Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. All right,
we've been ready for the final show, primarily that we're
going to talk about at least the main fight card
that we're going to talk about for the month of April,
and it's a big one in London and its descendants
of what was a great to fight rivalry back in
the early nineties as Chris you Bank Junior and Connor
Band get ready to square off. We're going to preview
that fight, that entire card, and we have news and
a lot more here on the latest edition of the program.
I am the somewhat competent host TJ Reeves, Hello, Cavity Free,
Dan Rayfield, good to be back with you.
Speaker 2: Now. You can't just say that and not tell them.
Speaker 1: What I always love to just stick things in, leave
breadcrumbs and figure it out. Our insider from Fight Freaktion Night,
Substack and newsletter Old Disclosure. We have a lot to
go over. I have had a day and it ain't
over yet because I had to have a little dental
work done on this Thursday into Friday because a little
piece of a filling from many years ago in my
life broke off, and unfortunately, going to the dentist, he
looked at it, took an X ray and said, hey,
he goes, the rest of this is going to break off.
You got a problem. We're gonna have to take that
filling out and put a new filling in. I had
that done today, to which Big Dan comes back strong with,
go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned it's me before you started taping the show,
and I was like, wow, you know what's funny. I'm
a grown man. I've never had a cavity or a
filling in my entire life, and you thought.
Speaker 1: I was like, you're an alien. You're an alien. How
is that possible? No braces for you, No, no cavities.
The dentist is just an afterthought for you.
Speaker 2: For the rest of it's been a nightmare job brushing
my teeth, and fly Gray feel has.
Speaker 1: Been cruising along like he's you know, he's got uh
he's got the uh the I know. So in any
event I had, I've had that going on. We've got
all kinds of other mayhem, including the NFL draft, your giants,
my buccaneer steins. So we got to get to this
boxing because we got the other stuff going on as well.
Thank you for finding us. All right, so pay attention audience.
Dan already knows what's coming here. We got two things working.
Number One, we love you podcast audience, but we need
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There's bribery involved because we realize for most of you
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you peeps, most of you savages, you may only be
listing to us. You need to come see what we
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Speaker 2: Gonna give you insisive This is made for radio Baby.
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You'll get suggestions of ray Field and me on the
YouTube page. If you have done both. Big Dan's gonna
have a giveaway. And I said to you, do we
want to give them one of your voluminous artifacts in
the way of beverages, your cups that you collected for
many years, the collector cups from all the big fights
in Vegas. You said, well, wait a minute, what if
I want to give away one of the logoed like
fight poster room keys from some of the biggest fights
in Vegas.
Speaker 2: Credit card.
Speaker 1: Yes, that are extra memorabilia items. You said, I don't
know what I have the most of, but I want
to give away something cool. And so I said to you, okay,
we can give something like that away. And you said,
you mean a what what was the word you used,
the Yiddish word a chak And I said to you,
you said, you don't know what a chatchke is.
Speaker 2: I don't know what You were more amazing when I
said I didn't have any cavity.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed by both. I'm stunned by both. But I said,
I know about Jony and Chachi from Happy Days, and
they even had the short lived show after that, Joni
loves Chachi, remember that? And you said, no, not Chachi,
not the characters, the fictitious characters from Happy Days, Chatski right, Chockley, yes,
which means like what, it's just like a thing, right,
So one more time.
Speaker 2: I would consider like a credit card room key of
a fight.
Speaker 1: That's like a choke chotchke, all right, not Jony and Chocci,
correct now, Scott Bao, the late Aaron Morgan. So let
me say this again, as the show has already gone
off the rails four and a half minutes into it,
we're pimping and promoting rate and review this podcast Apple Spreaker, Spotify,
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chotchkey from the cups, the credit card room key that
has the fight poster on it.
Speaker 2: Well, is that what we're doing.
Speaker 1: We got to pick a winner out of people that
have done that, but you got to go do both.
You might as well go do both and you want
to be on the YouTube page.
Speaker 2: Might be a couple of room keys, I got a
whole bunch.
Speaker 1: There could be something else, but for right now, we're
giving one chotch key away, one artifact away.
Speaker 2: Very good use of the word shotski.
Speaker 1: By the way, thank you. We're gonna do that coming
up on the program. All right, So with all the
promo stuff out of the way, let's get to the
meat and potatoes of what we're doing. And by the way,
there's going to be another reminder of why you need
to go to the YouTube page later on in the
program stand by, So first up it is here. We
have reached fight weekend for Chris Eubank Junior and Connor
Ben middleweight showdown in London, much anticipated for the better
part now of what over two years, with Ben having
failed a drug test right before all of this was
supposed to go on two years ago. So now they
have finally gotten everything ironed out two and a half
years ago. Ben is now eligible to fight Bank and
we're doing it in London on dizone on pay per view.
And confirm this just right away straight out. It is
a pay per view in the United States. It is
not on free to zone. You touched on this the
other night, well, because again we got to be careful
because with Turkey Alashicon and hiszone, they went on and
on leading up to whatever Saudi fight card that was
that it was regular to zone until they suddenly said, oh,
by the way, we've decided it's pay per view.
Speaker 2: I can't I can't tell you what they're going to
do on the morning of the fight right now and
all along it is a DI zone pay per view.
Speaker 1: And okay, and so if you're going to see it.
You have to do the dizone pay per view for
this battle. But there's bad blood and there's longtime history
of the dads having fought, and so we realized this
a bit. We got a lot of fans in the UK.
There's a big deal in the UK for this family
grudge match. That's a couple of extra years in the
making because of the controversy of the Connor band failed
drug test that canceled the fight and then has delayed
some two and a half two years plus. All right,
so let's get into it. They are promoting I saw
some of the press conference earlier on Thursday where they
were talking it up or whatever it was it Wednesday
or Thursday, My days went together. They were talking it
up and we get ready for this to now actually happen.
So Dan, give me some thoughts as there's a lot
of subplot, a lot of subplot to beIN versus Ubank Junior.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a long time coming, and I've thought
about this for a while, ever since this fight was made,
even before it was canceled back a couple of years ago,
about how I was trying to think to myself, like
what fight has gotten more hype and has more bad
blood and has more interest in Britain anyway, or from
like their group of people of a non title fight
that I could ever think of, And I can't think
of a bigger non title fight in recent times, you know,
fifteen or twenty years, let's say, where the passion is
so deep for that group, that fan base that it's
completely irrelevant if it's for a title or not. You know,
in in essence, they're fighting for the championship of each other,
They're fighting for the championship of the family.
Speaker 1: We would relate the Gotti Ward fights didn't have to
be title fights in the United States? Is there like
a rule?
Speaker 2: But no, Matt. Look all due respect to Goddy Ward.
I mean, you'll never find me to disparage those fights.
I don't care what you did. They would never sell
sixty five thousand tickets for that fight.
