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Speaker 1: Well off of the first weekend in January that did

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not have a notable main event fight anywhere per se.

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We are here for the Fight Freaks Unit. Shall we

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just call it podcast not the recap podcast? I am

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the somewhat capable host. Happy New Year, one more time,

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TJ Reeves. Hello, Dan Rayfiel, our insider. Fight Freaks Unit

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is his substack. Subscribe in the new year. What's wrong

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with you? People? Get on the substack, get on the newsletter.

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We are here for you. We got World Cruiserweight champion

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ji Opatiah defending his title midweek. Coming up some news,

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Dan recapping a little more his end of the year awards,

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some nostalgia. I'm in a particularly good mood. I don't

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mind saying here on a Sunday night headed into Monday.

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My Buccaneers have one on the final day of the

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regular season. That means playoffs, playoffs, playoffs, and a playoff

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check or maybe more coming our way. We're happy with

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all of that, So I'm in a particular good mood.

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Good to be with you, Dan Rayphiel. I am told

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by you socked in with snow already, right armageddon.

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Speaker 2: Snow yet No, No, We're taping this on Sunday night. It's

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supposed to start later tonight. They've already canceled school on Monday.

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They've already closed all the federal offices in Washington for Monday.

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It's the first time I can remember when I open

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up my weather app where I saw it said one

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hundred percent chance of snow. Not actually it's ninety five.

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It's a high probbability. This was one hundred percent. So

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we're we're locked in for snow Mageddon. We got plenty

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of hot coco materials there. But this is what's crazy, TJ.

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This was supposed to be finally the end of the

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two week winter break that my son has been on

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from school, and now they're getting additional day because of

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this chaos about to wat. It may even be closed

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on Tuesday. It's as bad as they're saying.

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Speaker 1: It's going by the way. Seventy five on Sunday in

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Tampa seventy five again on Monday. We'll send some warm

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thoughts your way while you have the snow, no matter

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the wather, no matter the situation, We're glad that you're

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with us. Make sure you're following subscribing on the podcast

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feed again typically we would recap coming off the weekend,

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right feeling O are good, but we can't recap what's

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not there, So instead we're kind of looking ahead here

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at the beginning to the Opataia world title fight in

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Australia on Wednesday. Some news as I mentioned, and a

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little more. So let's get into it. You and I

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have already done this on the bet Us Boxing show

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on Friday, but we're doing it for the podcast audience.

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Here Opataia fighting a New Zealand fighter, David Naika, that

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we don't know a ton about.

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Speaker 2: You can speak for yourself there, am I friend, you.

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Speaker 1: Know more about him than I do. This is Wednesday

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night in Australia. This is Wednesday morning in the United States.

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All right, let's get into it a little bit here,

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kind of in the preview mode if I'm not off

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kilter enough already with the Buccaneers celebrating, we're previewing coming

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off the weekend. But rightfully so, this is a Wednesday

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world title fight in broad Beach, Australia. Are I give

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me a little more?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's in Ji Opatia's home area and he's taking

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on a Nika who was very familiar to him. I mean,

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Naick is from New Zealand, but he has spent a

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lot of time fighting and training in Australia. He was

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a twenty twenty New Zealand Olympian obviously that took place

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in twenty twenty one, so he's got vast amateur experience,

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although Opataia of course has tremendous amateur and professional experience,

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but he comes in as somewhat of a late replacement.

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He was just put into this fight a couple of

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weeks ago because the original fight that was supposed to

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take place was Opataia taking on his mandatory challenger, Hussein Sinkara,

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who is an older fighter with no particular resume to

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speak of, who's twenty two to zero with eighteen knockouts,

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a thirty nine year olds from Germany. But he suffered

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ligament damage in one of his ankles and it's going

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to sideline him for the next few months. So they

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didn't want to not have the fight, so they went

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and they went through their list and they found Naika

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who was ready, willing and able to do this fight now.

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And he and Opati have sparred countless rounds together, as

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they both have said, and they both have a lot

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of respect for each other. It's maybe coming a little

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bit sooner than anybody in the career of Nyika would

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have probably imagined that he only ten and zero with

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nine knockouts. But he's also the same ages as Opatai.

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They're both twenty nine, and he obviously had that big

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amateur career, and so they're taking their chance. I mean,

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he does have a good height advantage on Opataia, and

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Nika goes about six foot six, Opataiah more closer to

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about six foot two. He's got a long reach, and

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like I said, he's experienced with him in terms of

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sparring plenty of times, and in terms of his experience

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as a pro. He's fought the guys you know that

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you're kind of supposed to fight on the way up,

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and done what he's supposed to do there. But he

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still does not have, you know, anywhere close in the

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kind of accomplishment or wins and competition that Opataia has,

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I mean, just alone on the two fights against Myris Pratus,

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which I really is calling card fights. Also to the

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point where I think most people look at Opataia as

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now the number one forget about the lineal title, but

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just in terms of the ability the number one cruiserweight

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in the division at the moment, you know, perhaps with

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Zerdo Ramirez behind him, who has much fewer fights in

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the division, although he has unified the titles by winning

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the fight against Chris Bill and spent that long ago. Anyway,

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this is to make a long story short about the

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fight TJ to me anyway, and I think probably for

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most boxing fans who are even remotely familiar with Naika

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and Opatai for that matter, is that on paper anyway,

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it's a much more interesting fight to me anyway than

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it would have been if he was fighting the mandatory challenge.

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So you know, and Opatai is one of the more

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entertaining fighters in the sport to watch, whether who's fighting

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is mandatory or he's fighting then egor whoever. So so

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I'm excited about it from the standpoint that when you

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can see a big, strong guy like that, that can

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crack like him, that has the heart like him against

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a very good up and coming fighter in the division

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who is maybe not as professional experienced but has a

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reason to be in the fight, you know, I'm in

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for it. And again we don't get too many midweek fights.

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I mean typically we do from Japan occasionally and occasionally

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also from Australia. But in that moment in time when

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it's the beginning of the year and there hasn't been

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a significant fight, you know, in the past couple of

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weeks since the Tyson Fury card against Alexander Usak and

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their match, partly because the inn Away fight was postponed

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and then there was no other and then of course

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the the Fernando Martinez Ioka rematch was was also called

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off because of the onus to Martinez. So there's been

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a couple of weeks with nothing. So this may not

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be the biggest fight of all time, but at least

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there's something. And for that matter, throw in the fact

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that the co feature on his own on this card

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is Justice Hooney, the up and coming, undefeated Australian heavyweight

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you know in action, so you know, it's all good.

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Speaker 1: And on that again we handicap both of these fights.

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Back on Friday, it is Sean Pott Geeter, who is

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a South African has never fought outside of South Africa. Again,

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some questions about Hooney on the way up as a prospect,

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he does have wins. You swatted at me when I

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said about knockout power. He does have knockouts in his

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last two fights. How good was the competition, et cetera.

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So we got we're gonna We're gonna get him in

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the co feature. And again he is from Brisbane as well,

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right in that region, so you should have a good

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atmosphere in the arena for this co feature fight and

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for the main event again on Wednesday morning, right, and

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we'll see what whoon he does or doesn't do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And for Opataiya, it's you know, with all due

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respect Anika, I can't say Opataia is over I don't

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think he's overlooking him, but I think his handlers, his team,

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they look at this as like, let's get through this

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fight and then they've got their eye on bigger prizes

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because they're involved with riand season Zerdo Ramirez won his

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unification fight on riad season. Both of them have talked

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about a unification fight. You know how much Turkey Alshik,

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who runs the show with the Saudi Cards, has made

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plenty of unification fights in the year plus that they've

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been involved in big time boxing. It wouldn't surprise me

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at all if at some point, perhaps the next fight,

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maybe a little bit later into twenty twenty five, that

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we see Opatai in Zerdo fight, you know, in a

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three belt unification fight, and you know the fourth belt

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is held by Bedu Jack who was just reinstated. He

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could get involved in that makes Also he lives in

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the Middle East at this point, so you know, there's

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things that can happened in the cruiserweight division. And then

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presumably whoever emerges from that group of fights, you know,

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we'll see them go to the heavyweight division at some point.

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Speaker 1: And again as we released this pod that will be

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Wednesday morning, United States time, Wednesday night in Australia, we'll

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see what happens there with Really that's the first world

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championship fight of the calendar year in twenty twenty five.

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On to some news news about Devin Haney, Hey, he

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says he's going to be back, and there's also another

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component that we tip the hat on with him and

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drug testing. Explain more about what's up.

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Speaker 2: So Devin, who as people know, is the former undisputed

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lightweight champion, he is now the WBC's junior welterweight champion

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in recess, as they say, because he asked them to

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do that while he took a break and sort of

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took stock of his career and life in the aftermath

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of the situation with Ryan Garcia and having suffered, you know,

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a pretty rough loss with the knockdowns, but then having

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the result changed to a no contest because of Ryan

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Garcia's multiple failed drug tests that put him on the

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suspension list in the United States. So what Devin has

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done in the last few days is on his social media,

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without divulging any real details, said I'm back in March. Now.

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He doesn't have a promoter. The rumors are that he'll

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be doing some type of event with BLK Prime, which

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is the same outfit where Terrence Crawford fought one fight

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in the post of his exit from top rank before

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he got involved with Turkey. So we'll see what comes

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of that in March. But more notably in my mind

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than that even is the announcement from Vada that he

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has done something that is very rare in boxing. The

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only one I know of that has done this is

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Nondo Donair at one point signed up for a program

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that will consist of the ability to be randomly tested

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twenty four seven three sixty five. What people should understand

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TJ is that virtually every single drug testing program related

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to Vada is done either in conjunction with the WBC's

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Clean Boxing program. You have to sign up to be

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eligible to be in their rankings, and it's very very

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poorly funded. The number of tests involved are very small amounts.

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You know, there's the possibility that you could get tested,

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but it's it's rare, unfortunately, but they the WC does

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give an effort there, and Vada is the ones who

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oversee that. This is also not a situation for most

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fights that Involvada, where the testing program is done specifically

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for that event. So the testing will start, you know

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whatever it is two months beforehand, six weeks before and

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extend you know to the post fight drug testing. This

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is much better and different that Devin Haney is paying

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out of his own pocket at his own expense, you know,

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and it's to do a program of you know, the

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gold level program if you will, for a one particular fight.

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It might cost the athlete or wherever it's putting the bill.

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It could cost maybe like forty or fifty thousand dollars.

