Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Reaves. Ah Yes, indeed.
Speaker 2: New York, New York for a whole lot of compelling
boxing this weekend on Dork Friday Night and Saturday Night,
Women's Trilogy Fight Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano Friday Night, Huge Card,
edgar Berlanga, Hams of Shiraz Shakur, Stevenson Williams Ofpada and
others fighting Saturday Night in Queens Man. We got a
lot to go over. It is the Big Fight Weekend Preview.
I am the somewhat competent host, TJ Reeves, Hello, Big Dan,
Rayphiel our insider off the Fight Freaking Night substack and newsletter.
Speaker 1: But wait, don't let me bury the lead. Manny Pacquiao
on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Yes, the pac Man, the eight division world champ, the now,
I have to say it, the now Hall of Famer
while still active. Right you talked with him. He's on
the pod coming up. How you doing is if I
have to ask, I think you're doing pretty good about it.
Speaker 3: It was good to talk to Manny, as I hadn't
talked to him since I was there for the last
fight when he lost to Hugs. So that's four years ago,
and so it was good to see me sounding good.
He looked good. I'm excited for people to hear our conversation.
Speaker 2: All right, So that is coming up in a little bit.
Thank you for finding us however you've done so social media,
Dan Substack, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify, pod previews going into the weekend,
recaps coming off the weekend. First of a couple of mentions,
find our YouTube channel, the Big Fight Weekend YouTube channel.
Because Big Dan, We're gonna go live. We're gonna go live,
not once, but twice. We will be live after the
Friday Night Taylor Serrano Trilogy main event from Madison Square Garden.
We will also be live exclusively for us exclusively on
YouTube after the Saturday night Ring Magazine to his own
pay per view with Berlanga, Shiraz Shakur, Stevens and Williams
of Paida and the other fights. So live Friday Night
in the Aftermath, Live Saturday Night in the Aftermath YouTube
exclusively Big Fight Weekend YouTube. A lot of people keep saying,
how can you help us? Subscribe to that channel, Engage, comment, watch,
spread the word that is helping us if you enjoy
what we do, so you're gonna get twice the ray Field,
twice the.
Speaker 1: Fun on the live version.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk to you more than I'm talking to
my family for the next like four days, and I
don't know how I feel about that.
Speaker 3: Let's by the way, I don't know how I feel
about that either.
Speaker 2: I got you and your in laws are coming into town,
and you may relish being around your in laws.
Speaker 1: Although you get along with your in laws. A lot
of people don't get along with their in laws.
Speaker 2: You may get along pretty well with your in laws,
but you may relish being around them more than you are.
Speaker 1: You've been talking to me too much.
Speaker 3: My in laws are wonderful, and we like that.
Speaker 2: My mother in law is looking for some shoes for
me and for something else because the Amazon Prime thing
is going on, and I'm getting messages for her from
her even while we're doing the pod here about what
else can I buy for you? My mother in law
cooks for us. It's it's fantastic. Oh okay, let's get.
Speaker 1: Into all of it.
Speaker 2: We'll here from Manny Pachion a few minutes first Friday,
Friday Friday, as we release this is the Madison Square Garden.
I don't think it's over hyped to say it is
the biggest in terms of world title fights, a pay
per view card that you've had in terms of women's boxing,
headlined by the Trilogy fight.
Speaker 3: YEAHJ TJJ, my brother, it ain't pay.
Speaker 2: Per Well, that's right, it's not. It's Netflix. I'm so
confused with all the stuff we're doing. It's Netflix, free
to see with the subscription of Netflix, not a pay
per view, no additional charge.
Speaker 3: That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: And the Taylor Serrano fight, let's just get right into
it because they've been building it up.
Speaker 1: I think the argument can be.
Speaker 2: Made this is the most compelling series of fights and
probably the most compelling women's main event because of the
build up of the last couple of years, in the
previous two fights that we probably ever had.
Speaker 1: I'm not being hyperbolic.
Speaker 2: There's this much interest in these two because they had
two pre great fights and this is the third fight.
Speaker 1: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: There is no question about that. And I have said
for a very long time. When I first started to
cover boxing twenty five years ago, and women's boxing was
still like a side show in many respects, there were
some outstanding fighters and you know, exciting fighters. There was
this is the dayDay of Christy Martin and Leila Lei
came along, and then a few others. But the thing
was the fans who were interested in it. They didn't
have matchups to look forward to, right They talked about
I'd like to see Leaiyla Leaves next fight. I'm interested
to watch Christy mart But you never really knew who
the opponents were. There was no organized titles. There was
some you know, fringy titles that only did women's boxing.
Nobody really kind of knew who the real champions were.
For better or for worse, the other sanctioning bodies that
were the main sanctioning bodies among the men started to
adopt women's boxing also, so at least it gave it
some more structure. You combine that with the fact that
you had the Olympics started to feature women's boxing. A
lot more of the athletes got involved than when they
became professionals. They had the background, so they had much
more skills than some of the women that I watched
earlier on when it was just sort of emerging. And
here we are these years later, and it's now to
the point where nobody, I mean some people, if you're
a diehard Katie Taylor fan, you're like, yeah, I want
to watch Kati Taylor fight. But really more it's now
about the matchups. I want to see Taylor Serrano three.
I want to see you know, MICHAELA. Mayer and Sandy
Ryan in a rematch or whatever that you want to
think about. So that's where we are now in boxing
as a sport, in terms of the women's side, it
has matured, and Katie Taylor and Amanda Toronto have led
the way in terms of the matchups that people get
super excited for. Obviously, they have good personalities, divergent personalities.
They're both you know, veteran fighters. They're both very accomplished
with the many, many world championships. Katie's a two division
on disputed champion. Amanda has the record for having one
titles and more weight classes than any other woman ever
in seven and they obviously put on are you believe
the greatest women's fight of all time in the first fight,
which may have been matched or bettered in the second fight.
Then you throw in the fact that you also have
Sernto having been in some other outstanding fights as well.
You know, her fight again that was at Madison Regard
against Erica Cruz was a sick fight. And then you
take Katie Taylor, who also had other great fights besides
against Toronto. Her two fights with Chantel Cameron Ye, who
was also on this undercard, by the way, they were
fantastic battles. She's been in the Fight of the Year
for women like three years in a row probably whatever.
It's been so And the other part about this TJ
that makes the match so compelling, besides the fact that
if you're a fan, you don't got to pay extra
for it if you subscribe to Netflix like you know
three hundred million people do worldwide, is that both fights
were super close and both fights, yes, Katie got the wins,
but a lot of people believe that a man that
got the win and deserved it as certainly in the
second fight.
Speaker 1: My hand is on.
Speaker 2: I mean, she won the second fight at Cowboys Stadium,
at and T Stadium in front of seventy.
Speaker 3: Because a man, I mean, because he got the official victory.
But the reason why that's notable is because I think
you and I might have talked about this when we
weren't doing a podcast. In boxing, to make a trilogy
normally need two significant ingredients. The first fight's got to
be compelling and dramatic and interesting and exciting, and there's
a need for a rematch because it was very close.
And so then the trilogy happens because the second fight
usually the other person wins, whether it's fight or not,
so they're one to one, and so the fans, the fighters,
the maybe media, you're all like, Okay, we need to
have some clarity, some finality. Let's do it a third time.
It doesn't have to necessarily happen back to back to back.
