Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, DJ Leaves. Well, well, well,
we are ready for a huge not just an ordinary weekend,
a huge weekend of championship fights all over the globe.
And we are doing this live people on a Thursday
afternoon on YouTube. It is the Big Fight Weekend preview
on YouTube. Now, I should say for our podcast audience,
you're hearing it in the normal rundown Thursday night late
into Friday. But we went ahead and did this live
people on YouTube, so you gotta be engaged with us
on the YouTube channel for Big Fight Weekend. I'm merely
the somewhat capable host TJ. Reeves. We're here on video. Hello,
Big Dan, Rayphael who you see is not in his
normal office setup. No, no, the office this weekend is
Las Vegas, Nevada, for the return of Manny Pacquiao. Big Dan,
how are you always good? To be with you, but
especially good when you're well on location my office.
Speaker 2: It's sort of like I take the approach of like
Air Force one, wherever I.
Speaker 1: Am that that is the office. You're in the office, baby,
like uh like my man Denzel Washington and training day.
You kind of look like you have like the Asian
feel to the room, to the villa there with the whole.
I like this. I like the setup.
Speaker 2: In the background, there's like a little like I don't
know what you call that, like a separation, yes, between
where the bed is and then there's a little area
where there's.
Speaker 1: Exactly if you wanted a little privacy, if somebody else
was there. But it's just all right, so you are
right there on scene. Again. Thank you for finding us
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The preview is going to last all the way into
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Hit the bell, you geit, a notification, Hey, they're going live.
They're going live after Saturday night, after the Pacquiao fight
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go live for a little while here on the channel.
All right, So, as I mentioned you are there, you
have been there about twenty four hours or more in
Las Vegas as we do this live. What's the build
up like right now? As Manny Pacquiao is returning after
a four year layoff at forty six years of age.
You were around them at the press conference on Wednesday.
What's it been like?
Speaker 2: It was kind of like back to the future, I
felt like, because it's been four years since Manny has
had a fight DJ and it was almost like no
time had passed. You look up on the dais where
everybody was situated, and it's the band is back together.
There's Manny looking good. There's Freddie Roach, his trainer. There's
Blue Boy Fernandez also one of the trainers on Nanny's
long time right hand man, confident however you want to
describe him. And you know, good press turnout as as
is not a surprise, a lot of the YouTube guys not.
You know, it was pretty striking that out of Wednesday
there was a lack of what I would consider mainstream
media and those of us who spent a lot of
years in the mainstream media who aren't necessarily in mainstream
media anymore, like myself, you know, my boy Lance Bug Meyerta,
we were there, but they're what you would call mainstream media.
I didn't notice really anybody. Unfortunately, there are other than
the than my ring side colleagues that have made the
trip from the Philippines. They always go on for many
Paco so they were there in force. And look hotel
is you know, as many talked about on a few
occasions during his remarks his sixteenth fight at the MGM
Grand Garden Arena that will take place on Saturday. So
he is a very deep and long history with this property,
had some of his biggest performances as biggest nights of
his career in this building. And you know, I've covered
a million fights here, but it's cool to be back
for a pack out fight, even though I'm still not
quite sure how I feel about him coming out of
retirement at age forty six.
Speaker 1: And we'll get into that point here in a couple
of moments. I know what you're saying, because you know
it used to be and we're not being get off
our lawn guys here, but I mean it used to be.
ESPN would be there live throughout a big fight week,
including not just a heavyweight title but a Pacquiao and
Oscar de la Jolla, Floyd Mayweather. They would be live
back in the day when like CNN cared about sports
and they had CNN Sports Tonight with the late Fred
Hickman and the late Nick Charles. They would be their
live all the time. All the biggest newspapers would be there,
Like newspapers don't basically exist anymore except online. So I
can understand where it's kind of bizarre. It's not what
it was even ten years ago, much less fifteen or
twenty years ago.
Speaker 2: It doesn't necessarily make it worse. It's just not like
you said, it's so pigeonholed now. It's got such a
and it's not just boxing. A lot of sports and
some other events are similarly where there's a little more
focus and it's not as widespread. But with boxing it's
very pronounced. I mean, I remember the days of coming
to Vegas for these fights in that exact same room
downstairs and ab studio ballrooms where they have most of
the press conferences, and you walk in and you look
around and I would see the newspaper reports from all
over the country, the Boston papers and the multiple Boston papers,
multiple New York papers, multiple Philadelphia papers, Washington, DC, the
Associated Press, LA multiple LA Area papers, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore.
You know, I was there from USA Today. Later for ESPN,
they would have people there and I dare say I
didn't see a single one of them.
Speaker 3: Uh, it's crazy to fight, but hey, we're here, I'm here.
Speaker 1: I don't Yeah, that's exactly right, that's exactly that's exactly right.
All right. So you kind of mentioned this about the buzz.
I know it's only Thursday. What do you perceive and
do you perceive that Vegas and the turnout and uh,
the interest level will ramp up or is it too
early for you to perceive that on Thursday afternoon? For
Pakiah because he was the biggest of big deals for
a lot of these As you mentioned, what are you seeing?
What do you think?
Speaker 2: I mean, for every single fight of consequence does ramp
up as you get closer to the fight. There's only
been really a handful of fights I can think of
that you really felt like you're already in, like the
vor Attax on like a Tuesday or a Wednesday. That's
not this fight. I mean, it'll get its attention and
you know, there definitely would be some interest and there
definitely are fans around already. As one example, I went
to have dinner with my boy pug Meyer last night,
and you know, if we wanted like a regular table,
the restaurant it was going to be an hour wait.
Speaker 3: So there's people here, there's no doubt about that. Right.
Speaker 2: We took the high top, so I had to wait
like a few minutes. But even still, I'm just making
a point that, you know, a lot of people say
Vegas is dead and there's fewer tourists because of different
things related either to immigration issues or the economy or
whatever you want to talk about. From my perception of
just walking through the airport and coming into the hotel yesterday,
there's a lot of people here. I mean, it's you know,
it may not be as packed and crowded as maybe
that'd been at other times, but there's still quite a
bit of buzz and stuff going on here. And you know,
but this fight was never going to have that kind
of massive kind of crowd because back been out of sight,
out of mind. This is not you know, Canelo versus
Floyd or some big fight like that triple G against Canelo,
something that was you know, the masses had been dying
for for years. But man, he still has a fan
base and it's got a heck of an undercard, which
we'll talk about. There are a bunch of Australians here
who have come out for Tim Zoo. I noticed a
lot of accents and saw a lot of my Australian
colleagues in the media center also to chat with them
about it. So I'm happy to be here for this fight.
Speaker 1: Let's pick it up on that point before we get
to the undercard. The intrigue here is, and we don't
know Pacquiao has not been in the ring, and you
were there ringside for the last time he was in
the ring, which was August of twenty twenty one, and
he didn't look particularly good, didn't look particularly sharp. I'm
just gonna say, I'm gonna keep it real. He got
beat by a B level fighter that night. I believe
in ordinis ugas. Okay, So the big question is what's
gonna be different when you're four years older, you're forty six.
We've seen this with guys coming back after years and
years away from the ring at an advanced age. That
is the question right for this What what do we
what do we suspect we're going to see here? From
many pakiaw Nobody knows.
Speaker 3: Nobody knows.
Speaker 2: I mean, he can look good on a video where
they show him sparring or you know, kitting mits or
doing his roadwork up the mountain and in Los Angeles,
says he's getting ready and doing his training, but you
don't know how it's gonna be when the actual bell rings.
