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Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big

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Fight Weekend. Now here is your host, TJ. Leaves.

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Speaker 2: Yes, Indeed, we get ready for a weekend that has

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multiple main event fight cards in England, in California, in fact,

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a couple of them in England, including one on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: We're ready to preview that.

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Speaker 2: We have some news to go over, some more heavyweight

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nostalgia to go over. It is the Big Fight Weekend

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Preview podcast. Welcome back in as we head into the

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Easter holiday weekend. Good to be with Dan Rayfield. I'm

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merely TJ.

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Speaker 1: Reeves.

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Speaker 2: Good to be back with you, although you and I

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have already done this earlier in the week with a

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special edition of the pod, The Fight Freaks Unite, a

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special edition of the pod with Al Bernstein and Barry Tomkins,

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and I got to say right off the top before

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we get into the preview mode and the news accept

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I have gotten some positive feedback, as we knew there

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would be, from people that just thoroughly enjoyed hearing from

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those guys. Or if you go on the YouTube page,

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go on the Big Fight Weekend YouTube page, you can

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see Al Bernstein and Barry Tompkins with us full length interview.

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Speaker 3: And subscribe to the channel.

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Speaker 1: Yes, subscribe to the YouTube channel.

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Speaker 2: And Dan, I know you've gotten some positive feedback as well,

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and rightfully so with those two Hall of Fame broadcasters.

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And what an event to have been part of forty

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years ago. Hagler hearns just one more time. We had

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a thrill doing that. Yeah, if you've been under a

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rock or in a cave and you're a fight fan

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and you don't know that the fortieth anniversary was earlier

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this week on April the fifteenth, on Tuesday, go back

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and listen or go watch on the YouTube page.

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Speaker 3: That was awes fun.

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Speaker 4: I mean they were happy to do it. I mean,

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I like you and I I don't think Ted, Barry

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Tompkins and Albernstein get tired of talking about that. It's

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not an albatross. It's a joy to be a part

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of that kind of great historical event. You and I

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were not part of the event. We were kids watching

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it like everybody else. But they were their ringside in

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the had the front seat as the best seat in

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the house, as they say. So it was great to

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talk to them. And you know, I've been friendly with

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Barry and Al for you know, my whole career pretty much,

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and they bring a I've found what interesting about it

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was they brought different perspectives to the fight even though

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they didn't work on the same broadcast. But they are

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sitting probably a few feet away from each other, and

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they've worked together through the years on ESPN and Showtime

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and know each other for a decade. So it was

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cool to talk to them about one of the great

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fights in the history of boxhoe.

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Speaker 2: So one other follow up is I had never I

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went back and watched you and I joked and we

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left that podcast, We're gonna go back and watch, all right.

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So I went back and watched both calls of the fight,

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Alan al Al Michaels and Al Bernstein and then Barry Tompkins,

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Sugar Ray Leonard and Larry Merchant. I had never until

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Wednesday of this week gone and found it.

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Speaker 1: But it's there on YouTube.

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Speaker 2: Go find the IFL TV broadcast with Reg Gut.

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Speaker 3: Not IFL ITV or.

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Speaker 1: ITV ITV ITV.

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Speaker 3: With Reg Gridge.

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Speaker 1: That's the YouTube channel.

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Speaker 2: Okay, ITV does it even exist anymore? In the British

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In the British television.

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Speaker 4: ITV is a terrestrial station. It's like ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC.

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Here in America. They used to show boxing matches all

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the time.

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Speaker 2: Okay for years and years zero, So obviously they showed

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that fight in the middle of the night, I believe.

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And they also prey what I've seen on YouTube is

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like a package presentation that later has a preview on it.

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It has the post fight interviews, it has a recap.

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So I had never heard the Reg Gutridge call with

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Donald the Cobra Curry. Although Gutridge talks like ninety eight

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percent of the time, I don't think Donald Curry said

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four sentences in the three rounds of the British call

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of the fight, and Gutridge, just the same way as

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Al Michaels and Barry Tompkins on the call, is just

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losing his mind after a minute of the opening round,

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as you would expect. So it was neat to go

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back and sample that forty years later because I had

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never seen that and never heard that on ITV.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for the correction on that.

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Speaker 2: And one other funny thing is they show the montage

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of the celebrities Big Dan and one of the first

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celebrities they show is Joan Rivers in the front row

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of the Hagler Herns fight. And now after al Bernstein

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told us that the late comedian and Joan Rivers has

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now passed away too. But the late comedian Gary Shandling

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was the opening act for Joan in the main comedy room.

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Speaker 1: At Caesar's Palace. So Joan is sitting there.

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Speaker 2: Joan had a longer amount of time because she was

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going on second and it was Shandling, as al Bernstein told.

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Speaker 1: Us, needed a quick fight because he was the opening act.

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Speaker 2: So I cracked up when they showed that montage on

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the ITV broadcast of her sitting there. They showed Muhammad

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Ali being there in the stands but in the front

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two or three rows of the celebrities.

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Speaker 1: I laughed at all of that.

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Speaker 2: So the reminiscing and to go back on all of

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that is part of what we do here.

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Speaker 1: We love that.

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Speaker 2: We'll have some George Foreman Evander Holyfield nostalgia a little

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bit later on the program. Thank you for finding us.

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Make sure you rate us and review us. People, if

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I mean, where are you at on the reviews? If

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you enjoyed, if you enjoyed what you heard earlier this week,

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give us a five star review and say so. We

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had several people comment, by the way, on the YouTube

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video how much they loved it. Do the same thing

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with a five star review on Applespreaker, Spotify. That helps

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us out on the podcast outlets. And by the way,

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we should say upfront, due to scheduling for bet us

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TV and their personnel being off for the Easter weekend,

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there is no bet us TV Friday show that we

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normally do, the live handicapping show, so this will have

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to suffice Big Dan.

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Speaker 1: This is the preview for the weekend.

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Speaker 2: The same fights that we would have talked about on

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that show, we're talking about it here on the program.

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Shall we get underway and let's start with the Matchroom

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desown Cards Saturday afternoon US time, Sheffield, England with Junior

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Well to wait star at least in England. In Great Britain,

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Dalton Smith, he is back in action with I have

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to confess, I don't know Matthew Germaine.

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Speaker 3: There's no reason why you would, Okay.

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Speaker 2: So what about this main event? Is Germaine just there

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as a as a guy As Dalton Smith tries to

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move up towards maybe a title shot at.

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Speaker 4: Do we think Matthew Germaine is there to give him

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rounds to maybe test them, but not supposed to win.

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Dalton Smith is already the mandatory challenger for the WBC

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world title. He is going to fight Alberto Playo later

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this year as long as both guys continue to win

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and there's no injuries in that sort of thing, So

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he is risking his position as the mandatory. He was officially,

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you know, ordained the mandatory when the WBC had their

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convention in Germany back in December, but he's not going

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to sit around and wait. The mandatory was not one

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thing I think a lot of folks who maybe listened

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to the show, are you know, fans of boxing, don't

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ever take time to read the rules and understand the

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way the mandatory things work is just because you become

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the mandatory does not mean that the fights due the

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next minute. There's time frames in which mandatories are due.

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So while Dalton Smith is the mandatory challenger, Playo is

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not under any obligation to fight him like tomorrow, the

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fight will be sometime later in the year. He had

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the opportunity to to make a defense that happened not

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that long ago, where he defeated by his split decision

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sand Or Martin in his first defense. But again, Dalton

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Smith is an excellent up and coming fighter. He's a

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little older at twenty eight, but professionally has seventeen fights.

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Had some injuries that kept him on the shelf a

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little bit over the last couple of years, so he

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needs the rounds.

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Speaker 3: He needs to just stay sharp. That's what this fight is.

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Speaker 4: He's going to probably fight Playo later in the year,

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and so Matthew Jermaine is there to be a guy

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to stand up, give him some competition, potentially give him

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some rounds. But Jermaine is also I saw the photos,

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Dalton Smith looks much much bigger than him. He's much younger.

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Dalton Smith is twenty eight years old. Matthew Germaine is

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thirty five, a Canadian fighter with two losses, both by knockout.

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Although he's on a pretty good winning streak. He hasn't

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had a loss ince twenty twenty. He got stopped in

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round seven by a solid fighter and eight heves Ulesses Junior.

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But again, this is the opportunity to just take care

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of business, to keep the chains moving and preserve the

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mandatory status. He's gonna fight for the world title. He's

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doing this fight in Sheffield. It is his hometown, Dalton

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Smith is a very popular figure there and that's what

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this is all about, all right.

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Speaker 2: So again that will be the main event coming here

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of this show. And then Josh Warrington is in the

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co feature in a junior lightweight fight. Help me here

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because I have a lot of things going on in

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my life, teenage twin daughters. As we mentioned the Easter weekend,

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I've just gotten done doing college basketball. Wasn't Josh Warrington

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supposedly retiring or retired? Yes, sir, and is this the

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latest eight hundred and ninety third example that fighters never retire?

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Speaker 1: And here we go again. He's back.

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Speaker 4: He's back, I mean, listen. He he suffered a close

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but legit loss when he lost his title at featherweight

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to Luis Alberta Lopez in his hometown of Leeds, England.

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This is December of twenty twenty two, certainly a reasonable loss.

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In his next fight, he was winning pretty candily against

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Lee Wood. That was in October of twenty twenty three,

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and Leewood ended up knocking him out in the seventh round.

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So we put in a good performance but ultimately was

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stopped at the end. The one that made a lot

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of people question whether he should continue was in his

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next fight, which was in September of last year, that

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is when he moved up to one hundred and thirty pounds.

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He fought Anthony Cassace, who at the time was the

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IBF champion, but it was not an official world title

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fight because the IBF win to prove it, so it

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was for Kasachi's much lesser, fringier ibo belt whatever. But

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in that particular fight, Kassachi basically clean Warrington's clock. I mean,

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he won a pretty clear decision, like you know, nine

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to three type scores. I think one of the judges

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had a ten rounds to two. And so when the fight,

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and he looked terrible in the fight, and when so

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it was his third loss in a row. And so

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when the fight was over, Warrington took off his gloves

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and he did the old lay them down in the

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in the in the ring, which is emblematic if I'm retired.

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And then he said so after the fight, and now

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not that long after the fight, and by the way,

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you know, I can I can appreciate this because I

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don't think any fighter, I don't care what the situation is,

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you shouldn't be making that decision standing in the ring,

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you know, a minute or two after you've lost a

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tough fight. So he, you know, at the press conference

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this week, you know, he was talking about how, look,

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I made an impulsive decision. I went back in the gym.

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I went back and I watched the fight, and I

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still feel like I have the desire and the ability

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to still give it another go. So he wants to

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come back. He's taking this fight to see what he's got.

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He's fighting in a fighter, no, not a great fighter,

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not a top notch guy Asad Khan in a ten

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round fight. Guy's got nineteen wins, six losses, in a draw.

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He's coming off an eight round decision lost Michael Conlin,

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who also was a guy that people thought Mike should

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be calling it a day. So look, Warriton's gonna try

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to give it another go. He's fighting at one thirty

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now and we'll see. So, yes, it was a rass decision.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 4: The ultimately the retirement ended up lasting about five minutes.

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I'm not mad at it. It is what it is.

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Speaker 2: I just looked since February of twenty twenty one. The

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man's record is one four and one with a couple

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of knockout losses and God, as you mentioned, utterly dominated

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the last time that he was out.

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about Warrington.

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Speaker 4: Well he's only got he's only got the one then

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one knockout loss and that well we'll go back to

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twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 3: He got stopped by Laara.

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Speaker 1: No.

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Speaker 3: But again I.

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Speaker 4: Explained, Lopez was legit close. Even though he lost lee Wood,

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he was winning easily and they got caught knocked out.

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Speaker 3: Happens.

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Speaker 4: Kasach didn't get stopped, didn't didn't fight very well, and

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so I didn't expect him to retire after the Cassachi

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fight anyway. So in no way, shape or form, am

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I surprised that he's going to try to give it

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another go. Now, if you lose to this one, then

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then you really have to assess because least we lose

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to Lopez would and Casace, you're losing the pretty good guys.