These three fights between Taylor and Surround are not happening
back to back to back. There was some period of
time between number one and number two. Two and three
are going to be back to back. But this is
different because it's one of those rare trilogies where one
fighter has won the first two bouts, but because they
were so awesome in terms of the action, the two
fighters involved are hall of famers in waiting, and there's
a lot of people that think that not only should
it be at least one to one, but frankly, that
it could be two to oh the other direction, and
then you have the fact that the business side of
things makes it that the people at Netflix saw the
dramatic viewership for just the women's fight that took place
on the overall card of Mike Tyson against Jake Paul,
which that fight itself was huge, but the women in
the co feuture position did numbers that made their head spin,
so they decided to invest and do their rematch. I
don't know if it's going to draw the same number
as the second fight, just for the mere fact that
there is no Jake Paul Mike Tyson fight there, but
it still should do. And they're also not paying as
much compared to that fight. But the point is it
should do. As their second ever boxing event. It's gotten
a lot of publicity. You know, the advertising on social
media for this event is everywhere I have popped on
Instagram or any places like that, you know, Twitter and stuff.
I've seen advertising for it, and these two ladies are
pumped up to do it. They both made weight. By
the way, they're gonna do the ceremonial way in, uh,
we're doing this a little bit before that ceremonial way
in they'll they did the official way in earlier in
the day. The interesting thing to me, TJ is that
even though technically it's it's a man to who has
been fighting more predominantly in the lower way class. Remember
she's still the featherweight champion. Even though her last fight
was also one forty. For Katie's titles, she actually weighed
in a little bit heavier than Katy Taylor. So the
max is one forty. Sarrano weighed in at one thirty
six and Katie was like one thirty five and changed.
So they're essentially lightweights, but obviously they're fighting for the
one to forty title. And again, I don't have no
idea you could possibly think it's not going to be
another fantastic fight.
Speaker 1: I agreed.
Speaker 3: Hopefully there's no situation like what happened in the second
fight where there was that awful head butt that caused.
Speaker 1: I was just go I was just going there.
Speaker 2: So that's that's one of the compelling things to watch
right away, because Jake, Paul and Serrano were complaining before
the second fight, and obviously I'll use the you love
the colorful vocabulary vociferously. They were complaining vociferously after the
second fight that Katie Taylor leads with her head and does.
Speaker 1: This two opponents all the time.
Speaker 2: So that's one of the compelling things that I'm ready
to watch in this fight, is how is that handled
if it happens again here, because you know, it's been
a big backdrop in both of these fighters, lots of volume,
not a ton of defense from either one of them.
They'll stand toe to toe. I still remember that the
night we were and we were at a location watching
the Netflix broadcast of that show, and I kept saying
to all the guys that are around that were fooling around,
farting around, I'm like, this upcoming women's fight may be
the best fight of the entire night. You need to
drop whatever you're doing, get off your phone, stop farting around,
gambling on whatever you're gambling on last year, football, baseball, whatever.
I'm like, pay attention to this women's fight. And I
had like at least two of them that did not
know anything about Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano, and they're like,
holy crap, and out of content acted both of them
and said they're fighting again on Netflix Friday night. And
I think that's a big part of it, So stay tuned.
I don't know what we're gonna get out of the
third fight. But I think it would be crazy to
go into this thinking we're not going to get an entertaining,
compelling fight.
Speaker 1: I think they're slowly going to get that, and.
Speaker 3: I don't think there's any way that it's not entertaining.
I mean, I think a lot of people think that
that Serrano is gonna get it this time. That either
a because Katie is a bit older thirty nine and
had us so many hard fights. I mean, a man
has had some tough fights too, But you can't underestimate
what the two fights did to Katie. Combined with the
two fights against Cameron, those were horror Those were hard,
hard fights that she splits. She got her first loss
in the first fight, avenged it and won the title
in the second fight. So yeah, entertainment for sure. To
One other factor and storyline that's been a talking point
is is the the I want Casey complaining but the
continuously pointing out from Amanda saying that in the ring.
After the second fight, Katie agreed if they do a
third fight, they would do it at the twelve round
limit for three minute rounds rather than the ten and
two the way the women typically do for championship fights,
and at the end, Katie Taylor was like, look, I won,
I'm the champ. I get to say and we're doing
it my way, or you're not going to get the fight.
So Surrono took it. But so that's and they have
a lot of respect for each other. I think when
they're all done with their rivalry, whatever happens on Friday Night,
they're going to be friendly and they'll they'll be able
to tell the war stories with each other. But right
now that that's causing some tension for sure, and it
is I'm excited about it.
Speaker 2: It is interesting that when you start looking at trilogies,
and I mean, if this is as hotly contested and
wild and lots of punches and action and drama, you
can make an argument that it's going to be every
bit as memorable. I know men's boxing is on a
different level, but it's going to be every bit as
memorable for the three fights as some of the other
trilogies we've seen, whether you're talking about Barrera Morales, War
got Ward, Ali Fraser, any trilogy of fights, you will
remember these three fights. If you're a fight fan, especially
if this one delivers and we think that it probably will.
By the way, I'll pay off because this is interesting.
On the broadcasting, you and I are into the media
part of this. Sean Grandy, the voice of the Boston Celtics,
who I've had occasion to talk to before, been a
long time broadcaster. He's done a little MMA stuff. I
don't know if he's done much boxing. He's on the call.
He's done some boxing okay on Netflix with Sonicia Estrada,
and you mentioned Leila Ali. They will be on the
call of this entire car and real quick just mention
for Friday Night again, this is Friday Night kids, as
we do the preview pod, a couple of other world
title fights that will lead into the trilogy.
Speaker 3: More than that, and just one other thing before I
get to that. It was announced that the press conference
during this week that taking a page out of sort
of the MMA book or the UFC book, is that
Nikisa Bedarin, who is the co founder along with Jake
Caul of MVP Promotions, announced that we'll have a two
hundred and fifty one thousand dollars performance bonus to the
to the fighter of the night that will go to
somebody on this card and Amanda was like, hey, Katie
and I are making a ton of money, it should
definitely go to one of the other girls, you know.
Bud He was like, Nope, that doesn't make it fair.
And so at the end of the night, somebody's gonna
get two hundred fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: But they're doing a fan vote as part of part.
Speaker 3: Of the vote. No, I'm just getting to that. So
it'll be decided between Jake Paul who's the promoter, Nikisa
Madarian who's the other promoter, his partner, and lail Aali
who you just mentioned. And so the question was, well,
what if you all three disagree, because there's a lot
of fights, then laid Ali will have the final say.
So listen if you're if you're fighting, these women are
making good purses. But I don't know any of these
ladies that wouldn't like to have an extra two to
fifty if they put on a great fight. That's, of course,
trying to encourage a good.
Speaker 2: Action because most of them, as you mentioned, most of
them on the tier down below the main event, aren't
making hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 3: They are a lot of these ladies aren't all right,
but typically and Katie and Soronto.
Speaker 2: Are making a million millions and they should and again
full credit to Jake Paul, say whatever you want about
all of the side show and all of the stuff.
I mean, this is significant money doled out and it
is a big deal, and they're gonna have probably a
full building and it's an all ladies show.
Speaker 3: And I wish you would offer a two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars performance bonus for Shavis Junior throw.
Speaker 2: Oh well, yeah, all right, real quick on the other fights,
and then we got to move on because we're gonna
get the Many Pachiel.
Speaker 3: So there's a total of six world title fights on
the show. Five of them are legitimate world titles. One
of them is an interim title. So just to run down,
besides the main event, which is obviously a great fight,
you have the one hundred and thirty pounds undisputed champion
Alisa Bomgarner. She's taken on Jennifer Miranda, and I will
say this Bombgarder, who recently signed with MVP, had one
hundred and thirty pounds, that she's not going to be
that much smaller than a serrano. Like I feel like
whoever wins the main event certainly could see Bombgarner in
their future as as an opponent, because most of these
women do not have big problems going up or down
and wait, and she has the kind of frame that
would perfectly support one hundred and forty pounds, no problem anyway.