I mean, I'd go back and think of fights. You know,
when Manny Pacia fought Oscar de la Hoya as an example,
and everything was supposed to going great Oscars camp, and
they would show you a couple of clips and he
would do the interviews and everything sounded good and okay,
still Oscar still, you know, coming off a win, even
if it was a little shaky against Steve Forbes. You know,
he's a humongous favorite against a much smaller Manny Pacaw
who was coming up and wait to fight him. And
when they got in the ring, he got savage. You know,
he had nothing left. And so we have no idea
what the situation with Packyo. I know, and I've made
this point to a couple of people who asked me
about it yesterday. I forget exactly when it was, but
it was with him last year when Pacio had that
exhibition doubt against the kickboxer. Now his team will tell
you he didn't train two days for the fight, But
I still know what I saw. I saw an old, slow,
faded guy to get hit with everything by a guy
that wasn't even a boxer, had no timing, had no reflexes,
and was It's kind of sad to say, And it
was only a four round fight, but you know, you
I didn't need four rounds to see what I was
to understand what I was seeing. Now, I guarantee you,
Manny Pacio, clearly he's taking this a lot more seriously.
This is an actual fight. He's fighting for a major
world championship. He's back in a place where he has
immense amount of history and a relationship with Here at
this building and in this city, it's a totally different situation.
But his body doesn't necessarily know that. I mean, just
because he's in Las Vegas and he's fighting for a
world title, doesn't mean his legs are going to do
any better, or you know, his reflexes are going to
be any better. I suspect he trained a lot harder, obviously,
but we just don't know the answer. I mean, we
know he's done things unexpectedly in the past and done
things that he wasn't supposed to do, like the way
he destroyed a delay, and he is one of the
most legendary fighters of all time, and he's facing an
opponent in Mario Barrios, who's a good fighter. He's got
a world title, He's been in some excellent fights, but
Mario is not a poundful pound type of guy. Good
fighter and exciting, but he's not at the level of
you know, most of the opponents that Manny has faced
through the last like literally like twenty years.
Speaker 1: And I know you just interviewed him. We're plugging away.
He was in a life and death battle with Abel
Ramos back in November on the undercart of Jake Paul
Mike Tyson, in a fight where he got knocked down.
He even said to you in the interview that he
doesn't really remember a lot of the middle of the
fight because after the knockdown he was basically out concussed
while fighting. He doesn't really he had to go back
and watch on video because he doesn't remember that. That
ain't good and so now you don't know what you're
getting with him, is my point too. In this in
this fight with Baro, we're getting.
Speaker 2: We're getting a much fresher guy than Pacio, and you
know he true knocked down against Ramos in that fight.
Speaker 3: But that's the point.
Speaker 2: Though, he's a much younger guy by six teen years.
He's a much taller fighter, he's a much longer fighter.
He's been more active, and you know, we don't have
to you know, beat the dead horse about father time
is on the feet.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: But it's a fact, you know, that's just the reality.
So I have used the analogy and we've seen this
with other examples of an Oscar E.
Speaker 3: Temple.
Speaker 2: Let just use you want to go way back to
when Muhammad Ali fought Larry Holmes, and you know, he
had done a good job of getting down to the
you know, getting his weight down and his body looked
pretty good and all the things that went into that
that fight, and we saw what happen.
Speaker 3: There were homes savaged him and the older.
Speaker 1: Fing Alli Ali that night had nothing at thirty eight
years of age. We've referenced that over and over again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and man, he's now forty six. So the point
I'm making though is it's like if you have a
beautiful car and you give it a great paint job,
and you spit it up with a nice wax job
and you tint the windows, they look all pretty. You know,
you get those rims looking all sweet, and then you
take it out for the driving you realize there's nothing
under the hood. That's what maybe the case. We don't know,
but maybe Manny has looked good in camp. He looks
sharp for a round or two, hit in the midst
or whatever. They'll limited amount that we were able to see.
You talk to me, he sounds confident. He didn't seem
unoffended that he was the underdog. You know, he understands why.
But it wouldn't be a shock if you know, we
took the car out for a spin and you know,
you got nothing left sign and then there's a clunk
and there's no nothing left under the hood. And that's
what we're here to find out.
Speaker 1: All right, very good. We're gonna get into the undercar
in a couple of moments, a lot of live audiences
joining us as we go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if he does win, I mean it's a monumental victory.
Speaker 1: He's gonna war a lot.
Speaker 2: He's going to be the second oldest fighter in boxing
history to win a world title. He'll file a couple
of years shy of what Bernard Hopkins did the second
time he won a light heavyweight title in his when
he was aged forty eight, breaking the forty six record.
He'll also become he'll break his own record as the
oldest welterweight world champion. He did that at age forty
against man Keith Thurman. He'll be obviously much older than
in this particular case, and you know he'll add yet.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you one to think about. Does he
become the fir Hall of Famer to ever win a
world title after going into the Hall of Fame. Yeah,
he won't just win into the Hall of Fame and
he has a chance to win a world title.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he won't be the first fighter to come back
after being elected to the Hall of Fame to have
a fight. There's been a handful of those guys, But
as you said, he will be the first one to.
Speaker 3: Come back and win a world title. Advance the guys
who otherwise did it.
Speaker 2: Guys like Sugar Ray Leonard and Alexis Argueo and Virgil
Hill and the great Zoom and Nelson and Jeff Fennick
who fought each other. All of them came back posts
being inducted into the Hall of Fame, but they weren't
fighting in world championship flights.
Speaker 1: Yep, and many just went in in June to the
International Boxing Hall of Fame. All right, we'll get into
the undercard a couple of moments. For all the live audience,
thank you for finding us. We're doing this live on
YouTube Thursday afternoon. Again for the pod audience, it was
the same for you. This is the preview with Dan
out in Las Vegas. We need to say to the
video audience that we are brought to you in part
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you can watch this fight with no long term subscription
necessary on PPV dot com. Catch the return of forty
six year old Manny pakiaw on Saturday night through PPV
dot Com. They've got the outstanding four K video. They've
got interactive stuff going on all throughout the fight card.
We're about to talk about the undercard, the co feature
and the undercard. You see there Sebastian fund Bandura and
Tim Zoo in a rematch, Pitbull Cruise and Angel Fierro
in a rematch. All that on the undercard again long
no Dan, no six month subscription, no year long subscription,
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Here is part of this all right. So I mentioned
Fundora and Tim Zu do have their rematch of a
fight what March of a year ago where Zoo got
dashed badly on the forehead accidentally by Fondora's elbow and
then bled Dan and bled and bled and it was
gruesome and eventually he lost a decision to Fundora. And
I'm just gonna I'm gonna say he's kind of been
in a funk since then. He got he got later
knocked out last October uh in a in a bout
with Bakram martaz Eliev in Orlando. He's come back and
had one fight since then to kind of re establish himself. Fundora, meanwhile,
has had one title defense and an impressive knockout. Now
they meet again here in a rematch for the junior
middleweight world title. All right, So you were around these
guys on Wednesday at the press conference, et cetera. Give
me a little more on the towering inferno. So Fondora
six feet plus as a junior middleweight fighting Tim Zoo.
Speaker 2: Well, actually, just for the record, was not around them
because yesterday it was the press conference for.
Speaker 3: The main event.
Speaker 1: All right, But.
Speaker 2: In any event, the first fight was terrific. But that
was basically because of what you mentioned about the injury
and the gash that happened. Because in the first couple
of rounds, I know, there was still a long way
to go potentially, but I felt like Zoo had totally
dominated and was, you know, hurt in Fondora and maybe
getting ready to stop him in the early rounds. But
then what happened happened with the with the gash on
his head, and Fondora was a little bit touched up
also because he had a jared nose that bled pretty
badly as well. So by the time they got to
round twelve, these guys are literally covered in blood.
Speaker 3: It looked like a murder scene, like a horror horror movie.
Speaker 2: And as Tim has talked about, like basically from like
rounds three to ten, you know, the blood was so
bothersome that he was sort of out of his game.
He was able to get it together a little bit
in the last couple of rounds, but in the end,
you know, he did lose a split decision cost him
not only his world title, but they were also fighting
for what was at the time the and WBC belt, remember,
was supposed to be Fondora. In an interim fight on
the undercard, Thurmann got injured and was out of the
fight ten days or so noticed, and so Fondora and
Zoo agreed to fight each other to save the show,
and both titles became on the line, and it was
one of the most memorable fights of all of the year.
