Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves. All right,
we get ready for a weekend that has a light
heavyweight main event in Manchester, England from Mattroom Boxing. It
has some heavyweights in action also from Mattroom in Orlando
as well, Orlando, Florida on Saturday night. We've got that.
We've got fight news. Are Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather
seriously about to rematch? We're going to cover that and
all the other news the week. It is the Big
Fight Weekend preview. I am the somewhat competent host, TJ. Reeves.
Hello to our insider, the Fight Freaks Night substack is
where you find him and the newsletter to Big Dan Rayfield.
Good to be back with you. We have some activity,
so good to be with you. As we're ready to
roll into another episode of the program. Mawth things that feel.
Speaker 2: A little queasy about meweather Pack yet but other than them.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll get to that. Coming up. Eleven years, right,
it would be roughly eleven years since the first time
if they fought, which was like five years after they
should have fought in the first place exactly. By the way,
thank you for finding us. Make sure you're following, subscribing
on the podcast feeds, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. We're here typically
previewing going into the weekend, recapping coming off the weekend. Again,
it's been kind of lean, l ea and lean with
what we have here in the US. We at least
have some fights in England that we've been talking about,
a tremendous heavyweight battle last week that we recapped with
Fabio Wardley and the stoppage of Parker. By the way,
we should make mention as well that the Mikayla Mayor
main event tonight, which is Thursday night into Friday for us,
that has not happened yet. While you and I are talking,
so you know what, we're going to recap it on
the recap podcast. When we get to everything else, we'll
recap whatever's going on on the Eye of the Tigers
show in Montreal. So again, for those that are wondering
here why we are talking and not talking about that,
we're just revealing in the chronology that main event hasn't
happened yet. Well, you and I we're good, As I
often say, we can't tell you what happened in a
fight that hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 2: We're not that good, by the way, if we could,
we wouldn't be doing a podcast. That's that's correct, we'd
be out of here.
Speaker 1: That's exactly right. All right to that end, let's get
into it a little bit here with what we do
have in the preview mode, and that is Joshua Bououtzi
and Zach Parker in a twelve round light heavyweight bout
Bowoutze A well known prominent contender. Parker, if I'm I
was saying, Parker has been more of a super middleweight
that's recently moved up in his last couple of fights
to light heavyweight, you know, elaborate a little more on
that right here.
Speaker 2: Queensberry, which is doing this card, has been building up
their light heavyweight stable the same way they've sort of
been building up their heavyweight stable. So Queensberry, uh put
the match together. And like you said about Parker, uh,
these are not He's not the most known guy in
the world. He's had a few fights. His last couple
of fights have been at one sixty eightish, but he's
also dabbled, you know a little bit over one sixty eight,
but yeah, he's been This is going to be like
his third fight as an actual light heavyweight, I guess
because you go back he was like one seventy one,
one seventy three, but now you know it's it's legit
light heavyweight for him and Bilatsi.
Speaker 1: All right, So again this is the main event in Manchester, England,
and we know that Blatzi has been in and around
the top of the light heavyweight division really for about
the last three or four years, so he is favored.
Give me a little more. What kind of threat do
you think Parker is going to be in this twelve
round made event.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's a as a as the Bridge
would say. It's a good domestic dust up, you know
what I mean. It's like and and both of them,
whoever the winner is, has a chance to move on
to fight for bigger stakes. That's what this is about.
This is not a fight where there's a major world
title at stake. It's a you know, a regional title
type of situation. But it's a good all UK matchup. Certainly,
Bowatzi is the more notable guy relatively speaking. Not a
knock on on Zach Parker. But Bootsi was the one
that came into the pros with the big reputation out
of the Olympics, the big reputation from his days as
an amateur. He's nineteen and one with thirteen knockouts, which
is a good record, But the other part of that
is that he's coming off of his first loss. Now,
if you go back to February, on the card in
read one of the cards in read back in February,
he fought Callum Smith, another brit This was the undercard
of When a Better in Bevil had their rematch, and
it was an unbelievable fight, but it opened the show,
so it kind of got lost in the shuffle, like
it sort of hasn't. It didn't resonate, I don't think,
at least with a lot of fans anyway, because it
was like if you're watching that pay per view in
America anyway, that fight was at like eleven o'clock in
the morning in the Eastern time or whatever it was.
But it was a fantastic fight. I mean, I'm not
going to tell you it's the fight of the year,
but Bazzi and Callum Smith could be on anybody's honorable
mention list.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 2: And in the end Callum Smith, who was the underdog
in that fight. You know, a lot of people thought
had you know, was a little too old at this
point for that type of fight. Anyway, they put on
a great battle and Callum Smith got the close win
and that was Boazzi's first loss. So he's looking to
you know, get back in the groove. He's uh, you know,
he's with Queensberry Parker. As you mentioned, he's had a
lot of fights in his career have been at super middleweight,
but now he's been, like I said, the last few
fights in the light heavyweight division. He has also got
only one loss. He's twenty six and one with eighteen knockouts.
And these guys are both around the same age. You know, Uh,
there's there's no real it's not like one what's an
old shot guy or in ones the newcomer. You know,
Bwatzi is thirty two and Parker's thirty one. So and
from that standpoint, h and they have about the same
you know, type of higher level fights off you all.
