Speaker 1: All right, off of a weekend that has seen Daniel
Dubois Hello score a thudding knockout of Anthony Joshua Wow.
We are ready to recap that. We are ready to
recap the rest of the read season card. We also
saw Heimi Mungia back in action with the KO and
the ESPN Top Rank card. We're ready to recap all
of it on the Fight Freaks United Recap podcast. I
am the somewhat capable, somewhat competent, somewhat dehydrated host. Explanation upcoming.
TJ Reeves. He is our insider Dan Rayfield, who's in
a fantastic mood. I mean, normally he's in a fantastic mood,
but I mean he's in a really fantastic mood on
this Sunday because he had a lot of great boxing
to go over and talk about. But his New York
Football Giants have won a game. The New York Yankees
have won a game. So you're smiling ear to ear.
My Buccaneers sucked canal water against the Denver Broncos. I
stood in one hundred and ten degree heat ray Field
with the heat index not good for that. But anyway,
here we're posting we're ready to talk to sweet Science.
How are you? I know how you are because you
were just sharing it with me. How are you Sunday
night into Monday?
Speaker 2: Here? How we feel? I'm good? It was a good Uh.
It was a long day for the all the all
the the fights. I mean, first of all the problems
I suppose. Uh, I gotta be honest, you know. The
REAT season card was a good card. I enjoyed it.
But I can't believe him saying this. I could do
with a little bit of a shorter card. Four quality fights.
Six was a bit long. It was like eight hours.
A couple of the fights were pretty bad, but overall
though good show, amazing spectacle. I even enjoyed the Liam
Gallagher performance. I liked it better than the eminem performance
that I was at in Los Angeles on their re
LA card. A very exciting main event. And uh, you know,
I'm glad that the two cards were to talk about
were separated by the day instead of having both on Saturday.
That was mainly it wasn't like the top Rank and
ESPN We're trying to not schedule on the same day
as Joshua. That was more of a factor of the
heavy college football schedule. That yes, ins so you know
it's in this last few months of the year. They
have events on Friday night, but even still good weekend,
some good fights and as you said, the Giants are off.
The Schneid Yankees won a game on the same day,
my man Aaron Judge with number fifty five in terms
of the home run chase. So it's all good, yeah,
no doubt.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you for finding us. A lot of
you are finding us and keep doing so, like subscribe,
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That helps us as well. We preview going into the
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All right. I have to say to you that I
don't come in here all the time as self deprecating
as I'm about to be, but I'm gonna sit here
and say I got fooled over the last year or
so by what Anthony Joshua was doing against Robert Hilenius,
Sinato Vileen and Francis Nganu. I am someone who doubted
this guy in the late twenty tens and who continued
to say on this podcast, long before you and I
joined forces as like Macho Man and Hulkgan as the
Mega Powers, but her there brother, before we joined forces,
I kept saying, he wants no part of Deontay Wilder
in that right hand. He is going to stay as
far away as the Atlantic Ocean from it. Because I
believed that he thought this is a legit chance I
could get as the Brits say, chinned. Well, now we
saw him get chinned against Andy Ruiz. That made me
doubt him even more. But I'm just gonna say to you,
I had begun to believe in Anthony Joshua here and
I thought this, I said this to you was gonna
be easy work. And it was for Daniel Dubois. He
wiped him out from the first round on. And I
got to give credit to my man David Payne, who
was on the podcast feed last week, the boxing writer.
He said Dubois improved. This is not easy work. He
was trying to talk me down a little bit, saying
this is not easy work for Joshua. He was right,
and Rayfield, what a win? What a win for Dubois.
All right there, I got that out of the way.
Your thoughts on the main event as Dubois gets the
KO that they are going to talk about for a
long time in England.
Speaker 2: Well, a couple of things about it. I agree with
your general assessment about what happened and how you mentioned
with the duo with the win and what was going on,
But I disagreed that Joshua wanted no part of Wilder.
I mean, if you take a look at the resume
that he compiled over his career, he hasn't really avoided anybody.
He fought lots of top guys. He's unified titles. I
still to this day will tell you, in my opinion,
he has the best resume of any of the current
heavyweights in terms of who he's faced, as well as wins.
So you know, two things canna be true at the
same time. I don't think he avoided Wilder, but Cer
only the right hand. I do problem.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to argue for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2: I do have no problem. We don't have to argue
about it. We got other things to do. But anyway,
as far as the fight goes, look, Dingy Dui had
shown himself to be, in my opinion, a good heavyweight,
but not a special heavyweight. He came up with massive, massive,
massive height. He was reminiscent of a young Tyson, just
in terms of the explosiveness. I'm not saying he was
Tyson or anything. Let's not get carried away, but you
understand my point. He was slightly undersized for the current
crop with heavyweights, but carried a tremendous right hand, good
punching power, and you know. And then he had the
fight against Joe Joyce. I never gave him grief about
that loss, because he had a broken orbit bone and
he was done in the tenth round. A lot of
people called him a quitter. I never said that. Where
I took issue was in the manner in which he
got a victory against Kevin Lorena, a cruiserweight and not
a very good cruise weight in my opinion in terms
of an elite level. And he got dropped three times
and should have been stopped in that fight. Came back
in won, to his credit, but that was partly because
the referee declined to stop the fight in round one,
and then he fought like an absolute dog, like a
mutt with the heart the size of a peapod against
Alexander Usk and they have rant and raved about the
bullshit on the low blow. I was really down on him.
He fought shitty in that fight. He looked terrible in
that fight. He complained in that fight, and he showed
no fucking heart whatsoever and quit on his knee from
a jet. I'm just being real.
Speaker 1: Listen to my man, Rayphiel bringing the heat. And by
the way, can I just interject before you continue your
role that all the revisionism of the last year and
a half, he got dominated by Usik. It wasn't close. Continue.
Speaker 2: So so there you go. So and that was, you know,
in a big time spot. He's fighting for the heavyweight title.
So to recap, don't give him grief about the loss
to Joe Joyce. He got injured, legit serious injury in
an otherwise competitive fight. Okay, So that's, you know, whatever
shit happens. And then, like I said, look pretty bad
in the Lorena fight. And between the Joyce fight and
Lorena fight, didn't exactly distinguish himself with the opposition. You know,
the best guy he fought in that in that short
group of fights was Trevor Bryant in Florida, you know,
which was easy work. I'm not a surprise how that
turned out. But anyway, the Yusik fight, you know, that
was the low of the low. So I have to
give credit where credit is due. And by the way,
when I say this stuff about how we performed in
the Yusik fight, I have nothing personal against Inganel Dubai.
He's a very nice guy, you know, it seems to
be a hard worker, you know, soft spoken to some degree.
He really found himself in the two fights in then
he was at the low point. I think he realized it.
I think his team realized it. They they figured they
got to do something to bring them back. He he,
what's the old saying, put his nose to the grindstone,
so to speak. He took a tough fight against the
undefeated Jerald Miller. Say whatever you want about Jerrel Miller,
but he's a solid, tough, rugged guy with decent punching
power and a good chin. And you know he went
to read. And if I'm not mistaken, TJ, I believe
that that duba was a slight underdog in that fight,
he put it on Jerrel Miller handed him his first loss,
scored a tenth round knock and a very solid, tough fight.
Good Win showed some heart, regained a lot of the
the the critics that had said he was a complete quitter,
and the Usik fight the way he showed toughness against
jeral Miller and then he caps. You know, he goes
over the top in the next fight six months later,
and this was in June in Riad, another read fight
where he fought Philip Argiviz. Definitely the underdog in that fight.
This is for the innim IBF title and the heavyweight division,
and he looked outstanding. You know, Hurgovich was a big favorite,
and he cut him up and stopped him. And that's
all she wrote. So he comes back off the lowest
point of his career with what happened against Usik. He
puts together two very solid wins by knockout, by the way,
against you know, two guys that were like, you know,
Philip Arguvitz definitely was a top like six sevens heavyweight.
Jeralen Miller, you know, depending on how generous you want
to be, was probably like tenth, right outside the top ten.
You know, we all know his issues, so he wasn't
highly rated, but still we knew he was a pretty
solid fighter. So to come back and get those two
wins and showed the tenacity and the toughness, and then
go into the Joshua fight, you know why, I'm not
gonna see he and tell you I was picking him,
but I figured, you know, he's probably better than he
was against Usick. Maybe not as great as he looked
in the in the Miller, in the Hurgovic fights, but
a very legitimate, solid heavyweight. Now, I wasn't totally bamboozled
like you were in terms of what Joshua had been
doing over the last few fights since he lost the
back to back fights to Usick, because the opposition that
he was facing, you know, was okay, but nothing spectacular.
You know, I don't hold Jermaine Franklin in high reguard.
He went, you know, kind of twelve sloppiest rounds with him,
but that was coming back off the loss. That was
coming off of a of a of a layoff. Okay,
So that's that's fine. Hellenius was a dead man, but
he took the fight in like a day notice practically,
so you know, he got the great spectacular you know
ko the year type knockout right. The fight where I
actually do give him some credit was he took on
a tough left in Auto Whalen who had given Tyson
Fury one of his toughest fights, and he beat himillar
a to post, busted him up and made him you know,
made his corner stop it in the corner after a
round number five. So now I felt like, okay, that
that showed me that he's he's put Usik in that
ship behind him. Where a lot of people got fooled
by the smoking mirrors, and I was not one of them.
Was he went in there and he absolutely fucking pulverized
Francis and Ganho in the second round, which is what
Tyson Furry should have done to a UFC fighter. But
Tyson Ferry is too busy, you know, carrying on and
partying and not taking the fight seriously and should have
probably lost to many people and got knocked down. So
the Francis and Gano win was a lot of smoking mirrors.
It looked it was a spectacular knackup, but against a
guy who was a great athlete, and they ate, but.
