Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend.
Speaker 2: Now here is your host, DJ leaves Well, we get
ready for a new month coming up here in a
world title fight in Verona, New York, one of the
top prospects in boxing in action all the way across
the country in Las Vegas, and we're ready to preview
it all with some news, some nostalgias, some humor, some
inside god knows what else, including leftover Halloween candy. It
is the Big Fight Weekend preview. I am the somewhat
competent host, TJ Reeves. Please take these little three musketeers
and snickers and twigs away from me. Hello, Dan Rayfield,
back aboard here for another preview edition again, as we're
releasing this Thursday night into Friday. The Halloween mayhem has
been going on. We've well documented little Rayfield dressing up twins.
Not so much, they've outgrown it at sixteen years of age,
but I still got lots of Halloween candy. How are
you feeling is we're ready to go?
Speaker 1: I feel like shit, TJ.
Speaker 2: I tried to avoid bringing up what it has you
know why his luck punched? You can I just say
something to you? Everybody learned in little league baseball, if
you were the pitcher, go cover first base on a
ground bawl to first What is your three hundred million
dollar pitcher doing standing and watching in Game five of
the World Series? Go cover first base.
Speaker 1: So it's a lifetime ago. But well before I covered
professional boxing, Yeah, I covered a shitload of baseball, Minor
league baseball, high school baseball, college baseball, even a little
bit in the Major league baseball. And I've been a
baseball fan my whole life. One year on my summer
vacation from college, myself going into my senior year, and
a good friend of mine who had just graduated his scene,
you know, he had just finished the senior year. We
spent several weeks that summer driving cross country to see
baseball games in every stadium we go. And I have
been to spring training as a reporter. Whatever it is.
First day of practice on the college level or high
school level, the first drill they do is ground ball
to first base. Pitcher covers the bag. He start every
practice with the same fucking drill. So if he pitched
a great game, Cole, he's a great pitcher. He's a
tremendous Yankee probably have his number retired someday.
Speaker 2: But go that far. But he's been good.
Speaker 1: The worst thing about what happened with the Yankee meltdown
is that the players that got them there, the biggest
stars on the team, the best players there, their best
pitcher Cole and their best player Judge, made the two
terrible mistakes that the do you know, actually, maybe I
read this in one of the articles I was reading
as I was suffering through every moment of last night's game,
that that was the first error that Jaron and Aaron
Judge made the entire season, postseason or or regular season
in centerfield.
Speaker 2: What a time, what a time for that.
Speaker 1: So let's put that aside.
Speaker 2: I know the Dodgers, the Dodgers are the champs. I
was not going there. Have some more chocolate. Maybe that'll
help you. Well, it's over with. Hopefully you don't have
to win another fifteen years. But to get there tough
stuff if you're a Yankee fan. Took it right in
the gut bag, over the head, kicking the crotch, as
they said on what was it Vegas vacation. But in
any event, we are here, we're here to preview fights,
try to cheer Raypiel up if we can. So let's
get into it. By the way, Radist review us. Those
ratings and reviews do help Apple Spreaker spotify that that'll
make you feel better, give you give us a review
and uh and that helps us out with the algorithms,
et cetera. Again, the audience numbers are still fantastic, but
we want more and more of you to be able
to see it and find it, and so those reviews
do help. All right. So Top Rank ESPN show coming
Saturday night from the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, New York,
is a rematch. You did talk to Oshaki Foster earlier
in the week and we had that up on the
podcast feed, trying to regain his WBC Junior lightweight title
from Robson Consisile, the Brazilian, former Olympic champion and now
World champion, controversial decision the first time. Here we go
with the rematch. One thing, while we have the wish list,
because it's you know, it's about to be Christmas in
the holiday season, can we get a little better fight.
It was not a very good fight the first time around.
What is your thought on that? In the preview mode,
is that's the top rank main event coming sure.
Speaker 1: Just to clarify, this is a ESPN Plus only card,
so it will not be on the network. It's strictly
on ESPN Plus the full show. But anyway, yeah, it
was not a very good fight from the standpoint of
action and all that. But you know, nonetheless, to most people,
it was a very controversial decision. I thought that Oshaki
Foster won the fight. I scored a ten rounds to two,
as I said to Oshaki on the podcast and others
at the time. I certainly could have saw there was
a couple of rounds that I thought were swing rounds
where I could easily have given them. If I had
done that, I still have an eight rounds before. The
official judges, you know, were kind of all over the place,
but still close. One judge had constats Out winning one
sixteen one to twelve. One judge had Constatsa winning one
fifteen to one thirteen, which is seven rounds to five,
and the other judge had at one sixteen to one
twelve in favor of O Shaki Foster. And so the
way I've looked at the fight is that it was
sort of like, what do you like one guy was
throwing way more punches. This is based on copy box.
I know it's not official, but I absolutely believe the
statistical breakdown that that O Shaki Foster threw way less
punches than Constsau did. Constat was much more active in
terms of punches thrown. But punches throne don't score points.
They shouldn't. It's punches landing, and O Shaki Foster, although
not active and weren't devastating punches, landed many many more
punches than Foster, I mean than a constatly I did.
So that's sort of like the dichotomy in the fight
is that the guy who you're who's catching your eye
because he's way way busier, or if you're a little
more precise with what you're looking at, you see a
man landing more of the punches. So I still disagree
with the result.
Speaker 2: I'm stronger than that. Whoever I said it at the time,
whoever that was that scored eight rounds for Consassao should
never judge a world championship fight again.
Speaker 1: He didn't know any Lundy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Tony Lundy should never judge a world title fight again.
He did not win eight rounds of that fight. The
Rayfield line is the range of acceptable scoring. Maybe he
won five on the outside, you could give him six,
but that is just clueless to say that he won
eight rounds of that fight. So I understand whether it's
heavy motivation from Foster. The real question is Consissau is
a crafty guy. Has been in with Oscar Valdez, been
in with Navaraatee. Right, how is this gonna be different
in your mind? For Foster? What does he have to
do better? What do you have to see better?
Speaker 1: The last time? One of the things that we talked
about in the interview that's on the previous episode is
that he needs to be a little more active. He
knows it. I mean, you cannot let a guy out
punch you in terms of throwing punches like by about
two to one that's meaningful to the judges, even if
it really shouldn't be. So you have to step on
the gas a little bit. You have to. I mean, again,
I say this all the time that defensive minded fighters,
I don't expect the guy to go in there and
be reckless and fight in a stupid manner and leave
your chin hanging out there. But in professional boxing, especially
if you want to sway judges, in a close fight
against a good opponent, at some point you need to
take a step forward and make the fight. That's how
you win fights is by making the fight to some degree.
You don't have to do it for three minutes of
every round. You don't have to make it the most
blazing fuck we've ever seen. But it behoos. Anybody that's
trying to win this fight against a tricky, solid opponent
like Robson kotsisaw that you have to take the initiative
at times, and if you're not going to do that,
then you kind of get what you deserve. So I
think Foster, while he didn't do that in the first fight,
he did enough to win, but he didn't get the
credit for it. So you know, you have to change
things up a little bit. I don't think you have
to do anything dramatic or radically different, but I do
think it would definitely behoove Oshaki Foster to be a
little bit more offensive minded. It's not like he hasn't
shown he can't do that in other fights. Remember the
Hernandez fight. He looked good offensively against Abraham Nova. I mean,
they're there, This is not this is not an inexperienced fighter.
Uh and Contissau has got all the experience in the world.
