Speaker 1: The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big
Fight Weekend.
Speaker 2: Now here is your host, DJ Leaves.
Speaker 3: Well, we get ready for a weekend that we'll see
Sebastian Pundora back in action for the first time in
basically twelve months, defending the unified Junior middleweight Championship. We
also have a Matchroom to own card in Australia to
go over.
Speaker 2: We've got the.
Speaker 3: WBO welterweight champion in Brian Norman Junior.
Speaker 2: He is with Dan later in this pod.
Speaker 3: News and some fantastic nostalgia on the program. It is
the Big Fight Weekend preview. I am I am president,
accounted for the somewhat capable host TJ Reeves. Hello to
our insider off the Fight Freak Night Substack and his newsletter.
Hello Dan rayfhiel. You know you missed me off of
this weekend as much as you life.
Speaker 1: I really didn't. I didn't.
Speaker 4: I'm glad you got home okay though, after all the
chaos of your travel.
Speaker 3: And I just need to share with everybody it was
in a first class grade a mess all of Sunday
afternoon Sunday night, Dan and I were in correspondence trying
to figure out could we make it work. And I
kept saying to you, I don't know when I'm leaving,
and then it became I don't know if I'm leaving,
and legitimately I was not sure if we were not
going to be sleeping in the A terminal, and whether
or not the plane was going to take off, which
it did at two thirty am Eastern times.
Speaker 4: You would have almost had to sleep in Philly and
then you almost had to sleep in Alanthem.
Speaker 3: Correct because had we not, because here's the thing, had
we not gotten out of Philadelphia they were they were
saying to us on a different airline, I'll go in
and share it.
Speaker 2: They don't sponsor the show on Southwest.
Speaker 3: They were saying, it may be Tuesday, because this is
the Monday after spring break. It may be Tuesday, Rayfield Tuesday,
not the day after Monday, Tuesday. So the first scramble
became get out of Philadelphia on some airline, which we did,
got to Atlanta. You and I are big college basketball fans.
That is the second time in my adult life that
I have not been in front of my TV at
my house or my apartment to watch the selection show
that I've been on an airplane and both times it's
a bloody flight delay. Yes, Sunday that got me. So
I'm watching the selection show while we're bouncing up and
down in turbulence on the Eastern Seaboard. Did you get
some of that nasty rent wind and rain in Virginia?
Not really south the South with the tornadoes?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: We land in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: And I'm just gonna share for one more minute, and
then it became okay, can we get out of Atlanta?
Speaker 2: And Dan?
Speaker 3: That was no exaggeration like a six hour ordeal on
is a plane gonna get here?
Speaker 1: This question? Yes?
Speaker 4: Would you rather do that or watch one of the
worst Riggando fights? I'd rather do what you did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the Riggando fights were very bold, and there's
probably some other ones that we can you know, like
bone clutch Er Smith against Mike Tyson talking about in
the in the Nostalgias.
Speaker 2: So, uh, it was a mess. Thankfully we got there.
Speaker 3: Listen, you had the Sebastian Fondora interview that we were
ready to play, so that sufficed. I did have not
one our colleague Eric Raskin, who we know, reached out
to me early Monday. Did you make it in. I
had two other people that listened to the pod. They're like,
wait a minute, are you still stuck in the Atlanta Airport?
I exaggerate not. We hit the ground safely at four
am Monday. Rayfield was not going to be taping the
pod at four am and then all the.
Speaker 1: Other times, but I would have done that. Maybe what
the hell four am?
Speaker 3: You told me you were milking cookies time and gone
by like three am.
Speaker 2: So we got in and again we land in.
Speaker 3: The Tampa airport and there are people sleeping all over
the terminal that could not get out all Sunday. They're
sleeping down at baggage claim Rayfield like the homeless around
their backs.
Speaker 2: There are people. There are people.
Speaker 3: Checking in at four am for the six am lights
because it's spring break Monday, full on circlus, full on circus.
Speaker 2: But we survive. We're here, we're.
Speaker 3: Here, We're glad that you are here. This is the
preview pod going into the weekend. We do our best
to recap off the weekend as well as we rock along.
Follow Subscribe, Apple Spreaker, Spotify, give us a five star review.
A couple of us, A couple of us, a couple
of you, have been reviewing us. I should say, keep
the reviews coming. They do help out. And with that,
let's get things underway here for this weekend. We did
hear from Sebastian Fondorra on the pod as he's ready
to go off the win over Tim Zoo, which seems like,
my god, it was a year.
Speaker 2: Ago in March, maybe fifty one weeks ye, and so.
Speaker 3: Now he will fight Cordale Booker and defend the title
in Las Vegas as the main event PBC Prime.
Speaker 2: Here we go with Fight weekend.
Speaker 3: Give me, give me a couple of more thoughts here
after you talk to him on the previous pod.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, it's it's the PBC on Prime. It's
the second time that they're not doing a pay per view,
which is a good thing for those of us that
are not always wanting to spend money on paper.
Speaker 1: So that's a good thing.
Speaker 4: It may not be at the same level as some
of the paper you fights, obviously, it's not a big
Tank Davis fight or something, but Fandora's always in good fights,
a fun fighter to watch, you know. And I think
as you heard those who listened to the podcast, I
mean they kind of got tired of waiting around for
Errol Spence, which was the fight that has been linked
to Sebastian ever since. He was doing his post fight
interview after winning the titles against Zoo back a year ago,
and Arrow was in the ring with him. But you know,
for a lot of different reasons, that did not happen.
So he's going to defend the title. Cordel Booker was
the opponent. They basically looked down the ratings of the
organizations to find somebody that they were okay with fighting
that would fit the budget that was available, that was
you know, ready to go, and they came up with
Kurt Doel Booker. Now Qurdell Booker is an interesting character here.
He's a good boxer, that's the first thing. He's a
very solid boxer, had a good amateur background, not a
big puncher. Only as one loss, and while it looks
bad in terms of the way it went down, it
was a first round knockout loss to Austin m Williams,
who we spoke about last week. Because he of course
fought to fight in the Dissonne main event and scored
his own pretty solid victory that night. We didn't get
a chance to really recap it because of your travel travails.
But he did win that main event and uh and uh,
and looked pretty good against Petrizvoni in a good, solid,
tough fight anyway. So that fight was a first one
knockout that Cordel Booker suffered. That was back in April
of twenty twenty two. So ever since then, Cordel Booker,
that was out of his regular weight class. That was
a fight he took at middleweight. Now he's back where
he's supposed to be or where he's most comfortable. He's
been at his most effective at junior middleway and since
that loss, he has won what six fights in a row,
and maybe not against the best, you know, great competition,
but he wasn't fighting like complete freaking stiffs either, you
know what I mean. So he's been doing what he
had to do to stay in the ratings and to
get the opportunity when the when they when they came
knocking on the door, so to speak to U, to
give him the opportunity.
Speaker 1: So he's down at one fifty four.
Speaker 4: His last fight actually was at one sixty, but I
think fifty four is where he's most comfortable.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what he can do.
Speaker 4: Fundora is coming off, like you said, the long layoff,
but he's and this is not just a case against
him against Booker. This is going to be Sebastian Fundora
against every single fighter that he's going to ever fight
in his entire career. As we know, he's the tower infrontal.
He's six foot six, his opponent is five foot nine,
So it's going to look unusual.
Speaker 1: In the ring.
Speaker 4: And so I'm sure that as Booker, who didn't take
this fight the lest ban's had plenty of time to prepare.
I'm not sure how you stimulate that in your camp
to get him right like that, but maybe you stand
a guy on a on a on a chair and
you try to punch out whatever. But uh, it's gonna
be interesting, just it always is when you see somebody
go into the ring with Fundora when he's that much
taller than you and he's obviously got the long reach.
The one thing that does drive me personally absolutely wacky
about Fandora. He likes to fight, and so for fans
that's good, but for him it's not good because he
doesn't use his height to his advantage like he should.
He does not use the reach advantage like he should.
He fights short in many ways. That's you know what
what the trainers call it.
Speaker 3: Well, we talked about this before on that point, because
I still remember Lennox Lewis this has been two or
three years ago pointing it out because Lenox was a
big guy with a long reach, and he was to
your point saying this a couple of years ago before
he won a portion of the world title, that he
is at least a half a step, if not a
full step too close inside. Use that reach with a
half step back or a full step back and the
other guy won't be able to hit you with the
It doesn't seem that he figured that out a lot
in the Zoo fight some but that's a question mark
for this fight.
Speaker 4: Yes, so it's going to be up in did they
train on that to to do a better job using
that and if they do, can book or handle it?
You know, we'll see if he can test the book
or chin. Like I said, he was a first show knockout.
