Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, brand new month and off of a weekend
at Hastino, shocking, Foster recapture his WBT Junior Lightweight championship
with another narrow decision, but a judgment decision. We're gonna
talk about that fight. We're gonna talk about Floyd Goldfield,
Oh hello, who had a battle on his hands as
it turned out late in the fight, but did go
ahead and win the Golden Boy main event in Las Vegas.
That and a women's undisputed flyweight title win for Gabriella
Fundora will recap all of that, plus one of the
great up and coming top rank prospects, Keyshawn Davis with
our Dan ray Field. I'm merely TJ Reeves. It is
the fight for each to night Recap podcast. He is
the mighty one who I guess is threatening me with
some kind of bodily harm if I don't mention was
five for five on the bet Us show with your handicapping.
Speaker 2: I never, I never threatened anybody about that. Please come on.
Speaker 1: I believe the exact quote was I better be the
fing capper of the week for bet Us.
Speaker 3: I went that's just the reality.
Speaker 2: I'm just I took it last time I was like five,
and oh, they didn't give it to me.
Speaker 1: I understand, you do understand that I got four of
the same five that you got, right right, I just
didn't get the decision because Gabriella Fundor got the knockout
and you cashed plus three thirty on that. For the
viewers that were watching on the bet Us platform. True,
so well done. We got a busy show here with
the recaps. We got Tishawn Davis coming up, a little news,
a little nostalgia, including more George Foreman, and even some
Larry Holmes heavyweight nostalgia in a little bit. All right,
so let's get into it. By the way, follow, subscribe Apples, Preaker, Spotify.
This is the recap pod off the weekend. We also
preview going into the weekend. You want to follow and
subscribe because we have great interviews as well. We put
them up a lot of times as standalone podcasts, et cetera.
I will tease the audience one more time, you did
talk to Mike Tyson, and we will be playing that
interview you want me to say it subsequently, we will
subsequently be playing that interview with Iron Mike coming up
in advance of this Jake Paul fight, but what their
appetite A little further you saw for the podcast on
you if you saw and talked to Iron Mike on Friday,
and they'll get to hear it in a bit later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean our time was limited because you know,
they were pretty tired with the time.
Speaker 3: But it was good to talk to Mike.
Speaker 2: I saw Mike in Vegas a year and a half
ago or so, and we spoke for a little bit
and you know, not not an interview, just to like
say hello, because I'm you know, we've known each other
for twenty five years practically. I covered a lot of
those fights at the end of his career, interviewed Mike
many times, but hadn't interviewed him, you know, in the
number of years. So this was a good chance to
get back with him. And he sounded good, He looked good,
he seemed attentive. You know, Mike's not always the easy,
easiest interview when he's not in a good mood. But
he was in a good mood. He was on time
for the interview, which is like, you know, a miracle
off the bat. So anyway, it was again it's not
a long interview, but it was good, and he was
I think people will like it because he was he
was funny, and he was self deprecating to a degree,
and he's looking forward to the fight. And you know,
people can think about whatever they want about the merit
of whether he should be fighting a professional fight, but
it was good to hear from him and the reasons
why he was doing it.
Speaker 1: All right, So that interview is coming up now on
this pod, but on a subsequent pod. So that's why
he got to follow and subscribe again. Will you will
hear from Keshawn Davison a little bit? All right, let's
get into it. We built it up, we talked about it,
we previewed it. It was a more competitive fight, a
more interesting fight, and Oshaki Foster I believe the rightful winner.
I will say that, getting a split decision victory over
Robson Consasal of Brazil to regain the WBC one hundred
and thirty pound title. This was the main event of
the top rank ESPN Plus card in Verona, New York.
All right, your thoughts on this win and was it
deserved as two of the judges believed that it was.
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely was deserved. But I mean I can understand
why if somebody thought it was a draw or maybe
they scored the fight in favor of Kansas Out, you know,
fair enough, it was certainly in my estimation watching both fights,
TJ closer than the first fight, because I thought the
first fight that O Shaki Foster clearly won. I went
back and looked up. I scored that fight ten rounds
to two in favor of O Shaky Foster. I know
there were two rounds I thought were could have gone
either way. Maybe, so maybe I had an eight to
four if I really, you know, gave constance have those
two close rounds that I viewed in this particular fight.
And I was not alone, by the way in that
assessment of that fight. In terms of the fight that
happened on Saturday, it was weird from the standpoint, well
a couple things. Number one, as you mentioned, way better
entertainment value, good fight. I mean, it's not gonna be
the fight of the year. But if you didn't know
what happened in the stink bottom of the first fight
and you just watched this fight, you'd be like, hey,
that's a pretty good fight. And it was a good fight.
Both guys showed up. Both guys gave a great effort,
both guys landing some heavy shots, some good shots, and
and you know, there was good boxing. There was good punching,
there was a good movement. I mean, it was a
little bit of everything. But the weird thing about it
was so okay. Foster wins the split decision this time.
He gets it one fifteen one thirteen on two score cards,
and the other judge had it the same score or
consown the other card. I also had at one fifteen
to one third in favor of Foster. I achieved my
one fifteen one to thirteen scorecard because I gave Foster
rounds eleven and twelve. I had this fight dead even
after ten rounds, and so in my and I thought
he won those last two rounds. I mean they were
I think edited too.
Speaker 1: I thought he won both of the last two rounds. However, however,
however two of the judges.
Speaker 2: Two of the judges gave Consissau the last two rounds,
but Foster still won the fight. So there was The
scoring was kind of I will say, it's all over
the place. But they were not agreeing on and everything
the way you'd hope that they would. But in the end,
he won the fight.
Speaker 1: Interesting that in the tenth round he rocked him. Foster
rocked Concessao, and you thought, wait a minute, this might
be a late round situation, late round stoppage. Maybe to
Consosaal's credit, he kind of gathered himself was actually firing back.
But that was an interesting moment. And then, as you
mentioned the judges, one judge had Foster up by two
and gave Consissau or had to fight even I'm sorry,
and gave Consissau the last two rounds for the wine.
Speaker 3: I didn't really quit chet that.
Speaker 1: I didn't understand that at all. But look, the right
guy won, like like you always say, the right guy
got his hand raised.
Speaker 2: Right, and they all three of those judges gave the
tenth round to Foster when he should have hurt and
almost you know, I won't say almost stopped him, but
he clearly had Consissau in trouble a little bit, holding on,
you know, taking clean punches. Listen, I thought he won
the first fight. Let's call it a blip, you know,
a pothole, if you will. He regains the title.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And now he's on to bigger and better things hopefully.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And by the way, just because Consista lost doesn't mean
he can't ever be in a good fight again or
fight for a title again. He's at the unfortunate situation
where now he is now one win in a world
title fight, which most people thought he didn't deserve. But
now he's also got the draw with Navarete, a lost
to Foster, a lost of Valdez, and a loss to Shakur.
So good contender, you know, not necessarily a long term champion.
He's not getting any younger. He's thirty, what, thirty five,
thirty six years old now, but he came in great
condition and we'll see, if you know, if he has
another go at it.
Speaker 3: I mean he didn't.
Speaker 2: He he asked for the rematch, you know, speaking through
the translator, he said he'd like the third fight. I
don't think we're seeing that anytime soon, because there'll be
other business for Foster, who you know, to most people
now has won two fights in a row against against Consasout.
But the interesting thing is conses outdn't complain so the
fact that the scores were as close as they were
and that he lost a split decision, whereas previously he
won a split decision. He was like I'm happy because
I know I fought a good fight like he didn't. Really,
I was kind of surprised. I'm not saying you should,
you know, bitch and moan and carry on and all that.
But he had every right to say, look, you know,
I thought I won the fight if he if he
actually did think he won the fight because it was
that close. I mean, you can say that without coming
off like your your your complaining and moaning and making excuses.
You know, he didn't make excuse. He said he was
in great condition, that he had to proprie to the
first fight. He had like an iron deficiency and some
little injuries and this and that. But he was very
clear that coming into the fight on Saturday, no issues,
you know, in good shape, good health, no no problems.
So if he wasn't going to complain about the decision,
I don't think anybody else has the right to complain
about the decision. And good for Foster. I mean he
got the job done. And by the way, dj n
R thing this is, this is the critical thing that
he did. He knew that in the first fight he
didn't throw enough punches, even though Copybox credit him with
Lannymore the activity level just was not there to assuade
the judges. In this fight. He threw, you know, several
hundred more punches than he did in the first fight,
and that made a big difference, and he was rewarded
for that activity rightfully. So I might add in a again,
not the fight of the year, but a fight that
at least was worth watching.
Speaker 1: Interesting. His corner in the in between the tenth and
the eleventh, and certainly before the final round, was adamant,
you've got to go get him. You've got to win
this round. Even though you and I and I think
most people thought he had done enough going to the twelve.
It was just interesting in the corner. This corner man
was even saying, get him out of here, knock him
on his ass. You got to go get this round
because they realize, who knows what those scorecards aren't it
burned him last time. So I thought that was just interesting.
Speaker 3: Subthing.
Speaker 2: Bobby Bobby Benton is Oshaki Foster's longtime trainer. He also
with the trainer for Regis program. There's table mates where
Hegis was out of the fight, and uh, you know,
Bobby is not a guy in the corner that necessarily
loses in his mind, but he also, having watched him
deal with Corners, uh, says what he thinks and he
does it in a in a stern and forceful manner.
And so after round eleven, as you mentioned, he told
that I quote, I won't shout like he did.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: This is Benton talking to Oshaki Fosster. Put him on
his fuck on his fucking ask for me, put this
boy on his ass. We need this fucking round.
Speaker 3: YEP.
Speaker 2: So they weren't screaming and they knew it close. And
by the way, it was close.
Speaker 3: It was close, you know. Foster.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, we talked about this a little bit
before the fight. One hundred and thirty pounds weight class
has good fighters in it, not necessarily huge names, but
but quality guys. Foster, Navarette, Valdez, you know whom I
think besides oh and and and Consasoo. I mean, these
are all these are all quality professional fighters, and they're
and they're worth uh watching and matching up with each other,
even if they don't have like huge reputations and big names.
But the fact is they can make good fights. And
Anthony Casaci's with you know, over with Frank Warren, who's
been we're going to be fighting on these UH read
season cards. He had that big upset. Lamont Roach is
the other guy with the belt. He's moving up UH
theoretically we think to challenge Tank Davis. But the thing
about it is, in terms of the top rank universe,
it's very clear that Asshaki said this after the fight.
He wants the winner of what's going to take place
UH in December, the rematch being Navarette and Valdez. Navarette
is the title holder of the WBO. Valdez is the
WBO's interim champion. They're fighting each other in a rematch,
and it makes logical sense for Fosher to get the
shot at the winter. I hope that that happens. That's
an interesting fight.