Came up short in the fights you mentioned against hkorna
title fight against Oscar Valdez that was a close fight,
I thought, also against Foster when they fought the first
bout back in July. So I don't think there has
to be radical changes and I think but you know, Contissaw,
I think knows that he needs to do a little
bit more. Also, that's one of the reason why I
kind of think we might get a better fight, because
Foster knows he's got a step out a little bit
and Concistaw, even if he believes he won, he knows
he got by by the skin of his teeth that
he might.
Speaker 2: Be looking to heart it up Gift.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but in his mind, you know.
Speaker 2: All right, so again world title. Let's take here. Interesting
that Foster was looking at possible unification, et cetera. But
you got to get the title back.
Speaker 1: Well, listen, the guy that the guy that wins this
fight absolutely is going to be in a position to
get some type of unification, I think, And the main
reason is because it's, like Foster said, his target if
he wins he'd like to fight the winner of the
December seventh thie match, that is for the WBO's one
hundred and thirty pound title, which is Navarette Valdez too.
Top rank has all four guys, so it's a very
very makeable fight. There's no no reason why that can't
happen unless you know, I suspect maybe if Navarette wins,
perhaps they'll try to go to one hundred and thirty
five once again. But I think that they'll be a
good offer for the winners to fight each other's factive matchup. Listen,
the one hundred and thirty pound division may not be
star studded, but there's a there's good, evenly matched types
of guys because in any given knight in Everette Valdez,
Foster Concasau, any of those four guys of those two
fights are happening, is capable of defeating the other guy
in my opinion.
Speaker 2: All Right, so that's the main event on the undercourt?
Is it the co feature? It's definitely a prominent fighter
in Raymond Murtaia fighting Jesus Perez lightweight rising contender, and
I know we're excited to see what he can do
on this top ranked show. Give me a little more
on that in the preview mode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Maretaia, you know he is, he's on
the way to fighting for a title. I don't think
it's a matter of if. It's more like when he's
now twenty one to zero, he's take you know, He's
been a guy in my opinion, that has kind of
fought to the level of his opponents sometimes so sometimes
even though he wins, he doesn't look great. But when
he fights a little bit of a better level of guy,
he's looked much better. He's coming off probably his best win,
a very solid victory. Close, but he won the fight
against a former one hundred and thirty pound world title holder,
Tevin Farmer. That was his last fight, that was in July,
and that was that was a pretty good win for him.
And now he goes into the ring against an experienced
fighter named Juan Antonio Perez. And the interesting thing about
this fight is that when you take a look, I
mean look, Perez is not he's not a household name
or anything like that, but he does have some credentials
in terms of being in the matchup, and if you
take a look at his resume, this is a guy.
First of all, he's twenty five and five, and you're like, oh,
he's got five losses, but he's never been knocked out.
And Murtaia, you know, he's capable of stopping guys. But this,
this fight with Murti is kind of like his his reward,
if you will, because he's coming off of a what
I think was considered at the time an upset decision,
split decision, nonetheless against the former title er Joseph Diaz.
Now Joseph Diaz has been on a losing streak. He's
not what he once was. He wasn't fighting the right
way class and so, but he got that name on
his record prior to that fight. What do he won?
He lost two in a row, but he lost to
good guys and he didn't get stopped. He lost to
Brian Norman, who went on to win a welterweight world title.
And then his previous fight before that, he lost a
decision against Alexis Rocha, who was, you know, still a
good welterweight contender. So he's been taken on good names. Uh,
you know another name you will recognize. He has a
decision loss to dan Alito Zaria, who's a fighter that
had given uh Regis Progray a lot of trouble in
the world title fight that he fought in Regis's hometown
of New Orleans. So here's an experienced opponent, and it's
the kind of guy that that Raymond Mora a Tai
in my mind, needs to be in the ring with
as he bides his time to some degree to get
a world title fight. But you can't overlook a guy
like Jesus Perez because you know, he's been in the
ring with a lot of good guys and and you
know he's pretty solid. And I think that the way
things are going to shake out in this in this division,
in the lightweight division is that if Lomachenko alects to retire,
the IVF title will become vacant. I do suspect that
there's a chance that we will see maybe more Taie
in the fight for a vacant title. Top rank. You know,
they do a good job of like making sure they
plan ahead with their guys where they're ranked, in which
organizations they work with. Same thing in terms of the
WBOU in the lightweight division. You know, you're talking about
Dennis Barentchik, who they had in the title fight when
he defeated Navarette, they have options on his next fight,
So there's going to be an opportunity for Murra Tait.
He just has to take care of business and win
and you know, hopefully for his sake, look good at
doing it.
Speaker 2: What don't you want to know? With sixteen knockouts, We'll
see what he does in that card on on Saturday,
all right? All the way out to Las Vegas, A
long way from Verona, New York is where the Golden
Boy Design Show originates. Floyd Schofield headlining. Speaking of lightweights,
rising talented lightweight. I know you're very high on him.
I gotta I gotta confess. I don't know a lot
about the opponent, Rene Talez Jiron. Correct, is the opponent Renee?
I don't think it's Renee. I think it's Reenne in
the Spanish. But we'll garon all right, So what do
we know about the opponent? Is this another thing where
we've got the up and come unbeaten fighter against the
kind of the veteran, the grizzled veteran, and what can
Scofield prove essentially in the main event?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. If I called Geron grizzled veteran
at age twenty five, but he's clearly the obvious b side.
He's twenty and three. He also has never been stopped before,
and the losses that he has taken have been, you know,
where he's toughed out decisions. He lost to Giomanni Cabrera,
who was undefeated that went on the fight for a
world title. He's no, he's not a flashy guy, but
he's you know, he lost to Michelle Rivera, who at
the time was a rising undefeated lightweight you know prospect
ended up you know, reaching a certain level, but was
very well regarded at that time. The thing about gron
is he he's pulled some upsets to some degree. Like
for example, he fought he had been with top rank
and they brought him back after he had suffered an
upset loss Carlos Balderus, the Olympian, and he not only
beat him, he stopped him in the sixth round. This
is back in twenty nineteen. That was a big win
for him at the time. But he's had kind of
hit or miss. He's lost in decisions, won some decisions,
so you know, groan he should be and again I'm
not trying to dissemert or say he's no good or
anything like that. I mean his three losses, like I mentioned,
they've been to like legitimate guys. Also, Jose Mattias Romiro
was the other loss he suffered. That was his most
recent loss in twenty twenty three. He's won three fights since,
but not against big names. Here's the thing, Floyd Schofield,
people think a lot of people think he's a legit
on the way to a contender, to be in a
world title fight, perhaps winning a world title. Excellent skills,
not a huge puncher seventeen and oh but with twelve knockouts,
but a really talented young guy and on the rise,
only twenty two years old, plenty of time in front
of them. This should be easy work. Now. I'm not
saying he's gonna go in there and knock the guy out,
but he has so much more in my opinion, I've
seen Giron fight many times, way more natural ability, just skills, speed,
IQ if you will. Maybe not the level of experience
in terms of who he's face, that's obvious, but that's
why they put him in the ring with a guy
like your own. Uh So I think that groan has
shown a good chin and I don't view Scofield as
some devastating puncher. He probably goes along way with the guy.
But in the end this should be this should be
a dominating performance from Schofield.
Speaker 2: And Scofield's last fight in March. I do remember this.
He had the opponent Swearrow fighting him in Las Vegas,
who kept fouling him, including hitting him with low blows,
and was finally de queued for the low blows in
the last fight. So if you're Schofield, you got to
be ready for anything. But you all see, like you.
