big fights going on this second.
But again it is Mayweather, so he is one of
the biggest names in the history of the sport. So
we'll let the people know he's fighting an exhibition. If
you care to spend your money on a pay per view,
and then God bless you, all right if you'll being
his hair.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, or as you like to say, call your
mother or do something else. Okay, So now let's get
to fights that actually matter and the October twelfth card
that is highly anticipated. We've been waiting for a while
because of injuries to Archer. Better BV, Better BV and
Bibol are the main event Saudi Arabia riadd season pay
per view. Now the undercard has filled out.
Speaker 1: Hold on one second, the Better BF BVL match that
one specific bout. Yep I asked this of Top Rank
and yesterday when Turkey al Shehic announced the undercard, and
they say to me that nothing has changed in terms
of their deal. They are the promoter of Better be
and all along even before this fight was postponed. Their
contract says that they have the American rights for that bout.
They maintain that that bout is a free bout on
the regular ESPN Plus subscription serve. You know you have
a subscription ESPN Plus, you can watch that fight again.
They haven't made all the details specific, but based on
what they said to me and what was going on
before it was postponed, if they follow that same situation
free on ESPN Plus for subscribers in the United States,
that's the way you should watch that fight.
Speaker 2: We love that fight, but the other fights that are
under it, and that's what they intended to do before,
and that's what you were saying, the other fights are
under it are going to be a pay per view.
This is apparently, but this is some intriguing stuff that
they've now lined up, including the name Shakur Stevenson go.
Speaker 1: Ahead well, and as far as the pay per view,
I'm not nobody seems to have a handle one hundred percent,
And I guess we'll have more clarity when they do
a press conference. Is if they offer the main event
on ESPN Plus, will they offer the rest of the
pay per view on ESPN Plus as a pay per view? Obviously,
I would suspect because of the Saudi's involvement in all
the different names we're going to talk about, that it's
definitely going to be his own pay per view. It'll
be de zone around the world, obviously. I'm just in
terms of the United States, you know, it seems to
be up in the air. I mean, we'll be able
to see it if you want to buy a pay
per view. It's just a matter of where and how
much is going to be free and how much is
on the paper. So we'll find that out in due time.
But in terms of the undercard you just mentioned, so
a couple of days ago Turkey al sheet from Saudi Arabia,
there was no like formal press release or big you know,
news Converse or anything. They'll get to all that business,
I suppose down the road. But he posted on his
social media and by the way, he's got like fifteen
million followers on Twitter or something like that, or on
Facebook and Instagram, he's got millions and millions of followers.
And he put up a picture of the poster art,
you know, the artwork for the fight, which had better
Bevan people at the top, and then it had headshots
of the rest of the fighters apparently order of the fights, right,
and what those bouts were, and the co feature was
going to be chaque Stevenson is going to be Chakhuare
Stevenson defending his WBC lightweight title against Joe Cordina.
Speaker 2: Oh, not against Travonte Davis, not against Williams Ofpaida. Well,
wait a minute, let's move down the list, and it's
Joe Cordina. I gotta tell you, just point blank, I'm
underwhelmed by seeing that Chaquur is back. But I'm underwhelmed
by that your reaction.
Speaker 1: I'd say Cordeina is the more interesting fight to me
than seeing him fight Ardham Hartytunian like he did in
his last fight in July. I mean that's my opinion.
I mean maybe so just might disagree. Now, Cordina was
a good fighter. At one point thirty, he had two
reigns with the IVF title, and it really should have
been only one. The only reason it was two because
at one point he got stripped of his belt because
he had a hand injury and couldn't make a timely
mandatory and then he was in line to get the
next shot when it was better, which he did, and
he won the fight in the tremendous battle against rock
him off, and he regained the belt. But it really
should have just been one title ran. But the main
point here is this, in his last fight that took
place a few months ago, he was a huge favorite
against you know, Anthony Cassachi, a fighter that you know
was nobody gave a chance to Frankly and then didn't
have the resume to looked like he could do anything.
Certainly didn't look good in the one loss he had
before that. I mean, it was a big time mismatch
on paper, but you know, that's why they fight the
fights apparently, And he not only won the fight, but
he pretty much dominated Cordeinia, knocked him out and won
the title. And so Cordina's going up to one hundred
and thirty five pounds and he's getting the shot against
share Court. Now. Shakoort had been already ordered to fight
Williams Apeida and Williams the PAIDA is the mandatory in
the WBC's also number one in the other organizations, and
the WC had ordered the Purspit and so the purspid
was supposed to take place on August twentieth, So we're
taping this on August twenty second. It was supposed to
be two days ago, and it got canceled because Golden Boy,
which is the promoter for THEE Beta and Chaquur's team
whoever was doing the business on his behalf. I'm not.
I think Eddie Hearn was sort of in the background,
even though now he's signed with Eddie, or maybe it
was just his lawyer, manager James Prince, in their return.
But the point was they had come to some kind
of agreement like that they were going to do the fight,
and they asked the WBC to cancel the person and
then suddenly the Cordeina fight is announced. So I'm not
sure exactly what happened in terms of what went down
that changed it, and we have a deal to like
we're going to do Cordina. But now fast forward to
a couple of days after Turkey's announcement, and it was
earlier today meeting Thursday, that Matroom Boxing formally announced in
a full press release in the whole Mind that they
have signed Chakhor Stephenson. So he's now signed a multi
fight deal with Matchroom Boxing. And in the context of
that press announcement, they were talking about we're doing this
fight against Cordeena on this we had season card on
October twelfth, and we'll look forward to the mandatory against
Williams Ofpada. So my understanding that jobs of what I
have been told, which is that Chakor and Cordina will
go forward. The WBC will give their blessing Zapeida and
Golden Boy in their side. They are not gonna, you know,
look to cause trouble. They're going to, you know, as
they say, go along to get along. And Zapaida will
have some other time of fight before the end of
this year, whether that's a Golden Boys show somewhere in
the United States, or he fights on another one of
the big Saudi cards that will take place this year,
you know who knows, but he'll fight. And if Zapeida
is the winner of his fight and Schakor takes care
of Cordina, then uh and Turkey has talked about this
also that they'll do against the Peeda, which is a
tremendous fight. I mean it may not be that's but
that's a hell of a fight.