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So now we signed up to do it for the

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entire year three hundred and sixty five days. The program

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that he signed up for. It runs through January two,

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twenty twenty six. So no matter what he does, anytime

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of day or night through this next year, theoretically he

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can be tested. He has to let them know where

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he is. So if there's a tester that wants to

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do something, and you know, that's not to say he's

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gonna get tested like every day or every week, but

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he knows in his mind that he's paying for the

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fact that, you know, if he decides to make a

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trip to New York City to go have some fun,

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that that you know, Thursday morning, somebody can knock on

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the hotel room door and say, I mean, let me

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take your let me take your blooder, let me take

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your piss. So uh, that is.

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Speaker 1: So the only thing that strikes me, and I think

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a lot of people are wondering this is is he

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doing this to set the example that other fighters should

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do this? I mean, what are you hoping to accomplish?

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What's your opinion or maybe you've heard from his camp,

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what is the motive behind me? Would pay for this

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on his own?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I am not. First of all, Devin Kaney can

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afford it. He's made millions of dollars over the last

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few fights, so as as many fighters who should be

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doing this have done. But I think it's to send

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a signal, to send a sign that Devon is a

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clean fighter. He's embraced testing, not just now but previously.

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He did the testing for the Garcia fight, which is

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how Garcia was caught. He did testing for the Lomachanko fight.

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He did testing for both Cambosa's fights. I mean, Devin

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Hainey has a long history of being willing and able

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and ready to do drug testing on a random basis,

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So I think he just wants to show that he's clean.

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I think he's obviously knows in the back of his

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mind that there are a lot of folks that think

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that he was cheated in the in the sense of

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the fact that r You know, say whatever you want

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about the power of the Devin of the Brian Garcia

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left hook that put Devin on his rear end three

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times in their fight, but it really cast a pall

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over that event. It was as a very good fight,

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but the whole promotion was a ruin because of the

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fact of Ryan's lunacy leading up to the fight, and

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then the fact that he had the multiple test failures

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post fight, and that's always a bad situation. So he

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couldn't win the title because he came in overweight. He

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wouldn't have had the title if he had come in

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on weight, because even if he had won, it got

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changed to an O contest, he got suspended. So in

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the wake of that, I think Devin is doing a

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great thing. I wish at all young you know, starfighters

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at the top level would take that example to to

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you know, to show that you're clean. And here's the thing, promoters, managers,

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network folks, media people whoever. We can all bang our

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heads and you know, sanctioning bodies whatever and talk about

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we want clean testing or you know, clean athletes and

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proper testing. So it's a fair playing field for all

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of those involved. In the end, the only ones that

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pay for if it's not is the athlete. So it's

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on them to demand there's be clean opponents and the

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clean testing and clean athletes in the sport. And so

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they have to add some point taken upon themselves. I

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can write a thousand columns a week TJ about it,

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and it doesn't mean Dick as far as getting anything

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actually done, and the sancte bodies can do whatever they

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say they're gonna do, and the promoters can insist on

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it and this, that and the other the commissions, but

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the only ones that get hurt if an athlete is

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not clean is the guy that's hitting him in the

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face on the other side of the rank. And so

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make it fair. So Devin Hainey is taking matters into

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his own hands. I appreciate it, I respect it. And

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he's saying, I am a clean athlete, and I'm putting

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my money where my mouth is. I'm gonna spend it.

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You can come and test me anytime you want, day

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or night for the next one year, and I assume

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that after January second, twenty twenty six, he can certainly

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hurry up, you know, with no problem if there's no

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testing issues along the way, And the other athletes should

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take they take take that example, because again they're the

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only ones that truly pay the price if their opponent

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is dirty.

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Speaker 1: Interesting, all right, So that's underway, and we'll see what

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gets announced for him fighting in March. A little time

306
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for that as the as the next bout for him.

307
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He's been out of the ring about a year. I

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had two more things real quick. And we've been talking

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about Fernando Martinez being forced to vacate one of his

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one hundred and fifteen pound titles, the IBF title. They

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held a vacant title fight in Japan back last month,

312
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and will Abaldo Garcia correct and his fellow Mexican Renee

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Kliksto fought to a draw. And so now what is

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the update. As expected, we got to have a winner, right,

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we got to have a winner here they're going to

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fight again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So I actually watched this fight on YouTube a

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couple of days after the fact. There was actually a

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pretty fun fight between Garcia and Clisto, very fun fight,

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and it was a draw like like legitimately, so it

321
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was a really close fight. I really couldn't argue. As

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a matter of fact, the two fighters in the ring

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afterwards didn't really seem to be two shocked by fights.

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Our handlers were not totally shocked by It was a

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good fight. And so what happened is in the last

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couple of days, the IBF sent out the letter to

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the two camps saying, Okay, you know you guys fought

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to a draw. You're still the two highest ranked fighters

329
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in in our one hundred fifteen pund rankings. So here's

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the order to start negotiations. They have until January twentye

331
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to make a deal for a rematch, or they'll have

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a purse bid and we'll presumably, you know, see them

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00:16:10,559 --> 00:16:13,360
do it again. I would take issue Fernando Martinez wasn't

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forced to give up the title like he did. He

335
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did it of his own volition, but you know, understandably

336
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because he was getting a much bigger fight and much

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bigger money to have the rematch against Kazuto Ioka. So

338
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Garcia and Calisto were the two beneficiaries of that. Garcia

339
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was his mandatory challenger, and he elected to go forward

340
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with the Ioka rematch instead, and Ioka, obviously and him

341
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had their fight postpone. Hopefully they'll reschedule their fight at

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some point, but a Garcian click so fought for that

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00:16:39,639 --> 00:16:41,320
vacant title. I put on a good fight, and you

344
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know they'll do it again. I'm not really sure why

345
00:16:43,679 --> 00:16:46,799
wound up in Japan exactly, but they're both from Mexico.

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You'd like to see them at least if they're gonna

347
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do the rematch. Fight to fight in Mexico or you know,

348
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or at least somewhere in like say the southwest of

349
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the United States where there's a Mexican crowd to appreciate

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these two guys doing what they're gonna do.

351
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Speaker 1: They're making too much sense, It would be.

352
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Speaker 2: Too much reason. Reason, I guess is Kaligxto's he's a

353
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Mexican fighter, but his promoter is Kmita Promotions from Japan,

354
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And so it was on a card to day. Still,

355
00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:13,440
it wasn't the Japanese crowd that was in attendance that

356
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had no particular attachment to the belt.

357
00:17:16,359 --> 00:17:18,680
Speaker 1: All right, and one more news item, and again we're

358
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going to get to Dan rounding out the twenty twenty

359
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four awards and a little nostalgia in a second premiere

360
00:17:24,079 --> 00:17:28,519
Boxing Champions. Okay, this is interesting. It looks like they're

361
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going to have a non pay per view and coming

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00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:36,880
fairly soon. Remember in twenty twenty four only one non

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00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:38,359
pay per view, and you had to wait all the

364
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way until October when they had that one pay per view.

365
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,680
And I was at that martuzalaiav. Huge knockout of Tim

366
00:17:45,759 --> 00:17:47,920
Zoo and Orlando Florid. All Right, so what's going on,

367
00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:50,559
what's our what's our data, and what have you learned?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's the plan right now. They haven't

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announce yet officially, but I am told by people that

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00:17:55,079 --> 00:17:57,400
are involved with the fighters that are on that are

371
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supposed to be on this card. Uh that, And I

372
00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:02,519
don't know where they're having it. I don't know if

373
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they've even settled where they're gonna have the fight yet.

374
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I know they've been going with the with the with

375
00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:08,799
the Tim Zoo fight. They went to Orlando, the crib Roal.

376
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:10,720
It's a possibility they may go back there. Perhaps they'll

377
00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:12,839
go elsewhere. But the most important thing is what are

378
00:18:12,839 --> 00:18:14,200
the fights? And what I am told is that the

379
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:18,400
main event is supposed to be uh Elijah Garcia, who

380
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:21,400
is the you know, the rising junior middleweight slash middleweight

381
00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:25,119
up and coming prospect who took a tough loss, but

382
00:18:25,279 --> 00:18:28,319
a legit loss and a split decision to Cairo and

383
00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:30,720
Davis that took place in June. I was actually at

384
00:18:30,759 --> 00:18:32,720
that fight that was on the Tank Davis Frank Martin

385
00:18:32,839 --> 00:18:38,079
undercard and uh, you know, took away Elijah Garcia's undefeated record. Uh.

386
00:18:38,079 --> 00:18:40,440
He's made a few changes in his camp going into

387
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,599
this fight. He's now gonna work with the very renowned

388
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,480
trainer Bob Santos. Anyway, he's going to be mashed up

389
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,319
with Terrell Gichet, who's, you know, a tough veteran former

390
00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:53,519
the United States Olympian, has lost pretty much when he

391
00:18:53,559 --> 00:18:56,359
stepped up to the biggest names, including against Tim Zoo

392
00:18:56,359 --> 00:18:59,519
for example. Uh, that's a that's a pretty stiff test

393
00:18:59,519 --> 00:19:02,200
for Garcia in my mind, for a guy combing off

394
00:19:02,200 --> 00:19:04,440
a loss who's still very young, like what is he

395
00:19:04,599 --> 00:19:07,200
twenty twenty one years old something like that, So that

396
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:09,960
would be I guess the main event of this fight

397
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:11,880
that that this card that they're talking about doing, that

398
00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,440
they're planning to do, and then another fight on the card.

399
00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:16,359
And this is to me. We're gonna talk about some

400
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:18,039
prospects a little bit later, but one of the to me,

401
00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:20,279
one of the best prospects in box right now. This

402
00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:24,680
is the Cuban heavyweight named Danier Perow. His older brother,

403
00:19:24,759 --> 00:19:27,440
Lennier Paro, also is an undefeated heavyweight, but he's already

404
00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:30,200
into his thirties. Danier is I think viewed by most

405
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,440
people as the more the guy with the more upside,

406
00:19:33,599 --> 00:19:36,599
the better prospect any event. He's ten and over eight knockouts.

407
00:19:36,599 --> 00:19:38,680
He's gonna there's no opponent yet from what I understand,

408
00:19:39,279 --> 00:19:42,559
but he's gonna be on this card also. And he

409
00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:46,880
fought in the twenty twenty Olympics. He in the quarterfinals.

410
00:19:46,920 --> 00:19:50,279
He actually lost to Richard Torres Junior, now the top

411
00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:54,400
rank heavyweight prospect in Tokyo. This was in twenty twenty one,

412
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:57,400
obviously the delayed Olympics, and he's been a working on progress.

