Speaker 1: Well off of a weekend that has seen gal Ye
five win a flyweight impressive main event in a WBC
interim title. We're ready to recap that. We've got some news,
We've got some exit texcellent nostalgie. We have no more
Thanksgiving leftovers. It is the Fight Breaks Your Night Recap podcast.
Hello there, welcome in. I'm a somewhat capable host, TJ. Reeves.
I'm gonna tell you up front, my man Dan Rayphield
was re enacting planes, trains and automobiles with John Candy,
Steve Martin his family. I'm just glad you're back and
in one piece, all right, full disclosure. You were traveling
back from being in Albany, New York with the snow.
I've got buccaneer football all Sunday afternoon and Sunday night,
so we are kind of finding a time to do this.
I'm glad you're all right because when last I talked
to you in the middle of the night, you were
still waiting on an airplane. You got back home on Sunday.
So now here we are, and I'm glad we can
recap my friend a.
Speaker 2: Mere seven hour flightfully now, I'm actually as a season
traveler learned a long time ago whatever happens at airports,
you can't control it. So there's no reason ever start
to yell and scream and get all that. You just
got to roll it because no matter what you do,
you have no control. So you get more flies with Tony.
Just shit your ass down, wait for your flight. But
the thing about last night that was so aggravating. If
they just said, you know, your flight's supposed to leave
at three thirty in the afternoon, but it's now delayed
for four hours, You're like, ah fuck, and you just
go and you know, watch a game, get a drink
and have some lunch, do whatever. This was like fifty
texts of your flights delayed for fifteen minutes an hour
back and for just NonStop, and we didn't know if
the flight's gonna be able to get there to uh.
Speaker 1: There was critical There was one critical part of you
getting back to Virginia. You had to have an airplane.
And for the longest time there wasn't a plane. And
then there was a plane.
Speaker 2: There was a plane, but that plane was the one
that was mechanically injured and put it take us.
Speaker 3: So we had and then it.
Speaker 2: Turned out our plane that was sitting on the ground
and Washington seat to come get us and Albady. That
plane had a mechanical issue, and because did Thanksgiving, they
didn't have extra planes laying around because they're all being You.
Speaker 1: Did not end up in a back of a truck
with the pigs like in planes, trains and automobiles with John.
Speaker 2: So right at a moment that I'm my wife and
I have decided we're gonna do what some other folks
had already done. We're gonna just say screw it, and
we're gonna delay our flight rebook on the five thirty
am on Sunday. They want to put us up in
the hotel. We didn't want to do it, but whatever.
As we're doing it, we got the word that the
plane in Washington had taken off and was coming to
pick us up in Albany with the rest of our
cope pair, and so we waited and ultimately we got home.
Speaker 3: Okay, God, with all the details. Whatever you did get.
Speaker 1: Home, you got at least five to seventeen minutes of sleep.
You're now with me. We're making it work. Thank you
for finding us off Thanksgiving weekend one month ago. It's
already December, one month to go here in the year,
plenty to still talk about. Follow subscribe on the podcast feed.
All right, we're recapping coming off the weekend. We've got
some news, we've got some nostalgia. The most prominent fight,
obviously is galia Phi's Kao victory over Sonny Edwards in
the match Room de Zone main event WBC Flyweight interim title.
All Right, your thoughts, because we saw something that's fascinating
in boxing, where you have all the inside piped up stuff.
I know it's a lot more prominent in other sports,
but in boxing, the in between rounds microphone often picks
up things and has for decades, and it picked up
Sonny Edwards saying I don't want to be here after
the second round. That was striking, and eventually gallia Phi
stopped him. A right, your thoughts in the recap mode
on what we saw.
Speaker 2: Well, the one good thing if there's such a thing
about having a seven hour delay in the Albany International Airport,
which is what I did yesterday because we were flying
I had gone to see my mother and my sister
and her team, is that while we're sitting there, I
actually able to watch that main event live on my
phone because our when we you know, tell folks what
we do, was when we were originally fighting out how
were we going to do this? Our original thought was
I'm going to supposed to be home at you know,
six seven o'clock in the evening on Saturday, that I
would watch the fight and then we could do the
ricas I can't I watch the fight, so that's right,
and we would do it like sometime late Saturday night.
Obviously that didn't happen. We're doing it Sunday in the
late morning. Anyway, I was able to sit at the
gate and watch the actual fight, so I did see that,
and I was I have two divergent thoughts. One is damn,
galalia Phi look really good. But the other one is damn,
Sonny Edwards is totally finished. So I think the story
of the fight and I'm not going to diminish galia
Phi and galaia Pi. This is obviously a very good boxer,
no doubt about it. He's an Olympic gold medalist and
now he's undefeated still as a professional. He turned pro
at a later age, so they've moved him on the
very fast track and they put him them with Sonny
Edwards in his ninth professional fight. That's a that's a
heavy lift, but it's not. So I don't want to
diminish the FI victory because he didn't know what was
going to be in front of him. He went and
trained and did his thing. And remember they had tons
and tons of amateur sparring rounds. As we detailed prior
to the fight, Edwards had defeated him in an amateur
fight some ten years ago or nine years ago. So
as good as he looked, and this is a career propelling,
career launching victor, and by getting the WBC's interim flyway title,
it positions him and he talked about having no problem
making the trip to Japan to become the challenger at
some point for the very outstanding WBC flyweight champion who
had moved up from a long ragn as the junior
flyweight champion as Ken shiro Taji, who was, you know,
an outstanding fighter and a very exciting fighter for that matter.
So all that's good about what I just mentioned you
about you FI, But I really believe the story of
the fight is not so much that as really how
done Sonny Edwards is from everything from him saying what
he said that you just mentioned in between the rounds
which I saw and was and I got to tell you, TJ.
In my basically entire life of watching box and I've
never heard that type of a comment from a fighter.
Speaker 1: Especially the second round, right, I mean in the second round.
Speaker 2: Right, They may think that he wasn't like in the
second round, he's not taking a beating yet or anything
like that. Ultimately, he did take a beating in my opinion.
But if you didn't want to be there, you know
that the thought was in his mind in the camp
because he came out and he said that whether he
had won or lost on Saturday, that that was going
to be his last fight, which usually tells you a
guy has already got one foot in retirement. Anyway, it
almost tant him out to fraud, like I'm gonna go
collect my check, and I'm sure it was paid very handsomely,
but he didn't put forth the type of effort or
have it in him to do what he typically does.
So I don't know if that's a good thing. But
the bottom line, though, is the fight's going to be
I believe more remembered for what you talked about Sonny's
saying after the second round and being completely done at
least mentally if not physically, then it will be for
you if I to get the props for beating a
prime Sonny.
