Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Leaves.
Speaker 2: All right, we get ready for a weekend that has
an intriguing heavyweight main event in London for the WBO
interim heavyweight title that currently belongs to Joseph Parker.
Speaker 1: Bobby O. Wardley will challenge him.
Speaker 2: We're ready to discuss that Queensbury Design pay per view
main event coming up. We've got fight news including Danny
Garcia being victorious in his farewell to Brooklyn, other fight
news involving Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and much more. Thank
you for finding us. I am the somewhat capable host.
Speaker 1: TJ Reeves.
Speaker 2: Hello, Insider Dan Rayfield, fight Freaks Unite the substack after all,
and the newsletter.
Speaker 1: Full disclosure, you.
Speaker 2: And I did not have a recap podcast because there
was not much to recap. We did put on the
pod feed the Joseph Parker interview where they could hear it.
You and I haven't talked in like three or four days.
I'm going through Rayfield withdrawal right now.
Speaker 3: I Am not going through That's okay.
Speaker 2: The feeling, I guess is just solitary for me. On
this so all right, so we'll get into a little
preview mode again. If you want to not only hear
the Parker interview, but see your interview with Joseph Parker,
It's on our YouTube page, on our Big Fight Weekend
YouTube page. You're on the pod feed here, make sure
that you're following, subscribing, Apple, Spreaker, Spotify. We do our
best a preview going into the weekend recap coming off
the weekend, Dan, I keep getting social media messages and
inquiries about Okay, hey, you're not doing the bet Us
Show on Fridays anymore.
Speaker 1: Where can we find you?
Speaker 2: Well, presumably right now, whether you've found us through a
social media link or whatever, you're on the pod feed.
Speaker 1: You can still hear us.
Speaker 2: Even though you don't see this show all the time,
you can hear us on the pod feed. And we
do have a lot of video content on the YouTube page,
nostalgia and otherwise. It's not as if we went away.
Speaker 3: We're here, we go anywhere.
Speaker 2: We are here and giving takes, and let's get into
some takes, and by the way, rate us and review
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Speaker 4: And by the way, it takes even less time to
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Speaker 1: That is correct.
Speaker 3: Hit the spa wick of your mouse, that is correct.
Speaker 2: So do that help us out on both of those
counts if you enjoy the content. Okay, So we have
built up this main event. It is coming Saturday afternoon
US time Saturday night primetime at the O two Arena
in London. We've outlined the risk that Joseph Parker is
obviously taking here because he could sit and wait to
be the full champion and or fight Alexander Usik. He
wants to stay active. He's gonna fight Fabio Wardley, who's undefeated,
who can punch. All right, let's get into the preview mode.
What doll we think about this and what do you
think ultimately happens. Give me some analysis.
Speaker 4: Well, I really like this fight. I mean, if you're
a boxing fan and you like heavyweights, this is a
good matchup. This is two of the top ten heavyweights
in boxing. I think if you take a look at
it and you're honest with your assessment, you'd have to
say at this stage of the game that Joseph Parker
is the rightful number two and I say that because
Fury is in essence retired. Anthony Joshua has not fought
for over one year and is coming up a devastating
knockout loss. Deontay Wilder, although has won a fight a
few months ago as against a low level opponent, has
been also relatively inactive and has lost fights since then.
You are bringing prior to that, I should say. My
point is if you take a look at the heavyweight
division as it is currently there, there's there's good fighters
in the division, but at the very top Joseph Parker
because of his activity level and the level of the
opposition that he's defeated over his last few fights. Firstly,
he's won like six fights in a row since. He
had a tremendous battle and a great Fight of the
Year candidate that he ultimately lost, but it wasn't like
he got blown away. He did lose in the you know,
in the in the by a knockout late in the
fight against Joe Joyce, but that was a hell of
a fight and that's all. That's a while ago. You know,
in a lot about boxing, TJ. You know, this is
kind of like what he had done for me lately.
So he took that loss. This is all the way
back in like late twenty twenty two, he won sort
of like three fights in pretty quick order against you know,
good opponents, but not like top top opponents. You know,
the get the activity level going, get the confidence back,
work on some things. He was with Andy Lee, the trainer,
and then he went on another He continued to run,
but against a much level, a much higher level of opposition.
He had to win over Deontay Wilder. He shot him
out basically, he won you know, ten eleven, twelve rounds
of the fight. Then he had another very significant win
where he got up off the deck from a knockdown.
Two knockdowns as a matter of fact, and he still
had done more than enough to win the decision against Jiang.
That was a very good win for him. And then
in the most recent fight where he was supposed to
fight Daniel da that was back in February of this year,
but Duwah pulled out of the fight during the fight
week he said he was ill, and instead he took
on Martin McCauley on like two days notice. And even
though Martin mccaley obviously hadn't had a full training camp
and maybe wasn't an opti them condition. Still a big,
strong guy with a lot of experience, and and Joseph
Parker went in there and dusted him in the second round.
So that's a great run right now for you know,
other than Alexander Usik with the back to back wins
over Tyson Fury, plus you know, the most recent knocked
out against Dubois back of you know several back in
the summer, late summertime. Who else is better in the
heavy division in terms of their recent resume that deserves
the shots. So to make a long story short about
what's going on with this fight against Fabia Wardley, is
Joseph Parker as the WBO interim champion, is the mandatory,
and because Usik is the unified champion with all the belts,
they use the rotation system which tells you the order.
It's an agreement between the sanctioning bodies to determine which
organization is up next in the mandatory. They've you know,
they can't all fight the mandatory at the same time,
so they have that agreement. This is based on what
was a lawsuit from you know, thirty years ago. The
WBO is next in line. So if Usik wants to
maintain the four belts. He will fight the winner of
the fight, because if Fabio Wardley wins, he takes over
the interim championship and also becomes the mandatory. So the
the option for Usik is two things. Fight the winner
of Saturday's fight, or vacate and orby stripped of the title.
