Speaker 1: Well well off of a weekend that has seen some
wild heavyweight action that we will recap. It is seen
Jennabeck retain his unified middleweight titles. It is seen Tim
Zoo get back up on the horse figuratively and score
a knockout that was not unexpected in his main event
in Australia. We're here take a look back at all
of it, give you some news, some nostalgia, and much more.
It is the Fight Freaks Unite Recap podcast. I am
the somewhat lucid, somewhat rested host TJ Reeves. We come
your way on the weekend. Here, I come your way
from San Antonio, Texas. I've got Big Dan Raphael with me. Insider.
Fight Freaks Unite is his substack after all. And the newsletter.
Make sure that you're subscribing. Make sure you're on the
newsletter as we recap here on the podfeed all. Make
sure you rate us and review us as well on
all the podcast outlets Apples, Freaker, Spotify. Let's just get
it out of the way. I know you're not in
a great mood right now. We're doing this roughly about
twenty two hours since what happened on Saturday night where
Duke was up nine late in the game, and I
still haven't figured out in Perfersonvale, I barely have my
hearing back. Second of all, I have not figured out
yet how they did not hang on to the nine
point lead them while we're not talking about your team
going for a title in the Alamo City here on
Monday night, but that is not the case. Houston won
the game. So Dan, I know you're kind of shaking
your head. You've been muttering to yourself for the last
you know, twenty hours or so about that. I feel
for you. It was it was tough to watch Cooper Flag.
Speaker 2: It's like you're up big in the boxing match, you're
coasting the victory, and you get knocked the fuck out
in the cult. Can we move on place?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I will say this to this second. I
have not gotten the selfie yet at the Alamo with
the gas station nearby.
Speaker 2: And the other stew they don't have much time left.
Speaker 1: I've got tomorrow, I've got Tuesday, tomorrow being Monday, and
I've got Tuesday. As we released this pod off the
weekend to go find it. I have gotten some good
text mix. There is an interesting mix and we're going
to get into the recaps straight ahead, but there is
an interesting mix of panhandlers downtown San Antonio, street preachers,
I mean hell fire and brimstone street preaching going on
at all hours of the day of night. It's apparently
allowed during most waking hours. There's lots of basket There's
lots of tall people in sweatsuits, lots of basketball people,
lots of fans. Again in the state of Florida where
I'm from, they're going to empty out for the Gators
to play against Houston. Houston only about two and a
half hours away, so most of the city of Houston's
going to be here for the championship game coming on Monday.
Did you tell me you have or have not ever
covered You've not ever covered a title fight in San Antonio.
You've only covered one and what was it?
Speaker 2: I don't know what I told you, but Alamo Dome, Right, Yeah,
I've covered several. I've covered multiple fights in the Alamodome.
I mean, off the top of my head, I covered
when Adrian Broner got his ass kicked by Mark's my
that was that the Alamo Dome.
Speaker 1: Canelo Canelos fought at the Alamodome he fought one time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, his fight at the Alamo Dome. I did not
attend because my wife was due to give birth at
any moment.
Speaker 1: Wow, So I did not cover that fight he had.
He had that one, but then he also fought right as.
Speaker 2: That was during the pandemic.
Speaker 1: I told the nineteen Crazy Year twenty twenty when he
was Allum Smith correct.
Speaker 2: Julio we go and no, Nino don't air doubleheader that
was in the Alamo Dome.
Speaker 1: Most famous controversial fight, Well, we can't say most controversial
controversial draw with with Hall of Famer Pernell Whittaker Alamodome
for who else? Oh about that.
Speaker 2: One of two along with holy Field Lenox. But yeah, right,
San Antonio is a great fight city, and like I said,
I've covered fights there in the Alamo Dome as well
as other venues in the city.
Speaker 1: Jesse Bam Rodriguez, by the way, Sano Texas. All right,
enough about the the geography, enough about the cuisine. The
text mex has been good so far, although one of
the colleagues of mine is here and he's ordering a
cheeseburger and I'm like.
Speaker 2: Dude, that's the biggest loser of all time.
Speaker 1: You can get the cheeseburger anywhere. But I digress. It
is the recap pod. Let's get into it. I will
say to you. While I did not get to watch
full fights, I was in the Alamodome keeping up with
your tweets and what was going on with the joys
Hergovic fight. Once the basketball got underway with the two games,
I was not able to lock in on the top
rank ESPN Plus show the Tim Zoo fight. I'm doing
my work duties, that kind of stuff. I have seen
the highlights. Let's begin first with Zoo, which was late
night Dan, just pick it up on how late was it?
Late night Saturday US time, Sunday afternoon in Australian time?
And Zoo gets back in the junior middleweight a picture
to whatever extent with a knockout of Joey Spencer of
the United States, and as I said at the top,
not an unexpected knockout, but he does get the win.
It sets some things in emotion. Let's begin right there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it was late night because it
was taking place in Australia in the afternoon and it
started at ten o'clock Eastern time. But there was four
fights on the cart so it was after midnight by
that time the fight started. The other bouts were a knockout,
so that was fine. I wasn't even upset about it
because it ended. It ended the Richard Torres and Wido
Vannello top rank main event, which we're going to talk
about in a few minutes. That ended, and then there
was a few minutes in between the time that was
over in the beginning of the main event on the
prime video from terms of being in the United States,
so I was okay with the timing, but Tim Zoo,
like you said, got back on the worse. We all
know what this was about. This was I lost in
a rough fashion with that horrible cut March of last
year and lost my world title against Sebastian Frondorra split decisions,
showed a lot of heart, was a terrific fight, but
didn't get to win. Came back in October, got run over,
you know, badly by Mirtazeleev and as I like to say,
sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. He was
the bug that night. But on Saturday night, in his comeback,
taking a distinct to step down in opposition after two
hard losses in a row. He was the windshield to
Joey Spencer's bug. Again not unexpected. I mean, you and
I both picked in our bet Us show, we both
had the knockout, we both had under eight and a half.
I didn't think that was a particularly difficult pick to make.
The one time Joey Spencer had stepped up and even
quasi popposition level was when he thought Jesus Ramos a
couple of years ago before Ramos had even more or
so established himself as a quality contender, and he got
beat up in that fight and stopped in round seven.
Tim Zu was much farther along than Ramos was at
that time as a former champion, is still a good fighter,
and he just did what you expected. But he was
also really intelligent about the way he went about it.
As he said to me in the interview that we
had on the podcast, as well as he said to
others in his comments leading up to this fight. He
kind of learned his lesson against Martaze Leave. He kind
of took him lightly, but more significantly, he just rushed
in and thought he was going to get him out
of there in two rounds and did not show any
level of patience, did not show any level of defensive responsibility,
was reckless in the way he went about it, but
he was determined in this particular fight to make sure
that he approached it in a more professional manner. And
he did that first round very slow paced, a lot
of looking and fainting and seeing what's up. Similar in
the second round, and then when he kind of had
gauged what was going on, he turned it on. He
came forward, he started blasting with shots. He hit him
with some very good shots from both hands, and Joey
was wide open pretty much for everything. I mean, even
after the first round, his face was already getting busted
up with and it wasn't it was not a harsh
first round, but he was already showing bruising and his
eyes were a little bit you know, swelling, and by
the time the fight was over, they you know, he
looked like he had been in the you know, in
a fight with a machete in terms of like the
way that it was his bruising and the purple and
the cuts and everything. But look, Zoo did what he's
supposed to do. We talked about all time, DJ, you're
in the ring and you're supposed to do that to
an opponent, to a guy that he averybody knows you're in.
You know that's overmatched against you. But you don't let
him hang around. You do your business, you get him
out of there. And that's exactly what he did. He
went about it in a in a very professional manner
and he blitzed him and got him out of there.
