Speaker 1: Okay, folks, we're coming to the end of twenty twenty five.
We are back aboard on the Fight Preach Unite podcast
on this podcast feed to Big Fight Weekend podcast feed
because Big Dan Rayfield. By the way, I'm merely teja
to reach You're here for the insight, with the wisdom,
the stories, the f bombs of Dan Rayfield. How many
more we'll get in under the wire in twenty twenty five.
Our insider Fight Freaks United is a substack. Fighter of
the Year is our subject on this very pod. We
wanted to do a specialized podcast for this that we're
releasing here at the end of the calendar year. By
the way, there will be a subsequent Fight of the
Year podcast where you and I are going to debate
the same way. Here they're two separate things. Right now,
you're on the Fighter of the Year. So first of all,
welcome aboard. And if I say to you, Fighter of
the Year, just give me a little insight. You started
noodling this around a couple of weeks ago. As we
get towards the end of the US how many realistic
Fighter of the Year candidates do you believe they are? Well?
Speaker 2: When I write my story about it at the end
of the year, and I am writing it now and
maybe by the time people hear this, I'll actually be
posted on my newsletter, which people can still go check
out or you know, get the email blast or check
the website. But I usually will have a list of
like five or six. But in terms of that number,
usually not all of them can actually win it. But
there's still guys that deserve a mention because they had
an outstanding year. It just maybe wasn't big enough to
be actually the winner of the Fighter the year. So
in terms of calendar year twenty twenty five, to me,
there's really two guys that I can see winning it
and another three or four guys that deserve, you know,
a pat on the back and say, you had a
hell of a year and here's what they did, all right, So.
Speaker 1: Let's go with that. First. Give me a couple of
guys that you definitely think should be given a pat
on the back, but they're not going to be the
Fighter of the Year. Nobody would probably put him above
the two or three that we're going to debate. Give
me a couple of guys that deserve the pad on
the back.
Speaker 2: So I'll give you one guy that deserves the pad
on the back. He did in the year with no hype,
no expectations, kind of viewed, I think by some as
like journeyman ish before the year. But you got to
give the manage do. And that's a guy that a
lot of people probably even never heard of, if they're
not really truly diehards. And that's the Puerto Rican Renee Santiago,
who is now fifteen and four with nine knockouts a
pedestrian record, but he h in Japan, went on the road.
He's from Puerto Rico, went twice on the road as
an underdog, pulled up sets and decisions both times, including
a split decision by the way on the road, and
became one two, won two title fights on one, won
the WBO title in the in the in Japan, and
then came back in his next fight and won a
split decision to unify that with the WBA title. So
this is a guy who with no expectations, he's not
going to be the fighter there. He didn't trump a
lot of other guys that right at big years, but
for him this is a really huge year.
Speaker 1: Was he hurt by the fact that these fights were
in the early morning hours of the US and you
struggled unless you were a hardcore to find it. Obviously,
that would be a take.
Speaker 2: And just because I didn't say this was in the
junior flyweight division, so it's not exactly you know, the
the marquee division either. But to me, if you are
a boxer and you travel twice to your opponent's home
country and you win two fights where you become a champion,
and then you unify the titles in your first defense,
you deserve a pat on the back. You're not going
to necessarily be the fighter of the year. He didn't
fight huge, huge opponent names, not really highly well known opponents,
but he did the work he had to do, and
he won those fights and he became a unified world champion.
And we'll see if he can take it into twenty
and twenty six. But twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: That's impress You give me another pat on the back
before we get into the real debate about fighter of
the year. Give me the one.
Speaker 2: A couple other guys I thought David Benavitez had an
excellent year. He went up to one hundred and seventy
five pounds, He took a very dangerous fight against David Morrell,
who was similar to him in the sense that he
had also been a standout in the super middleweight division.
But like Benevidias, he could not get the fight with
Canelo Alvarez even as a mandatory. They fought each other
in an excellent fight that took place earlier in the
in February that was in Las Vegas. I attended that
fight and it was a very good matchup and he
took away Morel's undefeated record. There were some secondary titles
involved with Morrell, but he also had become the WBC's
light heavyweight champion. That was because of bevol having vacated
for not doing the mandatory. And then as the follow up,
he took on the very respected, tough contender, big puncher
in Anthony Yard and knocked him out. That was a
fight that took place in Saudi Arabia. So he had
two fights, so standard activity level in terms of the
two wins, and beat two good contenders, two good names,
and did so you know in fights that there was
no controversy, one by knockout, one by a clear cut decision.
