Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves.
Speaker 2: Well, we get ready for a weekend that has fights
that we're interested in from Mexico to Monte Carlow, back
to California and even dare I say it's on the
rundown the Rock of Gibraltar.
Speaker 1: I believe.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: It is the Big Fight Weekend preview pod. I am
the somewhat competent host.
Speaker 1: TJ Reeves. He is our insider.
Speaker 2: Fight Freaks Unit is the substack also with Big Fight
Weekend dot Com.
Speaker 1: Hello Dan Rayfield, good to be back with you.
Speaker 2: And man, we've got a lot to go over now,
I have to say to the audience, not a mega fight,
not a world title fight, but still some interesting bouts
all over the globe. Here to go over, some news
and some nostalgia. Busy, busy here on the program.
Speaker 4: How are things today? This week?
Speaker 3: Things are good, I would say, this week and is
more let's call it quantity than equality.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll see what kind of quality there is.
Is it fair to say, by the way, they need
to rate us, they need to review us. We're coming
to the end of the year. If you enjoy all
the content, the programming.
Speaker 4: Let's get let's get a few reviews.
Speaker 1: Going are the five star reviews?
Speaker 2: People, Let's go, get us a couple, Get us a
couple right now, three or four or five.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 2: If you enjoy the content, the interviews, the banter back
and forth, Rayfield taking two handswings at me. If it
lightens up your Friday mornings, your Thursday nights into Fridays,
or your Sunday nights into Mondays with the recap, tell
us so Apple, Sprinker, Spotify, we love that. Is it
fair to say? I think it's accurate to say that
we have four noteworthy names at the four different locations
fighting four lesser names that we don't know about pretty much.
Speaker 1: But by the same.
Speaker 2: Token, they need wins, they need impressive performances, the four
main names here in this. Would that be fair to
say in all of these fights, Well, that's.
Speaker 4: Fair, you know, I think that's fair to say.
Speaker 3: I mean, some names are bigger than others, you know,
but yeah, I mean these are these are like I mean, look,
the guys have to train. We're gonna talk about all
these fights, but they have to be in shape and
be prepared at least in terms of the main event
fights that we're talking about. But in the end, uh,
these are stay busy, get back in action, you know,
keep the wheels moving, keep the chains movement however you
want to describe it to to looking forward to bigger
and better things down the road. But that doesn't mean
they're not important to the careers of these fighters we're
going to talk about, because if they slip up and lose,
that puts them a step back, obviously.
Speaker 2: So really for a couple of them, simply for a
couple of them, there's a big risk if they lose.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt, a right.
Speaker 2: So let's begin with the Zanford Promotions ESPN Plus card.
This is Tijuana, Mexico for Saturday Night. And the name
Jimi Mungia, who we've talked about frequently. We saw him
in the ring with Canelo. We've seen him in a
lot of entertaining fights. What's the two things he does,
ray Phiel, He's a great offensive fighter and he gets
hit a lot, so you he gives and he takes.
And now and now we have a fight with someone
help me with the name Bruno Siras Sarasse.
Speaker 1: However, you say this name a.
Speaker 4: Super guy that's getting knocked out on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Okay, you believe this could be a big night from Mangia.
Speaker 3: Y Well, I mean, look, he's this is clearly a
quote unquote stay busy fight. The guy's got a great record.
He's twenty five h to two coming over here to
visit his opponent's hometown of Tijuana. You know, so they
got him a guy. I guess it's in the ratings
and whatever. But there's so many big things in the
mix for possibilities for Haimumongia. Again, he's got a train,
he's got to be in shape. I can't take it
for granted. But he becomes the way he usually does
to the ring. There's a very good chance that he
will be successful. You look down Sarace's ledger of opponents,
you will find very quickly that he has fought over
every one of his fights until this one. I believe
in France his home country, and he has never fought
anybody of any significant consequence of whatsoever. Completely the opposite
of Jimi McGee, who you know, has been in the
biggest fight in the world against Canelo Alvarez, and he's
fought some other you know, solid names devyn Chenko and
John Ryder and a few others along the way, Liam Smith.
But here's the thing about it. He got a loss
in May of this year against Canelo, and unlike lots
of other guys where they lose a mega fight, and
he put up a game performance. He did get knocked down,
but he went the route and he you know, he
made it an entertaining fight. He didn't get completely blown
away or anything like that like a lot of people
suspected he might. He didn't sit around and ditch and
moan and cry and complain and go underground and not
be seen for a year and a half. He came
back in the ring in September. He fought an undefeated
fighter who was a good contender in Eric Pasinian, looked
really solid, knocking him out in the tenth round. Now
he's going to get in his third fight this year
on Saturday, and there's bigger and better things for him
down the road. Now we're going to talk a little
bit more about this later in terms of what's been
going on this week at the WBC convention. But one
of the things at the WBC convention was they assume,
you know, this was predicated on his having a victory
on Saturday against our boy Bruno. That they've ordered a
interim title fight between Mangia and Christian Mobility doesn't surprise me.
I find it to be highly unnecessary because Canelo Alvarez
is an active champion, but put that to the side.
From the moment that the deal or the alliance, however
you want to describe it, because they've been real cloy
about it, that relationship, if you will, between Top Rank
and Mangia ever since that was first announced and he
ended up having the fight with Bizinian, and they also
are the co promoters, of course of Christian Mobility and
Top Bragan Zanfer have a very close relationship, and Mongia
has been with Zaan for as a co promoter for
most of his career. Anyway, here's the point, when that
alliance was made. It was right off the bat that
the talk from Top Rank to me specifically and on
maybe others I guess, was that in the in the
down the road a little bit, we're looking to do
a breakout kind of fight between Mongia and Mobility, which,
by the way, as a fan, forget about interim title whatever,
who cares. That is an absolute fucking war. You can
write that down. There's no way that's a bad fight,
even if it's one rounder a twelve rounds.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot at stake for Mangia putting the
title aspect of what may be at stake in the
Billy fight. That's a big fight, uh in terms of
excitement and action, and I would love to see it.
And so he's got to win the fight on Saturday.
He probably should. He's a huge favorite against a completely
unknown guy who's got a glossy record that's been fashioned
against nobody's And if he can pull the upset, good
for your boy, Bruno. If he can't, you know, we'll
see Mangia move on to bigger and better things. But
that's the main event of that show. And uh, you know,
I don't I don't care who Mongia fights. I'm always
interested to see him in the ring.
Speaker 2: Again, exciting, offensive fighter and he gets it. It's equal opportunity.
I mean, so can Bruno land anything?
Speaker 1: Are you saying?
Speaker 2: The names John Jader, Obregon, Milos Jankovic and Georgi Uma
Kashvili are not going to resonate with fight fans. Those
are the opponents that Sarase Sarras has been fighting huge
step up for him. Is he potter, is he just
in the way or does he have something? I guess
we're gonna find out and just clarify again. Ten round fight, correct,
not twelve round fight.
Speaker 3: Ten rounder and you know, and look he's going me. Look,
I know we mocked him a little bit, but I mean,
in all seriousness, he got to respect Bruno because he's
taking the challenge.
Speaker 4: He's going down the road.
Speaker 3: He's going to Mongia's hometown, his first time out of
France for a professional fight, and he's going into the
the lions Den, so they say, And he's in with
one of the best super middleweights in boxing, and hopefully
he puts some good performance in a game effort, whatever happens.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 2: So also on the undercard, you were interested in Alan
David Picasso and Isaac Saki. These are junior featherweights. This
is also a ten round fight. Tell me more about
this one in Tijuana as well for Saturday.