Speaker 1: Mentioned, Yeah, he was on the way to an easy
win against Suero, and Suerrow just decided he didn't want
to be there anymore. So we figured the best way
out is let me, you know, foul. It was to
very bite your ear off Tyson esque like, let's I
know I'm not gonna win, let me get out of
here and not getting knocked out or not get embarrassed.
And he just continued to foul him and unfortunately Scofield
end up with a bad cut because of that. Uh,
you know, there was like you said, there was a
multitude of low blows in there. You know, I don't
think Corona is a dirty fighter like that, but he
has a limit in terms of where he is in
terms of his healing of ability. Corona and I think
that Schofield is way better than him. Let him prove
me wrong, as gron.
Speaker 2: So that is the main event. Beck the Bully and
David Stevens in a WBA super middleweight eliminator will be
on this card, and a women's undisputed title fight is
also on this card. Tell me more about both of
those on the Golden Boys show.
Speaker 1: Everything about this Beck to Bully fight irritates me. Number one,
We're getting off on a good foot with this fight,
right right. They've made beck to Bully out to be
like something spectacular. I've tried to give him the benefit
of the doubt. I've watched him fight many times, and
every time I watch him, he doesn't impress me. Sorry
to say, it's just a reality, but more than that.
And on David Stevens, you know he's also they're both
It's funny they're both fourteen and one. I'm not that
familiar with David Stevenson, rather with David Stevens, but he
does not have a resume of any caliber whatsoever. And
that may be a reason I don't know him, because
he is not fighting world class guys. So the fact
that the WBA, my good friends at the WBA, not
only does it irritate me that this is a title liminator,
which I find to be preposterous. You're saying to me,
these are the two guys that the winner of this
fight should be mandated to fight for your world title
in the super middleweight division, which by the way, happens
to be Canelo Alvarez. So think about that.
Speaker 2: Well, the thing you have said that William Skull and
Vladimir Shishkin should fight pro world title So we got
all kinds of issues.
Speaker 1: At one sixty year at least Shiskin had been the
ring with a few guys. But here's the thing. It's
a ten round fight. In my world, eliminators are twelve rounds.
And we already discussed the fight from a while back
where they're gonna let uh the uh the interim title
fight be a twelve rounder in a WBC fight that's
coming up. And now we have an official eliminator in
the WBA that is a schedule ten rounder. I don't
go for that. It's it's annoying to death. Uh whatever,
It very much irritates me in terms of you know,
back to both you know, he his one loss if
you go back to twenty twenty one, he got knocked
out badly in a just a shot out of nowhere,
a miracle shot, if you will, but a but a
tremendous knockout, knock out of the ear caliber knockout from
bar pal Gabriel Rosotto, who just starched him. They eventually fought.
Speaker 2: With a big right hand coming in and Beck the
bully wasn't the same for about seventy two hours after
that punch. He tried to get up. He was on
roller skates. It was a great shot, and so he's
now overcome that though with some wins.
Speaker 1: Is your point? What im saying? The wins? But yeah,
well he thought Rosatto in the rematch, Uh that was
I was at the fight that was on the undercard
when Tank Davis fought Ryan Garcia, and let me tell you, TJ,
that's about forty five minutes of my life I'll never
get back because it was the worst fucking piece of
shit fight I ever saw in my life. Among them,
it was absolutely horrible. Uh, just a terrible terrible fight,
and and beck won, you know, ninety nine to ninety
one and all three squorecards. It was a complete utter,
you know, one sided fight, but terrible, terrible, terrible fight.
So you know, let's see if beck to Bully can
impress anybody. And let's see if David Stevens can make
a name for himself, because right now his fifteen opponents
are a collection of nobody's basically.
Speaker 2: And the women's undisputed title fight is a flyway title fight.
The sister of Sebastian Fundora, Gabriella Fundora, fighting another Gabriella
Gabriella Allians. All right, so tell me more ten round
women's four belt undisputed flyweight title fight. I've heard this said.
She is. I mean, I know he's tough, he fought
through the broken nose with Tim Zoo. But she's tough
and she motivates him. She actually keeps him in line,
even though he's about a foot and a half taller
than Gabrielle. So we're interesting to see what she can do.
Speaker 1: They're a boxing family. The father trains both of them,
Freddie Fondora, very nice people, but when the bell rings,
she goes from you know, it's same with Sebastian, by
the way, it's funny and they have that kind of personality.
I've met both of them absolutely as nice and lovely
as type guys and gals as you can meet outside
the ring. You hear that bell ring and they become
animals and they go and they want to tear your
head off. And Gabrielle, you know, she goes by the
nickname of Sweet Poison, and it's very apropos because she's
a very nice, sweet sort of.
Speaker 2: Like a Halloween thing man Halloween thing.
Speaker 1: Moving. Okay, Yeah, So she's undefeated, and she's very young.
She's only twenty two years old, and she's had won
the IBF belt, she's defended it, and now she's in
with Gabrielle Alenez who is the has the other belts,
and she's fifteen and one. Not an old fighter either,
she's only twenty eight years old, and so hopefully we
get a good fight. I mean, you know, anytime. Look,
I have no issue with women's boxing, and I've covered
tons of women's boxing. I've written about it, and I'm
huge fan of many you.
Speaker 2: Talk about it all the time on these podcasts, previewing, recapping,
all of it, yes.
Speaker 1: But sometimes there are certain fights where yes, there's a
lot at steak, but you're like, okay, whatever, it's not
that big of a deal. I actually think this is
a pretty good matchup. I've seen both these women fight before.
I'm hopeful it'll become a good fight. And listen, anytime,
I don't care if it's a men's fight, a women's
fight at the heavier on the scale, at the bottom
of the scale, obviously this is a much smaller weights.
These are flyweights. But anytime you can have clarity from
the standpoint where you're unifying the division. So whoever wins
this fight is going to have this stamp and say
I am the best in the world in my weight.
And that's a good thing for boxing, and it can
maybe make the person who wins this a bigger name.
And particular nothing against Elena Is, but if it's Fondora,
because of her last name and the fact that she's
American and she's been on a lot of televised shows prior,
you know, she has the chance maybe to break through
a little bit and put herself in that pound for
pounds sort of you know conversation with you know, the
women that are more well known right now, the Amanda
Serrano and Katie Taylor and Claressa Shields and you know
those women. Obviously Sinessa Strada but she just retired, so
solid interesting fight in terms of I put it like this,
it may not be the co feature, that's the Beck fight.
I'm way more interested to watch these women do battle
than i am to watch the Beck Tobolie nonsense ten
rounder as an eliminator.
Speaker 2: Fair enough. So again that's the de Zone Golden Boys
show also on Saturday night, and we'll handicap a couple
of those fights as well on the bet US Boxing
Show Friday one Eastern time on the bet US platforms.
Good stuff on the previews, all right, some news interesting,
We have some names, we have some different updates on
some things. So there's been some speculation we'll call it that,
if not outright fabrication of what might Canelo be doing next?
And is the name Chris Eubank Junior maybe going to
be his opponent? In may you have an update because
you cut in at a forty five degree angle with
Eddie Renoso, So give us an update here on the pod.
Speaker 1: All right, So obviously Canello is going to be fighting
in May, and he's gonna need somebody in the ring
with him, because you can't just fight in your shadow
or nobody. And if you take a look at the
landscape of who's around in the way class Bivol lost
to that or bv theyre probably headed to a rematch.