Speaker 2: That's an intriguing fight. And I've said that to you
over and over again.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, But that was the only thing I was.
Speaker 2: Thinking when you were saying that if you're Zupeida, do
you want to take the risk in another fight He
just recently fought what earlier this month, right or did
he fight late last month? Is a paida whatever it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, you want to take the risk.
Speaker 2: If you're in nine for the Shakur fight, you're just
going to fight a low level guy that has a
little chance to beat you, or what do you find me?
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't know who he's gonna fight. But
you know a lot of times, you know, I'm I'm
against tune up fights. Do you do the fight when
you get it. But there's no reason for him to
sit around a way, he's a really outstanding fighter. We're
not gonna match him super tough, and the it is
prize fighting and if you get beat, you get beat.
And by the way, Shakurse stevens and if Cordina pulls
the upset, then he's in the same boat ash as
the paid if he were to lose. So you know,
you can't plan too far, but you can put the
put the ground work together that if the situation gets
screwed up, so be it. I mean, that's life. But
the bottom line is if they come through the fights
and they vote and they keep their word, we'll see
a fascinating matchup between shak Or ends the Paida, which
I think is a fantastic fight. I would hope if
they do that match, that they would find it a
good place to do that here in the United States.
That's a you know, I understand Saudi Arabi is putting
on a lot of the fights, and you know, I
don't know if they would look to put that in
one of like a safe for example, like the Fury
Usk undercard, or maybe have it headline its own no
read card maybe you know the Read season, the brand,
you know, Turkey. They plan to do other events in
the United States. I could certainly see that headlining an
event here in America, but who knows. I mean, the
main thing is it looks like that's the fight we're
going to see. So it'll be interesting as I do
a little more reporting to find out exactly what happened
in terms of what happened to Like Okay, we've got
a deal for Supaida and then suddenly, like twenty four
hours later, we're fighting Coordina money talks and from matrom Boxing.
Now you know they signed Shakor. Eddie's been submitting it
with Shakur, you know for a long time. You know,
they were hanging out together in LA at the Crawford
Magm fight. They sat with each other, you know, Eddie
introduced Shakur to Turkey al Chic at that event, and
you know they're doing business now. And I mean, look
one thing about Eddie Hern He's gonna shout Shakur's name
from the rooftop and he's gonna get him a lot
of attention and a lot of publicity, no doubt.
Speaker 2: And we know this. He's betting on himself, and I
can assure you he's cashing in big time with Turkey
al Chic and Read Season here for this fight with
Cordina and then we'll see what is his headline fight? Dude?
Is that back on a read season card? Is it
just a Mattum card. We'll find out. But there was
great debate about is Shakur making the right move going
away from top ranks? So we'll see, all right. So
the rest of the undercard features Christian Bank, pretty loaded
car Well, it has a great heavyweight fight that we
were touching on with Wordley and Clark in a rematch.
It has Jay Up a tie on it. So go
over this just again real quick here on the undercard.
Speaker 1: So they put the poster artwork I mentioned, so I
assume if it's following the same scenario that they did
when they did the same sort of poster art when
they announced their Day of Reckoning, when they announced other events,
when they announced the Madrumov and Crawford fight, that they
put them on in sort of the order they're doing,
so I'll go in that order. So the main event
that we talked about is the light heavyweight undisputed with
Arthur better Bee and the major people. Then comes Chaquor
against Cordina and the next fight down And it kind
of seemed those a little too high on the card
in my mind based on what else is there. But
they're doing a fight between Chris Hubank Junior who is
now working with Boxer. And also this is also of
interest as aide aside to what we're talking about. These
Saudi cards have been largely you know, Queensberry and Mattrium centric.
That's how they did the five on five and you
know Fury and these other events they have done. And
I mean there's been other promoters involved. I mean Top
Rank's been involved with certain fights, and you know in
the La FI, PBC had a bunch of guys on
the card, but largely they've been Frank Warren and Eddie
Hern type fight cards. But they brought Broxer in big time,
and Boxer is very heavily involved with this particular card
and cruising with Chris Eubanks, so he's fighting. I think
it's a mismatch against camille' zara meta. Anybody that follows
the sport closely knows that camille' Zarametta, you know, was
a mandatory challenger and got pummeled and knocked out by
a Gnati Glovkin and a title defense that took place
in Florida inside the bubble during COVID, and he's he's
like four zero to two since four wins and two draws,
but he has not fought anybody. I don't I don't
really quite get what this what they're trying to do
with this fight. But that's the next fight. And then
after that was the rematch from the fantastic fight in
March that was between the big British heavyweights Fabio Wardley
and Fraser Clark. They put on a fantastic fight. It
was one of those fights that was ruled they draw
that actually really frankly should have been a draw like
it was that close. And my thoughts and I think
commentary I saw from many others, both fans and other
media that that was a fair score and they put
on a fight of the Year type contender and they're
going to do the match. And what the interesting thing
about a TJ is this, When they did the original
fight at the end of March, they put it on
as the main event on a Sky Sports card and
they put like fifteen eighteen thousand in the two Arena
in London, and it was like a big deal. And
obviously based on what they did in that first fight,
that they would want to have had the rematch and
headline its own card and do another big gate at
an two or some other whatever big arena in the
UK you can find. And I know this because I
talked to some people that were involved. Had it not
wound up on this read season card, they were having
conversations about possibly Boxer and Sky Sports doing it as
the main event of a pay per view because of
how great the first fight wasn't, how much attention to
God and what a big crowd they drew and everything.
But now it winds up as the fourth fight down
the card in Saudi Arabia, so it's the British heavyweight title.