The wb has been very WBO has been very clear
about that, and so Usik is risking his position. I mean,
Parker is risking his position because he's already got a mandatory.
But like you said, he wants to stay active. He
doesn't want to just wait around. He spoke about it
in the interview that you referenced that I did with
him recently, and so he's going in the ring and
it's not like he's just going in with a nobody.
I mean, if you want to get paid a lot
of money in headline and then being a big arena,
and you know they're putting this fight unfortunately as a
pay per view, all those things that go into it,
you have to fight at least an interesting opponent in
Fabia Wardley certainly is that he is the WBA interim
champion that will go away because they're not going to
allow that to be unified.
Speaker 3: But whatever.
Speaker 4: The point though, in terms of Fabio is he is
a fresh a fresh earth face on the on the scene.
He is undefeated. He carries a tremendous right hand. He
is undefeated. He is nineteen oh to one. The one
draw was a Fight of the Year candidate a couple
of years ago, ins Frasier Clark. They did an immediate rematch.
He knocked him out in the first round. I think
he made his point that was. First fight was March
of twenty four, rematch was October of twenty four, and
then after that. In the most recent fight, he fought
Justice Hooney, and I consider Justice Hoony a prospect, not
a true contender. When he fought him, he didn't have
the kind of experience, not that Fabia Wardley's got a
ton of experience, but he had more than Hoony, and
Hooney did a great job out boxing.
Speaker 1: Hooney was winning the fight.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, hands down.
Speaker 1: But this is why we love boxing. What happened, So.
Speaker 3: HOONI was up.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at the scorecards here on box Wreck he
was up eighty nine to eighty two on two cards.
In eighty eight to eighty three on the third score card,
so he's on his way to a very clear unanimous decision.
But Fabia Wardley has one of the best right hands
in the heavyweight division. They may not be Wilder esque,
but it's pretty damn good. And he drilled him with
one shot and knocked him out in the tenth round
and rescued his position. So that was dramatic, It was fun,
it was exciting, and you know, he kept his undefeated record.
And now he's taken on Joseph Parker, so you know
what happens in the matchup TJ. You have to look
at Parker as the obvious favorite, got a tremendous men experience,
fought a lot of good guys, showing a great chin. Obviously,
he's got the one loss in terms of a stoppage
loss to Joseph Joe Joyce.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: But the other two losses were decisions. You know, one
was against Anthony Joshu when a mega fight that was
to unify titles. He did lose in another tremendous battle
against Dillian White. And as a matter of fact, that
fight also like Saturdays fight, took place at the O
two Arena, and as Joe joked around me when we
did our interview. You know he called this a a
in an arena revenge fight, like to get you know,
because his only other fight in this building he lost.
Speaker 1: Well, I was gonna touch on this.
Speaker 2: I mean, we just we we cannot overstate this is
gonna be electric because the British fans are tremendous fans.
This is a heavyweight. They're gonna be partisan for him,
and I wonder. I mean, again, Parker's been through this
against Anthony Joshua, against Dillian White, going against the home
country guy in that setting, so it probably won't phase him,
but it's definitely advantage at least psyching up Fabio warldly
and maybe empowering him to whatever extent that that matters.
Speaker 4: Well, I will tell you I happen to agree with
Joe's opinion about this. Joe Parker is of the opinion
that he'll have a good amount of fans there.
Speaker 3: Chaired for them.
Speaker 4: Also, look, they're professionals, so rooting for the guy who
not rooting for the I don't think it's going to
really have a big impact. But the reality is, although
Fabia Worthy is the British fighter and he's fighting obviously
in London, Joseph Parker is going to have a fan support.
I mean, he's fought Jesora twice, He's fought Joe Joyce,
Anthony Joshua there. He has had a number of fights
in the UK through the years, and this is just
another one, you know, as he just like I joked,
he said, it's a venue redemption fight in terms of
fighting him in the to arena where he suffered that
loss of joy. So look, it's just it's a very
good matchup. You got arguably the number two heavyweight in boxing,
a guy that's on the precipice of fighting for the
undisputed title. An underdog opponent, but a but a tremendous.
Speaker 1: We can punch and he can punch, and if he.
Speaker 4: Wins, he's gonna get the shot, and it sizes up
like a good matchup. Like I'm down for a good
heavyweight scrap, all right. I just wish I just wish
that it was not a sixty dollars pay.
Speaker 1: So I was coming to that. That's what it is.
Speaker 2: Even in the United States in the middle of the
afternoon on a college football Saturday, I mean, Rayfield.
Speaker 3: It's a lot of sam the UK, it's like, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, would you want me to say it?
Speaker 2: What are we doing here that you think US fans
are gonna pay fifty nine to ninety five. I'm talking
about anything other than a hardcore fan in the middle
of a Saturday afternoon, big college football Saturday, which is
immensely popular in this country to drop what you're doing
in pay fifty nine to ninety five.
Speaker 4: So a couple things about that, A couple things about that.
Number one, it's it's it's like, it's such an absurdity.
I don't even understand it. Because they can set the
price at whatever they want.
Speaker 3: That's what I get. They got it. Listen.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna say I'm gonna sit here and bleed
for Frank Warren, but I understand from one standpoint they
have a big nut to cover in what they're paying
Parker and Wardly for this fight. Okay whatever. In the UK,
if you buy the pay per view, it's I think
twenty twenty four pounds or something like that, So it's
much cheaper obviously if you do the transition between what
it's worth in American money compared to you know, what
it is in the UK.
Speaker 2: This is the truth, it's prime time in the UK,
and they'll probably do Is it out of line to
say I think it's not I'm about to say it.
They'll do ten times the business on pay per view
in the UK with that price and the fact that
it's prime time.
Speaker 3: But we'll never know.