Like the one fight that that he's known for in
terms of Parker was probably the one loss that he suffered.
That was when he fought John Ryder and he got
stopped in the fourth round. Well that was an interim
super mid aweight title bout, but it was. It was
a knockout stopage, yes, But the really the reason the
fight ended was because he suffered a pretty bad hand injury,
broke his right hand and they ended and the fight
was stopped. So that that that that should happens. I mean,
so I don't really even hold that against him. He's
won like five four fights in a row since then,
and I have every expectation that this should be a
high contact, pretty good, you know, crowd appealing fight. I
don't know if it's going to be like an all
out slugfest, but I can guarantee you it's not going
to be a twelve round waltz where they don't do anything.
This should be a good, high level, solid fight, and
the winner is going to put himself in a really
great position to be right there in the thick of
things to challenge for one of the belts.
Speaker 1: And in Bilazzi's case, before the Callum Smith win and
just looking at his record, he had a notable winner
to Willie Hutchinson was a name. But when Dana Z's
I remember we previewed that fight. He's won several interesting fights,
but none of them are knockouts, is my point. Almost
all of his fights have been I'm looking his last
ko was Richard Rakapore, if that's how you say it
right or not. Actually Richard's balin uh it was a
b That's a twenty twenty one fight. So he hasn't
really had a knockout at this level in a while.
Probably going to be a fight that goes into the
later rounds. If we were looking to handicap it, we'll see.
Speaker 2: That's probably true. But the way you put it, though,
he has he has more quality wins than than you
know than then that he's gotten credit for, not just
because he hasn't been like in the title fights, but
he's got bigger wins I estimate than Parker does. Yes,
Craig Richards was a good win for him. Craig Richards
has fought for the title and been a good contender
for a number of years. The AZ's win was a
big win for him. Disease was undefeated at that time
and was moving his way up the ranks and that
was sort of a bigger deal in the UK. They
were fighting for the British title, the Commonwealth title. The
Hutchinson win was a good win. Also, that was on
the big Wembley Stadium card back when Anthony Joshua got
knocked out by Daniel Dubi. That was a pretty hyped
up fight for there. And now he's taken on Callum Smith.
So frankly, if Batzi had been a champion, let's say
he might be defending against guys like Callen Smith or
Willie Hutchinson or Dana Z's or Craig Richards, all of
whom are in that conversation to either have fought for
a title one a title or can still get to
the point where they could fight for a title. So
he's doing a good job in the way he's going
about things, and certainly this is it's his event, if
you will. He's the A side. But Parker, you know
he's gonna have something to say about. He's got good,
relatively speaking, pretty good punching power. He'd has eighteen KOs
in the twenty six fights. The one time he fought
when he stepped up against a bigger name and rider,
you know, it was unfortunate, like I mentioned, the way
it ended with the bus at hand for what it's
worth he does have a ten round decision to win
back in twenty twenty four against tyron zeg who was
a former secondary title holder from Germany back a few
years ago. Also at that time only had the one law.
So this a good matchup, it seems to me in
a division where once you get below the better BV
and Dimitri Bieble who's the unified champion, and obviously David
Denavidez who was into that weight class, now there is
some depth in the division and these are two of
those guys that provide that depth, and they're fighting each
other for what will be a good position for the winner.
Speaker 1: All Right, that's Saturday afternoon obviously in the United States.
Saturday Night in the UK Primetime from Manchester, England with
that light heavyweight main event, and then matt Room Boxing
and Dezone have the Saturday night show in Orlando, not
far from where I host this here pod, where Lanier Perro,
a Cuban you're gonna tell us more about him, will
fight someone I wish I know a whole lot, if
not anything about Jordan Thompson. That's the heavyweight main event,
but also interesting O'mury Jones and the undercard. O Maury
Jones is somebody that you are high on. He's turned pro, etc.
He's on the undercard as a junior middleweight, So get
me more on this show in Orlando in the preview mode.
Speaker 2: So this is I would look at this as like
a more of a prospect oriented show. They do it
in conjunction with box Lab Promotions, which has a lot
of events in that carib Royale in Orlando, which is
where this is taking place, and they are co promoters
of Pero. Paro is a Cuban heavyweight southpaw. He's older
like most Cuban heavyweights. It seems like when they finally
get rolling as pros, he's already thirty two if you
believe he's actually only thirty two. So he is undefeated
and he's making his way up the ranks, and they've
matched him up with Jordan Thompson. I know you say
you don't know a lot about Jordan Thompson. Jordan Thompson's
probably best known. First of all, he's moving up to heavyweight.
That's the first thing he's been at cruiserweight for his
entire career. But he is also coming off of a
fourth round devastation knockout loss to ji Opataiah challenging for
the IBF title back in September of last year. I'm sorry,
of twenty twenty three. So we know how this is
gonna go. I mean, let's just be honest. Do you
have Jordan Thompson who was not that accomplished to begin with,
a career long cruiserweight, who is now moving up to
heavyweight and his last fight in the ring was in
twenty September of twenty twenty three, So what twenty six
months ago was his last fight and he got drilled
in that fight, and now he's got the unenviable pask
moving up to fight a big, strong south I was going.
Speaker 1: To say, And how big is Paro typically as a heavyweight.
I mean he typically is at least two twenty five to.
Speaker 2: Thirty Parrow is six foot four about two hundred and
forty pounds pounds.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this has, like.