413
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,000
He's coming along, so, you know, maybe not too big,

414
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,119
huge fights, not pay per view, but this is what

415
00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:03,920
we need. This is what you need to do to

416
00:20:04,039 --> 00:20:07,920
keep your guys going. And it's a now time that PBC,

417
00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:10,079
you know, get involved with some fights that are not

418
00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:12,039
pay per view fights because the pay perviews they put

419
00:20:12,079 --> 00:20:15,279
on have generally been excellent. It's the fact that there's

420
00:20:15,319 --> 00:20:16,920
been such a lack of the non pay per view

421
00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:19,960
fights other than that Timsee event, which took them from

422
00:20:20,039 --> 00:20:22,440
the time their deal started all the way to almost

423
00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:24,640
the end of the year in twenty twenty four. Now

424
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:27,359
it looks like they're gonna start off and I suspect

425
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:30,720
we'll see more of these non pay per view type fights.

426
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,799
Maybe not the highest level championship events like they were

427
00:20:33,839 --> 00:20:37,079
doing when they were with Showtime, but it's still something

428
00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:39,160
because you know what you tell me, Elijah Garcia is

429
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:42,839
fighting and an interesting heavyweight prospect is fighting, and I'm watching.

430
00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:45,759
Speaker 1: All right. And that takes us to finishing out your

431
00:20:45,799 --> 00:20:50,559
twenty twenty four awards, which again we've dissected Fight of

432
00:20:50,599 --> 00:20:53,599
the Year, Fighter of the Year, knock Out of the Year.

433
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,759
What about the Dan Rayfield Round of the Year. Give

434
00:20:57,759 --> 00:20:59,680
me a couple of them that stood out and why.

435
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:03,759
Speaker 2: Well, this is always an interesting category just because you know,

436
00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:05,960
we see thousands of rounds in the course of a year.

437
00:21:06,039 --> 00:21:07,680
Typically the round of the year is going to come

438
00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:09,759
from one of the fights that's the fight of the year.

439
00:21:09,839 --> 00:21:12,400
That's not a shock. So in this particular case, my

440
00:21:12,599 --> 00:21:15,480
runner up fight of the year for the overall fights,

441
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:18,920
I picked Saray Boachuk against Virgil Ortiz, a tremendous battle

442
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:22,440
too top junior middleweight going at each other. It didn't

443
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:26,119
trump Usk and theory number one for a fight of

444
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,079
the year. But what I went and did was pick

445
00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,079
the eighth round of their fight that took place in

446
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:33,960
August as the round of the year. And certainly that's

447
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,559
up for debate. There's other excellent rounds you could certainly

448
00:21:36,599 --> 00:21:39,079
choose from for all kinds of different reasons. But what

449
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:42,599
happened in this particular round was when you remember in

450
00:21:42,599 --> 00:21:45,400
the fight he knocked down Ortiz two times, he scored

451
00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:47,400
one of those knockdowns where he hit him with a

452
00:21:47,400 --> 00:21:49,519
shot and he made Virgil Ortiz touch his gloves to

453
00:21:49,559 --> 00:21:52,759
the canvas, and so that made it interesting right away.

454
00:21:53,039 --> 00:21:55,559
But what happened after that, there was still like a

455
00:21:55,599 --> 00:21:59,440
cup over two minutes left in the round that Ortiz

456
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:02,240
was so pissed off and so annoyed and so irritated

457
00:22:02,279 --> 00:22:04,079
because he actually complained about it to the ref even

458
00:22:04,079 --> 00:22:06,680
though clearly he touched down and I'm sure if you

459
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:08,720
watch the replay, he knows that. But again he was

460
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:11,119
trying to make up for what had now become the

461
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:13,079
second knockdown of the fight, so he knows he's maybe

462
00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:15,960
behind the eight ball, so to speak, into scoring, and

463
00:22:16,039 --> 00:22:19,240
he just went absolutely crazy with the punches after this

464
00:22:19,279 --> 00:22:22,160
and just attacked and pursued and stalked and really went

465
00:22:22,200 --> 00:22:24,920
after Boatchuk and was throwing all kinds of just you know,

466
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,759
like windmill punches, like a looney tune but landing some

467
00:22:27,799 --> 00:22:30,839
good shots also. I mean, he got really, really aggressive

468
00:22:31,079 --> 00:22:34,480
and Bochuk took it everything he had, stood his ground

469
00:22:34,519 --> 00:22:36,559
and threw a bunch of shots back. And so by

470
00:22:36,559 --> 00:22:38,880
the time the round was coming to a close, these

471
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,839
two guys are just standing and trading tot to. I mean,

472
00:22:41,839 --> 00:22:45,880
this was high level, supreme action that really made this

473
00:22:46,319 --> 00:22:48,279
stand out as one of the best rounds of the

474
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,400
entire year. And then there were some other, you know,

475
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,680
good examples. I'll just go give you a couple. You

476
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:54,559
know we talked about in Fights of the Year, Derek

477
00:22:54,599 --> 00:22:58,200
Tasaur's heavyweight slugg fest with Joe Joyce. That was a

478
00:22:58,279 --> 00:23:00,200
very exciting fight that we kind of all expect it

479
00:23:00,319 --> 00:23:02,720
was gonna be this kind of slobber knocker going into it.

480
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:05,319
And in the ninth round when Derek Tasa was all

481
00:23:05,359 --> 00:23:07,119
over the place and you know, it was kind of

482
00:23:07,759 --> 00:23:09,400
it seemed like he could go down at any given

483
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:11,480
moment because he was so wobbly, but still you know,

484
00:23:11,519 --> 00:23:13,599
getting the job done. Out of nowhere, he landed the

485
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:15,920
right hand the knocked Joe Joys down and around where

486
00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:17,359
he looked like he might be in some trouble so

487
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:20,000
that I picked us as like one of the When

488
00:23:20,039 --> 00:23:22,119
Bam got dropped in the sixth round, it was kind

489
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,519
of similar to what happened in the Ortiz and the

490
00:23:24,519 --> 00:23:26,440
boat Took fight. He was so annoyed and so mad,

491
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:28,599
uh and and figured he might be in a little

492
00:23:28,599 --> 00:23:30,599
trouble because he's going to lose the round, and he

493
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,839
went star storming back on Estrada and they wound up

494
00:23:33,839 --> 00:23:36,200
just trading toe to toe in that sixth round. So

495
00:23:36,559 --> 00:23:38,160
that was exciting. You know, you can't you can't talk

496
00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:40,720
about rounds of the year without talking about round number

497
00:23:40,799 --> 00:23:43,640
nine of Usk and Fury number one. Of course, that's

498
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,119
the round where, uh, you know, it's a highly contested,

499
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:50,200
close fight and where Tyson Fury somehow managed to hang

500
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,240
on even though he looked like we was with literally

501
00:23:52,279 --> 00:23:55,279
like one punch away from being not you know, stopped

502
00:23:55,319 --> 00:23:57,799
knocked out by Alexander Russik. You know, he had been

503
00:23:58,039 --> 00:23:59,960
called to knockdown against him because the ropes and up

504
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,680
pulled them up. He was literally bouncing off the ropes,

505
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:06,240
you know, and barely barely surviving. The referee Mark Nelson

506
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,559
giving him every opportunity to survive, which he did, and

507
00:24:08,759 --> 00:24:10,839
that made it just an absolutely exhilarating round. So those

508
00:24:10,839 --> 00:24:12,920
are your top ones, but I liked just the pure,

509
00:24:13,319 --> 00:24:17,039
unadulterated action of what occurred in Ortiz bow Chuck. Round

510
00:24:17,079 --> 00:24:18,400
number eight is my round of the year.

511
00:24:19,559 --> 00:24:21,559
Speaker 1: Like that. All right, So now you're also gonna go

512
00:24:21,799 --> 00:24:24,359
with trainer and manager of the years. Now, sometimes it

513
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:28,839
can be a combo for the for the lesser known fighters, etc.

514
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:31,160
But these are two different people most of the time.

515
00:24:31,279 --> 00:24:34,000
All right, give me, give me a trainer and a

516
00:24:34,039 --> 00:24:35,839
manager that stood out this year.

517
00:24:35,839 --> 00:24:40,160
Speaker 2: And why Well, Robert Garcia is a candidate seemingly almost

518
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:41,680
every single year for a Trainer of the Year. He's

519
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,079
got always had a tremendous stable that you know, an

520
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:49,400
excellent gym filled with young contenders and prospects and champions

521
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:51,200
for years and years and years, and he has been

522
00:24:51,279 --> 00:24:53,920
named in one various Trainer of the wards in the past.

523
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:56,640
To me, twenty twenty four, of all the great years

524
00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:58,680
Robert Garcia has had, to me, this might be his

525
00:24:58,799 --> 00:25:00,920
big ast year in terms of what he did over all.

526
00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:02,759
First of all, this is a great stat and I

527
00:25:03,039 --> 00:25:05,880
actually checked with Robert to double check this. His group

528
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,599
of guys went seventy wins and seven losses this year.

529
00:25:09,079 --> 00:25:11,319
I mean, and that's all with different fighters, So he's

530
00:25:11,319 --> 00:25:13,039
gonna obviously, you're always gonna have a couple of younger

531
00:25:13,039 --> 00:25:16,039
guys where contenders lose if you're in the highest level fights.

532
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,599
But that that's the testament right there. So he was busy.

533
00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:19,960
Seventy eight wins and seven.

534
00:25:19,839 --> 00:25:22,640
Speaker 1: Line and a lot of trainers don't have twenty fights

535
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:26,359
in a year. Did you say seventy and seven seven

536
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:27,759
fights in twenty twenty four.

537
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:29,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, So he's a busy He's a busy guy, you know.