Speaker 4: We'll never know the real numbers because the ZOE doesn't
announce them, and neither does the promoter. My educated opinion,
with my vast and extensive years of covering pay per
view and understanding it, I think probably better than most people,
other than people that actually do the events. I'd be
a little shocked if this fight in the United States
did more than.
Speaker 3: Five thousand buys.
Speaker 4: I think that's when you're putting it find a double paywall.
You already have to subscribe to the zone, which is
going to cost you if you buy it for the year,
it's like two hundred and thirty dollars for the year
or something like that. Or or you buy a monthly
and you cannot get this as a one off right now.
Speaker 2: You gotta subscribe at least for six months or a
full year subscription to get the chance to buy the
pay per view, is what you're saying.
Speaker 4: I believe you might. There might be a thing where
if you you can buy the pay per view if
you give them six months something like that, or you
get maybe you get like a free month of the
zone or something along those. The bottom line is it's
not easy to do. You got to buy. You know,
if you're a subscriber already, it's going to cost you
another fifth, you know, fifty nine to ninety five to buy.
Speaker 1: This are crazy.
Speaker 4: So but I don't understand is why don't if you know, again,
Frank Warren and his owne they set the price. There's
no there's no like pay per view ferry that says
this should be sixty bucks. They could set it at
twenty bucks. They could make it now. And I'm not
going to get down into weeds too much. At one
point they tried to do fights where it was pay
per view in whatever territory.
Speaker 3: It made sense.
Speaker 4: In this case the UK and another locations, it was
just part of your regular subscription. As a recent example
from the last couple of years, for example, when Regis
Program and Devin Haney had their fight does a Good
Fight Going in? It turned out that it was a
pay per view in the United States, but everywhere else
in the world. It was just part of your regular subscription.
What the Zone has found is if you open it
up then other countries, it makes it very easy to
steal the signal. So therefore they lock it down.
Speaker 2: And I give you breaking news. I'm not saying that
I do this. The pay per views are available everywhere anywhere.
But all the time, I don't know what you're stopping.
I don't know what you're stopping from that standpoint, So
just tell you what I got, what you're relaying. Just
one more time, why not reward the subscribers in the
United States the care to go and watch this, because
I'm with you. If you're not going to sell any
pay per views, what difference does it make if you
charge thirty nine ninety five, forty nine ninety five or
ninety nine ninety five if you're not.
Speaker 4: Here's here's the thing that's coming with the Zone, and
it's it's been discussed and I know a little bit
about it. Know what the price is gonna be. It's
gonna get probably announced after this pay per view is over.
Because this Joseph Parker wordly pay per view is the
last of this iteration of pay per view, because going forward,
the rest of the pay per view is the zone
is going to offer a different kind of subscription that
will pay you one price. And I don't know what
the price point is, but I figure it's going to be,
you know, a couple hundred three if I don't know
what the numbers, one hundred of dollars. But the bottom
line is you'll get every pay per view with a
minimum amount for the year, sort of like it's like
a second subscription. So if you I'm making up the numbers,
so I don't want to hear you know, anybody brushed
back and me say, well, you lie about the number.
Speaker 3: I'm making this up.
Speaker 4: Let's say they say we want five hundred dollars for
the year, and will you get everything that's on pay
per view at least then you have some certainty, you know.
Speaker 2: Me, which again that breaks out to about forty three,
forty four dollars a month or one.
Speaker 4: But I don't know how many pay per views it is,
and I'm making it the stop stop running the moll.
Speaker 1: Let's give you.
Speaker 2: Let's give you a reference point just before we move on.
Like ESPN has started this new direct to con consumer app,
all right, it is twenty nine to ninety five to
get everything they offer, and they have now put the
WWE World Wrestling Entertainment.
Speaker 1: Top pay per views behind that paywall.
Speaker 2: So now if you're a WWE fan, you know I've
got to give them twenty nine to ninety five every
month that there is a pay perview. You can go
month to month, I believe, so you can have other
months where you don't pay them, you cancel, you don't
pay them, but you at least know that that if
I give you the twenty nine to ninety five, I
get everything and the WWE pay perview.
Speaker 4: So they don't really call them pay per viewers, right don't.
They're like premium line extra if whatever you want to
call it. But they haven't been on pay per view
for the last couple of years. They were on right regular.
Speaker 2: Now it's now essentially that because they're hoping to get
a couple one hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, five hundred
thousand WWE fans to pay it for those core events.
So back to your premise that if you are saying
to a boxing fan that for that four hundred dollars
or whatever, you said, five hundred.
Speaker 3: Dollars I'm making up the numbers.
Speaker 1: I understand.
Speaker 2: I understand that you're gonna get six pay per views
that normally would have been five hundred or six hundred dollars.
Then maybe that's worthwhile.
Speaker 4: Right now, but we don't know, we don't know what.
Here's the thing though, in WWE, because it's scripted not
to break anybody's uh, you know, to.
Speaker 2: Break any news here, it's not real.
Speaker 4: It's they know that they they know right now today
that in October of next year whatever, they're gonna have
a pay per view on such and such a rough
approximate day. They know every month in boxing, you don't
know that because fights have to lead up to other fights.
But the suffice to say this Fabio Wordly is the
last of the pay per views on his own for
the time being. That will be strictly a la carte
that you don't have the option of purchasing the fact.
So the reason why, by the way, is because it's
untenable what's going on right now, because besides this Pavia
Wordly fight, under this current circumstance, if you were you
know you, the package is going to be available to
subscribe to and they'll release the detail is probably in
the coming week or so. You'll still be able to
buy the events a la carte if you choose to,
but it wouldn't if you're really that diehard, it would
make sense. Probably we'll see what the price is to
just buy the package. And the reason I say that
is because they have a bunch of other fights they're
gonna fall into that category November twenty second with the
big show from Saudi Arabia with you know, a bunch
of good fights on their yard against Benavides and Hani,
against Norman, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And by the way, that card is worth every bit
of forty nine something like that price that card is,
even if it is in the middle of the day,
that card's much better.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that by go ahead.