Speaker 3: Edwards, which would be a really big deal.
Speaker 1: And we should mention he fought on. But do we
put some onus on the corner here too? That if
the guy is saying I don't want to be there
and he's taking punches, what do you come on that?
Speaker 3: Real quick?
Speaker 2: They know him better than we do, so I'm not
going to indict the corner. This was not like he's
if he's taking a beating, that's one thing, right, But
you know, a lot of being in the corner, it's
not just about what your man's doing physically, it's what's
he doing mentally, And so sometimes you gotta you gotta,
you know, in the in horse race parlance, you got
to go to the whip.
Speaker 3: So I get that. I'm not gonna fault the corner.
Speaker 2: I mean, I thought that they did a good job
trying to trying to to pump him up. I mean,
if you hear the trainer talking about, you know, it's
only the second round, we get you know, so we
had a bad round. Don't give up. I mean, they're
not gonna pull the plug. This this is not a
four round. This is high stakes, you know, world title,
interim at stake, a lot of money, a lot of
people your career, So I can't fault them. If he
was taking a beating, that'd be a different story. Ultimately
he was, and the referee I thought made a very
good stoppage. They're in round number six when he was
just having punches rained down on him from your fire.
But Sonny Edwards, I think it's now as we look back,
see and I'll go to our bet Us show.
Speaker 3: We were handicapping the fight. We both picked Sonny Edwards
to win.
Speaker 1: But I know I picked pick you five, but I
had the wrong outcome. I had the decision.
Speaker 2: I picked Edwards, and I said, very specifically with trepidation, Yes.
And part of my analysis and part of the things
I was talking about was even though Sonny got a
win in June against Adrian Kyrie, who was a former
champion at one hundred eight pounds, who had come up
to fight him at one hundred and twelve pounds, it
turned out to be a little bit of a of
a sloppier kind of. He won a technical decision, but
Sonny won basically every round of the fight. One judge
did have it a shutout. The other judges, you know,
gave Kuriella you know, a couple of rounds. So that
was his most recent effort, and it was like it
was okay performance, nothing spectacular, but it was certainly not
like terrible. But I still couldn't shake what had occurred
in the previous fight, which was in December of last year,
so just about you know, fifty weeks ago or so
from now, that he got absolutely pummeled, broken down, destroyed
and obliterated by Bam Rodriguez in their like in their
flyweight unification fight where he got stopped in the ninth round.
He took such a hallacious beating in that fight that
I just wondered at in the small weight classes. And
at twenty eight, you're not old, but he'd had a
lot of rounds, a lot of fights, He's been with
a lot of good guys. He just wondered, doesn't take
that toll, yep. And I think now looking at what
happened in the FI fight, we know the answer. And
I'm gonna tell you, right now, DJ I swear to God.
Round three, I think it was. I said to myself, man,
I made the wrong pick because he's done, he has nothing,
and you could just see this coming. And to me,
it wasn't a matter of is he gonna go the
distance or is he gonna get stopped? Is he gonna
come back and win? To me, this was about what
I'm thinking in the third round as I'm watching sitting
in the airport, that it's not if if I's gonna win,
it is he gonna stop him inside the first half
of the fight. And it turned out he did stop
him in six rounds. And so I thought, uh, you know,
in my back and my Monday morning quarterback had on boyd,
did I misanalyzed that one? I thought that the old
that the I thought that Sonny, with his box ability
and he a fis relative inexperience as a professional against
absolute nobody's relative to what Sonny has been fighting, that
Sonny to be able to say it was gonna be
easy by no means, don't get me wrong, this guy's
in the Olympic gold medals for a reason. That Sonny
would find a way to pick and poke and get
seven rounds, you know what I mean, even though he
was fighting in Galla's hometown in Birmingham, England, it was
not meant to be. And then Sonny, you know, announced
his retirement after the fight. I kind of feel like
it's probably gonna stick base and everything we saw, but
you know, you do never know. I always say this,
and it's not just about Sonny Edwards, It's about any fighter.
I've heard say this through my entire time of following boxing.
I never especially as becoming a reporter, Never ever do
I put that much serious stock and what the man
says in the ring thirty seconds after fights over that.
I like to see them have the ability to take
a few days, a few weeks, even a few months
whatever to decompress and really evaluate what they're career path
that has talked to their friends, their family, their handlers,
their trainer, their mom, their coach, whatever, and figure out
what they want to do. And in case of Sony,
given the mentality that he spoke about not wanting to
even be there in the second round, thinking he's going
to retire even before the fight, seeing how bad a
beating he took against Bam, one would think that this
is probably gonna stick. And if it does, listen Sonny Edwards.
You know, he made some really terrible, boring fights. Let's
not lionize him, but he was a hell of a
boxer and he did score some superb victories as a
flyway champion. There's no doubt about that. He looked very
good in some of those fights. You have to give
him credit for that type of what he did in
those events. I mean, he was a BONIFI world champion
and he was a big talker. He talked a lot
of shit and people, you know, either loved him or
hate him. He was a very polarizing figure from that
same point. His victory in twenty twenty one when he
first won the IBF Flyway title against Maruti Antalani from
South Africa is one of the most underrated wins boxing
in a long time because people don't know I Falani,
but he's a hell of a fighter. Gave a prime
no Needo don air I league handle. I mean, and
he was a multi time champ from South Africa with
a great record and a lot of experience. That was
a that was a really really great win for Sonny Edwards.
Get a hell of a career, you know, and I
think though he's going to have a future if he's
gonna want to stick to a commentating. We've seen him
on his own. You know, he does have good insights
into the x's and o's as well as the mentality.
Uh and and he does have people that enjoy or
or not enjoy, but listen anyway of what he's got
to say about the sports. So all I can say
is tip of the hat to Sonny. And I'm looking
forward to seeing more from Gala. You'll find me because
I mean, he's thirty one, he's uh, you know, he's
now got this interim DELT and he's gonna be willing,
ready and able. I believe if I any of the
top fly weights out there.
Speaker 1: It'll be the thing. And let's see how quickly he
gets a more prominent shot. He certainly deserves it. And
by the way, shout out to Yafi and his brother
because our colleague David Payne we had on the podcast
last week, just by chance, was in a Birmingham, England
mall area that has a fet etc. And just happened
upon them and he wasn't gonna bother them or say anything,
but he's like, my god, Gallia Pi is standing right
next to me ordering pizza, literally ordering pizza. So David
put the photo on social media said they could not
have been more cordial. This was on Friday night before
the fight. So I said, now, David, you're the good
luck charm. Your fi's gotta have pizza with you before
the next fight after it gets the TK.