Speaker 1: Interesting, right, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: This is it sold out Tottenham Hotspur Arena in London.
And it's because not only have they created their own
era of bad blood and rivalry and people wanting to
see them do damage to each other over the last
couple of years, but it all started because of the
legendary aspect of what their fathers did. Now, if you
go back now, I don't know. Now, there may be
a lot of folks that listen to the show are
interested in this fight between their sons who maybe don't
they know the dadspot, but they never maybe actually watched
those fights. Now, the first fight was not even televised
in the United States, but it's readily available on YouTube.
That was a tremendous battle, and that was Chris Ubank
scoring a ninth round knockout against Nigel Band in a
small upset to win the WBO middleweight title. Now, that
was at a time where the WBO was really not
considered to be that big of a deal. It was
more of a big deal in the UK than it
was in the United States. But it was still a
tremendous fight, you know, and obviously begfor rematch it didn't
you know, they both fought several times post that they
had the rematch in nineteen ninety three. That was a
huge deal. Now it's a super middleweight and it's a
WBCWBO super middleweight title bout, a unification fight, I guess.
But the thing about it was that was such a
big deal. Then you had Don King and you had
Frank Warren working together to do that event as a
co promotion, and you know, both guys had held their
belts for a while. They met to unify, drew a
gigantic crowd and it was another tremendous battle and it
turned out to be a draw. So there was controversy
there and they never did fight the third time. So
now you got their sons going into it with each other.
So you Bank, you know whose father was one oh
to one looking to sort of uphold and extend the
family domination if you will, over the Ben. So you
got Connor Ben, who's moving up in weight. He's been
a welterweight, fought his last two fights and the junior
middleweight division, but going up to uh, the middleweight middleweight
class for this fight to try to, you know, get
the family first win if you will over a U Bank.
And you know all you got to do is spend
five seconds watching any of their interactions or or their
the videos or whatever they've done at the various events.
Speaker 1: Smashing an egg on somebody's cheek at the press conference.
So Bank Junior did the Ben.
Speaker 2: They really really both want this badly now Connor Ben
to me anyway, and I'm not in their minds or
their bodies or anything like that. Seems to me he
not to say you Bank doesn't really want this. I mean,
he's just I think more of a more of a calm,
reserved person. Egg Smash notwithstanding, Connor Ben, in my experience
of watching him and listening to him and having interviewed him,
he tends to let his emotions hang out a bit
more than you banked us. So he's kind of really
wound up about this fight. He's in unbelievable condition. I
do believe he's clean for this fight because they've been
testing them like crazy over the last time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there are few guarantees in life, you know,
death taxes, ray Field is going to be crotchy in
the morning, and Connor Ben's off whatever to make sure
this fight's gonna happen. So maybe I'm a little punchy,
But can I just go back to egg Smash on
the face? Notwithstanding, did you ever think you and out
of that? On a podcast.
Speaker 2: Over the course of Ubank's career, he's always come off
as a much more chill, reserve kind of guy, at
least in his public demeanor, and Connor is to me
much more tightly wound up and much more emotional about
things obviously when the fight starts. You know, one of
the key factors in my mind about fighters who can
reach the very top and become elite is their ability
to control their emotions. That's a huge part of it,
to stay calm, to stay poised in the crucible of
the battle, so to speak. And we'll see, if you know,
both of them can do that come Saturday, because there's
gonna be a huge crowd there. There's a lot I
think both guys feel a lot of pressure from their
fan bases from there, you know, because of their fathers. Now,
the father situation is kind of crazy. In this one.
You've got Nigel ben who's not his son's trainer or
anything like that, but has got a relationship with him,
has been there at some of the press conferences, going
to be their ringside and clearly showing tremendous support for
his son. Where you have Chris Hubank Senior, who has
in the past been heavily involved in his son's career
but hasn't in recent times. And not only is he
not supposedly not going to be there and hasn't attended
any of the fight activities in the promotion or the
fight week that I'm aware of. He's gone out and
done interviews saying that he doesn't support the fight and
he doesn't want it to happen, and basically putting it
in a situation where it's one thing if you don't
want the fight to happen, but to go out there
and say the things he's been saying during the lead
up to the fight, let's around with his son's mind.
Speaker 1: And I was gonna say, let's back up, so you
Bank Senior was very outspoken in and around the time
of the positive drug test that they should not make
this fight. That is a cheater, blah blah blah blah blah.
So this is not to hype the fight. He genuinely
doesn't I'm asking you, he genuinely doesn't want anything to
do with this because he apparently genuinely believes his son
should not be fighting a drug cheat who has scored
some spectacular knocked out and he's concerned for safety and
whatever else.
Speaker 2: I hardly because of the weight rehydration situation. Remember, they
have the fights that when they did the first deal
before it got canceled. I forget what the exact way,
the exact weight was. It was in the like mid
to high one fifties. This fight now is a one
to sixty max on the weight you know at the
weigh in, but they have an agreement where it's a
ten pound rehydration clause. They're basically following the IBF rules,
even though this is not in IBA fight. So they
have to weigh in no more than one sixty on
the way in day, and then on Saturday morning they
will have to go back and reweigh and at that
weigh in that's the second day weigh in. Neither man
can be more than one hundred and seventy pounds, not
an issue for Connor Benmore coming up from welterweight, but
you Bank has consistently rehydrated heavier than that, so there's
some concern that he won't make the weight. If they
don't make the weight, there's obviously a tremendous penalty. It's
like five hundred thousand dollars a pound if he misses weight.
I mean, that's that's not insignificant.
Speaker 1: So so you Bank Senior has legitimate concerns. Well, no,
I would not you bowed all this. I'm not going
to use the word legitimate. Well, but I mean, if
he's saying he has said on the record, I heard
him say this more than a year ago, he should
not be fighting this guy because this guy is a cheater,
and he was.
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about a year ago. I'm talking about now.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, and if now the rehydration thing is part
of it, that would make sense as to why he's
not involved. I'm just saying on my end that one.
Speaker 2: I also think that Chris you Banks Senior, who I've
met on a few occasions and was the hell of
a fighter, is just an odd bird. He just an
unusual and there's.
Speaker 1: Some belief, well, we'll use another Southern phrase, his cheese
may have fallen off his cracker to an extent because
he's been beating up a bunch and it's long ago,
and it's he's older. I don't know. I don't know,
but it's interesting that he's not part of it. Now,
let's pick it up on this point two points number one.
How big a factor Connor Bean moving up the middleweight
when he primarily was fighting at one point seven. That's
gotta be an issue. A factor in this fight. I'm
saying that, what do you.