Speaker 4: But then there's gonna be other events that perhaps will
fall into that category. You're talking about the in away
fight in December, and there are other fights also that
they are planning to do, and so you'll have that option,
I guess, to purchase all of that together and we'll
see if they can go that. Because the number of
pay per views, especially around the holiday season, is just
absolutely an absurdity.
Speaker 2: Well and what and what we're seeing now and we
didn't mean to get off on this tangent. We're going
to move on to the other news is the purchase
of pay per views is dwindling, twinning the many Pacquiao
pay per view I saw it reported several places basically
didn't do two hundred thousand pay per view buys in
the summer.
Speaker 1: They've kept it all quiet. And if he's not drawing that, yeah,
and it's trouble, it's trouble by.
Speaker 4: I forgot the other the third paper besides in a way,
and November twenty two is on November fifteenth to Connor
Benbank Junior rematch. So those are three events that theoretically
are going to be available within that package, and then
they're all coming over the course of like a month
and a half.
Speaker 1: So interesting.
Speaker 2: That's a lot, So stay tuned on what happens with
Parker and Wordley and again we'll recap it coming off
the weekend. All right, other news items, Why don't you
go ahead and give us a little bit on the
Danny Garcia knockout of Daniel Rodriguez a one punch ko
in the fourth round of that fight in Brooklyn last
Saturday night. We did not do a recap pod, but
give him a few moments here on Garcia. And it's
not necessarily goodbye goodbye. It's just farewell to Brooklyn.
Speaker 4: It could be farewell for good, but it seems like
there'll be some offers that come his way. Look, this
was a positioned by Danny and his own promotional company,
Swift Promotions, as farewell to Brooklyn, as he and I discussed,
and he discussed with lots of people and the lead
up to the fight, that it was eighty five percent
that he would retire. I mean, Danny is thirty seven
years old, he's got a young family, He's made a
good amount of money. It's not a financial situation. He's
trying to build up his promotional company. He has other
business interests besides that. But he at least he was
honest about it. He said, you know, you never know.
You look great, you get the phone call, you feel good.
I have a feeling that coming off of this particular
performance where he did score a very impressive fourth round
knockout against Daniel Gonzalz. Now that's not a top level opponent,
but Danny looked pretty sharp, you know, took him like
a round and a half or so to get into
the groove. And when he put him away, it was
only fitting that he did so with a big, booming
left hook on the chin, because the money punch of
Danny Garcia's career has been the left hook. That is
how when he opened Barclay Center for boxing back in
you know, twelve years ago or thirteen years ago. It
was a left hook that ended Eric Morales's career, sent
him into retirement when he got the big knockout in
their rematch, and he went on to have a number
of his big fights at Barclay Center. He got this victory.
He's now eight wins and two losses in that building.
He's synonymous with the history of boxing at Barclay Center.
And you know, coming off this one, I'm sure he
feels good about himself. Like I said, he looked good.
He didn't get any kind of injuries or anything like that.
So maybe he'll wait for the phone to ring and
if they meet, they asking price, maybe we'll see him back.
I mean, listen, it's not like he's a totally shot fighter.
He could absolutely compete with some of the better guys,
in my opinion, if he was even a little more
active and you know, you know, being ready for fights.
I think there's no doubt about that now. Is he
what he was ten years ago? Obviously not who of
us are. But you didn't look at that version of
Danny Garcia and say, oh, man, he's slow, or he
gets hit too much, or he's no good anymore. Danny
could definitely still be a good fighter. It's just a
matter of the dedication and if you're going to keep
a regular schedule. And again, I keep in mind that
he was taken on Daniel Gonzalez, who was a former
sparring partner of his that helped him get ready for
the Sean Porter fight back in twenty eighteen. But Daniel
Gonzalez came in good condition and Danny took him apart
with ease, and I know he felt good about getting
that knockout, and so you know, it was good to see.
And I think Danny Garcia had the kind of career
that even if we didn't discuss them because we didn't
do the recap, because that was the only fight that
he deserved a couple of minutes of mention on today's show,
because he's been a credit to boxing. He's fought a
lot of top guys. There was a period of time
where he got criticized for, you know, what was perceived
as the cherry pick kind of fights. But in totality
of his career, he fought a ton of good, top fighters.
And you know he once saw me last. Somebody fought everybody,
and he beat a lot of quality guys too, none
bigger than the big upset against Lucas Matisse and the
great knockout against Amir Kan for unifications purposes.
Speaker 2: All right, and you've said borderline hall of fame discussion
at least about him.
Speaker 3: What do you think about that? I mean, I've heard
a lot.
Speaker 2: You He's a two division world champ. I'm just big
across the board in sports that we don't have to
put everybody in. So I would kind of judge it,
as with his contemporaries, with other people in his division,
the last twenty thirty forty years, where would you stack him?
Speaker 1: So I would say that to you, would you.
Speaker 2: Stack him in the last twenty or thirty years of welterweights?
Would you stack him in the top five or the
top seven?
Speaker 4: His legacy, Look, he had a good run at welterweight,
not a great run at wealthweight, even though he fought
a lot of top guys at welter where he really
made his case. If you think he's a Hall of Famer,
and I agree with he's borderline, I have to think
about it. A lot of it has to do with
who else is on the ballot, frankly, because they elect
three no matter what. And you know, I've been thinking
about the Hall of Fame a lot because I literally
filled out my ballot literally last night, stuck it in
the envelope, and win in the mail today. So it
makes it back to the Canastota by the deadline of
October thirty first, taking care of mine, I presume.
Speaker 1: That the post office can get it there in a week.
Speaker 4: As long as it's postmarked by the thirty.
Speaker 1: First post marked. Okay, we're good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And just for the to give my own newsletter
a little pops. In the coming weeks, I will do
a column detailing all of my votes.
Speaker 3: You voted for why exactly.