Speaker 1: Yeah through but Rayfiel, what was that about fifty sixty
punches near the end of the fight, where Spencer was
fighting back a little bit, hands up, but you could
tell the referee, the Australian referee. You could audibly hear
him a couple of times say do something, fight back.
I mean he was ready to stop it and the
towel came in and nobody's qualms with the with the stoppage.
Speaker 2: But no, no, no, man before that acts.
Speaker 1: But I mean he's still the only the only thing
I say back is he had his hands up. He
tried to fight back a couple times and throw a punch.
It's not as if he was totally defenseless getting waylaid
in that instance. But Zoo realized, this guy's not got nothing,
He's got nothing in return. I'm just gonna fire away
till they do stop it, and there you.
Speaker 2: Go the closing sequence of that fight. Zoo had to
have thrown indoor land. Most of the punches landed well
over two dozen punches. So if you looked at the
company box in the final round, in round number four,
he out Joey Spencer. According to comfy Box, forty four
landed to six. I mean, I I'm sure it's happened,
but I can't really think of around that's been that
dramatically one sided in terms of the guy landing to
the opponent. That was it. That's a huge deficit. Even
in the previous round it was twenty six to ten.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, Spencer didn't offer a lot of returns,
so we know what this was. So here's my thing.
I'm getting ready to do this pod from San Antonio
with Rayfield, and I'm on my social media just moments
before we hooked up and started this, and Keith Thurman
is yelling off a balcony in downtown Tampa and a
Condomentum balcony. I saw the social media post from this
afternoon and I recognize he's in downtown Tampa with what
he's doing, yelling about I'm hungry. Let's go, Tim Zuo
send me to contract Rayfield. I'm not hungry. I've had
plenty of text makes. But nonetheless, Thurman says he's hungry.
What's up? And how soon are we going to see this?
Speaker 2: Well, we're gonna see it because if you if you
watched Tim his post fight interview standing in the ring,
the commentators asked them about the prospect of the Keith
Thurman fight, and he started to laugh and he said,
sign the contract. Big boys, signed the contract. So look
this fight. From what I was told pending their victories,
Keith three weeks ago, Tim Saturday night Sunday afternoon in
Australia that they had already agreed to a framework of
the deal. So now they both are safely through their fights.
Obviously both had not taken on top level opponents, but
they both look good. They both scored knockouts, they both
talk up a storm. They have fans and needy excited.
It's a very good fight. They were supposed to fight
last year. It didn't happen. That's why Tim wound up
fighting Fundor because Keith had suffered the biceps injury. But
Keith came out of his fight against Jarvis by all
accounts healthy. Like you said, standing on the balcony yelling
for the fight. I think it's just a matter of
time for their team. You know, Tim will take a
little bit of arrest and the teams will.
Speaker 1: Do the business. Would it be in Australia for sure
or is it possibly.
Speaker 2: In the US?
Speaker 1: So we don't know that.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's one hundred percent. It seems to
me that it probably will wind up in Australia because
there's a lot more money there, and if it goes
to Australia, it's not going to be a pay per
view in the United States, which is good for US
obviously would be a non you know, a regular prime
video card. But whether it's in the United States or
it's in Australia, to me is completely irrelevant. It's a
very fun fight and it certainly puts the winner in
a position to challenge for the title, be it Tim
if he wins a rematch with Hondora or Matazalef. It
puts Thurman in the position to fight any of those
guys as well. It's a good fight. They're two very,
very likable fighters. They're both exciting to watch. I mean,
they both have good personalities. I think this will be
a very popular fight Australia. You know, they could probably
put it in some kind of, you know, much larger arena.
It doesn't matter if it's for a title, if it's
not for a title, just a good fight between two
good quality guys. And I'm glad that both of them
have come out of their recent fights no injuries.
Speaker 1: And what's get on.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would say this, at the end of
the day, boxing it is entertainment and you can't tell
me that seeing Keith Thurman lockhorns with Tim Zu is
not an entertaining promotion and an entertaining fight, and that's
the bottom line. And they're both very good and I
can't wait to see that fight.
Speaker 1: All right, So there are some stakes with that and
we'll see if that is later this summer. Let's move on.
Let's the cover here. Let's back up to Saturday afternoon
US time, Saturday night in the UK where Philip Hergovich
and Joe Joyce engaged in I mean, I don't know
what I saw the highlights of this, Dan and I
know Herkovic ends up getting the victory. Yes, Joyce was
game and was firing back and took the punches. But
my feeling is this, I mean, Hergovic gets the win
and it is time for Joe Joyce to be done.
Just from watching that because he got smashed. You love
it when I go to the eighties, it was like
Lionel Ritchie all night long, brother with that right hand.
He's tough enough. He did not get knocked out. Maybe
you want to question Herkovic's punching power when others have
knocked Joyce down or knocked him out. I'm saying this,
Hergovic hit him all night, couldnt knock him out, but
he won the fight. There's my analysis from seeing the highlights.
You watched it much more in depth. Give me your
insight on the recount.
Speaker 2: Well, you're certainly right about the right hand. I mean,
Hurgovic could not miss with the right hand. It's like
Joe Joyce's defense was not program to avoid the right hand,
with program to lean directly into the right hand.
Speaker 1: You make the generous assumption he has defense. Continue on.
Speaker 2: I mean I never Joe's never had good defense. I
mean he's always you know, his face has always been
his defense, unfortunately for him. But on the fight with Hurgovich.
It was even more so than I've seen. I means,
as defensively terrible as Joe has always been. That made
his previous performances defensively look good. I mean, if that
makes sense, He just could not get away from it.
He must have got hit with one thousand right hands.
And the scores reflected that. I mean, one of scores
was ninety six to ninety five. That to me is
a freaking Joe. The other scores were perfectly fine. You know,
we talk a million times the range of acceptable scores.
One judge had it ninety eight to ninety two, one
edit ninety seven to ninety three. That's how I had
the fight. I locked in a bunch of scores from
people on social media. They were all in that same ballpark.
Ninety six to ninety five was a bit generous. But
nobody's gonna dispute or argue that Philip Parkvic didn't win
the fight. Even Joe Joey said it wasn't my night,
you know, it wasn't my time. Then he said maybe
we could do it again. I don't think that's happening.
His point being is that now that Herkovic has a
win against him in the pros and Joe has a
win against Kerkovich as the amateurs. They're won in one,
but that doesn't mean shit. They're not gonna have a rematch.
But it was a very exciting, entertaining fight again two
big heavyweights. It was, as we said in the pre fight,
the hopes were be kind of slobber knocker ish, and
that's exactly what it was. But Hergovich coming off the
loss last summer, last June in the fight against Danie
Dubaffer the interim IBF title where he got badly caught
in a really good action fight. He bounced back from
that loss. Looked like he had suffered a cut in
this fight against Joe, and that looked like it was
bothering quite a bit, and it sort of just slowed
down around the time that had happened. But he's in
his first fight with Abel Sanchez, who he got to
come out of retirement. Abel had been a trainer for
many years, best known obviously for as many years working
with Gnadi Glofkin, also with the trainer for the Hall
of Famer Terry Norris and others. But he had retired,
like you know, in the last couple of years, and
for whatever reason he saw something in Argovich and Argoviac
kind of you know, asked him if he would train him,
and Abel said, fine, I'll do it, and he came
out of retirement. He did a good job not only
preparing him for the fight, but you know, in terms
of Abel is one of those guys where it's not
as common as it once was, but he works the trainer,
but he also works the cuts, and so he was
able to do a good job of finally getting the
butt patched up and it didn't bother her.
Speaker 1: Because I don't know this is that the same cut
or was it an it was the same nasty cut
as the Dui fight, or we don't know. No, I'm
not the same one.