Speaker 2: Say, I mean, it's a factor maybe based on the
punching power. I mean, the skills are going to be
the skills. I don't think the weight's going to have
that huge of an impact that. I say that because
having just watched a bunch of his videos where he's
shown like how he's you know, the workouts and the
sparring and hitting the bag like he still has that
snappy quickness to him. He's still going to be a
faster fighter in the ring. He doesn't carry the power
in my opinion, Look the drug situation, one would draw
the inference that if you were using peds, whether it
was on purpose or by accident, that it's going to
help you improve your power. That goes without saying performance enhancing.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: Now, if you take a look at the fights that
Connor Benn has had since the drug situation happened and
he got suspended, remember he didn't fight for a while
from April of twenty twenty two until September of twenty
twenty three. He didn't fight. That was in the period
of time where he was just off. They made the
U Bank fight and it got canceled, and then he
was having all kinds of issues, you know, as they
were going through the litigation, if you will, of his
case with the British regulators. He then was able to
get a license to fight in the United States on
a technicality, and so he had two fights in September
of twenty three and February of twenty four. He came here.
He won two fights against regular type opponents, Raphael Arosco
and Peter Dobson, you know, not elite contender types. Went
the route with both guys, one in a ten rounder,
one in a twelve rounder, and never one time did
he show any semblance of real punching power against guys
who are a step down.
Speaker 1: And junior middleweights, not even middleweight.
Speaker 2: They weren't even full Like the Dobson fight he was
one there was I think it was like a one
to fifty. One was the contract weight. They both were
like one fifty. The Eurosco fight was a full fifty
four pound fight. But the fight before that, which was
obviously before the layoff, he was fighting like not superstar
top contenders, but guys who were far more reputable, let's say,
than the guys he fought at junior middleweight Chris van
Heerden was a decent contender, drilled him in two rounds.
Chris al Jery, a former junior welterweight champion. Granted he
was fighting him as a welterweight, but he put Chris
Algery out in the fourth round with one of the
most spectacular knockoutsgo bomb right hand. A couple of fights
before that. In twenty twenty one, he thought the well
experienced Samuel Vargas, who had fought some good guys, absolutely
iced him in the first round. Like that power ain't there.
You know, Steve Jamoy who is like a decent contender
even though he didn't have, you know, a big reputation,
but had fought some good opponents, you know, had a
bunch of losses, but still put him out in the
fourth round. That power. Again, I don't know this for
a fact, but it wouldn't be out of the realm
to say, hey, if a guy was using peds, maybe
that's why he's getting those kind of knockouts. And when
he stopped using peds, whether it's on purpose or by accident,
the power is not there. So now you go to middleweight,
you're fighting a legitimate professional quality opponent Chris Ubank, who's
been in the ring with lots of good guys. He's
taken a couple of losses, only stopped one time, you know,
coming off the win against Zara Metta, where he punished
him and easily knocked him out. But before that he
had split the two fights with Liam Smith. But the rematch,
you know, he looked really good in that fight to
avenge the knockout loss that he took to Smith earlier
in twenty twenty three. And you question if you didn't
have the power at one fifty four against you know,
normal type opponents, and you look at the knockouts a
welterweight that you suspect may have been because of peds.
We don't know for sure. Obviously, how's he going to
do when you suspect he's going to be clean because
of all the testing, and you're fighting at another higher
way class and by the way, your opponent is a
bona fide world class type of vice.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, so there's a lot of question mark,
all right, So one more question on this, then we're
going to move along to the to the rest of
the card, et cetera. You go back and you watch
the beginning of Fight one with the Dads now thirty
five years ago, and it's on. It's not to the
level of Hagler Hearns, but I mean they're throwing bombs
right away. Do you anticipate we may see that? Are
we likely to see that? Sorry night where they come
out and it's not. Let's test some things, let's go slow,
feel out process, check the range with the jab.
Speaker 2: You think I always I always like to think that,
no matter how dicey and how nasty and how acrimonious
a build up, is that the guys who are doing
the boxing are professionals and that they understand that it
doesn't make sense just run us out there and just
you know, throw everything caution to the wind right off
the bat. But you would have probably said that a
guy like a Hagler or Hearns also you know, seasoned
professional champions, and they just didn't wait. So I really
don't know the answer. I could see them dumbing out
and being uh not, I would say cautious but smart,
you know, seeing what's out, seeing what's up, and knowing
it's a long fight, knowing you got twelve rounds and
not trying to get it over with them thirty seconds.
But given the deep, deep, deep nature of this build up,
and there are times where I've watched fights and you
know that the stuff that's going on between the fighters
is just to hype the fight, I guess. And while
that's probably part of this, I do believe there's a deep.
Speaker 1: There Erke in particular.
Speaker 2: And it goes back thirty five years to the fathers.
Speaker 1: Yes, in particular. You bank you're jilted the week of
the fight by Ben flunking the drug tests, and I.
Speaker 2: Mean the bad blood between the dads was amazing. Now,
I mean again, you should go back people who didn't
see this when this is how big the first fight
between them was, or maybe I forget it was the
first part of the second fight, but whatever it was.
They did the contract signing, it's like it was like WWE.
They did the contract signing live on television in the UK,
and they sat the next to each other, and I
swear you can find them. I've watched the video on YouTube.
They won't even look at each other. They're like slightly
sitting to the side and talking to the to the moderator,
but they won't even acknowledge.
Speaker 1: The genuine heat yehue.
Speaker 2: So to answer the question, I really have no idea.
I could see them as intelligent fighters, knowing what's at stake,
not wanting to risk anything, uh, at least in the
beginning to go out there cautious to try to see
what's in front of them. But then maybe the the
the animosity, the the long wait to try to get
hands on each other is just too much to overcome,
and they just go out there and bomb away.
Speaker 1: And the atmosphere because again we'll elymphasize sixty five thousand
in a soccer or football stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, it's
going to be electric.
Speaker 2: Lit, and the atmosphere we got sixty five drunk Brits.
You can't really kind of escape that.
Speaker 1: It's going to be off art let's see, all right,
So that again, that will be very intriguing for Saturday night.
We remind you that we did not have a bet
us live show last week because the Easter weekend and
holiday for their crew. We will handicap this fight. Ben
and U Bank with predictions one Eastern time on Friday.
First mention of that one Eastern time on the bet
Us platforms, YouTube, Twitter, et cetera for Ben and U Bank.
So on the undercard, we've got a guy that's intertwined
with U Bank in that he scored a shocking stoppage
of U Bank in their first fight, but then U
Bank knocked him out in the revenge fight. That's Liam Smith.
Liam Smith fighting an undefeated, not well known outside the
UK fighter named Aaron McKenna, an Irish fighter. And then
I've got to say the more intriguing I think on
the undercard is the two light heavyweights, Anthony Yard and
Lyndon Arthur fighting for a third time. They both recently
have challenged in the last couple of years for world titles.
Grudge match for them, So what else on the undercard
stands out to you well?
Speaker 2: With Smith and McKenna. McKenna actually he's an Irish fighter,
but he fought a lot of fights for the first
part of his career in the United States on a
prospect on an undercard because he was with Golden Boy
for a while and he was with Freddie Roach for
a while. So if you paid attention to those shows,
you definitely have seen McKenna. But he's developing. He's nineteen
to zero, and this is like the This is like
what they say in the business, at the Crossroads fight.