Speaker 2: So you would make the stronger case a junior welterweight.
So in his era, is he a top five junior
welterweight the last twenty years?
Speaker 1: In your mind?
Speaker 4: Probably he is, actually because he had a really good run.
I mean at that period of time, if you take
a look at his resume and you start when he
when he finally stepped up to fighting like ten, like
his first I think his first ten round fight, when
he was no longer considered like, well he's still a prospect,
but he was now stepping into bigger fights.
Speaker 3: He fought.
Speaker 4: It wasn't his first ten round fight, but it was
his ten rounder. It was like, you know, three or
maybe his third or so scheduled ten, but he was
in with his first so called a real guy, real guy,
he thought. Nate Campbell, who was a former unified world
champion as a lightweight but still was decent, was not
totally shot. He beat the you know Holt, who was
a top champion. It was a major puncher who had
been you lost a unification fight against Timothy Bradley. These
are guys he was beating before he ever fought for
the title. A lot of times today you see guys
get title shots. They've never even scored a win the
level of a Nate Campbell win. Danny won against Nate
Cambell and against Kendall Holt and was mandatory and got
the win against Eric Morousse. But if you take a
look at Danny's record from twenty eleven with the Kenda
Holt fight and the Nate Campbell fight, and you go
all the way to the point where he moved up
to the welterweight division, which was not until twenty fifteen,
that was a pretty damn good run in about five
years there where he was the class of the division.
He was the actual champion, the lineal champion, He had
unified titles, he had made a number of defenses, and
most of the fights were against good fighters. The one
thing that works against him is a lot of people
thought that he got a little bit of a gift
when he fought Mauricio Herrera in that title defense that
took place in twenty fourteen. But there's plenty of great
fighters who are in the Hall of Fame that have
a controversial win on the record, right, That's not I
went disqualifying from the Hall of just because of that
particular fight. And then even as a walterweit they weren't
mega wins. But he beat like Malinaji, he beat Robert Guerrero,
who was a good fighter for the title at the
WBC to win that belt. He would go on and
lose a very close fight. You can certainly argue he
won the fight against Keith Thurman. That was a very
big deal. That was a unification fight, that was a
mega fight the in terms of the Barclay Center's history
in boxing. He had another close fight against Sean Porter.
He beat Brandon Rios. He suffered the loss to Errolspence.
That was pretty much the one that was like a
very clear cut kind of loss in that kind of
marked the end as far as the regular activity, because
since that fight at the end of twenty twenty, you know,
he's only had three fights, right, the Benavides fight at
fifty four, the ill conceived middleweight fight against Arizloni Lara
where he got stopped, and then the fight that took
place the other night against Gonzales.
Speaker 3: So, to make a.
Speaker 4: Long story short, I'd have to think about it. I
have to see what else he's competing with on the ballot,
but I would say he's absolutely in the conversation to
be a Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: Good enough on that, all right, we got a bevy
of heavyweight updates. Let's start with Alexander Usik, the undisputed champion.
While he keeps his eyes on the Parker Wardly main event.
He is claiming to be back training. He's put some
stuff out there on social media that he will continue
to fight on.
Speaker 1: We wondered, not surprising.
Speaker 2: How long he continues to fight on remains to be seen.
Speaker 1: All right, give us some more on this.
Speaker 4: So on his own website, he gave some quotes in
a piece that's on his website called Ready to Fight,
which is Usik's own site, where he said that you know,
after dealing with I would even call it a back injury.
I guess it was more because the way his team
described that post the Dubois fight was a back issue
that would prevent him from being ready immediately to do
the mandatory that he was supposed to do against Joseph Parker,
which is why Parker has taken this fight against Fabio
Wardley and the WBO allowed him to have the extension
of when the mandatory was due. But he said he's
back in light training. He's not like sparring, I guess,
but he's training again. He said he plans to fight
in twenty twenty six, which is good news for boxing
fans and more notably, at age thirty eight, he said
he was going to fight till he's forty one, three
more years, so it feels like he's got more fights
than his in his future.
Speaker 3: Change your mind.
Speaker 1: I will believe that when.
Speaker 2: When I see it, But stay tuned. Yeah, I mean
in twenty twenty six, that's a start. But to be
still fighting in twenty twenty eight, well.
Speaker 4: I mean obviously, losses and wins, you know that that
helps make your decision and how you perform, and you
know injuries in those things. But the bottom line is
Usik is saying publicly, I'm back and I'm going to
defend the heavyweight championship.
Speaker 3: So I have to.
Speaker 4: Believe that that the that there will be money available
to make a significant fight against the winner of Parker,
and wardly, I do think there's probably more money if
this happens to be Parker, just because he's a bigger,
better known name in terms of world boxing. But that's good.
So he ill he is taking the rest of the
year off in terms of actual fights. Will he'll still train,
I guess, and hopefully we will see him back at
some point in the beginning part of twenty twenty six.
Now he doesn't, He says he doesn't really care about
having another Fury fights, So I don't think we're seeing that.
Speaker 2: All right, So let's get into that because Fury is
apparently reiterating that he is retired, which I don't believe.
Tell tell me more about what he said and where
he said it.
Speaker 1: Since you both you.
Speaker 3: I agree with you.
Speaker 4: I mean you and I have agreed with you. Know,
we don't agree on everything, but one thing we've been
steadfast on is that Fury, whatever he happens to say
on a given day, probably will fight it. But there
does come a time where guys do retire. He is
thirty seven, he has had two losses in a row,
and brutally tough fights where he took a lot of
damage against Alexander Usik, and he has said ever since
then he's retired. Now, in previous retirements, it's been like
a couple of months, it's been maybe like a couple
of days or whatever, you know, and he's changes to it.
But he is now doing some interviews and he's saying
once again, he's reiterating that he's done. So you know, again,
I'm not going to see her and tell you I
necessarily believe him. But for what it's worth. In the
last few days, he was on a YouTube channel called
Faros TV, where he gave some of his most pointed
quotes that I can think of. He says, there's no
actual reason for me to go back in a boxing ring.