Speaker 3: I mean, David might be making the trip to Japan
for some sushi before.
Speaker 1: Could be sushi and pizza if need be, So shout
out there, and that leads us to news next. Hey,
when I left you on the bet Us show to
go have like a leftover turkey and mayonnaise sandwich, I
thought we were getting Boots Ennis and Virgil Ortiz, and
apparently almost everybody associated with the fight potentially in February,
thought we're getting Boots Ennis Virgil Ortiz on this read
season card. Except on Saturday. I'm looking at social media
and Jaron Innis is saying hold up, hold up, not
not done yet, not happening, and even mentioned it would
be at welterweight, which even I knew that's not happening.
All right, Dan, what happened from the time that we
left each other that you tried to leave from the
airport that I came to Charlotte.
Speaker 3: What happened here with this?
Speaker 1: And is it completely dead or are we negotiating a little?
What's up?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think at this point anyway, for February
twenty second, on that massive read season card, it it
seems like it's dead. So I broke this story reported extensively.
There's a very detailed piece about everything that went down
on my fight Friction Unite substack.
Speaker 1: Why are you not subscribing public? Why are you not
on the newsletter? I already knew that. I already read
that go.
Speaker 2: Very very good teas there. Listen, virgel Ortis, let's talk
about in for one second, we'll fight anybody. There's there's
a handful of guys through the years that you know
when they'll say, well, I'll fight anybody, anytime, anywhere.
Speaker 3: They're gonna do it.
Speaker 2: Just pay me the right money, tell me where to
show up, and let's get it on. And in today's
current climate of boxers, I believe rgel Ortiz is one
of those guys. He's literally you asked his handlers at
Golden Boy, ask his manager Rick Mrgingan whenever they bring
him an opponent. He's never turned it down good, bad,
or indifferent. It just does not turn the guys down.
He was, he took he was willing to fight Tim
Zoo obviously back in August. It can happen because of
Tim's scalps, you know, the problem with the scalp. He then,
you know, he thought Boat Shook in a great fight.
That was a risky fight, no problem anyway. The point is,
here's a guy that's willing, ready and able to fight whoever, whenever,
no problem. But Boots Ennis is not that guy. Apparently,
because anybody who thought so, they're making this match for
this card. Obviously, Turkey al Shek has to sign off
on it, you know, because he's the one bank rolling it.
He wanted to fight very interesting matchup, and by all
accounts it's at least from Golden Boys perspective, that's his
promoter that it's going to be Boots Ennis coming up
from one hundred and forty seven to one hundred and
fifty four to fight or tease for his WBC intern
delt which he won from Bowachtrup back in August. And Boots,
by the way, who had just fought a couple of
weeks ago in the rematch with Karen Chikazi, and it
did not look very good, even though he won very handily,
sat there in the ring after the fight and stated,
very specifically, it might be time to move up to
one hundred fifty four, where I'm gonna be at my best,
but I'm gonna have more power. You know, this was
I didn't I'm paraphrasing what he said. I didn't maybe
look that good or feel that good. And then not
a couple of minutes later, in that same innering interview,
you have match Room Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn saying to
Chris Mannix on the broadcast, you know, all week long,
I thought Boots looked a little tight at one forty seven.
After this performance, it might be time to go up
to one fifty four. It's hard to do when you
have a title, but if it's affecting your performance, you
need to do it again. Paraphrasing, but that's what he said.
Everybody knows that if there's going to be a fight
between Boots and Ortiz, it's gonna be at one fifty four.
If forget about what I just said to you, about
the comments that that Boots and his team made in
the wake of their recent fight, Virgil Ortiz is, he's
never going to see one hundred and forty seven pounds, right,
And unless you're living under a fucking rock where you're
a fucking idiot, or you're purposely nefariously you know, misdirecting,
or filled with fake news, or however you want to
phrase it.
Speaker 3: The notion.
Speaker 2: And I put this on my social media yesterday because
I'm so pissed off about the nonsense that Virgil Ortiz
was gonna come down to one hundred and forty seven
pounds to fight this man is absolutely ridiculous. If you
go back and take a look at Virginal Ortiz's record.
In August twenty twenty two, he fought Michael mckinson in
a one hundred and forty seven pound fight. Now, he
had his health problems related to his blood disorder, but
the last time he tried to make one hundred and
forty seven pounds was over a year ago when the
fight between him and a Manta Stanionis, which is a
mandatory fight for the WBA title, and Stanionis was no problem.
Speaker 1: He was good to go.
Speaker 2: But Virgil Ortiz in a couple of days before the fight,
passed out during his weight cut, wound up in the
hospital and the fight got camed. And after that fight
he went up tow one hundred and fifty four pounds.
He's looking and by the way, that cost him because
of all the back and forth with the Stanionis fight,
the combination of that happening plus the blood situation. He
didn't fight for the entire year of twenty twenty three
and when he passed out in the fight, I canceled.
He and his opponent in Stanionis. They both lost out
on seven figure payday Is. You don't get that money back.
So twenty twenty four dawns and a new Virgil Ortiz
widely publicized, widely discussed, widely scene. He's at one hundred
fifty four pounds and he scores three wins. He knocks
out Frederick Blowston in round one. He knocks out Thomas
the war mate in round one. He has the war
with saray Bochuk. He goes the distance for the first
time in his career. Tremendous fight, and he is willing
to fight Tim Zoo. It gets postponed or called off,
not because of him, because of the injury to Zoo,
willing to fight whoever boots and it says the guy,
I'll do the fight, no problem. How they could send
Now I'm gonna get into a little of the minutia here,
so I'm reporting this out. It comes to as I'm
doing talking to people who are involved in the event,
they're trying to tidy up the paperwork. It's not a
long form contract, but Queensberry Promotions, Frank Warren's company, which
are the official promoters of the event. Even though they
don't promote Boots and even though they don't promote Ortis,
they're still coordinating all the doubt agreements, all the contracts,
right because they're the they're like the clearing outs. They're
doing the event. Plus they obviously have Daniel Dubois in
the main event and other guys on the show, so
their their side is responsible not for negotiating the agreements necessarily,
but just getting all the paper.
Speaker 1: It underare it contractually happens.
Speaker 2: They're doing this on behalf of basically Turkey and the
Saudi folks, so instead of like and I guess they
would eventually sign the longer doubt agreement, but you also
can send out like a one pager. They call it
the term sheet, you know, which is just the basics.