It does seem kind of like a fish out of
water that you're contesting the British heavyweight title in read
Saudi Arabia. But that's the way life goes. And also,
I guess partly because the British Boxing Board of Control
are the regulatory agency that oversees most of these fight
cards that takeria. So but that whatever whatever it is
in terms of where it is or what placement is
on the cart, that's a great fight matchup because the
first fight we expected a good fight, we got a
better fight than I think anybody expected, and the rematch
is something that a lot of people want to see
and so that's a to me, that's the term I've
used for that match. That's the meat on the bone
for the undercart. That's like a real first class kind
of matchup, and the winner of that fight is definitely
in line for something big in a very active and
busy heavyweight division, particularly with the interest of the Turkey
that have been doing so many of the heavyweight fights,
that the winner is going to be in a great spot.
And Wardley has fought on a previous Saudi Arabia card
also and kind of gained their attention to some degree,
So great matchup. On that one, and then you mentioned
Opataia is defending the cruiserweight title against Jack Massey, who
has been a career cruiserweight, but he has jumped up
and fought some fights at heavyweight. He gave Joseph Parker
a pretty tough fight not that long ago. He lost
a decision, but he won some rounds. Tough guy. And
now he's back in a more natural weight glass Opataia
will still be the big favorite, but he's now also
involved with the Saudi's and they're keeping an eye on him.
They've been putting him on these shows. He's coming off,
you know, his second victory in a row against Myra
or not in a row, but he won both fights
of the rivalry between him and Myras Bredest in the
last fight that was on a Saudi Arabia card back
when Fury fought against Alexander Usik. So great to see
Opataiya back. He's the number one cruiserweight in the world.
He's a lineal champ, he's the IVF champ. He's exciting,
he's a big puncher. His future is gonna definitely be
as a heavyweight, and so he's finding a guy in
this in Nasty who has been a cruiserweight but has
experience as a heavyweight. So I'm not sure if that
was by design but or just a way that it
worked out. But so that's that fight. And then you
get into the rest of that card. You have Ben Whittaker,
who is the very flashy and flamboyant Olympic Olympic silver
medalist from Britain, very unorthodox, the kind of guy that
everybody either loves or hates. They just they watch him.
But he you know, he he.
Speaker 2: Gets quick footnote less clowning from this guy. He's talented,
but he's turning things into clown shows. Let's see less
clowning from Ben Whittaker. Or if I'm making requests on
a preview pot.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna clown, do it when you actually have
a little more experience or like an actual resume that
that you've proved, you've proven something exactly. So he's taking
on a fighter named Liam Cameron in a ten rounder,
another boxer fighter by the way, and then you have
the w This is I guess that will turn out
to be a historical footnote. I suppose that of all
the REA season cards that have happened, there has never
yet been a women's boxing match on one of those shows.
Now there has been a women's fight in Saudi Arabia.
We don't have to go through the litigate the history
of their treatment of women.
Speaker 2: This just into the newsroom. Women's rights in Saudi Arabia
ain't what they are, and the rest of the free
world agreed.
Speaker 1: So they did do. Like ram La Ali fought on
a matchroom card that was in Saudi Arabia, you know,
not that long ago. But in terms of the read
season cards, Sky Nicholson is going to defend her WBC
Women's featherweight title against the undefeated British fighter Raven Chapman
on that card, so there is some historical irrelevance there.
And then there's a pro debut of another fighter that
I don't really never really heard of. So but those
are the main fights that we just discussed. I mean,
it's a very loaded card. There's a lot of interesting.
Speaker 2: Let me let me go over again with Satour, Schakour Cordina.
We get a Chris Ubank sighting which the British fans
love him, Wardley Clark in a rematch opa tie in
a title defense at Cruiserway Plus Whittaker plus a women's
world title fight. Again, they're not paying us to say that,
but there's been a lot worse being offered for fifty nine, nine,
seventy nine, and no, forget how much would you pay?
Speaker 1: So, by the way, don't forget the most important thing
this is all that we're talking about, is in addition
to the best fight on the boxing schedule of this year,
and that's the undisputed light heavyweight title between Arthur better
Biev and Dmitri buvol So. The rest of it's gravy
in my mind. I mean, all right, you know, I
mean there's different there's different levels of the competitiveness on paper.
I mean, you gotta love, like I said, just a
real quick though schakour Gardina. There's definitely been some people
that don't like that. I get it. I'd personally rather
see there's a Payda fight. I don't I don't hate
the Cordina matchup. I know we did get knocked out
in the last fight, but it's no I don't necessarily
hold that that much against him. Uh. The U Bank's
are meta. I mean, I'm fine having Chris on the card,
even against Sarah Meta. I don't know why it's that
high up on the show, although they could certainly change
their minds at some point. Wordley Clark, great fight, Opataia Massey, Uh,
I don't. I don't think that's it's not an a fight.
That fight. In my mind, that's like a it's like
a B minus kind of defense that should be in
front of the U Bank fight. Sorry. And remember Opataya
has been calling out billim Smith, who's another boxer fighter.
He's willing to fight the top guys. Uh, and that
I guess was not able to happen in this particular instance.
So he's fighting Massy. I got no problem with that
and uh. And then you got Whittakers in a ten
rounder of the continued development fight against a guy that's
you know, a veteran and uh. And the women's fight,
you know, they're two undefeated women who are gonna, you know,
fight it out for that world title.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that is coming on October the twelfth, So
interesting as we continue to go through the news and
we've got some nostalgia coming up. Then in the days
after that, in Japan, not one but two fight cards
have been announced for the Sunday and the Monday on
the thirteenth and the fourteenth in Tokyo. Tell me more
about what's going on.
Speaker 1: So this is at the same arena of the Ariyaki Arena.
So I had heard about some of these fights that
they were doing. I didn't realize they were going to
be split up among two days. I'm not sure why
they're doing that. They're both, you know, the same promotion,
same teek in boxing. Both shows will be shown in
the United States in those early morning hours on ESPN Plus.
And as we've discussed numerous times on a dork for
these Japanese events, on these two shows they're doing, they've
got when Top Rank announced all the particulars eight separate.
