Speaker 1: Yes, off of a weekend that has seen a heavyweight
Speaker 1: battle that while we got a lot to get into,
Speaker 1: because Derek Chesoora ends up getting his hand raised, what
Speaker 1: does that mean? What does that mean for Joe Joyce
Speaker 1: as the loser who appeared like a year ago to
Speaker 1: be a heavyweight title challenger and you're wondering now does
Speaker 1: he have any career left? We're ready to recap that
Speaker 1: Claressa Shields makes more history and it was quick. It
Speaker 1: was quick Saturday night in Detroit. We're ready to recap
Speaker 1: that fight card and much more. And we've got the
Speaker 1: guy going against Terrence Crawford, the WBA Junior Middleweight world champ.
Speaker 1: Israel madram Off is here on the pod with Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 1: We look forward to hearing from him in advance of
Speaker 1: this Saturday night's main event world title fight from read
Speaker 1: season and his OWNEPPV dot com showing it from La
Speaker 1: Madromof on the pod coming up. As mentioned, Dan Rayfield
Speaker 1: is with me our insider Fight Freaks Unit is his
Speaker 1: substack on the Fight Freaks Unit recap podcast. I am
Speaker 1: merely TJ Reeves. All right, we got lots to go over.
Speaker 1: How are you feeling coming off the weekend, I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna get everything packed and get ready to head west,
Speaker 1: young Man to Tinsiltown, the Hollywood, The SoCal later in
Speaker 1: a week.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to the show. It should be a
Speaker 2: heck of a fight, heck of a card. We got
Speaker 2: plenty to talk about. Let's get to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we do have a lot rt us and review us.
Speaker 1: By the way, we'll take some ratings and reviews, even
Speaker 1: at the end of July. Here five star review does
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Speaker 1: When you look on Apple Podcasts, on your boxing podcast,
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Speaker 1: us and review us. We go into the weekend previewing
Speaker 1: Thursday night into Friday, and then we come off the
Speaker 1: weekend with a recap Sunday and a Monday. There's nobody
Speaker 1: hustling more than us, week after week after week with
Speaker 1: a preview and a recap and a preview interview. I'm
Speaker 1: talking to Rayhield more than I talked to my family
Speaker 1: this summer. Let's get into it, shall we.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Let's let's begin with Saturday afternoon and Derek Chesaura's victory
Speaker 1: surprising how good he was late in the fight at
Speaker 1: forty years of age. What do you make of this?
Speaker 1: He gets the win over Joe Joyce. I believe it's deserved.
Speaker 1: I think you're going to agree, But there's a lot
Speaker 1: of reaction to what we saw with these guys banging
Speaker 1: on each other at advanced age, et cetera. What do
Speaker 1: you make of it? Chesaa gets the win at the
Speaker 1: O two Arena on the Queensbury main event.
Speaker 2: Well, I think when we talked about this fight going
Speaker 2: into it, we agreed and I think we were not
Speaker 2: exactly breaking ground here that this was going to be
Speaker 2: like a slobber knocker kind of slug fest, kind of
Speaker 2: you know, sloppy, old guy kind of fight. That's exactly
Speaker 2: what we got. I was a tremendous ba I actually thought,
Speaker 2: and I was not alone. I looked at a lot
Speaker 2: of people that responded. I thought that Joyce eked it
Speaker 2: out I know he got knocked down later in the fight,
Speaker 2: but I thought he had sa soora. His legs were
Speaker 2: gone for so many rounds in the middle of the fight,
Speaker 2: could barely stand up, and he was landing punches on him.
Speaker 2: So I thought that he did enough to get the win.
Speaker 2: It's not like I thought he blew him out or
Speaker 2: anything like that. But you know, it was such a physical, grinding, grueling,
Speaker 2: back and forth kind of fight that you know, there
Speaker 2: are certainly rounds where you know, you can see one punch,
Speaker 2: see one punch here, one punch there, that you know,
Speaker 2: it really could have been, you know, a fight where
Speaker 2: the scores were all over the place. But oh, you know,
Speaker 2: no cred, no problem with Tassara got the win ninety
Speaker 2: seven to ninety two, ninety six, ninety six, ninety four.
Speaker 2: The knockdown in the end did not change the result
Speaker 2: because if he doesn't get that knockdown, he still would
Speaker 2: have won the fight. But it was, it was. It
Speaker 2: was not going to win any any points, let's say,
Speaker 2: for you know, the technique, let's say, or the skill
Speaker 2: is not going to impress anybody that might be looking
Speaker 2: for the points of the sweet science.
Speaker 1: Yea, when Chesaora got the knockdown in the ninth round.
Speaker 1: That was kind of a come out of your seat moment.
Speaker 2: I know, Bernard, why was it because he was getting
Speaker 2: his ass kicked before.
Speaker 1: He were beaten up at that point. But Bernardo Azuna
Speaker 1: on the ESPN Plus call, and I believe it's Rick
Speaker 1: Costello on the on the de zone, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: who it was on the dizone. I'm not sorry. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: not diz Owne the TNT Sports call for Queensberry. They
Speaker 1: both elevated and went crazy on the knockdown. I really
Speaker 1: thought in that moment there was enough time left where
Speaker 1: Chisaura might get the stoppage in the ninth Did you
Speaker 1: think that when the knockdown happened, because Joyce looked like
Speaker 1: he looked against Jang, He looked hurt and maybe ready
Speaker 1: to go. I thought, what did you think?
Speaker 2: I mean, if he hadn't been able to land the punch,
Speaker 2: I guess, but Joyce is a big guy was able
Speaker 2: to keep him off. But the thing about the knockdown,
Speaker 2: why it was, like you mentioned, why it was such
Speaker 2: a out of your seat kind of moment because most
Speaker 2: of that round prior to the knockdown. Joe Joyce was
Speaker 2: about to stop Tasora. I felt he's really taken it
Speaker 2: to him. He's just got him all over the place,
Speaker 2: the legs are gone. He steps in to throw a
Speaker 2: right hand and he is caught with a right you know,
Speaker 2: another shot coming right back, got him right on the
Speaker 2: chin and put him on his back. And actually I
Speaker 2: didn't think that Joyce was that badly hard by it,
Speaker 2: because when he got up he kind of smiled like,
Speaker 2: you know, basically the nod that's sort of like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you fucker, you got me. Uh Like it was, you know,
Speaker 2: one of those deals where he just was going for
Speaker 2: the kill and he got caught, uh, you know, without
Speaker 2: thinking about the defense at all. I mean, these two guys,
Speaker 2: you know, are so both of them are so slow,
Speaker 2: so plotting, but so fun to watch, so in there
Speaker 2: each other's face the whole fight. I mean, you know
Speaker 2: we talk about you fight, what we say TJ. You
Speaker 2: say we could fight in a bathtub, Yeah exactly. I
Speaker 2: mean they could have made this a sixteen by sixteen ring,
Speaker 2: fourteen by fourteen ring. I mean they were right.
Speaker 1: I could have fought on my living room rough yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the first round was. I mean, it wasn't slow,
Speaker 2: but it was like relative to the remainder of the
Speaker 2: fight was kind of slow ish, I guess. And like
Speaker 2: by the middle of the second round, they're in a
Speaker 2: fucking war and just order. By the second round, he's
Speaker 2: already got a you know, swelling underneath one of his
Speaker 2: eyes and they're just banging the shit out of each other.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what we expected. Uh, there was there there. Listen.
Speaker 2: I've said this before about other kinds of fights. There
Speaker 2: are certain things in boxing where you know, there's not
Speaker 2: a lot of things that you have to dissect, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean. There's not a lot of like
Speaker 2: hard thought or or or or you know, getting down
Speaker 2: in the weeds on stuff or a minutia. This is
Speaker 2: a fucking fight, is what it was. There's two guys
Speaker 2: in there, just swinging away, big strong guys. We'll have
Speaker 2: a lot of heart, a lot of experience, who've shown
Speaker 2: good chins. I mean they've both been stop but generally speaking,
Speaker 2: during the course of their overall careers, have shown the
Speaker 2: ability to take a punch, to recover from the punch,
Speaker 2: and and uh, you know, it was a thrilling fight,
Speaker 2: and uh, you know, I'm not sure where they go.
Speaker 2: They're old guys, you know, especially with the amount of
Speaker 2: punch they've both taken. It's not like, you know, when
Speaker 2: Floyd Mayweather is still boxing at the end of his career,
Speaker 2: you know, around forty years old, he was still very
Speaker 2: good and still could escape punches and still do his
Speaker 2: thing because he spent the previous twenty years not really
Speaker 2: getting hit as much. You know, when you take the punches,
Speaker 2: that's what ends your career prematurely, is when you just
Speaker 2: take the beatings and receive the punishment. Joe Joyce and
Speaker 2: Derek Chsaa, both of them have received a lot of punishment. Now,
Speaker 2: Joe doesn't have nearly as many fights as Chessaa does,
Speaker 2: but they've both taken quite a bit of shots. I mean,
Speaker 2: Joe's defense is basically his chin, you know, because for
Speaker 2: so long he wasn't a guy that was going to
Speaker 2: get dented or knockdown. It's starting to go on him
Speaker 2: a little bit obviously. So where they go. You know,
Speaker 2: Chisora was real specific. He wants two more fights. He
Speaker 2: wants to get the fifty fights for his career. You know,
Speaker 2: he was the fan favorite, even though they're both British.
Speaker 2: You know, the London fans love this guy. He's now
Speaker 2: ten and one at the O two Arena. Just the
Speaker 2: one law to Dillian White, but he's got a ton
Speaker 2: of other wins in that building, a various you know. Uh,
Speaker 2: I would say it's like the London equivalent or the
Speaker 2: England equivalent. Let's say of like Madison Square Garden in
Speaker 2: terms of boxing it. I mean I covered a fight
Speaker 2: there once years ago. It's a cool building. But anyway,
Speaker 2: so I Sachory's got the hometown home crowd behind him.
Speaker 2: He wants two more fights. I don't know if that's
Speaker 2: the best idea for him, but you know, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to stop them.
Speaker 1: What about the argument, And I think it's a valid
Speaker 1: one that the British Boxing Border Control should look at
Speaker 1: both of these guys neurologically and closely and say should
Speaker 1: they be continued to be licensed? Just from this standpoint,
Speaker 1: because I've heard this brought up a couple of places
Speaker 1: that Chesaura fights the same way and takes punishment and
Speaker 1: swollen face. And I know he rallied late, but you're
Speaker 1: looking at the very real possibility that you continue to
Speaker 1: let him do this, even post Tyson Fury fight now
Speaker 1: for a couple more fights you're talking about. We don't know.
Speaker 1: We're not neurologist, we're not doctors, but you're taking real
Speaker 1: risks with the rest of his life with poundings he takes.
Speaker 2: I mean they passed medicals sore.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I don't know how strange it
Speaker 1: isn't think.
Speaker 2: I don't think Joyce is in a position where you
Speaker 2: have to say he has to retire. I mean, he's
Speaker 2: a fighter. I mean, and here's an argument right now
Speaker 2: for him is this is important. British Boxing Board of
Speaker 2: Control licenses numerous fighters who literally have like one hundred losses.
Speaker 2: I understand now they're not fighting these types of fights,
Speaker 2: are fighting four and six rounders against prospects, and they
Speaker 2: can handle themselves, are not getting knocked out. But where
Speaker 2: do you draw the lines?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: You need to go through medical processes and all that,
Speaker 2: but it seems to me a little premature. Especially guys
Speaker 2: who are in good shape, who come to fight, who
Speaker 2: still can get the job done to some degree. Uh,
Speaker 2: they're just not what they were when they're at their best.
