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Speaker 1: Okay, folks, we're coming to the end of twenty twenty five.

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We are back aboard on the Fight Preach Unite podcast

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on this podcast feed to Big Fight Weekend podcast feed

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because Big Dan Rayfield. By the way, I'm merely teja

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to reach You're here for the insight, with the wisdom,

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the stories, the f bombs of Dan Rayfield. How many

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more we'll get in under the wire in twenty twenty five.

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Our insider Fight Freaks United is a substack. Fighter of

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the Year is our subject on this very pod. We

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wanted to do a specialized podcast for this that we're

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releasing here at the end of the calendar year. By

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the way, there will be a subsequent Fight of the

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Year podcast where you and I are going to debate

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the same way. Here they're two separate things. Right now,

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you're on the Fighter of the Year. So first of all,

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welcome aboard. And if I say to you, Fighter of

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the Year, just give me a little insight. You started

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noodling this around a couple of weeks ago. As we

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get towards the end of the US how many realistic

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Fighter of the Year candidates do you believe they are? Well?

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Speaker 2: When I write my story about it at the end

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of the year, and I am writing it now and

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maybe by the time people hear this, I'll actually be

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posted on my newsletter, which people can still go check

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out or you know, get the email blast or check

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the website. But I usually will have a list of

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like five or six. But in terms of that number,

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usually not all of them can actually win it. But

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there's still guys that deserve a mention because they had

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an outstanding year. It just maybe wasn't big enough to

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be actually the winner of the Fighter the year. So

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in terms of calendar year twenty twenty five, to me,

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there's really two guys that I can see winning it

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and another three or four guys that deserve, you know,

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a pat on the back and say, you had a

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hell of a year and here's what they did, all right, So.

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Speaker 1: Let's go with that. First. Give me a couple of

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guys that you definitely think should be given a pat

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on the back, but they're not going to be the

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Fighter of the Year. Nobody would probably put him above

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the two or three that we're going to debate. Give

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me a couple of guys that deserve the pad on

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the back.

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Speaker 2: So I'll give you one guy that deserves the pad

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on the back. He did in the year with no hype,

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no expectations, kind of viewed, I think by some as

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like journeyman ish before the year. But you got to

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give the manage do. And that's a guy that a

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lot of people probably even never heard of, if they're

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not really truly diehards. And that's the Puerto Rican Renee Santiago,

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who is now fifteen and four with nine knockouts a

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pedestrian record, but he h in Japan, went on the road.

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He's from Puerto Rico, went twice on the road as

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an underdog, pulled up sets and decisions both times, including

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a split decision by the way on the road, and

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became one two, won two title fights on one, won

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the WBO title in the in the in Japan, and

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then came back in his next fight and won a

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split decision to unify that with the WBA title. So

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this is a guy who with no expectations, he's not

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going to be the fighter there. He didn't trump a

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lot of other guys that right at big years, but

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for him this is a really huge year.

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Speaker 1: Was he hurt by the fact that these fights were

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in the early morning hours of the US and you

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struggled unless you were a hardcore to find it. Obviously,

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that would be a take.

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Speaker 2: And just because I didn't say this was in the

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junior flyweight division, so it's not exactly you know, the

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the marquee division either. But to me, if you are

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a boxer and you travel twice to your opponent's home

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country and you win two fights where you become a champion,

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and then you unify the titles in your first defense,

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you deserve a pat on the back. You're not going

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to necessarily be the fighter of the year. He didn't

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fight huge, huge opponent names, not really highly well known opponents,

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but he did the work he had to do, and

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he won those fights and he became a unified world champion.

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And we'll see if he can take it into twenty

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and twenty six. But twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: That's impress You give me another pat on the back

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before we get into the real debate about fighter of

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the year. Give me the one.

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Speaker 2: A couple other guys I thought David Benavitez had an

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excellent year. He went up to one hundred and seventy

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five pounds, He took a very dangerous fight against David Morrell,

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who was similar to him in the sense that he

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had also been a standout in the super middleweight division.