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I mean, Kasati was a huge upset, but even still,

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Kasachi has shown himself to be pretty good. Post we

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all knew Leewood was a good fighter. Lopez had a

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really good Tyler Rain. So you know he's he's coming back.

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I mean it is uh, it is the normal thing

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in boxing.

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Speaker 3: Uh.

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Speaker 2: I don't like nobody's ever retired. That's the normal thing

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in boxing, right, Yeah, nobody ever is. All right, So

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let's move forward in the preview mode and talk the

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Golden Boy to his own show Oceanside, California. That's where

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Gabriella Fundora, the undisputed women's flyweight champ, will defend against

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Marilyn Badillo. I'd love to say that we know a

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lot about Marilynd Badillo, but this is the opponent. But

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the one thing about Gabriella Fundora, she's been fairly active.

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I know you're very high on her. You named her

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your female Fighter of the Year.

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Speaker 3: That wasn't the only one.

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Speaker 2: And so now she is back and this is this

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is what the second time in relative short order that

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we're going to see her staying active.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, She's the younger sister of Sebastian Whi. It's a

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great story. I mean, family members being champions at the

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same time is not normal. It doesn't happen. It's happened.

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I mean, the Charlotte brothers held titles not only at

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the same time, but actually in the same weight class

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when they were both still in the junior middleweight division,

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but it is highly unusual to have. Now you have

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Sebastian Vandora as a unified champion at one hundred and

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fifty four pounds, you have his younger sister. She's the

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undisputed women's champion in the flyweight division, so that's a

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pretty amazing accomplishment for the family. She's making her third

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overall defense, her first defense of having all four belts,

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because he did that in her last fight. She's undefeated.

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She's only twenty two years old. She's one of the

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youngest champions. She's the youngest. I think she's the youngest

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champion in boxing male or female at the moment, because

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the youngest champion in men's boxing is Brian Norman in

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the welterweight division. He's twenty four years old. So she's

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just a baby in the game. But obviously from my

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boxing family. And as you mentioned, she's fighting Marilyn Bidio,

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who is her IBF mandatory challenger. Bidillo is nineteen zh

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to one from Mexico. I looked at her record and

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I gotta be honest, I don't know a lot about her.

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I don't recognize a lot of the record, but she

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has won ten fights in a row, that is since

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she had a six round split draw back in twenty nineteen.

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So she's been active, and she has been on a

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great winning streak, and so she's getting her opportunity. But

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the difference between Fondora, in my opinion, compared to many

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of the other women, even if their top contenders, is

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that she's one of the few women that has legit power,

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Like she stops girls, she knocks them down, she busts

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them up. I mean, she's got like a wiry like

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I'm not trying to be overly dramatic, but her build

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as a female flyweight and her lankiness, it's hearn's ish

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for a female in the small weight class. She obviously

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is not that kind of puncher, but she is a

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big hitter relative to her weight class. And that's one

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of the reasons why not only is she really good

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in terms of being a champion, but she's very good

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in terms of her entertainment value. But she's headlining this

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car to.

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Speaker 2: Your point, in her last four fights, going back to

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what October of twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 1: I'm looking on the list here.

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Speaker 2: Three of those four are knockout wins, including the most

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recent defense last November against Gabrielle Alliance where she knocked

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her out stopped her in the seventh round.

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Speaker 3: That was to become the disputed channel.

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Speaker 2: It's uncommon that women's fighters get a lot of knockouts.

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Speaker 1: Some of them get some knockouts.

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Speaker 2: But three wins in four we'll we'll take that and

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we'll see if the power punching continues for Gabriella Flendora

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in this defense coming up on Saturday Night. Anything else

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on that or shall we move to the core co feature?

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Speaker 4: Well, I was just gonna yeah, we can mention on

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the co feature. I mean, that's the return of Charles Conwell.

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We've talked in the past about the let's call it

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the sneaky depth, how good the one hundred and fifty

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four pound weight classes, right, and a lot of times

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you talk about one to fifty four and you talk

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about the champion, you talk about Flendora, you know, you

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talk about guys who are on the verge of that,

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like whether it's Tim Zoo coming back and getting the win,

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or it's Keith Thurman still around, you know, and there's

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other fighters in that weight class that also sort of

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peaked the interest of others. But one thing that doesn't

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get mentioned a lot of times is Charles Conwell. Charles

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Conwell has just sort of been below the the what's like,

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he's been a kind of like a lower profile. He's

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just waiting for the opportunity. He's undefeated, he was United

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States Olympian, but he doesn't have it. He's not gotten

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the sort of attention of like even like Bakram Martezelia,

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who's the IBM champion because he gets a sensational knockout

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against Tim Zoo. And then you have other guys like

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Virgil Ortiz who gets a lot of attention, who's got

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one of the intern belts, you know, even the young

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yo Nstas who won an interim title in his most

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recent fight. But Conwall sort of gets sort of like

359
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the forgotten guy. But trust me when I tell you

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he's a very talented fighter. Just a matter of time

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until he gets his opportunity. I'd like to see him

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step up and fight a little bit better of a

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caliber opponent. I'm sure they don't have an easy time

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matchmaking for him, but he's he's gotten his promotional, his

365
00:17:01,240 --> 00:17:03,840
management stuff ironed out over the last you know, six

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months or you know, a little less than a year.

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Let's say he's with Golden Boy. Now he's fighting once again.

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I believe this is going to be his third fight

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since he went with Golden Boy.

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Speaker 3: Again.

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Speaker 4: He's not taken out a guy that you would know

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or care about, and or hey, Garcia Perez. But the

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main thing is stay active. And I have to believe

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that at some point, if he wins the fight and

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he doesn't get injured, that at some point this year,

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he's gonna step in with a real guy, you know.

377
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I mentioned there also, Yeah, Boachik is in the weight class.

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I mean, there's guys that they can match up with.

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They obviously promote Virgil Artis. They can make that fight

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if they wanted to. I think so he's definitely got

381
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to watch in the weight class. And so to me,

382
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it's not about if he wins the fight on Saturday,

383
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it's how does he win? Does he make you want

384
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to see him again by putting on some kind of

385
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dynamic performance.

386
00:17:50,319 --> 00:17:54,119
Speaker 2: Sure, and as you mentioned, it was promotional problems, right,

387
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He didn't have a single fight in twenty twenty three,

388
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and that was primarily promotional problems, not an injury, right.

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Speaker 4: Well, part of that was his own fault because he

390
00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,200
turned stuff down, So I mean, yeah, but he had

391
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certain next to the bastions that were.

392
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Speaker 2: Bounced into twenty twenty four in April a year ago,

393
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and one by knockout. He's won three fights in a

394
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row by knockout August and then December and now back

395
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again in April. So this is somewhat active, be relevant,

396
00:18:16,519 --> 00:18:19,839
and I'm with you if he's impressive in this, this

397
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,640
is a viable name for the next level. Whatever the

398
00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,759
next level is a fight with Ortiz or another contender,

399
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:28,079
I'll say, a.

400
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Speaker 4: Fight with any of the guys at fifty four. He's

401
00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:32,119
you know as a top amateur and he's been a

402
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:35,759
good professional and he just got caught up with you know,

403
00:18:35,839 --> 00:18:38,039
some issues as you mentioned, with the with the business

404
00:18:38,039 --> 00:18:40,039
side of the things. It was never a matter of

405
00:18:40,079 --> 00:18:42,640
his talent. He never had to my recollection, there was

406
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no major injury that sidelined for any significant amount of time.

407
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So he's back on track. Golden Boys doing their job.

408
00:18:49,519 --> 00:18:53,640
They're they're keeping him, you know, busy ish. I mean,

409
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he did get three fights in twenty twenty four, which

410
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is great. Here he is now, you know, only four

411
00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:00,839
months since his last fight back in the ring. So

412
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I would hope that he could have three fights this year,

413
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and hopefully at least one of them either the next

414
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one or at the very least a one at the

415
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:09,240
later part of the year. Is hein is a legit

416
00:19:09,319 --> 00:19:12,200
guy in an eliminator, maybe even a title fight depending

417
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:16,319
on what's available. But Donwell is definitely a guy to watch.

418
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Speaker 1: All right, And as we like to say, but wait,

419
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there's more.

420
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Speaker 2: We have one more fight card of interest and that

421
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:27,720
will be on Sunday The Boxer car on Sky Sports

422
00:19:27,759 --> 00:19:28,720
in the UK and.

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Speaker 1: Triller TV Plus.

424
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Speaker 2: If you have Triller TV Plus you can see it

425
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in the United States. From Birmingham, England, the light heavyweight

426
00:19:36,759 --> 00:19:41,200
Ben Whittaker will fight Liam Cameron in a rematch in

427
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a ten round battle. Now Whittaker gets a lot of attention.

428
00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:48,960
He's got potential. I have said this to you before,

429
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,839
having watched him a couple of times. He does an

430
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awful lot of clowning around, show boding. You know, it's

431
00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,079
one thing to kind of be flamboyant outside the ring,

432
00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:01,119
but when we get into will we taking care of business?

433
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,200
Or is it a clown show? All right, So on

434
00:20:04,319 --> 00:20:08,359
some level this is an opportunity, obviously, to get another win,

435
00:20:08,559 --> 00:20:11,160
make yourself more relevant on the way up. For Whittaker,

436
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:13,880
what are your thoughts? Saturday afternoon in US time?

437
00:20:14,039 --> 00:20:16,240
Speaker 4: He came into the into the pros off of the

438
00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:20,359
Olympic medal in the twenty twenty Games with massive amounts

439
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:23,319
of hype, and it was ridiculous, honestly. And then he

440
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,640
started to fight, and he's you can tell by looking

441
00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:28,200
at him, he's got a lot of ability. He's got

442
00:20:28,359 --> 00:20:32,519
very fast hands, very quick feet, very technically skilled. But

443
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he is a little bit of a mess in terms

444
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:38,400
of the outlandish, you know, drop your hands, take your

445
00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:42,119
chin out, do the bullshit, you know, play to the crowd.

446
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,480
The histeronics just drive me absolutely fucking crazy. And so

447
00:20:45,559 --> 00:20:47,240
half the people that watch him love it and can't

448
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,079
wait to see him knock the guy out or win

449
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:50,680
in a dazzling manner, and the other half of the

450
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people probably want to see him get the knock the fee.

451
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So that's that's He's a very polarizing figure. However, you

452
00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,559
gotta get if you're gonna do with the nonsense that

453
00:20:59,599 --> 00:21:02,119
he does high step and kind of try to embarrass

454
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your opponent, which is kind of ridiculous because he was

455
00:21:04,240 --> 00:21:06,519
doing that kind of shit against like, you know, low

456
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,519
level opponents. It's one thing you're doing that in the

457
00:21:08,599 --> 00:21:11,880
ring against the champion or the top contender. When you're

458
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,160
doing it against a guy that's like thirteen and six

459
00:21:14,279 --> 00:21:16,200
or ten and thirteen, ghet the fuck out of here,

460
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you know what I mean. So I don't need that nonsense.

461
00:21:18,319 --> 00:21:21,160
Now here's the problem with Ben Whittaker, who's only eight

462
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:22,880
oh to one by the way, with five knockouts, and

463
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,720
he's twenty seven years old. Tremendous amateur career. But in

464
00:21:25,720 --> 00:21:28,480
his last fight in October, he fought an opponent named

465
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Willam Cameron, which was a step up based if you

466
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:32,880
look at the other guys that Ben had been fighting

467
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so far through his first several professionals.

468
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Speaker 2: It just occurred to me, I know where you're going

469
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with what happened in this fight.