Speaker 2: I said, TJ, we know how this is gonna go.
Speaker 1: This has be in your seat early written all over it,
or be in front of the in front of your
phone or your screen early is what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Like this, if we were still doing our US show
on a weekly basis, and we're handicapping this and they
made the over under in this ten round fight would
be somewhere around and a half or something like that,
or whatever it would be. Maybe it was five and
a half. Maybe I'm taking the under wherever the don't
don't blink on this one. But the other the reason
to me again, look, anytime you can see the development
of a heavyweight who some people think might be going
to the Promised Land, I'm not convinced yet. On para
we'll see. Uh. It's always interesting to watch, and they've
they've picked the right opponent for him. But I'm more
interested to see the continuing development some of the younger
guys on the show, like Omari Jones, who's from Orlando,
who was the United States the only Olympic medalist in
the previous Olympics in twenty twenty four. He's an outstanding prospect,
a very nice young guy. Three and oho with three knockouts.
Been fighting regularly at home. This will, well, I shouldn't
say regularly, This will be a second of his four
fights will be in the same venue. He did go
on the road for two other fights on Matchroum cards,
but anyway, he is he was only twenty two years old,
and he's got a huge, bright future in front of him,
be it as a jingor middleweight or as a welterweight.
He sort of fights like not quite all the way
at the up at fifty four, but he doesn't quite
make four. There's no reason as he's trying to figure
out where he fits physically in Ah, you know, he's
in a sixth rounder. Absolutely a guy to keep an
eye on. You know, the opponent.
Speaker 1: I remember you interviewed him a pie. He was very
well spoken. I was impressed with him, and I saw
that opening fight and whatever, and who knows, who knows
what this is ultimately going to be, but it's worth
taking a peek a real prospect.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's got the skills, he seems to have
the right attitude, he's got the work ethic. By all accounts,
he's got you know, good backing with with Matchroom. So
they put him in with a fighter named Yusuf Metu
who was twelve and two with nine knockouts, comes from
the boxing hotbed of Tanzania in Africa, and uh, look
they put him in the ring and uh, you know,
let him get his experience. This is this is the
early days of a guy that we could look back
on a few years from now and say he is
either the next top championship level guy or you know,
on the rise as a good contender. You know, we'll
see how far he can go. So that that's interesting
to me. That's on this card. And then what BAT
often does, because they obviously have a ton of British
fighters in their stable of fighters, they're bringing over one
of their British guys that they consider a top contender
or cruiserweight named Pat Brown, who is four and oh
with four knockouts. He was a twenty twenty four United
British Olympian and he's twenty five years old. So he's
sort of like their version of Amari Jones, even though
he's a little bigger. I'm just saying, like the of
the class of twenty twenty four Olympians, Pat Brown comes
into the pros with a reputation as a guy that
somebody should keep an eye on. And so he's coming
here to the United States. He's got you know, this
will be his fifth fight and it's gonna be his
first time fighting outside of the UK as a professional.
So that's always im Matcham does a good job with that.
They like to get their young guys, especially because they
do a certain level a certain number of American shows
and as well as other places in the world. They
kind of like to bring their guys at least early on,
to give them that taste of what it might like,
what it might be like to travel, you know, given
the fact that down the road, if they're become the
champion that they hope they do, that they could find
themselves fighting in America or Australia or Mexico or wherever
the case may be. And so they like to get
them that experience. So for Pat Brown, this is that experience.
And whereas Omari Jones has shown good power, but is
I think more known as a boxer, Pat Brown is
more known, I think is just a brute puncher, both
entertaining guys to watch. If you've watched the Matchroom cards
that feature the prospect, the next Gen, the preliminary show
as they do, you know, Pat Brown is an appealing
guy also. So for me, anyway, I know what's happening.
I believe I know what's happening in the main event
with Pero, We're gonna just go in there and absolutely
obliterate his opponent in Thompson. So I'm intrigued, if you
can call it that. Not so much because I feel
like there's gonna be a huge competition in these prospect bouts,
but I like to see the development of the young
guys and how they look and that sort of thing.
So that's why I thought we should talk about it
a little bit.
Speaker 1: And we just have again that's the Dezonne Saturday Night Show,
US time from Orlando, Florida, from match Room that those
flights get underway. So we do have a little bit,
a little bit on the plate here, not a lot.
We do have. We do have some, uh for this weekend.
All right, let's get to some news. And I saw
this a couple of days ago and I went seriously
and then my and when my man ray Field starts
digging and writing it on the sub stack, I'm like, okay,
there is some legitimacy to a possible Mayweather paqiow. Two.
Now you said to me, because I pay attention to you,
that there was talk that Pacquiao would be back in
the ring somewhere around January something like that. They were
talking to a couple of different fighters, including Tea Fimo Lopez.
Speaker 2: All right, they were talking about Romero, Roly Romeiro.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry Roly Romero, who had beaten Ryan Garcia. That's right.
So where did we suddenly switch not only tracks, but
we may even have a completely different mode of transportation
and we want to go to the Floyd Mayweather route
in lightness?
Speaker 2: Well, PBC and Pakya, who've been working together, uh, you
know since he came back from his retirement, they were
working together for several of the sites prior to his retirement.