Granted it wasn't a heavier weight, but it doesn't mean
that that he's going to take a great shot at
Chun your middleweight either. So you know there's some intrigue
in there, and obviously, you know, if he wins the fight,
then they still look like they're gonna try to remake
the fight with Errol Spence, which has been the word.
Whether that ever actually comes off, who that knows. But
the good thing is DJ one hundred and fifty four
has got a lot of good fighters. And I know,
you know, I'm not even talking about like a guy
like a Terrence Crawford who has one of the titles,
because we all know he's on his way up to
one hundred and sixty eight the challenge Kenelo Alvarez. But
to look at the rest of the way class, you
got guys like besides Fandora, you got Martazalaev, who is
although promoted by Main Events, he has been affiliated with
PBC because Main Events and PBS have worked together for
the last several fights of Martazalaev's career, the last several fights.
They still have Keith Thurman, who just won. They have
Tim Zuo, who is gonna probably wind up fighting Keith Thurman.
Tim wins the upcoming fight, but certainly Fandora against the
winner of that fight, whether its a rematch against Zoo,
that's certainly fight I think a lot of folks would
be interested in the same with Thurman if he were
to beat Zoo and then also having come off the
Jarvis victory, you also have virtual or teas who's in
that weight class with an interim title. You've got Joenns
Taes who made a big splash with his winning of
the interim title. He's also with PBC. So within the
confines of PBC alone Fondora between Spence and and Taes
and Bachram. I mean, these are all guys Thurman and
and you know they're they're all these guys that he
can nat show with Tim Zoo of course. I mean
there's there's plenty of opportunity for him to make a
good matchup in the weight class. So we'll see how
he performs. I'm looking forward to watching him back, it's
been a while. He's always good to watch.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: So that's the main event. I will make mention for
the first time. We'll handicap the fight a little more
and make predictions on the bet Us Boxing show on
Friday at one Eastern time, and then on the undercard,
Jesus Ramos in a junior middleweight showdown. Speaking of junior middleweights,
and Elijah Garcia in a middleweight bout as well. So
let's go over that a little more on the undercard
for Saturday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I actually forgot to mention Haesus Ramos is another
candidate to be in that type of fight because he
is obviously fighting on on doors undercard. He's been one
of the better Gerim midweight up and commers. He's got
the one loss which I thought he won. Many people
thought he won. This is back in twenty three he
had a decision loss against ericson Lubin. Most people that
I talked to about that fight and was around because
I was at the fight, we all thought that that
Ramos was a rightful winner. He has come back and
won two fights since then. He took his last fight
at middleweight that was more of an accommodation to his
opponent Jason Rosario. But he's now back at Jerim MIDIW
eight to take on a fighter that's not really well
known at all, and that's Guido shram sixteen three and
two with nine knockouts. He's an Argentine fighter, but he
fights out of Los Angeles. Look, he's lost two fights
in a row. He got knocked out by Joan Gonzalez.
I'm sorry he got knocked upy Vladimir Hernandez. Before that,
I lost the decision to Yowon Gonzales. And before that
he had a draw with the with the Philadelphia one
time prospect. Kind of big disappointment in Paul Kroll. This is,
in my estimation, a showcase fight. This is a Ramos,
you know, let's see what you can do. And I'm
sure that they got the opponent because he's sort of
fit the let's say he fit the budget. That sometimes
what happens in these types of shows where it's not
a massive budget and what everybody there is is going
to the main event. So this is a chance to
see Ramos back at jingam middleweight and size him up.
Can you see him in the ring with Fondora if
Fandora's winner any of those other Jera middleweights that I
just mentioned. And then it's a triple header, so they're
only streaming the three fights. The undercard fights besides that
are not on a stream which is like a harkening
back to the old days when you know, they didn't
have the streaming. So this is three fights and that's
hit and the opening fight is the middleweight young fighter
just a twenty one year old sixteen and one Elijah
Garcia stubbed his toe in his last fight, lost shockingly frankly,
a fight he was a heavy favorite and against Cairo
Davis by split decision. He's gonna look to bounce back.
He's taken on the well traveled olympian and Teroll Gachet,
who's kind of tricky. Also, he might have some trouble
with Terrell Gachet, but you know it's time to sink
or swim. You're coming off the loss or not. Putting
him in easy and we'll see what he can do.
Speaker 3: By the way, is the name that Tim's Zoo fought
a couple of years ago in his United States debut
and Geshane knocking down on a flash knockdown in the
first round before Zoo went on to win the fight.
Speaker 4: And he's also coming off of a like about a
nine month layoff where he challenged and lost the decision,
challenging Carlos Damas for the WBC's middleweight belt. So his
experienced against top names like you said, he's fought Tim
Zoo did knock him down, fought Carlos Damas. He was
in the United States Olympian. He also has a loss
against ericson Lubin. He's got a draw against Austin Trout.
I mean, so he's fought, you know, good quality competition
over the course of the last several years. He just
has me being able to get over the hump and
win one of those fights.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: So that is coming on Saturday, earlier on Saturday our time,
early Saturday morning in Sydney, Australia. It is George Cambosis
back in the ring as a junior welterweight. Now, remember
he had the lightweight titles and Devin Haney beat him
in the undisputed title fight in Australian and then beat
him again six months later in the rematch. So Cambosis
and Jake Wiley tell me a little more here in
the pre mode on this it is. It is early
for us in the United States, Saturday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, listen, He's going home to fight in Australia. This
is the first fight of his new co promotion with
Matchroom Boxing. He's been with Lou Deblla for quite a
number of years. Matchroom put him into a deal for
a co promotion. They're doing this fight in Sydney and look,
George is a good guy, and he talks great and
some of his fights are fun to watch if he's
in with the right type of opponent. But let's be honest,
since he defeated and I Gargantu went upset Tifimo Lopez
to win a bunch of the light white belts back
in the end of twenty twenty one, he's one win
and three losses, and the losses were pretty lopsided to
Devin Haney in the undisputed fight and then again to
him in the rematch. He got a too many a
gift decision. In July of twenty twenty three when he
came and fought in the United States against against Maxi Hughes,
who you know, George won the UNANU or won the
majority decision in that fight, but that was a fight
that really, you know, I think a lot of people
felt like he was lucky to escape with that win.
And then in his only fight of twenty twenty four,
that was the only fight of twenty three and George's
only fight of twenty four in his home country in Perth, Australia,
he fought Vasili Lomachenko for the IBF vacant lightweight title,
because remember Devin Haney ultimately vacated the undersprated title and
went up to his own business at one hundred and
forty pounds, and Cambos's got dominated and knocked out in
the eleventh round by Lomachenko, who hasn't thought since then
because of his own the injury issues. So George is
coming off, you know, a ten month layoff of getting
knocked out by Lomachenkoh and he's fighting, as you mentioned,
a countryman named Jake Wiley. Now, originally he was supposed
to fight, you know, a veteran contender, Dowd Jordan, who
I joked to you and they made the fight. Had
been not in my consciousness for so many years. I
actually thought when they made the fight he was Fudy
Dowd Jordan's son, because I covered JORDIAU Dam when he
was fucking a junior featherweight like twelve fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 2: No, No, same guy.
Speaker 4: Same guy. So unfortunately, if you're a Dowd your Dan supporter,
he had to go to the hospital for some under
closed medical reason in his home country in Indonesia, and
he was not able to participate in the fight. So
on the last minute, just in like the last five
or six days, maybe even about four days. Maybe they
got a fighter named Jake Wiley, a twenty four year
old Australian fighter who's sixteen to one with fifteen knockout
says to replace your Dan. So he's a completely unknown guy.
I'd be less than honest if I ever said I
ever heard of Jake Wiley until I saw his name
announced as the new opponent for Cambo's. So I know
very little.
Speaker 2: And if you haven't heard of him, then the rest
of us.
Speaker 4: I mean that's not you know, not necessarily, but if
you take a look at the record, you know he
hasn't fought in anybody. He's coming off of a no contest
that was due to a headbutt where his opponent suffered
a cut, so that was sort of inconclusive, a third
round no contest and an eight rounder. The good thing
about it, though, is that at least he's been active
because that fight I just mentioned, he wasn't. It wasn't
Wiley that was cut, it was the opponent that was
only a month ago. So he's right back in the rings,
so he was close to when he accepted the fight.
I imagine and and ready to roll. And he has
been active. He had several fights in twenty twenty four,
won two three four fights in twenty twenty four. From
that standpoint, but again he's fighting six to eight rounders,
one ten rounder. This is now He's going to be
in his first ever twelve rounder. So based on the
level of opponent, he looks like he's out of his depth.
But George has also not been the most impressive in
his fights. But this was always intended, even when your
Dan was the opponent. It was supposed to be, you know,
theoretically a get well fight for you know, a popular
figure who is in need of a victory. So we'll
see if he can do the do the job.
Speaker 2: All right again, wake up, let me let.
