Speaker 1: Well, it is my great pleasure to welcome for the
podcast this week. It's one of the legends of boxing,
none other than Top Rank Chairman Bob Aram. Bob, it's
great to have you on the show. We got so
much to talk about. You've been a busy man, got
a lot of great cards, a lot of great fights,
a lot of stuff that just happened, a lot of
stuff that's coming up, and I thought it's a great
time to discuss it with you. So thank you for
doing this and welcome.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: You bet all right. Well, I guess the biggest thing, Bob,
is what just happened in the most recent event that
Top Rank was involved in, and that was, of course,
the undisputed light heavyweight championship fight that took place in
Saudi Arabia, where the result was your fighter, Arthur better
beev by a very close decision over Dmiti bievol To
become the undisputed a light heavyweight champion of the world
in a very fascinating fight. Some controversy, I mean, I
think some of it's overblown. I'm gonna gas your opinion
about that. But first and foremost, what did you think
about the accomplishment that better beev accomplished by unifying the
four belt. That's what he's wanted for a long time.
It's what Beevol has wanted, and your guy was able
to get the job done. Close as it was, I.
Speaker 3: Think it was a terrific battle between two really outstanding
light heavyweight fighters.
Speaker 2: Who had.
Speaker 3: Different fight styles, and that made it a really interesting
fight to watch.
Speaker 1: So now, you usually travel for your big fights, but
you were not present because I know you were back
home observing the Jewish holidays when that was happening. So
I wonder, yeah, exactly, So I wonder as you instead
of in your usual spot at ringside, as you were
watching I am sure on ESPN Plus, what was your
perspective on the rightful winner of the fight, Because to me, anyway,
I scored to fight a draw, but I could one
hundred percent see absolutely there be of winning by a
close decision. And likewise with if somebody wants to tell
me that they thought people won by you know, a
seven to five kind of decision, what was your take
watching it live?
Speaker 2: Well, I you know, I thought Pete Beetoff won the fight.
I added.
Speaker 3: Seven to five for better be of particularly because he
came on in the late rounds to sweep the late rounds,
which he had to do to win the fight. I
think before people make any judgment about the fight, they
should look at the judges' score cards. I mean, the
three judges had ten rounds identical.
Speaker 2: In other words, there was no dispute for ten as
far as.
Speaker 3: Ten rounds were concerned, and that came out six for
Better be of four for BIFL. Now, there were two
rounds where the judges split, and in those for those
two rounds, one judge had it all for Better be Off,
two rounds for Better be Off, one judge had it
two rounds for bivol and the American judge Feldman added
one round each. So that's why you got scores of
a draw, seven five for Better be Off and eight
four for Better be Off. So again, it was a
very well judged fight. It wasn't judges being all over
the place. They saw at least ten rounds the same,
and I had Better be Off winning seven to five.
Speaker 2: And I think that a lot of people viewing that fight.
Speaker 3: Who claimed that bivol Ion were influenced by the TV production,
which was done by dis Own, even though in the
United States, it was shown on ESPN Plus because if
you looked at that between rounds, when they reviewed the
highlights of the previous rounds, overwhelmingly.
Speaker 1: It was for let's just call it very Bivol friendly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was Bevol friendly because Bev was a dezone
fighter with Eddie Earn and with Vadim uh and I
think that influenced a lot of people. That being said,
it was a very very close, very well fought fight.
Speaker 1: So after the fight was over, because of the dispute,
if you will, by a lot of folks that thought
that he did win. And then I saw some comments
from Turkey Alic saying, you know who I guess has
a relationship with both fighters. His opinion was that Bevol
won the fight by two rounds. He said there needs
to be a rematch. Both fighters seemed open to the
to the prospect when asked about it in their postfight
comments about doing another fight. What is your take on
the prospect of having this fight be an immediate rematch
whenever these guys are getting back in the ring next year, Well.
Speaker 3: You see, my friend Turkey, what Louis did you see
who he was sitting next to.
Speaker 1: At the fight I did you want to tell us
all about that.
Speaker 2: He was sitting next to Frank and Eddie exactly, and
so obviously they saw it for Bigul seven to five.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, Bob, I don't know. I don't
know if Frank had any dog in that fight.
Speaker 2: To tell you the truth, No, Frank paid everybody. The
money came through Frank right, So again and and maybe.
Speaker 3: Whatever it was now Turkey, it was a you know,
a guy who loves boxing wants to see a rematch,
and I think the public would love.
Speaker 2: To see a rematch. But again, because the.
Speaker 3: READ season ends in February, the earliest state for a
rematch would be next October.
Speaker 1: Well, they did do some some READ fights that were
beyond that date, and they also did the fights that
were outside of the READ season in other locations, but
that is not that is.
Speaker 2: Not what they're going to do in the future.
Speaker 3: I think there was a lot of pushback on his
excellency for doing fights outside of Saudi Arabia and outside
of READ season.
Speaker 2: So I think going forward, you know, in order to
tap into the Lodge budget that they will have, they
will have to do the fights in ri odd season
an in Saudi Arabia, which makes sense. So it may
mean that each of these guys fight.