They were going forward and looking to try to make
that fight and have them back. But obviously if the
opportunity for him to fight Floyd comes up and there's
a lot more money of course to fight a Mayweather rematch,
then there would be to fight a Roly Romeo. Like
they can put that on hold. There's no magic to
the Roly Romero fight. But the reality is they are
having those conversations. If it does get done, it would
take place in April in Las Vegas. Our friends at
the Ring Magazine reported that if it happens that one
of the sites that I mean Las Vegas, you think
about Team Mobile Arena, you think about the MGM, the
Ring magazine reported that one of the places under consideration
would be the Sphere, which is the place that is
new that has a lot of concerts and this and
that it owes a UFC event in a I forget
when it was, but that's the only time they've been
they've hosted a sports event to my knowledge, the first
boxing event if it happened there. And you know, the
cynic in me is like, what's the purpose? Why bother?
They fought in twenty fifteen for the first time in
what was the biggest fight of all time in terms
of revenue and certainly among the greatest hyped up fights
in the history of the sport, and was too late
and it's stunk out.
Speaker 1: It was a dud. And you were there and you've
you've talked about it, and now now we're on eleven
years later. Paki, how would be at that time, I'll
joke fifty seven or fifty eight? No, well he would
be what forty five, forty six? What is what is Mayweather?
Mayweather's in his forties, Rayfield, do you want me to
say it? What are we doing here? This is just
a money grab, that's what this is.
Speaker 2: Just for the record. Floyd is now currently forty eight
years old. He's forty eight and Pakia was forty six
years old.
Speaker 1: What are we doing here? So, as I said, I
was getting getting the cash, grab the bag.
Speaker 2: As I've said many times, the first fight when they
fought in twenty fifteen, was the single most miserable experience
of my professional career, and I would dare say if
you spoke to other members of the media covered that event,
they would probably agree it was absolutely horrible. And then
you can live with that at the fight as a classic,
but then the fight sucked awesome. If there is any
saving grace to this nonsense whatsoever, is that if it
does happen, it won't cost anybody the one hundred dollars
price tag that they charge of that shit pay per view.
Back in twenty fifteen, where after the fight was over,
a lot of people tried to sue and claim draw
because many city went into the fight with a bad
shoulder and ended up having surgery. They felt like that
was fraud. Nonetheless, if it does happen again, it would
be on Netflix, who clearly understand their market. They want
to do big events, so called big events, That's why
they put up the bag for Canelo and Crawford. That's
why they did the same thing. For example, Mike Tyson
against J.
Speaker 1: Paul.
Speaker 2: They're doing the same thing for Tank Davis against J.
Speaker 1: Paul.
Speaker 2: You know Crawford Canelo obviously that was a real boxing event.
We get him in boxers. They put up good money
when they did the all women's card with Serrano and
Taylor for their third fight. That was real boxing. You know,
all the highest level women you could think of on
that show, you know, barring a couple of that that
did not appear on the show. So I'm extremely cynical
about the prospect of Mayweather pack app And you might
ask yourself, TJ, how could they possibly be doing Mayweather
pacat when didn't I just read and Dan Rayfield a
substack and plenty of other places in the media. The
announcement that came about a month ago that Floyd Mayweather
had signed to do an exhibition match against Mike Tyson
in the spring of next year. Also and.
Speaker 1: Dan had Floyd Mayweather signed to do an exhibition with
Mike Tyson in the spring with another promotion he had.
Speaker 2: So I touched base with the people that are involved
with that event, and they are very tight lipped, and
there they claim there's a signed contract for that. Now
what those terms are in that contract or whatever?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It feels like there's two things going on at the
same time, and we'll see how that plays out.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's cut to the chase on the Rayfield meter
with Tan being it absolutely happens one, it never happens.
The number right now in October that a Mayweather Pacquiao
rematch has on your meter is what I would say.
Speaker 2: It's like a seven, really like a really good chance.
Speaker 1: Well you were talking, I thought you'd go like five,
and you were think seven. They're down the road a
little bit.
Speaker 2: Okay, definitely down the road. I mean. And listen, Manny Pacio,
who was his people were involved with the card that
took place earlier this week in Manila. They dubbed it
the Thriller in Manila two. They had it at the
same venue, the Aronetta Coliseum, Azon City, right outside of Manila,
and they put on the WBC strawweight title fight with
Melvin Jerusalem who headlined against the South African Mandatory Cusack.
He actually won a decision in that fight. I watched it.
It was available for free on YouTube.
Speaker 1: And all.
Speaker 2: But he was out there, you know, helping promote that show,
and he made some comments about you know, when asked
about that during you know, as well as his own
event he was doing, and he was talking about the
Mayweather rematch, saying that the negotiations are ongoing, he's talking
to his team about it on a daily basis and
if that, if that materializes, you know, we're going to
announce the fight and we're going to do that matchup.
He says he's interested in the fight. He's never shied
away from that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: He even said if you remember when he was standing
into the ring or not in the ring, but during
the build up or maybe a care of was before
or after when he was fighting Mario Barrios in July,
you know, he was asked about it. He was saying,
I wish Boyd Mayweather would come out of retirement and
give me a rematch. You know. He once again brought
up the shoulder problem when he was doing the interviews
when he was in Manila for this card that I
just mentioned. He believes the world will be excited for
the rematch. I think they would watch. But I can't
say there's this because I mean I did a Twitter
poll and it's not scientific by so I just put
up I said, are you know are you interested in
the Mayweather Pack rematch. One possible answer was yes, one
was no, and then a third was I'd rather self immilate,
which you set yourself on fire, which is what I
have said, I'd rather do it.