470
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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, okay, Well they were in a fight where

471
00:21:43,119 --> 00:21:45,640
Cameron was basically kicking his ass. If you ask me,

472
00:21:46,519 --> 00:21:48,799
it was close on the cards. One of the judges

473
00:21:48,799 --> 00:21:52,119
had a draw. Two of the judges had it split

474
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,319
by one point on for each guy. So you know

475
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,559
they're in they're in a tussle. As they say, it's

476
00:21:56,559 --> 00:21:59,599
a ten round fight and it's even until it's even

477
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,720
up through through the sixth round. Well, Ben Whittaker and

478
00:22:02,759 --> 00:22:04,799
the other guy, Liam Cameron, they got into a into

479
00:22:04,839 --> 00:22:07,319
a clinch and and they fell out of the ring

480
00:22:07,839 --> 00:22:11,359
and Ben whatever. Now, yes, Ben Whittaker heard his I'm

481
00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:12,920
glad you studied for the podcast TJ.

482
00:22:13,079 --> 00:22:13,799
Speaker 1: Well, no, I did not.

483
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,480
Speaker 2: I did not know why it was a technical draw,

484
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,119
but they ruled it a technical draw into Whittaker. And

485
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,880
now it just came back to me that the they

486
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:26,359
fell out of the ring and Whittaker couldn't continue.

487
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,319
Speaker 4: Whittaker could not continue. He hurt his leg, and there

488
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:30,920
was a lot of pressure to do. This was on

489
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,200
the undercard when better be a eevil in the first

490
00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,839
fight back in the October of last year, so there

491
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:38,599
was a lot of pressure. You got to do the rematch.

492
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,559
They couldn't leave this one. They couldn't. Now, sometimes stuff

493
00:22:41,599 --> 00:22:44,200
like that happens, like give you one example, when Robessi

494
00:22:44,279 --> 00:22:48,160
Ramirez lost his professional debut, he ultimately won in a

495
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,240
rematch against the guy to clean up that disastrous mess.

496
00:22:51,519 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 3: But he didn't do it.

497
00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:53,960
Speaker 4: In the next fight, he has his debut, which is

498
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:55,920
a loss. He came back, he had two or three

499
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:58,240
fights and then he fought the rematch with Ben Whittaker.

500
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:00,759
They could not not go back into this, that's right away.

501
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,079
So that's what they're doing. So it may sound dramatic,

502
00:23:04,079 --> 00:23:06,440
but Ben Whittaker better look fucking good or else, you

503
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,839
know what, he's just stock his way down and everybody's

504
00:23:10,039 --> 00:23:11,519
He's got to do the job in this one. I

505
00:23:11,519 --> 00:23:14,200
don't want to see the bullshit. Go out there, put

506
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,200
the nonsense aside, show the world your skills that we

507
00:23:17,279 --> 00:23:20,200
know that you have, and do the job. And obviously

508
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:21,960
Cameron will come to try to do what he does,

509
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,960
but don't fall out of the ring and don't mess around.

510
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:26,279
Go in there and get the w and if you

511
00:23:26,319 --> 00:23:28,519
can knock him out, that's fine. And if Liam Cameron

512
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,759
can repeat what he did the first time around and

513
00:23:30,759 --> 00:23:33,119
give Ben Whittaker absou hell, he may come out of

514
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:34,000
this with a huge ups.

515
00:23:33,839 --> 00:23:36,799
Speaker 2: That way upset right, all right, And again Whittaker eight

516
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,519
oh and one with the technical well they ruled it

517
00:23:40,559 --> 00:23:43,400
a technical draw, is what they ruled it after that

518
00:23:43,559 --> 00:23:44,839
happened last October.

519
00:23:44,839 --> 00:23:47,759
Speaker 4: So Cameron is he's got six losses, but he's never

520
00:23:47,759 --> 00:23:50,839
been stopped, so that's uh, you know, I would think

521
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:52,759
that based on the way Ben has been a puncher

522
00:23:52,799 --> 00:23:55,279
in terms of his professional career, not necessarily a big

523
00:23:55,319 --> 00:23:57,920
one shot knockout artist or anything like that. And Cameron

524
00:23:58,759 --> 00:24:02,480
seemingly very sturdy in his fights. You know, like when

525
00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,279
he lost to Lyndon Arthur was probably the best guy

526
00:24:04,319 --> 00:24:06,400
he thought. It was a split decision. In the fight

527
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:08,559
before Ben Whitaker, it went to distance, so you know,

528
00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,799
he's he's he's showing the ability to go with guys,

529
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:14,440
you know, at a higher level, so you know, it's

530
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,279
it's it's sort of a I mean, I don't really

531
00:24:17,319 --> 00:24:20,079
care for Ben's style in terms of the entertainment value,

532
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,759
but I understand why this fight is well shown this

533
00:24:22,799 --> 00:24:25,200
weekend because he'd got a cake care of business.

534
00:24:24,799 --> 00:24:26,799
Speaker 2: And he's got a little bit of a following obviously

535
00:24:26,839 --> 00:24:29,599
in the UK. And again this will be Sunday afternoon

536
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,119
in the US, Sunday night in Birmingham, England for Ben

537
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:35,000
Whittaker and Liam Cameron. And the one thing I was

538
00:24:35,039 --> 00:24:37,200
thinking of and then we're going to move on. Is

539
00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:41,039
Nasimhmed had all the bravado, had all the showboating in

540
00:24:41,079 --> 00:24:43,440
the ring and doing all the crazy stuff, but he

541
00:24:43,519 --> 00:24:47,160
could hit like an anvil. And that's and that was

542
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,599
the other part. The other attraction was not only showboating,

543
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:53,279
but he was putting guys lights out with the way

544
00:24:53,319 --> 00:24:53,960
he could punch.

545
00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 1: This guy.

546
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,039
Speaker 2: This guy is not that he hasn't demonstrated anything like that.

547
00:24:59,279 --> 00:25:01,839
Speaker 4: So it is a Hall of Fame champions, one of

548
00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:04,200
the grant punchers in the history of boxing. Yeah, so

549
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,160
I'd like prefer if we are going to confue our

550
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:10,240
relationship together TJ, to not ever use the word Ben

551
00:25:10,279 --> 00:25:11,559
Wittiger and Nasima met.

552
00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:13,359
Speaker 3: In the same stent. That's keep those two other than

553
00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:14,839
the fact that they are British.

554
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go. All right, So that is Sunday.

555
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,359
All right, let's get to some news right about now.

556
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:23,400
You've been tooling around trying to figure out what's up

557
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:26,920
with Jesse Bam Rodriguez's next fight. In fact, you mentioned

558
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:29,799
this a couple of weeks ago, at least a couple

559
00:25:29,839 --> 00:25:32,519
of weeks ago, and now you are reporting that it

560
00:25:32,559 --> 00:25:35,000
looks like it's going to get done. For July for

561
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,799
Bam Rodriguez, who is the opponent. Is this unification that's

562
00:25:38,799 --> 00:25:40,319
coming up as well? What's going on?

563
00:25:41,200 --> 00:25:43,079
Speaker 4: Yeah, this is going to be a unification. They got

564
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:44,640
to get the deal, They got to get the you know,

565
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:47,839
the deal done. But absolutely this is something that uh

566
00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:51,440
that Matchroom Boxing is working on trying to get it completed,

567
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,640
and I suspect that it's probably going to happen, and

568
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:57,680
that is a unification fight Bam. Of course as a

569
00:25:57,839 --> 00:26:01,039
WBC's Junior bantamway champion, they are in the process of

570
00:26:01,079 --> 00:26:05,119
putting together this fight against the WBO champion, fum Lele

571
00:26:05,279 --> 00:26:08,359
Cafu from South Africa. So if you go back a

572
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:12,119
little bit, Kfu went to Japan and he won the

573
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,920
title in his last fight, but there were some conversations

574
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,799
that he would have a title defense against Roman Chocolate

575
00:26:18,839 --> 00:26:21,559
Tito Gonzalez. They were talking and for whatever the reasons.

576
00:26:21,599 --> 00:26:23,559
I never really quite understood what the exact reasons were,

577
00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,599
but that the talks broke off. Mister Honda, who promotes

578
00:26:28,519 --> 00:26:31,599
Roman Gonzalez, you know, that said that that for whatever reason,

579
00:26:31,599 --> 00:26:34,079
it wasn't going to take place. And so when that occurred,

580
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,160
you had Colin Nathan, who was the manager and trainer

581
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:41,200
of CAFU, announce on their company's website and on social

582
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,519
media that although they didn't have an opponent yet, that

583
00:26:43,599 --> 00:26:46,079
Kafu would have his next His first defense would be

584
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:48,559
back home in South Africa, and you know he'd let

585
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,240
details be known, you know, in this soon come. That

586
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,640
was back in March. Now fast forward to the fact

587
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,160
that you've got Eddie Hearn promising I'm going to get

588
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,319
Dam Rodriguez a unification fight. Well, if you take a

589
00:26:59,319 --> 00:27:01,119
look at what's around in the way class BAM's got

590
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:04,240
the BC title. The WBA champion was for Nail Martinez.

591
00:27:04,279 --> 00:27:06,720
There was maybe a dalliance with trying to make that.

592
00:27:06,759 --> 00:27:10,119
But he's taken a lucrative rematch against Kazuto Ioka, who

593
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,640
he already defeated. They're going back into a rematch of

594
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:15,240
a tremendous battle. Their rematch is on May eleventh in Tokyo.

595
00:27:15,839 --> 00:27:19,200
The IBF title is vacant because when the two guys

596
00:27:19,599 --> 00:27:23,559
Willibaldo Garcia and Renee Calixto fought for that vacant title

597
00:27:24,519 --> 00:27:26,960
back in December, it turned out to be a split raw,

598
00:27:27,079 --> 00:27:29,400
so the IBF ordered the rematch. Now that rematch is

599
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,640
supposed to happen in May, probably May twenty third in Mexico,

600
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:35,559
so that title is not available, and that means if

601
00:27:35,559 --> 00:27:37,519
you want to have a unification, the only other option

602
00:27:37,599 --> 00:27:40,599
you have is the WBO title, which is held by CAFU.

603
00:27:40,759 --> 00:27:42,640
So that's the fight they're trying to make, and I

604
00:27:42,799 --> 00:27:46,440
see no reason why I won't get done because I

605
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,160
can tell you with one thousand percent certainty that no

606
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,880
matter who they could bring to South Africa to challenge him,

607
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,720
there's definitely a lot more money for him to go

608
00:27:54,759 --> 00:27:57,119
in a unification in the United States than there is

609
00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:00,880
to defend in South Africa, where unfortunately, the box economics

610
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:02,880
have been very poor in recent years, which is why

611
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,079
you don't see a lot of top cards in South

612
00:28:05,079 --> 00:28:08,119
Africa like you did back in like the nineties and

613
00:28:08,160 --> 00:28:09,960
into the early two thousands, where there was a lot

614
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:12,960
of good champions that were fighting and doing so at home.

615
00:28:13,039 --> 00:28:15,119
So they're trying to get that wrapped up if it

616
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:17,759
does get done, which I suspect that it will. They're

617
00:28:17,799 --> 00:28:20,160
looking at Dallas. I'm not sure what the venue has,

618
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:23,799
but Dallas, Texas, July nineteenth, to headline a Mattroum card

619
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:24,319
on his own.

620
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,319
Speaker 2: All right, so stay tuned on one of the more

621
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,720
exciting fighters. I was just in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.

622
00:28:31,799 --> 00:28:34,799
Is Jesse Bam Rodriguez maybe fighting in Dallas for later

623
00:28:34,799 --> 00:28:37,519
this summer. All right, we always love talking heavyweights. We're

624
00:28:37,519 --> 00:28:40,200
going to have this with the nostalgia. What's going on

625
00:28:40,319 --> 00:28:44,200
with Philip Hergovich and what might be next for him

626
00:28:45,119 --> 00:28:48,960
here in particular as he angles and weights. I mean,

627
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,160
there's a lot of talk that it's going to be

628
00:28:51,279 --> 00:28:56,119
Daniel Duba getting a rematch with Usik. So Hergovic now

629
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,759
is looking at what as a potential next fight at

630
00:28:58,759 --> 00:28:59,160
this point.