You got the young guy who's like twenty five years
old and undefeated prospect trying to make his way up
the ladder. This is the first time he's going to
be taken on like a top notch like well known,
you know, legit guy in Liam Smith, who's a former
champion at one hundred and fifty four pounds now is
fighting at one sixty for the last couple of years
and has had some success there. Even though you mentioned
he got knocked out by U Bank in the rematch.
So his big win since he's been at middleweight came
in January of twenty twenty three, which was when he
surprisingly Even if you thought he would win the fight,
I don't think anybody thought he's gonna just knock out
you Banked and do it early, which he did. He
had him down twice and it was a legit stoppage
stopped him in the fourth round. They had an immediate
rematch that took place later that year September of twenty three,
and in that particular fight, the tables were reversed and
U Bank ultimately knocked him out in the tenth round. Now,
if if you believe Liam Smith, he's been talking about
how look, I know I was horrible in that fight.
You want to say whatever you want, but here's the deal.
I came into that fight, I was ill, probably shouldn't
have fought the fight, and it showed him my performance.
I'll take him at his word, not to say that
the result would have been any different. But if you're ill,
you're ill. So he hasn't fought though in nineteen months
since that fight. Ye. So now he's coming in the
ring against McKenna, who's stepping up to fight his first
you know, let's call him his first, like no notable
opponent of his career. I've looked over his record and
he's fought absolutely nobody at this point. And so, you know,
this is what's the old saying TJ. It's where the
rubber hits the road. Right, one guy's either either either
people are going to leave the weekend probably saying McKenna
it was not all that that people were making out
to be, or others will look at it. If if
Smith does what he's supposed to do and say he
just beat a good prospect and he's back on track
and he can contend in a middleweight division TJ by
the way, where we've talked many times that does not
have stars. And keep in mind, by the way we
talked about how the main event between you Bank and
Ben is a non title fight, it's still the biggest
fight in the division because the guys that have belts
don't have that kind of massive follow We've discussed the
Jane beec his lack of popularity or or you know,
a fan base, least in the United States. I can't
speak to how it is in terms of where he
is from in Kazakhstan. But the middleweight division, you know,
not a big deal. Laura, nobody is not doesn't have
a fan base really and doesn't fight very frequently. Carlos
a damas good fighter, but again doesn't fight. So the
guys that have had the bigger names in the division,
you know Shiraz who's now moving up in wait, but
the next biggest names are U Bank and I guess
now Ben who's joining the middleweight division. But Liam Smith
has been as stalwart over the last couple of years,
and he's a well known fighter, and he does have
a fan base. So this is a big This is
a big moment for both of Liam Smith and or
Aaron McKennon, because the winner is moving on for different reasons.
McKenna can emerge from prospect status with a win over
a very respected fighter like Liam Smith. And of Lilliam
Smith wins, he's puts himself back on track after a
rough loss in the U Bank rematch to Uh. You know,
mix with anybody at middleweight. You know, let's say Connor
Ben wins. Maybe he decides they want us do the fight.
Even though Connor has talked about winning this fight at
middleweight and returning to the welterweight division. I believe that
one I see it.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: So that's that's the intrigue of the co feature. And
you mentioned about Anthony Yard and Lyndon Arthur. This is
like a weird This is a weird one because they've
had the trilogy and they split the two fights. So
if you go back to twenty twenty, this was like
a big shocker. This was like for the Commonwealth title,
which is very traditional in Britain, and you had Lyndon
Arthur and Uh and UH and already having their fight
and it turned out that Yard lost by a split decision. Now,
one thing about Yard is most of the time when
he's in the ring, he's knocking guys out or getting
knocked out. So for him to even go the route,
you know, it was a little surprising. He's only been
the route twice in his whole career in twenty six wins,
you know, and obviously in three three losses, but two
of them by knockout. He's like a feast or famine
kind of guy. He's either fighting like nobody type opponents
or he's fighting the top guys like he fought two
world title fights. He got stopped by, you know, by
COVID eleven, a world title fight back a few years ago.
He got iced by Arthur better Be having a really
good fight for the light heavyweight title back in twenty
twenty three. But anyway, when they did the rematch against Arthur,
he did knock him out in the fourth round. That
was in twenty twenty one. So now you go a
few more years down the road, and for whatever reason
is they're one and one, maybe there's a movement to
see them have you know, a rubber match because they're
one and one and Lyndon Arthur he's got two losses,
not really fought the top guys. He did. You know
Liam Cameron, who we talked about will beat, who had
had that draw with Ben Whitaker and then got knocked
out by him over this past weekend. He just beat
him in his last fight, but that was a split decision.
He didn't really look particularly great in that fight. In
the fight before that was his biggest fight of his career.
He got absolutely whitewashed one to one oh seven and
got knocked down challenging Dmitri biebo For who was at
the time the WBA light heavyweight champion. So this is
like one of those toss up kind of fights where
you know, I think I like Yard to do the
job because you know, the split decision was real close.
He did score the knockout. Arthur has not really been
uh look strong, let's say, in his other fights, even
though he does have the win. So you know, whatever
we'll see they're fighting for to see who wins this
particular they.
Speaker 1: Are staying there was a championship relevant potentially, that's one
of them. The winner of this fight stays relevant for
right now in the light heavyweight division. And I think, uh,
and again we fully understand you and I are Americans.
Were doing this in the United States. This is a
bigger deal in UK for these two and it's in
front of what will be a building sixty five thousand
at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So let's let's see what happens
sing and what else. Chris Billem Smith returns off the
loss to Zerdo Ramirez, right.
Speaker 2: He yeah, he got one else. He lost the decision
into to Zerto back in November. That was to unify
the WBA and the WBO titles at cruiserweight, and he
lost the decision, but he got beat up pretty good
in that fight against Zero. That was the Latino Night
cardon read of course, because if you're having a Mexican
fight against a brit you gotta do the unification on Latino.
Speaker 1: Yeah, on Latina Night. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he's he's trying to bounce back from that after that.
Not a long lay off, only about five six months.
He's fighting Brandon Glanton, who was twenty and two with seventeen.
He's an American fighter, doesn't have big names on his record,
has a couple of losses, but against guys you wouldn't
even recognize their names. This seems like it's a I'm
not going to say it's an easy fight because Bill Smith,
you know, oftentimes, no matter who the opponent doesn't make
it really that easy on himself. But this is clearly
designed to get Bill and Smith back into the mix
in a cruiserweight title fight. It'll be up to Glanton
to see if he can deal with a guy with
a lot more experience against a better caliber of opponent.