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But like Benevidias, he could not get the fight with

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Canelo Alvarez even as a mandatory. They fought each other

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in an excellent fight that took place earlier in the

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in February that was in Las Vegas. I attended that

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fight and it was a very good matchup and he

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took away Morel's undefeated record. There were some secondary titles

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involved with Morrell, but he also had become the WBC's

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light heavyweight champion. That was because of bevol having vacated

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for not doing the mandatory. And then as the follow up,

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he took on the very respected, tough contender, big puncher

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in Anthony Yard and knocked him out. That was a

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fight that took place in Saudi Arabia. So he had

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two fights, so standard activity level in terms of the

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two wins, and beat two good contenders, two good names,

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and did so you know in fights that there was

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no controversy, one by knockout, one by a clear cut decision.

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And that's a good year. Again, not the fighter of

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the year, but I have no problem putting him in

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my top five or six. Let's put it like that,

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and then if you want to go to another guy,

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then I will give some props to also Dimitri Bevol

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unfortunately limited to just the one fight this year because

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of the back problem and subsequent surgery, but he rebounded

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and remember in twenty twenty four he had suffered his

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first defeat, and that was in the big giant fight

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against Arthur Better BF where they were going for the

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undiscuted title. People had the WBA belt, better BF had

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the lineal title and the three other sanctioning body belts

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that had a big event in Saudi Arabia, and by

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the thinnest of margins, he lost his belt, he lost

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his undefeated record, but fortunately in twenty twenty five he

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was able to come back right away in February and

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have the rematch, and in this time a very similarly

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close fight, although a better action fight, he won. It

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was actually funny, the same exact scores in the two fights,

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except one was a majority for better BF in their

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first fight, and in the second fight it was the

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same scores but went for Bevil, who won and became

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the undisputed world champion against an elite town for pound fighters.

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So yeah, no, it was only one fight and it

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was a big win, so I give him some props.

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And then there's Bam Rodriguez. Bam Rodriguez. I think some

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people might have him as the actual fighter of the year.

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I don't think a lot of people, but I did

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a little poll on my social media and I put

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up him as one of the candidates, and when it

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came down to the final itally it's unofficial. Of course,

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there was a couple of thousand votes. He finished in

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third place, but he did get some support to be

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the winner. Anyway, he had a big year. Also, here's

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a guy that had became a three belt unified champion.

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In the calendar year. He scored wins against two undefeated

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opponents in unification fights. You know, he was coming into

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the year. He had the lineal title in the WBC belt.

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He took on the undefeated Famalaylakafu looked great against him,

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dominated him, stopped him in the tenth round to unify

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along with the WBC and the WBO, and then he

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had that fight already booked. When he fought that fight,

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that Turkey was doing that he fought in November where

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he was going to take on the very battle tested

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and undefeated also uh Puma Martinez in a in a

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really good fight on paper, and he turned it into

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an absolute laffer. He totally dominated from the minute the

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bell rang. He beat the living shit out of him

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and then stopped in the tenth round. I mean, I

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mean again, tremendous year to two fights both universis.

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Speaker 1: Think on the Kefu one because that was the night

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of the Manny Pacquiao return against Barrios.

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Speaker 2: And Usik against us earlier in the.

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Speaker 1: Day knocking out Dubit on the same day. Do you

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think that we lost all of that in the shuffle.

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I mean it had to be to a degree, to

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a degree for Bam Rodriguez that it was on the

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same day, the same the same night.

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Speaker 2: Maybe as it was happening. But I don't think it

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impacts like the fact of whether the vote for him

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or pick them or you know, as the fighter of

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the year. But certainly you're going to know the results.