And that's a good year. Again, not the fighter of
the year, but I have no problem putting him in
my top five or six. Let's put it like that,
and then if you want to go to another guy,
then I will give some props to also Dimitri Bevol
unfortunately limited to just the one fight this year because
of the back problem and subsequent surgery, but he rebounded
and remember in twenty twenty four he had suffered his
first defeat, and that was in the big giant fight
against Arthur Better BF where they were going for the
undiscuted title. People had the WBA belt, better BF had
the lineal title and the three other sanctioning body belts
that had a big event in Saudi Arabia, and by
the thinnest of margins, he lost his belt, he lost
his undefeated record, but fortunately in twenty twenty five he
was able to come back right away in February and
have the rematch, and in this time a very similarly
close fight, although a better action fight, he won. It
was actually funny, the same exact scores in the two fights,
except one was a majority for better BF in their
first fight, and in the second fight it was the
same scores but went for Bevil, who won and became
the undisputed world champion against an elite town for pound fighters.
So yeah, no, it was only one fight and it
was a big win, so I give him some props.
And then there's Bam Rodriguez. Bam Rodriguez. I think some
people might have him as the actual fighter of the year.
I don't think a lot of people, but I did
a little poll on my social media and I put
up him as one of the candidates, and when it
came down to the final itally it's unofficial. Of course,
there was a couple of thousand votes. He finished in
third place, but he did get some support to be
the winner. Anyway, he had a big year. Also, here's
a guy that had became a three belt unified champion.
In the calendar year. He scored wins against two undefeated
opponents in unification fights. You know, he was coming into
the year. He had the lineal title in the WBC belt.
He took on the undefeated Famalaylakafu looked great against him,
dominated him, stopped him in the tenth round to unify
along with the WBC and the WBO, and then he
had that fight already booked. When he fought that fight,
that Turkey was doing that he fought in November where
he was going to take on the very battle tested
and undefeated also uh Puma Martinez in a in a
really good fight on paper, and he turned it into
an absolute laffer. He totally dominated from the minute the
bell rang. He beat the living shit out of him
and then stopped in the tenth round. I mean, I
mean again, tremendous year to two fights both universis.
Speaker 1: Think on the Kefu one because that was the night
of the Manny Pacquiao return against Barrios.
Speaker 2: And Usik against us earlier in the.
Speaker 1: Day knocking out Dubit on the same day. Do you
think that we lost all of that in the shuffle.
I mean it had to be to a degree, to
a degree for Bam Rodriguez that it was on the
same day, the same the same night.
Speaker 2: Maybe as it was happening. But I don't think it
impacts like the fact of whether the vote for him
or pick them or you know, as the fighter of
the year. But certainly you're going to know the results.
You know, you can always go back and and and
read what happened, or certainly watch the fights and see
how everything unfolded. But to me, Bam Rodriguez. He's been
a kind of a top candidate for the last couple
of years. He was on the list for most people
last year. He's on the list for many people this year.
Maybe not enough to actually win it, particularly given the
competition he faces. I mean, if you're going to be
the Fighter of the Year, you know it's got to
be something truly spectacular. In most years, it's not a
hard pick to me, Bam is the clear number three.
I'll put a deal like that. If you tell me
you want to put him too, I might even not
be able to really argue with that. But Bam Rebrigue
said a heck of a year. Like I said, two
unification fights, two tenth round knockouts, both against undefeated opponents.
I'm not sure you can do a lot better.
Speaker 1: That is a compelling case. However, when we talk twenty
twenty five Fighter of the Year, I realized that there
would be some that would maybe argue with one of these.
Again for the reason that we're going to go over
with Terrence Crawford. He only fought one time. Meanwhile, the
Monster Naoia, in a way as we're doing this, just
fought this past weekend for the fourth time in the
calendar year. But I think most would have these two
as the legitimate candidates per fight Fighter of the Year.
All right, So I'm curious which way you kind of
tip this a little bit, but you could change your mind.
What are you leaning towards? Or maybe you want to
go ahead and say right here on the pod, what
are you gonna do?
Speaker 2: I mean, listen to me. It comes down to a couple. Well,
first of all, they're both great fighters. Okay, that's number one.
Number two, they're both Hall of Famers in waiting obviously,
I mean Crawford retired not long ago in a way,
still going strong. But these guys are going to whoop
in Canastota. They're both gonna have a variety of different
awards and accolades that go along with that induction, whether
they're the winner of the twenty twenty five Fighter of
the Year or not. But when it comes down at
the highest level, you have to make a decision. There's
two ways you can look at and I understand both
ways because I've been there before. I've been taking Fighters
of the Year and Fighter of the Fight of the
Year and awards like this for twenty five years. I
did my first batch of them in two thousand for
USA Today, So not my first rodeo of making these
tough picks. In terms of this year specifically, do you
like the quality of the victory of Karence Crawford's only fight? Now,
I've always been a guy that wanted to see some activity.