631
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,519
Speaker 4: Okay, So the heard of the Usk and Dubois fight

632
00:29:03,319 --> 00:29:06,160
is in the process of being made. It's not done.

633
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,839
They're they're dealing with the paper. There's a lot there's

634
00:29:09,039 --> 00:29:11,680
as I've talked to people involved, and I am told

635
00:29:11,759 --> 00:29:15,519
unequivocally that you know, certain outlets can write that the

636
00:29:15,559 --> 00:29:18,359
deal is made, but it is one hundred percent not made.

637
00:29:18,799 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 3: Uh.

638
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,519
Speaker 4: And there's still issues that are happening that they got

639
00:29:21,559 --> 00:29:23,400
to deal with a bunch of stuff and it just

640
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:25,519
simply not it's not ready to be made yet. I mean,

641
00:29:25,519 --> 00:29:27,680
they're they're trying to get it uh, they're trying to

642
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:29,720
get it all worked out, and that takes time, and

643
00:29:29,759 --> 00:29:32,119
so we don't get done. I suspect it'll take place

644
00:29:32,119 --> 00:29:34,640
in summer in Wembley Stadium. But in the meantime you

645
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:39,119
have coming up next week, the IBF will officially open

646
00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:42,720
the timeframe for their mandatory, which is Derek Chesora, and

647
00:29:42,759 --> 00:29:45,519
they'll order him to fight the winner of Usik and Duba,

648
00:29:45,559 --> 00:29:47,839
which is kind of preposterous, but that's a that's that's

649
00:29:47,839 --> 00:29:50,480
a rant for another day. That's the right, but that's

650
00:29:50,519 --> 00:29:52,759
the IBF, as I like to say, doing IBM things.

651
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,480
So when I wrote about this the other day, the

652
00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:58,079
mistake that people made because they're fucking idiots theyn't actually

653
00:29:58,079 --> 00:30:01,200
read the words, is they're thinking, like, Okay, Hergovic and

654
00:30:01,559 --> 00:30:04,680
Frank Sanchez are being ordered to fight an eliminator to

655
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,240
become the next IVF mandatory, and that is one hundred

656
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:11,359
percent accurate after the Jessaur mandatory. So that's where we're at.

657
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,799
So the Hergovic people and the Sanchez people are negotiating

658
00:30:14,839 --> 00:30:17,160
a fight that would be a finally eliminator to be

659
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,880
the next mandatory after the Jasaurs situation is dealt with.

660
00:30:21,119 --> 00:30:23,079
So it's a ways away, but that's a fight that's

661
00:30:23,119 --> 00:30:25,759
being made and it probably will get done. I suspect

662
00:30:25,799 --> 00:30:28,400
it will wind up on a Saudy a Rabi card

663
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:31,079
at some point later this year. And you know, there's

664
00:30:31,079 --> 00:30:33,839
no hurry. Hergovic just fought a couple of weeks ago

665
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,200
and got a win over Joe Joyce. You've got Frank Sanchez,

666
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,160
who had suffered a loss. He had a knee injury

667
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,640
in that loss where he got stopped. He came back

668
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:44,359
in a fight that was not that long ago, just

669
00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:46,640
a test andy out. He fought a regular like kind

670
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,839
of crappy opponent down in Mexico, was very low profile,

671
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,359
but he came out of it supposedly with his knee healthy,

672
00:30:53,039 --> 00:30:55,240
and so he will look forward to this elimination fight

673
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:55,839
in the next fight.

674
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,200
Speaker 2: By one other footnote that we're also going to keep

675
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,519
track of here is remember Hergovic was supposed to have

676
00:31:01,599 --> 00:31:05,240
fought Dubois in February as the co feature fight or

677
00:31:05,319 --> 00:31:08,279
the co main event with the rematch of Better BV

678
00:31:08,319 --> 00:31:12,480
and b BOL and Dubois suddenly was ill. Suddenly was

679
00:31:12,519 --> 00:31:15,079
ill a couple of days before the fight and they

680
00:31:15,079 --> 00:31:18,960
didn't have the fight. I'm not just outright dubious. I mean,

681
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:20,519
there was a lot of money on the line, there

682
00:31:20,559 --> 00:31:23,319
was a lot of opportunity on the line. But suddenly

683
00:31:23,359 --> 00:31:25,640
Dubois is now going to get a shot with Usik.

684
00:31:25,759 --> 00:31:29,599
And there there are some that were wondering even immediately,

685
00:31:30,039 --> 00:31:32,920
was this suddenly a pullout at the last minute because

686
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,519
the Yusik people said, wait a minute, we would like

687
00:31:35,559 --> 00:31:36,519
to fight you this summer.

688
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:37,759
Speaker 3: I totally get that.

689
00:31:37,799 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 2: I understand, not saying there's any validity to it, because again,

690
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:42,680
he had trained the whole time.

691
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:43,319
Speaker 1: I get it.

692
00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 2: He had, He's there, he's on the cusp. They've been

693
00:31:46,039 --> 00:31:46,960
promoting it.

694
00:31:47,160 --> 00:31:47,400
Speaker 3: And.

695
00:31:48,839 --> 00:31:51,160
Speaker 4: Plenty of times where guys play to fights for those reasons,

696
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:53,960
and maybe that maybe that did happen. I'm not I'm

697
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:56,640
not saying it didn't, but I do believe that it's

698
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,480
possible that two things can be true at the same time.

699
00:31:59,559 --> 00:32:02,039
That that they were trying to make the Houston agreements.

700
00:32:02,079 --> 00:32:04,039
But he also legit got sick. And the reason I

701
00:32:04,039 --> 00:32:07,759
say that is because it's it's not usual where a

702
00:32:07,759 --> 00:32:11,000
fight card of that magnitude the main Again, then guy

703
00:32:11,119 --> 00:32:14,279
drops out like the week of the fight. It's you know,

704
00:32:14,319 --> 00:32:16,720
and would do that on purpose two days before the fight,

705
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:19,359
and he didn't know they were gonna be able to

706
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:23,440
get a solid replacement in place for that. So, you know,

707
00:32:23,759 --> 00:32:26,599
if it did happen, okay, fine, if it didn't, whatever,

708
00:32:26,799 --> 00:32:29,279
it's a coincidence, so be it. The bottom line, though,

709
00:32:29,319 --> 00:32:32,319
is the card still went through Uh in the last fight,

710
00:32:32,759 --> 00:32:35,279
and he was going to get another title shot against Usick.

711
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:37,200
And even though he was terrible in the first fight

712
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,559
against Usick, where he lost basically every round, complained about

713
00:32:40,599 --> 00:32:42,880
a low blow that was not a low blow, and

714
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,000
Uh and got knocked out because he quit on his

715
00:32:45,079 --> 00:32:48,319
knee from a jab, at least he went out there

716
00:32:48,319 --> 00:32:50,680
in his next three fights and got knockouts against good

717
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,000
opponents and and earned a shot. He knocked out Big

718
00:32:53,039 --> 00:32:55,839
Baby Miller, right he knocked out obviously the third fight

719
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,440
of that that run, Uh, you know, well, he stopped

720
00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:01,640
per Joshua, He got the cuts win against Argivich and

721
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,039
got the Intern belt, got elevated and had a spectacular

722
00:33:04,119 --> 00:33:07,160
knockout against Joshua. He didn't just win three fights in

723
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,440
a row. It's like each fight was an increasing level

724
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,440
of impressiveness, right, so and I.

725
00:33:12,319 --> 00:33:14,599
Speaker 2: And I misspoke. Let me clear it up and clean

726
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:19,680
it up. Du Bois beat Hergovic last June. Herkovic had

727
00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:22,839
then bounced back and had beaten Joyce here recently. It

728
00:33:23,039 --> 00:33:26,039
was Joseph Parker that was waiting to fight Dubois for

729
00:33:26,119 --> 00:33:29,359
the world title, for the IBF world title and and

730
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:32,599
instead thought Martin Bokoli on a day and a half's notice.

731
00:33:33,279 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 3: But another reason, the.

732
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:36,839
Speaker 4: Reason why I don't think that what happened was on purpose,

733
00:33:37,319 --> 00:33:39,079
is because if they were gonna do that on purpose,

734
00:33:39,319 --> 00:33:41,240
they'd have had the replacement in place more than a

735
00:33:41,279 --> 00:33:43,240
day and a half and not hav them travel, you know,

736
00:33:43,359 --> 00:33:45,559
and not know if you could even get there. That

737
00:33:45,559 --> 00:33:47,599
that that post for when the fight was so.

738
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:51,240
Speaker 2: But my point is Hergovic was angling for a title

739
00:33:51,319 --> 00:33:53,680
shot and now will fight Sanchez and he's still maybe

740
00:33:53,759 --> 00:33:55,599
in the picture if he beat Sanchez.

741
00:33:56,359 --> 00:34:01,039
Speaker 4: Uh Sanchez one of these guys that's been he's kind

742
00:34:01,039 --> 00:34:03,920
of hot and cold. I mean, he's he ows his talent, right,

743
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,839
He's a from the Cuban national background. He had a

744
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,400
very good amateur career. He's a good fighter, he's got

745
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,440
great size and he's got good punching power. He's got

746
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:16,400
a good sort of temperament in the ring and a

747
00:34:16,599 --> 00:34:18,840
likable guy. Not the most exciting guy in the world,

748
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:22,039
but he when he does decide to become offensive minded

749
00:34:22,079 --> 00:34:24,360
in the ring, he can get you. He's twenty five

750
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:26,800
and one with the thirty two with the eighteen knockouts.

751
00:34:27,599 --> 00:34:29,360
Now they say he's thirty two. I kind of think

752
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,599
he's probably like on thirty six. But that's besides the point.

753
00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:34,920
Like a lot of Cuban fighters who back their age,

754
00:34:35,960 --> 00:34:37,960
and the loss that he suffered in the in the

755
00:34:38,199 --> 00:34:41,599
in the fight on the Fury Usk one undercard was

756
00:34:41,599 --> 00:34:43,760
a forgivable loss when you look at what the guy's done.

757
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:46,159
He lost to her Boy by a stoppage Ajit Kabyol,

758
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:48,039
so that's not like he lost him a bum and

759
00:34:48,079 --> 00:34:49,559
he hurt the knee in the in the in the fight,

760
00:34:49,639 --> 00:34:51,480
So you know, I don't write him off. He's a

761
00:34:51,519 --> 00:34:54,400
talented guy and Hergovich has shown his limitations. He's a

762
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,880
good fighter also, So to me, this is like two

763
00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:00,679
guys if you were making a legit top ten twelve lists,

764
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:03,880
they're at that lower portion of that list wherever you

765
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,239
put them, and it's it's an opportunity to really take

766
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:07,199
a big step up.

767
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,920
Speaker 2: All right, So some heavyweight talk there also mourners Eddie

768
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,639
Hearn talking this week not surprising in the aftermath of

769
00:35:13,679 --> 00:35:18,239
the Boots Ennis win impressively over Stanionis last weekend that

770
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:21,519
he is in talks whatever this means with top rank

771
00:35:21,559 --> 00:35:25,760
with Bob aerram about a Brian Norman unification fight. Again,

772
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:28,719
we continue to wait and wonder is Innis instead going

773
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:30,400
to move up to junior middleweight?

774
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:31,679
Speaker 1: Is he going to hang in there?

775
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,559
Speaker 2: I mean, it seems they were talking about this fight before,

776
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,679
and Norman has won call us crazy. Norman has won

777
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,280
recently by knockout, and this is now won by knockout.

778
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:44,320
They both have world titles. This seems logical that it

779
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,320
could happen later this summer then against boxing.

780
00:35:46,679 --> 00:35:50,079
Speaker 4: The reason why I think it is possible is because

781
00:35:50,119 --> 00:35:53,159
Bob is interested in making the match. Eddie's interested to

782
00:35:53,159 --> 00:35:56,519
make the match. The Brian Norman people they were fine

783
00:35:56,519 --> 00:35:58,239
with making the match, and they were fine with going

784
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:00,320
to Philadelphi, which where Edie would like to have this

785
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,559
match sometime, as he phrased it in the aftermath of

786
00:36:03,679 --> 00:36:07,360
Ennis and Stanionis back into the summer early fall. You know,

787
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:10,199
let's make it happen. With his quote, they were willing

788
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:12,960
to do that, they were about five hundred thousand dollars apart.