So the notion that Canelo might rise or or bibl
might come down to super middle eight for their rematch
that went away. The notion of a Benavitez or Amel
fight is out the window. Those two guys are out
light heavyweight. Canello says, I'm not going to light heavyweight
for anybody, but bevol not to mention by the way
that Benevitez and Morell are fighting each other in the
early part of twenty twenty five. So now who else
is out there? And there's a few names like I
kept thinking to myself, Christian and Billy might be a
top guy to fight, exciting style, undefeated action fighter, makeup
a fight politically number one in the WBC. But when
you take a look around at the other guys out there,
remember when he was negotiating his team was negotiating for
him to fight against Edgar Berlanga, which was the fight
that took place in his most recent fight that took
place in September. The only other fighter that was in
the mix for that fight was Chris Hubang Junior. He
didn't get the fight obviously, and so it seemed logical
that he might be the next opponent. So here's the thing.
In the UK shalom from Boxer, who was the promoter
of Chris hu Bank Jingior and you Bank Junior himself
had done interviews, particularly with Sky Sports, which is their
broadcast partner for Boxer in the UK, and one of
the comments that Ben Saloon made was we're having small
conversations and we're negotiating the fight, etc. It's a big fight.
We can maybe do it at Wembley, it'd be huge,
and you know he's trying to make the case for
the fight. So while he has had a conversation, to
my knowledge with Canelo's lawyer, I don't think that from
what I was told by people in the Canelo camp,
including Eddie Renoso, that's not a negotiation. That's like, you know,
a cursory call.
Speaker 2: So conversation is just a conversation, is what you're saying.
Speaker 1: So I was I had saw all these reports on
the different websites and all citing this these sky interviews
that Chris and Uh and Ben had done, and I'm like,
you know what, let me just get to the bottom line.
So I have a relationship with Eddie Renot, so I've
known him for many, many years. And what I'll do is, well,
either like text each other, DM each other whatever, and
I'll run my ship through a translator because he doesn't
speak English, uh, and so I'll like, think of my question,
I'll send it to him in Spanish. And you know,
he's great about getting back to me. You know. As a
matter of fact, he was busting my balls about the
Dodgers in Spanish the other night. Uh, because he's a doctor.
Speaker 2: Well, I saw he actually put in the email lociento mucho.
I'm very sorry. I don't know if he did.
Speaker 1: I don't think he did that. I just had to
remember from a few days ago or a week ago
or whatever he was. He had a photo of him
on one of his social platforms he was in a
Dodger's uh shirter Dodger gear and we were going back
and forth about that. So he uh, he responded to
my my my questions about what's going on with Canelo,
and they got to slip in his dodger business with me. Anyway,
So what Eddie said to me and I was, you know,
I didn't know what to expect from Eddie, was like,
not only are we not negotiating, I asked him. Also
I said, well, okay, if if you if you're not
negotiating with him, who else would even be in the running,
like for the May fight. And Eddie is not usually
like this. I mean Eddie usually is you know, always
political in his answers, and he doesn't, you know, create
a lot of waves. He actually said, anybody but you
bank No, that's interesting that that shows you. Okay, they
just have no interest in fighting him. Not I don't
think it's because they don't think that Canelo can beat
him or anything like that. He made the point that
in his original comment about it is that that Canelo
Alvarez wasn't going to fight him because he had his
chance at September end. Quote all he did was quote
complicate the negotiation. So for whatever happened behind the scenes,
Eddie was not happy. So he went on to say,
and again this is translated from Spanish, we will not
touch base with him again for a future fight. Whatever
I tell you is always true. I don't like making statements,
but what I declare is true and that At that
point I asked him, well, okay, well, if you're not
going to fight you Bank, Like, is there anybody else
even on your short list? And he said anybody but
you Bank?
Speaker 2: So I like that.
Speaker 1: That was kind of funny to me. And the other
thing about it was, here's another thing that's important, you know,
whatever there may be saying over in the UK, Eddie's like, look,
Canelo was on vacation. And if you watch Canelo's social
media or his wife's social media, they've been in Europe,
they've been in Japan, they've been enjoying themselves. They're on vacation.
He just made a crazy amount of money. He doesn't
have a fight coming up for several months, and he
doesn't get out of shape between his fights, so you know,
he's taking a couple of months and doing his thing.
He's like, Canelo will be back in December, and at
some point soon after that, we'll sit down and we'll
try to map out what we want to do for
twenty twenty five, which is certainly a may fight they
prefer to doing Vegas. Here's your thing, TJ. When you
Bank was in the conversations for the September Berlanga fight, never,
at one point in that entire discussion was it ever
contemplated for the UK. That was always going to be
in the United States. And I am told by Canelo
people besides just Eddie Renoso, that Canelo's desires to continue
to fight in Las Vegas. He's not so much interested
to go to fight in England.
Speaker 2: So so like that, I don't know who going to be.
Speaker 1: It's not true, that's the bottom line.
Speaker 2: It's not we don't know who it is going to be.
But you're getting it from Eddie Renoso. It's not going
to be Chris you Bank.
Speaker 1: No, I actually think again, maybe maybe they'll come around,
you know, because money talks, that's the bottom line, and
maybe Turkey will get his way and they'll make the
Crawford fight. You never know. I still think there's a
possibility of that happening. If that's not the case and
he's going to fight a regular defense at Superman Away,
I think the guy that's available that makes sense, that
will be an exciting fight that Canel will be the
favorite in that probably fits the budget, that's doable. I
think Mcbilly's got a really good chance to get them.
Speaker 2: I mentioned that to you before. But and maybe Mombilly's
going to have one more fight before we figure all
this out. But we'll see. I like that name. I
like that name better than you Bank. Okay, you did
say to us on the podcast last weekend on the
on the Recap pod that not so fast on December
fourteenth for Tank Davis Lamont Roach, you've done further reporting.
I read my Dan Raphael Substack, why are you folks
not subscribing? And the newsletter it's now not going to
be December fourteenth, So you reported that. But the real
question is it still in Houston or what do we
know or Jebuary or is that up in the air too?
Speaker 1: With this, it's up. Everything is up in the air.
I mean, look to me, it's always been obvious for
the last couple of weeks and it wasn't gonna happen
December fourteenth. And I say that just based on the
experience of watching the way PBC handles its fight announcements.
They're big on let the fighter put their stuff up
on their social media. When the fighters do that in
Lamont Roach and Gervonte Davis both posted on their social
December fourteenth, Houston, Texas. You know, that was the fight
was announced, a date in the location, and then shortly
thereafter PBC puts it on its social and then within
a day or two, maybe three or four days, they
send out a full blast press release to the press,
announced the particulars well quotes in and then they let
you know when the press conferences. Did you know, if
they're going to do a tour, it's gonna be in
just in New York or Vegas or wherever they're going
to do a press conference. And that did not happen,
and then it did. Another week went bying, it didn't happen,
and now we're going on almost three weeks with that
not happening. And by the way, if you look on
the calendar, here we are on Halloween as we take this,
the fight is not that far away, and guys got
to get in camped in. Don't want to be spending
three days on you know, going a couple of cities
and do press tours in that business. I mean, I
had even reported about the possibility, you know, the certain
fights that were being lined up for the undercard was
going to be a rematch Beteam Brandon Figueroa and Steven Fulton,
the mandatory fight for the what is it I want
to I forget which Belton is one of the one
hundred and forty pound tight I guess at WBC, which
was Alberto Pueyo and his mandatory against Sandor Martin. Those
were fights that were going to be on the undercard,
but clear as day, it's not happening. But it was
hard to UH to figure out what when it would happen.