Speaker 1: Then again, it's boxing, but it seems like it's lining
up that way because that fight is next month, Navaraate
and Valdez. Let's see, let's see if unification is in
the offing. On the undercard. We didn't spend a lot
of time talking Raymond Murataia on the bet Us show.
We did on this preview podcast, and boy, he didn't
spend a lot of time with Jesus Perez. As it
turns out, tell me more about what you saw out
of Murataia.
Speaker 2: I saw what I thought was Maurtia's best performance of
his career. I mean, Barnun, that was a professional, determined
like I'm here to be in a championship fight. Let
me show you why. No more fighting down to the
level of opposition, no more playing with your food, just
going in there, coming in great shape and just and
destroying us. I mean, look, I'm not going to sit
here and make Jesus Prez out to be a pound
for pound fighter or even a top top contender in
the weight class. But I can tell you there were
definitely people at top rank who were a little concerned
about this fight.
Speaker 3: It'll bit worried. That's just the reality.
Speaker 2: He had some losses, but he had never been stopped,
and he'd been in the ring with some good opponents
U and Murati. As I said, sometimes he doesn't necessarily
fight as well as should because he finally fights at
a lot of his opponent. But he didn't waste any
time he went out there. He won the first round.
He established himself as jab He was rocking him with
right hands. He's knocking his head back with jabs. Clearly
winter the first round, comes out in the second round
and just takes the guy apart, lands no more stiff
right hands, puts him on his back twice. And you
know too, dude, the credit of Hazers Prez. He got up,
he tried. But when when Murti went to him and
put some more shots on him, the referee rightfully, so
Charlie Fitcher's a good referee, stopped the fight in the
in the was in the third round, no no in
the second rocond in the second round, Yeah, and gives
him the knockout win. And so he he took a
part a guy that I think most people thought Murtai
is gonna win the fight, fine, but the reality was
I think a lot of folks if he had asked
me before the fight, you know, how do you think
this goes?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: You know, it's a very good chance that Murtai gets
a knockout, but I would say this fight's getting at
least in the second half of the fight, and he
just completely destroyed him. And now it sets up, uh,
probably an opportunity for Murtai who's been dying for a
title shot. Who by the way, uh, when when Top
Rank was trying to arrange the final fight for Shakurse
Stevenson on his Top Rank contract. They presented some names
to Shakor as apostible opponent. Moritai was one of those guys.
He accepted the fight, but Shakor had other uh, you know,
did not decide to pick him. He went elsewhere and
uh and fu somebody else.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: But Morotai is now into that position. He's undefeated, he's
he's hungry, he was in great shape, he's got obviously
a top notch corner with Robert Garcia, and so now
it's going to play out like this. And they talked
about a little bit in the post fight press cor
postfight the interview. This is what I've been told by
Top Rank. Mark Kriegel on the broadcast spoke about it
a little bit. They're in a situation right now in
terms of the titles where you have the IVF champions,
Silly Lomachenko, who was contemplating his retirement. If he does
decide to call it a day U and he hasn't
made that decision, he's not a you know, from a
public standpoint, that title will become vacant. And when that
title becomes vacant, the IBF if you look down the
ratings and you see who's fighting.
Speaker 3: Who and what the order of the numbers are.
Speaker 2: The obvious fight that's going to be for the vacant
title will be ordered between Mauritaya and the Russian fighter
is Zaa Abdeliav, who's only you know, he's twenty and
one is one loss was in an interim title fight.
He got knocked out I believe it was in twenty
nineteen by Devin Hainey. Other than that, though, he hasn't
never lost a fight, so that could very well be
for the vacant title in that division. And you know,
you see other guys in the ratings, but they're either occupied,
there is maybe one of the spots is vacant, that
type of thing. So top rank is I think positioning
Murtaya for the IBF belt towards the Lomachenko or if
he vacates. And there are other lightweight that we're going
to talk about in a minute with Keishan Davis, who
is fighting, who's also high up in the various ratings.
I think they're pointing out towards the w what was it,
the WBO title, which is held by Dennis Branchik, who
even though top Rank is not Dennis Brenchick's promoter, they
have an option on him from what happened in the
previous fight. So there's going to be some shake up.
There's gonna be some changing of the guard, so to speak,
in that weight class in the coming year. And I
figure and I believe that in that division. H you know,
Raymond Burtia sits right there, right in the thick of
this lightweight picture for sure. And by the way, Chaquur
Stevenson as one of the belts also, but he's off
doing his thing with the Williams of Haya fight when
he is back from his injury.
Speaker 1: All right, a lot of options and again Murretia look good,
Okay again Keyshawn Davis coming up in a few minutes.
First though, let's recap the Golden Boy to Own card
in Las Vegas, where Floyd Schofield defeated Renee Teles Jerone
in what turned out to be a little bit more
dramatic I think than a lot of people thought, including
a knockdown late by Jeron, and it's and saw Scofield,
whether he was tired, whether he was careless getting hit
with some big shots late in this fight. All right,
tell me what you saw. Schofield gets the win, but
I think there's some question marks after this fight.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, first and foremost, he's a
good prospect, but he's not ready for the top guys yet.
You know, he's been calling out Tank Davis and Shaquar
Stevenson and that kind of stuff, and I know, I'll
respect to him. I can't blame the enthusiasm, and you
want to see these guys willing and interested to fight
the top guys, but he's just not ready. And if
his team were to try to make those fights and
stick him in where I don't think he has a
chance to get those fights yet anyway, just based on
the you know what, the level of financial muscle he
could bring to the table, which is not that much
at the moment, But he's not ready. Forget about the
financial part. He's not ready for experience wise to be
in the ring with those guys you said. Remember he's
still a young fighters, only twenty two years old. He's
got eighteen fights, but he hasn't really fought too many
you know, solid top guys. You know you're not you're
not dealing with you know, guys like Tank Davis and
Sports Stevenson are battle tested against you know, a litany
of name fighters through the years and multiple weight divisions,
so he still I think a couple of years away
from that, even though you know in boxing sometimes at
that point you do get Russian and the guys really
try to make that point to get to that fight
as quickly as possible. So through the first like eight
eight rounds or so, this was a totally dominating, one
sided ass kicking where you know, basically it's eight rounds,
nine rounds to zero, you know, and he's cruising along,
you know, he was getting hit with left hands, and
then finally in the eleventh round, you know your own
who's got a great chin, even though he's got some losses,
and one thing about him he never been I don't
think he's ever been knocked down, much less knocked out.
He caught him with a clean shot, He put him
on his your end, and the thing about it was okay,
that happens. I mean, we can go through the litany
of top fighters who've been dropped and doesn't necessarily mean
anything significant. I mean, you know, the best fighters I
can think above our time, most of them been knocked
down at one time or another. The thing that he
didn't do though Schofield was fighting intelligently after the knockdown.
I appreciate the fact that he wants to entertain the crowd,
and that's cool, and that's I appreciate that, But there's
a dire rain entertaining the crowd and being stupid, and
he fought stupid in my opinion, the last couple of
rounds because he just know he didn't have to go
into the battles.
Speaker 1: And I credit Sergio Mora again, who again, I love
him more on the commentary I think than you do
on his own, not that you don't like him, but
Maud honed in on that right away and said, what
is he doing about that? Winning convincingly and you're now
taking the risk that you can be knocked out here
by trading with this guy. I think that showed some
inexperience as well as.
Speaker 2: Your take is exactly right now by the way you
can be in the position I don't expect you don't
know the scorecards. Obviously, we've seen crazy shit happen, so
you can still fight and box and and and go
forward and and and still make it interesting for the viewers.
And the crowd and yourself. But there's a difference between
doing that and just being absolutely stupid and reckless.
Speaker 1: He was going and standing in toe to toe trading,
which he was much.
Speaker 2: More on the side of being to to toe as
stupid and reckless than he wasn't just still fighting but
but uh, but but still keeping within himself and making
sure he gets out of the round and not get
touched up. So he's got some learning to do. There
was definitely a snap who at one point, I forget
what round it was, he went back to the corner. Uh,
either the stool was in the wrong place, he didn't
see it. He went to sit down on the stool
and he fell down on the ground because the stool
wasn't underneath him. I mean, that's honestly, PJ. I've been
watching boxing for my whole life practice. I have never
seen that happen before. Where a guy go I've seen
guys go back to the corner and not sit where
they decide to stand up. And I've seen guys, you know,
sit down and you know, maybe be a little wobblier
this and that. But I've never seen ever a fighter
go back to the corner sit down and miss the
stool completely and follow in the ground that I've never seen.
Speaker 1: He was definitely he was definitely wide left about two
feet and his dad right back up and put him
back on the stool. So a bit of a mess
at the end, but also a learning experience and we'll
see where it takes Schofield down the road.
Speaker 2: So in the postfight, his promoter, Oscar de Lawya, you know,
obviously you know, not only is this promoter, but as
a Hall of Fame fighter in a former six division
world champion, one of the best fighters of his time,
gave him like the C plus when they when I
think it was Chris Mannix, I guess asked him to
give him the grade, and I thought Oscar was maybe
a little bit harsh, But then again, you know, those
last couple of rounds, they don't a race. The good
work he did the first you know, three quarters or
more of the fight, but that the last couple of
rounds was a mess. And the father in the corner,
Schofield's father was just losing his mind and was and
didn't you know, just just wanted just wanted him to
to do what you said, box and and then don't
be reckless, and there was definitely a difference of opinion there.
I mean, the fighters got to listen to what the
trainer says. I mean, now I've seen examples where the
trainer has said one thing and the fighter has dispensed
with that advice and done his own thing. I remember
very specifically for it.
Speaker 3: Doug.
Speaker 2: Give you one example when Jared Hurd was in the
unification fight at one hundred and fifty four against Arisloni Lara,
which turned out to be the fight of the year
that year two thousand and what nineteen maybe eighteen, and
his trainer was telling him basically to keep away a
bit in the twelfth round, and heard afterwards said absolutely not.
And he went out there and he scored a knockdown
in the twelfth round, and that's what the difference was
in him winning the winning the fight and getting the
unified time, you know, becoming unified champions. So you know,
it does happen, but you should mostly especially it's year.
You know your father, you know, listen, listen to the
guy that's that's in charge of the corner. And you
know Schofield, he didn't do that, he kind of I
don't I won't tell you escape with the wind because
he didn't you know, he didn't get get close to
getting knocked out after that knockdown, but he gave a
lot of people unnecessary heart palpitations. Put a teal like
that so understood in retrospect, it's a good learning experience.
But he shouldn't have had to have to deal with
that because of his own inability to be disciplined when
the fight was happening.