789
00:36:13,159 --> 00:36:16,039
I suspect now, given that Norman looked good and got

790
00:36:16,039 --> 00:36:17,960
some exposure with the last win, and that Boots looked

791
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:22,320
spectacular in the Stanionis win, they'll be a much bigger market.

792
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:24,280
There'll be more money from the zone. I think there'll

793
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,280
be more money in a gate, probably better money from

794
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,199
like your sponsorships. You can probably raise the ticket prices

795
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:32,760
a little bit in Philadelphia. My point is there's more

796
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,960
money in the pot now than there would have been

797
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:37,199
when they were talking about the fight for last Fall.

798
00:36:37,519 --> 00:36:40,599
So if Ennis was willing to do it back then

799
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,599
and the Norman people are willing to do it back then,

800
00:36:43,639 --> 00:36:45,760
and it was just a matter of the cash, that

801
00:36:45,800 --> 00:36:48,920
should be easily overcome at this point. So it makes

802
00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:51,280
an interesting matchup. And I will say this, I do

803
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:53,559
believe that Boots will stick around at welterweight for the

804
00:36:53,639 --> 00:36:56,159
time being. And I say that for a couple of reasons. One,

805
00:36:56,760 --> 00:37:00,639
the opportunity to further unify is obviously important. Two, he

806
00:37:00,679 --> 00:37:03,000
can make really good money still in the welterweight division.

807
00:37:03,199 --> 00:37:07,239
But most importantly, when he fought the Stanionis fight, he

808
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:09,000
didn't struggle the way he seemed to do for the

809
00:37:09,079 --> 00:37:11,679
Chikazi fight, where he had said afterwards he was feeling

810
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:13,800
a little bit tight at that weight, he had trouble

811
00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:15,920
making the weight. Well, it didn't show in the Stanionis

812
00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:17,719
fight because he came in more than a half a

813
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:20,119
pound under the limit. So if you're really struggling, you're

814
00:37:20,159 --> 00:37:21,960
not coming in half under the limit. You might be

815
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,239
coming in right at the limit, or maybe you're you know,

816
00:37:24,559 --> 00:37:26,280
a fraction over and you need some of that extra

817
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:28,440
time at the way and to drop you know, a

818
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:30,639
half a pound or something like that. So I feel

819
00:37:30,639 --> 00:37:34,199
like there's no question that for the right opportunity, he

820
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:37,559
absolutely can maintain at welterweight. For another, you know, a

821
00:37:37,599 --> 00:37:38,599
couple of fights.

822
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: Stay tuned. Can we have good things on boot Sennis

823
00:37:41,039 --> 00:37:42,000
and maybe another time.

824
00:37:42,039 --> 00:37:43,800
Speaker 4: By the way, it's not sad things. If he goes

825
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,159
to fifty four, there's gonna be a plethora of opportunity also.

826
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 2: But again, I'm not going to go for five more minutes.

827
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,000
The whole thing was about not fighting Ortiz back in

828
00:37:52,039 --> 00:37:55,920
February was that he was wanting to win welterweight titles.

829
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:57,519
Speaker 4: And then he did unify. Hopefully he can win another

830
00:37:57,519 --> 00:37:58,920
one or get an opportunity.

831
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,519
Speaker 2: Speaking of a moving up, that's hams of Sharaz. The

832
00:38:02,599 --> 00:38:05,360
latest is he's now going to fight after his draw

833
00:38:05,559 --> 00:38:08,400
a fight he lost, the draw that they gave him

834
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:12,119
against Carlos Adamis in February on that same better be

835
00:38:12,199 --> 00:38:15,320
a bevol rematch card in riodd that now Sharaz will

836
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,039
move up to super middleweight and he will do so

837
00:38:17,079 --> 00:38:18,599
with a new trainer as well.

838
00:38:18,639 --> 00:38:19,960
Speaker 1: Correct, he will.

839
00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 4: Be training now with Andy Lee, who is was a

840
00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:26,039
former middleweight champion and a tremendous boxing mind. I've known

841
00:38:26,079 --> 00:38:28,880
Andy Lee since he turned professional under the guidance of

842
00:38:29,119 --> 00:38:31,760
the late great Emmanuel Stewart, who was his mentor, is

843
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:34,920
his trainer, his manager. He lived with Emmanuel for a

844
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,280
number of years in his home in Detroit. They were

845
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:40,000
very close and as I've said before, it gives me

846
00:38:40,039 --> 00:38:42,360
great joy when I see Andy doing a good job

847
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,960
in terms of his training, because it keeps that great

848
00:38:45,039 --> 00:38:48,039
legacy of the Kronk Gym and Emmanuels like you know

849
00:38:48,039 --> 00:38:51,159
what you talk about in football and basketball. The coaching tree.

850
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,559
Andy Lee is an important part of the Kronk Gym

851
00:38:54,559 --> 00:38:58,639
and the Emmanuel Stewart Legacy and the trainer tree, and

852
00:38:58,639 --> 00:39:00,239
Andy has shown himself to be one of the top

853
00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,920
trainers in boxing. He's been a longtime assistant for Tyson Fury,

854
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,320
who is his cousin. He is also the current trainer

855
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:08,960
who's done a great job with Joseph Parker. He trains

856
00:39:09,039 --> 00:39:11,480
Ben Whittaker, so we'll see if Andy can have a

857
00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:14,599
big impact on what happens this weekend. He also trains

858
00:39:14,639 --> 00:39:17,079
the Walter Wake contender Patty Donovan. He's worked with a

859
00:39:17,119 --> 00:39:19,840
number of fighters. He just listen Andy Lee, and I'll

860
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:21,880
just you know, I'm in the tank for and He's

861
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:23,880
one of my favorite people in boxing. I've known him,

862
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,679
like I said, for many many years, just a class individual.

863
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,599
And now Shiraz I don't think it was a matter

864
00:39:30,599 --> 00:39:32,360
because he got the draw in his comments. He made

865
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:35,599
a video that was posted on his Instagram about just

866
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:37,480
sort of needs to do something different, and he had

867
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:40,480
gone he had seen him in action with Team Fury.

868
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,440
But also more notably, he went and watched Andy train

869
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:46,840
on a session when he was working with Ben Whittaker

870
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:49,079
when he's getting ready for this Liam Cameron fight in

871
00:39:49,079 --> 00:39:51,199
the last couple of weeks, and he liked what he saw,

872
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:52,639
sort of the back to basics.

873
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 3: You know.

874
00:39:53,039 --> 00:39:55,039
Speaker 4: Andy's not a guy that's like he's not You're not

875
00:39:55,039 --> 00:39:57,199
gonna yell and screen. He's gonna tell you what he

876
00:39:57,199 --> 00:40:01,159
wants to do. He's a calm ration, reason bull, you know,

877
00:40:01,280 --> 00:40:04,119
even temper guy and just brings sort of a good

878
00:40:04,199 --> 00:40:06,639
sort of air about things in the gym. And Sharaz,

879
00:40:06,679 --> 00:40:08,760
I think like that, And I don't think it's anything

880
00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:10,440
against I mean, he trained for many years with Ricky

881
00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:14,079
Foiez from a Los Angeles and you know, sometimes these

882
00:40:14,119 --> 00:40:16,079
relationships they run their course. I don't even think it's

883
00:40:16,119 --> 00:40:19,039
like a negativity about Funias. I think it's a matter

884
00:40:19,079 --> 00:40:22,519
of you know, Sharaz, I think he took Adamis a

885
00:40:22,559 --> 00:40:24,519
little lightly. He was listening to his own hype, he

886
00:40:24,559 --> 00:40:27,000
was reading his own clips. He was like the Read

887
00:40:27,039 --> 00:40:30,480
Season ambassador. They're fighting in a Read Season card. He's

888
00:40:30,519 --> 00:40:33,320
Frank Warren's guy. He was Frank Warren's you know event

889
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:36,320
with Read Season, He's supposed to win, and you forgot that.

890
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:37,880
You still got to go out there and do the work.

891
00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:41,039
I don't blame that on the trainer, but Andy Lee.

892
00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,360
I think anybody that would go with any Lee is

893
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,079
going to be you know, it's gonna be positive experience

894
00:40:46,159 --> 00:40:46,480
for them.

895
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:47,440
Speaker 3: So good luck to Sharaz.

896
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:49,199
Speaker 4: We'll see what he can do at super middle and

897
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:51,480
I'll say this, there's good opponents. He's not getting a

898
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:53,760
shot at Canelo, but you know what match him up with.

899
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,079
Then he pick a guy, you know, among the top contenders.

900
00:40:56,079 --> 00:40:59,760
Maybe see what happens. And Mongia comes past Sarase, there's

901
00:41:00,079 --> 00:41:02,360
berlang Is out there looking for an opponent he got

902
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:03,920
you know, one of the Charlot's is going to be

903
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:06,280
finding out at super mintweight when he comes back. So

904
00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:07,199
there's guys out there.

905
00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,079
Speaker 1: Christian Mobilly another name.

906
00:41:09,920 --> 00:41:10,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, Mibilly.

907
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:14,000
Speaker 4: Actually his his team just said today, as we do

908
00:41:14,039 --> 00:41:16,280
in this on Thursday, they have a press conference coming

909
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:18,199
up next week where the're gonna announce his next fight

910
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,960
for which you're probably in Montreal, but it's not going

911
00:41:21,039 --> 00:41:22,880
to be against the Hamsa Shraz but you know, you

912
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:24,039
never know, maybe later in the year.

913
00:41:25,039 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 2: By one more note, we did talk about this coming

914
00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:31,000
off the weekend that Keyshawn Davis you were reporting this

915
00:41:31,079 --> 00:41:33,400
would be back in Norfolk in June, and Top Rank

916
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:36,079
did make it official and also made the co feature official,

917
00:41:36,079 --> 00:41:39,159
and that and that co feature we did say, Hey,

918
00:41:39,159 --> 00:41:41,400
Abdullah Mason has been active and he's going to be

919
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,199
right back again here on this June fight card. So

920
00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,199
tell us more about the official announcement here real quick.

921
00:41:47,360 --> 00:41:49,519
Speaker 4: Yeah, So they're having a press conference on Friday in

922
00:41:49,599 --> 00:41:53,360
Norfolk to announce it to the local to local media

923
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:55,800
market with which is where a Keishan Davis is from.

924
00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:58,039
That's on Friday, but he's gonna be fighting in with

925
00:41:58,079 --> 00:41:59,800
Delos Santos, who won't be at the press conference. This

926
00:41:59,840 --> 00:42:02,159
is just to sort of let the community know and

927
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:04,039
get the tickets on sale and that sort of thing,

928
00:42:04,039 --> 00:42:06,000
and they'll probably sell that place out to Scope. He

929
00:42:06,079 --> 00:42:08,519
sold it out for a non title fight against Gustavo

930
00:42:08,599 --> 00:42:10,679
Lemos that took place in the fight prior to winning

931
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:14,239
the title against Barentik, so impressibly back you know, a

932
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:16,880
month or two ago. Anyway, he's fighting de Los Santos.

933
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:18,599
It's not a secret. This is a fight they've been

934
00:42:18,639 --> 00:42:20,440
working on for a while. But now it's all all

935
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,719
said and done. His brothers Calvin Davis and Kean Davis

936
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:25,480
will also be on the undercard, as they have been

937
00:42:25,519 --> 00:42:28,360
in the past. He will have his Olympic teammate, the

938
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:31,119
undefeated middleweight Troy Eisley. He will be on this card.

939
00:42:31,159 --> 00:42:34,440
He is not from Norfolk, but he's from Alexandria, Virginia.