He says, I'm thirty seven years old. I've been punched
for the past twenty five years. What do I want
to go back to boxing for? And he's not gonna
probably get a third fight with Usik. I don't think
there's any kind of real DEMI. There were great fights,
and all credit to both guys were giving us great battles,
but they were close. But Usik won both fights and
it wasn't like they were super controversial. Even scored a
knockdown in one of those fights.
Speaker 2: So and Fury didn't win a fight in between the
two and has to fall out since then against anybody
to make you think, okay, there needs to be a
third Usik fight at this stage.
Speaker 4: So so and then the other thing he said, And
you know, Tyson here has always been about the money.
So when he stucks saying it's not about the money,
you know, it's always about the money. But again, I'm
just giving you the quote he said he wouldn't even
come back for a billion dollars. I mean, obviously that's
probably not.
Speaker 2: True, like Austin Powers won bill exactly. But here, here's
the other thing. In the last three three years here
with the Wilder, well actually four years, going back to
the Wilder third fight, and now these two Usik fights,
you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that he
ended up making.
Speaker 3: He has made Gargantu.
Speaker 2: So it's not money motivated. He's got a family, he's
got a ton of kids. What is it six or seven.
Speaker 3: Kids, I think it's eight or something.
Speaker 1: So at some point.
Speaker 2: You do move on with life goes on, and he
could be a commentator by the way as well, and
would be very entertaining at that.
Speaker 4: Well, it's like he talks about, like at one point
you're motivated by titles and you're motivated by money. He's
won all the titles, right at one point or another.
He's been to the Lionneal Champions, won other belts, and
he's as you said, he's made justin forget about his
whole career as a totality, just in the last you know,
let's say the four years, let's say the Wilder trilogy
to the present, he's made I would say got to
be alwayst two hundred and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 3: Yes, probably more.
Speaker 2: Because the two fights with Usik alone were over one
hundred million total. Now even closer to one hundred and
fifty million to Saldi money that was involved.
Speaker 3: If he decides to stay retired, look good for him.
Speaker 2: So that leads us to what's behind door number three
Anthony Joshua And because we've always wondered is that fight
going to happen? Is it gonna get on the front
burner of a stove? What's the latest with Door number
three and Joshua.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll say this, if the Joshua Fury fight never happens,
shame on everybody involved. That is just disgusting that they
will never have faced each other. But the reality is,
even if they do face each other, and I personally
would still like to see it, but it's still never
It's similar to the Joshua and Wilder fight. It's never
gonna be what it should have been. Right, Joshua Wilder
a few years ago should have been for the undisputed title.
Joshua against Wilder should have I guess they at one
point did they have all the belts together? I think
they probably did, But either way, they were the new.
Speaker 1: Biggest and Joshua and Wilder had all the belts together.
Speaker 3: That's no I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Was there a time when Joshua and Fury had all
the belts together at the very least millennial?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Is that before josh I guess right, When Joshua fought
Usick the first time, he had three of the belts
and Fury had already beaten uh Wilder in the first
fight before they fought the second fight.
Speaker 3: The first fight was a drug well the.
Speaker 2: Second fight where where Fury won the WBC title. Correct,
Joshua fought Usik the following August of twenty twenty one
before Fury and Wilder fought.
Speaker 4: And the point, the main point though, is that that
fight should have been for, you know, the the mega
mega mega fight of the of the of the era,
and it didn't happen. They could still maybe do it,
but both guys are clearly past their best. Look like
you said, one guy's thirty seven, Anthony. Joshua' getting any
younger either, you know, he's getting up there in his thirties.
Speaker 2: Anthony Joshua, who's probably easily made half a billion dollars.
Speaker 4: How if I say easily, but it's probably yeah, sure.
Speaker 2: So he's not money motivated. And plus he's off an
injury too. He's off an elbow injury and hasn't fought
since having elbows.
Speaker 4: The bottom line update is here he says he's still
retired and Joshua. The fight that most people would want
to see in the heavyweight division, if those two guys are
going to fight, is coming back. And look, Eddie hern
is out there every day saying this that the other.
At one point earlier in the month, he was talking
about how he might be able to squeez him in
December that you know, without fans there.
Speaker 3: Maybe he went on a short notice.
Speaker 4: He put him on he is undercard in Stockton, California,
just to get him back in the ring or some
other small show. I mean, I never believed that that
was never.
Speaker 2: He was gonna have Joshua potentially fight on the bill,
not as the main event in Stockton, California, if.
Speaker 4: Joshua wanted to do it, believe if Joshua wanted to
do that. But but the most recent comments that Eddie
has made to different media outlets is that that he's
not going to fight the rest of this year. So
it will mark the first time in Anthony Joshua's professional
career that'll go an entire calendar year without having had
a doubt because his last fight was since September of
last year when he got knocked out by did what.
Speaker 2: Do you believe there's a possibility we've seen the last
of Anthony Joshua because.
Speaker 1: Against body somewhere.
Speaker 4: They're making plans to go in probably February. As Eddie
talked about in some of the recent comments he made
just this week, there's very big interest to bring him
to Africa to do a fight, which if there's money
there and they can obviously probably get away with a
lesser type opponent there, that that would be a way
for Anthony to do something he's want to do, which
is to fight in Africa. Nigeria is where his heritage
is from, where his family is from. Uh there's also
a burgeoning scene in Ghana. You never know where they're
going to bring him. But the point is that would
be allowed, that would allow him to get back in
the ring in a main event type situation, but not
against a big name a little less pressure maybe because
you're not you know, fighting in a title fighter in
front of ninety thousand people or whatever. And then after
that maybe Fury will want to come out of retirement,
maybe Deontay Wilder and then can still get the fight together.