Speaker 1: Where does Joyce go at this point, when he's now
Speaker 1: been beaten three times basically in a year and a half,
Speaker 1: and there's obviously not a huge stage for him at
Speaker 1: this point. I mean, he's he's on the verge of
Speaker 1: maybe being a other guy in somebody else is stepping
Speaker 1: stone moving up at.
Speaker 2: This Absolutely he told me that. I mean, he still
Speaker 2: says he wants to fight, you know, personally speaking, you know,
Speaker 2: and they're both cool guys. I mean, I don't want
Speaker 2: to see anything bad to happen either one of them.
Speaker 2: I would, I would. I would love to see both
Speaker 2: those guys to step off the stage or retire. But
Speaker 2: that's not it's not my life, you know, it ain't
Speaker 2: my bank account, so it's not my my desire or
Speaker 2: you know, it's up to those guys what they want
Speaker 2: to do. Now, if they're medically disqualified, that's a different matter.
Speaker 2: But as long as the fans are willing to pay
Speaker 2: and the promoters are willing to put him on, and
Speaker 2: there's a willing opponent standing across the ring from them,
Speaker 2: whether they're of the same level or younger or whatever,
Speaker 2: then that's up to the two guys to do it.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, Derek Tasa is clearly wants to continue to
Speaker 2: fight and and have get to fifty fights. He needs
Speaker 2: two more. I mean, that's that's what he said. And
Speaker 2: Joe uh, you know, basically said, you know, he was
Speaker 2: asked that question in the post fight interview and he says,
Speaker 2: you know, to the crowd and to the mic, you know,
Speaker 2: what do you think? Do you want to see me
Speaker 2: fight again? And they all teered for him, so I
Speaker 2: have no doubt that they'll turn out for him. The
Speaker 2: question is what's the level of fight? You know, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of heavyweights that need opponents, and there's still
Speaker 2: money to be made. So I mean, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, it is a business, and they this
Speaker 2: is what they do. Joe Joyce is not retiring and
Speaker 2: suddenly going to become a dentist, you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: is not going to retire and suddenly become like a
Speaker 2: chemistry professor, right highly life. This is what they do.
Speaker 1: This is who they are, all right. So interesting that
Speaker 1: Moses Ittana on the undercard here is an up and comer,
Speaker 1: you know, still prospect. I would put him in that category.
Speaker 1: He got a big knockout on the very on the
Speaker 1: veteran Marius Wack. He destroyed him, and Walk clearly has
Speaker 1: nothing left. I saw that in that fight, So I mean,
Speaker 1: this could be a guy that ends up Listen to
Speaker 1: me playing amateur matchmaker with Joe Joyce at some other point.
Speaker 1: What did you see? There's a lot of hope for
Speaker 1: what Moses Eitana has, but we have to temper what
Speaker 1: we saw, do we not.
Speaker 2: Sarah, mosesma is one of the best heavyweight prospects in boxing.
Speaker 2: He's nineteen years old, British fighter, He's a southpaw. He
Speaker 2: he hadn't really faced anybody of real consequence. And I'm
Speaker 2: not going to sit here and tell you that Marius
Speaker 2: wak with some kind of like monumental type of opposition.
Speaker 2: But here's the reality about Marius Wack. He had been
Speaker 2: stopped a few times four times prior to the fight
Speaker 2: he had, but he was thirty eight and ten, had
Speaker 2: a massi amount of experience. Fought for the heavyweight championship
Speaker 2: against Vladimir Klitschko years ago. Took an absolute hlacious fucking
Speaker 2: beating in that fight, but went the distance. And his
Speaker 2: losses though, have you know, He's fought so many top
Speaker 2: guys that the idea of you're the promoter and you
Speaker 2: have a nineteen year old kid that you think is
Speaker 2: going to be a future champion. You got to get
Speaker 2: him the experience. I think they make this match thinking that, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's gonna beat Walk, but Wak has shown a pretty
Speaker 2: good chin generally speaking, and been in there, and they're gonna,
Speaker 2: you know, he's going to extend Etama for several rounds,
Speaker 2: not you know, just a couple of rounds that it
Speaker 2: took him to get the knockout me because it was
Speaker 2: a pretty quick knockout, but he woud take a look
Speaker 2: at his record. He went in twenty twenty three June
Speaker 2: of last year. He went ten round distance with Fraser Clark,
Speaker 2: who was a British olympian who's undefeated, a little old,
Speaker 2: but considered a prospect. He went twelve rounds with Kevin Lorena,
Speaker 2: who has been in the ring with some good opponents.
Speaker 2: Fought Daniel Dubois, you know, fought for a title in
Speaker 2: the bridgerweight division. He went six rounds with Arslund Deck Mahmadoff,
Speaker 2: who was a guy that you know, was beaten in
Speaker 2: one of the Saudi cards but was an undefeated up
Speaker 2: and comer. He went to distance with Huey Fury. He's
Speaker 2: been in the ring with Dillian White, who went ten
Speaker 2: rounds with him. These were all guys who can bang around.
Speaker 2: He went eight rounds with Martin McCole before he got stopped.
Speaker 2: He went a split decision with Arthur Spilka, who was
Speaker 2: a top contender first several years. Fought against Deontay Wilder
Speaker 2: for the WBC heavyweight title, got stopped in nine rounds
Speaker 2: by Jerald Miller. He went into the twelfth round before
Speaker 2: he got stopped against Alexander Povecan. I'm making the point
Speaker 2: that they wanted to see a guy who's shown that
Speaker 2: kind of experience against the top heavyweights, to take this
Speaker 2: young fighter who's still a teenager and extend him and
Speaker 2: guess what he did. He got knocked out and it
Speaker 2: was a pretty one sided get into that knockout. So
Speaker 2: Toma is a guy to keep an eye on, There's
Speaker 2: no question it. They have what they think is the future,
Speaker 2: a future he'd be like the British equivalent, let's say,
Speaker 2: and even younger than what I think a lot of
Speaker 2: the hype is around Jared Anderson in the United States
Speaker 2: in terms of the young up and coming heavyweight prospect.
Speaker 2: But again, he's like four years younger than Jared Anderson,
Speaker 2: and he just beat a former title challenger who's got
Speaker 2: a massive meta experience against good opponents, and he did
Speaker 2: it a lot quicker than those guys. So I thought it.
Speaker 2: You know, on the one hand, it was impressive because
Speaker 2: of how we did it and how quick he did it.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, you know, you're like, ah, shoot,
Speaker 2: we need We wanted to get him some more rounds
Speaker 2: because that's what he needs.
Speaker 1: All right. But still, I mean, this guy could be
Speaker 1: back in the ring. Listen to me again, play amateur
Speaker 1: matchmaker in the next sixty days, sixty ninety days fighting again,
Speaker 1: and why not. Oh, there's no doubt here on the
Speaker 1: fast track. Get him on the fast track getting better fights.
Speaker 2: It's not about the fast track because there's no hurry
Speaker 2: at nineteen years old. But what they want is they
Speaker 2: want more activity, more rounds. So yeah, I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: surprised with the second round knockout that Frank Warren and
Speaker 2: his people look at their and say, you know, we
Speaker 2: just did this show here July twenty seventh. Can we
Speaker 2: get him in the ring like on a card in
Speaker 2: like you know, September. Yeah, one shot me, So there,
Speaker 2: you know, that's what they'll probably look to do keep him.
Speaker 2: I would say this, I'd be I'd say he probably
Speaker 2: have two more fight. He's only had one fight so
Speaker 2: far this year. I think he has some kind of
Speaker 2: injury he was dealing with. Uh Uh, that's what kept
Speaker 2: him out for several months. But I don't think that
Speaker 2: as long as he's healthy, I think that he probably
Speaker 2: gets at least another two more fights this year.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And he's definitely a put it like this. I don't
Speaker 2: think I'm gonna give it away here. But when it
Speaker 2: comes to time to do my prospects of the year
Speaker 2: at the end of December and I make my list,
Speaker 2: I think he'd be pretty safe to say that, unless
Speaker 2: something happens between now and then, that Moses E. Tama
Speaker 2: will be on that list.
Speaker 1: Check that guy out. Even if you didn't see the fight,
Speaker 1: go live up the relive the highlights YouTube, et cetera
Speaker 1: on social media of that knockout of walk. We had
Speaker 1: lots of knockouts all right again, Israel Madramoff is coming up. Uh.
Speaker 1: Now it's time to talk about Claressa Shield's latest title win.
Speaker 1: I will playfully say to you, we do the bet
Speaker 1: Us Boxing show the handicapping live at one Eastern time,
Speaker 1: Brother Rayfield, did I or did I not say to
Speaker 1: you in passing while handicapping this fight, Sooner or later
Speaker 1: we're going to get burned, which is what I said,
Speaker 1: And I wasn't trying to jinx us, but sooner or
Speaker 1: later we're gonna get burned. Constantly taking decision decision decision
Speaker 1: with Claressa Shields, and sure enough, this was such an
Speaker 1: opponent mismatch, which was not something that we didn't illuminate.
Speaker 1: We illuminated this. This is a mismatch. But my lord,
Speaker 1: she destroyed Vanessa Joannice Lapage Joannese inside of two rounds,
Speaker 1: knocking her down three times. And I really thought after
Speaker 1: the second knockdown that the referee could have said that's enough.
Speaker 1: She's overmatched. She's been down hard twice with big punches.
Speaker 1: They let it go on. She got hit with kind
Speaker 1: of a tough glancing right to the top of the
Speaker 1: head and went down again on a knee, and the
Speaker 1: referee said that's it on knockdown number three. So Shields
Speaker 1: the headline is Shields is a world champion in another
Speaker 1: weight division. Air quotes heavyweight title for the WBC. You've
Speaker 1: explained that mismatch. Yes, so there you go. What are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on Claressa's victory in front of the fans
Speaker 1: in Detroit Saurday night.
Speaker 2: I mean, when we do the picks and you think
Speaker 2: about any fight, whether you're doing wagering or you're not,
Speaker 2: is you know, what do you think is the most
Speaker 2: likely outcome? And I think it was not unreasonable think
Speaker 2: this is another distance kind of fight, because that's what
Speaker 2: Claressa's entire career has been, whether it's a top opponent,
Speaker 2: a lesser opponent, somebody in the middle. That's just the
Speaker 2: way she has been. So I mean when I think
Speaker 2: about over the course of my career of covering fights,
Speaker 2: there's three fighters that have come to mind where you know,
Speaker 2: it was death taxes and so and so by decision
Speaker 2: that's Claressa Shields. Go back a number of years when
Speaker 2: my man Ivan Iron Boy Calderon was ruling the roost
Speaker 2: as a strawweight champion, and go back even a few
Speaker 2: more years before that when the German fighter Sven Aki
Speaker 2: was holding titles in the super middleweight division. It was Aki,
Speaker 2: Ivan Calderon and now Coloressa shields, you know, by decision
Speaker 2: it was like the easiest picking boxing. But again, every
Speaker 2: now and again it happens. I mean, as an example,
Speaker 2: just off top of ed why I just mentioned Aki,
Speaker 2: this was a guy that could could knock anybody out.
Speaker 2: He's finding himself in a tussle, a tough fight with
Speaker 2: Danny I think was Danny Green, somebody from Australia. And
Speaker 2: he's in this fight and he's not only he's in
Speaker 2: the fight, but he's losing the fight. And you're like, well,
Speaker 2: there's no way he's going to get a knockout. I mean,
Speaker 2: he does no punching power at all, you know, can
Speaker 2: he possibly stop the guy? And guess what, TJ guess
Speaker 2: what he stopped him? He stopped It was Anthony Mundine,
Speaker 2: I should say, last tenth round of a world title
Speaker 2: defense of the IBF title. He's losing every round. Mundane
Speaker 2: is a novice, he's ten to no, but he's kicking
Speaker 2: his ass and Sinnaki stopped him out of nowhere. Anyway,
Speaker 2: So the point here is that it does happen. So
Speaker 2: Claressa had an opponent who was terrible and because the
Speaker 2: heavyweight in Air quotes the division in women's boxing is
Speaker 2: extremely limited in the number of competitors. She got this
Speaker 2: title that was vacant when she won it. She was
Speaker 2: only seven and one going into the fight, and she
Speaker 2: just was not good and then.