And it was definitely the bloodiest glorious fight I have
seen in maybe maybe my whole career, to be quite
honest with you, I mean, it was just that bad. Anyway,
So they move on to other things, and as you mentioned,
Fandora for reasons that I'm still not totally clear about,
because he said to me when we did a zoom
call for our hour interview before he came back and
fought the the Cordel Booker fight that was not that
long ago. In his first fight in one year. He
said his nose wasn't really that bad. It was like,
you know, it needed like a week or two to
heel up, and he was fine. He just took some
time off his prerogative. I guess he came back. He
looked fine, knocking out Cordel Booker, and at that point
you're thinking, okay, he's gonna fight his mandatory in the WBO,
which is Andrewsias, who was ringside. They took pictures there
after the fight. They talked about fighting each other. The
two sides were negotiating between PBC, Samson, Lukewitz in top
rank and all right, so that'd be a fine fight.
And then suddenly none, no, we're not doing that fight.
We're taking a rematch with him Zoo, who even though
the fight had been you know, a year earlier, apparently
had a rematch, right even though it allowed Fundor to
take the interim about which he did. In the meantime,
you know that Tim had fought twice. He had the
horrible knockout loss to Bockram where he just got bounced
off the campus.
Speaker 1: I was there. I was there. It was shocking.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And then he had to win over Joey Spencer,
which was supposed to theoretically set him up to reput
together the fight with Keith Thurman that didn't end up happening.
Speaker 3: So here we are back at the FANDORFA.
Speaker 2: Now I'm not complaining because that headline of pay per
view the last time out, Now it's the co feature,
so you're getting a little more bang for your buck.
I guess should be another great fight. Both guys have
been talking about in the build up. It's gonna be
another war. Tim's talking about I need it's like round thirteen.
I need to, you know, get my revenge. I need
to rewrite history because of what happened in first fight.
You know, Fandora is a very confident fighter. Also, I
mean this is a fight, to be quite honest, I mean,
as much as I'm intrigued by what's gonna happen with
Pacya and Barrios for of our variety of different reasons,
just from this year, like action perspective, and just like
what happened the first time, this is probably the fight
on the cart I'm personally most interested to watch. I
think it's gonna be another dynamite fight, and it's gonna
really say a lot because if if Fandora wins, that's
another huge win for him, and you know, we'll see
what goes on with him in the future. But he
can leave Tim Zoo behind and there's plenty of major
fights he can make in the weight class, and a Zoo,
you know, it gets to get back, you know, you
can maybe put everything up behind him a little bit
what happened, even with the backroom fight, and he'll be
back on top of the division. Certainly, there will be
the biggest name in the division, and he can go
on and have some other big fights too, because that
is a very significant weight class right now with a
ton of talent in there.
Speaker 3: So I'm pumped up for that rematch.
Speaker 1: And I was just going right there, is it logical
that whoever wins this, that Thurman is the guy waiting
in the wings because Thurman won a fight in Australia
and was waiting to fight zo Do. Certainly, if Zoo
wins the rematch, that seems logical. Uh. Then again, logic
and boxing don't always go together. But is it is
it fair to say that Thurman might be in the
mix for whoever wins this on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: I do think that's a good possibility. Uh.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen him around, but I'm told to Thurman's
gonna be out here for the fight.
Speaker 3: Makes sense. Yeah, he wanted to fight.
Speaker 2: He wanted to fight, uh Tim, That's the reason why
he went and fought in Australia in the first place,
to help set that up. It didn't happen. I don't
think Keith's looking to avoid putting that back together, certainly.
I don't think he would have any issue whatsoever fighting
against Fondora. Look, Keith is at the end of his
career in terms of like how long he has left
at his age, all that thing. He's had injuries, but
he's healthy now coming out of the last fight. You know,
he'd like to put a few more dollars in the bank.
You know, he needs he needs the money to be
quite frank, and those would be lucrative bouts, they'd be
winnable bouts and uh be a chance for him. Mean
you know, Keith, Keith in some ways is a little underrated.
He had a really great run at welter. He beat
a lot of top guys. But he didn't give Eryl
Spencer fight and he never did fight on a regular
basis the last.
Speaker 1: But it goes back to him losing the Manny Paciol
derailed his career. He lost to Pacio, that he got injured,
he didn't fight very much. He's just been out of side,
out of mind. And that's one of my guys. That's
clear Water. That Surlana's Keith Thurman, but Pakil sent him
into that.
Speaker 2: That was not his first time having an injury that
cost him a lot of time. But if he wants
to make the most of the last couple of years
of his career, fighting the winner of this fight would
be a perfect situation. And frankly, if you are a
fundor or zoo and you come out as the winner,
he's a guy with an excellent name who you can
make in a big event against, particularly if you can't
get a fight, Like I mean, Crawford has left the
division after one fight, so that's out the window for
the time being. If he comes back, I guess maybe
after Canelo, which is I guess a possibility. But I'm
just saying like that's that's a very reasonable fight. It's
a makeable fight there all with PBC, it fits their
profile of a fight that they can easily put on
as a pay per view.
Speaker 3: So we'll see.
Speaker 2: But let's get one thing done at a time, which
is to see these guys do it in the second fight.
Speaker 1: I love Big Dan live in Vegas. Let's go over
the rest of the undercard real quick, and I promise
we're getting to Alexander Usik and Daniel du Boise rematch
in London, undisputed heavyweight title fight. I fully understand that
the Brits are going why why are we talking about
this fight card and not the undisputed heavyweight title fight.
We're in the United States. Dan is in Vegas. We're
doing that first, but we will give the unisputed heavyweight
title fight. It's due here in a few minutes on
the show.
Speaker 3: And the undercard for this fight is outstanding. And the
undercard for the.
Speaker 1: Isag The BRIT's called it rubbish, garbage, All right, quickly
the undercard what intrigues you? I mentioned Pitt Bull Fierro,
which was a good fight the first time around. Is
a rematch also on this undercard. Go down the undercard
real quick.
Speaker 2: Well, Fierro and pitt Bull is a fantastic remaster. First
fight in February, which was on the undercard of David
Morrell and Benavidius, which I was fortunate to also be at,
was outstanding. It's certainly, in my mind of one of
the top you know, two or three or four fights
so far this year in terms of if you're making
your Fight of the Year list candidates. They just went
in there like the ultimate Mexican warriors and threw down
to the highest order and just battle the tooth and
nail the entire fight and basically delivered the all action
type of fight that a lot of the fans expected.
They're talking the same way that they're gonna, you know,
come to the ring for this fight. I have no
doubt in my mind it will be another fun fight.
I'm not sure it necessarily can live up to the
first fight. You know, we'll see, but it has every
ear mark of being another outstanding fight. I think one
of the things that really had them, you know, geared
up for what they did the first time around is
a great remember right before they did the fight, they
had made it like the WBC had created their trophy
not out for a world title, but a trophy belt
called that the ASTAC Warrior Belt, I guess, and they
and they you know, it's a very it look I
saw it like beforehand, a beautiful belt that they produced.
They always make great belts, and they had Israel Vasquez's
family at ringside. Israel a great Mexican Warrior world champion,
been in some awesome fights through his career, particularly the
Rafael Marquez fights, but he had passed away, you know,
in the in the recent weeks prior to this event,
or a couple of months before the event, so they
were honoring him and his family was there. They presented
the family with the belt, and you know, and Fierro
and Pitbull know, you know what's going on. And so
they went out there and delivered. I think they were
kind of jacked up because of all the attention paid
to the family and the memory of Azquez, and they
were like, we want to do it for our guy,
and they went out there and they did that. Now
that's not necessarily the case for this fight as far
as the family being there, but this is a rematch
and it's another important fight for their careers because even
though it's not like an official eliminator, let's say, certainly
the guy that wins is going to be in a
great position to challenge for another Fierro's never had a
world title fight in my recollection. And for Pitbull, you know,
a chance maybe to get back in the ring in
a world championship, but he did lose his one hundred
and forty pound title last year and I know he'd
like to win another one, and this is a great
avnue to get there, so that that's a great matchup.