Speaker 4: Me just make the point. If George Kimbos is the winner,
the reason why this is such a pivotal fight for him,
whether he's fighting Wiley or your Dan, is if he wins,
come this summer, he's going to be fighting Richardson Hitchins
for the IBF title.
Speaker 3: Interesting, all right again, that's early Saturday morning US time,
Saturday night in Australia on Matt s Troom's disown show
as your time zone accordingly, watch it time displaced later
in the morning.
Speaker 2: If that's the case for that coming.
Speaker 3: Up all right, So up next now is your conversation
with the WBO Welterweight Champion Brian Norman. He is fighting
someone named Derek Quavis that is coming now in a
couple of weeks on March the twenty ninth in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: Next week, man, man, next week, next week.
Speaker 2: I know I'm trying to get all my day straight.
Speaker 3: So next weekend, next Saturday, this title fight will take place.
Let's get into that conversation that you had with him
right now.
Speaker 1: Well, it's my pleasure to welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 4: This week it is the WBO Welterweight world Champion, Brian
Norman Junior, and Brian, I will tell the people what
you got coming up. You're gonna make your first title
defense against Derek Qavis. You'll be fighting on the MICHAELA.
Mayor Sandy Ryan rematch card that takes place March twenty ninth,
live on ESPN Plus at the beautiful Fontaine Blue in
Las Vegas. Welcome to the show. So I've never interviewed
you before, so pleasure to talk to you.
Speaker 5: And it's out to you and live all right.
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to seeing you back in action. It's
been a little bit. You were impressed of Brian in
your in your last fight that was in May of
last year. You went to the hometown of the undefeated
Giovanni Santition. You took it to him. You dominated most
of the fight. You bloodied them up, dropped them twice
in the tenth round, got the stoppage later in the
tenth round, took away the perfect record. That's a big
moment for anybody. You won the interim title. Can you
describe that moment as obviously at that point got to
be the biggest moment of your boxing career so far.
Speaker 5: It is the biggest moment of my boxing career.
Speaker 6: The crazy part is after I won it, I was
expecting this big old, this big feeling, but for some reason,
I never got it. And then that's when I realized
my my dreams, I'm much bigger than just being a
champion is. That's one step to it. But to be
a legend, you gotta keep coming back and back and
back again. Panell Whittiko once said, you can't become a champion,
but it's harder to defend the belt so much for
the ninth it's my time to defend that belt.
Speaker 4: But when you did get the belt wrapped around you,
were you thinking, like, you know, I've made it. I
know it was you know, at the time it was
the interim title. You were later elevated, but still that's
a big moment. You're in the hometown, you're the underdog.
A lot of people really didn't know much ABOUTUE other
than you at that time, were considered, you know, a
good undefeated, up and coming prospect.
Speaker 6: It was a big relief off my shoulders of like
you said, I finally made it. I'm finally a champion.
So it just will step in a long journey, that's all.
Speaker 4: So you got that belt in that fight, but as
I mentioned, it was for the interim title in August,
so that's a few months later when Terrence Crawford moved up.
They know, they elevated you to the full champion of
the WB and I was like, I've talked to different
fighters about that in the past. I know it's a
wonderful thing to be a world champion, but is there
any element of disappointment that you didn't get it in
the ring. They didn't get to say the ring announcer
the new champ in the world, not the new interim
champ of the world. Then, as some fans are very
derisive about it, the email champ, even though I don't
particularly view it that way. You know, you just followed
the rules this one.
Speaker 6: I would not say it's an email champion at all,
simply because if Tamas Crawford didn't have the fight, obviously
he was moving up to fifty four, like he wasn't
even thinking about coming back down to forty seven, So
who would I Who would I have fought if it
wasn't for Jaill Vonny. He was number one, he was
next to line. So that was my championship fight. So
I would never say it was an email champion. I
didn't fight a guy that was way down the list
and just got so happy to get blessed with a
built anything at all I read that was me fight
for my belt right there.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of talk that after that that
your first defense was going to be against Boots Tennis,
the IBF champion, and there was conversation between your side
and his side match from Boxing Top ranking your team
about maybe going to Philadelphia to do that fight. That
would have that gets those talks were, or the fight
would have been if it took place in early November. Look,
he was you know you were. I'm told you were willing.
Your team was willing. Obviously Boots and his team that
match room, they were willing. It ends up, like a
lot of unfortunate things in boxing, things fall apart over
the money. He wound up doing the mandatory against a
guy you already beat that really nobody cared to see.
Everybody had opinion. Everybody had an opinion about that. You know, Brian,
it was like you should have taken it. You know,
the promoter low balled you in the offer. You were
only you know, a few hundred thousand dollars apart. What
was your take on the whole situation as the guy
that was going to be half of that fight if
it had taken place.
Speaker 6: If you listen to what the people say, well, the
people will say that you are worth you will be
worth nothing. You will be the Brokens person possible and
you will be the bottom of the barrel. If you
know who you are, you know what you deserve, and
you are what you say you are, you will show
and improve yourself every day, and you won't go for
anything less than that. We like you just said it
was gonna fight in his city. He didn't want to
pay the money standing on its is not fighting in
his city, is getting paid more than I would have
uh one fifty four. He was talking about fighting Charles Conwell.
He offered he low balled him as well. But now
when he get up his biggest payday, which was five
million versus Virgil Ortiz, a much bigger fight, he say no.
So people try to come at me about that. So
what they said about him, I thought, you want to
go to one fifty four. You already offer somebody to
fight at one fifty four for minuscule of money, but
now you get offered the biggest fight payday of your
life at the same weight class and you say no.
Speaker 5: So who is really the one who is not trying
to fight? But that's besides the point.
Speaker 6: March twenty ninth, I have a fight against Derreck Quavez,
very tough competitor. He want to come and try to
take my head off. I'm the new champion. I'm the
one that got to defend my bill in the beautiful
city of Las Vegas at the Fountain Blue it's time
for me to show the word of who Brian Nomle Jr.
Speaker 5: Is and that this is my division.
Speaker 4: Well, you just mentioned you're making this defense against Derek Quavis.
This fight was originally scheduled for October that was going
to take place in Norfolk, Virginia on the Keishan Davis Carr.
He was making a fight in his hometown for the
first time as a professional. Uh, you had to withdraw
from that fight, postponed the fight until this upcoming date
because you had a hand injury. I guess that that
you that it got a previous injury had been exacerbated
in your training camp. I know you had had previous
surgery in that How disappointing was it that you had
won this big fight against Santa on your geared up
to get back in there for your first defense. Let
everybody see that there was no accident what you did
against Santion and then it gets short circuited because of
an injury.
Speaker 5: It was. It was hard on me at the time.
Speaker 6: I was I was devastated, I will say that, but
I feel like everything happened for a reason. Think about it, yo,
you just you just defeated all the eyes and you
just became a champion, beat somebody in their own city
in front of them. You were supposed to lose the fight.
Everything was against you. So now you beat those us,
then your first title defense is in the fighting city
is Las Vegas. Come on, Ain't nothing better than that?
So actually I'll see it as a blessing. Then, even
with the injury, I finally had to take time off
to fully heal myself, fully heal my body.
Speaker 5: Take time off.
Speaker 6: And and sitting back and stop being so physical and
think about the mental aspect, get everything together mentally, and
I'm on point. So I got it, I got I
got everything lined up. I'm not slipping at all. I'm
mentally there, mental cliff and now march to the knight
for time to show the world what I have been
put all the work I've been putting in, even after
winning the built.
Speaker 4: It sounds like you're saying that that situation with the
postponeing and the injury is almost like it's silver lining.
You get to rest a little bit, and you know,
and they're in a good situation this time. Right now
you're the uh you know, you're you're in Vegas, like
you said, and big things potentially ahead of you, So
is it Did you take it like that, like you know,
this is the end of the world.
Speaker 6: At first, I did think it was the end of
the world, I will say that, But after a while,
my whole thing was just take it day by day,
just keep doing the right things today, and eventually, you know,
you can get back in get back in the game.
Speaker 5: You can get back to doing what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 6: And now I followed the blueprint, I fought the game plan,
and here we are again.
Speaker 5: Another day is passing against us.
Speaker 6: My hands are healthy, everything is healthy, and now I
get to keep doing what I do well.
Speaker 4: I was gonna ask about that because again, because you
had had the injury, but it was it was I
guess from my understanding was you would have any previous
surgery on that hand, and then you injured in the
camp getting ready. I wondered to myself, is this going
to be a problem for you, uh, you know, in
the long term going forward, or is it just a
matter of, you know what, Maybe I've got a little
bit of issue, Like every boxer's got hand issues from
time to time, and it's just the kind of thing
you got to keep on top of make sure you
know you take care of it the right way, make
sure the hands are always wrapped the right way, or
is this too this has passed now when it's not
an issue.