940
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:36,960
It's the few hours north actually the town next to

941
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,079
where I live. He'll be on the card. No opponent

942
00:42:39,159 --> 00:42:41,159
it for him. And then the co feature is actually

943
00:42:41,199 --> 00:42:44,000
a very interesting matchup. It's Abdullah Mason, who I knew

944
00:42:44,039 --> 00:42:45,559
was going to be on this card. He's taken on

945
00:42:46,119 --> 00:42:49,400
Jeremiah Nakatia and Jeremiah Nakatia may not be what he

946
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:51,400
was when he was at his absolute best, but this

947
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:54,199
is a real guy for him compared to the types

948
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:56,119
of opponents that Mason has faced, so he's taking a

949
00:42:56,159 --> 00:42:58,519
step up. He's won three fights in a row and

950
00:42:59,239 --> 00:43:02,280
he has the the very memorable knockout against Miguilbert Scheldt,

951
00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:05,400
the former title holder, when he was sort of trying to,

952
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:07,880
you know, continue things, and was kind of a big

953
00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:09,440
surprise when he got laid out the way he did.

954
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:12,079
He gave uh even though he lost in a shutout

955
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,320
one twenty to one oh seven to all three cards.

956
00:43:14,599 --> 00:43:17,239
He actually had a few moments when he when he

957
00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:20,199
boxed against Chaque Stevenson in twenty twenty one. That was

958
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:22,039
for an interim title in the featherway in the UH,

959
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:24,800
in the UH, in the one hundred and thirty pound

960
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:27,280
way class. But he's a veteran and and Mason has

961
00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:31,159
never faced anybody at this remote level of experience, so uh,

962
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:33,519
you know, on the way up, it's uh, it's a

963
00:43:33,519 --> 00:43:35,320
good thing for him. Now the bad news for him

964
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:39,000
is that when uh, when Nakatia fought the prospect Ernesto

965
00:43:39,079 --> 00:43:41,800
Mercado in the end of twenty twenty three, he got

966
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,679
as the bridge say, sparked in the second round.

967
00:43:44,599 --> 00:43:48,079
Speaker 1: You know, so sparked, not spanked. Interesting.

968
00:43:48,159 --> 00:43:50,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, And in the fight before that, he got sparked

969
00:43:50,039 --> 00:43:53,840
by Raymond Maretaya. But again, for the level of where

970
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:57,199
Abdullah Mason is, it is not unreasonable from the face

971
00:43:57,199 --> 00:43:59,760
that type of opponent. So after he got sparked by

972
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,840
Marti and Mercado, he has won three fights in a row,

973
00:44:02,920 --> 00:44:05,920
not against elite fighters but guys with pretty decent records.

974
00:44:06,320 --> 00:44:06,840
Speaker 1: Uh.

975
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 4: And now we'll see if the young Mason. Can you know,

976
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,480
they'll be comparing it. We'll see, you know, how does

977
00:44:11,519 --> 00:44:15,719
he do against a Nakatia the way that Muratai and

978
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:19,320
Mercado did at a time when Muratai and murkata were

979
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:23,000
both prospects. Abdulla Mason is eighteen and oh when Mercado,

980
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:26,800
I mean when Mercado fought against Nakatia, Mercado was twelve.

981
00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:29,840
And oh when Maurtia fought against him, he was seventeen

982
00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:31,880
and oh. So they're at that same stage of their

983
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:34,599
career where they're getting their first crack at like a

984
00:44:34,639 --> 00:44:37,679
soul called name. And we'll see that Mason will take

985
00:44:37,719 --> 00:44:38,039
care of him.

986
00:44:38,079 --> 00:44:38,800
Speaker 1: But you got you with that.

987
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,679
Speaker 2: And by the way, kudos again to Keishn Davis because

988
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,519
I just looked he was in action last July. This

989
00:44:45,639 --> 00:44:48,119
is if it does come off. Things can happen between

990
00:44:48,119 --> 00:44:50,239
now in the first week in June. This is four

991
00:44:50,320 --> 00:44:54,159
fights in less than a year. Stay active, stay relevant.

992
00:44:54,199 --> 00:44:56,880
You've got a world title. Now you up your own

993
00:44:57,159 --> 00:45:01,480
promotional value, your own interest, your dollar because you stay active.

994
00:45:01,519 --> 00:45:02,039
Speaker 1: We love that.

995
00:45:02,199 --> 00:45:05,559
Speaker 4: And and they're bringing him back home because Norfolk, you know,

996
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:08,880
as the kids say, showed out for him. When he

997
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:10,880
when he fought to fight in November or whenever, that

998
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:13,760
was at the fall against lamos Uh and then they

999
00:45:13,760 --> 00:45:15,400
brought him to New York City for the title fight

1000
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,840
where he looks vcacular and the absolutely annihilating Barentchik. And

1001
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:21,800
so you know this is I mean, listen, I have

1002
00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:23,599
all the respect and well for what Top Rank has

1003
00:45:23,599 --> 00:45:26,559
done through their existence for sixty years, but in exactly

1004
00:45:26,639 --> 00:45:29,400
rocket science to say, I've got an excellent young champion

1005
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:31,360
who just won a title in a in a great

1006
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:34,360
market like New York City. Oh, let's take him back

1007
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:36,960
home for the first offense where he already sold out

1008
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:39,559
in a non title fight. They're gonna make this a bonanza.

1009
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:42,079
He's gonna get the town excited. And when you go

1010
00:45:42,159 --> 00:45:45,480
to cities like Norfolk that are great cities but are

1011
00:45:45,519 --> 00:45:48,920
not major league cities. Let's say they don't have, you.

1012
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,639
Speaker 1: Know, eight national teams, right, they might have like.

1013
00:45:51,679 --> 00:45:54,480
Speaker 4: They have minor league this and maybe a college team here.

1014
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:57,079
But it happens a lot in boxing where if you

1015
00:45:57,119 --> 00:46:00,920
have a fighter like a Kishan the way Youngstown, Kelly Pavock,

1016
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:01,800
you know what I mean.

1017
00:46:02,039 --> 00:46:05,559
Speaker 2: You go to recently Birmingham, Alabama with Deontay Wide.

1018
00:46:06,760 --> 00:46:08,880
Speaker 4: You go to those and I don't mean this in

1019
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:12,519
Sulking like second tier cities just in terms of their population,

1020
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:16,360
their media market, the lack of big time professional sports.

1021
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:20,719
That boxer can become like a local franchise and and

1022
00:46:20,800 --> 00:46:22,000
people will turn out for him.

1023
00:46:22,159 --> 00:46:22,320
Speaker 3: You know.

1024
00:46:22,639 --> 00:46:26,440
Speaker 4: Again, I went to see Jermaine Taylor in a little rock, Arkansas.

1025
00:46:26,519 --> 00:46:29,719
He was like a franchise thereas is gonna be that

1026
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:30,400
in Norfolk.

1027
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:34,800
Speaker 2: Another one Terrence Crawford building on the rebuilt in Omaha, Nebraska.

1028
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:36,679
Speaker 3: And I saw first because I met ray Field.

1029
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:39,800
Speaker 2: In the corn country in Omaha, Nebraska, so I went there.

1030
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:40,719
Speaker 1: Thousand in the arena.

1031
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:44,280
Speaker 4: Yeah absolutely, I mean, so this is the Keishaan Davis.

1032
00:46:44,599 --> 00:46:46,920
Uh is going to be doing that exact same blueprint

1033
00:46:47,159 --> 00:46:49,559
where he'll end up fighting other fights in New York.

1034
00:46:49,599 --> 00:46:52,199
I am sure he'll fight in Las Vegas. I am sure.

1035
00:46:52,400 --> 00:46:55,800
But Top Rank will always have the ability to go

1036
00:46:55,920 --> 00:46:59,199
home Uh in Norfolk, Virginia because TJ as they say,

1037
00:46:59,239 --> 00:47:01,159
there's no place like home. And I also will tell

1038
00:47:01,199 --> 00:47:03,360
you no doubt in my mind, I have talked to

1039
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:05,599
Top Ranking about this. It's not for this coming fight,

1040
00:47:05,800 --> 00:47:08,639
but they will look to establish him in Washington, DC market,

1041
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,400
which is like a three and a half hour drive

1042
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,920
from Norfolk, and it's you know, it's in the same region.

1043
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,320
It's a heavy African American community, it's got a great

1044
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:22,320
boxing background, and it's another great metropolitan area not too

1045
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:24,760
far from where he lives where they can establish him

1046
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:28,000
world championship level events. Not to mention Troy Eisley if

1047
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:30,559
he continues to develop, he comes from the DC area

1048
00:47:30,599 --> 00:47:34,039
because Alexandria, you know, is fifteen minutes from downtown Washington.

1049
00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:37,800
Speaker 2: All right, so that is coming in June for Keishaan Davis, right,

1050
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:40,239
one more bit of business. And we did talk about

1051
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:42,039
this with the passing of George Foreman a couple of

1052
00:47:42,119 --> 00:47:45,519
weeks ago, about how big an event it was during

1053
00:47:45,559 --> 00:47:48,880
his return when he fought Evander Holyfield. The anniversary of

1054
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:52,559
that fight is now on Saturday, as we released this

1055
00:47:52,639 --> 00:47:53,760
Thursday night into Friday.

1056
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:56,320
Speaker 1: April nineteenth, nineteen ninety.

1057
00:47:56,039 --> 00:47:59,840
Speaker 2: One, thirty four years ago, Holyfield and Foreman for the

1058
00:48:00,039 --> 00:48:05,639
undisputed heavyweight championship. Again, to repeat, we can't emphasize enough

1059
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:09,679
what a big deal and how mainstream the heavyweight title

1060
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:14,800
still was back in this day. And so now we

1061
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,760
reminisce again, and I know you've got the nostalgia about

1062
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:22,480
TVKO and about Foreman on his return, you would have

1063
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:24,480
gotten me. As I said before with the trivia question,

1064
00:48:24,519 --> 00:48:26,840
that Foreman had had what did you say, twenty five

1065
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:30,840
twenty five comeback fights before he had this fight? Well,

1066
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:32,199
well with holy.

1067
00:48:32,039 --> 00:48:35,559
Speaker 4: Field, it's you're close. When Big George came back, remember

1068
00:48:35,599 --> 00:48:38,559
he had been heavyweight champion. He had lost the title

1069
00:48:38,599 --> 00:48:42,079
to Muhammad Ali. He had still fought for a few

1070
00:48:42,079 --> 00:48:44,679
more years after that, and he ended up getting upset

1071
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:47,360
in a fight against Jimmy JUNGK who was like a

1072
00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:50,280
QT boxer, and you know, he just out boxed George basically,

1073
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:53,960
and he beat him that night. And afterwards George said

1074
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:55,920
that he had seen like a vision from God or

1075
00:48:55,960 --> 00:48:57,719
spoke to God or something. In George was always a

1076
00:48:57,760 --> 00:49:01,360
spiritual kind of religious guy, and it basically in his mind,

1077
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:02,760
he's like, you know, God told me I need to

1078
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:04,679
change my ways. I need to do things different in

1079
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:07,320
my life. He was twenty eight years old and he retired,

1080
00:49:07,639 --> 00:49:09,440
and he retired for ten years and he became an

1081
00:49:09,559 --> 00:49:12,320
ordained minister and he started to preach regular in his

1082
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,480
church in Houston, and you know, George Foreman, the former

1083
00:49:15,519 --> 00:49:17,920
heavyweight champ, is now retired, and you know, go do

1084
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:20,800
your thing. Well, you talk about guys who can't retire.

1085
00:49:21,039 --> 00:49:23,199
It was ten years later where George decided, you know what,

1086
00:49:23,559 --> 00:49:25,639
I need money and my church needs money. So he

1087
00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:27,920
ended his retirement and he came back. And you said

1088
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:30,199
he fought twenty five times. It was actually he made

1089
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:34,440
the comeback in eighty seven. And you can't understand how

1090
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:35,679
big of a deal it was when he got the

1091
00:49:35,679 --> 00:49:38,400
title shot against holy Field, because when he came out

1092
00:49:38,400 --> 00:49:41,920
of retirement, it was national story because of who George

1093
00:49:41,960 --> 00:49:44,079
was and sort of the anomaly of a guy coming

1094
00:49:44,079 --> 00:49:46,920
out of retirement at his age after having spent ten

1095
00:49:47,000 --> 00:49:51,000
years in retirement, after having been the heavyweight champion. It

1096
00:49:51,079 --> 00:49:54,280
was considered though, despite the tremendous amount of attention, it

1097
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:59,920
received absolutely comedic, farcical, ridiculous, absurd like it was a comedy.