It's eight total fights split over the two shows, four
on one for on the other. Some of them are world
title fights, and the one that's not a world title
fight is the continued development of the kickboxer turn pro
boxer Tension Nasakawa, who's looked really good in those last
couple of fights. He's an up and coming fighter. He's
fighting at bantam weight, he's undefeated, he looked great in
the last fight. He's also a superstar in Japan, so
he's high up on the card because a lot of
the fans that turn out or watch on their TV,
they definitely tune in and buy tickets for him. But
in terms of the main event on each day on
the on the card, that's the first one that's on
the October thirteenth date, he got Takuma in a way,
who was of course the brother of Noya in a way.
He is defending the WBA bhantam waite title against a
fighter named seyah Suits sum Suit Sumi. That's the main
event of that that particular card, and the other main
event is the guy that we all love on the
on the next day, the fourteenth, and that's Jentto Nakatani,
who was, you know, one of the most exciting and
interesting fighters in the whole sport. He's defending his WBC
bhantamwaite title. Both dantam white titles, by the way, are
in the main event. So maybe they're trying to set
up I think they may be trying to set up
Knakatani against in a way, because after Nakatani's last fight,
they talked about him against in a way, and so
maybe they're gonna put it off one fight and then
come their next rotation, they'll they'll match up and they'll unify,
and if Junto Nakatani continues to win, you know, I
guess the plan might be, which would be a humongous
fight in Japan's certainly would be Nakatani going up to
one twenty two to take on the undisputed champion, which
is in a way and it would be like you
know the old Clichko situation, revenge of the brother right
when when a clitch Goo lost to Chris Bird, Batally
lost to Chris Bird and then Vladimir got He didn't
do a rematch with the Tally, he had to fight
Vladimir and Vladimir Pomel them won the heavyweight bell from him.
So anyway, so you got Jonto Nakatani against that Thailand
fighter petch sort Chipatana. Uh, that'll be that main event,
and then they've taste gave sprinkled in a bunch of
other title fight. He got our boy Canciro Taraji, who's
moved up in wait from junior fly weight. He's supposed
he was supposed to fight Julio Caesar Martinez, but that
that went down the drain because Julio Caesar Martinez, you know,
was filled to the gills of pds for the last fight,
so he's out of that situation. So he's taken on
a former role Titlder and Christopher Rosales for the vacant
WBC flywaight title, and Taraji always brings a good fight,
so that's then further down that card, you got the
WBA's flyweight title. Your boy Sego yuri Akui. He's taken
on another Thailand fighter whose name I'm not going to
try to pronounce it.
Speaker 2: At this At this point, you're using the your boy
on me way too liberally.
Speaker 1: They can't know you got two boys g Kabel and
Segy if you say so, okay, yeah. And then for
the vacant w BO Junior Flyway title, you got uh
Ah Shokichi Iwata from Japan against Hiro Noriega. Not big
names obviously, but you know, a little depth to that show.
And then you move on to the Sunday card and
besides Nakatani, you got the Tension fight. He's going to
continue his development in a ten rounder, and then you
got two other title fights. He got Cocy Tanaka against
uh you know, Fumkfu Uh for the WBO Junior bandam
Way title. That Tanaka has and then the fight where
I've reported about where they were trying to do it
and they couldn't get the purse been done and they
finally made a deal. Uh Anthony Olascagua, who looked really
good when he won the title, the WBO Flyway title.
He's taken on Jonathan Gonzalez, who was the former Junior
Flyway title, was moving up in weight. That's actually on paper,
that's a very interesting fight to me. He got the
real good punching power of the champion against the real
skillful quickness of Jonathan Gonzalez, so that, you know, we'll
see who can impose their style on the other guy.
They're both with the same promoter, in Tudo's Abala from
All Star Boxing. They were he was having trouble making
the deal with Jonath Goanzaz, but I guess they got
all that stuff done and now we've got to fight.
So it's a ton of action. We're waking up early
on two days to watch Japanese fights.
Speaker 2: So yeah, but yeah, you've got the better bbvol main
event and then all those other fights you listed, which
is on the Saturday the twelfth, in the afternoon US
time in Saudi Arabia, and then you got these two
fights Sunday morning, Monday morning, US time, Sunday night, Monday night.
It's quite the it's quite the extended weekend for boxing
in and around the NFL season, in college football here
in the United States, et cetera, Baseball playoffs.
Speaker 1: I'll be Japanese boxing.
Speaker 2: That's all Japanese boxing for breakfast. As we'd like to say,
the corn flakes and the Japanese boxing will be flowing.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: A couple more items that we're not on the recap podcast,
but there's actually a recap of the Wednesday night Pro
Box main event that had former Unified Junior Middleway champs
Jared Jared Hurd and Jason Rosario. And this ended up
being competitive and ended up being.
Speaker 1: No winner, as it turns out. Give me a quick thought, yeah,
it turned out to be a split draw. I mean,
this was like an old man kind of fight, but
both guys looking to do something to try to salvage
their careers to kind of get back into any kind
of contention. To be honest, Rosario had announced his retirement
and I guess came out of retirement. Jared has had
layoffs and but now you know, he's back. And at
one time Jared Hurd was the unquestioned king of one
hundred and fifty four pounds. He had won the fight
of the year against Arisloni Laara and he had various
belts and you know, tremendous.
Speaker 2: Fight until we keep talking about it until the homecoming fight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then he got beat by Jay by Jay Rock.
And by the way that his homecoming was in the
arena that is the closest possible arena to where I live.
Because he's from Akakeik, Maryland, which is just over the river,
so you know, fighting in Fairfax, Virginia is a home
game for him. And like I said, they fought in
the arena on the campus of George Mason University, which
is I think in a straight line down the high
down the main drag in my town. It's like six
or seven miles from my house, but it's right in
our neighborhood. Basically, like I said, the closest conceivable venue
you can do a boxing event unless I was able
to buy a fight at a person and put it
on my.
Speaker 2: Cul He lost that fight and he hasn't been the
same fighter when he lost that fight to Jay Rock.