Speaker 1: Can I not a larger but can I interject? That's
what made me believe he's got the swagger back after
the USIK losses. He walked right at that guy, he
bombed him, he knocked him out, and I expected you
were going to see a similar Joshua in this fight.
But he was tentative from the beginning. He had the
hands kind of at his chest. I thought that Barry
Jones and Darren Barker both pointed out right away, Hey,
he's got the hands too low, he's got the chin
up high, and boom goes the dynamite late in the
first round, and now he's in real trouble and.
Speaker 2: Did not That's where this entire fight we can we
can talk all about what happened in the last year
and a half with both Joshua in his you know,
uh coming back to the top level after the USAK glasses.
We can talk about uh du Boig getting beaten so
badly the way he did and the manner in which
he did in terms of his mentality and his physical
situation in the USAK fight and what he's done since.
And that's all good and all fine. At the end
of the day. When the bell rings and one guy
slams you with the right hand. It changed the whole
fight in the first you know, what was the first
minute of the fight probably, and Joshua never got his
legs back in a meaningful way. He had heart, and
he's still continued to fire and try, but he looked.
I mean, I can't say it was over in the
first round, but my impression was, you know, and it's
funny because on his own pay per view, you know,
they put the the real the real time odds on
the in the corner of the screen. You can see
them changing where Joshua was, you know minus uh, you know,
three hundred or whatever it was. And then you know,
within a couple of rounds, suddenly duas like the guy
with the minus money and Joshua's plus money, and that
that's the real.
Speaker 1: Time they put up there. They put up there at
one point, like in the fourth round, the Duboi was
like minus seven fifty at that point, and rightfully so,
because by the third round he'd already knocked him down
again and had him in trouble. And uh, it was shocking.
I'll just say that. It was shocking, and you just.
Speaker 2: Don't see a lot of scorecards where it's ten eight
eight and then the guy gets whacked. I mean, Joshua
was down four times. Even on his worst nights where
he lost against Usik, he was you did you think
he was down against Andy Ruiz?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And not like that? Right?
Speaker 1: Did you think at the end of the second round
seconds left he pummeled him? Well, first of all, Joshua
will put both gloves down on the ground, and the
referee Marcus McDonald didn't jump in and say knocked down.
Did he let him take three or four more shots?
So he's down with like a second left in the round,
and I thought the fight might have been over right there.
Did you think that in a round two?
Speaker 2: I thought I thought maybe so. But I mean the
fact that the route had ended and Joshua was standing up,
he gave him the count, you know, because you can't
be saved by the bell, So we had a complete
the count even though the bell had rang. I figured,
you know what, they're gonna give him the minute. I mean,
they're not going to stop it like that with six
or ninety twenty three or whatever. Turkey yoase, she announced
the all time record, you know, even two thousand more
than the capacity they said it for. They weren't about
to stop that fight in that manner unless he's laying
out for our ten count. So I didn't. I didn't
really think the fight was over after two. But what
I did think was that AJ is in huge trouble
and Dui, you know, is looking sharp and fast and confident.
And I'm gonna tell you this, and I don't usually
make a lot out of this. I'm watching on on
on the screen when when they're doing the ring walks
and the stealing nature of what the facial expressions and
the calm pool and demeanor and the poise that Dua showed.
I'm like, this guy is in the moment. He's not
freaked out by the by the crowd, he's not freaked
out by the lights. You know, He's here to perform.
Whatever happens is gonna happen. But I felt like he
was clearly from a mental perspective, which is very very
important talk to any fighter. He was there and ready
to fight. So you know, I'm not trying to read
too much into it, and I don't usually do that,
but when I saw that, I'm not saying this just
because of what happened. I was thinking this in real time.
As a matter of fact, I think the commentators were,
we're mentioning something along those lines also, So right off
the bat, I kind of figured like, Okay, we're in
for a real serious fight here. And he just kept
swinging the right hand and AJ's defense was derelict, and
he got He got caught a few times. He tried,
and even AJ said at the end when he went
in there in the fifth round and he's you know,
he's clearly damaged goods at this point, but he finally
finds something and he nails right hand. You're like, okay,
maybe he can turn the tide. So for about thirty
seconds or maybe less, even you know, du wise on
the back foot, he's not going bent to the ropes.
AJ's coming forward with the right hands, and as AJ said,
he got and he went for that second right bomb,
and the counter shot from Dubois was absolutely as perfect
the right hand as you can throw, laying the absolutely
dead flush on the chin, and Joshua fell face first
like a sack of shit. I mean, you just don't
see a better shot than that. I mean, when I
saw there, it looked like beautiful in the in the
real time. Seeing it on the replay from the from
a different angle where it actually was landing was like
a sensational bock down. And then to watch Joshua on
the mat trying to struggle to get up so credit
he's showing the heart to get up, but he just
can't do it, and then he falls over face first,
and there's this the class. I took a picture off
the TV screen of Joshua with his head on the canvas,
his back foot up in the air, and the referee
just standing over. I'm waving his arms like the fight's over,
and that is a shocking scene. So for an absolute
one sided ass kicking, that was about as exciting entertaining
fight as you're gonna see. I mean, it was all
Dubai basically, with a couple of moments for Joshua. So
I got it. Got annoyed when I heard some people
referring to it as like, oh, it's like heavyweight hag la. Hearns, Yeah, No,
it wasn't. No, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: But they weren't bombing each other close quarters for an
entire round. No, Joshua was showing guts. Yes, Joshua was
showed guts, but in the end, Dubois starched him and
it's game over.
Speaker 2: And Duboi with with with a questionable chin himself stood
up to some big right hands because Anthony Joshua did
land some very tough punches on him and he took it.
I mean, that's that. That is about a big a
moment as as you can see in boxing, for that
type of atmosphere, the type of speak there and and
and du wi that you know he'll never I mean,
I don't know what's gonna happen in the rest of
his career. Still a younger guy. He's only twenty seven
years old. I don't know if he's ever gonna have
a bigger moment than that, to score that type of
spectacular knockout and that type of one sided ass whoop
in front of that kind of crowd against your countryman
defending a heavyweight world title. I mean, we can speak
about the merit of the title, fine, but I'll say this,
one of the things that that Daniel Debois spoke about
in the lead up to the fight is and I
appreciate the fact that he recognize this his you know,
he had the belt, but we all know the manner
in which he received it was very suspect, as as
the kids say, TJ was sush and so for him
to say ahead of the fight that that, while you
got Anthony Joshua was looking to, you know, become a
three time title holder, perhaps put himself in position for
a fight with Tyson Fury, maybe a third fight against
Alexander Usik. I appreciated the fact that Dubi was saying,
I need to win this fight too, and he's the
one that used the word I need to legitimize myself yep,
because he knows the manner in which he achieved the belt.
So he's not gonna feel like a champion until he
can beat a guy like Anthony Joshua. And as as
it turns out, we can say, fine, he got dominated
and beat by Usig. Joshua lost twice to Usick, although
by decision in a second fight was very close. Here's
the reality, Danga Juba has every right to feel like
he's a championship level fighter because he defeated Anthony Joshua
far far more easily than Alexander Usik did over the
course of two fights. You know, Alexander Usak could never
put Joshua on the canvas and and and Dua did
it four times in five rounds, including for the count. Uh,
so you know he has every right to kind of
puffish chest that a little bit like that. I mean,
I'm not saying I'm sitting here telling you I need
to see a rematch being Alexander Usik and Daniel Dubai.
But in the end, that may be the fight that
we want to see in mine up seeing because if
he beats Fury and he's got the belts and Dubi
is still sitting there. Uh, you know, maybe that becomes
a thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know, all right, So that's an interesting aspect.
What does this mean for Anthony Joshua that I want
your opinion organically, Again, I say this to the audience.
We don't rehearse this, so I'm curious what you think.
He said in the ring after the fight that he
believes he will, you know, go on here and and continue.
But man, I mean this is now a third loss
basically in the last three years. I know he had
won three in a row going into this, But where
where does he go from here?
Speaker 2: If he goes from here, well, he also reiterated at
the post fight news or till he had no intention
of retiring. I know a lot of people in the
immediate aftermath were calling for the retirement. I'm not necessarily
sitting here saying he should retire. But one thing I
it's it's very plainly obvious. And it's not just based
on what happened in the fight with d Why. It's
in his other losses as well, particularly against in the
in the first fight against Andy Ruiz. You know, every
heavyweight gets hurt when they get hit at some point
in their career. The question is who can recover, and
Anthony Joshua has not shown good recoverability in my opinion,
I mean, and that's that's what what makes you worry
about it. So, you know, if he wants to fight on,
I mean, that's his prerogative, as long as he you know,
is healthy in terms of his medicals and and you know,
not suspended or anything like that. He is thirty four
years old. I don't I don't really know uh what
what he wants to still do. I know he'd like
to get the title back, he you know. Eddie Hearn
said in the postfight that Anthony Joshua did have a
rematch clause. It shows you the the clout that Joshua
carries it to be able to get a rematch clause.
When he's the challenger for the title. Uh but and
it was not a man, so he's got a rematch clause.
Apparently he did exercise the rematch right against Usik. He
also exercised a rematch right against Andy Ruiz. He obviously
won the Andy Ruize rematch, lost to Goosi rematch. You know,
I wouldn't mind seeing the Dubas fight again. I'm not
really sure I think that I think he could change
the tables. I mean, he's certainly.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you after what I saw Saturday, I
don't know that he should get right back in there
with Dubois. I don't just after what happened. You might
be better served if you are going to continue to
fight somebody else, build it, build confidence back up, and
then maybe get back at Dubois at a later date.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what he That's what he did after Ustik.