1098
00:50:00,199 --> 00:50:00,480
Speaker 3: It was.

1099
00:50:00,760 --> 00:50:03,400
Speaker 4: It was treated like this is the biggest fucking joke

1100
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:07,360
in sports. And George was like, you know, rotund and

1101
00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,039
not in the greatest shape and not in fighting, absolute

1102
00:50:10,119 --> 00:50:13,519
fucking shmear opponents. And he was on TV on like

1103
00:50:13,639 --> 00:50:17,320
USA Network, and he was on ESPN, you know, the

1104
00:50:17,880 --> 00:50:22,800
Top rank boxing series, and he was drawing ratings. And

1105
00:50:23,079 --> 00:50:25,480
he also had sort of changed his personality because when

1106
00:50:25,519 --> 00:50:30,320
people at last saw Big George, he was this stoic, snarling,

1107
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:33,480
kind of standoffish kind of guy. And now on the comeback,

1108
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,800
he's eating hamburgers and he's smiling, and he's doing interviews

1109
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,800
and he's friendly. And you know, whether it was an

1110
00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:42,079
act or that's just way he became in his ten

1111
00:50:42,199 --> 00:50:45,840
years as a minister, I can't tell you. But the

1112
00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:50,480
comeback was real. He won twenty four consecutive fights, including

1113
00:50:50,559 --> 00:50:54,639
a eye opening knockout against Jerry Cooney and in the

1114
00:50:54,719 --> 00:50:57,280
twenty fifth fight of his comeback in nineteen ninety one,

1115
00:50:57,320 --> 00:51:00,000
so he had you talk about activity TJ. From nineteen

1116
00:51:00,199 --> 00:51:03,159
eighty seventh to nineteen ninety one, twenty five fights, that's

1117
00:51:04,079 --> 00:51:07,159
the twenty fifth of which was this heavyweight championship fight

1118
00:51:07,199 --> 00:51:10,480
against Evander Holyfield for the undisputed title, and he was

1119
00:51:11,079 --> 00:51:14,320
as great as Holyfield was. It was Big George that

1120
00:51:14,320 --> 00:51:16,519
that was the story of the promotion. So, as you

1121
00:51:16,559 --> 00:51:19,679
mentioned TVKO, which was the name of what became HBO

1122
00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:22,480
pay per view, this is the first modern pay per

1123
00:51:22,559 --> 00:51:25,840
view fight where most people who watched it ordered it

1124
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:28,119
off their box in their home or went to their

1125
00:51:28,119 --> 00:51:30,679
cable company and rented a boxer got a box to

1126
00:51:30,679 --> 00:51:33,239
buy the fight. And in that day when there was

1127
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:36,559
maybe I don't know, ten or twelve or fourteen million

1128
00:51:36,599 --> 00:51:40,199
homes that were addressable and the fight did one point

1129
00:51:40,320 --> 00:51:44,360
four million buys, people that ran TVK on HBO thought

1130
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:46,840
they had found a way to print ue and it

1131
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,199
said massive, massive, massive bills.

1132
00:51:49,199 --> 00:51:51,400
Speaker 2: So you said that about this, and I will now

1133
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:53,159
relate the story. I've told you this before, but I'll

1134
00:51:53,199 --> 00:51:56,119
repeat it for the audience here. I actually bought a

1135
00:51:56,239 --> 00:51:59,000
closed circuit ticket for that fight. I'm a junior in

1136
00:51:59,159 --> 00:52:03,840
college and Memphi, Tennessee. And Holyfield again was so mainstream

1137
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:05,840
from having been in the Olympics, from having fought on

1138
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:10,000
network TV with ABC. He's now beaten Buster Douglas and

1139
00:52:10,119 --> 00:52:11,559
is the undisputed.

1140
00:52:11,039 --> 00:52:12,920
Speaker 3: Champion and fought a lot of times on showtime.

1141
00:52:13,599 --> 00:52:16,079
Speaker 2: Yes, and so now we know who he is and

1142
00:52:16,119 --> 00:52:19,800
he's getting ready to fight Foreman coming up here. And

1143
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:23,840
I bought a ticket, a hard probably fifteen dollars ticket.

1144
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:25,639
It was something like that. I remember it being like

1145
00:52:25,679 --> 00:52:28,840
twelve to fifteen dollars and went to the old Cook

1146
00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:33,119
Convention Center in downtown Memphis, long before they built the

1147
00:52:33,199 --> 00:52:36,639
Palace Basketball Arena, the FedEx Forum that's been there for

1148
00:52:36,679 --> 00:52:39,719
about twenty years now, where the Memphis Grizzlies play, where

1149
00:52:39,719 --> 00:52:41,960
my Memphis Tigers in college play, and they have all

1150
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:44,679
these concerts and this other stuff. This is the Cook

1151
00:52:44,719 --> 00:52:47,880
Convention Center. But Rayphiel, I'm telling you that night in

1152
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:51,920
Memphis there had to be easily fifteen hundred, two thousand

1153
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:55,920
people that were watching over the country on closed circuit. Now,

1154
00:52:55,960 --> 00:52:59,760
as I related to you, that the cable system where

1155
00:52:59,760 --> 00:53:01,840
I lived in Memphis did not have the pay per

1156
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:03,679
view boxes, so if you wanted to see the fight,

1157
00:53:03,760 --> 00:53:05,119
you had to go buy the ticket. I bought the

1158
00:53:05,159 --> 00:53:09,280
ticket that night, and I still remember how competitive this

1159
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:13,239
fight was. George took some monstrous shots from holy Field.

1160
00:53:13,320 --> 00:53:17,000
He fired back on holy Field. This was a very competitive,

1161
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:19,519
legitimate fight, as much as a lot of people thought

1162
00:53:19,519 --> 00:53:20,239
it was going to be a.

1163
00:53:20,199 --> 00:53:21,159
Speaker 3: Farce, oh, no question.

1164
00:53:21,199 --> 00:53:24,360
Speaker 4: And the fact is, as George preached throughout the promotion,

1165
00:53:24,440 --> 00:53:26,719
while he was eating his hamburgers and you know, joking

1166
00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:30,480
around about that, talked about his catch thing was the

1167
00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:32,519
ages but a number. In other words, you know, I'm

1168
00:53:32,519 --> 00:53:34,760
doing this for all the forty year olds and the

1169
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:36,719
fifty year olds and the six year olds to show

1170
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:38,840
you that age is just a number against a man

1171
00:53:38,880 --> 00:53:42,280
who was fourteen years younger than him. They actually titled

1172
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:45,360
the fight Battle of the Ages as a play on

1173
00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:47,679
the fact that there was such a large age gap

1174
00:53:48,039 --> 00:53:51,639
between Evander and Foreman. But as you said, Foreman, who

1175
00:53:51,679 --> 00:53:53,639
was much bigger than a Vander, but a lot slower

1176
00:53:53,679 --> 00:53:56,440
than a Vander, but a bigger puncher than a Vander.

1177
00:53:56,880 --> 00:54:02,239
They put in a very credible, excellent fighting heavyweight championship fight. Yes,

1178
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:04,920
George was obviously the loser of the fight, but it's

1179
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:07,480
worth watching. They never saw it's on YouTube. It's a

1180
00:54:07,519 --> 00:54:10,719
really outstanding fight. And also this was people were still

1181
00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:14,119
not one hundred percent sold on Evander. He had won

1182
00:54:14,159 --> 00:54:17,960
the title from Buster Douglas, who was you know, had

1183
00:54:17,960 --> 00:54:21,360
pulled off the massive upset against Tyson, but wasn't considered

1184
00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:24,599
like a great fighter, and so Holyfield dusted an out

1185
00:54:24,639 --> 00:54:27,159
of shape Buster for the title. So when he made

1186
00:54:27,199 --> 00:54:32,239
his first defense against holy against against Foreman, to many

1187
00:54:32,280 --> 00:54:35,360
people in the public, they knew that Vander was a

1188
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,079
good fighter, but they really still questioned him because yeah,

1189
00:54:38,119 --> 00:54:40,880
he was champed. But look who we beat, Buster Douglas,

1190
00:54:41,039 --> 00:54:43,880
the out of shape guy who quote unquote got lucky

1191
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:46,760
against Tyson. So there was that dynamic going on in

1192
00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:50,239
the fight. But they put on a really credible, entertaining fight.

1193
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:53,440
It did humongous business. As I mentioned, Vander was the winner,

1194
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:56,760
and George you know, didn't give up after that. I mean,

1195
00:54:56,760 --> 00:54:58,159
he could have just called it a day, said, I

1196
00:54:58,199 --> 00:55:01,280
did my twenty fifth fight after my comeback, I made

1197
00:55:01,320 --> 00:55:03,239
good money. I can go back in the retire. But

1198
00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:05,119
he kept at it and you know, even took another

1199
00:55:05,159 --> 00:55:07,599
loss later to Tommy Morrison. I kept at it and

1200
00:55:07,639 --> 00:55:10,480
not that long after got the shot against Michael Moore

1201
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:13,280
and regained the title. But this was the fight of

1202
00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:15,159
all the fights in his comeback in terms of you

1203
00:55:15,159 --> 00:55:17,079
want to have an exciting fight, this is the best

1204
00:55:17,079 --> 00:55:20,519
one of all those George Foreman comeback fights. Because the

1205
00:55:20,559 --> 00:55:24,000
Michael Moore fight, although an unbelievable and legendary ending the

1206
00:55:24,039 --> 00:55:26,480
way that Big George regained the title, the fight itself

1207
00:55:26,519 --> 00:55:28,599
was really not much to write about home about because

1208
00:55:28,639 --> 00:55:30,760
George was getting as kick for the fight a little

1209
00:55:30,800 --> 00:55:33,960
bit different. In this fight against Evander, he had gone

1210
00:55:34,119 --> 00:55:35,639
not only as I mentioned to you, it was this

1211
00:55:35,719 --> 00:55:38,920
twenty fifth fight, the twenty four comeback fights that he

1212
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:42,360
had prior to fighting for the title TJ twenty four

1213
00:55:42,360 --> 00:55:46,840
and oh with twenty three knockouts. So George had proven something.

1214
00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:48,440
Grant that a lot of those were lesser guys, but

1215
00:55:48,440 --> 00:55:50,920
there were some names mixed in the Bert Coopers and

1216
00:55:51,000 --> 00:55:54,440
like I said, you know the Cooney, Faded Cooney White,

1217
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:56,800
Muhammed Kawei. He was also a faded fighter that's now

1218
00:55:56,840 --> 00:55:58,719
in the Hall of Fame who had given holy Field

1219
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:02,199
a great fight in their first fight. This was a

1220
00:56:02,239 --> 00:56:05,800
big promotion HBO involvement. Like I said, uh, Top Rank

1221
00:56:05,840 --> 00:56:08,079
and Main Events were two of the top promoters in

1222
00:56:08,119 --> 00:56:10,480
the game. This was a co promotion because Top Rank

1223
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:13,840
worked with George and Holyfield had been with Main Events

1224
00:56:13,840 --> 00:56:17,000
for his whole career at to that point and just

1225
00:56:17,039 --> 00:56:18,800
did a huge amount of business. And it was great

1226
00:56:18,800 --> 00:56:21,000
fun and it was a real I was in college

1227
00:56:21,039 --> 00:56:23,119
TJ when this fight happened, as were you, and I

1228
00:56:23,239 --> 00:56:26,559
was working at the college newspaper, and if I had to,

1229
00:56:26,639 --> 00:56:30,280
like say, I think it might be the very first

1230
00:56:30,320 --> 00:56:33,000
boxing article I ever wrote, because I remember in our

1231
00:56:33,039 --> 00:56:35,280
school I used to write like a weekly column in

1232
00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:38,840
the sports section of our school paper. And I wrote

1233
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:41,760
a piece about this fight. And I think that might

1234
00:56:41,800 --> 00:56:44,199
be literally the first boxing story I ever wrote in

1235
00:56:44,199 --> 00:56:44,639
my life.