Speaker 3: One more time against other opponents, and then for October
of next year, I got they do their rematch. I
think that is the likely from a business standpoint, the
likeliest thing that will.
Speaker 1: Happen, okay, And that's I think that's a reasonable thing
if if guys take interim fights, if they're amenable to it,
and if you know, obviously Top Rank you have a
robust schedule. Matchroom has a robust schedule. They can find
places for these two guys to have their separate fights.
I suppose if that's what takes place you mentioned, I
want to ask you. You mentioned about how Zone did
the production on the show, and this has been like
a big thing. I've personally had to be in my
bonnet about it. This fight cards. As you know, Top
Rank is the promoter of Arthur better b have you
made it very clear from day one when this fight
was made the Top Rank I wanted to deliver this
fight to the subscribers on ESPN Plus without a pay
per view surcharge, to satisfy your viewers, to satisfy your
broadcast partner, and to deliver a fight that wasn't a surcharge.
Speaker 2: Which we put that in the constrag.
Speaker 1: And I appreciate that as a fan for sure understood.
So for the United States market and for the Canadian market,
it was available without a pay per view aspect. The
entire event was a pay per view around the world.
So when it came to the undercard, originally there was
the notion it was going to be a pay per
view just for the undercard, and then Dezonne went out
of its way to announce that the fight would be
that the undercard fights, which was a good solid undercard,
Wardly and Clark two and some other guys Opataia a
title defense and Chris you banketca. That they would have
the rest of the card as a non pay per
view in the United States and Canadian market, but pay
per view around the rest of the world with the
main event, and then within a day or two before
the event, suddenly it changed to a pay per view
with no notice, no explanation. They had taken time to
single out people like myself in the media to explain,
to send graphics out about it, and then change it
without any notice or anything. And it got a lot
of people really irritated. Got me angered because I spent
a lot of time talking about it and telling people
how to watch it, and then I looked like an
idiot because that was not what came to pass. I
wonder what was your take on them taking an event
where you put your main event with your broadcaster, and
then they tried to put the or they did put
the rest of the event for a twenty dollars pay
per view in this market.
Speaker 2: Well, good luck with them putting it as a twenty
dollars pay perview. If they did two.
Speaker 3: Thousand buys in the United States, that for they, under God,
that would have been a lot.
Speaker 2: So again, it made no sense. I don't know what
went on behind the scenes with the Zone and the General.
Speaker 3: Entertainment Commission in the Saudi Arabia, and I don't want
to speculate.
Speaker 2: I can imagine what did happen.
Speaker 3: And that was unfortunate because around the world people bought.
Speaker 2: It for pay per view the entire cord, and they
saw a really good show.
Speaker 3: In the States, we had put in our contract from
the get go that the Better be Off Fight Bivol
Fight would be on ESPN Plus for no charge, and
we held.
Speaker 2: The line, and that's what happened.
Speaker 3: And we had, by the way, from the reports that
we got from ESPN, they had a tremendous viewing audience
on ESPN Plus for the Better be Off.
Speaker 1: That is great to hear. Now, my understanding is before
they went forward and made this a pay per view
that there was at least an overture from Operated to say, hey, guys,
you know what in this market, you know, we'll pay
you a fee and we'll just take the whole event
on our Plus platform, and they that they were not interested.
Is that Is that something that you you would have done?
Speaker 3: That is correct because we we told ESPN that because
they had been so supportive of Better be Off over
the years, that we would reserve.
Speaker 2: That fight for them and without.
Speaker 3: Charge having them to charge pay per view customers, and
we we certainly, uh, we're going to hold the line,
and we did hold the line, and people were able
to see the fight without course on ESPN Plus.
Speaker 1: But you tried to obtain the remainder of the show,
if I'm not mistaken, to go along with it. Yeah,
but that wasn't gonna end, okay, all right, So there's
that aspect. So now let's go forward to one of
your other major fighters in the top rank. Stable is
Noya in a way, who has been in the news
a little bit. I know after his last fight against TJ. Dohaney,
where he won the fight retain the undisputed one hundred
and twenty two pound world title, there was the discussion
he's coming back in Tokyo. He's going to fight on
Christmas Eve, where obviously boxing there's always big shows around
Christmas time of New Years in Japan. But then you
made the statement that after that we're going to bring
him back to Las Vegas and make a big fight
in the United States and finally get him back here
where he's fought three times before. But it's been a
couple of years and then this most recent turn of events.
I want you to explain to people what's going on
with this. I saw the IBF letter they ordered a
purse bid for his fight against IBFNWBO mandatory, although the
IBF was ordering their mandatory against Sam Goodman for the
next fight, which meant that the deal was not done
apparently according to the IBF. Now you can pick it
up in there and tell us what's going on within
aways next fight in December Yeah, somebody.
Speaker 2: The IVF jumped the gun and sent out that letter.
The negotiations.
Speaker 3: Between the Inner Wee camp and the Goodman Camp, Australian promoter,
have been going swimmingly and we're just about ready to
conclude those negotiations and I'm very optimistic that fight will
be held on December twenty fourth, on Christmas.