Then was told it's probably going to move into January.
They had to figure out what they're doing with the
Morel and the Benevidias fight. So I figured why not
just go right to Tank Davia. So I messaged Tank,
why I get in touch with from time to time,
and I basically said, hey, Tank, listen, I mean, I
just figured I come right to the source. You know,
it's your career, paraphrasing what I wrote to him, And
I said, what's going on? I hear a lot of things,
and anyway, he responded to me soon thereafter he says
that I'm here January is what I'm hearing. Uh, so
you know he's being saying that, right, that's that's that's
Tank Davis. So and that's not off the record, that's
not some random source. This person, that person, that's the
guy that's going to be in the ring, and that's
gonna have to sign off on it. So that fight
will not happen December fourteen. So it means what it
means here's the more important. It could happen in Houston
on another date, that's where Tank wants to fight. It
could go to another location. They got to figure out
where they're going to put the Benavide's in real fight.
I was told by somebody involved in the event that
whatever happens, it's highly unlikely they will see another David
Benavide's doubleheader with Tank Davis. So going to headline, yes,
I had saw one report I think it was on
Boxing Scene that said that that was a possibility. I
am told that even if it was discussed at the
time that that article was written, it is not happening
as a as a combined event. And what it does
is it it means that in December there's still a
possibility that there'll be a non PBC payer, non pay
per view of PBC on Prime that potentially may include
some of those undercard fights, maybe something else, but either way,
you're talking about a year of PBC in their first
year with Prime that unfortunately, if they don't do a
non pay per view fight in December, we'll have had
one non pay per view the entire year, which was
obviously a very good show with the Tim Zoo fight
getting knocked out by Baker Ertazziliev just a couple of
weeks ago, and all the rest of their events were
pay per views to one Jervonta Davis card with Benevite's
in June, two fights with Canelo, and their kickoff show
in March with the Zoo Fundora fights. So they may
finish this calendar year with only five events the entire year,
four pay per views and one non pay review. Maybe
four pay per views and two non pay p reviews.
That's not enough activity for their fighters and frankly, not
enough to quench my desire.
Speaker 2: Sure, and we said repeatedly at the end of last
year when you were talking to your PBC sources and
other industry sources, I kept saying, let's wait and see
why when they're telling you we're gonna be fine. We're
gonna have lots of fight cards. We're gonna have whatever.
Now the proof is here. We are ten months into
the year, and like you said, we've had very few
cards and only one that's not although you are reporting
it could be a second December card somewhere on the
fourteenth with other fighters.
Speaker 1: We'll see if it happens again. All right, it's not
a definite, but the probability will be if that fight
card does happen.
Speaker 2: That doesn't it make the most sense to let me finish.
Speaker 1: Let me finish it. But it's either gonna be in
Orlando or another location where they do a lot of fights,
which is the armory in Minneapolis.
Speaker 2: All right, one of those places. But does it make
more sense for Davison Roach what we talked about for
weeks to fight in Washington, DC if they can figure
it out, kind of meet in the middle for January.
So maybe that's back on.
Speaker 1: But hold on. The key that that you gotta remember
is Tank wants to fight in Houston, and what Tank wants,
Tank's probably gonna get. That's it, Okay.
Speaker 2: So that leads me only to one conclusion. Whatever price
they thought they were getting for the Toyota Center. It
turned out to not be the right price, and so
they may have to find another venue in Houston. Otherwise,
why are you not fighting on December fourteenth like you
announced in the Toyota Center like you announced? I don't
get that. So if he still.
Speaker 1: Want to, that's still something to that has to be
ferreted out. I don't have the answer to that. I
will try to find the answer.
Speaker 2: All right, we just know that it's not happening on
the fourteenth, Look forward in January.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: A couple more news items real quick. Bam Rodriguez is
coming up not this weekend, but next weekend, November ninth.
As part of that Boots in his card in Philadelphia.
He's defending his junior bantamweight championship on that card. And
he's also agreed to a long term deal. Correct he's
extended with Mattrium.
Speaker 1: Then now Mattroom Boxing announced that he had had his contract.
They had done a contract extension. I don't know how
long it's for, but he's very happy with Mattrium. They're
the co promoter also with mister on the fromt tiak
In Promotions. Look, there was and when the announcement was
made of this extension in the comments that were attributed
to bam Rodriguez. He made the point that and this
is his quote, at one point, nobody, no one wanted
to sign me. And Robert Garcia, who's been to talk
to me about Bam Rodriguez when he was like eighteen
years old, and was telling me, look, I got this
kid at the time, he was like one hundred and
eight pounder or something like that. It's like, you got
to check this kid out. He's going to be a
tremendous champion. I mean, when Robert Garcia says things like that,
I believe him because he doesn't say shit like that
too often. Like he takes that real serious. He knows
what he's looking at when it comes to talent. But
in the United States, there was not a lot of
this demand from promoters to have guys in that small
away class. Look, they put bam Rodriguez on a few
couple of top rank cards for example, like Robert would
have one of his other fighters with them, and they
have a relationship, so we would do the top rank.
Would do Robert the favor and put this kid on
top rank. It's not that they didn't like him. But
they just didn't know what they could do with the
kid at one hundred eight pounds blah blah blah, and
they passed on him, and basically he got signed. You know.
Then then Robert was like, you know, has a relationship
with mister Honda and Japan also, and it was sort
of at his behest that mister Honda signed him. And
and then when Roberts brother Mikey fought the fight against
Sander Martin which he lost and ultimately Uh called to
the career and retired, Matcham agreed to put his guy
on the undercard. And it was at that card where
Bam fought on the mattrom card. He didn't have a
contract with them, but Eddie Hearn and his people were
very impressed by the kid, and they signed him. And
from there on he went and fought all these big
nine you know, the Quadrus and Sir Rungby Si and
rived up and you know fought that. Then you know,
got a title and went up to.
Speaker 2: You know in San Antonio when he beat Si, yes,
I believe, yeah, so.
Speaker 1: He headlined also when then they got the unification in
the Flyway divis and he you know pummeled on Sonny
Edwards anyway. Uh So, he's very comfortable with Mattroum. He
likes how they've moved him. They've got an excellent relationship.
He doesn't he speaks extremely highly of the way Mattrium
has handled his career and treated him, along with mister Honda,
but you know, mister hand is involved and has a
lot of sway. But Eddie's people really do the hands
on and promote the events. So he's staying with with
with Maatrium. It's a great signing. I mean, they need
some American fighters. He's still young, he's twenty four years old.
He's got a hometown crowd. He's thoughts thought some really
good names. He's got a great fun style and has
has greatness on his mind. Is a pound for pound
level guy. With the way he's performed. He's taken on
Guivara and so they got the They got the business
stuff out of the way before he goes in the
ring next week.
Speaker 2: All right, So that fight week is next week. We'll
get through the other news here. We've got Prince Nassim
Hahmed and Lennox Lewis Nostalgia coming up. This Mexican fighter
Marco Verde. I know you wrote about it on your
sub stack, and we're going right back to Eddie Renoso.
Here connect the dots. The Mexican silver medallist is going
to turn pro right.
Speaker 1: Marco Verdi is twenty two years old. He won the
welterweight silver medal in the Paras Olympics this past summer.
Fights in the pros will be probably fighting I probably
fight around junior middleweight in the pros. Twenty two years
old and probably the most sought after of at least
the North American Olymbians. If not, you know, one of
the top sought after guys out of the Paris Games
in all of boxing. I know, I know because I've
heard his name mentioned by multiple of promoters. A lot
of people were interested in him. I don't I guess
he hasn't signed with a promoter. But what he did
do is he signed with Eddie Renoso. Now Eddie is known,
of course as the manager of Canelo, but also the trainer.