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You know, you can always go back and and and

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read what happened, or certainly watch the fights and see

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how everything unfolded. But to me, Bam Rodriguez. He's been

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a kind of a top candidate for the last couple

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of years. He was on the list for most people

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last year. He's on the list for many people this year.

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Maybe not enough to actually win it, particularly given the

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competition he faces. I mean, if you're going to be

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the Fighter of the Year, you know it's got to

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be something truly spectacular. In most years, it's not a

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hard pick to me, Bam is the clear number three.

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I'll put a deal like that. If you tell me

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you want to put him too, I might even not

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be able to really argue with that. But Bam Rebrigue

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said a heck of a year. Like I said, two

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unification fights, two tenth round knockouts, both against undefeated opponents.

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I'm not sure you can do a lot better.

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Speaker 1: That is a compelling case. However, when we talk twenty

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twenty five Fighter of the Year, I realized that there

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would be some that would maybe argue with one of these.

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Again for the reason that we're going to go over

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with Terrence Crawford. He only fought one time. Meanwhile, the

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Monster Naoia, in a way as we're doing this, just

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fought this past weekend for the fourth time in the

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calendar year. But I think most would have these two

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as the legitimate candidates per fight Fighter of the Year.

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All right, So I'm curious which way you kind of

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tip this a little bit, but you could change your mind.

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What are you leaning towards? Or maybe you want to

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go ahead and say right here on the pod, what

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are you gonna do?

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Speaker 2: I mean, listen to me. It comes down to a couple. Well,

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first of all, they're both great fighters. Okay, that's number one.

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Number two, they're both Hall of Famers in waiting obviously,

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I mean Crawford retired not long ago in a way,

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still going strong. But these guys are going to whoop

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in Canastota. They're both gonna have a variety of different

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awards and accolades that go along with that induction, whether

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they're the winner of the twenty twenty five Fighter of

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the Year or not. But when it comes down at

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the highest level, you have to make a decision. There's

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two ways you can look at and I understand both

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ways because I've been there before. I've been taking Fighters

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of the Year and Fighter of the Fight of the

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Year and awards like this for twenty five years. I

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did my first batch of them in two thousand for

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USA Today, So not my first rodeo of making these

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tough picks. In terms of this year specifically, do you

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like the quality of the victory of Karence Crawford's only fight? Now,

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I've always been a guy that wanted to see some activity.

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I always figured, you know, if you fight only once,

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it's kind of hard for me to give it to you.

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And so if there's a person that has a similarly

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compelling case but actually fought, you know, maybe two or

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three times, even if they weren't against the elite opponents,

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but at least they were in the ring doing their business,

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I might be more inclined to give it to the

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person with the great activity. But the problem with it

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this year is this, okay, quantity over quality. Terrence Crawford

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has the quality victory against Canelo Alvarez. It's a historical victory.

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I will go through some of the historical aspects of

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that victory. In a way. Had four wins, but one

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of them was against a top level contender in mcmdaliev,

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and the other three were against well two were against

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good fighters who were decent contenders but not special fighters,

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and the other fight the first fighter had this year

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against you June Kim, who was a last minute replacing

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for the injured Sam Goodman. Ye was anything but an

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elite fighter.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm much more diplomatic. I'm gonna cut right

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to the quick. Nobody's ever gonna remember the other three

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guys names two years from now or five years from

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now that he beat this year well, and also to

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win over Agmadaliav. And none of none of these names,

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by the way, are bona fide superstar type fighters. He

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fought four title fights and won them all. But it's

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basically an argument of simply quantity. It's not beating great fighters.

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Speaker 2: Because MJ alone is not going to give you this award.

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And Cardenis, while was a great fight that will be

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probably considered on people's lists or fight of the year.

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Speaker 1: Did you just tease the next podcast.

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Speaker 2: On he got I did not? He got knocked down?

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Speaker 1: I think you did.