There's that. Then you have this is an IBFWBO unification fight,
Savannah Marshall whose only loss is against Claressa Shields. She's
taken on to Days Agreen. That's if you like women's boxing,
that actually looks like it's a very interesting matchup. Then
you have a unification fight for the IBF, the WBO
and the WBC titles at one hundred and twenty two
pounds junior featherweight. That's Elie Scottni against Yemleth Mercado. Then
you have Ternika Johnson from Australia. She's taken on Sharretta Metcalf.
This is a unification fight where the winner will become
the undisputed bantamweight champion. And then on the then so
those are that's the main card. There are preliminaries that
start on Netflix at five. They will have some other
fights also, and this is the last of those preliminaries.
That's Chantel Cameron, who I mentioned, who had those two
amazing fights against Katie Taylor. She is currently the WBC's
interim Junior welterweight champion and she's defending that title against
Jessica Kamara. Perhaps there might be a trilogy fight in
Katie Taylor's future against Cameron if they win those fights.
So that is a pretty if you're again, if you're
women's boxing, it's not even up for argument. There's literally
nothing to compare it to. There have been other all
women cards in the past, but there's nothing that comes
close to this in terms of the caliber of titles
and the caliber of the women on the card because Taylor, Serrano, Bombgardner,
Savannah Shadeza, like a lot of these women camera, these
are all people that if you were making like a
women's pound for poundless, they're all on that list. So
again for women's boxing, this is like one of the
in terms of interest, is card of all time.
Speaker 2: Yes, in being hyperbolic, but no, no, no, But in
terms of interest, it certainly has the most hype and
the most interest of any women's boxing cards that you
could have ever conjured up over the last twenty or
thirty years. So let's see what it does. Let's see
what we'll see if it delivers. And again it's on
Netflix on Friday night, as we do the preview pod.
All right, but wait, you don't even have to leave
the You do have to probably maybe leave the area code,
or do you have to leave the area code. You
don't have to leave the vicinity because in New York
on Saturday night in Flushing, Queens at the US Tennis
Center at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, unique event, unique venue,
unique event for the Ring magazine, his own pay per view,
which has Edgar Berlanga and Hams of sharraz in a
super middleweight eliminator for the WBC, along with Shakur Stevenson
defending his WBC lightweight title against William Z Ofpata. All right,
let's run through. They've had the press conferences on Thursday.
You talked with Berlanga recently. I know Shakhor has been
on the media tour in and around New York all
week hyping this thing up. This is the following night,
This is Saturday night, as we preview it, So go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, Berlanga is a new Yorker is a Puerto Rican fighter,
and Sharaz and him have been talking a lot of
shit ever since this fight was made. Sharraz is coming
up in wait. He came off of a pretty terrible performance,
quite frankly, in what was a rule they draw when
he challenged colors In Damas for the WBC's midleweight title.
A lot of people like you thought that a Damas
deserved to win that fight, and many people do. But
he is moving up. What I find interesting about his
rise to one hundred and sixty eight pounds is that
when you match them up from a just a physical dimensions,
Sharaz is the bigger guy. He's taller, he's longer. But
Berlang has been in a super middleweight division for his
whole career. He's known as a very heavy puncher. He
has a ton of knockouts. He's coming off a first
round knockout win, not against a good opponent, but that
was a way to for him to bounce back from
what was perceived by most people as a much better
than expected performance, granted in a loss where he got
knocked down, but when he challenged Canelo for the unified
title back in September, of last year. So there's a
lot at stake here because of the fact that it
is the eliminator and because Turkey al Chic, who's putting
on this card, works with Canelo. Should Canelo win against
Karen Crawford and still be the undisputed super middleweight champion,
he has a you know, he's not a much tighter
relationship with Shiraz and when one of the ways that
they sort of convinced Shiraz to take this matchup by
coming to fight in Edgar's hometown was hey, win the
fight and I've got you on the on the dock
and for a Canelo fight that he owes me two
of them in twenty twenty six, so you know, and
lude reading the tea leaves you know, depending on how
other mandatory things shake out, it would not be out
of the realm of possibility to look at a twenty
twenty six schedule for Canelo Alvarez where he fight fights
in May in September, where one opponent could be potentially
a Sharaz if he wins, one could be potentially a
Chris you Bank if he wins his rematch with Connor Ben.
He got my ability sitting out there so the main event. Look,
it should be a fun action fight. Sharaz is not
a guy that runs and hides. Berlanga same thing to me.
It's who can take the other guy's shot. I mean,
Berlanga has shown a good chin. He's got dropped by Canelo,
but so have tons of guys and they've they've built
it up and it is Scott's stakes because the eliminator factor.
The one good thing I think in terms of the venue,
which has been sort of criticized by some people because
it's not a common boxing location that people are not
familiar with. It is if the weather is oppressive, if
it's raining, which is in the forecast that's going to
be very hot. It does have a retractable roof, so
perhaps they'll put that up and make it a lot
more comfortable for everybody that is there. But so you know,
people can argue and quarrel about whether they think that
the quality of a Shiraz and Berlanga fight, which is
a good fight, Some have said it shouldn't be the
main event of a pay per view.
Speaker 2: I will join in that it shouldn't be the main
event over the next fight we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1: But go ahead.
Speaker 3: That's fine, But I'm just making the point that if
you take the paper, you element and put it aside
and you just assess it based on the quality of
the card overall. Yes, it's a good card. There's no doubt.
You mentioned about the next fight. So the co feature
is Charquar Stevenson. Now I know you think that that
should be the main event. I will tell you the
reason why a Berlanga was like, I'm not fighting about
if I'm not the main event number one, number two,
you're not going to put Chakor in the main event
in the other guy's hometown. Number two and number three,
fair or not fair. Chakor's reputation as a fighter that
has sends a lot of the fans for the exits
before his fights are over is not a good thing
because his fights have not been entertaining largely over the
last couple of years. So all that added together and
then you got a big ship.
Speaker 1: I understand.
Speaker 3: I understand that.
Speaker 2: I understand the business part of it, and Berlanga's been
selling it hard. He was selling it with you, he
was selling it with Oscar de la Jolla throwing lingerie
at him. I don't know if you've been at a
press conference where a fighter through lingerie at the other
promoter of another fighter.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've been that for but I was
at I was at a way in once when Oscar
fought Fernando Vargas where there was women in the upper
decamandally throwing bras.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, yeah, I think you did share that before.
All right, So I get it for all the business
reading reasons. But from the pure boxing standpoint, Shakure is
a three division world champ and this guy's legit Zapeida
as the as the top lightweight contender. I am I'm
just saying this for me, I am more interested in
that fight. I am more interested in what happens in
that fight. But go ahead, continue with the previews.
Speaker 3: Well good, that means that you can go to bed
earlier because it will be over sooner.
Speaker 2: Well no, but I mean I'm I'm not saying that
we are going to do a live show. I'm going
to watch the main event, but I'm just saying I'm
more interested in this one because I really the argument
can be made this is the first time that Shakur
is in there at least in a year or more.
Maybe in a couple of years with a guy that
can legitimately beat him in Zepeieda.
Speaker 1: I believe that.
Speaker 3: What do you think, Look, it's to me, it's who
can impose the style. You can't find two different styles
than these two guys. Because Shakur is a brilliant boxer,
tremendous speed, hand, end foot, incredibly smart fighter in the ring,
great amateur background. It was an Olympic silver medal winner,
has been undefeated, you mentioned, been in the ring and
won titles in three different weight classes. And it's not
just about you know, it's one thing to win titles
in different weight classes. But he's fought a lot of
quality fighters. I mean he fought you know, good quality pros,
Jamel Herring. He won a unification against Oscar Valdez when
Oscar was called undefeated hostinconsasat who was a long time contender.