When I was talking back and forth with Eddie about
what was going on with Canelo, he made mention to
me that he had signed Verde and he was going
to be like the next in his opinion, the next
Mexican you know superstar world champion. He's a you know,
tall for his weight class, you know, has the background.
Was a gold medalist in the twenty twenty three Pan
American Games, which was which is one of the top
amateur competitions in the world other than say the Olympics
and the World World Championships. Anyway, But the interesting thing
is Eddie's gonna gonna manage him and guide him, but
he's not going to train him. And when Verde posted
on his social media that that he was very excited
and happy to sign and let Eddie guide his career,
but that he was going to stay with his other
longtime promoter, Ratamus Fernandez, and that he was going to
still train him. But the point is, with Eddie backing
him and this kid's obvious talent from the amateurs and
knowing how much other promoters wanted him, it seems like
it'll be an interesting and Eddie I wouldn't be surprised
obviously if he's not signed the kid with a promoter
that like when Canelo comes back, for example, in fights,
don't be shocked to see Verde gets some attention when
he puts him on Canelo's undercard for example, to sort
of get him out there. But again it's a process.
You know, you're not going to get into the big
fights right off the bat. You know, he's not a
Lomachanko type that's fighting for a world title in his
you know, first couple of fights. But he'll definitely be
a prospect to watch. And knowing that Eddie is going
to be guiding the career, I think is probably a
good thing.
Speaker 2: Right. A couple more items, Frank Warren announced a bunch
of signings. Again, I read my Dan Rayfield substack and
I saw this but illuminate and it's a couple of
world title holders that are part of this as well.
Not a surprise that you would extend those guys go ahead.
Speaker 1: But they were busy, I mean, Frank warrens Queensberry Promotions
in the last couple of years. Part of it's an influx,
I guess of their the money that they've made, and
they've got resources, and they've got a good TV agreement.
Obviously they promote Fury, They're heavily involved with the Saudi's.
There's there's money there and they've got a lot of
dates and and and the ability to put these guys
on and they've been moving their guys well, they've got
a tremendous stable, but those guys have contracts that come up,
and so it's it's important to keep your guys in
the fold. But they just re signed a bunch of
their best young fighters. One of them is one of
my favorite fighters to watch. That's the featherweight title holder
Nick Ball, who just comes off of a victory in
his hometown of Liverpool and the title defense. They resigned
the IBF Junior lightweight titleler Anthony Casachi, who pulled off
that huge knock upsite against Joe Cordina. So he's back
in business. He has a mandatory he's gonna have to do,
but he's back with with with Queensberry, they re signed
Hamsa Shiraz right now pressing business a world title fight.
He just looked awesome in winning the European title a
few weeks ago on the U was the Anthony Joshuander
card or was that better be I forget which one
was the Joshua.
Speaker 2: The Joshuader card.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so he's the European champ. But more notably, he
also is now mandatory to fight janebec a fight that
has now been ordered by by the WBO. So he
they those are three of the bigger names, but they
also signed like some other other promising guys. Sam Noakes,
who's the British and the Commonwealth lightweight champion who's got
a bright future, the the the outstanding heavyweight nineteen year
old tremendous probably the best heavyweight prospect in boxing, Moses E. Tama,
who you know has the look of a real future star,
I mean. And also the junior featherweight contender, Liam Davies
who has a fight coming up actually this weekend against
the Shabaz Maasud. So they they are, they're a loaded company.
That's just the guys they resigned. That's not even talking
about the other fighters that they have in their stable
like Tyson Fury and Daniel Dubois and others. So really good,
good moves for Queensberry.
Speaker 2: And one more item. We did touch on this previously,
and now it is officially announced that mj Akmadaliev is
going to appear on the December fourteenth show in Mary
in Monte Carlo for Matchroom. Correct and tell me about
the opponent real quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, Mattriom, they do a show they try to
do them annually, one show a year in Monte Carlo.
I think they miss the year because of COVID and
this and that. But this is their fifth one and
Akmadaliev is going to be on there against Ricardo Espinoza.
And look, we've discussed this on the show about how
they were looking to hold you know, the WB able
for a barrel because they believe he's the mandatory challenger
and you should not be giving in a way a
pass to fight somebody else like Sam Goodman before he
fights Amadalia. But I guess the end result was they
know that they still have a chance to get an
inn AA fight if they let the fight with Goodman
go through and he wins. And they know that if
they forced in a way to be stripped of the
WBA title and MJ win or fight for the WBA belt,
the amount of money to fight another opponent for the
vacant title will be dramatically less than if he gets
an opportunity to fight for n away. So the you know,
if they they're such a thing as splitting the baby,
as they say, the WBA agreed to allow him to
fight Espinosa for the interim title. It irritates me because
it's ridiculous that the interim title is going to be
fought for on December fourteenth, and ten days later, the
active champion is going to be defending the title against
Sam Goodman. You know, in my world, when I first
heard or learned about the existence of interim titles, to me,
it was okay, but it meant the guy was injured.
Obviously that's taken on a completely different meaning over the
last number of years. But nonetheless, Acma, Dive and Espinosa
will headline that particular card now with caveats, as they
put in their resolution for the WBA in allowing that
to be for the interim title, they did declare that
the inn away Goodman winner or in a Way if
it's a draw, because he would retain the title, must
face Achmadia if he beats Espinoza in a mandatory defense
within one hundred and twenty days of the fight, which
would line it up for that April time frame when
Top Rank plans to bring in a Way to Las
Vegas next spring, so that's a good thing. And also
the winner of that fight between in a Way and
Goodman must notify the WBA if they intend to fight
the mandatory and they approved the fight. So you know,
in the end, I guess I don't love it, but
you know, it seems to accomplish a lot of things
for everybody, and at the end of the day, that's
a good thing. And then they add some other fights
to the card. He got the undefeated British cruiserweight champion
Chev Clark, who's looked good even though he's older at
thirty three, but as you know, still kind of newish
in the pro game. He'll defend our actually action to
say defend. He'll fight for the vacant European title. And
Gary Cully of an Irish lightweight who was very exciting
did score had an upset loss not that long ago,
but he's back in action against the venerable veteran Maxi
Hughes in another one of the fights on that show.
So those Mini Carlos shows are always fun. They do
it at the fancy casino in Monte Carlo. It's usually
like a black tie type of crowd, a few hundred people,
but usually good TV.
Speaker 2: All right, And that leads us to some nostalgia and
speaking of Halloween, Halloween October thirty first, nineteen ninety eight
historic Yes, twenty six years ago. Nineteen ninety eight, historically
significant for one Dan Rayphiel because you were ringside for
the Prince, Prince Na Simhmed and Wayne McCullough, and it
was It's momentous because that's the first fight you covered
as the boxing writer and columnsts for USA Today, Right.
Speaker 1: Well, not entirely true. That was the first fight I
covered for USA Today. I was on a four month
loan from my other newspaper and I covered that event
And it was not until a year later, Gotcha, that
I went back as the full time reporter. But it
still has a special place in my heart because it
was my first fight for USA Today. It was my
second ever world title fight. It was only my third
ever professional boxing card that I covered. It was the
first of what became two one hundred and thirty six
HBO cards I covered at ringside. Between this fight and
the end of HBO in twenty eighteen, covered a lot
of HBO cards. And while the fight itself was not
a great fight, I mean McCullough, who was one of
the greatest chins in the history of boxing, stood up
to the massive punches of Prince Lassim it was not
the most entertaining card. What was massively entertaining was the
Prince's ringwalk, which is absolutely unforgettable. And as I say
to the kids, you can YouTube that up of him
coming through at the This is at the Atlantic City
Boardwalk hall. They had set up like a fake graveyard.