Speaker 1: Completely overmatched, obvious, obviously completely overmatched.
Speaker 2: Clarsta is a supreme boxer. The one to wrap on
Speaker 2: her has been the lack of knockouts or even the
Speaker 2: ability to score knockdowns. But here's the thing. She landed
Speaker 2: flush with right hands and if your opponent just can't
Speaker 2: take them. And by the way, you mentioned about the
Speaker 2: referee looking to stop the fight when the second knockdown
Speaker 2: occurred in round two, and you could see it from
Speaker 2: the wide shot that they showed on the on the screen,
Speaker 2: and Corey Erdman, who was doing the play by play
Speaker 2: for de Owne, mentioned it that one of the members
Speaker 2: of the corner of La Pay of Joanie was on
Speaker 2: the ring apron getting ready to throw the towel in
Speaker 2: and then the one last right hand came in and
Speaker 2: knocked her down for the third time, at which point
Speaker 2: the ref stopped to fight. But it was going to
Speaker 2: be a corner stoppage most likely anyway, because she just
Speaker 2: you know, the first round not a lot happened. She
Speaker 2: did take a couple of shots at the right end
Speaker 2: of the round, but nothing else much was going on
Speaker 2: that round. I think Claressa she even said, I only had
Speaker 2: like two punches in the first round, and then the
Speaker 2: third round, you know, you saw what happened. She took
Speaker 2: her out. Now, I just want to go back and
Speaker 2: briefly explain about the whole heavyweight thing because I've seen
Speaker 2: confusion about it on Twitter and this and that. So
Speaker 2: going into this fight, Claressa Shields was the undisputed it
Speaker 2: still is the undisputed middleweight champion. She's previously been an
Speaker 2: undisputed champion in the junior middleweight division. She had unified
Speaker 2: titles in the super middleweight division. She had come down
Speaker 2: and wait and then gone back up to middleweight. So
Speaker 2: now she comes into this fight to fight for Joe
Speaker 2: Nice's WBC heavyweight title. Also at stake was the vacant
Speaker 2: WBO light heavyweight title, so we hear light heavyweight title,
Speaker 2: heavyweight title. I have people questioning that she win a
Speaker 2: title in a fourth and fifth weight class, and they
Speaker 2: were using the example. I think actually Corey Erbman even
Speaker 2: said it, although I think he you know, he made
Speaker 2: a mistake, to be quite honest, that it was a
Speaker 2: you know kind of like he equated to Sugar Ray
Speaker 2: Leonard and Don Lalane when Ray Leonard won two belts
Speaker 2: in different weight classes on the same night because the
Speaker 2: weight for the fight was one sick whatever. So he
Speaker 2: won the super mid aweight title and a light heavyweight title.
Speaker 2: This is not the same situation. The WBC calls it's
Speaker 2: women's heavyweight division heavyweight, even though the weight limit is
Speaker 2: still one hundred and seventy five pounds, the same way
Speaker 2: all other traditional light heavyweight limits are in boxing. So
Speaker 2: she got two belts in the same uh weight division
Speaker 2: in terms of what the max was, but they're just
Speaker 2: called different things. It's similar to like some organizations call
Speaker 2: it super welterweight, others would call it junior midleway. It's
Speaker 2: the same number of pounds you're allowed, they just call
Speaker 2: it a different thing. So, you know, they love to
Speaker 2: say she's the heavyweight champ of the world. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's she's the light heavyweight champ.
Speaker 1: So my question, the WBO has a heavyweight title, and
Speaker 1: what is the weight limit at the heavy at heweight limit?
Speaker 1: I don't understand on that.
Speaker 2: Well. First of all, heavyweight boxing and women's boxing is
Speaker 2: highly unusual.
Speaker 1: Anyways, doesn't exist.
Speaker 2: Basically, there was if there was a fighter in a
Speaker 2: title fight over one seventy five. I don't know if
Speaker 2: they call it cruiserweight because they don't think they have
Speaker 2: a lot of activity in those divisions anyway. There's like
Speaker 2: less than a couple of dozen women in these weight
Speaker 2: classes in the world. So again, I have nothing but
Speaker 2: respect for everything that Claressa has done in her boxing,
Speaker 2: but let's not equate this to you know, Manny pak
Speaker 2: Yaw winning titles and eight weight classes and literally going
Speaker 2: up to scale and doing it.
Speaker 1: You know she did.
Speaker 2: I mean all credit to her. She did move up
Speaker 2: to divisions from where she currently fights at, but she
Speaker 2: won titles at one seventy five. The word heavyweight is misleading,
Speaker 2: is all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And this was very similar to seven days earlier Amanda
Speaker 1: Serrano and Stevie Morgan, which wasn't fou title that was worse,
Speaker 1: but still I mean this, this woman had very little
Speaker 1: in return same thing, and she's allegedly a world champion,
Speaker 1: very little experience, didn't do anything in return when Claressa
Speaker 1: Shields started to hit her, didn't know how to grab.
Speaker 2: This was this was this was an opportunistic move. Sure
Speaker 2: she saw there's a title. I don't blame I'm not mad.
Speaker 2: I don't blame her. I'd do the same thing if
Speaker 2: I was her management or promoter. No, this is not
Speaker 2: no negativity, but the reality, the just the factual information
Speaker 2: is she she there was, this was out there and
Speaker 2: there was not like she was ducking somebody else to fight,
Speaker 2: Uh Joanie. It's not like there was some other you know,
Speaker 2: huge fight or some other you know, stalking opponent that's
Speaker 2: been chasing after her and she was kind of ignoring her.
Speaker 2: But this is not David Benabtez against Canelo Alvarez type situation.
Speaker 2: You know, she already beats Savanna Marshall, she already beat
Speaker 2: uh you know, Cruise Dessern, She already beat you know,
Speaker 2: the other top women that had belts in and around
Speaker 2: her weight classes. So uh, you know, and she made
Speaker 2: it very clear in the post fight conversation that you know,
Speaker 2: they'll look for the biggest fight that she can have
Speaker 2: if she if she's gonna fight in uh the one
Speaker 2: seventy five and there's something that makes sense. Fine, if
Speaker 2: she needs to go back down to sixty eight for
Speaker 2: something interesting, go back and defend the undisputed in the
Speaker 2: middleweight division. Uh, you know, she's opened for it. What
Speaker 2: is interesting though, is this was her first fight in
Speaker 2: thirteen months, not because she was injured or having a
Speaker 2: problem or anything like that, but her last fight was
Speaker 2: in MMA, because she's an MMA fighter too. She's now
Speaker 2: two to one in the PFL. She come off a
Speaker 2: win that was on one of their cards earlier this year,
Speaker 2: which was I believe the very first women's mixed martial
Speaker 2: arts about in Saudi Arabia, and so she's been training
Speaker 2: all along, but now she came back to the boxing
Speaker 2: ring to do this fight. She got a good crowd
Speaker 2: there near her hometown. The fight was in Detroit. She's
Speaker 2: from Flint, and they showed all the you know, the
Speaker 2: boxing royalty and all the people from the Detroit area
Speaker 2: that came out to support her. So, look, she's got
Speaker 2: a good little business going. She's making good money. She's
Speaker 2: got money coming in for the fights in the PFL.
Speaker 2: She's doing main events and winning titles and boxing. So
Speaker 2: you know, I'm happy for her. Good for her and.
Speaker 1: You love the trivia nuggets. The last KO was almost
Speaker 1: seven years to the day, I know obvious. August fourth,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen at the MGM Grand in Detroit. She beat
Speaker 1: a fighter named Nikki Adler by fifth round TKO. Seven
Speaker 1: years in between knockouts in world title fights. I would
Speaker 1: love to know, out of those names you were listing
Speaker 1: or others, how many of them go seven years in
Speaker 1: between knockouts. Maybe they might go a knockout and then
Speaker 1: never another knockout again in their world championship career. But
Speaker 1: to go seven years between knockouts, that would be a
Speaker 1: fun one, just to deep dive and go down the
Speaker 1: rabbit hole and look on that. So she gets the KO,
Speaker 1: we'll see what's next for her. Just one quick mention,
Speaker 1: Michelle Rivera, we did handicap this on the bet Us show.
Speaker 1: He wins and I thought was impressive. I saw some
Speaker 1: of that fight. I've seen the highlights. But here we
Speaker 1: go again, and we don't have to go forever where
Speaker 1: Hugo roll Dan gets knocked down in the ninth or
Speaker 1: in the ninth or the tenth round was at the
Speaker 1: last round. I'm trying to remember whatever he got knocked
Speaker 1: out late in the fight and roll, Dan still got
Speaker 1: announced having won one of the two scorecards. When I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, for what I saw of the fight, he
Speaker 1: did not win six of those ten rounds. He did not.
Speaker 2: It was just a hot, hot garbage scorecards.
Speaker 1: Carol, the other two of the other Rivera winning easily
Speaker 1: like nine to one and eight to two, and then
Speaker 1: one of the judges actual Dan winning six rounds. So luckily,
Speaker 1: like you like to say, the right guy one. Michelle
Speaker 1: Rivera is still an interesting name at one in the
Speaker 1: co feature and we'll see what happens after that. But
Speaker 1: a comedy comedy.
Speaker 2: Scorecard, comedy comedy, and nothing will happen because you know
Speaker 2: what for which used to be a glorious boxing area
Speaker 2: of this country in Michigan, you know, specifically Detroit, their
Speaker 2: commission just is basically a non existent. They do a
Speaker 2: terrible job regulating. Uh, there's so many issues there. It's
Speaker 2: a miracle these events even take place.
Speaker 1: Wow, And there's somebody that would know that's saying that.
Speaker 1: How about that? Coming strong on the fight Preak Night
Speaker 1: recap podcast. You want some more of Dan Rayfield, as
Speaker 1: we have mentioned, coming up Saturday night, Dan will be
Speaker 1: their ringside. Is Real Madramoff will defend the WBA Junior
Speaker 1: Middleweight title against Terrence Crawford. It is fight Week coming
Speaker 1: this week week in Los Angeles and the Riots season
Speaker 1: pay per view event. But you do not have to
Speaker 1: wait to hear from Madramov later this week. You can
Speaker 1: hear from him now. Now I should say on the
Speaker 1: front end, he is from Uzbekistan, speaks very little English,
Speaker 1: a little bit of English. You're gonna hear in this
Speaker 1: interview through the magic of the technology and what we
Speaker 1: do in the editing of it. You're gonna hear the
Speaker 1: answers in his native tongue, but you're also gonna hear
Speaker 1: the translated answer on top of that, so you're gonna
Speaker 1: hear the translator as well. Magic of the podcast. Raphael
Speaker 1: coming up you with Israel Madramov right now about fighting
Speaker 1: Terrence Crawford and much more. Let's go to that now.
Speaker 2: Well, it's my pleasure to welcome to our podcast this week.
Speaker 2: It's the newly crowned WBA Jingior Middleway Champ of the World,
Speaker 2: Israel Madromov. He is gonna be defending his title for
Speaker 2: the first time against the pound for pound King Terrence Crawford,
Speaker 2: the unified welterweight champion, that will take place August third,
Speaker 2: the Read Season pay per view card at BMO Stadium
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, Israel. Thank you so much for doing this.