You know. In as horrible as the fight was against
Endwin Delos Santos, there was a lot of people that
thought that maybe del Santos would be able to score
a knockout and do his damage there. He fought Joet Gonzalz,
a veteran fighter who was challenge now for the title
three different times, so you know, Chris Diaz, I mean
those are not in necessarily superstars, but these are quality
and tender type professional guys, and he hasn't just beaten them.
He's done so without there being any debate or dispute
because he's done it so easily in these fights. So
he does have that going for him. But on the
entertainment value part of it, a lot of people hate
his fights because he uses all those skills and he
doesn't let the other guy touch him, and sometimes he
might move a little bit too much rather than take
a step forward, and so they look back at the
fight with a Delo Santos, which is one of the
worst fucking fights in the history of boxing. His follow
up fight against Artam Hartunian, which took place in Newark,
which is his own hometown. He won that fight going away.
And by the way, the common thread between the De
Loo Santos fight and that Hartunian fight is that the
fans were leaving before the fight was over, and that
is never a good thing, and that's why he's not
the main event. So whatever you think about the matchup five,
but Zapeida, who's a guy that's completely the opposite. They're
both south bas by the way, but completely the opposite
in terms of the style. The paid his offense is
his defense because he throws a hundred punches around type
of guy, constant pressure, come forward, bully you to death,
just try to get anything in. Doesn't matter if it
hits you in the face and the arm and the
leg you know, hopefully not the leg.
Speaker 1: But time, big time volume puncher, we expect it.
Speaker 3: So who can impose the style? Can he can? He
can can chakor control him with the brilliance of the
movement and the speed and the skills and the and
the intelligence to sort of know where to go and
and and where to where to plant himself in the ring?
Or is it's a pay to just that all out aggression?
Can whatever Skur is doing just run him over basically
is what he's going to be looking to do.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And so whoever is successful at doing their version better
is probably going to be the winner of the fight. Now,
I've been watching boxing a long time. Most of the
time and we can find exceptions for any role there is.
But most of the time, if you are a super
outstanding supreme boxer, you're probably gonna win. And so I
always think about fights like, and this is to me,
this is maybe it's because I covered it, and it
was like first time I realized this, I was like, yeah,
that was a bad pick for me. Was Mayweather Carrales
Corrals was destroying everybody, knocking everybody out, had a much
bigger h size in Floyd, and Floyd was not a
big knockout puncher. And Floyd was a mover, and Floyd
liked to use his skills and when it came pushed
to shove, Floyd undressed him, scored five knockdowns and one
on a stoppage amazingly. And so I always think to
myself and Floyd said this to me personally, Floyd has
said it to everybody who's listening. Skills pay the bills.
And at the end of the day, shar course Stevenson
is the more skillful fighter. So that's probably why he's
going to be the favorite. And Zapaida, who is a
tremendously exciting fighter for the most time, if you look
at what he's done recently. Now, Chakor did not light
things up in de los Santos or hard tuning in.
He did get the knockout against Padley in February. Padley
was coming off of taking the fight on this Ladies
and Goofield dropped out, So you know, you know, that's
not su course fault that he thought a guy that
was not the original opponent on such a short notice.
But he did get the stoppage, did so with body
shots and dropped him three times, and so from an
offensive point of view, that was nice to see from
Sha Court for a change. Zapeida obviously a bunch better
offensive fighter than Badley, but let's be real, he was
in brutal competitive, not brutal but super competitive either way
kind of fights in his last two bouts. A ten
round decision split decision against Farmer that was back in November.
Then he had an immediate rematch that took place in
March that was a twelve rounder. He eked out a
twelve round decision that when that was a majority decision.
So he's been basically life and death and knocked down
by Tevin Farmer in the first fight and then again
another super close fight in the second fight. So if
you're coming off those two type of performance against Tevin Farmer,
who's a good boxer, but he's not on the level
of a shir Course Stevenson and a little bit older
and a little bit more, you know, closer to the end,
let's say, than the beginning. That was give one pause
in my mind to think, is when Zepaida stepped up.
It's one thing to do what he does against Mercito
Hesta and Maxy Hughes and other guys that he has fought,
Giovanni Cabrera and just run them over.
Speaker 1: None none of those guys are Shakur Stevens and I know.
Speaker 3: And Farmer was a step up from those guys, and
Farmer gave him help. So I'm just making the point
that that maybe people are overrating Zapeida because his blitz krieg,
let's say, of those other fighters with that offense has
been so devastating, you're forgetting that he had life in
depth former he.
Speaker 2: Did, and he had a hand injury in the first
fight as well, and got knocked down as you mentioned,
And I thought Farmer won that fight.
Speaker 1: What do I know?
Speaker 2: But the other thing that is compelling about is what
happens if he tagged Shakur. If if it's the question
that then we start to find some things out. If
that happens, what happens if he tags him. How to
Shakur react? What happens from the remainder of the fight,
that's the intrigue.
Speaker 3: The one thing about you, Core is throughout his first
uh you know, twenty he's twenty three to oh. Through
his first twenty three fights of his career, he has
yet to be hit with that punch, So we really
don't know how he's going to react. But for his sake,
he is one of the single most brilliant boxers in
the entire sport. If you take a look, and I
believe that this is an important factor, when you look
at the copybox defensive metrics, he's off the charts, just
doesn't get hit. But again, it's like the old saying
from our good pal Deontay Wilder. You know, the other
guy has to be perfect for twelve rounds. I only
be perfect for one second when I land my punch.
And that's what this is about.
Speaker 2: All right, Stay tuned on that one rest of the
card real quick, and we're getting the Manny Pacquiao upcoming
with Dan what else for the Ring pay per view
on his own Saturday night.
Speaker 3: So the other two top fights of the main card
are Alberto Pueo, who is an undefeated fighter who was
the WBC's one hundred and forty pounds champion, who's coming
off of a split decision against sand Or Martin, who
was a tricky you know, a guy that loves to
move and do his thing. He also had a split
decision against Gary Antoine Russell, which was when he got
the interim belt. But anyway, he's stepping up again against
super Elle Matias, who's not a tricky fighter. His style
is just extremely basic. But similarly to us, the paid
that he's an offensive minded, big time knockout puncher who
you know, can knock out anybody, and and that that
makes this very intriguing because Pueo, you know, I may
have underrated him a little bit. I've never been that high.
I don't think he's made like the greatest fights, don't
think he's got the greatest skills. Seems kind of beatable,
but just you know, kind of finds a way to
get the wins. And Mattias, you know, he's twenty two
and two, but all twenty two of his knockouts or
he's got twenty two knockouts in his twenty two wins,
and you know, to me. That's it's I don't know
how this is gonna go, because he can if he
touches you, you can knock out anybody.
Speaker 1: What Mattias do we have.
Speaker 2: Do we have the matias that has shown the power
and gotten wins, or do we have the matias that
I don't know if he took like an ambient or
what happened, but Liam Paro embarrassed him in his own hometown. Yeah,
for twelve rounds. Which Mattias are we getting?
Speaker 3: Who was in the fighter the year type all action
shootout with with jeremiahs Ponce when he won the IBF
title in twenty twenty three in a spectacular performance and
when he ran rough shot over Ergushev in a defense
and then he had the power fight where he lost.
I mean, I don't know which guys showed up. He's
won two fights since then, but he's not fought you know,
top top guys. He's fought like decent sort of second
tier guys in Ramirez and Uh and Uh and Valezuela
and they were both knocked out wins, and they were
actually one was real early. One was a little bit
closer to you know, like the eighth round of a
ten rounder, take the back of a twelve rounder. Those
were in Puerto Rico, where he's from. So he's stepping
back up, and you know, who the heck knows this is.