But whether he fights eventually, Fury or Wilder, both fights
are are just about it there, you know, expired.
Speaker 2: Shelf live for Selby as well.
Speaker 3: The wild fight more so than the Fury fight.
Speaker 2: Yes, especially after what Jang did to Wilder almost two
years what year and a half ago now, But then again,
look at what Duba did to Anthony Joshua.
Speaker 4: So the the I mean all due respect to Usk
because he's only been in the division for a couple
of years, a few years, but for a longer period,
much longer period of time. The era was defined by Wilder,
Fury and Joshua, and all three of them are basically
on their.
Speaker 1: In their late thirties, right, and it's it's basically.
Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, Deontay Wilder just this week
turned forty.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: All right, so there's the heavyweight landscape you've been mentioning
matt Room boxing. There's news about them winning a purse
bid of significance from this week fire away.
Speaker 4: So last week they had postponed because both sides that
requested it. The postponement of the purse bid that was
supposed to be between the IBF lightweight Champion, which is
Raymond Maritaya who was promoted by Top Rank, and the
mandatory challenger, uh the Olympic Champion Andy Cruz, who is
promoted by matrom Boxing. The purse bit took place on Thursday,
and I'm not surprised frankly that Matroom Boxing won the
purse bid. They did eight hundred and eighty eight, eight
hundred eighty eight thousand, eight hundred eighty eight dollars to
win the perse s bid. Somebody likes the lucky eights.
Speaker 1: I guess, did we do the eight ball? Did we
do the eights?
Speaker 4: That's what the number was, and they easily out distanced
the second bidder, which was the only other bidder, which
was Murtius Promoter Top Rank, which bid five hundred and
fifty thousand dollars. Matchroom has had a long history of
losing purse bids. The fact that they won this person
even as the challenger, meaning they have to give up
sixty five percent of the winning bid. The reality is
Top Rank doesn't have a platform that's helping subsidize their fights.
The Zone subsidizes the matchroom fights, so that will probably
become a main event. You know, they have ninety days
to do the fight, which means sometime, you know, in
the beginning of next year. The fight will take place.
Assuming that Murtia accepts the bout, which I'm sure he will,
it's going to be his career ibayday. If you do
the math on the split, it's five one hundred and
seventy seven thousand and change for Murtaia, it's three hundred
and eleven thousand dollars in change for Andy Krue's career
highs for both guys. I'm sure, I know for a
fact it's the Murataia high, and I'm be willing to
bet anything it's the high for Andy Krus as well.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2: So he's not been he's not been making three hundred
grand for these undercard fights to start his career.
Speaker 4: So so that will be a fight that they do,
and it's a tough fight for both guys. I mean,
Bartaya is a very strong, sturdy guy with pretty good power,
but Andy krus has got that brilliant amateur background with
the you know, the Olympic gold medal and all the
other accolades, and he's looked good as a professional, even
though he only has six professional fights. But he's on
the fast track at age thirty because time was a
wasting and and you know, he didn't need a ton
of fights. He was lomachenko Ish hoosick ish in the
sense that he didn't need a ton of fights to
be prepared for the biggest fights out there. And so
that shapes up at least as an intriguing fight for
the early part of next year, and it will take
place on a Mattroom card on his own and uh,
you know, Top Rank still doesn't have anything set up,
so it's not a surprise that they lost the purse
bet at all.
Speaker 2: To me, a couple of more items under my category
of these guys are never retired. Kell Brook is now
going to come out of a four year retirement in February,
but for a special reason, as it relates to the
late Ricky Hatton.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Kell and Rooky were buddies, and I'm sure
Kel's been thinking about unretiring and when he retired. If
you go back, you have to remember when he retired,
it was coming off of a knockout victory in his
you know, long awaited rivalry fight against Amir Khan. They had,
you know, had so many words with each other and
had been linked together to a fight forever for a
million reasons. It didn't happen both sides, so blame that
one time or another. But they finally did fight in
February of twenty twenty two, and kell Brook won that
fight by a six round knockout, and then both of
them retired after the fight. But Brooke was retiring off
of a knockout victory. So the fact that he's found
a motivation or a reason to come out of retirement
is not a so he says. And this was announced
on their social media platforms. The outfit that's going to
do this fight in February that's going to take place
in Dubai. He's doing it as a tribute to his
good friend Ricky Hatten, of course, who just recently passed away.
And so he's gonna fight the same opponent that remember,
Ricky was gonna end the thirteen year retirement. Kel's coming
out of a four year retirement. He was supposed to
fight a Dubai fighter named asa Al Dah who was
a forty six year old with a very pedestrian eight
and three record. I'm not sure what the magic is there,
other than that he's from Dubai. But obviously that fight
between him Manhattan was canceled when when Ricky passed, and
so now kel Brook is gonna fight him instead and
do it in February rather than December, and he's gonna
come out of retirement. Whether it's going to be for
the longer term, who knows. Kell Brook is thirty nine
years old. I was now he had got the forty.
He's forty one and three with twenty eight knockouts. I'm sure,
like I said, he, I'm sure he felt good coming
off to win against a mir khan. But if it's
a one and done and it's just as a reason
to honor his friend, where they're gonna do a big
you know, at this event, they're gonna do a tribute
to Ricky. Apparently they're gonna raise money to support his
newly created foundation that his family created in the wake
of his his passing. I guess that's not necessarily a
bad thing.
Speaker 2: All right, one more item you mentioned about Top Rank
not getting the purse bid for the Murthaia fight. They
still are trying to figure out if they can figure
out where they're gonna land with at least a consistent
broadcast partner. They they now will utilize their fast channel,
and you're gonna explain what that is for the Mikayla
mayor Mary Spencer fight, what if, what is the date
on this and then explain a little more about where
the fight will air.
Speaker 4: So, Michayla Mayor, who was the graining WBA Welterweight Women's champion,
was hoping to get a unification for undisputed against Lauren Price.