Speaker 2: I couldn't tell if it was in the same spot,
so I wouldn't. I'm not going to say yeay or nay.
But the reality is Hrkovic is certainly at this point
it seems he's prone to certain kinds of cuts, right,
given what's occurred in the last two fights. But Able
did a good job of keeping that closed up and
it didn't really impact him. And the biggest thing though,
besides just the right hand that kept bouncing off his
big nuggin all night long was his hands are much quicker.
I mean Philip Herkovic as heavyweights go, he's got pretty
good handspeed. And Joe is, as I referred to him, ponderous.
You know, he is very very slow.
Speaker 1: Let's pick it up on that should I mean the
British boxing border control and somebody else around him, Frank
Warren or whoever. This should be done. Brother. He took
tremendous punishment throughout that fight, coming off the Chessura fight
where he took a lot of punishment off of two
bad knockouts, brutal knockouts, one a TKO with the swollen
shut out of the other one he got brutally knocked
out by July Jang. He should be done. In my opinion,
I'm coming strong on a Sunday night, brother.
Speaker 2: He's one in four in his last five fights. And
the thing that was more concerning, and again not to
believe the copy box, but the stats tell the story
historically over all weight classes, if you get hit with
more than fifty percent of your shots, that's extremely high.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: He got hit with fifty one percent against Arkovich, and
Arkovich is not a light puncher, so that that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: What was the total? It had to be two hundred punches.
It had to be two hundred and fifty punches he
got he got hit with same.
Speaker 2: He got hit with two hundred and fifty three or
five hundred two.
Speaker 1: Again, somebody around him prepare for the rest. I mean,
are we seriously going to look at him taking another
savage beating or two and not being able to function
in a few years because of somebody? Somebody do something, please.
Speaker 2: They talked to I mean, you're a little over dramatic.
I'm not.
Speaker 1: You are watched I watched the Chessaura fight at him
getting hammered. I watched this fight at him getting hammered.
I don't have to see it anymore. I'm not being
over dramatic.
Speaker 2: So Queensberry Queensberry promoter Frank Lauren, who was promoted to
Joe for a long time, spoke with asked about that,
you know, because because Joe was like, I'm ready to
go on and do this again or whatever continue his career,
and Frank was more level headed. To his credit, he says, look, Joe,
meaning Joe Joyce is gonna have to go away, have
a real serious think about his future, which is what
he's going to do. There's no rush, and then we'll
have a chance. I'll sit and talk about what we're
going to do from here. So I know boxing pretty well.
There's zero chance that Joe Joyce retires, but there's also
probably zero chance that in his next fight it's going
to be against a top name. They'll probably give him
a lighter touch to see what he's got left and
take it from there. But he's not getting any younger,
and as you said, i'd like to see him called
it a day. I mean, the chances have been becoming
a world champion at this point are obviously very.
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: Uh, that's what it is. But for Hergovic, it's it's
no he wants to have He'd like a rematch against
against Duba. He made the point in his post fight interview.
Joe Joyce has a clean knockout win against Dubi. Duba
beat Hergovic and now he's got to win over Joyce,
so he wants to fight Daniel Dubois again. I would
not be opposed to seeing that rematch. It was a
heck of a fight until the cuts happened. I think
Dubois got other things in mind, you know the likelihood
of him fighting a rematch against Alexander Russik, for example.
But h Philip Herkovic, it was a big win to
bounce back from that very tough loss, you know, and
he puts himself right in the thick of things for
any of the top name heavyweights. I'm very confident that
you know, his his managers, Keith Connley, who's got a
great knack of scoring big fights for his stable of guys,
and I'm very confident that when he next gets to
the ring, it'll be a fight of meaning and for
money for him and probably high stakes.
Speaker 1: We're skipping all over the globe recapping away here. So
we've been in Australia, We've been in Manchester, England. Let's
go to Las Vegas and entertaining top rank ESPN Plus
main event with Richard Torres and Guido Vanello. And we
did t this up on the preview podcast Death. That's
where you use the phrase slapper or not laber knakaish.
You said this could be slaberknockerish. Uh. It ended up
being a real fight for Torres, who at times looked
like a couple of times he had Vanello hurt but
not put him away, but does get the decision win.
Torres a little bit of a swollen face. He got
shook up a couple of times in this fight. All right,
give give me your assessment as Torres gets the victory
in the main event.
Speaker 2: Well, it was sort of a tale of two fights,
because the first four or five rounds this is a
ten round fight, were absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible. Do I
make myself clear, well, play It wasn't because of Richard Torres.
It was because Guido Vidanello is absolutely zero IQ in
terms of how to fight a man on the inside,
has no clue. And Richard Torres, who's four inches shorter,
who was a southpaw who's got good power but also
has really good hand speed for a heavyweight, was driving
him crazy, frustrated him. I mean because Torres. I mean,
this is very basic. Torres is only thing he wanted
to do was get right in his chest and bang away,
get inside that longer reach of Vnello and take it
to him. And Vanello wanted to do anything in life
other than have this man on him on the inside,
and tried everything in his possible power to keep him
away or to tie him up. So he couldn't keep
him away, so he resorted. For the first several rounds,
all he did was hold and grab, and I wanted
to punch my TV. I was having like, Pa.
Speaker 1: You were already mad about the Duke game, now you're
mad about Vanello.
Speaker 2: I was having PTSD of all the fucking time I
spent covering Jean Ruiz, watching him grab and holes for
all those years. And you could tell Thomas Taylor, who
we've talked about as we believe the best referee in
boxing at this moment, he was the referee of the fight,
and he was getting pissed off, like you don't see
this a lot. He was given a hard warning to
Vnllo in round number one, who he had a Warren
twice for holding, and I even tweeted, I said, you
can see a point deduction is coming, and like thirty
seconds later into the second round he docked a point
rightfully so, because he would not stop grabbing holding, and
you just can't do that.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Holding in boxing is acceptable if you use it, you know,
sporadically or in the right particular, in.
Speaker 1: The context of actually doing anything other than holding.
Speaker 2: I get It's a strategic move once in a while,
and I don't have a problem with that, but you
cannot just make it the game. I mean, that is ridiculous.
So but finally, after like the second, you know, into
the second half of the fight, Vanello finally seemed to
at least figure Torres out a little bit. Maybe Richard
got a little tired and he was able to be
more of a fighter instead of a grabber and a holder.
So it definitely heat it up in the second half
of the fight. But by that time Torres had probably
put you know, at least four of the first five
rounds or so in the bank. You know, I didn't
understand that the judges seem to be good, not the judges,
rather the commentators on ESPN, I have all respect for
it seemed to be calling it a lot closer than
I was seeing it. I thought Torres was totally done.
Speaker 1: It was Bernardosuna and Tim Bradley on the call.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Mark Kriegel and had it a little closer,
it seemed to me. But nonetheless, in the end, there
were some very good action last couple of our rounds,
but but Torres had put too many rounds in the bank.
He won ninety eight ninety one, ninety eight, ninety seven,
ninety two. I thought ninety seven to ninety two was
an excellent scorecard. I had no problem with that whatsoever.
And he gets the biggest win of his career because remember,
going into this fight, he was the twenty twenty silver
medal super heavyweight gold medals because loss was competitive against
Bakhaira Jallalov in the final, and so he has been
fighting the typical type journeyman the young heavyweights fight, and
this was the first time he set up to a
legitimate opponent. Guido himself was a twenty sixteen olympian from
Italy and it was definitely his biggest test, and not
only did he pass, but he did so in pretty
dominating fashion. So again I still say Richard Torres had
his size, his undersize to compete at the highest level
of the heavy You know, he's just again, God bless
him if you can prove us all wrong, because he's
a very likable guy, fun guy to watch for the
most part, and really, you know, it was in good
shape and goes after it. I just don't know if
a guy that's six two two twenty in today's day
and age of heavyweight boxing, and and and I heard
somebody say, well what about Usik, Stop with that. Usik
is a he's a unicorn. Okay, he's special.