He went on that run that we discussed. He had
to throw fights in a short period of time against
you know, not the top top guys in Franklin, Helenius
Whalen and and Naganu. But I'm not sure what there
is to gain. He's look, he's had an excellent career.
People can say maybe didn't live up to this or that, whatever.
I know. This man's an Olympic gold medalist, He's a
two time unified heavyweight champion. He has an excellent resume.
He's being some quality guys unified. He's he reignited British boxing.
He reignited the heavyweight division at a time when a
lot of guys weren't fighting or willing to fight the
top guys. Joshua did seek out the best fights. It
still galls me though that, and I'm not I'm not
saying that one guy is to blame. This guy's playing whatever.
We're at a point now where Joshua, unfortunately, whatever happens
in the future, to fight with Deontay Wilder, if it
ever does happen and Wilder does plan to fight again,
it's still it's not what it should have been, which
was two undefeated heavyweight champions fire to the undersputed the
title when they were still in their primes. He has
never fought Tyson Fury, who was his you know, big
rival from his own country. To think that he could
go through a career with the resume that he has
compiled that have those two not on the resume at all,
win or lose is sad. I'm not saying that Joshua's fault.
I'm just saying, you know, at least Fury and Wilder
fought each other, uh three times, you know, and uh,
he's in a tough spot, big time. I mean, but
you know, there's lots of times where you see an
event unfold like that kind of knockout, and you're like, man,
what's the guy gonna do now? And I'll just use
an example going back, you know, a number of years,
but a very famous one. Think about what people thought
when when when Tommy Hearns knocked at Roberto Durant flattened
him face first, the the indestructible Robert Durant left him
just massively like a pilot, you know, oatmeal on the canvas.
Roberto Durant. A lot of people at that point were like, oh, man,
you know what great career all time greats had some
awesome fights, fought everybody. Yeah, that's probably it, right. Guy
went on after that. He was no spring chicken at
that point, and after that he ended up becoming but
he had other big windsay, he won the freaking middleweight
title and an awesome fight against Iran Barkley. I mean,
so he carried on and he ended up winning some
other big time fights. Now Ken Joshua would do that.
Heavyweights are a little different sometimes. So I don't know.
I don't think he's going to retire. I'm I don't think,
you know, I don't think he should retire if he
doesn't want to retire, But I think he needs to
have a long, serious conversation with his team and himself
about Okay, if I don't retire, what do I want
to do? How can we go about getting.
Speaker 1: And he's been searching for years, figuratively and literally. He's
been with several different trainers. He came and trained with
Derrick James right, he kep went and then he went
into Robert Garcia right, and he's back.
Speaker 2: When Garcia was first Garcia.
Speaker 1: Then Derrick James, now now with Ben Davidson. He's never
gone back to Rob McCracken, who was with him from
his amateur days and was the British national boxing coach
for the Olympics. So he's been searching figuratively and literally
for what's the what's the right mix with trainer and whatever,
and so I don't know.
Speaker 2: Here, here's here's the here's the here's the truth. You
could have any great trainer and you could possibly ask
for it. You could bring back Emmanuel Stewart, Eddie Futch,
you name it, Angelo Dundee, whoever may be. You can't
teach the chin right. And when Anthony Joshua he gets
tapped on the chin, he doesn't take it as well
as others have. It's not I'm not it's not a
knock on them. It's doesn't make him a bad guy. Now.
Matter of fact, one thing that makes me so sad
about what unvolved is I genuinely like Anthony Joshua as
a person. I've met him many times, interviewed him many
times as a class act. Always been you know, other
than the crazy breakdown after the loss. You know, he
had that episode after the second fight, the first fighter. Okay,
he's he's been a stand up guy. I mean he
really has. And he's he's been good with the with
the fans, good with the press, been respectful to the opponent.
So you know, I just wish the best for him
and Uh, you know, if he retires, I think that's
a good thing. But I wouldn't sit here and advocate
and say he should retire. But I don't know what
else stairs for him to do at this point. He's
made by the way he's made. Probably and I'm being
conservative when I say this, he's had at made at
least and I think it's probably more, at least five
hundred million dollars. And that's he has had massive, massive,
massive purses and paydays in the ring. And he's also
one of the fighters that has made dramatic amounts of
money from his his endorsements and his outside the rest.
Speaker 1: It's not money motivated to keep fighting, is what you're saying,
And I agree it's not. So the real question just
one more and then we're gonna move to the rest
of the card and then talk to ESPN top rank card.
Is what happened to my late twenty tens early twenty
twenties heavyweight division, where you had Deontay Wilder, you had
Tyson Fury. I know he's only taken the one loss
to Usik, and you had Anthony Joshua And right now,
I mean we have Alex, we have Alexander Usik to
a lesser extent, you got Duwa, But we have Alexander
Usik who cleaned out Joshua twice and beat Tyson Fury.
And in the meantime, Deontay Wada lost twice to Tyson Fury,
lost to Joseph Parker got knocked out by Jane. What
do we have out of those guys?
Speaker 2: We have Usik number one. I mean, he beat Fury,
Farren square, he beat Joshua twice, Farren squirty knocked out Dubat.
I mean, are three really big wins. I mean Dwin
is now big.
Speaker 1: Four total wins, four total wins over three guys, right, yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the Dua fight wasn't a big win necessary
at the time, but it looks a lot better now
today than it did, you know last summer when he
or you know, August of twenty twenty three when he
got that victory. You know, the heavyweight division is one
of those things. I mean, when you have big guys
who can punch and are willing to fight each other,
guys are gonna lose. I mean, I have to tell
you to me anyway, the heavyweight division is much fun
today as it's been I think pretty much my entire
time covering boxing. You know, I didn't cover it boxing
in the in that great era of the nineties. I
caught the tail line and you know, and covered the
end of that year when Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis
had their fight. But that was the end of that
era and then the domination of the Klitschkow brothers. It
was a it was a good ear from the standpoint
of two dominating figures who you know, were basically unbeatable.
And even when Vladimir lost, you know, he avenged like
the Brewster loss and this and that. But he was
so dominating for like over a decade, as was his
brother after he came back from retirement. Vally I'm talking
about that. There wasn't a lot of excitement. There wasn't
a lot of natural rivalries. You know, even when Vladimir
fought the rivalry fight that everybody looked forward to against
David Hey, the fight turned out to stay because David
Hey did nothing but flop around like a goldfish on
the canvas. But now with Fury, with uh Sick, with Wilder,
with Joshua, with Jang, with Joe Parker, you know, with
with preventing Duboi. With all this group of guys, it's
been a lot of fun. There's there are guys are
fighting each other. There's been good knockouts, been entertainment. So
you know, I look forward to, like a couple of
years from now when this when this era has sort
of come to a close, of looking back to assess it,
to figure it all out, because you know, we're in
the middle of it. Still, it's still going on. There's
still a few more fights that are gonna probably take
place or half to take place. But it's been a
lot of fun, and Dubui has put himself right now,
right in the middle of it all. And as actually
of the guys that I've been mentioning, he's the youngest
of that group.
Speaker 1: Interesting, all right. So there was more action on this card,
Let's get to it, including Hamza Chiraz devastating when over
Tyler Danny to become European Middleway champ. Let's go right there.
It was over. It was over in a hurry and
just two rounds. And it's not everything, and I know
it's level of competition, but he looks the part of
world title challenger, if not world champion. To me, what
about to you?
Speaker 2: Oh, no question that Sharaz is ready to fight for
world title. He said it afterwards. He's tired of likes
calling it out. Just let him have that kind of fight.
I will say this though, Tyler Denny, I didn't really
think I had a chance to really win the fight.
I did kind of think the stopage a little bit premature.
You know, he'd been down once in the first round,
he got dropped in the second round, he was up.
He complained about it, like, he seemed like he was
okay after the second knockdown, So I thought it was
a little bit of a quick trigger. I'm not saying
that the result would have been different, but uh, you know,
I think in that situation, when he's not like badly hurt,
you know, he kind of got to give him the
opportunity to keep going. But that said, Sharaz was very impressive.
Just went in there and blow him out. Took the
European title, an important stepping stone title we've talked about before,
and now it's a matter of who's gonna be willing
to step in and fight him. I mean, one of
the things about it was before Tyler Denny got the
car remember when Denny fall and defended the European title
in his previous fight back in June against Felix Cash.
He won the fight and literally the next day got
offered the fight against Shiraz and they took it. He
like went right back in camp. It's been you know,
almost it was like three months to the day, one day,
shy of three months since he had fought Felix Cash
in June. So he took that. They were they were
really getting kind of I won't say desperate, but they
were really looking for a solid opponent for to fight.
And the reason why is because they had offered the
fight to Chris you Bank Junior. I think Chris you
Bank Junior was willing to take it, but he wasn't
going to get paid the kind of money that he wanted,
so he turned that down. And now there's a depends
who you believe. Top Rank has told me and other
reporters that that the Saudis offered a deal for Janebec
to defend his titles against Sharaz on this card. It
is the manager Egus Klemus of that is the manager
for Janebec, who claims that that is not true. So
when I reported that or posted something on social media,
and others did the same. Uh. We spoke about a
little bit on our US show. I saw like my
my longtime ring side colleague, Kevin Ioli reported about it.
I think Jake Donovan from The Ring magazine reported on it,
you know, and I guess gets a little bit of
an attitude and he's like, well, who told you that?
Where's your information? I said, well, I didn't make it up.
Go talk to your promoter, top rank, someone who said it.
So when I wrote about it, and when the other
guys wrote about it, it wasn't even like, you know, quote
unquote sources said, you know, go right to your promoter,
talk to top rank, talk to Todd the Buff, talk
to Bob Aaron, you know, talk talk to their PR team,
talk to their talk to them. You know what I'm saying. So,
you know, I feel like Shiraz would have had that
opportunity if Janetbeck was willing to do the fight. I'm
told they were offered like over a million dollars a
million and a half dollars or so to go to
to the UK and defend the title on this card.