Speaker 3: Well, I can't sit here and tell you this is
some kind of megafight. But the reason why it's interesting
to me, and it is the co feature on the
ESPN plus A card that they're going to show with
mogiy in the main event is because first of all,
he's an interesting fighter because and I've seen he's been
on some of the some undercards in the last little
bit last you know, a couple of years. He's an
entertaining fighter fighting in the featherweight division. He is thirty
zero to one from Mexico, makes good fights. But here's
the here's the thing, and he fluctuates, you know, between
featherweight and junior featherweight. This fight, I don't know the
exact weight for this fight. I think it's a little
bit over the one hundred and twenty two pounds. His
last fight was at one twenty five, but he's had
plenty of fights at one twenty two. Here's the reason
why it's significant because if he wins this fight and
he comes true, he is the leading candidate and the
likely opponent when Noya in a way comes to the
United States to have a fight coming this spring.
Speaker 4: Probably in April in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3: Now he's got to win the fight against Saki obviously
in a way has the fight that we'll talk about
next week is he's defending the undiscreted title at one
hundred and twenty two pounds on Christmas Eve against Sam
Goodman in Japan. But if in a way wins, and
he's a huge favorite against Goodman, and if Picasso wins,
and you've got to figure he's a pretty big favorite also,
that will probably be the fight. It will be in
a way defending against Picasso. So that that's a reason
why if you're going to watch the show, if you're
only interested in the main event, maybe you want to
back up and check out at least the co feature
just to see, you know, do your own scattering report
on the likely opponent for the undisputed champ in pound
for pound star In a.
Speaker 2: Way, you better do everything you can to keep up
with Big Dan, because he's keeping up with all of
this stuff.
Speaker 1: I like that, all right.
Speaker 2: So we Chris Cross across the globe and earlier in
the afternoon on his own is the Mattroom Boxing card
from Monte Carlo, where the main event is mj Akmadaliev,
who we know and I've got to confess again and
Espinoza by another name two weeks in a row.
Speaker 1: This is Ricardo Espinosa.
Speaker 2: This is the vacant WBA Interim Junior featherweight title.
Speaker 1: All right, how what do we know about Espinosa.
Speaker 2: How big of a threat or not is he to Akmadaliev,
who is clearly angling for a title shot here in
this main event?
Speaker 3: Well, this is a this this fight specifically is for
you know again, I'm getting sick and tired of the
interim titles, as I have been for a very long time.
But the reality is, unfortunately this is for the vacant
WBA interim junior featherweight title. Why is there an interim
title at state? I've yet to ask get a reason
for that. I don't understand why other than they want
a few dollars and to keep the things moving along.
Because the reality is the undisputed champion of the world
is in a way, and he's not like he's an
inactive champion. He's done an injured champions. Matter of fact,
he is going to defend the undisputed title a week later, so,
you know, a week and a few days later. So
it is somewhat preposterous for this to be an interim
title fight. But I also get it from the Acmadalia standpoint,
because he's been I won't say, look in a way,
he's fought all kinds of top guys, not like he's
ducking acmcadellia, but I don't believe. But here's the thing.
They ordered that mandatory back a while ago, and he
said screw you, and he went and took another fight
in the WBA. Basically, as I alluded to in a
past podcast TJ, it was like the dream season on Dallas.
They just forgot that they ordered the mandatory.
Speaker 2: And medalia of sue or write the letter or threaten
to sue and say, wait a minute, what about us?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they did sue, but they did definitely make some
legal argument and sent letters and you know, got his
lawyer on top of things. I think this may be
sort of the uh soft landing for him that they're saying,
you know what, just uh wink wank, here's the interim
title and uh look and maybe Acuadavi if he wins
and if in a way comes to the United States
and then beats Picasso, that maybe that will be a
fight because at the reality to me anyway, you know,
assuming that he defeats Goodman, uh, you know, and if
he does fight against Picasso, but the really the best
guy at one twenty two that he has not yet
faced in a way I'm talking about is obviously Achmadaliaff.
I mean, he's been a unified champion. You know, he's
only got the one loss. It was a close, close,
pall split decision, could have gone either way against Marlin Topalos.
He's been very inactive. He doesn't have a big profile,
he doesn't have a big personality, he doesn't have particularly
you know, super exciting style.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's really talented.
Speaker 3: I'm not knocking that, but you know, he's never been
a guy that's gonna gonna pack him in, so he
hasn't you know, done the publicity part. Let's say, to
try to drum up the interest in the inn Way fight. Yeah,
feel bad for him because he was looked over even
though he was already in a mandatory position. So I
have no idea if that fight will actually happen, So
there is that aspect of it. But whatever, if he
wins this fight, he'll still be mandatory, and you know,
if in a way moves up, he'll either inherit the
title or or fight somebody for it. I mean, it's
just it gets a little ridiculous. I mean, honestly, Acmandalia
in the main event is a talented guy, but it's
it leaves a lot to be desired this particular card.
Speaker 4: In my opinion.
Speaker 3: I mean, look, they do these shows Matt Room, they
go to Monte Carlo, they bring him in and you know,
it's a black tie thing with the casino rollers, and
it's a small crowd. They might have just a few
hundred people, five hundred people, six hundred people in the room.
You know, it's a real private side.
Speaker 2: Something that you might see, like for example, in a
James Bond movie in a scene where Bond shows up
in Monte Carlo and they're having the fights, and then
suddenly one of the back guy bad guys is in
the background and then they're shooting and everybody ducks and covers.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, but go ahead, yeah, so no, just.
Speaker 3: You know, so it's like it's you know, he's because
he's never been the most exciting guy in the fact
of the matter is Ricardo as Fanosa, who is his opponent,
a Mexican fighter who is thirty and four with twenty
five knockouts. As a guy that is not a guy
that's going to roll off your tongue as you say,
oh boy, I know all these guys he fought because
he has a very a resume that's not filled with
big names, and the bigger names that he did fight
are the guys that beat him. So for example, I mean,
he's won a few fights.
Speaker 2: Through but I you see a Daniel Roman, I see
a John Reel. Casama just took exactly while it's been
a while on both of those, right.
Speaker 3: But Kasimira, who's been a champion in multiple divisions, that
was a knockout loss in the twelfth round back in
twenty nineteen. Then he had to loss in twenty twenty
one against Danny Roman, who was also a unified champion.
Who's really by the way, this was not on the rundown,
but Danny Roman, who had retired not that long ago,
has announced on his social media that he is coming
out of retirement. He is a free agent looking.
Speaker 4: For a fight.
Speaker 3: So if he decides to get himself back in boxing condition,
you know, he's still not an old guy. Maybe he
could still be a factor in the way class. I
don't know if he wants to continue his career at
one hundred twenty two or maybe move up to one
twenty six, But anyway, that was the guy he lost
to you anyway. The point here with Mack mcdogan is
that in Espinoza, he's fighting like a good, solid professional guy,
but just a guy at a level below him based
on the way I look at it anyway. And then
you take a look at the rest of the card.
You know, again this is the Zone card, so it
we'll come on the afternoon here in the United States.
You know, you got Beatrice Ferrera. She is a IVUP
women's lightweight champion. She's known for her exploits in two
different Olympics and has been a top women's amateur fighter
and is coming along as a pro. But I'd be
less than honest if I said I had super interest.
He got chev Clark, who's been a he's a late bloomer.
He's undefeated, but he turned prol like I think he's
already in his early thirties. It say about ten to
eleven and zero. He is fighting for the European title
on this card. I mean, I don't know the opponent
too ill. I mean, that's okay. Gary Cully, who's an
Irish lightweight that was touted big time, suffered a loss
along the way. He's back in action taking on the
well traveled journeyman Naxi Hughes you know who. I don't
know how much he has left. We'll see if Culli
can do something with him. And then we spoke about
on the last podcast when we were doing the news section,
your boy Tarramona. Tarramona, the Australian Olympic heavyweight, my boy
who had four fights before go at the Olympics. But
now we signed a pro contract as far as promotion,
so he's making his debut withood Matchrom who we just
signed with last week. He's in a match on this undercard.