Speaker 1: The main thing here is like these are two guys
that are doing their thing. They both at one time
were winning fights. They both were unified champs. Uh, they
both had you know, exciting fights. Rozario was a big puncher,
nightbe not the best chin. Jared, even when he's lost,
always shown a good chin. But anyway, so they they fought. Uh,
you know PBC, they've been with for years. They helped
arrange this fight and put it on the Pro Box card,
which has been doing some nice fights, kind of filling
the gap of what there what there isn't lately in boxing,
which is that middle class the kind of fights that
we used to see on Friday night fights on ESPN
two or if you go back, you know a few
years before that, which I used to watch religiously, the
Tuesday night fights on us a ham work. But what
Probox is doing are those caliber kind of shows. They
may not have, you know, huge world championship fights and
that sort of thing, but they've they've got some names. Look,
I mean Angelo Leo, who just won the featherweight belt
in that spectacular knockout against Jose against rather Luis Alberto Lopez.
He got his comeback wins and won like three fights
in a row. I believe it was on pro Box
cards against you know, pretty decent opposition and that was
able to launch him into the title fight. So anyway,
that's a plug for Probox TV. They've been doing a
nice job. You know, our guys Chris Algeria and Polymlanaji
duel the most of the commentary over there. Anyway, this
was a close fight. It was a pretty good fight.
And here's the thing. Ninety six ninety four for her,
ninety six ninety four in favor of Rosario ninety five
ninety five and Jared Hurd, if he goes back and
watches the fight is going to eat his heart out
because he gave away the tenth round like he didn't
give a shit, and that was what made the difference
if he.
Speaker 2: Won many times, do we that in the recap mode
that you've got to finish strong. You've got to finish
strong in the last round or two, even if you
think you've won the fight.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, it's not it's one thing if you
feel like the guy's dead, tired, or he's heard and
like he's struggling, and you know, maybe he just can't
get through the round, or he's got nothing left and
he's all right, right, you know, understandable. That did not
seem to be the case in this. I mean I
can't I was not in his body, but I've watched
a million Jared Herd fights and whatever. He certainly did
not seem like he was in some way, shape or
form compromised or you know, out of gas or tired.
He just seemed disinterested. The Jared Hurt in his prime,
which is not fair enough, was a punching, fucking machine.
He had stamina and he just let it all hang out.
He was the most brutal guy in the world to fight,
because from one to ten or one to twelve, he
was forcing the action. He was all over you. You
could not get away from it. He would just hammer
you down. Which is output output output output. That guy's gun,
that ticker does not an engine is not there anymore.
And by the way, gave the fight away.
Speaker 2: Basically, by and by the way, I've probably been derelict
because Plant City, Florida. You're talking about how close the
arena is in Fairbanks, Plant City.
Speaker 1: Florida, about fab Sorry, fair I don't live in Alaska.
Speaker 2: You don't live in Alaska. Fairfax, Virginia, not Fairbanks, Alaska.
Plant City, Florida, about thirty thirty five minutes from me,
named for Henry B. Plant who was the guy that
basically founded a lot of the infrastructure and the money
for Tampa, Florida. Plant City, Florida, known for its strawberries
and the strawberry Festival. Brother rayphel every come get the
best strawberry shortcake in the world. But they've had those
probox shows there now for a couple of years in
Plant City, Florida, and obviously I've been a little direct.
Maybe I need to go check one of them out midweek,
especially if they've got the bigger names. All right, so
you gave us the recap on that. Are two more
news items you mentioned about ji Opataia and defeating Marius
Braidis in his most recent fight, and Braidas has now
decided as the former lineal cruiserweight champ and unified Cruiserweight
champ until Opataia has beaten him a couple of times,
has decided that's it on his career. Reflect reflect for
me and do we really believe that he's retired? Is
anybody truly retired?
Speaker 1: Go ahead? Well, he had a fifteen year career. I mean,
he's what thirty nine years old. He was never a
unified champion, but he was the lineal champion. But at
different times in his career. He had won individually the
IBF title, the WBO title, and the WBC title, which
he had been stripped of one of those first crazy reasons.
But we don't have to get all the dirty details,
but I'll put it like this, Myras Braidest fought a
lot of fights at a heavyweight. As a heavyweight, has
a knockout win against Manuel char who was a decent contender,
fought clitzcow Batali Clitschko for the WBC heavyweight title, then
held the WB's regular heavyweight title. So that's a pretty
good win for him. But he really came into his
own when he finally went down to the cruiserweight division,
and he fought a lot of good fighters, you know
he did. The only fights he ever lost were the
two Opataia fights. First, I was super close. And the
only other fight he lost besides Yopatai fights was when
he was in a unification fight during the first incarnation.
I think you no it was this? Was it? This? Yeah?
The first incarnation of the cruiserweight World Boxing Super Series,
he lost a very close fight. He probably gave Alexander
Usik the toughest fight of his career, but he lost
just barely in that fight. So if you lose to
USA close, like you know, you're a pretty good fighter, obviously.
And then went on and one other fights against other
top names that were in that weight class. He beat
my one of my favorite cruiserweights, Marko Hook, uh you know,
on Hook's turf in Germany. That was a big win
for him when he won the vacant WBC title, and
he had other fights against other name guys he fought against,
like you know, Christoph was it against GLOWACKI as a
victory against him. I mean he was a real guy.
I mean he he could box, he could punch a
little bit, finishes with a good record twenty eight wins,
three losses and twenty knockouts lost in the in the
or no, I take that back. He won in the
he did. When the World Boxing Super Series did their
their tournaments, they picked cruiserweight in two of the different incarnations.
In the first tournament, he lost to Usik, like I mentioned.
In the second tournament, he actually won against Juniel Dordikos,
who was a former champion. Also that was a unification.
I believe it was unification, but a tremendous puncher who's
now actually up to be the mandatory for Zerdo Ramirez. Anyway,
like he fought all the top guys at that point.
He you know, he has a win over Noel McAllion,
who currently holds the WBC title. He has a knockout
like I said, against Milwaki, you know, and and he
also had to win, like I said, against the Dorda Coast,
which actually, now that I think about it, it was
not it should have been a unification, but he'd been stripped.
But when he fought Dorda Coast, it was still for
the IBF title. Uh that he won in that fight.