Speaker 2: How are you doing and preparing for what has to
Speaker 2: be by far the big fight of your career so far?
Speaker 4: I am feeling great. I know is my dream coming
Speaker 4: through because I'm happy.
Speaker 2: So your first title defense, A lot of guys would
Speaker 2: opt for a showcase kind of fight. Maybe not the
Speaker 2: stiffest opponent in the world. Some fighters have to make
Speaker 2: mandatory defenses. Israel maginemve is fighting Terrence Crawford. A lot
Speaker 2: of people think he's number one in the world. So
Speaker 2: my question is, what was it that made you decide
Speaker 2: to take the hardest possible fight that you could have
Speaker 2: in your first defense? Is it the money? Maybe some
Speaker 2: other reason?
Speaker 3: You know, my goal since I turned professional was always
Speaker 3: to fight the best fighters. Since I got in the pros,
Speaker 3: I asked for the best names, toughest opponents, and world championships,
Speaker 3: whichever is available. If it's the best guy with the
Speaker 3: best name, we'll go for him. If it's the world titles,
Speaker 3: it's a world title. If we cannot get the world title,
Speaker 3: I want the best name and the toughest fight possible.
Speaker 3: You can ask all the matchmakers and everyone will always
Speaker 3: pick and choose the toughest guy available. And in my
Speaker 3: looking at my amateur career, I can like people can say, oh,
Speaker 3: he never won the Olympic Games, but you know I
Speaker 3: beat three three times. I beat the two time Olympic champion,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 4: So I didn't want the Olympics.
Speaker 3: But I beat the guy who won the Olympics twice,
Speaker 3: you know, and I beat him three times. So it's
Speaker 3: it all comes down to facing the best guys available
Speaker 3: and the best names, just for your legacy, just for
Speaker 3: you know, to prove yourself. But with Terrence, opportunities like that,
Speaker 3: maybe it's one in the life time, once in a
Speaker 3: lifetime opportunity. And I would never say no to fight
Speaker 3: like that. It was my dream fight I was. I
Speaker 3: was dreaming about this fight. I didn't thought that it
Speaker 3: might happen because the gap is too big of a
Speaker 3: gap in between us, you know, the where I'm at
Speaker 3: in my career, where he's at in his career. But
Speaker 3: thank god we're here now, and you know, I get
Speaker 3: this opportunity, you know, to test myself against the very best.
Speaker 2: Remind me who was that fighter that you defeated. The
Speaker 2: amateurs that won the gold medal.
Speaker 4: Well, well one of them.
Speaker 3: He's the world champion, The two time Olympic champion is
Speaker 3: Arlen Lopez. Isroel beat him twice. They faced each other twice.
Speaker 3: Israel beat him twice, and many more.
Speaker 2: All the all the.
Speaker 3: Top amateurs at his way class like pretty much at
Speaker 3: his generation and time, he beat them all.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you won your world title, the WBA title
Speaker 2: at one hundred and fifty four pounds in professive performance,
Speaker 2: a fifth round knockout against Magna mat Kurbanov that took
Speaker 2: place on a high profile card when Anthony Joshua fought
Speaker 2: Francis and Gan who back in March. I wondered, just
Speaker 2: thinking back to that, what was what was your thoughts
Speaker 2: about your performance and what were your emotions like winning
Speaker 2: the title that you'd worked so hard to get.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's such a it's such a long
Speaker 3: and dramatic story for me because.
Speaker 4: I had six final title.
Speaker 3: Eliminators, you know, out of my ten fights, all ten
Speaker 3: fights were WBA.
Speaker 2: Ten, you know, so it's been on the long.
Speaker 4: To get to that together.
Speaker 3: So the every time I will probably find eliminator and
Speaker 3: that a fight because we were mandatory, you know, so
Speaker 3: we every time had to wait on the decision made,
Speaker 3: you know, and from the sanctioning buddy. So at the
Speaker 3: end of the day, they gave us the fight number
Speaker 3: one against number two ranked, and it was another hard
Speaker 3: story to make that fight happen. It was supposed to
Speaker 3: happen three times, and every time we didn't know if
Speaker 3: the fight is going to happen, was supposed to happen
Speaker 3: in one country, another country, third country, you know.
Speaker 4: So third times the charm had happened. And I'm very
Speaker 4: happy that I achieved.
Speaker 3: That's one of my goals, just to like the first
Speaker 3: step into my goals is to become a world champion.
Speaker 3: I achieved that and now I have many more coming up.
Speaker 2: Now. Before you fought Kurbanov, there was kind of a
Speaker 2: lot of drama around that fight before he was even
Speaker 2: sayingtioned for the title. First, Charlotte, you know, became the
Speaker 2: champion in recess, but you were dealing with the thing
Speaker 2: about a week before the fight where one are your
Speaker 2: medical reports came back where there was they said there
Speaker 2: was a problem with your brain scanned. It turned out
Speaker 2: that wasn't true and there was no issue. But for
Speaker 2: a for a little while, the fight was sort of
Speaker 2: in uh was actually in take place. So order, how
Speaker 2: concerned were you that the fight would not happen and
Speaker 2: also about the possibility maybe you might have some kind
Speaker 2: of health problem, even though it turned out not to
Speaker 2: be an issue.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, that's that's another part of it.
Speaker 3: So after all the troubles that we had with that fight,
Speaker 3: then the week before the fight, we all already were
Speaker 3: supposed to leave.
Speaker 4: We were at the airport and they called us that they're.
Speaker 3: Pulling off the US from the fight from the flights
Speaker 3: because of some issue with the with the EMRII, which
Speaker 3: ended up being absolute nonsense, because like the whole team
Speaker 3: got confused right away.
Speaker 4: So we were like, hey, we're not going to risk
Speaker 4: the health or something.
Speaker 3: So the doctor went through did the wrong summary and
Speaker 3: he just he just did the wrong summary and that's it.
Speaker 4: Even even the EMRII itself it was good.
Speaker 3: So we went to three different doctors, send EMRIS to
Speaker 3: Los Angeles, Germany, and England, and all three were evaluated
Speaker 3: by the doctors the world class doctors from the boxing
Speaker 3: and everyone, and no one could find anything.
Speaker 4: So that's what happened.
Speaker 3: But that played out for me to actually leave u
Speaker 3: Uzbekistan and arrived at the day of weigh ins at night,
Speaker 3: you know, So I came in, cut the last couple pounds,
Speaker 3: made the way, went to sleep, woke up, and went
Speaker 3: to fight, you know. So everything was a little bit
Speaker 3: messed up. It was, you know, a lot of things
Speaker 3: to conquer. But at the end of the day, I
Speaker 3: think I'm a religious person, you know, I stay calm
Speaker 3: and whatever is going to happen is going to happen.
Speaker 3: And they played out that we got into the ring,
Speaker 3: and that's all I wanted, you know, just to step
Speaker 3: in that ring and get my opportunity.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure glad everything was okay with you. Now
Speaker 2: that was your last fight. Now you go into what
Speaker 2: will only be your twelve professional fight, and I wonder
Speaker 2: you're confident. Obviously you had a big amateur career, you
Speaker 2: are a world champion currently and I just wonder, though,
Speaker 2: in only your twelve fight, what what do you think
Speaker 2: makes you ready to deal with somebody like Terrence Crawford,
Speaker 2: who's forty to oh, it was a lot of people's
Speaker 2: number one pounds, four pounds, one titles and three weight
Speaker 2: classes and very very experience, you know.
Speaker 4: And then like you're in boxing, so you know how
Speaker 4: it works.
Speaker 3: You know, people come in and they building records by
Speaker 3: beating some people that maybe do not belong in the
Speaker 3: ring at all. I had not experienced that. I came
Speaker 3: in my debut. We were in talks with HBO to
Speaker 3: make my debut against the world champion at that time
Speaker 3: one fifty four pounds Timi Mungia, and you know, I'm
Speaker 3: a I'm a risk taker.
Speaker 4: That's what I wanted for my debut, you know.
Speaker 3: And there was a negotiations which obviously didn't played out
Speaker 3: to be a done deal. So we went to whoever
Speaker 3: was available at that time, the toughest guy who just
Speaker 3: beat top prospect at that time back to back. They
Speaker 3: give us Vladimir heir Nandez for the debut. You know,
Speaker 3: he was sanctioned by WBA, and they give us a
Speaker 3: first fight ten rounder against him. And all my fights
Speaker 3: were like that, like who's the toughest guy is available?
Speaker 3: You know this guy or you know, like we would
Speaker 3: look for the toughest options. So most of the guys
Speaker 3: were talking about as the greats. First there are twenty fights,
Speaker 3: were just stepping into the ring and punching someone who
Speaker 3: will go down, you know, like Terrence Crawford and his
Speaker 3: first twenty fights haven't faced anyone. You know, I faced
Speaker 3: the hundreds of international, experienced, world class fighters in amateurs.
Speaker 3: So for everyone who's in boxing and who really knows boxing,
Speaker 3: people who's coming in from that much of a boxing
Speaker 3: background doesn't need twenty thirty fights. You know, I believe
Speaker 3: the Terrence is the best fighter in the.
Speaker 4: World right now.
Speaker 3: But I believe that I you know, if I don't
Speaker 3: challenge myself against the best, So what's the reason for
Speaker 3: being in boxing? You know, if you get an opportunity
Speaker 3: to fight the guy like that, and the confidence comes
Speaker 3: from the numbers, you know, it's not just in my
Speaker 3: head that oh I'm confident. No, I've been there, I
Speaker 3: know what is it? You know, I've been with the
Speaker 3: best guys. I think I actually beat one of the
Speaker 3: toughest and best guys in the division in Michelle Sorow.
Speaker 3: People underestimate him, but I think that even today he
Speaker 3: gives a hell of a fight to whoever is it
Speaker 3: Crawford or whoever else, you know, and I fought him
Speaker 3: in my seventh or eighth fight, you know, so my
Speaker 3: confidence is always there, but I also have something to
Speaker 3: back it up.
Speaker 2: So when you look at the matchup, what is it
Speaker 2: that you feel like that you do really well that
Speaker 2: you need to do to win the fight, and also
Speaker 2: what is it that you need to do to take
Speaker 2: away from Terrence Crawford to not allow him to do
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 3: You know, it's hard to predict and say something exactly
Speaker 3: you know what we're going to do.
Speaker 4: But we have a game plan. We have plan on
Speaker 4: what we have to do when we have to do it.
Speaker 3: But as you know, like getting into the ring, and
Speaker 3: the ring dictates its own rules, you know, like I
Speaker 3: don't know what's going to happen inside the ring, how
Speaker 3: he'll react to me, how I react to him, how
Speaker 3: the power.
Speaker 4: Strength and everything. You know, So it's going to play
Speaker 4: it out there.
Speaker 3: We have a couple plans, and God bless God, God
Speaker 3: willing it will work out the way we want it
Speaker 3: to and the way we plan it to.
Speaker 4: But we'll be ready, you know.
Speaker 3: The goal for us do not allow Terence Crawford do
Speaker 3: his best things you know, and to try to do
Speaker 3: our best things, you know, no matter what he's going
Speaker 3: to do. So it's going to play it out on
Speaker 3: who's uh, you know, who's probably game plan is gonna
Speaker 3: prevail that night.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to wrap up with this because you
Speaker 2: you live and train in southern California. It's almost, I guess,
Speaker 2: like a home game for you. Since it's in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: you don't have to travel anywhere. I know, you're really
Speaker 2: proud of being Fromkistan, and they haven't had a lot
Speaker 2: of world in their history. So I wonder how big
Speaker 2: as far as you know, how big of a deal
Speaker 2: is this fight their champion, it's taking on Terrence property.
Speaker 4: It's a very big deal. In Uzbekistan.