538
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:32,680
And he's got his son, Robert Junior, the system and

539
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,039
others that are there with him, but Robert's the head

540
00:25:35,039 --> 00:25:36,960
guy anyway, So that right off the bat. But his

541
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:39,680
number one fighter, Jesse Vam Rodriguez, was one of the

542
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:41,720
top fighters of the year, and obviously Robert gives credit

543
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,240
for his success to some degree. He went back down

544
00:25:44,279 --> 00:25:46,519
to the junior vandamweight division. He had that great fight

545
00:25:46,519 --> 00:25:49,559
against Wan Francisco Astraano that we talked about, won the

546
00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:52,480
WBC belt back that he had previously vacated, won the

547
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:56,160
lineal title. He then defended it against Paedro Wavara. He

548
00:25:56,240 --> 00:26:00,359
also led Jose Reo Valanzuelle in there. I believe it

549
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:03,720
was their first fight together to that split decision victory

550
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:07,720
against Isaac pittpull Cruz to win the WBA one hundred

551
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:09,039
and four pound title that was on the big card

552
00:26:09,039 --> 00:26:11,039
that Saudi's you know, the reat season card in August

553
00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:13,359
that was out in Los Angeles. So he gets Bam

554
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:15,920
Rodriguez to do what he did. He's got rail Gownzuella

555
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,680
to score that upset to win the world title of

556
00:26:17,839 --> 00:26:21,839
the WBA in that situation, and that he also had

557
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:24,319
Virgil Ortiz who won three fights in twenty twenty four

558
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:26,880
including you know, arguably the round of the year and

559
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:28,440
and the runnerup Polease on my list, and some people

560
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:29,880
are gonna probably probably picked that as the fight of

561
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,519
the year between Ortiz and and Boachuk. So if you

562
00:26:32,559 --> 00:26:34,400
had those three guys and do what they did and

563
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:37,440
Virgil Ortiz wins the Ingham title in the fight of

564
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:40,400
the year candidate, you know, Bam Rodriguez moves down and

565
00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,480
wait wins three wins his fights, two fights, regains the belt,

566
00:26:43,519 --> 00:26:45,559
and the Lenny wins the lineal title. And then you

567
00:26:45,559 --> 00:26:47,920
also have the young fighter Jose Belon Zola with the

568
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,119
upset to win a world title. That's a big year,

569
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,880
no matter what you know. That's that's a huge year.

570
00:26:53,039 --> 00:26:55,920
Now you throw into that he had Oscar Duarte who

571
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,200
came back, He had two big wins against Ko first

572
00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,079
Man to stop Joe Joe Diaz. Then add that excellent

573
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,799
fight against Battier Akwandoff that took place on the Latino

574
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,720
Knight Riad card. And on top of that, he also

575
00:27:08,839 --> 00:27:11,720
is the trainer of a prospect that has come to

576
00:27:12,079 --> 00:27:14,839
the forefront in the twenty two year old featherweight Albert

577
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,440
Chop Chop Gonzalez, who won five fights under Robert Garcia

578
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,279
in twenty twenty four and looked so good in those

579
00:27:21,279 --> 00:27:23,880
fights he got himself a promotional contract with Top Ray.

580
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:27,119
So to me, this was Robert Garcia's year. Now, the

581
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:29,119
other ones that you have to also tip your hat

582
00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:31,359
to and give credit to are people like and this

583
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:36,519
guy gets no publicity at all, and that's Yuri Techanko,

584
00:27:36,759 --> 00:27:40,079
who was the trainer of Alexander Usik, who obviously guided

585
00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:42,559
him to back to back victories over Tyson Fury and

586
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:49,960
the undisputed Evyweight Championship. The Vassley underrated for decades practically,

587
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,279
Rudy Hernandez, who has had a big year with his

588
00:27:52,319 --> 00:27:55,400
young guys in junto Nakatani winning the bantamwait title as

589
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,960
well as other defenses, and the young Anthony Olas Caago

590
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:00,559
who won the WBO Flyway title. And you also have

591
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:02,480
to give a tip of the hat to Freddie Fundora,

592
00:28:02,559 --> 00:28:05,960
who is the trainer of his two children, Sebastian Fundor,

593
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,319
who became the unified junior middleweight Toile Older as well

594
00:28:09,319 --> 00:28:12,759
as his daughter Gabriella Fundora, who became the undisputed women's

595
00:28:12,799 --> 00:28:15,319
flyweight champion. So there was a lot of good candidates

596
00:28:15,319 --> 00:28:17,279
in the Trainer of the Year. I just saw Robert.

597
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:20,160
All respect to the other guys that I mentioned, but

598
00:28:20,319 --> 00:28:22,119
Robert just had one hell of a year. And in

599
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:23,839
terms of the Manager of the Year, this is the

600
00:28:23,839 --> 00:28:25,319
same guy that I gave it to last year, and

601
00:28:25,319 --> 00:28:27,880
that's Keith Connelly. And as I've stated before, and I

602
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,559
try to impress this upon my colleagues within the Boxing

603
00:28:30,559 --> 00:28:34,680
Writers' Association of America that voting for the Trainer of

604
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:36,880
the Year has absolutely nothing to do with if your

605
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:41,480
guy wins or loses. Generally, it's about do you procure

606
00:28:41,599 --> 00:28:45,359
your athlete the best deals possible and earn them the

607
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:47,720
most money for the fights that you agree on with

608
00:28:47,799 --> 00:28:51,440
your promoter. And Connelly is an expert that he gets

609
00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:55,640
his fighters paid period. They make tremendous amounts of money.

610
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:59,200
He's got a tremendous way of negotiating. He got Edgar Berlanga,

611
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:01,599
as the kids say, he jave the bag a ten

612
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:05,000
million dollar package to fight Canelo Alvarez, when a lot

613
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:07,480
of people said that he didn't deserve it. He you know,

614
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:10,119
was able to negotiate the exit from top rank. It

615
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:12,759
was all part of the plan he and I'll be honest,

616
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:14,599
probably a year and a half ago he said I'm

617
00:29:14,599 --> 00:29:17,000
going to get my guy the Canelo fight. He got

618
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,839
his guy the Canelo fight. And then the other fighter

619
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,400
that he did huge business with was Philip Pargovic to anyway,

620
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,559
who Yes, he lost the fight against Dangu Dubois in

621
00:29:25,599 --> 00:29:29,039
an outstanding fight, but he secured a fighter in Philip

622
00:29:29,079 --> 00:29:31,119
Hoargovic who had never made more than like I guess

623
00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,640
load maybe mid that most six figures, got him an

624
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:37,640
eight figure deal with three add season. They took one

625
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:38,759
fight at the end of last year, and then he

626
00:29:38,759 --> 00:29:41,359
got him the big money for the Dubois fight this year.

627
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:44,920
And then it's not just that. You know, Richardson Hitchins,

628
00:29:45,119 --> 00:29:47,920
who is now one of the junior welterweight champions, was

629
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:51,200
a guy that sort of was languishing with Mayweather Promotions.

630
00:29:51,559 --> 00:29:53,599
He signed in this was in twenty twenty three, took

631
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,079
him to Matrium and put him in position this year,

632
00:29:56,400 --> 00:30:00,880
or rather twenty twenty four to a force mandatory against

633
00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:04,440
Liam Parrow when Liam could have done a different fight. Uh,

634
00:30:04,759 --> 00:30:06,079
but there was a lot of stuff that went on

635
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:08,319
behind the scenes, the fight happened, his guy won the title.

636
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:12,319
And that's that's just three examples. And then on top

637
00:30:12,359 --> 00:30:14,880
of that, he added Connor Benn, who's on the verge

638
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:16,640
of some mega paydays. And I believe one of the

639
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:20,359
reasons that Connor Ben decided to sign with Keith as

640
00:30:20,359 --> 00:30:23,759
his co manager was he knows that Keith's reputation is

641
00:30:23,799 --> 00:30:25,960
to go out there and secure his guys the most money.

642
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,319
When you're in a high stakes, big time negotiation, like

643
00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:31,480
Connor Ben, isn't trying to get a deal done for

644
00:30:31,559 --> 00:30:34,680
a Chris Ubank junior fight or the possibility of a

645
00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:38,759
world title fight against Mario Barrios. You need somebody that

646
00:30:38,799 --> 00:30:41,680
can be a shark in the in the negotiations and

647
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,000
and I don't say that as an insult. Conley gets

648
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:45,680
the job done. And so he's the manager of the year.

649
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:48,599
And it's not not an easy job. And you know,

650
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:50,519
there's other candidate. It's probably the best. Other one in

651
00:30:50,559 --> 00:30:52,640
my mind, who was certainly eggis Cleaness. He is the

652
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,759
manager of the of the heavyweight champion, Alexander Usik, got

653
00:30:55,799 --> 00:30:57,960
him paid a huge amount by the Saudi's as well.

654
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:02,000
He's the manager for jannebeck Al mccannoolly who's the unified

655
00:31:02,039 --> 00:31:04,519
mid away to title holder, hasn't gotten him the big

656
00:31:04,559 --> 00:31:08,920
paydays yet just because the opponents are not necessarily there.

657
00:31:09,799 --> 00:31:12,680
Also the manager for Bakram Martazalev, who had a big

658
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:14,720
year or a big upset against Tim Zuo, made good

659
00:31:14,759 --> 00:31:18,079
money there and also has been the long time, career

660
00:31:18,119 --> 00:31:20,880
long manager for the Great Facility Lomachenko, who in two

661
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:24,039
thousand and twenty four weeks you know, captured yet another

662
00:31:24,119 --> 00:31:26,720
lightweight world title. Still right now he's sort of figuring

663
00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:28,440
out what he wants to do. But every time Alma

664
00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:30,000
steps in the ring he gets paid quite a bit

665
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:31,839
of money also, and so I guess is out there

666
00:31:31,839 --> 00:31:33,920
doing his job. But those are the two guys. But

667
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:35,559
to me, Conley was a slam dunk this year for

668
00:31:35,599 --> 00:31:36,039
what he did.

669
00:31:36,519 --> 00:31:38,240
Speaker 1: All right, bring it in. I was right around. I

670
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:40,240
guess claim us that night that martaz Alai have got

671
00:31:40,279 --> 00:31:43,200
that knockout in Orlando, Florida of Tim Zuo, that shocker,

672
00:31:44,039 --> 00:31:45,559
and he was smiling hear to hear that was a

673
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:48,319
huge upset. But I think we're both in agree. I

674
00:31:48,319 --> 00:31:50,559
think everybody's in agreement, except for like Kimi Monkey is

675
00:31:50,559 --> 00:31:51,000
our family.

676
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,880
Speaker 2: Let me just put it like this, This was the

677
00:31:53,039 --> 00:31:56,440
of all the awards and honors that you could give

678
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,640
out as a boxing fan or a journalist. This is

679
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:00,720
the easiest one of the.

680
00:32:00,799 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: Yes, Brunos Serrasse of France with the kale of Haimi

681
00:32:05,519 --> 00:32:08,440
Mungia that is still resonating. That was a fight, obviously

682
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:09,759
late in the year. But to go all the way

683
00:32:09,759 --> 00:32:13,200
to Tijuana, Mexico, having never fought outside of France, a

684
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:17,319
virtual unknown, if not a complete unknown, scores that not

685
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:23,000
one punch booming knockout of Mongia, that that has to

686
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:23,759
be the upset.