Speaker 1: All Right, the co feature and I got the feeling
on this. You you said, even coming in, the less
set about this, the better Beck the bully Bekdamir Melikuziev
does win a split decision over David Stevens, Right, I
set it up. How much do you want to say
about that before we move on, Well, I'll.
Speaker 2: Say a couple of things about it. Number one, we
discussed how it had been on the bout sheet and
in the press announcement as a ten rounder as an eliminator.
It turned out to be a twelve rounder, which irritated
the heck out of me. And by the way, the
one motion company that always fucks that up as Golden Boy,
right on a regular basis, that shit happens, and if you.
Speaker 1: Get aggravated for a lot of reasons, including it me
for a lot of reasons. You get aggravated about these things,
but you get more aggravated when you inquire repeatedly. And
I don't know if you did in this case. Is
it ten or is it twelve? I asked you what
it is? I ask, and they still don't get it
right and still don't tell you the right thing.
Speaker 2: So put that aside for a second split decision. Honestly,
I must tell you truthfully, I did not pay close
close attention to this fight.
Speaker 3: I was watching the Golden.
Speaker 1: I paid any attention. You paid more attention than I did,
So whatever, give it, whatever justice you want to get.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying I wasn't scoring the fight. It turned
out to be split decision. In reading the opinions of
people who I respect, most people felt like it was
a close enough fight where maybe it could have gone
either way. That neither guy and I went back and
I watched some of it. I watched the highlights. I mean, again,
I'm being truthful of what I put into the fight.
It seemed awfully competitive. Stevens has never fought anybody in
tel fighting Beck and so take that for what you want.
I've never been impressed by beck I've said it a
thousand times. He gets the split decision, and oh, by
the way, he didn't make the weight. You know, the
fight's one hundred and sixty eight pound WBA elimination fight.
I saw some excuses from Alakuzia's team that claimed that
they thought the contract with was one seventy. I find
that to be absurd when the fight was publicly announced
as a WBA one hundred and sixty eight pounds to
the eliminator. The other guy made the weight with no problem.
So numerous unimpressive performances, an absurd situation with the number
of rounds not the fighter's fault, a fight that you know,
maybe could have gone either way. Just this does not
impress me. Never has. Maybe he will someday, not that
he owes it to anything to me, but uh, you
know the fact that now I guess he'll be in
the mandatory position of the WBA, which makes him the
number one challenger in that organization for Canelo Alvarez, even
though he won't have to make a WBA mandatory now
probably for quite some time. Given there you know, the
status of being a super champion all that business. It
just shows you the lack maybe of of the uh
the rankings that the WBA puts forth, because to have
him as the number one contender in that way class,
to me is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so there you gave it a minute,
minute and a half whatever, Beck the Bully gets to win, Okay.
I'm much more interested in your takes and the prospective
future of Gabriella Fundora, who did get the ko that
you predicted on the bet Us show. Nice call knocking
out Gabriella Allians to win the undisputed Lightway tititle on
on Saturday in what was a tremendous performance by her.
Showed great punching power. I thought, you know, there's a
lot of intrigue there with the sister of the Towering Inferno,
Sebastian Fundor.
Speaker 2: She's a good fighter at number one. It was a
good fight number two. Both of the women showed something
in this fight. I mean, we've seen, I think both
of them previously in their performances that they can fight
at a certain at the you know, the top level
of the women's flyway division. Uh Alanta's had split fights
with with with what who would she split the fights
with as sparsa right with Marlin spars exactly, who's been
a good, good championship level fighter, had dn H champion
split fights with her? And Fandora had looked good in
some of her fights when she won the title defended
the title. If you watch it, you saw what I
saw prior, which is that I thought that the height
differential was going to be a factor, which it was.
Fandora was much taller than Alanta's who They put on
a competitive fight though, I mean up until the point
where in round seven where Fandora scored the two knockdowns,
which you know were highly significant. Obviously, I thought it
was a competitive fight, and you know it was a
worthy fight to you know, of what they were doing,
which was to become the winner, the undisputed champion of
that weight class. They gave us a good fight for it.
I mean, and here's a thing that's pretty amazing when
you think about it. And maybe I'm missing an example,
but I can't think of an example in boxing, correct
me if I'm wrong, where you have not only a
brother and a sister who reign as champions simultaneously, but
both of them are at the least unified champions. She's
the on disputed champion now because she had come into
this title fight with one of the belts I believe
it was one of the belts, and her opponent had
the other three right and her brother Sebastian he unified
titles where he has two of the belts in one
hundred and fifty four pound way class, so that that's
like a pretty interesting accomplishment.
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't see that every day where.
Speaker 2: I'm racking champions at the same time, But to be
unified at the same time.
Speaker 1: I un racking my brain. I mean, obviously, the greatest
won the heavyweight title three times and his daughter much
much later won.
Speaker 3: A title after him, but not at the same time.
Speaker 1: But I can't. I can't think of another situation, and
somebody can send us a message on social media or
hit us up somehow some way if they can think
of one.
Speaker 2: I mean, here's listen, here's been, there's been time.
Speaker 1: Time and unified champions.
Speaker 2: As you point out, so in terms of like at
the same time in more recent years, you know, the
Charlotte brothers both held titles in the same weight class
at the same time. By one fifty four, and then
they were simultaneously one in fifty four one at one
sixty Joshua Franco and his half brother. They both held
belts I think at the same time. So it's it's
it's not crazy that it happens, but a brother and
his sister I don't ever remember, and especially both unified.
So that's a great accomplishment for the Fondora family.
Speaker 3: And in terms of.
Speaker 2: Gabriella, she has a bright future. I said beforehand, I
still think it's the case now, with maybe another couple
of fights against some more better caliber names. Uh, she's
got a chance to put herself, I'm not known necessarily
at this point in time number one or two or three,
but at least put herself on that women's pound for
pound list with these types of performances. I mean, she
showed power. That's one thing we don't see a lot.
Speaker 1: In big straight left, big straight left hand.
Speaker 2: I mean I paped myself a little bit because I
picked a knockout, but still good. First she got it,
I mean.
Speaker 1: Well, and I know that a lot of the opponent
thought she got stepped on on the first knock down,
thought her foot got stepped on in notcroft balance. She
was saying that to the ref. I mean it was
a no doubter or on the second one, right on
the chin, and she was wobbly when she got up
and there was the stoppage. So great win for Gabriella
Fundura there in the Golden Boy card. All right, So
that leads us to your conversation with Keyshawn Davis. He
will headline the Top Rank show in his hometown of Norfolk,
Virginia against Gestavo Limos. This is a Friday night upcoming
Top Rank ESPN Plus card. You do not have to
wait for fight week in the news conferences because Dan
talked to the US Olympian silver medallist, and let's go
to that conversation right now.
Speaker 2: Well, it's my pleasure to welcome to our podcast this
week one of the best young fighters in boxing, the
up and coming lightweight contender, one of my past prospects
of the year. It's Kishawan Davis. Kishan, we're here to
talk about your main event. Your first main event against
Gustavo Lemos will take place on November eighth. It'll headline
the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN Plus card in your
hometown of Norfolk.
Speaker 3: Virginia. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much for
doing this.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, thank you.
Speaker 2: You bet all right. You know what I was thinking
about this. Since you turned professional, you've had a spotlight
on you pretty much the entire time, ever since you've
got the silver medal in the Olympics, in those delayed
twenty twenty Tokyo Olympic Games, and so I don't think
that's anything new to you. And I've interviewed you before
You've seem pretty poised about those types of things. But
now you have your first main event. You've taken on
what I think most people would consider in Gustavo Lemos
by far your best opponent so far as a young professional.
And on top of that, you're doing this headline fight
in your hometown, like your homecoming, your first ever fight
as a professional in your hometown. So I wonder do
you feel pressure from that? Is it more like just
a level of like super excitement about it.
Speaker 5: No, just not even excited, as confident, like you can't
get too excited and excited and train your energy. I'm
just confident, staying calm, and I know how to fight
at the end of the day.
Speaker 4: I'm not tripping off of who in that ring with me?
Speaker 5: It could have been it could have been anybody in
that ring with me, you know, so I know what
I can do, no extra pressure at all.
Speaker 2: So when you when you got notified that this fight
was going to take place in Norfolk, I was wondering,
was this something that you had aspired to for a while.
Had you been talking to maybe Top Rank or your management, Hey,
can we do a fight at home? Or was it
something that they came to you and said, is this
something you'd like to do and to go home to
perform in front of the hometown.
Speaker 5: Well, me and my brother has been talking about this
since we was amateur, since we was middle school, high school.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: So we were going to do this with what company
we landed on, I don't care whoever it was. Thank
god we land on Top Rank, one of the best
companies in the business.
Speaker 4: And the day the first day, like after the Olympics, you.
Speaker 5: Know, did my little Olympic run after the Olympics had
parades and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: The very first day we sat down with Todd Ring.
Speaker 5: It was being my brothers, my big brother Kelvin, my mother,
and we was talking about a homecoming, come back to
the town. He was already talking about it before I
signed with Todd Rank, having a meeting and getting the
contract stuff situated.
Speaker 4: So we already had a vision for this and we
made it happen.
Speaker 2: So I guess it was just a matter of them
bringing you home when you were ready to be the
main event, as opposed to go into Norfolk when you're
gonna be like in an eight rounder or something on
the undercard. Is that sort of the scenario.
Speaker 5: Oh, yeah, for sure, they can't. They can't bring nobody
to my hometown as is me main event. So we
already had that cover, like when we come home and
be Madine event.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned like your older brother Kelvin that's you know,
you're a lightweight. He's in the junior wealth weight division.
He's on the show. And now you guys have fought
on the same cards before as you guys have gone
through the early part of your career. But now also
I think what probably adds to the special nature of
this is your younger brother, uh Keon Davis, who is
also he's a welterweight. He's making his professional debut on
this card. So when you think about that that you're
the headliner, but your two brothers who I know you're
close to, are also going to perform on the same event.
What does that mean to you? And what does that
just mean to like your mom, to the whole family.
Speaker 5: His major Like everybody from my family is coming. I
got a family in New York, I got family in
North Carolina, I got a family in Virginia. I got
a family everywhere.
Speaker 4: And they're all coming out. You know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Oh, we all excited. They all excited. They know
it's gonna be a big event. But we know at
the end of the day, we got to still win,
you know what I'm saying. So we gotta make we
gotta make the night happen, you know, saying, so we
all just stay focused and just trying to.
Speaker 4: Make this event the best, one of the best events
of this year.