Speaker 3: We have a great support in our country like they
Speaker 3: support us, uh, you know a lot since since the
Speaker 3: amateur boxing and the boxing is one of the top
Speaker 3: sports in Uzbekistan.
Speaker 4: The fans are crazy.
Speaker 3: They love the sport, and right now this fight is
Speaker 3: something special because something like that never happened. None of
Speaker 3: Huzkistani boxers ever faced pun best fighter in the world.
Speaker 3: Plus people know Terrence also because he went to Uzbekistan,
Speaker 3: people know him over there too.
Speaker 4: People know how great of a boxer he is.
Speaker 3: So now I get support from from anywhere, from from
Speaker 3: the boxing fans, from my friends, from the family, from government,
Speaker 3: from everyone.
Speaker 4: You know. Everyone is very excited.
Speaker 3: Everyone is wishing me the best, you know, like people
Speaker 3: coming from flowing from all over the world to the fight,
Speaker 3: you know, to support me. And it's a it's a
Speaker 3: very big and important fight for Rezbekistan, and I have
Speaker 3: opportunity to do something not just for myself, not just
Speaker 3: for my legacy, but also for the history of Uzbekistan,
Speaker 3: do something that will never be for goutter.
Speaker 2: Well, Israel. I wish you the best of luck in
Speaker 2: the fight. Also, I thank very much for your time.
Speaker 2: I also want to say thank you to our excellent
Speaker 2: interpreter Alico for low Thank you Aleco for taking care
Speaker 2: of this today. I wish you guys the best August third,
Speaker 2: Thank you very much and.
Speaker 4: We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1: Have a good day, all right. Very interesting because so
Speaker 1: much is being made about Crawford's return first fight this
Speaker 1: year that it's you know, almost a given that he's
Speaker 1: gonna win this fight. You heard from Madromov there about
Speaker 1: what he hopes to do. You have an interesting story,
Speaker 1: by the way, going all the way back to the
Speaker 1: beginning of his career and one of his first fights
Speaker 1: and you encountering him, and he actually remembers this, So
Speaker 1: go ahead.
Speaker 2: I'm how interesting it is.
Speaker 1: But I think it's interesting because you met the guy
Speaker 1: a few years ago, right at the beginning of his career.
Speaker 2: Go yeah. So, I mean he had turnpro at the
Speaker 2: end of twenty eighteen. And by the way, he turned
Speaker 2: pro against like a real guy, Vladimir hernandez Gol. Look
Speaker 2: him up. He's pulled some upsets. He's a very solid fighter.
Speaker 2: But in his second professional fight, Madromov, who was a
Speaker 2: top amateur even though he was not didn't go to
Speaker 2: the Olympics. He fought on an undercart at the turning
Speaker 2: Stone Casino in New York, up State New York when
Speaker 2: the main event was Dimitri Bivol against Joe Smith. Bevol
Speaker 2: and Madromov share that Dean Cornilov as their manager, so
Speaker 2: he fought on that undercart. So I had gone to
Speaker 2: turning Stone to cover that fight for ESPN, and I
Speaker 2: can remember, you know, I had my credential on it,
Speaker 2: and I remember I recognized him facially, and I didn't
Speaker 2: think he spoke any English. So he does speak a
Speaker 2: little bit English, as I come to find out. But
Speaker 2: as it turned out, we're getting the elevator to go,
Speaker 2: we're both going upstairs to our rooms. This is like
Speaker 2: after like the press conference or wherever. This is like
Speaker 2: the second day I got there, and Uh, I recognized him.
Speaker 2: He kind of recognized me, and we like introduced ourselves
Speaker 2: and I was rather surprised me. We started to speak
Speaker 2: to me in some English and we had like a
Speaker 2: good little laugh about it. And so, you know, i'd
Speaker 2: been to some of his other fights, because he'd been
Speaker 2: on some big undercards. Uh, you know as they bringing
Speaker 2: him up. Uh, you know, fought on like a triple
Speaker 2: G undercard and which I was at when he fought
Speaker 2: Steve Rowles and et cetera. Uh. And so you know,
Speaker 2: we made mention of that. You don't hear it on
Speaker 2: the interview because we're just made a little small talk
Speaker 2: before we did the interview, and uh, he remembered that.
Speaker 2: I remembered that, and we just you know, he's a
Speaker 2: very likable The point here is he's a he's a
Speaker 2: very likable guy. Mag him off. Uh and uh comes
Speaker 2: from a hard background as do many fighters in the world,
Speaker 2: but you know, the the in thews Bekistan and not
Speaker 2: exactly the easiest situation. And h he goes from basically
Speaker 2: being anonymous winning the title against Matt against kurbanat Kerb
Speaker 2: and back in March in Saudi Arabia cut catch the
Speaker 2: eye of a lot of people. And that was a
Speaker 2: very good performance. That was when the main event that
Speaker 2: night was the fight between Anthony Joshua and Francis Naganu.
Speaker 2: And uh, you know, I give him respect. He's not
Speaker 2: going to take a soft touch first defense. He's not
Speaker 2: going for some homecoming showcase fight. He's not going for,
Speaker 2: you know, a mandatory opponent. You never heard of guys
Speaker 2: jumping in the ring with the number one fighter in
Speaker 2: boxing pound for pound, you know, certainly among the top
Speaker 2: couple guys, however you put them in whatever order. I'll
Speaker 2: just say this on paper, you may look at him
Speaker 2: and see he's got a very inexperienced level of professional
Speaker 2: experience in terms of number of fights ten oh to one.
Speaker 2: And the draw, you know, was a technical draw because
Speaker 2: you know, in the United States it would have been
Speaker 2: a no contest anyway, do not take his his record
Speaker 2: with that little experience professionally that somehow he's a soft
Speaker 2: touch for Terrence Crawford. While I think most people think
Speaker 2: that Terrence Crawford is going to win the fight, I
Speaker 2: do believe that Najamov is going to be in a
Speaker 2: situation to give Crawford at least some competition.
Speaker 1: Excellent hustle. Our thanks to the translator as well for
Speaker 1: that interview.
Speaker 2: You did a great job, by the way, as you hear.
Speaker 1: It's his native Uzbek language.
Speaker 2: And give a shout out to I'll give a shout
Speaker 2: out to my man Bernie Barmesol, who was the publicist
Speaker 2: that works with a lot of the clients that that
Speaker 2: dem Cornolav manages and you know, was able to put
Speaker 2: that together, get the translator, make sure everything works.
Speaker 1: So that was great and you heard from him both
Speaker 1: on that. So again, Madramov Crawford Headlines in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: Dan will be out there later this week. All right,
Speaker 1: let me back up a step because we still have
Speaker 1: oh can I say it with a straight voice, We
Speaker 1: still have a little bit of a recap here because
Speaker 1: Manny Pakiaw was back in an exhibition on Sunday. Actually,
Speaker 1: as we released this podcast Sunday in Japan Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: US time, Sunday night in Japan, and my man Raypael
Speaker 1: has it word for word on the run down. Looked
Speaker 1: terrible in his three round exhibition fight with Suzuki. What
Speaker 1: are we doing here? Is he? Is he? What you
Speaker 1: saw it? I have not? I did? What about it?
Speaker 2: So he was fighting at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan,
Speaker 2: right outside of Tokyo, you know, big arena, and so
Speaker 2: it's the rising card. They're the one they do a
Speaker 2: lot of MMA events. But they've done Floyd Mayweather an
Speaker 2: exhibition against Tension Backs several years ago, and they put
Speaker 2: these types of events on and he went in there
Speaker 2: with Chihiro Suzuki, who is a Japanese kickboxer, was a
Speaker 2: three round welterweight exhibition and you know, Pakao has wanted
Speaker 2: to make money and also get himself in a position
Speaker 2: where maybe he can get himself a big fight in
Speaker 2: terms of coming back to the boxing ring. Remember, there
Speaker 2: was a lot of conversation about the possibility they Connor
Speaker 2: Ben fight that didn't come to pass because Connor was
Speaker 2: still suspended, still is suspended or doesn't have a license
Speaker 2: at the present time. There's no conversation about with the
Speaker 2: PBC and with the Pacyaos team about trying to do maybe,
Speaker 2: uh for pack you had to challenge the WBC title
Speaker 2: holder Mario Barrios for you know, for a fight at
Speaker 2: the end of this year. Well, I know it was
Speaker 2: only three on exhibition, but he's fighting a kickboxer, and
Speaker 2: I'll just say time waits for an no man. You know,
Speaker 2: he looked slow, he looked old, he looked tentative. He
Speaker 2: took a lot of punches unnecessarily. In my opinion, it
Speaker 2: didn't score the fight because it was an exhibition. But
Speaker 2: let's be honest. You know, I know it was only
Speaker 2: three rounds, and certainly in an actual professional champion of
Speaker 2: fight that scheduled for twelve, you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: shit can happen between round four and twelve. But just
Speaker 2: looking at the three rounds, he probably lost all three
Speaker 2: of the rounds. He got hit with a lot of punches,
Speaker 2: and I don't need to see Manny pacyaw in a
Speaker 2: boxing ring in a real fight against a top young
Speaker 2: fighter in boxing. And I'm not saying Mario Barrios is
Speaker 2: destined for the Boxing Hall of Fame, but he's a durable, strong,
Speaker 2: legit pro still you know, in his prime, and I
Speaker 2: think you know it proving. Frankly, if you take a
Speaker 2: look at the last few fights to man has had,
Speaker 2: I don't need to see many pack You'll be taking
Speaker 2: more punches. He's like forty five, forty, whatever number of
Speaker 2: years old he is. He's had tons of rounds, tons
Speaker 2: of wars. Been an absolute legend, one of the most
Speaker 2: iconic fighters in the history of boxing, quite frankly for
Speaker 2: me personally, an absolute joy to cover his entire career
Speaker 2: in terms of once he got to the United States
Speaker 2: from Asia and started fighting all the way down in
Speaker 2: the one hundred and twenty two pound way class. I've
Speaker 2: covered probably twenty five many Pakia fights or there close
Speaker 2: to it, all of his big fights. And it's over.
Speaker 2: That's all there is to it. It is O v
Speaker 2: e r end of story. And if you needed any
Speaker 2: reminder that it's over and that it's he's His name
Speaker 2: is Manny Pacio. But the man in the ring does
Speaker 2: not resemble the pound for pound king of the world,
Speaker 2: the typhoon that was destroying everybody right from one twenty
Speaker 2: two to one you know, forty seven, even a junior
Speaker 2: middleway title fight who set the all time record to
Speaker 2: win championships in eight different weight classes. That guy's gone.
Speaker 2: He's not coming back.
Speaker 1: And if you go back to the Ugas fight, he
Speaker 1: was lesser in that fight reflex wise, et cetera and
Speaker 1: Ugas fight. But Augus is never going to be considered
Speaker 1: a Hall of Fame fighter. But he toyed with him
Speaker 1: with the jab and the lead right hand. And this
Speaker 1: is three years later, and we're in our mid forties, right,
Speaker 1: he's what forty four, forty three, forty four.
Speaker 2: So he's forty five years old and forty five now,
Speaker 2: I mean three years ago in August, So that's how
Speaker 2: And I mean he trains in the gym, I guess,
Speaker 2: but he hasn't had like an He had one exhibition
Speaker 2: they did in US.
Speaker 1: Now here's the reality. He can make millions still off
Speaker 1: of being many Pakiau the politician events fighters in a gym.
Speaker 1: He's a promoter, he can do commentary, he can do
Speaker 1: all kinds of things and still be involved besides getting
Speaker 1: hit in the head.
Speaker 2: That's what you're probably he probably can't go in the
Speaker 2: ring in one night and make you know, ten or
Speaker 2: fifteen million dollars, But who's going to pay that he's making.