Speaker 1: It's totallyremendous, tremendous, skilled fighter, totally and ontime. And Torres
is not him. We know that. And it was striking
to see how much bigger Vanella was than him.
Speaker 2: And Vanella is not even considered like a quote unquote
big heavyweight, you know what I mean. But he's a
regular at six foot four, you know, two thirty five
to forty that's like the average heavyweight these days. And
Richard is much smaller than that. So I wish Richard
Torres luck. I just have a hard time ye seeing
that the difficulties he had at times against a fighter
like Vannello.
Speaker 1: Give me a fighter, give me a fighter or a
fight that would intrigue you for Torres coming up, he
took a step up here, he won what what's out there?
That's realistic from top rank as an FAA coming along,
job was.
Speaker 2: Got a job was fighting Martin McCully that although it
wouldn't be the worst fighter, well the job has got
a close win against Viennello here's the fight, and I
don't know if it will happen. Make him and Jared
Anderson the once prospect against the current prospect.
Speaker 1: Sign sign me up. It's not a pay per view,
but it's a main event, and I would watch sign
me up on that.
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's way, but that that uh, that would
be intriguing. Uh, you know, but that type of step up.
You know, Jared is obviously, Uh, most people are down
on him. He got badly knocked out by Martin McCauley
and his comeback fight, you know what about a month
or so ago. He looked just dreadful in that fight,
even though he got the win. Uh, you know, I'm
not sure. I mean, heavyweight Matching heavyweights in today's day
and age is difficult. But here's a real indictment of
heavyweight boxing that you could look at Richard Torres and
say he might be the best American heavyweight. Maybe he
might put a Jarald Miller ahead of him or Andy Ruiz.
But in terms of the newer faces, like who else
is there?
Speaker 1: It's like you said, you said, face is poral. He
might be the only new face, newer face that we
care about. The silver medalists from the Olympics and he's
on the way up. But he's got to he's got
to demonstrate something against better competition. And maybe that is,
but look, here's the main thing, real, big baby, he.
Speaker 2: Was the one that was making the fight. He won
the fight. He's the younger guy, he's the guy with
with more of a future. He's got good speed, he's
got a good personality. He had a lot of you know,
fans there screaming for him. So it's just a matter
of continue to develop. He's only got thirteen fights and
he's still you know, heavyweights these days, you know, they
get into their thirties and they're just sort into sort
of mature as anyway, Richard is just twenty five years old.
He's got plenty of time in front of him. It's
it's it's not a marathon, I mean, or rather, it's
not a sprint. It's a marathon. So let him take
his time. They continue to develop him and they move
him in the right direction, all right.
Speaker 1: On the undercard, Lindolfo Delgado did win by decision in
his junior Well to Way co feature fight, and Abdullah
Mason also victorious. I have to confess I've not seen
those fights. I do stay on my Dan Rayfhaeld Substack,
and I saw the recaps that you wrote about them.
So tell the audience here a little more about those
two fights real quick to run well.
Speaker 2: Delgado against Rodriguez, this was an eliminator for the WBC
at one but it is not, at least I don't
think so. According to Top Break, was not a final eliminator.
In other words, just because Lindelfha Delgado a former Mexican
Olympian and now still undefeated at twenty three and oho
with sixteen knockouts, he's not necessarily the next mandatory. They
haven't named the manager. I know, we go through the
you know the words souad all the time on it.
But he is certainly now in a great position to
fight for a title. The WBC champion at one hundred
and forty is Albert Playo, so that's the guy he's
looking to fight. But the main thing is he went
in the ring in a fight that on paper going
in was pretty evenly matched, where there was a lot
of reasons that you could think Elvis Rodriguez would win
the fight, a lot of reasons to think Delgado would
win the fight. It was a close fight, and in
the end, it was the outo that won the majority decision.
The funny thing about that, though, is that the one
memorable moment in the fight, which was in round number
nine that belonged to Elvis Rodriguez, when he cracked him
and knocked them badly off balance, almost knocked them down,
knocked them sort of not into the ropes like he
bounced and they kept them up, but he kind of
grabbed on to keep from sliding backwards, and you know,
looked like he might be in some trouble. There was
still a little time left in the round, and right
off that situation he had Elvis Rodriguez going after him,
but he only did it for a few seconds and
he kind of let him off the hook. I don't
know if he thought he was just playing possible or
maybe he was punched out a little bit, but he
let that moment escape him. And then Delgado went out
and won the tenth round on all three scorecards, and
he was able to win the fight because of that.
Had he not, then there was a good chance a
fight winds up as a draw. So that ninth round
moment where Elvis was unable to capitalize on that big
punch that he landed. It enabled Delgado to survive the
rest of the round and thrive in round number ten
and win the decision. But this was one of those
fights where you know, two guys have been brought along
by top rank for a long time, both in you know,
not not young guys anymore in terms of like prospects.
They're both you know, they're what they are. One guy's
twenty nine and one guy's thirty. And let's see what
you can do. And Delgado gets to win, and he's
an exciting fighter to watch. You know, I said this before,
I'm gonna say it again. Elvis Rodriguez has got a
crazy amount of high from a lot of people, and
I'm not knocking the young man, but I just never
saw it. And I'm vindicated because once again he falls
short when he steps up.
Speaker 1: Good for him. Abdullah Mason as well gets a victory.
I know you are very conversely, you're very high on him,
yeaving a little more on that one.
Speaker 2: It's impossible not to be me. Mason is a tremendous talent.
He does everything you want to see in a young fighter.
First of all, the day of the fight on Saturday
night was his twenty first birthday, So he goes out
there and he gets the six round knockout against Carlos
Arnellis and celebrates his birthday and it was kind of
endearing because the crowd was singing Happy Birthday to him
after the fight was over. That was nice to see.
But he maintains his perfect records eighteen and zero. He's
scored three knockdowns. He put Ornelli's down on his knee
three times in the second round, in the fourth round.
In the sixth round, he was taking a bad beating
and there was a lot of conversation in the corner
between the corner and the doctor and the referee. We're
gonna stop the fight, and then they finally had the
doctor come in and take another good look at him,
and at that point the doc says to the referee,
who was rabul Okayist Junior, time to call it a day,
and they stopped the fight. So Mason gets another victory.
He'll be back sometime in June whenever the Kishon Davis
defends the lightweight title for the next time. He's supposed
to fight in an ESPN card sometime in June, and
you'll see Abdula Mason back on that undercard, so he's
staying busy. He's getting in his reps. He's now eighteen
and oho with sixteen knockouts, just turned twenty one years old,
literally on the day of the fight. So he has
a hugely bright future and he's starting to develop. You
listen to his interviews. He's got some confidence about him.
He's got a little swagger to him. Comes from a
real tight knit group with his family, not like tons
of hangers on or anything like that. You hope it
stays that way. But he's got a huge future and
to watch.
Speaker 1: All right, and then we move along in the quartet.
Let's go, shall we from Las Vegas to Kazakhstan. I've
always wondered if they have a direct flight. No, I haven't. Uh.
This was Saturday afternoon US time, early Saturday afternoon, because Kazakhstan,
again I believe, is nine hours ahead of Eastern time.
And Jana Beek did retain the ib F and w
BO middleweight titles. I confess again, I did not watch
this blow by blow, but I've seen the knockout of
If you want me to try the name again and
hold on, let me try it. In gum missing gay
am I close with how you say.
Speaker 2: You have to listen to our man. I got to
tip the hat, which you can see on the.
Speaker 1: You are sharing it on the video that we're showing
you're tipping the hat.