Speaker 2: Well, I was gonna say, as far as the event
aspect of it goes, uh, it's already seems like it's
a success in talking to people at top rank ever
since that you know this is going not just from today,
but I mean mean just a couple of weeks ago,
they were already saying that the tickets were basically sold
out that the town is really, uh, you know, geared
up for this event. How much do you realize that
that that there's been a pent up demand I guess
for uh, you know, either for the Davis Brothers to
perform at home or just for a big time boxing
event in the first place that you're able to bring
in this number of fans. It's not a world championship fight.
You're not fighting some huge, big name opponent that everybody
has been, dynasty or anything like that. So what is
your mentality as far as the reaction to your city
to this event?
Speaker 4: Now, you're right, man.
Speaker 5: My first appooninent was Nicholas Watchers, and they don't know
Nicholas Washes the same way they don't know Gusmos.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. But one thing I did
wanted to know and remember.
Speaker 5: Is that fight. I couldn't put in a great fight
with Nicholas Washers. I was gonna knock him out in
like four rounds. He's thirty eight years old, he's an
old man. But with Gustavo lm Most that's what they're
gonna actually, remember, They're gonna that fight, and you know
those they gonna that's gonna make them come to my
next one. That's gonna make them come to my very
my own, my next one after that.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: I need to sell myself at this point. I don't
need to give him something just something expected. I need
to get him something unexpected. And Gustavo is gonna bring
a fight to me, and I'm a fighter.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna bring a fight to him.
Speaker 5: Two fighters with that same mentality, it's gonna do nothing
but make a great fight.
Speaker 2: Well, I he asked you a little bit about Lemo,
so he's no joke. I mean I've seen him fight before.
He's twenty nine and one, he has nineteen knockouts. His
only loss was fighting at one hundred and forty pounds
in his last fight when when he got lost a
decision to Richard Hitchins in April. That was a title
elimination fight. So now he's coming back to fight you
in the lightweight division. So what are your thoughts about him?
I know you said you're always gonna come to make
the fight, but what kind of things have you seen
in him that you feel like, you know you need
to take away from him to be successful.
Speaker 4: Everything in Limos do I think better than him.
Speaker 5: I don't want to sound cocky or nothing like that,
but I know boxing, and I know myself, you know,
And I never lied to y'all. I always, you know,
gave my predictions before the fight, and nine times out
of ten I was right, you know. And just with Gustavo,
anything that he does, I do better than him. If
you want to fight on the inside, you don't have
a better inside game. I mean, you think you punch hard, well, Hana,
I punch hard too. Let's see if you take my punches,
you know, Let's see how fast you are. Let's see
how good your jab is. Let's lets let's see how
you set your punches up. Let's see how good your
angles are. Like everything that he do, I do better
than him. So in terms of like just this fight
right here, people wanna say, oh, Gustavo is this, Gustavo
is that?
Speaker 4: No, Keyshawn is this? Key Shawn is that? And Gustavo's
gonna have his first his first step up of his career.
Speaker 2: You think, do you think you're more of a step
up than Richards and Hitchins, who's maybe a little bit
more advanced in terms of where he is in his
pro curer. Even though obviously you guys are both very
talented fighters.
Speaker 5: I'm the best at one thirty five, period, and I'm
here to show the world I'm not. I'm not trying
to say I'm the best when I become world champions.
I'm not trying to say I'm the best when I
become the face of boxing. I'm saying I'm the best
right now and I'm going to continue to show that.
Speaker 2: So with the aspect of this fight, the big part
of it being that you're fighting in Norfolk, I wonder
and I've covered plenty of fighters that have gone home.
Some embrace it and love it and can't get enough
of it. Other guys, the distractions just overcome them, and
it's never it's sometimes a bad night. How do you
go about avoiding the inevitable distractions and the pull on
your time and mentality of you know, being the focus
of everything at home? There's always kind of people coming
all over the place in terms of like tickets and interviews,
even more than normal that sort of thing.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you a quick little story man, about
my love, my love, my trials and true relations that
I had before I even got on the Olympic team.
Speaker 4: God put me to a great test.
Speaker 5: He took me to the to the mental home, basically,
and I was just all live to talk about this,
but he took me to the mental home. And in
the mental home, I was, I was, I was talking
to God. I said, God, I know you, I know you.
I know you're not kicking me while I'm down, but
I know you're breaking me down right now before you
build me up. And I know and I know you know.
I got the confidence. I know you know I got
the will, the ability to win. But you're just trying
to get my mental right in the in the mental
home I'm.
Speaker 3: Thinking of.
Speaker 5: I haven't been through I've don't been through that right there,
the mental health and stuff I done took the medication
every day, I done harm myself.
Speaker 4: I've done been through all of that.
Speaker 5: So in terms of distractions and people talking about tickets
and people talking.
Speaker 4: About interviews, that's nothing. That's nothing.
Speaker 5: I already been through the worst in terms of being
mentally prepared for something.
Speaker 4: God already put me to the worst.
Speaker 5: So everything I'm going through right now is the reasons
why I am who I am, the reasons why.
Speaker 4: That last fight.
Speaker 5: I had a straight face on my face the entire time.
That fight was the most rugged fight.
Speaker 4: Of the night. It was rugged, it was dirty.
Speaker 5: It hit me below the belt. I'm still playing in
the ring. I'm still having fun. So God already put
me to the worst to get ready my to prepare
my mental for.
Speaker 4: What's to come.
Speaker 2: You're talking about the Miguel Dueno fight, your last bout, yes, sir, okay.
In terms of Norfolk, I mean there hasn't been a
big boxing events there since. You got to go back
to like the you know, the late I guess the
mid eighties into the early nineties, when you know the legendary,
late great Hall of Famer Paranel Whitaker, who's from Norfolk,
one of the greatest fighters of all time, former champion
and multiple divisions undisputed lightweight champion, the same weight class
that I assumed that you would like to be an
undisputed champion in someday. He's the last guy that really
filled up the scope for boxing. I mean it's thirty
years ago. Probably What does it mean to you to
follow in the footsteps of somebody that you said in
the announcement of this fight was your idol.
Speaker 4: No, it definitely was.
Speaker 2: You're smiling another way when I brought up Whittaker's name, Yeah,
it definitely.
Speaker 5: Was thirty years ago because I got stories about pronell
Man then trained me before you know, Toby two of
my greatest attributes that I still used to this day.
When I was He told this when I was like
sixteen years old, he said.
Speaker 4: These are two greatest attributes. Don't ever lose that, you know.
So I just kept that with me. But outside of you.
Speaker 3: Know, just him, what was the attributes? You gotta tell you.
Speaker 4: What I'm not telling you.
Speaker 5: I would tell you face to face, but I'm not
telling you up here.
Speaker 3: You know enough.
Speaker 4: But just selling out the scope like how he did
Man for our first dB three, first main event.
Speaker 5: Man, it's a blessing. It's God like, this is written
when we was born. God already written out a plan
for us. Like, seriously, I cannot stress this enough. This
is what God wanted to happen. So it's our first
main event. Who expects to sell out anything for the
first made event.
Speaker 4: We could have took it to a theater, they probably
won't think were gonna sell out the theater. This is
an arena with ten thousand seats in it. We already
sold nine thousand seats. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be a no doubt about it.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I think so for sure. Everybody thinks so.
Speaker 2: So when you talk about Whitaker, I mean, obviously you
got to know him after he was retired, but those
days of him fighting those fights in nor fucking bringing
in those crowds, and a lot of those fights were
on national televison. That was before you were born. I
remember that because I remember watching them. I'm a lot
older than you were. But how did you, uh, like,
have you gone back and watch those fights and like
and been a fan of Whitaker, not just because you
knew him, but just as a boxer in the same
way class that you hope to dominate also like the
way he did.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I definitely went back and and watched the fights.
Todd RNK sent me some fights of how he walked
out and just a lot of different things, so I
can get ideas from different things and how sweet peages
had to scope with the what the energy was like
in the scope, so.
Speaker 4: They can give me a perspective of how I'm gonna
have it.
Speaker 5: So I won't be walking into something like, Wow, I
didn't expect it, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: So definitely we got to watch some of.
Speaker 5: His fights and Todd Rank sent me some of his
fights and how he had to scope. So definitely inspired me.
And I'm like, damn, man, if I can do it
like that, then that would be great. But were trying
to go for better, you know what I'm saying, Always
trying to go for better. So we go see how
it turns out for sure.
Speaker 2: So it was around this time last year you had
gotten the victory against the heir All Bright. It was
a competitive fight, but I see you know you know
what I mean, ask you about it became a no contest.
You had a tested positive for marijuana, which is not
looked at these days as a negativity from a lot
of people, but it is still against the rules of
most boxing commissions as far as I'm aware. UH, And
I remember when you came back from that, you spoke
to Uh. I think it was on one of the
ESPN shows about you know, you've given up smoking marijuana.
You feel like it's going to make you better. Since
that situation you did, your your suspension, you've came back
and you looked really good. You had a great performance
against Jose Pedraza, which was a step up opponent at
that time, a former two division world champ. You just
mentioned about how you you know, you got in there
and took care of Miguel Madwaene in a tough, rugged fight.
So I'm wondering, assuming you still are not smoking weed,
how much has that that decision that you made improved
you know, your life and your performance as a as
a as a professional athlete.
Speaker 4: For sure, Man, I gave it.
Speaker 5: I gave it a guy man, And I'm not gonna
sit here and lotta and say I didn't, you know,
slip up and get back to it. But I'm clean,
for I'm still clean. God still working on me. And
like I said, I never lied to y'all. Still not
a lot of y'all, you know, And I feel like,
you know, once I did once I once, I gave
it up and just kept moving forward with it and
just having hiccups in between, honestly.
Speaker 4: Just getting just getting getting, getting.
Speaker 5: Back to praying, getting back to God, and he God
is the only person that can in addictions. Honestly, you
can't do it without him. So just keeping him close
to me honestly, in my career period. He's gonna take
me to the magnitudes that I never expected, honestly. And
since this camp, you know, I've been going to church
every Sunday. You know, I had my son within this camp,
and since he been born, he didn't miss a church
in Sunday. And I've just been really just wrapping my
life around God, honestly. And and I know you asked
about the weed, but it's bigger than we. You know
what I'm saying. It's about God.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. And since i've been since.
Speaker 5: I've been wrapping my life around Him and just living
in the fire with him. He been expanding me. Man,
he may expanding me. He may expand my vocabulary to
spending my heart. E've been making me think more before
I react. And I'm just trying to, you know, just
continue to be alongside him, just keep reaching out to him.
So I can just preach my testimony about me going
to the Mitsal home.
Speaker 4: I use my testimony about me with the marijuana.
Speaker 5: And stuff like that so people could get inspired and
just come to him.