And obviously you're fighting in Bill Smith's home country where
he's going to be the big crowd favorite. And the
other fight that's on the card, which again this is
more of a you know, it's a very British center card. Obviously,
this is a cruiserweight fight between the dal Riley who
is twelve and zero seven, who has been getting a
tremendous amount of hype from boxer. He's taken on chev Clark,
who just has the one loss, who's ten and one,
but he's coming off of a split decision where he
lost in a europe for the European title. So these
are guys who are at a certain level in the
British hierarchy, if you will, who are really looking to
take the next step, and the guy that wins this
will be successful in that particular endeavor and the loser
obviously takes a big step backwards.
Speaker 1: All right, Again, we will handicap the main event, will
also handicap the Yard Arthur fight on the bet Us
Boxing Show coming at one Eastern time on that that's
the biggest primary fight card worldwide.
Speaker 2: Really the only fight cardute this weekend, right.
Speaker 1: Of this weekend. So we'll have more on that. All right,
So to the fight news as we progress along here
on the pod. Hey, I thought that Gervante Davis and
Lamont Roach were rare to go, ready to go for
June and June twenty first specifically, But I crack open
my Dan Raphael substack the fight for each Unite substack
earlier this week. And wait a minute, not so fast,
my friend, we are now not fighting in June. And
what's going on? What happened here? And why is the
fight now going to be later in the summer? Apparently?
Speaker 2: What do we know? Well, they were looking at June
twenty first, It wasn't like official, They had never announced
a date. They were on the agenda for the Nevada
State up Atic Commission meeting to have that date at
the Tmobile Arena for a pay per view, but that's
not necessarily indicative that it will happen. Because promoters request
dates all the time, it's usually a good indicator, but
it doesn't officially mean it's happening. And for whatever the reason,
the way it was said to me was that they
just weren't ready yet to do the fight that soon.
But I was reassured by both sides that both guys
are in. Both guys have agreed that that the pape,
you know, there was a rematch clause, so the terms
are already laid out. Everything was set for that, So
now it's just a matter of as PBC pieces together
their summer schedule. They will not do the fight on
June twenty first, and they plan to do this fight
on some date that is to be determined in July
or I guess, probably still in Vegas, although I'm told
it's possible they may go elsewhere, but you can I
would say it's probably a good bet that'll be in Vegas.
And they're planning out the rest of their other events
for the summer pay per views that you know could
include but not necessarily you know, they're talking about doing
possibly doing the the the Uh, the Tim Zoo, and
Keith Thurman fight, which has been heavily discussed. There's the
possibility of them doing Fundora Fundora in the Mandatory Science SIUs.
But there's also been some conversation that because Fundora, I mean,
I'd rather Zoo when he lost to Fundora, he had
the right to a rematch, but it didn't have to
be next there could be an intervening bout, and you
have had Fundor take his intervening bout now, which was
the win over Courtnel Booker a few weeks ago. So
there's a possibility that they made dispense with the Therman fight,
and if Zdow wants to have the rematch, that may
be a possibility. If that happens, probably Fundora would have
to give up the WBO title because he's owed the
he was the mandatory Disaander's eyes. So the point is
there's a lot of stuff in PBC land that's not
one hundred percent squared away and settled in. So they're
working through all that. But I believe, based on everything
I have talked to again on both sides, that Roach
and Tank will happen. It's just a matter it's not
if it's when, whether it be July or August. And
you know, having fights get backed up a little bit
is never a surprise in this business. App off, this
is this When I hear original dates like June twenty first,
the first thing in my mind is, okay, it's not
gonna be June twenty first, Right when when the fight
was over, Remember at the postfight press cards, after they
had that very controversial draw, you had Tank Davis saying
he'd like to get back in the ring in May.
I'm like, settled down, it's not happened. It's not happening
in May June. Maybe I always sort of thought it
would get pushed a little bit deeper.
Speaker 1: Tay, but Tank Denis kept saying he's gonna fight three
times in twenty twenty five. We're running out of twenty
twenty five if you don't fight till like August, and
all right, so just elaborate for one more moment and
then we'll move on. Is it a question that they
may not fight in Vegas? Because remember you went to
Great Links and we talked about it. It made sense
this fight might make more sense to be in Baltimore's
slash Washington, DC. But instead they didn't even end up
fighting there for the first fight they fought in New
York at the Barkley Center. Is it an issue with
where the fight might be.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think that. I don't think the venue
is the issue. I mean, I think they still are
like to look at not the venue.
Speaker 1: But just maybe they're thinking of fighting in DC or Baltimore,
is what I thought.
Speaker 2: I had not heard that. I mean, I personally would
love to see that, but I don't think that's the case.
I just feel like they know that from a financial perspective,
there's a lot more money to be made in Vegas
and in either DC or Baltimore. Even though either venue
in Baltimore or DC would generate a lot of money.
The problem in d C is they can't go to
the Capitol One Arena, which is, you know, Washington d
C's downtown version of like you know the Madison Square
Gardener Crypto in LA. It's where the Wizards play, where
the Capitols play Georgetown basketball. But right now that building
is essentially closed for the summer because it's undergoing like
an eight hundred million dollar renovation. When you know, not
to bog down in Washington and Virginia politics, but I'm
familiar with it because I live in the area. There
was a time when our governor of Virginia was looking
to do a deal to build a new, big arena
for those franchises and do it in northern Virginia, which
which is like, I don't want that in my neighborhood,
so get out of here, And it ended up getting
shot down.
Speaker 1: Our local field was lobbying against it. He was paying
a lobbyists against that.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, not in my backyard, as they say.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And then, by the way, d C is a great
city and they have a you know, the the arena
needs some renovation, but it's in a great area of
the city. There's plenty around there to do it's it's lively.
Uh you know, it's it's in the Chinatown area. It's
sort of not that far from the White House anyway.
So in the end they worked at a deal where
they got that project out of Potomac Yards, which is
where they were trying to do this new facility, and
they did. They made a deal with the city where
they're going to renovate that arena and that renovation is
going to largely happen over the summer, so that counted
out that arena as a possible host for this, uh,
this rematch. So yeah, it's probably gonna still wind up
in Vegas, but you never know if somebody comes up
with a reason or financial reason to go elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And so stay tuned on what they announced, and that's
gonna dovetail into your reporting that Top Rank and PBC
have been discussing and it looks like it may be
part whenever it happens of Tank Roach, the rematch and
the call did O'shaki Foster and Steven Fulton are gonna fight?
So what else have you learned this week about Foster
and Stephen Fulton unified a situation? Well, actually, uh, Foster's
junior lightweight champion, uh and Fulton is the featherweight champion.
What else have you learned? And is it for sure?
Nothing's ever for sure, but is it very likely it's
going to be part of the Tank Roach card.
Speaker 2: So I've ditched and moan on this show before that
I'm annoyed that Top Rank because they had the opportunity
with guys in an optional period where they could have
done the unification between O'shaki Foster and Emmanuel Naverette, who
both hold one hundred and thirty pounds titles. They promote
both guys, so it's contrasting styles. Both guys have said
they want unification and instead they matched Naverette with a
guy you never heard of and O'shaki didn't have anything
lined up, and again both guys were in an optional period.