Speaker 2: Corey Erdman was the blow by blow announcer on this fight,
and Corey and he was doing the blow by blow
of this whole card with with the great Ray Boom
boom Mancini. And at one point during the show you
had ray Mancini uh saying to Corey that he had
to give him his give him his respect for doing
you know, because all these names from these these you know,
Central Asian countries in Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics,
they're difficult to say for those of us in this
side of the world. And Corey's got a down pat
so he had the name Annuel Nassam Ingue he didn't, okay.
So anyway, Janebec was able to go in there and
just beat his rear end all over the place. This
was Janebec making a homecoming defense of his unified WBO
and IBF Middleway titles. He had never had a fight
in his home country of Kazakhstan since his first and
second professional fights, which were in twenty sixteen and seventeen.
So this was an opportunity for his promoter, top rank
to make a deal with the local promoter to bring
him home, have this this homecoming bout. He was a
medallist in the twenty sixteen Olympics. Ness Gembwey, who was
his opponent, was also a representative of his home country
of Congo in the Olympics in twenty sixteen. He's now
based out of France, and you know, he's a tet
of Corey, and the broadcasters told the story of all
the hardships that this man has had his life, and
just the mere fact that he had the success he
had as an amateur and to get this far in
his pro career as a real testament to just you know,
trying to make something out of your life. He'd been
homeless and all that. So for him to get this
kind of opportunity and probably make a pretty decent payday,
you know, good for him and nothing to be upset
about there. However, the skill level, the talent level, the
gap was just so gargantuan that other than a heart,
he just did not have anything for for Jenebeg and
he just took care of me, put him down in
the first round and then just kind of beat him up.
And eventually when he was taking it to him, you know,
he had hit him with a big cunch that bounced
him into the ropes, knocked him down again, and he
got up in the corner, you know, appropriately decided to
call it a day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, his head snapped. He didn't know where he was,
so that needed to be stopped. Yeah, And that always
leads us to the next question because we keep talking about.
Speaker 2: This and he was way by the way, and he
was way down. He was down forty thirty five, nine
thirty six, so through a knockout, and what do you expect?
Speaker 1: Right? So now that lead exist because again you look
around and there's not a whole lot left uh in
the middleweight division unless unless you get another title uh
bout against another champion in a unified fight. What is next?
Jannebek gonna come back to the United States, trains a
lot out in out in Las Vegas, right and and
live Well.
Speaker 2: No, he'sa no, he doesn't train in Las Vegas. He
trains he's based out of Oxnard, California.
Speaker 1: To California, So realistically, later this summer he fights someone
in the middleweight division.
Speaker 2: Later the summer may not be the fall he's gonna
They probably only owned two fights a year. So the
answer is there's no answer. I mean the unification bouts.
He has two belts. The other two champions in the
division or Arishlundi Laro's held the WBA title hostage for
the last few years, and carloson Damas, who has the
WBC belt, who's coming off draw that he deserved to
win against Hamsus Shiras. Now those two boxers are both
represented by PBC now top ranking. PBC been talking about
doing more fights together, and maybe they can make a
fight between Jannabeck and one of those two champions. Uh.
In my opinion, I would like to see Aristoni Laara
have a fight against a Damas, Let them unify the
WBA in the WBC. Let let jenebec have his WBO
and his IBA, and let the winner of a Lara
versus a Damas fight fight for undisputing. Now, even if
that word of went fold or they made any permutation
of unification, they are not big money fights. They they
are guys who just don't have a public following. I mean,
Janebec couldn't sell tickets, you know, to eliminate stand. I mean,
he just he just.
Speaker 1: Does not lie. That's why he's fighting an unknown Congan
fighter in Kazakhstan instead of fighting in the United States,
exactly because the market.
Speaker 2: So that was the big part of it.
Speaker 1: What's the market? What's the dollars? Right?
Speaker 2: The middleweight division, We've said it a thousand times. It
thinks out loud. The best guys are Jennebec by default. Basically.
You know, Laura is a good fighter and has been
for a long time. But if you look at his
resume of who he's boxed in a middleweight fight, it's
it's terrible, yep. And a Damas is a good fighter
also in his spot some okay guys too, but not
as known and has less experience and less title fights.
So the division is just wide open, uh. I mean,
I'm hopeful that one of these top guys at fifty
four will come up and make some noise. But right now,
you ask me who's next for Jenemeet, You know what
My answer is, TJ who gives a shit?
Speaker 1: Well, so far again we sparred on the preview pod.
I like Bronco adamis, let's make that fighter. You know,
let's have at least some activity with these guys and
then it will drum up some interest that maybe they fight.
I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't dislike that match. I only my argument with
you is that it's meaningful to anybody other than them,
because it would not be considered.
Speaker 1: But there's not a title defense unless a Domas fights Sharraz,
which that might happen in a rematch. What's another compelling.
Speaker 2: Fighters not fighting sh Sharaz is going to Superman away
forgetting and so there you go.
Speaker 1: So what else is out there besides that? If you're
a Dominis that would make you any money or have
any interest.
Speaker 2: They'll dig up somebody an they look through the ratings
of the organizations and you know he's gonna get ordered
to do an IBF mandatory at some time. That always
is always a joy when they order some piece of
you know, the title to be defended against a guy
that nobody knows.
Speaker 1: So kind of like this guy that Jana Beck had
pretty much all right. So Baka Deer Jalla Looff was
also on this undercard and he won by decision. Again,
I have to confess I've not seen that fight. He's humongous.
He's the former gold meadalist. You mentioned Richard Torrez that
he won over Richard Torres. He has. He has two
or three wins over Richard Torres, including a big knockout
previously like in a in a world championship setting, and
then beat him again. How many how many times? Two?
Three that he beat Torres? Two that he beat Torrez.
Speaker 2: The first time they met, he scored a massive, massive,
massive knockout against Taurus when they met in the Rea,
and Torres, I think was still a teenager at that time,
and Jalla Love is much older and more mature and
more physical, was more and more together when they fought
in the rematch that was the Olympic final. And even
though Jalla have won that fight in uh In for
the gold medal for his for his uh there was
a far more competitive fight than when he blitzed him
the first time, joll Love stayed amateur. And I keep
in mind now he stayed amateur because even though he
went to the pros and had a bunch of fights.
He's in Uzbekistan as his home country. The government pays
the athletes tremendous amounts of money to continue to compete
in the Olympics as it's good for like the country's profile.
So he's he's decided to continue. He could have been
fighting as a pro, you know, fighting like real heavyweights
and eliminators and regional titles and maybe even a world
title fight, but he opted to stick with the team
moves Bekkistan. They paid him a lot of money. He
went back to Paris in the Summer Games and he
won another gold medal. This was his first fight back
since the Paris Games of last summer, and they put
him in with a very rugged guy, Igor Chevy Dutsky.
I guess is how you say his name? He looked
like for that go ahead, they kept calling him the Hulk.
He looks like like imagine the incredible.
Speaker 1: Wait wait was he green? And did he have cut
off jeans that were tattered? Like?
Speaker 2: What I was gonna say is imagine if the Hulk
was a white guy with blonde hair instead of green
with brown hair or black.
Speaker 1: That sounds more like four. Now you're mixing up.
Speaker 2: The SuperH No, because he doesn't thor wears like a
hat like a.
Speaker 1: But thorst long hair and he has the hammer right okay.
Speaker 2: But he's also wears that lake helmet, doesn't.
Speaker 1: I guess, So no, that's this this guy. This guy
was the white blonde Hulk but anyway, years and still
took care of business, right.