And now you have Janebeck going to Australia in a
few weeks to fight for a fraction of the money.
So if they were offered a million five, obviously, look
the manager takes his cut. Top rank would have got
its cut. But now on a per spid he's gonna
make I think his purse on the on the cut
of the purse bit is about I don't know, two
hundred and thirty five or two hundred and forty thousand
dollars of which you know, top ranks and title to
their percentage. The manager's stole title to their percentage. So
that's if you're gonna go and defend the title, you
still got to go through the training camp. You might
as well go and fight the biggest fight possible. Now,
maybe you think he's just such a money favorite to
win against mccalovich that it's worth it to take the
short money just to go get a defense and put
the money in your pocket. But you know what, why
wouldn't you go after the biggest money on the biggest stage.
So you know they deny the Janet X scided they
were offered to fight. H I don't have any reason
to believe that the people I talked to a top
rank were just completely making that up whole cloth and
telling that to myself and other reporters out of nowhere.
So you know, we'll see. But Shiraz is ready for
that type of fight, whoever it is. As you know,
we've talked about the middleweight divisions attle rough right now.
But Jannabe's got two of the titles. You know, is
he gonna fight? You know, Carlos Adamis from PBC, he's
got one of the belts. I mean, he's somewhat anonymous unfortunately,
so that's not a name recognition wise, not a big fight.
And then Aristani Laura who just defended the WBA title
uh in the fight that was against any Garcia on
the Canelo card a couple of weeks ago. So that's
your that's your lineup of title holders. That's a damis,
it's Janne Beck and Is Laura. So if you want
a title shot, you're gonna have to deal with those folks.
But Charaz is ready to fight whoever. I mean. And
he's also a dynamic puncher. He's got big size, he's
got big reach. Yep. He carries himself well outside the ring.
He's pretty pretty calm and direct when you ask him
questions when he responds to the question, so there's you know,
I think he's a monster. He's his size is what
does it? He looks?
Speaker 1: He was shocking how much bigger he was shockingly bigger
than Tyler Denning in the ring absolutely not just the
height but the weight, on the rehydration or whatever.
Speaker 2: So so he seems to me like of a of
a pretty poor middleweight division overall, of of of anybody,
including the guys with the belts. To me, the interesting
fighter in the way class presently is definitely Hamsa Shiraz
and he looked good on that fight, and I look
forward to see him even if he if he can't
get a title fight, hopefully they'll just keep him busy
and uh let him keep knocking guys out, the best
guys you can find.
Speaker 1: We keep rolling on the recaps here. Let's go through
it fairly quickly here and then move on. Joshua Bowatzi
does get the win. It was a split decision with
a bizarre scorecard over Willie Hutchinson. He's now the WBO's
interim light heavyweight champ. Anthony Kasachi, let's go on. Also one,
you had some other fights as well, so go ahead,
what else you like on this card? Give me some
more insight.
Speaker 2: Botsi and Hutchinson was the best fight of the car
of the you know, other than the main event. This was,
and that the main event wasn't very competitive in terms
of competition and action. Boos and Hutchinson, as we suspected,
by the way, really really good, top level, excellent fight,
very competitive, tremendous battle. Both guys showed a lot of heart,
a lot of grit, really having to dig down to
get the win. Buatsi, I feel like in terms of
the win that he got the experience that he has
as a professional. I know they have about the same
number of fights, but Boatsi's definitely been fighting a better
level of opponents. You know, Botzi was slightly more accomplished
than the amateurs. He got a medal in the Olympics.
Hutchinson did not go to the Olympics, even though he
was a decorated amateur. Well maybe he did go to
the Olympics, but whatever it was, he didn't get in
a medal in the Olympics. Anyway, really really good fight
and he went down two times. Hutchinson got dropped in
the sixth round and in the ninth round, he also
put himself in a hole. Whatever you think about the
score cards and this, you know, it's one thing to
get dropped, but this was his fault because he led
with his head and was we you know, warned about
it repeatedly. He got a point deducted for no reason
in the seventh round because he went and did that again.
So right there, you're down in extra three points just
on the knockdowns end the headbutting foul. So it's gonna
be very hard in an otherwise competitive fight to actually
win the fight. And I don't know what that one
judge was looking at. I'm looking at the score cards here.
You had one judge had at one fifteen to one
to ten for Buatzi, which makes sense based on scoring
in the deductions and the knockdowns. One judge had it
one seventeen to one oh eight in favor of wats.
He also makes sense because of the other ones.
Speaker 1: Then there's always one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, one thirteen, one to twelve in favor of Hutchinson.
That just was bizarre today. But but the end of
the day, Blatzi got to win. It was the heck
of a fight. Uh, you know, Willie Hutchinson. You know,
he he he showed a lot of heart in the
fight and he certainly made it exciting.
Speaker 1: So he did not he did not win seven rounds
of that fight, which is what one thirteen twelve is
with the knockdowns, right, But.
Speaker 2: So he gets the loss, you know what, you give
him a rest and you dust him up. I still
think he can be a contender and maybe win a
title and do some good thing in the weight class.
And Boatzi, you know, now has the interim belt and
you know, I know that may not be a big
deal to some people, but what really what it does
is it now pinks him the mandatory in the WBO
for the winner of the undisputed fight that comes up
October twelfth between better Be and Bevall. And so whether
he fights the winner that fight, or he fights for
a vacant title or a man I mean, he gets
elevated rather and then defends that. You know he's going
to be in that mix. And he's a good fighter.
I mean it was a they had a good plan.
They they worked over Hutchinson to the body. Watsy showed
a really good dominating right hand. I mean he really
kind of put that together, and remember he's coming off
What I liked about this fight going into it was
they both coming off their biggest win. Hutchinson had beaten
Craig Richard on another season card, and you had Watsey
coming off a very tough win against Dan a Z.
So they're both on a little bit of a role.
Both had been active in recent fights, and now they're
matched up with each other, and it delivered the action
that we expected and it was highly contendited. So I
really liked that fight you mentioned about Kasachi. Yep, so
he fights Warrington. We don't have to relitigate why it
wasn't for the IVF title, but it wasn't for the
IVF title. Although if Kasachi had lost, he would have
lost the belt, but Warrington wouldn't have won it. That's,
you know. I like to say the IBF doing IVF things. Yes,
In terms of the fight itself, Kasachi was clearly the
bigger man than Warrington. I was a little disappointed in
this fight. It was okay, it just didn't really light
my fire too much in the end, though the scores
were right. Kasachi won the fight pretty clear one seventeen,
one eleven on two cards. One eighteen to one to ten.
I did kind of think though that even though I
clearly felt like Tasati won the fight, I kind of
thought those cards they were a little bit disrespectful to
what Warrington did do. I thought he worked the body well.
I thought he fought on the inside really well. And
you know, maybe and not look, he didn't win, but
you know, maybe a little more respect to having a
point or two closer wouldn't have been out of the realm.
But really, what happens here is Warrington, who now lost
three fights in a row. This was making This fight
was him in his one hundred and thirty pounds debut.
He's now lost three fights in a row, starting when
he lost the title to Luis Alberta Lopez in twenty
twenty two. Just fought the one time in twenty twenty three,
that was the rough knockout against Lee Wood. And now
he's back and to fighting at one hundred and thirty
pounds in this fight against Kassachi, and he did this
symbolic thing like a lot of upcon bat athletes do
when the fight was over. He lost the fight. He
didn't bitch about the scoring or anything like that. They
cut the gloves off and he laid him down in
the middle of the ring. That's obviously that's the seal
that he's retiring. I mean, so I think we've seen
last of Warrington and he could always change his mind,
but at least as of today, he retires. Look for
a guy that was he was an overachiever in many respects.
You know, he won featherweight titles twice, both IBF versions
of it, had had the two fights unfortunately for him
that that didn't go his way with Mauricio Lara. But
he has some some big nights. Uh. They they filled
up stadiums. Uh you know where he is in in
in Leeds, England against Lee Selby, and he had the
big win against Carl Frampton. Uh, not a good fight,
but he had a good win against the undefeated at
the time, Kid Galahad devastating performance against Takouch from from France,
had the shootout with Lara, had the had the the
rebound against Kiko Martinez. I mean, he fought a lot
of good guys, you know, he he he lost, but
it was a very close fight when he lost the
belt against Lopez. He had a good career and if
this is the end there are worse ways to go
out than having a competitive, albeit losing effort against Kasachi.
One thing about Josh Warrington, though, uh, the guy never
came to their He didn't give it at all, and
as a fan, I can appreciate that, all right.
Speaker 1: And then the other two fight you mentioned it was
a long card, but wait, there's more. The other two
fights real quick, and one of them was an upset
go ahead.
Speaker 2: So the second fight of the night was the middleweight
Josh Kelly, who took him majority decision against the late
replacement Ishmael Davis, who filled in for the ill w
Liam Smith. This fight annoyed me. Josh Kelly gets so
much hype, and he was a good amateur, you know,
did a lot of stuff, was an Olympian, did suffer
an upset loss as a pro. But he gets so
much hype and I don't get it. I'll be honest
with you. I see a guy that looks in good shape,
that looks the part, that clearly has got some skills,
but he just and I've watched many many of his fights,
a lot of them have been on his own. It
seems like every time I see him he's underperforming. He's underwhelming.
His resume is garbage. He hasn't fought top guys. Now
that's not his fault, that's his team and his matchmakers
and put him in the ring. But he's not really
fought anybody. The one time he fought a quote unquote
name was when he got knocked out by David Evanessian
in a European title fight in twenty twenty one. So
he's constantly underwhelmed me. And now he goes in with
Ishmael Davis. Granted it was a six day replacement, and
you know, he was winning the fight and then he
was got knocked out in the twelfth round and it
was just, you know, he he's skated by with a
majority of this blood.