They could never get the fight together and so I
don't know, like a month ago whenever, it was announced
six weeks ago that she was going to go up
to junior middlew and she was going to challenge Mary
Spencer from mon Treal for her WBA Women's Jugger middleweight title.
The fighters was announced this like I said, it was
now in a while back. It's going to take place
in the Montreal because you know it's on October thirtieth,
so next weekend. But at that point, like the situation
has been with some of the events that Top Rank
has had fighters on, they didn't have a platform to
do it like they did the In a Way fight
on their own Facebook page for example. And so the
question I had had, and I'm sure I'm not the
only one, is if Mayor is going to be involved
in a world title fight, well, where's it going to
be in America? Remember this is actually an Eye of
the Tiger card. And when I had the Tiger would
do events while Top Rank was with ESPN, all of
their events would be streamed, uh with their own production,
but on ESPN Plus, so we had access to all
of their shows. This is one of those kinds of shows.
It just so happens that Michale is in the main
event against the Canadian champion. So Top Rank announced this
week that they're going to do it on their fast
channels fash channels, which I had to get an education
on because I'm not that knowledgeable about what that was.
I've heard of it, seen it a little bit, but
I wasn't really sure exactly what the story was. So
if you go on you have a smart TV and
you can access a variety of platforms to be Pluto, Roku,
different and there's all. There's also Visio I think is
another one or something like that. Top rank has on
the fast stands for free ads supported.
Speaker 3: Huh yeah, free, that's what.
Speaker 2: That's what these channels are free v to B the
Pluto but the fast the word the free channel. I
don't know what is right, but.
Speaker 4: The bottom line is on those platforms that you mentioned
to be and Pluto and the others, like lots of things.
Top Rank has what's called the Top Rank Classics. So
I checked this out the other day, Like I popped
on to to Pluto, which I signed up fore. It's free,
and they have a channel that like literally like twenty
four hours a day runs Top Rank Classics. So I
popped on it. I were showing them like I'm Miguel
Koto Fight. You might pop on some other time, you
might see like a Erberto Durand fight whatever. It's got
all kinds of access and material from the Top rank library.
So instead of showing on the thirtieth of October just
another random top rank classics, you know, instead of popping
on and seeing like Manny Paca against Timothy Bradley or whatever.
If you go on at the appointed time, they'll have
the live card, which will be Michaela against Spencer in
the main event. Plus they have the undercard fights that
feature some of the good prospects and up and coming
contenders that are with I the Tiger, And so it
may not be ideal, it may not be perfect, but
again it's free and if you have a smart TV
you can watch it, so you don't have to buy
a subscription. So I felt like that's that's a that's
a pretty good substitute even though they don't have their platform.
And so that's how you can watch the fight. So
they're they're they're making do as they scuffle along before
hopefully they figure out what the heck they're gonna do.
Speaker 2: All right, there you go with that. And again that's
coming next week. Just so we clarify, that's coming next
October day, right, Okay, thirtieth is it Thursday? Thursday is
the thirtieth and Halloween is Friday. Brother, get ready with
the candy, Get ready with the candy with the kids
in the neighborhood. That's coming next week.
Speaker 4: Well, I ask you a question, what's your what's your
Halloween candy choice?
Speaker 2: And the reason that's usually something we do next week
we got to something we brought up Halloween.
Speaker 4: My wife just bought some candy that will be the answer.
Speaker 2: Is assorted in my household because we have the little
bite size.
Speaker 3: Like Snickers, but you are chocolate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, chocolate based, Yeah, not necessarily you know, Skittles or
the Smarties or any of that.
Speaker 4: I think my wife's got. She got some that are
like kit Cat related and others that were sour Patch
kid related.
Speaker 2: What we have now learned is it is scaled back
some in our neighborhood and we're no longer buying like
the five pound bag.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, no, we don't need to buy that because.
Speaker 2: Then it's left over and I'm the only one that
eats candy in my house, so it.
Speaker 4: Goes to my wife's office. I think something, I don't.
Speaker 1: Take it to an office, so it's got to get
out of the house.
Speaker 4: We definitely bought a lot less this year because I
live on a cul de sac and we got to
throw the kids in our neighborhood and we do get
some kids. But last year, and because my son who's
still young enough, he was out uh trick or treating
with my wife and friends, I was on door duty
in the house and and you know, sometimes we would
get tons of kids. Last year, I mean we might
have gotten twenty five kids maybe at the most.
Speaker 1: Which is so you got the leftover.
Speaker 2: And then young Rayfield comes back with all of his candy,
but you're not gonna let him eat and you got
to either eat that or dispose of it, get rid
of it.
Speaker 3: So I said, some of it you got to keep.
Speaker 4: Some have a couple of pieces on the night, you know,
of Halloween, and and then a few things that that
we decided to keep, and then the rest of it
got shipped out to my wife's office.
Speaker 3: All right, these are the important things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these are the big things for Halloween. For next week,
we've got this Parker wordly fight again. It's Saturday afternoon
US time. Good luck getting the US audience to pay
attention if they can. Again, you can obviously see it
a later social media YouTube. All of that whenever you like,
you and I will come off the weekend and recap
whatever it happens. And again, a real risk for Joseph Parker,
as we've laid out over and over again, he could
sit tight and be the WBO champion potentially and or
get the shot with USAK. He'll risk it against Wardley.
Let's see if it pays off for him. It's a
big moment for Wardly two to jump his place in
the WBO lineage to maybe.
Speaker 1: Get a title shot. Let's see what happens there.
Speaker 2: Let's you and I recap it off the weekend and
get ready to head into the final week of October.
Speaker 1: Other than that, are we good?
Speaker 3: We are, sir.
Speaker 2: Thank you for finding us however you've done so, social media, link, etc.
Final Subscribe Apple, Spreaker, Spotify for Dan Rayphael. I am
merely TJ Reeves. This is the Big Fight Weekend Preview
Podcast