So there's a few names, but I can't tell you
truthfully because we keep it real with the fans here, right,
I can't say I'm not jazz for any one of
these particular bats. If the Tarramona hold on, I'm interested
to see Tarramona in the ring off the Olympic performance,
and Cully is always interesting to watch the rest of it.
Speaker 4: Eh. Whatever.
Speaker 2: It's a little lacking to say the ladyest all right,
but you'll keep me up to date.
Speaker 1: On Taramola Taramoa.
Speaker 2: Okay, and by the way, we're not done on Dezonne
for Saturday, let's criss cross back from Monte Carlo, back
to the Continental US and all the way out to Ontario, California.
That's where the Golden Boy main event is involving Alexis
Rocha the welterweight.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: He's finding a Raoul Curiel and this is a scheduled
twelve round main event later on Saturday night. All right,
So more on this Roacha was kind of on the
rise and then it was what Santion that got a
hold of him and brutalized him in the welterweight division.
All right, So tell me more on him trying to
re establish himself at one forty seven.
Speaker 3: Well, he has you know, that was a rough loss,
the one you mentioned when he fought uh and he
got beat by Santane. That was that was considered upset
at the time. Remember when he fought that fight, Alexis
Rocher was already the WBO's mandatory challenger for the welterweight
title that was held by Terrence Crawford, and he basically
stepped aside to not you know, get in the way
of what Crawford was doing, which at that time you know,
was still unclear. Uh, what was going on one hundred
percent with this Uh, you know where he was going
to go. But he got beat in that fight. That
was you know, that was a rough night for me.
He didn't and by the way, he didn't just get
defeated in the fight. You know, he got defeated pretty.
Speaker 1: Uh got beaten up big time.
Speaker 3: He did get beating up big time. He got stopped
in the sixth round as kind of a bloody mess.
But he has won two fights in a row since then.
He knocked out Frederick Lawson in the seventh round. He
did have a victory in a decision victory back in
July against Santiago Dominga. So the good thing if you
are in the ROACHA camp is that, Look, he shook
off the loss to Santion. This will be his third
fight of the year, so that's good in terms of
activity and putting himself back in position. And he's in
a real fight. I mean, you know, I know, Raul
Curiel is not the most known guy in the world,
but he's a Mexican who was an Olympic boxer. He's undefeated,
he's fifteen to zero with thirteen knockouts, and he's a
you know, he was an Olympian in twenty sixteen. But
he's so he's kind of moved a little slowly as
a professional. You know, he didn't turn pro until twenty
midway through twenty seventeen, and you know, it's been kind
of up stops, starts and stops, I guess, but he
has beaten a couple of like, kind of notable ish guys.
He knocked out, for example, Hendo Castaneda, solid win. He
knocked out Brad Solomon, who I guess at that point
had become journeyman ish I guess. But here's the thing.
Golden Boys got both these guys and and they think
that Kiel has a future and they think that roach
Is still has a future, and they're taking the opportunity
to match these guys together to give the Zone a
solid main event, where in my opinion, of the matchups
that we have on the calendar for this weekend, this
may be the best fight in the ring of the
night based on the styles that they fight. Roach Is
always in good fights and and Krrie Alls shown himself
to have good power. And the winner of the fight
is gonna. I can't say the winners going into a
world championship fight in the welterweight division next, but the
welterweight division titles are fractured. Guys need opponents and these
and the winner of this fight is gonna be in
a position I would imagine to be close to that
type of opportunity in the next fight, two fights, but
in the picture.
Speaker 2: Remaining relevant, the winner is remaining relevant on this This is.
Speaker 4: All you can ask for.
Speaker 3: TJ is put together a fight where I don't think
I know the one hundred percent the result of this fight.
I feel like I know what's happening in the Acmdalia fight,
you know, I think I know what's happening in uh In,
in the Mangia fight. When it comes to this particular fight,
that's kind of an awesome I mean, if you said
to me, which fight are you looking forward to watching
the most this weekend. I want to see Mongia just
because I enjoy his fights. But in terms of competition,
I think that Rocha and Curio is probably the best
fight of the night. And and and in addition to that,
uh you know, they've got some Golden Bay has got
some solid guys on the undercard. They got Charles Conwell,
who's right in position to fight for a junior middleweight
title at any point as long as you know, if they
can just get the opportunity, uh, you know that that's
somewhat interesting to me. So anyway, the point here is
it got Scrappy Ramirez is coming back trying to get
his career back on track after a loss in the
Junior bandaweight division. He's an entertaining contender and a guy
that you know has got a big personality. So I'm
cool with that, and we'll see because there's a lot
of fights this weekend and you know, you don't have
to watch everything, but he, you know, scrap He's coming
off that loss against an NS that was a rough
one back on the Devin Haney, Devin Hinny, Ryan Garcia
un your car back in April. So you know, Golden
Boy I think has a good mix of names, interesting fights,
and certainly a solid you know, fifty to fifty ish
matchup in the main event.
Speaker 2: And again that is Saturday night in California as well,
same time as the Tijuana show. As we keep all
of this straight, well handicap these fights. By the way,
these main events on the bet US Boxing Show Friday
one Eastern time, we get a plug in for that
and wait, there's more there's also and rayfaield sneaks it
in here on the rundown. There's a Sunday Desonne fight
card in Gibraltar, the Rock of Gibraltar. Dillion White is back.
I think I've heard of Ebenezer Teta. If that's how you.
Speaker 1: Say it, yep, all right.
Speaker 2: But for you, you're always about the heavyweights. For God's sake,
we were that is the most you ever saw on
You were all about Kubrat Puhlev last week because it's
the heavyweights.
Speaker 1: So these are the heavyweights.
Speaker 2: And Dillion White at one point was relevant as a contender.
Not so much anymore. But what what appeals to you
about this fight.
Speaker 3: It's not that it appeals to me, is that it's
one of the bigger names in the heavyweight divisions back
in action. And I'm not known as a heavyweight guy
in terms of my fandom. I mean, I enjoy a
good heavyweight fight like anybody. But you know, if gun
to my head, I'd much rather sometimes watch the welter weights,
of the lightweights, of the featherweights, the guys that are,
you know, more action oriented, unless it's at the highest level,
like you know, the big time championship fights. Like Fury,
you Sicker Wilder and theory fights like that. But in
terms of Dillian White, I mean he's a well known
guy in the weight class. He like you said, he
was a contender for a long time. He's kind of
been off the map a little bit since he lost
in a in pretty one sided fashion against Tyson Fury
back in twenty twenty two, he got knocked out in
a long awaited mandatory fight in the sixth round.
Speaker 2: I had nostalgic because that is the first time that
you and I really began to gather together business wise, professionally,
podcast wise, was around the Fury if White Wembley Stadium
main event and he got blasted with an uppercut and
they had to pick him up with a snowshovel, as
I like to say, I think after that, But in
any event, that seems like it was ten years ago,
and you're telling it was only two and a half
years ago. So that's good though, And look all right,
but what about for Dillian White and the biggest ring event.
Can he become here if he's if he's good, if
not impressive.
Speaker 3: Well you can absolutely get back in the mix. Because
heavy weights you need names, you need opponents. I mean,
that's the reality. He always looking for a guy that's
got the power, that has a fan base. So after
he lost the Fury fight, he did come back later
in twenty twenty two and he got the close win
over Jermaine Franklin, which was a loss for Franklin that
actually helped propel him into the Anthony Joshua fight. And
some you know, some you know like that was for
him anyway again that there's such a good thing as
a as a good loss. That was it because he
did a good enough job against White in a loss
to get himself the Joshua fight. But put that aside.
White's problem is he had all kinds of issues because
he's had ped problems hanging over his head, so that
after that fight with Franklin, he didn't fight for the
entire year of twenty twenty three. He came back and
fought a low level fight in Christian Hammer, got a
knock out win, and he hasn't been in action since
March of this year, so he's back in action looking
for another opportunity. He's got thirty wins, twenty knockouts, three
losses all by knockout, and listen have you watched. If
you watch him fight, you know he comes to fight.