Speaker 2: So, but jall Lov went to distance for the first
time as a professional. He knocked him down with a
clean as a whistle shot. I think it was a
left hand, and he's got great power and he's a
southbaw he knocked him down. I want to say he
was in the third round, but I'm gonna call him
Thor because I don't know how to say. I'll call
him Hulk igor Ehor. He got up and he showed
a lot of heart and he went to distance with
this guy, and at one point in the fight he
rocked jall Off. I thought jall Love to me, looked
terrible on this fight.
Speaker 1: Just he looked out of shape to you. Round fifth round.
Speaker 2: He always looks in shape. It's not about being in shape.
I just feel like when you've stayed into the amateur
ranks that long, that he's starting to regress, like he
should be fighting real guys in the heavyweight division. It's
not like he's a prospect. The guy is thirty years old, right,
he's got fifteen professional fights, two Olympic gold medals. Like,
what are we doing here? Like I said, I was
talking to one of the people I know on his
team about the fight just earlier today, and we were
sort of like, is he gonna fight a real guy?
They're like, we hope we can match him with like
a legitimate guy in the next fight. It's no more
babying this guy. He's fought a bunch of nobody's fifteen
pro fights. I'm totally fine. When you come into the
pro game, you're gonna have your you know, your easy
matchups to sort of get the hang of things. But
at this stage of his career, with the amount of
money that he gets paid as a pro, it's time. Okay,
what are we doing? Let's step up?
Speaker 1: All right, stay tuned on Jolla Off and what's next
for him. So we've given you a ton of reek
hap Let's give you some news and let's give you
some nostalgia. The news is not good for Jai Opataiah.
Injury for him, and so his May upcoming title defense
with Claudio SQUAYO am I close. There was to have
been in Australia is now delayed. Fill in the blanks.
What's going on here?
Speaker 2: Well, he was supposed to have well, I mean, keep
in mind, the longer range picture is the idea that
they can maybe make a unification fight with Zerto Ramirez
in the latter part of this year, because Zerto was
first going to do his mandatory against Dordicos, who was
a former champion. That's actually a good fight, and Opataiah
has been staying busy, so they thought this was a
great opportunity to go home and do yet another fight
in Australia on the Gold Coast, and so he was
scheduled to go on May thirteenth against Squao. In this
fight defending the IBF and the lineal title in the
cruiserweight division. He suffered an injury, and his team and
Tasman Fighters and himself in Natural Boxing, everybody involved with
this event. In his own they announced that it had
been postponed from May thirteenth. It will still take place,
same opponents, same location, but instead of May thirteenth, that's
going to be June eighth. And there was like a
short statement that he had had a what they termed
a minor injury, but they didn't specify what it was.
Rayfield made a couple of phone calls and you know,
found out in about thirty seconds what the injury was.
I was told that he had suffered in his training
in recent days a slight tear in one of his
calfs and then he actually wanted to go and fight,
to fight anyway, and they're like, no, we're not doing that.
But it's not a major tear. You need an extra
couple of weeks to take care of it. So you know,
you noticed that the date was not delayed significantly from
the from the thirteenth things.
Speaker 1: Because here's where I can just kind of fill in.
I'm not an orthopedist. I just played one out of
the hotel in San Antonio when I'm on with Rayfield.
The first concern that you have when you hear calf
muscle tear is that's connected to the good old Achilles,
So just be careful that that can be much worse
when you know, we don't want to play around with that.
And the second thing is this can be a nagging
thing where you think you're fine and then you're not
fine for a month or for longer. I'm not saying
doom and gloom. I have no idea, but it's better
to be cautious here and delay this thing until June,
which is what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think if he was fighting same for example, Zerdo,
maybe it would be in a little bit of a
longer delay because that's a much more serious fight than
this opponent. So anyway, in the end, Opataia is a warrior.
I mean we know that just from having watched when
he won the title in the first place, back you know,
a couple of years ago, three years ago, whenever it was,
when he fought with it.
Speaker 1: And by the way, he's been active and it keeps
him relevant because we kept talking about him.
Speaker 2: We like that, Yeah, no doubt about it. So we
know he's We know he's got a threshold for pain.
If he's able to fight through a broken nose as
long as he did in that rough fight in his
first out with Myris Brats, who we defeated to win
the title.
Speaker 1: Heye had a broken jaw in the first fight, broken John,
and then he broken nose in the rematch. He is
a tough thing.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean the nose. I meant to jaw. That
was the bad one. That was the real bad ones.
So anyway, look, hopefully he gets better and heels up
and he comes back no injuries than that, heals and
then takes care of his If he does take care
of the business, that they'll they'll make that match with
with with zero for later this year, and that would
be an outsetting matchup. It's to me, anyway, the best
fight you can make in the cruiserweight division. And uh,
you know, having fights get postponed by two or three
weeks for an injury is not anything unusual.
Speaker 1: All right, stay tuned on that we have a little
we're gonna get out in front of something because as
we do this Sunday night into Monday, there's news about
heavyweights Faby Owardly and Jarrell real big baby or he's
big baby, right, I can't even keep it training. He's
big baby Miller. They are gonna fight coming up and
it's being officially announced. But right now Rayfiel's got the intel.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, it was announced.
Speaker 1: It is announced. Okay, go ahead, it is announced. And
then to give me the detail I.
Speaker 2: Had written about it on Friday with the Pacifics in
a notebook and then the next day when they when
they and I wrote it in the piece, they're going
to appear together at the Hergovich fight and pose together,
you know, in the ring, and take pictures and then
there's gonna be a press conference on Monday. And so
then what happened. They showed up at the fight on Saturday,
took pictures and then Queensbury announced that there will be
a press commerence in Faby Wardley's hometown of Ipswich, England,
which is where the fight will take place on his
own on June seventh, and it will be Wardley against
Jerald Miller. As you said, Unfortunately, it will be for
the vacant WBA interim heavyweight title, which is somewhat nauseating
for a lot of different reasons.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say again, what are we doing here? And
you said to me over and over again, they're cleaning
this up. They're not going to keep doing this. Are
you now going to go on blast? They obviously are
going to keep the cancer the big titles.
Speaker 2: The Cancer of Boxing is the WBA's regular title at heavyweight.
The other divisions have largely been under control for quite
a while, but the heavyweight one they just cannot get
out of. Their own way. The Queensberry people petition it.
They feel like having Wardley when this interim nonsense is
somehow more makes the fight bigger or more marketable. I
don't agree with that. I think it is what it is.
I think the people of England who are in his
hometown recognize that Jerol Miller is a good contender and
the named guy, and Wardley is still a developing fighter.
It's so silly. Regardless, the winner is going to be
the mandatory for Kubrat Pulev, who's the regular champion who's
ordered to fight his mandatory against Michaelanndra. But fuck all
that shit. The bottom line is Babio Wardley against Jeral
Miller is a good fight world. Okay, He's got his
calling cards, if you will, are the incredibly action packed
draw he had with Fraser Clark and then in the
rematch that was in Saudi Arabia annihilating him in the
first round. That was a very big statement. This will
be a next fight after that. Miller is coming off
of the draw against Andy Ruiz in August in Los
Angeles on the read season card that was headlined by
Terrence Crawford, and even though he wound up with a
draw against Andy Luiz. The majority of people felt like
Jero Miller probably deserved to be the winner, not Ruiz.
And so now you got one heavyweight that's trying to
move up the ladder and make a name for himself
and Wardley against Jaren Miller, who's kind of treading water
but hoping to get another shot because he spent most
of the last you know, six or seven years shooting
himself on the FOT and destroying his own career with
multiple drug test failures. But they both have an opportunity now.
Speaker 1: For a date. What's the date we're looking at.
Speaker 2: It's going to be June seventh. It'll take place at
a place called Portman Stadium in Wordley's hometown, which is Ipswich.