Speaker 1: He's made tens of millions, and I don't think it's
Speaker 1: just hundred I don't hundreds of millions. I don't think
Speaker 1: that it's about that as much at this stage, maybe
Speaker 1: with him as much as he misses the rush, the adrenaline,
Speaker 1: the thrill. Fighters talk about that all the time.
Speaker 2: Trust me when I tell you it's the money. Also
Speaker 2: because Manny has given away a ton of his money,
Speaker 2: maybe veritible nature of his life.
Speaker 1: But still you could he could still, you don't disagree
Speaker 1: with me. He could still make millions outside the ring.
Speaker 1: Not fifteen million in a night, but he can make
Speaker 1: millions outside the ring doing.
Speaker 2: All absolutely as a as a pitchman, doing products, you know,
Speaker 2: signing autographs like you said.
Speaker 1: Doing these commentary, promoting fighters. You can still make money
Speaker 1: be involved in the sport, but not in the hand anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I just don't need to see him in a real
Speaker 2: professional boxing match. And I don't say that because I
Speaker 2: dislike Manny Paco. I love Manny Pack Yet are you
Speaker 2: kidding me? It's just enough? Is enough?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 1: There is also one other fight from Japan that you
Speaker 1: want to make mention of the IBF straw weight title fight,
Speaker 1: and this one unfortunately had another stark reminder that you
Speaker 1: don't play this sport like you play basketball or you
Speaker 1: play golf for other sports. This is fighting. At Yes,
Speaker 1: their safety measures taken, but this is it can be
Speaker 1: life and death. And apparently we have a very serious
Speaker 1: situation with the Japanese fighter that was involved in this
Speaker 1: IBF strawweight title fight. So tell me more about what
Speaker 1: happened Sunday.
Speaker 2: So this was in Japan also, but it was not
Speaker 2: on the same part that many pacuaphon. It was a
Speaker 2: different location and this was the main event. This was
Speaker 2: the IBF one hundred five pound title fight. The former
Speaker 2: title holder in this weight class of the IBF title
Speaker 2: from the Philippines, a South pond named Pedro Tadduran. He
Speaker 2: was the underdog taking on the young up and coming
Speaker 2: Japanese champion eleven and zero going into the fight named
Speaker 2: Jinjiro Shigioka, whose brother also had a title. They actually
Speaker 2: held titles in the straweight division at the same time.
Speaker 2: The brother has since lost the title. He was defending
Speaker 2: the title against tataran uh in this fight that took
Speaker 2: place on Sunday, and he took a beating and he
Speaker 2: got stopped in the ninth round, and you know, his
Speaker 2: face was very puffy. He was taking a lot of
Speaker 2: Queen SHOT's big heart. Uh and uh and Tataran gets
Speaker 2: gets to win. And when they went back to the corner,
Speaker 2: they sat him down and it looked like he was groggy,
Speaker 2: about to pass out. They had to lay him down
Speaker 2: on a stretcher. I watched this. It's that you can
Speaker 2: watch it on YouTube. Uh. They laid him down on
Speaker 2: the stretcher and he looked just completely out of it.
Speaker 2: They took him to the hospital. Uh. I wish I had.
Speaker 2: And we're doing this. We're taping this several hours after
Speaker 2: this took place. But I don't have any particular update.
Speaker 2: So hopefully it's just a matter of like he was
Speaker 2: exhausted or you know whatever, the just you know, dehydrated
Speaker 2: or whatever it was. And you know, he'll just h,
Speaker 2: you know, rest up, they'll check him over and everything
Speaker 2: will be okay. But I've been doing this a long
Speaker 2: time and you had that look where you're real worried
Speaker 2: that something more squeamish.
Speaker 1: You get squeamish seeing the ambulance, you get squeamish seeing
Speaker 1: I saw a dragon stretcher, the stretcher to go out
Speaker 1: to the ambulance. You get squeamish when any of that
Speaker 1: starts happening. And again, Shiggy Yoka is the fighter, so
Speaker 1: we hope for the best on that. And again this
Speaker 1: is one of the limits obviously of what we do.
Speaker 1: We don't have information right now, and danis checked a
Speaker 1: couple places we don't have information. I've looked on the
Speaker 1: internet as well while we're doing the show. On any update,
Speaker 1: it was it was a rough.
Speaker 2: It was a rough.
Speaker 1: Fully, he's better, but we don't know that as we
Speaker 1: go into Monday here on on the program. All right,
Speaker 1: so we covered all of that, a little news and
Speaker 1: then some nostalgia. You did talk late last week, and
Speaker 1: it has now happened after the announcement of the Canelo
Speaker 1: Albarez Edgar Berlanga fight, the IBF has moved forward and
Speaker 1: stripped him of their titles, so the Berlanga fight will
Speaker 1: not be for the undisputed championship. And again I see
Speaker 1: your reaction. You're shaking your head on this. They did
Speaker 1: follow through since last week, did the preview podcast.
Speaker 2: You know a lot of people sit here and they'll
Speaker 2: tell you, well, you know, the IBF, of all of
Speaker 2: the organizations, they're the ones that follow their rules. And
Speaker 2: you know, generally speaking that is the case. But as
Speaker 2: I have made the point numerous times, the rules are antiquated,
Speaker 2: they don't fit with the current boxing environment where fighters
Speaker 2: are not fighting three, four or five times in a year.
Speaker 2: They also have now in my opinion, kind of injured
Speaker 2: their credibility as being the organization that follows their rules
Speaker 2: because they've gone down slippery slope. And I can think of,
Speaker 2: and I cited in the column that I wrote about this,
Speaker 2: two examples in the recent past, in the last year
Speaker 2: where they distinctly and unequivocally broke their rules that everybody
Speaker 2: claims that they follow. And that was when they allowed
Speaker 2: Philip Hergovitch to fight Danie Dubois for the interim heavyweight
Speaker 2: title when it was supposed to be stripped or sick
Speaker 2: was supposed to vacate prior to the Tyson or I'm
Speaker 2: sorry in the immediate aftermath of the Tyson Fury fight,
Speaker 2: but they allowed that fight to be for the interim title.
Speaker 2: That was one hundred percent against their rules, no doubt
Speaker 2: about it. Go back to a period of time last
Speaker 2: year where you had the the Terrence Crawford having unified
Speaker 2: and become undisputed at welterweight champion with his victory against
Speaker 2: Aerol Spence. But while that was all going on, they
Speaker 2: allowed Jaron Nis to fight in January of last year
Speaker 2: Karen Chakatzi and for the vacant interim title, again against
Speaker 2: their rules, because the IBF is the one organization that
Speaker 2: did not utilize an interim title except in one specific instance,
Speaker 2: and that is if the champion is unavailable due to
Speaker 2: injury that will keep him out for a long period
Speaker 2: of time, then they will allow an interim title. That
Speaker 2: was not the case with Terrence Cruft. He was not injured.
Speaker 2: He was going through the business situation of what was
Speaker 2: occurring after that whole thing. What's going on with you know?
Speaker 2: Is he gonna fight Spence? Is he not gonna fight Spence?
Speaker 2: What's gonna happen with Spence? So don't give me the
Speaker 2: bullshit that the IBF is the only ones that follow
Speaker 2: their rules, because they've broken two major rules for two
Speaker 2: major fighters. They've been over backwards for Terrence Crawford in
Speaker 2: that situation to not strip him before allowing the interim title.
Speaker 2: They did the same thing for the heavyweight championship, and
Speaker 2: in my opinion, Canelo Alvarez is even bigger than they
Speaker 2: need to hold on. They need to modify the rules
Speaker 2: number one, but number two, they got to do a
Speaker 2: better job with the rankings and not put a William
Speaker 2: Skull as de mandatory to think to think that an obscure,
Speaker 2: unknown fighter. And I'm not saying he can't fight and
Speaker 2: he's not a nice guy and anything like that. He
Speaker 2: has nothing in his record of his entire professional career
Speaker 2: that would indicate to you it should be the number
Speaker 2: one contender. And if you don't fight against Canelo Alvarez,
Speaker 2: we're stripping the number one star in boxing, one of
Speaker 2: the top four or five town town fighters in boxing.
Speaker 2: It's just a fucking shit show, and I'm sitting of it.
Speaker 1: Didn't you tell me when we did the preview podcast,
Speaker 1: we looked it up. Mongia is third in the IBF
Speaker 1: behind and Edgar Berlanga is fourth, and nobody's heard of
Speaker 1: William Skull being in the number one in the pole
Speaker 1: position and the number one ridiculous.
Speaker 2: So the guy guys like there their rankings. They've got
Speaker 2: a lot of the right guys. They're just in the
Speaker 2: wrong fucking order. Like they have Christian Mobili number three,
Speaker 2: they have Billy right, they got Diego Pacheco number six,
Speaker 2: they got Heimi monkey In number seven, they got Eric
Speaker 2: Bazienian number eight. Who Mongi is actually going to be fighting,
Speaker 2: uh in his next fight. I'm just saying, like, I'm
Speaker 2: just sick and fucking tired of the way the IBF
Speaker 2: does this there. Whenever there's a fucking stripping of an
Speaker 2: undisputed or unified champion, it's always the IBF that that
Speaker 2: the one that gets stripped away.
Speaker 1: And they did it too before. They did it to
Speaker 1: Canelo as a middleweight champ.
Speaker 2: That is true. So but anyway they did follow through
Speaker 2: on it, they stripped them the title, and uh, I'll
Speaker 2: just put it to you like this boxing is not
Speaker 2: better off because canelour is a stripped of a world title.
Speaker 1: Period agreed a couple of Golden Boy things. By the way,
Speaker 1: Oscar de la Hoya did a social media uh video
Speaker 1: for what it's worth saying that hey, Haimi Mongy is
Speaker 1: not leaving Golden Boy. He's only fighting one fight for
Speaker 1: top rank. That's his rebuttal uh that we'll see about that.
Speaker 1: He said that on Thursday Nights.
Speaker 2: Has a lot of things that are not true.
Speaker 1: There you go, you covered, you covered that, and and
Speaker 1: what you believe.
Speaker 2: Is, by the way, I say, respectfully, is somebody that
Speaker 2: has known and liked Oscar for nearly twenty five years.
Speaker 1: I hear you. But Golden Boy did make an announcement
Speaker 1: about the Virgil Ortiz Boachuck undercard for Las Vegas for
Speaker 1: August tenth, the what's the prominent fights or fight.
Speaker 2: So the main event between Boachik and Virgil Arties is
Speaker 2: a terrific matchup that's going to be a really exciting,
Speaker 2: fun fight, highly significant in the one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: four pounds weight class. They're fighting for Boachick's interim title.
Speaker 2: But they unveiled the remainder of that card. So I
Speaker 2: had reported a couple of weeks ago that two of
Speaker 2: the guys that would be on the show would be
Speaker 2: Charles Conwell, the Olympian who was a high ranked fighter
Speaker 2: in the Jerim mid awake division. Also and also that
Speaker 2: the guy and he had had one fight for Golden
Speaker 2: Boy previously. This will be a second fight for Golden
Speaker 2: Boy and also I mentioned that Kenneth Simms, who is
Speaker 2: the excellent junior welterweight contender that they had just recently signed,
Speaker 2: was also going to be on the car, but he
Speaker 2: didn't have opponents. So now they have opponents. So they
Speaker 2: announced that Charles Conwell will be in the co feature.