This is a good interesting matchup. It kind of came
out of the blue. It's not a mandated fight or
anything like that. But you take a champion who's on
the feedting, you put him in with a quality guy
that used to be a champion, and you hope that
the that the sparks come together and they make a
good fight. And so that's that's the fight that will
come before the Shakurt fight and then the opening fight
of the main card. I find this to be a
fascinating fight. You got David Morrell, who had held you know,
second tier WBA titles at super middleweight and light heavyweight,
who's coming off the February loss. His first defeat against
David Benavidez. Was a good fight, but obviously Benavidez was
the clear winner of that fight. And Morell is still
a young guy. He's only twenty seven years old. He's
only into his is what, his thirteenth professional fight, but
he comes out of that Cuban background he had that
amateur time in Cuba and obviously they have produced, you know,
any number of tremendous talented boxers. But he's taken on
a Russian fighter named AmAm Kadiyev who now lives in Australia,
but he's promoted by the Canadian outfit Eye the Tiger.
He's a ten and zero with nine knock and you
look at the records and they are basically the same.
He's a couple of years older than Morrell, but he's
also he got an even bigger amateur career. This was
a twenty twenty Russian Olympic bronze medal winner and he's
been on the fast track for a long time. I
had him on my prospect list a couple of years ago,
or maybe last year. I kind of made an exception
because even though he was thirty, he only did have
very many fights, and you know, I just have loved
watching him. He's just he's an exciting fighter. This has
like to me, this is like this is for the
true diehards. This fight, This is like a sleeper kind
of fight on this cart. I think this could be
very explosive and you know, we will see who comes through.
Because the guy that wins. This fight is definitely, you know,
in a great spot in the light heavyweight division. It's
not any kind of like official eliminator. It's a ten rounder,
a morell win. He's right back in the picture in
Acadie of when he announces himself on on besides just
to the dorks like us that we're watching him like
on you know, ESPN plus Undercards, this is a very
interesting fight to me.
Speaker 1: You called me a dork as lovingly as possible.
Speaker 2: One one other note we spent we mentioned the broadcasters
for the Netflix show. Jim Lampley is now on the
call of the two main fights here doing a deal
earlier this week. It hadn't been worked out to earlier
this week.
Speaker 3: It wasn't even earlier this week. It was on Wednesday night,
I guess is when they got it wrapped up and
Jim has gone to New York to call the fights.
My understanding is, and the Ring magazine puts something out
about this which comes from Turkey, so I'm sure it's
accurate from that standpoint that Jim will call uh them
the chakor and and briangabouts the co feature and the
main event and Todd Grisham, who was obviously a regular
broadcaster for his own He will be doing the blow
by blow for the earlier two fights, which is morel
Katia and Peo against Mattias, but sometimes with Turkey things
changed at the last minute, so that's what seems to
be at the moment. Who the heck really knows, but
I'm that the end result is anytime you got Jim
Lampley back calling boxing matches, it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: We love.
Speaker 3: His performance on the May second card in Times Square
was a lot more well received than the fights.
Speaker 2: He deserves a mulligan after having to sit through that
for the fights he hasn't He hasn't broadcasted in what
six years?
Speaker 1: It was ish six and a half years.
Speaker 3: He had not done a boxing match since December of
twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Eight, and those are the fights he was given. He
deserves a mulligan to and hopefully gets two paper.
Speaker 3: They were probably decent fights, but it turned out to
be terrible. But he did a good job, so he's back.
He's a Hall of Famer. To me, I say this
all the time. He's the greatest blow by blow announcer
in the history of boxing, and I'm glad he's back,
just would have. I'm kind of surprised it took to
the last minute to get something done.
Speaker 1: They worked it out, all right.
Speaker 3: I figure you want to give a guy time to, like,
at least do his homework and study what he needs
to do to know the fighters and the guys he's
gonna call. But nonetheless, I'm happy to happy to hear
him in if they're splitting up the workload between him
and Grisham. Grisam obviously he is a good throw by
blowoutso nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2: I was with Todd out in Anaheim on the Jake
Paul card there as well, as he called that for
his owne all right, so all good. On the preview mode,
Shall we get to the Hall of Famer Manny.
Speaker 1: Paciow, Oh not Jim Lampley, Not Jim Lampley.
Speaker 2: Shall we get to the pac man who gets ready
to fight on July nineteenth, not this weekend, but next
weekend in Las Vegas against Mario Barrios.
Speaker 1: Hear him with Dan right now?
Speaker 3: What is my distinct pleasure to be joined on the
podcast this week by the legendary eighth Division World Champion,
Hall of Famer, the Great many, Paco and Manny, I
didn't expect to be doing another interview with you prior
to a fight, but you have decided to exit your
retirement after four years. You are back in the United
States to take on Mario Barrios. The challenge in for
the WBC Welterweight world title to take place July nineteenth,
alive on Prime Video, pay per view, and PPV dot com.
Pretty much your second home, the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
So thank you so much for doing this Many and
I guess welcome back.
Speaker 4: To thank you for for this. Fortunately, and I'm bock
you're back.
Speaker 3: So I guess the first question. I know you've been
asked this since you've made this decision, as you've gone
through the training camp and been preparing for the fight.
But the simple question is what was your motivation and
why did you decide to exit your retirement come back
to the boxing ring?
Speaker 5: Okay, So I think because of my passion, my passion
of boxing, and I still have that.
Speaker 4: Fire in my in my herd, in my mind, my
eyes to.
Speaker 5: Work hard and excuse to work hard and discipline.
Speaker 4: I love.
Speaker 5: I missed those days that you know during training come
promoting the fight like that, like this interview with media
like that.
Speaker 4: So I missed those days.
Speaker 3: There are some people that and I understand what you're saying.
You know, it's hard to give up, I guess. But
some have suggested that it's financially motivated, that many pack
needs the money and he's only coming out of the
retirement because he wants to get a big paycheck. Can
you address that? Is that true? I'm sure that money's
part of it, but I don't know if I believe
it's the whole part of it.
Speaker 4: I'm just selling this. Like the first motivation is like,
I want to be a champion again. I wanted.
Speaker 3: Eight times, wasn't enough.
Speaker 5: No, I want to break my record like the oldest
well they were champions.
Speaker 3: You've already been the oldest welterweight champion.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I want to break my own record and also
uh uh to put a new record for being ah
after Hall of Fame inductee A So.
Speaker 3: So that that's my next That was my next question.
First of all, congratulations on your Hall of Fame induction.
It was my my great pleasure to vote for you. Uh.
There there have been there have been a few fighters
who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame who
have then later decided to come back and fight Sugary
Leonard as a great example for one, and there are others,
but it has never happened where a person has been
inducted into the Hall of Fame and before they even
had their induction already had another fight schedule. So when
you were doing the ceremony, which is supposed to sort
of be the end of the road for boxing where
you look back on a wonderful career and uh and
uh give your memories and recollections of that, you did that,
but you're also preparing for the fight. So did you
really have sort of uh the the the chances to
truly joy the whole taking everything about the Hall of
Fame because you still had to get back to training
camp for another boxing match.
Speaker 5: I'm enjoying it of being inductive of Hall of Fame
like a big prestige and man, big owner. And also
it gives me more inspiration on determination to work hard
and doing the championship again because they that's I think
nobody nobody want uh world title after the induction, after
the reduction of Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: That is that is true guys that have come back,
but I don't think anybody has actually one title, So
that's a good point. Do you when you decide to
make this, uh, this return, did you really? I mean
I know you want you said the opportunity to become
a champion again. Do you though view it as a
one fight comeback or might you continue on after this
depending on how things go on July nineteenth.
Speaker 4: I gotta say more fights, but one at a time.