Speaker 2: Eve in Japan in Tokyo. And yes, if.
Speaker 3: Inerwe is successful, we really hope to bring him to
the United States for a major fight in Las Vegas.
I know Todd as Todd Debf, the president of Top Rank,
has had big discussions with Bill Unbuckle, the chairman of
the MGM, as far as holding that fight in April and.
Speaker 2: In Awe as is want will fight the best.
Speaker 3: Junior featherweight around in that fight, and it will be
a massive fight. Because it's funny what's happened with the
Japanese market in sports. When you go to a Dodger game,
an LA Dodger game, the thousands and thousands of fans
who have come over from Japan to Ceo Tani player exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so you know seats that would be going
for one hundred to two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: In Dodger Stadium are selling now for as much as
five thousand and six thousand dollars a seat because the
demand is so great from Japanese fans who want to
see Otani play baseball.
Speaker 2: And we assume that if in a wee.
Speaker 3: Fights in the United States, particularly in Las Vegas, a tremendous,
tremendous demand from fans from Japan who would fly over
to the United States to watch him fight.
Speaker 1: Right because his last fights that he had with top
rank that were in America, they were quasi pandemic related.
There were some I think was social distancing. We're in
smaller venues, but this would be the first one where
he's the main event in a big arena, you know,
without any pandemic related issues, and you can probably make
a big event out of it.
Speaker 2: I would think it would be you. It's huge.
Speaker 3: So Todd reports back to me that Bill Hornbuckle, you know,
is very enthusiastic about staging that event, probably in T
Mobile or MGM Grand and we look forward to doing
that in April.
Speaker 1: So what do you make of the situation with his
other mandatory? As I mentioned Sam Goodman, is the IBF
mandatory that was the one that is ordered. He's also
mandatory in the WBO, which I guess is not actually due,
but it would still count against that. But you have
the WBA mandatory as well as a former unified champion
in mj Achmadaliev, whose team is pushing back on the IBFS.
When the letter came out about finalizing the deal or
ordering it was scheduling a purse bid. Even though you
say the deal is going to get finalized, they're making
the point that hey, we're next up. We're going to
exert our legal rights. You know, if he wants to vacate,
that's him, but we got the next shot at the title.
Speaker 3: Well that's you know, typical nonsensical behavior, which happens very
often in boxing. If I were Vadim, who's the manager
of the Akadias whatever, I would not pursue that course,
but I would be looking to start negotiations for an
April fight within a week and without litigation.
Speaker 2: Without any nonsense, because I think that's probably the best
way to go.
Speaker 3: But again, you know, boxing being boxing, and the titasterone
level goes really high. You can't count on everybody to
make the right decision.
Speaker 2: So if they examine what they're talking about. And let's
say the w b A is made to.
Speaker 3: Strip Uh in a way of his w b A
title is only Uh to loses. One is the w
b A and the other is the the kid who's
trying to strip.
Speaker 1: The point is Zach mndally would still get to fight
for the title against an more anonymous opponent, obviously, and
for a tiny fraction of the money more significantly.
Speaker 2: Of what he would make to fight in a way.
Speaker 1: I got you, okay, Uh so you're he's going forward
with the Sam Goodman fighters who mean you wrap it
up regardless of the w b A situation.
Speaker 2: That is correct.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now, the big fight, at least to me anyway,
and I think boxing fans who are really into this
stuff within a way especially is certainly the super fight
between him, at least in terms of Japan boxing, is
him and Nakatani jinto Nakatani's who you co promote. He
looked absolutely spectacular. He scored a six round knockout in
his recent fight that took place in Tokyo against Chit Patana,
retained the WBC Bandamway title. Obviously, he's gonna go up
to one hundred and twenty two pounds. At some point
they were talking about on the broadcast Nigo, Ali Walsh
and Christina Pantu did the American broadcast for ESPN plus,
you know, with your company about him moving up at
some point. I mean, Bob, how big in your mind?
I mean, I can't think in my entire time of
covering boxer even before that, of where there's a bona
fide super fight that is two Japanese fighters against each other.
It's very very rare. It seems to me it is rare, and.
Speaker 3: From what I've been told by Ohashi, the manager promoter
of In a Way and Honda, our friend Honda, it
was just a co promoter with us of Nakatani in
Awe Nakatani uh would be by far the biggest fight
in the history of Japan, and they would put it
in the Tokyo.
Speaker 2: Dome, which is in and of itself fairly rare.
Speaker 1: U only, Bob, there's only been two fights at the
Tokyo don with mind. That was Mike Tyson, Buster Douglas
and when in a Way fought Neeri not to you know,
as a couple of fights.
Speaker 2: Ago, Tyson had a fight in the Tokyo.
Speaker 1: Right again against Tony Tubbs.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but from from the time of Tyson Fort Douglas,
there hadn't been a fight right in the Tokyo Hotel until.
Speaker 2: In a way Fort Nari. Yeah, and then we put in.