Speaker 1: I didn't see this poll. How did I miss out
so that I could perhaps hit option three and self immulate?
Speaker 2: Well, the the the end results of that poll that
I think was up there for ten or twelve hours
or something like that, had like three thousand votes or
something like that, and it was between the no and
self immalate took about eighty five percent percent of it
and there was only you know, ten or twelve or
thirteen or fourteen percent that were interested in their re
ass That doesn't mean they wouldn't watch it because if
it has if it does happen, it's going to be
on Netflix, so it won't cost you under additional funds
in terms of a pay per view. It's if it
does happen, it's supposed to be a real fight. We'll see.
I mean, what that tells me is that Floyd Mayweather,
who made more money than anybody in the history of
boxing needs money because there's no other reason why you
wouldn't think about it.
Speaker 1: Which would be crazy, right. Well, that or he just
we've talked about this before. He can't stay out of
the limelight. It's it's an attention thing. It's a it's
almost an addiction thing of I've got to be talked about.
I've got to be back in the ring, i gotta
be whatever. Maybe that's part of it.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's got to be partly financially motivated. There's
no doubt in mine.
Speaker 1: If it is. If he's burned through all of that money,
and we all know seven eight years after he made
it all, you got to be kidding it.
Speaker 2: We all know Pakio has always been looking for for
big paydays and big, big money because the difference between
Paco and Floyd is that if Manny blew his money, yeah,
somebody did stupid ship with but many also gave a
lot of money away because man, he's just a good,
humble guy. He you know, stood outside of his compound
in the Philippines and literally handed out money to poor people.
I mean, and he stood. But he bought like a
fleet of boats for fishermen. Floyd Mayweather is running around
to like Egypt to see the pyramids, and to China
to see the Great Wall, and to go to the
Caribbean island do that, and go to Paris do that.
And he's in there buying is you know, fancy uh
fancy clothes and and whatever.
Speaker 1: And then he's showing tickets of how he bet on
the NBA finals.
Speaker 2: Also the general gambler.
Speaker 1: Won seven figures on a on a on an Oklahoma
City thunder bet. I know we get it, all right,
So you pegged at it about a seven if could happen,
keep us posted on the Raypiel sub stack on Mayweather
paqiao two. Let's see doing here. I already said it
all right. Let's talk about some other realities here. So
top rank and matchroom they are talking. It's not done correct,
but they're looking for Emmanuel Navarate, who I enjoy, and
Sugar Nunez maybe for early next year. Can we have
good things here?
Speaker 2: I think we got a good chance of having good things.
That's a really good fight. That's two explosive punchers, two
Mexican warriors, two guys that are interested to fight each other.
Unification fight. Look remember you go back. In his last
fight in September, Sugar Nunias was defending you know, remember
he had well earlier, he had gone to Japan, he
won the vacant IBF title. He was making a homecoming
fight in Los Mochis, Mexico that took place in September,
and he scored a decision to win in a really good,
exciting rumble against the Puerto Rican Christopher Diez. He knocked
him down two times, but he also had to survive
some very hard moments. He ends up winning the decision
and sitting at ringside watching the fight was Emmanuel Naverette.
So during the post fight interview, they talked about the
fight with him, and then Eddie Hearn, who was the promoter,
brought Navarette into the ring and they talked to each
other about wanting to fight each other, showing a lot
of respect for each other, and Eddie saying would love
to make this Mexican war, and had them post for photos,
and you know, I didn't know if there anything would
come of that. The main thing was that Navarette had
been ordered to do a rematch with Charlie Suarez. Remember
if you go back earlier, they had that very controversial
fight where it was ruled an eight round technical decision
win for Navarette because of a head butt that opened
a cut, and they went through this whole process where
they ended up. Charlie Swarz's team appealed it. They found
video evidence that it was caused by a punch, not
a head butt, a video that they did not have
available to them in the timeframe at ringside from the
replay official and then the end result was it the
California Commission overturned the result and turned it from a
victory for never at A into a no contest. As
soon as it became a no contest, the WBO then
put out its official order to sell tell them they
had to do a mandatory rematch. So that was a
fight that they were trying to map. They're trying to do.
Top Rank is the promoter for both never At the
Ansuarez and so currently the IBF or not the IBF.
The WBO convention has been taking place this week in Bogota, Columbia.
It ends on Friday, but on Thursday they were doing
rankings things and all that business. And so Carl Moretti,
who was the vice president of Top Rank, has been
in Bogata at the convention and they got the the
IBF situation for nun Yes, he's free and clear to
do an optional defense even if he wanted to do
a mandatory and the optional was due. As long as
you go ask the IBF about it before they call
the mandatory, they'll sign off on. It's in their rules,
so their issue is no problem. But the WBO has
ordered this fight between never At the Ensuarez already, so
they had to go to get permission from the WBO
to do the match so they could have it as
the unification. And so what I was told is that
during this rankings which is open to the promoters and
everybody that's there, the WBO agreed and said, you know what,
as long as you take care of Charlie Suarez and
make a deal where he accepts whatever his step aside
would be, he'll get paid or you know, have some
considerations and you can work it out within fifteen days
you have approval. So they're on the clock top ranks
two weeks to work things out with Charlie Suarez and
to and to finalize whatever their deals are with Mattroom.