Speaker 6: I'm just taking the day by day. Right now, everything
is all fine and dandy. I'm doing I'm taking every
percaution possible, like you said, wrapping my hands the right way,
make a sean, taking care of them, icing them, whatever
the case may be, and I making sure day by
day I'm doing the right thing that I'm supposed to do.
I can't tell the future. I'm a knock on wood.
Hopefully God got me. You know, I have no more
hand injuries. I have no more interest at all, and
I get just keep coming out shore in the world.
If I can fight four or five times a year
with no injuries anything at all, trust to believe I'll
do it.
Speaker 4: I'd be a pretty pretty busy schedule. And he got
Derek Wavis first up. Obviously. He is twenty seven to
one and one. He has nineteen knockouts. A Puerto Rican fighter,
he has won four fights in a row by knockout.
What else can you tell me about Derek Wavis? What
do you expect to kind of fight from him. When
you get into the ring.
Speaker 6: I believe he's going to try to come in very hard,
very heavy, and try to press the action, and I'm
gonna slow all of that down very very quickly. And
if you want to go for it, let's go for it.
You want to see it right down to pocket and
throw these things we can do.
Speaker 4: That sounds like you're trying to make it an interesting fight.
You're in a division that has become more interesting. It
had an established group of fighters that had been sort
of ruling the ruse for a long time. Terrence Crawford
became the undisputed champion, moved up in wait and obviously
left it behind with the way he defeated Errol Spence
kind of took Errol out of the situation. He's gonna
move up if he ever fights again. And then you
got a lot of other guys that had big names
that were doing, you know, big fights all along. I'm
thinking about guys like Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman and
Sean Porter and kel Brooke, and those guys have either
all retired moved up to different weight classes and sort
of opened this division up for the new group of guys,
it's yourself with the WBO title. You got Mario Barrios,
who's been in a series of entertaining fights. He's the
WBC champion. As you mentioned, he got Boots Ennis and
Amanta stanionis the IBF and the WBA champions. They are
fighting each other on April twelfth on a unification fight.
What's your take on the sort of the new blood
in your division. You're one of the youngest champions in
the whole sport right now in any way class.
Speaker 5: I think imb youngest championship.
Speaker 4: I think you actually admit now that you say that,
I think you are. It's funny worked when you got
the dolt from when you beat Santoine, you were definitely
at twenty three when they elevated. You're the youngest at
twenty four. I'd have to check that, but you're certainly
among If you're not the youngest, you're a couple, you know,
just a couple of you.
Speaker 1: In that in that stage.
Speaker 5: So he is the youngest.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 4: I'll tell my listeners that is the voice of God.
That is Joline Mason, the matature of Brian Norman chiming in.
But anyway, so like I was mentioning about the state
of your weight class. What is your take on sort
of the new blood that's in this weight division at
the top.
Speaker 6: It's all about timing. Like you just said, everybody literally
just left. So now the new blood is in. It's
time for us to make our name. It's time for
us to make our career. And not even just the
champions right now, you got guys coming up. You know
about the Ryan Garcia is, the Devin Hayndes. Even till
Femo he talked about coming up. So I think one
Ford said it is about to start, you know, making
the name for himself again. And I feel like I
know for a fact, I'm about to be the top
one on the one be at the top, and it
will be me.
Speaker 1: I can understand the confidence.
Speaker 4: I wonder when you think about about the guys you
mentioned about the other champions, what what do you see
like for your big fight. I know you got Aquavius
and that's no joke. You gotta take care of that business.
But there was the conversations about the previous unification. The
winner of April twelfth would be there with two titles.
Uh maybe if maybe it could be renegotiative Boots is
the winner or perhaps the standing onis. What is your
thought about the big step that you'd like to make
if everything goes well for you against Quavers?
Speaker 6: Simply just any big name possible, like all the names.
I was just saying, all the other champions be real
to day b C belt. That's the It hold a
special place in my heart and I need that. Like
I said, I look up the floorid a lot, Ali, Sugar,
Rayland and all of them. They always had the double
BC belt with them and I need that under me
as well. But I feel like not one fight to
find your career, It's all about stacking them up back
to back to back. So just give me everybody. I
don't care you Like I said, back to back, I
don't care. I could still fight all of them five
times a year as well. I'm always in the gym.
I'll recover fast.
Speaker 5: I'm young.
Speaker 6: I'm the youngest of them all, so that proves how
great I am as is I'm the youngest champion of
boxing right now. And then the possibilities, in the potential
is in this. That's literally how I see myself. And
then I became a champion while not fully being being
myself because I was dealing with old injuries, very mint
of injuries, but identical with injuries as well. So I
came this far not even fully being Brian Noma Jr.
So now's there.
Speaker 4: It sounds like when you were talking about your dreams
of a WBC title that would mean if you had
your choice and you could just wave the wine, you'd
love to fight Mario Barrios in the unification most definitely.
Speaker 6: I mean, he don't got anything set up at the moment,
but we'll we'll speak on the next fight after that.
Who knows, something may shake up, somebody may come to
one for the SAP and somebody may come down for
one fifty four.
Speaker 5: But right now, I'm gonna focus on everything day by day,
marched for the life.
Speaker 6: I gotta take care of that or whatever happens next,
I would be prepared for that battle as well.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 4: So when you fight Quavis in your in your first
title defense, you know you're still not I mean, for
a guy that performs so well against Santion, you're still
not that well known. I mean, I've watched a lot
of your fights because I'm a junkie and watch all
your bouts on you know the ESPN plus preliminaries, but
most people, I don't think, are that Dieard. So when
a lot of folks do tune in to watch an
excellent rematch in the main event, plus yourself in your
defense in the co feature, what do you want the
public to see from Brian Norman? Because I haven't seen
you much at all, and they certainly haven't seen you
since you won that fight against Santion.
Speaker 6: I wouldn't to see my hustle. I wouldn't to see
my skills. You said you was watching all my fights.
Would you say that you've seen approven over time?
Speaker 1: Most definitely.
Speaker 4: I have known the Top Right matchmaker, Brad Goodman for
almost thirty years, and I actually had a conversation with him.
I said I had watched Brian Norman many many times,
and to be quite honestly, came away sort of with
a lot of the hype that you had gotten, thinking
to myself, I haven't seen it quite yet. I saw
it in the Santon fight.
Speaker 5: Mhm. I agree.
Speaker 6: I feel like all my my first few fights with
top rank they was all sub par.
Speaker 5: I personally don't like them at all myself.
Speaker 6: And then it finally came together with Joe Vonny, But
even with that one, I'm way better than that as well.
So I finally had time off the hill, and you know,
train how I want to train, to do what I
need to do, and you will still only see a
little potential of what I can do. Like I said,
I'm only twenty folk. Magine when I hit my prime.
Imagine as the years goes on, what's next, what's after that?
I learned a lot and trying to catch for this fight.
I'm gonna learn something else after this. After I fight
Derek quaba As, I pretty sure I'm gonna learn something
against him. And guess what, I'm taking it to the
next fight. Take it to the next fight. And no
matter what, I'm still going, I'm still on my on
my p's and q's and playing the simple. I'm a
future Hall of Famer, I'm a future legend in this game,
and just going forward to say, yeah, it is me
righting well.
Speaker 4: I like the confidence and as I like to say,
it is a marathon, not a sprint. So I will
look forward to watching you on March twenty ninth and
wish you the best luck Brian, and I appreciate your
time today.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you. Dan Man.
Speaker 3: Fascinating story again. He won an interim title, he got elevated,
and now he's a player for the moment of this division.
But he's a player with question mark because of injury.
That's part of the way. And see here for this
fight with the with the opponent, Quavas.
Speaker 4: I don't know if I look at it like that.
I mean, he had a previous hand surgery that was
fixed up, and then when he was preparing for this
Quavis fight that was supposed to take place at the
end of last year, you know, it wasn't quite right.
They told her just lay off a little bit. But
he's you know, I think supposedly everything is fine, So
it's not like it was nothing serious. Fighters are always
gonna have hand problems, but this is really the opportunity
to shine, to show the world that that win over
Santan was no accident. Remember before this fight was became
a thing, there was a lot of conversation. He would
challenge Bootennis. They tried to make the deal, they were
unhappy with the money and and end up happening. So
now he's kind of got to put his money where
his mouth Is. If he wins the fight, he'll be
in a good position to have another significant walterweight fight,
potentially against the winner of Stanionis against Ennis, if that's
a fight that the two promoters can get together and make.
He seemed ready, willing and able. He was a very
good interview. I liked his uh like, I liked his confidence,
but it didn't come off as cocky that make when
a guy tells you I'm like the greatest thing in
the division, usually think, you know, he's kind of a
prick when he says it. But he didn't come off
like that. He came off as like it sounded more
like like he really believes it and was genuine and
not trying to stick it up everybody's uh, you know,
stick it in everybody's face about it. I thought he
I thought he handled himself well. And again, I as
I said to him before we start to record the interview,
I had never I had never interviewed him before, so
it was my first time and I came away quite
impressed with the young man.