Speaker 4: That's it. You're gonna get.
Speaker 1: Laugh something else.
Speaker 2: Forgive me, I'm trying not to distract you, but I'm
laughing at something I found.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to do that. But are you telling
me that Teta?
Speaker 2: If that's how we say it can present a pretty
good fight here, that's what that's what we're hoping for.
Speaker 3: I don't think so necessarily. I mean, Teta is an
old guy. He's thirty six from Ghana. He is twenty
and one with twenty knockouts. But the knockout loss sticks
out like a sore thumb in the world. He got
absolutely and I saw this fight. He got absolutely destroyed
one round obliteration by Daniel Dubot. That was back in
twenty nineteen. So in the in the year since that,
he has had four fights. He has won them all
by knockout. And he's fought guys who you just.
Speaker 4: Never heard of it, right, Okay?
Speaker 3: You know one guy was sixteen and nineteen, his last
it was five and one. A fight before that, a
guy was four and oh I'm looking at his box
wreck while we're chatting here. His fight before that. This
was after the Dua fight. He fought a guy that
was eleven and one, but not in any way, shape
or form our known opponents. So look, they're heavyweights. Dylan
White's been drilled in the past, you know, yep, head
obviously based on his record, even though he's not fighting
top opponents, he's got plunging power. So I say this
all the time when it comes heavyweights, throw him in the ring.
Let's seis Labernac or whatever.
Speaker 2: Okay, And what I was laughing about. I looked for this.
So first of all, geographically we always have fun with this.
Gibraltar is at the bottom tip of Spain in Europe,
and the Rock of gibraltars like a famous place in
movies or whatever. I kid you not, Ray Phiel, I
was just looking for where's the area of where the
arena is? Did you know there's a holiday in express
Rock of Gibraltar. Literally, I'm not kidding when you look
at it on Google, it is literally known as the
Holiday in Express. And don't we all feel smarter while
we plug away for them?
Speaker 4: Well, but.
Speaker 3: They're playing it there. They're fighting at a place called
the Europa Points Sports Complex. Okay, maybe they're staying at
the holiday inn if if you.
Speaker 1: Ever find occasion to be there.
Speaker 2: Peeps, apparently you can be smarter and stay at a
holiday in express.
Speaker 3: Why don't you spend some time when we're done with
the show and get holiday into sponsor our potet.
Speaker 1: We'll try it.
Speaker 2: We'll try to do that, especially the one in Gibraltar,
and see if they will fly us there at a
subsequent date. All right, so I think we have done
well with all of the previews. Let's get into a
little news. You mentioned the WBC convention going on. There's
news about Mauricio Suliman being re elected, there's news about
a cruiserweight champ being reinstated. What else came out of
their convention here from earlier this week.
Speaker 3: Well, the convention's still going on as we tape this,
and they have a boxing event tonight in conjunction with
their convention that's taking place in Hamburg, Germany. But in
the very beginning of the convention, I guess this was
like the business to sort of get out of the
way first. It didn't really come as any surprise, but
Mauricio Suliman, who was the president of the WBC, was
serving a four year term He was elected to a
third term at the convention, not a surprise.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Again, people can have their opinions about what the WBC
does with the interim titles, with this, with you know,
the various other moves that they make. You know, we
all can have our jokes and cracks at the franchise title.
All that said, it is my personal belief, especially as
somebody who has always gotten on top of the sanctioning
bodies about things for my entire career. I believe Mauricia
Suliman has done a phenomenal job as the WBC president.
We have our quarrels about different things here and there,
but he's done an excellent job. And they put on
an unbelievable convention. They bring in tons of former champions.
It's the biggest convention of any of those sanctioning bodies.
Lots of people turn out for it. Anyway, he was
reelected remember back in you know, years ago. This is
his third term that's going to start. But he was
basically drafted into the position with two years left on
his father's term. His father, Jose Suliman, who had become
the president of the WBC in nineteen seventy five, had
led that organization up until his death, and it was
just a couple of weeks after that, I believe that
was twenty fourteen. It was, you know, just a few weeks,
a couple of weeks after that that they basically drafted
Mauricio to serve out the remainder of his father's term,
which was two more years, and then he was subsequently
elected at the twenty sixteen convention, reelected at the twenty
twenty COVID convention that was online, and then in Hamburg
re elected to a third term. And he deserves that
he's done a good job. So that was sort of
getting that out of the way at the beginning. And
I'll details in a piece all right at some point
where I'll go division by division, because one of the
fun things about the WBC convention is they go through
all their divisions and they set up their mandatories and
they appoint the number one challengers and they you know,
they come up with ideas of what kind of there's
a four man box off, or they order eliminators and
that sort of stuff, and that, you know, it's a
fluid situation. It changes through the year, but at least
it gives you a good sort of roadmap for the
various divisions and how the WBC is going to approach them.
They have the promoters all gathering. They bicker and argue
and go back and forth about trying to politic for
where their guy or gal should be raided. But the
one one of the newsier things that did come out
was if you follow the cruiserweight division, the WBA champion
had been bad due Jack and he was going to
go up and try to win a title in the
bridgerweight division. He was made the champion in recess and
they crowned a new title holder in Noel McCallion, and
he defended. He won the title on a Don King card.
Now he's embroiled in this like lawsuit with King. Uh
he was put in one recess, yeah, exactly. And so
the fight that they made to fill the vacancy that
took place like last week with Rosekie up in Canada.
I forget the opponent's saying peralta. I believe they fought
to a draw. So the title stayed vacant. And but
due Jack announced he was coming back to the cruiserweight
division and he was taken out of recess and re
installed as the as the WBC champion while McCallion is
still on ice and he's in recess, and the other
fight was a draw. And so anyway, here's the point, though,
bad dude Jack, who's been a stalwart fighter for a
long time, his won titles at super middleweight, at light heavyweight,
at cruiserweight. He's back and he's now re again, you know,
been reappointed as their title holder. He never gave up
the title, he just was changed the classification. I mean,
it's convoluted, but the bottom line is that was one
of the elements of that occurred. And they also ordered
them Billy Mongia eliminator, which I think will happen if
if Mongy is successful in his fight on Saturday in Mexico.
And I'll at some later point I'll write about all
the various other things that went on at the convention.
Speaker 2: And while we're here there there was also a card
in Hamburg, as you mentioned, that had Billy Dibb on it,
and he's a great story coming back from cancer as well.
So it just elaborate because this is associated with what
you're talking about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I mean there's always usually, well I should
say usually there's a boxing card that is in conjunction
with wherever the WBC convention takes place. I mean last
year they had a card up in where were they
They were in Uzbekistan. I believe this year they're doing
a card in Hamburg, which has been a tremendous fight
city through the years. Plenty of the bigger German fights
have been there. Anyway, so they had their card that
took place on Thursday. Now, Billy Dibb, who was a
guy who had won a featherweight title, competed in the
junior lightweight division and has fought some good quality opponents
over the years. You know, he's been a pro a
long time, turn pro two thousand and four, so it's
you know, he's in his twentieth year as a professional.
But Billy was diagnosed not that long like, I don't
know exact when it was, but it's probably a year
a year and a half two years ago he had
with cancer. They gave him six months to live that.
Billy is a lovely guy if you ever meet him,
mean just the assault of the earth kind of nice guy,
a beautiful guy. I've become friendly with him over the years,
and and so he came back to sort of close
out his career. This was sort of his fairwealth fight.