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Speaker 2: He got knocked down in that fight. So that's maybe

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a check mark against right so again in a way

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as an all time great fighter already. But and the

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four wins are impressive with the activity and frankly, uh,

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if you take a look at some of the other

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top candidates. You know, they weren't really doing that. They

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were fighting one time. Denavidez of course had the two fights.

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You know, my man Rene Santiago with the two fights,

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but at the absolute eleite level, Bam had the two fights.

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But and what those guys all had better wins. Yeah,

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in my mind than in a way did so Again,

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I don't make away the four victories. But so I'm

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giving him credit to make him number two on my

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list because you have to respect that. But to me,

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it's Terrence Crawford.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you are going to go down the accolades,

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and I know you hate it. Whenever we go in

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on these discussions and we're both on the same side,

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I will put my hand up because so many times

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this has aggravated me throughout my career when people run

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from opinions, don't want to admit they're wrong, blah blah blah.

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My hand is up. I did not believe he would

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win this fight. I thought, moving up three divisions Canelo Alvarez,

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his punch is gonna be bigger, et cetera, et cetera.

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He not only took Canelo's punch, he out fought Canelo

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at times toe to toe, and therefore you're about to

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give the accolades. I'm agreeing with you. This one fight

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stands out to make him the fighter of the year

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because of the magnitude of who he defeated. There's my

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take roll on.

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Speaker 2: So within a way, in the four fights that he had,

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he was the prohibitive favorite in all four fights. In

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the one fight that Terrence Crawford had, he was moving

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up two divisions and was the head. Was I don't

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know if he was by the time that the odds closed.

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I wouldn't say he was the heavy underdog, but he

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was clearly like at least the three to one under

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one hundred percent, he's the underdog. And like you said,

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the supposed bigger man was Canelo, and it was Terrence

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Crawford was walking him down and dashed him upside the

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head in the last few rounds of a fight to

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put it away. Whether he had a close or not.

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Two judges had it close. I had a close, but

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he won the fight because of the damage he did

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certainly in the latter stages of this fight. Adding to that,

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to me, biggest event of the year, seventy three thousand

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people at Allegiant Stadium Mega event, two legendary fighters, live

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on Netflix, not on pay per view. Big, big fucking deal.

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There's your first f bomb of the pod. And then

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you take a look at what was accomplished. Not only

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does he defeat a Hall of Famer in waiting like

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himself in terms of Canelo who by the way, he

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left Canelo Alvarez without a world title for the first

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time in seven years by beating him, because even when

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he lost to Dimitri People, he still owned the super

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middleweight title. And so there's that. He continued his perfect

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record at forty two to zero with the victory. And

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I'm going to give you some of the stats that

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are in ignorable, things that are a bowload of things.

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He was already a Hall of Famer before this fight.

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Now he added about a million things on top of that,

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four distinct things that added to a monstrous legacy already.

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He became a five division world champion, lightweight, junior, welterweight, welterweight,

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jing middleweight, and super middleweight. In the history of boxing.

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I know it's easier to win titles these days relative

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because there's more divisions, but in the whole history of

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the multidivisional title time or even with there was one title.

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There's only been six male boxers to win titles in

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five divisions or more. It is Manny pac Yo obviously

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at eight, Oscar de la Hoy at six, and then

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a few more legends, Tommy Hearns, Sugar, Ray Leonard, and

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Floyd Mayweather. And now you add Terrence Crawford.

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Speaker 1: That is some kind of lists your dad rightly.

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Speaker 2: He also is the first male three division undisputed champion

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of the multi belt era. He did it before. No

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one has ever done that in terms of having either

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a two belt time frame, three or four. He was,

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as I mentioned, also had been undisputed in the junior

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welterweight division and the welterweight division now and it became

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undisputed in a third division has not yet been done.

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Won't surprise me if somebody does it in the future,

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but until further notice, he's the only guy. He's also

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the only he's the first mail fighter to be an

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undisputed champion in three weight classes period, whether it was

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one belt or whatever. You have to go all the

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way back to Henry Armstrong, who's considered by many like

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in the top three or four all time pound for pound.