As it turns out, one of the fights that they've
been talking about with PBC, who they're also talking about.
You know, I mentioned Fondora versus Eyes is another top
rank PBC kind of show, and they've made the point that,
you know, when it makes sense, they're going to try
to work with each other a bit more so. They
they have made a deal for Foster to defend against Fulton.
Now Fulton, he has had a title at one twenty two.
In November he won or no, when was it February
that he won the WBC title at featherweight. He moved
up and had the rematch with Brandon with Brandon Figueroa,
and he won that fight, so he became a three
division champion. That was February first, that was on one
of the you know, the pay per views out in Vegas.
He doesn't want to stick around and defend that title,
so he wants to go up to one thirty. So
they were able to come to an agreement to do
this fight where where they would have him go up
and fight Oshaki Foster, and they are sort of penciling
that in. Again, it's not done yet, it's not signed yet.
This is just what the plan is, but the fighters
and the companies are on board to do the fight
and PBC would like to do the match, and Top
Rank is amenable to having the bout take place as
the co feature when Lamont Roach and Gervonta Davis have
the rematch. And it's sort of an interesting situation because
in that fight, you have Fulton featherweight going up one
way class to try to win a title in another
way class, so he's a reigning title or at featherweight
challenging at one thirty, and in the main event, you
have a one to thirty champion in Roach, you know,
fighting against again at one thirty five trying to win
that title. So it's, you know, two guys from champions
in one way class, both moving up to win or
to try to win a title another weak clas I
thought that would be for Roach the second in a
row because he had the draw in the first fight.
But again, they still got to go through. They got
to figure out one hundred percent when the fight's going
to take place. That may dictate what happens with Foster
and Fulton, but the fact is they have a deal.
And you know, anytime you have two world champions fighting
each other, even if they're from different weight classes, it's
not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: There is intrigue, and they're down the road on that.
Speaker 2: I still rather have seen Navarette against Foster.
Speaker 1: Though I'm with you on that. I have I have
long thought that Navarante should be in bigger, better fights,
but we aren't charge of that. We can't wave the
magic wand are continuing. We have news from the IBF
and Daniel Dubois and the IBF says, okay, the mandatory
fight with Derek, Oh god, I can't say it straight.
Voye Derek Chasa is supposed to happen. But there is
a butt here. Fill in the butt please, Dan Rayfield.
Speaker 2: Okay. This is not in any way a surprise. This
was expected. The IBF said this would take place. They
just hit the time on the calendar and the IBF
it's like they set that shit in their phone alerts,
and as soon as the deadline hits, the Championship committee
guys send out the notifications to start negotiations. So like clockwork,
on April twenty second, the was mandatory became due, so
as soon as that happened, they sent out the official notification,
and it so happened that number two, Derek Chasaura was
the highest available contender and try to follow. It's a
little confusing, but I as I've said before, I've read
the rule book. I know the rules, and it's like
I'm the guy that reads the box top you're playing
the board game.
Speaker 1: I knowed that before go ahead.
Speaker 2: In the IBF they endeavored to do an elimination fight
to determine the mandatory. But if the clock expires before
that fight's gotten to be arranged, whoever is the highest
ranked guy gets the spot as the mandatory. So in
this case they were supposed to do. If you remember,
the IBF had sanctioned Martin Bacoley against Faa Jagba that
was going to be the eliminator to the German number
one and who was going to be the next official challenger.
But when Bacoley got knocked the fuck out, he was
out of the picture. They're still doing the fight on
the Canelo Alvarez and Williams skullcard next week, but it's
no longer obviously going to be an IBF eliminator because
the ibf' is not going to Sanctent after Bacoley walked
away from their order and took a fight with another
organization and also got knocked out, So that was the
eliminator fight. And before this time frame expired to get
the elimination fight done, there was no time to schedule
that fight. So now the clock expires, and lo and behold,
there is Derek Tasaur riding a three fight win streak
against decent guys, actually Joe you know, he beat Joe Joyce,
he beat Gerald Washington. He just beat Otto Valleying, so
he as the highest available contender in the IBF rankings,
got the mandatory spot. I know it's pissing people off.
I'm not loving it either. I'm just explaining to you
the mechanism by which it happened, according to.
Speaker 1: The ore's one other variable, and I'm looking this up
while you and I are talking on them.
Speaker 2: Let me let me finish why what the story is
with this all right? Yeah, you all those who are
worried that this fight is gonna happen and that SWA
doesn't deserve the title shot, everybody just relaxed. It ain't
gonna happen. That's like a ninety nine percent because because
because Queensberry Promotions is the promoter for TASAA, they're also
the promoter for Daniel Dubois. Daniel Dubois is deep. Both
sides are deep and nearly done, not done yet, but
getting there. Between Usik and Dubois to do a remash.
It would take place in July at Wembley Stadium. That
would once again be for the undisputed title that Usik
already had won but was forced to vacate the IBF
because he was already contractorally obligated to the Tyson Furior
rematch and the IBF, you know, does IBF things, So
that fight is probably going to get done and happen.
And the reason why he doesn't have to worry about
the mandatory is because one of the IBF rules that
I love, even though there's a lot that I don't,
says that if you want to do a unification fight,
that will take precedence over a mandatory fight with the
caveat though is you have to make that request before
the purspit is ordered. So when they sent out that
letter saying that the two sides between Cheshora and Duwa
should begin negotiations and gave them thirty days, now the
clock is ticking, so they have thirty days max to
get the deal done for Usak and Dua, so we
can go to the IBF a request an exception. Because
as soon as that expires and that thirty days is
up and the IBF sends out the letter saying, now
you haven't reached an agreement, here's the deal on a purspit.
Now his window to ask for the exception is expired
and he will not be allowed to do that. Now
he could still fight Lusik in the rematch, but the
IBF title would become vacant.
Speaker 1: And that's the whole reason that Usik wants to fight
him again basically is to become undisputed again because he
beat him the first time. I'm just saying.
Speaker 2: And the biggest reason why it's not an issue is
because Frank Warren promotes both guys, so he doesn't have
to worry about another rogue promoter who is promoting Chesa,
you know, messing up the deal for the.
Speaker 1: The Okay, now you explained all that beautifully. Now I'm
gonna get to my point. The stupidity, the stewgury of
the IBF having Derek rank as their second best heavyweight
is why we're in this mess in the first place.
Speaker 2: You know this.
Speaker 1: I'm not lecturing.
Speaker 2: I agree, but let me can I just make one correction? Sure,
and everybody should always remember this and understand this. Whenever
you look at boxing rankings, it's not that they consider
this fighter second best, third best. It's availability and if
they meet certain criteria of having fought in those types
of device.