Speaker 2: All right out of the Atlanta's Georgia area.
Speaker 3: And again that fight coming not this weekend, but next
weekend on the twenty nine, on the undercard of the
Mikhayla Mehra Sandy Ryan rematch that's up there exactly, So
we're interested on.
Speaker 1: All of that.
Speaker 2: All right, news and then some.
Speaker 3: World class nostalgia is coming. All right, So Rayfiel puts
down on my rundown, Tank, Roach, I have an update.
This is your reporting. So Tank and Roach? Are they
going to be fighting by Halloween? Because this is boxing
after all?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 3: Wait, wait, could they maybe be fighting by the start
of the football season? Are Tank and Roach going to
be starting like when it's the dog days of baseball
in August? Or wait a minute, what have you found
out on the rematch of Gervonte Davis and Lamont Roach,
who correct me if I'm wrong, only fought a couple
of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: What have you found out?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, look, they both talked about the rematch
right away after it happened the draw. Tank was even
saying he'd liked to do it by May, as I said,
and I think others also looked. That was a good sentiment,
but very aggressive, highly unlikely it would be in May.
But what I have reporting is that they are very
I think the deal has agreed to because there was
there was language in the original contract, you know, and
I wasn't sure about this if the rematch language was
an event of a loss. But apparently the rematch covered
a draw as well, which was smart by the promoters.
So they were locked in at their money, and you know,
things were all basically set up. So Tank did exercise
the right to his rematch, which what I was told
by both sides. And they're going to go forward with
the fight now. Again it's not announced yet, it's not official,
but what I am told is that they're planning this
fight for June twenty first.
Speaker 1: The location, it's not just first for the All Star Break.
Speaker 2: Yes, June. You didn't say July twenty first. I'm just checking.
You didn't say September twenty first.
Speaker 3: Tank Davis may fight three times in twenty twenty five,
like he's been saying.
Speaker 4: Because let's get the second fight.
Speaker 2: I'm with you, But.
Speaker 3: The you've been you've been poking around this appears to
be legit for ninety days from now.
Speaker 4: No, it's legit. June twenty first is what's penciled in.
It's the only question right now from what I'm told
is that they're just determining where the fight's going to be.
The sentiment was to have the fight in Vegas. I
know there are some people involved that would still like
to at least explore the possibility of having it somewhere
in the Washington Baltimore area where both of the fighters
are from. Obviously a big star in DC, and Lamont's
from DC and Tank is from Baltimore where he's got
his fans as well as Washington. But it more likely
looks like it's going to be Vegas. And to add
a little bit of credence to that, and this is
not something that's a guarantee, but there is. The Nevada
State Atletic Commission has a their monthly meeting comes up
next week. And on that agenda, which I just received,
you know, I get those agendas every every month when
they put them out, and I received that on Wednesday evening.
And on that agenda, one of the items is a
request by TG Promotion TGB Promotions for the date of
January of rather June twenty first, at the T Mobile Arena.
It doesn't specify a fight, but what it does say
is for possible, you know, for that Commission to rule
on that, and it was explained it's just said also
for pay per view, which obviously is what Tank and
Roach wud be. So you know from what I was told.
You read the tea leaves to see what the agenda says.
You know, I went write it in pencil, in ink,
but I might write it in pencil. June twenty first
Team Obile Arena, Tank, Davis, Lamont, Roach Renatch. Let's settle
the score on this crazy drave I like it.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 3: Let's get it back going this summer still fresh, still relevant?
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, more news.
Speaker 3: So the International Olympic Committee executive board has been pondering
is boxing gone or is boxing still going to be
in the twenty twenty eighth summer Los Angeles Olympics. And
so now they have basically voted, as the executive board
they want to keep boxing, if I if I understand correctly,
they had to vote to keep it, right because they
were looking to nix it. So what is the next
step here? Because we still have a little time. It's
only twenty twenty five right now, but we still have
a little time to make this happen.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, I mean, but if you're going to have
any sport in the Olympics, in twenty eight. You have
to all the amateur programs need to know about that,
the federations of each country, because i got to do
their qualifying tournaments.
Speaker 1: That takes time.
Speaker 4: But the bottom line was because i E was a
corrupt bunch of pieces of shit who ran the fucking
Olympic boxing into the ground over the last several Olympics
and got suspended for their corruption and basically had their
charter taken away from them by the IOC.
Speaker 1: You know, when you can.
Speaker 4: Say that somebody makes the IOC look like good guys,
you know how bad they really are. Okay, IIBA was
a fucking joke. The way they handle it.
Speaker 3: They were great, great zing by Ray Daniel, not just cool,
top notch, keep going.
Speaker 4: They questioned about how they dealt with the refereeing, with
the judging, with the way they've conducted their finances. Everything
about IBA was a fucking joke for the most part,
everything other than the fighting hearts of the boxers who
were getting fucked left and right by the way their
judges handled the scoring of these events. So finally, finally, finally,
they basically were banished and the IOC itself had to
take over and run the tournament in the delayed Olympics
that took place in twenty one, and you know, they
were supposed to be in twenty but for COVID they
took place in Tokyo. And then the IOC also oversaw
the tournament that took place in the Paris Games in
twenty twenty five or now. I thought watching both of
those tournaments that relative to other tournaments, there was not
a lot of like controversial scoring, no like ridiculous international
incidents like we've seen. You know, there was no Michael
Commons standing in the ring giving the finger to the
judges and the referees and all that, right, I mean
by relative terms, that ran someone's movie. But the IOC
was unwilling to take on that responsibility again. And there
was a real strong possibility that the Olympic tournament in
boxing men and women would be dropped from the Games,
which to me would be a horrible thing for the
sport because that's where you find. The next group of
stars are the Olympians. You can go chapter and verse
of who the top fighters are in the pros. They
get their start and they get their first attention by
the public in the Olympics. Even if it's not what
it once was. That's the first thing. The second thing
is they had to find another group willing to oversee it.
If the IOC wasn't going to do it, they had
to not only find a group willing to do it,
but that the IOC would have to accept that group organization.
So finally, if they fast forward to like the early
part of twenty twenty three, not only was had a
EBA been suspended, they were basically stripped and said you're out,
You're not gonna you can't do it anymore. They basically
dissolved their ability to oversee the Olympic tournament. There was
another organization that sprang up called World Boxing, and that
was a matter of you have to go to each
individual country. They have to throw their support behind you.
Their national Olympic committee has to get behind it. One
of the people that was intimately involved and really really
very heavily involved in making this happen was Gnadi Glufkin,
who was in charge of the Olympic Committee in Kazakhstanbandy.
You know, he lobbied and dealt with a lot of
the other countries anyway, day by day, week by week,
month by month. They were getting various other countries federations
in boxing to sign up to be involved with World Boxing,
and they got enough countries behind them to convince the
IOC that they were legit and that they had a
good plan and they knew what they were doing, et cetera.
And so in Greece earlier this week there was this
IOC meeting and it was at that board meeting, of
their executive board meeting where they voted to include boxing
on the twenty twenty eight Los Angeles Olympic program. Now
they still have to put it to a vote of
the full IOC, but my understanding and doing my reading
and talking to a few people, if the IOC Executive
Board blesses something, it's a formality, so they'll bring it
before their full body at some point. I don't know
when that's going to be, and the full IOC will vote,
but boxing will be in the twenty twenty eight Olympics.
That is an amazing thing that is very good for
the sport. Boxing has been in the Olympics. I this
I wasn't aware of in terms of it. I didn't
remember when this was. I looked as up Google as
your friend. The first quote unquote modern Olympics. Eighteen ninety six,
boxing was in it and has been in the Olympics
since nineteen oh four. The only time boxing wasn't in
the Olympics was in twenty twelve, and that's because the
Olympics were held in Sweden or boxing was against the
law at the time.
Speaker 2: Not two thousand and nineteen.
Speaker 3: Twelve, nineteen twelve, right, So but other than that, it's
been there. And the thing I keep parking back to
when you're saying, this is my god, when we get there,
it will have been forty four years earlier, or actually
forty four years earlier, right nineteen eighty four in the
Los Angeles Games with all the Olympians, and granted the
Eastern Block, the Russians and the Eastern Bloc were not
there because they boycotted.
Speaker 4: But that's the game that produced Yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, Maldrick Taylor, who we're going to talk about in
a few minutes, Yes, the Hill. So it's kind of symmetrical,
if you will, that Los Angeles will have boxing and
maybe the United States will have attacked together maybe not.
Speaker 1: Did not have boxing. Olympics. To me, was that right?