And then the other pay perview fight. As far as
what opens the card, you got a featherweight fight. It
was upgraded to a title eliminator between Brandon between Brandon
figure Out and Joet Gonzalez. Figure Out has been a
champion in two different weight classes. Joey Gonzalez has had
world title fights three separate times. He's clearly the underdog,
but he's usually in good fights, and you know, I
don't think this is like an unwinnable fight for him.
Figure Out didn't look great his last fight. Joette pulled
off a mild upset in his previous fight. So we'll
see if they can, you know, bring some magic to
the ring, and then there's a series of fights there
are three bats that will take place. You don't buy
the pay per view, it's still part of the free
preliminaries that are on Prime Video. And you got some
good names there and there's some important stuff here. So
number one got Gary Russell, former longtime featherweight champion who
hasn't fought for three and a half years, who was
off basically as he said, I was taking care of
my family. Remember their dad had died. He was raising
his own family. He's been training his brothers who are
also professional boxers, including Gary Antoine Russell, who was now
one of the title holders at one hundred and forty pounds.
So he decided I'm coming back. He liked to get
revenge against Mark Megsiah who cost him his title. He
was talking about having a big rivalry regional fight because
they're all from the DC area, him, Tank Davis, Yeah,
and Lamont Roach, so any of those would be fun
to watch. I actually I was with team Russell when
I flew out here on Wednesday morning from Washington, DC.
You know, I live in that area, so it is
Gary and his family, but we were all on the
same flight together and Gary I was sitting in my
seat already and Gary was getting on the plane and
there was like a little bit of a pulled up
of the folks getting to their seats, and so he
kind of looked at me and we were like, yeah,
we recognize each other, Like hey, what's up, bro? And
it was funny because I had just written it down
his fight in my notebook and I was on my
cell phone. I popped up like, Hey, Gary, I just
wrote it.
Speaker 1: I'm disappointed you didn't get the selfie with him in
the isleway on the plane before the stewardesses were bothering
both of you. Go get in your seat, mister Russell.
Speaker 2: But but Gary, Gary was there. He was with his brother,
Gary Antone, who was a world champion. Was there a
couple other folks on their team.
Speaker 1: So, but truthfully, can I energect? Do we know what
we're getting here from Gary Russell Jr. I mean, he's
been off for a while. Again, it's the same pach question.
Speaker 2: It's a lot different than PACKI number one. He's thirty seven,
not forty six. Number two. Although not the most active
fighter in the world, and it was never active when
he was a champion. He literally fought once per year
during a five year title reign. But Gary never really
took punishment as a fighter. Gary, I suspect from a
damaged perspective. He's always been a very outstanding defensive fighter,
very very fast doesn't doesn't to my knowledge and everything
I've known about the family, they don't cut corners when
they train. So I'm not saying we're gonna see the
the Gary Russell of a prospect of the year type
Gary Russell.
Speaker 3: And I've said this before.
Speaker 2: And I covered Floyd, and I covered Roy Jones, and
I've covered a lot of greats fighters who were very
very fast. To me, Gary Russell is the fastest fighter
I ever saw in my own eyes. Interesting, So he's
immenseally talented. And we'll say I mean, at thirty seven,
I feel like he did waste a lot of good years.
But if he can come back and score a couple
of wins, he can be back in it. But you
got to make the commitment to be a little bit
more active. So he's on one of those fights. Magsio
who beat him for the title back before this three
and a half year sabbatical, he's on the card now.
He's fighting at one hundred and thirty. Gary is moving
up to one hundred and thirty five, but he would
like to have a rematch with Magxio to avenge that.
I don't know how realistic that would be if there's
no title, but it's still something that could be there.
And then also on this card, and it's maybe not
the highest profile fight, but you've got Alan David Picasso,
the one hundred and twenty two pounds contender. He's fighting
one of the Kmita cousins from Japan in a ten
round round. This undercard, but very critical for him because
if he wins this fight, he's going to be no
Ya in a way's opponent to challenge for the undisputed
title in December in Saudi Arabia. In a way has
already won his interim bat which was the Cardenas fight
that was back in May. He has his fight coming
up in September that he has to win also against
mj Akmadaliev. But now before any of that, this guy's
got to win this fight.
Speaker 3: I mean in a way.
Speaker 2: Well, if in a way wins September and Pacasto loses,
they'll get a new opponent for anyway.
Speaker 3: But Pasto got to win this fight. Ten Ted huge.
Speaker 1: Make sure his place is that huge moment for him,
because that's a golden ticket for that December fight. Obviously,
you're right, No, he's.
Speaker 2: A he's an exciting fighter. Picasto. I've seen him fight,
you know, a bunch of times. He's kind of fluctuated
a little bit between one twenty two and one twenty six.
But he's a good fighter, and you know, I'm not
sure what he's going to be able to do with
within a way, but right now it's about getting the
opportunity for.
Speaker 1: All right, you did a great job of previewing all
of that. Again, if you're finding us live, and a
lot of people are finding us live, we are here
on YouTube on Thursday afternoon as we do this live
with Dan in Las Vegas on the Big Fight Weekend
YouTube channel. We remind you that after the fights are
all over with on Saturday night, at some point, whenever
Big Dan can find a moment and the Wi Fi
et cetera, we will be live. Dan will be with
us for a few minutes. My buddy Ricky Carroll, who
is the managing site editor a Big Fight Weekend dot Com,
will be a board to talk about the USIK Dubois fight,
whatever happens, because I know that's gonna be a challenge
for you to watch whatever happens with that. While the
the fight cards going on in the arena at the
MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Well, obviously pay attention to that.
We'll have a recap for a little while on Saturday night,
late night, Saturday night on this YouTube page. So podcast audience,
if you're listening to us, only find us on YouTube
Saturday night if you want the live post fight immediate reaction,
not the full reaction from Dan because Dan's gonna be
busy going every which direction. But stay tuned. That'll be
coming live. We'll get to Usk and Dubois in a
couple of moments. But the commenters are off the chain
right now. Let me go back and see how this
uh let's see wait a minute, So Nando wants to
know that your room. He says, your room looks like
the guiding light with soft lighting, like the like the
soap opera. I'm not sure what that's all about, the way, Okay,
go ahead, come.
Speaker 3: To Vegas for fight.
Speaker 2: It's well over like one hundred and thirty or forty
times or something like that.
Speaker 3: Over by time of doing it.
Speaker 2: Most of those fights have been at the MGM, where
I've stayed either Team Over or MGM.
Speaker 3: So I always stay at the MGM. GRD. I've stayed there.
More than one year of my life has been in
the MGM. GRED like I.
Speaker 2: JOC they should have my name on it because I'm
there all the time. Ridiculous for this particular fight. The
Grand Tower, which is the main tower in the MGM,
is under a renovation right now, so there's a lot
of their down, like a million rooms that are not available.
So the press media block is not at this hotel
at the Park MGM, like my man Mauricio is Sulaman
and a lot of the other dignitaries and officials, et cetera.
Some of the undercards or whatever, they're staying at the
Mandol a day and the Luxtore people are like all
over the place. So I was like, I'm not going
to stay at the Park MGM. I don't like that hotel.
The rate was more expensive than I wanted to pay,
certainly more than what I end up getting where I am,
so at the MGM. There's another hotel that I know
about but have never really been in it's kind of
to the side called the signature. One of my buddies
was like, you should check the signature. I'm like, that's
a good idea. So I did. I got a use
my Triple A card, got a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Listen to Rayfield going in as the veteran traveler. I
love this. Get the discounts, do it?