Speaker 5: What I'm doing right now is like one one, one
at a time, Like you know, when you my goal
right and I was like, I want, I want to
be a chime on one again.
Speaker 3: When you came from the Philippines back to California to
go return to the wild Card, uh, and you got
there and I talked to them, like, you know fred Sternberg,
your longtime publicist, and Sean Gibbons who works with you
at MP Promotions, and your right hand man, that when
you arrived at the Wildcard for like the first time
to see Freddy since the last fight against Ugus, I
guess you guys hadn't seen each other in the four
years that it was like nothing, no time had passed,
and it was like instantaneous, just we're back in the group.
Can you describe to me what it was like to
sort of be back where you'd spend so many, probably
thousands of hours training for your fights over the last
almost twenty five years.
Speaker 5: The time that I'm back in wild Card, Like, do
you say, hello, oh, I had my my my trainer,
Red Roads, and we meet each other, we miss each other,
and then and then uh we talk about the fight
and talk about the Trading Cup.
Speaker 4: You know, it's nice to uh.
Speaker 5: Uh to have you know, the work back again with
imp pretty the whole time, boo boy, justin and the rest.
Speaker 3: When I was looking at the matchup and I looked
at you know, because every you know, a big part
of the fight, man is of course the fact that
you're forty six and haven't fought for the last four years.
But what if I what do you think when I
tell you that that when you had your professional debut
in nineteen ninety five, that was a few months before
Mario Barrios was born, and then now you're going to
fight a man who wasn't even alive when you started
your professional career.
Speaker 6: What do you think about when I say that, I
can imagine well.
Speaker 3: What do you think about Barrios. I mean, he's he's
an exciting champion. He's been in some excellent fights. His
last fight, which was a draw, was a Fight of
the Year contender. He's been willing to fight the top guys.
He had, uh faced other quality opponents Tank Davis for one.
He's now taken on a legend like yourself. What is
your your view when you when you look at what
he's all.
Speaker 6: About and look Barrius, you know, it's hard to understandate him,
Like you cannot understand with him because he's he has
the advantage taller than me, and he's a champion.
Speaker 4: He has a rich advantage, So.
Speaker 5: It's kind of opponent that you cannot Understandmate him will
give him confidence.
Speaker 3: The many Pako at his best at welterweight, like when
you were fighting guys like Miguel Coto and uh and
in that timeframe of your career here and no disrespect
to Borrows, but a lot of people would have said,
MANI package just goes in there and annihilates him. But
because of your long layoff and the age factor, UH,
there's a lot of people that think it's a much
more tough or closer fight. How do you view it?
Speaker 5: The lonely for me is like, it's better for me
because I've been in boxing for since when I was
twelve years old, so non stop, don stop in my career.
So it's really good timing for my body to rest
for four years. And when I come back, like, I'm
so excited and I feel like when I started reading
in box thing.
Speaker 4: Training come like that listeness is not in. Uh, it's
not come.
Speaker 5: Come comes in much to my mind, my body like
I'm passionate to work hard, to punish more. And the
timpac the trainers watching me to up, not the push.
Speaker 3: Did your family have any concerns when you said I'm
coming back? Did they say, oh, yeah, we can't wait.
We look forward to her. Did they say, you know,
maybe you want to think twice about that? What was
their reaction?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: When I asked my wife like you know I can fight,
like yes, you fight?
Speaker 4: Like okay, are you sure? Yes? Okay, I'll go.
Speaker 3: So she was okay with it. I'm glad. I just
got a couple more quick ones for you. This is
going to be your sixteenth boxing match at the MGM
Grand Garden Arena twenty four years after your American debut
where you knocked out Laila led Wabba to win the
junior featherweight title, a fight that I was actually ringside for. Amazingly,
I wanted to know, because it's been such a long
time and you've had such a wonderful history at that arena,
what are your memories of that first one, because that
was your big American debut where you made an impression
on so many people. What do you remember about about
that night that was so special.
Speaker 5: First thing that I remember that fight is the announcer
hardly pronounced my name correctly.
Speaker 3: That's true, I remember that, and.
Speaker 4: It's also going to notice for before the fight.
Speaker 3: Could you've ever in your wildest dreams many thought that
twenty four years later you'd still be fighting. You've had
done all the accomplishments since then of going up and
winning championships in eight different weight classes. I mean, like
you said, fighter of the oldest fighter to be a
world a welterweight world champion, fighter of the decade of
the two thousands of five lineal championships, which is a
record eight division world titles, which is a record. I
mean fighter of the Year three times. I mean the
list is just endless in terms of what you've accomplished.
I mean, was that even part of the dream.
Speaker 5: I never imagine what I have accomplished in boxing, Like
when I interpret the boxing, my goal is like.
Speaker 4: To help my parents.
Speaker 5: To bring him out of property and also to become
a champion in the Philippines. But the thing is like
when when my my knowledge about boxing what became wider
and I I dream to become world champion, just just
a world champion, and what I have done in a
compli in in boxing is beyond my own imagination. Like
you know, a boy from uh from Sarangani, seiling whatever
pandical newspaper in the streets became a No. One fighter
and became a world champion.
Speaker 3: So so of all the just wrap up with this
many of all of all the big time fights that
you have had, and all those world championships and all
those big events, do you have one fight that you
look back most fondly on, Like this was my favorite fight.
This is when I was at my absolute best.
Speaker 5: One of my favorite fighters when I started look back
like Mike Tyson.
Speaker 3: No, no, and then your own fights. I'm talking about
your own fights, my own fight Oh you're like that
you participate in like that you look back on and say,
this is when I thought I was at my desk.
This is my favorite performance, My favorite fight that I've
been in.
Speaker 5: My most favorite performance in boxing is the fight with
Marco Antonio, the first one.
Speaker 3: That's a great pick. Can you tell me why?
Speaker 5: Oh I'm I'm underdog and nobody knows me and like
like but the fight like it's one I did, like
you know, I I won the whole twelve round living rounds.
Speaker 3: Manny, I thank you very much for your time and
I wish you the best luck in reaching your goal
of another world title coming up July nineteenth. Thanks, thank
you so much.
Speaker 4: Thanks Don.
Speaker 1: All right, it took a little bit. I should share
with the audience.
Speaker 2: My man ray Field sometimes has to be on steakout
like the cops waiting for whoever you run steak out
for a little while. Nanny Pacquiao delivered to you not
every day that you're getting. Like you said at the
beginning of the pod, you hadn't talked with him in
what four years? So good to have a conversation with him.
And now we get ready for whatever this is gonna
be next weekend, not this weekend, but next weekend, all.
Speaker 3: Right, Saturday, July nineteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, wrap up the thought or two on seeing Pacquiao
and at forty six years of age, what what your
thoughts are is?
Speaker 1: We had to fight week next week.
Speaker 3: Listen, Nanny is in a good mood. He seems to
have a certain joy to him about being back in boxing.
You know, when guys get older, they don't always have
that joy anymore. It's kind of been beaten out of them.
To make a point there, but he's you know, I
asked him very pointly as people heard it. You know
a lot of people say, you're coming back for the money.
He's like, it's my passion. I wanted to fight again.
I want to be world champion again. I jokingly said,
you know what, eight champion, eight division champions not enough?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: He laughed. So he sounded good, He looked good. I
was happy to speak him. I've interviewed Manny, you know,
a thousand times through the years, covered tons of his fights,
and he's got always had a good disposition, and he's
just you can't help but not be have a certain
joy to yourself when you're on many pacco that's sort
of just what he brings out in people. So he's like,
I'm excited. I mean, I mean, I don't love the
idea of a guy at forty six coming back. You know,
we may be saying when the fight's over that he
looked good, but there was nothing under the hood, so
to speak. We're gonna find out, I mean, at the
very least, and this is in no way, shape or
for him a negative thing about Mario Barrios. But he's
not coming back to fight like a pound for pound
top guy. He's fighting a very good fighter who was
a guy with a title that's worked his way up,
that's taken tough fights, that's won some lost a couple,
but a very good fighter, but not an elite elite guy.