So he has a lot of accomplishment against the top
guys of his time. You know, you put all those
names in, Uh, those are pretty good cruiserweights, I would
tell you, like this, the cruiserweight division, which wasn't created
in until like the nineteen eighties, so it doesn't have
that kind of history obviously of some of the more
traditional weight classes. But I think that it's absolutely a
reasonable conversation to have that greatest based on what he's done,
is one of the top ten cruiserweights in boxing since
the division was created. And that's a division. So people
can think about who I'm talking about, you know, in
no particular order. You're talking about Evander Holyfield, Alexander Usk,
David Hay, Thomas Adameck. You know, I said Myers, Braidest.
I mean those types of guys. There's a lot of
good fighters that have come through Deers. You know. Now,
James Tony had a cruiserweight title, but only for a
minute because he only won the title and then moved
up right away. The man he beat for the title
was a tremendous cruiser weight for a long time. That's
Vacilly Jurroff. So I put Braidest sort of in that
conversation of the top cruiser weights of all time. And
so you know what, he announced the retirement, very heartfelt
announcement on his social media. I feel, like you said,
is he really done? I'm thinking that thirty nine and
the tough fights he's had, like he probably is done,
But you never say never.
Speaker 2: Agreed that battle. Earlier this year, in the rematch with
OPATAI and they both broke their nose, and it was
kind of a neat moment where they're both in the
emergency room. Yeah, and he took a selfie and said, hey,
we're both here in the emergency room in separate, you know,
beds across from each other in the emergency room bay
getting broken noses tended to. So there you go on
Marius bradst Okay and one more, speaking of injuries, Sergei
de Revyonchenko. We talked about this coming off the weekend
with the torn bicep. You could graphically see it during
the mobility fight that he tore it and continued to
fight on after tearing the bicep early on in the fight.
And you've learned that he is going to be laid
up if he even fights anymore.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, the main thing is I talk I checked
in because I always like to follow up with if
I can get the information and find out what's up
with guys who may have suffered some type of injury
in their fight, you know, instead of just letting it
go and forgetting about it. I think they deserve at
least have people know what's you know, as long as
they're willing to tell you what happened. So I spoke
to devren Chenko's manager, which is Keith Connelly, who managed
just you know, several fighters, but devren Cheko is a
guy who's been with for quite a while. So they
visited the doctor. He was with him in New York.
They went to the doctor, uh you know, was Sergei
and his manager, Keith Connelly, and the wife, uh, Sergey's wife.
They visited the doctor and he was diagnosed. It was actually,
I guess it wasn't diagnosed officially as a torn bicep.
The way that it was described to me by Keith
was that he tore the tendon that connects the byseep
muscle to the elbow in his left arm, and obviously
that is that's what caused him all the problems, or
not all the problems, but that's certainly hampered him in
the fight. It happened in the fourth round.
Speaker 2: Extremely painful by the way, Oh yeah, yeah, obviously.
Speaker 1: And the tendon had rolled up all the way to
the top of his us. So they got the diagnosis.
You know, he had undergone tests, of course, and so anyway,
it wasn't one hundred percent which day it's going to be,
but Keith said to me that the surgery will be
on either Monday or Tuesday of next week. And uh,
you know, all we can say is we wish devonn
Chenko was speedy recovered.
Speaker 2: And as you said coming out of is if there's
another fighter that's made the money the derevian Chenko was
made with what did you say? Sixteen and five record?
Show to me he's doneeen and six fifteen and six.
Sorry I had that reversed. He's done well and is
he done don't know, but now he's got a significant injury.
All right, nostalgia time before we conclude here twenty six
years ago as we released his podcast on October twenty second,
nineteen ninety eight, Rayphail, I remember this fight Ivan Robinson
Arturo Gatti, the fight of the Year for nineteen ninety
eight All Out Brawl. Tell me tell me more about
remembrances of this anniversary in the nostalgia.
Speaker 1: Well, number one, it was the nineteen ninety eight fight
of the year by most people. Ring Magazine picked it
as the fight of the year. And the thing about
it is, and this is like the classic example when
we talk about not like worrying about if a fighter
loses a fight ar Turro. Gotti was in many ways
like bulletproof to the loss because he was that exciting
in that entertaining that if he took a loss like okay,
his fans didn't desert him. They just wanted to see
more of them. And you know, for his sake, hope
comes back and scores a big win and looks good
in the next fight. But they never held the losses
against mem He was a guy that once lost three
fights in a row and was still fighting on HBO.
So in this particular fight, they took place in Atlantic City,
where he was a beloved figure in nineteen ninety eight,
he knocked Ivan Robinson down in the fourth round. And
Robinson was like a slick boxer but would like to
engage also, and it was in some exciting fights. I mean,
they had styles that really meshed well. They liked each other,
you know, that was one thing about Gaddy, like he
seemed to always like his opponents for the most part,
not everybody, but he had a good relationship. Obviously he
became great friends with Mickey Ward, but him and Ivan
Robinson had huge respect for each other. You know, they
laughed and joked with each other. Not only by the
way was it picked as the Ring Magazine Fight of
the Year nineteen ninety eight, but it was also the
upset of the year because Goaddy was heavily favored obviously
to win the fight, and this was right before he
took a you know, he was supposed to move on
to bigger and better things. But the Robinson fight, which
he lost, was such a fantastic fight that they did
it again, and the second fight was a tremendous battle,
so was also super close, and he ended up losing
that fight too, and that's just the way it goes.
But again, because of Gaddy, who he was, nobody really
cared that he lost fights. You know, like I've said
a million times again, Gaddy is my all time favorite fighter.
I never cared or held it against him. He lost
three fights in a row because before you know, the
Robinson fight, I don't think anybody said it was going
to be like a super easy fight, but he was
coming off of the loss against angel Manfreddy, which was
a fight that he lost, you know, in the beginning
of nineteen ninety In January of that year, that was
when he had moved up to the one hundred and
thirty five pound way class that vacated the title at
one thirty just couldn't make the weight anymore. Was coming
off the spectacular again fight of the year by some
people against Gabriel Rowellis that was a spectacular fight. Had
to fight with man Freddy another tremendous fight that got
stopped on the cut, and then they were supposed to
get him like you know, not I can't say an
easy fight, but I get better kind of fight against
Robinson and he lost the fight and then he lost.