I guess that's one of the locations where one of
the local soccer clubs makes it. You know, that's their
home stadium. So they'll draw a good crowd there. And
you know, look, Frank Warren is in his brand new
deal with his own they're trying to you know, not
that they're gonna stop trying to do this, but they're
they're they're trying to endeavor to make interesting fights, and
you know, they're very deep in the heavyweight division. They
just did the Hergivage fight that took place over the
weekend against Joe Joyce, really good fight. This hopefully can
be another one of that kind of line of fights.
And they've got other heavyweights that they work with also
and we've seen it. They're gonna probably wind up doing
uh duboi in the rematch against Usick. There involve obviously
with Joseph Parker. Moses mosesma was on the way up
who I expect will step up to a higher level
of opposition in the coming fights. So, uh, this is
another and a long line of heavyweight offerings that Queensberry
can put on. And uh it should be a pretty
solid fight because one thing, you know, take you know,
say what do you want about Jerrel Miller and the
non stop up fell drug test. You know he has
been cleaned now for a while. He's taken a gazillion
VADA tests.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: He did give Andy Rui's a heck of a fight,
even if it was close, and a lot of people
thought he won, but it was a draw. It to me,
this is a this is still the biggest step off
for Wardley. No knock on on on Fraser Clark, but
Jeral Miller is a better, more known commodity than Fraser
Clark was no doubt about it, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's coming in June. One more news item
as well. And this is interesting on my rundown because
you know that typically I do our pods from West
central Florida from Tampa Bay, big Hispanic Cuban Puerto Rican
population in Tampa and big fight town Tampa is and
Cuban fighters have fought in Tampa all the time and
all over Florida all the time when turning pro. But
a professional boxing card is now going to happen in
Cuba coming up, and it has not happened in Cuba
for sixty years, a professional fight card, So fill in
the blanks.
Speaker 2: If that's what to me is so crazy about this
because Cuba has for many decades been known as the
powerhouse of amateur boxing. I mean, they've won gazillions of medals.
I mean, other than the United States, which hasn't been
the powerhouse maybe in recent years, but you know it
was for many years before they were in some ways
replaced by Cuba. And then to a certain degree, of course,
you know, the former Soviet countries when they became their
own entities like Kazakhstan, whuz Pakistan, et cetera. But the
Cuban amateur program is storied, is legendary. But the sport
of boxing on a professional level was banned by the
Castro regime from nineteen sixty two and then the ban
was lifted in twenty twenty two. But they didn't have cards,
even though I guess technically it was legal from my understanding,
they didn't have any pro cards even though it's been
allowable for the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: So Agon Sports hell in the gap on the Civics
lesson because you're basically not allowed to be a capitalist
in a communist country. So it's basically is the government
gonna put this card on? Who are they allowing to
make money off of this? That's that's what it comes
down to.
Speaker 2: So the German promoter Agon Sports, who they're the ones
that promoted fights like they promote William Skull for example,
who's a Cuban that's based out of Germany. They're the
ones that promoted Remember we were just talking about the
Unif you know that Jennebeck is the Unified champion when
he won the IBF title, he fought Gultieri from Germany
that was an Agon Sports fighter, So they've been doing
those shows over there. When when martaz Leev fought for
the IBF title, he fought for the vacant title against
Jack Kulka who was promoted by Agon and went and
fought on one of their shows over in Germany. But
they have also been involved with some of the Cuban
amateurs that have turned pro who are still in Cuba.
So this is being put on by Agon Sports and
Conjunction what is the Cuban Boxing Federation, and they'll be
they're calling a Cuban Fight Night, and they've got lined
up several, you know, renowned Cuban amateurs who have had
a handful of professional fights who will fight on this
card in pro fights one. And it's taking place, you know,
at a hotel. They're gonna fight in like WBA regional
title fights, not world title fights, but the regional belts
at all the young fighters and prospects, et cetera, trying
to win as they you know, try to get ranked
and move up the rankings and and and prepare for
bigger fights. They'll do it at a hotel, uh in
a in a in a place in Cuba called was
it Verdardo Verado? Not not, it's not in Havana, it's
another city in the island. And but they've got fighters
like the heavyweight Julio La Cruze, Julio Sesar la Cruz.
He's three and oh as a probab he's thirty five
years old, but he's won multiple gold medals. He won
a light heavyweight gold medal in twenty sixteen, he won
the gold medal at heavyweight in twenty twenty and then,
in a probably the biggest upset of the twenty four Olympics,
he got eliminated in the tournament in the first in
his opening bout.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: But anyway, he's the headliner, and he's taken on a
guy named Dylan Prazovich who was not a well known guy,
but he did challenge Lawrence Okoley for the WBC's cruiserweight
title a few years ago, so he you know, he's
going to experience like that. They've got another outstanding Cuban
name Arlen Lopez, who was a light heavyweight. He's a
three time Olympian. He won the middleweight gold in twenty sixteen.
He won the head light heavyweight gold in twenty twenty.
He returned and won a middleweight bronze in twenty twenty four,
so he's on the card. Got Arislandi Alvarez and other
Cuban gold medals from twenty twenty four. He's the young guy.
He's only twenty four years old, so he's still on
the way up in terms of his you know, just
his general boxing experience. And Laslo Alvarez, who's a two
time bronze medal winner, he's a lightweight. He's on the card.
So they're they're loading up the card with the top
Cubans that haven't defected or left, and it's going to
be interesting to see after this takes place. Are they
going to ever be allowed to go fight outside of
Cuba and then still come back to Cuba. Because I
suspect if you ever talk to the Cuban fighters, they
have an allegiance and a love for their country, but
they want it to come to America or elsewhere to
be able to have the ability to earn money. But
if these guys like who I'm talking about, these Cuban Olympians,
if they're able to make money and fight in Cuba,
the guys that have left Cuba in a heartbeat. A
lot of those guys would be willing to go back
and fight there and live there if they can make
a living.
Speaker 1: But again you're talking about they may have relaxed this.
It's still a communist situation, and the United States obviously
had embargoes on being able to go and do business there. Whatever.
But hey, at least the fights and this is happening quickly, right,
How soon is this happening with this side?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this has kind of been on the
books for the last couple of weeks, but it's happening
like April eleventh, later.
Speaker 1: This week, later this week, all right, So the Cuban
fighters get some action there. I won more bit of
business before we are done, and then I think I
might have some chimmy chongos or something else calling my
name later on, some case of das something here on
the river walk of San Antonio. That is nostalgia. That
is Floyd Mayweather, money, May money, May all the day.
It is nineteen years ago Tuesday, April eighth of two
thousand and six that Mayweather fought zab Judah from New
York and he won the world welterweight title with you there,
But that ain't the whole story. Let's get nostalgic because
we've done this before. Because this got crazy crazy as
in WWE Royal rumble type stuff, battle Royale in the ring,
crazy in the Mayweather win over Judah. Give me some more.
Speaker 2: Well, one thing you have to do is put in
perspective and understand that Floyd had been the champion at
one hundred and thirty pounds, He'd been a champion at
one hundred and thirty five pounds, he had briefly held
the title at one hundred and forty pounds, he had
taken a fight at one hundred and forty seven pounds
against Charmbi Micheline one, and now he's moving up to
one forty seven to challenge Zab Judah for the IBF title.
But Judah, who was obviously a very good fighter, was
coming off of the massive upset loss to Carlos Valdimir.
But the IBF did IBF things, and they were allowing
him to keep the title. Even when they made the name,
they advertised it as undisputed, which it was, but then
they said, well, Valdimir was only paying the sanctioning fees
for the WBC title, so uh, that's you know, he
won the WBC title. The IBF title Zab was allowed
to keep, and I guess the WB belt in my
recollection went vacated. In any event, it was still a
good match of Floyd and Floyd and Zab were good friends. Uh,
but then they had this rivalry and it became very
heated and very nasty when they were fighting other There
was some sort of issues between them, and so they
called the fights the best of enemies, if I recall correctly.