And if pacow Is even got something, it's a winnable fight.
I mean, I know he lost to Ugust in the
last fight, but it wasn't like he got outclassed by
He lost the competitive decision, you know, That's why I
saw it. We'll see, but I was happy to talk
to him and glad he was able to make the time.
Speaker 2: Pacman Fight week next week, and we look forward to
talking more about that, and you will be there in
Vegas to see all of the mayhem as it unfolds.
And the nineteenth is going to be something else.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that.
Speaker 3: More brought to brought to the fans, not only on
Prime video paper, but I were good friends at PPV
dot Com.
Speaker 2: PPV dot com that sponsors us get the one off
pay per view with them of Paqio Barrios through PPV
dot Com. Well done on that, So more on that
to come next week. On Pacman's return after four years away.
All right, a couple of other news items because we've
been here. Ij hey, speaking of layoffs, did you say
that Manny Pacio has been out for four years? The
hit man Ricky Hatton Rayfield, Why is this on my rundown?
Speaker 3: He's coming to a superstar.
Speaker 1: He's coming out of a thirteen year retirement. Dad.
Speaker 2: Didn't he have an exhibition something recently? But this is
a legit sanctioned bout that's gonna be coming up here
for Ricky Hatton.
Speaker 3: So they announced this event and I and because the
details were not one hundred percent, I actually messaged Ricky
just to check. I said, welcome back, you know, good
luck with everything, but can you clarify a couple of
things he got back to me. So, yeah, it's supposed
to be an officially sanctioned bout. It will be an
eight rounder. Ricky who fought his entire career, you know,
as a one hundred and forty pound champion and then a
later one hundred and forty seven pound champion, but then
was you know, those are the two divisions he fought
in his whole career. He's fighting this fight at middleweight.
He's been out of the ring thirteen years. His la
first of all, go all the way back to two
thousand and nine. This is absolute prime pak Yao who
destroyed Ricky Hadden in a gargantuan one of the most hillacious,
brutal knockouts you'll ever see, you know, for me, one
of the top two knockouts I talked about in terms
of fights that I was at, two or three top
knockouts ever was ringside for. To me, the list is
very easy. It's Ricky Hatton getting blitzed by pak Yale,
it's Paquyale getting blitzed by Marquez in their fourth fight,
and it's Paul Williams going to sleep against Sergio Martinez
in their rematch. But that's the type of knockout this was.
So after that fight in two thousand and nine, Ricky
retired and he was done. He came back for one
fight in the end of twenty twelve. He challenged Sanchenko
for the what was he was then the WBA welterweight title.
Older he fought oh, pretty pretty well in that fight,
but ultimately got knocked out in the ninth round. And
then it was back in the retirement. You figure out,
you know, he came out of the three year retirement
or so, and now he's back in retirement. That's going
to be the end of the day. And ever since
then he stayed around boxing. He promoted some fights, you know,
he was making the speaking circuit around.
Speaker 2: His sauna has been involved in the sports as a
rising fighter.
Speaker 3: He promoted fights and you know, got inducked into the
Hall of Fame. I think it was last year and
and now he's coming out of retirement.
Speaker 2: But he had some kind of exhibition right a couple
of years something like that.
Speaker 3: In twenty twenty two, we had an exhibition in the
UK where he's obviously a humongous star, against Marco Antonio Barrera,
who has done a couple of exhibitions himself. But I
would he really took that too seriously. And I mean
an older fighter coming back and doing you know, a
four round or whatever it is and bigger gloves against
a similarly older guy where they're not trying to hurt
each other, they're not trying to knock each other out there,
just moving around showing up what they can still do.
With the fans, I think people can understand that, and
they don't have such a negative view of it.
Speaker 2: So it leads to this question, why do you believe
he's doing this? You've covered him a bunch, You've talked
to him, you've interviewed him. Is the Is this the
itch he misses the limelight. It can't be money.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's money to be that's the reason.
So just to clarify, he's fighting somebody that most people
never heard of. He's fighting a fighter named isa Al
dah It's December second.
Speaker 1: He'll take place right and I've never heard of him.
Speaker 3: Buying the United Arab Emirates. Well, there's a reason why,
because he's also so when the fight takes place, like
when like right now, Ricky is forty six, but when
the fight takes place in October. I mean, I'm sorry,
the fight will take place in December. He will turn
forty seven in October. His opponent, who has eight wins,
three losses and four draw four knockouts, is forty six
who's from Dubai, And this is a guy that even
with that, you know nothing to speak of record. He
boxed as a pro from seven to twenty twelve. He
retired and came back for one fight in twenty twenty
one and got knocked out in the first round by
six a six six and one guy. So Ricky is
not based on that resume. Even thirteen years post his
career doesn't appear to be in too much harm's way
in my mind, you ask the reason why, I think
Ricky is just, you know, he's been very open about
his issues. He's had substance abuse issues in the past,
dealt with mental health things, and I think he's just
in a place in his life right now where he's
like he's looking for something to do. Maybe he doesn't
have the kind of direction he wants looking for. I
mean to keep him focused, to have a schedule to
do something, and he feels like, you know what it'll
put me back in training camp. He's still in good shape.
He post videos, you know, on on his different social
media and that sort of thing. So I just think
it's like, hey, you're gonna pay me to fight this snore,
I might as well show up and see what I
can do.
Speaker 2: Right, And it's still five months from now, so we've
got plenty of time. Hopefully they stay healthy and.
Speaker 3: But if it happens TJ, it will add to like
my favorite like bar Trivia, another fighter who is going
to come out of retirement post being elected into the
Boxing Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: And by the way, a thirteen year official return. Well,
what was the what was the date of the one
after the Pacquieal loss? She said twenty twelve, twelve, So
that would be in a lot of year or no, yeah,
thirteen year official retirement and a Hall of Famer to
come back and fight.
Speaker 1: That's a long time.
Speaker 3: So his last fight was in November of twenty twelve,
and that would be fighting theoretically if it happens, he'll
be fighting in December of twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Crazy. Two other things, this is what it is.
Speaker 2: IBF Junior lightweight Champion Anthony Kasachi was to be fighting
August the sixteenth and defending the former champion was was
to have been fighting on the August the sixteenth, Read
card he is now injured.
Speaker 1: What's up? What's up for him?
Speaker 3: Well, they he had a back injury and they announced
that he was out of the fight. You know, he
wrote like I'll just take some time off and on
lead back to it. So he was disappointed. He posted
that to a social media and that was, you know,
an interesting kind of fight because the card itself, it
was just a nice fight to have on the show.
That added some depth to it. The main event, of course,
is I think intriguing to a lot of people, which
is this is August sixteenth and read Moses Atama the
top heavyweight up and comer against Dillan White. Still got
Nick Ball the featherweight wa WBA title holder defending against
Sam Goodman. Still have a good looking heavyweight fight between
Philip Perkovic and David Adelie. But Kasach unfortunately is no
longer on the card. And hopefully he just he heals
up and gets better, because him against ray Ford was
a very interesting fight to me. Now I asked the
Mattroum people who promote ray Ford, and this is a fight,
you know, because Casace they're doing this with the Rian
season folks. But you know, MATCHA would have an idea
what's up with Ford? And I'm told that even though
he's out with the injury, that they're still looking for
an opponent that could take the place of him and
still have ray be able to be on the card.
So hopefully everybody couldn't come up with a reasonable opponent
for Raymond Ford to fight and he can get back
at action and make another good fight. But that's just
a bummer. It's just, you know, a good fight that
is no longer happening because of an injury.