1236
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:47,079
Speaker 2: You better have it in the Rayfield collection. Do you

1237
00:56:47,119 --> 00:56:49,079
not have a copy of that school paper? Come on,

1238
00:56:49,199 --> 00:56:50,280
we gotta see that college.

1239
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:52,480
Speaker 3: I probably do, but I couldn't lay my hands on

1240
00:56:52,519 --> 00:56:53,280
it in five minutes.

1241
00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:56,079
Speaker 2: You got to you gotta start the search. Start the search,

1242
00:56:56,159 --> 00:56:59,239
called the dogs, get the lights going, I wrote.

1243
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:01,239
Speaker 4: I wrote a weekly i'm in the school paper called

1244
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:04,199
the Final Word, and I wrote a piece about Holyfield

1245
00:57:04,239 --> 00:57:05,760
in foremant in the school paper.

1246
00:57:06,079 --> 00:57:06,920
Speaker 3: And now you're gonna make it.

1247
00:57:07,000 --> 00:57:07,880
Speaker 1: You love to squat me.

1248
00:57:08,199 --> 00:57:10,199
Speaker 2: There's no such thing as a final word with you.

1249
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:11,639
There's just a whole bunch of words. And then you

1250
00:57:11,719 --> 00:57:15,400
eventually get stopped. At some point. You're gonna go You're

1251
00:57:15,440 --> 00:57:17,519
gonna go find that. Now you're gonna go drive yourself

1252
00:57:17,519 --> 00:57:21,320
crazy to go find you. But I can vividly remember,

1253
00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:24,320
even now as we sit here thirty four years later,

1254
00:57:24,360 --> 00:57:26,920
being in the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis. I

1255
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:30,159
had a college, a college buddy of mine. He and

1256
00:57:30,199 --> 00:57:34,159
I went and bought tickets and the roaring that was

1257
00:57:34,199 --> 00:57:36,000
going on. I'll tell you what else I remember in

1258
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:37,719
this fire and you can go back and watch this.

1259
00:57:38,159 --> 00:57:40,960
They had an incident in the boardwalk hall where somebody

1260
00:57:41,039 --> 00:57:43,840
set off some kind of a smoke bomb, a firework

1261
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:47,000
or smoke bomb during the fight, and so there was

1262
00:57:47,079 --> 00:57:49,960
some talk, are they gonna stop the fight for a

1263
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:52,280
little bit because the smoke is filling the arena?

1264
00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:55,719
Speaker 1: Is the arena on fire? Lynn Berman was.

1265
00:57:55,760 --> 00:57:58,039
Speaker 2: The the he's the answer to the tribute question. He's

1266
00:57:58,039 --> 00:58:00,199
the guy on the play by play, and he even

1267
00:58:00,239 --> 00:58:00,960
said back.

1268
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:04,079
Speaker 4: Of the play by play of the TV back in

1269
00:58:04,119 --> 00:58:07,199
those days, similar to what happened with UH with UH

1270
00:58:08,199 --> 00:58:09,599
with the what do you call it? When we talked

1271
00:58:09,599 --> 00:58:12,239
about it hurts right. They had the HBO crew there also,

1272
00:58:12,280 --> 00:58:14,320
so they also played the replay the week later with

1273
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:15,159
their normal crew.

1274
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:18,599
Speaker 2: Okay, so Lynn Berman's even saying on that TVKO call,

1275
00:58:18,719 --> 00:58:20,960
we are you know, we're told this the building is

1276
00:58:21,000 --> 00:58:25,039
not on fire, although there's smoke in that massive boardwalk

1277
00:58:25,079 --> 00:58:28,440
hall where Jaron and has just fought. Last weekend, so

1278
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:30,519
many great world title fights that were there. I was

1279
00:58:30,559 --> 00:58:33,679
just there back in March. It's a cavernous, massive place.

1280
00:58:34,239 --> 00:58:36,679
But that that's actually go back find the easter egg.

1281
00:58:36,719 --> 00:58:37,039
Speaker 1: Go back.

1282
00:58:37,039 --> 00:58:39,400
Speaker 2: In the middle of the fight, there's you know, somebody

1283
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:41,639
set off some kind of fireworks.

1284
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:44,840
Speaker 3: I looked this up. Also, we talk about how big

1285
00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:45,360
the fight was.

1286
00:58:45,440 --> 00:58:48,239
Speaker 4: Evander, who had made you know, good money obviously for

1287
00:58:48,719 --> 00:58:51,960
the title fight against Buster. He was guaranteed twenty million

1288
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:54,519
dollars for this fight, and Big George, who had been

1289
00:58:54,559 --> 00:58:59,000
fighting for relatively modest fees during the comeback. As you know,

1290
00:58:59,079 --> 00:59:02,159
we increased were time. But you know, it wasn't like

1291
00:59:02,159 --> 00:59:03,480
when he came out of retirement he was being paid

1292
00:59:03,519 --> 00:59:05,320
millions of dollars. He was fighting for a chump change.

1293
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:07,039
But for this fight he hit the big time. He

1294
00:59:07,079 --> 00:59:08,239
made twelve point five million.

1295
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:11,039
Speaker 2: Well, and the part of that is because Buster Douglass

1296
00:59:11,079 --> 00:59:14,039
had gotten such a massive payday to fight holy Field

1297
00:59:14,079 --> 00:59:16,360
back the previous year.

1298
00:59:16,440 --> 00:59:18,280
Speaker 3: The previous George is forty.

1299
00:59:18,119 --> 00:59:21,000
Speaker 4: Two years old at this point, I mean, and he

1300
00:59:21,039 --> 00:59:22,280
still ended up winning.

1301
00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:25,000
Speaker 2: And I'm telling you kids, I've I've rewatched it before,

1302
00:59:25,039 --> 00:59:27,760
but I still remember from that night he gets blasted

1303
00:59:27,800 --> 00:59:30,360
by holy Field on more than a few occasions, three

1304
00:59:30,440 --> 00:59:33,360
or four occasions, and he's firing right back. It is

1305
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:36,840
an action. The whole fight is an action packed. We're

1306
00:59:36,880 --> 00:59:39,519
not making it out to be Hagler, Hearns or gotty

1307
00:59:39,559 --> 00:59:42,199
Ward or something like that, but it's an entertaining fight.

1308
00:59:42,280 --> 00:59:43,599
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's not a joke.

1309
00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:45,840
Speaker 4: So then there was drama because of all the things

1310
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:47,639
that led up to him. He always had to always

1311
00:59:47,679 --> 00:59:50,519
keep in mind as you're watching it that George was

1312
00:59:50,599 --> 00:59:54,079
forty two and had been champion, you know, seventeen years

1313
00:59:54,159 --> 00:59:57,320
or so ago. I mean, it was like another multiple

1314
00:59:57,360 --> 00:59:59,800
generations of boxing had passed and he's still back in

1315
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:01,880
the things. And by the way, one of the reasons

1316
01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:04,920
why when you talk about the eras of heavyweights, I

1317
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:07,480
don't think it's any question that. You know, most boxing

1318
01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:09,920
fans can't agree on anything, but one thing most boxing

1319
01:00:09,960 --> 01:00:12,119
fans will agree in is that the greatest era of

1320
01:00:12,159 --> 01:00:15,159
heavyweight boxing was the nineteen seventies, led by of course,

1321
01:00:15,199 --> 01:00:18,719
Ali Fraser, Forman Norton and plenty of other great contenders

1322
01:00:18,719 --> 01:00:22,639
and champions. The next greatest era in boxing, in my opinion,

1323
01:00:23,000 --> 01:00:26,920
is the nineteen nineties, and that was Tyson Holyfield, Lennox Lewis,

1324
01:00:27,159 --> 01:00:30,599
Tommy Morrison, Razor Roddick, Riddick Bow and plenty of others.

1325
01:00:30,639 --> 01:00:33,079
But one of the reasons it gets that label is

1326
01:00:33,119 --> 01:00:36,360
then you insert Big George in his second act and

1327
01:00:36,400 --> 01:00:38,400
that was a huge aspect of that era. It was

1328
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:41,199
a phenomenal era for heavyweight boxing and this fight is

1329
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:41,800
part of that.

1330
01:00:42,360 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 1: Well said, there's the last word on that. By the way,

1331
01:00:45,000 --> 01:00:47,400
there you go all right with that?

1332
01:00:48,239 --> 01:00:51,440
Speaker 2: Well done again, I repeat here at the end of

1333
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:51,880
the pod.

1334
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:52,599
Speaker 1: We said it earlier.

1335
01:00:52,639 --> 01:00:55,440
Speaker 2: There is not a bet US Boxing show for Friday.

1336
01:00:55,960 --> 01:00:58,280
That is due to them being off for the holiday weekend,

1337
01:00:58,320 --> 01:01:03,679
the bet US producer's production company, etc. So this will

1338
01:01:03,719 --> 01:01:06,079
have to suffice for your preview. We gave you plenty

1339
01:01:06,480 --> 01:01:09,079
on the three main event fight cards, with Dalton Smith

1340
01:01:09,159 --> 01:01:12,800
headlining the junior welterweight main event in Sheffield, England, Saturday

1341
01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:16,880
afternoon US time on his own for Matchroom. Gabriella Fondora's

1342
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:20,400
women's flyweight title fight is Saturday night in California the

1343
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:23,679
Golden Boy Dezone show, and then the Boxer Sky Sports

1344
01:01:23,840 --> 01:01:27,119
Triller TV Plus in the US card is Sunday afternoon

1345
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:30,400
with Ben Whitaker. Watch those fights you and I will

1346
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:34,400
come off the weekend, we'll recap those and we'll get

1347
01:01:34,440 --> 01:01:37,320
ready for what will be the final week in April.

1348
01:01:37,360 --> 01:01:39,719
Believe it or not, coming off the weekend with the

1349
01:01:39,719 --> 01:01:40,880
recap pot anything else.

1350
01:01:40,920 --> 01:01:42,280
Speaker 1: Are we good? I believe we're good.

1351
01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:43,079
Speaker 3: Good, We're good.

1352
01:01:43,239 --> 01:01:44,840
Speaker 1: I think we're good for another edition.

1353
01:01:44,920 --> 01:01:48,000
Speaker 2: Thank you for finding us, Follow, subscribe to this feed, Apples, Preaker,

1354
01:01:48,559 --> 01:01:49,519
Spotify again.

1355
01:01:50,039 --> 01:01:52,400
Speaker 1: Engage with the previous.

1356
01:01:52,000 --> 01:01:55,599
Speaker 2: Pod as well, and also on the YouTube page on

1357
01:01:55,679 --> 01:01:57,360
the Hagler Hearns remembrance.

1358
01:01:57,400 --> 01:02:00,599
Speaker 1: Forty years later, it is somebody Fastic with.

1359
01:02:00,639 --> 01:02:04,280
Speaker 2: Al Bernstein and with Barry Tompkins joining us at link

1360
01:02:04,400 --> 01:02:07,639
sharing stories stuff that we didn't even know in that interview.

1361
01:02:07,719 --> 01:02:10,480
Go find it on YouTube, Subscribe to the YouTube channel,

1362
01:02:10,679 --> 01:02:13,679
and follow and subscribe here now for Dan Rayphel, I'm

1363
01:02:13,679 --> 01:02:16,039
merely TJ Reach. Have a great weekend, Happy Easter. Everybody

1364
01:02:16,079 --> 01:02:18,760
will come to you off the Easter weekend here as

1365
01:02:18,800 --> 01:02:20,559
part of the Big Fight Weekend podcast feed