Here's the date, here's the location, here's the way, here's
the title, if there is one, here's the here's the money,
you know, here's you know, whatever it might be. How
many plane tickets, how many hotel rooms that just the
base take basic stuff for the fight? That term sheet
went from Queensberry again, this is what I am told
from Queensberry to Golden Boy. Now Queensberry is not the
ones that decided what to put in it. They were
told by those who negotiated, here's the terms for this,
and that's what they put in the sheet. And so
in that sheet, everything was perfect, except it's set one
hundred and forty seven pounds. The virgil Ortis.
Speaker 3: Side flagged that, and we're like, hey, everything is good,
but this is not a forty seven pound fight. This
is the one fifty four pound fight. I don't know
what this is doing in there now.
Speaker 2: Who put that forty seven clause in there? I don't
know If that was the Saudi's I can't I don't
know if it's Eddie Hearn said, it's not their side.
He messaged me he said it wasn't us that put
the forty seven interesting. But my perspective to Eddie and
to Boots end his team was Okay, even if that's
the case, you know it's not one forty seven. You
know they're not going to sign that. Maybe you say, oh, guys,
you kind of fuck this up because it ain't gonna
happen if it says one forty seven. And so when
you see it at one forty seven, you know there's
a problem. I don't know, you know, you know there's
a problem there. And so at the end of the day,
they're not going to go to one forty seven to
fight Boots Ennis, and Boots is now saying, oh, I'm
going to decide what I want to do.
Speaker 3: Blah blah, blah, blah blah.
Speaker 1: All I know is the one thing that struck me
is is this about money? Is this because he's not
getting enough money? And this is what you're using as
the reason.
Speaker 3: This was agreed to.
Speaker 2: Boots is saying I don't even know about the fight,
which I look, he's a twenty nine year old man.
What the fuck is your problem? You should know about
your own career. So Eddie her knew about the fight
and negotiated the terms Boots. Ennis's father, from what I
am told in detail, was involved in new about the
terms and he is obviously the guiding force behind his
son's career. So no, that's this is not a money thing.
This is a lot of other stuff. But the other
thing that really irritates me is that they make it
like like, oh, we can just think about it. We
don't know what we want to do. Dude, you said
two weeks ago you want to go to fifty four.
You got a top notch opponent for a big fight
for your biggest payday by a lot, and by the way,
just to tidy up up. Immediately, everybody on the Saudist
side went and discussed the possibility of having Sebastian Fondora,
who was the actual WBC champion and the WBO champion,
to step in and take his place, and that would
have been another big time fight. Also, Virgil Artist said no,
probably we'll do it. The Golden Boy people were fine
with that. Sam Soon Lukwitz, who is the promoter of
Sebastian Fundora, and there's boats from him in my piece
that I that I just mentioned before about how we
have other plans will work out. We all know what
that is it's the Arrow Spence fight, even though he
didn't say that, but they said we're not going to
be fighting him, not because they're ducking him. They've got
this opportunity in front of them for Spence, it's already
apparently negotiated to some extent down the road, and they're
not going to do it. So now they got to
find a new opponent for Ortiz or he won't fight
that day. But Boots Ennis looks terrible because I'm going
to tell you right now, flat out, and I like Bootsennis.
I've interviewed him many times. He's a fun fighter to watch.
He's obviously very talented. He's drawn a big crowd in Philadelphia, TJ.
In twenty five years almost of covering boxing. I I
have a hard time in the in the recesses of
my memory of all the times that we've seen ups
and downs of guys who would fight or would fight,
of finding a guy that's a that's a bigger, outright duck.
Because even if he didn't know about it, like he claims,
which I don't believe, you still had the opportunity to say,
you know what, okay, let's do it. Your father and
your promoter negotiated the terms and they're they're to have
you know, they're looking out for you. I believe, uh,
take the fight, go put yourself.
Speaker 1: But apparently he's not going to unless this gets reversed,
which from your tone.
Speaker 3: Not happened. Not happened, all right.
Speaker 1: So something you had been talking about on Thursday night
into Friday's podcast and also on the bet Us show
is you were hearing March first, March first for Gervanta
Davis and Lamont Roach. It is now confirmed. Update us
on where. And also you've also learned about Jose Valenzuela
being part of this card, making a title defense. Elaborate
more Big Dan Well.
Speaker 2: The fact that they're gonna fight on March first, and
I don't think is come is a big surprise to anybody. Look,
if you go back, it was supposed to originally be
Tank Davis against Lamar Roach. They were talking about doing
it December fourteenth in Houston, Texas, a place that Tank
Davis wanted to fight in. I know, and I'm on
the same bandwagon here with so many other people that
I've heard from about this matchup, whether they like to
fight or they don't like to fight. The reality is
Tank Davis against Lamont Roach should be in the Washington
DC area. Lamont Roach is from Washington, d C. Tank
Davis is from Baltimore, which is nearby, and he has
a huge fan following in Washington. Roach has a fan
following Washington, also obviously not as big as Tanks. The
point is, though, that's a big time Washington DC fight,
and I've thought to myself, if Tank Davis could do
a fight against Hector Luis Garcia in which he set
the all time record for gate for the Capitol One
Arena more than five million dollars for ticket sales at
an arena that is what twenty five to thirty years
old that has hosted everything you could think of in
terms of big time sports and concerts. Arena for the
Washington Wizards and also for the Washington Capitals, they broke
the record from many years ago of a Rolling Stones concert,
and that was with Hector Lewis Carci, who was not
known at all by the Washington c boxing fans. Now,
you put Tank Davis back in that same arena and
you match him up with a Washington fighter who's a
world champion, even though he's gonna be moving up one
way class who's got his own fan base. I mean,
he drew like four or five thousand to his first
title defense that took place in Washington, d C. Anyway,
it's not going to be in Washington, d C. It's
gonna be in Brooklyn, New York, at the Bark Play Center,
which is an outstanding arena, and they've had plenty of
big time fights there. I've covered probably some fifty fights
in that arena thereabouts forty fights in that arena, and.
Speaker 1: Tank knocked out Roly Romero in that arena.
Speaker 2: Well, but here's a he knocked out more than just
Roller Romero in that arena. This was going to be, well,
he's gonna be making a sixth defense when he fights
to fight against Roach. But the fact is, it's not
like he's unfamiliar to the to the New York folks
in terms of fighting in that particular venue. He fought
there a few other times. He had what I think
some might even say one of his biggest wins of
his career there when he won his first world title
at one hundred and thirty pounds. He stopped the then
undefeated one hundred and thirty pounds IBF champion Jose Pedraza
in Barkley Center.
Speaker 3: I was ringside for that fight.