Speaker 2: And just like I did, I didn't realize that you
had a child during the camp. How old is your
son though.
Speaker 4: He's gonna be two months in November?
Speaker 2: First, Okay, so when the camp, when the when the
fight's over, I guess then you can relax and spend
some good time with him.
Speaker 4: I guess yeah, you feel me? Yeah for sure?
Speaker 3: Exactly.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of post fight, if you win and assuming
you do take care of your business, you're gonna be
twelve and zero. I wonder what do you see in
store for yourself for twenty twenty five? Is it?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I know you're in a hurry to get to the
big time fights. So the title fights. You already say
you're the best lightweight in the world. It's an excellent division.
Do you think it's a title eliminator in the near
few get? Can it be a world title shot? It
may be a little tough getting the title fight just
because of the guys that hold the belts at the
present time. What is your sort of outlook on that
you know down the road?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm ranked number three and three sanctioned bodies.
Speaker 5: That's you know, that's one step and then all the
guy Branchick that's from Ukraine. We DM, we DM all
the time and we talk about how it could make
the fight.
Speaker 4: Happen, you know, next year.
Speaker 5: You know, so I'm definitely not far away from becoming
the world champion. Like at the end of the day,
just think about the landscape in one thirty five division.
Speaker 4: Who else deserve a shot or a title?
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not saying you don't deserve a shot.
I'm just thinking.
Speaker 5: No, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that neither.
I'm just I'm just saying, like, just think about it, like,
I'm next in line for this for a shot with WBC.
Well that's your core, WBO, IBF or w A. Like,
I'm next in line, man, people want to see me fight.
I sell I sell an Arenas. You know what I'm saying. Like,
I'm next in line. You know what I'm saying, So
expect me to become a world champion twins five for sure.
Speaker 2: Well you mentioned Brentchick. That was the guy that sort
of seemedless stick out like the sore thumb. I mean,
you're not fighting Shakurt obviously, he's your you know, you
guys are close.
Speaker 3: He's with a different promoter now.
Speaker 2: Anyway, Barentschak is there, Loman Chenko a lot of people
think he may retire. If he does that, dolt would
become vicant. I haven't looked to see your exact position
in the ID of rankings, but I guess that might
be a possibility. You're third, okay, and uh and Tank Davis,
I mean, he's off doing his thing. Don't think he's
looking no, because he's looking for the bigger fights. He
does what he wants to do in terms of his
pay per views. But you do feel like though the
world time, I mean, you can't, you can't.
Speaker 5: Really put that narrative out there like that. We all
respect Tank and what he did was the sport. He
brought a lot more eyes to the sport.
Speaker 3: But I'm not I'm not doing this.
Speaker 4: It's not scrict fights.
Speaker 5: It's like it's like it's like, I don't know. I know,
he tried to fight limy Chenko, you know what I'm saying.
He tried to fight lemon Chenko and lemon Chenko saying no,
you know what I'm saying. But it's still like you said,
is stacked man and him going to fight a one
to thirty pounder that he's been broke, that he grew
up with, that we just see spar and all.
Speaker 3: That extra shit.
Speaker 4: It was just like, okay, doing what you want to
do the biggest fights.
Speaker 2: My comment about Gervanta Davis was not negative. It was
a matter of the fact that he is in a
position where he's able. Good for him to to to
not have to fight you and still be able to
put on big events and still be able to make
a huge amount of money. Sure, I was trying to
figure out where where Kishan Davis is going to get
that title opportunity from him or no, no from you
mentioned like Brent Chick and some of the other guys.
Speaker 5: Oh, just period twenty five for sure. I think twenty
twenty five for sure, Like I'm getting the belt guarant
I would say guarantee because.
Speaker 4: I've never won a lot of y'all shit nine times.
Become world champion next.
Speaker 2: Year, well it'll be uh, it'll be definitely fun and
interesting to watch. First, obviously, you got to take care
of your business with Gustavo Lemos on the upcoming fighting
on November eighth. I wish you the best of look
in that fight, Kishan. I really appreciate your time to
do this today.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, thank you. Matt.
Speaker 1: Gonna be a big night on Friday for him lining
Dan Rayfield. What do you have in summation there after
talking with Keishawn Davis about this big week coming up.
Speaker 3: I mean it's a big deal.
Speaker 2: I mean Norfolk, as we talked about in the interview,
hasn't been a hot bit if any if any kind
for boxing since the heyday of his idol Paranel Whittaker.
The Scope, which is the arena where Paranel Whitaker fought
many of those fights, is buying, I guess according to
the top rank it's a virtual sellout. Well before the fight,
they may have a couple of scattered tickets, but on
by fight night it'll be clean. And to take a
fighter home in a fight it's not a title fight
against an opponent that I guarantee, and nobody Norfolk ever
heard of in Gustavo Lemos, even though he's been you know,
you know, known to the diehards and the junkies.
Speaker 3: That's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2: And also it's a it's a big deal for the
Davis family in the community because it's not just Kishan
that's on the card, as we spoke about, is his
older brother Kelvin, who's a welterweight junior welterweight up and comer.
He's on the card. Their younger brother, Keon is turning
professional who is a top amateur. He he's in the
welterweight division making his pro debut. So it's a it's
a big deal. But the spot lights mainly on Kishan
and I thought he was really well spoken when he
spoke last. You know, it's about the nerves and about
the the the spotlight and and the tug on his
time and and the uh distractions if you will. And
he talked about his mental health situation, all the stuff
he's gone through in his career, in his life.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And he's like, man, I already done all that. This
is nothing. This will walk in the park. So I'm
really interested to see how he looks in this fight
and if he performs. And the thing about is if
he puts on another a good performance what he's done
really really well in his previous two fights, I think
that we'll see more hometown Norfolk, Virginia fights. It's a yeah,
it's a it's a it's a market that seems like,
based on the sellout nature of this event, has been
really in the in the mood for for something a
hometown to cheer about. They don't have the NFL, they
don't have you know, big time professional sports. Obviously he've
got good collegiate sports end and around the region. But
I think it's pretty cool that, uh, you know, decades
after a paranol whitaker his idol, he gets to come
home and shine and he's got as bright a future
as the young fighter in boxing right now.
Speaker 1: And that's high praise from one day in Rayfield there
to be saying that.
Speaker 2: So again that is my past past prospect of the
year has done nothing to not show he didn't deserve it.
He's now on the rise, and as I mentioned when
we were talking about the more Taias situation, with his
victory Kishan Davis, if he defeats Gustavo Limos, it's not
an official eliminator, but because of where where Kishan is
in the ratings of the WBO, there's a very good
chance that he may wind up fighting Dennis Brenchik, whose
fight that was supposed to be in December on the
Tyson Fury Bostig rematch undercard will not happen because of
the you know, for different reasons, that fight is out
because the guy that he was supposed to fight got beat.
Speaker 1: All right, so we'll see how he looks later this week.
We'll talk a little more about it in the preview
pod that'll be out later in the week. With there
you heard from Keishawn himself. Couple of news items a
Sunday announcement by Queensberry and Desogne. They are touting in Yes.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say that was Mark Chamberlain, Turkey
al sheik'savorite fighter who was supposed to fight and they
got beaten on the recent Riot season card. That's why
Branchik's next fight was up in the air.
Speaker 1: All right, So Branchick could be a key shot opponent
though coming up all right now. Queensberry Dezone Sunday announcement.
I found this a bit surprising because Matchroom is already
affiliated over in the UK and Europe, and now Queensberry
has left their agreements with what is it now TNT
Sports over there and has now done a mega deal
for a bunch of fight cards on Dizonne and I
guess eventually disowned pay per view. What are your thoughts
about it all being consolidated now in the dezone streaming
service well.
Speaker 2: Number one, the deal with TNT Sports does not expire
until the spring. Their deal with the Zone does not
begin until April first, so there's a few months. I
can only assume they announced it today because the first
of the month just passed. Maybe that was the close
of their negotiation period or something the other. It's a
little unusual to announcing that far ahead of time, but
that's what's happening. And the fact that they're going where
matrim is does not surprise me, because Queensberry has been
working stremely closely with the Riant season folks. For example,
they've done a whole bunch of fights now with with
Matchroom Boxing and his own wants to dominate the sports landscape,
and so they're making these deals with the best promoters
in the sport. They've got Golden Boy in Matchroom in
the Fold and now they're doing a deal with h
Or They've done a deal with Queensberry. And by the way,
this does not come as a surprise to me. This
has been the rumor for months. It wasn't a matter
to me anyway if it was gonna happen. It was
simply a matter of when it was gonna happen. I
kind of in my mind, I thought it's getting close.
And the reason I say it is because I felt
like that big binge of re signings that the Queensberry
folks announced last week where they resigned Nick Ball and
Shiraz and you know, six six of their fighters in total.
You don't do that if you'ren't really sure what's going
on with your future. And everybody knew in the business
that the TNT deal is coming up for either renewal
or expiration. But the scuttle butt, if you will, has
been all along they're gonna wind up on his own.
So in my mind, when I saw that announcement of
all those signings, I felt like, Okay, this is probably
getting close. I didn't expect it on a random Sunday.
I you know, teacher, I've been doing boxing coverage for
like twenty five years almost. I could probably count with
you on one hand the number of UH press releases
and announcements that have happened on a Sunday not related
to a boxing match that took place on the Saturday night, right,
So that was a little bit unusual in terms of
the timing, but in terms of Queensberry and his own
look in the zones. From their point of view, you
take a look at the land Okay, if you take
a look at the world landscape of boxing, the biggest
providers with the with the greatest depth of talent, in
no particular order, besides there in the whole world, Queensberry, Mattroom,
Golden Boy, PBC, and Top Break. Those are the five
behemoths right now. And there's plenty of other good promoters
you want to talk about teaking in Japan, and there's
other American promoters and other European promoters, Boxer and this
and that. I'm not knocking anybody. I'm saying those are
the big five in my mind in terms of overall
talent pool. Now j Zone has three of the five
locked up. They've got exclusive deals with Golden Boy, Mattroom
and Queensberry, so that's a big deal that gives them
another I already got comments when I was looking on
my social media and on the when I wrote a
story on my Fight Freaks Unite substack commentary basically people saying,
you know what, with them being now part of the
Zone in their mind, Okay, now, maybe that that's that
yearly subscription price is now maybe a little more worth
it because you went.
Speaker 1: There, but get ready because you know what the other
thing probably is, get ready for a rate increase.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, but.
Speaker 2: The point is, at least right off the bat, I mean,
it's a positive thing for in the in the minds
of a lot of people. Yeah, and of course they're
gonna wind up doing some pay per views for sure,
but in terms of they're gonna do their their normal
non pay review shows the same way Golden Boy does,
the same way Mattroom does, and hopefully it will lead
to fights between U the promoters, fighters the way that
we've seen the five on five and you know, and
even some other events that have taken place between the promoters.