The fact that he could even box again is a miracle. Yeah,
I mean, you know, I think about guys like Danny
Jacobs who came back from near death of cancer and
not only came back but won a world title. You know,
Anthony Durell a similar situation, had cancer, came back and
fought at the highest level. Billy, of course did not
fight at the highest level in this way, but he
did win an eight round decision against a fighter named
Attila Kabi Yashi, and that was sort of a heartwarming
thing to come out of it because and I've had
my jokes with Billy, because you know, when Billy was
fighting as a contender in the featherweight division, he was
fight He's from Australia, but he was fighting in America,
and he has signed with Goldenweight Promotions. He was sort
of mentored by Shane Mosley back in the day, and
Billy Dibb used to put on the most boring fights
in the world. And Billy and I have joked around,
and I love the guy now did so nothing new
was boxing, but the watch and fight was not the
most exciting. He became more entertaining as the years went on,
when he was in some tough fights in the junior
lightweight division. But there's a specific fight that I can
always think about in two thousand and seven at Madison
Square Garden. He was on the undercard. This was a
golden boy. Then he's fighting a journeyman guy, but a
tough dude named Rogers Matagua who had fought lots of
good names and given guys tough fights. But Billy Dibb
was completely outclassing him. This was on the undercard when
Miguel Coto fought Shane Mosley, one of Coto's greatest victories,
and like I said, Shane had Billy Dibb as part
of his team and he was on the undercard. I
was so frustrated watching that fight. Again, it's Roger and
Matagua between him and Billy did because Billy did. He
could have he could have stopped him, or he was
running him out of the ring, but all he did
was back up and run away. He won the fight
like by a shutout on maybe by one point, maybe
one judge or two judges. Game Mataga one round. But
basically this is a whitewash from Billy did. It is
the only time in the entire nearly twenty five years
of being at fights at ringside that on purpose, I
got up out of my seat. I walked out of
the arena because I was so pissed off watching what
I was watching. I could not take it. I just
went back to, like, you know, where the media section was.
I got myself like, you know, a juice or something
to drink or whatever. I was just so frustrated. I
was probably like, this is the fight that he was
in against Matago is an eight rounder. I say, around
maybe the round five or six, I'm like, fuck this,
I'm out of here. I'm going to take a break.
I'm gonna go take a pissy. Should say to the audience.
Speaker 2: This is a regular occurrence with you and me on
the podcast, so it's nothing different for us. But that case,
it's interesting that you remember that. But anyway, heartwarming story.
Good for him, one last fight to come back overcoming cancer.
Speaker 1: So we like that.
Speaker 2: We talk about a negative in the world and in boxing.
This is a good thing.
Speaker 3: I was very happy to see, uh. I mean obviously
that he was able to survive his situation with cancer,
but on his own terms, Humeback like take a fight,
win the fight and be able to walk out that
way in boxing. You know, apparently with his health both
in terms of cured from cancer as well as his
health from you know, from his boxing career. You know,
you can't can't do anything about Wishbilly did the best
in his in his life.
Speaker 2: A couple more things and then some nostalgia coming the
w BA back to them, w BA and Queensberry say
that nick Ball is going to be back. You've got
the deats. This is going to be right back in
his hometown of Liverpool to defend his featherweight championship.
Speaker 3: Tell me more, well, nick Ball is one of the
more entertaining fighters in boxing, it seems to me at
this point. Uh maybe a smallst stature in terms of
his size, but but big on on entertainment value. No
doubt about it. Anyway, he is the WBA featherweight champion.
He had had that draw with Ray Vargas that was
for the WBC belt. A lot of people thought he won.
It was a split raw in one of the riad
season cards back in March of this year. He then
came back on another read season card in June and
won a split decision in that fight, but I thought
a deserted split decision against Raymond Ford to win the
WBA title. And onward he went to his next first defense,
which was in Liverpool, England. He hadn't fought in Liverpool
since he was a young prospect, so for him it
was like a huge deal to headline that was back
on October fifth, and he had the victory by a
tenth round knockout against Ronnie Rios. You know, a good veteran,
durable guy, but you know, bit past his best days.
And now they've got his next defense and up and
yes he's gonna be back at that same arena in
Liverpool to defend the title for the second time. Will
be taken on TJ. Dohaney. This is what Queensberry announced
on Thursday afternoon. And Dohaney, you know, he's a tough,
rugged guy. He's twenty six and five. He's only been
stopped at one time. He's a former title theer in
the junior in the junior at featherweight division. The one
loss that I mentioned by a knockout is certainly a
forgivable loss. He got knocked out in the seventh round
in September by Noi in a way challenging for the
undisputed title in the junior featherweight division. That was the
fight that he that that that he got, that really
should have been Achmadalia's spot. That's what the Acmadia team
was complaining to the WBA bat but they basically gave
him the finger and let let Doughhaney challenge for the belt.
So coming off so you know, you can quarrel with
the guys coming off a knockout loss in a smaller
weight division, and now he's getting an opportunity to fight
for a world title on the heavyweight division. You know,
we can argue about that all day long, but but
the fact of the matter is, uh, Noi in a
way is probably gonna do that the most every challenger
out there.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And so for an experienced guy like nick like Dohaney
to get the chance against nick Ball, you know, it
does shape up like a decent fight, I guess. But
they're bringing him into the hometown, and look, nick Ball
is uh, he's at home, and he's going to be
the heavy favorite, and they're looking to move him into
bigger and better things. But for the time being, he's
taken a couple like let's call them slightly softer touches
as he built.
Speaker 4: Up that fan base at home.
Speaker 3: Uh and Queensberry builds up some of its other Liverpool
area fighters on these undercards.
Speaker 4: And uh.
Speaker 3: One thing is say Nick Ball's in the ring, whoever
it's against, you gotta figure it's gonna usually be entertaining
like that.
Speaker 1: So that is coming from March. One more item.
Speaker 2: Prominent referee worked a lot of world title fights. Obviously,
Jack Reese is retiring here at the end of this year,
so give me some more details on this item.
Speaker 3: Well, Jack has been one of the best referees in
boxing for a long long time. We've seen him work
numerous of the major fights, but particularly in California, but
he's worked in fights around the world as well.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And just to be just to clarify and actually uh
exchange some emails with Jack last night about this. Jack
is retiring from from refereeing boxing matches, but he's still
gonna be a judge with the California State Athletic Commission,
which is good because it's you know, you know, you're
not as physical, it's not really you're not relying on
on your on your on your reaction.
Speaker 4: And move and stuff. But you can still watch and.
Speaker 2: And by the way, we need competent judges. We need
guys that know what they're doing judging and gals that
know what they're doing judging.
Speaker 1: So I'm all for it.
Speaker 4: Yes, Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, according to box Reck, Jack has worked as a
referee one one hundred and fifty two fights. Wow, that's
a lot of fights. Yes, his last fight that's listed
on box wreck. I guess he hasn't worked any fights
since August. There hasn't been a lot of action in
California boxing wife since then. So he goes out having
worked a pretty significant fight. He was the referee on
August third, when Terrence Crawford defeated Israel Majmov to win
the WBA title at one hundred and fifty four pounds.
So if that's the way you're gonna go out, that's
pretty good. But he's worked so many big fights. Obviously,
the fight, I think a lot of people remember.
Speaker 1: I was coming there.
Speaker 2: He was he was counting over Tyson Fury in the
Deontay Wilder fight at the Staples Center, Right, that's what
you were thinking.
Speaker 1: Of, That's what I was thinking. I will always remember
him for that.
Speaker 2: I know you have a much bigger mental rollodex of
bigger fights that he would have been in, but I
will always remember the dramatic count on did Wilder just
knock Fury out? As Jack Reese is going six seven,
eight and suddenly, like your boy the Undertaker in the
WWE up, he comes at eight and nine onto his
feet to finish the round and it ends up being
ach I know, or else we maybe never see a
Fury rematch in the short term. If that ends as
a knockout and Jack Reese's the ref.
Speaker 3: Well, I will say this, the decision that Jack made
on that night to allow Tyson Fury to continue changed
boxing history. I'm not saying that Jack did the wrong thing.