And if that's the case, then the fight would happen,
and as they said at the convention, the timeframe would
be probably in the very early part of next year.
Been some conversation about January, but you know, could be February.
But the point is it will certainly be, as it
was said to me by Carl, in the first quarter
of next year. And Sugara is really good fight. Sugar
nunia Is is young and can fight. And Nevarante's never
in a boring fight. I'm sorry, I mean he's gonna
it's an He's an action fighter, output punches drama. He's
been in fights where he's been knocked down before and
had to come back. So sign if this is what happens.
Sugar nunga Is is twenty eight years old, he's thirty
and one with twenty eight knockouts. And Emanuel Navarrete is
thirty nine and two with a draw and he's thirty
years old. He's won titles in three divisions. And they
are both, like you said, very good punchers, very exciting fighters.
That would be tremendous, you know, if there's one silver lining,
if you will, in the fact the top rank does
not have currently a broadcast deal. They're out there making
fights with everybody right now to keep their guys busy,
and they're guys and gals busy. They did the deal
with I the Tiger for Mikhala to go to Canada
fight Mary Spencer. They're trying to make this fight with Mattrim.
They have the fights they just did with the Saudi's
where you've got a Queensberry fighter in Sam Noakes fighting
the top rank fighter in Abdullah Mason. You've got Brian
Norman fighting the free agent Devin Haney. You know, they're
they're doing all those types of fights they're doing.
Speaker 1: They're doing that's coming in Mexico right with Zandfer Promotions
right now.
Speaker 2: But that's not so much that matchup that's there. But
I'm just thinking, like they're fighters who are now fighting
boxers from other promotional companies, which if they had a
robust deal, they wouldn't be in such a hurt at
send them into the other promoter card.
Speaker 1: All right, So this is gonna come together very quickly. Yeah,
and pay attention because there is a there is a
time limit here that the WBO is giving. I still.
I mean, at this point, if you're navoraate, you might
relinquish the WBO belt. Go fight this fight and then
if you want to fight Suarez later for the vacant
belt or whatever they call it, you could do that.
Listen to me making sick, but there's good money. Yes,
look interest in this fight.
Speaker 2: He already tried to win the title at thirty five
and it didn't work out for him, so he might
as well make the most of it at one thirty.
And these guys, even though they've been winning obviously, uh,
they're both very vulnerable, so you might as well go
make the biggest fight you can.
Speaker 1: And he was. He was very good at junior featherweight
and featherweight. This is me saying this about navarat and
he looked overweight and slow as a lightweight. So you're right,
you gotta you gotta be in the wheelhouse here as
far as I'm concerned at one thirty. And let's see
what Navaratee and Nunez might do if they get it signed. Now,
a fight that is signed. What I've been wondering he's
been like on the on the proverbial milk cart. And
where has Bakram Martazelaya been since I saw him klobber
tim Zu. Not this past October, but last October and
now we have an update and we have a fight
signed for him. Give him it's not on the deats,
give him the beats.
Speaker 2: Should I give him the tea?
Speaker 1: Give him the tea? Yes, Bill the tea.
Speaker 2: Uh, it's not signed yet, but it's going to get signed.
So Martazalev had been ordered to fight Ericson Lubin in
a mandatory fight, and right before the pursbit was supposed
to take place, going back, you know a month or
two ago, Lubin uh withdrew from that pers bid because
he got the big offer to fight Virgil Ortiz Jinger
and they took that. So once he moved on to
do the Virgial Artis fight, which is a very exciting
fight that's coming up on November eighth, that left Bertazalev
to then fight the next mandatory down. As the IBF
goes down their rankings, the next guy available was Josh Kelly,
who was the twenty sixteen British Olympian. He's seventeen and
one with one draw in nine knockouts, and martaz Leev
has a more glittering record at twenty three and oh
with seventeen including as you mentioned, the devastation against Tim
Zuo in his first defense where he bounced them off
the canvas like a basketball and knock him out in
the fourth round. Yep, I mean that was a very
very very devastating third round knockout. I should say, very
devastating destruction in any event. So the Kelly side and
the martaz Laev side were negotiating and they were supposed
to be a per bed last week. They asked for
a one week delay. Typically when they asked for delay,
it means they're getting close. That turned out to be
the case. The purspit was supposed to be this past Tuesday,
and on Monday night, Martazeleev's promoter, which is Main Events,
made a deal with Eddie Hearn, who was representing Josh Kelly,
who had been for a long time with Wasser and Boxing,
but apparently that is no longer the case. He's back
with Eddie and so they were able to make a
deal and they told the IBF jointly that we've made
a deal, will you can you cancel the purse bit
they did that. They now have fifteen days from that
time to get the contract signed and back to the IBF.
But they're professional promoters, they'll get that done and this
fight will take place. I was told it will take
place likely January thirty first in the UK. Also a
possibility could be January twenty fourth. I think that is
a better of what the venue situation is. But according
to what I was told, the agreement that the two
sides struck and the obviously had to get it signed
off on by the IBF, which which allowed it has
to take place on or before January thirty first, So
your man Bakram will be back in the ring on
or before January thirty first against Josh Kelly, a guy
that a lot of people have hyped up and has
had a lot of expectations and a huge amount of potential.