687
00:32:24,319 --> 00:32:26,400
Speaker 2: Listen to you, kidd, here's the thing. He's like a

688
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,440
fifty to one underdog. Yes, he had a great record, Okay,

689
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,440
he was undefeated going into the fight, but he had

690
00:32:33,559 --> 00:32:37,559
only had in his not including the fight against Mongia,

691
00:32:37,599 --> 00:32:40,799
he had had fucked twenty seven times as a professional.

692
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,319
I think he was twenty five wins and two draws.

693
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,440
He had only scored four knockouts. Now the now Mongia

694
00:32:47,519 --> 00:32:50,720
he's coming off. He had he had lost a very spirited,

695
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:54,480
excellent go at it against Canelo. Earlier in the year.

696
00:32:54,759 --> 00:32:57,039
He had come back in his first fight with top

697
00:32:57,119 --> 00:32:59,680
rank and he had scored a knockout against the unbeaten

698
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:02,720
a Indian, And they decided, let's get one more fight

699
00:33:02,759 --> 00:33:06,079
in in twenty twenty four. They're picturing setting up some

700
00:33:06,119 --> 00:33:09,359
big stuff. In twenty twenty five. They take him to

701
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:12,960
a stadium in his hometown of Tijuana, Mexico, where he

702
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,920
hadn't fought for the last few years. They bring in

703
00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:17,799
I mean, let's just call it what it is. They

704
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:20,920
bring in the French pastry who's supposed to get run

705
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:25,720
over like he's you know, walking in traffic, and it's

706
00:33:25,759 --> 00:33:31,400
supposed to be except it's supposed to be a perfunctory result.

707
00:33:31,839 --> 00:33:34,640
It's not when monkey and knocks him out. I mean,

708
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:36,359
I'm sorry, it's not if mungkey and knock him out.

709
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:40,359
It's when does he knock him out? Big crowd, completely unknown,

710
00:33:40,799 --> 00:33:45,119
It's it's supposed to be a splatter period, fight starts.

711
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:47,640
Mongy is winning every single second of a red. He

712
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:51,559
scores a knockdown. He's totally dominating. It's a matter of time.

713
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:54,319
And then, as you mentioned, Boom goes to dynamite and

714
00:33:54,359 --> 00:33:57,119
with one shot that is all she wrote, and he

715
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,480
scores easily. The upset of the year. I mean, this

716
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:04,519
was a tremendous knockout in terms of the It wasn't

717
00:34:04,599 --> 00:34:06,680
so much like the knockout of the year in terms

718
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,199
of the estenness. He didn't knock him out cold. Actually, Moongia,

719
00:34:09,239 --> 00:34:10,920
you know we tried to get up. He just missed

720
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:15,960
missed the count. But this was as shocking of an

721
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:17,599
upset honestly.

722
00:34:17,679 --> 00:34:19,800
Speaker 1: Get if I can say it is why we love

723
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:21,840
the sport. It's why you and I sit here and

724
00:34:21,880 --> 00:34:26,880
do this religiously regularly. Is because anything can happen. We

725
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,519
often give the analogy the twenty eight point touchdown. The

726
00:34:30,679 --> 00:34:34,519
nine point shot in basketball is one punch and boom baby.

727
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,119
Speaker 2: This was in the This was in the sixth round.

728
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,719
It was Pat Toby five to nothing on the cards.

729
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,679
And he'd won every second up till the knockout in

730
00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:45,760
the in the in the sixth round, so that was it.

731
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,079
Now there was other good knockouts. I'll just mention a couple,

732
00:34:48,119 --> 00:34:49,960
I mean not knockouts rather but upset upsets.

733
00:34:50,199 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, that way, I you know you didn't refer to me.

734
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:57,719
I would go Dubois over Joshua as the runner up.

735
00:34:58,039 --> 00:35:01,119
Dubois was about a I mean a Joshua about a

736
00:35:01,199 --> 00:35:04,679
six to one favorite. And again I understand we have

737
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,239
a lot of fans in England and they believe that

738
00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,239
should be the knockout of the year, the upset of

739
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:13,519
the year. It was truly shocking to watch him level

740
00:35:13,599 --> 00:35:15,320
Anthony Joshua in the first round.

741
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:15,559
Speaker 2: Dan.

742
00:35:15,639 --> 00:35:17,800
Speaker 1: It looked for a minute like Joshua might not get

743
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:20,559
out of the first round of that fight at Wembley.

744
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,119
No question, A great, Please, it's definitely an upset. Do

745
00:35:24,199 --> 00:35:26,119
you have that as your runner up or what do

746
00:35:26,159 --> 00:35:26,920
you have as a.

747
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,079
Speaker 2: I had that and people just so they know, you

748
00:35:30,119 --> 00:35:32,000
can go on my sub stack and you can read

749
00:35:32,119 --> 00:35:33,880
all my stories on the Fighter of the Year, Fight

750
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:35,920
of the Year, knock into the Year, all these other words,

751
00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:38,360
women's fight and fighter, manager, trainer, all things we're talking

752
00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:41,840
about right now. I did not have it as high

753
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:43,360
on my list as you just mentioned. I did not

754
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,360
have it number two. I had it number four, and

755
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:47,719
the fights I had it had and it was a

756
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:49,880
great upset. Don't get me wrong. It was a you know,

757
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:53,400
a special night for Daniel Dubois. But it can't be

758
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:57,840
considered that shocking. I say that because Joshua has been

759
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:02,119
knocked down and knocked out before, and Danga Dubi, whatever

760
00:36:02,159 --> 00:36:04,679
you think about his ability, he is a tremendous puncher,

761
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:07,719
so he always had that chance of the lands that

762
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,000
is going to do some damage. So to me, the

763
00:36:10,039 --> 00:36:13,559
one that was the biggest upset besides what happened with

764
00:36:13,599 --> 00:36:16,719
Sarrase and Mangia, because this was another one. I don't

765
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:18,280
know what the exact odds were, but they had to

766
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:20,760
be humongous. This was a set up, kind of like

767
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:22,559
we're going to take care of business here and move

768
00:36:22,599 --> 00:36:24,800
on to bigger and better things. And that was Anthony

769
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:29,440
Casace not only winning but dominating frankly against Joe Cordina

770
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:32,960
and knocking him out in their in their fight that

771
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,320
took place on one of the rias in Cartis. Kordina

772
00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:37,440
was the one of the title holders at one hundred

773
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,639
and thirty pounds and he got dominated and stopped in

774
00:36:39,679 --> 00:36:42,440
the fight. Now, it technically speaking was a non title

775
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:45,199
fight because the IBF was doing IBF things, but does

776
00:36:45,199 --> 00:36:48,519
not change the fact that that Casace you know, did

777
00:36:48,559 --> 00:36:50,559
the job in the fight in a big way. I

778
00:36:50,599 --> 00:36:54,079
mean that was that. That was the I think much

779
00:36:54,119 --> 00:36:58,400
more shocking because I don't think anybody it's Duba. Everybody

780
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:00,559
would say in the lead up to the fight, well,

781
00:37:00,599 --> 00:37:03,079
he's got a puncher's chance, because he's a great puncher.

782
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:07,039
I don't think anybody was given number one. I'll think

783
00:37:07,039 --> 00:37:09,480
they consider Casati that big of a puncher number one

784
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:11,639
and number two. The fact that he would not only

785
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:16,679
knock out Joe Cordina do so in fairly dominating fashion.

786
00:37:17,119 --> 00:37:19,239
I think that was a big surprise to a lot

787
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,599
of people. By the way, that was actually he did

788
00:37:21,599 --> 00:37:23,639
win the IBF title. I was thinking about the next

789
00:37:23,679 --> 00:37:25,760
fight where he fought a Warrenton and it was deemed

790
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,880
a non title fight for lunatic reasons by the IBF. Nonetheless,

791
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,920
so he wins the title in a big upset. That

792
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:34,800
was again a handpick kind of opponent that in that

793
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,519
particular fight, and then the other ones I looked ahead

794
00:37:37,519 --> 00:37:39,960
of it. I thought that Sebastian Fundora, who took the

795
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:42,039
fight against Tim Zuo on short notice when there was

796
00:37:42,039 --> 00:37:44,599
a change in the card. Remember Keith Thurman suffered the

797
00:37:44,639 --> 00:37:47,119
injury had to withdraw to keep the fight alive. Fundora,

798
00:37:47,119 --> 00:37:49,480
they moved him up from the undercard into the main event.

799
00:37:49,519 --> 00:37:52,400
Timzu was a huge favorite in that fight. Obviously, there

800
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:55,320
was a lot of circumstances with that, with the terrible,

801
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,960
terrible gash that that Fondora inflicted when they clanked head.

802
00:38:00,559 --> 00:38:03,119
Uh you know, there in also no elbow. It was

803
00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:05,440
elbow the elbow, and what the second end of the

804
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:08,039
second round and Zoo was, you know, a bloody mess,

805
00:38:08,079 --> 00:38:09,880
arrested the flight. But Fendora was dealing with his own

806
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:12,400
problems because he had a broken nose. So I thought

807
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:14,199
when he won that fight close as could be, but

808
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:16,559
one that that was a huge upset. And then Dubile,

809
00:38:16,559 --> 00:38:19,440
like you mentioned, there was an upset of the top

810
00:38:19,519 --> 00:38:21,800
rank prospect where they had signed. They called him the

811
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:25,280
Kansas kid Alan Garcia. This was like a preliminary fight,

812
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:27,679
you know, buried on one of the ESPN plus hunder guards.

813
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:29,880
But he was in with just a regular guy. He

814
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:31,880
was being built up as a top prospect and a

815
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:34,800
and a potential sort of attraction. And he got knocked

816
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:36,119
out in the fifth round in a fight he was

817
00:38:36,119 --> 00:38:39,480
winning against Ricardo Fernandez. That was a pretty big upset.

818
00:38:39,639 --> 00:38:41,760
And uh, you know the fight that we picked that

819
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:43,280
a lot of people picked as the knockout of the

820
00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,840
here Lucas's body against Ashton Silv. Ashton Silva was the MVP,

821
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,800
heavily hyped prospect that was supposed to you know, win

822
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,440
that fight, and he was dominating and all of a sudden,

823
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:54,920
out of nowhere, he gets, you know, knocked out into

824
00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:58,039
another dimension. That was another massive, massive upset.