It's it's Halloween. They're playing Michael Jackson's thriller. They got
the headstone set up and the Prince is walking through
and knock on. I remember, I remember, tremendous entertainment, just
amazing and so like I couldn't tell you like what
I did yesterday, but I could tell you chapter and
verse about the shit that I did that week because
it was so impressions, such an impression on my mind,
because it was like first time of being in big
time boxing. Like I told you, I had covered a
small card in Sarahtoga Springs. I had covered a card,
you know, an ABC wide World of Sports card that
wasn't a huge deal with Too Sharp Johnson up in
turning Stone, which was not far from where I was
working in upstate New York. But now I'm at USA
today writing for the national newspaper. I'm going Atlantic City
to cover a major world title tripleheader, as a matter
of fact, two of the fights on HBO, and it
was it was at this event where I met and
began relationships with so many people in the boxing industry
that even to this day I'm still in touch with.
It's the first time I ever met a multitude of people,
the the late great Dan Goosen, who became a very
close friend of mine. I met him, he passed a
number of years ago. But I also met people like
Tom Brown, who was you know it, his brother in law,
who now is the promoter for TGB. It's where I
met many of the HBO people at the time, Loud Debelle,
who I still talk to well, you know, a couple
times a week, who's now a promoter. It's where I
met the late great promoter Sedri Kushner. Where I met
people on the PR staff that I still deal with,
the Fred Sternberg who's in the Hall of Fame, the
great Race Talone who was at HBO for many, many years,
who's now working with Prime Video as a consultant, who
I deal with on a regular basis. Anyway, lots of
great people that I've known for many years. And then
the card itself. Obviously McCulla and Ahmed's the main event,
but you also had the other HBO fight was a
junior a featherweight world title fight between the South African
champ Vianni Bungu, who I actually view as a borderline
Hall of Fame candidate against Danny Romero, who obviously was
well known to the American public and in significant fights.
Those are the two HBO fights. Now, there was another
world title fight that wasn't even televised in the United States.
It was on in the UK where Ahmed was a
pay per view over there on Sky Sports back in
that time, and that was Marco Antonio Brera, who won
the WBO's vacant one hundred and twenty two pound title
and a devastating performance against Richie Winton. Remember that. And oh,
by the way, how about a young prospect who was
eight and oh at the time name Ricky hadn't in
his first American fight.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you were there for that, and I was there.
Speaker 1: I remember that. I mean I remember like he was
already getting some hype and they were the Brits that
I knew that I had met. We're talking about watch
this kid, blah blah, blah. So it was. It was
a very big deal for me personally, and I can
remember coming back. Remember USA Today does not publish on
the weekend, so if you were in an event on
a Saturday night. This is before, by the way, like
the relative existence of the World Wide Web in any
meaningful way. Nobody was right website stories or anything like that.
So when I came back to I had driven up
to Atlantic City. You know, I had actually asked USA Today.
I wasn't like a sign to do it. They had
told me I was writing baseball, you know, in college
basketball and college football. They're like, if there's other things
you'd like to do, you know, we're going to make
you work your ass off. But if there's other stuff,
then you can accommodate it because they're getting your stuff done.
Let us know and we'll try to commodate you. So
I asked the editor. I said, hey, you know, what
would you think about me covering this boxing event. They
knew I liked boxing. I'd written a couple of boxing
stories already for the paper, and they're like, yeah, that's
a good idea. So they were gave me the green light.
I rented a car and I drove up to Atlantic
City and when I came back, I wrote a story
that was in the paper. I'd written a preview for
the fight. I was, you know what, TJ. I've been
doing this a long time, but those times in my life,
at that time, at the beginning, my excitement. I'm still
excited to do this, but it was off the charts
back then. I'm going to Atlantic City to cover an
HBO fight with world champions and they're paying me to
do this, Are you fucking kid? I was like a
kid in a candy store.
Speaker 2: It was great, and the Prince was there, and that
ring walk is legendary. So go back and look at
twenty six years ago, Halloween of ninety eight.
Speaker 1: And by the way I did I post, I actually
had dug it out. I had a picture of it
in my role of old boxing photos. I posted my
credential from that fight on my social media the first ever.
Like I said, two hundred and thirty six HBO fights.
It's got to start somewhere, and that was Nomber one
for me.
Speaker 2: Credible, incredible that it's that number, all right. So we
back up to Halloween of ninety two, thirty two years
ago now and Lenox Lewis and Razor Ruddock. Where Lennox
Lewis had been the Olympic champion and now on the
professional stage. This really announced his presence on the world
championship stage here all right, so tell me more about him.
Lenox destroying Razor Ruddock Halloween of ninety two.
Speaker 1: This was a big deal. I mean, this was when
it was made. This was the eliminator, the final eliminator
for a chance to fight for the WBC heavyweight title,
which at the time was held by Riddick bow who
obviously was Lennox's rival. He had Lennox had defeated him
for the gold medal in the Olympic Games. They obviously
did not like each other. And the thing was, the
winner of this fight is going to get a chance
to fight against Ridig both for the heavyweight championship. Now,
in terms of Razor Ruddick, he had a lot of
street crew so to speak going into this fight. Now,
he had had two losses in ninety one against Mike
Tyson in their back to back fight, so one of
them was the extremely controversial stoppage in the first fight.
He then went to distance in a loss that was
a decision in the second fight. So I'm always a
little skeptical when a guy makes his name off of losses.
But still, Razor Rodick was still a rough, tough, good
quality heavyweight at the time, and he had bounced back
from that two fight loss in a row to Tyson.
And again he's not beating like huge, top top guys,
but he defeated the former title holder Greg Page in
a knockout. Greg obviously was past his prime at that point,
but then he also had an early knockout against the
undefeated Phil Jackson, which was a pretty good win for him.
Speaker 2: Not the Bulls and Lakers, Phil Jackson's the box in
Phil Jackson right exactly.
Speaker 1: Who also Phil Jackson, another point in his career, had
been knocked out by Lennox in a title fight. But
in any event, that set him up to do this
fight against Lennox Lewis. They fought in England. They did
it late night, like middle of the night, because it
was to accommodate the live HBO broadcast of the fight,
and Lennox Lewis, who at that point in his career
had not fought, he was obviously people thought he was
a future possible champion with the Olympic background and the
types of performances he had had, but he had really
not fought big name guys. I mean, yeah, he had
knocked out Tyrrel Biggs, who was an Olympic gold medalist,
but Biggs was kind of past his best days. He
knocked him out on an undercard of an Evander Holyfield fight.
He was gaining notoriety. He's been fighting on HBO, but
no one at the level of Roddick. Roddick was considered.
This is a real dangerous test for Lennox Lewis, who
we didn't know if he could take a great shot,
and we knew Ruddick could bang. He had gone twelve
rounds with Mike Tyson. The knockout had been controversial. Anyway,
they get in the ring to do the business and
Lennox Lewis looks absolutely sensational, scored a devastating second round knockout,
had Razor Roudick flopping around, and I remember in the
back of my mind the the exclamation from my dear
friend Larry Merchant, you know, we've got a great new
heavyweight on the boxing scene.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: And he put his stamp of approval on Lennox Lewis,
and then Lennox was supposed to fight uh Riddick Bow.