Been a little disappointing, if you want to know the truth,
But this is a great opportunity for him and obviously
for Martazle have to get back in there with a
reputable opponent and an Olympian and to do his thing
and you know, try to keep that undefeated record, and
a huge opportunity for Kelly, who's going to probably have
the home field advantage by fighting in England and perhaps
even in his hometown.
Speaker 1: I'll just say I'll just say this as we move on.
Martaz Alive was a hot name after that ko and
he's out of sight, out of mind now a year later. Uh.
This is one of the problems with the sport. The
guys that you might be interested in seeing just go away.
They stay away for various reasons. And okay, well we'll
see what he looks like when this fight happened.
Speaker 2: His reasons, by the way, or certainly not because of him.
It's because Main Events, which is a historic promoter and
has had huge success and massive events. They are like
a lot of American promoters in particular, who don't have
the broadcaster, who don't have the financial backing to make
these events happen, so they have to get creative. And
so this was I'm sure that was part of when
they were doing the agreement with Metstrum, which means that
this will not be on a Main Events card. It'll
be on a on a card debt Matchum puts on,
which means, at least from the state point of the viewers,
he'll get to watch it on his own.
Speaker 1: Okay, you did talk and we were discussing this, but
you did talk about how they were finalizing the undercard
for the December sixth show, including the co feature with Janebec,
Alim Canoolly and Areas Landy Laura and also Oshaki Foster
and Steven Fulton in a title fight as well. That's
now been announced. So one more time for our audience here,
because sometimes it's a different audience. They officially announced this
for December.
Speaker 2: Sixth, So the news were The element of this is
that for a while it was I mean, we all
know about Pitt Bull and Lamont Roach is the main
event on December sixth and San Antonio of this PBC
on Prime pay per View, Janebec and Laura I've reported
on quite a bit, and that even though it wasn't announced,
that was happening in a done deal. And then they
had the other fights that were when the October twenty
fifth event that was supposed to be headlined by Sebastian
Fundor against Keith Thurman was postponed because of Fundora's injury,
you had the rest of the fights on that show,
and I was told at the time that fights like
Hayesus Ramos against Shane Moseley Junior would move to this
December sixth card, as well as the Lucero ert Roberto
Valezuela card that was the original pay per view opener,
as well as other fights that were on the preliminary stream,
you know, if Frank Martin and Rancis Bartheloni with Martin
coming back after the long layoff and others. So all
of those fights indeed are moving to this card as
an undercard. The Lucero fight that was supposed to open
the pay per view on October twenty fifth will instead
now be on the preliminary card on December sixth, because
they also were able to move the Foster Fulton fight
now that was originally the co feature October twenty fifth,
but to put that on the same card and also
have the janebec and Laara fight and the main event
and the mos Ramos, You're running into budget issues, of course,
because unlike Turkey is able to do and just spend
whatever he wants, PBC and other promoters are locked in
more to a legitimate budget. So there was a lot
of questions of whether that could happen. It was a
matter of does Foster still want to do it. He
had the option to walk away. How can they make
you know, you're trying to get you know, ten pounds
of shit into a five pound bag. When you're dealing
with budgets, it doesn't work like that all the time.
So in the end result was and they're not going
to go out there and advertise this, but this is
what I was told. I actually think this is a
positive thing, not a negative thing. Stephen Fulton really wanted
this fight. He's the reigning WBC featherweight champion. He's won
a world title also at one hundred and twenty two pounds.
Now he's moving up to challenge this for the title
at one hundred and thirty against Foster. He was willing
to make some concessions financially to make this fight happen.
In the business, we call it taking a haircut. Well,
he's got he's taking a haircut to make this fight happen.
And I'm sure PBC, based on their track record, whatever
the money he gave up'll he'll get taken care of
after this in the next fight, whether it's a win
or a loss. But nonetheless, to make it fit on
this event, he did that, and so therefore he's not
even that he's being a fight that was the co
feature when it was Fundora Thurman is now the third fight,
because the main event is the main event, and the
unification is the co feature, and this will slot in
as the second fight of the pay per view, and
then Ramos and Mosley will open the pay per view. So,
if you ask me, this is probably the deepest pay
per view that PBC's put on in a while. And
I've said many times they put on really good shows
when they do their pay per views. I know people
don't love the price.
Speaker 1: They're they're making the best of this situation, and it's
a good show. Good on Fulton because he realizes it's
better to make some or most of what you were
going to make as opposed to making zero zeil.
Speaker 2: And by the way, in a fight where here where
both guys have a good chance to win the fight.
Speaker 1: And he knows full well that if he wins and
he's in a title position, he's gonna make a lot
more on the next one. Go around. Bet on yourself.
Speaker 2: But the other thing about yourself. If you ever talked
to Fulton, and I have an interview that's still sitting
around that I wasn't we were not able to do this.
Pebe will read, well, we'll we'll get it back together.
Whatever before the fight was postponed when the Sebastian Vundora
Thurman thing came down well, and we talked about this
little bit. Maybe we can pull out a sound bite
and use it at some point. Fulton is a guy
that wants to fight. As the kids say, I think
they he wants all the smoke. I mean when nobody
he was well paid. Don't get me wrong, but there
was not a lot of people that were raising their
hand to put their titles at stake to go to.