Speaker 1: He had a bloody eye bothering him. He was winning,
busted up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean so he moved up to one hundred
and sixty pounds and and barely won. And you know,
I just I've never gotten the hype on Josh Kelly.
So that was that fight. That fight annoyed me, and
the feel good one are feel bad depending on which
guy you're rooting for. But when you see the opening fight,
good fight. Mark Chamberlain the lightweight with this fight, even
though he's been a lightweight. This fight was over the
way that a Julia walterweight fight he fights. They they
handpicked the club fighter, Josh Padley, great record fourteen and
oh and Chamberlain is sixteen and oh. But clearly Chamberlain
is the more experienced guy, fought the better opponents. Padley's
been fighting on like you know, dinner show cards and
little club cards and you know, as they called in
the UK, the small hall shows fighting six rounders and
eight rounders and that sort of thing. And Chamberlain the
handpicked a favorite fighter of Turkey, al Chic, who has
personally put him on these Riat season cards over the
last year or so, and he's It wasn't well publicized,
but I reported about this and we've talked about a
little bit. This fight was there for him to have
a tune up. If he wins the fight, he comes
out with no injuries, He's getting a world championship opportunity
against Denny Branchek on the undercard of Tyson Furi's rematch
with Lusik and December twenty first, So the title shot
was there waiting for him. Branchick's been on hold since
his victory to win the title. And what happens. Josh
Padley fights the fight of his fucking life out of
his skin, as they say in the Brits. And he
went in there and he took it to him and
he won legit a unanimous decision. It was you know, competitive,
but no doubt about it. Josh Padley fought the fight
of his life and upsets Mark Chamberlain and you know
takes his undefeated record, ruins his title shots. And I
thought the most uh, one of the more compelling post
fight interviews I have seen is you know, he spoke
about the fight and then he says, look, I'm not
signed to a prooter. So if anybody out there wants
to sign you know, a top super featherweight, uh a featherweight,
you know, I'm your man, you know, give me a
call or whatever. He said. But that was very endearing.
And you know he'll be back to work on Monday.
And but you know, when you pull off that kind
of win, somebody out there should want to sign the guy.
He's got to seem like you had a good personality,
took a good shot, gave a good shot, made a
fun fight. Uh, you know, you're root for guys like
that to be able to to not have to go
to work at nine o'clock every morning and punch the
clock and can make something out of themselves in boxing
and Chamberlain. You know, I assume that if Turkey is
still a big fan of his, he'll give him a
chance to make the comeback. But one would assume it's
not going to be in the world title fight come December.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't think, all right, we move on. We moved
back cargo car. Yes, we moved backwards to Friday night
and the PN top ranked show in Arizona, where Jimi
Mungia did return and took out eric A Bazigian. As uh.
He looked good throughout the fight and finally got the
stoppage in the tenth round. So give me a couple
of thoughts on that main event from back on Friday.
Speaker 2: It was a pretty good fight, high level. I thought
both guys fought really well. Mongia showed me a bit
more technically than he typically does. He wasn't just in
there trying to you know complete you know he I mean,
he likes to brawl and likes to mix it up,
But it wasn't you know that was not the only thing.
He was trying to show him a few things, and
you know, used his jab and you know, tried the
box and spots and and then looked for the openings
to brawl him and to really inflict himself on Bezenian.
But this was a good fight. Bazinion had that big
height advantage. I think that kind of freaked out Mungi
a little bit. You know, Bazinion goes about six foot one.
He had a long reach and it took Munky a
little bit of time to figure that out. It was
a competitive fight at a time. At the stoppage, Mungi
was the head on all three score cards. But it
wasn't like he was blown away. One was you know,
only at one point on one scorecard. But look in
the end, uh, you know, Bazinian can only keep up
what he was doing for so long, and eventually Mangia
broke through and he's just putting this clock in the
tenth round and scored the big knockout on you know,
really was kind of like a one punch situation, I thought,
both guys though, you know, for Mangia it's him coming
back off the loss to Canelo, so he gets back
in the win column, takes out an undefeated guy that
was like a lower top ten type contender, puts himself
in position for some bigger fights in that weight class,
which other than Canelo, who has the belts for at
least the most of the belts, there's still other good
interesting fights that can and for Bisingian. Look, he even
said it himself, like, I know he didn't win the fight,
but like he showed he's you know, he can hang
with any of the top guys. Uh, you know, he
didn't disgrace himself. I would love to see him in
another real fight. You know a lot of times you
see a guy take a loss and they make you
wantant to see them again. He probably made more fans
and gain more attention and positive vibes, let's say towards
what he did in this one loss, and he did
in any of his previous thirty three fights where you know,
he was largely not seen by a lot of people,
wasn't really fighting top top opponents. So he's got absoutely
nothing to be shamed of. Bazinian, can you know, be
back on my screen any time, and you know, against
a solid opponent. And now the thing here though, is
what's gonna be next for Mangia, And they mentioned a
couple of names after the fight. Kayleb Plant, the former
title holder obviously the previous week at scored his own
victory against McCombe on the Canelo undercard. They mentioned Edgar Berlanga,
who even though he lost to Canelo, certainly is still
viable for anybody. Christian Mabilly, who's now also co promoted
by top rank like Magia is. Those are all excellent fights.
I mean, honestly, you could take Mangia, Cayleb Plant, Berlanga,
and Mobilly and make any matchups betting any of those
guys and you're probably gonna get yourself a good fight.
So you know, those seem like what's out there. Mabilly's
sidelined a little bit till the end of the year,
probably through the first part of next year after I
guess he has shoulder surgery following his victory against devren
Chenko a couple of weeks ago, so we'll see what
comes to that. But Magia, uh, you know, he's a
fun fighter, he's a pretty good draw. He made himself
bigger after the loss of Canelo, and he's got a
bright future stove, even even coming off that Canolo defeat.
Speaker 1: All right, speaking to bright futures, Richard Torres did win
the co feature fight by DQ over Joey Diweco. Deweco
badly out of shape, but Diweco spent most of the
fight trying to clutch, trying to spit his mouthpiece out
because he was tired. The referee took points plural away
for doing that and then eventually decued him in the
fifth round. I think it was inevitably going to be
a knockout anyway, whenever it came it ends up being
a DQ. Something about that as well for Torres, who
gets another win.
Speaker 2: Well, it's pretty clear to me you'd never seen Joey
Diweco fight before, because that was Joey Deweco actually in
pretty good change. That was that was Joey Diweco at
his lightest weight in years, in years. He actually was
in the best shape he's been in in quite a
long time. You got to go back to like when
he was two hundred and thirty three against Brian Jennings
in twenty eighteen, which a fight actually was at that
fight in Philadelphia. He came into this fight against against
Torres two hundred and forty four pounds. That that's good
for Joey Deweco. The problem with Joey Deweco is that
he just doesn't have the spirit to fight anymore like
he once did. I've seen Joey Diweco in some fucking
all out wars that would have been exciting had a
good chin. He just, you know, clearly has now gone
over the mountain top as far as now with that
opponent mentality. Just did not want to put himself in
a bad situation and kept spitting out the mouthpiece a
couple of times. It did get legitially knocked out, but
you know when the ref says, if he comes out again,
I'm disqualifying you, and then soon enough it comes out again.
That was his way of saying, you know what, I'm
gonna get my loss by DQ. I'm not getting stopped
tonight though, because he was on the verge again stop
ridgeitd Torres was in tremendous condition. He's a good puncher,
he had an idea what he wanted to do. He
was on the attack. He was looking for a knockout
and he would have got I believe if the referee
had let the fight continue you but Joey kept spitting
out the mouthpiece and that's that was a sign of resignation.
I thought it was. It was a disappointing thing because
going into the fight I had, I didn't think it
was gonna be like, you know, the greatest fight in
the world. And I thought the Wicco would lose the
fight for sure, but I thought he would give some
competition and that uh, and it would be a good
fun fight for as long as a lassion. But he
didn't make it either because Torres dominated and Deweco just
showed he didn't have the spirit to fight anymore. So
Torres not not his fault. Unfortunately for Richard, though he
had been ten to zero with ten knockouts, now he's
eleven to zero with ten knockouts because he gets a DQ. Unfortunately,
he was denied the ability to keep his perfect knockout record. Now,
in the long run, that may be a good thing
because that pressure is no longer there. No one's going
to be asking about can you keep the knockout street
go And remember we went through this whole thing with
just recently with Berlanga, although that was in the first
round anyway, So Torres moves as this was still whatever
you think about Deweco was still by far the best
opponent he has faced thus far. And now we'll move on.
And you know what a lot of people are to
start to look at Richard or As I think because
mm hmm, he is the only you know, undefeated, notable
American heavyweight up and comer. I mean he has the
Olympic silver medal, which right off the bat, you know,
if somebody needs you got that means you have to
pay attention to him.
Speaker 1: I mean, what two other things does he have? He
has activity, and he's been fighting on national TV, not
pay per view on ESPN where people can sample it
see him and see him frequently. And those things are
both gonna help him to whatever extent he can move up.
And I know we both still have questions can he
be a championship level fighter? But he's been active, he's
been fighting on national TV, so you're interested in seeing
him again.
Speaker 2: You want to follow the journey. And when there's not
a lot of other journeys to follow of American undefeated
heavyweights or not even undefeated, but heavyweights in general, that
are interesting, Uh, you know, he's the guy that's there
I mean, we saw Jared Anderson take the loss, not
to say he can't come back, but it was such
a rough loss for him that you got a kind
of question of where he's going from here. And I
don't know where Torres is gonna wind up, but like
I said, the journey is going to be fun to watch.