I always figured, you know, if you fight only once,
it's kind of hard for me to give it to you.
And so if there's a person that has a similarly
compelling case but actually fought, you know, maybe two or
three times, even if they weren't against the elite opponents,
but at least they were in the ring doing their business,
I might be more inclined to give it to the
person with the great activity. But the problem with it
this year is this, okay, quantity over quality. Terrence Crawford
has the quality victory against Canelo Alvarez. It's a historical victory.
I will go through some of the historical aspects of
that victory. In a way. Had four wins, but one
of them was against a top level contender in mcmdaliev,
and the other three were against well two were against
good fighters who were decent contenders but not special fighters,
and the other fight the first fighter had this year
against you June Kim, who was a last minute replacing
for the injured Sam Goodman. Ye was anything but an
elite fighter.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm much more diplomatic. I'm gonna cut right
to the quick. Nobody's ever gonna remember the other three
guys names two years from now or five years from
now that he beat this year well, and also to
win over Agmadaliav. And none of none of these names,
by the way, are bona fide superstar type fighters. He
fought four title fights and won them all. But it's
basically an argument of simply quantity. It's not beating great fighters.
Speaker 2: Because MJ alone is not going to give you this award.
And Cardenis, while was a great fight that will be
probably considered on people's lists or fight of the year.
Speaker 1: Did you just tease the next podcast.
Speaker 2: On he got I did not? He got knocked down?
Speaker 1: I think you did.
Speaker 2: He got knocked down in that fight. So that's maybe
a check mark against right so again in a way
as an all time great fighter already. But and the
four wins are impressive with the activity and frankly, uh,
if you take a look at some of the other
top candidates. You know, they weren't really doing that. They
were fighting one time. Denavidez of course had the two fights.
You know, my man Rene Santiago with the two fights,
but at the absolute eleite level, Bam had the two fights.
But and what those guys all had better wins. Yeah,
in my mind than in a way did so Again,
I don't make away the four victories. But so I'm
giving him credit to make him number two on my
list because you have to respect that. But to me,
it's Terrence Crawford.
Speaker 1: I mean, you are going to go down the accolades,
and I know you hate it. Whenever we go in
on these discussions and we're both on the same side,
I will put my hand up because so many times
this has aggravated me throughout my career when people run
from opinions, don't want to admit they're wrong, blah blah blah.
My hand is up. I did not believe he would
win this fight. I thought, moving up three divisions Canelo Alvarez,
his punch is gonna be bigger, et cetera, et cetera.
He not only took Canelo's punch, he out fought Canelo
at times toe to toe, and therefore you're about to
give the accolades. I'm agreeing with you. This one fight
stands out to make him the fighter of the year
because of the magnitude of who he defeated. There's my
take roll on.
Speaker 2: So within a way, in the four fights that he had,
he was the prohibitive favorite in all four fights. In
the one fight that Terrence Crawford had, he was moving
up two divisions and was the head. Was I don't
know if he was by the time that the odds closed.
I wouldn't say he was the heavy underdog, but he
was clearly like at least the three to one under
one hundred percent, he's the underdog. And like you said,
the supposed bigger man was Canelo, and it was Terrence
Crawford was walking him down and dashed him upside the
head in the last few rounds of a fight to
put it away. Whether he had a close or not.
Two judges had it close. I had a close, but
he won the fight because of the damage he did
certainly in the latter stages of this fight. Adding to that,
to me, biggest event of the year, seventy three thousand
people at Allegiant Stadium Mega event, two legendary fighters, live
on Netflix, not on pay per view. Big, big fucking deal.
There's your first f bomb of the pod. And then
you take a look at what was accomplished. Not only
does he defeat a Hall of Famer in waiting like
himself in terms of Canelo who by the way, he
left Canelo Alvarez without a world title for the first
time in seven years by beating him, because even when
he lost to Dimitri People, he still owned the super
middleweight title. And so there's that. He continued his perfect
record at forty two to zero with the victory. And
I'm going to give you some of the stats that
are in ignorable, things that are a bowload of things.
He was already a Hall of Famer before this fight.
Now he added about a million things on top of that,
four distinct things that added to a monstrous legacy already.