Speaker 2: And if you go back and watch this fight, could
you could have fought it as you like my analogies
on a bathroom Matt. I mean, there was not a
lot of lateral movement. It was just toe to tow
for a lot of this close quarters along the ropes,
you know, and he was close to he could have
won the fight.
Speaker 1: I mean, he had Robinson down in the fourth round.
You know, he had clipped him with a nice shot
right on the side of the head, like you thought,
like one of those temple shots where you lose your balance. Yep,
maybe he would lose the count from the ref but
he got up and Ivan Robinson had big balls and
a big heart, no doubt about it. You know, Gaddy typical.
His eyes were all puffy, and you know we had
marks and everything. But you know, just the thing about
Gaddy is everybody thinks about the Mickey Word trilogy because
that's the most famous one. And obviously the first fight
is so legendary, and the third fight was the fight
of the year, but there are so many other fights
that Artaro had that were sensational. Both of the Ivan
Robinson fights. We're talking about the first one obviously, and
I mentioned before that two fights earlier. You had the
Ruelles fight that was the fight of the year. And
then there's my personal favorite fight of Gaddy besides the
Ward fight, and that's the defense against Wilson Rodriguez at
the Madison Square Garden Theater. That's as dramatic as it gets,
where the doctors in the corner cover your eye, you know,
his eyes closed up, and he goes out there, he's
been knocked around and he finally ends it on a
massive shot. I mean, the drama that he brought, that's
why people beloved well, you know, he was a beloved figure,
and the Ivan Robinson to me, in many ways encapsulates
that because he lost the fight that he should have won,
to be quite honest with you, but nobody cared because
it was such a great fucking fight. And and you know,
HBO loved the action. The crowd loved the action. Did
you know he was doing great ratings on on the show.
And oh so he fucking lost, big fucking Gill. You
clean him up, give him a rest, and when he
decides he's ready to come back, you bring him back.
And that was what Gaddy was all about. And I mean,
there's so many fans out there that just they they
weren't alive or they were watching backing back then. But
you can't even understand the joy in the excitement that
Gaddy would bring when he'd have a fight, Like you
just go and watch the fight. You're like, I know,
there's something special is gonna happen. Because Arturro got he's
fighting tonight. That's the anticipation. You know, it didn't matter
that it wasn't It didn't matter. It's not like a
huge title fight or it's you know, a pound for
pound is at stake, or even in this case, a
world championship. It was just like, this guy is going
to be in the ring, and he's in with a
good opponent and we're going to see something that we're
never going to forget. And you know what, more often
than not, that's what Gaddy gave us. And this was
a perfect example of that.
Speaker 2: Love that all right, one more nostalgia note. And we
did talk about this a couple of different times here recently,
including the anniversary of the death of Salvador Sanchez and
also his final fight having been three weeks before that.
Speaker 1: It's just it's just the confluence, right.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty two was what we're talking about. Well, let's
go back forty three years ago. The official date of
the Wilfredo Gomez fight is August twenty one, which is
Wednesday of this past week, forty three years ago.
Speaker 1: And you are still a yellow death this past week yesterday.
Speaker 2: It was yesterday as we do this now, right yesterday,
the twenty first, nineteen eighty one. You're still salivating? Did
you you have since we talked about this last You've
now watched this how many times? Two?
Speaker 1: Four more times? Yeah? I mean I went back and
watched I was doing back.
Speaker 2: What did you discover anything else that you didn't remember whatever?
From that fight? Great action, Mexico, Puerto Rico, all those
angles and a great win for Sanchez.
Speaker 1: Right. I can't say I discovered anything new, but you know,
because it was the anniversary, I did take the occasion
to watch the fight again. I'm easily available on YouTube.
I've got a beautiful DVD of the broadcast, and I
was doing a piece for my substack. And if you're
not subscribing, you know, shame on you. But in the piece,
I went through and I wrote a little bit about
the fight and used it as the jumping off point
because as people know, I'm a collector and i've personally
I've gone out of my way, uh and hunted down
a number of items that come from the fight. The program,
which is extremely rare, two different versions of the poster,
which is extremely rare, you know, credential. I have this
like big, cool looking it's like a big sticker that
was you know, given away at the fighter. I don't
even know what how I was distributed, but it's from
the fight.
Speaker 2: You have all of that memorabilia, but you still in
search of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I actually wrote that in the piece, I said,
I don't The two things I don't have are a
ticket from the fight and a press kit from the fight.
So if anybody's listening, who's got a Salvador Sanchez wel
Frado Gomez ticket or press kit, hit me up on
social and.
Speaker 2: Or if you here's another thing, if you know somebody
that is a collector and might have it because you
actually had somebody reach out to you, if you're substack
with hey, I know a guy, like speaking of Gotti
the third and John Gotti, I know a guy. I
know a guy that might have a ticket to Sanchez
Gold Mills forty three years ago.
Speaker 1: So this is a fight. As I wrote, I mean,
there are a few things in boxing that I've obsessed
over for years, whether it's this fight or the Four
Kings fights and a few other things. But I just
love this fight. We talked about Puerto Rico, Mexico a
lot in terms of the boxing rivalry that's in the
news right now, because that's what's one of the main
talking points of the fight coming up in a few
weeks between Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanka. Well, in my opinion,
in Salvador Sanchez against Wilfredo Gomez is the granddaddy of
that rivalry. It's not the first fight in the rivalry.
But to me, it's the most action pack, the most significant,
the best, the most important. You know, it's just a marvelous, marvelous, outstanding,
phenomenal fight between two great fighters who were in the
Hall of Fame for different reasons. You know, you can
certainly make a clear argument that Wilfredo Gomez might be
the number one Puerto Rican fighter of all time Sanchez
if you're not picking Chavez. A lot of people say
it's Sanchez.
Speaker 2: He'm Mexican great, right, right, correct.