So now that said, I'm not necessarily a huge fan
of it because of the the perspective I have is
I don't want to see every single big promoter on
one platform. It's nothing against the Zone, per se. I
would say the same thing if this was ESPN making
deals with everybody, or if it was HBO or Showtime
or whoever or Fier or whatever, Right, pick your platform.
I just don't feel like having one platform in total
control is good for the sport. It's like if the
NFL was only on Fox, or only on CBS, or
only on ESPN.
Speaker 1: Or clearly clearly we know enough about the business, and
I've been in the media business for thirty five years,
at the national level for about twenty years. This is
an attempt to basically say to fight fans, you're gonna
have a card virtually every weekend from either Golden Boy,
Matchroom or Queensberry. Now, in this instance, not necessarily four
weeks out of every month, but three or four weeks,
three weeks most of the time, four weeks some of
the time, you're gonna have a fight card.
Speaker 2: I dare say, you guys to me, you're gonna probably
have it every week. And I say that because besides
the big three in Mattroom, Golden Boy, and Queensberry, you
know they do have other smaller level shows.
Speaker 1: They'll do shows shows with Queensbury is easily gonna have
a dozen fight cards, right, maybe even fifteen or twenty
of them. Some of them might be pay per view
to add to Mattroom, to add to Golden Boy. So
you're right, I mean, I just get ready for the
other shoot.
Speaker 3: To drop, price to go up.
Speaker 2: And again they've done. They did they pick up shows
with Lou Debella, they picked up shows with Soleted Promotions.
I watched some of the show that was. The other
night they did a show with UH with Jimmy Birchfield
and Box Lab, which was the return of Jamine Ortiz,
who by the way, scored a fourth round knockout victory
in his return after the t Them Lopez title fight
loss at one hundred and forty pounds. So they they
do those types of shows too, But Queensberry going along
now with Mattroom and Golden Boy gives them the elite
level on a regular basis. And here's your thing about it,
and and Warren and Queensberry are primarily looked at it
as a British promoter obviously, because that's where they do
most of their business, you know. In addition to whatever's
been going on with the Saudi's. However, if you take
a look at what's been happening with with with Queensberry,
they've been signing now with smattering of fighters that are
not British, some American youngers. The younger fighters they signed,
for example, Brandon Lee, they signed a Russian heavyweight that's
with the manager Keith Connolly and and I've talked to
George Warren and Frank Larren and they are planning at
some point to come and do fights in the United States,
for example, and those would be on on the own
as well. So they're looking to branch out. They obviously
they're based the same way with Mattriom is going to
be in Britain, the same way Golden Boy. They're going
to do a show later in November and Saudi Arabia.
But their base is the United States. But they're gonna
branch out Queensberry and they're going to do fights here
in the United States, and that part of this deal
is a good thing in my mind.
Speaker 1: All right, one more news item before the nostalgia, and
that is a new president of the WBO. That is
Gustavo Olivieri, right if I have that correct, who is
now replacing Paco valcrsol, who had been there. I didn't
realize had been there thirty years.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so give.
Speaker 1: Me a little more on this. They made that decision
late this past week.
Speaker 2: Well, Paco has been contemplating her retirement, you know, as
he mentioned in his comments that he's seventy six in
good health, I guess, but doesn't want to be a
boxing organization president for the rest of his life. Wants
to spend time with the grandkids and with his family
and do that type of stuff. He's earned that right,
and honestly, not a huge surprise to me. I had
known for a while from private conversation with Paco had
told me that he was going to be retiring into convention,
and it didn't surprise me that Gustavo was the one
that was elected to take his place. Gustavo has been
the w bo's in house legal counsel for the past
eight years. He's been at Paco's side for show after
show after show for the better part of the past
eight years. I've known Paco and I've known Gustavo. I've
known Paco for my whole career. Gustavo I've known pretty
much since he started with the WBO. He's a knowledgeable person,
a hard worker, a good dude. I talked to him
about different related things on the wb on a regular basis.
I find him honest and hard working, and those are
all good attributes. I think he has respect from the
different promoters and the managers and the boxers and media
members that deal with him, so he's able to you know,
it's being a sanction body president. It's not for the
faint of heart, as I think you may well know
what the criticism that comes along with it, as well
as the tugging that you get from every quarter, whether
it's media or the fighters or their managers or the
promoters that it's it's an unenviable task at times. But
I feel like he's done a good job and he's
got I think anyway, this is my perception. I think
spend some time with him and talked to him many times.
The disposition to handle things politically, to keep calm and
to navigate some rough waters at times. And part of
that is to make sure you have knowledge which he does,
have respect from the people you deal with, which I
think he does, and uh and and understand the rules
of the road, which he's learned very well from somebody
like Paco var carsel Over the last you know, nearly
a decade. So I certainly wish Paco the best in
his retirement. I've always liked Paco. He's always been a
straight shooter in my book. You know, we don't agree
in everything, like with any sanction body present. We've had
some back and forth, if you will, but but much
respect him. And I think Gustavo, who's, you know, a
lot younger than Paco, He's forty years old, he's ready
to dive into this thing and give it everything. He
made the point in his comments, look, I I lost
a girlfriend because of my obligations and my my, uh
my loyalty to the WBO, because he felt it was
more important to do what he was doing with the
boxing organization then to you know, what his girlfriend wanted
from him. So you know, he's got the he's got
the uh the the focus, if you will, on doing
that job. And you know, the WBO when it started,
we've talked about it was a fucking joke. Nobody took
it seriously. When Paco became the president, I think he
was the third president ever in the organization. If it
was under his watch that it went from being a
joke that nobody took seriously to really becoming legitimately one
of the other organizations you had to pay attention to
in terms of the fighters that they dealt with, the
way they dealt with the promoters, the champions that wanted
their titles, et cetera. And in my mind, they have
even they're at least on par with you know, and
some people will tell you they've gone ahead of somebody
like the WBA, you know, because of all the craziness
with their extraneous titles. The WBO has my respect because
they're extremely judicious when they use interim titles. I think
that Gustavo will stick to that. They do use them.
I don't love it, but it's very particular and when
a guy or gal has a WBO interim title, it's
usually very short term. So that's a good thing, as
it should be, so they stick to that. They do
fill their rules well relatively speaking. I can't say everything
has always been perfect in my book, but again, the
in the in the ecosystem of boxing, I think they
happen to do a pretty good job.
Speaker 1: All right. So there's the news, some nostalgia, and then
we are done here coming off the weekend, so twenty
three years ago tonight as we do this November three,
Sunday and the Monday pasta Zoo, the father of Jim Zuo,
the Hall of Famer. You've you've talked about this knockout
before and it was a quick knockout of zab Judah
where Judah's legs turned to jelly in this in this fight,
So it made Costa Zoo the undisputed junior welterweight champion.
Reminisce a little bit about this win again.
Speaker 2: Well, this was a huge win. I mean, when you
take a look at Costazou's career, he is in the
International Boxing Hall of Fame and this is I think
it's it's clear to me anyway, this is the defining
win of his career. I mean Judah at that time,
this was an even money kind of a fight. This
was for all the marbles. Again, this was at a
time when yes, the four belts existed, but nobody considered
it necessary to also have the w BO title in
addition to the others to be called undisputed.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: So they were fighting for the w b A, the
WBC and the i B Fuh. Showtime has spent a
lot of time and money, uh facilitating this fight, had
given guys, had given both guys, you know, various fights
that try to maneuver towards this point where they would
finally fight for the undisputed title. Both of them were
under contract to Showtime and it was a really big deal,
I think, Uh, you know, Judah was looked at as
the as the super fast fighter. H a heavy duty puncher,
was sharp punching, well known to the American audience, had
been on you know, had come up on on the
USA Network as a prospect and had fought a lot
of big fights. He'd been on HBO, He'd been on Showtime.
I mean, it was like a really big freaking deal.
And uh, they had fought on double headers together, him
and him and Costa Zoo. Costa had unified two of
the belts with a with a a good victory against
Charmday Mitchell and then just left those two guys. Costa
had the one loss at that time going into the fight.
You know, back when he lost his title for the
first time, he'd been stopped by Vince Phillips in a
tremendous upset on HBO, but had actually scored big wins
after that and in zab Judah, you know, he was
a lot of people, you know, my good Pald Max
Kellerman looked at him as like a future pound for
pound kind of guy. That was a type of hype
he had. He had been a good amateur and he
had shown it in the professional ranks, and when they
finally met man, this was a big freaking deal. And
also he was undefeated. He was twenty seven and zero
and he had not beaten like huge names, but he
had done pretty well for himself. And so it was
kind of like a tossup, who do you like? First round,
Judah dominated, I mean, clear, clear's day, You're like, okay,
Judea's gonna wipe this dude out. And Costa was a
tough dude. But in the second round, look out, he
got clocked. Man. And when I say clock, he got clocked.
You know, did that gumby dance? I mean, if social
media existed when this fight happened in two thousand and one,
there'd be you know, gumbaye dance memes of zab Judah
on every platform you could think of on on social
media without cause.
Speaker 1: But the fans can go YouTube it up.
Speaker 3: Oh my, as we like to.
Speaker 1: Say, but he staggered, and as I as I visualized
it in my eye, he got up and he actually
ran into the referee, staggering and staggered some more because
he didn't have legs.
Speaker 2: Well, what he did was he stood up and then
he fell down. He got hit with the right hand,
a big overhand right right on the button on the chin,
and his legs were just gone, and Jane Nady was
the referee, and he fell down. He got up, he
started do the shimmy, and he fell down again, and
Nady waved off the fight. Now he could have maybe
you know, counted him and seeing what happened, but I
didn't at the time watching it live. I was working
at USA today. I didn't go to fight. I remember
why I didn't go to the fight, But uh, I
didn't really think at that moment when he stopped at
that it was like a bad stoppage. Necessarily, I was like,
I'm always if the guy as long as the guy's
are like dying on them ring that can you've got
a few seconds to play with to assess the guy.
I think he maybe could have done that, but I
don't think it was going to change how badly his
equilibrium was off.
Speaker 3: And they stopped the fight.