He's got an exciting style. He's made for TV. He's
kind of got a quirky personality which makes him interesting
and so look, he gets to win. I don't want
to make too much of it because Dwekco, like I said,
just did not seem like he really wanted to be
there to fight, even though he was in good shape
relative to what he's been for recent fights. And Torres
moves on. I suspect, you know, we're going to see
another busy active Richard Torres in twenty twenty five. Not
sure if they'll fight again the rest of this year.
Hopefully they can get him in one more time top ranks.
You know, their their schedule is more limited in the
back half of the year because of football, so they
don't have that many shows. They got the card coming
up on Friday in New York. Obviously he's not on
that show and they their last show is in December,
December seventh. Maybe they find a spot for him on
there potentially. But anyway, it was a good year for
Richard Torres and you know, big things hopefully for him
next year.
Speaker 1: And Emiliano Vargas also on this court. I know you're
very high on him. He does get the TKO.
Speaker 2: I'm not that high on him. I don't know why
I'm putting words in my mouth.
Speaker 1: Well, you said of the Vargas brothers, I am going
to put the words that you said in your mouth.
If this is the one that has the most potential,
the most chance. He got a knockout the other night,
go ahead.
Speaker 2: I'm saying he's the best of the Vargas brothers. Is
not the same as saying I'm high on him, all right, Anyway,
I'm not down on him or anything like that, but
I still need to see a lot more. But he's
got the look. He looks like a movie star, and
he's got a very appealing style in which he fights.
He did pass a certain level of tests in this victory,
a one sided victory in the fifth round of a
knockout against Larry Fryar's so the thing that I liked
about the card. Mungia Bazinia we thought would be a
good fight. It was a good fight. The two prospects
that were there, Torres and Vargas, at the very least,
at least they were matched with their toughest opponents, and
they did what they're supposed to do. Torres took out
or got the DQ anyway against a Waco, and Vargas
beat up on Larry Fryars, who was tough as nails
uh and just was dominated. Uh. And Vargas has got,
you know, a crowd pleasing style. Obviously comes from great
blood lines with his father being Fernando Vargas. Remember also,
Torres was pressed into the co feature because Andres Cortes,
the one hundred and thirty pounds contender, was undefeated. His
fight was was called off because he came up with
some kind of illness or injury. His opponents stayed on
the card and fought on the preliminaries in one but
that was supposed to be the co feature. So anyway,
but Vargas look similar to to uh to uh Torres,
He's gonna stay busy. Top Rank likes him. He's now
twelve and zero with ten knockouts. He's only twenty years old.
You still want to see more in terms of his development.
But the main thing is this, And again I don't
mean to say I'm not high in them because I
don't think he's going anywhere. I just need to see
a little bit more.
Speaker 1: You covered that. Yeah, you need to see more of him.
You need to see more of him. But he was
so far, so good.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's doing what he's supposed to do. I
mean I heard a lot of people saying, well, you know,
Amiliano Vargas for Prospect of the Year. Now, I don't
know how other people make their picks for Prospect thee
or what metric they use or what criteria they use.
For me, when I pick up Prospect of the ear,
I want to see a guy that's maybe on the
verge of something special, a guy who I think, maybe
compared to the other group of guys he's competing against
for that accolade, someday long down the road, might even
be a Hall of Famer. I can't put Vargas in
that position just yet, because he has fought absolutely nobody
right to be the Prospect of the Year.
Speaker 1: So what he's what twenty.
Speaker 2: He's twenty.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of time, got plenty of time to see
what he has to see what.
Speaker 2: You put him on a list of the top prospects,
for sure, but to be number one, I think that's
a reach.
Speaker 1: Settlement on that for whoever saying that Diego Pacheco's still
out there as a prospect by the way and rising
up to you.
Speaker 2: Well, I just my prospect last year. Yeah, I think
he's now a contender. I won't have him on the
prospect list the end there. I think he's taking that
next step. But maybe maybe I'm just uh, I'm bummed
out because Vargas beat up on my boy Larry Friars,
who calls Alby in New York his hometown now, which
where I am from where I was born, even though
Friars is from Ireland. He's my Albany guy.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to some news and some nostalgic
because we've been here a little bit. Okay, you talked
about this on our bet Us Boxing show. One of
the many reasons why you need to be there on
the bet Us Boxing Show at one Eastern time on Friday,
when somebody prompted you and asked you about Tank Davis
and Lamont Roach, tell the public here on this pod,
on this here recap pod why it makes sense for December,
and why it makes sense in the Washington, DC area.
If that's what's going to happen. We don't know. You're
not reporting that it is for sure that it's going
to happen, But it's possible, So tell them more.
Speaker 2: No, what what I've reported is it's the leading situation
right now. Tank was originally looking, they were looking to
make efforts to have him back. The first week November
not happening for a variety of different reasons, and so
the day then we're talking about other dates. I mean,
there's always you just look at the calendar and pick
out the saturdays. There was some conversation with PBC about December,
or rather November twenty third, which is the Saturday before
the Thanksgiving holiday, or December fourteenth, which I don't know
if December twenty third is still a possibility, but certainly December.
He wants to come back this year, so right now, PBC.
And it's hard because you've got to match. First of all,
you got to find an opponent. Then you got to
match the date with the venue which you can get
to the end of the year is tough because a
lot of those buildings that they go in if you're
not in Vegas, you're dealing with college basketball schedules, you're
dealing with the NBA schedule, you're dealing with the NHS schedule,
NHL schedule, not to mention whatever, which in.
Speaker 1: This case, that arena in DC has all three things
while you're trying to find a date. If you're doing this,
that's what your point was correct.
Speaker 2: So what I am reporting is that the possibility that
has emerged now it seems like the leading candidate anyway,
December twenty first. Unfortunately, that's the same day as the
Usik Fury rematch, which would be disappointing, but I understand
from the PBC perspective because as big of a deal
as Fury and Usik is in the United States, it's
just not a big pay per view fight unfortunately, So
it is what it is anyway, December twenty one, Capitol
One Arena in Washington, d City. Again not done, just
being heavily discussed, and the opponent would be the WBA's
one hundred and thirty pound champion Lamont Roach and a
lot of people when I put that on social media,
wrote that in my sub stack in my notebook that
came out on Friday. I guess people were ripping that
a piece, ripping that apart. And I'm here to tell
you that Tank Davis has his fan based on pay
per view, and then if he can do two hundred
thousand buys two hundred fifteen thousand buys the way he
did against Hector Luis Garcia, an even more unknown opponent
than Lamont Roach, who didn't speak English and couldn't help
the promotion in terms of interviews and market himself to
the vast majority of boxing gens in this country. Lamar
Roach is the opposite because Lamar Roach can talk. Lamar
Roach has been on National TV many many times, and
most significantly when he fought Hector Luis Garci in that
building back in January of twenty twenty three, a building
that was packed to the rafters at that I was there.
It's about a half an hour from my house. They
did the biggest gate in the history of that building,
which is about twenty five to thirty years old. Same
building where Mike Tyson fought Kevin McBride, for example. They
broke the all time gate record five million, one eighty
five thousand dollars, broke the record set by a Rolling
Stone concert. So when I tell you if he fights
Lamont Roach, Tank being from Baltimore having a very big
fan base in the DC area, and he's fighting Lamont Roach,
who's from DC and absolutely has his own fan base.
When he fought in a title defense's defense that took
place about two months ago or so, he drew about
four to five thousand people to a small arena for
a fight. They didn't even get a lot of publicity
that fight between Tank and Roach in DC. Will I
believe break that gate record. We'll still do in the
same sort of wheelhouse pay per view wise the Tank
has been doing. They have some animosity between each other.
They fought in the Amateurs. I know at least one
time they fought in the Amateurs and Davis won the fight.
I'm told they fought maybe a couple other times. Maybe
Roach has one win over him also. But they'll talk
a ton of shit and it is what it is.
I mean, you know, people want to see Tanks stop
up and fight some of the better names and bigger guys,
But they're just not available at the moment, and we
can go down the list and understand why they're not available.
But if it's roach, so be it. I mean, in
this in this region, in the Washington, d C, Baltimore,
Northern Virginia region, that's a big fucking fight. And thank
will still do his normal pay per view like he
typically was.
Speaker 1: The only question mark, and you have me here for
this is that is a massive day in the football
world because the college football Playoff is expanding and all
four playoff games are on that day, Saturday, December twenty first,
all through the evening and the night, and there's two
NFL games, including Mahomes and the Chiefs, playing that night also,
so that might detract from a pay per view. But
I understand your point about Live Gates. Listen, i'ming fan,
a boxing fans as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're always going to have your troubles with the schedule.
I'm not saying it's ideal. I wouldn't want to do
that if I was the one that was, you know,
having to put up the money. But it's not the
first time that there'll be a boxing event that's going
to have to go up against a rough sports schedule.
It won't be the last time, and you know the
calendar running short. And again let's let's reiterate. This is
not a done deal. This is right, you know. I
think it's hilarious, like I'll write a story like this
and I'm very specific with my language. And I see
other websites take the material, some credit me, some don't, whatever,
and they say, he's fighting.
Speaker 1: You're reporting this is the date, and you're not reporting
this reporting.
Speaker 2: The possibility exists very strongly that he'll fight this fighter
on this date in this location, and other websites and
outlets take it and make it he is fighting this opponent,
he is fighting on this date and he is fighting
in this location, when that's not what I wrote.
Speaker 1: But I did not write that. He did not say
that on the podcast. Possible does not mean done, right, But.
Speaker 2: It's something that within pbclan discussed being heavily discussed. And
one thing about it is from the standpoint of making
a deal with la Mott Roach. Lamont Roach is a
promotional free agent, so there's no there's no barriers in
terms of that.