825
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,039
Speaker 1: Lots of good stuff on the upset. Sorry, a couple

826
00:39:01,159 --> 00:39:03,559
more and then we've got some nostalgia and we're gone.

827
00:39:03,760 --> 00:39:08,679
Good prospect. You're always proud of the prospect. Was it

828
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:10,719
a tough call twenty twenty four for you?

829
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:13,039
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was a tough call. I

830
00:39:13,079 --> 00:39:17,599
think what really cemented for me was watching the heavyweight

831
00:39:17,639 --> 00:39:20,599
Moses E. Tama do what he did against Demsey McKean,

832
00:39:20,679 --> 00:39:22,880
and that was on December twenty first, So as you

833
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:24,239
get close to the end of the year, you're sort

834
00:39:24,239 --> 00:39:26,920
of having your mind, you know, the top handful of guys,

835
00:39:27,159 --> 00:39:30,239
but hadn't really made up that decision yet, and so

836
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:32,519
I expected him to beat dems McKean, but I didn't

837
00:39:32,519 --> 00:39:34,199
think he'd wipe him out in the first round. McKeen

838
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,119
had gone, you know, into the late going a very tough, hard,

839
00:39:39,079 --> 00:39:43,199
hotly contested although he was losing a fight against Philip Herkovic,

840
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:45,679
you know, when you know it was way more experienced

841
00:39:45,679 --> 00:39:48,280
as a professional as an amateur, took him into round

842
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:52,000
twelve before Herkovic had gotten the knockout against him and

843
00:39:52,119 --> 00:39:54,639
Hama you know, dropped them twice and completely dusted them.

844
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,039
And before that again, Marius Walk not a big, top

845
00:39:58,119 --> 00:40:00,360
level opponent, but a guy with vast experience with fought

846
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,480
for the heavyweight title against Vladimir Klitschko and he cleaned

847
00:40:03,519 --> 00:40:06,800
him out in two rounds. And it's heart to overlook him.

848
00:40:07,119 --> 00:40:09,960
He's a south paw. But the thing that jumps to

849
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,599
you is he just turned twenty years old. He was

850
00:40:12,599 --> 00:40:15,760
I believe still nineteen when that fight happened. I mean,

851
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:19,079
that is unusual. They're talking about him. Remember when Mike

852
00:40:19,079 --> 00:40:21,519
Tyson became heavyweight champion, he was twenty years old, and

853
00:40:21,599 --> 00:40:23,920
Atma was sort of on that sort of trajectory. Now,

854
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,519
he wasn't as active like an early young Tyson was.

855
00:40:26,559 --> 00:40:28,119
And I'm not trying to compare them. I'm just talking

856
00:40:28,159 --> 00:40:30,599
about specifically in terms of their age. But what really

857
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:33,119
made me think about it was so I'm watching in

858
00:40:33,159 --> 00:40:36,199
my own eyes, right and I see what looks clearly

859
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:39,480
like a very talented young heavyweight. Doesn't take a lot

860
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:42,480
to make that assessment. But then you start listening to

861
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,519
what other people in the business have to say. Promoters

862
00:40:45,519 --> 00:40:48,400
who don't promote him. You know, promoters who don't promote

863
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:50,840
other guys very rarely compliment the other guy's guy. And

864
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:53,880
he got other promoters complimenting a Tom. He got other

865
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:58,199
boxing die hard people in the business for decades, matchmakers

866
00:40:58,239 --> 00:41:00,800
that I know, managers, I know, I talk to a

867
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,239
lot of people, and they'll all tell you this kid

868
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:06,000
has the potential be really something special. So I take

869
00:41:06,039 --> 00:41:08,719
that into account. Also, not necessarily, like I'm quoting them

870
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:10,639
in a story. But when you talk to the people

871
00:41:10,679 --> 00:41:14,960
I talk to on a regular basis and in separate conversations,

872
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:16,639
not like we're on like a conference call, and they're all,

873
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:18,719
you know, we're in the vacuum where the echo chamber.

874
00:41:19,639 --> 00:41:23,079
They're all talking about what an amazing young talent this

875
00:41:23,119 --> 00:41:24,559
guy is. And then you watch the way he goes

876
00:41:24,599 --> 00:41:26,960
about his business, and the hand speed and the foot

877
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:29,719
speed is just tremendous, and so well, there's a lot

878
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,599
of good prospects in boxing, and there always is, and

879
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:35,119
when it gets to this time of year and we

880
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:37,280
were doing prospect lists and things, it always kind of

881
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:39,719
gives me, you know, hope for the future. So I

882
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,119
picked I picked Atama, I mean, and I'm always kind

883
00:41:42,119 --> 00:41:43,840
of loath to pick the heavyweights. I've been burned a

884
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,599
few times on heavyweight picks, you know, picking Samuel Peter,

885
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:49,360
picking David Price, I mean, but you got to go

886
00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:51,519
with what you see, and so he was one of them.

887
00:41:51,559 --> 00:41:53,119
And then there's just you know, this is not necessarily

888
00:41:53,119 --> 00:41:55,960
in order, and my story about all this is forthcoming

889
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,480
still in the next couple of days. But you can't

890
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,920
not be impressed by the young or I shouldn't say young.

891
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:03,719
He's twenty nine, but in terms of young, in terms

892
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:08,079
of his professional experience, and that's the Cuban lightweight Olympian

893
00:42:08,119 --> 00:42:10,559
Olympic gold medals from twenty twenty Andy Cruz, who's four

894
00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:13,000
and zero with Matrom, he ain't gonna be a prospect

895
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:14,960
at the end of twenty twenty five. He's gonna be

896
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,320
involved in some bigger fights. A good looking prospect for sure.

897
00:42:18,639 --> 00:42:21,400
I've always ever since I first saw him, I think

898
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,159
four or five fights ago, jo Ennisty as the junior

899
00:42:25,159 --> 00:42:28,000
middleweight that's trained by the Great Rodney Shields, also a

900
00:42:28,079 --> 00:42:30,960
Cuban training but now based out of the Houston area.

901
00:42:31,199 --> 00:42:34,199
He's looked out standing. He actually scored a very impressive

902
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,760
victory on the undercard of that Martazalev tim Zoo card

903
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:41,119
that we talked about a minute ago. Also an outstanding prospect,

904
00:42:42,199 --> 00:42:45,000
you know, Ernesto Tito Markadov always found to be intriguing.

905
00:42:45,039 --> 00:42:47,360
He's undefeated and he was sort of built by his

906
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,079
father on small cards. He didn't have a promoter. He

907
00:42:50,119 --> 00:42:53,039
finally signed with Mattrom Boxing and got himself a big promoter.

908
00:42:53,159 --> 00:42:56,639
Hasn't debuted yet for them. He was supposed to late

909
00:42:56,639 --> 00:42:58,800
in the in twenty twenty four, but his opponent came

910
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:01,480
in like six and a half seven pounds overweight, so

911
00:43:01,559 --> 00:43:04,440
he finally makes his Matchroom debut later in January. But

912
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:06,360
he's definitely a junior walterweight to keep an eye on.

913
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,079
And you can't talk about prospects without talking about a

914
00:43:10,079 --> 00:43:13,079
couple of the top rank fighters, and that's Abdullah Mason,

915
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,559
the lightweight whose looks sensational. I had a little bit

916
00:43:15,599 --> 00:43:17,880
he was like a top candidate, and I must be honest,

917
00:43:18,199 --> 00:43:20,280
I was a little bit like Leary when I saw

918
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:22,800
him get dropped two times in the first round by

919
00:43:23,079 --> 00:43:25,079
kind of a nobody opponent in his last fight. But

920
00:43:25,119 --> 00:43:30,280
he's still got amazing handspeed and power, and they're still

921
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:33,000
very high on him. He definitely has got some potential,

922
00:43:33,039 --> 00:43:35,760
also only nineteen years old. And then the other big

923
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:38,519
time prospect from top rank is the is Bruce Shues

924
00:43:38,519 --> 00:43:41,960
Shoe Carrington, the featherweight who most recently looked good in

925
00:43:42,039 --> 00:43:44,400
a victory they fought on the undercart of Mike Tyson

926
00:43:44,519 --> 00:43:47,400
Jake Paul. I could go on for prospects DJ for

927
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:48,840
like an hour, but we don't have time for all.

928
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:53,079
Speaker 1: That understood, but still some good ones, some good ones

929
00:43:53,079 --> 00:43:56,679
for sure. I'm curious on this biggest story because I

930
00:43:56,719 --> 00:43:58,639
have one in my own mind. What would you say

931
00:43:58,679 --> 00:44:01,320
is the biggest boxing story? And we could have you know,

932
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:05,840
you don't have a qualifier here on what what has

933
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:07,760
to be in the ingredient, So I'm just curious what

934
00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:08,440
would you say.

935
00:44:08,639 --> 00:44:12,079
Speaker 2: It's like pornography. I know when I see it as

936
00:44:12,119 --> 00:44:15,559
one thing as the Supreme Work said, Yeah, the Supreme

937
00:44:15,639 --> 00:44:16,239
that's true.

938
00:44:16,639 --> 00:44:18,599
Speaker 1: That's true. It is a Supreme Court ruling, right the

939
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:20,119
people versus Larry Flint.

940
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 2: I don't think this is hard. I think this is

941
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,719
actually easy to pick. The biggest story in boxing in

942
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:28,079
twenty twenty four is Read Season in turkeyof Zikh's domination

943
00:44:28,119 --> 00:44:29,360
of the sport. I don't think it's.

944
00:44:29,199 --> 00:44:31,840
Speaker 1: Gonna disagree with you in a second finish on Read Season, though,

945
00:44:31,840 --> 00:44:34,320
you're talking about their infusion of money Moo Lob.

946
00:44:34,599 --> 00:44:37,360
Speaker 2: Not just the money, it's the whole, the whole everything

947
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:40,239
they've done so their first event, they did two events

948
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:42,880
at the end of twenty twenty three. They kicked off

949
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:47,199
with Tyson Furies fight against Francis Nagano. Then they were

950
00:44:47,199 --> 00:44:48,800
supposed to do a different fight, but they ended up

951
00:44:48,800 --> 00:44:50,559
doing the Day of Reckoning card in its place, which

952
00:44:50,599 --> 00:44:52,639
is a loaded show, so that was sort of just

953
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:55,639
kind of scratched in the service. In twenty twenty four,

954
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:59,840
they did another eight shows, six in read, two in

955
00:45:00,079 --> 00:45:03,079
other locations. One was in Los Angeles with Crawford Magromov.