Speaker 1: Japan American to go fight the monster. So he did.
Speaker 2: He raised his hand and he gave him the shot
at those titles. That didn't work out for me. He
got stopped. But that's how shit goes. And so you
know the fact that he would be willing to go
fight O'shaki Foster in Texas, which is Oshaki Foster's state.
O'SHACKI is from the Houston area. This fight is taking
place in San Antonio. The fact that he would even
be willing to take a little bit less money than
originally agreed to to make it happen. You know, you
got to tip your hat to Stephen the Fulton uh.
And it just adds another really good fight too has
already been a deep cart and when you're getting fights
like Frank Martin, Rancis, Bartelom and Lucero and Vealezuela as
free preliminaries like it just shows you the depth.
Speaker 1: So good.
Speaker 2: There's two great show was left this year. There's this
show on December sixth, and there's the Turkey's pay per view,
one of the Ring Magazine cards of course November twenty second,
which I'm sure we'll discuss a lot at the time
that comes up. That's the Loaded show with Benavitas and
Yard and Norman against Devin Haney and Abdullah Mason against
Sam Noaks and my favorite fight on that show, which
is the Bam Rodriguez unification with Puma Martinez. So he
got two really good deep pay per views coming up.
Speaker 1: One more note, and unfortunately for Floyd Schofield, who I
was in the house when I saw him absolutely demolish
Tevin Farmer inside of two minutes in Anaheim, California in June.
He was slated to be part of the card next
weekend for Virgil Ortiz and Ericson Lubin. However, he is
now not part of the card. Give give him the
update here on what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's unfortunate. Golden Boy announced that he had suffered
a wrist injury, including ligament damage, and was forced to
withdraw from that fight. He was supposed to fight Jojo
Diaz in a ten rounder and in a lightweight fight.
I thought that that, I mean, this is nothing about
Floyd being negative, but I felt like that match was
absolutely garbage to begin with, because Joseph Diaz is a
long faded guy who was like two and six in
his last fight, you know, you know, Yeah, he put
on a tremendous fight against the Regius program and I
was a prograde again his last fight, really great battle,
but he's still lost. Like, I just felt like that
was a complete mismatch. That Schofield was way too talented
and young and fresh and could do everything compared to
Jojo Diaz. But you still never like to see a
guy lose out because of an injury. So it's unfortunate.
And Scofield, I know he's been taking a little bit
of grief because of course he pulled out of the
fight in Saudi Arabia because of what he said was
illness to weak him a fight. So he's now pulled
out of another fight. But listen, the guy got hurt.
They called it a grade to the way that Golden
Boy announced it was a Grade two sprain of his
right wrist, including minor ligament damage. So obviously he's not
gonna be able to fight the fight, and so what
he's gonna do. You pull out of the fight and
you live to fight another day. So that's I'm sure
when he's better and healed up, he'll be back back
in action. The only negative of that is it doesn't
seem as though there's a bona fide fight to move
into the co future position on the card that has
obviously got a very good main event with Virgil Ortiz
against eric Sson Lubin. I have not heard anything from
Golden Boy about them switching anything up other than keeping
the card intact as it is, so that's a disappointment.
But hopefully Scofield heals up and we'll see him again.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned, that is for next weekend. All right, we
did well there with the news again. Go to our
Big Fight Weekend YouTube page because we've got some video nostalgia,
including the night we are doing this is now, My goodness,
the fifty first anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle
George Foreman, Muhammad Ali. We tee it up to go
watch the YouTube video where you and I discussed this
and all the implications the greatest fighting in the Rumble
in the Jungle, and we and we became familiar with
the term forget the tea, became familiar with ropa dope.
We figured out what the real was that night from Honi.
Speaker 2: I have said for a long time, and I've thought
about this, the Rumble in the Jungle is to me
the most singular, most famous boxing match in the history
of the sport.
Speaker 1: And you say it on the video and you explain why,
and that's some excellent tease for them. To go watch
the video. Go find it on the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page. We also put the video up from the
Holy Field Destruction of Buster Douglas, the thirty fifth anniversary
of that from nineteen ninety is also up on the
YouTube page. And we're going to have some coming other content,
longer form content, live stuff, etc. Go watch the interview
with Mark Kriegel, the long form interview about his Mike
Tyson book, and Mark obviously covered for Netflix the Canelo
Crawford fight as part of the studio show. For that,
go watch that video on the YouTube page. We push
you there on the YouTube platform to see us as
well as hear us. Other than that, we are ready
for the weekend with these two different shows in Manchester, England,
the Biwazzie main events in the after noon Saturday on
his own and then Saturday night is Lanier Perro, the
Cuban born heavyweight in the main event for the Mattriom
show in Orlando, Florida, and a couple of other interesting
fights on that card. Why don't we come back off
the weekend recap that and recap the Spencer Mayor Women's
Junior Middleweight world title fight as well. It's happening in
Montreal Thursday night. We'll recap all of that on the weekend.
Sound good, sounds a good plan. There is a big
Dan rayhaiel, I'm merely TJ. Reeves. Thank you for finding
us as we preview going into the weekend on the
Big Fight Weekend preview pot