He became a five division world champion, lightweight, junior, welterweight, welterweight,
jing middleweight, and super middleweight. In the history of boxing.
I know it's easier to win titles these days relative
because there's more divisions, but in the whole history of
the multidivisional title time or even with there was one title.
There's only been six male boxers to win titles in
five divisions or more. It is Manny pac Yo obviously
at eight, Oscar de la Hoy at six, and then
a few more legends, Tommy Hearns, Sugar, Ray Leonard, and
Floyd Mayweather. And now you add Terrence Crawford.
Speaker 1: That is some kind of lists your dad rightly.
Speaker 2: He also is the first male three division undisputed champion
of the multi belt era. He did it before. No
one has ever done that in terms of having either
a two belt time frame, three or four. He was,
as I mentioned, also had been undisputed in the junior
welterweight division and the welterweight division now and it became
undisputed in a third division has not yet been done.
Won't surprise me if somebody does it in the future,
but until further notice, he's the only guy. He's also
the only he's the first mail fighter to be an
undisputed champion in three weight classes period, whether it was
one belt or whatever. You have to go all the
way back to Henry Armstrong, who's considered by many like
in the top three or four all time pound for pound.
In nineteen thirty eight, Henry Armstrong held the featherweight, lightweight
and welterweight title simultaneously at a time when there's only
eight waight classes and no one's ever done it since
until Terrence Crawford. And I'll give you one more one.
And this is a stat that I love. And if
you go back and watch the interview that I did
on the Zoom with Terrence lead in the lead up
to the Canela fight, this was something he really he liked.
He is now, along with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacow,
only the third for third four division lineal champion. That
is extremely rare obviously to me, for all the good
stuff that I mentioned about all the other possible candidates,
including the great Noise. In a way, Terrence Crawford, even
with one fight, it's a big fucking deal. He's the
fighter of the year.
Speaker 1: And again we overcome in this instance in the argument
the fact that it was only one because the one
and the magnitude and the accomplishment of it outshines anything else.
It's a shame really that we didn't get an Usik
second fight. I mean, we can go on and on
down the list. Would that have been against a a
more I don't know if it would have been against
a more spectacular prominent opponent to even help that argument.
We'll never know.
Speaker 2: But there's you know, there's other guys like you know,
Okay Nakatani fought three times this year, you know, and
the bandon weight division, defended the title and then moved up.
I kind of counted it against him because of how
terribly looked, you know, the other day, So he didn't
make my list. But there's you know, he did have activity,
and you would You're right. A lot of the guys
would have been would have been great if they could
have fought another time. But you know, Whosaick, who was
the fighter of the year when he defeated Tyson Fury
in the first fight, he only had the Duwa rematch
and he already pummeled Dubah in the first fight. So
you couldn't even I couldn't even find a place from
on the list, you know, the amount of guys that
only fight the one time tough.
Speaker 1: This one was the magnitude all right again. They can
read more on your substack and your newsletter. The written
word of what you have been talking about here, and
I'm in agreement here on Terrence Crawford will give him
the twenty twenty five Fighter of the Year. I again say,
get ready for the Fight of the Year on this
podcast feed. As we end twenty twenty five, it'll be
the next episode, So you know, depending you might have
already heard that one and then gone backwards to listen
to us on Fight of the Year. But as we're
doing this chronologically, the next pod that'll be out will
be the Fight of the Year, and somehow I think
a mention at least will be the Crawford Alvarez because
of the magnitude and Crawford's win, although I don't think
it will win. I'm just teasing that. I don't think
it'll win Fight of the Year, but it does definitely
deserves to mention.
Speaker 2: No chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there were more action packed, more action packed, probably
all right, but they got to listen to that pod
anything else, my friend? Or are we good on Fight
of the Year for twenty twenty five? I think we are.
Speaker 2: Good, unless you want to make predictions on who's twenty
twenty six fighter.
Speaker 1: I do know't It's too too much for my brain
to start looking at that and who that's gonna be. Well,
but how about if Taya Fimo Lopez or Shakur Stevenson
right away in January gets a big win and oh
my god, fights a second time against a prominent fighter
and wins, maybe they're the fighter of the year.
Speaker 2: Well, they certainly the winner of that fight. Certainly, you know,
it's a queen win, certainly puts themselves in a decent positions.
There's no reason why that guy wasn't cheese.
Speaker 1: To look ahead to twenty twenty six, Big Dan, thank you.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 1: Read more on the Substack, the Fight Preach Unit Substack
and newsletter. There you go on twenty twenty five Fight
Fighter of the Year