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In nineteen thirty eight, Henry Armstrong held the featherweight, lightweight

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and welterweight title simultaneously at a time when there's only

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eight waight classes and no one's ever done it since

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until Terrence Crawford. And I'll give you one more one.

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And this is a stat that I love. And if

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you go back and watch the interview that I did

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on the Zoom with Terrence lead in the lead up

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to the Canela fight, this was something he really he liked.

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He is now, along with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacow,

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only the third for third four division lineal champion. That

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is extremely rare obviously to me, for all the good

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stuff that I mentioned about all the other possible candidates,

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including the great Noise. In a way, Terrence Crawford, even

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with one fight, it's a big fucking deal. He's the

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fighter of the year.

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Speaker 1: And again we overcome in this instance in the argument

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the fact that it was only one because the one

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and the magnitude and the accomplishment of it outshines anything else.

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It's a shame really that we didn't get an Usik

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second fight. I mean, we can go on and on

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down the list. Would that have been against a a

358
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more I don't know if it would have been against

359
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a more spectacular prominent opponent to even help that argument.

360
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We'll never know.

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Speaker 2: But there's you know, there's other guys like you know,

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Okay Nakatani fought three times this year, you know, and

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the bandon weight division, defended the title and then moved up.

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I kind of counted it against him because of how

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terribly looked, you know, the other day, So he didn't

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make my list. But there's you know, he did have activity,

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and you would You're right. A lot of the guys

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would have been would have been great if they could

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have fought another time. But you know, Whosaick, who was

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the fighter of the year when he defeated Tyson Fury

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in the first fight, he only had the Duwa rematch

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and he already pummeled Dubah in the first fight. So

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you couldn't even I couldn't even find a place from

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on the list, you know, the amount of guys that

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only fight the one time tough.

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Speaker 1: This one was the magnitude all right again. They can

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read more on your substack and your newsletter. The written

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word of what you have been talking about here, and

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I'm in agreement here on Terrence Crawford will give him

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the twenty twenty five Fighter of the Year. I again say,

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get ready for the Fight of the Year on this

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podcast feed. As we end twenty twenty five, it'll be

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the next episode, So you know, depending you might have

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already heard that one and then gone backwards to listen

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to us on Fight of the Year. But as we're

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doing this chronologically, the next pod that'll be out will

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be the Fight of the Year, and somehow I think

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a mention at least will be the Crawford Alvarez because

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of the magnitude and Crawford's win, although I don't think

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it will win. I'm just teasing that. I don't think

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it'll win Fight of the Year, but it does definitely

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deserves to mention.

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Speaker 2: No chance.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there were more action packed, more action packed, probably

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all right, but they got to listen to that pod

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anything else, my friend? Or are we good on Fight

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of the Year for twenty twenty five? I think we are.

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Speaker 2: Good, unless you want to make predictions on who's twenty

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twenty six fighter.

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Speaker 1: I do know't It's too too much for my brain

401
00:19:02,839 --> 00:19:05,839
to start looking at that and who that's gonna be. Well,

402
00:19:05,839 --> 00:19:08,680
but how about if Taya Fimo Lopez or Shakur Stevenson

403
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right away in January gets a big win and oh

404
00:19:11,599 --> 00:19:14,200
my god, fights a second time against a prominent fighter

405
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and wins, maybe they're the fighter of the year.

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Speaker 2: Well, they certainly the winner of that fight. Certainly, you know,

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it's a queen win, certainly puts themselves in a decent positions.

408
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There's no reason why that guy wasn't cheese.

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Speaker 1: To look ahead to twenty twenty six, Big Dan, thank you.

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Speaker 2: Sure.

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Speaker 1: Read more on the Substack, the Fight Preach Unit Substack

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and newsletter. There you go on twenty twenty five Fight

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Fighter of the Year