Speaker 2: They have an affiliation with Marriott. I have a Marriott card,
so I booked through Marriott. Got a little bit more
of a discount. Use the Triple A card. Brought in
my number for less than I would have. I've stayed
at the other place. I'm on property still much closer
to like the Grand Garden Arena and the Media Center.
And I have to say, I got a pretty nice
fucking room.
Speaker 3: I got us. You know, they're all sleeps in this hotel.
It's nice.
Speaker 1: I can't complain, all right, Uh complaining, Yeah, you do
complain from time to time. All right, So wait a minute,
I'm gonna get a couple more comments, uh in here
from different people. I'm having to look through all of
it because a lot of the same people are commenting.
Louis says, what's up, Dan, It's an honor I think
a lot of them are watching us in England, by
the way, and are curious about all of this. Somebody
was complimenting you, Sly says you have the most realistic
approach in picking fights, no emotional fanboy attached. Thank you, Sly.
We're buttering up Rayfield. It's early on a Thursday. We're
buttering up Rayfield. My buddy David Payne, the boxing writer,
is in here. He says, it will say much about
the meaning of these titles that Paqiow pulls this off
four years retire, age forty six, absolutely knackered when he
last knackered the British word when he last fought. You
touched on this a few minutes ago, though, Paqui how
picks the spot here against a fighter that is not
a pound for pound fighter. He has one of the titles.
This is not fighting Jeron Ennis. This is not much
less fighting Terrence Crawford, who was the welterweight champion. No
disrespect to Barrios having the title, but he's not an
all time guy. That's kind of what David means here.
Speaker 2: Go Ahead does have the title, but and I'm not
exactly sure of the definition of knackered but I think
it means really very well.
Speaker 3: So if that's the case.
Speaker 2: When he lost the fight to Ugas in their fight,
which was right before Manny retired, yeah he lost on points,
but it was not like a terrible performance. It was
a close, competitive fight and he lost by you know,
a couple of points. I mean, it wasn't like he
got blown away. He didn't get knocked out. And and
Ugas at his absolute best was maybe not an A fighter,
probably like a B plus.
Speaker 3: Maybe slightly.
Speaker 1: He was really good that night. He understood jab straight,
right hand, behind it, stay away from Pacquiao, win the fight,
and he executed.
Speaker 2: So again it's not like he got savage and he
was sent into retirement. The reality is off that loss.
There's zero question in my mind that many would have
continued to fight. The retirement was really based on his
political aspirations. He felt like, I can't be an active
boxer while also trying to run for the president of
the Philippines. So he retired for those reasons. The expectation,
and they talked about this even before the Hugus fight.
If the time came where he lost or he retired
and he ran, and he was going to run for president.
He was going to have to retire, but if he
lost the election, he would come back. He did lose
the election, they went to try to make a fight
with Connor Ben with Turkey Holscheek last year. It didn't
end up happening. There was lots of other fights that
were sort of thrown around. He then ran for another
term in the Senate here he served a previous term
in the Senate. He didn't win that election either, And
when that happened, obviously the writing was on the while he's
coming back. It just so happened. Barrios had a belt.
It wasn't like they went to cherry pick him. They
wanted to fight anybody that had a title. He had
the belt of the WBC, which is an organization many
has held titles in for many many years throughout his career.
Most of his world titles have been WBC titles, and
they're all but TBC, so it was relatively easy to make. So,
you know, some people look at it a lot more
nefarious in the way that he made the comeback. I
don't look at it like that. He was always looking
to come back and this made a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: And maybe it's going to be a joke Saturday. You
said that at the beginning. I've said it all along.
Maybe it is going to be a joke. We're going
to all right, real quick, a couple more comments. What
is this? JEXDD sixteen seventeen says Big Fight Weekly pod
as reliable as a Swiss clock. Appreciate the commitment. We
appreciate you for finding us here on the show or
on the podcast, anything else of relevance not at the moment.
Keep the comments coming if you would like. All right,
let's get to Alexander Usik Daniel Dubois the sequel. This
is in London Wimbley Stadium, Saturday afternoon US time, Saturday night,
obviously in the UK. Your initial thoughts here. The first
goal around is an Usik tko win. No knockout win,
now knockout win, righty? He stayed on one. He stayed
on one knee for the ten count right after the
shot to the eye, which which I still maintain that's
the fractured I from before, and I'm not so sure
it didn't get reinjured that night as well. Nonetheless, Usik
has been different since then, has a crude the IBF title,
has knocked out Anthony Joshuall, what are your thoughts here
on this undisputed title fight? Usik three of the belts,
Dubois one of the titles, What are your thoughts on
the rematch here in London?
Speaker 3: Well, I look back.
Speaker 2: At the first fight and it was a complete demolition job.
Dangle Dubas was not competitive. Dangle Dubas complained about a
phantom low blow and Daniel Debac quit from a jab.
Speaker 3: On his name.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of negativity associated with that, so if
you want to be a real dick about it, that's
what you could say. But and there you have to
also give credit where it is due. So he came
off of that horrendous performance. It was a low blow
according to me, to many others, and most importantly to
the referee. So that was that, And he still had
after that incident occurred. If he really thought he hadn't
hurt from a legal punch, he certainly could have tried
to make hay with that. Because it was only round
five when that happened, there was still more than half
of the fight left, and he couldn't do anything with
Alexander Usik, who ended up knocking him out. Alexander Usik
is a future Hall of Famer and all time great fighter,
undisputed cruiserweight champion, undisputed heavyweight champion, Olympic gold medalists. There's
nothing he has not done. He is undefeated and he
rightly is the favorite in this rematch. However, there's if
you're a du Bois believer, he's done it the right
way to come back, because he didn't just come off
that terrible loss to Ustik in the first fight and
go and take a couple of, you know, soft touches
and score a couple of early KOs and pronounce himself,
I'm ready to be back, you know, in the big fight. No,
he went out, he earned the shot, so you can't
be upset that he's getting another opportunity despite the one
sided nature of that fight. Like you said, he's one fights.
He's looked good. He knocked out Jerreal Miller who was undefeated,
good Win, he stopped on a series of terrible cuts
in a terrific fight against Philip Perginvich who was undefeated,
and that was to give him the interim belt. And
then after that he made he was elevated. He made
his first defense in spectacular fashion as again the underdog
against the big favorite Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium and TJ.
He didn't just win, and he didn't just score a knockout.
He scored devastating knockdown after knockdown after knockdown and finally
put him out with what was a candidate for the
Knockout of the Year.
Speaker 1: And truthfully, truthfully, Alexander Usik fought Anthony Joshua for twenty
four rounds and never hurt him and knocked him down
or knocked him out. Well him, but he didn't knock
him down and knock him out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is correct. So he performed better in the
in the Joshua head to head comparison that Husak had.
Now it is for the undisputed title, but I kind
of laugh at the whole nonsense of that, because the
reality is Alexander Usik fought Tyson Fury. He had three belts.
Tyson Fury was the lineal champion, had the WBC title,
and Usik beat him in the in the twenty twenty
four Fight of the Year, Fantastic Fight, Historic Fight, became
the undisputed champ and when they fought the rematch, because
he was obligated to do the rematch.
Speaker 3: The IBF did.
Speaker 2: What it did, which is IBF things as I always discussed,
and he was forced to vacate the title, so Usik
no longer had that belt, and you have Dwawad gotten
the interim belt, which that was the IBF breaking their
rules to allow that interim title fight to happen. I
don't need to go over the chapter and verse of
the minutia. We could do a whole show about that.
But he got the inner belt, and then because of
the contractual situation, he was elevated when Busik was forced
to vacate. So really Oustik is just trying to go
back to get a belt that he really was never
right that they didn't rightfully be stripped of. He didn't
lose it in the ring, so it's like a technicality.
But yeah, whoever wins his fights on dispute because they're
gonna have all the belts and they're gonna be millennial champion.