Speaker 1: I being the IBF, He's number has the number two,
and it's not the number two that you and I
know or that number two. They have the number two
next to Derek Chasaura's name. They don't have it next
to Philip Hergovich's name, or Faa Jagma's name, or even
some of the young up and comers like Moses Atama
or somebody else. They have it next to Derek Chasaura's name.
Speaker 2: I must submit to you that's Derek Chasa is more
qualified to fight for heavyweight tittle than Moses Atama.
Speaker 1: Well that might be, but if Moses Atama fought Derek Gesra,
you ain't taking Chasra and I'm not either, So you
can talk about more qualified right now, I get it.
So Okay, We've spent a lot of time on this,
and the most important thing is what you said there
towards the end. This doesn't matter anyway because Dubois is
going to end up fighting Usik and Chosaura is gonna
be okay with it because they'll compensate him, get him
another fight. And Chasaur is forty years old, am I
not mistaken? And he's taken brain damage from other fights
and other losses, including Tyson Fury turning him into an
ever last bag. He turned him into a punching bag
when he fought for the WBC time. All right, so
we have all that cover, uh, Moving on in the news.
Speaking of idiocy, Let's talk about the WBA.
Speaker 2: That's one of your great segues of all time.
Speaker 1: I try, you said earlier in the pod Hall of
Fame line smashing an egg on someone's face. Notwithstanding, now
I say, speaking of idiocy, let's talk about the WBA
and Raphael I'm coming with I'm coming with two fists
on this. Figuratively, what is this crap about. We have
to have a vacant regular title fight for Ryan Garcia
and Roly Romero for the WBA's vacant regular title. The
WBA champion is Jaron Ennis from a couple of weeks ago,
not last year, not last year, from a couple of
weeks ago. You don't have to have a vacant regular champion,
and you you need to bang the drum that you have,
use the hammer of Thoor and keep calling them out
about this stupidity and this stewgury of secondary titles which
they said years ago, years ago, that they were doing
away with, and they are more than demonstrating, for whatever reason,
financial corruption, whatever you want to call it, they're going
to keep having these regular titles. You should keep You
should blast louder.
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous, longer on it. They're doing this because they
were asked if they would sanction this fight. They want
to give they meaning the folks putting on the event,
Golden Boy Turkey, everybody involved, the ring magazine, to give
it some sort of gravitas whatever. Ryan Garcia is a
star name. I don't think he needs a title associated
with that.
Speaker 1: There isn't three people that are interested in this because
it's a vacant regular title.
Speaker 2: We know that I get it. So the bottom line
is and then, by the way, this is not a
surprise all along. This is always was going to be
for this belt. It's just that the WBA finally put
out the formal resolution announcing that yes, in fact, it
is sanctioned in outlining some parameters to that agreement. So
it will, for better or worse, this will be for
that belt. Down Let's go over a couple of things
about that. Besides even the preposterousness of the whole concept
of the secondary title is the fact that Ryan Garcia
getting this kind of opportunity is a sick, fucking joke. Okay,
I'd have no problem with the fighting roller Romero. That's
fine and dandy. Ryan Garcia is now one or two
days removed from the end of his suspension for ped
use that cost him a no contest, you know, a
victory into a no contest for the victory that changed
to no contest. He had a year ago against against
Devin Haney where he didn't even qualify to fight for
the belt that was at stake, which was the WBC's
junior welterweight title, because he was so over the over
the weight limit. So he's never had an actual welterweight fight.
Technically that was in the welterweight division, but this is
supposed to be the first row fight, so they're giving
him a title fight off of a no contest for
a drug suspension and having never fought a real fight
in the welterweight division. That's the first issue. The second
issue is even take a look at Roly Romero. Roly
Romero has since he got knocked out by Gervanta Davis
in a lightweight fight back in twenty twenty two, and
then moved up in weight had the highly controversial victory
against Ishmael Barroso you know, everybody's grandpa that he didn't
deserve the way the fight was stopped. He then in
his next fight and that got him a belt. In
his next fight, he lost that belt that one forty
by knockout against Isaac Cruz, and he looked absolutely horrible
in that fight in losing and being completely and utterly
dominated in the fight. So now he comes back in
September of last year still fighting at one hundred and
forty pounds, gets like a hu Hom ten round decision
over a regular opponent in Manuel Himes, and now moves
up to welterweight to get a world championship fight. So
he's lost two fights in his last four, both of
the losses by knockout, one at lightweight, one at junior welterweight.
Now moves up to fight for the welterweight belt, having
never fought in the welterweight division, against another guy who's
off a drug suspension, who's never fought in the welter.
Speaker 1: Wait, you want me to say it, what are we
doing here? Use the hammer of four and keep blasting
these pigs?
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Again I say that, by the way, it's not
an indictment of the bout. I've got no problem right
against roly Rimire is a perfectly fine fight of the.
Speaker 1: Zero significance in terms of the interim WB a regular.
But I mean, this is a joke.
Speaker 2: They particularly as you just said, we are what two
weeks removed from presentis knocking out Amanta Stanionis is.
Speaker 1: The WBA world champ end of story, is.
Speaker 2: Right, and become the ring champion. That's like emblematic as
you're the number one champ. So to get to the
factual information. Besides the WBA ridiculously making this a title fight,
which makes me what throw the fuck up? You have
them also making the official order. And this was not
unexpected either that Ennis now as the quote unquote super champion,
will Is ordered to fight his mandatory shot from Giasov,
which he inherited from Stanionis. But Giasov, who was undefeated,
was an Olympic medalist. He wont to fight on the
undercard when Stanionis and Drawn Ennis had their fight, so
he stepped aside. So he's next for Ennis. According to
the WBA, we'll see if they actually are able to
make the fight, And they further said the winner of
Ryan Garcia against Roly Romero and the winner of the
ordered fight between Boots Ennis and Giasof will be required
to fight each other in a mandatory bout because the
regular champions for the superimp And that's so well and good,
but I can tell you right now, if if Hainey
and Uh and Uh and Ryan Garcia take care of
their business and the Times Square card, then they fight
ain't happening next because in Saudi Arabia and we'll see
what happens with that. But the WBA, it just offends
me on so many levels. It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Use the hammer of thor and keep blasting them because
enough is a I mean, for example, and then we're
gonna move on real quick. Box Wreck has begun to
totally ignore the WBA Championships and has taken it completely
off their site.
Speaker 2: If that's not because of the stupid thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm just I'm just saying I'm applauding them because
if they're going to continue for whatever the reasons are,
including that them.
Speaker 2: I don't applaud them at all because it's supposed to
be a website for factual information. But we can, we
can piss and moan all we want, but I still
want to know what what fight is for what.
Speaker 1: But it's their website. And if they if they're going
to say you've so diluted, cheapened and whatever, and it's
not the reason they teach the reason saying to you,
it's got to be part of it. It's not okay,
Well you can litigate that at another time with me.