Speaker 4: A mind boggling thing when you think about the biggest
superstars who ever walked the face of the earth in
terms of boxing. Sure, most of them were Olympians, right
Noe Frasier, Org Foreman, Sugar Ray, Leonard, Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones,
Oscar del Oya, Floyd Mayweather, Lennox Lewis, Vladimir Klitschko, Alexander
Usik for Sally Lamachenko. I mean I could see here
and go on for an hour about the top Olympians,
Uh that participated, But some of them became the biggest
fighters in the history of the sport, and they got
their their start like there would. Oscar de la Hoya
would not have been the Oscar that we have come
to know through his boxing unless he had won the
gold medal.
Speaker 2: And I was the Golden Boy because of that.
Speaker 1: Been the same thing with Ali.
Speaker 4: He still may have been a great fighter and been
the heavyweight champ, but it wouldn't have been the same
story without the Games.
Speaker 2: Love that all right?
Speaker 3: More news as we skewed along, Uh, Turkey, Ali Chic
and the Saudi Entertainment Authority are putting on this Canelo
Alvarez William Skull a Saudi Arabia main event for Saturday
night May third, and the undercard has now been announced.
Is there anything worthwhile my friend off of this undercard.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's a pretty good card.
Speaker 4: I mean, look, being honest, I don't think it's as
loaded the way it was with some of the other shows,
but I think Dasca's Canelo has taking so much of
the money. But nonetheless, look they're doing. Some of the
fights are not a surprise. We already talked about. And
actually Turkey, before he put out the formal announcement of
the full undercard, had already said, I mean a couple
of weeks ago, I guess that they were doing the
rematch Team Brunos Serrase and Himan Mugee was gonna be
on this cards, but that is now official that card,
the Canel card, will include that rematch. Also, in recent days,
several of us have reported about the heavyweight fight that
was going to be done between Martin Bacolei and Faa Jagua.
No longer a title eliminator like it would have been
when it was originally scheduled for the Times Square card
because Bacoli got knocked out, but they're still going forward,
so a Jagua and Bacoli will also fight and They
also added another title fight, giving you a second orld
title fight for the show, which is the WBC Cruiserweight
Champion bad Dude Jack, who is due to make his
mandatory against the Canadian fighter Ryan Roziki. Ryan Roziki's promoter
Three Lions Promotions, with base in Canada, which is where
Ryan is from.
Speaker 1: He's from Nova Scotia.
Speaker 4: Their team had won the PERSPID and the WBC and
the Three Alliance people were of the beliefs or the
three Lines people were planning in the WBCC had said
that that fight was going to be in like April
twenty sixth in Nova Scotia. But obviously they went and
made a deal with Turkey and now this fight will
be on this undercard. They'll just move it a week
later and it'll take place instead of in Canada, it'll
take place in Saudi Arabia. And I am sure that
Ryan Roziki and Badu Jack both will be making a
tremendously bigger person they would have if it was done
under the perspit, which if my memory serves, the PERSPID
was one for like three hundred and something thousand dollars.
I promise you both of them are making a lot
more than that. So that's that's another title fight on
the card. And then you have two sort of what
I they're the prospect fights. You got the professional debut
of Marco Verde, who is an Eddie renosso not trained fighter.
Eddie Renoso is not his trainer. He's the manager as
opposed to the trainer, and he's making his professional debut.
He's a Mexican Olympian who Eddie says flat out and
has been saying ever since the Olympics, Xican prospect in boxing.
I mean, we'll see, you know, he still has to
have his debut. He's on the card, and you know,
having seen him in the Olympics, I'm kind of excited
to see, you know, how how he works out in
terms of his professional situa. He's only twenty three years old.
He won the welterweight silver medal in Paris. The debut
is going to be a middleweight bout. He's fighting out
you know, not anybody who ever heard of Michelle Paulina.
But he's on the card. And then you have another
another prospect on the card who also is now also
trained by Eddie Renoso, a Cuban light heavyweight named Brian
Leon who was undefeated who was sparred with Canelo, and
that'll be the opener in a six rounder. So two
apparently top notch prospects plus the other you know, four
fights at all have injurgued for various reasons.
Speaker 3: Okay, so again that's coming on the Cinco de Mayo weekend,
and that will be on the Saturday night for the
Canelo Skull card.
Speaker 2: Let's continue.
Speaker 3: You've also learned about the return of e Manuel Navarte,
who I onabashedly say I enjoy watching him fight.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't.
Speaker 3: He's the WBO Junior Life Way champ. What have we
learned about him returning against whom? And how soon?
Speaker 1: Soon?
Speaker 4: TJ soon he will defend the title. Fourth defense will
fight a Filipino fighter named Charlie Suarez who was undefeated
from the Philippines, who is also with Top Rank.
Speaker 1: They'll do.
Speaker 4: This fight will be the main event May tenth at
the Pachanga Arena in San Diego. Again, this has not
been announced yet. Top Rank is gonna have a world
title double header that night. We've already discussed the other
fight that's on the show, that is the Raymond Maretaya
a zaa Abdeliah interim IBF lightweight title bout, which has
a good chance maybe to have the winner become the
full title holder, depending on what happens with Lomachenko, But anyway,
that'll be the double header. You got Murtaia and Zaura
abd eliav followed by Navarette against Charlie Suarez. I was
kind of hoping that when Navaret came back the top
rank would have gotten down the business and made the
match between him and Oshaki Foss to unify with the
WBC title. They did not do that. That's kind of
a disappointment, but nonetheless that's what's going on. He's defending
the title against Suarez, who was eighteen and zero with
ten knockouts, taking a big step up past bought his
previous three fights in the United States, so having him
fight here won't be any kind of massive change because
he's been fighting in the United States recently. So we'll see.
Like you said, who doesn't enjoy watching an Amanu will
never attay fight.
Speaker 3: Like him if he's in shape and ready and on point.
All right, So that's coming in May, and we want
to send out some good wishes to a legend in
the new York area and obviously a world champion and
a name that you will know, especially from the nineties
and the and the early two thousands. I ran Barkley,
tell me more, tell me more about what's been going on.
Speaker 2: He's got a health situation here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was retired by the two thousand. He was
really known in the late eighties and the nineties, but
he was one of the top action fighters for a
long time. He is a man who won world titles
at middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight twice by the way,
in world title fights, beat the great Thomas Hearns for
a a in a middleweight and a light heavyweight world
title about but I ran the blade Barkley had. He
had a minor stroke about a week or so ago
in New York where he lives, and you know a
lot of people in boxing, you know, I've been checking
in on him. I saw some comments from Mariso Suliman,
obviously he held the WBC title, and other people in
the New York boxing scene who'd known Iran for decades
and decades say he's doing fine. He's in the hospital.
But you know, if you've never watched Iran Barkley fight
or You've maybe not really heard of him, but go
check out the Hearns fights. You know, he lost a
lot of times, and he fought the top guys, but
he fought everybody. First of all, his fight against when
he was the WBC Midleway champion. This is after he
defeated Tommy Ears, he fought Roberto Duran. They fought the
nineteen eighty nine fight of the year. Was a spectacular fight,
and Duran pulled off the upset and won the middleweight
title from Barkley. But that is one of the great
fights he'll ever see. But he also fought plenty of
other top names.
Speaker 3: James totally smashed Tommy Hearns with that big punch out
of nowhere and made him made him a legend for
that night for sure.
Speaker 2: For that knockout.
Speaker 4: If Memes existed back then, he'd been. He also beat
him by a decision in their second fight, But he
also had the fights against James to Nigel Ben famously
got knocked out by Nigel Ben in the first round.
Henry Maska, who was a tremendous light heavyweight champion from
Germany for a long time, Michael Nunn, Sumbole, Colum Bay
like he fought everybody basically, you know, but he beat
a legend and Tommy Earnser was still good when they fought,
and he was still a world championship level fighter at
that time. It had like literally one of the best
fights of the nineteen eighties against Duran, even though he
lost the fight.
Speaker 3: So anyway, you just you just jogged me on the
Nigel Binct and we wish I ran Barkley well and
better health. You just jogged me. Wasn't that Nigel Bin's
United States debut? If I'm not mistaken in Las Vegas?
Because I remember we did the nostalgia around that. I
went back and rewatched it and it was the typical
Saturday afternoon at that time, ABC's Wide World of Sports
showing the fight. Nigel Binn comes to the United States
mid afternoon Las Vegas time, not for seventy nine ninety
five on pay per view, by the way, the middle
of the afternoon on Network TV. And this is comical
because they were showing the Steaks horse Race that's your
part of the world in New York on ABC. Okay,
so the travers is like the co feature. They're showing that,
and then they go to the boxing and the boxing
is over so quickly with Nigel Bin destroying I Ran Barkley. Unfortunately,
they say, okay, they do the interviews with Nigel Bin.