Speaker 3: Fifty five thousand people and the gate was like twenty
two million dollars twenty million dollars uh, and this fight
would come.
Speaker 2: Close to doubling double the revenue. You can't, you know,
increase the number of seats, right.
Speaker 1: So the reality is if things go to plan, and
you know, it's boxing, so things don't always work out
in a way, He's going to defend the titles December
twenty fourth against Sam Goodman WBA title or not. The
plan is then to bring him to the United States
for a fight in the spring April, as you said
in Las Vegas, to make the I guess the biggest
fight you can make other than na Katani, and if
he's successful, go back to Japan, I guess what, in
the summertime or in the in the early fall, and
have a fight against Nakatani when Nakatani rising in wait exactly.
Speaker 3: Whenever we can get to Tokyo, though, that's the key
because it's not only with the with the baseball team
that plays the Tokyo Giants, but also they do entertainment
stories booked up.
Speaker 2: But I think Brad Jacobs has.
Speaker 3: Met with the head guy at the Tokyo though, and
they for a date in the summer or fall.
Speaker 2: Of next year to do that fight.
Speaker 1: Is Nakatani the one guy that's out there that say,
between you know, the lower weight and his own weight
one eighteen two, that you think could actually where people
might actually find somebody that might be able to be
picked by people to actually beat him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Nakatani is a hell of a fighter.
Speaker 1: Oh that left hand, bob.
Speaker 3: He's trained by Rudy Hernandez who's a very good trainer.
Speaker 2: You know, he looks like uh.
Speaker 3: Coy and Todd was told me he looks like Gennaro
Hernandez with a punch.
Speaker 1: Right and jast people wo don't know, was the great
one hundred and thirty pound champion, and Rudy is his
older brother. Jenno of course passed away a number of
years ago, but yeah, he was a trem to fighter
for a long time and they do have similarities when
you Todd's honestly, Bob. When I talked to Todd after
the fight that that Nakatani had uh, he said the
same thing to me. And I was thinking to m us, like,
you know what, You're right because you think about Nakatani
is his massive puncher, uh, And that was not Gennaro's game.
But in terms of the way they hold their hands,
the way they throw their punches, the way they move
around the dead look reminiscent jaranas.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not.
Speaker 1: I was shocked by that. Well, they both exactly. So
that shows you that there's something there. But that is
a spectacular plan of that. If those if that plan
that we just discussed could come to pass, that would
be very special. I think, by the way, I know
anyway's gonna fight on December twenty fourth. That's going to
obviously be an ESPN Plus event, but top ranks go
to close out it's American schedule for twenty twenty four
on December seventh in Phoenix, Arizona, where I think you've
put together an outstanding card. It's not that it comes
as a surprise, but it's just recently been announced to
make it official, and it's going to be the night
of the rematches. It's going to be the mandatory rematch
between the WO one hundred and thirty pound champion, Emmanuel
Navverette against Oscar Valdez, who has the interim title. I
think a lot of people thought Naverette would stay at lightweight,
but he ended up getting defeated by Barentchik, so he
decided to retain the title and come back down and wait,
so that's one fight. Then you have the rematch of
what was arguably the fight of the year last year
between Raphael Espinoza, who won the WBO featherweight title in
a dramatic and classic battle against Robesi Ramirez to do
the rematch that was also a mandatory fight. Can you
speak to taking having both of those fights? I mean,
this is normally the kind of card that you would
have main event on two different nights. And I'm not
kissing ass here at a top rank. I'm just being real.
These would be typically two separate main events, as they
were by the way, when they had the original fight.
So how is it that we get to see this
doubleheader of these two rematches of what were two terrific
fights together on the same show.
Speaker 3: Because you forgot the missing element, and that is that
on December Ray, the next day, it's a celebration of
my ninety third birthday.
Speaker 2: This is true, and we have a big party.
Speaker 3: In Arizona, a big around the brunch celebration of my birthday,
and so it's only appropriate that we do probably the
fight show of the year for us the night before.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you should have your birthday every single
month then, because that means we get those types of shows,
because that is a that is a tremendous lineup, and
you know, you added a lunch of your clearly some
of the top up and comers, a top rank Emiliano
Vargas is on the card, Richard Torres is on the card,
the up and coming junior Welterway contender Landolf Aldogato. So
it's it's gonna be I mean, sounds to me like
as the as the as the kids say, Bob, a
banger of a card, A really good show.
Speaker 2: Well it is, and it's really really.
Speaker 3: You know, heavily obviously Hispanic. It appeals to all boxing fans,
put to Hispanic boxing fans in particular, and we're very
proud in the car and that's a good way for
us to close out our domestic shows for this year.
Speaker 2: But we have to then get on planes and fly
over to read for the Furiousic rematch.
Speaker 1: You must be reading my rundown because that was next
on my list to ask you about. That's on Let
people remind people that is December twenty first, obviously, that's
on ESPN plus pay per view, the rematch of a
fantastic fight the first time run back back in May.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then we're on a plane to Tokyo for
the Christmas Eve fight, our last fight of the year
with anoy and goodness.