I'm just saying bravo at this point, because they've created
sham type situation.
Speaker 2: But hiding factual information on a website that is supposed
to be nonpartisans is not the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: It's their website again, the joke the right thing the
WBA does the thing. That's not the right thing to
do with what you just laid down and described over
and over and over again.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't make it unfactual.
Speaker 1: All right, So we went over all of that and that.
We'll have more on that for next weekend as Garcia
and Haini fight their separate Comain event fights and that
Times Square show the the Turkey al Chican the Saudis
are putting off in the Saudi Entertainment Authority. All right,
one more real quick Brian Norman speaking of actual welterweight champions,
he may be fighting a Japanese fighter next. Their discussions
going on. What have you found out?
Speaker 2: Well, he just had his first title defense. You remember
he came off the injury he fought Derek Wavis back
on March twenty ninth. In the first defense. He looked
really good, sharp as attack. No issues with the hand
that was surgically repaired, that had been dinged up that
caused him to delay this fight from late last years opponent.
He scored a good knockout in the third round, and
then the question was what's next. Maybe they would go
back and revisit the Boots and his fight. Uh that
that's still maybe happening. I don't know that, but it
seems unlikely given that nsn G as we both with Matchroom,
and that that's a mandatory fight. I don't think that
if Boots is going to stay at one forty seven,
he's going to suddenly want to give up one of
the belts that he works so hard to, you know,
get to be a unified champion. So I suspect he'll
go through with the mandatory not the worst fight in
the world. In the meantime, Top Rank and Brian Norman's
management are looking for other opportunities. And Sasaki, who is
a Japanese fighter who's looked good. You've seen him on
some of these ESPN Plus undercards. That Top Rank is you,
you know, put on an ESPN Plus probably a good good,
a good payday. I think that the Norman people like
the match, think that he can win. I spoke to
Brian Norman's manager, Joline Mazzone. Uh they she said to me, Look,
we're open to a lot of different things. That's one possibility.
We're not committed to anything yet, there's no There's been
some you know, normal Twitter nonsense that it's a done deal,
a sign fight, blah blah blah. You know, I thought
it was hilarious when Carl Mretti from Top Rank responded
to one of those tweets from a so called news
outlet on Twitter saying, you know, if it's signed, please
send me a copy of the contract for my files.
It's not done, but they're talking about it. It may happen,
you know, sometime in the summer, June, July, August, whatever.
But the thing that was interesting to me is that
that the Norman camp is willing if the fight is
done and it's made at an appropriate way that they
like the deal, they'll travel to Japan to do the fight.
So they're not fearful of doing that, just the same
way they were willing to fight Boots and it's in Philadelphia,
but they were, you know, a few hundred thousand dollars
apart on on what that deal would have been. So
that's a possibility. We'll see in Sasaki is a very
exciting fighter. By the way, I'm not I don't know
if he necessarily beats Brian Norman, but he's a fun
fighter to watch. You can go back and watch some
of those boutsy out on ESPN. Plus he makes good,
good fights.
Speaker 1: All right, great stuff on the news. So we have
come to the end of the pod. And normally, but
we're going to deviate from the normal. We're shaking it
up here. We're shaking it up starting now. Normally we
would talk nostalgia. Now there is nostalgia and anniversaries for
this week. That includes the win by Vitali klitch go
over Corey Sanders in a tremendous battle in August of
two thousand and four, and I'm sorry April of twenty
or April twenty fourth of two thousand and four, and
you were ringside for that. Likewise, another heavyweight milestone fight
is the hat Sim Rockmann anniversary, which was what day
this week because all my days have run together in
South Africa when Rockman scored the knockout that you basically
foreshadowed by the way with Lennox Lewis back in two
thousand and one, So that anniversary was also what this
past Tuesday, right in the United States on the twenty second.
What we are doing we are acknowledging in the nostalgia
here on the audio podcast that those fights happen. We
want you to go watch the video of Dan and
me talking about those fights. They will be up on
the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. So go check out
both of those bouts. You were ringside obviously for the
Clitch Goo win, and you relate that as he came
back to the United States, I believe for the first
time in seven years, Am I right? So you're gonna
see and hear Dan tell you all about that and
then you I'm teasing it up. You have a tremendous
story about friends of yours that had moved to South
Africa and you got them tickets to the Rockman upset
of Lennox Lewis. I did all explained on the YouTube page.
So that is part of what I said at the
beginning of the podcast. We want you, the peeps the savages,
to start engaging with the YouTube page. Go check out
the YouTube page, and we're even bribing you one more
time time. Make sure you rate and review this podcast
and take a screenshot of it a recent rating and
review before May the fourth, before next weekend. So in
addition to that, make sure that you are subscribed to
the YouTube page. So we're giving you double incentive to
go to the YouTube page to see the nostalgia of
these two heavyweight title fights and to also perhaps win
a chok ski right the either the cup, the room key,
credit card key with the fight poster on it, something
like that. We're going to give something away. We're bribing
you next weekend when this is all said and done.
But go check out the nostalgia now on the YouTube page.
That's where a lot more of our nostalgia is going
to live from here on out. Go check out the videos.
See what we look like. You and I going back
and forth about clitchgo Saunders or Sanders. And also that
that shocking Hassim Rockman knockout of when Lewis It's now
almost twenty five years old. By the way, how about
that go check.
Speaker 2: Cozy as the I will ruin the nostalgie. But as
the mortal Larry Merchant put it that night, it wasn't
the rumble in the jungle, it was the crumble in
the jungle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again classic story, if I do say so,
myself about how your friends who weren't even boxing fans
ended up at that fight in South Africa, not close
by to where Raphael lives. For the hookup, Let's go
all the way down under in South Africa on that,
all right, So go check out the nostalgia, Go check
out the YouTube page and follow the instructions that I've
now given twice on the program. What's say that you
and I reconvene on the bet Us Boxing Show coming
at one Eastern time on Friday, and let's handicap Chris,
YOUU Bang Junior and counter Ben as well as the
Anthony yard Lyndon Arthur Trilogy fight. We'll have more fun
and frivolity there live Friday afternoon, one Eastern time on
the bet Us platform. Sound good away, A good yes, sir,
the preview mode, everybody get ready for that. Thank you
for finding us here. By the way, we should mention
Canello Alvarez coming on the recap pod. You'll hear him
with Dan in advance a fight week before Dear God
the pay per view with William Skull in Saudi Arabia.
I hear that coming up. So lots of great content
here on the pod Feed, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify and is
well on the YouTube page Big Fight Weekend YouTube page.
Go check that out, subscribe there. We want your patronage there.
Moving forward, we'd love it. For now, we are good.
It's the Big Fight Weekend preview pod for Dan Raphael.
I am merely TJ Reeves. Enjoy the fight card this
weekend in England and much more. We'll see you on
the bet Us Show Friday at one Eastern time to
talk more about that vibe