Speaker 1: Remember he's only twenty three years old. He died like
about one year after this fight. He was making his
sixth defense. And the thing about it was, he's the
reigning featherweight WBC champion, you know, having a great career
and you know, winning against great, top opponents, and now
he's got Gomez, who at that point is definitely his
best opponent. I think to most people's minds, Gomez was
the champion in the one hundred and twenty two pound
weight class who was coming up with weight class. But
he was a massive, massive puncher. He had scored a draw,
he had been in a draw in his pro debut,
and then he knocked out his next thirty two opponents
in a row. I mean he's not screwed around in
cred either, right, fourteen consecutive fights in terms of title
defenses at one hundred twenty he ultimately went because after
he lost to Sanchez, he went back down to one
hundred and twenty two and he continued to defend the
title a few more times. So in all, he has
the record for seventeen junior featherweight title defenses and may
I add seventeen title defenses, all by knockout. So when
these two guys met, this is like the number one
Mexican fighter at the time, who was the champ clearly
in a big time fight against the Puerto Rican legend
who's a longtime champion, who has.
Speaker 2: Knocked out seventeen title challengers in a row, right, fourteen
in a row at that point going into this fight.
Speaker 1: That's but thirty back teacher, he was thirty two to
zero to one going into the fight, had a draw
in his pro debut, and then knocked out thirty two
guys in a row. And by the way, he had
been in the Olympics in nineteen seventy two. Gomez was
a fucking the real deal there you go. So when
they give up and they have this fight, you know,
and it's mind blowing. I mean. One of the best
things about it, by the way, if you ever go
watch the video, put put the action in the greatness
of the fight aside, is the battle of the bands.
Before they got in the ring. You got the you
got the Mexican music musicians with the Mariotte. Then you
got the you got them competing against the band that's
playing there for the Porto. I don't know if it's
what do they call it? Is it saw some music?
It was probably part of Puerto Rican music. And they're
going at it, you know, and Don King with the
big smile, he's loving it. This was a close circuit fight.
Back in the day, you had to go to usually
a movie theater to watch it, or you know, a
nightclub or a restaurant or something like that, a racetrack
to and buy a ticket to watch.
Speaker 2: I remember watching it a few days later, or maybe
the next week. On the wide world of sports replay,
they would always have the replace ten days later.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a week later. It's probably more like probably
literally probably a multi two later as well. We would
do remember, so yeah, so it did show up there.
But the thing about it was it reminds me a
little bit. One of the fights I covered at the
very beginning of my career was the great fight between
Felix Trinidad and Fernando Vargas, where there's so much anticipation
for the fight, and then in the first round of
that fight, Trinidad knocks Vargas down twice and everybody's like,
especially after the first dock, They're like, fuck, this fight's
over all this anticipation, It's gonna be over in thirty seconds.
It's very similar situation and what happened in Gomez against Sanchez.
It wasn't two knockdowns, but Sanchez dropped him in the
first round, like thirty seconds or so into the fight.
You're like, oh, fuck, this fight's over. Gomez got off
the deck, he survived, and he made it out of
the round. And you know, even though Sanchez was kind
of in control, but Gomes definitely had his moments and
it was competitive. Then it was a tremendous battle, and
then finally the cheek is all swollen up and the
eye is nearly closed and he fucking gets them out.
Of there in the eighth round. But what I mean,
I can watch this fight all day long.
Speaker 2: I can tell YouTube that up, kids, and we cannot
convey enough what a national hero Salvador Sanchez was. And
the legend was growing here because he had had those
two network TVs fights with Danny Little Red Lopez on
US notework TV before this and before the pay per views.
Speaker 1: So and by the way, after after Gomez lost, you know,
he he came back, you know, in night. You know,
he took the rest of nineteen eighty one off and
he was back in the ring in eighty two. He
took a non title fight, or a couple of non
title fights, whatever it was, but he ultimately made like
I said to you, he made three more defenses at
one hundred and twenty two and knocked those guys out.
And by the way, the last of those fights is
another spectacular, all time, legendary fucking fight against another great
Mexican fighter that he you know, he lost to Sanchez,
but this was the one where he won against Loupey Pintor,
spectacular one of the great fights in the history of boxing,
a fourteenth round knockout at the New Orleans Super Dome
on the undercard of a Tommy Hearns cart another sensational,
sensational fight, and he ultimately ended up winning the Featherway title.
You know after that, you know, he didn't get it
against Sanchez, but he won against Juan Laporte in nineteen
eighty four and then got knocked out by a Zuma
Nelson in his next fight. But what a spectacular you know,
go as he's such a He's a guy that I
actually I derelic to not giving him the props. Like
I've grown to love Gomez and I've gone down the
rabbit hole on YouTube and watched tons of his fights.
I mean, if he was fighting today, the adoration he
would be packing houses, the punching power, the personality, the swagger,
the whole thing. I mean, just a spectacular, spectacular fighter.
Speaker 2: Love it, but not That night was forty three years ago,
on Wednesday, the twenty first of August. And if you
have a ducat from that night, a collector's ducket Rayfield
is in the market for a ducat for the Rayfield collection.
He will purchase trade. He will not offer up Young
Rayfield is collateral.
Speaker 1: He'll do so and say that I didn't say that.
Speaker 2: You better you listen. You better be in line because
Missus Rayfield's back in town. You better not be offering
up to young Rayfield. All right, Uh, great stuff here.
I would love to tell the audience that we're handicapping
away on the bet Us Boxing Show, but as we
covered at the beginning of the show, we're not gonna
have that on Friday because there's not a prominent fight.
I don't We got to get creative here on what
we're going to have for the recap if something crazy happens.
I guess in the mayweber Gotti three Gotti the third
pay per view. Maybe yes, But we'll get creative with
other news, other nostalgia, and there may even be an
interview on the recad a couple of couple of options
pending interview coming, couple of options. Stay tuned, be with
us off the weekend on what we call the recap,
and we'll see what we're recapping. Together with that, my friend,
enjoy the rest of this weekend. I will do the same,
and we'll reconvene off the weekend Sunday night and a
Monday on the Fight Freaks Unit Recap podcast.
Speaker 1: On this very feed.
Speaker 2: Thank you Dan Rayfield, Bete there is there you go again.
Follow Subscribe to this podcast feed on Apples, Preaker, Spotify
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