But Ustik is you know, he didn't somehow Mara actually
get this IBF by beating the guy that had it,
which was Oustik. As a matter of fact, that my
memory is correct, was it one of those fights on
their undercard or in close proximity to the fight, whatever.
Speaker 1: I do know that it may have been. The Jirell
Miller fight was on the undercard of the first of
the first Usik Fury I think. But nonetheless, at the
bottom line is how much bigger of a threat do
you consider Dubois this time around? Do you consider him
a significant threat to Usik this goal around?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? I do, because he is still a younger fighter.
He's only twenty seven years old. He has a tremendous
amount of confidence. I'm looking here. He was not on
those undercards. He's a tremendous amount of confidence. And besides
what he's done with those three big wins that I
just mentioned between Miller and Bergovic and of course Anthony Joshua.
Even though Alexander Usik is a phenomenal fighter, like a literal,
legit all time type of great fighter, the fights he's
had since.
Speaker 3: Duba are two brutal, hard, tough.
Speaker 2: Very very hard fights against Tyson Fury, particularly the first fight,
and that takes something out of you. And he's also
thirty eight years old. He's also had a long career,
not necessarily in terms of the number of profiles, but
you combine those fights, and he fought everybody. He had
some tough battles. He also had a zillion amateur fights
and a very long amateur career. My point is he's
not young in his career. So while he's still outstanding,
I think you can fairly say by watching those theory fights,
there's some degree of slippage. He's not down the mound yet,
and but he's still he's not at his absolute apex.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And you you.
Speaker 2: Know, once the once the gap, You know, when you're
at that elite level, when the gap closes just a
little bit, it brings the other guy closer to you,
and so that gives him a better chance. So while
I still view Alexander Russik as the clear favorite in
his fight, the combination of the confidence, the punching power, uh,
the fact they've already had the rounds with each other together,
so they've both been able to learn more about the
other guy, I do think that gives Daniel Jubbah a
little bit more of a of a chance.
Speaker 1: The other and the other thing and the other thing
that we'll get into a little more. Will will preview
these fights and handicap him further on the bet US
Boxing show on their Platford form on Friday. Is the
fight is at Wembley Stadium, and so it's the first
time for Usik since he fought Anthony Joshua back in
what twenty twenty one at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It's the
first time that Usik has had to fight kind of
in the other guy's backyard, in Duba's backyard. Will that
be a factor?
Speaker 3: Whoa, whoa? You totally lost there.
Speaker 2: Alexander Rusik has spent his entire championship career fighting in
everybody's backyard.
Speaker 1: Well, correct, correct, But the last three fights correct have
been two with Fury in Saudi Arabia, neutral field kind of,
and then he fought in Poland when he fought Dubois
and knocked him out. He's got to be on the road.
Will Will du Wabi inspired by the Wembley crowd?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm sure he'll be inspired by the Wembley crowd.
But how how Usak takes it.
Speaker 3: Is like he is.
Speaker 1: Don't think it's a factory.
Speaker 3: I mean he's the fucking road. Worry.
Speaker 2: The guy fought every championship fight he had. He had
one or two that were on neutral territory. Like when
he fought you know, uh to be Somchunu in Los Angeles,
South Africa against you Aida in Los Angeles. But his
other fights, you know, he fought Michael.
Speaker 1: Only my man Rayfield could come up with that name.
I don't even know that name. And is that a
real name? The guy that you just listed that. I
was all right, what's the name again? Only you could
come up with that name.
Speaker 2: On the night that on the night that Joe Smith
retired Bernard Hopkins, the co feature of that show was
Alexandrusik defending his cruiserweight belt against Matuna was from South Africa.
So but besides that fight, if you take a look
at the title fights, he thought Myris Braids. Then in
the cruiserweight division, he fought Bradis and Latvia. He fought
the unification for undisputed against Gassia in Russia, which was
Gassia's home country. He fought mark O Hook, a German
fighter in Germany. He fought Michael Hunter, an American in America,
I mean point Is, and he fought Anthony Joshua Plice
in one you know, in in London, I mean.
Speaker 1: He fought him once in London and one in once
in Saudi Arabia, he thought.
Speaker 2: Josh also thought it wasn't a title fight, but he
fought Derek Tsare in England.
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 2: The would be anyway a nerve freaked out or anything
by fighting the other guy's hometown.
Speaker 1: To me is not more as how much does it
inspire Dubois. We'll find out and there's only so much
the crowd can do for you.
Speaker 2: And the only time he's ever had since pre championship,
because he did fight a few early fights in Ukraine
before the war and everything when he fought to Whah.
The reason they fought in Poland is because it's so
close to the Ukrainian border borders of the country, and
it's got millions of Ukrainians, some who are there because
they've been there for a long long time, and obviously
many who were displaced because of the war and were
refugees that were living there. So it was the closest
place they could have a fight that would give him
at least some type of home type of flavor.
Speaker 1: Again, will handicap fights on the US platforms. One Eastern
time Dan rayfaeld ten Am in Las Vegas, get that
time zone correct. There for that out issues today. He's good,
all right? And then there wait, there's more. There is
the Jesse Bam Rodriguez Junior bantamweight unified title fight with Kafu,
the South African. This is Frisco, Texas, Saturday night in
the match room, de own main event. All right, gim
me you talked to Bam Rodriguez and the lead up
to this fight. Again, the fans can watch Manny Pacquiao,
Mario Barrios, Daniel Dubois and Jesse Rodriguez. My man Rayfield
has been killing it with the interview too much. All
four of those interviews are live to tape on this
YouTube channel. Go back and relive them. You talk to
Bam in the last couple of weeks about this matchup
with Kafu and what's on the table for him unified
Junior banham Way title fight. Give me a little more
in the preview mode here.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, in terms of the schedule, I mean,
the powers that be in this sport are just terrible
because for them to take these three sort of marquee
type events and put them on the same day. This
ain't basketball or football, where you know, if a typical
NFL Sunday. There's a lot of great games that is
just it is just ridiculous. I mean, and especially with
the band fight and the Usk and Duwari because they're
both on the same platform, and I grant that they're
not going to overlap with each other to some degree,
but they shouldn't be on the same day, particularly when
you also have Manny Pacyo, so you know, a pox
on everybody's house that puts these fights on. I love that,
you know, particularly when there's not that much going on
next week and it's just like.
Speaker 1: In the following week, so.
Speaker 2: Like there's other times, but whatever, but the fight itself. Look,
Bam has been a tremendous fighter. He's one of the
top pound for pound fighters in boxing. He had been
a champion in the junior bannamweight division. He vacated his titles,
he moved down in wait he became a unified title
holder in the flyweight division and then said okay, I'm
good and I'm moving back up and he came back
to that weight class and he did the job on
Wan franciscuas Strada, future Hall of Famer, knocked him out. Looks,
you know, it was a terrific fight, got that victory
and then made a mandatory defense and know two great
knockouts Lasher he destroyed Guevara and a you know, a
knockout of the ear type of knockout.
Speaker 3: And he was looking for the unification. Now.
Speaker 2: His team was talking to Fernando Martinez, Puma mar tina
Is about doing a unification fight, and as Bam said
to me in our interview, one day, that sort of
just disappeared and that sort of fell down, and you know,
for whatever the reason was, it wasn't gonna happen. So
he was sort of not sure what was going I
need to have a fight schedule. He wanted another unification fight,
and so at that moment, the IBF title was vacant,
and that left the options to either try to make
the Martinez fight again or to pursue from Malayle Cafu,
who had gone to Japan first time, leaving his home
country of South Africa. He has scored an upset against
Tanaka to win the title, and then all of a sudden, okay,
I'll fight band because you know, Kafu maybe could have
lost to anybody. Clearly, the biggest money he could make,
he wanted to unify also, matter of fact, when he
won the title. When his post fight interview in the
Ring in Japan, he said, I want to fight Jesse
Van Rodriguez.