Speaker 2: And then the reason why this fight became even more
notorious or famous or whatever other you know. Costa wins
the fight becomes the undisputed champion, a huge, dramatic, important,
significant victory for any fighter. And by the way, there
hadn't been an undisputed champion in the junior welterweight division
for decades before this fight. Judah put his hands on
the referee. He stuck his glove under his chin, threatened
them with the ring stool. It was a whole, big,
big thing. Ultimately he got suspended and fined by the
Nevada Commission for doing that, for playing, you know, for
putting his hands on the official. It was just not
a good thing. That was a huge story. I remember
writing about that.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a big deal. But for Costa Zoo it
was a big deal because he had scored a humongous
victory and after that he went on. You know again
he had been a champion prior to that. He had
unified the titles with the victory by stoppage against Charlie
in Mitchell yet knocked out stop made quit. However, you
want to look at it, uh Julio Caesar Chavs and
who was faded. But he was a mandatory fight. It
was the final world titled bout of Julio Caesar Chaves
his legendary career. But after he defeated Judah, then he
started he beat uh, you know, he went had a
massive homecoming fight in Australia against James Lea in a
in a highly public sized big time rematch with Charmi Mitchell.
He won again by an easier knockout than he did
in the first fight. And then he went to England.
Of course, everybody knows what happened there. He got stopped
by Ricky Atten and uh when Ricky became the champ,
although by that time typical uh Zoo no longer had
all of the belts because of the fact that that
mandatories pulled at him in different you know, there was
vacating or stripping or whatever. But this was a huge
deal and it was a it was a big time
win for Kasa zu H. And again back in those
days TJ alive on Showtime, not this would have this
would one hundred percent have been a pay per view
if it wasn't today's day age.
Speaker 1: Yep, different time though, even in two thousand and one,
and then you go back thirty years ago and we
did talk a lot about this last weekend with the
anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle, because you talked
about the bookends that virtually thirty years lay almost to
the day or excuse me. Twenty years later, almost to
the day, thirty years ago now November five, which is
Tuesday of nineteen ninety four, George Foreman became the undisputed
heavyweight champion. Again. It happened, as Jim Lampley screamed, it happened,
and it's how that it happened. And you and I
have talked about this before. There's a couple of interesting
aspects to it, including Foreman being in the same trunks
as the Rumble of the Jungle twenty years later.
Speaker 2: Well, I have to correct if he did. Unfortunately, he
did not become undisputed from the standpoint of the belts.
He became the lineal got the recognized the IBF. But
because boxing is stupid, sometimes things happen and all the
belts are not at stake because Michael Moore did not
was not able to keep all the belts after his
victory against Evander Holyfield. Nonetheless, this was as monumental a
victory in boxing as there has ever been in the
history of the sport. So you mentioned a couple of
weeks ago whenever it was we talked about the rumbull
in the Jungle. I guess this last week the Rumbo
was the University of the Rumble in the Jungle, where
George is on the losing end of what I believe
the best known fight in the history of boxing. He
loses that fight and loses the heavyweight title. Twenty years later,
and a lot happened because George retired for ten of
those years. By the way, you know, he had fought
a few more times after the Rumble in the Jungle,
but he eventually retired. He was preaching down in Texas,
as you know, in his church and needed money for
the church and for his life, and decided to make
a comeback. People thought it was an absolute joke. He
fought on against a whole string of complete stiffer ruse.
He fought on some ESPN cards, He fought on USA,
you know, Tuesday night fights in the middle of nowhere
against guys that you never heard of, and slowly, but surely,
you know, step up a little bit, step up a
little bit. Finally they put him in the ring with
Jerry Cooney, who was faded at that time but still
a well known name, a guy that everybody knew could punch,
and he walked through him in a couple of rounds
in one of the most devastating knockout roy drive by uppercut.
That knocked in uppercut, right, I mean, and then after
that people are like taking him a little bit more seriously.
Fought a few more stiffs and then he really put
on a huge performance. It didn't win, but he got
the shot against Evander Holyfield, who at the time was
the champ of the world. Humongous fight. This is postbuster
Douglas and they put on a sensational fight. The first
ever HBO pay per view fight back then was called TVKO.
So the dawning of a new age if you all
have pay per view boxing. Tremendous battle, very underrated fight,
even though he lost. Awesome fight, got the opportunity with
Tommy Morrison for the vacant w BO time at the
time when nobody considered the BO to be anything. But
he lost that fight, and at that point you're like, okay, now, George,
he had a great run. He gave a great effort
against the Vander. You know, I had come back and
had beaten a couple of other two three guys in between,
lost Tommy Morrison and he had to go beg Seth Abraham,
who was then the president of HBO Sports to give
him the opportunity to remember, George was a commentary person
on the HBO broadcast that Abraham from the broadcasting perspective
was his boss, and he knew that if he blessed
the fight that it could get made because Michael Moore
had been on HBO. He fought e Vander Holyfield on
TVKO you know h which became HBO pay per view,
and after a pretty long layoff more than a year,
he had fought Tommy Morrison and lost in June of
ninety three. Brought the team at HBO, including Loud Debella,
including Seth Abraham. They blessed this fight to happen on
November fifth, nineteen ninety four, and the MGM Grand Gardnerina
was basically sold out. And it wasn't because Michael Moore
was making his first defense as the heavyweight champ of
the world. It was because the public was so fascinated
and interested to see a big George at that age.
What was he forty three years old? I guess forty
two years old. If he could come back and regain
the heavyweight title, I mean, nobody really gave him much
of a chance at all. I mean people thought it
was an absolute farce. He was actually forty five years
old now that I think about it, and he gets
in the ring and it's as bad as everybody thought
it might be. He was slow, he couldn't pull the trigger.
He couldn't find you know, he couldn't hit the fucking
ocean with a with a with a with a rock
if he was standing on the shore. I mean, he
couldn't find Michael Moore with anything. He got his absolute
ass kick for nine and a half rounds or however
long nine plus rounds. And as he says in his
recounting of the story, and he told it to reporters,
and he told it on the HBO Legendary Knights documentary
that he had it all planned out for the past
three months how he was gonna do it. And Jim Lampley,
our dear friend, who was his commentary partner on HBO,
has told the story that George, you know, when Jim
asked how you gonna win, and he recounts George Foreman,
So maybe he did plan it out telling him. And
this is Jim Lampley saying this. He said to me,
you watch at some point he's in a comes cannon
right in front of me and let me knock him out. Meanwhile,
he got Teddy Allis, who was Michael Morris trainer, going
absolutely fucking crazy in the corner, telling Michael, do not
stand in front of this man. He's still dangerous, you know,
do not stand in front of him, anything to not
stand in front of him. And sure enough, after losing
every single second of every single round, he came and
stood right in front of George Foreman and he landed
the shortest, most perfect shot you could ever see, right
on the fucking button, and he knocked him clean out.
The blood is welling up in his in his mouth,
and he counts him out.
Speaker 1: And if Joe Cortes counted him out right, and.
Speaker 2: Then Joel Jim Lampley with the greatest call in the
history of his career at HBO, it happened. It happened.
George Foreman goes to the corner, he kneels down in prayer.
Bob Aaron, his promoter, gets on the ring and gets
on the floor and hugs George. The place goes absolutely
fucking ape shit. And as we spoke about, he's wearing the.
Speaker 3: Trunks from the rumble in the Jungle.
Speaker 2: Almost twenty years to the day later when he regains
the title. This to me is I think maybe the
most historic knockout in the history of boxing, besides maybe
what happened in the Rumble and the Jerser Well.
Speaker 1: I don't know, but Buster Douglass and Mike Tyson is
probably that's out there. It's got to be right, Okay.
So a couple of other interesting things, because I haven't
done it recently, but I've watched the end of this
fight a couple of times. I've watched the legendary HBO
Knights thing a couple of times. Foreman came close to
landing that punch a couple of times in the round
before and even earlier in that round. So he clearly
was trying to set up the straight, fastball right hand
down the middle.
Speaker 3: That's all he had.
Speaker 1: That's all right, he had caught. I'm only just saying
he had come close, and he finally did. And I
understand the argument as Michael Moore brought this up for years.
It to him was a fluke thing. It was one
of those you caught me with a punch, but don't
act like that. You were, you know, some great mastermind
behind it. You caught me with a fluke punch. You
caught me with a punch, and that was that. And
so I remember having Joe Cortes on this podcast before
you joined us on the podcast. We had him on
on the anniversary probably I want to say twenty nineteen,
so it's probably been five years ago that we talked
to Joe Cortes, the Hall of Fame referee. And the
interesting thing is, I said, do you remember anything specific
about counting over More and maybe thinking George Foreman's about
to be the heavyweight champ And he said, I'm paraphrasing.
He said, I did think for a second, I'm counting
him out and George, and George has won. When he
got to like eight or nine, I'm counting him out
because he's still laying there. He goes, and then I turn,
as I always do, to point to the winner and
say winner, and he goes. I point to him, and
George is looking up and then I look back and
I'm looking at More and I look back and I
can't find George. And it's like you said, because he's
kneeling down, praying in the corner. He's like, all of
a sudden, I can't see George. People are jumping in
the ring and I don't know where George is, so
he's knelt in the corners.
Speaker 2: That's what happened was when George won. You can watch that.
Watch the fight. I mean, at least the end of
the fight. A million times George looks to the he
goes to the corner and he looks up. Yeah, and
he had expression and kneels down to pray. And George
obviously he's a religious guy. It wasn't It was not
a that's not for show. That's who he is. He'd
been a preacher and I'm still to this day, gives
sermons in this net from as far as I know.
Speaker 1: Has done and by the way, has done amazing things,
as you know with Houston and Boys and Girls Club
and his church is Church Ministry.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: And he donated millions and millions of dollars off those
forem and grills that we always joke about to that ministry.
Speaker 2: Well, and Michael Michael Moore makes the hilarious comment and
the legend and nice he goes. If I didn't, if
I get it looked out for the punch, maybe we'd
be talking about Michael Moore and Grills.
Speaker 1: Michael Morrell, right, done have the same ring to it.
But yeah, in my in my.
Speaker 2: Day when this occurred. Now, this is before my days
of covering box, and this is nineteen ninety four. I've
graduated from college. I'm still living in my in my
mom's house, you know, while I'm figuring my life out
in what I'm doing. I was working at a small
paper in upstate New York. But I'm living at home,
and Mom's asleep, and my sister, who's you know, also
living there, my younger sister, she's asleep. My mom's bedroom
is across the hall. My sister's bedroom's on my side
of the hall, but next to my room. So we
got the three rooms clustered in the hallway. And like
I said, this is late night on Saturday night or whatever.
I get to a Saturday night and I'm watching the
fight in my room, and my mom and my sister
are both asleep. And when Foreman wins the title, I think,
I'm like, you know, at a sports bar or at
like a restaurant, at a at a party, and I
lose my fucking mind and I started a booting and
holler in my room, and I didn't realize like what
I was doing, how late it was, and my my
mom and my sister both woke up and come into
my like I don't know if my door might have
been open or whatever, but they basically like opened my door,
came into my room and like, what the hell is
going on in here? And I'm like, oh my god,
I'm sorry, but George Truman just won the heavyweight title.