I actually don't think he did the wrong thing right.
But if he calls the fight like you said, there
probably isn't a rematch, and then this entire Tyson Fury
era is altered dramatically, and the career of Deontay Wilder
is dramatically altered too, because there's no rematch, he doesn't
get drilled in the rematch, and there's no third fight.
But again, I believe that Jack did the right thing.
I've always said most referees would have stopped the fight now.
And I say this because and anybody can go and
google this, take it two seconds to find it. Prior
to the rematch between Fury and Wilder, I wrote a
four thousand word oral history of the twelfth round of
Fury Wilder too, And in that piece I had extensive
interviews about not just everything, but about that round, everything
that happened in that round, all the craziness with Wilder,
with Fury, with Jack, with Shelley Finkle, Deontay's manager, with
Ben Davison, who at the time was Fury's trainer, you know,
with Deontay, Wilder's trainer, you know j D's. And we
covered all the bases and Jack had some amazing comments.
We went through it literally second by second of what
he was thinking, what he was seeing, and he makes
the point and I agree with him one thousand percent.
Number One, all the people say, well it was twenty
five seconds, Baba, that's not true. Number two, it doesn't
say ten seconds. It's the ten second count of the referee.
He all he and he was alert and as long
as he was standing with nothing touching the ring, Matt
other than the souls of the seat by the time
Jack would have gotten to ten, it counts if it
was a beat too slow, a beat too quick. We
could have the same discussion about the bullshit long count
in the supposed long count during the fight between Mike
Tyson and Buster Douglas. Anyway, but the biggest uptake of
that particular controversy is and he made this point when
he went down Tyson Fury's knee was bent, that he
felt like if he was completely out, the knee would
be flat, but he was keeping the knee up of
his own volition. And when he got over him and
looked down into his face, and he was the only
one close enough to look down where he could probably
smell Tyson's Fury's breath, he was alert. He was following
him with his eyes. He wasn't out. He said to
me in the interview. You can read it again google
the story that if his eyes were closed, he would
have stopped the fight. But his eyes weren't closed, and
he was following him as he's counting, and he got
up and he was able.
Speaker 2: To survive, like over ninety seconds after that slide, he.
Speaker 4: Came back and did well and won the next round
or you know or other finished.
Speaker 1: He finished a round.
Speaker 3: And probably won the remainder of the round, even though
obviously would go down as a ten eight round because
it was such a heavy knockdown. But the point is
that was his discretion and it was proven correct because
Tyson Fury finished well, he didn't show any damage from
the knockdout and he ended up getting a draw in
the fight. You can di spew out all you want,
but Jack doesn't score the fight anyway. That is a
moment in Jack's career that's probably the most famous. But
he's worked a million fights. I mean again, pretty much
every big name that's fought in La or in California.
You know, he did so many. You can run down
the list on box Trick. It's you know, from little
four round fights on club shows all the way to
the biggest fights in boxing. For I would say the
last twenty years or so, Jack has been in e leite.
Speaker 2: Particularly Premiere Boxing Champion champions World Championship fights in California
or all over the place.
Speaker 1: He's the main event referee over and over and over again.
Speaker 3: Well, it's got nothing to do with Premiere Boxing team.
He's got to do with anybody. He's worked Golden Boy fights,
top ranked fights, every promoter. You know, he did Devin Hainey,
Regis Prograde, that was up in San Francisco. That was
a mattrom fight. No, it's he's assigned by the California Commission.
I had nothing to do with the promoter that. The
reality is he's done. He's been one of the go
to reps for the big fights in California for a
very long time. Every state has them. I mean we
see it in Vegas for years. You know, there's always
been a couple of guys, you know, same in California,
whether it was Tom Taylor, Jack Reese, those are the
guys recently get all the big fights.
Speaker 4: But Jack's beIN.
Speaker 3: He's a he's a great referee and uh and honestly,
I've known it for a long time. He's a great guy.
Speaker 2: On top of that, and by the way, he's not disappearing,
as you said, He'll still be around a big time
fights as a judge, we believe down the road. So
this is not go bye goodbye. This is just not
refereeing correct at the present time.
Speaker 4: Oh TJ.
Speaker 3: Let me just clarify one thing about Jack Reese. I said,
I mentioned about what is his last fight was, but
actually uh and I had corresponded with Jack to talk
to him all about his decision. But he's actually working
a couple of fights on a card this weekend and
that will be the end of his time in terms
of refereeing. But like I said, he's still going to
continue to work as a judge for the California stand
up by the Commission.
Speaker 2: And by the way, tremendous I mean four thousand words,
tremendous stuff about the fury n Now now I want to
go read that coming up, and yeah, it's an amazing
moment in the modern heavyweight title picture that Jack was
right there. We oftentimes forget you were talking about this
with Kenny Bayliss. We oftentimes forget that third guy is
right there for history in all of these different moments.
Sometimes it's dubious history for the referee if they do
something stupid, but they're right there as the third person
that's there.
Speaker 1: I love it on that.
Speaker 2: Okay, some nostalgia, my friend, and then we are done.
Let's talk about twenty six years ago, December twelfth, on
the Thursday night as we released this into Friday, twenty
six years ago December twelfth, nineteen ninety eight doubleheader that
included Ivan Robinson Arturo Gotti. I remember this fight with
the rematch, and as well on the same card Fernando
Vargas with a knockout and an IBF title fight just
twenty one years of age. We talked about Fernando Vargas
several times with the anniversaries here in the recent history.
Speaker 1: All right, pick up on the nostalgia trail, please.
Speaker 4: Oh, where do you even start on this one? Now?
Speaker 3: One of the things about Arto Gotti, who everybody knows
my all time favorite fighter, is that he was the
kind of fighter that drew a crowd and drew ratings
and was popular with the fans and with the press
and the whole nine win or lose. That's the thing.
I mean, that's the kind of fights he made. And
you know, he did win two world titles, but it
was the over the top action fights he was in.
The numerous Fight of the Year candidates and winners that
he was in. People like to downplays Hall of Fame
candidacy where he was elected, you know, several years ago
posthumously unfortunately. But what I don't understand is he may
not have been like the greatest of the great, but
he occupied a position within the sport as the greatest
action fighter of his time, similar to certain guys we
could talk about from the seventies or the sixties or
the eighties, et cetera. And one of the reasons why God,
he's in the Hall of Fame even off a loss,
is because they were so supernatural in terms of the
violence and the sheer drama and excitement of the fights
that he made, and one or two of them actually
were against Ivan Robinson. Uh in this we're talking about
the rematch between him and Ivan Robinson. They had well,
first of all, are they they were friendly with each other.
Artero had a way about him where he, you know,
he was friends with his opponents. Oftentimes Mickey Ward became
his one of the you know, his closest friend in
their midst of their great rivalry. But in terms of
fighting against Ivan Robinson, who was a good slick boxer
from Philadelphia but could definitely stand and mix it up,
had a good chin, never quite reached the world championship level,
but was like one of the more durable uh TV friendly,
a guy that was on you know, whether it was
USA Tuesday Night fights or on the old Friday Night
fights on ESPN. He was in those types of shows.
But he you know, he was a worthy type fighter,
and he got the opportunity to make a match with
Arto Gutty. Now he was the underdog.
Speaker 4: Obviously.
Speaker 3: Arturo was coming off of a loss to Angel Man
Freddy where he had moved up the light and the
reason he lost wasn't because he got dominated. He lost
because he got badly, badly cut in the doctor and
the ref decided that the fight needed to be over.
Speaker 4: So he came back.
Speaker 3: In his return from that fight in August of nineteen
ninety eight, he had a spectacular slugfest against Ivan Robinson.