Speaker 1: So as it relates to the rematch between Tyson Fury
and Alexander Usik, they had a classic battle for the
undisputed title in May. Really lived up to the hype
so many times, not just in boxing but in life
that the things that get so hyped up they just
don't live up to it. This is one of those
rare occasions where it did. They put on an outstanding fight,
just a super memorable fight, great heart and everything, action
you name it from both fighters. Fury with the close loss,
but you know he got banged around, I think more
so maybe than the Nusik did it took a lot
of punches. He didn't look very good in the fight
before that, when he had the life and death battle
with Francis Naganu, which I don't think he obviously properly
trained for compared to the way he did for the
Yusik fight. So I wonder going into the rematch, Bob,
what is your thought about where Fury is physically and
mentally going to try to regain the heavyweight championship.
Speaker 2: I think he's.
Speaker 3: Mentally he's in great shape. I think physically he'll be
in the best shape possible. But you know, Father Time
is a tough, tough.
Speaker 1: Foe, and Bob, you're you're the only one beating.
Speaker 2: It so far. I'm the only one beating it. That's true.
Speaker 1: It's also true.
Speaker 2: Different but but uh uh yeah. I mean Fury is
getting older and he's been in a lot of wards
uh and.
Speaker 3: Is an incredibly good fight very very well trained, tremendous
skills set.
Speaker 2: So I look for another great fight.
Speaker 1: Do you think that whatever happens in that fight between
Fury and Husic that eventually before they both hang it up,
Because you know, Anthony Joshua was also coming off a
very brutal knockout loss of Dua. They apparently are going
to have a rematch per Turkey sometime in February. You know,
to I guess close out read season, but that that
that they can't just not fight each other before it's
all said and done. You think we're gonna see Fury
Joshua at some point, you know.
Speaker 2: I I again that that doesn't thrill me. Fory Josua.
I mean, I don't think you know, Joshua coming off that.
Speaker 3: Devastating loss to Dubois. Uh really would be the number
one option. Let's assume Fury beats Usick.
Speaker 1: Which could happen, could happen, but not a given.
Speaker 3: Then the fighter that he should fight if he doesn't
do a trilogy fight.
Speaker 2: Is Dubois a huge fight in the UK.
Speaker 1: Are so fair enough, but I don't know. I'm still
not sure it's as big as the Joshua fight.
Speaker 3: Great Wembley fight and Usik. If he beats Uh Fury
and then we'll have that to have one the two.
Speaker 2: Fights, then his best fight would be with.
Speaker 3: Dubas because he had no problem beating Joshua in the
two fights that they had, and Uh the look the
victory over Dubois was controversial because many people felt that
the blow that put usick down at the belt line,
you know, uh, was a legal blow, in which case
Dubois would have knocked out Who's sick.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't hold that particular opinion. I actually don't
think most people don't hold that anything. But I understand
where you're coming from. There was something for the promotion
to hang its hat on if it were to come
to pass.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think yeah, I mean I it was controversial.
I think okay, but but so again, but again, one
step at a time. You know, a great fight in December, uh,
and you know, with massive interests.
Speaker 2: And and then you know, we'll see where we go.
Speaker 3: On the twenty second when I'll be on a plane
going to Tokyo from.
Speaker 1: Ria, still logging those miles, Bob, God bless you. I
want to rip through a couple a few more topics
where we get out of here. Speaking of heavyweights, we've
just spent a lot of time on fiury Nousic and
what's going on with that. I want to go back
a couple months ago. You were ringside in Los Angeles
when your fighter Jared Anderson had the fight against Martin Beccoley.
He was the favorite to win that fight and he
just got taken apart. Bacoley was so big, so strong,
just seemed like he couldn't miss with his big punches
and didn't just win, but I think did so in
a very devastating fashion by knocking Jared out in the
fifth round. That was his first loss. You know, obviously
a lot of people touted him as the top young
American up and coming contender. Coming off of a loss
like that, how do you even go about to rebuild him?
And what is where is his mindset do you think
at this point after that loss?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I don't know where his mind is
now because he had just had his first He's probably
concentrating on that.
Speaker 2: But I'll leave that up to the matchmakers. I want
everybody to know that it wasn't us that.
Speaker 3: His excellency Turkey al Alasic went right to the fighter
and made this proposal for money that the fighter had
never seen before and picked as his opponent this Pacola
who had been his puncher, and.
Speaker 2: Jared prepared as a then to deal with a guy
who couldn't move very much but was a great punt
and he never fought a guy like that, and so
the fact that he got.
Speaker 3: Taken apart and knocked out was not surprising. So don't
put it on my match makers. We were against that fight.
We were, but again, you know, when they waive money
at these kids, they insists.
Speaker 2: On taking it. Now, we could have gone into court
to prevent it, but we don't do those kind of things,
so we let the fight go ahead.
Speaker 3: You know, we made our money from the fight, but
we let that fight go ahead. And it was the
stupidest fight that Jared could have taken.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Plus, I don't think it would probably work out
well for anybody. You know, if you're suing Turkey in court,
I'm not sure we're even seeing in the United States
and Saudi Arabias you.