Speaker 2: He will fight the Massachusetts fighter Kiari Gray in his
Speaker 2: first fight that's a ten rounder, and that'll be the
Speaker 2: Conwell fight, And that Kenneth Sims will fight Jesus Ricky
Speaker 2: Perez in a ten rounder that will be his bout
Speaker 2: on that card. Perez has claimed to fame is that
Speaker 2: in his most recent fight he pulled off the upset
Speaker 2: in a ten rounder against Joseph Diaz Junior, so that
Speaker 2: was a good win for him, and so he's rewarded
Speaker 2: with this fight against Kenneth Sims. So those are the
Speaker 2: two main guys, because Conwell and Sims are both in
Speaker 2: position where you know, get these types of wins on
Speaker 2: this card in August, and they're in position to be
Speaker 2: fighting for world titles. They're both highly ranked, they're both
Speaker 2: very talented, and they're both interesting to watch. They had
Speaker 2: already announced at the press conference when they had Boatschuk
Speaker 2: and Virgil, you know, talk things up. They had also
Speaker 2: at that press conference, the IBF Women's flyweight champion, Gabriella Fondora,
Speaker 2: the younger sister of us the Bashan Fundor, announced her
Speaker 2: second defense against Daniella Essenjo, so that's also on the card.
Speaker 2: And then they also announced that they're welterweight the Excellent
Speaker 2: Amateur Team USA fighter not going to the Olympics, but
Speaker 2: a top amateur Tyler ranked fighter three and oh fighter
Speaker 2: from Bakersfield, California named joel Erie Arte. He will open
Speaker 2: the card in the main card in a six rounder
Speaker 2: and then actually interestingly enough, in the preliminary card, not
Speaker 2: for the main Desonne card, but the free ones that
Speaker 2: you can probably find on YouTube or Golden Boys YouTube channel,
Speaker 2: and his owne free on his owne is Cecilia Brek
Speaker 2: who's you know, the longtime number one female boxer in
Speaker 2: the world, long time, long time undisputed welterweight champion. She
Speaker 2: had just lost last year, she had challenged for a
Speaker 2: junior middleweight title. She's coming back and now she's taking
Speaker 2: on the in like I said, the main fight of
Speaker 2: the preliminaries. She's challenging Emma Cozen for the WBC and
Speaker 2: the WBO Women's junior middlewaight titles. So interesting, it's the
Speaker 2: return of Breccos.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure what she's got left.
Speaker 1: I know it's amazing because she had such a long,
Speaker 1: what ten year run at walterweight and able to make
Speaker 1: welterweight for ten years and here she is at forty two.
Speaker 1: Because money is probably a big motivator.
Speaker 2: She's probably not making that much for this one of
Speaker 2: the opportunities, so.
Speaker 1: I guess the opportunity and the opportunity to make some
Speaker 1: more money here at the very end of your career.
Speaker 2: And she told you know, she didn't perform badly when
Speaker 2: she got the opportunity. In the previous fight where she
Speaker 2: fought for one of the junior middleweight boughs, she was
Speaker 2: fighting for the WBA belt. She fought to a draw
Speaker 2: against Terry Harper, so she didn't lose, but she didn't win.
Speaker 2: So you have a title. So her promoter for many
Speaker 2: years have been Tom Loffler is also the promoter for Boachuk.
Speaker 2: She you know, he got her a spot in this
Speaker 2: card and you know, as women's boxing goes, it'll be
Speaker 2: good to see Cecilia back and see what she's got left,
Speaker 2: and Cozen gets a chance to fight one of the
Speaker 2: biggest names in women's boxing ever.
Speaker 1: All right, one more noted than some nostalgia before we
Speaker 1: are gone. That is a lineal and cruiserweight, a lineal
Speaker 1: and IBF cruiseweight champ Ji Opataiah. When last we saw him,
Speaker 1: he validated his upset of Bratis with a rematch win
Speaker 1: by decision. So Opataiah now is saying, Hey, I want
Speaker 1: to fight WBO champ WBO Cruiserweight champ, the Englishman Chris
Speaker 1: Billum Smith. But he says Bill and Smith doesn't want
Speaker 1: to fight me. He says they put a contract in
Speaker 1: front of him and he won't sign it. So just
Speaker 1: kind of interesting that he took that public. It was
Speaker 1: it was on an Australian fight card the other night, right,
Speaker 1: either Thursday night or Friday night. Opataiah was revealing this
Speaker 1: right well.
Speaker 2: I spoke to Opatia's publisher, to publicists who sent me
Speaker 2: some comments from Opataiah. But the thing that was interesting
Speaker 2: is that they were going to offer that Opatias that
Speaker 2: he would give Bill Smith two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 2: dollars of his own money and take a smaller person him,
Speaker 2: even though you know, obviously as the lineal champion and
Speaker 2: you know the guy with the big backing, you know
Speaker 2: as Bill and Smith's with a big promoter also. But
Speaker 2: the point was that you know, he's really going to
Speaker 2: give him Bill and Smith the opportunity also, and he'd
Speaker 2: be willing to take a lot less money apparently, and
Speaker 2: give him a chunk of money himself and Bill Smith
Speaker 2: and their people. That's boxer Ben Shlon won't even respond
Speaker 2: to them about it. You know, he's coming off his
Speaker 2: victory against the revenge fight that he had for his
Speaker 2: only previous loss against Richard Rikapore. But as far as
Speaker 2: I know, there's nothing specific set for him coming up,
Speaker 2: and Opataia is looking to unify. He wants to put
Speaker 2: the titles all together. And to me, if you are
Speaker 2: a champion, and especially guys who've had the belts for
Speaker 2: a little while Bill on Smith's, you know he's made
Speaker 2: a couple of defenses, you should want to unify the titles.
Speaker 2: You should want to show you're the best in your
Speaker 2: weight class. And so if the people are honest and
Speaker 2: trying to sit down and make a deal with you,
Speaker 2: and it clearly seems in terms of the financial aspect
Speaker 2: of it, they're willing to bend uh go out there
Speaker 2: and let's let's get it on. I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: just because you lose a fight doesn't mean your careers over.
Speaker 2: I'd love to see that's a good match.
Speaker 1: I have no knowledge on this. You're far more plugged in.
Speaker 1: He remember he beat o'coley, Lawrence o'coley, and aren't they
Speaker 1: friends or friendly? And is there may be a rematch
Speaker 1: there in the offing that they just want to do
Speaker 1: in England and maybe that's what they're up to. I'm
Speaker 1: only spectator. I have no idea.
Speaker 2: Larce o'cley and him were friendly, but Larce o'cley just
Speaker 2: went up to went up and wait and won the
Speaker 2: WBC's Bridgerwaight.
Speaker 1: Titles that he's likely not it. Okay, that's not happening.
Speaker 1: So we'll see if Billum Smith wants to agree or not.
Speaker 1: But for right now, Opataiah is saying, duck, duck, duck.
Speaker 1: It's a duck right now that we've sent him a
Speaker 1: contract and he doesn't want to come fight for the
Speaker 1: unified career.
Speaker 2: It wasn't he didn't send him a contract. He made
Speaker 2: an offer of a money thing.
Speaker 1: They didn't. Oh okay, you didn't.
Speaker 2: Get to the details. They won't even return the call.
Speaker 1: Interesting, all right, nostalgia time here to wrap things up.
Speaker 1: Twenty three years ago. On Sunday Night, July twenty eight,
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, Roy Jones retained his undisputed light
Speaker 1: heavyweight championship. But I know you've you've sent me this
Speaker 1: fight before. It is the anniversary now twenty three years
Speaker 1: later of Eric Morales and in gin Chi. Speaking of
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, you're going to be in LA later this week.
Speaker 1: This was in Los Angeles at the Staples Center twenty
Speaker 1: three years ago, Sunday Night, July twenty eighth, of one.
Speaker 1: Tell me more, tell me more about being there that night.
Speaker 2: I think this was the second ever time I went
Speaker 2: to LA to cover a fight. Roy Jones did not
Speaker 2: have a specific promoter at that time, but he was
Speaker 2: doing a deal He worked on a kind of a
Speaker 2: fight by fight basis with the promoters. He was working
Speaker 2: with Top Rank on this fight. It was an HBO
Speaker 2: pay per view and they match him up with the
Speaker 2: Southern California light heavyweight Julio Gonzalez, who had been a
Speaker 2: guy that people had come to know to a degree
Speaker 2: because he had been in some great fights on the
Speaker 2: old ESPN two Friday Night Fight series. He was a
Speaker 2: good top contender at that time. He was twenty seven
Speaker 2: and zero. Roy was you know, the dominating on disputed
Speaker 2: champ at light heavyweight. And they made the match and
Speaker 2: they put that on as the main event. And you know,
Speaker 2: not this is not a shock because this is what
Speaker 2: Roy did to all of his opponents at that time.
Speaker 2: He ran through him, you know, like like shit through
Speaker 2: a goose. He just won easil, you know, he won lopsided,
Speaker 2: like you know, eleven to one, right and two. But
Speaker 2: the thing about it was the undercard fight. The co
Speaker 2: feature of the fight was the to me anyway was
Speaker 2: the fight. I mean it was it was great to
Speaker 2: see Roy Jones at his best, you know, do his thing,
Speaker 2: But the the thrills and the excitement was really the
Speaker 2: co feature. They had Eric Morales, who at that time
Speaker 2: was the WBC featherweight champion, and he had a fight
Speaker 2: a mandatory named Injin chief Korea, who I had actually
Speaker 2: seen videos of and was familiar with. He was an
Speaker 2: exciting fighter and you just had a knew going in
Speaker 2: like this is going to be one heck of a fight.
Speaker 2: And you know, when you think about Eric Morales, everybody
Speaker 2: thinks about some of the more famous, you know, great
Speaker 2: action fights he's been in, obviously the trilogy against Marco
Speaker 2: Antonio Brera, certainly at least the first two fights against
Speaker 2: Manny Pacio, and plenty of other fights that made Eric
Speaker 2: Morales the legend that he is, but one of the
Speaker 2: most underrated fights of his entire career. It may not
Speaker 2: be as famous as the Morales Brera fights or the
Speaker 2: Pacquiao fights, but this fight between Eric Mouson and ind
Speaker 2: and she is a barn burner, is a tremendous battle
Speaker 2: and it's absolutely worth checking out. Just a great, great,
Speaker 2: all action fight. That was the co feature on that
Speaker 2: night at the Staples Center, and to me that was
Speaker 2: far more memorable than I mean, you know, Roy did
Speaker 2: his sting. He was brilliant, but he was brilliant in
Speaker 2: a one sided way. This fight between Morales and she
Speaker 2: was just a barn burner of barn burners and the
Speaker 2: rest of the car actually, you had a lot of
Speaker 2: stuff on it. You had the first fight between the
Speaker 2: then totally unknown. Ricardo Majorga who had his mandatory shot
Speaker 2: against the then WBA welterweight title holder who was with
Speaker 2: top rank Andrew six says Lewis. They had a head butt,
Speaker 2: it turned out to be a two round zero contest,
Speaker 2: and when they fought in the rematch on showtime. In
Speaker 2: their next fights, it was Ricardo Majorga who got the
Speaker 2: knockout and won the welterweight title, and then obviously went
Speaker 2: on and had you know, his his notable fights and
Speaker 2: fought a ton of top guy squat Vernon Forrest, we
Speaker 2: beat twice, had big fights against Tito Trinidad and against
Speaker 2: Oscar de la Hoya and Fernando Vargas and et cetera.
Speaker 2: And even on lower down on the undercard on the
Speaker 2: pay per view, you had a a five and Oh
Speaker 2: Miguel Cooto out of the Olympics, Wow name on the
Speaker 2: way up score and oh win in a sixth rounder.
Speaker 2: That's how they did it. Back then. This was a
Speaker 2: real the main event. Maybe not was the most anticipated fight,
Speaker 2: but if you're a Roy Jones fan, you know he
Speaker 2: was a big deal. And then all these other interesting
Speaker 2: fights on the cart and one of the great prospects
Speaker 2: in boxing in Miguel Coto, and you know, I went
Speaker 2: and it was it was. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And
Speaker 2: I always, you know, TJ. When I go to places,
Speaker 2: I didn't go to a lot that are not necessarily
Speaker 2: like I'd only been to La once before for the
Speaker 2: first fight I cover, which was Dale, Roy and Mosey.