Speaker 2: He blitzed Jesus Quaar when he won the vacant junior
lightweight WBA belt in that arena in twenty eighteen. Then
he knocked out roly Ramire as you mentioned, that was
a lightweight title bout of his belt in twenty twenty two.
Lamont Roach his box there only one time. This is
way back in his like fifth professional fight when he
was just a young prospect. But anyway, they'll put it
on in Barclay Center. I have to imagine a plenty
of the Baltimore faithful will make that trek up, and
Washington will make that trek up. I ninety five to
go check out that fight. There's been a lot of people,
by the way, TJ that hate the fight. Some are like, yeah,
it's okay, and I get the people are disappointed that
And I just say this, I mean number one, when
people go on my social media timeline they say it's garbage,
it's trash. You're being a little over more, a little
bit over melodramatic.
Speaker 3: It is not garbage. It is not trash.
Speaker 2: Lamont Roach is an excellent boxer, a top notch amateur,
a guy that has experience in the professional ranks, had
had a you know, fought Tank Davis in the amateurs,
one of the best fighters in recent years come out
of Washington, DC. Has a world title. He lost to
Jammel Herring. Yeah, he lost a mandatory fight in a
decision that was competitive against Jamuel Herring. Like what five
years ago, I mean, we're gonna We're gonna murder the
guy over one loss from a long time ago that
was still a halfway decent performance. I mean, give me
a break now. I'm not gonna sit here and endorse
this and say I think this is the greatest matchup
since sliced Bread.
Speaker 3: But this is the fight.
Speaker 2: Remember, Hank was supposed to fight Lomachenko in this spot.
That would have been at the end of this year,
but Loma decided he was laying off and wasn't sure
what he wanted to do. After many years of Loma
having tried to get Tank in the ring, Loman decided
to take a little break after he won the IBF
title and kind of left Tank Holden back. Remember those
tides that PBC and Top Rank were right on the
verge of a deal didn't happen. So now you start
to look around, and I'm not saying that Lamont Roach
is a perfect opponent to fight, but I hardly think
it's trash. I hardly think it's garbage. And so they're
gonna go to a fine arena, one of the best
boxing facilities and busiest boxing facilities in recent years, although
not in the last couple of years, to Barclay Center.
Now you mentioned about the undercard fight. Obviously they're gonna
have to put on some solid stuff for that show,
and so one of the fights that's going to be
on the card, which I guess will be the co feature,
but I'm not positive in that position because I haven't
I have not, I don't have reporting on what the
remainder of that undercard is going to be, although I
am told actually probably we'll see, but not on the
co feature and perhaps not even the main card. Maybe
on the on the preliminary card, the excellent middleweight up
and comer Elijah Garcia, but in any event, Jose Valenzuela,
who had a title victory to kine this WBA title
at one hundred and forty pounds against Pitbull Cruise that
took place back on the read season Los Angeles cart
in August. He will make his first defense against Garry
Antoine Russell, another Washington DC fighter who will be fighting
in New York City. Uh, and that will be the matchup.
I mean, that's that's a pretty good matchup if you
ask me. Now in terms of Gary Antoine Russell, Olympic fighter, undefeated,
was a guy coming off of his first defeat, which
was the loss that he took against Alberto Pueo when
he fought him for the WBA belt. He was now
in position once Pueo fought the mandatory against sand Or
Martin to get the winner in a mandatory WBA fight,
but he obviously got offered the opportunity to fight or
I'm sorry for the WBC title. He got offered this
ability to fight for the WBA title, so he was
took that rather than waiting to see what happens in
the WBC belt between Martin, uh, you know and uh
in that fight, because that was supposed to be had
Tank fought in December, Sander Martin against against Pueo was
going to be on that undercard.
Speaker 3: So nonetheless, Uh, he'll fight for this title. I mean
that's a that's a pretty good matchup.
Speaker 2: I mean Gary Antoin Russell despite the fact that he's
been so dramatically inactive, just like unfortunately his older brother
Gary Junior was, but he's still he's an excellent fighter.
And uh and Valenzuela is a is a good young
fighter also, so this is a this is a good matchup.
I mean, is it gonna be Valezuela, you know, with
that confidence of a title and some more activity and
obviously he's got good skills and he's he's a he's
a real tenacious type of fighter, or is it is
it Russell, who's obviously a good puncher, comes from.
Speaker 3: That great boxing heritage. He was an Olympian. I mean it.
Speaker 2: This is a good, good young guys matchup so to speak.
I mean, both guys in their twenties. But it's time
for Gary Russell to get off and then fight real
guys at this point. I mean he really hasn't unfortunately,
but this is gonna be a good proving fight for
both of these guys.
Speaker 1: Right again. That is in March, so good stuff on that.
One more news item as well here on the pod,
and that is the IBF and our guy Martin Bucoley.
We've been wondering when we would see him again after
that demolition of Jared Anderson in August. We have an
update on this now they've they've ordered Is this gonna happen?
We don't know for sure, but they've ordered him to
fight FAA Jagba.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: So tell me more about the timeline here of what
has to happen.
Speaker 2: Well, if they end up doing if they end up
actually fighting, it would be to determine the mandatory challenger
for the IBF title, which is currently held by Daniel Dubis. Obviously,
Daniel Dua is going to be fighting in February against
Joseph Parker and not announced yet, but that's the plan
for the main event for that Read Season card. So
the winner, if this fight occurs, would be mandatory for
the guy who wins between Dui and Joe Parker.
Speaker 3: Now, the question is will it happen?
Speaker 2: So, Bacoli and I've gotten so many people on my
social media ask me where is Martin beccauley.
Speaker 3: Why isn't he on this mega card with Read Season.
Speaker 2: He's obviously an intriguing fighter, He's got a lot of
punching power, He's a very big man coming off the
absolute demolition of Jared Anderson that took place also on
that August cart in Los Angeles, and there was some conversation,
maybe we'd fight Jang in an eliminator in one of
the other organizations. Jang is going to be fighting your
boy at g Caveo on that card coming up in February.
People were sort of like, well, where's Baccoli.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: My underst standing is that there is a lot of
back and forth and maybe Bocoli may have priced them
aside of that particular fight, But in any event, the
IBF had a Jagua Mbacouli very high up in the rankings.