Speaker 3: And by the way, TJ, there ain't a lot of
guys calling out just yeah, I agree that that was
I felt good about that.
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, this guy's showing some you know, some
real vigor here, some real interest. So he's going to Frisco, Texas.
It's not exact a hometown fight for Jesse because he's
from San Antonio, but it might as well be. He's
a Texan and it's.
Speaker 1: Not that far away in regional fights the world.
Speaker 2: Again from South Africa, but Kafu is not a very
experienced fighter at the highest level. Other than Tanaka, he
only had the one fight outside of his home country.
There's good fighters in South Africa, but if you look
at his record and his resume, there's not a lot
of names to go by. He's only eleven to zero
to three, so he doesn't have a tremendous amount of
professional experience and so obviously BAM is a heavy favorite.
But what makes it more significant besides just the fact
that the winner is going to have these two titles,
both the WBO and the WBC, not to mention the
lineal as well. But in the two weeks leading up
to the fight, you have Turkey alshk announcing that if
Bam is the winner, when they do their big show
on November twenty second in Riad, which is headlined by
David Benavitez against Anthony Yard, will have Devin Haney on
there in the challenge at welterweight against Brian Norman.
Speaker 3: You know, it's just a loaded show. Now.
Speaker 2: One of the fights on that card will also be
BAM in a three belt unification fight against Fernando Puma Martinez.
So he's getting the fight he wanted. It's is not
going to be in Frisco on Saturday. It is going
to have to wait until November in Saudi Arabia. But
but to get there, he's got to win the fight.
So that puts some pressure on him and makes what
was already very interesting fight even that much more interesting.
Speaker 1: All right, We look forward to that again. That is
Saturday night, probably along the same timeframe as either the
Fondura zoo Co feature or the Pacquiao Barrios main event.
Bam Rodriguez fighting on his own with CFU from South
Africa one hundred and fifteen pound unification world title fight
we're about to be done on the preview. You got
a little other fight news speaking of Turkey, alashk and
the ring TV arm and more. What we've got some
fights being firmed up. They did. He did put it
out on social media that they're not going to do
pay per views any more for the ring cards and
for the ri odd season. That may have something to
do with the fact that not a whole lot of
people are buying the pay per views. Those two things
can be connected. But what else fight news wise? Do
we have real quick?
Speaker 2: Well, that's that's the big thing. They Turkey announced on
Wednesday that UH he had a meeting with the UH,
with the CEO of the Zone in London, which is
where he is because he's attending the fight that's taking
place this weekend between Alexander Usak and Dango Duba and UH.
And they met and and they've decided that they're no
longer gonna do. You know, I can't speak for de
Zone as a total totality of a company, because you
remember they have done UH pay per views with Jake
Paul and that sort of thing that's right and whatever,
and who knows what Natural will wind up doing or
if Frank Warren will want to do some other pay
per view activity or any other promoter that they may
work with. But in terms of terms of the the
read season cards and the Ring Magazine events, uh, he said,
we're no longer going to do pay per views, which
is great because there's been a ton of pay per
views the Zones. Between April and August, they have six
pay per views, not all ring in riad season, but
six pay per views, and if you add up the
total cost of all of those events, you're talking about
an amount of money that is probably almost as much
as if you bought the Zone for a whole year
for the rest of the fights that they get. So
they are doing away with it now. This will start
not right away, So Saturday's Dubois and Usik fight is
still a pay per view on the Zone. The August
card that's in God with Moses to Tama against Dylan White,
that's still a pay per view. But starting with their
November twenty second card that we just mentioned, that's the
big one that's gonna have Hany against Brian Norman, and
Bam if he wins against Martinez and Benavide's against Antony Yard.
Not to mention Abdullah Mason against Sam Noakes, which is
a fucking loaded show that will not be a pay
per view, that will be free to subscribers, the same
way Netflix is making Canelo and Crawford free to subscribers,
the same way Netflix did the same with Mike Tyson
against Jake Paul and then last week's show with the women,
the big loaded women's car topped off by Amanda Serrano
in the third fight with Katie Taylor. So this is
a positive development. And it wasn't just Turkey that was saying.
It was the de Zone CEO that went on his
social media and said that we support this. We're gonna
grow boxing. So look, this is how de Zone came
to be in the first place, right when they started
their their service in the United States in twenty eighteen.
It had been around for a couple of years before that,
but when they entered the American market and they were
gonna make boxing a very big cornerstone of what their
programming offerings were, pay per view is dead. And I've
said I came to Las Vegas, I believe it was
the Canelo Alvarez versus Danny Jacobs fight, and it was
at the Timobile Arena and in the Big Plaza that's
right out front of the arena, they had literally a
big tent and there was a big sign on tops
that PPV is dead, and they were giving like fans,
you could walk into this tent with a hammer and
smash a TV like Skimbalaga, no more for view.
Speaker 1: Want to confirm you did not do that. You did
not go hit the TV with the sledgehammer that pay
per view was.
Speaker 3: Dead, That is correct. I did not do that.
Speaker 2: But that was the point though, that they were making,
and they advertised they made funny videos.
Speaker 1: And then they turned right around about three fights in
and started putting on pay per view, not just fight, but.
Speaker 3: They were putting like Regius program against.
Speaker 4: Devin Haney and you know, and they would do things
that made no sense to you, like in the in
the in the British market, for them to serve up
Connor Ben against Chris Youuban on pay per view, that
makes sense.
Speaker 2: To have Connor Ben against against Chris you bank as
a pay per view in other markets around the world nonsensical.
The only big show they did that was related to
Rhead and I'm not sure why this one was different
than the other ones.
Speaker 1: Was.
Speaker 2: I remember in November of last year they did the
Latino Knight that was against billim Smith and a lot
of other good matchups. That fight was free for everybody
but your subscription.
Speaker 1: It was not pay per view, right right.
Speaker 2: That is correct, And so now going forward in beginning
with the November show, they claim that all these Ring
Magazine and read season cards will be free the subscription.
Now you have to ask the question. Okay, that's good
and thank you. We appreciate that as boxing fans, but
how much is that going to mean another subscription increase?
Speaker 1: That's right? You know, well they got to jack the prices.
We'll see on that. Hey, one other item, I just
saw this on social media earlier this afternoon. Lamont Roach
has apparently confirmed he's not fighting Jervonte Davis. No big
surprise there in August, but Lamont Roach said, we're something
you alluded to. We're not even sure if we're gonna
get to fight him again right now with his legal
troubles and whatever, do you know any more about the
legs for a Roach fight with Shaquor Stevenson, somebody else
or the is the Roach camp just we don't know
for sure. Are they just gonna sit and float along
and wait on his Javonte Davis available? But Lamont Roach
said on the record, we don't know if we're fighting
Gervonte Davis next now or not, if there even is
is a fight.
Speaker 2: They do have a contract to fight Lamont Roach, that's
the first thing, so they'd have to deal with that aspect.
I think what he means is because there's the the uh,
the legal troubles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right there.
Speaker 2: It's just there's not a lot of clarity on whether
or not Davis will be available and if he is available,
when they'll be available because of the legal troubles and
and and everything that goes around that. So the fact
that he's not fighting August sixteenth, I could have told
you that even before tank on a wresting right go back,
you know, three weeks ago, there was almost no chance
that was happening, and all the things that should get
done that hadn't gotten done before.
Speaker 3: You have a paper gap. Now.
Speaker 2: I may not have been in touch directly with Lamont himself,
but I have been in regular touch with Key people
on Lamont Roach's team on an almost daily basis for
the last couple of weeks, and they are very frustrated
they don't have answers from PBC. And I'm not blaming
PBC because I think they don't have answers from Dang
Davis and you also don't. You can't make any decisions
because Team Roach and PBE they don't control the legal
system that's going on in South Florida. So everything is
up in the air now. As far as another fight
that's being pursued, I don't think there's anything to that
that's happened yet because they still have to wait to
see what's going to happen in terms of their own
contractual obligations with the fight. So if it is determined
that he's not going to be available for a period
of time, certainly they're gonna want to pursue some other fight.