And my mom looked at me like I had six heads, right,
and my sister, you know, gave me the dart of
you know, the distinct eye, and uh, sorry, guys, but
this was a huge deal. And I lost my fucking
mind just sitting at home watching the finals by myself
that night, as.
Speaker 1: Did many that were watching at the moment thirty years
ago now.
Speaker 2: And imagine, though, TJ, you're George Foreman. You've, like I said,
it's the epitome of sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes
you're the bug. I mean, he's he's the bug the
night against Mom and Ali, right, and he's the windshield
twenty years later against Michael Moore and two of the
most monumental heavyweight championship you know, uh title changing hands
knockouts and one hundred and you know, twenty years of
men putting padding on their fists and fighting for the
heavyweight championship.
Speaker 1: And that happened on Tuesday, November fifth, So thirty years
on for that great moment. And we do have a
birthday wish as we wrap it up here that on
this Sunday, November third, it is the seventy fifth birthday,
milestone birthday for the Eastern Assassin Dan Rayphiel. Larry Holmes,
Happy seventy fifth birthday. And so if you talk about
the bridge between post Ali and before all of this
happened in the nineties with Tyson holy Field and then
eventually George Foreman, you have Larry Holmes and Larry Holmes's
rained so pick it up from there.
Speaker 2: Well, I would say happy birthday Larry Holmes. I mean,
he's one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time.
I'm one of the great fighters of all time, maybe
one of the most underrated heavyweight champions of all time.
You know, following in the footsteps of Muhammad Ali could
not have been easy. It's been documented. He's talked about it,
and especially Larry, because you didn't have that kind of personality,
you know, not nobody has the personally of Ali was
never like an extrovert necessarily. He was more, you know,
do the business. You know, didn't have like the bodybuilder,
you know, great athletic body, but did the job. Man,
great jab, great heart, great chin, great great ability to
come back. I mean in the occasions where he'd been
knocked down by Rinaldo Snipes, for example, for Ernie Shavers
to get off the deck like that and to show
the balls to go on and not just win, but
do so without controversy. And you know, in the case
of the Snipes fight, get the knockout. I mean, these
are punches that would have dropped anybody, and he was
able to to knock them both both out, including Shavers
when he got dropped by And this isn't back in
like the nineteen seventy nine but when he won the title,
remember he had been Ali's sparring partner when he won
the title. This was against Kenny Norton, which is one
of I would say top five heavyweight fights of all time,
you know, to off the top of my head, I mean,
just a sensational bad bad biceps and won it by
winning the fifteenth round of that fight.
Speaker 1: I still contend that fifteenth round is the greatest fifteenth round,
maybe in boxing history, but certainly championship history. They just
bombed each other and nobody went down as he beat
Ken Norton. Now, let me put it to you like this,
mister nostalgia. Is that the best left jab maybe in
modern boxing history, Larry Holmes, I mean heavyweight history.
Speaker 3: Who's it might be?
Speaker 2: It might be the best job of all time anybody
that we've seen on recorded video or whatever, because we
can't speak about it the boxers that box before the
existence of you know, television or video cameras and that
sort of thing. But from the time that video existed,
you might say he's got the best left job of
all time.
Speaker 3: It was a weapon.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Larry kind of had a raw deal because, like I said,
he had to follow in the footsteps of Ali when
he defeated Shavers. Then he had to fight Ali, who
he didn't want to fight. And Ali obviously was you know,
was way way way past his best days, and obviously
he beat him up severely. Didn't want to do it
until finally Ali Angelo Dundee in the corner pulled the
mat after the tenth round. So he had to live
with the fact that I just beat up you know,
everybody's idol, and he kind of.
Speaker 3: He admitted, yeah, exactly, Ali.
Speaker 1: Was my idol. I didn't want to be brutalizing him
at the end of his career.
Speaker 2: And he also fought in a time where you know,
the heavyweight championship was still a big deal. But the
thing that was interesting Larry he spent most of those
years he was promoted by Don King, but they jumped
around from network to now where he fought on HBO,
he fought on the there on multiple they fought on ABC,
fought I believe definitely on NBC, might have fought on CBS.
Thought maybe here and there on a close circuit fight.
The point is he jumped around and but had no traction.
Was a great fighter, but did not have the adulation
of the public. When it got to the point where
there was a fight that people really wanted to see,
which was against Jerry Cooney, it was really because of Cooney,
you know, the supposed great White Hope, and so it
was one of the rare fights where, if I'm not mistaken,
they got parody in the fight where Jerry never fought anybody.
Here's Larry. He'd been a champ for a long long time,
but he still made the most money he'd ever made
at that point. Maybe you could correct me. I thought
it was a parody fight. But here's the thing, though,
he wins that fight, and again he continued to defend
and defend against all comers, and then was closing in
on the on the on the hallowed mark of forty
nine to zero compiled by Rocky Marciano, and then suffered
the upset loss to Michael Spinks, who was the light
heavyweight champion who had come up to heavyweight some controversy there,
lost the rematch and even then continued to fight for
many years that after that. Came back after that loss
and the second Spinx fight and got absolutely clobbered and
crushed by Tyson, and then still continued to fight and
became kind of like Foreman, where he's fighting a lot
of nobody's on the USA and these smaller types of shows.
But he still parlayed it into another shot against a
Vander Holyfield for the heavyweight title, got an opportunity for
the WBC belt against Oliver McCall, and just had a
very long career. It always blows my mind that when
he finally ended his career in two thousand and two,
his last fight was a win by the way at
the Scope and which will host the Keishon Davis fights
on Friday, Nugget against your boy Butterbean.
Speaker 3: How about that?
Speaker 2: I mean the career of Larry from the types of
fights and the level of fights, and the money he made,
and the and the big fights he was in, and
the struggle for the credit at seventy five. I think
he knows. I hope he knows that anybody that followed
at that time he was the heavyweight champion of my childhood,
right or people that look back and study boxing, give
him his props as one of the great heavyweights of
all time, because that's what he is. He would hang there.
I don't care. You can start, you know, go back
to the John L. Sullivan, Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, you know,
Ali Foreman, Norton, Fraser, Tyson, Lewis Glitz. Pick anybody, pick
any heavyweight whoever walked the face of the earth, and
put the prime Larry Home in the ring with that dude,
and Larry Holmes is going to be into that fight.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent the Easton Assassin. By the way, he
and Cooney are still great friends to this day, have
been for decades. Even after their fight. There was a
lot of animosity when they fowed. Some of it was
hype for the for the pay per view, which for
the longest time was the record for pay per views
in the in the eighties, or closed circuit or money
made off of a off of a closed circuit or
a pay per view, because there was just so much
hype around Cooney and it was all hype. Larry dominated
him and knocked him out so and.
Speaker 2: Just first perspective, by the way he finished his his career,
Larry Homes sixty nine wins, six losses, with forty four knockouts,
stopped only one time in that long career that started
in nineteen seventy three ultimately ended in two thousand and two,
right only against only against the absolute prime Mike Tyson,
coming off of a long layoff. By the way, five
hundred and seventy nine professional rounds. I mean, that's a
lot of fucking rounds.
Speaker 1: And probably conservatively two hundred and fifty of them or
championship rounds. I would just guess that, yeah, I would
say something like that.
Speaker 2: Yes, he had twenty title defenses, you know, and was
in a lot one of those went the distance, certainly,
tons of those fights, you know. I only regret one thing.
While I have met Larry Holmes a few times during
the course of my career, I've never had a chance
interview Larry Holmes.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately interesting, but the Easton Assassin well well known. Certainly
if you are nostalgic like us, go back and watch
those fights and those battles, including with Michael Spinks. Go
back and watch that fifteenth round again with he and
Ken Norton in the old Caesar's Palace pavilion. Tremendous fifteenth
and final round there for that. So happy birthday to
Larry Holmes. All Right, busy program here, including hearing from
Keyshawn Davis, the recap of the wins by Oshaki Foster
and also Floyd Schofield, and that sets into motion now
a week that's not only going to have Davis's headlining
fight on Top Rank, but the Matchroom doubleheader with Jaron
Ennis and Bam Rodriguez. We're gonna be ready to preview
those later in a week. I have not mentioned yet.
As we say, goodbye here that I'm actually in Kansas City. Hello,
Heartland of America, as my Buccaneers get ready to take
on the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night football. Raphael,
be thinking, be thinking of me as I stand in
the rain. Apparently that's the forecast, as I stand in
the upper fifties, mid fifties and the rain all Monday night.
Speaker 2: As I often say in these situations, better you than.
Speaker 1: This, exactly. And one more nugget? Can I put this
nugget on top of the nuggets? All right? They're talking
about another tropical storm. God help us. We don't need
another one. It is way south of the Yucatan Peninsula
as you visualize things in the Caribbean Sea. But it's
apparently going to become a factor. Stay with me, Stay
with me, audience, and Dan, it's going to become a
factor next week. Are you ready. We're on the RS.
And even though they're pronouncing it Raphael, it's spelled like
your name. It's not the Rafael of the teenage mutant
Ninja Turtles, which is at age. This is a Rafael
with the F the Spanish pronunciation. So Hurricane Rayfield. Because
I've been looking at Rayfield's name for the last twenty
five years is a possibility in the coming few days.
We may be talking they're gonna call it Raphael, but
it's spelled the same way ri F A E L
like you spell Rayfield. Keep that away from everything, please,
if you have no say in the mids over your namesake,
keep that away.
Speaker 3: No sense, God Almighty.
Speaker 1: So I saw that and I had to throw that
out as a nugget on top of the nuggets here
on the program or anything else. In closing, Are we
ready to have a good week? Are we ready to
get out of here?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I'm ready to go. I can't.
Speaker 2: I mean, uh, listen, Like I said, I'm interested to
see how how things go for Keisha in the hometown,
looking forward to seeing Bam fight, looking to see looking
forward to seeing in this fight. Although be less and
honest I said, I'm looking forward to the actual It's
not Drown's fault, it's not Matriom's fault. That's a mandatory.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: But the that fight leaves something can be desired. So
at the very least release Matchew was able to beef
it up by putting another top fighter on the Cold
feature with Dan Revriguez.
Speaker 3: Wo's in with a pretty good oppoint.
Speaker 1: All right, so we got plenty of time of dissection
those on a preview pod. What day we reconvene there,
Nice stuff and have a good weekend, Ray pil We
appreciate it YouTube. All right, I'm merely PJ Reeve. Thank
you for being with us. Follow subscribe on this podcast
seet we preview going into the weekend, and you've been
listening here to the recap podcast known as the Fight
Freaks Unite recap Bot