Speaker 1: By the way, I'm just having fun with I'm just
having fun with words. Possible, likely and very likely are
all not done? Done? It is done? All right? Speaking
of done, is it done for Boots and Bam? You
talked about this on the preview pod going into the weekend,
that Boots Ennis and Bam Rodriguez separate fights in the
co feature for Philadelphia November ninth, look like it was
going to happen. So now is it happening?
Speaker 2: Is it on?
Speaker 1: Is that is that downe? Not very likely, not very possible.
Does that look like it's done?
Speaker 2: It is done? So we taped that podcast on Thursday
night and then on Friday afternoon or Friday evening, Matthriwman
now said it was a done deal. So that's the
story you got. November ninth on his own, They're going
back to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, which is
where Boots Ennis had his first defense earlier this year
against David Evanessi, and they drew a huge crowd. It
was the biggest crowd for a Philadelphia boxing event since
nineteen seventy eight at the Spectrum when Marvin Hagler pre champion.
Hagler had a big win over Benny Briscoe. This is
two years before Hagler won the Middleway title. That fight
drew a huge attendance relative to what they've been drawing.
In This fight between Boots and Avanessian drew fourteen thousand,
one hundred and nineteen, So they're gonna go back to
that same location. The problem is they have to do
it against Karen Chikazi in the mandatory. So here's what happened,
Mattroom Boxing. You lost the purse bit for that fight
and you're like, okay, he's gonna wind up going to Germany.
In the end, Matt Troom Boxing was able to go
and deal with the promoter of Karen Chakazi and make
a deal to basically buy the show or buy the fight,
or make some kind of arrangement to make them hole
and bring the fight to their location. So they're bringing
that fight to Philadelphia. That'll be the main event. And
as the main event. It's terrible, not because anything wrong
with Mattrium's boxing, Batchroom Boxing's ability to promote an event,
or the the interest level in a bootsennis, but the
opponent stinks, and the opponent is the guy that Bootsen
has already beat twelve to nothing last year, so there's
no real reason to see that again. So what they've done.
At least is they put their other top young American
star on the same card. So Jesse Bamardriguez is in
the co feature. He's going to defend his WBC Junior
banham Way title, and they're matching him up with Pedro Givar,
who's the interim title holder, who's a good fighter, also
coming off in an exciting victory, who used to hold
a full title back a few years ago when one
hundred and eight pounds way class. So you know, they're
they're trying to make what's the old saying TJ. They're
trying to make chicken salad out a chicken shit by Matt.
I mean, listen, it's almost like they're gonna the way
they're going to advertise this, or at least they should
if I was doing their marketing. He always want to
make it like it's Boots fighting Bam because it's the
Bam and the Boots show with the Boots and the
Bam show, even tho they're fighting separate opponents, right, you know, see.
Speaker 1: Those bottom line is the fight is not in Germany
on an obscure whatever outlet, or I mean, it's at
least in the United States. For Ennis in his hometown
and he has high motivation to destroy this guy this
goal round. So we're going to be intrigued, and we're
intrigued whenever we see Jesse Bam Rodriguez in the co feature.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna Gonis go twelve rounds against Chickasian again. Chackasian,
you know, fought very timidly in the first fight. He
just would not engage him. It's going to be the
onus is on Ennis to go after him and make
it interesting.
Speaker 1: Plenty of time for that for that breakdown on that.
And then there's one more piece of news before the nostalgia,
and that's you're reporting on the expected here's that word
expected undercard for this October nineteenth show in my part
of the world in Orlando. I'm in West Central Florida
and Tampa Bay. This is the the Bachrum fight with
Tim Zou for the IBF Junior middleweight title that Bachram
has uh and you are reporting here about the under card.
Give me a little taste what he got.
Speaker 2: So okay, So this is on October nineteenth, Prime Video.
It's their first non pay per view event that PBC
is going to do in their deal with with Prime Video.
So that's right off the bat. That's good because Bakerman
Zoo is just a regular main event, and you know,
good main event, but the main event, and so the undercard. Look,
these are not names I think are gonna be on
the tip of boxing fans tongue that they know them
very well. But I believe these are very solid matchups
and should provide some entertainment. So one of my favorite
prospects is the Ronnie Shields trained fighter named Joannis Tayas,
who is a junior middleweight Cuban fighter now based in Stafford, Texas,
which is where Ronnie has his gym. Really good looking
young fighter eight and oh but really ready to step up.
You know, Ronnie, who I have massive respect for. I
know Ronnie Shield almost twenty five years. I think he's
just a tremendous boxing mind, a great trainer. Really really
high on Tajas. Anyway, they're matching him up in this fight.
He'll be on the undercard. And keep in mind, by
the way, it's gonna take place, as you mentioned, in Orlando, Florida,
so it's gonna you know, there's obviously a lot of
Cubans in the region, so maybe he'll draw some of
those folks you know, to the fight, so he's gonna
be on this card. And then you also have another
undefeated fighter named Caesar Matteo tap He was seventeen and
oho from Mexico, fights out of Australia. He is a middleweight.
He's gonna take on the one lost injury Savedra. Now
I think again, these are not and Sevedro, by the way,
is a Mexico fighter, but he fights out of Venezuela,
so you got a little bit of a lot of
nationality's going on here anyway, And by the way, and
Tez his opponent is a fighter named Johan Gonzalez who
is very very experienced fighter. He's thirty five and three
with thirty four knockouts. He's got a lot of power.
He did lose in a fight not that long ago,
two fights ago. He got stopped in the ninth round
by Jesus Ramos, who was one of the top up
and coming PBC fighters. So as undercard fights go, I'm
sort of interested in this. These seem like again, I
don't want to make this out like this is you know,
a loaded read season card or anything like that. But
for the non pay per view type of card with
a very quality main event, Like you may get a
chance to see some guys that you're gonna be seeing
in for a while, especially Tayas, who I am very
high on. I speak about my prospect list. He was
on that prospect list at the end of twenty twenty three.
Presumably if he wins this fight and looks good on
October nineteenth, he'll still be on that prospect list come
the end of twenty twenty four. So anyway, those are
the two fights that they're looking to do in terms
of the main card undercard bouts Tees against Gonzales and
Caesar Mateo Tappy who was seventeen and oh against Injury
Saveger who was sixteen and one with thirteen knockouts. You know,
they're kind of like showboxes kind of fights serving as
the undercard for a very quality main event.
Speaker 1: Good stuff, all right, nostalgia to wrap it up thirty
years ago coming up on Tuesday, now, we go back
to September twenty fourth, nineteen ninety four and Oliver McColl's
shocking second round one punch ko of Lennox Lewis in
a fight that had some controversy because it was stopped
immediately after a one punch knockdown. He wins the WBC
heavyweight title. Huge upset in that moment of Lewis. So man,
oh man, that's thirty years ago, speaking of uh you
heavyweights upsets? Yes, And in London, Oliver McCall jumped about
four feet off the ground doing the splits in the
air when that fight was stopped. Clearly, it's a massive
thudding punch right on the face, right on the chin,
in the nose, and Lewis is on unsteady legs. But
the thing is the referee just waved the fight off
and did not allow the champion, the reigning champion, the
chance to recover from the knockdown and maybe stay in
the fight. It was over. It was over that fast.
Speaker 2: So this fight took place at the Wembley Arena in London,
which if you're familiar with Wembley Stadium or in that area,
and I've been fortunate enough to be there to cover fights,
it's basically across the street from Wembley Stadium. After you
get out of that big, you know, stadium area and
you're just back on the streets of London, it's right
across the street and this is where that happened. Is
a very famous venue. It's where Marvin Hagler defeated Alan
Minter for the Middleway title. It's where during COVID Anthony
Joshua defeated Kubrah pool Ev. I mean it's hosted numerous
fights over the years. Anyway, remember you got it. I
always try when we do these little conversations about the nostalgia,
we look back. It's kind of put in perspective where
the guys were in their careers. Lennox is rolling along,
he's absolutely wiped out. Razor Ruddick was retroactively awarded the
WBC title that was ominated, but when Riddick both threw
the belt in the can and refused to fight him,
he was awarded of the WBC title. And he'd gone
on to defeat like solid guys. He'd beat Tony Tucker
in a mandatory. He had a huge fight in the
UK against the big time British rival Frank Bruno, who
he stopped in seven rounds, a big deal came to
Atlantic City, beat the one loss Phil Jackson on HBO,
and now he's going to to Wembley Arena to fight
Oliver McCall, who if my memory serves, was a mandatory
challenger at that time who was with Don King, and
they put this fight on again HBO, and like you said,
second round, Lennox maybe not in the best condition for
that fight and just gets clipped on the chin by
Oliver McCall. One thing about Oliver McCall, who you know,
in the long run, was really kind of journeyman ish.
But two things. He had good punching power and one
of the best chins in the history of the world,
I mean the iron type of chin. And he clipped
him right on the chin and dropped him in the
second round. Now you talk about how the referee stopped it,
I actually didn't think it was that bad of a stoppage.
I know a lot of people hate the stoppage. I
know the HBO commentators back in the day Merchant and
Jim Lampley went absolutely lunatic on the stoppage. Lennox's legs dipped,
he barely could defend himself at that point. Like I
didn't think it was like he was not all there.
So I'm not saying I wouldn't like allow him to
have the benefit of the doubt to go on, but
I don't think it was like the worst stoppage I've
ever seen. I've seen way worse. In the end. Oliver
McCall at that point, you know, considered like a journeymanish
type of opponent. You know, he had five losses going
into that fight. He wins the title and it was
a huge moment for him in his career.
Speaker 1: So when you go back, when you go back and
relive it too. And one reason why Lampley and Larry
Merchant on the cal and I'm not even sure who
the analyst was, if it was Big George Foreman or not.
This is on the heels of a lot of the
controversy with the Pernell Whittaker Chavez fight the year before.