They're not going to just let a guy coming off
such a great performance against such a big name just
rot on the vine and not try to take advantage.
Speaker 3: But by the same token.
Speaker 2: They had a lot of money riding on the rematch,
and we'll see if they can secure another fight that
would come even close to that.
Speaker 3: Kind of money.
Speaker 1: All right, I know you want to get out of
here too, because you've got stuff to do. In Las Vegas.
We've got a lot of peeps asking questions real quick.
Aaron wants to know, is Usik fighting Fury in twenty
twenty six? Like Turkey said official? Assuming that Usik wins Saturday?
Did Turkey al shehic ever say yeah, that's definitely happening,
or did Fury more so? So, Hey, it's gonna happen.
Will make it happen.
Speaker 2: It was Turkey that said here in twenty twenty six,
Fury Usik three. But I don't think that's official because
a if Usik doesn't win, Yeah, I don't think there's
gonna be a big public demand to see the third fight.
I frankly think even if he does win, I don't
think there is either. So but one thing I'll say,
if it does happen, supposedly, it won't be on pay
per view.
Speaker 3: So okay.
Speaker 1: Allegedly, Jack brings up this point too. He says, do
you like it when fighters have fights set up down
the line? Can fighters get distracted? Whether it's Usik in
this case you mentioned, vam Rodriguez has something potentially lurking.
You mentioned what is a David alled Picasso on the
undercard of the Pickway on pay per beew He may
have in a way in December. What about already having
the carrot out there. We've seen this Ryan Garcia lost
with a Devin Haney rematch looming right, it happened.
Speaker 2: In a way, has his fight coming up in septemberrols
before December. To me, the biggest one in history that
I can think of, because maybe it's not the biggest history,
but for me, it was just so stupid that they
did the intern fight. You had I'm gonna date myself.
You had Lennox Lewis as the heavyweight champion, and you
had Tommy Morrison or you know, yeah at the time,
actually Tommy had the I guess he was the WBO champion,
but he had a fight set up with Lennox Lewis.
It was done signed eight something million dollars for Tommy
to win, you know, if he won the interim fight
or not, if he won the Ron fight, if he
didn't take the Enron fight and just fought Lenox an
eight million dollar contract. You know, eight million dollars back
is a lot of money anyway, but back then was astronomical.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: He decided I'm going to take a hometown fight against
a little known guy named Michael Bent and he went
in the ring and he got his ass kick, he
got knocked the fuck out in the first and Lex
Lewis fight and the payday went away. Now, he ultimately
fought Lenox a few years later, but it wasn't for
the title, and it wasn't nearly the money, and it
was the dumbest move in the history of boxing to me,
to take that kind of gamble for no reason.
Speaker 3: Now, do I like it? I mean I don't. I
don't like it. I don't disc like it.
Speaker 2: I think it's kind of stupid for some times, in
certain instances to do that for no apparent reason. And
there's look there, Remember when back years ago you had
Bernard Hopkins and Oscar de la Hoya fighting on the
same card in a double header to set up their
fight against each other. And Bernard Hopkins defended his middleway
title and he had three of the belts, and you
had Oscar de la Hoya, who ended up winning the
WBO belt against Felix Stern. Everybody knows Oscar didn't win
that fight. He got a gift that night, and it
was the matter to keep that fight together. It happens
all the time.
Speaker 1: Man and Wilder and Joshua were slated to meet, and
Wilder looked awful against Joseph Parker and signed contracts. So
it happens.
Speaker 3: But there are certain.
Speaker 2: Fighters that are able to focus and to put that
aside and not let that bother them. I think Usik,
I mean, whether the third fight with Theory is real
or not. Usik's the perfect kind of guy that wouldn't
be under for one second. You know, he's like a metronome.
He doesn't give a shit, and you know he just
goes in the ring and does the fight, and then
what happens after it happens.
Speaker 1: Absolutely so anyway.
Speaker 2: It's a reasonable question, but I don't really have a
strong opinion either way about it.
Speaker 1: And for Usik, again, this would be another rematch win
if he gets it, rematch win over Joshua, rematch winover Fury.
Does he get another one over Dujuan? And then you
really start asking what's really left for him to prove
and demonstrate. Okay, one more time before we're gone, We
are sponsored by our friends at PPV dot com. Those
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Go right there and order up the pay per view. No,
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end of the preview. You're gonna write much more on
your substack, the Fight Freaks Unite substack and newsletter and
your social.
Speaker 3: Media is I gotta make a little plug for the
substack real quick, because.
Speaker 1: I have I've noticed that.
Speaker 2: Our viewers and our listeners are subscribed, but if you're
gonna help the cause and you're gonna upgrade to a
paid subscription. I am in the middle of my summer
sale between them and.
Speaker 1: Benevolet ray feel is unusual, but BEANEVLOA Rayfield is here.
Listen up peepe summer sale going on for the substack.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, take advantage, get your ten percent off, and
it's all you can eat. You can get everything that's
behind the paywall, including uh, you name it, whatever you need.
I mean, I do put out some pre stuff obviously,
but you get everything.
Speaker 1: For example, you put out you ranked Manny Paciow's eight
world titles in eight different divisions, which one is which?
That's good for debate with many his input, Yes, and
you You also break a lot of news that goes
behind that paywall as well. So again, take advantage of
the summer sale. Danrayfield dot substack dot com, the fight
Freaks Unite Substack, take advantage of that for this weekend.
All right, I will see you again on Friday at
one Eastern time on the bet us platforms, their YouTube,
their social media. You and I will predict the fights,
including Pacman and Barrios, including Usik Dubois. The rematch Bam
Rodriguez's junior bantamweight title defense. Let's do that on Friday,
and I say, once again, make sure that you are
subscribed here, make sure you have the notification, et cetera,
because whatever happens coming on Saturday night, we're gonna go
live with a recap show right here on this YouTube channel.
The first time that you'll get recap reaction will be
on the YouTube channel for the podcast audience. You'll eventually
get a podcast recap, but we're doing this on YouTube
with some exclusive unique content that's there first. Other than that,
it's midday for you in Vegas. Go have fun. I
can't I can't be in charge of your social calendar
here for the next forty eight hours for the fight.
You and I saw Jerry Seinfeld. By the way, two
years ago for the Terrence Crawford Errol Spence Big Walter
Waite showdown. We saw Jerry Seinfeld a couple of nights before.
That was hilarious. I don't know what else you're up to.
I don't know if you're gonna hit the craps table later.
You gotta go see Celine Dion. Is she still there
or Adele or somebody else. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I can't be who's here singing? And you know.
Speaker 1: I saw Rick Springfield. Rick Springfield still going around. You know,
Rick Springfield. Right, you're feeling me from the eighties. You
better love somebody. Rick Springfield. I saw him at the
MGM Brand But okay, but Rick Springfield with Missus Reeves
at the MGM Grand was outstanding. We saw him nearly
thirty years ago. He's doing this futuristic show where he's
flying around the MGM Grand Concert Hall on a saucer
and I kid you not Rayfield. The next week. The
next week, in July of ninety eight, he fell off
the saucer and broke his arm and couldn't do the
show for like another six weeks. So we felt fortunate
to see him. So if you see Rick Springfield, tell
him hello from the Reeves while you're out there. Ye
all right, great stuff on this again. We'll see you
on the bet Us Show and again for the YouTube audience,
a recap pod Saturday night at some point late other
than that. Thank you, Dan Rayfield as always, have a
great weekend and we'll see what many Pacquiao has left,
if anything, in this fight coming up. On at night.
Thank you Dan, be well sir, see you later. There
we go. We are done for this edition of the
Big Fight Weekend Preview, the show on YouTube and the
preview pie. Bye MHM.