I mean that was a fight everybody wanted to see
and Riddick Bow, uh through the through the belt in
the trash can wouldn't fight him, and the.
Speaker 2: W A famously he literally dumped into the trash at
a press conference.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean by the way, and Lennox had knocked
the Ruddick down in the first round and then also
two more times in the second round, and it just
a devastating performance. Uh, and maybe it gave Ridick Bow
second thoughts about fighting guy already had stopped him in
the amateurs in the gold medal match in the Olympic Games. Anyway, Uh,
this had been the eliminator for the title. And when
when Riddick was relieved of the title, he threw the
belt in the garbage and and vacated the title, whichever
you want to say. The WBC made Lennox retroactively the
champion of the WBC, similar to what they had done
many years earlier, when uh, you know, with Kenny Norton
getting the title, uh and having never actually won it
in the ring even though he one fights and then
defending it and losing it to uh.
Speaker 2: Have nostalgia tag on your nostalgia because it just jogged
me and I just looked and we will probably talk
about this here in a couple of weeks. But the
Bow holy Field undisputed epic first fight was a couple
of weeks later, So this Lewis fight kind of wetted
your appetite before Bow and Holyfield fought in Las Vegas.
Interesting in the timeline.
Speaker 1: And Lenox was ringside for that Bow holy Field fight,
and I remember them interviewing him on HBO and him
and Riddick almost got into a fist fight on the
broadcast at ringside after the fight that when they were
talking to him in the you know, with the HBO
crew of of announcers. But anyway, tremendous uh performance from Lex.
I mean, honestly, Lennox had a lot of great performances
in his career. But for me anyway, and I remember
watching this fight when it happened, I'm like, I don't
know what's gonna happen in the future, but Lennox Lewis
is a fucking dangerous dude. I mean, he's got a
devastating right hand. He was tall, and he was quick,
and he was coordinated, and uh, he looked like the
real deal. Now. He obviously had his ups and downs,
a couple of rough knockout lost where he wasn't really
paying attention to his opponent very much. But in the end,
you know, he turned out to be one of the
great heavyweights of all time, and this was really his
first great performance of what was a great career. And
he went on and defended the title you know he had.
He made a mandatory in his next fight against Tony Tucker.
He went back for the Mega fight in the UK
at the National Stadium in Cardiff in ninety three and
knocked out the very popular brit of Frank Bruno. In
a huge all British fight, Denny knocked out Philo Jackson,
who I told you had already been defeated by Razor Ruddick.
And then of course came the crazy Ko upset to
Oliver Recall. But the Rutti fight was something spectacular. And
now I guess we're gonna go a little bit about
the undercard, yes, which on the HBO broadcast. I don't
remember if it happened in real time after the fact,
or they it happened before the Lennox Lewis ruddif fight,
but they showed it on HBO on tape delay afterwards.
But nonetheless, this was Meldrick Taylor defend. You know, everybody
says the end of Meldrick Taylor was the Chabas fight.
The first fight where the two seconds and he got
stopped with that very controversial knockout loss to Chabas in
the epic classic, one of the all time great fights.
But he did go on to win another world championship
after this happened. Remember when he fought to fight with Chabas,
he lost one hundred and forty pounds title. And when
he came back, he was fighting as a welterweight and
he had a couple of fights and then he finally
fought against Aaron Davis. This this is like he fought
one fight and then he fought Aaron Davis and he
won the WBA's welterweight title. And he made a couple
of defenses and he fought some guys and this and that,
and then he got absolutely destroyed by Terry Norris. But
that was over the weight hunt that was above the
welterweight limits, so his title was not at stake so
he got pummeled by Terry Norris in like four rounds,
and then he came back still as the WBA welterweight
champ and he defended it against Crossanto Espania on this card.
Espanya was twenty seven to zero when they fought. And
this to me, whatever you think about the Chavis fight,
whatever you think about how he didn't look good against
certain guys, or he got fucking annihilated by Terry Norris
in a much heavier weight against a guy that was
a lot bigger than him, a Spanya, in my mind,
that's really what was the true end of Meldrick Taylor.
People forget he won another world title and Aaron Davis
was no joke. He was an undefeated guy and he
won a pretty solid decision against him, But Aspanya just
took him apart, knocked him out in the eighth round,
and then Don King cleaned him up and gave him
like a couple of you know, three tomato can tight fights,
and then stuck him in the ring with Chavis for
the rematch, and he put up a good fight but
got knocked out again. But to me, the real end
of the day, of the real career of Meldrick Taylor
was the chrissanto, a spaging fight that happened on this
card where the main event was Lenox loss. Great performance
against this.
Speaker 2: Is why we have you here. Nobody else would have
known that or known that that was there. And it's
sad because Melder Taylor kept fighting on for years after
that into the late nineties. Awful and maybe even.
Speaker 1: Mela Taylor thought. By the way, his last fight was
two thousand and two. The Chavez won happened in.
Speaker 2: What nineteen nineteen ninety March of ninete.
Speaker 1: The fact that he continued and by the way, it's
said because you know, you watched the video of the
Legendary Nights and they would show him speaking in an
interview prior to Chavez and he's passed and quick witted
and all there. And then they juxtaposed it with an
interview that they did many many years later, and they
have to put subtitles because he can't understand what he's saying.
Speaker 2: I know. Terrible on on that all right, great stuff
with the previews, the news. We gave you some good
nostalgia there on Princeville, Simjamed Lennox Lewis, why don't we reconvene,
my friend, and we'll handicap uh these two different the
title fight with Conse sal and Oshaki Foster, as well
as Floyd Schofield's Golden Boy main event. We'll do that
on the bet Us Boxing Show one Eastern Time, coming
up on Friday afternoon on the bet Us platforms. I
look forward to doing that with you. And then, as
I always said to the audience, whatever happens, Dan Rayfield
will be back off the weekend in November. Two months
left in the year. We'll be back in November with
the interview, recap the fights and what else you got
coming on the recap pod. What else you have?
Speaker 1: We have my interview with the excellent, undefeated, up and
coming lightweight contender Keishaan Davis, who will fight one week
from Friday on the ESPN Plus main event in his
hometown of nor for Virginia. We had a great interview.
I think people are gonna really like it.
Speaker 2: All right, there's a tease. You're getting good at this
teas thing that's coming for the weekend pod, The Fight
Freaks to Night Recap. Let's reconvene one Eastern time Friday.
What do you say and handicap some more and take
some live Q and a, et cetera for some boxing
for this weekend. Halloween is done, the Yankees are done.
We're moving on.
Speaker 1: They had to go there, dude.
Speaker 2: Look, you know, I'm no Eddie Renoso ridiculing you about
the Dodgers, but I will say Louisio mucho in Spanish.
Speaker 1: By the way, I've been ridiculed by the I've also
been ridiculed by by by my man Eric Gomez from
Golden Bays Doctor Part Sure.
Speaker 2: All the West came here.
Speaker 1: From a bunch of my la PEPs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all the West Coast people, they're gonna be unbearable.
The paradeus Friday in honor of Fernando Valensla's birthday would
have been his sixty third birthday on Friday. How about that?
Speaker 1: You doing there?
Speaker 2: Correct with that, my friend? To have a good weekend.
I'll see you on the bet Us Show. We'll recap
the pods coming off the weekend again. Final subscribe Apple, Spreaker,
Spotify here to the podcast feed. For now, you've been
listening to the Big Fight Weekend Preview pod