Speaker 2: All right, So we'll stay on it, and you'll stay
on it on who the opponent might be for Ford.
Stay tuned. You still have a month for that to happen.
Oh and we kind of save this for the end.
We have another post fight drug ped controversy. This from
a couple of weeks ago in the UK, when Francisco
Rodriguez of Mexico defeated Gallia Phi in dominant fashion, landing
over five hundred punches in the twelve round win.
Speaker 1: Well, we now.
Speaker 2: Call it all into question because he has tested positive
for peds. It has not been specified. Was it a
testosterone thing, was it a weight loss thing?
Speaker 1: What was it? But it was Vada testing.
Speaker 2: This was announced midweek Vada testing and the WBC say
adverse finding. What's the latest, Dan, And it obviously is
going to if it, if it goes away, the thieves
have gone, it's going to invalidate his win. It's going
to strip him of the WBC Interim flyweight title, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, these are these are cookie cutter type
of things. I mean, if if it is determined that
he in fact did have this, that he did test positive,
and that you know, he's up to him if he
wants to be sample tested, which he has that right
to do at his own expense. I like to always add,
and I will say once again for probably the one
trillionth time, that it is massively, massively, massively rare. For
an A and a B to be different, you'd have
to have some type of contamination of the sample, which
is has happened, but it's not. It's very unusual. So
he's looking at now. This will be adjudicated by the
British Boxing Board of Control because they were the regulator
that handled the fight. The WBC obviously has involved in
because they were the ones in control of the title
and the two fighters were signed up for the WBC's
clean boxing program, so they'll they'll they'll have their say also,
but at the end it'll be the British Boxing Board
and most likely saying, like we've seen a million times,
if it is as we believe it will be, which
is he did have this in his system however it
got there, the title will be stripped, the result of
the fight would be changed to a no contest and
he would be suspended. Now, the British Boxing Board of
Control is a lot more strict in terms of the
way they end. He've talked about it and some of
the wooses that regulate here in the United States, so
there's a good chance that he may face, you know,
a two year ban, that type of thing, which the
British Boxing Board has done in the past. But what
the real problem here is is you have Gelalia Phi,
who was a very good looking up and comer, even
though he's a little bit older, because he had stayed
amateur for such a long time and had won a
gold medal in the Olympics. It was only nine to
zero and he took such a fucking pounding in that fight,
and that if his opponent was on peds. Okay, yeah,
maybe he didn't kill the guy, but you cannot tell
me that that kind of beating for twelve rounds, just
consistent beating for twelve rounds, is not gonna significantly hamper
him going forward in his career. That takes something out
of you. I don't care who you are, You're not
going to be the same fighter after absorbing five hundred
plus punches in that fight. And if he was on peds,
the motherfucker should be in fucking jail. That's how I
look at it.
Speaker 2: Well, and again the British Boxing Border Control may drop
the hammer here. On a two and one other note,
Rodriguez has been mentioned as a possible opponent from one
of the guys you love, can Shiro Taraji, the unified
Flyway champion who has the full WBC world title, But
that's gonna all be out the window now because so.
Speaker 3: So Taraji, though he's got his own fight coming up.
But the point here is this, by winning the fight
and getting the interim belt, and we've talked about this
many times that just because you get in w see
interim belt does not automatically make you the mandatory in
this particular case. And I had double check this with
Mauricio Suliman, who was the president of the WBC, and
it was said to me, yes, one percent. Not only
will the winner of the fight be the interim chanting,
but they also will be the official WBC mandatory and
that so he is the mandatory challenger for the winner
of Taraji in his next fight. So that won't happen obviously.
You know, he'll be on suspension probably. I mean he's
already if you look at his box wreck, they already
have him under suspension. But it's that's like a provisional
thing until they go through the process. But you would
be fighting any time soon anyway, because he just did
fight just a couple of weeks ago. But it's just
to me, you know, I'm so sick and tired of
this shit. I I every time one of these things
comes up. And I know that there are times that
there can be an exception, and that that there are
cases where it's contamination, where there are cases where it's
a false positive that type of thing. I totally get that,
but by and large, it's not whether you've done it
on purpose, whether somebody in your camp has given it
to you, and you don't know whether it is legitimate.
You know where you might eat the beef that has contamination.
It's not everybody is doing it on purpose. But the
reality is this is a terrible thing in the sport.
You can seriously, you know, every time the bell rings,
your life is at stake. And I'm not trying to
be melodramatic. It's just and if the guy is juiced up,
that makes it more likely or more possibility that you're
gonna get very hard Wondering a baseball, They're not shooting
a basketball, they're not wanting to run a track.
Speaker 2: Hitting a baseball is not the same thing as uh
as throwing punches at another guy. I get what you're
saying on that, and I keep waiting for one of
these instances where, especially like in your fi's case where
you took a pretty brutal overall beating through twelve rounds,
do you have legal action at some point too against
a guy or wanting to pursue criminal action.
Speaker 1: I don't know about criminal charges.
Speaker 3: When Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia had their fight and
Ryan Garcia won and had the knockdowns, and then it
was found that he had tested positive for When that
whole situation was going on, before they made their settlement,
Ryan Garcia sued him for battery. Hany suit him, I
mean Hainy sued Garcia for now. Ultimately that was dropped
because of the arrangement they made or whatever. But you know,
there will come a time where there will be a
lawsuit and it will go forward, or there might be
criminal charges pressed, or there will be somebody who might
unfortunately be named or die and their opponent has found
out to have been on PDS, and that is going
to be the ruination of a sport that's already, you know,
not in the greatest shape.
Speaker 1: All right, A little bit of a downer note on that.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: We've got a busy show, lots and lots going on
Friday night and Saturday night.
Speaker 1: In New York.
Speaker 2: We remind you we will be live after both of
those fight cards for a brief time on the Big
Fight Weekend YouTube channel. So you're hearing us on the podcast,
go find the YouTube channel. Will be live after the
Taylor's Serrano Trilogy fight caps off that card on Friday
night from Madison Square Garden and then from Louis Armstrong
Stadium the Saturday night double header. If you will, Berlanga
Sharraz and Shaquur Stevenson, William Zupaida will be live after
that as well, so go find us on the YouTube
when it's all said and done. On those nights, we'll
have that. Also, we will be live on bet us
at Rayfield. We're live all over the place. I'm talking
to you again more than I'm talking to my wife.
Speaker 5: You and me.
Speaker 2: Bet Us Boxing Show live one Eastern time on Friday
on the bet Us platforms including their YouTube. We will
handicap the Taylor Serrano fight and the Ring Magazine de
Zone pay per view that has Berlanga Sharraz, Shaquur Stevens
and Williamsapada will handicap those fights one Eastern time on Friday.
Great stuff with Manny pakiaw More interviews coming, by the way.
On Sunday Night, you'll hear from Mario Barrios, You'll hear
from Hello, Daniel Duwat fighting Alexander Usik on the Sunday
Night Pod.
Speaker 3: So I had so many interviews, but so many busy
schedule of boxing. Now we're running out of shows to
squeeze that that's correct.
Speaker 2: So we'll get both of those in on Sunday night.
Be with us on the recap pod for that to
hear from both of those guys. For now, we're good,
Big Dan. Enjoy the weekend. I'll talk to you on
the bet Us show and we'll get ready for those
live shows on our Big Fight Weekend YouTube page. They
need to subscribe, they need to go be there with
us live on those coming up.
Speaker 1: Big Dan, thank you, enjoy the weekend of fights.
Speaker 2: As always, you too. There is Big Dan Rayphield. I'm
merely TJ Reeves. This is the Big Fight Weekend Preview Podcast.