He knocked Ivan Robinson down in that fight and he
lost a split decision. That was a fight that was
determined by many people, including the Ring magazine by the way,
as the fight of the year, end as the upset
of the year. Naturally, they did a rematch. HBO had
done the first fight. They were hot for the second fight,
so now they go back. The first fight was in
the Boardwalk Call in Atlantic City. They now do the
fight at the Trump Tazmaha in Atlantic City and now
we're talking about the rematch, a very anticipated fight. Once again,
they put on another spectacular show. It may not have
risen to the level of the first fight to be
voted the fight of the year necessarily, but it wasn't
all that much different. It was a spectacular fight.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: God he ended up losing a very very close decision
by one point on two of the scorecards. You know,
really a lot of people kind of thought he won
the fight. He nearly stopped Ivan Robinson late in that fight,
could not pull it out, got cut as usual, and
lost the decision. But like I said when we started
to discuss the fight, TJ win or lose ar Tirol
Gotti is in the kinds of fights that you never forget,
and this was one of them. And I've been obviously
had to do his part in the show also, But
without Gotti in there, with that just crazy pressure and
the drama and the near comeback, you know, it just
it wouldn't be the same.
Speaker 2: You and I do not rehearse this, as I say
all the time, you do not know what I'm about
to say. But I remember this for the fact that
in one of my many broadcast job duties, I do
a lot of freelance stuff. I was the University of
South Florida in Tampa's basketball play by play guy, and
we would travel during the basketball season, obviously to road games.
I don't remember where, but we were somewhere that night
and I knew this rematch was happening, and I told
one of the assistant coaches, my radio partner, a couple
of other people, I'm like, we have got to see
this rematch. And you know, they weren't really hardcore fight fans,
but I remember by round two the all my gods,
and the yelling and screaming. I mean that is just
stuck with me now, twenty six years later, that wherever
we were in that hotel, they were going nuts. And
I'm sitting and I'm going, I told you, I told
you because I knew about the first fight, this rematch fight,
and you're right. I mean, gott he just was always
in war after war, give and take and dramatic and wild,
wild fight.
Speaker 4: So I mean, ambers done.
Speaker 3: He almost came back and scored a tenth round knockout,
and you know, God, he had been the king of
the comeback. I mean he had that massive comeback against
against Wilson Rodriguez to rescue the title, had the comeback
that was so famous, and the fight of the year
against Gabriel Ruellis in a knockout victory, and he just
couldn't get this one done. But you know, just as
exciting as it gets, you know, if you never saw it.
You know, again, both of the fights between him and
Ivan Robinson you can find on YouTube. I mean there's
spectacular battles, you know, and again they weren't world championship fights,
but they were the stuff of legendary collisions that made
Arturo Gaddy. You know, part of his legacy is the
greatest action fighter of his time. I mean, you know,
from the like the early ninety, like from the ninth
the for the nineteen nineties, I guess it's fair to say,
or into the early two thousands even he was the
number one action star of the time, and it was
just so over the top.
Speaker 4: I mean it was just ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I mean you could go down his resume of his
career and you could find three four fights that that
you don't even remember as being fights of the year
type fights that were just like, oh shit, I forgot
about that fight. But you don't we to start thinking
about it? You're like, that's unbelievable. I mean, and it's
not just the two Robinson fights and Ruellis I mentioned
even like he fought on on CBS network in May
of nineteen ninety seven, a spectacular fight that gets no credit.
You could YouTube this. Also he stopped the excellent contender,
Calvin Grove. Calvin was a little bit past his best days,
but he was still a very quality, solid guy. And
that was the fucking war, you know, the when he
won one of the that forgets the first of the
second fight he boxed, won in one of them, and
won the when he won a junior lightweight title against
Tracy Patterson. Uh, but that was a good fight. I mean,
just and we're not even talking about the Mickey Ward fights.
I mean, that's exactly the reason why yead he became
such a fucking legend is because most people think about
the Mickey Ward trilogy. But if you take the Mickey
Ward trilogy out of the equation, he still has another
half a dozen superb ridiculous fights.
Speaker 1: Just like this. But that was not all that night.
As well, the exact nostalgiic go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well in the co feature. This was a big moment
for Fernando Vargas. He was a rising star. He was
he had been the United States Olympian in nineteen ninety six,
and he had done his apprenticeship if you want to
call it that, where he was fighting regularly and he
was still a young guy. He was only twenty one
years old, and a lot of people at the time
when this fight was made they thought, you know what,
it was very similar to his Olympic teammate Floyd Mayweather.
Remember when they matched Floyd Mayweather for the junior lightweight
title against Genera Hernandez. They extremely well respected champion, a
guy that had never lost in that weight class. He'd
only previously lost in the lightweight division when he lost
to Oscar de la Hoya and because of a badly,
badly broken nose. Anyway, similar situation. They take Fernando Vargus,
who by the way is fourteen and oh at the
time a twenty one years old. He's a rising star.
He's been on HBO now you know, and getting exposure
on some big undercards of pay per views. They match
him up with Yori boy campus a very hard nosed,
durable not most not the most skillful guy, but just
the you know, a hardened veteran IDF champion in Yuri
Boy Campus, who, by the way, seventy two wins and
two losses going into this fight. I mean, you know,
he's and he's a hard what they called me, he's
a hard man, you know what I mean. Like, you're
never gonna even if he loses the fight, you're never
gonna have an easy night with Yori Boy Campus. He
is gonna give you hell to the bell, is the point.
And if you take a look in his record going
into the fight against Fernando Vargas, now he obviously became
much more let's call it journeyman ish as he went
along as older fighters do. His only losses before that
he had been stopped by Felix Trinidad in an IBF
welterweight title fight. When he knocked Trinidad down. That was
a great victory for Trinidad considered at that time Yori
Boy was, you know, was a tough out and he
got stopped, not stopped, but he lost a few years
later he did get stopped also to a top Mexican
contender named Jose Louis. Slope has also had some appearances
on HBO. Was one of the better welterweights and jinger
middleweights of that era in the like the mid to
late nineties. Anyway, now he's going in with the twenty
one year old fourteen and oh kid, he's won the
world title in in this particular fight. You know, he's
defending the title, and like I said, a lot of
people thought Vargas is going to give him a hard time,
but maybe Campus is a little bit too much for him,
you know, and nobody really kind of quite knew what
what was going to be the case. But Fernando Vargus
went out there and really laid it on him. Just
look tremendous, you know, looked like the star that everybody
thought he was going to be and thought a super fight.
Dominated was up on all the cards easily, like shutout
scores at least on one of the score cards. Anyway,
as I recall, anyway, he made Uri boy Campus. This
was kind of a shocker that the that he quit.
He retired in the corner after round seven and gave
Fernando Vargas the world title. He became at age twenty one,
a world champion, and you know, it was it was
quite a big deal, you know, the rain that he had.
Fernando did not last that long in terms of that
first one because ultimately he met himp with Tito Trinidatte
also in their massive unification fight. But it launched Fernando
into a series of bigger fights.
Speaker 4: I mean, he.
Speaker 3: Thought a couple of like lesser fights right after that,
he thought Lennox Lewis heavyweight undercard. He fought our boy
Raul Marquez and defeated him. Then he had the two
big wins against Winky Wright and Ike Quartet.
Speaker 2: Petersburg, Florida's Winky Right, And we talked about that anniversary,
what about a week ago, two weeks ago that he
won that fight something like that, and then the Trinidad
anniversary was right around now.
Speaker 3: Well, but after Winking and Quarte, he went into the
mandatory that summer of two thousand and then fought Trinidad.
So that stretch from December of ninety eight when he
stops campus to win the IBF title through the loss
to Trinidad in December of two thousand, that was a
full two year stretch where he was active and he
was beating good opponents. That was the Felix or rather
that was the Fernando Vargas Prime, but it really started
with a really excellent victory against joy Boy Campus on
the undercard of a main event that turned out to be,
you know, a Fight of the Year contender with Gaddy
and Ivan Robinson. So that was just a great night
of fights on HBO.