And the reason why I have confidence more so than
your average IBF order of an eliminator type fight, is
because according to the IBF, both Bacoli and a Jagua
hold the IBF in writing that they are interested in
pursuing this fight and that's why they ordered it, because
they were the two leading available guys in the rankings,
so their teams and those fighters have shown an interest
to make the match. So that means you have a
Jaga who's with top rank, you have Bikoli who was
with boxer, but also with gold Star, and so they're
going to try to guess put this fight together. But
of course, if they don't make a deal, like fights
that are mandatory or mandated matches, they go to a
purse spit and they have until December eleventh to make
a deal. If they don't make a deal, it'll go
to a persp Now it seems like an interesting enough
heavyweight type fight with stakes available that maybe Turkey Elsh,
who's done so many of the bigger heavyweight fights over
the last you know year or so, could have interest
in this fight. Butacoley looked really good in his last
three out of appearance. A Jagua has yet to fight
on that car, but he's shown himself to be a good,
solid contendor just as the one loss also an Olympian,
He's got a lot of pedigree to him. So this
is this is a match up between guys with good
power or big men. H I hope this fight happens.
I mean, anytime you can take you know, heavyweights that
can end the fight with one shot, you want to
see them in the ring with each other, whatever the
matchups are. And so I'm not gonna sit here and say, okay,
if I was making my list of my top ten
favorite heavyweight fights we could think about in boxing that
somehow this is on my list. But when it was
said to me, oh, you know, this is a pretty
good fight. I want to see Bacoli again after that performance.
And you know, Frankly a jagula. You know, he's he's
come along too. He's had some ups and downs, but he's,
like I said, just got the one loss. And he's
a hard guy to fight too because he's got so
much size and reach and pat.
Speaker 1: I'll just interject, but Coley is a legitimate threat as
a contender after what you saw him due to Anderson.
So let's see. But as you liked say, devil in
the details, and it's not done yet, so who knows?
Who knows?
Speaker 2: Well, it's not even They just ordered the negotiation, so
they got to get to the table and see if
they can get it done. I mean, but it's so
but I get in the pantheon of hopes. I mean,
I don't see why this would be so crazy to make.
There's a lot at Steak neither. It's not like, guys,
they're gonna avoid the title eliminator, but somehow they're gonna
get a world title shot without the eliminator. We know
the belts are held up right now. Fiery Hustik are
doing their business with three of the titles. Dubai and
Parker are going to be doing their business for the
title that would be at stake in this fight if
they were you know, the eliminator for that belt. So
hopefully they can get it on. They're not These are
not young guys, you know, they're in their thirties. One guys,
thirty one, guys thirty two. You know, fighters fight and
they can make good money on a fight like this.
Speaker 1: I believe Nacola looks older than that, but who knows.
Who knows what the ahe stuff? All right, let's get
to the nostalgia and this was actually November nostalgia from Saturday,
November the thirtieth, and it was forty five years ago,
Big Dan Sugar, Ray Leonard fighting on a card that
was a doubleheader with Marvin Hagler on the Undercard Network
TV for Hagler, Vito and a Fermo. You talk about
robbery's peeps, this was a robbery that Hagler didn't get
the decision. It was a draw. And then the main
event is Leonard and Wilfred Benitez, where Sugar Ray Leonard
wins the WBC Welterweight Championship in a tremendous fight of
fifteenth round TKO. I still remember as a little tej
watching this with the how would co Sell on the call?
We talked about co Sell back on Friday forty five
years ago. Give me more nostalgia on all of this.
Speaker 2: Could you imagine if there was a card of Sugar
Ray Leonard, who was a great up and coming star
at that point, Olympic gold medalist, future of the sport,
taken on a massively respected superb and undefeated world champion
in Wilfrid Benitez for the WBC welterweight title Caesars Palace
in Las Vegas. You've got Marvelus Marvin Hagler on the
undercard challenging Vido antifermo For in the first fight for
the undispeit of middleway title, and it's on free network television. Today,
this would be like a ninety dollars pay per view
hidden behind some the Zone paywall or ESPN Plus payroll
or whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: It just was a different world back then, and that's
why boxing was so big because the network supported it,
paid big license fees. The fighters made great money. The
fights were, you know, top guys fighting top guys. And
by the way, not all on Saturday nights. This was
a weeknight fight that had occurred on but Ray Leonard,
I must say, if you take a look at this
was forty five years ago, let's say the last fifty
years like a big time matchup in a big win,
like you want to talk about a guy's best win
or his tremendous win. One of the reasons Leonard is
so revered is because he's got a whole bunch of big,
great wins, and Benitaz is absolutely one of them. A
lot of people look at Benitaz. You know, we talk
all the time about the the four Kings of Leonard
and Hagler and Tommy Hearns and Roberto Durant. A lot
of people say it really should be fine because Benitas
was like the fifth one. Now, he didn't fight all
the other guys, but he did fight Leonard, and he
did fight you know, Tommy Hearns or whatever. But he
never fought Hagler obviously. But the point is Benitas is
a great fighter. Also in a hall of famer, and
this was sugar nn Leonard stepping up. Remember this is
nineteen seventy nine. He's like barely three years removed if that,
from the Olympics. I mean, he was not a young
fighter from this, and he was a young fighter in age,
but also in terms of professional experience, this was not
This was not like we looked back down, say, yeah,
of course Ray Leonard won the fight because he's Ray Leonard.
Speaker 3: But you know, back then we didn't.
Speaker 2: He wasn't Ray Leonard that he became to be known yet,
you know what I'm saying, Like he had to prove himself.
Now he was twenty five and oh going into the fight.
I mean, but he he had not fought anybody on
the level yet of a wolf. For Benitas, who was,
like I said, a legit, like upper tier Hall of
Fame caliber type fighter.
Speaker 3: He had had some good wins.
Speaker 2: He had beat Andy Price in his previous fight in
a first round knockout, which was a big deal on
national television. Also, but you know, Pete ran Zani or whatever,
he didn't have like the big names. He really took
a big jump up when he fought Benitez, and it
was a good, solid competitive fight, very close to a
lot of people, perhaps slightly wider on a couple of
the scorecards. Ray Leonard won emphatically put him away in
the fifteenth round. And the thing about it is this
started a run. So if you take a look at
Sugar Ray Leonard, we talked about him as one of
the greats of all time, you know, top ten fighters
in the history of the sport to most people. Anyway,
from November of nineteen seventy nine when he beats Benitez,
he goes on a run before the retirement because of
the eye injury. This say is again in two years,
so from November seventy nine to September eighty one, so
it's a little less than two full years. He fights Benitez,
takes a defense against Davy Boy Green, but then he
goes Duran Duran, a defense against Larry Bonds, jumps up
to fifty four to fight Ayu Coloule, wins title in
that weight class, has the long awaited showdown with Tommy
hearns and stops him in round fourteen, and then he
has obviously the retirement for uh well, he has one
defense against Finch and then comes to retirement. My point
is in that two years, the things that Ray Leonard
did fight Benitez, Duran twice, klule and hearns. I mean,
guys don't do that anymore. You know, we go back
to what we talked about earlier. You know, Boots Enna,
should he type Virgil Ortiz?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: Can he jump up? Is it too much?