Speaker 2: Could sue the fighter from going ahead.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 2: So it is what it is.
Speaker 1: So at some point you bring him back, I guess,
and try to reconstruct his career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's you know, it's he's still
a very talented young man. For sure, he's very young.
Speaker 3: And so you know, Bruce and bred a great match
makers working with Moretti, called Moretti, and they'll.
Speaker 2: Find a way to bring him back.
Speaker 1: So another fight that seems like it might be on
the horizon on a top rank car, which I think
is just a fantastic matchup. You recently, you know, a
couple of fights ago, did a co promotion deal to
sign Christian Mobili with your friends at Aya the Tiger
in Canada. You just did your first fight with Haimi
Mongia where he looked pretty good, scoring a knockout against
Eric Bazinian, And before the result of the fight with
Mongia was known, there was already discussion, like you know,
and it was pretty obvious, like the great fight you
can make in the super midleweight division while Canelo was
champion and doing what he's doing would be an unbelievable
battle between Mobilly and Mongea. Are we going to see
that in twenty twenty five, Please say yes, we might very.
Speaker 2: Well, It might very well.
Speaker 3: I you know, we had a good experience promoting Mungia's
last fight, and I think his next fight is going
to be in Mexico, and then to bring him back
against Mobility would be a tremendous, tremendous fight. Mabilly is
a really fan friendly fighter, throws a million punches and.
Speaker 2: He gives the fans a lot of action.
Speaker 1: So he wants Canelo though, and he's the WBC's number
one contender. Can you get him a Canelo fight?
Speaker 2: Well, that would be the first priority. You're right, but again,
I'm not going we don't go down that route. I mean,
if Canelo wants to fight him, will make him available
so that Canelo can fight him.
Speaker 3: But I'm not going to push the mandatory to force
Canelo to do anything he goes.
Speaker 2: All that'll do is bed blood and uh, you know
who would accomplish nothing.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with that tactic when it comes to
Canelo because he's gonna do what he wants to do.
Speaker 2: You know that Canelo I consider a friend we've had.
Speaker 3: I've never done business with him, but we have a
good personal relationship.
Speaker 2: And Eddie Renosa trains one of my.
Speaker 3: Other fighters, Askabell did and I like.
Speaker 2: Eddie very much.
Speaker 3: So again, if Canelo wants to fight Mvilli, I'm all
for that, but I'm not gonna take part in forcing
Canelo to fight Mavilli.
Speaker 1: Understood. And by the way you talk about your relationship
with Team Canelo, I know this for a fact that
whenever Canelo is fighting his fights, you've always made the
top ranked gym available for him to do his training
during the week of the fight. Also for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, sometimes you don't do business with somebody,
but you maintained friendly relationships for sure, and that's how
I feel about Kennellen.
Speaker 1: Now another one of the fighters at Top Rank promotes
who's also coming off a very dominating knockout victory. You
are the promoter of the unified middleweight title holder, jannebec
album mccannooley, and he went to Australia in a heated
situation with the opponent, Andre Mkalovich, took him apart, knocked
him out, completely destroyed him. It seemed to me, even
though Mcalavich showed enormous heart, the problem in the middleweight division, Bob,
as you know, which is kind of breaks my heart
because you, especially somebody that promoted so many incredible middleweight
fights through the years, most notably with Marvin Hagler, also
with Carlos Monzon and others. Where in the world does
Janebec go Because most people, seems to me, the fans
I interact with, they're not that interested in him. The
division is very weak at the moment. They did just
order in terms of the WBO his mandatory against Hamsa Shiraz,
Frank Warren's fighter who was one of the top up
and coming fighters who just recently won the European title
on the undercard when Anthony Joshua and Dania Dubois had
their fight. So is that the fight that you pursue?
Is there something else you can do with Jennebec? What's
the story there?
Speaker 2: You know, Jennebec has a few options. One is to
do a unification fight with the Damas Solara.
Speaker 3: The other, which is the route that I favor, is
for him to fight Frank's fighter. We're very close with
Frank and Queensberry and we shouldn't have much problems putting
that fight together, whether it's.
Speaker 2: In London or even in readd.
Speaker 1: As a.
Speaker 2: Big fight on they.
Speaker 1: Cad like that does that feels like based on the
timing that the WBO has when it makes their orders,
based on the schedule, based on the read involvement, that
that seems like the perfect fight as you mentioned for
that February Cardiff Doubt and Joshua have the rematch.
Speaker 2: I agree, but his boxing and people don't do the
perfect thing. But that working on with Frank.
Speaker 1: Uh there's been a lot of rumors over the last
little bit about the prospect of Lomachenko retiring. Can you
speak to that at all.
Speaker 2: Well, I got to get I guess.
Speaker 3: This summer, I had a lunch with Egas Loma and
Lomas fought, and Lomas said that he wanted to take
time to be with his family, particularly with what was happening,
you know.
Speaker 2: In the Ukraine that.