956
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:06,320
One was the Wembley card you mentioned with Anthony Joshua

957
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:10,599
and Daniel Dubois. They did that many shows. Every single

958
00:45:10,639 --> 00:45:14,719
one of the cards was absolutely stacked, except maybe fi

959
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:16,760
at Usik Too, which still had fi at Usick Too

960
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:18,840
as the main event, but by and large they were

961
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:21,559
the most loaded cards there were. They even did the

962
00:45:21,599 --> 00:45:23,280
one that was the non pay per view, which was

963
00:45:23,320 --> 00:45:25,719
the Latino Knight, which was an outstanding show that had

964
00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:30,159
two title unification fights. They delivered the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship

965
00:45:30,159 --> 00:45:33,559
and the rematch. They delivered the Undisputed Light Heavyweight Championship

966
00:45:33,599 --> 00:45:36,840
with Better Bvan b Bo, the rematches coming up in February,

967
00:45:37,159 --> 00:45:40,360
and they delivered numerous top level fights and again the

968
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:42,760
cards very very deep. They didn't just give you one

969
00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:46,119
or two fights. Every card had at least three, four

970
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:49,039
or five. You'd see like the fifth or sixth fight

971
00:45:49,119 --> 00:45:51,159
down the card and you're like, how is that not

972
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,679
the co feature or the main event? So that was

973
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:55,920
huge and the amount of money they put in. They

974
00:45:56,000 --> 00:45:58,800
also and this cannot be understated obviously, the money was

975
00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:01,719
a massive part of it in boxing, which has been

976
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:06,920
fractured for the entire existence of the sport. Frankly, perky

977
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:09,360
al chic with the checkbook and the power of person,

978
00:46:10,559 --> 00:46:14,000
got all the big promoters essentially to work together in

979
00:46:14,039 --> 00:46:16,719
some fashion. He got Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn who

980
00:46:16,719 --> 00:46:19,119
are now like best buddies who had never even spoken

981
00:46:19,159 --> 00:46:22,119
to each other before all this started. They've working on

982
00:46:22,159 --> 00:46:24,119
a regular base together, the five on five and all

983
00:46:24,119 --> 00:46:26,719
the events they've done and been involved in. Not to

984
00:46:26,719 --> 00:46:29,159
mention they've gotten involved with Top Rank, They've gotten involved

985
00:46:29,199 --> 00:46:32,360
with Golden Boy, gold Star K two, and again not

986
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:34,440
that they're the best of buddies, but they had a

987
00:46:34,599 --> 00:46:38,440
handful of PBC fighters that participated on the Los Angeles

988
00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:43,440
card in August. So that has changed boxing in that manner.

989
00:46:43,679 --> 00:46:46,159
And on top of that, by doing the big events

990
00:46:46,159 --> 00:46:49,519
that they have done in riad it is in many ways,

991
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:53,000
and I'm not knocking them for this because the fighters

992
00:46:53,039 --> 00:46:54,719
and the teams are going where the big fights can

993
00:46:54,760 --> 00:46:57,400
be made. So it is a worldwide sport, but it's

994
00:46:57,559 --> 00:47:01,480
damaged boxing in Britain and in America because London and

995
00:47:01,639 --> 00:47:04,880
Vegas and New York and LA they're not the hotbeds

996
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,519
that they once were. There has not been many major

997
00:47:07,559 --> 00:47:09,440
fights in New York. I mean there was what one

998
00:47:09,519 --> 00:47:11,679
major fight in New York last year, and that was

999
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:16,360
Ryan Garcia against Devin Haney. Los Angeles still gets his

1000
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:18,599
handful of fights, but there hasn't been any right other

1001
00:47:18,639 --> 00:47:20,840
than the Crawford fight, which they did, there.

1002
00:47:20,719 --> 00:47:23,039
Speaker 1: Hasn't been There hasn't been fight right.

1003
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:24,840
Speaker 2: You know they did. There's been some fights out there

1004
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:27,760
that were worth while for sure, but not regularly. And

1005
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:30,559
and you know, Vegas again, it's had its share of

1006
00:47:30,679 --> 00:47:32,960
big fights, sure, but not like it was. I mean,

1007
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:35,159
there was a time where I was going to Vegas,

1008
00:47:35,199 --> 00:47:36,880
like there was one year where I went to Vegas

1009
00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:38,880
like ten eleven times a year because there were so

1010
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:41,000
many big fights in Vegas. Now I think I'm in

1011
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:42,920
two thousand, and I'm traveling a little bit less now,

1012
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:45,239
of course, but I think in twenty twenty five I

1013
00:47:45,239 --> 00:47:47,360
went to Vegas. Maybe like four times instead of like

1014
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:49,519
eight or nine times. So anyway, I'm only making a

1015
00:47:49,519 --> 00:47:51,480
point that when you're tak into account the depth of

1016
00:47:51,480 --> 00:47:53,719
the cards, the names that they're doing, the level on,

1017
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:56,639
the historical nature of the fights that the money they're spending,

1018
00:47:56,679 --> 00:47:59,199
the locations where these are taking place, and the fact

1019
00:47:59,239 --> 00:48:01,559
that they've got these folks all work together and there's

1020
00:48:01,559 --> 00:48:03,679
no let up in sight. That's to me, the hands

1021
00:48:03,719 --> 00:48:06,000
down story of the year. It has changed the paradigm

1022
00:48:06,039 --> 00:48:08,760
of the sport. And Turkey, on top of that, bought

1023
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:09,800
the Ring magazine.

1024
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:14,519
Speaker 1: He did, yes, and it is fascinating. On how long

1025
00:48:14,599 --> 00:48:18,599
the gravy train lasts? Is it indefinite? We shall see,

1026
00:48:18,599 --> 00:48:21,199
because clearly you've laid this out. This is common sense

1027
00:48:21,199 --> 00:48:23,719
anybody that knows anything about what's going on. They are

1028
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:28,480
spending ridiculous money with no regard for whether or not

1029
00:48:28,519 --> 00:48:32,280
they make any in return. And again, how long does

1030
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,599
that last? That remains to be seen, But they.

1031
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:36,599
Speaker 2: I think the reason I think it goes on longer

1032
00:48:36,639 --> 00:48:38,679
than some people may have thought is because Turkey spent

1033
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:40,280
like ten million out of his own pocket to buy

1034
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:42,360
the Ring. Interesting, and you don't do that if you

1035
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,199
don't plan on sticking around. Sure, so what you're saying

1036
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:45,960
is number one.

1037
00:48:46,159 --> 00:48:49,679
Speaker 1: You actually made reference to it, that the chaos of

1038
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:51,920
the week leading up to it and whether there would

1039
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:56,000
be a fight. Then he's overweight for the fight, but

1040
00:48:56,039 --> 00:49:00,480
we're still gonna have the fight, and then blam, he

1041
00:49:00,639 --> 00:49:04,480
smashes Devin Haney who's down, and smashes him again, and

1042
00:49:04,519 --> 00:49:08,880
smashes him again and wins Garcia and then Ryan Garcia

1043
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:14,400
fails pre fight and post fight drug test, gets himself suspended.

1044
00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:20,360
They get the result overturned. On appeal to me, if

1045
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:24,280
I am thinking of one thing, that is the biggest

1046
00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:27,920
story that just came to mind right away, more so

1047
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:31,199
than the usk undisputed win, which deserves credit for him

1048
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:34,119
to be the fighter of the year and uh and

1049
00:49:34,159 --> 00:49:36,079
for that to be arguably the most significant it is

1050
00:49:36,119 --> 00:49:37,079
the most significant win of the y.

1051
00:49:37,199 --> 00:49:41,519
Speaker 2: I I mean, that was what one a few days

1052
00:49:41,519 --> 00:49:43,320
in the sport. This has changed the entire.

1053
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:45,880
Speaker 1: I understand your argument on that, But if you're telling

1054
00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:49,760
me what the biggest story that week, that whole thing

1055
00:49:49,960 --> 00:49:53,000
it was an ongoing soap opera. And Garcia won the

1056
00:49:53,039 --> 00:49:56,599
fight and then got suspended for the positive drug test,

1057
00:49:56,679 --> 00:50:00,280
and then the the outcome got overturned. It was like

1058
00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:01,400
the young and the restless.

1059
00:50:01,679 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 2: I was to live. I'll respectfully and strongly disagree. That's

1060
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:07,480
about that one.

1061
00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:11,119
Speaker 1: That's fine, healthy disagreement on those two. All right, let's

1062
00:50:11,119 --> 00:50:13,639
get to one piece of nostalgia to wrap it up. Here.

1063
00:50:13,679 --> 00:50:16,239
We've been without nostalgia. We're like addicts here. We got

1064
00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:20,400
to get this in. Uh. January the sixth is now

1065
00:50:20,559 --> 00:50:22,559
famous for other reasons, but it was famous in two

1066
00:50:22,599 --> 00:50:26,000
thousand and seven, eighteen years ago, coming on Monday for

1067
00:50:26,159 --> 00:50:31,000
Samuel Peter and James Tony in a heavyweight showdown. You

1068
00:50:31,119 --> 00:50:35,039
were there. Why is I have to confess, I don't

1069
00:50:35,039 --> 00:50:37,920
really know why is this so memorable in the nostalgia

1070
00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:38,599
go ahead?

1071
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,679
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, you have to think back to

1072
00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:42,840
what was going on at the time when this fight

1073
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:45,400
took place. They had fought in their first fight, which

1074
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:48,719
was a WBC final eliminator to produce the fighter that

1075
00:50:48,760 --> 00:50:51,119
was going to be the mandatory challenger for then the

1076
00:50:51,199 --> 00:50:55,559
WBC heavyweight champion, Oldleag Maskaev, and it was a highly

1077
00:50:55,599 --> 00:50:59,280
controversial decision, uh and they ended up having to do

1078
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:02,760
a rematch. And so anytime that happens, when you're talking about,

1079
00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:05,280
you know, James Tony was is a big, big name. Obviously,

1080
00:51:07,559 --> 00:51:10,239
it was a split decision the first fight and Peter

1081
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:14,880
had gotten the victory and they ordered the rematch. There

1082
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,320
was a ton of controversy after that first fight. They

1083
00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:20,119
did the rematch. I tended the rematch. It was at

1084
00:51:20,119 --> 00:51:21,679
the heart. It was not too far from a year

1085
00:51:21,719 --> 00:51:24,679
at TJ in South Florida. They did the fight at

1086
00:51:24,679 --> 00:51:28,440
the hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Tremendous venue by

1087
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:30,079
the way. It was a beautiful place to go to cover.