He's all excited British accent. I'm a champion, I'm a champion. Okay,
they're done, and now we go back to the racetrack.
What was it, Sarah Toga or wherever they have it,
and they showed another horse race because they had nothing
to fill with because the fight was over in one round.
Speaker 4: Just so you know, it was not It was not
on Nigel Bin's American did He had fought here a
few times, okay before that, several times before that he
was working with Top Break, but this was like his
fourth or fifth American fight. Okay, But the main point
here is this. He knocked him out in two minutes
and fifty seven.
Speaker 2: That's try.
Speaker 1: I looked it up while you were talking about and they.
Speaker 3: Had to go back to the horse racing because they
had nothing else to show on ABC that it actually happened.
Speaker 2: But I ran Barkley. We wish him well, by the way.
Speaker 4: After after he knocked out Barkley in the first round,
and that was August of nineteen ninety Nigel Ben's next
fight was famously the first fight there you go where
he got knocked out by Chris you Bank.
Speaker 3: And then that's that said, the whole thing with the
rematch in emotion and now the suns.
Speaker 4: So if Iran Berkley had won that day, it might
have ruined the U bet.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe situation. All right, Raphael has been antsy. That's
the right word.
Speaker 1: You've been anty, not me, No, no, no, you.
Speaker 2: You were antsie.
Speaker 3: As I'm suffering my travails in the Atlanta airport, trying
to find a blanket and wondering am I spending the
night in the Atlanta airport, You're like, but we got
to talk about Chavez Taylor nostalgia. It's thirty five years ago.
I'm going, babe, it'll keep. It's okay. We will get
to it when we can get to it. And now
we're getting to it. It was thirty five years ago
on Saint Patrick's Day. Although they're not Irish, Julio says
our Chavez and Mildred Taylor fighting in Las Vegas in
one of the most epic endings of any world title fight,
arguably the most controversial TKO stoppage in a world title fight. Ever,
I can't believe and don't want to accept. It's thirty
five years old.
Speaker 2: Let's go. You've been waiting, you've been antsy, Let's go nostalgia.
Speaker 4: As you and I have talked that before. This was
in March of nineteen ninety. The decade is now three
months old, and we already had seen Mike Tyson get
knocked out by Buster Douglas. This fight was what a
couple of weeks later after that fight, he had two.
Speaker 2: A month February March seventeenth, roughly.
Speaker 4: Basically it was like one HBO main event, and then
the next month was that, like Tyson Douglas was the
HBO main event of their World Chambone of boxing, you know,
the month before, and then comes March and you've got
Taylor versus Chavez on live HBO Boxing.
Speaker 1: Not again, an eighty dollars pay per view.
Speaker 4: And at the time, if there was ever a pay
per view worthy type of fight, it would have been
Meldrea Taylor against Julio says ar Chibas.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing.
Speaker 4: Three months into the new year and we've already got
two of the fights of the decade between Douglas and
Tyson and then Ldrick Taylor against chavas they were meeting
to unify the IBF and the WBC one hundred and
forty pound titles. And in the end, nine years and
two months later, it was the fight of the decade.
I mean, that's how good it was, and it was
the fight of the year for many people for nineteen
ninety as well. I mean, putting aside the controversy and
the way that the fight ended. And if you're listening
to our boxing podcast you don't know what I'm talking
about by the ending, then I don't know if I
consider you a boxing fan.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure why you're.
Speaker 3: Well, I do this all the time. Let me swat
the gen z ers, the sub thirty year olds. You
gotta go back on YouTube, the Legendary Night series as
well from the HBO series that they did of all
of those fights and understand what we're talking about and
the magnitude of what we're talking about.
Speaker 2: Follow up.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So it was a fantastic fight. Meldrick Taylor should
have been and was on two score cards way way ahead.
He was beating Chavez to the punch the whole fight,
but Chavez was not not getting in his LIGs. So
even though Meldrick was clearly winning on points, Meldrick was
having some of the life beating out of him. You know,
Chobbs was getting his pound of flesh, as they say.
And by the time they got there round twelve, even
though Meldrick is winning the fight, it's more about, you know,
can he get to the final bell and still be
standing and win the decision or chov Is gonna knock
him out. You know, Meldrick's face was puffed up. He'd
been taking Hallaysia's body shots. You know, the story goes out.
You know, he urinated pure blood. After the fight, Chobz
knocks him. You know, chobb Is knocks him down with
you know, a handful of seconds left in the twelfth
round in and very famously, Richard Steele is the referee,
looks at Meldrick and Meldrick looks to his corner, doesn't acknowledge.
Richard Steele, doesn't make a sign, doesn't say anything to him,
and Richard stops to fight. And you know, the red
light meaning less than ten seconds is left, is flashing
right in front of Richard's eyes. They don't use that
anymore in Vegas, but back then when ten seconds hit,
you would see the red light in the corner. He
stopped the fight with two seconds left, and it became
the most controversial stoppage in the history of boxing. Bar
no on, I think that is not even up for discussion.
There is not another stoppage has.
Speaker 3: Created seconds remaining in the fight two fifty eight of.
Speaker 4: The twelve and of course very famously, you know the
HBO crew is calling the fight. You see Lou Duva,
who is one of the co trainers of Meldrick Taylor.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: You know, as Jim Lampley said on the brocket, you're
gonna see lou Duva go crazy. You're gonna go see
Lou Duvago absolutely berserk, which is exactly what Lou Lou
Duva did. And it was just you have to look
at it from two perspectives. On the one hand, if
you're the if you're in the Meldrick Taylor camp, it
was the greatest miscarriage of justice you could ever possibly imagine.
Here's a man about to win, leaps and bounds, the
biggest fight of his life, biggest fight, one of the
biggest fights in boxing, massive massive win. Julio Segar chob Is,
by the way, was undefeated. Uh, a legend of this
propelled the mint a greater legend status. I mean, this
was a fighter who was you know, would go on
to be held by most people as the greatest Mexican
fight in this roy this port. But going into the
fight against Meldriic, I mean he was he was unstoppable.
Speaker 2: You know, he was eighty something and oh in that well, he.
Speaker 4: Wasn't it wasn't quite that. I mean he was sixty
eight and oh going into the fight, sixty.
Speaker 3: Eight and oh and remember, because you did a pitiful
job of explaining this, Taylor was an Olympic hero, undefeated,
and he was cooking Chavez in the first six to
seven minds of the fight, and then Chavez began to
wear him down.
Speaker 2: And it became obvious can he last or not?
Speaker 3: Till this moment happened, and then it created so much
controversy about Meldrick. Taylor is on his feet, there's two
seconds left, and if the bell rings, Larry Merchant very
famously says, the great Larry Merchant, if he gets up,
he probably wins. He got up, and yet the fight
was stopped.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then you can have your arguments back and forth.
I always felt like I never liked the stoppage, but
I understood it. There would not have been another punch
showing Chavas is in the in the neutral corner. If
the bell, if if the fight is allowed to resume
before he can even take a step forward, the bell
is going to ring. But Richard steals perspective, and those
who are okay with the stoppage are like, Richard doesn't
know that. But the argument can be made. He's one
of the most experienced referees in boxing at that time,
he was the big fight referee. He knew the red
light was going. You know, there's less than ten seconds.
Probably he knows there's less than five seconds because he
knows it in his head. He's getting ready to stop them. Anyway.
You know, it'll be litigated and argued for the for
all time. But but the point I was making is
from the Chavis perspective, I mean, from the tailor's perspective,
it's the greatest miscarriage of justice in the history of
But from the child is perspective, it's the most dramatic,
most amazing comeback rally, you know, pull you know out
of the you know, you pull the what do they
call it, you pull.
Speaker 2: The picture out of the jaws at defeat.
Speaker 4: Exactly, which is exactly what he did. So an amazing comeback,
and that's really the victory that as popular as Chavez
was and as great of a champion as he was,
that made him.
Speaker 1: Like a god in Mexico.
Speaker 4: And he went on and you know, continued a very
long run, you know, like I said, he was sixty eight
and oh you know, he got to what eighty nine
to oh and one before he lost to Frankie Randall.
I asked to draw against Parnel Whitaker. That was kind
of a gift, obviously, But this Mileser Taylor Chobs fight
was a spectacular fight, and then the ending just put
it over. Now, I'll say this. I spent a lot
of time researching this fight, specifically about two years ago.
It was maybe during pandemic times when the Ring magazine
was still producing the print edition before they stopped and
then restarted it when Turkey Yo Shek bought it. But
they were there wasn't a lot of fights going on.
They were still trying to publish the magazine, so they
were doing a series of issues that were sort of.
They still covered whatever was happening in boxing, but they
were themed issues. They would do like you know, dedicated.
They did an issue about Gaddy and Ward, they did
an issue about this particular shows about Julio says our
job is. They did of issue all about Tito Trinidad.