Speaker 3: They get up in the morning here bomb the spoiling,
that kind of thing, and he wanted to take the
rest of the year twenty twenty four off, and then
he would let us know whether he would pursue a
boxing career in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: So I am not going to predict one.
Speaker 4: Way or another what Loma will do, but we agreed
to give him that space and will get back from
Loma after the new year.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair enough. Another fighter that Loma is very
familiar with him, that's Tiafimo Lopez. I've heard this from
people at your company about the issues going on there,
that he's claiming that his contract with Top Rank is up,
which strikes me as bizarre since I think he just
did a new deal with you guys and didn't fight
that just you know that long ago and was ringsigned
for your most recent event. And he says his contract
isn't invalid, and obviously Top Rank has a much different
view of that position. What is the position?
Speaker 2: What are you?
Speaker 1: What is going on with that? What is up with them?
And he also decided not to fight when you offered
him the date to be Uh it would have been
the main event to night that Mikhaela Mayor had her
great victory against Andy Ryan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, uh, tia Fimo.
Speaker 2: Sometimes acts like he has a screw loose. You know.
Speaker 3: I like the kid, and I get along with him personally,
but I can't figure him out and it makes no
logical sense.
Speaker 2: I mean, he signed the extension with.
Speaker 3: Us first with a Padrasa fight it didn't happen, and
then when we did another.
Speaker 1: Fight for him with Sandor Martin.
Speaker 3: Yep, he signed the same extension referring to the fact
that it's been that the Padrasa.
Speaker 2: Fight didn't happen. So it's there in black.
Speaker 3: And and I assume he showed the lawyer the first contract,
which was tied into the Peedraza fight, and not the second.
Speaker 2: Contract, which reaffirmed the extension, so again.
Speaker 3: You know, dealing with Tiafimo is like dealing with Alice
and Wendale.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd say it's a complicated situation. He makes
out to be more complicated, and I don't want.
Speaker 3: To disparage anybody because that doesn't do any good. But
eventually sanity will take home and we'll be doing a
fight for tia Femo.
Speaker 1: All right, let's let's look at one other. What I
think is a great thing, by the way, I love
when promoters take the fighters to their hometowns, especially when
they're not the big big cities like New York and
LA and Chicago, but sort of like still good sized cities,
but not the ones that have necessarily big time pro
franchises to take up people's time and energy or sports fans.
You're taking your outstanding young lightweight, Keishaan Davis back to
his hometown in Norfolk, Virginia for a fight on November eighth,
his first main event taken on Gustavo Lemos, a good,
solid contender. You've always done that with fighters, You've you know,
you've done it recently with Jared Anderson bringing him Toledo.
You've brought Schakor to Newark, New Jersey. I remember, you know,
back when you were bringing guys like Kelly Pavlick to Youngstown,
Ohio and plenty of others that we could talk about,
what is it? What is it about it to to
I mean, it's not that complicated. You kind of fish
where the fish are. But tell me your your interest level,
your excitement level to bring a young fighter, to excite
the hometown and build something with him in his place
where his fans are, his people are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been going back long and we.
Speaker 3: I learned with Mardelis Marvin Agla that when we brought
him back to New England, whether it was in Boston
Garden or Worcester.
Speaker 2: To fight, we.
Speaker 3: Energize the Boston Fight fan base so that when Marvin
subsequently fought in Las Vegas, thousands of fans came from
New England.
Speaker 2: And to replicate that was a no brainer. I mean,
it happened with Tommy.
Speaker 3: Earns in Detroit, with Ray Lennon in the Washington area.
It makes the most sense, particularly if you're looking long
range and.
Speaker 2: Keyshawn for us.
Speaker 3: For me at any rate, I don't know anybody else,
it feels that way necessarily. But for me, I believe
he'll become the face of boxing, and I believe that
he'll be having major, major fights, whether in Madison Square
Garden or Las Vegas or wherever.
Speaker 2: And to build up his fan base in and around.
Speaker 3: Norfolk, Virginia is essential because thousands of people will travel
to his fights from that area, just the way when
the Washington Commanders fight play in Las Vegas against the Raiders,
people come from the Washington area to watch them play,
and same with the Bears, same with every team. So
I'm really enthused that putting this fight in Norfolk, with
the with the response that we've gotten, which is enormous.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the hottest stick it now in box.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's basically it's already been in the fight still
like a few several weeks away, but as of even
a couple of weeks ago, Bob, my understanding was there
was like virtually no tickets left already, there is.
Speaker 2: No tickets left.
Speaker 3: We've they're they're hustling around to put more seats in
that arena, and it's great. And the press in Norfolk
has been on the phone with me a number of times,
so it's.
Speaker 2: It's it's just a massive kind of thing.
Speaker 3: And we have his two brothers on the card, and
Troy Isisley, another one of our great prospects middleweight on
the card, and Abdulla Mason.
Speaker 2: There's another tremendous sensational on the card. Yeah, so I'm
really enthusiastic.