And it was a big deal. And the other thing
that made it big also was it was the first
time in several years, in a number of years that
Don King, who was the promoter for Zab Judah and
Bob Aram who was the promoter at the time for Floyd,
didn't honest to goodness co promotion big HBO pay per
view fight. But Don and Bob, who had you know,
butted heads for decades, they were going to do a
fight together. So that was like a huge part of
the promotion. They set the fight for Las Vegas, Thomas
and Knack Center, you know, big HBO pay perview like
I mentioned, and title on the line. Even though it
was sort of ridiculous that that Zab was able to
keep the belt after you know, suffering that loss and
a humongous upset against Carlos Baldemir, and they went, they
did the fight, and you know what, Floyd had been
troubled at times by South Boss. Obviously he finished undefeated.
He always found a way to figure them out, but
he didn't really love fighting the South pat fighters. And
Zab was not only a Southbob, but he was a
South Bob with good power but really outstanding speed, and
he had Floyd befuddled. And in the second round he
caught him with a shot, he knocked him down, and
the referee didn't call it. He called it a slip,
but it was a knockdown and it should have been
called a knockdown. And the same way where he had
a knockdown called against him in another fight, I believe
it was against Carlos Frnandez that shouldn't have been called
a knockdown, but it was. This was the opposite. So
the reality is Mayweather has one authentic knockdown in his career.
The one that was called was the bullshit one. The
one that was missed, that was the real knockdown was
this one. So that's what happened in there. But Floyd
got it figured out and after like round four he
poured it on and took it to him. And I've
said this before. I sat next to my pal Kevin
and I oli at that fight, huh, and we looked
at each other in like the eleventh round and we're like,
Floyd's about to stop him, and he was really starting
to punish jazz Ab and that's when all the shit happened,
and all the crazy stuff happened, and hit the fan,
which was when Roger Mayweather. Floyd's trained you.
Speaker 1: To hit him like at the breaker after the bell,
and that's what started it, right.
Speaker 2: There was a low blow if I'm not okay, and
Roger uh was was ticked off about that situation and
got in the ring and confronted him and then.
Speaker 1: He shoved him. He shoved him on the video.
Speaker 2: But then so then the whole thing went crazy. You
had Joel Judah, who was Zab's father, gets in the ring,
you know, to Floyd Mayweather's credit, Floyd literally just walked
to the corner and just stood there like I'm not
getting involved with this. You know, you guys, do your ship.
But I got nothing to do with this. And it
turned into like a giant melee near riot scenario. People
are running into the ring. Uh, and it was just
complete undercast. There was a delay of a few minutes
in the fight in the middle of like the eleventh
Tell your story. I take it back. It was in
the tenth round when this happened.
Speaker 1: Tell your story about the police officer right next to
you with the gun ring side.
Speaker 2: So yeah, so I'm sitting with Ioli ringside, and as
people are flooding into the ring, I looked to my
left and somebody was about to try to come up
the ring steps into the ring for no apparent reason,
who had no business being there, and there was there
were they had actually, if I remember, they had a
lot of extra security that night because of the heated
nature of the build up to the fight. And so
the police officer, he didn't pull his gun out and
threaten anybody with or anything like that, but he looked
right at the guy who was trying to get in
the ring, and he just took his hand and he
tapped his gun, which was in the holster at their side,
Like don't you fucking dare and the guy turned around and.
Speaker 1: Like the old rest gunfighter, move U, I'm about to
pull this on you, and he didn't have to. But
then that guy didn't get in the ring but the ring.
So they restored order and then they call.
Speaker 2: Hold on the referee that missed that knockdout call early.
The referee for the fight was Richard Steele. Was one
of his last big fights of his career before he retired.
But yeah, so that all happened. They they they they
could have technically speaking, they could have disqualified Mayweather because
it was his quarterman that came into the ring. But
I'm glad that Richard Steele showed a restraint not to
do that. So people can bust his balls from now
until the end of time about their perception that his
stoppage and the Chavez Meldred Taylor fight was terrible. Conversely,
his his decision not to disqualify Floyd in this fight
was the right call. That would have been much much
worse than just letting that happen and go, you know,
get order restored and have the fight go on. And
you know, at that point, you know, the kind of
the air was out of the fight. He wasn't going
to get the knockout, but he cruised through the eleventh round,
he cruised through the twelfth round, and Floyd won by,
you know, a pretty dominating decision. And in the end
it was zab Judah and Roger Mayweather and a bunch
of people got suspended and fined and this and that,
but Floyd did not because Floyd played the good guy
and like I said, went to the corner and just
stood there and waited for everything to blow over. It
was for a split second, TJ. I've been in ring
side for a million fights. That's the most danger I
ever felt being ringside for a fight.
Speaker 1: Did you have somebody come up around you coming up
into the ring or were you separated enough from that
besides the stairs like you said, and the cops standing
on No, we were just.
Speaker 2: In our normal seats. But it was it was the
only way I can describe it is we were, like
I felt like seconds away from something really bad happening.
But the police presence there and the people that were
involved in the security were really on top of their
shit and they quelled what could have been a horrendous situation,
and it was It was much more minor and it
was basically confined to within the ring.
Speaker 1: We don't have to go for another ten minutes. But
like when you compare it to Riddick Bow, not even
in Andrew Gollatta. There was not a presence and that's
why it escalated ten seconds, five seconds, ten seconds, fifteen
seconds into fifty people are in the ring and then
you can't control it. They told enough immediately to get
it calmed down and separated.
Speaker 2: The crazy thing is the genesis of what happened with
Riddick bo and Andrew Glotta was the low blow, right.
The genesis of what happened here was was Judah with
a blatant low blow in the tenth round against Mayweather.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Roger had enough and yeah.
Speaker 2: And so he got in the ring. So he's he's
lucky that he didn't he didn't cost his fighter the fight.
He did get suspended, and that was you know, I
remember covering all the different things that we're going on
with the hearings and everything. Uh, and it was a
real mess, and Zad was out of the ring for
a while. But that was in terms of things that
happened that weren't related to the actual boxing. That was
one of the more memorable things I've been in terms
of the fight.
Speaker 1: Crazy and that is now almost twenty years ago. Nineteen
years ago. April eighth is the anniversary on Tuesday two
thousand and six for the Mayweather win. All right, so
we have been here for a little while, good stuff
on all the recaps all over the place. We got
some some news out of the way, nostalgia. We will
go into the preview mode later this week, we should
say to the audience. Due to a scheduling switch, we're
gonna do the bet Us Boxing show on Wednesday for
the jiron Nis fight. Wednesday Wednesday, one Eastern time, typically
it's Friday, so you and I will actually do that
show before we do the preview podcast. For our pod audience,
find us on the bet Us platforms including YouTube, Twitter, etc.
On bet Us Wednesday afternoon at one Eastern or Wednesday
subsequent to that, why don't you and I reconvene and
talk Innos and Stanionis later the week. They can hear
Boots n Us back on the previous podcast if you
want to hear some more from Jaron Innis other than that,
sorry about you, Duke Blue Devils. I'll see whatever happens
with Florida and Houston in the college basketball National Title
Game in the Alamo City. Let's see if it's gonna
be wild again. Half of Houston will be here in
San Antonio. My friend, you have a good week. Other
than that, we will rock on. I'll see you on
the bet Us Show here coming up in a couple
of days to talk Boots Nus' return. Good enough, That
sounds good. There's Dan Rayfield. I'm merely DJ Reeves. Follow
and subscribe apples Freaker Spotify. Find that Dan substack by
the same name Fight Freaks Unite. You have been listening
to the Fight Freaks Unite recap podcast