So I was writing for those print issues from any
of those additions. And so Dougie Fisher from the Ring
hit me up and asked me to do a piece
for the chob Is issue and asked me if I
would write a piece about the Melgick Taylor fight. That
was one of the stories you know, on the headline
was two seconds and so in that piece, I interviewed
a bunch of people associated with the fight. And one
of the things I found out which I had never
seen before. I'd never heard this before. I thought it
was like this great revelation in the piece, and I
was talking to the great Ronnie Shields, who was the
assistant trainer for you know in the fee was the
Melgeri Taylor's assistant trainer. He was part of that Lou
Duva camp, and he talked He basically blamed loud Duva
for the loss. He said Lou Duba got up on
the ring post or on the ring gaping. He didn't
see that right, and he distracted Pernell right at the
moment when Richard was counting and when or not Prono
when Meldrick Taylor glanced over at him, he kind of
lost track of Richard Steele and that caused him not
to respond when Richard asked him, you know, if you're okay,
And so he was blaming lou for the loss. And
there was that whole conversation in dressing room afterwards and
that I had never heard that before.
Speaker 3: And I know we've talked about that, and obviously Meldrick
declined physically, mentally, et cetera. They fought again and Meldrick
continued to fight on well well passed when he should
have been.
Speaker 4: One thing that is a little bit of a misnomer.
I think it's like laziness by a lot of people. Yes,
Melgic became diminished after the fight, but he wasn't done
yet because he still went on and won another world
title in a against a very good fighter too. He
lost to Chavez in the way that he did. He
came back with a victory in the welterweight division at
one hundred and forty four pounds on a non title fight.
His next fight less than a year later, ten months
after the chav Has lost, he challenged then WBA welterweight
champion and the undefeated excellent boxer thirty two to zero
Aaron Davis, and he defeated Aaron Davis for the welterweight title.
Speaker 3: You love me because I've I've du You're a nostalga
on top of your nostalgia. That's Aaron Superman Davis back
in the day. We love that nickname, you know.
Speaker 4: And he eventually took a non title fight up at
Jumior middlewed he got absolutely wrecked by Terry Norris, defended
the title that he had won from Davis against Crossanto
Espania got absolutely blitzed in that fight, and that was
really the end. The Norris fight is really what the
Chivis fight started it. The Norris fight kind of ended it.
Then he lost to a Spanya. Then it was a
downward spiral and it was like three fights later where
he gave the rematch. The job is when Don King
had signed him and Game a couple of easy wins
and you know, day let chabb has beat the living
shit out of him in the rematch, but the first
fight will never be forgotten. It was the greatest fights
of all time.
Speaker 3: Look it up if you don't know about it. Thirty
five years later, and again two of the most incredible
fights in boxing history happened one month apart, in the
Douglas upset of Tyson, followed.
Speaker 4: By this on the on the same network on HB,
same network, HB. I did post some of my memorabilia
from my social media.
Speaker 3: Go check it out on your social media. So let's
move forward from that fifteen years shall to March the nineteenth,
two thousand and five. Wednesday was the anniversary day March
nineteen of five Eric Morales decisions Manny Pakiow in the
first of their trilogy fights. Let's get nostalgic about that
trilogy and I don't want to accept that that was
twenty years ago, but go ahead me.
Speaker 4: I mean, this is a great fight. This is like
one of the best big time wins in recent boxing history.
If you want to go back to that many years.
I mean, Manny Pacau was on the ascent and Morales
beat him. I mean it wasn't even controversial. I mean
he won the fight. I mean, it was close, highly competitive,
and you know it was after this that Morales lost
his next fight, and a bob Aro said, fucking they
did the rematch anyway, That's how much how excited people
were seeing Paco to take on Eric Ross in the rematch.
That was really pretty much Morales's last big win because
he lost, as I mentioned, he lost the tune up
fight against Rayhi team as I hear aheem, and he
lost the next two fights to pack out. He got
knocked out in the rematch, which is another terrific fight,
and then got knocked out real easily in the third fight,
and then really never had another big win the rest
of his career, even though he fought you know, some
good fighters and continued to fight on for a few
more years. So that was like the you know, the
top level of where Morales got to. But that was
a huge win for him. The thing I always find
interesting about the trilogy between Morales and Pacou, and nobody
really seemed to care. They fought the fights all non
title fights. None of them were for world titles. They
were all one hundred and thirty pound fights, but non
title fights. It didn't matter to anybody, and they still
did great business, people still enjoyed themselves. It was still
a tremendous rivalry between the two guys. They ended up
liking each other. You know, Morales one time, I think
went to the Philippines and they hung out together. I mean,
I love shit like that. But this fight was absolutely spectacular.
The thing I remember about him, and from a personal standpoint,
was this was right at the time that I had
left my job at USA today, which, by the way,
I started twenty five years ago this week. But I
started my job at at ESPN. This was actually supposed
to be my first fight to travel when I had started.
I had started ESPN maybe like three weeks before this fight,
and I was booked to go to cover my first
fight for my new gig at ESPN.
Speaker 1: I got, I got.
Speaker 4: I got really sick for two fights that I ended
up missing that I couldn't travel to this fight. Morales
pak yeah one and Gaddy Ward won. Why couldn't I
have gotten sick for you know a.
Speaker 3: Number of non memorable, non epic matchups.
Speaker 1: But the thing also, but this is the.
Speaker 2: One where you were down and out with like a
rag over your head.
Speaker 1: That was That was the Gaddy Ward now.
Speaker 3: I thought that was you know, and uh, and we
we thought we were gonna have to call in the
priest maybe or or you know, get you a bedpan.
Speaker 2: Uh, but you survived.
Speaker 4: One of the one of the great things about this
is if you like boxing, Eric morales encompasses everything that
I like about it. A guy that just wanted to fight.
He knew he's probably winning. He could box a little bit,
he didn't have to, and he's in with one of
the most dangerous punchers in the game, with a wicked, wicked,
wicked punching power against the south paw, and he turned
southpaw in the twelfth round, and everybody is like Roy Jones,
if you listen to the broadcast, was doing it with
Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley is losing his fucking mind.
Speaker 1: Why is he doing that?
Speaker 4: He's like walking in to the jaws of the line
by turning southpaw on a on a left handed fighter,
and he just wanted to fight. And there's a great,
very endearing moment in the interview afterwards where he gets
questioned about that by Larry Merchant and he basically says,
that's through the translit.
Speaker 1: Did you like it?
Speaker 4: And Larry looks and as I loved it. I mean,
he basically responded for everybody. The minor controversy and which
was the storyline that became a thing after the fight,
was Pakaw and his team complaining because at the time
Manny was promoted by Marod Muhammad and he had negotiated
away Manny Packyash choice of gloves. Manny wanted to wear
the winning gloves. Eric Marauis wanted to wear the Rays gloves,
and the Rays gloves were with they negotiate, and that
was something that pissed off many. Packy had quite a
bit And you'd say, well, what's the difference. It's just
a pair of gloves and they're all the same weight
in this net. But and I've told the story before,
I've been I went ringside one time, I forget what
fight it was, and they were examining each glove and
I held in my hand at the same time a
ray Is glove and a winning glove. And trust me,
not that I'd like to get hit, But if you
said to me, Rafael tj is gonna punch you in
the face, I'd rather have you punched me in the
face with the winning glove than the Rays glove. Okay,
all right, because they really are They really were like pillows.
Speaker 2: It is interesting.
Speaker 4: And the Rays gloves were always known as the puncher's gloves.
They sharp edge, I mean they're like getting hit.
Speaker 2: What says that before?
Speaker 3: I would never slug you story, Just saying, uh, great
nostalgia on all fronts.
Speaker 2: Love it. Why don't we have a weekend. Why don't
we reconvene?
Speaker 3: I know you and I I are amped because we've
got the NCAA basketball tournament. You're let's go duke all
the way. My Memphis Tigers are involved. So the NCAA
basketball tournament huge. But you and I are going to
reconvene right in the middle of it on the bet
Us Boxing Show at one Eastern time. Lucky for me,
that's right before the Memphis game out in Seattle with
Colorado State. So we'll get that bet Us Boxing show in.
We've got the Fundora main event, the World title main
event Saturday night. We'll come off the weekend and recap
it here on the podcast feed.
Speaker 2: All good. Sound good for a weekend plan.
Speaker 3: There he is our insider, Dan Rayfield, Go find the fight,
Preach to Night's Substack. Make sure you're subscribe there on
the newsletter. I'm merely TJ Reeves. Good to be back
with all of you on the podfeed. We're never too
far away, Savages. Enjoy all the action this weekend. We'll
see you again on the bet Us Show on their platforms, YouTube, etc.
At one Eastern time, you've been listening to The Big
Fight Weekend Preview podcast