That was questionable, awful scorecards and it was a draw.
And you hear Lampley even exclaim this WBC referee just
stopped this this fight after one punch because there was
but there was a lot of belief at that time
that the WBC was corrupt and Don King was involved
and paying them and paying them maybe even for outcomes
and and things going the other way, and so that
was what they explained as soon as the pot.
Speaker 2: I've always felt that this was not the worst stoppage
I've ever saw. I didn't love it, but I didn't
think it was I didn't it rose to the level
that some made it out to.
Speaker 1: And for example, when Hassim Rockman years later landed his
big punch that was a count out fud the double impact,
the head hit on the matt for Lennox Lewis, he
got counted out, no doubt. This was not a no
doubter because Lewis was up on his feet and the
referee waved it off.
Speaker 2: But the legs were doing the shimmys, you know what
I mean. Goes on after this fight, he beats Larry
Holmes in a title fight, and then he loses the
title of Frank Bruno.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And you know, goes on and has a couple of
more like lower level type of fights, and eventually when
Lewis uh, now you know it's it's to fight again.
They get they're gonna do the rematch because the title
I'd become vacant, the WBC title. Now they're the two
top contenders, So Lennox is trying to go for the uh,
for the revenge, so to speak. And that the second fight,
which is the anniversary we're talking about is the first fight,
but the second fight was memorable because unfortunately that's where
Aldrocul had, you know, the mental breakdown in the ring
and starts frying. That was one of the few times
he was up.
Speaker 1: There and was confused and was refusing to fight, and
mills Lane kept saying, let's wrong, just had night, let's go,
and then they stopped the fight. Yeah, crazy, crazy, and
that was a little nuts. What three years later ninety seven,
right on the rematch.
Speaker 2: Correct, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: But this is what set all of that into motion
was that night thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing that's amazing by that. One of the
great stats are stats, not stats, but like sort of
like trivia if you will. When Oliver McCall knocked out
knocked out Lennox Lewis. Oliver mcclass trainer that night was
Emanuel Stewart. Emmanuel Stewart later became and was in the
corner for Lenox in the rematch and became obviously very
closely associated with Lenox through the rest of his career.
So you know, he swapped corners basically between those two
fightsp Nostalgion, but that was still that was just kind
of a crazy situation.
Speaker 1: No doubt.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Now move forward eleven years, same day, this coming Tuesday,
September twenty four, two thousand and five, and that's Vladimir
Klitschko getting off the deck now once, not twice, but
three times to win an IBF eliminator fight, heavyweight eliminator fight.
And you were ringside also because there was somebody else
that was on this card, on this HBO card in
Atlantic City of Notes. So get nostalgic with me about
nineteen years ago, two thousand and five Tuesday.
Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't there because of the other fighter on
the card, that was Miguel Koto. What I was there
for was a really outstanding HBO doubleheader that a lot
of people were excited about. Now, remember in terms of
Vladimir Klitchko, you know, he had lost some rough fights,
he had been knocked out, and he had switched you know,
he had finally switched trainers and gone with him that
we just mentioned Ammanngo Steward before he had gone with
Emmanuel Stewart and they had lost their first fight together.
When he went with Emmanuel Stewart, he lost the fight
to Laman Brewster in the vacant heavyweight title fight, which
is a big, big shocker to a lot of people.
But when that fight was over and done with, you know,
he didn't get rid of Mangal. They stayed together. He won,
you know, he did come back from that that very
devastating loss. He won a couple of fights with Emmanuel.
You want to fight against Devara Williamson, you want to
fight against Alysio Castillo, a little bit lesser type opponents.
And now he's in position to meet up with Samuel Peter,
who was the massive, punching, big up and coming heavyweight.
You know, just just you know, everybody thinks he's like
the next big thing, and clinch Goo gets matched up
with him. It's an IBF title eliminated. The winner is
going to get a shot at the title. It's not
a semi final eliminator. This is like for number one.
Next up is the mandatory and they fight this fight
in the main event in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall.
As you said, I was present, and this was one
of those fights where where Clitchco dominated the fight, but
he got knocked down three times. I know that sounds weird.
We had that whole conversation about you know, how could
you get a guy get dropped three times and still win. Well,
the way that can happen is because after the fight
is over, you're looking to see what happened is see
clitch go. Sure he got dropped three times, but guess
what he won every the other round of the fight
in which he was not dropped. And that's just the
reality that if you do the math, that's how it worked.
So and the knockdowns weren't devastating knockedouts. So in the
end the judges all had it the same one fourteen
to one eleven. I thought a couple of those knockdowns
were behind that head that were easily the type of
punches where the ref could have ruled that I foul.
In any event, he was landing these clubbing shots with
what San Peter is known for. But in the end,
that was a big fight for Klitchko because with so
many questioning his ability to take a punch, b to
have the stamina to go deep into the fight after
what happened with Brewster. You know, the fights he had
won post Brewster were not the top, top level San Peter.
Now this is a big test. He came through with
flying colors despite the knockdowns. Even though the knockdowns happened,
people praised him because he showed that he could keep
himself under control, he could get through a rough moment
with the great words of Emmanuel in the quarter and
also his own inner will to do so. And you know,
hand the Samuel Peter his first defeat. And after that
fight was over, you know, this was not the world
title fight. But here's the deal. He goes in that fight,
he you know, he had you know, come through the
fire if you will, by by getting up after those knockdowns.
And after this fight he gets the shot at Chris
Bird for the title. Several months later, he knocks Chris
Bird out in the seventh round in two thousand and six,
early part of six. And he goes on to dominate
for ten years and make uh, you know what eighteen
successful title defenses. I mean, but what the but the
real start, I know, the rain started with the Bird fight.
But in my mind, where he turned the corner and
put all that other ship behind him, the questions about
his stamina, the questions about his chin. This was the
Samuel pet This was the defining fight. You know, stayed
with the manual, took the tough loss against Bruser, got
the two other wins on his belt, went in a
fight where a lot of people thought Sam Peter is
gonna knock him the fuck out, and he not only
got off the deck three times, clearly was the winner,
not controversial, won every other round of the fight, wasn't
even that close. And then went on to destroy Chris
Bird in their first fight and go on for a
long and successful title reign until he fought Tyson Fury
you know, many years later, uh, and just kept on
trucking out the undercard fight. This was a spectacular fucking fight.
I mean, so the Sam Peter fight had a certain
element of drama because of the things I mentioned about,
you know, whether Klitchkok could keep himself together and and
and you know get off the mat when he got dropped.
But in terms of just for fewer action and just
crazy shootout, wild shit going on, he got a young
Miguel Coto in the co Feuture on HBO and it
was as exhilarated and exciting as you could possibly imagine.
Now he was a He was fighting Ricardo Torres from Columbia,
who was a late replacement for what was supposed to
be a mandatory fight. I believe that I off the
top man. I just I'm not able to recall who
can who who Miguel's original opponent was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: It was like a decent you're allowed, You're allowed to
pass on that. I'm giving you a pass on a
Sunday night.
Speaker 2: I usually that kind of crazy minutia.
Speaker 1: Because I keep I keep mentioning the people frequently, You're
not looking at anything while you're rattling this stuff off.
People might think you're just staring down the computer and
all these different notes. You're doing most of this off
the time.
Speaker 2: While I look up, I'll look up something like that.
Speaker 1: Any But in any event, Coto and Torre has turned
out to be a fantastic.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, so so Cooto is defending the WBO
Junior welterweight title. Torres was the was the late replacement,
and this is just a wild shootout. They're both down,
they're both badly hurt. Coto walks through the fucking fire.
You know, I remember Larry Merchant. I you know, I
was at the fight, but I obviously will always come
home after the fights and I would watch the broadcast
because I would record them and by the way, this
one was so early, this one I probably recorded on
the VHS.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: There was no DVRs back then or when, at least not
that I had at that time. Uh, and DVDs were
still kind of new in my life anyway. Uh. Larry
basically dubbed Coda that night is like the you know,
the the the young Puerto Rican Taro Gotti because of
the way that he survived and made this a shootout,
in the drama that he brought to the fight, but
he ultimately got the knockout victory in round seven. Clear
fight of the Year candidate, and it was just those
are the days, man, non pay per view, live HBO,
big crowd, Atlantic City, boardwalk hall, lots of media coverage,
two interesting fights, big heavyweight, important fight for the eliminator
with Klitchko and Samuel Peter in their first fight in
the main event, turned out to be memorable for different reasons.
And you have a broken fight in the undercart where
you know, Codo's not fighting his original opponent, but it
turns out to be absolutely spectacular. And by the way, Torres,
who had badly hurt Miguel Coto and knocked him down
for the first time in his career that was in
his second round. But Torres had been dropped in the
first round, got dropped in the fourth round, got dropped
in the sixth round, and got dropped and stopped in
the seventh round. I mean, this was just a wild, wild,
wild fucking fight. And by the way, just because Codo
only got knocked down the one time, he was badly
hurt multiple times in this fight in a bunch of
different rounds, just as exciting as a guest. I mean,
you put it together with the heavyweights, you know, it
was definitely nice to remember. I'm glad I was there.
Speaker 1: Love it, Love your nostalgia, all right, man, Lots lots
on the recap that full read season card and the
Dubois win and then the ESPN Top Rank show, and
you got some news and some nostalgia out of this
as well. I think we're good here off of the
weekend and we're almost done with September as we rock
along here as well. Anything else or are we good
here off of Sunday and a new week coming out?
Speaker 2: I think that we are good.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. There you go, by the way,
follow subscribe Apples, Freaker, Spotify, We also have different times
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I here as part of the pod we preview going
into the weekend for Dan Rayfield on TJ Reeves. You've
been listening to the Fight Freaks Your Night Recap podcast