1088
00:51:30,159 --> 00:51:33,480
I've covered a few fights there. A really nice place. Anyway, Again,

1089
00:51:33,559 --> 00:51:35,840
this was to be the fight that would produce the

1090
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:38,039
winner would go on to fight Ola Maskin for the

1091
00:51:38,039 --> 00:51:42,320
heavyweight title. And after a very close split decision victories

1092
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:45,800
versus Sam Peter in this highly controversial first fight, he

1093
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:47,800
goes in in the second fight that took place. Now,

1094
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:49,679
the first fight was in September of six, so this

1095
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:51,599
is only a few months later that they fight. The

1096
00:51:51,639 --> 00:51:55,159
rematch in January of two thousand and seven, and this

1097
00:51:55,239 --> 00:51:58,000
time Sam Peter, who was never a guy that was

1098
00:51:58,039 --> 00:51:59,960
always seemed to be in the best condition. Even though

1099
00:52:00,079 --> 00:52:02,400
he was very strong and powerful and a big knocko ours.

1100
00:52:02,599 --> 00:52:04,480
He got himself in probably the best condition he ever

1101
00:52:04,559 --> 00:52:07,719
was in his entire career, and he cleaned James Tony's clock. Now,

1102
00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:09,880
anybody that knows anything about James Tony is now currently

1103
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,079
in the Hall of Fame, is known. Among many things,

1104
00:52:13,119 --> 00:52:14,639
He's known for us Ivan maybe one of the greatest

1105
00:52:14,679 --> 00:52:17,719
chins in the history of boxing, just you know, amazing chin.

1106
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:20,360
Took a lot of punishment, unfortunately paying the price for

1107
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:24,239
it in his retirement, but he hadn't been knocked down.

1108
00:52:24,239 --> 00:52:26,159
He got it all the way back into the nineties

1109
00:52:26,519 --> 00:52:28,960
when he had gotten dropped by Roy Jones in their

1110
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:32,880
big showdown for the super middlewait title. Years and years later,

1111
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:36,519
multiple weight classes later, he takes on Sam Peter. First

1112
00:52:36,559 --> 00:52:39,920
fight isn't budged. Second fight, James Tony gets knocked down,

1113
00:52:40,119 --> 00:52:43,199
legitimate knockdown and ends up losing basically every round. I

1114
00:52:43,199 --> 00:52:45,920
remember being there. I scored that fight a shutout. Two

1115
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:47,599
of the judges gave it ten rounds to two for

1116
00:52:47,639 --> 00:52:49,960
Sam Peter. One of the judges gave it eleven rounds

1117
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:53,119
to one, and Sam Peter looked absolutely spectacular. And James Tony,

1118
00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:55,920
who's the biggest sore loser among sword losers in boxing,

1119
00:52:56,199 --> 00:52:58,079
claimed he won the fight, claimed it was a trip

1120
00:52:58,119 --> 00:53:00,519
on the knockdown, all the nonsense in the bullshit, but

1121
00:53:00,639 --> 00:53:02,760
Stam Peter got himself in phenomenal.

1122
00:53:02,920 --> 00:53:05,599
Speaker 1: Was there a particularly large punch that can cuss Tony

1123
00:53:05,679 --> 00:53:07,360
that night to think that he won the fight if

1124
00:53:07,519 --> 00:53:08,599
what you're describing now.

1125
00:53:08,639 --> 00:53:10,079
Speaker 2: I mean, it's one thing if he wants to argue

1126
00:53:10,119 --> 00:53:12,440
the knockdown, which was sort of indisputable, to argue that

1127
00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:15,079
he won the fight as hilarious because he lost. I

1128
00:53:15,079 --> 00:53:17,679
mean generously, you might give him two or three rounds,

1129
00:53:18,840 --> 00:53:21,360
but in any event, he lost. And you know, James

1130
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:23,039
was a good fighter at that time. Remember even as

1131
00:53:23,039 --> 00:53:25,320
a heavyweight, he had done you know, he got busted

1132
00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:28,559
for drugs after he won the WBA title against John

1133
00:53:28,599 --> 00:53:30,840
Ruiz and got stripped away from him like it never happened.

1134
00:53:31,079 --> 00:53:33,199
But he had defeated Evander Holyfield, and he had some

1135
00:53:33,239 --> 00:53:36,320
other good fights obviously, had become the cruiserweight champion, probably

1136
00:53:36,719 --> 00:53:38,480
one of the great cruisers, well not probably one of

1137
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:41,280
the greatest cruiserweight fights of all time, and is very

1138
00:53:41,320 --> 00:53:46,960
resounding and superb victory against Vasili Jiroff also a fighter

1139
00:53:47,039 --> 00:53:49,320
actually happened to be at but anyway, so that was

1140
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:51,559
the case. This was this was a very significant fight.

1141
00:53:51,559 --> 00:53:55,079
It headlined on Showtime this remastering James Tony and San

1142
00:53:55,119 --> 00:53:58,320
Peter and Samuel Peter ultimately did go on and win

1143
00:53:59,159 --> 00:54:03,519
the WBC time by knockout in the bull ring in Cancun, Mexico,

1144
00:54:03,639 --> 00:54:06,360
another fight that I covered and became at least briefly

1145
00:54:06,760 --> 00:54:10,360
the WBC Heavyweight champion before yielding that title when Vitali

1146
00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:13,519
Klitchko made his comeback after a long four years out

1147
00:54:13,559 --> 00:54:16,039
of the ring from retirement due to injuries. But for

1148
00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:18,639
a brief period there the two Tony fights in his

1149
00:54:18,639 --> 00:54:21,559
fight against Jimmie mclin and against OLDI Maskat. Samuel Peter

1150
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:23,239
was one of the top two or three heavyweights in

1151
00:54:23,239 --> 00:54:26,559
the sport. And one of the most memorable things I

1152
00:54:26,599 --> 00:54:29,360
will add to this is, if you're familiar with those times,

1153
00:54:30,519 --> 00:54:35,360
the model and well known I guess reality TV at

1154
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:41,039
the time, Anna Nicole Smith, playboy model et cetera, who

1155
00:54:41,639 --> 00:54:44,920
unfortunately died at the hard Rock Casino I guess a

1156
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:47,440
few months later she was in a Tennis at Night TJ.

1157
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:49,639
And one thing that always stands out to me was

1158
00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:54,800
during that particular card before the main event, and Anicole

1159
00:54:54,880 --> 00:54:57,880
Smith came to ringside as she was walking past the

1160
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:00,400
media section to go to where her sa he was,

1161
00:55:00,760 --> 00:55:02,480
and she stopped in front of us. I was sitting

1162
00:55:02,519 --> 00:55:04,840
like in like the first row, and she stopped pretty

1163
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:06,679
much right in front of me and the other guys

1164
00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:08,880
I was with, and she looked down. She's you know,

1165
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,519
she was obviously a very attractive woman, and she looked

1166
00:55:11,559 --> 00:55:13,360
at us and kind of gave us the winkton Hi

1167
00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:15,800
you boys, and pretty much we all kind of lost

1168
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:16,800
our concentration right.

1169
00:55:16,679 --> 00:55:18,760
Speaker 1: There, I was gonna say. And then she proceeded to

1170
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:24,480
take a large step over all of your tongs wagging. Yes,

1171
00:55:24,760 --> 00:55:28,320
the former Playboy playmate, so you even wove in and

1172
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:33,119
anna Nicole Smith to the nostalgia after making reference to

1173
00:55:33,559 --> 00:55:35,760
pornography as a matter of fact later on the program

1174
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:37,800
in the Supreme Court, we have it all.

1175
00:55:38,039 --> 00:55:39,519
Speaker 2: You get it all on the pop of the program.

1176
00:55:39,599 --> 00:55:43,599
Speaker 1: All right, So again a reminder here, we previewed the

1177
00:55:43,679 --> 00:55:47,199
jy Opataia fight. We handicapped it, by the way, on

1178
00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:50,119
the bet Us Boxing Show. And it's not until Wednesdays

1179
00:55:50,119 --> 00:55:52,800
we released this podcast. It's Wednesday morning the United States.

1180
00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:55,320
Repeat for the audience here how they see it in

1181
00:55:55,360 --> 00:55:56,239
the Under States.

1182
00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:58,239
Speaker 2: It's on the zone, not just by the way, It's

1183
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:00,039
not just on dis zone in the United States. It

1184
00:56:00,079 --> 00:56:03,039
is on his own I believe, worldwide, worldwide from Australia.

1185
00:56:03,079 --> 00:56:06,960
Speaker 1: From broad Beach, Australia. You always love my geography about

1186
00:56:07,039 --> 00:56:10,119
eight hour car ride to the northeast up.

1187
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 2: The coast from I don't even know if that's true.

1188
00:56:12,159 --> 00:56:15,159
Speaker 1: I am telling you. I looked it up. I don't

1189
00:56:15,159 --> 00:56:17,480
know if it comes down to how fast you drive.

1190
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:20,119
Speaker 2: Why does anybody care how far it is from Sydney.

1191
00:56:20,119 --> 00:56:23,440
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's I'm giving them an idea geographically

1192
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:26,760
of where it is near Brisbane on the coast. And

1193
00:56:26,840 --> 00:56:30,159
again there's gonna be some sentiment for both Opataia and

1194
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:33,000
Justice Hooney the heavyweight, because they're from that area. Let's

1195
00:56:33,000 --> 00:56:35,360
see if it's a loud environment or not for a

1196
00:56:35,400 --> 00:56:38,239
Wednesday night in Australia. So that that's coming. We gave

1197
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:40,639
you some news, we gave you the End of the

1198
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:44,360
Year Awards Part two and some nostalgia. Why don't we

1199
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:46,119
regroup later in a week and we'll talk more about

1200
00:56:46,159 --> 00:56:48,760
what Opataiah does or doesn't do, and what Hooney does

1201
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:49,239
or doesn't do.

1202
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:49,960
Speaker 2: Later Onbelieva.

1203
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:52,840
Speaker 1: We all good, damn right here, We are good. Thank

1204
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:57,519
you for finding us again. Subscribe to the podcast feed, Apples, Freaker, Spotify,

1205
00:56:57,599 --> 00:57:00,320
give us ratings five star reviews always help for now.

1206
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:04,599
We are finito here on the Fight Preach Unit podcast