Speaker 1: Well, Norfolk, Virginia has not had a meaningful fighter since
the days of Pronal Whitaker, going back into the nineteen eighties,
you know, post is Alympic gold medal. So it's been
quite a while. And I think it's going to be
an amazing Like it's already going to be an amazing
turnout there, and hopefully I love I don't whatever fighter,
whatever promoter. I love when they can take a fighter.
I mean, you know, Eddie Hearn taking boots and to Philadelphia,
you taking your fighter to North of Virginia. This is
a great thing for boxing, it seems to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so, I agree. I agree. It's it's
not a great genius move. It just makes logical.
Speaker 1: But a lot of promoters don't actually take the time
and effort to invest to do it. That's the thing.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of promoters don't promote.
Speaker 1: Well said, all right, Bob, I want to. I want to.
I'll go ahead, as you were.
Speaker 2: Saying, wherever and they want don't want to do the work.
Speaker 1: Very well, said I want to finish up. But just
one more thing. It's not a top secret type of
thing anyway, that Top Rank and ESPN their long term
deal is coming to a close sometime in twenty twenty five,
I believe the summertime. And I wonder if there was
any kind of update. I heard Todds talk about it
a little bit recently about what's going on with the
future of a possible extension or some other broadcast deal
for Top Rank.
Speaker 2: Well, what we're trying to do, and comes from todd
with channeling, it is to do.
Speaker 3: What other make what's been doing, whether it's the NFL,
the MBA, it's due packages, so you get more than
one television entity involved, and that's what we're doing. We'll
be announcing soon the concluding deals with various entities, which.
Speaker 2: I think will lead to.
Speaker 3: Increase coverage of boxing, at least from Top Ranks perspective.
Speaker 2: In the United States.
Speaker 1: Are you saying you have deals in place that are
in the process of being done or you have yet
to go to the marketplace to try to do that.
Speaker 3: We're in the marketplace and we're negotiating our agents and
negotiating as far as we're represented.
Speaker 2: We're represented by CIA, one.
Speaker 3: Of the big big companies UH who negotiated the SEC deal.
Speaker 1: Well, they they negotiating your current deal with the ESPN,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2: Correct, negotiating UH.
Speaker 3: Deals going forward, and we have complete confidence.
Speaker 2: In them and their ability to not only maintain at
the level we are boxing coverage, but to increase well.
Speaker 1: As a boxing fan, as somebody that finds that interesting
to cover, as well as a journalist, I wish you
good luck in getting something squared away on that broadcast front.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, but these things take time, and and
we've had a number of discussions with ESPN who were
very very cooperative and understand what we're trying to do.
And so I'm very optimistic that when we roll out.
Speaker 3: Our program for the second part of twenty twenty five
and going.
Speaker 2: Forward, it will be a real pleasure for all boxing fans.
Speaker 1: Sounds good to me, Bob. Thank you very much for
your time today. We covered so much material. I really
appreciate it. And if I don't see you in Tokyo anyway,
have a good birthday, okay, and everybody in Arizona. In Arizona,
I should say, not Tokyo, Arizona.
Speaker 3: I want to make a shout out sure that people
should watch on ESPN Plus our fight game series.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's the Fight Life, right, the Fight.
Speaker 2: Life, Fight Life with Fight.
Speaker 1: So I'll just say this, Bob. Let me just say
one thing and then you can have the floor about it.
When I was I know that right now, there's episodes
available on ESPN Plus. I saw the first episode when
I was sent like a screener to check it out,
and I watched it. It was all the episodes are
half an hour, but this one was forty five minutes.
It's centered on the Tyson Fury Alexander Usik first fight,
but with lots of things about the business and things
that are not related to the actual combat in the ring,
but all the other things that go around it. And
I paid what I think is the highest compliment that
I can pay to a piece of boxing programming that's
not the fight. And I said this to Todd. I said, Todd,
it is the closest thing that I have seen ever
to HBO documentary type material, and I cannot pay a
higher compliment to tell somebody that their program is of
HBO quality.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, we have a really tremendous group that has
been doing this. I'm really thrilled with it. Uh. Those
people watching the first episode, uh, we'll see what they
didn't expect.
Speaker 2: That the great chef ability of Todd cooking Breakfast's Daughter.
Speaker 3: But it is really fantastic and the number five is
my favorite, and that's in a way fighting in Japan.
Speaker 2: It's really great. But the tia Fimo tailor fight, uh.
Speaker 3: The Sinessa fight, uh, the woman boxing uh, and Josh
Taylor with Catterall. I mean, it's really really well done.
And I know we're already shooting and preparing a whole series.
Speaker 2: For next year.
Speaker 1: Well, like I said, I've seen the first episode. I
actually need to catch the other ones. But of the
first one alone, to all the listeners, it is absolutely
first class, top notch production, outstanding, super well done, and
like you said, available on ESPN Plus on demand.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ESPN Plus, right, and you know, people who follow
the sports.
Speaker 3: Subscribe to ESPN Plus, and so this is part of
the benefits of best description.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Well, Well, there you go. Bob, thank you very
much for all of your time. Thank you for covering
so many topics with me and hope to see us soon. Okay, good,
thank you Bob. Take care,