Speaker 2: Could he take a tune up fight to it? Blah
blah blah. Fuck that sugar and Leonard is like the antithesis.
This is give me one big name after another. I mean,
and jumping ahead. You know when he came back after
three and a half years out of the ring, and
he thought Marvin Hagler jumping up two week classes for
the middleweight title, like nobody said I'd do a tune
up fight. I mean, they thought he was gonna get
murdered in the fight. But he ended up showing everybody
in winning the fight. But the Benitez fight, that's a
big of a town, four pound, big time win as
you could possibly ask for in boxing history. It was surprising,
actually what I when I was when I've read around
read up on this fight. Leonard actually went into the
dow as a slight favorite in the match, but nonetheless
he got the job done, and it was quite impressive.
I mean, it's a it's a it was.
Speaker 1: A huge I was a huge Sugar Ray litter fan
coming off the Olympics as a little guy, and this
made me an even bigger one. And I've often said
to you that next year when Duran beat him, I
had a tear in my eye as ten year old
TJ because you just thought nobody can beat Sugar Ray
Leonard because you had seen these kind of fights. So
what a night for him? And again say something about Hagler,
who was forever like in the shadow of the massive payday,
including on this night where he's on the undercard making
a fraction of what Leonard made and then being robbed
of the title.
Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of people refer to this fight
between Sugar between Uh Hagler and at the furnam of
the first fight that they had as a tremendously massive robbery.
I thought that Marvin Hagler won the fight, but I've
never thought it was like the most outrageous thing I
ever saw.
Speaker 3: And a matter of fact, if you.
Speaker 2: Go back and watch the broadcast, there was not a
lot of outrage from Howard Cosell who. By the way,
Howard Cossel certainly could have outrage when he asked, I
mean there's no doubt about that. Well again, I'm not
saying that he didn't win the fight.
Speaker 3: I didn't.
Speaker 2: I don't think it goes down to the pantheon of
the worst robberies in the history of the world. Unfortunately
for Hagler, after he got the draw for the undisputed title,
he had to wait for a little while. He fought
several more times. It was almost another year until he
got the shot again. In the meantime, Anton Fermo had
lost the title to Alan Minter, but Marvin stayed busy,
you know in the day's age, like TJ always talks
about activity. Baby, Yeah, he draws. He draws with Anti
Fermo in November. He's back in February, he's back in April,
he's back in May. He scores it, wins.
Speaker 1: You listen in peeps. He fought three more times in
less than six months after losing a title fight in November.
Speaker 2: Right, So he fights in May of nineteen eighty and
then it was in September, you know, a few months
after that May fight where he fights Alan Minter in England.
Famously and knocks him out, blood's him, beats him up
and stops him in the third round to win the
undispuited title. In the British fans or lunatics start throwing
the beer bottles into into the crowd, but the anti
Fermo draw really, you know, Marvin Hagler, if you talk
about a guy that always fell to get a chip
on his shoulder, the draw in that fight is one
of the things that put that chip on his shoulder
because he felt like he had been robbed. Anthon Furmer
was making his first title defense, but it was really
unfortunately it was massively overshadowed by what Sugar Ray Leonard
had done in the main event. But it just goes
to show you because Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard
finally did fight in nineteen eighty seven, but they were
already sort of like driving towards one another, even though
Ray had just won the welterweight title on this particular
show in nineteen seventy nine. So it was the notion
that Ray Leonard and Hagler would someday fight like it
was around for a long time, and by having them
on the same card where they were both in big
time title fights on the National Network television show like this.
Speaker 3: That was sort of like the start of like.
Speaker 2: You know what, down the road, we're going to see
the welterweight champion Leonard maybe someday against one of the
great middleweight who had yet to win the title. But
maybe they fight each other someday. That's where the it was,
like the seed was planned that I.
Speaker 1: Believe fourty five years ago on Saturday, November thirtieth of
seventy nine. I advanced eleven more years to December second
of two thousand, that's twenty four years ago Monday, as
we released the podcast Felix Trinidad, we talked about him
a lot on these nostalgia pieces that we do. Ends
up defeating Fernando Vargas to unify two of the junior
middleweight championships. Rayfield says on the sheet, the greatest junior
middleweight title fight ever. Some might argue, I don't choose
to argue with you, but some might argue that you
were there.
Speaker 3: You were there, Well, hold on you, what tell me
the fight that's better.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm just saying some would argue, maybe
there's another junior middleweight title fight somewhere along the line
that's better.
Speaker 3: But you're saying that, I'm hard press that.
Speaker 1: You're saying it's this one. You were there in Las Vegas.
Why for Tito Trinidad over Fernando Argists.
Speaker 2: This was a really big time fight. This was like,
you know, I remember Larry Merchant, my dear pal, who
would call this fight on HBO, would talk about, you know,
if you could order fights off like a menu, you know,
and you had your choice of fighters in Columne, and
choices of Kiers and Columbe, and you saw Trinidad and
Vargas at the stages of their careers, you'd be definitely
having that at the top of your wont list, you know,
if you could order fights off of the menu.
Speaker 3: This was a big time fight for me.
Speaker 2: It was a special fight because I had covered Lennox
Lewis against David Tua in Las Vegas at the Mandala
Bay a month earlier, with that, which was my first
assignment to go to Las Vegas to cover fight. This
was my second assignment to go to Las Vegas to
cover fight Trinidad versus Marcus. I obviously got a great
one and turned out to be way better than the pilot.
Speaker 1: Is not bad for the opening two title fights for
Big Dan to go cover.
Speaker 2: What I was gonna say is Lewis too as a
fight was kind of a steaming pile of dogshit. It
was a wonderful performance from Lewis, but not an exciting
fight in any way, shape or form. This was a
whole different ballgame. This was one of the still the
greatest fights I've ever covered. I mean, you add Mexico
in terms of Fernando as the Mexican American, very proud
of his heritage, machismo fighter, the United States Olympian had
looked great on the way up and been destroying everybody,
had scored a very big win against ike Quarte and
had looked strong in his you know, several of his
fights leading up to this fight. He had had a
win over a Winkie right close. Some stay controversial, but nonetheless,
you know, in back to back wins he had beaten
Winky Wright, who was in the Hall of Fame. And
ike Quarte was a massive, respected former welterweight champion who
had given Oscar deal le Hoye everything you could handle.