Speaker 1: That is from nineteen.
Speaker 2: So move forward of fifteen years December fourteenth, the anniversary
of Saturday, December fourteenth, twenty thirteen, Marcus May Donna Marcos
Madonna ends up winning the WBA Welterweight Championship in the
Alamo Dome in San Antonio, Texas with a win over
Adrian Broner. And you were there, What do you recall
from that night?
Speaker 3: Well, I remember a lot, but this was this was
a fun night at the fights in the Alamo Dome.
And it was kind of funny because here you have
Adrian Broner, the American fighter, and he's fighting Madonna, you know,
who's from Argentina. And it was a heavily Latino crowd
obviously in San Antonio. But it's like, even though Broner
was the American, they kind of adopted the Argentine guy
to root for as a fellow Latino and all rooted
against you know, the Adrian Broner, which was kind of hilarious.
That was sort of surprising. But the point was he's
going into this fight Broner, he was a rising star.
He'd been getting a ton of attention on HBO. He
was and and you know and and uh later on showtime.
You know, he was involved in quite a number of
significant fights, uh that were that were popular because of
his sort of crazy personality and you know, he had
a flashy style.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: But this was really the end I think of what
would and now if you look back at what Adrian
Broner's prime was because he had won a title, looked good,
defended the title, even though not necessarily against huge names.
He had had a good win against Antonio DeMarco, beat
the the British fighter Gavinies, had a decision over Pauly Malanaji.
Now he goes into Madonna fight. He's a heavy favorite.
I know Madonna became uh, you know, like a boogeyman
to some people. Gave Floyd Mayweather very you know, two
very good fights and this and that. But the reality
was going into the fight with Broner, you know, people
respected Madonna, but everybody expected Broner to be the winner.
That was not even up for debate. And Madonna basically
embarrassed Broner. I mean it was and it wasn't like
Broner in common shape or anything like that, but he
embarrassed him. Uh, and he won the title the w
This was a w BA Welterway title. The Ring magazine
and a lot of people picked it as the upset
of the year in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4: That's how much.
Speaker 3: Uh, Broner was respected at that time for what he
was doing. And it was like a wild night because,
like I said, you figured the Americans going to be
the crowd favorite, but no, they were rooting for Madonna.
Speaker 4: Uh. And they they put on a very good fight.
Speaker 3: But the fact of the matter was Madonna just had
you know, his way with Berner in many respects. He
knocked him down, uh in the second round, knocking down
in the eighth round. There was a moment, I forget
what round it was, where you know, the referee had
to admonish him because you know, he was basically, you know,
kind of clowning. He started humping him like it was ridiculous.
It was ridiculous and It was very funny to a
lot of people. But he just he ran through them
like you know, what's the old thing? He ran through
him like shit through a goose, you know what I mean.
Cool and uh and uh it was a very humbling loss.
If Adrian Broner could be humble at any point in
his life. One I'm looking at the score cards. I
just looked over here, one fifteen to one ten, one
seventeen one on nine, one sixteen, one oh nine. Uh
might not have even even been that close, to be
honest with you. And Madonna went on to do bigger
and better things, but the Broner fight was a fun fight,
and uh, he just embarrassed, like at the time, the
brash this guy in boxing who you know, thought he
was superman and could do anything. And it didn't quite
turn out that way now, did it. And it was
a big car too, by the way, because it wasn't
just that was obviously the culmination of the show. But
you had, uh, maybe not mega fights, but you had
Leo Santa Cruizes on there defending the title at one
hundred and twenty two pounds. You had Keith Thurman, who
was you know, still you know, active at that point,
you're gonna say, now your boy, clearwater zone.
Speaker 1: Clearwater Zone.
Speaker 2: Keith Thurman was on the way up right, not yet
a world champion at one hundred and forty seven.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 3: He fought against Jose Jesus so too carrass he had
even like they're comebacking. Jermaine Taylor fought off TV like
low down, and the other could actually look good after
he had been off for a while. Young Robert Easter,
who went on to win a lightweight wor all title.
You know, they actually had three guys that became like
PBC sort of uh fighters that you recognize, and one
went with top rank anyone winning world titles. Jamelle Herring,
Rushie Warren, and Robert Easter, all on the undercart, all
went on to win world titles, All who had been
United States Olympians, were all top amateurs, with Warren and
Herring being outstanding amateurs. But this was a good fun card.
Yet Babboot Schumanov you know, who went on to become
a world champion, also on the card. But the main
event Broner and a Donna. Very very fun kind of
I wouldn't say it was like the fight of the Year,
but it was just if you were there or you
saw it. It was one of those fights like, oh yeah,
I remember, that was a hell of a fight. And
then did he embarrass Broner.
Speaker 2: This was somewhere around the time frame where Broner did
the post fight not in this fight, but did the
post fight interview with the hair brush, where he was
literally interviewing himself like with a hair brush, and we
began under We began to understand his cheese is falling
off of his cracker. So, in any event, good nostalgia
on that. All right, we've been here a little bit.
Speaker 4: By the way, let me just tell what I think.
Speaker 3: This was the fight that when Madonna won in the
manner in which he did and won the welterweight belt
his neck. This is what helped him get the Mayweather fight,
because his next fight was the first Mayweather fight, where
he did very well, and then Floyd gave him a rematch.
So off the Broner fight, he got back to back
victories against Floyd Mayweather and then retired and never fought again,
even though there was always rumors he would make a comeback.
But so this was in fact, this was the last
victory of Marcus Maydona's career where he was at his
best level. I guess because like I said, he got
the two Mayweather fights, he quitted himself.
Speaker 2: And correct, he is the only championship rematch that Mayweather
ever had.
Speaker 1: I think I'm correct on that.
Speaker 4: That man correct on that.
Speaker 1: Who was the other one that I thought? It was
only one?
Speaker 4: But maybe no?
Speaker 3: No, he won the lightweight title against Jose Luis Castillo
and then he gave him an immediate rematch.
Speaker 2: Okay, but Maydonna got two fights with Mayweather basically off
of this, which is what your point is.
Speaker 3: And Castillo got the second fight because he had thought
a fight against Floyd the first time around, where so
many people thought that Castillo, you know, should have been
the winner. That was really the one sort of controversial
victory that Floyd had in his entire fifty fight career.
But may kind of though, you know, it's funny, he
was at his like his apex, let's call it, and
he got the two megafights of Floyd, didn't win either,
and then just walked away. I mean, he made so
much money from those two fights, and I guess that
the tens of millions that he ended up making all together,
not on tens of but certainly you know million, well
well beyond ten million. That goes a long way if
you're living just a low key life in Argentina.
Speaker 1: Gotta love that, all right.
Speaker 2: We have been here a bit busy, lots on the
preview mode Himimongia main event, Tijuana, MJ Madayev earlier in
the day our time in the United States in Monte Carlo,
Alexis Rocha Saturday Night in California and the Golden Boys
Show and even Dillion White on Sunday. No confirmation on
who's staying in the holiday in Express and Gibraltar.
Speaker 1: But all good, all good on all of this.
Speaker 2: Why don't you and I reconvene and we'll handicap some
of these bouts, these main events on the bet Us
Boxing Show Friday one Eastern Time on their platforms and
look forward to what's happening there, and then whatever happens
will come back off the weekend with a fight Freaks
Unit recap podcast like all that. We're good, We're good
that you That is the one and only Dan Rayfield.
I am merely TJ Reeves again. Follow Subscribe, ratest, Reviewers, Apples, Freaker, Spotify,
here at the end of the year if you love
the content again, we've got Usek Purity rematch coming.
Speaker 1: But we've been here all year putting in the work, previewing.
Speaker 2: Going into the weekend, recapping coming off the weekend. Give
us a five star review, will you, and make sure
to be with us here on the pod feed. For now,
we are good previewing going into the weekend on the
Big Fight Weekend Preview Pod