Speaker 3: One.
Speaker 2: Always try when I've gone to other cities to do
Speaker 2: something while i'm there that's not necessarily boxing related. So
Speaker 2: when I've gone to other places, I've gone to like,
Speaker 2: you know, Uh, I went to like the Bill Clinton
Speaker 2: Presidential Museum one time. When I went to Arkansas, me
Speaker 2: and a bunch of guys on the day of the
Speaker 2: Jermaine Taylor fight went to the museum. I'm gone to,
Speaker 2: like the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. I've been
Speaker 2: to like we went to like a Houston Rockets game,
Speaker 2: you know, when we were in Houston for a fight.
Speaker 2: So on the day of the after the weigh in
Speaker 2: for this Roy Jones event, I went with UH Bruce
Speaker 2: Trampler from top Rank and UH and Bruce's lovely wife
Speaker 2: and a couple other people, we went to the Dodgers
Speaker 2: game first time we went to like the La Dodgers.
Speaker 2: So I remember that trip because of all those things,
Speaker 2: and of course the fight that stood out the most
Speaker 2: was this incredible fight between Eric Rouse.
Speaker 1: And the cool Thing. I remember you had this and
Speaker 1: you put it up on your social media. Oh you
Speaker 1: have you have the fight poster from that night. And
Speaker 1: this is fascinating because they were marketing it in southern California,
Speaker 1: in Korea Town and elsewhere, all in Korean, with Chi
Speaker 1: and Morales above Roy Jones in the in terms of
Speaker 1: the marketing, more prominent, bigger fighters on the poster and
Speaker 1: the whole posters in Korean and race except that in
Speaker 1: the in the Rayfield collection.
Speaker 2: Except for the words top Rank, which are in English,
Speaker 2: and then I guess the phone number you can call
Speaker 2: for tickets. But they not only did they and this
Speaker 2: was listen, this is brilliant marketing from top Rank. You know,
Speaker 2: you fish with the fish or you want to let
Speaker 2: the people know, hey, we have At that time. I
Speaker 2: mean not to say that Korea doesn't hasn't produced loads
Speaker 2: and loads of superstar professional boxers, but at that time,
Speaker 2: in the early two thousands, ingin t was the single
Speaker 2: most notable prominent Korean professional in the sport, and so
Speaker 2: they were bringing him here for this title fight against
Speaker 2: Eric Morales. And obviously they were going to have the
Speaker 2: diehard Roy Jones fans. They were going to have a
Speaker 2: lot of Mexican fans because of Eric Morales's spot on
Speaker 2: that card. So what better way to go to a
Speaker 2: place in uh? The Korean area of Los Angeles has
Speaker 2: tremendous Korean population. I have to a market market. But
Speaker 2: hold on, not only did they put the the Chi
Speaker 2: and Morales fight on top of the poster to make
Speaker 2: it look like the main event, they actually put she
Speaker 2: on the left hand side and the position as the team.
Speaker 1: I have to ask, is that the only Korean fight
Speaker 1: poster or program in the Rayfield collection? I don't know
Speaker 1: the answer.
Speaker 2: I think that it might be, and it's definitely not
Speaker 2: the I have. Well, the I have a Korean program
Speaker 2: from another fight.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, that's the only one.
Speaker 2: I think it might be the only fight poster one.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: When we were talking about Manny Pakiao in the exhibition,
Speaker 2: he had done a prior exhibition in South Korea. I
Speaker 2: actually have some goodies from that from that career.
Speaker 1: Of course, you do because you're you. But the ch
Speaker 1: Morales fight is worth it, so check that out. So
Speaker 1: that fight again was twenty three years ago as we
Speaker 1: released the podcast Sunday Night on July twenty eight, so
Speaker 1: advance to Monday and the year before. On July twenty
Speaker 1: ninth of two thousand, Costa Zoo retained his WBC Junior
Speaker 1: Welterweight championship with a wipeout knockout of who Julio Caesar Chavez.
Speaker 1: This was in Phoenix and Chavez was clearly at the end.
Speaker 1: This would turn out right to be his last world
Speaker 1: title fight, right yeah.
Speaker 2: Julio Saysar Chavez was is obviously one of the all
Speaker 2: time great fighters in history the sport. Most people think
Speaker 2: he's the number one fighter of all time. In terms
Speaker 2: of Mexican boxing. He was way at the end of
Speaker 2: his career at this point. But because of his Mexican
Speaker 2: heritage and because of the WBC being Mexican and them
Speaker 2: having nothing but love for Julio says oar Javas, they
Speaker 2: made a bad decision. They made Julio Saysar Chavas the
Speaker 2: mandatory challenger. I mean he was not anywhere in terms
Speaker 2: of that. You should be the number one contender to
Speaker 2: a young fighter at that time like Costa Zoo right,
Speaker 2: a younger fighter anyway, much younger and still in his
Speaker 2: prime and everything like that, and uh Chavez took an
Speaker 2: absolute beating. They put the fight in Phoenix, so even
Speaker 2: though Chavez was the challenger, it was all his crowd.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, Vladd Wharton, the late Lad Wharton, who
Speaker 2: was the promoter of the fight. I've heard this. I
Speaker 2: didn't actually attend this fight, but I know guys that
Speaker 2: were there. They sold the media seats and then and
Speaker 2: it was like a ridiculous thing with the way they
Speaker 2: put the press involved, because they sold their seats, that's
Speaker 2: how big of a crowd they had, because the people
Speaker 2: had come out to see Chavas if he could reclaim
Speaker 2: the glory and win the title again. Even though if
Speaker 2: you really weren't thinking with your heart but thinking with
Speaker 2: your head, there was basically no chance at that Chabas
Speaker 2: was going to regain the.
Speaker 1: Time because Oscar had beaten him badly twice before this.
Speaker 2: He was just he was just he was just long
Speaker 2: gone at this point. I mean, he had he had lost,
Speaker 2: you know, afraid about the daily Way fight. He had
Speaker 2: won some other, you know, lower level fights, but he
Speaker 2: had lost a couple of fights prior in ninety nine
Speaker 2: a decision to Willie Wise, who was just a ranked
Speaker 2: journeyman type of fighter. So the fact that he was
Speaker 2: getting this World championship fight was kind of ridiculous. But
Speaker 2: the key here though, what I was mentioning, he got knocking.
Speaker 2: Do you know, Chavas didn't really get knocked down a
Speaker 2: lot Costazu knocked him down before the stoppage. He had
Speaker 2: won every round basically on the scorecards. Maybe Chavez might
Speaker 2: have won one round earlier on but as I mentioned, uh,
Speaker 2: Julio says, our job is this was the last World
Speaker 2: championship fight that he appeared in his career. Now after
Speaker 2: this was over, he only fought five more times, but
Speaker 2: the last world title fight when he retired, and still
Speaker 2: to this day it is the record. No boxer whoever
Speaker 2: has has boxed in the history of the sport has
Speaker 2: ever appeared in more World Championship fights than Julio says.
Speaker 2: Our chov is. This was number thirty seven for Cha.
Speaker 2: So he has thirty seven.
Speaker 1: World already, seven of them.
Speaker 2: That's a career for some guys.
Speaker 1: That's a whole career. A lot of guys a lot
Speaker 1: for a lot of Hall of Fame fighters, they don't
Speaker 1: have twenty world championship fights. Some of them might only
Speaker 1: have fifteen world title fights on the Hall of Fame career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you think about Havan of though, all the
Speaker 2: fights that Chaves had, I mean he had well over
Speaker 2: one hundred, you know, one hundred professional fights in total,
Speaker 2: but basically a third of one hundred you know, plus
Speaker 2: fights were all in in world championship fights. I mean, uh,
Speaker 2: you know, he's one of the greatest of all time,
Speaker 2: of course, but not on this night. I mean, this
Speaker 2: was this was Chavez, you know, one more shot that
Speaker 2: he didn't deserve. Quite frankly, he got the opportunity, and
Speaker 2: Costazu did what he's supposed to do, which is wipe
Speaker 2: him out. Uh, you know, kind of sad to see
Speaker 2: Showtime carried the fight. And uh, you know, if you
Speaker 2: take a look at the names of Kastazou's record, I mean,
Speaker 2: Costa is you arguably one of the greatest junior wealthy
Speaker 2: rates of all time. It's in the Boxing Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: He went on after this so to become on disputed
Speaker 2: He beat charm Bay initial to unified titles. He you know,
Speaker 2: a couple of fights after that, he had the memorable
Speaker 2: win against ab Judah to become undisputed, and then went
Speaker 2: on and had several more defenses before he finally had
Speaker 2: his final fight against Ricky Hatton and lost the title.
Speaker 2: But the chav Is that was a that was a
Speaker 2: It was a big promotion and a big fight, but
Speaker 2: one where we kind of all knew what the outcome
Speaker 2: was going to be prior to it actually taking place.
Speaker 1: An anniversary again Monday the twenty ninth, July twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four years ago, a full pod, lots of recaps,
Speaker 1: some news we heard from Israel Madramov getting ready to
Speaker 1: fight for the biggest bout of his career against Terrence
Speaker 1: Crawford in the main event coming Saturday. And that means
Speaker 1: you're headed out there later this week as we get
Speaker 1: the week underway, you'll be in La La Land. As
Speaker 1: I like to say, the authorities have been notified. You're
Speaker 1: headed to La County, Orange County. Whatever.
Speaker 2: There's no reason to notify authorities.
Speaker 1: You're meeting with your agents, your handlers for your next
Speaker 1: movie role, etc. In Hollywood maybe a record deal. I
Speaker 1: haven't heard you sing recently though, and you heard it
Speaker 1: out there. You're headed out there later in the week.
Speaker 1: You ready to go.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to go. I'm looking forward to it, all right.
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit, don't I tell you this though,
Speaker 2: being for real, I don't love the fact that this card.
Speaker 2: It's a really great card. I mean, it's stack card.
Speaker 2: Nothing I'm bad to say about it. But I don't
Speaker 2: love the fact that it's outdoors in Los Angeles in August.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be hot.
Speaker 1: It is gonna be a little hot.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: And I saw something this weekend where the ticket sales
Speaker 1: they may have to lower some prices because some people
Speaker 1: are remarking the ticket sales apparently may not be great
Speaker 1: right now because of how high priced the tickets are.
Speaker 1: Who knows if they come down as the week goes
Speaker 1: on to fill up some seats. But will, I mean,
Speaker 1: not just the Crawford fight Cruz you talked to Andy
Speaker 1: Ruiz on the previous pod is on this card.
Speaker 2: Oh, Jared Anderson's on the card again.
Speaker 1: And Jared Anderson and Bacoley will be a very intriguing fight.
Speaker 1: All of that.
Speaker 2: David Morrell moving up to the light heavyweight for his
Speaker 2: debut against hot Rod. You got the Olympic gold medalist
Speaker 2: Andy Cruse is.
Speaker 1: I want to meet on the bone all right, So
Speaker 1: you're headed out to La. Excellent job here on the pod.
Speaker 1: We'll check in with you later in the week. Thank you.
Speaker 1: As always, off the weekend with the recaps and the
Speaker 1: news and the nostalgia. Thank you, Dan Rayfield. There is
Speaker 1: our insider. I'm merely TJ. Reeves again. Follow subscribe on
Speaker 1: this podcast feed. We preview going into the weekend. We
Speaker 1: recap coming off the weekend with the fight Freaks to
Speaker 1: Nite Recap podcast by