He then made a mandatory defense. Trinidad had made a
mandatory defense, and then they were on the collision course
to fight each other. This was Don King promoting Tito,
this was Main Events promoting Fernando, and they they really
put together one of the most explosive and exciting fights.
I guess the kind of fight when it was made
TJ where every single person that had any knowledge of
that boxing would literally say, zero chance is not a
great fight, just based on the way that the fighters
spot and this their intensity level, and it delivered. It
delivered everything you could possibly want. Vargas was knocked down
twice in the first round, however, and so in the
first opening seconds of the fight, I remember literally sitting
there in ringside in my press seat, and he gets
dropped by a patent that Tito Trinidad left hook, like
almost right out of the first bell, and you're like,
oh my god. He shakes it off and he gets up,
and then like in three seconds later he's down again
from another hook, and you're like, this fight's gonna fucking
be over in the first run. After all the months
of hype and excitement and and and everybody talking about
all the different things that are gonna be going on
in this fight, You're like fuck, this fight's gonna be over,
and like literally like a minute to Tito Trinidad was
trying to get Vargas.
Speaker 3: But the Vargas is credit.
Speaker 2: He got up, he stayed in the fight, he got
a shit together, and he ended up getting back into it.
He knocked Tito Trinidad down in the fourth round, which
got him one of those points back. Yep, it was
a little bit of a dirty fight at times. There
were some low blows. Tito Trinidad with a very perfectly
time low blow, which which I think changed the fight
a little bit because it really did some damage to
to Vargas. But they fought their hearts out. This was
a battle to the end.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It always felt like Trinidad was gonna eventually win, but
Vargas was always like just a step behind, but he
was still still going after him, still landing shots. He
was a powerful puncher, young, with enthusiasm and exuberance, had
never lost, and Trinidad was, you know, not the old fighter,
but he was the more experienced guy. Just everything you
could possibly want. They get to the twelfth round. Oh
and by the way, both guys end up having the
points deducted because of the low blows. There was, Like
I said, there were some dirty elements.
Speaker 3: To the fight.
Speaker 2: But going into the twelfth round, you know, Ken Trinidad
finally get him out of there. Ken Vargus survived. Vargus
obviously gonna lose, you know, probably a somewhat close decision.
The cards were kind of close at that time. But Trinidad,
as he's known to do, what's the old saying, TJ,
he closed the show and he absolutely destroyed Felix Trinette
in the in the last round, I felt like Jane eighty,
who was the referee in this fight, let Vargas take
one too many knockdowns in the last round should have
been stopped. I believe very strongly at least one knockdown
before it was over. But what a fabulous fight. A
lot of people will tell you at ruined Vargas. He
was very young at that time, and he took unnecessary
punishment in the second or the last couple of rounds
in that fight. He wanted it, He made big money
in the fight, his team wanted it. So you Ca'm
not gonna second guess it. But phenomenal, phenomenal fight.
Speaker 1: And we say one more time, these are the types
of fights. This is where the money was. That's why
you want to make these fights. And you got a
great one that night.
Speaker 3: A big HBO pay per view.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've been in a lot of press rooms,
a lot of media centers in my day, and when
I tell you, the excitement level all week in that
press room, people could not wait.
Speaker 3: The press guys could not wait for that fight.
Speaker 2: Don king you know, doing this thing walking around and
shotting up the fight, and the again, the the the
excitement level among the fans in press for this match.
There was so much joy that this was happening. Uh,
and they delivered everything you could possibly have wanted twenty.
Speaker 1: Four years ago Monday for Tito Trinidad the Hall of
Famer to get had.
Speaker 2: By the way, one thing that that was the culmination
of a week that I was in Las Vegas, where
I believe I covered five boxing events in like four days,
and then on the day after this fight, attended my
sister in law's wedding at the Venetian, So there had
been a don king cart at a hotel.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to pin you down on whether the
fights were more important and a more special place in
your heart than your sister's wedding. I don't want to
get you in trouble on a Sunday night, but you know.
Speaker 2: My sister had it all that week, my sister in
law to PostScript, it is now divorced from that man
and remarried. So but the thing is the week there
is a don king card like I'm one of the
old satellite services, like on the Wednesday night, maybe there
was a on Friday night. The night before the fight,
HBO did a boxing after Dark card that I covered
that had a main event of Bernard Hopkins defending the
Middleway title in his first fight with Antoine Eckles and
Marco Antoniobrera also on that card in the title defense.
And then that same night there was a card that
I covered part of it. I was at the MG
or at the Mando Light Day rather in a ballroom
where they had a Friday night fights card where I
changed my pick as I was a guest on the air,
changed my pick that I picked Trinidad at all all
through the promotion. But I had spent time with Vargas
at the gym during fight week and got bamboozled and
ended up changing my pick to Vargas and then the
day after before we went to the wedding. This is
back when Top Ranks used to do the early afternoon
Eastern time cards on the old when they had Univision
doing shows once a week, and I went to a
card at the plaza Es Central and watched the young
prospect Buolio Diaz, who I picked as my prospect of
the year, the first time I picked the prospect of
the year. So I was covered all these fights, but
the culmination, the big massive fight of the weekend, obviously
was we were all out there for this mega pay
per view card between Tito Trinidad and Fernando Vargus. I mean,
as unforgettable as it gets in terms of the main event.
And by the way, I just say one other thing,
one of the great joys of my career is the
fact that on this undercard I got to cover a
Riccardo Lopez fight, who was one of my all time
favorite fighters. He was the at that time he was
a junior a flyway champion, but he made his bones
as the very long time strawway champ. This was the
second to last fight of his career. I got to
cover his last two fights. It was a joy to
see Ricardo Lopez in person, up.
Speaker 1: Close nostalgia on top of the nostalgia including a wedding,
not your wedding and not out a Vegas chapel being
performed by Elvis. We just throw that out there as
we come off Thanksgiving weekend. Listen, we have made this happen.
I'm glad that you're back. I'm glad that you're safe.
And again I am working buccaneer of football with the
Carolina Panthers. You'll know how my Sunday afternoon and evening
when according to that result. But we talked to Sweet
Science here going into the weekend with the preview pod
and this is the recap pod. Other than that, let's
get ready for the rematch week of Navarate Baldez two
and everything else it's gonna unfold later this week. It's December,
my friend also at the calendar, it's December Espinosa Ramirez too,
al So that's on that arcard. We look forward to
that later on in the week. For now, we are
good at Big Dan. Have a good week. Thank you
there is Dan. Rafael TJ Reeves again follow subscribe on
the Big Fight Weekend podcast Meat on Apple Streaker, Spotify.
We are good for now. For the Fight, Preach Unit
Recap podcast, m